The Ariel Helwani Show - Michael Chandler, Diego Lopes, Austin Vanderford, Jim Lampley in studio, controversial weekend reaction

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Ariel Helwani and the gang break down every angle of the busy weekend in combat sports, from UFC Seattle and the main event's controversial ending due to an eye poke, to Bivol vs. Beterbiev 2 and beyond (08:41).Boxing legend Jim Lampley joins us in-studio to discuss the historic weekend for the sweet science, his new book, his adventures through boxing history and much more (1:01:56).Michael Chandler previews his UFC 314 bout against Paddy Pimblett and talks llia Topuria's lightweight move, Conor McGregor's latest, Patricio Pitbull's move to the UFC and more (1:59:16).Austin Vanderford discusses his successful short-notice UFC Seattle debut, Nikolay Veretennikov's post-fight dramatics, his wife Paige VanZant's recent run with Power Slap and more (2:30:02).Diego Lopes previews his UFC 314 bout for the vacant featherweight title against Alexander Volkanovski and talks Topuria's decision to drop the belt (2:51:16).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Err-r a lovely weekend. I am in a great mood today Why because it feels like we're turning the corner here my friends. I've determined that I hate the winter I hate the cold weather. I hate the winter and it feels like spring is hitting the air here in New York City now Sometimes we get it a little early, and this is probably the case right now, but I'll take it. A lot warmer, it's like 11 degrees outside. That's Celsius, by the way, look it up.

I think that's like 50 something, 55, 54, 53, something like that. Anyway, you just feel better, you're happier. It's a great time in New York City as well. Big fight this Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It's the return of Tank Davis going up against Lamont Roach. Always great when there's a big fight in town. Barclays seems to get them more than MSG but nevertheless it's always great. You know we're we're partial to MSG the world's most famous arena. We

have so much to discuss. Golly we have a lot to discuss. Since we said goodbye, and there have been a litany of shows that have happened on this channel and I've been on them and the other guys were commenting, but like think about how much has changed in the world of MMA in particular, since we said goodbye from this chair on Wednesday. On Wednesday evening, you know, I'm getting ready to go to bed.

I've got my jammies on. I've got my little hat with the thing here. I've got my warm milk. I've got my jammies on, I've got my little hat with the thing here, I've got my warm milk, I've got my cookies, I'm ready to go to sleep. And there's Dana White screwing it all up, dropping an atomic bomb of news. We found out that there's a new London main event. We found out what the main event for 314 and really not just the main event, the main event, the co-main event, the tri-main event, the whole freaking card. We got the whole Miami card in one fell swoop. We found out that the main event for 314 and really not just the main event, the main event, the co-main event, the tri-main event, the whole freaking card.

We got the whole Miami card in one fell swoop. We found out about the main and co-main for 315 in Montreal. And oh, by the way, we found out that the Featherweight champion is technically not the Featherweight champion anymore. That was a lot to digest in the span of like five minutes. That was on Wednesday night. And we reacted to it and there's, there's still more reaction that needs to be had because some new things have happened since then.

That was on Saturday night post fight. And of course on Saturday during the day, we had the tremendous card out in Riyadh. Uh, the super card to end all super cards highlighted by the rematch between Arthur Betterbiev and Dmitry Bivel. Hope you enjoyed that great job on the Great job on the watch party and the post show here on the channel. If you missed any of that, go back and check it out after this program of course because we're live right now. We're live and there's a lot to dissect and digest as far as that card is concerned. And then it rolled right into

like as the main event of the the the Riyadh card was concluding, I believe that's right when Austin Vandervoord was winning his UFC debut. It almost rolled right into it. And so if you are one of those, you could have been sitting at home from like 1130 AM Eastern to midnight Eastern watching 12 straight hours of fighting. Half the time boxing, half the time MMA.

And the UFC card was fantastic. It ended on a bit of a sour note and we shall discuss that at length on today's program. But all in all, what a crowd, what a card, what fights, what performances, what stoppages in Seattle. So much, much, much to discuss. And I do today's program with a heavy heart because right before I got in here, just a couple hours ago, I saw a tweet from the great Alan Hahn of ESPN and MSG noting that to me, one of the voices of New York sports,

and I know this may not resonate with our global audience, but when I was a kid and my family got DirecTV in 1997 the first thing I turned on was MSG and and that's the network the MSG network it was a home of the New York Knicks and and I couldn't watch New York Knicks games unless they were on NBC or TNT and we didn't even get TNT we had to get at simulcast on TSN I won't bore you with the details, but it was very hard to watch We're all very spoiled now as sports fans

And so the reason I wanted to watch MSG was because that's where the Knicks played and for me MSG was Marv Albert it was John Andres Johnny Hoops and Al Troutwig and They were incredible and so for those 90s Knicks and Rangersangers and then going into the two thousand al trotwood was the host uh... pregame halftime postgame this is when i was really falling in love with broadcasting and that we found out uh... this morning that he passed away at the age of sixty eight very young he had been battling cancer no uh... no specific

uh... reason given but uh... just a few months ago he was talking about that. This is Al Troutwig on the right side of your screen with Walt Clyde Frazier. I've talked about how much Clyde means to me and how much I just, I love everything about this. This is probably late 80s, maybe early 90s, but I'm going to guess late 80s just based on the NY on that gentleman's shirt. And that looks like Rod Strickland. And if that is in fact Rod Strickland, that's late 80s. But this to me is my childhood. There it is. On Air Jordan tells me 1989, who's better than me at this?

Anyway, I'll try to wig an absolute giant. Then there's Johnny Hoops, John Andres, who unfortunately also passed away just a couple years ago. Just brilliant broadcasters, people I looked up to, people I tried to emulate, brilliant hosts and voices and presences and just everything about them. And so I do today's program with a heavy heart and wish the best to the family of Al Troutwig. By the way, if you're a fan of the film Cool Runnings, he's in that movie as well.

There's that great scene that always gives me chills. Where do these guys come from? And they all say Jamaica. It's him and another individual doing the commentary for the bobsled, which of course is about the 1988 Olympics and the Jamaican bobsled team. So much love and our condolences to the family of Al Troutwag. And wouldn't you know it today on the program, we another broadcasting giant Jim Lampley in studio and I know we've had him on a couple times over the past year so ever since he started working with ppb.com but to me like the fact that Jim Lampley has become a somewhat regular on the show he was on just a few weeks ago prior to the Benavides Morrell fight

sort of blows my mind I mean this guy is is larger than life from HBO boxing of course but also ABC, HBO Wimbledon, Telecast, NBC, CBS all the stuff that he's done over over the course of his Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame boxing broadcaster, Hall of Fame Olympic broadcaster, sports broadcaster. He'll be joining us in studio to talk about a whole host of things, including his new book that comes out on the 15th of April entitled, It Happened. I can't wait to have him in studio and what a day. Perhaps he has some thoughts, some memories to share on the late great Al Troutwake.

So that will happen at 2 o'clock. At 3 o'clock we'll be joined by Michael Chandler to talk about his fight against Patti Pimlet. That's the five round co-main event for the Miami Card on the 12th of April UFC 314. At 335 we're going to be joined by Austin Vandervoort who won his UFC debut, a fight that he took on essentially a few days notice. I mean, he got the initial call on Saturday, then really found out that it was a go on Tuesday evening, and there was some controversy in the aftermath. So he's no longer Mr. Van Zandt. He's Mr. UFC. He's Austin Vandervoort, and we're delighted for him and looking forward to having him on. And Diego Lopez will join us to talk about headlining UFC 314 in Miami against Alex Volkonovsky for the vacant title. By now you know, Ilya Toporya no longer the featherweight champion. He has vacated the title and now it's going to be Volk versus Lopez for the vacant title on April the 12th UFC 314 the Kasiah Center in Miami.

So that's the four pack right there of guests and love today's show and we have a lot to discuss not only on today's show but this week is going to be a great week of programs for all of you so let us get into it. Now of course to me the big story to lead off with is what transpired on Saturday night in the main event of UFC Seattle. It was Henry Sohuto against Song Yedong in a fight that was important in the Abandoned Weight Division. Sohuto on his, you know, the last chapter, the last legs of his career, looking to pick

up a win over, you know, a guy who is still in the sort of up and coming phase. We're still not quite sure how good Song Yudong could be and what his ceiling is. And it was turning out to be a very good fight. Unfortunately, around a minute and fifteen, left in the third round, there was an eye poke, which seemed to very much affect Henry Sohuto's vision. There it is is right there. Might have been two fingers to the eye, to the left eye of Henry Sohuto. He took the full five minutes which he was very much allowed to do so and the fight resumed after the

full five minutes and he was he was very bothered and you always feel for the fighter because you know the referee will come up and be like you good you good and he's like no no I want to take the five minutes the crowd starts getting on you there's booing there's there's angst there's all this stuff but in the end the fight resumed as the third round ends Henry tells the referee Jason Herzog I I can't see, goes to the corner and tells his coaches, head coach Eddie Cha and others, multiple times, I can't see, I can't see, I can't see, I can't frequency, it's all blurry. They bring in the doctor, the referee makes the call, we're going to start the fourth round just so that we could go to the scorecards at this point because more than half of the fight has now been completed and they go to the scorecards

and in the end Song Yedong gets the win because they go to the scorecards and the judges at that point three rounds in three completed rounds in scored it in favor of Song Yedong. This is a tough pill to swallow for Henry Cejudo. I feel for him. And he has shown us in the aftermath the damage that was done to his left eyeball. It's gnarly stuff. He was bleeding in the immediate aftermath when he was sitting on the stool and then even on Sunday he posted on his social media that the eye is pretty bang banged up his face pretty banged up and uh... there's a ton of there's a ton of blood around the eyeball i think we have some uh... some footage of this uh... it's uh... it's a gnarly sight he wasn't faking he wasn't playing the game

he wasn't doing veteran tactics or anything like that that's gnarly stuff here's my take on how it all went down perhaps how it should have gone down. I believe unequivocally a point should have been taken away. A point should have been taken away because that was an unintentional foul, but it was a foul nonetheless. In the second round, there was an unintentional low blow.

I have said time and again that the first warning needs to be in the locker room. The first time an actual foul transpires in a three or five round fight, points need to be taken away. That is the only way in which you will stop fighters from committing fouls, unintentionally or intentionally. Now, I'm sure no one wants, like the idea of an unintentional foul is kind of crazy because more often than not, unless you're looking for a way out, unless you're a dirty fighter, you're not trying to foul your opponent, especially if you're up, especially if you're looking pretty damn good. But still, you equate it to the game of football, American football. No one's trying to go off sides. No one's trying to get a face mask.

More often than not, you're not trying to hold on to your opponent and commit a foul. It's just all in the flow of the game. Things happen, but there are repercussions in basketball. You're not trying to goaltend, but there are repercussions. You're not trying to travel, but there are repercussions. There have to be repercussions. And so this way of officiating where it's like, oh we don't want to affect the fight, well you're not affecting the fight. You didn't commit the foul, referee. The fighter committed the foul. Song Yedong is not a dirty fighter,

but there was a foul that was committed. And sometimes you'll have a foul committed and the fight will resume and we'll go back in retrospect on shows like these and say, you know what, in retrospect, for that low blow or for that eye poke, a foul should have, you know, it was a foul and a point should have been taken away but the fight played out and it's it's impossible to know how much it affected the guy the guy committed to the idea of continuing to fight and so be it but in this case

we have the benefit of hindsight which is that the foul was so severe that it ultimately ended the fight now here's where it gets a little bit kooky. Had Henry Cejudo said in the moment, during that five minute break, that he could not continue, it would have been a no contest. Why a no contest and not a DQ? Because, and again, this is another weird gray area

in the sport of officiating for mixed martial arts, if the referee determines that the foul was not intentional, it's a no contest. If they determine that the fighter did it on purpose, it's a DQ, meaning, Sohuta wins via DQ and Song is DQ'd. How a referee can determine what's intentional and what's not intentional, I have no idea. I really have no idea.

Like, if putting your hands out like this isn't intentional, I don't idea. I really have no idea. Like if putting your hands out like this isn't intentional, I don't know. Now I'm not advocating right now for it to have been a DQ. I do believe that that was kind of in the flow of the fight, but still it's still a little bit of a wacky gray area. And so it's in the flow of the fight and it's severely injured Henry to the point where a minute later he couldn't fight.

That to me is textbook, point should be taken away. If the foul is so severe that the fighter cannot see and eventually cannot fight, how is that not worthy of a point being taken away? In the end, a point wasn't taken away. There were a couple of strong warnings, there was references to the second round where the blow blow happened, it's like, hey man, you can't do that anymore. Henry takes the five minutes, as he should have. The fight resumes, a minute and 15 or so left.

He's just dancing around. He's not throwing anything and it's clear that he's bothered. He's getting booed, all this stuff. Not his fault. He didn't do anything wrong. He goes to the corner and he tells his cornerer he can't see. But at that point, because he chose to resume the fight, the no contest DQ discussion is no longer a factor because the fight has now resumed. So what they have to go to are the scorecards. And when you go to the scorecards,

you will see and we are the scorecards. And when you go to the scorecards, you will see, and we have the scorecards, song according to the judges wins the fight. Look at it right here. Mike Bell, 29-28, Derek Cleary, 29-28, and Sal Diamato, 30-27. Here's the rub. If Jason Herzog takes the point away, now all of a sudden, it ain't 29-28 for Mike Bell,

it's 28-28. It ain't 29-28 for Derek Cleary, it's 28-28. And for Sal Di Amato, it's 29-27. But that's a majority draw. And so at, in my opinion, at best, this fight is a draw. At worst, it should have been a no contest if Henry would have said I can't fight and doesn't try. He was penalized for trying to fight through and then afterwards he's being called out for looking for a way out. We've

looked at enough Dana White post-fight press conference footage to know when he's upset with someone, when he's not, when he wants to defend someone, when he doesn't. He was pissed with Henry. He was very pissed. He still hasn't forgotten about the time that Henry vacated the title back in 2020. They're still holding that grudge. Trust me, I know.

Trust me on this. And so he could have came out and said, like, look, man, the guy got poked. What is he supposed to do? No, they're treating that as a win for Song Yedong. And Henry's going to get penalized for it. There's no doubt about it. And when I say penalized, it's like he doesn't get to advance with the thought process being

it's a win. Why is that? If he would have said, no, I can't fight anymore, it's a no contest and they either run it back or they don't. In the past they haven't. Balan and Leon, they ran it back down the line. In this case, he actually tried to fight through. He screws himself over with the fight going the full three.

They go to the scorecards, no point taken away. He loses. How is that fair? It's not fair. It's not fair. And we have to keep adapting. We have to keep evolving. we have to keep modifying. But he got screwed.

It should have been a draw or no contest. No winner. It was unintentional. The one thing I will say, in the aftermath of the fight getting resumed, those last 115, if you go back to the footage, and credit to Michael Bisping for pointing this out, Song continues to fight like this.

He's continuing to fight like this. He can't keep doing that. Now, what about the irony that this is just the second fight night where the real gloves, the old gloves, the old new gloves, you get the point, those gloves are brought back for the entire card. Now does that make a difference?

No, but what we were told ultimately, and I say no, like who the hell knows is the right thing to say, but we were told when they introduced these new gloves back in April of last year that this would help stop eye pokes. They were working on it, they did the science, they did this, that, but then what happened? There weren't a lot of stoppages. And everyone convinced themselves with a pretty small sample size. Remember, they got rid of it. They introduced it in June, they got rid of it in November.

The sample size was five months, not enough stoppages. We're going back. Eye pokes be damned. Here we are, second week where the old gloves are brought in for fight nights, because remember they were initially just brought in for pay-per-views, the fight nights used them up until last week's card, like two weeks ago, two Saturdays ago. Second one, main event ends in an eye poke? How do they not figure this out?

At this point, just find, there's enough good gloves out there, there's enough data, there's enough science, there are enough people that are trying to create rounded gloves. We've talked about this ad nauseum at this point. All these years, how many times? The gloves are too stiff. You have fingerless gloves, fighters are always going to have them. You're supposed to be like this. Who's fighting like this? Who's measuring distance like this? Who's trying to do this? No one. Everyone's going like this and this is going to continue to happen. Spoiler alert, this will happen time and time and time and again. This is not the last time. This ain't the first time. It will continue to happen and it sucks.

And so the only criticism that I will throw ultimately towards Song is that after that happened, you can't keep fighting like this. If anything, that should have been another warning after the point deduction in my opinion. And so I feel for Henry in this regard. And I feel for him because it won't be treated as a quote unquote win and I don't know how much business they want to keep doing with him. I don't think they're the biggest fans.

Just my two cents You look at the the body language you look at the way he speaks about him in the aftermath You look at the body language when he gave up the belt You know the history of how they feel about people giving up the belt especially on that show in May of 2020 The first show back with the eyes of the sporting world on the UFC didn't love it and all the things that were said afterwards Tough pill to swallow tough pill to swallow if you're if you're Henry Cejudo. Unfortunately it was it's a tough pill for him because he feels the pressure of everyone being like come on man keep fighting keep fighting the guy can't see

you can't go in there and not be able to see against someone like Song Yedong. And ultimately, the most fair thing, in addition to it being a draw and a no contest, is to run it back. But it doesn't seem as though they're going to run it back, at least based on what Dana White said afterwards. Last night on social media, they were going back and forth, the two of them, and they both want to run it back. Here's Henry saying, run it back, Dana White Dana White song you told me you wanted a rematch your face at the end says it all you know you didn't defeat me learn how to close your fist and sign the damn contract. Well there isn't a contract but we get the point. Here's song bro of course I'm more than happy to have a rematch with you the first three rounds were just my warm-up my plan was to turn it

up in the fourth round and KO you you know that that. Tell the UFC to set it up. I'm ready to sign the contract. That's a more accurate assessment of where we're at. There are no contracts. Now I thought it was really interesting. There was a tweet here from one Jim Miller who weighed in on the glove situation and he would know he's been around the block for quite some time. I thought his two cents on it, it said it all. If you don't want to listen to me, listen to him. It's not the gloves, it's the culture, he writes. The shameless win-at-all-cost mentality amongst fighters and the quote, eye pokes are an accident and not a foul mentality most people seem to have. The

good news is that we could change the culture. Penalize the foul immediately during the pause in action after confirming a strike or post was thrown with outstretched fingers. I believe not only a point deduction but also a purse deduction would have a rapid effect on how many pokes we see. I think that's a little bit extreme, but God bless Jim, do your thing. I've come to these conclusions after being taped into those gloves 45 times, totaling over 7 hours inside the octagon, landing over 1200 significant strikes, none of which were

thrown with extended fingers, and I also slept at a holiday Inn Express a few times. Now we've talked about, you know, oh, if you miss weight, you lose a point, or if you miss weight it should be 50%, this and that. To me, the easiest thing, and the first thing is extreme. You commit a foul like this, whether it's a eye poke or a low blow, it's a point deduction. That's it. Way more often are you given a warning

and then a super strong warning and then a super duper strong warning, then you are given an outright eye poke. And more often than not, for whatever weird reason, I'm sorry, a point deduction for an eye poke, more often than not, if in fact you are deducted a point after the first infraction, it's like a whoa, whoa, that was a little quick, why? It's a 15 minute fight or a 25 minute fight

Warn the dudes in the locker room. You can't fight like this and if you do that We're gonna have to take a point away. Sorry, and if they just did that this would have ended in a draw and That would have been the most fair thing It's just it's it's tough and I feel for a guy who's at the very end of his career And who knows how many he has left who's at the very end of his career and who knows how many he has left and who knows what the damage is gonna be as far as this is concerned.

And now he has to sit on an L. And really like in five years, no one remembers the circumstances. They just see it as an L. So now it's like, oh, Henry's on a losing streak. Well, not really. And who knows, maybe he would have gotten knocked down in the fourth round if none of this happened.

And certainly Song, in my opinion, if everything was fair and equal, he's up in that fight. I don't know about 30 to 27, but he's up 29, 28. So maybe he wins the decision. But just for it to end like that is a tough one. Overall, like I said, a fantastic night of fights. Overall, like I said, a fantastic night of fights. Anthony Hernandez afterwards spoke about, you know, being on antibiotics as of Friday night, very hard weight cut, injured ribs,

and he was able to beat Brendan Allen. Good for him in a rematch. Fluffy continues to climb the ranks now 14 and two. Rob Font was in a tough spot. You go from being scheduled to fight Dominic Cruz in his retirement fight to John Matsumoto, relatively unknown. Close fight, a lot of people thought John won. I could see that Rob gets the split decision win. Speaking of Brazilians named John, What about John Silva? What about the fighting nerds? They have become, in my opinion, the best faction in all of combat sports.

And when I say faction, I mean team, unit, and I know that's a term that's from pro wrestling, but the point is they feel like a true blue faction, a unit. They have a gimmick, they have a squad, they have a logo, they have a name. This guy is absolutely amazing. Energy, fun, finishes fights, promotes them. What a character, vicious. He wins via first round TKO. They've got the glasses at the ready and afterwards called out Bryce Mitchell. Bryce Mitchell, by the way, was scheduled

to compete against Israel's Eli Barzili in a karate combat fight pit grappling match on Friday in Denver. That's now out the window. He announced earlier today that he's out of the fight because, or the match, because he's got a big UFC fight on the horizon and he wants to focus on that. I mean, the, the event is in literally four days from now. Bit of a bad look, if you ask me. I mean, just do the grappling match. It's what 10 minutes long and then you can move on. I was very surprised when they announced it though, that the UFC would allow this to happen with all the attention on him with the way it's booked. It's, it's a guy who just said all these things about Jews and Hitler fighting a, a proud Israeli fighter and up and comer fighting an elephant. And I was like, why is the UFC allowing this? Or not so much why, historically they don't usually allow these sorts of things.

And here we go. The plug has been pulled. The real reason, I don't know, the reason that he's saying is he wants to focus on his upcoming fight. All right. Alonzo Menafield beat Julius Washington. He's a very good fighter. He's a very good fighter. He's a very good fighter.

He's a very good fighter. He's a very good fighter. He's a very good fighter. He's a very good fighter. He's a very good fighter. The real reason, I don't know, the reason that he's saying is he wants to focus on his upcoming fight. All right. Alonzo Menafield beat Julius Walker via split decision. Iwan Kuchy-Laba had a great post fight interview, had a great win as well, a first round triangle choke. Melkizel Costa is a fascinating individual as well and with an amazing backstory and he got a big first-round win over Andre Feely. Some other results of, I mean the whole

freaking prelims were unbelievable. Ricky Simone with a freaking, a right hand from hell, just an absolute cannon of a right hand against Javid Basharat. I mentioned Austin Vandeferd and we'll talk more about him. Modestas Bukaskas with a big win as well. I mean it was just an amazing, an amazing string of finishes and fights. Does anyone in the back disagree with my assessment on how the Sohutu Song fight was handled and ultimately ended? Does anyone vehemently agree? And by the way, another big night for the UFC back in Seattle for the first time in over a decade, a 3.8 million dollar gate, another North American fight night record and a sellout of 18,000 plus people at the climate pledge arena, the home of the Seattle Kraken. So another huge night for them. Anyone disagree?

No, I don't disagree. I just think it's interesting what you mentioned about Dana because I thought that was so blatantly obvious when you're watching this press conference. And I guess my question to you will be because you brought it up as well. Like how, how, how differently does this go if he is a fan, if he's on good terms with Henry Cejudo. Yeah, no, it's a hundred percent. I mean, he, he doesn't forget, uh, same with, with George St. Pierre back in the day. Ultimately, as I said to someone on Twitter

earlier today. X. Excuse me, X. Come on, mate. The UFC doesn't make these calls. We know this, but we also know that the sport is so young and new and, and evolving and, and, and getting bigger that

people think it's the UFC who makes these calls. The UFC, when they're in North America, they are not the commission. Now sometimes overseas they are the commission, but in North America they are not the commission. This is the Washington State Athletic Commission. So Herzog is getting paid by Washington State, the doctors are getting paid by Washington State, the judges are getting paid by Washington State, uh, the doctors are getting paid by Washington state. The judges are getting paid by Washington state. Everyone is Washington state. So the UFC had nothing to do with this.

You cannot blame them for any of this. Um, but ultimately and Jason Herzog, in my opinion, top two, top three best reps in the world. You never hear about him in any controversy. And I don't even call this a controversy per se. I just, you know, this is just my two cents on how it should have been handled, but he, he, you don't hear about him, you know, stopping fights

early, stopping fights late. It's almost, it's a thankless job. We're not sitting here talking about him. If everything goes swimmingly, I think he is one of the top two or three most consistent and best referees in the entire sport period. And, and, and, and it's quickly becoming one of the greatest referees of all time. If we're being a hundred percent honest, like he is that damn consistent and best referees in the entire sport. Period. And and and is quickly becoming one of the greatest referees of all time if we're

being 100% honest. Like he is that damn consistent and good. In this case I just don't know how you don't take the point away. That's that's what I'm saying. I'm in 100% agreeance with you. You got to take the point there and if you take the point it affects the outcome of the fight. Then we're talking about something totally different. It's not a win for Song Yedong, it's not a loss for Henry Sahudo, it's a draw. At that point, it's almost the same as it being a no contest.

It's sort of like, you know, it happened, but it never really happened, and it feels like you'd have to run it back. I just, I don't know when you start taking the points, how you police this, if you're never going to take any points, seeming ever in any of these big fights. Fence grabs, low blows, eye pokes. It feels like there's never a point taken.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's frustrating because we've seen this so many damn times. And I could think of more instances where it's just a warning or a super hard warning or a super stern warning. And, and it's just so rare. It's almost like we're now programmed to be like, oh snap, they took a point away.

The points being taken away are so much more foreign and few and far between than the warnings. And I think it should be the opposite. I really do. I really, purse, that's a little, I think it's extreme. I can understand why a fighter would say that. Like, hey, I've never done it. Why should I have to deal with this?

But it goes back, like the Imava Vizzi thing. And the culture is, just fight through it, just fight through it, like we wanna see the result. And then you have moments like Pereira knocking out Jamala Hill and it's like, look at this G. The guy got nailed in the balls and he kept going and then he knocked the guy out. But think about three, four months dedicated to all of this,

win bonus, show bonus, all this stuff. You get poked in the eye where like half your finger is in the socket. How could you be expected to continue? And at the very least, how could there not be any sort of punishment for that? Exactly. And then you mentioned it. You feel this pressure, you know, the crowd kind of starts booing Henry when he's taking the full five minutes.

That he's allotted, that he's allowed to have. And then when the fight ends up getting stopped because he can't see everyone saying that he quit on a stool, Olympian double champion guy who's fought more times than he can count in his life is being told that he quit on the stool, which is just, is insane to me. It feels like he's, he's kind of getting screwed

over here a little bit. Yeah. I really do feel for him. I think the most fair thing to do is to run it back, but I don't get the impression that they're running it back. Yeah. It doesn't feel like they're looking to do that. And it back, but I don't get the impression that they're running it back.

Yeah. It doesn't feel like Dana is looking to do that one. By the way, it wasn't that bad of a fight. No, I didn't think so. I was interested in the way, the way he broke that down. Dana said that afterwards. So he goes from saying song look, look good when he was asked about the fight and, and then at the end it's like someone asked are you going to run it back and he's like who wants to see that again? So like how do you look good in a fight that's terrible? Who wants to see that again as if it was just this like complete snoozer? Yeah it was crazy. It really wasn't. It was a fine main event it was between two of the best

fighters at 135. I don't know. And if that point was taken, it would have been so much more interesting as well. You know, if they were talking about that during the five minutes, I actually taught, um, not that he was gaming the system as such. I thought he was just trying to maximize the break and come back in at the end of the five minutes. I, I wasn't fully understanding what was happening. And I saw her go over. I'm like, Oh, he's just gonna, he's just going to stand back up here towards the end of the clock. Incredibly incredibly confusing situation.

What I would say to you guys is like the points you're making about the point being taken, are we asking that it get introduced to a protocol of sorts? Because I know that referees are watching this and they don't exactly have a protocol with that. Like it's very much feeling your way around the situation, right? Like, would you like to see it introduced lads where it's like, right. The first fell is free, but then the next one you're getting a point taken, or is the protocol point taken immediately?

Taken immediately. If you get poked in the eye to where like you're having to take the time and like, you can't see after that, it feels like a point should be taken. If you grab the fence and you stop a takedown from happening because you're hanging onto the fence, a point should be taken. If you, if you get kicked in the nuts and like, it takes you three, four minutes to recover a point should be taken. Yeah.

And, and, and no fighter deserves to be like pressured into resume. Like they were talking about, Oh, what a veteran move. Like, nah, man, the guy's allowed five minutes. Give him his five minutes. Cause then Sahudo is fighting at a disadvantage. Oh, a hundred percent. It wouldn't be a lot of the five minutes. And, and Sahudo went all the way up until the five minutes, give him his five fucking minutes. Cause then Sahudo was fighting at a disadvantage. Oh, a hundred percent. You wouldn't be allowed at the five minutes. And Sahudo went all the way up until the five minutes.

It was like four 50, I was actually watching the fight and I didn't have the sound on it. It was on mute and he's just like sitting there. And I was like, I guess he's about to stand up and start doing it. He waited till like four 50, four 53, till he stood up and he's like, all right, I'm good to go now. Let's, let's resume.

And I think it was because he was just trying his hardest to be able to see out of the eye. And then you watch the last minute of that round and he clearly, he said it on the story. He's like, dude, I can't, I can't. Yeah, and that's actually the part that I feel the most about for him, because how many times have we been in a situation

where a fight just gets going and there's a poke or something and then the fight gets called off and you're like, come on, man, really? This dude actually tried to fight through it. And then they were, they were hypothesizing and he hasn't spoken to the media. I know he had, he does a podcast as well, so perhaps he'll, he'll weigh in on it, but like

they were, okay. So you're saying like the guy fought through and then looked for a way out. You know, he was, he was trying to game the system or maybe didn't understand the rules. Quitting allegations are just, we are talking about like one of the, There were two rounds left. One of the ultimate competitors we've, we've seen in this sport.

Olympian, double champ, dude has had fight after fight after fight. Like he is not looking to quit on the stool. He's not looking for a way out. But he kept saying it over and over again and he said it to the ref. You're like, oh, this is over. He like, you can't say it that many times and, and not expect it to be over. So of course, yeah, let's see what happens.

Um, I think a point should have been taken away. I think it should have ended in a draw as a result of them going to the scorecards or at the very least we have to be in a situation where at that point it's a no contest and this, this whole, this whole mesh you gossip, it's intentional to know contest, excuse me, if it's intentional to DQ, if it's unintentional to know contest, excuse me,

if it's intentional to DQ, if it's unintentional to no contest, how the hell do they know? How could they tell? And when do they ever call it a DQ? Like who actually runs up there like a freaking field goal kicker and kicks someone looking for an away out of the,

oh, that was intentional, it's a DQ. It never happens. It never freaking happens. Come on, man. We're evolving, we're evolving, so let's see. I wanted to weigh in on something that was said in the Post-Fight Press Conference. We're talking about the Post-Fight Press Conference, and Dana White was talking about Ilya Tuporiya, and someone asked him, a reporter asked him, I apologize if the name doesn't come to me, but it was one of the reporters

there, and overall great questions asked. Asking about, you know, is it sort of, you know, obvious that it's going to be Toporia versus Islam now that Toporia has vacated the title? And he said, no, not really. You know, there are other options and if that was a done deal, we would have announced it. All right, fine. My reaction to this is twofold. Number one, do we really believe that Ilya Toporia willingly gave up his title without the firm guarantee that his next fight would be for the belt? I have a hard time believing that. He seems like a very smart savvy guy. He seems like a guy who is very very understanding

of the business, the fight game. He's got great management by his side who have been there, done that, you know, first round management, the kawi breath. Do you really think that he said, you know what, you guys could fight for my belt, I'm going to be beltless, I'm no longer going to have the perks of being a champion, we're fighting for a belt, you guys could go and let me know, let me know who you're going to book me against next. I have a hard time believing that. And so that's one.

Two, I still think it's a little bit strange that they didn't keep the belt on him, but ultimately, if he told them, I have no interest in going back to 45, I can't make that weight anymore, and they really needed a main event for Miami. We all hate interim title fights. If it's the combo of the two, then okay, what's the point? And credit to him for not, you know, sticking to his guns or holding up the division, because we all know it's easier to market a fight when it's champion versus champion. But Toporia is getting so famous at this point, you don't really need it. If it's a super fight against Islam and to me that is a super fight, then who the hell cares?

And by the way, just based on him walking around with the BMF title prior to the Max hallway fight, something tells me he's going to show up with a featherweight title whenever they do in fact fight. The one thing that hasn't been discussed, and I'm curious to hear how you guys think they're going to navigate this situation, what do you do with Charles Olvera? Because it seems like they kind of promised Charles after the Armin situation that he would be next. Is Ilya going to leapfrog Charles or are they gonna do Charles versus Islam? And that means, let's say the earliest they do that is June,

is the winner of that fight coming back later in the year? Maybe, but they're not exactly the most active fighters of all time. Is Ilya gonna sit out a whole year plus in the prime of his career as he's getting super duper famous and popular to fight the winner of that fight. And if you're Charles, now you're getting leapfrogged twice because you got cut and then they went with Volk and then you didn't get the fight.

And now again, you think that you're going to be next after Islam fights Armin and and then it's obviously Islam versus Moikano, and then you get leapfrogged again. Charles seems to be one of those guys that they really like, that they've always done right by, he's always done right by them. I feel like we've kind of forgotten about Charles in all of this. Now, I will say the fight that is infinitely more interesting to me is Islam versus Ilya. Obviously it's fresh, it's fun, it's mammoth, it's a true super fight. It is International Fight Week worthy if anything has ever been International Fight Week worthy. But just like they stayed true to the promise to Manon Fioro and I'm happy they did even though there's the bigger fight waiting in

the wings with Zhang Weili, I'm just curious how they're going to navigate this one. P.T., do you have any ideas? I don't have a clue. I mean, is that part of what Dana was saying though? Is it like the political mess that he's in terms of keeping everyone happy? Like, you know, that makes sense. Look, unfortunately, you know, today we are looking, we have to factor in looking at things through the prism of does Dana White like this guy?

So my question to you would be, does he like Ilya as much as he likes Charles? Like you know, you said last week when this was announced, sorry, when this was announced on the Lat Show, you were kind of saying like, you know, they like this guy, they know he has the potential to be a superstar. If you know this guy has a potential to be a superstar, are you worried that, you know, the thing that we talk about so many times about creating double champions, making these guys, putting them on such a pedestal, are they worried that, you know, they're eliminating Islam if they allow Ilya into that situation or are they eliminating Ilya to put him against

Islam? Is the safer bet here putting on the Charles fight and finding a way to put Ilya in a captivating fight with a porier or something to keep both superstars alive. Can I say something that is a little bit provocative, but I do believe it is the case? This is just my two cents. No one has actually told me this. I believe that the UFC would prefer to live in a world where Bala Muhammad isn't their welterweight champion. Why do I believe this? Because they prefer to live in a world where Bilal Mohammed isn't their welterweight champion. Why do I believe this? Because they tried to do everything in their power not to give him a title fight, right?

And ultimately, it's a title fight in Manchester in the middle of the night and he wins in fair play. I believe they would prefer if either Jack Della wins or if Islam goes up to fight Bilal at 170. And then everyone's happy. Islam gets his second title fight, which he's been asking for, but remember, Islam won't fight Bilal, Bilal won't fight Islam, that's why I say the JDM fight.

You're able to satisfy that need, he's been asking for this, and then you could do Charles versus Ilya. And now everyone wins. You don't break a promise to Charles. Ilya gets now everyone wins. You don't break a promise to Charles, Ilya gets his title fight upon leaving the 145 pound division, Islam gets his 170 pound title fight, he gets to be a two-weight world champion and everyone wins. The problem here is Islam says he won't fight Bilal, Bilal says he won't fight Islam and so what's the solution to that? JDM wins the belt and then you could do Islam versus JDM and then you could do Charles versus, uh, versus Ilya, if that doesn't transpire, I am very curious to see how they navigate this one.

And I, and I do believe that is what Dana was referring to there. I really do believe that because otherwise it's pretty clean. Why didn't you announce that part? Well, beyond that, like don't, there's also Armin who just had the title shot that loses it because of the injury. And I think Armin has, I think, I think Armin has, I think,? Well, beyond that, like, don't... There's also Armin, who just had the title shot,

then loses it because of the injury, and Armin... I think Armin has... is resigned to the fact that he's gonna have to win another. Of course he's gotta win another, but do they do the rematch against Charles? Like, he's gotta win over Charles by split decision. Charles also has a loss to Islam, so do you just put Toporia in there, and then you do a number one contender again with Armin and Charles, but it feels like they kind of told Charles that he was next, man.

But I guess, but I guess he moving up wasn't in the plans when they said that. Isn't it crazy like that? We're doing, we're having this conversation on the week after that wild Riyadh card, right? When, you know, everyone's made this, this use this kind of sight and thing where it's like Dana back in the day, we're going to put on these big fights. There's too much politics and boxing. Meanwhile, all of this stuff is happening and we are now we.

OK, we may have gotten ahead of ourselves when we hear this. Ilya Toporya news. I think the point you made about him not wanting to vacate the toilet if he wasn't guaranteed a shot makes a lot of sense. But here we are with a political mess essentially hold them back one of the fights that everybody wants to see while we are also hanging in the balance waiting for news about Tom Aspill and John Jones. The other fight everybody wants to see it's pretty crazy lads. No it is and and and they have to

be careful as they navigate these situations because I do believe that they don't want to recreate the Conor McGregor madness, right? They gave him a lot of power and look what it transpired into. And Ilya is the closest thing that we've seen to Conor. And I'm not saying he's a knockoff, he isn't, but he is a megastar who has the potential to be a super duper megastar who like breaks barriers and transcends through the MMA world into the sports world into the the regular world right and so I do believe that they are the UFC is constantly with as as as hot as they are the number one asset is the UFC are those three letters no one is bigger

than the UFC no one will ever be bigger than the UFC and so they have to they have to make sure they play their cards right on this one. And, and I'm, I'm really curious to see how they're going to navigate through this. They needed a main event for April clearly. And so they made that featherweight title fight. And now you're left with a guy in Ilya Toporia who hasn't, which by the way, am I

wrong on this one? Am I wrong on this one guys? Has Ilya Toporia said anything about this? Have you seen a tweet? An Instagram? He posted like a not like us thing and it's like him like sitting on a throne but like nothing. Nothing really explaining the thought process, like the weight stuff, this has all come from like media people right?

Yeah I saw. Which I think is interesting. I saw a response, I believe just him saying that he wouldn't fight Armin through a media source but no, nothing explaining this. Because of the Georgia connection? Yeah, I think he asked like would he take that fight and he said no. And supposedly this is, this says a team member told a Russian news agency TASS that Ilya wants a championship fight, he will not fight for the status of a contender with Sorokin

or anyone else. A hundred percent. And he deserves it. Yeah. Has anyone ever vacated a title to fight a number one contender fight? And a guy, the star of Ilya Taboria. Yeah. Undefeated.

Anderson, Anderson fought James Irvin, Anderson fought Forrest Griffin. And, and it's, it's a, it's a silly exercise to do like, oh, and hit like the precedent is this. Cause there is no precedent. Everything is willy nilly, but he kept the belt when he did that, when he moved up to 185, he kept the belt. Um, the plan was for Connor to keep the belt.

He just wasn't defending the two belts enough and they, they had to kind of move on with things, but to the best, my knowledge, unless I'm forgetting someone and please call me out if I am, I don't recall anyone vacating the title to fight a number one contender fight in a higher or lower weight class am. I don't recall anyone vacating the title to fight a number one contender fight in a higher or lower weight class. TJ Dillashaw, DJ, um, that was, that was never discussed. TJ Dillashaw against Henry that was never discussed.

Yeah, because I mean, when he had the heavyweight and light heavyweight, like it just, it doesn't happen. It hasn't happened. And it makes sense why it doesn't happen. It hasn't happened, and it makes sense why it hasn't happened, because they want the allure of champion versus champion. So this is a very unique circumstance. This is a very unique circumstance

that they did not let him hold it while taking the opportunity. Also, just the murkiness around, is it guaranteed? You know, like, is it 100% next? It hangs over this. You were talking about like, you know, what, what's ultimately going to shake out. It's the same thing that always shakes out. The UFC is focused on the problems that they can

solve today and they will deal with the consequences later. They needed a featherweight title fight. Uh, yeah, they needed a featherweight title fight in Miami. Now they've got one and now they will deal with the consequences. They are slaves to their own calendar and once they

clear off that one, then they can start thinking about the next one. So they're just gonna have to deal with the fallout of this, but I don't imagine that they were more concerned about that than the consequences of not having Miami announced them with a main event and now a championships on the line. And so we'll see, next man up.

To your point about like Ilya not being willing to the line. Also, like, next thing you know. To your point about like, Ilya not being willing to move up without like, yeah, I'm gonna get a title shot. A conversation had to be had when he was like, yep, I'll vacate the belt and I'm gonna move up to 155. I'm done at featherweight. Like, a conversation had to have been had and I can't imagine he was like, yeah, I'm willing to take whatever fight you give me. Number one contender sounds good. It had to have been like, yep, I vacay grits, I need the title shot. No, there's no chance.

It, it, it put up like a little bit of, uh, of like, uh, like an alarm in my brain when, when they didn't announce that, or at least a loop to that on Wednesday and the flurry of announcements, but then I was like, I mean, all right, they, maybe they don't want to announce everything in one fell swoop. There's also that June 7th card.

Um, you know, there's no need to announce like four main events in one shot swoop. There's also that June 7th card. You know, there's no need to announce like four main events in one shot. Fine. But then those comments, I was like, wait a second, what is going on here? Because there's always, it's always kind of like, if you've been watching these press conferences and these media days and all this stuff long enough, there's a lot of reading between the lines. And I mean, by the way, I think you astutely, P.C., pointed out when, when he said that Islam was number one pound for pound, you were like, wait a second, what's the real story here, right?

Are the negotiations with John not going great? You know what I'm saying? Read the tea leaves. Isn't that what you call it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That, that sort of thing. And so I, I feel like something is going on here and I'm not advocating for Charles to get screwed.

I'm just, that's the last thing I want. I always think that if promises are made, dare I say promises should be kept. Uh, pardon the pun. The point is I don't like when they take shots away from guys, especially a legend like Charles. He has deserved it. Am I as interested in that fight as I am?

Ilya versus Islam? No. But then the question is, are you really going to keep Ilya on the sidelines for over a year? That's a risk. That is a risk too. Like if they're kind of, if they're looking at this, like we have this fight whenever we want it, that's just not how the fight game works ever.

Right? Like as soon as you start making plans, things will get messed up. Um. And by the way, Aljo got a lot of heat. Aljo got a lot of heat for not fighting Marab. If, if, if, if Bilal beats JDM, say you gotta fight the 170 pound champion. Sorry. Just like, just like you said to Aljo, right?

The same thing was said to Aljo and then, and then you could do Charles Veselya. I don't know. I don't know. It's all crazy. Are you saying they've essentially like, if, if, if we're trying to work out what happened here, your best guess is they've made too much promises. I don't know if It's all crazy. Are you saying they've essentially like if we're trying to work out what happened here, your best guess is they've made too much promises. I don't know if it's too much, but there seems to be a big one out there that we, I think in the immediate aftermath of all of this, I, and we maybe sort of forgot about like, what do you do with Charles? Charles fighting

Armin again doesn't necessarily seem to be fair to Charles. If they didn't promise him, then that fight certainly makes a lot of sense. Not only that, but he stepped in on short notice when the opportunity arose and then he got that unfortunate cut. So there was another title opportunity on the table and then on the heels of that, he took a fight with Armand.

So yeah, I agree with you. Like Charles is kind of getting the short end of the stick here at the same time, the UFC has to do what they have to do. I don't think there are any promises anymore. To the, to the point that if we're even speculating whether Ilya Toporia has an assurance of fighting for that belt, that tells you everything you need to know.

It should be written in stone. It should be locked up. It should be guaranteed. The fact that we're even having a conversation about it tells me that there are no promises in this modern UFC. This schedule is too aggressive. We need to fill these pay-per-views.

We need champions being active. And if you're not ready, it's gonna be the next person. And they've shown that. Oh yeah, and by the way, one last point on this, this idea that like Diego said this in an interview that they don't like champions keeping belts. I've heard the same and it's to the point you just mentioned, too many shows, not enough champions, right?

And so someone holding up a division, it's just impossible for them to defend those two titles actively. And so he refuted that. And I think that's the, maybe like the PC thing to say, but ultimately like they don't want that. They don't want it because they need those, they need those title fights.

Well, vacating a title used to be a like significant event. Think of how many times we've seen it in modern now, right? Jamal Hill got the belt, vacated. Yuri Prohaska got the belt, vacated. It's, if you can't be an active champion to defend our belt on pay-per-view, we will ask you to vacate. And so if Iliya Toporia cannot be the one to fill that main event in Miami to

defend the featherweight title, next man up. Volkan Diego step into that spot and now we have to deal with the fallout. But it's, they're living in the now at all times as the modern UFC. Like the great Sean Carter once said, on to the next one, on to the next one. Yeah. Uh, quick thoughts on a Riyadh, uh, Demetri Bival beats Artur Baderbiev. I thought he won the first fight in October. I thought he won the second fight as well. I thought the second fight was more entertaining

than the first fight. And that's saying a lot because the first fight was fantastic, but these two guys are magic. Uh, you know, you say Gotti Ward, Gotti Ward is just like legendary pairing, but like there's certain guys who are just great all the time. You know in MMA we had like Faber Cruz, they just always produce great fights. These two guys produce great fights. That being said, that being said, give me Benavides next. We saw these guys go for 24 rounds in the span of four months. I don't I don't mind better be of taking some time off and fighting the winner of Bivel versus

Benavides. I don't mind him fighting Morel. He probably doesn't want to fight Morel but I would love to see Benavides get. He didn't get the opportunity at 168 to fight Canelo. I would love to see him get the opportunity to fight Bivel. If they do it for a third time I certainly won't be mad but we're fans of Benavides around these parts and I would love to see him get the opportunity to fight Bivel. If they do it for a third time, I certainly won't be mad, but we're fans of Benavides around these parts, and I would love to see him get that opportunity. I think it would be great. But Bivel, what a fighter.

Starts off, I thought he started off solid, won the first couple rounds. Betterbiev was figuring him out, and then he started boxing beautifully. He was moving, he was never stationary, he was mixing it up, and I thought he won fair and square. He wins via majority decision. That, that was an absolute classic once again, the second time these two. And we were talking about them for three, four or five years.

And they certainly delivered and, and, and, and not the kind of fight where we were talking about it and we're like, ah, a little too late. No, the timing was perfect because they were fantastic. Uh, what about Joseph Parker? Our guy, the big goose wins, uh wins via second round KO in a bizarre fight. I mean, watching Martin Bacoli on, on social media, just go from leg to leg of his flights from Congo all the way to Riyadh was unlike

anything I've ever seen. He shows up at 2 30 AM Saturday morning local time and is, I mean, and what a stoppage this is right here. And he's like, I'm ever seen, he shows up at 2 30 AM Saturday morning, local time, and is, I mean, and what a stoppage this is right here. The, the, the delayed reaction after the shot to the top of the head from the big man who weighed in at approximately 315 pounds. He shows up at 2 30 in the morning and the fight

happened at around one 15. So he was in Riyadh for less than 24 hours. And the fight happened at around one 15. So he was in Riyadh for less than 24 hours. If I can say I was, I was, I was relieved when it was over because there was a part of me as great as the story was as legendary of a figure he has become as a result of this. And, and, and he's developed into a cult like fan favorite as well and was scheduled to fight here in New York.

And it sounds like that's still the plan for May 2nd. I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of him going eight, nine, 10 rounds against someone like Joseph Parker, who is in the, you know, the, the shape of his life who hits like a freaking truck. Um, hopefully no harm, no foul. He got a boatload of money and could go along his way. Now what's interesting about this is I said afterwards, I would love to see Joseph Parker fight Alexander Usyk.

It's a fresh matchup. We've never seen it before. And everyone was like, no, it should be Dubois Usyk it's a fresh matchup we've never seen it before and everyone was like no it should be Dubois Usyk and I say why Dubois didn't show up Parker did the job Parker showed up how is it any if we're gonna equate this to the wild world of the UFC this would be like Armin getting a title shot after not showing up why is it okay for for for you know Dubois to get the title shot and not Armin? I know it doesn't really work that way but the point is Parker showed up, he got the win.

To me he should be fighting Usyk or they just run it back. But it sounds like the internet wanted it to be Dubois Usyk and it's like, hey you're SOL Joseph Parker. What? The other one I threw out was Parker versus AJ too, if in fact it appears as though AJ is not going to get fury. And then I had some people say, well like, wait a second, Dubois is still the IBF champ. And so what? Who cares? So have Parker with his interim WBO championship fight. Who's sick? Who cares? The dude showed up. Now we have not heard a single thing from Daniel Dubois. We were told that he was sick and that he couldn't fight.

And this seemed to have been going around in Riyadh, but we have yet to hear anything. No statement that I'm aware of, no interview or anything like that. So if you ask me, Parker Usyk, fresh matchup, Dubois gets the winner or you have to run it back. But Dubois leapfrogging Parker seems a little unfair. To the big goose, Shakur Stevenson got a stoppage, a much much needed ninth round stoppage against Josh Padley.

This idea that Josh Padley is just some electrician off the street, I mean did we forget that he fought at Wembley Stadium in Wan just a few weeks ago? Like he's not the only, not enough weeks but months, not the only guy who has a day job. I mean, Oban Elliott told us recently that he has a day job as well. In any event, Stevenson got the win. He gets the stoppage much needed. I think a lot of people would have liked to see him get the stoppage earlier, but nevertheless he did what he had to do. And, and, and will he get a fight against the likes of Gervonta Davis? Probably not.

Will he get a Loma fight? I doubt it. And will he get a fight against the likes of Gervonta Davis? Probably not. Will he get a Loma fight? Meh, I doubt it. Does he get the Keyshawn Davis fight? I don't know. I can't tell if they're friends, they're working us, who knows. All he had to do was get a stoppage and he got the

stoppage. And so it's, to me, it's, it's hard to, to truly criticize them. Maybe you wanted a little more aggressiveness, but I wasn't too bothered. Carlos Sodomas beat, excuse me, Carlos Sodomas and Hamza Shehra, that was a slip, right, Pizzi?

He did in fact beat him. He did in fact beat him, but he didn't actually get the nod. Ends in a split draw. This felt like a weird one. And then there's the footage after of Turkey going to Hamza Shehra's corner and telling him he's down to, how did you feel about this, Pizzi? Because my read on it was, look,

Turkey does whatever he wants. Turkey was on a FaceTime call with Fyurin Usyk and he told Usyk that he wanted him to lose. Turkey, before AJ versus Enganu said he wanted AJ to win because he had a grand plan, like, he even posted the video that people were showing as this, like, smoking gun of some foul play. said he wanted AJ to win because he had a grand plan. Like he even posted the video that people were showing as this like smoking gun of some foul play.

He posted the video of him going to share as his corner saying he's down two points. My read on it was that he didn't look at the actual scorecards that he was saying like, yo man, I think you're down. You need to go for the finish. Just like a corner would say it. Is it something we often see?

No. But I think some people thought that he actually looked at the scorecards and I don't even know if that's an accurate like mathematical assessment of what was actually going on but as far as optics is concerned how did you feel about that yeah I mean that's what we need to be worried about here as you said we know this guy can do anything that's been made abundantly clear if you've been following boxing since his entry This guy is making things happen and you won't hear a crossword said about him across all the other Promoters in the sport who used to be at each other's neck for any reason at all. Suddenly, they're all friends

We're all we're all happy because turkeys are here doing this the problem with that is when you see things like that You're playing into the criticisms of people saying look. This is out of control this guy because turkeys are doing this. The problem with that is when you see things like that, you're playing into the criticisms of people saying, look, this is out of control. This guy, it's just his playground. They need to be careful about what things look like because this is playing into all the worries people have when it comes to the Saudis involvement in the boxing. They're afraid that they're calling all of the shots. I agree with you. I like, like, right. It's, it's, it's an overenthusiastic spectator. Um, if, if it's not Turkey, but I, I don't think there's any, anything horribly wrong going on here, but it does look bad. And every

single person that has an issue with the Saudis and boxing, and they're quite a few of them will circle that as, do you remember when that happened? That's what they need to worry about with this. Shearer is a, um, is an ambassador for Riyadh season. That's right. Ultimately Turkey's doing so much good things. It's just unnecessary to bring this upon yourself is the thing.

Like he's making all these fights happen, all these events, the pacing was infinitely better. This new arena that they've now moved from the, the kingdom arena, which is a soccer stadium is way better. It's a lot more quaint. Like they are improving

and doing big things. Every fight was great. Yeah. Everything was great. They made the Bacoli situation happen. They made the Padley Shakur Stevenson situation happen, like it is getting better and better. It's just unnecessary to bring this upon yourself

is, is, is my main takeaway. Um, and so you kind of wish it didn't happen, but nevertheless it ends in a split draw and perhaps they have to, um, to run it back. Virgil Ortiz beat Israel, Madrimov, uh, in a great fight, a great performance and, uh, Ortiz continues to get better. And, and, and he is in my opinion, one of the

best at super welterweight, uh, Agit Kabayel with a tremendous win over G.Lai Zhang. And, uh, I mean, he's now in the mix and, and, and people by the way are saying maybe Caballel fights Joseph Parker which seems really unfair or then I saw some people saying Caballel should fight Dubois and I'm like what about Joseph Parker? Why does he get to leapfrog? What did this guy do wrong? All he did was show up and by the way let's not forget Parker beat Zhang a year ago a

year ago in March he beat Zhang. It's just odd man out right right? Like for the, yeah, that's. Say it again, say it again. It's just kind of, he's kind of in that weird odd man out situation now with Parker because the Dubois fight didn't happen, right? Yeah. Like they're trying to figure out where to put him and he could really go anywhere. That's the reality of the situation. And Callum Smith and Joshua Boazzi fought to an incredible

12 round decision, ultimately won by Callum Smith. I started, I decided on Saturday morning, I'm like, let me make some picks. My first two were way off, but then I got back on track with the first two. incredible 12 round decision, ultimately won by Kalm Smith. I decided on Saturday morning, let me make some picks. My first two were way off, but then I got back on track with the rest. So if you watch the card either on DAZN or TNT or Sky or pay-per-view.com, you were in for a treat because it was a great afternoon and then a great night of fights. All right, those are some thoughts on the weekend. Plenty more to come. Back into the show, we'll be joined by the aforementioned

Diego Lopez, who gets this vacant title fight on the, I keep screwing up the dates because it's UFC 314 on April 12th on 412, if you get what I'm saying. We'll talk to him about that. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Austin Vandervoort. And prior to that, we shall be joined by Michael Chandler. But it is a massive, massive privilege and honor for me to say hello to our first guest in studio.

He has a book coming out on April 15th. It's called, It Happened, A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television. The legendary Jim Blanbley is here. Hello, Jim. How are you? It's great to see you. Thank you so much.

Great to see you as well. A real pleasure and an honor for me to welcome you into my home. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. Great to see you as well. A real pleasure and an honor for me to welcome you into my home. Well, thank you. On this Monday afternoon. Thank you for welcoming me into your home, Leonard Duran. How about that? Yeah.

You know why I picked that one? So you will appreciate some of these. Well, that's the Montreal fight. And that's the first. I am from Montreal. Huh? I am from Montreal. Oh, okay, so that's- so that's born in 1980 but the fact

that the Olympic Stadium which I know you worked at in 1976 at the Olympics hosted a fight of this magnitude is pretty darn cool for me yeah fantastic well I have great memories of the Olympics where I was a feature reporter for ABC sports. It was my second Olympics of 1976. Uh, and I had never been to Montreal before. It was quite thrilling. And then I have another amazing memory of Montreal, which is that on the morning of Jean Pascal versus for the light heavyweight championship.

When Pascal won the championship from the Connecticut Southpaw fighter who was holding the title before them, before him. But at any rate, I dislocated my hip in the hotel that morning. Spent the entire day in a hospital getting the ball put back into the socket, wound up going to that arena to call the fight. I was throwing up into a bucket at ringside just before doing the opening on camera and everything turned out very well. Oh my gosh. Was that the

last time you were in Montreal? Huh? Was that the last time you were in Montreal? No, no, no, no, I've been to Montreal many times since then. We had quite a number of fights in Montreal when I was working at HBO. For sure. Yeah. Well it's lovely to have you here. Congratulations on the book which comes out on the 15th of April and there it is. There's the title. It happened, A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television. I can't wait to to talk to you about this because I've read the book. I read it over the weekend and it was, uh, after, why are you surprised? Well, I'm, I'm thrilled that you did that kind of homework and applied

yourself that way. That's I'm very impressed and happy that you read the book. I'm sad that you're impressed because nothing annoys me more when I, when I listen, I love listening to interviews and when a guest comes on to you know Let's be honest promote a book talk about a book and when the host admits to not reading the book To me is if I were the guest I would walk out the door. It's disrespect but listen, you know we we want to sell the book and Selling the book requires a publicity process. So I accept in advance that there are going

to be moments when I'm being interviewed by somebody who has not read the book. Okay. Not everybody has time. It's not a short book. It's 250 pages, right? Something like that. So I'm sitting here saying I honor you. I respect you and I deeply appreciate that you read my book. What I wanted to say, and thank you for that, was it was almost like for me eating like the most, the finest chocolate that you can get from like Switzerland or something, because as someone who adores sports broadcasting and the stories and whatnot, I didn't want it to end. And every

chapter, you know, from the Olympic talk to your relationship with your daughter, bringing her along to Atlanta and Barcelona, and then the OJ stuff as well is like, wow, you know, this is my youth. I'm a 90s kid, right? I'm a 90s teenager, if you will. And so all the stuff I witnessed as a fan, but to be able to read your perspective was a real treat. I want to ask you about some of those things.

And in addition to that, this past weekend in Riyadh, but I would be remiss, at the top of the show, we mentioned the the passing of Al Troutwig another broadcasting legend. Al Troutwig died? Did you not know that? I was not aware. Oh I'm sorry. So he was he was a colleague of mine at ABC Sports. He was you know somebody who had a very specific background in some sports that I didn't cover at that time, like hockey. He was committed, great broadcaster.

I'm very sorry to hear that he died. He went to a large number of Olympics. I don't think he went to as many as I did, but he got pretty close because he kept getting assigned at NBC after his arc at ABC. So good guy, sad to hear it, didn't know. Okay, well I'm sorry, I hate to be the one to tell you that. Listen, we're in the public arena here

and we're going to find out things when they happen and I'm pleased that you were able to bring me up to date on that because it's important to commemorate the people with whom you worked. Amen. Did you watch the fights this weekend? I did. What did you think of the main event? Tremendous. Just a great main event and you know people asked me does it rise to the level of Gattatti Ward and Barrera Morales in terms of the intensity of the combat? And I say yes, absolutely.

It's the same kind of thing because within their weight class they are virtually equal in ability and they're committed to trying to be the best. Both of them. So both fights have been terrific. I thought this was an even better fight than the first one. I and I think it's poetic and Entirely fair that if you add up all the scores from both of those fights, they are what a point or two apart

Yeah, you know virtually identical in terms of the aggregate score. So they're great they they showed their greatness I could watch that fight over and over and thrilled for both of the fighters that they achieved what they achieved. And perhaps we will see it again in the not too distant future, but as I said before you walked in, I would like to see David Benavides, you were in Las Vegas not too long ago to see his win over David Morrell working for pay-per-view.com as you do so well these days. I would like to see a fresh opponent for Bivel and I would like to see Bivel fight Benavidez,

a guy who didn't get his opportunity to fight Canelo at 168 and it seems like that opportunity will never come, get this big opportunity as opposed to the immediate trilogy. Where do you fall in that regard? Oh, I think, look, it's fair to go to a Benavidez fight rather than, not all trilogies have to take place one, look, it's fair to go to a Benevides fight, rather than, not all trilogies have to take place one, two, three, you know, in consecutive order.

And these two guys have given a great deal of themselves and shown their commitment in fighting the two fights that they've fought against each other. If either one of them wants to, you know, divert his attention to another fight and engage in another enterprise, I strongly support that. They need to have the right to govern their careers the way they want to.

I was trading observations in a phone call with a very dear friend of mine who's a great screenwriter and an avid and devoted boxing fan and his comment was I want to see Benavides now. This is the moment for me to see Bevoel against Benavides or even better Beav against Benavides. We know whichever fight can be made and should be made let's go forward to that one and I understood his thought process and can certainly identify with that but if we're gonna go to the third fight between better be

Evan, be bold I'm ready for that too. I have to say I was half expecting to see you ringside in Riyadh after Turkey Al-Sheikh tweeted out of nowhere just a couple of weeks ago that he would like to invite you to one of these mega cards. Well, Turkey obviously does not run de zone. Somebody else runs de zone. Six years after the last ABC, excuse me, six years after the last HBO boxing match, that was a Freudian slip. Six years after the last HBO boxing match, I still have not done blow by blow for anybody else. I'm doing a form of commentary now in text for PPV.com.

But I really do not know at this moment whether I'll ever call another fight blow by blow. Although obviously that's what I did for more than 30 years, so I'd be some kind of odd animal if I think I'm still vibrant and alive and capable of working and said to you, oh no, I don't want to do blow-by-blow. Of course I want to do blow-by-blow.

Nobody's hired me to do it. Have you been close at any point? Have there been offers where you're like, man, ultimately I'm gonna pass on this? I'd rather just say that I am waiting for the right opportunity to do blow by blow. And if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen, and that's fine.

But if it does happen, that will make me very happy. And I will commit myself to trying to be as good as I can possibly be, and who knows, maybe that will in some way equal or replicate what I did in the past, but I have to do it to find out, and I haven't done it. It's interesting because you have sort of re-emerged into our lives since uniting with PPV.

You kind of disappeared on us for a few years after HBO. Yes, I did. Would you have been at peace if nothing, like if you would have really been? No, I wasn't at peace during the few years that you're talking about. I was not at peace at all being away from ringside and not having a responsibility within the boxing world.

It's in my blood, and it's too much a part of me for me not to feel that way. You read my book. Yes. So you know that the very first live sports event my mother ever sat me down to make me watch on television was Sugar Ray Robinson versus Bobo Olson for the middleweight championship in 1955. You know that I washed cars and mowed lawns in Miami for months to buy what I think might have been a hundred dollar ticket for Cassius Clay versus Sonny Liston, February 25, 1964. These things are very deep in my gestalt. So you know I'd have to be some

other person. I'd have to have cut out my heart or my brain not to want to be back in boxing in the way that I was most accustomed to. But ppv.com created this remarkable opportunity for me to come to ringside and deliver my opinions and my thoughts and interpretations on what I see in the fights via text in this new medium of communications. And the great part of that for me is that part of the job is to promote PPV.com by going into the media room in the days before the big fights and sitting down

and doing every kind of interview appearance and podcasts and radio shows and stuff like that, which puts me back face to face with all of my friends, which puts me back handshake to handshake with a lot of fighters as they come into the room and stuff like that. And it's been fantastic. It's been a form of resurrection, which has not completely replaced blow-by-blow in my heart, but has certainly given me a great thrill and a lot of positive psychic reinforcement to come back. The reason I asked that question earlier was because

in the book you talk about the ups and the downs of the career and moments where you were flying high and then moments where you felt like it was being taken away from you, you know, without giving away too much. And it's not a movie per se, your career has been very public, but you know, you're riding high at ABC and then you kind of have to go look for something else. And you know, there are mistakes and you're open about them.

And that's what I love about. Well, the best one, of course, as you know, is that the ABC Sports incoming new department chief executive who assigned me to boxing was doing it to get rid of me. He was so certain that my style, my persona, the way that I worked would not fit in the boxing world. He was gonna destroy me by assigning me to boxing, while apparently paying no attention to the fact that the network had signed a get acquainted

look-see contract with a 19 year old heavyweight from New York whose name was Mike Tyson. So what that man did, and we worked together at several Olympics, I dealt with him face to face many more times after he forced me out of ABC Sports, but what he did was to write me a ticket to HBO, which I regard as the most prestigious television network in the history of the industry. So, ironies abound. Don't draw any totally firm concrete conclusions

about what's happening to you at the moment that it's happening. Let it play out. See what comes next. And again, you know, he assigned me to boxing to try to get rid of me. I went to New York to call a Mike Tyson fight to upstate New York to call a Mike Tyson fight against Jesse Ferguson. I heard those quotes. I saw the knockout power and I thought, oh my gosh, look at what I've stumbled into here, and that became the long second half, or more than second half of my career. You said earlier that you weren't at peace,

and I appreciate that candor. In the book, you talk about sleepless nights and feeling down, and you speak very highly of your agent, who kind of guided you through, I believe Art Kaminsky is his name? Art Kaminsky. Guiding you through these trials and tribulations. And so what I was wondering was-

By the way, I think he represented Al Troutwood for a period of time also. Oh wow, how about that? How about that? Long Island guy, you know. In those nights when you're now back home in Chapel Hill post-HBO, how did you get over those nights where you feel like the sport is moving on,

the business is moving on, the business is moving on, and you can't get a ticket back in? Because when I'm reading this about you in the 90s and 80s and the ups and downs, I'm thinking, how does Al Troutwig in 2019 deal with, excuse me, not Al Troutwig, Jim Lampley in 2019 deal with all of this because you gave us a window into how you dealt with some of this stuff

in a very honest way. And so I was wondering how, before you got the pay-per-view opportunity, how you dealt with some of this stuff in a very honest way and so I was wondering how before you got the pay-per-view opportunity how you dealt with the whole industry moving on and you're for lack of a better term kind of left behind. Well, I went to Chapel Hill to teach and I had a very specific invitation from the chancellor who had become a good friend and from the chair of the communications department and they told me that I could create my own course and structure the curriculum

however I wanted to and they would go along with whatever I wanted to do. So it was a homecoming and there's a particular homecoming in Chapel Hill syndrome. Bill Belichick is now the latest example of someone who, he was a little boy in Chapel Hill. And I often say to people, if you spent a significant period of your time in your life in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, you won't offload it.

It is not possible. Belichick was a little boy in Chapel Hill, now he has come back to coach the football program. It's the oldest story in North Carolina, people coming home. So I went home to Chapel Hill to teach. I thought that teaching would be so stimulating or all-consuming for me that I wouldn't miss the boxing,

and that was part of the motivation. And eventually, five semesters, I didn't love the teaching. I didn't love the way the culture was changing. I didn't love the difference in the way the students saw the concept of truth as opposed to the way I saw the concept of truth. It was better for me to step out of that. And so since that time, I've had to find other things

to motivate me to keep going on a positive level day after day. I wrote a book, and now the book is out. And the book is gonna require a process. We're involved in it right now. And that process will continue to challenge me and keep me occupied and keep my brain moving while I wait, and I wait,

to see if somebody wants me to do blah, blah, blah. Back to Riyad, after that tweet from Turki, any conversations, any movement on getting you involved in these events? Not directly, no. What did it feel like to see that? It was intriguing. It was positive because he was saying something nice about me. I haven't met him and I'm looking forward to meeting him. I expect that at some point I am going to meet his excellency, but we're still in the

process of moving toward that. Okay, a couple more thoughts that I wanted to get regarding this past weekend. Joseph Parker and Martin Bacoli Did you feel comfortable with Bacoli landing at 2 30 a.m. And fighting? 1 a.m. Ish local time He was essentially in Riyadh for 24 hours less than 24 hours by the time he made that walk Is that is that safe? Well, this it's a two-edged sword my friends who are boxing fans Well, it's a two-edged sword. My friends who are boxing fans, all of them said,

it's the greatest card I've ever seen. Never seen so many meaningful great fights on one card. So too much of a good thing? I thought it was obviously unfair for them to be fighting at that particular moment in time. Would they want to be on the card, getting that money, being associated with all the other great fighters on the card? Of course they would. And were they going to focus most on what time do I get to the ring? No. That's coincidental

or incidental to the whole process. So yeah, I felt like it was in some ways an injustice to them. But at the end of the day, I firmly believe if you had said to both fighters, all right, you're not going to get into the ring until this time. And a lot of the audience will be gone and it'll be agonizing waiting to go in, et cetera, et cetera. Do you still want to be on the card? I think the answer would be yes.

Mm. The, the, one of the few guys who, who hasn't, uh, done business with Turkey at this point is, is tank Davis. He's fighting this weekend in, in Brooklyn. I believe you'll, you will be at the car. BVB.com ringside tank Davis versus Lamont Roach. Yes. I'll be there. How do you feel about the current state of tanks career? Cause there are some big names, the likes of Shakur Stevenson,

the likes of Keishon Davis who had a phenomenal performance here in New York about a week or so ago calling him out. And, and we continue to get these fights that maybe aren't at the top of Kishon Davis who had a phenomenal performance here in New York about a week or so ago calling him out and and we continue to get these fights that maybe aren't at the top of the list of fights we want to see him in. I don't think we're gonna be criticizing Tank Davis for fighting Lamont Roach when and if he goes forward to fighting these other people that you're talking about Chikora Stevenson, Kishon Davis, Vasily Lomachenko, there are so many possibilities at that weight that no, Lamont Roach is not the most exciting opponent he could have chosen.

But fighters do that all the time. This is a part of the process. You take some fights for the money and the activity, and you take some fights for the prestige, and not all of them are going to be fights in which there's a real possibility of you losing and I don't think there's a real possibility of Tank Davis losing to Lamont Roach. Right.

I think it might be a good fight because Roach is the right style as a boxer but Tank Davis is a phenomenon and in a lot of ways, a scary phenomenon, because he doesn't just knock his opponents out, he annihilates them. And these are execution-style knockouts. And, you know, Frank Martin was a good example. And I said that night in the PPV.com chat, upping the ante a little bit, I said, you know, I don't know if I've

seen anybody hit that hard at this weight or near that weight since the days of Roberto de Ran. Wow. And one of the writers, whom I respect, said, Jimmy can't say that he hasn't fought anybody yet. Well, I hear that, and I want him to fight the people that we're talking about. Yeah. But I still think it's possible that I haven't seen anybody punch that hard at that weight since he took a rant. How did you feel about the whole Canelo-Alvarez, Jake Paul and then ultimately siding with Riyad taking the Williams skull fight? Now he's going to be fighting in Riyad on Cinco de Mayo weekend. Historically, he fights either in Vegas or in Mexico and he's not taking the Paul fight before the big Crawford fight in September How did you feel about this? I admire and respect Canelo Alvarez. I think that we are friends

We were neighbors in Del Mar, California I used to bump into his senior trainer Chepo at the grocery store and look into the look into the basket and see what Canelo was eating I you know sometimes would see him riding horseback in the equestrian facility at the bottom of the hill when I drove by. So I have a great affinity for Canelo. I would tell him face to face if he asked me, I'm not interested in Jake Paul.

I don't care about anything that happens between you and Jake Paul. Do whatever you want to do about that, but it does not interest or intrigue me and I don't think it does anything to heighten your reputation. So if he wants to improve his reputation, go fight David Benavides or any of the other

meaningful fighters, move up to 175 and taste be volleur better yet. There are a lot of fights out there for Canelo Because he's tremendously talented he's a serious and very well preserved competitor and I think he's still right at the very top of the sport and I have a hunch that

He will likely prove that against the smaller Terence Crawford. Although I've curated Crawford's early career at HBO and I regard myself as the world's biggest Terence Crawford fan, but whether it's 14 pounds or 21 pounds, whatever you want to call it, it's a gap. Who is your favorite fighter of all time? Is there one? My favorite fighter of all time, yes, there is one.

His name is Muhammad Ali. Okay. And, you know, that puts me probably with 67% of the audience, right? But yeah, my first true love affair with a fighter was Cassius Clay. And I was thrilled both by the, by the social historical position of Cassius Clay because I was a southern boy raised to fight against racism and respect people

who did fight against racism and not to listen to all my neighbors in the south who could not pronounce the word negro correctly etc. It was all very big to me, very big in my heart. So when Cassius Clay came along, taunting the white establishment the way he did, I bonded, identified, and he was my favorite fighter for that before I ever watched the classic movement in the ring and the multi-talented presentation of how he could fight etc etc so you know to this day still favorite fighter Muhammad Ali

I love that answer because true or false on on one special evening I believe you were either hosting or at a boxing writers of America dinner. Is it not true that Muhammad Ali essentially babysat your daughter? I would take out essentially. Okay. He babysat my daughter. And she had no idea who he was.

I was master of ceremonies for the United States boxing writers association dinner taking place at Trump's hotel on 42nd Street or 34th Street, yeah, 34th Street below Grand Central Station, and it's a long day because Tom Houser's great biography of Muhammad had just come on to the market and Muhammad was going gonna spend the whole day autographing copies of the book in the lobby. And then that night he was scheduled to be the last speaker

at the Boxing Writers Association dinner. I was the emcee. So we were in the green room together in the middle of the day and I had some errands to run in Manhattan. And because I was divorced from her mother in the middle of the day and I had some errands to run in Manhattan and because I was divorced from her mother and not seeing my eldest daughter Brooke all that much I had brought her to the event and she was in the green room with me and now I realized that I had to go out in daytime traffic in the middle of

Manhattan to run a whole bunch of errands and it was going to take me longer to do it if I took Brooke with me. So I looked around the green room and I said I have to go out and run some errands can anybody watch my daughter for me and Ali instantly said I'll do it and as I left that room I looked back over my shoulder and he already had a deck of cards out and I had heard about the card tricks, had never seen it. I thought okay he's got a plan this is gonna work out okay. I was gone for about an hour and a half. I came back he was still with her still doing all of that stuff and then he had to go back to signing the books

and dealing with his other responsibilities. That night when we were in the middle of the program and the writers who were getting awards are coming up taking the awards etc etc I look out into the audience and Brooke is sitting at an HBO table and she did not know all of those people from HBO hadn't been there all that long and and so I could tell that she looked a little fractious. And Ali was next to me on the dais, and he still had to make a speech at the end of the evening, and he was literally nodding. Okay, I'm not saying he was nodding off, but he was tired and justifiably tired from what he had done. tired from what he had done. So I motioned Brooke to come up to the dais. She sat down between Ali and me. He went right back to doing the magic tricks, this time with napkins and forks and

spoons and the other props that he had available there on the table. And the two of them sat there for the last, oh I want to say 45 minutes of the dinner, entertaining each other until he stood up and made a great speech, terrific speech, and which I couldn't believe at that point, okay? I mean the Parkinson's was advancing, so on the way home, taking her uptown to her mother's apartment in uptown Manhattan, she turned to me in the back of a darkened cab and said, Dad, who was that guy? And I said, Well, Brooke, you'll grow up, you'll read about him, we'll talk about him, you'll know all of that. For right now I'll leave you with one thing to take to bed tonight and that is he's the most famous man in the world and no one can dispute it.

There's no logical argument against the idea that he's the most famous man in the world and she said I got babysat by the most famous man in the world I said yes absolutely you did. Wow. So 10 years later she graduates as the valedictorian from the American School of London. Her mother had moved to London, Brooke graduated as valedictorian out of 66 graduates at the American School of London. I went to the graduation ceremony and every student had been asked to supply for the graduation program a couple of poetry or a poetry verse or line or something which defined them and

you go through the program and get to the next last page the valedictorian, Brooke Lampley, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. So she's now a globally meaningful art dealer with a spectacular resume and if you were to describe watching her, my wife has done it, if you would describe her business style, she floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. So it was it was a match and you know you go your whole life life is random every once in a while you're gonna have an experience that you know you will still cherish and feel emotionally and touch at the end of your days. The last day I'm here alive at some moment I will think about Brooke and Muhammad. Wow. That's how big it was. And oh by the way, so that's 88. Eight years later she goes with me to the opening ceremony at the Olympics in

Atlanta and she knew everybody at NBC she's around the broadcast center etc. etc. and now we're in the stands and we're waiting for the torch the lighting of the torch and athletes bring the torch in and the torch relay and they're running around the track hand hand hand and of course the overwhelming question is who's gonna light the plane hmm maybe 15 20 seconds before it happened book turned to me and said dad it's Muhammad I said how do you know that? She said who else could it be? Has to be him. It was Mohammed. Wow. So you know again that's, those are bookends.

That's an important part of her life, important part of my life, and you know I'm always thrilled with the chance to tell that story. And then this is why the book was so much fun to read and such a delight, like a fine piece of chocolate, why I enjoyed every moment of it, because I'm a father as well. I have two boys and a girl, and I struggle sometimes about when to bring them along.

And it seemed like whenever you could, you were able to maximize those opportunities. You know, I wasn't great at marriage at that time, and I was divorced for the second time, and I was not spending as much time with her and her little sister as I would've wanted, so I looked for every opportunity, and those were opportunities that she liked and enjoyed

and grew from in a big way. I do have to give you a lot of credit. You are, at least from me reading it, you're open about your personal life in that regard. I have tears coming down my face right now. Sure. How difficult was it to- I can't hide anything. Okay. And I appreciate the emotion that you are not afraid to show, but to speak about marriages, failed marriages,

family life, in a book, you don't have to do this. How difficult was it for you? It was cleansing. Oh wow. Yeah, it was not always, it would be glib to say easy, but it was not a really difficult psychic challenge because I knew that if I put all these things in the book and if I showed people through the book,

yeah, okay, to a certain degree I do hear a worship myself. I mean, I think I had a remarkable career, and a lot of it was luck and circumstance, and some of it was me, but I also made mistakes, and I made mistakes both in my professional life and in my personal life, and if I didn't put those into the book, the story wouldn't be real. So the story's real. I'm very satisfied with that. I told the truth about both my good experiences and my bad experiences. And when I got finished writing the book, I thought, okay, that's it.

That's complete. You didn't leave anything out for your own convenience. And that's the way it should be. One story that that blew me away I had never known this and I and I consider myself somewhat of a you know a fan of sports broadcasting history and sports history in particular 1972 Olympics is obviously a story near and dear to my heart after what happened to the Israeli athletes I'm a proud Jewish person and it's one

of the darkest days in our history and I did not realize that essentially that tragedy, that horrific tragedy, correct me if I'm wrong, kind of spawned the sideline reporter. You're not anywhere close to wrong. I never knew that. You are 100% correct. ABC Sports learned during the attempt to cover what was going on with the captivity of the Israeli athletes, the attempt to satisfy two reporters,

Peter Jennings and Howard Cosell, who wanted to in some way get closer to the story. Can we get pictures from the room in the Olympic Village? Can we get a sense of how the terrorists got in there, etc., etc. They were pushing and pushing for all that stuff. And through the process, ABC Sports learned that radio frequency cameras and microphones, wireless cameras and microphones, would perform in a way that they had not known, that the signals would jump over concrete walls and

metal barriers and stuff like that, so that what they thought were obstructions were not fundamental obstructions to that process. And when those games were over, ABC came back to New York and there was a group meeting among the executives from the sports division, the news division, and the engineering division. And the question was, now that we know this, now that we have seen what we saw in Munich, what can we do? And one of the first things they agreed upon was we could put a reporter on the sideline of a football game. And at that time it wouldn't have been the NFL. The NFL would never have gone for a reporter on the sideline of a football game at that time, it wouldn't have been the NFL. The NFL would never have gone for a reporter on the sideline

or a football game at that time. That would have been a territorial encroachment that they wouldn't have agreed with. But the advertising agency, Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, and their account with Chevrolet, ABC, in effect, owned college football. ABC was the financial straw that stirred the drink in college football at that moment in time and if they wanted

to go to the NCAA and say we're gonna put a reporter on the sideline of the college football telecast, there was nobody at the NCAA with wherewithal to push back. So that's how I was involved in a 432 person talent hunt looking for a college-age or close to college age person. They eventually chose two of us and we first appeared on the sideline of Tennessee versus UCLA in Knoxville, Tennessee on September 7, 1974 and that's the beginning of my career.

Unbelievable. I had no idea about that and also loved and I hope you don't mind me bringing up some of these. And now of course, it looks like an indelible convention, right? I mean, if you're born in the 80s and you've been watching football all these years, you think to yourself,

oh, I'm surely there's always been a sideline reporter. It's an absolutely ubiquitous institution, but no, never happened before September 7 1974 By the way, how do you feel about the the use of the sideline reporter now? Sometimes it feels like it's just gratuitous Yes, but good word Thank you the interviews you don't get anything out of them I say this as someone who did like 12 games for ESPN when I was there NBA and it was it was fun for someone getting the opportunity

But I but I could imagine someone like yourself saying, like, this doesn't really add much. Well that first season, the great Keith Jackson. And Keith had just become the lead play-by-play on college football that season. Chris Schenkel had been the A-game play-by-play person right up to that year. And now Keith was the A-game play-by-play on college football, which by the way, was his consolation prize for having been removed from Monday Night Football after one year

because of the style mismatch between him and Cosell. So two or three weeks into that first season, when I was presenting at the production meeting, 15 possible stories to do on the sideline and coming up with all kinds of great stuff, and the great producer who ran the telecast, Chuck Howard, came to me and said, you know, Keith is getting a little tired of the fact

that sometimes he doesn't get it back from the sideline as rapidly as he wants it back from the sideline. And I'm not going to say that you should only do injury reports, but injury reports are what you can do. And we can be reasonably certain that you can start the story and button the story within 24 seconds. And that will make Keith happier. Well, I knew that if I wanted to keep working at ABC Sports, I would probably have to make Keith happy. So for the second half of that first season, almost everything I did was an injury report. Okay.

And that to this day is in my view, pretty much the most important thing a sideline reporter can do. Just last week, it's funny that we're talking about all this, Mike Arruzzione showed up in the final of the Canada USA Four Nations face-off that they had. What a great guy.

What a great guy, what a great story, and you were there in 1980 in Lake Placid. Yes I was. And I'm one, again, and I hope you don't mind me bringing up some of these these but I want the audience to know that this is a it is almost for skump esque these moments and they're like and there's Jim and and and you're getting a phone call saying like you need to get down to the arena because something's about to happen here I had spent the last Olympics not covering sports. I had spent the entire Lake Placid Olympics covering

the question of whether the United States was going to boycott the Moscow Olympics because of Soviet tanks in Afghanistan. And if that was going to be the case, were the Moscow Olympics going to be moved, delayed, or canceled? And also the organizational snafu that all of Lake Placid was

with people standing in remote parking lots, holding tickets in their hand, waiting for hours for buses that never showed up in sub-freezing temperatures. The whole thing had been a fiasco, and I spent most of the two weeks covering that. And then on the day of the hockey game I was in a an edit day editing a compendium piece on everything else

I had covered it like Placid and we were watching because the hockey game began at 5 p.m And we were and the Soviets wouldn't allow it to be moved on the schedule both the US delegation and wouldn't allow it to be moved on the schedule. Both the US delegation and the Hockey Federation had gone to the IOC and said move this game it's gonna have the biggest audience imaginable etc etc. Nope. Has to be played at the moment when we said it would be played. So actually began at four I think. So I'm in this edit bay working on this piece watching the game, and right at the end of the first period, it was two-one Russia, or the Soviets, and there was a loose puck in the Soviet end of the ice,

and a small American wing named Mark Johnson, who was the hottest goal scorer in the world for two weeks, got to that puck and slid it under Tratiak's glove into the net and that tied the score at 2-2. And in every ABC sports facility at that time, edit bay, control room, whatever it was, there was always a phone with a red ringer on the top and the red phone was the Arledge phone. If red ringer on the top. And the red phone was the Orlage phone.

If that ringer rang, if you saw the light go on, that was Rune. And seconds after Johnson's goal, the red phone rang. And the tape editor and the producer who were working with me both looked at me with a look that said, you, you know, we're not answering that. Obviously that's you. And I picked up the phone and it was Roon's voice

and he said, is Jim Lampley there? Yes, Roon, this is me, what are you doing? I told him, he said, drop that. Get over to the hockey arena. First period had just ended. He says, get to the hockey and and get in and be in position so that when this game ends you will be able to supply an interview. Something that buttons up the whole thing. I have a an enormous feeling that something

unusual is going to happen here. Roon was known for his golden gut, this ability to foresee something before it happened. Obviously, he was right. The last thing I said to him was, Rune, I don't have the right credential to get in. And we are, okay, one Olympics removed from Munich. So if you didn't have the right credential, you weren't supposed to be able to go anywhere. He said, you'll get in, slammed down the phone. So I went to the hockey arena. First face I saw was the high school So I went to the hockey arena. First face I saw was

the high school hockey coach who was the venue manager. I had met him three days before. Pure circumstance, pure luck. I explained the situation to him. He said, come on in. Got up on a camera platform behind our main game cameras and watched the last two periods and wound up interviewing Jim Craig and Mike Rusione on the main street of Lake Placid in front of a little Italian restaurant where they had had dinner after the game with Jimmy's dad. And just before Jim McKay threw to me

for that interview on the street, Rusione turned to me and said, Jim, if we had come out here and stood in this place last night, and I turned around and looked, and there were five, six, eight thousand people behind us, and I looked at Mike and said, no one would have noticed. He said, exactly.

No one would have known. So that's another of those things that, that's why the book is titled, It Happened. You know, there's no explaining all of the things that happened to me and why they happened. It just happened. How did you go about remembering everything? Did you write a journal?

Did you keep notes throughout your career? What did you do? My father died when I was five years old. When my father died when I was five years old, I made an internal commitment to remember everything I could in my life. It became clear to me that memory was the only way you could hold on to things. If you didn't, remember them. They were lost. So I focused all my childhood well up into my

teenage years on remembering everything I could remember. All right? Look at the roster. Try to remember all 70 names of the University of Miami football team. You know, watch the World Series. Try to remember every play you've seen in the World Series. I can still see Mickey Mantle diving back into first base after a slam-bang line drive down the line by another Yankee hitter that set up an obvious double play that would have ended the World Series in 1960 and Mantle was aware enough and conscious enough and quick enough as an athlete to not run to second base because the first baseman grabbed this one hopper and stepped on the bag. So now that he stepped on the bag, he took away the force.

Mantle dived back in under his tag and kept the inning alive. Later, Masurowski hit the home run that won the game, but Mantle had kept the Yankees alive in the game. These are the kinds of things I can remember vividly in my head because when my father died, I told myself, I don't ever want to forget anything. Wow. And you did a great job of recounting it all

and retelling it all. I don't want to forget being here with you today, Ariel. I appreciate that. This is, I don't know anybody who's had a luckier life. Even though my father did die when I was five years old. In an odd way, it set me up for the lucky life. So, yeah, I still try to remember as much as I can, but at age 75, I'm not quite as good as I used to be.

Well, end in a moment, but I'm dying to ask you this question, as someone who kind of bounced around and did a whole host of different sports, and you you're on TV and there was one point in the book where you're talking about perhaps when you're doing the the tennis Telecast for HBO you don't have the same confidence During a rain delay to speak for five hours And I kind of know what that's like as well when when you could sit here and just kind of riff when it's something that's sort Of ingrained as opposed to maybe something that isn't did you ever deal with imposter syndrome? did you ever deal with any sort of

crisis of self-confidence when you look at yourself saying like I'm not really an expert but I have to play one on TV? The first few days that I did Wimbledon for HBO in 1988 I did have something of an imposter complex. How'd you get over it? Definitely was not well it was easy to get over it because those telecasts were several hours long and day after day after day so you know how many weekdays there are ten weekdays during the fortnight so that's ten weekdays when I'm doing five six-hour telecasts live no commercials working with Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Arthur Ashe, John Lloyd, et cetera, et cetera.

I felt like an imposter for five or six days by the time those first two weeks of the Wimbledon Fortnite were over with, I was ready, I was an expert. Didn't prevent Tennis Magazine from designating me as the worst announcer in tennis that particular year, but I got better. And I got better partially because I had

the overwhelming support of Billie Jean and Martina and Barry McKay and the other professionals with whom I worked at Wimbledon. Okay, so and that's it. Throughout your illustrious career, that was the only time where you kind of felt you know we all go through ups and downs right we all go through moments where we may not feel at the top of our game. Before I did boxing okay and I'd grown up watching boxing I was huge

boxing fan I can still remember you know all of my most vibrant early experiences in boxing including the first fight between you sugar Ray Robinson Bobo Olson including the fact that I watched Griffith Perrett one and, you know, understood what I had seen, etc, etc. But before I went to call the first boxing match, I was concerned because I had not called a fight and a really tremendous boxing fan and ABC executive named Alex Wallow, who was to be my expert commentator on that telecast.

And remember, this is the telecast that's supposed to get rid of me from ABC once and for all. And he lived about 10 blocks away from me on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. And for three months in advance of our first boxing date together, he would call me up two or three hours in the middle of the day, go to his house and watch fights.

So I got indoctrinated by a legitimate boxing expert before I ever called my first fight. And he would indoctrinate me into the most inside things possible. Look at how this fighter holds the opponent's arm away from the referee on the other side so that the referee can't see what he's doing and he's setting up the body punch. And all sorts of little nuances like that.

So that when I first went to call a fight, I was not a novice any longer. I had been trained. And everything else I did was stuff that I had watched, I was not a novice any longer. I had been trained. And everything else I did was stuff that I had watched when I was a kid. And of course, if it was something on Wide World of Sports, if it was one of the unusual events on Wide World of Sports,

then there was supposed to be an initiation process. And you were going through it with the viewer on the air. I could sit here and pepper you with questions for hours, but I do believe. Feel free. No, you have to go. And this has been a great treat. through it with the viewer on the air. I just I just want to thank you for coming It's an incredible read, a very fast read. You said it was long. It didn't feel very long to me and I enjoyed every second of it. And, uh, I just, I just want to thank you for coming in. I want to thank you for your great career, for all the great telecasts. And I hope that there are many more to come wherever they may be, uh, under whatever platform or broadcast signal, who knows, but you're still throwing 90. Live text on ppv.com.

That as well. During the fights. Uh, you still got some some heat left in you if you ask me and it's just it's great to say that you're now somewhat of a regular on my program and trust me 2003 I'm an intern at HBO sports afraid to look at anyone in the eyes I never would have predicted that but life is a funny thing is as as my life is unpredictable, it's idiosyncratic, and thank God for that.

This is what makes it interesting and exciting to be alive. And I can't thank you enough for popping my book the way you just did. Of course, thank you, Jim. All the best to you, we're gonna take a quick break. We're forward to coming back. Amen, quick break, we'll be back with Michael Chandler. Don't go anywhere.

All right, back on the program. That was my good friend, Drikis Duplessis. He was on the show last Tuesday. You can watch that entire interview on our YouTube channel. What about Jim Lampley? I think you probably can gather by now. I love those interviews. I love talking to the broadcasters.

Past, present, future, whatever. I just love, I love picking their brain. I love putting myself in that time. I love old sports broadcasting stories. Um, and in particular from, from this era eighties and nineties, because. I watched a lot of it. because I watched a lot of it, I lived through a lot of it. Obviously, you know, the 70s Olympics,

Miracle and I saw that stuff, I wasn't around for, but just amazing stuff. And so I hope that you enjoyed that a quarter as much as I did. What a guy. And if you're a fan of all this stuff, honestly, breeze right through the book, highly recommend it. Amazing stories, some life lessons as well.

He's quite open about the ups and the downs, the warts if you will, and a lot of it has been public. So I appreciate him addressing some of the stuff. And then there's stuff in there that I didn't know, some amazing insight into his relationship with OJ Simpson and, and then living through that. Imagine a colleague and friend is now, you know, accused of murder and living through that, the trial of the century, you know, just, just a lot, a lot of stuff. So check out the book and also check out ppv.com. I watched, believe it or not, I watched better be a Bivel via PPV.com this weekend and the stream is always phenomenal and the app is great to get it on the TV. It's, it's flawless.

It's crystal clear, no subscription required. I enjoy their, their product very much. And that is how I'll be watching the tank Davis Lamont roach fight this weekend. Anyone going to that from the team? No, probably not. I'd imagine. Who me?

Oh, Frankie going. Uh, no, you've been known to go to a, uh, a Barclays fight night or two. Or two. Yeah. Only once. But maybe, uh, I had to I remember once. Yeah. Maybe. I had to drag him to that one too. Maybe in the future.

Which one did you drag him to? Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney. You dragged him to that one? Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was in colorful. By the ear. By the ear.

You didn't want to go to that? Mm-mm. And the entire time I was like, when is this over? You don't like it out. I actually ran to the bathroom, that was when the first knockdown happened, I'm like, damn it. I had to beg for an extra ticket for him, and I was like hey, man

I got the extra ticket like a UN he's like I gotta see damn like call me ten minutes of no It's one of the best fights of the year. Oh, it's an unbelievable night. It's an unbelievable night He had no faith in Garcia though. He thought it was all hanging it going into it. That was that was your guy, right? Yeah, and then you know I Was wrong yeah, no Turkey was asked about this time square card on Saturday during the broadcast. And he said, I don't know, maybe New York. So who knows?

Maybe we do get MSG after all. I would, I don't even understand how they will do time square, like from a logistic standpoint, it sounds like a nightmare. Money, just like a ton of money and then like shut down time square. Like what? I mean, if you can do nightmare. Money, just like a ton of money and then like- Shut down Times Square, like what? I mean, if you can do it for New Year's Eve, right? Like-

Yeah, that's the city doing that. Yeah, I guess- That's not a singular entity doing that. I know, but you pay so much money that it's just like- What do you think it costs to shut down Times Square? Woo! Like, are we talking $100 million? Yeah, probably in that area.

To shut it down for an entire evening? I guess it's kind of- I don't know, I mean, if a hundred million's nothing to you, then I guess it is worth it. MSG is just as good. No? It's MSG. Times Square, what if it rains?

The whole thing gets ruined. Yeah, you put two massive names in Times Square. Two massive names in Times Square is bigger than MSG. And so I wonder what happens. It would just be the spectacle. Are people able to just like rock up there? Like, are they just like walking? Yeah, see now it's getting tricky.

Like what happened? It's getting tricky. Like some, like some family from freaking Greece is on vacation walking to Times Square for the first time and they're like, oh, sorry, you can't come because Ryan Garcia is fighting against Roli Romero. What? Please direct all complaints to his Excellencies. Oh, you want it to go to the M&M store?

Sorry about that. Sorry, Ryan Garcia. Devin Haney's about to walk right now. Sorry about that. No chance. Yeah. Oh, you want it to go to Foot Locker? We apologize.

Martin Rucoli's about to make the walk right now. It just doesn't, I don't know if the, I guess people will talk about it, but I think it would be easier to put on an event at Alcatraz than Times Square. Oh, for sure. Because nothing's going on in Alcatraz. Yeah.

That would be sick. That sounds like a good idea. Times Square seems like a big headache for no real reason. Can you imagine how sick it would be as a fan to like take the boat out to Alcatraz for a big boxing match? Oh, incredible. I forgot about that.

Yeah, you gotta work through all that. You have to have like a- Can we call it The Rock, though? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout out to Sean Connery, right? Was it Sean Connery? Sean Connery and what's his name? Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage.

The Cage! Yeah! Just watched National Treasure last night. Shout out. Ed Harris. Yes, Ed Harris, formerly married with children. Anyway, guys, no time to waste. Let us go to our next guest.

We were talking all about 314 and about, I mean there's so many different angles to all the announcements. And one of the big announcements in this whole, like this avalanche of news that hit us on Wednesday evening was that Michael Chandler is coming back and he's fighting Patty Pimlet and I love this matchup and I love the timing of which this fight is happening and the stakes for both men. This feels like a sort of sink or swim fight for Patti. Finally we get to see him against a former champion in Bellator, a former title contender, a top contender and we get to see an opportunity where Michael Chandler could get back on track after MSG. And so this is a phenomenal co-main event. It goes down UFC 314, April 12th in Miami. And Michael Chandler is kind enough to join us to talk about this and a whole host of things.

There he is. Hello, Michael. How are you? What's up, Ariel? I'm great, man. Just down here in Florida getting after it. Yeah, and we're not too far away. We were all wondering, okay, what's going to happen here with this card? Because we were less than two months away last week and then finally we get the avalanche of news. And so can I ask The road to getting to this fight because there were several fights that we thought maybe you can Go after that you can be, you know, uh linked to how did we end up with patty pimblet? That's a good question. Um After the fight, I you know had a couple weeks of going home, hanging out, and I got a call from the UFC, and they said,

hey, how you doing? What's going on? Number one, great fight. It was fun to watch. But hey, what are you thinking next? And Patty Pimlet's name got thrown out there. Obviously, I loved the matchup, but I wasn't able to commit to any kind of dates or anything. I needed to get through the recovery from the last fight, but I wasn't able to commit to any kind of dates or anything. I needed to get through some, um, the recovery from the last fight to say the least, and, uh, here we are.

And now obviously it's happening in April. We got it ironed out. I was actually on a vac and then fast forward a couple of months later, I was on a vacation in Turks and Caicos and got a, I've got a hall call from Hunter Campbell and he said, Hey, what do you think about April? And I was like, well, you know, recovery is going really well. I do not feel great about the last fight. I got a horrible taste in my mouth about it. Extremely let down more let down than I've ever been. Let's go ahead. Let's do this thing in April. Let's put me in a position. Cause as you said,

there is a ton of things going on lightweight featherweight welterweight, all kinds of different rumors, all kinds of different matchups, all kinds of different things. And I want to fight a guy ASAP to get in the win column, do something spectacular in Miami, UFC 314 to keep my name in the mix. And by the way, when was that that call? Like when are you on vacation? How long ago are you getting this call? Uh, two weeks ago.

Oh, wow. Okay. So it's a pretty tight, it's a pretty tight turnaround. Yeah, but you know, it's funny, man. I'm down here training and as an athlete, or not even as an athlete, I mean, I've been around all of them, right? From the top of the top, most disciplined dudes in the world

down to the guys who shouldn't even be considered professional athletes. No matter what, when you're going into a training camp, um, you never know how that first couple of sessions are going to be, man, how bad of shape am I in? How, how in pain am I here? Do little cricks here? Where did I neglect my recovery? All I can say is I was built for this man.

Cause I stepped right onto the mats here in South Florida with my team. And it's like I never left. As a matter of fact, I think I got better since my last fight, as far as just the composure, the movement, cardio. And I'm glad I made the decision because I stand steadfast and it's a common theme in my life. An imperfect plan implemented now is better than a perfect plan implemented sometime in the future, right? I could wait it out. I could wait till the perfect right time, maybe push it out to June. International Fight Week was obviously talked about, co-main event there. And that was kind of the rumblings and the talks. But then this opportunity

came and said, man, what am I going to do? Sit at home and kind of put down a nice foundation like I always like to do. Yeah. Yeah. I've been doing this for a long time, man. And I'm excited to go out there and compete against Patty. And so to be clear, they offered you Patty. You didn't ask for Patty.

Yes, to be clear. And did that excite you? Did you feel like, you know, the reason I asked this question is because recently we've seen the talk from Dustin Poirier saying like, nah, you know, I only have maybe one or two left it's only top names former contenders champions etc he is not that he's a top name but he's not the other two did the the opportunity to fight someone like Patty excite you it did I

mean this is a there's a big fight no matter no matter which way you look at it man it's a big fight and it's it's the lifecycle of the fighter I will you know tip my hat to Dustin Poirier. He fought Benoit Saint-Denis when not very many people knew him, right? Justin Gaethje fought Rafael Faziv. I see it often on the social media webs, everybody's like, man, you're fighting everybody

in the top three, top two, top five. You need to go fight a young hungry up and comer. Well, here you go, boys and girls. Here's my opportunity. Here's his opportunity. This is Patty's opportunity to get inside the top 10. This is my opportunity to show you that there are different levels to this sport. I have still to this day, you can talk about my record, you can talk about losses, you can talk about how it all went

down my run in the UFC thus far, but I have done nothing but fight first ballot, hall of famers, former champions. Every single loss that I have has nothing but fight first ballot Hall of Famers former champions every single fight Every single loss that I have has been to one of those guys and when I don't fight one of those guys Knock out of dan hooker in two and a half minutes that brutal ko of tony ferguson, which was ko of the year something spectacular happens When my back is up against the wall or i'm fighting a guy that's not named Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje or Charles Olivera. So we'll see what happens on April 12th, UFC 314. What is your assessment of Patti as a fighter? He's one of the more polarizing fighters in the sport because you know, the talk some say that he's not as good as the hype that he receives.

I think as of late, he has looked a lot better. The last two fights in particular have been his best performances in the UFC. Perhaps the stench of the Jared Gordon fight is still there, but as someone who lives and breathes this and has done it and has made that walk a million times, your critical analysis of him, your assessment of him is what? Yeah, and as a guy who trains with Jared Gordon, I talked to him this morning

and we were talking about a few things and there's no doubt. Most people think Patty lost that fight. Most people think that Jared won that fight and didn't just kind of eke it out and did enough. You know, we can use this term. Did he do enough to win? I think he beat Patty Pemblad. But, um, my assessment of him is, man, I think he's gotten a lot of undue criticism because when you're a big personality, you talk a certain way, you talk a little bit of trash. Obviously he's had some run ins with Ilya Tuporiya and some of these other guys where he's got these little animosities going on. The fans will either love that or they will hate that.

They will either say, hey, you're propped up way too much, or they'll say, hey, I love Patti Pemblit. You see it with a lot of guys. Bo Nichols is a great example right now. Guys, when they get into the UFC and they're fighting the toughest competition and they're fighting these big fights on these big stages in these big arenas, there's a certain learning curve that they need.

I was very fortunate. I did all my learning curve back in Bellator, had to come into the UFC as a 32-year-old salty veteran and one of the top five guy right away. That was the path that I wanted. I told Hunter Campbell that when I sat in his office, I don't want to putz of the top five guy right away. That was the path that I wanted. I told Hunter Campbell that when I sat in his office, I don't want to putz around the top 20 top 25.

I don't need a tune up fight. I want to get thrown into the shark infested waters of the lightweight division. And that is what I have done since September of 2020. Patty's good. He's growing. I think the pressure I'm going to put on him, he's obviously going to keep that evading, throwing a lot of kicks, kinda throwing some wild punches,

trying to keep things interesting in there because he knows when one of these hands lands, it's gonna be different than Jordan Levitt, it's gonna be different than Bobby Green, it's gonna be different than a lot of the guys that he has fought, but I'm up to the challenge. Prove me right, prove me wrong, let's see what happens. Would you agree that he's never fought anyone like you?

Yeah, I mean, that's an understatement. With all due respect, and I don't like to overemphasize or overboast, but my goodness, I had done nothing, but train myself in violent hand-to-hand combat since I was 14 years old and I fought the best of the best from former champions to guys who are absolute psychopaths like Justin Gaethje. Yeah, not even close. Do you think he is cut from that same cloth?

You, Gaethje, Poirier, those guys, like you guys seem to wake up when you're in a war. Do you think that he likes to get in wars? Do you think that he is able to be in a war? We've never really seen him in a war like that. You know what I'm talking about, those types of fights, those legendary nights. Do you think he is that kind of guy?

Yeah, I mean, the absence of a war is not the presence of a coward or the presence of a guy who's just a point fighter. But yeah, I mean, as of later, you look at some of his fights that he's had, I mean, some of these things are just stylistic matchups where it's like, well, there was no way it was going to turn into a war against this guy or that guy. But he's seen some adversity. His first fight in the UFC got dropped. And whoever that guy was, I forget what his name was and who he was, but he don't hit half as hard as I do. So we'll see. We'll test his chin. We'll test his gall. We'll test his championship mentality. We'll test his cardio. We will test his heart.

Patty Pemberton will be tested more than he has ever been tested in his entire life in April, just seven short weeks away. And it's the biggest opportunity of his life. Does he rise to the occasion or does he sink? It remains to be seen either way. As I've said, I've been very respectful cordial posted the video of me wearing the, the, the Patty Pimlet hair. I mean, this sport is fun for me, man. And I'm going to enjoy it and I'm going to run my own race. There's a little bit there is right there.

You know, we're going to enjoy it. We're going to have fun. I don't need to hate Patty Pimlet to want to separate him from consciousness. I don't need to have any kind of animosity to absolutely eviscerate this man. It's what I've been doing since I was 14 years old and I prefer a fight like this. But wait, where'd you get the hair? I went to pattypimlethair.com. Wow!

You actually bought it off the site? Oh, okay. I was like, what? Because I think he does sell it. Does he really? I think so. Maybe I've seen people wear it. No, actually he really? I think so, or maybe I've seen people wear it. No, actually that would have been a nice cordial shout out.

Hey man, I bought a wig from your website. No, I literally just, I think I got it off of Amazon and I said like blonde wig, blonde men's wig, and that's where I got it. And I still, I got it down here in Florida, so. It looks good. Yeah, it might be making a couple appearances over the next couple weeks.

By the way, in that conversation with Hunter, did you fly out to Las Vegas to sit and talk about this? Yeah. Why did that happen? Big business in the UFC, man. Hunter and I have a great relationship, a great bond, a great working, mutually beneficial, symbiotic,

win-win situation where it's like, hey, I'm never going to ask for way more than I'm worth, and I expect you to give me your highest and best for this juncture in my career and where we're at and what we're doing and the value that I bring. It's as close to a perfect working relationship as you can get. And it's legit and it's awesome. And it's like, hey man, I need to come out to Vegas, sit with you. He actually met with me at like 6.30 or 7.00 PM on a Sunday night at his office.

Nobody was at the UFC offices, PI, just the security guards had to let me in. And then we sat there under the dim lights of his offices and hashed it out. And here we are in camp. New deal? You get a new deal out of this or what? Man, all I know is the UFC likes what I bring to the table.

I love it. And I love what the UFC brings to the table, man. They have changed my life. And I finally feel like I'm in a place, the place where I'm supposed to be. And it's been great. And it's gonna keep on getting better. We got a big, big summer.

How did we get to five rounds? I like five rounds. I mean, I think it was thrown out by the UFC. I love five rounds. I think Patty has faded. He faded into the Tony Ferguson fight. I think he was fading in the Jared Gordon fight. I just went 25 minutes with Charles Olivera, the greatest submission artist

in UFC history. And my body felt it a little bit. But while I was in the while I was in the trenches, man, I felt great. And I love fighting 25 minutes. It's deep waters. I mean, you got an opportunity for me to continue to solidify who I am as a lightweight in the world in this division. And you got an opportunity for a young up and coming hungry guy who's got his greatest moment of opportunity against a guy like me. So why not do it? Why not do it 25 minutes? If you say you're going to be a future champion, if you were looked at as if you were going to be a future champion, you gotta fight 25 minutes.

I have trained for and competed in 25 minute fights, probably more times than he has actually fought. So I'm used to a 25 minute fight camp. And here's another one. To the best of your knowledge, was he into it off the jump? I think so. You know, it actually of your knowledge, was he into it off the jump? I think so. You know, it actually, you know, we spoke about it.

You know, he, I think, cause I was getting tagged in on Twitter or something that, that he said, see you at the top of one of his videos. So obviously that was a quick hint to who, who the opponent may be. And obviously I smiled and can't wait to, to go compete against them. Okay. You, you said just before, big summer coming up.

What were you alluding to? Big summer coming up, man. Because this is spring, by the way. This is spring, April. This is spring, this is spring, but I'm ready to fight in summer because there's gonna be, you know, it could be a lot of stuff happening.

So we'll see, I think, obviously Ilya jumping into the division, Max jumping into the division, Poirier talking about a retirement fight. You got Gachey and Hooker here in three weeks time, whatever it is, big, big fights, man. And I'm excited to share the card with Volk and Lopez who are fighting for the vacant 145 title. And we welcome Ilya to Poirier with open arms.

Does that mean we're looking, if all goes well, at a potentially quick turnaround for you? All I want is quick turnarounds. Listen, I think I got a little bit of a reputation for a guy who likes to sit on the sidelines, you know, because of the whole Conor situation. Never forget, I'm a man of my word. I signed my name to a contract that said, I, Michael Chandler, will do the Ultimate Fighter 31 and then fight Conor McGregor. Did I wait too long? Yeah. And a lot of people's eyes.

But I'm the guy who came into the UFC in September of 2020 took a short notice backup opportunity in October and then fought January, May, November, May, November fought five fights in 26 months or wherever it was. I'm not a guy who sits on the sidelines. I fought six times in 13 months when I was in Bellator. I'm a guy who is extremely active. I live this sport every single day. So yeah, I'm not afraid of a quick turnaround this summer with all the stuff that's happening, new names coming into the division. You've got Islam talking about maybe going up, maybe leaving the lightweight division, never wanted to come, never want to make 155 again.

I need to be ready. So April 12th, we go out and we do our job. We get our hand raised in spectacular fashion. And I'm the guy who's right there on the doorstep to some big opportunities, some big fights. In those conversations, Connor, part of them at all? Is it possible 2025 is the year? Connor's always a part of the man. I mean, it's, it's going to be one of those deals where, you know, um, I'm the name, I'm the, his road back to the UFC goes through me. It goes straight through Nashville, Tennessee and Michael Chandler. We've got to finish the ultimate fighter 31. That is the UFC sentiment.

I think it's even his sentiment. We've tweeted a little bit back and forth here and there. He said, I'm a man of my word. Well, if you're a man of your word, then there's only one guy that you're gonna fight when you come back to the UFC. The guy who had a contract with your name on it, the guy who signed on the dotted line

and still to this day has never missed weight and never pulled out of a fight. So could be 2025, could be this summer, could be this fall, could be this winter, could be 2026, I don't know. All I know is, as you can see by the decisions that I'm making, the moves that I'm making, fought Charles Olivera in November,

and here we are just three months removed from that. And I'm in camp getting ready to fight Patty Pembley in April in Miami. In your heart of hearts, what are you feeling now these days? Does it ever happen? Heart of hearts is tough, man, because I think heart of

hearts says that Connor is coming back at some point. But if I'm a betting man, if I'm using my brain, I wouldn't put money on it. But that's where I'm at today. Right now, obviously, I'm focused on a blonde dude from Liverpool. So I think my heart of heart says I'm not, my heart of heart says I'm not sure for sure, but Connor's gotta come back to his first love. The one thing that has given him every single thing, every single shiny object that he is currently chasing and taking all these side quests and side jobs

and all these different things, every single thing that he has can be tied back in some way or another to the UFC, the opportunity that they gave them, the push that they gave him. And does he want his legacy to be, yeah, my last fight, I broke my leg and I touted the greatest comeback in combat sports history. I fooled everybody for a couple of years and then signed on the dotted line to fight Michael Chandler and then pulled out of the fight, never to return again. I don't think he wants his legacy to be that.

Then again, I haven't walked a mile in that man's shoes, so I'm not gonna say what he is thinking. But my heart of heart says he's coming back at some point, but if I was a betting man, I ain't putting money on it. What was your reaction when you saw that your old foe, Patricia Pippel, be on the card as well, right below you? I mean, just kind of crazy, 2025, the two faces of Bellator for the past decade plus

on a UFC pay-per-view main card, what was your reaction? Not surprised. I mean, not surprised at him or the laundry list of everybody who is tweeting at Don Davis and PFL. And before that, it was Bellator, before they got completely absolved or whatever you call it. However, that went down. It just continues to solidify that the UFC is the only place for mixed martial arts. Take it from me. Take it from a guy like Patricio Pitbull. Two years from now,

a year from now, sit him on your show and have him answer honestly what the difference is and how much bigger it is, how much more significant it is over here. And if he plays his cards right and does his job, how much more lucrative it is. It's just a, it's very interesting, man, because obviously I have, I think I have the best perspective of anybody in mixed martial arts when it comes to the significance of the UFC. And I love the UFC, not because it's the UFC. I love UFC because I know what the opposite of the UFC is. I know what it's like being outside of the UFC. I know what it's like to go to UFC events and have people ask me to take pictures of Ryan Bader and Graham Maynard and Michael Johnson and

Robbie Lawler and then asked me who I am. And I'm like, well, I actually just beat Eddie Alvarez a couple of months ago. And they're like, oh, you're that Bellator guy. I know what it's like. So I bit my tongue. I swallowed my pride. I kept working. I kept my nose to the grindstone. I patiently waited, buying my time, built my platform, built my skillset, built my mind, body, and soul and spirit until it was the right time. And that door, it was abundant and clear that the door was open to go to the UFC. And now it's worked out perfectly. And I think if you asked 80% of the roster of PFL, GFL, Bellator,

all these other ones, they want to be right where I'm at. 100% There's no doubt about that. How do you think he does in the UFC? Cause he's coming in a little older than you were when you came in. Honestly, I haven't seen a fight. I haven't seen one of his fights in a very long time. So I don't know where his skillset is at. All I do know is I wish him well.

There was a little bit of animosity, a little bit of bad blood. I think a lot of that actually stemmed from my discontent with where I was in my life, knowing that I was stuck in Bellator and wanted to get out. So I needed something to blame it on. And sometimes my opponents were that.

And Patricio was an easy target because I had beat his brother and he F-ued me when I stood on the cage. And I said something about family. I said something about family, obviously, because I thought his brother, they are by definition family. So when I used on the cage and I said something about family. You know, I said something about family, obviously, because I bought his brother. They are by definition family. So when I used the word family, I think he was thinking I was talking about his

wife and his kids and his mom and his aunts and all that stuff. So it became language barrier, uh, unfortunate set of circumstances, but I wish him well. I think he's dynamic. I think he's explosive. I think he's got a great opportunity to fight Yair Rodriguez, who's ranked one number five, number four. So he could find himself in top five in UFC here in seven weeks time and maybe the number one contender Maybe the guy who fights for the belt next that's what happened with me depending on how the circumstances go

He's a stud man, and I spent a lot of time around him obviously in Bellator Watched him a lot shared a lot of cards with him He's a fan favorite for a reason and it'll be a fun fight. Guys gotta buy the pay-per-view. UFC 314. I would love to get your thoughts on the division because when this announcement came out on Wednesday evening, you know, the top story was Ilya's no longer the featherweight champion. And then on Saturday, Dana White was asked, is it's kind of a formality that it's gonna be Ilya versus Islam? And he said, no, not necessarily. There's a lot going on. I said at the top of the show I can't

imagine Ilya's giving up the title, vacating the title at 145 to then fight a number one contender fight, to fight a guy like Armin or a Charles or whomever before getting a title fight. Could I ask you, you're very smart when it comes to the fight game especially this MMA game How do you foresee this all playing out with Ilya? Well, I think it's a good question because yeah conventional wisdom would say you never give up a belt without a guarantee of an Of the belt that you're going up to go fight for But I do think Ilya to poria is a different breed

I do think I don't think we've seen a guy who is as Confident as he is since Conor McGregor circa 2000, whatever it was 15, 16, 17. I do think, I don't think it's outside the realm of the possibilities that Ilya literally said here, take this belt. I don't want it. I am now a lightweight. You'll match me up against whoever you wanna match me up against. Now, with that being said, I don't know if that's true. We could very well, Dana is running the most successful mixed martial arts promotion on the planet and sometimes he lies.

Sometimes he lies on purpose. So we could very well see Islam versus Toporia getting announced tomorrow. That is for him to know and for all of us to find out and I wish I had more inside info info for you, but I don't I'm just curious fair is a weird word when it comes to the fight Game, but my understanding was all right They kind of promised it to Charles after the Armin situation in January. Is it fair for Charles to get leapfrog? He was supposed to get a title shot. Remember he gets the cut. He then has to fight Armin, he doesn't get the title fight, all that stuff.

And so I don't know what to do with Charles, who by all accounts seems to be a person they love and who's done right by them and vice versa. So what do you do with Charles? Do you match them up? Do you then, do you move Islam up to 170 and he's gone and now you just do them for the vacant title? It's not as clean as I maybe thought it was back on Wednesday. No, it's not clean. And that's why, that's part of the reason why I jumped at this opportunity.

I need to be coming off of a win with all of the craziness that is happening. I need to go fight Patty Pimlet, A-S-A-P, to have my name in those talks. Now, you know, if you would have asked me, I still think at this point, I've just got a, I've just got a disdain for guys who pull out and pull out of fights right before now. I don't know his injury. I don't know how serious it was, how serious it wasn't. I've always said, if I can walk to the cage, if I can walk to the octagon, I'm stepping inside the octagon and I'm competing. Is that a smart thing? No, if you're a young fighter right now, don't necessarily take that page out of the Michael Chandler playbook. I've lost fights because of it, but it's just who I am and how I was raised and how I was

bred. So with that being said, I think Charles leapfrogs Armand. I think Charles should be looked at as above Armand because of what happened there. Now with Armand, I think Armand's done some interviews and it of what happened there. Now with, I think Armin's done some interviews and it sounds like Armin's cool with, hey man, put me against whoever. I'm young. I still got a lot of gas in the tank. I'll fight whoever. I think Charles versus Armin would be obviously a great fight for a five rounder to see how that plays out with under five rounds. But then you got Ilya coming into the division. I mean, dude, your guess is as good as mine,

but I would put Charles over top of Armin as we speak right now, even though his last loss was to Armin, but Charles is a stud, man. Two last things. How do you think Ilja actually does at 155? I've met him one time and I've stood next to him, sized him up. It's what we do as fighters. It's like, Hey, are you, are you a 70 pounder?

You're 55. You're 35. What is that guy? Yeah. Man, that guy cuts a ton of weight. Um, I don't think he's going to be big for the weight class. That's, but that sure didn't mean a dang thing when Frankie Edgar had his reign, right? Um, he's definitely not going to be a big guy for the weight class. But I think his style is very, very, very great for mixed martial arts.

He's calm. He is composed. He's got dynamite in his hands. Now dynamite in his hands at 145 is different than dynamite in his hands at 155. Him getting hit by the guys at 155 is different than him getting hit by the guys at 145. Him getting grappled and grabbed, picked up, slammed, going through the exchanges much different at the different weight class. But he's obviously a confident professional and with a 10 pounds extra he can put on a little bit of weight, cut less weight. It's very interesting the whole

145 is hard to make thing because I saw him talking about drinking wine on fight week and I don't drink wine for about 12 weeks leading up to a fight. So I don't really understand the whole weight cutting thing. I think that was just kind of an easy, low hanging fruit excuse. I think it's more he's just confident

that he can go up to 155 and beat guys. But I'm not gonna sit here and say it's gonna be a rude awakening. He could come in and walk through three dudes and win the title, who knows? But he's very good at what he does. Last thing, did you watch the fights this weekend? And in particular, the main event?

I did. So, Hudo's song and how it all finished. We were talking about it extensively at the top of the show. Just curious, your take very quickly. I thought a point should be taken away. And the reason I thought that was, ultimately, this sucks for Henry Sohudo. He fights through the eye poke, I thought a point should be taken away and the reason I thought that was ultimately this

sucks for Henry Cejudo. He fights through the eye poke, the round ends, now all of a sudden they go to the scorecards and instead of it being a no contest, they go to the scorecards, no point taken away, he gets the loss. If he had just said I can't fight and doesn't try to fight through it for that minute 15, it's a no contest and if they determine that it's an intentional eye poke, it's a DQ in his favor. Ultimately, I feel like there aren't enough repercussions for these things.

And it's kind of weird because they just brought back the old gloves and the new gloves were supposed to stop the eye pokes from happening. So in the end, there are some people who thought Herzog nailed it and it's easy for us to sit here two days later and break it all down. But as a fighter, how did you feel like that all went down? Were you cool with that?

What's really funny is that I have been fighting since I was 22 years old. I've been fighting for 15 years. I've had 32, 33 fights, whatever it is. I didn't know what the heck was going on. And I'm as big a fan as Jason Herzog as anybody. I think we've got some of the, you know, we've got some really, really great referees who do a really, really good job, who know the rule book and they know

all the different circumstances in their sleep. But I did not understand what was happening because you could hear him. You could hear him audibly saying, well, I'm going to start the fourth round, stop it, call a time. And then, you know, me and I thought, okay, well, that makes sense, I guess, for some reason, whatever he's going to do, but then his response to that was because then we can go to the scorecards. Well, it's like, well, at some point, do you go to the scorecards? I mean, it was a really bad eye poke. It was a double eye poke. It was a three stooges, both eyes. Obviously his left eye took the brunt of it, but very interesting scenario. I would lean toward the camp of, hey, Jason Herzog knows what he's talking about.

Maybe because it was at the very end of the third round and he, you know, decided to stand up. I guess he didn't really say, I can't see, or maybe he did say, I can't see him at the end of the third round. I don't know. It was very interesting, but it is unfortunate. I mean, I poke is tough because it it's never on purpose, man, but at some point, it's a habit, right? I can train every single day and if I keep training with my fingers out, I'm asking to poke somebody in the eye, right? If that's what I'm doing and I'm training.

So I think we as coaches, we as teammates, we need to be training this. Just like we train punches, keys, knees, uh, teammates, we need to be training this. Just like we train punches, keys, Nick knees, kicks, and elbows. We need to be training the pawing slash pairing slash, um, Technique of the, of the crash between two guys without our fingers out, um, it's just part of it, man. It's crazy. It's, it's a very unfortunate thing because you can get kicked in the nuts. You can get punched in the throat, all these little inadvertent things, but thing because you can get kicked in the nuts. You can get punched in the throat,

all these little inadvertent things, but man, you get poked in the eye, you only get two eyes. And there's a lot of people, you know, it would be very, very, very unfortunate to lose your eyesight. Yes, you also only have two nuts too, but I get the point. You don't have two nuts, but yeah, I mean, it's okay. I'd rather live without my nuts than my eyes, I think.

All right, tough visual, tough visual. I'd rather live without my nuts than my mind. Oh, God. I think. All right. Tough visual, tough visual. I appreciate it, Mike. Thank you so much. Love the fight. Congratulations. Congrats on everything coming your way. And good luck in the next few weeks as you prepare for the 12th of April. Can't wait for it.

Yeah, sir. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. See you at the top. Yes, sir. There he is, the great Michael Chandler. Always a pleasure to pick his brain. And what a tremendous fight that is. Patty Pimblitt great Michael Chandler. Always a pleasure to pick his brain. And what a tremendous fight that is. Patty Pimblitt versus Michael Chandler is just fun. Right? Is there any scenario in which that fight is not going to be fun? It is fun. And the interesting wrinkle is that it's a five round fight.

Five round co-main event. Now, in about 30 minutes time, we're going to be joined by the man who will be headlining that card against Alex Volkonovsky that is on, why do I keep going to the date if I'm having trouble? It's April 12, 314. It's 412, 314. There it is. I finally got it. So we'll be joined by Diego Lopez to talk about that. But first, let's go back to this past Saturday. Let's go back to Seattle. And what a great story. I think it was, was it Tuesday or Wednesday night when we found out that Austin Vandervoort, long time MMA veteran, former bell tour, middleweight title contender,

finally getting his shot in the UFC. And not under the best of circumstances cause he only got a couple of days to prepare, but what did you know it? Who cares? He picks up the win win some controversy on the back end but now he's fully entrenched finally once again in the ufc couldn't happen to a better guy and he's kind enough to join us to talk about it all let's say hello to mr austin vandenford

hello austin how are you yo ariel what's up i i am doing great and i'm so happy for you man really uh it's one thing to get the call to make it to the UFC on short notice It's another to fight the way in which you fought Truly because I know you've been waiting for this moment for a long time. So congratulations on the win. Well done I understand based off listening to your post fight press conference This all kind of started on Saturday the week before the fight seven days before right? Yeah. Yeah, so Saturday I've got a call about, oh, mid afternoon, right before the card started Saturday and Sean had called and it's like, Hey man, I know it's short notice, but if you

can make one 70, we got a spot opened up. And of course I jumped right on it. Um, you know, I was waiting Saturday night went through, I was pumped. Sunday went through. I still hadn't had a contract yet. And, uh, then I started to kind of question things. I was like, dang man, it's, it's a Sunday night. I haven't seen anything.

Then Monday gets here. I still hadn't gotten anything. And then by late afternoon, Monday, I'd heard that the previous opponent turned down the fight and everything was in question then and but they came right back with another opponent. But then fast forward to like 9pm that night, I was told he wasn't going to be able to make weight and not not be available. So we were stuck at Monday night, not really sure if I was told he wasn't gonna be able to make weight and not be available. So we were stuck at Monday night, not really sure if I was gonna be on the card or not.

And thank God, Tuesday morning came around and they asked, well, would you do it at a catch weight? And of course I jumped on it. By the way, how much did you weigh on that Saturday night when you got the initial call? I, oh, like 194, 195. Okay, so nothing too crazy a week out? No, no. Okay.

No, and I've been hoping and expecting this and keeping my weight in check and just ready for whatever, ready for the call. So when it got here, I'd be able to do this two day, three day notice, whatever for that roller coaster Saturday, Sunday, Monday, it's on, it's off new opponent, all that stuff. How are you handling all of that? Because this is something you want so badly on the cusp of finally realizing a dream of signing with UFC and it's, it's there,

it's taken away. It's there in the midst of all this, are they saying, hey, if this doesn't work out, you're in? Or are you in only if this works out for the Seattle card? No, I knew it was gonna be a short notice situation. They kinda informed me that after my fight in LFA before. So it was more so, this was just an awesome opportunity and even more so with Paige competing here next week too. So we were like, man, it'd be really cool to fight, turn around and then have her go

compete as well. So when it was in question, I was definitely let down and bummed. But my coaches, my team, we stayed the course and they just told me like, hey, if we do a week of a weight cut and it falls through, you know, you can do that and it's no big deal. And I just had that mentality the whole time. When I got the call Saturday, there wasn't ever really a point where I took my eyes off and not fighting Saturday night in Seattle. So I just kept that mentality the whole time. Were you familiar with Nikolai Breitnikov when you were offered him in the end? No, no, but it didn't matter who they were gonna offer me.

I was saying yes. So of course, once we finally got it locked in, we were able to study for a day or two and and game plan a little bit. But yeah, really not a whole lot of preparation to be done. Especially at that point, you know, Tuesday night, I had to focus on making weight and and get my weight cut going and doing all that. So yeah, it was just go in and fight Saturday and you know, whoever had the better game plan and whoever executed was going to go out and win. We often hear about Octagon jitters, UFC jitters, especially for debutants and going through

the week, you know, the media stuff, the check-in, all the stuff that comes with becoming a UFC fighter, especially for the first time, because check-in, all the stuff that comes with becoming a UFC fighter, especially for the first time. Because you have been through it, been through that sort of process with your white page, was all that somewhat familiar? Did you not feel those jitters that perhaps someone who is fresh to the scene would feel?

Yeah, I think of course there were jitters and all that, but I know how to focus in and redirect like that energy and stuff And that's something I really learned in the the prior two years that you know I was kind of forced to take off I had an injury and And then the whole PFL a tour situation. I was able to really build some mental performance stuff. And man, I just enjoyed, I enjoyed every moment of this past fight week

going up to the fight. And it was just everything I dreamed of, everything I wanted, everything I worked for. And so when I walked out Saturday night, there wasn't really a sense of jitters or like scared nervousness. It was more excitement. Like I'm ready to go do this and I'm on this stage now and I just wanted to seize the opportunity. Can you explain the hiatus? Because your last fight in Bellator was in August of 2022, right? And then you fight October of 2024 in LFA,

and then it's this fight. Why was there such a big break? And why did you not go over with the Belturgeist to PFL? So I, after the fight in August, well, I think it was like the first punch I threw, I shattered my hand. I had to get two pretty good operations done on my hand. So, you know, really that took a year just to come back fully and stuff. And then with all the questions

of I was trying to get a fight with them, I was trying to go, but we kind of ultimately decided we could see where everything was moving towards. And we're like, let's try to get out, pick up a couple of wins and then try to make a run at the UFC. Okay, and so that was always the goal, right? Like you went to LFA with the thought in mind that this will get me to the UFC? 100%, yeah.

And whatever it was gonna take, one fight, two fights, three fights, whatever, I was gonna go and do what fights three fights whatever I was I was gonna go and and do what I had to do to get there we don't often see the you know former title contenders in major organizations go back to LFA right like the LFA is usually the place where people go to kind of move their way up then to get to the big organizations for you you know we all have egos so like what was that like to kind of take that route, that detour?

Man, I'm a fighter and I just got the fighter mentality and whatever promotion, there's no, for me, no ego. It's just go out and I'm competing against another man. Same thing as this weekend, I wasn't fighting the UFC. I was fighting Nikolai Beretikov, or however you say his last name. So that's just the mentality I have. It's not the promotion, not the stage. It's me versus this opponent. And I think that's what kept me headstrong

for the whole thing. And like I said, prepared to do whatever I had to do to get to the UFC. I'm sure there was a part of you over the last few months seeing all this drama surrounding the the PFL guys who came over from Bellator being like oh thank God I don't have to deal with any of that. Yeah yeah I feel for a lot of those guys in particular Johnny Eblen I know he's a great teammate hard worker super talented, and I hope that he gets the opportunity to, you know, one day get to the UFC and make a run at 185 there.

So second round, ground and pound finish, tremendous finish. When you were dreaming about the fight, your UFC debut, did this go better than you thought? Especially on short notice, you look fantastic out there. How would you assess it? Yeah, I mean, you know, I did a lot of visualization and, you know, mental reps of how the fight would go. And we had a strong game plan going into it. You know, he was good at what he does

and watching some of his prior fights. But at the end of the day, I was a lot better at what I do. So it was just sticking to that game plan and trusting my coaches, my training, confidence in myself, and just going out there and putting the pressure and the hurt on somebody.

So now that you've had a couple of days to digest the aftermath, what do you think was going on there when he pushes you? Is he mad about something you said, you did? Was he more mad at the ref, at the stoppage? Why did that go down in your opinion? Man, going back to us being competitors and fighters and stuff, emotions run strong.

It's hard when the ref steps in and finishes, or calls an end to the fight for us to just switch off that mentality, you know? So I don't, there's no ill will or, you know, I understand it, I get it. This is his dream and his career and, you know, it was taken from him and, and, uh, I, I understand all that stuff. Now that being said, he could have shown a little more aggression in the fight,

trying to get off bottom or, and all that. And the position I had him in, you know, I think I still had like 45 seconds left and I was going to uncork 50, 60 more strikes on him from there. So, uh, I was catching my second wind as well. I started, I particularly remember when I had the handcuff on him, I was like, man, he's not getting out of this. And I just felt my confidence building up more and more.

So at the end of the day, he got saved by getting spared a few more shots. I saw some people comparing this to the Paul Daly situation and saying that he should be cut. My two cents is he should not be cut for, if they want to cut him because he lost two in a row, fine, that happens. That's one thing, yeah.

But I don't think this is a fireable offense. Do you agree? Oh, I agree 100%. I had seen Dana say something too, and I agreed. Man, we're, fuck, we're a bunch of guys full of testosterone looking to go kill one another. And again, like I said, you can't just flip that switch off like that.

So man, it happened. To be honest, it was fun and it made things a lot more exciting, got the crowd into it. So I'm happy he did it. And yeah, it just made everything more fun. You had a great line in the post-fight press conference because you said for this fight,

you actually dropped your gentleman nickname, which was Fertutus because we saw you give him the double birds afterwards, which I don't blame you for doing gentleman or not. Can I ask why did you drop the nickname? And is there a new nickname now? Man, I kind of just saw this as an opportunity as a fresh start, new start, new path in my career.

And not necessarily leaving all the old behind, but man, I'm just ready to, to make a run in and, uh, build a new legacy and all that. And, and I just saw it kind of fitting to, to drop that and, and, uh, go with, go with something else. So we'll see, we, we've got some, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna let it be noted until my next fight. It's not Mr.

Vanzant, is it? Oh, no, no, no. Okay. I said that one's a- Maybe my gamer tag meet, my Xbox gamer tag meet. I got some options, I got some stuff. All right, fair enough. So is it safe to say 170, right? Yeah, easy.

I've talked about it in a few interviews before. Man, me making 170 now is almost easier than when I was making 185. I got the right team in place, the right mentality, and just everything is working out the way it's supposed to. People may forget, many, many moons ago, you got to finish on the Contender Series, and now it seems like everyone gets a contract. You just have to show up and win on Contender Series, and now it seems like everyone gets a contract.

You just have to show up and win on the Contender Series and you get it to the UFC. The requirements were a lot stricter back then. How did you not let that consume your soul? How did you not let that, you know, you see all these guys get in, especially over the last couple years, and you got a great win at the beginning of all this,

and you couldn't get in for whatever reason. And obviously you're in Bellator, and you're doing your thing, and you're getting opportunities. But it didn't seem like you were bitter about it. It didn't seem like you burnt any bridges or anything like that. How did you allow that to not happen? I think, you know, yeah, it's easy to reflect back and, you know, feel a certain type of way, but I am a man who is strong in his faith and believes that, you know, we're putting the right opportunities at the right time. And who knows, you know, I go out there and maybe I wasn't ready.

Maybe I needed all this experience that I've got since then to be able to go out and do what I did Saturday night. So I'd never take back anything. I would never go back and, and, you know, get that contract there and go into the UFC at six and O or whatever. I think this has built me into the man that I am now. And, and this guy fighting Austin back in the contender series would have finished

Austin the first round. Wow. That was actually your fourth one your four no after that fight crazy enough. Yeah yeah crazy. So a lot has happened since then by the way can I ask the inspiration behind the the haircut? Man I had always wanted to kind of go the mullet route and grow it and I didn't really know that it got so curly in the back and so I started growing it out and Paige at first was like no don't do that and and then the curl started coming in and she was like okay yeah that's cool so rolling with it now man. How long are we going? It was actually quite a bit longer before the fight got it trimmed up.

It took like an inch and a half off before the fight. Okay. Well, more power to you. You walk to the beat of your own drum and I respect that. Loved seeing King Mo in your corner. What is King Mo like as a coach? Man, first and foremost, my head coach, Bahumpa, is that dude has kept me in check and has kept my confidence high throughout this whole journey and career. So he's amazing. But King Mo, I think is one of the most underrated coaches in MMA, not only from a strategic standpoint, but just the coach that he is, he's there

for anything I need. You know, we'll come in, take a beating, just let me get a good warm up or good drill session in and, and the dudes just, like I said, in my opinion, he's one of the most underrated coaches in MMA. I love that. And Pahopa turning into one of the best coaches with the, so many champions, title contenders under his, his tutelage, Pantoja, Armin, um, who else is there? I mean, yourself and all the dudes at ATT.

So shout out to him as well. Can I ask one, one question about the slap? You mentioned a power slap as, as a, As a husband, are you more comfortable watching your wife compete in MMA or power slap? Because at least in MMA, you can win a fight without throwing a punch or landing a punch, right? Here, you know you're gonna get hit. So, this is kind of a crazy answer.

So, I'm confident in Paige in whatever she does. And the biggest thing for her is to get her to buy into that belief in herself. The thing that I love the most about power swap is, it's something she loves to do. And it's something that she's very confident going into do. So for me, I love watching her go do it because she gets to go out, express herself, and have fun competing again. I think she lost a little bit of that joy in competing. And this has actually really revitalized that drive for her

and just something she can go out and have fun and land some slaps on some girls. All right, respect. When do you wanna return, how quickly? Man, we head over to Vegas on Monday for her to compete next week, and I plan to just be right back into the gym. So I really, obviously the Miami cards filled up right now,

but I'm gonna stay ready and I wanna be, you have him on right after me, Diego Lopez. He's a great example of taking opportunities and seizing them and not turning people down and look at where it's gotten to him now. So I wanna be the same way. I hope to compete definitely before the summer and I would love to get three more in before the year's over.

Love it. Delighted for you Austin. Congratulations. Well done and so happy and can't wait to see how you do at 170 in the UFC. Congrats and good luck in the next few months and good luck to Paige as well in the next couple of weeks. Awesome brother. Yeah, always good to see it. You're my eighth favorite Canadian. So wow. What an honor. Yeah. What an, I thought maybe you would rock up by the way with the hell

one boxing shirt, but, uh, not sure if that's you. You gotta send me, you gotta send me another one. You lost it? Yeah, I lost. Ah, all right. I, I, I'm a sweater dude. I sweat through those, uh, yeah, but I would love to get another. I got you.

I got you. I got you Awesome, man. Thank you. Austin. Take care. All right, brother. Yeah, there he is. Austin vandenford big win for him ufc debut And this comes by the way Wow seven years almost seven years in july seven years. Holy shit. It's been seven years Since his uh contender series fight He beat Angelo Trevino via rear naked choke you get that performance these days on content I don't know why they've changed the criteria. Maybe they just want more fighters. I don't know what it is, but he Almost certainly gets into the UFC with a performance like that

Didn't happen goes the Bellator route fights for the belt in Bellator against Gaggar Musasi. Three years ago, actually, three years ago tomorrow. How about that? February 22, February 25th, 2022. Fought Musasi, came back later that year, fought Aaron Jeffery, didn't go his way, broke his hand as he said. Didn't fight for two years, a little over two years, beats Victor Romero and then gets this opportunity.

I saw some people saying, Varetnikov should get cut from the UFC. Really? Have you all gone soft? A push? Come on, that ain't Paul Daley. Listen, I'm happy to point out discrepancies in the way things are done, but that ain't a discrepancy. Paul Daly punched Josh Kosciak after the bell. A shove is not a punch. And if everyone's getting the boot for a shove, then we're screwed at weigh-ins and whatnot. There are shoves left, right and center. No chance. Well, he lives in the Miami region. Perhaps he'll go on that. No, the Miami card is pretty full. It's a nice one, that Miami card. It's a nice one. Danny Gay against Shawn Woodson. Darren Elkins against Julian Orosa.

Chase Hooper against Jim Miller. Vierna Zanjiroba against Jan Schaunen. Jeff Neal against Carlos Pratches. What a fight that is. Yair Rodriguez against Patricia Pippel. Nikita Krilov against Dominic Reyes. Michael Chandler against Patti Pimlet and the main event Alexander Volkonovsky against Diego Lopez for the vacant UFC featherweight championship and the man himself Diego Lopez who is getting this opportunity what a story he has been and it's almost like he manifested this like he willed us into existence wasn't quite sure who he'd be fighting but he is fighting for the official title on April 12th

is Diego Lopez and he's kind enough to join us right now. So let us say hello to Diego Lopez right here now. Oh, is he here? Where is he? Is he there? Okay. I wasn't sure which way we were going there. We went to this guy. Oh, is he there? There he is. Hello, Diego. How are you? Good. Good. How are you? I'm doing very well and we're here with your interpreter Edgar as well, so thank you very much to him for the help. Diego, can I ask two, three weeks ago. I'm going to Australia with my money for the event at the UFC Australia.

I have a meeting with UFC. Yeah, the deal is done. Okay, and by the way, your English is getting so much better. Well done. Yeah, I tried this time, I tried, I hope my English, I have Edgar here because the same times I'm not saying too much words, but I tried this time.

Okay, you were saying over the last few months, you were saying, you know, interim fight against Volkanovsky or I fight for the belt. Were you surprised that it that it played out this way, that it's you versus Alex for the vacant title? Or is this how you thought it was going to play out all along? Yeah, I'm a little bit surprised because I know I know ideas the yes movie 100% for for the 55. But I'm a little bit surprised but I I have sent is the see como se seguro.

I have a tengo tenía 100% la seguridad que iba a pelear por un titulo en mi próxima pelea no pero I was 100% sure I was going to fight for a title in my next fight. I didn't think I was going to fight for the title, but now that I'm fighting for the title, I'm very happy and excited. opportunity. There had been some talk of maybe an interim title or you fighting in Mexico. Were there any other opportunities that were presented to you before this one was finally agreed upon? Were there other fights, other dates that you thought maybe you would have to fight for the title, or maybe fight in Mexico, I talked to my team, the goal is to fight for the title. The possibility to fight in Mexico is not real. Only UFC say maybe you fight in Mexico City, but I don't have one deal for this fight. Two weeks before UFC

said this for me, UFC offers for the fight for the title. So at this point, we're all kind of wondering where Alex is in his career because he has taken a year off. He's coming off the two losses and he looked invincible for so long. Based on what you see from him, what you know about him, where do you think Alex is right now in his career? Negros? Where do you think Alex is right now in his career? This see so those

For a people Menta said a campaign that I would have a mother so one annual is cancer to come all of us in this appellee I think now Alex Is going to better right the The guy stays the rest one week, only training, rest, stay healthy for your next fight. The Alex is 100% is secured for your next fight for the title. I think the guy is staying in the preparation for so long time. I think now is a good time for Alex to come back, but I'm still here for the fight. I have a great opportunity in my hands. Yeah, I'm waiting

for a big fight for face Alex. The fight that he lost against Islam, the second fight where he was knocked out, there's not much to learn. It was a very quick fight. But from the Toporia fight, did you learn anything from that fight as to how to beat him? I learned so much because this is the in terms of fight, right? Yes, maybe the similar style for me. I'm so aggressive for the front, but the difference for this fight, I'm a tall guy. Alex, I think you have a coherent UFC. The only fight for this guy is tall, right? I think it's different fighting Alex and Ilya.

But I like the the fighting the close distance I think is I think is that would fire no What do you say Diego to people who say that that most are evlo ev should be next? I know you were I saw you on Twitter. You were going back and forth with Al Jermain and and most are spicy I like it. I like it What do you say to those people who say that that most stars should be fighting for the belt next and not you? bro It's tough because the guy heavy I think 90 win UFC in 90 decision

I think three or four split decision. I think the people's know like this know I think People like the entertainment for for this fight is the guy I think people like the entertainment for this fight, is the guy has the good fight, right? 100% of the time, they have one fight for the title, but I think this time is my time, you know? This time is my time, is the same time as they call me, okay, I need you for Walsh or Norris, okay, I'm stay here. I'm take a lot of risk for this opportunity, you know.

I don't know, the heavyweight guy in the division is taking a lot of risk in 2024. I'm fighting three times in six months. I mean, we got five times for the last year. Yeah, I'm taking the risk for this opportunity. And if we would have talked Diego, that fight against Movstar was two years ago in May. It's been less than two years you're going to fight for the belt, for the vacant title. Would you have believed it would all happen this quickly for you? Or are you surprised by all of this?

I think I'm not surprised because I worked too much. I accepted the whole fight you have set up in front of me. I think I'm not surprised because I worked too much. I accepted the whole fight UFC put in front of me. I said yes for the whole decision for UFC. I'm not surprised. Now I'm number three in the rank. Who's next for the title? I think Ilya is the vacant for the title. Only me and Alex are staying at the top for the title, you know? I think, yes, the title, only me and Alex is staying

at the top for the fight. I respect for Moversack culture, but I think in April, in May, it's the Ramadan, right? I think it's impossible for the fight in the last, the next three months, I don't know, but I was there. They sent me the opportunity, I'm waiting. So at this point, if you win the belt, will you feel like the official champion or will you only feel like the official champion if you beat, you know, who was the champion, Ilya?

How do you view the title? No, I feel huge jump because the title is Vakary, right? I'm facing for the best guy in the halftime in the division. Alex is staying at the top for so long time. Only one loss in the 145. The guy has five defenses in the title. I think I'm going to this fight. I'm a real champion. Are you surprised Ilya vacated the title? I'm not surprised because the in October the last year Ilya said that you go to the appointment you move up after after going is the max right? I'm not

surprised but yeah this is your decision right yeah and do you think there's any scenario in which he doesn't fight for the belt at 155 like why would he vacate the title to not fight for the title at 55 how do you how do you see this division for him? It's a difficult division. Actually, we've seen that UFC doesn't seem to give him the opportunity to fight for the title. It seems that he will have to fight more before the title, right? And we'll see, we'll see what happens. Ilya? Yes. 100%. 100%. No, I think Ilya is so young. I think he's

27, 28. Maybe in the future I have a one fight for this guy. I saw you training with David Taylor, the great collegiate wrestler. What was that experience like for you? Well, it's amazing. It's an amazing experience for training with David. The guys, the big legend is Wesley in USA. I learned too much in the two weeks I'm staying in Oklahoma. I live in my body for the whole of this is Wesley, right? I'm trained two or three times a day in Oklahoma. in my body for whole top is west here, right? I'm trained two, three times in a day in Oklahoma.

David helped me too much. Now this week, one coach is from Oklahoma, he's coming for my training camp. Yeah, I'm so happy for David to open the door for the Oklahoma State for Mithran. Will he be in your corner for the fight? I don't know. I need to talk to David because the guy has a lot of work with the guy in the college in the Oklahoma State. But I think David is coming for the fight. Okay.

And I need the ice, I need the ice, David. Yes, that would be amazing. And I also saw a photo of you and Alex Pereira. I think it was in Sydney when you were there. I think you were training together. Did you train with Alex? What was that like? Oh yes, Alex is my friend. So long time I met Alex in 2015. Oh wow. my friends so long time I meet Alex in 2015 in Sao Paulo. I train not too much, I train sometimes the same hour the gym.

Yeah, it's crazy because I'm staying the same with Alex, I think five times, no, three times or four times. Now I'm staying in Australia, I'm staying the same flight with Alex. Alex asked me, okay, go to training tonight or tomorrow. So, okay, let me know. Alex is a great dude. I love that. And are you actually in there training with him? Because he's a lot bigger than you. What are you actually doing together?

training with, because he's a lot bigger than you. What are you actually doing together? Yeah, no, but it's the easy training, you know? It's the secret, it's the maybe drills. The guys, the youth training is good. I like the training Alex because the guy has different vision for the fight, right? Yeah, but it's good. The lights party I have with Alex is good. It's good. Not

too much. I think three or four minutes more. Yeah, it's a good train. So you have this massive fight coming up on April 12th. We also found out last week that Alexa Grasso is fighting in May in Montreal. Will you be able to help her as well? Obviously you'll have the time after the fight, but before the fight, are you able to still be coach or now that you're fighting for the belt, is there no more coaching? Are you just focusing on yourself? 100% my focus is in the belt, but I mean, I'm still working with Alexa. At the same time, I'm staying in contact with Alexa. Yeah, this is my life, bro. I enjoy too much teaching in the class, helping my students, helping my friends. Yeah, 100% I'm staying healthy, Alexa. Have you allowed yourself to think about what life will be like as UFC champion? Do you allow yourself to dream about this

or is that dangerous? I think I know how to handle all of this because not many people know, but I was able to live on this side as a coach when Alexa was champion. I was able to help her become champion, so I was able to see everything that a champion's life takes. So I think I'm already well trained for this moment. Yes, you've been so close to it. You know what it kind of feels like, right? Yeah, it's an amazing thing. What a story and I love that you have the the necklace now dream believe achieve a tattoo Uh-huh. Who made that for you? There it is. You made it for yourself for someone. Uh, Did someone make that for you? It was a friend from California that worked with a jeweler that made it for him.

Another really good friend, so he sent out that piece for him. I love it. Last thing for you Diego, what do you think? How does it end? What are you envisioning in your mind? How does the fight end? With his hand up and the belt on his waist. I love it.

Good luck. Thank you. I appreciate it. And I can't wait. And congratulations on getting the title fight. Thank you so much, bro. I hope in the next time my English will stay better. Now I think I repeated too much words words but I think next time it's

better. You've come a long way. You've come a very long way. So well done. Yeah, thank you, Ro. Alright, there he is. Diego Lopez and thank you very much to Edgar for helping him out as well. But he has certainly come a long way. There was a time when he first was introduced to us. He spoke no English and I screwed up I called it the dream believe achieve tattoo of course it's the dream believe make it happen tattoo he did post a great picture speaking of his his his English or lack there lack thereof when he first was introduced to us of you know like those

sit-down interviews when when they play those packages before the UFC events and this is when he was first introduced to us. It's a great photo. We have this photo from his, there it is. You may not know me now but you'll remember me after the fight. And that was before the Movstar fight. A fight in which he took on short notice and lost. I think we know who he is. What a story. And that was less than two years ago. Who would have thought?

As I think it was, yeah, it was Austin who just said like, he just takes his opportunities. He's involved in fun fights. And I remember, go back, we watched the Sphere card together in Las Vegas before we officially launched and we did an impromptu, somewhat like impromptu, audio only post show, do you guys remember this? And what did I say? Go back to the audio.

I said, I'd love to see Diego Lopez versus Alex Volkonovsky. What did I say? I said it. Now did I think everything would turn out this way? Eh, it's kind of crazy. Who would have thought. Ilja Toporia defends the title once and then vacates it. And here we are several months later and it's, uh, it's Volk versus Diego Lopez for the vacant title.

Thought maybe you'd be either interim number one contender who knows, but here we are vacant title fight. Do you guys think Ilja ever moves back to 145 or do you think he's done? No chance. No chance. What's the point? Why have given it up now if you were just

going to go back? Is it possible that he doesn't fight for the belt at 155? I just can't imagine. I just can't imagine it. Has anybody said it's a guarantee? No. So that.

It just doesn't strike me as good business to do that. Unless they agree with you, but I think this was as big as a fighter as Ilya Toporya is for the UFC. I think that main event was more on their mind at the moment. We need this title to be defended and this is how we get to it. Who's the favorite right now in this fight, Volkanovsky or Diego? I'm gonna say.

I feel like it's gotta be Volk. Last I looked, it was really close. Let me. Do you feel like it's a 50-50 toss up here? Probably pretty close. Yeah, I feel like it's Diego early. Volk as the rounds go along, 314. Volk minus 160, Diego plus 140.

Yeah. Yeah. What about Chandler Patty? Is that on there? Patty minus 150, Chandler plus 130. Yo! I wish I asked him about that. Hitchhump? That's, is that surprising? I don't know, Chandler has lost several fights as of late.

You also have to remember popular fighters get more. Yeah, of course. Especially. I don't know how many bets have been made on this. It is a month and a half away. So do the pop, I feel like the popular fighters

end as the favorite. Do they, do they start as the favorite? Do they open as the favorite? It's, it's throughout the time, right? Because the people who bet on them are going to bet on them at the end. They're going to bet on them in the beginning. They're going to bet on them in the middle.

It's the Cowboys, it's the Lakers. The line is always adjusted because they are just popular teams for people to bet on. Just curious, would it be smart for the, the, the odds makers to make the super popular fight of the dog, thus enticing more people to bet? No, because the line's always going to adjust. And then if you did that, you're now taking a bath on.

You're also picking a side there with you thinking. Yeah. Chandler would win. All you want, you just want 50-50. Odds makers want action on both sides of the bet, not. Cause you're paying the juice either way to the book. Right. Wow, what a phrase. You're paying the juice either way to the book. Right. Wow what a phrase. You're paying the juice either way to the book, meaning

you're paying the book. Yeah the VIG if you have a minus 110 minus 110 fight and you get 50-50 action on each side you're gonna make money because of the VIG. There's a gap right? It's not plus 100 and plus 100. On a hundred dollar bet you're only paying out $91 and you do that for both sides if you get 50-50 for each $100 bet you're profiting nine dollars just by taking the action. Both sides of the fight are not even odds right. If you had a fight there's no fight that's plus 100 plus 100. I mean yeah look at this Michael Chandler's plus 130 Patty Pimlett is minus 150 it's never gonnaimlet is minus 150.

It's never going to be minus 150 plus 150. So they make that difference because you are getting paid out less on your bet for each side by a fraction, by a small amount. But they make that on every bet because if they time it right and 50% or align it right, 50% on each side, they've now made that middle portion. So they're already making money from the juice and then people just make losing bets all the time. And so now it's just a money printing. So you get it now, right?

Absolutely. What's a big, what's a big? Same thing as juice. Same thing as juice. That's that middle part. I have been waiting for. All right, well, I can't wait for that. It's a great card.

And then you got Pitbull and Yair. I can let you know that both Yair Rodriguez and Patricia Pitbull are scheduled to join us tomorrow on the program. So how about that? Face off? Nope, no, no, no face off. And I can also let you know that Song Yedong is gonna join.

So we'll obviously be talking about what transpired on Saturday. One thing we didn't mention is it seems like Dana, he, two things kind of got, you know, there's a lot in those post-fight wrap-ups and it usually comes when there's good people asking good questions. And I thought that was the case this past Saturday. Seems like they are all but leaning towards Murad versus Sean O'Malley. Makes sense.

I wonder if that ends up being the early June pay-per-view main event, maybe here in New Jersey? Ah, Newark. Close to Long Island, Murab, I don't know. I mean, sugar fighting anywhere. Well, they've also put Aljo, you know, in Newark. Like it would make sense, right? Yeah.

Um, so that was one thing. And then another one that was, that was kind of there and flew under the radar. I thought, uh, someone asked them, all right, they're doing Valentina versus Mano Fioro in Montreal. Does he want junk to fight the winner? And he just said, yes, it was very to the point one word. And, and that was as clear an indication that she's going to fight the winner. And you know, that fight is in three months. Maybe the, the winner turns around and fights by the end of the year.

And, and, uh, John gets too, I mean, she will be who, who picked her for, uh, G C. Yeah, that's right. Right. I think I said, uh, she'll be taught the right there and then move up to 125 and fight for the belt. Damn. Just like that. That's what I said was going think I said she'll beat Tatiana Suarez and then move up to 125 and fight for the belt. Damn, just like that. That's what I said was gonna happen. So we'll see.

But yeah, no, that was very clear cut. He doesn't usually make it that clear cut. Imagine though if Fiorot wins. Not quite as big, but still. Well, if I'm Sean. Is Sean going to have to vacate the 115 belt? Ah, it depends on if they need that for a main event or a co-main event. The reality is that's never the headliner on a card that's typically always going to be the co-main event. And also the women fight so infrequently, she

could very realistically defend both those titles. Yeah. There's really no reason to vacate the belt. Or did, uh, Virgina Jandjaroba, Yan-John-Anne on 314 just become the de facto Straw-Aid title? Yeah. Three title fights on the card. Think about Amanda Nunes, like they just let her hold those belts. Now granted one by the end became kind of a bit of a farce, but I think John could hold both belts if she's able to wrestle it away. There's no rhyme or reason. No. There's no rhyme. No, they'll let John hold the belt for as long as possible.

It's all the schedule. It's all the schedule. Uh, the next pay-per-view is headlined by Magomed Ankhalya versus Alex Pereira. Did you guys see the footage of Alex Pereira training, uh, with one Glover Tashara in the snow, I believe yesterday. Now I will say temperatures a little milder these days. Wow, are you downplaying him? No, no, I just wanna let you know,

we're not in Siberia right now. That's like a, is that all? I mean, I think there was a good amount. I think there was a point where Glover fall. Yeah, I wanna see this whole thing. Look at this, look at Glover. I mean, how much warmer though are we talking? No, listen, I'm not.

You're poo pooing, this guy's wrestling in the snow? What was it yesterday, 40s? No, I- Al Goliath says he's ready to do this for 25 minutes. Tough critic. Let's get you out there. You get out there with him. I want nothing to do with that.

Barefoot, no shoes, is there more? I wanna see more, is there more? How cold are you in that studio right now? I think that was it. Oh, I'm, listen. Yeah, you're freezing and it's like 72, right? Uh, maybe 68. But I thought-

Vermis, that's up to 90 in the Helwani household. I just love, I love, uh, I love the stage of life. But we saw the little message there from Magomed saying, uh, you'd be prepared to do this for 25 minutes after saying previously, yeah, we'll strike for sure. We'll strike. Yeah, we'll strike. I don't believe that for one second. I got a message from someone. Where did I get this message?

Gosh, I don't remember. Someone said,. I got a message from someone. Where did I get this message? Gosh, I don't remember. Someone said, please address the, where did it, was it Twitter? Someone said, everyone loves to talk about Alex Perez striking and whatnot. Please address the fact that Magomed on Kaleiyev is the best striker that he has ever fought in the UFC.

Huh? And I was like, what? Magomed on Kaleiyev? He's a like, what? Magomed Akhalayev. He's a good striker. I mean, have you met Israel Adesin? I mean, have you heard of this guy? Yeah. What?

No. Yuri's a little unconventional, but like he's got some pop there. The convo begins and ends with Izzy. Like it's just not, it's not even. Champion, former champion, current champion. I mean, he, yeah, I thought, I don't know. It's all be settled in a week and a half. Damn. It's coming even a big deal. Champion, former champion, current champion. I mean, he, yeah, I thought, I don't know. It's all be settled in a week and a half.

Damn, it's coming fast, huh? That's UFC 313. What are we looking at with UFC 313? UFC. Poker Gagey. Oh yeah. Yeah, what's going on with that one? Did you see that they said now maybe it's a three round?

I have to look into that. Three round, what is this? That's what someone said, and someone asked Dana about it, said that. It's called a poker. Yeah, I need to- See what's good, man. Ignacio Bahamondes, the pride of Chile.

Oh yeah. Take it on Jalen Turner. Typology still says five rounds. Yeah. They don't change that stuff. No. Mauricio Huffey looking to- Keep the fighting nerds,

at least the men's fighting nerds undefeated. Yeah. Going up against King Green, Jalen Turner. Going up against your boy, Ignacio. Yeah, part of Chile. Shout out. Not as deep as maybe 314 is. No, no, certainly not.

But I like the top two. Top two are great. Top two are fantastic. And you get a fighting nerds guy, and you get Ignacio Bahamond as the part of Chile on there too. 312... 312 was 312. I like the top two and 312 also. Yeah, I mean, yeah, didn't really pan out, but...

Yeah, but you know, it could not pan out in 313. 312 was the best 312 of all time. And then... And then, Mogamadonko Live could implement as well for 25 minutes. You never know. The greatest 312 of all time. And then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then,

and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then,

and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then,

and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, Do you think they're still dangling the, no. You knew where I was going with that? Yeah. Yeah. That wasn't a brain teaser there. Not even a month ago, Connor's on video with Logan and Jake and being like November.

So I don't think there's any chance for summer. By the time July hits, it will have been four years since we last saw McGregor in the Octagon. Wow, that's crazy. So you guys are saying it's never happening? I've lost. Yeah, I've lost faith. Wow. I've lost faith. But Michael has. I've held out for a long time, I've lost it. As a man that bet Will Conor McGregor

fight in 2024, I lost that bet and I've now lost faith. Yeah. Did you bet it for 2025? No, God no. I'm now in the camp that I will believe it when I see it. The odds on that are probably pretty tasty though. Plus a thousand, plus 10,000. Is it really plus 10,000? Oh my God. I wonder though. I'm saying the UFC octagon.

I think we'll see him fight again. You do? At some point, maybe in 2025. I think there's a lot of people who think it'll never happen. No fight ever again? Nothing, gloves, payment. Oh, I'm saying UFC.

No. Yeah, I'm saying UFC. No. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, man. He's only getting older. Yeah. What a crazy thing. Who would've thought? He seems more motivated to fight in BKFC

than he does in the UFC. That's his baby. Yeah. I can see that. I bet if he was free and clear, he could fight in BKFC. Or, sorry, he would fight in BKFC. I agree with you. I think he will at some point.

Oh yeah. But I'm saying he would have already. Yeah. Like it would happen sooner. I agree with that. What the hell is Platinum Perry? Um, all right gents, a fun day has been had. We have some super chats.

Oh, we do. Oh, okay. Whoa. Sorry. ZZ Bigg says, I know that you're a Quebecie. Oh, thanks. Will you be at UFC 315? Okay, so I was just gonna like make fun of this guy

for saying it the wrong way, but in fact you read it the wrong way. I thought that was the only way that made sense. Quebecois. Quebecois. Now he spells it the wrong way, but you know. Yeah, that was the thing, you know. And my dyslexia is not doing us any favors here.

Will, oh go ahead. Well I didn't answer the question. All right. I mean, you're just so, are you just doing this to... You just took the opportunity to explain how I... Are you just doing this to hear the sound of your own voice? No, no, I'm gonna move on. I mean, really?

Uh, I don't think so. Wait, is he asking, will I be at the event or will I be in Montreal? Yep. Which one? Either one. Will you be at UFC 315? Question mark. Are those two things different? Was there a possibility to be in Montreal,

but not at the event? Yeah, sure. I mean, I've been to, you know, we were there at the, in Vegas, the sphere card. Are we going? Are you dangling a carrot? Going to Montreal? No.

Are you kidding me? Come on, man. No, but you know what? Can I say something? I love they're doing, they're doing a bit of an old school on sale press conference on, uh, on Wednesday in Montreal, which always is, is fun. Now I do feel for Mr.

Jack Della who has to fly from Perth all the way to Montreal, not only going from summer weather to extreme winter weather, but it's quite the, it's quite the track. I mean, I like being honest, I like that though, because it shows like they're investing in the market, right? to extreme winter weather, but it's quite the trek. I mean, to be honest. I like that though, because it shows like they're investing in the market, right?

Those were, back in those days, when they were doing those on sale press conferences, tickets were not just UFCs here, buy it. They're really showing, hey, we're coming back to Montreal. We're giving a good card, come out, support it. I like that. Now I do some local media. That sucks for that.

This used to be the norm. Remember when it was- This used to be it. Remember when it was the norm for fight nights. Yeah, they didn't have the fire burning as hot as they do right now, where they could just be like, yeah, we're coming, we don't care if you show up or not, because enough people are gonna buy tickets.

But I actually feel like they're at that point right now. That's what I'm saying, but I think this is a good faith effort for the people of Quebec. Yeah, I like it. I like that, I like it. Now let's see. Because yes, but I think this is a good faith effort for the people of Quebec. I like that. I like it. Yes, they are there right now. Jack Delat title fight.

Crazy. Shout out. All right. What else? A bourgeois Alpaca ask the UFC. This is not bourgeois. This is bougie. Isn't bougie mean like the bourgeoisie?

Uh, you're right. I just didn't want to get it wrong again. You're right. The French, they get slipped in here, and so you don't spill it like that. That's fair, that's fair. All right. Okay, okay.

There's a limit then, I see. Chill out, chill out. The UFC has Kibbutz fighters PPV points without being champ before. Is there any chance they gave that to Toporia instead of an instant title shot? Put it up there for a second, digest this. Put it up there for a second, digest this.

Put it back up there. No? Does it freeze? I don't know if they can hear you. Pop it back up there, Jordan? Yes. There they go. We're almost there. Oh, there it is.

No. And also, put it back up there. What is happening right now? Do we need the little karaoke ball to walk you through? Would Ilya be getting pay-per-view points for a fight with Islam? That's, that's what they're saying. No, I think what they're saying is we're still going to give you pay-per-view points if you fight like a

Charles non-title fight. Oh yeah, I mean, just his next fight is with pay-per-view. Listen, Ilya Tupour, a very. Oh, yeah, I mean just his next fight is with listen It's a poor a very smart man. He ain't giving up his paper viewpoints I don't think he's giving up his title fights as well. That's my take now have crazier things happen Absolutely where they're like, ah, you know, we need this for International Fight Week and it's gonna be here's the here's the interesting thing Are they gonna wait to see what happens with Bilal and JDM? Or are they gonna book it before because this time they waited two months that would be no that would be less than two months I don't know what they're waiting

for Bilal and JDM to see if Islam goes up yeah and then they slide so so Toporia is facing somebody not Islam for that title and then Islam is moving up to 170 yeah I remember I thought you might have been out when I talked about all of this. If I'm to poria, do I want just any guy at 155? I feel like I want Islam. I think he 100% but I think he just wants the belt. The belt, yeah. I guess. Let's see, what else?

Angel Palma, UFC should create more weight classes equals more champs. Yeah, but like, okay. Well, first of all, all right, there's Adam weight. There's not a ton of Adam weights out there. There's straw weight men, not a ton. I know one championship kind of has that on lockdown and, and, and then, and then what are we talking about? We're talking about, all right, you'd create a 165. You'd move 170 up to 75, you'd create a 165, you'd move

170 up to 75, or you'd give the 70 pounders a chance to go down to 65, some 55ers go up there too. 85 stays the same. Are you going to create a 95? Are you going to create a 225? Ultimately, I think you're just watering it down even more. And I don't think there's enough big names to populate those weight classes.

So I would be surprised. I could see them introducing an Adam weight, but they've had the opportunity to introduce 65 for a very long time and they've not pulled the trigger for whatever reason. So at this point I would be surprised, but who knows. The upper weight classes are also just so shallow already. Yeah. It would make it easier to see. pulled the trigger for whatever reason. So at this point I would be surprised, but who knows.

The upper weight classes are also just so shallow already. Yeah. It would make more sense to do maybe like the 65 and move 70 up to 75, but anything else feels very difficult. Yep. What else? Last one here, JCS Pantoja versus Kaikara France, Penny versus Kayla on June 7th and NJ. So not, so when does Murab versus Suga happen?

I feel like that needs to happen. Hey, you know what? Maybe not. You know, I forgot Murab just fought in January. Do you think, how would that be received? I think that would be received pretty well. I'd love it. Those are my favorites.

And Tosia KKF and, and. Paine versus Kayla. I feel like Paine versus Kayla feels like international fight week to me. Am I wrong? Maybe. Komein. Man. No.

No, maybe. But you do need some. I mean, if you, if you look, if you look at, uh, at who's available, Flyweight is available. Bantamweight is Marab. Featherweight fighting in april islam lightweight tbd the men's flyweight women's bantamweight combo could be tough for a pay-per-view yeah but they're killing it middleweight ddp just fought per are going to be fighting uh 10 days or

so john jones who the hell knows uh Uh, John waiting, Valentina fight. I mean, it's, it's really down to, it's down to, yeah, it's down to fly weight, bantam weight and women's bantam weight. If we're, if we are to assume that, you know, there isn't going to be a lightweight title fight on that card and I would be shocked if there is. So yeah, he's, he's probably onto something. NJ pack. Let's, he's probably onto something. NJ Pack? Let's do it.

I'm there, favorite place on earth. What a time, what a time. All right, anything else, Frank? That's all she wrote, Governor. Thank you. A lot of great stuff on Uncrowned.com, tremendous weekend. There was great coverage of the card in Riyadh, great coverage of Saturday night in Seattle,

great coverage of this morning in Japan. Nakatani with the big win. I love a good Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Japanese boxing card. Perhaps on a collision with Naoya Inoue, although they areoya Inoue although they are saying Inoue's next fight is going to be in America and I can't imagine Nakatani Inoue is happening or Inoue Nakatani is happening in America

that wouldn't make a lot of sense so let us see also great coverage of The Rock showing up on SmackDown on on Friday just humming along, guys. Lot of things in the works. Lot of little bells and whistles. Updates and gadgets. Has there ever been an explanation why the Japanese boxing cards are weekday events? You know, I think they're, I meant to ask. I'm gonna ask them right now.

How about that, Frank? All right. I meant to ask why, I'm gonna ask them right now. How about that, Frank? All right. I meant to ask why, why do the Japanese cards seem to always be midweek? Very old school.

A lot of people may not know this, Frank, but you know the fight of the century, Ali Frazier won Madison Square Garden, March 8th, 1971. That was, I do believe on a Monday night, March 8th, 1971. What day was March 8th, 1971? Monday. How about that?

That's interesting. Big boxing events, uh, used to always be mid, mid week in America. And then over time with pay-per-view and stuff like that. They They pushed them to Saturday, but when I was a kid it was always midweek That's interesting Yours was I didn't know you were kidding. Yeah, I mean that I was trying to do the math here

But how much did you learn about the the history of sports and sports broadcasting from Jim Lampley today? I was intense. Were you? Should we have had Kleenex at the ready? You know, so we thought that, but breaking the fourth wall here, Mrs. Lampley was right there, right? Yeah. So we didn't want to come in and then she's like,

you know what, this is my domain. There was actually a heavy discussion and debate back here of whether or not we should run the men. Cause you might be insulted by that. I was trying to look like corner of my eye. Like, are there any? Well, what was funny is Andy kept saying there's maybe some paper towels or a toilet paper roll in there somewhere you could

all know sleeve maybe the paper there were like four or five people in here I opened the door after the interview I was like I felt like Kramer busting in on a party. Yeah. That was the decision we were like okay there's people in there that know him better and love him if it needs to be done they can. They can do it. They're having a conversation right now and the entourage is like why didn't they bring you anything? Yeah or maybe he was like why didn't any of you bring me anything? We treated Jim very well and we did very thankful and he said he said very nice things about you on the way out. Ah, what a legend. Thank you.

I do have an answer for you on the Japanese cards. Let's hear it. The thought processes Japanese broadcasters prefer mid-week cards because they rate better, unlike in America. Less competition. So that's like if Inoue fights over here. Yeah.

Weekday card. Wow, in America. And I mean, or is it like, nah, man, you've got to do it on the weekend. That's what these guys are doing. So that's like if Inoue fights over here. Yeah. Weekend card. Wow, in America. And yeah. I mean, or is it like, nah, man, you've got to do it on the weekend. That's what these guys want. He's like, but my fans are all in Japan. Put them on a Wednesday morning in Chavez Ravine.

People go to, look, like a Knicks game is on a Wednesday. I would cater it to the Japanese broadcast market and do a midweek card here in the States too, no problem. And timing? There's zero chance if he fights in Las Vegas or something that they would put him midweek, zero chance. Midweek and then what time of the day? Yeah, that's the thing.

Well, if it happens in the evening, it'll be morning there, so yeah, it's kind of weird because he is such a big star. I mean, he's arguably one of the most famous Japanese athletes in the world now, obviously Shohei Otani number one and there are others as well But Thank you, what do you mean? Thank you any chance? I'm just trying to get some intel Just appreciate the effort. Yeah, no.

Anyway, we'll talk more about this on tomorrow's Ariel and Ade program, which you can watch on Dazon. Like I said, Patricia Pippel, Yaya Rodriguez, Song Yedong, a tasty lineup on Wednesday. I'll tell you more about that on tomorrow's program. But for now, we shall say goodbye. There's something in the back of my mind, if I'm being 100% honest, that I feel like I need to talk about, but I can't remember what it is. Anyone seem to remember? I wasn't in the back of your mind recently, but I got it.

There's just something that I feel like, what happened? Nick Suck. Oh, geez. That's in the front of your mind, I feel like. Very depressed. About the Knicks or just in general? Just in general. But the Knicks have contributed to my depression.

John Silva is the man. Ari Emanuel is a billionaire. I don't know if you guys saw that. Read about it on Uncound.com. Yeah, must be nice. You know, must be nice, Ari. Did I ever tell you guys my story about meeting Ari Emanuel? My one and only time that I met Ari,

it was in the media room, practice facility at Barclays, prior to whatever that card was. Maybe 212 or something like that? Anyway, he sees me, I see him, we lock eyes, we walk towards each other and I say, Hey, I know you, you know me. And I say, I always thought this sport was big enough for only one Ari, you know, Ari short for Ariel. But for you my friend, I'll make an exception.

And you know what he said to me, Frank? Do you know what he said to me, Ari Manny? Who said it? Let's hug it out, bitch. Nice. You know what that line is from? I don't. Entourage, the character Ari Gold

is based off of Ari Manny. He actually said that? He gave me the line, yes. Wow. And we hugged it out and here I was thinking, wow, life is going to be so great. Never saw him again, never spoke to him again. Thank you to all our guests. Appreciate you all very much. Thanks to them, thanks to you. Back on Tuesday, say bye-bye. Peace. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr you you