The Ariel Helwani Show - Oleksandr Usyk challenges Jake Paul to MMA fight, Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev get lost in translation | The Craic

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Petesy Carroll, Chuck Mindenhall, and Ben Fowlkes come together a fresh edition of The Craic.They kick off the show by breaking down the verbal jousting taking place between Magomed Ankalaev and Alex Pereira ahead of their clash at UFC 320 (6:12).From there, attention shifts to Din Thomas, who floated the idea of a UFC–PFL trade: Magomed Ankalaev for Dakota Ditcheva. The crew breaks down his comments (15:48).It’s Oleksandr Usyk vs. Jake Paul next. In a surprising callout, Usyk took to X to challenge Paul to an MMA fight. The guys make sense of the bizarre matchup (28:27).Then, the boys turn to UFC Perth’s underwhelming ticket sales and what they reveal about the state of UFC event pricing (40:23).One fighter at UFC Perth with momentum is Dominick Reyes. Chuck draws from his recent piece to marvel at Reyes’s resurgence after a brutal four-fight losing streak (48:32).Finally, Petesy previews his first NFL game in Dublin, with Chuck and Ben giving him their top tips for the experience (56:04).

Hello, everybody. It is the crack. It is Friday. Crackheads, you beautiful, beautiful people. How are you all doing? Isn't it a lovely day? Well, I don't really know where you are or how nice it is, but I can tell you in Dublin. It's a bit overcast, but it's just right. Not too warm, not too cold. Right there in the middle. Can't complain about that. Look, we have things to talk about today.

One story involves Big Ankh, Uncle Oyef, Alex Pareda, and Google Translate. All combining for a brilliant exchange. We're going to go through that meticulously. Hey, guess what? Alexander Usik wants to fight in MMA. Get excited, guys. It's the one we've been waiting for. He wants to fight Jake Paul at M.M.A.

Woo! I mean, cannot wait to pick Chuck and Ben's brain about that one. What a fight. Is it on the same level as Dylan Dennis and Eddie Hall? You know, there's a lot to get through there. Perth, they're having a UFC event this week. Remember, like, two years ago? It was Volcanovsky v. Islam Makashev,

and everyone was like, well, this is amazing. Look at the Australian market, isn't this fantastic? Well, yesterday, a lot of reports coming out in Australia suggesting not a lot of people buying tickets for UFC pert. We'll talk about that card. Chuck Mendenhall has talked to Dominic Reyes, and I'll be trying to get some advice from the guys, sports-going regulars, as to how to behave on my first NFL game, because I'm going to the Steelers and Vikings game on Sunday in Crow Park, which is a real place, Ben, folks. And I'm very excited to see it. Let's bring in the Ladsmoor lovely friends, Ben, folks, Chuck Bandonhall. Look at those beautiful faces.

Look at these beautiful, beautiful boys. Ben, let's start with you. How are you, sir? Looking fantastic as always. Thank you. I like that you're going with, like, famous person trying to fit in in a crowd and blend in here vibe. Just like the plain black hat that liked the dude would wear on succession when he didn't want to be recognized.

That's really fun. I'm very excited. This is the first time hearing that you're going to the NFL game. I'm very excited for you to find out that NFL is one of the rare sports that is much, much better viewed on TV than in person. Maybe it won't be so in Ireland, but I've been to a few NFL games and the thing I came away with was, wow, this would be better if I were at home watching on TV. You know, college games give you a different experience. They're a lot of fun to go to. The NFL games, you're just kind of like, huh, I am still basically.

watching TV though as I'm as I'm following this game well that'll get me excited chuk can you give me any kind of a counterpoint to no he's right uh ptze i was just at a game out in indianapolis a couple weeks ago and you spend most of your time just kind of staring at nothing like nothing's going on because uh there are a lot of you realize there's a lot of tv timeouts and it's a it's a hell of a longer a hell of a lot longer of a trek to the bathroom um from wherever you're sitting than it is from your couch to your bathroom in your house. So you'll catch up on it.

But I would say that I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's not worth it. I think it'll be fun for you. It'd be novel and all that stuff. But you'll get one experience of it and be like, yeah, I'm pretty good, I think. Yeah. Well, I do have some faith in the Irish people and their ability to turn sort of any live event like that into a good time. I'm sure you guys will find a way to have a really great time. Not to mention.

Wait, you went to a college game and didn't you say they were like something was wrong with and machines and so they were handing out free beer. I mean, this is like, if you get something like that again. It was like the last days of the Roman Empire. I can't remember leaving. Can't remember who was playing in the game. Remember falling through a lot of people at one point. Yeah, it was a great day.

We were building those big snakes with all. Oh, yeah. Yeah, got a lot of them. Classic move. Yeah. I can remember being in the queue for that game and suddenly. like the queue stopped like for the bar and there's like eight guys and so waiting for me to bring the beer and suddenly like no one's moving and next of all whispers start coming down the card

machines are broken and I was like but it's a cashless stadium and they're like yeah they have to give us free beer they have they have to it's in the constitution they have to do it I text all my friends they just left left their seats everyone queuing up everyone's like give me eight beers That sounds great. It's for my friends. It was, I'll tell you, the first NFL game I ever went to. My dad took me to see the Dallas Cowboys visiting the Los Angeles Rams. The first time the Rams were in Los Angeles when they played at Anaheim Stadium, like on the baseball field,

you know, where you got. Yeah, the infield dirt. Million dollar professional football players running across the infield dirt and tearing out their ACLs and whatnot. And I was probably like 10 years old or something. And for me, the highlight was that at halftime, they had. I had dogs catching frisbees. And these dogs were good. They weren't just like backyard dog.

They were like a traveling show of dogs that would catch rizzies. And especially on the football field, you can see. We're throwing those frisbys 70, 80 yards in the air. The dogs are sprinting catching them. And, you know, I could see, I understand it now because I could see the look on my dad's faces. We went home from the football game, you know, walked in the front door. And my mom's like, how was it?

And I was like, these dogs, we're catching these friends. And he was just like, we could have, I probably could have found a cheaper way to give you that entertainment experience. without going to an NFL game. Now you have me all like razzed up to see these half-time dogs catching frisbees and if they're not there, I'm going to be fucking furious.

I don't think they do that anymore. I have some things I want to share about this. We'll get to that later on because of course this is an MMA show and we've got a big fight happening next week. It is big onk. That's what we're calling them now. And it's no longer Magamad, Ankolaev.

It is now Mohammed, Ankiyaf. based on his ex profile. He's fighting a guy who lives in the same town as Chuck. His name is Alex Pereira. And basically, on Air Jordan, let's just have it. Let's rip this thing because there are an assortment of clips to get here, get through here to garnish our beautiful crackheads with some information. Oh, look at this.

Here's Angolaev. I mean, sorry, it's it Pereira. And as Chuck pointed out earlier, he's in his, I'm talking to a camera in a car. situation. Here it is. Standard. He's basically saying here that Ankleyev hid from him in the P.I. Someone from my team was still inside and he heard

the girl from the P.A. side to Angoliath, he can come now. He's already left. Like, damn, he was hiding. They hid the guy in a little room, man. This guy thinks I'm going to run into him and start fighting. Did I look stupid, bro? Do I look stupid, bro? Here's Ancolaev. Muhammad Ancolaev says, this clown who I'm

fighting said, I'm hiding from him. of giving him a rematch, and he should be very grateful. I whooped him for five rounds. I did everything I wanted to him during that fight. Let's focus on fighting and not trash talking. Then he says, this guy has been knocked down three times in this career. I've never been knocked down. This time I'll give his fort knockdown.

End a story. He said then. I'm glad you're emoting for him because he would not be able to Because they weren't going to do it. Neither one of them was going to do it. So you had to step in there. I really like that Alex Pereer began his story with funny thing happened, you know, like classic sort of like comedian set up sort of thing. Also, this is the first time here and that we've changed the ex profile so that it's now Muhammad Bigank Ankleyev.

So basically, though, you're kind of throwing like two name changes at us at the same time. You got to do those one at a time, man. That's too much. That's too much. Also, does a fighter lose a little something when he takes some Magomed out of his name? because amagomed, that goes a long way in this sport. People have gotten signed contracts on little more than just having a magomed or two in their name.

I don't know, Muhammad, though, is a pretty strong track record. That's true. Maybe not Magamad's strength, but it's pretty good. Chuk, what do you think of this new version of Palatant who speaks a lot? It's interesting. See, I like it, but what was the whole Easter Island thing

that we had going on where it was just the stone face and no emotion whatsoever. I think the first couple of times I wrote about him, that was the fun part, right? Like, because you're just describing this guy who didn't have emotion. Like, you know, he's doing this very high-pressured gig. He's handling himself like a, you know, like a savage. And every time we'd seen him.

And yet you couldn't really get him to, to a moat or to do anything like that. It was fun to read into that. Now, I feel, and you know what, I was okay with the kind of like understanding he had a sense of humor. but something I don't know something's not translating anymore I think part of it is he's usually doesn't have to talk any trash

this feels a little weird even though this feels like the coldest of campfires when it comes to trash talking in my mind it doesn't really feel like much is happening here but I still kind of just like mysterious fighters I've said this about fighters in general and how they kind of cough up all their charms on social

media and then they do all these different things I prefer them to keep a little bit you know what I mean as a writer as a journalists that, you know, you prefer them to keep a little bit back so that you can still peel back layers as their career rolls on rather than giving up too much. Do you think, though, is what we're doing here that this fight doesn't really have a ton of sizzle to it just on its surface? And so everybody feels the need to add a little something extra because, I mean, it should, right? Because we were very, very excited about Alex Pereira.

And he lost this fight, which nobody was exactly hair on fire. for the matchup to begin with he loses the fight we decide we're going to do a rematch basically because you don't have anything better to do and you don't exactly feel a ton of enthusiasm and energy for the rematch and so do people have to they feel the need to step up here and try to deliver a little something and also maybe like that we're seeing one way you get under Alex Pereira's skin a little more is just he was having such a great run there then he lost one and he kind of couldn't stand it. And so now he becomes obsessed with getting back in there and doing it again.

I don't know. It still feels like it's like anytime you have to do your trash talking across language barriers and the help of modern translation technology, it can't help it lose a little something. Let's take a look at that video of the Google Translate episode if we have that. That's right. I'm going to write saying this on here, Jordan. We have the Google Translation. Oh, here we go.

Yeah. the same thing you just keep throwing but we're fighting in October that's what Ancolaeuf is saying let's settle it in the octagon says Ancolaeuf. Why waste time with empty talk? says Uncleoif. Pereira, I never said anything.

I never said anything. They're the ones who are always talking and when he shows up in front of me, he's a coward. That's what he said. Here comes Mohammed, Big Ancolaev. He said, had my last hard training today and I'm good to go. Met my opponent today. I confronted him for lying about me

seeing in the p i'm sorry i confronted him for lying about seeing me in the p i the other day to which he said oh no it was it was one girl who told me she saw you but i didn't see you myself i will turn off his electricity next to his electricity is that something lost in translation there he's trying to say shut out the lights just for all the fans out there for the last two months i make my own tweets ha ha my my old

poop and Google Translay is the best can I just say this one episode has made him

more popular than how many years of tweets from Ali you're hating his fucking tweets oh my god

also there's something a little funny to being like don't worry like especially when you were like

for the last two months I have been writing my own tweets like good I guess but then

afterwards being like chat GPT has been helping me so it's like well okay so you're kind of writing your own tweets I get it you know we're we're translating we're trying to get it across there it it does though I remember hearing Denzel Washington talk once about why he didn't do social media and he was like look if people see you every day of the week they're not going to pay to see you in the matinee on Saturday and you know kind of your point there Chuck and it also it reminds once I did an interview with George St. Pierre and we were talking about something completely different. And I might have mentioned something about, like, something that had showed up on one of his social media.

And he really seized on that. And he kept making a point to tell me about how he himself had never authored a single tweet. And he kept saying, he kept repeating, not one tweet. Not, I write not one tweet. And he was basically saying, like, hey, don't ask me about anything you see on there. I don't even know what's on there. Wow. And, but it was one of those kind of calls where it's like, you know, the UFC sets it up.

They're listening in and hear the calls going, all that kind of stuff. He kept talking about the social media stuff, even though we were trying to talk about something completely different. And then afterwards, you know, whoever was listening in on the UFC side must have told their boss, like, I don't know what they were talking about something about social media. And George seemed pretty fired up. And so they reached out to me and they're like, I thought you guys were going to talk about this.

What happened there? And I was like, brother, I wish I knew. I wish I could tell you what happened there. I didn't want to talk about that. But he did get very animated about it. But it was also just like, George has it right. The way to interact with Twitter is, you know, if you have to have a presence on there or whatever to promote some sponsorships to put some money in your pocket, fine.

But, man, you should not be messing with it at all. I think we've got to see the example of going back and forth between these two guys as to why. Don't waste heat is what you told us last week, Ben. It's like, don't waste the heat? I mean, they just went through this and generated this. Don't you think, I feel like some of this, you know, we see this kind of thing. And like you said, Ben, like I don't. think there was this huge clamoring thing to see this uncle i've kind of slid in there through

the meritocracy right like you couldn't deny him but everybody was speculating that perera should be fighting this guy fighting this guy going up to heavy whatever it is but then you get the fight and it's every bit the kind of like uh you know to what his personality is that's what this fight was it was uh to your uncle i was just there wasn't much to it it felt very much like uh like perera wasn't letting go he's very kind of holstered through most of this fight you're from them to come to life it never really happens you're waiting for takedowns maybe too they they don't really happen so it just kind of plays out in a very dull way and sometimes when that happens even though the guy that the company probably wants to win obviously for for marketability

and for bigger fights and the fans want to win because it was like a party while perera's when it loses you're kind of like worried that you're going to get the same thing right like it's just going to be this anticlimatic now it's oh and two hole that he's dealing with and i feel like that's part of what's going on with this fight too yeah it's it's it's really not captured the imagination to be fair um and look um you'd think guys who work for the ufc would be like more inclined to spin this and be like you know this is actually a huge fight don't know if din thomas got the message because uh din's been really harping on about a trade a certain trade um concerning one of these men for quite some times and it's

really took on a life of its own i believe we have the quotes here on our jordan Is that correct? Here it is. Concerning Magamad, Ankleaf, sorry, Muhammad, Big Ang, Uncle IF, trading places with the face of PFL, Dakota Dejava.

I've been saying this for two years that they needed to make that trade, says Dan Thomas. When Ankeloif was running around, trying to get fights, begging for fights, I said, trade his ass to the PFL. They conveniently brought it out now when he's a champion.

Not only am I doubling down, I'm tripling down, I am still saying that it would be a better trade. She would be the biggest star in the UFC. Interesting, lads, because I heard Ariel O'Anne's the one that's getting all the shit for saying this star problem. There's Dyn Thomas, good friend of Dana White, saying, in fact, they do have a star problem. And the way we're going to solve this star problem is get rid of Ancolaeuf, the light heavyweight champion, and replace him with Dakota DeCeva.

not great the week before his title defense against Alex Pereira would you say, chuk I think it's funny that the PFL in this scenario is kind of like the Siberia which is almost like sending Uncle I have home in a weird like you know towards his home anyway

I tweeted this out I'm like how drunk do you think the PFL would have to be to do this like it's what those things you're like yeah they should ask for more they should ask for a draft pick or like you know some cash considerations yeah future considerations you know don't it should not be a one for one trade but i love that it's

just like hey man we got this extremely boring champion but he's a champion and let's just ship him over here and then pick up your best star the one that we've been saying uh in some form was probably it's probably the most coveted um you know piece that you could bring over if you could one free agent or if she became a free agent that would be the biggest piece um that would be out there for the ufc to go after and bring onto the roster it's it's ridiculous but i i do think funny because it always shows insight into how people think. And I'm like, can you imagine if the world really ran like this? And, you know, when we have the Ben Ascgren and Demetrius Johnson, you look at something like that and you're like, well, it made complete sense from both

perspectives, right? Like you had two kind of disarrantal guys. They were kind of both marketable in their own way. Like you shift them and, okay, we can use this guy on these way and we can use this guy over here. What is Uncle I going to do for the PFL? I mean, it's just, I love kind of seeing this because they're like what would Uncle I would just fade into the backdrop behind like 50 other names at the PFL wouldn't you and that and we don't even know like those people's name but that's how Uncle I have would be treated over there do you think maybe like the way to sell it to PFL would be like you go to an NFL team and you're like look I know you don't want to trade this guy but he got one year left on the contract and you know he doesn't want to resign when it's up you know when when it comes time to free it be a good agent yeah trade him trade him now and at least get something for him you know like What would be the equivalent? Like, what is a, what would be an NFL equivalent to this? Like, I was, you know, you see something like this, you know, like, they'd be like, okay, so you'd be having to look into somebody's franchise kind of player, right? And maybe a very young franchise player who's just coming into their own and, you know, just about to start winning Super Bowls.

And then they're trying to ship off like, what, a guard or like a center. Well, no, I mean, yeah, that's what I think it is. It's basically like, hey, we have an amazing left tackle. nobody other than like the hardcore football heads knows that but they know it and like you need a tackle your your quarterback is out there getting shelled right now doing no good for you you need a solid left tackle to protect the blind side we'll give you this guy give us your give us uh shedore sanders give us your christian mccarthy from the yeah no no not even like an established give us somebody josh who's new they're they're starting to come along maybe they're going to turn

into a big star. We can see the potential. They're a shiny new toy. We want that. We can do something with that. You need help is what you need. We can give you that established, dependable, rock solid help in this way. You give us something that is kind of

a lottery ticket that might pay off big or might kind of flame out once it gets over here against UFC competition. Who knows? That's kind of the would be the selling point. I do like to imagine the one thing. I appreciate Dean Thomas will tell you what he thinks. and that's god god love him for that because the ufc does not have among its like crew of talking heads

so many of them even if they really were tell you what they think kind of guys before they got those jobs they're so grateful to have those desk jobs those talking head jobs they don't ever want to jeopardize it they play it extremely safe which means playing it extremely boring dean thomas you can call him up any day you know call up dean thomas he is going to tell you and i love that about him and I respect it and so you know for him to come out here now and just say it is just kind of like you know he's not lying you know he's not making anything striking while the Aaron's hot you know he genuinely believes this yeah I do like to imagine the pfl executive is though kind of like looking up from like a ham sandwich being like what

from the race we weren't there were no trade talks going on what are you saying not this again um is it all right I'm asking you guys because they sometimes think about this. Well, I think about an awful lot. Is being good at the sport of MMA less important than ever? Yes. Right now. Yes. It is, isn't it? And that's a weird situation to be in, right? Like, it, in terms of everything, like, even, like, I've talked about this before on the show, even in terms of guys who are trying to get to the UFC, they used to be fantastic, I think one of the most rewarding things about the sport used to be like chasing down, following these careers, being like, this guy is going to be fucking class.

and we've seen it happen like guys like McGregor obviously back in Aspinall guys like this come in and they're huge like Paddy Pimlet massive guy on the UK scene comes in and it's massive right now it feels like even in the feeder leagues

it's all about what manager you're with can you keep your record pretty and get signed like there's very rarely like significant fights happening to build guys into the UFC now and then of course in the sport here like we're laughing about Din Thomas saying this but I think we all agree with him

like you know Hank IF is the best fighter in the world at his weight category. We're like, yeah, no, yeah, trade immediately. Like that, that is not the, the business we're around anymore. It's, is it kind of depressing? I don't know. I don't know how to feel about it. I'm just permanently confused by the state of flux that the sport seems to be in right now.

I mean, there used to be, I used to think that it was, you know, you had guys like John Fitch, right? Like, we always, we always kind of used his name almost like, oh, you got Fitch, you know, because he got pushed out of, like, any big fight because he was going to bore you type thing we've had these types but we've always had like a hardcore you know blowback that would come in and be like hey man these guys the meritoxys this guy belongs here and all this you'd have that kind of defense that defense has all but gone i don't know if it's just those people just left mama but there used to be these really big arguments for the guys who are

just going to wrestle or they're just going to um you know grind to the score cards i don't really see that as much man i just see kind of maybe it's just that the Majority on social media and things like that just is very disgruntled, you know, because like when you get a fight, generally speaking, especially with a guy like Uncle I have who doesn't kill you with charisma either outside of it. Like, you know, he goes in there and does his work and people just pan it, you know, like they'll just pan that performance. And we've seen this a lot. And so it just feels like it's more universally like it's got to be a package deal. You got to be like you got to be compelling more than just in your record. And I think that people these days kind of look to you to like what what kind of is what is he generating what is that including media because they love just the click stuff to you know to to put stuff on their site and that's how they gauge your popularity it's just a different world man i think that the way that it operates now man you got to kind of have like a you got to have two components going at least right like you got to be compelling both in and out of the cage and i think a guy

like bud crawford for instance he's put together such a long like such a long career but without that big Errol Spence fight kind of launching him into the next thing to the next thing all the way to Canela it's really the magnitude of the events that we see his genius it's not like he was blowing you away you know just from

from like getting on a microphone or from tweeting or stuff like that so there's still some exceptions but I feel like more now than ever you better have more you know multifacets to how you bring your star power right make me feel better about this Ben

come on say something you know I mean I think to some extent it has always been this way. It's an attention economy. And fight sports particularly have always been very individual driven, personality driven. And we've seen it. You can go back and read fight coverage from the London bare knuckle days where, you know, a popular champion or retire or lose or get old or something. And then there's kind of a lull.

The sport just becomes not quite as popular, not quite as exciting to people because they're looking for the next big name to come up. And I think we've seen that happen in ebbs and flows throughout MMA. You know, you talk about John Fitch. I remember when Ben Ascran was that guy. And it was, he was fighting in Bellator. He was undefeated. And yet there was just like no interest from the UFC and potentially signing him and putting

him up there to find out if he might be the best welterweight in the world. And so that's when I think you could really see, hey, you could be the very best in the world at this. And it could not matter. It could not translate to the fame and the riches or even the opportunity. to prove that you are the best in the world. And when they made that that trade, quote unquote trade, where it was just like, okay, we'll release our guy, you release your guy, and then we'll both make our separate deals with them. For Demetrius Johnson, it was interesting to have those conversations afterwards about

who got the better deal of that trade, because one definitely got the better fighter. Demetrius Johnson was all around a much better fighter than Ben Ascran was, a much more complete fighter, a complete package as a fighter. even that, you know, aging version of him that they got was still just a better for his weight class fighter than Ben Ascran was for his at that point. And yet the UFC managed to sort of parlay Ben Ascran not through success, not through victory, but they had him go out there. You know, he had that fight with Robbie Lawler where it was controversial. And then he fights Jorge Masfidol where they got this big beef and the crazy flying knee across the cage. Jorge Masfadol rocketed to a new level of stardom.

So it was like, the Ben Ascran trade, did it benefit the UFC more? One just got a good fighter. He produced some good highlights over there, did some good stuff. The UFC got something where it's sort of knocked down a couple dominoes and led at least briefly to a star that you could monetize, even if it was a different one than the one you traded for. And it's weird to sort of look at that and step back and be like, okay, I guess you did get the better deal, even though you didn't get the better fighter. That kind of tells you something about this business.

yeah you're right and Ascran stimulated everything around him I remember him showing up to that Mazvedal v Till fight in London and he was just a guest for it or showing up in his flip-flops oh yeah and classic wrestler move it was just so like you know

he looked like he walked in stumbled into the wrong place you know like he got lost and he's there and Till and Mazvedal are furious with him like him being just matter of fact and they're like, I'm not talking about Ben Ascran. I'm not talking about Ben Ascran.

And you're like, this is perfect. It's all happening. And as you said, at least to that moment, absolutely fantastic. Listen, Ben Ascran once fought a man called Jake Paul, and we have something to talk about regarding that man. But unfortunately, because we're so big time, we need to let the people roll the ads. So Ben can buy another Bentley. Chuck can buy another, uh, so a hat and penthouse.

What's, yeah, I'm also arguing, whatever we want. Um, we will be back in two minutes. That's right, to talk about Usik v. Jake Paul in M.A! Welcome back to The Crack, everybody. I hope you enjoyed those ads. I know I did. As I was saying, Jake Paul and Usik talking a bit of shit. On air, Jordan, let's get this rolling.

Let's see how this bad boy played out with the whatever. I just finished writing my Jake Paul 2035 year plan. signed and delivered become world champ become billionaire have three kids and get married to Utah beat Usik

win an Oscar fight on the moon and start a presidential camp oh um I'm gonna cut them off just just on our join

as having enough there here's Usick good plan at Jake Paul but I'm not here for fifth place only first soon I'll close the book on boxing and after that I'll be waiting for you

in the cave Let's see if you've got the balls Or just a hunger for hype Lads, it's happening Chok, I know you've been dying for it Usik v Paul in MMA Come on Yeah, that's going to be big man

It's a little bit like Go ahead Ben what are you going to say Jake Paul's 28 years old This five year plan includes launching a presidential campaign He's not, he won't be old enough To be president of the United States You got to be 40,

It got to be 35. 35, okay. I think. Yeah. I mean, I know this is not that kind of show. I like that's, I like that's where you, uh, like, took your stamp. Fighting on the moon just sails off.

I mean, we can get that done with Elon involved. If you're Jake Paul and they offer you a chance to go fight on the moon, you better be damn sure they are also offering you a ride back because that could go wrong. I mean, we could just leave him there. This is, but it, you know. it's kind of like when you get something like this where it's like guys who are famous for one thing or maybe a couple things

but then all of a sudden they're like hey let's do this other thing it's almost like the what was it the ABC's like Battle of the Network stars back in the day or something was like oh look we got famous people and now are going to compete in bowling or whatever or skeet shooting like it's it's really weird to me and I know that it would be more compelling because it is

actually a fight right like it is actually a fight there would be a part and I know that this would be a big part of the public's mind, the fight game's mind, to be like, how does this play out? This is going to be very strange because we know they both like to throw hands. What does it look like if they get into clinches? What do it look like if they go to the ground? Is this going to be like sloppy and weird and crazy?

Or is it going to be like fun? Like, is there going to be something that you're, is compelling? I just, it's crazy that I feel like we plug in Jake Paul to all these scenarios. And he's like, he's been the guy who like keeps diverting any kind of, like, whatever the the essential vibe is, whatever the essential flow of the fight game is, he keeps diverting it into some other direction. And honestly,

we were talking about this before. Like, when will it be like, when would you really be into a Jay Paul? Well, it would have to be one of those ones where he's finally meeting the guy who can solve him. Like guy his size,

who's an actual boxer, like this becomes the thing. I think that this would be more compelling in the end than fighting guys like, you know, Tank Davis and an exhibition. or boxing or, you know, taking on guys who are former MMA guys in the ring, I think I'd be more compelled to see this in the end. Like, do you agree with that? Like, I think that there

would be something to this in terms of, like, that would feed a curiosity that might actually pay off. Because I feel like when I walk away from Jake Paul's fights, generally speaking, I need a shower afterwards. I mean, every single time, you're like, you got me again. Ah, I can't believe he did it. It is. 100%. We have some quotes here. from Nikisa, he got out to Sky Sports. They were on this immediately. Sky Sports big out, kind of like the ESPN of the UK.

I think we have them. Do we on Air Jordan? No? Potentially? Oh, here we go. Jake is crazy enough to do it for sure. I think eventually it's something that will happen. Paul V. Ussick and M.M.A.

That's going to be a cross-cultural moment that the world will pay attention to. Okay. He also said that he had been in touch with Usoc's people and they like it. And so, Ben, I suppose, taking you back to the question that Shook just asked you, is this better than other Jake Paul fights? Like, is there a bit more on the line here? Is it getting the juices flowing over there in Missoula, Montana?

Well, I think one of the things you've got to start with is asking yourself, okay, so Jake Paul's a boxer, Alexander Usik is a boxer. Why are they going to fight in a different combat sport and not boxing? And we all know the answer to that, and it's because Usik would kill him. Usik would knock his head clean off his shoulders Or he's too afraid It would go sailing off into the night And that would be the end of Jake Paul And so instead we're going

All right we're doing MMA Which neither one of them does Although there is more of a reason to think That maybe Jake Paul who at least has some wrestling experience Would have something there that would help even the odds For him a little bit against somebody like Usik even though, as I'll remind everybody, each round starts standing. So that's basically the unstated part of this that we're going with is obviously couldn't beat him in a boxing match.

But MMA, we don't know what either one of them would look like in MMA. So maybe I also wonder, how much money do you have to pay Usek to even get him out of bed and into a cage for an MMA fight? And is that realistic for this? I don't know. it does seem like we're all out of talking points at the moment, so let's go ahead and throw this kind of stuff out there. You know, especially in the context of listening to Jake Paul's five-year plan, which is a mix of entirely reasonable things like, you know,

have kids start family, you know, like that stuff that was like, yeah, I absolutely believe you could do that and then become a billionaire fight on the moon, launch a presidential campaign where you're just like, okay so we're just saying stuff at that point right like we're just trying to be like what's big enough and crazy enough that it'll draw some headlines and then this feels like a part of that it feels like that sentiment you mentioned pc where you come away going he got us again the fact that we're sitting here talking about it makes me go he got us again i actually wrote a similar list on my first day of kindergarten back in the day things i want to do before i die

fight on the moon, marry supermodel, three kids, and, uh, ambitious for a kindergartner. Yeah, I know. I had my ad of all my ducks in a row.

Um, is it, Chuck, like, we see a lot of fucking wild shit. Like, let's be on. Like, this is, it's the wildest fuck.

Like, remember when the UFC like was getting the Reebok deal and, you know, Usada came in and all that stuff. You were kind of like, oh, well, we're never going to see those days of you are back in pride anymore.

Gary Goodridge beating like a, you know, a five foot two guy, three of them at the same time, whatever, no, no, we were very wrong because it's happening all around us all the time. And I guess my question is, how does this compare to something like, is it the same as Dennis and Eddie Hall, like a freak show? Is this a freak show, Usik and Jake Paul in MMA? I don't think so. I mean, not in the same sense exactly because Usik, I mean, it's not like he's a butter bean or something you know it's like a guy who like where you're just like he's just a guy who almost is a novelty but a very good novelty at what he does but like he's still kind of a novelty Jake Paul feels more like the novelty aspect and I guess we drag that into

the into the scenario but in these days of Netflix right like the kind of just streaming to 40 million people it's just kind of I this is the easiest way to do it right like you can if you get these kinds of guys together and it can captivate the imagination. I mean, nobody really wants it, if you think about it from any kind of reasonable standpoint, you didn't, seeing a 57 year old boxer like Mike Tyson, even though it is Mike Tyson, feels like a very bad idea. You know, and I think, I know we talked about it, but you saw that a record number of people tune in to watch this type of thing. Um, it's more viable than that, though, you know, like this doesn't have any, like there's no wincing in something like this. If anything, you still wonder,

if Eusek's going to knock his head off like Ben was saying, because I think that that's... So that thing being in play by itself becomes compelling. And we've pointed this out before. It's the easiest way to look at it. The idea that Jake Paul could get his head knocked off is actually compelling, you know? And I think that people like the escalation of his boldness in one way.

You know, the audacity, how long can he do this? And some people get really pissed off at it. But in the end, you put those two guys in a cage and they fight that way. I mean, it would draw. big numbers and like when we're talking about like money obviously the the money would probably be there because of that you know um but i i don't know man it's like we're so far off the rails from those days when we were like pure minded and defending the integrities of him and may and stuff that um it feels like if you don't kind of look at these things uh from a certain standpoint now

you kind of get left behind like because that's just there is so much of this going on nowadays yeah it's uh do you think ben um Chuck mentioned Netflix, and that feels like a rightful place. Will the PFL be a bit upset here? You know, we signed that deal with Jake Paul all those years ago, and we said he was going to fight in MMA. Surely this is our moment. This is PFL's moment.

Who are these Netflix guys? But of course, they won't get this fight, right? I mean, PFL is sitting around here with a couple of these contracts, right, at this point where you got really big names that you signed, but also that it doesn't look like there's any real on the horizon. future realistic fight that you have for them. Francis and Gano is another one at this point. And I don't know.

That's not a great sign for the PFL, especially kind of makes you realize, hey, you can go out here and you can sign these guys all you want and it can look on paper to you like, here's a guy who will bring a lot of attention, new viewers, people we haven't had that'll come in the door because they're following this guy. But if you don't also have somebody for that guy to fight. that that contract isn't necessarily worth a whole lot to you. And I think that that's kind of what you're seeing here with Jake Paul, especially if you're,

if you're sitting around going, hmm, I want to fight on the damn moon, you're probably not also being like, and I, I want to show up to PFL one of these days. Like those things just kind of don't go together. Yeah.

It's, it's interesting that this has happened while the promotion for the tank fight is on. That fight just is not connecting. Like, it is I saw some clips of the past comments it was it was like pulling teeth I feel like we've got some version of this

don't you guys like like you know we were talking like if a couple weeks ago I was like Iliot Seporia you know it's whoever comes into orbit at that moment like all of a sudden that guy there's somebody barking it he's barking at another guy but you had the Iliotiporia you know going at you know like with Bud Crawford and stuff like that

and then it just seems like no matter what now everybody wants to dip their toe. It's almost like it's preempting like the FOMO or something, you know, where you're like, I, if there's going to be money in boxing, I want to be in bonds. If it's going to be money in the, you know, crossover fights, I want to do that, you know. And it just feels like this is everybody.

Like every champion's kind of looking sideways at that sort of thing now. Yeah, it's weird. Um, speaking with Barkers, there's going to be a lot of ticket barkers outside the arena and birth this weekend. Your segways are getting better and better. Oh, come on. That's fucking flawless. Killer. And we had a little, we can't play this video

clip because Honor Jordan is by the book, if he's anything, he is by the book. Seven News Australia, which is a big news channel in Western Australia, they put out a report saying like, UFC have had to, you know, price the tickets down because not even half the arena is full for this weekend's event. Obviously, we do have this seating chart, Andy Hickey, the great Irishman, Andy Hickey did share this out. Do I believe we have it? Yeah, I check ticket availability for all USC events. The reports of poor ticket sales are accurate. Easily the worst selling event at this point post-COVID. Price are now as low as $167, Australian dollar, sorry. That's 93 euros, 110 or 81 pound. He did have an image of the

tickets that are there it is there. Like this is pretty fucking crazy. Considering like where they were at in Australia, like I had friends living in Perth and they were speaking about when Volcan Islam were there, like the absolute clamor to be a part of this. Again, Western Australia are paying the UFC to come to these places and they're obviously offering up things that aren't really stimulating the fan base. I will say, we've had conversations about this before and they've priced the tickets down to an extent that the arena looks pretty full come fight night. Like this is tomorrow this event is happening. It's headlined by Ullberg v. Reyes. I'm just wondering, lads, will this change? Ben, do you think this will change UFC's strategy in terms of matching these fights because, you know, half an arena is very bad by their standards, or they usually sell out everywhere they go?

Yeah, but at what point does that start to become a factor for you when you're getting paid just to show up, just to show up and put on a show. And that's the part that the site fees has really changed a lot about the way the UFC structures and plans these events, why we'll see a stretch of a whole lot of apex events that sometimes when there just aren't as many people interested in the site fees. And then when we get these fight night events back out on the road at some times of the year. And, you know, we heard it, I think you heard it from one of the TKO executives earlier this week. I like it was presented as if like TKO executive explains what the thinking is. Here we go, this one, where, like, it's presented as if he's like, let me let you behind the curtain and explain how it works. But how it works is exactly how you thought it worked. Whoever pays them more money gets the event.

And, yeah, that is pretty much what I thought you guys were doing. Thank you for clarifying it, Mark Spiro. Look how happy is, though, to be delivering that. It's just, yeah, but see, fuck you guys. It's like, at what point does the two lines on the ground? half cross, right? Because it's like, if you're getting paid so much in site fees just to come, you're getting that money guaranteed. You're also counting on a good live gate once you got there. And maybe the gate is not quite as good as you thought it was. But still, when combined with

the site fee money, still ends up being better than if you had taken this card somewhere else or spent the money to put on a better fight card, taken away from a future event, put bring bigger fighters on this one. All those kind of factors, like, I don't, I think. think they're still at a point where they're looking, going, all right, maybe there's a few empty seats on the broadcast. We would prefer if it weren't that way. But we're still looking at the bottom line, first and foremost, and it still looks pretty good. We're still making a ton of money, so we're not that worried about it.

One thing I wonder about something like this, where you're in Australia, and somebody asked this question in the mailbag this week where there's just sort of like, for a fight night, we can't give them one in their own time time. We can't give them one prime time for that. That's a problem. Because it's not a pay-per-view. It's not like you've got to turn around and sell. this one back home and we've seen it you know where you did an event in Shanghai you did it in the

middle of the night you can do an event in Paris so you could do it early in the afternoon why can't you do the same thing for Perth uh and maybe it's just they feel the Australians are used to this they know how we do the UFC comes to town you get up on Sunday morning and you come on down and watch the flights and that's the way it works and I'll tell you it's not a bad way to do it I went down there and did it as a reporter it's kind of fun I enjoyed it maybe they get sick of it I do wonder how it affects something if you're counting on more walk-up ticket sales to help fill in the arena when the tickets aren't really selling. And you're trying to get the word out. Hey, we're bringing down prices.

You can still come. That works better if you have all Saturday of people sitting around and being like, I don't know, maybe I could go. You know, maybe I could, maybe I could show it. Like, if the prices are coming down, let me see. If they come down five, ten more bucks, hell with it. Let's buy a couple and let's go down there. Maybe that doesn't work as well if it's Sunday morning eight o'clock. Like, either you made the decision last night or you didn't, you know?

You wouldn't get up and go at 7am go watch Colby thickness competing on the prelims over there? 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I better, I better have a good goddamn reason. I better know I have plans. I'm not getting up to check the ticket prices and see, maybe I'll go. Maybe I won't. You know, part of it, I mean, everything you're saying exactly right. Like, part of it, too, is like, when they have a card, one of these fight nights and they'll have it at some, you know,

location. This time Perth, right, before a pay-per-view or after a pay-per-view, it's almost, you don't want to say they're mailing it in, but obviously the full emphasis is on, like, the big pay-per-view that's happening in the fall of week, right? Like, you're just kind of like everybody's attention, uh, any kind of real publicity is all looking right past your event. And when the local market responds with sort of the same indifference, that's when it becomes glaring. Um, the card itself, like, have you guys looked at the, card, I mean, it's just, it's not, I mean, if I, even if this was right here, if they were, hey, we're going to do one in Connecticut down in Danbury, you know, and this was the card, I would still think twice, you know, about like, maybe going to that, even if it was at a reasonable time, it's just, it's not the greatest fight card. And I know that sometimes people are like, well, you know, this is more of a regional showcase. But then you're like, so we're doing, the fight nights have turned into Bellator, you know, like, it's just, it's a very strange thing. And sometimes this does come back to bite the UFC. Like you said, they're going to get their money either way. But we were talking about how hot they were for the last few years, just rolling hot dice.

They could go into any market coming out of the pandemic. And it was just those letters would sell no matter where. I feel like those days, you know, those days may be coming to an end. I don't know if they can just show up with their letters like the WWE can unless they put enough on a card, right? To kind of compel people to go, especially at the ticket prices of where they're at right now. Yeah, it feels like, you know, we've been talking about this for the last year, I'd say, where the event. don't seem to be just moving like they just don't seem to be stimulating people

the way they used to and this just feels like a perfect example with the Islam fight um with Vulcan Oskia I think the next time they were back in part it was Duplessi v Israel Adasania and that was obviously a lot of emotion involved in that fight as well

and now we're here on a fight where like these people don't get a lot of cards like this should be something they're interested in and suddenly they aren't showing up it kind of kind of feels is from, is Carlos Oldberg, he's from New Zealand, right? Like, I think so, yeah. And I mean, I never know. Like, I haven't been to that part of the world. I don't know, like, we always kind of like, oh, New Zealand and Australia. They love each other and they, you know, but I don't know if he translates in Perth, you know, like, he's from that part of the world, but I don't know if he's like a hometown hero in Perth.

You know what I mean? It's just, it's, and he's coming off, like, he had a moment where he was writing a nice crest where he's knocking guys out, whatever. For his last couple of fights, though, when he could distinguish himself as a contender, he's kind of dropped the ball there. They've been kind of boring fights. So it's just kind of a perfect storm, even on your main event that's not that compelling. The most compelling thing might be Dominic Reyes. Well, that's a very interesting segue. Because one of the people here actually spoke to Dom Reyes this week. I had the pleasure of reading your piece. Very, very good. The incredible second act of Dominic Reyes could become MMA's comeback story. story of the year. Tell us, Chuk. I think you think he has the minerals to pull this one off. Well, you guys tell me, too, because I did this piece because I was looking at it. And I remember, I was thinking about Andre Arlowski back, I don't know, 14, 15 years ago when he got knocked out like three out of three out. It started off with that Fador knockout and then he got knocked out a couple more times. He lost four in Rome. We're like, Andreelofsky's done, you know. Not only was he not done, right? Like, he's had like two other four fight losing streaks in his career and he

keeps bouncing back. It's one of those things, though, with Dom McReyas, where he seemed, like, I remember just saying, like, man, as a guy who doesn't fight, you hate to tell people like, you probably should retire, man. Somebody should be having that hard conversation with you. And I was thinking that, because I saw Dom a couple of times out here in Connecticut, he was training with Tashara, at Tashiras, with Alex and all the guys. As he was getting set for a prelim fight at Madison Square Garden, the one that, uh,

Izzy Etisanya was fighting with Pereira and he had already lost three in a row and I was thinking you just see like you're watching the juxtaposition between Alice Pereira whose star is rising and he's just about to like become like a big thing in the UFC and this other guy who the fight game is almost pushed completely out like he's just

his it was such a dim like one of those moments you're looking at a guy and you're like man he's just about gone and sure enough he goes in there and gets knocked out by Ryan Span and I think that that's it right and then here he is So it's fairly remarkable to me to kind of think back to that moment. And here he is fighting on a main event after we tear down that card.

But it still is a main event against a very good guy, which potentially could be a number one, you know, a number one contender position. And for Dominic Gray has to come roaring back is pretty remarkable, man. And I was the one thing that I want to talk to him about, and he was kind of very candid with was one of the things that kind of dies when he was his career spy was at control is the eye. idea that he beat John Jones, like, that he was the one guy who went in there and gave John Jones that crazy fight, and most people thought he won. And I was like, you know, it ages well when you have a turnaround like this, you start knocking guys out. And all of a sudden, if you're back, people are going to remember that fight again. And they're going to talk about it. So there's a little bit of a legacy aspect to this. And I think he's fully aware of it.

And he sounded really healthy. Like you wonder sometimes the guys who get knocked out like that, how are they going to sound? He sounded very clear. He's very articulate. He sounded like he was in a good place. And I think that his storyline is pretty compelling. Yeah. It's also like the, I think the span thing is perfect because that was dramatic. Like that was a first

round of chaos as well. And it didn't seem like this like a rocket of a punch either. I think it was like, I think he just poked him basically and he went down and you're kind of like, oh. And there was that like there's nothing worse than seeing a fighter when they're in that kind of that. That

losing that skid and it's like there's like it's terrible like because all all this fucking sport is about is winning what have you done for me lately and you see a dude like that who was so close to being among the immortals beating john jones and suddenly like there's almost like a smell off and there isn't he smells fantastic i've been around the guy smells beautiful but i'm just saying figuratively do you know what i'm saying ben like it's like yeah i know exactly especially because you saw him come out of that john jones fight right where he was on a good tear to get the title shot in the first place. A lot of people came out of that being like, we think Dominic Reyes deserved to win that. And then with John Jones absent from the division, we were like, all right,

let's go ahead and have ourselves a vacant title fight. But it also felt like the UFC was sort of saying, it'll be a Dominic Reyes coronation. We're going to put him in here against Jan Blahovas. But we think he's going to win that one and then it'll kind of write the ship a little bit. And instead, he goes out there and finds out about the legendary Polish power. And, you know, and then loses the next one after that. And that is when you start, it's like watching. It's like watching a in baseball a hitter when he's going up there and he's clearly thinking just don't strike out you know uh or seeing a wide receiver in football you you kind of got that look a little bit from uh marvin harrison harrison junior last night early on where he was just like thinking like i got to catch

one of these damn things like i just like there's there's not that confidence of like i'm going up there in the air i'm taking that thing down with me that is mine it's like don't screw up and there's a big difference and i've talked to fighters about this where it's like they know hey, I got to go in there and get a win here. I need this, like, to keep my career from just sliding into oblivion. But that's a, that's not the mindset that you want to be in to go into a fight is like, I hope I don't lose. I hope I don't screw this up. Like, you want to go in there thinking, like, I'm going to take it to this guy.

And it's, it's one of those mindsets that you can't really fake. Like, you can't just pretend and get there. And I think that it is surprising because a lot of us, Chuck, we're looking at Dominic Reyes the same way. Now he's in this kind of a fight where if he does. mess around and win this one, you know, regardless of how many people have butts in the seats to see it by the time it happens. It does make it to where you have to be like, well, he's right there in the contender conversation, especially given what's happening at light heavyweight,

because like we said, during the Big Ang Pereira conversation earlier on, it's not like we have a ton of other better ideas right now, man. Like now is the time to stand up and be counted at light heavyweight because nobody really is an obvious contender that we absolutely must. give a shot to you know one one one funny thing about that uh i was i was mentioning he's training it to share as and i was like actually chuk i'm going to stop you there i'm sorry we go we have to go we have to go we're done but we will come back you can give us this thought i apologize i'm going to hold it hold it right there stop breathing we'll be back in two minutes welcome back everybody you know the ads they pay the bills volkswagons bentley's they all have

to be bought chook accept my apology no it's okay man that's Well, it's Frank's fault. We've decided, actually. We all had a conversation as we went. It's actually mysterious Frank's fault. Please, Joe. Go ahead, sir. I was pointing out that because Reyes was training at Tesherras, you know, in a perfect, in a crazy way, let's say he goes in there and wins this fight and then you get a guy. Next week, Pereira wins his fight. Would they fight each other? I'm like, it's one of those things because they've developed a pretty good rapport. And I would say that some of what he's been able to turn around. comes from that gym, you know, just kind of being around those guys a little bit. And he said he would fight, he would fight him, he'd prefer not to, but it was, it was interesting because I wasn't sure, you know, I'm like, this is a guy who never got his chance to really do it, to win the belt and all this stuff. And he was, you know, you could tell that that was going to be a hard scenario for him, but that is something to keep in mind that he may have to go against a guy that he really likes him, would rather not fight if that were to happen.

Did you get a sense when you talk to Dominic Reyes, whether or not he is aware that when you go to his Wikipedia page, Wikipedia right at the top is like, did you mean to search for Dominic Reyes, the British sleight-of-hand magician? It does not. It does. It's very surprising, too, because then when you actually do go to that page for it, because it's like, for the magician, see, Dominic Reyes without the K at the end, and it tells you that he is noted for creating the routine ninja coins, a Chinese-style coin, magically transforms

into any coin that it touches. And see, me and my buddy, Chad Dundas were having this conversation on the co-made event podcast earlier this week. And the next thing you know, you start looking up all the categories of magicians from sleight of hand to mechanical to spiritualists. Yes.

And you just realize, like, man, this is what Wikipedia gives you is you start out being like, I want to go over there and find out, I forget which college. Thank you. Thank you for pulling this up. Amazing stuff on it.

You know, you start. out being like, where did Dominic Reyes play free safety or whatever it was in college ball? And then the next thing you know, you're going like, huh, so there are like mechanical magicians. There are like, you know, stand up magicians. There's way more different categories than I thought. Perhaps the greatest trick that Dominic Reyes has ever performed is that, have you ever seen either one of those guys in the same room together? Wow. I'm just asking.

Blowing your mind right now. I do want to note that it's his Wikipedia page, the magician. says that his clients, which I think is an interesting choice of terms, have included Queen Elizabeth II, Sony, Volvo, BMW, and the British Board of Film Classification and the Royal Navy.

And I'm like, by clients, do you mean he performed the Ninja Coins trick for him one time? It is what that means. Because I feel like that's what you mean. I hope I never fucking heard of this other guy. I mean, we're quite close to the UK. And I swear I would have fucking heard about his magic trick

I thought you had your finger on the pulse of the UK magic scene. I know. I mean, I'm a constant letdown. Come here. Before we job off this. I screwed up, though, by not asking Dom and Graves about this. My God. Sorry.

Next time I thought of. Oscar Losef is saying he's a UK icon. Is Oscar messing with us? Is he messing with us? He's asking no idea. He's taking the piss. He's taking the piss is what he's doing. What a bullocks about.

I knew it. Tell me this. are you both are you both picking Reyes here and just before he has given me your answer know that I have picked Ulberg in the parallel pals so that nearly guarantees that he will

in fact, not Ulberg that Dominic Reyes will in fact win this fight No I'm picking Oldberg Yeah I think you Oldberg wins a If we're the saddest thing is we'll probably see him return to his power Like explosive in this fight

and uh and wilberg will i i think wolberg wins yeah yeah well hope so because i'm on a two points kid i have a pick and last which is horrific you know they they just lumped me into the shit slot every time i don't mind being that guy you know what i mean like a gunner in world war two just in the most yeah you know we can tell how you don't mind we can tell it's caught on no fucking mind though oh um but i will say i need some advice for this uh nfll game lads but the situation i need to explain it to you half of pittsburgh is here. This guy, Dan Rooney, who owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, apparently very Irish. Nobody told me. He's running around, like, you know, going to all these different parts of

Ireland. Aaron Rogers is up there talking about I'm actually Irish. I just can't wait for my points of Guinness. Unfortunately, the guy who got us our tickets, Connor Reuter, he is the partner of Elaine's, one of Elaine's best friends, Hannah, we're all going together. It's going to be fantastic. He was like, let's go and support the Vikings. When this all kicked off, when nobody was talking about how Irish the Steelers were. Elaine gets me a Vikings jersey for my birthday. She's like, go and get me a Vikings half for

this thing. We're all going to support the Vikings. I was like, okay, this is great. As the week is going on, I'm like, this is becoming Dutch. You know, the Steelers have pretty much bought Irish loyalty here, and we're like, okay, we're Vikings people. Connor, the guy who suggested we

would support the Vikings, text me this morning and said, I couldn't get any Vikings stuff. I'm just going to wear a Saints Jersey. So now it's me. Just me and Elaine, it seems, in Ireland, going to support the Vikings. As you know, in UK and Ireland, there's this stuff called hooligans. They go around and beat the shit out of each other if they don't like the same team. I'm just asking you, these Pittsburgh people who are coming over on the jet planes to watch this game, am I going to have to get Hansy on the north side of Dublin and fight for my team's honour, even though wouldn't

particularly class myself as a Vikings fan then? You know, I I'm interested in the decision to be like, I'll just wear a jersey from a completely different team. That's what they do in those European games. A lot of times they show that they hand the crowd and they're all wearing different jerseys, had nothing to do with the game. Yeah. I mean, especially because the experience that I have had going to soccer matches in different European countries has led me to believe, don't mess around with that stuff. You better either be in the visiting fan section or you better be wearing either something neutral and not supporting. any soccer team or home team gear.

They seem to take that pretty seriously. And so I guess I thought that that would have carried over into how they're approach in NFL fandom rather than just being like, here is a jersey to show that I am familiar with the game of football. You know, not necessarily either one of these two teams, but just to let you know that I've heard of it before and have maybe even seen a game and have some opinions, even though they have nothing to do with this particular matchup. Like, that's an interesting choice.

they are obnoxious pizzi they are obnoxious man i went to a uh an a fc championship game in denver in 2005 is still the jake plumber era and it was against pittsburgh and there must have been 25 000 of those terrible towels just waving around and stuff and they were just so obnoxious of course pittsburgh won that game so you had to hear them on all the way out and all this stuff so i think really you'll only really hear about it you know if pittsburgh wins on your way out that's when you're going to have a problem is all those guys rubbing it in your face. Yeah, I'm like, I don't think that will upset me too much because I don't really care

and I'll put like, I feel like if I win, if my beautiful Vikings win, and I have a Justin Jefferson jersey and he's a fantastic player. I'm wondering which player you chose. Well, Langell, I'm like a bigger Aaron Jones guy if I'm going to be particularly honest. I love his shit. Fantastic. He's injured. But if he fucking scores a touchdown and they win this game, I am going to be the biggest

prick in Dublin for that whole day. Are you going to do the gritty or whatever like to the... I'm going to do whatever the fuck it is that they don't want me to do. Okay. Until someone fights me, I will make an absolute prick of myself. What you really need is one of those the like Viking helmet things they had.

Yeah. Like the long blonde braids coming down out of it. Like that's the kind of shit you really need. Well, I'll look out. I'm going to send you guys a picture of me at this game. Please do. Also, Americans seem to be shocked by the level of intoxications an Irish person will will reach at a game. Not speaking out of.

That would be interesting to see. The NFL games, like, especially the night games, I don't know if you've been to any of these, but like a Sunday or Monday night type game, it gets pretty drunk, man. It's a pretty drunk crowd. I can remember leaving that, like, the toilet during one of the American football,

the college game, and I was with my friend Stee, who's a huge fucking bodybuilder guy in fairness, so you can understand to some degree. But we're, like, shouting at each other about what we're doing after this. while pissing, obviously, you know, in this urinal. And I can remember turning around, we wash our hands, and as we're walking out,

like, there's just an American dude, like, holding his kids as if, like, something terrible. And I was like, no, no, sorry. Whoa, what the fuck? So I'm looking forward to, my goal for Sunday is to not make anyone make that face, you know? Hopefully Elaine being there, I'll be like, you know, stop having fun.

You know what? That's, that's on them, Pizzi. Don't, don't, uh, dim your shine just because, It blinds other people's sensitive eyes. I say, let Pizzi be Pizzi out there in those streets. Don't tone it down for anybody. They're the ones, they're bringing their stuff over to you guys. They need to see how you guys do it.

You don't need to try to fit into their mold. I like how you're most excited to see Aaron Rogers, but yeah, you're going to wear the opposing team's jersey. This should be fun. Well, I mean, he's just so controversial, isn't he the guy? I mean, he's just, and he throws a beautiful ball, you know? It does. I watched that Netflix documentary

and I laughed throughout the whole thing I've never seen a man more self-involved in my life and I think it's class that like if you can throw a football like that it's okay do you know what mate do whatever the fuck you want

because tight spiral baby that's all we care about but I'm very excited I have to say I'm having a great day everyone's planning like oh where will we go after and like I'm going to have to go straight to bed

I'm going to have to be put down after this game that's what's going to happen but um do we have any super chats jordan oh what he remembered ah yeah come on no we don't have any yes oh that's so perfect the week he remembers there are no super chats oh couldn't have out any better that's great never fucking calling for superchats ever again after this moment but fantastic. We did remember. Ben, Chuck.

All crackheads. PFL Europe is happening right now, if you're interested, by the way. Cage Warriors from Ireland happening tomorrow. And of course, we have that paired card that nobody wants to pay for. So you guys have a fantastic week watching those fights. I'll try and not come in black and blue from getting

beat up by Pittsburgh fans on Monday. And have a will-a-weekend. Love you very much. Thank you.