The Ariel Helwani Show - Mike Perry, Dan Hooker, Dakota Ditcheva in studio, Thad Jean, Nico Ali Walsh, news & notes

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show by reacting to the newly-announced alliance between Most Valuable Promotions and Matchroom Boxing to bolster women’s boxing (01:21). Mike Perry is back on the show to discuss his MMA fight against Dillon Danis, potentially returning to BKFC to fight Darren Till, whether he’s interested in a UFC return, and more (10:17). Dakota Ditcheva joins Ariel in-studio to preview her fight against Denise Kielholtz at PFL Long Island, talking about recovering from the hand injury that kept her sidelined, how she landed on Kielholtz as an opponent, the status of her contract, planning to celebrate with the Sophie Cunningham point, attending UFC 329, and more (41:54). Ariel then recaps Gordon Fight Nights’ debut event from Israel (1:34:54). Nico Ali Walsh is up next, discussing his work behind the scenes regarding the Ali Revival Act, including conversations with Senators, being invited by TKO to meet and attend their Zuffa Boxing event, his impression of Nick Khan, his concerns with the Ali Revival Act and proposed changes to the legislation, trying to honor his grandfather, and more (1:48:49). Dan Hooker is back, reacting to his main event booking against newcomer Salahdine Parnasse at UFC Paris, talking about how the fight came together, his assessment of Parnasse’s skill level, relishing fighting in enemy territory, receiving death threats from French fans, Israel Adesanya leaving City Kickboxing, and more (2:19:53). PFL welterweight champion Thad Jean returns to break down his big win, touching on the late-notice opponent switch, being overconfident heading into the fight, the stoppage itself, who he wants to fight next, where he thinks he’d fall in the UFC’s welterweight division, and more (2:48:53). The Boys in the Back and Petesy Carroll jump in to cover news and notes including Michael Morales teasing a fight, fascinating video from Anthony Joshua’s corner, and more (3:17:50). The show closes with your Super Chats (3:42:42).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the on this Tuesday, July 22,000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a somewhat muggy, somewhat rainy, somewhat dark, cloudy Tuesday afternoon in New York City. It is great to be back and reunited with our. our TD, Andy. I've got my little thing here. That's Frank's fault. Welcome back, Andy. We missed you so very much. Your trip was great, yes? It was so much fun, but I did miss you guys. We missed you tremendously, but it's great to have you back. Shout out to Sally, who filled in so very well,

but no one, no one can fill in perfectly for Andy. She is the glue that keeps us all together, so it's great to have her back from her sejourn. We have a lot to get into, my friends, on this particular day. I do want to give a special happy birthday. birthday message to my niece, Liv, who's celebrating her birthday today, and to my dear old friend Dana White, who is also celebrating a birthday today. Yeah. Sing with me, Frank. Bonne fete, bonifete, bona fete, bonifetta, bonifetta, bonifetta, b'a, felice, company, a ti, maligaya, batty. Anyway, happy birthday to all, peace and love, peace and love. On today's program, into the show, we're going to be joined by the brand spanking new PFL welterway champion, Thad

Gene. He won that belt on Saturday, defeating Ernesto Rodriguez, short notice fight, you know the story. We spoke about it yesterday. One of the faces, certainly someone that they hope will develop into a face of the PFL is Thad Gene, the pride of Haichi. He's going to join us at 4 o'clock at 3.30. The hangman, Dan Hooker, is going to join us to talk about that main event fight against Saladin Parnas, who we spoke to yesterday in Paris, Akka Arena. Big news, that fight getting announced on Saturday officially. A lot of rumors prior to that, including from yours truly reports being put out there, confirmed on Saturday.

He said to submission radio a couple days ago he's getting death threats, has it quieted down, has it not quieted down? What's the crack with all of that? We'll get into it with Dan Hooker. Prior to that, Nico Ali Walsh, who we spoke about yesterday, his appearance on the Zufa Boxing show at the InfoSys Theater next door to Madison Square Garden, the meeting with Nick Khan, what's going on, what's going on, what's going on.

We'll speak to Nico about that. Prior to that, the actual face of the PFL, Dakota Ditchewa is going to be joining us in studio to talk about her fight against Denise Kielholz. This Friday at the UBS Arena on Long Island, co-main event to Usman and Magamatov against Archie Colgan, which is a very good fight at 155 pounds, and may in fact be Usman's final fight

the PFL. And then in a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by the platinum one, Mike Perry, to talk about this fight against Dylan Dennis on the 29th of August, dual arena in Orlando at the Kia Arena. This sort of came out of nowhere. They're going to be fighting in an MMA fight in a ring, 170 pounds. Who to thunk it? Who to thunk it? Who to thunk it? But it's actually happening. So those are the five count on five guests on today's program. So buckle up a little something for everyone. Do want to let you know, as always, today's program is brought you by our good friends over at Cal She.

We love Cal She around these parts. And we want you to support them because they support us. There's the QR code. There's the earn up to $500 when you trade $25 to unlock. All you got to do is download the Calci app and use code Helwani. That's H-E-L-W-A-N-I to get $500. when you trade 25. It's like buying or selling stocks,

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K-A-L-H-I-K-A-L-H-I-C-T trade what's next. We woke up this morning to some breaking news out of the world of women's boxing. This one did not see coming, and I would suspect most are in agreement with me. So there's a press conference that was said for earlier today in England to kind of promote the upcoming MVPW card, August 29th in England, headlined by Michaela Mayer versus Chantelle Cameron, which is an amazing fight. At the end of that press conference, actually, let's take a step back. Before the press conference, an announcement was made.

I got the press release right over here. announcing that MVP, most valuable promotions, had joined a strategic alliance with matchroom. Here's Eddie Hearn reacting to it. Boxing is a funny old game, pleased to announce our partnership with MVP, Jake Paul, and the Houston Bidarian across women's boxing. We both share the same vision to support women's boxing

and deliver legacy, defining, and life-changing opportunities for our fighters. Let the alliance begin. All right, all right, interesting. What does this mean, this strategic alliance? What is going on here? What are they talking about? In the press release, they said that they announced a landmark strategic alliance that

brings together two of boxing's most influential promotional organizations in a long-term collab focused on accelerating the continued global growth of women's boxing. The Strategic Alliance brings together MVP's industry-leading platform for women's boxing and matchrooms, boxing, promotional expertise in world-class roster to create significant new opportunities for female fighters both inside and outside the ring. And so to boil it down, my read on this was at the end of the day, matchroom came to the realization that the vast majority of women's boxers are signed by MVP. And so while those, you know, select few are still under the matchroom umbrella, let's co-promote, give them opportunities. And then when their deals are done,

there's a very good chance that Matro may go into an exclusive agreement with these fighters. And the first one that was announced, this happened at the press conference earlier today, at the very end of it all, was Sky Nicholson, who in many respects is sort of the face of Matron's Women's Stable. There you have it. Most valuable promotions. WBC's super-bantamweight champion Sky Nicholson to the MVP roster as part of the official alliance with Matrum. She was introduced to the crowd, which to me was somewhat surreal for multiple reasons because we've obviously been talking to Sky for some time and talking about Sky and this potential

fight against Amanda Serrano, which I don't know if this actually helps make it happen or not. But, you know, there was some bad blood there. There was a bit of a feud. There was a war of words between Nikisa and Sky. There's the intro right there. And I was like, wow, this is kind of wild. This felt like Eric Bischoff to a degree, and I'm not trying to get crazy here. showing up at Monday Night Raw.

Like, I never thought those two would be on the same stage together, certainly not to announce any type of partnership. Anyway, at the press conference, Sky was asked about this. Here's what she had to say. So excited. I feel like Sky on Sky has been a long time coming, so it's exciting to finally get to use it. Obviously, huge fight on August 29th.

All focus on that, but obviously, very, very thankful to match him and MVP to form this alliance and make this happen. I've always wanted to be in the big fights and I feel like this is the place where we can make the big fights happen. So there you have it. Yes, sky on sky. She'll join us tomorrow on the program

to talk about all this and what it really all means. But as you heard, she alluded to the fact that she will be on that card, which will be headlined by Chantelle Cameron versus Michaela Mayer, also Caroline Dubroa on the card as well. She's going up against Mio Yoshida. This was announced earlier today.

Yoshida's been in the game for a minute, a strong test for her. But obviously there are some big fights on the horizon. When you look at the fighters that they have on their roster, most notably, Ellie Scottney at 122, there's obviously the Serrano fight, maybe at 126. And this would suggest that the likes of Aleph Turan, who I had as my women's boxer the year last year, may come over as well.

She's a big-time star in the making, Sandy Ryan and others. This is good for the game. and not something that I think a lot of us saw coming. So exciting stuff there. By the way, if you're wondering about that Chantel Cameron versus Michaela Mayer fight, they did have a face-off. And it was a pretty damn good one. Here they are, the two of them,

who have obviously been in some pretty damn big fights, two of the faces of women's boxing, going toe to toe. That will be on August 29th on Sky Sports and also on ESPN Plus here. in America, one of several MVPW cards that are happening in August. They have one on August the 8th. There's another TikTok card later in the month as well, but this is the biggest and it's happening over in the UK. So interesting and exciting stuff. We love a co-lab, a co-promotion,

and not that long ago, Eddie and Jake and Nikisa, they were kind of embroiled in a bit of a a legal brouhaha to see them all together is kind of wild. Obviously, Eddie wasn't there, but you know what I mean? The announcement, the press release, all that stuff and more. Okay, we could talk more about that later in the program, but for now let us say hello to our very first guest of the day, and he will be competing on August 29th as well. Dual arena, it's being called at the Kia Arena in Orlando, Florida,

the home of the Orlando Magic. He's the one and only the platinum one, Mr. Mike Perry. He's going up against Dylan Dennis, and he's here to talk to us about it all. Hello, Mike. How are you? What's up, Ariel? I'm doing well, brother. How are you?

I'm doing great. It's great to talk to you. I have to admit, Mike, I didn't see this one coming. You know, I know that there was flirtation between you guys, but post Nate Diaz and the talk of the rematch and the possibilities didn't see an MMA fight against Dylan Dennis on the horizon for you next. Tell us how it all came about. This just came together. like a couple days ago

you know like two days before the announcement came we talked about it they offered me some money to fight Dylan Dennis and it was either going to be I first

heard Tennessee and then I heard someone say that it's going to be in Orlando and I was like oh we got to do that like that would be sick so my team came to together at first round management. We know the promoter

that's working with Dual Arena. I've known him for years. And they just saw a fight that people have been wanting. Dylan Dennis is a big name. Believe it or not, he is a big name.

He's a famous guy. And, you know, he hasn't gotten all the fair shots and chances at big fights. And if you are a big fight, a real fighter like myself, you can't, you can't not take this opportunity. So I'm taking the opportunity and here in my hometown of Orlando and looking to put on a great show for the people of my home city and show them the king of violence up close and personal. So to be clear,

it's at 170 pounds and it's an MMA fight, obviously a pro-MMA bout. I also heard it's going be taking place in a ring. Is that accurate? Yeah. So it's in a ring, which is cool for me. I'm cool with that to throw some strikes in the ring. And it doesn't matter what shape or what it is with me. You put me in a combat match, and I'm coming for blood. I actually feel like the ring favors you. We all know he doesn't want to probably stand with you. Like, we know what he's good at, what you're good at. He wants the fight to go to the ground. Harder to take someone down when you're fighting in a ring. Don't you agree? Yeah. I'm working my game plan. Not too far off from the Nate Diaz game plan that I worked for. And, you know, I believe I'm going to stuff his takedowns. I believe

I'm going to stop him from being able to get me to the ground. I am prepared for any, you know, I believe, I'm going to stop him from being able to get me to the ground. I am prepared for anywhere that the fight goes, but the game plan is to stay on my feet and strike him. So I know his game plan is to even pull guard if he has to and try to get me to play his game at all. And I'm going to watch out. He's a savvy guy with some submissions, but I work with some of the best grapplers in the world here in Central Florida

at Fusion XL and we're grinding for it man the whole team's coming together a lot of hometown guys are fighting on this card and we have some more fun cards too like our fights excuse me like the gypsy crusader versus Azule the Jewish fighter I'm not familiar with Azuley the Jewish fighter who is this gentleman who is this guy um so Sam Alvey just won in KC won the championship against Uri Hall and a hell of a battle between those guys. And in his post-fight speech, he said something. People were commenting to me,

why is this type of person on your card? Not that I knew anything about it, but Sam kind of explained he has a former charge or something. And, you know, I don't want to get too much into it. But most people know what the Gypsy Crusader is about. So there's a lot of trash talk between these two. And I hadn't heard of the Jewish fighter guy either, but they'll be fighting and kickboxing.

So this is a mixed event. There are boxing matches. There are kickboxing matches, and there are MMA matches. So it's going to be interesting to see all these fights come together. And dual arena one. What could you tell us about this? Is this a one-off? Is this a new promotion?

What do you know about this organization? I think it's related to the dual bets organization app as well, right? Okay, that makes sense. I hadn't heard that, but that makes sense. Okay. And the dual and all that. Sure. But, you know, someone asked earlier, who's the promoter for this?

And I just said dual arena because, you know, it's sometimes things are hidden gems. You know what I'm saying? You got to keep those hidden gems hidden in their own rights. Okay. And I don't want to just blast the promoter out there. He's doing his thing right now. He's putting this card together. And so Dool Arena 1 is, I thought, you know, Misfits was involved a little bit.

I think they have to be considering Dylan. And I've seen Mams, you know, kind of commenting on some of this stuff. And he's excited for us to finally fight me and Dylan face each other finally. Was there any talk, Mike, in the immediate aftermath? Like, we spoke to you on the Monday after the D.S fight, and already there was some talk, run-a-back, run-and-back, and I've seen the stuff from Nate, and I've heard Nikisa talk about it a little bit,

but was there ever any, like, serious talk about running it back, you versus Nate in your next fight, your next appearance? It's possible, yes. I've heard that we could be working towards that, a rematch if Nate wants it, in NorCal, more closer to home for him. I don't know. I mean, I'm pretty sure I know how that might not work out for him.

But I'm focused on August 29th. I'm going to face Dillon here in my home city and put on a great show for the fans at home and show my city what the King of Violence is all about. And then we keep rocking from there. People, fans, comments, always got something to say, and they, you know, it makes no sense to me. I get a fight signed and then I see people calling me out. Like, where were you in the last four months?

It hasn't been four months. It feels like four months. I don't know. I fought Nate and May. And where were you all this time? But as soon as I get a fight sign, people start making videos and posting on social media talking about, oh, Michael Duck the Smoke or. or Mike's trying to take easy fight.

First of all, a fight of Mike, you know, me being a striker, mainly predominantly striker, fighting Dylan Dennis, who's going to have this weird guard and all this crap. And then he was trying to submit Hamzat Chamaa of a very dangerous wrestler. He grappled against Kobe Covington. You know, those guys are high-level wrestlers and grapplers. And I'm taking this fight against Dylan Danes.

And it's the fact that some say I'm not taking risks. You know, I would like to believe, yes, I easily destroy this guy. But that's not the case because the next month of work is going to be very strenuous. It's going to be exhausting. I'm going to put in the time and the effort into the gym to make sure that when I show up August 29th, I smash this dude, no matter what position we end up in. So people always got something to say, it doesn't matter who I fight or whatever, but I'm bringing a famous guy to my city

and we're going to put on a show for our people. Could I ask, and you may not want to shine a light on them, but who's calling, like, who's saying you're ducking them? Who, like, you and ducking have, like, historically... That's the thing, right, is these offers aren't coming. These offers, just because someone calls me out after winning a fight, they think that the offer comes and that, oh, sign the contract, Fighters love to say that one.

Oh, sign the contract. Bix, there ain't no contract. There is no contract with your name on it. If my people call me and ask me to sign a fight, then that's the fight we make. And it happens every time. I don't say no. I say let's go. It's so annoying when people say that, sign the contract, and we all know that there

isn't a contract. But can I ask who specifically is saying this? Random comments on the internet. I mean, I can't. I can't. Anybody I actually, like, know of their page, they know, you know, it doesn't even matter. It's just random people. I think it's part of the game.

A lot of the trolls give a ton of attention to MMA fighters in this game. And because of, like, just derogatory things, which, I mean, streamers go viral like Gypsy Crusader, who I'm not, you know, I'm not for what that guy advocates for. He says a lot of nasty things about a lot of people that don't deserve that. But, you know, it brings a ton of attention in these trying times that we're in in this world when we don't know. Are we in World War III? There's beef between all these genres of people. And I mean, people are just doing whatever for attention.

So luckily, I'm an old school guy who came up. I think my jokes were always a bit different. I never hit anyone personally really where it hurts, like family and religion and things like that. I would talk about how they look or how they train or how I'm going to beat the crap out of them and things like that. And I try to make jokes that way. And I try to keep some self-respect for myself and for my family so that I'm not out here just building enemies for my next generation that's coming up behind me. Here's what, you know, I'm cool with this fight, Mike, and I like the fact that you're getting the opportunity. and I like the fact that it's an MMA fight, not a bare knuckle fight or a boxing.

I think you versus Dylan had to be an MMA. But on a day where we're digesting this and we also get the news that Darren Till is fighting Yole Romero in BKFC. How the hell did we end up here? How did we end up where Till is in and you're out from the promotion that you helped, like you prop this thing up? You legitimized it. How is it not Mike Perry versus Darren Till on September or whatever that is in Manchester? How did we get here? It doesn't make any sense.

the success that I've had has been extraordinary I've won lots of fights and you know even David Feldman himself said it oh Mike Perry has two fights left on the company I still support the company I just went to Italy and watched their Italy event and that was all on my own doing I did that and reached down and said, hey, guys, look, I'm traveling to Italy, and I'd like to come see this

bare-knuckle event, and then, you know, that got situated. But I did that on my own pocket and everything, so I still support the company. I support David Feldman. And David Feldman did change my life. BKFC changed my life with my style of brutality. And, you know, I did that by winning fights. And he goes, oh, yeah, we got two fights off on the conference. but we need to sit down and, you know, rerun numbers because of Mike's success. And, you know, that's all fair. But dual arena and the old promoter that we've known for years reached out with a great opportunity to fight Dylan Dennis.

Maybe it is less, a little bit less money, but it's a great opponent. We've been talking about this for a long time. Dylan, you know, he may not have all the fights I have, but, you know, I would like to take that O from him in his MMA record and, you know, show the world and show Dylan that there's levels to this. And I'm looking to be extremely violent and exciting. And, you know, it's not over with bare knuckle either. Like, this isn't, sometimes I got to be. be careful how I say things. And, um, but I'm going to focus on dual arena one, set this company up for, for their new

promotion and we're doing it here at home, which is great to finally bring my people at in my city. They've been asking for me to fight in Orlando again for years. It's a shot at redemption. My last fight at the, it, when it was the Amway center, it was called the Amway. Now it's the Kia center. and I fought Max Griffin and it went to decision and they should have gave it to me anyways, but this is my shot at redemption to fight this guy, this grappler who's going to run and pull guard

and try to rip my feet or grab my neck and I'm going to be smashing his face. Okay, so true or false? Can I ask you this? True or false by the time it's all said and done, you and Darren will in fact fight in a fight of any kind, in a match of any kind? Do you believe this? or is it going to be like one of those great what-ifs and never wases? It's hard to say. He's got a tough task with YOL. It's like, oh, after YOL beats him up, do you want me to fight him? I would assume that people would say, yes, that they do want me to fight them.

It's a long-time fight that didn't happen, and I don't want it to be like Khabib and Ferguson. You know, so, brother, I said I'm focused on this. I know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We got to focus. It's just right there. Jump and shit, why don't they all just get in the ring at the same time and I'll fight the lot? But he's got a big task. Yowell's no joke.

Whether he's 50 years old or not, Yuel is smart. He fights smart. He's fast. He's ferocious. He's very powerful. But Darren Till was able to beat Wonderboy at one of Wonderboy at one of Wonder. Boy's best times of his career. And yes, he did it in Liverpool or Poland or wherever he did it.

He did it in Liverpool, which judges were on his side. But I think it was a five-round fight. And he point fought with Wonderboy really well. So Darren's very smart and fast. And he's a capable fighter himself. But bare knuckle, you know, he's already been knocked down. His knee has already touched the floor in one bout, and Yowell is as savvy as they come. So let them focus on that.

I got to focus on Dylan, the foot grabber, Danish. And then, oh, oh, no, I didn't want that to happen. What happened? What happened? Man, I tried to get my dang podcast set up working today, and it wouldn't work for some reason. So I ended up having to grab it on the phone. It's all good. You look fantastic.

Okay, can I ask you this? Is there any fear in your heart, any worry, any concern that Dylan doesn't make the walk, that he doesn't show up? I feel like we've kind of... Any worry? It's possible. It's possible that he doesn't... I was thinking, I'm like, I'm like, who's the replacement going to be at 170? I'm like, is it going to be Jason Jackson?

Oh. I'm feeling like, because it's a very big possibility that, but I think Dylan comes. Don't get me wrong. Okay. I think he comes. I think he wants to put on a fight. I think he's trying to get paid and feed his family as well. And he's going to get into a tough fight.

He wants to prove things to people who doubt his combat skills. He got in those two wrestling matches against really high caliber. people. So to make it a fight with me and not a grappling match, I hope he shows up. I think he will. He didn't back out against Logan. And, you know, I think he shows up. But if he doesn't, I just wanted, you know, there's a little name drop. I think Jason Jackson is very talented. He's a tough, strong fighter. And he's very accomplished. And I was just kind of name dropping. Oh, I like that. Because I got to be ready for if Dylan doesn't come, the fans of Orlando need me.

I'm ready to fight August 29th. I'll be there. I'll be on weight. That weight is a little different. I cut the 170 again. It's going to be tough. I'm already feeling that. But, you know, I'll be ready to fight.

You guys have sparred together, right? I mean, it was a friendly. I don't know what it was. What would you describe it? And how many times have you actually trained with him? One time. So he had a fight coming up. Okay.

And I'm a great training partner. You know, I was working with him and training for his fight. I happened to be in Jersey and wanted to get some work in. It's very hard to train when you're traveling. So he accommodated us, and I pulled up to the gym, and we got some work in. And he wasn't sure what to think either, but I think we both held off of our talents a bit. and just got a good sweat in, got a good workout in, and, you know, I kind of let him have that double leg there.

Okay, yeah, I was wondering about that. I was wondering about that. I was pulling punches, as was he, as was he. Okay. You like him? I don't got a problem with Dylan. I don't mind him at all. He hasn't started his shit yet.

Sure. Maybe a little bit of post. and nothing terrible. I don't think he wants to harm me personally. I think we're, you know, it takes two to tango, and we're both fighters and prize fighters who fight for our families. And we're grown-ass man, and I have more respect in the game than he does.

But he's out there competing. So let's get in the ring and throw some freaking bows, dog. Okay. And so you win this fight. Would it be fair to say you win this and then it's on to Nate? Like, do you have something in place with MVP? Are you guys in a good spot? They continue to hint that they're going to keep going.

Like, I'm trying to map out the Mike Perry path here. It feels like we're going down a bit of an MMA path all of a sudden after great success and bare knuckle and boxing. Is that a fair thing to say? Yeah, I think it's fair. You know, this happened a couple days ago. I didn't know. I thought I was going to be waiting much longer this year.

I was like, why am I waiting after such a successful time in the MVP card? And then, you know, I saw you talking about how all these MVP fighters are getting big opportunities, and I was included in that. And this just came together. So you never know what's going to happen in this game. You just got to stay prepared, keep yourself in the gym, which is crazy because I was just, on a vacation in Italy for 10 days and I was out of the gym. But walking around and eating food in another country, something about that that kind of

kept me in shape. Well, there's something different about that food in Italy. I've been there too and had a lot of pasta and pizza and stuff. It just kind of sits different. It's a little more on natural. And then you're walking like... The pizza was good. The undercooked pasta.

Come on. You don't like the al dante? Some of it was better than others, but everyone had the same undercooked pasta. Which part? Which part of Italy? But the pizza, the pizza, me and my wife made in Amalfi Coast was the best pizza I ever had. It was amazing. And you're like, on average, it's like 20,000 steps, right? When you're over there, like, I don't know if you look at the app, but it's just like you're just walking constantly, a little gelato here, a little pizza there.

It's tremendous. Can I ask you one thing, Mike? You posted something on your Instagram after the Nate Diaz fight. And I know you have to go in a moment, but I'm just curious. You said, in my recent return to MMA, I had an excellent performance. There were challenges throughout camp, which I anticipate again. That is where the work is done on August 29th. I returned to the sport against the grappling specialist, Dylan Danes.

What are these challenges that you're alluding to? Could you tell us? Man, I recently went to Saturday sparring, and I was great. I was phenomenal. Right after my vacation, it was the first exercise I'd done since taking a break, and I spard and I moved so fluid and I was so fresh and my body was perfect. My speed was incredible. My cardio held up.

And then I went to Ghee Jiu-Jitsu last night. I did great in that. I did two 10-minute rounds and then a couple five-minute rounds. And then, you know, there's some other things. My coach on the show, we're looking to get him a fight. retirement fight at like maybe a catchway. He said like 180. See if he can get on the card. And he gave me a wall round last night. He's the best of us, best grappler. He's the reason I'm good. I've been working with this guy forever. But I got I got the hands and the head in this game.

So pause. But you know, the challenges like my neck is already from all the grappling. My neck today. I'm like using this fish hook and rubbing my back. It's just right getting back into it and then being more consistent with training my body is going to feel that and then I'm grappling with guys who are

flexible. They're not easy to pass their guard. They're going for my neck or going for my feet or going for submissions from bottom, from top, wherever. It's just back to the grind. Those are the challenges I'm talking about. But I'm extremely

well placed in those challenges. Like I'm very capable and I'm proud of myself of all the hard work I've done. And I'm not tooting too early, all right? No tooting and scooting. I am prepared to train hard for this in this next month and do what I have to do to viciously hurt this guy.

No offense, bro. Last one, I promise. I just wanted to ask, going back to Darren, were you surprised at how he did? how the fight played out, getting raw. You've been in there before knowing him like you do. He got rocked. He came back, got the knockout.

What did that tell you about there until the bare knuckle fighter? No, I think his opponent was pretty good or at least experienced in the bare knuckle game. Pretty big, at least, to match his size, the guy was heavy. and he landed a good shot. Most people just aren't, they're not well-versed in taking those bare-knuckle punches to the face. I've been a street fighter.

So when I went to bare-knuckle, it was nothing for me. I knew, I know how to take a punch regardless, whether you got a glove or not, and you have to train for it. So obviously, Darren was trained up. I think the guy wanted to really push. himself but after he

landed that shot on Darren and Darren was in phase maybe that broke his spirit a little bit and then coming out in the second round Darren cleaned up and just hit him with a crazy straight left hand Darren's a big guy's got a lot of power good boxing power

with gloves or without so I can only imagine what he's learning in bare knuckle it's a tough challenge and and the fans love to hear us talk shit about each other which Screw Darren. I hope Yowel beats the hell out of you.

But he's always been nice to Yowel. And Yowel's my guy, though. So I'm room for Yowel. Yowel's got to stay sharp in this. Darren's not going to be an easy cookie to crumble. So, you know, I think that's a hell of a fight. And whatever happens, you know, we just keep rocking, man. To the next fight.

I smash Dylan in my hometown and I become a bigger, celebrity, you know, who knows what's next? I don't know. I'll fight Tom Brady. Hell you. Let me fight somebody. Let me fight CM Punk. Oh, damn.

UFC bring me back for, I'll fight CM Punk in the UFC. Let's go. Shit, did they, by the way, I know you have to go, but Mike, did they call you? Did they, after the D.S. fight, did they try to do something with you? So I've heard that they've had conversations with my team and my people. Okay. But I'm like, you know, if they want me, what are we talking about? But also, you know, your boy is, I have gotten my name up and I'm a prize fighter.

Fighting for the UFC is not the only prize. Fighting for money is the prize. Life-changing money and opportunity. is the prize. If the opportunity is, I'm sure I would take a bit of a pay cut to go back to the UFC,

but I don't know how big that pay cut is. I'm taking one now to fight Dylan Danis. They're paying me what they can, but I had to take this opportunity to fight Dylan Danis. It's not the money I made fight Nate.

So if I beat up Dylan Danis, when I beat them up, and then I'm going to get another opportunity and it better be for big, big, big money. Didn't Nate get like 10 to fight me? He needed that shit, though. He bled that shit out.

You know. No, we know. We know. We'll see if we do it again or if we see it again. For now, though, God bless. Thank you for doing this. Sorry for keeping you a little long, Mike. Good luck on the 29th of August. Looking forward to this very much.

Thanks, guys. Enjoy the show. Thank you so much. There he is. Mike Perry, the platinum one. He is one-of-a-kind, and he's returning against Dylan Dennis. And maybe, maybe we'll reunite with Mr. Dillon Danes, maybe ahead of that fight. Let us see. And I'm curious to see how they populate this card.

I'm curious to see what they come up with. But the more opportunities, the more, you know, the more spots where fighters can earn a living, to me is a good thing. I'm still curious to see what this looks like, what it turns into, what exactly it is. But that's a big time arena, as we said. That's the home of the Orlando Magic. So it's going to be a challenge to fill it up. You've got two big names on the marquee. Does it say on the poster where it's airing?

I don't think it says on the poster, right? I need to find out about that. Let me ask someone right now where that's airing. It doesn't say on the poster. No, it doesn't say anything, right? Let me see, I'm a Texas guy right now. So maybe we'll get some intel on that. August 29th, shaping up to be a very busy day.

A reminder that Monday we're off, we're off for that entire week and the following week, two-week summer vacation. Okay? Peace and love, peace and love. But Monday, we will premiere our latest uncrowned film, and it's about Kane Velasquez. I'll leave it at that for now, but you're not going to want to miss it. And then the following Monday will have another uncrown film for you. So both Mondays will be occupied.

my jaw is hurting both Mondays will be occupied but no live shows our last live show will be July 31st, the crack on Friday and then we'll be off barring any breaking news okay so there might be breaking news

I'll pop on with the old cell phone and the car on the street wherever it may be and then the following week will be off as well barring breaking news and then we'll return on the 15th for the UFC 330 watch party and post show, of course, Isamah Machatchew versus Yemichato-Garry, and then, you know, all the other fights on the card,

Gillian Robertson, Pekenzie Dern, et cetera, et cetera. And then the following Monday, which is August 17th, we'll be back, regular schedule. Peace and love, peace and love. This is the way it goes. Everyone needs a summer break. All right, let me take this off right here. Still to come on the program, Nico Ali Walsh,

going to join us at 3 o'clock to talk about how the hell he ended up meeting with Nick Con of TKO. There's a bunch of things I have to turn on here, Frank. Frank gave me like a million things to turn on here. One second, I've got to turn this on. Yep. Prior to that, or I should say after that,

we're going to be joined by Dan Hooker to talk about the fight against Saladin Parnas. Yeah, I can hear you. And then after that, we're going to be joined by the brand new PFL Welterweight champion Thad Gene

Speaking of the PFL They are back They've had quite the summer Their summer series they're calling it They are back This Friday At the UBS Arena on Long Island Main event is Usman

Nermagamadov against Archie Colgan for the PFL lightweight championship That may in fact be Usman's final fight in the PFL For now it is the final fight on his deal The co-main event As you can see right over there

is a pair of tremendous kickboxers going toe to toe to fight that we thought we were going to see back in February unfortunately an injury sustained by one Dakota Dichiva had to postpone the fight. She's going up against Denise Keelholz and now here she is joining us in studio. What a great pleasure and honor it is to be joined by the face of the PFL, the one and only Dakota Dichiva.

Hello! How are you? I'm back. Good to see you. How's everything? Welcome, welcome. Thank you. I like the shorts.

Thanks. They're very cool. Yeah. A lot of people. liking them. Yeah, thank you. Especially in New York. It's quite trendy state, isn't it? Yes. New York State, New York City. Oh, you got the cup as well. Sure I did. Welcome, welcome. It's good to have you back. It's been a minute. It's good to be back. Yes. Yeah. In the studio. I don't think you've been to this one.

No, I haven't. The whole place is cool. I've just been playing basketball. Everyone's impressed by my basketball skills. How'd you do? All right. Okay. Nice little three like Caitlin Clark. Wow, look at you. You know ball. Can you speak into the microphone. Frank is saying, yeah, bring it up. And of course, I do know that you know ball because who could forget, there I am on my couch in early June, sweating bullets, so nervous before game one of the NBA finals.

And I see PFL has tagged me in this post. Oh, the stars of the PFL are weighing in. I see spurs, spurs, spurs, spurs, spurs. Everyone's picking spurs. And look at this from Old Dakota. She's picking the Knicks. Why? Because Ariel will roast me for the rest of my career

if I say the opposite, and then he wins. Yeah. What happened? Perfect. They won. Right side of history. Correct. Do you have any idea, like anything going into that?

Like 53 years? All the suffering. No, I didn't. No. I didn't. Were you invested in the finals as a result of your... Do you know what? We do watch the basketball, me and my brother, so we were invested in it, but my little

brother did want space. Why? And I'm not going to lie. I have... The Knicks fans, they were a bit wild. I didn't really agree with some of the videos that I was seen online. Don't paint us all with the same brush. Yeah, I'll try not to, but...

So you pick them for the clout, but secretly we're rooting against us. I picked them because I'm intimidated by Ariel. Oh my gosh. At first I was like, wow, Dakota, this is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. And you're actually, because he likes Wembeñama, the French guy, the alien, who crumbled them the pressure, all that stuff. Yeah. That's one of his favorite players. Yeah.

And what's the one that's just moved to Miami? Janice. That's his favorite. My little brother's favorite, yeah. Number one. Now he's like, when you bring him to Miami? Because I want to go watch him. Yeah, you're not too far.

Yeah, not far. By the way, anything in that cup? Yeah. Or is it empty? No, it's empty. It is empty. Why'd they give you a cup that's empty? Because.

Wouldn't you know, we do have a fresh bottle, a van. Look at this, natural mineral water from Norway. Norway. I was going to say Iceland, of course. Yes. Home to one, Erling Holland. There you go. And I have one for myself, too.

Correct. How about that? We're friends, that's why. Yes, yes. We've only have you drinking the best water. How is it going? How is the... It's going well, yeah. It is going well.

We're at the very beginning. We're just testing some new... Cheers. Cheers. Some new samples at the moment for some other exciting things that are coming here. So I can't speak on that just yet. But it's going well. Happy Sweet 16, by the way. I know you just celebrated your birthday.

In fact, the entire team in the back. Did you see them in the back? No. Let's take a look at the control room. Ah, look at them. All rocking. The Dakota Sweet 16 shirts. How about that?

They're all ready for Friday. Well, actually, that whole team, you're going to be... You're going to be making my TikTok at the end of this. Okay. Just to let you know. Why is that? So are you. Okay.

What are we doing? We've got two TikToks and we get Ariel doing. I don't know about the TikTok thing. Oh, no, he's doing it. I draw the line at the TikTok. This is his payback for all the rage baiting that he does on this show. The rage baiting. Wow.

Okay. Happy actual birthday, belated. It seemed like it was a great celebration. Is it tough to celebrate your birthday at the very end of training camp? No, I'm not really a massive birthday person anyway. Plus, my diet's not. Like, I make 125 really easy, so I was able to still, like, enjoy my day. Okay.

Yeah. What did you do? Anything special here you are? What is this? Some flowers here? Yeah, we went for it. The girls actually surprised me, and we all went for lunch. They turned up, they were all sat there when I turned up to the meal.

So they all brought me flowers, bless them. And, yeah, I trained in the morning, went for some food in the afternoon and then watched PFL at the night time. That's right. That's a great day for me. What about Thad there in the main event? Yeah, amazing fight. Almost lost.

Almost. Yes. Shockingly. It was exciting though, right from the first second, it was a good fight. And like you said at the end, you know, it makes you feel better when you win it like in a fight like that. Sure. He did well. By the way, commiserations on England World Cup.

Yeah. We're over that, right? Yeah, we're over that now. What about Holland? It feels like all of a sudden America has found out about this guy and he's become the, so for like a true manned city supporter like you, like dating back to like what, 2023 you've been a diehard? What is it like seeing Holland? Holland become this American sweetheart, if you will. It's been crazy because we were talking about it before.

He has literally just become a superstar overnight from this. I wanted to do the row as well. I love all that kind of stuff. Yeah, but he has become a superstar. He's just a great guy. He's just funny. He's got good fan too. You feel like some sort of like ownership on his?

Oh, yeah. Like you're like, oh, where were you guys, you know, six, seven, eight years ago, right? Yeah, don't support Harlem unless you're a city fan guys. That's right. I probably, I think there's going to be a lot of new American city fans as a result. Do you gatekeep the fandom? No. You say welcome.

Yeah, we welcome everyone. Okay. That's, that's, yeah, we can share. As long as he stays at City, we can share. How do you feel about Pep leaving? We're really sad about that. The whole family is very sad. But we're looking forward to the new season.

We've got a few new players. We might have taken one from your side. Isn't that weird, right? Are you upset? When the going gets tough, call upon a force player, highest paid British player ever. You know this. What happens when you man sitting?

Take whoever you want. Yeah, it is true. But it was quite the fee. He made the England team and not Phil Foding. Could you believe that? I know. But he is a great player as well. Phil's obviously had a tough time.

It's a shame that he didn't make the team. But he's only young. He's got plenty of time to come back. Do you know what? The World Cup went really well over here, I feel like. Oh, my God. It was a huge sensation. It was so good.

Yes. It was a big success. Yeah. Except for the final. was a bit of a dud. Yeah. Did you watch it? Yes, we did.

Who were you rooting for? Spain. Okay. Yeah. Because you're like enough of Argentina. They've won it enough. And they play really dirty, I think, as well. Oh, interesting.

I feel like they foul and whatever else. But also, all the Brazilians at ATT were like so mad England lost against Argentina. I was like, they need to get beat for sure. And you probably didn't want Argentina to win because they beat England in the previous game. That was quite the chowchew. It's kind of a bittersweet because I feel like we could have won it. If we'd just like, yeah, beat Argentina, we could have won that. Oh, 100%.

They should have been Argentina. They started to play like too defensively, right? Correct. Let's like not to. Come on the back foot. You've got to be on the front foot. Yeah, they were doing really well on the front foot. And they changed it when they started winning, which is.

The England that we saw against France in the third place, that was the, where was Saka? Where were all these guys? Although that game stressed me out as well because we did so well. Second half, it's like, I don't know what happened. Almost a bottle job, as they say in the. business. Let us talk about your career. You have a big fight this Friday, Denise Keel Holtz. I did happen to see something. I feel, correct me if I'm wrong, there's always a lot of hidden messages in your social media. Am I right about this or wrong? I don't know. It depends what you

are not. You said something to the effect of like this was the training camp that you needed. Yeah. What does that mean? For a lot of things, like to start off my hands, you know, being out for a year is really difficult for me. I feel like watching the whole. flyweight division move along while I've just been sat on the sidelines I've actually been tougher than anyone realizes I think they see my social media me having a good time me doing other things looks like you know oh she's never in the gym type thing I just want to fight like first the first thing that I want to do is fight and I feel like I've been a little bit heartbroken being sat on the sidelines and not being able to keep the momentum going that I felt like I'd

built for so many years and that's probably the main thing that's kind of just mended my heart a little bit This camp has been like I had my brother here the whole time. He was there to support me. And I feel like I've had to rebuild myself, my mind because of my hands. You know, a lot of people are saying, will she be the same fighter? Because, you know, she's had these major injuries. For sure, like it's changed me. But I think it's actually made me stronger.

I feel like it's mended me as a person, learn a lot about myself. So I feel like that's the main thing that I mean behind that message is just, I'm a whole different person now with a different level of confidence. Any trepidation, maybe not towards the end, but at the beginning with the hands. hitting mitts, doing things where you could get hurt again, like you're thinking about it. And at some point you have to get rid of that thought. Maybe a little bit at the start, yeah. I stayed in bigger gloves for longer than probably I could have.

I could have gone to smaller gloves a lot sooner. But I was sparring in bigger gloves just to protect my hands. But then when I actually went to using smaller gloves, I was absolutely fine. Okay. So it was kind of, again, it's just a mental thing. Like my hands are perfect. They've healed so well. I think it's just like mentally like forgetting about it.

And I was able to do that. And that's why I feel like this camp mended a lot of things because it mended my mind, everything. Was there some depression at some point? I always get depressed, yeah. But I've been like I say, I've been able to stay busy doing other things, which has helped. And me being in the gym all the time helps that as well. You know, it helps me not go too low in things and feel like I'm kind of missing out on too much. I think my family always kind of remind me that just because I'm having this time out,

it doesn't mean I'll lose everything I've ever built. he's only going to take this fight on Friday to everything to switch back on and that's the way I've got to look at it. What do you mean when you say you always get depressed? Like after a fight, I feel like it's just such a big moment that I build up so much and then it's just a massive come down afterwards and it's like now what? Because I feel like I'm always wanting more, always striving for more. And that's why when people talk to me about the belt, it's like I've won that belt before like for the tournament belt. And I know that it's going to be no other feeling than anything I ever feel in a normal fight. So it's like, yeah, the belt's amazing, but I'm still going to feel like what now after it when I win that world championship, you know?

So that's why I say the belt's important to me, but it's not everything. And that's kind of how I look at things. Was there a point where you're like, well, you're doubting, like will I ever get back to 100%? Will I ever regain my strength? Were you starting to think that? No, I think in the first few days, like when I was vlogging, I was like, oh, I'm meant to be doing this. Like, I've broke one hand, now broke another, like, what's going on here? Like, I believe in the universe a lot, and I know that things happen for a reason.

I always believe in that it's carried me through my whole life. So when I broke two hands, I was like, there's a reason for this, but it took me a few days to get in that mindset. At first, I was like, I think I'm done. Like, I'm actually done with this. Serious. Yeah, I actually felt like that. That drastic.

And, like, I was in Thailand, obviously, when I broke my hand, the rest of the holiday, I kind of, I trained just to stay, like, keeping my mind sharp because I know that I can kind of come down to a low level but um yeah it was like it was really like oh may as well just enjoy the rest of this holiday because i don't know what's next like and that's how i felt i went to fight week in february the show i was meant to fight on i cried that week just like being around the pfl fight week people and just like seeing everyone doing everything that i was supposed to be doing i cried because it still wasn't over it so i just i think it just means so much to me to fight and it's just difficult. So in that moment, I was really like, I think I'm done now, but I'm never done.

Were you starting to think like, oh, maybe I'll do this? Like, did you even go there? Oh, what am I going to do after fighting now that I'm done? Kind of, but I was a bit like more so, am I going to have to get a job? Because like, I don't see myself doing anything else. Like nine to five? Yeah, I'm not made for nine to five. I was seen to myself. So, yeah, I suppose I thought about like in the first few days, but apart from that, I've got my mum that like slapped me into shaping if I need to. You know, she won't let me be one of them dramatic people for too long. Did you reach out?

I saw an interview. I think it was with TalkSport where you talked about talking to Paul Hughes about how to deal with this type of thing. What type of advice did he give you? Yeah, that was actually in the fight week in Dubai. He was there too and he talked to me about his injury and, you know, just not to rush it. And I think that, again, is probably what I did with the first break. I probably wanted to get back too soon and was rushing my recovery a little bit,

and then whatever happened slowed me down and was like, you're not going to fight in February, like, you need to wait a little bit longer. And that was the only thing that could slow me down was breaking my mind. Wow, that is wild. That's the way I see things. Like, I broke my hand for a reason. Like, I wasn't meant to be on that fight card in Dubai, maybe because I was supposed to be here in New York.

I might not have been here otherwise. So everything happens for you. And both required surgery? No, just my first one was in surgery. The second one was just a little break. That's why I feel like it's just a little lesson to like slow the hell down. Chill out a little bit. Okay.

And so did you change the way you trained as a result of this? Yeah, I changed a lot of things. Like I took my time with recovery, spent more time like treating them. Like I said, I went to bigger gloves. My brother won't let me hit gloves. Pads in like really, really small gloves now just to protect. Not because they're damaged, just because we're going to prevent, you know, and learn our lesson from it.

So there's a lot of changes. They've got a lot of good changes that I made this camp. Will we ever see your brain? brothers fight. No, everyone asks this. Cody especially, the one that does my striking, he's not interested. He loves coaching and that's... No interest.

He would fight, he just feels like he's left it too long. Like he's too old now. He's just turned 30. What? Yeah, he says like, he's never done MMA, he's only done striking. So for him to learn all the MMA game and do the dieting and all that kind of stuff, he's not really got the patience. Is this his full-time job? Yeah, he coach, yeah, being a coach. He coaches at home

and mummed him as well. And then when it's time for you to fight, he'll come here and spend the whole camp with you. Yeah, he's just spent seven weeks with me. Wow. Yeah. Wow. And your other brother, what about him?

He's just into, like, soccer football. He's into DJing. He loves to, like, watch fighting and things like that, but he's not interested in doing it. Okay. Never really has been. And for Cody, why not do kickboxing or Muay or anything like that? I don't.

He just feels like he's a little bit too old, like he's left it too long. I'm 44. What does that mean? He's 30. He looks like he's, he's 21. Yeah, I know. but he's just kind of, do you know what, he's a really good coach?

And I don't know whether I could have him split that time now. Oh, okay. I need him. Like, I need him to be the fighter I am. So I don't know whether I'd want him to split the time. Is he your head coach? Would you call him that? No, Conan's my head coach, ATT.

But Cody is like the brains behind the way I fight for sure. And in terms of like in between rounds, who takes the lead in terms of speaking to you? Cody and Conan, both of them together. Yeah. What type of like a cornerman is your brother? It's different when it's your family talking to you, right? So how would you describe the way he coaches you? He just really knows me very well, like, I would say, very calm, very calm, but very clear when he speaks.

So I can really just like hear exactly what he's saying. But we're just very in sync without even being able to explain what I mean by that. Just whatever he's shouting, I just know what he's asking for. But even so when I, he knows when I get a little bit frustrated, like sparring the other week, I was getting frustrated. And like he got a little bit firm in the corner and was like, like, no emotions. He's like he just knows the right thing to say at the right time. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah.

Special to have a brother there. Yeah. And to have your family. Obviously, we've talked about your family in the past. But what about your dad? Sometimes you share text messages from your dad. This man seems like the sweetest man in the world. He is.

Holy spokes. I want to be like your dad in terms of like my relationship with my daughter. Where did this come from? Was he always like this? Yeah. Yeah. He's always like that. He's very supportive.

He knows him on my own a lot. He finds it hard, probably harder than I find it. being away from each other. Obviously, he's with the family at home and I'm on my own and he knows like how difficult it is for me. But he's just always supportive. Like he hates me fighting, but he's here every fight week. Okay. So they're all going to be here?

They're all here. Here already? Yes. Okay. He'd rather you not fight. Yeah. Really? Yeah.

Does he try to entice you? No, that's the best thing about my dad is like he's so supportive even though it's not something that he wants me to do. Like he finds it really difficult to watch me fight and he'll support me and anything I do regardless. Godless. Is it harder for him than your mom? Yeah. Because she's competed.

Yes. My mom really understands kind of, she gets a little bit nervous, but she can deal with the emotions because she's had to deal with it herself. Whereas my dad, like, won't eat or drink anything or won't really talk all fight day. Like, after the fight, different person. Okay. Well, he even, like, I know some parents would, like, walk around the concourse when they're trying. Is he watching or is he going somewhere else while you're fighting? No, he watches.

Yeah, he watches, but very anxiously. I can't imagine. Yeah. Gotta be hell. Yeah. Because I'm female as well. It's probably really hard. It's probably harder than him watching my brother fight for sure.

Right. Yeah. So this fight against Denise was supposed to happen in February. We've talked a million times about you should have been fighting for a belt by now. Yeah. I do have to say, since we last spoke, Liz Karmouche did fight. Yes. Why are you rolling your eyes?

Go on. What are you going to say next? Well, she fights and then. Doesn't call me out. Yes. What is this? Instead, calls out the creation of a new wake. class.

This is why I don't entertain. But what is going on? What is happening here? This was like, with all due respect to Liz Karmouche, legend of the game, first fighting against. I agree. I take nothing away from her. I agree.

There aren't that many big fights left. This is the biggest fight. This one could argue the biggest fight that anyone could get fighting you in the PFL. And instead of calling you out, she says, like, I want a 135 division? What was that all about? What are you thinking when you see this? Do you know what?

It's really funny. I was sat at the side and I was actually, I had my phone on my face recording myself because I thought she's going to call me out. So let me just like get a funny reaction to when she calls me out. And then she said, I want a 135 division and I just went. Yeah, what is that? Yeah. But okay.

I mean, she should have fought Cyborg then. Yeah. Cyborg's calling me out to fight at 135. Like put them two together. I don't know. So you were shocked. I was shocked. Yeah, I expected it to call me out.

But then maybe she doesn't want to give me any more air time. I don't know. It's bizarre. So what do you think they're going to do? Like if all goes well, I'm not trying to look past Denise. Yeah. But do you think we're finally going to get this? The next one has to be for the belt, right?

Of course, yeah. When I win on Friday, it'll be probably me and Liz. Okay. The end of the year, for sure, yeah. Do you think she doesn't want it? No, I mean, she's been, I don't know. She's been calling me out loads before that moment. So I don't know whether she's changed her mind.

I don't know. I think she does want that fight, yeah. Okay. Personally. How did you think she looked? She, the first round was a bit slow in that fight, but she looked really good in the second. And her submission was very quick, very impressive.

So, yeah. It is kind of wild that she's still doing this at this level. I know. Right? After all these years, like the vast majority of the fighters that were around when she was fighting in the UFC for the belt aren't around anymore, aren't fighting, let alone. She's in really good shape. Yeah.

Really good shape. And I don't really view her as a 35 or anymore. She looks perfect for 25. Yeah, she does. She's very short as well. So I don't know why she would want. I mean, I know she's missed weight once in the tournament that we were in. So I don't know whether she finds 1-205.

hard to make. She is very musely, so that might be why. I don't know. She's struggling with the weight because she gets older, maybe, but I don't know. When you're doing media and stuff like that leading up to this fight, is it annoying that you're constantly asked about the belt, about her, about why you're not fighting for the belt, all that stuff anymore, or is it? No, it's not annoying. It's just that I don't really have the answer to things. Like, people think, like, she's deciding everything that happens in PFL. Like, I don't know why I'm not fighting for the belt. I don't know why, you know, it's just the way PFL work is the way they work and that's that. So I'm just like, it doesn't annoy me though. Belt or no belt, I would imagine

the matchup against Denise is of great interest given her style, right? This is a fun matchup for you. For sure, yeah. A little bit bittersweet because obviously, like, I used to watch her. She's really nice. Like, this has been weird for me as well because this fight week has been like, like no bitchy comments coming at me or anything. Yeah, which has been really nice. We're very respectful to each other. And I was like, well, this is different. Yeah, but I like it. So you don't Some people like the edge. Some people like the animosity. You don't care.

You don't need it. No, I don't need it. Yeah, when I get in the cage, someone doesn't need to annoy me for me to turn up on the night. That's the difference, I think, whereas some people like that little bit of back and forth to get a little bit riled up and annoyed. Yeah. She's a mother. Yes. She became one recently, I think, relatively recently.

Yeah. You've talked to us about wanting to be a mother at some point in the future. Do you think once you become a mom, God willing, all, you know, in the future, you'll go back or do you think that will be the end? I'd like to think it'd be the end, but I can't say what will be the future for me. But I would like to be done with my career once I move on to being. Okay. We've seen time and again come back and they come back way better. Yeah, it's true. It's stronger. Like McKenzie Dern, Michelle Waterson. I remember they come back, like their bodies are different, like so muscular.

And you would think like, oh, things happen, you know, the body. It's never been a detriment. I think most people would think like, oh, this would slow you down. It always seems like it's a superpower, if you will. Possibly. Yeah. I don't know. I just still feel like I want to have my career and then move on to a different chapter of my life. I don't want to feel like I have to be here fighting and I want to be able to experience other things. And I feel like once I'm done with my career and I'm happy with what I've done, I can move on to something else and be able to let it go and not feel like something's dragging me back all the time. Did your mom fight after having kids?

She did. She fought after having my older brother, yeah. Okay. But once you came along, you're the youngest? No, the other brothers. Yes. Yeah. So once. She didn't fight after me, don't think, you know. So you were never at any of her fights or don't have any sort of... No. My little brother was.

There's a funny story about her where she took him to fight week with my dad as her corner because she could only have one coach. They would only pay for one coach. So she took my dad, my older brother. And she was like nursing him before she went out to fight all in a fight kit. Wow, wow, wow. And then left him with people she knew on the door. Did her fight, come back, picked him back up.

Wow, wow. That was the type of fight among mom was. She was just like, like, and that, and that, That was after someone saying to her like she'd fought and then they said, oh, will you fight this girl the next week? She was like, yeah, of course I will. Flew to the next fight week. Wow, wow, wow. And your dad coached her? Like, did he know anything about what he was? No. Like obviously he'd been with her for a while. But she just said to him, just waft the towel and give me some water in between rounds and tell me to keep my hands up and that's it. Because he has no background in any of this. Your poor dad, he probably, you had to watch his girlfriend and wife fight and now he has to watch his daughter fight. He probably hates all of it. Yeah, he does. And I don't think he's ever got used to it. Yes. I wonder which was harder for him. Yeah, probably watching you, right?

Yeah, probably me, I think, yeah. Okay, so Denise presents challenges on the feet. Yes. I feel like there's not going to be a single takedown attempt in this fight. She's got a judo background, so I know she has thrown people in a fight from what I've watched. She's gone for the takedown sometimes, but I feel like with my range, keep her at range, she's not going to be able to get older than me. And you're not shooting. You never know.

Okay. Keep her guessing. Yeah. What's up with the kit? You're excited about the kit. Did you see it? Well, I saw it. I don't know why you're so excited.

What is it because? Well, not to say that it doesn't, but like, is it because of the Bulgarian flag? Is it, did you design it? What's the significance? It's pink for a start. Okay, yes, yes, yes. Pink. But it reminds me of I actually, a few years ago, had a brand where I made fight skirts,

because that's what I've always fought in. They had, like, really funky designs. And then I kind of let that go. I didn't have time to, like, to do any of that. So it just really reminds me of, like, something I would use to fight him when I was doing tie boxing. because we were allowed to pick our own outfits. Did you ask for this?

I did. Well, I sent like some ideas off. They designed it, come back with it, and I was like, perfect. Wow. So they actually collaborate with you on this? Yeah, they did. I don't feel like a lot of people get that type of respect. No, not everybody.

So is this custom, would you say? No one else can have this? No. Wow. Yeah, it's designed for this fight. Okay. Yeah. And there's a Bulgarian flag on it.

Yeah, normally my fight kit only has the England flag on it. And I walk out with both flags, but my kit only has England. This time they've put both on. Did you ask for that? Yes. Okay. And why was that important for you? Well, I represent both countries.

You know, I've got dual nationality. So for me, it's important that both flags are flown. We've just been laughing in the car because I've had my photos done this morning. And I'm holding both flags, but one up at a time. And my mum's like, I'll post the English one. My dad will post a Bulgarian. We laugh at stuff like that. But I'm very proud of both.

You know, Bulgarian fans as well are so passionate. it. Like, as soon as they see that flag on my kit, they're going to be like so happy. Okay. They're very proud of like any athletes that represent the country or anything. So they consider you one of their own even though you aren't born there. Yes. Okay. Oh my God.

Yeah. They back you so much. So why didn't you have the flag on the kit prior? It's never really been an option. Normally you're only allowed like one flag. So just like, another. Just put their flag on. So I've been like, wow.

You're making it. No, no. I'm not making it. I'm just saying. Everyone already knows I'm the golden child. I believe you refer to yourself as a. Barbie. Yes.

You're okay with that? I'm sticking with that. Okay. Who came up with that? It's Talia Santos. Okay. Okay. Yes.

Yeah. When I fought her and she called me out and the lipstick thing, I've stuck with that as well. So you're taking the supposed insults and turning them into positives. Taking all the rubbish. Yeah. And it's nice because this time there's none of that. Yeah.

But it's part of the brand. Yes. It's part of who you are and it's getting people behind you. For sure. Yeah. You feel that the fans are very much behind you? Are you worried in the build up like, Oh, did they forget about me?

Are they as excited about me? Are they looking at my content? You know, like, do you start to think of that sort of thing? I'm not really bothered about that. No. I'm kind of just like happy to be here finally and be in Fight Week. I feel like even if they're not supporting me now, once I'm back and I'm actually in the kitchen, I feel like a lot of comments have been like, oh, she's never going to fight again.

That's a lot of things have been seeing. So my brother's been like, stop reading the comments. Yeah, very important. Yeah. And people even talking about your contract. I know. What's that all about? I saw that post the other day.

I was like, oh my God, this is new. Five fights, excuse me. A lot of money. They said two fights, two mill, right? Is that what they said? Yeah, two fights, two mil. Okay. And I was like, wrong.

More fights, more money. Wow, really? No, I don't know. I don't know. Seven plus figures. No, more fights for sure. More fights for sure. More fights for sure.

Is it? Yeah, it's five fights. I've got five fights. Okay, so I was right about the fights. Yeah. But the post was wrong. Yeah, the posties wrong. There's five fights left.

Yes. Okay. Four after this one. Got it. And a million of fine, huh? Well, I don't know about the money. That's not bad. I'm not sure.

I just signed some papers. So you're the million dollar baby, as they say. You know, I just roll with anything. Are you the highest paid fighter in PFL? I don't know. I don't know what everybody else is. I'm not interested in that. If I were you and I had a manager, I would say, who's the highest paid fighter in the

PFL? What are they making? I want more than them. That's how this works. I'm not a manager. Well, I'm saying, if you were talking. to your manager. I'm happy with my paycheck. Very, very happy. So, yeah, I don't, I mean, I've been out for a year, so I can't be saying anything too crazy right now. I've not even

thought, have I? Sure, but to humble myself a little bit, but I'm well paid. Yeah, PFL look after me for sure. And I feel like I give enough back as well. Like, I do a lot for FACFL too. Yeah. You, you own that, right? Yeah. Who else is? Usman, obviously, the amount He's on his way out. Maybe, possibly. Yeah. So after that, I don't know, Thad obviously is doing well at the He's got work to do. Yeah, Johnny just got his belt back. He's doing well. So there could be a good new couple of faces, but as the female, feel like I'm pushing

it right on. Yes. How do you feel about Usman potentially leaving? Yeah, I mean, obviously, Khabib's team have their own, like, they've got a big plan right from the beginning, you know, it's kind of been, well, from the odd they talk about Khabi's dad has already had a plan. Yes. And they're maybe going to follow that.

I don't know, but sometimes money can talk. I don't know. We'll see what happens. And I know it's been a year since you fought, so you haven't been like boots on the ground, so to speak, but in terms of the product and being at the events, your take on this new PFL. What is the sense? I have loved it. You loved it.

What's the difference? I feel like, I just, the fight cards are so much more exciting. Like, they're doing so well. The shows, they've got more fans there. You know, I think people are enjoying the fact that it's not a tournament anymore, seeing the same people fight each other. It's a little bit different. So, yeah, I'm really enjoying it. They're going to different.

places, which is important. They're going to tamper. I'm excited to go there. I'm going to go there and watch that when cyborg fights. So, yeah, I feel like they just need to let me fight in Bulgaria or the UK now. Okay, okay. Is that something you've asked for? Yeah.

Okay. And I feel like UK probably a little easier. Yeah, possibly. But I feel I would probably sell Bulgaria out better than I would the UK, honestly. Like what's the arena hold that you're thinking of? I don't know. It's 6,000, I think, 6 to 8. We could do more than that.

Yeah, I don't know. The biggest one over there is that? Maybe it's big. It's called Arena Sophia, I think, which is in the capital. And I feel like that would be the perfect place to do one. I've got my whole walkout planned and everything. It's just obviously Bulgaria is not really a place that you see themselves going. But I feel like it's close to Russia.

You know, they've got a lot of Russians there. So they could put those on the car too. It's close to England. Everyone can fly over. It's a mix. And I feel like once I've won the belt, they have to do something close to home. Possibly. Maybe Liz would want that.

Or title defense. Yeah, maybe. So I don't know. We'll see. I mean, I feel like things are opening up. UFC's going to Serbia this weekend. They were just in Azerbaijan. Like, Bulgaria is in that vicinity, right?

Yeah, I feel like they could make it work for sure. But I don't know. I think maybe going into next year, they'll probably think this year's important for them to do things exactly how they've planned. And then next year, we can see what happens. How do you feel about one of the big talking points has been the relationship with ESPN? Do you feel like ESPN's,

behind the product or do you feel like it's you know kind of falling through the cracks yeah i feel like they could have could have done a little bit more maybe but um i do like ESPN it's a shame if they don't work out together but um we'll see there's a lot of different opportunities now you see so many shows on different platforms and obviously a lot of big changes so i'm sure they'll pull something cool out the bag do you do you pay attention to this stuff do you listen to any of this like the news the rumors or you just focused on no i'm not i'm not into any of the politics and things like that i just help when i can help with the promo and things and things like that, just continue to keep fighting and pushing and make sure my socials are

helping and things and just stay out of it. When they did this MVP card back in May, was there ever any talk of you fighting on it? No. No. No. There wasn't okay. No, I was going to attend it and then I didn't end up going, but no, not talk to me.

Why did you not end up going? I was back in the UK. Okay, okay. Yeah, so I didn't get to go. You did watch? Yeah, I did watch it. You liked it? Yeah, I thought it looked really good.

The arena looked amazing. It did. A lot of people thought that it was actually empty because of the lights. Yes. But it was completely full. Oh, wow. Okay. Yes.

Yeah, it did look empty at some parts I was thinking, but everyone did say it was amazing. Yes. It was just the weird lights on the seats gave off this impression. You know what I'm talking about? It was very strange how it came across on TV, but being there was completely full to the top. Yeah, it would look amazing. I think that would be very interesting if they got into MMA more, you know, MVP that there would be like a little bit of competition. Yeah.

Well, you've just seen P. Do the NFL do that crossover with Rising? Yes. Are you interested in this? They don't really have any options over there. No, no, Rising, there's no women there, right? There is the few divisions, don't whether they've got a flyweight division or no. But I feel like there's a lot of competition now in PFL that they've all brought over for me.

So I feel like I've got to start clearing these out now. Have they told you that they want you to fight again this year? I've told them I want to fight again this year. How quickly? Like October would be nice. That fast? October, November. Yeah.

I want to be in this year. Sort of to make up for lost time. Yeah, but yeah, basically. And just because I like to be, like, fighting regularly. And then hopefully I can get another one early next year as well. Oh, wow. So, yeah. You just said a few minutes ago, slow down, take your time. No.

Okay. That's just with the training. That was just my recovery. That was just to get back, but I'm back now. So let's go. Are you, correct me if I'm wrong, are you in better shape than usual? Yeah, I feel like I am. Yeah, I'm a little bit lighter.

I mean, I saw, I mean, like, there's like a tent pack there. Yeah. You know, like, is that, is that normal? See, people have just forgot. I've always got a tent pack in Fight Week, but it's just been too long. I mean, it has been a year, actually, more than a year, right? Yeah. Mid-July of last year.

Yeah. Okay. So that's the norm because I was like, okay. Yeah. I'm back. Yeah. She's back. You feel like you have to do something emphatic to remind people.

Yeah, I do, but I just, my brother keeps saying to me, like, you just need to win. Right. Like, just relax. You know, it's your first one back. Like, just get you win. and that's your main thing. But me, I'm like, I need a highlight reel. You need something, a finish, a knee to the body, a knockout, a little, like, celebration that goes viral.

I've got my celebration. You got it. I can't give it away. Nothing. No. Is it Man City inspired? No. No.

Okay. You could probably guess it if I give you a clue. Yes, yes. You want me to give you one? Yes, yes. Oh, I feel like I'm going to give it away, though. It's fine. No one's watching this.

Come on. No one's watching an aerial show. Yeah. Come on. It's a rinky dink operation. It's a little engine here. It's to do with basketball. Oh, to do it best.

Is it about someone we talked about before? I don't know. I can't remember. Basketball, really? Yeah. LeBron James? No. No.

Is there like a basketball celebration that would be connected to you? Maybe. It's going to be connected to me. Is it Jalen Brunson's celebration? No. Oh, that would have been huge in the New York crowd. Do you know Jalen Brunson is?

Yes. He does the, when he hits a three-point. If you did that, that would go crazy viral. No? No. No. It's not a lot. What am I missing?

I feel like, uh, I feel like the chat knows exactly what I'm missing. What am I missing, guys? Don't be cheated. I mean, they, they sometimes help me out in the chat. What is the chat saying? A basketball celebration. I was thinking the King James, the LeBron James, he puts the crown on his head. Luca Donchich?

No. Oh, I know what it is. Someone just wrote it. Is it the Sophie Cunningham thing? This dude right here. Who's that? Who's that? And then nasty Bertrude.

That's it. You're going to point to her. I don't know. I don't have it in me. You saw that she showed up as the, by the way, good on them. Geez. They all got it.

They're all writing finger point. There we go. Did you see her do the ring card thing? Yeah, I did. I was actually at the Vegas card. Yeah, so I spotted her. That's right. You were there.

I was like, oh my God, it's so big. Are you a fan of hers? Yeah. Really? She's great. I feel like she's doing really well. Here and Caitlin. they get a lot of stick and i feel like sophie's funny because you see the clips of her getting

like filed all the time and then you see like suddenly one day she just switches she's like giving it back now so do you watch wmba a little bit i try and i keep up with it mostly on tictock honestly oh my god just like the highlights and things like that i never catch the games too much on on the tv but i watch like her interviews and things like that so the guys in the back they make fun of me i say that wmba is a great product it is but i actually think it's like the most mismanaged sports organization out there because there's so many great stars and characters and personalities, and I feel like they're all bickering and fighting. Well, I think that's the thing. Because it's female, we have a lot more like, I don't know,

when you get them all together. They've all got their own personalities and they're very big, aren't me? So it's like. There's a lot of weird stuff with Caitlin, and she's getting beat up. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Her and Sophie take a few hits. You know all that. And then Sophie getting in trouble with her comments recently. Would you like to weigh in on these comments? No. I'm not interested in the politics. No, I understand. But she's very outsubes. spoken. She is, yeah. She's very comfortable. Good on her. Yeah. Okay. She's doing great. Did you meet her? No, never met her. Okay. Well, I'd love to do a bit of basketball with her and then I feel like now she's fouling everyone. She could come and do a bit of MMA.

Yes. How are your basketball skills? All right. I've just been throwing some threes out there. That's right. I mean, like on the actual court, no, tough. I don't know. You have the size. Yeah. Okay, so that's what we're doing. You knock her out, you're pointing at her. Yeah. Okay. Maybe not her, just the camera. I mean, would it be at, it should be at the person. You don't want to rub it in? No, I respect Denise. You go in the middle of the cage and you do the point. Yeah.

It's going to be all over a sports center. Maybe. That's smart. So you think of all these things? Yeah, me and my brothers. Okay. And walk out too? Yeah, walk out.

No, it's just like the typical, it's my Bulgarian bagpipes that I always come out to. Okay. Did you imagine in Bulgaria you walk out with the actual bagpipes? Yeah. And some other cool traditional things. I've got plans. Okay. So you have it all planned?

Yeah. All right. That would be good. Okay, I like this. I like this. This is good. You need this. The marketing.

Yeah, for sure. You got to get the people behind you. I feel like you have to go to people's homes and get the home crowds involved. And I feel like it's not hard to do when you've got somebody that's willing to speak on camera and, you know, promote themselves as well. When you went to the UFC event, you've been to a UFC before, right? What did you think of the whole Connor experience? It was super cool. Again, like the walkouts, Paddy's Conner's walkouts that like, like, live went for the UFC.

the walkouts actually more than the actual fight itself. I just feel like that's a whole part of it. So, yeah, what a surreal experience to go on with. It was good. How would you describe the arena when Connor got hurt and it just sort of ended unceremoniously? Yeah, it was, it just kind of just went just completely flat. I think everyone was just in shock and then just kind of left. But it was crazy.

It was a real shame, actually. It was quite a sad, sad ending personally. But, yeah, hopefully he'll be back, hopefully. Does it make you think of your own? I don't want to say mortality in the real sense of the word, but like I feel like it's always interesting to talk to a young fighter when they're witnessing the older generation, the older fighters come to the very end because the young fighter probably thinks this is going to be infinite and they'll be on top forever and father time is undefeated. And I'm just wondering

sometimes fighters are like, oh, I need to appreciate this now because people will talk about me this way in the end. You think that way or are you very... For sure. Yeah, I don't know how I'm in too much on But me and my family are always like that, you know, things can get taken away so quickly. It can like be the end. I feel like my injury taught me that. Like I've been out completely now and there was nothing I could do about it. So it was like, I do kind of look at people's careers and take notes from them. And that's why I say about like becoming a mom, not having to come back.

Like I want to be able to like make my own decisions in this sport and not be forced to sway one way in the other. You know, so I definitely look at people's careers and take notes, but at the same time, try and navigate my in my own personal way. Not trying to stir the pot, but when you're there at the UFC event, do you picture? It was amazing. It was a real cool arena, yeah.

It was a little bit scary for me. Why? I don't know. I'm not really like, I've never been someone that's like, wants to be, like it sounds so hypocritical for me to say, but I've never wanted to be famous,

never wanted to be like a superstar. I've just always wanted to fight. So like, being in an arena like that, I even said to my brother like, wow, this would probably scare me, like walking out to fight here. I think you'd be okay. I would be fine for sure because I'm just that type of person that can get on in any scenario,

but it's quite scary for me to see. Did you get noticed a lot? Did a lot of people come up? Yeah, they did actually. That's got to be cool, right? Yeah, it was. People asked for photos, and it was funny because I just thought, like, I walked into the ceremonial wanes, and it was quite quiet, people just talking because it hadn't started yet,

and everyone was just like, oh, my God, oh, oh, my God. Wow. Look at you. I know, so I was just like, oh, hello. When was the last time you went to a UFC? I only went to the London card once Okay, and what was the reception like back then? I got noticed there, but it was more like

I was sat in a section where you could see me on the camera and I got put on Twitter like Dakotas in the building. Oh, yes, I remember this. So that, yeah, but... But that has to feel nice, right, that you're at a UFC event and people are going crazy for you? Yeah, for sure. Especially when you're out for so long and wondering,

do they remember me? Do they still care? Yeah, for sure, yeah. It's always nice to be noticed, yeah. You mentioned TikTok a couple times. Are you obsessed with TikTok? No. Okay.

If you ask my brother, I'm probably obsessed with scrolling through it. Yeah, that's what I mean. Well, what else would you be doing on TikTok? Yeah. Other than scrolling through it. Actually, TikTok in. I don't do too many TikTok. I don't mean you doing the TikTok, but just being on it.

Yeah. Too much? I feel like it's just, it's my news channel that. Yeah. I keep up with everything, which is sad really, but. The algorithm. Yeah. Echo chamber.

It just feeds you what you want and then it's hard to get off of it. Yeah. What's up with the bike guy? You're into the bike guy? Which one? I don't know. The guy, the guy on the guy. the bike. Do you know what I'm talking about? No. This guy, this guy. Do you know this guy?

Oh my god, how did you get that? That's what I watch all the time. He is dangerous. Look. What's up with this guy? He nearly runs someone down. He's so aggressive, but he's really funny at the same time. We were just, we were just riding through the city then and we were like, oh my god, these bike lanes in New York are the most dangerous things ever because of him. This guy. I guess we don't look, huh? It's very stressful. Can I say I drive in here every day and I feel like I almost get into eight accidents with these guys? They just zip by on the left.

So this is a favorite of yours. Yeah. You're just like watching it. I'm happy once I get onto that algorithm because sometimes I can get onto like silly things. But when I get onto funny stuff like that, I'm happy and I'm there all night long. Just watching this. Yeah. It's sort of like there's like adrenaline there.

It's like there's anxiety watching that. Yeah, there is. And like, you can see the person about to step out in front of him and he's like does not care. He'll just shout at it. Amazing. And is this like a delivery guy? I'm not familiar with this man's work. I don't even know.

He doesn't really put his face on it. He puts everyone else. He's on it. Okay. So you don't know what he does for a living. He's just driving around. That's definitely his living because he gets a lot of views on that. Oh, like what are we talking?

Like millions. On that? Yeah, because he shouts at people. Swering and whatnot. What about Luke Littler? Are you a fan of his? Yeah. You know who he is, right?

The Darts Man. Yes. He just had an incredible win this past weekend. I don't know if you keep up with all this, but he's like a sensation. I know who he is, yeah, he is a sensation. He's amazing, very talented for his young age, but I haven't kept up with it recently.

Okay. Did your family grow up playing darts? Was that a big thing? No, no. I just feel like the English love like to go to the Darts Championships because it's like a big old party for them. Oh yeah, the Ali Pally. Yeah.

Familiar with it. Have you been to it? No, I've not been. Do you guys watch like Christmas time? It's big during Christmas time. It is big, yeah. My brother sometimes watches it, yeah. Okay.

But Lute Lill is great. He's done amazing. for a whole years. Go to the local pub? Do you go to the local? You don't do that? No, the boys do, but I don't. Why?

You're too posh for that? I'm either at the gym or I'm at home. But even when you were younger? No, I never really like. Yeah. Yeah. More gym. Okay.

Even like as a teenager, Jim, Jim, Jim. Yeah, no, I've never been someone to like go out, party and go out to the clubs or pops. It's weird because we have a dart sport right over there. I'll play it. You want to play? Yeah. Okay. I'd like to challenge you.

Okay. What you do? you know what the game is it's just like three versus three see who gets the higher score you throw three I throw three but what's at stake whether you get to TikTok or not

oh my gosh okay that's good so if I'm going to drink some of the water here to get me pumped up so if I lose I have to TikTok yes no if you lose you have to do two TikToks if you win you only have to do one okay

wait what's in it for me Nothing. Nothing. Having me on the show. And what are the TikToks, just so I know? Like, is this, like, dancing stuff? One's dancing, and the other one's not. It's quite funny.

I can't be dancing. You're going to be dancing. I can't be dancing. He's got no option. Here's the thing. If I win, no TikToks. If I lose TikToks. Okay. I'm backing myself.

Here we go. Here we go. Me versus Dakota. I think I have the guy. Yes, right over here. So this is. Ladies first, yes. Is this trouble?

No. Oh, this is trouble. Okay. And I want to get the highest. You want to get the highest, obviously. Yeah. What's this? That's a bull's eye.

But the bull's eye is 50. No, this is 50. This is 100. I may be wrong. I may have screwed that up. Does anyone remember? It's been a minute. No, I do know, but this, so this is 20, this is double 20, this is triple 20.

This is normal. This is nothing. Okay. I just need confirmation on what that is. Someone's going to tell me in my ear in a second. The green and the red. Do you want these? Yeah.

Thank you. going first the line is right here if you go past the line you get disqualified are those Nike SBs no just regular oh Travis with the backwards okay so the thing the thing is you have to go Rick do you know what it is you don't know what it is okay okay okay green 25 red 50 oh okay green 25 red 50 you know the rest again if I lose TikTok if I win I mean it's really nothing at mistake for me here. Are you nervous, by the way? I'm just curious. There's a lot of pressure. Wow! Wait, wait. This is off the board. You have zero right now. Sounds like you're pretty nervous.

UBS Arena. It's okay to fight in front of 10,000 people. Okay, what do we got? Four, four, okay. Oh, that's not bad. That's a double 18, right? No, it's not hit double. It's just 18. Wow, 22. How do you feel about that? It's okay because I know you're not. You think I'm going to crumble under the pressure? Yeah. All right. So my friend Luke Littler, who was actually here a couple weeks ago, told me that you have to put the foot.

You have to put the foot like this and you just have to flow with it, Dakota. You see, when you're skilled like I am, you're just not in your head and you're like water. Like Bruce Lee once said, oh, what is that? 11. What did you get again? 22, right? Yeah, easy work. So you're just flowing. The cup is the cup, the water becomes the cup. You understand? No. You understand Dakota. You're not going to get anything now. It's like blue moon.

No, that's a five. That means I'm at 16? Oh my God. It's a lot of pressure now on me, but I'm just chilling. Where should I, do you have a preference? Yeah. If you don't hit, 20. Fuck sake, 20. I have to hit... Yeah, right. Then you have to TikTok. No way. We're not changing the stakes.

Oh, double 20. Wow! Well, where's the camera right there? Where am I? Where am I? Sign me up, Luke Liller. Ah! Ah!

What is that? Did you get a shot of that? Did you get a shot of that? Double 20, Dakota. Did you get a shot of that? Come on. I've never actually aimed for. something and hit it. I always try to just like, look at this.

Right, one more. Wow. Look at this, look at this. Can someone take a picture of this? Look at this double 20 right here. Luke. Great teacher. Thank you my friend. Okay, one more double or nothing. What's at stake? What's at stake? Okay. If, okay, here's the thing. Okay, here, I got it. Double or nothing. If you win, I tick-tock. Two. If I win, I need to be mentioned in the post-fight interview.

Okay. Yeah? Well, in the ring. Okay. Here we go. This is big. I've never been mentioned before. Here we go.

A lot of pressure. Anything double. What does that mean? Any double, or just a 20 double. Oh, I thought you're just going for the highest three. Oh, okay. What are we trying to do? We're doing doubles now?

I don't know. All right, here we go. One more time. Here we go. Not bad. Eight, eight. Okay, you're going fast. 20, 20, 6, 26. It's tough under the lights, huh?

It's very nerve-wracking, I get it. Sorry. Here you go, look. I said sorry before he's even more. You're a great, what are you going to say in the interview? Is it going to be like, thank you to Ariel for believing me? Well, see, you didn't bet that, so I don't have to say anything nice. Okay.

No, no, no, you just have to say my name. You can say Ariel Hawwana, you're a bum, no problem. I just want the mention on ESPN in front of the whole audience. Would you get 20%? 26? Easy work. I should just finish you off in one shot with that double 20. Go on then. Oh, that's a shame. What was that? Five.

Five. Mother. I almost got the 25. 13. 18. Oh, fuck. There we go. Here we go, Dakota. This is for you. This is for you in the whole country of Bulgaria. 18. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's what it's called. Under, where am I?

I, where I don't know where. That's what it's called under the pressure. Ice water. Ice water. Ice water in my veins. Do you see that? On Friday night. What's the point? What's the point? What's the point? See? Yes.

Get a good look. Undefeated, the king is back. What does it like to lose to like a nerdy, scrawny, Jewish Canadian? What is it like in an athletic endeavor, Dakota? Tell us. I always have something to pull out the bag. I'm not going to lie. Yes.

Well, congratulations. You are a worthy competitor. There she is. Dakota Ditcheva. She'll be in action. Oh, what do we have? What is this? Oh.

Oh. It's a present for you. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Oh, these are the cards from my friends at Upper Deck. Yes. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Wow. Oh, yes, yes. Thank you. I brought you one. You're going to sign it. I want to sign it for you. Wow.

You're actually the first one to get one of these. Oh, my dear. Okay. Not only do I beat her. Not only am I going to get a mention on television on. There it is. There it is. On Friday.

Wow. Thank you. With the nice gold pen. Is that gold? Yeah. I love it. Check it out. Where do people get these, by the way?

You can get them in the Goodwin's pack, so you can buy the pack and hope that you're going to pull one out. I will not be selling this. You can watch her on Friday, on ESPN, UBS Arena. Tickets for Maine, so go check it out. Her Usman and Magamatov fighting for the belt, defending his title. She's fighting in the people's main event for the people's belt, and then eventually for the actual belt. Dakota always great. Thank you so much.

We'll take a quick break. Be back. Don't go anywhere. All right. back on the program, that was my conversation with Canel Alvarez from last week, which was quite the chat. Actually, Mark Romundi told me that his lovely wife was watching Telemundo, and they mentioned the chat on Telemundo. How about us? Look at us. And what about my victory under the light? You know? Yossi Dundon.

We're back. We're back with the darts. I felt it. It felt like the old days, right, Frank? Oh, yeah, it did. It felt like the old days when there were still. Stakes. Am I going to get mentioned on the air? Do you think I'm going to get mentioned? Absolutely. That was what was at stake? You know what's crazy.

I ended up doing the TikToks anyway. Yeah, because you're a nice guy. Let's just see if she's a nice woman. Yeah, that's true. I've never done a TikTok before. I'd say it was actually kind of fun, Frankie. Conspicuous by your absence was you. Yeah, you know, I'm not allowed on social media per our agreement.

We did a fun one. Intern Jack was in it. Intern Josh was in it. intern G.C. was in it? All the interns, baby. Where was Rick? Rick was, I don't know, man. He gave up his shirt, gave it to Jack. Just didn't want to come in there. I have to say, it was kind of fun. Was it fun? Yeah. Are we going to get roasted for this?

I love that for you. I don't think we're going to get roasted. You don't think so? I had a blast. It's a harmless TikTok. I know, but, you know, old folks doing TikTok. Yeah. Well, technically me and you are the only old folks. I think Dakota is under 30. You're not that old. You're not that old. Let's not get crazy.

But intern Jack or Josh said they had fun? Who was it? That was Josh. Yeah. Josh, what a week for you? LeBron, AEW, Question of the Century, Dakota TikTok. It was incredible. He was the most giddy to be on.

No, he was like, it was like George Costanza when there was a fire pushing everyone out of the way. That was intern Josh. Exactly. They approached me and they were like, we're going to need you to do a TikTok. I was like, I'm not so sure about that. Josh was like, I'll do it. Amen. Amen.

What a time. His youthful spirit drove me to be young. We are soon going to be joined by Nico Ali Walsh, then Dan Hooker and then Thadjean. But before we get into all of that, I do want to talk a little bit about a massive event that happened just yesterday, a rare Monday night event, which I do have to say. I didn't feel like it got a ton of coverage in MMA media circles. And that's okay. there's always a lot of events, but this was a rare Monday. It was an event that transpired, that happened, that took place that emanated from the Menorah Mifthachim Arena, home of Maccabi Tel Aviv, the basketball team.

It took place in Tel Aviv, in Israel. It was GFN1, Gordon Fight Nights 1. And I want to give a massive shout out to Yaniv Kaminsky, who's become a very good friend of mine, who is sort of like the MMA slash combat sports. guru from Israel who does broadcast work for one championship on their local television, has a podcast, does amazing work spreading his knowledge and his love of MMA throughout the country. He was the Mick Maynard, the Sean Shelby, the John Anick, the Bruce Buffer of the event. He did a tremendous job. And I saw the sights and sounds last night when I got home.

And I was blown away by what I saw. 11,000 people, a sold-out crowd, including the great Denny Avdia of Portland Trailblazer fame, probably the most famous Israeli athlete right now, all in attendance, all to support a mixed event. There was some Muay, some kickboxing, some MMA took place in a ring, and the cornerstone of the event, the Gordon and Gordon Fight Nights were three young men of the Gordon family who have an amazing background. who are all victorious and who have actually kind of taken my breath away, learning more about their backstory. Their father from New York met a Filipino-Tai woman from Hong Kong.

They got married. She converted. They moved to Israel. They are religious Jews. And they have grown up in combat sports with a background in Muay Thai. And the youngest of them all, the 20-year-old Ahavut Gordon, defeated John Linneker, Mr. you know, hands of stone himself in the main event. And he is considered the golden boy of Israeli MMA. And what I loved so much about this event was it was billed as Israel versus the

world, but there were people from all over the world there. It wasn't just Israeli fighters there. They even had an amazing start to the event where two amputees who were injured in combat fought against each other. And there was no politics. There was no nonsense involved. It was just people who loved MMA coming together. And of course there was a spirit there and there was a happiness there. And there was an excitement about putting on a local event like this. And for me in particular, there was a lot of pride. There was a lot of pride in seeing these walkouts.

Take a look at these walkouts. Let's start with Ahavat's brother. I believe this is Kibedi Gordon walking out. That's his mom, blessing him. on route to battle. I mean, how beautiful is that? I don't care what you think of, again, my religion, my people, the state of Israel. I thought that that was beautiful.

I've never seen a mother bless her son on route to battle. Kibedi ended up winning via first round knockout, defeating the former UFC fighter Jose Alberto Quignonez via first round, K.O. 57 seconds into the first round. His brother, Ruach, Gordon, beat Maximus Bejuna. I'm probably butchering that name in the main event, excuse me, in the co-main event, the unanimous decision. And then came Ahavad Gordon, who has become a sensation in Israel, who looks the part,

who is just 20 years young, who defeated John Linnaker in the main event, and here's his walkout. his mother blessing him as well. I mean, this is amazing stuff. You can put it a little bit louder, Frank, if you can. Here's his mom. This is beautiful stuff. As a parent, as a proud Jew, to see this type of love, to see this type of spirit, ruach, as they say.

His name, Ahavat means love in Hebrew. and to see the performance, I was blown away, and I've seen him in one championship, but just amazing to see that type of excitement. Lando Venata was on the card. He defeated Natan Levy in a kickboxing match. There was a young woman named Neely Block who fought earlier in the card as well.

Take a look at her entrance, very fun as well. She was on one of those couches like Marab, riding through the streets of Las Vegas. Look at this. Apparently, this is a thing. Ah, this was great. This was great. I would say that the vibes were amazing, and I want to congratulate everyone who was involved in this event. I've heard from a friend of mine who is Israeli who is telling me all about it and how big the Gordon brothers have become in Israel.

Love to see it. But of course, with that, does come criticism, does come negativity, does come all kinds of insanity. John Silva was there to corner a good friend of his and a teammate. from the fighting nerds, Eli Barzali, who did in fact win on this card, defeating Lucas Almeida as well for unanimous decision. And John Silva got absolutely bombarded with hateful messages of all kinds just because he went to Israel to corner his friend. It's disheartening, it's disgusting, it's very disappointing to see, you know, we live in a world and we cover a sport where you can go to a part of the world

and rub elbows with warlords, with people who are dictators and be celebrated for it and not have to answer a single question about it and be from America and take gifts and hang out and be called a proud American, but it's okay to go around shooting guns and doing all kinds of craziness with dictators and bad people.

But God forbid your John Silva going to corner a friend, going to help a friend out in a massive fight for it. He's on the cusp of getting a contender series or maybe even a UFC contract. God forbid Mr. John Silva does that. And he has to go on Twitter and apologize for this. This is the world that we have entered. This is the world that we're living in where just because you are going there to support a friend, not trying to make any political statement, not trying to say X, Y, or Z, you have to go on Twitter and essentially apologize for being there.

Insane that we're living in these times. I can't believe that we're living in these times. I would love nothing more than peace and harmony and all of this to end. But unfortunately, we now live in a time where if you support the state of Israel, that means you support the government. That means you support the killing of innocent people. That means you support all this and then some, all this disgusting stuff, this rhetoric that people put out. And I'm never going to shut up about it.

And I have taken a lot of lumps as a result of speaking up about it. But if I don't speak up about it, especially in this sport, who will? I don't know anyone who will. and I know I'm in the minority, but I will continue to speak up and try to spread the knowledge that it's okay to be proud to be Jewish. It's okay to be proud to support the state of Israel.

It's okay to also say you want there to be a Palestinian state and a harmonious relationship between the two countries that you don't want innocent people to die on that side of the fence and on this side of the fence as well, that you want everyone to just live in peace and harmony

and all of this hating and disgusting rhetoric, all this killing, all this senseless killing. end once and for all. I know that is a very sort of, you know, idealistic take, but that's what I love and I love to think of that someday in the future happening. And I'd like to think that events like this could help show people that we are not who you say we are, that we don't believe in what you try to make people and to believe that you should not be, you know, you should not be

conned by social media into thinking where X, Y, Z, view it for yourself and I'd like to think that the Lando Vanadas and the John Silvas and the Quignones and the Almedas and every other fighter who came from another part of the world got to witness that. I would like to think that. I would like to believe that. And so congratulations to everyone involved

and congratulations to all the fighters who had the courage to not listen to all the nonsense, the hateful mob and were comfortable enough and confident enough in their own beliefs to say, you know what, I'm going to go check this out. I'm going to go see this for myself. I'm going to go partake in this. If invited, if there's an opportunity, and I'd like to think that the vast majority of them left on, you know, Monday, Tuesday, whenever it was saying that was pretty

damn cool. Look at these shots. Love to see it. Martial arts, MMA, combat sports, no political affiliation, no statements being made, none of that. Just love, peace and harmony and a mom blessing her kids as they are walking out. Love that. That was beautiful and sort of took my breath away. I'm not going to lie. It really, really did. So anyway, I wanted to shed some light on that and say a massive muzzle-tove to all the organizers and everyone who, you know, partook in the event. I did see also a post stating that they're going to be doing another one. And this is interesting. It's their name. It's the Gordon Fight Night series. And they're going to be doing. too. So maybe we'll pull up. Who knows? Maybe we'll pull up. Do a live show from there.

Wouldn't that be nice? All right. In a matter of moments, Nikol Ali Walsh is going to be joining us to talk about his busy weekend. We told you earlier about the Sky Nicholson MVP matchroom news. Speaking of the world of boxing. What about Ryan Garcia? showing up on Monday Night Raw yesterday. There's a Joe Hendry, Danhausen segment. Garcia joins them, is dancing, and then all of a sudden, that dastardly King Rye turns on Joe Hendry, smacks him with the freaking guitar a la Jeff Jarrett,

Circa, 1999, and all hell ensues. Judgment Day, chime in. They start beating up Dan Housen and Joe Hendry. And there you see Ryan Garcia with trips backstage with the classic pose. And here they are meeting. Look at this right here. Yeah. Love it.

Ryan Garcia seems destined at some point in time to join TKO. There he is with the Greenbelt, the WBC Walter White title defending that title on September 12th. Great stuff. Terrence Crawford, by the way, weighing in on the proceedings, and this is what he had to say on Twitter, you might get knocked out, you better be training and taking this fight seriously. Terence Crawford is enjoying getting under Ryan Garcia's skin. This is fun. I enjoy it. Speaking of Terrence Crawford, he's in Australia right now on the heels of that Errol Spence fight. I saw this video online. of him with a young girl who is a boxer, and I love the interaction. Take a look. Oh, yeah, she and look.

You told me I need to move for. And you still, look. Oh, oh. She accident. Yeah. Oh. Oh. Moving.

Here you go. That's right here. Where you go right here? I love that's the call angles. Thank you. I love that. I absolutely love that stuff so much. I love to see young kids interacting with their heroes.

Love to see young girls being able to get the opportunity to box and be confident enough to be able to go out there. You hear about those stories of Katie Taylor back of the day having to hide her identity, hide her gender. And now we live in a time where they can look up to the last. likes of Terrence Crawford, they could look up to the likes of Katie Taylor and Sky Nicholson and all the great boxers who are getting an opportunity to represent themselves on the grandest of stages. So that was really great stuff. A few weeks back, we had an opportunity to speak to Nico Ali Walsh about everything that he's been doing to support boxers and to be out on the front lines, to try to defend the Muhammad Ali Act, to try to get his voice out there. When so many others

are seemingly very afraid to do that right now, he is, as they say, standing on business. And then over the weekend, I see a photo of him and Nick Con of TKO, and I found it to be very interesting. Okay, what's going on here? And then I'm watching Zufa Boxing on Paramount Plus on Sunday night. And there he is on the broadcast with Joe Tessator. So I wanted to ask Nico about all of this and then some. He's kind enough to join us once again on the program to talk about it all. Hey, Nico, how are you, my man?

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me again. How are you, Ariel? I'm very excited to have you on. I have a ton of questions because, you know, The world of boxing is a fascinating one, and I did not see this particular chapter unfolding the way in which it did. And so can I ask you, how did this all come about? You told us that you got a call and you were invited by Zufa, by TKO to attend the event.

But then the meeting with your manager and Nick, tell us everything. How did it all come about? So first, I was getting a lot of backlash, of course, online. People, you're a sellout, you're this or that. as soon as they saw the photo with Nick Khan, but my biggest thing is full transparency. Everyone knows that I'm fighting this fight. Everyone knows that I'm really the only one fighting this fight.

Aside from, of course, like Oscar Dale Hoy, I'm talking about active boxers. I'm the only one. So I just wanted to be fully transparent. Every move that I make, every time TKO reaches out to my manager, Amera Abdullah, everything that happens, I'm fully transparent. Okay, so what happens?

They reach out to you. You reached out to them. How did this all come about this weekend? They reached out. TKO reached out to my manager, I'm mayor. And of course, you know, we've been causing a bit of a stir because we have been, since we've spoke and even before then, still talking to senators. You know, I'm still battling between going to the gym two, three times a day and then getting on these senator calls. So they wanted to have a meet.

and discuss the changes that can be made to this revival act. When they reached out, what did you think initially? Did you think, okay, what's going on here? What's in store for me? What do they have in mind? Is there an ulterior motive? What are you thinking initially? Well, I may be naive in saying this, but when they first reached out, I thought, you know what?

they're trying to come to an agreement. That was my initial thoughts because the truth is with these Senator calls, we've been winning. Our side, my side, the side of, you know, sticking up for the current Ali Act, we've been winning. We've been doing great. These senators have been agreeing with us. They know that the Revival Act is not going to pass as it stands. So I feel like because of the impact we've had and the success we've had just in the last couple weeks, I feel like that's why they reached out. You did tweet something before all of this saying like, oh, there's interesting things happening. We have the tweet here.

I just want to get a right what you said, something that Ali Act update. This is July 20th, so this is eight days ago. Great call today with the senators. Changes are coming. What were you alluding to when you said changes are coming? So that call that we had with the senators was amazing and it was that one that we were informed that it was not passed or it was not going to pass as it was as it is proposed. Okay. So after that call I said, you know what, this is a huge win for us.

The Revival Act is not going to pass as the Revival Act. It's going to pass as something, of course, but that was a huge win for us. So now we were able to implement changes that we've. felt were necessary to better the sport of boxing and to, of course, protect the fighters. Do you think that's why TKO reached out because you put that out there? I don't know if I don't know if my tweet did the impact. It could have, but I know they're talking to senators as well. And I'm sure they're, the senators that they're talking to are transparent enough to let them know that, hey, listen, we've been speaking with the other side.

We've been speaking with Nico and his team. and the Revival Act is not going to pass as it stands. We're going to have to come to some sort of agreement. Okay. You posted a picture of a meeting that you had with your manager and with Nick Con. Was that your first time meeting Nick Con? No. So my first time meeting him was when, I mean, it wasn't really a meeting, but...

We're on the set with him. Like the... Yes, that was my first time. That was my first time shaking hands with him. Okay, okay. But in terms of like a private meeting... meeting? This was your first time. Of course, of course, yeah.

What did you, what did you think? You know, it's all business. There's nothing wrong. I have nothing but respect for Nick Con. He's a massively successful businessman, you know, a family man. So, yeah, he's, he's great. You know, we both went to, we both went to UNLV, so we had that similarity. But I really felt in the meeting that he wanted to make changes. That was the biggest thing. And I was pleasantly surprised. It was a great meeting.

And I mean, it was just, it's been very successful these last couple days for boxing. The changes that we proposed in the meeting were changes for the sport. It was changes for protecting boxers. And he was very inclined to listen to us. Can you tell us?

More about those changes, those, those details. Of course. So I mean, so naturally speaking, when I'm in layman's terms, right, financial transparency is absolutely essential. That's, you know, UBO disclosures. That's fighter pay. You've got to be able to show, you know, what money is being made. So financial transparency, free agency, length of contracts, rankings transparency. see those four are really the main ones that we really stuck to in the meeting because if they

listen to those four um we'll be will be in a way better position uh and and fighters will be able to uh keep a lot of the rights that they have under the current ali act and he was open to all of this of course and uh yeah that's why it was it was such a great it was such a great meeting uh he he was he was very very uh open to it was it was just a successful meeting. I'm thinking about in terms of my rights as a active boxer, I'm thinking about boxing as a whole, just doing the right thing. Overall, it was a great meeting and he was, he was very attentive to what we had to say. How long did it last? An hour or so. Okay. And in that meeting, you know what? The meeting where we discussed professional business, because obviously, of course,

when we first sit down, I don't know the guy. He doesn't know me. So we spoke you know, just speaking, you know, you know, Hello, how are you? Yeah. Right. Yeah. All that's good stuff. How's the weather? All that.

So the whole meeting was probably around, probably around two hours, actually. Oh, wow. Okay. In the meeting, does he say, hey, do you want to be on the broadcast? Or if not, how does that come about? You know what? At the end of the meeting, he said, would you be guys, would you guys be open to being on the broadcast for the event tonight?

I know Edgar Berlanga, so when he mentioned going to the event, of course, it was a little weird at first because Zufa, I'm the main opposition against Zufa. So going to a Zufa event felt a little weird, but, you know, I'm a fan of boxing. I'm here to support the fighters. I'm here to support boxing as a whole. So anytime I get to support boxing fighters, absolutely. Okay. And so you said yes right away. Yes.

I will never shy away from that. And you know what? I got to give it. I got to give it to TCO. I got to give it to Nick Con. I even got to give it to Zufa. They put me on the broadcast. They didn't tell me no talking points.

They didn't hint at. Ariel, I'm going to always be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with everybody. I will always tell you like it is. They didn't tell me no talking points. They didn't hint at you got to say this. We want you to do this. I respect that.

They gave me that platform. And even on that platform, I spoke somewhat against Zufa. I was just being honest. I said, I don't care about Zufa. I don't. I'm here for boxing. That's just the truth. I'm sure Nick knew that I was going to speak my mind.

And they still gave me the platform to do so. So respect to them. I thought it was really impressive that they extended that offer. I thought the way you conducted yourself was very impressed. I thought it was impressive to give you a live mic without worrying that you're going to go off. You could have done whatever you wanted. Right? That was live, right? That wasn't a tape sentence. It was a live mic. They know that I'm the main opposition of Zufa. They know that I'm outspoken.

I will always speak my peace. I will always speak my mind. And yeah, they gave me the platform. So why do you think they did that? If you were to take a step back, why do you think they would take that chance and give you this opportunity in this platform? Because what they're doing now is trying to make something work. The meeting with Nick Kahn was not, we're trying to push an agenda, like I'm speaking on Nick's behalf. Nick wasn't saying we're trying to push an agenda. We're trying to get this to happen. We're trying to do this. Nick listened to everything that we had to say.

He listened when we were talking about full transparency. Something is going to happen where we're going to meet in the middle and our concerns are going to get passed into law. That's absolutely going to happen because, you know, I speak, my team speaks to senators, his team speaks to senators. They speak to each other. The middlemen is the senators. You know, we wanted to speak to the man himself. We wanted to get rid of the middleman and just speak directly with, uh, who could make that change.

And that's what we did. Okay. And so the segment airs. Sounds like you're happy with the segment, right? You're happy with the way you represented yourself and your thoughts and your comments. You feel like you came across well, right? I was. I was a bit serious.

I wish I was more supportive on the fighters because I was happy to see the boxers having success and having good fights that night. they had, um, they had some good fights. So I wish I was more, uh, happy in, in those terms, but that's just a, uh, a small thing. I was very serious because in my, in my brain, I was big, man. This is a serious thing. This is something you care about and have, uh, sacrificed a lot and put a lot of time and effort into. So I don't blame you feeling that way. I'm just curious because I'll be honest, like my whole algorithm is this topic, right? And in combat sports. I do see some people being like, yo, you sold out. What the hell? They're buying you off. And so when you open your phone, what are you seeing? Well, you know, I tell this to a mayor.

I tell this to my dad. I know you hear this all the time. I'm the only person making changes. I'm the only person making changes. I don't care what people think. I do not care what people think. I feel, you know, people have called me the people's champ that kind of started when I fought in Africa. I know my intentions with boxing, with what I'm trying to do. And when people called me the people's champ, like I like to accept that name now. So I'm always thinking about the people. I'm always thinking about what's best for the sport. And not to sound cliche, but I'm thinking about what my grandfather would have done. So I don't care what people have to say. They love you, they hate you.

People are very back and forth. I know exactly that I'm doing the right thing, and I'm very confident in that. Was that the sentiment that you got, or did you get something else? Did you feel something else from what you saw? Well, I'll read the comments when I'm told to. Okay.

I won't, it won't affect me as much, unless, let me change that. Ariel, if you came out and said something, like after the meeting, after the picture with Nick Con came out, if you came out and said, Nico's a sellout, that would probably sting a little bit. That would. I wouldn't say that.

But I know. But, you know, when it comes to people that I respect, like yourself, if other people that I know personally came out and said something, that would sting. But when it comes to the public, I don't care what they think because they don't know how I'm thinking. They don't know that my intentions are absolutely. pure. I'm doing what's best for the sport of boxing. I'm doing honestly, selfishly, I'm doing what I feel will cement my legacy. So I'm just trying to stick and do what is right. And I understand

that no one is in the trenches the way that I am. I'm on this hill alone. I'm, you know, my career is taking a massive hit because of it. And I'm going to continue to fight just because I feel that that's the right thing to do. What is your response to someone who says, man, why'd you do that? Oh, with the meeting with Nick? Yeah, just the whole thing. The people who are like who are just jumping to the conclusion that you sold out, what is your response to them? Well, you have, you, you have to move forward some way.

Yeah. And how are you going to do it? I read a comment. Someone said, I respect Nico. I respect the hell out of Nico. He, you know, met with the, you can't be mad at him. for meeting with the head of the stake. Now, I wouldn't use those terms, but I get what he's trying to say. I'm tackling this problem head on, and there's no other way to go about making

this successful than going to the man himself. Let's cut out the senators. Let's stop going this back and forth, because it's been months. I'm on these calls for months. It's getting annoying and that one meeting that that two hours that two hours that we had with nick did more than all these months do you think that zufa would be interested in signing you and if they were interested would you be interested in signing with them i i definitely think they they would i definitely think they would have interest um i think they know who i am as a person um But I don't know how I would feel signing with them. Did that come up at all?

No. Fighting for them, anything like that. They didn't hint at it. It was straight. It was business. We didn't even eat. It was just water on the table. And we spoke on on, you got to know each other a little bit.

And then we spoke directly into what we felt needed. it to change. It's a wild thing in sort of a bit of an indictment on the the social media world that we live in, that in any sort of normal walk of life, if you're on the other side of the spectrum of someone, at odds with someone, you would think, okay, if there's an invitation to sit down and understand each other, that is what like normal, mature, civilized people would do. That's great. That's great. That's pure. That's great. That's what human beings should do. That's how we should all act. Like, let's try to. figure each other out and understand where we're coming from. Instead, you get sellout,

turncoat, this, that, and the other. It's like, why does it always have to be negative? That's why I wanted to have you on, because I wanted to know your intentions. I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to know, you know, what you walked away with and what, you know, I'd love to have Nick on as well. He's a little less accessible when it comes to interviews, but I get that. And it's just, it's got it. I love people's passion about the sport. I can't get mad for calling me a sell out. If I didn't know what I was doing, if I didn't know my intention, if I didn't know who Niko was as a person, as a man, I would be saying the same thing. You would be. Why? Why would you say that? Because if I didn't know myself, if I didn't know myself, if I didn't know my intention,

I'd be like, oh my God, another fighter just looking to cash, cash in, get the bag. They don't know who I am. They don't know that, you know, my grandfather, my grandfather and I are cut from the same cloth. I have morals. So, No one knows the trenches that I've been going through to get where I'm at. And so what happens now? Do they go back to the drawing board and start like reworking? Do other people like where do we go from here after these meetings? So next, the Senate's going to put together a bill with the comments from both of our sides.

And they're going to come out with a revised version. Okay. And that's huge. Like people don't understand. That is huge. For the people who haven't been keeping up with this Ali stuff, and I get it, it's a bit redundant. And it can be too much. But that's huge.

And you got to think also in the house, it was a unanimous vote to pass that revival act. Then suddenly I came into the picture. My manager came into the picture. We started speaking our mind. and we stalled the bill. The Revival Act would be in place right now. Zufa boxing would be a league right now if we did not come into the picture

and start speaking our mind and saying what we felt was most important for the fighters. I believe that. I'm telling you, I promise you. You've been told that? No, speaking to the senators, I know that. I can't say with 100% certainty

because I can't read the... I don't know if... I was just wondering if someone actually told you. this. Like, you changed it. You changed the course of this. I was told that we stole the bill. That's, that is a fact. My take on this, I was saying this to the guys on the show yesterday. My take on this is you have people in Washington who, as you said, they pass unanimously, all that stuff. But then you, only you, with your name and family and grandfather and lineage, they know

nothing about boxing, and that's fine, but they're like, wait a second. If this guy has a problem, to take a step back and take a look at this. If your name was Joe Smith Boxer, I think this would have been a done deal. And I think they really respected the fact that you being who you are and being the grandson of who your grandfather was made them stop in their tracks. Agreed? The senators, the senators didn't, the senators don't know. And they told us up front that they didn't know the business aspect of boxing.

And of course, you know, if my name was Nico Smith, I would not have made a change at all. Okay, it's the reason that I have, I am so passionate about this is one, because I feel it's the right thing for the sport of boxing that I happen to be in. One, two, and mainly two, is that it's about the Ali Act, which is something that it's my name. It's something that my grandfather put in place, so it's personal. This is family we're talking about. Not only that, but a huge help to these senator calls and all the success that we've had was my mom has been making these calls. You know, my mayor has been having my mom call these senators. So she's been on these calls too, not with us, but she's been calling separately saying, you know, I'm the daughter of Muhammad Ali.

And this is how we feel about the bill. And those make the changes, educating them on the business side of boxing, coming from the family of the man who passed the act. you're trying to change, it's huge. So what do you think now as far as timeline? When do we get some sort of resolution to where you can kind of move on with your life and not be battling on the front lines about this? Oh my God. Yeah, get me out of here.

I'm looking to fight within the next couple months. I had a couple camps. So I'm training with Bowman in the team now. Oh, wow. I've had a couple full-on camps where I thought I was going to fight and the fights fell through. So it's just been like one heartbreak after another when it comes to boxing. That's why I sat on the broadcast. I was emotional and I was upset.

That boxing has been giving me a cold shoulder. And yeah, no, I'm just looking to get back out there. And as far as the resolution to this revival act, whatever it now becomes the revised revival act, when do you think we'll get a resolution so that you can stop worrying about this and talking about it as well? I don't know. I don't know when we'll have the final. the final revival act, if you will. I don't know the schedule for the government,

but I do know that their revised version should be coming somewhat soon. And in that case, you get to read it and see if you're okay with it and perhaps then maybe you'll both come to an agreement and be like, yeah, we both sides here are going to give our stamp of approval? Oh, yeah, and you know what?

That wouldn't have happened if we didn't have this meeting with Nick. So all the people that are sitting complaining on Twitter, complaining about Zufu, complaining about Dana, complaining about Nick, they're talking, they're talking, they're talking, but they're not doing nothing. Yeah. We're actually doing something. So we're making stuff happen. Are you disappointed in some of your fellow boxing community members for doing a lot of talking, but not much else? That's tough to say because I can't, um, I can't.

I can't be upset at other people for not speaking their mind. They know the consequences that are at stake if they go against the grain. I can't be upset at them. Okay. And that is classy on your part. I'm sure deep down inside there are times where you probably are thinking, hey, would nice be, you know, to get a little bit of backup here. Yeah, I know.

It's David versus Goliath. Yeah, man. I knew that getting into this. It's, you know, man versus the machine. I was warned by a mayor before I even sent the first tweet about Zufa sometime last year, because that's what tumbled into what we're doing now. But I was warned about this. I knew what I was getting into, but I would do it again.

If, in fact, this revised revival act comes out, you're happy with it. they've listened to your changes. Everyone's in a good place. Do you then change your stance about fighting for them? If, you know, now we're all good, do you then not feel like, hey, it wouldn't be so bad to fight for these guys? You know, that's in a perfect world. And I cannot, I cannot see that, you know, I cannot see in the future like that. But that's definitely something I would revisit.

Okay. You know, everything happens perfectly. everything gets passed perfectly how we want to. That's, you know, sunshine and rainbows. What did you think of the event being there? I was there to support boxing. I didn't really, I hate to say, I didn't really get to enjoy myself as much. I was only there for about 30 minutes.

I did the, as soon as I got there, I was told that we were going to do, or I was told about the being on air at the meeting with next. Nick, that's why we were there. I said what's up to Berlanga in the locker room, gave them my best. I did the interview, and right after the interview, I left. Okay, all right. So you didn't get a great feel for like the production, the show, all that stuff? No, I didn't meet with Dana.

I didn't meet with Turkey. I didn't, you know. Why not? Why not? I wasn't there for that. I was there on a... Damn, you were really all business, huh? I mean, I'm trying to tell you something, Ariel.

Did you not? you like it is. Did you, I was only there for the, the spot. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Wow. Right afterwards I, I, but no, I had to. Let's, let's be clear. I did give Brulanga my best. I went into the locker room. Respect.

And I wish some good luck. Was there any part of you that was like, I don't want to be seen sitting here with these guys thinking that I'm being, you know, influence or anything like that? Were you trying to be cognizant of that? Um, that,

that ship was sailed when, when the picture of Nick came out. So everyone knew that I was in New York Everyone knew that I was with a meeting with Nick Con So that that ship was out Everyone at the event obviously because boxing is so small Everyone at the event Recognized me

I was happy that I was transparent every step of the way I told everybody I was going to New York I told I told everyone TKO invited me I told everyone that Nick Con and I were having a meeting So I was fully transparent There were no surprises at all Okay and you're 100% right. You did tell us this beforehand, and I think a lot of people were wondering when that initial

tweet came out about, okay, where is this all leading to? And then the picture, I have to say, I was like, wow, okay, this was interesting. And then the broadcast, it was like, bang, bang, bang. Ultimately, Nico, now that you met with him, now that you sat down for an hour or two, what do you think Nick's intentions were? What is your takeaway? Changes are going to get made. That is my biggest takeaway. I'm, we're sitting at a, at a very good spot. And I think everyone should rest assured that, you know, while the people on Twitter and in the comments of Instagram who are complaining about Zufa and Dana White and not doing anything about it, rest assured, we are doing something and we are going to make changes.

Respect. I can't wait to see how this story plays out. And the David versus Goliath analogy seems very apropos, but it's amazing to see the work that you're doing and the progress that you're making as well. So keep it up, my man. Looking forward to seeing how this all transpires and unfolds. And I wish you a lot of strength and courage throughout this process as it continues. Thank you very much. And Ariel, again, thank you so much for giving me the platform to be able to do this. Not a lot of people when I was opposing the machine, not a lot of people would even give me the platform to speak. And still today. So thank you for that. And you always have a home here. Thank you, Nico. All the best to you. Thank you.

is Nico Ali Walsh, kind enough to join us to tell us his side of beating up with the TKO headman and the Zufa boxing headman Nick Kahn. Very interesting stuff. And again, I'll say it for the one millionth time. Nick's a very smart guy, very smart businessman, as he said. And it does not surprise me to where, hey, we're in a situation like, look, let's try to figure this out. Let's try to figure this out. And here's a microphone and no problem. Get on the telly. Talk your, your talk your talk, say your peace. Tell us how you're feeling. No harm, no foul. Fascinating. I don't know a lot of people who do that. I really don't, including Dana White, to be honest, like who would say, here's a live microphone to oppose me, but different world. Different world.

So really interesting to see how all this is playing out. And look, if you're going, if you're If at the end of the day, wouldn't that be amazing? And at the end of the day, the loudest dissenter and, like, true dissenter. I'm not talking about someone on Twitter, but, like, someone who actually has, like, skin in the game here, a fighter, and then the grandson of Muhammad Ali. And then the entity who introduced this come together and be like, you know what, we're at peace with this. And of course there's going to be people who are unhappy. And of course there's going to be people who are saying, this is not good. But you've got other people, you know, the likes of Andy Foster and John McCarthy who have said they were happy with the original.

imagine we get to a point where it's like, yeah, we're at peace with this. Let's move forward. Wouldn't that be something? What a turn of events that would be? Still to come, Thad Jean, the brand new PFL welterweight champion. He's going to be joining us to talk about his dramatic win over Ernesto Rodriguez this past Saturday in Washington. He was supposed to fight Shemil Musayev, and he pulled out due to a bad weight cut. And then all of a sudden, here comes Ernesto Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who was on the card and got the opportunity of a lifetime to fight for the belt. He's going to join us. And hopefully in a matter of moments, we're also going to be joined by the one and only Dan Hangman Hooker. He's got a fight against Saladin Parnaz, which was announced over the weekend. They will be fighting on the 5th of September at the Akua Arena in Paris. Paras, of course, the former KSW featherweight and lightweight champion went for goals. at 170, did not succeed in his attempt to become a triple champion.

But you know, yesterday I failed to mention this, and I do have the list, as far as champions who have come over from KSW and had success in the UFC, Jan Bukhovich, former KSW light heavyweight champion, Batase-Gamrott, former KSW featherweight and lightweight champion, Drickus DuPless C, former KSW welterweight champion, Carolina Kovilkevich, former KSW strawweight champion, Jacob Vichlas, former KSW Bantamway champion, Ariani Lipski, Flyway champion, and Robert Rukala interim KSW featherweight champion. And so he joins them, Matajos being a double champion, big deal.

A lot of hype, a lot of buzz surrounding his debut. The man who will be greeting him into the fold, into the UFC, is the beloved Dan Hangman Hooker, and he's kind enough to join us on an early Wednesday morning in New Zealand. There he is. Hello, Dan. you? I'm good, sir. Long time, no see. How are you? It's great to see you, smiley. This is not an early wake-up for you, right? This is part of your daily schedule being up this early.

I just pulled up. I just pulled up to city kickboxing. So it's 7.30 in the morning, and I've got some padwork at 8 a.m. So not just another day. Just another day at the office for me, mate. Perfect. Well, we appreciate you doing this in the morning before training. Could I asked Dan, when you were, you know, called up and told Saladin Parnas, had you ever heard of him before? No. No, no, no. But yeah, like, that's the beauty of the internet, my friend. You can learn about people very quickly. And yeah, he's got, he's got a nice, like, man, he's got a lot of fans. There's a lot of fan fear. I can see, yeah, they're trying to build stuff. out of France. That's obviously a huge market for them. And so they're, yeah, they're paying

to skip the queue. That's, it is what it is at the end of the day. To get a fighter into the rankings is like to beat a ranked opponent is not necessarily the hard part. What, there's like 150, 160 lightweights in the UFC to get from that 150, 160 mark until the top 10 until the top 15. I'd say that's the dangerous part. So, yeah, this kid gets to come along and skip the queue.

So he obviously has a lot of, you know, the KSW title. He's got a nice record. He fought on the Netflix card. They had to offer him they had to offer him something he couldn't refuse. So skipping the queue and getting the headline at home

against a veteran like you who's been in the UFC for so long. Initially, how did that sit with you? I don't care, brother. I've been around the sport long enough to can that you can see exactly what it is. This kid brings a lot of fan fear. He brings a lot of attention. He obviously fought on the Netflix card

and had a lot of different organizations. wanting to sign this kid. They see a lot of things that we don't see. He must move the needle. You know what I mean? When this kid fights, he must move the needle. Obviously, the people hire up and all the different organizations

are privy to a lot of information that your normal fan is not privy to of how much attention and how many clicks and how many people tune in to watch people fight across streaming services and different things. So this kid must move the needle. When you looked him up and saw some of his highlights, were you impressed? Yeah, he's a good, he's a tiny little fighter. He's quick, he's quick. He's fast, he's young,

he's athletic, he's got a nice record and some, some good fights. He's beat some good fighters. cross that record. It's a hard division to, you know, that, like, yeah, he's been competing at a high level for a very long time. I was obviously expecting that to kind of have a look for his record and to have a bit of a closer examine and see that he had, like a lot of it was patted, but it's not. He's been fighting guys.

He's been fighting guys with tidy records, and he's been fighting guys with, yeah, he's been fighting high-level guys for a long period of time. I'd say he's a very, he's a complete fighter. He's coming into the UFC, yeah, with as a complete fighter and ready to compete and test himself at the highest level. Do you think the UFC wants you to lose this fight? I don't think they like the UFC are smart they don't um the UFC is smart they don't they don't really book fights like that where they they're not really book fights that they lose the UFC love to put themselves into win-win situations and and I feel like that's a win-win situation for them obviously this kid gets past me he's he gets himself

to the top 10 and there's some big fights and he's got a lot of steam behind him but on the same hand if I get my hand raised or when I get my hand raised like I'm back in the mix I'm back in the mix

I just came off to win on a main event and you're getting a turn around and fight another top 10 opponent and yeah I'm a guy that's been in the UFC for a long time

I got a nice highlight reel and I don't I can sell a fight you know what I mean I can I can talk my shit and I can sell a fight will you do that in the build up to this

you're going to be public enemy number one I can't honestly I honestly can't help her do that like they come around they come around with their little fucking camera and they chuck it in my face and they leave it there and they ask you questions until I get pissed off and then I start just I start just ranting and talking the moat like I'll try like in my head I'll sit down for the UFC interview and I'll be like all right don't say anything

dumb like don't say anything dumb like don't be don't be disrespectful you know because you've got your I got mum telling me off before everyone she's like last time you're a bit of much. Can you dial it down? Yeah. Like, yeah, yeah, all right, mom, I'll dial it down. But fuck me days, they know how to piss me off. They sit there and they're asking me questions. They're asking me the same fucking question, a million different ways.

Until I lose it. Until I lose it. And I say, I've had enough of this kid. I'm going to kick him in his teeth. He's going to be chewing on his teeth. I'm going to put him straight to sleep. Yeah. They know how to get me going.

I can't imagine you in Paris, like those crowds are among the best in all of combat sports in the world. And they love him. He's a legit superstar over there. They're very passionate. We'll get to some of that in a moment. But you there in that environment, weigh-ins, press or all that, it's going to be electric. Are you kind of relishing being the bad guy? You are going to be, usually when you fight these days, I feel like there's a large portion of the fans who adore you.

You're one of those guys. I feel like you are public enemy number one now. Love it. Love it. Must soak this shit up. Yeah. Energy's energy. And whether they hate you or whether they love you, you can feed off absolutely ever.

May, it warms by heart that this kid wants to come into the UFC and crack the top ten and he wants to be the champion. Let me hear it. Let me hear it. I want to hear it. because I want to dash those hopes and I want to destroy those dreams. I want to go over to France and just it's my job for this event in France when they're screaming and they're planning on having the best night ever and going home and cheering their boy at the

after party. It is my job to go to France, go to Paris in the sold-out main event and just absolutely ruin it. Just ruin his hopes, ruin his dreams, ruin everybody's night. They can go home, sad, and it will warm my heart, Ariel. Oh, my God. It will make me sleep like an absolute baby. So I am training every day. I am grinding to ruin hopes and destroy dreams.

And what about these death threats? You said on submission radio, you've never received messages like this. can you tell us about this? I don't know. I don't give a fuck about the difference. That's, I couldn't care less. I don't know if they're chucking it through Google Translate. But stop messaging me.

I don't look. I'm about as, I'm pretty much a caveman living in the modern times. And for some fucking reason, now my message, they've like people, because you know how they usually, you don't even see those messages. it's just like your friends in there. Because my Instagram is my actual Instagram. I don't have a... Yeah.

It's like how I message my friends and stuff. But now for some reason, all the messages are coming through for some reason. They're like, there's a leak. Oh my God. So now they're coming to that like main folder is what you're saying. I don't even care about the difference. Everyone's just talking shit in French.

I'm getting like a million messages through people. I don't speak French. And I'm not putting it through Google Translate. Stop messaging me in France. If you're going to talk shit, at least have the human decency to put your own message. Put your own message through Google Translate and then send me the shit talk in English. I would appreciate that very much. Here's the thing.

If you can't speak French, how do you know they're sending you death threats? Maybe it's like nice, you know. You can tell. You know, it's like, man. Right. There's a couple words. in there, like murdur. Okay, got it, got it, got it.

Like, they spell it funny. You know, like, it's like, I can tell. I can, I don't, I don't know what bitch is in French, but there's a lot of similarity. Putain. That's like, that's a, that's a go. There's a lot of, there's a lot of similarities going on here.

Obviously, people's swear words, they're, they're cousins. You know what I mean? Yes. I had him on the show yesterday, Dan, and I said, do you want to speak to your fans and tell them to chill out, to back off a little bit? But he didn't take the opportunity. He said, I can't tell them what to do. Your thoughts?

I don't like telling anybody what to do. I don't feel like, I don't, I'm a big freedom of speech guy. All right. Shoot your shit. Shoot your shit. Because I'm coming, and I'm coming in hot, and I'm coming to fucking ruin your night. I'm coming to ruin everyone talking shit messaging me. I absolutely love it.

I am going to ruin your night. I'm going to dash your hopes and destroy your dreams. Could you imagine what that would feel like? That place is going to be electric. Buzzy, they're going to have flair? And then it's, do you know how many times I've, like, beating someone in their hometown, like, even before the UFC and stuff? And you, you beat them, you knock them out.

and then it's just fucking quiet. Yeah. Like, Ariel, it's the best, it's the best, it's just quiet and everyone starts to leave. Like, when you, no, like, if you do it throughout the card, but if you can knock the hometown boy out in the main event. Oh, my God. It's the funniest thing.

It's the funniest thing. You just beat his ass and then it's like, while you're doing your post-fight interview, you look around and everyone just has a head down and all you can hear is the shuffling of the feet Yeah. As people start to leave the stadium. I hope people stay around to throw some beers at me.

But besides that, put your fucking head down, shuffle your feet, and get out of the stadium in an orderly manner, in an orderly and quiet fashion. Thank you very much. I feel like you're such a different kind of cat, that you almost enjoy that more than a hometown went. Oh, yeah. Oh, hometown's stressful

because that's like your own hometown. If you get knocked out, I've had a few, well, I've fought on three shows here in Auckland, in New Zealand and I've fought on all three of them and one on all three of them and that's just stressful. Like I know what it's like to be this kid.

And bro, I can't, like, coming in, like there's no way out on my shoulders. What's the stress? everyone's yeah there's no there's no stress here for me there's

there's nothing more stressful than fighting in your hometown like you get your ass whooped in your hometown that shit you're gonna have to live off for the rest of your life you know what I mean

you're you're gonna be at the pub you're gonna be at the pub in 50 years and people are gonna remember when you got knocked out in in your hometown I've had my ass beat a few times but never in my own backyard. You can't get your ass whooped in your own backyard.

You ain't never living that down. Best pay of your career this fight? By a country mile. Hell yeah. I love that. Buy a country mile. That is tremendous. Yeah, he said kids on debut.

And then my manager, Ash, told me how much money it was. And I said, Viva la Paris. Yeah. Viva la France. That is amazing. And I love her. Like I've never been to France.

That's like one of the big reasons why I first started fighting is to travel to new places. So I'm excited to get out there. I'm sure not everybody hates me and I'm sure we're going to have a really good time out there. I've heard terrible things. If that. And I want to go see for myself. Third time in your career that you're on back-to-back losses, but you've never lost three straight. You're obviously a little bit older now.

Does this feel like a crossroads fight for you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it has to be. Yeah, it's definitely a crossroads fight. I've got to defend my spot. I've got to get back in the mix. That's where I am.

And, man, I've been grinding in the gym for a while now. a solid, um, already for a solid four or five months, the end of this camp is kind of just, just, just polishing and,

and adding off some things. But now, I've been, I've been pissed off for a minute. I've been pissed off since, uh, I've been pissed off since that BSD loss and I've been in the gym. Oh, he froze on us. I've, I've been, I'm enjoying my training.

Oh, you've frozen on us briefly. Now you're back. Now you're back. Now you're back. I'm back. What happened with BSD? Oh, you know how it is. Like, man, I've been in the UFC for what? Probably 12 years now. I've been fighting professionally since I was 19 years old.

I'm 36 now. It's like anything you just get a bit. Doing it for so long, you get a bit laxidical. And obviously, bro, I had like four surgeries back to back to back to back. And yeah, you just got into some, just wasn't training. and grinding like I should. And yeah, overconfident and underprepared

is what I would say. But getting back in the gym, being surrounded, man, we got some hungry young killers in the gym at the moment. Rongju, he's getting a, I don't think his fight's announced, but he's got a big fight, big opportunity, another lightweight killer.

Tom Nolan, Tommy Nolan just showed up to the gym. I think he's got a big fight coming up too. So, man, that's been a real treat to have another, yeah, he's a softball like my opponent. So that's the timing on that's really cool. And when you're surrounded by these young hungry killers, it reminds me what you were like when you were at that level. And when other guys, Brody Maoki, he's about to crack into the UFC. Like these young guys that are just about to make it to the UFC, and you see how much. much they're training. You see how hungry they are and you feed off of their energy. So what I've

been doing is just get back into the gym, just show my face, just put in the work and you can't help but feed off these young hungry guys when you see them in the gym working every day. So would you acknowledge it was too quick of a turnaround? Oh, yeah, we'll put that on the shit idea, Paul. Because yeah, like, you didn't even process just like the loss of the last one and you're kind of doing the same thing leading into that way. So yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

I think, like, at this level of your career, and you can see it with a lot of the other guys that I've been doing a long time. Like, you're not going to see Justin Gigi turn around, turn around quick. Yeah, like all of those guys, even like Patty and that. Like these guys don't turn around quick. They respect the training camps. They respect how big these fights are and how much energy and how much energy and time goes into the training camps. So, yeah.

Were you shocked that BSD lost to Patty the way in which he did? No, I never said he was good. I said he kicked my ass. I said it was under-prepared. I know, but that was just crazy to try to shoot on him that quickly, no? I said I was underprepared and overconfident. Nah, no, I wasn't. It is what it is.

Like, that shit can happen to anyone. Fair. I just didn't expect it to happen, especially that quickly. Obviously, Dan, a big news story, and I know you've been asked about this, but I'd be remiss if I don't ask you is about, you know, the departure of Israel Dessania from the team. Initially, were you shocked to hear that? I'm shocked. I'm still shocked.

To me, he is CKB, just like George St. Pierre was TriStar, and Connor is SBG. He was sort of the one that helped introduce us to CKB, along with the likes of you. Were you shocked when you heard that he was leaving? Ah, like, I wasn't shocked. It's, like, yeah, it's, I don't know. I don't feel like it's necessarily like a departure. It's like, he's still working, he's still working closely with all the same, coaches, he's just having like a more

specialized training camp. From what I hear, he's just going to bring out some training partners and like he's still working with my striking coach, I'm working with this morning and my resting coach. So it's not... Is it a him and Eugene thing

mainly? No one fucking tells me anything, bro. You really not have his phone number. I saw you do the interview with our friend. She loves gloves and you said you didn't have his phone number i'm like how is this possible how do you not have his phone number all these years i see him in real life like but what if you need to text him for what i don't know hey you want to meet up get a get a pie or something he was getting a haircut around around the corner from me the other day and then he just came over like it's not

like we know where the other one lives okay trumps that trump's phone calls No communication via phone or text or anything, or I guess you can DM. No, no, like, you know what I mean? And then the time before that, I'd seen him. I was just out of Ponservy at dinner. And I was thinking, man, I wonder what Israel was up to. And then we both walked out of the restaurant, and then he walked out of the restaurant next to the one that I was in.

And we were just like, oh, I was just thinking, where's Israel? Like, the universe, the universe just brings us together. It's not something we have to go in. And so you're all good. We don't need phone numbers. Okay, all right, fair enough. But you're all good. There's no animosity.

It's just he wants to do kind of his own thing for now. Yeah, I see no mystery. He's for, like. All right, all right. I'm happy to hear this. This warms my heart because I have a lot of respect for him and for Eugene and for the whole team. And it made me sad a little bit. Nah.

Okay. It's not like that. All right. Hey, by the way, what about BKFC doing? like one minute scraps. They take that from you or what? Yeah, that's not, I don't really care.

That's not necessarily like, I reckon it's the format that makes like one minute scraps special. It's not having a one minute fight. But I feel like that's your thing. We do it, we know, we do a tournament. It's like,

so you start with 32 fighters and then you have to win five eliminations to get into the final. They count. They're doing one. I feel like New Zealand is one of the only places in the world that you're going to be able to get away with doing the tournament format. That's the tournament format that makes it special. It's not, it's not, it's not the one-minute thing.

The one-minute for me, the one-minute for me is about safety. It's not like people think that it's like one-minute limits damage. The amount of, I know from experience from a lifetime of accumulating damage, is that damage over time is how you really get hurt in this game. One minute scraps not only levels the playing field, you're not accumulating damage. There's guys getting knocked out on that or, you know, guys will still get cuts and stuff, but that's superficial stuff. You do a 12-round boxing match.

You're going to leave with some pretty serious damage. You do a 25-minute MMA fight, it takes a huge toll on your body. The amount of damage that you can accumulate in a minute is, yeah. So I don't know if they're taking the minute to think that they're going to get more knockouts, but for me, it's about damage, and it's about limiting the amount of time that you can absorb that damage. And we also have a three-second knockdown rule as well. So if you get knocked down, you've got three seconds to get back to your feet. And I feel like Tony Angelov, we have our referee.

In three seconds, a referee of that caliber can tell whether a fight needs to continue or whether the fighter wants to continue. He can tell in that three seconds. I don't need, I don't. An eight count is atrocious. An eight count. An eight count is like anyone can, anyone's body can recover. And now it becomes down to like the fighter's pride.

You get eight seconds with a referee just being like dumb. You can see that the fighter doesn't want to continue. But they still count eight and they're like, lift up your hands, take a couple steps forward. It's like, man, any. And now it's put on like the fighter and their pride to continue and to take more damage. But in three seconds, a referee of Tony's caliber can look at the guy. and be like, no, we should, we even shouldn't let this guy continue or this guy doesn't want to continue because you can see the subtle things like everyone, everyone in the

organization is from a combat sports background. Like Tony used to fight, right, our medic used to fight, Sue used to fight, everyone, everyone, everyone comes. This is what we've been doing for our entire lives. Last thing I know you have to go to practice. Can I quickly in a minute or so Because I know you're up against the clock I'm just curious your take on the state of the top of the division

Justin shocking Ilya Armin may be fighting Charles And not fighting for the belt in LA That's the latest report What is your take on what's going on up there Um Slow Slow

Hurry up and fight Move it along Armin not getting a title shot Crazy no If so Stop doing damage you Stop doing that shit. The fuck.

Fair enough. Thank you, Dan. Good luck to you. Appreciate you doing this before practice and can't wait to see you. Attempt to spoil the party in Paris. I know you think you're going to, but it's going to be an amazing scene regardless.

So thank you so much, Dan. Appreciate it. Do easy, mate. Until next time. Until next time. Can't wait. You're the man. There he is.

The inimitable hangman. Dan Hooker joining us outside of CKB. Always a pleasure. And I cannot wait for him. that fight. Holy smoke. September 5th is going to be insane. We're going to be talking about that card at the end of the year. My prediction is it will be the crowd

of the year. I cannot foresee a better crowd. Nocha U.S.C. Glendale? Nah. L.A.? Nah. MSG. Abu Dhabi. Vegas, never. That's going to be the crowd. That's my prediction.

My prediction is that will be the crowd of the year. September 5th, Paris. Dan Hooker. Saladin, Parnaz. And you are absolutely kidding yourself. If you don't think that the UFC said, we got to get this guy, he's fighting on Netflix, MVP.

No thank you. I did get a message. I need to look into this. I did get a message regarding... I did get a message regarding Robles's deal. I'm curious what's up with that. Let's see. Let's see.

I'm just going to... We've detected commercial power issue. Power outage? Is it raining out there? It looks a little dicey, huh? Is it raining? Or is it just cloudy? No, hell no.

It looks like someone took the saturation out of the window behind you. I know, but I can't tell if it's just like, can't tell if it's raining or if it's just cloudy. It looks like I have a power failure at my house. That's not fun. I'm going to guess it's raining, yeah. It's raining, yeah.

It's raining, man. Hallelujah. It's rain, man. Ah, one can only hope. Maybe one day. Maybe one day. Wouldn't that be something? Take it down a notch there, Nick.

Rick. Nick, Rick. Wow. What did I say? Nick. I was saying. There we go. Okay.

Still to come a little bit more news and notes, but in a matter of seconds, we are going to be joined by the brand new PFL welterweight champion. What a few days he had. He thought he was fighting Shemil Musayev, then it's Ernesto Rodriguez. Then it seems like, holy smokes, Ernesto's going to pull this off in a very big way, in a shocking way, but he pulled it off. He picks up the win, and now he is the inaugural PFL welterweight champion. He's the pride of Haiti.

He's the silverback, Thad Jean, and he's kind enough to join us right here and now to talk about it all. There he is. What's up, that? How are you? Hey, thank you for having me, and I appreciate it. Congratulations. The roller coaster for a fight. Yes.

Roller coaster for a week, right? Yeah, it was, it was. Okay, so massive fight for you. You're scheduled to fight Shemil Musayev in Washington. Vacant title. Mm-hmm. I said inaugural, you know, I forgot about the drama the last time they made the title fight. Bit of a weird division right now.

But anyway, vacant title fight. and when do you get word that there might be an issue here, that your opponent is potentially out? Probably a day before the way ends. It was a day before the way ins that, yeah, literally, it was a day before the wayans and I'm out. I think I was getting some refreshments for the wayans, and my manager hits me up and he goes,

hey, we got some news. And, you know, immediately your heart drops, you know, because in this fight game, when anyone says you have some news that late, it's something. And I was like, gosh, what is it? You know, he says, Shamele had to back out.

His kidney felled and they had to pull him out of the fight. And in that moment, I was like, man, gosh, I had all these people coming here. I mean, I've been going through all this. I've been out of the cage for already so long, man. At that point, I was like, man, am I still going to fight? You know, is there still going to be a fight? And that was the biggest question.

He was like, you know what? There is actually someone Ernesto Rodriguez who also had Umontov pull out as well. So they're asking him if he wants to fight. And I was just like, man, what does he have to lose? Why wouldn't he accept the fight? So I started praying. I was like, hopefully he accepts a fight. And then he did.

And I was like, you know what? We still have a fight. So let's go. Were you familiar with him? Did you know who he was? I don't want to say I was familiar with him, but we did see his last fight against Kikki. the Japanese well to wait

and we knew what he had and I think that was like the double-ed sword there because we knew what he had at the same time we didn't expect him

to do what he did you know so we knew what he could do and we was like this guy isn't a Shemul Musayev and I think that that really did that messed up that messed up the dog in me when it came to the fight.

I don't want to make an excuse when it comes to it. But, you know, that we seen what he could do. And we were like, oh, this guy is nothing. This guy is nothing. And, you know, in my head, I'm like, oh, they're just handing me the belt now. And that mindset is what gets anybody knocked out. So, you know, I tried to get away from that. I try to stay away from it.

You know, being Christ-oriented, I was like, God, okay, let me stay good. Let me stay down. Let's remember that this is still a fight. This guy still wants to beat me. And, you know, as much as I wanted to, you still had this. that you still have that thought in the back of your head like, oh, this is still going to be a walk. It's still going to be a cake through comparison to what I had before.

So would you say you were overconfident? Of course. Okay. That's a tricky thing in a fist fight, right? It is. It is, you know. And, you know, I hate how, I hate how, I hate how that, you know, I hate how I had to be, I went into that fight and, you know, I went into a confident, you know, the first round was good.

And, you know, I started to let my guard down. that I sat around and then he and he knocked me down. And I cannot, I cannot describe to you that come to Christ moment. It was like, oh God, am I going to lose? Are you going to let this guy knock me up? Because I've been sitting so high on a pedestal, putting myself so high on a pedestal. And I cannot, bro, I swear to you, Ariel, I swear to you. My Holy Spirit was like, okay, no, you're good.

I'm glad you understand now that this is not, this is not how you should be approaching any fight. And this is all within the split second of me getting knocked down, hitting my butt, because you feel limp, you feel limp, and you know that you're in danger now. And you're like, everything happens. It's like a movie. Everything is happening within that split second. And you're like, what's going to happen?

You know, and then, you know, I was like, the whole spirit was like, no, you can't lose this. No, you're not going to lose this. Just get back on it and stop disrespecting people and stop underestimating people at this level. Everybody wants to be the best. Were you feeling that way throughout the entire training camp like, my ish don't stink, I'm the man?

Or was it really from the moment that you found out that it wasn't Musayev that was next and it was going to be Ernesto? You know, for Shemimu Moussayev, I wanted, it was more of, I need to prove myself. It was like, it was more of for this fight camp, I'm going to go out there and show these people that I am really, I'm really deserving of being the champ, you know. And then when it turned into Ernesto, it was like, man, it's not going to be as rewarding if I, if I become the champ. And that was, that was, that was a, that was a mistake. That was a mistake.

That was a downfall of the, the whole mentality going into the fight. Do you feel changed now? Do you feel like you've been humbled? Yeah, completely. And I'm grateful for it. I'm super grateful for it. You know, that was one, that was one of my, that was one of, that was one, I was a performance where you look at it and you're like, man, I could do way, better. I am way better. I am way better. I'm way better. I could do much more. And even in my worst

performance, I came out on top becoming a champion. It is amazing. I mean, I have to say, like, we've been talking about you as the tournament winner, and it seemed like this was the coronation and the opportunity for you to be crowned as, you know, one of the young rising stars of the sport and faces of the PFL. And then to see that happen early in the fight, I was like, holy shit. It was shocking. It was shocking to see you in trouble. We hadn't really seen you in trouble all that often. But then to see you rebound from all of it showed us, you know, a new side of you, that you're able to overcome adversity, get over the obstacles, all that stuff. And so if you look at it that way, I think you showed a whole new side of your your personality and

your skill set and your resolve, your determination. Yeah, you know, and that's, that was another The beauty of it all is that, you know, the roller coaster that I went through and to be able to come out on top, this guy threw everything he had at me in those first two rounds. Everything, even in the beginning of the third round, he threw everything he had trying to take me out. And that still wasn't enough. And through my composure, through my championship mindset, through the, through the grit, through it all, I was able to come out, stay composed and understand, hey, this is five rounds. Even if we don't go five rounds, I still have time to come out and win this thing. Just weather the storm. Just keep going.

Just keep, even though it may on paper, it may not look like you have the experience. You're smart enough to understand how to get through this and stay on top. And, you know, people watching it, true MMA fans understand that, like you just said, it showed a whole new side to me. You know, I haven't gone through that within the PFO. I haven't gone through that in my professional career. and people didn't understand that hey look that

even if you knock this dude down unless you kill him unless you really take him out it doesn't matter if you're on his back it doesn't matter if you knock him down it doesn't matter what you got to really take this dude out and to make sure that you're crowned the champion or just a winner over him and so can I can I ask though

the one thing we did bring it up yesterday what did you think of the stoppage because I did feel like in that moment Like he was obviously, you know, he was getting beat up, but it didn't feel like that was the moment where he had had enough that the punches were connecting to the point where it's like, okay, that's it. It just felt like a little bit anticlimactic. Your thoughts? I know, I know, you know, I know you benefited from it and he's sort of covering up here. He's got his back.

You feel like the feet are what, saying I'm done? I feel like his body gestures saying I'm done. What do you mean? All right. I mean, let's be honest. I have two minutes and a half left and look at the position he's in. Do you think I'm going to leave that position?

Okay. Two minutes and a half left. Is there any contest from him? No, no. There's no. I understand it from your point of view. You know, from the outside looking in, you want to see more of a,

he really, he really, he got it, he finished it. But then you got to look at it from, let's keep it to, I don't want this, we don't need this guy to die. I'm just going to keep wailing on him. I'm just going to keep elbowing him. I'm going to keep punching him. And I don't need to keep, I don't need to throw crazy shots.

I just need to keep touching him. And he's not going to do anything. He's going to stay there the entire round. He had nothing in him. Comparasance to what I did when he had me like this in the second round, I was moving, constantly moving, constantly trying to grab a hand. Constantly, even while dazed and rocked, I was constantly trying to move when he tried to put me in the choke.

my posture it's the body language you know you look at it you look at it from the outside looking in and yeah that stoppage may look yeah that oh man that looked like it was a bit early but then after that you look at his body language

the fight is stopped when the person doesn't look like they want to continue to fight does he look like he wants to continue to fight and is there a point for Mario to let me continuously well on the back of this dude fair enough and you would you would be there I mean you were the guy there You were feeling his body.

You could tell there was no defense left. Just wanted to bring it up. We did talk about it yesterday, so I didn't want to hide from that. And we were trying to take anything away from the victory, but we were watching it together and being like, oh, that did seem like a little anticlimactic. That's all, you know, not as emphatic as your typical stoppage.

No, yeah, I don't understand. Yeah, I totally understand. But at the end of the day, it's like, like I said, it's the fighter. Show me you want to fight. Show me you're in this. Show me you want to do something. Right before the fight started, the referee tells you,

hey, if you're not making any suggestions to move, you're not doing anything, then we're going to stop the fight. And all fighters understand this. All fighters know this. If I'm getting wowed on it, if I look like I'm just ending, the armadillo, protect me, come save me, position, that's what the referee is going to do. He's going to come save me.

And in that moment, like I said, two and a half minutes left. I have your back. I've flattened you out. You're not doing any type of scrambling. You're just hoping and waiting for the, it looks like you're waiting for the referee to stop this whole thing from happening or waiting for the time to go down. What do you do as a referee then?

I ask you the question, Ariel. If you're the referee, what do you do? Do you let me well on him for another 30 seconds? Or do you stop it after you warn him that you're going to stop the fight if he doesn't start doing something? No, probably the latter. Probably the latter. There's no need for extra damage.

I do think referees should never look at the clock, so it doesn't matter if there's a second left, 30 seconds left, two minutes 30 should look at what's happening in front of you. And if there's dominance, damage, duration, all that stuff, and it's unnecessary and it's elementary, then of course, of course the fight should be stopped. Did you see, by the way, the footage, I'm sure you did by now, of it seemed like your friends and family going crazy in the crowd.

It seemed like a lot of people were very happy, happy for you and I'm just wondering what that does to you. Here's some of the scenes, the happiness, the jumping around, the joy. When you see that, this is your family, right? These are your family and friends? Yeah, exactly. What does that feel like? You know, it's a beautiful, like I said, they went through it all with me as well.

They went through, even though I'm the one in the cage, you know, it's harder for the person outside, you know, when I'm cornering one of my boys, if I'm corning one of my friends, I'm scared. I'm nervous. And I feel like, man, please, I wish that was me more than it is them. So I can't imagine how they felt seeing me get knocked down, seeing me go through that second round, never going through that with me before as a professional.

And just realizing and then finally in the third round, me finishing it and just getting my hands raised, it was probably just a, just a hectic time. And, you know, my mom's out there. This is my girlfriend's first fight watching me there. It was, you know, I had family friends since I was young. And, you know, I saw them all. There's videos that we have of them crying because it's just emotional.

It was just such a, it was such a beautiful, you know, it's a beautiful way to win a fight. Honestly, at the end of it all, it's a, man, he went through the adversity. He went through it all. And at the end of it all, he got his hands raised. that is more emotional and more impactful than I dominated the entire time. Oh, hell yeah. You took them on a roller coaster. I'm wondering, I heard you say that your girlfriend helped you cut weight.

Yeah. And that's an amazing thing. What a blessing. What was it like speaking to her afterwards? Like she's seeing you fight for the first time and you almost got knocked out. That must have been traumatic and terrifying. I mean, she's seen me. She's watched my past.

fights, just so I can get her ready, just so if she could see it, she's seen how my fault. And she was like, okay, this is not going to be too bad. And for her to go through that for her first time with next to my mom and my mom's, I wouldn't say dramatic, but she could be dramatic. And for her to be next on mom, having to just feel the energy of the crowd and just see me go down. And then, you know, if you were there, you could, like, I'm a fighter. And on the inside, I hear complete silence once I get knocked down. Completely. It goes from craziness to complete silence.

And I was just like, man, they're here. You know, they, they, they, everyone else is on the edge of their seats. I am not going to let this guy take this from me. And so for them to go through that for the first time and so such a long time or just for the first time must have been something. You want Shamil next? I want whoever they put in front of me next. But I, I, I, you know what?

Like I said, I'm at the top. and I call the shots, but I do feel like, personally, you know, this is as a fighter's mentality, you know, I am the fighter, but as a fighter's mentality, I do want Michelle. Shamil next. I too truly do. I feel like shemmil, beating Shamil will submit me at the place I am now. Like, you know, yes, I got the title. I'm the champion now.

But, you know, to have the title is one thing, but to also have it and defend it is another thing. And to defend it against someone such high level caliber. as Shemil Maasive would be a beautiful honor scene. Okay. You did mention, I heard you say, Patrick Habirora, Sedric Dubei, those are big-time fights with all due respect to Shemil. Yeah, I think those are, like I said, if I'm looking at for my management business managers' point of view,

yeah, we want to go for those fight first. But for my point of view, as soon as I submit myself and I beat Jamil next, and I submit myself as the top of this division. Now I can go after the popularity names and then grow myself in this division, if that makes sense. Oh, and they just have such passionate and loyal followings.

Yeah. I just feel like those would be big-time fights and would only elevate you. You know, exactly. It'll elevate me to another level, you know, within this fight game. And submitting myself even more as one of the faces of the P.

FFL, you know, going over to the European scene, going, you know, how Patrick Haberor, how he did in the Belgium main and card, I think that was great. You know, we've seen what Cedric Dume could do in France. And that's also amazing. So, you know, there's, I get messages all the time from people who tell me they want me to go there on fire. Jeez. Are these birds in your house?

Yeah. Do you guys hear that? I hear the birds. Yeah. Are they in your house? No, they are. I'm in my son room, actually. I'm going to move.

It's all good. No, I kind of like it. This is your new house, right? Yeah. Yeah. In the sunroom, I think, because it's about to storm, so they're going crazy. That tournament money, right? You put it to good use. Yeah. Yeah. Well done. By the way, this was your first fight in almost a year.

Yeah. I think Rust had anything to do with it. I want to say yes, but I hate to sound like I'm using excuses. But yeah, the Rust is definitely, it plays a factor when it comes to it. That's why I want to stay active, man. that's why I want to have at least two to three fights in a year because I don't want there to be a ring-race. I want to stay comfortable within the cage.

I want to be in the cage as much as I can. I really love to fight. I really want to be in there. I really want to go against these people and staying out of the cage does nothing for nobody. You can be training as hard as you want to, and I've been training very hard, but there's a difference between sparring and actual fighting.

There's a huge difference. So, I mean, I want to stay in a cage. I want to stay active two to three times a year, one more at the end of this year, and hopefully that's against Jamil. Why such a long break? I think I personally don't know. I think it was the PFO themselves trying to, I think they wanted to do, they had plans like this summer series. And that's when they really wanted to use the silverback. I want to, this is when we want to put the silver back out there.

Okay. And by the way, didn't you injure a rib at the end? Yeah. How is it? It's still out. It's still out. Will it ever go back? Yeah, it's not going back.

Damn. Is it tender? No, no, no. I mean, honestly, it gets annoying to sleep on when I sleep on it and you could feel it. But other than that, it's there. It's good. It's good. It's healed.

It's fused where it's at. So I'm not worried about the rib anymore. Okay. and so hopefully you fight again this year you get to defend the title you're now the man could I ask in your opinion just curious if you were fighting in the UFC

where do you think you'd be ranked and the UFC yeah who's top five in the UFC right now right now in the UFC's welterweight division Islam is the champion and then it's Carlos Parchas

this is according to their meta rankings Carlos Prachas, Ian Machado-Garry, Michael Morales, Jack Della, Sean Brady, Gabriel Bonfim, Balal-Mohamed. I'm just kind of going. Now I'm at number eight, Leon Edwards. Stop me when you think you enter the mix here. I've already answered it. Okay, tell me. I'm up there with, I would say, I want to go get someone like, I don't want to go against

a college protest, he's good. And why I say I don't want to go against him, not because I think he could beat me, but because he's in the same management. And I want him to get the title there. But I'm up there. I'm top three. I don't feel, I know people talk, crash about the PFL and say,

oh, because you're in a PFL, you're nothing. The level of fighters in a PFL are just as high as the people in the UFC. And the reason you don't understand that, your reason you don't think so is because you're a casual. You're not a true to me a fan. You don't understand the game as a, much as you hope or you think you do. I'm at the top of the, the, the, the, the, the, the, FFL division.

I'm the champion. And there's nothing that would stop me from being the, the Walterway champion in the UFC as well. Consistent, staying inside of it, going as much as I, training and fighting as much as I can. I would be able to do the same thing within the UFC as well, without a doubt of my mind. And people will hate it and people will hate to hear it. because after my last performance, but I don't give a damn what you think. If I ever gave a damn about what somebody you think,

thought up until this moment, I would not be the champion. I would not be, especially when it came to that tournament, going against people like Bergmov, Jason Jackson, then Storley, hearing the outside or just listening to the comments from the outside of people putting their doubts within your head would have had me starch within that tournament and not being put in this position and not hold both the titles.

So I am top in whatever division, whatever promotion there is. Does that get frustrating at all? I know you say you don't care what they think, but like that is the general sentiment that the PFL fighters can't or the champions can't hold a candle aren't top 10 in the UFC if they cross over. You don't read any of that and go like, damn, man, I'm out here grinding, I'm out here doing my thing, I'm fighting who they put in front of me. Can I get some respect? You know, of course, you know, I should say I try not to read the comments because it does, because it does get to me because who are you to discount us?

You're putting the name brand of the UFC above all. What is that mean? What are you talking about? Because UFC is the household name. You think they have everything, all the top fighters just go there. So you discount fighters from the PFL, UFC, I mean, one championship, Horizon, all. all these other high-level promotions because the UFC has been around the longest? What's wrong with you?

What are you talking about? They probably get paid better at the PFL than they do at the UFC anyways. Oh, yeah. You're happy with your pay. Yeah. You're happy with the way they treat you. Completely. What are the vibes like?

I mean, it's a blessing. I feel like the, I feel like the PFL is going to be on the rise. Let's be honest. I didn't really get to watch the UFC main event, or just a UFC card that was this past week with on my card. But I hear all the time from anyone, all the people, they say that the PFL card that I was on,

the headline card that we had lined for, was better than the UFC's card. And that's how it's been, and that's how it's going to keep being. Like the UFC is just a UFC. Are they hungry anymore? The PFL is hungry, and they're putting on cards, they're putting on fights that people should want to see, if not want to see.

Do you like John Martin? Yeah, I think he's a great guy. I think he has, he's a visionary. And, you know, I love being on the side of someone who has visions and they want to pursue those things. I love that. You come up to the New York card? I wasn't planning on it. Yeah, you're tired.

You deserve a break, you know, like you're living your good life over in there, a new house over there. It's nice weather. Yeah, great weather. I mean, it's beautiful. So honestly, really, I was planning on, I wanted to go to the New York card, but, you know, being home is great. You know, I love being home.

Being here, it's just beautiful. Just, you know, there's nothing like sleeping in your own bed, you know. We bringing the belt back to Haiti? I hope so. One of these days, I would love to, you know. You know, my goal personally is to become the greatest mixed martial artist,

greatest, complete greatest. You know, they're pound for pound and everything. And, you know, I'm still early on in my career, so I have plenty of time to do it. Again, I'm only 12, 12 fights into this professional career. You know, you have people like Kabib who are sturdy fights into his professional career. Many other people who are 20 plus fights

in their professional career. I have plenty of time to grow and to submit myself in people's hearts as one of the greatest. And God's plan for me. I hope it is to, be one that inspires the youth or just people, not even youth, just people in general to be to be the best that they can be in a positive way and be more role, more role models for the next generation, you know, people look up to us and your kids will look up to you, you know,

make sure you're doing actions now that you want to be ashamed to show your kids, you know, you have people who, like you have these music industry people who say, oh, I don't let my children watch, I listen to my music. I don't let my children watch our videos. Well, then you probably shouldn't be doing that stuff. Well, you probably shouldn't be making those videos. Or you probably, or you have people who, who talk trash and they're like,

oh, within the fights. And like, well, you probably shouldn't cross lines when you're talking trash. If you don't want to, if you don't want your children to be looking at up to you, you know, I talk my favorite game of trash, but it's not really trash talk. It's more of a confidence thing. You know, and I want to make sure that,

I want to be someone that people could look up to you. And I know that's a, that's a big thing to say. But, you know, it's what will bring me joy. Can't imagine you thought 12 fights in you'd be a champion already. No, no. I knew I would be a champion, but I don't know when. I didn't know when I would be. So I'm just along with for the right just as much as you guys are.

I love it. And you know what? Again, to your point, say what you will about PFL, this, that, and the other. I tell you what, that Jason Jackson win has aged quite nicely. It was a big win in the moment, but look at how he did, obviously, on that Netflix card. That was a big win, beating Logan Storley, taking this fight on short notice. People need to put respect on your name. And the belt helps.

The performance will continue to help as well. Once he goes to the UFC and he goes back for Amazon, it would be even better. All right. Well, let's see. Let us see. Congrats that. Very happy for you. Thanks so much.

Very, very entertaining. fight. I'm sure it was probably a little more entertaining than you expected as we discussed, but from home, it was thrilling to watch the roller coaster play out, and congratulations on the win, enjoy the belt and everything that comes with it. Thank you so much, Eric. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. And like you said, isn't that more of a championship level caliber fight that you would like to see? Hell yeah. That's what you want. That's what the people want to see. That's what the Klan's going to be. Even if that's not the type of fight I want to go through, it's the entertainment business at the end of the day. I'm an entertainer, and I'm glad people are entertained.

We were. Thank you, Thad. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you. How good one. There he is. The silverback, the brand new PFL Welterweight champion. I do want to correct myself. He is not the inaugural champion. He was fighting for the vacant title. And that is because Ramazan Kura Magomadov won the belt and then retired and gave up the belt. And so hopefully he can bring some stability and normalcy to the division. And I would imagine he's someone that they want to build around. He's got all the makings of one of those cornerstone pieces.

They need to figure out a way to keep Usman. I think it would be a real big blow to the PFL if they don't keep Usman or Magamadov. It seems like the path is very clear for him to leave now that Islam is Walterway champion, but they, in my opinion, should do whatever they can to keep him around. That last name, his fighting style, he produces fun fights. the challenge is always getting him an opponent worthy of his time and a worthy challenger, but I think it would be a blow to them. So let's see how that transpires.

Of course, Archie wins the fight on Friday that changes everything. Perhaps it makes it easier for him to leave. If he wins the fight, it would also be a blow to that belt. You don't want your champion to just cross the street and go somewhere else. So let us see. Let us see. But I do really like that a lot. really like that a lot. I think he's a bright young man, pleasant to talk to, entertaining,

stud. He's still young, as we said yesterday, 12 and 0. And I like the spiciness about the rankings and where he would be in the UFC. I'm sure a lot of people will have a thought or two on that. But I do like the confidence. I like the bravado. I like all that stuff. So shout out to him. All right. Gang's all here. Everyone doing well. Everyone haven't heard much from you. Oh, here. Hey, hey. Oh, hi, guys. How are you? Hello. Yeah, a nice hat. Nice hat, Ptze. How's it go? Yeah, the hair is struggling today. I'm not going to let you. I just have to find something. Titi and Connor wearing the same color shirt. We text each other before I had.

It feels quite similar there. Was it? Yeah. No more Dakota shirt. Already packed it away, sending it off the dry cleaners, get it ready for Friday afternoon. a UBS arena. Yes. PT, did you happen to see me on the old darts there?

Yeah, I mean, this three- three-dart game, I mean, I don't know. I've been, I've failed to it once myself.

I just don't like it, you know what I mean? Why, why, what's that? I'm with you. Too small of a sample size. You're like, you're like,

Luke Littler. You scored like a 31 and you're like, I just channeled Luke Littler. Yeah. Luke Littler gets a 31. He's suicidal. I was challenged to hit a double 20

and I hit a double 20. Like, I don't I don't think that's being... I don't think that's being talked about enough. I thought your five was in the 25, honestly, the first time around. So did I. I could have bloomed.

Okay, so what should I do in the future? I'm bringing the darts back. We've got it set up. I enjoyed immensely. Should it be sick? Closest to the bull. Closest to the bull? You're little bit...

One dart. Closest to the bullsye? Wait, what does that mean? Bullseye? Yeah, closest to the bullsie. As in who's the closest to the bullsie? But in terms of points... Do you know in match play?

Yeah. In real darts, that's how to determine who throws first, who gets. who gets closest to the bull backstage they'll do it Oh interesting I never knew that Okay And so what if it's like

Literally inches Do you go back and start again Like how can Hose the bull They win Okay okay okay I like the anticipation Of three darts more than that though

That's even one Yeah I feel like Yeah I feel like To the bull You have a live scoreboard I kind of like the idea of three legs Three legs

So nine total Yeah you know what Best the three Yeah Not bad You're right Time commitment On that though

Yeah we could go fast? Come on. Well, then it's close to the bull. You're luxuriating and your win for 15 minutes. Also, like, Dakota started letting them rip and you were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're going to way too fast.

You're right. You counted at the end. Nine darts is going to take two hours. I was trying to let it marinate. I wanted the buildup, the suspense. Now we lose the marination process and we just go nine darts. You get a bigger sample size.

A rightful champion is crown. I have to say, I mean, now you get the shout on Friday. I don't feel, I will say, I don't think she's going to come through. We all remember what happened with Frank and the, you know, this was... Just do it. You did the TikTok. It would be sinful.

It was not just me. It wasn't just me, by the way. It was the whole freaking team. Yeah, it was the whole team. Intern GC, as you were referring to. Yes, yes. Intern. You got interned?

Dakota Ditchiva's TikTok. Yeah. Oh, geez. I reel on the interns. That could be a bond. Oh, fuck. I'm so glad I wasn't in that. Is it out yet?

You had a fucking bald intern. Let me ask them. Over at the community. college? Yeah. Man, I dodged a bullet. It was actually Ariel calling me an intern, not Dakota, by the way. Yeah.

That's our intern. Okay, wait, no, this is, I'm opening my TikTok. I never go on TikTok. I have to admit. All blue. I know, you make that very clear just by having like 800 posts. I mean, do you want me to break the fourth? No, you already broke the fourth.

I've never even logged on before. No, not logged on. He just don't open it. You know. Look. She doesn't even follow me Oh, one of them is One of them has dropped

Okay, I'm gonna follow it doesn't even follow me Which one? Which one? Okay, that was a good one Me getting ready to film my documentary On How to Survive An Interview with the biggest Rage Bader in MMO So crazy

That's great That's fantastic The problem was she didn't tell me What the caption was before But it's okay But it's the Netflix thing You know the Netflix thing It's great

the trend careful cranks the volume all the way up puts it into the microphone sorry the uh the dance I'm hitting her with an SMH the dance hasn't been posted yet all right I look forward to seeing it

they're making edits they're making sure okay they're working on it taking me and Josh and Jack cutting room floor no I thought listen I thought that we were I thought that we were like kind of into it with the dance we did a whole like conga line there I mean, I was a little bit nervous, but once that camera came on, I mean, the stars shine the brightest, as they say. It was time to shimmy the shoulders and really let it loose.

Yes, yes. Come at the hour, come with the man. Okay, I love when they say that. On the soccer, when they say that, when they say, they say, who do they say that about, like, usually about Harry Kane or something, right? Messy when I was last. What is the saying? Oh, say it, say, Pizzi. Come at the hour, come with the man.

Meaning like, he's rising to the occasion. Right? The time comes, he's there. Gentlemen, some other news and notes. We were just talking about the Walter. What about that, Gene, saying he's top three? Do you think people are going to be sensible when we inevitably put that off? I imagine people are going to say, yeah.

You think they're going to... Don't see an issue there. Yeah. They're going to be like, yeah, you know what? What is he supposed to say? No, I loved it. Of course. What's he going to say?

It's the expected response. Top five, top ten. No. You were getting down to, like, you're like Gabriel Bond theme. Leon Edwards. Just chime in whenever you feel like you're in. I should have probably told them that like, you know, it's that game that they play, like speak when someone's better than you,

that type of thing. I should have done that before. I didn't really do that well. He should have been great for socials. He should think he's the best fighter in the world. And he seemingly has that type of mentality in that conversation with him. It's very clear. Like he is confident and knows that he has a lot of potential.

Every fighter thinks is the best fighter in the world. Like they need to think that. They need to be delusional. And as I said, the biggest flex there is sitting in a, It's a brand new graph going. Yeah. Things have gone well. The birds are chirping just a little too loudly here in my sunroom.

What about Michael Morales? He has posted this on social media friends. He has said, okay, I'm going to try my best. Arompe? H.P. Aromper. See, in French, you wouldn't announce the R. But in Spanish, you would say it.

So does that mean like a romp? Like a fight is coming? Aromper. us means like like crack it like let's go like yeah like let's go and HP what do you think that stands for so i i we use HP as a short way of saying i ho de puta okay and what does that mean what does that mean like son of a bitch yeah and the date he had there i believe was august 15th right i mean they got to get moving on this that's like in 18 days uh someone said fight booked he's got the uni there nice stuff who do we think it is i have not asked i will be a

honest. But I'm looking at the rankings here real quick. I mean, it ain't, it ain't gonna be Carlos, right? Not on 18. That's an announcement, you know? It's not like Michael Morales leaks. That's like headline fight night, co-main, pay-per-view type deal. It's not Ian, obviously. First of all, do we buy it? Do we think it's legit? Oh, you think he's messing about? He's messing. He can, he always messes around on IG. He's never Bacob fighter? Bacob fighter? Gabriel? What about Gabriel? Too soon? No.

Too soon? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, why fight is another question. Can I tell you fight that I would love the UFC to make? Why don't they make Michael Morales versus MVP? If you're so tired of MVP... Okay, not bad. Kill him off against a Morales.

Right. Or he beats him, and now you can't deny MVP anymore. Yeah, I like that. It actually makes a lot of sense. You're right. I just don't know if Michael Morales is looking to take a fight like that. He's looking to fight somewhere. If he's doing this, if this is legit and he's fighting somebody who's not Carlos, like...

Yeah. It might as well be MVP. Yaroslav? Yeah, I saw something about that. But it's such, I mean, Yaroslav is 15, he's three. That doesn't help him. Right. That is way too tough an opponent to be taking on this short of notice.

Also, is Yaroslav 15 in the meta or the media? You know what? I think that the default is meta. What's Yaroslav in media? I felt like he was higher than that. Maybe I'm wrong. It's like when you click on the other thing is. Yeah, it does the shit.

11 11 yeah but even still I think it's the end of the rank is left I think I'm doing no no no you think the meta is worse I just I just say get rid of one I'm just finished with them I'm finished with them you know which one let me know which one all of it all of it just come come welcome oh we're just using it as a guide guys no no rankings get rid of this bullshit end it I know we can wish for this all day they're getting ready to introduce their third ranking it's going to be the media asking meta-AI what the ranking. It's not AI. It's an algorithm. Just a reminder.

It's not AI. Yeah. It's not a. Shout to the algorithm. No doubt. Speaking of top contenders, Armist Rukin has another assignment this Saturday, August 1st. Hype in Armenia.

So we thought, like, okay, he's got something coming up. He's not on the next RAF card, Raff card. Maybe he's going to take a break from these. side quest, but no, he's going up against Ankit. Oh, shout out. Can we get a fucking army fighter? Is there an Armenia versus India rivalry? Is this akin to Ireland, Agostan?

Oh, hell yeah. This is big. Right up there. This is one of the big ones. Huge. I mean, I noticed Maine and Co-Main were both Armenia versus India. No, no, no, this is big. This is like turf war stuff.

All right, well, choose your side, boys. Finally, finally, the score will be settled. I got to admit, I'm a little rattled right now because I got that text about the the power failure at my house. And so then I texted like the family group chat, like, hey guys, is there a power failure? And all I got back was a pretty stern text from my wife about the fact that the kids are at a haircut.

The boys are really into their hair now. You know, they're 14 and 12. She thinks that they should just like get their haircuts at home. And I'm sort of being blamed for it. Like you booked this. Why would you buy? Like I was supposed to know a month ago that there was going to be a storm. I don't understand.

What's the issue? She was like, I don't know if there's a power. failure at home because I'm at this fucking haircut right now. And the kids are getting their hair blow dried and it's very important. I'm like, I didn't, I don't. I feel like you're in the right here. I don't understand. Yeah, what, like, why the heat on me in this moment?

Yeah, I don't know. What did I do? No, no, this is not my fault. Yes. The same tension as a child. The MoMA had this lady that came around, cut all our hair. Yeah. About 12, we're saying, we want to diversify.

Yeah. And it was, it took years, honestly, from my man not to be complete to school. She would still. cut their hair if they allowed her to do that. Who is it very recently? Oh, Fatima said her mom still cuts her hair, right? And the whole family, but it's a mess of a situation and quite frankly. Okay.

Being honest, it's not. You should hit her back. Imagine you're at the house. She's clipping the hair or doing whatever. The power goes out. They're screwed. They've got the shitty half hair cut. Or how about the fact that like, you know, you could be hosting a four-hour show.

You know, where would you rather be? It's a great point. You know? Is that what you said back to it here? I feel like that's the good play. That's the wrong. Yeah, I didn't say that. Here I am, Slaving Way talking to Thad Jean.

Oh, boy, don't. And you're complaining about this? Uh-oh. Sorry, I took the time to text you while I was on the air in the middle of my four-hour show. Do you know how bad I have to go to the bathroom right now? Do you know how hard it is to interview Dan Hooker before his training session? I didn't wear my diapers today and I actually had to hold it for once. Do you realize that I had to be involved in the stress of a darts game with the go to Ditchieva?

Like, do you realize? Yeah. In the other? He's supposed to see politics with Niko Wally Walsos. I was playing d'orts with Dakota Dichiba. Yeah. Okay? What's the problem?

What's the problem, honey? We really loved Ariel. Do you realize the pressure that I was under having to do two Tic-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T? I was doing T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-Wing. It was nice knowing you, man. Yeah, bye. I realize. She's going to react well.

She's going to react well. I had to look at her TikTok. And, by the way, I've been thinking about the composting. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. And you know what? There's a microwave on the way as well. Andy, if I come home and say, like, work was so tough,

look at these TikToks that I had to do. What do you think? What do you think that? I think you should go with that. You're at least getting a look. And you know the look. Oh, my God. I think I'm getting more than a look.

I think I'm getting more than a look. Guys, what about Connor McGregor? He posted this on IG. Are we just going to have an update here every day? It seems like it. The amount of work I put in without getting even a semblance of a fight back is really disheartening. but is it? The work is still there. Now I'm being called upon for more work, more discipline, more

growth. What is my problem then? None. I don't have one. Thank you, God. Look, I know people will scoff. There's a million things that you could say. It does seem like he is trying to put out a positive message. And let's see, I reported yesterday, hasn't had the surgery yet. So let's see what that means, what that looks like, what the recovery is. is, all that and more. But we're definitely, you know, a year or so away from him coming back. Obviously, yesterday he said The Last Dance. He talked about International Fight Week, running it back, it seems like, with Max.

So let us see. I did want to talk a little bit about Anthony Joshua again. A few things came to light since we spoke about him yesterday. First of all, I saw this clip, and I'm sort of blown away by the clip. DeZone posted a clip of A.J. in his corner between him. rounds. One and two, you may recall, he was dropped twice. Second time was a real quick one, but technically twice in the first round comes back and wins in the second. Here he is talking to his team, who, you know, we know he's part of the Ussick team and whatnot, and this is the conversation

in the corner. Good, you're good, good. You don't see something. You don't. You don't. You stay. You stay in the ring, please. You must go down. You need to fight. You need to fight. You fight. Okay, so that was probably like 20 seconds out of the minute. So who knows what was said before, in all fairness.

We talked about this a little bit in the group chat. And I was like, what is this? Like, what type of coaching is this? There was nothing technical. Again, 20 seconds out of the 60, okay, fine. But like, what is this like, you stay, you listen, you don't listen. Stay in the ring. Stay in the fire.

I don't know. It felt like it was very hollow to me, but I think Rick has a different take on this. Yeah, I'm concerned about Joshua. Because you thought that he was quitting, that they thought he was quitting? If that's your corner, and instead of giving technical advice, they're begging you to stay in the fight. To me, that's very concerning, because they've been in camp with you. They know. And if they're saying, I think some of those were mistranslated. The gentleman over the shoulder is telling him you're a warrior, fight, right? and he's saying stay in the fight, not stay in the fire.

He's saying stay in the fight, fight, you're a warrior. And the guy in front of him is telling him, you're not listening. You're not listening to what we're saying. I'm more concerned than, like, alarmed that that wasn't good corner advice. Because we don't know, like, when it comes to these corners, right, sometimes it is a simple message. Sometimes it's just that.

To me, I have concerned that after that round, the message is, we need you to stay in this fight. I didn't get the impression watching that first round he was on the verge of quitting, though. Yeah, I don't know, but I'm less concerned about like this being back cornered by us. It feels to me like there's a disconnect. Maybe.

I feel like... It's the first camp, though, right? Second, second. Okay. First camp, also... Jake Paul was the first. It's clearly the cornerman's second language, which I think

makes it more difficult for them to try and communicate what they want from them. I guess I still want to know what happened with Ben Davidson because I feel like that was such a magical. We were talking all about it, and he prepared him, and I know he lost Daniel Dubois under him,

but that was a crazy firefight of a fight. It felt like it was the perfect, it was the perfect union. Yeah. And I just don't understand. And going into this Tyson Fury fight, look, he's had two fights with the Ussick team, and they're incredible, obviously, with Ussick, but it was Jake Paul and Christian Pranga.

And so, like, what really is this? And that's sort of been a theme of A.J. career, like bouncing around and trying to find the right connection pairing. I don't know. I feel like Ben is the guy, especially given his history with Tyson Fury as well, it feels like that's the move. I don't know. It just struck me as feeling like, where's the connection there?

When I see a great coach talking to a fighter in the moment, firing them up, you know, the classic clip is Teddy Atlas speaking to Tim Bradley and say, we're firefighters. Is it? Okay. Eric, Nick Sick. To that point, that's not, that's not like technical voice either, though. Like, he's not, but it feels like he's speaking to his soul. It didn't feel like it was resonating with AJ.

Absolutely. But I think the language gap that G.C. referred to is important. I think they're in a moment they didn't expect to be in. I think the corner is emotional. And you can criticize them for that, definitely. There's no connection between the two corners, I think, which is a problem. One, I'm saying one thing. The other one's trying to talk over him.

That's a very confusing environment to be in. But I do think. think it's just a bad reaction to a charged situation. You know, they're just trying to, they're trying to appeal to him on an emotional level rather than a tactical level. They're just like, come on, let's go, let's go. And it just doesn't come off very well because of the language barrier, I think. One thing I must point out, like, that's getting lost in this.

And I've seen, obviously, the criticism of the corner part of this online is like, he then went out in one. Like, we're criticizing the corner work. They told him whatever they told him in the corner. And then he went out and won the fight. So, like, if we're, if we're, like, we, the result matters of this, right? Whatever they told them before the first round, I'd probably be more concerned about if that was the reality. But, like, to Pizzi's point, sometimes you just need.

And, you know, even the example you're using, you know, Tim Bradley's trying to mentally check him back into the fight. I mean, Teddy Atlas is trying to mentally check Tim Bradley back into the fight and remind him what he's there for, not necessarily be like, hey, we need the jab more here and this and that. So I don't know. whatever it is, it did work to whatever degree. Like, we're going to have to live with the result. But I don't know. To me, it's just more like, I'm just concerned about Anthony Joshua. Everything I see, like, from the actual performance to this makes me think, like, where is

Anthony Joshua's head at right now? I'm going to, go ahead. Well, we're at the very end of the road. There's really one road left to cross, right? Yeah, I agree. But what I will say is, and look, there's a lot of money. on the table here for the lads obviously but that felt like the perfect bookend to his career

the other night having come through what he came through seven months ago losing two very close friends in a tragic accident the fight's nearly symbolic of what's happened to him right like he goes in and a hellish first round and comes through and he wins it it's like a Hollywood film like you have Ousick there emotional praying in the corner like this guy who was

once his foe a guy who defeated Joshua and sent them down you remember the post fight with the mic, everyone's going like, what's wrong with this guy? That felt to me, like, this would be a great way to end of here. But obviously, when there's that much money on the table, when they're talking $250 million between the two of them, it's just not going to go away. Like, I just don't think any fighter on planet Earth's going to turn down that kind of money for any fight, you know?

He should walk out, Fury fight, one more road to cross, one more risk to take. One of the great walkouts, right? That was amazing. I mean, he had like nine fights after that. Max, man. So good. So many fucking... And imagine New York, DMX? Oh, well. Youngest.

Could you imagine? AJ continues to be one of the all-time menches in the sport. Here he is sending a message to Christian Pranga's parents after the win. Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. I hope you're both for. I just want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to compete with your son. You part of a great battle. you know we both put up our best and I just want to say thank you

and respect I saw you yesterday and even though there was a lot of emotion and a lot of energy in the ring I try to give you like some time just to let me know from my heart I appreciate you I appreciate Prenge I appreciate the team it's a combat sport it's a sport where a lot of pressures on both of us but

amongst all of the bravado There's always respect. Oh, bless you both. How do you not love this guy? He writes, The greatest thing sport creates isn't always a winner. It's the mutual respect between two people who have earned each other's respect.

That's the true legacy of sport until next time. How do you, like, who does that? Who goes online afterwards and sends a message to his opponent's parents who he wanted to make sure felt his love and love, respect afterwards. I don't know. I can't say enough good things about the guy. I'm continuously impressed by him. And I hope we get that date and that location very soon and that

we can get ready for the next, I don't know, two, three, four months of buildup. One more British boxing note. Ben Whitaker has his next assignment. He'll be going up against Connor Wallace. It was announced. They are fighting at the, what is that, the Utilia Arena? How do you say that. The Utila, what is that? Utilita. The Utilita Arena in Birmingham, in the West Midlands. Of course, home to one, Aston Villa.

That's on the 3rd of October that was announced, so Connor Wall's 17 and 1, another slight step up for Ben Whitaker, 12-0-1. McGregor, aspiring partner. Let's see how, was he?

Yeah, he was brought into the camp, I believe, was the second Diaz camp, particularly was. Interesting. He was a really, really great amateur, went pro shortly after. I think he was in McGregor's camp. I think he must have done a number of camps with Connor. But he went pro after. I think he's fought most of his career in Australia. A lot of Irish guys have a lot of success over there. Could be wrong about that, but he's definitely been around for a long time and he was definitely in McGregor's camp at one stage. I'm very excited about tomorrow's show. That will be my last one before the summer break,

but of course, BITB on Thursdays always and crack on Friday. So have no fear. Still two more live shows after mine, but as far as tomorrow's show's concern, OTN, so get in your questions, ariawhalani.substack.com. Brian Battle is going to join us to talk about his upcoming fight against one Dalton Rasta. That's August 7th. Sky Nicholson is going to join us to talk about this strategic alliance with the folks over at MVP and fighting on MVP cards now and what this all really truly means. Darren Till is going to join us. I'm being a little bit daring by actually announcing it after saying that I wouldn't announce it,

so maybe I'm tempting fate, but his team tells me he's a different man. He actually has a diary now. He actually keeps things in his diary. So I'm looking forward to actually seeing him showing up and proving to us that he is. In fact, a different man. Yesterday, we found out that he'll be fighting Yo-Ramero in September

at the BKFC event in Manchester. And intern Josh is going to love this one. just added to the lineup the one and only dirty Dom himself Dominic Mysterio who I absolutely love very much looking forward

to having him on he is on fire after his beatdown of Dan Housin and Joe Hendry yesterday thanks to that dastardly devil Ryan Garcia it's going to be a time do we have any super chats

guys Frankie you're going to be mad at me by the way what did you do oh I found it Is it the clip? You gave me the microphone and the little thing you hear fell off, but now we're good. I found it. Thank you.

What would happen, by the way, if the power went out during the show? It would be safe to say there'd be no show. So would that happen? These things require power. Generator? No generator? No, bro. Wow.

Things going down. All right, let's... Not a generator big enough. Let's hurry this up. Intern Jack or intern... Josh is going to take it. It's just me. I'm going to take all of them.

What's your name? Okay, go ahead. Lazar here says, On a human level, do we still want to see AJ versus Fury? Absolutely. On a human level, on a non-human level,

on all kinds of levels. Inhuman level, we would definitely want to see it. Josh, your thoughts on Dirty Dom tomorrow? I'm fired up. I cannot wait. I feel it in your voice. Has life changed

since the question heard around the world? Yeah, you know, a few LinkedIn connections here and there. Hell yeah. I mean, he's doing a ditch of a TikTok's That's right. That's right. A lot has happened. What else? What else? The next one's for intern GC, I think.

Oh, wow. Wow. Sam Eason's in 20 Swedish Crohn's Russ Anber in studio guest. New book! Hell yeah. By the way, Russ Amber, one of the all-time greats, Montreal Combat Sports Legend, legendary Cutman and Trainer, was in AJ's Corner, by the way.

I didn't know he had a new book, though. Wait, let me see what's going on. has been in the fight game forever. We could do a great inquest into that corner. That first round with the corner worked there with him. You know what happened? Tell us, Russ. You know what? What was the mood like me? You know what? Oh, here it is.

It's a good idea. Maybe I'll have him on tomorrow. Russ Amber unrivaled a boxing memoir. Well, there you go. Otis Grand Jean-Pascar, Vasily Lomachenko, Alexander Usik. A real who's who. Might have to put in a call. Okay, okay. What else? What else? Cheez-It says,

Do you think LeBron as a 76er will somewhat tame the next takeover in Philly for the playoffs? Even a little, LeBron fans show up everywhere too. No, no, no, no. We all know that Philly is a, you know, is a Knicks town. We've already established that two straight. And LeBron be driving home to New York anyway. Let's be honest. Yeah, he could jump on the bus, you know, get a lift home.

Coptor. With the rest of the guys. Don't do it, LeBron. The camera. Don't do it. Do you imagine? Don't do it. Stand the ground.

Yeah, what the hell? I would never do that. Josh, is Philly that bad? He can't spend like six, seven months over there. Is it that bad? He's like air lifted out after every game. Is it really that bad? I love Philly, man.

I love it. You know what? If he's not gritty enough to be there, that's fine. Yeah, you're turning here already. The diva, Josh, you know he's a diva. He's a fucking divot. I know he's good enough to play there. I just don't know if he's good enough to live there.

I got you. I got you. Locker room of Bormon's going to be fucked. Oh, my God. Killing it. Killing it. Bason here says, any tips for separating work and life,

much love. Oh my gosh. I'd love to hear this one myself. Yeah. You just have to try to best to be cognizant that there's a time for work, there's a time for life, compartmentalize.

The phone is a tricky thing. You know, back in the day, our parents, like, you can close the computer, you can say goodbye, and there's stuff to do at home, and there's, my dad would come home with a massive box of papers and do all kinds of things. But the phone, it sometimes feel like I'm thinking of work or just looking in social media.

It's all a mess. But you try your best to be present. You try your best to be there for your family. You try the best to be there for your friends. Your boyfriend, your girlfriend, doesn't matter who, your mom, your dad, whomever is in front of you. One big thing, you try to, like, I've done this. I've come home. I've parked the car and I've shut off the phone.

And I find that like when you do. that, the power comes out of it. And it's just a thing now. It's like a paperweight. So that is a good trick. Another thing is like literally put it in another room. Plug it in, say you're done with it. You're not going to look at it. You're not going to think about work. But I believe that you are, once you recognize the fact that when you have a pretty good work-life balance, you will be more successful in both facets, work and life, I think you will accept that type of reality. Meaning, like, when I had kids, I felt like it made me a better worker because it gave

me balance, perspective. It gave me a proper distraction, not like TV distraction. Like, I can't think about things because I have something that I need to attend to, someone that I need to attend to. And so that allows for a work-life balance. Now, of course, I'm not saying, like, just go have a kid. just so that you can be more balanced in life. But once you are met with these things,

it does really, really go a long way. So I never like when people are like, oh, I had a kid and that's a burden or a problem or like an obstacle. It's actually a blessing because it allows for balance in your life. So you have to look at your situation. You have to look at, you know, how you're dealing with life when you come home,

how you're dealing with others, and try to do your best. And by the way, I'm no angel, I'm no saint. I succumb to it just like so many others as well, but we do our best. And that's why it's important to go on vacation, to try to take some time off, rest your mind, recharge. Those things are very, very important. What else? What else?

Mason here says, just on the third out on yesterday's VOD, Josh's AEW question, the TK is completely missing. Love the interns. Who do you think you are, I am? Yes. I have an update. Okay. it was it was due to rights yeah we have reached out oh it will be rectified oh there will be no issues can we undo it we'll work on that we'll work on that so what a lot of people need to realize is a lot of these like major sports leagues and entities

they just have this thing where if you use any type of footage they ding you yeah um now we used footage from oppressor which should be pretty much fair game. And we use Josh's footage from the event. Now they may say like you can't shoot any event footage, who the hell knows. But we got dinged right away. Yeah, we got dinged within seconds. Presser is insane, by the way.

Like, presser is news. And I would think that they would want that out there as well. So a little crazy. Conversations had. Yeah. All will be. But that's not an AW thing, by the way. That's like a YouTube automated thing.

So they're not the bad guys here. No. It's just the way YouTube is. and how they're like scanning whatever AI nonsense is. So have no fear, have no fear. Sorry that happened. But Josh, you always have the memories. Always have the memories.

Hell yeah. What else? What else? Personal stash says Ariel. Thank you so much for having Dakota on again. It always makes my day. Well, we're happy to make your day, personal stash. She is a star on the rise, and we're following her around this week.

And so I'm really looking forward to that. The Uncrowned Films team is following her around. So you'll be getting more Dakota content during our break, if all works out the way we wanted to work out. What else? What else? Yes, boys, says, somebody get these beggars out of here. Who's he referring to?

Let's see. Who's to check? Very, very popular clip right now. Oh. The Odyssey. I got this signed card. Yeah. Don't bend the corners and shit.

Just leave it. What is Goodwin champions? Does anyone know? That's like the line that they're doing. It's like the non... How much you guys want for it? How much you're going to pay us to take it? Is that what you're saying?

I need to get it in like... We'll get a case and all that stuff. Don't worry. That's a one of one right there. That's a one-on-one. Sign. That's your certificate of authenticity. You saw it happen.

Yeah. We can show them the video. What else? What else? Inappropriate says, listen, I know it was a low moment of his life, but can you confirm with deep... if those shirts are dropping.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I will ask him. I don't know if that's the way to go. I think it's fun to do, you know, it's fun to do the hashtag, you know, but the shirts, I don't know. I don't know if that would be the best. Yeah, selling merch on it feels rough.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What else? What else? B4NT4M says, I've been ranting about Abdul Hussein debut in UFC, and we finally got it. I keep telling you, this guy is. the real deal. I think he is back October 24th.

Okay. All right. Frank has been he's been all over him. Yeah, it took him in the prediction pals last week. Yeah. What else? What else? J. Dash says Thad seems like a good dude, but he's got some delusional ideas of what the PFL is. Honestly,

B&B and Pt look at the UFC top 10 welterweights and tell me if Thad could be any of the top seven fighters. Who's B&B? Boys, in the back? In the back? Yeah, I get it. Listen, as we said, that's what he believes?

Let him be confident. Surprising to me. I didn't think people would react like that. Yeah. I bet there's more. There is a bias with anybody. Of course. Parnas is strolling right into a fight against Dan Hooker.

Like, this is just, there is talent outside the UFC, I promise. By the way, Dan Hooker's last... Go ahead, go ahead. You can ask any foreign on any regional card in the world if he he's going to beat the champion of the UFC, they'll probably tell you yes. Like, that's what separates them from us. They complete belief in themselves that the best fighter in the world. No one's in this game to be like, oh, I think I can just make a few quits, you know, be average.

Like, no one is doing that. Like, the whole idea is the delusion and the quest for greatness in that delusion. By the way, just like looking at the top seven to do the exercise, like, I'd like a fight between Jack Della and Daddine. I'd like a fight between Bomb Feme and Thad Dian, Blahma, that Gene. It's not crazy. It's not absurd to be like, I believe I can be a top welterweight. I don't think it's crazy.

I agree. I also, well, yeah, to Pizzi's point, this is what makes fighters unique. I wanted to say regarding Dan Hooker, his last one was against Mateus Gamrod, who was the last double champion in KSW. He could beat the next double champion in KSW. He could be the KSW double champion killer. How about that little fact point? Courtesy of our own Alan Murphy. Also, Dan did say in the submission radio interview, like he wants to take him to Deep Waters,

this and that. He has been in 12, five round fights, Mr. Saladin Parnas, and I believe Dan has been in five. Not all of them have gone the distance. So I know he's fought in KSW and it's, you know, one notch below. But, you know, he's kind of been there, done that as far as big fights are concerned. And that's one thing that the octagons of the world are going to have to catch up on. Like, look at the history of champions that have come over from KSW and had success in the UFC. the Octagon hasn't produced that just yet.

They're also a lot younger. So time will tell. Time will tell. Anything else? Anything else? One more. Okay. Jess said is back.

He says, since old Pete is here, can he explain the giant needle I saw in the middle of Dublin? Thanks. What's going on? I hate it. What is it? No, we have a, it's like a monument or it's called the Spire. The Stiffy near the Liffey.

Some people call it. Wow. It's the low in the ghetto. Some people call it. I hate it. It's a fucking joint way. the money. That's what we... Is it new? No.

It says 2003. I was thinking the same thing. Why is he asking about something that's from 2000? No, I can understand. It's stupid. You're walking down on Connolly. You're like, what the fuck is this? Every time I do it, mate. So I'm with you. I'm waiting. So does it... It's seen it while I was there. Does anybody like it? It wasn't on the list, GC. You know what I mean? You're like, here's a big fucking spike in the middle of nowhere.

Hadden Blanchardstown. Didn't make it. Yeah. You know, I did hear some rumors that TD Andy was in Ireland. I was expecting a up. Yeah. But a member of the crew went down. Oh, okay. I felt a bit, I wanted to go and I felt a bit guilted, you know? I'm not going to look, I'm not pointing any fingers.

I'm not really sure what you're talking about. Yeah, let's explain. Don't talk about Reggie like that. Oh, wow. Oh, Reg was holding you back. We're not over in the household. We're not quite over, yeah. All right.

All right. I just, I know, like, the last time I remember the team was in Ireland, like the red carpet it was laid out. So I was just wondering if maybe Andy, Andy has a lot of Irish friends. A lot of friends in Ireland willing to do lots of things. I mean, and I was going to just alligator armed in there.

You know what I mean? One of those friends had no interest in doing any of those things. She didn't name names, but she did say, it looks like you. Okay, okay. Look, I was devastated. You know, I was so up for it's unbelievable because it was a great day to go where we were going, Andy, because it was

not only the All-Rland Final, it was also the darts final and I was like this is going to be fantastic and then my wings were clipped. That's all I can say. Okay. We missed you what's happening here. Did you guys meet up or not meet up? It sounds like there were plants made

for a couple of days one of them was going to happen and Pizzi couldn't make it. Oh so Pizzi pulled out all right all good. The mayor of you know the crack is 90 in Ireland when someone comes he rolls out the right? I was

I was wound up as well. I was ready to go. And then? You know, it was two in our party. The other member of the party. Reggie? You know, wasn't feeling up to it. Not enough.

Yeah, yeah, we'll go. We'll leave it at that. Next time, next time. They'll always be next time. They'll be next time. They'll be next time. Apparently, and his brother loved Ireland, they're coming back.

And I will make it. it up, Andy. You know, I'm devastated. Trusting. Trusting. Actions. They always speak louder. All right, jents.

It's time to go. We don't want the power to go out here. I don't think it's going to, man. You think we're okay? I think the... Use the TikTok line when you get in. Oh, shit. Here we go.

Oh, there. Oh, wow. Here we go. So the text is quite small. But yeah, like, she told me to stand there. I wasn't quite sure what was happening. And then it was the da-da-na-na-na-na-na-na. You know?

But that's not the dance. That's not the dance. Oh, no. I want the dance. This is the Netflix meme. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to have to download TikTok to see. I don't know how I feel about being called the biggest rage baiter in MMA?

What's that all about? What does that even mean? What does rage baiter mean? It means you bait people into becoming enraged. I don't feel like that's appropriate. I don't think that's fair. I don't think that's accurate. I feel like it's disparaging to my rep as an unbiased.

I thought it was nice that you put everything on the line. You were not supposed to have to do the TikTok dances. Still did it. And then you still did it. That's a mensch move. Will I get a shout-out? Will you get a shout-out? If she doesn't show Joe, it's absolutely disgrace.

It doesn't have to be nice. That's true. Thank you to my parents. Thank you to my brothers, my mom and dad, who have been there. And thank you to the Ariahawani show for always having me on through the ups and the downs. The fights and the no fights, the injuries and the cancellations. you've always had my back. You have actually put me in the pound for pound rankings

when no one else would dare to do that. Uncrowned, of course, I'm talking about. But, you know, something like that would be nice. Yeah, I think anything less would be unsatisfactory. And unsyplized. Triple the time of the, yeah, mom, dad, thanks. Ariel Wani Show. Yes.

Peace. Thank you to all our guests today. It's been a great day. Nico Ali Walsh and Mike Perry and Dakota Ditcheva and Thad Gene and Dan Hooker. Back to our side of it. This is a visa value.