The Ariel Helwani Show - Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry reaction, Alex Pereira IN STUDIO, Anderson Silva, Kevin Vallejos, Kyle Daukaus, Eric Nicksick, massive weekend recap

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Ariel Helwani starts the show by reacting to breaking news that Nate Diaz vs. Mike Perry has been added to the Rousey vs. Carano card on Netflix, how it impacts the event’s potential, and whether the UFC could have a new rival. Plus, the crew gives their thoughts on UFC’s latest round of announcements, including Khamzat Chimaev vs. Sean Strickland, recap UFC Vegas 114, and more (08:39). Kyle Daukaus is first up, discussing his UFC White House meeting with Bo Nickal, how the fight came together, noise coming from Colby Covington about the matchup, fan reaction to his placement on the card and the event overall, and more (1:08:29). Coach Eric Nicksick returns to talk about some of his athletes, including Chris Curtis’ UFC Vegas 114 fight, Sean Strickland’s win over Anthony Hernandez and upcoming matchup against Khamzat Chimaev, and Francis Ngannou’s recent demeanor and addition to Netflix’s first MMA card (1:35:20). After tackling some other news and notes (2:09:17), Ariel connects with old friend Anderson Silva to discuss his new dramatic series, being offered a spot on the Netflix MMA card, only wanting to box moving forward, his commitment to becoming a police officer, and more (2:17:36). Kevin Vallejos joins following his big win over Josh Emmett, breaking down the finish, expressing his desire to fight in front of a sold-out arena, calling for a rematch with Jean Silva, giving a timeline for when he plans to compete for UFC gold, and more (2:44:37). Alex Pereira and coach Plinio Cruz are back in-studio, touching on Pereira’s knockout of Magomed Ankalaev in their rematch, how long he planned his move to heavyweight, whether he was offered a fight against Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall, signing a new UFC deal, where winning a third belt would put him in the GOAT conversation, potentially fighting Jones in the future, the honor of being on the White House card, and more (3:05:28). Ariel wraps up the show with your Super Chats (4:20:36).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the air. On this Monday, March 60, 2000, and 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well, and a very happy 316 day to you. Frank, hit the music, baby, glass break. Not the glass break that I was talking about. I was talking about the... There's only one break. We just literally rehearsed this like...

Phase 316, in honor of the great stone cold Steve Austin. You don't celebrate? You don't partake? Not this year. It's a big day. People love it. People love it. I love it.

Of course, this is sort of the precursor to St. Patrick's Day, which we will be celebrating tomorrow on the program, but we don't have time to talk about tomorrow, my friends. First of all, I want to say, I am so happy to be back. Golly, am I happy to be back. I only got to do one show in studio. last week, as you know, from that show, went to the airport, was in L.A., hosted the press conference, did a few things in L.A. afterwards, then went to Dallas on Thursday night, did something that's

coming out in a few months in Dallas. Stay tuned for that, very excited. Then flew home late Friday night, did something in Westchester Saturday, which was like a top three all-time day for me. Not going to lie. Can't talk about it just yet. But let me just tell you, top three, maybe even top two. That's how great it was. That's coming out soon. We're doing a lot around these parts, but I am so, so, so happy to be back in studio, to be back home for a couple of weeks. We've got a lot to do, a lot to discuss. The combat sports world is on fire. There's so much going on. There has never been more continuity between all three sports. I know I say this all the time, but we are just absolutely loving everything. And that fun continued this morning with some

other breaking news, which I'll get to in a moment. First, let me tell you about today's program, which is another all-timer. Some call it a superstack show. We just call it Monday around these parts. Oh, my God, you know yourself. Back end of the show, one half of the UFC Freedom Fights 250 co-main event, the now former UFC light heavyweight champion, the former UFC middleweight champion, be perhaps soon to be future UFC interim heavyweight champion. No one has ever done anything like this before

or even tried. The one and only Poiton, Alex Pereira, is going to be joining us in studio with his main man Plinyo. That's at 4 p.m. Eastern. Can't wait to talk to him. Hasn't really talked much about this fight against Cyril Gahn,

the John Jones talk, leaving 205, all that and more. That will go down at 4 o'clock. So stay tuned for that. at 3.30, one of the top rising stars in the sport today, the sport of MMA, of course, the man who just headlined his first UFC event back at the Apex, who just disposed of the veteran Josh Emi, which a lot of people, I mean, like I'm sorry, didn't do that to Josh Emma. And yes, I know that was a couple of years ago and, you know, people may deteriorate. But what Kevin Vajajos did on Saturday, did I get it right? Did I get it right? That was great. Nailed it. The pride of Argentina. He did something amazing on Saturday. Saturday. He is very, very impressive. Everyone's very high on him. Another great win for him. Another, another vicious blistering type of win. He'll join us at 3.30 to talk about all of that and

where he goes from here. The inimitable, the legend, the man, the former UFC middleweight champion. In many people's eyes, the goat, Anderson, the Spider-Silva coming off that win of Retire and Woodley back in December. He's going to join us at 3 o'clock. He's got some exciting things going on in his life. Always great to talk to the one and only Anderson, Silva. Golly. I mean, an actual living legend. One of the greatest of all time. If you don't think he's the greatest, certainly he's on your Mount Rushmore. Certainly he's on your Mount Rushmore. That's at three. At 2.35, headman over at Extreme Couture, haven't talked to him in about a year. The great Eric Nixick is going to be joining us. He had a busy weekend. As always, he was there, Apex, Chris Curtis. But the main

two topics we want to talk to him about is Sean Strickland's recent win over Anthony Fluffy Hernandez. They parted ways. They came back. What a win for Strickland. And then we find out late last week that it's Strickland versus Hamzad. Not Hamzad versus Nasol Dine Imavov. Strickland leapfrogs the Frenchman gets the title shot. May 9th, across the river, Newark, New Jersey, big time stuff at 185. So that's his guy going for another title fight, going for another title. That's big time stuff. That's in. less than two months, right? Yeah, less than two months.

And his other guy, Francis Ngano, among his many guys, Francis Ngano, of course, as you know by now, May 16th. So seven days later, what a stretch for Eric Nixick and the Extreme Couture Squad going up against Philippe Lins

on the Netflix MVP MMA card. So that is big time stuff for Francis and for Eric, so we'll talk to him about that. And then we're going to talk to Kyle Daukes prior to that. First interview of the day at around 210 Eastern Time. Talk about the Bo Nichols. stuff. He has, I mean, he is on fire. He is on fire on social media. I actually, I have a take on Kyle Dacus. I love Kyle Dacus's involvement in this White House card. I love it. I love everything

about it. He is the embodiment of the American dream. He is that. He is the walking, talking American dream. In fact, we have two little fun factoids regarding why it's so great that he is on this card on June 14th. We'll tell you about those in a moment. I'm buzzing. I don't know if you can Sensen, look at these guests. The sports world is on fire. The combat sports world is on fire. We've got March Madness coming up. We'll tell you about how you can join us

in our Yahoo Sports. What do they call it? Bracket mayhem or something. Bracket ma'am. Bracket ma'am. You can join us in that. World Baseball Classic is on fire. We've got the Andy Cup brewing. Venezuela, Italy, tonight. If Venezuela wins,

it's Venezuela versus the United States tomorrow in the final. Andy, who you rooting for? We all know I'm rooting for Venezuela. Yeah. Break out the adepas, huh? And the music. You and me both, all right?

I'm on your side. All right, those Americans, I told you guys, I'd like the American hockey team. American baseball team, like, they're a little hoity-to-dy for my liking. Like, they think they're all that. I was rooting for DR. I'm not going to lie, Vladdy and all those guys, Fernandez Tetis dad was a former expo. But a great win. Two-one.

Lots going on. Frank, before we get into everything, quick breakdown of the Oskirts last night, winners, losers, what did you think? Yeah, so there were a few movies contending for Best Picture, and only one, one. Okay, which one? It was, um, all news is good news.

Is that true? No, one battle after another. That's what it. Wait, what was it? What was it? One battle after another? One battle after another. Leo? Never heard of it. Benicio de Toro. Chase Infinity. Where did, uh, where did Dwayne Johnson fall for the, uh, the smashing machine? Smashing machine got nominated in one category, I think it was maybe hair and makeup

That's it after all that Look man Oscars are tough to win After like the 16 minute Standing Ovation, the crying, all that Most movies get stuff like that Really? Oscars are hard to win, man What about my girl Mrs. Josh Allen?

Nothing. Nothing! Nothing! No nomination. Sinners won four Oscars My boy, but uh... B.J. Yeah, shout out. Shout out. Be out uh Shalamay. Oh, yeah, yeah. He beat out Shalamay, huh? Yeah. We're hating on Chalemay right now. No, I hate him, bro. He was on fire in, like, December.

Nine nominees for Marty Supreme and... Not a single one? It's the proverbial WFB of Hollywood society that are turning on him. Yep, yep, yep, yep. That woke mind virus will get you, you know, just ask Frankie. Actually, I looked... That's why I suggest I've met it. I looked at the YouTube chat.

It's, oh, yeah, from Chris E. something. Frank, you liberal nerd. That was like one of the first comments of the day. It's very rude. Start them early, start them often. Guys, we have time for all of this, all right? We don't have time for the dilly dally. It is Monday.

There's a lot of breaking news. Let us get to the biggest breaking news of the day. 12 p.m. Eastern, we find out that the newest edition, the latest edition, to the MVP MMA Netflix card. Again, May 16th, live on Netflix. No pay-per-view required. Inuit Dome, Inglewood, California. Of course, the one headline by Rhonda Rousey v.

Gina Crono, we already know. Franzisangainz against Philippe Lins. It has been added. It is official the return to mixed martial arts for the beloved and incomparable Nathan Diaz going up against platinum Mike Perry, 170 pounds, five-round fight. That is real. And it's not in bare knuckle and it's not in boxing. It's in the discipline that we all want to see them compete in.

And that's mixed martial arts. Nathan Diaz versus Mike Perry at 170 pounds has been added to this card on May 16th. And I would say this is 70 minutes old. I will say the response to be pretty damn great seems to be like a lot of people are saying, wow, this is fun, this is great. And of course, there's going to be the comparison to the White House card and to the UFC product as of like, that's fun, that's cool, you can do that all you want. But all of a sudden you're staring out a card where it's Ron

versus Gina, it's Francis returning to MMA, and it's Nate versus Mike. Whenever they do that press conference, that first face-off, it's going to be, I mean, it's going to be bananas. It's going to be absolutely insane. Those two guys together have never, they've never been linked. We've heard them talk about each other. We've seen them circle each other. But quite frankly, we've never really seen them get even close to booked.

To see them now actually booked is very exciting, I think, for a lot of people. Now, I know what you're probably thinking at home. Oh, you're working the card. You're buys. You're this. You're that. All right. So let me bring in the guys.

Let me take the temperature of the room here. All right. Ptzee's here. G.C. Rick, as always. Ptie, let me go to you. First things first. Diaz Perry.

What do you say? Thoughts. I think it's great. I think it's the best fight in the card immediately. I can't wait to see these two guys in there. And I add something to the card that it didn't have before. It's two relevant guys right now fighting each other. I know Diaz, obviously people will say he's a bit long in the tooth.

maybe, but he's an icon of this sport. He's a guy that everybody wants to see. Mike Perry has been completely rejuvenated through his outside the UFC activities. We know that the UFC probably want into the Nate Diaz business right now. For Netflix to take them, to take him to get him signed to this card,

it kind of adds something to that kind of battlefront we keep talking about. Dana, against the boxing world, Netflix potentially being the person to take him on, the MMA world, I think it adds so much to the card. I don't think I think a lot of people are looking this with Francis there against Lins

and Ronda and Carrano and they were kind of saying oh well you know Francis is an easy fight you know is Ronda is Gina still relevant at this stage I don't think you're going to get any real MMA fans saying they don't want to watch

Mike Perry and Nate Diaz fight on this card I think it's tremendous Mike Perry's last MMA fight 2021 but as you said been very very busy in the world of bare knuckle obviously had the boxing match against Jake Paul but the bare knuckle world has really rejuvenated his career. He's become the face of BKFC,

and I understand this doesn't preclude him from fighting for them in the future. More on that in a moment. Nate Diaz, of course, his last fight was in 2022, as far as MMA is concerned, that fateful UFC 279 card where he was supposed to fight, Chabhad, Hamzat, Mrs. Wade,

he beats Tony Ferguson on short notice, and of course we've seen him in a couple of boxing matches since the Jake Paul fight and the Jorge Mazvedal boxing match of a couple of years ago. this is MMA. This is where we first fell in love with these guys and now they're coming back to fight each other. Rick, your initial reaction to this booking. Yeah, similar to Pizzi, I felt like this car, the, you know, when it was Rousie versus Carrano and Francis was added versus Philippe Lins, I felt like it was a card that was propped up by like, these are big names come watch them. This feels like the fight, right? This feels like a fight that you can go, that you can put in front of MMA fans and go, you must see this fight. because you have to tune in every time Nate Diaz fights, and you have to tune in every time that Mike Perry fights,

and they happen to be fighting each other. This feels like kind of the fight fans fight, the crown jewel of it so far. But you have to give credit to MVP in terms of looking for all the available talent outside the UFC, looking for the biggest names that they could possibly sign. It has to be argued that of the biggest names you can sign outside the UFC, Ronda Rousey, Nate Diaz, and Francis, and Gano are three of the top five, right? If not the top three. And so, and Mike Perry,

as you said, is somebody who's been very active and headlining shows for BKFC, boxing against Jake Paul. They have the names. They're trying their best to assemble a card that actually is, you know, the best available talent outside the UFC, and they've done a fantastic job for it. And one of the points you made that you said you're going to return to, you do have to get credit to BKFC, who continues to lend Mike Perry out to all these big time cards. And they've done, in the hopes that like it just continues to further Mike Perry's star power and they get to draft off that. It is not common for you know a promotion to want to do that and they seem very willing to engage in that with Mike Perry. Kudos to them. Everybody involved for making it happen.

G.C. Yeah, not really a ton to add to what they just said. I'm excited for it. I don't know how how you couldn't be if you're an MMA fan. We're seeing it in the discipline that we want to. And it feels to me like this card probably isn't done being made either. It feels like the the fights are starting to come in and it's starting to build around it. But the top three that we have right now, Ronda Rouse, Gina Carrano, Francis deano, Philippe Lenz, and now Nate Diaz versus Mike Perry, you're getting it for free on Netflix. If you're an MMA fan, you have to tune into it. Yeah, and I can tell you, I know for a fact, this card isn't done, obviously, but I can say that I think when it's all said and done, all the boxes will be checked in terms of like the super

casual fan, the just casual fan, maybe the lapsed fan, the hard. The hard core fan. I think by the way it currently sits, you will see that everyone will have something to get excited about, which is what you ultimately want in a card like this. I think there's many different

interesting viewpoints to talk about. Number one, that they got Nate and Mike is huge. No secret, you know, Nate was a free man. No secret, I could tell you, UFC was interested in bringing Nate back. And to me, what makes this

so interesting is that this is the closest that we've ever seen to a boxing MMA card. And let me explain. Right now, as Nikisibadarian said last week and others have said as well, Gabe Spitzer of Netflix as well, top guy as far as sports are concerned over there, Netflix isn't in the MMA business just yet. Right now, this is a one-off. They're in the event business, as we've talked about in the past. Kobayashi, Joey Chestnut. World Baseball Classic in Japan only, Women's World Cup, home run derby, opening day, MLB.

They don't want, you know, 43 events. They don't want a full schedule of, you know, 82 games or anything like that. They want big events. So right now, this was a big event that was brought to them. And if you're Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, Ronda Rousey, Gina Krono, Francine Gunnu,

you're signing one-fight deals to be on this card. So if you're Nate Diaz, who was looking at his options and it was like, hey, I could go back to the UFC right now, and who knows how that plays out, And it's going to be four fights. They don't do one-fight deals. It's going to be six fights. It's going to be multi-fights as opposed to a one-off on the biggest platform in the world,

325 plus million subscribers. Look at what that platform did to Anthony Joshua back in December. And Nate obviously isn't an unknown commodity in America. But it will obviously raise his profile, no doubt about it. This could very well be. And I don't even think it's going on a limb to say it, the most watched MMA card of all time. because it's on the biggest platform worldwide of all time. And so you go on here, you win this fight.

Now of a sudden you could go back to the UFC and say, all right, the number just changed. Now I'm an even hotter commodity. I just came back. People are going crazy over me. Or you could go elsewhere or you can go back to them if this is a success and you ask for X, Y, and Z. Every one of these guys, like when they put together these big boxing events, these are all one-offs. And we've never seen that in MMA.

If you want to sign with PFL, you've got to sign for X amount of years or X amount of fights. If you want to sign with UFC, you've got to sign for X amount of years or X amount of fights. This is a very attractive opportunity for these guys and galves because it's just, hey, let's make the biggest splash and then all of our stock goes up. You know what I mean? And so to me, this was a no-brainer for Nate. Obviously, we'd love to see him fight Connor McGregor. Now, Connor still has two fights left based on everything I've heard and everything Pizzi said on Friday. We're trending in the right direction.

And as we've told you time and again, it's July 11th international fight week. That's what they want. And there was some talk of Nate versus Connor. But would you rather sign a four-fight deal? Would you rather sign a mega one-fight deal on the biggest platform in the world? That fight isn't going away. And by the way, Connor has two fights left. What do you think that fight would do on a massive platform like Netflix in a year

and a half or so from now? It would be gigantic. It would probably be the biggest fight not named Jake Paul and Mike Tyson that could be made. right now for all intents and purposes. And so the landscape, if they do, and that's why I'm telling everyone, I'm not just saying it because we love Netflix, I love Netflix, it's great for the fight game. This is amazing for MMA. Everyone should be rooting for this.

I don't care if you're the biggest UFC stand of all time. I love the UFC. I don't want them to go anywhere. It's great for our life that we have something to talk about, that we have Kevin Voshejos to talk about and all this stuff. If they went away, it would be awful for us. But you need that alternative. And you need not.

We've never seen the alternative come in this form, right? So to have something like this on a Monday to talk about is great. We haven't had this. All due respect to PFL, they are not offering this to us. Costel events, Dinas versus Fabian Edwards is fun. It's great, but that serves the hardest of the hardcore. No one has been able to come in and make these types of events and fights. And so right now it's just a one-off.

But I think they have shown to everyone that they're willing to pay, that they're willing to invest, and they're willing to go big. And you can't get much bigger than as far as, as, Rick said, who's available than Rhonda versus Gina. And remember what Francis said last week. The original plan, and this is true, Francis versus Rico, Nate versus Mike. I mean, that's an incredible thing. Now, it didn't work out that way. Rico took the other fight. God bless him. But you're still getting five massive names there and a nice little story in Philippe Lins, who's trying to shock the world and change his life, and more to come. This is great for everyone.

This is great. And a no-brainer, if you ask me, Nate made the right. choice. And I understand it didn't go too far down and Connor's not done. So who knows, that could go sideways. But Nate versus Mike Perry is a very, very, very exciting addition. And dare I say, changes the complexion of this card. As you guys just said, okay, you can say, oh, Rhonda, Gino, we don't know what to expect. And this changes the complexion. This to me is a is a 50-50. I doubt there's anyone. Usually I get one of these. Oh, I got one of them. Okay, have you guys looked at it, what the odds are? Yeah, I know the odds. Does GC know the odds? I have no clue.

Okay, this is fun. What do you think? Does Pizzi know the odds? No. Okay, this is fun. This is fun. I just opened the email. Usually I'll get one of these emails, you know, like these are the early odds. Yeah. I feel like it's a 50-50. Okay. Right now, what do you say? This is that, I just looked down. Minus 200. Do you have the opening odds? For Mike Perry. Yeah, for who? For who? Yeah. My guess is Mike Perry minus 175. And what's Diaz? I would say like plus 140 coming back.

P.T. I don't really understand it that well, so I'll go. Like, who's the dog? You're saying, you're saying, you're saying, no, I'm saying Diaz the dog. Yeah. I think, I think, uh, I think Perry's minus 200 favor. I said. Okay. Mike Perry, according to one of these sites, opening odds, they're not paying us. I'm sorry, I can't. Um, okay. So according to this, it opened, it opened at Perry minus 135 Diaz plus 105. Okay. It is now, as of 106 p.m. Eastern, Perry minus 260, Diaz plus 200. Wow.

So it's moved considerably. Seems like a lot of people think Perry's going to win. Yes. Even though Perry hasn't fought an MMA in five years, but obviously has been active with the BKFC stuff. They getting it right or what? Logic would... There's a huge advantage. Yeah.

Logic would dictate the activity level plus the fact that we don't expect Nate Diaz to be trying to grapple in this fight to give Perry a massive advantage. Perry versus Diaz. If Diaz grapples, he is unbelievable on the ground. Like, unbelievable. I'd say that's the biggest disparity in talent, in skill sets in this fight,

but as we know at night, unless you fall down, he's not going to go after you down there. You know, he'll chase you down if he puts you down, but don't expect him to shoot a double leg. Can I just say it's great to see both these guys back in MMA? Yes, you know what I mean?

Huge personalities. We're missing this. Yeah. That's the biggest part of it. It's in MMA. That's right. It's not boxing. It's not BKFC.

It's MMA. I wonder what the line will be as far as rounds. What do you mean? The over under? The over under, yeah. They're both very durable dudes. They're both so tough. I don't think it's going to be.

Yeah, I can see it being four and a half. Four and a half. It's going to be four and a half for sure. By the way, interesting note here. Rhonda Gina, Rhonda opened up at minus 700. She's now minus 500. Gina was plus 525.

She's now plus 375. A couple of people betting on Gina. Yeah. Like that Gina bat. Be after the presser. Keep on betting on it. You know why? You want that Ronda line?

You want to hammer that? Bring it on in. Yeah, me too, buddy. Interestingly, it went all the way to Rousey minus 400, Karano plus 330, and then it moved back up to minus 500. Inganu, by the way, opened, this is interesting, and Ganu opened at a minus 550 and is now a minus 1,200. Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. soft opens. They're kind of getting a feel for the market and then people bet on it and then they can line it properly. So who do you who do you feel? Who do you feel g. Dias or Perry? Like I like the activity of Mike Perry. He's he's going to bring the fight to Nate Diaz. I don't think Nate Diaz is going to try to take it to the ground. I imagine it's going to be a striking match and with where they're at in their careers. I have to favor Mike Perry. I took to the the YouTube chat. Shout it to the

YouTube chat. Thumbs up to the chat. Thumbs up to the chat. I haven't got one of those in a while. Yeah. I asked, which card are you more excited about right now? About 1,200 or so votes?

UFC White House or MVP on Netflix? What do you think the people said? I just saw it, but it's a surprising result. They said White House 55% in favor of the White House 45. Initially was the Netflix card and now it flipped. I would have thought it would have been more than 55 for White House. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

Really? Yeah, just because I got. I feel like people are, the wide sentiment was they're not that excited for this. I know we've now gotten Nate Diaz and Mike Perry added to it, but I would have expected maybe like a 65, 35, 35 is close. These two things occupy different spaces. These cards are not comparable from that perspective, right? The basis of comparison might be if you do the viewership, right? That's where MVP and Netflix are going to have a significant advantage. but if you do on the basis of like what fight hardcore

most hardcore fight fans are interested in it's obviously going to be an Iliate Toporia fight it's obviously going to be an Alex Pereira fight there's no doubt right but once you start getting outside of that once you start spreading the net a little bit wider names like Nate Diaz and names like Ronda Rousey start to have

more appeal right so our chat is going to be the most hardcore of hardcore fans of course they're going to be more interested in that fight I'm more interested in those fights but as a spectacle as an event as a big stamp for the year, once you start getting outside that hardcore audience that's maybe not sitting in our chat during, you know, work hours, that's when you start to have probably feel more of the presence of Aranda Rousey and Nate Diaz, you know?

I was seeing a lot of people on Twitter say, oh, they, they put together a break up. I honestly don't care. I honestly don't care. The way I view it is, May 9th, you're getting Homsat versus Sean Strickland. May 16th, you're getting, you're getting, you're getting this. May 23rd, you're getting Rico versus Usick, and then June 14th, and I might be missing another one, June 14th, you're getting the white, like, if you're a fan of all these crazy sports, you're, you're loving life. This is great, and it's only good if there are other options. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. This is amazing. We're getting, in the span of seven days, we're getting that, that great main event in Newark, and then this, a week later, when's the last time we had a back-to-back like that in MMA and not like, you know, a boxing this or a bear or a nothing? that. Like, this is great for everyone, I think. And also, you're comparing a promotion that's 30 plus years old to one that's like two months old and just trying to find options. There's not a lot out there. Like, if you actually just sit down and look at, all right, who's available outside of the UFC and PFL? Those are the two that are probably most restrictive. If you're talking about people who are fighting for like, you know, European promotions or even a rise in, I would imagine, there might be

more wiggle room because they're open to sharing and all that stuff. There's not much there as far as massive, massive names. There's not much there. No, they've got them already. This card already has those names. Now you have to start digging deeper on like who are some that the

more hardcore MMA fans are going to want. But they have the casual names. They have all the names that you already could want that are basically free agents. Ptze, let me ask you, we were probably never closer to Diaz McGregor. In the last like four or so years, right? With McGregor coming back, and again, I maintain he is, he, he is the byproduct of

great timing, time after time, because it seems like coming off the, the, the apathy towards, and the vitriol towards the announcement of the White House card and also the BMF, here they are talking to him and his team on the Monday after. And Nate's a free man. We've probably never been closer, and now obviously Nate does this one fight deal with MVP MMA, if that's what they're calling it. True or false, at some point we get the trilogy, or do you think it will always be

one of those fights that just kind of never materializes like it didn't materialize here? What do you think? I want to say yes. I do get the feeling will happen in one way, shape, or form. I feel as though I was joking a few weeks ago

what Rick, I believe it was, and I was saying, look, in five years' time we'll get on misfits. And this kind of makes you feel a bit like that as well. Like the fact that I'm sure Connor is, thinking fair play night. You know, as much as he probably wanted that fight and I thought it was

the perfect fight, to be honest, for the UFC to do as you were saying, I think July 11 was what you were saying, I thought it was absolutely perfect for that. But in a way, like if you leave this guy out there without a contract, you're asking for someone big who probably didn't exist until a few weeks ago when Netflix came into the game, you're going to ask them for them to come and take them.

Nate's probably getting an awful lot of money for this. It's a one-fight deal. Maybe they they strike that afterwards. But I don't know if I'm so confident that either of these guys has that long left on the road. And that's no disrespect. It's just the way the fight game goes.

You know, we've seen the issues Connors had about getting into the cage and fighting, the toe with Chandler, etc. I hope we do. I just think that this doesn't bode well.

McGregor doesn't have a lot of fights left on his UFC contract. What happens after this? Does this fight happen? There's a lot up in the air, but my good feeling is it will, but it may not happen in MMA. Or maybe it doesn't happen in the UFC. Yes.

Well, I think that's it. That's definitely an option now. You know, we're looking at this card. And as I said, I think this is the best card, the best fight that's been out of this card by a long shot. And I was already impressed with the Rosie Corano, Francis situation. Do you know what I'd love to see from Netflix? Just like, and this is, this is selfish.

This is from the hardcore point of view. Fine as a one-off event. But I'd love to see like a really. good prospect in the sport. Like someone, the hardcores are excited about. Can you give me a name? Like who?

Oh, I don't know. Like, everyone's probably under contract. Like, there's so many really, really good prospects just outside of the sport in the UFC. Like,

you know, we talk about Hughes, who was a free Asian at one point. Saladin Panas, who was a free Asian at one point. You know, the UFC were after these guys. Obviously,

KSW and PFL got them respectively. I'd love to see someone like that. added on because it would just talk about more of a long game. It would say to me, like, if you're adding someone to this card, this may not be a one-off thing and we can continue to build this guy. This guy could be our guy for the future. That's what I'd love to see. But very happy with this development, I must say.

Do I think Connor O'Gruggers probably a bit jealous that Nate Diaz is after sorting this deal out? Absolutely. I think McGregor and Netflix would be a match made in heaven. Oh, my God. I really do. Yes. And they obviously had his doc a couple years ago, right? The four-part series, the, the, the, the, the, the,

part two, if you will, of the original one. I was trying to think, when was the last time, like the last best non-UFC card? An MMA? Yeah. There's been a good PFL one or two for sure. That was this? No.

This level of star power? I'm saying, well, no, because. Like, this is the best non-UFC MMA card since? Since ever. Are we talking like Strike Force heavyweight Grand Prix days? Are we talking, like, what are we measuring? Are we measuring? Holy shit.

This is the biggest. If we're measuring that, right? If we're measuring that, right? If we're measuring. No, it can be biggest ever. Well, yeah. If we're measuring impact, if we're measuring platform, if we're measuring what it's going to do, that is the answer. If you're measuring competitive fights, it's not even top 15, 20, like, it depends on what the measurement is.

If it's to blow your mind, having, nobody can get Ronda Rousey. Nobody has had Ronda Rousie. Ronda Rousey is the second biggest star in MMA history behind Connor McGregor. That's what this is. And so if that's the measurement, right? If the measurement is holy shit, wow factor, whatever, having Ronda Rousey alone takes it over the top. Then you add Nadeez to that mix. And then Francis and Gondu under that, like, there isn't an equivalent.

If you're going, okay, we're going back to Strike Force days or Pride days when we have bigger matchups and bigger names, right? Then that's a different conversation. But if you're doing just wow factor, what is this going to do from a viewership perspective? There hasn't been, right? Because Netflix is a platform that provides something that nobody else has been before. If we're doing competitive fights, then it's a totally different story altogether. Yeah, no, it is somewhat unprecedented. I was just talking about something where it felt like, oh, shit.

I mean, it kind of reminds me. The fact that we don't have one is pretty big. The fact that we don't have one that immediately we go, this, like, that kind of speaks to how big this Netflix thing is. It reminds me a little bit of like EliteXC on CBS days. where it was like, oh, wow, the platform plus the star power. But yeah, I mean, we've never had a platform like this. Like even when when Elite XC and Showtime were on, excuse me, Elite XC and Strike Force were on Showtime, Showtime was tiny in America.

Yeah. It was like 35 million subscribers or something like that compared to 325 million. I don't think the world of MMA really understands, like, how big this is and how big it can be for the sport. Like, you talk about your favorite fighter wanting to get paid or just have an opportunity or just to have a market to negotiate. This is good for everyone. Again, I'll say it till I'm blue. AW coming was the best thing for WWE

because it raised their game. This being a thing would be the best thing for the UFC. There's no doubt about it. And the road to it, I mean, it's coming fast and furious. It's actually two months from exactly today, this fight card. So it's coming fast and furious. What's really interesting about it among the many things that are interesting is, like, I was watching Ronda speak to the media last week,

and it struck me. You haven't seen Rhonda speak to the MMA media in 10 plus years. And then you see her back in pro wrestling yesterday, guys. You see Ronda Rousey back in pro wrestling.

It feels like a comeback tour of sorts. She showed up on the AEW Revolution show and here's Ronda Rousey back in MMA in some way, shape, or form back in wrestling. It's unclear if she's wrestling, if she's not, if she's full time,

if she's not. But just to see her in a non-WWWRowsey ring is notable. But let's be honest, over the last few years, she has not had the nicest things to say about the world of MMA and its fans and the world of wrestling and its fans. And so to now see her kind of coming back and I don't know if it's to write the wrong. I don't know if it's to make amends. I don't know how to describe it. But it really did seem when she was done with wrestling that she would be done with all of this, right? Like that was the vibe. And now to see her back in MMA to see her back in wrestling

in non-UFC and W.W.E. Rings and promotions is a twist that I don't think anyone predicted. It's a full-on assault against TKO. She's fighting them on both fronts, obviously. Like, she wants to be the anti-TKO.

And that is what she, like, no bigger sign than how she's talking about, you know, the UFC brass. And it's not surprising to me that she'd show up on AEW, because if I'm her and I'm A.W, This feels like the time, right? Right when you're railing against TKO, here's an opportunity. Well, speaking of which, here's the tweet that she just posted.

Welcome to the Revolution Nate Diaz. It's fighters versus the establishment and we're going to win. May 16th only on Netflix. P.S. hashtag Hunter Campbell pissed off the wrong bitch. I'm coming for your job, motherfucker. Fucking out. This is so palatable compared to the Ronda. it. Compared to the Ronda that we were talking about previously where it's like, fuck the

MMA media, they're all pricks, fuck these people. Like, this is a righteous patchy's on. This is far more palatable for everybody. This is, this is a WDB storyline and we're living in real time in MMA. I think a lot of people don't understand that. I see a lot of fans of the UFC being like, why? Why is he excited about this? You don't, we've never really had this. We've been crying out for this. The UFC is great. It is the greatest thing that's ever happened to to mix martial arts. But without a challenge, what's their motivation? What's their incentive to make really good cards?

Everybody's talking about this Paramount era, not kicking off in the way it is. You need someone to poke the bear. Netflix is coming to do that. Whether you are really excited about Francis and Gano v. Felipe Lenz or Rousey v. Garano or Diaz v. Perry, it doesn't really matter because they're going to, they're going to pay these guys very well, I'd imagine. It's going to be seen by a lot of people. that's why this is really, really interesting

on just like the industry level. As an MMA fan, regardless of you're completely on the side of UFC, everything will result in better things for us. That's certainly what I believe. That is probably an option. As long as Netflix keep trying to do this, it's going to result in better UFC events.

Of course that's what we all want. One thing I'm wondering is, Ariel, how do you think, like this is so new, right? Like this came out of nowhere, this Netflix thing. Everybody's blinds out. What I want to ask you is a guy who knows a bit more, a bit more, a lot more about the TV world than I do. How do Paramount feel about this? They probably thought they had a home run with the White House this year.

This is going to be the biggest event of the year. We have it. It's locked down. Nobody's going to touch us. Now Netflix are arriving on the scene. So in all these legends. Like, is there a situation where Paramount go to the UFC and they say, like, what's happening here, lads? We thought we had this locked up.

What is going on? I don't think they're getting hot under the color. But again, who's sitting right there to be the perfect antidote to all of this? Connor freaking McGregor. They signed Connor and they post that graphic of him versus anyone. Let's be honest.

People are going to lose their minds because he still resonates with a lot of people and people will accept and welcome him back and all that stuff, right wrong, whatever. And so he's sitting pretty right now.

But yes, there is a little bit more competition. What makes it even more interesting and actually the direction that I thought you were going to go in is let's not forget, Netflix is in business with WWE, which is a part of TKO. And so even though the MMA thing

seems to be like a bit of a counter, if you will, they're still in business with them. So it's not like a full on war. And so that's why I thought it was interesting. I was like, huh, I wonder, I wonder if UFC, old UFC would have countered this, one million percent, right? They would have moved Hamzad versus Strickland and moved anything out of the way and had that on May 16th. But are they really going to do that? Is Endeavor really going to try and piss off Netflix? The biggest streaming platform in the world? Does Ari Emanuel want to piss off Netflix? No, he doesn't want to piss off Netflix. So they have to kind of tread carefully here. That to me is

super interesting when you talk about like there's only that many big platforms left right now and the gap between the big dogs and everyone else continues to get bigger, bigger, bigger, and they're in business with one entity under this massive conglomerate but not the other. Golly, there's so many good things here. But I do want to go back to Rhonda real quick. Do you guys think that the fans will accept her back? Because in order for this to be a home run, in order for this to be a success and sustainable, they have to tune in.

They have to believe in what she is selling. They have to say, hey, bygones be bygones. We're cool with everything that happened. Water under the bridge. We've got your back. What do you think, Rick? No. That's an important thing.

You're saying, no, they won't or no, they don't have to. No, both. No, they won't, and no, they don't have to because a better motivator to tune in is to watch somebody get their ass beat or to lose or to stumble or to fall in the same way they always want a Rhonda to fall. Not always. Yeah, I'm kind of a record saying that Ronda's gotten an unfair shake from fans and media. And I feel like Ronda, look, did Ronda do herself any favors?

No, but I've always been in the camp of that. I don't think she deserved what she got. I think people were waiting for the opportunity to pounce on her. And I actually like it better if she's kind of antagonistic toward that. I like it better that she's taking the angle of like, I'm against what's happening in the sport of MMA right now. I don't care if like, I don't think she cares, nor do I care if fans get on her side with it. I think her being this outlier, this rebel, is a much more interesting angle for her.

And people will tune in because she's Ronda Rousey. It doesn't really matter if they love her, hate, or whatever. You're going to tune in because most of the time she's going to arm bar somebody in 30 fucking seconds because she's Ronda Rousey. I don't think it matters if they love her. But the war against Hunter Campbell, like he's not a household name, right? And so can people understand and resonant? We think that's fascinating. But will Joe Schmoe and Iowa who's just kind of a...

No, but that person who doesn't know that story? is tuning in because she's Rhonda fucking Rousey, right? That person is tuning in because she's, she's the queen, the bad bitch. Like, she's the one that, like, it made people fans of this sport, got so many women into MMA, and then Gina Crono's, like, the, the version

before that, the 1.0. I don't think, all these different, you said it, like, when you were talking about the car construction, about all these different storylines, and you're serving this audience, and this audience, and this audience. Ronda Rousey serves all audiences in that way as well. The hard car fans are going to tune in, because Ronda Rousey's fighting MMA and oh, maybe this like anti-TKO Hunter Campbell storylines interesting

to you. And then for the others, I know I'm tuning in for somebody who's going to try and throw somebody on their head and arm bar them. Like she is just one of those people. The same way you talked about Connor McGregor. When that Connor McGregor announcement drops, everybody's going to be there because he's Connor fucking McGregor. She's Rhonda fucking Rousey.

That's just how this goes. I don't think she needs, in fact, I don't want to see a dulled edge Ronda Rousey. I don't want to see a kumbaya everybody. Join with me, everybody. Like, you know, aren't you fans of me again? I don't care about that. I hope she tells everybody to fuck off. Like, that would be much more fun.

It is a much more fun version. I love it, too. What about the revolution thing? Go ahead, go ahead. Can we get the, do you remember the old videos when Rhonda and the Diaz boys were around each other? Oh, yeah. You're right.

Call lazy. Get lazy to Savage. Get him shooting this shit. And get that shit going again because that felt like NWO. or something. When they're all together, you're like, these are the coolest motherfuckers and they're all together. This is awesome. Please do something about Rhonda and Nate Diaz. You have them both. That is a great idea. That is a great idea. By the way, speaking of which our old friend Antoine Evans see him on Twitter saying Rhonda, Gina, Bones, Jones, Nate Diaz, McGregor, and Anaganu all wanted

to fight in the first half of 2026. UFC booked none of them. Now, McGregor's still alive, but it is an interesting, it is an interesting point. Like they could have, they could have had every single one of them. Right? They could have had every single one of them. They could have had bones. They could have had Nate. They could have had Inganu. They could have easily had Rhonda. And they didn't do any of them. And I know that there are some fans who are going to be like, I don't care. But those are certifiable draws. You know who may care is a paramount plus to your question, PT. Think about how we would be talking about the UFC had they accomplished all of those. Yeah. Great points. They're back. They're back. They're doing shit we never even thought of. Right. Right. Right. When this fight, when this card was first announced, I said controversially, I guess, I don't know if it's that controversial, but I said that if I was in the UFC shoes, if I was sitting in the TKO board meetings, I would call John Jones at Connor McGregor and give them whatever they wanted in order to

make sure that this event of the MVP, uh, MMA card on Netflix is not viewed as the biggest draw of the year, is not viewed as the one with the highest viewership and that we're at least competitive and that we at least have some kind of metrics that we can make the splash. And my replies were just, or your replies actually, I think, because it came out of your account. We're absolutely destroyed saying, what a fucking idiot. This is not going to be a big card. Who cares about these washed old ladies? White House card is going to smack.

Blah, blah, blah, blah. Now sitting here today, I feel exactly the same way, which is, if you were doing this White House card, you should have met John Jones's demands. Or you should have put Connor McGregor on this card and not push them to July. Now, there's an argument to say, okay, Connor McGregor, he's coming back. From a business standpoint, it actually makes more sense to put him in July. Great, no problem. But John Jones was sitting right there, and you could have done John Jones versus Alex Pereira.

And that would have quieted everybody. That would have made everybody shut up. If the number for this card on Netflix is massive and the number for the White House card is not, I do think that's a loss. I do think that's a bad thing optically. Now, again, by no means am I saying it's the better or more competitive card. By no means am I saying that they're coming for the UFC's spot? by no means am I saying that the best

fights are not happening still in the UFC. But if I'm an executive at the UFC or TKO or even Paramount, I don't want to see that Netflix had the most viewed MMA card of the year. And I think this is in the running for that. Ronorowski thinks it's a foregone conclusion. The MMA card of all time.

And so that feels stupid to me that you didn't call John Jones. Or you called John Jones and then when the rubber met the the rubber met the road, whatever the rubber met the road. The rubber met the road. The rubber met the road. you backed out. You fucking didn't give him the money that he was asking for to make that happen.

That feels like a mistake to me. That feels like a mistake. Ariel, you said that it's a bitter business move to have McGregor on the July card, which obviously is you're going to make more money and all of these sort of, I don't want to say failures, but things that they're not following through on the Ronda, you know, getting Nate back, doing John Jones on the White House card. They're all good business moves. Everything that they do is essentially a good business move. They are in maximizing profits. but at some point you have to make a move that's a good promotional move that keeps the fans coming around being like, man, they are killing it right now. They are making great moves instead of just like, what are they doing?

Why aren't we accomplishing these things to make us the best promotion? You're right. You're right. I was wondering when I read that tweet from Rhonda, we talked about this like a month or so ago, Union Association. Could it be Ronda Rouse? I was just thinking that. Oh, my God. Could it be Ronda Rousey? She was talking about promotion stuff at the press conference.

She wants to be a promoter. She wants to be a coach. She wants to have more kids so she's not going to stay in the fight game that long. Because you imagine if it's Ronda Rousey after all these years. Do you think of Ronda as a selfless individual? Because that will be what's required. I think of Ronda Rousey as a relentless, narcissistic competitor, right?

The reason I love Ronda Rousey is because she's singularly motivated on kicking everybody's ass and proving that she's the greatest. I don't know that that's the person that I'm like, okay, we need this person to balance all the egos, manage this, that she has her own ego. She's just this, this force of nature. If she's able to get it done, if she could, you know, put that to the side and be this, like, advocate, I think it'd be fantastic. I just think of her in a different category, right?

She is, she is that one of one all about her, and it has made her like one of the most fierce competitors we've ever seen. Yeah, you know, ultimately, I don't even know if that's of great interest. Right. the interest may just be like, I'm going to combat these guys, the Hunter Campbell's, the D.K.O.s of the world.

It's her versus them, right? But now she's like, but it didn't make me think. When she's talking about revolution and all this stuff. Calling out Hunter Campbell. You just said, like, to a Joe Schmoe, no one knows who that is.

Hashtagging him, too. I can't imagine that hashtag's trending right now. Who was it that used to tag Hunter but the wrong Hunter? Was it Nate? Remember somebody would be like trying to talk to Hunter, but they would at Hunter?

And it was just some guy named Hunter. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he had some kind of burden of. But it was somebody. I think it was Nate actually. But, uh, yeah. Listen, I like what Rhonda's doing. I like what she's doing here. And I think it will only benefit her.

I'm really curious. She was asked last week. Is it a one-off? I think she was asked by me, to be honest. Great question. Is it a one? Her answer was, her answer was, I want to have a family. I want to have more kids.

She already has a family. Gina's was a little more open-ended. But again, if, if, if, Things go well for her. They have Holly home there. You know, she's doing the boxing thing for MVP as well. I'm really curious. I'm really curious to see, like, what her actual endgame is.

She seems highly insulted by the way in which it went down with the UFC because she's brought it up now multiple times. She seems highly insulted. And I love, I don't know if this is on purpose. I don't know if it's me looking into it too much. I do find the Dana stuff to be fascinating as well. Like, he's just an employee. He doesn't even like that card.

He doesn't make the decisions and all that stuff. Like, man, knowing Dana White like I do. And obviously it's not as close, you know, I'm not as close, or was close to him like, like, like, like, like Ronda was. I can't imagine he likes any of this rhetoric. So I don't know if she's playing mind games here. I don't know if she's trying to do the, you know, the, the backhanded compliment thing. But all of this is just, is fascinating.

It really is. So I'm curious to see how it continues to play out. Yes, Pizzi. It's all just like you'll rue the day, Rhonda here. That's what it is. You'll rue the day you didn't give me what I deserve. And that's, I think, if we're talking about you, you know, that would be her motivation. Like, I think she is that, she is on this revenge plot right now.

You know, it feels like something I have a comic book who has shown up in AW last night. As, as Rick said earlier, against TKO, I think it's fantastic. I don't think, you know, you're asking about, you know, could you win over to fans again? She didn't even have to make that attempt. She didn't have to change herself at all to win the media back over. She just showed up at that press conference and nothing had changed. you know, she had the fastball, as you said, coming off the press conference. So, um, very interested.

It's kind of, like, I don't know if it's like a compliment to Rhonda or an indictment on the sport that she showed up after being gone for so long and immediately just captures our imagination like that. Like that's how it feels for me. Anyway, everything she's saying, I'm interested in. I want to hear what she has to say about the UFC's developments like this, the Dana stuff. It's pretty amazing. I, I wouldn't have thought she could do that if I'm being.

and honest. I thought she was beyond that. So very, very impressed. Can't wait to see which Nate we get in the buildup, which Mike Perry we get, you know, their energies together. I cannot wait for that. That is going to be something. I did want to ask you guys about the announcement that came out, yes? Before we move on, can I just close the loop? Yes, yes. We found the Nate Diaz tweet.

Okay, okay. It was Nate. I would like to, by the way, how pressure does this? 2022. I would like to request to be released from the UFC at UFC at Dana White at Hunter. I apologize for asking online But you don't give me a fight ASAP I got shit to do I mean you know how timely But Ad Hunter

And then some that guy is just like What the fuck did I do? Like that guy just And he was like What did I do? I don't know I didn't have any beef with Nate Diaz Shout out to Ad Hunter

Almost exactly four years to the day By the way Crazy And now here he is getting a massive One Off fight on Netflix On Thursday UFC announced a slew of fights

Dana White went on with Brendan Fitzgerald and our man DJ Mikey B and I have to say, you know, I'll give us I'll give ourselves an old Barry H here. It wasn't IG Live. It was a nice produced segment. Clearly a pre-tape

because they made the announcement earlier, but who gives a crap? In the studio sitting down, being directed, being helped out. Oh, Dana doesn't need this type of help, but hey, we'll take it. It felt like he cared. It felt like it mattered. It felt important. And he announced

slew of fights. I'll go through the lineup and then we'll focus on one in particular. Here's the lineup. Take me through it here, Andy. Here we go. The big one was Hamzaa Chimae versus Sean Strickland. That's the main event for UFC 328, Newark, New Jersey, May 9th, middleweight title fight. We're going to come back to this one. But the rest of the fights that he announced, he announced a whole bunch of him. Al Jermaine Sterling against Yusuf Salal, main event, April 25th at the meta apex. Very important fight in the 145 pound division. Benil Daryush is going to fight Quillen Selkeld. That's a short notice-ish.

The original fight fell through, but this is great. And a massive, massive fight for Quillen and a big opportunity for him. And you know exactly what's happening here. This is Kevin Veshaeos versus Josh Emmett just at 155 pounds because they're very much behind Quillan. And he better have his freaking mustache back by the time they fight because I saw some pictures of him recently. He's in Las Vegas. He was at the fight on Saturday.

And the mustache is gone. and it's absolutely insane. I mean, I don't want to say that he goes from plus 10,000 or it to minus 10,000, but it's somewhere in between, Quillan. Anyway, the rest of the fights, Arnold Dallan against Milky Costa. That's a May 16th.

So that's going up against this card, by the way. If you're wondering what the UFC will be, and we love Arnold. That's a meta-Apex fight card. May 16th, Arnold Allen against Melchie Costa at 145 pounds. Sergei Pavlovich against, Talasin Tashara at heavyweight on May 30th. That's in Macau.

And then there might be one or two more. Ming Yang Zhang against Alonzo Menafield also on that card. And main event for that card in Macau, Song Yadong against Davidson Figurado at 135 pounds. June 6th main event was also announced, Balal Mahabin against Gabriel Bonfim. And that's also back at the apex. So they announced a bunch of fights.

We like that. We know it. Overall, by the way, guys, like the slew of announcements, like, obviously the biggest one was Hamzad versus Sean. Like, that, that's like, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, you see your reaction when you saw these. Did you have the memes popping? Were you excited?

Like, what, what were you feeling? The, the, the, the, the, is the one that I was looking forward to most. It's nice to hear of Allah Mohammed's back, you know, fighting an up-and-contender in Bonfim, but he's at the apex. This time last year he was the champion of the world, and now he's fighting contenders at the apex. A lot of these I feel like we knew about. The Daryush Sal-Kild is exciting. You know, Sal-Kild continues to get opportunities. Yeah, it was a fine amount of announcements. It's nice to get the calendar filled out all the way up until the White House. But, yeah, it's the UFC 328. That was the crown jewel of those announcements. I remember joining you guys my last day in Italy when we talked about Strickland and the win over Fluffy and we talked about, you know, should it be him or should it be the imov? And I'll be the first to say I flip flopped.

When I looked at the UFC and when I looked at them needing a bit of a jolt, them needing some excitement, you just can't compare. Now, I'll be a thousand percent honest. If we're going off of merit, and yes, I know that Strickland beat Emavov a few years ago at 205 and it was a short notice fight for Sean Strickland. If we're going off of merit since then, Imovov has the better resume. Strickland has had multiple opportunities to fight for the belt. He was, of course, champion. He had an opportunity to win the belt back last February. Now he's getting another chance.

He's pretty much had a title fight, non-title fight, title fight, non-title fight. He's lost the title fights. He's won the in-betweeners to get back into the picture. If we're going off of merit, it's Imov. The bigger fight times a million is Hamzad versus Strickland. It's going to be absolutely insane. you've got one guy who's completely like unhinged and unfiltered who doesn't shy away from saying anything as non-PC as it may be against another guy who may not be unhinged and unfiltered as far as like the gift of gab is concerned but certainly we know like doesn't mind getting into it and this guy's saying a lot of personal things about this guy and this guy has a short fuse it's going to be absolute bananas i think that from a blockbuster needing viewership trying to get people excited new air at Paramron Plus, it's a no-brainer.

But I do feel like I have to be consistent in saying from a merit standpoint, Imov should have gotten it. Rick, what do you think? Did they get this one right? Yeah, they absolutely got it right. When we talked about it at that time that you were talking about, I was very definitive in saying you should give this opportunity to Sean Strickland. Like, if your business is to make the fights that fans want to see,

this is the fight that fans want to see more. This is, they want to see Sean Strickland, Riala, Pams Atchamayev. They want to see if he can get into his head. They want to see if he can survive the wrestling attack. And then some other people want to see Hamza Achimai of Mawal Sean Strickland. And so this is serving every person's interests. On merit, Nassarini Mavov is the one who should be fighting for the title. But when is the last time the UFC applied merit to any of these title opportunities, right?

Mavsov and Lerl-Murphy are fighting this weekend while Diego Lopez got a title shot. That does not exist anymore. and I don't know how many times we can go over this. Like the other thing is, the UFC, one of the things that the UFC is doing wrong, in my opinion, at this moment, is they are not making it clear who contenders are. They are not making it clear who is going to be the number one contender, which eliminates stakes, right?

If you go into that fight and say, Sean Strickland versus Anthony Hernandez, the winner of this is fighting Hamzaa Chamaif. No questions asked, the winner is fighting Hamzaa Chamaif. That makes the stakes of that elevated, it makes you care more about the fight. If they went in and said, Lorone Murphy versus Mopsar Everwev is a number one contender fight.

The winner of this fight is going to be fighting Alexander Volcanovsky. You care more, right? Well, you know why they're not doing that. They're trying to head. They want to leave their options open. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that they can do something like this, so that they can go. Sean Strickland fills in, and it's not Imov.

But it is also lessening the clarity, right? It is lessening why these things happen. And if you're going to live in that world and you're going to provide that, you know, fog and that smokescreen, then it doesn't matter if Nassardine Ivov gets screwed if you're the UFC. You want the ability to screw Nasradiene Mavov so that you can slide strong Strickland in. And so I don't think there's anybody out there should be under the illusion that the UFC is a meritocracy anymore, that there is anything based on merit. And it's unfortunate for Nasrini Mavov. But as a fan, if you want to see the fight that you're claiming you want to see, they have given it to you.

They are giving you the one that I think more fans are interested in. What do you think, PT? I've been reluctantly forced to accept that this UFC doesn't run like a sport anymore. You guys are making the point. Look, Strickland are the best performance of his life, maybe. Yeah. To get this total fight. I agree.

Like that's something else that needs to, it's not just that he's winning, winning the way he did, that deserves credit. Imovov, like, I honestly don't even, I didn't even see people up in arms about this anymore. We know what this is now. What generates the most interest? What is available to fight now? Yeah. Right?

Which was a little bit surprised. Even being into submission. Yeah. We know that this is. isn't a meritocracy anymore, and that's fine. But why are you surprised? I really am asking this question genuinely. I'm not surprised. I just said, I'm not surprised. Okay. Because Sean Strickland is way more popular than Nassarine Imov.

Just like, in mass, on a whole. Bro, all the talking he did, the way that he finished Fluffy Hernandez, as soon as that one went final, I was like, he's a momentum thing. It's impressive. I would have been shocked. Immov probably knew. I would have been shocked if Imov got it. I would have been floored if Imov got the opportunity. What do you do for Imov now?

By the way, I'm looking up, did he even say anything about this? You know what I knew? A month ago or so, he started tweeting about fighting Sean Strickland. At that moment, I knew he had no title opportunity. When he put that out, that told me that he had no contact with the UFC. The UFC hasn't told him that he's gotten a title shot and that they're waiting to see if Sean Strickland wins. The moment he called out Sean Strickland instead of Hamzot, I knew exactly what was about to happen. He tweeted on March 13th, which was Friday, so clearly in response.

to this, to those who support it's coming, the others it's coming to. So that's it. You fight. What do you do if you're him? You fight? You fight or do you just wait? I mean, a lot of What has waiting gotten them? Skipped. I mean, not necessarily. He did fight in September. Yeah, so fight again.

Yeah, no. But then who do you fight? Honestly, that's it. It's like what Francis was talking about, legacy, all this stuff, title shots. None of that really matters. You have to be able to go to the bank and deposit checks. Middleweight division. DDP? Yep. Y, yo. Line it up.

Yo. Do you see, that is the show, mate? Oh, thanks, guys. That's it. A little banged up. Campbell, I'm coming for your job, bro. A little banged up. Remember, he told us, what was it last week? No, two weeks ago that he was going to fight on the April card, but that doesn't really matter. I mean, they posted the lineup for this card, so I don't think it would be comming for it.

I think we have the photo here. Oh, that could definitely fill in as a co-man. Yeah, 100%. Colcholk v. Waldo. Brady versus Buckley is a combing for. great one and I'm happy that they What is Volkov and Costa the comment here? Brady and Buckley is clearly

That's card orders, doesn't matter. You hating on? Tulsa Board. Okay. Brady Buckley is the bigger fight, but I think it's, it's main event, sorry, it's heavyweight,

it's, they're higher end. I'm saying sometimes heavy weights can really suck the fucking life out of a room. When it doesn't go very quickly, it tends to go very badly. That's all I'm saying. What about Jeremy Stevens

just bouncing back and forth from the UFC and BKFC. What a wild thing. King Green turning. around like after a week after his fight being like, yep, let's do it. Keep a goatee on there as well. Yeah, I think that would be a nice little comane to add, a Niemavov versus a DDP. A nice little.

That'd be fantastic. Or I could see maybe like a July 11th. Yeah, no chance. Stop getting excited, guys. International fight week I could see. Because I don't, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I can't see DDP headlining a fight night at the apex or something. They're not going to be.

Definitely not the apex. They're not going to be on the White House. And so the next big card would be that. If you want to bill it as a number one contender fight, there you go. They won't. They won't. I know they won't. It's very annoying.

I mean, even, by the way, even today, who said it? Was it Volcanowski might have said it on his video blog. Like even now, five days out from Murphy versus, uh, have they even said that that, like that might be the easiest number one contender fight of all time. It's not, though. Is it a weight banger? Yeah. That's what we're going to.

They can just say it and then fucking not say it on Monday. Well, I mean, Dana has said that too. Dana's done that. Yeah, exactly. Just fucking do it. Just say, yeah. Armine and Hooker fighting for the belt. Yep.

Brady and Morales fighting for the belt. So just do it again. Fucking give it to us. You know what I mean? We like these things. I know, but they don't mean anything. Yeah, to your point. Like, they just don't mean anything.

NJ. Pack? May 8th? Don't tell me with it. You'll be asking for it. Dan has final word on them. asking for it. Dan has been asking for it. Unfortunately, 8th, I have a wedding to go. Ah, what the fuck, Dan?

What the hell? Consulate nailed. We're out. What the hell? He already booked his flight. Thanks, Don. I do want to let everyone know, Alex Perea in studio at 4 o'clock, 330, Kevin Vichai hosts more on him in a second, Anderson Silva at 3, Eric Nixick coming up at around 235

and then 210, Kyle Dawkus. Let's quickly talk about this week. It actually was a pretty good car guys at the apex. highlighted by the Kevin Vichelho's breakout, if you will, although I think a lot of us were already excited about him, to see him in the main event, to see him produce like that, to see him grab the camera, the way in which he did, I felt like this guy gets it.

This guy is a star. This guy has arrived. This guy wasn't swallowed up by the, like, this was great stuff. He gets to 100K. He obliterates Josh Emmett, who I know is long in the tooth, but I know is, you know, is a tough out. Everyone respects him.

The ultimate litmus test, if you will. I was very impressed with this young man once again. I wonder who's like, he's calling for a Yeya Rodriguez fight. That's what he wants. He said, let's do it. UFC Noce. I don't hate it. I don't like the timeline, though.

That's in September. That's in nine months from now. No, six months? Okay, it's not that far now that I think about it. Still feels like a long time from now. What do you think, Pizzi? Thoughts on Kevin. Thoughts on this idea.

Yeah, I think he's a brilliant fighter. And going through Emma is, is no main feat. I like the Rodriguez fight. be honest with you. I think it is a bit too far. I think you want to keep the momentum going, but another great addition to this division. And Lorona and Evlo F probably getting worried now, thinking, geez, there's another lad we have to contend we're here at the top of this division. Don't be exciting. Like, you know, being, working your way gradually up through these rankings means nothing if you have someone just surging through like this kid. I like the air fight.

Honestly, I think this kid looks like a beast. I wish he wasn't fighting at the apex, but we're finished having that conversation now. Really good performance. And yeah, I thought the card was very good too. Gillian Robertson defeats Amanda Lamosh, Jose Delgado, defeated Andre Fili via split decision. Marwan Rahiki with a tremendous win over the very tough Harry Hardwick. How tough was this fight for Harry? Well, this is what Harry looked like in the immediate aftermath of the fight in the ambulance.

Take a look at this video right here. His jaw is completely messed up. In fact, he told his corner that his jaw was messed up and they said, no must as they should have. Here's what he looked and sounded like seconds after the fight. Everybody, I'm okay. My jaw is obviously fucked.

That's all right. I like soup. I like smoothies. And I like milkshakes. And I like energy drinks. So all these things I can still have. Life's good. I cannot complain about my position.

I have an amazing, beautiful girlfriend, good house, good family, good sport in that way. No one needs to cry for me. I'm okay. Obviously, gutted, but that's the sport. I mean, I wanted the win, but it is what it is. Hats off the mile, like, you can't be, you know, I've seen it going to guard, look, this, look at.

He threw the shot the broken jaw, you did it on purpose, but it's not looking. It is what it is. What a gent, by the way. I mean, what a positive outlook after being in that state. That's what he sounded like on Saturday. night. This is what he sounded and looked like, and you'll get a better sense of the jaw yesterday afternoon.

My jaw is fucked. Oh, my God. Oh. My jaw is fucked. Oh my God. Oh. Tough dude, man. What a tough freaking dude. Shout out to him.

And that does look gruesome. Great win for Marwan. Iwan Kutjilaba got this submission win, a beautiful mounted guiata. Choke. Charles Johnson wins via split decision. Nice little promo from him afterwards. Mick Tebeck Oroby with a tough win over Chris Curtis, Fitor Petrino, defeated Stephen Aspland, who everyone loves online. Elijah Smith with another great win as well. Manuel Sosa with a beautiful

finish in the third round of his fight. Eric Anders retired after his win over Brad Tavarez. Shout out to him on a great career as well. B.M. Esquita is probably the most exciting thing happening in the women's bantamweight division right now, and certainly an absolute up-and-comer. 7-0, she wins via rear naked choke in the first round. Hector Sosa, with the unanimous decision win, and Pieda Rodriguez kicked off the action with the win over Sam Hughes. Shout out to her for the big win. The best thing that I saw on Saturday was this post-fight promo from Zim Salmani after his win.

over BKFC. He was in WWE. He was a tag champ there. I think Authors of Pain was the team name. He goes to BKFC and he cut the promo to end all promos. In fact, we're going to have this man on the show tomorrow. I'm so excited to talk to him. He calls himself the Albanian Psycho. This is an early

contender, early frontrunner for promo of the year. I'm here to knock motherfuckers out anywhere in the motherfucking world. Come get it. Motherfuckers. I'm fucking done with everybody, motherfuckers. Give it. Get it. Fuck this place to what?

Give it. Give it to me. I'm the motherfucking Albanian psycho. I'm the motherfucker who came from WWE to this place. I fought my ass off and I'm here. Thank you to David Feldman. Thank you to Connor McGregor. I'm here to stay motherfuckers whether you like it or not.

The Albanian psycho has arrived at BKFC. The most dominant, the most crazy sports, combat sport in the world. Let's fucking get it. I'm ready for anything. The Albanian psycho. Psycho. I freaking love it.

That was an incredible promo. Shout out to him. We'll have him on the show tomorrow. More news and notes throughout the program and back into the show as well. But let's get to our first guest of the day. He is going to be, he is one of the select few who was chosen to compete at UFC Freedom Fights 250 on the White House lawn on June 14th of this year. He's going up against Bo Nickel, a massive fight, a Pennsylvania turf war, if you will.

A real swing stage fight, if you will. We're talking to Kyle Dachis, the Dars Knight. He is kind enough to join us right here. And now there he is. Hello, Kyle. How are you? What about the Albanian psycho? Can you cut a promo like that on the White House lawn?

That was nuts. That was crazy. Definitely not that language in the White House long. But, yeah. I do have to say, though, you've been on fire on social media. Who's producing these tweets for you? you. Is this all you? Hey, hey, this is all me. We're having a ghost writers for this one. This is all me. You're killing it, man. I love it. Like this one when the news came out.

Yeah, that's funny. You're really leaning into the belly aching. Why are you doing this? Yeah. I don't know. I feel like it's just something you have to do now. Talk with a couple of the buddies at the gym and they feel like this is like just trying to be funny online and just trying to kind of intermingle with the fans and whatnot. I've been posting a lot of comments underneath like different stories and stuff. So it's where, pretty fun. Yes. I mean, this one was another great one.

Yeah, I made that one. You're killing it, man. No one's helping you. This is all from your mind? No, this is all right off the cuff of my brain. Wow.

I said at the top of the show, I actually love your involvement on this card. You're the embodiment of the American dream. This is a guy who had a dream. The dream was taken away. You worked your ass off. You worked all the way back.

This is what this card should be all about. It shouldn't just be like A plus superstar, superstar, are working their way it should be everything there's very few americans on this car this is the only america versus america fight i i love the fact that you're on it are you getting that sentiment from people or is it been a bit different well first off i just want to say like i really appreciate uh the whole thing you said in the beginning man it really kind of hit home with me man it's uh it got me in the fields a little bit i'm very thankful very grateful for just uh everything

that's going on my life right now but yeah now i mean the fans are are really kind of like all my side it seems like obviously a lot of guys are posting that like they're not really sure why I'm on the card. But yeah, a lot of the comments and stuff have been positive towards me, I feel. Are you feeling jealousy from the ones who aren't booked for this? They're like, why is Kyle Dacus on here and I'm not? No, I've really just seen a bunch of hate from other fighters about not, like, Moreno said he wouldn't fight on the card. I saw a couple other guys said they

wouldn't fight on the card. Now, nothing about that. Okay. By the way, June 14th, does this date mean anything to you? I saw there was a post that I fought two years in 2014 I think it was that I went 20, Jesus, 2024, I'm sorry, 22, that I had fought, yeah, that I had fought and got my first knockout. That's right, Cage Fury FC 132, June 14th, 2024 in Philly, you defended the Cage Fury FC, the CFFC middleweight title. You beat?

Yeah. Well, there he is. Keenan. Pattershuck. Patershuck. Great one for you. that was your last fight pre-UFC yes

that guy would you have believed this would all turn out this way but he's fighting the White House probably not but yeah I mean I I always knew that you know the UFC was where I wanted to be and where I should be and I wasn't going to be be deterred with that you know I was just going to keep fighting just kind of keep racking the winds up and I knew eventually that this would all happen would I think that you know I would come back

with the buzz that I have absolutely not But, you know, I'm very grateful and I'm just going on June 14th. So this was written in the stars long before June 14th, 2020. It was like it, yeah. Well, we did some digging. How about this one? How about this one, Kyle? June 14th, 2011, 2011, June 14th, do you remember that day for any?

2012, excuse me, June 14th, 2012. Do you remember this day? No. Very big day in your life. We found that on June 14th, 2012, you're nervous here. You posted it. A little bit. You posted your very first picture on Instagram.

It currently sits at one like. There's the date right there. June 14, 2012. No comments on it. What is that? It was a picture of what? What is that? A golf course?

Where are we here? Yeah, that's like years ago. I was golfing my dad. Yeah, years ago. It was 14 years ago. Yeah,

man, yeah. I used to go up with my dad every summer, or not every summer. Like every other summer, I'd say he'd had like a time share up in like the Poconos. And we would just go golfing. That was a, I guess it's the first post that I posed that.

I was golfing with my dad. Isn't that insane? It's very insane, very crazy. And I don't know if you see two on there. I've, uh, I posted, I forget when it was, but I was in the Wells Fargo arena. And I said, I'm going to fight here eventually. Wow. And I'm keeping that in the back pocket for when the UFC comes in the feeling, hopefully they can put me on a card.

Yes, yes, okay. One, one item on the checklist at a time. Everyone is watching this live or after the fact. Go on that post right now and send Kyle. love, all right? Let's get it over one like and we'll check in later in the program to see how it is, but I just couldn't believe that when I saw I was like, holy shit, this date, it keeps

popping up for you. That's weird, yeah. Maybe it's meant to be, man. This is crazy, man. When did you first find out that you were in the running to be a part of this card? So, it was like two weeks or so ago. When the UFC actually announced my fight with Luke,

like they shared it and everything like that on social media, I got home from the gym that night and I had a call from my manager and he said that Hunter Campbell was to talk to you and I'm like, okay, like, I don't know if like something was wrong or whatnot

that something was up. I didn't know if like Luque was hurt or something. And he puts me on a three way of call and he was like, yo dude, what's up? I was like, hey, Hunter, how are you? Like everything's good. Yada yada yada. He was like, all right, he was we want you to fight on the White House card.

And I was like, wow, like I was speechless. like talking to hunter um very grateful that he like personally called me and wanted to reach out and do all this as well um and i was like okay and he said we want you to fight bow i also said that's perfectly fine yeah uh let's do it and he gave me the rundown and everything that was going on and he was like do you have anything we need to be worried about as far as like background and whatnot like you don't have any like anything wrong and i was like no no i have a couple you know speeding tickets that's about it that are all paid for and everything's good but

than that, I'm pretty squeaky clean. Everything's good. And he was like, all right, like, we'll hear more information, you know, within the next week or so to see if everything goes through or not. He said that he knew that I was on the card in April and just to kind of play it safe. We're not going to be on that card. We'll just kind of hold me off until the White House. I said, okay, everything's cool. Kind of had to keep it on the wraps for about, you know, I think it was at two weeks. The Tuesday of the week that it got announced, I got confirmation that boat took the fight so I was happy about that. But again, like I haven't received a contract or anything anything. Nothing's been signed or anything. Everything's kind of just been word of mouth.

But yeah, that was when I found out, kind of how to keep on the wraps. Everybody was calling me and asking me and texting me, you know, what happened? Are you hurt? Is this and that? I was like, no, like nothing's going on. Like, they're kind of just moving in a different direction. I'm kind of off this card for right now and we're going to see what they're going to, they're kind of holding me. I was making a bunch of stuff up. I was like, they're holding me for this. They don't want to do this and do that and we're just going to figure things out. And everybody's first guess, everybody's first guess was,

yeah, they definitely put it on the White House card. Really? I'd have to respond with, no, why would they put me on the White House card? There's no need for somebody of like me, the fighter that I am, there's no way that I would be on the White House card. And then like, I would just walk away and be like,

shit. Like, how am I making it? Like, how is it this obvious? But yeah, everybody's kind of guessing it for some reason. I don't know if it was just like them trying to be funny or whatnot. But yeah, everybody was guessing it, and I had to kind of keep on their wraps for that two weeks. Was that hard for you to lie to all these people? No, not really.

Nobody important was really asking about it. I mean, a bunch of guys at the gym were. But the guys, my coaches and everything like that, they kind of knew just based off of me, like asking how the matchup will be. I was like, how do we think about Bono? Like, what do you think about me fighting him? And they're like, well, we have to fight Lou Ge first. What's going on here? And I'm like, I'm just asking, like, we think it's a good matchup.

We'll do it. Amazing. By the way, did those people come back to you afterwards? It would be like, you MFer. Yeah. Yeah. They're like, dude, I knew it. They're like, we knew.

We know. And I was like, yeah, I don't know how you guys know, but somehow work got out that. I mean, I guess it was pretty obvious to put him on the card, but I don't know. Did you have any sort of doubt that Bo wouldn't accept it? No. I mean, not really. Before they offered it to me, there was no real, like, talks of, like, him and this Colby. issue.

Yeah. But, I mean, now since everything got announced, that's kind of picked up. So it's like, where's that coming from? But it's whatever. So I saw, so there's this where he said by both of you. Here we go. Again, you're killing it. But I saw another video with Colby saying like, hey, let's fight at 170.

This is now. I'm like, what are you talking about, man? He has a fight. What is going on? First of all, he doesn't fight at 170. Second of all, it bows to be believing and I have no reason to not believe him. You turned down this opportunity at 185. what do you make of Colby trying to come in here and try to get the fight away from you?

I mean, I don't think he's trying to get the fight away from me. I think it's just he needs a way on the card, and this is a kind of a way for him to kind of get in there. But from everything that I've heard, like, they're not really interested in him being them two fighting. So I have no worries in my mind that this fight's going to happen and whatnot. Yeah, I mean, I know Bose out there saying, like, they can fight and this and that, but I know that's not going to happen.

Like there's no reason for you to fight Colby. There's no reason for the Colby to fight Beau. It doesn't really do anything. Colby's kind of just a name. And that's about it. And I feel like that's where Bo sees like his option to win. He hasn't learned any on his resume. Maybe boost him up a little bit about his next opponent and whatnot.

But I have no worry whatsoever that this fight. I'm going to happen. Okay. So I was wondering about that because I even suppose he had signed anything yet and it seemed like he really dislikes Colby. so here he is about the signed contract and all that, but you don't feel like there's any chance that this will be taken away from you.

Nah, I feel like this is all just noise, Emery. Like, really, I feel it's all noise. Kind of just my mindset right now. Yeah, but again, everything that I've heard, this fight between them two is not happening, and I'm the fight that's happening. Do you view this as any sort of, like,

point in your favor that he's focused on Colby? Do you feel like he's, like, thinking about him and not you? Do you look at it like that? No, no. I mean, if we were closer to the fight, maybe. But as of right now, no, I feel like he's kind of like, I mean, the fight's kind of far away from right now. It's about 13 weeks or so. So guys would be probably starting camp within the next week or two. But I think right now it's just kind of just talks. Maybe he wants to easier a fight. I don't know. Maybe he wants to easier fight. I don't know. I also saw, and there he is, by the way, he says that, you know, you're tougher than Colby at 185 pounds, obviously. I agree. Yeah, I would hope so.

I mean, come on. I mean, this guy hasn't fought in a long time, and he's a welterweight. I mean, I'm a pretty big middleweight, and I'm on a currently a six-flight winning streak. So, come on. I did see you saying, I wasn't sure if it was you joking, sarcasm where you're like, you didn't think that you deserve to be on the card. Was that you just messing around with people? No, seriously.

Yeah, I don't think it's like, I mean, I mean, people, it depends on who you talk to. People are like, yes, you deserve to be on the card just based off of your story and whatnot. Okay, humble guy. There we go. That's a good one. Now, but yeah, I feel like I really don't think that I'm not trying to take anything away from myself. I know that I'm, you know, a very talented fighter, a very gifted fighter. And I just feel like with the spectacle that the White House was, I didn't expect me to be on the card or I don't think I really deserve to be on the card just based off of kind of the high caliber event that it is.

and the other fighters that are on the card. Why do you think the UFC went with this matchup for Bo? It seemed like we all were kind of told, and it seemed obvious that he would be on it for various reasons. Why do you think they went with you as his opponent? I think, that's a good question. I don't know. I think just based off of the history of us being on the same card before,

I'm on a two-fight winning streak. You know, he's back in the winning column off of his last, you know, good chaos that he has. Yeah, I don't know. It's a tough question. I think it's maybe in my mind, they're trying to push one of us. The winner kind of like moves up the rankings and moves up into like a higher caliber fighter, I would say.

Like when I win, then I'll be, you know, higher up in the rankings, like fighting a rank guy next or vice versa. If he goes on and wins, then he would move on to fight the money in the rank. as well. But I think that the fight has just like the spectacle of the fight that they can kind of build a name off of either of us

after this fight. I think it's kind of, you know, what they're doing. One hypothesis that I had was I was thinking about this before they announced the card. I was wondering if they were going to make it an all American card because it is a celebration of America, 250th burden and all that. And there weren't a lot of good

options in every way class of like two Americans that makes sense. to be fighting each other. And so I wondered if that's one of the reasons why they liked the fight. Do you think so, that they wanted an America versus America matchup? I mean, I think that could be it.

I also think partially my reasoning for being on the card and their reasoning for putting me on the card is just kind of my backstory, like you said. Yeah, what better story to have than to be released by the UFC, go on and win, come back, be 2 and O, and then, you know, you're fighting on the White House. card, you know, one of the, probably the biggest card of the year so far. So yeah, I think that's

partially what it is, my backstory. But yeah, I feel like he would have been on the car regardless, but I think that they didn't really want to give him a rank guy yet, but they also didn't want to give him kind of just like a nobody. What does this opportunity? What does the White House mean to you to get to, like, are you one of those kids that

loved the White House grew up? Are you a big history guy? Like, to be able to do this. No, is significant? I mean, obviously this fight goes into history books. This event goes in the history books. And I get to tell my kids about it. And I get to tell my grandkids about it. So I mean, that's kind of, you know, where I am as far as like mentally wise, like with the, the event and whatnot. It's a great, you know, opportunity to get out there and

fight. I mean, there's only six fights on the card. So to be one of those 12 guys fighting, it's amazing to have this opportunity. Very thankful. I'm very grateful for the UFC for picking me to, you know, be on this card and give me this opportunity. but yeah I'm not I'm not building up the event to be anything it's too much I wasn't a big history buff or a big white house guy or like a big like I'm not a big traveler or anything like that so anywhere I can as long as I can stay home I'm fine so like going to Washington and all that stuff it's not really a big thing or whatnot but yeah I'm just grateful and thankful to be on the card and they get picked have you gone in the sense I know you said that they asked you about like your background or whatnot but like I would imagine the build up the road in terms of things you'll have to do or people that you can invite, bring will be a little bit different. Have you gotten the sense of what you'll have to deal with? Is the Oval Office thing a real thing? What do you know about how unique this is going to be?

To be honest with you, I don't know one thing about it. I just know that like the press conference and the Wayans are going to be at the Lincoln Memorial and we're fighting on the White House lawn. I know that there's supposed to be like 5,000 people in the lawn as well. I'm assuming they're not going to give us, you know, the fighters usually get four tickets to each event for family and stuff like that. I'm assuming that they might not do that or they might, you know, bring that down to like two tickets or whatnot because I'm assuming that because of the event as well, I'm going to have to,

they're going to have to get background checks as well. Whoever's coming has to get a background check probably. So I'm assuming that that's going to be a little bit less. I did receive an email about like fighter, walkouts and whatnot. They usually ask you about your song that you're walking out to. They asked what song I was going to walk out to. I told them and then they kind of asked for a couple more songs just in case. So I'm assuming that they're going to regulate what fights, what, what, you know, songs are on there and what songs that are going to be played

and whatnot. But yeah. What was the song? Boys are back in town. That's my go-to now. That's an easy, I mean, that's not a controversial song, right? No, no, no. I'm assuming they're not going to have anything hardcore or anything like that on there. I wonder if there'll be different gloves or shorts or, you know, something like that. I have a feeling that it will look and feel different. A lot of people, as we talked about, critical of the card, thought it was going to be something else. I gave it a 9 out of 10. I kind of expected it to be

this. I honestly didn't think it would be Connor and John Jones and all these guys. I really didn't. And so given those expectations, that's why I felt that way. I understand why people were disappointed. Sounds like you. Disagree with me based on your reaction there. What do you think of the card? I think it's an all right card. I don't think it's like anything over at the top. I figured that John or Connor or Aspinall or somebody would have done the card. Excuse me. But yeah, I think now looking at it, it's a, it's a decent card. It's a

okay card for like a pay-per-view event and whatnot. But like I said, I said prior that if they load, if they loaded this card up with the who's who of fighters and the who's who of, like, like titles and whatnot, then every single division is going to be held up for the next year, year and a half. I mean, I feel like that's partially why the card is who it is. But yeah, I feel like people built it up in their head to be like something that's going to be huge and crazy for these six fights. But yeah, I think it's a good pay-review card.

And regarding Beau, like everyone has a take on him. Some think he's overhyped, some thinks he's just as good. He has to stumble against RDR. I feel like he's gone back on track quite well. Your take on him as far as his progress as an MMA fighter and his complete game. Yeah, I think he's a good fighter. I think he's, you know, talented. But I think like all of his, you know, clout and whatnot is just based off of his wrestling at Penn State and the kind of like ATT trend, ATT and everything like that.

I don't think that like people kind of build these guys up. to be something that they're not. I'm not saying that he's not, you know, he's a very talented guy, he's a very talented wrestler and whatnot. This is MMA. He's 8 and 1 now. He's still kind of fresh in the sport. But you can just tell he's a fast learner.

You can tell that he improves very well. He's improving with each fight, which makes him dangerous. But yeah, if he were to have, you know, if he were to have 16 or 17 fights, I'm sure he'd be a lot more dangerous than he is now. But yeah, he's a good fighter, good guy. seems like he's

kind of cocky and not like, I wouldn't say that cocky or something like that, but just everything with he's talking with like Colby and stuff like that, you get like a little bit of like arrogance rubbing off on you seems like, but that's about it. How do you feel about the Pennsylvania turf war thing that I'm trying to start here? Swing state

bout, you know, could go either way. I mean, is he living, he lives in PI? Yeah, yeah, yeah. State college. I think he was, but he was born in Colorado, wasn't he? Oh, wow. Are you asking for the birth certificate? Is that what you're asking for. I'm just saying, dude, I was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

And I'm from the heart of Philadelphia. But now, I mean, I know Happy Valley or Penn State, wherever is up there, they got something in the water that people just love up there. So, yeah. I didn't know about the Colorado thing. Okay, this is interesting. I mean, that's shots fire right there. Yeah, that's what I researched because I saw, I saw somebody said that, something

like, let me look. Wow. And I looked and I think it said Colorado or something. Yeah, yeah. I've seen here a rifle Colorado. yeah all right so you're born and bred you're born and bred p.a i'm born and bred from p a yeah come on man and this is like east pa versus west pa yeah depending where he lives i'd say midwest or so yeah okay okay wow more shade more shade uh were you were you aware of him at penn state

not really now i wasn't like i'm not like huge into like college wrestling or anything like that um obviously when he jumped over to m m m m ms there was a lot of talk of them so obviously you know you hear about and you see the fights that he has but yeah that's about all I've heard okay wow okay I like this this is spicy

he's actually a Colorado guy he's from Midwest PA not West PA and he ain't shit as far as wrestling is concerned basically is what you're saying whoa I never said that you're putting words on my mouth out this is good this is good this is good I like this is good I like this you've also shared a card with him

did you have any interactions with him when you fought at MSG this past November? Now we walked past each other like once or twice. Okay. Okay. What do you think his ceiling is? There was once a time

where he was talking about Hamza and all that. Like, do you think when it's all said and done, he can be a UFC champion? Yeah, I think he could be. I think anybody that's in the UFC right now could be. It just depends on, you know, their commitment to the sport and their commitment to improving. Yeah, but I think with his

collegiate background of wrestling and whatnot, I think that, you know, kind of puts him up above, you know, guys that are, that are more experienced. But yeah, I think eventually he will be. No secret that he's close personal friends with Donald Trump. How do you feel about the fact that the president will likely be there but rooting against you? That doesn't play a factor to me. Okay.

And once, yeah, I mean, I know that, you know, this whole White House thing and the whole Trump thing and whatnot, it's going to be a big deal and a lot of questions with this. but I'm here to fight, you know, regardless of who's in the stands, voting for who or rooting for who or whatnot. I'm here to fight. I'm going to go out there and win, and I know that for a fact. So I won't say, you know, that it's going to hurt my feelings that Donald Trump's over there for Boone Nicol or whatnot. It is what it is. But, yeah, as long as I'm coming out of my hand raised, that's most important.

Bo and Kyle walk into a Wawa who's greeted with more, like, warmth. Are we in Philadelphia or are we in Happy Valley? We're in like, what's mid? What's like, what would be Pittsburgh? What would be mid? Bethlehem maybe. No, Pittsburgh is all the way west. Okay.

Pittsburgh is, yeah, too far west. I'd say probably him. But if we're in my hometown, I'd probably see me. Okay. By the way, what about you at the Philadelphia Union match with the drawing there? How about that? My buddy Ryan, my buddy does, my buddy Ryan McElroy, who does like a lot of my photos and videos for me. He has like an MLS pass for photography and stuff. So he linked me up with them. It was

really cool. I'm very, very thankful. And it was sweet to go there and experience all that. It was amazing. Good for you. Very much on point with the drive. I think they're all shouting union at the same time as you're doing that. This is the vibe right here. This is the scene. Great stuff. What a great honor. And as you've discussed, two wins in a row, both via finish back in August and November. What are we thinking? What are we feeling for June 14th? Another finish man. I'm going out of my hand raised. This fight's going to be,

this fight, I feel like, is going to show where I am in this division that I deserve, you know, something to be ranked. And yeah,

I'm just going to go out there and just showcase my skills. I love it. Well, congratulations on getting on the card. Keep it up with the, with the tweets. I'm enjoying them very much.

I like the self-deprecating humor. I like you going back and forth of people. It's great. It's a really fun thing. And I do really mean it. I am sincere when I say your involvement actually like to me like I don't know it warms my heart I like the fact that it's an every man if you will who's had to scratch and claws way back and

who's the embodiment I think of the American dream who's getting this opportunity so good on the UFC for making it happen and good on everyone involved by the way are we going back to the hair for this what are we doing with the hair of course dude I do it on fight week okay okay I'll bleach my hair and fight week don't want so you're not going to have a thing where like tank davis like he had the he had like the thing go into his eye he said he said that like the bleach went into his eye or something that You're not going to have any problems with that, right? No, no, I get it done well in advance that that won't happen.

Okay, okay, okay, perfect, perfect. I'll be good. You're the man, Kyle. Thank you so much. Good luck to you. Thank you, brother. There he is. Kyle Dachas, kind enough to stop by.

Big fight for him coming up on the 14th of June, a very important date. Go on his page right now. What do we have? 14th of June, 2012. I wonder how many comments and likes we can get up on that. I wonder who is the favorite going into that one? Who is the favorite? Who is to check? Good point. Probably Bo, right? I would imagine considering the fact

what's that site that I love? Best Fight. No, no, no. Fight odds. What is it? What is it? What is it? Is it Bo the favorite? I got to check. Right now we're officially up to 75 likes and 20 comments. Hey, we're moving on up. That's not bad, man. To dig all the way back into his first Instagram post, he's got like 600 posts. Best comment right now? Best comment, most amount of likes. Yeah. Oh, well, that's mine. What is it?

Just bro, congrats on the White House. Yeah. Chearing them on, supporting. Love it, love it. Oh, welcome. Yes. Still to come, Alex Perea in studio with Plinyo Cruz. Prior to that, Kevin Vachios, who had the big win on Saturday.

Prior to that, Anderson Silva. But now our long national nightmare is over. The ban has been lifted. I was a little trepidacious for a while because all kinds of craziness happened. But we're back, baby. We're back. Eric Nixig is here. Great to have him on the show.

We're all friends again, right? Everything's good. Hi, brother. Oh, we're good, man. I've not. We created all kinds of drama last time. So I said, I think he needs a break from me. That's my fault, bro.

It's not your fault. You never said it, by the way. I was just putting a self-imposed ban on myself from bothering you. You know, I love you, bro, though. A lot of good lessons for me to learn. And that was important for me to kind of take a step back and you know understand what I said and how to deliver it better and and uh you know protect my fighter a little bit better and keep things behind the scenes I'll ask you about that in a moment

holy shit look at that picture behind you haven't seen it's been so long we've got some new uh stuff on the wall that's a sick pick of Francis right there that is lovely I want to ask about him and about Sean in a moment but this past weekend I did see you with Chris Curtis over at the apex tough night at the office for him your take on on the fight it's on us man like you we We got to be better in those positions, especially, you know, when a guy's holding yet. We got to be able to scramble better. We got to be able to nullify those takedowns. We work so hard on cage control and traps.

And, you know, today we worked a lot on getting our asses off the ground and getting our butts off the cage. So all in all, man, it's a tough fight because at the end of it, he didn't really feel like he fought. But like I said, man, that's on us. We've got to be better there. And when you say we worked on it, was he back in the gym today this morning? No, I thought he would be, though, to be honest with you, because, you know, the best way for him to kind of get over a loss is just get back in the gym and get back to work. But, you know, there's a lot of guys in the room that can definitely benefit from that today. Okay.

All right. So he will be back, no doubt about it. You are back with Sean. Sean had an incredible win just a couple of weeks ago against Fluffy Hernandez. You just alluded to it. But if we could just take a quick step back, how does it? did you guys come back together after, you know, you were critical, he was critical, it seemed like you were going your separate ways, what were the lessons learned and what was it

like when you guys decided, yeah, let's ride again going into this fight against Fluffy? Honestly, we were actually pretty good like a few weeks right after. Oh, really? It was, yeah, yeah, man, we just needed to communicate better. And obviously, I think for me on my end was some of the injuries that he was dealing with and the obvious staff infection, the shoulder injury. And then, you know, just not really being a part of that process and communication. And then I have to understand that, like, you know, these guys are making a lot of money.

And his decision was his decision. And I need to be able to understand and support that for the best of my abilities. And what we just kind of took away from it is we just got to be better at our communication process and understanding what our expectations are. for one another and you know everything was actually really cool and smooth after that and you know in the last year man he's he's really been one of the better teammates you're going to find like a lot of the success that we've been we've been having is directly related to Sean and his work in the room and helping everybody so I think that year off was was good for all of us and and so when you say one

of the better teammates like do you mean like almost like a leader a captain he's helping people out he's trying to be that guy for the younger fighters and the other fighters as well in the UFC Oh, for sure. I mean, that's always been kind of his MO, but when he was on his suspension and then obviously like healing up with the injuries and knowing that he wasn't going to fight, he really leaned into that coaching role a lot more. He started running some of his like wrestling practices that piggyback off of some of our practices just to get more work in and involving more guys in the room. And, you know, he's really taking that leadership role. And he always has had that. But now I think he's, that because he wasn't going to fight, that became a lot of his main focus. And I think that helps you, too, as a fighter, because you start to break down more detail and understanding game planning and, you know, kind of putting yourself in our shoes a little bit more,

you know? Sometimes when you have some sort of disagreement with a buddy, it's that first move that's the toughest. In this case, who reached out to who? Who extended the old branch to talk again a couple weeks after everything? I mean, we were talking right away. Okay. We kind of, we were, you know, me, bro.

I'll make fun of myself and I'll post some stuff and have some fun with it. And I think that's the best way for me to lean into it. It's just like, all right, man, I made a mistake and I probably should have been better in this area or this regard. But he also knew where my heart was. And I love him. He's my brother. And I think those tough conversations have to come from people that you love and respect. Whether you like what's being said or not, my point to him was like, I wasn't wrong.

The platform was wrong. The delivery was wrong. But all in all, man, like, I know what he's capable of. I know that he's capable of greatness and I just want the best for my fighter. And, you know, that was, that's, I think, where we understood that the commonality of we were both really wanting the same thing for each other. Just curious, did this change your approach to media? Did it change your approach to how you speak about your fighters to the media, et cetera? I mean, dude, I've been in the game for almost 20 years now and I think that's probably been like,

I've always tried to maintain a kind of a neutral position. And I think that was the one time. Obviously, people don't really understand the situation was like I had just had a conversation with Sean. And then I jumped on your show. And I kind of took that emotion from that conversation with Sean into the show. And that's where I needed to be like, all right, hit the timeout button and assess the situation a little bit better. But all in all, man, I think just taking a step back from everything and focusing more just on coaching the X's and O's and the results in the cage and just trying to be better. That's all.

You mentioned the time off being great. The Sean Strickland that was heading into this fluffy fight in late February in Houston, was he any different than the one that was heading into the DDP fight last year? He looked fantastic. It was one of his best performances in quite some time. What was the difference in the buildup? And honestly, like, he was amazing, you know, and I think we all kind of understood that this was that crossroads fight, that if we can get a good win here, that it's going to put us in the position that we are at today. And just everyone sold out, man, like everyone in the room, you know, Dennis Davis, Nate, every coach in here was just the same mindset of getting him in the best positions to win. Danny Davis, Jason Manley.

I mean, it was just amazing. I just felt like everybody was on the same page, the same way it was when Francis was fighting Stipe for the second time. So it really, I think, in a lot of that situation, brought us all together a lot closer and something that we might have needed as a team. We know how it actually ended up, but what did you think going into the fight? What were you expecting? Fuffy on a great run, finishing guys, tough, rugged, sort of unconventional fighter. What were you thinking going into it? Honestly, Ariel, I kind of expected that type of scenario.

just knowing Sean and how well he is, how great his wrestling is and how hard he is to hold down. And then the way that Fluffy usually dictates his fight, round one is pretty slow for Fluffy. I think he likes to utilize his durability to wear on a guy, whether it's Matt returns or even taking a little bit of punishment. And then he really picks up the pace in rounds two, three, and four. So, you know, it was important for us to get going fast right away and set up. precedence and a pace and then not allow those takedowns. And that's what Sean did. So in round one, I was like, oh, this is, this is planning out perfectly. Round two, I kind of felt like Sean was going to get him out of there, you know, and I think he got him out of there in round three. So,

you know, Fluffy's tough, man, and he's been on a great win streak and we knew he's a formal opponent. But if we can put our game plan and everything, like, just rely on Sean and what he does best, I knew we were going to be in a good position to win that fight. I know this is more stuff that like us in the media talk about, but I'm wondering if he ever mentioned it to you. Hey, I want to finish this guy. I want to do it spectacularly. I want to convince them to give me the title shot and not imovov. I want to change their mind with my performance.

Was that a part of his thinking going into this fight? I wouldn't say that it was an emphasis of his thinking, but I think for all of us that that was kind of the thought process if we can steal that shine. as we all know it's very short-term thinking when it comes to the UFC and MMA where it's like all right this guy can steal the show and then you're going to forget about the guy

that might have fought a week prior you know what I mean so that was the mindset man is we can go out and we can kind of steal that shine off of a guy who's been doing really well and winning a lot of great fights and that's exactly what Sean was able to do

and he did that and then some and so he is getting that title shot how do you react to this? Because on the one hand, I said earlier, I'm not surprised whatsoever that the UFC went this route because it's the much bigger fight. Sean is going to sell it. Hamza is going to sell it. He feels a certain way about him. He feels a certain way about him. But Nasrudeen is on a great run. You're sometimes coaching guys who maybe aren't the most outlandish and who feel like they're being overlooked. Like everyone has to deal with this. Sean does have the win over him short notice at 205. The fact that they went in this direction as opposed to maybe the more conventional. route with Imavov? What's your reaction as an MMA guy? Yeah, Sam, you know, there's a part of me that also does feel bad for Eminov. I think he's a great

guy and he's done his job. But as a promotion, I think this makes a lot of sense just with the heat and the noise behind it, you know, former training partners, if you will, and things like that. I can understand why the promotion decided to go this route, but I also do have a kind of an understanding why Eminoff would feel slighted in this position as well. But, you know, he's a guy that just stay ready because you never know your opportunity might be there. Same thing that happened with us in the Izzy fight. You know, we got the call for a week's notice because DDP wasn't going to fight Izzy and that put Sean in that opportunity to be able to go fight. And so correct me if I'm wrong, I do believe you were there, these now infamous Sean Strickland,

Hamza Shamaev training sessions, right? You've witnessed them? Yeah, yeah, for the most part, I mean, you know, I was here for pretty much all of them, you know. How many have there been, would you say? They were out here for a little over a month, month and a half, if I remember correctly. It was, you know, Hamzaat and a team of guys and Darren Till and, you know, I'm trying to think who else. And that's when Sadabusi was coming into the gym. So, I mean, it was a great addition to the room, man. Like, we learned a lot of great stuff from those guys and it was a welcome addition to the team.

What would you say was the dynamic between the two of them? them? Honestly, I thought they got along really well. I thought they pushed each other really well. I feel like it was more of a competitive environment than anything. So where it kind of took a turn, I honestly couldn't tell you. Yeah, it's really taking a turn. Golly.

And I know you want nothing to do with any of that. But I'm just curious, like, when you were watching them, were you wondering, like, oh, this could be something down the line? Like, these guys could actually fight each other. ever crossed your mind? Not necessarily because, you know, Hamzat was still fighting at 170. But, you know, for me, it was like,

take this opportunity to learn as much as you can from, from Hamzat and some of his routes and some of the things that he does really well on the ground. And, you know, just be a student when he's in here and listen and learn and kind of observe the way that he trains. I mean, I thought he was a great addition to the room and the team and made us all better while he's here. So it was just that one stretch of time, right?

Yeah, that was it. And how long ago? Oh, this was around, you know, COVID time. I would say maybe 21 or 22. Yeah. And were there ever any talks of coming back? Yeah, him and I talk quite a bit. Actually, you know, he reached out to me a couple days ago, you know, like, you know, hey, coach, love you, you all respect.

You know, I got to do my job and I'll see you, you know, whatever. So, you know, him and I get along just fine. And, you know, I got to hold pads for him a few times and work with him a few times. And he's as advertised, man. The guy's incredible. Did that surprise you that he reached out? No, no, not really. I mean, we've stayed in contact for a long time, actually. So, but I just, you know, I think it was very classy of them to reach out. And, you know, I said, hey, man, have a great and healthy camp. And we'll see you on May 9th. have you seen these photos of him as of late he's looking quite big for a middleweight diesel yeah he's a big boy he's a big boy i think he made a really good decision on on going out and working with coach cow and addressing the the cardio things and um you know he's looked great man he's looked really good and i think that's what things that people don't really understand is like something might have been a focus point or a negative in the past and how do how can you address it and

I think he's addressed it in that time being. Yeah, it's wild to see him training with Khalil Roundtree. They look like they're in the same way class, obviously Roundtree at 205. We had DDP on the show two weeks ago, Driggis 2 Plus C, and he said that he gives Sean a great chance in this fight. Obviously, he knows a thing or two about the two of them. And I would imagine you agree, but could I ask, like, from your analytical mind, without giving away the game plan or anything like that, why are you confident going into this? What about Hamzad, who has looked virtually unbeatable?

I know he had the fight with Kamar. Rousman that went the distance and some say if it went five rounds, he could have lost, all that. But for the most part, the guy is unflappable out there. Why do you feel confident going into this with your guy, Sean? I think, you know, Sean is just the game plan. It's his style, his awkwardness, but his durability, his pace. I think we have to find ways to lean heavy on that, but also redirect the wrestling

pass to make Palmsot restart the transitions over and over and over again. I think in a 25-minute fight, it gives us a lot of time to work and make adjustments. We've got to work cut out for us, man. We know that Hamzaat's a great champion, and we're going to have to really come up with a great game plan to nullify what he does well. Sometimes, and maybe I'm reading it wrong, sometimes it feels like the Sean that we see in one fight isn't the same as the other. And I know matchups dictate that, but it also does sometimes feel like there's a motivation factor involved. I would think fighting for the belt makes a fighter motivated. but we've seen him sometimes in title fights

look different from one fight to the next. How do we tap into that and make sure that he's motivated and that Sean that fought Izzy the first time and the Sean who fought Fluffy back in February going into this fight? What do you have to do? You know, the title is important, I think, for everybody.

But this has like a different vibe, different feel to it. You know what I mean? It really does. I think there's just like this competitive nature between the two of these guys that they, you know, I hope they don't make it a more of an emotional fight than a tactical fight. But I feel like there's more emotions that are writing on this than the title actually is important to them. I think it's more about bragging rights. If anything, I feel like Hums up may be at risk of being more emotional than Sean. It feels like

Sean's really trying to press his buttons and that could work in Sean's favor. Agreed. Which would be very interesting. Obviously, we've never seen. seen really like an emotionally charged. Humzat. What do you think? Are you thinking 25 minutes? You think this goes to distance? The reality of it is, I think with both their styles, yes, I do.

But you just never know, man. Like in this sport and in an MMA, like, you know, one wrong move or you can get knocked out or you can get submitted or whatever it may be. So I think for us in realizing and forming a game. game planned to keep our guy in the best positions to win. You know, that's going to be the focal point. We can't be putting ourselves on the cage and we can't be, you know, stuck in these positions because this guy is just a wet blanket, man.

He's going to stay on you and he's going to be constantly mat returning you and re-wrestling you, you know, so space is going to be the priority for us. Last thing on Hamza, your take on his last performance. Some said it was the worst, most boring thing. some say, hey, so dominant, it's on you, the opponent to figure it out. Your take. I'd agree, man. I think it's on us. It's very similar to the Chris Curtis situation. It's like it might not have been the most fan-friendly fight, but it relies on us to be able to get up and fight the hands and nullify the wrestling. If that was a street fight and you can't get up,

no one's going to come and stop it and put you in a better position or, you know there's no rounds so um he did he did what he had to do to win the fight and i think when something presents itself in a fight and if a if an opponent can't nullify it or can't take it away why wouldn't you continue to keep doing the same same path it's not it's not it's not homzot's responsibility to let ddp up you know if he if he has a path to victory then take that path and continue on with it until you can fix it it was good to see you last tuesday from afar i was up on the dais over i was waiting at you man man.

I said, it was a lot going on. There was a lot on my mind. There was a lot happening there. Ronda, Gina, and Francis, of course, but it was great to see. I saw you from afar.

And I'm just wondering, the 2026 version of Francis, after everything he's been through, and the PFL this and the boxing that, I felt from my brief interaction with him backstage, like there was an edge to this guy. I felt it.

And then I saw some of the media that he did afterwards, and he's talking about legacy this and all that. And I was like, man, I don't want to say like a mean streak, but there was an edge. There was definitely like something. there with Francis that wasn't the Francis that we saw the last couple of years. How would you

describe this version of Francis heading into this huge opportunity on May 16th? Well, first, bro, like, I was blown away how great he looked. Like, I haven't seen him in a while. And, you know, I've face-timed with him. And I can tell that he was in good shape. I just, like, you know, his face was tapered down. And then when I saw him, like, I got my arms around him, I'm like, damn, Bubba, how much do you weigh? And he's like, he's 65. And I was like, no way. because usually he's like 280. Yeah. You know, like coming into camp.

So physically, I thought he looked incredible. And then, you know, mentally, like, you know, I told you and I will, you know, you and I talk all the time. But I think he's in a really good headspace, man. And I was, I was happy to see him like that, you know. And we had some great conversation that day. Actually, we were messing around. And when Francis was joking around and saying, hey, Bubba, can I borrow some legacy?

I need to pay some bills. Ah, I was cracking up. I love that. I love that. It seems like he's in a great place. It seems like he's got a bit of a chip on his shoulder. It feels like he's motivated to remind people who he is. I was wondering, the last time you saw him in person,

was it the Henan Faheda fight? Was it in October of 2024? Or had you seen him in the interim? I seen him in the interim. I think he came home for like a week or two. We did dinner at his place. And then trying to think when that was, though. But it's been a minute.

I know because the kids were like, I haven't seen Francis in over a year, maybe even longer, because I went to see him when he was in town, but he's only in town for a brief moment. You've been there, you've had a front row seat. Oh, he fumbled, the legacy, all this stuff that you read about Francis, your guy. When you see this, when you actually digest it, what is your reaction? Honestly, Ariel, I've done a good job of not even reading into any of that stuff anymore.

You know, I've, it's his path, man. And this is, he's just such a great, amazing human being. Right. And that's all I really care about, man, is he's my brother, whatever he decides for his career. I'm going to have his back 110%. And, you know, would I like to see him compete against the best of the world? Yes, absolutely. But he's content and he's happy with the path that he's on. And I can be happier for him as his friend. It seems, like I said, it seems like he's in a great spot. I personally think that that's insane. If you know how much he made for the Sorrell Gun fight and his last few UFC fights and then you know how much he made. for the two boxing matches and then the MMA fight with PFL. And then this one, like, if that's fumbling, I hope we all fumble like that. You know, if making that kind of money is fumbling and having those opportunities, then good on you. Yeah, and I'm excited.

Like, it was, when we were out there, I meant to text you too, like, it had a great vibe to it, right? But then I thought Netflix did a really good job. And it's not about like, hey, we need to compete against the UFC. It's more about just giving more opportunities for more of the, these athletes to be able to make some money. You know, there's a lot of guys in the industry that are great fighters, men and women that just need that platform and the opportunity to be able to compete and make some money for their family. So, man, I was stoked that they were doing this.

Yeah, and I know you've been in practice, but they just announced that Mike Perry and Nate Diaz are on the card as well. Oh, sick. Did you know this? Are I telling you? No. Nice little addition, right? Yeah.

Wow, that's awesome. Yeah. So they're going for it. And it's very cool to see there's the poster right there, in case you. you didn't know at a hundred and seventy pounds yeah yeah yeah it's that's going to be a fun one holy hell hell yeah um could i ask there was a time where it was francis versus rico and i remember the shots of riko at the gym was that was that potentially going to be awkward for you no not at all i i mean it's funny because like riko and francis really hit it off you know and that just makes me understand

more that this is a uh a you know business opportunity for both of these guys to be able to make some money. So, and then even Rico reached out to me a few times. It's like, hey, how can I get in touch with Turkey or how can I do this or, you know, I want the opportunity maybe to box Francis or we can do MMA. So it wasn't, to me, it wasn't anything personal. It was more about respecting the opponent, but having the opportunity to make some money together. And so it is Philippe Lins. Your thoughts on the on the challenge here with Philippe. Historically, a 205er has fought at, at heavyweight as well, won the PFL tournament, left the UFC on a four-fight winning street. but hasn't fought since 2024 as well.

Yeah, great guy. Train with us a little bit in the past. New one from the PFL. Good striker, good grappler. You know, is it like the name that's going to jump off the page to fight Francis? No, but what happens is that you have to consider everything that he can be is dangerous because you never want to overlook anybody in this sport. And, you know, I'm happy for him.

I hope he's making a lot of money in this opportunity. to be able to fight Francis and we got to make sure we're mining our peas and cues and handle our business. Did he train with Francis as well? I think so. I think so. Yeah, there was a, at one time

there was a lot of big guys in the room and I remember Fleet being one of them in here. Wow, wow, wow. Okay, everyone's been through those doors. Yeah, no kidding. Including I saw recently, Nick Diaz, what can you tell us about his involvement

with the team right now? This was a couple of months ago. And, you know, Jake Shields hit me up and said, hey, Nick's in town. Can he come in and train for the week? And I was like, yeah, absolutely. I love to have them in. So they kind of did like a little private, almost like a mini seminar. And Nick came in and showed some just gems, some really great stuff.

And a lot of the guys benefited from having them in the room. And, you know, afterwards we just said, hey, we're here for you. Anytime you're in town, please feel free to come through. He looked great. he looked like he was in a good place in his life and you know happy to have him and if that can help him in his recovery and whatever he needs dude we're all for that the best was Sean sort of telling him how big of a fan he was and then it like quickly turns like this what where did this go wrong you like if you gave this like weird like standoff yeah you never

know bro you never know you get when you get those kind of people talking to one another you're like oh here we go amazing how many and I'll let you go in a moment how many weeks or months would you need to get Joe Missoula ready for a fight? Like for a real pro fight, this guy looks like he's a killer. He's like, he's like an assassin when he does media. I know you've trained with him. Here you are with the coach of the Boston Celtics. How long would this guy need to actually take a fight? Joe will fight today. Joe will fight right now. You know, we put him through, we put him through a sicko Saturday, him and his son Michael. This is during Summer League. And he's like, He told Dan, I and I, he's like, do not take it easy on me.

Wow. And we're like, we're not, bro. We're going to put it. We're going to put you through it. And it's a tough workout. And it breaks a lot of guys. And he made it all the way through. And that, but like, there was a, there was a moment there where you can see in his eyes.

He's like, oh, this dude's not going to quit. He'd rather die than quit. You know, so if Joe ends up fighting or ever takes a fight, you know, I got his back. Man, I'll roll that dude, NBA of the week. Amazing. I love that. last one, you got a lot of guys there as we discussed. Puna's on a great run as of late as well, a ton of guys.

But Mansour Abdul Malik, to me, is the next big thing. And I know there's a ton of people. Do you share that sort of optimism and what makes him so special? Just from my chats with him, I feel like the guy just sort of radiates off the screen. And obviously, we see the results, but his personal, everything about him. Very, very impressive young man. What do you make of him so far? I love the kid to death, man.

He's like my little brother. I met him when he was 1 and 0 as a pro. And he's maintained the same outlook, the same approach, very humble kid, hard worker. Just a kid that you rally behind, man, that you love to be able to support. And he's an honor to have in the gym. There's not a practice that goes by where Mansour will do something with this level of athleticism. You all just look around and like, holy shit. he just jumps off the page man he's he's he's an amazing athlete but even a better human being

and a great individual to have in the room love it well welcome back coach great to have you back on the show i'm happy the band has been lifted by me i imposed it and i lifted it i was just i was afraid to reach out i'm not going to lie i was afraid i was really afraid but i'm still reping the uh the shirts as i show you all the time i've seen you man i love it i'm always repping it in the gym uh so good to see you out there so excited for what's to come keep up all the great work congrats all the success and good luck to the guys as they prepare for their big fights. Thank you, bro. It's great talking to you, Ariel.

As always, there he is. Coach Eric Nixick, one of the absolute best in the game. Massive fights for him, in particular with those two Mansour's on that March 28th card in Seattle. So that is very exciting. Bright Young Future, great, great fighter, unbeaten, a lot to be excited about there. Okay. Still to come. Alex Pereira in studio, four o'clock in an hour.

in about 30 minutes, Kevin Vachejos, who had the big one over at Josh Emmett this past Saturday. Anderson Silva going to join us as well. Anderson Silva's coming on because right now on Paramount Plus, there is a film that is out about his life, not a documentary, but a feature film, a scripted film. It's great stuff. We can play you some of the sites, not so much the sounds because there's music attached, but it's called Anderson Spider-Silva. There it is. You could get it in Portuguese, you can get it in English, and it's out right now on Paramount Plus.

How about that? About his great career. Isn't this something? I got to be honest, I didn't even know that this was in the works. I remember when they said something about a Joseoaldo movie, but Anderson, Spider-Silva,

streaming right now over on Paramount Plus. It's a mini-series. What did I say? Did I say a feature film? Yeah, I don't know the lingo. Who's to check? Yeah.

Limited series. What does that mean? limited series. That it's like, there's not going to be multiple seasons. It's just the one season to get it done.

Is that a real term? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like a band of brothers, Chernobyl, a lot of popular limited series. Hey, so I'm, I'm reading here, okay, series, you're right,

is now available. Other markets where service are, how many episodes? What do we got? Let me see, let me see. Right now it's looking like four, five, five episodes, yep. Love it, love it.

So there you have it. So he's going to be stopping by to talk to us about that. And like I said, You can get it exclusively on Paramount Plus, not only in Portuguese, but in English as well. So stay tuned for that. Some other interesting things from this past weekend while we set up Anderson. A lot of people buzzing over this.

Shout out to our guy Jay Will, who posted this photo of Dominic Cruz and No Nonsense Keith Peterson at the apex this week. I mean, look at these two. Who would have thought back in 2020? after Dom had some interesting things to say about no nonsense. By the way, Dom celebrating his birthday a week ago, I texted him March 9th. I'll never forget that. I did screwed up many moons ago.

Those two, you know, you had some things to say about him. Now they're pals, apparently. Perhaps we'll get him on the Dominic Cruz, Love and War podcast, I believe it's called. The Love and War? Yeah, hell yeah. Speaking of people that fans love to see compete, what about this Zabit Magomed Sheripov?

He keeps dropping nice little tidbits of him working out at the gym, hitting mitts. What are we trying to say here? Or maybe he's just working out. What is this? A deadlift here? I mean, look at that. That's a quick one right there.

What's this form? That's not, okay, it's a lot. A lot happening here. I mean, I go to the gym once a week. I'm not doing all that. but that's a beat. One of the great what-ifs in MMA history.

He was here. We all thought he'd fight for a belt eventually. We all thought that he would be a superstar and then he just left. With no real explanation. I don't recall him doing like any big interview or anything like that talking about it, but great to see him still out there

and being active. Tyroo Tolo is a name that people have high hopes for, obviously a jiu-jitsu stud. Here he is this past weekend at one championship actually nailing a spear. Look at this thing. I mean, this is straight out of Rhino, Edge, Goldberg, Roman Raines,

using the ropes to his advantage, not something that's usually a factor in jiu-suitous matches and grappling matches. This was for the welterweight title over there in one championship. But he nailed the spear, and he nailed it quite well. I thought of Paul Heyman, when Rhino used to. to come out and he would he would nail the spear spear spear spear star star star tarotolo shout out to tyrotolo some big news from mvp it seems like they've got some big news each and every week um or each and every day it seems on when was it friday maybe it was thursday they announced so you know about mvpw

you know about the deal with sky sports and espn you know the first show is april fifth first show in america is april seattle santa februaryl fendora sebastian's sister won this one the first show is this past weekend. I would say like right now, as far as big names in women's boxing, Clarissa Shield, Gabrielle Fondora, Aleph, and Sky Nicholson. Those are like the four that they don't have. The fifth was Michaela Mayer, but they've signed Michaela Mayer. Here's the announcement. There it is. There's Jake Paul talking about it. We really took over women's boxing. We're just getting warmed up. Bigger fights. come we're just missing one piece so the question is are you ready and there's macaela the

olympian had a great fight against elizia bomb gardener back in the day has gone back and forth with clara shields as you see 22 and 2 that's a big time signing a big time american name to add to their stable um yeah love that signing for them love that signing and they've done i mean i don't see anyone saying otherwise they've done a great job but reminds me of strike force back in the day, strike force saw the UFC doing their thing and Scott Coker and company said, okay, what's the one thing that they're doing that we can or not doing? What's the one thing they're not doing that we can capitalize on? Well, back of the day, it was women's MMA, which UFC didn't have. Right now, obviously the Saudis are doing their thing with the ring cards

and re-ed season and Zufabok. Well, what's the one thing they're not doing in focusing on? It's women's boxing. So they went out, signed everyone, got a deal with Sky, got a deal with ESPN, and they're signing big names. They did talk to Clarissa, she told us about that. But this doesn't mean boxing's different than MMA. This doesn't mean you can't do that fight. So let's see. Jake Paul has also said that he's got another announcement on March 18th.

I don't know what that is, but he's saying he's got something. Now, if it's a fight, I'd be surprised, if I'm being honest, just given the jaw situation and the fact that he said he had to get it fixed and all that stuff. But let's see, let's see, let's see. I don't think it's a fight, but it could be a multitude of things. It could be a commercial thing, a sponsorship thing. It could be an MVPW. It could be M.A.

We shall see one fight that we are hoping that we'll get in the not too distant future, maybe late summer or so, it's Islam Khadhajav against Ian Machado-Garry. I told you they were talking about it for April. Then it was off the table. Then the whole Islam-Illia thing was being discussed for June. That's obviously not happening. Ilya is obviously fighting on the card, not against Islamakhachev against Justin Gaci against Justin Gae instead.

And so Ian continues to bang the drum that he is next, that he wants him next, that he is ready to go. He posted another video addressing the hand injury. Here's what Ian Macheteo Gary had to say. He's got a hand injury. I don't have a hand injury. Yeah, I heard that too, but I don't believe it. I don't know.

I don't know what to believe I can't imagine he hurt his hand in the last fight with Jack so maybe he did it in horse riding I don't believe it I think it's excuses everything about me now tells me he's just he doesn't want to fight he doesn't want to fight he doesn't want to fight

I don't know if it's mentally physically whatever it is but yeah he's doing the typical thing that all champions do when they get the belt they try maintain their position maintain relevancy by not fighting and staying inactive.

When I fight me, that all changes. That is something. That is certainly something as far as fighters maybe not being active. He is saying that he will be different. He's also questioning the legitimacy of the injury.

Who knows? One of these days we'll get him speaking about it. But that's Ian Gary's take on it all. Dana White, in that interview or that show, that segment, whatever you want to call it, where he announced all those fights.

He talked about the tickets that are going to be distributed. He's seeing $85,000 for the watch party outside of the White House. Whatever all this is, he's giving them out for the screening and all this stuff. Anyway, take a listen and let me know if you're interested in all of this. The way that the White House is laid out, you got the White House, you got the South Lawn, and then there's a road, and then the ellipse is a park that's right. We're going to be ticketing 85,000 people in the ellipse. And the tickets are free.

And we'll announce how we're going to be giving them away soon. But you should plan on going to Washington, D.C. for this event. Oh, it seems like it ended prematurely there. Well, just the um. It ended on the um. But anyway, what do you guys say? You go into the, what is the ellipse? I've never heard of the ellipse.

It seems to be a park right next to the White House. Yeah, I'm in. I'm in. Have you ever heard of it prior to this? You're a history guy. A history guy. I have family in D.C. as well. I've been to D.C. numerous times.

I've never heard of the ellipse. No. Near the White House, I've heard of the Washington Mall, but they're not going to do it there. Watch party from the UFC watch party at the ellipse? Yeah. I'm down. Oh, you're suggesting it. I'm saying, yeah, we get a couple lawn chairs.

Hell yeah. Get a little roving camera. The ellipse is sometimes referred to as a president. Park South, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence, and north of the Constitution. I don't know anything about D.C. I've only been to D.C. once and it was for two days. Oh, that's a great spot. I would love to go. We should go. I went to the public and as part of it. But do you think that it is? Oh, there it is. That's what

big. It is big. Do you guys think that 85,000 people are actually going to show up to this? Like, why would you show up to this? I guess because it's such a huge event Do you think they'll entice them with like a concert like you got to give people something to watch not an event

but a screening of an event Kid rock concert Oh God you nailed it That is that is a That is a minus 10,000 right there Right Are you referring to minus 10,000

ORA for the White House event That too If they do Kid Rock I mean Who else Who else Do you think

Who else is going to be there Erica of Kirk? Just do the whole turning point halftime show. Oh my God. Who else was on there?

I didn't watch it. Brantley Gilbert? Who's that? I think. I'm trying to remember. I obviously watched it. I tuned in and I didn't watch Bad Bunny, but yeah.

I know, I know, clearly. Yeah. You're going to have to do something like that, right? I just don't know if this is big enough for 85,000 people. You're saying you can't just do a giant projector with the fights on. You need more things to entice people

to come. Yes. I would imagine that they would do more than just that. I think they would make it almost like a fan festival. It has to be. Yeah. I think they could make it pretty cool if they, like free to enter. That's obviously what Dana's saying. And then you add things maybe like fan, maybe fighter meet and greets going on during it. You have things for them, but light throws a sponsorship on it. You're giving away free Bud Light. I've seen a lot of the interviews. Has anyone asked

him what happens if it rains? I don't recall hearing that. There's got to be something. right? You'd have to think there's going to be something over the cage itself. Could you imagine like I think it's raining today right in New York City like could you imagine if it's just I remember June 14th was my son's barmints of last year so I remember that exact day it was a rainy day the big day in history man it is for myself. How dark is when he's gone but I just remember the weather on that day because of the date and it was a rainy day it wouldn't have been a fun day to watch a fight outside

or to compete in a fight outside and so I'm I'm curious I'm curious what the contingency plan is. Someone should ask him that. All right, so it looks. Maybe in his next complex interview. Hell yeah. Let's go. We did find a clip, the good people over at Uncrowned,

a clip of Mike and Nate talking about each other. We spoke earlier in the day about the Mike Perry Nathan Diaz fight. Here they are perhaps recently, kind of recently. Nate more recently dropping some seeds for all of you. I know we would like to, I mean, I would like to offer to Nate Diaz to fight me. I'm ready to get back in real action.

I want to fight either McGregor 3. I want to fight maybe does some boy if he's a bitch and then maybe Mike Perry. That's who I happen

in the future though. All right, so there you go. It seems like he was interested. Nate was interested and it seems like they have made it happen. Not seems.

I'm just waiting for the announcement for the first press conference. Can I be there? Can I do the face-to-face? I'd like that. Please? I want a report.

We are now just one like away from 100 likes on Kyle Dock. Come on, guys. First Instagram post. Come on, guys. Let's get it a little bit higher than that. No, I mean. We got this. What do you have to do?

You have to, like, scroll all the way down? I was given a link to it, so I would assume that's what you'd have to do, yeah. Do we pin it in the chat? Hell yeah. Pinned in the chat. Yeah, I'll pin it in the chat. Yeah, I think that's a good call. I also have to address the other pin in the chat.

That's the Yahoo bracket mayhem that we're doing for the squad. Yeah, what the hell's going to do? going on. We got 17 people in the group. I think we had like 350 last year. Well, we haven't really announced it to be on it. What the fuck is that? What's the prize? The link is there in the chat. I got to be honest, I tried to join off Twitter. It gave me

some problems. Oh, God. Is it? All right, we're going to have to read it out. Yeah, maybe you can go straight. We'll give the code. Working through the Kings. All right, guys. In a bit, Alex Pereira going to be joining us at approximately 4 o'clock prior to that, Kevin Bachejos. But what a great honor it is to be joined

by the living legend. one of one himself, the incomparable, the one and only. Anderson, the Spider-Silva, who we last saw back in December in the ring, and now there you, ooh, with the beard. I like this, Anderson. I like this beard. It's not too bad. I like it.

Why is Anderson? Well, I just leave a little bit for a couple days and take it off. Just for a, just for I remember, I'm old man. No, I mean, you look great And you look very smart, very wise with the beard, like a professor, you know? Yeah. So well done, well done. And congratulations on this new series that is available now on Paramount Plus in Portuguese, also in English, about your life.

There it is. Anderson Spider-Silva, this is amazing. Look at this. How long has this been in the works for, Anderson? Wow, for long three years. I work with the amazing team in Brazil, you know, and it's fantastic because it's not only about my life. I think it's about the family support, you know, and honor and respect, you know. I think the, I think this TV show is so important for the new generation to people want to stand.

You have a dream, you can leave your dreams when you're working hard. Was this something where you went around with your team and shopped it to people, or did someone come to you and say, we want to do a series on your life? Well, it's for a long time I just think about that and not, I'm not, I'm not ready for talking about my life in a movie or TV show, but the moment when the proposed come to us is a perfect moment because I think now it's time to people know the real Anderson Silva, you know, and it's an amazing show. It's not because it's mine because it's amazing. I'm assuming you watched it?

Yes, a lot. what is what is that like for you to see your life being portrayed like this to see people acting you and your family and they like to just see your life like that not many people get to experience that what is that like for you Eric my brother the people and the actors work in this show is so amazing you know everybody working hard and perfect I I'm impressed because everybody working hard and doing a perfect job. The director, the whole crew, everybody working hard and doing a good job. Were you involved a lot to make sure everything was accurate and real?

Yeah, I'm working with the whole team, you know, and try to help in a couple things. And I think everything is amazing, you know. and I'm a producer with the whole team and I'm so happy I'm so happy because the story

have a lot of potential to continue because I'm not done and O-C Which part of your life does it I mean is it the whole thing Is it up until now or is it just like a part a slice of your life? Well this is

the put in everything about the beginning where I'm born when I go when I move to Curitiba

to San Paulo to Curitiba to live with my stepfather and my stepmom and when are people watching that the people go to understand a little bit

more about who Anderson Silva when to start who's the man the who's the fighter behind the man

you know. Does it make you emotional watching it to relive these moments in your life? Ariel, I do the therapy for that. Wow. Yes, because he's doing a lot of memories bring back to my mind, you know. And it's a good and bad memories. Wow. Like what?

When you say bad memories, what are you referring to? Well, it's a lot bad moments I live in my life. when I young and, you know, but I think the more important and the whole thing is the message, the message for the new generation, the kids like to make your life better and have a dream, you know. I think this show is for everybody have a dream. everybody have a discipline and love your job, love you have a passion. And this is so fantastic. I'm impressed because when I watch it five times, I just say, whoa, you know, this is not about me.

It's about how much you love something and how much you can make something better in your life. and how much your family is important for you, for support you, to help you to never lose your balance, your focus, and destroy your life, you know? Did you watch it with your family, with your kids? Yes. And how do they react to it? Everybody love it. I mean, everybody love it, cry and, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

It's fantastic because you have everything and one thing, you know, emotional fear. You know, it's incredible. I'm impressed. Again, it's not because it's my TV show. Not because I help to produce, but it's amazing. Yeah, it looks amazing. And I'm looking forward to getting into it as well. And it's available right now on Paramount Plus.

I'm just curious about one thing that you said. you said that you you had to go into therapy as a result was it after watching it or after like making it it brought out all these emotions well three times wow when i start work with the team and when i watch it is it's very it's very hard you're talking about your life when you don't have a perfect life you know when you have a different moments and a hard very hard moments and difficult moments in your life, you know, and you start talking about, you start, you know, putting everything in the table for the crew, start writing the story, you know, it's very hard. It's not easy, but I think it's good. Amazing. And what's been the reaction,

especially back in Brazil? Well, I'm... You know, it's nostalgic because I just look and I say, wow, I'm a real hero, you know, and I thank you God, I win this fight. I win. That's the best fight in my life, you know, and I'm here today. And thank you God. I had the great opportunity. and privileged to see you in December when you when you beat tyrant woodley what a great performance and you surprised all of us Anderson when you said that you want to become a police officer for the yeah i believe the beverly hills police department i saw a video of you um and i'm wondering what this video signifies does this mean that you're official are you are you an actual no no no no no you know i start i go start academy in april um i start academy april this is the moment with I'm with the chief.

It's my future boss. Wow. And the team come to Brazil to see the technology to help the police in Brazil. And the chief invited me to come to see everybody and talk to everybody in the police department. Why do you want to do this? Well, you have different emotionals and different, well, first of all my family is cops in Brazil. Okay. All my brothers, my father, my, you know, my whole family is a cop in Brazil, my stepfather, my brothers.

my brothers. And when I accept that idea in my mind is because I keep working, I keep doing my best and my side with my company, with my produced company, with my academies, and I keep training every day. And I have a beautiful life here. Of course, a lot of people help me. to come live in this country and do my best here. But one day I'm with my best friend here in the United States helped me a lot to everything. And I talked to him as an ex-Nabseal, his work for many, many years for the country.

And I asked him, why you go to war? Why are you putting your life in danger for nothing? And my friend Scott just is a pass away and tell me something very important. This is never, I never forget that. Scott says something very important for me. Say, bro, why you live here? You feel your family safe. And I say, yes, of course.

Yeah, that's I work. That's I go to do my job. For you, stay safe. For your family, stay safe. And that moment, I realize the responsibility is not about for one people. It's for everybody, you know. And of course, a lot of people ask me, so why you do that? And come on, bro, you don't need to give nothing for the country.

You pay your tax. I say, yeah, but I think for me it's more than pay the tax. It's help California and help the United States to give something back, you know. And that's my chance to give something back for the country and give something back for the community and give something back for the community in the United States. United States, you know. And of course, a lot of people say, oh, but you're Brazilian. What are you talking about? You turn your back for the country. Say, no, I have Brazil in my heart. I'm Brazilian, of course, but I live in here. I live in this amazing country. Give me a lot of opportunity for me, for my family, for my kids. And now it's time to I give something back.

And so what kind of a cop will you be? Like, will you be out on the street, a certain type of division, a unit? What do you think you'll do? Well, I, first of all, I need to start academy. After that, I need to do on the whole proceed. Probably I go to pass for every single levels, you know, to probably go patrol. Maybe I go to stay in the jail for a couple months or years, I don't know. And after that, I go see how I can help.

Maybe I can go to the academy and training or in the station I work in the Beverly Hills. I can work in the community, work with different divisions. I don't know. How long does that process take, like the academy, the training up until you're an actual cop? Well, you know, I never think about, I back to a student a lot because my mind is start explosion now and it's burn. But the process is, I'm in this process for investigation and the whole thing for now is one year. Okay, wow, okay. And now I go start the academy and improve.

Amazing. I wanted to ask you. I didn't ask you when I saw you in December and it was kicking myself. In that fight against Tyron, you did something that was very unique. You kept like tapping your ankle, your foot, and then you would punch him. And you don't usually see that in MMA. Excuse me, in boxing and it worked. Here's one vantage point.

And it obviously worked very well because you knocked them out. What was that? And what were you trying to do there? And how did you come up with that being an effective game plan in this fight? Well, you know, I'm a big fan, and for me, Roy Jones Jr. is an amazing fighter, and I'm big fan. And I learned that with Roy Jones doing that in a fight, and I watch him. I say, wow, one day I come the same, this man. And I just keep working. I keep watching a Roy Jones Jr. fight. And every single fight I have in my entire career, I watch in Roy John Jr. I watch in Mohamed Lee, the Bruce Lee movements.

And for this fight for Tyrone, I watch in a lot, the videos I, the old videos I have with Roy Jones. And I say, whoa, this is a good, good thing, you know. And I, I train in a camp. training and I repeat in the fight you know is everything in your life when you repeat you make something better and that's a I think I use

the good thing to win the fight a lot of people have been wondering now with MVP getting into MMA they have a card May 16th with Ronda Rousey who you know so well from your career they were wondering if you would be involved in this do you have any interest in fighting on this card

Oh, an artista invited me to come to fight MMA or kickboxing. But because I'm in this process now to student, to keep my mind work in one thing, I just say, oh, I can this time. But when I finish the whole thing, probably I have the one more or two more fights

only boxing. I'm not I'm not have a mind anymore to training MMA you know I'm I just it's too hard for me to back to train MMA. Of course I train in Jiu-Situ every day I train in box today's week but

MMA no no anymore no anymore. If you could so let's say you have two left, who would be the dream opponents for the last two? My last two? Wow. You know, I think one good fight is with

Chris Weidman and the other fight, I think, with, I don't know, I don't know, I think Hayat Shakurai maybe. Wow, wow, wow. But I think that's too interesting fight for me, you know.

With the perfect scenario, O B, you retire against Chris after beating Chris and fixing that whole situation? Is that the storybook? Oh, no. Listen, a lot of people think, oh, that's the best fight for you. Finish and do this and that. I say, no, I think Chris, in the moment I fight it, Chris in the past, Chris win the fight. Everybody can win or lose, you know, in the moment, Chris...

is doing your best and win the fight. And then people need to respect him for that. I don't know how much you've seen, but there's a sentiment. This is something new, fresh. Ronda seems very fired up. Do you feel like this is good for the sport? Do you feel like this is something

that can maybe down the line compete with the UFC? You know, it's not about compete with USC, but give opportunity, give the different opportunity for the new generation I think you're on the and can do everything to help the new

generation come and have a choice to go to fight in UFC or fight with MVP or the different event but the more important in that situation Nakisa

and Jay opened the door for people take a choice and take the best decision to come inside the sport, you know. Your dealings with them, you like working with them? Yeah, I have worked with Nakia and Jake for a couple years, and I have a big project with Nakis and Jake. When I finished the whole thing, I can talk about. and Nakhisa and Jake and talking about too

but I think it's very good the mind set and the proposed that Jake and Nakisa bring for the table for the new generation

and for fighters especially in boxing for ladies you know this is fantastic this big project can you give us a hint what are you referring to well brother

in this moment in my life I don't I don't run for money I just take the challenge

you know the challenge and doing something better than better for help people and prove when you love something you make successful

So that's my goal right now. And that's I talked to Nakis and Jake. And also, the future is so amazing. I keep working hard to put my projects in the table and help the new generation and keep working hard for people stay happy. One last topic for you, it came out and you don't have to tell specifically if you don't want to. this class action lawsuit. Everyone was very happy to hear that you did well as a result of the lawsuit. Can you confirm this is true that Anderson did well after this?

Yeah, yeah. But, you know, it's so interesting because when people talking about that, I just really, I don't know. And John Johns talked to me. And one time I train with John Jones, and I'm with Devin, method and devent training shooting shooting techniques

and I'm with John Jones and John Jones tell me about that I say bro I don't know I think I go talk to Dana about that and John Jones talked to me and say that's the true but this is not about

UFC anymore because this is a matter happen, UFC have to pay and shake it out with your lawyer and with your team. And I try to call Dana for check it out. So what's going on? I don't know. I don't put UFC and I don't suit UFC and this and that. And when I start talking with my lawyer, my lawyer is playing to me the whole thing. And that's all. I say, okay, all right. It's done. That's good. Right? Free money. Yeah. Yeah. But you earned it.

It's not free money. You have to pay taxes. I pay tax, but remember, it's not free money. I think this money is for money the UFC need to pay for everybody. For sure. For me, it's nothing free because I suffering a lot to this money come to my. my account, you know. Okay, of course.

And I mean, well deserved and earned. Last thing, if I can, John is upset right now. Other fighters are speaking out that they're upset, that they don't feel like they're getting what they're owed, what they're worth. You've seen it all in this game. As you see all of this,

what would be your message to these fighters, these fighters who are feeling like they're not getting what they deserve? Well, it's very hard to say something, because when you... When you sign the contract, when you see the deal, you sign the contract, you know the deal you work. Your lawyer, your manager, your manager, have to explain for you where you sign. And it's very hard to say something bad about that situation or good about that situation because every single one has your single problem.

Of course, everybody knows I have my fight with Dana, but it's because inside the ring, I know, is my word. I know how work inside the ring. Outside is a business, and Dana work for this business for many, many years. I think it's doing your job, and the people, when I come, sign the contract with UFC, the people need to understand that. And

have your manage, have your lawyers and stay ready for take the good decision, you know, or no. You know, because everybody can say, oh, but

UFC don't pay correctly, the fighters and that and this. Yeah. Yeah. But when you sign, you can't talk about that you know when you sign the contract when you agree with everything

you have in contract you can say nothing you know and it's very hard and Dana is Dana you know Dana is Dana bro it's not it's not personal it's business wise words

Anderson always a great pleasure to have you on congratulations on the new series I urge everyone to check it out over on Paramount Plus right now in English and in Portuguese. There it is. Anderson, Spider-Silva. What a legend. Good luck to you with the training. Good luck with the series as well. Anderson, thank you so much for the time.

Always great to talk to you. Thank you, my brother. See you soon, right? All the best. Yes, we'll see you soon. There he is. Anderson Silva. What a great pleasure.

What a privilege to have him on the program. It's available right now on Paramount Plus. It has been nominated the series for an international Emmy Award in the best mini-series. category. It pretty much chronicles based on what I was told from six years old until today. And so perhaps

there'll be more posts. But interesting stuff, a guy who has seen and done it all in the world of combat sports and obviously in M.A. in particular. Go check it out. Let us know what you think about it. And we appreciate them in Paramount Plus for hooking that up. Now, still to come, Alex Pereira,

one half of the co-main event for Freedom Fights 250 going down down June 14th at the White House against Surreal Gan, interim heavyweight title. He'll be joining us. In a matter of seconds, Kevin Vaichaeos. I got to like reprogram my brain. Vasejos. Vachios. I got to reprogram my brain because the double L is typically Valleos, something like that. Anyway, I'm trying. I'm trying my best. Okay. The pride of Argentina.

win for him on Saturday, defeating Josh Emmett, a blistering win. The guy is unbelievable. He wins in the first round, three minutes and 33 seconds. Three, three, three, good luck. Prior to that beat Giga-Chiccate, prior to that beat Danny Silva, prior to that beat Sung Uchoi, prior to that beat Camtigue. As of right now, 17 and 1, 18 and 1, my apologies, and the only blemish was a fight against John Silva, perhaps we will see them meet in the future. For now, though, let us speak to the aforementioned Kevin Vachejos of Argentina. He is kind enough to join us right here now. There he is.

Hello, Kevin. How are you, my friend? Hello. How are you? I'm fine. Very happy. Okay. Are we learning some English?

You're learning a bit of English. So, so. Okay. But you're getting better. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. Is this something that means a lot to you?

Would you like to be able to do interviews and speak to people in English? Yes, is something for you. That's something to be able to talk in English. Yes, obviously, it's the idea in a future to learn. And obviously, expand it a little more, the interviews, that type of things. Yeah, 100%. I want to be able to learn more English

so I could, like, expand more to more of a broader audience through my interviews. Well, you're on your way and another big win for you, another big moment in your career. When you got this opportunity and as it was building up towards it, your first main event in the UFC

veteran like Josh Emmett, were you nervous? Did you feel the pressure? Were you feeling some sort of anxiety different from your other fights because this felt like a coming out party for you? Well, you've beenes peleading much in the UFC, I'd stay ganando. This

play with Josh Emmett, you've seen more nervous than general because it was your first stelar. It was like a play that was like a showcase to demonstrate how you're doing with that. Yeah, the truth that I felt a much more pressure. There was

a lot of people at the call he was alenting and obviously the fact of my first me-event is a dream and obviously he'd have a lot of pressure and to and to play

against someone does a much more a much of pressure. Yeah, 100%

I was very nervous. There was a lot of people paying attention to this fight so I felt

the pressure and especially fighting against the guy like Josh Emmett that's such a scary

fighter. It definitely added a lot of pressure to it. So yeah, I was

definitely nervous. Josh said that when he was first offered you when your name was

mentioned by his manager he said he had never heard of you and I know you posted

a clip of this and your team does such a great job on social media. When you heard him say this that he was unfamiliar with you, did that fire you up? Did that give you more motivation? One of the things that I said me before the battle was that was that you had a idea of,

you know, you're doing a team of radio social, that's a good, that you subced something of that. For you, that's, that's, that's not even thought to you know that, that not knew that you didn't know who, Yeah, me motivated too for the fact that

I'm respect I'm to be respect I'm and I'm and today I think I'm doing

I'm doing sound much my name and make it to be this form not queando

to the grand I'm really very content and me really to make

to to give to show to yeah it definitely motivated

me a lot when I heard that because I feel like these are the big names

and for me to have my name resonate throughout the division is something that I've always wanted and it definitely was a big motivation and what a way to do it being able to knock out another legends in such a big name with Josh Emmett. He's a ranked fighter. He has fought, you know, he's fought the mall, he's fought the likes of Lillia Tuporia and Lorone Murphy. They've not stopped him when they fought him. Was that something you wanted to do? Did you think to yourself, I'd like to stop this guy,

I'd like to get a quick, emphatic stoppage to prove that I'm a real player here in this division. There are players like Eliy Tupudia, LeRone Murphy, that peleaded with him and not put them in finalizing it. For you, how you wanted to say, I wanted to finalize a person that nobody was finalized and I want to win a way rapid and emphatically to demonstrate that I amortical. Obviously, obviously, it was the plan,

obviously it was the objective to knocker it, It was a great to do it because you know many few people

couldn't do you obviously was known that could be a long time but

knockiard me gave a great surprise and and nothing it's a

great great that was the goal uh no one has really been able to

finish Josh Emmett so I really wanted to make a big statement from it to be honest

I was very surprised I was able to do it I did have the expectation that this was going to be a long five-round fight that was going to be a war. So honestly, I was very happy with the result. I loved your reaction afterwards. I loved the celebration.

I loved you taking the camera and basically talking to all of us. It was great stuff. What were you saying when you were doing this? I'm loved when your reaction, your celebration, when you gotrassed the camera and you started to talk to all us, the public. What was what you were saying in that moment? I'll obviously to my mother, that I'm good, that I don't have nothing, and talking about my team, too,

of Argentina, mentioning my novia, mentioning all the team of Argentina, that, that, that, that, one more, that we're going, and that they are, those are, some people that are always staying and always are supporting. So the first thing I said was I talked specifically to my mom, and I just told her, I came out clean, I'm good,

because she gets worried. And right after I talked to my team in Argentina, all the people that are supporting me, my girlfriend, and just letting them know that we're coming for everything. I saw a great video of the post-fight interview that you had backstage. And Fabiano, the amazing interpreter, who does a great job, as does Martine back there as well. So shout out to the two of you. Informing you that you had won the $100,000 bonus. And in addition to that, you get the finished bonus.

So that's $125,000, if my math is correct. What's going through your mind as you receive this news right here? Well, you did an interview after the play with the traductor spectacular, Fabiano, who has a great job like Martin. And, well, they said that you've got to $100,000 and also $25,000 for the time of finalization. So for you, how was it to get a bonus so, so, so, so grand.

sincerely a lotcura no I didn't say to count that I don't

me I thought I was seeing the and I saw many many

many many I didn't I'm that but really very

very content I know that that that that that to help

to continue progress to my career and obviously

my life yeah to be honest it was an amazing feeling. I felt like

I wasn't really expecting to get the bonus. I don't even know how to count that much money so it was a great feeling to get it and I think that it's something that's going to really help not just my life but also my career as well. It's just life-changing money.

Incredible to see that reaction. I would like to request one thing from you and the UFC. You're on such a role as of late. Your next fight has to be in an arena. It has to be in front of people in front of 10, 15 20,000 people. We need to get you out there in front of the people. Do you agree? One thing that I want to ask you to focus

is that you've been knocking on the other, you're going to be able to paypex and play in an arena with 20,000 people. You have to be in front of the people. You're just to be able to that? Yes, yeah, at 100%. It's my dream, it's my dream to play in an arena. As I've said, if you want, I'll ever, the event, no problem.

simply I want to live that experience is something new to live with with a lot people, to be able to

people with a front of or in a country is a a new yes,

100% I want to fight in the arena that's one of my dreams and I said it

I don't even care if they put me on the first fight of the prelims I want to just fight

in arena that's my dream people screaming in favor of me or booing me I don't care

I just want to be able to fight in front of the people Is part of that dream an arena

fight in Argentina do you think that's possible while you're in the UFC? And part of that's a dream is to make a play in an arena in Argentina? That is part of your dream? Yes, obviously. Obviously, to go and play in my city,

in my country, with all my family, looking, and I'm a dream. I'd like to. I know that in some moment, WFSI will be a hundred percent. Yeah, 100%. It would be a huge dream

to be able to fight in front of my people in front of my friends, my family, I would 100% love that. And I know that one day it is going to happen. I noticed that you tweeted about Yaiy Rodriguez at Noche UFC. That's in about six months from now. Is there a reason why? I kind of want to see you fight before that,

but I can understand the stage is big and you'd want to prepare for someone like him. Do you feel like you need a little bit more time after this fight? Well, you said that possibly me interested to play against Reilly-Radriguez in Noche UFC. That's in six months of today. I personally, me would like to be able to play out

before, but, I know, you think, you need a time for a play for a preparation or why you feel you? Obviously, I've got a pair of lesions that I had my in my pelleas anterior,

and obviously are in the top 10 that are very difficult. And not, I don't, I can't take to the ligera. For example, I've mentioned Jaiguos,

but also there are other prospects in the category. And I'm that I'm going to be a lot of many different

and there's a very good preparation for that's. Yeah. Honestly, I've been like dealing with a couple

small injuries that I think that six months is going to be like a good timeline for me. Especially now that I'm fighting against

the top rank guys, I don't want to take it lightly at all. And I mentioned Yair Rodriguez, but there's also some other top

prospects in the top top 10 very interesting fights for me, that would be very fun. And I just want to make sure that I don't take them lightly, and I'm able to make it to the cage 100%. Any other names that interest you right now that you think you might get next? And there's another name that you're going to be next? No, no, no, no, it's something that's something that,

I'm going to start, yeah, that rebancha, to be going to be encamining. I feel that it's one of the next play that

can get to get. I'm definitely not like crazy or desperate about getting this fight, but I know that

I'm getting closer and closer to getting my rematch with John Silva. I know that's going to happen and it could be

on the next one or it could be in a few more but I know that that rematch is going to happen at some point.

Yes, I feel like it's inevitable. I feel like it has to happen. How many more in your mind do you think you need to win in order

to get into the title picture? And, well, I think it's inevitable that you play against Jan Silva, without. For me, or for you, how many

more do you think you feel like you want to to play by a stintuhran? I'm think that if

I'm going all my plays, it can get to be two plays with good

and can be able a very good position. I think that for me, if I keep winning the way that I'm winning, which I think I will, I think that I'll be able to

have a title fight in two fights as long as I keep having the good performances that I have. Wow, okay, so rapidly approaching. How are you dealing with all the attention? Everyone's speaking very highly of you, everyone's showering you with praise, you're getting a lot of attention right now, and it seems like those big fights are right around the corner. How are you handling all of this? Many people are talking about about you

doing things how you're you're living with all of that people that are talking about that's

it's rare still I'm very really I'm very I'm to take to take it

to make a lagerer I don't want to like we need to go to

and turn for the nubes but thanks to in Argentina I'm

like like always I don't no any type of

difference so so I'm very happy. I try to take it lightly. In Argentina, we have a phrase that's Suira Mi Poni, which is like, I'm trying not to get arrogant or let it get to my head. And I just want to keep being humble and keep trying to have the same head that I've had that got me to this point. By the way, this weekend, very important fight in your way, class.

Mofsar Evloev against Lorone Murphy, who I just mentioned before. Who do you think wins that fight? A play very important in your category between Mozart and Lorraine Murphy this week. For you, who thinks that he wins this battle? I feel that you have much more possibilities, Morphy. Sincerately, I think that it's very complete and it's much better in the striking, so I'm going to do the play for him.

Honestly, I think that the fighter that has a lot more chances to win this fight is Lorraine Murphy. I think that he's a lot more complete as a fighter and he's a much better strike. So I think that the most likely scenario is for Roan Murphy to win this fight. I'm not sure if you know this, but this was the largest age difference for a main event in UFC history. The difference in you and Josh Emmett, there it is. He's 41, you're 24. And I know you have great respect for Josh. What would you like to say to him?

It's tough when a fighter gets older. At some point, it's going to happen to you. It happens to them all. After a tough loss like that, what would you like to say to Josh? One One thing that was interesting that never

had so there was a different of an star of UFC between you and Josh there was

a difference to 17 years obviously was a a very difficult for Josh

like all they're to an age more great what you

want you to what what what message to

what make you want no the more than more than

to thank to is that still and oh-ah that's he's

he's he has played with the people who he's been a lot of he's

a play with a problem and he's all of those are those are things

or that today are and today he's a great, it's a legend and

he has a little he has a lot of so just to thank not have done so brutal?

Honestly, other than just saying thank you to him, I think that he's an amazing fighter. He's a legend. He's a big reference. And he's a guy that he's fought everybody. He's fought guys who are in the top or about to go into the top. He's fought anybody and everybody. And I just would want to say thank you for all the amazing years that he's given us.

And if he does decide to come back, he's going to keep knocking people out and having good performances because he still has a very high level. Amazing. Well, congratulations. Really incredible stuff. And it's a joy to watch you compete, my friend. It really is.

I wish you continued success. Enjoy everything that comes with this amazing victory and the trajectory that you're on. It's probably a very exciting time for you. So enjoy it all. Congratulations. And thank you for coming back on the show. We really appreciate it.

The reality, the trajectory that you're having, certainly you're just enjoying. the fact is a pleasure to belear and the fact I thank you to come to

show and you I'm going to thank you for all the lobes that's doing nothing. Nothing, much thanks

and the pleasure always to be able to talk to someone like you, that you talk with

all the great, so to be on your program sincerely for me is a

honor. So, much much thanks thank you standing. No, Ariel,

the pleasure is mine. Truly, thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be able on a show like

like yours, that you speak to all the legends, all the big names, and for you to invite me, it's truly an honor. So thank you so much, and I hope to be able to come back soon. You will. Much of gracias, El Chino. I appreciate it. All the best to you. There he is. The great Kevin Vachejos, who's on an amazing run, El Chino. He's currently ranked 14th, but I feel like that's going to change at some point very soon. He's won seven fights in a row, 13 of his 18 wins via 2 via submission 3 via decision

former samurai fight house lightweight champion and featherweight champion that's a promotion over in Argentina this is a name that you're going to be hearing about for quite some time 24 years young absolutely jacked one loss that's the John Silva a few years ago contender series

could you imagine what he must have been feeling this is his big audition if you will and it didn't quite go his way but it's all worked out and then some And I feel like at some point that's going to be a very marketable and easy to promote fight for the UFC. Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow.

John Silva seems to be, he seems to be hinting at something. He's got something up his sleeve. And so we'll see what that is. Obviously, we've got the two guys fighting this weekend. Maybe he's just messing with us. There was some talk about him. I think he's all good.

In any event, I feel like he's a massive player. And I don't think that he is going to be ranked 14th for very long. And I feel like he's a guy that we're going to be talking about as a potential future title contender in the not too distant future. So very much looking forward to that. All right. In a matter of seconds, my friends, in a matter of seconds, we're going to be joined by Alex Poitan Pereira and Plinyo Cruz.

They're going to be joining us shortly to talk about a whole bunch of things that have happened in their lives as of late. I'm going to get ready. I'm going to take off my headset just so I can be super duper ready. It's always great. I love the fact that Alex lives in Connecticut because that means he comes and joins us when there's big news. What a great. I mean, there's never any northeast guys or tri-state area guys. Some good water. Wow. I was so startled by the Voice of God talk there that I spilled on myself putting my earpiece in right here. We have a bit of an ant problem at our house right now. It's very annoying.

I'm turning it on Sorry, sorry, sorry I'm not You know, I should have kept it on My wife's telling me We've got like Some rotten wood Like do I need to hear about this right now

Like can we not talk about it? Why do I need to see this now? You know? Yeah, we're good I got Alex Pereira waiting for me here And she's talking to me about rotten wood I mean, golly Let me just fix that, I have OCD

Okay, okay, okay, okay Guys, there's a lot happening No time for Ant Talk or for a rotten wood talk. All right, guys. On the 14th of June, over at the White House, this man is going to be competing in a heavyweight bout. We were first introduced to him as a multiple-time glory kickboxing champion. Then he crosses over into the world of UFC.

Shortly thereafter, he wins the middleweight title. Then he moves up to 205. He wins that belt. And now he's going for a third belt. Now, this will be an interim title fight, but it would still be historic. never been done before and it would certainly punch his ticket to a potential super fight if you will against the one and only Tom Aspinall he is the pride of Brazil he is the one and only Alex Poetan Pereira yeah there he is ah Shama Shama how are

you my friend nice to see you wow wow wow wow you guys in your jackets I love Lino how are you you know magic wow wow wow you look amazing which one Eric Which one? Plino, you're there. Okay, okay. Wow, you guys look like twins here. You look fantastic. Who brothers, well, with Twinna?

I don't know what to make of the hair here. You guys look amazing, like different human beings. Thank you. Plinyo, you look fantastic. About the men at Zunger. Tehranenny. You like the new hair for Plinyo? You like the new hair for Plinyo?

All the ladies are coming after you now, probably. Yeah, but I'm staying grounded. Okay, you're there. All right. He said, no, I'm going to be in front of me, I'm not too steady. Falk, now. Of course, of course. After, later, later, later.

After the victory. After the White House. After the White House. Plino, if you don't mind, just pull the microphone. Yes, yes. Yeah, no. Okay, amazing. Thank you guys for coming in.

I always appreciate it. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. And we, and Pliny, you know, he tells you, probably tells you, I bother Plino a lot, right? I text you a lot. He said, boy, Prinio, he'd say, that I incommode the Plinio He said he said he said, he said, but you know, when I don't respond

this cause you know, I know, I know, there's always come back with him. You always come back. As I don't respond, he just knows that not can't, right? But when I respond, we're going to say we're not talking about. I understand. So we have a lot to talk about, actually I wanted to start in October, because I haven't talked to you since the win over Magomede.

So I wanted to go in chronological order. That win, the way you beat him, the reaction when you went like this, you've had big moments in the UFC, but I feel like that one meant a lot to you. That meant a lot to him. Could he describe how he felt on that night as he disposed of Magomed so quickly? Okay, we'll start to say that we're going to see since the end of October. Let's let's talk a little bit in your last little bit, that we're going to talk about this even. When you did that in that moment, you know, point that different of other

luts, it seems a thing that's a new thing that's a new thing more profound for you. Describe a little bit for a bit of this sentiment to have this battle with Kalaev. Yeah, there, there was more the provocations, there, when I thought, It was even a trainer, an employer, everybody talking about by the guy,

you know, many people say, ah, not the guy that's he's not, he's

the person that's the thing, and what I had passed in my first with him, I knew

I could be better, I could be better, I could wince this and it was the way,

making a gesture with the way, it's different, the fight against the Jammal Rew,

also did the the same movement with his hands, but this was with a most you more. Well, I think putting all together because you know what I mean with the trash talk the things his manager say was not his manager was his coach that said was not his coach who said and then everything that led up to build up to the fight right. So for sure when I did that gesture different with the Jamal Hill for sure had a deeper taste for sure was

had a better taste had a different taste because everything they combined put together to the moment. Was it personal was that one personal? Was that one personal It was no for you? It was, it was a little. A little, he, he said about the alcoholism, things that I had a problem. So he, like, he wanted to be stabilizing, mentally, to me, I,

see, I don't know my lot in the lute, but I think that not being so professional. I think there are many forms of you promote the lute, to let the adversary there, maybe confused, but he was doing a form more dolorous, not just for me,

but also for everyone, for everyone who's solve with this, with alcoholism, or something of the type. I think because everything that he said, I think he tried to get me off my mental state in certain ways, right? Provoked me and touching the problem with the alcoholism, saying that I had a problem, that did not have a problem. And I think so many people suffer from the same problem. And I think everything that he touched reflect on that, you know. Considering how the fight in March went, was there any part of you that was doubting yourself going into this fight? considering

of how was the last year the last year a lot of some of the did some some of that

some of the question about that yeah like this is this is a lot of this you're like questioning

you know when I was in the first I was not was legal I'm I'm I'm

getting a bit complicated for me and the and the the lute still was maybe

pavat all right I'm even quite I'm I was I was I was

the champion and not not did not do so, but the form that was, and how I was in a lot, I said, poe, I'm being in a lot, I need just a little bit more. And it was what happened.

Actually, not the contrary, because I was on antibiotics for the first fight. I was not on my best at all. And the way that the fight went was a pretty close fight, some say, you know what I mean? Could have gone in the way if I want that fight. So I knew that I just didn't a little bit more to beat that guy.

So actually, it was motivating. Was there, there was a clip that came out of Yiri watching you, Yeri Porhaska, and he was getting emotional. I was wondering what you thought, this is a guy you beat twice, when you saw him get so emotional after your win over Magamad. And there's a clip of Prurhaska, very emotional, seeing you gain that lot? And what was your reaction when you saw, when you saw a guy who's going two times, he's so happy, so, it's been emotional, seeing that your victory? No, I respect him much, he's, he's, he's, he was emotional. maybe because he

he said that he was he was a dispute the time to be in a new one know that's he's a

guy, he's a guy, he's a good, he would be like, I'd be able to prove that I

could be to get to make more difficult to he'd prove to it's, I don't

not go to now in the same category, but it's different I, I left my cinduron,

but I thought in that he was like I can't see this guy again I can to win this guy. I think,

something like, something. Well, Jiripurahsk is a great warrior, right? I think it was an emotional moment because the history that we have. And I think for him to watch me win like that, also brought to him that he had a chance now to prove

himself after those two those two fights. Of course, right now I'm going to heavyweight, so it's a different than, like, you know what I mean, it's a different thing than having to not fight me because he's not on the weight class. But I think he's a great fighter. I respect him aligned. I think it was a moment for him to, I think if I had lost that fight, we know

he would be going away the chance for him to be able to prove himself. Now it's different because I'm going to heavy weight, but I think it was a good moment for him too, knowing that he could be able to fight me again, you know? Did you know that night in October that you were going to move up? Did you know already after you walked out of the cage your next fight would be at heavyweight? That night in October, you said that you had subi, you just said that in the No, I didn't know, in that moment, not. It was the decoherre of the time, I resolved to do.

I had to have wanted, I had to have had to have a long time, but I had not even was defined. No, I had expressed the organization that wanted to fight heavy but at the night nothing was settled, nothing was sure. I was just going through the motions, leaving the moment. So could you tell us about the process of getting them to agree to this? How did that work?

Did you have to pitch them, convince them, negotiate them, convince them, negotiate, how did you get them? Because historically, they haven't liked when someone goes three-way classes. Well, explain to us how was this process for you to continue the lute of the pes-pess, they've to provoke them, it was difficult, because

historically, they don't goposed of the situation of someone in three categories different. How is this process for you to get in this battle? So, no, there was no type of brigue. I always said, in my own mind. I never

I never had been clear I never said I'm put future as in the middle

my my body saying that I'm going to go sub going to what I did do the

middle and the middle and the middle to the heavy to

I said I think a 38 years I think it's a moment I think

it's a now it's but not there never a big

was a a not like putting teeth or anything like that was actually everything is smooth. I expressed myself since the middleweight, like the day that I figured out that my body wants me to go up, I'm going to go up. And then that was just like happened to light heavy weight from middleweight was smooth. And actually was pretty good deal, good conversations. Everything went smooth to go up.

When did you decide this is what I'm going to do? Because I saw the video when you weighed yourself and you were about 240 pounds. This one right here. I saw this. Where is this? Thailand? This in Brazil. No, Brazil.

No, it's a Kio Squad. No, Rafael Feijon, in Rio, Virginia. Oh, Feijal Cavacante. Yes. Oh, Legend. We have a very good team there called the Kio Squad. So here you're around 242 that's like in pounds.

Is that when you decided? I was with 242 in Libras. It was more or less when you decided, when you said, how was that was a piece of, how it was that? We're talking there, so,

simply, they've been asked what was my want to. my own time. So I always said, but then they've got to interest, said, what is your want to your own? I said, I said, poor, it's the peasant. A we know that, for the two

cinturons, it's sure they sure many categories, there. It's difficult for them to be casasant in the centuron, I just wanted to fight, I just wanted to fight, I just wanted to play in a peasant. Well, around that time, like, they make everything smooth. They didn't ask what I wanted to do, and then I just

say that I wanted to go to heavy weights, you know what I saw my way, I saw that I could do it. And I know they don't like when you hold the divisions because of you locked it both divisions. So I basically let it go on my belt. I didn't know with who or when I was going to fire. Just going to be a heavyweight and I let it go and I came up. Was that a difficult choice for you?

Were you hopeful that you could keep the belt and move up or you knew that it wasn't going to be an option? It was difficult for you, this decision of what you could not be able to secure your centuron to, to go to a option for you to have a

guy to go to get to go to get to get to get to because the relation

that I have been a real real so I'm so I laid my shirt

I said he'd not in a pesed so he said he said

he's the contract new I'm I thank I'm

thank my always I'm a real a good with my new

contract So, with the contract that I have today, no matter if I'm going to let's let me go to start my centuron, to do any other type of the lot, if it's going to be this centuron, if not be this centuron.

The contract that I'm, to be very satisfied. Honestly, it was a pretty easy choice. When I expressed myself that I wanted to go, of course, I have to let it go one of the belts. They gave me a new contract. I'm really, really happy in my new contract. I actually want to thank Mick Hunter

and Dana White for it. So this new deal that they gave to me, I don't care about letting go The Bell, I don't know idea. Okay. You feel like they took care of you. You feel like they took care of you.

They took really good care of me. You feel like this is your last contract? You think this, maybe, would be your last contract? Hmm. I think that same. Probably. Okay. So when you're making that decision to move up,

you say you didn't care about the opponent and whatnot. At any point, are you told, hey, we're trying or we're talking to John Jones that he might be the guy that you fight? Well, you said When you decided to Subi, you don't So, you don't So, you know,

so, in some point He said, well, we're trying to say, well, we're trying to do this Luton Jones. No, I said to them

to work until June. So, so I would, I'd be able to them to be able to be very close I had been

before, but I was saying that April, was kind of just kind of just, I did this

a little before, know, in January, February, so April, so April, I was going to say, I'll be, I'll be, I'll

be, I'll discard, May, June. I said, I was one of those two. And then I didn't know that he'd be in a house of a banker, no knew who, I just wanted to look at, I just wanted to be in the category of the same, those pesos pesasalade. So I basically gave them a deadline, like a time frame that I wanted to fight until June. You know what I mean?

Not in specific. It was talks for April, but was way before and I saw that the timing was going, was not going to be April no more, but I never said, I want to fight the White House, I want to fight this guy. just the timing came to a good timing and then I think that just happened. At any point in the process,

are you hearing John Jones as the opponent? In some point in process, I saw that John Jones would maybe be your adversary? No, I don't know what I said I wanted to talk on the pesososado. In my mind,

I could have this possibility because John Jones said that was negotiating, so I just became kind of atent there, but I still didn't know to know anything. Honestly, I never heard anything,

and the only time that I thought could possibly be was when John Jones said that he was in negotiation, but I did not even know who I was fighting. I just knew what I was quite heavyweight. At any point where you offered John Jones? In some moments, you were offered John Jones? No, for me, no.

Nope. So it was always surreal gone. Same for you're going. Yeah, we had a conversation that we could have been left before, but then it didn't do so, it was quite in-simmed, and then it didn't do this fight, and now, I think it's a moment ideal.

Honest we did have a talk about being Sirigani before, right, for a different date. But then nothing was spoken. Then now it just happened right now with Syrigan, I think it's a perfect moment. Was there any talk of you waiting for Tom Aspinall and just fighting the actual champion and not for the interim belt, but later in the year? Some conversation that could have been Aspinal,

more for the final of the end of the centuron linear, in instead of the interring with Syrigani? It's not a conversation, but I imagine that could be one of those two, or Siriogany or Tom Aspin. But I didn't have any conversation. I just became knowing, as everyone was knowing, the same day that the Denalat announced, because it's what I passed to him.

I said, I said, I'm going to be a adversary, I want to fight until June, my next fight. And they're attending my biddy, and for me, it was perfect. Nothing was spoke. I actually, I just expressed myself

that I wanted to fight, right? So I knew it could be Tom Aspina or not, depending on how everything goes. But since I gave them the green lie, I said that I wanted to fight whoever it is, a heavyweight. I end up finding out like everybody else to do the same day that they know I announced, because I already knew that I was in for any fights. It deal was good. When you decided to give up the light heavyweight belt, were you told you will fight for

a belt? It was just unclear if it was the actual belt, the undisputed or the interim. Basically, was part of the deal, hey, if I'm going to give up the belt here at 205, I want to fight for another belt and make history at heavyweight. When you concorded in slagulls your was said to you would say it would be the centuron lineal, or would be a centuron or if it would be a interino

or if you were like, well, I'm going to go to start with a stononon on a peasant. Yeah, for me I just didn't matter if it's an interino, or linear, for me, no matter. I, of really, I just wanted to just to load to me a piece peser. If it would be able, to me,

it would be, then they were, so, they did, along what I'd ever I just wanted to let go on my belt and fight heavyweight. And I'd fight for a bell, help me. But like, honestly, if it was linear, or even a regular fight, you know what I mean, I just expressed myself that I wanted to do a heavyweight fight, and they took really good care of me.

The way that they did they do me with my contract, I just made them to do what they wanted to do what they wanted. The way that they gave me this last contract was so good, then I let it open for them to do whatever they want. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Is this more, is this a bigger deal than you could have ever imagined?

Like, has this exceeded your expectations of what you could have earned in your career? This was a contract, not, a deal, no, major than you could have imagined, like, in your career, since we've gained this money? With certainty. Absolutely. Yeah. I could see it on your face. Can you see in your face.

How many fights? How many fights? Eight fights. Eight fights. Okay. And this would be the first. June 14th is one? Yes.

And this would be the first in June. First. Yes. What is the motivation behind going to heavyweight? Why is this important to you? What is motivation to move to the peso peso? Why is this important for you? Well, I don't have a peso

making a story, me too, and, man, my body when, uh, sometimes I see some people saying, ah,

the car, not a person is a person and so, okay, I'm with 110 kilos, maybe not be the guy more pesada, but I think I have an experience,

I have an opportunity, I have an altitude for this, I have a force for this, maybe even more than the own the own the same the same

natural, natural, I think that's one way in another category in a continuity in my

story. Well, I made all the history midaway, light heavy weight, I've been listening to my body see how my body's

been reacting. I know some guys gonna see he don't have heavy weight size but like I feel like I hit like a heavy weight I have

stringing off of a heavy weight I weigh about two, 45 pounds right now so I think this is a great opportunity for me to kid make my history. So right now you're about 245? About 240, 14, 145, right? 110, yeah.

110. 110. These jeepers are 112, but the maximum of the game was 112, but like, me enchad-o, coming for a damn, not training, not? It's more parado. Comed as a camp, yeah. 240, 245, on day 245, but, you know, starting the camp, eating too much. Yeah, yeah.

Feel good. And what do you expect to weigh? Like on the Saturday before the Wayans, because the fight is Sunday, how much you expect to be for the fight? How do you expect to be for the fight? 108 or 110, more or less? Between 35 to 40.

Less than 108, I don't want. Not below to 35. Will you change anything as far as your training? Are you going to try to add muscle? Are you going to try to do anything different because now you're fighting with the big boys? You will move to your training, to add some more of muscle,

because you're looking with the guys major now? Maybe to do a little bit of force, a little bit of force, a little bit more a month before the fight. I think I'll work more force. Mood some of those things in spy.

Maybe to try some car a little more peshered more pesable. It's it. I'm probably going to add a little more strength training up to a month before the fight, right? Change a little bit, maybe bring a little heavy sparring partners, some little details.

Are you excited not to cut weight? Are you excited for not to cut weight? I'm excited, I'm going to take care of pace. Yeah, we're a little bit more than, uh, but, but, uh, for the meyip around, I'm going to have to lose nothing, I'm going to be able,

tranquill, I'll be able, tranquill, I'll, I'll, come more, let's see, let's see, I'll see, it will do good. Yeah, I'm excited. For life, I have weight too. You know, I had to do the wake, but was not that I was suffering anything,

That was a good way cut, but now I don't have to do that cut. I feel good. I think it's going to be fine. It's going to be all right. Do you think you are done with 205? Do you think the rest of your career will be at heavyweight? You think it's a 9-3 for you? You think that your career will be in a peso?

You think you're not going to lose per se? You think that's just a peso-pesson. I think so peso-pessed. I don't know what happens. Like I said, I'm going to be a little bit, too. But let me see this category, a new category. I'm being, so excited, I'm being, so-impuged, am. I'm not what I want, it's what I want, it not

of now, so, not it's something, like I've got, I did, like I did, like I did go up in a category, and then there's a time, that I've been working this with my mind, and, boy, it's a, so, so, I think, it's going to do very well

probably, I could make a heavy way again, but I think this is not something that is new for me, many guys just go on the hit at the moment, they jump away class, and then they lose, they come back, no, I've been expressing for a long time that I've been wanted to fight a heavy weight so I think I'm probably going to stay around. Many people, like when I was in the middle, no,

no, man, oh, these guys, kick-box, no, not going to do anything and all. Then, I did what I did, in the medial, the same thing. Ah, now, now, it's going to get an Wessey, go, oh, it's a lot, I'm going to say. People say, say, people say, they're peasant, ah, he's a pekin and, and, let's then, then they're going to talk to hate, right?

Well, first was a mid-a-way, oh, he's a kick, boxer, let's see how you do, win the title. Oh, like heavy way, bigger guys, Anka Laev, Luca Riddito on Kalayev, prove them wrong. Now, oh, heavy way, know what I mean, bigger guys, so now let's see what they're going to keep talking, what I keep doing. Yeah, he, with, I'm sure, I remember, or maybe if he had said a little bit, okay, normal, you know, but, the people saying, ah, no, it's not going to die in nothing, it's a kickbox and all.

And then, you know, the things, how been happening, how I'm dedique, how I'm going to be my interest. I said, because, you know,

first, when he first joined the EAC, maybe, I don't know you, maybe, like, a lot of people, like, oh, these guys are just just a kickboxer, you know, like how he's going to be able to do, it's too different, and then he just, you know what I mean,

keep showing people different, just like growing, you know. And, car, I feel, so, really, so, really, really, really,

all the world, that, like, who, like, who, who, he, he, he, he

didn't do anything. So, I, did many lot of the med, champion of the middle,

with some the third centuron, uh, , lo, in the

event, uh, the UFC 300, that was, it was an event, po, important-and-e, and, I'm here, to talk to the people, provable to the people, motivate the people,

that when I get people, when I get people, when you're putting on to back, for you not to get a parted. But, also, you can't get to get to go right, you have to get, and see,

and all, all, all, all that I've got to here. After everything that happened, people are saying that I couldn't do it. Like, I won the middleweight title, I want the heavyweight title,

I did a bunch of title defenses there, and I'm going to heavyway. I'm going to heavyweight. fight coming in the UFC freedom at the White House. I saved the UFC 300 card. So this is satisfying for me to show to people that whenever people come to you and say that you cannot do anything, you can. You cannot just sit still. You got to work towards it, but it's possible.

Yeah. Saved UFC 300, but also the International Fight Week card, the Connor McGregor one when you're in Australia, right? It's not only, but the depois of what the Corona-agreve when we're in Australia, right? Yes, many things. You said the. contract was so great, you didn't care if it was for a belt. But the history is to win that third title, right? That's part of the motivation, I would imagine, to win that third belt. Because no, Conno McGregor has fought 45, 55, and 70, but he never wanted title at 70. And so this would

set you apart as maybe the greatest ever. That has to be part of the motivation, right? Well, but maybe part of the motivation, so maybe being champion of the peso peso peso, For example, if you, first of three divisions, the Conan McGregor, was a champion of the mid, of 145, after the Levica is 155,

and in 170, which is the middle, he, on 7-7, he not was champion, just lot. He tented. No, but he never looked, he didn't fall for the bell

170, right? No, he did not, yeah. He not, yeah. He not looked at that, but he was in that you're putting, to separate all these guys to be the guy

to be the major lot of the time. No, I don't I don't know. As we do a lot of things and... Not I who decide. Not one person just who decides. So, many people, each one has your opinion.

I'm, sincerely, I'm going to be doing my job, getting my money, motivating many people. And if these people who have this power to me to put in this realm, if they want to me to put it, I'll thank you. If you want, I've have done my job.

I'll have made my job and it's all right. And just to addicioning, gain the next the next centuron, also is a motivation for you. No, with a certain. It's something that nobody did.

So, I'm not, I'm motivated for this lute, for this next challenge, an excellent adversary, a great adversary. It will be something very difficult. It's all right.

Well, of course, it's very motivated for me to fight for that third title, and not a great opponent. It's not an easy fight. It's a good fight keeps motivated. As far has to be the gold. That's up to the fence to everybody to watch.

I focus on keep doing my work. If they want to put me on the hall that feeds the gold, that it's up to them. It's not up to me. It's up to me to do my work. If you do win a third title, do you consider yourself the greatest of all time? If you gain the third centuron,

you consider more all the time. I don't know. I don't know. You don't know. He doesn't want to say that. Too humble. Very humble. I don't know.

I don't say. I don't know. Fair enough. Fair enough. When you found out that John was talking to the UFC, but ultimately they didn't close the deal, were you disappointed? When you saw that John Jones was talking with FC,

but don't fechew the lute, you left you made me disaponted? Not disaponted, but it would be a lot that I'd have said that I'd this lute. Not disapunted, but it's a lot that would, I think everyone wanted, I don't know. Not disappointed, but I expressed. Was a fighter I want.

I think it's a fighter everybody wants, so I don't know. Have you seen some of the stuff he said afterwards? He's very upset. And I was wondering if you saw that and if you have a reaction to what he said, asking for his release from the UFC now. You came to see some of the UFC? That he was very chatea, and he was saying to the UFC because he wanted this lot?

I saw. What do you think of that? What do you think of that? What can you? No, no, no, I don't know what's going to say what's going to be happening. in the internal, there's a little one,

you say one, I prefer to get a lot of my contract, my life is resolved, each one resolve a soon in this moment.

I don't want to get too involved because there's an intern between him and the organization. You know what I mean? So I don't know what I was spoke

or not spoke, I don't know, I just know that for me my life settled the new contract right now. I understand and I respect that. Can I ask,

do you think it could happen at some point you versus him or now that it didn't happened for White House do you think finished like it's no chance of it happening you think that's a lot of it's a lot of some point or some moment or you

think that no country in a Casablanca no it's no I think I think I think all I think it's gonna do I think I'll get a lot oh John Jones I say pooh what I'm gonna risk a guy a guy perigose and all so I'm gonna this I believe so as long as I win this fight right because otherwise doesn't make too much sense because you know Alex a dangerous guy why I'm gonna put himself on the line but I believe he's winning this fight it's a big chance okay so you think it's it's not dead you still believe it could happen and you think that can't more then you actually can't I think it could I I think it could because the he he he'd be able to liberate the contract no one will liberate with a concertza no and then I

like, po, will be be able to be able to the UFC. So I think if he will want to be in the organization. And with who

will be more followed is my little. Well, I believe it happens because he has to be released for the UFC. I don't think

the U.S. is going to release him anytime soon, so if you want to fight, who's going to be against? It's going to be against him. Okay, okay. So is that part

of the motivation? You win this fight, you get the big John Jones fight, because that seemed like something you really wanted. So I think part of the motivation

for you, to gain this because if you get this lot, it could be what happens to John Jones, is it something you would like you would say, I'd like to go ahead, it's going to happen what will happen. I want to win this

but I'll, boy, I'll work for this, and then we'll see what happens. But, uh, what me interest is to gain a cindulon. Not, like, thinking what can't happen to a lot that I'm doing with with a non-jones. No, I'm forget this.

Well, right now, my I forget everything and I focus on this fight right now. Like, I mean, after that, like, you know, can possibly fight John Jones, don't not fight John Jones. It's something that could not happen right now and focus on this fight. The John Jones is after. You were the obvious one.

This will be Cyril Gunn's fifth title fight. And obviously, way back in the day he won the interim belt, do you think they picked the right guy to fight you in this interim title fight? If it's not going to be John, not going to be Tom, do you think they picked the right opponent for you? For which case, an example. For June 14th, they picked Surreal Gun for him. Okay.

His reaction to the decision to put Surreal versus him, did he think that it was the right guy or did he think someone else deserved it? You think someone else deserved it? Yeah, because he said that he didn't know where John Jones was, you know, he was the guy right to put him to put him to against you? I think so, because, what happened to him in the eye, but he was going to be in the battle.

I think he was going to that lute. So, who could be he? He would have, he, he would be there. I believe so. You know, it happened in the I poke. But before the I poke, I think he was doing very good on that fight. So, God, he got him. Did he surprise you in that fight?

Did he do better? A lot of people thought Tom would just steamroll through him and that clearly didn't happen. Did he surprise you? He did you surprise you? He surprised in that much people thought that Tomaspinall was just pass the car, he, he'd just

surprised by the way he was looking at the way he was looking. Oh, Danny? No, I've even thought, he said, po, he's movementa much. I'm always I'm seeing, the loas, and he's movement. Not that he's like,

like, he comes to come to put a poxade, he, man-a-man, no, he, he he's, he's the moment, right and so, and Thomas Pinal, he was a guy more aggressive, like, plant-a-down, for batting,

forth, so, he comes to frustrae more. I was not surprised. I was actually not surprised, because Cyril gun is an intelligent guy, he moves good, you know what I mean? People, he's not a kind of guy that just going to stand and bang. He builds up the fight, you know what to mean, Thomas, but I wanted to put harder

punches, but I was not surprised to see Syria fighting like that. You were talking earlier about people doubting you. You were the underdog going into this fight. What is your reaction to that? You say, I'm very, the people are

to dovidone you're a a zebra, going to this thing. What do you think it's good? I think it's good.

Why is that good? Because it's always say, the people say, oh, no way to do it and I always mean proving,

the contrary. I think it's good because always being like this. People say it's not good, it's not going to make and then I just keep proving people wrong. Tom Aspinel

has said a lot about Cyril he's called him a dirty fighter the eye pokes and he's brought up other examples even John did in the past as well do you think Surreal Gan is a dirty fighter waspinald was said he was a guy sujue da-o dad on the eye, even John Jones did in the pastad he said many, he said much you think the Syrian is a lot of d'or sujo well then then I really not accompanied much then I saw this other I don't see other things that he did.

I can see this now because it's me called attention, because it was a category that I was trying to look at, so I'm not so I don't know if he is really, so he really is or not, just really start watching if I watched the last fight, now that I'm going to have the way and start paying more attention, so I really don't know. Okay, do you see any...

Just curious, like, are you worried about that? Can I say, are you worried about the eye-pokes, tactics is this something that you think of? So, you're a thing that you're talking about, this way more serious to look, this way more than to do you, if it's for maldage, with certainty,

you know? So, poor, the organization, the army, have to be to be in view on this, for, I, say, or, to be more rigid or, or, I don't know, but we're just supposed to there,

we don't have this control. Well, if it's intentional, right, Something that they're going to say you got to keep an eye on. Maybe make sure that doesn't happen. But we're fighting with that. We expose. So things can happen.

I saw a couple years ago you did a face off with him. I think it was just for fun. Did you get a sense for how big he was this one right here? This is from a couple years ago now. But did you size him up? What do you remember from his energy here when you guys were doing this? When you said this was saying, he said for you sent an energy of his,

what you saw this encounter? It's a guy grand. Like a guy, like, a little charismatic, there was a little charismatic, it was really good, but it was a good, but not was my intention

there was a lot in Pekyllis'A, I think, two years after, you know, maybe I'd had said something, or the people would say, but not were so focused in the category of Pesos Pesasad,

so I had, perhaps, a other vision there, a other sentiment, I don't know. I was just a face off, because it was a show, I didn't have the feeling to, like,

I'm going to fight this guy tomorrow, but well, something serious, not too charismatic, not too open, but it was just normal. We went there, face off. Nothing was in the head. Maybe I have some talks about fighting a heavyweight, but not. Nothing that I'm going to fight this guy tomorrow. And can I ask you, Plinyu, as his head coach, how do you feel about this challenge of him moving up the heavyweight

and this particular opponent in the first fight? I feel great about this fight. I witness it through my life, see Alex breaking records, and you know what I mean, proving people wrong and I think the sky is the limit for him and I'm very excited for this fight I think he's two great fighters and I believe a million percent of Alex Perrault potential to be the first three division champion the UFC. Will you bring in some big boys like Surrills or anyone you could tell us that will be helping

him out? Yes, that is in the work. We want to bring some heavyweight. It's going to be a fun, solid, respectful and very professional camp. Any names you could tell us that will be helping out. Okay, right now, top secret. And hopefully not just Dylan Dennis, right? He said, what I think of this lute? I said, I've seen you keep a record and cal the book of the people and

I'm very happy to see, you. It's a great lot, two grand athletes, and I have much confidence that you will be turning the first champion, uh, triple of the UFC. He said, he said, he asked us, will, I said, he said, he said, I don't know he said, no, I can't ask, but Dylan Dennis is one of the guys, right? John DeLead is small, now, he's fighting, eh, he, will not talk, now, Covicovton, no, the

Yeah, yeah. Yes. April. Wait? Yeah, I think one seventy. Yeah, he'll go to seven. Yeah, he'll go back more force. We need a few guys to hit a little harder than him.

Okay. For you to fight at the White House, what does this mean for you? What does this mean for you? No, for me, it's very important. I, at least, I feel like, so, without, without, without, so, and I'm saying,

this is, I'm new in the sport. Uh, um, but I say that is something important. Where everyone was asking to fight, I... I don't ask you, and I'm there. So I see the importance that I'm for the event, to put it there,

not was something that I insisted, nothing. So I see the importance, everyone wants to be there, and everyone wanted to do, because I think it's an event, so, unique, there. I think that there will have more,

you know, so, this is the opportunity of, of, and I'm, I'm having opportunity to be there at first, I didn't see how deep was this,

because you know what I mean? I knew on the sport. I couldn't see how really important was this, but then I see how many people trying to get on the card, everybody talking about it. So I see it's a once in a lifetime almost a opportunity.

It's a great opportunity to be inside of a unique event that everybody want to be part of and I'm being gifted to be part of this. Yes, you'll be fighting outside as well. I was wondering, what happens if it rains? Do you have any concerns if it rains?

He said, he'll go back from the floor, this showvets. You know, okay. The guy would have done a way. I saw you running in the rain one time. That video, that was crazy. In the thunderstorm, why did you do that? He said, he said,

that you're going to go ahead of the water that you're going to do that? Why? Yeah, that you went to go ahead. I remember. It was January. It was a feeling. I was there.

Poh, it was just. Just happy man. I was just there and I just did it. It was amazing. It was like a movie. It was like a film. It was like, it was like,

it was going, yeah. It was a one thing. When I remember it was, something good, I haven't, I don't remember what, but I was just happened. I just was running the rain.

I've also seen some other amazing things. I saw that you visited the, the famous tire shop that you used to work in. And so I'd like to ask, what prompted you to go back and what was it like hanging out with the guys over there where, you know,

we first heard about these stories of you working there now here you are as a superstar coming back and hanging with the guys this is the tire shop here from your uh your great youtube channel and poe you've got you got to like what important that it's for you now after you've been in superstarts you're not going to there and to visit those guys no for me it's very important to be there to always be there are people who I do very well um people Um,

Mildes, you know, when I get there is important for me, for me, to forget

from where I came, when I see when I see how it was difficult in that moment,

in my life, and, man, are people like, po, don't have,

so, I'm, so, but, they're very very happy just to just to

talk with these people, you see that they're really, and at the time

they're there to learn to learn about something with them. It's important for me to always keep coming back there.

You know what I mean? Those guys are my friends. It keeps me grounded to see where I came from. You know what I mean? Those guys were very important for my life. And even those things they don't have what I have, they're still so super happy with me. And it's good for me to go over there and learn more about life. Dale, watch your career and follow what you're doing, watch your fights. He'll segue in your career, and your roots, and how we're always.

Everybody there always. Do you feel like it humbles you to go back there? You think you're more Humid when you go there? You'll just more, yeah,

with the sure of the we're not we're not because many of people, many people start to

have a other condition of life and starts to slumbrar, forgets, of where came, I

like to be in the people, the people that I always convivy, uh,

I've learned many things there, in the borracharia, traveling, are people who don't not have conditions much

good, financial, but are people of good heart. So, we're always always learning with them. Yes, it's very important for me to come back there. You know what I mean? It keeps me humble to see those guys again. Many people, they start doing good in life.

They, you know, they start throwing. They just get on their heads and disappear. You know what I mean? It's important for me to go there and still see regarding any life, you know what I mean, financial condition that they have. They are good people. So it's good to go over there to keep me grounded.

Do you remember what year you last worked there? You remember when it was the last one that you've worked there? I don't remember, I think I was... I was... Yeah, I was looking, uh, in 2016, that's 10 years ago. 10 years ago. Yeah, that's not that long ago. It's not that long ago.

That guy could have never imagined all, like, White House. Imagine telling Alex Pereira back in 2016 you'd fight at the White House. And that Alex Peer, I never imagined a house Branca, imagine, I said, I'd say, I was in a house Branca. I don't imagine even that I was going to make a living out of fighting.

Even 10 years ago? Until 10 years or more. 10 or more? Wow. Like maybe less than 10 years. Yes. When did you start to, what do you think was the moment where you started to believe I can actually do this for a living

and not have to struggle? When Ziajadj was the moment that you you started to understand and see that you could be able to live in the and not have to be difficult more? So, man, everyone knows of reality, like Glory. I was the champion of Glory.

When I was looking at the glory, I could buy an apartment, I could buy a house for my parents, things like, simple. In the time, that, for me, it was, po, it was, much, and,

some conditions good. But, when I was when I was looking, when I'd start to I don't know how it would be my life, if you had a new to have a new to do you,

or something, so where I went to when I went to the FCC. That's the reality. Well, when I was fighting at Glory, things were good. I was able to buy a house for my parents, I was able to buy an apartment for me.

I saw that things were getting better, but I didn't know if once I stopped fighting, I could be able to live off that because knowing fast, means or anything like that, the reality is that my life really changed once I joined the UFC. And now,

your family set up. Now your family are... I'm very, my parents are super well, my parents are super well. In the pandemic, when I came to

here, I was with a car in 2005, a car in a old. This in the pandemic. It's what? Six years. Until the final of the pandemic,

until the final. Yeah, after the end of the pandemic before the UFC, you never, now, it's not, it's, it's in the final. I was...

The first, the second, Yeah. I was going to be in the FC. Up to when he was getting the UFC, like no sign there, like no debut yet. And during the pandemic side, he came to help Glover. He was still driving in 2005-volt-Torora-Cola.

Wow. That's like... Toroac, I did two ways a motor. He had to do the engine twice for the car. Really? Yes. And that was like five years ago now. Yeah, five, six years.

Crazy. It's an unbelievable thing. The first time you came to Connecticut was when? When you came to Connecticut first time? Was it was in 2018? No, no, no, it was from Marreta? Yeah, when he, when Glover fought Seago Santos.

And did you know him beforehand? You know Glover? Anse, no, I don't know, it was through Joina, that's the same empresario, and then, po, oh, the Joina, said, oh, there, Alex, po, a, a, boy, a brettes strike,

will be, put, put, and you, put, we, also, also, you can go to MMI, and, you can be a major and, you, put, it's a troka, very bold. No, it happened, I think, in 2021 when Glover was booked to fight Tiago Santos. George, Guamaran, our manager, made the bridge.

He said, Alex, go to Connecticut because he's fighting Tiago Santos, I think he's a good training, will be a good training partner for Glover, he'll be helping with the wrestling. So that's when the whole thing started with them. You think if that doesn't happen, if George doesn't tell you to go there, none of this happens? You ask that what you John didn't say to say, like, you didn't happen? Yeah, nothing this had happened. No, this will happen. Is that how you met Plinyo as well?

No, I met him before. I met him about 10 years ago. Ten years ago. What circumstance? Because my coach has a team that he used to train there, and I was active fighting in Brazil, so I used to pop up there, and I met Alex. I was supposed to even went to his pro boxing debut. I ended up not being able to.

And then we just became friends and he said, bro, one day I'm going to come to fight in America. I want to stay your place. I want to train with you. So then we train in here and there sporadically, and then he came to fight a degree. he came to fight the glory of Madison Guard, I think, 2017. Then was the first time that I stayed on his corner and then to the rest of his glory career

and then I'll do it down. Okay. By the way, are you coming back? I don't know. I saw, I saw Plinyo hitting the midst. You saw him? He said, I'll ask him, you'll go back. He said, I saw this guy right here. I said, I used to say,

I didn't even, I'd even want to bring a sparring, huh? So he goes, I don't think I need to bring no heavyweight spark. I think I found one, I go, bro, I'm just... Hey, you lost weight. I did, 70 pounds.

70? Yes. No, no. No, Prina, I said to... He's really, to make a... At least a lot of boxing. There's many, uh, influencers, but he, no, as a lot of women, maybe, get a guy there, you know, he, poor,

he's, super-appoy, doing a lute-a-bogs, yeah, go, go, to do a lot, do you know, too, do something good, too, the print has name. It, uh, po, it's, I'm motivating him, he's... to be a little bit, it's, boy, it's

breaking news. He said, Plin always does good. Man never not. Not a negotiation. I'm not going to

not a negotiation yet. And I don't think I'm done, right? So I think I have a little beef fuel in the tank. He goes, bro,

I tell Plin is really good. He really want me to do a boxing fight. Like, not only YouTube do a real boxing fight because he knows he thinks I can do good.

So let's see maybe for the summer, Misfits, MVP. He wanted to jump on this influencer, Influencer

to you want to be in my corner for at least a few more rodeos. And you want to do it? Yeah, I'm down. I lost 70 pounds for them. Seventy. How did you lose 70 pounds? Just diet and hard work, Bill. And what do you want to get down to? How much more?

I want to see if works, let's see Miss Fids, kind of talking to them a little bit or any other league. I want to make something going on in the middle of the summer. I'm going to get done with the White House with him and then I'll jump gear on myself. You guys sparring? No, no, no, no, no. Before, before, before, before, before. Before, before. No, not now.

Not now. How's he looking? Don't get him. How's he looking? How's he looking? No, the person is good. It's difficult. It's going to go.

It's hard. It's right. He's fair. He's got to be careful. Nice. I love it. I love it. Okay, going back to Brazil,

I saw you gifted your parents. I think your dad in particular are a golf cart and he was very excited about this. Why did this mean so much to him this gift? He said, well, he was going to go. You saw, you know, you saw him,

for your son, and for your father? And what he said he said he He goes to much. Because my father, he always

had a time he's always never had a car. So, like a life

difficult, always working to buy food, for the children, four, seven children,

so never had a condition of to buy a car, so after the kids were all the

type of something of five years after, my father went there took a money,

got a a car in veer, took a little of difficulty to to, I feel

to get a little bit of because there people who have more more easily, my father more old, was playing, never didn't, never didn't,

this was an time, no, now, now, then he got, he got back, then, then then they got after the,

he'd be able to, and then, then, well, then, it's been in the condomino, there's a place more,

more, better, I'm not, I'm going to buy a car to my father, for him, for he's going to

go, I, say, I, so, I, so, I, so, It's going to be

so, for the most he's going to gorenges, he's got into the condomino and he's a rolleezing there to do that

make a motivation. For sure. My father always wanted to have a car, and he could never

have a car, right? So a few years ago, maybe five, six years ago, he bought a little old car, drove a little bit, you know what

a few scrapes here and there, but never really got in, could really drive and I also had to sell to buy stuff

for the house, right? So, right now I'm moving to a beautiful HOA is a community there. So I gave him a nice golf card

because I don't want to give him a full car so I don't have to worry about him going on town going around because he don't really know how to drive So I gave something to drive around the community And he seemed very happy He was happy No, boy, he's just he didn't know if he's crying I never saw the old man crying

Wow wow wow amazing It's what he's two to learn He's just to drive Because he really wanted he really want to drive You know what I mean Your parents ever come to your fight your parents have come out

my father my father accompanied also accompanied he accompanied he went to know, it's like

with a lot of yeah, no but here he's called Adesania yeah yeah, no glory for some

some of the UFC was against the Adesania when I was his mom no but his father actually

few times at glory and then the UFC for the title fight he actually actually

that was just I was only I went the last the middle way

tired at glory was just me his father on the corner really yeah

yeah his father like for the Jason Will in his fight, his father was there. So he's my brother. Does he give pointers advice? He helps. He talks for us. Yeah, like if he talks about the energy is awesome. I never went to a training,

my brother. I never went to see a training on him, but he likes to be on the fights. On the other, I'd grab his father by the head, and I say, your son just became a world champion. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, that's amazing. And how come your mother?

How come your mother never? That's your mother, never. He's your mother, no. He doesn't like to fly. Okay. One day I insisting, for her to do a voyage to visit those her parents of her, like, in Brazil, three hours of a and then, like, before, it's, it passed a mal,

so, it was, I said, I'm going to force it, no, it happens to something, I feel culpable. One day, I got her flight to go see her parents about three-hour flight in Brazil. She went, but she didn't feel good, and said, that, so I don't want to take no chances. Okay. I also saw an amazing video of you back, I think in the

favela and you were gifting things to people. What were you doing there, and why was that important for you to do something like that. He also also saw a video legal, you know, you know,

I'm going to come to the community, not for people, for people, for people, for what is important for you're doing this?

Well, for me, important, because I've been in this situation, uh, I never

passed away, thanks to God, but I just had a difficulty. In the time my dad was a father, was

a do not doing the family, and my mom, we received some donations also, and I think

In the same form that these people are they are receiving, these donations, we have made the same. So, we know what is important, the how we're getting happy with the doaation. So I'm trying to retribute, in the same form. This is me giving back to the community.

I was never starving, like, you know, had food in the house, but there was a situation that my mother couldn't work, my father was sick, that people went and they did the same, gave food to my house, and it feels really good to get there. So I think, I think it's very important for me to receive and give people the same feeling, give back the same feeling to be able to help to give back. Give back is important. When you go there and you see the way people, the kids react to you, I know you have your gym there as well.

When you see that, can you describe how that makes you feel the way people look up to you and respect and idolize you? And how you're going to go to the kids when you see, the champion, you know, your institute, you know, how you see, of the people idolatran in the good sense like, po,

when you seeing you see the champion of the community. Poh, I'm very

very very because know, because they're, they're having to

have a motivation, as we see the TV, many people talking of the

story and but they are there many people the parents the parents, the kids, they've

can't say to how can how I came, where I went to where I

know where I'm where I'm still There's an institute that's doing this force for the kids there also. Today, there's more of 400 kids inscrits.

Passed more of 800 kids there. And I'm very happy with all. It's very important for me. So those kids, they see me on TV, but sometimes their parents see me like them on the neighborhood. So to give this example for them,

to see the way they can get. And with the institute now helping the kids, we have about 400, 500 kids now sign up. Wow. 800 kids already been there. Wow. So like all this to give back to be able to support the community is important for me. And this makes me happy.

Yeah, Brian, I have to say to him some way. I mean, I have intention, uh, to help there. My intention always was make, it's always, and if there, some, um, some, uh, to talk in the heart of, to do a job, to help, to some, uh, will be very well, uh, so, I don't see the way he can't help us, uh, to help in the donations,

people who are who are very important. Even for people, anybody now that is watching this, Alex kicked started the institute,

put a lot of money there, but it's always great to have donations to keep supporting. There was a doha there, we had a great donation now from the,

I cannot say who because they asked not, but from Dubai, from the Emirates there, important people there, but if whoever is watching this, wanted to support, want to donate, is always appreciated

because it helped those kids, all the people that you saw on the video, so we are open now. How can they donate? How can they reach out? So, then, uh, take the number,

uh, we go, I'm gonna send to you guys, maybe you guys can put the description on the video on YouTube, so it's, uh, Institute Poitin on Instagram. Yeah.

Is Institute Poitin on Instagram. You guys can just go and look it up. Sure. The email is a 5-1c3, so, you know, donations. Yeah, yeah. And also, you know, yeah.

And also, Yeah. And also, know, many people, I always I always always liked to help

it's for that in my life it's happening everything that been happening this is

part, I don't I don't I don't I'm here I need I could I could

banca this because this was my intention banked banked all this without

to depend of nobody but I want I want to all

that is the important you know it It's not for you do a, like, you're, like, you're, like, you know, it's like,

and the, like, it's, and it's, it's, and the things, will happen, you know, and the things will happen, you know, I want to do with what happens with me, you know, before I,

I've been doing these types of donations, caridities, car, my life, the return, the return, so, it's, I don't know, I'm still, but, it's, it's, it's, so, it's,

so, it's, it's, to show, and I, the power to, the power of, you, know, of the same, , you, So he could go and just pay every month support the institute on his own, but I think he's getting so much back in his life because he's able to give and give not expecting nothing back.

He wants to extend that to people to have that chance to support. We don't expect nothing back and have that feeling of so many good things helping in their life because charity is the way. You know what I mean? The charitable heart wants to practice charity, a lot of good things come back to in your life. He want to extend that to everybody with that chance. Amazing, that's beautiful. And there's the website right there. Oh, site there. And we're going to put the link in the YouTube, but also live now because we're live. I'm going to put it in the chat. We're going to pin it.

We're going to help as well, because I think it's amazing what you do for the kids. Thank you. So, so well done. It's an incredible thing what you do for them. I saw a picture on your Facebook. I think it was from 2013, 2014. You were sitting all the way in the rafters like high, high up at a UFC event in Brazil. Do you remember? Remember this guy? You remember this guy here? When I was in the camp of the others. You were in the camp of the end? No, no, San Paul. April.

The UFC, San Paulo, 2013. Look at you. Who's this guy? He was the first time that he went to see a UFC car. There was a first time that he went to see a UFC car. There had a guy who had in the company, he didn't know the ingress, and then, he gave me an ingress.

He's a friend that he worked somewhere, they had some tickets, gave him one of the tickets to go watch that. Wow. And you were how he was a lot of him. high. You just he's just there's on in the

he was touching the roof wow he was gonna get on the there's like he's like in my

car already just like he's still on the Lambo today like this yeah oh you yeah

the Lambo nice but isn't that amazing like this guy sitting in the rafters and like 13 years later

you're at the White House trying to make history no one has ever won three belts it's a crazy story

a movie Oh what what that's a series 2013 you're He's going to not to bathe the head, or so he's just

it's not, the case of the car, of the house of black. It's a thing. He can't even say anything. He's never to say anything. Oh. It's crazy. It's...

It's crazy. It makes you emotional, I think. I'll you give emotion. Oh, I remember of many things. It goes out. How many things go through his mind? Like what? Could you tell us?

For example, I'll explain to us. No, many things. Difficuad. since when I started to train. I don't know, like I did my children, the two using fraud. They used with the last fraud, and I didn't know how I'd do to

to compra other, you know? So this is something very, very, very, dolorous. At the same institute, the time, that I and my brother would go there to assist with a want to train. A we don't have conditions. And today I can't

provide for the kids. Everything good and the better there's so many things go to his mind because back then were days that his kids go to the last diaper

and he didn't know he were able to buy a next one. Wow. And even with the Institute, him and his brother when they were little, the Institute, where the Institutes today

was like a Capoeira school, many different things and they could just had to peep the class through the window because they couldn't afford the classes. Wow. Now he's able to give that back to those kids for free.

Wow. So many things go to the mine, you know. Gasoline in the cabana. Running out of gas on the car. Yeah. Difficious. Hard. Chama.

Chama. We had Anderson Silva on earlier, and he has a show about his life now. I feel like when it's all said and done for you, they have to make a movie, a documentary, like a real thing. about your life is this something that interests you? We have a intersosive here.

I did, I did, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, talking about the series about his life of his, I think that when to have a carreira, there's a thing, a film, in a documentary, and telling a story about your

life. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, speaking of your kids, I saw your, your boys doing some grappling, you were showing them how to do stuff. Here you guys are, I think,

you're teaching them. They're teaching them. They said, yeah. That was yesterday. So how close are we to seeing them competing? Is this going to happen? Is this inevitable? When we're going to be there's inevitable?

It's going to happen. How far away? How far away? Luntar the grapple. They were in grappling. Yeah, I saw it. On the same night, right? Yes, yes.

Yes. But in the MMA, there's going to happen as things to be. It can be rapid, it can be a little. As far as MMA, we will have to see, eventually they will fight, we just gotta see how things go, you know. Can you describe the nerves when you're watching your boys compete in the grappling?

How do you feel inside? These are your sons that you love so much. It's about to describe the sentiment that you're having those young competes, are your children, you know? You're getting nervous at the hour. I feel a little nervous, but I see that the form that they're doing, that they're, that they're, the form that they're evolving, I'm more I think now I'm going to

the lot of when I'm a lot of right I'm going to like a lot of I'm going to get a lot of my children

but I'm my mom too is the same thing, like I never never said oh, let me have

a girl and don't, you know, there's a lot just, you know,

not a lot of you don't know, you're gonna get a thing, it's very,

much, much, much, much, And for my kids, I want the same because no day and I'm going to be there. Ah, I have a control. I'm going to work that guy with my son.

He'll go. It's going to. When you're going to go to the FAGOL in the FC, I don't have to choose, you know, so I'm going to get them, don't let them see enganar, you know? If it's for past it, it's going to do the right. Going to take my time with them,

build them, choose the right fight. Choose the right fight as well. It's not going to put them with somebody that they can beat. No. I don't want to do that same with my sister Like I put something that is It is equal a challenge that if she

Don't do good she's going to lose Because of the keys the same thing I can just because of who I'm saying don't put this guy for this one This guy for this one because they're going to win Yeah, but then when I don't want to build a false sense of reality on them Because comes to the UFC they won't be able to choose They want to have to fight So I want fair and square

Build them with the right opponents give them challenges So they can grow and build them little by little I love seeing your sister compete and you and her corner when do you think we'll see her again? I adore her, your brother, when you think she'll go out of her to do it again? Yeah, in brev, we're negotiating a lot

for her, then. We'll negotiate something really good for her soon. Okay, exciting. M.M.M.A. or karate combat? M. M.M.A. M. M. M. M. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. By the way, is it wild for you?

Like, you've become such a superstar. Like, I would imagine when you come here, people are noticing you when you're out. People want to know. everything about you, are you comfortable being a celebrity? Like, is this weird for you or is it kind of normal now? And for you, where you go, people all of you know, to take a photo, right?

It normal for you just have a celebrity, it's a little, it's strange. It's normal, but at least it's strange. It's normal and sometimes weird. It's weird, right? It's a little difficult. As a few, uh,

but it's a little difficult. It's great, it's very good, but sometimes it's hard. How is it hard? How is it hard? How is it difficult? No, the difficult, some example, some moments. Probably when we were in the table, omulsing, most of these days I was in the

table, so the table was so, here was a trawado, I just had to have to get, there had to get, like, there were, we can't take a photo, and, well, don't there, how I'm going to do three people, so, so, so,

so, then, the people have to have a little little bit of noce, right? Sometimes it's hard, Just because sometimes people have got to have a little bit of sense. Like the other day we're eating. And then Alex sitting right here. And then there's three more people on the thing. Here's the wall.

He can't go on the way somebody and say, okay, eating. Like, can I take a picture? But he'll have to move the whole lot of people. And then get up. So sometimes if you say no, and then people like taking a different way. But it's just little things like that people got to have a little more sense when I ask for stuff.

And even, like we're talking, like, we're saying, like, but there's other places that I'd be able to, a bar, there's a person a baccano, but I don't so, you know, so, so, so, like, this liberty. This liberty.

Even place, like, I'll go to the tire shop, no problem, like, there's a bar that I like to go, like a place that I want to go, I cannot go no more, because just adaptation, you know, with people. This is what a, you know, when you become a celebrity, a superstar, there's, everyone wants to know everything about you, they want to come up to,

they wanted the picture, they wanted the selfie, everything. It was normal, because... Go to the praire, I, put, don't, didn't, you know, like, went to the beach. in Brazil not going to stay there. Couldn't say. You were getting swarmed.

You were getting swarmed. No, you're not. And then it's not, we're not a few days. Yeah, we got off the last year. Yeah, that we both, like, we were having to accrued this too later massaging our feet. Yeah, they charged us a thousand

Reyes for the food massage. What? Like, we're not stupid. Yeah. You know what I mean? There's a lot of people. He's too, like, now it's more and more, because he's getting more popular in Brazil.

Now, he's getting more popular in Brazil. He's going like, he just, when I think, last Sunday to the biggest show on TV in Brazil every Sunday they have. They made a big special about him over there. Wow. Because I feel that he's more recognized as an American than in Brazil, but now it's changing, you know what I mean?

They're finally starting to give him up. Yeah, I said, for him. But he's been back on the Bahrainian. Dumbang. Like, like, that's the people, because the people's a couple. It's the number one, yeah, the number one, and program number one.

There's 230 million, right? Brazil have 200, 230 million people. And this showed that he went last Sunday, Like every TV tunes up to that, like CBS, like any open channel, you know what I mean? So everybody sees him now. I feel that now they start to see him as the champion that he is. I wish was even years before because he's a star here in the U.S. Right, overseas, everywhere that we go.

But now in Brazil is growing. So like he cannot go anywhere, anywhere. Wow. Is that a goal to fight back home? You think it's an objective when he'll be in house in Brazil? Um, with certain. I'm, I put it in my mind. Like, like, oh, 38 years, I don't see until when I will

fight, and, boy, I would like to do a lot in Brazil. Definitely is a goal. I put this in my mind, right now I'm 30. I don't know how long. I'm going to fight, but I really like to fight in Brazil. How many more left?

There are a number in the head? Counts with a lute, you think you do you do? No, I don't have. In fact, I don't think, I'm like that cameon. Camion, when a car, when I'm, I'm gonna do not, I'm gonna do not, I can't do

I can do eight luts, not, to do the contract. I don't know. I would like to do the eight fights. He really don't know. He would like to do the eight fights, but he feels like he's an old truck right now.

Sometimes he breaks just for doing nothing. No. Really? So he don't know. He can say tomorrow you're doing eight, tomorrow doing one more. So... He's very motivated. He's very motivated.

It's a new category. It's something that I will do, that nobody does. So, then, I'm going to be motivated, With a salary, boy, much good that I have, with a contract very good,

so, he's got motivated, not there's a new weight class. Chance to do something that nobody ever done. They pay really, really good.

He's a very good contract. He's impossible to not be motivated. Everything is great, but we do have to work on the basketball. I saw the basketball. You made the shot,

but you went like, this shot here. He said, he said, but he said, You can't shoot like this from the chest. You have to shoot like, look at this. It's a nice shot.

You made the shot, but it's from the chest. What is the guy? But put the peat, Mike. He can't shoot from him? The form is no good. No, why? Like this, like this. This looks like Michael Jordan, right?

Look at me. See this? You were like this. No good. That's like volleyball. But you're from far? Yeah, but no, from far. Look at Steph Curry.

LeBron James. They shoot like me, like this. Nice. I can go to go. He was saying, but there's just, but from, this is no good. This is bad. It's not going to be. Wait until you see the video that we did Saturday, that is going to come out, and then you tell.

Oh, no. Worse? Oh, my God. How many did he miss? How many times? No, first one. First one. He was in the first one.

Boss. Boss. What's he looking up? Breaking news for you, okay? Okay, okay. What do we have? What do we have? What do we have?

This is from the Plinyo Cruz YouTube channel. You're doing a lot of stuff on there. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'm stay active. Coach Cruz of M.A. on YouTube. And by the way, the gym in New York City, how's it going? He's doing fantastic.

We actually going to go to maybe a new location, even big, and probably a K-town. We want the works on that. And now I'm going to expand our empire to Miami. Ooh. So present awesome is doing great things. A gold ched. So we're going to put gold chess in Miami with a cigar on the go.

What's up for that? Okay, okay. I'll show to you first. Oh, here it is. Okay, I see a basketball. I see, uh-oh. Oh, from the back. Here it comes, here it comes.

Wow! Wow! With your back towards the net. He showed for the camera. Let's see, let's see. Yeah, where can they get? Go to this one, go to this one. I don't know.

That's a key, no, she's gonna go. She's gonna go. Can you go to that one, Andy? Yes. Okay, she's trying to focus. Stay on this one, stay on this one right here. Here we go, she's coming. coming. Look at this. Okay, here it is. Here it is. Wow. Oh, bring. I found the back of it there.

Look, look. Look, look. Ah, that's where. A second. By the way, by the way, how many times? This is here. Look. This one, look. This one can see better. Okay, let's see. What can't this guy do? Okay, here we go. See the whole, the kick, if I get a little close up. I'm good to believe. Hold on. Me look, look. Look, look. Wow. I had, I couldn't believe. How many times?

How many times? What was wrong on that one? I don't know. Yeah, no, nothing was wrong. No, I can't say anything. I didn't know. You keep doing your thing. But do your thing.

First time. First time. Why do you have a basketball on that in the gym like that? Because, bro, my gym is like KMTV, Cribs. Because we don't have a head of basketball. We go to do a game of basketball. Yeah. over there, like, you know what I mean?

We fight hard. Then after we play some basketball, we play some street fighter, now I have NBA jam. Okay, okay. And I'm actually putting a team together. So we're going to play against Harrison, Kearney and Nutley High School in the summer. Cruze and M.A. All-Stars,

we're going to put a basketball team, make a fun night on each town and play against the high school. I love that. I love that. And then Miami, we're expanding right now. Okay. Amazing. Amazing.

All right, I'm going to let you guys go, but I want to ask, when you think of June 14th, when you think of the scene, when you think of the White House, History heavyweight? What do you think? How does it end? 14th of June, how are you

see the story being made, how is it being the night of 14th of June in the House Branca? I don't know. I don't know. I want to win. I always say,

I say, ah, the guy is a little negative, I'm, no, if you get a day of my first battle, I've been saying. We know, we know that another athlete, an other adversary,

but, man, I'm motivated, I have all the conditions to say out of the league champion, making a

great story. Not that is now, this is my dream. This is what I want. I don't know

because you know what I really want, it's a great opponent but I'm motivated to go over there win this belt

make history that is my dream, right? To win this fight that's what I want for now. But I I think it's a lota very good opponent for me,

but I think it's a very good opponent for me and I think it's a good fight for me, very good fight for me. And I'm not trying to look past surreal because I have a lot of respect for him and I think he's great. But Alex Pereira as interim champion against Tom Aspinall who I have so much respect for who I think is also equally great.

That is a super fight. That is something special. Are you, does your mind ever go there? Do you ever think of Tom? Tom's the undisputed champion right now and I know you respect Cyril and you don't want to look past them, but that's big time stuff.

And with all respect that he has to Sir Yungan, is a great lotator, we don't want to be pulling, but we can't do all right. Alex Pereira, champion enterino, contra Spinal, champion lineal. This is a super-luta, it's a lot. What do you think? I think it's a good.

I think it's good. I'll say to you. I signed my contract. They'll call who they want to want to and I'll be looting. To me, no, no problem. I think it's good. Like I told you, bro.

I signed that new deal. they can pull whoever they want to fight me, I'll fight no problem. You say no to no one? Don't say no for anyone. Nobody. Does the Aspinal fight excite you? Nobody.

A lute spinau, you're you? With aspiral? All the luts me impog. Every fight excites me. Okay. When are we going to do this in English? When we're going to do this in English? I saw you talking.

I saw you talking to someone in the name. I saw, you understand everything now, right? You understand almost all right? No. No. Nothing, one word or another. I think he just likes when you're here with him. You're like the comfort.

He goes, but he's more comfortal when I'm here with you. It's better. Yeah, it's better. It's better. Well, thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it. You're the best. Good luck to you.

June 14th. Good luck in training. Can't wait to see everything that that happens leading up to it. Who you bring in. Will you show us? Will you show us videos? Yeah, so, I can't expect of who, you can't expect of people.

He said, you'll show us to me and say, yeah, we're supposed to be. It's amazing to see your story. You're an inspiration. It's really incredible to see what you're doing and I'm very happy that you're getting this opportunity No one deserves it more than you in my opinion over what you've done for the UFC

for the last few years and it seems like Dana he always speaks very kindly of you and with respect it seems like he appreciates it too it's a beautiful thing to see It's a very great, you're saying your story You're a guy who's doing much This is a guy that organization I love, the Dana White

when you say you say with much respect It's a pretty great to see Chama Chama Plinyo Cruz Alex Pereira, June 14th, White House. We'll say goodbye to the guys. Go check out the link in the chat right now

and in the bio for his school if you want to help out. We'll be back to wrap up the show. Don't go anywhere. All right. That was the boys from Friday. New episode of The Crack. Go check it out.

That was Plinyo. That was Alex. How great are those guys? I mean, how could you not be happy for them? It's amazing. Amazing chat with Alex. One of my favorites. He even got a little emotional there for a second,

I think. I think he got emotional just reflecting about the journey about everything that he's been through. It's one of the all-time great stories in the history of sport. If he could pull this off and win that interim title, I don't care interim or not. That is historic.

No one's done that. No one's won a belt of any kind in three different weight classes. It's nothing short of amazing. And he's the same dude. He hasn't changed. I'm not going to pretend that I was covering him in the glory days and before that. But since coming to the UFC and all the success, same exact guy. So really, really amazing.

And very happy for Plinyo. Looks fantastic. Looks absolutely great. I think he said, what was it? 75 pounds or something like that, down to 290. Tremendous stuff. All right, no time to waste. It's getting dark out there.

I think it's getting dark because it's rainy. But nevertheless, time for some super chats. Last week I had to rifle through them. But you're back, Frankie. What do you got? I'm back. Yeah, you're back. Hi, Ariel.

This show is amazing, and all of you are phenomenal. Hear me out. Francis wins and John versus Francis is made to try to beat the White House card. No. John has a long-term deal with the UFC, so. that would not be happening. I'm assuming he's talking about outside of the UFC, it's not going to happen.

Unless they release him, which I don't see them releasing him. Well, what else, Frankie? What else? With Ariel having just enjoyed a four-week holiday in Italy, followed by a one-week holiday in L.A., is he now going to knuckle down and start putting in some hard work for the fans? Well, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that was not a four-week holiday. That was quite grueling, but I loved every second of it. So no holidays were had there. Obviously, it wasn't here. Last week as well, press conferences, we did the show on Wednesday. So we technically only missed one show. Did give you the Gable thing. Go check that out.

And then, like I said, Dallas, Westchester, this, that, and the other. So we're not taking time off. I can't tell you, though, beginning of April, we are taking our annual spring slash Passover slash Easter break. That's that bullshit. No, no. I mean, some of us. Frankie will be working.

He said he doesn't believe in that sort of thing. But, you know, we always do that. If you're a long-time fan, you know around that time we do that. But we'll be back. And this is in quite some time, so don't worry about it. We will be back. Our last show will be the 31st of March. And then we'll be back for the watch party slash post show for the Miami card.

So it's about a week and a half or so. But you know what? These things are important. And I think we, dare I say, over-deliver. Five guests today. tomorrow, maybe five. Who's to check? What else? What else?

Ariel, this has apparently been a significant debate nationwide in Canada lately. Do you think Don Cherry deserves the order of Canada? This has been a hot debate. I think Don Cherry did a lot of great things. Was a TV icon. The end of his career did not end well, controversial, unceremonious, whatever you want to say. and I will say that cancel culture, whatever you want to call it, and I've said this from the beginning, including when the whole Gina thing happened.

I don't believe in it. I believe that people are humans, people make mistakes. Obviously there are different levels of mistakes. You know, there's like the worst of the worst and then there's all the way down. I think he upset some people. I think if he would have been given. the opportunity to go on and explain himself and hopefully maybe apologize and clarify, I think everything could have been fixed and restored. That did not happen. And I would like to believe that,

you know, time is the ultimate healer. And yeah, I would be lying if I said I have a strong stance, but I could tell you that Don Cherry was an institution in Canada. Who would I equate? I mean, he was hockey night in Canada. He was Saturday night on CBC, him and Ron McLean. Sort of the way in which people talk about John Madden here in the United States, that was Don Cherry. He was the face, he was the guy, he was the larger than life, colorful character. He made a comment that upset a lot of people and they were very much within their rights to be, you know, upset and to feel that way. But I do want his legacy to be much more than that. And I would hope that, and I would hope it would be much more than that. I do believe that if you clarify and hopefully

apologize that things can be fixed and honors like that could be bestowed. Sometimes I feel like it's not it's not for me to say who should be offended and who shouldn't. It was a controversy regarding the poppy that Canadians wear and and Brits were around remembrance day, I believe. And yeah, he bothers some people. He had some strong things to say and I and I just wonder if the punishment ultimately fit the crime for all the good that he did and I know he was polarizing and controversial with his takes but his career ended effectively it's a scary thing and I never want to be put in that position I hope I'll never be put in that position I sympathize with people who who slip up who make errors in judgment

and then their whole trajectory their whole career their whole legacy is changed forever so He's a very important figure in the sports history, in the country's history, and I know he's getting up there in age, and I would like to see, you know, the final chapter end on a good note. What else, Frankie? How many combined years fighters in the MVP card have not fought in MMA? Really going to ignore that aerial? Come on, dude.

This is a casual fans card. I don't know how you can say I've ignored it. I mean, literally at the press conference. I know you guys want to try to make this into something at the press conference, in which once again I was working on behalf of Netflix. I'm not going to ignore the good relationship that I have with Nikisa and Jake and the MVP brass. And the same way we have a good relationship with the PFL, the same way we have a good

relationship with a lot of the people who work at the UFC and TKO. And I try to be as transparent as possible. But we get opportunities and we try to grow and we try to do as many cool big things as possible while also remaining true to ourselves. So as long as I can look at myself in the mirror, as I can account for the things that I believe in, I'm at peace with it. I literally said at the press conference, we have not seen Gina Carrano since 2009. I literally said at the press conference, we have not seen Ronda Rousey since 2016. I literally said at the press conference, we have

not seen Francis Nganoo since 2024 and he hadn't fought in the UFC since 22. What more do you want? I literally said at the top of the show, we have not seen Mike Perry fight in MMA since 2021 and and Nate since 2022. So like, I don't know what you. You want me to say it all the time, like every minute? If this is a casual fans card, that's better than being a hardcore fans card. Because you know it's a hardcore fans card? A hardcore fans card is Saturday's PFL offering.

That's a hardcore fans card. Actually, it's Friday, excuse me, March 28th, their next Saturday. And those are great cards. And we'll talk about them and we'll talk to the winners. But Netflix, you have to understand, is the Crem de la Crem. It is the most powerful and biggest streaming platform on the planet. They are not interested in hardcore fan cards. What they're interested in is delivering for everyone.

And that's why I say all the boxes will be checked off. Are you a lapsed fan? You certainly remember Ronda Rousey and Gina Carrano. Are you a casual fan? You certainly know who Francis Ngano and Nate Diaz are. Are you a hardcore fan based on what I'm hearing? Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Only three fights have been announced. And so you weirdo fans will try to make this into a UFC versus Netflix or a UFC versus MVP thing. I say let's all have a great time. I say this is good for the business. Number one, it's good for the fighters.

Number two, it's good for the fans. It's good for these people. It's good for fighters and managers and coaches to have these other opportunities. It's good for the fans to have other things to watch. It's good for the business. It's good for combat sports. Where's the bad? Are you mad that Francis is getting paid? Are you mad that Nate and Mike for everything they've done for us are getting paid? Are you mad that Ronda Rousey and Gina Carrano are getting paid? Are you mad that Philippe Linz is getting the opportunity of a lifetime? Like, where's the beef? Where's the problem? You'll never see me. What did I say about the White House card? That was before all of this. I said nine out of ten. We see. We see. celebrate the fights here. We celebrate. Don't get confused. When I talk about the business,

it's about wanting guys like Alex Pereira to get paid. It's wanting guys like John Jones to get paid. It's wanting guys like Connor McGregor to get paid and everyone below them. Don't believe that bullshit because you'll believe that bullshit when people will tell you that we're anti this, anti that. Watch this show for one freaking week and tell me what we're anti. We're anti, not giving the fighters what they're owed and deserved. Yeah, okay, maybe we're anti that. Otherwise, we want everyone to eat. We'll talk about PFL. We'll talk about boxing. We'll talk about wrestling. We'll talk about bare

knuckle. We'll talk about kickboxing. We'll talk about all these things. Get out of here with that. What else? MVP is putting together a more intriguing card than the UFC White House event using all of their former fighters. This is embarrassing. I mean, I don't know.

It's like they're in two different lanes right now, guys. They're in two different lanes. That's the main thing. They're in two different lanes. and again, they're trying to do something else and they're trying to work with what they have compared to what the UFC has. And I don't think that that's a good thing, a bad thing. I just think it's a thing.

And I think it's great to have this opportunity for other fighters. Now, whether Ronda wants to put that out there, whether this guy wants to put that out there, that's fine. That is absolutely fine. But I think that ultimately the UFC card isn't a bad card. You're getting Ilya Tuporia in the main event

against Justin Gehchi. Is it the fight we want for Iliad? No. Is it getting a chance to see Illyenne's prime fight? Yes. Alex making history, sign me up. Sugar Sean, sign me up. Bo Nickel, sign me up. By the way, zero dollars attached to it.

Yeah, it's your subscription. You're paying for that regardless. Stop. Enough with the entitlement. What else, Frankie? What else? And so, my fellow Americans, I ask not what your country could do for you. Ask what you could do for your country. Wow. the USA. Amen. More people

should have that approach to this country. That's what I say. What else, Frankie? Ariel 16 UFC championships is the greatest ever. Oh, Anderson Silva, yeah. Hell yeah. All right. I feel you. And what else, Frankie? What else? UK fan here would love to see Poetan versus Asper. Hell yeah.

So would I. Shout out. What else, Frankie? What else? Alex looks massive compared to his last in studio visits. Oh, my Lanta. I like that shout out. hashtag no Ariel can you please say I choose Tuesday

out loud hashtag Tuesday I choose Tuesday DTF what else Frankis DTF What else?

Hi Ariel Long Neck and Studio Update Chat wants it Why do you reread them? What is my mistake? What have I missed it? It was an individual they asked for you to get on the show

a few weeks ago Probably before you left Dakota. Is it the no-net guy that fought in the... No, no, no, no, opposite. It's the guy with the long-knit. Oh, okay. Did you guys watch that card? There was some sort of, like, weirdo influencer thing, no-neck guy?

No-nec guy. Oh, what else, Frankie? Chama. Ara 10. Ora. That would be Ora. Did I say Aura? Yeah.

Ariya? Six-seven. Vladdy gets robbed, and WS and WBC. What a game? As you asked me that, I noticed Mr. Blue Jay was falling. I saw you stand up and it made the reading harder. As you asked me that Mr. Blue Jay was struggling. God, I love Laddie so much.

And I love that Dominican team. You have to admit, and this is more for G.C. I know you're backing your country. The Dominican team is way more fun than the American team, right? Yeah, for sure. They're just so cool, right? Like, they're just cool dudes. The American team is lacking cool.

Would you admit? Yeah. Skeens is cool, a bit of a, you know, I like his approach. Skeens is, he's kind of cool. He's bit dry. He's not lacking like the, there's no pizzazz on the team. Aaron Judge is not that cool. No.

Gunner Henderson's cool. He's cool. Bryce, you know, a bit of OG at this point. Bryce is pretty cool. Kyle, cool, but got bench yesterday. By the way, everyone's chat on Mark DeRosa. DeRosa made the right to move. He put two moves.

He put Gunner in there and he put freaking Will Smith in there and both of those moves proved to pay dividends. The Dominican team is just fun. I wish that that was the final. The homers and then the ridiculous bat flips afterwards. The homerers are... The one yesterday, he chucked it all the way to the dugout. A brayu, I think it was the Venezuela one on Saturday.

The dude literally almost nailed one of his teammates in the head because he was like, Brees. I was like, wow. The Venezuelan team is also cooler. Venezuela team is super cool. Arnold Cunea. The uni's are sick. The unies are sick.

The catcher regalia is sick. I bought a Ronald Acuna shirti for the fight feast last year, and I can't find it. Oh. You're going to rock that tomorrow? I can't. They still got a win tonight. Italy kind of cool, too, but it's just a bunch of like jersey guys. Yeah, Italy's kind of cool.

I want it. If I'm being honest, I think Venezuela, America would be the most fun final. I'm going to be sad when this is over. I'm not going to lie. Like, I have genuinely enjoyed it. I can't get enough of it. And they got to figure out a way to get these guys in the Olympics. Like, these guys have to be in the Olympics.

These pros. Pause the season for 10 days. The NHL just did it. Figure it out. I mean, come on, guys. It's too good. The passion is too good. If baseball could tap into like 50% of this passion for the regular season, I know

162 is different than like seven games, God, we, how do we figure this out? I don't know. I am happy to see that Seattle and Las Vegas are in the running to get an expansion team in 2028 in the NBA. So that is very exciting. Not sure why I went there, but I was excited about it. And lastly, yeah, yep, yep, yep. Ariel, do you know the Andre the Giant story regarding him being too big for the lavatory on board a commercial flight,

forcing him to lay an enormous cable behind a privacy screen and mid-flight, resulting in gagging and screaming, keep up the great work? So there's a great documentary that aired on HBO Sports. By the way, that dude paid 79 bucks for that? Australian. 56 USD. Thank you. For the $56.

For the $56, Dr. Van Nostrand. Incredible. Thank you for that. Thank you, Ben. If you haven't seen it, Doctor, have you guys seen it? The Andre the Giant documentary on HBO Sports. They sure haven't.

Oh, highly recommend. Jason Hare, my old friend and mentor from the HBO Sports Day, who directed the last dance. That should tell you how good he is. He produced it. For HBO Sports, it's called maybe Giant or Andre the Giant. It's an unbelievable doc on his life. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

And yes, that story among many others that seem unbelievable when you actually hear them is in it and it's amazing. So shout out. Oh, go Dodgers. What the hell? Yeah. Shout out to Dr. Van. No Strand. One last thing before we go.

That was the last one, right? Yes, sir. One last thing. seeing reports this morning that top rank is close to a deal with DeZone. I think we might hear more about this later in the week. It seems like it's inevitable. This is phenomenal news for multiple reasons. Top rank hasn't been on TV.

Obviously their fighters have been showing up here and there, but they haven't had their own TV deal since July of last year when they left ESPN when their deal was up. At its peak, I heard it's in the, it was in the 80 to 90 million a year range, which I know is, is small potatoes compared to what the UFC is getting, but that was big for top rank.

And there was fear, and they've had to, you know, lay off employees and lose people. There was fear that top rank was in real trouble. Hopefully the signals that they're on the come-up top rank, in my opinion, as far as North American boxing promotions, top rank has, as far as their male stable is concerned, the best stable, in my opinion. And certainly the highest ceiling for a stable.

names like Shushu Carrington, Kishon Davis, Zander Zayas, Emiliano Vargas, Richard Torres. The list goes on. This is a really, really good stable. They may not be pay-per-view draws right now. They will be, and look at what they did with Shakur, and look at what they did with Teofima Lopez. We need top rank. Boxing needs top rank. Rich history.

Excited to hear about this. I was really curious about them going back to ESPN. I thought that would have been cool with MVP. but DeZone is the home of boxing and I'm just happy that they found a home. So when I saw this, when I heard about it late last week, if I'm being honest,

but when I saw it get out today, thought it was great. I see some people trying to clown on how much they're getting. Look, if you don't have distribution, you're dead. You have nothing. You can't exist as a fight promotion.

If you don't have a TV or streaming platform, that is your partner. You are dead. You have nothing. That's why their fighters were fighting on fast chat. That's why their fighters were fighting for other promoters. You have to have distribution.

You have to have a consistent schedule. Hopefully now they get that. Hopefully they can grow those names. Those are big names that are only going to get better. I do wonder what this means for Golden Boy, whose deal was up, and it seems like they're doing sparingly events. But all of a sudden I see Boots Ennis against Xander Zayez and not Virgil Ortiz. And I would love to see Boots versus Ortiz. first and foremost, if we don't.

A plan B, a second option, if you will. Zayez, love Zayas. He's a freaking stud and he's only going to get better. So this is good for the business. This is good for the sport. MVP doing their thing with Sky and ESPN top rank back. The MMA stuff here, UFC there, PFL, massive year for them. They're the next big one.

They've got a big show in Madrid this weekend. Obviously, we'll talk about that as the week. week rolls on. So a lot to be excited about my friends, a lot to be looking forward to. And I hope that it all works out for the guys at top rank because I'm a big, I'm a big fan of the product and the history, you know, associated with the product. So let's see. Let's see how the week shakes out as far as more info on that news is concerned. I told you that Sim Salmani, the BKFC, Albanian Psycho, is going to join us tomorrow. Also joining us, Mick Conlon, who's fighting this weekend, the prize. of Ireland and obviously on St. Paddy's Day it would make a lot of sense to have him on. So

looking forward to that. My doppelganger, Mr. Amund Zahavi, who's really been laying it on thick as far as whose side am I on. He's going to be joining us tomorrow. And Carlos Pratchez is going to be joining us to talk about the fight against JDS. So amazing show tomorrow. O'T this week is on Wednesday. I'll have the post up tomorrow for the questions and all that stuff. And we rolling. I'm not going anywhere. other than home to watch Venezuela against Italy. Good luck, Andy, to your beloved country.

Thanks, man. I hope it works out. And perhaps, you know, there's going to be a lot of stuff attached to it if it's Venezuela, U.S. tomorrow. Obviously, with everything going on in the world, that's going to be highly charged. What a scene in Miami, huh?

Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Do you think it will be like 50-50? No. You don't think so? In Miami? For Venezuela. I feel like there'll be a lot of Venezuelans.

A ton. You don't think 50-50 though? No. 60-40? Yeah. Like 60 for America? No. Oh!

You think Venezuela will be the favorite if you were. In Miami, yes. Hell yeah. There's so many of us there. Of course, it's going to be jam-packed. Did you not see the crowd there? No, I did. But, you know, it's America.

People are going, I don't know, try to show out. I don't know. We live there, man. I think it's going to be like packed. And we take baseball very seriously. Oh, I know. I know. I love that.

Okay, I'm psyched. The great Miguel Cabrera. Right? Probably the best Venezuelan baseball player. Is he from Venezuela? Miguel. I believe he is. Yeah, Venezuela.

Of course. I think he's on the team as like a coach or something like that. Anyway, all right, we are done. Great day. Check us out on the feed, by the way. Give us a follow on Spotify and Apple if you can. Download everything that we're doing over there. So great stuff on the YouTube channel, like, subscribe, comment, share, all that and more.

Fun things in the works. Fun things in the works. Road trip next week? Hashtag. Tough forest game yesterday. Tide Fulham. But the good news is, as you know, G.C., out of the relegation zone, at least for now. For now.

For now. Spurs struggling. but they did steal a point or two actually. They tied Liverpool shockingly. And then we had freaking West Ham tying Man City on Saturday, which was equally shocking. So for a minute there, we were in the relegation zone. We haven't sniffed relegation in a couple of years.

Not going to lie, NGL, getting a bit nervous. It's basically us, West Ham spurs, and leads at this point. And we need to figure it out. Yeah, Wolves is out. Yeah, Wolves is out. Burnley is out. Sorry, JJ Watt. But it's those four fighting for anything but that last spot.

We're all trying to survive. It's squeaky bum time. It's reminiscent of two years ago. Not a great feeling. I enjoyed it more last year. We got a freaking score. Get the ball in the back of the net. And let's get out of here.

And we look to see another day. What a day. Thank you very much to all our guests. Anderson Silva, of course. Kevin Bachejo. Kyle Dawkes, Eric Nixick, out to prayer, Pino Cruz. Thanks to all of you, thanks to all that.

Back tomorrow, side, time, ladies. Peace, I'm out here.