The Ariel Helwani Show - Michael Chandler, Carlos Prates, Chris Duncan, David Samson on UFC rights deal, more

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Ariel Helwani starts the show with further analysis of the UFC’s new rights deal, focusing on Dana White’s comments that fighters will benefit from the deal and a comparison between Paramount and ESPN’s distribution platforms (01:52).Carlos Prates joins ahead of his UFC 319 fight against Geoff Neal and talks about lessons learned from the Ian Machado Garry loss, his current smoking habits, the success of the Fighting Nerds, Neal predicting a first-round finish, and more (15:33).Former Miami Marlins president David Samson makes his show debut to discuss UFC’s blockbuster seven-year $7.7 billion deal with Paramount, including his doubts about the suggested timeline, potential involvement in the deal by President Donald Trump, whether the deal will benefit the fighters, his own experience in making major sports deals, and more (43:53).Chris Duncan is next, recapping his Fight of the Night-winning performance against Mateusz Rębecki, regularly crossing paths with Rębecki, who is an ATT teammate, finding purpose and motivation after overcoming his mother’s death, and more (1:16:30).Michael Chandler is our final guest of the day, describing his initial reaction to UFC leaving ESPN and heading to Paramount in 2026 and how it will affect the fighters. He also looks back at his loss to Paddy Pimblett and talks about still seeking the Conor McGregor fight, aiming to be on the UFC’s White House card, wanting to interview all of his past opponents, and more (2:01:16).

Ladies and gentlemen, now, welcome to the Eria, Hawaii Show. Back in your life on this Tuesday, August 12th, 2000. And 25, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It's great to be here on a lovely, lovely Tuesday in New York City. I've said this time and again. My brain works this way.

There are certain dates that are ingrained in my soul. August 12th is one of those days because 31 years ago today, the Major League Baseball players went on strike, thus ending eventually the 1994 season and canceling for the first time ever the World Series and thus ending my beloved Montreal Expo's chances of winning their first and only World Series. Six games up on the Atlanta Brave, six games, best team in baseball. Oh, what a time it was, what a time it was. I'll never forget it.

August 12 takes me back to that time. But here we are some 31 years later in a much better place. Now, today's program, and may they rest in peace, and one day, hopefully in my lifetime, I get to see them back. Probably not, but I hope and I pray. Today's program is a stacked one. Four incredible guests. Back-end Michael Chandler, Chris Duncan, David Sampson.

Yes, that David Sampson. More on him in a bit. And Carlos Pratch is fighting this. weekend at UFC 319. We're going to get to all of those guys and then some on today's program. We play two on Tuesdays, Aday in Riyadh for the Big Dillion White, Moses Satama fight. A huge day. But I'm so freaking excited to get rolling here. I just did the Bill Simmons podcast and I have so much more to say. I'm so freaking excited to talk more about yesterday's massive news. So I want to get right into it before we get to Carlos Prachis,

who's going to join us in about 14 minutes time. Yesterday, by now you know, we've had some time to digest it, the UFC signed and announced this massive deal with CBS slash Paramount slash Skydance in which they are going to take their rights to Paramount Plus, beginning in 2026, seven-year deal, $1.1 billion, with a B, billion dollars a year, 7.7 over the course of seven years. Paper view, they say, is dead. Is it really dead? We don't know, but that's what they said initially. It's a massive deal, but I've had time now to digest it. And so yesterday, we kind of just presented you the news and sort of talked about it, digested it, inspected it, dissected it, all that stuff. Today I want to talk more about it as I've had

time to allow myself to think, ponder, marinate this massive news. And one of the conclusions that I came to, which, you know, it doesn't take a rocket science to break this down this way, but this is how I'm breaking it down. Four entities are at play here. Four entities were involved and affected by yesterday's news. Obviously the first would be Paramount, the new Paramount Skydance. David Ellison, the 42-year-old son of the media mogul, Larry Ellison. He's got this company Skydance.

They take over Paramount. It was officially announced late last week. He does a deal with South Park. He wants to revamp everything. He wants to be the big dog. He wants to own a sport, and so they are affected positively because there were only so many sports left to own. He wanted to own something. Yes, they're in business with the NFL, but they don't own the NFL.

Yes, they're in business, you know, with the PGA, but they don't own golf. They've got March Madness. They don't own March Madness or NCAA. They've got Champions League, but they don't own soccer. They can own essentially a sport by being the exclusive home of the UFC. Remember, they told us this last, yesterday afternoon, they said the initial deal was for the 30 fight nights. They were going to take the 13 pay-per-views elsewhere. Once the Skydance slash Paramount deal was finalized and approved, they said they wanted the whole thing that came together in 48 hours.

And so for them, yes, we could debate whether or not they're overpaying. We'll only truly find out at the end of this deal. But they wanted to own something and I think the deal is worth it for them because they get to own this entity. that's very cool, hip, young, that is thriving, surging, all that stuff and more. And so that's entity number one. Entity number two is the UFC. And of course, for them, they're the biggest winners of them all. And I'm talking about TKO in particular, because TKO just now, I always thought they would get a

billion dollars a year. I didn't think they'd get it from one home. I thought they would have to split it up among two, three partners. They're getting it from one home, which is a huge, huge win. They don't have the pressure of selling market. marketing pay-per-views. All the shows are on Paramount Plus. Initially, Mark Shapiro, at the beginning of the day, Mark Shapiro told us that pay-per-view was dead and antiquated. Then he went on CNBC and said the 13 pay-per-views slash PLEs, likely all are going to be on CBS. Later in the day,

Dana White was on CBS Sports HQ and said, nah, it's going to be more like four are going to be on CBS and the rest would be on Paramount Plus, which makes a lot more sense. because you want to get people to subscribe and watch those premium shows and not just cherry-pick them on free CBS, which is available in most of the country. And then at the end of the day, he told the New York Post, like, hey, let's chill out on all this pay-per-view is dead stuff because, you know, I got a pay-per-view to sell this Saturday. I've got four more in 2025 coming up. And, oh, by the way, you know, a big star may come up and anything is possible when you've got a big star and you could do a one-off pay-per-view.

I'm going to be on pay-per-view this Saturday. Paper-view is not dead. And so I think what you were seeing yesterday was an executive speaking that investor talk, which is what Mark Shapiro was doing, telling the world, hey, this is why the deal makes sense. Paperview is dead. And then you had like a street promoter telling you like, nah, no, no, no, no. Paperview isn't dead. I'm worried about Saturday.

We'll worry about 2026 and that messaging later. But for now, like Saturday, pay-per-view is not dead. And October 4th, it's not dead. And on the 25th, it's not dead. In November and December, it's not dead. So that was a little clunky. It was an awkward dance. But ultimately, for the UFC, the bottom line is they went from 500 to 550 or 500, yeah, 500, 5.5 million a year with ESPN to now 1.1 billion a year. And so I would say they're the big winner, right? So that's entity number two. Entity number three, I would say is the second biggest winner, which are the fans. The fans are big winners because now it goes from having a plus subscription plus having to buy pay-per-views

79999. And if you're a hardcore fan, that equals out to approximately $1,000 a year. Now you don't have to do that anymore. And as of right now, it's either $8 or $13 to be a Paramount Plus subscriber. Eight bucks if you're accepting ads. 13 if you want to bypass them. Remains to be seen if they up that number. They haven't really quite weighed in on that yet. We suspect just like with ESPN, they will. But as of right now, it's way cheaper to be a Paramount Plus UFC fan slash viewer as opposed to a ESPN slash ESPN plus UFC fan slash viewer.

And so the fans are winning out big. The last entity, of course, are the fighters. And to me, they're the big losers here. They're the big losers, not because, you know, the viewership. gets affected, that remains to be seen. If you're behind less of a paywall, you're seen by more people, that's probably a win. But number one, they're sitting here watching all the executives wave their pom-poms and say how great this is. They're sitting here, hearing Dana White say, this is good for the fighters. And so my thought process goes to, well, how? How is it good for the

fighters? Is the base pay going up? Is the introductory pay going up? 10 and 10. Is it now going to be 20 and 20? Are we getting rid of the show win model as a result? Are the performance bonuses now going to be 50K to 100K? Is it going to be now like 100K a pop as opposed to 50K a pop? What becomes of the champions with pay-per-viewpoints? We saw Tom Aspinall on the program yesterday saying, well, what becomes of my pay-per-view points? No one has told me. The vast majority, if not all of the fighters, didn't know about this. They didn't, they didn't consult them. They don't have to. There's no CBA. And so they're all kind of wondering and scrambling. You'll get some out there being like, this is great. We're now on

CBS. We're now on Paramount Plus. And yeah, okay, I get that. But let's talk about the reach because Dana White says that he, you know, he said it. I saw him on multiple interviews talking about how the reach is bigger. And so I think one of the big things that the UFC benefited from over the past five years as far as reach is concerned is the fact that a lot of young kids are in tune with ESPN, not necessarily with SportsCenter, but ESPN's Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, they crush it on social media. They're the number one sports brand and one of the top entertainment brands on social media. ESPN on Twitter, Sports Center on Twitter, ESPN MMMA on Twitter, okay? These are the numbers. 58.8 million ESPN, 45 sports center, ESPN MMMA, 1.6. Compare that to say CBS, Paramount Plus

CBS Sports. Twitter, 1.1, 416, 1.4. Blow them out of the water. Look at Instagram. 28.2 to 965. 38.8 to 1.5. 4.6 to 1.5. Blown out of the water. Facebook, 24 to 2.4. 17.4 to 3.8 to 4.8 to 4.4. Close on that one, but that's ESPN MMA to CBS Sports. It's not even apples to apples here, but we're trying to go three for three if you get what I'm saying. TikTok, 54.8 to 2.1. No TikTok for SportsCenter is somewhat surprising, but that's fine. They still blow them out of the water. 6.5 to 4.7.

YouTube, 13.9 to 2.3, 2.4 to say 1.8 plus 1.04.4. Blow them out of the water. In total, that's 300.8 million followers slash subs to 32.6. million followers slash subs. And this is an interesting thing. One more note there at the very bottom of that screen. According to SportCal, ESPN Plus had 24.9 million subs at the end of the first quarter. Paramount Plus at 77.7. I would argue the vast majority of those 24.9 are UFC fans. The vast majority of the 77 aren't, but a lot of them are going to migrate. So yes, Paramount Plus is a bigger platform than ESPN Plus, but I would say that 24.9 is probably a greater number as far

as UFC fans are concerned. All to say, when Dana says it's better for the fighters, I ask him how. ABC is in as many homes as CBS. Obviously, they're going to put the premium events on CBS, at least four, compared to the ones on ABC, and ABC didn't really turn any fighters into new stars. But I do sit here and wonder about that reach dwindling exponentially, and if that will make the fighter slash the sport a lot more, a lot less visible, I should say, and a lot less popular among the 18 to 34 year old male who are the ones spending things, buying things,

watching the vast majority of UFC content. And so when you consider that, and you also consider the fact that they're making 0% of this 7.7 billion dollars, at least as of now, I hope to be proven wrong. Zero percent of that ad revenue as well when NBA players, for example, make 50% of the TV revenue and the overall revenue, I should say, and as a result of the TV revenue, the salary cap goes up and all these things are moving up, which benefits the players. If I'm a fighter sitting back and watching them, like, well, how exactly does this benefit me? How is this actually better for me? I understand why it's good for Paramount Plus.

I understand why it's good for the UFC. I get why the fans are happy about it, but what about me? What about the fighters? And if you are a true fan of this sport, ultimately, you care about your pocketbook, you care about your bank account, I get that, but you also care about how the fighters are being treated, I would hope. And so I think it's really interesting to see how this all breaks down. I think ultimately what we've come to is there'll be these four big shows on CBS, four or so, not a set number. The rest are going to be on Paramount Plus, and thus we go back to the idea that the UFC doesn't have this pressure on them to stack the car. If a major, if Drickus versus Hamzaa gets canceled, they will scramble to put together a marquee main event.

We've seen it before, right, on like days notice, weeks notice. Does that same pressure exist, the tickets are already sold? Does that same pressure exist when they're not on pay-per-view? When their partner isn't selling the show on pay-per-view, when it's just on the same platform as UFC Fight Night 275. So the whole dynamic is going to change. And oh, by the way, if we are in fact killing pay-per-view and, that's what they said, that's it. It's dead. It ain't coming back. In seven years, you can't put that toothpaste back in the tube. That's it. We're done. We're out of the pay-per-view business. And the

UFC was the last commodity left. The last commodity left that was a consistent pay-per-view draw, if you will. Like, yes, the number is dwindling a lot of that. We don't know if the viewership dwindled because a lot of people were pirating, but the buys were dwindling because it was a lot easier to pirate. But now you can't go back. In seven years, you can't decide you want to do this differently and go back to the old way. Once you've already told people that you don't have to pay anymore and you've touted the fact that we want to save you money, you cannot go back. So it's very fascinating to see the trickle-down effect. For the UFC, they have, you know, they have certainly reached the mainstream in case there are any doubters about that sort of thing.

The NFL's media rights deal. A hundred billion over 11 years. But it's split up between Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Amazon, Netflix, all that. The NBA's deal, 76 billion over 11 years. MLB's deal, a lot closer, 12 billion over seven years. So about 1.7. Olympics is 7.7 billion over 10 years. UFC is right beneath them, 7.7 over 7 years. College basketball in that vicinity as well.

I think it's 8.8 billion. NASCAR is 7.7 over 7 years, PGA 6.3 over 9 years, NHL 4.4 over 7 years. MLS, 2.5 over 8 to 9 years. And so the UFC is a top 5 sports entity here in the United States. They are crushing it. They have made it. They have survived. But what does that ultimately mean for the fighters? How does this truly benefit them? We'll talk more about this throughout the show, throughout the throughout the week. David Sampson will come on in about 30 minutes time to talk about it from an executive slash owner slash media critic perspective. But let's go to Chicago and talk more about UFC 319, a big fight going down this weekend. Marks the return of the great Carlos Prachas coming

back for the first time since this fight back in April against Jeff Neal fight that we thought we were going to get a few months back. He's kind enough to join us right here. Now let's say hello to the fighting nerd zone. Carlos Prachis. Hello, Carlos. How are you, my friend? I'm good, brother. Thanks so much. Always nice being here, talk with you. How are doing? I'm doing great. Thank you. And I appreciate that. And it's always very nice to talk to you as well. There's a lot to talk to you about.

Can I ask you, Carlos, what is the difference between you sitting here right now and Carlos back in April in the aftermath of the Ian Gary fight in Kansas City? How have you changed as a fighter? As a fighter, I think now, I think my mind is a little bit more open, you know. After the fight, I sit with my coats and they show me like, I have a lot of skills, a lot of weapons, and I did use into the fights. And now I'm down to use that if I need to get the win, you know? And so do you think that in terms of like the way you fight, you will change as well? Sometimes when someone is on a roll and then they hit a snag, the next. time we see them, they're a bit of a different fighter.

Like, do you think the lessons that you learned in that fight against Ian will change you as a fighter come Saturday? I don't think it's going to change my style, my fight style, but it's going to change my, how I can say, like the way I think to win the fight, you know? On the level you are right now, on the really high level, some small mistakes, going to make difference on the end of the fight, you know.

So, it's time to sometimes think less about entertaining and more about win, you know. Okay. Not only about knockout, you know what I mean? Not only about bonus, you know, I want to finish the fight on the way. It's going to bring me bonus, you know. Of course, win bonus is really nice, but get the win is more important, you know. And I think it's changed, it's changed a little bit, my mind. line. Okay, would you say that's the biggest change? That, that perspective is the biggest

change, the biggest lesson you learned. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay. Now, what about going five rounds? How did you feel at the end? Did you feel, you know, going five rounds? Did it affect you? Did it affect your cardio? No, not really, you know? Of course, you get tired to five, five rounds, you know, but I was talking with my friends and my coach, and I was better on the last two rounds, you know? So, I think I got a little bit tired, of course, because five rounds, everybody's going to get tired. But I didn't know how, how was, how would be five rounds, you know? I never fought more than three rounds. Yeah. So now I'm going to be much better next fight next time when I fight five rounds. I got to be much better, you know. So three rounds for me,

it's easy to don't get tired. You know, I mean, like everybody says, like, ah, he's smoke, he's going to get tired. I think people should stop say that because on my last fight, I showed like I can fight five rounds, seven, six rounds, no matter how many rounds I can fight. I heard you say that you didn't really stick to the game plan. You didn't listen to your coaches throughout the fight.

What did you do that would suggest that? What did you do that defied what they wanted you to do? to move a little bit more, to touch him a little bit more. You know, you start to hurt him early in the fight, you know. And I was like, I was really confident. And I was like, ah, at some point, I'm going to fight some hand and going to knock him out, you know. And it didn't happen, you know. And the plan was like, move a lot like he did, you know, and touch him, touch, touch, touch all the time.

Not just drop the hands to try to knock him out, you know, like two hands. no, maybe touch, touch, touch, and then get strong, touch, touch, get strong again, you know? Like, start to hurt him. Was he better than you thought he would be? Say again? Was Ian better than you thought he would be? I don't say like you better on his techniques or something like that, but I think he was more intelligent, more smart than I was waiting. he he more intelligent than like told he he he would be you know okay what is it

he know how to he know how to to to run the fight you know how to win the fight like i said not not not too much entertaining but how to win the fight you know he he and i was thinking like i he now had a lot of too much experience so it he's not too smart but he's really really really smart, really intelligent. By the way, I asked you, what's the biggest difference? The obvious one is that you have a mustache now. Where did this come from? I don't know, bro.

Sometimes I do shits like that, you know? And now people start to talk about my mustache, and I think about if I'm going to shave or not. You like it? I like it. I don't really like, you know, but everybody says, I like it, it's nice, so let's see. What do the ladies say about it?

Yeah, I let the mustache here because the most people still say, like, it's nice, it's ladies. Okay. So that's why my mustache is still here, you know, but I don't know if I'm going to shave before the fight. Okay. Well, that is most important, some would say. Yeah. You know, you were on an incredible streak, 11 in a row. You were doing so well. People were really getting behind you very close to maybe fighting in the title picture. As far as your confidence goes, to now have that halted, did that have that?

affect you? Did you need some time off? How did you process it? I don't think so, bro. I don't think. You know, I always confident. I always, of course, I want to win and I want to lose two fights in a row. To be honest, not two fights in a row. And also, I don't want to lose anymore, you know. But I always confident, you know. I don't feel any pressure. Like the pressure is me only, or me against me, you know. my pressure is step on the cage and do my best, you know? Like, I can lost, but if I did my best, it's okay, you know. Sometimes shit's happy, but I'm happy because I did my best, you know.

And I think that's the main thing for me, you know. Step on the cage and do my best. So this is interesting because you're fighting Jeff Neal, and you were scheduled, to fight Jeff in early April at 3.14, he withdrew and then you got moved to Kansas City. So I'm sure, like, you were somewhat familiar with him already. You didn't have to start from scratch in terms of game planning for him, right? Yeah, yeah. We was training with Chuhin already. My training partners was so tall. So, you know, I think we trained Chuhin like one month and something, one month and two weeks, something

like that. And then the fight changed. So now we're just back to work. you know like he on the middle of the camp he has never been stopped via strikes in the UFC is this something that you care about that you want on your resume do you think about that sort of thing bro i'm i'm really good to knock people who never was knocked out before you know huh yeah that that i won the the the belt of the biggest show here in brazil and i knock the guy who he else he was sold power also you know i'm i'm really good fighting against saltpaw and he was never knocked out and I was the first knocking out when I fought Lee and Liang was never knocked out on his career not only UFC on his

career and I was the first one and Saturday night I want to be the first one to knock you Jeff Newell out for the first for the first for the first time okay so this is something yeah I think he I think he lost by knockout before Yes, in the regional scene to Kevin Holland. Yeah. So this is something you knew and something that you would like to have on your resume, that you were the first one to stop him in the UFC. You look at this sort of thing.

Yeah. Yeah. He has said... Nothing personal against him. Sure, sure. It's just because it's the way I like to fight, you know. I'm a striker, and I like to knock people out. I like to put my game.

And I know how to do that, you know. That's my best. 100-moy type fight, so I do that for all my life. So it's what I do. So, yeah, to be happy, I think, knocking out the first guy to knocking out on the UFC. I saw on the countdown show, he said that he was going to stop you in the first round. I think he wrote, or I should say he said his boxing, his speed, his power, his volume, will all result in a first round K-O-win.

Your response to that? Bro, you know, I fought many guys would have hands on my career. And I don't know, he can try, you know. I hope he's ready to fight three rounds. Everybody knows he gets tired during the fight. I don't get tired during the fight. So it's better to him.

Try knock me out on the first round. But also, I'm really hard to get knocked out. So I don't think it's going to happen, and I think he's going to get tired. And then I'm going to play, play, play until he give up, you know. I think at the end of the fight, of course, the first round is going to be tough. But after that, I think I'm going to start to hurt him, you know, and finish the fight, you know. Like, he's going to get tired, he's going to get injuries, he's going to get hurt. I'm going to get hurt

and then I'm going to finish the fight Forgive me I always have to ask this because I'm fascinated by it Are we still smoking as many cigarettes As we used to? Yeah, I smoke like eight Something like that per day

Even now Even in Chicago You're doing it? Yeah, yeah No no like weaning off it Oh bro, you know Sometimes I start to smoke a little bit less but it's hard

you know it's hard I got really excited and then I want to eat and I cannot eat like pizza all day yeah yeah you know so I prefer smoke

then I have some problem to make it even even on the on the fight day you'll still smoke yeah yeah I like to smoke before go to

to a stadium you know like because we cannot smoke it on the locker rooms sure sure before and then I I go there and what's your favorite brand Marlboro

Oh yes I saw you have a shirt that is sort of like the Marlboro style right Yeah Full Violence he did the shirt I love it

Yeah here it is right Yeah That's nice Yeah Where can people get that Sorry Where can people buy that On the full

Violence shop You know Okay You can go to Instagram Full violence And then you can go to website and and buy. Okay. That is a great idea, by the way. Shout out to full violence. They did a great job with that. I saw also in Vegas for International Fight Week. You were having an

incredible time I saw with the fans that what was going on? You're just like dancing in the street and look at this. It's like a whole mosh pit here. What's happening over there? What is this? I don't know. I'm like kind of people like he Like a lot of people want to still be close with me, be close of me, take pictures with me, you know, like, oh, sometimes I walk on the street and the fans looking to me like, oh, these cars brought this. And, you know, for me, it's like, why are you guys doing that? You know, we are normal. We are people like everybody. And I like to stay with everybody. I'm guy like when I go to the party, I really like to do a new friendship, you know, talk with people. And now I'm a UFC fighter, and a lot of people want to be close. So I really like to have me like with my friends or my city. When I go party, I make a lot of new friends and things like that. And when I'm Vegas, I'm the same.

But they are my family, you know? Yeah. They are fans. So I like to stay with them, talk with them. But also, if they are not my fans, I'm going to make a friendship. Also, going to drink together and smoke some cigarette together. and have a good time, you know. I'm kind of a guy like, I talk with everybody.

I like to sit on the bar. It was really nice. I met some guys in Vegas, and I was on the restaurant in hotel. And I was really tired. I was a hangover. And they asked me to take pictures and things like that. They sign a lot of things.

And I was like, man, I'm really tired. Why you guys don't sit here? Get some beers with me. And then we just talk and things. like that and they was like really surprised wow like really why not bro

or you're gonna they they they was drinking already and then I was sitting with my food and drink a lot of beers because in Brazil we say when you are

hungover you need to get more beers and then your hangover go away you know and I was like getting beers before like

he met some funds on the UFC things UFC stuff and things like dad and then I just invite them like four or five guys to sit there and stay talking and get some beers and there was like oh my god you know you're a man of the people yeah yeah but wait a second to kill off the hangover you drink more beers yeah in Brazil everybody say that

wow when you go party when you go party you get hungover on Sunday morning wake up and get one more beer, do some barbecue, and... Wow. What a life. Do you feel weird? Like, all these people love you so much, and you question, like, why do they love me so much? What is it about me? Yeah.

Yeah. I think sometimes, yeah. Yeah. Because I'm a guy like him. I'm really fun of many guys. I met today already. But I don't... I'm not like a guy who's going to take picture, you know?

Like, I don't know, picture on during these days have a different sense, you know. Like my mom has 70 years old and she has a lot of pictures on the album of pictures, on the book of pictures, to when she's like, she missing some moment of her life, you know, when I was child, when I was a baby already or something like that. And she goes there and look the picture, you know. I think that's the real sense of the pictures But now We all of us The pictures just to show

What we are doing now, you know So I'm not like I saw everybody I saw somebody I'm fun And I'm gonna get the picture I think like that I prefer to talk with the people You don't need something

With the people I'm really fun Than take picture I love that I love that I get what you're saying Sometimes now you just want to take the picture To show people on your social media as opposed to having the experience with them

and you appreciate the experience, which says a lot about you and is part of the reason why probably people really appreciate you. Are you a fan of pizza? Do you like pizza? Bro, I like everything. I like pizza, hamburger, everything.

Have you had the pizza in Chicago? Yeah, they say Chicago is really nice to eat pizza, yeah? Very thick, very, very thick. It's almost like a cake. It's called deep dish pizza. Have you had any of it? Yeah, I never ate pizza here. My first time here in Chicago.

Oh, wow, okay. My manager said, and told me about that pizza, and I want to try. After the weight cut, though, right? Yeah. You can't do it before. Probably after the fight, you know. On Sunday, it's going to be my birthday, and I planning to go out, eat something or something like that. Wow.

Sunday's your birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you, brother. Thank you. How do you celebrate big? I feel like you go hard on your birthday. I think so after fighting. We're going to drink something, something like that.

And then on Sunday, I don't know if I'm going to be hungover or something like that. But pizza looks good to take care about hangover also. Yes, yes, yes. It absorbs it all. But are you someone who makes a big deal of their birthday? Do you like to really celebrate over the years? Yeah, bro, yeah. You have to.

You have to appreciate life. Yeah, yeah. We sing if we go to party or something like that. Okay. And it's a great time for the fighting nerds. Once again, there's three of you fighting on this card, right? Do you like that when there's the team together, right? I believe Karin Silva and Mikhail al-Keshcheshuk. Yeah, and also, Kayu on the... In Paris. No, no, Kayao is here, and like if it happens something with Chimaev, he's going to fight for... Oh, he's going to weigh in as the backup fighter.

Yeah. Wow. Okay, so all three, all four of you are together. Yeah. Wow. So the vibes are great. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody trained together at the same time. It's really nice. By the way, I loved what you guys did in Kansas City for that fan who was sick. And you made incredible. I'm sorry. I think, you know, unfortunately he passed away, right?

Yeah. But it was amazing to see him. I was talking to him. It was really nice to meet him. know he'll teach me a lot of lessons you know i was like in my city and i i i i i had accident with my car and i was like 60 70 miles per hour 70 yeah i don't know miles you know I was like 18 or 17 miles per hour on the road. And I hit my car and I didn't die. Wow. And then I called him and I show my car like you.

And I said, oh my God, bro, what's happening? And I say, bro, you know, I didn't die because I promise you are going back in Kansas next year. You know, I was like really happy. And I say, that's why you cannot die. And, but after he started to get like more, more sick, more without power, you know, like more weak. And he passed away, you know. But I think he, I like to see the things on the good way, you know. He was like really bad and think like, now he, he rest, you know.

Yeah. Sometimes, of course, we like to see like the people stay here with us, you know, and things like that. but sometimes it's good to the people like rest, you know. That was an incredible thing that you guys did from. It was really amazing how the whole team made him feel so special and made him feel a part of the team. So major props to you for that. What happened with the car?

It was just an accident. Someone hit you, you hit them. What happened there? Yeah, bro. I was on the road like 130 km per hour. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's fast. Yes.

And was a truck on the road. And he comes on me Like he, without show me He's gonna go to the side Yeah Yeah Jeez Yeah

And did the car get ruined Yeah Well I was really bad You know The car was really bad But now everything's okay We fix it I'm here

Alive Well how long ago was that It was three months ago Something like that Did you get hurt No seatbelt you were wearing seatbelt no no carlos why what's wrong with you man smoking no seatbelt what's happening you have you know and i was like everybody say like ah of course he was drunk and thing like

that as my friends yeah and i was like leaving the party to go to after party but uh uh i was looking because i was not looking to my phone or thing like that and i was not drunk or something like you know. Oh, you were looking at your phone, Carlos. No, I was not looking. Oh, you weren't. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, probably if I was drinking, you know, I was looking. Yeah, yeah, got you. Got you. Got you. Yeah. You got to wear a seatbelt, my friend. Yeah, that was really concentrated, and then I can hold the car and... Yeah. But why no seatbelt, Carlos? Why no seatbelt? This is important.

Nah, bro, I don't know. In Brazil, it's hard to choose seatbelt. Never was seatbelt. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why is it hard? I don't know, it's normal. Okay, well, I hope in the, maybe you learned the lesson. Now you wear seatbelt because of it? Yeah, now I'm going to start to choose.

Okay. You know, by the way, I saw you wearing the Bulls jersey. I think it was you wearing the Bulls jersey. You know they play there, the Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan at the United Center. Say again? You know the, Michael Jordan, he played in the arena that you're going to be fighting it.

Oh, yeah, yeah. That's you, right, with the Bulls jersey over there. The fight is going to be on the same place? Same place. Cool. Yes. Nice. It's incredible.

You know who you were wearing. You know whose jersey it is, right? Sorry? The jersey that you were wearing. You know which player that is, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dennis Rodman. Yeah.

He's like you, crazy guy. Sorry? He's like you, a bit of like a crazy guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. That's like he's sort of, you remind me a little bit of him. Yeah. I think he and Michael Jordan didn't like each other, but they won three NBA titles.

That's right. They liked each other, but they were from two different worlds. One was party animal guy and one was like businessman and was very serious. But together they made a great team. Yeah, that's nice. Like on your team, you're the Dennis Rodman. Who's the Michael Jordan? Yeah.

I think Kyle or Roof? Okay. All right. That makes sense. I love that. Can I ask you before I let you go, Carlos? Main event, who do you like? Hamzat or DDP?

I don't know. I think she might have, but during the two first rounds, you know? Okay. After that, I think the place to have more chance. Okay, okay. Well, it's going to be a great show. And by the way, here, you have great support on our show. This is our producer, Connor.

I don't know if you know, look what he's wearing. Wow, nice, bro. Representing, bro. Keep the stash for Saturday as well, man. The stash looks great, brother. Look at that. He's smoking a sig in your honor. Thank you, brother.

Thanks so much. Marvel Reds, too. Look at you. You like those? You like the Marble Reds? Yeah. He looks like a smoker, right? The way he puts it in his mouth like that, a little bit hanging down.

Yes, yes. It's very nice. Carlos, you're the man. It's a pleasure to talk to you. It's great to see you back. And we wish you the best on Saturday. Looking forward to this fight very much. Thank you very much.

Thank you. He wanted to talk with you. Yes, all the best and happy birthday as well. Thank you. Thanks so much. Okay, there he is. Carlos Prachas. They call him The Nightmare, 21 and 7.

Currently on a 11-1 run. What a run it is. And had won 11 in a row. And of course, that one was the fight to the unanimous decision loss to Ian Machado Gary back in April in Kempel. Kansas City, went five rounds for the first time in his career. Obviously, this fight is not a five-round fight, but it's one of many great fights on this card. I like this 319. As they tell you, pay-per-view is dead. Don't forget, buy the pay-per-view this Saturday. UFC 319 headlined

by Drickus DuPless C versus Hamza Chamaev. It's a great little card. Lorone Murphy against Aaron Pico, fantastic fight in the Comain, 145 pounds. Jeff Neal against Carl was Pratchez, Jared Cannonier against Michael Venom Page, and to round things out, Tim Elliott against Kai Saquora. That's- Fucking out. Yeah, that's a phenomenal five-pack. That's pay-per-view worthy, if you ask me, King Green against Diego Feheda, Gerald Mirchard against Michalo O'Sheeshuk, Jessica Andraj, against Lupida Godinez.

Great fight. Alex Hernandez against Chase Hooper. Every single one of these fights is great. Edson Barbosa against Jarkal. Brian Battle, who we spoke to last week against Nirals-Rouzibov. Karin Silva, who we just spoke about against Dionne Barbosa, and Ali B. Idris against Joseph Morales. It's a great little card. And it's a great little day as well, because earlier in the day, live from Riyadh on DeZone, you've got Moses Atama against Dillian White.

Massive fight in the heavyweight division. We'll talk more about that fight on the Ariel and Adde program at 5 Eastern over on the DeZone YouTube channel and the DeZone platform. But I'm very excited to talk to our next guest. Who would have thought? Who would have thought some five years ago? Who would have thought some 25 years ago that this man would be on my program? Because there was once a time where we were sworn enemies. Or at least I insinuated that he was a sworn enemy of mine. I don't think the feeling was mutual. At least that's what I'd like to tell myself. But we have now proven to everyone by this booking, by this appearance that you're about to watch, that you can evolve, that you can change, that you can grow up, that you can mature. and that life is too short for grudges. And so when I was thinking about who I'd like to have on this program, when I was thinking about who I'd like to talk to on this Tuesday, as we've now had a day and a half to digest the massive news that the UFC and Paramount have entered into this massive $7.7 billion deal

over the course of seven years, I thought, all right, I want someone who understands the media landscape. I also want someone who has been at the table for some of these massive deals. over the years, these rights deals, if you will, from the sports executive perspective. And I want someone who also understands about, you know, revenue sharing and collective bargaining because that's one of the things that some of the other channels, interviews, networks aren't talking about, but it's one of the first things that come to mind when I think about a deal like this. And then it occurred to me that the perfect person to have on this

program to talk about all of this is the host of the critically acclaimed nothing personal podcast, which you can watch on YouTube each and every weekday, an insider for CBS Sports HQ, a baseball insider, to be exact, the former executive vice president of my beloved Montreal Expos, and of course, the former president of the Florida Marlins, the one and only David Sampson. Let us say hello to David Sampson. There he is. Hello, David. How are you? Look at us. We've come a long way. I'm a little reclaimed. Give me one minute here.

I've got to recompose myself. That was the nicest, most interesting introduction I think I've ever had. Well, it's sincere. And wouldn't you know it? 31 years ago today, this has nothing to do with you, but it is kind of funny. The players went on strike. My Expo's first place, six games up on the Braves. Who would have thought?

All these years later, all the issues we've had that you'd be on my program. And an invited guest, someone that I'm excited to talk to, we've come a long way, and I'm very proud of that. I appreciate it. I'm very happy to be here. Obviously, I love watching the two of us in our media world. And the fact that you just said 31 years ago is 1994, that's something that I grapple with every day.

It seems like yesterday, and then you say 31 years, and it's hard to believe. Yes. And so yesterday I was trying to consume all the different takes and angles as it pertains to this particular deal, which obviously, like, we're in this world, we're in the trenches here, but I love to see how other people are. reacting and digesting to it. And I thought you did a phenomenal job on your show, nothing personal, which I urge everyone to check out on your YouTube channel as well. And so could I ask for those that didn't see it? And you can use the benefit of now, you know,

a few more hours passing by. When you first heard that the UFC and TKO, their parent company, had entered into this deal beginning in 2026 to take the whole package to Paramount slash CBS, not split it up for $1.1 billion a year, 7.7 over the course of seven years. What was your reaction? Well, as you know, I do my show live at 7 a.m. Eastern, and this broke during the show. So you have to imagine that my producer, Matthew Coco, was feeding me this while I was on another topic. And the first thing that it occurred to me is, wow, that sounds like an overpay. Let's see if I can understand exactly what went on. And then I immediately went to, Oh, this is making perfect sense.

The merger got approved. There was a settlement between the president and CBS Paramount for $16 million. Then the merger gets approved. Then there's an announcement that Dana White was able to foment a deal like this, which is tremendous for UFC. And they were able to couch it in ways that they had to walk back, which I want to talk about, that pay-per-view is dead. Yes.

But what occurred to me is that this was all very coincidental, how quickly all of these things happened. So they had to make sure we knew, Ariel, that this whole thing came together in 48 hours. And I've been a part of a lot of deals. And you can do a lot of things quickly. I do a lot of things quickly. But a deal like this, $7.7 billion, it doesn't happen in 48 hours. It's something that certainly had to have been talked about, contemplated. There are boards to think about. There are regulatory issues to think about. There's getting back to ESPN and saying, hey, any chance for a match, wink, wink to think about. So it's a very, very good deal.

But Ariel, think about what happened later yesterday when Dana White strained himself to say, hey, just so you know, not only is this just the U.S., and we can sell foreign territories, but also all of you media people talking the pay-per-view is dead, forget it. We still have the right to do pay-per-view if it's a special event. And we're going to do pay-per-view if it's a special event. And that got me thinking that, wow, Dana wanted it out there to make sure we knew that you have to get Paramount as a subscriber. You're going to get UFC matches, but you're also going to have to pay when it comes to what I would consider to be the marquee events, but they called the quote-unquote special events.

Okay, so much to unpack there. And I think it's really interesting that you bring up this 48-hour thing that Ari Emanuel mentioned on CNBC because, yes, it did kind of occur to me. I've never been at the table for one of these mega deals, but I was like, golly, they said the 30 fight nights, so they have 43 events a year, the 30 fight nights they were talking to Paramount Plus about, but the 13 pay-per-views they were shopping elsewhere. But then once this Skydance Paramount merger came through, they said, hey, let's go for the whole shebang, so to speak. And so you're saying, you don't buy that, right?

We saw pictures of David Ellison, the 42-year-old head honcho now of this whole media conglomerate sitting cage side next to Donald Trump. up next to Ari Emanuel, next to Dana White back in April in Miami, you're saying that all of this is hogwash? And why even say that then? Why even couch it as a 48-hour thing if that's not the truth? Because I think what they're trying to do is have separation from the lawsuit settlement, separation from the approval that came after the settlement. They're just trying to see if they can get separation, but it leaked everywhere into the announcement where there was talk about what the White House event will be, how that could be on big CBS.

And they tried to make sure that we knew that the reason this deal makes sense is we have access to the big channel CBS. But wait a minute, Disney has a big channel. It's called ABC. So if you're looking for that sort of exposure, did you try back with the SPN to see if ABC would get involved, the way they do with football and other properties? So to me, 48 hours, the reps and warranties inside a deal take more than 48 hours just to sort of think of, forget negotiate. So I just think what they were trying to make us believe. And the audience, I assume, doesn't care one way or the other, but I cared. I just wanted it to be more honest in terms of why this deal happened and what it actually

means for UFC. And we're getting little drips and drabs, Ariel. And I think we're going to keep getting it as this deal unfolds over the next year. To be very blunt, do you think, and obviously we're kind of just speculating here, unless they actually talk about it and who knows if they talk about it in a truthful way, do you think President Trump had a part in all of this coming together? I think to me it's very clear. President Trump did not get a news alert on his phone.

Right. There is, it's just very unlikely. The way I got the information from Koka in my ear that came from an announcement or an alert, that's not how the president found out about this. And we've already learned that the president gets involved in all sorts of things. There's talk that the NFL ESPN deal may actually get stopped or at some point changed or involvement with the president. We know he likes getting involved in things.

We know this. So therefore, it would be almost a fiduciary irresponsible act for Dana to go forward or for Ferrari, for anyone to go forward and not involve the president. And of course, if you're Larry Ellison and David Ellison and you're thinking about Skydance and you're thinking about the merger and you're doing a deal like this. And then the next day, today, you announce a deal with a Saudi back

boxing league, and I don't think that's how you describe it, but a boxing entity, that doesn't just happen in a vacuum. These things tend to all be discussed together as an on-mass plan. Yes, that's a great point. First reported, I think, by Ryan Glassbeagle, front office sports. We haven't gotten to that yet because it's been such a busy day, but he is reporting that the ZUFA boxing promotion that will kick off on September 13th is also likely headed to Paramount as well. So they're really getting into the business. Now, to leave, you know, you know the power of ESPN. You know how big it is. Not only, you know, the four letters, but then you've got plus and you have ABC and then you have their social media reach.

We did the breakdown. All of ESPN's social media when you include their X, their Instagram, their YouTube, their TikTok, all of that equals to about 300 million subscribers slash followers. All of CBS slash CBS Sports slash Paramount Pluses is about 32 million. So it's a massive, massive difference. Are you surprised? Numbers aside. But just, Just from an optics standpoint, because my theory is Dana White is an optics guy. He wanted to be with the big dogs. He wanted to be with the cool kids. He wanted to be with Netflix, the big red end and ESPN.

I think that was his dream scenario. Are you surprised they went from all of that to Paramount Plus slash CBS, which, let's be honest, may not be as hip, cool, and as young as ESPN. That's why you pay a premium. Think about what just went on here. ESPN was approximately, if reports are right, let's say. say it was at $5.50. It's very convenient that this deal is an exact double. And that's a great story to be told if you're TKO, that you were able to double the rights for UFC. It's a great

story for what the valuation is. But it also comes with issues that I know you'll want to talk about, which is about unionizing in the fighters and how that's all going to work with their pay, because when they see money crawling around like the WNBA players, all of a sudden they say, hey, give me my piece. So all of this has to be perfectly planned. But am I surprised when you get a double like that, Ariel, I ask you very simply, if someone came to you right now and said, I will double the value of your show, but you're going to be moving to a platform that is half the size. What does that make me think of? Oh, yeah. How about Howard Stern when he went to Sirius from Terrestrial Radio?

You give me $100 million and I'll give you fewer subscribers and I'll be just fine with it. So I don't think it even came up in Dana's mind the fact that it's $300 million. 30 million, as you said. I don't think that was a factor. Okay. Yeah, that's a tremendous point. And so can we talk about that component, which I'm fascinated by, which I don't think enough people are talking about. As of right now, the fighters make zero percent of this. As of right now, we haven't even been told like, oh, the base pay is going up. Meaning, if you're a debutante, if you're a fighter making his debut from the regional scene, the base pay is usually 10 and 10, meaning 10 to show up and then 10 if you win.

We don't even know if that's going to go up to 20 and 20. They get performance bonuses. So the night of the fight, if you get a great knockout, the UFC will hand out 50K four times, usually two to two fighters who are in a great fight and then two performance bonuses. That's 50K. We don't even know if that's going up to 100K as a result of all of this. And oh, by the way, the best fighters, the champions historically have always gone pay-per-view points. So if the pay-per-view hits a certain number, they get X percent of that.

There's a whole sort of algorithm behind that as well. Now that's all gone because there's no more pay-per-view. And so are you surprised that the fighters are just kind of sitting here being like, yay, my boss has got $7.7 billion, but no one is looking around saying, wait a second, the salary cap goes up in the NBA. They get 50% of the revenue here. The baseball players have this. None of them say, but wait a second, we're actually making none of this.

I have to imagine that they're not, you know, doing the Snoopy dance right now because just because your boss gets double doesn't mean that you'll automatically get double. But that said, there's got to be another conversation because what you just did was funny math, which is, well, the media rights went up by double, therefore our persons should go up. And it doesn't normally work in lockstep like that. But remember what UFC fighters were making was a tiny, tiny WNBA like proportion of overall purported. revenues of the entity. But they have no rights. They have no ability to do anything different other than not to sign the contracts. But what about the fighters who did sign the contracts who do get points on pay-per-view? If those matches disappear, what do you do? Well, we know. We saw this with actors who actually had deals where they got percentages of the gross of a movie

or a percentage of the theatrical release money. And they realize, wait a minute, this is going straight to streaming. The studios are making a ton of money, and I am absolutely left out in the dark. There was a strike. The SAG after strike was about that and AI, and it ended up changing how payments would happen. Scarlett Johansson led this fight as a matter of fact. And so I believe there will be somebody, some lawyer, somewhere is going to stand up and say, come with me. We are going to talk to Dana, and we are going to get our share. It's not going to be 50% like the NFL or the NBA, but it's got to be bigger than what it is now, because the fighters have to believe that what is CBS Paramount going to show if they all decide not to show? But it takes guts to do it,

but that's how unions start. I appreciate your optimism, and I think you're coming from like a major stick and ball perspective. I think by now, in my lifetime, I have reached the conclusion that it's never going to happen, that the fighters, for whatever reason, feel like, hey, I've made it this far. I don't want to rock the boat. It's not worth it. I'm going to get penalized, they'll just find someone else to replace me. The three letters are the most important part of this. I don't see it happening. If it hasn't happened by now, I don't see it happening. So what you're describing is exactly what happens eight days before a union happens, where you say to yourself, listen, I can't be the one. But eventually someone comes around

who says, this may not benefit me, but this is going to benefit everyone who comes after me. I like to call it on nothing personal or just when I'm having a conversation with people at dinner. I call it the CFE, not CTE, the CFE is the Kurt Flood effect. Okay, okay. The Kurt Flood effect is I'm going to do something that's going to change the world, and I am not going to be able to live in a mansion, but I'm going to be associated with something that made a huge difference. He, of course, was the beginning of free agency in Major League Baseball.

There's going to be a Kurt Flood in the UFC. We just don't know who it is. Yeah. And then I guess, so I guess it is kind of magical in a way that we are talking on the 31 year anniversary of the player strike because all that led to the union, which led to the strike, which led to the stoppage, led to the World Series getting canceled. I think it would be fascinating if it happened. Are you surprised, though, that the fighters don't look at the other sports, your sport, basketball, football, and say, we are being treated the same way, yet we don't get half the rights. Are you surprised that they don't look at it that way? If they're smart, they won't because what unions do, you can definitely look at what other sports are doing and use that as sort of a roadmap, but you can't skip steps. Picture it like a game of shoots and ladders. There's no way to get up a ladder or down a shoot. You actually have to proceed through the board.

The WMBA is trying to get to where the NBA is without passing go. You just can't do it. I just mix my game metaphors. But that's the concept. The UFC can't look at the NFLPA and say, wow, we can be that, although that's a total mess right now. Bad example. They can't look at the MLBPA and say, hey, this is the power we're going to have because they're just not ready for that. But you've got to start.

And that's what's been interesting to me is that no one has started because they've been so scared of Dana just to raise their voice. And that's what happens. That's how management wins everything over employees when they're all too scared. What you do is you find one rabble rouser, one person who's willing to stand up and speak. And even if they get shot down, and I mean figuratively, obviously, it still plants sort of the kernel for the fighters to actually combine and then collectively bargain. It's going to be, to me, it's the number one story, not the merger, not Paramount getting the rights. The number one story is what happens to the structure of UFC given these deals? could I ask when you were on the ownership side of things and you were an executive, when a deal like this was about to be signed, and I'm sure there was one in your tenure because you were around for so long, did the Players Association get a heads up of any kind? Because of the collective bargaining agreement, did they have to be involved in it at all? Or are they only told sort of like these fighters? Like we had the UFC Heavyweight Champion on the show and I was explaining to him the deal. He had no idea. No one had called him. How does that work when there is, in fact, the Players Association?

So don't you have to differentiate a player from the association. Are there always players who have no idea what's happening? Of course. But in terms of when there's an association, there is communication with the union. As much as MLB and the MLBPA are always positioning themselves publicly, they're always fighting and always taking opposite positions, there's communication that happens below the commissioner and below the executive director among the workers for each entity. There's communication that happens. all the time. When you have a union you're working with as management, you want as few surprises as possible because surprises lead to misunderstandings, which lead to entrenched positions, which lead to arguments, which can lead to stoppages. And you really don't want that. But in this case with the UFC, they have gone unchecked for so long that they don't feel they have to report to anyone absent maybe the president of the United States. And that's part of what I think you're going to have to see change. And that will change when someone takes a leadership position and convinces the fighters to join them. You mentioned 50% goes to the players in the NBA, NFL. What is it in

baseball? There is no set percentage because there's no salary cap. So in a salary cap sport, it's pegged to what is net defined local revenue. And so what teams do is they fight and fight not to have things count as revenue because then that would go to the players 50 cents on the dollar. In baseball, I was taught by Bud Seelick day one. If your payroll is above 50% of your revenue, you're losing money and you're going to have a problem. And as an industry, that's where we were in the early 2000s. And so keeping your payroll below 50% is a goal that teams have, but it is not in any way codified in the collective bargaining agreement. Right now, the King obviously is the National Football League. We did some quick math here, $100 billion over the course of 11 years,

but split up over many different partners, right, Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Amazon, Netflix, etc. NBA then, which is commencing this year, 76 billion over 11 years. MLB has the 12 billion with Fox, ESPN coming to an end, Turner as well, but then the 595 with Apple. Olympics, 7.7 billion over 10 years. College is 8.8 billion over 8 years,

and there's the UFC, 7.7 over 7 years beginning next year. NASCAR in that vicinity, but there are more, in PGA, NHL, MLS. Are you surprised that they reach that number? Are you surprised that they're now essentially in that top five category as far as U.S. rights are concerned? Yeah, it was a perfect storm for me. I did not see it.

I did not see Dana hitting a double. I just did not. And I know that ESPN was involved, but there's no way ESPN responsibly was even close to a $1.1 billion per year offer. That's number one just for U.S. Streamers, you know, U.S. versus international. it's a big deal with the big red end that you talked about. But that's why I believe there was more happening here.

There was a reason that David Allison needed to get to that number. There was a reason that Dana White was able to get to that number. And it just seems too coincidental all the timing because it seems such a huge, huge difference. It's like when Alex Rodriguez signed with the Texas Rangers. His number was so much higher than anyone else that we always said, this is very bizarre. What went on here? And that's how I felt when this UFC, deal got leaked into my ear yesterday morning.

It's a fascinating thing to dissect, and especially for us fans, it's very interesting because they've killed pay-per-view. You talked about that awkward dance yesterday, where they said it's dead, and then Dana said, well, by the end of the day, like, no, no, no, it's not really dead. And I think part of the reason why he said that was because he still has five more pay-per-views to sell this year, and you don't want to spit in the face of your current partner, who, by all accounts, has been very good to them, ESPN, and you can maybe, like, send that messaging out in 2026.

Are you surprised that they pulled the plug on pay-per-view eventually come 2026? That has always been a part of who the UFC is. Dating back to UFC 1, 1993, they have been essentially the last sort of leader as far as pay-per-view is concerned, 13 a year. W-W-Ds out of that game, boxing essentially out of that game. They were the last ones left. And while people were touting the numbers dwindling, a large part of that was not because the fan base was dwindling, it was because of piracy.

And so there was still money to be earned there. Are you surprised they ultimately said no mass on pay-per-view? I'm not because if you read between the lines of what was said, when you're dealing with public companies and you're dealing with share prices, one of the statements that was made is we didn't love that pay-per-view created sort of these big bumps in our revenue where a good pay-per-view all of a sudden we have huge earnings and then all of a sudden a small pay-per-view, it's down and it's very bumpy. What companies like because shareholders like it, because equity research

analysts like it. They like streams of revenue that they can count on. They like to know that you're getting a billion dollars over 12 months. Here's how it's going to be paid. You're going to do a projected revenue and that's where you're going to be. Therefore, you're going to have earnings per share. Therefore, we can set a stock price and we can be confident with our clients that you're a good buy or a safe buy. And so consistency matters. And pay-per-view definitionally is inconsistent. So when you can take the inconsistency away and replace it with a steady stream of revenue, that is preferred by just about every company. By the way, they still have more to sell off. They've got a contender series sort of like a prospect show that they haven't sold off.

They got a reality show, the ultimate fighter that they haven't sold off. So there's still more money to be made. I'm curious about your perspective on ESPN. I always enjoy your chats with Pablo Torre and John Skipper. You guys do a great job of breaking down the media lands. What do you make of the moves that ESPN has made as of late? You know, the deal with the NFL, they signed this big WWE deal last week, which no one saw coming. And generally, it seems like it's either the sky is falling or ESPN, they're back and they're a behemoth.

Your perspective on the worldwide leader. Have they ever not been a behemoth? I'm thinking back to maybe the days of curling in Richard Simmons is maybe the last time they weren't a behemoth. And by the way, the interesting thing that we'll notice when this deal with Paramount gets talked about more, you just talked about the inventory and the inventory that remains to be sold. And deals like this that you cut, very often, if you are Dana White and the UFC, you have to give your partner a first look or you have to give them an exclusive negotiating period for

additional entities that could at any point be available for sale. So Paramount may not be done in how much money they give to UFC for some of these other events. Then you talk about ESPN. ESPN clearly understands what their job is. Their job comes in sports rights. And that is their bread and butter. And they know that when it comes to sports rights, you said the daddy is the NFL. NFL is the daddy, the grandfather, the great-grandfather. The NFL is everything. And what ESPN is doing is pretty much tripling down with NFL and college football, smartly so because it takes up so many hours. Just today or yesterday, Pablo Tori was on a show

about all of the podcasters, he said, who left ESPN and now are doing very well on their own. What if ESPN had just kept them? And to me, it reminded me of saying, boy, if I just hadn't traded that player, if I just had signed that free agent and not gotten that one wrong, boy, we'd be a World Series winning team now

and saying it while I'm winning 90 games. ESPN is not exactly a schleper having lost the podcasters. They focused on their core business. And the core business for them is live rights. And you lose WW. You get WW. You lose UFC. You get F1.

You lose F1. You get more NFL. It's a constant dance and shuffle. And Ariel, that's been going on for more than 31 years. There's just more people at the dance right now. I recognize this is an impossible question to answer, but I'll still ask it anyway. Let's say we get to 2032, God willing, we're all live and well doing things like this, having great lives. What do you think David Ellison will say

about this? How do you think this ages? Do you think this will work out well for Paramount slash CBS? So John Skipper has a famous line that he says about long-term media rights deals. He said they always work out for the holder of the rights, not the not the entity that sold the rights because so often you're doing it in order to lock in a revenue stream, and that's why Paramount or ESPN or Disney or anybody wants to go as long term as possible, because you're getting cost certainty, and then you can sell against that cost certainty and recoup as much of the investment as you can. So generally, these long-term deals, it's opposite of pitchers where it works out for the pitcher and not the team. These tend to work out for the team and not

the pitcher and the team in this case would be Paramount. So I actually view this as will work out very well for Allison and Paramount. And the UFC will use this and realize, you know, come five years from now that they may have even have the ability to take all the rights together, including what they didn't give to Paramount, and see if they can't get higher. But again, for today, if you're asking me, it's a fantastic victory for both Paramount and UFC. And they are currently touting the fact that, hey, as of right now, $7.99, you get the basic package, $12.99. You get the Sands ad package. What do you think? For these kinds of dollars, do you think the subscription prices go up come next year? I'll bet you a dollar, Mortimer, that before the middle, before the second quarter of 26, there will be a rate increase at Paramount Plus. It's as sure as the sunrise. And, And that is, so for everyone out there expecting to have the same pricing and keep getting more

and more content, it doesn't work that way. Someone's got to pay for it. The shareholders sure is heck fire don't want to do it. So who is it? It's customers. You will see an increase, Ariel. You think it's a dramatic one. You know, what does that mean?

So from a percentage basis, if it goes from $8 to $10, that's a 25% increase. Right, right, right. That's not nothing. So dramatic, are we going to define it like in dollars? If it's $2 more a month, $24 per user, dramatic for some people, maybe. Some people would say, oh, $10, it's a slam dunk for $120 a year. Look what I get. But in terms of percentage, it's pretty huge.

So depending on your definition, I would say it's either dramatic or not dramatic, but it definitely will exist. I'm always fascinated by what, and for lack of a better term, I call you an outsider because you're not like a fight guy per se, but what outside. think of this crazy world that we sort of live and breathe. And so this, this behemoth that has become TKO with Ari Emanuel, Mark Shapiro, who you recall from the ESPN days, Nick Kahn, who I'm sure you know of as well, Dana White, like these power players from the world of sports and entertainment coming together to build this. And then the deals that they have cut over the

last couple of years in particular, from the Netflix deal to the CSPN deal, to the Paramount deal. What do you make of what they're doing here with the combat sports world and now bringing in this Saudi back boxing league that kicks off next month. Well, they realize that the sum is going to be greater than the parts. It's why you see today the announcement that ESPN, Bob Iger,

sort of said it, we're going to offer a bundle with our new DTC ESPN. We're going to offer a bundle with the new Fox streaming, which sounds like venue, that entity that, you know, was dead on arrival.

And so what you're noticing is that what companies are trying to do is they are trying to combine. They're trying to be a one-stop shot. where if you do business with me, you're going to get everything you need from start to finish, whether it's production, whether it is talent, whether it is content, live, sports, movies, documentaries. It's sort of all in, this all in delivery is trying to keep people with them. But what's happened is there's so many streamers and people thought there'd be way more

consolidation by now and that people, the leagues are spreading their inventory out. You just dropped in et cetera during this segment where you were listing the places to watch the NFL and you ran out of breath after six locations and just went right with et cetera. Think about that concept. That is why the NFL does it because they get to maximize their money by giving packages to different properties. And that's certainly one way to do it. And that's, you just heard Dana White, that's what they're doing with UFC.

Okay, this has been amazing. I would love to have you on in the future. Before I let you go, please indulge me. Give me a fun expo's memory. Can you give me one? I read this great story from FP Santangelo before your time about him showing up early to the stadium about like three hours early. And they were not going to keep him around. And then Felipe Alu puts him in the starting lineup.

And thus his great career begins. And the lesson was just always show up early. He now shows up early. And I was thinking, oh, man, Olympic Stadium back of the day, this is my childhood. Can you give me a fun expose memory before we go? I'd love one. And I'm putting you on the spot, I know. No, no, it's perfectly fine. I loved my time with the Expos. And I would say my favorite memory is when I spent my first ever spring training trying to figure out whether Michael Barrett should

catch or play third base. And we moved Michael Barrett to third base so Chris Widger could catch. Stay with me. Opening day, my first ever game, Kevin Brown pitching for the Dodgers against Dustin Hermanson for the Expos. And I didn't know baseball. It was my first ever regular. season game. I'm sitting there with Jim Beattie. It was the gym at the time. And the first ball, the first ground ball, of course, went to third base and went right under Michael Barrett's legs. I couldn't believe it. We spent weeks trying to do what we thought was best for the team. And immediately it was E5. And I said, oh, my God, is this what it's going to be like? We lost that game. I think if you look, I think it was 10 to 4, Kevin Brown beat us. And it

made me despondent because I thought we'd lose 162. But I loved Montreal, and I love the fact. I love going back, believe it or not, you know I do. Yeah. And I love all of the attention that the expos get on social media because their brand is still alive. And I want them to continue to be in the mix because it's such a great city. Oh, man, those names.

I've not heard those names in a while. Chris Widger, I think we acquired him from Seattle, if memory serves me correct. Love Michael Barrett, Dustin Hermanson, a legend as well. Ah, the good old days. David, love this. This has been great. Keep up the great work. Love the show. Love everything you're doing. Love when you show up with the Metal Arc Boys as well. Appreciate you very much. Tremendous insight that we couldn't get anywhere else. So thank you so much for this. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Have a great day. There he is. The one and only David Sampson, the host of nothing personal. Many, many moons ago. Opening day, I do believe it was 2000. I saw his stepfather, Jeffrey Loria, in the concourse of Olympic Stadium prior to game one. of that season, I believe against the Mets. My friends and I had all painted, why not us, why not now, on our chest? And I walked up to Jeffrey Loria and I said, thank you for saving my team, hugged him, and then eventually found out that, well, they didn't really, and he would probably dispute this, have any intention of saving the team. They wanted to move the team. But

in that moment, the vibes were very high. Optimism was at an all-time high. And of course, I had this famous debate with David on the Lebitard show during the pandemic. Never would have thought he'd be on the program, but I have grown to love and appreciate him very much, and he does a great job breaking things down, and I hope you appreciated that as much as we did, because I think it was great insight from an outsider's perspective into what this all means and could mean, in particular, for the fighters. Let us move along and say hello to our next guest. Again, still to come, the one and only Michael Chandler looking forward to that chat. That's at 3 o'clock, and then we'll move over to the DeZone program. But our next guest is known as the problem.

So we had earlier in the day the nightmare, Carlos Prachas, now we have the problem. And the problem is currently on a three-fight winning streak and just had an amazing win two Saturdays ago at the apex against Mateus Rebecca. And it was one of the best fights of the year so far. I do believe they want a performance bonus. Afterwards, tremendous post-fight interview. And it occurred to me, we need to have this young man on the program because he's doing big things and he has an incredible backstory.

And so without further ado, let us say hello to the pride of Scotland, the one and only Chris Duncan, who is kind enough to join us on this Monday evening. Hello, Chris. How are you? My good, mate. How are you? Nice to meet you. It's great to meet you as well. Congratulations on all your success as of late. And it's amazing. I know you and Michael noted in the post-fight interview that your scars, your wounds will heal up. Here we are like nine days later. You're pretty much good as new. It's amazing how quickly you've healed up. I'm Wolverine. I'm bred in Scotland, so I'm like Wolverine. I love it. What a fight. Did you enjoy that fight? Are you happy with a fight like that, a war like that against Rebecca, or would you prefer a quick in and out? Let's be honest, you know, I'd love to go in there and just punch them once and then leave. That would be fantastic. But, you know, these fights will stay with us for life. And, you know, I made a massive impact on Scottish MMA. And I was really proud of myself, Ariel.

I was one thing I really struggled to do is be proud of myself and I'm always very skeptical about, not skeptical I'm always hard on myself and you know I went out there and put on a great performance co-mean event that was kind of thrown on me, you know I just kind of

seen it happen and then you know I took it with both hands I just thought you know effort and I'm going to go for it and I did maybe took a little bit too much damage but you know listen and we get paid handsomely from the UFC to do so.

So Hunter Campbell, Sean Shelby, Darren White, they got me the performance of the night bonus. And now I'm going to take my family to Disneyland. I love that. So are we going to the California one, not the Florida one? No, we're going to go to the one in Paris, because obviously, I'm back in Scotland, so that's a nice short travel for me.

I'm actually sick of America. I've been there too much recently for training camps. So I'm going to stay in Paris for a little bit and enjoy that time. yes of course you do train at American Top Team it was great to see some of your teammates show you love on the night including the great Dustin Poirier who I know you're good friends with

and Mateus is also an ATT fighter how difficult was it to not cross paths and to not see what he was doing in the lead up to the fight because I do believe he trained out of there as well right? Yeah for sure it was a really funny situation you know we'd obviously been teammates

before and you know we had shared at our table we'd spoken to each other prior to this and, you know, he was number eight in the dormitory and I was number nine. Wow. There was only a wall separating us, you know, it was quite awkward.

Even the fact I can hear him masturbating in the middle of the night, that was another awkward situation. Jesus. But anyway, yeah, it was quite difficult in the sense, you know, but I've said before and I'll say it again, that, you know, I've done many things

that are difficult to get to the UFC. And this was just another difficult thing that I had to deal with and, you know, like I said, I come out on top and, you know, we're going to be friends and I'm looking forward to helping him prepare for his next fight and he's going to be able to help me prepare for my next fight. So, you know, we're bonded through blood and through fighting and, you know, all the best to Matthias. He was a great opponent for me and, you know, I look forward to seeing his future. He's a hard, hard guy. So would you actually see him, like, like in those dorms, in the bathroom or the kitchen,

And like, would you cross past with him and would you talk to him? Yeah, every day. Wow. Yeah, I would see him. It was almost like the tough house, if you think about it, really. You know, I tried to dissociate myself from him. I tried to avoid him if possible. But, you know, you're number eight and he's number nine or vice versa.

And, you know, I see him cooking his dinner. And, you know, the most difficult thing I found was trying to hide injuries. I had staff on my face at one point I had an LCL injury you know these were really difficult things to hide from my opponent usually you know your opponent's in a different camp so they don't get to see these things so that was probably one of the most difficult

to try and hide your injuries from your opponents and then in terms of the actual training were you were you not allowed to train at the same time and how did you break that all down how did you separate sometimes we trained in the same room. For instance, a conditioning class.

I did one conditioning class with them. We did Mike Brown's Wednesday class together quite frequently. Obviously, we trained in American Top Team. There's about three or four different mats that are quite big. Probably bigger than a UFC Optagon. So I would try and

pull myself over to the black mat, we call it, or the square room. And I would try to train in there, and it was a little bit more personal. But yeah, it was a difficult thing. to do Ariel but Mateus and myself are professionals and I wanted to go out there and kind of prove a point and

show the fact that I could do this believe it or not as well I wouldn't have really took this fight just because he was a training partner of mine but he had done a camp at American top team and so had I and my debut opponent pulled out

it was meant to be a guy Michael Figglack he was also another pole guy and that opponent pulled out and he called me out on Twitter and I thought to myself that's a bit shit you know I'm supposed to be your teammate and so later down the line you know we'd spoke in the gym again and he just said hey bro it's just business and you know when I got the opportunity to fight them you know I like to make people's wishes come true so I just wanted to fight them because you'd call me out you know and that would be the only reason why I would take that fight.

And going forward, you know, if I can avoid it, if possible, I won't fight a teammate again. You know, that was a very difficult thing to go through. Will you train with him now? Will you try to help him out? Absolutely. Okay.

Totally. He's a really good guy, Ariel. Very respectful. You know, people think fighting is fighting and they kind of take it like to heart. You know, he was a very professional individual when it came to the training room. And also, you know,

as a person, you know, we have a lot of respect for each other. And I think that's why we had such a good fight, because we both had great respect for each other. You know, we just went in there and went to die in our swords. And, you know, we came out with a bonus, which is fantastic. One thing that really stood out, I mean, the fight obviously stood out, fight of the night, one of the best fights of the year. The heart that both of you displayed was tremendous. But again, in that post-fight interview, you said, none of this compares to the pain that I have felt as a child. This is all superficial. And so can I ask you about that? Because I obviously then started to learn more about your story.

When you say that, what are you specifically referring to? No, I'm specifically talking about the death of my mother. You know, my mother was murdered in 2014. And this was the day of the weigh-ins to my first ever MMA fight. So the day I was supposed to weigh in for my first amateur fight, my mother was killed by her boyfriend at the time. And, you know, obviously it was an extremely crazy situation. And for whatever reason, and for whatever drive that I have,

I decided to go ahead with the fight and do it anyway. And, you know, that's been my story so far. I remember being in the club after the fight celebrating and standing there and thinking to myself, what am I doing with my life? You know, I was a farmer before I was a fighter and I was in a kind of dead-end job. and I thought to myself, you know, like with my mum, her life was taken away from her within an instant. And, you know, I decided to dedicate my life.

Not just to MMA, that was not really the goal. It was to dedicate myself to fitness. And I did that because I enjoyed it. Because you need to enjoy your life. You can't just be stuck in your day-to-day job. So I did that. And through this, I found, I always call it the ostrich effect or bury my head in the side.

sand. When I was training, you know, some guy was trying to wrestle me or submit me in grappling. You know, I wasn't thinking about all the trauma that had happened to me before, you know, and it was my release, you know, for those two hours in the morning, two hours at night, I wasn't thinking about this. And it really helped me. And like I say, it's like I buried my head in the sand and it really helped me. I'm very sorry to hear that you went through that. Obviously, that's shocking stuff. Your mother was murdered by her boyfriend, as you said. I also heard. heard you say that she, and correct me if I'm miscategorizing this, that she didn't have any possessions, that she was essentially homeless? Is that, is that accurate? Yeah, almost, yeah. There's

a few other details to it, but pretty much she had nothing. And I can obviously see where you're going to go with this. I carry a pendant, and I only carry it on Fight Week. As my mother's only wedding ring on it, you know, she kept her wedding ring from a past marriage because obviously a little bit of gold. And what my grandparents had done, obviously, the traumatic death of my mother, we knew that she had, we had no possessions of her, barely any photos. I have barely any photos of my mother as well. So we decided to get pendant made of our fingerprint. So we have a fingerprint pendant on my necklace along with her wedding ring. Wow. Now, now I have a family. I've got my daughters on it. And I've also got my son's fingerprint on it as well. So I'm starting to accumulate all

I call them anchors because it's something I feel quite strong to and this is something that I hold really close to my heart and you know like I said

my mother doesn't have any possessions we have very little photos of her and you know I don't know if you had seen I did a post-fight interview with Michael Bisbing

in Paris and that was the first time I got the mic from the UFC and I got to give her a shout out and you know that will live forever now you know that's something that I wanted to give back to her

and something out there now that everybody can see and I can see and look back on and that's almost like a position to me now that it's came from my mom. I got together a shout out and I know she's with me all the time. Incredible. I have no doubt as well. Were you in contact with her in her final days? Yeah, so not in her final days.

My mother battled with alcohol addiction, drug addiction, all these sorts of things. But, you know, we talk back and forth and there's a little bit of guilt comes to me because, you know, there was a time that when she was an alcoholic, we decided, you know, right, mum, we're not going to see each other until, you know, you get clean and you come off alcohol

and she respected that. She says, no, you're right, Christopher, you thought this is the right thing to do. So we hadn't seen each other for a week or so, and then this is that obviously happened. So there's a little bit of guilt there. It bugs me every day But it also drives me

It was something extremely bad It's come to something good And I know she'll never hold this against me But you know Mum used to sneak me to boxing classes When I was younger My grandparents hated boxing My grandparents thought it was thuggish

They hated me watching boxing So my mum used to sneak me to boxing classes Where she used to live in Edinburgh So she knows I was a fighter and like things I used to walk away with black eyes and she used to put makeup on me and send me back to my grand's house and you know she's a she was a fighter herself

even though she struggled with addictions you know she was fighting all of her life and that's why I have the tattoo across my chest as well you know a lot of it symbolizes her a lot of them the meaning behind me symbolizes her the tattoo across my chest below it says beautiful addiction but she had a horrible addiction

through drugs and alcohol and I now have this horrible addiction well good addiction I call it of MMA and you know pushing forward and pursuing the UFC. Wow, wow. You're such an inspiring individual really and it's so

easy to root for you when you start to learn all of this so I appreciate you sharing. Can I ask one last question? Was the man who took her life? Was he ever charged? Yeah, he's disturbing life in prison. Okay. So he'll get what he deserves you know. If I wish I could get my hands

on a Mario but you know these things just don't happen in this country but You know, people who do bad things, have bad things happen to them, and I'm sure it has. And, you know, people who do good things, good things happen to them as well. Sure. That fight, that amateur debut, where you said you fought, you know, the next day you found out on the Wayne Day, you won in 56 seconds, right, in the first round? I think so, yeah, I think so. How did you do that?

How the hell did you do that? How did you even, like, say? Yeah, it's in me, Ariel. I don't know. is she's in me. You know, like I say, you know, I always say, you know, my mother was such an inspiring person like myself. I wish to God, you know,

one thing I do find extremely difficult to deal with is jealousy. I see my fiancé with her mum, and I've become jealous. Not in a bad way, you know, I never resent her for it, but I feel jealous in the sense that she gets to share the time with my children. Why can my mom not see my children?

and why couldn't my mom meet my fiancé? You know, these are jealousy things that I find a battle with every single day. And, you know, that's probably the toughest things. You know, I miss her greatly. And, you know, she was a massive part of my life. And that's why I carry her with such pride her in my chest and in my heart. Speaking of amateur fighting, you had a pretty, I would say, long for MMA amateur career. I think 10 or so fights.

A lot of fighters, like, have one or two and then go to pro. Why did you stay as an amateur for so long? that was to do with Robert Whiteford. Do you know Robert Whiteford? Of course, the man. The first, I guess. I still have his haggis here on my set right over there in the corner. I still have it, the one that he sent me many years ago.

The Flying Judica. That's him. That's him. So he's my main training partner, my mentor, my coach, you name it, friend. He's an exceptional individual. I've been training with him for a long, long time and Robert has guided me through my career and he's always saying to me, he's no,

he's like, your amateur records, you can mess it up. You know, you can lose, win, draw. And he says, but once you go professional, you want to make sure you're finishing people, number one, and number two, you want to be winning because that's how we get to the UFC. So I listened to Robert, and I made sure I stayed for as amateur

as long as I possibly could, And it came to a point, you know, that I was dusting people up and nobody would take a fight. You know, I tried to fight the UK number ones and the Scottish number ones. And it just didn't come. So it was the time to move to professional. And, you know, as a group, as my old coach and Robert, we talked about the matchups and made sure that they were going to push me to obviously the end goal, the UFC, because anytime I put my head on the pillow at night and went to bed and make wishes,

you know, blue it candles, it would always be. I wanted to be in the UFC. So it was Robert Whiteford. He held me back, but in a good way. Wow, I love that. And now it's all coming together. And is it hard to process? Like here you are on this winning streak.

You're getting notoriety. You're getting attention, you know, from a country that has produced some great fighters. How are you processing all of this attention? I'm processing it pretty well. The main takeaway that I've managed to do is like after my guillotine wins, from Jordan Vucenic and Balagiochi and now I'm starting to realize that I can start like it sounds really weird

but being proud of myself like I'm you know like like being grateful of what I've achieved you know because when I assigned to the through Contender series I had almost like an imposter syndrome I would do things in the American top team like I wouldn't wear like after my UFC debut I wouldn't wear my UFC clubs in the training mat

because I didn't want people to think I was in the UFC and then maybe they submit me in there and think, oh, I can beat the USC fighter, I should be in there. Why am I not in there? And eventually, you know, over time, started becoming better and, you know, just being proud of myself and putting those UFC gloves on and wearing them with pride.

And so here you are rubbing elbows with some of the big dogs in ATT. And I understand you're kind of the one that got Dustin Porre on this gilly train, right? you're the guy and while he can't quite get it you had a nice little streak of guillotine chokes

in the early portion of this winning streak when you saw him fight against Max Holloway and for a moment there jumped the gilly just for a brief second I know what I was thinking

I was like this is straight out of a movie what are you thinking as your guy might retire with a win like that oh man that would have been just like

the star reliant you know when he pulled the guillie you know when he jumped on Max he was so close you know he just needed his legs around he's either his half guard or his guard you know like everybody asked me

about Dustin when we arrive and they always asked me for photos or something to sign and they always asked me what's he actually like and he's just a normal guy and an interview that sticks out the most to me was Dustin Poirier when he's Joe Rogan said to him

you are the man he goes no Joe I'm just a man and he is. And he's inspiring young guys like myself to come through. And he's just a normal guy, Ariel. He's not this, obviously, he's extremely famous and he has this notoriety. But, you know, he's just a man who's way brick by brick. And, you know, I owe him the world for showing me that grip. And I've made a lot of money off at Ariel. So I'm super excited. I love it. We want Terrence McKinney next. Definitely. You know, that's a fight that slipped away from me. only through V's issues

so that would be fantastic Terence is a good guy too and I think he's an exciting fighter he's never won a round he's never won a fight after the first round so well it's going to be exciting I can see that

and so would you like to fight again this year absolutely absolutely that would be fantastic I've got some bangs actually my elbow hurts from elbow and Matthias in the head and I think I'm going to have to go get this x-rayed, I think.

It's the only sore bit I have right now. A couple of bumps on my shins, but that's going to what happens. But my elbow is extremely sore right now. It's the feeling there's a little bit of bone rolling around in there. So maybe we're going to need some elbow pads when I go into my next fight. But yeah. Like I said, you're flying the Scottish flag. Is it true that Paul Craig was bothered that you were painting your face at the beginning?

And now you've sorted it. Yeah, I think he was bothered, you know. It doesn't really bother me, you know. I've said to this in many interviews before that, you know, I'll do me and he can do him. And in the grand scheme of things, you know, he's, obviously, he was leading the way when it comes to Scottish MMA. And if anybody would copy him, you know, it would mean he was doing something good. You know, I did take the idea from him. It's an amazing idea, you know, we're Scottish.

People always speak to me and they say, are you Scottish? I said, yeah, and he goes, do you know Braveheart? You know, that's where the symbol comes from. And I don't think he is annoyed. You know, I hope he isn't, you know, he's done such an amazing job with his career. And it would be a sad affair

if he's annoyed at me for that. But, you know, it's something silly. It's just face paint, man. I can take it off. Yeah, and also, I mean, you're just, you're proud to be from Scotland. You're representing there's no trademark on that. By the way, I don't know if you know this, but you've gone on a nice little

run defeating European champions. So I'm wondering if there's anyone else on the hit list. Did you know this? Belagiochi champion in Belgium, Jordan Vucinich, Cage Warriors champion, Mateus F.E.N. champion from Poland. So a lot of these regional champions, you're knocking off. Definitely. I just do the takeover, you know, next that we need to be in America or something like that. But, you know, I've not really thought about that. I don't really study it in that sense. You know, I'm just looking to build my name up. you know go up the rankings and and beat these people but yeah that sounds pretty cool to me i like taking shiny belts off people you did quote conier in your post fight interview why did

you do that because um in my country there's a lot of people who say a lot of things you know me and robert whiteford are kind of the black sheep of scottish mhm we've decided to train ourselves and everybody else trains them other gyms and that's just the way it's went there's no there's no animosity to these other gyms from my end anyway and we always hear I always hear

a kind of Chinese whispers coming from other areas because I'm friends with other people in the area and everybody was saying that Matthias was going to beat me because he had such a great record and he was a great grappler

and you know that's why I said the can you know and I just you know I like it you see how the odds makers have had me since my contender series fight. You know, I think I've only been the favorite once

since my contenders series series fight. So a lot of my friends have made a lot of money over the last couple of months Ariel, just on me and myself. I love that. I love that. And if people do want to support you, they can go to the problem store.com. That's where you've got your merch up there. So shout out to you for doing that as well.

I know it goes along where there's some of the stuff there. Love it. Rocking the Scottish stuff. One of these days, I'd love to go to Scotland. I've never had the pleasure, but everyone that I've met over the years from Joanne Wood to Mr. Paul Craig to yourself to Robert Whiteford, who was probably the first one that we had on the show many moons ago, have all been gents.

I would love that. Well, if you're in Scotland, Ariel, me and Robert will take you the tour. We'll show you the real parts of Scotland. And then we'll try and find you a real haggis. Yes, yes. So we can hunt one together, is what you're saying, yeah? Definitely.

And by the way, what a time for people named Chris Duncan in the UFC? I know it's not quite the same, but Christian Leroy as well. What a knockout that was. You saw that? Yeah, for sure. He's doing so well right now.

It's great. The only issue I have right now with this, Ariel, every time I fight, he's almost fighting quite close to me. And do you know what happens? His meals get mixed up with my meals, when the UFC I do it together. Wow.

But what happens is I open the bag up and there's loads of meals and I'm like, oh, this is going to be amazing. And then I find out it's, Christian Leroy Duncan, and then he gets all my scraps. Yeah, that is a problem. That actually happened to us, too, because I have a guy who does our social media stuff, graphics, and he asked me which one, because I wrote Chris Duncan, and he said, which

one? I was like, oh, yeah, you're right. There was one that just won who would have been a good guest to have on the show. So I could see why that's annoying, but you're doing incredible things. Congratulations on all your success. Great to meet you. Great to have you on the show. Please send my best to Robert as well, and looking forward to the next one.

You're on quite a role as of late. thank you ariel and thanks for your time i really do appreciate it thank you our pleasure we'll talk to you soon there he is the pride of scotland the problem chris duncan 32 three-fight winning streak 14 and 2 overall and what a story there regarding his mom i love the way that he he honors her and talks about her that's um i mean that's unfathomable that's that's unbelievable to to go through that a just in any sort of regular walk of life for that to have to happen and weigh-ins of his amateur debut, then still fight and win and go on that role and now be able to honor her on the biggest of stages is, it's heart-wrenching stuff, but credit to him for

trying to turn that nightmare into a positive. He did mention Contender Series. He is a product of Contender Series. Did you guys know that Contender Series is back tonight? Did you guys know this? Contender Series 2025 Week 1. What was that? What was that? What was that? What was that? What was that? Both of be very excited about Contender Series. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can't wait. Well, play that one more time, Frank. What was that?

Oh, that was when he said the... Yeah, that he heard him... Oh, some stuff in the shower. You all said it at the same time, so kind of... Let me hear it one more time. Jesus. I don't love that drop. It's a weird one because he's talking at the same time, I think.

Yeah, it's not clean. Do you think he was taking a shot at him, or do you think that really happened? You don't have to answer that. I think he was making a very... No, I think it really happened. Yeah, I know. By the way, I saw... I saw them talk about like training

I didn't realize they were actually roommates like literally next door neighbors is probably the more apropos thing that's wild well when you asked them how often were you seeing him he's like all the time yeah I'm like shit all right that is crazy man I guess it is like

ATT is different though like with how many people they have there it is just you you almost can't not fight a training partner at some point with that man because we've heard about people we hear about it all the time yeah they're at the other parts of the gym they come at different times

but not both staying at the dorm Yeah, it was amazing. I was dying when he was hearing him doing some going to work, you know? Crazy. You mentioned tough. You know that the tough finale's are on this weekend's card. Wow. Is that true?

I wish he was on cam. His eyes lit up. Wow. I had, honestly, I'm actually embarrassed. It's not even reflected on their on their tapology pages that they were. How many, how many finals are there? Two? Yeah.

I didn't even know that. Okay, let me, I'm going to look at the tapology page. I'm going to try to guess. Well, you know what? It's going to be pretty easy. Okay, so it's Alibe Edris and Joseph Marles. You know why? Because I remember looking at the card like a couple days ago.

And as I was reading the lineup earlier in the show, I'm like, I don't remember seeing these guys there. And when I was saying every fight matters, I'm like, I actually don't really know these guys. Yeah, because they're tough. They're also supposed to be a 170 championship, but they... It's not on there? ...it for the other guy. Wait, what do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean? They only have one half of it right now on the ESPN page. Why? When is the last episode? No, Tufts? You didn't hear? Paperview's dead? Tough's dead? I have no idea. They canceled tough before they did the finale. It's done. It's over. This is as dead tough as ever thought. Yeah. No. It's the curtain jerker. This isn't feeling no different than the last 10 years. It's been just as dead. Like the Connor McGregor season, I remember them piping up Brad Katona. They were like, he's going for a multibate. A mold.

Multiple tough championships. They had Connor McGregor on weekly television, and nobody tuned in. Tough's been dead forever. No, this is much more dead. It's actually amazing that they didn't put the finale on an apex card just to give that a little juice, that they buried it on the prelims of a card like this. What's actually crazy is that, like, Tapology doesn't even like... Acknowledge that.

Acknowledge that it's the tough finale. So this card is actually going to... Right now, according to Tapology, it has 13. It's actually going to end up having 14 fights. Supposedly. I don't know if the other guy fell out in the welterweight championship. Okay, so in the media rounds yesterday, Dana White did confirm Contender Series, Tough, not a part of the deal.

Do you guys, I would imagine Contender Series is going to live, right? Yes, Contender Series will definitely have a whole. It's a huge success. It makes all the sense of the world. Does Tough survive? Or does this end up being the final hurrah? Tough will survive. They say that the pay-per-view numbers are bad.

The tough numbers have to be bad. Where does it survive? Do you think that they can sell? Do they sell Contender Series and Tough to someone else? Do we think Paramount ends up getting it? If I'm Paramount at this point, like how much does Contender Series and tough cost me? If I'm Paramount and I'm getting the whole freaking UFC deal, according to Ryan Glassbeagle of Front Office Sports, I'm getting the whole Zoufa boxing deal as well. We'll get to that in a moment.

Why don't I just get content? Like how much more is Contender Series tough? They can make money off it. No, I know, but I'm not saying throw it in for free. I'm saying buy that too. Just so you could be the home of all things... All things UFC. UFC and Zufa Boxing.

Maybe they will. Who knows? Maybe they're still negotiating the finer points and wanted to get the other part of the deal done. Perfect place for Tuff would be the CW. And a CW summer reality show. Yeah, you love that. Jedi tweeted that yesterday.

Should we try to get tough? Oh, he did. He did tweet that because CW is the home of NXT. Yeah. And so it's like the development up on our YouTube channel. Should we try to make an offer for Tuff? who to put it on crown yeah but then we just make it the mail what do you guys

what is the price tag what is the the tough like how much can tough actually go you know that you know that pawn stars thing where it's like best off best I can do and they get ten dollars is all I would pay for how would you make any money off of it what would be the benefit of tough for ads anybody who's watching

you can't run ads on something that nobody's by the way I love that that's fucking illegal the other one that I really love is federal fucking prison. Oh, yeah. Then he licks his lips. It's a great.

Federal. Um, fucking. No, what is the value of tough? Truly? At this point, to me, tough has just been additional content for ESPN that they can then, you know, use. I'm aware. So it doesn't have a value.

Its value is zero. It is probably a loss leader. Okay, what about contenders series? That has a value. That has a value. People tune into that. People gamble on that. It's in the next team.

I just wonder, I wonder what that costs. What can you sell that for? Wait, is it, 500 million? Is NXT on the CW? Yes. So what if the CW actually, instead of getting tough, which nobody's going to buy, what if they got a contender series? This is the idea.

And it would actually be kind of cool because you have the broadcasts. You know what I mean? I just want to know, I'm just fascinated to know, because Contender Series was sort of just added to the CSPN deal. I'm fascinated to know what they will sell it for. If it is to another entity, and even if it is to Paramount, because it will be in addition to the deal. announced yesterday. What is Contender Series worth? 200 million, 250, which by the way,

oh, no way. They deserve all the credit in the world. That's programming. That's UFC technically programming. It's not branded UFC, but Dana's involved and these guys become future UFC champions. There was once a time where you can say like, all right, let me try to be in the, I don't know, the LFA business because these are the stars before the UFC. And there is something to that. but if I'm a network out there and I say, like, oh, let me be the college football home of the UFC. That's Contender Series, essentially.

More of those guys are going to the UFC than anywhere else. And so I'm just curious what that will cost them. You're saying $250 across the whole deal, right? Across the whole, like, you get the content series. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. For $250 million for seven years? Yeah, that could maybe be, right?

I honestly have no idea. No, no, no. I'm talking like $250 a year. No, no way. I don't know. W.W.E. is like $3.25 a year. That's 12 shows. That's 12 shows.

They could do contenders... 12 shows that people actually are going to tune in for. No, no, no, but also, Contender Series is only like what, 16 weeks? Says who? They could bump it up to 40 if they want. They could do whatever the hell they want. They could literally do this every single... We don't need that roster.

I'm just say... They don't have to sign all the guys. They could go back to signing just one guy. That'd be nice if we went back to not signing every single guy on Contender Series. I can see it now on the CW logo shows, then it flips around to WC and then D. and S year on each side DWCS

staying away contender series and then the go up and start if they got 250 a year for contender series Oh my god

TKO is the greatest entity that's ever assisted in terms of 50 million a year for contender series would be a steal okay well currently

they are paying 20 to 25 million annually for NXT 20 like that would make more sense maybe like

17 million to 20 million all right okay by the way they created this out of nothing I know but give you money Yeah, it's incredible.

And they also get fighters from it that have gone on to become champions at this point now. I mean, Carlos Prachis was on the... Sheep fighters, too. Yeah. Now, I've lost my train. I thought I don't know. Sorry. No, no, no.

I mean, well, what I was going to say was, if they're getting $1.1 billion a year for everything, there's no chance we could do $250 million a year for Contender Series. No, I know. I just don't know. All the numbers. Let's call it $15. All the numbers are crazy. Going back to the original question, are you guys excited for a contender series tonight?

Are you going to be tuned? Oh, that was the original? Yeah, locked in, for sure. Yeah, I'm there. I can't tell if you're being serious or not. No, what are you talking about? Yeah, I enjoy contender series. I throw it on in the background.

This guy's like, you for sure have like three to four memes in the chamber for contender series tonight. I don't like to put that pressure on myself. I don't need to, I don't need to. You have them in the chamber. You've got like, we're ready to go. We're sitting. You're going to have the TV.

You're going to have the hits. You'll have Drickis. Oh, yeah. He's constructing the memes. George Mango's fighting tonight? Who? Anybody with the last name, Mangas? Ilya, Frenchman, 6-0 against Niemiaz Santana of Brazil.

Jimmy Drago, son of Ivan Drago. That's the meme. That'll be the meme. Yorri Panferov. Now, you said the secret was back on Tough 31 when the McGregor won. I would get the episode early. Oh, that's right. I would be able to watch it. I would be able to make all the memes and make all the clips.

and then I'd be able to just post them as the show and everyone would be like so quick with it I was like nah I got this like two days ago bro did tough 31 memes hit or were they like middle or low like they hit because they were Connor they were all just Connor it was all just Connor McGregor memes yeah when you did the

tough post show how many weeks in did you instantly regret it like three weeks I was like what the fuck have I done out of how many 12 uh yeah like 12 13 weeks and now some lucky broadcaster can own they get it. No. Tough will not get sold.

Dan White Contender Series 15 million a year. I say Dana throws Tough in just to say that he will never allow Tough to die just to say hey, Tough has a new home as well. No, well, also... I don't know. We don't want that. We don't want it. It's going to like Fubo or something. Take it, take it, take it. It is a way to produce talent for them. It is no longer high level talent, but

it is a way to produce talent for them. So it's just another pipeline. I get why Tough still exists. Nobody consumes it, though. Okay, let me read this right here. Front Office sports. I didn't really get a chance to digest this. Ryan Glass-Begel does a great job covering media, sports media in particular. Just after finalizing a big UFC deal, Paramount is in advance talks to score another TKO property. Sources told front office sports that Paramount is the quote

unquote frontrunner to land the rights for Zufa boxing and upstart boxing promotion spearheaded by Saudi official Turkey Al-Shake, UFC Boston and White and WWB president Nick Khan, terms of the potential deal were not immediately available. Reps for Paramount Endeavor and TKO did not respond to Request for comments speaking about Zufa Boxing, TKO, president, and C.O. Mark Shapiro said on last week's earnings call, should I do it in the voice? Look, this is a low risk, and TKO receives roughly $10 million fee for serving as the managing partner and providing day-to-day operational management oversight. And that's all margin for us. TKO has no funding obligation. end quote.

Halashik is the chairman of Saudi Arabia's general and the same authority. And one second, closing in the head, advisor to the royal court. TKO will also promote two to three superfights per year with the Saudis, such as the upcoming Canelo Crawford, September 13th. Again, no risk to us on that deal. Okay, so there's nothing more. What remains to be seen if, in fact, this is correct and I have no reason to believe otherwise. Dana did say yesterday that the deal is done.

They just haven't announced it just yet. It's a drip-drab type of thing. Does, let's say, Paramount get, I don't know, let's say they do one a month. Let's just say. Let's say they do one a month. Do they get that? And then the superfights, do those go on a Netflix who's airing September 13th, Allegiance Stadium?

Or do the superfights go on CBS? Or do the super fights go on Paramount Plus because they want people? that remains to be seen because remember when they talked about this they said they'd have smaller shows with sort of like lower tier to mid-tier talent but then that they would have like the super fights two to four with the canello crawfords of the world i wonder i would assume they want the more regular content but maybe it's both maybe it's the same model but just smaller right uh 12 or so on plus yeah smaller shows callum walsh fight nights and then the big show are on CBS.

Yeah, that would make a lot of sense. It would probably have a hefty price tag, but... But it does seem like that's... Like yesterday we were saying, are the numbered events going to be at 8 o'clock, 10 o'clock? Are they all going... It seems like we've kind of... Have we settled on?

There's going to be four and the rest are going to be on plus? Based on everything that was said yesterday, it seems like Dana said there's going to be four and the rest on plus, despite the fact Mark Shapiro said likely all are going to be on CBS. I feel like four big ones on CBS and the rest on plus, including the number of shows,

that's how it's all going to break down. I just wonder what happens a week before a numbered event, what happens when Champion X gets hurt, and they do the whole scramble who's going to replace? What's it to them? Where's the pressure to replace that if it's no longer on pay-per-view?

What's ultimately going to be the difference between Fight Night 250, and UFC 240 or 340. Do you know what I mean? I kind of tried to allude to this yesterday and maybe I didn't frame it properly. There is an innate pressure in that because otherwise your product is worth less.

And while this deal is great and is for $1.1 billion and we had David Sampson on who was fantastic, by the way. I'm a fan of when he gets together with Skipper on Pablo's pod. There is an innate pressure that the next deal needs to be signed.

and you have to gain value on that next deal. You can't just, like, water down the product to the point that it is no longer valuable, regardless of the fact that you've got a nice hefty sum of money locked in for this next seven years, they still need to have some prestige around the numbered events. Because if it becomes, well, the UFC only has four big events worth watching, that is a major problem for the UFC. So I think they will still have a very... You think they'll feel that?

Because, like, you can make the case that doing the APEC shows showed that they didn't really care anymore. about what part? The product. The McDonaldization of the product. So why wouldn't that extend to the number shows as well? The same way the NFL doesn't want to put on shitty games, the same way the NBA wants to have great Christmas games, you don't just shit on your product. There is a watering down that has happened. It will not go to the extent that the numbered events no longer matter.

Famous last words, maybe I can be proven wrong and all they are caring about is this current seven-year thing. my assumption is that they have their eyes on another deal after the seven years that will be much much bigger and you do not get there when you only have four events that anybody cares about that's not possible

you can't get to a bigger number I know you guys love your movies your shows all that stuff anyone an avid Paramount Plus watcher the years that the challenge airs on it yes what do you mean the years sometimes it doesn't

this season is on MTV this season is not on Paramount Plus it's on linear only linear only doesn't show up till like march you can access it on other apps like cable apps but you cannot access it on paramount plus they get it after the fact why do you think they did that what what is premiering on mtv these days uh rob dear dick's fantasy factory or whatever ridiculousness yeah those are not premiering those are reruns come on guys ridiculousness is just like the entire network ridiculousness in jersey shore paramount plus

every single Mission Impossible movie. They have the rights to, right? I think Skydance did a deal with Tom Cruise, right? Yeah. Okay. And he owns all that. Not the... The studio?

I don't know. Okay. But you got... Because I see Dana going like, ah, they got South Park. They got Yellow Knife, or is it Yellowstone? Tulsa King.

Bro. Most things do... You don't watch any of this. Hundreds of millions of viewers. Yeah, we don't watch it. No, no, no. Does he watch any of that? Middle America.

No, he actually feels like... right up, I feel like Dana is an avid Matlock watcher. Yeah. Starring Kathy Bates. Okay, by the way, I saw that. M.P.M. on CBS. You guys. You left. It's like one of the biggest shows in America. I slept on how big CBS actually is. Okay, so you guys

sent me this breakdown of the shows. And yeah, I agree. First of all, my question is Matt, okay, so number one, the number one most watched show of 24, 25, according to this. What's the source for this? Does anyone know? It's Squid game on Netflix.

Makes sense. Total 35-day viewing, 27.1 million. Then it's Adolescence on Netflix. Then it's Tracker on CBS. Have you ever heard of a tracker? Nope. Never heard of it once. I know Tracker because I worked on CBS's programming. Sure, sure. But otherwise, would you know? No clue. Not a clue. Never watched it once.

On Prime Video. High potential on ABC. And by the way, Tracker is 17.4 million. Shout out. Matt Locke is number six. Is this the old school Matt Lock? Or is there? No, Kathy Big. This is the new one with Kathy Bates. Kathy Bates is on what?

Kathy Bates is from... She's Matlock. She's from the Waterboy. She's related to the original... Kathy Bates is from like the Alfred Hitchcock, right? The Water Boy. My mama, you know, my mama says... She's an older lady, right? She is in the Waterboy.

Yes, I know. She's the mom, right? Yes. How old is she at this point? She was like 60... She's ageless, man. Don't hate on her. Matlock. Okay. At 9 p.m. on CBS.

16 million. Seventy-seven years old. Incredible. Good for her. Landman on Paramount Plus. Do we know that? Yeah, that's Taylor Sheridan. It's related to Yellowstone. They have like five different Yellowstone shows.

They have one of the biggest shows in America is an offshoot of the Big Bang Theory, which is Young Sheldon. It's then an offshoot of that called like Georgie and Margie's first marriage. Oh, yeah, I see this. That's number 16. 12.1 million.

I had never heard of that show until this morning. 50 seasons of Survivor, which is like one of the biggest reality shows ever. 60 Minutes? Yeah, first person eliminated. The vast majority of these are Netflix. But there's a couple of CBSes.

There's a couple of Paramount Pluses, Landman. Anything that was on Showtime, I believe, also on Paramount Plus, because they own Showtime? You think they bring back Showtime sports? No, no. All right.

Well, one of the first people to comment on this as far as UFC fighters are concerned, and dare I say, one of the most excited members of the community is our next guest. You know him very well. Don't need a long introduction. One of the all-time greats. And the last time we saw him in action was in April. I haven't talked to him in a minute, so it's great to have him back on the program. Your friend in mind, the former Beltor lightweight champion, current UFC title contender,

the one and only Iron Mike Chandler. Kind enough to join us on this Tuesday. afternoon. Is he wearing the shirt? He's wearing the shirt. We were wondering if you'd break it out again. There it is. Now, boy, two days, two days in a row. I had to throw it back on again, just for this interview. I was wearing a nice black shirt for my last call, had to throw this one on. I appreciate that. Now, is it really true? You said on social media yesterday that it was a Gucci Paramount collab. Come on. Why was, why? Is that real, though? Is Gucci really making a Paramount Network shirt? I don't know. I have no idea why or when this collab came about,

but my wife and I were walking through a Gucci. I don't know where we were. Obviously, I was fighting for Bellator at the time. Spike TV, Paramount. And, yeah, I saw it. And I was like, well, I've got to buy it. And then now, obviously, signing with the UFC. I haven't really worn it much in the last five years,

but I had to break it out for the big announcement. I love, and this was in a Gucci store, not like on the street or at some, like, free. That's so random. No, it was in a Gucci story. I was just as surprised as you were. I was also surprised by the price, but I was surprised, I was just as surprised as you were that they had a Gucci paramount

collab. I don't even, I don't know why it made sense, why they did it, but they did. And here we are. And it just seemed fitting that I would throw off for you. Hell yeah. Meant to be. And so, okay, you talk about being surprised. How surprised were you?

Because I know you like to keep your finger on the pulse. I watched your YouTube video. You were saying how you were kind of like poking around a little bit. You have a great relationship with the bass, Hunter Campbell, Dana White, of course. when you woke up yesterday and found out the UFC leaving ESPN and going to Paramount CBS. What was your reaction? I was absolutely shocked. Like you guys, I just heard as I was backstage, you guys were talking about Netflix.

I mean, Netflix seemed like the big play that was going to happen, obviously, with WWE and some boxing and that kind of stuff, and Netflix is very, very big. Obviously, Paramount is big as well, but I was extremely surprised. Now, once I, once I, it's kind of one of those deals where, you know, hindsight is 20, 20. Once you actually see the announcement, then you start peeling back the layers and realize why it makes so much sense. Paramount, Viacom, they, they have already been in the space for a while, kind of litmus tested it with Bellator. Maybe they had a great experience. Maybe they didn't.

But obviously, the UFC is a completely different beast. So it makes a ton of sense. Paramount Plus, they have a ton of subscribers because of all of their 40,000 plus episodes and shows like you guys were talking about Landman and Tulsa King, Yellowstone, and then obviously all the fight nights on Paramount as well as CBS. So it makes a ton of sense. I mean, someone said something about how the UFC was, you know, the kind of the timeline of what they did back in the day with Fox and then ESPN. ESPN was a huge step up with our little tickers and our little banners down at the bottom while Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayliss are talking about the Dallas

Cowboys this coming Saturday or Sunday or whatever it is. A UFC became mainstream sports for those five years. And now coming over to Paramount and then now going to network television that anybody with a TV and an antenna in rural United States anywhere is going to get ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, those couple four or five channels. It's pretty ridiculous. And once you start peeling back the layers, you start to realize how much sense it actually makes.

And, man, I'm excited because I've already had. a couple people I've spoken to since my Viacom Paramount days where it has all come full circle, because I'm probably one of the only guys, me, Patricio Pitbull, Patchy Mix, may or may not have been a part of that Viacom family. I don't know when he came in, but some of those guys who came in from Bellator. Okay, a couple of things specifically I wanted to ask you about. Obviously, you're a pay-per-view fighter. You know, you're always fighting on pay-per-view these days when you're a part of the UFC.

They're saying no more pay-per-view. What's your reaction to that? I love it. I think it's a win for everybody. I mean, obviously, the immediate knee-jerk reaction that everybody always has when they see seven years, $7.7 billion is big, bad UFC making all this money, and the fighters aren't making any of it, right? When it comes to the pay-per-views, the fans win.

The consumers of mixed martial arts win. So when you were spending over $1,000 a year on your ESPN plus subscription plus paying $80 bucks per month for the paper views and now it just caused you what is it is it 1299 per month yeah or the basic plan which i think i heard them talking about it yesterday on some msnbc money business channel that even if you have the 799 uh cheaper version you still get to watch it but you have to watch it with ads so the barrier to entry the the financial barrier to entry for people of people that you know who maybe don't even want to get into the sport you're a champion and you're a disciple of mixed martial arts and how beautiful this sport is, but they don't want to handcuff themselves

to something that's going to cost them over $1,000 a year for an extra entertainment hobby that they have. I think it just brings down the barrier to entry. I think it's great for the consumer. It's great for the fans all around the entire country and the world. And I think ultimately a rising tide raises all ships. And as the money continues to grow in the sport, we're all going to continue to make more and more money. Okay, so I'm on the record. I said it at the beginning of today's show. I think it's a huge win for Paramount. It makes all the sense of the world. They get this content. They get to own the sport. I also think it's a huge win for the fans. It's much cheaper now to be a fan. The best of the UFC was behind a paywall. Not necessarily the

case. If you're an NFL fan, NBA fan, you don't have to pay extra to watch the Super Bowl. NBA Finals, it should be that way as well if you want to be a mainstream sport. So that makes sense. UFC obviously made all this money, highest deal they've ever made. It's like it's a no brainer. The one concern for me, if you don't mind me saying, are the fighters, are you guys? and I come from a positive place. You know this, right? Like I care about the fighters and I want you guys to make

the most amount of money as possible. And so could I ask? And I know these aren't necessarily, you're not a UFC representative per se, but I appreciate that you're willing to talk about these things. Could I ask, do you think that because now the UFC is making so much more,

that will lead to maybe like higher bonuses, 50 to 100, let's just say, or a higher sort of like entry level pay, not 10 and 10, maybe 20,000? Do you think there'll be a trickle-down effect to the fighters because this price tag has been so high? I do think so. That is my personal opinion, but maybe that's just because of my experience in mixed martial arts.

A lot of people, if you don't know my career, I fought outside the UFC for the majority of my career. I will never fight inside the UFC as long as I fought outside of the UFC. So I understand both sides of the coin, and I have had nothing but a very, very positive experience thus far with the UFC. And I make really great money. I am taking care of my family. and I do know, Ariel, that you are an advocate for the fighters. I do know that you care about us. You care about the sport. You want to see all of us taking care of,

not just the big promoter, but the fighters as well and the fans. I do think, I think all that stuff is on the table. I'm not going to sit here and go on record saying that the UFC should do this, but it would make sense if maybe some bonuses went up or the overall money went up. But you can't have those conversations until big storylines like this hit, big headlines like this hit where you're talking about $7.7 billion. And I think it's just a testament to how big the UFC has grown. And now I think not only have we gotten to this point, but now being on CBS and Paramount

and the barrier to entry is much smaller. Plus, you're talking about a fight at the White House. You're talking about these huge events. Can you imagine a fight at the White House on CBS where everybody in the entire country has access to it because it's on CBS? It just grows the sport, and ultimately, as the sport grows, the money will continue to catch up. And I will say there's a lot more money happening inside of the UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts than the UFC will ever gloat about, than the UFC will ever brag about.

And that's just the way that they like it. That's how they like to run their business. But I think a lot of us are doing pretty fine. Yes, and to add to that White House sentiment on July 4th, on America's 250th birthday, I mean, there's nothing more American than that. So what a scene that's going to be? It's going to be unbelievable to think that the sport, you know, nine years ago was banned in New York State and to see how far it's come in a short amount of time is pretty remarkable.

One last thing on this, if I may, I know you're technically, you know, not someone who benefits from this, but, you know, champions get paper viewpoints. That was one thing I was worried about for the fighters. What happens to that? Do you think that will be made up? You know, your contracts are different, right? You've talked about, like, how you had a Connor McGregor clause and, you know, everybody's contract is different. That's sort of the beauty of

being a UFC fighter, I would think. Like, you can renegotiate after one fight, even if you have a four-fight deal. Do you think that would get sorted out? If you're a Hamzad, if you're a DDP, if you're a Tom Aspenon, Islam, do you get taken care of? I think the UFC is a lot

more fair than people give them credit for. That's what I would say. I think I think, you know, there's going to be public pressure. There's going to be corporate pressure. There's going to be media pressure. When you sign a deal of this magnitude. I think, I do think so. I think, I'm not saying everyone, actually, I'm sure the phone has rung off the hook. Managers are calling and fighters are calling and saying,

hey, you're signing a billions, billions of dollars a deal per year. I want to renegotiate my contract. Things take time. This thing just got announced a little over 24 hours ago, let a little bit of dust settle. Everybody kind of worry about the thing that they can control, which is them taking care of themselves right now, them training right now. But then ultimately, I do think this is nothing but good for the sport of everybody involved. I think the fighters ultimately, just like 30 years into the NFL, just like 30 years into the MLB, just like 30 years into every major sport, because what are we, what are we, 33 years into this whole thing. Yeah, 32.

32. The money will continue to grow, but it can't just grow overnight. So a little bit of patience and ultimately worrying about the best thing that you can do for yourself is making yourself an indispensable asset to your promoter, making yourself an indispensable asset to the people that have put money behind you when it comes to endorsements, when it comes to getting on microphones, when it comes to using your platform, when it comes to building a fan base outside of just punching people in the face in a cage. And if you can do that and you can do it with class and integrity, the money just continues to multiply.

I noticed while watching your YouTube video this morning that you said the next time I throw a punch will be on CBS slash Paramount, right? You said that, and so it is August and there's still, you know, I don't know, three and a half months left on the ESPN deal. Does that suggest Michael Chandler

isn't going to fight again in 2025? I don't have any plans to right now, but, you know, opportunities come and go pretty quick around here. This sport moves fast. I'll never forget when I got done with a fight and sat with Hunter Campbell and he said, hey man, this sport moves fast, right?

Pick your head up, sport moves very fast. And nothing but good things have continued to happen. Do I know when I'm fighting? No, I don't. I know I'm itching to get back in there. I'm excited to get back in there. But, yeah, maybe it is on Paramount and CBS, and maybe that was just me miss speaking.

Okay. But maybe I just got pumped up about talking about Paramount and the UFC deal. But, you know, we'll see. Could fight by the end of the year. all I know is that Octagona at the White House lawn has my name on it. That's the one, right? Like everything is going to center around that.

That's the one you want. Of course, that's the one I want. I mean, it's, but every single person on the entire UFC roster wants that fight. You know, it's so I realize that I, as well as every person on the roster, are gunning for that card, wanting to be on that card. You got John Jones coming out of retirement entering the testing pool. You got Connor entering the testing pool right after that gets. it's announced. So that's the one that everybody wants. That's the pinnacle. I've said this numerous times. As a fighter, you want the biggest stages, the brightest lights, and the most

amount of money that you possibly can with this short window of opportunity that you have in this sport. And fighting on the White House lawn with the president of the United States, I was just with someone else on his team a couple days ago. He said, you know, people from England are going to come over and show their respects. I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be special. It's going to be something I want to be a part of. Is that going to be my next fight? I don't know, but I'm definitely wanting to be on that card. I've spoken to the UFC about it. They know I want to be on that card. Carrying the red, white, and blue stars and bars across the lawn into the UFC octagon would be a dream come true. And opponent to be determined, but we shall see.

And I'm sure the dream opponent is Connor, right, to finally finish that story. You deserve that. You earn that. You are entitled to that. In your heart of hearts now, because I saw you talking about it as well. And he's sort of teasing us every day. He's posting more training footage. What are you feeling in your heart of hearts? And I know we're still 11 months away or so. Do you feel like this is now back from the dead? How are you processing all of this? I haven't really processed it much. I mean, it's been a lot of the same stuff over the last couple years with the whole Chandler McGregor, Tough 31 pull out of the fight June 29th or for the June 29th saga that we've had. I don't really think about it a ton. I know I want to fight at the

White House, I would love to fight against Connor. That's definitely a platform that would bring Connor, you know, maybe get Connor on the straight and narrow a little bit to get focused on and get back in the octagon to fight. But it could be anybody. It could be, you know, maybe it's another American. Maybe it's, you know, who knows what it is. We'll see. If you're a betting man, I still say, if you're a betting man, I wouldn't bet on it. But definitely bet the house on Chandler fighting on the White House card. Now the time has passed, there's all kinds of theories. Do you think he was preparing to fight you June of last year?

I mean, all I can do is take it at face value. I mean, the problem with, you know, the problem with being honest is that you don't understand why people lie. The problem with doing things as a professional, you don't understand how people can do things as a non-professional. You know, so my brain doesn't really compute that somebody would do all of that, knowing that they were going to pull out of the fight. with that being said would i put it past anybody no people are the worst kind of humans when people do crazy things right um so it's uh it i think i think he had every intention to fight broken pinky toe i don't know i would i would have stepped in there um but i'm different than a lot of guys never still never pulled out of a fight still never missed weight in 15 16

years 30 something fights it's just what i do never pulled out of a wrestling match never missed weight in wrestling in college wrestling or high school wrestling it's just what i do i know one thing and then that's the hold the standard. And by the way, it is 16 years. And by the way, last week, August 8th, marked your 16 year anniversary of your debut. Do you remember this debut? Does anything come to mind? Here it is. Here's the footage. I completely see I'm sometimes I'm really good about remembering things and like, hey, let's do a little anniversary thing. Did not know it was 16 years. But yeah, that was against Kyle Swadley. He was one and I'm at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, and a holiday-end ballroom in front of 53 people, most of which

were my friends and family. Next fight, I was on the undercard of a strike force card in Kansas City, then the next fight in the undercard in St. Louis. Then both opportunities got presented to me a Bellator contract, strike force contract, signed the Belator contract, and then fought Eddie Alvarez just a couple months later as a guy who didn't even barely know how to fight, but somehow won a world title. Wow. That footage is amazing.

I love how, like, it looks like it's from 50 years ago. You say 50-something people, like, could I ask? I love these stories. How much did you get paid for that? Did you even get anything? Some do it for free. I got paid $500. But after I paid for hotel rooms, gas, food,

pretty sure I lost money on that one. So, yeah, I fought for free for that one. But that's what we got to do. You got to do it. You've got to earn your stripes. You've got to cut your teeth. And, you know, I'll, you know, I've got this dream of mine that I want to get on a microphone and I want to interview every single opponent of mine in my entire

so Kyle Swadley would be the first one find out where he is and sit down and talk to him about where he was in his life and what was going on I think it would be a really that would be brilliant I love that you imagine me and Porreier oh my god you know bury the hatchet right here on the desk oh I would love who do you think would be the hardest the book hardest to convince uh will Brooks for sure why I tease I mean some people hate me, but that dude really hates me. Still? After all these years? Probably. You know, probably.

Probably him. I think Porier would do it. Poree is a... I think Poree would do it. Poria is a normal dude. What do you think of all the love he got last month for his retirement fight? Dude, I loved it, man. Like, it was, you know, we as fighters,

we got our little tiffs and we got our little rivalries, but dude, his contribution to the sport is, has to be recognized, man. I mean, he was just a young, angry little 18-year-old on that Fightville documentary of some little kid from Lafayette, Louisiana, rises the ranks up 145 and 155, won the interim belt, you know, fought for the title a couple times and deserved it every single time. You know, there's a debate out there. Is he the best fighter to never win a title? I think he's definitely up there as one of those guys to be one of the best to never hold UFC gold or, you know, unified real UFC goal. So I was a little emotional watching it, man. And I just loved watching, I loved watching it.

It was, you know, part of it somehow kind of felt like a funeral a little bit, right? But it should be like a celebration, right? It's a celebration of his career, his contribution to the sport. And now, man, go just enjoy your life. So, you know, let go with this love that we have called mixed martial arts and go serve your, you know, your wife, your daughter and a baby on the way, I believe, right? So I think he's going to really enjoy this next phase of life. and I wish him the best, and I think he's going to do some amazing things. And I guess we'll see him on the desk here in a couple weeks, too, in Chicago.

Yeah, this weekend. Just this weekend in Chicago. Seeing a former opponent and a pier go through all that, did that make you start to think about whenever your time comes? Not really. I don't, I go back and forth on that, man. I might be one of those guys who just slowly fades away, you know, kind of like Robbie Lauder did.

Didn't Robbie Lauder much? You know, I think I'm, you know, almost like, it's not that I don't deserve any kind of recognition or, you know, I just, I don't need anybody to, I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like every one of these guys and gals who have dedicated their life to this sport. And I love this sport. It's afforded me some amazing opportunities, an amazing platform. But, you know, we'll, we'll see. I know, I know there's some tread left on the tires here. And we've got some big fights coming up. I don't really think about it too much but I feel like I'm more of a fade away into the night kind of guy. So this is the first time we speak since the paddy fight. Now with some time,

how do you feel about what transpired that night in Miami? What went wrong ultimately, in your opinion? Fell short. I felt like I couldn't get it going. You know, maybe that was him tactically doing a good job, keeping the range, keeping the distance, throwing some kicks.

You know, trying to get the distance, trying to get the timing. training camp went well i have no excuses whatsoever i got a good night sleep the night before i was hydrated up i was well fed um and just fell short man this is a game of inches you know as you can see i'm wearing it on my face still wow you know but i got a i got a i got a big keynote about scars uh that i'm doing here in a week actually about you know how scars prove that you've been somewhere prove that you've done some things that prove that you're a man or a woman to be followed that you've been battle tested. So I think it was just a little bit of show and tell that I'll be able to

show from stage here in a couple weeks. My recollection of the fight, like he looked so much bigger and stronger than usual. It's almost like he's grown into his body. Did anything surprise you about him? Yeah, not necessarily, you know, strength, but he's definitely a bigger presence in there. He's definitely grown into a legitimate, big lightweight. You know, he's tall, he's got great range he's got good length and he uses it um but yeah i think more than anything i think he he also fought tactically he was completely okay getting taken down in that first round um you know was keeping me away with some kicks and stuff and he did a good job hats off to him you know we'll see what what transpires with this lightweight division um but i think his name is

definitely in the mix because he's got a he's got a lot of hype behind him got a lot of got a big name behind him um and we'll see how it all transpires There's like a jockeying right now, right? He's in there, Armand's in there, Gachie's in there. Can you put your Hunter Campbell hat on for us for a moment? How would you map that out, the top of that way class? The Hunter Campbell, yeah, the Hunter Campbell hat is way different than my hat. My hat is, man, give the fight to Gachie.

I like, I want to see Gachie go out there and fight for the title. Wow. That's me. But when it comes to the Hunter Campbell, the matchmaker hat, I mean, you got the Patty versus Ilya, rivalry, I'm still, once again, maybe this is personal slash philosophical, so to speak, but Armin pulling out of that fight the day before with a sore back or whatever he did, you know, I'm not saying he's got to come back and fight three fights to get back to the title, but you got the rivalry with Patty and you've got Gaichi, who's just been a mainstay in the organization

and in the top of the division. I would give it to Gaichy, if not Gaichy, heck, Patty. does he really impress you yes he might be the most impressive mixed martial artists on the entire planet right now by far wow his his ability to navigate and negotiate uh the distance as well as when to know at the exact right time to throw his attacks which are not very flashy by the way and i love that the most about him you go back to the connor mcgregor the fiend the phenom that connor mcgregor was and you got all these 11 year old kids who want to be ufc championship someday, want to do spinning back kicks and jumping sidekicks and all this stuff, that is reserved for a select few people. I love that Ilya is winning titles and dominating people

by being brilliant with the basics. A good jab, a hard overhand right, followed by a left hook, a couple leg kicks here and there, good distance, and most importantly, patience, being comfortable in the octagon and knowing exactly when to throw the punches, know when to throw the combinations. he's impressive man and i don't see him losing anytime soon i was just going to ask of those three guys that we mentioned who has the best chance to beat him patty justin or armin and the answer could be none yeah i mean the crazy thing is i mean gaiti's obviously cleaned it up a lot when it comes to tactically you know the old gaiti would go out there and probably get starched because he's going to run into one of those big punches um he's definitely cleaned that up a little bit um

patty is going to stay away because he's going to he as as big as he talks he's going to be a little bit cognizant and afraid of the power. And then Armin, you got Armin probably the best, easily the best grappler out of the lot. Best chance to beat him? I'd still go with Gachey just because of how impressive his entire career has been. And he's kind of cleaned it up and he'll fight more tactically.

We actually had the conversation about this a couple weeks ago. And I think he would, he'd fight tactically. And I think he has the best chance of beating him. I don't think these debuts were anywhere near on your level because you were a bigger name, but we have seen some guys come over from Belator this year and initially not enjoy the success that you had when you came over. Pitbull, rectified it in his second fight, patchy mix.

I don't know what that was, but that wasn't the patch we saw in Belator. We get to see another one on Saturday, Aaron Pico, who some have noted looks like a sort of mini Michael Chandler out there. Did you see that one picture of him where he kind of looks like a shredded mini version of you? It's unbelievable. How do you think he does and what do you think of Aaron Pico in terms of the success he can have in the UFC? Now, I'll tell you what, I'm happy to see where Aaron is right now. I'm happy to see that he came over to the UFC.

The kids got star potential and star skills. He had a rough go at it at the very beginning, man. What was he two and three? Yeah, didn't go, yeah. You know, and ran into a big flying knee and got submitted or knocked out, you know, like tough spot. But what that tells me is the young man who has been on a large platform for a very long time. He was, you know, he was one of the very top-level wrestlers in the entire country for a very long time. And while he does get kind of some preferential treatment here and there and he gets the best training and flies on private jets and gets on horses and that kind of stuff,

that's also a lot of pressure to deal with when you're not having the success that your peers, your coaches, the media, the fans tell you that you should be having. And for him to come continuing to improve since then, the very rocky start that he's had and now be right where he's at, it's a it's an impressive amount of resilience so i i would love to see him go out there and do a not not as great if his debut as me i'd like i'd like to keep i'd like to keep that but i'd love to see him go out there and be uh impressive i'm just joking by the way i hope i wish him the best he goes out there and um but it's uh you know it's very interesting right now obviously seeing all three of those names coming over from bellator just in the last couple months is uh is very cool so we'll uh we'll see how he does i'll be tuning in by the way this is

the picture that I'm referring to in case you didn't know what I was talking about this one right here I mean this I mean that is and that was like three four weeks before the fight this is when he was supposed to fight in Abu Dhabi but like holy crap right even you even you who has a very similar physique has to say that is impressive oh that's definitely impressive yeah definitely impressive but it's it's also uh very attainable you know I think we have uh we have watered down the the potential of the human spirit if a man or a woman just completely commits to something and dude's a professional athlete he has nothing else to do besides train eat right and sleep and

supplement right um so it's i being a guy who's done it now 30 something times and look looks like that um you know it's uh it's part of it's it's part of what we do and uh i've i've seen it over the years he's a wrestler so we know how to work hard we know how to sacrifice we know the the power of delayed gratification and uh putting in a solid 12 week 10 week training camp and not cheat anything whatsoever and just do it perfectly. He seems like that kind of guy. And what they're doing out there in Southern California is very special. Sam Calavita and those guys are, they know what they're doing. A couple more. I just wanted to ask you about Charles Olvera, your old foe, returning relatively quickly after the knockout loss. Are you surprised? I'm not surprised. Charles is a stud. He's a champion.

He is a go-getter. He is a very resilient man. I think it would be ill-advised to come back that quickly after that kind of a knockout. But also, just like I said earlier in this interview, you know, things happen fast and this sport moves quickly. You get the opportunity to go fight in Rio de Janeiro. When's the last time he got the fight in Brazil, you know? I don't know when that was, but it hasn't been in any recent memory. So I think that's probably the driving force behind it.

And, you know, Fiziv's a great opponent. It'll be a fun fight and it'll be in Rio. Yeah, the last time was in 2022 against Kevin Lee. So it's been, you know, three plus years, understand the thinking as well, understand where you're coming from, too. I saw Terrence McKinney say he wanted to fight to you. Are you interested in that fight? Did you see that tweet?

Yeah. Well, I know you're a threads guy, so maybe he was on threads too. I see you. I'm a thread. I'm a thread's guy. Yeah. So, no, not interested in that fight, but, yeah, wish him well. I saw him at the fights.

He wanted to take a face off picture. I thought we were just going to take a picture, like, you know, two dudes. This one. This right here. And he's like, yeah, let's do a face off picture. I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not doing a face-out picture. Why not interested? I don't know.

Just, I'm not really, it doesn't excite me. Not that he's not a great fighter and an impressive fighter. And, you know, I guess he was like, we got, we would have a great first round. Oh, my God, dude, I'm not here to have a great first round. Although I do have some of the best first rounds in mixed martial arts year by year. But no, nothing against him. We'll see what happens next. Think big.

think bigger opponent think big name think white house okay is there a chance you just wait till the white house card uh there's always a chance you know i don't you know i don't know i don't know i like i said i've got a great working relationship with the ufc it's never it's never a a battle of wills and a negotiation tactics or any of that kind of stuff it's uh they're like they put on fights that makes sense they put on fights every single weekend if we want to be a part of we can. Sometimes they'll call me. That's how the paddy fight came about. And then sometimes I'll call them and say, hey, I'm thinking this is the timeline. But right now, I'm enjoying the family, enjoying summer. Boys just started school. We got football practice tonight and assistant

coach Chandler. Ah, yeah. Yeah, man. So that's what we're focused on right now. Okay, two last quick ones. Islam at 170. How does he do against JDM in your opinion? Islam at any weight does great. obviously at 170 is going to be an adjustment but Islam's a big boy and he's going to settle into the 170 weight class fine. JDM is a freaking terror man. His hands, his ability to go head and body. It's a tough fight for anybody. I think JDM obviously winning the title, you know, the first title defense is kind of that litmus test for a guy. Does that belt being on your shoulder around your waist on your mantle, does it give you the type of confidence where you feel like you're invincible or does it add a crazy amount of pressure where

now you fight not to lose instead of fight to win. So I think that's my perspective on it. But I think Islam at 170 is going to be just as, just as dominant as he was at 155. That's my personal take. He's a hard puzzle of a salve, man. He is a strangler and he is a strong dude. And his hands are getting much, much better. So we've continued to see him improve over the years. And I think Islam wins at 170. Can't wait to see that. Love to see this from Ben Ascreen yesterday, in particular, his wife, Amy, who has been incredible. I know he means so much to your video that he reposted was great as well. Did you see the latest Ben Ascran video of him walking here? Unbelievable to see. When you see this, considering what he's meant to you over the years dating back to Missouri, this is a good friend

of yours. He's not just Ben Ascran, to me, fighter. This is a personal friend of yours. What do you feel when you see this. Yeah, man, that's my big brother. I believe God puts people in your life specifically for seasons and for reasons. And I walked on to the University of Missouri, just a kid who was the lowest on the totem pole, and that man right there with all the confidence in the world, multiple businesses going on while he was in college, focusing on winning his national title, he pulled me aside and said, you, you're not that great of a wrestler, but you want to work hard, you want to do the right things, you need to believe in yourself, which to him doesn't compute because he believes in himself more than anybody on the entire planet. He said, you, you need to believe

in yourself, and I promise you, you can get one of these All-American plaques up here. Yeah. And I have that on my shelf right now because of Ben Ascran, because he took a, he took an, he put an investment in me, and we drove all around the country, all over the summer, all offseason. We'd wrestle every day. We'd get our lifts in. And we'd, we'd go. just we just eat, sleep, and breathe, wrestling. And without him, I don't have that on my shelf. Without him, I'm probably not sitting here talking to you. Um, so, so, it's almost one of those things where it's, it's so surreal because if you asked me, who is the most superhuman person you've ever been around in your entire life? It's been asking, you know, not to sound all weird, but, you know, how like kids think their dad is like Superman and it's like, well, nothing can happen to him because he's, he's Superman. Like, that's the way that I've always seen this man. And to, to, you know, to, you know, information started coming out. You know, I think you were one of the first, you were the first one to kind of break it publicly,

but we kind of knew it weeks in advance and we raised some money and got him flown back and all that stuff. It was just, it was surreal for me because it's almost like that man is invincible to me. So to see him, you know, go through that and see him be, you know, human and really get that kind of scare was really crazy.

And I wish him well in his, recovery, obviously. But like I said, man, I'm the man I am today and the competitor I am today because of his contribution to my life and him believe in me more than I believed in myself. You're able to keep in contact with him throughout all this? Text him all the time. He actually woke up. When he woke up, he texted me. And he, he's like, hey, when I woke up, I thought you'd be happy to know I woke up and I became a Christian because, you know, that was, that was one of those things that, you know, I was the little Christian guy in college and he wasn't. Yeah.

He married Amy, the beautiful, little sweet little Christian girl, and all of us were like, what's going on here? How's this going to work? And, you know, you probably saw the video where he's like, you know, Amy would go to church and that was her faith. I was just not, you know. So we were texting back and forth, you know, every other day or so. And I need to get up there to Wisconsin to visit him. and see him. I might actually be able to beat him in a wrestling match right now,

so right now it might be a good time. That right there, that challenge right there might motivate him to get better, even quicker, even the competitor. I don't think I've ever scored on Ben Askeran in my entire life,

so right now it might be the time. Incredible stuff. Maybe not. Maybe not, actually. Thank you so much, Mike. Great stuff. Great insight. Appreciate you coming on.

Great to see you in great spirits. Good luck with all the stuff going on in your personal life. Always great to have you on and looking forward to the return in the near future. Yes, sir. Thank you, Earl. Appreciate you at the top, dude. There he is, the one and only. Iron Mike Chandler, joining us on this Tuesday afternoon.

Great insight there. Appreciate his insight. Appreciate where he comes from. Appreciate the honesty. It's always great having him on. And I think we presented sort of like all facets of the story here. From my perspective, Samson giving us his perspective. I thought he was phenomenal regarding, you know, the executive slash media critic perspective. and Chandler, a fighter who is very happy with the UFC and is very excited about this future, this brave new world. Now, I did happen to see an interview with the one and only George St. Pierre, in my opinion, the greatest of all time. And I thought his perspective was super interesting as well. This was with covers. He does some media stuff for them as well. He was asked about the new deal. he said, quote, it could be good for the UFC as a promoter, terrible for the fighters,

because when I was competing, I was able to have a great argument to negotiate on my contract. I could tell the UFC, hey, if you want me to do all the promotion, I want to become a partner. I want a piece of the pie to negotiate, a part of the pay-per-view revenue. Because if I'm doing all the promotion, I'm helping you, but you need to help me. You need to make me a partner. So it might be a bad thing for the fighters in a way that they have less leverage. So obviously that conversation, that's the end quote right there, that conversation is not really one that can be had, but they will want, especially for these premium events,

they will want guys to go out and promote. And so how will they be incentivized? This new world is a lot more like the WWE in that there aren't any pay-per-views anymore, but there are ways in which the top stars are incentivized merchandise and God knows what else gate and so

I have no doubt that things will change things have to change if you're a champion like Tom Aspinall if you're a champion like Islam Machachev or DDP you're not just going to be like okay well it was a great run with those

those paper viewpoints I guess that's that something will change will it be as beneficial will be as good for the fighters Again, all these things remain to be seen, to Michael's point. All this is very, very fresh. It's only been about, I don't know, 36 or so hours.

But I am really fascinated. And by the way, I have yet to see, correct me if you guys have, I've seen Dana do the rounds, I've yet to see a single person even ask him this question. Every single question is great, positive, and that's fine. But what does this mean for the fighters? And don't give me the, you know, it means great things for the fighters. because more people are going to see them. No, come on.

Six months ago, ESPN, you were telling me was the end-all-be-all, was the worldwide leader. So, like, it can't change that quickly. Why is this great for the fighters? How does this benefit the fighters? Again, base pay go up, purses go up, mid-tier goes up, higher upper echelon goes up, bonuses go up, new bonuses, cut of the pie.

How is this great for the fighters? How are they going to benefit? it. Say whatever the hell you want about me, about this show, about uncrowned, the number one unbiased combat sports outlet on the planet. Ultimately, if you want to accuse me of a bias, the bias is that we do care about the fighters and we'll care about the Chris Duncan's and the Michael Chandler's and the everyone in between, including Big James Tehuna. And so I want to see them get paid. Sue me. Sue me. I want to see them get what they are owed

their cut of the pie their piece of the pie I want to see how that all breaks down let us see Super Jets Super Jats They're quite super Okay

Benjamin Turk Everyone how do you feel about Netflix not wanting Apex cards I know they are adding seats there But does that mean better quality cards Okay so someone texted me last night and said hey what do you know about Netflix not wanting

apex cards and I was like what are you talking about and he said you said that on your show and I said no I did not I hardly even talked about Netflix yesterday on the show he's like yeah you did I saw a tweet and I said show me the tweet and it was like one of these sort of like MMA Centel I was like you've just been sentel bro you know there's this new account that does the MMA Centel and always, like, credits Ariel Halvani.

You guys see that? Yeah. And they had a tweet last night saying that Ariel Halwani said that Netflix didn't want the Apex cards. Don't get sent out. Well, I didn't get sent out there. No, I'm saying...

That's a disclaimer for everybody out there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't get fucking sentelt. But by the way, it sounds like... This is fucking illegal. Yeah. It sounds like this dude right here who paid how much for this super chat?

Oh, yeah, here it is. 499. Yeah, it sounds like... A report Netflix. UFC offer reportedly included permanently removing apex events leading the UFC to reject the proposal and seek other options via Ariel Helvani. Yes, yes. Elvani's legacy just lives on forever. All time. Who's the last time Helvani tweeted? April 8th of 2020? Yeah, I don't know. But there you have. Oh, never mind. October 7th,

2021, fighters need more pet. Helvani was ahead of his time. He was pre-Sentel. He could have been Centel. Here's the tweet. Yeah, that dude, that dude could have been MMA Centel. Shout out to MMA Sintel. Honestly, after NBA Sintel blew up and then you saw the other sports getting made, I was like, it's only a matter of time versus MMA. Do I actually jump in now and grab the handle and it be worse something something? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Should have.

Except this is... There's a wrestling one, too. This is Cove MMA Sintel. Yeah, but, you know, it's pretty close. Hamzot, breaking Hamzot Shemaya reported let out three sneezes this morning with U.S. Metical staff closely monitoring. By the way. Pia!

At Herio, Elvon. Some of them are bad. I must say, and by the way, I'm actually kind of honored that he chooses me, you know, like, that's, that's a, that's a nice Well, he did break that Roman deletes reportedly submitted his resignation letter to Hunter Campbell immediately following the fight. That was

according to ESBN. Can I just say, though, one of the, like, there is an art to this, right? It's one thing to just continually lie. You also have to be funny like Centel is. Let's see if the MMA accounts can kind of like thread that needle there. It is not just lying. You can't just exclusively lie. You have to

kind of be funny. Yeah. I think some of them are bangers. I think some of them actually make me laugh. The funniest ones are the NBA Centel, WNBA ones. Yeah. Because people get so mad. It's so mad. I think they got Stephen A

recently. Oh, they get everybody. Yeah. Cintel is elite. By the way, speaking of that drop, I did happen to see two minutes ago my appearance on impulsive drop. Oh, yeah. Of course, great, great freaking title, guys.

Ariel Hawani on Dana White banning him from UFC. When I very clearly stated that the ban lasted 48 hours and then I was back for the next event. Thanks a lot. Jake Paul suing the haters and Logan Paul versus John Cena. There it is. Sorry, one last M.A. Sintel from Ariel Halvani breaking. Connor McGregor's urine sample reportedly contained the highest concentration

of band stuff since it's ever recorded in UFC's anti-toping history. Via at Ariel Helvon. Hell yeah. Shout out. Anyway, what else? Mike Perez says, Can G.C. Ask Tom Aspinol for a bottle of water

when he's on, boys on the back? Can G.C. Ask Tom Aspinol for a bottle of water. Oh, a bottle of water. You kind of have to say it that way, no? Yeah, essentially. Bottle of war. Well, did Logan get MMA sent held?

Who? What? What happened? Logan Paul? Yeah. Why would happen? Well, you just drop something in here. I did?

Oh. Wait, yesterday? Is that real? Logan getting sent out? Are we getting sentelt right now? Breaking. Hamza Chmaya reported letter. I know the story ends.

What is this? Is this real? Logan got sentel? Sentel retweeted it. Wow, that's incredible. Getting sent out. Wait, by the way, what does that even mean? I know how this story ends.

I think it just means that he's that the Hamzaa pull out. There's inevitable, like the... Well, Logan starts the video off with it just saying it's the D1 Glazer, Ariel Hohan. Yeah, what the fuck, bro? Let me tell you something. Banning! All cats.

By the way, I'd rather be a D1 glazer than a D1 scammer any day of the week. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I was hoping you'd go to the full shot of Connor on that one. please do by the way I want to be off the screen

so please do against what else what else Frank what else Cooney says Tough should be live streamed on YouTube for who for all of the YouTube audience who

do you think like By the way nobody is watching it If they streamed If they stream tough What do you think they're getting concurrent wise None None

not on the ufc youtube channel they'd probably have like 2k yeah two 3 000 right hey listen uh what else frank what else and lastly jc ferrari 25 y'all should work with peruse dreams man you practice it so much and that's what is that puru's dreams is an instagram account that does art he makes incredible artwork uh i recommend going to follow him yeah it's very it's very unique stuff he always pairs it with sick music, too. He's incredibly creative and artistic. So shout out to him. If we never work with him, go follow him. That's for sure. Yeah, I like that. I like that.

Yeah, I would love to work with him. I see there's one more here, Frank. Do you want to read it or? Chris Duncan. I love when the ariel, Frank, you didn't get to this one. Chris Duncan saying he could hear Rebecca Cheang the Pee.

Jane the Pee. The door next door was diabolical. That was diabolical. That was. Point made, though. We understood, Chris. That's from fits, kicks, and hits.

You know what's my favorite thing about that drop? It's like the, oh, what the fuck? You know, like, it's not just what the fuck. It's like, oh, what the fuck is that? You know what I mean? Yeah, there's some musicality to it. Yeah, exactly. It kind of sings.

I also love when people, when people hit me, like, when someone hit me with the, with the marlin vera what the fuck is going on bro that one sounds like he's talking through a walkie talk yes that was the worst connections ever on a golf course no no he was in his car but it was just like a bad that was a bad run you know did we get to everything i think we got to everything i think we got to everything uh tomorrow is going to be an incredible day

but i'm not going to tell you who's going to be on the show tomorrow what yeah you're gonna have to wait. That's fucking bullshit. Frank, I gotta say you're getting good. This is Fred Norris, like the little run that you're on just now, the little like one minute, two minute run, that's Fred Norris level. Is this my review right now? The problem is we need this at all time.

So the next time, because like yesterday, I think I said, breaking news, and you didn't hit the breaking news drop. Hey, can we get you to re-record the J-ZUS one? It's just, it has to. Him bringing up the awkward and then you making it even more awkward by screaming Jesus. He's just like, clutching your pearls, like, Jesus.

And then later you're like, I don't know why I was... I was dying back in. Connor in particular really went off on that one. Oh, yeah, he's masturbating next door. Jays! And he just blew right through it.

Yeah, it was the best part for him. I was trying to speak about his. You're like, the Jays'es has grown incrementally as we've gone on. Oh my God. Oh, my God. What a way to end the day. Well, the good news is the day is not over.

Yeah, we're going to be too hard out, though. We got on the dismount. Oh. Hey, on the DeZone show, Ariel and Adet, we're going to hear from Dillian White, and we're going to hear from Moses Atama. Dillian, this is great. I love this. No one tell Adi that I want to do this, but Dillian actually confronted Adi. Did you guys see this? They did a face-to-face, and he's like,

bro, I know you picked against me. It was great. I loved it. It was great theater. He confronted Adé. Over the fact that he picked Moses to win the fight, Aday tried to backtrack, and then he hit him with the...

Who was the first one to congratulate you on the zone job when you got it? And he's like, eh, yeah, yeah. I think he felt a little bit bad. Anyway, we'll break that all down. That's at 5 o'clock. This program has been a great one. Appreciate everyone.

Tuning in. Stopping by. Appreciate the whole team. Appreciate life. Life. is live. Da da da da da da da. I think we went a little higher there on the...

I'm trying to drown you out. Yeah. Thank you. I don't want to get demonetized around these parts. So much good stuff coming up in the coming days. Before we hit our summer vacation, more on that down the line. So much good stuff has already aired on the program. And if you missed any of it, yesterday was a great day. Today was a great day.

Thank you very much. Carlos Prachas. Thank you very much David Samson Thank you very much Chris Duncan Thank you very much Mike Chandler

And I think I actually named I nailed the Iron Iron There it is Thank you Frankie So thank you to all of them Massive show

Potentially tomorrow Stay tuned for that Until that I say Peace I'm out of here