The Ariel Helwani Show - Mike Perry, Carlos Prates, Aiemann Zahabi, Mick Conlan, Gzim Selmani, news, more

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Ariel Helwani starts the show briefly touching on the fan reaction to Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry and the promotional tribalism forming (01:15). Mick Conlan joins the show ahead of his WBC International title defense against Kevin Walsh in Belfast to preview the fight. But first, some Saint Patrick's Day trivia, with Mick taking on our very own Petesy’s Carroll (06:16). Aiemann Zahabi returns to discuss his upcoming White House fight against Sean O’Malley, explaining how it came to be, his plan to have Drake walk him out, what it means to have Georges St-Pierre in his corner, and who could be next with a win over O’Malley (31:50). Mike Perry is back following the massive announcement that he’ll be fighting Nate Diaz on Netflix’s first MMA card, talking about how long the fight had been in the works, his return to MMA after five years, getting the biggest payday of his career, how he expects Diaz to approach the buildup, wanting to finish Diaz inside three rounds, and more (1:03:24). Carlos Prates joins to discuss his upcoming fight against Jack Della Maddalena, buzz around a potential Conor McGregor bout, witnessing the madness at Hype FC in Brazil, today being the 14th anniversary of his MMA debut, hoping for a title shot if he beats Della Maddalena, and more (1:33:39). BKFC’s Gzim Selmani, formerly known as Rezar during his time in WWE, is our final guest of the day, breaking down his journey through combat sports, how he got his nickname, ‘The Albanian Psycho,’ being recruited by WWE, the end of his wrestling career, getting back to fighting, and more (2:01:45). Ariel answers your Super Chats to end the show (2:38:29).

Gentlemen, welcome to the air... On this Tuesday, March 17, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here. On a lovely yet windy and somewhat frigid, Chew-Choose-D Tuesday in New York City, feels like it's been a while.

I was listening to someone a Brit yesterday say the word T-U-U-Sty. E-E-S-D-A-Y. And I noticed maybe it's a Commonwealth thing, because some people give me crap for saying Tuesday, but this guy definitely said Tuesday. And so I don't know. It's one of those things. More importantly, it's St. Patrick's Day.

And so happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone who celebrates. Very, very fun day. Everyone here in the United States love St. Patrick's Day. Everyone over in Ireland and the rest of the world. Love St. Patrick's Day. We shall celebrate as well on this here program. More on that in a moment. I do want to say, though, I left yesterday's show almost feeling like I was engulfed in a warm, cozy

blanket. I wasn't quite sure what this familiar feeling was. What was this feeling? What was this that I was experiencing? And then, and then I realized it was a familiar feeling known as nostalgia. Why nostalgia? I'll tell you why nostalgia? Because for the first time in, dare I say, I don't know, 15 years, I can't.

kid you not, I felt something in the sport of MMA that we had not felt in quite some time, like I said, around 15 or so years. You know what that feeling was? You know what that was? Something that I had been asking for, looking for, striving for for quite some time. That feeling is something that the world of pro wrestling and boxing knows a thing or two about, especially pro wrestling. That feeling is tribalism.

And I felt that for the first time. I remember early in my career, I would get people saying, you're anti-this, you're pro-that, you're an anti-strike force guy, you don't talk about dream enough, you don't talk about the UFC enough, you're anti-this, you're anti-that. I had not felt that in quite some time in MMA. And finally, after the announcement of Mike Perry versus Nathan Diaz, I'm getting people saying, you're anti-this, you're pro-that,

you're pro-this, you're anti-that, this is better than that, this one's worse than that. We have not felt this type of debate. We have not felt this type of chatter in MMA, quite some time. I kid you not, maybe 15 years. With all due respect to Bell Tor and PFL, we don't get that type of debate. And so all day I'm seeing White House this, Netflix that. I'm seeing people say that I said the Netflix card is better than the White House card, which I never said. I'm seeing people say the Netflix card that I said the Netflix card suck, which I never said. But you're getting this weird

tribalism. Pick aside. Whose side are you on? This is great. This is what we've been missing. This is what we get with WWE and AEW. I love this. I hope it continues. And it's exactly why. I keep saying more of this, please, and why I say everyone wins when there's competition. So bring it on. It reminded me of the old bloody elbow days. When the losers would write articles saying I'm pro this or anti that. I was like, oh my God, the old fight linker days, the old fight opinion days. Those days, are these guys still around? I have no idea, but it's an amazing thing to experience once again. It's incredible. More of this, please. I want more of this. This is exactly what we've been looking for. I hope it continues. I hope we get more of this type of chatter.

Long made continue and oh how we missed you so very much. This is amazing. Now on today's program, it's another super stacked edition of the program, back end of the show, the Albanian Psycho, Zim Salmani, formerly known as Rezar, authors of pain, W.W.E. Fame for about 10 years. Former MMA fighter, former kickboxer who crossed over, had the WWE run, won the belts, tag team, this that and the other, has now reentered the world of shoot fighting and had a very successful BKFC debut over the weekend and we told you about his tremendous promo after the win. Very, very, very fun stuff.

We'll talk to the Albanian Psycho, who is one of our good friend, you know, Action Bronson, of Albania, very proud Albanian, one of his favorites. So looking forward to talking to him for the first time. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Carlos Prochis. We know by now he's returning. In early May, to fight Jack Del and Madelena over in Perth. That's going to be a tremendous fight at 170 pounds. He's on a roll.

He's been in the news as of light. Always great to talk to the nightmare. We'll talk to him at 2.30 at 2 o'clock. Platinum Mike Perry will join us. Talk about the big fight against Nathan Diaz. May 16th. May is going to be a tremendous... May and June are shaping up to be tremendous months for combat sports and hopefully July as well.

So buckle up. Mike Perry will join us in, I believe, his first chat since this was announced yesterday. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Amin Zahabi, my doppelganger, talk to him about the big White House fight. I mean, we've crossed off a lot of White House boxes here. We had Alex Pereira yesterday. We had Kyle Dawkes, we had Sugar Sean. We're just going down the list here.

A couple guys we probably won't get, but it's been fun. Pereira was amazing yesterday. What a great chat. Appreciate him and Plinyo for stopping by. Great stuff. So we'll talk to Amin Zahabia about the big fight against Sugar Sean, one of the more anticipated fights on that card. So stay tuned for all of that.

We'll have some news and notes, super chats as well on the back end. But as I said, today is a great day. It's St. Patrick's Day. And one of the proudest Irishmen that I know is Mick Conlon, who is returning to action in just a few days' time. Three days to be exact. Big fight for him. He's a part of the MF Pro card that is going down, which I do believe you can catch on DeZone. It's on Friday at the SSEA.

in Belfast. We spoke to him just a few months ago after his big return. He won back in September at the three arena in Dublin. On Friday, he meets the undefeated American Kevin Walsh, 19 and O.

We love talking to Meg. There you go. There is the poster right there. Conlon versus Walsh this Friday, March 20th. I thought it would be great to speak to the one and only Mick Conlin. On this particular day,

he is kind enough to join us right here. And now there he is. Hello, Mick. How are you? Ariel, all good, how are you, my friend? Great to chat with you, my friend. And happy St. Patrick's Day to you and yours.

Happy parties day to you as well. Are you able to celebrate or are you locked in? Come on, man. It's too close to have faith for me to celebrate. So I'll celebrate on Friday and 8, maybe Saturday as well. Not like a little cheeky pint just on the side? You can't squeeze that in? I love it, but no, no.

No, I've got a way to do so there's no chance. You're no stranger to fighting around this time. I remember probably my favorite Mick Conlin St. Patrick's Day fight is when you fought here in New York City. And Connor walked you out at the theater. One of the great scenes that was right before he crossed over to boxing. Where does that one rank for you as far as fights that you've had around this time? That's probably the best one on the actual day because that happened nine years ago today. It's a blink of an eye.

But, you know, that was an unbelievable night. a crazy night. You know, the Halcala, who hit the team was the biggest star in combat sports, one of the biggest stars in the world. And the way it was done, it was unbelievable.

And then he got himself to Mayweather fate after that fate, so it was fantastic for everybody that night. Yeah, I felt like his involvement on that night really sort of sparked his entry into the world of boxing, which was great. Like I said, Mick,

you're one of the proudest Irishmen that I know, but I do have to say, I know another very proud Irish as well. I think you know him as well. He goes by Pizzi, aka Peter Carroll. Are you familiar with this man? Of course, of course. He's some can of peter. He's some can of peter. He's dangerous. Is it dangerous? Harris found this guy, Pizzi, Pizzi's dangerous. Why is he dangerous? He can handle himself to worry about that or not.

Okay, well, actually, this is good to hear. You know why? Because I brought in Pizzi today. Here he is, right here now. There he is. The canapist himself. Pizzi, Carol. Pizzi, no, Mick. I'm sorry, Pizzi. I don't mean to let your secret, I'm sorry. Sorry, man. No, Mick, it's all good. It's all good. He knows himself. I mean, how are you feeling, Mick?

Big O'Foy on Friday. I saw this lad coming out from America talking all this big game. And when I saw, when I talked to you on Saturday, you were saying, I wonder what he's going to be like when he's face-to-face. Because he's talking big game, Mick. What does he say, Kevin Walsh? He's very respectful. I'm going to be honest.

He's being very respectful. And, you know, you can't help admire what he came from. The guy was in jail and he's got himself out. and, you know, his belt is late for him boxing there, so I respect it. And he has dreams, he's been a world champion, but I've got to make sure they stay dreams. Okay, so here's the thing. Pizzi just came in there and tried to usurp my interview. I appreciate you doing that.

You're such a pro, but I'm going to throw both of you a curveball, as we say here in America. Where's my Schleider? Someone took my Schleider. Yeah, the other guy, GC probably took it. Anyway, guys, it's St. Patrick's Day, and I didn't tell either of you about this, but I wanted to have a little fun. I want to see who is actually the most knowledgeable Irishman here, okay? So I'd like to hit you with some trivia. Okay, are you ready for this?

A boxer, I'll definitely be Pizzi. No, no, no. I actually think the smart money is on you, Mick, all right? And I know you're cutting weight a little bit, so we have to take that into account. But I think you're going to wipe the floor with Pizzi here, okay? So I want to ask you guys some questions about this particular holiday. We've got a scoreboard there, right? Right there.

About the holiday? Come on. Yeah, yeah, here it is. Okay, Mick, are you ready for this? Yeah. Okay, Piz, you ready? I suppose, yeah. Okay, Frank, thanks for the music.

Great stuff. Okay, here we go. We'll go to you. Mick, we'll go to you first, all right? And then if he, and if you don't get a right, Pizzi can steal the point from you. That's how this works and vice versa. All right, here we go.

Here we go. First question. Mick, why is St. Patrick's Day celebrated on March 17th? I don't know. You don't know, Mick. You don't know this. Patrick must have got all the snakes out of Ireland on this date. Pitti?

Did he get eggs oil from Wales to Ireland on this day or something like that? Fuck's sake, the two of you. It's the day St. Patrick died in 461 CE. Oh, how can we forget, Mick? 461, we know it well. I was there, I was there, I was there. Okay, okay, let's go to question number two. PT, this one's for you on St. Patrick's Day 2011.

Irish American astronaut Catherine Coleman celebrated in space, by playing an old flute and a penny whistle belonging to members of what famous Irish music group? The Dublin? Mick Stehlin? The Chieftons? The Chieftains. Ah, okay, all right, fair enough. Fuck it.

We need to get one big. What's a team effort? We need to get one right between us at this stage, you know what I mean? Okay, back to you, back to you. When and where was the first St. Patrick's Day parade? Patrick's Day Parade. Dublin, Ireland. St. Augustine, Florida in 1601.

Who are we supposed to notice? Right, come on. Come on. It was a Spanish colony at the time, but it had an Irish priest, so they took it over. Oh, I remember now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now he said it. It's back the memory. PT, I do have to apologize.

I didn't give you a chance to steal that one, but let's be honest. I was about to say it. I was about to say. Whatever you said there. Okay, this is an easy one. PT. Where was the first St. Patrick's Day parade in Ireland? Has to be Dublin.

That would be, do you know, Mick? Because he's wrong. Or? Waterford, back in 1903. Peter Qualey's hometown for God's. I have to say, I thought you Irish, you guys were very, like, proud. We don't know anything about, like, we don't study, like, the fucking history of the parade in school. Do you know what I mean?

Like, no one's. No one's. Where was the first? Leprechaun found in Ireland. What, you're asking me questions now? I'm not Irish. I shouldn't know this. Oh, I'm flipping it.

Do you know as well? Yes. Where? Larny trees. Trees, though. It's some kind of tree. Okay, here we go. This is back to you, Mick.

Oh, I think you actually know this one. You're going to get it. What animal did St. Patrick drive out of Ireland? What was that? Snakes. Pizzi Carl. Pizzi Carl. Put a point there.

Put a point there for old Mick. He got a point. Snakes, okay. The Frank with these guys. Oh, we got right on. Pizzi, back to you. What is the highest number of leaves ever recorded on a clover? Four.

Mick? Three. That would actually be 63, guys. This according to the Guinness Book of World Records. How about that? 63. You're really insulting our identity here. You know what I mean?

Like, there's going to be Americans. watching this going, I can't believe they don't know all this trivia about the St. Patrick's Day Parade. This isn't to me what being Irish is, you know what I mean? The Clover has nothing to do with the parade. I got to be honest with you guys, we all thought that you guys would get every single one of these right. We thought it was too easy. Fuck on, bro. I'm sorry.

You're the kind of piss, Ariel. You're the kind of piss. Mick, back to you, easy one. Name the traditional dish made of mashed potatoes and cabbage that's popular to eat on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Oh, no, Mick? Is that the Sunday Roaster Shop? What's the name? Nearly sounds like your second name, mate.

He doesn't know? You don't know, Mick? Colcanon. Colcanon. There it is. Give me one. Come on. Point for Pizzi. Okay, we're tied here, guys. I needed that, me. Okay, four left, four left. Okay, back to you, Pt.

What do the colors on the Irish flag represent? The tri-color, the famous tricolor. Come on now. Green is... Ireland white is peace and oranges Protestants yeah I'll go like that yeah and you didn't get them all right Mick can you steal this can you steal this he didn't get them all right he got green wrong Oh

The Republic? Irish what'd you say Catholic? Yeah Catholic? Catholic? Catholic? Catholic? Nailed it Mick steals it Yes. Green represents the Catholic faith, warrants the Protestant faith, and then white represents peace between the two religious groups. I mean, how easy is that? I thought you would nail that if I'm being honest. I said Ireland. Do you know what I mean? They're just...

Okay, okay. Make back to you. St. Patrick was originally associated with what color? It wasn't green, obviously. I'm going to say gold. Gold? P.T. We go to you. We go to you. Well, no. What am I doing? Yellow? Neither. Blue guys, blue. That's crazy, Mick.

Might want to brush it. Okay, two last ones. Pizzi, how many pints? You got to get this to tie. How many pints of Guinness do drinkers consume on St. Patrick's Day worldwide? Give us an approximation. Oh, I should do this.

Because I have my own beer. I should know this. He has LaGraw. Yeah, his beer is fantastic. I want to say like $5 million. 5 million is absolutely wrong. Mick? It's more, isn't it?

No, it's not. It is more? Okay, I'm going to say... Now, I'm going to say 4 million. Ah, 13 million, guys. So we win. So do I get the point? Because I'm closer.

I think I should get the point. No, no. Mick, I think it's fair that I get the... You know what? If this was the price is right, the one that is closer actually win, so we give P.T. the point. We give P.T.

The point. It's 2-2. 2-2, guys. Last question, this is it. Mick, this is to you. Irish soda bread uses what ingredient for leavening instead of yeast? Potato. Is it potato?

I'm sorry. Petit, you're going to steal it? Blown it. Baking soda, guys. Baking soda. One tiebreaker. This is to you, PT. You can win it all.

In which Irish city will you find the barrenica? Blarney Stone. Cork. He nails it. Pitsy win. Come on! This is the only thing I'll ever beat you at Mick. Just let me have it, mate.

Just let me have it. Come on. You have this far night? We have this far. No, no. I'm busy. My hands are sore and my legs don't work properly, funnily enough. You know?

I want it. But congratulations. Well done. That was a very high quiz. Who put that together? That was our man, D.C., all right? He put it together. D.C.

That was hard, dude. That was. Come on. I have to say, I thought you guys would do a little bit better, but in the end, you represented, you know, so-so, so-so. It will work. You know, you can't say this to Mick Conlin. Like, he won an RTE sports person a year in 2015.

He's one of four boxers who won it in 40 years. He's the first amateur world champion from Ireland. Like, and you're going to put this on him. Like, what color? What does the color fucking St. Patrick? Come on, Mick. This isn't fair, mate. This isn't fair.

That's a national treasure for God's sake. PT, back to the pub you go, all right? enjoy the rest of your night. Thank you for stopping by. There he is. Thanks, me. All the best, mate. Look for the point. Mick, back to you. By the way, what is the tradition? Like, if you weren't fighting, what would you be doing on St. Patrick's Day?

What would you be doing, Earl? You'd be drinking. Yeah. You'd be having to drink an ice, an ice cold paint. Of my own, lager, LaGraa, which means an Irish with love, me with shamrocks. It's one best log in Ireland, two years running. Gold standard in the world. Wow.

I'd be doing plenty of paints of that. Wow, well, can we get that here in America? Soon, soon. Not yet, but soon. And what do you mean when you say there's shamrocks in it? Oh, we have shamrocks in our brew. Really? Shammocks are in our beer, yeah. Wow.

They're the only beer in the world that has that as well. I've never heard of that. Now, I'm not a beer, quennesser. So, like, is it sort of like a, is it like the thick one? Or how would you describe it? No, it's nice and late. It's late. Okay.

It's late. And the plan is to bring it over to the, the United States. Bring it to, you know, many Ireland in New York, you know, let everybody over there just enjoy it. Love that. Taste the island, taste of home.

Is there any part of you that wonders if this may be your last time fighting around this time of year? Yeah, listen, it crosses your main. You know, I've been boxing, as I said, nine years now as a professional. This could potentially be the last time. I do.

I'm some parties day kind of weekend. I know it's post-potties day, but still around this date, it's definitely a possibility. There's not many fights left in my career. I'm more at the tail end than the starter, even the middle. So I know that, you know, I have a few left. Hopefully I get a worthwhile in that. And if I do, it'd be good to keep it off.

And back in New York, you know, party's day? Who knows? Oh, yeah, that would be tremendous. You were talking about Kevin Walsh earlier, and I have seen him say that he's relishing the idea of ending it all for you, your career, you know, back home. When you hear that type of talk, how do you digest it? You know, we have to see.

You know, it's all good talking and it's all good when you can say those type of things when the level of opposition you face is nowhere near. The opponent is going to be in front of him for anything. You know what? I think there's, I'm just going to put it. on a master class and show Kevin Mulch what boxing is, take him to school and boxing, possibly take him out as well. So, you know, these are all things we've got to wait for a day to see.

But anybody who fights me is going to say that type of stuff now because they know I'm towards the end of my career. But I'm still alive dog. I still have plenty of fight left and I still have plenty of determination to go there and do a job and look good doing it. I remember when we spoke to you before the fight in September and you had a lot of It also won in March after the two-year layoff. And so now it's two in a row.

I'm wondering, like, how's the confidence? How's the mojo? It feels like everything's coming together for this final push. You want to fight for a belt again. Where would you say your confidence is at right now? That's very high. I've put the work in, as I always do. And, you know, I feel like I'm still learning as a fader,

still, you know, improving as a fader. And with the change of gym and where I am now with Grant Smith in Steele City and Chaville, it's going really, really good and, you know, I feel like I'm back to myself for the first time a long time. You know, before that last fight it was getting there

and then got that last fight over in this camp I feel like I'm back now and I'm going to go in the shoulder on Friday night. This is a misfits pro card as I mentioned. What's it been like for them? They're now, they're calling themselves MF Pro, they're going into those you know, that ranks, if you will.

They've got the Chazora and Wilder fight coming up, your fight, so it seems like they're trying to get some big names over in Europe. How has it been with them so far? It's been great. It's been great. You know, for me, the headline in the first show, it's a nice thing. You know, I have been evented. Most times I've ever fought.

So the fact that I'm getting to do it here on a brand new promotion, you know, for the first time here in Belfast as well. Before their big show in London with Chisorra and Wilder, you know, I feel blessed and I'm looking forward to relish an opportunity the day and putting on her performance and getting MF Pro kicked off to a good start. All goes well for you on Friday. How would you map out the rest of 2026? What would be the ideal year for you?

For me, what would be ideal would be the fate for the title next, you know, against Bruce Crown and in New York, that would be fantastic. But if that didn't happen and he had to have a mandatory or took somebody else, I would most likely look to fate here back in Belfast in the park in the summer. Okay. Speaking of the summer, there have been some talks that have heated up recently about Katie finally getting a chance to fight at Croke Park. Do you think that this actually finally happens? I think so. I think so. I've seen politicians and stuff speak about it now and they're saying like she deserves it and we want her to kind of, when she finishes her career to finish it here in Ireland and finishing Croke Park, she's deserved that. And I believe she has deserved that for a long time. time. She's the queen of Irish sport and the best female ever to box. Any interest, any possibility if that happens? I feel like they'd want to load it up with

proud Irishman like yourself of being on that one. It would be an honor. It would be an honor. If I got the call and they say you can come on, the discard, do you want to do it? I would love to, I would love to be a part of that because, you know, Katie's been a role matter for many people around Ireland kids, men, females, everything. You know, she's been fantastic and to be a part of, you know, her big one in Croke Park would be something special and, you know, I'd relished the opportunity. When we spoke again back in the fall, we talked about the business of the sport and the changes that seem to have, you know, been brewing with the Ali Act and whatnot.

And I always appreciate the fact that you shoot from the hip and you tell it like it is. And so some, I don't know, some six months or so later, how do you feel about, what's been happening in the sport, especially here in the United States, and also over in Europe with Eddie and Frank seemingly falling out with Turkey and things changing over there. Yeah, it's crazy. It's the way to the West, isn't it, box in the moments? You know, you've got, you know, Dana and Turkey coming in together

and, you know, upset in the apple cart, stealing counterband, doing all this stuff. It's a funny old sport and how things change, you know. You've got to just keep their eyes peeled on everybody, because you don't know who you can trust. Yeah. You know, who's going to screw you over? But expect the unexpected and do not be surprised when you do get screwed because it's a game that happens an awful lot on.

How do you feel about Zoufa boxing so far? I think they've done well. I don't rate the uniform outfits. You know, I think that takes away from boxing a bit. You know, boxing's always been with the facade, you know, everybody dressed up and, you know, looking like very glammed in the ring whether it was nas wearing his you know his leopard print shorts and all this stuff that's always you know a part of boxing that they kind of make it uniform and stuff like that i think that is where they're making mistakes um it looks like the money has been good but i think that

depends on how long turkey lasts uh with dana before he leaves him um but the shows They have been the greatest, but they're only starting. It's not going to be the finished start going to go right away. I think that they can't do something, and they are trying to make big plays, but it will still take time. Do you think that's inevitable when you say how long Turkey lasts with Dana until he leaves them? Yeah. If you look how the release of Swavetti and Frank have been over the years,

they've built up, and then they broke apart, they built up, they break apart. It's how long, turrets. He really wants to stay around. He's the guy in control. He has the money. So the person with the power is the person with the money. And he has the money so he can dictate the what he wants. And if he just to say it's one day, nah, I don't want to do this no more.

Then it ends for most of them, I think. Considering the history, were you surprised Connor did what he did, Connor Ben? I don't like how it was done. I'm not the biggest of fans of how he's went about his business. but if he was getting paid $15 million, do I, you know, criticize him? No, because that's a ridiculous amount of money for a one-fite. Now, I don't know if that's been true or not,

but the fact that it's, you know, it's a one-off because most of the time, the fader is the one getting screwed, and this time the promoters get screwed by the fader. So, you know, you can't really blame when that type of money is being put on the table. How he went about business is probably the wrong way. You know, a phone call would have been just.

or an email or something would have been for the fact that it was done that in the way I don't respect it but the same time the fader has got one up for the first time long time probably yeah

it's a real soap opera this sport it's a real like reality show it's wild so it's you know the real late district of sport boxing isn't it yeah it's anything can happen anybody can be involved

and as I said expecting the unexpected because these things happen all the time. It's just, it's not a nice scheme, everyone going to be honest. One that you're looking forward to being out of? Even when I'm out, it'll drag me back in. Yeah. Will you be a promoter as well? Are you interested in that? Management is probably where I go to, you know, promotion. I'll say I had the promotion

from my brother for a while, but we don't do that anymore. I think he's still doing himself. but, you know, for me, it's the promotional state of things, it's a different type of game, isn't it? It's not the best type of way to do it, and it's a hard game to do. How about coaching? No. Why not? I feel why for coaches because I think coaches are the least think fatter. There are people in sport and boxing because, you know, if the fader wins, the fader is one,

but if the fader loses the coach is the fault, you know, I don't think to get, enough credit that they are the person who I think does more of the job than a manager. They're the basically sports psychologist, the person who's trained them every single day, and they're also helping who to pick who to fate and stuff. So their job is much more the bottom of the barrel, really. Well, you don't have to worry about that for now. you are back on the 20th of March that this Friday, SAC arena

in Belfast. There it is. MF Pro massive opportunity for you to fly the flag on the zone. Tickets on sale right now. You continue to make your country and your people very proud. You did so in this little trivia game that I sprung upon you. Don't worry about the

you know, he plays dirty that guy. He plays dirty as you said. And I do want to let people know to check out your YouTube channel. You're doing things over there as well. shout out to the YouTube channel. There it is. Go check them out.

Some great behind-the-scenes stuff. And also the For the Crack little series there. PT has a show called The Crack. There you go. For the Crack. Shout out. I love it. Doing it all.

Make always a pleasure. All the best to you. Enjoy. Good luck out there. And looking forward to seeing you in action on Friday. Thank you. Speak this to me, my friend. There he is.

The one and only Mick Conlon. Kind enough to join us. On this St. Patrick's Day, that's one point for the old canapist PT Carroll getting the victory there with the tiebreaker GC came through

I thought he was going to do a little bit better GC with your questions I thought they were kind of easy but it felt like a true ice man would have nailed all those yeah like it felt like a layout when you read me those questions yesterday

I was like oh god this is going to be like You were rattling them off St. Patrick Blue We knew most of them snakes 63 you know

Green is Florida. Go Orange, Protestant. Yeah. Easy stuff. Oh well, you learn something new every day. Still to come, my friends. Platinum Mike Perry at 2 o'clock to talk about the big Nathan Diaz fight.

Carlos Prachas at 2.30. Zim Salmani, aka Rezar, of WW Fame, made his BKFC debut on the 14th of March just a few days ago. Got a big win over Daniel Curtin. But we do have to speak to the one and only Amin Zahubi now. he is returning to action on the 14th of June at the White House. You know by now everything about it. Sean O'Malley, one of the biggest fights. And there's a lot of pressure on Mr. Zahabi in many, many ways.

And he's trying to deflect that pressure onto me, it seems like. He's trying to call me out, left, right, and center, trying to get me to pick aside, to pledge my allegiance to him. And I continue to say that I'm down the middle, I'm unbiased. I don't play that game. But he's trying, and I appreciate that. And so I wanted to have him on because he was also wondering whether or not I would have him on. Here I am.

You doubted me. You didn't think I'd have you on? Come on. You had him first. It's crazy. It's crazy to me, man. No, I'm just joking. Listen, I know you're impartial.

I said it in my video that you're going to be impartial, man. I appreciate that. You're a stand-up guy, right? Am I right? I'd like to think so. I'd like to think so. But I appreciate you trying to get me on your side, but I'm down the middle. But you know I have much love for you, of course.

Montrealer, Lebanese. I mean, we have many things in common. But I also like, Sean, as well. So I'm trying to play that game. I do have to say, though, I mean, I feel like there's a lot of pressure on you. We have had, as Canadians, an awful run against America as of late. The two gold medal games just lost in the WBC, the baseball tournament on Friday. I feel like you're the guy to try to get us back on track here. Do you feel that pressure? And we lost the Paralympic one. Yeah, that's what I said. Oh, yeah. Exactly. So it's actually four. The men and women, the Paralympic,

The WBC all in the stretch of like three weeks here. Listen, it's all on me now. It's all on me, boys. We got this one. I'm excited. Actually, I feel it's fuel to me. You know, I feel like it's an honor to have that on my shoulders. And I want to represent Canada well on the main stage, you know, at the White House.

It's going to be beautiful. My sponsors suitably, they're going to suit me up, obviously, like normal, but they're also going to suit up my cornerman. So, GSP, for us and Neil, we're going to be showing up to the, every time we're go to the White House for an event, whether it's press conference or the way-ins or whatever the fights. We want to be dressed very well. We want to represent the country properly, you know, show the Canada's a class act and, you know, really carry the flag properly. Okay, so I love that, by the way, and I expect nothing less from you guys.

I do wonder this, though. You know, I was at the Olympics. I was working for the CBC, which was a great honor to cover the games for our country and for our country's public broadcaster. And I have to say, I've been living in the States for, you know, 25 years now. So there is a part of me, a part of my heart that is with the U.S. I'm not going to lie. But being there with Canadian. That's why. My children are American. I have to, you know, I have to show love, too. But I'm just joking. I was just joking. I know, I know. I do have to say, though, being around Canadians for three straight weeks, like true blue Canadians for three weeks,

watching all those games, especially the two hockey games, there is a tension among Americans and Canadians and really I think Canadians towards Americans because of all the stuff that has been said over the past year, 51st state and all this. Like they really they really feel some sort of way and those games meant a lot. Do you take that into this? Like you feel like you have to represent for your country? Even before I got the fight, I was saying, let me fight Sean O'Malley at the White House. I can make them the 11th province. I know what I mean? Like I feel like the rivalry between America and Canada is it's amazing. It's like it's like between two brothers. You know, sometimes we're on the outs. Sometimes we're cool, but we're always pushing each other, you know. So I feel like we're tied at the hip here. We have the longest border in the world with the United States and any other country shares with another country. So I feel like, yeah, we're going to have our moments, but the rivalry is the best thing we have because we each have to step our game up, you know.

I don't know hockey, like you guys know hockey or a lot of hockey fans, but supposedly Canada was the better team. And they played the better hockey, but they just couldn't put the points on the boards. I'm talking about the men's game. Yep. And, you know, I feel like that's going to be fuel for the next Olympic games that they have, right?

And I think it has fuel for me now. Like, I want to go out there and I want to beat Sean O'Malley with an exclamation mark. You know, I want to finish him. It would be incredible to do so. It would be nice to do that in the White House. Represent Canada and get that win there. Like, how good would that feel for Canadians to see a Canadian

beat an American at the White House? I think it's historic. You know, on top of that, I'm just thinking now, it's like, you know what it would be incredible? I'm walking out with GSP from the White House. You know what it would be even crazier is if Drake walked me out from the Oval Office. Wow. Singing started from the bottom. Drake, if you're out there, I would love it if you could do that.

You know, I started from nothing. My parents immigrated here from a war-torn country, and I made it all to wait into the White House. I truly started from the bottom. Drake, if you're listening, I would love you to come out and perform for us. Wow. I've got to say, that gave me chills right there. That gave me chills when you said that. What a scene that would be Drake at the White House walking you out with GSP,

the two goats of their respective fields walking you out, the present with the past. And obviously, you know, one of the, wow, you thought about this on the spot right here? I thought about it. I thought about before here. I thought, you know, I dropped it on your show. I saved the gem for your show, Ariel. I've been doing interviews every day. I saved this one.

You know, I said, you know, my man, Ariel, he's got the views. He's got the accolades. Thank you. What are you, journals to the year, 15 years in a row. Yeah, you said in the video, I think you said 12, but, you know. Yeah, I undershot it. I undershot it because, you know, we're Canadian. I'm trying to be conservative.

I didn't want to, you know, exaggerate. But 15, congratulations, incredible. Thank you. Every year we do it, baby, me and you. Me and you are on a roll. Yeah, absolutely. You got to catch up, though. I mean, I've been doing this since, like, 2009.

I've had seven wins in a row. I'm going to, you know, I'll wake my way to 15, man. I have no doubt. I have no doubt. That would be amazing. Gosh, we have to put that. He's been to some events. He was with Connor McGregor at the way in prior to OVO did a collab last year with the UFC.

They had a lot of products with the EFC. You know, if OVO wants to sponsor your boy, you know, bring that to the White House, things like that, it would be cool, you know. Did they ask you when they offered this to you or your team like, hey, are you going to say anything? Are you going to do it? You're a pretty like cool guy and respectful guy, but with this sentiment, were there any sort of questions that they asked you beforehand? No, they didn't ask me anything. I think the UFC, you know, they trust me. You know, I think a lot of the guys they pick to put on the card are guys who are going to show up and make weight and put on a show.

They're coming to do their job. And I think they pick guys they can trust, you know, in a certain sense. What about I've heard like there have been some questions of, oh, you know, do you have anything that we need to know about on your, you know, your record, your past, this and that. did they ask you those types of questions? They didn't ask me, but I'm clean. I'm pretty sure for us, GSP, Neil, we're all good. You know, does Drake have anything? Hopefully he's got a clean record.

No, I think he's good. I think he's good. I hope he's good. I hope he's good. You know, but you know, what, doesn't that represent Canada? Like, you know, like, I have a Lebanese, like, my parents were from Lebanon. Yeah. Muslim.

Drake, he's, I think his mom's Jewish. Yep. His father is black. JSP, you know, French, Quebeccapecaque, Canadian. in, you know, my brother, Neil's half native, you know, like, it would be like a real representation of Canada, I find, like, a little bit of everything. I love it. I love it.

How did this come across your radar? Like, do you remember the first time you were told, hey, we're considering you, we want you? How did this first come to you? You know, I thought it was interesting because we got the call, Hunter called for us on a Wednesday, the Wednesday before they made the announcement. He called for us on Wednesday and asked him, how do you think the fight would go and things like that?

For us, like, yeah, it'd be a great fight, fireworks. You know, they both left to strike. Amon fights with a lot of heart. He's going to push to get the win. And he's like, okay, it was like, would you like this fight against Sean Romali at the White House? And Frost like, yeah, he's like, I think you would love it. And then when I got to the gym, Fras asked me, he's like, oh, I just got a call from Hunter. He was wondering if you would like this fight against Shotnamalee at the White House.

He said, yeah, of course, I'm like, let's take it. So when we sent him a message, we didn't get a confirmation. and I didn't get a contract. So we weren't sure. And Dana White, like either a few days before or like a week before, had said that they're keeping two options for the White House Guard. And I know Corey for sure was calling out Sean O'Malley. So I was assuming I said yes,

and I'm assuming also Corey said yes to fighting Sean O'Malley. So when they didn't confirm, I thought, okay, they're either going to go with me or Corey, and maybe they're just bringing it to the other guys and other match speakers are going to vote or I don't know what. So Saturday night, me, my wife and daughters were sitting down watching and we found out like everybody else and we had like a really nice moment. Wow. So the secrecy made it kind of special, right?

So we all found out at the same time. And I thought it was cool. Wow. So you literally found out when we did watching on TV? Yeah. But I had said yes. Yeah. But you didn't know for sure.

Yeah, I didn't know for sure. Yeah. Wow. How did you guys react when you saw it on TV? Oh, it was crazy. Actually, it's kind of a funny thing. So like my wife got up to like video my reaction with my daughters. And for some reason when I watch the fights here at my house,

I'm on like a 15, 20 second delay on my feed somehow. I don't know how it works. But so like my wife was filming with my phone and people were messaging me. Congratulations, congratulations. But she kept their mouth shut. She didn't tell me. She was waiting for my reaction. And when he came on the screen, I started to figure, I was like, oh my God,

I found out 15 seconds before you. That's amazing. So yeah, yeah. So it was a cute moment. you know the girls are happy I was happy my wife was over the moon I called my mom on FaceTime I'm like mom we're going to the White House she gets up she was dancing like I can't believe her we're going to White House she was so happy you know and then like a lot of people were happy for me and then I was getting lots of

messages that kind of like oh you know if you go there you're supporting pedophiles you put it's like but you don't make this about that you know don't make it about stuff that you know it's still going there for sports I'm going to represent Canada I'm going to go in there for our platform to show the world who I am, what kind of the represents and how hard we work, and I'm going to fight with my whole heart, and I'm going to speak well,

and I'm going to try to represent my country. I'm not worried about what other people do. I'm there to represent me and my team and show the world how great we are. I do think that is the right approach. I'm wondering, are you going to be allowed to bring the Canadian fly? Do you know if that's even allowed? I don't know.

I will tell you, though. I made a request to the UFC asking that, if Drake says yes, can I get him to walk me out from the level office? they're looking into that. Things are in motion in the background. This is actually a thing. Okay, this is actually a thing.

You've already... I made a request. I made a request. I made a request. Now it's all about convincing Drake to come out, help us out, you know? You know, Aubrey's my guy, right? Like, you know, I could just call him real quick. No, I didn't know that, actually.

Like, you could have just asked me. I got to just... I didn't know you run deep like that. That's my boy. I mean, I keep it on the DL, but that's kind of my guy. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Listen, you know, he's the guy for music right now.

You know, number one on Spotify, bestselling artists, all these things. And, you know, me, him, GSP for Canada. Like, we can really push this country right now up to another level. You know, and I feel like if we come together, it could be great. You know, what's crazy, I mean, you know, we make the jokes about us looking alike and all this stuff and being, you know, brothers from a different mother type of thing. This is the craziest part. Stick with me here for a second. Throw Drake in the mix.

Throw Drake in the mix. People say I look like him. I don't know about you. People say, I look like in all the time. There you know. Like, are you Drake? When I'm tanned. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

People are like, are you Drake? Like, no, I'm not Drake, man. But this is the crazy thing. My son, who's 13, adores Drake like most, you know, kids do. He adores Drake. My son's Bar Mitzvah. You know what a bar mitzah is, right? Yeah, of course.

My son's bar mitzvah was last year, June 14th, believe it or not. No way. It gets crazier. In March, I asked Drake, I DM Drake, and I said, hey, man, my son loves you. any chance that you can send him a video for his bar mitzvah's telling him like congratulations he said i got you i got you he sent it to me the night before and i played it for him on june 14th on his bar mitzvah could you imagine with all our connection it was the best video by the way it was a 45 it was incredible he came through it was one of the happiest moments when i got that video and to see my

son's face he couldn't believe it we still watch it over and over to this day imagine a year later he's walking out you my doppelganger at the white house it's awesome it's all to i mean like all connected. What he did for your son, it's a mensch move. It is a... You hooked it up big. That's a huge one, you know? And then there's another chance, bro.

There's another chance at the White House. I love this. This is amazing. So what did the UFC say when you asked about it? Well, I asked the person who's asking me what song I want and what options I'm going to have as a backup song just in case they don't okay my song. Because it's the White House, I think they're going to be a lot more sensitive in terms of the lyrics.

And then my Tupac song is a little bit, you know, there's a lot of strong. There's a lot of swearing in it and there's gunshots and whatever. So I'm sure, like, you know, with the started from the bottom, it'll be no problem. I'm just, they're going to ask the bosses if with the security and all that, if they're going to allow an extra person to walk out with me. Okay. So we can always, listen, if they hear it's Drake, I feel like we're going to figure it out. And my favorite thing about the UFC, and I've said this many times when I work as a sports analyst,

the best thing about the UFC is how nimble they are and how they just get things done. You know, when things go wrong, they fix it. And if you need a special something to happen, they can make it work. And so GSP will in fact be in your corner. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, this time yes. This time I call them early. I called them last time. I think when I got the Marlin fight, I think I called them something like nine weeks before

the fight. And he's like, oh, you got to call me earlier. I'm like, early. How much earlier though I got to call you? And this was like 14 weeks before. So his schedule wasn't done for that time. So yeah, he made space. And he's, you know, honestly, he's excited to be there, man.

He's like, you know, I was shocked how involved he was when I fought Aldo. Like he really loves me. You know, he's seen me grow up since I'm 15 years old, right? And I'm like a baby brother to him too. So even in this camp, he's going to be really involved, I think, and he's so excited to be there. And he wants me to win that belt. Like, he's motivated and he thinks that it's within my reach.

And it's nice to have somebody like him who's also the greatest of all time in what I do, and he believes and he sees it. You know, I know a lot of the fans, they can't see it, but if I see it, it's the only thing matters and our enemies plan but God is the greatest planner right God is the greatest of planner so he has so much abundance God if he's really all powerful there's that you know dream big dream big he might give it to you you know there's something beautiful about the fact that for the longest time you were kind of you know unless you really knew about TriStar you didn't know much about you were just Faraz's younger brother you were there helping out all the guys now to see you truly

I know you've had these big opportunities in Montreal and these big fights but on a stage like this to see you kind of break through and be your own guy, to have your own story. It's really amazing. I wonder if there was a time where you thought maybe you'd always be that guy in the shadows. And to see it kind of play out like this must be very rewarding and fulfilling, I would imagine. That's super fulfilling, you know, and that's the best thing about the darkness of like, you know, in life, no matter what you choose in life, life's going to hit you with storms and things are going to go bad. But if you're doing something for the wrong reasons, it feels like misery. You know, like when I lost my two fights in a row, I just put my head down, I put my blinders

on, and I just got to work, and I did what I had to do, and I fought through it, and I came back from the CAO loss, and then my decision loss, and now I have the best defensive striking on the current roster, and ninth overall in history of the UFC. Even the things that happen that are bad end up being good if you just stick it out and you're able to endure. And making money is not really the reason. You know, I want to see myself as one of the best fighters out of Canada, and that motivates me more than the dollars that they pay me.

Like it's nice to get big checks. Like now I'm getting paid pretty decent. Hopefully after this fight, I'm gonna make some real decent money as a title challenger. Then when I win the belt, I'll get even more money. That's a nice perk. It's a nice to have. But I'm really out here trying to prove the best.

And that's what helps me weather all these storms. And I literally, like you said, I started from nothing. I was the background guy for the longest time. Now I'm on the main stage. And it's my breakout, man. It's time for my breakout. So I'm just embracing it. I'm loving it.

And I will say, though, I'm staying level-headed because this Washington card, it could still be the worst night of my life. I have to make it the best night of my life. So I put my faith in God, but I work like it's all up to me. And I'm not cutting any corners. This training camp, for me, it's do or die. I remember when you called out Sean a few months ago after the Marlin fight and he put out a video kind of saying, like, who is this guy, right?

I know he was kind of kidding around, obviously, but is there any part of you, this is the one that I'm talking about? Is there any part of you that was surprised that he accepted this fight? No, man, I'm not surprised. I won seven fights in a row. You know, he lost twice in a row. I was making my way up the ladder. Now I'm ranked number six.

Think about it. When he won the belt and he defended the title for the first time, he was a champion, right? So he's C. Then there's one, two, three, four, five, six, right? Marlon was six. Now I'm sixth. He's second or third. It's not a big jump.

I don't know why people see it as this like, It's this impossibility. You know, I feel like I'm clubberlang. You know, I'm watching Rocky, like being this megastar with his Ferraris and all this money and all this different stuff. And I'm just in the shadows building reputation, building my credibility, winning the fights in the background. Nobody's really talking about it.

I mean, now I've arrived. Now I've arrived. And the first time they fought, you know how that went. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? So I feel like I'm hungry like Clubber Lang right now. And, you know, he's. He's achieved a lot, and I wouldn't put it past him that he's coming,

he's going to trade really hard for this fight. Like I told D.C. when we did the commentary meeting before the fight with Marlon Vera, you know, I know he had lost a few in a row, but I think Marlin's a winner. I don't think Marlon's a loser. You know, I think he's a winner. He didn't get to the top of the UFC and stay there for as long as he did being a loser. And I feel the same way about Sean. I think Sean O'Malley's a winner. He knows how to win.

You know, he's been talking about retirement, so I thought maybe, He, you know, he's got one foot out, but he rallied in the third round with Song Yadong. So maybe he's not as done as people think. So I'm preparing for the best Shaan-O-Malley possible. I'm preparing for the Shaan-O-Malley that was hungry just in case. You know, I'd rather be conservative in that sense. And I'm coming to fight, you know, the baddest, biggest, best version of him. And I'm going to show him that I'm just too much.

By the way, what did you think of Cheetos fight against David Martinez recently? I thought, I thought Cheeto could have won that fight, man. I thought Cheetah could have won that fight. I mean, you know, David Martinez did not look good in third. Like, I think Marlon could have finished him in the third. I think, I think he heard him in the second. He should have won the second. Like, he could have pressed a little more.

He could have cut off the cage a little more. I feel like at some points Martinez was zipping in and out, right? At one point, I think Marlon should have just bit on his mouthpiece and punch at the same time. Because if the guy's got the speed on you, just punch at the same time, you know? catch him coming in. And I thought that's how he was gonna get him. Round three, I thought there was a chance for him to finish him. Like he had him running backwards and he was really trying to pour it on and just, you know,

he's missing like a few tools. And I don't mean that as this disrespectful thing. I feel like I'm just, you know, I'm trying to help, you know, just trying to say like the things that are missing. Like I feel like he's got the power. He's got the fight experience. He's got the conditioning. He's got the athleticism.

He's got so much of what it takes to stay there, you know, a few little adjustments. And, you know, he's back to finishing guys. Also just curious, you know, when this was announced, Corey Sanhagen, who is in attendance, voiced his displeasure, he really wants this Sean O'Malley fight, calling him a duck, all this stuff and more. What would you say to people like him who thought that he should have gotten the fight? Why do you think that it should be you as opposed to him? I mean, he's had his opportunities, right? I mean, I've had a few opportunities too, and I feel like I banked on them. You know, I think I gave a great performance against Pedro Munoz.

I showed off my jab, you know, that Canadian jab that we got at TriStar. And then with Jose Aldo, I had a standing ovation with 20,000 people at the Bell Center going crazy. Even Hunter and Dana White were standing up clapping. They couldn't believe how that third round went on. And then with Marlin, you know, I get dropped, I get up, he throws a kick, breaks my ulna, breaks my forearm in half. I finished the round. People say, oh, you barely beat him. How many guys would have continued with a broken forearm?

And won round three. He's supposedly the king of round three. I won round three and look at David Martinez, how we finished round three against Marlin. You know what I mean? And I did it with a broken arm. I just feel like I don't get the credibility and the love from the fans so far. That's why I feel like I'm clubber laying in that sense.

Like I'm winning. I'm doing these things that I think that are pretty amazing. I think they're pretty good. And people are kind of like dismissing them. But, you know, Corey's had his moments, man. He got to fight for the belt. He's fought so many big names. Peter Yan already. He's been on the big stage many of times. And maybe the UFC is throwing,

you know, a Canadian guy, a bone here and they're giving me my chance to become a star. You know, maybe they're like, okay, Corey has his fan base. Corey gets a lot of views. He gets all this stuff. And let's see if we can build A-Mine in Canada. Because you know, Canada is the second biggest market for the UFC. You know, we still sell pay-per-views. Who's going to be buying the paper views? It's going to be Canadians, right? And I feel like they have a lot of business sense. And, you know, if I go fight for the belt and they, you know, they, you know, If they come back to Montreal, I don't know if I beat Sean O'Malley and I fight Peter Yan for the belt in Montreal, I feel like that'd be huge for them.

Have you been told if you win this, you're next? Yeah. Okay. You win this, you're getting a title shot. They told me his title eliminator. That's what they told me. And then Joe Rogan sent it when they announced the card. Okay, okay.

Well, that's huge. Yeah. I mean, eight in a row. And then I take out Sean O'Malley. Sean O'Malley beat Peter Yan already. There's going to be a story there. I beat the guy who beat the champ, you know? And if I lose, he's already beat Peter Yonelan.

on. So it makes sense. You know, I feel like our storylines make sense. Like me fighting him to get a title eliminator, it makes sense. I'm not saying Corey doesn't deserve a belt. Like, I don't want to, you know, I think Corey's a great guy. And I don't want to, I'm not talking trash or anything. But I definitely see Corey fighting for the belt again. Corey can even be champion one day.

Definitely, he's got a lot of heart. He fights really well. It could be Marab, though. I presume Maraub will get a crack at Jan, like with the timing, right? And he won't wait. Yeah. Don't you think? No, we won't wait.

I, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, assuming Peter Yan said he, after his backsteregy, he'll be okay for the summer. Yeah. So they're going to be fighting. I was just saying Peter Yom because he's the champ. Yeah, I got you. Who do you think wins that fight, by the way, if they fight again? For me and Sean?

No, if Marab fights Jan again, we suspect that will happen. Who do you think wins the trilogy? If they're both 100%. I think Pirouin wins it, man. You do? I think Rihon wins it. Wow. I think Marab is the greatest bantamate champion of all time, and I think he's amazing.

I just think that right now, when you look at Peter Yon, all he's doing is training. And I have the most respect for Marab. But there's a lot of more social media now than Peter Yon. And he's got a lot more sponsorships. And he's making a lot more money in a lot of different avenues. And, you know, maybe it's slight distraction. You know, maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

I don't think it's a skill thing. I don't think it's a skill thing. I think Marab can go out there and win, take him down. hold them down, do his thing. But I know, Peter Rion still fights like he's clubberlang. Peter Yon still fights like he's hungry for me, it looks like. You mentioned the fans and for whatever reason they're not fully on your side, maybe the non-Canadians.

What do you need to do? What do you think you need to do in order to get everyone on your side? No, I don't have to do anything. I don't really care whether they come over or not. I fight for myself, really. I don't fight for anybody. I fight for me because it's what I love to do. You know, this is my dream.

It's not their dream. And I fight with courage. So my daughters have someone good to look up to, you know, what kind of father would I be if I fought afraid? You know, I go out there and I perform for myself and for my family, for me, you know, for my achievements. If the fans like it, that's great. If the fans don't like it, that's okay too.

But I'm going out there to put on a show. And I feel like that's half the battle in the UFC. It's not only about winning. it's about winning in a way that the UFC appreciates and the fans, you know, they like to watch you, right? So I know I'm going to put out on a performance, whether they respect me or they give me the credibility. It's one thing, but they're going to come and they're going to love to watch me fight. Like when I fought Marlin, that was a great fight, a lot of drama, you know, same thing with Aldo, same thing with Pedro. I thought it was great.

So I'm just going to keep doing what I do. Before I let you go, I know you do great work for Sportsnet over in Canada. So kudos to you on that. Put your analyst hat on for me for a second. Gan Pereira, co-main event on that same card. We had Pereira in studio yesterday. Big guy, 240 pounds right now, and he says he'll be around 235, 240, but obviously very strong. Gan also a big guy.

Who do you think wins that fight in the heavyweight division? Listen, I don't know how well it's going to translate him going all the way to heavyweight. That's a lot of weight, man. And I know he's a big guy, but in heavyweight, everyone's got a puncher's chance, right? That's why we all tune in to watch the heavyweights. Anybody could knock out anybody. And I will say, Guying has some incredible footwork. He moves really well for a big guy, you know.

And it's not like the John Jones fight where there's that huge threat of a takedown. Like maybe Pereira could take him down, but I doubt it. I doubt that's what he's going to go for. But Pereira has this death touch that I think will translate even at heavyweight. So I really think it's a 50-50 fight. If you're forcing me, you're really twisting my arm. You're really twisting my arm? I think the story's better if Pereira wins.

But that's only for the story. In terms of the fight, I think it's 50-50. But for the story, I lean towards Pereira, just because it would be incredible to see a three-division champion in the UFC. Like three-way classes is incredible. Then him versus John Jones, everybody would love to see it. You know, so just for the story, I would lean towards Pereira. But I think, you know, tough fight.

I, you know, I obviously I respect. all the fighters, you know. So when I make these predictions, I feel like I hurt people's feelings. No, no, you're a night. This is your, this is your gig. This is the world you're in now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, you know, I would lean towards Tuporia.

Oh. No. Yeah, we're still good. Okay, I would lean towards Tuporia. I think offensively, Justin throws bombs. It's one of the hardest hitters we've ever seen at lightweight. And, but defensively, he gets hit too often. And it's not something you can do with Tuporia.

And Toporia is, you know, phenomenal boxer, incredible in and out movement. You know, he doesn't always just come at you hardcore. He picks his moments. And when he picks his moments, you know, he lands clean shots. And I think he might have Justin's number on this one. What about Zahabi O'Malley? It's Zahabi all the way. I think we're going to break him mentally, physically and spiritually that night.

Wow, wow, wow. Okay, like spiritually you're going to break him. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be done. I think it's going to be over. Wow, okay. Looking forward to that. And by the way, I'm seeing Rory Mac like back on the mats. I don't know if he's trying to tell us something.

He's had some good. He's back in jiu. Is he back? Is he at the gym? I think he was in Montreal recently, no? Yeah, he comes here. He goes to other gyms. I think he's teaching seminars too.

I think he's doing jitsu competitions. I think jitsu is a really good outlet for him, you know, to keep him in the scene. I think it's a great grappler. He's going to do really well. You think he fights again? No, no, not that way. He beat Tyrone Woodley, by the way, UFC 174 on June 14th.

Were you in his corner for that one? I was in his corner for that one. Were you in his corner when he fought Neiman Gracie in Belator? No, no, I wasn't in that one. Also on June 14th. I didn't know that. It was a special day. It's crazy.

And it's also a multiple of seven. Okay. I'm on a seven-fight win streak. Oh, wow. My wife and daughters are born on July 7, which is 7-7. Yes. You know, so I don't know. I don't know if there's some juju going on.

There's something. I don't know. If God is great and we're going to see on that night. You know, we see if he wants me to have it, we're going to have a great night. I'm very happy for you. Great, great to see this. It's really wonderful. Way to represent.

There it is. Freedom fights 250. He'll be flying the red and white. I'm not rooting for anyone. Oh, let me ask you. Are you going to be there? I don't think I'm going to be there. You don't even get invited to the White House.

This once in a lifetime event that I'm making a special. I heard DJT. is a fan of mine, so maybe he'll let me. But I think they're keeping it tight. Like, is your family going to be allowed to go? You know, I also want to ask, I haven't heard anything. I'm not going to ask until they send me a contract, but normally they

give us four tickets for family. Yeah, yeah. So I haven't heard anything yet. I'm not sure, but I would love if we can get four tickets for the family. That would be incredible. You might have to leave Jordan Declor at home. That might be a problem. No, no, he's coming. There's no doubt. He's coming. I'm bringing him. I'm bringing mindset, Mike.

Oh, gosh. You bring him all. I have my nucleus that I keep with me at all times, you know, and Jordan's working on trying to get me sponsors, you know, for this fight too. You know, try to rally some of the Canadian brands to get them behind me, you know, OVO, if you're interested, you know, obviously I would love that. You know, that would be my number one choice, but we'll see what all. Let's get Lulu Lemon, OVO, roots, everyone on board. Yeah, that'd be great. Labat, Molson, let's go. No alcohol, no gambling.

Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. It's haram, it's haram, bro. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my apologies. Thank you, Aman. Congratulations on getting this opportunity. Good luck in training and can't wait to see how it plays out. Great to have you on. Appreciate it.

Ariel, thank you again. I appreciate having me on. You're the man. There he is. Amon's a hobby of Montreal, flying the flag for the Great White North for the 514 at the White House. Could you believe it? Unbelievable, this guy. He was in the shadows for so many years.

And now here he is at the forefront with GSP in his course. with his brother in his corner. Jordan Declan, by the way, a long time high school, great, great friend of mine. We used to go to Expos games together. We used to have sleepovers, trade baseball cards, read Baseball America. He knew everything about baseball.

And now in the MMA business, all these years later, we reconnected. He's with Aiman and many others. So it's an amazing thing to see. All the boys from the 514 coming together. He'll be on the White House card. Now, I've said that the May-June stretch in combat sports and in MMA in particular are going to be phenomenal. Let's go back to that MVP card.

We found out yesterday. May 16th, Intuitome, Inglewood, Ronda Rousey, Gina Carrano, Francis, Senganu, Philippe, and Nathan Diaz versus platinum, Mike Perry. Are you kidding me? A fight. No one saw coming. Yes, they've talked about each other. But let's be honest. People were thinking about Nate returning to the UFC, maybe fighting Connor.

this bomb drops on us and all of a sudden it feels like the sentiment towards this card and the complexion of this card has changed for the better dramatically let us talk to the aforementioned platinum mike perry about this fight it feels like a dream fight in the making there he is the man himself mr netflix mike parry holy smokes congratulations on this opportunity mike so so happy for you could you tell us how did it all come about from your perspective I mean, it's been in the works for a little while now. I've been, maybe you saw little teasers of me on social media training,

doing MMA moves and things like that. They've been talking about it. Names moved around. I think once the White House card got announced, I think things came together. And the response on the announcement has been incredible, to be honest. People are really looking forward to this fight. I'm saying, you know, it's the people's main event again. And with the two other headliners on the card with the big guy,

Francis and Ganu and Ronda Rousey versus Gina Carano, a long-time fight that is now finally happening. It's great, man. People calling me a legend just forgetting the fight. You know, Nate Diaz and the Diaz crew, they don't pull out of fights. So this is a short thing because I don't either. So we're pulling up. May 16th, man.

MMA fight, I'm looking to be extremely damaging. Okay, I have so many follow-up questions. First of all, you haven't fought in MMA in about five years. How do you feel about going back? You've had so much success in bare-knuckle in particular. Now you're going back to your roots, so to speak. How does it feel? It feels great.

You know, in the fight game, we've seen other fighters move around and go back and even go back to the UFC. I mean, my last opponent, Jeremy Stevens, he's going back to the UFC. again now to fight Bobby King Green. So, I mean, that's cool. And I always saw it some way like that with back in the day watching UFC and Pride and rampades and Vandle, those guys going back and forward, Vitor, those guys. So, you know, to do it in our own lane, you know, people are saying me and Nate have made our own paths. And I did it in bare knuckle and I was very brutal. And, you know, it's phone booth fighting the technique will will change a bit i can't just stand in the pocket and just work but i think nate will oblige some of that so um you know it's going to be an exciting

fight for sure i'm training my ass off i have this excitement inside of me to to be my best for this fight so i'm looking forward to showing that to the fans when were you told that this was 100% because I understand hot, cold, yes, no, when were you told this was actually happening? Shoot, man. At the,

on October 3rd, October 3rd or 4th, there was names. Shout out Nakisa. They like working with me. You know, I try to keep myself very professional. I try to play the game for sure

and do my parts and talk. that violence and talk that savagery, and because that's how I show up to fight every time. And so before my last fight, October 4th was the fight, and we were talking about it then. You, but you didn't know that it was official back then, right? Maybe that's what it first came up. I signed a contract, and they were interested. Nikisa wanted to do business with me.

And, you know, I've been, I've been prepping ever since. For Nate only? No. there were other names, but those things may still happen later on this year. I just need to focus on the task at hand. For sure. And as far as so that fight that you're talking about was your BKFC fight. We were there was tremendous at the Prudential Center in Newark.

It was amazing. Does this mean you're done with BKFC? Is this just like a quick detour? What does this mean for your BKFC future? I guess there are options here, right? like, you know, with a victory for me, depending on what MVP's MMA is looking like, or, you know, I've seen this stigma of what media has been talking about

and it's some guys having freedom, you know, this freedom that I happen to have that Nate has and Gano has. And it's a blessing. You know, I just, I take it one fight at a time and I'm looking, you know, I appreciate Nate for helping me get this matchup and we're going to clash, you know, and that's really cool. After all the hard work in my career, you know, I'm really looking to be my best self and, you know, just grow how I can and do what I can for my family.

everything I do is for my family and the benefit, my businesses, platinum promotions, and, you know, shout out DBX and platinum tequila, all these things are going to be booming with a great performance on my part. Do you still have fights left with BKFC? Yeah. Okay. Okay. And as far as MMA is concerned, will this be your best payday?

Yeah, for sure. Best payday of your career period? Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay, so this is huge. This is big for you. Yeah, and next one's always the best one, man. This is the next one.

I've been saying that. It's locked in. I've been saying that for 20 years, I swear. So, you know, next one's the best one. We always keep grinding, keep getting better, keep looking to be our best selves, and really show you guys what I can do. I mean that highlight video I posted this morning.

is getting some traction, people a lot of sharing it, you know, and I bring that, I bring that intensity. I said yesterday, one of the really interesting things about this particular card is this is the first time that we've seen a sort of boxing model come to MMA because if you sign with the UFC, with PFL, with any of the major organizations historically, you have to sign a multi-fight deal and they kind of lock you up. In this case, and correct me if I'm wrong with you, this is a one-off, right? Like we don't know if MVP is going to do another MMA event.

We don't know if Netflix is going to stay in the MMA business. And that's why I said it was a no-brainer for everyone involved, including you and Nate, because you can get that big platform, you can get that big spotlight and that big payday. It's a massive, massive opportunity and it makes all the sense in the world. Do you agree with that assessment? Yeah. Shout out to Netflix. It's really cool to be a part of it.

And, you know, every fight in my career, every fight in all these fighters' careers, it could be the last. one. It could be the only one. So, you know, that really is a thing about this sport. Like, your body goes through dramatic adaptations and changes and, uh, you become a new person multiple times throughout your career and you, you have to take a step back and, and look from the outside in and, and see, you know, what your best, best paths are. And, and, and, you know, and, You know, how to get the most that you can and perform simple, you know. Some people are trying to pit this card versus the White House card, MVP versus UFC. I'm looking at it differently.

I think it's been a long time since MMA had a true number two. It's been a long time since there was another option for MMA fighters. You've enjoyed BKFC boxing, but it's been a long time since we had this. something else to get people excited. I think this is good for everyone, from the fans, the media, to the fighters. I'm wondering if you view it the same way. Like, this is just good for the business, right? When there's competition, a rising tide lifts all boats. Are you hoping that they stick around so that there's more options for the fighters? Yeah, I mean, based on what casuals have said on this matchup, like this matchup kind of changed the card for some people,

which was really cool. And we're a triple headliner. My first five-round fight, you know, against cardio crazy Nate Diaz. So I'm putting in the work already and I'm grinding. And based on what some people have said, but it's like, you know, what is prime? What is a fighter's prime?

Because I'm entering prime at Prime Platinum Perry. and, you know, you got guys like Yuel Romero, 47, 50 years old. He's a tank. He's a bulldozer. He's crushing folks. And he's still super smart and calculated. And so what is prime, you know? And just because you get a young guy, like, we're, me and Neda, the type of guys that

is going to teach the next generation of UFC fighters how to do their job so that you guys are fucking entertained. like, these 20-year-olds that go into the UFC, like they don't know what they're doing. They make huge mistakes, but they just, what? They got in shape and they made the wade and they have this young energy, but they make mistakes or they mess up or fights get ended. Like, you know, guys like me and Nate, we're different.

We're in our own category and made our own lane. And, you know, Nate's done it on an even different level. me and I'm I'm doing it on a different level with my you know he's got real fight ink I got DBX we uh you know I'm trying to make waves make moves and I'm bringing in I mean when you see me fight watch my highlight video on my Instagram check me out platinum Mike Perry uh check me out platinum Perry on Twitter man hit me up dog shout out Gatorade I told Gatorade let's do something and you ain't wearing green somebody pinched you aerial when you see him. I got the green

Scooby-Doo on. That's what I had green today. It's St. Patty's Day man. Of course. Shout out. Of course. I saw that clip we just played of you guys chatting with each other at the DBX event. How would you assess your relationship with Nathan?

Man, the times I've had to run into Nathan is cool. Like I got mad respect for everything he's done in the game and shit. And it's like, you know, we got a job to do, get people interested. A lot of people know.

I think the fight fans know that we fin to go crazy, but it's going to be technical. And, you know, we, I don't know. The doors are going to open little by little. He's going to eventually say something about me that's going to maybe piss me off or vice versa or comments online might get to me. You know, I try to do my part by being in the gym,

doing my work, getting angry and getting stronger and getting just, just, I got this thing about me, man, when I fight. So I'm like a boulder coming down the hill at you. I'm trying to crush you. I can't wait for the press conference, man. I can't wait. Like, it's been a while since Nate had a partner like you, a verbal and physical. Yeah, I'm not opening the door yet, right? I'm not talking mad shit about him. I got respect for the guy. his team and I know how his team comes like they they they run deep too and you know I think the press conference is going to be on the east coast up north and uh you know maybe that's just I mean the fights in L.A. though you know I'm in his territory um and Nate Diaz isn't one to be subsided by pressure or things like that so you know he thrive in the pressure and I want to thrive in the

pressure in the in the LA area. I'm in, you know, they're going to be against me. And, and depending on what he says, and when we get mad and people start throwing shit at me, probably,

you know, we'll see what happens. I think this shit is going to get radical. Are you down for that? Are you ready for all of that? You know, I already have some homies hitting me up. Like, yo, let me know when media's moving,

this and that so that we there, you because if he's going to be on that shit, but I'll be ready for that shit. I'd be ready, man. And, you know, I was slipping on the floor when with the Eddie Alvarez, the shit was going down. And his, him and his boys are all soft little bitches. So, you know, he quit in less than four minutes. And, you know, we'll never forget that.

So never forget. And it's not big gloves. It's not no gloves. It's four-ounce MM8. gloves. We're going to see what the MVP is working with, how the outfit's going to come together, the walkouts, everything. And I'm excited. I got a great fight, you know, matchup. What type of vibe are you expecting from him? You say you're not opening the door just yet, but what are you expecting from him? What do you think he's going to come with? Well, it's like just announcing it.

people know, people knew off the announcement. So, you know, I don't know what to it. I kind of know what to expect in the ring. That's what I'm looking at. I'm looking at what to expect in the fight and in the ring. And, you know, I just have to throw my counters as necessary inside and outside the ring. And, you know, because in the ring, I'll be more aggressive with offense. Um, he's a, I, you got to respect him in his career and his fan base. Um, you know, I want the fight to happen. But, you know, some people will talk shit. I guess what, what am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to talk about the way he looks? It doesn't matter. Talk about the way he talks. It doesn't matter until he says something to me. So he or he doesn't have to say anything. We're going to get in the ring and we're going to fight. But.

he also sells fights better than most so I'm excited to see what goes down he hasn't fought since 2022 obviously he's MMA royalty he's fought in two boxing matches since then when I say fought I mean MMA he obviously had the Jake fight and then the Jorge fight a little bit older than you so what type of fighter what type of Nathan Diaz are you expecting to see on May 16th you know Nate for Jake at 185 and he went 10 rounds with him. I think they're looking at that. You know, we got five, five minute rounds. I'm going to try to end them in three and rounds four and five.

If we're in there and I'm in those championship rounds, everything's out the window, bro. We're going in. I'm throwing down and, you know, I'm going to do, what I have to do, but I'm going to try to take them out in less than five for sure. So I'm going to be hunting for the kill. And I got some ideas. I got some plans on how to hit him with some shit.

So, you know, he did 10 rounds with Jake. Jake didn't finish him. Nate's super durable. I got tired in the sixth round and my rib was messed up. And I wish Chris DeRef Young gave me a little. more because I stumbled when I got back up. I was still up. I think I was going to break a threshold. So now I'm going to break that threshold and training. I'm going to be training 25, 30 minutes of sparring. I just did 20, you know, and plus other drills and other things for an hour and a half,

two hours of training and came back home and had breakfast. We do stuff high level. You know, I take care of my body. I put the work in. And the amount of intensity that I bring in the rounds, you know, I don't want to hold back because I'm going for 25 minutes. I always fight constant pressure. Nate fights constant pressure. I think we're going to meet in the middle. He's going to try to grab me up a little bit at some points, but I'm super ready for that. So I think it's going to be, you know, problems.

I got to say, Mike, I hope you don't mind me saying this. I'm sort of giddy at all of this. I mean, like, the way you're breaking it down, I wish the press, I wish it was a press conference today. Like, I just want to see you two face off. I want to see you guys next to each other. I want to see that this is real.

You talk, he talks. He's going to flip you off. You may flip it. Like, it's just you two are made for each other. Like, this is a match made in heaven, man. That's good news, man. It's great news, you know. I'm growing up, though.

I think some of that stuff is childish. Grow up after. Grow up after. No, I grew up on the 17. See, trust me, I'm going to play the game. We're going to get violent and he want to jump me with his boys. I'm there for it. Nobody's stabbing, bro.

Don't be stabbing, bro. Because I've seen some jump videos and they start coming out of the woodworks. Just hit me. It's all right. I eat that. Are you going to bring boys too? You're going to bring your boys? I know, man.

Yes, I have to, especially because my wife got to be at fucking everything. So it's like, she better be ready. She's been training and shit. some girl, it better be only a girl, please don't even swing on my wife. She ain't ready. She's not a fighter. Just hit me.

Just go for me. And then me and my boys or whatever, I might have one or two. I don't know. But fight week, I'm going more. How many are you rolling with? Like, where we going? 10. Like three or two.

That's it. I don't know. Three? I don't be with a big squad, bro. I ain't fucking gay, bro. Gay, bro. I ain't fucking hanging out.

The Diaz army is like 20. Yeah, I ain't fucking doing that shit. I ain't got time to take care of everybody else. I don't know. Nate's been the father to the type of motherfuckers for years, right? Didn't he say that? Well, I got kids of my own and everybody got their own shit to do. So everybody keeps, I don't smoke blunts with people no more.

I don't, you, after COVID, you hit the blunt. You coughing and shit. I ain't smoking no blunt. with nobody, I smoked that motherfucker to the face, though, myself. I smoked that bitch if my wife don't want to hit it. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. By the way, the first time we ever met you as far as the UFC is concerned,

UFC 202, August of 2016, headliner that night, Connor McGregor versus Nathan Diaz, too. You were to see, I remember you showed up in the three. I know Connor's punching the air right now, me and Nate, instead of his trilogy. Oh, this damn plan of Perry, King of Violence. working off my shine and bare knuckle he ain't never fought nobody bear knuckle Connor the world is excited to see you back in the ring I know you're working on it I know

you trying I know UFC's giving you a hard time so we all look forward to seeing her back in the ring I don't know who he's going to fight I don't think the Chandler fight makes a lot of sense anymore but but you know he could fight me and bare knuckle maybe if he wanted to Do you like the fact that you potentially took away an opponent that he was looking at? It's an honor, bro. You know, Nate, it's about Nate, though. Like, it's an honor to get the match up with Nate. You know, he was looking at some other names.

And, you know, depending on which one of us wins this, I got to win and go set the plans up for what comes after this. He said he got 10 years, he got plans for the next 10 years. Well, I think they're going to be different. I think I got a job to do and I got to let them loose. What I was referencing earlier was, could that guy who was debuting on that card back in 2016, almost exactly 10 years ago showing up with the hat and the three piece, I remember all of that, you look great.

That's when we were introduced to platinum. Could you have, you know, did you have your sights set on that guy who was fighting in the main event? Could you have predicted that this would all play out this way? No, I would think that back then, I thought, no, were they at 170? Yeah, they were. I guess we were. I thought they were lightweight. I thought they were fighting at 155.

So I didn't even think about it. And then Cowboy was grooming me so he could hump my arm and shit. Wow, wow. And now I'm practicing. I got great black belts. I'm back on the mountain bodega get my damn brown belt. When I beat Nate, they're going to give it to me. That's what I told my coach.

I said, give me that shit when I beat this move on. I don't care how I beat them. I'm going to beat them. And you give me my damn brown belt. Do you remember who you fought on that card? Yeah, man, hung you limb. Yeah. I remember speaking to you the Monday after that win.

On the phone only, it was pre-video. And you were going to the bank, I think, and you were like taking out the money. You were explaining to me. Platon. Do you remember all that? I said, yeah, but the money I got on me now. Different. Different.

It's different money now, man. Netflix money. Bills, monthly bills money. IRS money. You know, the big ones, you know, work in business. I'm actually, I sent my wife a video so I can remember there's some websites that you can buy. succeeding businesses and I need to go check out those websites

and buy a business from an old person who wants to retire and the business just collects money is what I heard about man, you know? All right. By the way, you mentioned the Eddie thing. What happened there? What's the conclusion here? Was it just a misunderstanding?

I think my hat was blocking his view. Okay. He was like sent behind me at one point and then he wanted to move around and then yeah I gave his son a fatherly lesson I think and that upset him he even said that he was like what are you trying to be his dad or something no I wasn't trying to be his dad I was just you know being honest and being funny I was a little tipsy

but like I'm a grown-ass man look at these fucking people you know that was that they ain't have nothing to do with me that was just them being drunk and wanting to start shit and I'm over here being drunk, just wanting to watch the fights and have a good time. Yeah. That was, I thought people was yelling at me and that apparently that guy was helping, you know,

whatever, man. It was a good time. Simple. All right. By the way, in your opinion, better card. May 16th on Netflix or the White House card? This is the big debate right now. Yeah. Yeah, I guess you

asked me about that earlier and I kind of went around the question, you know, Rhonda was attacking the USC, but like, we're on a level like we can and we get to and, uh, I did mention how, you know, we did type of guys to teach the next gen how to do their job.

So, um, the thing about fighting is we just got to wait and see. There's some fun names on the White House card. I like the White House card. Justin Gaci and Ilya and, I'm, you know,

Sugar Sean's on there. I think there's some good fight. Pereira versus Gone is actually, that's a fun fight, man. I think that's a tough one. So, you know, those guys are big, but those are three fights compared to Mike Perry and A. Diaz. That's a fight that a lot of people can get excited about.

I think they're both great. Francis and Gano versus, help me out. Philippe Lins. Philippe Lens and Rhonda versus Gina. I mean, that's just a movie fight. Like, we've been with. for that one. This is fun.

I think this is all great for the business. I think it's fun. Can I ask, do Nate will hopefully and probably see this? Do you have something to say to him? You know, MVP asked us for quotes, and he gave a quote, and he's thinking business-minded like, and he's going to, you know, Nate always protects himself, and he stays vigilant. And me, you know, I'm a little more reckless sometimes. And I think I said in my quote, you know, I'm going back to MMA, the King of Violence,

to elbow somebody in their freaking face and, you know, train hard, bro. And I don't think that, you know, it doesn't matter, man. I'm going to train hard myself. So it's an opportunity. And what is the thing that I have to say right now that makes a difference? Like, I can't say F you, bro, because we fit in to do that when we get in the ring and hit each other. That's the FU. You know, I say FU to my coach when he's making me do another round.

But I'm doing it. So what needs to be said? man fucking train hard because I'm gonna try to hurt you I'm gonna hurt you damn I can't wait for this this is gonna be incredible what a fight some have said it should be like a the real BMF you know considering what happened a couple weeks ago King of Violence versus the original BMF I think it's where it rolls into afterward you know when I win there's options and, you know, let's focus on this and turn this fight into something. You know, I need to see his responses. I need to see him piss me off. I'm trying to piss him off a little bit,

but I'm too nice. I'm being too nice. You know, when they jump me, when they jump me wherever we're at and when they do, that might piss me off. So we'll see. Maybe I'll get a clean highlight knockout on one of his boys before we fight. That'd be huge. Shout out to DBX. Returning in April in Miami. Shout out to you guys doing great things. Shout out to platinum tequila.

I believe coming to Germany very soon, growing, doing its thing. And many places. So I'll definitely have to have some bottles. I'm trying to get more bottles. It was all pre-sale. There's a lot going into this. This is three year to five year plan and things are coming together. I got to go hit up my partner right now because y'all need this, man.

This stuff, if you drink. If you don't, I respect it. If you do, platinum tequila is incredible. The taste is amazing. So I'm just trying to give a little bit of platinum to everybody. And shout out to the Overdogs podcast. I was trying to give a shout out to all the things that you've got going on doing big things. My dog, I appreciate you.

I'm sorry for interrupting. No, no. I have to go do overdogs right now. This is the set of overdogs. I love it. I'm going to be setting up to go get that done. You know, shout out to you, Ariel Hawani, for having me on today. I mean, one of the big wigs.

So it's only right that I was on and got to talk with you today. And shout out to Nate Diaz and his team, man. See you guys soon. Thank you, Mike. All the best to you. We'll see you soon as well. There he is. The one and only platinum Perry.

Holy shit. There are two things we need to clip off. I am going to hurt you and that one. See you guys soon. And thank you, Andy, for staying on him there because you can feel that. You can feel him sort of wrestling with like, I want to be the dad. I want to be the husband. But I'm also platinum Mike Perry.

And this is Nathan Diaz. Oh, again, if you are focusing on what's better, please just appreciate and embrace this. Appreciate the fact that you're getting this. Appreciate the fact that you're getting the White House card. Appreciate the fact that we're getting Ussick versus Rico. Appreciate the fact that you're getting Carlos Prochess versus Jack Delamadalena in Perth, Australia.

Appreciate that we are getting these things. It's a great time to be a fight fan. And so let us speak to the aforementioned Carlos Prochis, The Nightmare who on the 2nd of May in Perth travels down under to fight one of their own Jack Delamadalina, the former UFC Walterway champion. He is kind enough to join us. There he is. Bomja, Carlos.

How are you, my friend? Bonjia, my brother. I'm good. I'm good. Thanks so much for invite me. It's always a huge honor for me being here talking with you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

A lot to talk to you about. Could I ask, how did this fight come to you? How are you offered this fight? Was this the one that you were looking for? You know, a lot of people was talking about me and my Quetta McGregor, you know, and I was like without any opponent yet signed a contract. And since my last fight, everybody knows I would love to fight JDM, you know, I respect for him.

But he's number one container. So I thought like that fight make a lot of stuff. things for me. So on the middle of a lot of people saying I would fight Connor, UFC come to me and ask me if I want to fight the main event against JDM and I say yes for sure. Were you ever offered Connor McGregor? For me no. Never. You just kind of heard it out there. Yeah, a lot of people start to talk about that. The media stuff, they stay. They stay to talk about me and my Gregor. Of course, I would love to fight him.

He's a huge superstar, one of the biggest names of UFC history. But, you know, I want to be a champion. I want to get the belt. I want to fight for the title. So I think JDMs make more sense right now. Did you ever think it was going to happen, or you just kind of thought it was just talk? No. No, I thought like people just talking, you know.

Okay. Yeah. I had heard that they did mention it to him and that he accepted, but it never really got past that. It was just kind of preliminary talks. I don't think he accepted. That's what I was told he said yes. Yeah, yeah. I heard like he said yes.

But, you know, five years without fight. without compete. So I don't think it's too smart of him accept the fight against me and I don't think so but you know it's it's on the past

now I'm focused on JDM and I can't wait to go to Australia and get my title show. I was just going to ask you about that how do you feel about fighting JDM in his hometown? It's okay you know like he I love Australia I don't know. My daughter is Australia. I like that country. Definitely I feel in home when I'm there.

I went there in January, I think. Yeah, in January or this January, last January, I was there. And I met a lot of fans. People there are amazing. So I don't think about like to go to his house and fight with him, you know. end of the day, when the cage closed, the door closed, it's going to be just me and J.D.F. By the way, I don't know if I knew this. Your daughter's Australian? Yeah, she's Australian. Wow. And she lives there? Yeah, she lives in Melbourne. Sydney, sorry. How old is she? She's going to turn in April. She's going to turn six. Six, okay. And how often do you get to see her?

I try like I try two times I try two times per year but now I try a little bit more we're thinking about to bring her to Brazil and things like that Amazing will she come to this fight Yeah for sure

Okay Has she ever been to your fights Yeah when I fought Lingiglian Okay She went there Yeah she was there In 2012

24, 25, 24, yeah. She was there, was really nice week, you know. I spent my five week with her. It was amazing. So this would be her second time? Yeah, she watching the fights, yeah. Yeah. And did you feel different with her in attendance,

like knowing that you were competing in front of her? Did it feel any different? Not really. No. No, no. When I come to the fight, when I come inside a cage, I don't think about anything outside of the occasion. I have the game plan.

I have to win the fight. So I just trying to be focused on my opponents. Does she have a Brazilian or Australian or a mix of an accent? No, no. She does speak English. Okay, straight, okay. No Portuguese. No Portuguese.

It's just by Corinche's, you know. Ah, yes, of course. By the way, when we talked about that, the video went crazy afterwards of you talking about the teams. And I think you made a joke about maybe Flamenco or something everywhere. I saw it posted everywhere. Yeah, a lot of people start to post, you know. And some of them get mad,

but, you know, the truth is what I said before. Corinche is the biggest soccer team in Brazil. And then I saw, like, a week later, you were with my friend Guillemé Cruz at one of the matches. And I was like, did this happen? Did they invite you because of the clip? Or was that already in the works? Yeah, yeah.

I don't know. I don't remember. I don't remember. But it went there. And it was really nice, you know. It was really nice to. I was good to go to the stadium and watch Courtney and just playing. Of course.

How are they doing this season? We just started the season. Okay. We won the first tournament of the year against Flamingo because we, Corinthians won the Brazilian Cup and then Flamengo won the

Libertadores Cup. It's like they play against each other to see who is the King of America and of course Corinche's won. And now we just start to Brazilian tournament. By the way, you've been keeping busy last week, just last week,

we saw you at the Hype FC press conference. There was a crazy brawl there, but you got out of it. You were You were safe and sound. What was your perspective? This brawl here with Armin and everyone, a lot of characters there. Look at you laughing. What happened here?

Man, that was crazy, you know? The first time I worked on that event. So a lot of fun, a lot of weird things going on. But it was nice. I come to Rio. I was a long time we were to come to Rio de Janeiro. Real's a really nice city. I met some friends.

I have a really good time. there. Did you like the event? Yeah, yeah. It's not my the kind of event I really would like to do. But yeah, it was fun. What didn't you like? It seems like you're holding back a little bit. What didn't you like? Sorry? It seems like you didn't love it. What didn't you like about it? You know, a lot of, the fights was really good, but a lot of things was going on, you know, a lot of, a lot of, I think too much fun, you know, like it's take the, it's take out of the main reason of the fight event, you know, like a lot of, a lot of fun, a lot of people's stopping the fight and start to talk and do it in the fight.

it's like it more looks like more show like a different kind of entertainment than an event of fight you know okay so like that

it's good also yeah they're bringing a lot of the did you compete on the card no no they asked me to fight a shot a bullet but UFC didn't let me fight because I think they have a rule where you

can't go up against a UFC fighter, right? It has to be a non-UFC fighter. I don't know. They asked me the last December they asked me to fight against Sarukio and UFC say no. And now they ask me to fight a shot a bullet

and UFC say no also, I think because I have some fight coming or something. Sure, sure. So, and when you say fight, it would have been like a grappling match, right? Yeah. Yeah. So you were just there to sort of be there, to be a famous face? Sorry?

So you were just there kind of to support the show, but you... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, I went there like a hoster of the event, you know? Me and Walter Walker. Okay. Oh, yes, I saw that stuff. That was fun. By the way, I see the jersey you're wearing with the 1X bet,

and I saw the commercial that they posted of you. Amazing stuff. I love this commercial. What did you think of it? It's sort of playing off of the face that you made in the Leon Edwards fight. This is great stuff here. Yeah, yeah. They have the really good idea to announce.

Now I'm a partner of White's, but the guys are amazing, you know. And yeah, now we are working together. And the video is really fun to make the video. I was debating with my team here. It looks so real. they're saying it's AI. I said it was real. Is this real or AI? No, yeah. Yeah, that's real. That's real. You did all this. Yeah. All the things like when I do the things, like when I sign the contract, when I was on the

ice bed, when I was on my bed, when I was on the party, all the things, it's me, you know, like I was like you record, they are recording me. Wow. Love it. Yeah. That picture, by the way, the picture of Leon. punching you in your face. That was my photo of the year. That was my award for photo of the year. I love that picture. Me too, me too. I saw that picture the video many times

because a lot of people start to share and make you funny things with the part of the fight. So, yeah. I think it really, it sort of summarizes who you are as a personality. Say again. I think it

summarizes who you are as a personality, like you kind of just, you're not bothered by anything. Yeah, exactly. Yes, that's what I love about it. I also saw another video, okay, maybe this one's AI. With you, when JDM is sleeping and you're the Deadpool guy walking through, and this one, this one didn't really happen, right? Yeah, that one is, yeah.

Okay, okay. I love this. Who made this? Yeah, me too, me too. Fabricio Walker, I think. is his name? I did a collaboration with him. That guy makes a lot of really nice videos by EA, you know, you know, how to work well. And I really like that video. I saw you did a face-off with Patty Pimbleau in England where you were smoking. What was that for? I went to England to do a seminar. I was

in Europe last December doing a lot of seminars, traveling. You know, know and go to some a lot of nice countries and I come to meet Jiri Projaska and also I come to England and then I was there and I did a seminar on his his gym and then he bring me to Enfield to go to a stadium see the things about Liverpool because he liked a lot of Liverpool yeah and then the end we just record the video did you like hanging out out with him. Yeah, yeah. He's a really nice guy. He's a pretty guy. Yeah. Great face off with the cigarette. I don't know if you know this, Carlos. Today's March 17th. Do you know that? Today's

March 17th, St. Patrick's Day? Oh yeah? Yeah, did you know that? What is St. Patrick's? It's a very, very popular holiday celebrating all things Irish and Ireland. So a lot of people around the world like to drink on St. Patrick's Day and go to the bar and have long time. It's not popular there? In Brazil? Yeah. No. Carnival.

Today is not, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Today is not holiday here. A lot of people's working. Everybody's working. Everybody's busy. Did you celebrate carnival? Yeah.

What did you do? How does Carlos Parchas celebrate carnival? I was like a party a little bit on the streets and enjoy the moments with friends and not like before because I was training hard. I was a little bit sick also. So not too much carnival, but I enjoyed the time. Okay. The reason I brought up the date, I don't know if you know this, but it was on this date 14 years ago, March 17th, 2012. Today, 14 years ago that you made your M.M.

May debut. Really? This is it. You defeated... March 17th, yes. Sergio Vera, you defeated him in the second round at Max Fight 11 in Campinas, Brazil. Yeah, exactly. Look at this guy.

Today is making 17, 17 years? No, 14 years. March 17th, 14 years. 14 years. All right. What do you think? When you see this, what do you think when you see this? Man, that was crazy. I was like 17 years old. 16 or 17? 17 years old. And I was White Belt, BJ White Belt. And they asked me to fight him. And I was like,

oh, okay, that's fine. Just because they pay a good money, you know, and then I got the way. You look like a baby up there. Yeah, we need to say like to the event. I had 18. years old but I did it I had 17 wow you had to lie yeah and also also was my debut on TV they put like 3-0 like 3 victories

zero lose but it was my debut wow wow and how old was your opponent vera viera 30 something wow 30 something yeah he was already a blackbells when he took me down

yeah I remember when he took me down yeah I remember when he took me down, I was like, what the fuck? What I'm doing here? I shouldn't be here. But then, like, I start to get up and the things was really well after that. How were you in the locker room before you made the walk? Let me try to remember something because I don't remember.

But probably it was like, on this day, a lot of legends of Brazil was true. fighting. And I was really excited to share the locker room with them, you know. And I was really happy. I was, I think, don't think about the fight. So I would imagine a 17-year-old would be super nervous before their debut, but you weren't. I think I got a little bit nervous when the cage closed. Okay. But when the fight starts, like everything is done. And what was your weight? What weight class was that? I pulled a featherweight 6-6. Featherweight?

Yeah. Wow, wow, wow. How many fights did you do at featherweight? Maybe three. Okay. I think three, yeah. And then I come to the lightways. And you said the money was good.

Like, how much did you get for your debut? In Brazil, like 2,000 Brazilian money. At that time, it was really good money. Did you tell your parents? Yeah, I told my mom. She was okay? And she was really scared. Yeah, because she needs to sign to me to fight because I was 17 years old.

But she was okay. Did she go to it? Sorry? Did she go to the fight? No, no, no, no. She didn't know. Yeah, but one week after, exactly one week after, I fought MMA again. Yeah.

And then she was there. Against Renato de Silva. Yeah. And you won that one as well? Yeah, I won't. But that fight was crazy because he was much heavier than me. And he had a lot of experience on Wai Thai. He's from Curitibo, former shooting box athlete.

And yeah, he hit me a lot. He broke my nose during the fight. and then I'm knocking out on the end of the fight. Wow. Why did you fight like just one week later? That's a quick turnaround. No, because the fight one week later was on my schedule already. I was training for that fight.

Okay. You know? And then the fight with Sergio was really short notice. And then I said, oh, okay, let's fight. And your next one you actually lost. Did that, like how did you react to that? Sometimes people lose early in their career. They feel like, oh, no.

You mean my first loss? Yeah, the next one. The third fight, you lost that one, right? Man, that was crazy because I lost, but it was not by, not like by knockout. I think on the topology is like TKO, yeah? Yeah. Yeah, but it was not TKO like by punch or something like that. the guy tried to take me down and then my feet was like on on the middle of the

defense and his body and then like the my my got like injury on my knee you know when he tried to take me down that's why they fight's finish okay okay okay so they need to correct yeah so i was like he disappointed but i was worried much more about my knee than the loss And what happened to the knee? Nothing really serious. Okay. I come to the first doctor. He's really famous here in Brazil.

He did a surgery on a lot of soccer players. And he just checked my knee and say, your ligaments is done. You need to do a surgery and things like that. And then I was another doctor. And he said, no, your knee is okay. Just put eye, see. You need to take out the water inside the knee.

but just let's try to recoverage or some physiotherapy and see if it get better. And then I didn't synergy. Okay. Always good to get a second opinion. Yeah. Before I let you go, I just want to know, and that was great memories there. Thank you for sharing. Have they told you you beat JDM? Because right now, as you know, Islam doesn't have a title fight yet.

We're expecting maybe something soon. What does this mean for you? Are you going to get that title shot? Well, I think after B. JDM, I will be the next for the title, you know. Like, of course, I have a loss to Ian, but after that, I did a spectacular performance against Jocknew, amazing performance against the former champ, Leon Edwards. I will knock you out. I will knock JDM out.

so I don't know if you talk about media I have a lot of media a lot of people like me I have a lot of fans and also talk about the

like if I deserve it or not I think I deserve it if I knock JDM out of course I will knock him out I will knock out two former champions you know so who is the next for the title

who deserves more than me So Ian is obviously pushing hard for this, especially with Shafkat out again. Do you think Ian should fight Islam first and you fight the winner? Yeah, I think so. Do you think Ian can beat him? I think it's hard, but I think... You think he has the style? Yeah, I think he has some skills would help him to beat Islam.

But ultimately, who would you pick in the fight? between Islam and Yip. Yeah. If I need to bet my money, of course Islam. Maybe not. But I really want Ian to get the belt. And then we do a rematch in Brazil for the title. Yeah.

I was going to ask you that. Because you have the story with Ian. He has the win over you, but also Islam has been incredible. So which one would mean more to you? To beat Islam or to get the revenge? against Ian? I think to get a revenge against Ian, I know. We have a really good relationship with Talc, a lot.

We have a lot of respect for each other. And also he said, like, yeah, I'm going to get the belt and then we're going to do our rematch in Brazil. And that's what we both want to know, fighting Brazil, end of the year for the belt would be amazing. I do wonder who his son would root for because he has said that you're his son's favorite fighter. Yeah. That would be weird.

Yeah. By the way, they were talking about Islam versus Ilia on the White House. It didn't work out. Who do you think would have won that fight if Ilya would have moved up to 170 to fight Islam? Bro, I don't know. It's hard. But maybe to Pudia.

You think he could have done it at 170? Yeah, it's a 170, yeah. But I definitely I don't know who I would pick, you know. I'm not good like he's saying watching fights. I don't watch too much fights, so I don't know. But I'm going to pick to Pura because he's striker. I like striker. Yeah.

I was wondering what the odds would be on, is it one X bet or is it one bet? Sorry? The sponsor, one X bet or one bet? How do you say it, your sponsor? One X bet. One X bet. Yeah. You got to go there.

In Portuguese, we say like you one she's bet. Okay. You can do MMA betting there? Yeah. Okay. So if you're in Brazil, right? If you're in Brazil, go check it out. Yeah.

Well, who's the favorite on, what do you say, Wenesh bet? Oneesh bet. Is that how you say it? One shiz bet. One shiz bet. Okay. Who's the favorite?

You or JDM over there. Oh, good question. I think it's me. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It has to be Brazil. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, good luck to you, Carlos.

Looking forward to this fight. Thank you. Great fight. Always a pleasure to have you on. We really appreciate it. We can't wait to see you in action on May 2nd. Thank you, brother. Thanks so much. All the best. There he is. The Nightmare. Carlos Prachas. Always great to catch up with him. Massive fight at 170 pounds. This is going to be a big one. I love this fight. Looking forward to it very much. And a very important fight in the 170-pound division because there's some big things going on.

I do feel like they'll go in the direction of Ian Gary versus Islam, now that the Tuporia fight is off the table, and Shafkat is out for an undetermined amount of time, and we don't know when he'll be back, and so Pratchez beats J.D., yeah, I think he could very well be next. And it's kind of a win-win. You're either fighting Ian if he beats Islam, although Islam might get the rematch,

or you're fighting Islam. Kind of a win-win. Love it. What a fight that is. May 2 in Perth at the RAC Arena. Yesterday, we told you about a promo that I said was the frontrunner, at least as of now for promo of the year. Incredible stuff from Zim Salmani,

formerly known as Rezar, from the World Wrestling Entertainment, W.W.E. He was a part of the authors of pain tag team, NXT champs. WWE champs was there for about a decade. Prior to that though, competed in mixed martial arts,

has a kickboxing background as well, competed in Bama, had an incredible win way back in the day against the UFC veteran Ollie Thompson. He has been in the fight game for quite some time, he's just 31 years old, so quite young in the game, and recently announced that he was moving over to the world of BKFC

to have a run there, and there was some buzz about this, and then he went out there and won on Saturday and then cut an incredible promo. We're going to talk to him in a second, but I want to set the table with this promo because this is a phenomenal promo, and I've been buzzing about it, and really it's what sold me on wanting to speak to this guy. So before we get to him, here it is in case you missed it. I'm here to knock motherfuckers out anywhere in the motherfucking world. Come get it.

Motherfuckers. I'm fucking done with everybody, motherfuckers. Give it. Get it. Fuck this place to what? Give it. Give it to me. I'm the motherfucking Albanian psycho.

I'm the motherfucker who came from WWE to this place. I fought my ass off and I'm here. Thank you to David Feldman. Thank you to Colin McGregor. I'm here to stay motherfuckers, whether you're like it or not. The Albanian psycho has arrived at B. There you have it. A second round, KO win over Daniel Curtin and his BKFC debut over in Newcastle in England.

Here he is the man you just saw on camera, Zim Salmani. Hello, Zim, how are you? So, man. I'm good. How are you? I'm great. Great to talk to you. And by the way, can I ask, am I pronouncing your name correctly?

Yes. Okay. You are. All right, all right. I'm always a stickler when it comes to that stuff. Congratulations on the win. What a freaking promo, man. Holy smokes.

The crowd is showering you with booze. You win in England and you just freaking bring it to them. Could you describe what you're feeling in that moment? Because I could see the emotion, the passion just coming out of you. Yeah, obviously, it's Bernalco, you know. So you're prepared for everything and every outcome. I was all, I knew from the start of them to knock him out, but yeah, in the promo, the fans started booing and everything and yeah, you can do that to me, you know, so I'll come at you.

I don't care if it's 11,000 or 12,000 to one. I'm as crazy as it comes. Do you like that? Do you like when people are booing you, when you're the heel? You know, I don't try it to be, but it's just who I am. And, yeah, I don't mind it. It's something I'm used to, you know, all. life so you know you said that you you know you knew that you were going to knock him out but

there was an early knockdown for him earlier in the fight were you concerned at all were you hurt what were you feeling in that moment no I wasn't concerned I wasn't hurt it's uh it's just something that happened while I was fighting backwards and you know I just got caught and it's something that happens you know I'm experienced enough to take the A count and get up and I knew what I had to do, get in his face and knock him up. What was your experience like with BKFC?

This was your first time fighting for them, new promotion for you, being over there in Newcastle. What did you think? I think this company is going to be as big or bigger than the UFC and even WWE, to be honest. I think the excitement

that the fans get from a show like this The adrenaline rush is unmatched to any other organization in the world. And I've been around almost every organization, and I've seen, I see the potential now in the BKFC, and I know it's going to go globally big. It's greatly organized in the back for the fighters, but also for the fans. It's a pretty fast-paced show, so you're not going to be bored at any second. during a show so it's I think it's

going to be a crazy big you had some options on the table when you were leaving WWN deciding what you were going to do next ultimately why did you sign with bare knuckle it's one thing to go back to MMA maybe do some kickboxing this is a next level of violence

why did you choose to go down this route that's exactly why it's the next level of violence and I think is the most extreme extreme option out there and it's something that's perfectly for me, you know. I love extreme sports. I love to be at the craziest place possible.

So it's, that's my nickname says it. It's the perfect place for me, from a psychopath. Who gave you that nickname? The Albanian Psycho is a tremendous nickname. Who gave that to you? One of my old coaches, the head coach of Team Golden Glory, Martian Diyon. Oh my gosh, legend from the game. I know Martine very, very well. Marluse Kuhnan and Alastar Overeem, all those guys. train with him. And so how early in your fight career did he give that to you? My first pro fight was in Romania. I just turned 18 years old and I fought a 38-year-old guy, Siberian-Romanian guy. And I just flipped 20 minutes before the fight. And he said,

you just looked like a psychopath. He went in there and fought your ass out one. And yeah. That's when he gave the nickname. When you say you flipped, what do you mean by that? Like in the locker room, you just like turned, you turned into someone else? Yes. And what prompts that? To be honest, I don't know. I have no control over it.

I just become a different person and as soon as I know it's, you know, victory or death. I just flip and I flip that switch automatically and I become completely someone else. Does that switch get flipped in everyday life when you're at the gym or even not preparing for a fight? Like is that something that comes out a lot? No, it's something that comes out when it needs to come out and that's during fights. Okay. You know, I surround myself with guys that I know well and the people that I love and care about, so not on them. How did you start your martial arts journey?

How old were you and who introduced you to this world? Oh, very early, man. I was already judo, a high-level judo as a kid, and I was a North Netherlands, North Holland champion at like six, seven years old, eight years old, until 12 years old. But then I started kickboxing, having some kickbox fights locally, and at 16, I got scouted by someone from Golden Glory. And we trained with Overeem a little bit.

Went to Boca Raton, Florida, to train with the Black Zillions. And, yeah, at 17, I started fighting more, and I signed with Cool and Glory. And at 18, I turned pro. That's how I went. And you had that incredible win over Olly Thompson in Bama. Like, what was it? Like 19 seconds or something like that? Yeah, 19 seconds.

No, 18 seconds. You were 19, 18 seconds. This fight right here. A lot of people were very impressed. considering the age difference. Yes. And actually after the fight, we had talks with the UFC,

the matchmaker at the time. But because I was still young, they said to wait a little bit before we start negotiating a contract. And then, yeah, obviously, WW came around the corner and I started wrestling for them. So did they reach out to you?

Did they talk to you first, that it took you away from this path, or did you guys reach out to them? No, I didn't even know about WW at the time. I wasn't a wrestling fan at all. Okay. I just, here in the Netherlands, we just watched kickboxing and MMA.

So we didn't watch WW. It's not a real big WWE country. So, yeah, I was at a training camp in Dubai, and there were guys walking around from WWB looking for, talent. And they just came up to you and said, are you interested? Yes. Yeah.

And so being the Albanian cycle and being the legit fighter that you are, initially, did you think like, no, I don't want to do this scripted stuff? This isn't for me? Yes. Yeah. I had a feeling. I wasn't excited about it. In the beginning, I did the trial.

The trial was hard. I think it was like 60 guys and only three guys got a contract offered. but yeah it wasn't really something you know I just didn't know what to expect so I thought you know fuck it I'm going to go to Florida

to their performance center and see what's up and then you know as months go by you they start liking you and they start investing time in you and investing money in you and then eventually you're there so long you think

fuck man then everything I did till now is for nothing so I better go through with it Do you remember when you started to feel like, okay, I have something here, I'm enjoying this, I have a future here, this is better than what I thought it was going to be? Yeah, when we became NXT tag team champions, the development show, WWB. Okay, yes, of course. And of course, when they have had Paul Ellering, BR manager, that's something that was at that time in NXT, one of the biggest things that happened. Sure.

So, yeah. Because you didn't grow up a wrestling fan and maybe didn't know about, you know, the history of the business, the legends, did that work in your favor or against you? I know, you know, the wrestling business, there's a lot of rules backstage, what you can and can't do, a lot of politics. Did you feel like that worked against you or in your favor, the fact that you didn't know much about this? No, against me. They didn't like me backstage in the beginning, especially the wrestlers who were already wrestling for like 10, 15 years and got, finally got their way to the performance center. They didn't respect it, you know?

They didn't like having guys that weren't wrestlers or didn't pay their dues, as they say, in the wrestling business, in little bingo halls and stuff. You know, they didn't like that. But, yeah, what can I do? Well, I didn't beg them to go there, so they wanted me. Yeah, you didn't go through the indie circuit, so they feel like you didn't work your way up the ladder.

Did they give you a hard time? Yeah, yeah. they tried to but at the end of the day you know they knew I was a legit killer so yeah they didn't want to fuck with me backstage too much either so yeah i i would imagine once people knew who you were and what your background was i would imagine that a lot of people left you alone yes yeah that's that's true the wrestlers yeah yes and did you feel like when you would walk around like yeah all of you are sort of scripted bad guys, but like I'm a legit tough guy. Did you feel like you had that power over them?

Not necessarily power because, you know, you do one wrong thing. You're, you know, they get rid of you. Right. So you got to keep, you know, you got to keep controlling control. But, yeah, they just wouldn't fuck too much with you, you know. Like there's like a certain level of respect. Same with Brock walking backstage, you know. Sure.

I bet maybe back in the day when he got brought from the mat to the, the ring, it was the same thing, but then when you went, became a UFC superstar, it was different when he came back. You come from a world where you kind of, you know, you create your own success. You're able to kind of control your destiny. You go to wrestling and it's someone kind of writing your destiny, right? How did you deal with that? How did you feel when it was like, hey, I think I'm better than these people, but maybe I'm

not getting the opportunities like others? Yeah, it was hard in the beginning. It was hard in the beginning, but you learn also, you know, and they do it very good with you. They're good at, you know, staying in contact with you, explain to you how this works and everything, and you just understand it so well. And, you know, eventually you've got to just agree with them and do whatever they say. That's just part of their business. And I accepted it.

I had put too much time and work in it. So, you know, I just wanted to be successful there, become a champion. And I did two times. We won the World Dusty Cup. So I thought I achieved my things that I wanted to achieve. So I just went with it. Who came up with Resar, by the way? Well, I think they Googled like 100 Albanian names.

And they just told me to choose five to ten good names out of there. And I think Razor was one of them. Can't really remember, to be honest. It was a long time ago. Okay. that's how they did when you parted ways in 2020 you kind of were on the

indie scene so to speak did you enjoy that you eventually came back a couple years later but that time in between now you're like really seeing the other world of pro wrestling did you enjoy that yeah we never wrestled on the indies during that time but uh

I was uh I was uh I was I was confident that we yeah during COVID during that time and And yeah, I don't know what to say. We never did signings or anything like that. So what was WES?

Didn't you launch that? Yeah, it was a project that, you know, never went as far as having the show. Yeah, but we didn't wrestle or anything. Okay, so you didn't do a single match? No. Okay. So what did you do for those two years or so? You know, we did our thing.

We worked and, you know, trained. Okay. Enjoy life a little bit and, you know, build good relations with people and, yeah, just past time. So when they called you back, I think it was in 23, were you on board to come back right away or did you have to think about it? To be honest, I flew to Canada to see Paul Heathering and Sunny Denson, my tagging at the time.

And we discussed it. And at that time, we had Paul do the negotiations. and it worked it worked out they agreed it to it and we we knew that triple age at full creative control at the time at least that's what he told us and yeah we made a decision unanimously to come back and only if all I learning was with us okay at that time when you were weighing your options were you considering going back to to shoot fighting if you will yes yeah was, but, you know, the world was a little bit different at the time during the pandemic. You know, it was the end piece of the pandemic.

And we just decided at that time to play it safe. But in the back of my head, I knew I'm going to go back to fighting sooner or later anyways. Do you regret going back? No, I didn't regret going back. No, we had a good run with Carrying Cross and Scarlett as the final testament. and you know it's something that that happens you know I'm you know I don't really think about things too much you know what happened it happened good now I'm here I'm going to knock some other fucks up and that's it the only reason I asked that is because I read that you know you felt like you were

promised some things and it didn't really quite work out the way in which you thought is that accurate yes yeah we were promised a bunch of things and but that's That's how the business goes. Some people get hurt, some people, some people do different things. And they switch up writers all the time, they switch up produce all the time. And they put other people in control of power

and of creative and stuff like that. So there's nothing is in your hands there backstage, you know? And now it is. Now it's in my hands. You know, I do it in the ring. And yeah, the outcome that you saw two days ago is going to happen many more times. One last thing on the wrestling.

Could I just ask about the end? What happened with the Wyatt Six and all that? This thing that people are saying led to you leaving the company. Can you tell us? Yeah, there was an incident, you know, very unprofessional from one of those guys. I don't know their names, you know. I don't want to go into it too deeply, but there was an incident at one of the holiday tours that we did. And yeah, somebody tried to switch up the match during the match.

and, you know, there's just a no-go for me, especially if you just been in the company for a little bit and we were already there for a long time, you know, you don't do that. And I just had to let somebody know, and that was the end of it. So is that happening in the middle of the match? Like you're talking about this? Or you... Yes. Yeah. Yeah, they tried to switch up the match in the middle of the match.

So, you know, I'm a professional, you know. Even if I got to take a beating in a wrestling ring, I do it. And if you're going to be a scared little, you know, bitch, then it's not my fault, you know. So I would let you know backstage. And the result was you winning and they tried to change it to you losing? No, it was like that. It was, you know, certain moves that we did. Got you, got you.

Some of the guys didn't want to take it because they were, yeah, we were. big guys. Yeah. So if we lift you up and double spine buss to somebody five days, five nights in a row, then the six night, you know, somebody can complain, but don't change it during the match. Sure. No, I get that. And that was it? That was a, an argument backstage and then you were done? Yes. Did you think that was fair? It happened, you know. I'm okay with it. Okay. You're at peace with it. Yeah. And when that happened, did you consider, consider other options in wrestling or did you feel at that time that was it? No, that was it. We knew that was it.

We especially upon Sunny, you know, we talked together and obviously we always leave the door open, but for me it was clear. I had to go back to combat sports and do my thing. And when you look back on your run there, are you look back with pride, Are you happy with your time? Yes, of course. We were raw, world, raw, tagging champions. And, you know, there's some crazy things with Seth Rollins in a group, with Paul Ellering, with Carrying Cross and Scarlett.

You know, we did a lot of crazy things, you know, and we met good people, but at the end of the day, it wasn't really my world. I was never 100% comfortable. And, you know, I need to be fine. I need to be having that real rush. And now I'm, I found my home in BKFC. By the way, I still can't believe that Caring Cross isn't with the company anymore. I can't believe they couldn't come to a deal.

Yeah, same thing with him, and he got promised so fucking much. And then that happened. They dropped the ball on that guy. Very, very sad. To feel what you felt on Saturday, to fight again, to get a win, a rush like that. rush like that, I would imagine that must have felt like a drug that you were searching for for quite some time, like that you probably missed it greatly. Yes, yeah, definitely, man.

It was so good to be in there again, you know, just the feeling of putting your knuckles against somebody's face, you know, and just fucking punch as hard as you can and as fast as you can and try to hurt somebody as much as you can is something that, you know, you can't compare with wrestling. It's something that I need it. That deal that you have with BKFC, does it allow you to do other things as well? Could you do MMA? Could you do boxing?

What could you do? Or is it just BKFC for now? I focus on BKFC for now, you know. I'm not interested in doing too much other things. But it's up to my management, of course, on what I do. You know, as long as I'm fighting, I'm happy. and I'm not sure what the thing is, but I think it won't fight at a time,

and right now I'm good here, but, you know, I'm not closing any options for other places. Okay. Any injuries after the fight? No. My knock was so good. Yeah. Okay, knock somebody out again.

Oh, gosh. I'm really happy that we're doing this on Zoom, by the way, because I feel like maybe I could have gotten one. No, no, of course. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, but I felt it. How quickly do you want to return? We'll see. You know, I'm going to get back in training in a week or so

and see how I feel. And then I hope somewhere around the summertime I'm going to be in there again. By the way, what happened at the way-ins? It got a little testy there at the way-ins, almost like a headbut, I think. What happened there from your perspective? Here it is.

Yeah, I got closer and, you know, I felt a little bit resistant. You know, you pushed a little bit back and then, you know, if you push it back, yeah, I want to push you even harder back. And that's what happened. You see David Feldman, he's loving it. I know Connor McGregor loving it as well. What's your relationship like with Connor? It's good.

And they invited me to a show in Manchester, we had some talks. And they really believe in the company. first of foremost. They really know that it's going to go globally and going to be as big as UFC or bigger. And I believe in that too, especially after watching the show in real life. I always say it to everybody.

You got to witness BKFC at least once in our life life. It's a completely different thing than just while going to an MMA show or a wrestling show or kickboxing show. It's different. This is the real deal. You know, you're going to see teeth flying, you know, facial bones breaking, the sound that it makes the fists in somebody's face.

It's addicting, man. And I believe in the product. Our relation is good. He believes in me as well. He knows we can do great things together, and here we are, you know, off to a great start. They've got some nice heavyweights on the roster. Ben Rothwell was heavyweight champion, And Dary Olavski, wins recently. how far away do you think you are from those guys?

I'm not too far away, I think. Obviously, they've been around a little longer here in BKHC, but, you know, I don't think Arlowski had too many fights in BKHC either before getting a title shot. So, you know, let me rack up some wins, and I'll knock them out too. I also heard you were interested in fighting the big man, Eddie Hall. is this a strong possibility

yeah that was a while back when he was he was calling out Dylan Dennis you know and I was just watching it from home and I thought what the fuck are you doing this guy is quarter of your size you know like if you're really that tough call someone out that's a heavyweight

you know you got beat up by your buddy there half-tarbearance and are you going to call out like this little little kid, you know, it's, it doesn't work to me. So I didn't understand it. So that's why I called him out, you know, but his management didn't want nothing to do with that.

Okay. I was wondering, no response? No, there was some talks, but obviously he was too scared to fight, you know. Okay. By the way, when you're, when you're like around, you know, these other guys, do you feel, you know, the, the BKFC fighters, do you, you feel that the sport is, you know, you feel that the sport is at, you know, because you're training with Martin Diyang, Golden Glory, like that's high level fighting, high level strikers. Do you feel like the sport has reached a point

bare knuckle that you could say these guys are high level or it's not quite there yet? Like, what I mean is, has it evolved to the point where you feel like it's at its purest and best form or it still has some work to do? I don't train right now. I'm not training with... No, I don't mean gold. I'm saying like you were around the best types of strikers. Yes. And sometimes people say with BKFC that, you know, it could be. be a little sloppy at times that it's not quite there as far as like a refined product. Do you feel that when you see it based on your analytical eye or do you think that there's

still more work to do with the fighters? Well, they're high level, man. Okay. You know, especially watching the warm up. I watching the fights, these guys are as real as a guess. You know, the quality fighting is very high here. And I think, especially without the gloves, it's a different. it's a different ballroom, it's a different game.

So the level is high here, very high. A lot of guys come from boxing here as well. Sure, sure. They're not just ex-MMA fighters or whatever. They all have some boxing fights or something. So they know what they're doing. You said at the very beginning of our chat, when I asked you about the booze and being the heel,

this is the way it's been your whole life. What did you mean by that? I was automatically always a bad guy. and, you know, I used to go to all the countries to fight. I used to go to Macedonia, to England, to Bosnia, and I always fought the hometown heroes, Romania, and, you know, I always beat them up. So that's what I mean. They always booed me, and I love it, you know.

Let me beat the bad guy, but I'll still knock your favorite out. Was it like that for you when you were younger as well? like when you were a teen, when you were in school growing up? I don't know. It's a long time ago. I mean, like, you know, on the streets, like, you know, the playground, school, like, were you the bad guy, so to speak, the quote-unquote bad guy? Maybe.

I don't know. I don't know how they feel me. Not too many people talk to me, so I don't know. Why do you think they didn't talk to you? I don't know, man. Maybe they were scared, maybe I don't know. I feel like that was it. I feel like that was it.

No, maybe. Maybe. And are you living in Albania or do you live in the Netherlands? Right now I live in the Netherlands. Okay. I train with Donald Storvold in Rotterdam and Jobden Hollander. They're two great boxing trainers, the best almost in Europe. And we train here.

Okay. Do you know who Action Bronson is? Yeah, it's a good friend of my. Okay, yeah. I was talking to him about you, because he's a very proud Albanian as well. And he said he loves you and that you're representing the people very well. So he said to...

Oh, Action Bronson. Yeah. I thought I was thinking about someone else. You think about Bronson Reed? Yeah, no. Action Bronson is the rapper and he has the cooking thing. You know this guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

New York guy. Yeah. Baklava guy. Yes, yes, yes, yes. No, I've never met him. Okay. But I know of him. He's a good rapper, actually.

I don't know if he still wraps or not. Yeah, yeah, he's a great rapper, chef. He's a host. He's got the great show. F, that's delicious. Anyway, he said, I asked him if he, because I sent him the video of you saying you're the Albanian psycho. He's very proud to be Albanian.

When I think of Albania, I think of him. He said he's very well aware, you're doing great, and that he wanted to send his regards and love and respect to you. I appreciate him, I appreciate it. I appreciate him. I appreciate him. I appreciate him. Phil Baller was a good friend of us,

and he always told me that he's a great guy. Yeah. I need to see you and him doing like some sort of food. You guys together, I think you could put down some meals. You're both big boys. Yeah, we can work something. I'll do know or not. All right, all right.

Well, for now, though, I do wish you the best. Congratulations on your success this Saturday. Congrats on that amazing promo, amazing stuff. I know you weren't trying to do something like that. I know it was all just coming out naturally in the moment, but it was great to see. And I think you put a lot of people on notice. So looking forward to the next one.

Keep it up, my man, and I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. All right. There he is. The Albanian psycho, Zim Salmani, formerly of WWE, now of BKFC. Not someone that I think you want to mess with. Not someone.

I mean, like, you talk about tough guys and legit tough guys. That's a super legit tough guy. Like, that is... You think? You think so? I don't know. Enough. What do you went like this?

I was like, wow, I felt that man. Yeah, we heard it. You were like, oh, God. Oh, good. Goodness of me. Clutch with your pearls. I can't believe he's 31.

He's 31. I can't believe he's 31. That he was fighting, you know, 16 to 18 in MMA, beating the likes of Ali Thompson. And then has a whole WWE career, and now he's still a young man. And especially for heavyweight.

Looks like a movie villain. Yeah. Oh, 100. And the way he talks, too. Just your bare fist connecting with another man's face as hard as you possibly can. Yo, he's terrified. BKFC's got something with him. I'll tell you that.

Fought Antidellia as well back in the day. Way back in the day. Yeah, BKFC has something with him. Push this guy to the moon. Holy smokes. It just feels like he wants to pick his teeth with the bones of his opponent. He just feels like an actual. What happened at the face off there?

Well, I essentially pushed up against him and I felt some resistance and I didn't like that. Why didn't anyone talk to you back then? I don't know. I love him. I love him. I'm in for the next. Oh my gosh. Fuck yeah.

What was it like on the indie scene? Never wrestled on the indie scene. Okay. All right. Yeah, you don't want to step out of bounds there. I got you. I love how you're like, you know. you know, obviously the guys in the locker room, they know you're tough and do they show your respect?

He's like, yeah. Like, what do you think? You think if Brock bumps into that guy, he's giving him problems? I don't think so. I don't know, man. The one guy in the locker room that might. Yeah, maybe. Maybe, golly, I want nothing to do that guy.

I mean, that's me. I know Brock's not me, but that was something. Thank you very much to Zim for stopping by and congrats to BKFC for landing him. That is a very, very interesting signing. Okay, do we have any super chats, Mr. Frankie? Yep, we do. The White House card, given the younger bros Amon and Kyle Dachas, a spotlight out of their brother's shadow, love to see it. Wow, I didn't think of that, actually.

I didn't think of that storyline. I'll say it a million times between now and June 14th. there's nice look at what it means to Aiman Thabi look at what it means to Kyle Daucus I don't mind

could we see Zimsel Mining against Martin Boudet what do you guys think of that one I'll watch him versus anybody he just

I kind of want to see him in MMA but maybe BKFC is the best place for him who knows I mean he's 31 to get him on Netflix what do you guys think

fuck yeah get him anywhere I will watch this guy I'm down for that I am sold. Uncle Punch was the fact that I'm older than him kind of bends my brain. It feels like he's at least 15 years older than men. Those

clips of him without the tattoos, like a different human being. The tats, the neck tats and everything. It changes a lot. What else, Frankie? What else? Ariel, why does O'Malley get to jump ahead of when you're making Middove is the guy to beat to get at Yon and Rob? Boys at the back said

Umar beat Sean. He's a nightmare for O'Malley. Are we manufacturing champions? Why does O'Malley get to jump? I mean, why is he jumping Umar because he's fighting I mean no one's really jumping anyone right like we we know it's going to be Jan versus Marab oh we don't really know that but we assume that yeah yeah so who's jumping who like did you want it to be

umar versus Amen at the White House no maybe he's implying if O'Malley wins most people say give him the title shot right or at least people will want to see that there O'Malley look if Marab wins back the belt, then no. We're not getting it. No. But if Jan remains champion, I'm in. Well, Mali has a win over. Yeah. That's a very, I mean, like,

that is not controversial at all. That is really not controversial. Well, if you are somebody who believes Umar should get the shot, then I understand that. But as we have seen over and over, over again, a much easier fight to make. Yeah. And, and more lucrative. Or what else, Frankie? What else? And lastly, how special would it be for Sean O'Malley to be walked out by 27-time Grammy winner?

Kendrick Lamar Wow A little tit for tag Do you guys think that they will do The Drake thing? It seems More likely than if it was just a random Other event, right?

Who's to check? You don't like it? I just don't know if Drake's doing it Really? Getting him to the White House Drake at the White House? Big opportunity! You don't think you would do it?

I don't know. I don't know if he's going to do it. You mean it depends on his politics? No. Oh. No. What I do with the politics. Well, then why?

He's a global superstar to walk out for, like, the third bout down on the car. But he's an M.MA fan. Yeah. M. He's always putting up the steak bets. He's always put him up the steak bets. He walked out on the stage with McGregor with the Irish flag like one time. Oh, he watches MM.

No, he's an M.A fan. He bets on the fights on the sneak. He's like one of my most, like, loyal followers. He throws up the steak. Oh, well, Congress. Part of the steak. I mean, I do feel like that's a little more than an oh, well, congrats. if I'm being honest.

I remember, do you remember when Izzy? Yes, that's better. When Izzy and Romero, when Izzy and Romero, they had a dance off. Yeah, yeah. Or their fight.

Yeah. I remember him commenting on it. On your Instagram post of it. I think that's the first time I noticed that he was following me. And I was like, oh, this guy, if he watches.

I think it'd be pretty cool. Yeah. No, I think he would be, I think he would be down. This is a big stage. If O'Malley then got Kendra, yeah,

but here's the problem. If he doesn't fucks was Zahabi and he's more of an O'Mali guy, maybe he doesn't want to do it. I want to say I remember when O'Malley got the belt, he, like, posted it in the hotel room and, like, the Instagram post went viral. And I swear Drake commented on it. Oh, really?

Oh, yeah, he talks about partying with... O'Malley? Drake. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Sean O'Malley has. So, yeah, I feel like O'Malley and Drake are kind of boys. Okay. What if he just walks them both up? He walks out.

He walks out a minute or who's higher rank now? I don't even know. He walks out the first one and then the second one. What else, Frankie? That was all of them. That was it. All right. Let me see. I saw the On the nose went out.

That's cool. On the nose is out. Yep. Thank you for that. Arahuani. ubstack.com is where you can leave questions for tomorrow's program. Tomorrow we will be joined by Sean Brady. Looking forward to talking to him about his big return fight against Joaquin Buckley.

Moses Italma, who many people believe is going to be the future heavyweight champion in very short order. He is going to join us. He's returning to action in just a little less than a couple of weeks against Jermaine Franklin and Todd DeBuff, headman over at Top Rank. They've been in the news as of late. He's going to join us in studio. Always love those chats. So looking forward to that. A couple of things I wanted to bring up before we go. I did see this fun little tweet here, a reply to one of our tweets yesterday regarding Jake Paul and it kind of struck me how funny it all is. This individual writing to me about the baby face turn, if you will, for Jake Paul. Here it is. Crazy how all MMA fans just hated Jake Paul,

including me. Now I love the guy for bringing this together. I feel like that's been the sentiment towards him with regards to women's boxing. Now with this, he was public enemy number one going up against the UFC and Dana White and obviously the likes of Tyrone Woodley and Ben Ascran and Nathan Diaz and now it seems like people are like, hey, maybe. Now, I know a lot of this is Nikis is doing, obviously, but he is the one behind it. So a fun little turn of events there. What about this FBI seminar that everyone's talking about with the UFC fighters? Who do we got there?

Manel Cap, Ali Abdel Aziz, which is wild, Jorge Mazvedal. Why is that wild? Melia, Mick Maynard, uh, hello Justin Gaechee, and Cash Patel. What's going on? Everyone's very upset about Cash Patel. Shoes on the mat? Cash.

Okay, everyone's hating on Cash Patel for the shoes on the mat, but is the guy right behind Justin Gagy, not also wearing shoes? So according to Dano back there, that's Michael Chandler. But I don't know how you, how can you tell that's Michael Chandler? Is he also wearing shoes, though? I can't see here. Who's to check? I'm pretty positive that that man has shoes on.

What's that, Dana? What'd you say? I was just looking through, like, comments of people, and the majority of them were saying that was Chandler, so I just... Yeah, he was announced as one of the people. Are there shoes on it? I don't know. Those are definitely. Those are not socks. Yeah, so why... Wrestling shoes, though?

Why is everyone hating on cash? What's going? Because... Is this not the most random thing in the world? What is happening? I think people are hating on him because he's doing the, like, you know, showing up at the hockey, locker. He's just,

Yeah, shoes on the map, bro. I mean, that's... That's fucking illegal. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, for real. What, uh, how do I get some of that UFC FBI merch they're all wearing? Are they really? Yeah.

I didn't notice. Oh, custom. Yeah. It is a wild, wild thing that these are all Ali clients, knowing a little bit about his history that he's the one doing. I mean, it's just why, only in America. God bless, peace and love, peace and love, love it. Everyone loves a good baby face turn.

No judgment. But who would have thought back in, I don't know, 2001 or so, that we would be here 25 years later? Isn't that amazing? It's a great point. Only in America. Right, Dana? Only in America.

That is amazing. It's really unbelievable. I mean, like, you actually have to give him a lot of credit, right? Do you think that's why he's retweeting cash-piled things all the time on Twitter? How do I know this? How do you know this? it's amazing. What about Lamar Jackson guys?

Great quarterback. Yeah, not bad. A little sad. Maybe not bad. He's no, he's no J-A-17. I tell you what, J-17. Does he have more MVPs than Josh Allen? Jay-17 ain't hitting mitts like this.

Look at this. Why are athletes so bad at hitting Mitz? Like, what is this? What's going on here? I mean, there is a, there is a, a Uno reverse card, which is why our MMA fighters so bad at athletics. Like, you watch any of them try to throw a ball

or shoot or, do anything and it's, I mean, we just had Alex Perre on yesterday. The shooting form is, uh, okay, this is not bad. You know what? I give him credit for putting it out. Yeah, yeah, this isn't bad. My answer is it's a sport. And if you haven't done it, then you're just, you're just not going to look athletic doing it. It's to extend on the cross lotus. All right. All right. So yesterday, you were giving Alex Perr of basketball. Was I not? Was I not right? Was I not right? No, no, you can't throw it. It's a run. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. Who was that? He doesn't play basketball.

But then the backward shot was very good. The backward shot was very good. see Mamdani shooting? No, but I can only imagine. Oh, Mamdani on Saturday with Mo Diawara of the Knicks. Like, someone nailed it. They said he he, he, he shoots like a theater kid. Like, the way he shot, I mean, I guess... He did go to my high school, so

Did he really? Yeah. I'm sorry about that. How old is? No, I'm kidding. Okay, okay, peace in love. No, I think he was like... No, much behind here. He's much younger. He's much younger. But I guess I take for granted because I'm just around, you know, such greatness as far as basketball is concerned that everyone knows at a shoot.

Who are you talking about? I mean, just like. Who you have not been with? Tell me. The New York Urban Professional League that I put together. I thought you were going to go. Okay. My kids, you know, I teach them the proper technique.

And so when I see people going like this or when I see people going like this, you know, it's just. Listen, you just got to open the Hellwani school, you know? Educate. I would like to do that. I actually coached seventh and eighth grade basketball back in the day. What era are we talking about? 2001, 2002? How old were you?

I was fresh out of high school and they said, can you please give back? Can you please give back? I never told this story, I don't think, but one of the games we had an away game. And I had one of those, you know, like those, it's all, it was like a marker board, like where you can draw a plays. Yeah. And like you wipe it. What is that called? A dry erase board.

Sort of, yeah, I guess. And so we did it. you know, that was my thing. We didn't, we were okay. We were like a 500 team. And, uh, we're done. Go home. Take out the board for my bag.

Someone drew a swastika on my board. Could you believe that? I don't know. Fortunately, yes, but that's horrible. In, in, uh, 2001, yeah, couldn't believe it. Um, but, you know, we forged on. Anyway, not sure how we went down that path, but, uh, oh, the, the, the Lamar Jackson, then the Alex Per.

I'm Donnie. Yeah. It all makes sense. When you just follow that, it all makes sense. What's this? Hamsat's playing video games? Uh-oh. Anything good here?

What is he got? What is he playing? Golden Eye? What's this? Oh, fuck it. He's on a PC? What is this? A land party?

Oh shit. He got a land party going. Let's fucking go. What is that? What is a land party? I'm too old to know what game this is. Where everyone, everyone pulls up with their... It looks like a computer.

No, with their computers. They used to be PCs. used to lug those monitors Yeah, set up the monitor and everything Bit nerdy, no? You know what? Nah, fuck that, it's sick. Yeah, it's bonding with the boys.

What is that? What game is that? I don't know. GTA 4? No, no, it's a shooter. I don't know which one though. No, it's not first person. Oh, you know, it looks...

That's on Armin's IG too. Yeah. He's with your boy. It looks like that thing, like, oh shit, here we go again. Like that shot of the guy walking? Yeah, no, it's definitely not. GTA? Jesus Christ, man. I said to my kid.

San Andreas? I said to my kids, well, I was just about to say, after we did something really great on Saturday, I said, crazy that we did this before GTA6 came out. They're like, Oh, this guy.

Oh, he fucking nailed it. They're like, look at this guy. Look at this. Have they ever even played a Grand Theft Auto? Not at my house. I was going to say, how old were they when five came out? Yeah, they weren't old. When did it come out?

2013? Oh, one and negative one. Woo. My son is. currently playing a game where there's a horse and he's a cowboy. Red Dead. I don't know what it is, but he's playing it all the time. Is it Red Dead? I don't know. I'll ask him, but he's on this horse. The graphics are sick. Yeah, it's probably Red Dead. And we have a thing in our house, like, I don't want the PS5 to be, like, on a different TV somewhere else. It's, we really just have one

TV, and I don't want him, like, hiding off doing that. So it's the main TV. And then I'll come and be like, yeah, we're not doing this. Like, I need to watch X, Y, and Z fighting. baseball, basketball, whatever. But there are times, well, just sit there and watch him. And I don't get the appeal. Like, he's on a horse, he's in the water. Is it open world? Like a big world?

It is big, yeah. Kills people? Kills people, yeah. Yeah, it's definitely right. So that's like, that's like the Wild West version of GT. Is it appropriate? Yeah, of course. It's historical.

13? Yeah, it'll be fun. It's fun. The younger son is like watching it, cheering him on. Yeah. You know, like he's watching it, like, it's a movie. It's going to be great memories. I really don't get it.

I'm like, this is so boring. Yeah, but there's people that wouldn't get like your passion for sports. I'm not, I'm not hating. He'll then play 2K, but he, like, I used to play all those games Madden and NBA live back in the day, but I would play as the Knicks against the Celtics or the Bulls. He likes to do like this creative player thing and they have this old, like, everybody plays that. My player. That's so weird. Like my park or whatever.

Yeah, and he's playing with his friends against fictitious people. Yeah. Yeah. It's the weirdest thing. It's their avatar. And then there's my team, which is actually really cool. And you get like cards to build your team. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like your team slowly gets better and better,

and then you play people online with it. It's actually a really fun. And then he, like, goes to France. And there's like a whole story where he like got signed by the Paris team. And the agent is talking to you. I'm like, what is that? Oh, yeah. The career mode is crazy now compared to what we had.

Crazy. I don't know. I mean, again, I'm not casting judgment. It's just wild to see. And it makes me feel very, very, very, very. very old compared to, you know, I'm 43, as Max Hollowen once pointed out. Get you a nice retirement home, it would be a nice window. That would be nice.

What about this Maricio Hoofee? He's, what is he doing? He's getting ready for Michael Chandler. Is that what he's doing? What's that? Whoa, look at, wow. Whoa. Nice little knee action there.

Okay. Look at that elbow. Wow. Oh, switch kick. Yeah? Woo! Uh-oh. Okay, this is something.

This is something, all right. Mauritia Hoofee, looking forward to that fight. Another fight that will be taking place on the White House card. Hopefully we'll get a chance to talk to him and obviously Michael Chandler as well. Tomorrow we're back. Tonight it's all about the finals of the World Baseball Classic, baby. It's Andy versus the world, our very own Andy. I was talking to Giuliana Pena yesterday about Venezuela.

Of course, the Venezuelan vixen asking who she was rooting for. says Venezuela. Andy has already said if Venezuela would have beaten Italy she would have been all in on Venezuela. So it's Venezuela versus USA. Any team wagers? Anything on the line? Are we doing anything here? What do we got?

I'll bet whatever you guys want. Can we get a GC Andy bet? Loser shaves their head. Now we're really talking. USA is going to win and I already shaved my Oh my gosh. Loser has to make arrepas and bring them in. Oh, damn.

Okay. Because, I mean, here's the thing. I mean, G.C.'s been flexing the muscles lately. Earlier today, he made Guinness cupcakes. Shout out. I wish we had a picture. Do we have them? They're phenomenal.

They actually look like mini guineasas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Phenominal. I was a little tipsy earlier today. Full can in the batter. Full can in, full, one can in the, per cupcake. or? I don't know.

I thought that's why it was good. I saw you stumbling around in the office. I felt a little bit. I'm down. I'm down for a rapist bed. Okay. So this is it. Are we doing this, Andy?

I would love to give it a trap. Losing team. So obviously, G.C. going for USA. Andy going for Venezuela. If USA wins, Andy has to make a repas and bring them in. If Venezuela wins, G.C. has to make a repis and bring them in. Done. Wow.

I can't wait to try Andy's a rapist. Wow. They're going to be great. Do you know what to make a repis, Andy? Yes. Okay. I mean, it's a common staple in my house.

I don't know to make falafel, you know, it's just, what are those things? What do you mean? Have you ever made an Epas, Mr. G.C.? No,

I don't know, but I would love to try. And what are we getting inside? Like, what is it, is it? Euler's choice. Chicken, beef, what is, like,

the typical? I mean, there's so many kinds. That's the thing. The guys have tried at Epas with me at the Venezuelans pond in Queens.

So you guys know, it can be like, I usually go for cheese and black beans. Okay, That's my favorite. Okay. But then some people do like beef, plantains, black beans, cheese in there all together.

Baby Shark. We had Baby Shark. Crazy. Yeah, I mean, it's whatever you guys want. Okay. Why don't we pick a few things? Can't wait. Okay.

The winner, so the loser has to make, winner has to pick the insides. Yeah. All right. The filling. Yeah, I'm a big cheese guy. Okay. Oh, I'm excited about this. Some real stakes.

And currently USA favorite mine. 220 or so, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's see. Man, what an atmosphere yesterday. I can't wait. I just don't want to forget to do this. Dan has a cupcake here. That cut that Connor made, and I just want to show it. I don't know if it'll be easily appreciated. Oh, there it is. But there's half of one, because he made some. It looks like a Guinness. Look at that. Look at that. This man made this from scratch, right? From scratch on the batter, Guinness in the batter, cocoa powder, all that. Show it off, Dan. Cream homemade cheese cream cream cream, cream cheese icing. The whole works. Unbelievable.

Take a bite, Dan. I'm not going to lie, I had one. They're pretty good. No, don't lie. The cream cheese icing, phenomenal. This is approval. Not bad. The cream cheese icing was phenomenal.

Really, it was. 10 out of 10. I appreciate it. I appreciate it because I've been loving cooking, so I like to share it. I like to share it. You might have to brush up on your Erepas. I'm writing knowledge as well. I love a challenge.

So there you have that. Okay. And final thing, I want to let everyone know. that we've got our bracket mayhem tournament contest that is alive and well it's public right now

there it is join the bracket pool the Yahoo fantasy can we put that maybe in the well the show's about the end but maybe in the description or something why don't we put it in the chat tomorrow

I need to tweet that out too yeah we need to put it in the chat tomorrow who the fuck is we? rolling 26 we got like 300 something last year it is literally winner Yeah? What are we doing, Rick?

Oh, what are you doing? We'll reach out to some of our friends, our partners, and see if we can put together a nice little gift package. Okay, I love that. So whoever the winner is, I will reach out, we'll figure it out, and we'll put together something nice from our friends. You've tweeted a link, right? G.C., I think.

Yeah, I need to tweet it again. Yeah, me too. Halwani, you've got to get on it. Yeah, yeah, I'll get on it. Give it that boost. Um, Awani Bump. Still bumped about Syracuse. Syracuse didn't make the cut, but...

My dog's in it. Eight seed. Against? St. Louis. Friday or Thursday or Thursday at 945 late tip There's nothing like that Thursday noon like 1225 tip It's a feeling I get in my chest it's magic I love it you're magic I love the I'll tell you the two slots I like the most

The Thursday slot the first one And for some reason I love the last Friday slot Yeah the last last one these teams have been sitting and waiting for 48 hours watching everyone play These are the last four of the first round Ah, the absolute best. The absolute best. That late Friday, ah, nothing like it.

Nothing like it. All right, it's been a great day. I have to go do something now, but I actually can't talk about it. Oh, I've been doing this a lot lately, but I've got a fun thing in the works here, so stay tuned for that. Tomorrow, like I said, it'll be great.

Sean Brady going to join us. He's returning to action against Joaquin Buckley. We just found out about that one. It was supposed to be on another date, then it got moved. He's fighting on the Jersey, hard in New War. Moses Tatama

love talking to Moses. He's unbelievable. Some say that he should be further along at this point. Todd DeBiff, I'm looking forward to that as well. We're getting closer to UFC London. Do you guys feel like UFC London is lacking a little bit of umph at the moment? A little. It's a wild thing.

I saw Leon with Fabian over in Madrid for PFL Madrid. Fabian going up against Costello. A couple years ago, Leon was the guy trying to break through on the London card. Now you have Lorone trying to break through. They have a similar personality.

Like they're not outlandish. They're not colorful. But, you know, they get the wins. They rack them up. It's a big moment for Mr. Lorone Murphy. And obviously, massive stakes. I mean, I would be shocked if the winner of this fight, unless it's a total dud, unless it's a total dud,

I would be absolute shocked if the winner of this fight isn't fighting for the belt next. I know John Silva is out there doing his thing, but I think that everyone agrees the winner of this fight. So obviously we'll talk more about it if you get closer. But for now, my friends, it is time to say goodbye. So once again, thank you to all our guests today. It was another stacked down the program.

Incredible guests, incredible stuff from all of you. Thanks to them as well. Back to Monsi, David, this is there. What the fuck is going on, bro?