The Ariel Helwani Show - Nate Diaz, plus Travis Barker, Mike O’Hearn, Nakisa Bidarian, Chris Avila all in-studio

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show by previewing the show, then addressing his recent back-and-forth with Sean Strickland, touching on other news and notes, and answering Super Chats he missed from yesterday’s show (07:48). Next, video of the crew’s visit to the Santa Monica Pier, including a roller coaster, some basketball, and more (30:38). Chris Avila joins Ariel in-studio to preview his fight against Brandon Jenkins on the Netflix MMA card, speaking on potential rematches against Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis, wanting to fight Tony Ferguson for Misfits, being bothered by the odds for his upcoming fight, venturing into acting, and more (43:31). Bodybuilding star Mike O’Hearn comes in-studio to discuss the beginnings of his career, training with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno from an early age, appearing on American Gladiators alongside Gina Carano, garnering interest from WWE, dispelling claims of PED use, memes and handling viral fame, his martial arts training, and more (1:16:10). Ariel sits down with Nate Diaz for a wide-ranging interview on his decision to fight Mike Perry on Netflix, talks with the UFC about a return, a potential Conor McGregor and Max Holloway fight, the legacy of the BMF title, and more. Plus, stories from his illustrious career and long-standing beefs involving Daniel Cormier and Jake Shields get settled over FaceTime (2:15:45). MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian is in-studio to preview Netflix's MMA card, diving into the business side of the event, how the talent was assembled, viewership expectations, before also discussing TKO’s position in the industry, fighter pay, the Ali Revival Act, Jake Paul’s return, and more (2:56:34). Legendary musician Travis Barker joins Ariel in-studio to talk about his upcoming projects and rabid MMA fandom, including his thoughts on UFC 328 and the aftermath (3:29:00). Magician Ian Michael Scheller wows and amazes Ariel Helwani with tricks, including a few with an MMA twist (4:01:00). The Boys in the Back join Ariel to try some In-N-Out (4:24:01).

Lights, camera, action. The Ariel Helwani show has gone cross-country to the West Coast. Live from beautiful sunny Los Angeles. Here's your host, Ariel Helwani. Back in your life on this Tuesday, May 12, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. welcome to day two of our time here in Los Angeles. What a time we have had so far, so much more fun to come. What a show we had yesterday. The reunion with one Ronda Rousey. Golly, it warmed my heart. The Mending Fences Tour, that is, 2026, certainly continues. Jake Paul on the program made some news there about his fighting future being up in the air at this time. Joshua Van, Eric Nixick, Sean Brady. I mean, what a time it was.

What a time it was, everyone tuning in, everyone having us say, everyone all up in arms over everything that we have done and said on this program over the course of the last 24 hours. And we have a lot to get to on today's show, a lot to get to from our beautiful Los Angeles studio. We've actually taken it over. This is now uncrowned L.A. H.Q. We've got our East Coast operation. We now have our West Coast operation. Shout out to the good people over at West Coast Creative Studio. Shout out to Zeus and his whole crew.

here. They've been doing amazing things for us. We've been having a blast. After the show yesterday, we actually went on a bit of a field trip to the Santa Monica Pier. It was fantastic. Well, I say we. Some of us did choose to stay behind. Who me? Who the fuck is we? You'll see the video in a bit and you'll be able to guess who was there and who wasn't. Look, some people believe in unity and coming together and being me a fucking break and some people believe in kind of you know marching to the beat of their own drum that's just you know it's it's a mindset it's a lifestyle it's an approach it's a mentality um so anyway we actually did a really fun thing yesterday we had a fun afternoon evening had a fantastic dinner uh what was it what was it cha cha chicken chacha the chacha

chicken at the you remember the name jordan the beauty of this is i could actually look at jordan for the answers here he's right in front of me uh It was a great Caribbean spot in Santa Monica. It's called Chacha Chicken. And it was amazing. So shout out to Chacha Chicken. Shout out to our new friend Edgar, who we met, who had a bit of a snafu with his meal. But we did certainly make up for it, I think.

And, yeah, that's coming up on the show. We're going to show you what we did over there. So stay tuned for that. As far as the actual show is concerned, news and notes to come, super chats to come. That's on me. That's on me. Yesterday, there was a lot happening. new environment, a lot going on.

I didn't get to the super chats from yesterday. I'm going to get to them first 30 minutes of today's program. And then, of course, we welcome them for the back end of the show as well. So please do send them our way. The donuts were... Everything was great yesterday. Everything was amazing. I love being here.

And, of course, we're here for the May 16th MVP MMA on Netflix card, first of its kind. Back end of the week is going to be crazy. Press conference, weigh-ins, open workouts on Wednesday in Venice and of course the event on Netflix on Saturday night. As far as today's program is concerned, every single guest will be in person. Four in-studio guests and then one very special in-person guests. At 1045 in studio will be Chris Avila, obviously a part of the Diaz Army. He's fighting on this card on Saturday against Brandon Jenkins.

Hasn't fought an MMA in five years. Obviously went out and did the boxing thing as well. He's had great success in the world of boxing. is on a two-fights skid in boxing, but one, like five, six in a row, coming back to MMA, fighting on the undercard. We love Chris.

He'll be joining us at 1045. At 1115 in studio, Mike O'Hern, I think four-time, I believe it is, four-time Mr. Universe champion. Arguably, the greatest physique

in the history of physiques. Arguably, the greatest specimen, human specimen in the history of specimens. This guy is an unbelievable talent. Mr. Universe Hall of Famer in 2011.

57 years young. Do you have just like one picture of Michael Hearn? Could just show like one picture of him without his shirt on? Like just to wet someone's hat. Everyone knows Michael Hearn. Baby, don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. Just like one, just like a little bit like you could no, you want to put. No, we don't have it. I don't know what that means. You're waving. Okay. Just so Michael Heard.

You know what I'm talking about, Frank? Just a little. You know, when I look at him, I feel like I'm looking at myself. It's weird. But he's just a human specimen. He's 57. He was on the American Gladiators Revival. I mean, here he is. What better piece of content than this?

Mike O'Hern on a horse looking like Conan the Barbarian. This man will be joining us in studio today. It's going to be phenomenal. I can't wait for that. Then we are going to air and premiere my sit-down interview with Nathan D. I spoke to Nathan on Sunday evening, vintage Diaz. A lot of people posting the clips from the face-to-face, Perry, Diaz, they were amazing. It was almost like a buddy cop movie with them.

Gina and Rhonda were great. Shout out to Francis and Philippe, great too. That stuff seems to be well received, well done, too well involved. I spoke to Nate afterwards, and let me tell you, the mending fences tour continued in that interview as well. We called two people that we both have had issues with as of like. Spoiler hint, spoiler hint. And I think we squash some beefs. I think we squashed some big time beefs.

I think we made peace in NorCal and we made peace in the Middle East. More on that to come. Nate Diaz on the program at about 1215. At 1 o'clock, we're going to be joined by Nikisa Baderian, co-founder of MVP, CEO of MVP. Talk to him about what's to come on Saturday. A lot to get into there. At 1.30, Travis Barker, the greatest drummer of all time.

He'll be joining us in studio. Travis Barker, Uber MMA fan. Like, gigantic MMA fan. I don't mean he worked for Uber. I mean, it was once a time where Uber just meant like big, massive MMA fan. You know this. He'll be joining us in studio. I've never actually, I think I did meet him once in person, way back in the day.

Anyway, going to have him in studio and that's a first. Can't wait for that. Maybe we can even ask him some tips on, you know, because I know Andy's drumming these days, some tips on technology. and whatnot. After Travis, a magician's going to be coming in his studio. Why? Because we're in L.A. and Magic Johnson used to play here, and it just feels like the right thing to do. So it's a very L.A. centric program. We'll even end the day with some L.A. eats like we did yesterday with the donuts. We may be pulling up the Dodger Stadium later today to see if the fans are really, truly

about that life, because they terrorized me back in October, you may recall after the Jay's lost in seven to the Dodgers. So we're really doing it out here. We're loving it. Look at this lineup. Four actual in-studio guests plus an in-person with Mr. Diaz. We love L.A. We absolutely love L.A. Before we actually get into things, though, news and notes at the top, I did want to start the show off with an apology. I was thinking about it, was deliberating in my mind, ruminating, if you will. And I'd like to apologize. I apologize to Sean Strickland. I went too far yesterday. I went too far. I got caught up. He to the moment. My emotions get the best of me. Criticized him for the pre-fight banter. Criticized him for the apology about the pre-fight and the post-fight. I just want to apologize from one American to another. Let me tell you something, you guys. That's what real Americans do. That's what real men do. We apologize when we take it too far. When we crossed. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. I'm not going to apologize because I said nothing wrong.

I said nothing wrong when the when the heat gets a little too hot in the kitchen, you don't back down and apologize. You stand by what you say. And especially when you're talking about someone's character and family and religion, you don't change your stance because you went 25 minutes with them. You don't tell the people that you've just been hoodwink. You got them hook line and sinker and just to sell the fight. That wasn't real. That's not what I'm all about. No, absolutely not. We don't apologize for anything that we've said. I think his comments about me yesterday were ludicrous,

as is most of the things that he said. Not his fighting style. Didn't say anything about his fighting style. Didn't say anything about his fighting resume, his accomplishments. But the leech comment, I've been doing this since 2001. It took me eight years to get a single penny from covering MMA. There was nothing to leach off of. So, you know, like most of the things he says, off base,

I did happen to see in his Twitter replies that he was talking about the interaction that we had at his gym and he said he was uncomfortable because I was thanking him so much about his stance on the October 7th attacks. He was so uncomfortable. He was really feeling uncomfortable. Amazingly, there were actually other people there.

Rick, G.C., his head coach, Eric Nixick, and they can all tell you, just ask them. He hung out. He came to us. We didn't come to him. He came to us. He talked. He left.

He was asking us what we were doing. He was asking us if he was going to get suspended because of the incident at tough enough. Did not seem uncomfortable? I even asked Rick and G.C. this point, did he seem uncomfortable? Did I even bring that up, like, more than once for 10 seconds? Seems like some inaccuracies there. But this is what you try to do online. You try to get the zombies to believe in what you say because that's the cool thing to do.

And the best part about it at all, the greatest irony of what transpired yesterday when we finished the show. here comes actual Mr. Leach himself, Ali Abdelaziz. You talk about Leach, it puts out a bat signal. Here comes Ali Abdelaziz. Mr. Leach himself, Mr. Bloodsucker himself, Mr. Take percentage, take pennies, take money from every single fighter, including 40-something-year-old Frankie Edgar, put him in a bare-knuckle fight just so you can make a commission off of them.

Here comes Mr. Leach himself to pile on. Anytime someone tries to shit on me, here's his opportunity to try to pile on. Cloud Chaser to the max. Here's his opportunity to try to get in and try to curry favor with the fans, with the fans out there. Try to say, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe this is my opportunity

for people to actually like me. They don't like you. They don't respect you. They never will. And the differences, if I actually was, you know, beholden to Dana, if you truly was my daddy,

as you say, how can you explain the last 10 years? Everything that's happened since the falling out. Everything that we've built, uncrowned, the Olympics, going to ESPN, real sports, all that stuff.

How do you explain all that? If I'm truly beholden him, what happens to you if you get cut off? What happens to you if you aren't able to do business with him? What happens to your business? What happens to your position with the fighters? It all goes down the tubes. That's what happens.

I've proven that I don't need any of that. So yes, you do bring up what happened in 2016, and I've talked about that ad nauseum. You're trying to tell people that, hey, oh, look, look what happened to Ariel with Fox. We've already talked about it. And you know what's the amazing part about it? it actually happened 10 years ago next month in this same city, in Inglewood, amazingly,

where I was told a bullet in my head, career was over, and now here we are 10 years later on Netflix, whole team, uncrown, HQ, L.A., doing this. How did that all turn out? How did it all turn out? Ten years later, trying to expose. In fact, the hotel in which we interviewed Nate Diaz on Sundays, the same hotel that at UFC 199, they did the morning weigh-ins for the very first time. I was outside with Mark Romandie and Andy Foster. Media wasn't allowed in. Same freaking hotel.

You talk about full circle. You talk about things working out. Ten years later, there's a greater power, I think, playing here. And I freaking love it. So keep piling it on. Keep trying to jump on the train.

Keep being the leech that you are. It's freaking great. And the beauty is, I was here before you guys got here. I'll be here after. much love. We'll still be talking about you. That's not leaching. That's called covering the sport. I know you don't understand how media works. That's called covering the sport. I know you guys are used to people just kissing your ass and living in an echo chamber. It's called covering the sport.

That's called journalism. That's called actually being a media member with morals and ethics. But enough about all of that. Let's talk about the aftermath of UFC 328. You know, I saw this very interesting comment along the same lines of what we were just talking about from Nasurdin Imov online, who I do believe, should be able to be. should be next in line for a title shot. Here's Nasrudein seemingly agreeing with me. They say I take things too personally. Damn right.

Religion, family, nation. These aren't marketing to me. Every insult comes with a price. You will pay for it. No happy ending. I hope he believes that, because I believe that too. I believe if you talk about someone's mom,

religion, country, life, not their fighting skills. That's all fair game. That's all good. there should be some consequences there. Those are certain things that you don't talk about and you can't take them back. I don't think you can take them back

and I don't think a fight erases all of that. Someone else wrote to Nasr Dien about this. Thanks, Nasur. Please, no hug at the end. Never. I'd rather die, he writes. Wrote that in French. That's the translation. And so, yeah, I do wonder how the fans of Hamza Chamaia feel about him putting the belt on shans around his waist after the fight,

after everything that he said about his religion and family and country, people that he's associated with. How does he feel about that now? Does he regret it? Does he feel some sort of way about it? Does he feel like he sort of gave into it all? Sounds like he wants to run it back with Sean.

Sounds like that's what he wants. Here's his brother weighing in. Arter Shemayev. He spoke to SportsRU. There was a problem with the weight cut. The question became whether to cancel the fight or take the risk. When there was 1.2 KG left, his body shut down. Oxygen deprivation.

His body malfunctioned. We had to stop for an hour because his health wouldn't allow him to continue. Hamzad himself said he didn't know how he'd fight in that condition. They told ESPN as well that they are obsessed with getting that one back, that they wanted in Abu Dhabi. And so it sounds like the plans of, moving up to 205 or on hold, at least for now. Abu Dhabi hasn't been officially announced just yet,

but we presume it's going to be in October once again because it's usually in October. They have been a little bit iffy over there with the scales as well, although New Jersey is supposed to be one of the gold standard commissions, and they were super quick on the draw with the scale. I don't think that's why, even though I've seen that brought up, I don't think that's why they want to go to Abu Dhabi. I think they just want it back,

and I think it's one that he is going to fixate on, and lament for quite some time. I did see some people weigh in on the fact that it's time Chamsa gets a proper head coach and a proper team surrounding him. And it's not a bad shout. I saw Farazahhabi saying, come to Montreal, be a part of the team here.

Let me guide you. All the greats have had head coaches. D.C. had Javier Mendez and Bob Cook by his side. Like, you can't just have, and I'm not suggesting this is what he has, but it can't just be either yes-man or training partners. You need someone to guide you and coach you. He had that at All-Stars.

He doesn't have that right now. At least it appears as though he doesn't have that. And so maybe that's something that's missing. That could help him with the weight cuts. That could help him with the fighting. That could help him in between rounds. That could help him with the game plan. It's unfathomal to be that Hamza Chamaev, as good as he is,

doesn't have a successful title defense on his resume. He won that belt in the most dominant fashion. We all thought that he would not lose for years. and he loses it in his first title defense. That to me does not compute. I don't understand that. I really don't. And so maybe some changes need to be made.

I saw Joe Rogan talking about the fact that, you know, he was getting ready for Yeri. Was he really getting Yer ready for Yer? Like the fight was always Yerie versus Carlos Elberg. Once Alex Pereira moved up, they announced that rather quickly. So I don't know about all of that. I think it just is a matter of, discipline and direction and determination and guidance, proper game planning, all that stuff

and more. But to be clear, my stance, I think Nasr Deney move off should be next. Hamza Chamaev's an incredible talent, but he didn't, I think you get the immediate rematch if there's controversy or if you've had a long title reign, if you've been unbeaten as champion for a long time. Like if Islam loses to Ian Gary, I think he deserves an immediate rematch. I know he hadn't had the, the welterweight title for all that long, but he's been a champion for so long. 155, he moves up.

To me, it's all long. It's one long rain. You know, it's one long rain. Hamza didn't have that long reign. He had a long winning streak, but he didn't have that long rain. Imov deserves it. Imov should have gotten it before, Sean, but I understood why he had the great win. He had the gift of gab, all that.

stuff, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. But to be passed over again, I think would be tough. I think that would be tough. Not to say I don't, like, I don't think it's going to happen or I'd be surprised if it happened. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised. There's no meritocracy anymore. There's absolutely no meritocracy anymore. It's about who can sell, who can get subs, all that stuff and more. I saw an amazing video of the fans in Myanmar celebrating Joshua Vans win. If you're You're wondering just how much he means to these people. Look at this. I wish I could play the audio as well, but there's music, so we don't want to get dinged here.

But look at this. This is a compilation of people watching Joshua Van in Myanmar having that unbelievable performance against Setsuro Taira. Time is it in Myanmar. What's the time difference? time and me and Marr oh so they

they are from here they're about they're 13 hours ahead so if that fight's happening at 11 it is happening

in the morning over there that's why it's right yeah amazing stuff and I love the fact that he's able to go back

to he said he's going back to Thailand he's going back to where he was a refugee that's amazing he is going

to be a superstar if he keeps winning he's going to be one of the faces of the UFC in very short order

and that fight against Pantosia is going to be absolute must-see TV. I absolutely love that. Yesterday we were talking about the kits. And again, yes, oh, you're such a hater, you're such a hater. No, I speak common sense. I speak common sense. We don't just gorge on everything that is fed to us. We ask questions. We ponder. We wonder, does this really make sense? Here's Amin Zahabi, the pride of Montreal, reacting. And this was supposed to be. behind the UFC reacting to the American-themed kits that they are trying out and, of course, going to be asked to wear on the 14th of June on the White House lawn.

I feel it's a little too American for me. There's the Canadian stuff on these bad boys, man. It's very nice. We're just joking around. The shirt and the shorts are super cool. For me, it's a big honor. You know, it's a huge stage to be here. You know, Canadians and Americans are like brothers.

You know, sometimes around the ends or on the outs. They were family. This is so wild, man. Could you imagine, could you imagine asking Killian Mbapé? Hey, the World Cup's going to be in the U.S. You've got to wear a U.S. kit. No, I don't. Could you imagine asking Sidney Crosby?

Hey, here's the U.S. kit. Can you wear this jersey? Could you imagine asking anyone on the American team in 2010 when they're in Vancouver? Hey, can you wear this Canada jersey? No. if we're going to lean in to nationalism, then let people be patriotic. There's enough Americans.

We were wondering, okay, how are they going to make up for the fact that there's, like, not a card filled with Americans? Well, we'll just have everyone dress as Americans. What? There's Josh Hokit and Steve Garcia and Derek Lewis and Shugashon O'Malley, Justin Gaichie, Michael Chandler. There's enough Americans where you can have them rocking the American gear. then maybe the other guys rock, I don't know, something with like the Lincoln Memorial on there or the white, like, there's have to be stars and stripe. I think it's wild and you saw that initial reaction and who knows what else was cut out.

Like, can I at least get like a leaf on there? Can I at least represent my country? Which brought my family over? Where I call home, where my family's from, my wife, my kids, can I at least like, can I at least represent that as wild to me? That is wild. but, you know, good soldiers. And obviously they can't raise much of a stink when it comes to all of that. Yesterday, I didn't get to super chats. I do want to get to super chats. I do feel like that's important. I appreciate all the super chats very much.

And in fact, Frank was, he was cracking the whip. He was upset. He felt like I wasn't paying attention to his smoke signals. He was sending me smoke signals. He was like, oh, super touch before you go. And as I was, like, it was too late. It was too late at that point. So, Frankie, do we have any super chats?

Wow. We have extra loud. Yeah, wow. That was, if I wasn't awake, it is 10 o'clock in the morning over here. Yeah, I mean, you've been in here whispering. Yeah. The Gator 117, crazy they can't figure out the full cards. Moments like the Beersnake.

Chiasa, sorry, Kea says retirement. I'm starting to regret this now. I mean, at least when there's a visual, I can, like, process it. What is it going on? We'd been to retirement. We need to retirement. Golly. I'm struggling here. Oh, that they can't figure out the full cards on Paramount Plus.

Okay, Frank. How are you? Everything okay? Are you enjoying L.A.? I was until a few moments ago. Okay, so what are you trying to say? Who's this from? The Gator 117. Okay, thank you, Gator. And what else, Frankie? What else? Drew Clemens, 1417. Better to piss in the sink than to sink in the piss. Oh, that's a Dave Allen reference. People love Dave Allen on the program, right? They do. Yeah. And what else, Frankie? What else? Bob Tolick 8255. Cheryl and I have an amazing,

had an amazing time on Friday night. Thank you. Oh, legends. They were there. Yeah, Friday was great. Shout at the city winery. They were amazing. We met them beforehand. The crowd was great. That was so much fun. D.P. was great. People have asked me a couple of times if they can watch it. It's on our ex or my Facebook. My ex and my Facebook. Yeah, shout out to them. Thank you. and what else frankie what else uh personal stash 420 i bet strickland to win and when i saw the way in i doubted my bet really oh oh holy so it's a it's a different connotation when you say doubled or doubted you know they should have doubted yeah yeah the robot wren is the too sweet kiss bad oh i love how jordan's able to decipher everything

that Frank is saying here. I like the double-cheek kiss. That's what we do in Canada. But what is this in reference to? Who did it? Frank, do you remember? No. The best part about this is I can actually see Frank right now struggling through this

and questioning his life's choices. The chachat chicken was amazing. I was saying it was just falling right off the bone. What else, Frankie? What else? Elvis Gomez, 1226. Costa versus Comza. 205 number one contender division sucks.

I'm cool with that, but it sounds like he wants to stay at 185. What else, Frankie? What else? J. Rody 1-7, Dominic Cruz has had it right all or wrong. Even in his podcast intro, it says, you can love someone and still want to beat them up. He's not wrong. Yeah. Is that Dominique Wilkins or Dominic Cruz that was saying that? Cruz, okay.

Yeah. Speaks to truth as they say facts. What else, Frankie? What else? Mike PDMC. Yo, been supporting for a decade plus, but Maine. page at Sizantific mystic band.

Brandon said Ask Frank slash Ariel to free me from chat incarceration. Oh, that's not me. Shout out to Brandon. He was there. He was at the show.

I don't know about no incarceration. But here's what I do feel comfortable saying. If you are chat incarcerated, there's probably a good reason for it. What else, Frank? PCN love.

Rick's takes are just awful. He's the Timo version of Luke Thomas. Trash takes delivered with confidence. But Luke can it least breakdown fights. That's insane. I think Rick has the best takes in the business. We value his opinion. And yeah, I mean, he's an invaluable member of the team. So let me just tell you something. This whole ship goes down if he's not here with his takes. I just want to let you know that.

What else, Frankie? What else? Danny Alfaro 1988. I hate Sean Trash Talk most of the time too, but calling someone fight literally to exhaustion a coward. Bro, this ain't it, especially coming from a WWE fan. I love this coming from a WWE fan. Can you pick your stance? The mental gymnastics is amazing. You call me a WWE fan.

Here I am saying keep it real. I know what WWE is. This is not fake fighting. So if you guys are okay with someone just spewing the most amount of nonsense as possible, which by the way, I did say after the presser like, yeah, man,

you stood 10 toes down, as they say. You stood by your words. right, but you can't change that. And he goes on to say that like, ah, I went to war and I fought him and now I respect him. And that's, you know, that's something you can never understand. You can never do that. You've done nothing. You're a nobody. Like, I've just sat here in front of this fucking microphone my entire life. Like, I haven't done anything. I haven't overcome anything. I haven't built anything. I haven't experienced anything in my life, right? I'm just a guy sitting here for 44 freaking years. Excuse me. Excuse me as Chow would like to say, what does that have to do

with his mom. What does that have to do with Karirav? What does that have to do with his religion? What does that have to do with calling him a terrorist? Oh, now you don't think he's that? Like, what? It makes no sense. But I understand nothing I'm going to say is going to convince all of you otherwise because you have these self-fulfilling prophecies, these preconceived notions.

I get that. I get that. I get that. I mean, the insane ones. There are many sane ones who did reach out to me and say, yeah, I agree a thousand percent with what you said. But that's the beauty of America. Let me tell you some of you guys. of America is that everyone can have a bad opinion. And you can tell people that you hate so and so, and then you can tell them, no, I just said that so I can get you to sign up for Paramount Plus and watch me fight on a Saturday night. What else, Frankie? What else?

Dzing underscore Zach. Rogan's take that Gomez arguably won the first round is crazy. Am I right, New Jersey? Yeah, you're right. I saw a video of some guy who got into an argument with William Gomes's family and then they got kicked out or something like that. That's crazy. Anyway, what else? What else? Ezra Betancourt. Bet me 20 bucks. Connor does not make the walk. Connor McGregor? I believe that.

Look, I can't tell you, I thought maybe Connor Berks. I can't tell you if he's actually going to fight. I could tell you there is a fight and it's going to be signed at some point. But who the hell knows? This idea This idea that Connor pulls out of fights is crazy He's only done it once

And it was his last fight So you must be new What else, Frankie? What else? Turner Take Down I know yesterday You said that McGregor Fight is close to the coal line

What is the holdup? Why hasn't McGregor signed his end? When announcement? These things take time, man There's negotiations, there was change in the contract, There's changing the deal. It's a thing.

Don't worry. Sorry. In two time. What else, Frank? What else? Sammy dash J6 Z3S. Ariel, you and your team work ethic is one of the best. No, no.

Fortunately, there are always going to be haters. No, we don't do anything. We've never done anything. Stop. Frank, stop. That come on your show. No. And we.

Nah, no. We never accomplish anything. Respect. No. That was a lot. Oh, okay. Keep going, Frank. The Gator 117. Shout out Frank's reaiding. That was a good one. Oh, that was a good one.

What else, Frankie? What else? Ben Dover dash UQ7NN. Please, sir, I want some more. What else, Frankie? What else? That was all of them. Okay. What's this in the chat? This MFer, Frank, never beating the reading allegations from Connor underscore Bergs. I mean, he's not wrong.

Slido then says LOL. And then Connor Burke says, worse than Mayweather, that's too far. He needs to apologize for that. That is apology worthy. I literally can't read. Yesterday, my friends, we went to the Santa Monica Pier, beautiful Santa Monica Pier.

It was myself. It was G.C., it was Eric. It was on-air Jordan. It was Gabe, new member of the team, part of our L-A-H-Q. Wasn't Frank, wasn't Andy. But they were there in spirit, and we had a fantastic.

time. Take a look. All right, friends. Beautiful Monday evening. In Santa Freaking Monica? What a life. I mean, just look at this. The pier, the palm trees, the aroma, the breeze, the breeze, the people. It's a great life. We're having a great time here in Los Angeles.

A lot of the members of the team have never actually been here before. Could you believe it? They haven't actually lived. So we're going to try out, check out the sights and sounds. maybe try a few rides, hopefully not throw up, eat some food, it's gonna be sick. It's gonna be rad. It's gonna be chill. I forgot one.

It's gonna be hella cool. Tubular, do they say these things on the West Coast? The Smonika Pier is the locals say, yeah? The SMP. Do they actually say that? Yes, of course, man. Holy shit. Drapa dog.

Back in 2010, we were at the Vancouver Olympics. Casey and I, much younger 16 years ago to be exact. and this was a phenomenon, and there were people chewed around the block to get their hands on Jabber Dog. It was like one of the main attractions in Vancouver, and so I guess they've expanded. I guess they're doing well.

Okay, cut to that scene in three, two, one. If you're coming to British Columbia for the 2010 Winter Olympics, forget about checking out the Olympic flame or even one of the events. We're told they're kind of overrated. What apparently isn't overrated, though, are Japodogs.

Yes, people in Vancouver have been waiting up 90 minutes just to sink their teeth into Japanese hot dogs. Let's investigate. So what, you want to do a game or two? The matchup is G.C. fighting out of Athens, Georgia by way of Atlanta? Macon? Cod County?

Atlanta. Just fighting out of it. Representing the ATL going up against transplant Los Angelino by way of Houston, Texas. G.C. versus E.K.C. Feelings, thoughts? It's a no contest. He's going to smoke me. I just, my goal is to make the 45 seconds to get a small prize. He's going for two minutes to get this fucking Pikachu right here.

Oh, yes. The ultimate goal. How old, how old? 32. Versus? 48. 48? 48?

Is that true? You fucking bullshit. Yeah, this guy. Okay, this is crazy. You hung out in Seattle. I thought this guy was fucking 42. This is, this is, this is Randy Couture against Tom Aspinall. I got a bad shoulder.

My rotator cuff is fucked beyond belief. I'm built for bikes. I'm built for speed. I'm not built for this. All right, here we go, here we go. Forget Gina versus Ronda. Forget UFC 328. This is the most anticipated matchup of the week, of the month.

Young man G.C. Old man E.K.C. From the Santa Monica Pier. Hang time. Uncrowned edition. What I think is going to happen? I think GC's actually gonna shock the world. All right.

I think GC's gonna shock the world. This dude's doing pull-ups right now. E. Casey's doing pull-ups right now on you. Just for fun. What am I at? 14 seconds. Here we go. I didn't even realize it started.

How you feeling? How you feeling? How you feeling, Casey? Casey's in a Zen state right now. He's flowing. My hands are so slippery. Don't, don't think about it. Just give me to 45.

I need that lava. Yo, Casey's struggling a little bit. Casey's struggling. 30? Look at Casey. Look at Casey's struggling. He's in a flow stay right now. Casey's meditating. This is insane. I've never seen a performance like this before. He is actually meditating. Look about that two minutes, Casey. Pikachu.

Yo, you're at 45 seconds. You're past your best. You're past your best. Think of being on a nice beach. Chill like Pita Colada. Look at those arms. You're right there. You're right there. You're five seconds away from a minute. You're five seconds away. Casey has not fucking moved this guy. This guy is stoic. I've never seen any. Look at this. Look at Casey. No, no, no, no, no.

Hold on, you're at 105. Go to 110. Get to 115. Get to 115. Get to 115. Get the 115. Okay, okay. Okay.

He's still there, Casey. He's still there. He's still there. Don't fight it. Don't fight it, Casey. He's still there. Oh, wow. Wow.

All right, all right. Congratulations. Put the belt on. You talked about moral victory. You got the 45 and then some. I was closer to beating him than I thought. Connor. Wow!

That's how you do it. What does he get? What does he get? He gets one for his bride. One of the all-time great performances. Come on. I want to rematch. You won the first one.

Yeah, that's how bad the beef is. You beat me, but I still want the rematch. Here we go, here we go. Beautiful Santa Monica. This is the Pacific. ocean in case you didn't know what a life out here huh the joke's on us LA sports teams may suck but their beaches do not okay where are we going I'm back here Casey you're gonna be able to record like that throw your hands up in the

air no this is nothing this is the baby so they took our camera away But as you saw Rick snuck his phone to get some footage. I think on air is a little bit shook right now. He's keeping it together. Vertigo. This dude almost lost his... He almost lost his disposable, but we made it. We survived all as well.

All right, we each get one shot. We're at the basketball station. We're each getting one shot. There's five of us. Pressure's on. Jordan's up first. All right, Jordan, here we go. Mitchell Robinson.

Ready! Oh my god! Alright. I'm shooting right off Kedge, right off Ketch. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Here it is. Yeah. It looked nice.

Here's Mr. New York, Rick. Oh, that's good! Oh! All right, we're 0 for 3! Yeah, here we go. This is how we do it in the 514, all right? That looks so good. Another round?

Another round? Ah! One more, one more. One more, one more, one more. One more. That's for all the haters out there. Dude, New York Knicks basketball. Okay, what are we getting?

What are we getting? Where's your Knicks up? This was made for me. This was made for me. Oh, sorry, sorry. Let's go. They said I was toast, but I'm still the fucking bread. Here we have the Santa Monica Funhouse.

This has always been a dream of Connors to do this. And so Casey's going to join him. and they're going to report back to us. Stay tuned. Oh, shit. Whoa, shit. All right, we ready to go in the clown's mouth? Oh, fuck.

Woo! Ah! It's that! Oh, shit. Casey! Casey! Ah! That was,

that was, you're not kidding. That is claustrophobic as fuck. I don't fuck with that. Don't let it close. Okay. Woo! Oh, fucking Christ.

Making me a little bit dizzy. Eesh. I don't fuck with this at all. Ah! You see that fucking hand? Where are the strings that we pull? This is fucking terrifying. There's nothing fun about this.

What's there? What's right? Whoa! Oh God, no. Hey, Jesus. Oh, fuck. Shit, this way, this way, this one. This way, hold on.

This way, this way, bro. No, no, no, this way. Get the fuck out of here. Don't go a different way than me. You fucker. No, this is a dead end. This is a dead end. Yeah, dead it.

We're getting here. Come on. Right, left, left. Left, left. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we're good, we're good. We gotta go through this? Thank you, man.

Wow. Holy shit. That was fucking. That was fucking way crazy than I was fucking way crazier than I was expecting. God damn. I'd say this was a successful trip to the Smonica pier. Look at that. Is that not beautiful?

Wow, look at that, bro. That's a silhouette. What a life. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Actually, we just realized the skate park is too far. For the record, I want to go. Yeah, I don't. None of us do.

But these guys... A mile down and a mile down. So during the show, when they say that I'm not down, when I'm not DTF, just remember this moment, all right? Just remember this moment. Just remember this moment. Remember when he says it's not DTF to walk a mile down and a mile back? Just remember, I'm actually going to go myself because these are my people.

I got my SBs. I'm ready to go. I'm about that life. Okay, now we're heading down to the skate park. Fucking two-hour walk. You're going to get, this is the, yo, this is the guy earlier today where it was 70 degrees. he's like, I think I'm going to get hypothermia. Once that sun goes down, you're fucked, bro.

I'll catch you all on the flip. See ya. And there it is. Look at that. Look at that right there. That's what I won with that sweet. I did the LeBron. I should have done the, what was it?

This, this, this. I should have done that. I should have done that for Jalen. Damn it. That was great. That was a lot of fun. We're going to Dodger Stadium. If you're at the game tonight, pull up.

I'll be wearing my Blue Jays hat. much more of that goodness to come. For now, though, let us welcome our first guest still to come, by the way. Travis Barker, Michael Hearn, Nathan Diaz, Nikisa Baderian, a magician. But let's talk to a man

who will be competing on this MVP MMA card. This Saturday at the Intuit Dome, it's the return of Chris Avila. Is he there? Yeah. In the house, my man.

How are you, my man? Please have a seat. Have a seat. Welcome to our L.A. Studio. It's not bad here, right? No, it's cool. It's nice. Please, speaking to the mic, I know it's a little early in the morning. Is this early for you? It is. Are you annoyed? No, I'm good. Okay. I know you guys don't, like you're, I was talking to Nate on Sunday and he said that you guys, I don't know if you were a part of this, but he said that he went for a run at like 10, then he gets his hair cut, then he drives down to L.A. from Stockton, middle of the night, he gets in at 7 a.m. Do you do that sort of thing? Is your body clock on that sort of?

schedule yeah i was riding with them so especially right now for the camp yeah um i'm kind of been running late like nocturnal sure do you like that i don't mind it it's cool i um i'm used to it now because uh it's kind of always been like that actually but i'm been trying to get myself used to being up early because my fight is actually early at three o'clock so i'm kicking the show off i'm starting off the fight I'm the fight card so first on the first of the night so the day I'd say so I've been trying to get myself up early and my body moving so I'm used to so I'm ready to fight at three o'clock so first kind of broke away no okay do your own thing yeah but I'm still up all night with them so did you do the whole camp in

in Stockton we did well so we go um we We did a little bit here in L.A., but mostly in Stockton. Okay. Yeah. First M.MA fight in about five years. Yeah. Is the training different? Yeah.

There's a lot more to do, actually. So, yeah, I haven't fought MMA since 2021. Yeah. But, like, I'm always training Jiu-Jitsu all. And so, but with all those boxing fights I had, I was... doing what a boxer should be doing. But I was also training. I'm also training Jiu-Jitsu all the time.

And kicking and a lot of other things too. But yeah, there's a lot more to do now. So what do you like better? Training for an M-M-A fight or a boxing? I'd say M-A. But I'm also a boxer too. Sure, sure. But why M-M-A?

Because some would say it just feels right. It feels right to me. You know, it's like, it's more satisfying. Win or lose. I know I put in like the full camp the full arsenal is on display yeah it's like boxing

um like it's not I don't feel like it's like cheating because I think I it's because I fought MMA for so long then going into boxing it's like

after after a fight and then like a win I'm just like where's that satisfaction at like I don't really feel it's not the same really because no it's not it's not not it's not

I don't know. I thought you would get the satisfaction for boxing only because you came from MMA. You had a nice run, a very good run in boxing, and so you were proving the doubt is wrong. Often when people go from MMA to boxing, they don't have success. Well, I started as a boxer. But you're sort of viewed as an MMA fighter, right? I'm viewed as an MMA fighter, but I should be viewed as a boxer.

But I'm not a boxer. I'm an MMA fighter going into boxing. So with this fight, I'm going to show people that I'm... MMA fighter, but I'm also a boxer. Because I still got an unfinished business in boxing. So I got a lot of people I do want to fight in boxing and also with MMA. So I plan on doing good this fight and showing people that I can really fight. And I'm a martial, a real martial artist.

And so that's what this fight's about. And yeah. I was going to ask you if you do well, as you expect, to do on Saturday. Do you stick with MMA, but it sounds like you want to go back? I'm down for both. But I do want to stick to one thing. But, yeah, I just, I was doing good in boxing. So I do want to go back to boxing right after this fight. Who do you want to fight there? There's a few names out there. Like who? I know that I had talks with a while back after I beat Pettis. He wanted a rematch. So I wouldn't

Wouldn't mind running that one back. I would like to run back with Ben's and Henderson. Yeah. Since I didn't do what I wanted to do there, and I lost a little split decision. So I would like to run it back with Ben Henderson and Pettus. There's some names and misfits I would like to go and get. I want to go, I want to fight Tony Ferguson for, I want to challenge him for his belt that he has. as old.

Okay. I like that. That's the one I want next. Okay. Other than that, there's a lot of names out there too. You like misfits? I don't mind them. They treat you well?

They do. Yeah. Yeah. I got nothing bad to say about them. Okay. An MVP as well. MVP as well, yeah. This is probably what my fifth is six time fighting for them.

So they treat me well as well. You're one of the few guys that actually goes back and forth between the misfits and MVP. I know. That's cool. It's crazy. That is cool. That is love. So that's cool.

Cool. Yeah, misfits. MVP, I want to fight for them again too. So, yeah, MMA or... Right. Or boxing. Or boxing. This is a big deal. This card is a big deal for the sport. It is. Someone coming out and trying to... I don't know if it's compete with the UFC or whatever you want to say, but just to have an alternative out there on such a big platform. Yeah. How do you feel about its chances of succeeding in not just being a one and done, but an actual thing, a sustainable thing? I think they're going to do good. This fight is going to do good.

They got big names on there. It's an honor to fight under Rhonda Rousey, Gina, Nate, and all the guys up there, Frances and all of them. Yeah. So I appreciate even being on the card, which is cool. But I think they're going to do good. You think so? Yeah, for sure.

So what's the first Netflix? may as well. Massive. That's awesome. That is pretty cool. How's Nate been? I saw the picture of him. He looks to be in incredible shape.

What can you tell us? He's looking really good. He seems motivated. He seems into it. He is. Yeah. I think he has a lot that he wants to get going, you know? So he's always, he's always got a full plate.

So he's, I think he wants to show people. I don't know, you know, he's, no, he's looking good though. Okay. I don't know. I can't really. I know you don't want to say too much. I can't really speak for him or what, but he's looking good, and I know he's going to do good too. Were you familiar?

Your opponent is Brandon Jenkins. Were you familiar with him before he was offered to you? I feel like I heard of his name. I've probably seen him around, but I wasn't too familiar with him. until I looked them up. They gave me a little, a little window of opponents to select them. Okay.

Wow, that's respect. Yeah. They gave you the honor. How many names were there? There was a few. Four or five? Okay. And so you picked him?

Yeah, because I think he's the hardest fight out of the guys. Respect. So what did you do? You took the names and then you went and looked at tape? Yeah. I mean, not really. Okay. I feel like he, I know he got some good fights.

Like, he's in karate combat a lot. Yeah. He did UFC. Yeah, a couple times. UFC a couple times. PFL. And the way he fights, he, he's exciting, kind of. And I want to fight someone who's going to put on it.

Like, you know, I go. So a lot of people would pick the easiest fight. Yeah. Why did you pick the hardest fight? Yeah. Well, I don't know who the other names are. Yeah, he has knockouts. Yeah.

Who were some of the other names? No. I couldn't tell you, really. You didn't know. He's the one with, it's not that I wanted any kind of name like that, but I wanted a tough fight. So if I'm going to come back, I want a good fight. So, like, to M. Sure, sure, sure.

But you know what I'm saying, right? Some people might say, like, let me get the most winnable fight. Yeah, no. No, there were guys that, like. You knew? I didn't really know him, but. Like, I don't want to fight any boring wrestler guy. Right.

Just I want to fight someone that's going to fight. I want to put on a good fight for everybody. I think a lot of people are going to watch your fight because they're curious how it's going to look, what the production is going to be, the cage. You're the first one, right? Do you feel any sort of pressure to not come out of the gate and, you know, like, make it like a sort of like, you always want to have an exciting thing. You want to win. Yeah. You feel any type of pressure to set the tone.

off the bat for the promotion and I don't. Yeah. I do and then I don't. What's kind of been bugging me this week is Tell me. The odds. Oh. So what are they? They got me in a big underdog. For real.

I don't care. Yeah, it's pretty embarrassing. That's crazy. Fuck all those people think I'm going to lose. So you look at this stuff. I mean, I got people, I got friends and everybody. That's always a big bet. So you're a plus 275, moderate, I think people would say. Yeah, I guess.

But that annoys you. Apparently, I have not a big chance of winning. Yeah, that's messed up. That's all good. I don't care. So what, your friends tell you? Yeah. I would never bet on my friends.

But my friend, I ain't chirping. So, but yo, they can make money. Yeah, exactly. Because you're the dog. Yeah. But would you rather not know? I'd rather not know. Yeah.

Well, I'm trying to get that. But I don't care. But that's good. A little motivation, a little fuel, disrespect. Yeah. Put that in the engine. Yeah, so make things better. Yeah.

Yeah, I plan on getting a good win. Maybe it's because you just haven't fought an MMA in five years, so they don't know what version of used. But when I was fighting an MMA, it wasn't the prettiest. I was have a lot of decision losses. Yeah. And I was fighting at 145. The last five years, I've been boxing all that, like, Pet has been here. Henderson, all the guys I've been putting on good boxing fights was all 175.

I even fought at 85. Crazy. So this fights at 65. And this is around my normal walk around weight and I feel like I perform a lot better, fighting heavier than cutting all the way down to 45. I don't think I'll ever cut to 45 again. I wouldn't mind doing 55. I think I could fit.

I could make 55. So if I were to do a, I would like to make a run back to UFC if I could. If I stick with MMA, I feel like UFC is like where to be, right? Or... What about MVP? MVP. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I was getting right there, too.

I'm not shitting on MMP. No, no, I know. But, you know, like, I want to fight the best. They're the established thing. Yeah, no, I got you. What did it be nice if they had a 65 division? This has been talked about for like 10 years now. Exactly, yeah.

You could do 55, 65 and then just bump Walterway to 75. Yeah. And now you've got 85, 205. Kind of like boxing almost on. I think they're going to see. stick with the 55. I think so. I think so. This is a nice little catchway right in between.

I think there are enough guys, though, who are sort of in between 55 and 70 that would be perfect for that 65. There's a lot of them out there. Right? Yeah. 100%. How much more, how much longer do you want to do this for? I mean, you're still young, but I feel like we've known about you and seen you for so long.

You're 33, right? I am 33. But age is just a diagnosis. Yeah. What a line, man. That was a freaking banger right there. That was a bang. Golly.

I never heard that before from Nate. It makes sense. It does make sense. But he says... People diagnose themselves with... People get diagnosed with sicknesses and things like age. And they act a certain way and they get scared. And I don't want to say to me.

Like, no, I don't want to put me... Like, bad jujul. But you know what I'm saying? Like, go to the doctor. Let them tell you. Like, oh, yeah, you got to do this, do that. You're sick with that. You, they diagnosed you.

You should know your own body. Oh, yeah. Do you go to the doctor? I don't. You don't? No. No yearly checkup? No.

Blood pressure. I mean, hey. I feel like you. If I'm dying and I've got a broken bone or something, then yeah, take me in. But I try to take care of myself and I tried not to get sick and I don't normally get sick. So, not. Yeah, yeah. But obviously for these fights, you do have.

to do some sort of... Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you kind of have the benefit of, like, go to the doctor. Yeah, I get my blood work done. I get out. We're clear. We're good. Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah. Yeah, I try to take care of myself as best I can't eat correctly. No cheat meals? Well, fuck, I got on MVP posted something today, which I filled it out the other day. It said, like, it's the tail of the tape. Oh, my opponent and me. It's for Netflix. It's a cheat meals.

Yeah, yeah. I put Indian food. Okay. And he put, I don't know, he put pudding or something. But is Indian food cheap meal? I would say it would be cheap meal. It's heavy? No, because it's a lot of, what, sauces, yeah, yeah.

Sources, things like that. I know if I ate that right now, I'd blow up. You would? Yeah. Okay. Clean diet right now. Okay. Sodium is low.

So, so, like when Nate says he's going to fight forever, do you feel the same way? You're going to fight forever? Yeah. Is that what you want? Or is there a part of you that says at one point? Nobody wants to fight forever. But I feel like some people do. Some people do, yeah.

I feel like he does. No? Yeah. I mean, yeah, fight forever too. I don't know if there's something else you want to do in life. Do you have goals? Yeah, well, my goal is I don't want to stop fighting yet. Obviously, I have a lot of things that I want to accomplish still.

So with, like, fighting, I want to, I want to, I want big, like, I want to work. my way up to big fights. Maybe like, you know, show, show people that I could be a champion. Like, something along those lines, you know what I'm saying? Like, I want to be a champion. I want to make good pay, you know? Like, something to where I feel like I made it. And so I could live with that.

I don't want to just be like, because I ain't done much yet, so I still have a lot to prove. How old are you when you started? Fighting Pro. I win pro at 20. Yeah, man. So, yeah. And then I did those two UFC fights. Like, I was 23.

Kind of not fair. Unexperienced. Yeah. Now I'm 33 and I'm in. Do you wish in retrospect that it didn't happen so soon that your first impression? No, I feel like it worked out for the better. Okay. Because now, and I haven't stopped training since, and I've always been fighting,

win or lose. And now that. It's kind of catching up with me in a good way that I can beat guys like an Anthony Pettis and Benz and Henderson and guys like that, you know, that I can compete with those guys. And I am good on that level, like boxing, you know what I'm saying? Like I fought Anthony Pettis. He just came off a fight and just beat Roy Jones Jr. And then I fought him next and I beat him. So, yeah, I feel like it's paying off.

with experience-wise. What about Hollywood, Chris? You were in a movie, right? Oh, yeah. With Theo Vaughn? Theo Vaughn. Bush boys? Bus boys.

Bus boys. Busboys. Tomatoes mouth. Bushlight. Yeah, look at you guys. There it is. How did this come about? So in the movie.

Have you seen it yet? I haven't seen it. Is it out yet? It's in theaters. Okay. Wow, okay. So how did the opportunity for you come about? They were looking for the two, I could say, bad guys, not bad guys.

It's a comedy. So they wanted Nate in it, and then it was just going to be two. Yeah, there we are. There's going to be two of, I guess, the bad guys in the movie. Okay. And then, like, well, his friend Chris can play the other role of being. So me and Nate got the role on that part of the movie. And so it's about David Spade and Theo Vaughan.

They're like two broke kids. David Spade's girlfriend leaves him for a bus boy. And he's like, I know how to get the girls. So they go and become busboys. And then they're in me and Nate's town. And we're just like, boom, bam, bam. I love it. They have a part two.

We told them we got to be good guys. Okay, yeah, of course. Because at heart, you are good guys. Exactly. Did you enjoy the experience? Yeah, it was really cool, actually. Yeah. Some people complain, like, ah, in the movie set, they make you come at like seven in the morning and you sit around.

The first scene we did was at 7 a.m. Yeah. Had you, Nate Diaz showed up at 7 a.m.? I don't believe it. I'm about eight. Okay, yeah. And what about it? Like, you enjoyed?

Did you have lines? Yeah, it was quick. We did. Yeah, like the last three scenes. Okay, okay. Wow. Which took a minute to get used to. Yeah.

You never done that before. We lied on our resumes, I guess. Yeah. Deal of one, we did the podcast with him a month or two ago, and he was like, so tell me y'all's acting experience and don't lie. Yeah. Because y'all's manager told us that, you know. And then Nate goes, he told you, he told you we had.

acting experience? He goes, yeah, do you guys not? And he's like, no, he's like, we're real. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It's very funny, actually. But we did good. Did you watch it? The finished product? No. I saw some scenes. Is it getting good reviews? I think so. It was top

10. Hell yeah. Top 10 and something like that. You want to do more of this? Yeah, I want to be in part two. Just that? What about other things? Yeah, I would like to be in a movie. Yeah, I mean, you were in a movie. Yeah, a lot of people could say that. That is pretty cool.

What a life, man. That's awesome. Could you have imagined this as a kid all this stuff that you're doing? No, no. No, no. Not really. What did you think you were going to be as a kid? Like, what was the goal?

What was the dream? I was like, I'm going to fight, honestly. Serious? I swear. I was like, I was in school. I didn't do good in school. And I didn't pay attention. I'm not trying to sound cool or no.

No, no. But that's just how it was. Yeah. I was like, fuck, I want to train or do you. I honestly didn't know what I was going to do. How old are you when you were saying you were going to fight? I was in like seventh grade. Oh, that young, huh?

Yeah, middle school is when I started like getting in trouble. So I was like, well. So I would always see, because I'm from Stockton. Yes. So I went to school in Stockton. And I was a big UFC fan at the time. And that's when like Chuck LaDale era and all that stuff. Yeah.

Like Nick Diaz, like Randy Couture. Yeah, probably around then. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, before then, too. 0405? Because I remember watching Tito, Ortiz, and Chuck Liddell, those fights, and Randy Couture.

I was a big Chuck Lidl fan. Yeah, of course. And I like Chuck Ladell. And then anyways, my friend are going to laugh about that. Why, why, why? There's an inside joke there. Oh, okay.

Funny. All right. Let me talk about it. But so, yeah, but then I saw Nick and Nate. I didn't know who they were until I was like, there's UFC fighters from Stockton. And then I was always on Facebook and MySpace. And I was like, oh, I would always like, look, check. And then that's when I started running.

I would hang out at this little shopping center over in off Ben Holt and Stockton. There's a 24-hour fitness. There's a McDonald's. And we all lived across the street. Okay. So, Nate, that's when Nate was, he just won the Ultimate Fighter. Okay. And I was like probably a freshman or something in high school.

Okay. Anyways. So then I started knowing up both of them. And then me and my friends would always hang out at McDonald's. And we'd always run into Nate. He would always be at 24-hour fitness. Late night, we'd be kicking it out at McDonald's all. And then I saw it and then I started, we'd always chop it up with them.

as he was going into the gym. And then I don't know. And then I was just like, oh, damn. So they're right here. So then as I got a little older, like throughout high school, I was like, I made my way there and I got in. And I got myself in. I just started training there.

So then from there, we became cool and stuff like that. Was there an initiation process? There was. I was, what was that like? Nate, like, Nick kind of brought me in a little bit

because I was boxing at the time. I had a boxing coach. And then, long story short, my dad ran into Nick and I was like, hey, my son,

boxes, so he's like, give him my number. So I hit up Nick. Nick was like, come spar. Oh. I sparred Nick.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And then, how old are you at this? I was in 10th grade. Gully. Intimidating? It was.

I had... That's a legend in front of you. I got to the gym that day and Nick's in there, like, warming up. He's, like, fighting, like, St. Pierre or something at the time. Oh, my dear. And I had my... It was me and my homie, Greg, and we're high. And I'm like, we're just all some little stoner high schools, but I was training at the time.

And then he's like... And he's, Nick's in there, shadow boxing, warming up, and he's with Richard Perez. Yeah. And I'm just, oh, shit. Like, what I would, like, I'm about to spar. And then, uh. Had you ever sparred anyone before?

Yeah, I sparred a lot of boxers and stuff like that. But then it's like Nick Diaz. So I'm like, oh, shit. So then I'm sure he was taking that easy on me. Yeah, how'd it go? It went good. Yeah. And then, um, how many rounds did you spar?

I think we, we did a lot. I think we were like six or eight or something. Okay. But, and so then I would always hit him up. I'm like, what a, uh, uh, uh, I want to come back and train. He would always be like, come at this time, do this, do that. He would always direct me and tell me what, and he would be like,

you can go and spar my brother. Then I, nay, I was like, who the, like, well, yeah. Yeah, so then I sparred nay. How'd that go? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, same, same, same, same, same, same, but different. Yeah, no. No.

No. Yeah, I don't think so. But, so, yeah, when I went into Spartan, Nate, he was in there warming up with Richard. And it would only be, like, him and Richard and a couple, like, two other guys in there all the time. So it was more intimidating. It was all quiet in there. And I was like, fuck. And then, but, yeah, so me and Nate sparred.

And then I started doing jihitsu. So I did not stop doing jihitsu after that. So then Nate was always like, I was a boxer. It was pretty good. And then I was always in jih Tzu class every night. And they're like, if you want to fight, you know, fight MMA.

So then I, that's where I started. That's why I was young when I went pro and stuff like that. But my like background wasn't the prettiest. You know what I'm saying? Like going into MMA, you usually got the guys who succeed are a good college wrestler, you know, high or Olympic or something, you know, like blackbell jiu-jitsu. So those are the guys that you got to look out.

Sure. They do really good. Do you have a youngster who are reaching out to you now and you're trying to like pay it back? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. There's guys out there. A lot of the kids who are at home too. They train and stuff like that and ask questions.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you still keep in touch with Nick? I've seen him recently. he's floating around. You're doing all right? Yeah, he's always cool when I've seen him. So I'm sure he'll be here.

Okay, amazing, amazing. And as far as, as far as like how you think this fight is going to go, I know you say that you picked this opponent. I know you say that you want to remind people who you are. You've been away for five years as far as Eminemase concerned. Great run in boxing. What do you think? How does it play out?

Well, I plan on doing pretty good. either goes to the ground or stand up. I'm looking to get a good win. I'm looking to either finish him in one way or another. I'm planning on finishing this guy. So that's my goal. I know he comes to fight. He comes forward.

I come forward. So it's going to be cool. You know what I like about this? You guys can have your own sponsors. That is cool. Aren't you doing something with Echo? I am. That's sick.

That's old school. sponsorships on my chunks. This time I got Santa Cruz skateboarding. Oh, that's awesome. That's huge. Yeah, and I got Santa Cruz, I got Echo, and I got some local ones back home, Sun Run. This is so good, man, because it is pretty cool. KFL, you can't do that. UFC, you can't do that. I hate that the fighters and MMA for like the top dogs companies can't do that. This is great. I can't wait to, I never thought I'd miss the sponsors on the

shorts, but I kind of miss them. Tells the story of who you are and what you represent. What do you mean? What? Sponsorships? Yeah, I feel like, you know, like when DJ had Microsoft, it was like, oh, these guys from Seattle, when John Jones had Nike, that was a big deal. You having Santa Cruz.

Okay, you're a Cali guy, you know? Yeah, NorCal. Yeah. Yeah, that is cool. Santa Cruz is a big one. I like it. That's a huge. I grew up on that.

How'd you get that? So, we were on our way to Theo Vaughn podcast and Venice. We were staying in Venice. We were going to his studio that he had. here in L.A. I forgot where. But anyways, I was like, I need a shirt because I had just got into L.A. and we had to go to the podcast, and I was like, let me stop.

I stopped at a smoke shop. I grabbed me a Santa Cruz shirt. So then they saw the podcast and they contacted me. And they're like, hey, yeah, they're like, hey, bro, we saw your rep at us. Let me show some love back. Come on the trunk. So now. That's crazy.

on the trunks. Dude, that's amazing. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Shout out to Santa Cruz. It's kind of crazy. You didn't come here wearing a, like, a shirt, and you could have gotten a sponsor off that. I know. Right. Fuck. You could have come wearing, like, new balance or something. You like that album? What up, Doctor.

Yeah. Get a beat sponsorship or something, right? Drive-by beats. Yeah. Hell yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, that is awesome. We tried to LAify the studio, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Oh, what's up with Travis Parker? We even got your name up there. Yeah, he's coming. Oh, he's coming. He's coming today, yeah. Do you know what time? At 1.30 Pacific. Oh, nice.

So in like a couple hours. Nice. What's going on with him? He's the freaking man. He loves him of a man. He's going to the fight, right? He's going to the fight, right? I hope so.

I'm going to ask him. He's a diehard fan. Who else is going to the fight? It should be some cool people. Yeah, for sure. Who do you like, Ronda or Gina? I like them both. No, I mean, like, who should wins?

Oh, I didn't think Rhonda. Yeah. Yeah. Gina's the underdog too. Yeah, Rhonda. Gina's over there training with my. Oh, that's right. She's at syndicate where Brandon trains.

Yeah. Is this syndicate? Yeah, that's what I thought. In Vegas. Trying to girls. No, I don't think. Oh, gosh. You're crazy.

You're crazy. Yeah, Rhonda's a homie. Yeah, for sure. Well, it was good to see you, man. Yeah, I appreciate you for stopping by. No, this is great. This is great. I'm so happy that you're back in MMA.

You did a great thing in boxing. say that that's done. No. It's not. Neither has ever made. Hell yeah. Keep doing your thing. Much love to you.

Thank you. And I can't wait to see you back in action on Saturday night. He is, by the way, Avala or Avala? I always say a Vila, but then people say Avala. You can say however you want because I honestly don't know the real. What do you say? What do you say? I say Vila.

I say Vila. A lot of people say Avila. Yeah. Sounds just normal. Yes, yes. I mean, I'm going with a Vila. Cool. And then I'm doing the post-fight interviews, so hopefully we could be in there together.

First one. Yeah, I'll make sure I get an interview with you that night. We'll take a quick break. We'll be in with Michael Hearn. You know Michael Hearn? This dude is gigantic. He's a big guy. You're about to see him.

Gigantic. He's going to join us in studio. Don't go anywhere. We'll take a quick break and be back with Michael Hearn. All right. That was my conversation with Ronda Rousey from Yale yesterday. It's up on the channel now. It was amazing.

It was great. reunited and it feels so good it was amazing has to go to the bathroom is that what you said? All right, all right. So that was amazing. Chris Avila,

you know what I noticed, Frank? I'm so used to having the cough under the table. Yeah. I can't see, I keep reaching for it. I see that. It's funny. What do I do about that?

I just got a cough. There he go. Shout to chikern over here. He's amazing. Finn Scully. I changed the thing back here. This says NWA. You didn't like the drag?

Straight out of Compton. No, but I want to switch it up, you know? Different, uh, different look. Um, shout out to Chris Avila. He's going to join us. Travis Barker's going to join us in studio. Nikisa Baderian. In about an hour,

Nate Diaz. Amazing stuff plus some special cameos. In about a few seconds, we're going to be joined by Internet legend, a living legend. I said, at the beginning of the day, the greatest physical specimen in the history of physical specimens. I mean, this guy, he, I can't believe we're going to be in his presence.

Is he going to be able to fit in this chair over here? It's a tight chair. I can't wait. He's got a small waist, I think. I mean, he's fit. He's absolutely jacked. Four-time Mr. Universe champion. Mr. Universe Hall of Famer.

Wasn't everything from Gladiators, American Gladiators, excuse me, play Titan in American Gladiators, model, content creator, YouTuber, actor, fitness coach, guru, martial arts, enthusiast. He's one of a kind. I can't wait to meet Michael O'Hurne.

Is he actually here? Is Michael O'Hern actually here? I don't believe it. He is actually here. Wow. Unbelievable. What a great honor to meet you. This is amazing.

Please have a seat. Michael O'Hern. Mike or Michael? What do you prefer? Either. Either. You are a specimen, my friend. This is amazing.

You're too kind already. I can't believe we're actually... This is it, man. This is it. In person. You want this off the table? Yeah, that's fine right here. We're live right now, you know that.

Awesome. Okay. Let's rock and roll, man. Are you comfortable? I'm good. You're good? I'm good. I was worried that you wouldn't be able to fit here because you're so big.

You are something. You've been killing it. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. But you've been killing it for a long time. It's been nice to watch. As have you. as have you, my friend.

I've been here since the dark ages. You know what's crazy about you? So we're here in L.A. We usually do the show in New York. We're here because of the Netflix card on Saturday. And I've been trying to get like an L.A. feel to the show. So we're in this studio. We've got L.A.

themed stuff. And I'm like, okay, I need more L.A. theme. You know, there used to be a lot of guys used to train here, not as much, M.MA, this and that. And there I am, Sunday morning, Instagram. You send me a video. Yeah.

And I was like, holy shit, Michael O'R. And then I asked you, do, I didn't even respond to what you sent me. And we'll get to what you sent me in a moment. I completely, I was like, wait a second, do you live in L.A.? Yes, you do. And now here you are. I feel like something was working in the stars here to bring this together.

It's a bromance. It was just a hit. That's crazy, man. You're from Washington. How long have you actually lived in L.A. for? Late 80s. Late 80s. This is your spot.

This is it. Got brought down by, remember Joe Weeder? It's creator of body brain. I need to talk to you about Joe Weeder. Montreal boy. I'm a Montreal boy. He's a Montreal lead. Imagine Joe Weeder.

Everything in Montreal is Joe Weeder. All the gyms. So you understand. Yes, I've heard you talk about it. Yeah, because he brought me to California. Tell me how. Tell me how. He saw me win all these men shows as a teenager.

And I was winning power lifting and bodybuilding shows. And he kind of discovered me and says, kid, I need you in California. And I'm sitting here going, whoa, okay. This is the guy that brought Arnold over. So it's like, yeah. guy. This is the guy. And so he called up my dad and said, hey, pops, I need your son in California. I'll put him under contract. And I'm still a teenager at the time. Like how old? I was 19 at that time.

Okay. He met me a year before that, but he flew me down. We did some shoots and stuff. And he goes, no, this ain't working. I want you here. Really? And then why? Why did he want you here? He felt like it was, remember, this is late 80s, 90s. This is the mecca. It's California where everybody wanted to come. It's the greatest place there is. This is bodybuilding. And he says, I want you here full time, under contract, doing shoots and traveling. So you were like a weeder guy? Yeah. Is that what it was? Okay. And for him to sort of say, I want you, that's the greatest compliment, right? It's a twofold, too, because it was another compliment he gave me. Okay. That kept me on the path I was already on. And it, and it separated me from every other guy he had under contract. And so what was that? Well, I'll tell you the first thing. He called my dad because my dad was, I come from a family of 10, farm.

Unbelievable. Yeah. So we're growing up, just farm boys fighting all the time kind of thing and training, wrestlers, powerlifting, sports. And then it's college. Did you go to college? Well, here's the hiccup. Okay.

So All-American football. So I'm getting scholarships and everything. And my dad was very because he was a professor. Everybody goes to college. mostly in my era. Okay. And Joe called him and says, I need him here. This is the path.

And my dad came to me and says, pack up, you're out of here. Wow. I'm like, dad, but this is your, he goes, you're different. Off to California. Wow. As a 19-year-old. Yeah. Were you nervous?

I was, but the way my dad did it was, he came to me and he goes, finished up my talk with Joe. This is what I want you to do. you're different. You have this dream. I think you should go. And I said, all right. And he goes, well, I want you out here before mom gets home to change your mind.

Okay. We packed up to you hall and he had me out. On the same day. On the same day. Come on. That was it. You didn't talk to your mom. No.

Not until you got to California. Really? How did she feel about that? I understood on the drive. And then she understood. You couldn't say bye to her. No. That's tough.

man, was she mad at your dad? No. If I told my son, hey, get out of here and drive, what was it, probably six, seven, eight hours and you can't say by to mom. I don't know if she'd feel too good about that. Yeah. No, she was, this was the right move for this one. Wow. Yeah. So it was great. It was a great thing. And then when I got down there, you know, I'm training Tom Plas, Robbie Robinson, Arnold, Lou, Frigno. Oh my gosh. Look at these names. And I'm the kid. And I, I guess. I, grew up in a powerlifting gym. And so I'm as strong as,

stronger than everybody there and training with these guys. And we go and do a photo shoot, cover shoot. And it's me and four other Mr. Olympias competitors from the Mr. Olympia show. And he says, Mike, we're going to film you last. We're going to shoot you last. And I'm like, no sweat. Props to the guys that are there, you know, respect. And at the end of the shoot, he goes.

goes, don't change what you're doing. Don't be like those guys. Keep doing what you're doing. This is what you love and you have a niche. So continue your path like this. And that was like winning any title I could have ever of, because you understand what Joe meant to the sport. And to hear somebody like a father figure to go,

don't change. Don't go down this path. Don't go down this path. You're already on something. and this path is yours and take it. Did you understand why he was telling you that at the time when you were that young? Not fully, but I understood later in life that that was, first of all, I understood I loved more than anything, more than when in the Mr. Universe or the power lifting or doing anything, I love the work. And so this means I get to do the work that I'm already doing.

I don't need to traumatize my body anymore. And then as the years go, I see that the longevity, because I started competing in 83, and it's what, 2026? Yes. And it's like, I'm still doing this. I'm still training with the strongest, not just strong men, but the strongest men in the world. I'm still on stage guest posing.

And I'm like, God, dang, that's, it was the right choice for longevity in my career. When you're around those guys, like you mentioned him to Arnold, Lou, that's not intimidating for a kid? No, because I grew up around Jeff Magruder, Doyle Kennedy, and Doug Furness, who I thought was basic power lifters.

I didn't realize they were the greatest in the world. And so my ceiling, what I thought was normal, was these mutants. And so the 600-pound bench was, oh, I can get like that, but I just don't want to be chubby. I want to be muscular and bench six was the, idea because I had that ignorant bliss of I could possibly do this. I can definitely do this. So it was never intimidating. It's a weird thing that and I'm seeing it firsthand being a father now.

Yes. I'm seeing it with my son. My house is like the UN. You got Big Show coming in. You got Billy Gun coming in. You got football players, basketball, UFC fighters all coming in. And we're either rolling on the mats. But my son sees Big Show 715. hundred pounds, thinks nothing of it. Imagine the concept that he has around monsters. His ceiling is just like, and that's what I say. I say my ceiling will be his floor. Wow.

And so I see how he's growing up where he's having fun doing judo or Brazilian or whatever he's doing. He's just like, this is normal. How old is he now? Seven. Seven. And I read that you got him into martial arts. like, I think it was like two years old, wrestling.

Started rolling first. Rolling first. Jiu-Jitsu. Did jiu-jitsu first, swimming at three months, and started with that. And then we went to jihitsu, and we have them just doing all. And we have them mixing it up, so there's no burnout on one. Okay. But it's like two days, two days, Greco, two days, wrestling two days, DJJ.

Why so early? Why so early is because I don't want to, I don't want to build. discipline and I don't want to build passion. I want to create habits. And so, and it's a cool thing too because I just, I love the study of the brain. He's created habits where he knows no different. He gets up. He trains with me for 15 minutes before going to school.

Wow. What do you have to do, by the way, just curious. Like, what does train mean at that age? Connective tissue right now because before puberty, it's connective tissue you want. Okay. So it's stabilizing. It's the smaller muscles. to make sure his balance is good.

It's all about just stabilizing. And then also nervous system, so the brain functions better. Wow. What do you do for that? Which is like, just lifting. Lifting. Get the body going. Okay.

The nervous system fired up, which is amazing because you're sitting there going, well, you're having him lift because you're Mr. Universe. Yeah. No, I'm not. I'm having him set up because they say that he's going to be six foot 10. Seriously? I'm like, God, that's a big, I don't need six foot 10 for my kid, but I do need connective tissue.

which is real man's strength. You guys understand that being in this industry of fighters. I always say that fighters have the best connective tissue because you can take 160-pound fighter, wrestler, and destroy a bodybuilder who's lifting more because even if they're 260 because of connected tissue, real man's strength is connective tissue, density.

So we're just having them train like that, a lot of stabilizing, holding weights, stuff like that. goes to school, comes back, and he'll do two things a day. So it's either piano and judo or it's Taekwondo and BJJ. But he always gets up in the morning and goes, what's on the agenda today? I love that. And there's no, there's no father forcing because I'm not involved with anything. It's all mom.

What do you mean by that? I don't take them to anything. I don't go to the tournaments. I don't go to any of that. Why not? Because I don't want, I don't want the bounce back of, Dad, you made me do this. And what we figured was, this is mom in his time. And what we're seeing, which is so cool because it's almost like this little mutant,

is that we're seeing that he comes home from whatever he does. And then he'll say, hey, dad, I'd like to show you a hip toss that I learned today. And I'm like, all right, we go to the living room. We got it matted. And he shows me hip tosses. So he incorporates me after the fact. Okay. So it's his and mom time.

And then when he gets home, if he wants to show me something, then we roll. Then I get involved. But when it goes to tournaments or anything like that, it's him and mom. Is there any part of you that's like, man, I want to see him compete? I do. I do. Why are you, you know, depriving yourself of that? Because right now it's just development.

Okay. Will there come a time while you'll show up? Oh, yeah. When he goes, I'd like you there. but in the meantime, the creation of these habits is mind-blowing to me. Because he's such a happy kid. He's just having fun with it. And the burnout, because there's no special kid, they all get burned out if they do this as much as he's doing it.

The burnout's too much. So I want to just go, create the habits, create the habits, get athletic, be safe, be strong. And then whatever you decide, decide. Do you want him to compete like you did? No. He loves piano. He loves piano. Whatever he did.

I just want him to be a man and be able to protect himself. Of course. But if he says, I want to be the next Mr. Universe, I want to be a bodybuilder like you. Man, I'll beg him not to. Serious. Yeah. Why? Look what it did for you.

Yeah. It's... You've had a great life. But remember, I'm the guy that won Mr. Universe four times. Four times. Also won the power lifting four times. also was doing martial arts at the same time. And because of all that,

got American gladiators in the 90s, battledom in the 2000s, gladiators again in 210. So it was like, I've done more athletic stuff than I ever did Mr. Universe or powerlifting. I've been an athlete longer than anything else. And for him to want to do something

like bodybuilding or fight, I would rather have fun be creative. And again, I'm setting him up to do whatever he wants. Ultimately, if he says to you, this is what I want to do, then I'm a father and I support him. Right. Big shoes to fill. I don't know. I don't know because I was just talking to Arnold's son, Joseph, who just competed. And I said, the coolest thing about Arnold Schwarzener's son Joseph. Yeah. I said, to Arnold, I said, I think the coolest thing wasn't him competing. It was him making the decision. my dad is the greatest bodybuilder of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger,

and I'm going to get on a show and get up on stage. I'm sitting there going, think of the mindset of that kid. Because no matter what, you're not Arnold. But he's like, I don't care what the world says. I'm going to do it because I want to do it. And I'm like, holy sheesh, I'm proud of you for that reason alone. Just being a 28-year-old kid having that kind of confidence going, I'm not going to let the world scare me away from doing something.

want to do. And I hope my son kind of follows that path of going, nah, I'm good with your shoes. I'm my own person. I'm doing my thing. Correct me if I'm wrong, for the longest time, you didn't want to have kids. A hundred percent. You were a dog guy. Yeah. Still I'm a dog guy. You are. It came late, 50. I was 50 when I had him. Fifty. How did you change your mind? Why did you change your mind? Baby mama. Okay. So Mr. Universe hooked up with Mrs. Universe. Yes. And had a little mutant. Are you married?

No. Okay. But how long have you been together? Ten years. Ten years. And did she say? So she didn't want kids. So we hooked up going, hey, you know what?

Let's have fun. Let's train. It's kind of hang out. And next thing you know, we got like three years into it. And we both looked at each other and said, you know what? Old dog, new tricks. Wow. Which was, I'm so glad because, you know, as you go through life, you know, the 20-year-old

me thought I knew everything. The 30-year-old goes, wow, you're an idiot. And the 50-year-old is the same thing. I finally got to 50, and I am a dog guy. If anybody knows me, they know that's front-runner. When I got to 50, we said, yeah, let's do this. And now, seven years in, I'm sitting there going, wow, I was pretty stupid before. Brett not having a son earlier, a child earlier.

No. No. No. Why? There's something amazing about being an old father and still able to tussle. Of course. Because that's the big thing. I get the idea that, well, you're old, so you're not going to be here to see a lot.

That's not how life works. I know 25-year-olds that have kids and they're dead two years later. So I like the fact that I was mature enough and had my career long enough to where I get to go, wow, I get to spend so much quality time with him and raise him as a mature man, not as a young 25-year-old chasing dreams. So for me, it worked out better to do it now. Okay. Yeah.

And having her, a woman that came from a communist country, made herself a success, you know, and also being healthy, I couldn't have picked a better partner. In all those aspects. The age, your choice of the other person, she's an absolute savage. In my way. She's Eastern Bloc. Okay. And she came from a communist country, didn't speak the language. Russia?

Romania during the Civil War, she escaped. Okay. Gets to New York and makes herself a success out there. And so she's a no bullshit kind of thing. It's like, you Americans are very weak. Come on mentally strong. I need. And so it's like, I got this woman raising my child.

I'm like, I'm good. I'm good. and old school mentality. So I get so much of the fun where she's taking care of the hardcore fathering, the mothering parenting stuff. Well, you just have one child. Just one.

That's it. You don't want more. I would have, but again, we're seasoned. Yeah. 57, man. That blows my mind. You are 57 years old and you look like this. Look at this.

Look at that. Golly. Here's the cool thing. It's like I'm around old. school Robbie Robinson. Uh-huh. And if you guys know who Robbie Robinson is, just Google him. He's 80.

And they'll say, he looks great for his age. Shut up. He looks great for a 20-year-old kid. He's unreal. But that's kind of like, again, my belief on what's possible. And you had 10, there was 10 of you, right? 10 of us. Five and five boys.

Do they all look like you? Yeah. They're all like... Dad was a football player and martial artist. The mom was a martial artist. Did any of them go into... bodybuilding fitness anything like that they did young but not i competed against my my just older brother um as teenagers when we did a power lifting against each other um so they all did

really well my sister won miss seattle miss washington so the family was pretty um do you think it's a genetic thing like well we were bred for it we were bred for it we had good genetics and then out of everybody, I just had a absolute no-off switch where the consistency has kept me here. How old were you when you first started left? Eight. Eight. What were you doing between zero and eight? Don't remember.

Okay. Who introduces you to it? All the brothers. My dad set up the house where the boys were all downstairs, girls are upstairs. Okay. The whole downstairs was bunk beds and then weights all the way across. Wow. And so you got four older brothers lift.

Well, I'm the youngest. I'm not stopping until you stop. You know, I'm not, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna try to wrestle and beat everybody as we go. That was the, and it's a farm boy house, you know. So it's like we're up at dawn, taking care of the, you know, whatever we need to. Then we're working out. And I'm just following them. It was the greatest upbringing.

Because my dad was also a teacher and he loved to teach constantly. Okay. And so he was just like one of those guys that would do reverse psychology. 24-7. Well, your bigger brother did this. You know, are you going to go and try that or, no, no, you don't have to. Boom. You go do it.

When you come to L.A. and then American gladiators and you're blowing up and whatnot, what is that life like? 90s, you're the freaking man. What is that life like? I got into town and then they had the tryouts over at USC and it was 5,000 guys. and after three days of smashing, it was just down to me and four guys. And I win the spot.

Me and one other guy. And I'm sitting there going, this is one week, two weeks into L.A. Wow. I already got covers of the magazine. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. It was pretty crazy. But it was like, you know how you're nervous about things,

but you kind of go, no matter what, this is going to be. going to work out. And that's how I felt. How did you handle it, though, all that fame, all that attention? You can't walk down the street. I know we're in LA and there's a lot of, you know, but you walked on the street. Everyone's looking at you. How did you, how was the ego? How was the mind? Did you deal with it well? There was probably a time that young kids started believing his own hype. Yeah. And then got checked. Who checked you? I think it was just a reality of my brothers and stuff talking to me. And I was like, you're right, you're right. I'm still that farm boy, stay cool.

And so everything happens so quickly because I was already a teenager in the magazines. And like social media today, that's the one thing that hurts me is that there's no grit. You can get famous off of just a little personality, not really fighting through it, any kind of delayed gratification. And so I had to win as a teenager to get in the magazine. I had to win and be good at something to get the prize. And I'd like to show my son the same thing. And so for me, when my brothers, which is a great going, hey, don't go this route. Stay here.

Stay who you are. Stay grounded. It was like, it's the best advice I can get that plus Joe Wheater around me. And then also being around the greatest. Remember, you're right. You know, Arnold's talking to me. And the one cool thing is I grew up with dyslexia. Okay.

People would think, oh, that's a crutch. It's the greatest gift I ever had. Why? Because it made me shut my mouth and listen. I listened to understand. I didn't listen to respond. And I think that was the coolest thing growing up, especially because my dad was a teacher. And, you know, it was like, oh, something's off.

So let me stay on the outside. Let me be this lone wolf and do things my way and just listen and pay it. attention. And that trait helped me because Tom Plas or Lou Fragno or whoever I was training with, yes, I was winning shows and I was already Mr. Universe, but it was like, these guys have something. I need to pick up the best things that they're giving. And so it just kept my mouth shut in a sense and just to listen. And so that was a gift. Instead of if I could read and write, then you're just kind of normal, but as soon as you feel like you're the odd cat, there's a blessing to that. I used to love those early days of American gladiators. We'd come home from school, watch them.

I remember there was a guy. I think his name was two scoops. Oh, yeah. The little front tuck up and over. Yes. And he was kind of like a legend and he kept winning and doing his thing. I was like, this guy, because you guys were larger than life. And he was an athlete, obviously, but didn't look like you. And so you were rooting for him to succeed. When you think back on those days, is there, is there a memory or two that comes to mind about how great it was? Because the remake was good, but it just, it wasn't quite the same, right? Yeah, no, you're hitting it. You're killing that because I love the original because of Nitro and Dan Clark,

who I just, again, I listened and I watched the lead team. And so I'm a 20-year-old going, okay, pay attention. These guys are, here's your starting team. Pay attention to what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong. and they gave us good competitors to go against. And you always, if somebody is good, it brings the best out of you. When they cater to you and go, oh, I like this guy. He's got a good personality.

Let's put him on the show. That's what the later shows were doing. That's the reboot. They were like, hey, be a little gentle on this guy. And I'm like, wait a minute. This is like, let's go to town. Yeah, of course. And so the original.

the greatest thing about it was freaking phenomenal contestants. And all the gladiators, all the gladiators were athletes. They weren't visually just how they looked. They were athletes. That was cool. So it was cool to be in a locker room like that. And then I hit a show called Battle Dome, which was Terry Cruz's first TV show. And it was cool, too, because Terry played ball.

I was a grappler in judo and it was some good athletes and again leash off we got to smash the contestants and they got good contestants we had a lot of d1 athletes we had some ex olympians it was great and that makes a great show and and i think that's what was so great about the original is david versus goliath in the reboot were you with gina carano yeah are you going to go to the fight on saturday i am going to see that you are yeah yeah she was great up she was so it's amazing because she was so shy i was just gonna say that word i was so she's not used to being like menacing and beating people up right she was kind of a little wide-eyed and to herself then she was very shy on camera she was so shy and she'll tell you this that the first season they didn't they didn't do a lot of interviews and um to get her to talk and stuff it was very when you feel comfortable Do your thing. Okay.

When you don't, don't worry about it. Because they knew they had something with her. And so she was so shy. They were like, we're just going to work with you. And then she just continued to stay in front of it and just exploded. And Terry, if you guys don't know, Terry Cruz is the same guy today as he was when I first met him in late 90s. He's a hard worker. And one of the coolest thing about him and Rebecca, his wife, is because the kids, we're all back in the locker rooms between the

the fights. Okay. And there was a time, Terry, I'm going to tell this story. He and I were the leads for that show because we were the most athletic guys. And so any hard games, they put me and Terry in. Okay. But he had a bone spur and he's like, is what it is. And it's pretty bad and it was in the shoulder. And he's like, it is what it is. After the season, I'll get it fixed and stuff. And until then, because we learned early, you can't say nothing on the TV show, because it were a place you like that. So you just keep your mouth shut. You do your work, you fight, and then you go home. How are you feeling? Great. Yeah. You know, you're walking out with a sprained ankle. He's like, say nothing. Yeah. And so Terry Cruz was one of those guys

that works his ass off, sincerely sincere, and just a good human and still friends today. And I love to see his career where it is today, because he's just, a monster in society. And he's just a good human. And then Gina through the roof. In the early 90s, do you remember when Vince McMahon tried to launch IBF? Did you have talks with him about that?

I didn't. Okay. I didn't, but I did meet and sit down with Vince early 90s. How'd that go? It went great. Was it for that? Oh, no.

Shane McMahon flew me out and goes, we want you for wrestling. Oh, really? We want you, WWE. Oh, yeah, because I was Kilmon Gladiators. I was all over the covers. Yeah? And they knew about the martial arts and the judo and stuff.

And so they flew out. Shane McMahon flew out and says, I'm bringing you out. So I went out to headquarters. Connecticut. Yeah. Okay. And sat in those big office with the cowhide chairs.

Yeah. And Vince came in. We talked about character and development and everything. And then he says, this is it. We're doing this. Set me down to wardrobe. We started, I mean, we moved. We moved.

And then the problem was. was, WWE, I'm already got gladiators. Yeah. And so then they were trying to negotiate how to work this out. And it fell apart. Wow. So I stayed with gladiators. Were you disappointed?

Like, were you into it? Did you want to do it? Oh, yeah, because it's fun. Yeah. Wrestling is absolutely fun. And again, you've got to be an athlete to do it. And so it was crazy fun. But it just didn't work out at the time.

And again, I'm traveling back then. You're traveling. so much. So everything wouldn't have worked out where if I can do gladiators, I got my season. I can still body build, I can still power lift, I can still do whatever else. I can still go castings and do movies and

TV shows. So it worked out best for me. I'm sure he loved you. Oh, he did. You are like the exact prototype of what he... It worked out so well that seven years later they came back again. Oh. But then I had battled them. Ah. Shut it down

again. Okay, so things work out the way they do. It's not bad. I got a TV show still. You know, so it's a give and take. And then I got to do some fun stuff because we teamed up, Battle Dome teamed up with WCW. Oh, yes. Right. I remember this. Yeah. In the 2000s. Yeah. So we went over there and bashed those guys, Goldberg and Rick Flair. And so Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan. So it was, it was great to get in the ring with those guys and play around. I'm surprised that for IBF, he didn't reach out to you. Is that not your thing? You remember when he did the international bodybuilding federation or something? He was going more for the, um, the big guys where I was Mr. Universe.

Okay. And I always wanted Mr. Universe over the Olympia. Okay. Because can you tell the people, what's the difference? Yeah. The difference to me is I don't believe bodybuilding is a sport. I think it's an art show. Okay. And I think it's just a personal's choice, a person's choice. Subjective. Do you want to look like this or do you want to look like this? And the one thing I always wanted to look like is something like Steve Reeves. I wanted to look muscular, but I wanted to look athletic and pleasing to the masses. I never wanted to be, because I'm already a big guy. I didn't want to be a monster. I just didn't find it appealing to me. And so my structure is Mr. Universe. And that's why I want it four times. It was pleasing. It was complete. It was big, but it wasn't ridiculous.

Okay. And that's why I stayed there and that's what I wanted. And that was the goal. I never wanted to go further. True or false? You've never taken PEDs. Well, that's already over with. What does that mean?

That's not a debate no more. What does that mean? It was a debate before I had a kid. Okay. Now they see and they go, oh, there's genetics. Okay. So by 13, 14, I was already winning bodybuilding shows and powerlifting. By 15, I was 280.

And my son is further ahead than that. At seven, he looks like a mutant. So. Does it annoy you? No, I love it. Come on. Why would you want to be called natural? You would want to be called out.

I'm a huge person in person. But you do this on your own. You take no shortcuts. It's again. You've never taken it. It has nothing to do with them. My choices, my choices for my entire powerless bodybuilding or anything has been I love the work I don't mind doing it I don't mind dieting

all year and I want to do that and I knew the my career would have been over in the late 80s 90s if I followed the path is that what he meant by the path yeah the path was yeah okay and that's why weeder said he said don't talk about it and I never talked about it but that's the path you destroy yourself as a youngster you're not going to be here as an adult my years. I find it amazing only because we've been programmed to think that people who look like you are on something. It's worse than even me.

Because I'm a 265 pound man. I can understand people going. But when you start saying like Ryan Reynolds at 185 is on it for Blade, it's like, okay, you guys have completely lost your minds. Because you've been around this long enough that you've seen guys. Yeah. First of all, UFC fighters, there's some freaky physiques. Those guys in no world train like a bodybuilder.

Right. They're running. They're training four times a day in different styles and everything. They shouldn't have that type of physique, but they do. That's the reality of life. There's just some mutants walk in the streets. And that's the one thing that people go, no, no, no. If you're decent looking, you're on something.

Got it. It's like, oh, wow, you guys are shutting yourselves down. You're not hurting it. You're not hurting anybody else. But as soon as you shut yourself down and put a ceiling on it, like this is not, you can't get there. It's like, all right, cool. That's you.

Not me. Can you spot someone? Can you tell? No, I can't. You can't. No, because I just know there's too much genetic gifts. Yeah. And there's people.

There's no telltale signs if you're in the business. The monsters, yeah. Sure. I mean, there's the obvious ones, right? But you can't tell. Here's the problem. Yeah. The guys that talk about it.

Yeah. Or say that I am. You ever seen them? You have. Yeah, yeah. But they're decades younger than me, and they're already destroyed, and they're already broken. So you got the guys that are saying it, but they're destroyed. I started 20 years before them, and I'm after 20 years.

Yeah. It's like, are you telling me that steroids are great for you? They'll keep you injury free. They'll keep you youthful. They won't hurt you. Because all I've heard is, if you do do it, it's a bad thing. And then so it's like you got to they got to make their minds up. It's the guys that talk about it look like shit now.

And they only lasted five or six years. Mr. Universe, do they test? Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. That's the problem. I've been tested more than anybody because I had to be tested in my teenage years and then Gladiators is a game show.

So you're tested. All my power lifting, all my body building was tested. But I also did both divisions. So I'd always do the natural show or the bodybuilding show and then follow it up with a drug show. Why? Compete against them. And beat them more often than not. And be it's the cool thing.

It was like, again, it's not about the titles and stuff. The titles are cool, but it was about competing, going against somebody. And it's like, oh, that's kind of a fire. It's like, I know you got an edge. I'm still going to beat you. that to me was fire for me. You've never had a coach who was like or someone. Oh, no.

When I won the universe the fourth time, it was great. I won the universe the fourth time. And it was the best I ever looked. And the judges all come up. Holy shit. Amazing. Amazing. Pulled on another 30 pounds and you're going into the Olympia.

And I'm like, thank you, man. That sounds great. Turn away and go, you're an idiot. This is the dumbest thing in the world. Why? Because I was winning everything. Plus, I was doing other stuff where these guys were full-time bodybuilders. I was Mr. Universe, powerlifting champion, doing TV shows.

Why would I fuck it up? Because the one doesn't go with the others. If I just go on bodybuilding, then I just become this big mutant and I lose everything else. And I'm like, a title over my life. And I was also with the greatest lifters, the brightest guys. And I could see the fall. Ah, good and good. then the fall. And I'm like, that's the crazy thing. I love the fact that I am today as strong as

when I won powerlifting meats in the 80s. And there's like no human kept that kind of strength. No. And so it's like, God, dang, I'm pretty lucky. I'm pretty lucky. No serious injuries? No, no injuries. Never like tore a bicep, a peck, or something like that? Why would that be? I don't know. What do steroids do? They don't develop connective tissue. They don't do bone density, builds muscle. Now you've got this strong-ass muscle and these weak connective tissue, because muscle goes quick. You can build muscle real quick. Now you got this off-center. You got this incredible strength of muscle and the tenets are weak, but you keep lifting heavier and heavier. Snap, snap, snap, snap. What about supplements, things like that? You take that. Oh, yeah, 100%.

And I love peptides. I work with a company, and I love peptides because peptides is a fancy word for amino acids. Okay, not a PED. No, just amino acids. Okay. It's a line of amino acids. So on a day-to-day basis, like how many supplements, what kind of supplements are you taking? I take a lot. Multivitamins, Cs, Ds, peptides. You take the creatine now? Everyone loves the creatine. I do more creatine the most. Okay, I would imagine. Yeah, because it also helps the brain. Yes. And so it's like, again, there's a second level to it. Do I do it from lifting and stuff? No, and at this stage, I'm doing it more for recovery and for the brain. Creatines ago. Everybody, get out there. Start creatine.

Okay, okay. Do your research. Start creatine. Peptides, too. What are you having for breakfast? What's your typical breakfast? I'm dieting right now. Why? So it's nasty. Why, why, why? I'm getting sliced. I said another project in three weeks. What's that? I just, we're going back to finish up a movie I'm doing called Impressionable. Okay. And we were just filming in London, and we're going back to London to finish it up. Okay, okay. Which is a great movie.

So when you're not dieting, what are you? Oh, breakfast would be ground beef, eight ounces, like either a cup of rice or a cup of oatmeal, and then throughout the whole day. How much protein do you have throughout the day? I'm at 360 grams. Wow. That is unbelievable.

I'm an eater. Golly. And I don't run away from food. What does that mean? Well, the fads, the fads that come in and go, you know, hey, go fasting, go do this, go eight hours, go out. You don't do that? No, food is medicine.

Nope. Food is medicine. I'm constant, constant feeding. Cheat days? I do have high days. Yeah? I call them high days. Despite the metabolism also helps the mind.

What's the thing? What's the worst thing that you'll eat? God, it's not fair. I'm so lame. Come on, please don't tell me it's like overnight oats or something. It's like a pound of fruit. That's it? That's it.

Stop, man. That's how lame I am. You'll never have like a slice of pizza? No. Serious. No. I know. It's lame.

It's lame. Like So Like non-dairy ice cream or something No Really? My girl's a great cook Because she went to New York

When she got out Of Romania And after a few years She started a steakhouse Okay In Manhattan And so she's Not just the owner of it

But she was a great cook And so she cooks anything And everything No dessert Nah No dessert No sugar No

No The only sugar in that fruit probably. Yeah. What kind of fruit? Just all of it. Mixed, mixed, mixed fruit. You're going to tell me like cantaloupe,

like the least sweet one, right? No, I'm strawberries and grapes. Okay. Watermelon? Too much sugar in that. Come on. I know some people who have watermelon and they say it's like a great diet.

It is great. It's great. It's just not mine. That's not your thing. That's not my thing. I saw some of your shirts on your store. Are you just like poking? Yes, I am.

You're poking fun. Yeah. Like these ones. F your dad bought. Don't bully me. I'll come. Your mom. Top Natty.

Why are you doing that? You're leaning into the trolls. Oh, 100%. I'm raised in a different time. If you're not to end... I love steroids. There it is. It's so much more fun to play into this and let it go.

I got four older brothers. You have any idea what it's like to grow up on a farm like that. It's like, if you can't talk smack or take it, it's just that old school mentality. So I like leaning into it. Can we talk about this? Baby don't hurt me. Come on, Matthew.

That thing blew up. That blew up, right? I've never had someone do that in front of me. It's unbelievable this guy. Okay, tell me, how did this start? The memes are unbelievable. When I told my guys in the back that you were coming on today, they were like, I've used more of his memes than anything that, like, one of our guys,

Connor, is like the meme king, I call him. And he's always using you. You know this, obviously. People love using the, how did this start? Started overseas on TikTok. Years back now. It's like it's still going. Yeah, there you go, right?

Look at you over there. Where is this? Where is this? That was, where was that? How is it? Possible. Silly. Can I just ask you a question?

Yeah. Like, how do you, I mean, you're, how old are you here in that video? Probably 50 right there. How do you just not have, like, women throwing themselves at you all day long? Like, how does your, how does your partner deal with this? Look at you. You're a specimen. She's, she's, she's, zero.

She's like. No jealousy? No. But how do you deal with that? I think it's funny. You think it's funny? Yeah. Yeah.

You're like, you're like, he man. Yeah, yeah. But I realize I'm an old cat. You're not an old cat. I'm getting DMs. I'm getting all kind of DMs. What kind of DMs? I share it with my friends.

What do they say? What do they say? I don't, no. I don't know. I don't know. I take the fifth. It's a tough life. Yeah. So this starts with, who started it? Overseas, started on TikTok. The world did. Yeah? And then it just caught on. And then I leaned into it. And then I leaned into it because it's hilarious. It's absolutely hilarious.

What is the key? Like if I wanted to do a version of this, what would be the key? What do I have to do? What do I? I guess just giving them that mug the camera. Mog the camera. Is that what the kids are saying? Mogging the camera? Yeah. It's like you're like, yeah, just, can you give us one on the spot? What's a mug? me yeah oh my god wait wait which one is he looking at look at this one look at this one holy shit i feel it oh my god done i felt it in here should i try oh heck yeah what'd you do there just a little chin just just just give it to him oh you just all right all right what's the crew say what does every say everybody's liking it fucking it i just looked at myself after looking at you

and i felt like such a loser i felt like with the glasses and the big nose and i'm paying I've got the little tan on. Yeah. Golly. We're going. So you lean into it now. You sell the merch and everything. So the merch, have fun with it.

And it's great too because it gets the youth. I see you. You're everywhere on TikTok. Everyone loves it. The kids love it. They laugh at yourself. If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? That's what I like about you.

I feel like there's a little bit of self-deprecation there. You're not taking yourself too seriously, even though you look like someone who would take themselves seriously, right? Yeah, I guess you would. Yeah. That's a new age. thing. Yeah, not us.

You've kind of lived already. I've lived long enough. Yeah. I've lived long enough to know better. When's last time you competed? A 90s. 90s, okay. No, no need to do.

Like, is there any sort of like, hey, I'm going to come and be there at as a 60-year-old and beat all you guys? Absolutely not. No? There's no desire. No. The coolest thing now is we, we're finishing up Atticus Rome, which I'm a champion boxer. Film.

Don fries in it. Sick, the predator. I brought down Gary Goodrich to walk out with me. Love it. And so we're finishing that up. Then the movie in London, Impressionable, which I think is great because I play two characters. And it's all about the leadership that we have today for these kids. Because the one character is a very arrogant guy.

My main character that I play. Very arrogant, very opinionated. This is the way it is. F off. you don't like it. Then I play the young kid's imaginary friend, who's the same guy, but in a different kind of mentality. I'm supporting him.

And so the two characters I think is great because one is the youthful trying to tell him he doesn't have to be this way. Okay. So I think it's a great kid's movie. I love when does that come out? Next year. Okay. And then Atticus Rome comes out the end of this year.

Okay. Which is a fun boxing movie. And so allow me to go back to, how I started this, you send me the Sean Strickland video. Yes. That's how this all started. This is how I messaged you. Him talking about gratitude and about, you know, being the bad guy who wants to be the good

guy and wants, why did that strike a chord? Because I think that's most people. I think most people are trying to do. And he's very, you know, he's out there. He says what he feels and stuff. And I just thought it was a cool, deep moment for other people to look at it. And also, I like that. I'm around these monsters.

Yeah. And you'll find, and you know this, and everybody here knows, those monsters are the nicest guys. Agreed. And I think the world doesn't realize that. And so you don't need to be this tough guy 24-7. And I thought when I saw that, I was like, there you go. That's the guy, but that's the hurt kid and everything coming out.

And that's why I like that. And that's why I messaged you that day. Do you train now? Yeah. What do you do? Yeah. Jiu Jitsu. Okay.

Which is the coolest thing. Josh Barnett. That's my boy. All the guys are my guys. Buffers my neighbor. But Jean-Jacques, Chado, all these guys. I've been lucky because of the industry I'm in. I'm around all of them.

And then I help, and I'm a big advocate of martial arts and supporter. So it's like Boss Routin and all these guys at George St. Pierre. So I'm around all these guys. But I started jujitsu, which was the coolest thing. This is for everybody out there. Starting anything new as a white belt in your older years is a badass thing. Because when you become good at something, like the power lifting or bodybuilding or I was a judo guy. And there's such small, minute changes after you're good.

But going back to Whitebelt, the leaps and jumps, and starting fresh with. something. How old are you when you start when you're a white belt? Two years ago now? Two years. Look at you here. Yeah. Working with some great guys. What prompted you to do this? Made the promise to my son. I said, you start, I start. Wow. So I'm in with you. I love that. So we can kind of grow together. So we kind of are again, I'm there sometimes when he's there. But the coolest thing about it is that again, starting for anybody that's lived a life and they're like well you know i'm kind of done start something new i don't care what it is but you know but bjj for me was so cool and so frustrating

and i love frustration i do i absolutely no one says that oh it's fucking this coolest thing in the world to be completely frustrated with something going i suck at this let me get better at this game and also uh um elicio silva teaches me and he's like we're only working you off the back because i'm a grappler and so the top game or standing games my judo he's just off the back that's frustrating and i love to be frustrated and try to try to learn something is it always skis glee training or no gee as well um i try to go no key yeah but no mostly geese he's tough yeah it is are you still a white belt yeah okay i'm not letting them give me anything You don't want it.

No, they keep coming up. And I'm like, we're good, we're good. I think the judo is very interesting. I've often said that I think judo is actually the best base that you can have going into MMA. And I know people say wrestling and wrestling, of course, but there's not enough judo cousins. And you see the ones who did have success, Ronda, obviously, being one of the top ones, Kayla Harrison.

You see, I actually think it's more, it's more impactful than being a jihitsu practitioner. We've seen so many great jiu jihitsu practitioners come to MMA and not be able to to figure out the standing, how to get the opponent down. In judo, you have that. You have the ability to take the opponent down and submit them as well. I'd love to see more judica's come over. And so for you to have that base, I think is very, very interesting. I think, I think me starting so young in judo, I guarantee it helped me with power lifting.

But it really established me on like gladiators, I never lost. Gladiators, battle dumb, gladiators, I never lost. And it was all because of the hip. It was never like a work. as they say in wrestling. It was all legit. Gladiated. It wasn't scripted.

No. No, it was all real. But the hips just, that set me up better than my football or anything like that. The judo helped me more than anything. And kept me safe more than anything else. It also just keeps you safe. In what way? Because you know how to take the bump.

You know how to get, you're mid-air. You're still coming out safe. Where it's amazing that most people can't fall without throwing out their collar bones or their elbows or the break the wrist. It's like, yeah, so it saved me. It saved me for career. I saw you with Billy Gunn. He looks incredible.

Sick. How old is he? 62. 62 and he looks like that. How crazy is that? That is unbelievable. So you train with him? Yeah.

Yeah, that's my guy. 62. Badass Billy Gunn. Same kind of mindset. Look at this guy right here. Can't believe it. That's not even a good shot of him. He's, and you shut around some of these guys, he's just a, you walk into a room.

he's just a mutant. You know, he's 6, 6,000, and 280 pounds, and, you know, the hands, you can kind of tell there. Yeah. But these boys in wrestling, him, big show? Yeah. I'm like, wow, they're just a different size human. It's great. I saw you in the front row at AEW, a little thing there.

Were they trying to get you to do? Yeah. Yeah. And what happened? Just didn't work out. Okay. Yeah. It's not over.

Thing hanging in the air. Yeah. The wrestling. still hanging there. It's crazy. You still get out there and roll. I saw a video of Francis. Francis is fighting this weekend, Francis Singano. And he was, I think, what is this, a deadlift that he was doing? I wanted to ask you, because one thing about working out online, people critique everything. And I'm not asking you to be that guy, but I'm sure everyone comes to you and be like, you know, your form here is wrong. Do we have the Francis thing? Let me see that. Okay, just one second.

We're going to show it to Mike here. And this is amazing. I know you have to go pick up your son, so I'm going to let you go in a moment as well. Much respect to you. Do we have it? Yeah, here's Francis. So he's squatting more than three heavyweights, 8010 pounds. How is, this is crazy. Was that a belt squat?

Yeah, it's a belt squat. What is that? Is that impressive or not to you? He's impressive to me. But it's a belt squat. What does the belt squat mean? What does that mean? They're taking the pressure off the spine.

Okay. I'd rather them get under the bar itself. And actually drive it up? Like, why would you be doing that? They want to just work. explosion, put some weight on the legs without putting pressure on the back, which, again, when you start running away from spinal pressure, you're actually weakening the body. You're not strengthening it. Okay. Your body, your body gets stronger, your whole body gets stronger with

pressure, not light or weights, not all this stuff. It's the science behind it. Do you do both squats? No, no. You'll do the bar. I do the bar. And how much do you do? 600. 600. Reps. Fun stuff. You ever see Tony Ferguson workout? I haven't.

Do you know who Tony Ferguson is? Yeah, of course I know. He has a very unconventional style of working out. Let me see that. Let's show this. So he does this stuff. Again. What do you think of this?

I like it for him. I like it for him. See, here's the cool thing about this. It's an odd position, odd way, an odd thing. And I think, and this is the difference between bodybuilding and this stuff, you should train in all ranges like this. I know that's odd, but it's, it's, you're, they train so precise, right? Yeah.

Is a fight precise? No. It gets ugly. Yeah. Look at this on the ball. Yeah. See, I like this. Core strength?

Connective tissue. Okay. The smaller muscles that are holding the whole body together, it's just this, I like, I'd do both. Yeah. I would do both. I'd still do the compound movements, and I'd go to this. But I think more people.

people need to understand. The whole bodybuilding training isn't good. You know, the perfect form, the frigid, it's irrelevant, I think, for longevity. I think this is much better. There's a fighter named Atiba Gautier. He fought on Saturday. He says he hardly works out and he just has an incredible physique. Look at this guy's physique. Okay, that's what I'm talking about. So you got a guy right there. Yeah. He runs cardiovascular. He goes and punches for an hour and a half boxing. He's grappling, he's doing all these things. And this, the world of fitness, the small minds of the health and fitness would go, oh, that guy's on something.

Yeah. That guy is the pinnacle of not. He doesn't train like it. He doesn't, he does everything to lose muscle. He's overtraining, which UFC fighters or MMA fighters have to overtrain. It just goes with the territory. There's too much to do. Your body's not recovering.

Right. So they shouldn't have physiques like that to the normal person. But this is what I'm talking about. These guys are out there. They're walking around and he probably doesn't even eat that well. And he still looks that way. Did anyone ever offer you a fight? I just got offered something.

You did? I just got offered something. Come on. Yeah, because of this, yeah. Man, I hate that I don't know his name. Some big promoter. Called you out? No, no, no, no.

He wants me to do a fight. Like a celebrity fight, yeah. Boxing? Yeah. I said, I said, do a grappling, do an MMA thing. I'll do that. Who's it against? I'll get the names.

I don't. My team got it. And my team are all young. Not Eddie Hall. I was just with Eddie. Because he's been fighting. No, but this was like the promoter that puts on these fights.

He's like, I need to get you in the ring. I need to get you lined up with somebody. Are you interested? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Not a boxing,

but something more. I wish I knew who the guy, who the opponent was. Yeah, I know. My whole team goes, this guy's huge. He's famous. He's putting all these fights on.

Did you know who he was? I didn't. Okay. So are you considering something? Yeah. Wow. Wow. I want to be there when you do this. That would be incredible. But I don't want to do boxing. I want to do like a...

What do you want to do? Like grappling? Yeah, the whole thing. Okay. Yeah. M.MA? Yeah. Pugianowski. Was it him? Marius? No, no, no, no. Again, promoter. Promoter. Not a fighter. No, I know, but like who were they offering for you to compete?

They didn't offer it. They offered money. That's it. Yeah, they go, we need to do this. We'll make it worth your while. We're talking to this kind of figure. Did they get to that point? Yeah, it was nice. It was nice. It was nice. So worth consider it. Yeah. Definitely. And I like it.

It's like, get in, get tussle. My life is a little bit crazy here. But I'm going to the gym more. I work with someone two to three times a week. I'm trying, I'm trying, you know? I'm not, I'm not you. You don't like dad bods? I don't like dad bots.

I'm trying to get you one of the shirts. I'm 43. I want to be fit and healthy for my kids as well. They were mocking me on the show because I was showing them my squats. Oh, let me see this guy. Okay, guys. Please, let me see the squat. How's the form?

This is from last week. What do you think? There's another shot here. They told me to stick the butt out. out and they took, I'm not holding anything, but I'm telling, look, look, look, look, here's, here's the squad, here it is. Oh boy. Here it is.

It's going to be a knee bend, is that. What was that, what was that, oh boy? It's going to be a knee bend. What about? Yeah, it's a knee bend. Come on. What was it? I thought the butt.

You're supposed to close the door with the, no. Kick the ass out. Kick the ass out. Kick the ass out. Look, look, look. The first thing you do is bend the knees. Look at that. Is that wrong?

Yeah. Fuck, you know. It's a whole body unit. Ass back. The butt. The butt. Should the knees never bend? It's a moderate for a power squat.

Damn. Front squat, your knees is going to go forward. And that will mess up my knees. Yeah. Because you're putting all that pressure right there. So it's almost like the butt comes out and then you go down. Yeah. I know.

I know. I'm here with you now. This is like getting painting tip from Picasso. We're going to keep you healthy. And when you hit 50, you're going to look better than you are now. I just want to make sure. So is it. Wait, here we go.

Stick the ass back. Look at that. Look at that. Keep going. Ask back. Ask back more. More, open the legs, knees open, open, open. And then pop it, pop it up.

There you go, bam. Not bad. That's bad. I felt it in my butt. I felt that. Like, like, like. Well, can we edit that? Can we edit that with a smile afterwards?

I felt that in my butt. Where's rampage when we need them? Stop it, Mike. Come on, Mike. I felt it. I felt it lower back. Strengthen. Glutes and hams.

How many pushups a day? None. Zero? No, mileage. What does that mean? Milege. You got to pick and choose. There's things to strengthen it and then there's mileage.

Okay. And so the concept of, I do a thousand push-ups every day or a hundred push-ups. Nonsense? That's mileage on the joints without pressure to the body. Wow. So one short term. Yeah. Sounds good, feels good.

It's like the guy that fast. Hey, I feel really great. Right. Yeah, but you continue those patterns. Now his legaments are beat, didn't strengthen them. So that's, you always got to go the one way. Are you the greatest of all time? For keeping and strength and power and a physique, nobody's ever done it.

Hell yeah. Yeah. I was, like, I don't want you to give me like a humble answer. I say greatest specimen of all time. Greatest body we've ever seen. I thank you. Thank you. I'll take that.

You're the man. I told you I'd let you out at 1215 to go get your son. Are we good? I'm going to go get the little one. This has been such an honor. Thank you for doing this. And you moved things around for us. I really appreciate you doing that.

So great. I'm so thankful that you sent me that DM on Sunday morning. It worked out all right. Please continue success. Much love to your family, your partner, your son. I love everything that you're about, everything that you preach. And yeah, keep being a great dad and a great person. It was so great to have you here.

Thanks, brother. Thank you so much. Thanks for making that happen. Absolutely. Thank you. I spoke to Nate Diaz right before I was talking to him on Sunday. And we've been building up that conversation. Here is my conversation with Nate D.

from Sunday. And then we'll be back with Nikisa Baderian. Stick around for this. It's vintage Diaz. Nate, my man, it's good to see you. It's good to talk to you again. You know the last time we did an interview in person? Do you know how long ago it was? How long? 2019 MSG for BMF. Madison. Seven years ago almost. Oh, when we walked around that. Yeah. That was cool. That was cool. Now here we are. Did anybody ever pick on you, the bullying, the... Yeah, you remember that? Not me.

Not me, brother. That one keeps popping up. No one pops up. Yes, from time to time. How are you doing? I'm good. How about you? Yeah?

I feel like you're invested in this one. Saw that picture last week, the things you're saying. Not to suggest that you're ever sort of mailing it in, but I don't know. I feel like a different sort of vibe for this one. Yeah, it's fucking. Time for war. It's time. Back to the real shit.

I'm a man. Did you miss it? I didn't miss it. I didn't go nowhere. It was right here. Last M.A. Fight, though, was, you know, four years ago almost. Yeah, it felt like cheating in the system, you know.

Boxing, so it was like robbing the bank. Which you enjoy training for more? Boxing. Why? You said to enjoy. Yeah. Easier? Yeah, a lot less to worry about.

What was it about this matchup that you liked? It's just a fighter. And a guy like that, I said a long time ago, especially because I felt like I was getting, not necessarily robbed, but losing the fights that I wasn't really losing. And I was, it was devaluing me because I would still get fighter nights because of the way I fought.

I would get these guys fight a night. And they were trying to stop the fight from happening and tucked their heads and fucking crotch sniff and shit like that. And I said, I'm not fighting anybody who's not a real fighter anymore because he's devaluing because you take the loss, decision loss,

boring, waste your time and bores people and it devalues you and because you got the loss and because you have a boring fight on your hands anyway. And I remember Nick was fighting a strike force and he was fighting

killers, people that are going to knock you the fuck out. People are going to take you out. And then you have no choice about but to have a good fight. Whether you take the ass whoopin or give the ass weapon, it makes for the entertaining fight, the good fight. It's what I want to watch if I'm watching a fight is a fight. Like, whatever I, whatever fight I'm in, it's because I pig. And I'm like, that's the fight I would want to watch. So I take it back to the street fighter days where it's like, Who would you pick the two cool guys? That's why I came up with the math.

They all fight in the corner fight. I'm like, people don't know that they need to see these fights. So that's why sometimes they got to let them know, like, hell, this is the one. I don't know how I had to say it. Nobody demanded it. But sometimes you got to let them know, this is what people need to see. This is what's going to bring ISIS. They will not necessarily for the initial event, but the next one,

and sticking about how he was right. Can I ask you about how we got here because I haven't heard you talk about this yet? Because you were a free man, and I know there were some talks with the UFC. Did you consider going back there? 100% I did. How close were you?

I was pretty close because they always been great since I left too. And they talked to me and met up with me and we had some talks. And it was good to see him and good to be back. And wheels were spinning just for a MMA fight, MMA return, and get back to what I do. And I know that they wanted the Conner fight right now.

And that's not what I was coming. Is that what they were offering? They were insinuating. They didn't offer it. But I think that's what they wanted. And I'm like, I'm not trying to be a comeback story for Connor. know what I'm saying I'm like I want Connor back and then I want him to be fucking show people he's whipping ass and then that's the guy I want you know what I'm

saying I don't want to be fighting the guy that they don't know about and because I know that he didn't come back and do good I don't even do it on me you think he beats Max Holloway I think I think it's been a good fight I think I think I think he's a I think he's better than Holloway, but Holloway's great. Holloway's great, but he won the first one, right? Didn't he take him down and shit? Connor took him down and shit.

Yeah, yeah. With a torn ACL on the fight. But it was a long time ago. It was a long time ago. 2013. It would be a great fight. At 170. Holloway's not used to fighting at 170.

Yeah, but everybody's the same way. What did you think of that BMF fight? Which one? The Holloway Olivera won. It's a good fight. A lot of people didn't feel that one. I didn't knock the fight though. You know what I'm saying?

I said it was boring, yeah. But what the fuck? I'm not going to lie that it's boring. But, but, uh, Oliver did what he had to do to get the job done on the Max Holloway. And I think he did a great job. And they're just sitting there talking about my belt and my way and my shit. So I know I'm not like, yeah, those guys are great or anything.

But I think the fight was good and it was necessary. I would fucking do the same thing. But I think I would have been a little more entertaining in the process. I'm not afraid to let him go to hand him and make shit happen because I'm not afraid of him getting up and stand up with him. And Oliver was securing the bag. And you can't hate him on him for that. He did a good job.

It was a good fight. One thing that I always argue about with people is. But I wasn't hating like how. everybody was a good job and I would have done it if I had to do it that way I would have done it that way I would have got the win but I just fight different and uh it was a little boring anti-climatic yeah that way nailed it and uh I think yeah I think I think I think they both did a good job Holloway Holloway got away and said out of it were decision right yeah and then Olivera held him down and stopped anything would happen and

So that's cool. That's cool with me. I think they did a good job. I always say you were the first BMF champion because when you beat Anthony Pettis, you were in the cage and you said, with this belt, I want to defend it against Jorge Mazurah. But people don't recognize that. Does that annoy you? I put a stamp on it, right? There's a press conference member.

Yes. Defending. Because if you were the baddest motherfucker, wouldn't you have came up with all this? Does it annoy you how it kind of became? I think it got corporatized when they made. made the title when they made it all nice and shiny and said that was going to be on the line for the first time in that fight. That wasn't the case.

You created it. Just some appreciation would be nice. Yes. So fucking, you know what I'm saying? And I never wanted to be in the Hall of Fame or anything, but the more people they put in, I'm like, excuse me, I'm getting offended now. I had the most of the night bonuses for years, the most fucking actor record, the highest fucking punch counts.

submissions, the fucking BMF belt creator, the best division there is, and this straight up the fucking BMF and the whole shit. So, like, I don't want a hall of fame spot, but quit putting fucking nerds in there. Like, you know why? You know why, too? Because I'm not like some done fighter. And maybe I would be fake retiring and they're like, you're in the Hall of Fame. Whatever.

I was here before all of you. I'll be here long after. And I'm still going to put stamps on shit and make shit happen. The whole lot of them here. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. So, so you worked hard to leave and to be a free man. Why did you consider going back? Because of, I figured people would follow the blueprint.

But I figured that years ago when I was talking a bunch of shit and I get fired, I was saying stuff like, I used to say stuff like, if I was the champ and heard about, I would say this and this and it would go harm to the fuck I went. And I was like, fuck a bell. And I just started doing that. And shit started going to fuck where I went anyway. I like, imagine if I had the boat. So anyways, I thought people would lead by example,

but people don't pay attention to shit. I watch everything, everything. Everybody does, you know what I'm saying? I watch rampage do everything. I watch fucking chat. Chalston and do everything. And Connor and everybody who did anything, I watched their every fucking blueprint on how on what they did.

And I'm like, what? blackball all fucking i'll fucking lock and then do it better and uh anyway when i got out and that's why i did the boxing with jake and then i did the boxing with my there was no dance partners out here nobody to fucking there nobody to squabble with on the outside that's why we got parry now i'm like well fuck before i go back to the o'c if i'm going to go back i don't want to go because once i get locked in i'm going to be locked in the whole time for the next forever you know You ain't getting out of those contracts. I already been in them.

Yeah. But the thing is, is especially being out knowing too, I'm like, come on and get out so we could dance, you know what I'm saying, but nobody's doing it. I'm like, I feel like I am the champion, like my own champion. I'm like, well, come over here and do it like this, like that. And it's like, then nobody to want to fight in the E.C.

To lock down for that long. If there was three fights that I wanted right now, Now I'd be right back in there, like, plan, I went. But it was hard to jump back in something. I tried so hard for so many years to get out of. I can't just jump right back in. At least I could, if there's Perry out here, I could get this done. So I'd done everything on the outside before going back in.

You think eventually you go back? I would like to fight the best fighters in the world. I'm there in the UFC right now. So if it wasn't Connor, who would it have been? Like, if it was up to you? You made the deal. Right now, Oliver. At everybody.

That's who you want. That's what I wanted. That's why I'm going to go back and get that belt. I'm going to fight this motherfucker. And they're like, not interested in that. They want to get me Connor. And then I'm like, I want to fight Connor. But right now, it's not the time.

Everything's about timing. You know, it's not the time for that. Is that fight bigger in the UFC or out of the UFC, given the landscape, given Netflix? It's bigger wherever the fuck it's at. But is there more money to be made outside, in your opinion? If it was on Netflix, Conor has two fights left on his deal. Like, is there a thought to wait until he finishes those two fights? Whatever happens, buying means, the plan is to fight him.

Because we got to fucking... Before it's all said and done, it has to happen, right? Yeah, so whatever happens, however happens, but when the time is right, it's going to be right. And then that's where it's going to be wherever the fuck it's at. Is there a fear that there's too long? Like, you know, some fights just happen a little bit too late. there's such a standard that you have to live up to because the first two fights were all-time classics yeah not for me I'm ready to go forever do you like I said about um

some pussy got diagnosed with retirement and then everybody's like okay that's when you retire that's the truth and people talk about like peeking that and prime and shit I'm in priming the whole time because it's only a prime when you're looking at you're at your athletic ability too like they're talking about their athletic ability I'm endurance athlete too I get better with age as I go but but if your techniques are not there and you just have all fucking athleticism then you do have a problem motherfucker better get out because you can't work out no more I mean you still gonna be good without fucking being all fucking in shape and exercise and you I'll

get the job done regardless you know can ask I think a lot of fans are always curious about your take on the game. And there's a lot of apathy. There's a lot of frustration with the game right now. You know, like the Strickland fight that just happened. There was a lot of talk. And then afterwards, they hugged it out. And some fans felt like they were sort of taken for a ride.

Some of the big fights not being made, feeling like Dana is not as invested or into the product as he once was. I know you pay attention to what people are saying and what is going on. How do you feel about it? I mean, your hat says real. And there are some people who feel like it's not real, Even down to the promos aren't real anymore.

They're AI. How do you feel about what's happening? Yeah, I don't know. It's just not for me. I'm not going to be. Take any part in that. And I appreciate real good shit. You know what I'm saying?

So I'm not going to bullshit nobody. Does it annoy you when you see that? Yeah, but that's just what I expect out of everybody now. Because everybody's so fucking, yeah, what the fuck they were supposed to be? I'm in. Then they're hugging. and shit. Whatever.

Whatever gets them through the fight, soft. Made them comfortable, you know. Certain things don't get passes. That's why it's like, some people will call me out sometimes, too, they'll be like, fuck me, little bitch or something.

I'm like, excuse me? Now I'm going to fight you, like, when I see you somewhere, because I'm like, that's not the way to do things either, you know what I'm saying? I had Darren Till on the show recently, and he was saying a lot of,

you know, negative things about you and Mike, What'd he say? Paraphrasing, said, punching bag, all that stuff. Darentale sucks. Didn't he? He got in the UFC way after I did, right? And he was out long before. He did really dark.

You're not supposed to say that. I was with Dustin on Friday. Dustin, Poria? Dustin, yeah. You're the one fight he still wants. What let's dance then, bro? Are you interested in it? I am if he fucking gets in there and start fighting people.

I don't fight with retired fighters. He jumped ship a little early. So it's not something I'm not interested in. Get back in the game and start squabbling with people. Where the hell did you go? I'll come back for you. Don't come back on account of me. Get some sleep.

Get you some sleep. I feel like that's the one. And like there's a few that kind of got away that we never saw you in and that would be at the top of a lot of people. He got emotional when he when he fought somebody and he's like, I'm retired. Oh, this was so great. A little fucking little lady moment where he needed to talk about his feelings and how he was all done with all this. And they went home and said, what the fuck did I do? Yeah, you were being a bitch.

You're post-fighted interview and say your gloves down and shedded it tear. and then two weeks later he's like i don't want to find any i'll come back for them like you didn't even leave stupid you fucking pushtown may come out don't involve me in that shit you're pussy get back in the game and start squabbing i want to fight fighter just like connor i'm like bro i'm not trying to fight somebody that's done i'm trying to fight the fucking once-a-weight champion he's fighting he and gary oh he and gary's the worst too what do you say about me that's so really Dude, little bitches. He said something about you?

Yeah, everybody does, but I said, well, I never talked about any fighters that were, like, I'm light years ahead of those guys, you know what I'm saying? How long was BJ Pitton? Was that super OG to me and still is, right? And he really only was fighting like three to five years longer than me or something like that. But it's like still like you're the OG, you know what I'm saying? I would never say nothing negative about him, man, about anything.

Nothing but positive. And there's other guys his age and older than me too. And I don't even like much of them, too, but I wouldn't even say anything. They're fucking flu. What do you think of Elliot? I'm like fucking 20 years. He's a little bitch, too. Like, I'm years ahead of them for better men, had better fights, and they're like, he sucks.

He just said I sucked. There's something like, yeah, bro, you suck. He was saying some dumb shit about how he beat up Jake Paul in boxing, like, all cool,

like he sucked and shit. And I was taking offense like, so you just started like, he sucks, I'll just beat it up. I'm like, you want to do shit. I'll beat the fuck out of him

at the boy. And then I was like, so I just like, this one was a dumbass. Just because of how he was talking all cocky and shit. I'm like, you don't know what you're talking about.

You're fucking four feet tall. And then he fucking, uh, posted something about me again. I'm my bro, I'll slap the shit out of you. What the fuck you're talking about? It's a new dead age where there's a bunch of a bitchers running around. I'm going to be slapped.

Yeah, I don't like him. Yeah, no, I got, I got, 35th pro fight, MMA fight, that is, on Saturday. Do you remember the first one? I do. 2004? Alex Garcia. Took me down all the time to embarrass me.

I was pissed. I felt like I should beat him quicker. I was like, motherfucker. You won that one, lost the second one, right? If my memory serves me correct? My second fight. Yeah. I fought Kojiuishi in Japan.

Yeah. I fought Kojiuishi. Check this out. I was out. Fight week with Nick in Atlantic City. He was fighting Kojiuishi. We didn't know. There was some Japanese guy had like 30 fights.

He beat Chris Lytle at the time. So that's what we knew. We're like, he's good. title and uh and we go to ellenic city and he's walking around we're at the same hotel same restaurants everything you know the fighter in the corner so everywhere we went we'd see the little kajuishi and this corner man and his corner man was this little smiling japanese guy a little fucker a little stocky guy and they'd like a look at it with this weird grin on his face like a little robot every time i seen him i'm like bro fuck that guy and the whole week went by we'd see him everywhere

And then we went, Nick fucked up, Koujish, beat him quick style like TKL in like a minute or something. I can't remember something like that, right? Yeah. And then we're like, fuck yeah, we had a good night. We flew home the next day. We landed getting a car, Caesar, calling me, like, hey, they want you to fight Koguishi's training partner. The little alien guy who was walking around all week looking at me. And I was like, all right, cool.

They're like, yeah, two months. I'm like, all right. So I started training for this guy for two months. This guy had like 30 fights too. It was my second fight. This guy had like 30 fights too. We looked at the record and it was like, I was like, all right. I wouldn't know the names.

They were all Japanese. So I trained. We get ready. I fly out. I fly out. I started telling you, I had Faber right then, too. I remember that. And then I fly out, we fly out to Japan.

And we get to the hotel and we're checking in. And they come up to us like, hey, your opponent got hurt. He got hurt. and we're like, he's out of fight. We're like, what the fuck we just fall away here? But we're replacing with another guy. We've got Kojushi. And we're like, what the fuck?

They got Nick just beat. So you don't have the Japanese out. They want a revenge, and we will get you back for this type of shit. Damn, I didn't know that. Yeah, we had. We flew all the way there. And we changed it up on me right when we got there. And we're like, all right, and they gave me a little more money.

And they're like, we'll change your opponent. It's going to be this guy. And I was like, oh, okay. We're at mission. Soldiers on a mission. All right, cool. So we did it all. And they left when we finished checking it.

We check in. There's a poster on the wall says, Pancrasis. Nave-V-Courge. Oh, he just got her. This already posted. They didn't give a fun. Oh, my gosh. So it was my second fight.

And I lost a decision out there. I brought me and my three homies and my cousin and my brother. We all came out there. And we're running around the Tokyo Dome, Kenway. That was fucking cool. The first time I ever to Japan, I was 20. Fuck.

And we mobbed all over that whole town. And then afterwards, we went out. I lost a decision to goji Ui. I was pissed. And then I remember being like, fuck. And all you knew back then, it was 2004 with, like, boxing. It's like, damn, my record's already fucked. My record's already shit.

And I just started. I remember going home thinking about it. I'm like, dude, that's fucking horrible. How am I going to get anywhere with a shitty record I'm already one and one. It was like stressing me out. I'm just kidding. Because you know, all you know is boxers, you know,

you dug your record up to 20 and out. So that's all you know about records. You're like, damn, I'm already fucked. So I remember just being like going back home and training and I'm like, dude, I fucking, I just got to win 12, 15 more fights and that no one would even see that one. So I was just like, I started getting active about a year later, two years later.

I started fighting five times a year. And I just got to get fucking 15 wins real quick. And no one we can see it'll be like fucking 15 to know. But no one is I actually thought that. And then I fought a few times and then I lost the game. I was like, fuck. Now I got to win 15 more fights. So I was like, and they stayed like that every sentence.

I'm like, dude, every time you live, well, we're going to have to cover that up with nine wins. There was a video that popped up recently of you in like some sort of basement fighting an older guy and it looks like he's about to beat you and then you go and I think you subbed them with a triangle choke. Do you remember this? It looks like you're in a basement somewhere

and there's a bunch of people around. You're wearing tights. He's definitely older than you. Like you look like you're 20, 19. It's not the one around of bleached. Yes, yes, yes. I'm not barred that guy. What? It was a pencreation tournament. Where was that?

That was in Lodda. That's right by my house. You know the one I'm talking about? A 15. You're 15 in that? 15. He was 40. What's crazy. I'm 49.

I'm like, but I'm like, this guy, like, he's fucking 70. Wow, you were 15? Yeah, 15. How old were you when you did your first one? My brother made all my homies do it too. My other two of them, he did it too, and they fucking fuck simple. Was that your first one? That was my first one.

That was your first one. Were you nervous? The fight of 40-year-old? Yeah, not about that. I was just like, I better not fuck up. And we had some girls there and all kind of homies and shit. I got to fuck this dude up for all my friend. Yeah, and he was winning.

And then you said- Check it out. Remember everybody wore the valley two to those shorts? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were wearing those. So, uh, so. It was like, everybody would train in them and shit, too, all the fighters and shit. And I was like, those are so fucking gay.

I was young. And I was like, gee, I got 15 and it's 2000. So it was like, everybody was like, hell not. I was like, Nick was like, all right, cool, Nick signed to me. He's like, go get ready. And he throws me those shorts. The Moyette Valley Tudor kicks him in shorts.

And he tells me, I'm like, what the fun? Whatever. And he was doing it. So I went to the bathroom, and I put him on. And I was like, fuck that. And I put on my, I grab my board shorts and I put him on over him. I tied him up. And I walked out.

I grabbed the water, and I walked out. I walked over to where Nick was on the corner of the men to warm him up. And he goes, I go, I go fucking. I got my, I'm home above here. He says, he says, don't. He's like, yeah, yeah, he's like, yeah, he said, he looks at me and he goes, he'll wear your shorts at.

I'm like, oh, I got him on right here, and I showed him. He's going, what the fuck you do? Take those off, my, my boyfriend. He's like, you ain't scared nobody's notes. And I was like, but I was like, you mean he ain't gonna be scared for him with my regular shorts?

And I was like, he's like, fucking change this shit. And then he kept doing what he's doing. And I watched what I was like, God damn, I don't want to fucking wear these shorts. So I stood there and I waited and they called my name and they did. And I'm like, took them off real quick and they said, go. I fought that motherfucker real quick and I got dead and ran over and I put my shirt back.

I'm like, hell no. I can't believe you were 15. Nick was like, you ain't gonna scare nobody in the nose. I was like, oh fuck. So I wouldn't change. I would have never fought no shorts. Did you see that one video of Nick watching the BMF? I did.

Wait, what were they? Yeah, we're all very things. Yeah, and that one kind of like hit me in the heart. Yeah, people were just like, but just because it was like that, he represents that, you represent that. And it felt like there was some disappointment. Yeah, that's how they made the video. They made you feel like that. They did.

It was cinematic work at his point. Yeah. This is horrible. Also, the interaction between him and Sean Strickland at the gym. Did you see that one? I wasn't sure if he liked the respect or didn't like it. I don't know the way in which he took it. When someone says like, I grew up watching you, you know?

Do you like when people say that to you? It's cool. What's crazy to me is people always come up to me. And I'm like, whoa, woo, woo. Yeah, man, fuck, I grew up watching you. And I'm a look at him. I'm like, how old are you? And they're like, 32.

They're all fat with the great beard or something. Because, you know what I'm like? You grew up watching me, motherfucker, and then you asked how they are. Yeah. I'm like, what the fake? You work out a little bit. I fucking be like an old and chill out. Right.

But when they say I grew up on your name and they look older than you, that always happens to me. I'm like, that's crazy. Group watching, how old are you? But even like my, like 43-year-old or 45-year-old that, I guess it's been a long time because I was to fight when they were 20, 25. It's been a minute. Can I ask you, and I won't keep you much longer, I promise. You have a knack to just sort of lay things out.

You got that blunt thing? How do you think this plays out, this story here? Like this chapter here. So you're fighting on Netflix on Saturday. You're expecting to win. What do you think happens afterwards? I do my job. Fucking crazy shit.

No, because honestly, like when you beat Afeldo Sanjos and you got on the microphone there, excuse me, Michael Johnson. the following year, you get on the microphone there, you're talking about a conter fight that no one was talking about. It was not on anyone's radar, and it was like a prophecy. I'm not trying to glaze, as the kids said, but you called it four months before.

Yeah. And so it felt like you saw it kind of play out. Yeah. So how do you see this playing out? Yeah, that's how you do it. What happened to the blunt? It's coming. It's coming?

Yeah, he's working on it? Yeah, I want to get you a little head of that thing. Me? I don't know if I do that. It's good for you. I don't know. Do you do it now leading up to the fights? If I smoke up to the fights, yeah. You're allowed to now. Kelly.

Yeah. Yeah. But sometimes I know. Nah, I do. But like when it was illegal, I would cut. Fight day two? When it was illegal, in the fight I would cut out weeds. I'm cool with that too. But now will you do it, will you do it like on fight day?

Yeah, but you go like five hours before the fight. Okay. So you're in the arena. Yeah, we can smoke wind in there, that'd be cool. That'd be crazy. We'll try that. In the arena? Nah.

Well, this has been great. This has been great. I'm looking forward to this. I think a lot of fans missed seeing you fight in MMA. The boxing is one thing, but it's been four long years since you last. Let's call somebody while we're on there. Yeah, who we call it? I don't know.

Who should we call? We already call Jeff. Let's call DC. Let's bury the hatchet right now. What's up, bitch? Should we do it? I don't like to see you guys fighting. Yeah, I like DC actually.

Who we call it? We call him. Oh, El Niño. Let's call Jake Shields. Let's talk about least politics. Yeah. We'll call him next. Yeah.

Hey! Coming to you live on the MMA hour. What's up, Gilbert? Hey, what's happening? What's going? Can't say how to go. We're up, Gil. We are.

We are at us here. Yeah. Dermen's here, bro. Everyone's here. You coming to the fight? Be there to support our brother for sure. You cornering him or just coming to watch to support? Just coming to support, brother.

I love it. I love it. You need me on short notice. I'll always jump in there, man, but I'll be there close by. How are doing, Ariel? I'm doing good. I'm doing good, and I like what you and Scott are doing. Our next show is June 13th.

If you have time, come hang out. Look at this guy. Bringing back the fights to the bay. You want me to hold that for you? Hell yeah. By your mouth. No, it's okay. It's good for you.

No, I'm all right. I'll hold it for you. I'll be your ashtray. Let's go. Look at that. Take a picture. I don't know what I'm doing. Screenshot, Gilbert.

screenshot it. Yeah, yeah. I wish I could get some of that. No, we're good. I'm just holding it. I'm just holding it. Screege on your Instagram story and tag me. I got some leverage right now.

Oh, good. Put that on the Instagram story and tag me. We're going to get a high. That's okay. I think I got a contact high. Give me that. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Sorry. Sorry. What's it up? What's the day of the show, San Jose? June 13th. June 13th. What's it called?

Fight Night San Jose. Fight Night and the Czech? Yeah, Fight Night San Jose. Come, come to Fine Night San Jose with me and Gilbert and Ariel coming to you live. Let's go, baby. Let's go. And we'll see you this weekend. Who's fighting on the show?

No, rapping. Leo. Nice. How long did you guys go for? What's Leo last? Not too long. I'm not trying to keep him too long, but I think he's enjoying it, right? Yeah, we're trying to look at the scenery.

Yeah, Esther's here, look it. Yeah. Estes here. Casey's here. The whole crew's here. Dermann and Ernie? Look, yeah. That's throwback.

I don't know the other guy. Jose Garcia. All right, man, we're gonna call Jake and talk about juice. Yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah. All right, go, brother. I'll love, brother.

I see you at the fight. I'll see it when you get here. All right, bro. All right, that's it. Okay. much love. Here's the thing. If you call Jake, then I have to call DC.

All right. Is that a deal? Yeah. I don't go, fuck. Yeah, your screen quality is very good, by the way. I don't know if it's the lighting here or what. Yeah, it's got to be. It looks beautiful, right?

Yeah. This is wild. Look at us. Jake should, be nice. Be nice. Yeah. Everyone picks up when you call. Yo, you're gonna come out there on Tuesday. You're out there now? Yeah, I'm out there now. Hey, be nice to my guy real quick, okay? Here, talk to my guy.

Hey, Jake, how are you? Yeah, we're hanging. We were talking about you. I feel it. I feel it. I feel it coming. We're going to show the world that we can come together. It's meant to be... It's meant to be... Let's bring it. You tried to divide us, but it's okay. I don't know if I can fit. That's okay, man. We need to... We need more peace and love in this world, right? True, true.

Are you out there all week? I'm coming out on Tuesday. I look forward to, yes. I'll be nice, I promise. I'm not worried. I'm not worried. We're boys. We go way back.

All right. Coming in live with Jake Shield, right? Jake Shield, look. Friends. You just ended the Middle East War? Yeah, you just ended the Middle East War? Yeah, you're coming out Tuesday? I went here chilling,

where me working out, fucking training and kicking it and fucking chilling. Let's do it. Hold on, you're on the interview. Let me call you back. I'm on the interview right now. That's why I was calling me. Look, we're mending all the fences here. This is beautiful.

But I wanted to squash your guys at beef, look at. Beef squash, much love. Screenshot, screen shot real quick, Jake. Send the tweet right now. We have ended the conflict. Do a screenshot. What a guy. All right, Jake.

I'll see you Tuesday. Okay, now it's my turn. But guess what? He's not going to pick up. You know why? Because they pick up for you. They pick up for you. He's not going to pick up for me. It is a nice shot. Look how nice this is. Yeah. He's not going to pick up. He's not a real friend like you are. This is the true test. It's called the phone face off. You think he picks up? I don't know. Y'all relationship. Oh. Yo. What's up, dog? Yo, DC, I'm just doing... Can you see me or no? I can see you.

I'm just driving, so you can't see me. Okay, listen, we're mending all the fences here in L.A. My guy here just called an enemy of mine, so I wanted to mend the fences with this guy. That's why I said I can't see my two guys arguing. I need to bring you two together because you're cut from the same cloth. I have no problem with Nate Diaz.

Nate Diaz from the Bay. You guys should stick together. That's what I try to know. I don't understand. But I like when Nate Diaz goes crazy on me. It's more views for my YouTube channel. I know that. I know that you like that.

Uh-huh? I know that you like that. I have no problem with Nate. I really don't, honestly. I talk for a living. I know that you do that. And I know that you fucking, and I know that you and Ben Ascquen like to talk about how I son.

That's Ben Askran like to talk about you. So can we squash it or no? No, I got love for D.C. It's all good with me. Hey, uh... It's all good with me. I have no problem with me. I like Nate.

I know you do. I know you do. I've always like Nate. Yeah, I've always liked Nate. I ain't got no problem with Nate. Good luck this weekend, man. Thank you very much. Do you got the same phone number?

Yeah, I got the same phone number. Hit me up. I'm gonna hit you. This is great. All right. I love. All right. I love.

All right. All right. Yep, yep, yep. Yo, he actually picked up. Look at this. We ended the war in the Middle East. We ended the war in NorCal. This is so great.

It's real Barbara Walter stuff. Who else should we face time? Let's do Dana now. No. Dana fucking don't fuck with you. No. No, don't do that one. I think that would be weird for everyone involved.

Let's do Hunter next. Now, we need to call somebody fun. Let's get somebody like. You just called Chale before we went live. Yeah, we already called Chale. We should call Bobby Green's ass. No, I don't think so. You hate Bobby Green.

I love Bobby Green. I don't think he likes me. It's actually King Green now. He did a good job. He did a good job. Who did he fight Stevens? Jeremy Stevens, Missed Way. Look great.

Oh, he missed weight too. Jeremy Stevens Miss Way. Bobby's been acting doing a lot of good shit. It's amazing. O.G. Strike Force guy. Yeah. There's only a few of you guys left. Cubs Swanson just retired.

O.G.W.C. Shout out to Bobby. Yeah. Who else? Just won two. Did Jim Miller just won two? Shout out to Jim Miller and his kid, too. His kid, yes. Congrats. That's fucking good news, too.

Unbelievable. I love seeing you. Yeah, Jim Miller is the man. See, he's looking out for me with D.C. too. Shout to Jim. He did look out for you? You had your back? Yeah, he's had a response to saying that.

Because D.C. just went and did a whole roast session on my shit. Because I fucking... I didn't want to go on a fucking podcast because I was like, I don't want people to know all this shit on the things anyway. And I'm like, if you go on there, you got to talk. Which podcast? The Theobon podcast.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And then we were just talking about D.C. And I just watched D.C. and Ben Asking and just fucking roast on my shit right on. I'm like, you guys both fucking... You know what I'm like, what? So it made me have all kinds of negative shit. So hell, I didn't want to say that stuff about anybody, but when I do, they make an hour-long responses to me.

I'm like, yeah, I just fucking send your name playing around for a second, bitch. So it's funny how it works. You're still the man. He says that. I just like to make it from views from my YouTube. I'm like, duh. It's funny. Hey, it's great to see you guys.

It's good to see that. Thank you for doing this, my man. Thank you, as always, for everything. No, good luck this weekend. Glad to be here. Glad to be in California. It's good to be seen, right? It's good to be seen.

It's good to be seen. As the man chair. This is what's said. This Saturday. Peace out, Nate. What a conversation. I said it was vintage Diaz. I stand by that.

That was incredible. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I think we can now add Jake Shields and also add DC and Nate, you know, becoming friends. Is Bilal next? Is he actually next? Nate's fighting on the card this Saturday.

Obviously, that's why we're here. The first ever MMA card on Netflix, the first ever MVP MMA card. A lot of history to be had. It's a main event that we never thought would ever come to fruition. It's Ronda Rousey, Gina Carrano. It's Francis-Senganu versus Philippe Lins.

It's Nathan Diaz versus Mike Perry. It's Kenneth Cross against Saladin Parnas. It's Robles Despine against Junior Los Santos. It's a lot more than that. I have been waiting a long time to talk to this man because I want to know about the Genesis. I want to know how they got here and where they're going. Let us talk to the CEO of most valuable promotions.

The co-founder of MVP as well. Mr. Nikisa Bedarian is here in our LA office. Hello, sir. How are you? Good. How are you? Please, please have a seat. Thank you for having me. You're the only one to have been to our New York office and now uncrowned HQ West Coast.

This is amazing. Pretty good. All for your card on Saturday. Not bad. I mean, some kind of love. Thank you for being here and excited to see what's to come this week. Yes. How do you feel? I feel it's a pretty special moment given the time I spent at the UFC learning about

MMA from day one. I showed up at the UFC thanks to Lorenzo Fertita as head of strategy having never been to an MMA event. Ever, not one. Sorry, I went to two events. I wasn't a fan. I'd been to two events before I showed up as head of strategy. I didn't understand the sport. I didn't know the fighters.

So it was really on the job training. And I was there when Rhonda arrived. I left three weeks before her last fight. Wow. And now to be doing this with her, having seen the impact she had is, yeah, it's surreal. Was this always part of the plan? No, it was definitely never part of the plan. It was not part of the plan.

No, we never looked at doing MMA as a strategic angle. But when we set up MVP, the name was moment. valuable promotions. It wasn't most valuable boxing. It wasn't Jake Paul boxing. The focus was how do we create an entity that can assimilate into any big event and represent talent and athletes the right way. So if she's told the story, if she doesn't call you after having this idea and all this stuff, it doesn't work out with the UFC, you think you guys don't go into MMA? Not at this point. Wow. Yeah. And so why do it? I mean, it's big. But you're going into something that's a whole new venture.

It's a different sport, a different market. Why say yes? Why do it? I think it's really interesting that the reason we're in women's boxing is in part because of Ronda Rousey, right? Because she trailblazed and showed that a female athlete could be as big as her male counterparts and even bigger in 2015. She was our biggest star at the UFC.

And so when we got into women's boxing, that background and understanding was a driver of it. And now because of her we're getting into MMA, and it's very clear to me, it's very clear to Jake, and it's mostly most clear to Rhonda Rousey, there's an opportunity to create a alternative platform to the leader in the sport, which is clearly UFC, that is fighter-centric, that looks at, you know, the offering much more in terms of what UFC used to be. And we're excited about that. We've been approached by a number of investors. as we've been approached by different players within the industry. And given my background and given what we've been able to do with MVP today, I feel pretty good where we sit.

Okay, two things. One thing, just get this a little. You're so soft-spoken. You're not like Michael Hearn. You're a gentleman. Okay, investors, by the way, still just you and Jake. Still Jake and I, self-funded. Proud to say we've never lost a dollar.

Most startup organizations in sport, combat sports, any sport. lose tens, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars. You look at the WMBA, which I love how popular it's become, 30 years in the business, and for 30 years they've been in the red, right? And for us to be able to do what we've done, for us to invest in women's boxing, and so far, you know, the cash flow positive is pretty good. I saw the matchroom news yesterday, right? So there's investors getting into combat sports all the time.

Have you been close? Are you considering bringing in someone else? Yeah, so Matchroom took on investment like 18 months ago. This is the second investor that's come in. So kudos to them. And they have a very nice diversified business between boxing and darts and other verticals. From our side, we've, yeah, we've had investor dialogue and we're confident if and when we choose to raise capital, we'll have no problem doing so. Where are you when Rhonda calls you about this idea? I don't remember where I was when we spoke, but I remember the email that came in and the email was, The email was the initial? The email was the initial. Email.

And the email was from her representative saying, Rhonda has seen what you're doing with MVP, what you're doing for women's boxing, and the quality of product that you put on is very impressive. We'd like to have a chat about some things she's thinking about. And so her and I got on a call. We hadn't spoken since 2016. Did you think it was boxing related?

No, I didn't. I didn't think it was boxing related. I thought it was either going to be MMA related or some type of series or movie or something of that nature or a desire to be involved with MVP to help promote the women's platform that we're building there. That's what I thought it was going to be. And off the jump, is it the GINA fight? Off the jump. It was the Gina fight. And off the jump, I said, absolutely.

This makes all the sense in the world. Didn't even have to think about it. People don't appreciate the biggest pay-per-view since the pandemic, the COVID pandemic, is Mike Tyson versus. Roy Jones, co-main event, Jake Paul versus Nate Robinson, right? A legend, two legends in Roy and Mike and Jake Paul. And then obviously the biggest event since the Muhammad Ali days in terms of viewership is Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson. So when you think about a Rhonda Rousey, which is a true crossover name,

not just endemic to MMA in any way, shape, or form, and then think about Gina Carrano, who, an originator in women's MMA, but a Hollywood star who had a falling out and got attention because of that falling out. For them to come back together again, that sounds like the perfect story to tell. And so do you know that she has already talked to the UFC when this? When the email came in, no, on the conversation, she shared with me that there have been discussions with the UFC. There was, you know, a plan to do it in 2025 as a pay-per-view. and then when their model changed,

they couldn't do it anymore because Gina needed more time. She felt like she needed more time to be her best self because she wanted this to be as competitive as possible. And so that's when they came to us. Were you surprised UFC ultimately

didn't go after this? I mean, they went after it, right? But I think the model changed for them and they had to take more risk and less margin than they probably want to do. But ultimately, okay, went after it. Are you surprised they didn't ultimately do it? Like, this is a...

A mega name that did so much for the company. Against another mega name who never fought for the company, feels like a layup, feels like something Paramount would want. They're in a unique situation, right? They've signed a seven-year deal that doesn't really need to window them renewing for another three and a half to four years.

So I see them doing like one or two really big things a year, which is the White House card is definitely going to be very big. And I've heard Connor McGregor is coming back, which will be amazing for the sport, right? He's such a character. He's a leader of kind of grabbing attention for MMA. But I don't see them doing much more than that in terms of impacting their margins because they have a great commitment from Paramount.

They have great sponsors, great live events, business, and fighters are happy to be there at some level, I guess. So they're going to continue doing what they're doing. Are you saying that based on what you're seeing or what's to come? Meanwhile, do you feel like they can now be on cruise control because they don't have to sell pay-per-views? They don't have to market. It's all just sort of bought and paid for. Are you giving us a hint that, hey, because of the nature of this deal, it's going to change? I think it's what we're already seeing at some level, right?

When you have a renewal of that magnitude, you would hope there would be more structural change to improve fighter compensation, fighter pensions in the future. And you haven't seen that. And they're a public company. They're going to focus on EBITDA margin. Right. And making sure their shareholders feel good about the business. When you took this idea to Netflix, were they in right away? They've never done MMA before.

Yeah, they were very supportive. And they thought this was a unique kind of convergence of names. They were excited about having a Francis or a Nate on the card with Rondo, which was the ideas that we discussed with them. And we're now in a fortunate position where we have both Francis, and Nate on the card. So it's, yeah, I think everyone was excited, is excited, and I expect a great night on Saturday. When we first started, you said MMA wasn't a part of the plan.

Now it's here. Now it's about to start. You hear things from Ronda about future, about minimum pay and all that. Has the plan now changed? Is MVP MMA a thing as a result of this? Maybe it wasn't what you set out to do, but is it now a thing? We certainly hope so. Okay.

When did that happen? When did that shift happen from one off to like a week? hope to be in this. I was saying the last couple of months and spending more and more time with Rhonda, you know, when she approached me and said, I can't be your Connor, but I want to be your Dana. And I said, well, I'm certainly no Lorenzo Fertita. I can't walk a mile in that man's shoes, but I appreciate the sentiment. And let's see how the next few months go. And if this event does well, let's have a discussion about it. And I've been blown away. I think she's done a tremendous job in bringing attention to the event in promoting not just this event but the need for

change and evolution within the sport and I would like nothing more than to continue being in business with her. And so is that the plan? That is the plan assuming Saturday night goes well, which everyone that's watching this, I hope you're hoping it goes well because it means more opportunity for fighters. It means alternatives. It means expansion of the fan base because if it goes well with Netflix and we do more with Netflix just like we have in boxing, that's only good for MMA. It's not bad. And so when you say go well, goes well, what does that mean? What does that mean to you? From a viewership perspective, right? Like when I look at boxing, we brought professional sports to Netflix. We did the first ever professional sporting event on Netflix,

Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson, total of 125 million of viewers. I believe that's a one-of-one event. It's going to be hard to replicate that ever. But there's been two other. big boxing events on the platform. Canello versus Crawford and Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua, 33 million viewers, 41 million viewers. And then we've had two other boxing events, one very meaningful, Taylor Serrano three, all women's card. Publicly they put out there six million in change in terms of viewership. And then Tyson Furrier recently came back and, you know, I think they put out there. He did five million in the UK, which I would assume means they did six to seven million globally. So what is big MMA on Netflix?

How successful is it? Is it Taylor Serrano? Tyson Fury fighting Macmadov, I think was his name? Mahmoudov. MacMoodov. Or is it Jake Joshua? Is it Canelo Crawford?

And that will help us determine what the path forward is. What do you think? What is it? I think it should be at least somewhere in between, but I think there's people that we speak to and think that this could do Jake Joshua, Canelo Crawford type numbers.

I mean, listen, you could say what you want, about, you know, Rhonda hasn't fought in 10 years, Gina hasn't fought in 17 years, Nate Diaz isn't in his prime, but those are massive names. And you had Francis Nangano, who I believe is the best heavyweight in the world. There's never been a composition of a card with this much star power under one umbrella that you don't have to pay for. So let's see how big MMA is, right? And then let's see how much this touches the mainstream, because Rhonda touches the

mainstream. Rhonda was a crossover star. Rhonda did go in the WWE. Gina Carrano is a movie star, is a cast member of the Mandalorian. And so when you put all of those things together, press a very strong rest of card with some legends, with some top current fighters, with some great prospects, I'm excited to see the outcome. Yesterday, Jake said 20 million. That's what he was hoping for and would be happy with.

He wants $20 million? No. I think he gets more than that. Viewers on Netflix. Do you share that? Do you think that that's attainable? I think it's definitely attainable. I think that would be a great outcome. You know, I've heard a lot of people say, including yourself, this will be the most viewed MMA event in history. I just want to remind folks that in the peak of Anderson Silva, at

the UFC, we had a great relationship with the Marino family at Globo, and Anderson's fights were on free to air on broadcast in Brazil. And when Anderson fought, the country stopped. and global had like 70% market share. So I don't know if we're going to beat the Brazil number, but outside of Brazil, I feel like this could be the biggest event ever. Okay. I guess I was thinking about the United States, which is very ethnocentric of me. What did those get, by the way?

Like Anderson back in the day, like was it over 10? He would have like 40 to 60% market share of TVs that were on. Wow. So, you know, depending on how many TVs were on, at least half of them were watching. Anderson Silva. So it's interesting. This feels like the first time that a new player has come in and tried to like go for it off the bat. Not a knock at WSOF or PFL or even Bellator, but there was like a slow build there. When Strikeforce took over the Elite XC contract and and then took their TV deal as well, Elite XC went down in 2008 and then 2009, here comes Strike Force. They took all the remaining

pieces, which included the likes of, you know, Nick Diaz and others who were available, Robbie Lawler, they then got the Showtime deal and they went for it, right, for two years, and then, of course, you know what happened. The difference is Nick Diaz was available, Robbie Loller was available, Alster Overeem, there was Luke Rockhole, Daniel Cormier, etc. Tell me if I'm wrong, there's not a lot of guys just sort of floating out there who aren't tied up. And so my question is, how difficult was it? Once you got past, all right, Gina's in, Ronda's in, to put together a card that you felt was. worthy of this stage?

It was, look, it was strategic in terms of Nate and Francis, and then the rest of it was talking to different folks within the industry and really figuring out how can we put things together that connect MMA, right? If you look at Eileen Pereira, obviously the sister of Alex Pereira. So connecting those two dots, and she's from Brazil, and she's a woman, and we want to give other women opportunities on this card. If you look at Namo Fazil, right, and his energy and his character and what he brings, we were excited about that. If you look at Junior Dos Santos hitting Brazil, not just with Philippe Lins, but also with JDS, a legend, a former champion, record holder in the U.S. in terms of viewership, right, on Fox in 2011, first ever UFC event on Fox broadcast.

So we feel like we were putting together a great card. it took some time with Nate, right? Nate was the last that effectively yet announced, but that's, what was this quote yesterday? I don't plan to be late. I'm just late or whatever he said. It was the same thing for this card. He told me when we spoke on Sunday,

he did speak to the UFC and he did consider what they were offering. He didn't like that they were offering Connor. He has his reasons. Did you get into a bidding war there? How did that play out? I think we offered less, right? But we gave him flexibility. truthfully, it's a one-fight deal, but we always believe that we will show you why we deserve to be your promoter.

And, you know, we feel great about how it's gone with him and his team. And platinum Mike Perry has been amazing. I mean, what a professional he has become, not just inside the cage or the ring, but also outside of it. So we're good. Francis has said that the original plan was RICO, and he has said since he's still hoping that it's RICO. A, were you disappointed when Rico chose the Ussick fight, and B, are you interested in putting on that fight? Wasn't disappointed because Rico was pretty transparent with us, so we knew that was likely the outcome. And it was a matter of he'd made a commitment, and he didn't want to back out of his commitment.

And you have to respect that. You have to acknowledge that's the right thing to do. Depends on how he does with Ucic, right? Like, hopefully he has a great showing, and then there's demand for him to do more in combat sports, whether it's boxing or MMA with Francis. You know, we look at it as whether it's Francis or Philippe, whether it's Nate or Mike, whether it's Rondo or Gina. There's events that come out of this that are big headliners themselves. The one name that I think excited a lot of the hardcore fans was Saladin Parnaz. Hardcore fans know him. And what I think, what I like about this card, and I'm not trying

to glaze, as the kids like to say, but you've got pioneers, trailblazers, champions. I consider France as a champion, superstars, big time prospects. You've got the full range. And I like that. Parnas is one of those guys that the hardcores know from KSW,

multiple-time champion, multiple division champion. Best fighter from France. You said it. Can I ask though, what is his status? Is he free from KSW? Like if you want to do more with him, can you do more with him?

That's not been clear to us. We basically did a provision of services through KSW. I will say, you know, he's been great to work with. He's been very pro-MVP through this process in terms of promoting the event, promoting our brand. And I'm excited for him to get his debut on a global platform for the world to see him. He looks to be very marketable

and obviously his fighting style is exciting. So let's see how it plays out. Can you explain what happened with Makayev? Actually, his P1 visa got approved yesterday. Come on. 100%. So he's based out of the UK. London is one of the busiest U.S. embassies in the world in terms of appointments. He can travel to the U.S. on a tourist visa, no problem. But to compete at a professional of life sporting event, you need a specific visa. And that just takes time to process. And unfortunately, it took longer than we wanted it to, too, and it was approved today. So he's not going to fight on the card. He's not, no, it's too late. I do like Fumi. Yeah. His replacement, Ally Quint has been blowing me up about him for years, feeling that he's not getting his opportunities. So it's a nice replacement

against Adriana Maris. Yesterday, Ronda Rousey said, absolutely one and done. I'm not fighting after this. Do you believe her? I do believe her. I hope we can change her mind. Okay. But I do believe her, yes. So you have plans that you'd like to pitch her on?

I mean, look, if she wins or Gina wins, we obviously promote Holly home. And that would be a dream fight for us to see either of them fight Holly. But it's ultimately up to them, right? Like, fighters have to want to make the fight happen. In a perfect world, how many MMA shows would you want to put on in? a year in a perfect world. What do you think is attainable? I think when we think about the go forward, it's four to six to start and then strategically grow from there. Okay. And would that be this year or next year? I think it's it's focused on 2027. Can you do both well? Can you do boxing and

MMA? No one's ever tried that. Obviously the UFC is doing that now or TKO, but like it's different, right? I mean, they've got a 30 year head start. Yep. And it's a massive company. No one has ever been successful in doing both at the same time. Can you? We can. And we can. And we can. And we will because it's a competitive advantage given the way that we think and approach it. It's an opportunity to create for athletes the ability to fight in both sports, right? I think that's one of the biggest things that TKO has the ability to do. I don't know why they're not doing it. And we think about the biggest moment in UFC history.

It's actually Connor McGregor fighting Floyd Mayweather, by far, by any metric, revenue, views, attention, engagement. So I think, you know, we feel like being fighter first, being opportunity first, to be able to do this and balance it the right way, it actually just creates a more enticing environment for fighters to be a part of. So you say the hope, the goal four to six. Is that the actual plan? Like, do you have a commitment from anyone to put on these four to six?

We have a commitment from nobody as of today. But similar to when we did Paul Tyson, you know, many people asked, you know, are you going to do more with Netflix? And what I said then and what I'm saying now about MMA is, if it goes well, I anticipate we will do more. How that looks and what it's structured like is TBD. I actually think MMA is easier to make an impact in than boxing. Because in boxing, there's seven or eight of us that are well-known promoters that compete on any given night for the biggest events. In MMA, it's really UFC, right?

Like, kudos to PFL. They've been investing for, you know, five years, six years. But they haven't gotten to a place where people say, oh, UFC's put on a great show. Oh, PFL's got a big show on. That doesn't happen too often. And I think there's that opportunity. There's that gap within MMA, and we can fill that gap, particularly if we have the ability to do it with Netflix. One of the intriguing things, at least for me, I love this stuff, is how it's going to look.

What can you tell us about how it's going to actually look on Saturday? We know the cage will be a hexagon. Yes. We were just talking to Chris Avila about, or a Vila, about he can have echo on his shorts and Santa Cruz and sponsors. Like, we miss the sponsors. I like the fact that people can have a representation of who they are on their shorts. What can you tell us about the walkouts? How is this going to look?

Because we always fixate on these things. Well, for sake of background, I spearheaded the athlete outfitting policy at the UFC, right? Which I hate, by the way. I just want to look. Which was driven by growing the sport. It was driven by getting media partners like ESPN comfortable with partnering with the UFC and creating more opportunity. I will say that strategic plan that was put in place had fighters at this point 10 years later making a lot more money than they are. So that was the vision.

That was the implementation with Reebok. I've seen the back and forth on the venom outfits that they have for the White House. People at the time didn't like the Reebok outfits. And I don't think it's a big consumer products business, but it is a way to elevate the sport for the masses because MMA, I would say, generally isn't as, you know, it's a rougher sport than boxing. So part of that was cleaning the image of it. But it was definitely fighters were going to make more by this point. When we started MVP, Jake and I definitely talked about that as a possibility, but we both clearly aligned on we want fighters to have their individuality. and have the opportunity to make extra money where they can because we're not in a position yet like

the UFC is to meaningfully provide to have the athlete outfitting policy. When you look at what we've done with Netflix, same thing. We've maintained the flexibility of athletes in the boxing events and now in this MMA event to have sponsors on their walkout gear on their fight shorts, on their fight top if they're wearing one. And so I'm excited about that. There's obviously categories that you can't have sponsors for. And there's specific names once in a while that may not get approved because they're an illegal list or they're not regulated in that.

But overall, it's a great opportunity for fighters to earn additional income. Ronda's talked about a minimum pay and all this stuff. How much are you on board with that? Obviously, when we were first introduced to you guys, Jake's talking about unions. He's talking a lot about MMA fighter pay stuff. When I met Jake Paul the first time when he was 22, he said, I want to start a fighter's union. And I said, I'm not your guy, but I appreciate the sentiment. I think we're looking at this event and anything we do going forward as MVP, as an independent entity,

to have a minimum of $40,000 for fighters to fight in MMA. Wow. So even if you're fighting like first fight of the night, 40K, is it show win model? No, that's guaranteed. And then every fighter has a performance bonus in addition to that. Which is how much? Depends on the fighter. Oh, it's not, okay, so it's not like we're giving X amount for the fight of the night.

Are you doing that? Because you do that in boxing. We will have a fighter tonight, Jake, and I need to kind of discuss it and we'll announce it at the right time. But every fighter does have a performance bonus incentive. And is the 40K base being implemented for this card? Yes. Wow.

Okay. All right. And that's what you'd like to see moving forward. Absolutely. Speaking of Mr. Paula, he did make some headlines yesterday saying his... On your show. Yes. Thank you for that.

Saying that his fighting career is actually up in the air, that there are people telling him that he should retire, doctors in his life, the jaw. Do you think there's a chance he fought his last fight? I think, of course, there's a chance. Just like I think there was a chance Connor McGregor fought his last fight five years ago, but I keep hearing from you on your show that any day they're going to announce he's coming back. Yes, yes. The reality is we will not know if Jake Paul is coming back until he's sparring and gets hit in the jaw. He's a ways away? The plan is for him to come back at the end of the year. That's what we're targeting. Okay. But But he's going back to his doctor this week, and we'll just continue to play it by ear.

Would you be in favor of him stopping? Do you think that's a smart thing? I think whatever is best for him to do we're supportive of, right? Like Jake's a much bigger asset to the company outside the ring than inside the ring. So in many ways, if he's less focused on fighting, he's more focused on promoting and building the next generation of talent. Given the injury, do you have regrets about making the fight? No, and I don't think he has any regrets, right?

He said that yesterday. And again, it's not, I didn't make the fight. I facilitated the fight, right? I could have said, hey, I'm not going to help you do this. Good luck, but that's really not logical. Ultimately, it's what he wanted to do, and we found a way to get it done. And I think he did tremendously well, no matter what anyone wants to say. So you've had two MVPW events, third one coming up May 30th, El Paso.

Sold out event in El Paso. Texas. Stephanie Hahn, Holly home rematch, which I'm excited to see. And look, Amanda Serrano reached out to Jake and I and said, I want to go to El Paso and I want to fight before Stephanie Hahn in her hometown because she did it for me in January and came to San Juan. So we were excited to add Amanda Serrano on ESPN. She's accomplished a lot in her life. This will be her first fight on ESPN. Two other championship fights on the main card. So it's four back-to-back top. level championship fights and it should be a great event. Serrano fighting at 126?

Yes. I did see news today of Ellie Scottney moving up to 126. Yes. Is that the fight you want to make? I think that's the fight Ellie wants to make. And if Amanda wants to do it, we'd love to see that fight, right? End of the day, when you get to Amanda's level, when you get to Katie Taylor's level, you decide who you want to fight, when you want to fight, and we do our best to put it together.

I really wanted to see Ellie versus Sky Nicholson before she moved up. But I guess, I guess, Look, Ellie struggled with weight for the past two years and just seeing her go through that process was impressive that she was able to do it, but also understood that as soon as she got her goal, she'd probably come to the conclusion that she doesn't want to punish her body anymore.

She doesn't want to punish her hair anymore. Her hair was falling out from the weight cuts. And so we fully support her decision. And it creates an open playing field. Sure. Alicia Baumgartner gets mad at me when I bring up Caroline Dubois. Why?

I think she doesn't think she's on her. her level. She's a C-level fighter or D-Level, it's hard to keep up. But that, to me, is the fight to make. I don't think that we're going to get Alicia versus Amanda, right? I don't see that happening in the near term. No, and I don't think... No, absolutely not. So why not? That's the one. I think, look, Alisa's looking for the biggest fights. At the same time, she just fought Boeh-Meréry who is an amazing fighter, but I would say she's at the same level, if not slightly below Caroline Dubois, right? Caroline beat her. So I think, yes, you could make the R.mereau. You could make the argument that, hey, you want to come and fight me, you need to win some more belts because you want

me to step up to 135 because I don't think at least Caroline can cut it that below 135. And you need to do three-minute rounds. And so we've been in discussions with Alicia on it, and we'll see where it leads to. How many tickets do you expect to sell Saturday? Probably, I would say, you know, 14 to 15,000. Are you happy with that? Very happy with that. You know, it's an interesting environment in the economy with gas prices where they're at. There is just, I think, delayed buying behavior across the board. You've seen it with the UFC in Miami. You saw it with UFC in Newark.

And it'll be a full house. And as far as you're not going to tell me, but do you already have future fights that you're thinking about? Have you allowed yourself to even go there or you really want to focus on Saturday and that's it? No, we've thought about a lot of future fights. Oh, really? Absolutely. What can you tell us? Nothing to tell.

Nothing to share here. But the hope is that Saturday goes well and there's more to come. And Rhonda will be a part of that. Does it feel like a sort of, I don't know, full circle moment for you? You alluded to this at the top. But like you got into all of this and now you're putting on an MMA event when I think at one point, weren't you just like the accountant there or something? I'm just joking.

Does it feel full circle for you here? I think, look, it feels like this is what was meant to be, right? I started MVP with Jake and women's boxing was a priority because of Ronda Rousey. I worked on Ronda Rousey's contracts. And I was there when she became the face of our sport. And I remember exactly where I was when she lost the Holly home. And I reflect on the pressure on that young woman and what she had on her shoulders and what she went through. And she dealt with it in her own way, not having the experience she does today.

And so just to be alongside her, the best version of her, the promoter she's become, I think she's more well-rounded as a fighter, that in itself is probably the most special part of this. And then being able to do this with Jake four and a half years in on the biggest level with the biggest fighters in the world, it's definitely a great moment. Last thing, because I know you have to go, and we could probably do 30 minutes just on this. But as far as the state of boxing in this country, Aliak this. and that Zufa now signing more guys, Shakur and all these guys seem to be coming over as well. How do you feel about the way things are going with what they're doing over there? I've said from the jump, Zufa is going to be a long-term player. They're well capitalized.

They're smart people. They have a good TV partner. And I just wish the Alley Act required a 50% revenue share. If it did that, I couldn't care about anything else, right? Because I do believe the UFC is the best promotion. entity that there was, there is, and there will be for a long time. And they can bring that to boxing. They can bring that to the sport. But just make a commitment to share revenue fairly with the athletes and you have my full 100% support. Can I ask what's the breakdown on Saturday?

In terms of... The revenue share. Much higher than 50% to the fighters. Really? Yeah. What ballpark? Just much higher. Okay. Our objective is to not lose money, to obviously make a little bit of money. But it's really about putting the money back in the pocket of the fighters. They're the ones risking their lives. They're the ones that people are paying to see. And we feel like we've lived up to that to this point. And we're going to continue to live up to that. Incredible.

Thank you. Thank you. I know you're very busy. Nikisa Baderian, co-founder of MVP, CEO of MVP, doing big things Saturday on Netflix, first ever MMA card on Netflix, first ever MVP MMA card. Incredible stuff. Looking forward to seeing how the week rolls on. Appreciate your time very much.

Don't go anywhere. The great Travis Barker, joining us in studio in a matter of moments, he'll be up next. Okay, that was just a taste of my conversation with Jake Paul from yesterday. You can see it on the channel. We just kind of need these interviews to say goodbye. And we were, how great is this? This is amazing.

How amazing is this? We're in L.A. I said when we came out here, I want this show to be L.A. centric. I want you to feel like we're in L.A. We're giving you people, boots on the ground, fighters, promoters, celebrities, all that stuff and more. And I reached out to this one guy. And I know he's super busy and he's got a million things going on.

And he moved mountains to be here. so I'll waste any time and say hello to the greatest drummer of all time. The drummer for Blink 182 musician, songwriter, producer. Is he here? Holy shit, he's actually here. My man. Travis Barker, first time in person. Yes, finally, right?

Dude, this is nuts. And you're in L.A. We're in L.A. We're in L.A. Awesome. And I hit you up a million times and bothered you. And you made it fucking happen. I made it happen.

Holy shit. Yep. Thank you, man. Of course. I can't believe you're here. I'm here. This is cool. Yeah, this is our makeshift studio.

One day you'll have to come. to the New York studio, right? You have to come to the actual. I'm going to be out there soon. For real? Yeah. You're going to do a 5K? If there's one when I'm there, I'll do it.

You can round up the boys, we could hit one. That's on the bucket list. Yes. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm great. Busy? Yeah, I just finished rehearsals.

Yeah. What are you rehearsing for? Like, Blink has one show this year. Okay. It's like a private party. But, yeah. For who? Mercedes.

Oh, wow. Yeah. What is the fee for that to get you guys to do? I can't tell you that. I have a bar mitzvah coming up. Can you guys come to my son's bar mitz? Yeah, let's see. Just one show in 2026?

Yeah, one blink show. Why? You had the big tour last year. Yeah, because we'll take off for our record cycle. Okay. So when you're riding, you're just home and you know what I mean? You like that? Yeah, I'm in the studio 24-7 anyways, like producing and writing.

Okay. So even, what do you prefer? Like, the tour life or that life? I need both, honestly. I like producing but then if I'm cooped up in the studio for too many months I just want to go play shows. Okay. So what's

like the longest you need at home to recoup and then you say like shit man I'm itchy I need to get out there? Honestly I could probably do an entire year of being home in the studio. I think I like the creative more. Playing live is cool but it's more performance

right? It's like do the same thing every night besides maybe a drum solo will change or something like that play a few new songs. Whereas home life, creative, everything's different. You know, like I'll, for example, I did Alkaline True. I'm doing an album right now. And then the game, I'll see them on a run. And he'll be like, yo, I got this song to play on. Whatever. Hey, I need this, whatever. So it's constantly always changing. So I'm not doing the same thing every day. And when you're at home, you can watch a lot of fighting. I can't. Oh, I watch on tour too. I know, but it's a little

easier, no? Yeah. I hate missing a fight when I'm on stage and I know the fight's happening because it's all I'm thinking about. But I really don't look or anything until I get off stage. You know, that happened to me. I was flying here on Saturday and I booked the flight. I had to come on Saturday and I booked the flight during UFC 328 thinking, this is going to be great. No, I'm going to watch it on the plane. It's going to be amazing. As we board the plane, hey, everyone, sorry our Wi-Fi isn't working. It was the worst freaking feeling. So, so, so. So for some reason, the texts work. So one of the guys on my team, Pizzi, was texting me updates, but it was awful.

I couldn't watch anything. I couldn't go on Twitter. I couldn't stream. We landed just as Sean was entering the cage. So I got to watch that live. But it sucked. Knowing that there was things happening and I'm missing it all was an awful feeling. So I get that.

And then you don't want to catch a text or an update or anything. It sucks. But I did go back and watch everything. So I feel up to speed, obviously, doing this job. Did you watch? Of course. What do you think of the main event? I mean, I thought.

it was great, honestly. I thought the buildup was so just obviously beyond entertaining and I think everyone was shit. Yeah, I just feel like people I don't even, I know that don't even watch fights, we're aware of that, of that fight.

You know, Sean Strickland's going to, I have Sean Strickland, you know what I mean, just random people. He also grew up near where I grew up. That's right. Is it Corona? Corona. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the first place I bought a house and like kind of grew up in that area, but So you were rooting for him?

I like both of them. I really like both of them. I feel like both of them are a little misunderstood. Yeah. And they're both great fighters. So, yeah, I also have trouble picking. Unless it's someone that I'm really good friends with, I don't really choose a fighter. Okay.

Yeah, I'm just... What about the pre-fight talk? Do you feel like there should be a line? Or is it all fair game? This is cage fighting. Say whatever you want. I mean, can we look at it like comedy? where you just say whatever the fuck you want

and everyone trying not to get their feelings hurt I think that would be awesome You think that would be better Even if you're talking about moms and stuff I mean that sucks if someone did you know Yeah Yeah that obviously like who was it back in the day Was it Michael Kea?

Kobe and like oh And what should we call it The English fighter Michael Bisping No They had a really Oh Leon Edwards Yeah yeah

Like that felt bad to me. Yes. His dad was dead. Yeah, they didn't feel right to me. So same. Like, my mom passed. If I was like a fighter and someone's talking trash on my mom, obviously it's going to get

me more pissed off. But it's also like what people do, right? Like humans suck in certain ways and they do stuff like that. But I think like the buildup to the fight, I also thought Shemaya was kind of like acting out of character too. Sure, sure. You know what I mean? I think maybe they both got under each other's skin a little bit.

But I don't know. Yeah, I don't really think to, I don't really think anyone means it though. Okay. I think like building up to it like if you and I were standing across from each other we were going to fight, you probably say a bunch of stuff you really don't mean. And I might do the same thing just because I'm so angry and I've been in fight camp for 12 weeks. So I could kind of give passes. But people are mad at me because I said he got very personal and then apologize for it right after the fight. And I understand that there's a bond that happens when you fight another human being. Yeah. And so if I say you suck as a fighter and now I just went 25 minutes with you, you know what? I take that back. You're actually a badass and you took me to a place I didn't know that I can survive. That's one thing. But when I'm talking about your mom and your religion and all that stuff, nothing that happened in those 25 minutes should change how you feel and what you said beforehand. And so I felt like it was a little bit hollow to just say right away, I was just selling the fight. Come on guys. No one wants to feel hoodwinked. You know what I mean?

I see both sides. That was my issue. I feel like you might have post-flight clear. too. Right? Like, you kind of let it go after five rounds in a ring with someone beating each other to a whole. You know what I mean? You could just be like, man, respect, you know? I don't know.

It's hard. I understand your side. I also understand. I'll never claim to know that. I've never walked in those shoes or, you know, walked into that cage. Yeah. It's just the way it struck me. But, you know.

I feel like you always, you always see that, though, right? Like, you see even, like, the worst. the worst rival, besides Connor and Khabibb. Yeah. Jones, D.C. are probably those two. Yeah, I feel like there was no makeup, right? No. But you'd even see Dominic Cruz in favor afterwards just be like, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I understand your side, but I've also, like, commend Strickland for being like,

okay, everything's cool and we're, you know. Trust me, there was a part of me after the second round or third round when they're giving high fives. and I'm like, no, no, keep that energy. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I want you to keep that energy through the end of the fight. But I was also entertained. It was like, it was not what I expected.

Do you want to see it again? Humzat's now saying, yeah, I would love to see it again. Yeah. Because I felt like he just stopped wrestling the second through fifth round or something. After the second. Yeah, and he stood with them.

Yes. And yeah, I think it was the second or third round when he got hit and I was like, oh, I don't think he likes that. You know what I mean? But his wrestling is so strong and he's so good. I didn't know why he didn't go back to it. But I also can't relate. I don't know what was going on.

For sure. What about Josh Fan? That fight was so fun. That guy's unbelievable. It's also hard to see fly weight right before their weight division. They're so fast. It's like 125ers getting down. It slows down, right?

Yeah. That was such a great. great fight. That dude is unbelievable. His output. Yeah, I wish I could strike even a quarter as well as Joshua Van. He's unbelievable. And he hasn't been fighting for that long either, right? He's 24. He's a kid. Yeah, he's just, he's probably one of those just naturally gifted fighters. He was probably like a problem in school. You know, he was probably like, whooping people's asses before he even knew how to fight because he's just a natural. I feel like he's striking his natural. What do you think of the White House card? Wild.

You like it? Yeah. Everyone has a take on it. I said it was fine. I gave it an A. On paper. Yeah. Yeah, of course.

I think seeing Alex Pereira at heavyweets, exciting. Yeah. No matter how it goes down is exciting. Him versus Seraghan is exciting. Ariel, Ilya versus Gaichi. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like Gaichi's just so good.

And I'm a big Justin fan, but Ilya's just untouchable. you know yeah of course um i would be shocked i would be shocked if gaiti went and i'm not trying to be disrespectful to him at all it's just no yeah i just feel like he's on such a different level and so much younger too is taking so much less damage in his career yeah he's got so much power like snapping his punches like i don't know um but yeah does gachie stand a puncher's chance of course of course everyone and he's like such a great fighter but yeah and then there's armin in case anyone gets hurt, that's exciting. That's the one I want to see.

Armand versus Ilya. That would be really cool. Are you going to the card on Saturday? Gina and Rhonda. I'm not. I really wanted to because Nate's a good friend of mine. And I love that fight him versus Mike Perry. That's exciting.

But it's one of my anniversaries with my wife. Okay. So when you say one of your anniversaries? Yeah. So we got married in Vegas. We had like drunk wedding in Vegas. Okay. We had our Santa Barbara like courthouse wedding.

and then our wedding in Italy. Wow. And we celebrate all three. All three? So which one is this one? This one's the courthouse. Okay, so this is the middle one. Mm-hmm.

Which one means the most? I mean, they were all, they all mean something different, but Italy was probably the coolest one. That was the big celebration. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was in Portofino. Okay, wow.

Unbelievable. How many people were there? 30. Oh, that's it. Yeah, really small. I was going to say, like, I felt a little bad. I didn't get the invite. Was that like number 31?

No, that was hard. We had the smallest wedding. That must have been so tough. Yeah, it was good. Were people upset? Yeah, I think there was some people that were bummed. But it was almost just going to be us and our kids. We have seven kids.

Golly. So just off the bat, you were already... Yeah, we were already big. It was already a big wedding for us. Gully. I mean, outside of your families, you probably couldn't have invited many friends, right? Mm-mm. Why'd you do it so small?

I think we just wanted to... We just wanted it to be about us. It was, you know, you could get down with all the chaos and pandemonium of, I have to invite this person, I have to invite that person, you're entertaining people. It just becomes something it isn't. So, you know, those three dates, how far apart were they? Like Vegas to courthouse to a few weeks apart, each one. Come on.

Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah. When you did the Vegas. And her birthdays right before. Oh, geez. A lot of presents. Yeah.

You have to give presents for all those. Not all of them, but something. It's more like the thought. like do something cool or something that means something. And when you did the Vegas one, was the Italy one already planned? Yeah. It was.

We were just... Because I had a show there and it was just a wild night out. We're like, we're getting married. We just went and got married. Was anyone there? My manager, Kebby Kev. That was it. That was it.

And which one was it? What? Like, did you go to like one of those chapels? Yeah, we went to the Elvis chapel. Wow. Yeah. Was it amazing? It was amazing.

I have it all on video. He sang to us. He was actually there. Yeah. And he kept calling her Chloe. Oh, God. Like, that's the biggest thing is everyone calls my wife, one of her other sister's names. Yes.

So they're like, Chloe. And it was just like so funny. Did she get mad about that? She's used to it. She just laughs. She just laughs. Why do they do that? Just same first letter?

Yeah. Just whatever. You like sucking on her toes. Everyone freaking out about that picture. Sometimes. Yeah. Is that something she asks for? Because my wife's like, can you give me?

me massage and I'm like, yeah. And you hear you are just sucking away. Yeah, I feel like, that just could be like, I'm having coffee in the morning. And yeah, I think that's what that follows from. Really? Yeah. It was like a joke. It was like, yeah. Like that she sent me laughing, you know, like, ah, whatever. And then you post it. Yeah, I post it. That's your way of saying, I love you. That's me. Yeah. What a life, man. You're just there having coffee, sucking on toes. I saw that you've got a documentary coming out. I saw that you've got a documentary coming out. I do. And it's coming out on Hulu. Yep. August? Yeah, it debuts at a Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Oh, maybe that's why you're coming to New York. In June. Yeah, that's why I'm going to be there.

So yeah, I'll definitely, I'll pull up on you guys or run or do whatever. Yo, I saw the, I saw the trailer. Yeah. And the trailer's deep, man. Like, and what's interesting about is, remind me the name, Lost and? What is the name? Louder than Fear. A lot of it is about your trials and tribulations, obviously the plane crash, everything you've been through. And so to relive all of that again, because sometimes I feel honestly, like this is now maybe two or three times we've spoken. I try not to ask you about all the stuff that everyone asks you about because I feel like it takes you to a dark place. It's not something you want to talk about every day on a Tuesday afternoon, right? Totally. To have to sit there and really,

like, tell the whole thing for a doc. Was it difficult? It was, yeah, it was difficult. It was also like therapeutic. Okay. And to watch it, you know, because you're, watch over and over again just to make sure things line up when the, you know, the people that were doing the dock would show me stuff, make sure things were in the right order or, you know, just confirmed that's the way things happened. But yeah, it's hard. It used to be really hard for me. Just to even, if someone mentioned my plane crash or any of that, it was like, it was so hard forever because I lost, you know, four people in that accident, three of my best friends and then the two pilots. So it was like for a long time, I couldn't even speak on it.

But yeah, it just goes through my childhood, like, you know, growing up playing drums, how I grew up. My mom passed away at a very young age, like 13. Wow. How did she pass? Cancer. Okay. What kind? Hodgkins.

Okay. How did that affect you? I was hard, you know. I was, I just really threw myself into drumming and music, like, completely. That's all I, that was my world. You know, that was my therapy. Yeah, well, right before she passed too, she said, hey, like, just focus on playing drums.

Like, focus on music. And that's what I did. I just focused on music. Do you think it's because she knew how it would affect you and she wanted to give you some guidance as to how you should heal, how you should deal with this? Maybe. It wasn't like anyone our family was musical.

From a young age, from the time I saw Animal on the Muppets, I was playing drums. Like, I was playing pots and pans. I was really into music. And when she passed away, it was all I had, too. You know, my dad was working 60 hours a week at a steel meal, providing for our family. You know, I say in my book and in my doc, he built our house with his own two hands. There was times we didn't have running hot water.

So my focus really was just on music. Music and skateboarding. BMX, that's all I did growing up. So, yeah, it goes through that whole journey of leaving the house when I was 60. My dad gave me an ultimatum and he said you either join the military like me. You move out or you start paying rent and you work 60 plus hours. So I dipped and I went and I became a trashman in Laguna Beach. And it all kind of starts there.

I started playing with any band that needed a drummer. And yeah, the story kind of, you know. How long were you a trash man for? About two years. Did you enjoy it? I loved it. It was in Laguna Beach. I've never been somewhere.

are so nice. You know, I grew up in Fontana and Corona around that area and Laguna Beach was beautiful. So picking up trash there,

playing in a punk rock band, skateboarding every day. I was kind of in heaven. It was like one of the happiest times of my life. For real. When do you start?

Like, what are the hours when you're a trash man? Like, what time do you have to wake up? Like 5 a.m. Till when? I'd get off at 3 or 4. Okay. Still have time to go skate,

do whatever. You're not exhausted? No. I'm never I've never exhausted I know man you've got cardio for days especially doing that

I mean like doing what you do on a nightly basis how many calories do you lose oh playing drums yeah like when you do a big concert I would probably guess

a couple thousand yeah yeah so that probably it's weird I started wearing this ring oh the war ring yeah I can see what I burn

you know during a day and I can I figure it's probably a few thousand just playing drums One thing that you say in the trailer, I can't wait to see the doc, is you had someone with you 24-7 just to make sure that you were alive. Yeah, so since I was young, since my first flight, I didn't grow up flying anywhere. I flew once.

We went to go visit my mom's family in Chicago. And my mom was just hysterical, like hysterically, like bawling on the plane. Wow. And she was afraid. Yeah. Yeah. And I saw that. Maybe it triggered something, but I was always afraid to fly. So when I joined a band, it was called the Aquabats, I was flying a little bit. And I hated flying. I didn't know why. It just freaked me out. And then when I got in blink, sometimes we were flying three times a day, playing three shows in three different states. Wow. And it was always really hard for me. And once I had kids, it was even harder for me to leave.

I always had this fear in my head. I'm going to leave to go play a show and I'm not going to come back. I'm going to get in a plane accident or whatever. I had this fear of flying that I don't know where it came from. So I had a really awful pill like opiate habit that started from that, you know, flying overseas to Australia, Japan. And it got to the point just for me to leave home, to leave my kids, because I had three children at this time. I would, I had, I don't have to smoke, you know, three blunts, have a handful of pills just to get on the plane. Damn. And then I was really only sober for the two hours I was on stage and then would go back just

to medicating myself. So, yeah, there was a point in Australia where I had someone just watching me breathe because I was addicted to oxycotton. Wow. And then in my documentary shows that my accident happens years later. I'm actually in the hospital and they can't control my pain meds because. I was already self-medicated. There was nothing else they could give me.

My body was already used to so much pain medication that any morphine, any propopause, anything that they'd put me to sleep, I'd wake up every surgery. Wow. So, yeah, it's part of my story. I'm happy to say I'm sober now. And, yeah, took me, took me. How you overcame? Yeah.

I actually overcame. I didn't go to rehab. I was in a burn center for six months, you know, with life-threatening burns, 75% of my body was burnt. So I never, once you're in a hospital for six months, you have 27 surgeries, you're on morphine every day, you suddenly don't want to ever take drugs again. And that was it? That was it.

I mean, that's an amazing thing to have to go through. Yeah. It was, that was my rehab. That was my therapy. And as far as the anxiety now? None. None. None.

How does that... How's that possible? Oh, for flying? Yeah. Yeah, I don't like it. There came a time when I got sober that I also didn't want anything to have a hold of me. Like, I didn't want to be afraid of anything. I didn't want any fears to, like, have power over me.

So I just started knocking them out one by one. And that was like flying again. I hadn't flown for 20 years. How many did you have? What? Fears? I mean, that was the biggest one was just flying again. Yeah. That was like really big.

So, yeah, I still don't love it. It's not like my favorite thing to do, and I prefer to fly commercial over private. Really? Because you feel like it's more secure? I do. Usually the plane's bigger. Yeah.

You're on a 747 going from here to New York. Yeah. Versus, you know, a private plane, and I don't really... There's also been weird circumstances where we have a... like a private jet on tour a lot. And the pilots will be at our shows

and they'll be partying. And I'm like, ah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. And I'm like playing drums and I'm like, that's the pilot. And he's partying right now. And I'm like, mm-mm. I'm going on a different plane tomorrow. You will do that. Yeah. Yeah. If I see something like that, you know, I also knew something was wrong with my plane.

Like when I got there, when my accident happened, I called my dad and I said, Dad, I have the worst feeling right now. I don't know what it is. And I didn't trust my gut and he got a phone called 30 minutes later that I'd been in a plane crash and I was being airlifted to a holy like a hospital so I always I never don't listen to my gut like my instinct why did you feel something was wrong what was it about it can't explain it you just had a feel it's not something you saw it was just a feeling was it was just a feeling wow it was just a bad it was it was just uh energy was off damn yeah do you feel like did you believe in that sort of thing like do you

feel like someone was trying to tell you? Oh, I do. If there's something like that, if the universe is telling me something, I definitely listen. Are you spiritual? I'm Christian. Okay. But yeah, I am. Do you pray? I do. Yeah, I do pray. But I do listen to just like my gut, you know? I can't imagine what that phone call was like for your dad. Especially how things play it out, you know. Oh my gosh. And then with your mom, that is unbelievable. I can't wait to watch that. I did want to ask you, speaking of family, I saw a video of Ryan Garcia giving your daughter a body punch. Yeah.

It seemed like here's the video right here. He wasn't going full strength. But on you, he was going a little bit stronger. Yeah. What is that like? No, he's got power. Yeah.

I was saying, I was with Brian Ortega yesterday and he's like, hey, how did it feel? I was like, well, if I didn't have that pattern and he didn't have gloves on, for sure. Could you feel like the power just from the body pad? Yeah. He's powerful. He is something else.

Yeah. What do you think he was going there? 50%? I don't know. I thought the same thing afterwards. I was like, oh, was he just trolling or was he, you know? I feel like you could have done it. Definitely power.

You could have done it without the body weight thing. Yeah, I've gotten punched a few times, you know? I don't know. For fun or... Well, just like in fun, like friendly sparring. Yeah. You're ripping. You're ripped now.

I mean, even if it did hurt or if I couldn't take it, I'd never admit it. You know? Sometimes it's not up to you. You'd crumble. Yeah. You know what I mean? But I think he's done it to someone. I think he did it to an influencer or something.

And I saw them puking. Oh, yeah, yeah. They were like, puky. Patty Pimble just did that recently too. Really? That's a crazy thing, yeah. He was sparring. Patty, oh, Patty punched somebody?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then that dude was puking. How was Brian, by the way? He's great. Yeah, we watched 328 together. Oh, sick. Yeah, it was so funny.

Wow, that must be so great to watch it with a UFC fighter. Yeah. His insights and stuff. Yeah, he's the best, man. Brian's good. It's healthy. By the way, I want to give you a shout out and a thank you as well.

You sent my wife and I vans. Yeah. Which, you know, I sort of, and we have the photos here, they're so sick. I wish I was wearing them, but I know you were coming on this and I wanted to keep them pristine.

I was like, yo, to my kids, like, you know who sent us this? This is unbelievable. And these are your first, first co-op with vans? So I did a black color way. Like, they look just like this, but they're black.

That's the one, that's the one you sent me. Yeah. Those are sick. And then I have one more of the authentic, the very first vans that Vans ever produced, I have a black authentic coming out next year. And it says paid dues on the front. Dews paid. Dues paid. Dues paid. Screwed that up. Gosh. I'm a little bit. Why, why put that there?

What does that represent? Well, I've had it, I've had it on my knuckles forever, self-made dues paid since I was 19. Damn. Something. Yeah. Back then, did you pay your dues yet? I did. You felt you felt like you did. You feel like if I'm one person, if you asked everyone around me, did he pay his dues? They would say, yeah. As a 19-year-old already. I mean, I left at 16. I left home at 16. Yeah. Yeah. Because like maybe older version of you would say, you know what, that kid maybe thought he paid his dues?

Oh, yeah. I mean, now I've really paid my dues. Yes, of course now. But, you know, my dad taught me how to pay my dues. You know, my dad was really, really strict on me, really hard on me because I grew up in a military family. But it was also the best thing for me. Speaking of tattoos and you mentioned animal sick, is that relatively new? Yeah, I just got it. I got it outlined a few weeks ago and then I just finished it.

Why does he mean so much to you from the Muppets? He was my first drumming inspiration. I saw him on the Muppets and he's just crazy. And him and Buddy Rich were so important to me. This is it? So it's on your forearm? Oh no, it's on your leg. It's very good, by the way.

Shout out to the... Chui Quintanar. He's the best black and gray artist. He did my head. Him and Mr. Cartoon and my buddy Franco did the majority of all. all my tattoos. So, so as far as like your inspiration, it's, it's animal from the Muppets. The first guy that you saw that made you, and here you are meeting him, which is wild. Yeah. So then credit coaster in Florida, in Disney World. Yeah. We've done a drum battle before on Jimmy Kimmel.

We've done a bunch of stuff together. But now on the credit coaster, instead of there being Aerosmith and all these photos of Aerosmith, now it's Animal and the Muppets and me and Animal. No. On their credit coaster in Disney World. So we spent a day together, me and Animal, about a few months ago. It was so funny. I love the fact that you're one of the greatest drummers of all time, and it's that guy, that character that led you down this path.

Yeah. There's something beautiful about that. Because he was fun to watch, right? There's drummers that might, just like anyone, there's probably fighters that hate their job. There's whoever journalists, they hate their job. There's people that you know. Oh, they're up there having fun.

Like, he's an animal. You know, he's having a great time. He wants to be there. That was, that was animal. He was going buck wild. He also loved Buddy Rich, who's like the jazz drummer I grew up on. So, yeah, it was animal for me. By the way, who is the greatest drummer of all time, in your opinion?

People got mad at me when I called you that, but I stand by it. I mean, it's like saying who's the greatest fighter of all time. But in your opinion, your expert opinion, who do you put up there? I would have to say Buddy Rich. Okay. He inspired all of us. Even if there's people that are better than Buddy now, Buddy, Buddy taught us everything. He was the first person to go upside down on a drum kit.

Wow. He had crazy chops, but he was also really fun to watch and was flashy. Yeah, he's just... Pioneer Trailblazer. Yeah, he was the great. And, you know, he had his own band. It was just called the Buddy Rich Band. And he's also in my documentary.

It's pretty cool. Oh, sick. So, yeah. But, you know, if people aren't talking bad about you or talking shit about you, then you ain't made it. So it's always, you know, you want people to be like, fuck Ariel, I don't like Ariel, whatever. Dude, they get that a lot. Fuck, Travis. That means we did it.

I feel like I needed to hear that right now. I feel like you came here for a purpose. Nah, you're great, man. You're so great at what you do. It's like one of my favorite podcasts. Are you still going to sleep to us? I mean, now we're one of. I thought we were the.

You are. We've been notched down. Who are we competing with? Well, like, sometimes I'll listen to modern wisdom. Oh, what's that? Like stuff that's not MMA related. What is that?

You guys are my MMMA podcast. You're the freaking man. He just talks to awesome people that know way more about things than he does. I'm going to check that out. So yeah. Good interviewer? Yeah.

Okay. It's great. I told you I'd keep you 30 minutes. I don't want to go past that. I'm a man of my word. Yeah. You are a man of your word as well. Wow.

Awesome. Such an honor, man. I know you had to move a lot. And I'm sorry if I bothered you on text and all, no, I'm stoked to be here. Thank you so much. And I feel like I had to come welcome you to L.A. Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah.

Travis Barker. What more can be said about this man? One of one. We'll take a quick break. We'll be back with our magician coming in studio. Don't go anywhere. All right. Back on the program.

That was Joshua Van. And that was Travis Barker. I hear whispering. What am I hearing? Oh, I'm hearing the dude outside in my ear. Is that? Can we cut that? Travis Barker in studio.

That was great. It's been a great time. It's been an amazing time. Travis Barker in studio is amazing. A freaking amazing. Unbelievable. Okay, one more thing to do, or maybe two more things to do? Maybe one more thing. Two more things, at the very least, going a little extended here, but there's so much to get to. There's so much to get to as we're here in Los Angeles, trying to have some fun, trying to bring you a taste of Los Angeles. And the boys said to me, hey, let's have a magician on the program. You know, Mr. New York Rick is a big

fan of magicians. I think he comes from a long line of magicians. And so he has great, he has great respect and appreciation for the art. And so he has introduced me to a proud Los Angelino. In fact, this magician who's going to be joining us, he actually gave us for the very first time the intro. So I'm just going to read his intro. He provided the intro. It's amazing. He was coming in here. He was setting up the whole thing. He's producing the show for us. So he's a proud Los Angelino, originally hailing from New Jersey. He grew up a visual artist, martial artist, and theatrical musical performer, or music performer.

Some of his clients include Google, Coca-Cola, JBL Samsung, and the Gary Sinise Foundation. Please join me, everyone, all of you in attendance. I feel like I'm Michael Bisping when he's doing the post-fight interviews. Las Vegas, make some noise. There's six people there at the apex. At the apex, that is. So, here we go. Peace and love, peace love.

Please join me in welcoming a magician member of the Magic Castle, the resident magician of the Astor Hotel in Hollywood. He will make you laugh and refuses to make you cry. He is Ian Michael. Scheller, everyone. Musician to the stars. Musician to the stars. I was thinking of Travis Parker.

Hello, sir. How are you? Okay, let's do this. You know, you know me. I do. Pleasure to meet you. Wow. You even came in here with a lob mic. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I came prepared. I mean, this is a high-end show. Well, we've had a lot of big guests, and I think everyone back there is most excited about you being here. Well, it's an honor, Ariel, really is. And we actually have a lot in common. We do? The Syracuse background. You went to Syracuse? Absolutely, yeah. Wow. Yeah, I was a printmaker there and also was doing theater and film.

So you went to SU? SU, baby. What year did you graduate? Oh, boy. Here we go. I bet I'm older than you. 99. I bet I'm not. I started in my first year was 01.

Newhouse, right? Yeah, Newhouse. Yeah, yeah. I was in VPA. But. I got into VPA first. They put me in VPA. Oh, get out of here.

I applied to Newhouse. I didn't get into Newhouse. They put me in SpeechCom and VPA and I had to transfer after a year. So we have a lot in common. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then also, Shalom, my friend. Shalom, my friend.

Oh, it's a beautiful thing. So there's a lot. one and ten. Think of a number between one. Don't tell me. Don't say it. Don't say it out of that. You got one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're doing this. This is amazing. Come on. I know how you were. I like this. Let's go. Let's go. Right into it. Right into it. Okay, right into it.

I got the number. You got a number in your hand. I got the number. Okay. When you hear your number, just say stop. Okay. Okay, here we go. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Stop. Three. Yeah. One, two, three. I can't change it now. Don't look at it yet.

Just keep it right here, actually. Is that okay? Yeah, yeah. I want to see the ones, some of the ones you didn't select. Is that all right? Yeah, yeah. Oh, you could have had financial consulting with Chal P. Wow.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Don't want that. No. Oh, a D1 glazing from Brandon S. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Unbelievable. All right, there's a bunch in here you'll look at

later, I'm sure, dinner with Gina C. Some would love that. Who would have? I would love that. But show the cameras what you got there. I'm nervous. Which one? Which one?

This one? Anyone, yeah. How are you doing? A rice cake. Rice cake. What does that mean? It means I got to use my magic wand here. Okay.

I'm going to stand up, folks. All right. Here he goes. Here's Ian. In this pocket. Yes. Can you reach into this pocket? You want me to go into your pocket?

this one suspect this one right here or the back one but this one front one yeah yeah oh god take out what's in wow it's a rice king what did you know it abracadabra and you know is there a reason why you brought the rice cake because i think that there's a reason what do you mean because before every show i have tuna on a rice cake hey is that why he did it jordan's shaking this is wild yeah here You knew that I'm here. Wait a second, Ian. You knew I'm in L.A. I know you're in L.A.

And you knew I can't have my usual rice cake tuna lunch, so you brought me a rice cake. I would have made you tuna. I have tuna like every day. I grew up on tuna and potato chips. You're welcome. Thank you for that. Wow. Okay.

Let's do this. What do you have in store for us here? We're letting our hair down, Ian. We're letting our hair down. Everyone's coming after us online. We just want to be happy and have fun. Why are they all coming after us? I don't know.

I'm a nice guy. That's what I hear Don't turn this over yet Yes You could show people in just a second Wait what do you mean turn it over Don't turn it over yet It's a line of hearts

But yeah okay Now the light obviously in your studio It's perfect It's beautiful actually Oh thank you It's our West Coast HQ For those people that don't know You know what color this is

Just so we're on the same page Blue? Yeah Okay I'm a little colorblind But I nailed that one I'm killing this test I want to be able to show There is that

There we go They could see that right I think they can see Yeah there we go Thank you so much Turn over your nine of hearts What color do you have? Go ahead.

Oh, dear. What is it? Red. Right. Blue Pack, red card. Here, put your nine of hearts face up there. Perfect. And I'm going to give you something.

Okay. Do you know what this is? Take it. Okay, this is like a triangle cube type of thing? A prism. A prism. I wasn't good of math. It's also called a triangle cube thing.

Okay, yeah, thank you. So look through it, into the pack. Are you looking? Yes. Okay, I'm just going to cut the cards. Now the question becomes, go ahead, you could put that down. Okay, sorry. The question becomes, did you put a red card into a blue pack?

Or a blue card? Or a blue card. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Into a red pack. Weird. Take that. Oh, geez. Is it the nine of hearts?

Yes. Yeah. How'd you do that? Key I. Is it sleight a hand? Wait, you want me to tell you? No, I don't know. I'll get kicked right out of the Magic Castle if I tell you anything like,

work for the magic capital. No, I'm a magician member there. Yeah. What does that mean? That means that I could visit anytime I want in different parts of the castle. I could perform. Wow, wow, wow, wow. There's also a wonderful library there so I could study. Study magic. Study magic there. Yeah. Well, you're killing it here. What else you got for me? I got a whole bunch of stuff. So do you play cards? Do you, you know, I like a nice game of war, you know, with the kitties. gin spit. Yeah, my 10 year old loves war. You find that...

It's very easy for kids. Higher number wins. So if you play cards, so if people play cards out there, maybe they've heard this saying. This is a saying out of the Wild West, trust no one and always cut the cards. You know what that means, Ariel? I feel like it's pretty literal.

Right. Yeah. Trust no one and always cut the cards. I think sometimes they say trust everyone and always cut the cards. But I feel, yeah, I feel like, so I could shuffle these forever. Can you just give a single cut anywhere, one cut over? Perfect. Okay, we're going to mark this here.

I thought you're going to say trust the process. Do you have a process? No, but. No, you have a process. Get out of town. Come on. What do we got? What do we got?

So I'm going to try to, this is more of a mind reading thing. Oh, shit. Okay. But I obviously need you to look at the card you cut to here. Just take the top card. get a look and show the camera. There's nothing back here that I show them. All right.

And then Ariel, put it back face down in the pack. Top? Yeah, put it and cover the cards. Oh, yeah, yeah. All right. Okay, you got a good shot. Everyone at Homesaw? Yeah, everyone at home saw.

Now, I'm going to try to get into the mind of Ariel Helwani. Now. It's a crazy place in that. Yeah. You're wearing dark colors. Yeah. So I'm actually, I think this is a black card. I'm going to go three of clubs.

Was it three of clubs? It was not. Okay. That's okay. I'll go for a picture card. Queen of clubs. It was, survey says, not. What?

I feel like this is good. No, I typically don't use this. In fact, I've never used this. Oh, here it is. No, no, you got, you know, there's car insurance and then there's, we have health insurance. I have magician's insurance right here.

I never used this. So I don't know what I'm paying $150 for, but, oh, it's just terms. It's just terms. No, I don't, this is, I'm sorry, I bought this now. This is, I don't want to. Oh. Jack of Hart. How did he do it?

How did he do it? How did you do it? I guess the insurance works. I mean, what insurance works great. Can I look at all the cards? Of course. Yeah. Why not?

How did you know? Just look in there. Yeah. Take a look. You are some can of piss here. That's what we say. That's a term of endearment. No, I know.

I know what that. I know what it is. What are you doing? What are you doing? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. We need one of those like, you know GC.

Oh, yeah. Are you kidding? He said thank you, Gerement. We had a lot of quality time there in the bag. Oh, I know, I know. Sorry, we changed the time on you a few times. No, no. Hey, this is a production.

It's a production. Before I was doing it. Travis Barker. Travis Barker says 1.30, I say, I'm there. Well, he helped with one of the tricks. In fact, I think it's time. You did a trick for him? Well, no, it's a very special.

There's a very special MMA trick I prepare. Now, we're going to need to help. I'm going to call out New York Rick. Oh. But if New York Rick can't come, we need someone else to sit here, and I'm going to move over here, and we're going to do this. You ready? Okay, Rick.

Here we go. Are we set up for this, guys? Rick? Please. Or GC? Oh, he's there. I'm here. Okay, this is.

This is the most exciting moment of his life right here. You know, his father is a world-renowned magician. World-renowned, I mean, Mr. Jackman, are you kidding me? William would be happy to hear that. Before we continue, I just want to say, how about you? He changes the color of an entire deck of cards, and you no-sell it like it was like, yeah, was it true. You gave him a red card in a blue deck. Yes.

He handed you back a red deck with a blue card, and you're just like, cool, yeah. It takes time. Sometimes it takes time. Sometimes I need someone to explain the joke to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. Okay. Okay, listen.

All right, I'm with you. You're good. Yeah, you're good. I'm going to give you guys something. Now, before the show, this is very important. Yes. Before the show, the crew, even Travis Barker, they all selected an MMA word. I didn't, I wasn't there.

Like, I didn't do it for them. They did it. And we strung the words together to create a magic spell. What we're going to do is, we're going to, try to test this spell. The spell is Sensei Crime, Dual, BJJ smash brand. Now, you could see on this chart here, these are some old school fights. You notice some of these fights, right? Absolutely. Some of my favorites. Waller, Manhuff, Big Nog, Bob Sapp, Crocop, Fedor, Tito Ken, maybe the greatest one round fight of all time. Nick Diaz versus Paul Semtex-Daly. Diaz McGregor, one or two?

It could be either. Okay. Hando Bispin? I'm going to go with one for Hando Bispin. Okay. Yeah, let's go. So these are some of the greats. Yeah. Now, in these piles are either side of those matches. Okay. New York, Rick, I'm going to give you that. Hold on to that face down. And Ariel, you hold on to those face down, okay? Look at them or no? No, not yet. The idea is to, we're going to try to match these matches by using the spell. I'm going to show you exactly how it works. So pick up your photographs, okay? And just to make sure we don't have an instant match like magician Ian didn't just order these,

just not the camera, but show each other just the very top photo. Okay, I'm not looking at it. Yeah, Ariel's going to show you his. Oh, and so I don't look at my... You could show him. Okay. Okay, those aren't, that's not a... a famous match, right?

Ariel, good, take a peek. Oh, I can look. Yeah, and take a peek. That's not, those guys have never fought now. Put it back where it was face down on top. Perfect. Ariel, would you like, I'd like you to go first. What you're going to do is you're going to start here with Sensei, and you're going to send

the spell to New York Rick by doing this. Taking the top photograph for each word, and you can do this with me. The letter S, take that top photo, put it underneath face down, all the way under, right. And then E, good. And then N, S, E, and I. I show your photos to each other first, and now to the camera. Who do you have? Wow.

Wow. That is Semtex Diaz. Okay, you guys can put those down. Put those face down. Semtex Diaz. You guys got it. Yeah, put those down. Now, New York, Rick, it's your turn.

Okay? Actually, just to make sure Ian didn't order these, take a peek. Show Ariel. Go ahead. Show New York, Rick. I feel like I need to rotate. It's the top photo. Yeah.

Was that? Okay. Yeah. Okay. That was not a fight. Put it, okay, they're not in order. Okay, put it. And now, New York, Rick, it's your turn.

You're going to send crime to Ariel, one at a time. Okay. So from the top, letter C underneath. That's right, C, good. R. I.M. Wait, Frank. How do you speak about?

Turn up the photos. Crow cop Fadour. Please show the cameras, gentlemen. There it is. Fador. Okay, put those down. You guys are doing great. Now, here's the thing.

It's back to Ariel, but Ariel, I want you to break the spell now. Okay. So before the word dual ends, I want you to stop at any point before you spell the whole word. Does that make sense? At any point. At any point. You decide.

I can't decide if I decide. It's not magic. All right. All right. All right. That's D. I'm done. All the way under.

I'm done. Just the D? I'm going D. That means New York, Rick. You've got to take U.E.L. Go ahead. U.E and L. turn up and show each other, please.

What do you have? Yes, it's Tito Ken. Okay. Now this is getting freaky. Show the cameras. Now this is getting freaky. You stopped at any point. This is freaky-diki right here.

Okay, good. All right. All right. New York, Rick, you're to BJJ. Again, you have control. Stop at any point. Yes. Or you could give the whole thing to him.

Right, I could say none. I'd like you to try to break it at any point. Go ahead. Starting with B. I've got to figure out how to beat you. All right. I'll do B.J for BJ Penn. That's it.

Just move one. Jay. Show the top photos to each other. Big Nog Wow To the camera I love that album cover And by the way

Ariel The Bob Sapp One of the best moments ever Wow you're a real fan Yeah You're the man Okay All right who's next

It's oh back to Ariel The word smash Now you understand what's happening You could actually ping pong this If you want You could take the whole word Ariel You could give it to New York Rick

Could we do letter letter letter letter Um I will allow it Wow Wow I will allow But that typically does. Okay, go for it.

Let's try it. You want to just match. S. M. A. A. S. S.

H. Oh, boy. Okay. Show. Wait. Yes. Show each other. Yes.

Bisp being hendo. You know yourself. How? How is he doing this? Okay. Put those down. This is the last time we're going. Okay.

The words brand. New York, Rick, you know what to do. Any way you want. What if I just took the whole... You want to take the whole thing. Why not? You tell me. Do the whole thing.

All right, we'll do it. B, R, A, and D. Wait a second. Just give me the top photo face down, please, to me. That's Lola Manhoff. Wow. That's every single one. Well done, boys.

You guys did it. And that is a match for all time. You guys did it. How did you do that? How did you do that? Well, the way it works is... Are you kidding? Yesterday we were on a...

Santa Monica, the pier over there, and a guy, I thought he did a great job in Rook's like, ah, he did this, he did this, he was calling all the BS. Do you know what he's doing? No, I don't know this trick. Unbelievable. Can you, well done. I'm going to do one last one. Yeah, no, please, please, please. Take a look here. Can you hold that up to the light, Ariel? To which light? Any light, try to see through it. And you probably can't because it's a stapled prediction. Yeah, yeah. It's a stapled prediction. So every time here, every time before a show, I tell my son, write down three numbers in here. Now, my son is 10.

So his handwriting is awful. Okay, but let's play a game. Let's imagine a mystery MMA fight. Could be any MMA fight. We have five rounds, right? We'll pick three numbers. What round? Let's pick a couple fighters.

Who do you like right now? It could be anyone. Ilya. Aporia. Aporia and? Max Holloway. That fight's going to end. We don't need to know the winner.

But what round is it? one, two, three, four, or five? Well, we did see it once already. And that was what, second? Three or four? Let's just say second. Second. Okay.

And then New York, Rick, go ahead. You pick a round two. Five. And it doesn't need to be round two. Yeah, five. Round five. And then who else can help us here? Frank.

Frank? Frank? Pick a round. Pick a number. One, two, three, four, or five. Got it. What is it? Five.

You're also going five. You didn't know what to say. You said, got it. The total number is what? two plus five is seven oh i'm putting them together is that okay got you got you got you yes 250 okay does anyone have a staple remove rip that bad boy does anyone no one has a stable remove let me check what kind of operation do we have there is no staple there is no staple i'm gonna know that was uh yeah come on frank that was a dry sense of humor from once in that's your domain frank

i want to thank you very much uh for having me and and you of rick for setting this all up i'm not going to read this. No way. Ariel, we're looking for what? 25. 25. Read what's in there

and show the camera. Here, this camera right here. This is absurd right now. 255. How is that possible? That is insane. Screw Oz the mentalist. You're better than him.

Oh, no, no. What's my... I don't do any of that stuff. You know what I was going to say, right? I do. I don't want your past goes. That was unbelievable. Thank you.

You guys. Wow. Thank you so much. Thank you, New York. Where can people learn more about you? Where can they see you? Just my website. I mean, I'm now the resident magician at the Astor Hotel up in Hollywood. So that's going to be, thank you. That's going to be fun. And then my website, Ian Michael Scheller.com. Social media page, Instagram. I have an Instagram. It's my name, Ian Michael Scheller. Pretty straightforward. Wow. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. What an honor. Thank you. Check them out. There's the, there's his name right over there in case you don't know. And Michael is Michael. Well done. Well done. We're going to keep this.

this train rolling along here. I like the way you pose, by the way. What? Oh, yeah. I thought you were talking about me. You're a real showman. And thank you for the rice cake. Frank is going to love this later today. Well, whether you eat that or not is completely

up to you. He knew. He knew, huh? You told them? No. That's unbelievable. I love it. All right, Ian. Thank you so much. Great job, Ian. Everyone. Give Ian a round of applause. I'm sorry about the color of the cards. I'm colorblind. So they should have told you that.

Oh, I usually ask that. I usually say are you color challenge. Is that true? That is true. Yeah. I mean, reds and blues are a little easier, but it didn't hit me right away. I needed the breakdown. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Ariel. All the best. Thank you for the support. Thank you for stopping by. What a guy that Ian. That was amazing stuff. We were on the pier yesterday and we saw some, you know, some magician and I love that sort of thing. My kids will love that one. I'll send that to them later today. They don't like watching my show very much, but

yeah, I feel like they'll enjoy that. That was fun. We're giving you a taste of Los Angeles here, guys. We're giving you a taste of Los Angeles. Before I forget, really, really quickly, do we have any super chats, Frank? I don't know. Okay.

If we don't, that's all good. They are all been read. That is such a lie. Oh, no. That's the one from earlier. Let me see. Where is the Super Chat?

Fan funding. Oh, here they are. I know yesterday you said that the McGregor fight is close to the goal line. What is the hold up? Why hasn't McGregor signed his end? I said little things here, contracts. What's that? Oh, we did.

Okay. Can we get? Oh, is that for me? Yeah. It was so great. do us all favor and stop responding to fighters clapping back it's repetitive nobody wants to hear and it's always the worst part of the show all right man like what do you want me to do just let them make shit up someone did just send me a video of nina drama responding to me um i don't know

usually the response has to come when you direct your attention to someone but i understand that she is friends with sean strickland and uh i'm not looking to get into a back and forth over this. I stayed in my opinion. My show is a place where opinions are stated. I didn't know that the whole Strickland Army was going to come after me and I stand by everything that I said. I have no beef with Nina. I met her once at the MMA Awards. It was a very cordial and very nice conversation. In fact, I would go as far as to say she has taken more shots at me publicly than I've ever even said anything about her other than the couple times where I think I said some nice things about her. I'm not looking to get into a back and forth about all of this. That is my feeling on

the situation. And I thought we lived in a country where people can state their opinion and everyone's cool with it and doesn't get so upset about it. But apparently that's not the case with this particular one. One more time, I'll stand by the thought that I don't think religion and I don't think family and I don't think any of these things should be brought up. And if you're going to pat yourself on the back for apologizing 48 hours later, well, what I would say to that is you'd probably, you'd probably shouldn't have said it to begin with. And so, yes, great job. You apologize. But I do think that there should be some sort of pushback or repercussions for saying things like that. If you don't feel that way, great. Can we move on now? Can we move on now? Golly, this is crazy. Now I've got the whole,

who else is going to respond to me? Here's my response to the response of the response to the response of the response. Hey, I appreciate loyalty and I appreciate friends having each other's backs, but I'm good. I don't need anyone to have my back on this one while they're all coming after me.

Send out the bat signal. There's shit to be had in Ariel's face. Throw it. So all the haters come out and everyone have a good time while we're talking to Travis Barker

and all these great people on this program. And you know what? Sometimes when you're in your feelings, you like to eat your feelings, as they say. And so I think this is a great time to eat our feelings.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That was sort of like my subtle cue. Do we have feelings to eat? Yeah, we have feelings to eat. Yeah, we got to go to Travis Barker's restaurant. It's called Crossroads. Shout out to Crossroads. He told me, what do we have today?

What do we have, guys? Guys, I'm so sad. Everyone's coming after me. I have to eat my feelings. They're all coming after me, G.C. They're all coming after me. Come on. I got to eat my feelings.

All right, here we go. We got in and out. Guys, I want to eat my feelings. We got in and out. This is a real Los Angeles staple. So yesterday we had the Randy's donuts. Today we're having in and out. You know how hungry I am right now? I mean, this is spread. I literally just want to pick it up. How far? How far? Look at this. Oh my God. Look at those butts.

Yo, for me? Are they all the same? All the same, bro. Any animal style? We got animal style for us. Hell yeah. What a time we're having here, guys. I think we get to Chuck Chili, Rick.

All right. Hey, I just want to send a message to P.C. Carroll, wherever you may be. I'm thinking about you. He's upset for sure. I'm not thinking about you as I'm eating this. All right, let me see. $30 million for the kitchen square. Animal style there?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, drop those as well. It's got a bunch of sauce and shit on them. How do I know which ones chopped chili? This is an house in that. Hmm. What you think, bro? I've been on the air here for two and a half hour.

Oh, no, four and a half hours. You know what I'm just sitting? That's tough too. Whoa. Wait, wait. What's this one? Same shit, man. Spicy peppers on it.

I wanted spicy peppers. You do? What do we like better? In and out? I heard it's all the exact same burger and goes, whoa. What the hell is that? I heard chopped chili. It's the exact same burger, man.

Oh, mm. Mmm. Mm. This is good shit, man. Oh, yeah. Oh Ariel, how about this? Got like eight people's man, come on.

255 was pretty impressive. Do you guys think that I wasn't a good audience? Yeah, I mean, in the beginning. You were hitting him with the armen. Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Oh, wow. Bro changed an entire color of cards in the deck, and you're like, oh, wow. That's that bullshit.

Man, shut out the internet now. They run a tight ship over there. There you? Tell me about it. They got me in and out. What did we get in the drinks? These peppers are hot. I'm so hungry right now.

This is how I eat after the show. Those things are scary. Guys, are we having fun in L.A. or what? We're killing it. The peppers are pretty spicy. Do you see what are doing a food review? You think Michael Hearn has this? Do you think Michael Hearn eats his fries and animals?

Hey Mike, you asked him his cheat meal and he said fruit. What's your cheap meal? Cantalope. No, no. He said we get crazy. Strawberries and grapes. Oh my God, Mike. He is some specimen.

You should have asked him if it was after dinner. I don't know. Why didn't you ask if the fruit rotted on top of his stomach? Hmm. I should have. You think he eats? Frank, what's up? I'm having so much fun right now.

I mean, Frank, when it gets some. What did you say? I'm having so much fun eating this. Is this good content? You should get close to the mic, Frank? Oh. I need you to back away from the mic, no. Oh, yeah, I forgot about the magic.

Travis Barker is sleeping in bed right now listening to us, and he's so mad. Why? Because we're not chewing. Oh, oh. It's a great point. I thought you were saying something about his interview. No, because he's saying about the... No one's giving prize, bro.

I'll get some prize. Oh, we're one of the Dodgers game today. Who gives a shit? I think this is all in your Blue Jays hat? Come on, man, spit it out. I house that. Oh, wow, can I guess. What are these hands?

Yeah, what are we doing here? Yeah, I'm landing the plane? You guys can help me. This is my Bernie Sanders. Okay. We're going to the Blue Jays game. We're having a great time. Not, man, we're going to the Dodgers game.

We're going to the Dodgers game. It's Ice Cube Bobblehead dead. Now. We've got to get to early. And you know what? Since we're in L.A., we can't get Cube, but we could get his son. He'll be here tomorrow.

O'Shea Jackson Jr. in studio tomorrow. How about that? Very good. Also tomorrow. Oh, shit. Connor, you're all right? Chili went down the wrong.

Fuck, Connor. That was a good one. Junior Dos Santos is going to join us. John Martin, the CEO of the PFL, going to join us in studio. Jake Babian, who is, fighting on the MVP card, he's going to join us, and maybe one or two more.

We're stacking the deck. We're stacking the deck. We're stacking the deck. We're doing our thing here. Let's try some fries. Everyone's coming after me, Rick. Yo, get a shake, man. Can't do shakes. Oh, that's what it is. It's a shake? I can't do shakes after the thing. Rick, what is this?

This is animal style, yeah. Rick, they're all coming after me. What do you have to say about all of this, Rick? Can you, can you, can you, can you? Hey, listen, everyone's coming to his defense. How come no one's coming to my defense? Or I might have come to your defense? Rick, please come to my defense. Really, I need some help. We've got managers,

leeches coming after me. What do you have to say about this? I thought you were the leech. I know, but they're leaching off of me being the leech. Here's a defense. They're cloud chasing. They're leaching off the leech. You have a reputation.

You have a history. It's all out there. It's public. Like, you are not somebody who isn't hiding. You're not a private person. You've been a public person for a long time. Your reputation speaks for itself. This feels good.

The number of people who come on the show and are willing to offer their time every single day speaks to those relationships that you've built. And there will be occasional times

where somebody has friction and doesn't jive with that and that's okay. That's okay. The rest of the world jives with it and we do a great show every single day.

Frank, you know what that is? What is that? It's a great point. That is a great point. Yeah. Is the button not working? No, I don't know if Dana would agree with that one, but I do. Yeah, probably not with these individuals involved.

As I said yesterday, judge me by my enemies. That's the best way to respond to all of this. We've had a fantastic day. Chris Avila was amazing. We went to the Santa Monica Pier. Michael Hearn, I'm still... You did the baby Don't hurt me. Oh, I had to.

Can't wait to see that. Nate Diaz was unbelievable. Jake Shields. Can we put Jake Shields as a... name in the in the in the in the no we can't no can't do you see i was going to do a social club gilbert melendez uh-uh the quesabedarian sounds like they're here to stay Travis Barker Ian Michael red cards blue cards yeah in and out real real no cell on that

that's a real day here at uncrowned HQLA aka West Coast Creative Studio thank you very much to Zeus and the whole team Frankie you can him my music It's been a great second day Yes, yes, yes Can I say something? Can I say something? I'm just enjoying True, like they're not paying us to do this, right?

No, no, man The burger was amazing It would be privy to it Burgers were amazing In case you're wondering The fries are absolutely awful Like the fries are horrendous What the fuck is this?

No, no, no The fries are like a prop Like they're all stuck to each other I won't lie, the fries were I'm eating them right now They're very okay Have you guys never had in and out of fries before? Listen, I'm keeping it real

they're not paying us. The burger hit. And that might be because I haven't eaten anything other than like a small yogurt. The burgers are good. The burger was phenomenal, it was juicy. My man Gabe over here, fries are bad or you disagree with me? You're saying the fries are good? No, you're lying. He says fresh are good. He hates Randy's donuts, though.

Different strokes for folks. Listen. And you're not fries are not good. Shake shack. Fries? Tremendous. Yeah. The crinkle cut. The ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch. Yeah. Shake-Shack burger.

I think it's better, right? On air agrees. That's fucking elite. Nah. You can't say that in L.A. You get... Wait, the Shake Shack Burger you said it's better? No, that's not true.

You get jumped. And then you have to bring a gun. I mean, the... And then they come for your family, and it's a crazy time. Federal... You say you don't like in and out? And then you go to federal... What's the most controversial thing I've said in the last 48 hours?

Let's not... That or the fries that in and out suck. No, no. I think a lot of people will agree with it. you on that. They're not like great prize. But the burgers been tremendous. The burgers are the day has been even better. Thank you Chris, Mike, Nate, Nikisa, Travis, Ian, thanks to all of you. Thanks to all of that. Back to Bar State, tight place, say, peace. I'm out here.