The Ariel Helwani Show - Mick Foley, Scott Coker in studio, O’Shaquie Foster, Omari Jones, Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje trade shots, news & notes, more

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

Ariel Helwani starts the show by covering some news and notes (TIME). Mick Foley joins the show, discussing his decision to cut ties with WWE due to associations with President Trump, his decision to sign with AEW, his relationship with Tony Khan and role for the promotion, how the AEW product compares to WWE’s offering, being a mentor for up-and-coming talent, whether he has any career regrets, his love of boxing, and more (17:01). Scott Coker is in-studio to talk about his return to the MMA industry, the end of Bellator and why he didn’t end up with PFL, how long this league was in the works, plans for tournaments and broadcast partners, the state of the sport and potential UFC competitors, Dana White’s promotional tactics, funding for the new promotion, and more (1:04:38). Olympic bronze medalist and big-time boxing prospect Omari Jones makes his show debut, talking about his pro success, finding himself in the middle of Xander Zayas and ‘Boots’ Ennis drama, getting his start in karate before moving to boxing, being around the likes of LeBron James and Steph Curry during his time at the Olympics, Jake Paul training at the Olympic training center, and more (2:04:17). WBC super featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster is our final guest of the day, recapping his win over Ray Ford, then discussing his heated exchange with Shakur Stevenson after the fight, the viral moment where Foster threw Ford through the ropes, whether he believes the fight with Stevenson will be made, stories from their training sessions, overcoming difficult circumstances early in his life, and more (2:36:15). Ariel brings in the Boys in the Back and Petesy Carroll to cover some news and notes, including escalating trash talk between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, Georges St-Pierre revealing his demands at the time for an Anderson Silva fight, Alex Pereira appearing in the new A24 film, and more (2:58:41). The show closes with your Super Chats (3:22:02).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Air... June 2nd,000, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a lovely, lovely Tuesday in New York City. June in New York City is heavenly. June in New York City, when the New York Knicks are a little over 24 hours away from playing in game one of the NBA finals, is Nirvana. It is unbelievable being in this city I did not live here in 1999

I certainly did not live here in 1994 And so this is everything Young Ariaa has always dreamed of Driving into the city today Wow Could you imagine what it could be like What it could be like in about two weeks time And I saw that stupid dog

On Twitter Is that guy, is that dog Like is that a Yahoo thing that dog Because I see the Yahoo account posting him Air Corgi You guys see this dog? Corgi Corgi

nervous like they dropped the trailer yesterday like air corgi's going to make her pick and I was actually nervous and reminded myself to check out what the pick was at 10 a.m. this morning. Did you guys hear about this? Okay, but here's the thing. Oh, hi. Hi. Rick is filling in for Mr. Jordan today. Here's the thing. Yes. It's been right on the spurs. Yes. But wrong on the Knicks. Oh. So now we've got the impasse because obviously we know how the result went, but it's been wrong on the and right on the spurs. Okay, so what? The doggie was going, what, they were picking like the calves or the hawks? Yeah, fuck that dog. That's what I say. But I will say for a moment,

I was like, ah, I wanted the confirmation, right? I wanted the confirmation. I think they picked the Mavericks to beat the Celtics a couple years ago. I saw that, so I was like, you know what? Screw that dog. Charles Barkley did pick us, and I'm very excited about that.

Most of the ESPNers did not. Anyway, all to say, I cannot wait. We're a little over 24 hours away. And I feel, like I said this yesterday, right? I said it yesterday. I'm going to be off. Like, my mind is going to trail into different places, especially, I mean, if it goes, well, if it goes to, like, who knows, who knows?

And so yesterday I was wondering if I was off when talking to Ben Ascran about our tweet exchange from way back in the day. Like, what are we talking? 13, 14 years where I banned him from the show and then he challenged me to a fight. And then he said, no, I really didn't challenge you to a fight. Look it up, find it. Well, we have found the tweets. And so here is...

Okay, here are the tweets. This is this the first one that we have? This is the first one? Yeah, this is the first one. This is you inviting him. Yeah, but it's because he said something. No, no, no, no. You invite him, then it gets into it.

Okay, so I invite him to come to the show. And by the way, look at that date. April 10th, 2012. My oldest son wasn't even born yet. 20 days later would be born. He's 14. Golly, we've been doing this long time. All right, here we go.

Here's the reply. Oh, didn't even reply. April 11th. Ben Ascgren never responded to my invitation. You never invited me and you never answered my question. He writes, okay, okay, okay. Then Johnny Fat Sacks says, um, yes, he did. And there it is.

It continues. Yes, I did. Yesterday. My friend here just resented to you. Now, truth be told, I don't know Johnny Fat Sacks personally. but I consider all my Twitter followers to be friends. Well, I invite you to go in the cage with me. When you do that, I will do your show.

Otherwise, kiss my ass. There it is. April 11th. Now I sent this to Ben and he's like, look, this is exactly what I said. I've been proven right. I'm like, I don't know if that's exactly what you said. Nevertheless, to think that we were once in that spot and then went to the point seven years later

to where he's on the show the Monday after. the Mazvedal knockout, then to the point where we're talking yesterday about the big comeback that everyone's freaking out about as they should, because it's one of the most amazing things if he actually pulls this off, it's a reminder that we can all come together. We can all bury the hatchet. We should never hold on to grudges. He, look, you may not agree with a lot of things that Ben says or does, but he does live by one code that he's actually been living by long before the sickness and the health issues that he had to overcome hit him about exactly a year ago. And that is don't hold on to grudges. Even when Mazvedal knocked him out, like he didn't

hold on to that grudge. And I think that that's one of the best pieces of advice that you can offer someone. Grudges are like a cancer. They fester inside. It feels so much better to be like, you know what, I was wrong, you were wrong, I was right, you were right, let's bury the hatchet, shake. We don't have to be best friends. You have to be friends at all. but to just not have that growing inside of you. And so it's very important to note that I was right about the interaction, but also to note that he was right about not holding on to the grudge. And now here we are, and he's about to compete.

I was going to say fight, but he's about to compete in a little over a month, July 18. And what a time. You know, I keep focusing about the Knicks. But what a time. We got the White House card coming up in 12 days. The return of the Mac. You've got the return of AJ, July 25th. And I'm so excited.

And I saw the media that he did. yesterday, and it's just so great to see him in such great spirits. You've got the return of Ben Ascran, so many returns, so many things to be excited about it. And almost every single week, there's a big event. And so we have a lot to be thankful for. Today's program is going to be a great one. Back into the show, Oshaki Foster, who we spoke to you about yesterday, he had the big win over Raymond Ford. He threw him out of the ring. He had the back and forth with Shakur Stevenson. This young man, WBC Featherway champion, incredible backstory. His life story is straight out of a movie. He'll be joining us. We'll talk to him at about 340. At about 315,

we're going to be joined by Omari Jones, a 2024 Olympian, a young man that a lot of people are very excited about, undefeated, the pride of Orlando. He had a win on that card as well, and so we'll talk to him about that, have been wanting to talk to him for quite some time. He's got the coolest fight gear in the game. He reps Orlando, often wears Orlando Magic Gear, this time not, but very cool sense of style, and I think a young man that we'll be hearing about for quite some time.

Prior to that, we are going to be joined in studio by the great Scott Coker, of course, the founder of Strike Force, and then at one time the president and CEO of Bellatorre. And now it has been recently announced that he is getting back

into the fight game, getting back into MMA, he's bringing some familiar faces with him, who was announced earlier today that his old friend, Rich Chow, is joining the team. Kevin Kay is his chief content officer, former president of Spicer,

of Spike TV. There's a lot to be excited about our old friend, C.J. Tuttle, the best PR guy in the business. They've signed him away from the PFL, which I think is their most, in my opinion, their best signing, their most significant signing. CJ's amazing. Chris de Blasio is a part of the team. If you're in the business of MMA and certainly in the MMA media business, you know who these names are. And so Scott is going to be joining us in studio at 2 o'clock to talk about all his plans. I'm very, very excited about that. I'm looking forward to it very much. And I have some dare I say hard questions for him and I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say about it

and then at 1.15 at 1.15 in about 8 minutes time my friends the hardcore legend himself oh my god the incomparable McFolly do do do do do do do do do do do do obviously he can't come out to that music anymore because he's now part of AEW he debuted a couple weekends ago

double or nothing flushing, Louis Armstrong Stadium. One of my favorite entertainers, wrestlers, athletes of all time. His first book, Have a Nice Day. Unbelievable. His appearances in the Beyond the Matt documentary, unbelievable, inspirational,

his career storybook, McFoly. McFoley on the program for, I think, just the second time. There was once a time when I was at Syracuse University, there was once a time where I thought like if I could get an interview with Mick Foley, this is 01 to 04, if I could get an interview with Mick Foley, I would have made it in my mind. That was the mountaintop for me. I just, I loved his backstory, Colgate University, the backyard wrestling, the trials and tribulations, how inspirational he was, how he didn't take no for an answer, all the ups and downs. I love the guy.

And now he's a part of AEW and I'm very excited to have him on the program. So there's your lineup for today's show a little. something for everyone, as they say. We don't just cover one thing over here. We cover it all. We cover it all. By the way, how about intern Josh yesterday? Biggest baby face in the game, really wowing everyone with his wrestling knowledge. And we are so happy to have them part of the team.

And everyone weighing in on our take on the AAA Mascara versus Mascada match. And a lot of people weighing in and letting us know that it all came down to the fact that Ludwig Kaiser embraced Mexican culture, learned how to start. learned how to speak. I want to ask Andy about this. They said he learned how to speak Spanish like a Mexican. He uses certain terms and a certain, like an accent that he really embraced their culture. Is that a real thing?

Yeah, of course. Like, we all have our own slang. We all have our own idioms. You know, it makes sense. So they say, like, the way he embraced the culture, the way he learned about the culture, the way he learned how to speak like a Mexican, not just like generic Spanish. that you would learn in a class or do a lingo or something like that really made him, you know, like one of their own. And that's one of the main reasons why they admired him so much and fell in love with him so much.

And I don't know if a lot of people honestly knew that about him, that he knew how to speak like that. I was actually going to ask you yesterday because I noticed in the video that we played of him walking out, he's singing that Gantino Jode's song, which is huge. Like I was, that's what got me. I was like, damn, he went for this song. incredible. Like, this is so nice. He was singing. You can tell that he was singing. So I was wondering. And then Josh, Josh replied. Yeah, so good, so good. I saw a video that he did where he's like talking about his favorite things and it's all Mexican related. Favorite food. He says like Tostatas, favorite football team. He says Club America. He just like says all the things, all the right things. So it's a wonderful thing. Very curious. And Chad Gable deserves all the flowers in the world as well. We are getting very close to Ilya to Jolie Teporia versus Justin Gaci. I saw this video yesterday of Justin Gachie's dad. essentially saying that his son is going to win,

and you know what, there's nothing wrong with that. Every dad should be backing his son. Here's what Mr. Gachi had to say about the fight coming up on the White House lawn on the 14th of June. He didn't come up here to a place to where it was just a bunch of people. He came up here to a family, and that's what Onyx is. That whole group that's there is just one big old family, and it just keeps growing and growing, getting bigger and bigger and funner and funer.

This is the biggest fight of his life, but, I mean, we've said that three or four other times, so he's fighting another little short. short guy and he's done really well against Chandler and there's even a few of the others and I just see the same thing happening for this fight. I mean, this is what we trained for. This is what he put his whole life into since he's four years old and I'm excited and ready for it to happen. Yep. Yep. Another little short guy might have struck a chord. I don't know. But anyway, Mr. Ilya did in fact see that clip and responded to the clip on Twitter. Father's Hope, Champions know. I've heard this

story before, bigger men, stronger men, better men, men who said I was just a small guy who was about to get a lesson in humility. They all learned the truth the same way. Your son already knows who I am on June 14th. You will two. 18 and no, Papa with the red rose, not a white rose. I don't think they have the white rose as far as the emojis are concerned. But there's something very cerebral about his tweets. He's pretty damn good at the tweets. He is preparing, as he usually does, with the best of technology.

He's surrounding himself with the best. He always goes the extra mile, it seems, Ilya. He is cerebral when it comes to his training as well. And I saw this clip of how he's preparing for Justin Gaichi. Take a look at this. Fascinating stuff from Amelia. This is a neurostimulation with infrared light for several things to improve focus, for mental recovery, to improve sleep.

These secrets, they don't do this. The focus this gives before training is like not even 100 coffees. The effects of this kind of super focus, it really does look very strange, but it is so good. You have to pay a price for a good thing sometimes. Oh, it's cute dog. Here he is. Here's the focus. What's he doing?

Oh, hand-eye coordination. Now what we were doing is we are putting very small needle that we can, on an ultrasound machine and we can see the little needle entering the tissue. Golly, look at this. We used to be very precise. After this, I can tell in my performance in the training, physiological level,

I notice it very much. It says they take a weight off my shoulders. I notice it. It has to be so precise. Everything is being planned for the best day. of performance on the 14th of June. There you have it.

How about that? That's high-level stuff. That is high-level stuff. What is this? What is this? What is this? This is actually real? This is breaking news here?

Matchroom, Queensberry? 7V7. Is this a real thing? Josh has put this in the chat. Anyone knows? Is this real? Let me see. Does everyone leave?

Where's everyone? Josh is saying that this is real Let me see This is real Is this really real? I don't know Josh Are you only lasting one day here What's going on?

I don't see this anywhere 77 matrum Pro boxing fans They got a gold check mark Eddie Hurtan has revealed A Matron versus Queens Veracian In the Work Four fights he may believe

May feature I was like what Most of the time I was on this Josh Josh, please explain yourself. He's panicky. Listen, Josh, we're a what have you done for me lately kind of outfit here, all right? So yesterday's glowing review is not a thing anymore.

Yeah, he'll turn Josh here for sure. You can't rest on your laurels here. Babyface gone. All right? That's one of the quickest turns in the history of the biz right there. Josh tried to feed me incorrect intel? Yeah, I see the little watermark there. What is this? Also, we have like side by side from the 5V5 of Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn.

This graphic is just completely AI. Oh, Josh hits with the AI. Golly. This is devastating. This is devastating. Does he want to defend himself or is he just laying low? He left the room. Wow. He actually has left the entire building. Can someone get Syracuse University on the phone? We do have to tell them about what Josh has done here. We already have them.

you're on standby whenever you're done with this. This isn't, this is a Newhouse-esque, all right? We have a certain standard. Carmelo Anthony has taken to Twitter and shown his disappointment in Josh. Josh, how could you? Intern Josh. How could you? Golly. Well, we'll see if he has anything to say

as the show goes on, as the day materializes. But that was false. At least I didn't read the matchups, because I got to say, they were juicy. They were tremendous matchups, I do have to say. Anyway, we'll talk to all those people back in. Scott Coker joining us in. studio at 2 o'clock. Can't wait for this. But this is, as I just said, seconds ago, this is a

massive one for me. I've only had the opportunity to speak to this man once before. And as I said, when I was at Syracuse University in 2001, if you would have asked me who my dream interview would have been, it would have been this man because I looked up to him so much. I felt like there was a little part of me in him as well. And I think that's probably what endeared him to so many people. He was the every man. Always tells it like it is. Greatest wrestling author of all time, one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, the hardcore legend himself and just about a week and a half or so ago, returned to the wrestling scene. This time, in AEW, he shows up, double or nothing, Louis Armstrong Stadium, massive, massive deal. He's there with

Renee Piquette, old friend, there with MJF, Darby Allen, and it seems like he's now a part of the family. And so let us talk to the great mankind, Cactus Jack, dude, love, Mick Foley, about all of this and more. There he is. Hey, thank you, Ariel. You had told me I was your dream interview a long time ago, and did I ask you if you had Professor Bob Thompson as a teacher? You did, and I did. Yeah, yeah, what a great guy he was.

I haven't seen him in years, but, you know, there's people who play a role in your life, and you don't quite understand that until time goes by, but he was one of those guys. Amen, yeah, one of the all-time greats, certainly when talking about media, and its effects on society and pop culture. He always shows up in all those documentaries.

Yeah, it sure does. Yeah. And I love that. And I love that you're here. Thank you so much for doing this, Mick. I really do appreciate it. You know, you showed up just a couple of weekends ago, as I said, Memorial Day weekend at AEW.

And obviously, that's the main reason why we want to have you on. But I'd love to kind of go back a few steps. And back in December, you did announce that you were not going to resign with WWE as far as your Legends deal is concerned, and you wanted to cover ties and take a break, given their association, and correct me if I'm getting this wrong, with the current president. And so can I ask you about that decision? What led you to making that decision and announcing it to the world because it was massive news when you did? Well, you know, everyone has to make the decision that feels right to them. And I just, you know, it was a, I sometimes describe someone's

big break as being more like a series of little breaks, like a ball peen hammer and a windshield. You don't know which tap actually causes the crack, but without a multitude of them that windshield's not cracking at all. So for me, it was the comments about Rob Reiner, just heartless, unbelievably cruel comments coming from the most powerful man in the world finding joy in how somebody died. I don't want to paraphrase, but belittling the man who just, died somehow tying it into his own death into the, you know, Reiner's dislike of Donald Trump. And for me, that was the ball peenhammer tap that broke the windshield.

And I just think WW had a very cozy relationship where there was definitely the illusion of a relationship there, of a perception, rather. I think when five different people are posing in the Oval Office and they've all received Stone Cold Stunners, that's a little cozy. And Ariel, I felt like even though I wasn't technically employed by the company, but because I had a Legends deal, because my name's been associated with WWE for over 30 years, that I was complicit in my silence.

And so I did speak up. I reached out to the head of town relations, who I consider a friend, who I still write handwritten letters from Santa to every year, send them videos out. I don't brag about much, Ariel, but they are the best Santa videos in the business. And I can prove that if you ever want to have me on with a showcase a couple of these videos. I take a lot of pride in them. And so basically, you know, I give up the legends deal runs out at the end of this month. I realized that by giving up two really easy, very high-paying jobs at WrestleMania Week for WWE that I had to work 24 hours on my own to make what I could have been six.

And I'm okay with that. So I'm good with my decision. Everyone, I think, has to make a decision that's right for them. And in my case, I just didn't want to be in a position where my grandchildren are asking what their grandfather was doing when things were really, you know, tough. And I want my children to be able to say, this is what grandpa did. So I made the move that I felt was right for me. I love that company. I'm not going to disparage them. But it didn't seem like a good fit. Didn't seem like a fit that would allow me to look at myself in the mirror before I went to bed. When you make that call and tell

them that you'd like to do this and you feel this way, do they try to convince you. you to change your mind? Do they have a conversation? Or is it just like, okay, thanks for the call and we'll talk down the line? Well, the first one was, I respect your stance, and I'll tell the people that, you know, that I'll tell the people in charge. And then I did receive a call from someone really high up. I don't know if he wants me to mention his name.

But he was saying, you know, well, Paul is just on the physical fitness. Like the physical fitness, not the bureau, but they're whatever the name, physical fitness group they have is. And he said, and Linda hasn't worked in W.W. And, you know, X amount of years. And I said, well, theoretically that's the case. But I could have sworn I saw Paul behind the president's shoulder when he was making phone smart policy, which I think is true.

And it's like whether Linda's been working for the company or not, Their last name is McMahon, and she's associated with the company. And then I said, come on, five people in that Oval Office took the stunner. And so he appreciated it. He did say he respected it. I didn't close the door forever. I said in my announcement, you know, as long as this man's in office, I think more and more people are realizing that some of the things he's doing are just cruelty to the sake of cruelty and enriching himself.

I mean, these polls, I'm not here to talk politics. Let's skip this after here. But it is the reason I left WWE. I just want to tell people who are listening that it's never too late to do the right thing. The best time to have made your voice heard would have been earlier. But the second best time is now. And if this guy's, this guy, President of the United States, ratings dip into, you know, the teens, then maybe he'll be forced to make some changes.

Nobody wants to go down as the worst president in the history of this country. So maybe I'm naive, but maybe you can appeal if there are better angels of his nature, maybe they can still be appealed to. But I'm not so sure there are. He's definitely a different type of person, and I don't mean that in a good way. Just curious, did you hear from Paul Levec? No, no, I did not hear from Paul. or any of the McMahon family.

You know, that's the one, that's, um, the saddest part is that I really did have great history with Paul and was a good friend of Paul's and Stephanie is at their wedding. Vince McMahon meant so much to me. So I knew going in that that was probably going to affect those friendships. But, um, in an earlier post I did, they got a lot of attention, I pointed out that, you know, throughout my, uh, 15 full-time years in wrestling, I drove with a multitude of were driving partners. These are people you would see more often than you saw your own family.

You drove with them. You split a room with them. You did your meals with them. You went to the gym. When I went to the gym. And I was looking at it. Wow, with the exception of one guy, Jim Cornett, I wouldn't have called any of these people progressive.

Like they were either independent or queued a little bit conservative. And I didn't have a problem with anybody. So I think we just need to get back. to a point where we can understand that we need two strong parties, but we don't need someone, you know, just dominating to the point where, you know, our elected leaders are just making votes they know are wrong because they don't want to fall out of favor with this president. So, Ariel, let's not give this guy any more time. No, no, I'm trying to get to how we get to the AW deal.

And so I just wanted to establish that. How soon after you make that announcement does someone from AEW reach out to you and gauge your interest in working for them? Well, it had been a little while past. Now, I have known Tony Kahn for 15 years. So I had a really good lunch with Tony before he got into wrestling in Jacksonville. And, you know, I always considered if not a friend, that a friendly acquaintance. Like even during AEW shows, I would direct message him. For example, I would say, hey, Tony, is it possible to get the rights to Thunderstruck by ACDC for Thunder Rosa?

Or I might say, wow, they're a great show. And I really was not testing the waters. I was just reaching out to somebody who I like to let them know that I was enjoying his product. A few years back, I was asked if I'd be interested by fans. I was getting that a lot and I joke around. I'd say, well, I think they've got the old guys standing around ringside. They've got that market cornered. And they did at that time.

But things have changed. And I think it's more effective, you know, sometimes less is more so they don't have as many managers. I knew I wasn't interested in doing a, like a figurehead. Commissioner type. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's, yeah, commissioner. looking for the right word. Figurehead commissioner, general manager, because I've done that before, and I think the shows

actually work best when there's not as much shine on the figurehead commissioner, authority figure I was thinking. And then Barry Bloom, my agent, came to me and he said, I've been talking with, he asked me if I wanted him to talk. And I said, yeah, yeah, I would like that. so we did uh he had a nice talk with tony con then i had a nice talk with tony con i mean this is months after uh you know the decision with w w went down because honestly ariel i was really happy and content doing my own thing uh life the nostalgia world is treating me pretty kindly especially

after the pandemic um and i was out there literally 330 days on the road last year which is more than it was ever on. Now, there might be times when I have two days off, and instead of flying home to spend eight hours with my kids and flying back, I'll just stay on the road for two days and relax and recoup. But in those 330 days, I didn't even get a cough or a cold. Five years, at a certain point, five years running, I'd gotten pneumonia every single year. And then I would get a diagnosis. Okay, you need two weeks. Bed rest. In my ear, I'd hear two weeks bed rest.

The other ear would be coming out going, okay, you'll be on that plane tomorrow to Dallas, and you're not missing a day of work. But now you see Kyle Bush died of pneumonia, and, man, I'm going to put myself in the best possible position to not get sick like that by really trying to take care of myself. I've lost a lot of weight. I'm eating healthier.

I'm feeling better. I believe in the healing powers of Crystal Gale's voice also that's been a big deal. I'm wearing a shirt here. Yes. I love it. And congratulations, by the way. A hundred pounds, I do believe you've lost. Yeah, yeah, I sure have. Yeah, thanks, Ariel. I appreciate that. I just have to remember how good it feels walking now, so I never go down to quote a

crystal galson down that wrong road again. So yeah, 272. I did get down at 258, which was over. And now I'm like covered in the mid-260s. Okay, wow, well done, well done. You didn't mention something there. You had lunch and started to know Tony Khan 15 years ago. Yeah, yeah. Circumstance around that, because that was long before he got into all of this.

Yeah, it was. You know, Alex Marquez is a journalist in South Florida. You know, why he knew the Jaguars, I don't know. But he said, hey, a friend of mine is a big fan of yours. His father owns the Jaguars. He's a good guy. And we know you're in town. Would you like to have lunch with him?

I said, yeah, sure. And I haven't forgotten it. Like, you know, he's got that indomitable spirit, right? To see Tony backstage, it's really, the word I'm coming up was joyous because he's filled with joy in that position. Like he jumps up. The first thing he does is ask people if they're okay. and then he's happy. He's really happy.

And I'm not saying, you know, I've said, I've said many times there's no one way to cross the finish line, you know, whether it's wrestling or portraying Santa Claus or whether it's producing a pay-per-view show. But I have to tell you, you know, as a guy who always reacted better to a pat on the back than a kick in the butt, that style would have really, I would have really enjoyed that. style. And Mr. McMahon had his own style. And, of course, when he put you over, it meant a lot. He didn't do it nearly as

much, but he didn't jump up from his seat to meet the talent that was coming through. But you had to take the walk over there. So I just marveled at it. I mentioned I did a little thing a couple days ago where I said, after

he did my in-ring promo, I think it was Darby who said, hey, I guess you're going to take off now. And I said, Darby, what am I going to do? Go to my hotel and watch Friends reruns. Like, this is going to be not only a show, this is going to be a great show. I'm still a wrestling fan. So I watch some of the matches in catering, which is what we usually do.

And I grabbed a couple of the guys and I said, hey, I'd really like to get the, I'd really like to be out there just to feel the emotion. And they had a player's entrance where we could stand in the player's tunnel and take in the emotion without attracting too much of attention, too much attention. and I saw or appeared to me to be one of the greatest pay-per-view shows I've ever witnessed. Wow. So you liked it that much. As far as your role now, what is it? You showed up on the pre-show. You had the deal with Renee and Darby and MJF. What is your role in AEW? Well, I think my role is to be the Swiss Army Knife of AEW, and I'll work in wherever I can and wherever they need me best. There's quite a few things I can do. I can host those shows with Renee. Renee, so much fun to work with.

I think I could do a good job on publicity for being sent out a day or two early to get some publicity. I believe I could take on a managerial role for a handful of misfit baby faces or heels and try to take some of the guys in the middle of the card and give them a little bit. boost up a little closer to the top of the card. One thing I want to say, Ariel, is that this is one of the first things I said to Tony is that AEW has done a really good job of making their mid card mean something. And that's one place where I will compare them, the two companies, and say they do a much better job in the midcard.

I think there's just a little bit more pride. I think, you know, going back to the way WW did things, they would build a tag team for two, three years, have them with a tag team title multiple times, and then two big stars who'd never teamed would face the tag team and destroy them,

showing you that the tag team was never that important to begin with. That would be the message that I would get as a fan. And I don't think you see that type of thing. That was one of the things that drew me into AEW because I had, you know, as long as we were going with a friend's reference, I was taking a break from wrestling for a couple years. My children were all grown-ups and they were no longer living in the house. And we all loved watching wrestling together. And when they weren't there, I found myself no longer drawn to it.

And then I started hearing some waves about AEW, about WW as well. And I started tuning into both shows. And I honestly just felt like I gravitated more to the AEW product. Can I give you a theme park comparison? Sure. Sure. I love my theme parks, right? Santa's Village in New Hampshire, Storyland in Glen Vermont.

and there's a couple other phenomenal family-owned amusement parks, Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana, and Knobles Grove in Elysburg, Pennsylvania. So in the case of Storyland, wow, a family-owned and operated for some 60 years, and then a corporation bought it, and two years later I go with my family, and on some accounts it's nicer because they've had the money to put in a, couple cool new rides, but it just loses a little bit of the magic. Do you know what I mean?

And what I feel from watching the two shows is that AEW has that little bit of magic and WW has kind of lost it. I think when you're part of a corporation and the bottom line is everything, you take away from your mid card by making it clear that what you're selling is more important than the product in the ring. And I wonder if that's why, I mean, I have a lot of young fans who weren't even born when I was wrestling. And they'll come up to me and they'll talk to me about matches. Now, I can't prove this.

But I wonder if part of the reason the younger audience is drawn to matches from my era is because we called the matches. Like Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were locked in on the matches. There weren't so many things they had to go to that would take people out of that suspension of disbelief. That's just a theory on my part, but I think, you know, 10, 20 years down the line, the matches that JR called, whether it was with the King or whether it was Jim Cornett. at WCW.

They'll stand the test of time, I think, better than the current matches in WW because it seems like the matches are a means to an end instead of something to be enjoyed for themselves. So I just feel like at this point, AEW has a, the personal ownership shows in a way and a love and a feeling of magic that I don't think the corporate ownership of WW displays nearly as well. I do also wonder if there's any part of you that sees yourself in AEW and maybe even in Tony. You know, last week I said, I called Tony the little engine that could. And some of the fans online were like, how could you call a billionaire the little engine they could? But if you actually understand what's going on here, it's one singular guy, not backed by anyone else, no greater entity.

supporting him, going up against this machine and not backing down, he to me is the little engine that couldn't. And you have always been that guy. You've always been the underdog. You've always been the sort of guy that everyone, you know, you wrestled in sweatpants for goodness sakes when you're at your peak. And so I wonder if you, you kind of connect more with that as opposed to what you're seeing on the other side of the fence. Do you feel that way now that you've been there backstage? That's a really good question. I do. I think I do connect. I do connect with a guy like Tony is a little bit different, you know, I gave the promo about Darby, because I knew he was a guy who was different. And a lot of people find comfort in professional wrestling because they may not be as comfortable

with themselves, you know, outside of that world. And the biggest, I think the best move I ever made in wrestling was having the confidence to believe that I could speak to fans who were outside of the fans we were marketing to. Like, I remember thinking, not everybody's hip and slick and cool. I knew for fact, I'm not hip and slick and cool. I remember thinking of myself, there's a lot more of me out there than there is of them. And that's why, let me see, trying to think the time zone, late 88, summer of 98, sorry, summer of 98, after the cell. uh the cell uh match i i started i took a i took a bet i gambled on believing there was an audience

that would be open to a kinder gentler type of wrestler you know we still get in the ring and do what needed to be done but somebody who said please and that i remember vince mcmahon one time when i drove into drove into the parking lot for my empty arena match with wayne johnson and I said thank you to the driver. And he was like you, thank you. Because at that point, like, Steve Austin was so big, and that's great. But there's a reason why he became Steve Austin because he was a singular character. But what I saw in the locker room was a lot of people trying to be Steve Austin light,

which meant nobody was actually kind of heart, gentle in the least. You'd have somebody, a bad guy coming to a, a, the baby-based dresser of the dressing room and say, hey, I'd like to talk to you for a second. The good guy would start beating him up in the dressing room. I was like, that doesn't seem like something a good guy would do. And I just took a gamble. And I believe that's why wrestling in general reaches people who don't feel like they quite fit in. And I think my character in particular reached out to those people and made them feel like it was okay not to be like everybody else.

So in that same vein, I see guys, guys like Darby Allen. I see a handful of guys that I might be able to take in as a stable of sorts, you know, who don't look like what wrestlers are supposed to look like or act or think like they are. I just think there's room for everyone in AEW. I really do. And it goes without saying that the better AEW does, the better AEW does, the better it is for WW's talent.

And in the end, I'm all about wanting the men and women to make money and save money as well and live happily ever after. No one put their body through more than you. And when you see what Darby is doing to himself week in and week out, is there any part of you that would like to tell him at some point, hey, you don't have to do this much? This is going to really hurt in 20 or so years? Yes, I will have that conversation. I didn't think the time to have the conversation was hours before his biggest match.

I've been told that he's people have had that conversation with him. And he says, everybody does their best stuff in the pay-per-views. I owe it to my fans to do it on every televised event. So I'll try to, you know, I'll try to talk with Darby. I didn't know until about six weeks ago that I was an inspiration in his career. I'd known him since he was probably 17, 17 years old going back 10 years. I don't know the exact timeline. I don't know exactly how old Garby is.

But he was just, he really was the quiet kid who looked like he didn't quite fit in. So the promo I gave that genuinely seemed to fire him up was all from the heart. And they were all factual, they were all statements based in fact. But I will have that talk with him and try to find out like, It got to be another gear where you can allude to the things, give people 80% of what you usually do, knowing that the vast majority of his fans will be thankful for what he gives them, and they will understand that they might have to wait until a special event

to get the 100% derby. but I understand many a man has tried and failed but I'll I'll give him the best advice I possibly can in my opinion right now

the best heel in the business is MJF I think he's on fire would love to hear your thoughts on him and how he did in that match but overall the body of work what he's been doing as of late well

I was sold on MJF from the moment I saw him at a independent show in Alaska, maybe 2018, 19, somewhere on there. I thought, man, what a fantastic, like, independent heel this guy is. Honestly, I didn't think he could project toughness at that point. And I thought, hey, nothing wrong with being a great independent eel. But I don't know if he can project toughness to the point where he can tend with the top guys in either organization. And I'm happy to admit I was wrong on that because he does.

He can and he does. And he was good already on the microphone. But this guy, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say he's the best in the business on the microphone right now. He's, man, he's good. I mean, he's not good. He's great. When I was toe to toe with him, I don't know if I quite,

did justice to the words in my head where I was saying, I wanted to say, can we just take a moment to appreciate, you know, this, the magnitude of what's happening right now, because I didn't think I was ever going to be in a ring, maybe in a ring that size, waving to people, you know, thanking them for, you know, their kindness. But I didn't think I'd be in a ring, helping create interest for a main event. And, uh, I mean, that was one of the first things. Max did when he came through. He told me you really help set the tone. So you have people rooting for each other, thinking of each other, going back to Max.

Yeah, he's amazing. And I really respect what he says about not needing a WrestleMania moment because Ariel, I'm going to tell you that in life and in wrestling, we get to select our own WrestleMania moments. You know, I'm finishing up my one man a show. I've got, I think, three shows left. And I alternate stories, but the core stories is three or four, four core stories that stayed the same. And two of them were matches in front of a less, 150 people or less. And they become so meaningful because of the work that was put in and the length we went to to make it special. And no one will tell me those moments were not. as good as appearing in front of 101,000 people at WrestleMania in Dallas. Don't get me wrong. That was amazing. But I even said in my Santa memoir,

I was visiting a child who a few days earlier had, was just completely exhausted, didn't have a hair on his head, and asked his mom if I might build a visit on Christmas Eve. Long story short, I didn't get a call because the young man hadn't been sent home until late on Christmas Eve. But I made my way over to that house the next day, and he was like a new child. He was running around.

And Ariel, I think what I did as Santa in that room was one of my top ten performances of my life. I looked over at the three adults. They had tears streaming down their eyes, and I walked out to my car, and I thought, I just had a WrestleMania moment. So anyone out there, whatever fields you're in, I really believe we get to pick our own WrestleMania moments

so that we don't allow anyone else to decide what success is. We get to do that for ourselves. So I'm right on board with Max saying, don't leave a company you love to chase this elusive WrestleMania moment that you can actually create for yourself. We talked about the weight. We talked about the state. that you're in your health.

Is there any part of you that wants that final match? Do you want to have an AW? Tony was asked about it. He left the door open. I know you've been through so very much and certainly don't need it. And no one really retires ever in pro wrestling. Is there any part of you in the back of your mind

that says, you know what? I'd like to do one final one and I want it to be in AEW. Whoa, wow. It's definitely crossed my mind. You know, the cinematic matches have opened up the door for guys whose cardio may be suspect.

But I'll tell you what, this loss of 100 pounds made my life so much easier. Like, I used to have to stop a couple times just walking up a moderate hill. And now I don't even realize I'm walking up hills when I do them, because I'm not really getting winded, not like I used to. I don't know. I think that clearly if I had a match, it would have to be a match that would avoid trauma of the head. Luckily, there's a whole lot of me to traumatize below the neck. So I think, yeah, I think I've won more last good match in me. Wow. I just believe it would have to, all the

stars would have to align. All the stars would have to align. It would have to make sense. And Ariel, honestly, like maybe that long-term goal of dropping an elbow off a TV truck onto a parked car. I had a serious talk with myself. and realize just how much my hip replacement and later a knee replacement changed my life. And I don't think they've got statistics on former knee replacement recipients dropping elbows off of TV trucks to park cars. It's like as a 50-50 chance, it could undo all the good that it brought me. I don't know if I'm ready to take that chance.

But I find my mind wandering sometimes coming up with ideas. ideas that look better than they hurt, that rate higher on the instantaneous fully risk reward ratio analysis. And if I can come up with enough of those type of moves that allow me to, you know, to risk a little bit less while still giving fans a good match. And if I feel like I'm up to it, then maybe a couple of years down the road. We will look into that. Stranger things have happened.

I know hindsight is 2020. You allude to the risks. you allude to the injuries, are there any that you wish you could take back, that you wish you didn't do? Well, we didn't know nearly as much. Let me get Crystal some airtime there. Hold on.

Yeah, she looks fantastic. Well done. Doesn't she look amazing, yeah. Have you ever met her, by the way? What's that? Have you ever met her? I have not, but we've been exchanging a couple messages after I posted with her shirt.

Well done. And I wrote her a handwritten letter. Wow. Which she received. I take a lot of pride in my handwriting, Ariel. I'm not sure if you knew that about me. No, I do.

yeah. I write the handwritten letters from the not too many kids watching your show, right? No, no. Okay. Well, let's just say Santa needs helpers. She can't be expected to deliver toys around the globe and write all the letters. So I write about 40 letters a year, handwritten, and they go out to people like The Undertaker and Adam Copeland and Tristratus and Nora Jones and Jewel was on that list until her son kind of aged out. And Kevin Owen, And it's a who's who. Wow. Even the Miz,

even the Miz is a big fan of the letters. So I believe in the power of the handwritten letters. It shows some caring. And today there'll be a really nice video, a really nice story that I worked on it for five or six hours, talking about how Crystal helped, you know, bring me out of a little bit of a dark, dark place I was in.

How long ago was that? Yeah, I think it's not just about being a fan, boy, it's about finding strength and inspiration and unlikely places. So that'd be my Facebook, facebook.com slash real McFoly or just go to my website, realmicfolley.com to learn more about that. By the way, that dark place that you're talking about, how long ago was that? Oh, a couple months. Yeah, it was with my mom's passing and from dementia, looking at my family's history.

long history with dementia, throwing in my long history of head injuries and thinking that, yeah, maybe, you know, maybe I didn't have so many good years left. And, you know, Crystal Gale's music in and of itself is not going to make a hundred percent difference, but to find out who your friends are, lost a couple of friends along the way, like there are no longer friends that are not that they're not here with us. and with family and friends, a little bit of prayer, a little bit of therapy, I've come out brighter and happier, really in a good place. But part of that was the music of this lady.

I love that. Part of it was that, yeah. Hey, so as long as we're mentioning it, just people should know that we all get knocked down, right? We all get knocked down, whether it's physically, emotionally, just a matter of getting back up, you know, We all fall. We all get back up. Never heard a better quote in my life than that of Sylvester Stallone when he said,

life's not about how hard you can hit. Life's about how hard you can get hit and keep getting it up and moving forward. That's how winning's done. So life hit me pretty hard. And I decided I wanted to get up and keep moving forward, Ariel. And I'm sorry about the loss of your mom as a proud of the mom. Yeah, I appreciate that. I feel your pain there.

So I appreciate you mentioning that. I did want to go back to the question of regret. Do you have any regrets regarding what you put your body through? Yeah. Yeah, I started saying we don't know as much about head injuries. So, you know, when I was coming in, you know, first of all, concussion was something you shook off, right? It wasn't even something.

And unless you were knocked out, it wasn't even considered a concussion. So I didn't put my hands up to block chairs. and that was a mistake. As I got older in WW and started dealing with a lot of everyday pain, just aching, right? Like I didn't take as many risks as people thought, but there was always a lot of impact in what I did. And it would be, you know, like the clothesline over the top rope

would often end in a bruise of the thigh, right, because I hit that ring apron hard. And it'd be like, is it a really bad one? Is it like the Charlie horse you can barely walk? No, not often, but it's always going to be hurting. And so I treated my pain with late night comfort food. And at a time when it really would have behooved me to go from 280 to 250, I went from 280 to 310.

It was seemingly it was not affecting my matches at that point. But I also realized that when my knees were bad and I couldn't do some of the things that I liked to do, that I was leading with my head more and that I was taking chair shots at house shows, chair shots to the head, unprotected. I clearly wish I hadn't done that. the other one Ariel is I shouldn't have been dropping those elbows off the ring apron onto the concrete

unless there was a TV camera on and even then you argue I shouldn't have been doing that that was my big move I thought people this is where the Darby Allen philosophy comes in I think everyone should see the best match as I have and so it's a kind of a catch-22

because I would say yes I wouldn't have done those things but it was doing those things that made me who I was that got me where I went but I still should have put my hand up when I saw metal objects traveling

at high speed so that's going to be my final answer should have put my head up hand up I will never forget taking my seven year old sister to the movie theater to watch a film called Beyond the Mat in 1999 a movie that I still say till this day

it's beyond the mat and wrestling with shadows for different reasons, greatest wrestling documentaries of all time, and you are obviously a principal character and Beyond the Mat. And it was very sad to hear about Barry Blousteen's passing recently. What a talent, what an unbelievable mind and someone who truly respected the wrestling business. And it got me to think, and here's your tribute to Barry, who I know you considered a dear friend. And it was just such an amazing film. And it got me thinking a little bit about Unreal on Netflix and what they show on Unreal, going one step further from what we saw on Beyond the Mat. like literally the meetings and the way they talk about the business.

And I'm wondering someone like you who was a part of Beyond the Mad and who allowed the cameras to show behind the scenes at a time where it wasn't common, how do you feel about the step further that the company has taken? Again, the company didn't necessarily endorse Beyond the Mad, and certainly I think in the aftermath, weren't happy with how much was shown, but they did allow the cameras to be there. But now they're actually producing a show like Unreal. Is that good for the business or bad for the business, in your opinion?

I know it's difficult to have the guy who wrote the memoir that talked that brought people behind the curtain and who was in the documentary beyond the mat that brought people beyond the curtain to say hey guys they don't have to stay here like we don't have to have them behind the curtain 24-7 like let's leave a little bit of the mystery and I think I mean we're a show that's about the suspension of belief. Where I have an issue is where they'll be promoting unreal on Raw or on Smackdown. And so I literally saw a segment where Seth Rollins admitted he'd been feigning. I still don't like to use the F-F word is an F-A-K-I-N-G. He was feigning an injury. And then they cut to the live show and they have a character with a knee injury that we're supposed to now become emotionally invested in after we saw that another character has feigned his own injury. And it just seems to me like I was in a movie called I Am Santa Claus about

director who follows five real bearded Santa Claus's and throughout the year finds out life's not always that jolly. And it's a great movie, but they shouldn't be advertising it during Rudolph the red nose reindeer commercials. And when I see Unreal being advertised during the show, it just strikes me as, it just strikes me as being somehow, hold a second, I don't know, just had somebody come in. Hey there. All right. Ariel, my, my battery is on like 2%.

Oh, no. You have a way to wrap this thing up in your style? Yes, I do, I do. Do you want to finish your thought there? My thought on... On the unreal? I think it's a little too much too often. It's there all the time. You don't even have to seek it out like you would have had to with beyond the mat.

Like it's there all the time. My own opinion, and I know a lot of people share the opinion, it's just a little too easy to get behind that curtain. You know, when it was my book, you had to read it, right? You had to invest some time. When it was beyond the mat, you had to find beyond the mat, you had to be of a certain type of fan who would enjoy that type of thing. And a lot of non-fans enjoyed it, too. But now it's a click of the button away,

and it's like watching a magic show on one network, and then going immediately to another show where they explain everything they did. I just, yeah, I still believe in the magic of wrestling. And when I go out and do my one-man show, as I may explain how something was done, but the explanation is going to make people respect it even more. The backstage process is fascinating. I don't mind glimpses, but the prolonged looks,

I think it's going to, I think it's going to sting a little bit. I could pepper you with questions for the next two hours. I'm not going to do that. Can I pepper you with a question, Ariel? Yeah, but I don't want your phone to die. And then I'm going to... Well, if it dies, it dies. It will not have died in vain.

How did Holly Holm not get the decision? You watched that? I did watch. it. Wow. And I saw you on there. I was like, wait a second. So you land 30% more punches. You land better punches. You press the action and you get pick up an L. I didn't know Michael Lee was a boxing fan. This is tremendous. Well, yeah. I mean, I used to take these deep dives into the 70s guys. Oh my gosh. I thought she won't. I thought she went. I don't, it just seems like boxing has got to stop insulting its audience. It's tough. It's tough when they go to these local

markets and there's judges who may have biased says, I don't know exactly what they were thinking, but sitting there live, and certainly it seems like everyone at home as well thought she won, sitting there live, I thought she had done enough, I thought she won by two or three rounds. So yeah, one of those crazy things, if you're ever in New York, Mick, I got to say, even hearing you say my name is a little bit surreal because of how much I admired and looked up to you as a youngster. The 18-year-old, 19-year-old version of me who was doing a show at Syracuse University about pro wrestling is on cloud nine right now. And so I can't thank you enough. Congratulations on the New Deal.

Congratulations on all the great things that are happening in your life. Again, I wish I could ask you about a million other things. I wanted to ask you about Undertaker the Booker in AAA down in Mexico, but we have run out of time. And so we'll save that for another day. I urge everyone to check out the website, the Facebook, and everything that you're doing. Well done for standing up for your convictions, for being a man of honor and backing what you say. And I wish you nothing but the best over an AEW. And I really can't thank you enough for giving us a few minutes here today.

Hey. Thanks for your time, Ariel. I really appreciate it. All the best. a nice day. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. There he is. The one and only Mick Foley. Hitting us with the Have a Nice Day. Wow. Can we add that one, Frank? Can we add Have a Nice Day? That's an unbelievable drop right there. Damn right. We can. Mick Foley, guys. Mick Foley. I remember reading. I think I probably said this to him in our first interview that was back in 2019 at ESPN and reading his book around the time. I mean, what about that line about

getting knocked down as we talk about what Dana said yesterday. Dana is who he is, McFoley is who he is. They don't have to be the same. But I obviously subscribe a little bit more to what Mick was saying that, hey, it's okay to hurt, it's okay to be in pain, it's okay to suffer, and it's also really good to get back up and not let that overcome you. And when I was at Syracuse and I was doing my thing and I was trying to fight and I was trying to survive and I was trying to get out of the darkness, his book helped me out a lot

because this man has been through a lot and he was not supposed to succeed and he did such a great job of telling his story of right. It was just, he's an inspiration. And please, you may agree with his politics, you may not agree with his politics, but to me the lesson is he believes something in his heart

and so he is going to stand up for what he believes in and he's going to make a difficult choice and he's not going to burn a bridge, hopefully, on the way out, but he's going to make a double choice and say, you know what, I'm going to separate myself from this because I don't feel good about it. That's the lesson. Rather than get into the weeds as to the why, get into the weeds as to the how, how he dealt with that, in my opinion. And I think there's, there's a lot to be learned there. So I don't agree with every single thing. Like I, to me,

it's how you conduct yourself. And I feel like he's doing that with respecting grace. And he's not throwing stones on the way out. And so let's see what he does in AW. Let's see what he does. I think this is going to be supremely interesting. All right. Speaking of interesting, speaking of interesting, it was announced about two weeks ago that Scott Coker is back. Now, Scott Coker has been in the business for so very long. First MMA show was 2006 in California. Prior to that, the kickboxing event, Strike Force K1. You know the deal. And then he goes to Bellator. And then about two years ago, he just disappears. We don't hear from MMM. anymore. But we found out about two weeks ago that he is back, that he's starting this new

promotion. And so I have a million questions for our old friend Scott Coker. And I do believe he is here. Is he actually here? He is actually here. Wow. Welcome back like he never left. My old friend Scott. It's been a long time, brother. It has been a long time. So great to see you. Please have a seat. Welcome to our new home. I don't know. I don't know if you know this. We have a show here because you were out of the business for a bit. It's so good to see you, Scott. It's nice. Look at this. Thank you.

Unbelievable. Thank you. Nice. Yeah, it's great to be here. I missed you, Scott. You kind of disappeared on us there for a second. You went out the back door. I tried to get you on the show many times, get your side of things.

Yeah. I sent you a text congratulating you. I didn't get a text back. I did. Yeah? I texted you back. You did? Yeah, I said thank you.

I'm not sure, but I'm going to look back. I have my phone. No, it's okay. It's okay. It's fine. But, Scott, there's so much to talk you about. So much. And I'm so happy you're here. You got the band back together. Are you looking up the text right now?

No, I'm playing. I'm playing. It doesn't ring. Sorry. This is amazing. Okay. So we have a million questions. I have a million questions.

Sure. Far away. But we need to go back to the beginning of this. Okay. Why didn't you continue with the PFL? What happened there? You know, to be honest, as Beltor was winding down, I met with Don and Peter, I believe. We met two or three times.

times and I just said, you know what, I don't think it's a good fit. Did they offer you something? Yeah, we definitely wanted to work something out. Okay. We didn't get to the part where it was, they even offered me after, you know, it was like silence. They offered me an independent contractor role. But, you know, I said, if I'm going to do this again, I want to be an entrepreneur and I want to do it with my own company.

And that was really what the Genesis was was going with them or not going with them was, I want to be an entrepreneur. That's my background. And Bycon was really my first job as a business. adult actually. You know, we're at to fill out a job application. I'm not sure if I told you the story. You had to fill a job application. Yeah. So why? So what happened was so Kevin K. and I sat down, made a deal. Contract, VICOM is this thick, as you know, right? Yeah. So we're done. And so submitted in about two weeks later, I get a call from HR and say, hey, I need you to fill out a job

application. And I said, what? Yeah. You know, they really didn't do this right. They need to have you fill out job application, we need to post it, we need to interview three or four people for your job, and then we had to pick the best candidate. And then, you know, like I'll judge. Yeah, yeah, wow, geez. I said, wow. So I said, I looked at the job application. I said, oh, this is funny, you know, where'd you go to school? Where'd you, you know, what is that? And so I said, I sent it care, I said, care, just fill this out for me and send it in, please, because this is annoying. But that's really, like, the first time I fill out a job application as an adult was doing this event, I mean, doing the gig I had over at Vycom and in Bellator.

Okay, so you decide to not continue. And that was 23 going on to 24 as far as the year, 2000 and 23. And so do you take a break from MMMA at that point? Yeah, I did. It was great because I took about eight months a year off. Wow. And just to relax. And honestly, it was like the end of like the Bellator era was very, very tough.

It was very tough. In what way? You know, because you see something that has so much potential. To be honest, I'll give you a nice one here. So I went in with a private equity firm. I don't want to mention their name because I didn't ask them, but very big private equity firm. And we offered to buy Bellator. Thank you, Jeff.

We offered to buy Bellator from Paramount. Oh, wow. Yes. Okay. So this was about when I first heard they're going on sale. And they said, no, we can't sell it to you, specifically me, because I'm, you know, CEO of their company that, that's owned by Viacom, and it'll lead to shareholder lawsuits or this and that. So I actually did try to buy it, and they just said, no, we can't do it.

We can't even do a deal. Wow. Yeah, I was really surprised because I said, you know what? There's not too many operators that can operate at this level to really run this thing. So, you know, that was their answer, and then I knew. Did you try to buy it with cash? Because I know the PFL deal was an equity deal, right? Yeah, and I don't even know exactly what the deal was, honestly.

But I've heard rumors, but the deal with some cash, but this private equity firm was willing to put in $150 million of operating capital. Wow. To growth capital. They wanted to put in growth capital. And Paramount would have been diluted down, you know, or Vaccom would have been diluted down to a certain percentage. But that was the offer.

And it was a written offer that they received, but it just didn't work out. So they did their deal. But watch this unfold after so much work because there's one thing, Ariel, to do a fight company where you're building from the ground up, like strike force. Yep. Building from the ground up, all new staff, all the, you know. But when I remember. thing down with Kevin K. And I said, you know, Kevin, I don't know if I can even help you because

this ship is tilting already, right? I'm jumping on a ship that might tilt and be that my sink as I'm on it. So I go, it's going to be much harder. And it sure was. Once I jumped on, I said, you know, which I came on board because I really loved Kevin. And Kevin was my guy. So I said, okay, I'm going to go to battle with you. Let's go. Let's go do this. So when I jumped on, it was, you know, you're flushing out the water from the bottom of the boat as you're trying to build. And, you know, we had a great team. We had a great staff. Got rid of some people there, put some more people in.

But at the end of the day, it was much more difficult than, I think, building from scratch. And so that's why this new opportunity is so it's been so much fun. And so it's been amazing. So I'm having a great time putting this team together. As you know, we're having some announcements today. Yes, we're going to get to all of those. Okay. I'm trying to build up to it.

Yes. You know, this is storytelling here. There's an arc. You know, one thing that I've always talked about, and I'm wondering, I don't know if I've ever asked you the question, but now that it's over, maybe you can have some great insight into it. I always felt like the last promotion outside of the UFC, the fans felt some sort of way about that they were tribal about was Strike Force. They wanted to rep Strike Force. I remember the arguments online about Strike Force. This is better than that, this and that.

I never felt like Bellator had that magic. Beltor never was able to connect with fans. No one's wearing Beltor merch. No one felt like they were a proud Bellator fan. Why do you think that was? What was the difference between Strike Force and Bellator? Again, part of it is you're jumping on a ship that's already on the way. And it was a tournament format, remember?

And we got rid of the tournament because the way they did the tournament was very confusing. Even for me as a fan. I mean, I'm like, you know, this is like how many different weight classes and their fights were in, you know, like a small casino shows. And it was, you know, made for TV show. I get it. But it was confusing to follow. And I think that if you want to follow a fight company,

You better have good storytelling and you better be easy to follow. Otherwise, you're going to have a hard time. So, you know, Strike Force was, man, I loved that company. It was, you know, it was something that I was very proud of. And look how many great athletes that we developed. But we're bringing that same, you know, the same spirit to this next company. And you'll see a lot of familiar faces more than we announced today. Okay, okay.

Did you take a break from MMA when you left? Yeah, I did. You didn't watch anything. Did you even watch the new Bellator? Those events? You know what? I really didn't. I really didn't watch.

Didn't watch UFC. I didn't watch. Nothing. You need a break. You need a break. And you know what? I stayed home a lot. Just, you know, send time with my friends.

And you know what I really did? Errilla is I made a list of all the friends I haven't seen in a long time. Okay. And I just said, okay, I'm going to go see this guy. I'm going to go see this guy. Just go visit. I didn't make the list, apparently. Oh, no, no.

You're big time. You wouldn't even write me back. This is like, come on. You're big time now. I've been thinking about you a lot, by the way, because I remember when the Warriors made it to the finals for the first time and how happy you were. And you know, my New York Knicks, Scott, we're right there.

We're right there. I'm rude for the Knicks. We're right there, Scott. I'm rude for you guys. I'm rude for you guys. I'm so many Warriors fans in my life, and I remember what it meant you guys. You, Rich Chow, all these.

And I remember that moment when you guys finally won, and I was so jealous and happy for you. And it's all I can think about, honestly. But that's not, that's neither ever there. Tomorrow night, big game. You're going? I'm not going. San Antonio?

That's right. See, this is how thrown off. If it was here, I would go. You would go. Oh, heck, yeah. Of course. When does this start to, like, kind of ruminate in your brain, this idea? So you say you take a break for eight months to a year?

Eight months to a year, yeah. When does that, when do you start to develop this idea? You know, I have a friend Peter Levin that is co-owners of Griffin Gaming. But he and I have been friends a long time. Upper Deck as well? Well, he's the one that put the upper deck deal together. Got it, okay. But he's been in the gaming industry for a long time.

But what people don't know about Peter, is he was also Rampage Jackson's manager in Pride, Mark Coleman's manager in Pride, and he was also Randy Couture's manager in Pride. So he repped fighters at that time. And he went on to do some great things, and he opened this fund. And this is his third round. I think they're like the largest gaming fund in the world. They have about $1.6 billion of assets that they manage. He's opened another fund for $100 million. And then we started talking. And he was, on me about this because he's like, we've got to do this. Like, you're, he's pushing you. He's pushing me. Wow. But I was like, hey, I just needed

a break because he started pushing me about three months in. Okay. And I said, hey, hey, hey, I need to golf a little bit. I need to just take time off. I'll go see my family and go see some friends and just just chill out because the ending of Bellator was very rough. You know, even all the people around me to see what happened to them. It was, it was very hard because, you know, then they closed Showtime boxing too. I mean, that was difficult to watch after 40 years of boxing or whatever it was. It was like, you know, all of a sudden, everybody's out on the street, you know, looking for work. So that whole demise of that era of combat sports over there, I think it was very hard for me to watch that. So I need to take a step back. And, you know,

it was nothing against Don or Peter, but it was really, I just said, this is not a fit. You know, these, I felt like these guys have great intentions, but the execution and the operation of a fight company, the way it needs to be run, is a little bit different in my opinion. You feel validated. They're both gone. And the company's completely different. You know, I don't know because, look, anytime you can have a company that's involved in our sport, right, and they have, you know, tens of millions of dollars to put into the fighter purses and the staff. And you got to root for them, right, because you don't want anybody to fail. But for me, it just wasn't a good fit. And I went back to what is it that I want to do? So I want to be an entrepreneur again, you know?

I don't want to retire because I was kind of, you know, like I can only golf so much. My friend Peter, though, did say something in the article that really upset me. He said that I was a bad golfer. And I said, oh, really, Peter? I'm a bad golfer. Like, are you serious? What is your handicap? Oh, well, let's not talk about that.

Okay, all right, fair enough. But I'm sure you've had a lot of time over the last couple years. Yeah, so, you know, I'm just joking because we're about the, well, I think we're about the same handicap. Okay, okay, fair enough. But, you know, we had a great time talking, and he was, you know, he said, look, I really want to do this and I want you to do it with me and I can put together a team around you that's going to be amazing, you know, financial people, right? And so, and you'll have the,

you have the ability to hire the staff that you want to have and that you want to, that you need to grow this company, the next company, because that was important, right? How long goes this now? Like, how long has this been in the actual works for? I'd say to get to this point, I'd say about a year and a half ago, I hired a business development guy. Okay. to start ratting out the plan. Okay. And the plan really was,

let's just see if I want to do this, right? And, you know, can we get to a point where I think that this is something that the community would like, the community that needs it? Because I said this in other interviews, too. It's like, I feel like there's a little bit

of a funk in the MA space right now, right? And I don't know what it is. It's not like I say, this is what it is. But I just feel it's just a little bit, it's got a funk to it right now. So, you know, let's go stir it up. The thing with MVP, you know,

like their show, hey, they're stirring it up, they're stirring it up. it gets people excited, it gets people to root for somebody. And then we're going to do the same. People are going to root for us too. And we're going to go stir it up. So to me, I think the sport needs a little bit of shaking the cage.

You know, and something we're really good at. So I'm excited about, you know, this new venture. But a year and a half ago, I started working with a guy named Lawrence Stewart. Peter knew who noticed me to him. He's a business development, you know, guy. And so we started working together. And I'd say, you know, probably, I'd say about six. seven months ago, we finally had something that looked like something I could really get behind.

Was there a moment where you said, do I really want to do this? Do I really want to get back into this? Start all over again. Did you have that moment? And then obviously the answer was yes, but did you need to check in at some point before you finally went all in? No, I think I enjoyed the process all in the way. I said, okay, this is going to be, this is getting exciting to me. This is going to be fun for me. And to me, you know, I love martial arts, right? That's what this is about, I mean, it's time to bring martial artists back to MMA. That's how I feel. It's something that I think that if you look at like Body of Work or the people around me that have contributed,

we've had some great teams in my past. And this is going to be something that I feel is going to have great legs and it's going to go for years and years and years. And we're putting the right team together, right people together, and we're going to do it right. So you announced a couple weeks ago that you're back, all this stuff. but it's like a it's a slow trickle of news because even today as you mentioned you know you announced a team which I'll ask you about in a moment I have to imagine you announced on that day for a strategic reason because you didn't announce a name a date a broadcast partner so why did you announce before all of that was finalized yeah it's real simple because when we had the basically all the paperwork done with all the investor group and then and then it was funded then we went press play and immediately because we thought that it was going to leak, right?

There's going to be a leak. So I didn't want people to control the narrative. I wanted to control the narrative. So we sent out the press release last week. And, you know, I think that he had a great response. And I think the community really got behind it and excited about it. I think it was very exciting. You're a familiar face.

You're a trusted face. People know your track record. But, you know, it's not all like lollipops and rainbows here, Scott. You know, we ask tough questions as well. Don't believe me. And so I said the day, was announced that I loved everything about it except for one thing. And I believe, and you have referenced it in this interview and other interviews and in the press release, the dirtiest word in MMA is tournament.

And so I ask you, Scott, why? Okay, hold on. Now, timeout. So I hate that word. I think that you're mixing me up with the other guys that threw their tournaments. Have you ever? You have tournament fatigue. Okay, well, then this is going to be different because. Why? Tell me. Well, I can't give you all the details. But here's the thing. Have you ever know one of my tournaments to be boring? Ever? Sometimes they drag. And sometimes the results don't play out the way you want them to play out. You want this guy. To me, the magic of Strike Force was you put on fun fights.

And a tournament. What was the tournament? What was the best tournament? The heavyweight Grand Prix. Well, the heavyweight in the very end? I mean, Daniel Corby, he had a big star there. I'm talking Kungley versus Frank Shamrock. I'm talking Frank Shamrock.

Well, why can't we do both? It seemed to me, so now, so tell me, it seemed to me like the DNA of the company is this tournament. Well, there's going to be super fights as well, right? Okay. When I think of Strike Force, I think of Melvin Manhoff versus Robbie Lawler. I think of... Ouch. Maybe my favorite knockout of all time. You know, I think of that card in... I talked to Melvin last week. Legend.

He's coming back. No, no. He's actually promoting that. Oh, wow. In Holland. Yeah, in Holland. He's got a little fight league that he's doing, and I said I might come out to his next show. I think at end of June he's got a fight in Rotterdam, something like that. But he's out... I think of Nick versus Paul Daly. I think of Chris versus Gina. And you know what all those fights have in common, they weren't tournament fights. They were just fun fights that you and your

matchmaking put together. And so why not go back to that? Well, we're going to do some of that too. We're going to have something for everybody. But I would say, just have an open mind. And the tournament to me is like, I mean, I came from a different school because I grew up in a martial school where you go compete and everybody lines up in a tournament. There's 16 fighters on the thing. You go compete until you have one person left, right? That's kind of grew up. Pride was a tournament. K-1's a tournament. U.S.C. was a tournament. the beginning, right? Well, there was a tournament component, but they were also fun fights.

So what you're saying is it won't just be a tournament. That's right. Because Belator was once a tournament only. Yeah, no, we're not going to be a tournament only. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. No, no, no, no. I'm glad we could get this up because I was worried.

No, no, no, we're going to put on great super fights. Okay, okay. So, yeah. How many tournaments, let's say, in 2027? Well, there's only be one tournament. There's only one tournament. So let's say there'll be one for X division, and then the rest of the cards will be filled out by fun fights.

That's right. Full super fights. Amazing. Do you have a launch date? Exact launch date? Not yet, but we're... Launch month? Yeah, we're going to launch in January of 27.

Okay. Do you have a broadcast partner? We are... I mean, this company is only like a week old, so... Well, technically not. You announced it a week ago, but... I mean, Kevin Kay just came on board and, you know, like... I mean, come on.

Content officer and legend of the games. Like TV president. Legend. I was so lucky, so blessed. That's an amazing get for you guys. But I tell you what, since we announced it, we've had inquiries with everybody. Okay.

can imagine. When do you think you'll announce your broadcast partner? Because you would agree, without a broadcast partner, without distribution, you have nothing, right? Well, I think this, and keep in mind, like, when you talk about combat sports, right, there's going to be revenue streams from all over the world for this product, not just here, because we're going to travel and do fights all over the world. So we've already had inquiries from, like some of my past partners at Bellator, that were probably our biggest paying, you know, license holders that have already reached out and said, hey, we won't have a conversation. So we're talking to everybody.

And so now the ball begins because now we have our infrastructure, at least our top six, seven employees, executives on board. And so now the growth begins. When do you think you announce your American TV partner or streaming? You know, I think you should have Kevin K on here, and you should answer that question for you. Do you think we'll know soon? That, to me, is the biggest question.

Yeah. Because, you know, PFL's out there now shopping their rights. Yeah, everybody is. And there was a report in SBJ today saying they're done with ESPN. Oh, I didn't know that. Essentially, in all intents and purposes. So it feels like, what do you think of the landscape right now? It's different, right?

There's no showtime anymore. There's no Spike TV anymore. Yeah, it's, but you know what? It's like, I always said this. Like, this business is like the natural laws of economic supply, right? Supply and demand. And so when there's too much supply, then consolidation will happen, right? Some companies will go out.

Some companies will consolidate. It happens all the time. I mean, you've been around a long time. It's like, man, I remember doing, your very first podcast or interview way, way back here in New York. But it's like when the sport starts shaking a little bit, then consolidation happens, right? How many leagues have we seen collectively go in and out, right?

So to me, that's really what I think will happen, you know? And maybe we'll go buy some companies, you know? Oh, are you into that? Are you looking into that? If it makes business sense, we'll definitely have that conversation. How many fighters do you want to have on your roster as you kick off? You know what? We're going to, I think we're going to sign.

a good probably to start maybe 100, 150 fighters. Yeah, okay, okay. And is there a certain type of fighter you're looking for? Are you just looking for, like, you know, youngsters with five or less fights? Are you looking for vets? Like, what, what's... I think that we're going to be looking for all different kinds. Okay, so there's no specific kind.

Because you know what? To me, it's like, look, I want to go back to where, you know, you go to an event and you see great fights, right? Yes. You see great fights. I mean, even, even, I've been, like, our fight night that I do with Gilbert, right? Yeah. Great fights, man.

Give a show next Saturday. next Saturday. And Gilbert's been an amazing partner. Honestly, this kid is working hard and he's learning the business. I'm really proud of him. And he's going to do great things for us, too. He's going to be working for you. Well, he's going to be working with us.

I mean, he does have made up multiple gyms, and he has all the commitments, but he will definitely be part of this company. Amazing. Yeah. And some of his team that's around him that do amazing work. But I lost my train of thought here. Yeah, I keep peppering. I have so many questions for you, Scott, that I keep peppering you.

I'm ready. I'm ready. Okay, where's your home base? Bay Area? Yeah, I still live in San Jose. No, but meaning where's the home? Because that's what I thought was special about Strike Force. You had a home. We will do fights in the Bay Area, for sure.

HP Pavilion? H.P. Pavilion? Wow. Well, the first one be there. That would be poetic. You know what? Not sure because availability, because they got announced a hockey schedule, that sort of thing. Because they have a good team now.

They do, yeah. It's selling well. Young Canadian. Oh, he's awesome. Yeah. And I tell you, it's making a lot of noise in San Jose because before, let's say the last three, four years,

it kind of had like a rough run. And you go there, the stadium was like three quarters full. Not like the old days. Now it's like the old days where it's just packed to the rafters and he's brought a lot of excitement. The memories of my life

have been those shows in San Jose. Yeah, I mean, I think back to, like I said, Shamrock and Diaz and Shamrock and Kong and Gina and Chris, we miss that nostalgia. I'm wondering, when you say that the sport is lacking something, I've used the word solace at times. Why do you think that is? You know, I can't put my finger on it. Honestly, it's like I look at the business thing.

I mean, the sport, I mean, the thing about like the sport, how much revenue is coming into, you know, some of these companies. It's massive, but there's something missing, and I don't even know what it is. It's like, is it the talent? Is it, you know, the business structure? Is it the television deal? Is it they're not getting promoted? But the one thing that I can do to contribute is we have star identified, star built, fighters from the ground up better than anybody else, you know, and we're going to go back to doing that. We're going to put the team together that did that to continue doing that because I really feel like we're going to have scouts all over the country, all over the world, actually, and we're going to be looking for that next,

I always call it the diamond in the rough, right, because they're out there, but they need to be discovered. And, you know, we're going to go sign top young talent as well as part of this offering and and and um and i'm excited about that because they're going to come and they're going to bring it right they're going to come and bring it but when you have a you know the ability to sign a young fighter it's like you know how you how you nurture them how you how you build their career it really that really is i think the special sauce that we've read we're very good at and you know it's it's something that uh if you look at the track record it's i mean daniel cormi when i signed he had no fights you know and and neither did uh tyrant woodley or luke

So and the list there's a list that goes on you know. And A.J. McKee, he's a guy that's so much talent. I saw him at an amateur fight that his dad promoted and I signed him and we took him in. He was already good though. He was already a great talent and then we signed him in his first fight. I think that Uzman was already fighting but I said to my guys, look we got to sign Usman. You know, I want him.

I want pico, I told Bob Cook, I got to have pico. You got to just tell me what it cost. Yeah. Let's make a deal. So anyway, I think we're very good at star identification. That's, I think that's something that's missing from the sport today. I don't think there's any doubt to that. When you see Dana now, what do you make of his demeanor and his passion for the sport?

You know, I don't really know. I know he's on TV a lot, doing a lot of commercials. I see him more, I see him more on commercials than I do watching the UFC because I really haven't watched it, you know, for the last few years. You don't watch it? No. You haven't like tapped back in to see what they're doing? A little bit, you know, like. What do you make of the product? I mean, to me it looks consistent, you know, and but, you know, to me, it's like, who is,

It's kind of weird because if you say who are the, you know, like name four champions from the UFC in the weight classes, I don't think I could do it right now, you know, and I think a lot of my friends can't do it right now. So it's just something, you know, like, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's too much, it's on every week in front of your face, too much. I don't know. Over saturation. Maybe it is. So how many events would you like to put on? We're going to do 12 fights for sure.

Okay, I like that. Yeah. And what's the goal eventually? Like, what's the ceiling as far as how many you think is? is that sweet spot number. Yeah, I think eventually a good fight company can do 24 fights a year. 24, okay.

They're doing something like 43. Yeah, 42. Too much. I think they've always done it. Yeah, yeah, since the Fox deal. But the thing is, like, when you have pay-per-view, it's different because you opt to buy in or you opt to buy out. And the psychology of pay-per-view is very funny because when you watch a boxing fight,

let's say you use boxing example. And it's not a pay-per-view now, but it's free. It doesn't seem a special to the consumer, I think, right? Oh, it's not a pay-per-view because they're so used to buying pay-per-view for the big mega-fights. So when they get it for free, you know, maybe they just don't look at it like, oh, this is a special enough fight for me to engage in, you know? And that's just an opinion. I'm not sure. I haven't done any study on it.

But it's just, like I said, something in the sport right now, I don't think, like, who are the next stars of the sport, right? You know, who are the next stars? Well, when I was promoting in Strike Force, I knew who the next stars were going to be. In Bellatory, even, I knew. We've done it. Because we always built from the ground up, and then we bought from the top down, right? You know that. So I've used that formula for my whole, you know, fight career, you know.

So we're going to imply the same philosophy here. We're going to build. We're going to go mining, you know, king, king. We're going to go mining for the next stars. Has that started yet? Well, seeing that this is Rich's first day and that, you know, this company's like a week goes. Yeah, I'm really happy about that. I think he's a great talent.

Kevin K, Chris de Blasio. These are all OGs. I got the press release today, but you know who was missing from the press release? CJ Tuttle. My guy. I know. Best in the business.

I love. You have no idea. Where's CJ. Is he here? Oh, there's Chris. Hello, Chris. How are you? CJ Tuttle.

Best PR guy day to day in the business. With all due respect to the company in front of us here. But I view Chris on a different sort of playing field. Yeah, yeah. More executive, you know, corporate guy. Love CJ. I remember CJ, young buck reporter for Sherdog.com. He's come a long way.

I remember that. That was your greatest free agent acquisition bringing him over here. I definitely think that he's making a difference. But personally, he's like a family member to me. I love that kid. You know. We bringing Kogan back to? Kogan has a job.

I know. Well, some of these guys had jobs too. Yeah, but he's in a fight company. Okay. You're not trying to poach. No poaching. No poaching. But we're going to have a great team and I'm really, really excited.

And I've made a few phone calls for people that haven't talked to a little bit. I think that are super talented. and especially different scouts and recruiters that are going to help us develop this next level of talent. What is the name of this promotion? We break this here today. No, no. Why?

We're still in the final stages of the... Is there a name identified? There has been a name identified, yes. But I can't say. The word strike in the name? No, no. Okay, so that's just like what? The parent company?

Yeah, that's a parent company. Strike MMA is in the emails. Yeah, strike is a, I think it's the... Let's see, C Corp out of Delaware. Interesting, okay. I mean, that was odd to the past? I loved it. Why not go with Strike MMA?

No, I mean, you know, I think the name is owned by someone else. You know, you strike force is owned. You can't do, is that too close? I think they was deemed that as a little bit too close, only because I'm the founder of it and then we sold it. Did you look into it? No, guys, I already knew it would be. Okay.

Any of your old San Jose Sharks partners, any of those guys going to be? a part of this? Not right now. No, they are focusing on hockey. You hate those guys deep down inside? Yeah, because they sold the company. They took the rug underneath you. Come on.

Those guys. You know what? I never forget that day. I'll be honest. This is something we should talk about over lunch or something. But actually, they, I'm sorry, they, based on the circumstances that were in front of us, they made a business decision that they came to me with. and I had to agree, and I had to sign at the end of the day.

So it was a tough, it was probably a very tough decision. I imagine. Honestly, it was probably one of the worst days of my life, honestly. Really? Very depressed for a long time. I can imagine. Because, but there were some circumstances with our broadcast partner at the time and, you know, and different, you know, executives and that were giving us, I think, a little bit of a hard time.

And so, you know, it's like they didn't feel the support that they needed to get. And so they said, well, if you're not going to get the support from, you know, the broadcaster, then, you know, why are we doing this? Because, you know, they put a lot of money into it. And we had a great brand. And, you know, they thought that was the best thing to do at that time. I'll never forget, February 2011, East Rutherford, Meadowlands. Yeah.

Night one of the Grand Prix, I'm in the back running around doing interviews for AOL Fan House. And all of a sudden, I see Scott Coker wearing a trench coat all the way at the back of the arena standing there and looking. Yeah. And I'm like, why aren't you sitting there? What's going? Like, why aren't you sitting Caged side?

Yeah. And then come to find out, like, you kind of knew the end was near. Well, that's, you know, like, if you know my, like, style for, let's say, even Stryphor's, all the fights, I literally would be in the back with Javier Mendez. It was there. We'd be watching the fights on the TV as the main events going on. Then I would just go out and present the belt. I didn't feel like I had to be Cajside, you know.

So that's really been kind of my M.O., right? It was just being back there and watch it with the fighters and just hang out and be part of that back. room experience and felt very comfortable there. I felt like you were taking stock of it all. What you built? I'll never forget that night, though, because I knew. You knew, right? Yeah, I already knew at that time.

You were sad. So very sad, yeah. You're probably going to be saying, you should be celebrating this, right? 100%. Because I remember that show did over a million, I believe, on showtime. Fader was there. Yes. Not a good fight for Fador, by the way.

It wasn't a good fight for Fador, but yeah, John Volante, everyone thought he would be the guy and Timing Chris Wideman. But there was so much excitement surrounding that. and you did have a sadness. Yeah. In the following month, mid-March, we find out. Yeah, it was a tough one, era.

That was a real tough one for me because, you know, I love, that was like my baby, you know. That was like something I grew from nothing, you know. Strike was a boxing league before I became an MMA league. Of course. But, you know, when California legalized it, I went in and applied for the first license. Armanda Garcia at that time was a...

Oh, I haven't heard that name in a while. Yeah, that's probably best. Yeah, March 2006. 2006. And March 10th, I think. Yeah, March 10th. And so that fight happened and, you know, that changed my trajectory from a kickboxing to a MMA fight league because I said, if MMA never came to California, I probably would have never promoted the first fight, right? But it came here.

So I said, okay, I already had a license for 22 years, right? So I told Armana, you have to give it to me. You can't give it to anybody else, including the UFC, because they don't. even have a license here. I've been licensed all these years. So he said, I think he felt the pressure from the arena and then, you know, like the governor or whatever. I'm sure they call, make calls. And so he got, I'm sure you got a call saying, hey, you got to do this. So they gave it to us. And we did that first fight, which was an amazing success. I think we held the North American indoor record for a long time. We had 18,000 to something 65 in the building. And it was amazing.

It was like, look, the fights weren't that great, right? Let's be honest. Right. Yeah, but you always knew how to cater to the local market. You did it better than anyone. Yeah. I'll never forget being at a Friday night show, Bobby Southworth versus Babelou Sobrow was the main event. It was on HDNet. I was there, it was 2008, and the fights over, and the HDNet broadcast ends, and all of a sudden,

two kickboxers from the Bay Area. One was 1 and 0, the other one is 0 and 1. They had a kickboxing career, but in MMA, they had only fought each other, and I had no idea who they were, and the place goes insane. I'm like, that's why this place is full. You always knew those local rivalries. Baroni Shamrock was amazing. Amazing.

This is what we're missing. We're missing this magic. Yeah, well, we're going to bring it back. You are. You know, think about this. Like, my relationships around the world are better than ever before, you know. And if you remember back in 2006, Shamrock fights, Caesar, and then Kung fights, and we're starting to build the next stars, you know, like the younger kids for, and Gilbert Melendez fights and Josh Thompson fights. And so we're, we're.

We have this great, like, you know, series of fights there. And then the second fight, I'm like, Frank's hurt. He's banged up. Okay, who's my main event? The day after the fight's over, the arena calls and says, hey, we want to do another one in June. Three months. I said, I want to take a year off. Like, I need about a year off.

Like, you guys are taking it out of me, right? And I said, ah. And they go, no, no, we want to do it. Because I'm sure the F&B was off the charts. They ran out of beer that night, right? So I'm sure they made a ton of money, which they didn't give me any of it, by the way. Yeah, yeah. So, but I needed a main event.

So I called Sakhi Baro, and I said, I need a favor. You know, I need a main event. And I went, because I don't speak Japanese, but I went through Kenny, my, he was like my boss at K-1 for a while. He called Sakhi Bar, he's managing Mercro Crookop. Okay, yes, yes. And so Sakhi Bar sends Alistair Overeign to fight Futro Belfort. Oh, yes.

Remember? Yes. And so that was the second fight of Strike Force MMA. San Jose. I remember watching that on Sure Dog, actually. Yeah, and it was, you know, I mean, I think after a while, you know, I don't think it was like a dynamic fight that people thought it was going to be, you know, a lot of them on the back and scooting.

But at the end of the day, I'm like, this is pretty cool, man. I could, you know, I could reach out to Sacchi Bar. Then, you know, now the relationships all over the world we have with multiple promoters in multiple regions. And when we took Bellator around the world, those relationships just grew. And, you know, to go to hungry, to go to. to Ireland, to go to England, to go to Russia. That was amazing.

That was an amazing trip, honestly. To go to Japan and do fights and do the challenge fights with Sakhi Kibara to do fights in Tel Aviv was amazing, right? It's like, it really was amazing to see the reception because they're so happy that like a main, you know, like a main USA company that does MMA comes to their territory and brings it to where they're at. To be doing that for this new promotion as well,

not just USA. That's right. All over the world. All over the world. Because that's going to be global. It's going to be a global. Ryzen's killing it. Ryzen is doing amazing.

And you know what? When he started in 2016, I believe, 2016, I think he started his, he was on a seven-year non-compete. Okay. About that. Wow. Seven years. So he gets their ability to come back.

And I said to him, I said, okay, you brought me some great fighters in the past, so I'm going to reciprocate because we sent King Moe there for the tournament. Then we started sending as many fighters as I could because I always felt that Japanese MMA needed to be healthy for whatever reason. You know, I've just felt like I've seen so many great fights that the golden era of fighting really was, I'd say, 1997 when Price started, K1 was already in business. 1997 to 2000 and let's say seven when they sold Price. that's the golden era of fighting to me, right?

That era was unbelievable because you have these two rival companies, Pride and K-1, going at it. And it just elevated the brand and combat sports to the point where they could sell out 90,000 seats for that one dynamite show. Oh, yeah. So to me, I think that's what they shook it up a little bit. And after Pride sold, I think Japanese MMA kind of when people got depressed until their soccer bar come back. So I felt the need to help him. And I said, I helped him for like three, four years. We got him, his show broadcast on Spike TV.

I asked Kevin if he could do him a favor. And so I really tried to help him. And then it led to the fights we did with him on New Year's Eve three, four years ago, which, unbelievable. I mean, when you're there, you've been there. It's just like. Been there, but never for a New Year's Eve show, I'd love to go. That's a bucket list one for me. It is honestly, it is like nothing, nothing like it.

Because, you know, I was promoting small fights. way back kickboxing days on ESPN, right? And we had great fighters. And Mr. Ishii from K1 says, you gotta come to Japan. And I said, okay, so I fly to Japan. And I walked, I was in Osaka at the Osaka dome in 98. And this is when K1 was doing six cities, all 60, 70,000 stadiums packing it to the rafters.

But I'll never forget that feeling like walking through the tunnel And then looking up, and I was like, oh, my God, this is unbelievable. I couldn't. It just shocked me. I had goosebumps. You know, seriously, I had goosebumps. Like, oh, my God. And Mr. Rishi comes in, he was very, very nice and very respectful.

And we had a nice conversation. And, you know, it was just a hello kind of, you know, he wanted me to see his show, right? And so he asked me, again, two years later to help him in Vegas. So that's when I started the K-1 relationship with him. But, Errol, there's nothing like walking through that tunnel and then looking up and going, oh, my God, this is like unbelievable. And then the production was unlike anybody's business, you know, like you've seen it on TV, I'm sure. It's just way over the top. And I just fell in love with Japanese M.MA and the way they do it.

And you'll see a lot of that in what we're going to do. We miss that too, the pomp and circumstance. Please know uniforms. No uniforms. Oh, gosh, the uniforms kill me. We need characters. We need individuality, right? we need people to stick out.

We want them to look different, right? And I think that's always been our MO, right? It's been, you know, like, you know, having them be characters, right? I always love, like, even in pro wrestling, when the music comes out, you already know who's coming out, right? It's like, it's so branded. It's such a good job. But to me, that's really, you know, what I think we've been good at is building the next character, building the next guy and building the next star.

And I think that being away from the sport, you know, has, I think that that's, that's, what's missing a little bit is that there is no, you know, like who's the next generation right now? I can't answer that for you because I've been looking around kind of since I've been coming back and kind of checking it out, but I really don't know, like, you know, who you can say is keep your eye on this kit, keep your eye on this kit, keep your eye on that kit. But we're going to go build that next kid, so, you know. It's interesting that your news came out around the exact same time as the MVP event on Netflix. What did you think of it?

I love the production. And, you know, to me, I think it's all good. It's a net, net positive because, you know, what I think about, you know, MVP and I know Nikisa, in fact, when I was at Showtime and they're doing boxing on Showtime, I helped put them together with their VIP sales, you know, company, which is a company called Elevate. Okay. Own by the Central School 49ers. So, you know, when he reaches out, I try to help him, and, you know, it's been a good relationship.

And I always ask myself this question, including our new company, it's like, look, is this going to be good for MMA or is it going to be bad for MMA? Is it good for the business or is it bad for the business? And I'd say MVP is good for the business, right? Once again, you're pouring, you know, tens of millions of dollars into the fighter community and employing all these people. And, you know, the fight, I mean, the main event fight didn't last too long, right? Which, you know, I would love to see a longer fight, but Ronda's that good. You know, she's still that good. I mean, that was amazing to see her. It was masterful to see what she did. And I love Gina. So, you know, it was, it was, you know, like a who's going to win.

And I tell my friends, who's going to win, the striker or the grappler? And I said, I don't know, but we're all going to watch, right? That's how I felt. Like, let's just watch and support it. So to me, it's good for business. Our new league will be good for business. More competition, the better. Yeah, and there's a really competition because what they do is not what we're going to do.

Sure. I just mean the more places for the fighters, the more opportunities, the more options. Pro wrestling has several options. I always compare the two. There's AEW, Tony Kahn, if you know, there's Japan. We don't have that here. We don't have these places. And so it's always been, it's been the UFC.

PFL became the de facto number two when they bought Beltor. And I'm wondering, how do you think they're doing? How do you feel like PFL is doing now? You know, I'll tell you, I don't really know because I don't, you know, when I talk to, like, Mike or other people that work there, so we don't talk business. You know, we talk about family. But based on what you see, how do you feel about the product? You know, I really just, I just haven't watched it, you know. I just haven't watched it.

Do you think you should watch it? Maybe, well, we'll see. Because here's been my philosophy era. I was like, you know, I can watch it. I can watch UFC. But at the end of the day, we're going to go do what we do. Sure. Right.

I always focus at the golden hand, which is what we're going to do, right? So I know, I have a game plan for how we're going to execute. And honestly, like think about this, when you think about the past, you know, like a couple decades, our body of work has been, I think, very impressive, right? And I'm not one to brag or whatever, but I think that we're just very good at what we do, and I've been doing it so long. And other people have tried to, you know,

when the other guys are trying to come kill us, you know? Sure. It's like we fought the best of the best, you know. And so to me it's like people that, you know, want to throw rocks or whatever or the, I don't, it just, I just kind of just, I'm not trying to get you to throw rocks, but I was just curious, you've been in the game, other than Dana,

as far as I'm amazed, you and him that have been here the longest now. Yeah, it's how you borrow. Right. I was talking in North America. Okay, yes, 100%. Yes, 100%. And so your take on the landscape is very interesting to me on where we're at right now.

Yeah. I definitely think there needs to be a competitor. 100%. Because otherwise, you know, the company, let's face it, like PFL, you know, they went through recent changes. It sounds like he's a very, you know, successful businessman. John Martin, seems like a nice guy. I listen to his interview here. and, you know, it seemed like a very good businessman.

And so I hope they can turn it around, you know. And Chachry's out there doing his thing, you know, so. But, you know, to me it's like, I'm going to go do my thing. And we're going to go do it the way we like to do it. And that's really what I'm going to focus on. You did mention in the press release the $60 million, that number. What does that number even mean, really? Well, here's the thing.

I'll tell you a little story. So we wrote a business plan and, you know, we have all the financials. And we said, okay, this is what we need to operate, right? For how long? How long does that last? We have, we have, it's going to last at least five years. Really? Yeah, because we're, yeah, we're going to go out and make, we're going to make money.

I mean, what's wrong with making money? Sure, sure. I just didn't know. I've seen companies blow through 60 million rather quickly. You know what it is? And this is what I attest that to. There's a learning curve in this business. And if you don't know it, you're going to be paying crazy money out because you don't know it.

And you know what? I've been in the business over four decades now. I know this business, right? So to me, like, I said, they're going to the learning curve. They're learning the business. I'm sure they're putting out fires everywhere, you know, like in different companies because they're burning through so much cash, right? But I'll be honest with you. We had, you know, we closed the deal, all the money came into the account, and we were like, okay, then we had two more offers

come in, right? This is a true story. And we got another offer for $20 million, one for 10, two for five, they wanted to come in. So we could raise $100 million just like that. But we said, No, I don't want it. Why? Because then I don't want to be diluted to where I don't control the company. This isn't going to be my company the way I want to run it. And yeah, we have board of directors and we have some smart people and the investors. Honestly, this investor group is very, very, very impressive.

And so on the cap table. And some have a policy where they don't reveal who they are. Some do. But the people that are involved, I'm telling you, are very, very strong and very connected to many different things in the entertainment world. to the finance world, to, you know. So we went out there in the community, and so when the money got offered after we closed,

I said, no, I go, Peter, I'm not doing it because I don't want to be in a situation where, you know, I'm going to be losing control of this company because I don't ever want that to happen. So we turned away. We turned away that $40 million dollars. Wow. And when we went to raise money,

what was amazing to me was we started raising money in November. By March, we were closed. Like, we were like commitments, right? took time to get all the legal work in and all the, you know, people to send everything in. But we were close. We had that commitment for $60 million in three months. Okay.

So I think people... Was that what you were shooting for the 60? Yes. No, that's in the plan. That's what it is. Okay. Why that number? How do you, like, get to that number?

You know, that's something we should have Lawrence on here. He could explain the whole thing to you. Because the smart guys and the numbers, you know. This is fascinating. Yeah, but let me tell you, I've learned so much about, you know, because I knew with this, like, look, we're not going to be in the fight business. and not be in the private equity venture home office business because you can't. You can't just, you can't just, you know, compete with other companies that have hundreds of millions of dollars, right?

It's not like you could just, you know. But when we laid the plan out, we said, this is what we need. And so that's what we went to market with, you know. And, you know, the extra cushion would be great, but I don't want to lose control of the company. But I will say that, you know, a lot of our investors, you know, we'll just go out and execute. And then if we want to start, you know, getting aggressive and maybe getting a bit, you know, like growing the company faster or buying other companies, we'll go back to them and say, hey, here's opportunity. And they're going to be all yours because, you know, we have really good relationships with these other investment. I would imagine since this came out, you've gotten calls and texts from all over. Yes.

It's probably been pretty amazing, right? A lot of, a lot, I have a lot of old friends that are returning to my life. Yeah. So, no, you know, look, it's great because a lot of people are really excited. A lot of people are happy. Anyone, you don't have to say to anybody like, wow, this is interesting. Yeah, I mean, there's a couple, but mostly it's, you know, people that we've had relationships over the years that are congratulating us and saying great job. Like, the sport needs it right now and, and go, you know, like basically go kick out.

So that's been most of it. Congratulations and, you know, good luck. But there's, you know, there's a lot of people. out there that have come in, hey, if I can help, you need this, and that. And, you know, we're open for business. Ring or cage? I don't want to say yet. Why so many secrets? This is top secrets, tough, man. At the end, I mean, I know you liked the ring, but Strike Force was a cage. Yeah, but Strike Force was supposed to be a ring, you know. Was it? Yes. You want to hear the story? Yes, please. Okay. So, the, the, the, the, the, MMA becomes illegal in California.

Yeah. And I go get the license. So now I had the first fight, March. of 06. And I remember sitting there talking to Frank, going, okay, it's going to be in a ring, Frank, just like Japan. We're going to do five ropes and whatever, you know, like, okay, great, great, great, Caesar, great, great, great, great, Kong, great, great, great, great, great. And then, Armada Garcia goes, oh, you can't do it in a ring. I said, what? He goes, why? He said, because it's not passed by the athletic commission yet. I said, hold on. Are you saying that I could put people in a cage and fight, but I can't put him in a ring. He said, that's exactly what I'm saying. Wow. If you want to wait, the ring will probably be approved in a year, but that means

the other guys are going to get in front of you. I said, no, then we got to go with the cage because I didn't want to wait, yeah. So if he would have said yes. Oh, it would have been a ring sport, for sure. Wow. Oh, yeah. I was already on the way because, you know, I kind of grew up in the Japanese. Sure, I know, yeah. So once it got approved, why didn't you go back to the ring? It was too late. You felt it was too late. And the other part of that story was Amando, Gina Corona is going to fight. Yeah. Oh, no, women can't fight yet.

Really? What? What? I said, what are you talking about? I said, you know, she can't fight yet. She's kickboxing. She's a martial artist. Like, you know, this is, you know, I've always felt that, you know, female fights is something that's necessary. And it's, you know, they're training in the martial arts schools, a jujitsu schools, kickboxing.

Moy Thai schools a lot. Why can't they compete, you know? So. How did you get around that way? one. I had to wait a year. That's why Gina wasn't in the first show. So she had to fight in the fall, I believe it was. But so, so. And Elena Maxwell, was that the fight? That's the very first fight in the state of California, female. But good knowledge. How about that? But here's the thing, so, so we said, okay, Gina's going to fight in, in, in the fight in November, December, whatever it was.

It might have been the fall year. I can't remember exactly. But, but you can only do, Three minute rounds. Oh, yeah. You can't go five, five minute rounds for a title fight. I said, what? The very first female fight, and we were petitioning hard the whole time for female fights, and we were petitioning hard to get to five-five minute rounds. And Armada Garcia was just tough to deal with, you know, and he was just like, you know,

once he had his mindset, it was like, you know, he was just tough to deal with. So anyway, the very first fight where we had five, five-minute rounds was Corona Cyborg. Of course. But it was from 06 to 09. Yeah. Think about that to get that approved. Jeez. Yeah.

It's, you know, I think we did a lot of good work, you know, early on in the sport. I mean, the legacy of Strike Force, I mean, until this day, people get, to me, it's UFC Pride Strike Force. Those are the three that meant something to fans. And those are the building blocks of modern-day MMA, I think, you know, because how many champions came out of Strike Force? I mean, it was just name after name after name after name. So. And I tell you. Do you have women in this organization?

Of course. Okay, okay. Yes, of course. Will you have every division? We're still working on that. I'm going to talk to Rich about that. The first tournament. Do you know the weight class?

I do, but I can't tell you. It's a secret. And I'll say what, but we will have a, we will have a, well, we have the reveal. We'll reveal everything. And I think we're going to do it, you know, I don't know, in the next month or so. Oh, wow, that's soon. Maybe a couple months. Okay.

Maybe three months. But it'll be done. I think we're going to do it here in New York. Oh, maybe we just do it right here. Are we invited- Let's do it here. What are you? Broadcast to the world.

What do you think? All right. Chris said it's a fine. Wow, this is it. That's all it took. By the way, you know me. I got my nose to the ground. I knew about this months and months ago.

Didn't say a word. I felt some sort of way that I didn't break the news to be on. I was like, ah, I forgot about me. Thank you for holding out. Yeah, you talk about leaks. I mean, maybe you knew I was hot on the trail. People were, there's been chatter, you know? There's been a little chatter going on.

I said, we've got to break it now because if we don't, then someone's going to beat us to it and then we should control the narrative because, you know, we're going to do, you know, it's going to be a great, great opportunity for the fans, for the fighters, for myself, and we're going to do this right. What about your son? Is he back, Jordan? Yeah, he's going to give us a hand. Okay.

We're putting the old band back together. But now we have Tom Fox, our CEO. He is a former Gatorade Nike marketing executive. And he also was chief revenue officer of Arsenal. Wow. Ran the Sandus Airquakes for two years as president, CEO. So, you know, he's in place there for the, you know, do all the nuts and bolts and a great marketer and great, you know, like, he's amazing. Like, I've learned someone from him just hanging out with him for the last six months.

Wow. Rich, we all know rich. We all love Rich. Love Rich. And then, but we have Lawrence now. He's going to run our international sales and our business development team. And Kevin Kay, right, CCO. I mean, that's, you know, chief content.

What is he been doing, by the way? I think he's been working on some other shows and this and that. But really it's like. all in with you 100%? 100%. Wow. That's a huge guy. This is a president of Spike TV.

Yeah. And you know what? And it's heyday. And what was crazy was when I sat down with him, I said, you know, Kevin, I came to Bellator for you, right? I gave him the reverse psychology. I said, Kevin, I came to, I had, actually, Peter was bugging me about going with him to start this new company before I went to Bellator.

Oh, wow. So when I had the three-year non-compete with UFC, he approached me. He approached me. He said, hey, let's, you know, when you're not competing, let's open a new company. and I want to be a part of it. I want to help you raise money. And then when I met Kevin, I was like, oh, I really like this dude, man.

Like, I loved his energy. I loved his passion for, you know, mixed martial arts. And we met at a restaurant after my non-compete was over. We probably sat there for six hours. Wow. And just talked about everything in the history. But anyway, it was definitely a bro fest, right? And so I'm like, I'm in, man.

So I told Peter, hey, sorry. He probably didn't talk to me for three months, actually, my friend Peter, because he was like, he's thinking we're going to do it. this. So, but anyway, my pitch to Kevin was, I said, Kevin, I know you're busy, you got stuff you're doing, but I really need you. Like, you're going to be a great member of this team, and we're building the next Avengers team. This is going to be the next Avengers, and I need you to be on with us. We're going to have proper funding, and I want to do it right, and I want

to do it right from the get-go. So he said, okay, let me think about it. About three weeks later, he said, okay, I'm in. So that's how it went. And to have a person of that experience, I was just like, man, I'm so lucky. So. Felt very, very, very fortunate. And Peter is a guy that, you know, Peter's, like, he would love all this, like all the, all the toys. He loved, like, he's, he had a little magazine or a publication called the online publication called the Nerdist. Okay. That was his publication.

Yeah, wow, I didn't know that. Marvel, toys. Yeah, yeah, I know of it. I didn't know he was connected to it. He was the founder, actually. Okay. Yeah, so he owned it with a bunch of L.A. nerdist, and they, and then they sold it eventually. but, you know, to see where he went in his career, kind of, you know, our pass crossed early on.

And, you know, he was also, like, when, he was actually shareholder in Strike Force, too. So we were always connected. He helped me kind of navigate L.A. a little bit because I didn't know. Like, I was just a promoter from San Jose. So it helped me kind of build, like, a little bit of a team in L.A. for, you know, sponsorship sales. You interested me to Casey Wassman's company where I met Tom Fox. back in 2007. Wow, this is all coming together.

Yeah, and so I go, this guy is going to be good, you know, like for us, I go, if we could, you know, afford this guy one day, I was saying that in the Strikeford. If we could afford him one day, then, yeah, we'd definitely hire him. But now we're back, you know, kind of full circle with him. And so the team is amazing. And I'm really excited. This is probably the best team you've ever had, right?

The best, seriously. Because we always had great, like the fight side was always covered, right? But the business side, really, wasn't, it was always like, you know, Strike First had five. people that worked here. Wow. I mean, really, it was like, you know, five people. And, and, uh, I learned a lot in that, in that phase of my life. And then in Bellatory, I learned a lot too. And part of the Bellator thing was like Kevin, Kevin really, like when, when he left Spike, then it was never the same, you know, Wade Davis helped a lot and he was great. He loved MMA. And, uh, but once,

once Kevin left, honestly, the, I think the spirit of the company, you know, came down a little bit. So to me, And because when you have a boss or a president of a network that's so passionate about MMA, I mean, you know, people might have forgotten, but he Greenland Ultimate Fighter. Yes, yeah. He was the one that changed the trajectory of the sport. I mean, he's a historian, a historian, he's in the history books of this. Sure, sure, sure. So anyway, you know, when he, you know, left, I think, in 2000, and was it 17, 18, something like that,

then it was like, okay, we're on our own kind of, and we have to go fight the battles. And, you know, listen, I learned a lot. And I was like, this is a very big media company. And you could get sucked into this little vortex and get circled around if you're not careful. And you got to kind of know how to navigate. Kevin, I didn't have to do that, right? You know, I said, Kevin, I asked him one time, I said, Kevin, what, you know, how does this work? Like, you know, because I was always an entrepreneur.

So how much do I report to you or how much autonomy do I have? He goes, you do your thing. and my job is to keep the parent company away from you. Okay. That's what he said. Okay. Yeah. So it worked until it didn't work until, you know.

So, but to have him back full circle, I said, come on, Kevin, you got to come help us. We're going to build something great. And when he saw the, let's say, the team that we're going to put together and then the investment group that we're putting together, he knew it was real. And he said, okay, I'm on board. So let's go. And so I feel very fortunate. I feel very blessed to have such a strong partner. with him and the others, it's going to be an amazing team.

Welcome back. Thank you. This is great. I'm really, really happy for you. I'm happy to see the team that you've assembled so many great people who sort of, you know, went down their own little path. The sport has missed you. We've missed your imagination, your creativity, and I'm a big proponent. I'm not rooting against anyone.

I'm not rooting against any promotion. I just want to see more options. It's good. You can't eat the same thing every night, right? I agree. I think this is very healthy for the sport. It's something the sport has missed over the last, you know, three, four years. Yeah.

Thank you. And I feel refreshed and I feel ready to go. So we're going to go get it on. Amazing. All right, well, I can't wait for you to break all that news on this program. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for that, guys.

Appreciate it. We'll take a quick break. He is back. Scott Coker is back. The whole team is back. Coming up in a matter of moments, Omari Jones, Oshaki Foster as well, don't go anywhere, much more to come. The boys speaking to my soul there as I'm trying to navigate.

Coker asked me as he left, you go into any of the games? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just going to take out a third mortgage. and we'll be all right. No, but I got to go. I think I've settled on games three and six, if necessary. Three guaranteed.

Four, my daughter has a thing at her school, and I don't want to let her down. I had to miss another thing when I was in L.A. for the Netflix card on that Friday. So I feel like three and six are my games. I really do want to go to every single home game. And I did want to go to San Antonio, but I feel like I'm good with that.

That first game at MSG is going to hit. That first game and all the little stuff like the trophy on the cord and the little thingy here and a little patch here, a little patch here, a little patch here. Ah, I can't wait. Great stuff with Scott Coker. Appreciate him coming in. Very exciting to see him back. All of a sudden, business picking up in the world of MMA,

and I think this is great for everyone. We move along now. We've got a couple of great interviews coming up. two amazing, talented young studs, one in particular up next on the program from the world of boxing. Our first guest from that particular world is, I do believe, ready to go. And so let us say hello for the very first time, 23 years young, bronze medalist at the 2024 Summer Olympics, obviously in Paris. Now 7 and 0, 4 knockouts, a guy that the good people over at matchroom boxing are, very, very excited about. He represents Orlando and I'll be honest. Obviously, I was in Paris for

the Olympics and knew about what he did, but really as a pro, what has caught my eyes is a sense of style, the Orlando Magic shorts, even what he wore this past weekend, to the arena in the fight. I love what Omari Jones is all about and how he represents himself. And so for the first time, let us say hello to the youngster hailing from Orlando, Omari Jones, who's kind enough to join us right here and now. Hello, Amari, how are you, my man? I'm good, I'm good, how about you? I'm great. It's great to have you on the show. Congratulations on all your success. And actually,

those are the shorts right behind you, at least one of those shorts, right? The Orlando... Dude, the other side, the other way. Yeah. Your gear is some of the very best gear in the game, man. Those shorts are amazing. Who comes up with that? Is that all you? Well, me and my team, we have a great plan. me and my brand manager, Shaq, we go over the ideas, and I tell them what I want. He sometimes gives me some ideas, and we go based off of that. And from there, we make the magic happen.

The look this past weekend, though, was a little bit different. I like that look. It was almost like a floral look. Yes. It was from an art piece from a black artist. She has a museum them out in Miami. And it was an inspiration off of a book that we found in New York. And it was the inspiration for that. So we took it and we made it into an outfit. And that's what the magic happened. I like it. Even as like you dress to the arena, you're always wearing nice suits. You're, you come across as the ultimate pro. Is that something that you and your team came up with as you transition from an amateur to a pro that you wanted to give off a certain type of image. Look at you here. You look like a number one draft pick quarterback going to play in a

playoff game here. You look fantastic. Well, it's really how I came up. I was in a program called Lambda Gamma on Men's Club, and we would dress up every Tuesday for school. And the reason for that was just because, like, I feel like when you come in looking ready, you feel ready, you look good, and you go in there to take care of business. and that's what I go there to do. And I also look at some of the grates. I feel like Ali always dressed up. Michael Jordan always dressed up to the game.

So I feel like if those greats did it, like let me kind of take something from their blueprint and carry it onto my legacy as well. So 7 and O now as a pro, like I said, in the Olympic Games, had a great run there and since have transitioned into the pro ranks with Matrum. How do you feel about the state of your career? How things have progressed where you're at right now as you kind of enter year two of your career.

Yes, so I'm entering year two of my career. It feels great. When I talk with Eddie Hearn, Eddie Hearn actually met me right after my last fight in the Olympics in Paris. And he was willing to sign me right then and there. Wow. And the game plan was to keep me busy, keep me active, have fights in Orlando, but also travel. travel around like go to Houston, go to Atlantic City, go to Dallas. And it's been a part of the plan. And I'm three and no in my second year as a professional. And we only halfway through the year.

So we're looking at another two more fights. And hopefully we'll be headlining in Orlando, Florida next year. So your first four fights of 2025, all stoppages. The next three, you've gone the distance. Does that bother you? It doesn't bother me at all. Because if you look at the opponents, my last stoppage, the guy hasn't been stopped. He was 12 and 2. I was the first one to stop him. The opponent after that, which was the first one to go to distance, he was 7 and 0. And I was the first one to knock him down and take his undefeated record.

The opponent after that, he was 23 and 6 with a 90% knockout ratio. And then my last opponent that I just fought, he's never been knocked down. I was the first one to knock him down and he was 9 and 0. So I feel like if you're looking at the competition level that I'm facing only in my year two as a professional fighter, it's been amazing. And I mean, if you can, you can name me another prospect that's taking on those kind of big challenges, undefeated fighters, fighting contenders. Yeah, and it just shows that Matron believes in me and my team believes in me to take on these challenges. just like that. I'm super happy with everything.

To your point, your opponent that you beat this past weekend, Diego Zuniga, was 9 and 0 going into the fight. And we combine the records of all your pro opponents, 102, 32, and 3. And so that is a very impressive cumulative number. Historically, we've seen

prospects like yourself, like guys who are 1 in 11, 2 in 10, things like that. So you deserve a lot of credit for that. I'm wondering about the meeting with Eddie, Did you just talk to Eddie? Was he the only one? Or before you signed with him, did you talk to a bunch of different promoters?

I would say I looked around. And of course, like I said, Eddie was the first one I spoke to. And he was like, go look around, man. Talk with anybody that you feel is interested in you. And I went and did that, PBC, and a couple other promotional companies that had sent me some offers

But when I looked at the plan and I looked at the contract, it was keeping me busy. It was keeping me active. And I feel like Matron is the place where everyone stays active. I mean, they're doing fights and shows every month. I mean. More than that sometimes. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

You have two this month with BAM and Boots in it. So it just shows how busy they are. And that was the plan, especially this early in my career. that boots card is going to be gigantic. No chance they turn you around and you fight on that one, right? That's a little too soon. Yeah, that would be too soon. I did ask about it if I wasn't on this past card,

but I'd definitely be there, and I feel like that's going to be a great fight. And so how many years or how many fights did you sign with Matcham for? I would say I have about six more fights left in the tank. So yeah, I'd definitely still be busy. Like I said, in year two, we're in year two right now, and I have about, like, two more fights before the year ends.

We're starting to see a newer trend in boxing where I feel like younger fighters are taking risks earlier where they're not like holding on to that, oh, back in the day it felt like you had to be like 25 and 0 or 30 and O before the career really started. And we're starting to see younger fighters. I mean, even Xander Zaya is fighting a guy like Boots Ennis next month or later on this month, actually, now that we're in June,

is not something that maybe you saw 10, 15 years ago. And so I'm wondering how long you think, you know, you'll need as far as fights before you're swimming in the deep end. What are you thinking? I'm thinking of a few more years, maybe two to three more years, get through a couple more eight-rounders, get through a few more ten rounders,

and then I feel like I'll be ready to take on whoever they put in front of me. I mean, I can go either weight class, 147 or 154. And I make, recently, I've been fighting at catch weights just because a lot of the guys can't make 147, so I'm very, very comfortable at 152, 150, and I don't think it would be a problem to drop a few more pounds. So like I said, whenever the opportunity presents itself until then, I'm going to keep learning and growing in the professional ranks. And when the title shot comes, I believe me and my team will be ready whenever God presents that to me.

Yes. By the way, speaking of Zayas and Boots, you were kind of caught in between. some trash talk there. Yeah. Where I believe if I got this right, was it Zayez who said, just ask your training partner boots and then maybe boots had something to say it. And to be clear, here's you clearing it up. You've never sparred either of them?

No, I never sparked either of them. I think the confusion was brought to my attention today that I guess someone took a message the wrong way that I was supposed to be in their camp, but I kind of told them, I said, that'd be a great idea. And I guess somebody tweeted that it'll be a great idea

for Amari to be in Boots camp. And, you know, a lot of people, they took it, they ran with it. But like I said, I never sparred boots. Boots never called me to be a sparring partner. I never sparred Zander either. Who do you like in that fight? I'm going with boots

I feel like the experience is going to play a major factor and just boots combinations and skills overall I feel like he's just a better fighter to me do you think it's a little too soon for Zayas do you think like the the fact that he's doing this

is going to really be something that kind of bites him in the behind because he's not quite ready for someone like boots yeah I believe so but I feel like if it does happen like that I don't think it would be the end of Xander's career just because he's the same age as me. He's 23. He's taking on a big challenge. And I just feel like Boots overall is a better man. He's a monster at 154. And I don't think Xander's

going to lay down either. Zander's definitely coming to fight. But like I said, if we're looking at the overall package of Boots, he just overall much better. I see you reppping the Venom brand over there. And that's one that's synonymous with MMA. Obviously they have the deal with the UFC. You're sponsored by them, right? Yes, I'm a signed athlete with Venom. They actually came to me after my last fight. They flew me out to New York, and we was able to get a deal done. And I'm just so happy with Venom, with the brand, with the gloves, the shoes.

I mean, overall, it's just a great brand, and I'm blessed to be a partner with them. To the best by knowledge, they don't have a lot of boxers under their stable, right? I don't think so. I think now they're kind of stepping into that rebrand. in situation right now. I know they have Carmel Moore and Tiger Johnson, a lot of young fighters, and I feel like that's a positive. Venom is willing to build with fighters.

They want to build with who I'm going to become, and that's a world champion in the next coming years. So you were born and raised in Orlando? Yes, born and raised in Orlando, Florida, started out with karate at four years old, eight years old, I found my passion for boxing. And ever since then, the Olympics has been my journey. And now I'm a professional now. When you look back on your experience in the Olympics,

do you look back with fondness or do you look back with some sort of, I don't know, sadness, regret that you didn't get that gold medal? I look back with happiness. To be able to look in the crowd and see my parents jumping with joy to see me get, to see me fulfill my dream, first of all, but also to see me metal and be on the podium and be in pictures with LeBron James and Stefan Curry to be able to meet the president.

That's any kid's dream from, especially Orlando, Florida, coming from where I come from, and to be able to do that and, you know, just make my last name, the last name Jones last forever. in the history books, like my name is on the Wall of Fame in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Trainers Center, and that's implanted in history forever.

So I'm just grateful to God that I was able to get the opportunity and prayers work for sure. We showed those photos of you. I believe opening ceremony, you're in Paris clearly. Which one of those interactions meant the most to you? Like which one did you kind of geek out about the most? Which celebrity that you met there? I'll say LeBron first just because it's like, all right, like, I'm right in front of LeBron.

Like, I was watching him in 2012 Olympics, and I would just point at the TV, like, I'm going to get there. And then the next one I would say is Stefan Curry. Just learning from him, his generosity, and being able to take pictures with each and every person that came up to him, I mean, he had a line full of people just waiting on him. That's why a lot of times when a kid asks me for pictures or it's a long line or anybody want me to sign signatures, nine times out of ten, I'm going to do it because I'm like, Steph Curry is a hundred times bigger than I am. And if he can wait in line or do certain things like that, then, you know, it's no reason why I can't. Who introduced you to boxing as an eight-year-old?

Like, who's the one that led you down this path? I will say my brothers and my mom and dad, they put me into karate first at four just for discipline. And my dojo happened to have boxing as well. So I found boxing at eight years old just because my dojo was in the same place. So rather karate, I change into boxing. And I felt like I'm also a second degree black belt in karate. Wow. But I knew, yeah, in Shodokon.

But I knew once I turned 14, 15 and I hit high school, my dad would just kind of like, you got to choose one. No more track, no more basketball, you know, choose one. And I chose a lock in on boxing. I went to the Junior Olympics at 15. And at that moment, I was like, I can really make the Olympic dream happen for real. So I went on and got my spot on Team USA at 18. and now it just I'm able to show kids that they're able to make it happen as well. And now I'm starting with the Omari Jones Foundation and inspiring kids through that.

What is that? Tell us about that. The Omari Jones Foundation is building champions inside and outside the ring, being able to throw youth panels. Yeah, that's my website, Omari Jones Foundation.org. So being able to throw youth panels to give kids inspiration, throwing kids camps like a boxer camp. So I have that coming up July 25th. And it's just to give kids that one-on-one action and to show them how to be successful,

give them advice on how to make it to the Olympics, how to go about turn a professional life lessons that I've learned in the ups and downs that I had to go through because it's not easy. you know, get into the Olympics or being on a professional stage. It's not easy at all. So I'm just letting them know that what hard work, dedication, staying consistent on the path, you're going to get there for sure. Given your karate background, did you consider MMA?

Nah, I wasn't getting into MMA. I knew karate was great, but with karate, it was more so like a point system. So it was a point system You had the counter So whenever you score a point They would stop the action And the judges would raise the flag On who got the point

So that's a little bit different Than taking somebody to the ground Choking them out And stuff like that I was just like I'm gonna stick to the hands only That's great I do wonder while you were doing both You know the karate stance is a lot different

Than the boxing stance Was that hard for you To you know for your brain To I don't know maybe like at times do things that you were doing karate that you shouldn't be doing in boxing or vice versa? Was that tricky? And was that part of the reason

why you had to pick one? I thought, I actually think it helped me. If you look at my counterability and my quickness to get in, to get out, I think it helped me a lot. That's why when I went over to boxing, everything just kind of came natural to me. And I was pretty much beating up the guys

that were boxing for years. I'm like, this guy just coming from karate, how is he able to do this? And from my first sparring, that's kind of how I got my nickname, the banger. Yeah, it's a great. Who gave you that? That was my karate instructor. Love that. Back in the day, he gave me that nickname, and everybody just stuck with it ever since.

You don't hear of a lot of boxers who have come from the world of karate. You hear of MMA fighters, of course, but not a lot of boxers, so very unique. I wanted to ask you, you talked about the Olympic Dream. To the best of my knowledge, the last time an American won a gold medal, an American male won a gold medal in the Olympics was 1984. Why do you think it's been so long? You said gold, gold medal? Gold medal, yeah. 2004 was the last one?

Yeah, yeah, Andre Ward. Of course, yes, Andre Ward. Okay, so that's what, 20-something years ago. Yeah, definitely. And maybe four Olympic cycles, if my math is correct, something to that effect. maybe five. Why has it been, why has it been that long? I feel like, well, not because me personally, I don't, I don't like to make any excuses for myself or anyone, but I feel like if it's a close fight against the U.S. with other countries, they tend to lean more so with the other countries

for some reason. I had a pretty close fight in the Olympics, and the first round I could have, I felt like I won and the other rounds as well. But I mean, I didn't cry or complain. I took my bronze and now I'm a professional. But speaking on just the Olympic cycle and while we haven't received any gold medals, I just feel like maybe our system kind of changed a little bit, you know, and not to kind of, you know, I don't want to bash Team USA because I'm Team USA for life. you know, I just feel like maybe maybe a little switch up in the system would be best.

In what way? What do you mean by the system? I'll say like coaching. Okay. Coaching, yeah. If we implement some more coaching into the system and different coaching, I mean, everybody needs different looks. But I feel like the team USA, we was prepared to the best of our abilities. And I feel like each athlete goes out there and they go for the win.

But definitely, I'll say if we add a little bit different coachings right now, Billy Walsh and one of our other Shrunter Conditioning coaches, Jose Palanco, they're doing a great job with Team USA as well. And right now we're dealing with a young team, what you team USA. So a little bit more experience is more so the issue. A lot of other countries, they have professionals that are in the Olympic cycles. And Team USA has never had professionals in their system. Whenever a person is done with the Olympics, they usually turn professional and then they're

out of the cycle. And they don't have that time to fully develop in the international system. So we're pretty much kids, fighting grown in. I remember Jake Paul tweeting about you know, you being robbed at the Olympics and saying that he was very upset about it. And so you're, you know, you're a very polite and diplomatic young man and I appreciate you. You're not going down that route. But I do also remember him sort of being affiliated with Team USA. Did he actually train with you guys?

Was he around you guys? What was that all about? Oh, yeah. Yeah, Jake Paul, he did come out to Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center. He was actually a sponsor as well. So he saw me right after my fight at the Olympics. I had a lot of support from him. He came to the back room.

He was just like, man, you got robbed, man, you got robbed. And I would just like appreciate you. I'll go back and watch the fight. I don't want to make any excuses. But I was just like, you know, I'll go back and watch it and go from there. But he was pretty prone on letting it be known that he saw me get robbed. and he didn't like it and a lot of other people didn't like it.

What do you make of him and the state of his career now? How far he's gone fighting AJ back in December and breaking his jaw? Yeah, I feel like he kind of he put on a good for going against Anthony Joshua. He put on a good fight up until it lasted. He threw a lot of big shots.

And I was looking, I was like, man, if one of those land, AJ can be in trouble. But I feel like the size and experience just played a factor with Anthony Joshua. And I don't know if Jake Paul is going to continue boxing. After that, I know he was kind of questionable. Like, I don't know if I'm going to come back to the ring, but he's doing a great job promoting. So how far away are we from you fighting at the Kia Center, home of the Orlando Magic,

lining a card there? How far away is that? I don't think it's too far fetch. I feel like I get a title fight in the next coming year. I'll be headlining there in no time. I feel like I have pretty much the whole Orlando behind me. I have a few days named after me, though, Marri Jones Day in Orlando.

I have the key to the city, well, the glove to the city as well. And it just shows like how much support is behind me. And I feel like I keep having that, keep selling out fights at the career, broil. It shouldn't be a problem. Okay, man, that would be something. If you could paint the perfect scenario, who are you fighting in the main event at the Kia Center?

I don't have, just because I don't know where I'm going to land, but I feel like it'll be, it's going to be a big name. I don't know if I have the title or if I have to take the title, but whoever it is, I feel like it's going to be a stadium packed out. I have an artist maybe from Orlando walking me out or maybe some of my kids from my gym or the Omari Jones Foundation and just show that I'm with the city and I'm just giving inspiration to the city that you can be a kid from Orlando coming from, you know, humble beginnings and you can be on a big stage and dream big. Still can't believe you guys blew 3-1 to the Pistons, man. I can't you guys. Where were you up? 19 in the second half there at home? I still can't believe that.

Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. But that's been us for years. So we're going to keep the faith. And yeah, hopefully Orlando, Orlando will get it together. Are you a big magic fan? Definitely. Yeah, I was at the game two or game three whenever they won.

And I was like, man, we can beat the Pistons. Yes. And it came down to game seven. and they just kind of didn't do what they were supposed to do. I know. I thought you guys had it. Game six at home, up three, two at that point, up three one. But, oh, well, you know, you had great years back in the 90s with Shaq and Penny and whatnot. And obviously with Dwight Howard later on, a very fun team, very fun city. And you rep them very, very well, my man.

So continued success. Congratulations on all that you've accomplished at such a young age. It's very fun seeing you do your thing. And I look forward to seeing you do your thing for many, many more years to come. Yes, sir. Thank you. And I appreciate you for having me on the show. I'm looking forward to being back again at there some more wins or that title fight. Can't wait. Looking forward to that as well. All the best, Omari. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you. There is. Omari Jones of Orlando, the Big O from the Big O. And he's doing big things. A name you may recall, I was obviously watching boxing rather closely in Paris. and he was probably America's greatest hope, if you will,

and a lot of people thought he got robbed, ended up with the bronze, so nothing to be too upset about. But he's very, very nice young man, respectful, mature for his age, and someone that I know Eddie and everyone at Matrum are very, very excited about. So that is a fresh face for us on this program, and in a matter of moments,

I don't think we have him just yet. in a matter of moments we're going to be joined by Oshaki Foster, who had a very, very, very eventful weekend. He fought in the main event against Ray Ford, had the back and forth with Shakur Stevenson, Dana White, seemingly very interested in Shakur Stevenson, per Eddie Hearn breaking the news yesterday that Zufa Boxing has signed Shakur.

He's breaking their news, which is a very interesting thing. And I do see here that Zufa Boxing is coming to the three arena in Dublin. So they're getting out of the apex. To me, this feels like chapter two of Zufa boxing. Chapter one was the launch, the shows at the apex. Here's the promo that I think just dropped moments ago. And, ooh, nice little. What is that? Is that a forged Irish stout? Or is that a, is that a Guinness? Is this AI? It's hard to tell, right? August 8. Like some AI shit. PT, you going? Not PT not here yet. man, what the fuck is this?

Why? You're unhappy? Who's going to headline that? Callum Walsh? 30 million for the kitchen. Yeah, I was so mad that I screwed that yesterday with action. So mad. That I blow it. But again, I'm off. I'm off. Next two weeks, I'm off.

No excuses. I mean, I said the last American gold medalist was 1984. I was off by 20 years. They're going to be in Bournemouth this weekend, Zoufa boxing. They're going to New York. They're coming here. The InfoSys Theater. What is InfoSys, by the way?

InfoSys. I mean, I know. Is it a tech company? Oh, look at this. Consulting, IT. You heard about InfoSys? Oh, yeah. InfoSys Limited is an Indian multinational technology company.

All right. One of the best. Are they really? Yes. Damn. All right. Who knew? I did.

Who is the CEO of InfoSysst? Do you know? No. It's Salil Parik. In any event. So Zufa boxing, they're even going to the Cosmo in Las Vegas. So maybe the Apex Days are done. They're getting out there.

I think Callum headlining that show at the three arenas, like a minus five million. A surefire thing, although he's not in the actual promo announcement. I think there's some highlights of him, but not in the actual announcement. We'll get to more news and notes on the back end. I do want to let you know. On the nose tomorrow, ariahowani.substack.com is where you can leave your questions

and or comments regarding on the nose. Tomorrow I'm going to be like just a ball of nerves, you know, just before game one. I think once game one comes and goes, I'm going to feel much better. For now, though, I'm just consuming all the content

and trying to look for any clues, anything to be excited about. They showed all these pictures of the team arriving in San Antonio yesterday. and they cropped out Mitchell Robinson's hands and so you can't

like is he is he okay does he have a cast on what is going on here Oshaki Foster's nickname is Icewater and oh what is this he arrived

nothing on his hand okay now this is coming from intern Josh is this accurate or not I'm not sure now you know like some A.I. He seems pretty confident

about this he's giving you the up? Yeah. I like how we gave him the mic yesterday, but he's not getting the mic again today. Look, you know, he doesn't want to... The seat's wide open for him.

Yeah, I mean, that's actually why I was trying to tag him in at the top of the show. Yeah, he's got a seat right here. Yeah, he wants nothing to do with it. No. He's shaking his head. No, thanks. All right. I actually am seeing this video here of Mitchell Robinson shooting free throws,

and it appears as though he's just shooting normally. Like, there's nothing on his hand. Did this never happen? Did he not actually break his pinkies? This is wild, man. Now you've just taken me down a whole other path. Seeing them at like the NBA finals media day. This is my team.

This is wild. Yeah, like Mitch is fine. Is Mitch fine? Why couldn't they have told us this from the beginning? Is he just totally fine? What is going on? Anyway, anyway, okay, we need to get back on track here. We need to get back on track.

Oshackie Foster. WBC featherway champion competed this weekend. Icewater is his nickname. 25 and 3, 12 knockouts hailing from Orange, Texas, just east of Houston,

32 years young, three-fight winning streak. Last seven fights have been for world titles. And at the Fertita Center in Houston, not named after Lorenzo, Tillman Fertita,

who's a big deal over in Houston, used to be the owner. I don't think he's the owner any more of the Houston Rockets. He defeated Raymond Ford via majority decision. And this was a big deal. His first fight in Houston since 2014 when he was just 4 and 0, a fight that really meant a lot to him. And afterwards, you may have seen the back and forth between him and Shakur Stevenson. We could play for you no audio because there were some bad words said. They, yeah, they got into it. It was entertaining stuff. Shakur reping.

the Red Sox here, which is interesting for a Newark boy. But you know, it's probably just for the look. Look how fired up Shakur is? Now, Shakur is Raymond's guy. How much do you think that necklace cost right there? Like, that's got to be. Is that over a milly, you think? G.C. usually has a good read on these things. I mean, look how think that thing is. Yeah, probably not a millie. You don't think so? I do it. A million on a necklace is crazy. It's definitely six figures. This is a boxer here we're talking about. Like, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're a little bit different. They roll a little bit different. That's why I'm really curious to hear what he did sign for if in fact he did sign Wuzufa. That's a great signing for them. That's a

phenomenal signing. I love Shakur Stevenson. I think the world of him. Anyway, that would be a tremendous fight. And who knows if it can actually happen here if they do confirm the signing. but the fight itself was very entertaining. It started off very entertaining when it seemed as though Foster threw Ford out of the ring. There were all kinds of things that happened, but in the end, it was a successful night

for the Texas native, very close to Houston, very close to home, and now he has set himself up, I would think, for some really big fights. And so without further ado, let us speak to the aforementioned. Oshackie Fawke Faw. who is kind enough to join us right here and now.

Hello, sir. How are you? Hey, what's up, bro? How you doing? I'm doing great. Great to have you on the show, and congratulations on the win. Hey, thank you. I appreciate y'all having me.

Big time win for you, essentially at home. How much did Saturday night mean to you? Man, it meant the world, man. Just finally getting a homecoming fight as being a champion and, you know, making it successful. that's, you know, I see a lot of people be struggling with homecoming, so, you know, it meant the world for me to be, you know,

for it to turn out how I did. Did you feel extra pressure because it was a home fight? No, not really. Actually, I felt, you know, calm as ever. I just look at it like, you know, it was my time and that, you know, God had got me here for a reason, so, you know, I just wanted to take advantage of it. Okay, so several questions about the fight.

What happened in the first round there? where it seemed like you threw him out of the ring. That was crazy, man. Honestly, I don't know. I thought we was going to get physical. So when we made the pivot, I was just trying to push him into the ropes. But it was just coincidentally,

the way he flew in, I guess he couldn't stop himself. But it didn't look like he tried to stop itself. So I don't know, man. It was hard, though. I did not try to throw him out the ring. So just to be clear, do you think he was kind of like embellish?

it to leave the ring? Is that what you felt? I mean, I don't know. Like, I didn't see him, like, use his hands or nothing to try, like, stop itself or shield itself. It's like, he just let itself far fly out the ring. I don't know. I've never seen it like that. Like, I threw guys into the ropes, and then, you know, like, the ropes stop them and make them bounce back or something, but I don't know. That was crazy. What did the refs say to you?

I think some people were surprised that a point wasn't taken away. say after that? Well, I think he didn't take a point because when he said something to me and Ray, like, hey, y'all don't start that. Me and Ray both was like, bro, like, that wasn't on purpose. Like, it was an accident. Even Ray, like, he didn't complain about it because he knew, like, that wasn't, like, a purpose. Like, I didn't throw him out the ring on purpose. And especially being from that angle, it's, like, hard for somebody just, you know, with gloves on to throw him out the ring so accurate. you guys faced off earlier in the week and he pushed you right yeah and and so I'm wondering

I mean you certainly felt a certain way about him leading up to it but did that take things to a different level did that make things more personal in your opinion um yeah for sure I mean it was already personal so the push was just I knew I was in his head um but when when we grabbed each other I definitely thought we was going to get you know I thought it was going to be super physical um at certain points of the fight um but yeah He came out with different energy than I thought. Why was it already personal? Just all the talking, all the back and forth, everything, you know, everything they were saying for two years.

I stayed quiet and I just let them talk until the fight was made official. And then y'all seeing me start up, you know, popping my stuff and just talking crazy. But, I mean, at first I wasn't saying nothing. And so overall, as far as the performance and the fight is concerned, are you happy? Yeah, I mean, I dominated them. I wish I could have did a little bit more thing, especially in 11 round when I heard him bad. I could have went to the body more and tried to finish him and get him out of there.

But I feel like all around, you know, it was a good performance. Immediately after you win, it starts to pop off between you and Shakur. Why so quickly there? Why did you turn your attention to him so fast? Because that's his man. you know, they was trying to assemble the Avengers, what they called the Avengers, to help him get ready for me.

And that's who he told. He was saying, when I wanted to fight him, he said I got to have to give his boy an opportunity. So that's who I gave the opportunity to. And, you know, I wanted him to be the first one to know he who I want next. And, you know, I had to go straight to him. I knew exactly where he was sitting. So we heard what you guys were saying to each other in the ring.

But like when he came in the ring, but right there, what are you saying to him when he's outside of the ring? I'm telling him, I told him I was going to do that to his son-son. I told him, now the daddy next. I was telling him, getting the ring, getting the ring, come see, because I couldn't really hear what he was saying back. But, you know, that's what I was telling him.

I was getting the ring. I told him what I was going to do, and it happened just like I said. Yeah, it was a great scene, a great back and forth. At one point towards the end, once he's in the ring, you say, don't be disrespectful. Like, did you feel at any point, like, it crossed the line? Uh, nah, as far as like, um, I seen him start taking off his jury and stuff and then like, he started raising his hands like he was going, you know, put him in my face and stuff.

So that's when I was like, hey, we ain't going to start, we ain't going to do none of that. So before he even got to being disrespectful, I had to make it known, you know, don't start being disrespectful because, you know, I just had a fight. We're going to have another fight in here if it go that way, you know. How possible, in your opinion, is, is it for this fight to be made? How confident are you that could actually happen in the near future? I don't know, man. We're trying.

I just seen some stuff about Zulfa. Yeah. So if that happens, then I'm definitely not sure because I'm with Tyranc Dizone and Zulfur. I know they were a pair of mine. So we just have to see. I really don't know what's going to happen if he go that route. But we all know that's a super duck. it's a duck move if he'd go over there

he gave his word and he ain't standing on this so we'll see why do you think it's a duck because he gave his word in what way if I beat his son he'll be you know he'll give me the opportunity

or whatever he called the opportunity I just want to fight he got in the arena the day he said we next he said he was talking crazy I told him to shake on it but he didn't want a shake on it. So, you know, that told me right there that he wasn't too serious. Yeah, the Shakur-Zoufa thing kind of came out yesterday. Were you surprised when you saw that? Yeah, for sure. But I've been, like, we've been hearing it, like, circulating for a few months,

so I wouldn't have been surprised, but definitely how quick it came about, yes. Knowing what you know about Zufa, were you surprised initially when you heard that he was going to go there? Yeah, just because I don't know where the guys go from there, just because all the big fights and everything is kind of on this side. So I guess if he's signing to fight kind of Ben or, you know, I don't know what I really don't know. I can't even tell you. Can I ask how do you feel about what they're doing with regards to their own belt and the new Ali Act and, you know, trying to do their own thing as far as boxing is concerned?

Man, I just, I don't know. I honestly don't know because me growing up, I always watched the champions, you know, the WBC belt, IBF, all them, WBO, WBA. And it's real history and real, like, you know, legends that I looked up to that fought for these belts. And they mean so much to a fighter that it's kind of hard to take that away and try to change the program. It's going to be years and years of history that they're going to have to try to make to be able to replicate what the WBC and everybody has done. But, you know, I'm definitely, I don't know, I can't see myself. I just got to say, I don't know, we got to see.

Okay, fair enough. What's the genesis of the issue between you and Shakur? Where does this start? Just two-faced it, man, two-faced it. He had two-faced snake, man. That's it. He was trying to be out. I mean, we was cool back then.

But then, you know, when certain stuff transpired, we had our little fall in night. And then, you know, he came back around and just was like trying to be cool, trying to be friends with me, trying to get me to come over to inspire and everything. And, you know, I told him on the message, like, hey, I don't do no fake kick. I'm cool on all that. And next thing you know, I see his little man's calling me out, and then his little man's exposed him, like, saying that he's been basically

telling him behind the scenes that he's going to help him day in and day out if he was to fight me and he wanted to be his main sparring partner. So it was just like, it was just like a bunch of snake stuff. Like, why are you trying to get me to come hang and get me to come kicking, and then you tell him this guy that? So I'm like, yeah, you're the target then. that's let's get to you. After your interaction, he went on on X and tweeted,

Boy, you're going to want to shake my hand after saying he ain't shaking hands. F out of here, let's fight. And then he said, look, they're starting already. This dude scream my name on every platform. Lying say he beat me up and ran me out of the gym. When I never run from anybody, I'm a man first gang, let's get it. And so what happened there in the gym? Man, he knows what happened.

I see his people want to come respond. now. He know what happened in that gym. He got ran out of the, that's why he, if you know, he wasn't training, and he wasn't training in Houston, and he wasn't fighting, like, he wasn't training in Houston. After that summer, after we had the sparring sessions and the gym got too hot for him, while we were sparring, that's part of the reason he ran out the ring. It got too hot for him, man, I was cooking. And he changed up his whole camp and started training in Houston and trying to get used to that heat and everything. So, I mean, he can say what he wants.

We know what happened. Inside his heart, y'all can see how he respond to everything. Y'all know a liar when y'all see one. Okay. And how long ago, by the way, was that the interactions in the gym? It was like 2020, something like that, 2021, something like that. Okay. It wasn't recent, but we were sparring a lot.

lot around that time. So, you know, he definitely remember every, every session. It was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, you know what so. Okay, fair enough. This is our first time getting a chance to talk to. Do you mind if I ask you about your, your upbringing? Oh, yeah, for sure. So I understand you've been through a lot, and that's putting it mildly, right? I've read, you have no baby pictures, you have, you have, you have nothing from when you were a kid? Yeah, no, I don't got no baby pictures. not up until I was like maybe like five, maybe like five, yeah. And your mother passed when you were young. Yeah, when I was 12. How did that change you in the trajectory of your life? Really, it just took away like, it was being real. It just made me like super tough because it took away like having that person that's going

like hug you, hold you, tell you it's good all the time. My pops was kind of tough, so he wasn't that kind of dude. And my grandma, she had like, you know, it was like 12 of us, grandkids that would be over there at one time. Wow. She couldn't give me, like, the love that I needed, like, that was from, like, a mother. So growing up, like, I always had to be hard or, like, when something happened

or anything happened, I've always had to go, you know, soul search for myself and try to figure it out myself. You know, I just didn't have that ear or that hold you. It's going to be a right. So I always just had to be tough, man, and carry it, you know. Did you get into trouble as a kid? Yeah, I mean, I used to be fighting a lot. Fighting a lot.

Growing up in the circumstances, I adapted to my environment for sure. Your grandmother passes in 2017. Would you say that that was a turning point for you? That that really affected you to the point where you really went down the wrong path? Yeah, that definitely, like, so, like, when my cousin died in 2016, when he got killed, and that kind of brought out, like, because when my mama died, I was so young, so, like, it didn't, like, build, like, hate towards me. It just made me be like alone and made me tough. But when my cousin died, it kind of like gave me hate and made me like, dude.

Like, it made me want to get a revenge. It just made, send me down a dark place. And then it just ain't helped when my grandma died. It just, like, made it spiral. So I just started doing whatever. I didn't care. You know what I mean? I just was just in the streets bad.

I ain't a lot just doing whatever. Yeah. And like I said, you've overcome a lot. what I read was that you were accused of attempted murder in 2017, and you're watching Terrence Crawford in jail, and that was kind of like a crystallized moment for you where you were like, you need to dedicate yourself to boxing. You're watching him on ESPN.

Is that an accurate story? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I had went down for a shooting, broad daylight. I was, like I said, I was doing whatever, just, you know, wilding. And once I got that situation that happened, I ended up bonding out, but I started catching a whole bunch of other cases, another gun case and other stuff. And it just, like, after getting into so many situations with the police and just on the streets, that last time I went to jail, like, nobody wanted to bond me at.

Like, and I ain't talking about the people outside. I'm talking about, like, lawyers, they was trying to charge me crazy money. the bells behind the men they didn't want to mess with me. So it was just like me, I was just sitting there. And when you're just sitting there and you don't know when or what you're going to do, it just made me. And then I saw the Terrence Crawford fight. And it just made me just change.

You know, it just made me like, all right, I'm going to have to try something. This is going to be my path right here. So boxing was what I had left. You know, I had to just jump in ahead first. The good news is the charge was lessened to an aggravated assault, so obviously you eventually got out and got to do your thing. But in the moment when all this is transpiring, are you thinking your life is over? Are you thinking you're never going to get to resume your career and fulfill your dreams? Oh, yeah, for sure.

Like when it happened, we ain't know if, like, the dude was like, you know, seriously injured, you know, anything like that. So definitely, like, everything was running through my mind. I thought it was over for me. Like, you know, I thought I threw my life away. And, you know, God just gave me another chance. So I just told him I was going to take full advantage of it. How have you stayed away from trouble since then? It seems like you've done a good job now.

You're doing big things. How have you turned things around in your life? Just changing my change. my, my, the people that's around me, a lot of, a lot of them situations was really the people that was around me and the energies, they had stuff going on, I had stuff going on. And when they collided, it was just, it was just no good. So I just changed my circle, man, and stay focused on the positive. Like, if you ain't doing nothing positive, then you can't be around me.

like anything negative or if I got a question if you're doing anything negative, then I don't want you around me because, you know, the people you hang around, their situation will become your situation. And that was happening a lot at the time. So, especially if you're a loyalty type person like I am. Like, if I'm with you, I'm with you. So I'll be trying to help out anytime I can. So that's, I had to just stay away from that kind of people. Do you consider yourself a role model? Yeah, for sure. Do you like that kids look up to you?

Like some athletes don't want kids to look up to them. Some athletes don't want to be a role model. They don't want that pressure. But you've been through a lot and you've seemingly survived and come out really well on the other end. Do you want that responsibility? Oh, yeah, for sure. I think that's the biggest thing of being an athlete in my position because it just wasn't all handed to me.

And it's a lot of people that fell out there the first time or the second time. And I'm the witness that you can turn it all around, even if you do, you know, and that you can, you know, all you got to do is work hard and change your mentality, and it ain't over for you. So I feel like I'm a testimony for a lot of people. And I embrace that, you know, because if I could change one life or a mini, I would love to. I've always wondered about your name. Where does Oshaki come from?

Honestly, I don't know. I know my mom's gave it to me, but she said it was supposed to be O'Saneek, but they spelled it wrong on my birth tipka. Come on. I thought it was like Shaq because, you know, Shaquille O'Neal was big when you were born. Like, I don't know, a play on that. It was supposed to be O'Shenique. Yeah, it was supposed to be O'Shenique, but yeah, they spelled it wrong on my birth certificate.

So it's been Oshaki. I actually didn't find out my name was O'Shocki until my first amateur fight when I was eight years old. Come on. I'm like, they messed up my name. And then I look on a birth certificate, my name is Oshaki for me. What did they call you up until that point?

O'Shenique? Yeah, O'Shenique. That's what my coaches was calling me. But, yeah, the first fight they announced me is, oh, shaki, and it was just like, huh? That's a great story. It's a great name, too. Do you like it now?

Oh, yeah. I mean, it goes with, I like shock. You know, I like shock when they call me shocked. Yeah. Everybody called me shocked. So I feel like it just stuck. It gave me another nickname. That's an amazing story.

By the way, can you clear something up for us? You beat Stephen Fulton for the interim WBC lightweight title, right? Back in December? Yeah. But when I look up who the WBC recognizes as champions, they don't have you listed as interim champion. So what's going on there? For lightweight division.

Obviously featherweight, of course. But are you not the interim champion? No. So I had relinquished it like a few weeks after the fight. And this guy, the Cuban guy, had fought for it. I forget his name. Hadier Herrera. Yeah, yeah.

He ended up fighting a guy for the Mexican guy. Carter Nunes. Yeah. Okay, so why did you relinquish it? Because eventually I was going to have to choose, and I felt like keeping the 130-pound title held more weight than keeping the 135. It gave me more options just in case, you know, I wanted to unify or in this case, have a big fight at home and defend it against Ray Ford. Or if Shakur would have came back to, if he would have kept. up his title instead of letting it go before the Tio fight, if he would have came back, I would have been the first in line for the mandatory for him.

So it just gave me more options and more things to think about instead of just, you know, just giving myself one option and hoping that work out. I see a lot of fans saying if it's not going to be the Shakur fight, Navarete means the biggest fight for you, the biggest fight out there for you. Do you agree with that? Are you interested in that fight? Yeah, I mean, for sure, but we got to see what's going on because I'm not trying to keep waiting for that Rettete. I'm not going to lie. I've tried to make that fight for years now. He sounded like he was serious in Arizona,

so I'm going to hold him to that. But if it can't work out next, then I'm probably not going to stick around just too long for him. Because, you know, I want stuff to motivate me, you know. The right for a fight motivated me. That fight would motivate me. So, you know, it's either that or could catch you. That's the only way I can stay at 1.30.

Okay. By the way, how are you liking things with TopRank now? Now that they've got the zone deal and everything, you feel good about where they're at? Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, I feel good the whole time. They didn't have a hard time finding me fights. They know I'm a warrior.

I'm a great champion and that I can go on these other platforms. and still get the job done. So they've done well by me, keeping me busy and everything. And I'm definitely happy that we got a home now. And it'll be bigger fights and more fights to come for real, for sure. Well, congrats on the win, man. Congrats on everything that you're doing.

Great fight on Saturday. Great scenes before and afterwards as well. Looking forward to watching you continue to do your thing. It was great to have you on the show. Man, I thank you, bro. I appreciate you all having me. All the best to you. There he is.

Oshaki Foster, the WBC, Super Featherweight Champion who is doing very big things, won on Saturday. So Super Featherweight is 130 pounds. Featherweight is 126 pounds. I may have said featherweight at the beginning. It's very, I mean, there's just a lot. There's a lot of belts in boxing. But, you know, WBC is probably the most recognized one.

And what a backstory. I mean, you can, you could probably dig a little bit deeper when it, when it comes to his backstory. Been through a lot. has had a lot happened to him, but it seems like he is on the other side of it and doing big things, and that was a big moment for him on Saturday in Houston. And so, yes, I understand some of these names may not be household names to our usual fans, but I like to try to introduce you to these other names from the World of Combat Sports.

So many great stories out there, so many great personalities, and love having those first-time chats. Hope you guys enjoy them as well. there is some news and notes to get to. Is Petey here, by the way? Yeah. How are you? Oh, hey, Pete. How are you?

Great. How are you? I'm doing okay. It's been a great day. McFoley, Scott Coker, et cetera, et cetera. You did, I did want to give you the opportunity to respond because you did draw the ire of a young man on social media who wrote a scathing. A dossier.

A dossier. Oh, there it is. This is actually addressed to both you. You and I, but I feel like it's more to you, if I'm being honest. This is, I think, in regards to the Arsenal, as they're called, falling short in the Champions League final. Get your facts right before spouting absolute. What do you think the B-I-T, well, what is that?

I was wondering about this. Ball, maybe? BS? Who knows? You know nothing about the parade had to be on Sunday due to international commitments. I think we both said that, right? Yeah, both said it. Yeah, both said it.

Obviously, they have to plan for all the eventualities, i.e. potentially winning European Cup. No one at the parade was... That's not really a point. That's not really a point. Yeah, it's just... It shouldn't have been a bullet point. I agree. I agree. Okay. No one at the parade was miserable, you liar. Well, the players were. There were pictures of the players that were very miserable.

They looked... Yeah. I agree with that. The police have confirmed over a million attendees. All right. Sure. There was no goading going on as penalties flew in. most Arsenal fans were shitting themselves as is... Most. Most.

Key word here. Just this point. There was no goading, but most. Then it goes to most. Which would leave, it would leave a few people loose there. Wouldn't they? Could potentially be goading. It's not unanimous.

I'm just saying, you know what I mean? Let's not talking superlatives. You know what I mean? Let's... That's a great point. Let's be fair. Okay, yeah, we continue here. Of course, there are going to be more Arsenal shouts.

shirts following a title win. I mean, if you're, if you're proud of your team, you're proud of your team. Adults generally don't wear football shirts day to day. I mean, I've seen many who do that. It's reserved for football matches and special occasions, i.e. a first title win and twin. That is nonsense. I see you guys wearing kids every, I mean, the freaking, the mayor of New York's doing

interviews while wearing an Arsenal shirt. I mean, he's certainly not a... I've also, you know, I did, I don't know, we probably don't have them here to hand, but I just sent the group some videos earlier of... people wearing Arsenal jerseys who were quickly asked about the support of Arsenal. They were at the parade as well. Couldn't tell you who the manager was. Wow.

One of them wasn't correlate that the gunners were in fact to Arsenal. Wow. Another guy I said this to you earlier was asked at the parade, how does it feel? And he said, it feels so good to be champions of Europe. And someone said straight away, and he went, ah. So I'm just saying, it's all out there. Let's wrap this up here from our friend. By the way, his name is Danny.

Fair play, Danny. Yep. Defender team. Fair play. He says, time wasting is overblown. Check the stats. No, it's not. It's not.

Narratives. Also, football won, did it? Yes, another win for state-owned PSG Bravo football. I mean, it was. One team was playing football out there. The other team, we're trying to stop another team for playing football. That's just the fact. Look, should be happy with your league.

I mean, Danny, enjoy it, mate. You're champions of England. I mean, why are you so upset? You know what I mean? I don't understand. This is a joyous period. There's a million people on the streets, according to you. This should be great times.

You shouldn't be on the tube at 820, writing dossiers to me and Ariel. That's all I'm saying. If you're so happy. That's what I'm saying. He's going to love this. He's going to love this. Anyway, fair play, fair play. Much love.

Peace and love. By the way, we shared the news moments ago. Zufa boxing coming to your shores, PT. Absolutely. The place, when that news, wound off. Crazy? You're going to be there?

It was like we won, or came, got to the final of Champions League and lost. I mean, the millions on the streets, a lot of people buzzing. Finally can wear my Zufa boxing t-shirt, and people go, that guy was there from the Oh, the one that Chuck caught you. Yes, I was, maybe they'll sell I was there, Zufu Boxing debut at the, the Tree Arena. And I can get one for Chuck, reciprocate. Oh, my gosh. It's all coming.

Obviously, Camel headline, will it sell out? you think? You know, the last time they did the three, it wasn't great from what I heard. I mean, in terms of the event, I'm not too sure, but in terms of the ticket sales weren't great. But I will say, like, Callum's done a lot of big things since then. He's been in a lot more prominent places. He's much more of a commodity. Crawford-Kinella.

Yeah, I was there for the Queensbury event, Kikachi. And that was a sellout. I think boxing is buzzing here. So I think they have the best chance to get as many ars and seats as possible. you have all this talk about Katie Terry you have a Queensby event coming up as well

Pierce O'Leary I think it will be will be close honestly even if they shut down the you're ready to do the kind of smaller side I think they'll definitely fill out I think it will look good in TV

What a stretch there they had the press conference today for that Queensberry fight you've got this card in August September 5th is being discussed what a stretch for you guys over in the Emerald Dial

boxing when it went like what was it eight years or so without boxing in our Yeah and And it's interesting because I'm seeing so many people around me, like my own friends, like, talking about getting tickets to the O'Leary fight and stuff. And that would just never would have happened. Obviously, pro boxing wasn't really a thing in the Republic for a long time, especially these big events, these big arena events. So it does feel like we're back in some going to Boone period around Dublin.

And Pierce O'Leary has a really loyal following. I saw them all that there that night, all the Sheriff Street massive having the time of their lives. So I think he's the new Bernard Dunn. Of course, who was the guy who was headlined in the tree arena under Brian Peters, who went on, of course, to be Katie's manager and doing brilliant things with horse. So I think, yeah, I think it's a very, very good time to be involved in boxing in Ireland. Speaking of upcoming fights, RAF has released their RIF 10 poster and lineup for their upcoming show. This is the one headline by Ahamsat Shmai versus Dundanis.

Can I be honest with you guys? I really don't believe, like, I still can't believe, I should say, that this match is actually happening. Is that Aaron Pico down there? I think is that his debut for RIF? Aaron Pico versus Lance Palmer? Taruchian versus Ferguson. They're coming fast and furious with these events. Do you guys think that Danes?

I remember us one time talking about Dennis versus KSI and setting the line as to whether or not Dennis will show. I feel like Dennis shows up to this one. I still can't believe it's actually happening. You know, I think you're burying the lead a bit. Ariel, because it's... If you look at the card there, just being up the card here again.

Yeah, what do we got? What do we got? Just saying this could be, it could be, is that another installment of Ireland v. Dagestan? O'Toole v. Abdurakmanov? I mean, that sounds to me like it could be Ireland v. Dagestan, huge. Is O'Toole from Ireland? Are you just saying he has an Irish name? No, it just has an Irish name.

And Abdurakmanov, do you? Not too sure either. Okay. But I'm just saying it could. No, I could be. Yeah. Yeah. Earlier we were talking about Justin and Ilya showed a video of Justin's father speaking about the fight.

I don't think it was that bad. Ilya responding. What's this from Justin himself? Justin has weighed in on things. Is it getting personal here between Justin Gaichi and Ilya Tuporia? I do believe there's a quote here from Justin Gaei on Iliottiporia via Fox Sports Australia. All that guy is is a gimmick. He calls himself the king.

he thinks he's a god what an annoying little bastard I couldn't imagine being in a room with him for 30 minutes listening to him talk about himself I would leave him that's all I'm saying no way I would put up with his shit is that is that a shot at like what he's been through as of late

yeah gosh this is getting ugly right do I miss that like where is the insight out there I would leave him meaning like I would leave him as a partner oh sorry yeah he just Justin Gates would divorce Elliott to bore you. I appreciate you, Clara, of finding that for us, Justin.

I mean, that's a weird one, right? Well, what did Ilya say about his dad? I didn't, don't think that guy personally, he just kind of disagreed with his sentiment, though? He just said, Papa, yeah. His dad called him a short guy. No, but Ilya didn't go at the da, did he? He didn't go at the dad, but he was like,

I'm going to put your son on ice on the White House card. He's going to be, he's going to go to the high. hospital. You're going to find out who I am, 18 and oh. I mean, it's not personal though. It's fine. We're getting family involved here. We're getting, you know. How was the family involved? How was that family involved? Peace of love. Peace of love. I agree. I'm pretty sure Ilya had nice things to say about Justin Gagee. Yes, I believe he has since said that it is not personal. And to his credit, Ilya doesn't get very personal historically. Like, he is confident and people don't like that. They call him cocky. And that, you know, riles people up, the Instagram record.

and all that stuff. But here he is confirming that it's not as personal as perhaps some people think. He's a nice guy. I don't have anything personal to him. I don't think he has anything personal with me neither. We just had that great conversation. We talk about our families, about our hobbies, all that. He's a great guy.

And the only thing is that we are going to have to fight maximum for 25 minutes. But after that, we are going to have the whole life to spend some sense. some time to go. I will be up to. Okay, to clarify, I think that's old. That is, that is old. That is older than, than, uh, these conversations that have just been having. And, and, and Justin's saying he would leave him. Here's, I'llia saying he wants to spend his whole life together. We have a whole lifetime to spend together, Justin. Justin's like, I'm going to fucking leave. Okay. So what's going on? Do you think it's more of a sleight that he has no emotion whatsoever when he's talking about this guy? He's just like, oh yeah, it's great. We're hopefully we'll be friends after.

It's unfortunate what I have to do. You know, like, is Justin and the gauge you going, like, Hang on a second. What? Maximum of 25 minutes. That's it. Maximum. What's the over-under on this one? I can't imagine. It's very long. I was going to say 1.5, yeah.

I would imagine it's there. I mean, Elliot DeBoree inside the distance is like minus 450. Wow. Yeah, over one and a half. Under 2.5 is minus 185. Okay. Oh, two and a half. All right.

That may not be a super fight. I would say Ilya versus Armin, Ilya versus Islam is a super fight a super fight that we never got was GSP versus Anderson Silva. GSP recently speaking to our good friend Demetrius Johnson about this fight.

This was a fight that we were teased. They wanted, they talked. I remember there was one time Anderson Silva fought Nick Diaz, UFC 183, and they had GSP in the freaking box there. Do you remember that, Pizzi? They had him in the PIP. They had him in the box to get his reaction

because it seemed like it was all lining up for that. Here's GSP talking about one of the great fights that did not happen. This is one of the biggest regret of the fans. So what happened is that at the time, when I was in my prime and Anderson's server was in their prime, I can only speak from my side because I don't know what was happening on Anderson's side. I was only asked once by Dana and Lorenzo Fertista.

And I had the request because I was like, you want me to get out of my way to go up in a way class I need to be compensated because you know it's different I have full of challenge now in my way class you know so if I'm fighting someone bigger

I need to you know change my training try to get bigger maybe so my request was like if I fight Anderson Silver I wanted to be put in the contract I wanted to be compensated better one I wanted to be this to be done in a catch weight

because Anderson fought in pride at 170. Yeah. And I knew he could go down. I don't know if he could have gone down at that moment of his career. Because it seems like he got heavier as time goes by. I don't know. Maybe it's only an impression. So he wasn't a catchweight.

So I could, after that, go back because I saw what happened with Roy Jones. He went up and then tried to go back, get knocked out by Antonio Tarver. It's easier to go up. But then when he... Yes, that was for this reason. I know, you know, physically, if I go up, I needed to go back down because I wouldn't spend my career there. So, and the third one was I wanted to have drug testing implement.

And they never got back to me. They never, that was my intention. They say, you want that? If you make that happen, I'm in. Yeah. To GSP's credit, he said all of these things back then. I remember this vividly. He talked about the up, down, the drug testing, all these things.

This is not revisionist. He said all those things back then. But great, great collab there between GSP and DJ on many people's Mount Rushmore. If you ask me as far as Mount Rushmore of clean athletes who never tested positive, you disagree? No, I'm just saying, just saying it's pointed, isn't it? Well, I'm just saying, never tested positive. Yeah, go ahead.

Names get dropped off the list. Jones gets dropped off the list. Anderson gets dropped off the list. I would say top of the head, top of the head, greatest of all time, if you never tested positive, GSP, DJ, Fador?

No? I'm just saying. The era that Fador is from, I mean. No, listen, did he ever test positive? That's a fair enough, fair no, fair no, fair no. Habib, did he, who would be the fourth? Habib never tested positive.

No, I'm saying, yeah, this is my list of Mount Rushmore who never tested positive. DC? Yeah, DC. I think DC had a greater resume than Habib just because he lasted longer, right? Anti-divisions. Yeah.

Am I forgetting someone? We'd definitely forgetting someone, definitely. Randy? James Tuhna? Randy Gotor? Greatest. MMA fighters of all time. Who am I forgetting?

DJ Pan? I don't know. Maybe on Rick's list. Aldo? Yeah. Alex Wolkenovsky. Alex Volcanowski? Yeah.

Isn't that discussion? Maybe. Anyway, good discussion. Fun little game. How many people on Mount Rush? Four, four. Yeah, DC is actually probably the shout. DC, DJ,

DJ. GSP Fador. I feel good about that. I feel very good about that. One man who did fight Anderson Silva. Did you guys see this? Chris Widman, fought him actually twice. Chris Wideman saves the day at home.

Baby snatcher. Look at that. Ooh. Look at those reflexes. Still got it. First of all, Chris is lying like almost upside down there, right? baby let's go

we have to watch this multiple times his baby back to the ground how's the baby sitting oh geez oh geez what a catch

how's he recording this by the way what does he got it's probably a baby camera isn't it yeah yeah some people got the internal ones right

do you have that do you have an internal one look this wupa Andy come on that's impressive right Yeah, I mean, the reflex

I do this every week. I know. When she's producing the cracks, she has to do this kind of stuff herself. I've heard the stories. I did tell P.C., what was it? Two weeks ago, Ptze? I was like, I just had to get Rohan off the dresser

and it was like tipping. They, I don't, I don't, why do they do this, guys? Yeah, they just don't have a sense of like, what's right, what's wrong, what's safe, what's not. When we were in Florida in April, my sister's daughter is like, two years old, and she was sitting on a chair in a restaurant, she was leaning back. I wish I had this on camera.

Leaning back, chair falls back, and you should have seen this save. Chair hits the ground. If it would have hit the concrete, her head would have smashed on the concrete. I dive, save the chair, and end up being the buffer between head, chair, and concrete. One of the great saves. And, like, that was great. If I'm being honest, my save was greater, but I don't have any visual evidence. of it. It was very, very proud. So I know the feeling that he had there where you, because then you

hug them and you're like, please don't ever do that again, you know? Amazing. Should have the camera on. Yeah. Someone recording. There was a camera recording Alex Pereira. I always enjoy trying to find the, like the link between every item. He's in a new film called Onslaught, guys, A24 film. There he is. AP in the house. Looks good. What do we know about this? The Army? Enslot. Does anyone know anything about it, Frank? Take it away. Yeah, I'm going to defer to cinematography, a cinefile Rick. Is Rick even there anymore?

He's cooking. What's he doing back there? Who do you think's putting these pictures up? I have no idea. Is it Jordan from home? Hey, what's up, Rick? Oh, there's intern Josh. Yeah, J.M.

I thought he laughed. What is Rick changing seats like this? I don't like that. Because Jordan's not here. Jordan's on here. Vacation again. What do you think double-click told Scott Coker's lower third on earlier? Yo.

How was it, Rick? Tell us, tell us, how was it? How was it doing Jordan's job? Yeah. How was the trailer for the film? No, no, no, doing George's. So the trailer was great. Okay.

Doing Jordan's job. You miss you, Jordan. You know, you could weigh in on things. You just, you know, like, you could have. Mount Rushmore? Who's your Mount Rushmore of clean athletes? John Jones? He doesn't like any clean athletes.

No, they're all dirty, so I don't have like a clean athletes and dirty athletes list. They're all. All right. suspicious to me. All right. Okay, go ahead. Keep going.

It looked great. Action movie, A-24. Oh, no, and it's about the Mount Rushmore. Jesus Christ. John Jones. Who's number two? That's a...

I'd say it was BJ Penn wouldn't be a natural one there for you. No, no, no. I think the end of the career hurt the legacy quite a bit. So then Fader is probably out for you too. GSP. Yeah, DJ.

D.C. Anderson Silva. Habib? No, Habib didn't do it long enough. I thought you'd have this ready to go. I find this one hard. Do you see back there changing the calendar? I forgot it's June.

That's good point. Shout out. It's not M.MA. It's actually soccer this month. That's pretty great. Okay. Mount Rushmore isn't necessarily best. Yeah.

So if we're doing Mount Rushmore, you've got to have Hoyce on there. Okay. Hicksons is bad in Hoyce. Frank, what are you talking about? What is it, Frank? Hickson's better than Hoyst, is he more impactful? Yes.

No, stop, come on. Listen. He opened the door that Hoyst walked through, Rick. Nah, nah, nah, you're crazy. He absolutely did, yeah. I think he was actually just sick. They just let Hoyse jump up. No, it wasn't that he was sick.

It was that they wanted, Hickson would have been too good, so they wanted Little Hoyst to do it. Hoist did the thing. You've answered the question yourself. You've answered the drone question there. Hickson's the pioneer, but Hoyst did the thing. You can't. I mean, it's too different.

Hickson boy, Arambar. would have. For sure. That's the word. Wood. What's that, G.C. What are you doing? I was agreeing with Pizzi.

Okay. Hickson by Ler-Mawkson. Cheers me. Hickson versus Hoyst would have been the match in my... Yeah, who would have won? You know, would have won. So, I read Hickson and Gracie's book. What's it called again?

Choke? Yeah. I thought it was breathe? Who's that? Well, no, he does the breathing exercises with his stomach. Etoe. Cote is the film. Choke is a Pollenock book, I think.

Hmm. Joke is a great documentary. Should be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, breathe by Hickson. He said it was such confidence. Yeah, I know, I know. He was made me question. It's a documentary.

Oh, Choke is the film. It's a great film. Documentary book. Breathe is the book. Two different things. Guys, I failed to mention this yesterday and I wanted to mention it on a serious note. Former KSW fighter, former UFC fighter, J Silva passed away.

And this was, this was shocking to see. He last fought in 2025, just last year for the promotion fame. like I said, has fought for KSW. They were the ones to put out the news. Maximum FC back in the day, Bellator, Tachi Palace, UFC, even was on that one and only golden boy MMA card. Has been a fixture in the fight game for quite some time and was very sad to see this.

Unclear as to how he passed away, but he was just 45 years young and we're wishing the best to his family. Sad to see that Jay Silva has passed away at such a young, young age and still seemingly active, although prior to the 2025 fight, he had not fought in six years. So sad, sad news and sending our best to his family.

Do we have any super chats, Frank? Yes. Yes, and to read them today is our own John. Markowitz. Wow. He's back. He's back. Now, are these AI

super chats? Or are they? Few of them are. No, I'm kidding. They're not. Okay. Here we go, Josh. Here we go.

Here's your chance. All right. Sammy says, Ariel, boys in the back, the creek. Can you name the... Ah, you botched the fourth word. What are we botched?

Well. Frank, you could have given him the heads up. Reading is fucking hard. You could have given him the heads up. Frank, I feel like... I'm sitting right here. Frank, you set him up. I'm only a set him up.

student. I'm only a student. He set them up. Frank. It's the crack. It's a tough word that if I was guiding this, I would have said, I would have said to you, Josh. Listen, Josh. That fourth thing is tough. Yeah.

Sorry to happen. Yeah. The conversation to read these happened literally two minutes ago. Yeah. Just threw them right under the bus. Exactly as we suspected. It seems like. Welcome to the team, Josh.

All right. I'm moving your stuff. Crack. Like, it's like a butt crack. Go ahead. Oh, thanks, Frank. That was your reference point? What the hell?

Sorry about this, Jake. Wait, who's Jake? Jake's the guy who's Jacob. Jacob. Please don't worry about it. Don't do this. Isn't Joshua these? Yeah, but you didn't say what else?

I don't get it. Oh, man. I don't get it. Oh, fucking hell. Now we just threw Ariel under the bus. Oh, God. Of course. You guys were throwing out a lot of names here.

I thought you have one name, too many. No, or not. No, right, go ahead. All right, let's go. Can you name the schedule for the summer shows and length of break? I also want to know, Buckcrack is not a bad word.

It's not a bad word. At all. So I'm not thinking of the bleep count here when I'm thinking of but you are thinking of Buckcrack. Buckcrack is not a bad word. I like Buckcrack. By any stretch.

And you guys just all feel bad because you guys, your curse word to regular word ratio is like a thousand to one. So you guys have. I actually don't feel bad about it, though. You should feel because poor Jake back there is staying, you know, till midnight cleaning it up. Anyway, summer schedule will be off from July 31st to August 14th. That's our summer schedule. We'll be back August 15th.

Shout out to our boy over here for even knowing that we have a summer schedule. But yes, we do typically like to take two weeks off in the summer. And if things go according to plan, we'll have content for you thanks to uncrowned films. So that is our hope to have a little bit of stuff, not every day, but a sprinkle here, a sprinkle there. So stay tuned. But as far as the live show, last show will be July 31st. That would be the crack, not to be confused with the craig. And first show back will be August 15th, UFC 330 watch party post show.

What else, Frank? What else? Josh. Oh, Josh, sorry, yes. Jake from Wendy City says, Ariel, favorite classic Canadian TV show, love de Grasse. I like you way better than Frank already at this. He's a lot better.

He's a lot better. There's a little flare. There's a flare for the dramatic. DeGrassey was great. I would probably go with you can't do that on television, a classic YTV show back of the day. YTV was like a young person's channel, and they used to slime people and do all kinds of stuff.

And if I would say my favorite, favorite, favorite, there was a French show when I was a kid called Pass Partoutou, the song. If you're from Quebec, you know this show. It had these little puppets in a store. I used to watch that with my mom all the time. She would love that. I'm referencing it right now. Passpartoutou. Where is Passpartoutou?

Anyway, that's a great classic Quebec French TV show, because when I was born, up until kindergarten, I didn't know I speak English. So I would always watch I would watch the Flintstones in French Believe it or not That's how cultured I am Josh What else Josh? What else? That's impressive Thank you

We even get like a response I think Frank just goes on to the next one Literally brown notes This is great Actually had a follow up Oh did you know Drake from the Degrassy days Or are you talking original Degrassy Like what a

Aubrey you mean? Of course And your boy Aubrey Yes Aubrey Graham Of course Of course of course IYK IYK Back to you Josh Bobby S. Axelrod says

Can Coker and an innovator create UFC proof content? This is our boy on Twitter. Rick, this is your guy, right? Yeah, shot out. You're to the streets. I mean, that's a good question. That's the only question.

Yeah. It's like, how do you do it? But also, do you have distribution? Getting someone like Kevin K, the former president of Spike TV, is a pretty big deal, so you'd have to think great contacts, great connections,

great rapport with people in the business. But that is the big one. No doubt about it, that is the big one. Let's see if they can pull it off. I guess we're about to find out. It was classic Coker, by the way. Remember there was a thing back, I was going to bring it up.

Remember he always used to say, like, we'll find out in two weeks about something? Yeah. He hit me with the one month. And I was like, wow, one month. And then he's like, well, maybe two months. Maybe three months. I was like, ah, yes, I forgot about this.

So it was kind of like a warm blanket. He answered a lot of questions, though. You were great. For a Coker? Yeah, that was a lot there. A lot of meat on the bone. What else, Josh? What else?

The Gator 117 says, Glad my Armand is a bigger name than Hamzot really triggered Rick and G.C. I mean, name recognition. Armand goes on streams, hangs with Jake Paul, etc. compared to Hamzad, who only shows during fight week. We speak the same language.

I agree. That's a good way to defend the horrible take. I love how us just disagreeing with them means we're triggered. Oh, yeah. I'm spiraling out of control about it. I can't fucking handle this one. Also, not a bigger name.

I mean, factually incorrect. There's more letters in Hamzada. It's more of like what have you done for me lately thing. I think Armin is

Ahmzad is coming off of like one of the bigger fight weeks that the UFC has had in a while. Stock went down. Lost but like the numbers were gigantic for it. It's like when

Connor lost to Habib became irrelevant right? Like nobody thinks about that. They never released any of the numbers for that fight, right? You know there were a couple times? where they posted like this did this much on this. I was surprised because I would have thought that would have been the biggest one

and that would be one that you would tout. I think you wait for the White House and if you pop a big number here. Just keep going. I mean, that. No, because maybe the number wasn't. Well, that has to have been the biggest one so far, right? I think so. Of the Paramount Era?

Just based on the buzz, yes. So what else Josh? Sammy says, Ariel, there's a difference between in-studio guest and Zoom? In-studio feels more personal and deeper. I for one appreciate the in-studio guest slightly more. Oh, 100%. In studio, way better. Way better.

In fact, I could have had Scott on last week, but they said, hey, he's going to be in New York the following week. Do you want to wait? Absolutely. In studio, a million times better. You just can't. Like, could you imagine if Mick Foley was here in studio? It would have been a thousand times better.

MGF in studio. Way better than Zoom. It's just you can flow body language. It's a totally different conversation. So yes, there are other shows that, you know, like Rogan's show, never has Zoom guests, but it's one guest a day. And obviously, like, people fly in to do his show. It's a way different thing.

Our show is, you know, we're getting four, five, three, six guests. It's impossible to have all those people in studio. So when the opportunity arises and being in New York, that was one of the things that I hated when ESPN moved me to Bristol. No one was coming to Bristol. So I hardly had any in studio guests anymore. So one of the things that I love about being in New York is, obviously, a lot of people are here and come through here.

So yeah, I agree 100% way, way better. What else, Josh? What else? Electric Bootsable says a little towards Rick's gout fund me. Oh. Nice week, gents. Wow. And what is ISK?

3,000. What is ISK? Isk? What is that? Isklandic, man? Oh, Icelandic, yeah. Oh, nice. How about that?

Croner. Shout out. Well, there you go, Rick. A little gift for you. What else? What else? How much is that? Oh, who knows?

Not allowed. It's like a lot. I got you. Three thousand. Do the conversion. 2433. That's not bad, man. Oh, that is.

Sorry. That's a week's worth of the gout prescription for you. Hell yeah. That gets your one beer in Iceland. What else, Joshy? What else? Iceland has expensive beer. What does that mean?

We don't have the next one? Really? 3,000 Icelandic crowners for one bro. Okay. What is this? It's from UFC Sabbath. Yeah, yeah, we got it here. I need the.

backstory of Frank using Rick's credit card? Frank mentioned it yesterday. Shout out to the Rick Flair capitalizing every letter. That's right. Every first letter. That's cool. We call that Tony Ferguson. Yeah. So what's the backstory? Well, the backstory is back when we were in Miami.

I used Rick's credit card to make some business purchases and then did not remove his card from my personal Apple. So he got a notification that all sorts of shit was being bought. I had a very uncomfortable conversation that ended with him apologizing to me because I was in the right. Okay. How about that?

It's not quite how I remember. How did that happen? I got $300 to turn into your book. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the nature of the purchases. You know what I mean? You promised you wouldn't miss mysterious, no. There are some films on there that were.

Bit of the blue, Pete. Bit of the blue. I do it for the soundtracks. When you get a dodgy cat, it's just straight to the blue every time. Yeah. Every man's the same in that regard. It's not coming back to me.

The dodgy card being his co-worker, Rick's. Yeah. Rick, don't leave your card around me in Vegas, mate. I'll be with you when we do it. A feast of the blue. Nah, I was going to say, that just goes in the hotel room. A blue buffet. We're having bluefin tuna omacazzi.

Well, you're sitting in the back with the blue and the silver. Yeah, P.C., we talked about this yesterday. It's going to be a shame. Oh, great. All right, hard out. hard at hard. I know. Plans it out of me again?

Okay, we'll get to that tomorrow. Last one. Last one. I'm going to read the last one. This is from Mercy in Motion Book, who says, intern Josh, take the opportunities to speak. Here I am, Mercy in Motion Book. Yes. And a great set of pipes on you. Oh, wow.

And now this is great. We got the rule of thirds going right here. This is good stuff. Rick, can you get a lower third on him, please? That'd be great. Yeah, Rick, can you cook that up? Come on, Rick. What do you got?

John would I had that Yeah I'd like to request intern Josh As the name He didn't quite You know We're day two here You know like we all have monikers

Right You know a thing or two About a gimmick, right? Of course Yeah All right well well done Way to redeem yourself It's been a great day for all

And now it's time to go As Rick said Hardout 445 And here we are Hitting our mark Yep Yeah Who the fuck is we?

I don't know I felt good about it. How great was Mick Foley, huh? How crazy was it that he was sort of talking about the stuff that we we talked about yesterday? That was kind of wild. Coach Davinoys Dave. Oh, he hit me with that, right?

That was amazing. That was amazing. Can't believe you watch Holly Home. How about that, too? Whoa, yeah. By the way, when he said, I got one more question, that's the last one that I had in mind. I thought he was going to ask me something about, I don't know, God knows what.

Definitely not Home versus Stephanie Hahn on Saturday in El Paso. but there we were. Reminiscing, it was great. It's been a great day here. What's that? What's that? I was just saying, like, it was nice to hear make, you know, concours that she was robbed. Of course. She was. Everyone agrees.

Except for some hardcore stuff beyond fans, which, by the way, we're not trying to be insulting here. It's just, you know, there's got to be a winner. There's got to be a loser. Or, of course, in a 10-round fight, there's often draws. I wish they would move away from that. That is one thing that I wish they would change in boxing.

Why is it 4, 6, 8, 10, 12? Wouldn't it make your life easier if it was maybe, I don't know, 357-9-11 or something like that? Just, you know, the odd numbers. Boyd draws. Anyway, it's been a great day here on the program. Thank you very much to the aforementioned McFoley. Thank you to Scott Coker for coming in studio.

Thank you to Omari Jones. Great career ahead of him. Thank you to Oshaki Foster as well. Thanks to all of you. Thanks all of them. By the way, tomorrow, Dakota Ditchieva, David Feldman. more to come as well we'll be back with on the nose tomorrow's show too for now back to our sitting there this is going with the boys