The Ariel Helwani Show - Merab Dvalishvili, Kayla Harrison, Mario Bautista, Mark Coleman & Mike DiSabato in studio, UFC 316 reaction, weekend news

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

Ariel Helwani break downs the biggest results from UFC 316, including a discussion of Merab Dvalishvili’s legacy and Amanda Nunes’ highly anticipated return against Kayla Harrison (09:29).Then, he gets fired-up for a conversation regarding the latest Jones-Aspinall drama and reacts to Dana White’s press conference comments (34:43).Merab Dvalishvili calls into the program hot off his title defense against Sean O’Malley and talks about the differences in the rematch, returning to his home village in Georgia, his potential upcoming fight against Cory Sandhagen, his dream of fighting in New York, and more (1:02:02).Mark Coleman and Mike DiSabato, former Ohio State wrestlers, join in-studio ahead of the premiere of "Surviving Ohio State," a documentary detailing the 20 years of sexual assault inflicted by Dr. Richard Strauss on collegiate athletes. They discuss their experiences, the courage it took to come forward as victims, and the ongoing lawsuit against the university (1:53:34).Kayla Harrison is next up after her dominant victory over Juliana Peña to win the bantamweight title at UFC 316 and gets into her harrowing weight cut, her status as the "greatest combat athlete," and her legacy-defining fight against former teammate and soon-to-be UFC Hall of Famer Amanda Nunes (2:58:14).Mario Bautista checks in after his UFC 316 upset over the debuting Patchy Mix to discuss the fight, not getting a post-fight interview, dealing with negativity after the Jose Aldo fight, and calls for a top-five matchup next (3:32:46).Ariel and the crew round off the show with the rest of the news (3:53:14) and results around combat, and by answering your Superchats (4:04:36).       

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Errorio Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Monday, June 9th, 2000. And 25, hello again everyone. I sure hope you're doing well, it is great to be inside and if I'm being 1000% honest, I don't think I have ever arrived so early to the studio. I was here, usually I arrive 11.30 or so, 11.15, 11.20. In that range. Happened to arrive today, believe it or not,

at approximately 9.45. And the reason for my early arrival was twofold. Number one, well I had to drop my kids off at school and then there was no point in going back home, so I just went straight. That doesn't usually happen on a Monday. But really, more importantly, number two, I was so freaking fired up. I feel like I've been a caged animal in this studio I just went straight that doesn't usually happen on a Monday, but really more importantly number two

I was so freaking fired up. I feel like I've been a caged animal in this studio Counting down the minutes counting down the seconds heck counting down the hours until 1 p.m Eastern time because my friends have a lot to say on this post pay-per-view Monday There's a lot going on and if I'm being 1 million percent honest with all of you I wish I could start with a different topic. I want to talk about everything that's happening with John Jones and the UFC. I am dying to talk about this. But I want to give great respect for the people who competed this past Saturday at the Prudential

Center in Newark. I want to give them the respect that they deserve and we need to start with them because Saturday's pay-per-view in Brick City in Newark was another great one. I thought it was a very entertaining main car with some great performance, some not so great performances, but there you see it right over there. Marabdou Ali Shvili is still the UFC Bantamweight champion, his second title defense. He's approaching Al Jermain's record of three title defenses in a row at 135. Perhaps most importantly, he has now won 13 fights in a row and he

enters a very, very, very prestigious, prestigious category of fighters. The likes of which John Jones, GSP, Max Holloway, Khabib Rumaga Meyarov, Islam Makhachev, Anderson Silva, those names. The 13 and up fight club is the most prestigious fight club in all of fight clubs and Marab is now in that fight club. And so we need to talk about him. We need to talk about a young woman named Kayla Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, the only two-time Olympic gold medalist who turned into a UFC champion. Heck, prior to Saturday there was only one Olympic gold medalist who became a UFC champion,

his name Henry Zahudo and of course two division world champion, but here's Kayla two-time Olympic gold medalist two-time PFL champion and now UFC champion at 135 pounds When she won her second gold medal in 2016. She said i'm not interested in MMA When she came on this show afterward She said i'd have to cut my leg off in order to be a 135 pounder because at the time there was only a bantamweight division in the UFC for the women. Well not only did she end up going into MMA, she put the PFL on her back, she was the face of the PFL, she won their tournament twice at 155 pounds and then of course she comes

over to the UFC and now has made 135 by the skin of her teeth Three straight times she beats Julianna Pena She submits her via Kimura in the second round Murab by the way submits Sean O'Malley in the third round via North South choke two great submissions back to back We have a new champion at 135 for the women We have the same champion at 135 for the women we have the same champion at 135 for the men in addition to that some great performances from the likes of Mario Bautista, Kevin Holland, Joe Pfeiffer, Joshua Van and others we need

to start with them we need to start with these individuals but I got to be honest with all of you I cannot wait for about 230 when I could talk about what has transpired the mockery put me on put me about what has transpired, the mockery. Put me on, put me on right now. The mockery, the mockery of this belt, the mockery of this sport, the mockery of the organization that John Jones has made over the last, I don't know, couple months.

And for the first time, we've gotten some real answers from Dana White. For the first time, we've gotten some real clarity from Dana White. You may not have noticed it, faced value at first glance, but right here on this God-forsaken show, I've been telling you the story from the beginning and on Saturday he finally confirmed it. And here's a spoiler, in a couple weeks he'll confirm it even further. And here's a word to the reporters in attendance,

stop taking the information that we are uttering on this program and calling it rumors, calling it internet talk. No, no, no. We tell it to you like it is. We tell you the truth. We give you everything, just like we did with the Connor situation this time last year, and then you do it with what you want to do with it. But the point is, it's always right. It always comes to fruition. We're always proven to be correct. We'll get to that. I promise you we'll get to that. If you can tell, I'm a little fired up today on this Monday because there's so much going on and there's a lot to get to. And in addition to all of that, we have a fantastic

lineup. The aforementioned Murabdow Ali Shafili, the reigning defending UFC men's bantamweight champion is going to join us at 2 p.m. At 3 o'clock, Mark Coleman and Mike DeSabato are going to be joining us in studio. Mark Coleman, the first ever UFC heavyweight champion, one of the most decorated fighters in the history of the sport. Obviously had a great run in the UFC, then went to Pride, then came back to the UFC. Proud member of The Ohio State University. Well, he is a central figure, as is his good friend and former OSU wrestler, Mike DeSabato. Central figures in a new documentary that is coming out on June 17th on HBO called Surviving Ohio State.

It premieres today, later today, at the Tribeca Film Festival, very prestigious, about the horror, the nightmare, that hundreds of Ohio State athletes suffered between late 70s and late 90s, due to one man, Dr. Richard Strauss, the doctor at Ohio State, who sexually assaulted and sexually abused hundreds of male athletes. This story has gotten maybe one-tenth the attention of the likes of Michigan State, equally horrific, but for various reasons not as well known.

Well, there's a new documentary that was produced by George Clooney and others that is coming out on HBO on June 17th, premier today. DeSabato and Mark Coleman are going to come in studio and talk to us about what they've been through. DeSabato by the way, the whistleblower, the one who blew this open in 2018. At four o'clock Kayla Harrison is gonna join us. The brand spanking new UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion and what a scene it was as she wins the belt, as she cuts a tremendous promo, as she quotes John 316,

and as she invites Amanda Nunes into the cage for a face-off. Just what the doctor ordered. Just what the Women's Bantamweight division needed. Just what women's MMA needed. And for all the talk that women's MMA is suffering, is dull, is boring, is shallow, is uninteresting, back end of 2025, maybe going into the front end of 26, we might be getting Kayla Harrison versus Amanda Nunes and Zhang Weili versus Valentina Shevchenko. Not a bad time. Not a bad time. Two, dare I say, superfights.

We'll round out the day with Mario Bautista, who won his eighth fight in a row, who defeated Patchy Mix in a very dominant, one-sided fight, 30 to 27 if you ask me. And it has been said, and I would agree with these statements, that that was one of the worst debuts by a fighter coming over from another organization with a lot of attention, a lot of buzz, highly anticipated, former champion, that one might take the cake. That is not the patchy mix that we saw Defending his belt or title

Carrying the belt or bantamweight division on his back. I don't know who that guy was Now worth noting going into the fight. It was all this talk about he's a journeyman I'm gonna roll right through him all this stuff and more the fact, the talk is I took the fight on three weeks. I'm proud. Tatiana saying he's proud. No, no, no. You can't say what you said about Mario Bautista before the fight and then say this after the fight. I'm sorry. There's it's one thing to sell the fight. It's another to be disrespectful of the opponent and think you're going to see

him roll right through them and then, and then show up looking like that. People lose fights all the time. People get knocked out. People get submitted. All these things happen. I don't know who that guy was that that version Apache mix looked like someone who had never fought before. It was that jarring.

There's the four pack and also the saboteur is going to be joining us. Let's get into UFC three 16. What a performance from Arab, Dole, Shafili. And what's amazing about what he's doing is that he has almost cleaned out the bantamweight division. Certainly the top, there's one guy left. His name is Corey Sanhagan. And I love the fact that he called him out.

He didn't necessarily call him out, but I love the fact that he called him out. He didn't necessarily call him out, but I love the fact that the UFC broadcast mentioned he's likely next. I love when we get a title fight and we know very clearly who is next. Corey didn't get into the cage, but it's very clear that it's him and it should be him. What's amazing about this performance is

these two guys fought back in September. That fight ended with a glimmer of hope for Sean O'Malley. He won the title, he won the title, and it should be him. What's amazing about this performance is these two guys fought back in September. That fight ended with a glimmer of hope for Sean O'Malley. He won the fifth round according to all the judges and according to the rest of the world. Really, a lot of people, including myself, thought he won two out of the five rounds back in September. So there was a glimmer of hope.

He got healthy. He took the year off, he cut out the weed, he cut out the extracurricular activities, he didn't dye his hair, he changed his walkout music. That might have been, for all intents and purposes, the best version of Sean O'Malley that we will ever see, or that we have ever seen. That might have been A plus Sean O'Malley that we will ever see or that we have ever seen. That might have been A plus Sean O'Malley, prime Sean O'Malley. And what

has to be upsetting and demoralizing for him is this time around, Marab finished him. This time around, Marab submitted him in the third round. Last time it went the distance. Murab stopped the best version potentially of Sean O'Malley. That's a tough pill to swallow and it doesn't necessarily tell the entire story of the fight because I thought Sean looked pretty darn good early on. Stuffed seven takedowns, was in the fight, wasn't getting dominated or outclassed. I will admit I thought Murab won the first two rounds. I thought he was en route to winning the third and then he catches him with the choke late. But there's a case to be made that these guys fight 10 more times and you know it's 9 out of 10, it's 8 out of 10. Murab's just that damn good and here he is

just two title defenses and already has won 13 in a row we have talked about certain records being unbreakable being the ones that will never get touched our version MMA's version of the Ironman streak Calak, Cal Ripken, Anderson 16 in a row for a while has felt like that. Now here comes Islam and here comes Murab. It's unbelievable. What a performance from Murab, a guy who had lost his first two fights in the UFC, was this close to getting cut, even as he was racking up all the wins.

And just look at the names. Look at the names on the roster. O'Malley, Umar, O'Malley, Sohudo, Yan, Aldo, Morais, Stamen, Dodson, Gustavo Lopez, Casey Kenny, Brad Katona, Tarrion Ware. I mean, that's just the top. Like there is no bum on this record, not even close to a bum. It's one of the greatest runs. And I don't really care to get into the whole goat thing. Let's judge him when the whole thing is said and done, but he has to be in that conversation, has to be in that conversation.

There is no doubt about it. Anyone who says it's Dominic, I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. Let's judge him when the whole thing is said and done, but he has to be in that conversation, has to be in that conversation. There is no doubt about it. Anyone who says it's Dominic, end of story, you're just doing the nostalgia thing.

Dominic never had a run like this. Certainly not against these types of talents. TJ didn't, Henen Berao didn't, Henry Cejudo didn't. This is unbelievable. Second submission of his career, first in the UFC, beating a who's who. And as of late, not losing many rounds, not getting rocked, not getting beat up. And now he faces Corey Sandhagen, who's one of the last guys, of course, is going to be the Bautistas of the world. People are going to come up.

But Sandhagen to me is a game opponent and I can't wait for that fight. You know, we love Sandhagen around here. You know, we have a great amount of respect for him People are going to come up. But Sanhagen to me is a game opponent and I can't wait for that fight. You know, we love Sanhagen around here. You know, we have a great amount of respect for him as a fighter, him as a personality, Sanhagen is going to pour everything into that fight. He's long. He's rangy.

He's got great knees. He's got great jujitsu. He's got great takedown defense. He's got great wrestling. He's got great striking. I love this fight. He's obviously taller. Love this fight. I love that Murab wants to be active as well in a, in a, in a day and age where the dominant story in MMA is that the greatest fighter supposedly of all time

doesn't want to fight. Here's Murab saying, when can I fight again? Here's Murab trying to defend his title four times in a calendar year. Not that long ago, the UFC was itching to get rid of this fight. Here's Marab saying, when can I fight again? Here's Marab trying to defend his title four times in a calendar year. Not that long ago, the UFC was itching to get rid of this guy. Trust me, not that long ago. They should be thanking him. They should be applauding him.

They should be celebrating him. He's likable, he's lovable, he's fun to watch. And anyone who said he was boring, well, what do you have to say about Saturday? Stopping O'Malley like that, submitting O'Malley like that. Incredible. And then on the flip side you have Kayla, who has done everything that has been asked of her, who has never missed weight, who says that, you know, she has to like enlist the help of God to make 135, and Lord knows it looks rough. But has there ever been a fighter that it felt like from the moment we saw her that she was destined for this type of greatness? She just looks like a superstar.

In my opinion, she acts like one, she competes like one. I'll never forget seeing one of her early fights in the PFL on Long Island. She won every single round in dominant fashion, won via decision and left the cage crying because she was disappointed that she didn't stop her opponent. Well, on Saturday, there were some tears, but they were all happy tears. She submits Juliana who deserves all the respect in the world, who has been in the UFC since 2013 on the Ultimate Fighter Who has fought them all who has beat them all but it's different against Kayla and Kayla goes in there and submits her in the second round and then gets on the microphone and cuts a great promo and quotes John

316 at UFC 316 and then says Amanda come on in. And this is just a money fight. This is just an incredible fight. I cannot wait for this. This feels like a big deal. This feels like a super fight. Lord knows we need this. Ilya Tupori is fighting in two weeks. He should be fighting Islam.

We ain't getting that. Tom Asimov is going to get his next fight announced. It won't be against John Jones. We ain't getting that. But we're getting is going to get his next fight announced. It won't be against John Jones, we ain't getting that. But we're getting Amanda Nunes coming out of retirement to fight Kayla. Thank the gods. Thank you MMA gods. Thank you for this. We needed this. We needed that shot in the arm. I enjoyed UFC 316. The boys in the back did a great job with the watch party once again.

What can we say? Let's start with the Merab guys. What can we say about Merab? What a performance from this guy, right? 13 in a row, two title defenses, one away from his buddy and Corey next. Yeah. And I think you touched on something that's super important is to acknowledge that like the first fight with Sean O'Malley compromised, right?

Sean O'Malley compromised, goes into surgeryalley compromised goes into surgery comes back tunes out all the noises I'm gonna be back better than ever and he's back better than ever and Marab gets it done in even more impressive fashion the guy continues to level up he continues to get more confidence as a champion I don't know stylistically how you even deal with him because and I talked about this on Thursday when we were kind of doing the breakdown the GSPs and fighters like that of the past, right? The game plan was, if you're a better striker, I'm going to grapple with you. If you're a better grappler, I'm going to strike with you.

Marab, it doesn't really matter what your style is. The fights mostly look the same every single time. And that's just this relentless suffocating pressure combined with a variety of takedown attempts, a variety of strikes, and a variety of strikes. the same every single time and that's just this relentless suffocating pressure combined with a variety of takedown attempts, a variety of strikes and it doesn't really matter if he lands them or not. If you stuff the takedown, there's two more coming in the next 30 seconds. If he misses the strike, there's three more coming a minute from then. And it's just this relentless wave that stylistically I don't I don't I don't think there's a really a comparison for what he's able to do and

I can't think of a close close equivalent I wonder just how does this rain end if it ever does. What do you think GC? I mean it's unbelievable everything that you said the 13th by win streak the names that he's he's beaten on this path to get here is simply unbelievable and then to get the finish over Sean O'Malley you you get the rematch where you win, in my opinion, it was very clear victory for him back at the sphere in September. And then this time you put the stamp on it

by getting the finish. It just shows that he's elevating the game. It feels like the boxing is getting better. It feels like the ground game is somehow getting better as well. It truly, to Rick's point, I just don't know how the rain is gonna end. If he gets through Corey Sandhag and he's gonna be in that

sort of Pantoja territory where he's gonna have to start lapping the field. Like at that point he'll have two wins over Sean O'Malley, a win over Umar, a win over Pyotr Yan, a win over Corey Sandhag. Like the top four will be decimated at that point. It's like you're gonna have to start doing rematches with Pyotr Yan who he 50-45'd. There's people coming. There's people coming, Iman Zahabi, Mario Bautista. There are some names coming.

Okay. Marcus McGee is gonna be fighting Piotr Jan. There could be names up in there, but like he is really starting to build out an insane resume and the way in which he is doing it, especially these last few fights, where it feels like he's just running away with the fight by the end of it, it's wildly impressive. In case you're wondering about the

names, like I said Anderson Silva 16 in a row, Kamar Usman had 15 in a row, Islam currently 15 in a row, and then the names with 13, John Jones, Khabib, George St. Pierre, Max Holloway, and Demetrius Johnson. He's now entered that territory. And it's an amazing story of a guy who had a big dream from a village in Georgia, moves to the tri-state area, works as a landscaper, works in construction, odd jobs, links up with the Sarah Longo team, and it wasn't easy early on.

And he had the freaking scratch and claws way. Dana White went to one of his fights to scout another fighter for contender Excuse me for looking for a fight. He scores a spinning back fist which like isn't exactly Part of the regular marab arsenal, but he's that crazy to where you would think All right, like what Dana intends you would pull something off again ally, Al Iaquinta, shout out to him, telling me from the very beginning, stop sleeping on this guy, start showcasing this guy, start talking about this guy, he's gonna be the next guy. And he was 1000% right.

I was happy to see him in the cage there. Oh man, brilliant. And by the way, Mazel tov to Iaquinta, who revealed on social media he's having a baby, so very, very happy for him. Freaking raging out, love him. Not only that, you talk about just the unlikely path to getting there, but even like there, once there, right?

How long it took him to climb the mountaintop. How Dana White calling him stupid when he's revealing the injuries, the whole Al Jemaine Sterling and Marabna wanting to fight each other saga. All these things, all these obstacles that were in his path, then you get to the fact that I'm not going to go so far as to say that the UFC would have breathed a sigh of relief if Sean O'Malley had won and been their champion, but let's call it what it is. He's the guy that maybe they would have wanted in that position.

And Murab is this guy who just keeps getting it done. Keep trucking along despite all the obstacles in his path, the one that maybe they didn't want but is now here and is on such a run and dispatching with opponents with such ease. It's unbelievable, man. He's one of a kind. And again, I just don't know what it's going to take to get him out of there. And again, like I said, he wants to fight, he wants to be active, he wants to represent the company. And by the way, I love the scenes, especially with the international fighters,

when you see the scenes back home of the family members at six in the morning, seven in the morning, celebrating them, is there anything, like I get chills just thinking about it. Here's Marab's family, courtesy of Satanta Sports, back home, look at this, how great is this? This has to be like seven or eight in the morning there too. How amazing is this? I mean, these guys probably raised him,

maybe introduced him to athletics. This is unbelievable. And remember that scene of him coming home a couple of fights ago, maybe it was after he won the belt for the first time. I think it was when he won the championship, yeah. I mean, there was a freaking guy on a horse by his bus. He says he's coming back this week.

What is that gonna be like? What is that gonna look like? It's gonna be a madhouse. And every single time he gets one of these defenses, he's just gonna become a bigger and bigger star. His legend will just continue to grow there in Georgia, what he's been able to do for the sport for them. Level of interest, appetite, excitement,

anticipation for him versus Corey. I love this fight. Love it. I don't think he steamrolls Corey. I mean, obviously you have to favor him. I would imagine he's the favorite, right? Oh, he will be the sizable favorite. You think sizable? Bigger favorite than against Sean?

I think probably. Really? With the performances that he's putting on, it feels like the market is starting to recognize the ability of Marabdavashvili. The plus 250 or plus 285 against Piotr Jans are gone. The plus 210s against Umar earlier this year are gone. Plus 210 against Umar. Like those days are over of him being counted out,

in my opinion. I think him being a pretty big favorite is going to be the norm now. Corey's going to have to shock the world. He's not going to be, nobody's going to give him a chance in the lead up because of what Marab's been able to do against everybody else. He's going to have to shock the world. Corey's nasty though. Corey's going to be gay man.

You just know, like the guy's a gamer. Look, it may not be enough, but I could see one of those knees to the sternum. Like I said, he is going to be the dog, but this, this is a fresh, fun matchup and it's a deserving matchup. Absolutely. I had no problem with Sean O'Malley getting this title fight, but we also saw it.

So in the back of your mind, you're like, okay, is it going to be the same old thing? And, and maybe, you know, I wonder how Sean and Tim feel like maybe they should have taken another fight. I don't know. Well, we'll never know. But I had no problem because I never felt like he leapfrogged anyone.

Umar leapfrogged someone, if we're being honest. But I was like, okay, fine. You know, they're into him. He had looked great against Corey. All right, cool. Let's do it. We saw how that went. Corey has won since.

So he had the big win over Davison. Looked great in that fight. That's the fight to make. There's literally no one else. There's no one else. And I know Jan is upset, but because we saw Jan versus Marabem, because it was so one-sided, I do think he needs to fight one or two more times in order to get back in there. And then what about Kayla and Amanda? Like, I don't know. Someone asked Dana White on Saturday,

Amanda versus Cyborg, will this be bigger than Amanda versus Cyborg? And he said yes, because the sport is bigger. I don't know if that's the reason. And I don't know ultimately if it will be bigger because Cyborg was on such a long run. But there's something different about this because of the backstory, because of the fact that they used to be teammates, because of the fact that,

you know, Kayla comes into ADT, Amanda's there for a bit and then she leaves. There's also the element of like all the people who have made Kayla into who she is today, helped make Amanda into who she is today. They've got very intimate knowledge of her. I love fights where they have trained together, especially to the degree that those two have trained together. And they each know what happened in that room, and now they have to do it in front of the crowd.

I love those types of fights. I think it's fair to say that Cyborg and Amanda was probably more significant to history, right? To legacies. But I'm totally okay if somebody feels that this is the bigger fight. I think Kayla Harrison has- What's the biggest, what in your opinion up until this point has been the biggest fight in women's MMA history? Now are we talking, when we say biggest, are we talking like from a spectacle standpoint?

Felt the biggest, most important. Holly versus Ronda. So is that revisionist history though? Not at all. Do you remember when they first announced that fight? No one wanted it. Everyone wanted, um, everyone wanted Rhonda versus Misha Tate.

Yeah. I mean, I remember when Rhonda went on good morning America and had to sell us on the fight. Cause Holly had, Holly did not do that. Like, I think she was only like two or three fights into the, her UFC in retrospect. It's gigantic. In retrospect, it's obvious. In retrospect, it's obvious number one. It's not even going in.

So beforehand, Rhonda was such a massive favorite that there might've been a lack of interest due to people not thinking it was gonna be competitive. But it was- Raleigh-Holme was 2-0 in the UFC and had two decision wins over Raquel Pennington's split and unanimous over Marion Renault. And then she got the title fight.

And I remember the Good Morning America announcement was just Rhonda. And Rhonda had to sort of like big up Holly to tell people, hey, this is the fight. And everyone was disappointed because they wanted the Misha Tate fight, which obviously didn't happen. And then Holly wins and then she fights Misha Tate.

This is suggesting that you need the two parties. The reality was that was Ronda's biggest fight because it was Ronda's biggest fight before it lost. But in terms of a story, like I'm thinking Carano-Cyborg was very historical, was very significant. Oh, well then history, I'm going Cyborg and Amanda. Yeah, so I think so too, and so the question is, can this get to be bigger?

It will not be more historic because I don't think Kayla Harrison's ever gonna have that place in history because she didn't fight the fighters Yeah that you need to the PFL fights just did not matter outside of Larissa Pacheco But can this be the biggest one of the bigger stories that we've had in women's MMA history certainly The combination of those two how good they are at this sport how how? Decorated Amanda Nunes is in MMA and Kayla Harrison is in competitive athletics. These are two of the best fighters you'll ever see in there.

I think it's definitely on par with Cyborg versus Amanda. And it has that teammate storyline. So I think it's very significant. History-wise, though, the number of fights between Cyborg and Amanda, I don't think it can touch that. What's the favorite going into that one? I saw a line released like minus 145, Kayla. Wow. I mean, Cyborg and Amanda, I don't think it can touch that. What's the favor going into that one? I saw a line released like minus 145, Kayla.

Wow. Okay, so I mentioned this on Saturday. Check out the post show, three puck shout out. Chuck, Pizzi, very, very, very late or early, depending on where you live. Should they consider doing this at 45? Do we want to see them at their best? Or is that favoring Kayla too much and should

it be at 35 because she's the 35 pound champion? No. Amanda was at one time the 145 pound champion. Please do it at 45. I do not want to see Kayla Harrison cut to 35 just for a fight like that. No interest. I am fine with seeing it at 145 but I feel confidently that the UFC will do it at 135 because of the belt. I do as well. Why? Why do we need the belt? Because she just won the belt and then it's like you can't be the champion if you can't make the weight. My question is, and we'll have Kaylon soon, my thing is I don't know how many more times she could do this safely and in a healthy manner. One more time. You think

she retires? I don't know about retiring but be done with 135 after this. If she beats Amanda Nunes at 135, we need to have the conversation, right? Two Olympic gold medals. As greatest combat athlete? At the very least, female athlete, no? I think you can already have the conversation. Well, I put it on social media, and people are like, the fuck outta here, woke this to that.

I'm like, two-time Olympic gold medalist? Oh yeah, oh, what is this? We're just throwing out gold medals'm like, two time Olympic gold medalist. Oh yeah. Oh, what is this? What is this? We're just throwing out gold medals now. They're like, what does it have to do with me? I don't know. You know the bullshit. Two time Olympic gold medalist.

And then, okay, fine. The PFL thing, but still you still have to win it twice. And then you go into the UFC and don't beat like scrubs. She beat Holly Holmes, she beat Caitlin Vera. She beat Julianna Pena and then it will be Amanda Nunes. It's a pretty damn good- Her UFC resume is unassailable. Unassailable.

Her PFL, you can criticize, right? Outside of Larissa Pacheco, there were no challenges for her in that organization. And she beat Larissa twice. And she beat her twice. Yeah. And then had a loss. Her UFC run?

You can't say shit about that. Those are the best available names at the time. By the way, imagine she didn't lose that fight to Pacheco and she was going into this undefeated. Imagine. Well, it'd be bigger. It would be much bigger. It'd be so much bigger.

It's all Frank's fault, too, he jinxed it that way. I think you can say that about Kayla Harrison right now today. That's fucking bullshit. Frank doesn't agree. Frank's not in on that. But I think she's definitely in that conversation as one of the best combat sports athletes of all time.

Bar none. And it's a great fight. And I don't need Kayla Harrison to, why should we willingly ask for a worst version of the fight? Why? Why would we have a fight between these two? But what the fuck, who cares about the belt? You don't have to sell me on it.

The UFC, I don't think they're gonna be like, catchweight super fight. Not catchweight. 145 special attraction. Amanda Nunes' 145 pound title that never got delinquished on the line now. They dust off the BMF whenever they need it. Sure, hey, hey, hey, dust off the 145 belt

and let Kayla go for double chin. That's what I'm saying, that's what I'm saying. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah, now we can do it at 145, yeah. Why do I want to see Kayla Harrison's image? One fight only, we bring back the women's featherweight division. Yes, hell yeah. The much anticipated. Why not make it for the final, like the final want to one fight only we bring back the women's featherweight division. Hell, yeah The much I not make it for the final like the final featherweight title fight perfect final featherweight title fight Anything made the best maker cut that final bantam way title fights

Someone someone asked Dana is she back is Amanda back in the testing pool and he said not yet I didn't honestly I didn't even know the testing pool was still Is that really still a thing? I guess it is. Yeah, I mean we see that. He might have just said it, but like does that if she's not back in there It's June. Does that mean we're not getting this until December at the earliest? No, can't they always do the exception thing? Isn't that how it used to work? I mean the truth is we're not seeing it before November. Yeah, so then maybe that's six months out. Co-main at MSG? Fuck yeah. I don't think so. I could see it being like a-

No, it's just a headliner in December. I could see it being like a January or December one. Yeah. Canada. No. Golly. Could we put it in freaking Miami? Hell yeah.

That's sick. Oh my gosh. Put it at ATT. Yeah. Broadcast it from the room. What about Kayla's promos? Like, she's just so good on the mic. And again, I'll go back to that press conference

after she wins the second gold. She's like, I don't like the entertainment, I don't like this and that. She's so good on the mic. It's unbelievable. I do want to say some acknowledgement needs to be given to Julianna Pena because. Hell yeah.

Her, Kayla Harrison's winning of this title matters less if you don't have the foil in Juliana Pena. The one who's going to make the noise, the one who's going to hype it up, the one who's going to say the provocative things that get the conversation going and making Kayla Harrison's win feel more important. I know there's some people that like or don't like or feel like she has the, they want her to just go away. To me, she was the perfect opponent for Kayla Harrison to get to this position and then win the title against. And I think she deserves credit for that because nobody will give it to her. They'll just say, ah, you know, she's not that good. And Julianna's a legend. She's a Hall of Famer.

She absolutely is. And she's a survivor. I mean, horrific car accident, broke her back, beating Amanda Nunes, coming back, winning the title for the second time, nothing to be ashamed of. And she's a legend. She's a legend. She's a legend. She's a legend. She's a legend. car accident, broke her back, beating Amanda Nunes, coming back, winning the title for the second time,

nothing to be ashamed of. But she's been through a lot. And I wondered out loud on Saturday if this is it for her, but she is calling dibs on the winner. Now, I don't know if she gets it. Well, who else gets it? Why not? I mean, I think Norma Dumont. I'd like to see her get a chance.

We spoke to her, and she was very frustrated. She's on like a what, a four win, four fight winning streak. Kayla Harrison cutting to 135 post-Mata Nunes to fight Norma Dumont? No, no, no, what about Norma versus Juliana? Oh, okay, all right. Oh, okay. I thought you were saying Norma's calling for the title shot right now.

No, no, I was saying Juliana said she wants dibs, she wants the winner of Kayla versus Amanda, but you know, other people should get the opportunity as well. But there's a great story there with Giuliana. And by the way, credit to Giuliana, who said from the start, said from the moment Amanda retired that she would be back, right? That's right, she did. She didn't believe it from the start.

And here she is. And by the way, uh, shout out to Amanda who didn't hold up a division, who didn't stop people from living out their dreams. She gave an opportunity to Raquel Pennington to become a champion. Julianna Pena became a champion for a second time.

Kayla Harrison became a, uh, a champion for the first time. She didn't just think about herself. Wasn't anything in there that she was excited about. She walked away. She wanted to focus on her family. Who knows? Who knows what the reason was? But I think a very honorable and noble thing to do as a champion. So shout out to her. I don't know if I, I, I, I'm trying to keep the Jones stuff till I need to get it out of my system. No, no, no. I need to get it out of my system.

I'm trying to keep the Jones stuff till two 30. We'll get back to more three 16 talk, but we need to. Okay. So, so I, I, I feel like I've been very level headed when it comes to John Jones and this whole situation and not like taking the bait with the tweets and all that stuff. And like I said, I think we've been on top of the story from the beginning and what did I say to all of you? What was it?

Two months ago now, three months ago, they got him the money. I'm not even gonna call it fuck you money because as I've said from the beginning, he always deserved millions upon millions of dollars. It's not fuck you money. It's what he's owed. It's what he's worked to achieve. But you know, there was a back and forth, a back and forth. They got him that money. They finally got him that money. And he said yes. And then he said no. And since he said no,

they've been trying to figure out a way to get him to do this fight. One last fight. He ain't budging. And he's been starting to give us some sort of indication, hints, that he is not interested. But right before 316, he gave us many indications. And when I say not interested, I don't mean not interested in fighting. I mean not interested in fighting Tom Aspinall specifically. Let's go through the tweets,

and then let's get to Dana White, all right? So he talks so much about Tom. And on the one hand, that could give you hope that he's building something, but I don't think he is. My boy's not as special as his fan base thinks he is. I've seen Tom get tapped out twice by different people. Cool. Here today gone tomorrow. He likes to say this about the latest person that people think will be a good challenger for him because that's what we want. We want good challengers for champions. We

continue. Let's keep going. Let's rifle through these. Someone says he was actually tapped once you dumb F. Once to me, it really makes no difference. He's loving this. We keep going. Someone says you're scared. It really has nothing to do with fear. The question I ask my close friends and family is how much higher can a person like me

keep climbing this sport? The goal is for athletes to build a brand, then take that brand and become so much more than an athlete. He's giving you hints. He's done. He doesn't want to do this anymore. I spoke to the UFC a long time ago about what my future plans were. I haven't really worked out since my last fight in New York. Honestly, I believe it's been in the UFC's best interest to keep presenting me as the company's champion, not Tom. This idea of

the TV deal has been brought up. This fight is pre TV deal, new TV deal comes into play. So it's not really in their best interest. But anyway, I've been playing the role of company man by doing nothing at all. John company man, maybe the greatest contradiction of all time. The UFC has done more for John Jones than any fighter on the roster and that includes Conor McGregor. They have bet backwards more for him than any fighter in the history of the sport. Lest we forget, around seven years ago, they moved an event on fight week because he was not going to get cleared by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. They moved it to California. They have never done that for anyone.

They probably will never do that again. So there's a level of loyalty there. We continue. Duck boy over here winning, sticking a big F-U to the haters. Loving this. How would you defeat Tom? By not even giving him a chance.

Wow. What a way to go out. Strip John and Tom. Take both of their belts. Okay, ridiculous tweet from John Silver refused to defend his mother. There's an interesting take, he says. Shit, I'm 37. My body hurts. Funny how Tommy Boy talks zero shit to the studs of his generation. He doesn't talk any shit to anyone. Not even John.

We continue. And remember, you can't strip a guy like me at this point. I give the belt up freely. Ah, yes. We continue. I appreciate all the folks who corrected me. I said Tom got submitted twice, turns out just once by a guy called Cousin Earl. He's loving this.

He's thought so much about this. He's gone deep into the archives, deep into the resume, deep, deep, deep into the CV. We continue. Would God be Tom? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised. Now he's trying to like poke holes, trying to say the guy isn't as big as he thinks he is. The big mouth gets bit in the ass. He has convinced himself that Tom is obsessed with fighting him when in reality, Tom is

obsessed with becoming the undisputed champion. He's obsessed with fighting him, when in reality, Tom is obsessed with becoming the undisputed champion. He's obsessed with the same dream that John was obsessed with. We continue. I wish Tommy no ill will. He is no threat to me whatsoever. He should start with just trying to be the best heavyweight of all time. You know how he becomes the best heavyweight of all time? By winning the belt, the belt that you're holding hostage. He still doesn't get it. He will never get it.

Rid us of this nightmare. We continue. I call this photo rent-free. Kept the intention of a tired country while doing nothing at all. Not true. You're tweeting up a storm. You've never been more present.

We continue. That's the problem with some young men. You think your last outcome is your legacy. That's why many of you fall short. You can't find the strength to return. But here's the truth, your legacy isn't your last move. Legacy is what no one can take from you. It's built over time, not defined by a single win or loss.

It's true, but you could certainly hurt it on the way out. Instead of signing some petition, I'm gonna need at least 205 page essays from Tom Aspinall fans around the world, double spaced MLA format, whatever the fuck that means. Convince me. My team will pick their favorites. John thinks he's cooking with all of these right here.

He thinks he's having the greatest run on Twitter. What's really happening is he's cooking his own legacy right now. He's making a mockery of his legacy. Show me a great champion. Show me a great, from Jordan to Tom Brady to Ali to Lemieux to Gretzky. Show me someone who acted like this in their final chapter. Show me who refused to pay it forward. We'll continue.

And now this is the greatest example that John just doesn't want anything to do with Tom. I'm not going to use the ducking word because I don't like it, but for the supposed greatest fighter of all time to walk away because he doesn't want to fight one particular guy, a guy who he's done everything in his power to shit on, I think speaks volume. Because here he is campaigning for a Francis Ngannou fight. The Francis fight that he could have had back in 2020 and he refused to take. Not when Francis was a free agent. When Francis was ready and willing to fight him for 600k.

I'm hearing Francis is still interested. Now we're talking. That's a real super fight. A clash of champions, not just hype. Tom's a champion too. Held the UFC belt, blah, blah, blah. He's now trying to deflect, divert. You clowns are thinking

France would be that much easier because of the ground game. Tom has no ground game either. Yeah, he's just a black belt. English black belt. Okay, we continue. Here's Don Davis chiming in. He sees something. He sees an opening. Rieks have a little desperation, but hey, there's an opening. Francis versus John. Winner take all.

Francis wins. PFL and Francis split 100% of the profits. John wins. UFC and John split 100%. They'll never do this. They have no reason to do this. But an A for effort. And here's John talking about the 200,000 people who, I actually have to have someone explain this to me, 8 billion people, 200,000 people signed up. I actually think that 200,000 people is a pretty significant number, but of course, that wasn't going to do anything. It's actually 190. Telling, though, that that many people are tired of this saga.

So then we get to Saturday. And this is the first time that we've heard from Dana White in quite some time on this. And I think in like a 30 minute press conference, six or so minutes were devoted to this story. And finally, we have gotten some answers. We've gotten confirmation of everything that we've said. And we've gotten some sort of clarity as to where they're going. Allow myself and Dana White to explain. of everything that we've said and we've gotten some sort of clarity as to where they're going. Allow myself and Dana White to explain.

It's a conversation we've had many times now, the Tom Aspinall, John Jones fight. It's a bit different now, right? Because John's been tweeting a lot about the fact that he's told you his plans, he's ready to vacate the belt and all the rest of it. What's- He said he's ready to vacate the belt? He said he doesn't care if you strip him, he would vacate it. Fucking crazy.

Yeah. I've been busy. I haven't been keeping up with the gossip. He comes back, he's either back today or came back yesterday or whatever. He's in Thailand. So he's home. We'll be home tonight and Tuesday. We'll figure this out. Pause it right there.

To suggest that they're only gonna get into this on Tuesday at their matchmakers meeting is obviously not true. They've been working on this for months and months and months. Also to suggest that the biggest name in the sport, arguably tweeting a whole bunch of stuff like this is just quote unquote gossip is silly as well.

They're very well aware. Trust me, if we fart on this show, they're aware. You don't think that they know that John is silly as well. They're very well aware. Trust me. If we fart on this show, they're aware. You don't think that they know that John is tweeting this stuff. So he's going to play a lot of games here, but he's still going to give us a lot of answers. You'll see. Continue. If he doesn't fight, because he also called out Francis and Garnet. He said he'd rather fight Francis, which I see. Who did?

John. Yeah. Okay. Not that interesting. You see the patients. But if he doesn't fight Tom Aspinall and he does walk away, do you think he's ducked him? Would you? Tom Aspinall is the guy. He's the guy. I don't know. Yeah. Well, let's see. Listen, if the guy wants to retire and doesn't want to fight, nothing you do. I didn't want Habib to retire. I didn't want I thought DC should have stayed in it longer. So It's it's it's none of my business

I'll do what I can to make the fight if we can if you know if he's talking that crazy shit I didn't realize that yeah I remember a time when GSP announced he was walking away after the Johnny Hendrix fight And you said he owes it to the belt and the company to at least defend it against the guy that rightfully should fight for it do you think that's kind of the same here with John yeah yeah but John's been John's been John since he walked in the door here and yeah I was younger then really shit doesn't go the way you would like it to go it's a great point and it's a great question from Oscar Willis of the Mac Life because this is forever why

GSP will be my goat and and part of when I say goat I say the guy who represented the company a guy who represented the sport and did the jobs in the cage GSP had two opportunities to hold up a weight class two opportunities and he did the right thing in 2013 after the Johnny Hendrix fight. He was going through some personal stuff He said i'm out danah white hated him for it held a grudge didn't speak to him He came back They made him sign something and and and and they said if you come back and we give you this title fight against michael Bisping you will defend your title. Well, he ended up getting diverticulitis. No, not diverticulitis colitis. Excuse me

Diverticulitis was brock lester. He gave it up. He gave up that belt like two weeks later. He never held up the weight class. Oh, by the way. And that's one 1785. He never embarrassed himself, his country, the sport, the organization. He always did the right thing. Can we say the same about John? And I'm not taking a shot here.

History is history, but John ain't doing the right thing right now. He's not doing the right thing. He didn't do the right thing with the light heavyweight belt. And he's sure as hell is not doing the right thing right now. He's not doing the right thing. He didn't do the right thing with the light heavyweight belt. And he sure as hell is not doing the right thing here because Tom Asprall has been the guy long before he even fought Steve Aimee Chitch. So remember that when you're comparing legacies. Remember that when you're... He's talking about legacy. What will this do for his legacy? How will he be remembered as opposed to how GSP is remembered? More from Dana.

Obviously, you know, this Jones, this John Jones thing is what a lot of people are talking about. I wonder, is there anything that PFL or Francis could do to make that a realistic option for you guys or are you fully focused on, on Aspen? Yeah, it's Aspen all's fight. I mean, we've been talking to this kid forever about it and it's his fight. Listen, you can't make people fight if John doesn't want to fight Look the first time he's saying this we can try to make him fight opening the door throw things at him that inspire him to want to fight but

We'll figure it out We went from a guarantee that this will happen even just a couple of weeks ago saying it's going to happen to now you can't Make people fight and again Francis has a deal with the PFL This is the quote from just what a few weeks ago May 13th will get Aspen all versus Jones done The heavyweight fight will happen relax. I'll announce that soon doesn't sound like it at least not right now Francis has a deal a long-term deal with PFL obviously Don's tweeting the stuff UFC is not gonna do it It ain't gonna happen. The move that they should do though, the UFC,

is Francis versus Aspenal. That's the one thing that will soften this blow if it doesn't come to fruition. People will lose their minds. If it ends up being Aspenal versus Gunn, it's gonna be a little deflating. But that's the best way to get back at John here. You held us up, you made a mockery of our title.

There is nothing, Chael said it on the show last week, there is nothing the brass hates more than someone who vacates the belt when they're on top. Look at how they reacted to Henry, to GSP. Hate it. Well, imagine how they feel now. John Jones has made a mockery of their belt. And then he's sitting there on Twitter saying, I don't care if you strip me, I'm bigger than all of this. You think they like that? They despise it. They are livid over this. And so the best way to get back is to make that fight. It ain't going to

happen, but that would be the best case scenario. We'll continue. Dana, right back here, it was kind of crazy how much interest John showed in the frances agonist like there was some there's a good call going back and forth what would happen if he came to you and says like i'll fight but i won't play as but i would play in gone and what you even be interested in that or no i don't have and gone on her track contract basic understanding asperger's the guy if you were put in the position, would you maybe try to get Inganu back under contract or no?

Probably not. Yeah, and it's not like, you know, PFL is just gonna be like, here, here you go. You can have him. I mean, he has one fight left, but that term isn't running out anytime soon. We'll continue. In your gut, do you think that fight

will ultimately end up happening? Yeah, I mean, I've been saying it since the beginning and John Jones agreed to do the fight. So John Jones was offered the deal and accepted the deal. Bang, confirmation. John Jones was offered the deal and accepted the deal. Brrrr, rewind. John Jones was offered the deal, I said it,

he finally accepted. Now, that's the most significant thing that Dana White has said regarding this in a very long time. The problem is he didn't tell you the whole story. He didn't tell you about the, and then he went back on his word. He didn't tell you about that part.

Eventually that part will come out, but he didn't tell you about that part right then and there. But there it is. This is when the story is going to be really written, because whenever he comes out and tells the story of why this fight didn't happen, he's going to say he agreed, and then he backed out. The glazing is over, and maybe over time they'll make amends and they'll be buddies and they'll take photos, but the, you know, like over the last like year or so the glazing that people have been talking about that those days are over Those days are over we'll continue more on that John agreed to fight with Tom. To clarify, you said that John agreed to fight Tom, yes? John agreed to fight Tom? Is that what you just said there? Before, like on the last

answer you said... John agreed to fight Tom, yes. So he hasn't signed a contract or anything? Right. Yeah. Why not? I mean you guys have heard me for the last half of long. I said I guarantee you this fight's gonna happen. This fight's gonna happen. This fight's gonna happen.'s fights gonna happen fights gonna happen You guys told me the crazy shit that was going on on Instagram and all these other places But yes, I've been saying John is gonna fight Tom That annoys me Mike no rumors just the truth here on the show Come on, let's hear it come from here. We put out a press release

Don't believe any of this bullshit. It's like the turkey stuff, you know what I mean? And everybody's saying, I know turkey says some stuff. Pause right there. We'll get to the turkey thing on the back end, but the turkey thing came from Turkey. The turkey thing literally came from Turkey. They're putting out a press release about that? No, he actually tweeted the turkey thing. That's another thing. But this whole thing about unless it came from us, of course, there's a million things that don't come from them They dragged out the Conor McGregor story for weeks without telling people who were waiting We've bated breath as to whether or not they should fly out It ain't rumors though. Okay, it's the truth. It's called reporting. It's called journalism

Anyway, we continue come out and say something that's it's all bullshit. I just don't get sucked into that stuff anymore Sure, I don't even care. I don't even listen to it I mean and most of the time multi multi multi multi millions of dollars that happens It's all bullshit. I just don't get sucked into that stuff anymore. I don't even care. I don't even listen to it. I mean, and most of the time, multi, multi, multi, multi, multi, millions of dollars that happens. I hear from you guys when I come to things like this, otherwise I don't care and I don't pay attention to any of that stuff. But yes, John agreed to fight. I bet you Hunter Campbell cares.

Fact. John agreed to the fight. Fact. Then what happened? Then what happened? John Jones is making a mockery of this belt. Enough is enough. Move on.

Book Tom Aspinall against Cyril Gahn or anyone. Jelton Almeida, heck, even give him Derek Lewis and Teixeira. Give him both of those guys. And John may lose that, excuse me, Tom may lose that fight. He does not care, and I don't think anyone at this point cares. We just want to see the division move on. We want to see this guy who we think has a very high ceiling and a higher ceiling than he has already shown us.

We want to see him progress with his life. We want to see him live out the same type of dream, the same type of career that John Jones and other champions have benefited from. But John is begging them to make the announcement. And he's trying to convince all of you that he doesn't care about Tom. No, he's walking away so that he doesn't have to fight Tom Aspinal. It's as clear as day. This isn't my opinion. This isn't through reporting. He told it to us. I'll fight Francis. I'll fight Stipe. Mockery. It's an absolute mockery. I want to sit here and say he's one of the greatest ever. He was the youngest champion ever. He did everything that he could possibly do. And all those things are true, but there is a massive but.

All the shit that got us to this point, all the infractions, the failed tests, the moving of the event. And I'm not even getting into the personal stuff. I'm not getting into any of that, the troubles with the law. And then it ends like this. the moving of the, of the, uh, the event. And I don't even getting into the personal stuff. I'm not getting into any of that. The troubles with the law. And then it ends like this where he comes back and he fights the guy who lost to

the champion great win, but a, a, a disputed title victory, if you ask me, cause it wasn't the lineal belt. He gets injured and then he fights a guy who had not fought in three, four years, who was a full-time firefighter who had no interest in coming back other than this one fight when he could have fought Tom Aspinall in November. This story could have ended in November of last year. Tom fought in July. He could have fought him in November.

He doesn't want the fight. Very clear. And it's not because he's fought lesser guys. Compare Dominic Reyes' resume to Tom's. Compare Anthony Smith's not because he's fought lesser guys. Compare Dominic Reyes' resume to Tom's. Compare Anthony Smith's resume to Tom's. Compare Thiago Santos' resume to Tom's. He's fought guys who don't have the resume but all of a sudden now he wants to be picky and choosy. I mean Gustafson didn't have the resume. Come on now. Don't be fooled. But he has made a mockery, a mockery,

a mockery, a mockery of the belt. And I quite frankly am tired of it. I'm tired of listening to this. I'm tired of talking about it. I'm tired of seeing Tom Aspinall's career get hijacked by John Jones, who's coming across as a narcissist, who's coming across as a sociopath. I don't have anything nice to say right now. I'm tired of it. I'm so tired of this and I'm tired of seeing the UFC enable it and I'm tired of seeing the UFC enable him. We've been sitting through it long enough. Let's move on. God bless. Enough. sitting through it long enough. Let's move on. God bless. Enough. This is crazy. To sit here. They care more about that title than anything. They do everything in their power to build up that belt. To make it seem like the most valuable and important prize in the

game. They have done that. They have successfully done that. And this guy's shitting all over it. For what? For one fight? Move on. You're doing just fine. You don't need to be held hostage by him. Your company doesn't crumble if this fight doesn't happen. Move the hell on. Tell the story, tell the truth, move on.

Book Tom versus gun. And we all live happily ever after. And we'll tell when we're old and gray the story of John Jones about how great he was And about the the the incredible highs and the lows and how when it was time to have one more fight The world wanted to see maybe even two if you want to bring up Francis back in 2020. He chose not to take the fight But unlike 2020 when he asked for a few money and the UFC said no, this time they actually got it for him. They called his bluff. If you want to call it that.

And then he said, ah, I'm good. He's not good enough for me. This fight doesn't interest me. He's he's he's he got submitted by cousin Earl back in God knows when. He's got a a thin upper lip. Fuck out of here. This is nonsense. How anyone is defending any of this is beyond me. People are saying, oh, it's on the UFC to strip him. Yeah, fair.

They could strip him, but John could tweet right now, I'm no longer the champion. Toporia walked away. He just did it a couple of months ago. I'm good. I'm going to 155. Nothing is stopping John Jones from doing that right now. Not a single thing. He could tweet it. What are they going to do to him? He's done. What are they going to do? Sue him? What are

they going to do? Cut him? Release him? Find him? I could do anything. There's no, there's like, oh, I'm beholden to them. Come on. This is, this is a joke. Tired of it. And I don't know what it was because every time I would see the tweets over the last, you know, I don't know, a couple weeks, I would say to myself, not going to, not going to get baited by this, not going to get annoyed by it. He's working through it. He's trying to convince us. He thinks he's cooking. I don't know who's writing these tweets for him, but God bless. But then when it came to all the like the France stuff, like, ah, okay. Look, if you don't want to fight, you don't want to fight. And it doesn't matter against who. If you want to play the game anymore, then no one can say anything. But when you're trying to now change the story and campaign for

another fighter, an older fighter, well now you've just said it all. Time to move on. And I appreciate Dana White finally saying that he did agree to the fight which he had never said before. He just has to tell us the other side of that story. So let's see. Let's see how this all plays out. But right now there's a lot to be excited about as far as MMA is concerned. And I understand why some people, like my friend Ant and so many others online will say like, this is getting tiresome, this is getting annoying, the UFC is washed, all this stuff. I beg to differ because I think that there are a lot of great

champions and a lot of great fights that could potentially be made on the horizon. I enjoyed Saturday's main card. I'm looking forward to Iliya at 155. I'm looking forward to Kayla versus Amanda. I'm looking forward to DDP versus Khamzat. To Pereira versus Ankhtu. To JDM versus Islam, even though that wasn't my top choice, still a tremendous fight. To Valentina versus Zhang Weili. I'm looking forward to these things.

There's a lot of exciting things coming up. Riddus of this nightmare though. Of this saga. I think I got it out of my system. Did I get it out of my system, guys? I think I got it out of my system. Did I get it out of my system guys? I think I got it out. Okay. Now, thank you. It sounds like you got it out, man.

Did I get it out? I don't know. Is it out? I'm not sure. I think it's out. By the way, no September pay-per-view that was announced over the weekend. The UFC will be returning on October 4th to Las Vegas

for the first time in a while. So I'm not sure. I'm not weekend. The UFC will be returning on October 4th to Las Vegas for another pay-per-view. That's UFC 320, and then October 18th in Vancouver for a fight night. So the Noche UFC card, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit, will be September 13th in San Antonio. That was a pay-per-view. It's no longer going to be a pay-per-view. Important to note. And then the next pay-per-view will be October 4th in Vegas 320. And then they also announced October 18th in Vancouver. Shout out to the smashing machine, Mark Kerr.

We found out he'll be the final inductee 2025 class coming up later this month. What a run for him. Movie coming out on his life played by the rock and the rocks inducting him. Do we think this is a little Hollywood synergy to promote the, uh, the film? I don't know, but I think he deserves it. So it's nice to see. By the way, they showed him in attendance on Saturday. He looks great. I hadn't seen Mark Curran in a long, long time. I thought he looked great.

So I'm looking forward to that very much. This class is really good. The 2025 class Amanda's going in, which is a little bit wild as well, considering of course that she is coming out of retirement, but that's the way this goes. All right, first guest of the day, he is the man of the hour, the man we were just talking about at the top of the show. What more can we say about the pride of Georgia, Murab Diwali Shafili? Now 13 in a row, two straight title defenses. His third title fight in less than a year. He wins the belt back in September. He defends it against Umar in January. He beats Sean O'Malley and he wants to fight two more times in 2025. He has now entered that very prestigious 13 and over win club in a row in the UFC.

And he's doing it with style points, with class, with grace representing his country, representing the organization, the sport and the belt with the utmost integrity and class. And we can't say enough good things about the man. He is kind enough to join us right now to talk about the big win. There he is, the great Marabdawali Shvili in his car, just like a regular guy, just like you're going to work back in the day, right? No big deal. Yeah, exactly. I'm regular guy, same guy. Yeah, like I have, I still have my old car here in Long Island and I'm sitting in a car and, and thank you, Andrea. That was, that

was good, good promo. I appreciate you. Thank you. Marab, how do. I appreciate you. Thank you. Mirab, how do you not, you still seem like the guy that we met many years ago when you first came to the UFC. How are you not letting any of this get to your head? You just headlined in New Jersey. You've now won 13 in a row. It's you Anderson Silva, George St. Pierre, Max Holloway, Islam, John Jones. The biggest names in the history of the sport. You're the king at 135, there's no end in sight, yet you seem like the exact same down-to-earth humble guy. And I'm not just saying that to brag about you, but there is nothing that suggests that you have changed. How are you not letting any of this get to you? I still have to get better and I'm the same guy.

I have the same mindset. I don't think I achieved something. I feel like I have so much left. I have so much to prove. I just keep going. I'm just focused for every each fight and Yeah, this all these records and numbers is good but Yeah, like I don't think

And then just more numbers and stuff but Yeah, everything is same. I'm wondering if part of your motivation going into this fight was, all right, I have to beat this guy again. I just beat him in September, but this time I have to do it more dominantly. I have to stop him. Was that a goal? Was that a major goal? Because, you know, the last time you won, it was dominant to a degree, but it was a decision. So you have to think like, okay, anything I did back then, I could do better. Was that part of the mindset going into the fight?

Yes, of course you always wanna to do better fight next fight, especially, it was my rematch and I wanted to do way better than first time. When I was fighting first time Sean for the belt you know I wanted to just win the belt and I take less risk because I know I was winning and I sometimes I don't know you know I don't risk it and because I just want to win even fifth round I just run around because

Sorry somebody come no problem Yes, I could still see you Yeah, I wanted to do better of course, especially I was fighting the same opponent and also like because of Sean make so many excuse and now I was thinking he really maybe become different person and he was way better than first time but and because of it was very much I was supposed to do something extra because I guess so yeah that was sweet a little don't matter that get it go no problem you're important guy yeah but yeah busy like this that's the hot my hardest moment after fight everybody want to call me and I only got two hours sleep

Like just right before you know, and then I'm trying to answer every phone call every text. It's very hard. I understand. I understand And that's why we appreciate you coming on after the fight for a few moments. Thank you so much With regards to Sean you just said you thought he was better. What was better? Was it the takedown defense? Was it something else? I know the fight wasn't as long, but what did you think was better about him this time around? Yeah, takedown defense was much better and also because he already knew my style and he realized he watched my fight and he was doing much better footwork and he fixed the mistakes that he made in the first fight, he picks that. But the thing is I get much better from the last fight

and I picked that too. Sure. To be close to home, close to Long Island, to have the president there, to have Mike Tyson there, I think a lot of your friends and family, or at least a lot of people from Georgia were in attendance, to have all these people there watching you. Did you feel any sort of nerves? Did you feel any

different than your other fight because this one felt a little different? Um, I, like last couple years, I came so professional and I don't have no nerves, like before the fight, like the fight day feels like most comfortable, most relaxing. I'm most happy and in my zone and I don't feel any pressure, any nerve, anything like that. Actually, if I worry something, I want to push myself to, hey, you have a fight and you have to nervous you have to focus you have to think about fights you know, I have to push myself to think about fight because I

can't last you know, because I I do I Do training every day I do same every day a couple of times a day and so but the fact that the fight was near to my second home, Long Island, the fact that it was so many Georgians in the building because in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, there is big community as a Georgians immigrants and all my teammates from Long Island and France, New Jersey. And then I start my pro career in here in New Jersey, New York and everybody was here. It was special moment and when, but it was just,

I was just happy that I was gonna fight in front of my people. But when we walked to the building, I saw Mike Tyson was there, it was cool of course. And then, yeah, Mr. President Donald Trump was here too, that was also cool moment, but I'm so professional. Like I said, nothing's affecting me, and I go and do my job

We saw a video after the press conference you were in your bus and then you got off the bus To talk to some people. Did you know who they were or were they just Georgian fans? Yes, I know The the bishop from the church Bishop Sabba. I mean I love him, I respect him. You know he's like, you know, the Christian, you know we are Georgia, we are Christian country and like most people are Christian. We all live good, you know we have all religions, we all live good, you know, we have all religions, we all live good in the country, we have no problem, like we all live peaceful like US, no problem, but

as a general, we are a Christian country and the Bishop of Sabah, he's our father in the United States and Canada and I recognize him here and then then that's why and also all the Georgians are my brothers and we are we're small community and and then You know they come to my fight. Of course. I have to go see them should give them a sup like love back and Tell them to thank you so much And yeah, it was every every Georgian comes for me and the means a lot and I want to like I'm trying to give back them loud because they motivate me and they give me so much energy always and I'm grateful for my country and support I get from my country. And I saw a lovely video from Sertanta Sports of I think family members back home. Who are these people celebrating early morning? Who are they?

Yeah, so my mother and father You seen my this is my own village and all the neighbors the who lives Like you know in my village Everybody was not everybody. No, like just a small group of like... This is 7 a.m. you know and then yes some friends go my house, not a friend, some neighbors goes my house, some other neighbors I guess watching other houses but yeah this is my parents house and yeah, they watch. He's my father with the silver hair, like sitting there. And yeah, they're watching the fights.

And yeah, of course, man, this is the all, all we like, Wani was happy, Imeleti and George everywhere actually doesn't matter. Swaneti, Clacheti, Magreli, everybody was happy. I remember the last time you came home, you had a big homecoming after you won the belt It was an incredible amount of people a sea of people I remember the guy on the horse next to you on the bus and I understand you're going back to Georgia this week

What does that seem gonna be like? Do you have any idea? What's awaiting you? Oh my god, I Hear us welcome. Yeah, but a hero's welcome. But at the same time, it's gonna be a lot of work for me because everybody wanna touch me, everybody wanna kiss me, everybody wanna grab a picture with me. And I will have a great time in Georgia, but I need some strong security still because I wanna give everybody hug loud too, but you, but I have only limited time because I'm a human being too.

Sometimes I get burned down too, especially because like I mentioned, since my fight I only get two, three hours sleep. Like I said, I want to answer everybody and the love and support I get, especially after the fight, it's amazing and so it's gonna be great trip in Georgia because I'm sure since we get in Georgia people will be in airport and we're gonna move to the Rilkes Park which is parking Rilke and so the people will be waiting for us there. And I have to go visit Kapo village and just eating Georgian food

and make sure guys you watch my social media. I'm gonna post lots of things from Georgia this time and you guys can just list watch. I love it. And we will do that. I may have asked you this question already, Murad, but now that it's even gone further, correct me if I'm wrong,

you've exceeded your wildest dreams, right? Like when you were dreaming of this career and hoping to be in the UFC, did you ever think any of this was possible, what you're doing now? No, no, it was impossible. what you're doing now? No, no it was impossible. I was just happy to sign with UFC and when I had a first fight in UFC and I had some controversy and even judges robbed me or something,

I was still happy that I made UFC and I can tell one day my grandkids that I was fighting in UFC even I lost. I'm like I was still happy and especially they robbed me next fight and I was all in too and but I was still happy that I was in UFC and I was still happy that I was in UFC and I can never imagine for me to come this far to come ever champion. Because especially there is, we know so many good fighters, there was great fighter but they never come champion. Like, there is many, like this many examples like this. And so it's, as you know, it's very hard to break top 15, top 10, and then climb to ladder and to come champion. And the defend, this is very hard.

I'm doing it but He I don't think I'm just go step by step like like I'm just focused of one fight all the time We know I'm not thinking but even future. I don't know what I was gonna say if I beat O'Malley Even the people interview you see me as a very realistic, you know, he O'Malley may knock me out. He may I never know because hey Ariel trust me if I knew that I was gonna win 13 fights in a row. I will tell my cousins. Hey cousins Use all my money bet on me Use all your money bet on me. I'm going to win this fight you know like all like you know but

it's I don't know that you know I know I have to do my best in training I have to do my best in fighting and whatever happens happens you know even if I lost I knew I give all that's what I'm focused on I want to give always all and that's what I'm focused like people saying now oh finally one submission like guys how it's very hard to finish Josie Aldo Henry Sehud, Peter, Omar Umar Gamedo and stole belt from and jacket from Umalialley. No, it's very hard. In the same building too, in the same arena. Yeah, it's a coincidence. By the way, what do you think Sean should do now?

Could I ask, some said before the fight, if he didn't get past you, he should consider 145. Maybe that's too drastic. If you could offer him some advice, what would it be? I would just say positive, you know. And the loss sometimes is good, you know, makes you even motivated to think about and make you

to change more stuff and to get better mentally, physically, you know. You know, of course, loss in fight never good, you know, because this is not soccer game or baseball game. You lost the game and you can blame something weather or something you know but here you have to blame yourself and just yeah just looking for a reason in your head what you have to get better just do your best if you still love this just keep doing it keep training and do your best. As long as you love, keep doing it. And if you don't love anymore, then relax. He is...

I'm sure he's happy, happy dad. I wish him all the best. But he can listen. Not everybody will be champion. Only eight guys will be champion at the time. But if you still love this fight. I was just going to suggest if we could reconnect with Murad because it was getting worse and worse the connection there.

So let's reconnect with him. I don't know if you guys did that or if if he did that, or if his phone died. Are you implying that we kicked him out? No, I don't know. I don't know, but. No, we did not. I think it's connection. Yeah.

It was just down, we're working on getting him back right now. We're efforting, we're efforting. And like I said, I was very happy that, you can kind of tell, the UFC doesn't really announce number one contenders or number one contender fights beforehand, but when Rogan asks a question specifically about a contender who happens to be in attendance,

you can kind of tell where they're leaning. And so the fact that he mentioned Corey, tremendous flannel and hat that he was wearing in attendance. Didn't come in the cage. It was good enough. And I'm happy to hear that. And I'm happy to see that. I wish there were more number one contender fights.

And sometimes it's only a number one contender fight for one guy as opposed to the other. But Corey versus Marab is the fight to make, in my opinion. They had a nice little interaction I saw backstage. It seems like there's just a ton of love and respect between the two of them. Here's Marab doing interviews and... And here's... Look at this. These guys are boys. I love it.

No bad blood, no beef, no shit talking. The build for this is gonna be great. The two of them, I don't wanna say underrated, but prolific on social media these days. Thoughtful, entertaining, fun. I feel like we're gonna get some good skits out of these two. I don't know what they're saying, but it's nice to see. And it's 100% the fight to make.

And I don't think Corey had any sort of guarantee that this is where they were leaning towards, but it's good to be there. It's good to be there. It's good to be seen. Good to be in the front row. Good to be in attendance. I loved it. All right, let's go back to Marab.

There he is. Okay, hello Marab, sorry. Can I ask you about that interaction? We just showed the video of you and Corey backstage. What did you guys say to each other? Um like I tell him too. I like his jokes lately He makes couple couple skits in social media and before he was very serious and

now I like his jokes and Me and aljo was actually talking about Aljo was mentioning how How funny he's getting and which is good, you know, like I I'm sure you guys saw so he was I Believe when he says something about only friends when I look and I have to ask a couple people he's joking with us Right. I'm like because he how he was joking It was really make you believe you know, like stuff like that. And he made a couple skits like after he win the fight and yes, the jokes are like positive and that's what I tell him to compliment about that.

And I also tell him to his most deserving contender today, especially we never fought each other and he always was company guy and he was always fighting the best guys and he beat a lot of good guys like Songi Dong, Chito Vera and close fight with Jan. Figueredo just recently and so I'm happy that the UFC kind of said that he's next and it sounds like you're on board as well compared to the guys that you fought recently Umar, Sean twice what do you think Corey's better than them do you think he's a tougher test and and if so why and if not why?

Why? Because his new style we never fight each other and we know there is no MMA map. And you know, I may... you know, style is style makes fight. And you know, Corey Stehman is... not Stehman, Corey Stehman again. He's a different style. We never fight each other and It's a different style. We never fight each other and it will be tense for me. I think that's why. Because, you know, because... I think Jan has fights with somebody else. Yeah. And then, yeah, I don't see any... I don't type off my head. Yeah, maybe eventually about this time he looks very good also, you know.

Realistically, I know you said two more fights this year, but it seems like realistically it will be one, right? If it was up to you, would it be the MSG card in November? Yeah, like as a guy who thinks the New York is second home, of course I would love to fight here, especially I never fought here in New York. Let me tell you one story from 2019. You know everything, I lost my first two as a kind of controversial loss and then then win the third fight and which was in Russia and and then I have a one fight left on my contract which is sport fight and I have to win this fight to stay in UFC and who knows even two and two if UFC wants to keep you and

I really have to win My last fight and they offer me Brett Katona Who was? ultimate fighter champion in 145 and he was undefeated 9-0 and in the show He see me Bryce Mitchell and I'm like I training with Bryce Mitchell. This guy is monster and if somebody Finished Bryce Mitchell the guy must be crazy good and uh, and the bread katana is from canada

But he was training in ireland with connor magregor's coach and he was teammate pretty much with connor magregor And this is 2019 and i'm like still Like seven and maybe eight and four and the UFC one and two. And I'm working full-time construction. And when manager asked me to, if I wanna take this fight, of course I always say yes, but this time I say first time to UFC, oh yes, no problem, I will fight Brett Katona,

but if it's possible to me fight in New York, in my head, I was thinking maybe hopefully if it's my, I was thinking if it's my last fight and if I'm losing this fight, I'd rather lose and fight here in front of my people in New York and at least it will be my last fight in UFC and maybe even finish my career or maybe not.

But at least I will have a fight in New York in front of my people and that will be it. But I guess manager tell UFC what I tell and then from there, what the fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, if you wanna fight, fight, if not, get out of here. And then I'm like, okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah. I'm like, okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm like, and then like fight week, take off from work and go to Canada, cut weight, fight

on the field guy, win. And I was happiest guy and then and then when UFC give me new contract I'm like yes I made it now I am two and two official UFC fighter you know like and then I was happiest man and so that's how I really wanted to fight New York all the time and then after I never get opportunity to fight in New York, but I would love to fight in New York Madison Square Garden. But now this time I feel much better because I already have a fight in New York

and it was cool for me, but I'm a company man. Whenever is good for them them I will fight. So you ask me now, now even Vegas come out very comfortable for me. I live there, I have a house there, I can sleep in my bed and fight in Vegas that will be very comfortable and easy for me. So I will still say New York will be better option, but if UFC wants to me wait more and fight December in Vegas, I will be fine too.

No issue. Murab, do you feel like the UFC is behind you? Do you feel like the brass is behind you, that they want to promote you, that they want to support you? Of course, yes. Right now, as you guys see, yeah, like now I get so much love and support from UFC. And now actually I understand like why UFC was upset of me

because I understand how this business works. And I know they have, they run business and they know how to run the business. And that's why they have this big company and You know like me You know We all have an ego and then we all think we're doing right thing and we can fight whenever you are real You can all talk like in social media, but you know when we want to fight stuff, but you know You know you have to be Company man, and you have to fight whenever they want to fight and whoever you want to fight and

Whoever they want to fight and if you do that then you're good man. You know so I Yeah, yeah, I mean You see Even begin of course like I'm grateful for UFC, man. But you know, like, yeah, I say something in speech and they don't like it. Now I understand, you know, but I'm not regret nothing. I am who I am and I will still do same. If I think that it's right for me and this is who I am, this is how my parents raised me, and I have to speak truth and I have to do what I think is right.

I know you're asked often about if you're the bantamweight goat and you talk about Aljo and you're very humble but is this a goal of yours to make it so definitive and undisputed that you are the greatest bantamweight of all time is this something that you think of? No, no, not like I mentioned like one minute ago the fact that I'm fighting in UFC and I'm a UFC fighter and like I have a job here and I'm fighting in UFC and I'm a UFC fighter and I have a job here and I'm happy. But now I'm a champion and mention my name with these great champions. This is of course means a lot for me. But no, okay, what I want Ariel is I want to do my best. You know, I want to do my I want to push my limit. You know, that's that's what I'm focused on. Then

I I don't need anything else. You know, I want to just have I want to keep fight long as I can and because every fight every win is big for my country big for my team and I'm gonna do a lot of great things with that you know I'm trying to like support young fighters from Georgia I'm like like now like I'm like now, I'm in the work to build gym in Georgia for give people like charity gym, like and then they give better, a better quality gym was how I should say. Yeah, like a good place to train, right? Yeah, good place to save and yeah, like,

yeah, like, yeah, like, yeah, exactly, big, big gym and good gym and, you know, so because there is lots of gyms, but small gyms, no good mats, no octagon, no coach, no shower, and then like, you know, I wanna, I wanna like, just, it just makes me happy to just give back to my country like you know I wanna I wanna like just it just makes me happy to just give back to my country you know some yes I love it and what a time for your country with Ilja fighting in a couple of weeks as well it's it's unbelievable what this small nation has done and not to mention the other

fighters coming out from there do you have any interest at some point in the Pantoja fight this is the one that people are talking about. If he continues to win, you continue to win a super fight. Does this interest you? You mean if he's come in my division? Yeah, yeah. Yes, if he will move up in my weight class and UFC interesting with that, no problem. That will be a fight. I'm sure a lot of people will be interested and no problem. I respect Pantoja.

Pantoja will be a tough opponent for me. And if Pantoja wants this and if UFC wants this, I have no problem with that. Okay, and the last thing, Murav, I saw this, and by the way, these people walking by you here, do they know that one of the greatest fighters in the world is sitting in his car right now? Do they have any idea who you are?

Not his neighbors. They live next street. I live in North Belmont in Long Island, and that's why I have my old car here. I'm sitting here. It's unbelievable. Yeah, they don't know who I am, but some people in my block, they know who I am.

But you know. If you were in Georgia right now, you couldn't sit in the car right now, right? You'd be swarmed by people. No way, brother. No way. It must be nice to have this double life right yes in us I live peaceful because but not anymore actually because like you guys go supermarket shopping Walmart I get recognized so it's good I like it I like

people recognize me but to be honest, when people don't recognize me, I'm happy. I'm always looking for now, like the quiet places, so people hopefully don't recognize me. If people recognize me, I'm happy. Of course I like it. Of course, it feels good, but like, you know, so yeah. I love it.

It's like this. I love it. It's like this. I just wanted to ask you about the picture you posted of you and Kayla from several years ago. Where was this picture? And it's amazing that you guys were together on the same card celebrating. It was beautiful to see. But this is from, I think, nine years ago, right?

Yes. Yes. This picture is from nine years ago. We take in New York. Yes, this picture is from nine years ago. We take her in New York. It was judo tournament. And as you guys know, my background is judo and Kyle Harrison, she's the judo queen and you know, I was a fan of her and she was always cool and nice.

And you know, after, you know, we, you know, she wasn't competent. I competed there like some judo tournament and we take a picture. And that time I was two and two and she haven't made MMA debut yet. And I asked her about that MMA. She said, yeah, she was interesting. And she said, I want to be next to Ronda Rosie, but but I'm like in my head how like she she's big you know she was huge always and how she's gonna make 145 and and I don't think you I don't remember if nine years ago that UFC even have a 145 division and I'm like How it's possible to she can fight to make the weight and stop but today here we are

I'm champ She's champion and We have a Bolt made history. I love it so happy for you. Murab. I wish you nothing but the best continued success Congratulations on the great win. Enjoy your time back home. I know you're going to Azerbaijan and then of course International Fight Week to support your your your good friend and brother. Ilya Toporya None of this could be happening to a better person to a better human being and you're such a great representative Representative of the sport and of the weight class and of your country. So congratulations

Enjoy it all and again, what a great performance and thank you always for coming on the show. I really, really do appreciate it on the Monday after the big fight. Thank you. I appreciate it. Now I regret I don't came here. So it came so no problem. I was, I wanted to get a little sleep and that's why I stay in my house but I still don't get a sleep and I still don't have a this opportunity to come your show but you're welcome anytime okay I appreciate you man I always enjoy and yeah you you you one of who inspired me know to of course when you were fighter you wanted to come best and then eventually you you will have an interview with Ariel Hawani

and people like you motivate young MMA fighters and you're doing a great job Ariel and always a pleasure to be in your show. Thank you. Thank you, Murab. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Safe travels home. There he is, the great Murab Dwil Shafili, the bantamweight champion. What a pleasure it is to talk to him. So freaking humble. I'll mention it until I'm blue. The time that we did the Ringer MMA show in New York,

three years ago, and he was our guest at a barbecue spot. I don't remember the name, TST Wood, in any event. He showed up like three hours early and it was just like, yeah, I'm cool. I'll just sit at the bar, scroll on my phone, get a glass of water or something. As down to earth as it gets. And now he's starting to enter the conversation of greatest of all time at 135.

Kayla Harrison is going to join us at four. Mario Bautista at 430 at 3 o'clock will have the great Mark Coleman And Mike de Sabado join us to talk about a very important Story, so stay tuned for that more on 316 Kevin Holland had a great great win An amazing win over Vicente Lucan. He seems to have really found a home at 170 pounds. He's now on two in a row and yes, maybe against older fighters, but that's okay.

He's now committed to 170, a nice submission win over a tough guy, a tough veteran like Vicente Luque, called out Colby Covington, nice to see him put it together. A fan favorite, always entertaining, always down for a fight, always ready to get back in there. That was great stuff. Joe Pfeiffer started out, I think, very strong,

and I think if you were watching that fight early on, you would have thought to yourself, he's gonna score a knockout, he's gonna stop this guy. That guy, of course, being Kelvin Gaslim. But Gaslim is tough as nails, hard to put away. And even, I think according to two or maybe even three of the judges won the third round. So easier said than done.

But it was an important fight, an important win for Joe Piper, who of course had to withdraw just hours before his fight a couple months ago in Mexico. Nice for him to get back on track and I can tell you that tomorrow he'll be joining us in studio. I'm looking forward to that chat very much but we must talk about Mario Bautista versus Patchy Mix and I alluded to this earlier. It was just a nightmare for Patchy. And if you're just a UFC fan,

if you don't watch other organizations, I would not blame you if you thought to yourself, this is the guy? This is the guy that all of you said was maybe the best bantamweight in the world? This is the guy that all of you said was the best champion in Bellator. This is the guy who you guys have been talking about

for the last few months who was being held back by the PFL. And my response to that would be, no, actually that wasn't the guy. That is not the guy. I don't know who that guy was. And part of it perhaps We need to give credit to Mario Mario fought brilliantly and he did exactly what he needed to do. He fought the perfect fight and

He and he also fought a completely different fight than the one that he fought against Jose Aldo Which was the one that he received a ton of criticism for but he can't win because he was booted in this fight, too And I thought it was very unfair. I thought it was a great performance unanimous decision which was the one that he received a ton of criticism for but he can't win because he was booted in this fight too And I thought it was very unfair. I thought it was a great performance unanimous decision 30 to 27 The broadcast tried to sell us on on patchy winning the second round and that the fight was close going to the third That wasn't the case if you ask me the fight was over once the third started patchy had to win Via stoppage never came never came close But that wasn't the same guy. And I heard Mario in the post-fight press conference

talk about the fact like, hey stop talking about this guy just being flat-footed, you know, I'm responsible for that. And I do agree, to a degree, but that did not look like one of the best bantamweights in the world, one of the best fighters in the world. Honestly, it looked like a guy who maybe had like one of the best bantamweights in the world, one of the best fighters in the world. Honestly, it looked like a guy who maybe had like one or two fights in his career. I'm being serious. I don't know what that was. Now after the fact, he talked about, hey, three weeks notice, Tatiana Suarez, his fiance said, proud of you, three weeks notice against one of the best guys.

He had won seven in a row, now eight in a row, all this stuff, but that was not the discourse heading into this fight. Don't forget. And I don't think it was necessarily to sell the fight. I think it was to sell himself. The discourse heading into the fight was, this guy's a journeyman, I'm seeing through him, I'm going to be in the title picture, my time,

my career was held hostage for the last several months, did not age well. It was not a great night for the Bellator champs. Great for the PFL champs, not so much for the Bellator champs. I don't know what that was and I've been trying to rack my brain as to whether or not it was the worst debut in UFC history. Now when I say that though, I have to put an asterisk because like CM Punk doesn't count. Like actual debut doesn't count or a guy who like you know gets signed like a Charlie Ward or something like that if you remember him, not the former point guard of the New York Knicks or the former quarterback of Florida State, the Heisman Trophy winner. I'm talking about the SBG product. I think it was the worst debut by someone who was hyped up, highly anticipated, former champion, a celebrated signing,

and I'm not trying to pour it on him. On the broadcast, they said that this was one of the most anticipated debuts in recent memory. I don't agree with that. For example, Patricio Pippel's debut, I thought, was more anticipated just because he had been around longer, he was the face of bell tour for a decade He was a champion for longer

But it was almost like if you know, you know and and and patchy kind of represented for the hardcore fan there aren't a lot of these guys left because there aren't a lot of other organizations left and The regional scene isn't what it once was There aren't a lot of these guys who who fans could be like, that's the guy. There was once a time 10, 11 years ago where there were a ton of these guys, either overseas or here in America. And so Apache kind of represented that. That's the guy. That's one of the few guys, it's him and Usman. That's one of the few guys who could come to the UFC and be the champion there. Who is better than the current champion in the UFC.

That's what people said and that's what the, I would say, like the, you know, the hipster fans would hang their hat on. Well, it didn't work out that way and it wasn't even in a title fight. Like some guys came over, you know, from StrikeForce. Gilbert Melendez came over from StrikeForce and got an immediate title fight. Did not prevail, lost to Benson Henderson. This wasn't even a title fight. This wasn't even against a top five guy. And I think Mario is getting very, very close to top five category. In fact, I'd love to see Mario versus Eamon Zahabi next.

Both have a common opponent as of late in Jose Aldo. But I just I don't know what to make of that performance. I want to give him a mulligan. I want to give Patchy Mix a full camp and just be like, alright that one, I don't know what that was, but like let's throw that one out the window and let's build ourselves back up. Obviously, it's going to take some time to get back to the spot. Two, three, I don't know. Or maybe they give them one right away. Who knows? But I could tell you that wasn't the patchy mix. And I don't even care if he was fighting maybe lesser competition. They weren't that much lesser, if that makes sense. They weren't that much worse than Mario Bautista.

Can you think of a worse one, GC? Is there a worse one that comes to mind? Not off the top of my head, no. Coming over and having the status that he had from a different promotion, making a debut, I personally can't think of one. Rick's right here, he might have one. He's chomping on something though. What are you chomping on?

Oh, like you're actually eating? Oh no, God. You thought he was chomping on a thought or something? Yes, yes, I thought you were like revved and ready to go. No, he's gotta stay fueled, running around getting gets. Why'd you pass the baton to him as he's chomping? Because there's a million screens in front of me.

So I got the view of us, and he was just chewing so hard. I had to. What is it, carrots and peanut butter? It was nuts. Why? What do you mean carrots and peanut butter? I don't know. I love carrots and peanut butter.

I was going to say, that's a you thing. Chomp, chomp. It felt like a carrots thing. I had some nuts, and I was chewing pretty hard. By the way, nuts while doing also on air work, dangerous. Fueling, look at him, he's double head phoned up right here. Sometimes there's like a little piece that just kind of emerges in the throat.

It's happened to me. I don't have the food issues that you have. What are you talking about food issues? Speaking of, I house like a- There's six different rules for how you're eating. I don't have those rules. It's like right here, it gets stuck. I'm good. I house like a whole carton of blueberries after dinner the other night and I thought of you.

Post-dinner? Post-dinner. How was the gas? I had breaks at 1 a.m. last night. There was no gas? I would have never known. I would have gas. You don't S it there. Gas.

Gas, that's what I'm saying, Kevin. Zero issues. Zero gas? I was like, this is fake. This is all in his head. It didn't sit on top? Didn't sit on top, man. It didn't rot.

I actually had blueberries for dessert at lunch today. This is crazy. This is crazy. It was undoubtedly a bad debut by Paci Mix. I can't think of maybe a worse one, but I mean, we've seen like, Pitbull came in and struggled mightily against Yair Rodriguez. Now we've seen Pacci come in. Wasn't this bad. Struggled against Mario Bautista.

I would definitely grade his as worse than Pitbull's. Puzzling. There were some moments in the third. Yeah, he just didn't look like himself. How does this bode for Aaron Pico? Like, we're talking about all these guys coming in. Little bit of pressure. There's pressure on Aaron Pico now.

We've seen two in a row. Now, great, did you go back to like MVP? It wasn't, you know, an earth shattering performance, but it was better, right, in his debut. Go all the way back to Michael Chandler. That one was an impressive, incredible knockout for him. But the recent run has not been great. And so Aaron Pico has some pressure on his shoulders

to show out against. Again, we look at who they're matched up against. This is a very tough matchup coming up for Aaron Pico has some pressure on his shoulders to show out against. Again, we look at who they're matched up against. This is a very tough matchup coming up for Aaron Pico. It was a very tough matchup for Patchy Mix. It was a very tough matchup for Patricio Pitbull. There's no cakewalks when you come into the promotion. I have a very annoying question. Was Patchy Mix project?

No. What? Ah. We talk about what the definition of it is and everything. Patchy makes fraud check. No. We talk about like what the definition of it is and everything and like what constitutes a fraud check. Of anything we've seen lately, I feel like this would be a fraud checking. He comes over, he's talking about he is the best bantamweight in the entire world.

They are just holding the belt for him. Marauda Valesvili is simply holding the belt for him. Chuck Mendenhall mentioned on the post show, Pat you talking about, oh you rolled with Murab? Nah man, Murab rolled with me. I am the best bantamweight in the world. And then to put up a performance like that, were the lights too bright?

Was it jitters? Was he injured? Was something going on behind the scenes? Through 10 minutes of that fight, I think everyone was asking, what is going on? What is he doing in here? He does not look like he is equipped to be in the Octagon with Mario Bautista.

Honestly, it was weird. It was a real puzzling one. I said this on the post show. I was talking to my sons, they were up. I was like, yo, you gotta see this fight. This guy, he's the future. And they were like, what, this guy? Bruh, I did it too.

I sold Patchy Mix to my friends who were gonna watch the card and they texted me. I get off the watch party, I just have texts, this group chat, they're like, what the fuck was that? Who's this guy? You told us to bet this dude minus 180? I'm like, oh, is that what he was? I'm like, man.

I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry. Well, shout out to Mario Bautista, shout out to Joshua Van. There were some great performances, but I did wanna mention before we get to our in-studio guests, in the midst of the show on Saturday, the event on Saturday, there started to be some tweets

that were circulating regarding the health of Ben Askren. And so then I started to ask around because I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not. And unfortunately we found out that Ben Askren is currently fighting some very serious illnesses and that he was in the hospital and still is in the hospital. And then a Facebook post from his wife, Amy, emerged where she posted,

you may have heard that my husband Ben is going through something. He developed serious pneumonia, which came on very suddenly. He's currently in the hospital and unable to respond to anything at this time. And I know that some people took that as responding which came on very suddenly. He's currently in the hospital and unable to respond to anything at this time. And I know that some people took that as responding

to any signs or any queries. Either way, obviously not great. We welcome all prayers for healing and for peace. We're trying to keep life as normal as possible for our children currently and doing our best to support them thoughtfully, so please refrain from discussing it with them for now. So, you know, obviously this is to her friends and family as well.

And I had heard about the pneumonia, a staph infection and just very serious stuff. I think he recently went under the knife to fix an issue that had been bothering him, I believe with his hip. And this is extremely scary. Actually, I was talking to someone recently, I think, no, it was with, it was with Bischoff and Hogan.

We were talking about Ben Askren signing up for Real American Freestyle Wrestling. And noting that he appeared to be in the best shape of his life. I mean, he looked very fit, very jacked, and this is extremely scary stuff. So, obviously our best to Ben have enjoyed watching him and covering him and getting to know him. And he's so important for his community, for kids, for wrestling. It's just extremely scary stuff. for his community, for kids, for wrestling. It's just extremely scary stuff. Such a young guy, very healthy, very fit. And so our hearts go out to the Asperin family

and we're sending Ben, the funky one, our absolute best and hope that he is able to make a very speedy recovery and that he's able to get through all of this because some of the reports were extremely scary and unsettling to read and I know the wrestling community very much behind him as well so if you if you want to throw out a prayer out there and some good thoughts please do throw out some for the the great Ben Askren who is battling right now. In a matter of moments, we are going to be joined in studio

by two great wrestlers in their own right. The very first UFC heavyweight champion, the great Mark Coleman, who had an illustrious MMA career, is a two-time UFC Hall of Famer and a Pride Grand Prix tournament winner, two-time UFC tournament champion as well. A very good friend of his and business partner of his, Mike DeSabato, will also be joining us. And they, of course, were good friends and met while competing at the Ohio State University. Coleman was at Miami University of Ohio and then transferred for a senior year in 1988

and actually in 87 and then won the NCAA championship in 1988. DeSabato was at Ohio State from 87 to 91 and had a great run there as well. In 2018 though, DeSabato was the first former Ohio State athlete to blow the whistle so to speak regarding some horrific things that he and hundreds of other OSU athletes were forced to endure athletes were forced to endure while members of the university's athletic department. This came on the heels of the Michigan State Larry Nassar story, which obviously dominated the headlines and caused a ripple effect through that program and other programs as well. And so there's a new documentary that is coming out on June 17th called Surviving Ohio State.

It comes out on HBO and HBO Max. And like I said, it comes out on June 17th. Today at 5.30, it will be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival. George Clooney, by the way, is among the producers of the documentary, and it speaks of this horrific story. John Wertheim, who's a great sports reporter who works as a correspondent for 60 minutes Wrote a very lengthy feature in 2000 on This story on Mark Coleman on Mike de Sabado and the hundreds of others Who were victims of a doctor named Richard Strauss?

Who eventually took his own life in 2005 it is a story that is still ongoing a story that still hasn't Reached any proper resolution if there is even a proper resolution to be had but because they are here in New York to attend the Premier we wanted to have them in studio to talk about premiere we wanted to have them in studio to talk about this story. Of course, Mark Coleman, a central figure in the Smashing Machine film that will be coming out later this year. The great Ryan Bader played him in that film and we talked to Ryan about it and we just very recently saw Mark at the the Ryzen show along

with Yuri Prokhaska at the the opening ceremonies with the drums It was a great scene. There's Yuri Doing his thing and In a matter of seconds There's Mark Coleman legend We'll talk to him about that without further ado. Let us say hello now to the great Mark Coleman the legend. We'll talk to him about that. Without further ado, let us say hello now to the great Mark Coleman, the legend, the Hall of Famer, and his good friend, Mike DeSabato.

Hello, Mark. It's good to see you, my friend. You too, how are you buddy? Everything good? Yeah, everything's real good. Mr. DeSabato, my good friend. Good to see you. How are you?

Good to see you. Thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it. Thank you guys for coming. I know it's a really, it's a big day for the two of you with the premiere coming up later on today. Tribeca Film Festival, that's a big deal. The film Surviving Ohio State, I really

appreciate you guys coming on. By the way, can I just say you looked fantastic at the Rise and Show. Oh, thank you. We just showed the footage of you. I lost 30 pounds in three weeks. Come closer to the microphone. I lost 30 pounds for three weeks. I wanted to look good that night. Twenty, twenty five

years after the Grand Prix, I weighed in 224. Look at you over there. Look at that bod right there. Yeah, it's coming. That hammer. It's come. I just started lifting heavy again. Really? So how are you feeling? How's your health? I'm as healthy as it gets, bro. Better every day. Amazing. Well, that was great. I love that they had you out there. It was so nice. And you looked amazing.

25 pounds in three weeks. 30 pounds. I was 224. That's when I weighed, I wanted to get down to 228. That's how I weighed in the Pride Grand Prix. So I wanted to get down to that, but I got down to 224,

which was my last fight with Shogun Hua. Incredible. Well done. All right, so I set the table a little bit. Put it all Shogun Hura. Incredible, well done. Alright, so I set the table a little bit. Put it all back on. And listen, it doesn't matter. That's immortal right there. I wanted to put it on.

This guy looks great. He looks amazing. And I'm happy to hear. A couple years ago he wasn't looking so good. Sure, sure. Where he's come from. And with the sobriety, everything still, where it was.

It's cool, brother. I love it. And family, okay? Family's doing good, everybody's doing good. It's cool, brother. I love it. I love it. And family, okay? Family's doing good, everybody's doing good. Okay. Life is great. Amazing.

So I set the table on the film that is coming out June 17th, HBO, HBO Max, Surviving Ohio State, and you guys are central figures, and you, dare I say, whistleblower, right? That is the word. I was the whistleblower. Both, actually. The both of you, okay. I was the whistleblower as well. Okay, all word the both of you okay okay all right

all of it where do we begin you transfer to Ohio State in 87 you win the national championship in 88 correct 86 I transferred had a red shirt here okay but you win the national championship in 88 and you were there 87 to 91 actually mark and I came in the same year. Okay. I was a true freshman. I was a true freshman. He was a transfer from Miami, high profile transfer. So yeah, we've been together since 86.

Mark, when did you first meet Dr. Richard Strauss? 86, the first day of practical, the physicals of course. And like I said, it was a joke going around and people were saying stuff to me, have fun in there. And it was eye-opener. What do you mean by have fun in there? I didn't understand it either, but I kind of knew. Just, Dr. Strauss was very hands-on, let's say.

It was a joke within our community, within the locker room, that Strauss was, he performed unnecessary general exams on all of us, all the time. And at the time, you know, this is 1986, Ariel, we didn't know what we know now to be grooming and sexual abuse. And we just thought it was some dude that was not right and enjoyed something that was not cool. And but he was the doctor and he was the guy that cleared us to wrestle. If you had injuries, you had to go to him. And very much like Larry Nassar, he was a friend. It's a complicated thing when you look back at it. He earned our trust.

And again, when you got that varsity, you got that Ohio State logo on the side of your chest and you're a medical doctor. Well, we were taught to follow the rules and do what do what they say you're going to do. So look, man, you need this guy to compete. This guy's got to sign you off, it's that simple for me. I wanted to be a national champion. I wasn't gonna cause problems.

And you had a great career up until that point, like I said, like you said, you had transferred from Miami of Ohio. Had you ever experienced anything like the type of stuff that he was doing in your athletic career up until that point? Well no, absolutely not. I mean, it was new to me.

And so when you guys go in there for the first time, when you leave, do you tell your teammates like, yeah, what was that? Or is everyone just very quiet about it? There was a lot of that, what is that? And Frank, that- We turned it into, we kind of joked it off, just made a joke that you gotta go in there

and step out of your Shorts for a physical right? Oh and and he always said it was a hernia. I was that he was being thorough He always had a reason that he and wanted to see your genitals, right? And again, it wasn't it wasn't new for me because Strauss was very knew for me because Strauss was very, very key figure in the wrestling community in Ohio. Several of my brothers wrestled before me, two brothers in the early 80s, so I kind of knew the rumors about Strauss. And again, at that time, Arrow, there was, there was no sex abuse or sexual predator.

We didn't know. We just knew that this dude was strange. And that was part of his, part of his routine. You first met him when you were 14, right? 14. Wow. 14, I was, let me take a deep breath. Sure, I understand.

It's, first of all, I appreciate you taking the time. Of course, of course. This is a... I know Mark and it's not something that you enjoy talking about, but it's important, Ariel. It's a... in order to make progress, my wife said this to me last night, in order to make progress, you got to be truthful to what's happened in the past. And we were the first, Mark and I, just to play a little history, we're sitting around in December of 2017 and he's reading the newspaper back when newspapers were still around. And he's talking about Larry Nassar to me because his daughter had was in the gymnastic. She was a gymnast. And

so he's reading the details. And it just hit me. I hadn't followed the Nassar case. I knew about it, but I didn't know the details. And when he went into the details of what Nassar was doing, very similar, general, unnecessary general exams. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. Like that's us, Mark. And so we spent the next couple months kind of speaking to the guys in the community, you know, in our circle. And just to re, I knew, I knew everyone went through the same thing,

but it was one of those things where you just went to the guys and said, am I, this happened, right? And sure enough, it did. And so March of 2018, I sat in a meeting with Ohio State officials and told them, here's what's up. And it's been seven years now since The university is still in court actively with almost 250 victims, survivors. And this documentary is gonna tell a very powerful story. And this guy, he's just amazing. To step forward and have this kind of conversation,

to step forward and have this kind of conversation. He's done a lot of great things in his life, but I take my hat off to this. Because one could say of all the victims, you are the most high profile, right? I suppose, I mean, what does that matter really? No, it matters because you've had an illustrious Hall of Fame, very celebrated career. I can't imagine, you've done a million interviews.

A lot of these people are not known to the world, so for you to have the megaphone to speak out, it goes a little further given your great career. Well, that's what it's all about. You gotta sometimes get uncomfortable to become comfortable. And, you know, Mike said, let's make a video, me, Mike, and Russ Hellexon, the head coach at Ohio State.

And I was very nervous that day. And I remember telling Russ, and I'm pretty nervous, I don't know if I should do this. And he just looked at me and said, well, just tell the truth and everything will be okay. And something happened from there. You know, Russ, when that video came out and exploded, tell them what this is back. 2018, Ariel had me, him and Russ talking about in detail,

not in detail about what happened. Yeah, it took a lot of courage, man. But I just did it. I had a. I came forward in March of 2017, or 2018 I should say. In June of 2018, I went to Mark and said, listen, let's memorialize this. Let's do some video, hire the production folks. And just sat down myself, Mark, our head coach, Russ Hellexon, and another survivor, a nursing student. And this wasn't just student athletes. This guy did it to everyone. First of all, he's

the Ohio State University arrow. We're talking 20 years at the university. Every day this guy's seeing someone. So do the numbers. We're talking thousands. Every sport too, not just wrestling. So you're talking, you know, this is a, it's an epidemic, it was an epidemic, it still is an epidemic, sexual assault. Since our lawsuit came out, what I'm really proud of is there's been 10 of them since. That shows you how big this is,

and there's probably another 10 behind it. You know, across the country, across the world, this is going on daily, regular. And when you say 10, you mean different schools? 10 behind it. Across the country, across the world, this is going on daily, regular. And when you say 10, you mean different schools? Well, different universities. I'll give you some data. When we came out in 2018, it was March of 2018, and July of 2018,

two wrestlers at Michigan stepped forward. And their case was 30 year doctor who was right under Bo Schembechler, 30 years of doing unnecessary general and prostate rectal exams on 18 year old kids. Rectal exams. Michigan settled their lawsuit in 20, I want to say 2023. I think it just got finalized, but it was over a thousand guys. And Ariel, think about Michigan athletics. And I've got several friends up there.

And one of the actual, one of the whistleblowers up there, a guy named John Vaughn, who was running back at the time and sat out from, he protested a couple years back in front of the president's office, or president's residence at Michigan, sat out in a tent for 100 days to bring Michigan to the table and help to, you know, to put it to bed. But when you think about Michigan athletics, do the names. bed. But when you think about Michigan athletics, do the names. Every one of them saw this guy. 30 years. Strauss in our case, he saw 15 sports. His focus was primarily non-revenue. 15 Olympic sports was where he was. But there was, we're talking Olympians, Olympic champions, MMA superstars, football,

I mean, Hall of Famers, we're talking big names. Fast majority male? All. Yes. All male. All male. Yeah. Aaron, we were the first, we were the first case of, and I'm proud of this, we're the first case of male athlete, elite male athlete

sexual abuse scandal. Obviously you've got the Catholic Church, you've got the Boy Scouts, Michigan State. Michigan State, and I go back to this, those women, those young ladies, I call them superheroes, I mean, five foot seven, five foot two superheroes, for what they came for, what they, you know, standing up to this monster. And that was what triggered us. Hallie Reisman in particular, I remember seeing her and I'm like, God, God bless, God bless this young woman. And so that was an era when you listen to their testimony, it was identical to the testimony we gave. The same way he did that Nassar abused kids at Michigan State and USA Gymnastic, it was the exact same of Dr. Strauss. It's the exact same at the University

of Michigan. It's the exact same at Indiana University under Bobby Knight, which is actually more recent here, a doctor named Bamba, who recently passed away. There's 10 universities and there'll be a lot more. So the Michigan State was a very high-profile one? It was the Larry Nassar. I was paying attention to that because my daughter was a big-time gymnast, so I followed gymnastics quite a bit and then his story I was found in detail just caught him up and was explaining to him what happened just to talk to him And he put it together it just clicked because it didn't click that it happened to me really why does it feel like this one?

Doesn't get a fraction of the attention that the Michigan State story got. Ohio State. What does that mean? It was a big school, right? Well, it's male-male. Is that it? Well, I mean, if you talk to, you know, the guys that are in this case, John Wertheim did a beautiful piece for Sports Illustrated in 2020, and John, you know, that was John's opinion, is if, you know, that was John's opinion is if, you know, it's hard for people to talk about male-on-male sexual abuse, especially male-on-male elite male athletes sexual abuse. And so, so being here is it's important to have this kind of conversation to say, you know, this this shit happens. You know, I bring out to say, you know, this shit happens.

You know, I bring out some names. Ray Leonard. I'd look to him at one point. I know he was sexually abused by his Olympic coach when he was a kid. I think Mike Tyson. I know Kayla Harrison just spoke eloquently about her situation. In our case, again, it's male on male male on male. And that's it's difficult for, especially elite male athletes. Oh, you were, you know, why didn't you just beat this dude up? Why didn't you just smack him? Well, that's not really the way it goes down. Again, it's, it's, it's, I just got a lot of, we've done a lot of stuff together. But this is, this is in my opinion, by far the most important conversation that I'm going

to be a part of. These doctors, they're their buddies, it's a unit, they talk to each other cross country, you go to their school and they, you know, they'll trade you out with a couple guys, you know what I mean? and they'll trade you out with a couple guys. I don't know how to explain that, but they'll show you their guys and trade back. They work together. Anderson at Michigan, and Strauss, I'm wearing this button, Ariel.

It was at Michigan, John Vaughn was their champion, and Hail to the Victors is their fight song. And so hail to the victims and I wear this proudly. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State, Michigan, the 10 year war, Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. And it's pretty poignant that here we are talking about sexual abuse and the two most powerful brands in college athletics and the biggest rivalry in college

athletics are at the top of the list when it comes to failing their student athletes and it was tragic. 20 years at Ohio State University. 30 years at the University of Michigan. When you guys were experiencing this and you knew other athletes that were experiencing it as well, did anyone threaten to out him? Did it ever get close? Again, it was just part of the... them. Did it ever get close? Again, it was just part of the... It was part of the... It wasn't just... The facility that we trained in was called Larkins Hall. It was open to the public. Our locker rooms were open to the public and it wasn't just... The whole facility was filled every day with, what do you call them? Predators. Predators. Really? This is a whole separate...

Same ones, you know, this is the same one but you know so they waiting in the lock waiting in the showers waiting in the sauna for the wrestlers were their favorite they come down and there with there would all be and quite honestly it intimidated the wrestlers they would they would go in and take their shower real quick and get out but there this a whole I wasn't separate yeah it's all separate so I whole separate part of the conversation anyways but his gay bashing was big at the time you had to be real careful we warned about that so you know I wasn't afraid obviously like some other people and I would voice my opinion straight to

him tell him to take their fucking shower and get the hell out of here you know wow so we were we are our locker room at Ohio State was, and this was true with most intercollegiate athletic departments, we were, our locker room was in Larkins Hall, which was a rec center, recreation center, where the general student population and administrators are all together. So after practice we're taking showers with professors and administrators. We're in saunas with professors and administrators and just think about it, Ariel. I mean you've got elite male athletes, gymnasts, wrestlers, swimmers and here we're going into a shower after a workout

and you've got folks that are there because they get to take a shower with the lead male athletes. Doc Strauss was there every day. And Strauss. And a lot of times he'd take two or three showers a day. He'd catch him, he'd be walking out of the shower, walking back to the sauna or walk back to the locker room

And maybe one of his favorite was heading into the shower. He would do a 360 180 and head right back into the barrel this this this guy ran around right under With the blessing of the University He had a locker in our locker room. He had a locker in the gymnast's locker room. He had a locker in the swimmer's locker room. So he literally, he spent his day going from one locker room to the next locker room servicing student-athletes and has complete access. He's taking, here's a guy that's,

he's probably five foot five, 120 pounds, soaking wet. Very nice man, right? Very highly educated, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania. He's one of the foremost experts on steroids in the United States at the time. He was right in the middle of Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis stuff in 1988. And this guy was esteemed. I mean, we're not talking about, you know, time. He was right in the middle of Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis stuff in 1988. This

guy was esteemed. I mean we're not talking about, you know, we're talking about a very high-profile sports doctor. And so here... Athletes did, we found out that athletes were sending letters into the athletic directors and stuff. They found these letters and basically they were called liars. This didn't happen. You're making it up. So go back to Larkin. So we're taking, we're basically operating and working.

Our training facility was a bathhouse. I mean long and short of it, you're going in and you've got students and administrators that aren't athletes that are allowed to take showers, saunas with the wrestlers, with the gymnasts, with the swimmers on a daily basis. It was a very hostile environment. And like Mark said, we were told at the time,

don't put your hands on anyone. You know, this is open to the public and you guys deal with it. And there were several complaints made, not just about Larkins, but several complaints made about Strauss and his behavior. And the university at the time just did not handle it appropriately. One of the old athletic directors, Andy Geiger, is quoted in the Washington Post. David Marinus did a beautiful story on the story in I think it was 2022 or 2023, and he interviewed Andy Geiger.

And Andy, you know, there's a lot of people who haven't told the truth, who haven't said, oh, this happened, that were there when it happened. High profile folks, which I'm sure you're aware of. And Andy had said at the time, listen, we knew things were not right, but we didn't know about sexual abuse at that time, and we just mishandled it, which they did. And so when we came forward in 2018,

we had expected and hoped that there would not be the kind of pushback. Everyone knew. Everyone knew. Everyone knew, Eric. Everyone. When I say everyone, there was 22 coaches. There was a, let me take a deep breath.

There was a study, not let me take a deep breath there was a study and not a study a report so we come come forward in March of 2017 in April the University commissioned a study done by Perkins Coe big big law firm and they did a six million dollar report and had folks calling in guys calling in and There was a hundred and seventy-seven Victims who called in said me too. This happened to me 22 coaches confirmed that they knew several administrators

Admitted they knew and when I say they knew they knew that he was doing unnecessary General exams they knew he was taking unnecessary showers I mean this guy wasn't working out but he would take a shower with us every day sometimes too one day I saw him I'm in the locker room we just complete I took taking a shower Strauss had taken a shower I saw him over there getting ready for for his you know go on with his day he saw another guy walk in that was one of his favorites Start taking his clothes off and went back in the shower for a second shower on the same day And this is you know our coaches

Russ Alex and Jim Jordan Doc Strauss It was him Jordan the congressman Yes, sir Did he know? Yes, sir. He has denied any knowledge. And you had mentioned this, but then correct me if I'm wrong,

you sort of walked it back when he pushed back. You had mentioned that Jim Jordan knew and he vehemently pushed back without knowing, saying that he didn't know anything. And then I think that you said, all right, but now you were saying unequivocally that he did know. I was drinking back then, it was seven years ago, I was at close to rock bottom, so I wasn't, my mouth.

Did he try to pressure you? I'm glad it did open up. Yeah. But probably would have been wise not to, but then none of this would have happened. But yeah, I flat out, you know, I said Jim, Jim Jordan's either got dementia or he's a liar. Right. That was to the Wall Street Journal. It was a very high profile comment.

But we got we took abuse from a lot of people because once Jim Jordan's name come in play, the whole thing, the whole case changed because now Russ Helixson, who sat down and did, we all three told our stories on camera and showed it. And it came out and then they went up to Jim Jordan and asked him about it. He denied any knowledge of any of that. And when that happened, Russ Helix and decide he's gonna be a coward and he took back everything he said on video said he was pressured into saying it. Well who the hell pressured you in saying it? And that same day he looked at me and

said just tell the truth Mark and everything's gonna be fine. So yeah I'm very disappointed in Russ Alex. And has he has he walked that back or is he still maintaining that he was pressured? Well, to provide some more detailed arrow, we came forward in March of 2018. And July, July 3rd, literally, July 3rd, 2018, NBC News, Corky, at NBC News did a story called Jordan and it was the second time that Jordan had been asked whether he knew or didn't know.

And his comment, he had no idea. He had no knowledge of sexual abuse. And if I did know about sexual abuse, I would have done something about it. He's playing semantics. The reality is none of us called it sexual abuse at the time But certainly he knew that that Strauss was doing under that unnecessary general exams Prosthetic exams he knew everyone knew he knew he was taking showers twice a day He knew he was he knew he was everyone knew they would position himself at the way ends

He would position himself right by the scale. This is Strauss At the weigh-ins, he would position himself right by the scale. This is Strauss. That was his fun time. So back to Jordan, it goes, so that was July of 2018. Literally, the next day, July 4th, the fireworks literally went off. Every major outlet from CNN to, I mean, it was overwhelming. And I'm sitting in the middle of it,

he's sitting in the middle of it. Jordan denies, so it's us, you know, us versus him, me versus him, I'm telling, you know, the other thing about this era, Jim Jordan was my coach. I had tons of respect for this guy and it was my, we're friends. I'd talked to Jim once a quarter up until 2018 and again I can speculate on why he decided to... I'm not sure why yeah I don't understand why Jim denied it and I'm confused. Well even if you do deny it okay so this is one of the things that troubles our guys is okay, say you didn't know. You're still Jim Jordan.

You're still the guy that's in Washington, D.C. You're still the guy that can say, yeah, I didn't know, but these are my guys. These are my guys. We got to take care of my guys. So this 28, Jim Jordan's never done that. He's never said to us, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I missed it. Which, again, who are you?

Who are you if you, I mean, we train with this dude. I mean, I was one of his training partners for almost seven, eight years. I grew up, I mean, I knew Jim Jordan when I was six years old. I mean, the Jordan family, the Sabato family are two of the most prominent families in Ohio high school wrestling.

I mean, we're inseparable. And again, politics, power, truth sometimes gets lost. And it's still to this day, he's gonna watch this documentary. He's got an opportunity to speak the truth. Again, you didn't know it was sexual abuse. No one said you knew it was sexual abuse.

But to say you had no knowledge that Strauss was doing these exams, that the Larkins Hall environment was there, that was unacceptable to us to us stress also give out PDs to athletes There was I had no personal knowledge but there is in John's story 2020 there's Strauss was a one of the foremost experts and performance enhancing drugs and You're and performance enhancing drugs. And you're talking revenue producing athletic departments. You gotta win, right? So there were, there are accounts of athletes coming forward and saying there was steroid.

It's irrelevant. That's so relevant to the whole case. He never brought it up to me. He never brought steroids up to me. So he never brought stairs up to me. So sure Paints a picture of someone who maybe isn't the best of guys well Ariel again That's for other people to decide. I just know who this dude was to us, right, you know and and again he

He ingratiated himself to not just to again, he fooled a lot of people. Larry Nassar fooled a lot of people. I mean, think about all the folks. Allie Reisman said it said it best if one person, if one adult would have recognized that this dude was doing what he did, think of how many folks could have been saved. Sure. We're talking At Ohio State, we're talking thousands of exams. These parents knew in gymnastics, but they knew if they spoke up, it's over for their kid. Right.

He leaves the school in the late 90s, right? Dr. Strauss? Strauss, 98. He was there from 78 to 98. Why does he leave? Well, there was some friction. In 95, there was starting to be some pushback within the athlete community and within the athletic department. There were some reports coming. It was actually one of the folks in the documentary was a student, just a typical student, who brought forward a complaint,

a very credible complaint that got to Strauss' boss. The medical board of the state of Ohio got involved. Actually, Strauss had contacted the medical board to say that he was being to say that he was being singled out and being mistreated because it was starting to the folks the the the testimony was starting to gather up on him and so yeah he left in 1998 and amongst there was there was several investigations secret investigations. He actually left, they gave him, even though they found him to be, they took all power away from him, they still gave him a metrius status when he left.

So it was like, Harold, I mean. They just kind of wanted him to go away and like, don't create this thing. He ends up committing suicide in 05. I mean, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, yeah. Why? No one knows. I mean, you can speculate.

I mean, he did. You think he knew this was coming? They said, well, I don't, I, I, I, no one knew. Nobody knew it was coming. If it wasn't for me and him, it wasn't ever coming. So why do you think he came with suicide then? Well, they said he was in pain at the time. And I mean, if you're a doctor, I mean,

it's a mental health, it's a mental health the time. And I mean, if you're a doctor, I mean, You think it's unrelated? Mental health, yeah. I mean, who knows? Did you remember hearing about his death when it happened? No. You didn't know? I didn't really find out until. It wasn't related, I'm sure.

But just like, I was just curious what you felt when you heard that he had done that to himself. I really didn't. It wasn't a big deal. We didn't hear it. I didn't hear much about it when it happened. Now, when we came full, when we recognized't a big deal. We didn't hear I didn't hear much about it when it happened now when we came full When when when we recognized it was sexual abuse sure and then and then it was like, okay, where's this? Where's this guy?

Yeah, yeah What did that feel like when you found out that he's not here that he won't face the music Nassar faced the music right? Errol part of me is more more upset with more upset with one of the one of the one of the victims said to me which I think is telling you Strauss say we've we're survivor Strauss but we're almost what's happened since Strauss that's been more disappointing than actually in my personal situation. The trauma that's come after coming forward was a hell of a lot worse than the trauma of actually dealing with him. Yeah, when Jim Jordan came out and denied everything, the whole case just turned into

whose side are you on? Mark Coleman and Mike DeSable's side or you're on Jim Jordan side. And Russ Alex said immediately, that's his best friend, had to protect him. He came back and took back everything he said, said he was pressured into saying it. And a bunch of wrestlers that we know knew they took Jim Jordan side. They were calling us liars. It got political. all this shit and well then as the case went on a lot of these guys that were talking shit about us well they decided they're gonna jump in the

lawsuit so all sudden they didn't know nothing about it either but now they're in the lawsuit so everybody looks pretty silly sure Russell Hulks and looks extremely silly I mean Alexson looks extremely silly. I mean, he looks foolish. He should come clean. There's a line in the documentary, I saw the trailer, it looks great, again, it comes out June 17th. I believe the line was, I'm a victim of Dr. Strauss,

but I survived Ohio State. And I mean, that gives you chills just listening to it. I survived Ohio State, or I survived Strauss, but I'm a victim of Ohio State. Yeah, got it. And again, like I said, the trauma of going through it with Strauss, I first met him when I was 14. He did body fat tests.

So, and he wanted to see our testicles. He was 14 years old. And this was one of the most prominent wrestling teams in the state of Ohio. So he was always around the wrestling community and he had to gray shade himself and people trusted him. But yes, when you look at this, the last seven years have been, yes, not so fun. And you got, correct me if I'm wrong, the school has offered settlements, right? So there's, yes, there's, there was, there was a package, there's a group of us that partially settled in 2020. When I say partially settled, I mean, there was 60 million dollars that was that was paid to survivors, most of which have a most favored nations clause in their in their contract, which means or their

their settlement, which means that if the if the folks that that follow them, or that are still in the case, settle for a higher per person average, those of us that partially settled will get another settlement check. So I'm settled, but I'm not settled. And until the settlement, until it all settles with all our guys, it's just there's no closure. There's no closure. I mean, we got guys that, I mean, there are guys. Ariel, I mean. So how has it decided who partially settled

and who is still ongoing? It's up to you. I haven't settled. Okay, you haven't gone in a dime. No, I'm not settling and I'm gonna keep fighting. What do you want? The case got thrown out. It was like horrible.

They threw it out, but thankfully they brought it back. So it was almost a dead case. But it went all the way to the Supreme Court. I'm a fighter, I'm not going to quit. They offered you whatever, $150,000? Yeah. I think the average was $220,000. I won't pay for what happened.

Yeah. I mean, the only way you hold power accountable is you hit them in the pocketbook. Right. So where does it stand right now? Well, it's the depositions are going to start this month. It's actually started at the timing of the documentary actually is in line with depositions that are taking place. I think Jim Jordan has been served. That's coming. Russ Alexson is, I mean, the university has kicked the can on this for seven years. Supreme Court?

Went to the Supreme Court at one point and the Supreme Court ruled with us. They said, you know, these guys, they were fighting over statute of limitations and, you know, it was, you know, you didn't come. We did a good job hiding this. And so now you can't, you can't come forward. And so the lawyers in our case fought on statute of limitations and won. It did go all the way to the Supreme Court at one point. And so there's still, now it's, there's been what they call bellwethers that have been chosen. There's 20 guys that'll, that'll go through depositions and all the all the chaos that comes with getting ready for trial the first trial if it's not settled will go go down next October and

What you're gonna see held a lot more news about it with the with the documentary release and and then Depositions of very high-profile folks within the university community and then depositions of very high profile folks within the university community. So as you have to, like you have to sit here and talk about this, you're about to see this documentary. I know you've seen it already, but it's- I didn't see it yet. Oh, you haven't seen it, okay, I think you saw it.

We had a screening last night. Mark was not able to attend, he was in- How are you handling all of this, Mark? I mean, this is not fun to talk about, to put it mildly. Just go with it, man. You gotta deal with stuff. I just learned to deal with things. I'm dealing with it.

And I'm just super proud, because I know how many people I've helped do it coming forward like this. This is a big deal. It wasn't easy for me to come forward, but I decided to do it. As you're growing in your career post-Ohio State, was this always in the back of your mind? Did you always want or think that you were going to eventually talk

about it or is it only after seeing the Michigan State story that like had you suppressed it to the point where it wasn't, you know, top of mind anymore? Yeah, I definitely suppressed it and then brought it back up with the Michigan State deal and it just never clicked to me because we we just didn't think male-on-male it wasn't ever a thing sure just didn't think it was possible and you know Pete what do you mean you let this guy do this Coleman you know why didn't you just smash him well anyhow it works idiots And neither would you smash him. So shut the fuck up.

I had read and again, correct me if I'm inaccurate here. At times you would get very angry and this was sort of your way of dealing with it, but maybe unknowingly while you were a student. Yeah, you know, like before every practice, you know, you go into the restroom and do my daily routine in there, but usually there was always a guy sitting right beside you and you knew he was one of them because his pants would be all the way down to his ankles

and they'd have peep holes in the wall to look through and stuff. So I'd get it. I would walk back into the restroom and I'd cause a big scene just to I thought I was just getting myself fired up for practice. Russ would come over put his arm around me say yes calm down We're we're taking care of it. It's all gonna be taken care of you know, but our coach to his credit Russ Alex and yeah went Multiple times to university officials and said listen this this is not right

multiple times to university officials and said, listen, this is not right. Strauss is doing stuff that he shouldn't be doing. And this environment at at Larkin's Hall, it's toxic. I mean, it's hard for people to wrap their minds around it unless you were there. And just imagine you're coming down from practice, you've got to go take a shower, and I call it the gauntlet of sexual devency. You're walking into a shower, into a sauna and you know every day there's going to be multiple dudes there that are there to watch you take a shower, to watch you take a sauna. Crazy. And they're performing on multiple situations, performing sex acts.

I mean you've got dudes masturbating in a, at one point there's testimony, Russ tells a story of a guy in a shower or in a toilet stall that was adjacent to the shower and Hellickson, he walks in, this dude is literally peeping over the top, masturbating. Hellickson pulls the door open, grabs the guy by his wrist, pulls him out. His testimony is almost squeezed his, Russ is a big man, almost squeezed his, almost took his hand off basically, squeezing it so hard that the anger of having to deal with this, the rage of having to be in this kind of environment the rage of having a doctor

Every time you went down to see him once to see your genitals every time I did a busted my my knuckle one time in middle of practice and I needed I went downstairs to have someone pop it pop it in place. He wanted to see my genitals. Geez. I'm like, dude, enough. I went back up. But again, if you had a sore throat, whatever it was,

he had a reason. And it was always thorough evaluation. Yeah, I remember one day, it's a Saturday. It was the off season. so I was in there by myself training because the guys was in the off season, but I'd been taking a shower afterwards and I'd turn around and there's a pretty big guy standing across the room, 6'2", 225, and he's staring right at me, playing with himself, staring at me. Finally I said, what the fuck you looking at, dude? What are you looking at?

I said, just take your shower and get the fuck out of here. And he said, I'm gonna take my shower, I'm gonna go get my gun and come back in and shoot your ass. I got the hell out of there. Jeez, and these people work for the school or attend the school? Well, you had to be, in order to get in the building,

you had to be either a student or an administrator professor. So, we're talking about, and again, this is open knowledge. If you, you had to be blind if you didn't know that this was going on. Jim Jordan, you didn't know, you took a shower with us every day,

you went in the sauna with us every day. I mean, literally, you go in the sauna, you got four or five dudes sitting on the top sauna. Yeah. Here I am. I just don't know why Jim gave the answer he did. I'm trying to figure out why he didn't just tell the truth. Have you guys talked to him? It's been. Jim gave me the answer he did. I'm trying to figure out why he didn't just tell the truth.

Have you guys talked to him? It's been... He harassed some people. He harassed my mom and dad. He harassed people to call me and tell me to back off. That was... So go back to July 3rd, 2018. So he comes...

NBC News says Jordan knew or denies. I say, no, sorry. I mean, I love Jim Jordan. He's my coach. This is my statement. But you can't keep doing this. You can't say that you didn't know. You knew.

Why did he do it, Mike? Why did he just deny it? Well, it's political. I think he made a decision that truth wasn't necessary. And again, I can speculate. It's hard again, Errol. It's hard for someone to say, I knew. You knew that this doc was doing unnecessary general exams,

and you did nothing? You didn't smack him, you didn't do this, that, or other? It's hard for, I'm not judging, other than saying. He had to sign off for you. You couldn't compete without this guy, so he had to. So did they ever tell your parents, by the way? Well, I can tell you that my brothers, when they come home, like, they were old, I had older brothers that were varsity-o.

Nine of you? Yeah, nine of my family, six boys, three girls, all six of us wrestled D1, five of my brothers wrestled Ohio State. I'm proud of the fact that we hold the Ohio State record for varsity O's in one family, 36 total varsity O's. So, Errol, I knew this. I mean, this is my school. I bleed scarlet and gray. I wear this jacket today. Yeah. Did your brothers ever experience this? So they would come home on like a Saturday. My Italian mom cooking for the four or five guys that my brothers would bring back.

There was jokes, jokes, you know, Strauss, you know, jelly hands, God loves to see your genitals. You know, there was just conversation. It was not, it was an open, open secret. But again, we didn't know how to deal with it. None of us, parents, administrators, it just was. So when we come forward in 2018, I wasn't looking to say, oh, you knew, you did nothing. We just wanted to say, this happened. In order to make progress, you got to be truthful of history, you can't make progress without saying this went down. Right.

And so I wasn't out here to get Jim Jordan. In fact, I went to Jim Jordan before I and Russell, and before I went to Ohio State, I said, Listen, I remember the conversation like was yesterday, we spoke for like 3045 minutes. And I said, listen, I remember the conversation like was yesterday. We spoke for like 30, 45 minutes. And I said, Jim, I, you know, I'm, this is what I'm, I'm doing. I, I was my coach. I respect you before I do this. I want you to know what's going down.

I know you I'm not pointing the figure. You didn't do anything wrong. In fact, Jim was 24, 25 years old. He, he, he's not the guy that's going to, you know, make a decision to get rid of Strauss. Hellickson was making comments. It was telling the university administrators that this was going down, and they didn't handle it correctly. But again, it's 2018. We're coming forward. We know this happened to thousands of kids, and it's not okay for you to say it didn't happen. Period.

Do you guys think that it still happens? Well, yeah, I mean, at Ohio State, no, but yeah, it's still happening. These lawsuits are coming out. It's right, there's gonna be a lot more. You think there are student athletes right now who are dealing with the same, like I can't even fathom being, you know.

I saw today the podcaster Alex Alex Cooper I mean she's she's talking about her experience with being sexually harassed as a as a student arrow it's it's it's an epidemic within our society in general I mean youth athletics something come on you see story after story after story of this the Catholic Church that anytime you have access to kids, it happens. Tim Tebow, I saw something about a week ago, you know, he's very passionate about sex trafficking and sexual abuse, and he showed a document or a hundred thousand plus websites. Yeah, IP addresses.

IP addresses, thank you. Of people downloading child porn, 12 and under. Horrific. So, really? Yeah. And so, for me, when I saw this happen, when I saw it for myself, when we're sitting there talking about, again, the gymnast, it was identical, identical testimony, the same grooming, the same situation.

You got to scream. If you don't scream who are you this guy I'm proud of us like I said this ain't fun no I mean we've seen each other we've had fun in the past right congratulations by the way and thanks for having us course this is not easy no and there's a lot of folks that don't want to happy you got that band left a brother it's pretty cool what's that you got that band lifted, brother. It's pretty cool. What's that? You got your band lifted. Oh, yeah. No, I'm good. I'm good. I'm just doing my thing here. No, but I mean, it's heartbreaking. Truly, it's heartbreaking to read this. It's heartbreaking to think. I didn't know you had that meeting with Russ and Jimmy before.

How did that go? What did they say to you? Yeah, well, I met Russ in February. I think it was February and and Russ was supportive and Russ was Russ was supportive From February I I went to him. I said Russ this is going down and June he sat down and did The testimony for us that that's that's On the record It's it's in the public domain. He got right to the point. That was Jim. He told the truth. He told the truth, but then Jordan,

the Jordan thing came down two, three weeks later, Russ already had his testimony in place, and Jordan and him were tight, real tight. And I said, son, I mean, we're all sons to Russ, but Jimmy and Russ were very tight. One, they were inseparable. We called them Batman and Robin. I mean it was that kind of relationship. So when Jim denied, Russ went to his aid and there was this semantics game, Errol.

There was like, we didn't, we didn't, we knew nothing about sex abuse. Again, none of us said sex abuse back then, but you did know the guy was playing with genitals unnecessarily, and you did know he was doing rectal exams, and you did know he was showing up in the locker and taking showers. He was taking showers too with us, then going to gymnastics, he was taking seven, eight showers a day. Ultimately, nothing will be able to be done to repair all of this, but what are you hoping happens? How does the story end? It's happening.

The awareness that- The movie's coming out, which is gonna be huge. The movie's gonna blow it up. It's gonna end this stuff. 10 lawsuits across the country. I'm proud. We started that. So how many people got saved from that? And so it doesn't happen in the future. What do you want from the school?

I want paid. What about justice? Without justice, there is no justice. And the legal system and unfortunately that the only way you get justice is to hit someone when it's that kind of institution has gotta hit them financially. Is there even a number in mind? Michigan settled for. It was like one point something each, right? Michigan settled for 500 million

with a thousand plus athletes. Michigan State women were 1.2 per person. Ohio State on the first go-round was 200,000. And again, the only reason it's 200,000 is because guys like me that accepted a settlement have a most favored nations clause. So Ohio State's strategy, again, when I look at it, I see, yeah, they got these guys settled, and our hope was the other guys were going to be hopefully not far behind us. That was 2020. Seven years later here we are and it's still not settled and again I'm out of the day to day of it but my guys are you know suffering. There's guys that have had a very tough time with this Ariel,

very tough time as you can imagine. Myself included. Sure, I can't. He's a master. I mean, he it's a game to them. He knows who he can go further and further with. I wasn't just gonna sit there and get bullied, so I didn't, but a lot of my teammates. Ariel, this is something, just, I mean, 170 instances, 147 instances of rape. So we're not talking just genital exams and rectal exams. We're talking drugging.

Oh, geez. Several folks have been, they were... He'd invite guys over to his house. Guys would go over to his house all the time. Oh, he... If you need to see him over the weekend, like you have something, you have herpes pop, you know, with skin rashes, if something pops up, it's sore throat, you need tetracycline,

whatever it may be, you need something on the weekend, come to his house. Thankfully, I never visited, but there were a lot of guys that did. He was a photographer too, so he took a lot of pictures. This documentary is going to blow your mind. It's going to, it blew, I mean, again, I can't say much about it right now, but I saw it yesterday. That's as much as I can say, other than you need to watch it. Well, we're showing the trailer right here. June 17th, it comes out on HBO, and that's John Wertheim, the great John Wertheim.

I have a lot of respect for him as a reporter. HBO and HBO Max, and you've got the premiere later today at Tribeca Film Festival, and I know usually when someone goes to a premiere, like I went to Israel, Desenya's documentary at Tribeca, like that's a celebration of your life. And I know this is going to be met with mixed feelings and emotions, but you guys are your role models,

you're heroes and you're very strong. And so well done, well done. And by the way, Ryan Bader looks great as you. He looks great. Yeah, he could have got a little more cut up. Okay, oh wow. It was weird when I saw the photo and I was like, what's different about Ryan Bader? And then I noticed that they took all more cut up. Okay, oh wow. It was weird when I saw the photo and I was like, what's different about Ryan Bader?

And then I noticed that they took all the tattoos away. Yeah. You know, and so it was jarring at first. There you guys are. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah. He looks pretty damn good. He assured me that, he said The Rock did a good job.

Yeah. You know, but he assured me that he made me look like a savage killer, which I wanted to. As you were. And shout out to Mark Kerr, getting inducted into the hall of fame. How about that? That's awesome. Thank you guys so much.

Thank you so much. I know this was not easy, but an honor to have you both here in studio and I wish you the best. And please keep us posted. Yeah. This you, you've been great. This is huge for the awareness of this. Yes, absolutely. So good luck, keep us posted,

keep fighting the good fight, and we're all behind you. We'll take a quick break. We'll be back with Kayla Harrison, who had the big win on Saturday. Don't go anywhere. All right, a couple things. First of all, shout out to the boys in the back. They have been doing a great job

with the interviews as of late. The show has been great, the pound for pound, the banter, the voicemail, the fight feasts, all that stuff and more. But the interviews have been phenomenal. And that one, I wanted to highlight that one, and that's just a taste of it. That conversation with Jordan Leavitt from last Thursday

was one of the best interviews that has aired on the channel since we launched back in October. What a fascinating guy, what a lovely guy, what perspective, so well-spoken, so thoughtful. That's a must-watch interview. I really, I'm at home listening, watching, and it was just so enjoyable. And they've had a few of these, so shout out to them, shout out to Jordan Levitt, highly recommend checking out the interview.

Number two, thank you so much to Mike DeSabato and Mark Coleman. I suspect a lot of you who obviously know who Mark Coleman is and know what he's done and know what he's accomplished didn't know about this and I'll be 1000% honest, I wasn't so aware of everything that went on and everything that he had to endure and Mike and thousands of others. I first met Mike maybe like 10, 15 years ago.

He's been around MMA for a very long time. And then once I did the deep dive this past weekend, it was shocking, mind-blowing, upsetting, disgusting. And then when you hear some of these stories, I didn't know about some of these stories. Some of these stories are unbelievable, what they've had to deal with and overcome. And so I wish them the best, and obviously I'm going to watch the best and obviously I'm gonna watch the

documentary and I'm looking forward to seeing it. Again it comes out June 17th on HBO and HBO Max and it's playing at the Tribeca Film Festival today at I think 530. So if you're in the area you can go check it out. I think Tribeca Film Festival you can buy tickets to movies. I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure you can. Absolutely. Yeah. Usually there are like independent sellers that are selling them though, not like the theater. Is it a, are they usually like one and done's? Yeah, but there'll be multiple screenings and maybe at multiple different theaters in the Tribeca area. Okay. I've only been once and that was for Izzy's documentary two years ago.

Hey, I was there. Yeah, you were were there that same day. We weren't sitting together though. Yeah you big-timed us. I was actually all the way in the back. You guys were lower lower down. As you walked in you put your hand over your eyes like you were blocking the light and then yeah. I was like ehhh. Mmm. Frank great job with the microphone. Absolutely. Frank went to B&H this morning. Why do we go this deep dive? Why why? People like this. You had Naya for lunch. I did have Naya and I asked you if you wanted any. I was that's true and I actually had leftover lasagna that Jordan came from the birthday party for my birthday. With the

pork belly or is it pork shoulder? It just says, no, it's got pork, like Italian sausage in it. That's, he's upset because he didn't get to have any of the lasagna because it was pork belly. I didn't have lasagna, I didn't have cake. I'm starting to notice that like all the fun things happen when I'm not there, and that's fine. It's fine, I represent, you know, hoity-toity, corporate.

You got to watch Rick and I demolish a tomahawk steak. That was fun. I wanted the cake. I was looking forward to the cake. What kind of cake was it? Fun Freddy? I'll bring it back in tomorrow. There's still some left if my wife didn't eat it. What kind? Chocolate mousse cake.

Used Oreos in it. From scratch? Oreos that he's been stealing from the snack. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey now, this is the most captioning in the kitchen. Single packages every day. How many? Jordan just. He got them.

Puts it in the back pocket. I'm like, you're not gonna eat those now? There were maybe four to six Oreo packages. This is like Shawshank Redemption. He's like crawling up. One by one, one by one. Oreo pack by Oreo pack. Jordan has built that cake

I'm crazy as if I'm sure Oreos these I was gonna say is if a giant sleeve of Oreos isn't 399 at the store. How was the cake though out of ten? I actually didn't have any what I had the lasagna Sweet tooth himself. Yeah, you know I'm cutting back right now You know trying to be healthy for the summer, but also we're getting ready to go on air I I keep it a little little lighter before the trying to be healthy for the summer, but also we were getting ready to go on air. I keep it a little lighter before the watch. To be honest, I said to Connor, if I were you, I also wouldn't be eating this heavy meal right before going on air for like four plus hours

because I was just like falling asleep in the control room. The kind of awesome lasagna, it's like the cheesiest, heartiest meal you've ever seen. I was like, yeah, I'll take a couple bites. The lasagna was even better today. Wow, after the fact. Yeah, it got to sit a little longer, you know, it set. Noodles from scratch.

Noodles from scratch. Unbelievable. What can't you do? The man knows. Cam's and his kitchen, baby. Cam's and his kitchen. We need to make a menu for 2026, so the sooner we get on that, the better.

Hey, Eric, your birthday's coming up. I'm sure you'll demand like, right now, for like three different meals, three different cakes. No, I hope. That Wegmans restaurant looks pretty good. I don't know if you guys have seen that. It does look nice. Yeah, Frank gets like nine meals.

I get a Wegmans. We missed you at the movie as well. Yeah, no, it sounded great. Sounded great. It was all right. Front row as well, thanks, Frank. Yeah, I heard about that. I heard about that, Frank, front row.

The next time I'll just have two in the back, three in the front, you know. As if we talked during the movie. That's fine Sure. Sure. I'll do two in the back Gentlemen, we do have to move along because we have royalty in our midst. Oh my gosh. What are the emotions? What are the thoughts? what comes to mind when you think about the journey that this young lady has been on and A journey that we have seen at least as far as MMA is concerned, we have seen play out in front of us.

It's not like she was fighting on the regional scene and you know eight fights in you're like, oh, who's this person killing it? No, from the moment she won her second gold medal and she was asked about a career in MMA and truth be told kind of brushed it off saying it was a little too WWE, a little too pomp and circumstance. And then finally she made the transition over. It seemed like she was destined for the moment that played out in front of us on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. It seemed like she was destined to become a UFC champion.

And when she got to the PFL and won multiple titles, it still seemed like at some point it would be a travesty if she didn't realize that dream. The problem was the weight class. She accomplished that as well, even though when we first met her she said she'd have to cut off a leg to make 135. She continued to defy the odds and on Saturday she realized her fate, her dream, her goal of becoming a UFC champion. And thus in my opinion, in my opinion, putting her name into a category that doesn't include a lot of fighters and a category that the title should be

greatest combat athlete of the last 20 or so years or maybe ever. We're talking about the great Kayla Harrison who was kind enough to join us. The brand spanking new UFC women's bantamweight champion. Let's clap for her here. What a journey, what a career, what a victory. We always believed Kayla, we always believed.

And you know, I have a lot of love for Juliana and she's a part of our family here. And, you know, I was trying to be as neutral as possible, but I'd be lying Kayla if I didn't say, I was delighted for you because I know how much you've been through and what you've had to overcome It was a beautiful thing to watch Congratulations Thank you, my friend. Wow, you always keep your seats. You know that you always keep your seats

I love that story. I tell that story million times I remember seeing that presser with you dismissing MMA and I was like man. I thought she was the next one I shit all over it. Yes, but you don't don't don't sugarcoat it. I was like, man, I thought she was the next one. I shit all over it, didn't I? You don't sugarcoat it. I was like, no, that, not for me. It's for the birds. I did, I'm eating my words. Now, aren't I, boy? And look at you now, my only dream for you.

Is my WiFi, is it? I was gonna just say, my only dream is now that you're a UFC champion, if maybe you can up the Wi-Fi, can we go past like the basic package? How could it be so bad every time? Can we like, can we level up? I mean, look at you, look at you loving life over there, waking up with the belt. I was curious about this. You tweeted good morning and you tweeted at like one in the morning.

I'm just gonna call you, I'm gonna call you from my phone. Okay, she's gonna call us from her phone? I'm gonna call you from my phone. Okay, she's gonna call us from her phone. I'm gonna call you from my phone. Okay. The Vigils always does this. No, it just, look, UFC champions, they're just like us. But you know, she did tweet this. What was this tweet?

Oh yeah, here it is. I noticed the timestamp of the tweet, it was at 4.05 a.m. Eastern time. Do you think she woke up at four o'clock and tweeted that, what's going on? Is that what time she wakes up? Oh, Andrew Feldman right underneath has a great tweet. Kayla belt over her shoulder,

Cejudo with three belts, plus DJ Pillow, TJ Pillow, Dominic Cruz Pillow, Andrade with the belt, classic. Ousmane's daughter with the belt. We have her. Charles Oliveira. Okay, let's see. Is the WiFi current?

Sorry. Is that better? So far, let's see. Let's not jinx ourselves. Okay. Can I ask you about that picture you tweeted? You tweeted at 4, 05 a.m. Eastern time. Is that what time you wake up?

Yeah, it is when you're UFC champ, but you just don't go to sleep. Oh my. What has this been like? What has life been like? Can you even put it to words the past 48 hours? Man, Ariel. Like, no, like all jokes aside,

no, I don't think I can put it into words. I cannot believe my life. I cannot believe my life sometimes. I have been doing a lot of reflecting. I think I'm getting older, so I'm more sentimental maybe now, and I'm just trying to really like soak it all in and be present. But my life, holy, holy shit, my life. I remember when I won the Olympics the first time,

and standing on top of the podium and hearing the national anthem and feeling the gold medal go around around my neck and I was like am I dreaming? Am I dreaming? Like I slept with my gold medal that night and like that's how it felt on Saturday night like Dana was wrapping the belt around my waist and I was like am I dreaming? Is it really already done? Like did it really just happen? And then it couldn't have gotten better. Like that night in and of itself was a movie between frigging Amanda and the, like it was just, yeah.

Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing to see how all this played out, but I'm wondering how close were we to not seeing this play out? Because you alluded to the Thursday night thing, but I have to ask more. How close did it get to you not actually showing up?

Oh, I mean, I would have cut off my leg. Legit. Yeah, you said this. You said this to me like nine years ago when talking about 35, but how bad was it? Like how dire was this? I mean, it's not good. It's not good.

Yeah, it's not good. I don't know really how else to explain it. I don't think that anyone can really understand that process unless they have gone through it. And you know, I know a lot of like, I've been talking about it a lot this week, especially, but it's because it's the truth like I Am not mentally strong enough to do that God did that and like I I did want to quit and I did want to

Yeah, I didn't want to be there anymore and I didn't, I was like, why, you know, this is what am I doing? But God had other plans. Is it getting easier? No. Is it getting harder? No, I'm not. I mean, it's not.

I don't, I don't, it's not. I mean, for 15 weeks weeks I'm on a diet. Yeah. And I only eat what my chef Dara from Platinum Plate gives to me. If I get really like crazy urges or like cravings, I'll have a spoon of peanut butter. So I think I did that three times during the camp.

14 weeks out I start walking. So every single day I walk six miles, I bike for two hours, or I swim for like an hour and a half. And on Sundays, I usually walk eight. So that's like 14 weeks. On top of the two other training sessions, I do a day. And then the morning I'm going live hard. So either sparring or grappling, and at night I'm drilling and then six weeks out I start heat acclimation so three

days a week I'm in the sauna for an hour by myself usually at night because that's the only time I have time to do it after I put my kids to bed so I'm just sitting in the sauna for an hour thinking about how I'm gonna have to do that on June 6th and how much it's gonna suck. Yeah, it's really hard. It's really hard. And I just have to keep telling myself that it's chosen suffering and that it'll be worth it.

Realistically, how much longer can you do this for? How many more times do you have in you? I don't know. I don't know. I have to talk to my team. But it's not more than three, right? I don't know. I'm not gonna like make outrageous statements right now

because I'm still in the throws of the emotions of it. I'm concerned for you. Are you? in the throws of the emotions of it, but. I'm concerned for you. It's uncomfortable to see you up there like that. And then we only get the five second. We don't see Thursday night. I can't even imagine what Thursday night is, let alone those 15 weeks. Yeah.

No, I mean, it's definitely, this is why I say that I've been forged in the fire, you know, like my My faith and my is unshakable and my will is unbreakable And I have been forged in the fire like it is not easy It is not easy to do what I do and It is not easy to do what I do. And, yeah, I mean, I have gratitude for that because really it has made me who I am. I thought I was disciplined before,

like I thought I was, but yeah, I'm proud of myself too, I guess. I'm proud of myself and I'm proud of what we've accomplished. And yeah, man, I'm proud of myself and I'm proud of what we've accomplished. And, um, yeah, man, it's, I'm, I'm proud of who I've become during this, during this process. When you were dreaming about the fight, thinking you had a lot of time, did you think it would play out like that? Or were you expecting something different?

No, I did not. To be honest, I did not. What did you think? Um, and is that your rooster at four o'clock? What's going on? Why would that your rooster at four o'clock? Can you hear him? What's going on? Why would it be doing that at 4pm? He does it all the time. He's just like letting, he's just, he's annoying. No, that is not how I thought it would play out, to be honest.

I, you know, Julianna's tough. She's a dog. So I really expected to go 25 hard minutes I Wanted to win by ko TKO or submission. Look at that. Oh look at that. So but Yeah But yeah, I mean The first round You know, it's always a feeling out process and 25 minutes is a long time. So the first round I was surprised. I felt her pretty hesitant and I was almost kind of like where I was like, it felt too good to be true. And so I was like, maybe it's

too good to be true because there were moments in the first round where I wanted to unleash, but I was like, all right, like 25 minutes is a long time, take your time, pick your shots, like, you'll find an opening, it'll be there, but I felt like, I'm the best fighter in the world. Did you feel like you were much bigger and stronger than she was in there? Yeah.

Yeah, I am. You are, I mean, you look bigger, but could you feel like you could overpower her? Yeah. Yeah. I am. You are. I mean, you look bigger, but could you feel like you could overpower her? You did so on the ground there in a second. Not that I felt like, oh, she's like, no, I didn't feel like it was like a walk over, but I just felt like faster, stronger. Definitely like I was going to control and dictate the fight, you know? Did the upkicks mess you up at all? No, I was okay. I thought at first I was a little nervous because my nose, you remember I broke my nose my last fight and so I was like dude if I just broke my nose I'm

going to be so pissed because the I was going to be so pissed but it was fine. I was good. But so it didn't rock you? It was just like, you know, when something then a fight happens, you kind of are like, you have to just be present and go with the flow. And so at first I was like, oh, what the fuck? And then he told me to go over there, but then he took a point and then he stirred it back up. And so I was just kind of like, all right, like resettle.

We're back in the fight, but it was fine. You subbed it with five seconds left in the second. And me if I'm wrong like in the presser you talked about Not like a Hail Mary, but you you really you hear the clapper So you're like, let me just go for something here because I'm in this dominant position Did you know did you not think that she was gonna tap there? Was that just you just trying something as the clock is running? No, definitely. I did not I Just like I didn't know where we were in the round. I had lost track of time a little bit

and I didn't hear my corners telling me. Usually when I get to a certain amount of time, I'm like hunting harder for subs. And so when I heard the clapper go, I was like, oh shit, round's almost over. Like go, go big or go home. This isn't gonna gas me out. Like I, I'm in this position.

I can like sleep in this position. So I went for it and I was, I was, yeah, I was pretty surprised I got the tap to be honest. That's why you saw my face. I mean, did you see me? I was like, yeah, it, it came over me. I know you've been asked a variation of this, but I'm curious, a greater feeling winning the UFC belt or the PFL belt?

Winning the UFC belt. Because you always deflect when it's the gold. You thought I was going to ask about the gold medal there. You thought I was going to ask. I did. I did. Yeah. And don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for my time at the PFL. It was very formidable years for me and helped me grow into the fighter that I am today. But the UFC is, is the, it's the UFC. You never pick a winner and I understand,

meaning like, oh, this one was a greater feeling. But fair to say, winning the UFC title is tougher just because what you have to do to your body to get there? I mean, that's a hard call because judo's a four year grind. You have to qualify. Right, right. So you're on the road. I mean, you don't make any money.

You don't have any glory. You're doing it because you love it. Having said that, MMA is dangerous. You can get hurt at any moment. The weight cut is in a special, a special type of suffering that I did not have to go through during my judo career. They're both really hard in very different ways. They're both really, really hard. And they're both like, like how I felt on Saturday night was very reminiscent of how I felt the first time I won. Like I just, everyone who has been a part of my journey, like their faces were flashing in my eyes and I was overcome with emotion.

Like I, yeah, I was like crying on the mic and yeah, it was a very powerful moment. And yeah, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. More impressive than the weight cut, than the win. The mic skills again, you've come so like, you're out there cutting promos, John 316 this reciting off the top of your head. It was unbelievable in there.

You own the moment. Like it wasn't just like, and I didn't even get to this guys. I didn't even get to this. I'm just talking about, and this was next level right there. But like just like in the moment, you made it feel special.

Like the moment with Dana was great. I love the fact that you and Dana had this moment. And then, you know, Ali gets in there too. So nice to see all three of you together there. I thought that was really heartwarming. Yeah. Well, to be honest, I, you know, faith is a big part of who I am and my faith is the centerpiece of me. Like, for me, it goes God, my family, and then fighting. So you know this week I really prayed on... like this moment is great but I wanted to make it not just about me and like I-I-I-me-me-me I did this and I didn't I didn't even really think about the UFC 316 thing until right before like

It I think that God used me as his vessel to be honest. And so it was really beautiful I did I did know it was on my heart to speak to You know, like single moms. I think especially this camp I have felt like mom guilt and just questioning, because my life is changing. Right in front of my eyes right now, we went out for ice cream today and I had to stop and take pictures.

And it's a privilege and an honor for me but life is gonna change for my kids and I and so I have been thinking about that a lot and thinking about single moms and how hard it is and how a lot of times it just feels like you're alone and you're suffering and you're like you feel like you're not doing a good job and you're questioning like You wish you could be better and you want to be more present and you want to be more loving But you're so overwhelmed and overstimulated that you snap and like you want to chase your dreams But you want to be a good mom. And so I just wanted single moms to know that they're not alone and like We all feel like that and we all struggle with it

But I do believe that it is important to live your life on fire and if if God put a dream in your heart, it's your duty to go out there and Give your absolute best and chase your dreams and maybe that dream just means being a mom and that is a big dream of mine now is just to be be a Good steward to my children and lead them in the right ways. So yeah, that was on my heart. And honestly, just giving glory to God because I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be the person I am. I wouldn't be walking this earth. Like I have had moments where I didn't want to live. And that still small voice inside of me kept me going and has really just, you can't look at my life and not believe in the creator, in my opinion.

From being six years old and starting judo to being abused, to meeting the Pedro's, to living the life that I've lived, to winning the Olympics, to getting these two children and them saving my life and changing my life, like you just can't look at it and not see his hand all over me. Along those lines, can you share, like the moment with you and Juliana, what you're saying to each other?

Yeah. We could kind of hear it, but not, and couldn't really hear what she was saying. What are you guys saying to each other there? Another true like testament to the power of of God. I went over to see if she was okay and then I asked if I could pray for her. So I prayed for her and then she asked if she could pray for me and my children and she did. And I said in interviews earlier this week that I wouldn't be friends with her, but I think I might have been wrong. I think she, yeah, she's a sportswoman and she sold that fight and she did an amazing job and it's never personal for me. I have no ill will or hate or venom. I want to go out there and do my job and be the best in the world. And I hope we all, I pray for that we both leave,

you know, without any serious injuries and harm. And yeah, it was really good moment. I think it brings this sport to a new level when we practice martial arts. It was wonderful. I loved it. And especially because of all the things that were said, leading up to it, but then we get to the Amanda call out and there she is coming in.

And now, so now we're doing the thing where like, we love each other, we're friends and I get out and and there she is coming in and now so now we're doing the thing where like we love each other we're friends and I get that but there there is friction there is there not there is friction I'm not I'm not manufacturing anything here but there's a story there that's what makes this this feels like a proper super fight this feels like a big deal and and the MMA gods are smiling down on the 135 pound division, because let's be honest, it has lacked a little bit of something over the last couple of years. This is, this feels like a video game. Like, you know what I mean?

This doesn't feel real. It's unbelievable. Her coming back, you becoming champion. There's a story there though. For sure. Well, it was like, yeah, we were, I was doing the interview with Joe and he was telling me congrats and his typical

it's an honor to call your friend. I don't remember exactly what he was saying, but then she popped up on the Jumbotron and I was like, oh, well, I can't pass this up. And so I called her out and she's been saying that she wants to fight, she's been saying that she's gonna come back, she wants to face the winner and I wanted to make that a certainty and so I asked her to come into the cage and again, no hard feelings, no bad blood, no ill will, I don't have anything bad to say about Amanda. Um, but I want to be the best. A lot of people think she's the best.

So here we go. When you guys were in the gym together, did you, like, train actively together or just a few times? Not a ton. We didn't train a ton. Why not? Uh, I don't know. She was so far ahead of you though, right? Because at the time when you come in, you're not really a threat to her. Right. You're just starting.

She's already established. She's already Amanda Nunes. So, why do you think that was? I mean, Amanda's very talented. She's got a lot of God-given gifts and I wasn't her coach. I don't know why we didn't train together. I made myself readily available. Anytime she needed anything, I was there like a little, you know, punching bag, training dummy, and eager to help and also learn and grow from her. So I'm not sure. I think that that was Amanda's choice. Did she leave the gym solely because of you? I mean, you have to ask her that, Ariel.

You have to ask her. I don't know. Okay, man. I just... She doesn't want to come on. I mean, I'm not mad, but like, I don't know the answer to that. I didn't leave the gym. She did. But what you were told? I haven't, I didn't ask her. No, just what you were told by the people at the gym. Hey, Amanda's leaving because she, I don't know, is threatened by you. I thought it was because she lost.

Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Listen, I've heard that she said in interviews like that it was weird because I was training with her coaches and we were we always knew this fight was going to happen and so but like I think that that just speaks to the difference like I want to be in a room full of killers like I want to have to earn my spot at the gym I want my hardest days to be in there and I want it to be pushed. And like, I want iron to sharpen iron and it's not just about me.

Like, yes, two nights a year, it's about me, but the other 360 whatever days, like I need a team and those people matter and they're important. And when I'm done, I need a team and those people matter and they're important and When I'm done The next generation will stand on my shoulders the way that I'm standing on you on his shoulders the way that she stood on the girls But for her before her like do you think that when I beat Amanda and I'm the greatest of all time Do you think it's gonna last very long? No, I'm gonna be the greatest of all time for like

maybe a year and then Dakota or whoever is gonna come along and And I won't be the greatest anymore and that's okay because it's not just about me This is a personal goal of mine, but like I want the sport to grow and to and I want Women to continue to rise and I want the sport to continue to to go shatter ceilings. So Yeah, that's what I want for my gym and my team and women. Do you remember the first time you thought of fighting her where you were like, oh, this could be a thing? Because obviously day one, you're not thinking that, right? Oh, yeah, I was.

Oh, okay. Well, all right. I was. I mean, I came down to visit. I went to Jersey, I went to Vegas, and then I came here to visit, and I sparred with her, actually. On day one? On day two, on day one I did Mako Monday, because it was a Monday, and day two I sparred with her.

Yeah, I mean, I think pretty much right after that, I was like, oh, I got it. This is it. This is where I'm gonna go. How did that go, that sparring session? I think good. I mean, she kicked my ass, but one of us stopped after two rounds and so.

What do you mean? I don't know. Okay, so do you think it was that sparring session you said to yourself, oh, this has to happen? No, I wasn't like, oh, I'm going to go fight her next. But I was like, this girl is the best in the world. She, this is, this is it.

If you want to be the best, you got to train with the best. I'm going to come down here. I mean, it wasn't even in a, I hadn't even had a fight yet, Ariel. Yeah. Had you trained them a man? I had been even in a, I hadn't even had a fight yet, Ariel. Yeah. Had you trained them a bit? I hadn't even had a fight. I had been training for a couple months. So why stopping after two rounds?

I don't know. This is great. When do you think this could happen? Do you think it'll happen in 2025? I'm not sure. I know that, I think that she has to get back into the drug testing pool. I don't know how long that takes.

I know that hopefully there's gonna be a lot of contract changes being made. The cheddar makes it better. GDP, get that paper. But do you want it to happen in 2025? Or do you want to break? I want Amanda to be her absolute best self, whatever she's comfortable with. I don't want any, I want the two best fighters in the world to step in that cage and to leave it all

out there and to put on hell of a fight for the world to see and to bring women's MMA to a whole new level and may the best woman win. Any chance it happens at 45? I would welcome that with open arms. Just so that you can both be held, like what would we need to kill ourselves? Do you think it's possible? I'm down with it. Do you think it could happen?

Or more than? I hope so. You would like, would you prefer that? I don't care. Okay, you'll do 35. I'll do whatever it takes to make the fight happen. I'll do whatever it takes to make the fight happen. But I'm open to, I'm open.

Beating Amanda, does that mean more to you than being UFC champion? No. Okay. No. I think that, No. I think that, yeah, I've had a long career and a lot of beautiful moments and yeah, being UFC champion means you're the best in the world and that means a lot to me and my career kind of speaks for itself at this point and so that is good yeah it's good. I just have a couple more and I'll let you go I promise. Juliana said on social media she's got dibs she's calling dibs

she wants the winner does that make sense to you? I don't think so. I don't think so. Where does she like two and two in her last four and three and three in her last six? Am I wrong? Something to that degree, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think she's, I think it's, I mean, I know that there are a lot of young hungry girls who are also waiting for their moment

and their opportunity. And I think that they deserve it. What was that like earlier today? We saw this amazing video of you going back to the gym. You've always talked to us about Mako Mondays. This was a different kind of Mako Monday. Did you train, by the way? I hope you didn't train. I wanted to, but they said no.

What was this like? Oh, my gosh. Amazing. Amazing. Just like, amazing. These people, this is, this belt belongs to each and every one of them, you know? Like, all of those guys have helped me, pushed me, lifted me up, carried me in moments. Like, and I'm not just talking about the great Dustin Poirier's, me, lifted me up, carried me in moments. Like, and I'm not just talking about the great

Dustin Poirier's, I'm talking about the people you don't even know, you know? And like, they make that place my home and, yeah, I want them to be inspired and oh my gosh, Fandoja. Yeah. Success. That's gonna be the best feeling from your colleagues,

right, your friends. Yeah, it is, it is. Because they're in there with you and they see it and they see how hard you work and how bad you want it and like what you sacrifice and they live it. And so like, yeah, this is for all of them too. And I can't wait to be in all their corners and to be cheering them on and

to be watching them make their dreams come true. It's yeah it's a special place. Amazing to see it all play out like this you holding that title because for the longest time you were like the best outside the UFC to see how quickly all this has played and I know it's not been quick but you know like since you coming into the UFC in April. Yeah. But it felt like destiny. There were moments though. I mean, you and I spoke quite openly about how like, I was nervous that maybe my timing was just gonna be wrong or it just wasn't meant to be, or like, I had a lot of moments of doubt.

And so the fact that we are here and it has happened and like now it's all playing out exactly. Yeah. It's, yeah, God is good. Did you see this photo that Murad posted of you guys nine years ago? Yeah, I'm the one that asked him for the photo. And he went and posted it.

But yeah, no, because I remember meeting him. This is at the New York Athletic Club. I was competing in a judo tournament, a team judo tournament. He started in judo. This is before he was in the UFC. Like, I think he was working construction. And he was there with some of his buddies

and he asked me for a picture. But I remembered him and I Forget which card I Don't remember. Oh, I think when the fights got announced Obviously, I've always followed him. I'm a big fan of Mirab. He is like he's a huge inspiration to me and like I just He's a huge inspiration to me and like I just yeah, I'm a fan of Murav and I think he's one of the greats and I think he's the people's champ.

But when the fights got announced that we were going to fight on the same card, I messaged him and I was like, Murav, do you remember we took a photo together like years and years ago? Can you send it to me? I want to post it. And then he posted it. Ah, he got the glory. He beat me to it.

But it's okay because it was like a beautiful, full circle moment. I hadn't even started MMA yet. I don't even think I'd won my second gold medal. So yeah. I love you workshopping through the aura farming, the aura, that moment there, that was very- That was tough, dude.

That was very mom of you. But you had something. I'm not cool. You had the word, but you there, that was very mom of you. But you had something, you had the word, but you just couldn't quite nail the actual perfect, the aura farming was definitely not it, just for the record. What is it? What is it? I mean, I think it has aura, but aura farming is a negative thing. I think it's like you're taking someone's aura away.

Or a farming is negative, okay, got it. Pretty sure, although I'm 42, so I'm not the best person to ask. I know, but you're taking someone's aura. Or a farming is negative. Okay, got it. Pretty sure, although I'm 42, so I'm not the best person to ask. I know, but you're one of the kids. You're one of the kids. A little cooler. I mean, just like, you know, I've got the thing. I did wanna ask you before I let you go,

I tweeted in the immediate aftermath, I said, it's time to have the conversation of you being one of the greatest combat athletes of all time. When you consider the resume, two Olympic gold medalists, two Olympic gold medals, and you're the one that taught me you're never a former Olympic gold medalist. Never former, never passed. Yes. So two, there's only been one who's had a gold medal and that was Henry, but that was one. Now Henry does have the two UFC belts So that's something you have the two PFL, but you're in that conversation fair, right? I think so and I have a judo world title as well. He didn't ever win the worlds in wrestling

So that's and I won the junior worlds too. This is a real conversation now has he Done the the push-ups yet? What is it a thousand? No, he tweeted me that telling me to give him push-ups and I'm like you better slow your yeah cuz he was like you don't have two bills. That wasn't the deal. Blow your roll little man cuz number one I'm not retired and number two hopefully Amanda takes this fight at 145. You say you want it. You said it. Is that a real thing? Is that a real thing being discussed? I don't know. I mean, it's been a day, Ariel. I don't know. It's been a day. I know Ali likes to get to work. He does, but he also deserves a little break.

He does, and so do you. Can you believe it? From start to finish, though, never been at another gym, all of my coaches are the same coaches I started with, 20 fights in, same manager, same team, same girl, same mouthpiece. Same mouthpiece. And you never changed on us. You never turned your back on us. And that's why we appreciate you so much and are so very happy for you. So enjoy it. Thank you. Congratulations. It was an amazing site. The whole thing was amazing.

And you and Juliana sold the hell out of that fight. You did an incredible job, the two of you. Yeah, she's amazing. She is. She's really, I actually had a lot of fun. It was really, I enjoyed it. I didn't think I would, but I did. She brought out a different version of me and it was fun.

It was amazing. And the UFC stole my idea of you guys doing the face-to-face which no big deal I'm happy to give that but thank you. Oh it's slayed. It's slayed. You said the name, you said the show on the thing. Did you see that? Oh was I not supposed to?

No it was amazing. Why did I say did you see that? You did it. But I appreciated the shout out on the show. I was just happy they didn't like bleep it out. For the record though, we did do a lot of he said she said she said and it was like very high school ish of us But I'm pretty sure that well technically I'm pretty sure that you are the one that started this feud Yeah, yeah, she is the one that talked about me first by the way, so it all worked out set the record straight

Thank You Kayla Congrats. Enjoy. Thanks, Ariel. All right. Talk to you soon. There she is the brand new UFC women's bantamweight champion What a legend and she's right never changed teams then change management change organizations, of course But the the resume speaks for itself. It's an amazing thing. Oh My what a night on Saturday in New Jersey. And one of the big stories, of course, was the debut of Patchy Mix. And then he met Mario Bautista, who has done a great job of putting together an unbelievable winning streak as of late, eight in a row for him, and very much a player at 135 now.

And if you were, you know, for whatever reason, critical of the fight against Jose Aldo, there was nothing to be critical of on Saturday. He systematically dominated. A great fighter coming over from another organization, in my opinion, won 30 to 27, three rounds to none. And like I said, now very much in the mix in the bantamweight division. He's kind enough to join us. Let us say hello to Mario Bautista for the first time on the program. Hello Mario, how are you? Thank you for coming on Pretty good. Thanks for having me and congratulations on the big win. I see some stitches on your lip. How many did you get there? This time it wasn't too bad

It was just three right here and then this one just some surgical glue that they put on there What when did the lip cut happen? There was a moment in the late in the third round, I think maybe 30 seconds left, 20 seconds left. I think he caught me with a good three, two and the two kind of just straight down the pipe and got me a little good. And then, yeah, that's what did it. It's always at the end of the round, always at the end. Towards the end, you get the most damage. Right. Well, I mean, you were inflicting a lot of that damage as well. And you're a very mild-mannered guy. You're a very respectful guy.

Were you at all aware of some of the things that he was saying before the fight, and did any of that add any motivation going into it? Yeah, definitely throughout fight week, I started seeing like headlines of things he was saying, that he's gonna submit me and then submit everyone to my crew, submit my coach and you know, that he's looking through me this and that. And no, I just didn't let it get get to me. You know, part of me felt like maybe he's just trying to sell the fight, you know, and

maybe hype himself up. But I didn't let it get to me. And I just stayed focused all the way through and then just kind of let my my skills do the talking once we went into the cage. Obviously you were originally supposed to fight Chido Vera. Were you, are you someone who watches other organizations? Did you know who Patchy was? Were you aware of who he was coming in when they proposed this fight? No, I knew 100% who Patchy was.

We have guys that fight in Bellatoria in the PFL, and so we knew who Patchy was, and I was we have guys that fight in Bellator in the PFL. And so we knew who Pachi was and I was actually a pretty big fan of him. You know, he does great things in the cage, has great submissions, very exciting, I thought, but never once did I think that I would be fighting him. Did you consider him a tougher test than Cheeto? Like how would you compare the change in opponent was, obviously he's a totally different fighter

with a different skill set. Was this a step up, a step down? How did you view it? As far as like a following, maybe Cheeto maybe had a little bit more shine, but when it comes to skills, definitely I thought Patchou was a better fighter. Okay, and so here he is coming in

and saying a lot of big things and talking about you. Are you the type of person that takes this personally? Like, are you like, I'm gonna show you? Or are you like so, you know, clear-headed, professional, where you don't let any of that get into your mind? Well, throughout fight week, you know, I didn't let it get into my mind, you know, cause it's just a waste of energy, you know? I didn't let it get into my mind, you know, because

it's just a waste of energy, you know. But then once I once I stepped into that cage, like it just kind of flipped, you know, and I just was thinking in my head like you're going to pay, you know, for everything that you were saying, you know, here we are. Now you can do all the talking you want. And I could do something about it now. And so you get to the fight and the fight is playing out. I was telling a story earlier how you know I have two young boys and I was telling them like come see this fight this

fight's going to be great and this guy's making his debut. I was trying to give them the backstory you're on this winning streak and then by the end and they're kids they're 13 years old 11 years old they're like that guy like was a champion they were talking about patchy they just weren't all that impressed and I'll be honest, like, I was debating earlier, like, was that one of the worst debuts in UFC history from someone who's coming over from a different organization? And I'm wondering if you hear this talk, and if you're bothered by it,

meanwhile, we're focusing so much on what he didn't do, and maybe not enough on what you caused him not to do. You perhaps made him look bad and flat-footed and taking those shots. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? And so how much of it do you think was what you did and him maybe not showing up like he has in the past? It could be a little bit of both. You know, it's been a while since he's fought, you know, and it was a little bit short notice. But it was short notice for me too. I had to change up, you know, my game plan.

But a lot, I think that had to do with is what I was doing in the cage, you know, moving around, sticking and moving, not letting him grab me, staying away from where he's good at the whole 15 minutes. So, yeah, it's a weird narrative, you know, people saying, oh, he just didn't look like himself. Maybe I just made him look like that, you know. So, yeah, I think it's just I think I've had different experiences coming off that Aldo fight with all the hype around that. So this one kind of felt definitely a little bit easier for me as far as

like the media and like the the anxiety around it. You know, I felt good coming into this one. So you know him, you've watched him. At any point in the fight are you thinking like, he seems off? I know you caused a lot of that, but like, were you surprised by how he was looking out there? Yeah, I definitely surprised, because the whole time I'm striking from round,

for the first minute all the way to the end, while I'm striking, I'm thinking, he's gonna shoot. When is he going to shoot? Keep punching. Okay. He's going to shoot now. He's going to shoot. That's the whole, the whole time I was thinking in my head. And then I mean, I guess we got to round three and he shot one time and I easily stuffed it. And I was like, man, that took a while, you know? So yeah, the whole time I was thinking, man, this guy's not even shooting on me, you know, so it left me a little surprised, you know, and a little worried, you know, he's gonna ask me, you know, if I wasn't focused on it. But it never came, never came.

Amazingly, in the aftermath, he and his team were saying, hey, no, now they were saying three weeks notice and, you know, all this stuff. And, and I don't know if you saw any of that and chuckled like that wasn't the narrative going into the fight, but now it's the talk going out of the fight. And so, um, do you feel like he has been great? He said a lot, right? And I don't know if a lot of it was to sell the fight or to sell himself, but do you feel like he has been gracious in defeat towards you? like he has been gracious in defeat towards you? Somewhat you know those those excuses come and whatnot but uh if we're gonna if we're gonna go tit for tat you know um I didn't wrestle for the for the past two weeks and even in the warm-up leading up to the fight all I did was mitts and I didn't wrestle you

know I was trying to fight wrestling completely you know we just go into these things you know sometimes not 100, you know, sometimes not a hundred percent, you know? And then when you're obviously, when you're training for patchy, the camp does get a little bit harder and we're throwing, we're doing everything we can to, you know, win these moments and not, you know, get submitted.

And you know, things happen, you know, and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and still fight. And I went out there and got it done. I was just a better fighter yesterday, or Saturday. Were you disappointed you didn't get a post-fight interview? A little bit, you know, afterwards, I was just thinking like, man, I did everything,

I did the exact opposite of what I did to Aldo. You know, I held Aldo, now I fought Patsy, and I stood up with him the whole time and it just still didn't seem good enough. I don't know if it's a UFC thing. I don't know if it was a Trump time delay, whatever it was. It was a little bit weird, yeah. Now that I think of it, I'm just thinking,

man, that's kind of like messed up, but I don't know. I was- You get any answers afterwards about that? No, I wasn't really gonna push it. You know, in my mind I'm thinking like, cool, I'm gonna go in the back end, we'll do media there, I'll do media stuff here, but yeah, I mean, even if I wanted to cut a promo,

they didn't even give me the chance to do that. I was surprised only because it's pay per view and there's no like set time limit there. And if you're on TV, if you're on on ESPN like there's commercials and sometimes fights go long But you were early on the card and it was pay-per-view so and I thought it was a great performance I was I was honestly I was surprised that the fans were booing like the whole fight was standing up for the most part It was all action I don't think he's like a superstar to where that whole place was 17,000 people rooting for him.

I was a little dumbfounded by it. Were you even hearing any of that? Did you notice any of the boos towards the end? No, yeah, I noticed it. I noticed it in the fight while I'm standing up with this guy the whole time and they're booing. And then in my mind, I'm thinking like, like you can't, I can't make any of these people happy, you know?

So I don't know, maybe they just didn't want to hear the boos afterwards. This is the second time they've done that to me, actually. So they did that to me for the Blackshear fight in Boston. And that went all three rounds. And, yeah, they didn't give me an interview for that. Yeah. What lessons? So obviously you reference the Aldo fight and it was a somewhat polarizing fight because you got the win, but people didn't like how it played out.

They love Aldo. He's a legend, the holding, all that stuff and more. Did you tell yourself afterwards, like I'm not going to do this. I'm going to consciously not fight like this. And if yes, if not, what, what did you take away from that? Because this was a different type of fight. This was a completely different type of fight. Yeah, no, I wasn't going to change anything up because of what they said last time.

And like what you just said, it's it's completely different fight. You don't want to have that game plan against patch because you push him against the cage. You're right in his in his world. He's going to wrap you up in a front headlock or take your back or something. But yeah, I didn't really let it let it get to me. in his world, he's gonna wrap you up in a front headlock or take your back or something. But yeah, I didn't really let it get to me. You know, I was just gonna go out there and fight my fight and I knew it was gonna be a completely different fight and yeah, they just still weren't happy about it.

Did you think the criticism of the Aldo performance was fair? Yeah, I think somewhat for some fans, you know, but at the same time, you know, I'm here to win. At the end of the day, I'm here to feed my family. I'm here to get two paychecks. And those fans aren't gonna pay me, so. Did you ever get the impression

that the UFC was unhappy with the performance? Yeah. After that Aldo fight, yeah, I think I seen something, uh, Dana white talking about it. And I, from what I understand, I, I think they were unhappy about it, but you know, were they mad at Marab? Were they mad at Volkonoski for doing it? And I'm, you know, and that's just mainly on all those part two He's had two fights like that and he couldn't even make the adjustment, you know, and it's a simple thing

I did it against patchy I did not let my back touch the cage one time in that fight and you know someone like Aldo who's Multiple-time world champion who's been around here for so long. So didn't even do that. So Yeah, it's it's just a weird spot. Saina, what did you think of his performance against Sahabi? I mean, that's exactly why I didn't let him go. I could have got kicked in the face like that.

It was a crazy performance. We got to see a little bit of the old Aldo for a good maybe 15, 20 seconds, and then it just went downhill after that and props to Sahabi for coming back and putting it on him. But it was a great fight. And you could tell Aldo gave it everything he could and just couldn't get the job done. But it was great showing by Sahabi. There's a tricky balance, right? Even Marab knows about it, between the entertainment and the sport, right? You can win a balala had to deal with it leon edwards as well like you can

win nine ten in a row but if you're not doing it with style points or have a ton of buzz surrounding you you're not going to get that title shot so how do you balance the two yeah i'm definitely going to have to work on on this uh personality and kind of of like the social media and following thing. Because honestly, I'm just a homebody person. I'm quiet by nature. All I do is just go to the gym, come back, hang out with my family. And that's all I do. So I just need to start figuring out how I can get my name out there a little bit more

attention, you know, good attention anyway, just to promote myself and get myself closer to that title shot. Because apparently that's what it takes nowadays. You just can't win eight straight fights and you can't even get into the top five. So yeah, I'm going to need to work on that. You think this one gets you in the top five? I certainly hope so. You know, I think if Patchy won, there'd be talks about him fighting Marab or getting into the top

five. So, and I just beat him, all three rounds. So I hope I take that shine and get myself into the top five because that's exactly what I deserve. I was just talking about it this morning. I have the third longest win streak in the history of the Bantamweight division. And I'm second for the active Bantamweight division with Murad being right above me and he's the champion. And I'm top 10, I'm number 10 right now

and I'm not even in the top five with this wind streak. So yeah, I don't know what else I could really do. So if it was up to you, who do you want next? I would like a top five. you know, I would like to, I was thinking about that Sanhagen fight, but he's probably next for the title. But I think with my style, I could adjust to anyone. So I think a win like over Umar

definitely gets me into that title contention. But in all honesty, like I don't care, one through five, I'll fight anyone in that top five. And so I saw that you said in your post-fight press conference you'd like to come back by the end of the year. Yes. I'm assuming. Yeah, because I fought in October last year

and it's taken this long to fight again. And I don't really want to wait that long. Time goes by so fast. I'm getting a little bit older. I just want to get as much done as I can. So I would like to fight by the end of this year. How many more do you think you're away from fighting for the belt?

How many more wins? You would think one more top five win would get me into title contention or fighting for the number one spot. So realistically, I think one or two more and then we'll be talking about the title and my name will be right there. Did you watch Marab's win over Sean?

And if so, what'd you think of it? Yeah, I was actually just watching it right now, re-watching it again. It was crazy, you know, I was excited for Sean, you know, cause he had a totally different mindset going into this one He quit smoking. He stopped social media and stuff and and did all the right things, you know And he goes out there and you know, it loses a little bit Faster than he did the first time so I was pretty bummed out for Sean

But you know congrats to Merab, you know, he just the machine, you know get and get gets it done. Do you think? Corey I don't say has a chance but do you think he could beat Murab? He's definitely gonna have to knock him out That's the same thing I was saying about Sean Sean would have to knock him out So Corey's gonna have to knock out Murab to win that fight because Murab won't stop coming and I think the fight with Umar and San Hagan kind of shows like where Sanhagan's at with the wrestling. And I think Murab's just gonna make it even worse than Umar Sanhagan fight.

So I have Murab winning that fight. When you watch Murab now, do you think of yourself fighting him? Do you start to like think like this, I would do this, I could beat him here? 100%, you know, I think I'm one of the few guys in this, especially in the top 10 that has like the best chance against Murab and not necessarily

because I'm the most skillful, but I think I just have the cardio to keep up with Murab and to keep trying to create damage with him. You know, there's very few guys that can keep up with Murab and, you know, I think I would give him real big problems being able to keep up with him. Yeah so there it is there's the the top 10 now this hasn't been updated yet it gets updated tomorrow as far as the UFC is concerned but you've got Song Yedong there, Corey's going to fight for the belt, Umar, Yan is is booked so maybe it is that Umar fight.

Yeah I don't like Umar and it, yeah. Figgy's hurt. Henry, he better not even ask for this because I'm going to turn that down. He had his chance. Really? When? Oh, I, I talked to him right after the, after the Aldo fight, he, you know, got online and said some things. So I seen him at an LFA and, you know, kind of confronted him about it. And then all he could say was, Oh, you're, you're, you're just a boring fighter.

This and that. And then he goes out there and has that, you know, that performance that he did against Song. So, yeah, he had his chance. Hopefully he doesn't even call me out. I don't want to embarrass him. Although that's a high profile fight for you, no? It is, but what he's number nine right there. So that's not even what I'm asking for.

And I don't know, I would just like to make him mad, but just by saying no, so it'd be fun. A bit of an Arizona turf war. Somewhat, yeah. He just, you know, he just says all these things, the cringe king, so. Did you get your in and out afterwards, most importantly? Yeah, I was doing that.

I was doing that little interview and I'm like, oh my God, in and out. And most importantly. Yeah, I was doing that little interview and I'm like, oh my god, in and out. And she's just like looking at me like, she has no clue and I'm just like, oh, that was weird, everyone loves in and out. But I keep forgetting, I don't think in and out's on the East Coast. No, it's not, it's not.

I hope you weren't looking for it. No, no, no, I just, I totally forgot that. So yeah, I'm actually probably gonna get some today because you got to let the stomachs off you throw in and out in there after a fight camp. It's going to tear you up. So I gotta I gotta adjust before I throw that in there. Well, you learned it, you deserve it tremendous win. Really, really impressive, I thought and you deserve a lot of the attention afterwards I know the story was patchy signing with the UFC But what you did to him to neutralize him was really impressive by the way. Did you get a cut on your neck there? I was like some scratches. I don't know if he didn't clip his nails before yeah, but uh Yeah, he kind of tore me up a little bit right there Damn, yeah

Well, well heal up soon and looking forward to seeing where you go from here because we're talking right now about like Marab lapping the division and Cory's out there obviously next but there's guys like you's a hobby that are coming up that I think will be interesting matchups for Marab If you still the champ, so again congratulations and thanks for coming on really appreciate it Thanks for having me Ariel. I appreciate it. All right, there is Mario Bautista rocking the old-school pride shirt Thanks for having me, Ariel. I appreciate it. All right, there he is, Mario Bautista rocking the old school pride shirt. Love it. And he can now claim, by the way, that he has a win over a WEC and UFC champion, Jose Aldo,

a Bellator and King of the Cage champion, Patchy Mix, an LFA champion, Miles Johns, and a deep champion, Jin Su Sun. I'd love to know why they didn't give him a post-fight interview. I was freaking out on the watch party, why? Yeah, it was weird because usually on a pay-per-view, somewhat high-profile fight, it's automatic. It's not like they had to get to a commercial

or something like that. Automatic, man, in a Apache Mix one's that fight, there's no way they're not talking to them. Yes. No way. You think it's because they were upset? I don't know. I mean, I actually thought it was a good performance. Yeah, it wasn't boring. It was no he peaced them up Yes, I'm just gonna say that yes. It was fantastic. I was I was my winning streak I was half hoping he'd get on the mic and heal off, but he's a good guy. He's very

Humble and down to earth. I don't know if he has that in him. It feels like Mario's gonna be one of those guys that's gonna have to get like 10, 11 in a row to win the title show. I mean, Marab was one of those guys. To be fair, he's not like quote unquote boring. Like look, the Aldo fight, even he is coming on and admitting like the Aldo fight, he was trying to do that strategy

and he moved on to a different one. He was bombing on Patchy Mix. It's not like this guy's just standing there playing Patty Cake. So, like, I don't know. I don't think Mario Batista's boring at all. I don't think so either. I actually enjoyed the fight. It was just kind of shocking to watch it unfold. 100%.

Because there were so many high hopes for Patchy's debut. And like I said earlier, I think we should all give Patchy a mulligan. Let's judge him. You know, remember Eddie Alvarez had a bad fight against Anthony Pettis in his debut coming over from Bellator. Now, Pettis's plan of attack was really just to neutralize, but like Bautista was there

ready to go. Like he was standing right in front of him. He was like, take me down. Let's see it. And it never actually happened. Yeah. And it sounded like what he said. He was nursing, take me down, let's see it. And it never actually happened. Yeah, and it sounded like what he said, he was nursing something too.

So maybe that would have been an opportunity to do it. A blessing. Guys, earlier we played some clips from the press conference with Dana White, which was a bit of a bizarre one in that, like a lot of the questions were like, what do you think about this? And what do you think about that?

And there was a lot of like, the fight just happened or sure. Like it was almost like he was, I don't know if he was under the weather or apathetic. I don't know what it was, but the most fire came from the John Jones questions and the boxing questions. And so he was asked about, all right, are you actually going to be promoting

Canelo Crawford? You'll recall that was the story. That is what was announced. And then there was some talk of the fight being announced at the Netflix up front. That didn't happen. Then we got a tweet from Turkey saying Sela is going to be promoting the fight, but you know, it was maybe a little ambiguous. Like, is it going to be Sela and TKO? Is Dana going to be on there? Is TKO, is Dana going to be on there? A part of it.

Then Noche UFC, September 13th, pay per view. Kanell Crawford got moved to September 13th. What's going on? Are they going head to head? What's happening? Then we find out Noche UFC is no longer pay per view and it's going to be in San Antonio. It's going to be a fight night.

And then Dana's asked about it all. And this is what he said. Regarding this TKO boxing thing, it did seem kind of interesting because I know that there was the Netflix up front and I believe there were rumors that perhaps something was going to happen there with this Canelo and Crawford event. Turkey was pretty big on making it clear that you would be the head promoter and then he did say, actually you were going to be the head promoter and they didn't have a broadcaster, and then it was actually Sela's sellers gonna promote it and it's gonna

be disowned pay-per-view ring magazine all of that stuff I guess what exactly happened in the last couple of weeks I don't really know listen we're not we're at work at UFC headquarters I'm in my own little world man I don't pay attention to any of that shit I know what's going on I know what we're doing and I don't really pay attention that stuff doesn't matter to me What was the last conversation you had with with turkey like and how often are you guys in communication? Ah? Shit, I don't remember the last time I talked to him, but that can't be good. We're good. It's very good No, we're very good. Okay, so the like the last time I talked to him. I don't remember

I mean, of course he has other people who work with him, but that is a little bit strange. The rumors, all that stuff, like this, we're going off of tweets from Turkey himself. Like this isn't like innuendo rumors, things like that. It seems a little defensive, a little unclear. Turkey did tweet afterwards, Dana White will be promoting, my brother Dana will promote this fight. It is the fight of Riyadh season and we have a deal with TKO to promote it.

And it will be the biggest fight in boxing and tomorrow I think I will tell the details and the platform and the place for this fight, me and Dana. I don't think that announcement has been made just yet. but it does seem a little different in terms of the tone of when this was all announced back in February. So let's see. But as I said last week, once Noche UFC became a fight night, that made me think all was cleared up, whatever it was, and TKO would be involved in the promotion of this fight, once again, and Dana White in particular. Interesting stuff. Some breaking news.

One of the big winners from this past weekend was Joshua Vann, people really getting behind this young man, and what a great story he has. We had him on the show, he'll be on the show on Wednesday. And hey, how about this? We just found out Joshua Van is going to be replacing Manel Cap at UFC 317. Cap tweeting, with great regret, I come to inform you that I am out of the next UFC 317 competition. I suffered a foot fracture during training and after medical evaluation, I was instructed to have surgery and focus 100% on recovery. Then Joshua tweets, I'll be fighting Royville on June 28th. First of all, love the fact that they're

announcing their own news. Love this. Second of all, Joshua just fought on Saturday and now he's fighting one of the best flyweights in the world in 19 In 19 days? That's incredible. I love this. I know you guys love him as well. I wanted to find something. This is from this past weekend. Joshua Vann, 125 significant strikes landed.

Tied Brandon Moreno for most performances in UFC flyweight history with 100 plus significant strikes landed, five. He's had five fights in the UFC with 100 plus significant strikes landed. And how old is he? Early 20s. Also, by the way,

second longest active winning streak at 125, four behind the champion Alex Pantoja. So International Fight Week just got a lot more interesting. Shout out to the man. Back to boxing. Fabio Wardley with a massive come from behind victory on Saturday at Portman Road over Justice Hooney. Did you guys see this? He was losing every single round. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Tenth round, midway through, he knocks out Justice Hooney. It's one of the great comebacks in recent memory. He was getting pieced up, as they say. It wasn't really all that close. He was not looking good. His hands were low. He looked tired. He looked deflated. He looked defeated. Hoonay was cooking. And then he got knocked out. And Wardley has been on a social media tear ever since. And he's not a really like braggadocious guy, relatively soft-spoken. He's coming after everyone,

including Teddy Atlas over on his Twitter. Go check it out. Very fun. Keyshawn Davis had a mare. Keyshawn Davis had one of the worst weekends of all time. He missed weight by 4.3 pounds. Then it seemed like the fight was going to be on. Then it seemed like the fight was going to be off. And then it was officially called off. His fight against Edwin De Los Santos, which was headlining the scope in Virginia,

called off after the headliner. This was supposed to be like a homecoming for him. Gets removed. Forced to withdraw. And then, in the back, Kish, so there's DB3, the Davis Brothers 3. Oh, and by the way, leading into the fight, Kishan, I'm a big fan of, and the interviews are great, and the candor is great. Abdullah Mason was asking to fight him, and he was kind of playing it off, and they had a nice little, you know, tete-a-tete at the presser,

whatever you want to call it, where they're sitting on stools. Anyway, Abdullah Mason ends up becoming the main event, which had to have, I don't know, it had to have stung, I would think. But the other two Davis brothers were on the card. And one of Keyshawn's brothers, Kelvin, fought a young man named Nahir Albright,

and then all of a sudden, Nahir gets to the back. He's talking to Mark Kriegel. And he tells him that he was just jumped by Kishan and Kion. The other brother, this was craziness. This was all happening in the midst of UFC 316. But there was like a full on brawl. There's a little kid there in a stroller. Did you guys see this?

This was crazy. Did anyone see this? Yeah. Nuts. A fortunate situation. This guy, like, Kishan's supposed to be like the face of top rank, he's supposed to be, he's on my top 10 popcorn list,

he's like a young stud up and coming, what are you doing? And this whole event was built around him and it being there. Yeah, hate to see that from one of Boxing's young stars, you know. In his hometown. And he missed his weight by 4.3 pounds. Disaster. We'll talk more about all of this on the Island Night A program tomorrow. Shout out to Las Vegas. They're getting WrestleMania back to back years. That was announced as well. Supposed to go to Minneapolis. They changed it, it's going back to Las Vegas.

Maybe we'll be out there for that one. But what about The Truth, Ron Killings, release from WWE, actually his contract wasn't extended. The internet explodes and then he shows up on Saturday attacking John Cena. The moment they started to reference the release on WWE programming, I felt like something was amiss. Like, now they're starting to reference it, this could mean that he's coming back. Now afterwards, Triple H was asked about it all and he said, did you enjoy the show? Just showed up. But then Ron Killings and his son were on social media saying it wasn't a work, that

he actually parted ways with the company and they brought him back. Crazy. Only in Rasslin'. Love it. By the way, speaking of Rasslin', tomorrow on the program, Joe Pfeiffer in studio. Also, we've got Shotzi in studio. Also recently departed from WWE, now killing it on the indies, living her best life. The great Shotzi, if you're a fan of hers,

she'll be on the program tomorrow in studio. It's a big week for me, my friends. It's my son's Bar Mitzvah week, a lot going on. A lot happening. Lot of nerves, lot of anxiety. You know, you just want the best for the kids, you know what I mean? You just want the best, but no one else is really nervous.

So maybe I should. Who, me? I don't know. Just, you know, you just want the best. You understand, Frank. Absolutely, the best. Well, I'm happy you'll be there thanks are gonna be there you have an RSVP yet I have RSVP'd so many

times multiple RSVP's multiple why so many RSVP's just to make sure he saw it loud and clear oh I appreciate that it's very nice to you well you're gonna love the food oh really you want to give a little peek behind the curtain? I personally curated the menu myself. Omakase. I appreciate that. Yeah. Oh, I know you're a big fan of the omakase.

It's a beautiful thing. Oh, yeah. Thanks. That's a good time. I was just looking through the news here to see if I missed anything before we said goodbye. Glory 100 on Saturday. Looking forward to that. What do we got as far as Super Chats are concerned? Ruben sends in $5.

Thank you, Ruben. Oh, hey, that's it? I mean. Shout out. He did follow it up with, did GC watch the French Open Thriller? Oh, maybe. Bet your ass I did.

What a match that was, incredible. What was it, like five and a half hours? Oh yeah, I got up after, I got home from the watch party at like four. I was back up at nine for the final. Sat there. Rick and I were back up for Jaya Pataya. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys were texting about Jaya and I was like, well, another heavyweight fight's

about to start. Yeah, that was- Even though Jaya's not heavyweight. That's a lot. Yeah. No, I mean, there's that one graphic of, what was he down? He was down like five nothing? Nah, Sinner had a triple championship point. Five three. Yeah. Jeez. Triple championship point.

40, 40, 40 love, right? Yeah, up two sets to one. He saves all three. Then he breaks him to force a tie break. Then in a 10 point tie break in the fifth set he wins. It was unbelievable. One of the best matches I've ever watched. The shot making was unbelievable.

It was phenomenal. Those are the two dudes for the next 15 years probably. I was so locked into fighting. You said getting ready for the heavyweight fight between Sinner Alcaraz or you said like to see Sinner. And I was like, who's Sinner Alcaraz? Where is he fighting? Or Skinner? What's his name? Sinner. Sinner, yeah that's right. Onique. By the way, what about the fans falling over the thing there? Yeah that was pretty scary. And did you see the camera man? It looked like or maybe it was like the cameraman assistant like

it looked like his leg got caught. To me it looked like the cameraman like jumped because he got scared of what was happening. But it seemed like it got caught. You know they're playing with fire with these guardrails. Someone's gonna... This happened to Mike Mulatt. Imagine if it hits the fighter first and foremost. Like imagine the fight has to get canceled, God forbid. Especially when you look at those guardrails, like they're really in there. So like someone has to lift up and push forward and like if that's a fan just being crazy, I don't know if that fan should be there.

Jalen Hurts. Yes, happened to him too. When he was like running back into the tunnel. What's going on with PFL and Paul Hughes? You tell me man. Well they posted something here. The winner of the Mansour-Barnoui versus Archie Colgan fight, Colgan has been added to this week, Friday, June 20th? No, next week. The winner of this fight becomes the number one contender for the PFL line. It'll be next in line to face the current champion.

And then Paul Hughes writes, hey, quit with the rage bait. By the way, is he using that term correctly? Yeah. This would be considered rage bait. Yeah, for sure. to make the winner of Why not just like stupidity? Can it not just be called stupidity? I think he's implying that they can't be serious

This is stupid. What is this? He has to be next Archie Colgan Remember his Bellator days fondly. What is on here with these in the shop versus month? What else gotta be a joke? Yeah, I mean maybe they're trying to sell the Jacob says Rick with a binger take I mean, there's so many we don't even know which one. Yes, it just I mean every tape times that there is it just sort of like in perpetuity It's evergreen. Okay, we might as well print it out and just put it somewhere because that happens a lot. We get designed behind you.

You can really get something there maybe. You only have one thing. Yeah, wouldn't be a bad idea. We just put every time somebody says it's a banger take. It'll be a lot. Cover the whole wall. The chat feels differently. Not that chat, the ones that matter.

What else? Speaking of timestamps, Mr. Mastachio, Royval versus Cop below Atafa Brother, nothing to say now, huh, Ariel? But when it's Bo, suddenly placement does not matter. Shake my head. I don't understand the point that he's making because I'm the one who always says the placement doesn't matter.

Yeah, did you complain about Royval versus cop? No. What is he talking? I think he's saying I actually he's trying to say that like people complained about Yuri fighting on the prelims and Bo but I wasn't even one of those people so why nothing to say now? A, B, I also am the guy who says, if you're truly a fan of a fighter and he's on the prelims and not the pay per view, shouldn't you just be happy that you don't have to pay

to watch that fighter? They get paid the exact same. Who gives a crap? Hard placement. I feel like he tried to get you there and it- And failed. Yeah, and it just didn't work out. Like, so do you think they put Van

versus Royval on the pay-per-view? I don't know, because Cobb versus Royval wasn't on the pay-per-view to begin with. Nothing to say now, huh? No. I think that like... But also, who cares? Yawani, nothing to say, huh?

He's owning himself. Like, you had nothing to say about Bo's placement on UFC 300. You definitely had nothing to say about Taffa on UFC 17. I never really cared about placement to be honest. Oh, nothing to say now. Preach, brother. Classic. It's so dumb. All these people are like, this one has to be here.

It's like, who the fuck cares? Why? Speaking of rage bait, like working yourself up over the placement on a card is crazy. Obviously there's a hierarchy and all this stuff, but like, who cares? The only one I was really offended by was Cody Garbrand versus Davidson Figureto. Being the first fight? No, no, it was just because they were like,

this card is so good. It's like you literally just put it there just so you could say that. But you had nothing to say about this one. No. What else? Drum Coda, is Murad versus Pantoja the fight to make? No. It's a fun thing to talk about but Pantoja's got some things going on there and Murab's got some

things going on there. I mean Corey versus Murab is the fight to make. I'm not interested in that fight pretty much ever. I mean listen if both guys have nothing going on just like Zhang and Valent, I ain't turning that down. I'm not looking away. But there's enough going on at 35 and 25, they don't need to be fighting each other. I like dominant champions. I wanna see someone try to beat DJ's record,

Anderson's record, GSP's record. I like that. Plus you're holding up two divisions, like it doesn't have to happen, especially if there's no real Je ne sais quoi. Oh potentially not just because who's Pantoja holding up at a certain point like after he laps the field four times Like what's there's some guys coming up? Well, I mean Josh Van can make himself a contender What else? Actually before we can go back to that one drum coda

I was just curious if this is a reference to drum code, and if so, get at me in the chat. Guy knows ball. What the hell? All right, Jimmy Coe, Marov came from nothing, sacrificed everything, gained everything. Yes. Is Sean the other side of that? Make sacrifices and still not be good enough?

Listen, my favorite player of all time was a young man named Patrick Ewing. Unfortunately for Patrick Ewing, he happened to live in an era where another young man named Michael Jordan played. This happens. It's no not like Sean O'Malley, that Sean O'Malley potentially could have been every other back to weight in the world, not named Murab. It's just, it's just one of those things. You know, we saw it with Benavidez and DJ. Maybe those guys fight seven more times, DJ wins every single time. We saw it with, I don't know, Pick A Guy, Jones and Gustafson, Jones and Cormier. We saw it with BJ and Frankie Edgar, with Faber and Cruz in the UFC.

Like it just, there's just sometimes bad matchups. That's it, nothing more. DJ and Frankie Edgar with Faber and Cruz in the UFC. Like it just, there's just sometimes bad matchups. That's it. Nothing more. By the way, Sean O'Malley was the champion. It's not like this guy didn't do anything in his career. Like he beat a very good Al Jameen Sterling. Now, of course the circumstances were a little wonky,

but he beat him and he beat Jan and you know, he beat Chito Vera. What was that? Someone pop that? Something popped up there. Yeah it was another hot take from Rick. They just keep coming baby. Love it. Love it. What else? Drew this feels like Ilya Charles Islam Saga. Could it be possible Tom is already signed to fight at MSG but John Jones is just a trolling only to sign.

I mean, it would be nice, but no. Unless everyone's trolling me too. Just get on with it guys. Come on. It's been a good run. The best part is like, you know, he's sitting there with the tweets, just thinking like he's freaking on fire, you know Oh, that was a good one. The only reality that matters to John Jones is his own

So I think if he felt he was on fire, he's on fire, you know, like oh man Thank you Jordan. This is what I'm talking about. He's like he's like, oh Send give me the double spaced essay. Ah, so good, bro So good. You got so good, bro. So good, you got us good with that one. And the thing that he keeps going back to is that Tom is obsessed with him. And how many more times does Tom have to say

he's not obsessed with him? Just get out of the way. Just let me fight for the belt. That's it. You want to hold it? You don't want to hold it? And so someone said to me like, you know, you know, John has done enough. He should be allowed to, you know, determine how he ends his career. Yeah, you're right. So just give up the belt. Fight anyone. Fight Sergey Spivak. Fight

Waldo Cortez. Fight freaking Parker Porter. Just give up the belt. Part of being champion, actually not part of, the number one requirement of being champion, actually not part of, the number one requirement of being a champion is to fight the top guy. That's the whole point. If you don't want to be that guy, just give it up and fight anyone else. Fight Stipe, fight Stipe again.

Fight Francis, fight Mark Hunt, fight Brock Lesnar, fight anyone, just let the belt determine who the top guy is. That's it. And there's a guy who deserves to fight for the belt to see if he can be the top guy, and you're stopping that from happening. And in fact, you're not just stopping him, you're stopping anyone else from getting that opportunity.

We don't even think about that. Saril, Jalton, those guys too. You're stopping them. What else? Kiss and Hug says, I need some advice. I want to leave my job. I'm so miserable here. You guys are the only thing that make it worth it. Love from Jordanian from New York City. Okay, well the first thing I would do is, I don't know what your situation is. I don't know if you have kids, girlfriend, wife, I don't know, but I was once in that position.

I got a, I was working in TV production, I worked for a couple years, things were going okay, didn't love it, but certainly didn't hate it. Always in the back of my mind, I wanted to be on air, I wanted to be a reporter, I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to do this. What a life. But I'm enjoying production and oh, there's this thing called the UFC that I love and it's on Spike TV and hey, maybe I can work

in production at Spike TV, my worlds collide. And I finally make it to Spike TV September of 2007 and after a week, and really if I'm being honest, after three days, I was like, this job ain't for me. Now do I, do I tough it out? Do I suck it up? Or do I pull the plug? And so I determined that I was gonna pull the plug,

but I was gonna have a plan in place. And that's when I came up with JerryPark.com and the six months, and I've told the story before. October 1st of 2007 to April 1st of 2008, I'll give myself six months, interview fighters, reach out to them, et cetera, et cetera. So my advice to you is, if you're unhappy, you only get one life.

So pull the plug. But before you pull the plug, just have a plan. Okay, what are we doing? What's the next step? Can you afford to be at a commission for X amount of time? What's the dream? I just firmly believe you get one shot at life. I can't afford to be at a commission for X amount of time. What's the dream? I just firmly believe you get one shot at life.

At some point, the music's gonna stop. You might as well try to be as happy as possible. You might as well try to wake up as excited as possible for the day. Oh man, today I get to come in and I get to talk to Marab and Kayla and Mark Coleman, Mike DeSabato, Mario Bautista, what a life. I'd be lying if I didn't say there were frustrations,

there were ups, there were downs, but for the most part, blessed. Try to find that. Try to find that type of feeling, that type of life. So if you're unhappy, get out. But I wouldn't just blindly get out. Use this time, give yourself two weeks, I'm gonna figure out what the next move is.

And I'm going to start reaching out to people. And then during your time off, make reaching out to people your full-time job. Like when I, I've been out of many jobs. I've had the rug pulled underneath me many times back in the day. And then I reached out to everyone. And I'm not reaching out for handouts, but you keep in contact, send an email, send the text. No shame. Only get one shot.

And my biggest fear is being 80 years old, on my bed, looking at the sky, talking to my great grandchildren, God willing, and saying, man, I blew it. I should have went for it. I should have dreamed bigger. I should have shot my shot. That's the worst, in my opinion. That's a travesty.

So go for it, my man. Dream big. You only get one shot. And I wish you well. Who, me? I wish you well. Who me? I'm so sorry. What else? My finger slipped there.

Jake from Wendy City, what are the best sports docs you have all seen? Oh my God. Well my- Do you count as a sports doc? No, not at all. My favorite documentaries are sports documentaries. My favorite films are sports documentaries. I mean, golly, where to begin?

Well, obviously Last Dance is up there. Obviously, I mean, OJ in America, is that a sports doc? I would say so. Nah. What sports about that? I mean it's about a sports superstar. It's about a sports person, but that's not a sports doc. We cared about OJ because of who he was. It was. As an actor. Tell you what, It wasn't a murdering of his seasons. Of course, but it was about an athlete, a supremely famous athlete who murdered someone. Yeah, I go last dance. Okay, no, last dance is great, OJ, I mean obviously that won an Oscar, but there were a lot of great 30 for 30s.

You know, have you guys seen Icarus about the Russian doping scandal? I have not. Incredible. But I've heard it's amazing. Icarus was great. I feel like Goal. I'm sure Beyond the Mat means is something for you. Thank you. Okay, Beyond the Mat. I'm sort of blanking here.

Beyond the Mat. Booth Dreams, you mentioned the other day. Booth Dreams. Wrestling with Shadows, one of my favorites about Bret Hart in 96 and 97, leading to the Screwjob. One of my absolute favorites. There were some and 97, leading to the screw job. One of my absolute favorites. There were some fantastic 30 for 30s that came out. So many great ones.

You know which one I really liked as far as 30? A lot of great 30 for 30s. Four Falls from Buffalo about the Bills was a great one. The one about the Magic was a great one. I think it's called This Magic Moment. I don't know if you guys know this, but my first job out of college was working at HBO Sports in their documentary department.

And that was a huge deal for me. So I worked on a documentary called Perfect Upset about the 1985 Villanova Georgetown National Championship game. Villanova was a huge, huge underdog. Georgetown led by Patrick Ewing and John Thompson were, you know, the beast from the east, Hawaii paranoia, all that stuff. And it was a fascinating experience learning how to put this whole damn thing together. And spoiler alert, Villanova shoots 76% from the field in the second half and pulls off the upset.

There was no shot clock. That was a great experience. When that ended, I worked on a documentary about the 1999 U.S. Women's World Cup team, which wasn't a topic that I cared about as much, but again, just getting to do the whole thing. And I was low on the totem pole. I mean, I was a P.A., a production assistant, but HBO was the gold standard. Before 30 for 30, HBO was the gold standard as far as sports docs are concerned. They had an incredible amount of ones. There's one on Ali from Back of the Day, Ali Frazier, which is one of my favorites. Legendary Nights was a multiple part series hosted by Jim Lampley about some of the greatest fights in HBO boxing history. That was amazing. So many.

I actually just watched recently, I haven't finished it, the Shooting Guards doc on Netflix about- I haven't seen it, but I'm gonna- The Brutalinas. Yeah. It's actually quite good. I didn't know a lot of the backstory, so I've enjoyed that. I just showed my kids the Malice at the Palace doc.

Yeah. It's a lot of fun to teach your kids about sports history when they like watching this for the first time they're like what the hell is this it's kind of crazy and by the way you guys like to laugh that I don't I don't watch you know I'm not hip to the culture we know this yeah watched a great film on Netflix called Nonas starring Vince Vaughn. It was just my daughter and I on Friday and we both agreed that we were going to watch a movie that neither of us had seen. My mom is a nona, which is a Italian word for grandmother, and we saw it and we were like, this looks great. And it was so heartwarming.

I enjoyed it immensely. It's about a restaurant on Staten Island called Maria's Inoteca. And anyways, it was Vince Vaughn and his mom passes away. No spoiler, it happens very early in the movie. And then he wants to honor her by opening up a restaurant to honor his grandmother, his nonna, and his mother, and then he hires other nonnas to be cooks there.

It's a wonderful film. And you wanna take this all the way full circle, guys? I'm watching the movie. I'm watching the movie. And I'm, at the end I'm like sobbing, and then I look at the credits, and then I see a name in the credits and it's Jay Peterson. And then I'm like, holy crap.

And so I look up on IMDb and Jay Peterson was one of my very first bosses in the TV business. After I left HBO, I went to work on a show called Classic Now, hosted by Josh Elliott for ESPN Classic, produced by a company called K2 Pictures, and I worked for Jay Peterson and Robert Katz, who owned K2 Pictures,

and then I went to work for them full-time, and then I left those guys to go work at Spike TV, and then I left Spike TV to start my website, and there's Jay Peterson as an executive producer of this movie that I watched over the weekend. That is cool. Is that not crazy? That is cool.

What a life. What else, Frankie? And we have one left. the weekend. That is cool. That's not crazy? That is cool. What a life. What else, Frankie? And we have one left. Okay. The L is silent. Has there been any update regarding the amendment to the Ali Act that was requested a couple months ago? What were they trying to amend?

I think they're trying to... Well, among the many things, they want to be able to introduce their own belts, have their own champions. They want to make their boxing league like the UFC. The UFC model cannot work in boxing as it's currently constructed. Even more so, managers in boxing cannot be promoters. In MMA you see it all the time with a bunch of different promotions.

Ali, Ed Soros, Graham Boylan, etc. So there's a lot of things in boxing that you, that you, there's a lot of things in MMA that you can't do in boxing. And so they want to amend, and it's because of the Ali Act, and so they want to amend that. They want to change it. Honestly, I think they want to just get rid of it so that they can just be free and clear to run the boxing promotion. Like they do MMA. So with the contracts, with what's, um, made public with the belts, with the

rankings, none of these things apply to boxing. Speaking of boxing, I think we'll get a lot more. Yeah. Oh, when we were Kings. Oh, that's a great one. I am so looking forward to this HBO doc, the surviving Ohio. So yeah, after that chat, like man, man, crazy, crazy, crazy. Well, tomorrow on the program, uh, we will have,

like I said, Joe Pfeiffer will have shots. He will have the Ireland outday program and the train will roll along by the way, June 20th. If you're going to fanatics Fest here, uh, We will have, like I said, Joe Pfeiffer will have Shotsie, we'll have the Ireland Outay program, and the train will roll along. By the way, June 20th, if you're going to Fanatics Fest here in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center, we shall be there at 3 p.m. doing a mini version of the Hawaiian show

on the Kevin Hart Cold As Balls stage, I believe it is. I mean, it's actually our stage, but they will also be there, you know? That's how that works. Respect. All right, it's time to go. It's been a great day. Nothing quite like a post-Paperview Monday.

Big win by the Canadian men's national team this weekend, beating Ukraine I believe 4-2. Wish I could say the same about the US men's national team, but you know, these are just friendlies, doesn't really matter, you know. Congratulations to Portugal winning the UEFA Nations League. Still not quite sure what that is, but it seems prestigious. Anyone watch Money in the Bank? No. That was before 3.16, right?

Right before, yeah. We didn't have time for that. Our friend, Karrion Kross, did not win. Seth Rollins did. But they had a fun little Saturday there. They had the AAA show and then they had Money in the Bank. AAA show, I believe I read it peaked with about 740,000 concurrence on YouTube. Not a bad night. Not a bad night. And then they rolled right into the event

in Los Angeles. MITB. Really appreciate Mike DeSabato and Mark Coleman coming in. Check out the film June 17th, Surviving Ohio State. Thank you very much, Marabdou Alishvili, congrats to him, congrats to Kayla Harrison, congrats to Mario Bautista, we are thinking of you, Ben Askren, wishing you all the best, thanks to them, thanks to all of you. Back next week, same time, same place, back next week, back tomorrow, same time, same place, till the same time, peace, I'm out of here. you you you