The Ariel Helwani Show - Matt Cardona in studio, Dominick Cruz, Shakur Stevenson, Bellator is dead breaking news, weekend recap, Cesar Almeida

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

Ariel Helwani breaks some news about the future of Bellator and PFL, discusses Tyson Fury's retirement announcement and more (07:33).Cesar Almeida discusses his monster knockout at UFC Vegas 101, his path through the sport, how UFC's $50,000 bonus check changed his life, what's next and more (44:54).Shakur Stevenson previews his Feb. 22 fight against Floyd Schofield and discusses why Gervonta "Tank" Davis seems to dislike him so much, potentially fighting Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2025, criticism from Timothy Bradley and more (58:08).Dominick Cruz discusses his UFC Seattle return against Rob Font, whether it'll be the final fight of his legendary MMA career, his roots in the sport, what happened with Henry Cejudo, why he admires Demetrious Johnson's career beyond the cage and more (01:31:12).Matt Cardona stops by in-studio to discuss a possible WWE or AEW return, his collectibles obsession, stories from the indies, his infamous death match with Nick Gage, the creation of his Zack Ryder character and much more (2:12:39).EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/uncrowned Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Erya Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Monday, January 13th, 2000. And 25. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well and yes still workshopping still workshopping through the intro doesn't quite that's what caused the difference you know what did because you went so quickly and i had the music up loud enough expecting you to carry the note out earlier when you're like is this louder it was you you weren of loud enough expecting you to carry the note out earlier when you were like, is this louder? It was you. You weren't loud enough. So wait, what you're telling me is you just referenced something. That's what caused the difference that we did during the rehearsal

that literally six people listened to and not the thousands upon thousands tuning in live. Is that what you're saying? That is the, you know, we're live right now. I screwed this up. I'm just saying. Yeah, usually the stuff, you know, is just... Not to say that that was off the record, but literally no one knows what you're talking about other than me and the five people in the control room. In any event, we're working through it. We're workshopping.

Thumbs up to the chat. Haven't said that in a while. Hello, everyone. Other than Frank screwing that up, I'm in a tremendous. Hello, everyone. Other than Frank screwing that up, I'm in a tremendous mood on this beautiful yet frigid Monday morning in New York City. It's actually Monday afternoon, and it's a victory Monday because your Buffalo Bills are moving on to the divisional round. Big win yesterday over Chuck's Denver Broncos commiserations. Chuck, we love you. Thank you.

We welcome you on the bandwagon Towards the Super Bowl In February In New Orleans And we also welcome And this really was The highlight of my weekend In many respects

The legend Big Daddy Mark Who dropped His video His version Of the shout song Which we cannot play Because we don't want

To get demonetized But he dropped this You know this guy This guy's a legend He's the one who does which we cannot play because we don't want to get demonetized. But he dropped this. You know this guy? This guy's a legend. He's the one who does the time to play the game. He did his version of the shout song. Buffalo's not now. They're on the move now.

The bills are happening now. They're really happening now. We got the spirit. A lot of spirit. Yeah. We got. How could you hate a team whose theme song is that? That's our theme song.

Ah, how can you hate that squad? Look at that shot right there. Massive win by your Buffalo Bills. On to the Ravens. Squeaky bum time. Very nervous, but it's okay. I hope everyone who tunes into this program is jumping aboard the bandwagon. Great week end for me and the Bills, my boys.

We went to a Knicks game on Friday. They got whooped. But then the Knicks won yesterday, so that was good. And overall, you know, the vibes are high. We got to shoot a couple free throws on the court. One son made it. The other son hit nothing, air ball. But, you know, them's the breaks.

Those are life lessons. So we're feeling good, my friends. We're feeling good. And as I mentioned on X, oh, there it is. Yes. Bills and X win. Walter drains a deep three. That is true. Walter, my middle son who got the air ball. So there you have it. The thrill of victory and the agony defeat plays in his first basketball game, organized basketball game yesterday afternoon and drains a logo three. I mean, to say that i was proud would be the understatement of the century so uh it's a great time to be alive i mentioned on on twitter slash x still can't quite say x

but i mentioned it over there that i've got some breaking news at the top of today's program and if we're being honest there's a ton of news happening on this monday afternoon so sit back and relax we've got a great show planned for all of you. As always, we are presented by our good friends over at NordVPN. We love NordVPN. We're happy to partner with them. We're proud. We're honored, delighted, thrilled that they're a part of our family. Why use NordVPN? It's the fastest VPN in the world. No buffering or lagging while streaming and stops your ISP from throttling your bandwidth. NordVPN protects your private information like bank details, passwords, and online identity, including while you're traveling and using public Wi-Fi. Plus, one NordVPN account can be used on up to 10 devices. It's premium cybersecurity for the price of a cup of coffee per month to get the best discount off your NordVPN. Go to nordvpn.com slash uncrowned. That's nordvpn.com slash uncrowned. Our link will also give you four extra months on the two-year plan. There's no risk with Nord's

30-day money-back guarantee. We love NordVPN. We adore these people. Great service. I use them all the time. Please support them because they support us. Back into the show. We're going to be joined in studio, my friends, by the Death King Match. Wait. Death King Match?

Death Match King. Death Match King. I knew that didn't sound right. Thank you, Rick. The Death Match King. The Indie didn't sound right. Thank you, Rick. The Death Match King. The Indie God. The Complete. The Agent.

Formerly known as Zack Ryder. The Death Match King himself who returns to action at GCW this Sunday, January 19th. The one and only Matt Cardona, formerly known as Zack Ryder, in studio. Woo, woo, woo. The Broski himself. Can't wait to have him on. He's a fascinating guy with a great podcast that focuses on collectibles, toys in particular. You know I love my toys.

And in particular, wrestling toys. I have a long, long, long history and a somewhat heartbreaking history with wrestling toys. More on that in our chat but i'm looking forward to him he's been killing it since leaving the wwe in in 2020 a great great character and kind enough to fly in from maine to join us live at uh three o'clock on today's program at 2 30 one of our favorites the legend dominic cruz going to be joining us to preview what is shaping up to be his retirement fight on the 22nd of February. What a day that's turning out to be in combat sports. The UFC returning to Seattle and, of course, the massive boxing card over in Riyadh,

which they're having a press conference about right now in London. Speaking of which, Shakur Stevenson, who is a part of that press conference and is in London, was at the Ring Awards on Saturday. He's got a big fight coming up. His first under the Riyadh season slash matchroom umbrella. He'll be fighting Kit Austin. Big fight for him. Massive. Massive fight for Kit Austin. Massive fight for one Shakur Stevenson. Austin Schofield is a big-time prospect. Biting off perhaps a little more than he could chew against Shakur Stevenson. Shakur looking to get back on track as well. Did I say? I'm all out of sorts. Did I say Kit Austin Schofield? Floyd Schofield. Kit Austin is his nickname nickname you get the point anyway and at around uh 140 140 ish uh we're

going to be joined by cesar ameda who had well i think it's the front runner right now for knockout of the year would you guys say i think so uh one one ufc event in the books it has come and gone at the apex this past saturday night mackenzie Dern defeating Amanda Hibas, avenging her loss that happened back in 2019 with a brilliant armbar submission. Some nice results on the card, a nice sort of appetizer to get us into UFC 311, which as of right now is still scheduled for the Intuit Dome. And I would be very surprised at this juncture, unless things get worse. And there has been some reports that, you know, things, um,

potentially could get troublesome once again in Southern California with the wildfires and the wind. Uh, we hope that's not the case. I did see the report yesterday that the Clippers and Lakers are going to resume their schedule back home, um, after having to postpone their games on Saturday.

Obviously, tonight's playoff game between the Rams and Vikings had to be moved to Arizona, but we are still five days away now, and obviously a decision had to be made. The UFC has talked about it. Obviously, they're doing their due diligence, but I think it would have been a big surprise if they moved it right now. Dana doesn't like to do those sorts of things. And everyone seems to think that it's going to remain. Let's see, let's hope. And most importantly, most importantly, our love and our souls and our heart goes out to the families and the residents that have been affected.

Unfathomable, unfathomable destruction, hard to witness, hard to look at, hard to process, can't imagine what they're going through. So much love to them. And of course, much love to all the first responders, the firefighters who have been working what appears to be 24 hours a day to contain these fires, save lives, save property, just a horrible thing to witness. So much love to Los Angeles. All right, so that's the lineup for today. A lot of news, a lot of things have happened since we last spoke personally last Wednesday.

Great job by the boys on Thursday, back on track PT on Friday. A lot of content up on uncrowned.com. We wake up this morning thinking that, all right, the big news in the world of boxing is going to be this press conference coming off the Ring Awards on Saturday. And what a collection of talent at this Ring Awards. Did you guys see this photo with Turkey Al Sheikh in the middle?

This is his side gig. This has nothing to do with Riyadh season. He buys the historic Ring Magazine and then puts on these Ring Magazine Awards, which, if you didn't know any better, looked like the Golden Globes. It was an unbelievable venue, an unbelievable collection of superstars. I mean, just look at it. Usyk's over there. Dubois is over there. AJ's over there.

Eddie's there. Frank is there. Canelo is there. Roberto Duran is there. Shakur Stevenson is there uh I don't I can't it's so far Zhilei Zhang I see and then of course top right is the best Tiafimo Lopez look at Tiafimo Ricky Hatton's over there Lennox Lewis is over there Devin Haney in the middle Joseph Parker Teddy Atlas a who's who literally a who's who, literally a who's who. And they put on an unbelievable event.

And so thought that that would be the news, press conference would be the news, but there's Tyson Fury when it seems as though we are getting closer and closer and closer to finally having Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua and a fight, to be honest, that yes, it's coming a few years too late, but would still be gigantic and probably, and this may be a hot take, probably would garner more worldwide interest and excitement than Fury-Usyk. And I know that's crazy because it was for Undisputed Gold, but these two have been such giants for so long, and people who maybe aren't paying attention each and every fight, each and every day would be like, oh my God, it's AJ and Fury, the

faces of the heavyweight division for the past decade and the faces of British boxing for the past decade plus finally fighting. It seemed like all the talk, everything AJ was saying, the social media, we were actually going to get it at some point, maybe even as soon as the spring. All of a sudden, this morning, we get this video from Tyson Fury. Hi, everybody. I'm going to make this short and sweet. I'd like to announce my retirement from boxing. It's been a blast. I've loved every single minute of it. And I'm going to end with this. Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody. see you on the other side get up so so officially that would be the fourth time that tyson fury has announced his retirement he did take one

extended break as well um a lot of talk as to whether or not we believe him cap no cap as the kids like to say literally seconds after the video came out, Eddie Hearn reacted to it on the Matchroom socials. This is what he had to say. Eddie, just give us your immediate reaction. Tyson Fury announcing his retirement on Instagram this afternoon. Yeah, I mean, I think if you haven't got a heart for it anymore and you don't want to compete anymore,

I think retirement is the best option. Disappointing, obviously, for British fight fans because we've got a chance to make the biggest fight in boxing. But, you know, if that is the last we see of him, he's had a great career, I doubt it. But, you know, it's always best to come into retirement to make sure someone pays you to come out of retirement.

But if that's his lot, much respect to him and wish him all the best. When you say you doubt it, tell us what you mean by that. I just think if I was looking for the right deal, I'd go into retirement too. But I can't speak on his behalf. That's just what I would, you know, I think it's a natural play. But maybe that's his lot. I don't know. I don't know him well enough to comment really i mean um he he's the man to make his own decisions and um like i said it's not the kind of sport that you want to play in if your heart's not in it anymore and if his heart's not in it anymore it's the right decision for him hopefully it's not the case and we get to see

the aj fight but if not wish him all the best if that is the last we see in other words eddie is saying cap eddie's calling cap eddie nice glasses uh love the scarf as well looking extremely dapper but he's saying he's saying i think cap he's he's calling bs and i think a lot of people feel the same it's uh it falls on deaf ears fourth time does anyone believe it this close to a mega fight there's literally only one fight left for tyson Fury there's one fight left it's gigantic he can win that fight why are you walking away he didn't show up to the to the uh award show on Saturday he was supposed to be there he's had a great relationship with the you know with with the Riyadh season people with the ring people with Turkey in particular and so it feels like negotiation which people don't really love

and has happened before. And he has come back. And in case you're wondering about this Dick Turpin reference, according to Britannica, Dick Turpin was the son of an ale housekeeper. He was apprenticed to a butcher, but having been detected at cattle stealing, he joined a notorious gang of deer stealers and smugglers in Essex. Okay, okay, we continue. A bunch of other people on Twitter saying that it's basically, and actually it was our own, I say our own because it feels like he's one of our own.

He's one of our own. Andrew Feldman, who did some digging as well. A folklore type of character. He's the infamous 18th century highwayman who was known for robbing travelers while wearing a mask to conceal his identity. So is he saying that they stole from him when they didn't give him the nod in December?

Is he saying that he stole from everyone? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. Aren't you take, about. I take that as I'm being robbed in broad daylight at least Dick Turpin wore a mask. That is the interpretation that I feel is pretty he's feeling like he's not getting

paid enough or the offer is not enough you're trying to rob me in broad daylight at least somebody who then was a highway robber wore a mask when they did their robberies. It's like, at least have the courtesy to blah, blah, blah, wouldn't you? Blah, blah, blah.

Do you believe it? Do I believe that he's retired? Yeah. Oh, hell no. It's crazy. No, he's negotiating. And that would fit with the narrative that I'm saying. He's just saying this is not enough.

When you have a serious offer, when you have the right amount of money that it's going to cost for this fight, come to me. Why retire? Why not just say it is not enough when you when you have a serious offer when you have the right amount of money that it's going to cost for this fight come to me why retire why not just say it's not enough because it's worked every time he's done it before but no one believes it the people who he's negotiating with don't believe it we're talking about it oh i know we're talking about it but we're saying it's not true oh no the people have to acknowledge it because it's tyson very retiring no no the people in the negotiation none of them think that he's actually done. So what's the point?

It drums up the attention. It's perfect. He's got all of us talking about it. There was a part of me that felt like he wanted to steal a little bit of the attention of this press conference, and he's done just that. Yeah, exactly. He's like, oh, you want to screw with me? I'm going to put this out on Monday morning right before your big presser, and no one's going to talk about it. It's a win-win because he does that.

And then on the back end, everybody he's negotiating with knows that he's not leaving. So it's perfect. It works exactly how it's supposed to. And he's always done it in the past successfully. All right. Well, let's see. It seems like big fights are being made. I'd be shocked if that one isn't made.

It would be a true travesty if it doesn't get made. And especially in this era where all the big fights are being made, including it looks like, and everyone's hinting at it, and ESPN is reporting it, Mike Coppinger reporting that they're very close to finally doing Ben Eubank. Every fight under the sun. There isn't a fight right now that doesn't feel like it can be made at this point. Like they're talking Canelo Crawford.

Everything. Everything's a possibility. And so this one, this one's not going to happen. Come on. When they need it most, and when there, this one's not going to happen. Come on. When they need it most and when there's no one else that anyone wants to see them against, I'm just not buying it. So let's see. But something tells me we'll see him come back and then hopefully we'll see them fight later on this year. Now, as far as the breaking news that I teased, let's get into that. So over the last week or so, there's been all kinds of news regarding the future of the PFL. I have some information regarding the future of the PFL and Bellator. Of course, we know by now that PFL acquired Bellator from Paramount

in late 2023. You'll recall we had Don Davis, the founder of the PFL, in studio after the announcement, and he talked all about the big plans for 2024 and beyond. They had the deal with Max. And over the last few weeks, they have this big show in Dubai, this Dubai Champion Series show, headlined by Use Nurmagomedov defending his Bellator title against Paul Hughes, but all the promotional material has not really focused on Bellator. Other than a picture of a belt and maybe the name Bellator lightweight title on the line,

that's it. It's not being called a Bellator event. It doesn't look like a Bellator event. And so I started to do some digging. Now, major props to Al Zolino on social media, who sort of broke open the story of changes coming to PFL, had a lot of information regarding the change in the contracts and the payment for the finals winner and all that stuff. And he's done a great job on that story,

does a great job in general as well. So shout out to him. Shout out to Drake Riggs of Uncrowned, who did his own reporting. And I want to read what is out there right now. And I'm going to fill in some of the holes because there's some other stuff that isn't out there right now. And so this is from uncrowned.com, written by Drake Riggs. PFL is making some changes in 2025. The promotion has historically been known for its season, uh, season tournament format, uh, which rewards each division championship winner with a million dollar prize. That's a $1 million prize. You'll recall, uh, over the last, what is it? Seven or so years, that's always been the big selling point, the pot at the end of the rainbow. Now, I've said, by the way, that no one cares about this, certainly not the viewers, because we are watching multi-multi-millionaires play in the NBA, in Major League Baseball, in the NFL, in Premier League, in boxing boxing top of the ufc no one is sitting around saying hey let's tune in

to this fight because they're winning a million dollars we expect all pro athletes to make a million dollars in any event uh uncrowned confirmed with sources wednesday that the payout for season winners is dropping in half to 500 000 beginning with the upcoming 2025 season in april the championship 1 million bonus was previously structured to be, for example, and then he goes into the whole breakdown. And so now it's going to be 500,000. Now, there's more according to sources, PFL is also expected to remove its tournament point system and become more of a traditional Grand Prix style MMA tournament. And so, you know, in the past, it was like, you know, the season and you get points for your wins and losses and finishes and all that stuff, or no points for a loss.

And then maybe for a decision, who knows? It was very convoluted. And then there's the playoffs and then there's the final. Here's what I could tell you right now. Okay, go read uncrowned.com for more on this and go on Al's Twitter page. Right now, I could tell you on Monday, January 13th at 1.20 p.m. Eastern time, Bellator is dead. Bellator as we know it is no more.

Bellator is dead. You will not see Bellator events anymore. And in fact, if you have looked at Don Davis's social media over the last couple of weeks, he refers to things as all PFL. And if you look at that event on January the 25th, you will see that other than the picture of the belt and other than, you know, in the press release, it says Bellator lightweight title. There's no other mention of Bellator. Bellator as we know it is dead from the Bjorn era to the Scott Coker era to the PFL-a-tour era. It is no

more. And so this is what's going to happen. This is the structure. There are going to be what is being referred to as PFL champion series events. Those events are going to be headlined by title fights. PFL is going to start having its own champions, not just season champions, not just tournament champions, its own champion. Now, what is unclear, and I've talked to maybe five sources with very intimate knowledge of what is going on,

unclear how they will crown those champions. Meaning, does Usman Nurmagomedov become the PFL lightweight champion after uh january 25th if he beats paul hughes or does paul hughes become the pfl lightweight champion or are the tournament winners from last year the pfl champions my hunch says given what they get paid and and given how everything is structured the bellator champions would then become the pfl champions and so how they are going to structure it is they're going to have these PFL champion series events,

which are essentially just cards headlined by champions and filled with other talent throughout. And those will be scattered throughout the year. The PFL season format is no more. What it is now is somewhere in the range of six to eight weight classes being featured, eight fighters, two alternates, single elimination tournament. There's no more standings. There's no more points or anything like that. Single elimination tournament, Grand Prix style, if you will. They're not calling it a Grand Prix. I've heard because that's what Bellator used to call it and they don't want to call it that. So it would just be some sort of like,

I think they're calling it like global tournament, global season or something like that. And it would just be like this guy versus this guy and you move on to the next. The winner of that tournament, single elimination tournament, gets $500,000. So it's a little bit different than the, like,

you don't win a belt or anything. You might win some like FACACTA belt, but you're not the champion of any sort of division. It's the pot at the rainbow, at the end of the rainbow, which is $500,000. Now, interesting to note that this is $500,000 in addition to your purse. In the old days, it wasn't 1 million in addition to your purse. It was your purse subtracted from 1 million. So if you were someone, and most fighters, and different fighters had it structured differently, but some fighters would have it like, let's say you were someone who made 150 and 150. So it would then be 700,000 that you're winning in the final. And then there were other fighters who had fixed amount,

regardless of what they were making for the quarterfinals, semifinals, final, because maybe that would equal more. And so now it's none of that. You just have your contract. And if you win the tournament, you're winning $500,000. What's unclear to me at this time is if you win that, what win that what else do you get do you get a shot at the champion unclear at this time that hasn't really been you know um really kind of like laid out but i would imagine that's the whole point of it you win the you win the pot and then

you become a number one contender that's how you can build number one contenders but again the stuff that we've sort of criticized them for you know regular season points all that is going by the wayside in addition to that they'll still have your your your pfl europe's and your pfl middle east africa all that stuff and that will feed up to these tournaments but it's no longer being structured As regular season and all that And Bellator is no more When this first came out About the million to 500,000 It felt like

Oh, this is a sign That they're dead Now, I'm being told that as far as finances are concerned They're in a good spot They have great solid investment All that stuff and more They're not hurting for cash. This is just kind of like a restructuring of how the promotion is laid out.

I actually think it makes a ton more sense because hopefully now, I hate that they're calling it champion series, their pay-per-view super fight series, all that stuff is no more. Just have major events and have tournaments. Not all of this needs to be broken down. Now, what's unclear also is where this January 25th event is going to air. As of right now, they haven't announced. I have been told that it might just air on YouTube and they might just say, here, we're going to give it to you for free, which in some ways is just like, hey, we don't have a deal

done and so we're going to put it on YouTube. Maybe on Max, maybe on Amazon as well. They're in the mix too. And so there's a lot still in flux. There's a lot still at play. But what I said before regarding the format, that's all accurate. And that could be announced as recently as soon as this week. I actually think it's a win for the promotion because I hated the season. I hated the points. I hated the playoff. I hated all of that stuff. Um, now you can have Pete, you can make the biggest fights for the belts. And then if you're, if you're, you know, if you're, if you're punching your ticket for the tournament, then you're going to go that route. And that's maybe a place where you can try to build new stars. Um in other words, a Cedric Dube, if you want, you could just put him in a title fight,

as opposed to risking putting him in to a tournament. A Paul Hughes, if you want, put him in a title fight and you don't have to risk him in the tournament. Here's one thing, and a lot of people have criticized Don Davis in particular and PFL, and some of it has been warranted and some maybe not here's one thing that doesn't get talked about enough when when bellator was on its last legs and everyone under the sun knew that it was going to get sold the old regime um scott coker being you know the head of it signed a lot of fighters to massive deals knowing that the end was near and then basically said like the new owners pfl are going to have to deal with this

as a nice little parting gift there are several fighters uh gegar musasi one of them um a lot of the big names that you've seen openly complain who who got these massive deals, deals that are worth close to a million dollars, a fight, that it would be unsustainable for PFL to put those guys in tournaments. And this has been the problem. And it just isn't, you know, it isn't cost effective. Sign them to these deals as a parting gift. Why Don Davis does not say this to explain the situation that he was put in? I have no idea. He, you know, I don't know who's running the show behind the scenes there. Well, I know who's running the show behind the scenes there from a PR perspective. My point is you are not speaking up. You are not letting people know the truth. And as a result,

they're taking information from the disgruntled fighters, from managers, and they're able to paint their own narrative, which isn't a good one in your favor. And you're just standing back and letting everyone slag you off. Why? Tell the truth, come out, do media, explain your position, explain what you inherited and explain what you acquired and explain how you're going to fix it. None of these LinkedIn posts, none of these tweets, of this stuff you have to come out what do people love about dana white they love that he was a guy who took no shit from anyone showed up ripped jeans t-shirt guns blazing and told it like it is at least from his perspective and people love that and they ate it up don takes the business

investor approach and says you know we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna do things slowly but surely we're gonna do things the right way and look everyone has their own approach to business in the fight game i don't think that's the right approach someone talks shit about you you have to respond you have to respond especially when you've been dealt a bad hand. And in large part, they were dealt a bad hand because they got a lot of these contracts that just weren't worth it. Love some of those guys,

but in 2025, they are not worth that amount. And so they're making these changes. What are they going to do with those guys? Are they going to offer pay cuts? Are they going to say, you could go this route and you could win this pot at the end

and that could be you making up the money. That all is a work in progress. Remains to be seen. They've got this pot at the end and that could be you making up the money that all is a work in progress remains to be seen they've got this event on the 25th new season starts a couple of uh or not new season like they they pick back up uh it's going to take a while to to change that verbiage in our brain um a couple months later they've got a big rights deal coming up and uh there's there's a lot in flux But right now They're not hurting for cash They're not six feet or four feet under

But I think they have recognized That the format doesn't work The million dollar payout thing didn't work The season format doesn't work And they're trying to make changes And so that's the story As far as PFL and Bellator is concerned But ding dong the witch is dead Bellator as we know it I was as far as PFL and Bellator is concerned. But ding dong, the witch is dead.

Bellator, as we know it, I was going to say PFLator, it was all very confusing, is done. There's not going to be any Bellator shows. I've also been told that these plants have changed a gazillion times. And that's why I kind of sat on this for several days. But that feels quite certain at this juncture gents what do you think of this what do you think of this information good for bellator good for pfl good for the fighters good for everyone involved or yes good good good for bellator yeah well hard to say good for everyone involved i was i was gonna say hard to say if good for bellator in the fighters but good for long-term health of the brand like

no there's no secret here everybody has been saying they need to just have one roster combine the things get rid of the tournament like moving forward that should create better outcomes for them now what does that mean in terms of number of fights? We already see Bellator fighters saying, I didn't fight enough. And big names. And the biggest names on the PFL roster are unhappy right now. And so that's a big problem. But hopefully, if they can streamline what the actual product is, it would stand to reason

that, yes, this can be good long-term as long as they can provide the fights for these athletes. Um, I don't have a problem with the reduction of the tournament purse like you, I thought it was kind of like insignificant in the, in the grander scheme. Like it is great for those individual athletes, but outside of that, it does not do much for the brand. And so I would even have been in favor of scrapping the prizes altogether and getting rid of the tournament in any, like, it sounds like it's shifting in format. I'd get rid of it all and just have the best fights, the best fight, the best. We've heard you fans, Don Davis to get up there one day and just be like, we heard you fans. You want to see patchy mix versus this person? That's what we're going to do. No more tournaments, no more checks at the end. Everybody getting paid everybody's fighting and proceed from there so there may be some short-term um implications and problems and and i don't imagine this is um gonna be super smooth as it transitions but long term i like this much better pt yeah i think something had to give they had to change something like

pretending that everything was fine, you always reference that meme with the dog sitting in the place on fire. That's what it felt like we were dealing with with PFL for the last, say, three, four months of 2024. Something has to give. They have to try something new. I would like, as you and Rick Boat referred to, a very direct message from pfl to the fan

base i think they've lost a lot of integrity with uh particularly the u.s fan base um so they need to do something um i i still i think the the tournament bracket without the point system um and the kind of champions league knockout stage kind of thing i i like that um i think i think some of the the point system was kind of used as a as like you know a pun within the community the quick six all this kind of stuff it never caught on we all understand wins and losses we all understand moving through a bracket like that i think that will be better um i do think there is a serious issue with the halving of the tournament course um not from the consumer's point of view

but from the athlete's point of view as i said last week this is why they are getting dakota to chavit to sign with the pfl this is why they're getting paul hughes to sign with the pfl taking that carrot to get to dangle away from them i think will hurt them in terms of signing talent going forward what do you think connor yeah i mean me and rick talked uh last week as soon as they made the the cut to the 500 000 and as we were discussing it rick made the point of just like i this is this is just a bad look but i hope the reason that they're doing this is that they're going to expand elsewhere beyond or maybe they're just hopefully getting rid of the tournament period period obviously they're not doing that but to see

that they are making action they're trying to make improvements it feels like they're listening to the fans a little bit i feel like people have been banging the drum to get rid of bellator period uh for a while now since the merger happened so i think it's good for all involved it feels like they're trying to make changes to make improvements to the organization. So we have to see what happens, but I feel like this is a step in the right direction. So back in December, Don Davis tweeted, these are the start dates for the PFL MMA 2025 year ahead. He called it the PFL Global Season March, PFL Champion Series April, and then pfl europe pfl mid-east pfl africa uh that was the indication in in uh in many respects as to the end of of of bellator as we know it um now you know he also mentions 30 events 320 fights okay we'll we'll see what the breakdown is and all that but um

around i think it was last week, I think it was last Monday, they tweeted that the elbows were going to be allowed for all the events. That was another indication that the tournament format was going away because they needed to get rid of elbows so that you can continue in the season to get to the playoffs.

If you had to pull out due to a cut, now it screws everything up because you have standings, right? Like if someone has six points and had to pull out due to a cut Now it screws everything up because you have standings If someone has six points and now they're out Because of a cut, what happens to that person? Well now If you can't continue, you can't continue And if you're getting cut open

You may be getting cut open in a loss Maybe, I know Roman Copilov Different on Saturday, but the point is You just have to deal with it And if you can't continue, you can't continue I think it's ultimately From a fan standpoint A net positive

I wish they would just get rid of The global season champion series Nonsense But from a product standpoint I think it's easier to follow Essentially it's what the old Bellator was Like towards the end Where it's just

You have champions And then you'll have In the old days You had one Grand Prix a year it seemed um now you're gonna have a lot more but this to me makes a lot more sense than having you know the standings and all that now I wish they would take it a step further and get rid of the uniforms and and and allow fighters to have sponsors really make it fun be the place where fighters can be like themselves but i understand pt exactly what you're saying this was always the great differentiator especially for someone all right a kayla harrison a dakota a paul hughes you aren't

a a ufc cast off maybe the plan is hey let me go make a couple of bucks um and then i'll jump over but now you have to look at it and be like all right am i going to go through this tournament just to get 500 or is there a better deal waiting for me in two three fights from the ufc we'll see so again as i said like for the fighters it may not be better may not but i think for the fans and for us who are just jonesing for a competitor to the ufc or not even a competitor at this point because the gap has never been bigger for being honest just someone that can offer something an aew to the ufc's wwe at least this this feels a lot more like a regular promotion as opposed to one with a gimmick attached to it yeah they they over egged the omelet to some

extent ariel with all this branding you're referring to you know there was just so much and this fighter belongs to this part of it and i i still think that's a problem to some extent um the various um tributaries that come off of pfl i think even when i was reading drake's article on the show last friday i can remember reading through and drake has done a great job, lays it all out there. But as I'm hearing the words come out of my mouth, I'm like, this is so confusing because he's breaking down what champions would get, what this person would get. It's all got a bit lost in the sauce. And I think the beauty of MMA when it first emerged was like, you know, as ridiculous as the selling point is now.

Two guys enter the cage, one man leaves. But that's the simplicity of it. That's the brilliance of it. And I just feel like it's got very, very complicated since the merging of Bellator and PFL. But in terms of the tournament prize money, you know, Paul Hughes signs with this promotion last year. I'm going gonna have three fights and then i'm gonna go and compete for a million dollars in the tournament was his war cry from the outset and he's obviously got a big fight next week against usman namaga made off either of those

guys win that fight you know whoever wins you're gonna have to try and convince them to go into this four fights in a very short period of time for 500 000 i think that's going to become very difficult we've already seen dakota win that money and not feel too excited about competing for it again we know this is a common thing that happens when people win that million dollars i think it's about to get a lot more complicated yeah all right well uh let's see i think uh i think the plan honestly was to announce um a vast majority of this information this week. I think they've hinted at that. So let us see how it all shakes out.

But there it is. And a bit of a cloud if they don't figure it out before the 25th, which I think they will. Let's see even how we can watch that. Because I think there's a tremendous amount of interest attached to Paul Hughes versus Usman Nurmagomedov, especially as it will come a week after UFC 311 where you have Islam Khachev and Umar Nurmagomedov. I think there'll be a ton of interest there.

So let us see. A lot of pressure too. Yeah. All right. There's the story as far as PFL and Bellator are concerned. As I mentioned, the first UFC event of 2025 has come and gone that was at the apex mackenzie dern with a nice win over amanda hebus she wins via submission avenges a loss that happened back in 2019 she has come a long long way since then it was amazing

like i i think when she fought hebus in 2019 I think she was like four months or so postpartum, something crazy like that, which is just absurd. I mean, like, could you imagine? And there's her beautiful daughter. Love that she came in with her stuffed friend, as my kids would call it back in the day. My daughter's still not so much the boys. In any event, a big win for Mackenzie Dern over Amanda Hiba, Santiago Ponzinibbio with a brilliant win as well over Carlston Harris,

and a nice scene afterwards. Our guest who's going to join us in a couple of minutes, Cesar Almeida, had a tremendous, vicious, scary knockout over Abdul Razak Al-Hassan in the first round, a left hook from hell. Like I said, a front runner some 11 days in for the KO of the year. These are the KOs that we need to remember in December of 2025. Just an absolute scary, scary knockout.

And he's a former kickboxer who's calling himself the king of the apex, um, with a just amazing, uh, highlight, uh, Roman Kopilov defeated Chris Curtis. Now this was somewhat controversial because they were tied one, one going into the third and he wins, uh, with a second left. He wins with a second left on the, uh, on the Clock in the third round And you know Chris Curtis was upset I believe the Referee was Mark Smith

Yes it was Mark Smith And Ultimately I understand the frustration You think and Eric Nixick was very upset As well he posted something about it on social media I understand it I think Kapilov would have won that fight and would have won the third round as a result of the knockdown and so i think that it would be ultimately a new point i understand in the moment why he would be so upset but i think ultimately he was going to win that fight

kapilov that is so not as controversial as oh they stopped it with the second left and he was going to win that fight. Kopilov, that is. So not as controversial as, oh, they stopped it with a second left and he was en route to winning the fight. And also, referees aren't supposed to look at the clock. They're supposed to call the action based on what's happening. Second left, 4.59 left. So I don't, if you're going to say that,

you should never say he should have let it go That's not the way a referee should ref If you feel like the stoppage Was a little bit Premature Regardless of the clock, fine There's a conversation to be had But even if he would have stopped it

I think, and we don't know All we know is that it was tied 1-1 Going into the third I think, and we don't know, all we know is that it was tied 1-1 going into the third. I think that Kapilov would have won because of the, because of the knockdown. Some other highlights worth mentioning, Christian Rodriguez, please do not fight this man. If you are undefeated, he defeats austin bashi the unanimous decision i think according to our good friend uh ak lee i think that was the fourth oh he has taken from an opponent in the ufc which is remarkable there it is raul rosas cameron simon isaac delgarian

and and now austin remarkable he's taken everyone he's taken everyone zero um Puna Soriano with a great 31 second knockout of Uros Medic and a great uh celebration as well and there were there were a lot of good fun uh stoppages and performances a moment that maybe wasn't so fun, but plenty of action involved was Victoria Dudakova apparently slapping her coach after her loss to Fatima Klein. This was kind of wild. Here she is after the fight.

And there's some talk and some consoling. And then a boom! Slap, punch, punch punch slap not happy and i don't know if he was uh saying something through that pissed her off or she was saying you didn't say enough or you said something to piss me off who knows all kinds of drama nevertheless the ufc up and adam 311 is uh is a mere five days away let's talk to one of the big winners From Saturday

Like I said The front runner right now for 2025 KO Of the year He is Cesar Almeida A brilliant knockout Of Abdul Razak Alhassan He's kind enough to join us To kick things off on this Monday

Hello Cesar, parabens to you Obrigado Hello, Cesar. Parabéns to you. Obrigado. Hello. Thank you so much, brother. Thank you. And we have an interpreter standing by as well. And I'm going to try to speak slowly for you. Amazing knockout. Is it possible to even describe what it feels like to knock someone out like that and they're out cold as Abdul was? o que é que é sentir que alguém está tocando assim e eles estão frios como o abdul foi ele é incrível mano é diferentes sensos sim você pode eu posso descrever isso porque Amazing bro, it's different senses, yeah, you can, I can't describe this because just in the moment for you feel the situation, but it's hard for say how feel this, it's different, a lot of emotions, because a lot of things happens in the camp, in your life, and you come in this fight and this happens wow it's different i can't say how feeling this um they went to a commercial after the knockout but then after they said

abdul was out for a long time he was on the mat was it scary for you to see him out for so long yeah in the moment i don't understand what has happened is you know just after the fight when you go to house i see this this how how hard is this ko and a long time he stay for get up yeah but in the moment i'm so excited so emotions i don't understand this. Just after the fight, when I'm back at home, I see this really situation. Speaking of emotion, we saw that you were very happy,

very emotional when you found out that you won the 50k bonus. Why did that make you, here's the video right here of you reacting, why were you so happy? Yes, because in Brazilzil you can i can change my life now i can start to change my life because this is i'm happy i have two daughters and can put my daughters in a good position now and for making things in brazil you know, because this happened, my family can good life now, yeah

because this, because this happened, and all my work, like 20 years in the sports kickboxing, and now MMA, and now I can, I can see money you know, you know what I mean

and making better my life in Brazil, you know, because this, I'm so happy, you know, bro. I saw a great photo of your daughter wearing your gear. How old is your daughter and does she fight? And you have two daughters, right? Yes, I have two daughters. This is like the job work in the school you know oh the children's put it how working you can can be in the future and my daughter go the UFC fighter I love that she was dressed as you as her father yeah yeah yeah yeah And I have two daughters, 11 and three years, yeah.

Does the 11-year-old want to be a fighter too? She's just like you watch, no like trains, no like fight. She's just like you watch. Okay. As you mentioned, you had a long career in kickboxing, 47 victories, well over 50 fights. And then you made the transition to MMA in 2021. You had one fight in 2016, but you made the transition.

Why did you make that transition? Why did you decide to go from kickboxing to MMA? Because in 2019 to 2020, the pandemic, everything is closed. And kickboxing shows stopped for a long time, you know, and I am excited to keep working, keep making my job work, my plans work. But the MMA shows in Brazil keep working and I make my two fights and the dream is coming true yeah and the dream comes true and now I have a possibility for UFC

for contender, my manager working about this and putting me in contender and this time I put in my mental no bro, now I am MMA fighter and stop the kickboxing. Eu queria só carregar meu carro e fazer MMA.

Mas por causa da pandemia, eles pararam de fazer kickboxing e eu decidi só fazer MMA. Então, se não fosse pela pandemia, você acha que você ficaria fazendo kickboxing o resto da sua carreira? Desculpe, diga de novo, mano. Sim, com certeza. Talvez sim, porque eu estou em um kickboxing glorioso, eu cantei em um kickboxing glorioso em 2019 2019 and making my debut and after the pandemic is closing but maybe the pandemic is not coming I know I know

some fans may recall that you fought Alex Pereira three times you have a win over Alex Pereira but now I see you training with Alex so no chance you have a fourth fight Alex Pereira but now I see you training with Alex so no chance you have a fourth fight in MMA I think is is no because Alex is light heavyweight now and probably fighting heavyweight yeah it's impossible fighting because I never go up for the light heavyweight and he probably no doubt more and it's okay now it's good plan for trying to that good together

sometimes i can't learn too much with him and sammy and sammy he can learn with me and other things yeah it's good for partner training for for job yeah you know but it's hard for this fight to happen because he never down more for a middleweight i think did you expect him to have Mas é difícil para esse jogo acontecer porque ele nunca caiu mais para o meio-dia, eu acho. Você esperava que ele teria tanto sucesso no MMA assim? Sim, com certeza. Porque o cara é 5K I know in this world, bro. The guy is so smart and so strong. He has a different body, different situations. He puts every people in danger.

And when he accepts your hands, he can finish the fight all the time, you know. He can beat a heavyweight guys here in UFC and for sure when a kickboxer he's so big in the kickbox moving the guy you in a two belts in the glory and everybody wait for the success and when come to me Mia your only loss in MMA is to Roman Kapilov a split decision loss and he fought on the card against a training partner of yours, Chris Curtis. It was controversial because the stoppage came with one second left. What did you think of that stoppage?

I think the judges are so premature for a stop because two seconds, three seconds, the left kick, yeah, is put it the fight by decision by ko yeah it's hard for chris because uh almost done he's can can lose the fight but for decision is different when you lose it for the ko yeah? I think it's just so premature, so premature decision, the Judo. But this MMA, yeah, brother, the thing is happy. When you give a decision for the Judo,

you have a problem, yeah? Yeah. You said after you want to be in the video game and you want to have your own card. So do you think this knockout will get you in the video game and get you your own card? Yeah, this is my dream, brother. Why?

My person. Why is it your dream? The player, my person in the video game. Yeah. And the cards for my daughters, yeah. He buy every week. Every week he go to a store for buy the card, for find, for search my card, yeah. Wow.

You know what I mean? Yeah, it's crazy, brother. My old daughter. Yeah. So you think it happens this year? Did you ask the UFC when you were there? I work too much for this, brother. I think this is happening.

I ask for the guys. I send the the message you know and are you gonna ask again good you should ask uh did you see uh abdul razak al-hassan after the fight did you get a chance to speak to him me yeah did you see him in the back did like to make sure he was no no no i don't see he in the back and in the in the hotel too i don't see him in the back in the hotel too. I don't see him. But I wait a little bit and send message for him on Instagram for talking a little bit and maybe trying to gather in the future. Okay.

I saw that you told my friend Guilherme Cruz, the reporter, you told him he's a good friend of mine, brazilian beast you told him this before the fight you said to him the end of the round is the best option for us to start working and make him miss make him spend energy and go for the finish and here you are you you knocked him out end of the round and so this is part of your strategy can you explain why the end of the round do you think that this happens yeah when i said the fight i see for the guys this fight is danger because al-hasak is so strong so explosive and he bring for me danger and a warrior you know what i mean but in the second and the three houses your energy is loose now yeah because it's so big it's so strong need more energy but in the second and the three houses your energy is loose down yeah because it's so big

so strong need more energy but in the second and three houses i have unchanged but maybe if he put me in a wall in a wall and make a pressure he can break little b and come so strong and put a sprint for try taking me KO, yeah? And this time, I have one change. And me and my coach, Nakashi, Tereré, and Gioni, and the guys extreme, train this all day. When the guy make pressure, after three, four punches, your energy down. And now you can open and try accept your hands. I hold three, four punches in the wall, the al-Hasak, and the five, I look and no, I can't

go now. And one punch, but I was strong, and they are four or five punches, it loses energy, you know what I mean? And I trained this for a long two months, you know? Long two months training this, training in the backstage before the fight, and it worked, bro. I'm so happy because of this,

because my coach has a good strategy good strategy yeah i'm in the way and you sacrificed a lot right uh no home for christmas or anything you stayed in las vegas yes i come to vegas in november middle november middle november i'm 16 for making six weeks here acclimation because it's different climate in Las Vegas so dry I need to stay here for when I try to fight here for acclimation for recovery for good partner strength this is sacrifice yeah but they just one one question was one when the end year is no problem yeah if it came for family now I love it well uh congratulations parabens and we see you maybe later this year in brazil yeah thank you brother thank you appreciate thank you for

interview yeah maybe see me in brazil okay i tried this okay thank you so much congratulations incredible knockout and i think we'll be talking about that knockout at the end of the year for the awards. Great to have you on, and all the best to you. Thank you, bro. Thank you. I appreciate it. Good to be here, my friend. Yes. All right.

There he is, Cesar Almeida. Remember that name, climbing up the ranks at 185 and looked fantastic on Saturday, knockout of the year contender already. All right. Let's go to one of the biggest stars in boxing right now. He returns to action finally on February 22nd, his first fight under the Riyadh season umbrella, the first fight under the matchroom umbrella for him as well after a long run with top rank. He's one of our own from Brick City, from Newark, representing New Jersey. And first time for me getting the

opportunity to speak to him. Very excited about this. Let's say hello to Shakur Stevenson. Kind enough to join us. Hey, Shakur, how's it going, my man? Thanks for joining us. What's good, my guy? It's good to talk to you. I appreciate this. I know it's been a very busy day for you.

You were just at the press conference. And so let's get into it. Your opponent, Kit Austin, Floyd Schofield, not in attendance. What's your response to this? What's your reaction? I think he's getting a little bit scared i think that um butterflies is hitting him right now he's having the biggest fight of his career um he's trying to find any way out and i just pray he come to the uh fight and show up on february 22nd did you know about this in advance

nah i just found out when i I came to the press conference. They said something about his signature on his passport, but on my way here, when they said something about my signature on my passport, I just saw it right there, so I was very confused. He tweeted something. I don't know if you saw it. He said, it's amazing the length opponents go to try to sabotage a camp. None of you will stop this fight or us winning the belt. We know who the snake is.

Now back to the camp and the new. What is he talking about? Is he saying that there's like a spy in his camp or something? I don't know. I have no clue. I'm in England right now, so I have no clue what he's talking about. I think the kid is a little delusional. Prayers up for him, but I just hope he shows up.

Were you annoyed that he didn't show up? Every other opponent was there. Every other matchup was there, and you're left without a dance partner, if you will. Did that annoy you? You have to come all the way in the middle of camp to England. Did this annoy you? Yeah, it kind of annoyed me a little bit, but I'm a true professional.

So, um, it just shows that he's not a true professional. I'm a true professional. I show up, uh, I do what I'm supposed to do. And I'm gonna come fight now.

It'd be the same way. A lot of people were surprised when this matchup was announced, not because, uh, it's not a great matchup, but they thought that maybe it was a little early for him to fight someone like you early in his career. Were you surprised that he accepted it?

Yeah, I was very surprised. Honestly, I'm the one who pushed for it. I'm the one who made this fight happen. I told him that if Zepeda didn't want to fight me, I'll fight him. So he's been talking a lot of crap and I ain't got to stand on everything he said. Is that why you pushed for it? Because he's been talking a lot of crap about you? Yeah, you know, when somebody calls you on the phone, a lot of people could ignore it.

Somebody in my stature, somebody in my shoes could ignore it, keep it moving, and go fight bigger and better fights. But when everybody don't want to fight you, I'd rather just answer the phone call and show people that they're not who they say they do you do you enter this fight chakur with a chip on your shoulder let's be honest a lot of people have been taking shots at you over the past year do you feel like you have something to prove but sure um yeah a lot of people kind of turn

their back on me they they don't talk bad about me um they act like i'm not the guy who i've been my whole career so um this is not my first time in this position i done been here before um now i'm just trying to show people who i really am why do you think so many people turn their back on you why do you feel this way i think you know people just pick their favorites and when they got a favorite um they feel like they can't like other fighters. So if my style is not the same as the style that they like, they're going to try to talk bad on my style and act like I'm not the guy. So I think that's what it comes with.

And I'm too dominant. Like, I'm very dominant in the boxing ring. Sure. And is that sometimes a blessing and a curse? No, it's like. Go ahead. It's boxing room sure and and is that sometimes a blessing and a curse like go ahead it's like yeah it is because it's like it's when you're watching basketball and the guy goes i mean the team goes up 30 and um it's exciting to watch them go up 30 but at the 30 is like you turn off the tv you turn off the channel because it's not exciting to watch somebody be so dominant. So it's the same thing with me. Like, I go up 30 of my fights and all you want to see is a knockout.

And if the knockout don't happen, it's like, it's not entertaining. It's not no challenge for the guy that he's fighting. I just make it look too easy. Okay. You know, people used to criticize Floyd about this, Floyd Mayweather, not Schofield, saying, you know, that he was too boring, but it was because he was so dominant. Do you think that you're dealing with the same thing? Yeah, like, if I go in there and a guy landed a shot on me in, like, the first round, I think that everybody will be thrilled to the edge of the sea, and it'll be, like, very entertaining.

But, like, I don't get touched, so it kind of makes people mad. Obviously, the one that everyone wants to see is Tank, and I know you've been asked a bunch about him over the past weekend. Can I ask you this? Why does he seem to get so upset when people ask him about you? At that press conference, he was like, who's that? Who's that? What has he done?

What has he done? He seemed very aggravated by the mere mention of your name, which is crazy because, I mean, you guys have been at the top for a long time. You're not some kid. It's a fight that people have discussed. Why do you think he gets so upset at just the question being asked? I think he's like a guy that he don't want to shit a spot. Like, you know, when my name is asked,

it seems like he gets very frustrated in his feelings, and he just got to live with it until you fight me. So if he feel that way, I think we should fight, you know, get it off your chest. Do you believe him when he says he's going to retire this year? Sorry, I lost lost you there what did you say i say it's really like not none of my business i try to like stay out of the things that don't really got nothing to do with me so if you do good for him if you don't good for him too okay uh true or false before your career is over, you will fight Tank?

True. All right. So he's not going to retire. We got to see. Is that, if you had one fight to pick, like, will you be upset

if by the time your career is done and you have many years left, if that's the one that doesn't happen, would that be the top of the wish list for you? Yeah yeah i'd be very upset if that fight don't happen just because of the fact that um that's the fight that i know um been my dream fight for a long time i've been ready to prove who i am to the world by being him so um yeah i'll be

i'll be kind of upset but um i don't need him either. So it's a two-way street. Yeah. He went on a social media storm, if you will, over the weekend about everyone being at this Ring magazine thing and that he wouldn't be there. He wouldn't kiss the ring, so to speak. Have you seen some of these posts by him, and what do you make of his stance towards being involved?

I mean, if that's how he feel, that's how he feel. I don't kiss the ring either. I'm a man. I go by honor and respect. Right now, it's a business and a business opportunity, so, you know, somebody offers some business, I'll take it. But, I mean, that's how he feel. That's how he feel.

But, truthfully, I ain't with that kissing the ring either. How did you enjoy or not enjoy the event on Saturday? It was like every single famous boxer on the planet, other than actually being there and getting um credit for like the stuff that boxers did and boxers do and i appreciate it did you meet anyone that you've never met before that you've you've looked up to admired respected yeah i met um usik usik um he kind of got a lot of great energy. So I was just watching his vibe and his energy. And I like me and him. Your relationship with Turkey, how would you describe it? It's a business relationship. And actually, Turkey is a lot cooler than people think.

People kind of make these bad thoughts about him. But I think he's a good guy. What about that photo there you turkey and canelo i mean come on that's legendary stuff yeah i had walked up and they was already talking there um yeah it was a good vibes you know canelo said stuff to me uh turkey started talking to me and it was a good energy um i mentioned that you have a maybe a chip on your shoulder something to prove it's also your first fight with Mattroom. Do you feel like you have something to prove regarding like, hey, the investment you're making in me is worthwhile, top rank, you guys made a mistake.

I know you left, you made the decision. But, you know, everyone wants to have a good first impression, right? Do you feel that as well? Yes, for sure. Honestly, I'm coming to steal the show. I think I want to be the fight that everybody talk about. A lot of people have been talking bad about me through these last couple months, but come February 22nd, I hope they have the same energy.

Ultimately, when you start thinking about people that have been talking about, let's name some names. Who's on the top of the list? Who do you need to shove it down their throat? I'm going to go with like a tim bradley probably one um it's so many people uh i don't even want to give everybody the fame uh you know i won't say everybody name but i'm gonna throw tim bradley number one on my list the the the former boxer now top rank um broadcaster for espn um he's been critical of you and you feel like it's been unfair? I mean, I think some of it is fair, and then some of it is unfair.

But honestly, I think he kind of just, like, overdramatic, and he kind of makes it a lot worse than what it is. So I'm going to shut him up, too, though. He's going to see. Ultimately, why was it time to leave top rank? I think their vision just wasn't the same as my vision. I kind of look at myself a certain way. I know that I'm going to be one of the biggest stars and one of the best fighters in the sport of boxing,

so I don't think that they had the same vision for me, but I appreciate them for everything they did so far in my career. Okay, and it obviously came down to Eddie, but was it down to Eddie and someone else? Who were you weighing at the 11th hour? Who were you deciding between? Yeah, it probably was Eddie, maybe even top rank too. I still had that deal on the table with them,

but honestly, it's just like the way that it ended and the way that they try to like turn the public against me it kind of um turned me off and made me not want to go with them so eddie was kind of like one of the main choices okay and as far as fighting back home in newark are there any plans of that in 2025 obviously first ones in riad um are there any talks of you returning home to Jersey? Yeah, it depends. If one of these big-name fighters want to pull up to my hometown, but

if not, then no. But it all depends. I want the biggest and best fights available right now. Yeah. So how many are you hoping to get in 2025? Two, three? What are we thinking? Because you're fighting pretty early. Three, three. And if you can lay him out, it's obviously Kit Austin on the 22nd,

and who would be the next two? Lomachenko and then Tank. How confident are you to getting the Lomachenko fight? Not very confident. I think he's scared. I had sparred him a while back, and I think he's been scared ever since. Really? And would top rank be an issue in making that fight?

Yeah, they would definitely get in the way of the fight, too. So my hopes are very low for it. But, I mean, with Turkey, I think he can make a lot of things happen. So hopefully he can. So obviously we know about Tank. If it's not Lomachenko for the second fight, who would it be?

Zepeda. William Zepeda. Zepeda is a good fighter, so I would love to beat him up too. I feel like that would be a possibility, right? He's with Golden Boy. Yeah, you know, but he's been running for me for a minute, so I'm kind of skeptical about that fight too. Why is everyone running from you?

Because people don't want to go in a fight to where they know that they're going to lose. And I think a lot of people know when they sign up to fight me that they are going to lose. There's no ifs, ands, or buts. They don't feel like they have a chance. And they feel like you're going to clown them. Embarrass them is the word. You know, hate, not get hate.

Embarrassed. All right, all right. How much longer are you in London for? I actually leave tomorrow and get back to training camp and getting ready for my fight. Okay. Overall, have you enjoyed all this, or is it kind of a pain in the middle of training camp?

It's kind of a pain, but it's kind of cool to just be in London and get to see like a new scenery. I kind of ain't leave the country in a long time so um this is my first time leaving the country in a minute so okay and and just curious tyson fury today announces retirement you you calling cap or no cap no i'm not calling cap i think uh he's ready to give it up and i think that um he had a tremendous career uh one of the best heavy ways to do it, and I respect him.

With an AJ fight that close, you think he's walking away? I think he made a lot of money. I think he's in it for the biggest and best fights, but it made so much money that he could just sit down and chill and relax. Okay. All right. Well, I'll take your word for it. Great to have you. One last question before I let you go, Shakur. I don't know if you can hear me because you froze up.

Can you hear me or no? Oh, can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. I don't know why I'm... It's probably because you're in transit. I always wanted to ask you this. Your name, Shakur, were you named after Tupac Shakur? Yes, I was named after Tupac Shakur? Yes, I was named after Tupac Shakur. That's amazing. What's the story there? Who, like, where did it come from?

My mother was a big Tupac fan. Actually, like, when I was growing up, that's all she really used to play. But, yeah, she loved Tupac, and, you know, I'm named after him. I love it. I love it. I always wanted to ask you that. Great stuff, Shakur. Thanks for doing this in transit.

Appreciate it. And good luck to you on February 22nd. Thank you. All right. There he is. Shakur Stevenson, one of the best and brightest young stars. He was asked about Kid Austin, Floyd Schofield, not attending at the press conference today. We have that clip from just about 30 minutes ago, I think it was.

Do we have that? Yeah? Here it is. He's been calling you out. Not a lot of people call you out, but he has. Has he made a bit of a mistake? Yeah, he definitely made a mistake. He's a good young fighter, a hungry fighter, but I hope he still takes the fight. I mean, I'm kind of worried because he's a good young fighter a hungry fighter but um i hope he still take the fight i

mean um i'm kind of worried because he's not here i was kind of excited to see him do you have a message for him because i'm sure he'll be watching somewhere don't get butterflies and pull out the fight floyd um i know it's a hard time i know you're dealing with a lot but uh just show up well there you have it uh shak Stevenson and Floyd Schofield. One of the great fights that have been added to this February 22nd card, which of course is being dubbed the last crescendo. And it's a headline by Dimitri Bivol versus Artur Beterbiev 2. We saw them fight back in October.

Very, very close fight. Eventually won by Beterbiev too. We saw them fight back in October. Very, very close fight, eventually won by Beterbiev. Bivol gets a chance to unseat the big scary man. Now, the other fight on this card that is stealing all the headlines, of course, is Anthony Joshua, not Anthony Joshua, it's Joseph Parker against Daniel Dubois. Anthony Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearnarn saying if the Tyson Fury fight actually is dead that he'd want AJ to fight Dubois or Parker he has a history against the two of them has a win over Parker and has a loss against Dubois back in September at Wembley Dubois knocked him out so that's a great one a lot of people calling it the card of the year. A lot of people calling it the best card of all time.

A lot of people saying it's the best of all the Riyadh season cards. I think you can make a strong case for all of them. But I think of all the guys on the card who have something to prove, I would put Shakur up on the top of the list. Ryan Garcia was at the Ring Awards as well There was a thing there with Bill Haney and Devin Haney Shouting at him

There's now some reports that he's dropping The lawsuit and the rematch is going to be made The amount of drama In boxing right now compared to The world of MMA is Insane Do you guys notice that? I feel like every day,

there's so much drama, so many characters, so many egos, and MMA just feels kind of like, it's just humming along, humming along, UFC humming along, humming along. Not a ton of drama, not a ton of craziness. In fact, in MMA, we're getting rivals coming together. Did you see this last night? Rob Whitaker and Israel Adesanya coming together.

I reached out to both teams and said, how did this come about? And apparently, they just kind of came together and said, let's train. Let's spar. Look at this. Robert Whitaker and Israel Adesanya just having a spar, having a, look at that, a hug, a dap, a little technique here, a little technique there. Look at this. Who, look at that. This warmed the heart. I loved it. I never truly felt like there was animosity there. I never understood how there could be animosity. I was always told that two anime lovers can't hate each other.

And look at this. Rivals one day, friends the next, funny world, new year, new friends. And I didn't notice. I don't want to be the one to stir the pot when they're having this newfound friendship, but I noticed that Rob didn't tag Izzy and Izzy tagged Rob. Anything there, Frank? What do you say as a social media connoisseur? I mean, surely GC noticed this.

Did you notice he tagged Izzy tagged Rob? No, no, no. I didn't notice. I don't think this matters. They both posted the pictures. Almost simultaneously. Yeah, if one was heard about it, I don't think they would have even posted them. But do you think they coordinated it? Okay, like three, two, one. Maybe. Honestly, they look like best pals in this.

It really did warm the heart. It was nice. I can't believe it's been almost three years since the last time they fought. Yeah, I never felt like they were truly, I didn't really understand the beef. I feel like they needed the beef and more Izzy needed the beef. He needed to hate Rob, but now.

Yeah, I think he fight twice. Yeah, there's a respect. A couple of times needed the beef. He needed to hate Rob, but now... Yeah, I think he fight twice. Yeah, there's a respect. A couple times for the title. I think that you build the animosity as you head towards the fight, but now that years have passed, they know... Look at that, posing. Look at this. I loved it.

I freaking loved it. It actually really warmed the heart. Imagine they start cornering each other. I don't know if we're going to go that far. Rob showing up in Saudi. Yeah, he's there for the Imavov fight. That'd be great. It would be great.

So shout out to the two of them. Yesterday morning, we wake up to some news regarding Khabib Nurmagomedov. Did you guys see this? Video of Khabib on a Frontier Airlines flight, not Alaska Airlines. Alaska caught a couple strays I don't know what that says about them

Why did everyone jump to the conclusion that it was Alaska? Was there something about the flight? I saw that too, I don't know Habib even had to clarify that it was Alaska I've heard Alaska Airlines is a great airline I mean they're both a little bit Substandard, no? Alaska's pretty good

Yeah, I've heard Alaska's pretty good My biggest question is why would Habib be on an Alaska Airlines good Yeah I've heard Alaska's pretty good my biggest question is Why would Habib be on an Alaska Airlines flight I feel like that's mostly like Pacific Northwest area Look this was a serious thing It was amazing reading The comments and seeing how many people Saying why is one of the most

Famous UFC fighters of all time In coach Here it is. Because they're not comfortable with the CXN. My flight attendant. And unfortunately, it is fair. Yes it is. You guys, when they asked me, they asked me, do I know English? And they said yes.

I understand that, but it's also off of their judgement. I'm not going to do this back and forth. I will call a supervisor. You can either take a different seat, or we can go ahead and escort you off the plane. Raising her voice up a beef is dangerous work. Which one are we doing? I will call a supervisor. You can either take a different seat or we will go ahead and escort you off the plane. Which one are we doing? I'll call a supervisor and then we're going to have to rebook you for a different plane. Josh, do you copy?

Josh. Josh, can you take care of Josh? Former UFC champion undefeated at B-N-M. He's just like, screw this. Former UFC champion undefeated, Ibizan Nurmagomedov. He's like, screw this. No luggage. Not even a carry-on, huh? And then you see some teammates leaving as well.

So obviously this picks up when he's being asked to either move his seat. He's sitting window exit row or get off the plane. And he doesn't want to move. And so she tells him to get off the plane. We don't know what happened before all that. did post this On social media, here it is First of all, I need to clarify that was Fly Frontier Not Alaska Air Lady who comes to me with questions was very rude

From the very beginning I do hate when people are like, you know, they have that tone You know, like, why does she have to have that tone It wasn't very friendly, but you know, she has a job to do What tone? Even though I speak very decent English And can understand everything and agree to assist she still insists on removing me from my seat what was the base for that racial national or another one i'm not sure but after two minutes of conversation she called security

and i was de-planned from this aircraft after 1.5 hours i boarded another airline um one left to my destination i did my best to stay calm and respectful as you can see on the video very true but those crew members could do better next time and just be nice with clients very true um what happened before the camera started rolling did people know that do you think there's anyone sitting there being like yo that's habib i guess the person filming yeah there had to have been someone because someone started filming it yeah they wouldn't have if it was just a normal it It's a crazy thing. We've all sat in exit row,

and they ask you, like I remember one time in particular, I was sleeping. It was one of those where I stayed up all night working, and then you take like that 6 a.m. flight home. And of course, this was back when I was flying,

you know, coach. Okay, sorry. No, no, no, man. We get it. You fly first class. No. Bars and beds and three-course meals. That was before.

No, no, no. It was on the cover. I get it, man. It was on the cover. Look, the LV's are men of the people. Fly's frontier coach. With the boys. With the boys, man.

Got to. Anyway, they wake you up If you're sleeping Before the The flight takes off They will wake you up Right And say

Can you assist Will you assist You have to say yes Now I'm not suggesting That he didn't But that's like the one thing That they do If someone

If someone looked back And said like I don't want that guy Sitting there That is That is That is That is awful Just for the, if Khabib says yes

or no, I'd want him sitting there because he could probably thwart any issue, any problem whatsoever. He's one of the most talented martial artists of all time. Now, Frontier has posted a statement. This is what they had to say. Via MMA Fighting, good job, great job by them getting this statement. Frontier Airlines has issued this statement regarding the altercation. On January 11th, as flight 4401 from Las Vegas to San Francisco

was preparing for departure, a flight attendant initiated the customary briefing for exit row passengers. Customer Habib Nurmagomedov, who was seated in an exit row, was asked multiple times if he was willing and able to assist in the event of an emergency. According to the flight attendant, Mr. Nurmagomedov did not respond despite repeated attempts, which placed him in non-compliance with FAA requirements. This is actually exactly what I was talking about, and I didn't even read this. The flight attendant informed Mr. Nurmag-Madoff that he could be

moved to a different upgraded seat or exit the plane. Videos circulating on social media platforms do not capture the interaction and instead show a subsequent interaction after a gate agent entered the plane and reiterated the option to be reseated. As a result of the customer's initial unresponsiveness and repeated declinations, is it declinations? I've never even heard that word. Declinations. Declinations? Sounds like Declan Rice.

Of a seat change, he was asked to deplane per airline and FAA policy. The decision to deplane the customer was in no way related to his ethnicity and we have refunded him and his traveling companions for their flights so what do you guys think of this nightmare pr situation for frontier it escalates like if you're asking somebody do you want to relocate your seat and they're saying no or they're just not giving you a warm and fuzzy

that they actually understand the importance of where they are you know like you're in this important seat i could see that but it's awkward when the gate assistant or whatever they refer to them as was like well she doesn't feel comfortable like that does sound out of context like horrible but it could be she feels uncomfortable because you don't seem to be alert and taking this very seriously and that's all we need from you right now is confirmation that you understand you could be put in a position where people are relying on you yeah it's a tough one ultimately this is a pr nightmare for frontier he's one of the most beloved fighters in mma history combat history he's got a very loyal and passionate fan base no one wants to see a a legend treated as such but uh very possible the flight

attendant had no idea who he was obviously and i just know from experience if you don't say yes they will get very mad at you and sometimes it kind of seems silly yes of course i'm going to help people what do you think what do you think i'm some kind of barbarian here anyway do you think all the boys you think? I'm some kind of barbarian here? Anyway, do you think all the boys left the plane too? Like if that happened to one of your friends, GC, are you leaving the plane? Yeah, you got to get off the plane then. If you guys are going on a trip, you're going to Vegas, everyone, you know, the vibes are high and one friend refused to say yes, are you leaving the plane?

If that is what happened, that's a bit of a different story I'd be like Did you say yes And we'll just move on from this But I mean if Let's say it didn't happen Let's say it was just a friend That got into some sort of

If your friend has to deboard You have to get off Honestly this happened When we went to Vegas In September You did? Whoa whoa whoa What?

We were We were We were getting ready to Leave me, Rick and Frank And you know As we were getting to security You know me and Rick Obviously prepared Travelers have TSA pre-check We're ready to leave me rick and frank uh and you know as we were getting to security you know me and rick obviously prepared travelers have tsa pre-check we're ready to just fly right through security frank does not have tsa they call it a random screening there's nothing random

about it when every time i get there they're like sir you've been selected for a random screening i'm like great regardless security line is 10 miles long at like 5 30 a.m i look at frank i was like this this might cut close and he's like you guys just go on without me and me me and rick are obviously like we're not gonna leave you man we're obviously just gonna move the flight and stay here with you so that answers it yeah d bull oh you were gonna stay rick uh are you leaving the plane yeah yeah of course yeah we were gonna wait for frank of course of course We were going to wait for Frank You would know you would land back in New York

And like obviously in first class You would have been napping the whole way You would be like man you guys are taking forever to get off the plane Nah it's crazy Yeah I'd be like this is crazy I'll see you at the casino The time that we went to 300 I stood there for what felt like 15 minutes

Videotaping everyone Get off the plane Yeah Remember that? I had to like Do multiple Multiple Multiple videos Right I was sitting

In a normal coach seat You were sitting in 1A No this was like This was like row 56 It was crazy You were sitting in 1A You were sitting in 1A You got the tour

Of the pilots cabinet That was nice You got to walk in You got the wings You had the wings Clipped onto your shirt I was like what is this? I thought this was

Reserved for children I was nice Nope it's reserved for one hand Connor would have gotten removed And Ariel would have been Still waiting there I would have had no idea I would have had no idea

Flight from Manchester home I almost got removed This is crazy That was an insane What are all the problems Why so many problems Things have changed in coach Since you moved up

To first class man No I know I had to fly home With my family Over the break I was appalled actually actually the lady this is the best the lady with the cart was like um mr hawani and i never know i swear and she's like uh you know you're 1k right and i'm like yeah i know can you keep it down What are you doing back here I was like You know

In any event With the unwashed masses Yeah She said In any event Here's a box of Cheese and gummy bears Don't share

Here's the complimentary bullshit No no no Thank you so much You got the upgrade They give you a box They give you a box That people pay for They give it to you

I know I know That's what I'm saying We really appreciate your service As a 1K member Thanks for spending all your money strictly with you nananans thank you so much yes yes yes while we were watching the video you commented that it didn't look like he had luggage do you think he's the kind of person who's like okay i'm getting off the plane one of my boys is gonna grab my luggage no i'm gonna check the bag yeah you think there's

any chance josh was like oh shit that's habib dude what the hell it's like you got any bag up yeah yeah or maybe he was just uh as the kids like to say raw dogging it yeah maybe raw dog in the flight i mean that's an easy one vegas to san fran yeah i mean that's raw doggable he also he he if he didn't have anything that would be incredible like no bags whatsoever no check he had the over he had the over the shoulder thing He might have He might have something waiting for him No but you know Vegas is the second home Obviously San Francisco

Is near AKA Maybe he just went to train He's got stuff there And he goes back Who knows Yeah that might be it man That might be it

Have you ever flown Frontier? I have once But I upgraded everything To where actually I was sitting 1A Some people have said I am the Ariel Helwani Of Frontier

Wow By the way I was wondering about this Of course wouldn't be caught dead in a Frontier Is there a business in Frontier No There's extra leg room The people criticizing Khabib I mean he had no choice

What it is is it's essentially the same thing as Spirit Airlines You're going to pay a super low base fee And then you're going to have to pay a bunch of money to upgrade things. Okay. Checking a bag. Carry-on is extra. Maybe that's why I didn't. Carry-ons are extra on Frontier.

If you had to rank Frontier, Alaska, or Spirit? I've only flown Frontier out of all of those. I actually had a really enjoyable experience on Frontier. It was actually great. Isn't it like a Northwest flight? I took it from Hartford CT, the old MIA.

Oh, wow. What a flight. This was before the Smith & Walensky's incident. Oh, yeah. I'll never be back in Miami. Oh, period. Yeah. Someone actually asked to go to Smith & Walensky's in New York, and I blocked their number. Yes. All right. Well, who knows? I mean, Yeah, someone actually asked to go to Smith & Wollensky's in New York, and I blocked their number.

All right, well, who knows? I mean, a potential lawsuit? I don't know. I haven't talked to him in a while, but one of our favorites in the history of the program and got some delightful news that he is in fact returning to action on the 22nd of February in beautiful Seattle, Washington in a fight that perhaps wasn't on the radar necessarily, but just great to see him back. He's the former UFC bantamweight champion, one of the very best analysts in the game. You heard him on Saturday at the Apex event

on ESPN Plus. He's the great Dominic Cruz. Kind enough to join us. Is he there? There he is. Dom. What's up, Ariel? How are you? I'm good, man. Living life. That's my virtual hug. That's my virtual hug. I feel like it's been a while. Yeah. Well, what's been a while? Which part? There's been a lot of like it's been a while yeah it's uh well what's been a while which part there's been a lot of things it's been a while that's true that's true just this been on the show in a while i haven't well i talked to you

but we talk separate from the show until i fight then i'm relevant that's not true you know what that is actually so not true i try to have you on you're like i got nothing right now that is not true i'm not a johnny come lately hey I didn't say it was you, did I? Maybe it was my choice. That's true. That's a good point. Why did I get so defensive just there? It's a great question for you to be an aerial.

It's pretty regular from my experience of you. With me? Really? You're very defensive. Have I gotten better? What's better, man? You're good how you are. It's just who you are man

yeah but no one wants to deal with a defensive person like who's always got their guard up i'm glad you know that's a very wise thing you just admitted to yourself yeah we're all works in progress right facts what's the thing you friends are for that's true you tell it like it is i've always appreciated that about you If you could change one thing about yourself What would it be? I would be nicer to myself And stop being so critical Wow

Critical of what? Well, just think of what we just did right there Imagine how I am to myself Yeah, but what do you find There's a lot I would change about myself I know off the top of my head What would you love to improve on? That am to myself yeah but like what do you find like there's a lot i would change about myself i know off the top of my head what would you love to change about or improve on that the the thing that i get to improve on is wanting to change myself because i am how i am um just love the

parts of me that i don't love because that's been the hard thing to learn what don't you love about yourself um i would say i could go i I mean, the list goes on, Ariel. There's so many. I could go for days. Perfectionism, I would say, is my greatest flaw. You still strive for perfection all these years later. Yeah, everything I do. It's a way of being.

It's not something you do, and it's something that's not real. It's made up. It can't be perfect, right? We all know that, but that's something that I would like to change is the thought that I could be. When do you think you've been closest to perfect? Never, man. It's impossible. Not even close.

Not even close. That's what's so ironic about it. Like, I think, like, natural, I'll speak for myself. I naturally think that if I strive to be perfect, then I'm going to be the best version close to perfect. But all it does is create more resistance because it's impossible. Why are you coming back? I just, I love to compete, Ariel.

You know, I was, I started this sport when it was illegal in every state and everybody, you know, we were legitimately called human cock fighters, like basically roosters that fight each other with knives. Like we were considered that. And, um, I remember thinking back then, like, really? Like, that's kind of, I just enjoy fighting. It keeps me out of trouble. Um, you know, it's illegal. So it keeps me from doing stupid things on the street. It keeps me from going out too late. It keeps me from putting, you know, bad things in my body, drugs, alcohol, bad food, because if I put those things in my body, then I can't compete the next day. I can't, I can't defend myself against dangerous people that are trying to hurt me in the gym.

So fighting kind of keeps me really, it just gives me a good route, keeps me clear. And it's a transformation process, man. When you put yourself on a public forum to possibly be the greatest performance that's ever been made or an embarrassing moment, that right there, the dichotomy between that is such a transformational process and transformation is a public event. So that's what I think this thing's all about. It's a journey about transformation growing and martial arts always does that for me. It just helps me really like, it's like a pressing a fast forward button on lessons in life. You get them really fast and really hard and there's nothing kind about it. 16 days from now, January 29th, 2005, you made your MMA debut. Do you remember that? Rage in the Cage 67 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Who did you fight? Is that right? Yeah. Wow. I didn't know that date. I don't really keep track of the dates, but now I do remember Rage in the Cage, obviously, in the fights, but I don't remember when I started. Do you remember who you fought on that card? Oh man fight number one? Yeah. I believe it was in Casa Gran or it was a guy from Casa Gran. What was his name? I don't know I just remember the fight. The fight was really hard. I got strangled a lot. I was just fighting out of chokes the whole fight. Barely made it. I can't remember his name though. Eddie Castro. Eddie Castro. That was a hard fight,

man. That guy really, really made me realize I needed to gain some weight and get a lot stronger because it was only 155 pounds and up at this time. There was 125 35 45 or women's division at all i was uh trying to strengthen myself up to fight a sean shirk around this time he was the champion or you know even a matt hughes which is wild to think about yeah but uh that's what that was my only option back then when the sport was there for me was to beef up and fight at 155 i have like four fights at 155 i have like two fights at 145 and then i moved to 35 after i lost a favor the first time tough fight as you as you mentioned was there any part of you that was like hmm this isn't for me what do you mean oh the first fight yeah uh no at this time it was just fun i was just glad i didn't have to

do that on the street and risk getting arrested so i was you know 20 years old 20 maybe not even that maybe 19 i think 19 or 20 so i was just glad that i wasn't on the streets doing stupid things like i said and then i was glad to go out there and perform i i made less than 50 for that fight i made no money wow cost me more money to drive to that fight than I made on the fight itself, the gas money. So at this point I was doing it to see what I was, to see what I was made of. I feel like a lot of the military does that too. When you go to the military, you're 18, they sign you up because at that time as a man, I just wanted to see what I have inside me, what makes me different. And, uh, you know, fighting kind of gave that to me, just like military might give that to a lot of people, I feel like, a lot of men or women.

If we were to talk that night and I would have said, okay, like, what's the end goal here? Like, what are you actually trying to get out of all this? Where do you end up? Would it have come anywhere near what has happened over the last 20 years? Absolutely not. No way, Ariel. Like, when I started, like I said, my first five,

I got to 6-0 by myself with no coach. I mean, I had guys that would come and they'd support me here and there and I'd gather them, you know, Matt Verhalen, Eddie Wineland, no, Ed West, a couple like key people,

Chad Diepmeyer. These are guys that I used to train with way back in the day. Joe Lozon's brother. Dan? Excuse me. I do a training. Dan Lozon. I got to train with Efren Escudero, Yatsi Mesa, Seth Buzinski. Santino DeFranco was back in the day. I used to train with him. These are guys that I used to train with. And, you know, I was just doing it, like I said, to stay out of trouble because I enjoyed fighting. I didn't really think it was it was still illegal. So I didn't know it was going to explode the way it was. But then when the ultimate fighter came out, I saw it as a business opportunity. That's when I started looking at it differently.

I started to see, wow, this is really getting picked up by everybody. It's going to be a huge sport. I knew it. I just knew in my gut it was going to explode with what Dana and the UFC was doing. And then the ultimate fighter was going to be the catalyst to help it explode. And at this time, I was still going to college. So I was working three, four jobs at a time, plus coaching wrestling, plus going to college. So I wanted to, it was very hard work. And training was like my only outlet. So it felt so like it filled my heart.

And I started to realize real quick, work, school, and all the other stuff drained me. And going to the gym was the only place I felt my heart and my mind felt full and rejuvenated. So once I got to 6-0, I decided, all right, if I can leave the region of Arizona, because I beat most of the best in Arizona in the first five, six fights, said, if I can go leave the region and maybe go to California or Colorado or some other show and win there, then there's a possibility maybe I can do this and have a future. And that's when I got a fight on two days' notice

in Eric Delfero's promotion called Total Combat. And I took the fight, and I ended up winning that fight. And it was another really hard fight, and it gave me a lot of confidence. So then when I won that, he brought me back two more fights. I won two more titles. I had a total of three titles. And then he said, Hey, I'll coach you. Let's get you ready for your eye favor in the WEC. You got six weeks, let's go. And I did it. I love that. I love these stories. Is Eric going to be in your corner on February 22nd? Eric's working. He's basically like the Forrest Griffin of the Mexico City PI.

What? The Mexico City PI. Performances. You've heard of that, right? Oh, the PI. I was thinking of like private investigation. Yes, of course. Oh, he's over there now.

Yeah, he's coaching. He's like the head. He's like the For he's like the forest there got it got it he he facilitates the he's pretty much doing what he always did with alliance but he he's now working for the ufc itself and so that would be a conflict of interest so yeah this will be the first fight since i met eric since the story i just told you that he will not be in my corner wow you know i thought uh private investigation, because I know for a minute, well, for the longest time, he was a firefighter as well, right?

Yeah, he retired. And then that's what moved him to this next step of his life where he wanted to go. You know, Eric's always loved coaching, loved being part of the sport, loved giving back to athletes. So when he said he was going to move, it kind of, I was like, man, what am I going to do? You know, where am I going to go? And I was thinking, you know, as a coach, he really like was the only guy who, like I said, picked me up and said, you don't have a coach. You kept showing up. I kept showing up to these fights with no cornerman and no coach. So he's like, if you don't have one, I'll tell, I got you come with me, come train with me. And he was the only one who really saw anything in me was holding for me

for free was buying lunch for me. When I had no money, he was getting me to the gym. He would give me rides to the gym. I got to sleep on his floor. So there were so many things he gave me for free in the beginning of my career that I was thinking, this is where he wants to go. Maybe I could help him win a championship in his world now. And so I decided to follow him out to the Mexico City PI and just support him and what his dream was and his new dream. I mean, leaving public service work as a firefighter for 20 plus years is, I mean, that's huge. Thank you to all the public safety people out there, firefighters, police officers, military. I mean, incredible human beings. He did that for 20 years and then retired. And then what do you do? And it's like, man, I could really see myself in him with fighting. Like when fighting's

done for 20 plus years, what are you going to do? Well, you got to wear a new hat. And it was really respectful to me that he was, uh, respectable to me that he was ready to just change hats immediately, jump right back on the horse and try something brand new and different. And it's not an easy job. And he's really, he's really kicking ass at it. And I love the way that everything's flowing out there in Mexico city. I love being there and just supporting him and his dreams and what he wants to create the way he did me has really supported both of us, uh, in our relationship as friends and family at this point now too. So it's, it became a win-win situation and i didn't expect it to go that way but it has and here i am so uh who will be in your corner on

february 22nd and where are you training for this fight i'm training mexico city oh wow and i'll be out there so he won't be able to help me but i'll bring people out i've got a guy named carl gebart that's going to come out he's been he was in my corner for Casey Kenny, uh, and Pedro Munoz. And he'll be in my corner for this one with another guy that I used to train with way back. I brought him out of Tucson, Arizona with me. His name is Nick Piedmont. He was in my corner when I fought, uh, TJ Doshaw. And, um, these are the two, two main leads that I'll have there. They just know me really well. They've known me my whole, like a really long time. And I got a good camaraderie and flow with them and most importantly they know eric too so they all kind of like used to train back in the day a little bit

so we've all got a similar mindset and uh approach is this your last fight that's yeah that's that's what's gonna happen because the body just isn't the same anymore. You know, when you've got to start training differently because the body isn't doing what you need it to, then you're subsidizing, right? You're taking away something here and there. And so I don't want that to be the case. And I think if I just keep going and going, I could end up in a space where I can't lift my arm. I don't know if anybody's seen T.J. Delshahares. I saw where he can't even lift his arm this high. Um, you know, I've had multiple shoulder surgeries. That's, those are the things I've been building over this time that I've been off is rebuilding

the body for this fight to come back and make sure that I can make it through a camp in one piece. And that's always the tough part because I train extremely hard. I think that was the issue with Cain Velasquez. I think personally, if I watched, that was the issue with Khabib. A lot of the best athletes in the world, the reason we get hurt is we train harder than anybody. I think those two people I named were some of the hardest training athletes in the history of the sport, period, ever. And I think that's why they had a lot of injuries. I think that's also why I've had a lot of injuries. It's just an interpretation. It's not a fact, but from my experience, when I watch champions really train, Alexander Gustafson comes to mind as well. Some of the hardest training athletes on earth. And a lot of times we're the ones with the most injuries. And as those have added up, I don't want that to be

a reason that I don't look as good as I could on fight night. Did you tell the UFC brass, hey, I want a retirement fight, let's figure it out? Or did they, did you ultimately, you know, come to the conclusion that this was the fight to take and then afterwards decide, all right, this is the last one? I've known as I started training that this was, you know, when you train Ariel, you feel your body out as an athlete. So I just knew I probably could do three or four more, but I don't know what the state of my shoulder would look like after that. Whereas if I do this one, I still have an arm. I still can throw a baseball. I can still live life. I can go snowboarding if I want. I can climb a ladder. I can, you know, basics. I want to be able to have my life and my body when this is said and done and not just be in shambles with no arms, no legs, no back, no neck.

I don't want to be that way. Was Rob Font your choice or did they offer you Rob Font? In other words, would you have preferred to retire against someone else? I mean, I don't want that. That's kind of a rude thing to say for me, if I was to say that, because I mean, if you've watched Rob Font, he's been around this game forever. He's a very respectable dude. The way he carries himself as a man, I respect that too. He's a good family man and he's lost and come back, lost and come back. I mean, that's one of

the hardest things to do in this sport. And he's found a way to continue to be relevant in this sport he's still in the top 10 he's coming off a a strong win one of his best performances i've ever seen from him to be honest uh and he's got for us a hobby in his corner and he like i said he's ranked top 10 so this is a you can't let opportunities pass you by that's was a nice, because of his status and what he's done in the sport, it's a respectable fight for me against a ranked opponent. And, of course, I've said it already. I would have rather had a rematch, to be honest, with somebody that I have history and a story with, like Henry.

I believe that that was a really good fight to have. But, you know, on one end, you got Sean Shelby saying, ah, Henry won't take it. And then when you talk to Ali, you got Ali saying, oh, Shelby didn't want to make it. They like to put old guys with old guys. You know how it is, Dom. So you start hearing two sides of the story from both guys, and you never hear from the fighter themselves. So after a while, you just got to take the opportunities that are given.

That's what the UFC offered me, so I took it. I mean, the UFC isn't going to try to give me some kind of, like, what, because they like me fight or something. I don't think that exists for very many people, unless you're Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones, where you're bringing, you know, a certain amount of eyes. I think then they'll work with you. But other than that, you just kind of get thrown to the wolves in the UFC. I heard last week when you were talking to DC and Chael on their show, and you mentioned the Sean Shelby thing, and I wasn't quite sure. You said you thought it was funny that he put you and Henry on the same car but not fighting each other. Was that, do you think, to annoy Henry or, for lack of a better word, to annoy you?

I don't know. I don't think they care enough about me or Henry to word to annoy you that made that made absolutely i don't know i i don't know if they're do i don't think they care enough about me or henry to try to annoy us to be honest i just don't but i think that it's good uh way to like create turmoil right and this is a drama style sport so a drama based sport so i mean i shel, Oh, I didn't do that on purpose. It's hard for me to believe that, but who cares? It's here. It is what it is. I can't do anything about it. It's out of my control. They didn't tell me who, when I asked who's the main event, he goes, Oh, I don't know. We're working on it. And then one day later, it's that it's like,

come on now you knew exactly what's going on, but maybe you didn't. Maybe I'm just making all this up and I'm just crazy, right? Would you have liked to be the main event? No. Why not? I'm not fighting for a title, so I don't get paid more for that kind of work and the extra two rounds you get 25 grand more if you think about it I'm getting a certain amount of money for three rounds and then they're going to add 10 minutes which is more than half the fight extra and they're only going to give me you know basically 10 grand a round for that that doesn't add up right to me

so if you're gonna if I'm in a main if I'm going to run the whole card and promote it and be the man and have to do all this stuff, um, hopefully I can get, you know, paid more for that, but, but I won't. So I'll take the co-main event slot. I'll fight three rounds. I make the same amount of money, whether I'm on the prelims or whether I'm the main event, they don't pay me more for that other than 2525,000 more to be a main event. So you get $25,000 more for 10 minutes more of a fight. And to me, $25,000 isn't worth a 10-minute fight. If you said right now, fight Rob Font for two rounds for $25,000, I'd tell you, no, I'm good. But for some reason, they make you a main event. It's enough.

I don't know. It just didn't work that way for me i just been in sport too long i know how it works i'm getting paid for the time and the energy i put in the in the camp and uh a five round camp versus a three round camp is like a 40 hour work week versus an 80 hour work week it's two completely different things man on the body in the past and i don't i don't need the main event like it's all good i am the main event and i'm not the main event so at the end of the day main event well they needed me to promote henry come on uh you know in the past when people have told

us in advance that this upcoming fight would be the retirement fight usually uh the ufc has a video package ready um how would you feel about something like that you're in the ring win or lose you're speaking to whomever is doing the post-fight interviews that night and a video package plays in front of everyone are you comfortable with something like that i kind of don't know what you mean what do you mean oh um you know michelle watterson said i'm going to retire with this fight and they had the package you, you know, the video, the montage. And then Robbie Lawler, they did it. And they had another one recently, too.

You know what I'm saying? Like when they're in the ring and they say, we want to play this for you. Rogan says it. And it airs in front and everyone gets emotional. When someone retires on the spot, they don't have something ready, obviously. So they can't do that. But usually in the last couple of years, and by the way, I think it's a great, nice gesture, but I could maybe see someone like you saying, I don't want that. I don't want that kind of attention. So I was just

curious how you would feel about that now that we know this is going to be your retirement fight. Well, if I'm going to be honest, every fight's my retirement fight because I go in there with the, I know people might roll their eyes at this, but I really go in there with the thought that that could be it. I feel like we kind of throw it in the wind that there's a chance we could all die in there. And to me, I don't do that. So every fight for me is my last. That's why I'm always in really good shape. That's why I fight from one bell to the end, because at the end of the day, it takes one shot landing wrong and you're not in a good place. So I don't take that lightly. I don't give any chances.

I don't give anything. So every fight for me has been like my last retirement fight. I think saying that it's my retirement fight gives that to other people to hold on to. But that's the mentality I've gone into every fight anyway. So it doesn't really change much for me. that to other people to hold on to but that's the mentality i've gone into every fight anyway so it doesn't really change much for me if anything it might you know get me to just you know i mean think about uh you're on a run right you you do long runs ariel yeah a couple miles yeah do you ever get to the end of the run and think okay let's pick it up we're almost done yeah there's

light at the end of the tunnel sprint and then you get to the end and you got nothing left because you sprinted that's that's what i'm looking at sprint it out sprint it out go hard don't stop this isn't lighten up because you're at the end this is pick it up because you're at the end. Let's just pick it up because you're at the end. Is there any chance you think you look tremendous in the fight and you're like, nah, I got a few more miles left in me? You know, you wait to the moment, but I'm looking to be more smart than reactive in this situation. And it all comes down to my body, Ariel. Yeah.

My body tells me what to do, not my mind. And this one, once you get to a certain place, it's all like, oh, your mind is stronger than your body. Yeah, that's true. For about 20 years in MMA fighting, yes, that's true. And then after a while, you got to start playing the balance game with the mind and the body. And then when that happens, that's why they say it's a young man's sport. A young man doesn't have to do that. A young man's mind is always,

you know, it can get through it. But I've got to make sure my body and my mind work in balance so I can get in there and do my job at the highest level. So yeah, I'm just listening to my body, man. That's it. That's all this is about.

It's been about like 30 months since your last fight. And amazingly, that's not the longest layoff of your career, obviously, for those that have been watching you for a long time. I think it's actually the third longest layoff of your career. And I wonder if, and you referenced the injuries and your story, you know, we obviously were covering it for a very long time. And it's been a great privilege and pleasure and honor, despite sometimes i think me annoying you but i know you always loved it in any event uh i i i do wonder if there's poetic justice in your mind the fact who you know this guy who was a champion who had all

the injuries and then the re-injuries and all this you've outlasted everyone everyone from your era you're the only one left funny how that works isn't that amazing do you it's funny you take some solace in that so there's some some joy in that no it's just you know it's it's a different thing than solace and joy it's more of like holy cow what a trip there was a time where i thought i wasn't gonna last you'd be the first right i'll never forget like i blew yeah kind of i i had that in my head like at certain times that's what kept me going was that was letting go of control but i'll never forget when i called dana after one of my knee blows out and he goes you have the worst luck of

anybody i've ever met in my life and i'm on the phone and i'm like okay thanks dana how how is that going to support me right now what do i I do with that information? And he just goes, I don't know. And I go, I know me neither. So thanks, but I don't think I'm unlucky that you can't think that way. So it doesn't work to think that way. I'm not, I gamble with my body. I'm not gambling in a game. So if you're gambling with your body, you can't start thinking you're unlucky. So I never really thought that way. I just kind of always stayed one foot in front of the other, having an open mindset that, you know, things will work out if they're supposed to let go of control. And they did. And as for, you know, everybody else, I think what's funny is looking back and thinking, man, you're so young with all these injuries, you're never going to come back the same. I'm sorry, you lost prime years of your career,

dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. But a lot of those people that were saying that, or they were watching that are now in the same injuries I am. They were just at a different time. So I think that everybody deals with what I've dealt with. It's just, it's going to come when it comes for you in your life at your time. So be ready. Nobody gets out free. By the way, considering your, um, your job, you're sitting there, you're calling all these fights, you've been around the fight game for a long time. I'm wondering if there was any part of you that has seen some situations that are maybe a little tough to digest. It's a guy we love, it's a fighter we love, and you can tell that father time has defeated them and they're not who they once were. This doesn't just affect fighters.

That affects all of us. We all lose a step. We all get older, et cetera. Have you ever watched that and said, because you've never been in that position, you're done by all accounts in a month and a half, say, I don't want to be that guy with six, seven losses in a row, and everyone's talking behind my back and feeling sorry for me.

That too, Ariel. That too. That's, that's a reality thing. Uh, some of my favorite legends in the sport have had that happen to them. And it's, you know, I said it to Bisping one time when we were on air on Fox and we almost got in a fight after we got up there, but it was, um, sometimes it takes more guts to stop than it does to keep going and when you watch when i watch certain careers that's my premise and and i learned from them i've learned a lot and i'm grateful for them to take the chances and put their lives on the line so that i can learn that from watching them and they're still legends to me whether they lose 10 or not because the thing about being a legend to me and these guys in the UFC is they're willing to go out

there to lose also. You know, when you, when we talk about fans and people who say they can beat up fighters, it's one thing to say it. It's another thing to actually put yourself on a public forum and be it, prove it because there's a chance that it might not go the way you thought. And that's the thing about the publicity and the public form of it. When you're fighting in the gym and you're taking juice and you're doing all this stuff

and you're a fan and you're like, I could definitely, yeah, because there's nothing to embarrass you for you to think about on the other side of things. So all these guys who put their life on the line, lost seven in a row, lost eight in a row, just kept coming back. Yeah, I don't look down on them in any way. I learned from them. And I respect them for being willing to just be so vulnerable. It's a vulnerable place to go out there in that octagon area. It might not be the word that people think of, but it is.

Because at the end of the day, you can have the greatest performance ever, or you can get knocked out and getting knocked out as a vulnerable feeling. And I think people who talk trash on the outside and people who, who are not professional prize fighters that think they can fight professional prize fighters. I think those are the, the, you know, those are the guys that need to understand that humility is what they're missing. And that's what you learn in martial arts when you fight in these stages. Do you walk away with any regrets? No. No.

No, it's been such a crazy road, man. There's absolutely no way I could have guessed that it would gone though, that it would go the way it's gone with, especially with the TV work, man. I've been doing TV for over 10 years now for over a decade. And I've been fighting the whole time. And the funniest thing is listening to people think I'm retired just because I'm working. I've been working a job more than half my career, almost my entire career, I've had a job while I compete at the highest level. People think that because I'm calling fights that I'm not fighting. I've been fighting the whole time.

So I just didn't see myself moving into a job when I became champion. And it's crazy that that's what happens. You become champion, and what happens is you get more work, and then you get a job. And then if you fight, you fight, but you're get more work and then you get a job and then if you fight you fight but you're going to be fighting while you have a job and that's what's weird i think that's what happens to a lot of champions that you know changes things in their life is you know you got a lot of work to do other than the tv work what will you do man i got a lot of things i want to do um i want to commend uh demetrius johnson oh yeah he's

done he's done an amazing job with himself at transitioning and creating something beautiful for himself and his family with entertainment he's got a really warm personality so it doesn't surprise me he's successful like win lose or draw the guy's just a warm human being, you know? So I think that that's translated really well for him, for his YouTube, for, for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, for podcasts. And, you know, I think that that's just a realm that obviously I'll move into as well when it comes to, you know, I'm already doing ESPN and, um, I work for the UFC as a private contractor. So that it just all kind of molds into the same forum. You know,

obviously Bisping and DC have done it as well. It's kind of a natural movement that way, but I also have a 10 year plan and that, that should, you know, I have very clear intention of folding that out and continuing where I'm at already at the same time. Also giving back to the sport, you know, being in Mexico City with all these youngsters and training with them has really rejuvenated me being around them. And I love giving back to the sport

that's given so much to me. So no doubt I'll be into coaching and all that too. What's at the top of the 10-year plan? A facility. A facility with like one-stop shop facility similar to what the UFC PI has going on would be the goal. Okay. Uh, dare I ask, would you call it a line to my May?

No, that wasn't my, my, you know, I made not one penny off that deal. Yeah. So it was more, you know, Brandon Vera, Eric Del F Fiero a guy named Joel Coombs and another guy four of them got together came up with the idea and I was just growing in the sport at this time so I put the gym name on my back because these were all my friends and I loved training there and they were coaching me and it just I put the name on my back because they were my people they're my family but I didn't make a penny off that so no not alliance it'll be called something different um and i'll let you go in a moment but uh just curious because we're talking about the cejudo fight um and i know you've often said

that you didn't um you know you didn't agree with the stoppage you were there on saturday um a couple days later i find the i find the the discussion around the curtis copuloff fight to be fascinating because as you know referees don't look at the clock right they shouldn't look at the clock you need to ref whether there's a second left or 459 left and then if you look at how that last round went and once you get the scorecards you see it was one one heading into the third on all three judges scorecards and i think with the stoppage or excuse me with the with the with the knockdown copula wins the fight and yet curtis and his team are very upset um and so you know you're you're there you're taking it all in you do a tremendous job as always um knowing that now that it was it was

one one and he probably wins that round despite it being a second and i do not begrudge curtis or his team in the moment for being pissed like there's literally a second left holy crap how do you feel about mark smith's decision well i actually you know one of the things i want to give credit to mark smith about is he's one of the few refs that comes up to me after every show and asks for feedback wow proofs wow literally he says hey says, Hey, how can I improve? How could I have done that better? And he came up to me after that fight and said, Dom, what do you think? Wow. And I said, if that was me, I would have been pissed off at you and wanted to kill you too, man. There's one second left on the, on the, on the clock. And I think him stopping and walking

off through you off. And he said, fair. Yeah. It threw me off but i never you know when you come from a responsible place like that like he does and you take responsibility and you and you're you're really looking for feedback nobody bashes that guy that's just living life and you're you're growing and he's trying to get better and i get that um but it wasn't, I don't think that that was the best way to handle it. And refs mess up and they're humans and there's human error in the process. I think that you can't do much about that, but you know, that's kind of my point. We go back to where I was saying before, there's a lot of people that are held accountable for these vulnerable situations. And it's usually just the fighter. Like if there's a mess up from the ref, there's no accountability on that. It's just, oh, well, the fighter loses

all their money and loses everything and nothing happens to the ref or the judges. They just go on to the next thing. There's no, you've done, all right, like what if the refs did six bad fights in a row and the judges did seven bad fights in a row and everybody knows it. So they're going to go on to eight. They're going to go on to nine. They're going to go. There's no way to, there's no accountability for them. And there's only accountability for us and not just accountability, but you know, everybody's going to talk trash. You've got the rest of your career. You lost half your purse. You lost your opportunity to move up everything we lose everything from that mistake everything so that's what's hard for a guy like curtis and that's what's hard for me in my situation

um and and the difference with me and and the whole keith peterson thing is you know i don't hate the guys just i want some i want some sort of like accountability for the, for the mistakes sometimes. Cause we get ripped so hard. Like I lost a huge opportunity there. Like that was part of the fight is to get hurt and to keep coming back. And that was, I know it wasn't pretty, but that's, I expected the fight to go that way. And so when you stop it with a, with a second left and I'm on my feet, I was mad because in the back, I had to reset the man and say, hey, can you redo this all again? Because you're not looking him in the eyes and are you good? And in the back, if you have to tell the ref, are you good? Are you here with me while I'm getting ready to fight? There's already something off. And I felt that in the back with

him. And so when he went out there and had that performance and messed up after I told him, don't stop this under any circumstance, are you here with me? Are you listening to me? And he couldn't even, he wasn't there. He wasn't there in the back. And that's the thing nobody in the world saw. They only see the fight, but you don't see me holding him accountable before the fight saying, Hey, don't mess this up. I need you to let this fight go. Things might get dirty. I might get dropped. I'm going to need you to let this go. I'm going to be all right. And then he stops it with one second left and does the complete opposite. What I say, that's why I went after him because I warned him, don't do that. And he did it anyways, because he got shook. If you watch the fight, Henry's looking at him, begging him to stop the fight. If you watch me versus Mizugaki and you watch

Henry versus me, they're two different people. Me versus Mizugaki, I'm going to punch Mizugaki's head through the fence until he can't breathe anymore. Henry's begging for somebody to stop the fight because if we go to the next round, you got another hard, miserable round with me. I'll rip your toenails off before I'll quit. So it's just, it's a tactic to look at the ref and go, hey, don't make me hurt this person. Don't make, that's not what I'm here for. I'm not here for the ref and go, hey, don't make me hurt this person. That's not what I'm here for. I'm not here for the ref to save me. I don't need you. Stay out of my fight.

I'm good. If I die, I die. That's what I'm here to do. I already put that on the line. So all that was tied into my emotions of the Keith Peterson thing. And I could totally get Curtis because I'm sure he has a similar mindset. We had a lot of money on the line. Our entire life's work is put into those moments. And when a ref can go in there and just go, oh, you look bad. Like, dude, you don't know what I'm ready for. You don't know how much beating

I'm ready to take because why? Because you don't do it. So it's just hard because there's no account. There's no real accountability. They can just keep messing up and messing up and messing up and messing up and messing up and messing up and messing up. And we lose all our money and all our opportunities. The rest, the judges, they're a separate entity. They don't care. Have you seen Keith? Have you guys talked?

Have you seen him in person? Oh, yeah. I shook his hand plenty of times. But it doesn't change that I's account. I'm holding the accountability just the same way accountability has been held on me. You know, you went, oh, you shouldn't have put yourself in that situation, Dom. Agreed. I got caught. I got hit. Shouldn't have been there. Okay. Well, there's another side to that too. The refs got to do their job. And what do they tell you in the back? Well, you needed to be defending yourself at all times and you need to be trying to work your way up and then we'll keep the fight

going. I did my part. I always enjoy these chats. I love these chats, Dom. I hope, uh, you know, if you do stop fighting that we can still speak, can we still be friends? Can we still chat? You know what I know? I told you already. What did I tell you? Say it. Tell everybody. What did I tell you? Well, you know what? I respect off-the-record conversations, so I don't know what's on. To me, a text is always off-the-record.

So you tell them because I don't know what's. All right. Well, I told you that if we ever want to talk, we're friends and we don't have to just do it here. Yeah, that's true. We can talk separate from here without you getting something from it if you're really my friend you don't need to have this whole interaction for your show we can just talk separate and and and you get nothing from it other than knowing me and so you can talk to me anytime you want ariel you just got to reach out and it doesn't need to be this big show where you get oh ariel got dominic cruz ariel

got all these famous people on his show because he's awesome. No, that's not what it is. But you know what? Good. I did. It warmed my heart. I looked at your Instagram today. I saw that one of your pinned posts was our chat after the TJ win, which is still to this day my favorite interaction ever with a fighter after a fight.

Like that one answer, greatest moment of your life, greatest moment of my life is when i realized i didn't need the belt to be happy that meant a lot and has nothing to do with me but it's a moment that i remember with great great fondness i like i could put myself right back there and i remember the the feeling that washed over my body when you said it and uh i'm glad i'm glad to see at least based on what a pinned post on Instagram means, I'm glad to see it meant something to you as well. Of course, man. It was just real. I wasn't saying it to say it for anything.

It was off the cuff. And I was very in a raw emotional state at that time. I just won. It was a crazy moment. Amazing. Thanks for the question. Thanks for the time, Dom. Much love.

Good luck in the final month and a half left of this perhaps final training camp, it sounds like. Thank you for always being so kind and gracious and tremendous work with the broadcasting and the analyst work. And I hope that you do start a YouTube channel and do all the other stuff that all the other guys are doing. Yeah, I will be doing all that. It's coming for you, fans. Thank you for asking. All right. I could be a guest, too, on your for you, fans. Thank you for asking. All right. I could be a guest, too, on your show if you want.

If you need me, just let me know. Hey, you guys all heard it. Yeah, there it is. There it is. Anytime. I owe you like a thousand interviews, so it's the least I can do. There. I look forward to it.

We'll have you on soon. You're the man. All right. There he is, the great Dominic Cruz, returning to action. One final walk, February 22nd in Seattle. The main event, of course, is Song Yedong against Henry Cejudo.

So it's... Is there any... There's a whole bunch of other, right? A whole bunch of other fights that have been announced. Rob Fon, Curtis Blades, Edson Barbosa, Steve Garcia.

We went through all of this. Yeah, I think the whole card's out. Yeah, it's all out. Mike Piazza versus TBA. Oh, that's on there, huh? Wow. No, it's not on there. On the UFC.com site, it's not on there.

They put it on when they made the... Oh, okay. By the way, we talked earlier about PFL, Bellator, all that stuff. They just announced PFL Road to Dubai Championship, first time they've labeled it As such on the 25th of January Will in fact air on Max

Here in the US So, peace and love, peace and love But I've never seen the logo and I've never seen it called PFL Road to Dubai Championship Series, Champion Series, the Bellator logo Is on the belt And it does say belt or lightweight champion so let's see developing story we'll see how that all turns out I am so excited to say hello to

our next guest joining us in studio let's not waste any more time he is the indie God he's the deathmatch King he's the internet shabby he's the complete he's the agent is he there? Oh, my God. Matt Cardona. What's happening? How are you? What's going on, man? Nice to meet you. Nice to see you. What's going on? All right. Look at this. Welcome.

Welcome to the main event. I'm here. I'm the main event. Wow. You are. I can see myself right here. I look good. You do look fantastic, by the way.

This is a great studio. I love it. Take it all in. I'm taking it in. I see you got a lot of figures. Yeah. Can I start with the cheap plug? Yes.

I got a little gift for you. Oh, my God. Right off the bat. Right off the right off the little cheap plug right off the bat you know i have my own toy company yes major major bendy's major is the company we make major bendy's big rubber guys i have a gift for you a big rubber guy oh my god the american dream dusty roads this is incredible you could open it up you could let him breathe can i open it up it's resealable packaging so do what you want yeah resealable at that. It's resealable. Is that a thing? It's a thing now.

Did you create that? Well, we stole it from somebody. We borrowed it. Who, who, who? Well, there's other companies. By the way, this is the first one ever. No one has it except for you.

You're kidding. Well, I have it. My partners have it, but you're number one. Yo. Can I tell you the emotions that are going through my body right now for multiple reasons?

Okay. First of all, this is fantastic. And you also even have. You gotta smell it. You gotta smell it. Wow. Yo. No, no, seriously.

Yo, you even have the birthmark. That's right. Yo, this is unbelievable. Thank you. Look at this. Check it out. Can I tell you something, Matt? You know why I'm so excited for multiple reasons to speak to you?

This is from the heart. I used to be an avid LJN collector. I never grew out of it. I know. And we will talk about that. I had legit maybe 50, 60. Yeah. And I had the ring and everything.

I grew up in Montreal. Bret Hart right there was my favorite. Oh, there he is. He was my guy. And when we moved houses, the only thing my mom has ever given away were my LJNs. She gave them away.

Oh my God. Mom, what are you doing And I played with them so much You will know this They would get the marks On them and stuff And the paint would come off Yes

And so I don't know if I've touched This feels like LJN It feels right Just like it And that we call The big rubber guys Because everyone called them

Oh I had those big rubber guys Back in the 80s So I feel like I'm 8 years old right now That's what it's all I have goosebumps right now Hearing that story No seriously It's the nostalgia We can't go back in time This means so i feel like i'm eight years old right that's what it's all i have goosebumps right now here in that no seriously it's the nostalgia we can't go back in time this means so much oh thank you no you're hey thank you oh look at that front and center baby

dusty wow but you know we can't go into delorean and go back in time yes so with the toys it's like you you just felt it right i mean you feel like you're a kid again those happy times whether you were a fan well you know Whatever toy you're playing with In our case It's wrestling toys But I just never grew out of it And I just want to spread that To everybody

So I'm glad You're the first one to have it I'm glad you liked it This is your room by the way Right here Oh there it is Look at that Curious Yahoo Lifestyle

A few years back Yes Is it the same room Or have you moved I am moving right now Getting a bigger toy room Look at you Because right now

I have that room That I've outgrew Okay My garage is a storage unit And I have a storage unit That's a storage unit So All with toys getting a bigger toy room look at you right now i have that room that i've outgrew okay my garage is a storage unit and i have a storage unit that's a storage unit so all with toys all with toys it's bad not just wrestling though not just mostly wrestling but there's all stuff from my childhood 80s 90s ghostbusters star wars turtles stuff i grew up on you know stuff what percentage is wrestling i'd say 70 wrestling okay Okay And you have LJN's there

Oh have LJN's Oh yeah baby They don't produce Them though right They don't anymore No so that's why Why did they stop They stopped

They lost the license In the 80's Then they made The little Hasbro guys Remember the ones In the 90's Didn't like them You didn't like those

I didn't like No LJN is Well LJN's number one Yes yes yes But you know How would you rank them LJN There's Hasbro

There's Mattel The current Mattels Are the best of all time. Really? But I have no nostalgia towards those. I still collect them. I see you got a Natty behind you. Yeah, so Natty actually signed that.

Yeah. So these are like a lot thinner and they move and stuff. Yeah, they have the articulation. Right, right. There's like the interchangeable hands and heads. And it's great. But I want the big rubber guy. Yes, yes, yes.

You just bang them together. You know what I'm saying? It's too complicated now. So with this, is this the same exact designer supplier? No, we got as close as possible. We tried our best. So it's as close as possible. Who made this?

We did. No, who's the actual, where is this being produced? So we have a whole team of people. I say whole team. There's like five or six of us. Wow. We come up with the concepts. We go and sign the talent

Right We have a designer Then we have a 3D designer And then we send it to China We get the prototype We critique it And we get a figure In like six to eight months

That's unbelievable When did you start this? We started about four years ago We started with these Little bendy guys And then we had The big rubber guys So we're trying to

Hey I think we need Some MMA big rubber guys Yes Yes yes Does any You know there was a company Have you know, so I love all this. Yes, yes, sure. There's a company called Round 5.

These guys. Oh, those are great, yeah. This is Chael. Yeah. Round 5 was like the first. Those are cool. Here, touch it. Yeah.

And they stopped. Like in 2012, 2013, they stopped. And there's no one really making great MMA toys. Well, I mean, ours will be in like poses, no articulation, but I think you can do it. You don't like articulation? No, I do, but I like the big rubber.

You like the nostalgia. Yes, yes. There's so much articulation going on. Like now with Mattel, there's all these different points. Too much. There's too much, in my opinion. Right, right, right.

Even for a kid, it's complicated. Yes, yes. How many interchangeable hands do you need for a kid? You know? So what do you think? I don't want to mess it up. So what do you think? Have you looked into MMA?

We would certainly do it. Right now, our wrestling is up for a day. We should do it what do you think? I don't want to mess it up. So what do you think? Have you looked into MMA? We would certainly do it. Right now, our wrestling is a forte. We should do it. We should do it. Wow. I'll give you a little cut. So how does this work? Like, how doesn't Dusty

or his family have like a legends deal? So we went through the family. We went through the Dusty Foundation. Right. So it's all official. No bootleg stuff here.

Yeah, of course. So anyone who doesn't have a legends deal, anyone who doesn't work for WWE or AEW We can make So up and coming Indie guys or girls

Legends who don't have A WWE deal We try to make everybody But we're expanding We got some Some big things planned For 2025 Like some

I'm just gonna say 80s action stars Stuff like that Some movies And stuff like that But we love MMA We would love Anything really

Wrestling is just Our bread and butter Sure sure sure I saw the site We have a Sort of like a screen Record of the site We love MMA. We would love anything, really. Wrestling is just our bread and butter. Sure, sure, sure. I saw the site. We have a screen record of the site. I was surprised at some of the names. We're going to show it here in a second.

I was surprised at some of the names that were on there. Look at that. Okay, so you have Arn Anderson, Rick Martel. He doesn't have a Legends deal? Rick Martel hasn't had a figure in over a decade. Wow. Look at this. Look at some of these.

Missy Hyatt hasn't had a figure ever in 40 years in the business. Never had a figure. Wow. So we get to do that for them. And then selfishly for us, I want a Missy Hyatt figure. I want a new Rick Martel. Yeah, yeah.

And then, you know, they never made Arne Anderson back in the day for the LJN. So to make guys like that. And then of course we'll redo guys. We'll make a cooler macho man or something like that. So Rick Martel, can he be the model?

He's the model right now. Even though it's a WWE gimmick? We'll just. So Rick Martel, can he be the model? He's the model right now. Even though, even though it's a WWE gimmick, we'll just call him Rick Martel. Does he have the arrogance? He has the arrogance. He does. Oh my God. This is amazing.

He has the sweater, removable sweater, you know, the arrogance. Oh yeah. How many guys do you have signed? Guys and gals? Ooh,

I'd say probably about, we probably close to a hundred so far, you know, and they're not like forever deals. Sure. And they're not exclusive either. Go make your money somewhere else too. You you know we're not tying you down right i just want to make you some extra money because i'm a wrestler at heart too i wouldn't sign an

exclusive deal yeah but so sign with us and then go sign a legend deal too and make double the money and and and where can i buy this uh collect major.com this is an exclusive this will be a wrestle con exclusive uh royal rumble weekend Only 800 made. So now 799. Wow. What an honor. Thank you. Thank you. Can you go to like Target or Kmart?

That's the goal. That's the dream. I don't think we'll ever get in there with the wrestling because there's already Mattel with the WWE, Jazzers with the AEW. But that's why we want to do maybe the MMA, maybe, you know, like I said, the 80s, 90s, you know, movie lines, yous, 90s You know Movie lines You know like You ever go to Target or Walmart

They have like the adult section Of the toys I think we could sneak in there With stuff like that Okay Wow Are you more passionate about this Than actual wrestling?

No wrestling is my number one Okay I mean this is a great Side hustle Yeah Right I'm very passionate about it But I mean wrestling

It's my number one Obviously we know that you've Been into this stuff for a long time But where does the Where does the idea Come to actually Make a business out of it So we started

Myself and Brian Myers We started the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast While we were in WWE It's a great listen I enjoy it very much I appreciate it I love this shit

Honestly I really do Thank you so much And then one of the guys Mike Knick He was a fan of ours And he was making Like our Let's say he was making

Our pins Our foam fingers So I think I can make You guys toys I said bro If you can figure out How to talk to China And make this work

We'll cut you in And lo and behold he did We have a great team of people Who help us out Who design it 3D sculpting We have this guy Dylan

He's like Oh well Dusty didn't wear That color boots in that match You know what I'm saying And then Ryan our designer Brian Beatty our sculptor It's just incredible stuff Can you live off of this

Is it That successful Or not quite yet Not quite yet Okay That's the goal But I'm not I'm not done

Lacing up the boots Yeah no no no I'm not trying to retire you In fact you have a massive Match coming up Yes Sunday Yes

Hammerstein Ballroom Maybe New York City Yeah you dropped The amazing promo Thank you so much Yesterday on Twitter I appreciate it I retweeted it

I'm playing it We're going to play it In a moment We can't play We can't play the sound It's a little too long No but also the music We're going to play it in a moment We can't play the sound It's a little too long No but also the music We're going to get demonetized Yeah we don't want demonetization

By the way I saw you do the breakdown Of Wrestlemania 32 Yeah How do you get away with using All that footage I don't know Okay we won't bring it up Don't do it

No I just like Because we always get demonetized here Anyway this is tremendous stuff Are you This is you like walking up to some It's just amazing Go check it out on YouTube. I retweeted it.

Thank you so much. Do you shoot this all on your own? I have some people who help me out. But my thing is, you're so indie-minded, dating back to your time in WWE with the YouTube show. Are you making your own promos? Yes, this is all me, all funded by me. I have people who help me out. Obviously, I didn't edit that.

I didn't film that. Of course. Dom filmed my friend Dom. But GCW isn't paying. They are not. Wow. No, they are not. But that's okay because I want to invest in myself.

If I don't invest in myself, no one else is going to. If I don't treat this Hammerstein ballroom show like it's the biggest show of my career, then it's not. You know what I'm saying? And I want to do everything I can to promote it. And all that, that was my life story. It wasn't a storyline. Right.

I grew up backyard wrestling. I went to Nassau Coliseum as a fan. I got to promote it and all that. Like that was my life story. It wasn't a storyline. Right. You know, I grew up backyard wrestling. I went to NASA Coliseum as a fan. I got to wrestle there. I went to Mass Square Garden as a fan. I got to wrestle there. You know, those buildings were amazing,

but Hammerstein Ballroom, when we went there for GCW a few years ago, that's where I truly realized like Zack Ryder needed to die for Matt Cardona to live. And now we're coming back there, man, our backs are against the wall and we're going to prove everybody wrong. But I don't care about proving people wrong.

I want to prove myself right. Prove our fans right. I don't have a chip on my shoulder. I don't want to be fueled by negativity in any way. So I believe you to a degree, but can I push back a little bit? Please do. Here you are.

You're killing it on the indie scene. You're the indie god. You're the death match king, all that stuff. It's almost five years now since you left WWE. You're better than a lot of these guys that I see on TV, Ben. And you're more over than a lot of these guys. I have a hard time believing that as passionate as you are about the business, Rick, do you want to do something?

Yeah. You want to fix his mic? Oh sorry What's happening? Higher up Okay they want to hear you Oh sorry Is that better? Rick you good?

Better to get closer? No You look like you're leaning down We wanted to get Oh make it comfortable Okay As passionate as you are About this business

You don't sit at home And be like That should be me Let me put it this way Like I don't care how you define success. I've said this before. Money, accolades, happiness. I am the most successful I've ever been in my career right now.

But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want another WrestleMania moment or to wrestle at Mass Square Garden or to be on SmackDown with my wife. Of course I do. You know, I don't think I've deserved anything. I hate the word deserved. I think I've earned the opportunity to go back. And I don't feel like it's being cocky to say that if my music hit the Royal Rumble, whether it be Zack Ryder or Macadona, the place would explode.

The roof would go off the place. Social media would explode. I'd move merch. I know that. I haven't been offered anything. So why doesn't it happen? Why haven't you been offered? Do you have any inclination?

I do not know I've reached There's been communication Very cordial But there's been no There's been no offer And that's fine I can't I can't you know

Live my life like Oh my god Are they going to call me back? But if they do It's a catchphrase But it's the way I live my life I'm always ready I've worked my ass off

For five years To reinvent myself I truly believe that I'm always ready. I've worked my ass off for five years to reinvent myself. I truly believe that I have. I truly believe I've changed the game. I would love to go back if the circumstances were correct. Do you think it's personal? I don't think so. No?

No, I don't think so one bit. Because I know that there's politics and all this stuff. So do you think there's someone back there who's blocking you from coming? I don't think so. I think it's all timing, right? You got right place Right time And that's why

I am always ready You know It started as like Oh yeah I'll put that on my trunks Because at the time In WWE You know

I get thrown a bone Every once in a while But I couldn't just sit On the sidelines And then if they Want to use me If I'm out of shape If I don't look

A million bucks That's on me right So that's where I came With this always ready thing. Like no matter what, no matter what opportunity comes my way, you got to be always ready. And it happened before in WWE, like the intercontinental title match. Like we just talked about WrestleMania 32. Yeah.

I wasn't supposed to be in that match, you know? And then one day I just had happened to have a kick-ass match before Ross started on one of those shows that they, they syndicate. Looks like a million bucks. Vince McMahon was watching And said Why aren't we doing Something with that guy

A few weeks later I'm in the Wrestlemania match I end up winning You know what I'm saying So this business Is all about timing And being ready When that opportunity

Presents itself So I want great things For my career For my show For my broadcasting career Right My wife doesn't work In this world

So when I go home Frustrated You know she consoles me And then we talk about something else Your wife is in this world And she's in the place you would like to be one day And she's thriving First ever women's United States champion One of our own, one of Canada's own

That's right, we're going to visit in a couple weeks Ontario? Victoria Victoria BC There she is, the US champ Very beautiful. Look at that shirt. Chelsea Green.

That's tremendous. I wonder who designed that for her. Do you design her merch? Well done. And that's a beautiful tweet from her right there. I've waited 10 years for this graphic. Very, very happy for her. And she has defied the odds too because she was let go and then came back and all that

stuff. Yes. How do you separate that? That's your wife. You're over the moon, but you'd like to be there with her too. So, you know, when she got the call back, we were thriving together on the indies, right? And it wasn't a question like,

should you go back without, you had to go back. Because at the time she was there, she was in WWE, but only had a little taste. Did some NXT stuff, was on like Raw or SmackDown a couple of times. So it wasn't really there.

I'm like, you have to go back. You have to experience. And now look, the whole world knows how good she is. I go and support her. You know, I'm like, you have to go back. You have to experience it. Now, look, the whole world knows how good she is. I go and support her. I'm her biggest fan. When she won the tag team titles, I was there. I couldn't be there for the U.S. title. I was wrestling.

I was doing a GCW show in L.A. But when I'm watching, of course, I want to be there with her. We barely see each other. We saw each other last week. At the airport. Yes, I saw her tweet this. Yes. Is that legit?

Right there. Yeah, and I'll see her next Monday. Yeah, because she's in England doing stuff for Netflix. other last week at the airport yes i saw her tweet this yes is that legit right there that's it yeah and i'll see her next next monday yeah because she's in england doing stuff for netflix right now wow well then i have indie shows i have the hammerstein ballroom i'll come home monday she'll be there so i love to be there with her whether we're on camera or not um i think we're better together but uh i want to be there not just because she's there Like I want to be there Because I belong there Right I know I belong there But

We are human beings You're a human being And so I'm just wondering How you come to terms With your wife being Where you want to be And you I don't want to say

Can't be there I will admit You know For instance Watching her at Wrestlemania Yeah You know like I'm sitting in like

The press box Or Money in the Bank And kind of I'm sitting there Watching Of course I'm super proud But of course Parts of me are like I should be there But the press box or money in the bank account. I'm sitting there watching. Of course, I'm super proud. But of course, parts of me are like, I should be there. But not, I should be there and not her.

I should be there also. Okay, so there's no jealousy. No, zero percent. There's no resentment or anything like that. No way. That's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it's hard, right? I don't know if a lot of people would be that way, to be honest.

Also, I've been there. Right. Been there, done that. Could be different if I was never there, you know? But luckily I was. Fortunately I was. And I'm so grateful for that time. So I'm able there. Right. Been there, done that. Could be different if I was never there, you know? But luckily I was, fortunately I was, and I'm so grateful for that time. So I'm able to support her. But of course I want to be there as well.

And so many guys and girls who leave WWE want to go back. But would they make a difference? You know what I'm saying? Like, I truly believe I would. That's why I really do think I should go back. Do you feel like your career, and I hate to put it this way, but go back do you do you feel like your your career and and i hate to put it this way but i'm just curious if you feel this way will feel incomplete if you don't get to end on your own terms no and uh even when i got fired from wwe i knew i was

gonna get fired because we got a a little message from vince mcmahon like a general like video saying this this is right the pandemic just started yeah april right yes april 15th 2020 wow best day of my life um so i'm in all these group texts my friends like i'm getting fired i'm getting oh god like when is it gonna be me because the year prior aew was starting starting up in wwe i don't know if it was because of this i think it was they offered everyone brand new deals with a lot more money and i didn't sign it because i didn't know if i wanted to stay or go because i'd been there for so long ups and downs roller coaster ride i wasn't sure if i wanted to stay ultimately the decision made for me a year later you know when i got fired um but i knew i was getting fired because i got a text message from

talent relations please call us well what am i calling for right and this is gonna sound cheesy but i went right to this painting of my dad and i at wrestlemania 32 a fan rob schamberg made this great painting of a picture of us hugging and i looked at that and i took the call and i smiled and got fired looking because i knew everything was gonna be okay you know if it all ended that day everything was fine but it didn't end right because i knew that wasn't gonna be that might be the end of zach rider it was the beginning of Matt Cardona. A couple follow-ups. Do you regret not taking that deal that was offered a year prior?

Well, I might have got a little more money, but I probably would have fired anyway. So they could still fight. Even if you had two years left, they could still. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, I don't regret it. I don't regret it one bit. I mean, I joke. I guess I would have gotten a little more money for that year.

But I would have been on that list regardless, for sure. Why do you think so? Because my partner was, a bunch of guys in that kind of limbo spot were. Okay. And then, okay, you say you look at the painting, you take the call with a smile. Yeah. Do you not have a day or two of mourning?

No. No. I knew right away. I already had my pro wrestling tee stores ready to go. Once that Vince McMahon message went, I said, it's coming today. So I had all my graphics ready. I said, let's go. Let's start this right now. Wow. Didn't lick your wounds.

Didn't feel sorry for yourself. Not one bit. How's that possible? Because I got to experience the highs of the highs. Yes, there were some bad times getting pushed off the stage in a wheelchair by Kane, which, by the way, made the USA Greatest Moments of Raw so proud of that. Congrats. But I mean, look, childhood dream to be a WWE superstar.

I did it. I had the action figures. I wrestled at MSG, won the Intercontinental WrestleMania. Like I did everything I ever wanted to do. So I can't, you know, have anything, but like good feelings about that. So what motivates you now? So if you did it, you reached the mountaintop, right?

Yeah. Why do you hustle the way in which you do Because I feel like You hustle more than anyone On the NBC I feel like I do as well Yes Because you don't

Your mentality is I'm not just showing up To wrestle I'm showing up For a meet and greet Sure For a signing Yes

For merch Yes You set your table up Right You do everything And then you promote it And you post stuff On social media

I see you were in Maine Last night Yes So what drives you To do all that When you've actually reached the mountaintop already? When I first got fired, I knew my mentality could not be, what can I do to get back there? Or what can I do to get to AEW? It couldn't be that. I needed to work on reinventing myself.

And again, I keep saying it, proving myself right, not people wrong. And I feel like I've done that. It's five years. But I feel like now is the time, AEW or WWE. I've done it all in the indies and more than once you know i'm saying like i've done i've been all over the world won all these times you want to count titles you know if you want to count accolades independent rest of the year three times in a row cover pro wrestling illustrated the only independent wrestler ever do like i've done all that stuff am i gonna be on the cover again am I going to win

The NWA world title again Am I going to win The GCW world title again Like I did it all It's time to go To one of the main companies For sure Do you think that people

Thought Zack Ryder Because that's what you Were known as When you were released Would just kind of like You know Mid-card guy Who would fizzle off

Yes 100% They had no hope for you No hope You'd be one of the One of the million Who have been cut Change my name To different spelling

Do the same thing, Hockey Atomic Man style. Yes, 100%. You felt that and you wanted to prove everyone in this regard wrong. I know prove yourself right, but there had to have been a chip on your shoulder, right? There was more motivation, not so much a chip on my shoulder, because I knew I could do more. I knew I wasn't finished.

And it took a while to figure out who I was. I didn't know who I was, right? Even so, I get fired. It's the pandemic. There figure out who I was. I didn't know who I was. Right? Even, so I get fired, it's the pandemic. There are no independents. I literally can't work anywhere. AEW, did some with AEW,

a little cup of coffee there, it didn't work out. Now what? You know? There was nowhere to go. Luckily, Impact Wrestling, they picked me up,

I went there, I got my feet wet there, got comfortable there in my own skin. But I'm just, Matt Cardona, who is Matt Cardona? i didn't even know i didn't know and i was doing independent the world opened up i'm doing independence but i'm still like okay so i'm not doing the woo woo woo but what makes matt cardona different than zach rider right and i got this call to do this death

match in gcw and by death match for those who don't know, this is glass pizza cutters. Legit. Like legit. It's a death match. Yeah. And it was against Nick Gage, who had just been on the show Dark Side of the Ring for almost killing David Arquette.

And my knee-jerk reaction was, no way. I'm not wrestling with this. This guy's in jail, drugged. No way I'm wrestling with this guy in a death match. I took a step back I said everyone's going to want to watch this

this is exactly what I need to do and I did the match and it trended because now with social media

and the internet and streaming it trended number one over the UFC and Olympics independent wrestling show in Atlantic City, New Jersey because everyone wanted to see Zack Ryder

get carved up by Nick Gage. Then I ended up winning. I win the match and I did not anticipate how much buzz it was going to create. I did not anticipate that it would change my career and change my life. And it truly has. That night everything changed from that match. Why?

Because now I go to these indie shows and it's not like, oh, that's Zack Ryder. It's like a couple, maybe 25% like, oh, I don't like this guy. Then people are seeing that. Then the next week, more people hating me. A couple months later, I'm getting booed out of buildings, middle fingers in my face, and I absolutely loved it.

Why were you the heel? I was just doing Matt Cardona incw and they didn't want that they didn't want a wwe guy there i had good gear i worked out you know i took my diet seriously i'm walking to this place they didn't they didn't respect me they didn't want me but the the hatred that they had for me it it spread and it spread everywhere i went and like this is what i need this is what this is what macva needs just to be the asshole. You know, just to be the guy that I kind of wanted to be in WWE at the end. But you don't create your own story.

You can pitch stuff all day. I always wanted to turn heel. You know, you don't get that opportunity in WWE all the time. A lot of my ideas did work. Some didn't. Some did. You know, it is what it is. But on the independ the independence I control everything

So like I essentially turned heel And it worked The footage is Completely gruesome We can't play Yes I'm just wondering

Like what was the worst injury Like there was stuff In your back right Wasn't there like Glass in your back Believe it or not GCW doesn't have A medical team

Oh wow Shocker yeah So you know I go through glass pizza cutter light tubes now i'm covered in blood i knew i was gonna bleed i anticipated it so i wore like all white gear i'm like this would be cool i have a couple trickles of blood that my white shirt was maroon it was covered in blood i get to the back there was this nurse back there cleaning up my back taking out the glass she had like this frankenstein job

stitch job on my back told me don't worry it's dissolvable they were not dissolvable they got infected there was still glass in there a month or so later there was glass like coming out of my back i had to get it removed um i literally have the battle scars right now but i wouldn't i would i wouldn't change anything like it was the greatest night In my career besides that intercontinental Title ladder match and really depending on what day You talk to me they go back and forth Do you think that you are this successful If not for that match? I don't think so

I think GCW Put Matt Cardone on the map I in turn also think Matt Cardone put GCW On the map because now look at all the Top guys who want to come to GCW Guys like Jon Moxley, Jeff Jarrett, Nick Nemeth, JBL, Chris Jericho was just there, Bully Ray. They weren't coming there before Matt Cardona made it cool.

GCW is the place to be. If someone leaves WWE or AEW, GCW right away. That wasn't always the case. Who owns GCW? Brett Lauderdale. One guy? One guy. He's a one man. I don't know how he does it you know he does like he'll send you your flight the day before he'll

send your hotel the day of but he works around the clock he busts his ass uh even for this this hammerstein show coming up he was outside all the aw shows handing out flyers wow you know promoting you know the man on the street so you know say what you want about him But he's a hard-working motherfucker And and and just to show for the Audience how much of a hustler you are And I say that in in in the most like Kind way yes I I read and and I heard You speak that afterwards you cut up

Your t-shirt right oh my god and sold And made like 20,000 like yeah putting It in plaques so so I'm a fan at heart Right so I had this shirt and I'm like, what can I do with this? What am I going to do? Like put it on eBay or put it on? Covered in blood. Covered in blood.

Like drenched. So I remember it as a kid, you know, the WrestleMania plaques. Yes. The canvas, a nice eight by 10, a signature. I contacted that company, the same as that company. I explained what I wanted. Can we do this? We made, I think it would be like 250, a little piece of the bloody shirt.

And I let them know it's blood wear gloves But I made 20 grand on that and then Since then I think there's five different Action figures based off that match so That's even more money coming in just From the one match so you get to do all This you get to pick your schedule you Get to turn heel if you want to yes

You're really your own your own head Writer right exactly no one's telling You what to do what to to say, where to be. No. Is there a part of you that thinks if you get the call, you're not able to make these decisions? 100%.

Like right now, I know exactly, if I want to do your show, I'm doing your show. Yeah. If I don't want to do your show, you know what I'm saying? Right, right, right.

I make my schedule, which is, when I was in WWE, I guess I was 20 years old, right? So like, that's all I knew my whole life. Like you have to be here. Okay.

I'm there. This is your flight. Okay. Wait, I can choose what flight I want. Yeah. I can choose to be office. I wasn't used to that. And not saying I was handcuffed, which is, that's just what I knew for 15 years, my whole

adult life. So I love making my own schedule. I love saying yes or no to things. I love, you know what? I'm gonna take a weekend off. I'm gonna go to Disneyland, you know what, I'm going to take a weekend off I'm going to go to Disneyland You know, stuff I wasn't able to do And I see it now with Chelsea, my wife

Like she gets called in last minute to go here Or called in last minute to not go there I'm like, I don't miss that But it comes to the territory, you know So you're okay with that? I'm okay with it, yes Okay, you know, I wonder Obviously the best movie ever made on this world

Was The Wrestler, right? I wonder just if you ever have moments Where you're sitting in a place that Is the antithesis of Madison Square Garden I've heard you reference actually You do this in a lot of interviews by the way You always reference the Ukrainian Cultural Center Los Angeles

You always reference that by the way Do you have moments when you're sitting in the Ukrainian Cultural Center I hope it's still standing It's still standing Good to hear where you're sitting in the Ukrainian Cultural Center? I hope it's still standing. It's still standing. Good to hear. Where you're like, how did I end up here? Let's go back to the Ukrainian Cultural Center. Let's put a pin in that.

This weekend was a great weekend. Columbus, Ohio to GCW. Last night, Limitless in Maine. Made a lot of money on merch. Had great matches. This is a weekend. You know what? I love being an indie wrestler.

I love it. There are certainly weekends where I'm like, what the hell am I doing with my life? I hate this. I'm a failure. Of course, you take the good with the bad. And back to the Ukrainian Cultural Center, the atmosphere in that, I don't want to say arena. But you know what I'm saying? Like, those fans are diehards.

I've had some of my greatest indie moments in there. The locker room is a legit alley. If you're coming to park, you'll see us all changing through the fence. Wow. It's an alley. So if it's cold, we were just there in December. Freezing cold. We're out there changing.

You know, if you want to see Matt Cardona taking a piss between two dumpsters, just park next to the Ukrainian cultural center. You'll see it. Wow. And like your ego can handle this it can yes there listen there are certainly times like i said like when i just did i just did aew for for a couple weeks yeah oh my god wait i can take a shower after my match there's a locker room wait there's catering like i almost like forgot that i was in wwe and forgot

i was in that environment for so long i've've just dove headfirst in this indie world where even the AEW shows I did, I'm like, oh my God, real arena. This is great. So I certainly miss stuff like that, 100%. I don't like not showering after my matches. Sure. Especially Ukrainian Cultural Center. I'm usually taking a red eye to East Coast to another show.

I'm going coast to coast, no shower. Come on. Yeah, no shower Not in the airport or something So if I fly America And get into the American lounge As a shower No shower

Yeah There was one time I was in I did the show in LA Right Then I had to go to Philly For a convention And it was in the ECW arena

And they were also Having a match tonight So I flew to LA From LA to Philly No shower Did the convention Met all these fans With no shower

I'm like oh I'll just Shower in between Before the show There was no shower At the ECW arena So I did the LA show No shower The convention

Me and Greed No shower Then had the match No shower Finally showered That night in Philly It was like You should have

Saw this coming off my body Okay can I I mean I think You're doing pretty well Yeah Book a hotel Just to take the shower Book a hundred dollar hotel I didn't have enough Time in between No It well Yeah Book a hotel Just to take the shower I could have

Book a hundred dollar hotel I didn't have enough time In between No It was right into it I didn't have enough time I would have Yes I would have

You're not that cheap are you No I'm not I don't know if I could sit On the plane for five hours Without showering Well usually You know if it's a red eye

You know It's even worse And that show is 8pm And these indie shows Go four or five hours Even if I tell Brett From GZ Hey you gotta put me on first So I can get out of there I'm still cutting it close No time to shower at a hotel 8 p.m it's and then these indie shows go four or five hours even if i i tell brett from gc hey you gotta put me on first i can get out of there i'm still cutting it close no time to shout a hotel

so that movie for those that that have seen it how how similar is it to the life that i think it was very authentic to the time i think things have changed a bit okay you know because now with social media and these streaming things you're not just doing a show in front of whatever 200 500 5000 the whole world can potentially see it so it's it's not as bad as they made it seem you know because you can make real money if you're hustling you could become a star if you're hustling you can make a name for yourself if you're hustling if you're hustling right right if you're just going and phoning it in you're not going to make money you're going to be nothing you know star if you're hustling you can make a name for yourself if you're hustling if you're hustling right right if you're just going to phone it in you're not going to make money you're going to be nothing you know but if you put in the work the money's there the opportunities are there's

more wrestling shows than ever wrestling is so hot right now aew wwe tna it's it's on it's on television or streaming every single night of the week there's independent wrestling shows all over the world every weekend like there is noage of work If you work your ass off You will get paid You will get money And it might not be A lot of money But crumbs make crumb cake

Go sell a t-shirt Go sell an action figure Go sell a sticker An autograph Whatever It all adds up So that's the thing That blows me away by you

And impresses me On most of these cards You're the biggest star Right Most of the time And you're the guy Sitting there selling And you have no ego

When it comes to this None So like This happened last night Limitless Wrestling It was myself Smart Mark Sterling Who works for AEW

He's the producer Of the major wrestling Podcast with us It was us And two other guys Selling merch Before the show I'm thinking

I'm the guy Who doesn't need this money You know what I'm saying What's going on here Why aren't you Selling the merch In my opinion The merch table Is more important Than the match yes to make the money but to make the connection

with the audience yeah it's all about the connection i'm not saying don't have a good match but if the fans aren't invested in you it doesn't matter you know i'm saying so why do you think these guys don't do it some of them i think they're just so focused on having this good match right like i said i'm not saying have a bad match But you need to make This connection And then some people Like oh I'm a heel I can't go out there I'm the ultimate heel

Yeah who cares I'm out there You know it's 2025 People know the deal But if you could go out there And be a heel And be a dick And make them hate you

So when you go out You get booed Just be out there Right You know what I'm saying Either to make money Or make a connection One way or the other

How much stuff Are you traveling with We got a lot of stuff I got a whole gimmick bag Of stuff we have our own toys foam fingers sticker what you you name it i got uh i have paper crowns on the death match kid i have it all this all by yourself all by myself damn man i got the fanny pack full of cash taking the money you know the credit card reader i got it all oh my and i love it i love it you know I just Because I'm a fan at heart You know what I'm saying

I was the guy At an autograph signing I was on the other side Of the table Meet my favorites So now it's It's cool to You know when someone

Comes up and tells me I can tell When someone is there And they're invested And they're so happy To be there Or when they're nervous And I relate to that

I love it Do you watch the other products The AEW I watch everything Everything Everything You don't have to Why do you have to?

Because you need to know what everyone else is doing. You need to be one step ahead of everybody. What's your favorite thing right now in wrestling? I think right now, my favorite thing, I mean, how could you deny WWE on Netflix is not the biggest deal ever? Right. Did you watch on Monday? Of course I did.

And what was that like for you? Of course I wish I was there. I wish I was a part of it. But I had to, whether I was a little angry it But I had to Whether You know I was a little Angry about it or not That I was there I had to This is okay

Huge This is how wrestling is going Right You know This is historic You have to watch it And the fan in me Wanted to watch it too

What did you think of The Rock's promo I mean I think this was more To get the general audience Involved I saw the complaints online That he kind of

Went against everything With Cody But like this I think this was to get everybody was to what is what is wwe okay they've been watching netflix they've had this graphic for the whole week what is this let me tune in you know so i think it was a great way to introduce the product to everybody okay so you didn't think it was like sacrilegious that they broke the fourth wall and and and the rock even said the next day he's 20 steps ahead or whatever he said said something like that. So, yeah, I'm sure there's a plan. The Hogan booing. Were you surprised?

Listen, Hogan was my guy as a kid. Obviously, I do not condone the stuff that he's done. And he got booed out of the place. So, I mean, it's been all over social media, right? Do you think they use him again? I think they will. Yeah? Maybe take a couple weeks off.

Who headlines WrestleMania in your opinion? It's got to be Cody, right? I mean, he's the guy. Versus? Just a couple weeks off. Who headlines WrestleMania in your opinion? It's got to be Cody, right? I mean, he's the guy. Versus? That's the question. Man, I would have said Cody Rock, but now after that promo, I'm not sure. Does Cena win the Rumble?

Is it Cody? I just love that there's so many possibilities. As a fan, there's so many. Does Matt Cardona come back? Screw my friend over? It's possible, right? Anything could happen. Is it happening?

Are there any talks? It's such a no-brainer. I mean, the story writes itself. Has there ever been a time where you thought it's happening? Was there ever any talks where it was like, I think it might be happening? No, no. Because I've never. They've sent out a feeler.

There's been communication, no No offer in any way You know And listen Every year I've had I've had gear ready For the Royal Rumble Every year

You make it You make it for the Rumble I always have it Just in case Wow You never know You make for this year I have it just in case

Well I've had it From the basketball Sure sure sure Okay And it still fits It still fits Yes I've gotten bigger

But not that much bigger What are you doing February 1st I will be there For WrestleCon Oh For your Dusty Rhodes You're gonna be in town

I'll be there anyway Oh my god And I'll probably have the gear Because I'm always ready If they call you And say You come back But it has to be a Zack Ryder

How do you feel about that I think Everybody wants Matt Cardona not Zach Ryder I'm so grateful and proud of what I did and accomplished as Zach Ryder I mean with Z True Long Island story the YouTube show I started in 2011 like we could talk hours just talking about that I am that's probably one of the things I'm most proud of my career like they the company saw me a certain way I said well that's not how i see myself and i'm gonna get over and i was one of the first people on social media sorry the youtube one

of the first wrestlers who i because i was a kid at the time i was 25 like my friends were on facebook instagram wasn't even out yet you know twitter just started like i say if i can blend mack or the person with zach right of the character, I can relate with the audience. They just see me as the guy who loses in three minutes and does woo, woo, woo. I'm a fan just like them. I like Star Wars. I like Ghostbusters.

My girlfriend just broke up with me. My dad's annoying. My friend's from the... I let them in on all that. And that's what won them over. Without the fans, I would have been released from WWE 2012, 2013. They built Zack Ryder. And the fans built Matt Cardona post WWE.

So I almost feel like it might sound cheesy, but I got to go back for the fans. I think they deserve it. I've earned the opportunity, but they deserve it. Wow. Who came up with Zack Ryder? So Brian Myers and I, we started wrestling school together. NYWC, Long Island, New York 2003 And we hated each other

Legit Because we're 18 years old We kind of look the same Same build We're each other's competition But then they put us together as a tag team I don't want to be the tag team And then somehow we found out we both collected wrestling figures

That's amazing And it broke the ice And you know a tag team. And then somehow we found out we both collected wrestling figures. Oh my God. That's amazing. And it broke the ice. And, you know, he's been my ride or die, you know, my road wife for 20 years. You know what I'm saying? So like. But the name, who came up with this? So when we get to WWE or the developmental system at the time, they put us together.

They call us the Major Brothers. I was Brett Major. He was Brian Major. Because I was Brett Matthews on the Indies. He was Brian Myers' us together. They call us the Major Brothers. I was Brett Major. He was Brian Major because I was Brett Matthews on the Indies. He was Brian Myers' real name. So we're the Major Brothers. We get to WWE, we're the Major Brothers. It's not working.

It's not clicking. And we knew that because we knew we wanted to be like this 80s throwback tag team that was so annoying that we'd get booed. But they used us as a baby face. I'm like, this isn't going to work in 2007. And it didn't.

It just didn't work. So we had this idea to be with Edge, to be like his little minions. You remember the show Entourage? Yeah, yeah. That was a big show at the time, and we loved watching it. We wanted him, Edge, to be like the Vinny Chase, and we'd be his little entourage. And we pitched it to Adam, to Edge, and he loved it. And he ran with it.

And he didn't need us. We were these two guys sitting and catering. But he brought us under his wing, and we debuted with him. We helped him win the World Heavyweight title as his edgeheads. And then the next day or two days later at the production meeting, Vince McMahon realized we weren't really brothers. It's like, oh, we've got to call them their real names. But not their real names. They're fake real names.

We had hours to come up with names. Zach is from Zach Morris. And I don't even agree with a bunch of first names and a bunch of last names and put them together. What would pass through

legal? I don't even know where Ryder came from, but that's where Zach came from.

You were a big Saved by the Bell guy. Big Saved by the Bell guy. Wow.

Huge. Saturday mornings. Saturday mornings. Have you ever met him?

I've met, no, I never met Mark Paul Gosselaar. Met Mr. Belding, met Mario

Lopez, but never met Mark Paul. So Mark Paul, if you're watching, I love to meet you

Fortunately Screech Yes No longer with us Never met him either Yeah I think he was a wrestling Or did he do like Celebrity boxing or something

Something like that Yeah Okay And then So probably for the best Because if they would have Maybe not If they would have called you

Matt Cardona You could still use that name Because it's your name Right They can't trademark Your own name Right And so why

Okay so you mentioned AEW. What's the story there? How is it possible? Why did they bring you in? You smashed it. You had like three matches for them or something? So in the very beginning, I came in. I helped Cody.

We had a tag match, which we won, a pay-per-view match. I had like three shirts, two matches. Never got a call. What's the story there? I don't know. To this day, I don't know. You don't ask someone like, yo,

what's up? Of course I was like, I was told the contract's coming. After a while, I'm like, it's not coming. So that's when I went and I went to Impact.

A few years later, I got the call to wrestle Adam Copeland. My absolute dream match. He is my guy. Not only because the edges, he was the guy I looked up to growing up.

We had that one match. I thought we killed it. Nothing. Okay nothing okay fine i'll keep doing my anything uh month or so ago i got called hey you want to wrestle chris jarco and hammer said bull hell yes i do ring of honor right a ring of honor yeah another guy grew up idolizing we do the the weeks of tv the you know getting great reactions in house social media best-selling show of the week, killer match at Hammerstein Ballroom. Nothing. When you're back there, you don't talk to Tony or any of the agents and be like, yo, what's the story here, guys? I'm just going week by week.

That's how I live my life. I'm going week by week. There's so much going on in my head. I can't think a couple of sets ahead about like, what am I going to do next weekend? I need to make every single instance The best possible thing And that's just where my focus lies on that particular thing And even Dave Meltzer Reported I got a contract

No way Dave you're wrong I didn't get one Really? Hey maybe I got lost in the mail I don't know Would you like a contract with them? Would you be open to it? I love my time there Even this past time in December I love it there I think it's a great company i think it's great for the business i think everybody's working their ass off there but you know everything has to be the

right situation but i wasn't offered anything you know um some of the aw fans think that i hate aw that i root against them it's the most bizarre thing because i've never said anything negative really about the product other than saying I wasn't a huge fan Of my interview with Tony I thought And maybe that was my fault too Maybe I did a bad job On that day

But I think it's so healthy And good for the business For a competitor Is the number one Like I said I was in WWE They offered everyone All this money

Just because AEW started I can't prove that But I mean come on Just do the math Yeah You know it's so But also I think it raises WWE's game

100% And the jobs it's created For so many wrestlers And not just wrestlers People who work in the business Producers Producers You know people who make

The you know the gear You know everybody The doctors The trainers Everybody Production It's done great things For the business

Anyone who's rooting Against AEW Or WWE Or anybody Is like Are you really a wrestling fan I question if you are So then why is it so tribal Why is there so much

Like hatred Online I'll never understand I see it I see it It's crazy I don't support it one bit Why do you think it is

Is it just like My team's better than your team That type of stuff You see I'm sure you see Some hateful stuff On social media Oh hell yeah

It's crazy Yes What's wrong with these people? I don't know. Because to your point, if you're a wrestling fan, watch it all. Enjoy it all. Sure, there might be gimmicks or stories or matches or guys you don't like, but I don't understand this whole venom towards one organization or the other.

I can totally understand liking one over the other, but like you said, I don't like the venom, just the hatred. There's wrestling every single night of the week. There's merchandise everywhere. There's merchandise everywhere. There's toys everywhere. No matter how deep you are into wrestling, it's there for you. It's at your fingertips, literally. What's there to hate about?

I don't get it. I don't get it. The other one I don't get also is Scott D'Amore. I love Scott. He revitalized TNA. Totally did, yeah. And then they got rid of him. Listen, I wasn't there for that.

I don't know exactly what happened I love Scott I love working for Scott I was just texting him This morning about Espresso martinis Really Yeah

What you like him I love him In the morning No Okay okay He was in Orlando But I was in I was in Maine

So I couldn't Meet him Okay got it But I love Scott And he's been great See you Maple Leaf Well he's been texting me For some dates

So we'll see I'd like to work there I was pleasantly surprised By their first shows Mauro Ranallo on the mic He's a legend It looks great Listen I wasn't expecting

Like the worst thing ever But I was not How good it was I was blown away He did a great job He's a great mind You're a great mind You have great fans

And in fact I saw via your social media One of of your fans, is this legit? Is this a shoot? Okay, let me hear it. Wants to smell your fart? Is this true? What is going on here? You posted an email.

It was the most recent. Here it is. Good morning, Mr. Cardona. This has taken me seven years for me to say. This has taken a lot of courage for me to say, sir. I always love the usage of sir throughout this message But my name is Will I'm a 26 year old bodybuilder from Tampa, Florida

I've spent seven years watching your content It's very motivating and inspiring But I just wanted to say I really want to worship your muscles and smell your farts Sir, I've thought about your farts every hour of every day for seven years I think about what they smell like And what they sound like constantly, Matt Even when I was in college

I graduated But I had time To stay focused Because I kept thinking About your farts On and on it goes About your farts First of all

You didn't stutter I'm very impressed with that That was great I was going fast You're a pro Listen I got that email It was so ridiculous I had to just post it

Legit you think? You never know Listen I do this show Every Monday Well not today Because I'm here But it's called What Not. It's like a live auction thing.

And last week I was doing it, right? Because I'm selling my figures, ring-worn stuff, whatever. And someone kept saying, sell your underwear, sell your underwear. I'm like, sell my underwear? I'm like, all right, well, I looked down. I actually like the underwear I was wearing. I got it from Universal in Tokyo. I'm like, no, I want this.

But I'm like, if I go upstairs, will you buy it for $200? I brought it down. They bought it, $200 for my underwear. you buy for 200 bucks? I brought it down. They bought it. 200 bucks for underwear. Yeah. Something I bought at Target. Worn. Washed.

Fence. Hey. You write back to this person. I did not write back to that person. No, I did not. What do you think? Do you think it was real? Honestly, 50-50.

Yeah. By the way, if that guy is being serious and he sees you post the message, do you think he's now embarrassed? Maybe not. You know? I mean, we know his name is Will, right? Yeah. No last name, though. Sure.

If someone came up to you at a show and said this to you, what would you say? No thanks? Well, how do you sell someone a fart? Do you, like, fart in a jar? Like, what do you do? Would you consider? Because I feel like. 100% will.

Yeah. 100%. I sold the underwear and whatnot yeah yeah oh my god i would do it yeah do you get a lot of weird stuff like that every once in a while i get some weird that's the weirdest the most i've ever got 100 wow yeah um party party your wife yeah did you never date a pro wrestler i dated one uh didn't work out and i told myself i'm never dating a pro wrestler again uh and there was actually cody and brandy roads right they introduced us they were doing tna at the time which was down in uh they were filming universal in orlando i live in orlando i was there with a i just tore

my patella tendon i was there eating dinner with them and brandy's like oh there's this girl chelsea she keeps complaining about being single i'm like don't talk don't tell her about me no thanks why we went on because i just didn't want to date Someone in the business again For so long I went without doing it I dated someone in the business Well that's why you don't do it Right?

And then you know We go on one date Then we're texting each other Calling each other Going on another date Next thing you know Her toothbrush is there Next thing you know

We're married You know We got three dogs Three cats I mean it worked out In this situation And so here you are And I'm assuming

You can sometimes Go to her shows Can she ever go To your shows Like as a fan Yeah like 100% She comes to those

She could be seen At some of these indie shows I think so I've never So the only show I don't like to go to her shows Because I don't want to Linger backstage at WWE

You don't want to be that guy Absolutely not So when she won The tag team titles John Cohn Who works for Talent Relations I hope I don't Get him in trouble he's a friend of mine i texted him i said let me know the segment before sneak me in so i can watch from the crowd and get me out of there i

don't want to be the guy link listen i was there for 15 years i saw all the old timers coming back trying to get their job back and i don't want anyone thinking that's what he's doing there so i never want to be seen backstage every time time I go see Chelsea I'm in like a Press box upstairs away From everything it's not about me I don't Want the attention I don't want to make I don't want to be You know politic and I don't want people thinking of politic and I just want to be there

To support her what about the symbolism of her Winning the US title at Freaking NASA Coliseum Where you grew up right wearing the one-legged tights The Zack Ryder style Wow We are the First

You know Couple to win The United States title I mean she's the first Champion But I was the US champion Listen super proud of her My family was there

Rooting her on You know It was Like I said I was doing GCW In LA I couldn't be there But she flew to LA

The next day We went to Disneyland And celebrated But it was great To you know How I don't know The word to use But beautiful That she won the title flew to la the next day we went to disneyland and celebrated but it was great to you know how how i don't i don't know the word to use but beautiful that she won the title in my hometown arena why is the product so much better now than it was a couple years ago i think just it's just so hot i

think the fans they're like they've been just wanting a change and they can see it on the tv you know and they support it even more and now with like social media and all the it all comes it's everything right like the the It all comes It's everything Right Like the shows Are better There's more merchandise So people can like

Show their fandom You know Like it's It's cool to be A wrestling fan again And I just love it Why I have a theory

Okay I mean Triple H is what Late 40s Early 50s Something like that He knows what he's doing It's obvious

Comparing him to a guy In his mid 70s He's on the ball He knows He's on the. It's obvious. Comparing him to a guy in his mid-70s, he's on the ball. He knows. He's on the ball. Right? He's definitely on the ball. There's a drastic difference between him at the helm and Vince at the helm. I've never worked. I was only there under Vince. Triple H, of course, had power, but

it's obvious, like you said, watching the product. It's fun. There's callbacks. There's reasons for this. Things don't get forgotten. The fans want to be rewarded for watching. So if something's like, oh, that happened It's fun There's callbacks There's reasons Things don't get forgotten You know the fans Want to be rewarded For watching So if something's like Oh that happened

A couple weeks ago Now they're bringing it back They love that stuff They love like watching You see someone in the background Like during a pre-tape Brilliant The Bloodline thing

Has been brilliant It's been great stuff I don't think it can happen In the Vince era The Bloodline story With that many details And intricacies There's so many swerves

And you never know Where they're going That's what makes wrestling fun Right Is it done? The bloodlines are, in your opinion? I don't think so. I mean, The Rock, now, is he a good guy now? Like, what side is he on? Right, right, right.

And there's more guys that haven't even come up to the main roster yet. I think it continues forever. Did you ever have a relationship or working relationship in any way, shape, or form with Heyman? Not really, no. How come? He was there when I come He was When he was There when I was there

But he was just like You know Brock's advocate You know when I When I did the WWE ECW who was already gone So it was Of course I've talked to them You know

I respect them I grew up You know loving ECW Of course But I was never You know had a Close relationship with them Okay

Paul if you want to talk Yeah Paul's the man I love you Paul Yeah let's do it Can I tell you I got to be really But I was never, you know, had a close relationship with him. Okay. Paul, if you want to talk. Yeah, Paul's the man. I love you, Paul. Yeah, let's do it. Can I tell you, I got to be really backstage once in Montreal Elimination Chamber. This was Sami Zayn against Roman Reigns a couple years ago when he was red hot. He just turned on Roman. And, you know, they invited me to come.

I'm a Montrealer. I'm from Montreal. The city means a lot. It felt like an event I wanted to be at. And Paul said I could come. Heyman said, oh, come backstage. I've always been fascinated with wrestling. Wrestling was the first thing I ever loved.

WWE was the, WWF was the first thing I loved as a five-year-old. And I'd never been backstage really. And so he said, come backstage for SmackDown. And so I came. And someone like you, I came wearing a suit. Yeah. Just because I didn't know what's going on. So Paul's sitting in Gorilla. backstage for smackdown and so i came and and someone like you i came wearing a suit yeah just because i didn't know like what's going on so paul's sitting in gorilla i'm there i've heard

about gorilla but i've never been to gorilla here i am like wow this is incredible this is like story sure right and he and he says to me and he's like just stick with me and follow me throughout the night and we'll see where this goes One thing leads to next He says to Paul Levesque Yep Ariel's from Montreal He's a big sports fan He could put all this

Into context You should throw him In the crowd He'll do a segment for you And then Michael Cole Sends it to him And he sends it back And then

Four hours later I'm on Smackdown So you were always ready I was always ready Like you It was one of the most fun I love it Experiences of my life

Because the next day I came back And just got to observe I didn't do anything But just seeing how Everything ran backstage It's crazy This was also the time

Where Tony Khan Took a shot at me On social media And called me a hack journalist And the best part about it Was every guy Every worker Came up to me

And like I felt like I was One of the boys They were like Tony took a shot at you Fuck yeah I gave you a I was like wow

Look at me I made it To see what goes on Behind the scenes Is like It is a fantasy world I loved everything It's so much fun shot of you fuck yeah i gave you a i was like wow look at me i made it to see what goes on behind the scenes is like it is a fantasy world i loved everything it's so much fun but i can imagine it being extremely stressful as well because your fate and your destiny is in the hands of others also you know in a live tv environment i've been you know in the ring you got two minutes cut or you got two minutes added you know or your match is cut but how do you find out the ring, you got two minutes cut or you got two minutes added, you know, or your match is cut.

How do you find out? The ref tells you? The ref. In the middle of the match? Yes. Yes. So that happens all the time. Like, let's say you go to Raw and it might be different.

I haven't been there in five years. Let's say you have an eight minute match. Okay. Well, how much time are we going to have when it's up to the match? You know, because things go over. It's live TV. It might be different now with Netflix. I'm not sure.

So things might be a little different now. But have you ever had a situation where you felt like you were going this day, this day, and then it all gets taken away from you? Meaning? Like storyline wise? Yeah. Like you just felt like. Oh, yeah.

Yeah? Yeah, 100%. And it's no fault of your own, but it's just the business, the politics of wrestling. Well, you know, so bringing up that YouTube show, I start that particular year, 2011, I start, I'm a nobody. I'm literally like on Raw, already in the ring, getting killed by somebody. I start the YouTube show in February. End of the year, Madison Square Garden is chanting for me during a rock promo.

I end the year as the United States champion. I'm one of the top merch. It's working. I'm clicking on all cylinders. A couple months later, Kane is pushing me off the stage in a wheelchair. And literally, all my hard work was going down the toilet but i blame myself for that i never wanted to say i got buried and maybe during that time if you look at old tweets maybe pull it up maybe i was saying stuff like that

but now i've matured i've realized i should have just knocked on vince mcmahon's door and said hey vince what are we doing here i didn't do that so i blame myself why didn't you do it immaturity intimidated and maybe i was his door open like could you knock or is that you certainly could have you certainly could have but i grew up idolizing this company and this man says to me he was super intimidated right not only was my boss he's this guy like you know like your whole life you see this guy you hear stories about this guy so i think i probably 26 27 at the time i think it was immature i think i was intimidated but i blame myself for all the things that went down at that time i could easily knock on business or hey vince for working my ass off one of the top three or five merch

sellers what are we doing here where's this going i didn't do that so i blame myself i never wanted to be one of those old guys bitter so-and-so buried me so-and someone so held me down after that you know i want to take all the accountability uh when you've sort of come to to see what has happened to vince and all these stories coming out your reaction to this man i mean listen obviously i didn't witness anything and i saw a documentary i've seen all the allegations all the allegations are disturbing to say the least so we'll see what happens But like Oh my god Right I mean

We've all read it Right It's crazy Crazy stuff And if proven true Then wow Right What did you think of the doc

I You know Like I was I'm a diehard wrestling fan So nothing seemed like New to me And I get it It wasn't for

The diehards like me It was for the casuals I thought It was It was entertaining I watched it. You know, how could you not if you're a wrestling fan?

Right. How many years do you think you have left? Huh. Well, you know, I'm in my 21st year in the business now. Jeez Louise. It's crazy. I started when I was 18.

Had my first match 2004. But I don't feel like I've missed a beat. You know, like my style, I feel like I keep going forever. Right? I say that now. Yeah. I'm about to be 40. I feel like I haven't missed a beat in the ring. I feel feel like i keep going forever right i say that now yeah i'm about to be 40 i feel like i haven't missed a beat in the ring i feel like you can keep going i feel like i look the best i've ever looked i feel like i'm really at the top of my game and now you see guys like

jericho adam copeland christian cage at the top of their game older than me 10 years old to me it's inspiring dustin rhodes even john cena the rock you know like literally at the top of the game haven't missed a beat look like a million bucks um i love that that opportunity is there firing Dustin Rhodes, even John Cena, the rock, you know, like literally at the top of the game, haven't missed a beat, look like a million bucks. Um, I love that that opportunity is there, you know?

Um, and that's what's so beautiful about pro wrestling. I think like age is just a number. And like, when you watch two guys on, on the screen, you're not thinking, well,

this guy's this all, you know, like you're not thinking like that. You're thinking, I love this guy or I hate this guy. Right. Um, so I would love the opportunity to go back to WWE and be the guy that people hate,

you know, because they never have to see that. It would be amazing because you get to come back as yourself. Yes. You know what I mean? Obviously, you're maybe like a tuned up version of yourself. And I would highly suggest, you've done a ton of interviews, so I don't want to go through your whole story, but overcoming cancer in high school. I did, yeah.

And that's what gets you into wrestling, right? Just being out of school for a year? No. So I love wrestling from even before that. Oh god i earliest memories 11 wrestling one year my dad's claims he took me to wrestlemania 2 which i don't think he did because i wouldn't have been one yet but that from that age the blue cage bundy versus hogan i mean it was long island that's the obsessed my whole obsessed like whether it be with the wrestling figures or having the backyard wrestling i was obsessed with wrestling um unfortunately had cancer in 10th 11th grade and it sounds cliche but i knew i had to like beat this so i can't like be a pro wrestler if i'm dead you know i

can't be a pro wrestler if they'd like amputate my foot like i have to beat this and luckily i did and it just it might sound cliche but that's what kept me going because that that time going through the chemo The surgeries It sucked I'm not going to sugarcoat it It sucked But yeah I've loved wrestling since I was a baby

Obsessed You've got to come back You said it You've got to come You're so easy to root for man And I can think of So many great storylines there And I think it's going to happen

We saw it with Drew We saw it with Cody You reinvent yourself There's got to be There's going to be that opening I think it's going to happen. We saw it with Drew. We saw it with Cody. You reinvent yourself. There's got to be, there's going to be that opening. I feel it. I feel like, you know, the timing has to be right.

I'm 40 years old, almost 40. But like I said, age is just a number. I haven't missed a beat in the ring. Definitely got better in the ring since I was, you know, in WWE. I've learned so much as a performer, as a man.

I feel like i truly understand this business everything about it the business side and the wrestling side being on the independence um and like i said i hate the word deserve i don't think i deserve to be back but i think i've worked my ass off and i believe uh i've earned an opportunity an opportunity if i go out there and i shit the bed get rid of me if i go out there and nobody gives a damn get rid of me i don't think that there and nobody gives a damn, get rid of me. I don't think that's going to happen. Okay, let's end on the toys again.

Greatest LJN. My favorite LJN is Macho Man. He's like this. Is it the pink tights? Pink tights. With the three stars on the back. That's right. Love that. Because he can do the elbow drop, and he's also doing double buy.

And he can do a lefty elbow, righty elbow, depending on the side. And so if I wanted to buy. And you can do a lefty elbow, righty elbow. Depends on the side, you know? Okay. And so like if I wanted to buy that. Yeah. Are they even. Now, if you want to like in package. Impossible. A lot of money. Like what are we talking?

You probably get a macho man. Well, do you want the package to be like mint mint? I'm okay if it's like. 500-ish. 500-ish. Wow. But there's like some crate. Like you're from Canada. So you had this whole like line, like the black cards. There wasish. Wow. But there's like some great, like you're from Canada.

So you had this whole like line, like the black cards. There was a whole line that just went to Canada. What's black cards? Bro. We can have a whole other conversation. What are you talking about? What's black cards? There's this whole last set that like, it's like just like a Canada thing or through magazines.

Of LJNs? Of LJNs. What do you mean through magazines? Like through like wrestling magazines, like mail orders. So he's got like Warlord, Big Boss Man, all this. Really? As a kid, I had no idea they existed Because I wasn't reading Yes

I didn't live in Canada Wow So it wasn't until like I got the internet Or one of the comic book stores Or like my grandma found me A haku at a garage sale And I did like

Haku they made haku What You know So Now with the big rubber guys Like we So right now You can go on our website right now

Get a Macho Man It'll be in your house I'll send you a Macho Man. It'll be at your house. I'll send you a Macho Man. No, no, no. Let's do this. Yeah. But we do a pre-order model where the pre-order is the order. So this month, you have Arn, Tully, Missy, Rick Martel.

However many are ordered, that's what we make. Okay. But then we have a couple guys like Macho Man. He's always in stock. We're doing a Rick Flair, always in stock. So if you're a new fan, new collector, you go to our site, you can get the Macho Man. He's at your house a couple days. Flair doesn't have a Legends deal?

Flair does not have a Legends deal. You'd be surprised. Macho Man does not. The guys like Andre the Giant, Road Warrior, Sergeant Slaughter, Haxagem Duggan. What about Brett? Brett does. He would love to make Brett. We would love to make Brett.

Anvil? Anvil does too. Those are my guys. Anyone who doesn't have one, we try to get. And we're paying them pretty well So they like being Working with the major company LJN they used to sell them at the pharmacy next to my house I remember the rainbow logo

And those things man They were unbelievable It's honestly the best I swear to god I feel like I'm 8 Just looking at this You give this to Dustin? Of course We get Cody Cody Dustin

We try to get Cody Sorry we try to get Dustin But he still has an AEW deal Because we saw those Rumors online He wasn't re-signed I text him We want to get you

But he signed Good for him He should He's having the time Of his career there Okay so Macho Man What else What is on the top

There was one You know who I loved Okay so I had a Bobby the Brain He's a great so I had a Bobby the Brain. He's a great one. I had a Miss Elizabeth. Okay. Did you have?

Well, did you have the gold skirt or the purple skirt? It was like sparkly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. God, how do you even know that? That's crazy. There was a Vince, right? There was a Vince, yep. Hogan, there was one, did he have like white tights?

There's a white tights where he's in the t-shirt. Yes, yes. Didn't love that one because I felt like he wasn't white tights There's a white tights Where he's in the t-shirt Yes yes Didn't love that one Because I felt like He wasn't white tights guy Only at the very beginning Yes they repainted him later So he's got the correct tights

Kamala I think he paid 11,000 For a Kamala That's for a Hasbro Kamala I did pay 11,000 I thought we were gonna talk No 11,000

Yeah Why Because it's a It's an unreleased sample Where like they changed The paint on his stomach So it was like An alternate paint on his stomach

And there's only like It wasn't the moon And all that? It's the moon Is the one that I have The final production run Is a star And not the moon

Oh Yeah it's called Moon Belly Kamala So how many are So I think there's like 12 or 24 I don't That's the rumor number

Because it was only A sample production run Okay So I have one of those Yeah I had a Hercules Hercules is great Man

Yeah I'll say we just signed Hercules the big rubber I'll give you a little Inside scoop We signed him for Big rubber guys Wow

Yeah So you go through His family Yep Because he's no longer With us right Family yeah Is it generally easy

If they're If they're not With WWE Nine times out of ten Yes When they get that First check They want more figures

They want okay So it's worthwhile for them Yes for sure Incredible Yeah Man So okay So I just want to

Tell everyone You've got the You've got the company That we're talking about We showed the website You got the podcast Major Wrestling Figure Podcast Thank you

You got your So is it just that YouTube channel Or you have another one as well I have a Matt Cardona YouTube channel YouTube.com Slash at the Matt Cardona

But the major wrestling favorite podcast Major pod merch Yeah We could plug Clothing Plug it all Really GCW Hammerstein Ball

That's the one New York City I'm like There it is Who are you wrestling by the way That's a great This match has been snake bit Like legit

There's so many Internal like Planned matches That have gotten cut For different reasons I legitimately do not know Who I'm wrestling Call someone out Who do you want?

Who do you want? I want John Cena You want John Cena If Cena wins Rewrite it right? Well last time When I was there They had the

If Cardona wins Rewrite it Last time we did Yes I don't know Who it's going to be All I know is that I have spent a lot of money

On my entrance You legit right now Don't know? Shoot Shoot I to be. All I know is that I have spent a lot of money on my entrance. You legit right now don't know? Shoot. Shoot. I'm not bullshitting yet. Do not know. When do you think you'll find out? I think I'll find out that day.

It's not like GCW's. We don't know. Right. We don't know. There's been so many people put in that spot for one reason or another. They've gotten taken out of that spot. Let's see who it is. It doesn't matter.

Because AEW's not letting their guys go. Well, that was Maybe the one Ricky Starks right It was supposed to Wrestle Ricky Starks I don't know exactly What happened with that I read all the rumors

About it He's no longer In the match So we'll see Who shows up Saturday Were you at the American Dream show I was there

Yep I was there the day before Yeah yeah yeah I was walking around With my kids And I see a GCW ring In the middle It was awesome

Was it fun It was so much fun It was so much fun It was like WCW Were people into it? They were so into it, yeah. Did you have to buy a ticket to sit there? Yeah.

I think at the tippy top, you can come and watch, but there were certain seats, certain levels of seats, yeah. Wow. Yeah. This Sunday, Hammerstein Ballroom. I mean, there's still tickets available. Not many, but it comes to the Met Cardona. What does it draw?

I think there's 1,500 people there. It looks bigger than it really is. I think there's only 1,500 tickets. And are you the main? I'm not the main. Who's the main? I'm not the main. Who's the main? Mance Warner will be defending his GCW world title against either Allie or Effie, who is going to be, in my heart, I'm the main event.

Okay. My parents are certainly coming to see me. I'm the main event in my dad's mind. Josh Barnett? Josh Barnett. He's another open challenge, too. Maybe we accept each other as open challenge. Have you ever wrestled Josh?

I have not. We've been talking about it Matt Codona Bloodsport debut What do you think? I would love that I would love it too But I would love

I would need some proper MMA training I wouldn't want to make A mockery of myself Or MMA I'd want to take it Very very seriously Josh and I have talked about it

I think sometime in 2025 You'll see that You've got What not Live auctions You've got the cameo Always red wine That was the thing for a while I think right now I would just love If people You've got Whatnot live auctions. You've got the cameo. Always Red Wine. That was the thing for a while.

I think right now I would just love if people went to my social media, that New York video, if they watched that and shared that. That's the number one thing I want to get across. Hammerstein Ballroom. It's brilliant. You did the thing where you walked to MetLife. Yeah, that was my idea. Obviously, I have this vision.

I want to start in my backyard. Pretend I'm doing my entrance like I did in the backyard wrestling. I want to start in my backyard You know go Like pretend I'm doing my entrance Like I did in the backyard wrestling I want to go to NASA Coliseum MetLife MSG Hammerstein We filmed it in one night

It was cold But it came out Like I I teared up watching it It was brilliant It was great Yeah there it is There's NASA Coliseum

And when I was watching it I was like Did this guy do this all on his own Or is GC And I mean financially yes Did I help No no no That's what I mean Because I don't think Most guys are doing this all on his own? Or is GCW? I mean, financially, yes. Did I help? No, no, no.

That's what I mean. Because I don't think most guys are doing this. They're not. And if I'm GCW, I'm like, holy shit. You're the best. Well, they did ask for it for their YouTube job. I said, no, I pay for this. Yeah.

Look at that shot right there. That's brilliant, man. You make being a fan of wrestling fun. Well, I'm a fan at heart that's that's why it comes easy to me right like at the end of the day of course i've been wrestling for 20 years but i'm a fan i'm someone who is living their dream like this is the only thing i ever wanted to do there was no plan b like i'm going to be a pro wrestler and i i've lived all my dreams like do i have some goals i haven't accomplished yes w world title yes that is

the tippy top i feel like if you're title. Yes. That is the tippy top. I feel like if you're in this business, that should be the tippy top. Right. But if it ended today, I'm so grateful for everything I accomplished. Even being here right now, it's just, just to share like our fandom with each other is great. And just to spread that. But, you know, we have GCW this Sunday.

I know we keep plugging it, but 2025 is going to start that way. Let's see where I am in 2025. AEW, WWE, TNA. Josh Barnett. Yes. Are you going to manage me? 2025 is going to start that way Let's see where I end 2025 AEW WWE TNA Josh Barnett Yes Are you going to manage me? Are we going to do something together?

Listen there's been some talk Of me managing Josh I don't know if that's why You're saying it But if you look at my Twitter headline I know that A fan made a picture

Back in like 2011 Of me managing Josh My gimmick was Well it's kind of evolved Poorly in a way It's like I'm the I'm like the greedy Jew.

Okay. I'm holding like a, I'm holding like a bag of money, but I play this up. Right. Iwani knows my gimmick and he's like a Russian. Right. And, and, and I'm his manager. Sure. And I actually had an idea.

I, I, well, I'll tell you about it. It's crazy that you brought that up. I just want to say. Hey, well, or if you want a big rubber, we can make that happen. I know the guy who owns the company. Bro, bro. That's, that's too much for owns the company Bro That's too much For me to handle

That's too much For me to handle I wish you nothing But the best Thank you so much Continued success It's a lot of fun And I feel like

This is going to be A massive massive year For you I appreciate it Good luck this Sunday Thank you And people need to know this You were in Maine

You could have went home And you came here right Well you know I really appreciate it I want to be here in studio We could have done it on Zoom It's way better this way right I agree I agree

I agree So thank you for that Thank you very much I appreciate it We'll take a quick break We'll say goodbye to Matt For now Dave Feldman was in studio last week

Tremendous story Listen to that We'll be back to wrap up the show Alright well that was An unbelievable chat I don't even want to say A great chat Because it's about

A pretty gruesome story But Just It must be heard it must be heard. It must be heard from Dave Feldman and really appreciate him, him opening up. His massive show is 12 days away, January the 25th in Philadelphia, BKFC, Knucklemania 5. And there's a big one January the 18th In LA I think it's still remaining in LA for now

Unless something has happened I've been doing this show for the past 3 hours and 30 minutes UFC 311 We also have Darren Till vs. Anthony Taylor So a lot to like And that GCW show at Hammerstein I can't get enough of this Look at this

I should have showed Matt my plastics. I mean, I got a pretty good collection myself. Wish I still had those LJ hands. What a guy. What a personality. What an infectious aura he has. He's got to go back to WWE or AEW. Just get a

consistent thing, but no slight towards the indies, but I think he certainly deserves it um i would love love love to see that happen for him uh so anyway uh a big uh a big stretch coming up of combat sports obviously there's another i can't stop by the way i can't stop looking at this and the smell is really something it's really legit i don't know if you guys, it's like even holding it, I haven't held one of these in so long. It's kind of, oh man, it's crazy how accurate it is.

American Dream. Also, you know what I love about it? Stands. Perfect. Look at that. None of this, like, falling over stuff. One of 800. Look at that.

Also, did you guys know that you can, like, remove? Oh, look at this. Look at the back. Look at the back. Matt Cardona, Brian Myers, Axe, Smash, Sergeant Slaughter, Marty Jannetty, Ric Flair, Andre the this. Look at the back. Look at the back. Matt Cardona, Brian Myers, Axe Smash, Sgt. Slaughter, Marty Jannetty, Ric Flair, Andre the Giant. Wow. Macho Man, Hawk, Animal, Barbarian,

Warlord, Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA, Hacksaw, Dynamite Kid, and Davey Boy Smith with Matilda? Ethan Page, Matt Hardy, Ric Flair, Harley Race, Jeff Hardy, The Brooklyn Brawler Matt Cardona Brian Myers Macho King

Ah Tremendous Scratch that figure Itch So good So good Loved everything about it Okay

Couple other things There was a report Last week That Alex Pereira Is going to be fighting Alexander Volkov At heavyweight We refuted that. And the plan is

Pereira versus Ankaleev. Interesting tweet from Ankaleev to Pereira, which gave me a little chuckle. You going to do what you've been told. You are an employee. See you soon. Now I found this to be rich considering the UFC is doing everything in their power to not give Magomed Ankhalaev a title shot. And so here he is saying, I'm the corporation. He also tweeted in response to something that Alex Pereira tweeted in December. See you soon, boy. That's the one. It's the one that always had to be done. That rhymed.

But it's the right call. Not to say that I wouldn't love to see Alex Pereira at heavyweight against someone like Volmed. But it's the right call. Not to say that I wouldn't love to see Alex Pereira at heavyweight against someone like Volkov, but it's not the time. Speaking of Twitter, Corey Anderson tweeting this in the midst of our show. Imagine being the champion of an organization,

chilling on the couch, and your wife walks in and tells you, did you see this? Bellator is dead now. And all you can do is shrug your shoulders in confusion because you still haven't heard a thing lol yeah that was me i mean he he works for pfl but yes the the my my guess and i don't have this triple confirm my guess is the bellator champs will become the pfl champs that's my guess so i don't think it's all bad getting paid way more than he was in the UFC. So, but yeah, a lot of uncertainty.

They should probably come out and explain. They should probably come out and explain. There was a, there was a rumor that Diego Lopezair rodriguez are going to be fighting in mexico city definitely a fight that's been discussed not done by any stretch and i saw some people you know i saw some youngins pushing back as i refuted this saying we said it was in the works or the report says that it was in the works first of all first of all if i can and i hope this doesn't come across as like you know old guy telling young kids how to act. I came up with In the Works, okay? I'm the one who started In the Works, all right? And In the Works means it's about to be a done deal. In the Works is not discussed. Discussed is discussed. In the

Works is it's on the verge of being done. In the Works is sometimes you do it so a manager or a fighter or a promoter doesn't get mad. In the works means it's all but done. In the works is not idea that's discussed, but we're waiting for something else. And other fights have been discussed as well. That's not in the works. In the works is it's all but done, all right? So get the lingo right if you want to get into that game.

And also just get the news right. There's another young man who reported JDMm versus the unedwards that one is accurate and we we've already talked about this one um i forget his name do you guys know his name anyone back there was it bend a man maybe bend a man is that his name benny p Yes yes yes I saw that one But yeah we talked about this on the show But anyway that one is legit That one is definitely legit

So things are getting done Things are being made Has anything else happened while we were locked in I mean we were really locked in there You know Anything else out there? Nah man not that i can think of all right what's going on back there everyone's so quiet everyone's so quiet we wanted to say nothing's happened oh everyone's hey pt you're still here oh yeah dog fell asleep on me drooled on my t-shirt a bit so

apologies no no i would have never noticed it if you hadn't pointed it out so what really happened pt i mean literally i don't see anything i don't see it either oh man. So what really happened, P.T.? I mean, literally, I don't see anything. I don't see it either. Oh, throw it in. Sweet. Oh, is the top right there? Yeah, it is, yeah. That's it. You should put on a peach vibe back there, P.T.

That's right. It's my favorite flavor. Actually, the Fancy Boy would be my favorite flavor. It's so delicious. This is what I spritz my Negroni with, by the way. Good call, man. Fancy Boy. I love it. By the way, guys. Oh, what was thatritz my Negroni with, by the way. Good call, man. I love it.

By the way, guys. Oh, what was that? I thought it was an ad. I'm sorry. I thought we were doing the fantasy vibe. Tomorrow on the program, guys. Oh, dear. Tomorrow on the program, we will be joined at the same time by David Morrell and David Benavidez, the top stars who will be going toe-to-toe

on the February 1st PBC pay-per-view. I believe their first pay-per-view in quite some time. Looking forward to that. A virtual face-off, if you will. John Wood, the head coach, ooh, sort of, for one Murab Dwalishvili, who you did a great story with uh a couple of months ago was

that uh i believe that was prior to the title fight against sean o'malley right pt yeah funnily enough i reached out to him today about doing another one of those not knowing oh wow on the show so i'll probably get most of my stuff from that now that's no listen uh we all get different things also o'shea jackson j Jackson Jr Who I know is a personal Favorite of one New York Rick's He's got a new movie coming out Den of Thieves 2 baby We're in there

Have you seen it yet? No isn't it this Friday? Nah it came out last week I'll be there soon Don't worry Den of Thieves 2 Pantera I believe Bisping and Cyril Gunn are in it, right? Yes.

Yeah. And I think, wasn't Max? I think Max made a brief appearance as like a garbage truck driver, like in the first one. That's in my wheelhouse. The son of the legendary Ice Cube. That's right. Who is also a gigantic pro wrestling fan.

Oh, shoot. Producer Jordan showing me Rico in the upcoming one or the last one, Jordan? In Den of Thieves 2. Rico Verhoeven as well. Oh, yeah, that's right. A who's who from the world of combat sports. Wednesday in studio, the often imitated, umitated? Did I say that?

The often imitated, never duplicated Action Bronson. Oh, wow. Bam, bam, baklava himself. That's huge. Can't wait. The man in the hat as well. We might bring up the score of the... The man in the hat's in studio.

No, no, it can't be bothered. I mean... I thought he was rolling with Action Bronson's entourage now these days. It's come up at the same time. Yeah, he's... I thought he was rolling with Action Bronson's entourage now these days. It's come up at the same time. Yeah, he's rolling with him with the Bo Nix jersey still on. I do want that Bo Nix jersey. I want that same energy, you know?

Yeah, look, we talked about it on the crack. He's a bit offended, you know, went out of his way to make this video and then just shot on from a height. No, listen. He's talking about, you know, oh, the 53 53 men traveling party Blah blah blah

I thought that video was cute Did you see the fans saying No no no not his video The we want buffalo video Did you see that Did you guys see that Turns out no they don't Can we at least say

I know you guys like to be Detractors dissenters, haters, for the uncrowned empire. Can we at least all root for Buffalo? What is this that we like to be detractors and haters? What are you talking about? Why don't you guys? We just enjoy Lamar Jackson.

Those texts are updates from the game. Wait, wait, wait. GC, you're really going to root for the Ravens? No, no, no. I was just saying. Throughout the season, we do the Lamar MVP thing. Me and Rick think Lamar's the MVP. No, I know he's the MVP.

We just enjoy Lamar Jackson. I love Lamar Jackson, too. The numbers don't lie. I mean, he's the MVP. No, I'm not even getting any. I have a big wardrobe selection to make. Please. The old Von Miller bills

Ravens number 8 Let me tell you something I'm putting my foot down You cannot sit in this chair on Thursday wearing that jersey It ain't gonna happen Alright, Wednesday it is Listen, Wednesday wear what you want You can't bring those vibes in here

You cannot bring those vibes in here Would you drive into the studio I will unplug you two I don't know if people can see it You can't bring those vibes in here. You cannot bring those vibes in here. Would you drive into the studio? I will unplug YouTube. I don't know if people can see it, but you've got the Bills jersey draped over the chair. The Helwani Show Bills jersey. Are you driving into the studio to correct it if Lamar Jackson's jersey got draped over it? Oh, it got draped over Yeah, instead of the Bills,

it's Lamar Jackson. I would unplug YouTube. I would just unplug it for the world. It's all going down. Shut down. He's very, it's almost like becomes a religious thing

at this stage for Ariel. I noticed that he fully, he fully, like, I mean, he's always been a Buffalo Bills fan his whole life as we know and he stays in lockstep

with them throughout the season but when it gets to playoff time i know he's cranked it up a few notches when i just get sent like 18 different plays from over the years of buffalo bills in the playoffs watch this one watch this one yeah yeah yeah last night i said that taryn johnson pick six 101 yards against the ravens in the height of the pandemic when everything was dark and depressing. 2021 ran it back 101 freaking yards to the house. And that's the difference, by the way, between Sunday's game, 630, which I have some bad memories about that 630 Sunday game.

I'm not going to lie. Dark and old Sunday. We keep getting that Sunday 630 and we always losing it. Before a post-pay-per-view Monday. Stop it. Stop it. Rough. It could be-per-view Monday. Stop it. Stop it. It could be incredible or it could be awful on Monday. I actually was in the gym this

morning and they, you know, no big deal in the gym this morning, but they were playing the Oilers Bills 32-point comeback. Oh, from back in the day, 1993. Yeah, way back in the day. Wow, they played the whole game. Not the whole game. It was just like a long highlight package.

It was like the most heartbreaking wild card losses in NFL history, and that was number one. What a game on there. Forget it. I was at my friend Ryan Perlman's house in the fifth grade. In any event, everyone keeps talking about that first game.

What was it like? I think week three or four, they whooped our ass, laid the smack down. 31-10. Killed us. 31-10. We were missing most of the score. Pizza's the score. Ready to the smack down, killed us. We were missing... Pizza, you have to score. Ready to go.

Multiple key members of our team were not playing, including the great Matt Milano. Didn't have Amari Cooper. We weren't at home. I was going to say, in Baltimore that time. Weren't at home. And then the big thing is, I hope Josh doesn't win the MVP, and I hope he knows he's not winning the MVP, because he is going to have a

chip on his shoulder the size of Western New York. Alright? He is going to have a chip on his shoulder The size of Western New York He is going to have a chip on his shoulder To prove that he is the man I don't think he'll find out though No he knows They said the All-Pro votes seem to indicate That it's going to Lamar That's the talk

What are you talking about That's the right call Everyone is saying that it's fait accompli The All-Pro votes are very much in Lamar's favor right call Everyone is saying That it's fait accompli The all pro votes Are very much in Lamar's favor He got like I don't know

A hundred more Or some bullshit like that Anyway I hope I don't care about that And Josh shouldn't either He's the man He's beloved And it all matters

If he gets that other ring And get You know what Get that Super Bowl MVP Who cares about the Regular season MVP Get that Super Bowl MVP In February

I praise to God Because honestly I could see it now If we beat them get that Super Bowl MVP. Who cares about the regular season MVP? Get that Super Bowl MVP in February. I praise to God because honestly, I could see it now. If we beat them on Sunday, then we'll go to Arrowhead or whatever the hell it's called and then we'll see you

all in New Orleans. Wow, yeah. Texans beat the Chiefs. And you have to go if they're there. I don't know if I want to go. No, you go. No, I don't know.

You gotta go. You gotta go. You gotta go. I want to be there with my kids. I want to be there on my couch. Oh my God. a stress wow yeah let's get the tickets me and you get like a buy three get one free at some point last week uh josh moved from minus 500 to win mvp to plus 190 wow yeah on friday everyone was like sending out condolences because i guess because he won all pro. Yeah, and because he had more votes

or something, I don't know. They seem to say that that was the indicator. What about Big Daddy Mark? I think it was GC and Nick talking about it on the show. I think that's what swayed a lot of the voters. I think they were on the editor seats.

Yeah, who is Nick? Yeah, who the fuck is Nick? Who the fuck is we? Yeah, it's late over there. It's late over there. Going to keep calling him Nick now. New York. Can I just say I hate

Monday night playoff game. I can't wait for this. It's a wild card weekend. I can't believe you're staying up for it, BT. Of course I'm staying up for it. Mad Men. It is a playoff game. It's actually a great matchup.

I just think the playoffs should be Saturday, Saturday Sunday That's the way it's always been I don't like change And Yeah I'm nervous I'm not going to lie I'm very nervous It's going to be a really good game

It's going to be incredible Saturday night to Sunday night Sunday night Saturday night I was worried about Saturday night by the way Because that would have been At the same time as 311. Yeah.

So I'm happy that that's not the case. I think the one at the same time as 311 is Washington against Detroit. Yeah. Texans Chiefs at 430, Washington, Detroit, and then it's 3 o'clock, the winner of today's game against the Eagles. And then the big one, the main event. One last thing before we go. I think we've gone to all the stuff that's happened

over the past few days. A lot has happened. An update on the Vince McMahon story. This is from Fox News. Former WWE CEO Vince McMahon's Securities and Exchange Commission reached settlement after a lengthy probe. Vince McMahon, who co-founded and previously served as the CEO of WWE

and the SEC, have reached a settlement following a years-long probe over undisclosed settlements. The federal investigation was launched to determine whether McMahon disclosed to the company's board and others that he signed two settlement agreements

worth more than $10 million with two women in order for them not to reveal potential claims against himself and WWE. The SEC and McMahon, without admitting or denying its findings, agreed to cease and desist from violating certain provisions, pay a $400,000 civil penalty, and reimburse WWE approximately $1.3 million. Now, Vince afterwards took to Twitter, as they say, and posted a rare statement saying the case is closed. Today ends nearly three years of investigation by different governmental agencies. There's been a great deal of speculation about what exactly the government was investigating and what the outcome would be as today's resolution shows much of that speculation was misguided and misleading.

In the end, there was never anything more to this than minor accounting errors with regard to some personal payments that I made several years ago while I was CEO of WWE. I'm thrilled that I can now put all this behind me. And then he got hit with the dastardly community notes. Which read, Vince McMahon settled with the SEC

without admitting slash denying its findings. This was exclusively about the hush money charges. Janelle Grant's civil suit will go forward and use these findings as evidence according to her attorney. So, not quite out of the woods, but there you have it. Did I miss anything else? What about that Dominic Cruz, by the way? Yeah.

It's like you're sitting in the chair when you're talking to him, right? The therapist? Oh, that. Yeah, it's like I feel like the lights are very bright. Broke you down very quickly. He's like, you can just call me, man. Yeah, well, we don't have to do all this. I was like, why don't you just call me, man?

Yeah. But no, I mean, he's always been kind of like reflective and very contemplative. And then, you know, now you're getting right as he's about to transition to the post-fighting career. I love it. He's very thoughtful in his answers and always has been. I love talking to him. Can't wait for the YouTube channel to drop. Oh, yeah.

I mean, I would suggest to him to honestly start now. No need to wait, right? Maybe he feels like he can't lock in on the thing that is in front of him, you know, if he does that. Perhaps. But he's at his height now. He's about to fight. I would launch it before the fight.

Do some vlogs or something like that. Want to know my answer? Go to BJPenn.com. Yeah. Oh my God. Throwback. Those were the days. Remember that?

He beats Jens Pulver. Joe asked him a question. I think BJ Penn doesn't like me. I've seen some stuff, but I don't know. What stuff? I don't know. It's a weird time. Can't do it.

It's a weird time to be alive. In any event, God bless you all. We'll be back tomorrow. We've done it all. We've said it all. We've talked to them all today. Still can't believe this. This is, I don't know if you guys fully understand just how happy this makes me.

He's just the common man. Doing what I'm doing. You guys know his entrance? No. Dusty Rhodes His real name guys Was Virgil Runnels Not as catchy He was then known as Dusty Rhodes

When the Million Dollar Man Had a sort of like Assistant slash Servant if you will Vince McMahon Who at the time Was in a feud with Dusty Rhodes assistant slash servant, if you will, Vince McMahon, who at the time was in a feud with Dusty Rhodes, named that guy Virgil as a shot at Dusty Rhodes. When that guy left WWE and went to WCW,

WCW named him Vincent as a shot to Vince McMahon. Do you understand? Wow. When Dusty Rhodes came back to WWE, they had him wear trunks with yellow polka dots. And he came out to that song. He's just a common man. Doing what?

And in an American dream. That's why Cody Rhodes is known as the American dream. That's why Cody Rhodes is known as the American nightmare. Because his dad was the American dream. Yes. And they saddled him with the black tights and yellow polka dots to embarrass him and to kind of like diminish him. And he was so lovable and so over that he got it open. It's a great story.

It's a great story. Thank you for humoring me there, Pizzi. I appreciate you very much. I appreciate everyone who stopped by. Dominic Cruz, Shakur Stevenson, Matt Cardona, and Cesar Almeida back tomorrow with a brand new program.

For now, we thank you. We thank them. Back on Tuesday, same time, same place, same piece. I'm out of here.