The Ariel Helwani Show - Maycee Barber, Oban Elliott, Caleb Plant, Jon Jones & Tom Aspinall trolling, what’s going at featherweight?

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Ariel Helwani and the Boys in the Back return with a recap of everything that transpired in combat sports over the weekend, including more drama between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinal (03:48)."The Welsh Gangster" Oban Elliot joins the program to discuss his fight against Seok Hyun Ko, visa issues that forced him out of his bout this weekend, participating in the UFC’s first event in Azerbaijan, Jack Della Maddalena’s title-winning performance, Islam Makhachev’s presence at welterweight, his support of Ian Machado Garry’s title run, his deal with Jon Jones, meeting with WWE stars, and more (31:11).Maycee Barber calls in before her UFC Vegas 107 main event against Erin Blanchfield to talk about falling ill and pulling out of the Rose Namajunas fight, her mental health struggles, recovery, her six-fight win streak, Valentina Shevchenko’s latest title defense, and more (1:04:26).Caleb Plant stops by ahead of his fight against Jose Armando Resendiz and discusses his awkward first meeting with Ariel, his loaded shoe collection, details of the failed booking against Jermall Charlo, his longtime relationship with music star Jelly Roll, his start in kickboxing, the state of PBC boxing, Canelo-Crawford, and more (1:33:11).Ariel and the Boys end the show by answering your Super Chats (2:14:46).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Err-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r- and 25 hello again everyone I sure hope you're doing well we certainly missed you yesterday hope you did as well in fact I got a very nice message from one of the best fighters in the world I'm not going to out him or her sent me a voice note in his or her car yesterday saying, yo, here I am after a good training session. I put on YouTube, I'm looking for my favorite program. He may or may not have called it the MMA hour, all good. No harm, no foul. Where the hell are you? Well, we were off yesterday.

It was Memorial Day here in the United States. And so I hope everyone who was observing had a very meaningful long weekend. And yeah, historically Memorial Day, Labor Day. Those are the two that we usually take off the Mondays, but we are back. We are ready to go. We've got our captain.

Who the fuck is we? Frank back with us. The drops are back as well. Frank, we miss you so much. Now, Nick did fill in very, very well in your absence. Wait, who's Nick? There's a lot of talk about Wally Pipp, Lou Gehrig, look it up.

There's a lot of talk. There was a lot of talk. There was a lot of talk. But I said, no, he's one of us. And so welcome back. Well, I appreciate it, yeah. Did you miss us? Absolutely. For those wondering, he did in of us. And so welcome back. Well, I appreciate it, yeah. Did you miss us? Absolutely.

For those wondering, he did in fact get the code word. I was told by your lovely wife that you were watching. You got the code word sent to him by you. Listen, the least he could have done was just jump in the chat. Jump into the chat for two seconds. Be like, hey guys, I'm here. When you're busy, you're busy. The least he could have done was just jump in the chat. Jump into the chat for two seconds. Be like, hey guys, I'm here. When you're busy, you're busy.

The least he could have done was just like check in. Show that he cares, show that he misses us. He was at Starbucks in Seattle. Yeah. He's gonna be so mad that you said where he went. He's gonna feel like that was such a brief privacy. They mentioned it all throughout, Boys in the Bag. Oh, how'd you know that?

Oh, you just watched it. Oh, you just watched Boys in the Bag, but you didn't watch it. I watched the material, you know, we all look you just watched it. Oh, you just watched Boys in the Bag, but you didn't watch it. I watched the material that, you know, we all look forward to Thursday. Sure. Also tuned in for the first minute to see if our microphone sounded good and then tuned back out.

And then he dipped. All right, all right. Well, anyway, it's good to have you back. Thanks for having me back. Do you feel rested? I do, yeah, it was actually very restful, probably the first time in a couple of years to have like a true vacation.

Oh yeah, of course, of course. Couldn't do with ever since August of 2021. His whole life has been miserable Oh, we had like four months off this past summer. Okay, that's like a crazy It's good to have you back Frankie is nice shining face in the morning people always say like oh, yeah It's like my first meaningful vacation is super meaningful. Nobody was bothering me like like almost like they have to justify it no but the one I'm writing right now is I haven't chosen the vacation I've gone on in quite some time it's you know weddings right went to DC this week and it was for a brothers thing you know I'm never choosing it I'm gonna go if you guys want to just say Jordan's name why are you just like subtweeting just say say it. That is not a Jordan thing.

Oh, that's a big vacation guy right there. Portugal. Can't spell vacation without G or B. Don't do the subtweets. I just love when people say that. People always say that like, it's my first big vacation. My first, well, what about that one? What about this one?

Listen, everyone's a lot of vacation every few years. Every few years. Every few years, okay. Every few years. We'll see you in HR tomorrow morning. But gentlemen, we have a lot to discuss. We had an off day yesterday, a weird one. It's like everything's thrown off. It feels like, I don't know.

This is Monday, right? This feels like the Monday. Yes, yes, yes. It's a weird, weird thing. And you know what? It actually came at a really good time because it was a supremely quiet weekend in the world of MMA like maybe the quietest of the entire calendar year of course we were supposed to have the GFL double header which would have changed everything imagine what our lives would

have been like had that gone down Saturday and Sunday like if they would have properly filled in the gaps or was it gonna be Sunday Monday, you know, the the NFL gaps Yeah, I think it was Sunday Monday as per the plans. But more of a Monday great time It would have been unbelievable. Shout out to I think I think I saw Ben the Bane live tweeting it Did he really? Despite it having not happened. Wow, you must have been really bored. Yeah But alas it did not happen. Pizzi actually wrote a great story on what could have been. We could have been talking about Dylan Danis versus Tony Ferguson on this Tuesday. In the end though, like I said, very quiet.

I would say the highlight of the weekend was once again, Moses Sitalma. I mean, this young man, 20 years young, doing the job once again. Did you guys see this? He was unbelievable. Look at this, parting him like the Red Sea. I was very proud of that one.

I put that in the chat. Didn't get much of a reaction. But look at this. One knockdown. I read that a few times. I didn't know what exactly. He's just partying. Like he's just like, the guy's concussed.

Second knock. And look at that one. Pfft. I need that team of Thomas jacket ASAP. That one, like, oh my God. my god step back right hook good night. He's got all the makings of a future champ a future star a future everything. He's the oldest looking 20 year old I've ever seen in my life. I know he does birth certificates. He's unbelievable he's got it all not just the future of the UK heavyweight division but I would say oh yeah just

like the future of the heavyweight division He has a type of style and a power that translates across like you don't need to be the uk's guy He can be the global superstar because of the way he fights and the way he looks he's he's going to be the thing What I also love about him is he doesn't look menacing Necessarily, you know like dante walder was jacked, you know, menacing, Joshua chiseled. He just kind of looks ordinary in terms of his physique, but then he goes out there and he does that. It's also the demeanor.

He's very slouch, you know, kind of like relaxed. He's the definition, the personification of like cool and calm, as opposed to like Deontay's got the meema going, he's got the swagger, he's just there. And then it like, it's almost like sleepy. It's like a Tracy McGrady kind of thing. It's like sleepy. But then when it's time to go to work, I mean, you see the results. He's, he's absolutely incredible. That's a nice reference.

Yeah, there you go. I think he's quite charismatic though. Like, I mean, compared to Joe Joyce and guys like that, who even DuBois, right? Like there's been issues where they're talking on people. Like, can you get people on board? I think this guy has got it. Like this guy's got the flair. He's got the charisma. He's got the, he's got the, he's got the, he's got the, he's got the, he's got the, and guys like that who even Dubois, right? Like there's been issues where they're talking on people. Like, can you get people on board? I think this guy has got it.

Like this guy's got the flair. He's got the charisma. He's obviously got unbelievable hands too. Do you think Bacoli's a step too soon? Ariel, what do you think? So that's the thing. He was sitting there in the front row. Sounds like they're trying to move towards that.

I don't feel like the juice is worth the squeeze on that one. You know what I mean? Why not? In the sense that, okay, is Boccoli a champion? No. Would it be a great fight? Yes.

Do you have to do it now? No. I think that there are enough guys with names, Hergovich, Otto Vali, who have names, who means something that he can knock off first en route to Boccoli because people are still hung up on the Boccoli loss to Joseph Parker.

That wasn't the real Boccoli. And I know his last fight wasn't great as well, but I just feel like, look, I think you could do, as crazy as this may sound, I think you could put Moses in there against Dubois. It doesn't sound crazy. I think you could put him in there, but it's like what's, that just feels like 20, like why rush, but maybe they want to, I don't know. I don't know. Well I think Herkovich, like Bacoli's size is the only thing that's daunting about that. Yeah, he's massive. Like he's 320 pounds or whatever when he's fighting. But I would like for him to take a step. I would like for him to take those names.

You know, those like top 20 guys, you know what I mean? Who aren't scrubbed. What about Joyce? Joyce? I don't even know if I want to see Joyce fight again. You know what I mean? Um, who aren't, who aren't, Joyce, I don't even know if I want to see Joyce fight again. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. He would kill Joyce. He would kill Dillion white.

In my opinion, he would kill Chasora. Like those guys, I'm afraid they are going to do that. Like I do feel as though Chasora is going to be in the mix here. For his retirement fight. Why would he do that? I wouldn't do that. Yeah, come on. Retirement fight.

It's fine. Come on. That's what he keeps saying. Penultimate retirement. Somebody is going to have to be the stepping stone for him though. Somebody is going to need to be the guy that signs on the line. That's a good call. Yeah, that's a great fight. I'll take that. Valene's coming off a win too as well, right?

Yeah, no, he's solid. Almost beat Tyson Fury, got the cut. They claim the fame. But anyway, he was the star in my opinion. There were a couple of boxing events on Dazon, but I am so excited about him. In fact, on today's episode, we play two on Tuesdays. On today's episode of Aron Adde on the Dazon Boxing Channel, I was thinking about pound for pound.

I was like, okay, yeah, you know, Canelo, Crawford, they're fighting. Usyk's coming up, Inouye just fought. You've got Katie and Amanda fighting in July. Let's do a pound for pound. We've never done pound for pound. And then I realized everyone kind of has the same pound for pound. One guy may be one, and the other guy may have that person at two, but then the other one has the two at the one. It's all kind of the same, just in different slots. So then I came up with our first ever popcorn list, which

is our must watch fighters. All action, must see TV. I'm very excited about this. different slots. So then I came up with our first ever popcorn list, which is our must watch fighters, all action, must see TV. I'm very proud of this. And so these are the 10 fighters, regardless of what you're doing, regardless of weight class, regardless of gender, you are watching these 10 fighters.

And so we'll present our top 10 popcorn list fighters, spoiler, Moses is on mine, quite high at the moment. Like when I know he's fighting I am stopping what I'm doing, I'm finding it if I'm out, I'm watching it on my phone and and that actually got me thinking about us doing that as far as MMA is concerned. Like top 10 popcorn fighters no matter what, they don't have to be top 10 fighters, they don't have to be top 10 fighters They don't have to be top 15 But they just do something for you and you got to watch them whenever they're in action Perhaps we could do that in the coming weeks. Perhaps we could do that on a slow a slow week

I mean this this would be a somewhat slow week We do have an apex show on Saturday, but let us know in the chat Let us know in the chat who are your top five popcorn fighters? How about that? And we could work from there. And we'll weigh in as well. Number one, Maakwan Amirkani, auto. Oh my god. Lock it in.

That's a pull right there. Why did you jam? You're getting two minutes of violence in either direction, and that's it. Wow, Maakwan Amirkani. Number one. Mr. Finland. I was going to say Mr. Finland.

I'm getting a banger, and I'm out of there in two minutes no matter what. All the time, topology picture. It's great. What's his picture? What's his picture? Surrounded by some ladies. It's like him sitting on a couch surrounded by women.

For real. He was a model as well, right? He was a great looking lad. That is an all time. Dime piece. Yeah. That's a mock one. He hasn't fought in a while, right?

I think he's done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's out of the UFC. No, I think he's... Yo, he fought on May 3rd. Shut up. Yeah, I was gonna say. How long did it last? Impossible.

It lasted, that was a decision. Not at Des Moines. Oh, it's lost. He might've lost it. He might've lost it. He fought at Ice Cage Fighting. Oh, yeah, he's still fighting. I said he's out of the UFC, someone was like, no.

No, no, I meant thought he I thought he had retired Yeah, there it is How do you even get that as your topology picture? Did you use that or did he did he it looks like he's a missus there? She's annoyed She's annoyed with these other ladies which one the one on the right? Yeah, the one the one saying hey listen get the fucking hands off I love me just like the stacks of chips as well. What's up with the stim on the glass? Is this AI?

No, I don't think so. This is legendary shit, Frank. This is real. There's a couple of weird, like one dude here, a Google user has Yuri, Geichi, Charles, Pereira, Hamzat. The name is a Google user? That's his name, a Google user. But then there's other ones who I don't think understood the assignment like, you know,

Pollyanna, Viana, like we're not, this is, you know. I don't know, I gotta see the rest of the list. Different reasons. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Sean O'Malley. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Sean O'Malley's a good one. Yuri is a good one. Yuri is popcorn. Oh, Yuri's a great one. Terrence is a great one. Terrence for sure.

Terrence McKinney's a great one. So we can do that, we can do that, but we'll present our boxing list later on today. Let me tell you about today's program. In a bit we'll be joined by Oban Elliott, the Welsh gangster himself. He was supposed to fight this weekend at the Apex, but due to a visa issue, he got pushed to June 21st

in Bakuu in Azerbaijan. So I would say honestly, a silver lining for him because he now goes from the apex to what should probably be a pretty hot crowd. They've never had a UFC show before. So we'll talk to Oban. It's always great to have him on the program. After that, we'll talk to Macy Barber, one half

of the main event this Saturday at the apex, an important fight at 125. She's going up against Aaron Blangefield. She hasn't fought in over a year. Her last fight was at UFC 299. Blanchfield getting back on track. Women's flyweight has never been more interesting and you know you can make a case that maybe the winner of this fight is won away, something like that, if Valentina is going to fight Zhang Weili next. We shall see. And then we're going to be joined for the first time on the program by Kayla Plant, who's, uh, one of the most entertaining boxers in the game in the

ring and out of the ring. And, uh, he's fighting this Saturday on a PBC card that's on Amazon, but not on pay-per-view if you're an Amazon prime subscriber, you get it. Gratuit. Now, that never works here. That never works here. I don't know what's going on in Ireland. Yeah I don't know what's going on over there. Benevides can't watch it. Yeah well those were pay-per-view. Those were pay-per-view. I wonder if this one will be available worldwide. We'll ask our contact. He had an issue with

Jamal Charlo at the Munguia Canelo card last Cinco de Mayo, and he slapped him. We have the footage. You guys remember this when he slapped him in the back at T-Mobile Arena, and now they're both fighting on the same card. There's the moment right there. I think we might have missed the slap there.

Or does it come back? No, it happens that fast. It happens that fast. Well, anyway, they're both fighting on the card, and if they both win, they're probably gonna on the card. And if they both win, they're probably going to be fighting each other. And so, uh, that's kind of how it's being set up right now.

He's great. I actually had a moment with him back in December of 2021. I was working for Showtime. It's one of the darkest moments of my career. If I'm being honest, I was up there. Who was I up there with? Uh, Andre Berto and Paul Pierce of all people. And Caleb Plant comes up there and I'm like, oh, okay

I plan. He's a cool guys from Tennessee. He's got a nice beard. He liked shoes and Unfortunately It didn't go my way. Do we have this? Oh, yeah here he comes. Yo, what's up? What's up? Yeah, what's up? Immediate red We're a little shaky going into it Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh uhhhh What do you think he's thinking? Do you think he's thinking like I don't actually know this guy or did I screw it up or was I giving off the wrong vibes? Alright look, you wanna know like- Existential crisis here in Miami. Go back one more time if we can, just one more time. Tell us GC, what was he thinking? The way that I do it, when this happens to me, I pronounce it. I'm just like, oh we fucked that one up man.

This one's like, you go for handshake, he goes for dab, and then he like sticks his hand back out and you go for knuckles. Knuckles was never presented. It's a disaster from jump. It's a disaster from jump. It's one of my worst. I've had some bad ones. Like Nate and I had a bad one. I've had some bad ones, I'm not gonna lie.

I think your error was you were so in your head, you didn't look at what you did with the person first. You were unsure going into it. You gotta just commit to one. A gentleman came up to me when I was at the train station last Thursday and he went DAP, I went handshake, we met in the middle, it was an ugly thing, and I was just like, you know what, man,

we fucked that one up. We're just gonna move on. You went for a handshake. You put the hand straight out, right? You stuck it straight out. He just gave a DAP, you just follow the chain so that he can go down the line. I'm with Rick 100% here.

Even if you don't know the guy, you know he's going dap again. He's going dap again. He wants to default to dap. He's defaulting to dap, you gotta dap. But then he pulled it away. Well, he pulled it away because you did like a bang. You went straight at him.

You went straight. You gotta go for the cuffs. Nice to meet you, sir. Now he's completely thrown off. He sort of turned your handshake into a dab. Yeah. The biggest question mark is why we're going back for the fist. I don't know.

I think at that point we were just sewing our head. We just did the woe. We went ahead for a fist, too, I think. Do people not do that? Is that not a thing? Not after you blew the dab. You're talking like the dab and then come off and then go to a fist?

Yeah. Yeah, I haven't done that one. I've had it go consistently wrong so many times with my neighbor that we actually had a discussion of what we do when we see each other because it's like, it's just been so awkward. You talked it out before. Well, after it happened like 12 times,

like this has to stop, let's just agree to shake hands and be done with it. I know you have it in you too because I've seen you hold steady on the fist. Oh well my move now is this. This is my move. Fan comes up to me like, hey Ariel, and I just, I commit to the fist,

and so we go hand to fist, and it's super awkward. Hey you gotta curl your fingers around your fist, that's always weird. I just don't, I don't, I'm like, I just saw someone this weekend. It's the best one, the fist pump is the best. Then that was it. And I see the look on their face like,

hey why didn't you just open your hand? And I'm like, nope. Fist pump actually isn't the best then I was it and I see the look on their face like hey why didn't you just open your hand I'm like no this bump actually isn't the best a quality DAP is proper gone away number one oh yeah agree I think too much too much touching too much touching you're touching them with your fist what's the difference just nice and me. Well, the point is we're going to get to talk to you. Full hug or this. Full hug is not my thing. Oh, full hug is not too much touching. But dab with an explosive clap, and then you guys split

perfectly is like, I'm with GC. You get a high from that. I'm with GC. Wow. Well, this will be my first time talking to Caleb since that moment. I hope we roll the video and let him... We look forward to that.

You know it was an interesting weekend for me guys because when I left here I didn't want to say anything but I was quite sick. Did you guys notice? I noticed the first thing this morning. I was not sick anymore but I was quite sick when I left on Wednesday feeling awful, like awful. Eyes puffy, had an early morning flight to Montreal on Thursday.

I was supposed to help my friend out. He had a charity function. I was gonna be speaking there. And there I am watching the Knicks and things are going okay. And it's like brightening my mood a little bit. But then everything changed obviously in the last three minutes of the game.

We shall never talk about that again. And then I'm feeling awful, awful. And in the midst of all that, I get a notification that my flight got canceled. My 7 a.m. flight got canceled. And they moved me to a 3, 30 p.m. flight, which wouldn't get me there in time. And I took that as a sign to actually cancel the trip, which I felt bad about. But I sent in a video, and I think it all worked out. And maybe the result of the next game had something to do with it, some joke like,

hey, did you cancel because you were depressed about the Knicks? I was like, of course not, but I was like 50% depressed. But like Thursday wasn't feeling great. Friday got back on track. And the weekend actually started quite horribly for me because then we go down 2-0 and I wake up Saturday like super depressed. But then I had nine hours of soccer Saturday and Sunday, an hour away. So that was good.

Sun's team lost on Sunday penalty kicks. Lost in the final on penalty kicks in a game that they came back against kids a year older than them. We had a teachable moment in the final where I asked him afterwards, hey did you did you get the call like to take one of the kicks? He didn't he didn't he wasn't one of the five said his coach asked him to take the fifth and he said ah hell no. I said the coach asked him he goes ah hell no. I'm not taking this. And I was like why? Michael Jordan said you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. He's like no I don't want that. I was like, why? Michael Jordan said, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. He's like, no, I don't want that. I was like, yo, man, you need the smoke. You want the smoke. And he said he felt worse about not taking it.

So in the end, I think I got through to him. And then we went home after all of that, watched the Knicks win, and then had a very nice Memorial Day. Daughter went to Beyonce on Sunday. So overall, it was a great weekend. And it wasn't too stressful as far as things to watch, things to follow because nothing was going on.

It was amazing. I would say the biggest thing that happened was nothing happening in between John Jones and Tom Aspinall. Sure we're still getting, what do people call it? Honey something, what is that term? Honey pot? Honeydict? I don't know you guys but every time we go online now John's loving this John is absolutely loving this he is just messing with us at this point like you go online and he's like I don't know what he's doing

he's wrestling with ten guys in the pool what's he doing over there in Thailand are they even look at the running man first. Look at this guy. Loving it. It's pretty funny. In the rain. That shit is not funny, Pete. Also, is he wearing a cap? Why is he jumping into the pool wearing a cap? And then what's happening here? You're in by yourself. What is going on? John is just... This is retirement John. You do know you're in a few cocktails. Is he wearing a tank top? What's happening? What is going, who are those guys by the way? They look, I don't know. Is the shirt in the pool or the cap in the pool

a crazier move? I think, I think, I think diving with the cap is just dissolved. He didn't dive. Ducks in the pool, what are you guys talking about? Or whatever that is. Oh, Frankie. Frankie. Is that like the nip there

that's recording on the side of the pool? Through the phone. I don't know what that is. It's like a... Oh, it's moving around. Looks like he's not wearing any clothes. What about the dude sitting on the edge over there just pondering life? You see him?

Just looking off into the distance? Yeah. He's enjoying the view. He's completely unfazed by all this. Anyway, Tom comes out and I think he did an interview with... Who is it? With DJ? And he talks about how, you about how all this kind of sucks.

Tom's in a tough spot. I've been inactive for nearly a year and I'm just being told to wait. I don't care about fighting John Jones. I just want to be the undisputed champion. By the way, I've been saying this from the beginning. Like the John part is just a nice little item, but he just wants undisputed gold.

John loving this. Shut your mouth and do as you're told. Oh my God, the ultimate heel. Finally, at the very very end of his career he's playing up to it all. So the ultimate heel and then yesterday Tom teasing us with some big news. Heavyweight news coming. Look at that. Now I think he clarified that he ain't announcing anything and it's the UFC announcing his fights but he joked that he was going to be defending his interim belt. I, I, I'm pretty sure there it is.

UFC announced my fights guys, not me. Sorry. I'm fighting for a new belt interim of the interim BMF UFC heavyweight title, living my best life. I think, I think in about a month or so, I think by international fight week, we'll know what's up That's my new prediction. That's the new deadline just a year. That's all Yeah, what are we waiting for at this point?

No, I think I think I think they're holding out hope that they'll be able to convince him I don't know he's often I think he's done. God knows we're doing videos What are we doing here? Why are we waiting any longer on this? I I think there's no urgency there's no need they only really need Tom back by MSG which which sucks because he should be fighting earlier than that he could probably fight twice before that or at least once and then I'm a fight one more time and yeah I hope they start doing the old Floyd Parrison thing where they like make him fight five lads in one night after this.

That'd be great. It's been so long since we saw him. You know what I mean? This heavyweight division, he could do the top 10 pretty easily. Ha ha! It's an unfortunate thing. I always think of like, okay, so Tom Aspinall

wakes up on a Monday, right? And he's like, all right, work week, let's get it. Go to the gym, spar some dudes, do whatever he's got to do. And like, where's the motivation at that point? Exactly. You're just training for nothing. I mean, obviously you're training, you're staying in good shape, but everyone needs that

thing, right? Everyone needs that light at the end and it will come and he'll have his moment and you'll. I think he'll be undisputed champion, but, um, yeah, this whole thing is very, very unfortunate. And honestly, it could have been resolved in December, it could have been resolved in November, if they yeah, this whole thing, very, very unfortunate. And honestly could have been resolved in December. It could have been resolved in November. If they would have just said like, Hey, you coming back?

This is the fight. No. All right. We're moving on. Like Tom could have easily fought three times this year easily. When you consider the fact that his last fight was in July. I don't think that's fair or accurate because there was hope. We've been out of hope.

This John Jones thing has dragged way too long. Maybe John knew on the night he left MSG he was never fighting this guy. No, he was playing coy. He did the thing in the cage where all of a sudden he flipped the script and was saying, show me the money. The moment it seems like John Jones got the offer and said no, I'm done. That's it. We're moving on. We are moving on. Tom Aspinall gets a fight. And if John Jones was to come back and fight for that belt when he's ready to return, great. If he doesn't, it's Tom's time. I think that was the turning point. I'm not ready to do the December,

we just move on right away, no John Jones. When there was still hope, fine. When the hope is gone, what are we delaying here for? The inevitable. It's nonsense. Give Tom an assignment. Oh, yeah. And I think we talked about this last week. I do think that Tom's time is up. It's just, what are we delaying here for? The inevitable, it's nonsense. Give Tom an assignment.

Oh yeah. And I think, I think we talked about this last week, I do think that if they do move on, Tom becomes undisputed champion, he fights Gan, whatever, Jones will suddenly be like, oh, he'll start wanting to dip his toe again. You think so? Guaranteed.

I do, I really do. Wow. I think that's what Jones is like. Could you imagine if Tom fought Gan and slips and falls and loses and then John comes back to fight Gunnan again? What's in that for John? Why even come back? It's not going to be enough money. Just to annoy all the Tom fans. Yeah. I mean it would be a great troll. I think it's a good chance that happens.

You'd think there's a chance. So I think Jones, I think Jones, like I think he will start making noises about potentially fighting Aspinal like after he becomes on the spirit champion, having not fought Jones. Just teasing us. But with any real intention, I don't, maybe though, it's like that's the kind of thing. That's the kind of thing that gets him up. Like, Oh, they suddenly doubt me. Like he, that's, that's what he's like. If he, if suddenly everyone's going, well, Tom, Tom Asmell is the

greatest heavyweight we've ever seen. And this type of shit tends to happen in this sport because we're full of a recency bias. I think Jones suddenly gets excited and says, eating like two years of that already though. Like what's going to change the duck thing's been going forever. What will change is he won't have the belt. Yeah. I don't know. I think if he's done, he's done. Let's just move on. I truly have no idea what's gonna happen at this point. I feel pretty confident. Well, when you say you don't know what's gonna happen,

like you mean next or down the line? Even next, like part of my brain still thinks that they might be able to make the fight happen. They're gonna swerve us. I don't know. That's what I'm saying. I have no idea what the fight happen. Are they going to swerve us? I don't know. That's what I'm saying. I have no idea what's going to happen. What makes you think we'll know by International Fight Week?

I'm just sort of putting that out there. We're waiting too long at this point. They have pressure on them now more than ever, I think. We had a little grace period where we're like, oh, this is John's fault, but there's only so much time that it can be John's fault for. Eventually it comes back to the UFC, should I get off the pot, you lads are meant to be in charge. Every other champion you're stripping,

Islam, Ilya, all these guys, why is John Jones keeping the belt? And I think that's where we're at right now. It will be interesting to see what Dana White says if they don't put it together. Cause remember at the end of the year he said, I guarantee. And then he also said he had some like big thing

that he was working on. Even as recently as that, as the announcement for Ilya versus Charles He was on that Instagram live being like don't worry guys. We're gonna announce it soon It's it's gonna happen. We'll be announcing it shortly. Oh, we're past worrying buddy. We are I mean Tom for the poor guy gosh More funds poor poor fans. Yeah in fairness Tom has been sick a lot of this year He said on his on his YouTube channel sick of fucking waiting for Legit sick. Oh, yeah. Yeah on his on his YouTube channel like he's had like a bad illness like for a majority

He was like, it's actually kind of kind of working out that he isn't fighting right now. Wow. Okay He would have followed a flu okay. He would have fought with a fluto. He would have fought. I think he'd fight on his deathbed. I don't think he cared. He just wants that belt, man. Well, I'll put it out there. I'll say in about a month's time we'll know the answer.

Maybe a little, you know, a little wishful thinking there. But I- Serogon at MSG, if he beats him in the first round, then Volkov comes out. Volkov, huh? That's the one? I'm saying two in one night. Oh, two in one night.

That'd be crazy. If they had rightfully scored it for Volkov in that fight, he would be the next in line. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had Gan in the parlay that week. I was quite happy that he got out. By the hair on our ass. That'd be crazy.

I didn't deserve it. Yeah, he didn't deserve it. I hope, at least to make him feel a little better, all right, you'll fight an MSG and then March you'll you'll you'll defend if you win in the UK. Love that. You'll headline MSG and then for the undisputed. Yes. And then back to the other. You get to go headline. Someone asked me this question. Don't they owe him three fights? You know how Dana always says like we owe these guys three fights.

And I've always said that that's kind of BS. You get to go headlining. Someone, someone asked me this question. Don't they owe him three fights? You know how Dana always says like, we owe these guys three fights. And I've always said that that's kind of BS. Like no, no one's holding them to that. There's barely three fighters in the heavyweight division at this point. But it is, it is a funny thing, right? Because they always say like, oh, we, you know, we owe them, we owe these guys three fights.

Now, now I bet what they'll say is like, we'll give you a fight. We'll give you a fight if you want to fight for exactly, you know, is like, we'll give you a fight, we'll give you a fight if you want to fight for the interim. We'll give it to you if you want, but you know. It's time to put silver on the line, like you said. We need a BMF belt in the heavyweight division. Interim BMF, that would be,

if they ever do an interim BMF, I think I'm out. We're cooked. Yeah, we're done, we're done. I won't rule it out, honestly. But we'll see, we'll see. So he tweeted May 28th, that're done. We're done. I hope we'll rule it out, honestly. But we'll see. We'll see. So he tweeted May 28th. That's tomorrow. Let's see what this big news is. What was the one that John had, by the way? His big news? Keytone Plus.

Progress for Patients. Power to the Patients. Which I saw an ad for when I was in DC. What is it for? Is it like free healthcare? Yeah, it's like not getting taken advantage of by insurance. I saw Big John Jones flexing on it. I was just like, that's John Jones. Howard the Patient. I was like, oh yeah. Love it. Love it.

Alright, well the UFC is back this Saturday at the world famous Apex, May 31st to be exact. It's Macy Barber versus Aaron Blanchfield. Oban Elliott was making his return. People's main event. We were all very much looking forward to it. to be exact. It's Macy Barber versus Aaron Blanchfield. Oban Elliott was making his return, people's main event. We were all very much looking forward to it. It has been way too long since we saw him in action. And then we got the news that he is in fact not fighting this weekend. Let's get some answers from the Welsh gangster himself. He's kind enough to join us to start it off.

There he is. Oban, my man, you're looking freaking swole. You're looking jacked. I'm ready, brother. I'm ready. Where are you right now? I can't fight this Saturday. I'm at home. I'm at home. I can't fly to the US at the minute, unfortunately.

Is this because of the rap sheet? Cause you're a gangster because of all the crime? Can't go into it and incriminate myself anymore. You know what I mean? But yeah, it's, no, it's just a dilemma, but it is what it is. Everything's worked out. Okay, when did you find out that you were off this card?

I found out Friday night. They told me the, oh what's his name, Emil at the UFC called me in Tesco, I was doing a bit of shopping, called me up at 11 in the night, just basically said that they're going to put it to the matchmaker, that I'm not going to get to the United States on time and I said, oh what do you mean? What if the visa comes Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, because I would have just had to, it would have been really shit for me for a fight week to get there at like Wednesday, you know, I'll be jet lagged all week, then make wait. But he said basically the commission wouldn't allow that.

And there's still no guarantee that the visa would get issued to you Tuesday, which means it would get here Wednesday or, you know, if it got issued Wednesday, it's Thursday. So it's just leaving it all to chance. And they made the decision. So I was thinking, you know, this fight is like, yeah, I just thought just thought it was a case of like... Not that I didn't pull, I was happy to do the... You know, regardless of how inconvenient it was, I was happy to do the fight week like that. But I just thought, yeah, well the fight's off. Fuck, when am I going to fight again? But

ten minutes later, they kindly sorted it all out. So I'm still fighting just a couple of weeks later. Thank God. Yeah. You know, Sean Shelby pulled through. Most importantly, what were you getting at Tesco meal deal? What were we getting sandwiches? I would. Well, I prepped all my food for my weight cut. And I was just I don't know, I was looking at it. And I was like, I because the weight cut does funny things to the head. So I was looking at it with the, couldn't remember exactly what was in what. So I was just getting a bit of salmon and broccoli because I was, I was, I was cutting

weight, you know. Tesco's you get salmon there? I thought it was more like convenience store, like just like quick stuff, pre, pre, pre-made stuff. No, it's like Tesco. You like just like quick stuff, pre-made stuff. No, it's like Tesco, you can get fucking everything. You can get clothes upstairs, really? Groovers. Wow.

Toys. I don't know what. Yeah, Tesco's is high level. It's like Walmart. Okay, all right. So yeah, yeah. So thank God the UFC booked me again, you know, thank God. Just a couple of weeks later, everything's worked out.

I get to go to Baku. I get to fight, you know, in their first ever event. So yeah, just a little delay, but I've been training hard. I get three more weeks to sharpen up. I think this is a great turn of events for you. I think there's a great silver lining here. I personally, like myself, I was offended on your behalf that you were fighting at the Apex.

One of the most electrifying fighters of 2024, rookie of the year candidate, three pay-per-views back to back to back, stole the show at MSG, and there you are on a sort of ho-hum Apex card, sandwiched in between some pay-per-views. Like at the very least, like seven days later, right here in the Tri-State area,

which is essentially a second home for you. Of course, you could have come by, we could have had a brew or two, like it was perfect. They put you, I don't know. So here at least you're fighting on a big card in your first time show. It's supposed to be, you know, everyone's hyped over there.

I feel like it's annoying that it's being delayed three weeks for you, but I feel like this is a great turn of events. It's a net positive for you, do you agree? Yeah, without a doubt. Like I had so much anxiety last week. Every day was like, where's the visa? What's the update on the phone to the embassy,

on the phone to the UFC. And then, yeah, within 10 minutes, all of that anxiety went away. I've got a new opponent, but that means absolutely nothing to me. And, uh, yeah, the apex, you know, what can, I don't want to. No, I get it. I get it. You know, but it is what it, you know, it's another fight, uh, in the UFC, but I'm an arena guy, man. I'm fucking, I'm one of the only ones who's, who's doing it. You know

what I mean? I, I, I thrive under the lights. I feel I'm, um, made to be in an arena. That's what it's, that's just me. I come alive.. Like NSG was my best performance of my career in probably the most like nothing can prepare you for that. And I go like the other way. I don't feel the pressure of it. The pressure brings something out of me. So to go from NSG to the Apex, I'll be honest, I was a little bit pickled by it. I was like, fuck, you know, I don't want to walk into it with with any kind of, it's not about that. It's a different size cage. Everything was different about it. And, uh, but you know, I was prepared to fight Ronnys. I'm glad he got a fight. I did drop him a text to, you know, I felt like that was the gentleman thing to do. Wow, class. Did he respond? Yeah. I haven't checked.

Okay. Oh, you meant a DM. I did a DM. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so I did, um, because that I'm sure, you know, he's got a switch opponents and everything like that. So, but there's nothing I could have fucking done about it. You know what I mean? The embassy is just, just a holder. Very unfortunate, but for me personally, this has worked out a whole lot better. By the way, why didn't you fight at the 02? Fuck knows. I don't know.

Were you okay to go? Like, were you ready? Yeah, I was, I was trading. I was ready for the 02. Well, I was, as soon as my injuries like fully, I had to give him time to heal at the start of this year. It's like a promise I made to myself. So as soon as they healed, I have my first,

I actually have my first sparring, fucking hard sparring. Like it's a hard first sparring to go back to. I had my first sparring with Roberto Solich. End of, end of January for his fight in February because I was in his camp. So then I was getting ready for that. I was getting ready. That was like my perfect pre-camp. So then I could hopefully fight in the 02 or fight in March at least.

And then March came back. They said they got nothing in March, then April, nothing happened in April. I was hoping for Miami. And then they gave me May the 31st. So I was like, oh, well, finally, you know, fucking six months into the year, but I got the fight and then all this shit happened. So this is just like, this couldn't have worked out any better because the UFC could have easily gone.

I don't know. Your visa, your passport and your visa will be there Wednesday, so just fly Wednesday. But they didn't. They said, no, it's not healthy for you. Do that with the travel, X, Y, Z. They can make something happen. And the guy I'm fighting now went through the same issue

with his visa. So it's perfect. Worked out perfect. Si-ok Hyeon-kil. Yes. White Mike Tyson, they call him, or the Korean Mike Tyson, what do they call him? One of those two. The Korean Tyson. The Korean Tyson, yeah there it is. What do you know about him?

Other than that? Yeah, I had no idea but I watched him on the contender series. I watched his fights, done a bit of studying on him and I'll be ready for the challenge, that's for sure. Have you ever been to Azerbaijan? No. Okay. No, I didn't even know it existed, to be honest with you, until the UFC did the-

What? You never heard of it? I thought it was, no, I thought it was like a city rather than a country in itself. Got it, got it. Yeah, like, cause then I look around, I look around the area of Azerbaijan. It's Iran, Georgia, and then there's Kazakhstan

the other side, Uzbekistan, I thought that was a city, I'll probably show my fucking lack my IQ fucking score here but yeah yeah so it's great it's great amazing I'm super happy to be to be on this card now. Baku is a real hotspot they've got f1 there they're they're really growing. Yeah and the Wairs play football against Azerbaijan that's what I then realised when I told all the boys that I'm going to be fighting there. They said, oh, the Bears have been there for the football. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. There's no hard-duty time difference for me. I'm in an arena. Mission's worked out fucking really good. I'm fighting. I like

everything about this. I just get a couple of extra weeks to get ready. I'm flying out to Bosnia Sunday to train with Roberto to get ready for this guy, because this guy is a South port and what better fucking training can I get than sparring with Roberto every day. So I'll be with Roberto next week, do some training and then straight to Baku.

My team will meet me there and away we go. You know, so it will be about seven or so months between fights for you. Do you feel like you need to remind people? Do you feel like you've lost some momentum? Um, no, not in the slightest. I was, I wasn't thinking how have I lost my momentum. I was thinking of the do I need to remind people I don't care what people think my fighting or do the talking. They can fucking, I don't got to remind them of fucking anything. I'll remind them that I'm, you know, I don't need to remind, I'll just show them that, you know, where I'm going with this sport and one fight at a time, defend my spot.

That's the way I see it. I don't see it like I'm chasing anybody. Every fight I'm just like, I'm the champion in my head. And I'm just defending, each fight is a defense. It's genuinely how I see all of it. You view yourself now as the champion. Fucking why not? I'm, yeah, yeah. Not like I'm

head and shoulders above everybody else. Like I see myself as, you know, I'm I'm defending my spot every time, so I see it like I'm defending my own belt and then I just pick new ones up along the way. There is a new champion in 170. Jack Della. You're a fan of Jack Della. You like him. My G. Jack Della. I do like him. I don't know him, but I do like him. He's got a nose like me as well.

He's unbelievable. You were the one that told me about the fucking oath cunt. You were the one. And I blew it. Yeah. Did you? You didn't say it? I said it, but I didn't say it in the right context. This is you tweeting about him. me about the fucking oath cunt. You were the one and I blew it. Yeah, did you, you didn't say it? I said it, but I didn't say it in the right context. This is you tweeting about it. Oh, I missed the fucking show because I was on the plane and I never got around to watching it back.

Missed it because you were on the plane. You know, you know, you like on YouTube, you can watch whenever like it's not like one and done. I mean, that's a weak excuse. There was a time where you watched, but now you've gone so big. I missed the show because I was on the plane. I mean, it's like available to stay there at all. I was talking to you. I was talking to you, but as I was getting on a plane coming home and

What did I do after that? I saw my brother. You got you sent me a oh you went to Nando's. What'd you get? I went to Nando's. I had a big meal that day. I was fucking tired Do you feel like you're like the big man on campus when you go to Nando's because you used to work there and you're now Like now I don't need you guys. You make me my... Extra spicy. No, they don't.

They fucking get there like, oh, what are you doing? Like, one of the boys told me that they're like, oh, I hope I was in again. I'm in there all the fucking time. The halloumi fries are to die for. Some of them don't even give me the discount anymore. Do you have Nando's in America?

Do you have it? I forget. I think they have it in Canada, but not in America for some reason. Yeah. Oh, that's right. I think they have it in Canada, but not in America for some reason. Oh, that's right. I think I remember you going. I went in the UK. London? Yeah, fantastic.

Yes, fucking hell, I don't remember that. The peri-peri, the halloumi fries, I need to die for. Yeah, it's good. I still think it's weird that they put a little flag in your chicken. That's weird to me, but. It's the spice.

Yeah, I know. So you don't get confused. Just tell me. Yeah, I guess. And there's a good little toothpick at the end as well. Okay, all right, all right. Jack Della, fucking beat Bilal, fucking whooped him. Yeah. Did he whoop him fully, really, did he? Yay. It was a great performance. I saw Bilal say last week that he strayed

from the game plan, but I don't know. If I'm being honest, I don't know if I believe him. I think, I think Jack made him stray from the game plan. I don't think he went in there and didn't fight his fight. I think Jack's presence made him look like. Yeah. He's a, but he's Jack's fucking nuts. Crazy.

You know, he's only a year older than me and he's, he's the champ. Um, yeah. Fucking fair play. Yeah. Bilal's the champ. Yeah, fucking fair play. Yeah, Balal's a dog, you know what I mean? Fair play to Balal. They had a good fight. Crazy, crazy Jax the champ. It's because my last fight is like, that's all I heard is Jax De La Madelaine, Jax De La Madelaine, because Baszle had that fight with J. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, um, I didn't really, I was like, why is what's the, what's the fucking,

what's like the big deal about that? And now he's the fucking champ. It's like, wow. Yeah. It's crazy. Give me your, can you give me your Jack Della impersonation? Yeah, yeah, of course. Fucking I can't.

Yeah. Right. Just a little fucking fought with below there. I've met him with the fucking double fist, double left hand, cunt. You ping them. Fucking I. You ping the cunt.

Fucking pinging the cunt. Yeah, mate, just keep fucking pinging them. Keep fucking pinging the cunt. Keep pinging the cunt. Yeah, just keep fucking pinging the cunt. Mate, I love the Aussies. Legend. So you see Jack there, you say to yourself, how far away are you from that?

I don't know. About two years? A year? Why not? How does it usually work? Is it about that? How many fights am I going to have in that time? It's never, I mean, there's no rhyme or reason as you know, some guys get there four fights five fights

But just when you watch those guys competing, that's the that's the top of the food chain right now There's so much there's so much movement. I think your division right now is the best division in the UFC Yeah, it's fucking wide open in it. There's a whole turnover happening There's the whole new crop of youngsters coming up, youngsters I say. Fresh blood, you know, the Ian Garry's of the world, the Joaquin Buckleys, you know, and it feels like the older guys are moving down. Shafqa is still gonna have his time. You get Islam now, Jack Delah obviously there. Islam has 100% come up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's been announced.

But fully. No, no, no, I mean, like he's not just a little champ, champ, and then he's going back. Well, he had to, he had to drop the belt. Oh, fuck. How do you think he does against Jack Dilla? Um, nah, come on, Jack's got a fucking doing. You think so? It'll just fucking...

Hmm. Yeah, easy work. Easy work. Yeah, you'll fucking get him. You think you got to stop this guy fucking go stop him. Do you think Islam has a taste of 170? It says, let me go back down. I hope so, because he's fucking scary, man. So come on, we keep him there. Surely. I'll be fucking keep him there, man. But yeah, the less like you say, reading off these list of killers, what do we need to have another one for? You know, I've got fucking I'd rather get there like, you know, I'd rather

I'd rather fucking sure. I guess you got fucking. Yeah. Who would have thought Jack Doe would be champion in 2025? But this is the thing this is the thing it's like, ah, who would have thought but Jack's probably Well, no, I'm not gonna say that Maybe I'm like Jack Jack's like me in the sense Like he probably didn't give a fuck about like, oh this guy's the champ or this guy's right above me or this guy's this guy's

You know, everybody talks about him online is some fucking killer. He probably just thought I'm Keeping my spot where it is. I'm not gonna let any cunt Take it from me. Yeah. Hell yeah. That's how I've that's how I so I mean He's probably like, oh, yeah, I've got the belt, but you know, I've got to fucking do Islam now. And then after that, you know what I mean? He's probably always been, you know... So, everybody gets lost in other people's hypes, I mean.

But at the end of the day, there's nowhere to hide in the octagon. There's no real fucking talking and... How can you say? Like if some guys have more heavily favored than the other and then. It all, none of that matters. Does it in the end. It's about who's harder than the other guy. So, and Jack's fucking, he's a beast.

I mean, it's proper cool that he's the champion of my division, someone like him. I didn't even mention Sean Brady either. It looks like he may be going up against your boy. Ian? Yeah. Is that happening? Well, it feels like that's the way, you know, the tide is turning.

How do you feel about that one? Fucking hell. Crazy fight. Whoa do you feel about that one? Fucking hell. Crazy fight. What are you laughing at? How do you feel? Are you enjoying training with Ian? What are you laughing at, Ariel? I like how honest you are because you talk like you're

like a fan, like fuck, that's a crazy one. Oh, right, yeah. And then we're reminded that you're one of the best fighters in that division. I'm one of the best fighters of all time of all time as well i just we're talking about time um you and ian you get along yeah yeah of course we've been getting along for years now we were both in cage warriors together it's like me and him were in like the same class at school

before we went to university college yeah yeah yeah so like when we're both here together it's crazy. Ian's all, fuck it, man, Ian'll do it. Come on, Ian. Ian'll do it. All right. Crazy, yeah. Ian, Ian'll do it.

No one will stop Ian. He's on the fucking run. He's gonna do it. Except for you. Would you fight Ian? Ah, you bastard. Well, I mean, you're in the same weight class. Yeah, no, okay, okay.

We actually, we have had the conversation, and it's funny, we had this conversation while I was in his son's room watching his play fighting with his son while he was hitting the bag. We had like, I was sat on his son's bed. Oh God. And he was sat on the chair and we were literally having a conversation while Leo was hitting the bag. But it's one of them, isn't it? How did that conversation go? He's like, hey, you're sitting in my son's room.

You're not going to fight me one day, are you? Nah, it wasn't like that. He's cool about it. Ian's like, he's real, you know? Nah, it wasn't like that. He's cool about it. You know, Ian's like, he's real, you know? And, yeah, we had the conversation. I feel like it can't be, that's our conversation, you know? Sure, sure.

Because there's a lot of cunts online. You got me saying cunt now. You're not gonna give us the whole thing like, oh, we're best friends, we promised each other. No one wants to hear that. No, we didn't. No, no, no, no, we didn't say that. No, Ian, fuck it. Yeah, no, no, no, no. Okay.

Yeah, but that's our conversation. No, I get it, I get it. And yeah, we got some good training there and we support each other. He gave me a, we had a, when was the last talk? We had a really long phone call when he was on his way to Canada. We were just like reflecting like, fuck, look how far we've come, you know,

like how, you know, he's obviously further than me at any. But look how far we've come. And he was like saying, yeah, but fucking you're fucking really good. And I'm like, that means a lot. And yeah, yeah, me and him are me and him are cool. And I'm proud of him for what he's for what he's done, because he had a crazy couple of years when everyone was talking shit about him

and he stayed strong in the face of all of that and look where he is now, so fuck him. I feel like you have a soft spot for those people. I saw you defending Bo Nicol, one of the few people who went out there and defended Bo as everyone's piling on. Yes, I did, yeah, because why wouldn't I defend Bo? Come on, man.

Fucking get on with it. We're all in we're all in Europe We know the riddles of a beast. Yeah Just because these fucking clueless casual fans You know who started watching and they in the in the fucking when Colin McGregor become the champion You know there was a whole world before that. There's so many more people who, who know more and understand this game more. And when I saw Bo fighting the Red, I was like, fuck it out. Fair play. Cause Bo's new in MMA, he's a great wrestler,

but he's new in MMA. So, um, fair play for him to take in that. There was no one saying fair play, Bo, you're going to, you're fighting the ridder. There was nobody saying that I'm just honest about it and You know, we lost to a fucking savage Who cares get on with it? You got fraud check a fraud check they said I'm being facetious by the way, cuz I think that's all nonsense. No, that's what people said. But like, yeah, these fans in MMA bro, do you know when I preferred MMA? When I used to have to tell people what it was, because there was barely any dickheads watching it then.

There was just fucking, we, you know, we knew what we were talking about. We understood the game, you know, the legends of the game. And we know the sport, but then you got all of these gimp's talking online and there, fuck them. By the way, a lot of these fans that you're talking about aren't even Connor champion fans. They're like pandemic fans,

which was about like four years post Connor. That's right. Like they weren't even around for Connor. Yeah, that's right. Pandemic fans, yeah, because there was nothing else on TV was there? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they, and they've got all these fucking Twitter accounts

and they're fucking doing this and you've got all these fucking fat guys filming themselves talking shit about fighters. Crazy, crazy. You know what I mean? You engage with some of that, you like, you go back on it. I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always do it.

Yeah, I always do it. Cause I just see it like fucking, I'm just like, you know, I guess I'm just one of them. I'm only a person giving my little two fucking, Yeah, you actually- 20 pence every so often. I only do this sport because I like fighting and I've always, this is the only sport like,

I've ever done where I've truly loved it. You know, I played rugby and I've always, this is the only sport that I've ever done where I've truly loved it. I played rugby and other things, but fighting was, yeah, I do this sport and it just so happens people watch it because when I was younger, nobody had a fucking clue what it was. They thought it was the WWE. But I still did it then. I did it then. I'd watch it then. Nobody knew what I was talking about. Nobody knew what I was. And I love it just as much then as I do now when everybody knows what it is. So, yeah.

I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. I don't know if you know this, but this week the highly anticipated Ultimate Fighter program returns. Coaches Danny Cronie and Chael Peay. I thought Chael would have you on the squad as an assistant coach. I thought I'd see you there with the jersey.

It seemed like... We got our plan there, real. Okay, all right. No spoilers here. We've got our plan. All right. Yeah, yeah, don't get in trouble. Okay, so you might be showing up is what you're saying.

Ah, no, no, no. I can't, I'm an ultimate psycho. I won't be there, bro. Can't be bothered? I've got big business to take care of. I can't be teaching anyone. I don't know this game well enough myself, yeah. Assistant coach, you come in,

you talk to them about what it's like to go three and oh, fighting on some of the biggest cards, some of the biggest stages. I mean, you've got some wisdom to impart. Isn't that crazy though that I've done that? Yeah. Fucking hell. Swear to God. What? You keep laughing at me for it. Yeah, because it's great. I like how...

Well, isn't it mad? Like, fuck, Madison's going on. Yeah. I did the thing in front of everyone. Who's the man? Fuck, no. Who's the man? Yeah. And honestly, I'm so sad that that's in the past. It's like, oh my God, how lucky I am to have had that moment there. Like, fucking hell. It could have been somewhere, could have been anywhere else, couldn't it? But it happened to me on such a big legacy fight as the main event.

When you say, have I lost momentum? Mate, I'm fucking still riding the lightning bolt. I am flying. I spent six months with the best guys in the world, in my opinion, and they've also spent that time with me that they appreciate me training with them. And I've, it's been new challenges. Like I spied a mouth of the other day. Oh, wow. Absolute fucking beast. That's why they matter. I spelled, I forgot how to say his full name that they call him back. He has bought him. Oh, obviously has done lots of spamarring with Roberto. Um, I can't remember, slash pronounce some of the names that I've, you know, like the, the guys who,

who aren't necessarily famous, but in the, like the, is it, would I be right in saying the Western world? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're not famous there, but they're savages, you know, high level Iranian wrestlers, Dagestanis, fucking Chechenians, all the guys that everybody's fucking scared of. I've been rubbing shoulders with them, not having a clue what language they're speaking and fucking fighting them. Fucking six months now. Six months. I'm, you know, crazy. I'm you know crazy I can't remember what you said who's the man in Azerbaijan? It's gonna. It's gonna. Yeah, it's gonna hit like crack The beat that was who's yeah, I'm the beast in the East. Yeah Hey, by the way, okay UK prime time

What's this mean old John Jones that you had when you guys shook hands Not happen yeah, no, we have visual evidence unless this is AI yeah, what's happening here now you had a deal We had a deal John I'm not one to, yeah. You don't want to put it out there? Discuss. You told us already that Triple H said that you're in. So you have discussed.

Yes. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, true. Yeah, but. Okay, you really want me to, you really want to know what we said. Every time you come on, I feel like I put you in a tough spot No, I'm just fucking okay. So tell us tell us

I don't want to get a voice note later. You know being like Whoa, what? I don't want to upset you. I don't want to upset you. That's all no To be honest, okay. This is why it's funny is because TNT, I was fucking still talking to TNT. I'm saying as you were seeing as you were calling me honest, this is what happened with my meeting with John Jones. Um, TNT was there, he was getting his makeup done and then TNT like pushed us together. Hi John, nice to meet you. Hello, nice to meet you. Oh, so sorry, give me two seconds. He had

that wrestle with Bo Nicol and I never spoke to him again. But no, no, I, he met my, one of the, I swear I spoke with the Godfather on the last fucking program we did. The Godfather? He saw Kenton in the streets of New York and he had a picture with Kenton and I had a chat and said, oh, we're here to fight O'Bannon. Now we're to watch O'Bannon. He said, oh yeah, I saw him the other day.

Wish him good luck, God bless. All right. So he knows who you are. He was just busy when I saw him. Yeah, he was just busy when I saw him. Yeah, yeah, all right, all right. And I saw you hanging with the WWE boys as well. Who was that? Yeah, he was just busy when I saw him. Yeah, he was just busy when I saw him. Yeah, yeah, all right, all right. And I saw you hanging with the WWE boys as well. Who was that?

Yeah. Stu Bennett. Yeah, Wade, yeah, Wade Barrett, yeah, yeah, yeah, fuck. Call him by his fucking real name, Ariel, will you, for fuck's sake? Wade Barrett, Braun Strowman, Mark Henry and Drew McIntyre. Yeah, crazy. By the way, the eye patch, was that a gimmick eye patch

or was that legit for Drew there? Yeah, he couldn't see a fucking thing. For fuck's sake, look at you hanging with the boys. Look at you fucking trying to get to the bottom of the secrets of the business. No, no. As if you were telling me now, a wrestler would pretend he's hurt with an eye patch

and what's this gimmick word you use? Come on, Ariel. No, because in the business, like the real ones will get hurt and then you'll see them walking around and they won't break kayfabe. So that would actually be cooler if he was just hurt on TV and rocking the eye patch. You even got to hang out with my friend Juicy Darts. Yes, Sam. Yes.

Great guy. Yeah, Sam. Yes. Great guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He could be a bit of a stage three clinger. So I don't know, like, did he... I don't know, he came to see us at Mark Henry's event. Yeah. He was with us. He was rolling with the boys.

He doesn't get, like, the hint. He just sticks around a little too long. Man, what the fuck? Is there some heat there with Sam? I'm just messing. I'm just messing. I'm taking the piss. Nah, long. Not the fuck, is there some heat there with Sam? I'm just messing, I'm just messing. I'm taking a piss. Nah, yeah, yeah, good, good. This is good, this is good.

But he's twice the size of you, Ariel. I'm gonna fucking rub him up the wrong way. I love seeing you out there with the different guys. Mate, isn't it crazy? Isn't it crazy? Like, I don't know when I'm ever gonna truly get used to it, but I think I am used to it now.

I remember when I first spoke to you. What the fuck, mate? I was all fucking, stop laughing at me. I remember when I first spoke to you and I was like, oh my God, I'm about to go on Ariel. I remember like setting my phone up, I was shaking. And then we spoke again and I had the whole debut and what the fuck yeah and now this whole life I'm living it's like fuck I'm in I'm in I don't know crazy you're the man I think I keep saying that but yeah it's okay it's it's good to be appreciative it's good to be

thankful it's good to be grateful that comes's good to be grateful that comes across. And we are grateful that you are fighting not this weekend, but in three weeks time. It's going to be quite the scene over there in Baku. So do your thing. Good luck. I can't wait. Thank you, Ariel. Appreciate the time. And by the way, just a little tip. The clock above your right shoulder is not moving. It's broken, it appears, because I've been looking at it. Really? above your right shoulder is not moving. It's broken, it appears, because I've been looking at it and it's... Really? I mean, it says 230, 229 to be exact.

Yeah, yeah, that's broke, yeah. Oh, fuck me. Still right. I forgot that was even there. Yeah, it's right twice a day. Twice a day, of course. 14, 20. Like Ariel was right twice a day,

and the rest of the time he's talking. Wow, wow, wow, you're turning on me? Ah! For fuck's sake. Yeah, because you were just picking me off your show because i made conversation kicking me off the fucking show what do you think this is i'm joking i'm taking a bit i'm taking a bit much love much love all the best and we'll talk to you after the win all right yes of course brother thank you there he is the welsh gangster himself obon

elliot always a great chat always a great time. Not fighting this weekend, but he will be returning in about three and a half weeks, three weeks from this weekend, in that card in Baku, in Azerbaijan. He thought it was a city, it is not a city, it is in fact a country. Well, Baku is a city, Azerbaijan is a country. This weekend though, the event is headlined by Aaron Blanchfield versus Macy Barber, a very important fight in the women's flyweight division. And it has been a long time since we saw Macy Barber in action. In fact, the last time we saw her in action was UFC 299, March of 2024, over a year now. What is it? Almost, almost, almost, almost 15 months if my math is correct. But she is back and we are excited about that. And so we say hello to Macy Barber who's kind enough to join us. Hello Macy, how are you? Hi, I'm doing great, how are you? Oh, you look like

you're very relaxed in a nice setting. Big week for you. I did this for you. Oh, I appreciate this. Wow, thank you. I appreciate that very much. It's good to have you on. And you are fighting this weekend, yes? Yes, I'm fighting this weekend. Because I did see Erin saying like, oh, I don't know, is she going to show up? Is she not going to show up? Did you see these comments? I did.

And I think they're pretty dumb. I mean, why it doesn't make a lot of sense for her to say that she thinks I'm going to pull out of the fight when I have like this history of pulling out of the fight. I mean, I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing.

I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it's a pretty good thing. I think it're pretty dumb. I mean why it doesn't make a lot of sense for her to say that She thinks I'm gonna pull out of the fight when I've had like this History of pulling out of fights. I've pulled out of two fights two fights total And both were for some pretty serious things I mean the first time that I pulled out ever fight ever was I tore my ankle in like five different places. So I

Think that was actually the fight that I was supposed to, she was filling in for. I was supposed to fight Montana De La Rosa and Montana tore her ankle. And then I got rematched with Erin and then I tore my ankle and it just was like a weird coincidence that we both tore our ankles and then we got rebooked together. So kind of a weird thing for her to say, I think. Maybe just trying to stir the pot or get into your head or I don't know, rile you up. I think she's just trying to figure out what she can say bad about me because I think she can't really talk anything bad about my style or anything about my marketability. I think it's just mainly that's the only thing she can say about me

is that she thinks I might not show up to the fight Versus her I think her fighting style is terrible and I mean there's a lot of things you could say about Aaron Blanchfield that she's a boring fighter that she has a terrible fighting style and I think the only thing for her to say about me is that she thinks I might not show up Why do you think she has a terrible fighting style? It's boring. I mean have you watched it? Yeah, you know, but you're the pro fighter. I mean do you think she's an exciting fighter?

She's a very good fighter. She's a very good fighter. She's a good fighter. Is she an exciting fighter though? I mean that's a trick question. I don't know. I'm not a fighter. I don't like to comment on whether or not people are excited about it. I think your lack of answer tells us an answer. But were you impressed with the way in which she rebounded from the loss to Manon Fioro? That was a bounce back win for her? For her to fight Rose? Well, just like she won, that was not a good performance in a big fight against Manon.

One would say that Manon was quite dominant in that fight and I thought that the Rose win, the bounce back, if you will, getting her mojo back was impressive. Yeah, I think that Manon exposed Erin's holes and that I think that she was gifted the win over Rose. I think that Rose won the fight against Erin, honestly. I think that she beat her in the striking and I think she got lucky in that fight. Lucky in the sense that the judges scored in her favor.

Yeah. When you didn't. No, I think a lot of people didn't. I think that Rose is on her way out and I think the UFC knows that. And I think a lot of people know that. And so what would, what good would it do to give Rose the decision over Aaron?

Right. So I think that they gave Aaron the decision over Rose because Aaron's the younger fighter. You think that goes into it? Like you think when these guys are sitting or gals are sitting around the cage scoring fights, they think about that? Not sure exactly what they're thinking,

but I think that there's some biased judges for sure. Okay. By the way, the last time we spoke was in April of last year right after your very scary hospital stay, nine days, you were very sick, you were afraid. At the time, I know some time has passed, you still had told us that you weren't sure what exactly happened. They thought maybe it was like a severe case of strep, some staff involved. Do you know now what exactly, because like some of these images, this is terrifying stuff

and you don't need me to tell you that you lived it. Do you know, do you know what exactly went wrong here? We still don't have an answer as to what happened. Wow. No, we, yeah, we talked to, I've talked to multiple doctors. We've had multiple answers as to like different pieces of what happened, but there was never like a definitive answer as to, oh, this is exactly what you had and this is, you know,

that it'll never come back. Like it's just, I've been healthy and I got cleared to fight. And so I'm like, all right, I'm gonna take a fight and I'm gonna go for it. And I'm just gonna plan that it's never gonna happen again. By the way, that photo that we showed of your legs, what is that? What is going on there?

In that photo, my leg was swollen twice the size of my other leg. And I honestly, I couldn't even walk, I was in a wheelchair, I couldn't, it was extremely painful, they didn't know, again, they don't know what it was, they just were trying multiple different antibiotics. I think I had like 15 different IVs to try to figure out

what one would get rid of the infection. And again, they didn't know what infection it was because when they were giving me antibiotics, it was so bad that they were trying to treat it without knowing what it was. But every time they would treat it, they would give me something new and nothing was changing

the situation that was happening with my leg. But then they were also running tests at the same time. So while they were running tests, they were like it could come back positive, it could come back negative because we were already treating this MRSA, blood clots, like they checked me for everything. And they still like nothing came up. And so how long did it take for you to- It's pretty terrifying, honestly. Yes, no, I know.

And you said that in one of your posts that you were looking at the people coming to visit you thinking that might be the last time you see them, which is a terrifying thought, family members, friends. How long did it take for you to feel like you do now? Meaning as close to a hundred percent, like it was all behind you. How long did it take? Uh, honestly, it was months.

Like I thought that, so coming out of the hospital, I thought that I was going to be clear after like a month or whatever, because I was on the IV antibiotics, but then I developed pneumonia. So they wanted to get me out of the hospital, even though I still had the infection. So once they figured out a specific antibiotic that would start to get rid of it, they were like, okay, we're gonna give it to you on IV

for like three days, and then we're also gonna get you out of the hospital so that the pneumonia doesn't get worse. And then they put me on an oral antibiotic and I had that for like, I think it was like three, three rounds of that. And the infection didn't go away until like completely away, like my whole leg still, like even it still has some like veins like that look really weird and like some damage from like how much it swelled.

But after that, I think it was like two or three months and then the leg part was gone. But the side effects from the antibiotics and the sickness, whatever it was that was inside my body was still there. And so I think that when I tried to book a fight, it was just too fast. You know, fighting in July, August, September, I think was way too fast. And I tried to push my body, but you know, like fighters that any fighter that is training is not just like, we're not just going to work out. We're trying to push our body to the furthest limits, the furthest distance that we can and it just wrecked my body again.

And so then I got sick and then that's when I had to pull out. That's the Rose fight in July that you're talking about. Yeah, that was the Rose fight in July. But I think it took me all the way until like December, January, until I was like, okay, I'm good. Yeah. In the midst of all that, like September,

October, November, are you thinking you may never be good again? Were you worried that your career was sort of hanging in the air? I mean, truthfully, anytime that someone has like an infection or injury or any kind of thing like that where you're like, you don't have answers, one, it's one of the most

frustrating things. But two, like, you don't want to go through that again. And so I definitely like, I don't want to put my body through that. I want to have a family. I want to have kids. I want to have a life after fighting. And so for me to go through all of that and have people, not just people, but doctors, and some of the best doctors tell me, we don't know what it is. For that to happen, it was just really mind-boggling and hard for me to comprehend and then also be like, am I going to be able to train again? Am I going to be able to fight again?

Because one training session and you're back to feeling sick. I know what it takes to be the best in the world and to continue to push to going to that belt. And it's not just going to take a little bit, you know, it's going to take 100%. It's going to take 110%. And so I don't ever want to do anything halfway. So for me, if I can't train 110%, I don't want to go and step in there with the best girls in the world and think that I'm gonna chase down a title when I can't train the way I know I need to and so that was kind of what I was Scared of is is am I gonna be able to train the way I know I need to and they know I would the way

I know I want to To walk into there and feel confident against every single one of these girls And so for me to be able to say that I can do that now is it's been really good. And it's been a breath of fresh air to be able to feel that way. But for a while it was scary. How was your mental health?

It's great. My mental health is great. Life is great. Training is great. Sorry, I don't mean now. Now you look, I meant back then, back then. Back then it was, it was just, it was more, it was hard. It was not great because it was,

I don't like not knowing things and I don't like having no answers. Like I like to have a problem that I can fix and I like to have steps that I can take to make things better. And when I'm being told, hey, we don't know what it is, we don't know what's going on, all you have to do is just rest. And then I'm resting and I'm like, there's days I feel good and then I try and train and I don't feel good. For me, it's like, it's really hard because it's not just for me, it's for anybody. It's hard, you know, even the

people around me, you're like, oh, you look great. You look like you feel fine, but then the labs come back and they're not good. So it was really challenging. And it was one of those things where it's like, you just have to really take into, like hold close to things that matter the most, which is like family and the fact that I am alive. Like I am still alive and I'm still here and I have a lot to be thankful for and

so that's the things that I just like really tried to keep in mind is like those things so that you know, you don't go too crazy. And then knowing that I have a whole team of people that when I was healthy, I would be able to train again and those people were waiting and they weren't just like, oh, she's gone she's never going to fight again. You know, like those people were waiting for the day that we could go and train again. So all of that together really helped me get through it all.

Just had a birthday, happy belated birthday, 27th, right? Yes, thank you, yep, 27th. So much more to go, so much more to do, so much more to accomplish, and people, there you are celebrating your birthday. I like the crown or the thing you were wearing on your head. Thanks. Some might forget that you have won six in a row.

You're one of the best flyweights in the world. And certainly with Valentina at the top, she has fought a lot of the people, you know, ahead of you and in the division. So I don't think you are too far off from being in that title picture. Did you watch her last fight? And if so, what did you think of her performance against Manon?

I did. I think that, uh, Manon was, you know, Manon went in there with full confidence and Valentina is just the athlete that she is. She's such a dominant champion. And, um, I think a lot of people counted her out, um, just because, you know, everyone's like, oh, she's getting older. But I mean, Manon is around the same age, I think. And so honestly, I wasn't surprised the outcome. I did think it would be a little bit tougher of a fight, but I wasn't

surprised that Valentina was able to do what she's been able to do this whole time. Um, it was a great fight. It seems like they might be moving in the direction of Zhang Wei Li against Valentina. A, do you like that? And B, do you think Zhang can beat Valentina at 125? I was actually told that a while ago. And I honestly, I think that it's for me as a competitor in the Flyway division, obviously I'm like, I won a title shot after I beat Aaron.

But also I think that it's cool to see that they keep trying to unite the belts or have like a double champ. I don't know if Weili beats Valentina though, to be honest, I don't know if she does. I think that Valentina is fast. I know that Weili has the power, but Valentina is fast. And I think that Valentina is such a dominant champion. And honestly, I'd have to go back and watch Weili a lot more because I haven't paid too much attention to her just because I've been so focused on my own division

that I'm like, I only focus on that one. And I have one goal in mind. Well, you know, it's interesting. I feel like if they do that fight, you win your fight. I feel like maybe you versus Natalia Silva is a potential number one contender fight. She also won on that card in Montreal a couple of weeks ago. Do you have some sort of other roadmap

as to how you get that title shot? Do you think that makes sense? You know, I don't think that either one of us is gonna wanna fight each other just to go and be a number one contender. I think that one of us will wanna go and get for the belt, and then after that, then the other one will go for the belt, whether it's her defending her belt or me defending my belt, and that's how we fight each other.

But I don't really know if us fighting for the number one contender spot is what will happen. Because I feel like both of us have proved ourselves worthy of a title shot. You hate it. You hate that suggestion. You think I'm 100% wrong. Okay.

That was a very nice way of saying it. Thank you. A very diplomatic way. So what does happen to you if you win on Saturday? You're welcome. If I win on Saturday, I'm planning on calling for a, or when I win on Saturday, I plan on calling for a title shot.

Okay, that's the plan. And you think that they will oblige? Like, do you think it's realistic? That's the plan. Yeah, I do. Is this because you have Intel or just because- I don't really think I need to say anything more Okay, I think that that will that will be enough. Okay

Has someone told you this win this fight and you're getting a title shot? I Cannot disclose that okay. Okay. Well, this is good. This is good Do you feel like you need an emphatic win or is any type of win enough? Sometimes style points do matter. Well, you already know that every time I go out to fight I try to hurt people. And my plan is to hurt Aeryn and to make her bleed a lot. And to finish her. And I think that that's a good statement.

And I don't want a decision. I think that all of Aeryn's fights go to boring decisions. So my plan is to boring decisions. So my plan is to finish her. Okay. How do you feel about fighting at the Apex? It's okay. I mean, I know I like that it's in and out. I don't love that all the people that want to come and watch can't come and watch

because it's really hard to get into and there's only a certain amount of people that can come. And I love the energy of the crowd. When I fought in Miami and San Antonio and all the places I've been able to fight, the energy of the crowd is just something that I love and I feed off of. But also the messed up side of me enjoys the rawness of the apex. I enjoy the fact that it's so quiet that you can hear punchline, you can hear them breathing, it just makes everything so much more intense. I know that the last few times I fought at the apex, I remember one time

like I made this girl, one of the girls bleed and I could, you can smell the blood and I feel like in the, in the big arenas, like everything is just so, there's just so much going on that you can't have that same intimacy in the, in the octagon and so I have a love-hate relationship with it. What about smaller cage? Do you like that? Dislike that? Indifferent? You know, honestly, I don't think a lot about it.

I let the coaches plan for that and I let them make the adjustments and then I just adapt because it is what it is. Like whether it's a big arena or like a big cage or a smaller one, like I can't change it either way. So we've just learned to adapt and change the way that we need to fight and train for that. And so that's exactly what we've done.

I saw recently, you got to throw out the first pitch at a Rockies game, but I can't find the footage of whether you threw a strike if it was a ball if it bounced if it was a wild pitch how did you do can you tell us what's the truth it was not it was not a Conor McGregor ball okay that's what I that's what I was wanting I didn't want to call anyone out no I threw a strike I think everyone was worried. I mean honestly, I was worried too because I threw the free throw for the nuggets. Oh, yeah, and I was

not I was so under pressure like three two one ready go and then I threw it I I was just I didn't put enough arm behind it. So I I airballed it Uh, you got my I got my get back on the on the Rockies game. Damn, you airballed the free throw. Oh, my God. Was it for charity or something? Please don't please don't please don't post that.

Yeah, I told them that I don't. Yeah, yeah, I think they still donated, though. Oh, my dear. It's a lot of pressure. It actually is a lot further. And then you have all those fans in back of the, the, the net, which kind of throws off how it looks, right? And you know, people probably won't believe it when I say that, uh, we went and were like, we were practicing the free throws and I was making nine out of 10

baskets from the free throw line. And then I don't know what it was, but like honestly, it really is a different situation. Like the, I think the depth perception too, like the fact that it's not up against the wall, like it's right in the middle, you know? Yeah. I think that, and then maybe a little bit of anxiousness,

like I've never done that before. And then also the pressure, I'm not good at doing things under pressure. I like to've never done that before. And then also the pressure, I'm not good at doing things under pressure. I like to take my time with things. And they were like, all right, on three, two, one, you have to go. And then they were like, three, two, one, go. I was like, oh crap.

And I tried and I missed it. I like how you say you don't like doing things under pressure, you fight in a cage wearing four ounce gloves and no shoes. I would say that's a little more pressure. Okay, under pressure is fine. It's just rushed. I don't like to be rushed.

All right, fair, fair, fair. Like if you tell me you have five seconds to knock this girl out, I'll go for it, but I'd much rather like take my time and hurt her a little bit before I go for that, if that makes sense. I got you, yep, yep, that makes sense. I did wanna call out though with the first pitch,

which you say was a strike, I will believe you, you elected to not stand on the mound. You did the off the mound. They told me not to. Oh, interesting, okay. I promise you, they told me not to. They said, do us a favor and stand right in front of it. So I stood right in front of it.

They were protecting them. I don't know if maybe they didn't have Maybe they didn't have confidence in me. Maybe they were like we don't believe this little girl can just throw a ball Straight down, you know, and maybe they were a little nervous. You didn't say like hey, I'm a mound thrower I throw a heat like I could go over there No, I didn't say anything. Okay Yeah, I'm just I was like, all right, they told me what to do. I'm just going to live, do what I say. You know, maybe I should just break the rules a little bit and do what I want.

But no, I, next time, next time I'll throw it from the mound. I'll make you proud. And what are we doing with the motocross? And how safe are we with that? I mean, like, are you taking this, are you going crazy with this stuff or are these just photos? What is happening here? Well I haven't been on a bike since in a while honestly but I like to ride. I've grown, I grew up riding bikes and four-wheelers and on the lake. That's just something I grew up doing and I love doing all the time. But no, I promise you I've been safe.

It's something that like the coaches are like, Hey, no bikes, no this, no that. And I'm like, all right. Yeah. Um, especially my coach, Guillermo, he's always like, stay off of those. So no, I, it's just something I love to do and it gets me away, gets me out and keeps me outside. But I'm careful. Okay, yeah, because you've got a lot more to do. But as soon as this fight's over, you better believe it.

I'm going camping and we're gonna be on bikes. Where do you go camping? Where's the spot? What state? Colorado or outside? I actually don't know where we're gonna go. Okay. I'm not sure.

I'll let you know where we decide to go. Alright. You must be very excited. Hopefully we get some good pictures though. We look forward to that. We look forward to your return. I'm very excited, yes. Safe travels, looking forward to the performance, looking forward to

the fight, looking forward to the call out on the microphone after, looking forward to all of it. Well done, very happy, most importantly that you're healthy, that you're feeling good, and that you are back in full force. So welcome back, happy belated once again, and good luck this Saturday. Thank you, Macy. Thank you. There she is, the great Macy Barber joining us back and healthy. Sometimes when you do those interviews where there's a delay, it's like when you watch the news,

like the cable news networks, whether it's CNN, Frank's favorite, Fox News, Jordan's favorite, MSNBC, and they're in... The GOAT. They're in... You know, they're in... I'm actually on to Newsmax these days. Give it the program.

They're in... There it is. You know, like they're in the Middle East, and they're like, appreciate it. And then you have to wait like 10 seconds for the Urvalli. Yeah. It's a tricky game.

Yeah, there it is, there it is, yeah. I love when they moved on to the second question and then they finally answer the first one. it's a tricky game. Yeah, there it is, there it is. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Moved on to the second question and then they finally answer the first one. It's a tough one. It's also tough because usually when you're kind of having a conversation,

you'll speak over each other, but then they'll like respond to something you said before. And it's like, ah, you gotta just shut up and let the thing kind of. I feel like you, you, you sussed out the situation and, and adapt. Yeah. You handled it well. You gotta adapt, you gotta adapt.

But it is good that she is back. She said she's getting a title shot with a win. I'm curious to see how that plays out. And she seemed quite confident when she said that. Of course, there is Natalia Silva, who as of right this moment, is ranked number one. I always think it's weird. I think the champion should be one, if you ask me. But anyway, she's the number one contender.

I like them. It would be bad for the UFC's optics if their champion was not one. So I understand why, by default, you go champion one for the external party. I never thought of that. Oh, yeah, for sure. Imagine, like, Bilal was ranked seventh in the UFC.

Would Hamza not be ahead of DDP? He's a betting favorite, right? There'd be people who would be ranking him number one. So you get into situations like that. sure. Imagine like Bilal was ranked 7th. Would Hamza not be ahead of DDP? He's a betting favorite right? There'd be people who would be ranking him number one so you get into situations like that I think it makes sense to go okay okay champ this is the person you're all chasing and then okay rankings under. Well Natalia is one, Fioro is two, she just lost. Grasso is three, two losses to the champ. Blanchfield, Barber, four, five.

So this is a proper, you know, top five. Yeah. I feel like Natalia Silva gets it. Then there's also John Whaley. By the way, I like my Barber versus Silva fight. Yeah. If they book John versus. Which is, I mean.

Jebby. Yeah. If they do that, that's the perfect resolution. They're not going to both wait. Because if they book that fight, those two are fighting in the fall, right? And then, well, Barbara's gonna wait for the winner of that? Yeah.

I mean, she made it. The winner of that could be Natalia Silva. Yeah. It's a rightful number one contender fight too. I was- It's Silva, Barbara on that card. Yeah. I said my hot take last week, I wanna say. We don't have enough times where it's like, yeah, I know they're both on the rise. I know they said my hot take last week, I want to say.

We don't have enough times where it's like, yeah, I know they're both on the rise. I know they can both get a title shot. But make them fight and let's see who gets it. Yeah. I like that fight. If she wins. Jasmine right there too, number six.

Jasmine's right there. If they give it to Silva, then maybe they do Barbara Jasmine. Barbara definitely wouldn't like that. I was thinking of mentioning Jasmine, but I was like, oh, she didn't like the Silva one. What do you do if Blanchfield wins? Same spot. All right. Yeah, we're just leaning towards her right now, but I kind of feel like they're in the same spot, no? I mean, Barbara's on a longer winning streak, but that would be two in a row. Was she gifted? You think she was gifted against Rose? It was a close fight. I don't know.

I'd be long if I said I remember all the details from that fight. Was that Denver last July? Yeah. Yeah. What does that mean? What does that mean? They were like, yeah.

Main event, top of your head? It was the main event for sure. Oh, you know what? I was asking you what was the main event for sure. Oh, I you know what I was asked you. What was the main event? I Remember now it was July because that was that was towards the end of our time at Vox. Yeah. Yeah getting ready I remember that card fondly you were watching it in in the a yeah, I've been had a Denver omelet, you know what? lied? Did you really? No? It was a five rounder, but it wasn't the main event.

Wow! You remember the main event. No, clearly not, because I just asked you. Brandon Moreno and Mir Al-Bazi. Yeah, wow. In Denver, huh? No. Edmonton.

No. I lied again. That's wrong, yes. I was thinking that didn't sound right. Not a single thing you guys just said in the last three minutes has been true. She fought Tracy Cortez in... She fought Tracy Cortez in... Who fought Tracy Cortez?

Rose did. In the main event? No. That was the Denver fight. Wait, so what... That was the Denver fight. So who did Rose fight on July 13th? Tracy Cortez.

Oh, in the main event. In the main event. Oh, that's right, okay. Fuck. That's right, that's right, that's right, that's right. Yes, Tracy Cortez, there it is, July 13th. That was a great one. Rose and Blanchfield were not the main event.

Oh, this is the one where Tracy had to cut her hair. Yeah. We were just talking about that. Hashtag science. Yes, yes, yes, hashtag science. She's holding the hair on the on the on the scale okay okay well we figured it all out uh looking forward to that that's this saturday by the way also this saturday at one of the all-time great venues here in america one of my favorites which doesn't

really host that much mma these days but certainly still hosts a lot of boxing to me it will always be the mandalay bay event center it's now the uh the michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. It's in Las Vegas. It's the return of PBC, but it's not on Amazon Pay-Per-View. It's not on Prime Pay-Per-View. It's just on Amazon Prime. So if you're a subscriber, and let's be honest, most people on this planet are subscribers to Amazon Prime.

You know, where you get your toilet paper, your toothpaste, your toothbrush, your gadgets, your mother's handkerchief, your toilet paper, your toilet paper, And let's be honest, most people on this planet are subscribers to Amazon Prime. You know, where you get your toilet paper, your toothpaste, your toothbrush, your gadgets, your Mother's Day presents or what have you. That will be this Saturday airing, I say for free, it's not really for free, but it just comes with a subscription, a really great card headlined by the return of one of our favorites. They call him Sweet Hands plant, Caleb plant returning to defend his WBA interim super middleweight championship also on the card.

Jamal Charlo, are they, uh, are they doing this to book them against each other later this year? We shall see for now though, let us say hello to our old friend, Caleb plant. And I stress old friend, uh, because we do go way back, Caleb and I, old friend because we do go way back Caleb and I he may not remember this it wasn't very impactful in his life but it's still it still means something to me Caleb how are you are

you doing okay? Man doing well brother appreciate you having me on. You remember the first time we met right? Unfortunately yeah. Wow. I'm just playing right now. It's one of the all-time worst moments of my life, certainly as a broadcaster. Well, we were trying to dab it up. Well, we have the footage, Caleb, and actually I think that I was in the right and you were in the wrong because I went in there and then you pulled back. You know what I mean? Why did you pull back on me?

And look at this, look at this. Here I am, I I'm ready to go I lock eyes on the end though right here yeah what happened what happened you didn't follow through I thought that's Bumble we got slow mo you pulled back on me no no and Pierce had it right but yeah they did it's all right well know what? I appreciate it made me feel like you wanted that connection with me, but I just wasn't ready for it In time in due time by the way What about the fact that you do all these interviews with all these shoes behind you just sort of like rubbing it in everyone's face That you have all these shoes and we don't Look at this Wow, how many you there? That is a setup and a half. Yo,

wow. To the ceiling. What's the price possession? Like what's the number one right there? I got some 1985 Air Jordan ones, Chicago. And I got some 1985 bread Jordan 1s in Chicago, and I got some 1985 bread ones. And that's the year that, you know, the Air Jordan 1 was invented in 1985. So I'd say those are probably my two top. Now, wait a second, when you say 1985, so obviously they've made these a million times.

Are you talking about like produced in 1985? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you want me to snag them? Yes. Wow, how much were those? Are you talking about like produced in 1985? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want me to snag them? Yes. Wow. How much were those? Couple G's? You ever wear them?

Oh yeah. Yeah. I respect that. Shoes are made to be worn, right? Ooh, those are nice. Wow. Look at those. Now, did you get them pre-worn?

Had they been worn before? Yeah. Oh, wow. Well, you do thrift shops? Nah, these ain't no thrift shops for sure. But I got them online for some people who sell all the vintage stuff. Aren't you gonna be wearing Jordans this weekend?

Yep I'm wearing the bread ones uh in my fight I got with the surgeon and you know me and him been putting together some some nice boxing shoes I've done the Freddy Krueger dunks I've done the what the dunks I've done the Kobe girl dads and now we're doing the bread ones so those are like it's a changing fight game, at least in boxing. I feel like everybody's wearing sneaker boxing shoes now. So I feel like we were one of the first to get it going. So what do you do? So you work with him and he designs those specifically

for you. Those are one of ones? Yeah. One of ones. Yep. Wow. Get it to match my fit. I love that. I'm a big SB guy. You have any SBs? Oh yeah.

These are my favorites. See, I know you're not quite on my level as far as the shoes, but I have the Della Soles. You know the Della Soles? Yeah, those are sharp. Yeah, you don't know that I roll like this, Caleb. You think I'm just some honky tonk. I'm not, you know? Nice.

Yeah, I got quite a few dunks too. Those are my favorites, but I love everything about the style. I love what you're doing. And I love the fact that you're in action. I love the fact that this is in pay-per-view, that people could watch it. Sometimes we put these fights, I say we, I'm not a part of it, but behind the paywall, not enough people are able to see it. My one gripe, and I know you've been asked about it all the time, sometimes, and I feel like this has become a theme this year in boxing, it's like, hey, let's have these guys fight and then they'll fight later down the line. But we just saw like look in Times Square, what happened a couple of weeks ago. Oh, Devin and Ryan are going to fight.

And then someone somehow something bad happens that kind of screws it up. Now they may fight in the end, but I just feel like if we're on the same card, like give the people what they want. You wanted it, right? You wanted to fight Charlo. He didn't want to fight. Yeah. Well, you know, just to speak to Lam more on the topic, I will say this has been

happening in boxing for a hundred years and years and years. I mean, tens and twenties and thirties of years, like it's been going on since way back to guys get on a card, main event, co-main, and then they run it after that. Now, as of recent, there has been some, you know, some mishaps. You spoke to the, the Ryan and the Devin situation and, um, you know, it was, wanted after that now as of recent there has been some, you know, some mishaps. You spoke to the Ryan and the Devin situation and you know, it was, I did want to go right into the Charlo fight,

but obviously he's been inactive for, you know, a little bit and he wanted to get active and get a tuna fight or whatever you want to call it. And I felt like this was my fastest way to a big fight that I really wanted, you know, at the time Canelo and Skoll were busy. Mangia was busy with Bruno. Edgar Berlenga don't want to fight, so, you know, I can't force his hand. And so Mangia was busy, I think I said.

So this is my fastest way to a big fight. So I did what I had to do. I saw Berlenga mention you. You commented on it crowd goes mild He tried to get the crowd to start chanting your name. He is fighting and the crowd went mild when he tried to do that Yeah, yeah. No. No, that's what I said. It was it was a great caption on your part He is fighting in July against Hamsa Shiraz. Are you saying he doesn't want to fight you specifically even though he said that in the ring Yeah, I think it's more for just promo. Okay.

You know, my manager has reached out to his manager and we wanted to do something, I think it was late in late July, and now here he is fighting in late July anyways, I believe, so, you know, as of now though, you know, I got a big fight on my hands and I'm not too focused on him, so, like I said, if he wants to be part of the witness protection program

and don't wanna fight, I can't force his hand. When you did the press conference recently and you're standing literally right next to Charlo, we know about the history between, was there any sort of awkwardness? I think you guys spoke to each other, right? You exchanged some words. Was there any sort of like, I don't know,

tension, anything like that? No, no tension, at like that? Um, no. No tension, at least on my end, because, you know, I'm focused on the task at hand. I don't need to be wrapped up in what he's got going on or doing or saying, but, um, he did want to lean over and say something to me, and I wanted him to know

that I had no problem approaching him, and, you know, hearing what he's got to say. So, I'll keep what he said between me and him, but. Okay. We definitely got an unfinished business. So. I was literally just going to ask you what did he say to you, but. I know.

No. Why is it, is it personal, private? Just leave it between me and him. Okay. And the bell rings, everybody will get to see what we got to say with these right here. Yeah. And you know, until then, until this fight is over,

I don't want to get into anything that's got to do with him because that's not where my attention and my focus needs to be. Is it annoying? Because I would imagine you're doing media leading up to this fight. Everyone is going to ask you about him. Everyone has asked you about him. Does it get annoying because you are fighting a tough guy? I mean, it comes with the territory. You know, I've been doing this for a long time and you know, I expected going into this camp and into this fight, knowing that people are not purposely trying to knock me off my mark or distract me or anything.

But I've come prepared and you know, me and my dad, my dad's talked to me a long time about focusing on the task at hand and you know, you focus on the next fight and you may not even win the one that you're in now if you don't focus. So I knew this was gonna happen, but I'm not gonna let anybody knock me off my mark. You guys are doing your job, asking me the questions, but I'm doing my job as the athlete

and as a competitor to stay focused. By the way, you're at home right now, right? Yeah. This fight's in Vegas. Are you gonna stay home the entire week or will you move? We'll see. We'll see.

I'm not gonna give away the secret sauce. But you know, there's some good fight energy at the hotel, but it's nice and relaxing at the crib. So we'll see. No comment. Okay, no. I was just, some fighters love being in the hotel because it puts them in that space I'm just hey if I could be at home, I could be with my family. I could be comfortable. Why not?

You've got the young daughter. She's she is great that video you posted of her holding the belt Incredible would melt anyone's heart and you have a another Coming up I think in the summertime, right? Your wife is pregnant Another coming up, I think in the summertime, right? Your wife is pregnant. Yes, sir. End of June, early July, I got a son on the way and there's Charlie right there holding the belt. And she's in the gym with me all the time,

watching me sparring, asking me, he's telling me she wants to spar and us, us, us running around hitting the bags. And so it has been great to see her, you know, kind of take to some of the boxing that I've been doing. I don't necessarily want her to be a professional fighter, but if she wanted to get some amateur fights and train, obviously I'd be all for that.

I think that's good for anybody, but I see her, hopefully. She says she wants to be a country music star. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like your pal Jelly Roll. Like my buddy, yeah. You guys go way back way back right like you knew him as a teenager. I Won't say as a teenager, but I knew him when he was sleeping on my buddy's couch back in Tennessee and back when he was still just rapping and

You know, he made a pivot In his career, but still on the same path and you know, I couldn't be more more happy for him he's on top of the world right now. And just to see him come from rags to riches and everything he's had to go through to to get where he's at. And now him and his wife are on top of the world. You know, I don't get no better than that. So, yeah, somewhat similar to your story.

And I won't ask you to rehash your whole life story. I know it's fight week and you don't want to open that, but your dad was kind of the one that opened the door for you to get into fighting, combat sports. And so when you talk about your kids, if they do say, hey, we want to follow in your footsteps, now that you're in a much different position, you know, the way you're living, the money, you know, you guys grew up in a tough spot, would you try to deter them against it or would you be open to, you know? I wouldn't, you know, I'm not gonna press it upon them,

but I wouldn't deter them either. You know, I'm not gonna deter my children from whatever dreams they have and whatever path they wanna go down. I'm gonna fully support them and have their back, push them along, help them, teach them. And, you know, if it's not meant for them, it'll work out anyways. I won't have to take it from them.

If it's not something that's in their heart, they'll wind up falling on a different path anyway. So I'm not gonna be the type of dad that deter my children from their dreams. One thing that the casual fan may not know, we love all combat sports here. You used to kickbox back in the day, and then you chose to go all in on boxing.

Ultimately, did you make that decision because there was way more money in America, in boxing as opposed to kick box? Still in America, you can't really make a great living unless you go overseas. Or was there another reason? Yeah, that was a big reason. All I wanted to do was fight.

So I knew if I did kick boxing that I'd probably have to get another job and balance in a full time job and trying to be a full time fighter can be difficult if you can't be able to provide for your family. So at 17, I had my last kickboxing match and I knew years before that, that I just wanted to be a pro boxer, but I was kind of Not falling out of love with kickboxing but felt like I'd accomplished so much as an amateur that I was really just just I was ready to just focus on boxing and I felt like the talent pool was deeper and

Being a competitor like I am, you know it that invigorated me like oh man. These guys are even better I want to see if I can make it to the top of this now because you know in kickboxing I have five world titles and nine national titles. And just felt like I wanted to be Roy Jones at the time, really watching all his highlights. And like I said, I didn't want to do anything else. So yeah, that was a big factor.

So you're returning this weekend and it's such a fascinating time in the sport of boxing as you know You don't need me to tell you with all the fights being made and obviously the the Riyadh season and whatnot But PBC is a little bit on the outside of that They're they're not partaking as much as you know, the matchrooms and the the Queensberries and the top ranks to a degree How do you feel about the state of what things what what's going on right now and where PBC sits in all of this? Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great time. A lot of big fights have been getting made.

I feel like I'm a front runner on that as far as getting big fights made and hopefully encouraging other people in the sport to put their best foot forward on fighting the best. And then as far as PBC, I'm happy with how things are going for me. You know, I've been able to get all the big fights that I want, you know, I've been able to, you know,

be able to provide for my family. And, you know, these next two fights on my list are no different. You know, I'm going to be staying busy. I'm fighting twice this year. Two fights that, two fights that are good for me, especially at the end of the year, a big fight that I want and I'm happy with my pockets.

That fight, that second fight that you're talking about is Charlo, right? Yeah. Is that- So long as he handles his business. So is it one of those where if he slips, the fight's off? Like if he loses? Because sometimes it's like, because we may still get Haney and Garcia. How do you feel? I mean I can't say for sure. I haven't really thought past May 31st honestly. Okay. I definitely haven't given it too much thought on if Charlie wins or loses and again that's between him and Thomas Lamont. You know they got to figure that out. It's my job

to go in May 31st to get my hand raised in impressive fashion and it's his job to go in May 31st to get my hand raised in impressive fashion, and it's his job to go out there and try and do the same. And if he does, then we have a fight, and if not, then we'll figure something out. I'm not sure, I haven't thought that far. Can I ask, just because you know Canelo Crawford, do you give Crawford a shot? I give him a shot. I don't know who wins, and obviously there's white classes for a reason, right? But at the same time, you know, Terrence is a special special person,

special ability, special mental fortitude, special strength. And you know, you can't put too much past Terrence Crawford, especially once he got his mom made up and it really wants it so we'll see. I think both have Things that fall in their favor but That's what makes this so interesting, right? That's why everybody's gonna turn in to see what's gonna go to see what's gonna happen

And you know when it's two special fighters like this I think it's most fair to just let the bill ring and let them handle it sure Canals last performance was historically one, maybe not for the record books, right? Like in terms of the output and the action, what do you make of the state of his career right now in terms of like what we're seeing out of him? Do you think given what we've seen as of late,

this could be the last one? There's nothing left to do? Well, I know he's got like a four fight deal. Sure. But he could walk away, right? Yeah, I mean, he could, you know. So we'll see. I can't say for sure. I feel like he was really at his peak when me and him fought,

you know, for undercuted at 68. And I kind of figured that the skull canelope fight was going to go that way, because, you know, I've heard Canelo say in interviews, I kind of like to fight people who just run around the whole time. And I know that skull. Seeing some of his fights and knowing he's a Cuban was just gonna be on his bike the whole night. Moving around and at this point in his career, Canelo may not be interested in changing gears and

trying to really get to him. But at the same time, Skoll has got really good footwork and it's a lot easier said than done. You know, cutting the rig off on somebody like that so. But I feel like this Crawford Canelo matchup will be a lot more fan friendly. Can buzz I'm just going to be running around the ring for 12 rounds.

I can assure you that that's not. That's not in his blood and. Obviously not can always either, so I think it's going gonna be a fan friendly fight. For those that are unfamiliar with Armando Rosendiz, your opponent this weekend, 15 and two, 11 knockouts. What are you expecting from him? You know, this is a big moment for him.

So, you know, I've said this in a lot of interviews leading up to this, to now that, you know, I remember what it was like for me coming up and having a big moment like this and how much it meant to me and how hard I worked for it. And, you know, I remember what it was like for me coming up and having a big moment like this and how much it meant to me and how hard I worked for it. And, you know, I'm assuming that he's coming with the same mindset and mentality. So he has to be taken serious. And you know, he stopped Jared Hurd at 160.

Now he's moved up to 68 and got a win there and looking to come and take my interim title. And so I know he's tough. I know he's coming to lay it all on the line, but my skills are far superior and there's levels of this. And the experience that I've had facing all the world champions I fought, Canelo, David Benavides, former two-time world champ, Anthony DeRale, former two-time world champ, Jose Uscotski, world champ, Caleb Truax, former world champ.

You know, even Port Kimendino was a tough competitor, you know, a Porky Medina was a tough competitor, you know, a tough title eliminator. So I feel like all that experience will be a major key in this fight. And I've had a great camp. I'm super focused, super locked in, and I'm gonna step on them.

You look to be in incredible shape. You stole the show the last time you fought on that Canelo card back in September. You always bring your one of the most exciting fighters in the game. I love the fact that you're the main event this weekend. You deserve that. Looking forward to it. Appreciate the time on Fight Week, Caleb. Thank you so much. I'll give you the... Appreciate it. We'll work on that.

Yeah, yeah. Good luck. Good luck, my man. All the best. Thank you. Have a lot of peace. Thank you. There he is. Caleb Plant joining us. If you have yet to see him fight for whatever reason, do check him out. He has fought a who's who 23 and 2 14 knockouts interim champion at super middleweight and Again, the the history with charlo is an intense one back when canel fought. I mean Mongea in May of 2024 I was there at the Wayans and then all of a sudden we went to the back and then they told us that we couldn't

Leave there was a moment there wait was it was it the mongea canelo or was it no now that I'm thinking about it might have Been Crawford Spence. I don't think whatever. No, it was been. You can oh, yes It was anyway, they told us we couldn't leave because there was like a whole incident that happened the incident with With Caleb and and Caleb and Charlo where it appeared as though Caleb may have slapped Jamal Charlo, we have the foot, yeah there it is. I like that we have it where it's like right after the slap because we don't want to incriminate anyone.

It's just the slap happens so fast. This is the video bro. No, no, there's another video. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's been two years, you're having a Berenstein Bears moment. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. It's been two years, you're having a Berenstain Bears moment. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. Back and to the left.

Let me see it one more time. Let me see it. Chopping up, restart here. Keep your eyes peeled, it's coming. There it is. It's like a slap scene across the world. Okay, so yes it was. Wow, it's been that long.

It's been two years now. So it was, all of sudden. I had this flashback I was like wait a second. I think that was Crawford Spence Yeah, it was I mean we're lucky we even had video cameras back then Yeah, it was a long time ago. They didn't let us leave. It was locked down They're like you can't leave like why can't we leave? What do we have to do with all this slapgate? Nice nice shoe collection you guys see anything you like back there is a great one he's so he's rocking those Jordans he'd

making them custom that's pretty cool now Amanda Serrano wears Jordans but she doesn't turn them into boxing shoes yeah I like that she just wears Jordans when you're the quote you don't have to no I'm talking about Amanda not Clarissa oh I tried to I tried to talk on I said like I ain't no hockey tongue I don't feel like yeah I was trying to speak his language we have do we have arguments for the globe from every corner oh yeah there's no argument is Amanda Serrano that's quite obvious she holds there's there's Katie Taylor there's only one oh yeah that's right oh don't get sued it's's the conviction that you say it with, Rick.

It just makes it freaky. You keep talking like that, you're gonna get sued. There's only one. I noticed that you posted your picture with the Larry O'Brien trophy, but no post for the quote. Interesting, interesting. Keeps that one in his wallet.

Here's the fun fact about the quote picture. Yeah, I took it. Helwani goes, you gotta take the picture. I never ask anybody for photos. That's so crazy. I never ask anybody for photos, including the it. Helwani goes, you gotta take the picture. I never ask anybody for photos. That's so crazy. I never ask anybody for photos, including the quote. Wow. You gotta enjoy the memory.

By the way, you've never come in the studio when a guest is leaving. This is the one time you come in. That's not even true. She liked when I, yeah, that's not true. She liked when I said that I'm on the right side of history. Oh yeah, she did like that. She did like that.

She didn't like the breakfast at Barney's. No, well, she felt like you let her down. She thought you were one of her. She asked, was this last week by the way, or two weeks ago? It was last week. Oh my gosh. So you weren't here for this, Frank?

No, man. I have no recollection. I'm coming out of a fever dream. You missed carrying cross? I missed it all. Oh my gosh. You missed a lot, Frank. If I'm being honest, you've had a bad week.

Grits. Yeah, grits. Anyway. That was stars. She lives in, You missed a lot, Frank. If I'm being honest, you've had a bad week. Grits. Yeah, grits. Anyway. Dallas Stars. She lives in, oh Dallas Stars, that's right. How are your stars doing? You know what? They have another game today.

They're down right now. Three nothing or three one? Two one. I think it's three. Well, you'd be wrong. All right. She says she lives in Atlanta. She got very excited when we told her

that George slash George O'Connor is an Atlanta native and she got excited to talk about this one breakfast spot. What was it called, Benny's? Breakfast at Barney's. Barney's and he had never heard of it. He had never heard of it. So she felt a little like that.

No, no, no, I've heard of it. I've just never been to it. No. One of those. Is Benny's like the competitor to Denny's in your mind. No, there's a Benny's there's a Benny's in Montreal Oh, it's sort of like Canadian Denny's I get it anyway. I just want to say about Caleb I get like a little like a little Nate Diaz vibe from him where like I feel like Deep down he really likes me, but he also kind of hates me. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, he absolutely loves you All right I like his beard great he absolutely loves you. All right.

I like his beard. And I like that it was getting a little long there. It was like twirling up. You notice that? Nice. What do you think the movie is? I bet you were shocked, though, that he remembered the Dap. Yeah.

Nah. He remembered it. He pulled that. Three and a half years later. It meant something to him. You know, actually re-watching the footage again with him, he actually goes in for a straight on handshake with the first dude.

I've been mischaracterized. No, no, no, no. That's what set the tone. That's what's. I think he thought that I was. Look at that. He's going in for a normal handshake. Time out.

It's forced into it. Play that back again. The hand comes in for a dab. The hand does not come in for a straight handshake. That's a normal handshake. You can tell because the fingers are a spread. Normal handshake, it's tight. Watch the fingers.

No, no, no, no, no. I come in. Is he a Barbie doll? I don't know. Yeah, watch the fingers. Watch the fingers. They're open. They're open.

That's a dap. Look at that. That's a dap. That's a normal handshake. If I have ever seen one. But we can't see his eyes. I think he spots dudes going for a dap. Oh, that's beautiful.

He takes me right there. Look at that move. The quick switch. Look at Awani's face on this one. Awani knows he's fucked. Yeah, but we can't see his eyes. I think he spots dudes going for a dad Want he knows he's fucked you know what I'm All right, it's okay here Nailed it Pierce Pierce's casual this is so casual Wiping them on you know what's the problem you know it's a problem What is if you go back like a few frames right before the handshake right before the handshake my eye? Just like my eye like you blink is I'm so nervous in the moment Oh man. Look at the way you look at him. I was like, oh my God.

You can see the fear of God in your face. And then the blink. Watch the, oh. Here it comes, here it comes. Here it comes, here it comes. Nervous? Nervous. Nervous.

Oh man. Oh my gosh. What happened? Ah! What is that? And then the look down, I'm like, okay. The hands on the knees is the, is the, is the clothes. It's the coffin now.

The hands on the knees, like dude, I fucked it. I fucked it He's so cool. Like I don't know what those pants are but just way better than me. I'll be honest though It's like it's like not it's not that bad It wasn't that bad like there's been way you and Nate when you're doing back and forth 15 times like that was way more Problem will be cumbersome. He. He kept going back to the well. He kept saying, like, all right, we're going to figure this out. A little bit of a misconnection. I tend to do that a lot.

Is that just not a thing at all? Fist bump? Yeah. It's a thing. Not really. It's got to be clear you're going to do it. I feel like fist bumps typically in passing. I do.

No, I tend to do it a lot with my kids' friends. I go like, and then we go like this. Fist bump is like a level removed of intimacy No, but I do the No, no if someone did that to me I would I would be like look at them stone face just like It's the f-bomb. Yeah, what is that man? Yeah, what is that? Yeah, what is this? I'm seeing this Pacers fan charged after stabbing two Knicks fans? What is that?

Losers. By the way, in Carmel, New York, where I used to live. Oh, in New York? Yeah. Wait, why is there a Pacer fan? Oh no, sorry, Carmel, Indiana. Oh, it's Carmel, Indiana, yeah, yeah, yeah. There ain't no Pacers fans living here.

One, what? Wow. Low life. Listen, listen, this is all I have to say. Don't let us get this one. Don't let us get game four. You gave us life. We were dead.

We were dead. Dead. Down 20, they were celebrating. They were puffing the Jerseys out. They had them all. They had all the cows lined up in their farm. They were going to tip them all to celebrate. Knicks versus Hicks, they had it all.

Then what happened? Huh? What happened? I'll tell you what happened? Huh? What happened? I'll tell you what happened. Dillon Wright happened. Landry Shamett happened. Deuce McBride happened. And after all that, big cat happened.

Big cat happened. Yeah, big purr. Big purr. The big bodega, the big bodega. He said, not tonight, not tonight. Let me take this team. They were calling every single play on us, The big bodega, the big bodega. He said, not tonight, not tonight. Let me take this team. They were calling every single play on us, every foul,

every foul, Deuce gets three fouls in 90 seconds. How does that even happen? In on five, right? Mikael Bridges, foul. Foul him. And they said afterwards, they said yesterday, it wasn't a foul. They said, they said, they said, Jalen, five fouls, Jalen.

Maybe the worst thing that the NBA does is come out after the fact and be like yeah we messed that one up sorry about it not gonna do anything about it but we messed that one up. Can I tell you what's one of my least favorite things about the NBA right now? Yes. The new like yesterday I'm watching the Thunder Wolves game all right Wolves down by three let's go go. Foul. I hate that. I hate that thing. Oh the trading of fouls. Oh at the end of the game when you don't let them get a shot off? Hate it. What's the solution for that though? I don't know what the solution is but I know 20 years ago wasn't a thing.

Yeah but it's a strategic play. The same as like you know two point conversions are every play now. I just hate it. It's slow. Okay we're up by three. Let me see if they can make it. Let me see if they can tie this. It bogs it down. Foul, boring. It bogs it down. If the Knicks are up three tonight with six seconds left.

Foul those fuckers. Yeah, like come on dude. Foul those fuckers. Oh you piece of garbage. I'm just saying as a like, you know, you know, non-biased like a new show. As someone that wants to season crazy happen, you're like, yo, a non-biased, like a niche. Someone that wants the season to crazy happen,

you're like, yo, just let it play. It kills entertainment. Who's 100x more invested than you. It kills it. It kills it. But it's smart, but it's hard for me to be too mad. I have a few friends who I'm texting with constantly about the Knicks, one you know, Aaron Cohen,

the great Aaron Cohen. Shout out, legend. And I asked him, all right, how are we feeling? I'm nervous as hell. My hands are in a perpetual state of sweatiness right now, my palms. I am very nervous. I was distraught after game two.

I was walking around Saturday morning just saying, how did we end up here? How did we end up down 2-0, home court, vibes are great after Boston, blue game one. You think they come back game two. They had them. And then they just kind of disappeared in the fourth quarter. I was distraught.

By Sunday I was like, all right, Ksarasa. Then it's down 20. And let me just say this. Knicks fans, you don't have to thank me. You don't have to give me props. But I do think that I changed the trajectory of that game because at halftime I decided to mute TNT. I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take Reggie and Stan anymore. It was way too biased. Look, I know that people have connections. I know they have allegiances. I know they have a history.

But what's going on in that broadcast is a total sham and I can't wait for the NBA to get off TNT. I went from loving it to despising it. I can't wait for the NBA to get off TNT. I went from loving it to despising it. I can't wait. And so I muted the game. I pulled up ESPN radio on my phone. I put on the Knicks broadcast, Tyler Murray and Monica McNutt. I had to time it. I had to line it up because they were a little bit delayed.

And once I got it, my kids and I were on cloud nine. Even down 20 in the third, I was like, this is such a more enjoyable experience I just I just want to hear my guys I don't want I don't want to hear people pretending to be you know Unbiased when they're clearly biased and I don't want to hear bias commentary and everything changed everything changed And so we got that one there. By the way, there is no greater feeling I don't know if you guys agree when a team of yours wins a big game

There's there there are very I saw someone say this and it couldn't be more true. It hits, it is euphoric. Climb into your bed, all cozy and you just rewatch everything. Does anyone else do this? I rewatch everything. I look through the tweets, I rewatch the highlights, I look at key moments, I look at key commentary. I wish I could simulate today's game now, know the result, and then just sit back and watch it. Because I feel pretty good.

I don't think we're back, by the way. We are not back. But we're alive. Let me tell you something that I think is going to work. One last thing, we win tonight, we're all the way back. All right, let me tell you something. Tell me, tell me. To get to this studio, I take the train, take the train out from Long Island, I come into

Penn Station. Yes. Right underneath MSG, right? Oh yeah, oh yeah. Get out of the escalators. Who's there? What do I see at the top of the steps? John Starks.

No, I wish. The Knicks like hype crew. You know the one that comes at halftime throwing out the t-shirts? Not the dancers, but the hype crew. Yeah, yeah. Line of them. Megaphones. Oh, love it. Hand, but the hype crew. Line of them. Megaphones. Oh, love it.

Handing out Nick signs. Vibes. People are buzzing. People are grabbing the signs. They're going, going to New York. The city is still behind the Knicks. Oh, 100 minutes left today? This was this morning.

Yeah, love it, love it. This morning, coming in. Oh, we're back. We're all the way back. MSG's still buzzing. If they come up short. Tonight? Yeah. I think we still have a chance. We still have two more back. MSG still buzzing. If they come up short. People are ready. Tonight? Yeah.

I think we still have a chance. We still have two more games at MSG. Obviously we'll have to win the rest. We'll have to go three straight, not ideal. But we win tonight, it's two-two, and all the momentum's on our side. We can beat these guys. And by the way, just wanna be clear,

because people were bringing up my knee-smith comments on Simmons. I was talking about knee-smith on Jalen as far as his defense is concerned. He shot lights out, but this is a very good team. And in fact, when we were arguing about the Pacers and whatnot, you guys were saying they were bums. And I was like, these guys are really good.

I completely slept on them. They are very good. They are very well-coached. They are very deep. They are very fast. They've got a lot of weapons. They are a very good team. Like it is not like, oh, the Pacers just sort of stumbled their way into the spot and into

the finals, but we could beat these guys. We blew it. We put ourselves in a tough spot losing two at home, but we could beat these guys. All you have to do, I loved what Tom Thibodeau said, my coach, my savior. He said, what'd he say? He said, don't play the series, play the game. Play the game. Just win tonight.

Two, two back to New York after losing first two at home. I think the last time it happened was 2021. Clippers, Mavs, if I'm not mistaken, a team losing two at home and then coming back to win the series, never happened in the 79 year history of the NBA, down 2-0 after two games at home and win the series, never happened. But also never happened, team up 14 with less than three minutes losing a game in the playoffs.

So hey, we've already made one kind of history, why not make two? I feel good, I'm not ready for this to end. And what did I also say to my friend today? I said, you know what, it's May 27th, and we're still talking about New York Knicks basketball. Adversity is a privilege. Can we just go back and talk about the fact

that you turned off the TV and that you were in the game, and we're still talking about New York Knicks basketball. Adversity is a privilege. Can we just go back and talk about the fact that you turned off the TV and that has saved the Knicks season? It's crazy. You trying to take credit for this? It was unbelievable. No, it was unbelievable.

I told the boys, I said, watch, watch what's gonna happen. The vibes are gonna be different. We're gonna be rolling, we're gonna be rocking, and all of a sudden, it's everything changed. So when they make the finals, everything changed. I'll tell you what. We're gonna have this what, we're gonna start the game like this. I'm gonna get it, it's gonna be fantastic.

It's gonna be, I can't wait. Where were you when you turned off the game? I was dreading, every game was pain. They are so biased. And by the way, I'm not one of these guys. I'm not one of these guys who tweets Joe Buck and is these guys who like, you know, who tweets Joe Buck is like Oh, you love the Cardinals or oh you like the Cowboys or something that I think that's crazy they're out there doing a job and I don't think that like any sort of executive is you know

Doing the little puppet thing. In fact, they probably all want the big market teams to win But those two guys given their history with all due respect Stan Longtime assistant coach slash head coach of the Miami Heat during the heyday, Nick's Heat, that rivalry, Pat Riley, disciple, and then Reggie is Reggie. I mean, Reggie pointing at Tyrese Halberden should have disqualified him from the rest of the series.

Am I wrong? I'm liking it, I feel like I'm not. Yeah, no, I think it's fun for- No, it's not fun. For people that aren't fans. Maybe, but it's pain, and so now I figured it out. So I'm liking it. I feel like I'm actually good at that. Yeah, no, I think it's fun for No, it's not fun. For people that aren't fans. Maybe, but it's pain. And so now I figured it out. So I'm okay.

We go in there, we steal this one, guys. I don't know, like, I can't even tell you how anxious I am. So nervous. But one of my favorite things that happened this weekend was we were driving back, and my son said to me, he's like, oh, I'm so nervous. And I was like, are you nervous for the game?

He's like, no, about the Knicks. And I was like, wow. I'm so nervous. And I was like, are you nervous for the game? He's like, no, about the Knicks. And I was like, wow. I did it. I finally did it. The Ohana anxiety loop. You created an anxious Knicks fan. I did it. This is all I ever wanted.

I'll be miserable if the basketball team loses. This is all I ever wanted. There's nothing, let me tell you, there is nothing more fun than all of that than just like living and dying with them. My wife and daughter went to the Beyonce concert at MetLife on Sunday so it was just us locked in. It was great. It was great and they won. They dread coming back if they had lost are they like oh no. No but they sometimes say we yell too much. I said

guys it's Memorial Day. Memorial Day weekend. Weather is nice, the Knicks are in a final four team, like enjoy this, appreciate this, this is what life's all about. Cowboy Carter tour? Cowboy Carter, yeah. They said it was alright. We're a little cowboy hat, a little thing, they were all in. I was very happy. At first I thought she was asking me to go and I was like, are you kidding me? Game three? Can you even name a Beyonce song? Yeah, all the single ladies all the single ladies Jordan won't commit to go into a movie next week. Just no chance. Oh, I've now I've now had to let like I'm going to Montreal

Again on on Thursday. I'll be okay for the Thursday night game. Now. We're at least getting a game five I had a flight home Saturday night. I had to change it now, pay the fee, because originally I booked it at eight o'clock. Now I'm changing it early to land at seven because I need to be home just in case there's a game six. And Lord knows there's gonna be a game six. The question is, are we gonna be up three, two?

Are they gonna be up three, two? Jordan not only wants the Knicks to make the finals because he's a Knicks fan, but he wants it desperately so he doesn't have to go to Frank's movie birthday party. Simple. No. I get that. Finals game one is on the same night. Frank is making this about him. I actually canceled plans on Sunday a week ago because I saw the Knicks were going to play that day. I said, can't go. Frank, you have a lot of notice, figure it out. You need to understand this, Frank. No, I do, yeah. It's bigger than basketball at this point.

This is life stuff. I mean, Jordan probably doesn't even remember. I can relate, like when the Spurs and the Mavericks and the Rockets won. No one cares about that. Oh, okay. That is crazy, by the way. I didn't even think of that.

The three damn teams. The three damn. Then the Cowboys, the Stars. Yeah, boys, yeah. UT. Go to the Stars. Jordan, do you even remember when the Knicks were last in the finals, 99? 99, the three teams. The Cowboys, the Stars. Yeah, boys, yeah. UT, go to the Stars. Jordan, do you even remember when the Knicks were last in the finals, 99?

99, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a strike short in season. They played the Spurs. No, but how old were you? How old were you? Nine years old, maybe, eight years old. Do you have any recollection? Yeah, I watched at my friend's house

who had decided the year previous that he was a Spurs fan. Jeez. And half time we went down to the beach and I don't think we turned it back on because the Knicks were down by like 25. Which game, which game? There were five games.

I don't know. What do you mean halftime? It wasn't just one game, it's not the Super Bowl. We were eight years old. I was the only one who was really into it. I'm just saying, where were you? Where were you when we were down 2-0 and then we wanted to get three games.

I know exactly where I was when LJ had the four point play though, I can tell you that. We all remember the last finals victory, even though I won it once. 1973, game five in LA, Western Forum. Not born for another decade. Game three, Nick Spurs, the one game we won

was my high school graduation. I sat in the back with a portable TV watching. And back then, like you think a portable, oh yeah, every phone, no, no, no. I had to go find like a thing, a portable TV with the antenna, I had to hold it a certain way. I was locked in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was big. This is 1999 That's where I was. Okay Yeah, the dream team. I think there was what 94 95 92. Yes. What about him?

Yeah, I was just reminiscing with you. Okay. All right. Anyway, I hope I hope tomorrow When we have Sean Grandy, one of the best NBA play-by-play men in the business, join us in studio. Actually, Sean was actually giving me a lot of hope throughout the game. He's like, no, you guys are good. You guys are good.

When we were down big, I was like, oh, thank you, Sean, I appreciate it. One time, Bellator, play-by-play man, also PBC play-by-play man, some might have forgotten way back in the Spike days, Bellator, play-by-play man, also PBC play-by-play man. Some might have forgotten way back in the Spike days. He'll be joining us in studio tomorrow. And I hope when he joins us in studio,

I hope we're talking about a 2-2 all tied up series. What do you guys say? What do you guys feel? Anyone? I'm not saying anything. God, you think we lose? It is the class, there is a classic down 2-0. You win game three.

The hope is back. And then you get whooped in game four. I point to the wolves. Yeah. This actually happened to you guys with the Pacers. Yeah. Well, we were out of that series from the jump. But you know what I mean?

You won game three. Yeah. A little hope. And then it was just like. But either way, yes. This happens. Didn't it also happen to the Celtics. But either way, yes, this happens. Didn't it also happen to the Celtics against the Knicks?

Yes, it did. It did, yep, yep, yep. And then they ended up winning game five, blowing us out. But yeah, I know, it's kind of the exact same thing. Yeah, actually the exact same thing where we won both on the road. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Only team in NBA history to come back

from three 20 point deficits to win a game in the playoffs though, so. Thank you So thank you Thank you. No Celtics. Yeah, by the way, why not? I know that somebody else doing a little quirk didn't reverse the fortunes How do we know that it was specific? I've always Backyard halftime cleaned up dinner moved You don't want that pressure cuz now if if they lose, it was like, Hawaii didn't fucking turn off the thing. Can I tell you something?

Can I tell you something straight up? I was feeling really sick, game one. I went to get some emergency, you know what that is? Yes, of course. Let me tell you something. We were up 14 points. Oh, shut the fuck up.

I swear to God. I went to get the emergency. I was like, okay, I was even thinking, just sit jailing. We were doing so well, I was like, don't even bring it back at this point. I swear to get the emergency. I was like, okay, I was even thinking just sit jailin I we were doing so well as like don't even bring it back at this point. I swear to God we drank I drank it We blew it. I Didn't think much of it, but I took some before game two what happened? So we all know what happened didn't take any on Sunday today. I was like, you know what?

Let me give myself a little umph before the show Opened it. I said like, you know what, let me give myself a little oomph before the show. Opened it. I said, no, I can't have this. Look what happened the last two times I had this. This is insane behavior. So I'm telling you, I have always felt, I've always felt like I can control things. There's certain things I do.

I hold my hands a certain way, I hold my knuckles in. There's a lot that goes on. There's a lot that goes on. Maybe there was one other thing that helped us in game three. You said your wife, your daughter. Yeah, yeah. Beyonce concert. Yeah, yeah.

Got to send them back. My wife, also at the Beyonce concert. Oh. Wow. They need to go again. They need to go again tonight. I have a hot take. Yeah.

Your actions have no impact. No, I don't believe that. I actually don't believe that. I refuse to believe that. I refuse to believe that. I refuse to believe that because you know what? I wore a Ewing jersey when they beat the Celtics. First time I had worn a Ewing jersey to a game in about 20 something years, they won. How did these get, how did these, like every single thing you did that day, like bacon, cheese, or did I have a pancake?

Listen, you guys could joke, you can mock all you want. I believe and that's all that matters. Now do we have any super chats? Yeah we got one. Oh wonderful. And it says, Ariel was thinking of Tesco Express, full-blown Tesco is more like a regular grocery store. Oh. This came in obviously. Yeah. You've never been to a Tesco. I've been to a Tesco. Oh, so you must have been to one of the small Express ones. I guess I never realized that there was like a smaller one. I always thought that Tesco was more 7-Eleven-ish. Those are.

Yeah. That's why you wrote in and wanted to clear the record for it. I thought Tesco did gas, but maybe I'm thinking Petrol? No, no, no, they are gas. Oh, like the shit. Super, wait, what? Yeah, the shit, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I guess I didn't know that, but I just figured that a high level fighter like Obanelya wasn't chopping for salmon at Tesco. Like what's the Whole Foods over there? That I don't know. Like what's the high end? I don't wanna say high end. What's the Trader Joe's over there?

AJ's fine. I ain't getting the salmon from Trader Joe's. What was the one from back in the day people used to tell us Marks and Spencer? Oh yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. The Whole Foods over there actually appears to be. Dalton Adderley. Whole Foods? Whole Foods.

Oh okay, alright. Shout out. Nando's is also a big... Whole Foods over there? Whole Foods. Nando's is tremendous. By the way guys, I did want to mention, as we're rounding third here, there was all kinds of hysteria regarding the featherweight division.

Last week, this was, I think on Thursday or Friday, Mosar Evluev tweeting, if you are a UFC fighter and believe you are the best in the world, then you have to fight every fight they throw at you. No risk, no reward. See you guys in July. It's on the internet. and believe you are the best in the world, then you have to fight every fight they throw at you, no risk, no reward. See you guys in July, it's on, hashtag Abu Dhabi. And so people are like, wait a second, wait a second,

Abu Dhabi fighting it, what's going on, what is he saying? Then he tweets directly to Alex Volkanovsky, thank you champ for trying to fight me. I will fight in July and you fight in September and hopefully we both win and we can meet in December. And so everyone, look at that, 1.1 million views. Everyone lost their mind. I don't think that Volk got any heat for this

because of the way that was worded. And to his credit, Volk said even before the Diego Lopez fight, hey, I'm gonna beat this guy and then I wanna fight Moff Sar. He's the guy. And then even after the fight said, hey, I wanna fight Moff Sar. Even though he may not be the biggest name,

even though he may not be the most popular fighter, may not have the most exciting style, Volk has not and has never shied away from any of this. Maybe it's because he's a fighting champion, he's just that kind of guy, or maybe because there was once a time where he was in a spot where, you know, people weren't banging the drum to fight him. And then everyone jumped on the I can't believe they're gonna do Volk versus Yair train, right? Well, my

understanding is that's not exactly the direction. I think everyone just assumed unless I miss something, unless I miss a tweet, I think everyone just assumed, unless I miss something, unless I miss a tweet, I think there's a few other things at play here. I wouldn't be, I mean, the reports seem to indicate that it's gonna be Mosar versus Aaron Pico. I don't think it necessarily means it's going to be Yair versus Volk.

Did I miss something? Was there any sort of report, rumor, confirmation that it's gonna be Volk versus Yair? Or did everyone miss something? Was there any sort of report, rumor, confirmation that it's going to be Volk versus Yair? Or did everyone just assume? I think there was an assumption made just because if Moe was going to fly for it, Yair would be next. Also with the Noche UFC in September, yeah, people made.

Yeah, there's all kinds of talk about that one as well. This Guadalajara Arena seems to be... Is it going to be ready? Yeah, they have apparently according to reports canceled the events up until like the first week of September. I know for a fact that there has been talk of moving the event to the United States.

I heard Las Vegas discussed. Of course, they hosted the first Noche UFC event two years ago, Valentina Shepchenko, Alexa Grasso. The combo of what they're going to do with this Noche UFC event two years ago, Valentina Shepchenko, Alexa Grasso. The combo of what they're going to do with this event, slash this featherweight title, slash Canelo Crawford has made for a fascinating puzzle.

There's a bunch of just like really fascinating mysteries just sort of percolating in the air right now. So if they didn't do Yair, would it just be Volk sitting? I wonder if it would be Volk sitting. I wonder if they put Yair versus Diego Lopez on that card. That's the one that I thought should be on Notchie UFC for all of this, right?

I thought, regardless of what happened in Miami, Diego wins, Diego loses, Yair wins, Yair, that's the fight to make. It ended up being, of course, Diego losing, Yair wins. That's the fight to make. It ended up being of course Diego losing, Yair wins, that's the fight to make. Of course, the heat between them. So good. The ties.

And it makes sense. Yair's on a one fight winning streak, Diego just fought for the belt, it makes sense. It would be blasphemy for Yair to get the title shot over Mosar if that is what ended up happening. I think the idea of that just had people so riled up, that's why there was so much stir about it on Twitter. Yeah, I wonder.

Well, it was also the specificity of Mobstar saying, you fight in September. Yeah. You know, he's alluding to some, like, he's made this whole calculus make sense now for it to not be him and Volk to fight in September. Right, and in September, you would assume it would be Yair just because it's Noche.

Yeah. He planted a seed there. He might be assuming there as well. Yeah, and in September you would assume it would be Yair just because it's Noche. Yeah. He planted a seed there. He might be assuming there as well. Yeah. I think he is. Yeah. Now, Movstar versus Aaron Pico, if those reports are correct, and I will be honest, I did not look.

You know, it's holiday weekend. There's a lot going on in the next week. But man, what a tough draw for Mr. Pico. Man, what a tough draw for Movstar. Yeah, I know. But like, this is his debut, man. This is his debut. Octagon Jitters. Against a world class athlete who, if you win,

gives you nothing in return. Just derails you from... Well, you can knock him off A, the promotion loves you, and B, I mean, you can now claim, hey, I'm the guy. Wait, I'm talking about Movstar. No win situation for him. Sorry. He gets a beast who does nothing for his style. I mean Pico has lost before. I think this is a

tougher fight for Pico than it is for Movstar. I agree. Right? But I do also agree with Rick in the sense that if Movstar loses that's it for a title shot for a 100% 100 well you lose a title shot against the guy who is just coming into the promotion It's not like it was like if you like yeah year or somebody near the division top of the division I don't know it feels it feels Not great for if Aaron Pico wins does he get the title shot? No, but I think he puts himself in good position. I don't know what you do at that point. There will be a shortage of serious contenders.

I mean, if Aaron Pico wins, why not? Who would deserve it more? It doesn't matter. Deserve doesn't matter. But who would have the momentum behind him? Dyer. Bigger name. If Dyer fights Diego and loses. Oh

You know, I guess I guess maybe Max is gone. Yeah, 145 Ilya's gone. Most are is obviously who we're talking about. Yeah year Arnold Allen's out there But needs a you know, Lerone is still wrong on the outside looking in at the moment doesn't have that signature win I think Pico would get it. So this is again to my point. This is all risk for Mobsar Oh, it's a thousand percent risk. He should get the title shot right now. I'm sorry is tied for fourth with that year Yeah, undefeated in the UFC undefeated period not by winning straight. Take on some guy just debuting crazy Yeah, here's one and two in his last three got finished by its gangster don't get me wrong most

monsters a stud for it but I don't know it's tough yeah it's very tough it for sure it's as they say it's tough not as they say as you say you are the originator it would it would be me, obviously thinking on the spot, for Aaron Pico would be one of the toughest debuts in UFC history. Would have to be up there, yeah. Yeah, you're coming into the promotion. Without a title on the line?

Yeah, exactly. Agastacorra getting Pantoja is no easy task, but obviously the title is on the line. Man, that's a great question. What is the toughest debut ever? Gilbert, no, did Melendez? No, Melendez. Melendez came into a title fight against Benson, right?

Was that before the Diego Sanchez fight? Yes, I think it was before. Just fighting for a title kind of make it Dillon Boyd though. That changes it though, because you have to. That's different. Now you're the man, you're trying to unify this, that, the dudes that came over from WEC, some of the strike force.

But in terms of like, debuts, Aaron Pico against Mosar, I mean, he could fight a million guys, and he's fighting this killer, who makes a lot of people look bad. Pat Cummins against DC. Pat Cummins against DC was maybe it. Was maybe it.

That might be the toughest out ever. Is maybe it. You know that story, was maybe it. That might be the toughest out ever. Is maybe it. You know that story, GC? No. Pat Cummins was 3-0, 4-0. I mean, just did not have a lot of fights at all. His manager, Ryan Parsons, would constantly tell me he can't get him a fight.

What was he? What was he at that point? He was probably, I'm gonna say 4-0. 3-0. No, sorry, 4-0, 4-0. 4-0, can't get a fight, can't get him a fight. What was he? What was he at that point? He was probably I'm gonna say for no Reno with Reno sorry for no for no or no can't get a fight can't get a fight can't get a fight can't get a fight He would tell me he had a couple what was he doing like in those fights? He was winning all of them first round knockout and our first round finish in all four of them Yeah collegiate wrestler some some hype behind him DC is supposed to fight Rashad Evans

the fights in about ten or so days some hype behind him. DC is supposed to fight Rashad Evans. The fight's in about 10 or so days. Rashad gets hurt. DC is devastated. He wants to fight. I believe this is his light heavyweight debut. He's moving down to light heavyweight because Kane is champ

and he doesn't want to fight his good friend Kane. He's devastated. I've done all of this. I'm not going to get to fight. Ryan Parsons calls me and he's like, we need to get Pat this fight. This is the perfect opportunity. He'll sell this. There's a backstory.

Pat was at the Olympic training center, Colorado Springs. He will sell the fact that he broke DC and made DC cry when they train together. I'm like, he made DC cry. He made DC cry. There's no way he made DC cry.. I'm like, he made DC cry. He made DC cry. There's no way he made DC cry. I'm telling you, he made DC cry and he will say this and he will sell the fight. I said, all right.

I called up my friend Dana White. I said, who's DC fighting? No one. He's off. No fight. He did all that for nothing. Ten days away. Cut weight. All that stuff. No fight. We can't get in. Who are we going to get on 10 days notice? I said I got a guy. Pat Cummins. Pat Cummins. Who's Pat Cummins? Well, he's a great collegiate wrestler. He's now moved over to Pro MMA. He's 3'4 and 0 and he made DC cry. He made DC cry. He made DC cry. And he'll say this and he'll sell it. How do you know this? I just spoke to his manager.

He asked me to ask you, who's his manager? Ryan Parsons. I know Ryan Parsons, King Mo, M.A. Miller, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Been around, Team Quest, all that. He made DC cry. He'll say this. Where is he right now? He's working at Starbucks.

Drive-through. You're kidding. He made DC cry. He'll say this. Where is he right now? He's working at Starbucks drive-thru You're kidding. Give me Ryan Parsons number. All right. Here it is calls Ryan Parsons Get me Pat Cummins on the phone Ryan calls Pat. He's working at Starbucks Did you make DC cry I made DC cry you'll say that this. This is the truth. Yup. You're in kid. Pat Cummins, Daniel Cormier, booked later that night on Fox Sports Live. There's a, there's a, there's a, like a split screen via satellite.

Pat Cummins, who 12 hours prior, working at Starbucks and can't get a fight on the regional scene is now fighting Daniel Cormier at UFC 170. I think it was. Was it 170? Nailed it. Nailed it. And there it was, Pat Cummins. What a time.

You know, a funny thing about UFC 170, UFC 168, I believe it was, Ronda Rousey against Misha Tate. I'm doing the post show for Fox and they post a picture that Gilbert Melendez is fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 170. They post a poster for it and I'm working with Gil and he's like, I'm fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov? No way am I fighting that guy. And the fight never happened. But there was an announcement, there was a poster, all that stuff. He was in the midst of like a contract negotiation.

And for whatever reason, they jumped the gun on it. And so I always think of 170 and Gilbert versus Khabib, the fight that never was. This is as Khabib was a killer. He's on the broadcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Do you remember there was that whole thing with him and Bellator? Yeah, yeah, the negotiation, yeah. Bellator offered him a big deal. UFC wanted to keep him. They had toator. Yeah, yeah, negotiation. Bellator offered him a big deal. UFC wanted to keep him. They had to match. Crazy. Pac-com. That's a good shout. By the way, there's some other ones. JDS debuted against Verdoom. Smoked him. Also, this was spurred by Mobsar. Diego Lopez against Mobsar. Insane debut. But Mobsar't Moffsar of today. What? He wasn't of today. Same guy.

Come on. No one was that he how many? Three fights ago? How many did he win at that point? Yeah, let me see. Honestly Probably like seven. I mean that was like May of 2023 doesn't play that often. Had to be two or three fights ago. Yeah. Let's see Three fights ago for him. He beat Aljo and Arnold Allen since same guy you didn't finish Or say the result. Oh, yeah Like in 50 seconds 79 seconds It was a total freaking beat down Yeah, but one of the good guys by the way a great great comment here from lazy bed Pat Cummins from frappes to fisticuffs My life as a UFC barista, or a heavyweight barista.

Is that an actual story that he wrote, or? No, he's just suggesting. He's suggesting. Oh, look, there's a couple other good ones in the chat. Shout out to the chat, guys. Shout out. Thumbs up to the chat. Thumbs up.

Shogun against Forrest Griffin? No, because Shogun's pride, like- That's crazy. That's an awful- By the way, leave it to Hutt, like that's an awful by the way Leave it to hut pacer's fan with pacer avatar to suggest Shogun against Forrest Griffin being a bad debut for who? James Tony Randy couture that doesn't count. That does Ben Askren Robbie Lawler. Okay, that's a tough one Okay, that's a tough one. I mean, Ben one. James Tohono?

No. That's a good one. James Stoney. That's good. That one doesn't count because it's like, it was a farce from the start. Mayhem versus GSP, way back, but GSP wasn't quite GSP at that point.

Yeah, also I feel like we're not, coming from like being a reputable like Solid fighter in other organizations not the same as like coming off the regional scene into but I guess Pico's got enough experience like It's Joe Soto against TJ Dillashaw But hey, but that wasn't really that wasn't his debut was it that's what that Joe Soto's I mean he took the fight I think it was holy shit, but you know he wasn't supposed to fight him. No., was it? Was that Joe Soto's debut? I mean, he took the fight, I think it was. Holy shit.

But, you know, he wasn't supposed to fight him. No, I like that though. That's a good one. Yeah, that is a tough one. Islam versus Armin. That is a great one. That might be the one. That's another good one.

That might be the one. I don't know, I think the Daniel Cormier one takes it. Especially like, Armin had like a fairly competitive decision, obviously he lost the fight. Diego, very competitive decision against MovSar, ultimately lost the fight. Oh I got it. Getting iced in seven and a half seconds. Soto, if you could top Soto versus TJ, I'd be shocked. I think I got it, I think I got it. Shout out to Paul Linderman on YouTube chat.

Oh shout out to Paul. Brock vs. Mir. No. What? Frank Mir was a former champion. Yeah Brock Lesnar is the specimen of the entire universe. Brock had one pro fight. One pro fight. Joe Soto had fought Tarion Ware at Tachi Palace Fights 20. I know but that wasn't the booking though. It wasn't the booking. Three weeks later is fighting TJ Dillashaw. He got that because Henenbrau hit his head. That wasn't the bookings. It doesn't matter how he got it.

It doesn't matter how you get it. The level jump is ridiculous. I'm talking about who was booked in that spot. Nah, this is crazy. Sugashawn versus that kid with green hair that ate 300 big shots. Oh, Moutinho. Chris Moutinho.

Legendary performance. That's a good one. East mode. Yeah, that was a good one. Nah, fighting TJ Dillashaw three weeks after fighting Atachi Palace is the one. That's 100% the one. I got another one.

Darrell Horcher against Khabib. Remember that? Horcher taking that fight on short notice on Fox. Now that I think about it, that might be the one. Tony Ferguson versus Lando Bonata. He's just so hung in there for five rounds. Yeah, he did. I think the like Brock getting knee barred in 90 seconds, Pat Cummings getting knocked out in 79 seconds,

I think that proves how difficult of a task it was. Okay what about Mario Bautista against Patchy Max? Patchy's incoming? Yeah. No. No, Bautista could be champ. Could be, isn't. Basil Hafez, JDM. No. No. No. Batista could be champ. No. Could be. Isn't. Basil Hafez, JDM.

Mmm. You haven't heard of him. You don't hate that one. Anyway, it's a tough debut, but he's been around. He's been around. He's done his thing. By the way, tomorrow on the program, I mentioned Sean Grandy. I'm very excited to have him in studio.

In addition to Big Sean, we will have Tim Welch on the program. Of course, head coach for one, Sugashon O'Malley. Big fight coming up in a little less than two weeks. It's rapid. I can't believe it's almost June. What the hell? Best time of the year, by the way. May, June, July. We're approaching the Saturday of the calendar.

It's unbelievable. Joe Pfeiffer on the program. He's going to be on that card as well in Newark, UFC 316. And one of the best promoters in all of combat sports gonna be joining us. Can't wait for this chat, killing it right now in the game, putting on some of the biggest fights. You certainly have seen these all over the place

on all the different platforms. Of course, Dan Hooker we're talking about who's been putting on some real bangers in his in his backyard I think it is have you guys seen his fights in the backyard some real incredible fights I mean this is a what is this hooker fighting championships I'm here for it I've watched just about every street beef on YouTube so this this is, I love it. Oh dear. This one in particular,

because he gets the uppercut from hell. They're literally in his backyard. It looks like he's rolling here and then. Go to the body, go to the body. Oh no, here it comes. Hands in his pockets. Golly. When he took that uppercut. I don't know what Dan Hooker's doing,

but I can't wait to find out. He's a madman. He just keeps posting these, and it's somewhat riveting. And that's literally his backyard. Is that his backyard? Are his kids rolling around there? Looks like his backyard now.

Yeah, it looks like his backyard. How do you know what his backyard looks like? I just keep up there? Looks like his backyard, yeah. Yeah, it looks like it. How do you know what his backyard looks like? I keep up with the blogs. Also, because it's like there's a house in it. Oh, that's right. His daughter's YouTube. Yeah, his daughter's YouTube. You've seen Hard Out? We're getting to it. We're getting to it.

So all that. That's how Hard Outs work. All that and more on tomorrow's program, plus on the nose. The post is up right now. ariajahwani.substack.com reminded her we're back in about 90 minutes time for another episode of Ara Onade. Fabio Wardley will be joining us. He's also fighting on June 7th.

He's going up against Dillion White. He was supposed to be going up against Drell Miller. Miller pulled out, so he'll be playing at or fighting at Ipswich Town. Of course, commiserations. Premier League season is come and gone. We don't need to talk about what transpired on Sunday. That was one of the lone spots of this weekend. Uh, but it's okay.

It's okay. It was a great season. So we'll talk to Fabio and we'll present our very first popcorn list in case you missed it. I'm very excited about this. I'm curious where Adde is going to try to go. He's definitely going to try to go like hipster on me. He's going to try to pick out a guy who is like,

two and O, fighting for a boxer. Oh, I saw him one time at York Hall, he's unbelievable. But I'm very confident in my list. Our 10 must watch fighters, regardless of gender, regardless of weight class, can't wait for that. That'll be at 5 p.m. Eastern, on the Dazonboxing YouTube channel, and then we roll in to game four,

at Game Bridge Fieldhouse or something. What the hell is that? I mean, what is that? And also, Yessers, what is that? This is one of the worst slogans, it pisses me off. Yessers, Yessers, Yessers, boom baby, Zoom baby, lame-o. I mean, just cancel the finals if it's Pacers Thunder. We're trying to help all of you, okay? That's what we're trying to do.

And then someone's gonna clip this off and be like, I loved when the people clipped off my appearance on Simmons and like, look at the cocky New Yorkers. I was like, wow, I'm a New Yorker now. This is great. Welcome to the team. Yeah. Anyway, 336 started out.

You can't welcome him. Yeah, well, I've been here longer than I was in Canada. No, but Frank is not from here. He's not allowed to. Welcome to the team, man. No, you're not allowed to do it either. Wait a minute. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're glad to have you. I've been here for years. I mean, your name is New York Rick, and you root for a Cleveland team. What does my basketball team have to do with where I'm from? Oh, you're from New York. You didn't grow up on these streets. You're from New York.

Yeah, I'm from New York. Are you? At this point, yeah, I am. I'm an American citizen. Well, he wasn't born here. Born and raised. American citizen. Born and bred.

What do you mean, who cares? We're from New York. I'm from New York. Yes. I'm working here. It's a badge of honor. Guess what? Don't care. It's a badge of honor to be from New York. Yes. It's a badge. It's a badge of honor. Guess what? Don't care.

It's a badge of honor to be from New York. We used to clown on kids in high school that had come down to Georgia from New York. They're like, I'm so fucking tough. I'm from New York. And we're like, we don't care. No. We're in the mafia.

Who are these kids? They came in with the- The crazy thing is you do care. You do care because it's a badge of honor because if you make it here, you make it anywhere. Aye, yeah, what is this, 1943? Yeah, that's right. Come on, man.

Listen, you moved here to follow your dreams. Dang, dang, dang, dang. You moved here. I'm quoting Michael Douglas from Wall Street. All the dreams are here. They're all waiting to be cultivated and reciprocated. I accepted the job I was doing. And rejuvenated.

That's where it is. It ain't in the South. It sure as heck ain't in Indiana. I'll tell you that much. You're really looking for trouble with this. Boom baby, zoom baby, yes sirs. Yeah, this is me saying yes sir. Honestly, every city's booming these days.

Milwaukee is what Manhattan was 20 years ago. What? Milwaukee? What are we talking about? Yes, sirs. That's me. That's me. That's yes, sirs right there.

That handshake. Thank you very much, Robin Elliott, Macy Barber, Caleb Platt. Back tomorrow, safe time, this is Zippy Samayer.