The Ariel Helwani Show - Michael “Venom” Page, Kade Ruotolo, Mike Malott, Jaron "Boots" Ennis, On the Nose, plus a DC cameo!

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Kade Ruotolo discusses his upcoming ONE Championship fight against Ahmed Mujtaba, the experience of winning CJI, whether he'll do CJI again, his injury woes, advice for Michael Page ahead of his first big-time grappling match, the Olympics, and more (07:50).Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back answer all your On The Nose questions about the road for Max Holloway after UFC 308, whether Khamzat Chimaev should jump Sean Strickland in the middleweight queue, the backlash from the Dana White vs. Francis Ngannou coverage, the team's worst injuries, Ireland's history with Halloween, Petesy's addition to the show, the first UFC events we've ever attended, the crew's bagel controversy, and much more (39:50).Michael Page discusses his Polaris 30 grappling main event against Carlos Condit on Saturday, how the match materialized, why this is something he wanted to explore at age 37, advice from Kade Ruotolo, originally being booked against Donald Cerrone for Polaris, Belal Muhammad's ascent up the UFC welterweight division, his loss to Ian Machado Garry, wanting to fight Shara Bullet at 185 pounds, and more (01:32:28).Mike Malott discusses his UFC Edmonton return against Trevin Giles, what went wrong against Neil Magny, his grueling road to building himself back up from that loss, why he wants to be an example for the next generation, the adjustments he's made for Giles, and more (02:00:06).Jaron "Boots" Ennis discusses his upcoming IBF welterweight title rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian, his experience since signing with Matchroom, his reaction to having to fight Chukhadzhian as his mandatory, recent baffling decisions made by the IBF, his quest to unify the title, what he did wrong in the first Chukhadzhian fight, partnering up with Bam Rodriguez, whether the Terence Crawford fight will ever happen, and more (02:32:17).Before the show ended, Ariel calls his old friend Daniel Cormier to get his response after what Derrick Lewis said about him at the UFC Edmonton media day (03:22:47).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Erya Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Wednesday, October 30th, 2000. And 24, Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. And a very happy Halloween Eve to you. Look at this place. You were wondering.

We were all wondering, if I'm being honest, including myself. Would GC bring out the decorations? You know, that used to be a staple in our old home. He did such a fantastic job. And then there I was today wondering. I didn't want to bring it up. I didn't want to say anything. I come in and he's hard at work.

I think he got here crack of dawn. I think he got here at like. I didn't see him go home last night. Yeah. I mean, look at this thing. In fact, they've been decorating the whole office here. There's a huge office right out there. And now we've become the bell of the ball.

Everyone's coming up to us. Wow, look at this. Look at that. I mean, let's go to this show we don't use it enough you can really look at this you can get a full scope of how beautiful this is i mean and even the little even the little details look at that what is that what are those things called the corn thingies candy corn candy corn the the the font is different our tv thing is orange now. Little candy. I mean, this is beautiful. This is beautiful. I wish we would have done this on Monday. Had the whole week like this.

Of course, tomorrow we'll have boys in the back, so they'll be looking fresh. I believe they're actually dressing up. And Halloween is a big, big deal here in New York City. I do believe it's home to the biggest. I read this. Actually, they've got some stats in the biggest. I read this. Actually, they've got some stats in the bathroom. Did you guys know that? Did you guys know they had stats in the bathroom?

Every time I go to the urinal. Yeah. We have the biggest Halloween parade in the world. Greenwich Village, I think. I took a picture. It is. Whip the phone out at the urinal to take the picture? No, no.

It was on the wall. It was on the wall. It was on the wall. Behind the urinal. The biggest Halloween parade in the no. It was on the wall. It was on the wall. It was on the wall. Behind the urinal. The biggest Halloween parade in the U.S. happens right here in New York City. Now in its 51st year, the Greenwich Village Parade draws nearly 2 million spectators and

70,000 costume participants every freaking year. I've got some more factoids for you guys as the show goes on. When we get off the show tomorrow for Boys in the Back, me and Rick can just walk over there, mosey on over and jump in the parade. Love it. Oh, yeah, you'll be dressed up.

You'll be suited and booted. So it's a great time. It's a festive time. Love it. Love how everything looks. It feels like home. It feels better than home, dare I say. And we've got another great show for you all.

Of course, we'd love to shoot on Wednesdays on the nose. Coming up in about 30 minutes' time, ariahawani.substack.com. There's already a ton of questions. We try to get to as many as possible. Also, we'll answer some super chatter questions as well. Back into the show, we'll be joined by one of the best boxers on the planet, a king of the 147-pound division, IBF champ. He returns to action on November 9th in Philadelphia

in a rematch against Karin Chukazin of Ukraine. It is a rematch that not a lot of people were asking for, but it's one that has to happen because the IBF has reared its ugly head again. But shout out to Matchroom. They've got Boots Ennis, who is the guest that will be joining us at 3.30 Eastern from his home in Philadelphia, and Bam Rodriguez on the card as well. So those are two of the best boxers in the world. Perhaps not fighting the competition that people want to see them fight in their next fight, but having them back to back, pretty darn cool. That's on DAZN November 9th. So we'll be joined by him at

approximately 3.30. At three o'clock, we'll be joined by Mike Malott, who returns to action on Saturday at the UFC Edmonton card. A big spot for him. You'll recall it was reminiscent of Carlos Condit and Rory McDonald back at UFC 115. He was rolling against Neil Magny back in January in Toronto and then stumbled at the very end. Lost his first UFC fight, fell to three and one as a UFC fighter, but he's back some nine months later going up against Trevin Giles, who he has competed against before, but in grappling, he won that fight. This is a bounce back fight for him. He seems to be in great spirits. Love talking to proper Mike. We will do so at three o'clock at 2.30.

One of our favorites, Michael Venom Page is going to join us. Why? Because he's in action this Saturday. And you may be thinking, I didn't see Michael Page on the fight card. I didn't see his name on there. Well, he's not competing in a UFC event. He's competing in a Polaris event. Polaris 30 to be exact. If you

are a fan of grappling, you know all about Polaris. They are one of the top grappling organizations in the world. And he has been working on his grappling and he said, you know what, let me jump in there. Let me compete. Old school Michael Page, who obviously used to compete in point karate tournaments all over the country back when he was a youngster growing up in England. He'll be back in England this Saturday going up against the legend Carlos Condit, the aforementioned Carlos Condit. Who saw this coming? Condit versus MVP on Saturday afternoon? That's primetime stuff. We'll be talking to Michael Page about that at 2.30. So I am looking forward to that very much. And I do want to give you guys an update. Two things I wanted to tell you. Number one, happy anniversary to the Rumble in the Jungle 50 years ago today, October 30th, 1974, one of the most famous boxing matches of all time, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman. In fact, we've got the sign right over there. Can you see it? If you go maybe to the Skype shot. Oh, boom. You see that?

It's right there. Foreman Ali. Oh, yeah. You see it right over there, the poster. One of the most iconic fights in the history of the sweet science and our good friend, the best in the business, if you ask me, Chuck Mendenhall has an amazing feature up right now on uncrowned.com. He spoke to Jerry Eisenberg, a legendary journalist, about his time covering that fight, his time covering Muhammad Ali. It's a phenomenal trip down memory lane. Mendenhall, Eisenberg coming together. Go to uncrowned.com to read all about that. It's a tremendous, tremendous read. I do want to give you an update on our Tamagotchi. Came to the car yesterday, saw it. There was poop all over the gaff. It was on the ground. It was shouting for Clairsey. I was panicking. I fed it.

Didn't really help. It didn't get it up. It it's, it's lying down, like kicking its feet, put it in the bath, cleaned it, took it to the bathroom. The poop disappeared, but we can't get it back up. It's still on the ground. We invited a friend over. We went for a walk. Every time she goes back in, I don't know what's wrong. So if anyone has any advice as to how to fix this issue, how to make the Tamagotchichi feel better i would uh i would appreciate it's getting a little stressful if i'm being honest it's getting stressful i get to the car and it's crying for help uh we did leave it with a sitter while i'm at work and she's at school so who's the sitter i don't know i just picked it from the thing the menu and oh they have like virtual sitters yes yes you didn't want to take care of it for her while you were up here. No, I can't. I'm busy.

I'm busy. So let's see. Maybe the sitter will brighten its spirits. We do have to get to our first guest of the day. Very excited to talk to this young man. We spoke to him a few months ago after his very first MMA fight. He was successful. 1-0 now. He is a phenom when it comes to all things jiu-jitsu.

He then competed at the very first CJI event. He was successful in that endeavor as well. He was supposed to compete in September. That didn't pan out, but he is returning to action on November 8th. That's next Friday in Bangkok, Thailand at 1-169 against Ahmed Mujhtaba, his second MMA fight. He is someone that everyone is very excited about as he continues to make his transition from the world of jiu-jitsu to the world of mixed martial arts. We're talking to Cade Rutolo, who is kind enough to join us right off the bat. There he is, our old pal. Hello, Cade. How are you? What's going on, boss? I'm doing great. How about yourself? i'm doing really

well thank you thank you for joining us by the way are you familiar with the tamagotchis i know you're not big on the tech stuff but maybe you can help me out you're young literally over here on google right now i'm like what is my god she like trying to figure it out fill me in i'm new oh it's like a little thing and it's a pet and you actually have to take care of this pet and if you don't if you neglect it it will poop everywhere it will cry and then it will eventually die like it's teaching kids how to actually take care of a living breathing thing it's not just a toy that you can just put away so a lot of hard lessons being learned over here i hear that that's crazy yes go get go get one yourself and see how it is and uh perhaps i might have to i might have to um well great to talk to you my man uh before you head out to thailand for your second mma fight

i do want to ask you about a ton of things but first you were supposed to compete in september and and i think you're you're battling a labrum issue perhaps two labrum issues which we heard about um with sean o'malley he had to go under the knife is that why you didn't fight against Musumechi back in September um yeah yeah more or less you know you know how it is in the sport that we do if it's not one thing it's another you know um so yeah just you know that's been the battle this year just trying to keep my my body as healthy as possible same thing with my brother and uh yeah dealing with the the labrums you know trying to keep it on a on the low but it's pretty much out there now so yeah I got a got a torn labor room in each hit, but, um, you know, I, I fought that last competition on it and, uh, you know, it doesn't feel good,

but you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. So, and, and by the way, I hope you don't feel like I was blowing your spot. I I've seen interviews where you talked about it, so I hope that that's okay. Um, O'Malley did go under the knife and I heard you say that you're, you're, you're debating, um, you can, you can treat it. I think stem styles, things like this, or you could go under the knife at what point, like, do you think it's inevitable? You'll have to go under the knife and why not get it over with now as opposed to later? Yeah, there is, I've had, I've had a, I've talked to a couple of different people who've done the same injuries, you know, and there's it's funny because the two people told me to do two completely different things. So I'm kind of torn between both. You know, someone was telling me just get the surgery now. It's a year recovery or whatever it is, but just resting at recovery PT, you'll be able to get that hip, you know, like new again. So obviously, if I can, you know, not take that year off, that would be amazing.

So that's kind of where I'm trying to lean towards right now, as long as it doesn't tear all the way through. How much pain are you in when you compete? It's just certain positions, you know. So if I'm just like, you know, in place in place in my stance whatever i'm not really feeling it's just certain uh you know when my hip starts to do like weird angles things like that that's when i really start to feel it you know um uh if i felt like it was hindering to a point where i was gonna to really hinder my performance you know i probably wouldn't be taking the match um you know it's been getting better and better and better you know if it was like three weeks ago i definitely would have been fighting but um you know with every's been getting better and better and better. You know, if it was like three weeks ago, I definitely would have been fighting, but, um, you know, with every day I've got a strong

team around me as far as, you know, power practice, PTs, all that. So, um, every day it's getting better. Do you, is this just like a wear and tear thing from all the years of jujitsu? I reckon, I reckon so, you know, I've always had pretty, pretty stiff hips. I think jujitsu, that's one of the first things that targets is your hips, you know? Um, and aside from that, my last MMA fight, you know, I was throwing a lot of kicks. And I think, um, I think I did my right labor of terror probably right before my last fight. Cause there's about three, four days, a week and a half before that fight where I couldn't even walk. It was pretty rough. So, yeah. Have you ever had surgery? Never. That's also why I'm trying. I've never, I don't know how I've gone this far without it.

So I'm knocking on wood over here, but yeah, trying to keep that going. Since we last spoke, it was actually on the show, the day you came on, the news came out that you were going to go the CJI route and not the ADCC route. And since you have competed and you were successful, you won the million dollars. And so congratulations on that. What was the experience like? And how would you compare it to your experience in the world of ADCC? Yeah, it was an amazing experience. The main difference really just, you know, all the lights, the crowd, all that kind of, you know, always feels the same. The main difference I would say was that pit right there. Competing in that pit for the first time

was definitely a heck of an experience. And my brother and I, honestly, I got one one-hour drilling session in a pit, half a pit. But beside that, we basically got in zero training. My brother had gotten zero training in the pit. So our first time being in there was competing in there really, you know. So it was definitely a learning curve and how much different it is to like a regular wall, um, was definitely a big learning curve for us, but yeah, extremely relieved to get the, to get the win, you know, and I'm super stoked that my hips weren't stoked on me for sure, but and so like, what, what were the adjustments that you had to make or had to learn about when comparing the pit to just,

you know, regular mats? I'd say the main thing is, you know, like a cage or even a ring, there's more so of like a 90 degree angle. So whenever you're getting pushed upon it, it's easy to stay upright, you know, with that, with that pit, if you have any sort of backward momentum, if you're pressing your opponent forward, um, there's almost, unless they jump onto the wall and try something off of it there's almost no way to stay upright so you pretty much end up just falling over and uh it makes it for that if you kind of just beeline it towards your opponent it's very difficult to stay upright if you're running into that wall you know so it kind of it's just a variable and also getting up it's so much more difficult right

when you have a 90 degree angle you kind of back, your back up to it and work up the wall with that pit though, the 45, if you're against that wall, you're not getting up, you know, unless you maybe find a way into that little crew corner groove. So a lot of little tweaks that are a lot different than a 90 degree for sure. Overall, in terms of the production, the event, just how it all ran, how would you compare it to adcc first time for them there was a lot of attention same weekend same city head to head craig's a big troll he's poking the bear how was the experience it was amazing you know one thing that i when uh when you're talking like jiu-jitsu competitions of course because it's it's obviously never going to be as exciting as

something like mma right you know the one thing I always try to take away is the crowd's reactions. And, you know, 2022 ADCC, that's why it was a really special moment for me. You know, the crowd is going crazy. It was really, you know, it was really cool to see the fans digesting what they're watching, you know. But I felt the same thing here at this last CJI. You know, you hear all the hoots and hollers, people screaming. You know, they're all-day events, you know, from morning till afternoon, you know, so for people's attention spans to be actually entertained for that long of a period of time is, you know, they're doing something right. Of course, you

made history at that 2022 event, just 19 years young, becoming the youngest ADCC champion. Was it weird for you to be in the same city, same weekend and not competing at ADCC? For sure, for sure. You know, it was definitely like a bittersweet thing. You know, ADCC has been around since the 90s, since before I was born. Right. And, you know, it's always held the most prestige. So, you know, mentally, I'm always kind of prepared. All right. Every two years we have ADCC. This time around, obviously, the million dollar opportunity came up. It was nothing personal against ADCC. It was just, you know, anyone in their right minds is going to go after that million. Right. So that's just what we had to do, you know, and, uh, that went and sent it. Uh, he's talking about doing it again, uh, next year, perhaps. Are you, are you interested if

you're healthy? Are you interested in sticking with this and, and not jumping back over to the ADCC side of things? Honestly, yeah, if I had to be honest, I definitely would do it again. You know, like I said, nothing against ADCC, but, you know, anytime you follow the money, I feel like it grows a sport in the long run. You know, you get competitors, you get guys that are like, okay, maybe I'm going to do a million-dollar division now. And it just brings more money, more attention into the sport, and it brings bigger players as far as like a platform, you know? So

I think in the long run, it's good for the sport. And obviously for, for, you know, the winner's bank account, it's even better, right? So, you know, the next one that comes around, if he's going to do it next year, I'll be there. If he's going to do it the year after, I'll be there as well. Did you feel like, I'm sure you talked to some of the other competitors. Do they all feel the same? Do you feel like there's something to this? some of the other competitors do they all feel the same do you feel like there's something to this and and you probably heard mo jessam you know resigning craig says he was fired who knows um do you think that that was related to the success that they had back in august right right you know to be entirely honest with you i i i haven't been super up to date

with all the you know the back and forths everything. I know there is some dramas, this, this and that, you know, Craig and Mo talking about MMA fight. All this crazy stuff, you know, so, hey, I'll definitely be front row watching it. I think it'd be very entertaining, you know, but, uh, uh, as far as the whole drama thing, I haven't really looked too far into it. You know, I usually stay way out the mix as far as when it comes up to those types of things. Um, I went to go message Mo the other day and I can tell he's not very stoked on me cause he wasn't following me anymore. So I'm like, but, uh, but I'm sure it's, uh, you know, it's, it's pretty funny, but at the end of the day, you know, I think, um, I think people get kind of, you know, the athletes have to look out for their best interest and sometimes, you know, people might get butt hurt along the way, but it

is what it is. We got to do what's best for our families, for our lives, you know, and that's just the way it is. Yeah. And obviously, like, there's so much attention going on this few, but I just think this is great for jujitsu, right? I mean, the fact that people are talking about it, that there's a rivalry, it's probably great for the whole sport, regardless of which route you go. Do you agree? I couldn't agree more. You know, ADCC is not the thing. It's not going to go anywhere. You know, it's been around since the 90s. One of the most prestigious grappling tournaments out there,

if not the most. So as long as, I really think the only other competitor is CJI as far as, you know, someone that could take the quality of athletes over. And the only reason why is because of the price purse. You know, I think every high-level athlete's kind of, they can look at that million like is because of the price purse, you know, I think every high level athletes kind of, they can look at that million, like, okay, I need that. You know, how is your brother doing? We showed the photo there. He had the big brace on his, on his knee. How is he feeling? Yeah, he's, he's good. You know, every day he's feeling better. He just got, um, some stem cells in his knee. So, um, I think he's starting to turn a corner there.

You know, it was definitely a pretty rough injury. You know, he tore like the majority of ligaments in his knee. I think one of the only ones he didn't tear was like his ACL, thankfully. But yeah, you know, meniscus, whatever, PCL, all these different ligaments. So it was definitely, you know, a rough injury. And he's just been on the back burner, just, you know, recovering and just resting. Is there any, not that you should have, but I'm just curious as his brother, I know you guys are so close and you seem to have such a great relationship. I'm just curious if there's any kind of guilt at all. You get to compete,

you get to do your thing, you get to, you know, advance your career and he is still kind of stuck, you know, nursing this, that he'll get back in there relatively soon. But do you feel as his bro, do you feel any type of guilt as you're going out there and competing in multiple events and he has to be on the sidelines that's a thousand that's why i said that you know winning a million dollars obviously is you know financially the biggest purse i've ever won and cgi one of the biggest tournaments i've ever won but when i when it comes up to you know the moments that like feel the best to me, when I reflect, it's not really CGI. It's more so the who's number one.

When my brother and I, we first got the titles. It was our first big chunk of money. I think we both won like 30K. We got the titles on the same night. We both won. Winning alongside my brother, those are the ones that are so much more memorable, that leave much more of an impression on my mind compared to when I have a success single-handedly, you know, obviously it feels good and, and, you know, it still reflects upon the family and things like that. But, um, whenever you're winning alongside your brother, it feels so much better,

you know? So I kind of made sure this is going to be my last MMA fight for the rest of the year. I'm going to stay recovering with him. And then next year we'll both come in strong. Considering, uh, you know, what happened in September, having to withdraw and considering you're still battling, you know, through these lab these labrum issues, was there any part of you that thought maybe let me take the rest of the year off and not even have this MMA fight? It definitely crossed through my mind a couple of times. I won't lie to you, but what also crossed my mind was right after CJ, I was like the week and after was that Mikey Musumechi match match right and i was so it felt like a train hit me i was so blown out i had to pull out of that one and and reschedule that for next year so you know i was like i can't pull out back to back there's just no way no and this is

something that's kind of been in the works since the beginning of the year right so i was just like you know just got to suck it up get this last one done try to finish them fast and then uh you know focus on next year was one upset when you had to withdraw of course they weren't stoked you know it was i think you know chachi knew how big of a for the jiu-jitsu community how big of a match that one was you know i surprised even myself i thought it would be a cool matchup but there were so many people thinking like oh this is gonna be the craziest matchup i ever could have thought of catered and i was really surprised to see all that feedback you know people were saying oh i think this matchup could change jujitsu did it i was like there's a lot of hype on it you know so

i was obviously super bummed to to have to pull out you know but i'm definitely looking forward to getting that one next year would have loved to run it back this year again maybe even but i think mikey's on uh he's injured himself too going through some health problems so next year when we're both healthy we'll get that match going again for for everybody you guys are huge stars and you're very likable and you're very unique and and you're people that um are are like it's very easy to to to follow along and and and and be drawn to you and be emotionally invested in your story and his story he's a unique guy with a unique character in his own right so i'm not surprised i am i am wondering though as you mentioned then you also mentioned you know

sending or trying to send mo a message are you still doing the no phone stuff or very little social media very little phone we talked about that i was very impressed with your uh with your ability to stay off especially as a youngster are you still successful in that regard and it's i would say that last week it's like that's why my manager hates me i finally called him yesterday i was like after all day he's trying to get a hold of me i was you know training doing whatever priorities you're like bro tomorrow ariel juani just please be i'm like of course um but uh yeah you know i've just been trying my best to stay off of it and that's just it keeps me the happiest keeps me the most focused

um and yeah that's the way like like, like this past UFC card, I didn't even know Max and Ilya were fighting until like the day of, I forgot, you know, I was like, Oh my gosh, that's tonight. Wow.

I'm just so punch on everything, but, um, but it keeps me very present in life for sure. I love that. Um, this opponent that you're fighting next Friday, Ahmed Mujtaba is a lot more accomplished than your first opponent,

right? He has almost 15 pro fights. Your first opponent, Blake Cooper for, uh, this seems like a step up in terms of competition. He's competed against the likes of Sage Northcutt in the past as well. Did you know about him? Had you heard of him? And obviously now you've probably done a bit of research. What do you think of him after learning about him? Yeah, you know, the only time I've seen him fight in person was that Sage Northcutt fight. I was there in Denver for that card.

You know, I know he's got a solid straight right down the middle and a decent uppercut. You know, he's knocked a couple people out on the one platform. You know, I'm definitely not taking him lightly. I think he's a brown belt on the ground. So, you know, he's got some weariness when it comes up to jiu-jitsu. But, you know, I think his strengths are going to lie on keeping it on the feet and trying to knock me out. You know, I think that's going to be his best bet. Um, with that being said, you know, I'm watched a little bit of film, not too much, a couple of matches,

you know, I like to see what my opponents are good at, but I don't like to, you know, watch it too much and become obsessed with what they're good at. Cause I'm more focused about what I'm going to hit in there. Right. So just like to see what he's good at is his main two or three punches and, and yeah are you still training with the great eric paulson that's right yes sir so probably headed down there tonight um just eric paulson and tyler wambles you know my my two main coaches for mma and i'm super super pleased super happy with them and and you know the first time we talked we talked about how you're so successful in mma and that was even before the craig jones invitationalvitational, where people in your position sometimes don't want to go to MMA.

They don't want to get punched. And it seemed like you had a genuine passion for mixed martial arts. You told us about your grandfather, who was a big fan, who introduced you to it and who probably wouldn't be too happy with you fighting, but would obviously be supporting you because he introduced you to all of this. And I saw an interview with you and MMA Junkie recently where you said that you were kind of like, for lack of a better word, and correct me if I'm wrong, sort of struggling with what your legacy would be in martial arts. And then you found God and through that process, it really made it crystal clear in your mind that MMA was the way

to go. Is that an accurate summary? I know it's probably a lot deeper than that. And I'd love to ask you about that of kind of what happened earlier this year. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's crazy because my brother and I both kind of in the same, we always find everything together. It's the trippiest thing. But yeah, the beginning of this year, you know, obviously I hadn't made my MMA debut yet, which is the full jujitsu guy.

Even though I loved fighting, I loved martial arts as far as what I was accomplished was just all jujitsu. And, you know, I had, you know all these up uh upcoming tournaments right the cji possibly or adcc whatever it may have been super fights all these things and you know i was super excited to go knock all of it out but at the same time too i was really just sitting there thinking back as far as you know when i'm done with all of this what do i want my legacy to be known as you know what i mean um there's so many there's so many fighters you know guys you for me, like one of my favorite guys who just left an unreal legacy was Nate Diaz always, you know, I just love the way that, I love the way he fought, you know, he's, you know, however many

top 10 guys he's fought and put on just, you know, performance of the nights, you know, and I was just really thinking about a legacy standpoint, what do I want to, what I want to be known for? And for me, I wanted to be known for not just being a jiu-jitsu guy but being you know one of the best martial artists of of all time you know i was a big fan of suhudo for the fact he went from wrestling to mma you know and if you could accomplish all these different things i think um i think it's amazing you know so that's really my goal now is you know i feel like i've climbed to the top of the mountain in jiu-jitsu and i've been holding it down right there and uh I feel like, you know, MMA is a whole separate mountain to climb, but I know I have the capabilities and the abilities to do so. And that's what I want to do. I guess I'm wondering at 21, and that's how old you are right

now, correct? There aren't a lot of 21 year olds, young men who are thinking about their legacy. They're just kind of, you know, as you say, in the moment, and I understand there's a difference between thinking about your legacy and being on your phone, but why are you even worried about that? Why are you thinking about that? Why are you, you know, as opposed to being like, what can I do this month, this week, this year? Why do you feel like you needed to search for what your ultimate legacy is going to be in martial arts? You know, because it was something, like I said, beginning of this year that I'd never really even thought about, you know, but I feel like the way I've always operated is I always, you know, sounds cringy or whatever, but like in a sense where you shoot for,

shoot for the moon and maybe you'll land on a star, right. You know, every single one of my goals are, are, is, is, is high as possible. You know, um, you know, I didn't start doing jujitsu and start doing jujitsu every day to become top 10 in jujitsu. You know, I, I did that to become the best in the world of jujitsu for my weight. And, you know, and I feel like I, uh, you know, the most humble way possible, I've kind of, you know, climbed that mountain in jujitsu. So now it's just to do so in MMA, you know, I think, uh, more so about just the legacy. I really do believe I can be the best. If I feel like I can be the best, I'm going to get there. If I was, if I felt like I could be the best in surfing, I tried in surfing.

I'm just realistic with myself. I'm not going to get there. But I really do genuinely believe that I can get to the number one spot in MMA, and I'm going to get there. Do you think there will be a point in time where you will just completely leave jiu-jitsu and go all in on MMA? I don't think there will be a time where I completely ever leave jiu-Jitsu and go all in on MMA? I don't think there'll be a time where I completely ever leave Jiu-Jitsu, but when we're getting to a time where we're, you know, getting closer to fighting for the title, probably just put Jiu-Jitsu on the back burner a little bit as far as competitions. You know, I definitely want to stay training Jiu-Jitsu the same way I've always trained Jiu-Jitsu.

It's my, it's the A game when it comes up to my game, right? The, my go-to. So I never want to lose that, you know, the essence of, of what I'm known-to so i never want to lose that you know the essence of of what i'm known for what and what would i have you know my best part of me but at the same time um i definitely know that you know as we start getting closer to the title and things like that it's going to be really taking everything i have um in the mma realm you know so definitely want to keep training jujitsu of course to complement my mma but as far as competing jujitsu maybe just once a year that the biggest ADCC or CGI or whatever that may be. Not to look past November 8th, but have you

already set like what your goals, what your schedule will be like come 2025? What do you like by the end of, of 25, where do you want to be? Just undefeated in MMA. That's the main thing. You know, I just want to keep, um, the fights coming and I just want to keep knocking them down. That's my goal. Um, you know, I, I've said it before in past interviews, you know, in the most humble way possible, I'm very mentally strong, you know? So if you were to ask me, how do you think you do against the guy that has the belt now on whatever platform at my weight, I, I truly believe that I would, I would finish him. Um, you know, it's not, it's just, it's just what I believe, you know, all humbleness, you know, it's just what I honestly believe, you know?

So, you know, my goal is just to keep knocking him down until we get there, really. So that's what next year is going to be all about. I love it. I freaking love it. I love the confidence. I love the self-belief. And just curious, I know some people may not like to talk about this, and if you're the same, all good. But when you say, talk about this and if you're the same,

all good. But when you say like, you found God, you found religion, what does that mean? How do you incorporate that into your life now? Absolutely. Well, you know, at first, like kind of going back to that first question you asked, it gave me a lot of clarity in a sense. Remember where I was saying that I just didn't really exactly know if I wanted to, you know, be the best jujitsu guy or start MMA or, you know, even, you know, start, you know, become a, you know, I've always had the Olympic gold wrestling medal on my mind. It sounds crazy. It sounds great. I've always had, you know, um, these different goals in my mind. So I was really just kind of lost. And, uh, so that, you know, you know, finding God, I felt like gave me a lot

of clarity in a sense where, you know, why not do everything, you know, and, and, and take it step by step, you know, time at a time again. And whenever you're feeling the most beaten down, the most roughed up, you know, that's when you should really start giving the most hope. And I feel like whenever I was feeling the most down, beaten up, I was when I had the least hope, you know what I mean? And so with that kind of whole, my whole mindset changing in that regard, and then also knowing that it doesn't really matter the result, whether it is a win or loss, um, at the end of the day, it doesn't really affect the things that actually matter in life. You know,

it's just a result, um, that really helps help me a lot too, you know, cause you know, at the end of the day, all that matters is family, you know, the man up above and, and, and, you know, things like that. So so really i just feel like i'm not really fighting for myself anymore i'm so i'm more so fighting for the people around me and and uh it just takes a lot of the pressure out of it i feel like are you saying uh 2028 olympics we're going for wrestling la you never know i talk to my brother about it all the time you know my my brother and i we like to talk about it because you know we we dabbled in wrestling you know little high school wrestling classes growing up we feel like we have very strong wrestling you know we could wrestle with very you know high

level wrestlers and we've never focused on it you know so we're like man imagine if we focused on wrestling for like two years straight i feel like we could wow it sounds crazy i know but you know we've had some solid wrestling scraps uh with some high level guys you know and uh like i obviously i don't think i can't you know could wrestle that level anytime soon but with you know a lot of time given to it and dedicated to it i think any and anything in the martial arts world i think we could really honestly accomplish almost anything that we put our minds to we're still so young we have nothing but time you know i've always wondered why isn't jujitsu in the Olympics?

And you would know better than I. Is there any type of push to make it happen? You know, it's a great question. And, you know, there's all these sports that are in the Olympics and then jujitsu is not in there, right? Some wacky sports, man. I was there. Break dancing this summer.

Like, come on. How's that in there? And not just three on three basketball. Like these, we got flag football coming in 2028. We've had ballroom dancing. How is jujitsu not in there? It's, it's, it's pretty crazy. We got gymnastics with balls. Like they're doing gymnastics, like bouncing. I'm like, or I couldn't believe it. Um, yeah, it's crazy. You know, not to stow shame on the bouncy ball gymnast, but, uh, um, yeah, it's, it's wild that it's not in the Olympics yet. And I think, um, I think the main reason, you know, there's, there's Gi Jiu Jitsu, there's no Gi Jiu Jitsu, right. And there's rule sets

within each side of that, you know, Gi and no Gi, right. And it's different rule sets. So there's not just one, it's not like MMA where there's for the most part, just one rule set and three or five rounds, you know what I mean? There's, there's, for the most part, just one rule set and three or five rounds. And I mean, there's a lot of different variables. And so I think deciding which one would be run or would be ran in the Olympics is the hard part. Which one's the most exciting? Which one's the most digestible for viewers? And also, the judges.

There's just so many different variables that I think that's the reason it hasn't quite made it. I think it's also our job to make it exciting, you know, because it's easy for a Jiu-Jitsu match to be boring if two guys want to, they're too worried about the win rather than making the match exciting. You know, this last CJI, I think that's what made CJI kind of really blow up. Almost every match was exciting. You know, my semifinal match with Andrew Tackett, people were trying to claim it was probably the most exciting Jiu-jitsu match ever, ever.

And I thought that was a super cool claim because I remember I have a match that I view as the most exciting to me, and I'll forever respect those guys because of it, you know. And so it was really cool to be a part of a match like that. And I think those are the matches we need for it to bring into the Olympics. There's all these comments, man, my brother hates jiu-jitsu, and he was watching that match like this you know wow if we more matches like that on the plat on the big leagues in the platform on the big platforms you know i think that's really what's gonna help

push it into into mainstream by the way uh your favorite or your most exciting match the one you just referred to what is it yeah so um it's it's a way older matching than you guys have to do some deep diet it's probably just it's all pixelated on youtube but um it was it's a way older match in the key you guys have to do some deep diet it's probably just it's all pixelated on youtube but um it was ricardo vieira versus hobson mora and and they're two legends and it was in the key but it was just non-stop action and submission attempts and and just you know at the time the highest levels of jiu-jitsu just colliding when and i don't think what made that match special is both of them, aside from wanting to win, they wanted to finish each other. They really wanted to not just win, they really wanted to finish each other.

And I don't even think that match ended up in a finish, if I remember correctly. But just the intent of, you know, submission after submission and attack after attack. You just had nothing but respect for the guys, you know, and those are the matches that I love to watch. And even those are the matches that I love to be a part of. What year is that? Is it like 80s or 90s? Extremely old. Yeah, it's probably in the 90s or early 2000s.

Okay, all right. Don't tell me what happens. No spoilers. I'm going to look it up. I'm getting into it. I'm getting into it. By the way, are you familiar with Michael Venn and Page? Of course.

Of course. MVP, the man known for his striking. I don't know if you know this. You probably don't because you're off, you know, everything. He's competing in his first grappling match this weekend,

this Saturday against the legend, Carlos Condit, which kind of came out of nowhere, a middleweight bout for Polaris, Polaris 30 in England. He's on the show later today, and I'm just wondering, we could play this for him. Any advice, you know, great guy to great guy,

any advice to impart upon Michael Venom Page as he enters his first grappling match? First of all, props, because that's awesome for a striker of that level to hop in the two jiu-jitsu match. I think it's super, super dope. as far as what advice you know he's fighting carlos conda obviously a huge fan of carlos as well that's a crazy jiu-jitsu match um i really don't even know how that's going to turn out but um if i had to give him one stick of advice man follow the wrist a lot of wrist control you know everything in jiu-jitsu almost spirals from the hands right so if you could kind of track down the wrist a lot of the time that negates 50 of their attacks

and could also set up a lot of yours so if i just had to give one little smidgen of advice track the wrist follow the wrist okay love that and we're gonna play it for him so i'm sure he'll appreciate that uh last thing uh your first mma fight rnc what do you what are you thinking this time we're gonna get that Rutolo style, I believe? That's yours, right? That submission move, are we going to see that? We'll rock with that. If that's what you guys want to see, then we'll rock with that.

That's like your variation of the Darce choke, is that fair to say? Yeah, very much so. It's different, but same, same, but different. What's the difference? It's more so like an arm triangle, but on the side of the neck. so it's different but same same but different what's the difference it's more so like an arm triangle but on the side of the neck so it's like the arm is in the same position that a darts would be but the grip would be as if i went arm triangle and then slip to the side of his body so i'm now instead of attacking like this way the pressure is coming on the side

of the neck right so it kind of this um yeah it's really i didn't even call it the rutolo team at first i forgot who who first initially said that i remember we're alive and i'm like what do you call that i really don't know what's the name for it and was it you ward it was either my manager my brother someone goes rutolo team and i'm like all right rutolo team and i was like that sounds conceited i don't even know why i love it i love it but it is yeah all right so we'll look out for that. November 8th in Bangkok. A pleasure, man. Really enjoy talking to you. Wish you all the best. Congrats on the big win back in in August for CJI, the million dollars, all that stuff. Well,

it's actually I think it's a million and ten thousand and one. Right. Because you got ten thousand and one to show taxes. Right. Exactly. Exactly, exactly. Let's not get crazy. And good luck next Friday. We'll be watching. Wish you all the best. Thank you so much, Ariel. I appreciate you having me on and great catching up again. Yes, sir.

See you guys soon. Yes, sir. There he is. The young man, Cade Rutolo, the phenom, if you will, doing big things in the world of jujitsu, but also now in the world of MMA. You can watch 1-169 next Friday,

November 8th from Bangkok live on Amazon Prime, Prime Sport, which is a very easy app. There it is, to navigate. It's included with your Prime subscription in US and Canada only. Speaking of my good friends over at Amazon

Prime, did you guys happen to see the new series, Game 7, which just dropped? I'm featured in one of the episodes as a quote-unquote basketball journalist talking all about the 2006 second round Game 7 showdown between the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs. Anyone catch that?

I'm alpha. Yeah. You know yourself, RM Page. You know yourself. Yeah. Great stuff. What a great energy that young man has.

And hopefully the torn labrums won't hold him back. 21. I mean, he's been through the ringer. His body's been through the ringer. He is the youngest

ADCC winner ever. 19. 19. Imagine doing that at 19. Imagine thinking about your legacy at 21. Sheesh. We'll talk to MVP in about an hour's time.

Mike Malott. And then, of course, Boots Ennis. But, my friends, it's time to shoot. You know we like to shoot on Wednesdays, Frank, right? You know that, right? Absolutely do I know that. Yeah. Let's get to the questions now.

Time now for everyone's favorite segment of the week. It is time. Everyone stop chatting shit. That's the new on the nose we stick. It's time. Everyone stop chatting shit. That's the new on the nose. It's perfect. Exactly. Yeah. No, it's actually quite perfect.

Here we go. Well, let me let me open this up here. Thank you to everyone who sent in the questions via. Ariahawani.substack.com. It doesn't slap quite as hard without the whole song and dance. How's the story? I mean, I noticed that you did... The beatboxing for...

Yeah, you did like custom music for the boys in the back. I actually got that from an artist who remains anonymous to this day. But maybe I can ask them if they'll do something for you. Okay, yeah, I appreciate that. That'd be very nice. Here we go. Here's Echo. Hello, Ariel and crew. Back in January, I said Ilya had everything it takes to be the star of the UFC and down the road will be in the GOAT conversation. I don't think he loses to any of the potential challengers anytime soon. Honestly, I think he beats Lopez, Sterling, Evloev, Murphy, Allen, and dominates

the Vogue rematch. By the way, a lot of people are saying that I mispronounce Volk. Am I saying it like Volk, like yolk? Should it be Volk? Volk, yeah. Volkanovski. Volkanovski. So you actually pronounce it because it's Alex.

Volkanovski. You say Volkanovski? What do you say? Volkanovski? Alex Volkanovski. Yeah. I don't know why Volk. Why do I say Volkanovski?

You're reading it like yolk. Yeah. But it's Volk. So it should be Volkanovski? Alex Volkanovski. Yeah. I don't know why Volk. Why do I say Volkanovski? You're reading it like yolk. Yeah. But it's Volk. So it should be Volk, huh? Yeah. Hmm. You might be the only one.

Yeah, I get that a lot. You're saying it wrong. Should you choose that? That one too. I guess I say a lot of things wrong. They say I say Juan, like Juan, not one. Oh, one. Yeah. Okay. Correct. Do you say Juan championship? No. No, yeah okay correct do you say one championship no no one no I say like this man won win or lose yeah yeah it's definitely one now speaking of which PC Carroll had a winner learn moment earlier today shout out PC let's go I love a winner learn moment

makes us all better The beard is just so When did you start growing this beard out When he got on crown He stopped caring The day we started I was like you know what Fuck this No I'm joking It was pretty much around the start

It's so good I was turning heel wasn't I I suggested that and I wondered I did confront you but it's amazing we're three weeks into this endeavor and and i i had five weeks on my on my board the answer is actually three weeks i was waiting when we'd get the text from pt being like you guys need me today i knew it was coming at some point like he already wants out i just thought he was a fixture like i would never get a text you confuse me you need me today i would never get that text your message confused me it was half 12 last night you know

what i mean you want me to remember all this do you want an interesting fact clocks came back so it was half 11 no problem go ahead interesting fact yeah hobson more of the uh ricardo vieira referred to by kade there yes i've actually trained with Hobson Moore a number of times. What? He's been in Blanchardstown. Yes. Back in the day when he used to compete. That was it.

He's friends with my old coach, Paul Fox, and he used to come and stay in Blanchardstown. And the match with Ricardo Vieira happened in 2001 that he's talking about. Is it legendary? Is it tremendous? Brilliant. It's a Gi match so i mean the nogi people probably won't enjoy it too much but it's brilliant yeah i think kate is a nogi guy and he loves it so he competes in the gi and the nogi i believe sure

but cji was nogi i know this i'm a jujitsu aficionado by the way speaking of interesting facts did you know that uh the candy apple was actually created by accident? Don't know what a candy apple is, mate. Yeah, in fact, it was William W. Kolb of Newark, New Jersey, a confectioner

who was credited with inventing the first candy apple. In 1908, the candy maker supposedly dipped an apple into a cinnamon glaze as an experiment

and discovered that patrons loved them. You've exposed yourself, I feel like, because you've read the fact from the Yahoo bathroom, but that doesn't sound like an accident. That just sounds like he tried something and it worked. You know, like they called it an accident. I was thinking that too.

It's like, no, you tried something. I know. How am I exposing myself? I'm literally reading it verbatim. I'm literally- I know, but it feels like you didn't read it beforehand. The title says candied apple. If I'm being honest, I was washing my hands.

I saw all these factoids. Washing your hands. There's no posters near the hand washing. You want to bet? Oh, this is insane. It's over the urinal. That part I don't know. This is so insane.

On the back wall, so when you're going number two, you can read it. I mean, it's- Okay. Stop with these. I'm washing the hands. Look, you can even see the mirror here. You know what's so insane? Yeah, we saw that.

You know why? You know what? I know exactly... I'm going to expose something right now. Expose it. You're saying this because you go to the bathroom that's right over here, right? Yes. I have found another bathroom.

I don't like to mingle with the common folk, okay? Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. In this other bathroom. The private one? I have yet to find. Is there a private one? He doesn't know about that. You found the secondary bathroom and you were trying to flex on us. I found the secondary bathroom weeks ago.

You found a private? I've already found the private bathroom. Showers, towels, hair dryer. I'm dead serious. Plants. It's like a spa in there. What? Yeah, this is not made up.

On this floor? On this floor? On this very floor. Wow. I looked everywhere. You tried to flex the secondary bathroom on me. Secondary bathroom was the first place I went. You can't tell him now because he wasn't going to tell you about this.

No, you'll never find out. I was so happy that I found this bathroom and I wasn't going to tell any of you. The secondary one is great. I can't lie. In this bathroom, it's on the mirror. So I know what you're referring to. I just want to let you know I have gone elsewhere. I mean, the first-rate bathroom is an absolute slop fest. is on the mirror. So I know what you're referring to. I just want to let you know I have gone elsewhere.

I mean, the first-rate bathroom is an absolute slop fest. Yeah, it's disgusting. I get E. coli just walking into that place. It's secondary if the private is taken.

You guys are so bougie. All right. Anyway, back to the... Okay, but can we... That's not an accident. That's just...

You tried something and it worked well. Take it up with HR. I'm going to miss it. He dipped the apple, I think this might be DEI, just to make sure we get our departments correct.

I feel like he dipped it in the cinnamon glaze and he was trying something. Maybe he told the people he was kind of ashamed about dipping it in the cinnamon glaze. He was like,

yeah, it was just an accident. Meanwhile, he had this plant in his head and it worked out for him. I personally think candy apples are bizarre. Like, they kill your teeth. Caramel apples all day over them.

The whole thing is weird. Also, I can't eat apples anymore just like this. There's one member of the team who enjoys doing it. We won't call him out. I also enjoy doing it. Don't be weird. I cut them. Who can eat an apple like this? You are truly an old man at this point.

You told me you can't eat apples like that. We can't stomach a bag are truly an old man at this point. You told me to eat apples. We can't eat apples like that. We can't stomach a bagel pre-show. No, no. Bill came in this morning and he was like, Frank, I got this letter from this company called AARP. Can you help me understand what it is? When's the colonoscopy?

Can you get my reading glasses? I thought we were going to get one. Yeah, I know. I'm thinking about it. You know, they say 45. I think I might want to just get it out of the way. Well, squad, we all getting one? I already got mine.

Did you really, Frank? I've gotten it a few times. What Full squad? We all getting one? I already got mine. Did you really, Frank? I've gotten it a few times. What? You're not even 40 yet. I had digestive issues. Why are we talking about this? You brought a bathroom number two. Stop chatting shit.

Literally. Okay, back to Ilya Teporia. What do you think the ceiling in future is for Ilya, given that he's knocked out two of the three greatest 145ers of all time and no challenger outside of maybe Lopez's, overly impressive I don't I don't think you can play this game I really don't uh people get injured people slip people struggle people have a bad weight cut someone emerges I mean two years ago who'd have thought Ilya was doing this to uh Volk and and uh and Max Holloway so I I don't I don't think you could play this game

to predict a legendary run. I mean, he's got all the tools. He's got it all. I mean, he's got age on his side. He's got the skill. He's got the power. He's got the complete game. He's got the confidence.

He's got the bravado. He's got literally everything. But someone can come on any given day. That's what makes this sport so special. Let us continue. Makum, hello, Ariel and crew. What's up, GC New York Rick, Mysterious Frank. I'm reaching a pizza here.

We'll get there. It's the beard, man. First of all, congratulations on turning a new leaf to this MMA chapter. Very happy for you guys. The uncrowned era is here to stay, baby. My question is, what do you think is the road for Max Holloway after that hard fought battle? He's hinting at lightweight, BMF. What's your take on this? Also one more. Okay, well, my take, he mentioned the

Dustin fight. I kind of really love the Dustin fight. They've had two fights. I think that makes a lot of sense. Is there anything else that makes sense to you guys right now? I mean... I'd take any of the top lightweights. I think he works on all of them. I really do love the Dustin fight. I mean, Dustin's number one. In Louisiana, BMF belt on the line.

It would never quite happen right now, but he's the guy that larone murphy is missing right like that's the type of fight that larone murphy is missing well it could i mean this let's you know we don't have to go too far back into history when ilia taporia was supposed to be the next guy up max was kind of in the way they didn't fight he ends up fighting arnold allen like you could do the larone larone murphy fight it would be the same kind of scenario the way. They didn't fight. He ends up fighting Arnold Allen. Like you could do the Leroy Murphy fight. It would be the same kind of scenario that we had with the Arnold Allen fight. Like if Max wants to continue to be a featherweight,

I was pretty confident after the last one that he did want to continue to be a featherweight. I think at this point, maybe he will be more inclined to go to lightweight. Now that he has lost to Volkanovski three times, now that he has lost to Ilya Tzaporia, I think lightweight makes a lot more sense. I will also say, and I agree 100%,

there are sexier matchups. Yeah. But again, everybody said this back when he lost to Volk for the third time. They were like, oh, no more lightweight. I don't want to see max featherweight anymore. No more featherweight for Max Holloway. And he put together an epic run and

then had another title shot. So I think it's really like, does he want to continue to compete at featherweight? And I think at this point, maybe he will be, he will see the bigger opportunities at lightweight where he did not before. I mean, there's names like Moicano and Fazeev and how fun would all those be Chandler and Hooker. Yeah. You know, he's top five. He's actually ranked fifth at lightweight right now. Oh, he beat Justin. Yeah.

I mean, oh, PT. Holloway Hooker would be pretty great. PT, what do we got? No, it was like, wow, that's amazing kind of shit. Yeah. But he also enters the McGregor sweepstakes. Totally. In facto because of this.

That's a load. You know, because he's going to take some time off. As we know, McGregor has no date confirmed yet. Makes a lot more sense than the Ilya Teporya show on Monday. I'm actually shocked that you're the one, the guy who lambasted us for bringing up

Did you want Conor McGregor to fight in a featherweight fight against Ilya Teporya in Spain? No, no, no. Nobody said featherweight. Nobody said featherweight. You're talking about the featherweight champion, right? There was once a time where he was fighting at 45. Conor was the featherweight champion when he went up to fight Diaz at 70.

But can Max get up to 185 is the question. If he's going to fight Conor, can he get up to 185? Max Holloway at 185. He has one more. How good do you think Hamzat is? Does he deserve a title fight immediately Or after Drikus vs Strickland I saw an interview today

That came out with Rad Sports I believe it was Where Drikus says if it was up to him Hamzat before Strickland That's an OG move man Respect One might say you beat Strickland Potentially easier matchup uh stylistically a

better matchup for you he said here's what we could say definitively humzat versus ddp is is a bigger box office fight right anywhere in the world in my opinion certainly um it's a more interesting fight just by virtue of the fact that we haven't seen it before and humzat's style is so interesting look what he just did to robert whittaker it's a more interesting fight just by virtue of the fact that we haven't seen it before. And Hamzat's style is so interesting. Look what he just did to Robert Whitaker. I will once again say, if it was in fact promised to Strickland, I don't love the idea of taking it away or breaking that promise. There's no part of me that is, other than that, there's no part of me that is in favor of the Strickland rematch over the Hamzat fight.

You know what I mean? Like, I didn't think that that was such a great fight. It's not a fight. We literally saw it nine months ago. He's won one fight since. I don't think it makes a ton of sense to get an immediate rematch. Also, worth noting, Strickland wasn't a, you know, it's not like Volk who was, you know, defending the belt five times or whatever it was. He didn't

defend it once successfully. So it's not like he's a long-reigning champion. It's like, all right, you know, we got to do right by him, right? So I don't get it. And if they haven't promised it to him, then Hamzat versus DDP is the fight. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Is this not an excellent piece of PR from Drip? Oh, it's brilliant. Knowing that they cannot really do that fight because of the situation Hamzat's in, he says, I want him now, knowing that very unlikely they can put him in next. It's actually brilliant. You know what?

I didn't even look. I'm so naive. You're saying this is like old school Chael Sonnen when he would say like... Exactly what I thought of it, yes. Oh, wow oh wow listen ddp i just want to let you know that was pt carroll who said that not me okay so ddp i met you in a hotel lobby for an interview and got you to the ufc back in the day like i'm allowed to say okay fair fair fair fair that's brilliant yes because he gets the street credit he gets the props what i just, right? Do you think that's it?

No, I think it works that way anyway. I don't know if that was his intention when he came out, but it certainly works that way as far as I'm concerned because I don't think Hamzat's fighting outside of the Middle East. It's a win-win. If he gets the fight, he got the fight that is bigger fight. If he doesn't, then he looks like a gangster. So, yeah, it's a win-win for him.

All right, well, let's connor evans is up next ariel and crew love the new show and platform massive credit to those on the website they're bringing a certain journalistic standard that has been particularly lacking in the mma space uh not just mma dare i say but the boxing space as well a great story from keith idakk on Turkey Al-Sheikh and the influence of Saudi Arabia on boxing that just came out. Our guy Darshan, Everything Boxing, has been absolutely crushing it. He has been a gem. So happy that we

have him on board. What about our old friend Kel? Kel dusting off the old pencil and writing a great story on NJPW, New Japan Pro Wrestling. We've got Penn Shamrock doing incredible recaps for us. Drake doing, I mean, it's just, sometimes I just sit back and marvel at the site. We've got those great pound for pound rankings that were all the rage yesterday on the program. I'm waiting for a guest column from Frank. I was promised one a

year. I said you could write about anything combat sports related, but I think Frank actually has a tremendous skill that he's holding back on us. Pizzi hasn't actually been writing. I've been doing it. Thank you, Frank. It was killing two birds with one stone,

as they say. I fulfilled my requirement. He fulfills his. That's why he stopped shaving. He wants to look more like me. It is. And I'm trying to get that pixelated disease as well, but no one will lick me. Bro. I told you that in confidence.

We've actually talked. We were going to name the feature through the Frank lens. It's like right there. It's all right there. So whenever you're ready, Frank, I think it takes us from an 8.5 to an 11. We don't care. Back to the question. In the spirit of what went down this weekend,

what's the worst combat sports prediction you have ever made? May I remind you that you did say at the start of this year that Francis would be undisputed heavyweight boxing champion. What? No, I never said that. I never

said that. Nah. Did I say that? Nah. Thank you. We were talking about how miraculous that he was in the conversation had he beat Joshua that he could fight for an undisputed boxing title. Yeah, I never. That's as close to that conversation. Yeah, I never made that prediction. So this is

bollocks. Mine, I thought Uriah Hall was going to be a Mount Rushmore fighter. I mean, that's pretty bad. But you and Dana White. No, because I mean, after Tough, everybody was like, oh my God, the greatest knockout ever. He's going to be the king of everything. Dana White has proclaimed six people like GSP and Anderson Silva after.

I mean, my hit rate with prediction is pretty damn good, I would say. Do we have that clip of the UFC 30c 308 nah i mean that's the best i mean that's the worst one um and the last one and i'm done after this um what have you done for me lately yeah no it's one of those things i mean we all remember the time that i i hit two underdogs on the same weekend cheeto vera against rob font kat Katie Taylor against Mennison. April 2022. Yeah, I mean, that's when the H-Dow was born. That's when it was born. I don't know.

I mean, you do way worse. You know, like your percentage is way worse than mine. What do you got, GC? I need an actual percentage on who actually does worse. I mean, over the volume, I mean, I've made so many more correct predictions. That's true. That's fair. I don't know. I mean, I've volume, I mean, I've made so many more correct predictions. That's true. That's fair. I don't know.

I mean, I've made some horrible bets, some bets that were just never even close to hitting at like minus 180 odds or something. I mean, I have a list as long as I am tall of horrible predictions. Listen, but it's the spirit in which Ariel approached the winning thing. See, I've never done that. I've never done that. I'm like, nothing's lot you know bet your own money you know anything can happen no path to victory problems no path yeah i'm gonna get that painted on my bathroom yeah no path yeah yeah yeah i don't see a path to win or learn win or learn you know i came out hot i tried to

give you guys some goods for the program it was great it was good i mean look what it turned into i loved it didn't even get The man in the arena Ariel Freezing gold takes Exactly Thank you for that PT The man in the arena James Hello Ariel

Just curious When's the last time You spoke to Carlos Correa It's actually been A couple years He used to be a Fixtron on our ESPN shows

Even did a round table One time with him And Josh Donaldson I think it was After Habib retired But it's been a couple of years. Much love to the guy, legend, and actually a brilliant mind when it comes to mixed martial arts. His ability to break fights down was very, very impressive, but it's been a couple of years. Bebin, this is for

Ariel and crew. I know the year isn't quite over yet, but what are some fights that must be made in 2025? Shemayev title shot, Conor versus anyone, Ankhalaev title shot, Tom undisputed, play fantasy matchmaker. If only one UFC, sorry, Francis fight can be guaranteed to take place next year. What is it?

Hmm. Tom and Jones. That's assuming John Jones wins, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think that's probably, I think that's probably the one, if John wins, the one that everyone will be foaming at the mouth for the most, right? I don't know if there's one that feels like it has to happen. I mean, I'd say Hamsa, but he kind of really just emerged now as someone that we want to see in a title shot after this performance,

or prior to that, we were still kind of unsure. Pereira mean prayer uncle live is the one but i don't know if anyone's foaming at the mouth for that heavyweight we just talked about uh 170 not a little point for the title who's that kayla fighting for a title yeah but no i think you're right i think it's tom i think it's tom fighting for the title and unifying those belts uh Kenny, hi, Ariel and team. I appreciate your breakdown of the Dana and Francis situation, which included bits and clips I'd forgotten about in an era with Dana fans, politicians and others spewing lies and creating false narratives. Doesn't it get extremely tiresome for journalists to constantly fact check and set records straight? I don't envy that aspect of your job, but I'm grateful that you put in that work. It doesn't get tiresome because I don't think we have to do it all the time. And truth be told, I wasn't actually initially planning on doing that. I remember seeing the initial press conference clip where this all started. That was the Thursday press conference. And honestly, like watching it, watching it again, watching it again, and not even wanting

to comment on it because sometimes I don't want to give any of this stuff oxygen. But then I saw it all over the place and I was like, well, this is just craziness. And then I just left it at that, to be honest. And then the amount of tweets and, you know, replies that I got saying, oh, we need a breakdown of this. After Francis replied, and then the Saturday reply to the reply, I was like, all right, we need to do one of those. So I don't think we do it all the time or overdo it. And someone did ask me like, why do you feel the need to do this? And why are you so passionate about this subject? It's not this subject. I just like when the truth is told and I don't like when things are twisted.

And I think this one is so clearly twisted. When we have all this factual evidence from not that long ago saying the complete opposite of what is being said right now, I would not be doing my duty as a journalist, as a media member, if I don't, if we just take this all at face value, then what's the point of us being here? Ben Askren spoke about this recently, about like how it's reminiscent of what happened to him and how he feels like it's slanderous. I mean, that's for them to decide, but it is just so blatant and so, so completely opposite from what was being said four years ago. I mean, and a lot of these things I lived, like I was there, I did the interviews and all that.

So it's not that hard to bring back to light. I just can't believe that someone can sit there and change the story and say, oh, I was going to cut this guy. Oh, I didn't like this guy. Oh, you know, all this stuff. It's nonsense. I wish this wasn't even a part of the sport in that sense. Like these stories, people think that like, I get off on this. This is not, this is not very fun. And honestly, I feel bad for Francis, if I'm being honest, because he has to sit there and listen to this. Imagine listening to someone just completely you know lie about you and then say things like you know this one we didn't really address like the stipe fight it's like oh yeah and stipe beat his ass that wasn't that wasn't that bad right something like that or that was pretty awesome whatever he said like yo you're supposed to be the promoter for

both these guys are you saying like in the moment you were happy about that um because that that wasn't the case remember stipe and you were feuding not francis stipe took the belt away from you and gave it to his coach put around your race so it's all just like this revisionist history that i don't know it annoys me um hi ariel since you have shifted away from mma from an mma only show i will say it's still like 95% MMA. So all these concerns and complaints that it was going to change. What do you got to say now? Are there any new awards you can tease

for the end-of-the-year award show? Maybe Ade gives his Boxer of the Year, and or you bring on a pro wrestling writer to give their Wrestler of the Year award. What do you guys think? Should we put some new awards in there? I mean, it's pretty robust as it is. Or do we just make boxers eligible

for fighter of the year? No, that's crazy. Separate? Yeah. Why is that crazy? No, that's absolutely... I think we can have guest appearances. Penn Shamrock. Do we do just a one wrestler of the year award? Give me the wrestler of the year.

Not match of the year? I can me the wrestler of the year. Not like match of the year. I can't give my take on any of those. No, I know, but do we bring in a guest for those? You know how Rick picks social media user of the year? Can we bring in Penn Shamrock? No, we'd have to bring in- No, he could do like- Like the witness protection.

I come to this office every single day. I just have no idea who Penn Shamrock really is That's perfect Is Penn Shamrock the actual Mysterious Frank? That's what we want It's kayfabe, we're keeping it alive I don't like how he's infringing on Frank's gimmick I like the idea

Adé comes in with his boxer of the year Male, female boxer of the year I don't mind that Should I find another Joan? We've moved on, Frank. Yeah, what does that have to do with you? No one's more concerned about getting fired than Frank. You brought this up at lunch, too.

I fired him four times today. He was like, has Rick fired you yet? It's become a normal occurrence. Well, thank you for that, Alex, and we will consider it. MJ, querido papi Ariel. Did I pronounce that correctly? Querido? Frank, aren't you hispanic we don't care all right interviews have been cooking this week incredible work question are there plans for any women to contribute to uncrowned with more female

fighters than ever a potential adam weight ufc division women's sports being an ever hotter topic i think a lady contributor would further elevate the new era and help keep it relevant. Well, I will have you know that the leader of the ship, the captain of the ship is a woman. Andy is steering the ship. So there's one. And if you're referring to just the website, I did actually speak to a couple of women for boxing. It didn't work out, but absolutely would love to have a female voice or two. I'm quite happy with the diversity on the team so far,

but looking for the best and would love to have different voices, different perspectives. This isn't the all boys club that Frank wants it to be, okay? I told you that in confidence. We need to go over what that means. Matt, Ariel and crew, when the UFC comes back to

England for pay-per-view, would you consider doing one of your amazing night with Ariel and friends if the event is at the O2 Arena? You could do it at the Indigo at the same venue. Would love to come to a show. Yes, I told you. London, Dublinlin that's the dream that is the absolute dream hearing hearing some chatter about a a london march show you hearing that pizzi or what oh yeah yeah back to back to basics let's cut this bullshit in the middle of the night out yes back to a classic ufc l London. I wanted you to do the arena.

You did the arena at American time. Let's just get back to what we know. Pay-per-view? St. Patrick's weekend. Let's go. Pay-per-view? Or just a fight night? I don't think so.

Well, if it's a pay-per-view, like... Nah, just do a fight night. Yeah, but like... Fight night? They're going to want to see Aspinall if he's... Can I crash your group place, PC? I figured I'd do it in the middle of the night. You can stay at Moyna,

and then we'll have to get a plane to the UK. Yes, that's all right. We actually still don't have a spare room. We have loads of empty rooms, but we just have a... All I need is an air mattress, man. I need six feet by three feet. Just lay my body somewhere.

PC, do you have a cat? You can definitely do that. Do I have a cat or a dog? Reggie. He might be allergic to the dogs. No, I'm not allergic to dogs. I'm allergic to cats. Frank always invites me over.

The dog tends to, like, he'll want to sleep on you. Perfect. If you stay in my house. There we go. I don't need a blanket then. By the way, PT, how big is your mansion? You say you have loads of empty rooms? Loads.

I can't even count how many rooms I have. He gave us a tour. They're all colored different colors i got the green room the blue room which room are you in right now pz i'm in my office at the moment i actually have to leave a trail of breadcrumbs from here back to the kitchen so i know how to get back yeah ariel does that in the studio uh uh boblo before i ask i just want to clarify I am aware this is your show and you can talk about whatever the hell you want, but I have to ask, why do you feel the need to defend Francis the way you do? As soon as Francis was brought up at the presser last weekend, I knew Monday's episode would include an hour plus of you defending him and shitting on Dana. Why not just take your own

advice from Monday and say Francis is right and Dana is wrong and God bless and move on. At this point, it seems like you are using francis success and victory over the ufc to shove it in dana's face every chance you can we all know dana is a pos we all know francis is doing amazing things but none of us need another hour plus breakdown of the issues between the two let me go to the comments here and read what some people have to say because this is from spud greg because in ghanu has too many haters for doing the right thing. Too many people throwing shade at a guy while not actually knowing why the Jones fight didn't happen. All right, thank you.

Mr. Clean says, I love the breakdown on Nganou. By the way, if you check the comments, especially on Ariel's Facebook posts about Nganou, there's a ridiculous amount of Nganou haters out there that eat up everything Dana says and think Nganou is just a greedy pos even saw people saying the fight was fixed complete morons ariel is not using francis's success he's doing proper journalism and reporting on a subject and breaking shit down for all the meathead casuals francis deserves videos like that i mean mr clean said it all well journalism has meant that the whole the people in power to account,

that's what the whole job is meant to be. So if he's not doing that, he's not doing what he says he is, I guess. Uh, Zarian Comby. Hello, Ariel and the crew.

Just wondering what was the most painful injury you guys had? I feel like New York Rick seems like a guy that gets gout. Go, go F yourself like entirely. I don't know. know i don't i can't quite decipher what that actually means like how that would be just pirates on you but but i truly want you to go shove something inside i'm not even gonna lie i didn't even know what i didn't even know what gout was what is

type of arthritis that causes severe pain and swelling and joints due to a buildup of uric acid. It's such a random injury. Do something painful to yourself, please. That's what like pirates used to get when they were on the sea. That's scurvy. Pain, redness, stiffness, swelling, tenderness, or a warm feeling like the joint is on fire.

We need to watch Rick's complaints closely because gout is what I'm going to accuse him of every time now. It should be noted I very rarely have any pain. I'm pretty Teflon when it comes to this type of stuff. Yeah, hell yeah. And I've never had any real severe injuries actually.

We continue. I have nothing to add. Wait, there was no answer of the injury question? What's the worst injury? I feel like you've had something gnarly. I feel like you've had something gnarly. Of a broken bones. A broken boat. Broke my hand at the same time once.

Pub fight? Pub fight? No, I fell out of a trolley when I was pissed on Halloween when I was 14. By the way, do you celebrate Halloween? Is it a thing over there? You know that we invented Halloween here. Sam, look

it up. We fucking invented this holiday. I was going to say you invented St. Patrick's Day. You bastardized it with candied apples and fucking burning witches at the stake or whatever you were doing. What do you use to celebrate? Huh? What is your celebration? Getting pissed and falling out of a truck

and breaking your hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trolley fights. Did you know, by the way, that black and orange are Halloween's signature colors because the ancient Celts believed black symbolized...

Celts, but Celtics is the name of it. Oh, is this more shitter facts?ics is the name of it the death of summer and orange symbolized the fall harvest according to the library of congress i do believe the library of congress is not uh situated in dublin so i need to where do you think the fucking cows are situated mate where do you think the cows are situated uh it's actually pronounced salts. Salts. Did you take a picture of the facts you share with other people? Was it specifically people?

No, literally I read it and I said this would be fun on the show. And I think it's actually worked out that way. It has worked out that way. He sees the refreshed thing while he's dropping a bomb. What if someone in the bathroom saw you pull out your phone and start taking pictures? Do you know how to get us banned from this place? I can't get this for the show. That's why office facilities

are asking for a meeting tomorrow. The selfie pictures and it's like I was taking a mirror pic. I'll show you the picture. It's very clearly on a mirror. We can see that. It looks like the inside of a stall. Yeah. Anyway. I don't even know what we're talking about at this point.

He was answering what they do to celebrate Halloween, and he said, I admit. Do they trick-or-treat? Yeah, they do. My gaff will just get absolutely bombarded for about three hours. Not in your neighborhood, though, because it's like essentially, you know, the roughest part of town, right? So kids can't walk.

Yeah, but we got the roughest kids. So they're brave. They come up and knock on your door. Elaine always goes missing around trick or treat time, I find. Oh, I've got kept on at work. And then I'm here by myself, stranded. Ah, that's fun, bro. Trying to get the dog not to attack the kids.

It's terrible. You know what you could do? You could do the veteran move. Just leave the bowl outside. Then they'll throw stones at my house. You don't like seeing the kid? Wait, they'll be mad about that? That's the houses I like. Because I don't have to ring the door outside. Then they'll throw stones at my house. You don't like seeing the kid? Wait, they'll be mad about that? That's the houses I like

because I don't have to ring the doorbell. Well, no, no. If it was just the bowl, one kid would come along and just take all of the stuff and that would be the end of it. That's up to them. That's between them and their lord.

But, you know, you have to have an honor system here. And then the next parents will come up and they'll be knocking on the door being like, where is the Swedes, mate? You know what you do? You show them the ring footage of the one kid stealing it and then you just never have to talk about it again.

You're going to get a lot of sugar shooters tomorrow, huh? Oh, loads. Loads. Honestly. Yeah, we get a lot too, but the thing is we get a lot because, I don't know if you guys know this, but our house, we do like the full-size candy bars. No, you don't. No, you don't.

You said this before. No, you don't. Yeah, people love us for that. You're handing out apples, you said. You said you do broccoli, steamed broccoli. I just feel like that's the kind of guy that I am. Is this like Billy Madison? Well, go on, Ariel.

That's so cool of you. You'll find the Rolexes inside the- It's for the kids. You could easily become the guy that gives out full-size candy bars and doesn't brag about it. No, no, no. You need the trick-or-che and doesn't brag about it. No, no, no. You need the trick-or-cheaters to take off the shoes. To do the full-size, you have to brag

about it. It's hand-in-hand. This feels like projection. This feels like something that's gnawing at you. I'll send you guys the tweet. There's one tweet that you saw in particular? Yeah. Alright, I'd like to see it. I have some thoughts on who it might be, so I'd like to see who it was. lot of some thoughts i'd like to see all

right uh we continue matt most sub ariel over the last few years we have all grown accustomed to the foursome of chemistry between ariel gc rick and frank so when you announced in vegas that pt carroll will be joining the team i naturally got worried as i didn't want any toes to be stepped on with two weeks two two plus weeks, and thankfully he showed up today. He looked for a way out. Of the new era now under your belt, I am happy to say PC has already become an integral part of the team.

Not only did he win me over with his insight and wit, but he's a natural fit. And the foursome is now a successful quintet. How about that? There's going to be a lot of upset people about that in the comments i imagine my question quintet is smooth my question is for gc rick and frank how did it feel finding out that there would be another person at the lunch table be honest were there any hesitancies no i was excited

um breaking news here he's not at the lunch table he technically is just like maybe they're not understanding i didn't even think about i saw somebody in the breaking news here. He's not at the lunch table. He technically is. Maybe they're not understanding. I saw somebody in the chat the other day saying I really like the guys. I don't know who this British guy is. You get called a Brit a lot in the comments. I don't know if that's a joke from the time that

Brandon Schaub called me a Brit. Maybe that's it. We got great fun out of that for three years. Thank you, Ariel and Chuck. So I don't know. Frank was just not understanding that inside joke. But I was happy to add somebody until I found out it was Pizzi. Then I was a little more upset.

Pizzi can attest that him and I are brothers from another mother. We totally get each other. It feels good to actually have a true friend on the team. I was most excited because I wanted to go visit Dublin and now I can have a place to crash. Me and Rick have been blood

rivals for over a decade. It's long-standing. I'll say, I thought we bonded over our joint love of the situation when he was standing five feet from us. I thought that was our real moment that we came together there. But now that he's not here anymore, now that the situation

is not between us, I guess... The situation from Jersey Shore? Oh yeah, legend. Was there any other situation? Living icon. I don't know if the situation was referring to the situation of E.T. joining the show. Mike, the situation Sorrentino. That's who we're talking about.

Shout out. One of the most famous people on earth. Legend. P.S. He says, I really appreciate the epic birthday cameo back in August, Ariel. Never got to tell you thank you, but it really made my day.

Don't mention it. Cameo. Check it out. Didn't he pay for it? Listen, he appreciated the present. Before we move on. Yes. I go long with my cameos, like three and a half,

four minutes. Is there not like a reply feature on Cameo? Yeah, but you have to pay $2.99 for that. Jesus. Yeah, I'm sorry.

It's just the way the app works. After emptying the bank on Cameo. I'm sorry. If you want to send me a message, you got to pay for it.

It's just, you know, them's the rules. I'm sorry. So are you going to charge him right now for sneaking in? No,

this one's on the house. It's a gracious thank you. I mean, he did pay you to do it. Probably, I think a loved one. Like I get out of the car, like if I'm'm moving with someone and they're like so graciously thank the uber driver i'm like you know thanks is enough yeah oh thank you so much yeah i mean i did pay you to do it so uh max 83 hello ariel i spend the last days checking out uncrowned.com

and i have to say that i love the website so my question is how about an app version of it this would be great greetings from germany my man it's a tremendous question that has been asked of me a lot uh you know we're just we're just getting started three weeks in rome wasn't built in a day let's see weren't you saying something about how you have skills in app development no yeah but i'm actually doing one on the slide uh just in the background um at the moment so maybe I can hit you with a beta in the next couple of days. I'm one built in the day. I get it. Gabrielle, hello, Ariel and the boys in the back.

Quick one. Given the recent talk about D-Wade's statue, could we ever see the UFC make statues for legends? I mean, they'd have to be in good standing with them and they aren't with a lot of them. But there are a few that would certainly qualify. If so, where? Maybe T-Mobile

or outside the headquarters? Big fan in Bakersfield. CA, Gabriel Sedano. First of all, I think the D-Wade thing is overblown. I don't think it's that bad. No, it's completely

pretty bad. That is a horrific statue. We've seen worse. The Beckham one was way worse. Not to make it... The original Ronaldo one was probably the worst

I've ever seen. Oh, yeah. The Ronaldo one was awful. This one is very bad, though. Like, horrific. Why? Because he looks old?

No, it just doesn't really look like him. I mean, wait. Yeah. It looks more like Tony Allen. He said it's an artist's sort of interpretation of him. That was very kind of him to say. I think that's because photos that I was shown by GC show that he was, or maybe it wasn't GC, I forget, but he was involved in the

creation of it, so now I feel like he's trying to cover the tracks a little bit. Horrible. The photoshops of them putting it on his wedding picture, them like he's Thanos versus Ronaldo's statue being Captain America. When you do the

photoshop onto him, it makes it look so bad. It feels like if they're going to do one, Dana's going to commission a statue of himself. Ooh! Where would it go? T-Mobile? No, because they would own that. It would be outside the Apex

or something. Their relationship with T-Mobile and with MGM isn't great. What fighter would get a statue outside the Apex? None. John Strachan? He's got like eight fights there. Kevin Holland outside the Apex.

That's brilliant. The Apex. That's great. Maybe Chuck. Maybe a Chuck like this would be considered. Yeah, that pose. Love for Chuck. But yeah, I don't know if it's happening anytime soon.

I still would love for them to make a ufc hall of fame headquarters where you can go look think about all the stuff that they must have from over the years the posters the artifacts the rings it's right there i think they would make a killing uh not to mention the mma hall of fame which i am working on by the way and uh in my lifetime i hope to see it come to fruition but yes statues would be great i saw it it there. I had to check it. He looks like a white walker from Game of Thrones. Thank you, Pizzi. A what? A white walker.

Hit the white on that one. Cool. Abay, Ariel, my friend, welcome back. Please, can you and the crew weigh in on the likelihood of either scenario playing out? Jones versus Stipe falls out. Neither agree to fight Aspinall backup, so they upgrade Chandler versus Charles to main event for the interim lightweight title. I hope not. That's a lot of bad juju. Option two, either

Stipe versus Jones gets injured. Either guy refuses to fight Tom again, so they ditch the backup fighter Tom and bring in Pereira. And for those who say it can't happen, remember Gamrod Volk when Oliveira got cut P.S. thanks for being a truth teller unlike Dana White who continues to lie in years to come many will forget what he said and he'll probably claim he defended that he defended Francis from the fans

like he did with DJ LOL I can just hear it now quote who defended Francis more than me end quote much love your boy Abe I hope neither I love you Abe but I hope neither what is Gamrod Volk what is that I don't know what he's Who defended Francis more than me? End quote. Much love, your boy, Abe. I love you, Abe, but I hope neither of those... What is Gamrot Volk? What is that? I don't know what he's talking about.

Yeah. Also, I don't think Stipe or John would take Tom Aspinall or Alex Pereira on short notice. No. It's not going to happen. We're getting this... I don't think they would fight anybody but each other. What are we... We're a little over two weeks away.

Two weeks away. Stipe shocks the world. Ooh. Your sources telling you? Did you have a chat before the episode today? Any chats? No, no chats.

Okay. Robert, good day, Ariel and the boys in the back. Robert from Edmonton here. Saturday will be my first live UFC event. Do all of you remember what the first card

you went to live in was? I'm sure Ariel does. His memory is insane. For GC, who are some Canadian locks for me to win some money on? Love the work you guys are doing and appreciate all the content.

Thanks, guys. Shout out to Edmonton, one of the great cities, one of the great arenas in the greatest White North. First event that I went to live, first pay-per-view that i ever went to was ufc

78 uh that was in newark new jersey uh first event that i went to was the uh tough three finale and it was either the palms or the hard rock i always got those two mixed up i was i was working for a production company that did the pre-show for spikeTV.com. It was hosted by Forrest Griffin versus Stefan Bonner. And it was the one that was won by Michael Bisping. And yes, it was Kendall Grove as well. It was very, very exciting to be there and to be working. And then I went and bought two tickets to UFC 78. I sat all the way in the 400s.

I asked my boss at the time to go with me. We went, and that was Rashad Evans versus Michael Bisping. It was a somewhat maligned main event because it was a non-title main event, and this is when they were doing way less shows. I was at the Prudential Center, and there was no title on the line, but the promotion was tough winner versus tough winner, tough two versus tough three. And it was fine, but it felt a little cobbled together. Rick, your first one was what? 101? 101.

Philadelphia, Anderson Silva versus Forrest Griffin and BJ Penn versus Kenfo? Yes. Yeah. It was pretty incredible. PT? UFC 93 in Dublin. Yeah.

Rich Franklin v. Dan Henderson. Mark Coleman v. Shogun Hua. I believe Tom Egan made his debut, right? Tom Egan fought Hathaway. That's right. Yeah. That was the, he was the first Irish born fighter, right? No.

Who was? There was a lads in Belfast, I think, in 2007, Colin Big C. Robinson. I don't know about a couple of the lads, but he was the first, I believe, from the Republic of Ireland. I believe that's the story there. What about you, GCME? Not that long ago, right?

Oh, yeah, UFC Fight Night, Long Island. Yeah. Jair Rodriguez versus Brian Ortega. Much maligned main event, you know. There was an injury stoppage. Frank's first event, too. Frank's first event. Troy, Jinxed it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Troy, just every time he shows up, it goes terribly wrong. Did you guys not go to PFL before that, though? Yeah, I think he's asking for UFC, though. Nah, that was after. You went to Bellator before, no? That was July 2022.

Yes, I went to Bellator. Musasi Eblem. Nailed it. Yeah. Mohegan Sun, June 2022. And there was a light in your face the whole time. Light in the face. But I actually went to LFA.

Yeah, that's spotless. Oh, that's LFA in Phoenix, right? I actually went to LFA in Phoenix. LFA 71, I think. Former UFC fighter was on it. But yeah, it was a great night. Great night. Yeah, I went, it was a great night. Great night.

Yeah. I went to a lot of promotions in 2022. Uh, LFA 71 was in Atlanta, Georgia in July of 2019. Uh, 2019. Wow. Jason Jackson was on that. LFA, uh, who was it? Rogerio Bontorin.

Oh, okay. Is that who it was? Did he fight in LFA? Um, another one from Abay. Hello, Ariel. In the past, you spoke about battles with imposter syndrome when in positions you weren't sure you deserved. I didn't know how that felt until recently, getting a promotion and now sitting alongside peers

I previously saw as superiors. If you don't mind, with all the recent success and more to come, my question is, do you still ever feel that imposter syndrome or do you feel slash believe you've arrived and belong? Excuse me. Can you sit back and give yourself the old Barry H? P.S. On a previous show, you expressed feeling hot in the studio. Couldn't help but ask myself, why didn't Ariel crack open the famous new window? Much love, your boy, Abay. Did I say I was hot in this studio? Because I actually think it should be hotter.

I think you said when you came in this room, you were feeling hot. Also, there are many a window, including this one, that can't open. Like there's no – It's common in New York. They don't let you open all windows. Yeah, they don't want you to – They don't want accidents. Exactly.

Which I can understand. So nice attempt to catch me there, but no dice. As for imposter syndrome, all the time, man, I was just at the Olympics and God bless the people I was working with. I had an amazing time. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. And they would be like, yeah, in 20 minutes, we've got Eleanor Harvey, the first medalist from Canada to win any kind of medal in fencing. We're going to do a 20 minute sit down with her. Are you cool with that? I'm like, yeah, I'm totally cool with that. Fencing and swimming and gymnastics, I knew nothing of these things. What the hell am I doing here? Working for the CBC. So I get these feelings all the time. I mean, I'm doing that Netflix show in a couple of weeks. And I know that people, you know, are sort of feeling one way or

the other about that fight, but it's a pretty big freaking deal. So I get those feelings and emotions all the time. I actually, I think it's kind of healthy. I think if you just sit back and think you're king shit all the time, I don't think that that motivates you. I don't think that that's the engine. I think sometimes anxiety is the engine that you need to propel yourself to have success. And it, you know, usually works out. I had it pretty bad when I was doing NBA sidelines. What the hell am I doing here? But then you have to come to the realization, someone has to do this job. And someone is out there who started from nothing and then built himself up and then became, you know, successful in this particular field. So why can't it be you? It's like the story that I always tell to young kids when I ask them,

what is your dream? And then they tell me what their dream is. And then more often than not, I can tell that they think that that's a far-fetched dream. And I say, why can't it be you? Why can't you be the general manager of the New York Giants? Why can't you be an NBA owner? Why can't you be a lawyer for a big firm? Why can't you be a singer? Why can't you be the general manager of the New York Giants? Why can't you be an NBA owner? Why can't you be a lawyer for a big firm? Why can't you be a singer? Why can't you be whatever the hell you want to be? And maybe some, some day, some way along the way, it, it, it, it changes, it evolves. You take a different path. You make a left turn when you were supposed to make a right turn? Who knows? But I think all these things are very healthy. And I try as much as I can to embrace these things. Because now all of a sudden I'm 42. I'm not the 27-year-old. So I don't really have an excuse. I'm kind of old. Now, I'm sure there's a 60-year-old out there being like, ha, you think you're old? Of course not. But you

know, why the fuck can't it be me? Why can't I do this? So yeah, imposter syndrome is a real thing. I think a lot of people have it. I don't think it's something that should be shunned. I don't think it's something that you should be ashamed of. And I think that if you embrace it, if you embrace the fact like, hey, I'm fresh, I'm new to this, but I'm going to freaking knock it out of the park. If you get the opportunity, run with it. Or take the damn opportunity and fake it till you make it. Well said, man. I can relate.

Yeah. I felt the same way today when you brought in bagels. I was like, I don't deserve this. Wow. And I just want to say on behalf of the whole control room, I'm sure they meant to say it at some point. Thank you so much for the kind gesture today. Wow really good what is this frank what are you doing right now my uh my kids would call this glazing yeah oh i'm not i'm on glaze stop the glaze

they would say they would say my kids would literally say to this stop the glaze honestly bro those fighting words stop the glaze bro no but you know what? Those weren't donuts. Those were bagels, man. I mean, no, I'm happy you brought it up. The Halloween bagels and everything bagels. Yeah, they were great, man. And as I enjoyed them, yeah, thanks, man. Appreciate you doing this.

The multiple schmears that I brought, I mean. Well, multiple schmears and then you said you looked the one that I liked the most. I looked at scallion. You looked it dead in the eye and you were like, that's disgusting. So bad. You know, I got them. And then you got the one with fish flakes all in it. No, it wasn't fish flakes.

It was lox. Which are fish cut up. So Jordan's like, yeah, I don't eat cream cheese. I don't eat salmon. I forgot about that. I got a poke bowl on Monday. I did not ask for scallion. For some reason they put a plethora of scallion in there.

Great. Good shit. The more scallion the better shit How do you eat like any Asian cuisine They put scallions everywhere You don't like any onions I hate onions because I feel like I burp it up all night You can't eat You can't drink seltzer water You can't eat onions

You can't do full bagels anymore Fruit after dinner is a no go It's a lot of problems It's time for the colonoscopy Wow serious Good show Flip side Ariel you start to get a discount In most places

There's small celebrations everywhere I'm going to fixate over that line When you do the colonoscopy We'll make sure you come into the office for the day before clean out. We'll make sure they got 10 fact sheets in the bathroom. Wow. We'll keep you nice and entertained.

By the way, thank you to Antoine who mans the chat, who lets us know that welterweight Stephen Lynch was the first Irishman to fight in the UFC at UFC 72, losing to Dustin Hazlett. Colin Robinson fought in the very next fight. Sorry, Pizzi. I mean, this is a Brit telling you. Well, I said some other lad.

Yeah. I mean, it sort of feels like you should have known. He was a lad. Yeah. No, no. No, you're right. You're right. Should I go to another one, or do we have our guest?

Danny. Hi, Ariel and the boys in the back With the new merch release Can I please make a suggestion for the next rollout Sure With your favorite catchphrase being you know yourself How about we drop a t-shirt with You knows yourself Wow

What do we think Danny from Manchester Shout out to GC Manchester's adopted son That's not bad you knows yourself That's not bad Yeah bro's gonna need roses on that one that's great Nah I'll rip it off no problem I mean he just literally like offered it up

Um Victor R can we please get the We don't care soundbite from Darren Till Interview in the rotation I believe it is Yeah there it is we don't care yeah there it is it's a fantastic drop uh shout out to darren shout out to everyone i'm gonna get to the super chatter questions on the back end of the program so stay tuned for that for now

though let us go to one of our own yes he's one of our own he's one of our own Michael Van Impage He's one of our own He's competing this weekend in his very first grappling match At Polaris 30 Gets the legend, Carlos Condit Holy shit, this came out of nowhere First off, MVP, how are you my friend? I'm doing well man, I'm doing well Obviously last week in the lead up

So it's still the last bit of preparation Before the obviously last week in the lead up so it's still another last bit of preparation uh before the new this new space that i'm fighting in yes imagine telling someone five six years ago that striker extraordinaire kickboxer karate man extraordinaire michael venn page in a grappling match against carlos condit of all people and so tell us how did this all materialize where did this come from um so before the last fight, actually, I was like, I said, I was already saying to myself, I just wanted to take a little bit more time out and just focus solely on grappling. And then after the last fight, I was like, yeah, I just, I just want to focus on that.

I really enjoy grappling. I love, I love the jiu-jitsu. I love the wrestling. But what I was finding is when it came to the, you know, under the lights, I was struggling. I just ended up falling into a conscious thought. And in a big fight, you can't be there. It's too slow. It takes too long to respond and you're already like 10 steps behind.

So I said to myself, let me just focus on it. And then a friend of mine said that he's friends with the Polaris matchmaker. And, you know, if I was interested, would I want to do a grappling competition on Polaris? And I was like, you know what, yeah. Giving myself something to focus on while I'm, you know uh already tuned into jiu-jitsu but actually having an end goal uh definitely sounded like the better option for me so then i'll you know we ended up speaking and then uh it was actually supposed to be um uh cowboy serrani uh and then for whatever reason he was that he's unable to to do it and then it landed on Carlos which is still a great fight. Oh my gosh, it's amazing. I was wondering about that.

Carlos retired. He's not a part of this type of scene circuit. Do you know how they thought of even reaching out to him? To be fair, I haven't a clue. I just said I was interested and kind of let the names kind of filter through to me.

And then, you know, he, like I said, Cowboy, I think there was, it was supposed to be him initially. And I don't know what happened,

but they said they, there wasn't getting like answers after a certain time. So just to be safe, they wanted to, you know, throw a few other names and then it got to Carlos. And then they, to Carlos and then they 100% secured

that end and locked that end. How does it work? I believe Polaris airs on Fight Pass, right? So do you have to get clearance from the UFC for this or because it's part of Fight Pass there's no need? Yeah, I believe there's no clearance. I think we've seen a lot of

MMA guys jumping into jiu-jitsu competitions and stuff. So yeah, I let the guys know already that I was looking to do it and there's been no issue for me doing it. This is a 185 pound fight? Yeah. Okay, so you don't have to cut weight, right? Yeah, I still cut. I get a bit heavier, so I still cut. But it's not as strenuous as going to the one. And do they do weigh-ins? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, so we'll have a weigh-in, I believe, at a press conference or something. I'm too freestyle. I just go where I'm told. Could you tell, for those that may not follow Polaris, what are the rules here? Like how long is the match? No gi, gi, what are we looking at? Yeah, so it's no gi,

and it's one round, 10-minute round. All submissions are available to you. I believe the actual judges, they break it down into like three and a half minute matches or something like that, where they judge. You won't see it on the screen, which I think they should do

because it's going to make it more interesting for everybody. But I think the judges, after like three or so minutes, they'll make a score on who they believe is winning. It winning they kind of it's kind of broke into three rounds but only in their head shall i say uh so if there is no submission by the end of the uh 10 minutes uh they will award who they believe that you know has been the more the more dominant do you feel i mean you've been doing um all kinds of competitions for a long time because this is your first in this particular field do you feel the nerves?

Are you feeling like a rookie? What are you feeling a few days before the event? I'm excited, man. I'm actually excited to just to be in there. I think it's been nice as well because the shoot fighters have, I believe, five people on Polaris. Oh, wow. Norbert Niveni being one of them. People would have seen him with me a lot.

Great MMA fighter on Bellator. We've got Chris Ozbeck, who's in that space anyway. He does that a lot. Ramal, we've got Nathan Jones. There's quite a few of us just all on so it's it's been cool in the gym because everybody's kind of doing the same thing um obviously we still got guys going out and doing the mma fights um but it's uh it's been nice it's been nice and and so like i remember you know we've talked a million times about this like you would compete in karate

competitions as a kid and and work your way up. I think your first one was when you were five years old or something like that. Yeah. When, you know, when was the last time you competed in a non MMA, non combat, obviously the bare knuckle. I'm not talking about that. Like just to sort of like no real stakes attached just for fun, just to experience something on a regular saturday

when was the last time you did something like this that's a good question i think it's been a it's been a long time i think literally since i joined mma and had my first fight i don't believe i look back um so it's been a while it's been a while. It's been a long while. So that's why I think that's another added part of the excitement as well is kind of going to do, as you say, there's no stress, man. I'm just going in there. I've been working on something and I'd like to see where I land with it because it's going to be a testing ground for me

and a bit of a reader for me to see what I need to continue improving on. And then, you know, I want to keep kind of working this ground area to the end of the year. And then next year, I want to be aggressive in the cage again. So, and more to that point, it has to be really refreshing. There's no worry about title shots or rankings, or I need to do this to impress these people. Like this is just for the love of the game, right? That has to feel very nice. A hundred percent. And that's what I'm saying is I feel like I needed it as well

just a little bit of a this is why I wanted to kind of take a break in the first place and even though I've given myself something to do essentially in a competitive way it's still there is still not not the same kind of pressure um so it 100% it feels so nice and just like i said just the environment in the gym um just learning just being a complete student again and not being so uh uh specific in terms of like you say are the rankings and who do i fight next and this and what you know every every move means something it's just no i can just go out there and just join myself you've been doing this for a very long time you're 37 now why do you think now you feel this need to really focus on grappling like why did you get you know get so far and have so much success without having to zero in on this

uh thing is i've always been doing it i just feel like because i haven't uh focused on it specifically everything's been game planned almost so although not we do do jiu jitsu lessons and so on and so forth when you see you learn new moves and grab and then wrestling lessons and you're learning new moves um because i kind of relatively go back to back on fights it when as soon as you're starting to get something new it's like oh now we've got this guy now so now we have to get rid of all of that we need to focus on this specific thing simply because this person does this or that person does that so i just feel like i haven't given myself enough time to solely just focus on on that and and enjoy it you know it's kind of like when i first came and uh to the sport um it was it was supposed to be six months i, it's kind of like when I first came to the sport, it was supposed to be six months.

I think it was about nine months after I actually joined the sport that I had my first MMA fight. And it's just, it's been very specific to opponents since then. So I just thought, let me give myself a break and just become a student again and enjoy being a student. I love learning stuff. So just enjoy being a student again. And it can also help me improve in an area that I just know I want to work on a bit more,

especially when it comes to game day. Do you throw in the gi ever? Yeah, yeah. So I've been jumping back into gi as well. I've been doing gi. And I just wanted to just keep doing as much grappling as possible. And it's definitely helpful and that's going to continue from now on, that's 100%

just part of the regime. It's always difficult again because we for those that don't know, the guys at the London Shoot Fighters, the team there we're known to train really intensely so it's always hard to add additional classes and stuff but I've had to

shuffle a few things around and just i want to make this just a part of uh you know what mvp is there's a young man who's a jiu-jitsu phenom named kade rutolo i don't know if you're familiar with him he's uh those guys are those brothers are insane i've watched multiple videos of these two boys and i've learned a couple of things from them especially even now as i'm kind of like focusing more on jiu-jitsu and i'm just end up watching 10 times more jiu-jitsu than i would normally but i knew about these guys before anyway um but yeah they're these boys are insane man absolutely insane i i love watching them i love their style i love I love their mannerisms.

Yeah, everything. I'm a fan of those guys. I feel the same. I love their style. I love their vibe. I love their demeanor, their way of life, the way they think. And Cade is on this MMA journey now. He's won a no. He's about to fight again next week. Yeah, he's fighting again for one. He wants to be the best as far as MMA is concerned. So one of those rare guys who's at the top of his game in jujitsu and making the transition youngest we should we should connect man we should connect this is amazing some of the standoff stuff because he could help me with the ground we need to make this happen i love this yes we should connect uh around an hour ago he was on this program and i told him that you were coming up and i asked him if he could impart any advice towards you um as you head into your first grappling match he was

he was very complimentary and i want to play you what he said so perhaps you could take something from this okay so here we go here's kade roto giving mvp a pointer or two as he heads into his grappling debut if i had to give him one stick of advice, man, follow the wrist. A lot of wrist control. You know, everything in jiu-jitsu almost spirals from the hands, right? So if you could kind of track down the wrist, a lot of the time that negates 50% of their attacks and could also set up a lot of yours.

So if I just had to give one little smidgen of advice, track the wrist, follow the wrist. And before that, he actually was very complimentary. We didn't have that part in there, but he was he was very complimentary of you was very excited about you going into jujitsu and having a grappling match this weekend so what do you think of that advice no it's amazing it's amazing i'm definitely gonna lock that in just for the last uh few days and then obviously continue in my continued jujitsu journey but yeah definitely we have to figure out a way to to get together at some point obviously not before this one but yeah uh definitely in future man those boys 19 years

old he won adcc and then he wins cji um in august he wins the million dollars and now a million yeah i watched that we had a we had a um a guy on the same uh show owen flanagan i've been doing some work with him he's uh arguably one of the greatest um jiu-jitsu guys in europe um and uh obviously definitely like top 10 in the world and it's been great to have those kind of uh that kind of caliber around so yeah i don't want to seek out as many different people and get as much information as possible just to help um just to help with you know my my continued journey. We're going to make this happen. I'm on it.

I'm on it, my friend. Demetrius Johnson as well is really into jiu-jitsu these days. I don't know if you've heard. Again, I've seen him. I've seen some of his stuff as well. His whole journey is just, for me, the goal in this game. It doesn't really matter where you can you can I think he can go into anything He could do wrestling matches and still perform the way he's performing. He's an exceptional mixed martial art somebody any

MMA fighter could watch and learn from hundred percent you have him as number one He's up there man. Yeah, he's up there. So it's him and Jon Jones. I think for different weights, obviously, it comes different challenges and so on and so forth. But them two are up there as some of the best in the game ever to do it, and ever to step in the cage. Carlos, obviously a legend. Is this a guy, you know, he was in your weight class for so long, is this sort of like a dream match for you you a dream opportunity to go up there against one of the best yeah to be fair this again is i never thought i would ever uh do it or um especially in in jiu jitsu but yeah what it's just a great it's a great matchup it's a great so i think polaris

has done a great job to put both of us together it It's a great matchup. And 100%, he's a legend. Some great fights that I've watched from, you know, just after I got into MMA. That's when I really started to look into the fights and stuff and seeing some of his fights. Oh, man. He's been through some of the wars, man. And I've actually seen, he's actually done Polaris a few times, I believe, as well. So he's already been starting his journey in this space

but yeah I'm looking forward to it last time we spoke to you was right after your fight against Ian Gary right before Leon fought Bilal are you surprised that fight went down the way in which it did no I rate Bilal highly I think he's exceptionally tough, strong, very, very strong in that division.

I did feel like Lyon was going to take it. But if I was to argue for leon i would say trying to have your body function at six in the morning when that is the place you're from regardless of whatever adjustments you did in the build-up is is ridiculous um so and he did almost look not even tired just like his body wasn't responding uh so i would i would like to see that fight again. And it's a shame he didn't get an automatic rematch. But I would have liked to see that fight again where they're both on relative time. But yeah, I thought Bilal fought an excellent game. He stayed in his face the whole time. And I think even, in my opinion, was outstriking Leon, which is what was the shock for me.

And then obviously the takedowns and where he thrives, some of those lifts and dumps was unbelievable. But again, it shows, like I said, if I'm writing what I'm saying and Leon was, you know, a little bit more fatigued and tired because of the time difference or the time his performance i say then the fact that you know but i wasn't able to kill him and in fact you know leon still landed some damage towards the end shows you how good leon is and this is why i want to see it happen again well i'm certainly happy you said that and not me because when i suggested this a couple of weeks ago uh below through a fit saying that i was a hater and not giving him his props i just thought that that situation benefited the american more than the brit because the american could just stay on his own time zone even when he got to england he just stays on american time the other guy had

to change his whole sleep schedule for two months how could that not be a factor and you could bring up tom aspinall looking great in the co-main but not everyone is built the same uh yeah tom had in my opinion uh for lack of a better word like a a less tough matchup on his hands than than leon did because balal is so good so i wasn't trying to take anything away from him but to just dismiss that as a factor i think is a little bit unfair and and you bring it up so it sounds like you you feel the same yeah i think so i think from balal's point of view what it is and i can understand from his point of view is he's taken the long road to get to where he's gotten to now and for a lot of people criticizing him for a lot of people doubting him so then obviously when you achieve it, having any form of doubt or second guessing on your name can be triggering.

And I know I know I know how you are. And I think we were in agreement here. We don't mean any disrespect by it, but I can understand why he's also triggered by it, because it's like, look, I've finally done it despite the the the hurdles that was put in my way uh and then people still have something to say and i don't i don't mean in that sense i feel like i i even rightfully deserves to be up there i just feel like it would be good to see it again um and and and as talented as he is he could definitely get it done again so i don't think he has anything to kind of to sweat about by the way uh shafkat balal in december who do you like with again i actually i said it the other day actually uh i still think balal a lot of people are saying shavka um i'm gonna go the opposite way um

i think i do think he will surprise a couple people um i think the fight if he plays a very similar game and stays in his face he's also got the element of the takedown as well you've just got to be careful because Shafkat's grips are insane so you've just got to be careful when he's doing his takedowns where he's placing his neck and so on and so forth but

I think he could be the aggressor in this one and Shafkat's not used to people coming towards him and fighting him head on. Jeff Neal was the one person that did it. And look how that fight was. It was a lot closer than he's maybe accustomed to. So I actually think Bilal can get this one. Have you started to think about when you'd like to return and against who?

Yeah. Have you started to think about when you'd like to return and against who? Yeah, like I said, I just wanted to kind of see the year out, focusing on my ground and next year being aggressive. But I don't know why the hairs on the back of my neck went up when I heard Shara Bullitt call out my boy izzy uh i was just like man my boy izzy is working on regaining that throne like let me jump in i'm happy to be here let me jump in you're talking about being the best striker he says in his division but you know i'm right now i'm grappling in your division so why not you like that one at 185 moving up to fight him at 185 happy to come jump up wow i would love what do you think of his uh his knockout on saturday the

double spinning back fist oh absolutely beautiful yeah i really enjoyed that and it was definitely something that he's drilled before yeah so i really like. He said it was his brother or something that showed him it early. It's a very nice shot. I might have to incorporate that as well. The vibe between you two. You've got to admit, the guy's got a presence, right?

The guy's got a look. He's something. 100%. I love that. When it comes to striking, I just fear nobody. And like I said, the lightness is I bet I get him to try and take me down. Really? I bet I get him to try and do something. He's going to get panicky in some way, shape or form.

I bet I get him to try to take me down. But if he doesn't and stands with me, then it's going me, then I think it's going to be an exceptional MMA fight. Have you guys thrown this one out there? Have you sent out feelers? No, this is the first time. Okay. Second time. I think someone asked me the other day.

Yes, yes, yes. So he talked about February 1st in Saudi. Would that be too soon for you? No, no way. That's perfect. I do want to get back out in February. Like I said, I want to start the next year aggressive and then just

be, you know, push aggressively, fight after fight after fight for the rest of that year. So February sounds good to me. Let's say you do this and you're successful. Would you stay at 85? Is this the start of an 85 chapter or would you go right back down to 70? No, is this like, let's say you do this and you're successful. Would you stay at 85?

Is this the start of an 85 chapter or would you go right back down to 70? No, like I said, something just, he just tickled me when he, when he started speaking after watching his fight and I was just like, you know, I'd like that fight. No, I don't know if I do. I still feel like I have unfinished business at 170. So I'm not going to say I'm moving up this year, but also

I'm definitely, I can definitely see that in my, in my future. So, um, not right now. Let me, let me try and handle some more business at 170 and then you'll, you'll see me move up. I'm sure. Meaning maybe you end your career at 185 for good. Yeah, I think so. I can see myself doing that. Again, it just makes it 10 times easier for my body. It's weird because I don't find it that difficult. It's always strenuous. I think it's strenuous for everybody,

regardless of how easy or tough it is getting the weight off. But if I can take a little bit of stress off myself, then why not? There are rumblings about a return to England in March, is this something that has to happen for you before your time in UFC is done, are you jonesing for one of those cards or you don't really care at this point because you fought in England a bunch

I thought it was April March, April If it's April that kind of works out perfectly if I do get a fight in february i'm looking to be straight back out in april so that would yeah that would be amazing um that'd be amazing start to the year uh so yeah if it is it is april i'll definitely jump back on it but i'm not stressing i know for a fact i will eventually get on one of those uk cars there's no way they can do a u in the UK and not have MVP.

Bless them. Bless the cage. You'll see a very big difference in the audience, in the crowd, in the noise made in there when I step into that arena. By the way, just curious, your last opponent, Ian Gary, still trying to get that fight against Colby.

Doesn't look like it's happening, at least for now. How do you think that goes? It's a difficult one. Obviously, Colby's been out for a little while now. I'm not sure what's going on there. I don't know if it's an injury or whatnot, but it's a difficult one. I think it is just typical striker versus grappler.

And the reason I know Colby's good at punching, but Ian is fast. He's got the reach and he's got good timing on a lot of his striking so it is going to be based on the grappling side. I think the first round maybe if he

focuses heavy on grappling even if Ian's defending a lot it's going to take it out of his arms and then it will allow Colby to maybe get a little bit deeper on his punches and his kicks and maybe learn something but I think he's going to be in

danger up until that happens just because of again his striking ability is good What's ITM Productions? Yeah so in the moment Productions, I've just started a production company

and yes, with my boy Kish and he's absolutely exceptional. We actually started it more so documenting the filming of we started filming myself from when I the filming of, uh,

we started filming myself from when I, just before I signed to the UFC, when I was actually figuring out what direction I was going to be going in. And we just literally just been documenting ever since, um, we did the first episode or it's going to be, um, we want multiple episodes and then hopefully I can,

uh, push it onto, uh, uh, a it onto a big company such as like Netflix. Just to kind of tell my story, not many people get to see that side of me. And it's just something I wanted to get out there. But then continuing, we're going to be doing like short movies and a few other documentary style things as well. I love it. Look at you. A little grappling, a little production, MMA,

the DJing, of course. We all remember that. The turn tape. I mean, man. I got you up and dancing, man. Yes. And if you break it out, I'll do it again. I feel it.

I have that soul. I have that soul. A lot of people don't know this, but I have it. I can't wait to see this on Saturday I'll be watching I love it shout out to you for putting yourself in this position

going out of your comfort zone not a lot of people at this age would do that with your accomplishments and your resume you're in the midst of this UFC career just starting it's a very very impressive thing

that you're willing to humble yourself and do that so well done to you my man I feel like I want to leave the legacy of being a true martial artist all around so it's you know always jumping in to different scenarios that forces me to to feel that pain but then also grow from it go well as they say do your thing thank you good luck to you we'll be watching thanks as always for the time always man take care there he is

the great michael venn and page how great was that moment uh bringing up kate rotolo to him Always, man. Take care. and he was clearly a fan of his as well. So I love that. I absolutely love that. Let's make that happen. Kate's got a great vibe. This man has a great vibe. Our next guest has a great vibe as well. In a moment, we are going to be talking to one of the Canadians, one of many, who are competing this Saturday at the, I think it's Rogers Arena.

Is there a Rogers Place, Rogers Arena? No's Rogers Arena is there a Rogers Place Rogers Arena no Rogers Arena is in Vancouver so this would be Rogers Place the home of your Edmonton Oilers Rogers Place wow what a beautiful what a beautiful venue this is what an absolute beaut

of a venue it is I was there a couple times one of them was the Shevchenko Nunes fight the other was Frankie Edgar against Max Holloway. Yeah. In Edmonton. And, uh, there are several Canadians as always competing on the card.

And, uh, one of those is our old friend, Mike Malott, who of course we last saw back in action in January. So it has been some time he's going up against Trevin Giles, who he has competed against, but not in MMA. In a grappling match, he was successful. This is a big fight for him, a big opportunity for him. He is one of the faces of Canadian MMA, and he is kind

enough to join us once again here on the program live from Edmonton. There he is, proper Mike in the house. Hello, Mike. How are you? What's going on, Ariel? Thanks for having me on, bro. Great to talk to you again. It has been a while. Looking forward to this. Another big Canadian card. Of course, you had to be a part of it. By the way, have you been to that arena before? Have you been inside Rogers Place? No, I've never been to the arena before. I fought in Edmonton once about 10 years ago. But yeah, I've never been to this arena. It's one of the nicest arenas that I've

ever been inside. As far as a North American hockey NBA arena, it's fantastic. So they're going to treat you well over there. I absolutely love it. And like I said, big opportunity for you, another big fight for you. I saw a clip, courtesy of UFC Canada, where you were talking about how you were feeling going into this fight coming off the Neil Magny fight. And you said a couple of things that really jumped out at me. Number one, you said that you were feeling great. It's been a great camp, maybe your best. And often we hear that, but you did say that your confidence is sky high. And that was the first thing that I was wondering about, just considering how the last fight went. So why are you so confident going into this fight? Again, considering what happened in the late stages

of that fight against Neil Magny. Yeah, it's almost weird to say, like I'm the most confident I've ever been after coming off a loss. I think there's a few things that kind of contribute to that. Number one, I was really confident going into my last fight. And while I didn't get the win, I won about 14 minutes

or 13 and a half minutes of that fight and showed that i have some pretty high level skills and i'm a well-rounded fighter the last minute and a half minute or so went about as bad as it can go in the last little bit so there were obviously some holes that i needed to seal and obviously some things in my game that i needed to tighten up whether it's's decision making or, you know, a lot of stuff for the last nine months that we spent figuring out. But we've put so much effort the last nine months into making sure that this never happens again, that I feel like those holes are sealed. I feel like I'm making better decisions. I feel like I'm a lot sharper. I feel like my whole are sealed i feel like i'm making better decisions i feel like i'm a lot sharper i feel like my whole game has grown but uh i've kind of come at it from from every angle i'm like okay how can i become a better athlete how can i become a better martial artist how can

i become a better fighter i kind of think of fighting as that like holy trinity you know the the athlete the martial artist and the fighter and you know outside of outside of fighting it's you know the mind body spirit connection i think, it's, you know, the mind, body, spirit connection. And I think that that's like the fighting version of that. So I'm like, all right, man, how do we attack this from all angles? Like it would, it would be so much easier to just say like, ah, you know, if I had just done a couple of things differently at the end of the fight, like I would have held on and won a decision.

And I beat that guy nine times out of ten. Whatever, man. Don't take it to heart. No, man. Let's take it to heart for a little bit. Let's spend some time really thinking about how we can make massive improvements and make sure that something like that never happens again. And then I can be even more free throughout the rest of the fight. I think that's where this confidence comes from.

We spent a lot of time figuring out what I need to do in order to grow and improve. And this was a grueling training camp, man. Like physically I feel incredible as far as like health injury wise, no injuries. I feel great. But man, I did some stuff this training camp that was so physically and mentally difficult. It pushed me to a whole nother level, but even like in the last week, when you kind of have a little bit of ups and downs, like, oh man, I got to fight next week.

It's like, it's been giving me that confidence of like, yeah, but you did those things. Remember when you were did when you did that, remember when you were nervous on the way to the gym and you're like, I just hope somebody rear ends me. So I don't have to go to the gym and actually thing. Cause this is going to be so brutal. Like like this is gonna suck there's no way it's not going to be one of the worst things I've ever done but uh I got through those things and it's given me like so much more confidence coming into a fight being like look regardless of the outcome of my last fight that's the kind of man I am it's like I'll reassess the hell out of myself and find a way to to improve and and and look at myself objectively as best I can and do the things

that are necessary to truly find growth. What are you referring to there? That is pretty intense stuff saying that you hope someone rear ends you so that you don't make it to the gym because you're dreading it so much. What are these things that are giving you this anxiety that you were doing? Just really hard training sessions sessions i'm not going to go into detail because we took a long time figuring that stuff out and i think that's a great tool for me and i think other fighters can go figure out their own stuff fair enough um but man yeah it was just really really grindy sessions at times and uh you know it's difficult to to find those things sometimes especially after my last, because I'm not the kind of guy who just like messed around throughout my career. And I'm like, ah, you know, I had a loss in the UFC.

Now I'm going to really tighten it up and try hard. Like I go into fights confident because I know I've done everything I possibly can. So coming up short last time, I'm like, man, like it almost hits a little bit harder. It almost, you know, you'd almost have a little bit of that safety net knowing like, yeah, but I didn't like actually try as hard as I could. So next time I'll just like train harder and prepare better. And then I'll actually, I'll win. I'm like, no, man, I was giving it everything I felt like I could at the time, but just kind of reallocating resources and restructuring things. And like I said, looking at it from an athletic

perspective within athletic, it's like, okay, nutrition, strength, conditioning, all sorts of things. All right. From a fighting perspective, strategy, technique, when to go, when to slow, when to, you know, put the pace on a guy. Okay. And then from like a fighting perspective, just getting in there and having some dog fight war rounds in the gym where you just absolutely gut check and empty the tank and and at times you know you have to have training partners that you trust because it's like risky doing that like really pushing that hard so we are rolling the dice a little bit just to try and get a little bit more out of me but and it worked out really well this camp i have to say say, and I often say this, I do have a soft spot for the Canadian fighters,

considering I'm Canadian as well. And my heart broke for you on that January night, because you were looking so good, and it was such a great fight for you. And it was all coming together in Toronto and all this stuff. And so I'm just wondering, in the immediate aftermath, the day or two later, how did you come to terms with the heartbreaking end that you were looking so good for 14 minutes and, and, and, and, you know, what happened happened? How did you end up feeling in the immediate aftermath? And how did you come out of that to have this mindset that you're talking about now? Yeah, the immediate aftermath was tough. You know, you're like, man, I fumbled at the five-yard line, man.

You know, I tripped at the finish line. Like, I had this guy. I had this win. You know, I don't know what the odds were going into the final two minutes of the fight, but it must have been like a minus 1,500 favorite or something like that. Like, pretty much guaranteed I'm winning this fight. I just had an interview with Matt Serra, and it's cool to hear from veteran fighters who've kind of experienced everything,

including being the man, the world champion, like the ultimate fighter champion, world champion Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. He's like, you know, he brought up his Shoney Carter fight where he got spinning back fists, and he's like, you know, fights like that, you have to find ways to forgive yourself and recognize's like, you know, fights like that, you have to find ways to forgive yourself and, and, and, and recognize like you were doing well. It happened.

How do we move past that? And it was nice to hear that from him, especially like that kind of empathy from, from a guy like him. And yeah, he kind of hit the nail on the head. Like we really dissected my game. We dissected the way I prepare for fights. We dissected everything. Like, how can we, how can we grow as much as possible. We dissected the way I prepare for fights. We dissected everything. Like, how can we, how can we grow as much as possible without like reinventing the wheel?

Like I did well for, like we said, I did well for like 14 minutes. So it's, it's not like, Oh man, throw everything that you've been doing. You need to completely rewrite everything.

You need to move to a new country and fire all your coaches. You know, it's like a lot of the stuff went really well, but it's like, how do we just get a little more, how do we get a little more juice out of you? How do we just make sure that it's 15 minutes of winning the fight if it's going to go the distance or we get the stoppage? You know, a lot of that's just, I'm in the gym.

You know, you're sitting in the back and you're like, shit, what do I do? Like a couple of things jump out, obviously for me, which again, I'm going to keep close to myself, but you don't keep the cards close to my chest. But there were a couple of things that jumped out at me. It's like, that was the wrong thing to do there. That was a bad decision. And we're like, I, this is what I felt. And I, I need to, you know, change the way I reacted to that. So from like a strategic perspective but there are some things where it's like you're not going to fix it on the shuttle ride home or back the hotel after

the fight like you can't solve every problem right then and there when you're taking two weeks off to let your body recover and go to physio and all this stuff right after the fight you're gonna sit there and it's gonna suck because you can't really do much about it like you can't get in the room and and fix things right away when you need to heal up for for a week or two so you kind of have to sit in it and soak in it and just be like look this feeling sucks let's do what we can to make sure it never happens again but just getting back on the horse and getting back in the gym and getting back in a routine and and trusting the process but constantly checking and adjusting the process like that's that's, what's given me this confidence is like, we got back on the horse

and we fixed a lot of things and did some new stuff this camp to push me to that next level. And yeah, I think that's where that confidence is coming from. How long before you got back into a rhythm at the gym? Like, did you take some time to lick your wounds or did you jump right back in there? Um, I, I had a few injuries from kind of camp and from the fight. So I took a little time to recover, kind of like two weeks to recover and then got back into the gym for a week or two, just to get my body going again. And one of the first things I did was go down to the PI and just look at, again, kind of take down to the pi and just look at again kind of take the isolate the athleticism side of of my game like okay what can we do conditioning wise

what can we do strength wise what can we do nutrition wise take that and implement that in my game as much as possible like i think it's easy to get i think it's easy to get too lost in any one aspect of mma because it's there's so much stuff in this game i think it's easy to get too lost in any one aspect of MMA because it's, there's so much stuff in this game. I think it's easy to get like lost in like numbers of strength and conditioning. Like, Oh,

if I get my, I get my deadlift up to this number, I get my, like my, you know, my minutes per mile at this heart rate to here, then it'll, you know,

this will solve all my problems. Or if I can just get my weight up to here, whatever, you can kind of get lost in that a little bit and get away from MMA. So I think taking all the advice that they gave me from the PI and implementing some of the program stuff to the training that we're already doing. I think that was like a really good call as like a base to build everything again before heading back into camp. but my first week back into mma which was about a month after my fight into like live going hard i you know took a couple weeks to to like my

wounds got back into kind of getting back into training and strength conditioning and going down to the pi and getting my numbers and then i flew back from the pi and aaron jeffrey one of my main training partners who's uh middle one of the best middleweights in bellator was fighting uh fabian edwards and he was like a few weeks out from the fight and came back from florida he's like hey man i need some sparring partners like this guy's hurt that guy's hurt and it was like my first day back was just hey can you just fight aj in the cage today i'm like I had to damn it like yeah I'll do it this would be awful but it was almost kind of because I didn't get hurt doing it it ended up like working out like almost right away um I forget what they call it but like that fear

therapy or whatever where it's like just throw you right back into this dude's a weight class up from you he makes almost no mistakes he doesn't slow down he's strong as an ox he's in shape for a fight and you haven't really done anything in a month fight him like okay well you just had to have that like exposure therapy yeah like all right it's not gonna get much worse than this and then you know had a bunch of other stuff that we ended up implementing um you know it's interesting that you mentioned uh speaking to matt sarah that's an iconic fight uh the the fight that i thought of in the exact moment, and I don't know if you have a relationship with him or if you thought of this later down the line

as well, was Rory McDonald versus Carlos Condit at UFC 115. That was 453, you were 445, but it was so reminiscent. It was just as heartbreaking. It was his debut, no, second fight, I believe, but just very reminiscent. Do you do you know which fight i'm talking about and um did that come to mind ever or did you go back and look at how that all played out i i haven't gone back and watched the fight but yeah i remember that fight like rory's one of my favorite fighters of all time and so is condit man i love i love condit like my young young version of me before i was you know before i started getting around guys who know how to wrestle i was like i just got to be a carlos condit like i don't know how to rest they're

going to take me down i got to submit them and flying me him and this and that but yeah i mean that was it was almost exactly like that fight you know two canadian kind of prospects and and kind of a lot of hype around both of us and that's how it ends at the very end but then go on to look at the guy's career man he. He had an unbelievable career. Fought for the UFC world title, was a Bellator world champion. Probably the second best Canadian MMA fighter of all time. So, you know, he was younger than I am now. But, you know, it doesn't mean my career is going to model his exactly. No, of course. But, you know, it's almost reassuring to see like you can get through the other side.

Of course. Of course. These losses don't define you. And you get a big win on Saturday. It's all forgotten, right? You've also said if you could be on every one of these Canadian cards, sign you up, you would love that. There is a level of pressure that comes with it, right? Like there's a massive spotlight on you.

Is there any part of you that thinks you put too much pressure on your shoulders to fly that flag, to be that guy, to be the next Roy, to be the next GSP, where if you're fighting in Vegas or any other place in the world, that narrative isn't really a thing on fight week? I think I maybe put a little bit too much pressure on myself for the last one or or felt that weight of being like i have to be the guy it's not i love fighting in canada and i still want to be the guy who fights in canada every every card i'd much rather fight in canada than

anywhere else um i think it's just more like a personal choice and where you want to put your energy. Like I've kind of made this journey a little more selfish again than I, than I did heading into January where it was like, felt like a little bit more of the torchbearer and I, I, I need to wear this, this hat a little bit. Now I'm like, I'm, I feel like I'm back to doing this more for me and more for like self-validation rather than like, you know, rather than doing it for other people. I think that's really the only, it's the only fight I've really felt like I was doing it for other people. And I, the only fight I've really gone out and like, felt like I need to force a finish and have to finish the guy rather than just go out and be free and be myself.

And it was like one of the only fights that I didn't get a finish, you know? So I've, I've kind of gotten back to just being a little bit more selfish in the way that I view my career and my role in the UFC and like Canadian MMA. And I think the rest will just take care of itself. You know, it's like, don't focus on the stuff that doesn't actually happen in the cage it's not that none of that really actually affects the way you perform in the cage if you if you don't let it like it's just it's the fight in the cage did you prepare did you do everything this camp that you think you possibly could have done to prepare yourself as best as possible 100 i did and that sentence alone this week anytime you feel that little bit of like

okay it's a fight week we're here i'm like did you do everything you possibly could yes all right man i'm proud of myself then like that's that's all it is it's like you can't you can't always control outcomes obviously you know last last time didn't didn't go the way i wanted to right at the very end but man i i'm really proud of the way i've bounced back from this in my life and and preparing for fights and the way my team has like really rallied behind me like there was obviously a ton of negativity like a shocking amount of negativity around my loss and like people reaching out to express negative energy toward me which i was kind of surprised about. But there was also the opposite.

There was a ton of positive feedback from the fight. People were just like, dude, you were like, you were so close. Like, we know you're going to be back better than ever. And this is only going to make you better. And, you know, I'm doing my best to just focus on, if I focus on any other external energy it's that positive energy but mostly like not on social media a ton anymore and i'm not putting my my thoughts or my energy in in those good in those ways so myself and my team and yeah man i'm really just genuinely

excited to be back here for fight week to be back signing posters, to be ready to, to have another fight in the UFC. Like, that's what it is, man. I was like, I was the kid who just like had UFC posters on my wall when I was a kid and like was obsessed with all these killers that like I idolized that were superheroes to me. And it's like, I get to do that now. Like I get to do that and you Like I get to do that. And you did everything you possibly could. Like go have fun, man.

This is an absolute privilege and blessing. Isn't it amazing? You probably would have dreamed of a scenario where you're just a part of the fabric of the UFC. You're not the token Canadian. You're not making your debut. You're just a guy on the roster. Oh, it's Mike Malott's fifth UFC fight.

You would have dreamed of this. You would have done anything for this. And now here you are. And so that's a great way to look at things, and I'm happy you're not putting too much stock into those comments. It blows me away, like someone like you, who probably doesn't say a negative thing about anyone who is as classy and respectful and professional as it gets,

gets shit thrown on him because he lost a fight and was perfect, except for the last minute. I still, I will never understand the person that would send an athlete those types of comments. And I'm happy that you've cut that out of your life. Do you just not even go at all? Or do you just limit? How are you dealing with that, especially leading up to the fight? Because it's wasted space. Your mind is not a hotel room. You can't allow people to check in and out of it. That's what a smart man once told me. And I wish I used that more in my life, but I like to repeat it whenever out of it. That's what a smart man once told me. And I wish I used that more in

my life, but I like to repeat it whenever it's necessary. Yeah, that's a great motto. Yeah, so I've just been spending less time on social media for sure, but also just putting less focus on what somebody says. It's like, oh my God, this guy said this about me. I'm like, who the fuck is that guy? I don't care, man man who are you dude if you the same guy who says that stuff would probably you know if they saw me on the street be like oh man i've seen you i've seen yeah and then now because you're behind your phone you're like oh i can like just affect this i can contact this guy and try and affect him in a negative way It's almost never from people who are doing well in their lives. You know, it's never from people who are like positive and good and good for their communities.

And, you know, yeah, so I just put stock and try to put stock and focus on the positive stuff. And like you said, like I try to represent myself well, like, you know, put my best foot forward and think about it almost in a way of like, I don't have kids right now, but, you know put my my best foot forward and think about it almost in a way of like i don't have kids right now but you know there will be a day you know 15 years from now or 20 years from now when i've got a teenager who's just like what was my dad actually like before you know i was born was he was he a piece of shit or was he like an all right guy and i just like i want to you know have that stuff kind of set up for, you know, my kids or like, you know, next Canadian generation. See, like, I want to, I want to represent them well and see that you don't have to be like a bad person who says personal things about somebody's religion or family or where

they live their life in order to like sell pay-per-views and like sell yourself, sell your soul to like make money and be in this sport. Like you can just be yourself and win fights and people uh people tune in by the way you mentioned earlier being selfish you would be selfish you're you're doing this for yourself and and that could be viewed multiple ways i do believe uh over the summer you got married so uh how does that how does it congratulations and by the way i never, I never got the invitation. I didn't get to save the date, nothing.

I was waiting for it. It just, uh, never came through the mail, but you guys look fantastic and delighted for you. What a scene that is, by the way, where, where are we here? Is this a Lake Ontario? Where is that? No, that's a Muskoka. So Lake of Bays in Muskoka by Dorset.

Wow. Um, I, you know, kind of grew up going there in the summers and stuff. And my parents bought a spot there maybe 10 years ago. And yeah, we kept it for that exact reason for the like, where was my invite? We kept it to my siblings. Like there were, we had nine guests there. It was great. Wow. We planned most of it in an afternoon, you know, my, my, my sisters and my mom and her mom helped to just like plan some stuff out, but it was like zero stress. It was just so fun and nice. Like just did the quick ceremony on the boat and got married on there and, and just spent it with like the immediate, it was just in my mind,

it was like, we're just merging the families. Like this is, this is where I want the the energy to be and and not worried about like you know is you know one of my alpha male teammates gonna get too drunk and start talking to my grandma yeah yeah i don't need that you don't need that you don't need that you don't need that no that that sounds wonderful it's been some great stories out of that for sure but you know just like i also just didn't want to spend a year planning a wedding and spend like a hundred grand on a wedding. And I feel like that's what most people are doing now. And I'm like, that's outrageous. I have zero interest in that. I just want to show the woman I love that, uh, you know, I want to spend the rest of my life there.

Seems like you did that. I'm just wondering how the selfish part of things, uh, ties into being a newlywed. Um, do you feel like you're less present or are you talking about it from a different perspective? Because you're gearing up for a fight. You do have to be selfish, right? You're cutting weight. You're a little bit, you know, you're a little bit moody, maybe you're beat up, you're tired. So how's that, how's that balance going? I feel like, I mean, maybe I'm getting a talk after the fight but i've been doing a good job of just you know shutting that off when i get into the house and you know she'll ask me how the day is and how training's been and i'll talk to her a little bit about it but a lot of the times i'm

like look we're at the house i just want to spend time with you or i just you know when we're together i just want it to be like our time i don't want it to be like fight time and she's super understanding and just ridiculously low maintenance about stuff like that she's like yeah man i'll just take care of myself in that way and then uh you know she's just sweet about stuff and cooking meals for me all training camp oh perfect stuff and yeah she was a nutrition major in university too so just like you know she cooks super healthy and, and I guess the great partner. You're a lucky man. You got the right one.

Well done. Uh, that is amazing. I told that girl I loved her on her second date, man. I didn't, I didn't waste any time. Wow. You didn't play the game. You didn't do that. Oh, you need to wait five days.

You, this and that. You just went right in. Well, technically I, it was like five weeks between dates because we met and then I went back to California and we FaceTimed pretty much every day. But then when I got back, I told her I loved her on that second technical date, but I had been, I hadn't had like an actual real relationship for nine years before I met her.

And I was like, no, no, no, this one, this is, you don't mess this one up. It's like,

I'd rather, again, I'd rather do everything. I'd rather like put my heart on my sleeve too much and her be like, dude, this is our second date and you love me. I'm out of here. And be like,

well, I tried, you you know like rather than be like oh no i'm gonna play it cool and just like you know try and play the game like no man we're not playing any games this is how i feel you want to get married let's do it did she reciprocate when you said it oh yeah the first thing she said was she's like really and i was like yeah and we kind of like laughed for a while and And she said, yeah, she let me back. Oh, my gosh. If she would have said really and then laughed and there was a pause and didn't say it back, that would have been rough, no?

I hadn't even soaked it, man. That's what it is. That's how I felt. Well done. I didn't feel that way exclusively to feel it back. That's how I felt. That's a good point. Could I ask about rematching Trevon Giles?

This time in MMA, of course, you beat him in a grappling match. Do you take anything from that? you even watch that is there anything obviously completely different set of rules here but is there anything you can take from that first encounter I mean just the biggest thing is I've already grabbed a hold of the guy which is kind of the weirdest thing before

a fight sometimes you're like okay what's this guy going to feel like this guy going to just be an absolute horse and like you know he feels like a welterweight he's a strong athletic guy solid fighter but obviously wasn't too much for me to handle that night and i am extremely confident i'm gonna have a great performance against this guy on saturday i feel like i have him covered everywhere like you know i already beat him once in a grappling match so i know i can out grapple him and my striking is feeling better than it's ever felt so i know i can outstrike this guy and conditioning feels the best it's ever felt my mma awareness and iq feels as sharp as it's way

sharper than it's ever felt so i just yeah i feel like every box has been checked every stone has been turned it's just make weight and show up and do what i do what about this guy a legend of the mma scene shirt guy lee he made this t-shirt have you seen this t-shirt um i don't want to mess it up because i messed it up before our show i think it goes uh how does it go it goes i'm here for mike i like him a lot oh and you retweeted it yeah let's go oh did you retweet there it is there it is you retweeted it shirt guy, wait. Yeah, let's go. Oh, I did retweet it. There it is. You retweeted it. Shirk Eye Lee's a legend, by the way. I met this kid back in 2010. He gave me a Helwani t-shirt.

That's a Canadian MMA fan legend right there. I like that shirt. Has he given it to you? Not yet. No, no. And that's a solid Canadian humor pun right there. I love that. It's great. I actually screwed it up when I read it the first time. I thought, I like him a lot, Malat, but it's I like him a lot.

By the way, how's our friend Jasmine doing? Jasmine? Jasmine, it is. We use her name on the show because I always mess it up. She's right here by my side all the time. How's she doing? She's fighting on the card as well. She's awesome, man. She's just sick energy to be around. This training camp's been great. Siri Sadiq trains with us too,

so seeing him once or twice a week, he comes into the room. She's a 125 woman. He's a 135 man. I'm not doing rounds with them, but just having their good energy be in the room and just even walking on a Monday and just like, three weeks out, eh?

How you feeling? Going through that together and then being here with these guys fight week, it's been great. And just like, you know, just vibing, man. They're great people, like friends for life outside of fighting. And yeah, no, she looks great in the gym. She's absolute workhorse. So yeah, man, I'm super psyched for her. Love it. Well, I wish you the best truly. Um, I have a great feeling about this. You, you seem to have the right mindset, dare I say a proper mindset going into the fight

and, uh, we're all behind you, my friend. So get it done. All the best to you and your family. Good luck on Saturday and looking forward to this return. Very, very much. Can't thank you enough. Thank you very much, Ariel. I appreciate it, man.

Thanks for having me on. All right. there he is, proper Mike Millat, competing on Saturday in Edmonton at the beautiful Rogers Place. If you've never had the opportunity, they have a nice location in the front with all the Stanley Cups, Wayne Gretzky stuff, Yari Curry, Paul Coffey, Mark Messier,

Mine Real, who's who, unfortunately. Good question. Yes. Multiple Stanley Cups? Oh, yeah. There was only one. Well, they've won multiple Stanley Cups. Okay.

So they have like replicas. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, yes. I mean, of course. I'm not even being facetious. I just was- No, like if you go to a Chicago Bull, like if you go to the United Center where the Bulls play, there's the six Larry O'Brien trophies.

I guess they give replicas to the teams. They keep going. I'm having a moment there. I wanted to enjoy the moment and I got scared that there's multiple Stanley Cups out there. I think they keep the one. I think they keep the one and then

if you win it, you get to put it on display. Usually teams will put it on display. Usually, teams will put it in their office, things like that, but in Edmonton, what I thought was really cool is that it's just right there. It's kind of like near the media center, so I don't know if the fans can see it, but

one thing that's cool about the media room where they do the press conferences, there's a window to the outside world, sort of like this window, and the fans are all there at 1 a.m. banging on the window. And, you know, Valentina Shevchenko is doing a post-fight press conference. I remember that being very memorable. Have you ever been to Edmonton, Frank?

No, I have not. They've got a wonderful mall over there. It's called the, is it called the Great Edmonton Mall? Great Edmonton Mall. I don't know what It's called the, is it called the Great Edmonton Mall? Great Edmonton Mall. Is that what it's called? The West Edmonton Mall. The West Edmonton Mall. This just in from On Air Jordan.

Yes, tell me. No, the Edmonton Oilers do not have a Stanley Cup in Rogers Place. What does that mean? I don't know. I thought maybe this would make more sense to you. They have them on display. Uh, no, the Edmonton Oilers do not have a Stanley Cup in Rogers Place. What does that mean? I don't know. I thought maybe this would make more sense to you. They have them on display.

Have they won a Stanley Cup while playing in Rogers Place? No. They made it to the final game, seven against the Florida Panthers in June. They have yet to win. I've got to do something right now. Please excuse me. Have they won a Stanley Cup? Oh.

Don't forget you have a button to mute yourself if you want to do that in silence. We could have done a switch cam too, but we just left full volume. Yeah, you just left it. Because when you're like, I have to do something. And I didn't get it. I had no idea what you were going to do.

I didn't get it, by the way. Did you notice that? Yeah. Want to go again? No. We'll switch cameras. No, I didn't get it. You don't switch the cameras?

No, no, no. Oh, I'm still latched. You're just How are you? I like this shirt today man It looks good Is that Lulu? Yeah

It looks good It looks good Just for my guy Mike You like that? I mean Listen Are we Are we in an official relationship?

No Are we courting each other perhaps? You could say that Those fighting words Are you talking about Mike Milano Or are you talking about Lululemon? Wow. Wow. Wow.

I think he got confused when you played the Jazz Divisious sound. I think he was like, what? Where is that coming from? Jazz Divisious. Yeah. How do we feel, by the way? Oh, you know what? Someone asked me, GC, in one of those comments, we went right through it.

They asked for some Canadian locks. Do you got any of those for us? And I don't mean like Canadian smoked salmon. I mean like locks. Do you have anything? As the Vigis. Is that coming tomorrow? I like them a lot.

But that is coming tomorrow. Full breakdown. Full breakdown coming tomorrow? UFC Edmonton, yeah. Boys in the bag. New pound for pound rankings. Halloween candy tomorrow. Oh my God.

It's going to be a great show. You coming to the show tomorrow, Ariel? Yeah, I'll be there. It's going to be a great show. You coming to the show tomorrow, Ariel? Yeah, I'll be there. It's going to be a great show. Or maybe I won't. We can talk about that later. For now, though, let's go to our next guest. I've, in fact, wanted to have this gentleman on for quite some time.

Big fan of his. Love watching him fight. And he returns to action back in his hometown of Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center in a little over a week. November 9th, to be exact. It's back on the zone, his second fight under the Matchroom umbrella. He's one of the very best boxers in the world, one of the very best 147 pounders in the world. He is the pride of Philadelphia. He's the one and only Jaron Boots Ennis. He's kind enough to join us. There he is. Hello, my man. How are you?

Hey, what's going on? How you doing? I'm doing well. It's great to talk to you. It's great to have you on. I appreciate this very much. Looking forward to you returning. Second fight with Matchroom. How's it going so far? Are you happy with the move from PBC to Matchroom? Everything is going great.

I'm excited to be back. Can't wait. I'm ready to be back. But I can't wait. I'm ready to go. When you signed with them, was the plan always back-to-back fights in Philly? The plan is to fight whenever, whoever, and wherever. Stay busy and just keep getting better. Well, I watched a bunch of your fights on Showtime and PBC and whatnot,

and they put you on some big cards and they featured you. I felt with your walkout, with the vibe, with the arena and the crowd, I was like, okay, this is what Boots has needed, and this is what he has deserved for quite some time. Like, it never felt like you truly got that spotlight on you. Once it was all said and done, did you feel the same way? Like, yeah, I'm the freaking man. I could sell at sell wells fargo i could sell it of an arena i could headline i deserve to be the man on the on the marquee it was nice to finally get that

oh yeah it was you know it was a blessing you know to be able to you know get that you know and be the first fight at the wells fargo center you know that that was crazy you know and we made history you know it was 15 16 000 plus so you know that was that was crazy, you know, and we made history, you know, 15, 16,000 plus, so, you know, that was, that was crazy, and I think this one's gonna be even better. Your performance in that fight back in July, you were happy with it overall? My performance was okay, you know, I watched the fight back a few times, you know, like I said, I felt rusty for sure, you know, you know, even though I be in the gym, you know, all the time, you know, when you're not fighting frequently and sitting around waiting, you know,

sometimes you get a little, you know, a little stale, you know. I definitely was off a little bit, you know. My timing was off. Like punches that I usually, like, land, I was missing. I'm like, but it was cool, you know. I got the job done and, you know, I got to knock out the stoppage, you know. And that's all that well, it's cool. You know, I got the job done out and, you know, I got to knock out the stoppage, you know, and that's all that matters. You know, this makes for an even better, you know, performance this time out.

Did you feel any extra nerves, anxiety, pressure because it was the big homecoming for you? You know, I actually like playing at home. You know, it's, it don't, it don't phase me. You know, I'd rather be home. It's easy. I don't got to sit in a hole until I can sleep at my house. Everything is easier when you're at home. I feel way comfortable being at home, fighting at home.

Did you just stay at home the entire fight week? Did you drive from your home to the arena on Saturday night? Yeah, I was driving back and forth yep amazing for my house same time this time same thing this time around yeah same thing this time around you know i i get home cooked meals i don't gotta go out go out go out and get food you know it just you know i love it you know there's no there's no pressure you know it's actually extra extra motivation okay so so now shoot straight with me. You know, the hardcore fans, when they found out that you were rematching Karen Chukazin,

they were like, damn, this is not what we wanted for boots. We wanted something bigger. We've seen this fight. It wasn't the greatest fight of all time. He was running around like we don't need this again. What was your reaction when you found out that this was going to be the fight? I mean, at the end of the day, you know, like my main objective is, you know, to get these belts. And then I was trying, I was pushing hard to collect these belts and be undisputed and at least unified, you know. And that was my goal.

You know, those things fell out and I had to fight my mandatory. So, you know, it is what it is know i i really don't don't really care you know i'm ready to go in there and put on a show have fun you know uh and look better this time you know and you know just do my thing considering you were talking about you know potential norman fight potential you know there was the crawford thing initially that kind of dissipated rather quickly when you just have to come to terms with the fact that you're fighting a guy that you already beat how do you how do you get motivated in those early days of training how do you like where does that come from where does the drive come from because you already climbed this mountain and it was you know it was very

successful in your favor uh the motivation just come every day just family you know just in general just you know just and just putting on for my, just in general, just, you know, and just putting on for my last name, Legacy. That's the whole thing. Just, you know, whoever they put in front of me, I'm going to beat. So it don't really matter. You know, I'm going to just keep pushing, keep going forward, and, you know, big fights going to come.

Bigger fights going to come. I have to say, lately, I don't know, and I know you're representing the IBF here as their champ, but why is the IBF, like, screwing everything up lately? I feel like they just kind of get in the way a lot, you know? Like, we get the undisputed heavyweight title, then they take the belt away, and they make it, you know, for Dubois to fight an interim belt. And now with Beterbiev and Bivol, they're like, ah, now there's the mandatory it seems like everyone's trying to move in the direction of undisputed and ibf's kind of out there doing their own thing and i feel like they kind of the fact that they they said okay this has to be the fight the mandatory kind of it kind of screwed up what you were trying to to get done am i wrong about this i mean at any day it's okay as long as i'm still fighting you know and i'm and i'm able to be you know be busy you know and keep fighting that's the whole thing you know uh like i say don't i'm about to come you know i and I'm able to be, you know, be busy, you know, and keep fighting. That's the whole thing. You know, like I said, I'm about to come, you know, I'm going to grab those belts next year.

Okay. And I'm not trying to rain on the parade, but you know, this is out there, right? You know, people are saying they wanted something bigger for you and I'm sure you did as well. Yeah. I mean, I mean, of course, you know, but like I said, you know, at any day, you know, if I got to fight my mandatory, I got to fight my mandatory, you know, and there's not no problem with that with me, you know, this time it was going you know, at any day, you know, if I got to fight my mandatory, I got to fight my mandatory, you know, and there's not no problem with that with me,

you know, this time we're just going to beat them easier this time in a better fashion. As far as that first fight and what you're trying to implement in this fight, would you categorize that fight

as a frustrating one? It was hard to catch him. It was, you know, he was moving around. He was on the bike. As they say, how would you look back

on that fight and what would you try to do differently this time around uh i watched that fight several times you know uh like i said it wasn't nothing that he did it was just more so just me you know me just not listening to my corner and starting to lead like everything that i did from the like this six seven round on you know that i feel like i should have been did that i should have did that earlier you know and i probably would have got the knockout you know but it just it's a lot of things it wasn't it wasn't just it wasn't him it was basically it was me you know and uh this this time around you know we're gonna expect the same guy you know he ain't gonna switch up nothing up you know uh he's gonna try a boxing move and do

that do whatever he do and we got something for all that you know i've been studying we're studying him you know i've been working on a lot of things you know and uh come fight night you know it's gonna be it's gonna be fireworks and i can't wait you know it's gonna be a spectacular night for me i love the promotion for this with you and bam rodriguez the posters all this stuff the two kings very cool to see you two together um how do you feel about that? Him being the co-main to you being main and then putting him on your card in your hometown.

He's one of the best pound fighters in the world. And I've heard from some fans say, okay, maybe we don't love that he is fighting Karen or who Bam is fighting, but them together makes this must-see TV because they're two of the best fighters fighting on the same card. Yeah, for sure.

You know, like I said, that's a blessing to have him, you know, have Bam on the card. He's top five pound for pound, you know, a phenomenal fighter. You know, I'm glad I'm able to have him, you know, on my card. You know, like I said, me and him together is going to make fireworks. And then, you know, the undercard is crazy, too. You got Ray Savage. You got two of my fighters with Boosted Motion, Ishmael DeChef-Mohamed,

Dennis DJ Thompson. You know, the card's going to be crazy. You know, there's a lot of upcoming great fighters on the card. And, like I said, I think this one's going to be even better and bigger. True or false, by the time it's all said and done, you will fight Terrence Crawford? Hopefully it's true. Like I said, I've been asking for those fights, for that fight.

I'm tired of answering the same questions. Y'all go ask him. I say yes plenty of times. I'm tired of answering no questions. I understand that. I've asked him multiple times about it, and I've told him that I would love to see that fight happen. And the stance seems to be like,

look, when I was coming up, I wanted to fight Pacquiao. He didn't want to fight me because he was at a point, and I understand that stance now is what he says. Do you understand where he's coming from, or do you think that there's kind of a duty to return the favor along the way? I mean, everybody's different.

I don't know. I can't speak for him. But when it's my turn and I've got to fight a young lion, I definitely will give him the opportunity. Would you say that's your dream fight right now?

I love fighting. I love beating people up. I don't care who it is. I ain't even going to lie. That's my whole thing. I want to fight any and everybody. Fair enough. I understand. Can I ask, what's the difference between Al Heyman and Eddie Hearn? No comment. Is it just different styles?

What do you mean? Well, just in terms of their promotion, like fighting under one compared to the other. What do you... Do you like one style? They both are phenomenal people, you know, great people.

Yeah, and Eddie's great too. I think some people here in America don't give him the time of day or think people, you know, great people. Yeah, and Eddie's great too. I think some people here in America don't give him the time of day or think how, you know, De La Hoya said it, Leonard has said it. You stay in England, but you can make a case right now. I think he's the best promoter in combat sports, regardless of combat sport. Yeah, Eddie Hearns got a mouthpiece. You know, he do all the talking for you.

You know, you don't got to do too much talking because he going to promote you. He going to say everything that need to be said. All you got to do is sit back and fight and do what you need to do. And that's one. That would be a huge difference, right? You don't have to do as much promotion,

as many interviews, things like that. Well, you could say that, I guess. Yeah, he's like kind of like Don King style Bob Aaron style as opposed to someone who's behind the scenes I saw you I saw you ring the bell at a Sixers game recently you're a big Philly guy Philly sports guy

I'm a big Knicks guy so sorry you know about you know in the playoffs a couple months ago but it's a good rivalry it's fun it's fun I mean your mom's It's fun. I mean, your mom's from New York. Is she not? Yeah. My mom's from New York. Yup. Yeah. She, uh, definitely she's born in Brooklyn. So, uh, sick. Yeah. So, yeah. So does she represent,

does she root for the New York teams or is she now fully Philly? Cause that's where you grew up and that's where I think, you know, you guys, you know, she's, she's lived there for so long, right? She lived there for a little while, not too long. But my mom definitely, she all filled up your teams. Yeah. You like NBA? She rocked with the Phillies and the Eagles and the Flyers and all that.

She's like us. Okay. Like all the loser teams, the Phillies and the... No, we're going to beat y'all this year. Oh, okay. In basketball? For sure, yes. What's the bet?

What's the bet that the Sixers go further than the Knicks? What do you think? You think so? You really believe that? Yeah, the Sixers are going to go further than the Knicks, for sure. Man, I don't know. Embiid doesn't play. He doesn't know what it's like to win in the playoffs.

Paul George, unreliable. You're going to see this year. That's all. Oh, you feel it? Do you think you guys are better than the Celtics? I think so. Really? Wow.

Is he going to play, this guy? Embiid, what's going on? Embiid, I think he's going to play. He should be playing soon okay because he was because did you see he got roasted on twitter because he was saying uh he was talking about the grand slam and he's like holy shit a grand slam in the playoffs and people are like oh yeah this is what it's like you know delivering in the playoffs something you know nothing about no i i ain't seen it he got roasted he got roasted i saw you chopping down some trees over

there you do that every day yeah um not every day i do it like every other day you know because i got back to um but you know my old school training with my dad and things like that and the rest of my team you know chopping wood is very good for you you know uh help stripping up their forearms and everything that's it how long you do that for uh it depends sometimes 15 minute street sometimes 30 minute street it depends okay i mean it looks it looks exhausting is that morning or night time night time night time always night time everything i do is at night you're not one of those 4 a.m guys i mean well i work out three to four times a day so i do get up early i had

workouts in the morning and midday and i had workouts at night so and and things like that so so i do get up early i'm not gonna say i don't get up early when's your prime like what is that like is that like midnight yeah i love i love working out at night because i fight at night and uh that's right that's why That's when I feel my best. Let me ask you one more. There's some talk maybe a Teofimo Lopez fight could come to fruition in 25. I'm sure you're going to say you'd fight anyone, you're happy to fight anyone, but is that of interest to you, him coming up from 140?

Bring them on, bring them all on. Like I said, I want to fight everybody. I want to show the world that I'm the best fighter in the world. How far away do you think we are from that when we're talking about boots as number one pound for pound? Maybe one or two fights.

One or two fights? Oh, I thought you were going to say one or two years. You're right there, you think? Yeah, I'm right there. I just need that one name. That's all. Alright. Well well we look forward to that uh good luck on november 9th thank you for coming on i wish you the best thank you for having me appreciate it all right there he is uh jaron boots ennis going up against karen chukazin uh chukazin of uh of the Ukraine in a rematch of a fight that happened back in January of 2023. You all right in there?

Yeah, that was an interim IBF title fight and a welterweight title fight and now he is the undisputed champion at 147 pounds for the IBF, the dastardly IBF. WBC champion at 147 is for the IBF, the dastardly IBF. WBC champion at 147 is Mario Barrios. Virgil Ortiz would be a great one for him next year as well.

Brian Norman was the one that they were talking about. But as of right now, they were a little bit off. The talk was that Norman was asking for $2.2 million, and Eddie Hearn said, thanks, but no thanks. $1.7 is as far as we go. It's a totally different world than the world of MMA. Like a Boots Ennis, Brian Norman-level fight in MMA, no one's talking $1.7, No one's talking 1.7.

No one's talking 2.2. As far as that level of talent. And he will eventually be a top five pound for pound fighter. But that just shows the difference. If you ask me. He didn't like that Eddie Hearn question. He didn't like that one comparing him. Those fighting words.

Yeah, why do you, I mean. You got him back with the Knicks. I mean, you got to be quick. That was aggressive. Why no comment to that? He doesn't want to say anything bad about either Al or. It's not bad. It's just different styles.

I mean, the obvious answer is one guy speaks, one guy doesn't. Yeah, I think. Al Hammond doesn't do interviews. He's never done an interview. So the easy answer there is, oh, yeah, one guy speaks, one guy doesn't. Yeah, I think. Al Hammond doesn't do interviews. He's never done an interview. So the easy answer there is, oh, yeah, one guy's got a megaphone, and he eventually got there. Got there, yeah, you got him there. But the no comment, I was like, dang.

I was just trying to make conversation. You got him back. What do you want me to ask? How was training camp? How's the weight cut? Up in the wood. How's the weight cut? We got to the wood

That's fine Don't fixate on it I fixate Was he in his car? No there was like a TV behind him Which I mean you can relate right? No I don't know what that's like Anyway

Thank you very much to him And good luck on November 9th Looking forward to that card That is in Philly A stones throw away Road trip guys? What do you think? You driving?

A lot of people say I'm not a good driver As long as we get from point A to point B Remember the first time you had me in your car And for a week later It smells like crayons in there. Do you remember that? That was so weird. It did smell awful. I felt so attacked. Yeah.

Somehow that was my fault. Wait, crayons smell awful? It smelled like crayons but not good, like bad crayons? Melted. You like the smell of crayons? I feel like they're fine. I don't think of them as a bad smell. I don't think of them as a good smell either. That's because you get Crayola. Like, Rosart melted.

Oh, you're talking the low-budget Crayola. Yeah. Cheapo Crayon. Rosart. Rosart, shout out. It was weird. Who uses Rosart? My God.

When you guys saw someone bring Rosart to school, did you not wince a little bit for them? Yeah, I'm being serious. I'm laughing in the face of people who use Rosart. I don't even know what that is. When I an adult brand proven right there brand of crayola like the kleenex you know and then there's the rosary the timu version yeah timu is that what we're on right now now it's timu it used to be wish it used to be great value brand called timu oh got it you know what happened there and i don't think it was related, but it literally did start to smell awful in the car.

And then I took it to a mechanic and he said that it was a buildup of leaves. First, he thought that there might've been a dead rat. Oh, I thought it was going to be the dead Tamagotchi. No. This Tamagotchi is covered in poop. But by the way, close, because he thought it was potentially a dead rat.

Then it was a buildup of wet leaves that was in the... Air filter? Under the hood or something that was just giving off this awful smell. I ended up getting rid of the car. My lease was up, thank God. Oh, wow. That was the lease you handed back.

That's a good excuse. It might be a dead rat. It might be a buildup of leaves. Here, take it. Is Mysterious Frank riding this car? Yeah, we're just going to have to sell this thing off. Sorry, man. Just tell him the lease is off. It's me, so value is completely gone. The dealer gets it.

It's like that episode of Seinfeld. Do you ever see the BO episode of Seinfeld? And I'm not suggesting this is what happened. I'm not suggesting. I don't think this is a suggestion. I'm not suggesting. I'm already in surrender. I don't think this is a suggestion. I think this is an accusation. HR.

It was the valet. The valet went in his car. You guys ever see that episode? No. All right. I've seen it. Who is the HR department on Crown? Is it the Wave the Skunk one?

I don't know. It feels like crayons in here. Earlier today, Aunt Evans gave me a bunch of questions From the super chats but now I can't find them Oh no I saw them I saw them pop up does anyone have them

Did you minimize the window No Ant was keeping them but maybe he can resend them No he I call him Ant when I'm upset No they popped up I saw them He must have deleted them Okay maybe he's going to relist them because he has more.

Okay, potentially. Yeah, let's get some of those super chat questions in. Thank you very much to all the guests. Again, very curious to see what the status is of my Tamagotchi. I don't even know its name. Tomorrow, boys

in the back and the boys in the back will be dressed up. Can we reveal what the status is of my Tamagotchi. I don't even know its name. Tomorrow, boys in the back and the boys in the back will be dressed up. Can we reveal what the outfits are? No way. Absolutely not, dude. What is this? I'm sorry. I don't know. What the fuck is that? Is everyone dressing up? Is Pete dressing up? Is Frank dressing up?

Does Pete see know he's coming on the show tomorrow? Does Pete see know he's coming on the show? Pete see know he's coming on the show. Can Does Pizzi know he's coming on the show? Pizzi, can I just... No, no, no. Let me start. Look at that face. No, let's talk. No, no, let me start.

Let me start. I just want to apologize to Pizzi Carroll because there's been two weeks in a row where we said, you know, Pizzi, we'd really love to have you on. We think you're such a valued member of the team. We'd love to be able to promote The Crack the day before. Yeah.

And yeah, we had to end early both times. And so unfortunately, you know, we had Alex Pereira. We had Alex Pereira. And then the next time we had to do lighting for the watch party. And unfortunately, Pizzi got the bump. I've apologized profusely. And I've groveled and begged and, and, uh, you know, said, uh,

this will never happen again. And hopefully we can rectify that tomorrow. Well, you know, interestingly, you've left out the part where I actually have to text you on the day of boat shows going, what time am I coming on at Rick?

And then you go, Oh, sorry. And I'm like, it's five to fucking six, mate. You know what I mean? I'm here now. I'm ready. Wow And I'm like, it's five to fucking six, mate. You know what I mean? I'm here now.

I'm ready. What were Eric's grievances? Wow. I don't manage my own phone. My assistant did not pass along those messages, so I will lay down the law. The hammer will come. That makes it so much worse.

The trick or treat is going to be happening while this show is happening tomorrow. Oh, that's actually great. Let's just camp out on your front porch. Yeah. It's going to be fairly stressful. Are you going to get dressed? Is Elaine trying to duck it again?

You said she always ducks it. I have had some comments, you know, it was like, did you get in the stuff or am I going to have to do it again? No answer given. Just kind of like, uh. So I think she's going to dip. Yeah.

Are you going to join the show? He doesn't know. He hasn't been formally invited. This is the third invitation. He's waiting for somebody to actually tell him that we want him on. Is this the invite right here? Yeah, this is the invite.

This is his third invitation to the boys in the back. Meanwhile, me and Rick have received zero invitations. Wow. Wow, I like this. It's all coming out. This is great. Rick, a veteran of two crack appearances ariel about eight or nine um gc one yourself zero yeah zero i love this when

was i on crack on the uh the post vegas thank you thank you oh we're counting that when you shove the phone in my face in the dressing room wow that is how you that is what it's like to be on the show that that is what the show is. That was the crack C-R-A-C-K. Million dollar studios, we have not. Proper crack, C-R-I-C. Oh, I've gotten the super chats. Here we go. Yes, here they are.

Thank you, Antoine. Mark asks if memberships from MMA Fighting transfer to this channel. And our YouTube guru, Ant, thankfully jumped in and let me know that they don't youtube doesn't allow for that even if we reached an agreement with mma fighting so commiserations uh jbsj says in my opinion dillian white next for francis sells better than rico verhoeven can do mma or boxing trash talk history with Francis, more beatable than other big names,

keeps Francis in the boxing combo. Don't hate it. Remember in the pandemic, Pizzi, they did a press conference where Eddie Hearn was going to host a press conference with the two of them and then I think Dana sent them a message being like, what the fuck are you doing? Do you remember that? Yes. That was a thing.

Dillian White's always the one people play it around with because he had a kickboxing match in like 1992 or something. And everyone's like, he's a multi-combat athlete. But I don't know, honestly, is it better than Rico? I mean, maybe in the UK. But, you know, I think Chisora might sell the fight more. Not that I want it. He's enjoying a bit of a renaissance because he beat Joyce.

I saw today IBF saying Dubois versus Wardley. Fabian Wardley and Dubois. If Dubois fights anyone not named the winner of Usyk Fury, it has to be Joseph Parker. That's the only other fight. And I definitely don't want to see the rematch with AJ just yet

build up to that. But Wardley I don't think is quite there. I mean he's I definitely don't want to see the rematch with AJ just yet. Build up to that. But Wardley, I don't think, is quite there. I mean, he's more, I don't know. I don't want to see his British level, but Dubois is well past Fabio Wardley. You're going to put him in there with a run for bull? Is that what you're trying to say? Fuck, I love Johnny Fisher. He's the man. He's the freaking man.

He's on that December 21st card, too, against Dave Allen. But, nah. Dubois, Joseph Parker would be great Johnny He's going to have to get to that British level soon He needs some big tests And he'll be right in there But I do agree with you I think that is a bit of a jump for Wardley

But at the same time Does it have to be a massive name immediately after that fight? I don't know. Like, I think you can continue to keep that burning without putting them in against one of the massive names in heavyweight. And I don't think that'd be the worst thing for a meter. Um,

obviously I don't think he's had much of an amateur career compared to the rest of the guys. Um, he's still building his name, building his brand. You know, he's rivaling Arnold Allen for the most popular fighter

from Ipswich, I'd say, at this stage. Oh, yeah. Maybe we need to keep on, keep the bellows on that fighter. This is from YoDudeILoveMe. I lived in Nottingham for two years

for my master degrees, my master's degree. GC, you're a legend over there. How about that? GC, a legend in Nottingham. Yeah. I thought it was just Manchester, but now we found out it was also nottingham can't wait to get back to the uk man i i'm itching at this point 2025 uk ireland and how many times you've been to the uk just the once man but i guess the word spread all the way from manchester down to nottingham yeah i mean i

hit like a like a meteor yeah out of the sky. Remember when PT was supposed to meet us and then bailed? Dude. And then I was going to go to Mulligan's East out there, the best Guinness in all of England. I went. Yeah. And then you went without me and then you went without me. I was supposed to go. Then I felt under the weather.

I wasn't able to go. And then I tried to go again and it was too packed. Yeah. It was embraced like a long lost song by that bar. I really am. I'm going to force my way into Into Ireland And I'm going to crash at Pete's house in 2025

It's going to be great I do have a hard hitting question Since we speak so much about Facial hair We are approaching November Which is of course Yes Movember time

Your beard I mean has never looked better Yep Are we shaving it off? We are not Wow I cannot do that I can't do that This is big How many years have you been doing this? Years and years beard, I mean, has never looked better. Yep. Are we shaving it off? We are not. Wow. I can't do that.

This is big. How many years have you been doing this? Years and years. Like, what are we talking? 10? Seven. Is it because we shaved the hair and you don't want... 100%.

100%, dude. I can't be the bald dude with just the mustache. I can't do it. No offense to anyone out there rocking it. I'm sure they're killing it. I just need a little bit more time Goatee maybe? No not to goatee

I'll do the tush You'll look great with a mustache Your beard is on point I gotta go to a wedding this weekend I was gonna do the goatee Then I was gonna do the mustache Gotta keep the beard At least for this year. All right.

I've never had a tush. Oh, it's great, man. I adore it. I'm thinking about it. I'm not going to lie to you. Ninja Man, Fedor versus Brock, Anderson versus GSP, Anderson versus Jones, Jones versus Francis, and now Jones versus Tom.

At what point do we say UFC can't make the biggest fights? I've been saying it for years. Have you? At heavyweight, yeah, definitely. I've been saying it since Francis and Jones back in 2020 or whatever it was. I think the hit rate's pretty high. I don't know if I would put that label on it. I agree.

For heavyweight? No, but I mean— No, just in general. Anderson GSP is in heavyweight. Anderson Jones was in heavyweight. The UFC, Dana White is pretty much spot on when he says that the UFC makes the biggest fights. There are examples of them not. And like you, Pete C, I blame the UFC for Francis and John not happening. That is entirely in their court and on their hands.

But the hit percentage is pretty high. They make the biggest fights. I agree. I just think this heavyweight thing is really fine. Even if it's these five, six examples, their percentage of hitting them compared to the whole sport of boxing is still... Until Turkey came along.

Until, yeah. But he's 20 years ahead of him to catch up. But at heavyweightweight there have been And a lot of these are a little bit more Recent so it does feel pronounced But it's sort of like when people say like Oh you have all these haters Well yeah I mean there's five notable ones

But then like what about the thousands upon Thousands upon thousands who love me Same kind of thing right What about the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of fights that they made and the five that they didn't? You know, not that big a deal. Right? Agreed. Yeah. You see? Put that

on the board. Showing love. It's not all hate. Colby asks, no judgment zone with this one. Who out of the crew is the most automotive inclined slash most experienced? Tire changes, oil changes, etc. Who out of the crew is the most Automotive inclined slash Most experienced Tire changes, oil changes, etc Is it Texas boy Frank

Certainly not me I was just about to say I will volunteer I don't know how to change a tire I don't know how to change oil I don't know how to check oil I barely know how to put I barely know how to pump gas, you know?

It might be Frank. Oh, yeah, living over in Jersey, I guess you never have to do it. No one has. I mean, I don't have to do anything. I don't know how to put in the freaking, you know. Car starts smelling, get a new one. Is it Pizzi? Is he the dark horse?

Is it Pizzi? I could see Pizzi being a gearhead, getting nice and oiled up. Do you enjoy seeing, seeing like a colored caliper On a brake pad No I mean I could change I could change oil I can check oil My dad's shown me how to change a tire about 80 times But I still

Don't think I'd be Right now it's so easy though you just take out YouTube And do it that way no Frank's actually the only one of us that doesn't have a car. Wow. Yeah, but I feel like back in the day in the old Texas days. All right, real quick. How many of you can drive manual?

Yeah, I can't drive manual. I have a new dream car. It's the... Is that a Pizzi? Real quick. It's that bad boy that she was driving. Oh, yeah. Ariel's seen it in action.

I abused him for a few days. Yeah, no, he's fine. He's a great driver. Can you drive standard transmission? Who, me? Yes, you. I don't think he even knows what that means. Yes, my

whole family, my brothers, my dad, all pride themselves on manual. We refer to it as manual. You didn't get the G. I just said, wait, there's an option where you don't have to do all this stuff yeah let me do that they're trying to tell me when I was a kid

they were like Frank it seems like they'd be asking questions as opposed to like just taking this head on is it you Frank can you just answer no so here's the thing like cars frighten me but I can confidently say I definitely know more about them than you guys do okay then there's your answer.

Very vague, but Frank is accepting that. You know what? Have you ever been in a car with Ariel in rush hour New York traffic? Yeah, and then he's like, dude, what is that smell? Get out of my car, Frank. Yo, why does it smell like crayons? You know what's so crazy?

My wife says that I'm a bad driver, and I say it's the complete opposite. I drive like a confident new york yeah you are a gangster you i'm you i'm like get the fuck out of the way talking shit you were talking shit to people it was wild fucking shit we we call that road rage no it was it wasn't it was like it was a confidence there was a confidence to it yeah there's a confidence you can't you cannot a stick. There was a confidence to it. Yeah, there's a confidence. You cannot enter Manhattan and not have confidence.

You just have to let... He was lipping with the taxi drivers. Yeah. He was lipping with the taxis. It was crazy. I think there's a misconception that taxi drivers are the good drivers. They're definitely the most frequent drivers. They definitely drive the most.

I would not say they're good drivers. I feel like that's a common replicate. Taxi drivers talk the most shit. You don't want to get in their way. You just don't want to get in their way. That is for sure. I've been hit by a taxi before. For real? It's tough. Is that the time you totaled the car? No, no, no. That's

totally separate. Was it a green one or a yellow one that you got hit by? Yellow, like a proper yellow cab. You don't see those as much these days. Some years some years ago this is maybe seven eight years ago actually uh conor mcgregor asks um what if bmf fights sorry can can you run that back this is what he this is what he wrote um or maybe it's conor mcgregor tweet replier is his name what a problem yeah yeah what if bmf fights did not risk rankings slash contenderships and were billed as just badass matchups for the sake of great fights here's the problem with bmf now it's like people are treating it too much like real titles and

kamaru usman on his great podcast i'm a big fan of it the one that he does with uh henry suhudo um he he threw out this this theory if you will that the bmf title was created because of him and i saw initially people saying like what what the hell are you talking about and initially when i saw the headline i thought the same but then when you actually listen to what he says there is a case to be made because at the time he was the king of the welterweights and the people who were fighting for the bmf title weren't in title contention just yet and so if you can't be a champion there you could create your own belt and this has been the issue that i've always had with the bmf title if i'm isaam khachev and and and you are touting max holloway is the baddest motherfucker on the planet i'm like yo this is my weight class you want to fight in i'm the baddest guy on the planet i'm like yo this is my weight class you want to fight in i'm the baddest guy on the planet i'm the baddest mfr at 155 that's what the belt should

should recognize like that's what it should be establishing who is the baddest guy on the planet who is the baddest mfr not some like secondary division within the division and so now you have a situation where the guy got knocked out and then it's like, oh yeah, but no, he's still the BMF champ. Like it should have ended with the Masvidal fight in MSG. Yes. That the Genesis of it though, is not the champion, right?

It is Nate Diaz being like, yeah, you can have your championship. I'm actually the guy. But once they started from there, then having some kind of like, is it on the line? The lineage to It just became so

complicated. It's a mess. It was you with the bell right behind you. Get that out of him. You look trash. It was so amazing the way he beats Anthony Pettis. He's like, yeah, and with this title now, I want to defend it against Masvidal.

I was like, oh, that's brilliant. Then they created it, and they made a whole thing with it and they corporatized it and then and then they made it got out of his hands it was yeah but even the one okay it was fine but then they the rock and they need it for salt lake city what are we doing here and then it's a mess it's a mess just retire it end it uh elijah dream our friend, one of our best. Love Olajuwon Dream. Shout out to him. He said the weekly members-only quiz was a trick question.

It wasn't. GSP is the shortest reigning UFC champion ever at 33 days for his middleweight reign. There is a membership quiz that Antoine is doing. So if you're a member right now, you have access to these things. We're doing a lot of things for our members. The knows-it-alls, the Heel Wannabes, and give it to me, give it to me, give it to me.

There's one more. The Hell Wannabe Nation or the Heel Wani Nation. You guys, yeah, the Heel Wanis. Yes, thank you, Jordan. Thank the heel wanting nation. You guys. Yeah. The heel wanties. Yes. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, there they are. Yes. The hell wannabes, the heel wanties and the nose at all. Yeah. Shout out. Uh, Chris Baki.

Love the show. After this weekend's card opening fight. What's the biggest robbery the crew has seen? Easy. Uh, Patty Gordon. No. That's mine. Not even close. Patty Gordon? No. Hell no. That's mine.

Not even close. Pearson versus Sanchez. Diego Sanchez. The worst possible robbery of all time. I can't think of worse in any facet. I think it was that bad. A travesty. That Renat one was bad too.

I don't know if it was the worst ever, but that one on Saturday was bad. I scored a 30-27, Lyle. When I heard 30-27, I was like, that has to be Carlos Leal. Patty Gordon's up there. Sanchez should go in the Hall of Fame because it was so bad. Where was that fight? I have no idea.

Is Patty Gordon up there? No. No. Wow, really? Remember Maldonado and Fedor? Maldonado and Fedor was really bad. There was another Sanchez. Was it the Pereira?

Oh, no. That was the DQ one. Baz Rooten on Kevin Rondleman. The off-the-back elbows thing. Remember that? That's a throwback one. Look at you. I remember there was a bad Nick Lentz one.

Was it like Andre Winner or something? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But for me, Pearson and Sanchez is like... Is the worst, yeah. You put it on a tombstone. Sanchez-Katman was a bad one, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But for me, Pearson and Sanchez is like... Is the worst, yeah. You put it on a tombstone. Sanchez-Katman was a bad one, too. Oh, yeah.

Remember that? Oh, wow. Damn, Diego's been on the... Diego's been in some weird ones. Perhaps the worst one of all time, Michael Bisping-Matt Hamill? No. What? Not the worst one.

Not the worst one ever. No. It was bad. Serious. It was bad, but no. You can make an argument. You can make an argument. I encourage you, if you, like, it's been a minute, if you look at Pearson Sanchez,

you're going to be, like, shocked that that was real, what happened in that one. Leonard Garcia Nam Phan. Oh, yeah. Remember that? That actually was a pretty... And perhaps the worst one with the highest stakes attached, the Otomachita Shogun who won.

Remember that? I think it's the highest stakes. Somebody will say, many people will say Dominic Reyes versus John Jones. Because that could have changed the course of history. We're not talking about John Jones and Stipe. It's crazy what could have happened. And think about what happened to dominic reyes after that the the the fall the decline yeah like that one might have been the most impactful now they were kind of close i wouldn't say like quote-unquote robbery but in terms of like which one went the wrong way that would have had the biggest impact that one's

got to be up there leonard garcia chan sung jung yeah one? I do, that was a bad one Leonard, Leonard was winging him That was the thing back then Randy Couture, Brandon Vera UFC 105 in London, remember that? Yeah, wow this is What a walk down memory lane this is There was a lot of dirty boxing

If I can remember It was just up against the fence for the whole thing I think that was a failure to referee more so than the actual fight, because he just let Randy stall out Vera against the fence for so long. Pearson Sanchez, though. I agree with you.

Do you put Pendrid Spencer up there? Oh, man. Pendrid fucking won the fight. You're drunk on Joe Rogan's commentary that night. It was absolutely ridiculous. Pendrid dominated won the fight. You're drunk on Joe Rogan's commentary that night. It was absolutely ridiculous. Pendrid dominated the fucking whole fight.

What about GSP Johnny Hendricks? That's up there. Oh, that's up there with the Jones. That's up there with the Jones. Is it crazy that I'm just pulling these out of my back pocket? You're reading them off. You're off of Google, right? Wow.

That is crazy. I freaking was front row for all these fights. Sure, for sure, man. I think I had that laptop right in front of you. Wow. Mr. Google. Wow. What about, what about, what about?

I'll get you an internship down the road at the Google. Nick Ring against Ricky Fukuda? Ah, fuck off. All right, stop it. Now stop it. What? Your video's one of the biggest upsets. Stop it.

Stop it. Oh, my God. What website are you on? I want to read that. Do you remember? Where are you pulling this? What website? I'll read it. No, my God. What website are you on? I want to read it. Where are you pulling this? What website? I'll read it.

Nothing. How about boxing? Nick Ring and Ricky Fukuda, get out of here. Diego Sanchez, Takanori Gomi? Dude, why is Diego Sanchez in every single one of these? It's true. You know where it caused a lot of uproar among my group of friends was Nick Diaz v. Carlos Conley.

I was just going to say. Remember the 125nery. I was just going to say, I was literally just going to say UFC 143. I was there. I was about to say something bad that was going to get me in trouble, so I'm glad I didn't. KJ Nunes, Ryan Couture. All right, stop.

There's no way. There's no chance. Next question. No comment. You're pulling these. Frank, can I add two to the rotation? Drop rotation. Oh, God.

Which one? Can we add Boots Ennis' no comment? No, come on. That was good. And can we add the, what the fuck is going on, bro? Oh, the Connor. Henry Cejudo breakdown. This guy's a going on, bro? Oh, the Conner. The Henry Cejudo breakdown. This guy's a fucking genius, yeah?

I mean, if you're going to do that one, you might as well get the genius one, too. What about Nate Marquardt, Talis Ladies? Stop. What's the next one? You're just pulling ones that you don't even know if they were even close. I legit remember all these fights.

Stop it. Shooter McGavin asks Ariel if there's any more one-FC fighters or one-champion fighters who are having contractual issues and could be signed by UFC. these fights. Stop it. Shooter McGavin asks Ariel if there's any more one FC fighters or one championship fighters who are having contractual issues and could be signed by UFC.

I mean I was looking at Kate Ritola I was like man this dude would be a freaking superstar in the UFC. What about Roberto Soldich?

What about that one right? I mean this guy was a One who got away. Jeez Louise. What happened to him? Where is he? Training with

Alexander Rackett. He's training with Rackett, yeah. That's about all we know. Yeah. I mean, there's not that many guys on their roster right now that I think the UFC would be banging the drum to get, right? I mean, Cade would. And even somebody like a Cade, it's almost better if he gets seasoning somewhere else. Oh, 100%. I know we...

Everything is like, they have to have every prospect now. It's like, they're on contenders. Like, I don't know. I don't think it's almost better if he gets seasoning somewhere else. I know we everything is like they have to have every prospect now. It's like they're on contenders. I don't know. I don't think it's a bad thing that Cade is like getting reps somewhere before. Oh, 100%. No, this is perfect. This is perfect. When's Darth Rigaton coming over to him? Yeah, I would love that. I mean, those two guys are great. Those two guys have single-handedly. Those

two guys and Craig Jones have single-handedly. I was going to say Craig. Craig and that combo. I mean, Gordon Ryan kept it afloat for a while, for a long time, but I definitely feel like the generation younger is taking the baton now. Guys, we're rounding third here, but currently as we speak, there's a media day going on in

Edmonton for the event this weekend, under the radar card. Under the radar card, and the boys will be talking about it, and so will Pete Seed throughout the week uh every day one o'clock on the youtube channel they're doing media day right now and i keep seeing these tweets on the timeline so i asked on air jordan to uh to fire up the clip for us i have not seen the clip and so i don't know if derrick lewis is being serious when he's uh throwing slander dc's

way or not i do not know because you read it, you don't know if it's with a smile, you don't know if there's, you know, any sort of comedy behind it. So apparently, Derek Liu is very upset at DC and says he wants to beat him up and says some bad words about him. And so let's all watch together for the first time and decipher whether or not the Black Beast is being serious. I'm proud of DC, man, because I'm still not sitting right with me, man. I don't know, man. Black Beast is being serious. in his face, man. That guy a piece of shit. What? He's a piece of shit. He's a scumbag, man. For real?

At DC. Do you want to elaborate on that a little bit more? He know why. DC knows why? Yeah, DC know why. And everyone know why, too. He disrespects

that Popeye's chick. But other than that, he's a piece of shit. All right. Okay, so is he being serious? I can't tell. Oh, that's tough. I mean, DC

disrespected the Popeyes. He brings the Popeyes, which makes me think maybe there's some... That's what I'm saying. But I don't think he's joking. No, he's joking. It's the Popeyes chicken. Come on. Piece of shit, man.

It's Derek Lewis. Yeah, did Derek Lewis... People throw around piece of shit now like it's an erd or something. I'm not saying it's a piece of shit. PT, you agree with me? Yeah, Frank, you're fucking piece of shit. Scumbag. Scumbag is the only one that like... Them's fighting words. Scumbag, you agree with me? Scumbag is the only one

that stems from Scumbag. You think if DC heard that and saw Derek Lewis, he's going to fight? No way. I don't think DC's going to fight. DC's going to shoot for a takedown. I'm just not talking about that.

Is he angry? Is Derek angry? Nah, man. I don't think Derek gets angry. My vote is yes. It's the Popeye's chicken, man. Of mixed feelings. The Popeye's line, that knocked me back into he's being friendly, but the scumbag

piece of shit. I told him to his face. What do you think DC could have done to him that made him feel that? Maybe he didn't like commentary. Maybe he didn't. I don't know. But he says he knows what he did. He knows what he did, and then it's the Popeye's line.

That, to me. No, he says other than that, he's still a, I don't know. I'm surprised by this. I told him to his face. I told all of you the Popeye's thing. It was like a. I don't know. Is DC on the call for Edmonton?

Is he going to see him in the commentary thing? I don't know. I sometimes I see these articles like Joe Rogan calling UFC 3. Of course, Joe Rogan. Why is this a news article? This is a tweet. This is a tweet, but I guess it does well.

You remember, Rick, you were there. Remember when early days of ESPN, it was right after Conor Habib, so it was October of 2018. Remember we were in the shitty ESPN studio before we had to move to Bristol and DC called me and told me that they offered him

Derek Lewis for MSG in three weeks. Do you remember that? I do. And his back was fucked up. Yeah, oh yeah. His back was fucked up. And got it done. And I mean, he got Derek Lewis a huge payday.

I don't think there's a real beef. I think there is. I mean, based on that, I feel like there is. He knows what he did. It's the Popeyes. Yeah, I don't think there's anything there. All right. Don't disrespect Popeyes around Derek Lewis.

DC knows better. Come on. Top of the show, I shouted out Chuck Mendenhall's great story on the Rumble in the Jungle 50-year anniversary today, October 30th 1974 some breaking news for all of you the most controversial rankings in combat sports today have just dropped our second pro wrestling

pound for pound rankings I saw this come through the wire right now Penn Shamrock at it again and I've actually not had a chance to digest these yet I saw this come through the wire right now. Pence Shamrock at it again. And I've actually not had a chance to digest these yet. So I want to do it with all of you as well. Yes, here it is. Cody Rhodes now number one.

I say now he was number one the first time around. Gunther has moved up a spot. He's now number two. Jon Moxley down a spot, number three. Dominic Mysterio up seven spots to number four. Solo Sokoa up four to number two. Jon Moxley down a spot, number three. Dominic Mysterio up seven spots to number four. Solo Sokoa up four to number five. Braun Breaker up five to number six. Roman Reigns sitting at seven, the only one with no movement in addition to Cody Rhodes. LA Knight down three at number eight. Shelton Benjamin, no it is not 2001, up 2 spots. He's enjoying a renaissance at AEW and speaking of AEW, Ricochet up 1

to number 10. Now you gotta look at the fine print. Go to uncrowned.com and understand where we're coming from. It's who's hot right now as far as the pound for pound pro wrestling rankings. Never been done before and I'm sure I'm gonna get a lot of very nuanced and intelligent takes

and they all blame me for this, and I have nothing to do with it. You're not voting on this one either? No, nothing to do with it. Penn's cooking. Now, he also has the... Penn is doing this solo, so it's Penn's rankings.

These are his rankings, yes, on behalf of all of us. Man, I can't believe that Roman Reigns is only seven. It's because of what he's doing right now. I know. I'm not saying... Listen, I'm bowing.

I'm bowing to Penn Shamrock. I will not pretend that I know him. I love this. It's a great idea. Whoever came up with it, it's fantastic. What about the women's rankings? Who did come up with it? Was it you, Ariel? I would never say so. It was you.

No movement in the top three. Stop chatting shit. Wow, Mercedes Monet stays at three? Yeah, Nia Jax at two. Bianca Belair up two spots. Jade Cargill up two spots. Maria May down one.

Rhea Ripley down three. Oh, my God. Anna Jay up three. Naomi and Io Skye. Io Skye, wow, low. She might be the best one of the bunch. But there you have it. There you have it, guys.

Any reaction to this? Yeah. There was a lot of activity back there. Wow. Yeah, not enough time left on the show to break these ones down. Just wait for me to retweet it, and I'm sure a whole

bunch of people will be... I gotta get on my burner and blast you all the time. Does Penn Shamrock have a Penn Shamrock handle? I'm telling you, man. People throw a piece of shit around nowadays. It's like dork or nerd. Everyone throws a piece of shit. Ariel, can you just ask DC?

I need to know. Yeah, he's just like, that's my buddy, man. That's my pal. He has a fucking piece of shit. You want me to call DC right now? I want you to just find out. Do it. Because now you've suggested this, and now I can't stop thinking about it. Yeah, maybe just shoot him a text or something. I'm going to call him. I'm going to ask him. I'm going to call. You want it to call DC right now? I want you to just find out. Do it. Because now you've suggested this, and now I can't stop thinking about it.

Yeah, maybe just shoot him a text or something. I'm going to call him. I'm going to ask him. All right. Call. You want it on the air? Do you think that's tough? That's tough.

It's tough. I don't know if that one was live or not. I don't know. Are you texting or calling? Talk is true here, will you? We are talking. Oh, wow, look at this. Textcam.

Yeah, the textcam. I love it. Can we zoom in there on the screen? He's not giving us a lot. By the way, that angle, you can see my phone almost no not even remotely true okay literally now the window reflection of your phone not even look at the color on that window right now yo yo dc uh we're live on the air don't say anything that will

get either of us in trouble but we're talking about you right now okay so so i'm doing the show and by the way this is i guess your official debut on my new show thank you so much for doing this it really means a lot did you get the video I sent you? Oh, yeah. Actually, I sent the text to everyone thanking them. You wrote me back two weeks later. NBD. We don't have to deal with this now. What's up, Doug? DC,

we're about to wrap up the show, and all of a sudden I'm on Twitter, and I see this clip of Derek Lewis talking about you. Have you seen this clip? No, I haven't. I can't decide if he's mad at you or not. And I don't mean to put you on the spot here, but he's saying all these things and we weren't sure if it's a joke

or if it's a shoot. Is he working or is he... I don't know, because I haven't seen him for a while, but I was pretty hard on him about retiring because he had lost a couple fights and I was kind of telling the truth and he seemed mad at me,

but I haven't seen him. But I'm going to see him this weekend and I'm going to kind of ask him of telling the truth and he seemed mad at me but i haven't seen him but i'm gonna see him this weekend and i'm gonna kind of ask him like yo are you mad at me can i can i can i tell you what he said yeah tell me he says you know what you did he he did he i i hate to be it's not my words you know i love you like a brother he called you a piece of shit and a scumbag but then he mentioned the popeyes chicken thing and they were like oh is he joking but he's like but besides that he knows what he did like, oh, is he joking? But then he's like, but besides that, he knows what he did. And three of us think that he's joking. I think there's some truth there.

There's a little underlying maybe. It sounds like it might be a little underlying. He might be a little pissed at me, maybe. Because of the way I talked about him. I don't know what fight it was where he didn't look great. But then he knocked the last guy out and I was like, well, I'm glad he's back. i don't know it kind of my opinions go with their performances and i think maybe that what it is but in terms of anything else derek and i don't really have much

uh many many uh things that we do together outside of uh just the popeye thing and in our fight but it's like we can't be mad at each other we already fought it's settled I said that he should be forever grateful to you you gave him a shot three weeks notice Madison Square Garden world title fight his biggest payday he should be thanking you from now until eternity he's making big money now constantly

we put him in we kind of put him in an area and he's staying there and I'm happy for him I don't know what it is though I really don't staying there, and I'm happy for him. Okay. I don't know what it is, though. I really don't know what it is. I'm going to watch. I need to see his face.

I need to see if he's laughing. I need to see if he's joking. I need to see how he looks to see if he's really mad at me. But when I see him this weekend, I'll walk right up to him and go, hey, what's going on? Of course. You're going to do a sit-down for your YouTube channel with him? No, I'm not. Oh, why not? I'm not. Why not?

I'm not bringing any YouTube. Hey, the DC check-in is exclusive to pay-per-views. It's exclusive to pay-per-views and at the biggest moments with the biggest names. Wow. You earn your right to sit next to me on the DC check-in. Okay. That's how it goes. Wow.

I want to do a DC check-in with Ariel Hoan. Backstage? You know what I'm saying? You always have me on. Why can't you support my stuff? You've never asked me once. You've never asked me once.

This is crazy. You've literally never asked me once. I would run to Edmonton to be a part of this. I would love to do a DC check-in with Ariel Hawane. Wow, this is crazy. Okay, well, thank you. Thank you for this. By the way, not nice what you did to Ilya.

I mean, the guy's having the greatest moment of his life, and you have to rub it in. I love Ilya. Hey, Ilya's the man. Hey, Ilya's the man. Ilya's the man. But as he said, when we sat down, he goes, I know you're great friends with Max Holloway DC

I just watched my great friend get knocked out. I had to give him something I can't just let you know that he looked at me. He goes really I go. Oh, yeah, baby But he started laughing it was all the fun, you know, I like I like to have fun man Hey, but did you see my suit? Oh, you look fantastic. You look fantastic Steve Harvey go they said Steve Harvey going to be there. I told Mark Russell, my tailor, I said, give me something Steve Harvey would wear. Steve goes, DC, it look good, boy. That's a bad suit, boy.

Made my day, Ariel. You look fantastic. Made my day. You look fantastic. By the way, happy Mother-in-Law Day to you. It's a great time to celebrate for everyone. So yeah, no, please call your mother-in-law and let her know that you care about her and are thinking uh i miss you dc i love you thank you for doing this impromptu uh enjoy edmonton one of the great arenas in the world by the way i know you've been there a couple times

30 degrees 30 degrees is the temperature celsius celsius it's freezing there right freezing oh no 30 degrees 30 degrees Celsius is beautiful. It's like 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Wait, it's 90 degrees in Edmonton? 30 degrees. That was cold. Wait, wait, wait. Did you look at the wrong Edmonton weather?

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Look at the wrong weather. Look at the wrong weather. No, it's pretty cold. It's pretty cold. No, it is going to be. Oh, it's going to be negative one.

It's going to be negative two. See? Yeah. Yeah, you looked at the right. Oh, it's going to be negative one. It's going to be negative two. Yeah. Yeah. You looked at the right. Yeah, it's freezing. But guess what, though? Guess what? Really quick.

Yeah. Hey, I still can wear one of my golf jackets. I still can wear one of my golf jackets. What does that mean? That's how good my product is. So I don't even need to get overcoated. I've got a jacket that I wear on the golf course that I can wear in that cold weather. Wow.

Isn't that amazing? Is it your own? No, no. It's Anderson Orr, my greatest sponsor. Oh, they sponsor you. I'm sorry. Yes, they do. This dude is shameless.

This dude is shameless. Oh, my God. This guy is shameless. You're the man, Ariel. Much love. All right, bro. Safe travels. All right, bro.

I'll talk to you later, brother. Bye-bye. There he is, the great Daniel Cormier Alright well Something there Now we gotta call Derek Derek is a little hard to get these days I actually don't have his number Remember he kept changing it He would always change the number

At some point I got cut off You were in the loop on the number. And then I stopped, like, at some point I got cut off. Like, it was like. You were in the loop on the number changes to a certain level, and then it was like. If you go through his things, in my contacts, there's like nine Derek Lewises. I remember the last time he came on, he was just like, you said something about having him on again.

He's like, I'm getting ready to change the number. Yeah, and then that was it. I don't know if I'm going to make the cut. Yes, and that was it. I didn't make the cut. I don't know. I think there to make the cut Yes and that was it I didn't make the cut I don't know I think there's something there What do you guys think?

I think DC's going to see him He's going to shoot for the takedown And everything's going to be fine Yeah I think they'll be alright God I miss DC I mean Do you think we could get a

DC and Helwani revival here? I think what we have to do is DC checks in with Ariel Helwani Oh that'd be great Whatever next event we're in town for You're going to have to make it happen. Is that only the biggest of the biggest? Yeah, I guess it's only the pay-per-views, too.

So we're going to have to go to that show in the UK in March. Is that the one? I mean, we could go to the Intuit Dome. The Intuit Dome. You're talking, Petey. You are talking. Where's the Intuit Dome? Oh, that's January.

That's with the wall with Steve Ballmer. I've never been to LA. Where's the Intuit Dome? That, that's January That's with the wall With Steve Ballmer Where's the Intuit Dome? It's the stupidest name For an arena Shout out to Intuit, man QuickBooks TurboTax

Quicken Hunter's been on that a lot Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm about to start a finance show We're about to go to the Yahoo Finance Video real quick Okay Just a couple more here.

Nate Fodderbear, Ariel, new era, new you. Time to get the Josh Allen interview. Go Bills, squish the fish. Man, I'd love nothing more. Do you see him at the Yankees game yesterday with that beautiful salad? Do you see that on top of his head? Is it called a salad or lettuce?

Fuck, it's time to go. Yeah, why did I call it a salad? Is that salad on the salad? Beautiful salad. I thought he was actually eating a salad the way we were going. Did you see him with that beautiful salad? I was like go. Yeah. Why did I call it a salad? Is that salad on the salad? Beautiful salad. I thought he was actually eating a salad the way we're going. Did you see him with that beautiful salad? I was like, all right. Fuck.

I thought someone was going to say something like, why are you thinking about? No, don't do it. Are you all right, man? I'm not. You're thinking about what? You know what I'm going to say, PT? I know what you're going to say. That's what's over my head say PT Jordan Hey Ariel do you think you'll have Colby

Back on the show missed your interviews together They were always so fun Perhaps after my revelation Last week we'll be friends again What do you guys think I mean the chances might be higher Yeah What is it

YMCA I mean, the chances might be higher. Yeah. What is it? Y-M-C-A. You know, you represent all of us when you're in there, right? It's becoming a problem. What time does our... The birds are going crazy. What time does our election watch party start? Wednesday is the election tonight. Why don't we just...

No, Pete, but I was just thinking, why don't we start now and just go 24 hours Until we hit it Wednesday in October Election night in America When is election night? November 5th Next Tuesday Oh wow

Literally in six days They keep making announcements on the train The trains will run on a different schedule Did you tell them your friend Ariel's not voting? That's what I said yeah This guy begged to be a citizen I need to have my say And then in first time up

He said thanks but no thanks It's the American way Chino wants to know if GC got Netflix And the new pad yet No not yet Gotta get that installed, get the technician out there. To get Netflix?

What are we talking about? Working on it. Working through the kinks. Thumbs up to the chat, by the way. Thumbs up to the chat. Matthew wants to know, there was a great moment of banter about a year ago when you bought an espresso machine

but didn't have the skills to make a quality brew. Have you since figured it out? Have I? Have I since figured it out? Have I? Have I since figured it out? There are people who ring my doorbell in the neighborhood for a cup of my coffee. It's that renowned. Did you get the vacuum canister? Oh, do I have a vacuum canister?

I figured it all out. I've got it all. I've got multiple. I'm from Guatemala. I'm from Costa Rica. I'm from Brazil. What's your favorite? Depends on my mood you know no no you have a little stamper for the espresso you call it pulling a shot oh that thing where you go like this yeah no no i just put it in and it does it

for me wow i could see an automatic car as well too right i'm learning now that frank's default is like just kind of grill yeah what about this well what about this what about this you know me for years and you're peppering he's just peppering so frank is number one mechanic and number one barista we've discovered do you do you have one of those frank absolutely wow i'm sure because i need to upgrade my coffee situation in the gaff you do drink coffee, PT. Yeah, I have to watch all that American football. Hate tea. Hate tea? Hate tea, yeah.

Peppermint? Peppermint tea. See, Elaine's family are like the tea drinking family. You go to their house, you're there for 17 hours, you have 87 cups of tea. I just can't do it, you know? Did you not give me a warm Guinness and say, this tea will wake you right up, Frank?

That's a different kind of tea. A warm Guinness? A different thing altogether. A warm Guinness and say this tea will wake you right up, Frank. That's a different kind of tea. A warm Guinness? I'll take it whatever way it calls, GC. You know what I'm saying? A little bit of Yorkshire Gold? That's what I'd go with. What's Yorkshire Gold? Wow. Last one. Hello, hello.

Hello, hello. I'm loving the new lineup of shows. It has an Ariel 100 and an Ariel 101 vibe. Do you guys get the reference? No. I don't. Any chance we'll see an intern on the show? Are those the Stern channels?

Yeah. Hello, Hello is a Stern reference. Superfan Roundtable, wrap-up show, bye for now. We're working on an intern, right? No. Not yet. I've heard rumblings of an intern. Yeah. No.

No, no, not true. We're working on it. We're working on it. Every time it was raised, it was a... Nah, probably not. Who would we nominate for a superfan roundtable? Olajuwon Dream. OSI. OC?

Do you mean? Yeah, I guess so. He's so used to KSI, he's thinking it's... Olajuwon Dream. Aaron of... Lewis. I mean... He's so used to KSI, he's thinking it's... Olajuwon Dream. Aaron. Aaron. Lewis. Moderator Lewis.

Moderator Lewis. Alex Weber. This guy I keep seeing. Alex Weber. Andrew Feldman. Andrew Feldman. Jedi Goodman. Do we get Jedi Goodman?

No. What about Billy Bologna, who I just became acquainted with? Yes. Shut up, Bill Steinmetz, the legend. Oh, Steinmetz, yes. Salt of the Earth. Jedi Goodman. No. What about Billy Bologna who I just became acquainted with? Yes. Shout out Bill Steinmetz, the legend. Oh, Steinmetz, yes. Salt of the Earth.

I don't know if he would do it. He's a little bit shy in terms of that part, but he's such a... Oh, yeah. I got to hang on my... My most desired

interview of 2025 is a three-person interview with myself, moderating, Jedi Goodman, and Kaposa. The internet, like internet unmasked, basically. Yes, yes. MMA Twitter unmasked.

Good luck with that. I mean, I'd watch the hell out of it. Kaposa's never shown his face though, right? No, we don't know who he looks like. I think Rick's met him, no? I have not. I've tried many times, not from like the curiosity standpoint,

more just like I worked in kickboxing and he was a huge kickboxing fan and it was a great era for it, but we never could make it happen. But I have no idea what he looks like. Man, I missed your message. You sent me a zinger to ask DC about Buckley. Man, I missed that. Damn. Shout out to A, who gifted us 50 more memberships.

Wow. Hey. He's now giving out 250. Santa. Santa over here. Wow. And maybe even 300, because he just did another 50. And Jason Carney gifted memberships, too.

I mean, what a community we have here, guys, right? The best. What a community. What time of your life. I got to get ready for my trick-or-treating i gotta get my candy bars ready tomorrow no i gotta get them all i like to line them up there is no chance that you're doing any of this i guarantee jacklyn is you want to bet do you i want to see the video i'm going to send you a picture of my the front of my house who did it though how we and claire we did it all

so clearly skeptical but I'll say I believe you. I'm actually a lot more festive than you think. I bet my house on you not doing that. I bet my own house on that. I even bought all the candy. I believe that. I don't believe that you decorated your house.

Who brought the candy to the house? The delivery guy? The Instacart guy? No, no. That's not important. We like to use Fresh Direct. Fresh Direct, yeah. Sneaking some Halloween candy this week, thanks. Oh yeah, we got a couple of Reese's. We got a couple of Snickers.

This is a good segue preview tomorrow. Pound for pound rankings for tomorrow on Boys in the Back. Halloween candy. Wow. It it's gonna get hot it was way it was way more difficult than i expected how many 10 or 5 5 i could have gone 10 deep easy why not 10 it feels like a lot on a graphic and by the way you say you could have gone 10 deep the show is in 24 hours what's stopping you from i want 10 want 10. I think five. I think five's a cop out.

We've already locked in on the five. Wait, you're a part of this too, Frank? Have you been watching Boys in the Back? You've just been judging. Five. Five? You missed a debacle last week. Yeah.

Tune in tomorrow. Candy lists. Pound for pound. Actually, when we did discuss how many we were going to do, I was just like, I think we should have the option to go 10. I could easily go 10 on Halloween candy. Can I make a request? Yes.

Can we get top five requests? Top five best and top five worst. We'll definitely get some worst. That's not bad. That's not bad. Because I think there's some interesting takes that can, I mean, the candy corn that I've been staring at. Yeah, let's just make all the new graphics and everything. That'll be fine.

No, just make a new one. Yeah, Frank, the graphics guy. Wow. It'll take 30 seconds. Frank, you just take care of that for me, man. Top five worst. Best and worst is just'll be fine. No, just make a new one. Yeah, Frank, the graphics guy. Wow. It'll take 30 seconds. Frank, you just take care of that for me, man. Top five worst. Best and worst is just changing one word. It all depends if we have the top five.

The bandwidth. There's a chance one of my top five best ends up on somebody else's. Oh, absolutely. That's what I mean. I think that's where it becomes very interesting. I think that's where it becomes very interesting. I think that's where it becomes very interesting because one man might have Bounty as number one

and the other man might have Bounty as... Who would have Bounty as number one? What the fuck is wrong with that person? You don't know about Bounty? We know Bounty. Bounty is disgusting. It's like an off-brand Almond Joy without the almond. You guys don't know Bounty?

Almond Joy is disgusting on its own. The coconut, disgusting. Yes, Petey, thank you, my brother. Shampoo or conditioner? Mounds and Almond Joy can disgusting on its own. Yes, Petey, thank you, my brother. Shampoo or conditioner? Mounds and Almond Joy can die in a fire. Shampoo is better. I leave your hair silky and smooth. Is that what you were?

Is that what you were? Conditioner is better. Oh, really? Stop staring at me, Swan. Or stop looking at me, Swan. Gentlemen, it is time to go. I thought you said no other film. Billy Madison reference for the uninformed.

What did you know? 10,000 times, clearly. And no other film. Look at Connor. He's already checked out. I said it's time to go. He's completely out of frame. Oh, man.

I got work to do back here. He's like, his face is covered. Look, here's the official end of the show. This is it. Where is it? Say goodbye. See you,'s the official end of the show. This is it. Where is it? Say goodbye. See you, everyone. I'll be back tomorrow.

Keep going. Keep going. I'm trying. This is as low as we go. Yeah, back tomorrow. Boys in the Back, 1 o'clock. Yeah. Halloween edition.

Can't wait. Costume edition. It's like this is more anticipated than the Simpsons Halloween edition. I'm going to watch some Treehouse of Horror tonight. The weird thing is they are all accessible

to us and I never watch them. I don't know why. They don't hit the same. I love them. They don't hit the same when you're 42 as opposed to 12,

you know? When you're 31, they still hit. No comment. When's the last time we got a no comment on this show? It really bugged you.

I think he no commented to you twice. I think he did it to you twice. It was such a benign question too. No comment. When's the last time you got a no comment on the show? I really bugged you. I think he no commented you twice. I think he did it to you twice. It was such a benign question, too. No comment on what's the difference? I didn't even say... By the way, if I would have said who's better, then I could understand a no comment. Shampoo or conditioner?

Nah, you know, I say, okay, who's better? I say, who's better, Eddie or Al? Ah, no comment. I don't want to be a part of this. No comment. Let's keep it moving. I just said, what's better, Eddie or Al? No comment, I don't want to be a part of this. No comment, let's keep it moving. I just said, what's the difference? He only responded to you getting very aggressive about basketball.

That was the only real, yeah. It's like, I didn't say, like, what's the deal with Ovaltine, you know? It was like Mayweather changing his style as he fought McGregor, you know what I mean? Came out slick, then he turns into the Mexican. I had to switch hit him. Like my guy, Brad Crawford, you know what I mean? Came out slick, then he joins the New Mexicans. I had to switch hit him. Like my guy, Brud Crawford, you know? Brud.

What's that? No comment. Brud Crawford. Did I say Brud Crawford? I'm tired. Brud Crawford. I'm tired. Thank you to all our guests.

It's been a great day. It's been a great show. It's been a great three shows. Tomorrow, boys in the back, same time and place until then we say peace