The Ariel Helwani Show - Oscar De La Hoya at his home, Derek Moneyberg in studio, Chito Vera, Mike Malott, full weekend recap

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show with a tribute to coach Duke Roufus, who tragically died on Friday (00:10)Then, the Boys in the Back and Petesy Carroll join Ariel to recap UFC Vancouver, starting with the main event between Brendan Allen and Reinier de Ridder. After an in-depth conversation about MMA refereeing, the crew covers the rest of the card and other news and notes from the weekend (06:26).Mike Malott joins following a big win over Kevin Holland at UFC Vancouver, expressing frustration over some controversial low blows, feeling Holland embellished the groin shots and how the controversy is overshadowing his victory, reacting to Holland’s tweets after the fact, expecting to enter the UFC rankings, and more (1:02:04).Ariel visited Oscar De La Hoya at his home in Las Vegas to discuss a host of topics, including ‘Boots’ Ennis’ recent win and a potential meeting with Vergil Ortiz Jr., Top Rank not yet securing a broadcast deal, the launch of Zuffa Boxing and proposed amendments to the Ali Act, his relationship with Ryan Garcia, Jake Paul vs. ‘Tank’ Davis, Golden Boy’s next broadcast deal, and more (1:24:39).Derek Moneyberg sits down in-studio to open up about his businesses, his interest in combat sports, taking inspiration from BJ Penn in earning his black belt, his relationships with various fighters, his beef with Sean Strickland and their viral interaction, his challenge to Strickland for a public match, his upbringing and previous career as a dating coach, settling his differences with Mikey Musumeci, social media marketing and bots, and more (2:15:21).Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera returns following his loss to Aiemann Zahabi and speaks about the aftermath, feeling like he did more damage despite landing less total strikes, not being defined by his three-fight skid, leaving the arena immediately after the fight, his high hopes for fellow Ecuadorian Michael Morales, and more (3:20:28).After a few bits of news and notes, Ariel answers your Super Chats (3:56:30).

Hey, everyone. Hope you're doing well. Thank you for joining our show. It's good to have you here on a Monday afternoon. There's a lot to talk about, of course, coming off of a very busy weekend in the world of combat sports, but I wanted to start off the day acknowledging that on Friday we heard and received some awful news regarding a very important figure in the world of combat sports, and in particular mixed martial arts and kickboxing. You may have heard by now that the legendary head coach, Duke Rufus, passed away on October 17th. It has been reported that he passed away quietly in his sleep. Not a lot of details just yet regarding his passing, but shocking nonetheless. We just saw him in Sergio Pettus's corner in Dubai when he was over there pulling off that

incredible victory, that spinning back elbow win over Magomed, Magomadov. An amazing moment. and one that I was texting him about afterwards, just another in a great line of highlights that he helped produce. Obviously, well known for leading the men over at Rufus Sport, the team that he started following a great kickboxing and boxing career, coached the likes of CM Punk, coach the likes of Anthony and Sergio Pettus,

their younger brother as well, Alan Belcher, and Ben Ascran, Tyron Woodley, Ben Rothwell. You look at all those guys, he helped develop them into championship fighters. and was just a great guy, a guy who we had on this show many of times was always gracious with his time, was always willing and happy to come on and talk about his guys. I'm reminded of an interview after a big win for Anthony Pettis back in 2016 where he said that the rough times for Anthony were hurting him so bad that he was considering walking away from the sport.

That's how much it meant to him and that's how much those brothers in particular meant to him, Anthony and Sergio Pettis. I remember UFC won, what was it, one, I think, 164 in Milwaukee in August of 2013 when Anthony won the belt submitting Benson Henderson. And what a moment that was for Milwaukee MMA. What a moment that was for the team, for Anthony, for Duke, for everyone, for the whole family. Anthony and Sergio, of course, tragically lost their father at a young age. And Duke very much became that person to them. And so when we found out about this news on Friday, it was like another gut punch. We've seemingly had too many of these over the last, you know, month or two with the notable and beloved figures in this sport. Very hard to process. Had a 36 and 8

and 1 kickboxing record, 2 and 0 is a pro boxer as well, but it was really what he did with that team. Again, championship fighters like Anthony and Sergio, championship fighters like Tyrant. Tyrant became a tremendous striker, winning his UFC title via strikes, a wrestler-turned-striker. Ben Ascran as well became a championship-level

fighter after the work that he put in at Rufus Sport in Milwaukee. And several of these fighters went on social media after the news broke to just share some of their grief. Anthony writing, when my dad was killed, you took me in and became my father. Together, we did The Impossible and made it to the top. I will

always make you proud. You've taught me so much. I will make sure your legacy continues on RIP coach. That's Anthony Pettis. This is his younger brother, Sergio, who was just with him, like I said, at the PFL Dubai show about two weeks ago, pulling off an incredible Rufus sport-like spinning back elbow from 13 to 32. You've taught me so many lessons. I've been competing since age 14, and you have been in my corner for every single competition until age 32. We had plans of going until we both couldn't anymore. You've been my father figure and mentor for quite some time and made two kids from the south side of Milwaukee champions. We were so close to getting one more belt together. This one hurts deep, going to feel we're continuing

this martial arts journey without you, but I know you wouldn't want it any other way. Long live Duke Rufus. He also added, our last go together will always be one of my favorites. We had 32 professional MMA fights together, two boxing fights, four amateur kickboxing, one pro kickboxing, two amateur MMA fights, two pancreation. You have always believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. You have always said, the best is yet to come and I'm going to be a late bloomer. And I believe you are right. These next couple of years left of my career are still going to be what we started chasing greatness and belts. This is the aforementioned Tired Woodley writing Coach Duke Rufus played a big part in my team.

We will all miss you. You were the glue that kept everything together. This was my pre-fight routine for my last UFC title victory, UFC 218 versus Till he posted this on his Instagram and best fight of my career. Couldn't have done it without you guys. Matt Brown also weighing in rest in peace legend. Duke was a pioneer, an awesome guy to hang with an encyclopedia of knowledge he will be missed. There were a ton of tributes that poured in for Duke Rufus, who was just 55 years young and still very much one of the best coaches in the game,

heading up one of the best teams and gyms in the game as well. An awful and tragic piece of news coming our way on Friday, an incredible figure. If there was an MMA Hall of Fame, he would surely be a first ballot Hall of Famer. And you do hope that that day comes and that he gets that recognition. but for now we send our love, our thoughts, our prayers, our heart and soul to everyone who knew Duke Rufus, who was a student of his, his fellow coaches at the team as well,

and of course his family and friends. Rest in peace, Duke Rufus. Ladies and gentlemen, now, welcome to the Eria, Hawaii Show. Back in your life on this Monday, October 20th, 2000. And 25, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a Monday afternoon in New York City, somewhat rainy, misty, a little bit cold, fall is here. It's a great time to be talking combat sports. Coming off a very, very busy weekend in combat sports.

There was a stretch on Saturday where it seemed like in all corners of the world, people were getting either knocked out, submitted. Crazy things were happening all over the place. It was dizzying. There was a stretch there where you had, it seemed like, events literally happening all over the world. You had PFL happening in Rwanda. You had Octagon happening in Cologne, Germany. You had Brave happening in Lithuania, KSW in Czech Republic, Aris in France, and that rolled right into the UFC in Vancouver. There was an MVP card in South Padre, Texas as well.

There was just a lot going on on Saturday. So there's a lot to talk about. There's a lot of highlights. There's a lot of notable things that happen. After the show on Wednesday, New York, Rick and I went to Las Vegas on Thursday. And in Las Vegas, we did two very notable things. On Friday, we went to Oscar Delahoya's house, believe it or not. And we had a wide-ranging chat with the golden boy himself about a whole host of topics.

Great time to talk to him. with everything going on in the world of Golden Boy, in the world of boxing, Ali-Iak, Zufa Boxing, Ryan Garcia as well. He told me that it's the first time that he's done an interview from his home. We've seen him do interviews like via Zoom. He's done his clapback Thursdays. But like having someone come to his home and speak to him was a great honor and privilege. It's an absolute beautiful home, one that he had said he was going to sell,

but now he's not selling anymore, and I don't blame him. It's exquisite. And so we sat down with him. We did that interview and you will be able to watch and enjoy that interview in about a little over an hour's time right here now. It is not aired anywhere. We're going to start doing more of these when we're going out and traveling. I want to try to link up with people and do these sit downs that will premiere right here on the program. Notable ones, timely ones, newsmaking ones, newsworthy ones, they will premiere and you'll have one of those today on the program.

We used to do a lot of that during the ESPN days. The reason, the main reason why we went to Las Vegas, though, was to film our second uncrowned film. Our first is almost ready to go, and it is going to air this week. More on that tomorrow, but stay tuned. Our first, which is entitled, What is BKFC, an uncrown film, is an amazing, amazing look at the DNA of BKFC, that's Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. The second was shot on Friday, and it was Rick. and I, Casey as well, a little bit of help too, at the Fight Circus show in Las Vegas,

their American debut, you may be familiar with Fight Circus, you maybe not. It's a wild time. We saw some very, very interesting characters there, to put it mildly, and that will come out next month. But it was great, and I'm loving doing this, and it's exactly what I envisioned, and it's exactly what I wanted, and I think it's going to be a great addition to the uncrowned empire, if you will. Flew home Saturday, and I didn't know that this, I don't know if this is a new thing as far as airlines are concerned, but I was able to watch, my flight was in the afternoon, and I was able to watch the entire UFC card on my phone in the air, which was kind of great because

usually, you know, a card that will start, I think it started around one Pacific for Eastern as far as the prelims. A card like that, somewhat middle of the day, you know, you're doing still a bunch of stuff, you're at soccer games, you're listening. Here I was locked in from beginning to end. And what a card to be locked into. What a freaking card. A lot to digest and dissect from this card. Some good, some not very good. So we have a lot to discuss as far as that card is concerned. And I'm feeling some butterflies. I'm not going to lie on this Monday afternoon, because as you know it's the two best words

in all of sports tonight it's game seven in the six you see what I did there game seven in the six in the year filled with six seven it's game seven in the six you see what I did there

I'm tracking I'm tracking uh what you did what it's game seven in the six as the kids like to say six seven yeah lost the bitter one on friday a bit of a managerial blunder came back last night Vladdy just absolutely crushing it oh what a post game interview what a walkoff interview the cinema the 360 it was a 720 around him Vladdy are you ready for game seven seven you

ask me if I'm ready I born ready I born ready and I want it all for the city Oh my God, oh my God, you know yourself. You locked in PT to Game 7? Do you have any idea what I'm talking about? Do you have any idea what this is? ALCS Game 7, J's Mariners with a chance to meet the dastardly and bastardly Dodgers in the World Series. Do you have any idea what this is? I saw the 360 camera thing.

Come on, you have to admit. As far as post-game interviews are concerned, cinematic. It was like a music video. It was like a music video, honestly. Yeah, big games over here. over the weekend too. And I have overdone it a bit myself yesterday, if we're completely honest. I can hear it in the voice.

I texted PT yesterday midday about his presence on the post show. I got a reply almost about 24 hours later to a text, which is very un-PITI-like. The first thought that came to mind was, what were you doing yesterday, PT? Hardierce, I was out of it. Yeah. Has this anything to do with the Man United win over Liverpool? So here's the thing. My friends, it's a group of either United or Liverpool, and I was like, let's all get together for this game.

Show up at the pub, only the United Ladder there. Now, that has, you know, it's radicalized us immediately. We're very upset with them for not being there. And then the game plays out the way it does. And one thing led to another. And 12 hours later, it was still in the same place. I thought you say 12, 12 beers later. How many beers total?

That way more than 12. Wow. What are we talking? What are we talking? 20? I don't know, man. Like, it's, I can't tell you, but it... Are you hurting right now? I'm shocked you're here. Over the course of how long?

What do you mean? Like, how long was the span of 20-something beers? 10 hours. Shee. I thought... Like, I saw the look on the security's faces we were leaving, like, at close when we had just arrived at 3 p.m. and they're closing the doors and we're still there. It was...

What time is closed? It was utter disgust, but respect as well. What time is closed? What time is close? 1.30. I rang Chuck Mennanthal at one point. Why? I got to call Chuck. Because of the Broncos win over the Giants? Yeah.

Put a few quid on the Broncos they were chasing the game. And they won. Which was, on FaceTime? It's 6.30 over there? Yeah. And you're still hung over? Yeah. Well, you know, I brought the dog for a walk.

Got caught in a shower. By the way, fair play to you. You could have used the token of, you know, appearing on the Monday after the post. show you could have used that one say like hey do I get a jail uh what is it jail not a jail get a jail free card but um not to be here no I appreciate that it's very kind of you yeah what about Ange what about Ange? Uh you know Ange Ball no more sounds like we're going to have Dyche Ball now and um you know it it's a crazy time for us what what a difference a year

makes right a year ago we're flying high now we're on our third gaffer and a total mess of a situation I for one for all those wondering am happy Ange is gone he never seemed like you really wanted to be there. His reason when he was asked, why do you want to be here? Why are you taking this job? Well, it sure beats the morning school run. Yeah, no, thanks. We're good, bro. We're good. You were shite with Tottenham. I know you got the Europa League. That's because of Brandon Johnson. Apparently, Sean Deich lives in Nottingham. Apparently, like, this is his dream job. So I know he wasn't great with Everton. Is it an amazing? Isn't it amazing for all the Everton forest jokes that we get the guy that almost sunk Everton now to save us? It's an incredible world that we live in.

All is well, all as well. Okay, let's get into things, guys. Today is an incredible day, guys. I don't know if you know this, but like around a month ago, I stumbled upon a video of Sean Strickland talking to a guy named Derek Moneyberg and I asked you guys to explain to me who this individual was. Well, fast forward to October 20th and Derek Moneyberg, aka Dale Bouskowski, is going to be joining us in studio at about 3 p.m. Eastern time. A lot of intrigue, a lot of questions, got a lot of text. When I put this out there, and so people seem to be interested in what he's all about, what the story is, the YouTube channel, the Black Belt, the Jiu-Jitsu, the wealth, the investments, the dating, all that stuff. So Derek Moneyberg, in fact, in the flesh at 3 o'clock, at 415, Marlon Chito Vera is going to join us to talk about his somewhat controversial loss to Amiz Abbey. he feels very strongly about the fact that he deserved to win that fight this past weekend, a big win for Zahabia, another close one for him. So we'll check in with Chito. Prior to the Derek interview is when we'll air the visit to Oscar Deloia's house, which I think you will thoroughly enjoy.

I also got to see some of his memorabilia from his career. And as far as interviews are concerned, in about 40 minutes' time, we're going to be joined by the one and only Mike Malott, who had a win over, Kevin Holland. A somewhat controversial win as well was some very bad officiating and that really seemed to mar what transpired Saturday in Vancouver. But let's be honest, while there were some real questionable calls from officials and officiating, there was nothing questionable about the main event. Brendan Allen, who took this fight on about three weeks notice guys, replacing the injured Anthony Fluffy Hernandez

derails the RDR hype train in a fight that I think a lot of people were not picking him to win in a fight that I think a lot of people thought would be RDR maybe giving Nasrudin Imov a little bit of a run for his money in terms of the race to get to Chamsat remember if RDR would have won

that would have been five wins for him in the span of approximately 365 days four wins this year he's coming off a tremendous win over Robert Whitaker, a tremendous win prior to that over Bow Nickel, and he got thoroughly dominated by Brendan Allen. Again, Brandon Allen, who was on a bit of a run, lost, came back this summer, beat Marvin Vittory, but I think a lot of people were not expecting him. A sizable, I'm trying to find here, he was an underdog, I do believe, going into this fight, right?

He was like two and a half, uh, uh, plus 185. RDR was like two and a half to one favorite. Yeah, Brendan Allen A plus 185. And he went in there and he broke him. He broke him to the point where in between the fourth and fifth rounds, RDR's corner stopped the fight. And he heard it afterwards. He heard it from everyone. RDR heard it from Chamsat Chimayev via Twitter. We have Chamsat weighing in here.

This bullshit guy give up. We have it from Paulo Costa. if I knew it would only last four rounds, I would go for it, meaning he was asked to take this fight, I guess, on short notice, and he's joking like, hey, I could have lasted four rounds. Terrence McKinney, I guess when you're done, you're done. Kyle Bohalio, all the middle weights weighing in. Did RDR get, let's go back there, sorry?

Did RDR get injured in the fight, or he'd just give up? Real question, guys, laughing emoji. Imov, knew it, laughing. Everyone clowning on RDR. His coach, his head coach weighing in, Harun Ozcan, normally I don't share personal things on here, but I feel I owe a little explanation to everyone who's been behind us. First of all, thank you for the amazing support we've been receiving.

It's been a crazy and busy year so far. Last night didn't go as we wanted. After a strong start in the first round, things quickly started fading, and we couldn't really recover from the shots in and after the second round. I made the call to stop the fight after the fourth round. I take full responsibility for that decision, and it was the right call to make for me in the moment. It's not a decision I ever wanted to make,

but I guess sometimes you have to. My job is to coach, but also to look for my fighter's health. I've been with Reneer for basically his whole career and saw too many signs that made me step in. If I didn't do anything, he would have continued to fight rather than risk unnecessary damage. I decided to call it a day and go home as healthy as possible to fight another day.

Absolutely do not care about pleasing others. If it comes at the cost of someone's health, There's a thin line between, quote, being tough and watching out for your health. This sport can be brutal. These guys sacrifice a lot of their life in and out of the cage. There's no need for excess damage. If it can be avoided, most people forget they're human too. Zero excuses for this loss.

We knew what we were going for. We are not happy with the performance. But for now, recovery first, evaluated some stuff. And we'll be back next year. It has been an amazing year overall. I'm thankful for all the highs and lows. Proud of my brother, RDR. We've come a long way.

the reason I wanted to read all of that is I commend this coach. We don't see this enough. The fact that I feel like he almost has to defend the decision is crazy to me. Very rarely in boxing, do you see a head coach or head trainer having to defend the decision to stop the fight? It happens all the time. But in our sport, you're clown on. And I know there was a jockeying position. I know he has said some stuff. I don't know if it's his account, not his account. Who the hell knows? But you're being dunked on for just saying, you know what? Let me live to fight another day. RDR was not winning that fight he won the first round thoroughly dominated in the next three rounds lived to fight another day absolutely the right call absolutely the right call and Brendan Allen looks great in all of this

because he says afterwards like hey I told you before he's not that guy and I just told you again he's not that guy and good for him he proved it I feel bad for RDR that he's got it you know like the guys had a tremendous year no one thought he'd beat Bo Nicol

and then they thought he'd get exposed by Robert Whitaker he has proven to be exactly who he said he was coming into the UFC. Even his UFC debut was a little Comsi Comzaa, and then afterwards, it was all smooth sailing up until this point in 2025. That was his fourth fight of 2025. But obviously he needs a bit of a break now. And the big takeaway from the fight is, of course, now there's no discussion.

Now there's no mystery. It's Hamzaa Shamaa versus Nasr de Niemav for the belt. If RDR would have won and won in spectacular fashion, I think he would have made them think. I think he would have made them ponder what's the best move. It's Imov. And let me be clear. As we said it, you know, after he won in France in September, this was, you know,

Imov did what he had to do. Now it was up to Fluffy and or RDR to steal it away. Fluffy gets hurt. RDR loses. It's a done deal. Pizzi, agree or disagree? Yeah, absolutely. And I think we'd be hypocrites if we came on here today and we were like, oh, this guy

quitting on a steal. we've said it so many times that fighters need to be saved from themselves and I honestly didn't think there was a possibility of RDR getting back into that fight there was no way I was watching that going oh maybe he can do something in the fifth he looked completely out on his feet

looked like it was finished from his point of view so like you I commend the coach for that I think it does set up email off but just on RDR again you know he's taking this fight in short notice as well like he was obviously very prepared for someone like Fluffy Alan's had a great performance

but like you can't on one hand be going well done taking this guy on short notice saving this show keeping it going and then be like well I can't believe this guy quit on the stool it's um you know you can't please everyone it's not a good thing this happens often

in the sport but I'm with you I think that the coach did a great job anyone disagree with imov being next it's kind of the obvious one right no he's got to be no I don't know who else you could suggest the only thing that this is going to come down to is the thing that it always comes down to his timing. If Imovov can go when they want to make that fight,

great. If he can't, maybe Brendan gets a call, maybe Fluffy gets a call. Who knows how that goes? But if Imobov is healthy and can go when they want to do that fight, he's the first option. So you look at the middleweight division, Hamzad is the champion. Drikas is still ranked number one. Imavov number two is obviously not Drickis next. Naserdin, as we say, should be next. three is Strickland, four is RDR, five is Izzy, six is Fluffy, seven is Kio, eight is Robert, nine is Brendan Allen, and then 10 is Michael Venom Page. I tweeted afterwards that I think it should be Hamzad versus Imov next. I think it should be Brendan Allen versus DDP next, and then I think it should be Fluffy versus Strickland next. Remember, Alan and Fluffy fought not that long ago,

so I don't know if we have to see that just yet. And I like the idea of Fluffy getting a big, you know, a big fight against Strickland. If he wins, he should then be next, meaning next after the winner of Hamzad for Zimov. And then if Strickland wins, now of a sudden he's right back in the mix. DDP needs a fight against a big name, but not someone who is next to derail that guy because you don't want to put DDP in a position where he's next for Hamzat Shama. Because he just got thoroughly beat down. And so I kind of like this.

What do you think, Rick? So then maybe Cayo and Izzy? What do you do with those guys? Love Kyle and Izzy. There also is, I think MVP is moving up the ranks at 185. He's in the mix as well. MVP Whitaker? Very fun.

I feel like these all kind of make sense. It all has sorted itself out to a certain degree. Well, the other thing is, like, do you do Brendan Allen maybe, do you do Brendan Allen versus Fluffy? Like does Brendan, and you just run it? said. We just saw that. We saw it. I know. I know. I know. Yeah. I don't think we need to see it again. I think you give them a fresh matchup. Keep them separate. Keep them growing.

Strickland. I like the Strickland. I like the Strickland versus fluffy fight. Yeah. I like it a lot. Put that on a pay-per-view. Maybe like that featured bout or something. Co-main event, maybe, five round, number one contender. I'm down. But it's kind of a number one contender for one guy. I don't know if Strickland could jump into a title shot with Hamza. With the heat Dave got going, if Strickland wins that fight, I'm putting Strickland in there. No problem. Did you say who's next for RDR?

RDR is going to need a really long time off. He needs a break. I think all these guys will fight before he fights. I think so too. I mean, five fights in 12 months is insane. In less than a year's time, this guy went from, is he going to beat Kevin Holland to top five ranked contender? There is nothing to be sad about.

There is nothing to mourn at this point. Like, RDR has really done a lot of work in this year's time. I love what his coach did. take a break, reset, and then come back against another top contender. He's done a lot in this year's time. Take some time off. No problem.

Easy. What about Izzy versus RDR? I feel like Izzy's like down for one fight a year at this point. I was going to say, I think the timeline depends on when Izzy's coming back, when he's going to fight again. I mean, he's DJ in these days. He's got the turntables out, man. It feels like we haven't seen Izzy in a while,

so I would expect him to come back before I'd want to probably see RDR back. but if the timings line up, I don't hate that fight either. Yeah, his last fight was in February. Yeah. And so, like, if he comes back in February, that's probably... Then what do you do with Kayo? Kayo seems like almost an odd man out at that. Yeah.

These are good problems to have. There's a lot of middle-weight contenders. There's a lot of fresh matchups. There's a lot of fights that could be made. Does it all kind of feel, though, that they're sort of like the same, like, in that there's no superstar fight for Hamsat right now? No. No, there's not. There's no, like, I feel like Walterway, there's like, oh, man, like who's, you know, like that,

little thing that we were talking about all week last week. Yeah. And all these guys are kind of, I don't know. I don't know how to describe it. The two biggest names in the division are Strickland and Israel Adasanya. And if Israel Adasanya fights this infrequently, I don't see how he ultimately gets back to a title shot. I think he's probably past the title contention days.

And for Strickland, if he wins, I think he would have a strong case to be next just because Hamzot will probably want that fight. I wonder if they give a guy like a Joe Pfe, like someone on the outside looking in the top 10 one of these dudes. Yeah. That's true. A fast track somebody. Yeah. And, you know, they've been known to do that if they believe in someone. I mean, to a degree they were trying to do that with Bo Nicol by putting him in there against the RDR and Nichols fighting next month. We are at that issue again. I guess, you know, obviously a lot of these guys just fought, but I don't think anyone in the top 10 has a fight now in middleweight. Right. But yes,

a lot of them either just fought or got injured. Hamsa just fought in August. So that, to me is all very clean, I need to talk to you guys about the co-main event and about Big Dan Merglietta and about the constant, I mean, and we're going to get into it with the Kyle Nelson fight as well. What the fuck? What the fuck, man? Like, first of all, okay, the Kyle Nelson fight was worse. In case you missed it with the Kyle Nelson fight, he's fighting Matt for Vola. Big Dan's the referee in that fight. And he was the referee also in the Mike Malad versus Kevin Holland fight. In the Kyle Nelson fight, it seems pretty damn clear while watching it that the fight is

stopped with three seconds left in the first round. Kyle Nelson wins via first round TKO. Ground and pound. I didn't think it was a bad stoppage at all. It seemed like Favola was out. He was stumbling when he gets all that stuff. Like this wasn't Jake Matthews against Neil Magny in the sense that like, what? Where's the stoppage?

Where did this come from? it seemed pretty clear. Three seconds left, that's when it stops. Then all of a sudden, you're watching, you're watching, you're watching, they go to their respective corners, and now it seems like the fight is continuing. Now, I have to give massive props to the UFC broadcast. They didn't shy away from this. Like, they covered it, and they showed you replays, and they showed you the clock, and they

did not try to, you know, sugarcoat it or sweep it into the rug. They even went to Mark Ratner, and it was almost like hard for him because I know Mark is such a good guy. He doesn't want to throw Dan under the bus necessarily, but they even went to Mark Ratner. And he's like, yeah, that, you know, that probably should have been stopped too. You know, he was a little uncomfortable saying it. The fight continues. And in the end, Kyle Nelson wins via decision.

So it's different from the Matthews fight. In the Matthews fight, he was at least somewhat declared winner. He thinks the fight's over, and then he ends up losing in heartbreaking fashion. So in the end, you could say the right guy won. But they fought for two more rounds. And they said they thought he thought that he thought that he heard the horn. What? Even if he thought he heard the horn. He still stopped the fight. The fight's over. You can't just be like, whoops. Actually, there were three seconds up. You stopped the fight. It's over. For better or worse. And in this case, it was actually the right call. The fight should have been stopped. Why did you continue? Now, I asked this question because we'll never get the answer because they don't do media. They don't talk. They don't put out any sort of statement afterwards. There's nothing. And it's happening every single week now. There's like a pool of five or six referees in this sport. It's the same. same guys for the last 15 years or so. There's no new blood. There's no good guys. None of them

are getting paid. There's no incentive to come into the sport and do this. There's no incentive to develop and get better. And meanwhile, now with the rise of gambling, you're getting these ugly scenes of people losing their mind because there's so much at stake here. And it's putting this dark and ugly cloud over the events. I still can't understand what he was thinking. Because even if he says that he heard the horn, you still stop the fight. You still stop the fight. So heard the horn or not, you stop the fight. The fight's over, right?

I have two, you said you laid that all very well. I have two main issues. One, immediately after the bell, Dan goes to Nelson and says the fight is still on. He's saying it was not a stoppage. My number one issue is how did nobody correct that, right? If somebody needs to say, yeah. Somebody needs to tell him, hey, Dan, you got that wrong. You stopped that fight.

There were three seconds left on the clock. That's now a TKO. Secondarily, they seem to have gone to replay, watched what happened, and then at no point from then did anybody step in, right? There's a replay official. There's something that allows you to now frame by frame go and say, okay, this is what happened. And at no point did they then interject there? Even if you ring the bell for round two, you have to go back and correct this. This is unforgivably bad.

There is no reason for them to continue to fight on. There's no reason for them to take potential damage. there's no reason for Kyle Nelson to have what happened to Jake Matthews, which is, I've won this fight, and now I lose it later in the fight. It's unforgivable. It is, it is egregious because they have the tools at their disposal to fix this. It is not, this is not a difficult call. This is not, I made a wrong judgment call. This is, I stopped the fight. The fight's over. There's no, there's no debate. There's no argument. There's no thing that can change that. It doesn't matter what he thinks he heard. He stopped the fight and they stopped fighting. It should be over. It should have been overturned right there, right there. and become a TKO, and I just don't have sympathy for it. Kyle is such a good guy that even in the post presser, he was so polite and Canadian-like when talking about it, but think about the feeling of being like, oh, my God, I won, I can exhale, you know what I mean? And then you're like, oh, that's very dangerous.

Now, he got lucky. Jake Matthews didn't. This is an awful call. And then the way in which he handled the Mike Malott, Kevin Holland situation was also pretty damn bad. First of all, two shots below the belt, one shot, and we're going to have Mike on, and I'm going to ask him these questions. And I don't think that Mike is a bad guy. I think he's actually a great guy. I don't think he's a dirty fighter at all. I don't think it's malicious. I don't even think it's intentional. But again, enough of this intentional, non-intentional nonsense. No one intentionally tries to foul their opponent. Unless you're going out there and you could see it on your face that you've got a few screws loose and that you're an evil, malicious person. No one's trying to ruin the fight.

No one's trying to end the fight unceremoniously. No one's trying to get penalized. It just happens in the flow of the fight. Two guys kick at the same time. You misjudge things. Like, no one's trying to get blocked in basketball. No one's trying to go off sides in football. But you do make mistakes, and those mistakes need to be penalized.

And so when you see it happen once, okay, more often than not, there's a warning. You see it happen twice to the point where the opponent, the guy who got hit, Kevin Holland, can't stand, has used up all the five minutes. You still don't take away a point. And then the round ends. And then the second round starts. And now the doctor is coming in is being called in. Why was the doctor called in when he was using up the five minutes?

Because the problem is, if the fight would have been stopped, when the doctor came in after the first round was over, and Kevin can't fight, now he loses via DQ. How does that make sense? Because it didn't happen within the five minutes. a point should have been taken away, he should have had better command of the situation, doctors should be brought in when it's very clear that Kevin is unable to, you know, stand up, and then, you know, this is no knock on him per se, but this rule that like, okay, now the doctor is going to come in afterwards, and because Kevin can't continue due to a foul that happened, you know, in the previous round, now he loses via DQ, is crazy to me.

point is he's unsure of himself these are people's lives at stake these are people's you know health at stake and I just thought those two showings after a string of some really bad showings over the you know like we talked about Keith Peterson recently it's like how many times is this going to happen and and the truth is I don't know what the answer is other than the fact that look everyone knows that these officials and refs and judges don't work for the promotion they can't work for the promotion They just can't. There needs to be a separation between church and state. But you're all fooling yourself if you don't think that they have constant contact with the

promotion, with Mark Ratner, with everyone involved. It all kind of, like, you're telling me these people don't talk, you're telling me they don't have a say, you're telling me when the UFC doesn't like someone that that person doesn't work the card, of course that happens. And so to me, it would behoove the UFC to just be like, we're going to pour X amount of money to getting new people and incentivizing these people to be. you know, reffing our events and judging our events because it only reflects poorly on us

the major leagues of this sport when this stuff continues to happen. And these guys are 10-year, 15-year, 20-year veterans of the sport. And these aren't newcomers. And they're making these boneheaded decisions, these unsure of themselves decisions, these decisions that make no sense whatsoever. And it continues to happen time and again, time and again, time and again, time and again. And the UFC just kind of washes its hands of it because they say,

we don't pick these guys. They're right. But ultimately, it reflects on their. their product. Ultimately, people are like, yo, this seems a little bit crazy. This seems like this seems suspect. This seems a little bit corrupt. Even though the intention isn't corrupt, you can't make mistakes like that. There's too much money at stake. There's too much at stake for the fighters and their lives and their purses and their pay as well. It's just you're watching. You're like, what is the sport? It's an unsurious sport. Referees are going to

make mistakes. That's never going to be eliminated. My issue is, If the mistake is made, you have a very easy and simple and effective opportunity to correct that mistake, and they go out of their way not to do that because they don't want to embarrass the referees, right? Anybody ringside could have gone, hey, the fight was stopped with three seconds left, TKO. Just, that's it. Done. Easy. And look, you know, Murgliata has some egg on his face if that happens.

But the reality is the right call is made. It's no, I have no problem if they correct it, if they make the right call. In fact, I don't even blame Big Dan. in that scenario. Look, he thinks he heard a horn? Okay. But ultimately, we have to get the right outcomes. We can't just allow this to escape by, and when we make these mistakes, we compound it by not correcting it. That's a huge problem. He thinks he heard the horn, but then he had to go over to Kyle Nelson and explain that, oh, actually, man, the fight is still going on. And it's also like, Kyle Nelson is raining down massive shots on Favola. I honestly was surprised he even

made it to the three-second mark. And then he calls the fight. It's clearly over. I was watching it with four or five people, and, like, everyone's sitting there just like, how is this fight continuing? I think everybody who was watching nationwide and around the world was like, how is this fight continuing, the commentary booth, everyone's saying it, I just don't understand to Rick's point how no one at any point down the line is just like, brother, you called it a TKO, the fight is over, whether it was your mistake or not, accept the egg on your face. Like, I actually don't think anybody would be saying anything bad.

It looked like there's no egg, it was a good stoppage. It was a good stoppage. It was a good stoppage. It made sense. It's just like, how does no one, how does no one at any point try to fix? this mistake. It was a disaster class of a night for Dan Mergliata to then follow it up with the Kevin Holland and the

Mike Malat one. I mean, you talk about like sort of it makes a joke of the sport. It makes a mockery of the sport. It's this ongoing joke where it's just like if you're a fighter cheat because they're never going to do anything about it. And it seems like week after week, month, after month, card after card. It is just another example. When was the last time we were just like

a fighter, a ref took a point? I don't think a point should have been taken there. I don't think I've ever heard that over the four years I've been working on this show watching every single UFC card. I don't think I've ever heard, I don't think a fight, a point should have been taken there. It is always the opposite of that. It was always of how the fuck do you not take a point in this situation? How many warnings can you get? How many fence grabs can you have? How many nutshots? How many eyepokes can you have before a fight, before a point gets taken?

It really does. It just makes it look like I was watching with some people that don't normally watch and they're like, man, this seems kind of stupid, no? I was like, yeah, it does seem kind stupid. I've seen Goddard do that before when he's outside of the octagon and he's watching an event and there was a similar situation where stoppage was being disputed and he was like on a camera looking at what happened

he was like not at this fight's over. I don't think it was in a UFC event. I think it was more a regional event but just to Rick's point that can happen. I've seen it happen at MMA events before. I think official referees in any sport I think most of them they don't want to be seen. I think the best ones like if

everything's going well you don't even you don't even really think about them being there, especially in boxing, get out of the way, let them fight. I think the same applies to MMA. The problem is, as we're all saying here, it's every week we're coming in and we're talking about this. And I don't, to be fair, I don't think there's a quick fix. I don't think it's an easy thing where,

well, just do this, this and this, and it will all be sorted because they're all different situations. Like you're mentioning Key Peterson and the Hughes Usman fight, very different to this calamity that Merri Gleada had at the weekend. I don't know what they have to do to make this go away, make it clean it up a bit, but it feels like something has to be done at this stage. I do feel there's a quick fix.

The quick fix is accountability. The quick fix is taking action. Every time we're in this scenario... What does accountability mean to you? Okay, well, I'll explain. In this scenario, somebody should have said, okay, this is what Big Dan should have said, this is what I heard, this is why I stopped the fight.

I got that one wrong, I got that one right. Whatever ultimately he feels. There should also be the replay official or whoever is Cade side taking a look at this to either confirm or deny what he's saying as well, and then put that out there. Every time these scenarios happen, there's nobody that has an explanation, everybody seems to be confused, and then there's nobody speaking on behalf of it.

If we have those things, then at least there's some kind of justification and we can understand it. I don't think we're ever going to eliminate referee errors, but if every time there is one, it seems like everybody's confused about what's going on, like, oh, what happened? Oh, is this fight still going? Nobody seems to have control over this. Nobody seems to be an authority. Nobody seems to be representing this in terms of talking to people about what's

happening. If those things happen, I think they're easier to swallow. That's what we need. It's so frustrating to watch the fouls not getting penalized. I love when they're like, you can't do it again. You can't do what does that mean? Don't do it again. Yes. Then they go and they do it again. Every time. It's it's absolutely crazy. Also, can we get an earpiece or like something? Can the meta glasses maybe like display the time left in the round? It's like coming in early, we've also seen them where they come in late where it's just like, eh, and then they just keep fighting. There was a fight that went on like 10 seconds.

What was that recently? It was on a paperview. I want to say, it was on the last pay-per-view card. Yeah, I mean, it's such a bad stretch for officiating and judging, right? To have this just three weeks, two weeks after the Jake Matthews incident in Perth is insane. You made the best point, Ariel, which is

the UFC can say all they want, like, you know, these are independent officials and we don't appoint them and yada yada and they nor should they right i don't want necessarily the ufc having as much influence in that as they can but to the casual fan they all think the ufc are the judges they all think the ufc are the referees they have no they have no idea that this is an independent thing and so it's reflecting poorly on the ufc the same way if there's a boxing thing they're going to say oh it's they're in the pocket of xyz fighter they're in the pocket of xyz promoter they're always going to tie it to the promotion they're always going to tie it to

that and think that there's something nefarious going on if we have to have more transparency. If we take this more seriously in terms of who we're appointing, this will alleviate everything. It will help everything. I don't think we can ever stop mistakes unless we have robots doing it. And even then, I wouldn't necessarily trust that there's no mistakes. But the accountability afterwards, the correcting of errors afterwards, has to be done for this to continue. You know, what's weird about it is, like, this weekend, they're going to be in Abu Dhabi. This is all run by the UFC. Where they go to Europe. So, like, to pretend that it's so separate is crazy to me. You know what I mean?

Like, when the UFC didn't like Mazogadi, they got rid of Mazagadi, you never heard from him again. When they didn't like John McCarthy, he wasn't assigned to their events. So why can't they, you know, take a little bit of that money, start doing seminars, start finding people. And I've said this time and again, why should any, why would anyone, unless they just want to be there because they're a super fan, why would anyone sign up for this job? It's the worst. job on the planet. It's the most thankless job on the planet. You do something great. No one pays attention to you. No one notices you. You don't get any sort of recognition whatsoever. You mess up ever so slightly. The whole world wants to come and choke you. And oh, by the way,

you're doing it for a thousand bucks. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, what's the point? There's no upside to this whatsoever. Actually, though, why would you become an MMA record? It's the worst job in the world. It's so hard. The box of the money is absolutely show it as well. like, I mean, seriously. And it's hard. Boxing main events. Like, what was in May Mack? The referee got like something crazy. It was a fraction of the purse or something like, you know, like as in what he was

paid and then you're having these lads doing the championship fights for a grand, as you say. Doesn't that make sense though, right? For the biggest fight, they are paid commensurate with the occasion. They are paid what it deserves for this occasion. And so we can't keep, you know, not trying to fix the system and then acting like, something's going to change. This is just going to continue and continue and continue. And to your point, Ariel, like, this is thankless. Like, you have to do this for the love of the game or not at all. Like, there's no reason to do this because the compensation is not commensurate.

It's the worst job. You've got to travel all over the world. Yeah. You're getting paid, you're working multiple fights on the card. Like, it's like split second decisions, right? I mean, like, it's so hard to be a referee. You have to try to see if the guy's out, if he's not, if you know what I mean? A great night for you. And everyone hates you. A great night for you is you flew into Fresno at 4 a.m. You spent 12 hours in an arena. You left. You got 500 bucks and nobody mentioned your name. That's your best case scenario. Are you not sitting there? Just like, all right, time for UFC 321. Like, this is a perfect night if I just don't royally fuck up and become like the topic of MMA 20. And mess it up and you got freaking Aiden Ross out there like going crazy.

Yeah. I bet the under two and a half. That is disgusting. How did you react? Everyone's so mad. A lot of the patrol, by the way, comes from people like you, right? You would admit that, right? Yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like I mentioned, I was watching it with several people. So I was like, oh, damn, this is crazy. They're keeping the fight going.

And over two and a half hit. I was just like, yeah, it's wild, man. I can't believe Merrig that I did that. Like, it's crazy stuff. But inside, I'm just raging. It's fair to say, though, I think we all, just based on the end of this conversation, have sympathy for the referees and the judges and the commission. It's not that we are trying to attack them.

but if they are put in this position we deserve better than this that's ultimately where this is at and the fighters the fighters deserve exactly better like the guy who got kicked in the nuts deserves better the guy who thought he won the fight deserves better the guy who's going the distance

deserves better they all freaking deserve better you know like there's just so much going against these fighters not to mention the fact that they don't get paid that much to begin with but you know there's bonuses there's show win all that stuff where it's like what are what are what exactly are we watching? What exactly is

happening here? Frivolta also took a good amount of damage at the end of that first round. Imagine if he had come out, you know, he's still got cobwebs and he gets knocked out again or something like that. Like the damage to the fighter as well is problematic. Well, also, if you're Kyle Nelson, your work was done two rounds ago. Why do I have to keep fighting for two

more rounds? Right. The difference in celebration between like, wait, what the fuck? I'm still fighting? And like, you end the first round with a dub and then you go get to go celebrate with your family and everything is huge. Is he texting or is he a Someone was just out to get on to me there I thought you fell asleep

I honestly I wish you were asleep I wish we heard I was trying to point to you guys I didn't want you to wake him up Were you sleeping? I have heard you're sleeping I've actually contacted a lot of people

with Mr. Money Bear coming on the show today from my former life in Brazilian jihitsu Okay And I've been getting blown up by different skepticism they have about this man and whatnot So very much looking forward No no Irish BJJC is talking to me right now

Okay all right You crane that neck to text man Yeah, that was like, you like, it's here. I don't want to be like this. Yeah, I got you, I got you. You think you're subtle by completely looking down. I'll do this in future. Yeah, but then you could close your eyes if you put it in front.

I thought we were having a Mike Francesa moment. You guys ever see that where you interview it? Is I A-Rod? Pizzi never would have been able to live that down if he was actually seen. Shout out to the Pope. If we heard a tiny little snore there, just like a oh you would have i think elaine had to move rooms don't worry we're almost done we're almost done uh amen's a hobby marlin vera who won that fight i thought amen's a hobby won

yeah yeah yeah marlin just it's just the inactivity in the rounds and like man he he had him dead the rights it looked like in the second but just uh the amount of strikes and the the volume he's putting out i just hobby survives some scary moments the aldo fight this fight that second round. He's just going to keep surviving all the way to a fucking title. Hey, good on him. It's an incredible story.

For the longest time, he was just Faraz's younger brother, and now here he is, a top 10 UFC bantamweight. What about Minot Furo? Dog. Tough one for Jasmine. And tough for Mike,

I would imagine, as well, because he's so close to Jasmine and two fights prior, his very good friend, Jasmine, Jazz DeVisius, loses. Yeah, Frank, maybe I was, I was trying to go fast

past that one, but I get it. I get it. I don't think Frank saw the fight. 74 seconds, 74 second loss. And she was on a roll. Minofioreau getting her first stoppage win in about four years, a very, very nice bounce-back win for her after the loss to Valentina Shevchenko.

Didn't see that coming. No, I mean, like you said, four years since Minone's last finish, and Jasmine had never been finished before. We've seen her display insane toughness. And to just basically get one-shot at there is insane. That's how you bounce back after pushing. the champ to the brink, right? Like, Manon was in that fight with Valentina all the way to the end, and then you come back with that. Like, that's one where you go, okay, I think you could get back

into the title conversation pretty quickly. Charles Jordane, the Jordane brothers, are on fire right now. What a freaking knee. What a flying knee that was. Did you see that, Petey? Did you see? I did see it. Oh, my God. Your boy, Davy Grant, that was a tough one. I mean, Charles has looked really good since going to 135, and his brother, it's a nice little story there. What do you want to say, PT? What do you want to say? I'm just heartbroken for Dave. Yeah. I mean, what what a guy. I spoke to him last week and he made me feel so good about MMA. Joe, like one of them things you need every now and again. You talk to a lad and you're just like, holy shit, this is amazing. What an amazing guy. And then obviously it went the way it did.

Jordane looked absolutely savage. Davy, 39, no intention of retirement, just moved his whole family to Las Vegas. So I wish him all the best. I think he's looked great in his last two fights. I thought he was robbed of two decisions recently. Recently enough, his streak should be a lot longer than it was, but Charles Jardine was class. Those knees, like he threw that flying knee three times. You know, he connected in the end, but terrifying, man. Just out of nowhere, that explosion and the vertical, incredible performance from him. Like, when he was choking him out to it, like, the blood was like gushing out of his nose as he was squeezing, that was crazy stuff.

And then even in the Judober fight, the point deduction in that one was weird, too. Who's the ref in that one? John Cooper. That was inconsistent with the lack of point deduction. in the Kevin Holland fight as well. Dober getting the win over Kyle Preppelach. The Canadians did actually pretty well on this card. How many wins for Canadians on this card?

We had, Brandon Allen Canadian? I guess I never noticed this in the past. No, no, no, no. There was no past. No, because people said he's done it in other fights, but I've never... That's what people said to me when I mentioned that he was the most random Canadian

since Brock Lesnar at UFC 200. I feel like I need pictorial evidence of that. Okay, because I have no recollection of Brendan Allen, who I guess his grandparents are from the great province of Alberta. How do we feel about this? I mean, all of a sudden, I mean, it's not even your parents.

Playing to the crowd. Yeah, lift a gimmick. I love that. You're in Canada, do it. Never heard this guy say anything about Canada in any way, shape, or form. He was actually very like Mr. America, no? Yes.

Doesn't he like Davey Crockett guy? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to see, like, I'm seeing, like, I'm looking at your tweet now. I'm trying to see if anyone, like, responded with like a, oh, he is at UFC 221, right?

I thought I saw someone, or maybe I saw him somewhere else. Anyway, the Canes did pretty well. Who else did well? No, Melissa Croden and the curtain-jerker. But a lot of those, you know, Brendan Allen, Mike Malad, Amon Zahabi, got some big wins, Charles Jordane, Kyle Nelson. But Kyle Preppelike did not. It seemed like the crowd was all right, not the greatest crowd of all time.

I actually heard from a couple people in Vancouver, just a couple, who said it was a little bit above their, their pay grade to go to the event so it didn't look like completely full no no it's tough many messages get you under

Zahabi for you I always wonder I'm always like oh people love it absolutely hopping now I just wait I just wait for the tweets I mean GCC experiences it

yeah but like when he starts with the shadow boxing I'm like this this guy really looks like Ariel to go out there and fight man it is weird looks identical

and the crazy thing is like unlike you and Goram or that ref he is from Montreal, same hometown, from Lebanese descent as well. Like it's like it's, it actually does feel like we are some way, shape, and form related.

I'll say, at least you only got the one. Any bald guy with a beard, you get a tweet, man. I get eight tweets a week of just... Those two dudes in particular look very much like that. Someone made an edit. I actually need to send this to Jordan. And it's just, we're not here to take part, we're here to take over.

Wow. It's a picture of me with, five other bald guys with a beard. I'm looking at it now. It's a masterpiece. Yeah, they've started saying that it's just G.C. Varian's just taking over the MMA space. It is also interesting how many of them are involved in MMA.

By the way, Amen, I forgot to mention, called out Sean O'Malley afterwards, and Sean O'Malley was watching. And he doesn't tweet a lot these days, but he did, as they say in the business, took to Twitter to respond to Mr. Amon Zahub. be, here's the video. Uh, so he didn't see him all that interested in the fight.

I mean, last week we had Corey Sanhagen call him out, probably a more high profile fight, yeah? Well, you got to shoot your shot. Is anyone there? Are you guys talking? What are you doing, Rick? I don't know what's happening. He's talking to Mike, man. Oh, yeah

Pizzi, do you like that? Yeah. Well, Sean O'Malley and I'm not for it. Yeah, I'm out for it, man. Oh, by the way, by the way, Frank, or is Frank not there? What's going on, man? I failed to mention this at the very top when I said, the date. It's a big day.

Peace and love. Peace and love. Yes, for those that don't know, October 20th, a very important day in the history of mankind. please please Ringo take it away my friend take it away this is a serious message

to everybody watching my update right now peace and love peace and love I want to tell you please after the 20th of October

do not send fan mail to any address that you have nothing will be signed after the 20th of October. That's today. Deadline. If that has a date on the envelope, it's going to be tossed. I'm warning you with peace of love, but I have too much to do.

So no more fan mail. Thank you, thank you. And no objects to be signed. Nothing. Anyway, peace of love, peace of love. That's it. Like his kids, like texting each other when he puts on. Oh, no, dad's understanding YouTube channel.

What's the afternoon? What years is that from? That's today, October 20th, the last day. It's the deadline. So, Frank, I hope you got your artifacts in. Peace and love. Peace and love. Speaking of a Canadian. Can you imagine me on top?

You're like, just stop sending me this dog. I'm not autographing anything hell very good. What was that, PT? I said, speaking of Canadians, I watched that John Candy documentary. Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm halfway through. It's a great. Yeah, it's a great watch. He's a big old teddy bear.

That's on Amazon Prime. PT, go have a nap, will you? Thank God. Just go to bed, period. It was asleep. I was asleep. I have to stay up for this money break thing All day

There he is Mr. PT Carroll and Ringo Star So hopefully you got your your artifacts in Hopefully you are going to get back Something, bye PT Take care Okay, there we go

Okay, still to come A whole host Oh okay Still to come a whole host of interviews A visit to Oscar De La Jolla's house Which I think you're going to enjoy which we taped on Friday. The aforementioned Derek Moneyberg is going to join us as well.

In studio, also known as Dale Buzkowski. We're going to have Cheeto Vera join us back into the show. And it's a very busy week here at Uncrowned HQ, of course, on Saturday. It's UFC, what is it, 321. The return of Tommy Aspinall. big fight week. We've been waiting for this fight week for a long-ass time. His last fight July of 2024. What the hell? I was in Paris, France. It was the Olympics. How long ago does that feel? We were still working on the MMA hour the last time this guy fought. But that's

this Saturday. Afternoon card. Main card, by the way, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. The boys will have their usual watch party, and then three Pock, myself, Pizzi, and Chuck, of course, will have your post show for you. Also on Saturday, by the way, it's the return of the Big Ouse himself, the one and only Joseph Parker going up against Fabio Wardley in that interim heavyweight title fight, WBO interim heavyweight title fight. Can't wait for that. That's at the O2. It's happening at the same time, which gives me a headache. Why? Why does this have to happen at the same time?

But anyway, them's the brakes. a shout out and congratulations to Charles Dubranks Oliva. He won some kind of horse race situation. Is it polo? What is it? I don't know what it is. But he was in Argentina. Harness racing. So he sits on a harness? No, no, no. It's almost like he sits in like sort of like a chariot. Yeah. The horse is on the harness. Champion in Argentina, champion in Argentina flag. The champion has a name. He does this professionally. it looks like he's the Argentinian national champion

wow that's a big deal I mean this is this is quite the month for the guy last week he's it was literally a month a week ago that he he wins against Mateus Garmor

and then he becomes the Argentinian national champion in harness racing what a life man 13 career something or another yeah it's unbelievable and like I said

there was a lot going on we have our BKFC film coming out unfortunately we didn't catch anyone playing chess in their corner between rounds but this weekend

Bryce Henry was playing chess in between rounds did you guys see this look at this it's playing chess they're playing chess in between I know that come in we interviewed him I didn't see this this is crazy

I do have to question the pawn move you thought it was a suspect move Listen, you know, the pawn doesn't move like that, I'm just saying. You see the official chess boxing, though, right? It's like whoever gets a knockout or checkmate first wins. There are actually some places you can sign up to do that here. Oh, for real?

Yeah. Actually kind of fun. Now, do you think that he was actually playing, or do you think that he was just kind of doing it for the vibes? I don't know. Rick pointed out that the pawn move looked illegal. Oh, really? Yeah, the pawn goes from the right side of the board all the way to the middle.

Wait, where was it? Was it a straight move? No, you can't go diagonal with the pawn, right? No, you can't, you can only make one move at a time. You can only go one square. So there's the, there's the pawn move that's proper. Okay. Yeah, it's proper.

Now watch this pawn move. Oh, that's, that's, that's, no, I think that's a rook. No, no, no, no, the ruck is behind. Oh, that's on that pond. He went two over. Yeah, you can't do that. No, you can't do that. Can't do it.

Yeah, you see, another officiating blunder this weekend. This is checkers, not chess. Yeah, what the hell, man? Playing with chess pieces. Yeah. there was also a crazy thing in the sumo but we're not going to show that because I think I think we're going to get everyone everyone plays clips all over the gaff on YouTube and yet we play like a five second thing and

we get anyway oh yeah let's see the trophy the trophy's great here's the trophy yeah look at that at the Royal Albert Hall in London it's a big soy sauce bottle not really a bottle what do you call that Bottle, caraft, maybe. Yeah, it looks yummy. Anyway, congratulations, and much more to come as far as this weekend is concerned. But let's get to our first chat of the day. Massive win for him, arguably the highest profile win of his career so far.

It was a huge win against a veteran of the game. Kevin Holland, we're talking to proper Mike. Mike Malott, kind enough to join us on this Monday afternoon. There he is. Hello, Mike. How are you? Good. How are you?

I'm doing great. you feeling? Feeling great, man. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, just, I feel like my face looks more banged up than I am. Okay. I felt great in that one. What happened to the nose? He punched me in it. Okay. No, I get that. I get that. No, but it looks like a cut. Is it a cut or something? Yeah, dude, it was a weird one. We got backstage and everyone, you know, I hadn't seen it yet, but everyone was commenting on it. They're like, dude, that's a weird cut on your face. It kind of looks like I had like a hoop nose ring that got ripped out.

Like my nose is lit. So I've got five stitches in my nose, one in my septum, and then four on the outside of the nose. Oh, wow. One inside. Your, your video just froze on us here real quickly. So I'm just seeing you, like, kind of talk about your nose, but you can still hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Sorry about that if I'm freezing. Okay. Wait, maybe you're back. What's going on here? I can hear me. I can hear you. but for some reason, the picture is frozen. I'm sorry. I'm on the Wi-Fi here,

but I'm kind of in the Pemperton, kind of out in the mountain. Where's that? Is that in BC? Yeah, we're about 20 minutes, 30 minutes from Whistler. Oh, beautiful. Yeah, that's really nice. My in-laws, my aunt and uncle-in-law have a spot out here, so we just decided to take a little trip out here afterwards

with my in-laws and my wife. Okay. Well, it's still a little bit choppy, but we'll fight through it. Maybe we can just graphic him and let people know that he's speaking, and hopefully it will come back. What did you think of the fight? Because obviously, I'll be straight up with you, Mike. I thought you won that fight if you're just watching the fight, right? But I did have issues with Dan Mergliata.

I thought he did not ref correctly as far as the shots below the belt are concerned, in which I don't think, as I said, I don't think that you are a dirty fight, I don't think that they were malicious. I just don't think he handled it, and I thought it was an awful night for him considering what happened in the Kyle Nelson fight. Now that you've had some time to rewatch,

how do you feel about how that was handled? Yeah, I mean, it was a tough night for him. I think, you know, the stuff that happened earlier in the night's probably playing in his head, well, that's going on. It definitely wasn't the grind shot that it was acted out to be. you know like there might have been a brushing of the cup but i mostly hit them in the like beltline hip area like i i yeah i was a little bit frustrated with it especially afterwards like

it wasn't a bad grind shot i think he really wanted a point deducted and uh i think there's a little bit of embellishment there um but yeah so i was a little bit frustrated with that because I feel like that's kind of taken away from the performance a lot of the way. Or, you know, in a lot of the case, because I'm really happy with my performance. Otherwise, especially rounds two and three, you know, biggest win in my career. And I feel like a lot of people are just talking about kind of groin shots. But, you know, it is what it is. Okay.

I very much appreciate and respect that because I did think it was the best performance of your career and also the highest profile fight of your career as well. And so in the moment, did you feel that regarding the groin shots or did you go back and watch it and be like, yeah, this confirms what I thought this didn't hit the way maybe it was perceived? Well, I told Dan that in the in the octagon, I said, my knee hit his hip. I think what brushed his groin was my shin. I think my shin kind of brushed his cup. But like my, the impact wasn't to the cup. My knee hit his beltline, like it hit his hip.

It was a little lower than I meant it to, but you go back and watch it and, like, I'm hitting him right on the beltline. Like, I'm not kneeing his cup. Again, there might have been a brush from my shin as my knee landed. Like, it might have moved his cup over, which might not have felt nice. But I'm kind of frustrated because, like, we've all been as fighters hit in the groin hard in the practice room and, like, considerably harder than that and moved on with it and had, like, full sparring sessions and stuff. I think there was embellishment during the groin shot to try and draw a point out.

And I think there was embellishment afterwards as a little bit of like the fight slipping away and not going well. All right, I'm going to use this as a bit of an excuse. Have you seen his tweets afterwards because he's still talking like he's in a lot of pain? Yeah, no, I haven't. If he is, man, I mean, I apologize multiple times. You know, I obviously I'm not a dirty fighter. I've never done anything dirty in my career. That's not what I, you know, do.

So that's, you know, unfortunate. I hope he's okay, man. Like, you know, that's, that's too bad. Did he say anything to you after the fight? I saw you guys kind of communicating very briefly. Kind of just backstage. Yeah, he was like, I don't know. We kind of communicated.

I was like, hey, man, sorry for the grind shots of your art. He's like, you know, that was cheap, man. That was cheap. I'm like, dude, do you think I'm trying to like, you think I'm trying to kick you in the garage? That's not what I came here to do. And then I kind of said the same thing back backstage. You know, they were kind of interviewing me with the UFC Canada following me at the camera.

He kind of said something similar. I was like, all right, man. I've tried to apologize a couple times. We're in there fighting, man. Stuff happens. You know, what do you want me to do, man? Sorry. Like, I'm not a dirty fighter.

I'm not out there trying to do anything greasy. Like, I just wanted to go out there and have a good performance to try to knee you in the body. was it contentious sorry was it contentious in the back with him it wasn't like he just was like yeah

I can't respect you basically I'm like all right man whatever like we weren't there was no like nothing standoffish really I was just like okay I respect you you're one of the best guys in the sport

you're a vet like I was really excited to get this fight because it's a guy like this seemed like the first fight in my UFC career where if you're even like a remotely casual UFC fan, you know the name Kevin Holland. So that was like an exciting thing for me was I'm finally fighting like a UFC staple. The only thing that would have compared to that in my career so far was

Mickey Gall. But beyond that, I've fought a lot of tough guys, but they're not high profile names. So that was really exciting for me getting to fight like somebody that that everybody knows. Like I told my dad that I was fighting Kevin Holland. You know, a few weeks out, he's like, He did any update for Vancouver? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I got an opponent. He's, like, kind of cooking something. I was out there house, kind of cooking something. He's like, oh, cool, what do you have?

What do you have? And I was like, Kevin Holland. And he just, like, goes, Kevin Holland. Oh, he's really good. Yeah, no, he's really good, man. This is a solid opponent. It's a big step up and a great opportunity. Did you feel some sort of way, were you bothered by the talk going into the fight from him,

saying, like, I don't know who he is or I thought it was Jake Matthews? Like, did you think that that was just games on his part? do you, did you feel disrespected by that at all from him? No, not at all. You've got to expect when you go into a, you know, fight with Kevin Hall and he's going to try to say some stuff that's either going to get in your head or it's just going to be like weird, random stuff too. Like, not everything that he says is negative.

Like the trash talk that I expected in the fight, he barely said anything in the fight. But the things that he said were more, like, quirky and funny than, like, trash talking. Like, they weren't rude or mean or anything. it was just kind of like funny things that he observed in the fight. Like what? When I took him down in the third, I end up double-legging him and taking him down and getting on top. And we kind of got into a scramble and ended up in closed guard. And he like overhooked my arm and kind of grabs me.

He goes, damn, that was like a GSP move right there. I just kind of giggled to myself. Hey, that's a great compliment. It was, yeah. That was nice. Did you think you almost had him with the arm triangle? Oh, man. Yeah.

I, in hindsight, I should have taken my time with it and adjusted it a little bit more. It was like, it was like 95% of the way there and I'm like, there's 30 seconds left, squeeze, you know, and that's, you know, I should have, I should have taken a little more time to adjust, especially against, you know, a veteran who's tough to put away, you know, he's a black button jihitsu himself and he's squirmie and, and he's been choked, but you have to just about. put the guy unconscious before he taps, right? He's not just looking for a way out. So, yeah, I should have adjusted a little bit tighter. I got a little bit excited. I was like, is it? Am I about to choke him?

Then he rolled out, and I'm like, okay, well, just back to win in the fight. Are you going to be the first welterweight Canadian since Roy McDonald to be ranked in the UFC? I think so. Somebody said that a few days ago, and that makes sense. I'm not sure who else it would be. No, I know, but I'm just saying, like, it seems like this this win gets you into the rankings this is a big deal thank you we used we used

to rule the welterweight division we being the canadians used to rule so it's it's it's nice to finally have that flag back in there it feels great man both as like a personal goal and as representing our country man it's it's cool to get that number i don't have it technically yet but uh tomorrow morning i'm viewing tomorrow morning like christmas morning dude i'm excited to wake up and and check my phone and and see a number beside my name. Are you proud of the performance? Yeah. Yeah, you know, I pride myself on being a finisher, but you have to also manage expectations, right? I got a little, I let my ego in the past disrupt what was otherwise

a solid performance against Neil Magni. And I wanted to check that going into this fight and just recognize like, hey, man, if you're unable to put this guy away, that's, that's okay. If the finish comes great you know almost had a couple of times that knee in the second round was very promising and he has a chin on him dude i bounced his head off my knee like a basketball and he just like stared at me like it was an inconvenience so that was hilarious um but didn't let that disrupt me and then same with the choke i thought there was a good possibility i could have finished that choke and in hindsight had i tightened it up a little bit more and taken my time we could have been talking about a third round submission which would have been sweet but you know getting those 15 minutes in there

against one of the most decorated veterans in the sport right now and one of the like biggest names out there i'm really proud of that performance you know especially because you look at my my record and i have 11 finishes right and all of them are within the first half of the fight so that would lead a lot of people to think that i'm an early style fight or like that i do better early in fights and then to have a fight where the first round didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked and it was just a weird wonky round with the long break in the middle I might have you know I was probably down the first and then having to make the adjustments and fight better in the second and then fight even better in the third I was really proud of that for for like long-term

growth and development you're now three fights removed from the magnify do you feel like it's completely out of your your psyche out of your system you don't think about it anymore no i don't know if it'll ever be completely out of the system right you always want to check back to almost like grounding yourself of like all right what what can i do to continue to improve from there and i've found things each camp since that fight that uh that i've been able to improve on and um the last three fights i felt great man felt really good got a lot more experience right going into that fight i had in four fights including contender series i had less than 15 minutes of total octagon time, whereas now since that fight, I've had two fights go

the distance and then a second round fight. So, you know, whatever, 36 minutes basically in the octagon. So way more time added to my UFC career. So a couple of weeks ago, we had John Wood, the head coach of Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas on, and we talked to him about the challenges of being in Khalil Roundtree's corner, seeing him lose the way in which he did and then having to turn around right away and being in Marab's corner. That's a coach. you had to go in there moments after seeing a good friend of yours suffer a tough loss, Jasmine Jazz DeViscius. How did that affect you?

How did you, you obviously saw it, I would imagine, in the back. How did you compartmentalize that and not let it affect your performance? Well, not even just me, man. Like that, of course, can affect me. And I just, you know, I saw her get dropped in the follow punches. And I didn't even mean to. I just was like, you know, grab my chest and like, oh, shit, man, that hurts. and just you know as upsetting is that was my kind of one of my first thoughts was our shared cornerman

Chris Prickett our wrestling coach is her fiance and that was like one of the first things that ran through my mind is like dude how hard is this going to be on him so I just turned to our corners and I'm like hey when Prickett gets back here let's give him a hug tell him we love them and then reset and you know so for me to have to reset of course is one thing but I was unbelievably impressed with how he was able to reset because that's his woman man that's his that's his fiance like she just got hurt and he now has to come back and he and I have been great friends for for you know 13 years and training together for years and everything so I know I mean a lot to him but man that's his fiance dude like that's a heartbreaking moment and the way that he just immediately

came back hugged us and I said to him I was like man And, you know, I love you. We'll talk about that after the fight, but I'm going to stay focused. And he's like, yeah, of course. And then he said, what do you need for wrestling? And we just did some, like, take down defense. And he was right back into coaching mode. Wow.

There was no weird energy. You know, after walking any kind of hugged media coaches, on our process, we got into some wrestling exchanges. We warmed up. We walked out. His energy was great the whole time we thought. He walked back with me. started getting stuck, he's like, all right, I'm going to go be with jazz.

Like, he is, of course. I couldn't believe that before my fight. I couldn't believe how focused on the family was. It was extremely impressive. Yeah, wow, I can't even imagine that. And I was going to ask you how he was. You just explained that. Were you able to block it out?

yeah yeah um it almost sounds like a lack of compassion in a way but yeah it's something like i completely i completely blocked out to the point where almost again on the the table getting my stitches he's like okay i'm going to go be with jazz and it was like almost remembering that that happened because i was so focused on on what was in front of me that i in the moment kind of forgot about everything that happened that night you know just you're so laser focused right it's have to be completely in the moment and completely focused on what's going on. So, yeah, of course, it's upsetting. Like, I stopped by Jazz's room, Jazz and Prickett's room yesterday morning and just gave her a hug

and chat with her. I'm, you know, it's like, hey, man, you know, I know what you're going through. This sucks. Like, we kind of had the opposite thing happen in UFC Toronto where she had a spectacular performance. And, you know, I fumbled at the finish line type thing. and she got to have that great feeling and I you know was suffering and you know we've had that kind of unfortunately had that switch now where it's like I'm you know getting that that high after

the fight and feeling great and you know she's obviously bummed and I was like look there's nothing I'm going to say that's going to take the sting away this is going to sting for a while it was a flash it happens in this sport you know you're one big win away from being right back where you are and you just go out there and beat that next girl's ass and everyone's going to forget about this just because it was such a like get caught type thing it's not like she got beat up for nine or 14 minutes and then got tk out or something it was like you know you got caught man four ounce gloves that stuff happens sometimes when you're walking in rates it's not ideal but i don't think it defines you as a fighter and is a real massive indication of your potential

whatsoever, I think the indications of her potential are the dominant grappling performances she's put on in the last several fights. And the dog that she brings out where she walks, grows down, and smacks them a bunch of times and then takes them down and beats them and breaks them and chokes them. I think that is much more accurate indication of the future that you have in this sport. That's five in a row now for you in Canada. Do you like this spot of being Captain Canada? Or are you jonesing to get out there a little bit?

I'd fight the rest of my career in Canada if they gave me the options. Okay. You know, I love it. And, you know, they seem to want to be coming to Canada two or three times a year. That's perfect. If for some reason there's going to be a long stretch where we're not in Canada or, you know, something doesn't line up and I can't get a fight for one of those fights and they want me to fight somewhere else, then, of course, I'll fight where the UFC tells me to go.

but they need you know kind of bigger names in in canada anyway so um if i can keep that slot for you know kind of co-main or main or featured fighter on paper views and yeah keep me coming man i love fighting in canada this every time we fight in canada it feels like this massive celebration man it feels a lot more than just you know being another guy on on a card you know fighting on you know in some other country where that's always great of course fighting in the UFC is my goal right like that's that's been the dream but getting to do it in Canada just feels like such a bigger celebration right if you get that that ranking uh as i think you should have you started to think about who makes sense next now now you're now you're in there with

the big dogs so to speak not to say that you weren't before but you know now it's it's it's an interesting time in your career who makes sense next yeah i think there's a lot of interesting matchups at Welterweight. I think it's a little early to say. My hesitation with calling guys out in a lot of ways is the matches I would have asked for in the past were less significant than the ones that I've gotten. I didn't think when I fought Magni that I was going to be getting a ranked guy or Magni. I thought I was going to have to have one more. And then they gave me Magne. Same with this one. I was like, man, wouldn't it be great if they give me a ranked guy, but I think they're probably going to give me one more tough fight outside the rankings, like me and somebody

else who's getting close to the rankings, and then the winner gets a shot in the rankings. So I'm almost like, look, you guys are giving me these unreal matchup, like, you know, either tough fights or big opportunities depending on how you view them, but like, I'll just let those guys keep telling me what to do because so far it's going great. And by the way, based on my calculations, your brother, Jeff, has now played in 19 NHL games if you count everything this year and then last year and then I think one with the Jets. You haven't been to one yet? We've got to figure this out.

That's the next thing we're doing here. Yeah. So unfortunately, they're on the road for the next two weeks. But they're home for a week and then they're back on the road. But in Canada, they've got Montreal, they've got Toronto, they've got Ottawa. So at the very least, I'm looking to go to Toronto, maybe Montreal or Ottawa as well, to catch him in a couple of games. Because I will be seeing this kid in an NHL game before, you know, we're back in camp.

And I have to focus. Loved seeing him show up wearing your shirt to the game on Saturday. There he is. So amazing, man. Your parents must be so proud, pretty incredible to see that support from your bro. It's awesome, man. We get to be there for one another throughout our careers. like he wears my shirt to his fight back to his games when I fight which is super cool

he got to be uh he was basically octagon side last time I thought and I didn't know that I thought he was sitting with my parents and his friend plays for the uh Montreal Canadians and he got hooked up with some like basically cage side seats because of that in Montreal last time so I was in the octagon kind of pacing and I'm pretty much always focused obviously on what's going on in the octagon but sometimes you notice something outside the octagon and as i was pacing i kind of looked up and saw that exact t-shirt you know the big red proper across the chest and i just kind of glanced up at the face and it was jeff and i'm like no way and just kind of gave him like a let's go and pointed at him like all right let's go let's refocus like it just

kind of gave me a little more fuel i'm like all right yeah my brother's right there and then had that great performance against uh chuck buffalo knocked him out and then ran up onto the cage and jumped and looked and found my brother and pointed out. I'm like, yeah, let's go, man. I hadn't seen him since he had that run in the NHL last season. And so it was like the first time I saw him in person since his, you know, making it on the Kings and then me having the UFC fights. So it was another really cool moment for the both of us. Amazing. Great stuff, man. Well done. Way to represent the true North Strong and Free. Let's hope that the Js get it done tonight as well and more good vibes for Canada and that you get that ranking and get a big fight next.

Appreciate the time as always, Mike. Thank you and congrats. Thanks a lot, Ariel. Thanks for having me on. There he is. Proper Mike Malott with a huge win on Saturday over Kevin Holland. The performance was fantastic. You know, say what you want about the referee, but that should take nothing away from the performance, a big win over a veteran. All right, still to come, Derek Moneyberg in studio, aka Dale Bouskowski, also Cheeto Vera, who was on the opposite end of a.

result on Saturday. But like I said, we went to Oscar De La Jolla's house on Friday. In Las Vegas, Phenomenal House. We talked about a whole host of things. We'll be doing more of these. This is a visit to Casa Delahoya, premiering exclusively right here now on the program. Sit back and enjoy. Oscar, so good to see you, my friend. Thank you. Likewise. So good to be in your home. What an honor this is. Yeah, no, appreciate it. I don't think I've ever done an interview here. Really? Have I? No. Maybe it's an even bigger honor than I thought. beautiful home by the way My casa is su casa

and I heard you were leaving but now you're staying so this is great yeah it is great because we were about to sell and leave and build something else a dream home but Holly loves it so much

it's like I mean these views are incredible yeah we love it here I might ask for a little tour I see some incredible memorabilia yeah I brought a few robes and belts from it's like a museum from my office yeah it's a little

many, many shrine of, of the robes I've, uh, come out with over the years and few belts I've won. So yeah. Well done. And, and well deserved. Uh, okay, there's a lot to talk to you about. There's a lot going on. Uh, actually want to start last weekend or two weekends ago now in, uh, Philadelphia. Yeah. Boots Ennis fights. Okay. Has a very dominant win. Beforehand, uh, you're out there saying, can someone educate the educator? Who's this? Who's he fighting? Who's this guy? Uh, clearly you weren't impressed with. the opponent but were you impressed with the performance no i'm impressed by boots that's for sure he's a tremendous tremendous fighter um a boxer that has been you know steadily coming up the ranks

um doing making every right move to climb the rankings and i i can't say the same about about his opposition you know maybe his opposition has been a little too soft um you know but i think that boots is a tremendous tremendous athlete who uh can give anybody trouble he's a very dangerous fighter but i was just a little critical about his opponent you know i mean obviously they wanted him to win he looked amazing he looked incredible like king con and uh on to the next and on to the next uh we will see and the one that everyone wanted He wants to see, of course, is Virgil. And I want to see it.

So he's back November 8th. He's back November 8th. He has to win, right? Well, he wants to win. Of course. He has to win for this fight to happen. Well, he has to win for this, for these talks to continue. Okay.

Why didn't it happen? You know, I had Eddie on the show a couple weeks ago, and he told me we were all in a room. Eric Gomez was there. You were there. The DeZone people were there. And it seemed like you were working towards making the fight next for both, and then it didn't happen. Why didn't happen? Well, it didn't happen because Boots wanted a tune-up.

Okay. We were ready to fight to fight. When I say we, it's, I'm a fighter myself too, so I put myself in the equation. But Virgil was ready to fight Boots for over a year now. But Boots wanted a tune-up fight because he wanted, yeah, I don't blame him. He wants to test the waters at 154, see if the punches are harder, see if the speed, is faster or the footwork is different. He didn't learn much from his last fight because the guy he fought was, didn't really teach

him anything. But when he fights at 154 and he fights a real fighter at 154, like Virgo Ortiz, it's going to be an amazing fight. I can't wait for it. I really can't. That fight here in the U.S. For U.S. boxing is incredible. It's a big stage.

How do you think it plays out? Obviously, you back your guy. I back my guy a thousand percent. am I am I hesitating making this fight? No because I know Virgil he wants to fight the best

he wants to be the best and I think this is the right moment to make the fight. Will it happen? I'm counting on Virgil to win in his next fight and counting on Virgil to go out there and show the world

who he really is I think this fight here with Boots Enis and Virgil Ortiz is a defying fight for both of their careers. Whoever wins that fight becomes a star. Do you think there's any chance to win of that fight fights Terrence Crawford? I know he's 160. Yeah, there's a lot of possibilities. Because that would be the next massive fight for the winner, right?

Absolutely. I mean, imagine that. That would be the next massive fight. But then you have you have guys who are, you know, the gatekeepers like Fundora. Yeah. Who's an amazing champion. I don't know how marketable that fight can. Can be the winner of Boots and Virgil against Fondora.

It's not as big as Terrence Crawford, obviously, coming off the Canelo win. But I'm looking forward to staging these fights here in the U.S. for American boxing, which will be huge. Zayas as well. Yeah, exactly. Zander Zayas, who's Puerto Rican. And imagine that, a Virgil Zias fight down the road. Who knows?

I mean, you can do a round rod. You can literally do a round Robin with Zayas, Virgil, Boots, Fondora, who are all in their prime, which will be a tremendous, tremendous matchup for all of those guys. You have different types of matches. It's almost like Sugar A. Leonard, Thomas Hurons, Duran, just that 154. So it is exciting. What do you make of the state of, you mentioned America and having these fights in America will be big for America.

Right now, Top Rank doesn't have a TV deal, which I think is a problem. Or maybe you disagree. The state of American boxing right now and your thoughts on Top Rank still not having a TV deal. Well, look, Top Rank has been around forever. They've always figured it out. They've always been able to build champions, to build stars, to build. build the rich history that we have in boxing, we don't owe it all completely to top rank, but the majority of it, you know, they promoted Muhammad Ali.

They promoted Sugar Elander, Thomas, Ernst, Duran, all the big guys, Paciel, Mayweather. So they know how to do that part, and they know how to figure out the business side of it as well. So am I worried that they will not be back in boxing? Not for a second. I believe they're in a transitional stage right now where they're going to figure out what their next move is. And, you know, because they have the rich history behind them.

They have the expertise. Yes, Bob Aram is 90. I mean, he's been 99 for the last 20 years. But he's still strong. He's still going strong. So I think top rank, yes, will they be back stronger than ever? I believe so. They will always figure it out.

And you're not rooting against them. No, not at all, not at all. Despite the fact that they're technically a competing. They are a competing entity, but we, look, Top Rank and I in the U.S. no talent. We know how to build U.S. boxing. We know how to discover the next Mexican superstar. We know how to, you know, create the big megafights.

So a little competition doesn't hurt at all. I'm not worried about Top Rank. I'm worried about them not getting a TV deal. I'm worried about them not coming back to boxing, you know, soon enough. We need them. They're great for boxing. They're a promoter who understands that we have to go through the system. And the system is WBA, WBC, WBO, and IBF, because fighters, first of all, love fighting for world titles.

That's the bottom line. And you cannot erase that history. So top rank, we'll figure it out and we'll make sure that the name continues to live forever and they will continue building world champions and they will make sure that all the organizational bodies are in line with their philosophy. Okay, so this is the perfect transition to what happened last week. And that's on Wednesday, California State Athletic Commission had this vote. A vote which you noted originally was set for December and then got moved to October. And they unanimously passed at 6-0.

Now it goes to the next step. But it seems as though this vote to maybe modify, if we want to call that, the Ali Act, is moving in that direction. Of course, it's backed by TKO and, you know, Zufa boxing, which is starting. I saw, okay, so I saw what you said on your clapback Thursday, which is always very entertaining. I've seen what you've said about the belts. Let's start with the belts because Dana White has said they're not going to recognize those belts, the ones that you mention. It's going to be the ZUFA boxing belt, just like there's a UFC title. How do you feel about this?

I just, look, the fact that a new entity is coming into boxing and already wants to change a bill that has been in place for decades that protects fighters, to me, is shady. That's the bottom line. I mean, think about it. It's shady. The first thing you want to do is change the law, change the rule, the Muhammad Ali Act. which protects the fighters.

I instantly think about what they did with the UFC. I instantly think about the UFC signing hundreds, if not thousands of fighters. And they don't even see the light of day. Some fighters don't even get in the ring because there's too many fighters. They fight them once and you never see them again, you know. I think for that fact alone that they're trying to change the bill right off the bat, it's shady. Why do you like the bill? Why do you think it should not be changed?

There's total transparency with the bill. You're obligated as a promoter to disclose everything that might be in the pot. The fighters call it the pot. And you're obligated to disclose. you know the financial status of your of your event of the fighters event if you're a main event fighter a championship fighter you have every right to look at the books and with this amendment they're gonna try and eliminate that which is which is not fair it's it reminds me of it reminds me of I can instantly think about a in this fighter from UFC asked

who had the double lung transplant and couldn't even get a surgery. I mean, he was a staple of the UFC for a while and can't even get monies to cover his hospital bills. Eventually he got it. Eventually he got it, but he got it through private, you know, friends or whatever you might call them. Jake Paul donated some money. I think Dana White out of his own pocket donated some money.

I mean, it's, to me, is sad that it has to be that way. And like I said, I instantly think about how if some person is shiasty, if some person is out to do wrong, you don't try to eliminate or the person tried to doing right in the sport. You don't try to eliminate a bill that is protecting the fighter, the product. The fighter is the product. And I just think that without that rule there, without that clause there, or wiping out the Muhammad Ali Act, the fighter is vulnerable. And then the other thing is you don't have to adhere to any sort of independent ranking.

Oh, sure. I mean, aside from, I'm focusing on just the fighter alone. And yes, you have the fact that, you know, they're going to make up their own rules. Who knows if they're going to change the ring? I've heard they're going to change the size of the ring. And, you know, next thing you know it, we're going to see bears and lions and tigers and chain to the canvas. I mean, I don't actually mind it.

I mind the shi-se part of it. I mind them trying to screw fighters over. But I don't mind them coming in because I don't really see it as competition. I'm a serious promoter. I'm a promoter who's going to promote and develop world champions from the get-go, from the start. I'm going to identify prospects, and I'm going to build them just like the way I built Conello, just the way I built Ryan Garcia, just the way I'm building all my champions now. It's step by step.

I'm not going to get them beat and eliminate it right off the bat because this is more like a, like a, like a reality show it's more of a game show or something you know so i don't i don't really see it as real boxing and competition because now they have paramount they got a new tv deal which apparently oh it's okay look they have they have that power slap thing and he's and danes try to uh you know with with uh the surfing competition and this and that um let him do what they do it's fine and they can get all the PR they want but The fans are not going to watch real boxing. And real boxing is the best talent that's developed fighting the very best talent.

They're never going to see that because they're going to eliminate each other in their first fight, second fight. And guess what? If you don't win the second fight, you're going to be shelved, just like the UFC does with their fighters. You don't hear about them for ages. So I'm just going to stick to my lane, and just like Eddie Hearn is doing, just like top rank is doing, just like, you know, Frank Warren, we're going to stick to our lane and promote what we know best. It's getting contentious between him and Eddie, and they weren't, they were never on that level. They were always very friendly. Dana White did an interview with CBS Sports recently, and he said, Eddie has gone all Oscar de La Jolla on me.

And I think what he means by that is like he turned on me. what do you make of what's happening between them because it seems to be this like every day there's a new interview where they're going back and forth it's getting very tense well it is getting tense but look Eddie Eddie shouldn't worry about it whatsoever and I've I've heard Eddie Hearn in interviews say I'm not concerned whatsoever I'm sticking to my lane I'm promoting my fighters I'm building fighters building champions on the zone and I'm doing the same thing So what they're doing is totally separate from what we're going to do or what we've been doing. I mean, here you have an MMA promoter trying to come into boxing and change, amend some laws on some bill, change the rules in boxing.

I mean, it's good luck. But he's a very powerful guy by his side, right? A partner, Turkey is by his side. So doesn't that give him a leg up? Well, it gives them a leg up, but I know Turkey. And Turkey loves traditional boxing. Turkey loves watching the best, fighting the best. When they're developed, okay?

I mean, what I saw the week of the Canelo fight, they tried doing some contender boxing stuff. You're having precious contenders, right? who I know can become world champions three, four, five years down the road, they're getting eliminated and beat and you're never going to hear from them again. That's not fair to the fighter. Now, if that's fair business to them,

more power to them. Let them build whatever league they're trying to build. It's okay. Boxing here is safe with me and Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, the serious guys in the sport. the guys who respect the history and the honor that comes with it. What did you think of that event on Netflix?

I thought, I was proud that boxing was on Netflix. Just being a purest of the sport. You feel proud. I was not happy with the matchups. I saw you tweet, Two Turkey Fire Your Matchmakers. Yes, the matchmakers were to because you have, you have a global platform Netflix

Canelo Alvarez versus Terrence Crawford every fight that a new audience is going to watch should have been a known name, should have been champion versus champion the matchups should have been better I thought it was a slow night

completely a slow night it was still great for boxing because it's out there and people who are watching all over the world, but it left a little bad taste in my mouth, let's say, just because of the fights that I watched. Were you impressed with Terrence? I've always been impressed with Terris. Yeah.

He's surprised. I was not surprised at all. I mean, I called it. I don't know how many days before. I know Canelo, I promoted him. I know exactly what he cannot handle and what he can handle, where he looks great and where he doesn't. And Crawford was the perfect opponent or fighter to derail the trouble.

train. That was the bottom line. You move on Conello just a little bit, and he gets lost. Crawford afterwards hinting at maybe retirement. Do you think he retires? No, no. Not at all. Now he's making the big bucks, right? Well, now he has a taste of seven figures, you know, eight figures, whatever it might be. Once you get a taste of that, towards the end of your career, you're going to make a few mistakes. Not that I'm saying that Crawford is going to lose and this and that but one thing about Crawford too is that he's going to take the tough fights unlike Connello right now towards the end of his career he's going to take the tough fights and guess what he might make a mistake and he might choose the wrong opponent

and I lose but that's what great fighters do if you fight the greats and you might lose to a great you're still great what about Canello what do you think he does um I think Canelo is going to try and pick a soft opponent for his next fight, given the fact that he has such a lucrative contract with Turkey, I don't think Turkey's going to let him. I don't think Turkey will allow him to fight a softie, you know, because there's a lot of money being paid out to Canello. So Turkey is going to, is going to, you know, it's going to, you know, it's going to demand, you know, his money's worth. He's going to demand fighting the very best. See, I like Turkey because he understands the best versus the best. And I like that. But what he must

understand is that in order to get to that level, you need to develop fighters. And that's what we do best. So Dana has said on multiple occasions, boxing is the only entity, the only business out there that trillions of dollars have been developed and earned over time and there's nothing to show for it. There is nothing. The sport has no value to it. When you hear him say that, as someone who has been in the sport for so long as a fighter, legendary Hall of Fame fighter, Olympian, and now promoter, what do you think? No, he's a businessman. I mean, that's, that's, that's the bottom line. He's a businessman. And I'm a businessman as well, but I'm also a fighter. you know it's it's almost like a double-ed sword like i don't want to take 80% of the profits

i actually want to give it to the fighters us fighters who get in the ring and risk our lives you know there's a there's there's enough pie for everyone to pass around i mean right now the ufc keeps 90% of the monies coming in and the fighters see what 10% 15% how fair is that And after watching these fighters get in the ring and risk their lives and they're begging for money afterwards when they retire, it's not fair. You know, you have fighters in boxing who are making millions of dollars. That's what it's all about. Leave it for the fighters. Business is great.

I'm okay with business. But I'm better making sure and I can sleep at night that the fighters are making the bulk of the money. They're starting to sign fighters now. Have they come after any of your fighters? No, not that I know of. Okay. You know, I have great relationship with my fighters and we have contracts and Maybe someone was at the end of a deal and you hear back from that fighter, hey, you know, Zufa's offering me X amount.

Because we still don't know who is on the roster really, you know? And they're saying upwards like 400 fighters. So I'm trying to get a sense for who these people are. Well, I mean, if they're signing, if they're signing hundreds of fighters, my gosh, then I'm not doing my job. I'm not doing my job because it's my job to identify future world champions to identify the little diamonds in the rough. And there are so few of those out there in the world. Like, for instance, Canelo and Orion Garcia, those are the last. two like superstars that can sell in boxing. And so if Zufa signing 400 fighters and they're saying

they're signing the very best, then gosh, I must be doing something wrong. One thing that surprised me about that California State Athletic Commission call, it was all either ex-UFC fighters. Yes. There were no boxing people on there. Yeah. But it was about a boxing bill. Yeah, there were a couple, there were a few that were in favor of them. There was no one who was speaking like your speaking now. There was Tom Loughler. He works with them. You know what I mean? There was no one because every boxing promoter or fighter that I speak to, I just spoke to Danny Garcia. He said the same thing as you did. But none of them actually went out. And so why is that? Why do you think no one? I don't, I believe the boxing community hasn't really done their homework,

you know, so to speak. I found out about the hearing by somebody telling me. I didn't know at all. As it was happening. As it was happening. Because you thought it was. I was shocked, yeah. And then I was shocked that they had this emergency hearing, which they were supposed to have in December. Right.

So I'm thinking to myself, wow, okay. And the person who calls in is the CEO of TKO to defend it. I mean, come on. This is, it's just shy. Do you think it's a done deal? Do you think this is going to pass? Of course. And are you worried about that?

I'm actually not. Okay. I'm actually not because their league, because it is a league. Their league is not traditional boxing. And it's okay. You know, it's okay. I mean, they're going to have a lot of media around it. They just signed Paramount, billions of dollars.

But what I tell fighters, if you're a kid from East L.A., If you're a kid from Brooklyn, if you're a kid from, you know, wherever, Cincinnati, where, you know, boom, boom, Mancini was from, you know, the neighborhoods where where champions are discovered, okay? If you're that kid and you want to become a world champion and you want to become a star and you want to become a household name and you want to make a love. lot of money, the American dream. It's not going to be with them. It's just not. Why not? Because have you seen their pay scale? Have you seen what they've done to the UFC fighters, how they suppress them? I mean, look at a Connor McGregor, look at a John Jones. Why aren't they fighting? I don't understand it. The biggest stars in the UFC are not fighting. Why is that? I mean, I know exactly why, but TKO is going to want to sign quantity, not quality, but just quantity,

and hope that they get great fights to convince the public that this is real boxing. Will this make, you know, you and Eddie seem to be on good terms now? Yeah, it would be. There was a time where you weren't maybe. It's all fun. But is this making everyone kind of band together, including promoters and the, the, governing bodies. Well, especially the governing bodies. As you heard, they're going to identify only one belt, and that's their belt. Yeah. You know, the Dana belt. I don't know what they're

going to call it. I think the Zufa boxing belt. The Zufa boxing belt. Maybe the ring belt as well, but you'll have to get pretty high up, you know. Yeah, it could be because you're going to have to climb the ranks. Yeah. You know, and but when you have your own belt, guess what? You win one fight, you're going to be ranked top 10 in the world in their own belt, in their own organization. So it's fine. Let them do what they're doing. It's okay. I'm finally convinced that it has nothing to do with my business.

Wow. This surprises me a little bit. Yeah. Just because sometimes someone will view like a new kid on the block is competition or as a threat. Of course. You don't view that. I'm finally growing up. Okay.

Maybe you're just happy and content. You have a beautiful home, a great life. I'm happy. I'm content. Yeah. Look, all this is the icing on the cake. But the fact that I love boxing, the fact that I love the sport, I love the athletes. I want to see fighters, boxers become stars, become wealthy, become their own bosses.

I want to see them shine, man. It's great for the sport of boxing. I'm going to promote until I'm Bob Aram's age. That's your plan. my plan. Because a while ago, that wasn't the plan, right? Like, wasn't Golden Boy like this close to being sold? Um, they were buyers out there, but I was never going to sell. You were never going to sell? No, I was never going to sell. There's a lot of buyers out there for Golden Boy, but I'm okay where I'm at. Right now? Yes. Because I feel like the, the state of the

company, the state of the promotion, the people that you're building, the people that you have on the roster, as strong as ever. Yeah. Well, you have to keep in mind that within the last 10 years I was out in the cold I was I mean with my fighters that went over to PBC and all the champions I built there I mean I built everybody

that you watch on TV now so the fact that I'm rebuilding now I'm finally I'm finally seeing the fruits of my labor with this batch that I have now and this batch is so exciting oh my gosh were you worried

When PBC was really coming on strong, were you worried that this might be the end? I was worried, but never panicked. Okay. Never panicked. Because I know what I'm about. I know what I can do. I know that I was in the way of their big major plans for them to monopolize the sport. You can't do it without me.

You cannot be successful and monopolize a sport without Golda Boy. what do you think of the state of pbc right now um look i mean you hear the rumors fighters leaving and fighters unhappy and you know um that model doesn't work that in-house model doesn't work and i've told al many years ago look i'm willing to work with everybody and we must work with everybody now a united front let's make the big fights happen there's nothing wrong with that before when i started boxing as a promoter 20 some years ago I want it all in-house I want it all where I can just make it golden boy and develop the champion develop the contender and fight the best against the best but it's I've learned it doesn't work that way you need other promoters you need

organizations you need champions from various from various organizations like the WBA WEC for those champions to fight each other because you know that the best is fighting the best. Sometimes, sometimes, not all the time. Yeah. And that's what's wrong with the system. But the fighters love fighting for belts. That's the bottom line.

You're never going to convince a fighter. Can you fight for this Zoufa belt? Can you fight for this Dana belt? No, I want to fight for the WBC because Rocky Marciano was the champion because Oscar Delahoya, Manny Patti, of Floyd Mayweather was a champion. I want to be like them.

I don't want to be like Dana. So he says five years. Let's find out in five years. I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about me, kind of like what you're saying. Where do you think he's at in five years? Do you think this lasts,

or do you think they'll have to pivot and recognize that you can't own the sport, right? You have to recognize WBC. There's too much history. I commend the Frater brothers for what they did with the UFC. they took a broken asset right back in the 90s I watched the first pay-per-view I was actually a contributor to the first

pay-per-view UFC won you bought it I was watching it I bought it I remember that big black fat guy who was fighting that little little karate guy exactly I mean I remember all that and it was fun and but little did I know that you have two brothers smart as hell who took that asset and just built it to a multi-billion dollar business. I mean, kudos to them, but there was

no history involved with that UFC. They started from scratch. They made up their own rules. There was nothing. There was nothing there. And when you have nothing, guess what? You can build whatever you want out of that

nothing. With boxing, there's so much history. It's impossible. All over the world, you have these boxing hubs that are controlled by the WBC, that are controlled by the WBA, WBF, WBO, globally worldwide, judges and referees, and, you know, it's a family. And to erase all that history is going to be impossible. You're going to get pushback. You're going to get people fighting you back. And it's not going to be easy when you're trying to monopolize the sport and use one belt.

It's impossible to erase history. But if this amendment passes, is there a case to be made that boxing brought this upon itself? That because of all the fragmentation of boxing over the last few years, it allowed for someone to come in and radically change it this way? Do you view it that way? I don't view it that way. The way I see it is boxing. and fighters are fine just the way we are. Okay, you don't believe that there needs to be, okay.

No, the Muhammad Ali Act is in place for that same reason. It protects the fighter. It protects the fighter. And promoters now know that the fighter is first. And I have a little part in kind of convincing people in boxing that the fighter is first. I've always preached, the fighter is first, the fighter is the product, the fighter is the one who's bringing in all the money.

Yeah, the promoter organizes everything and guides your career and molds your career and makes you a star. But it's ultimately the fighter inside the ring. So I cannot see fighters not wanting to fight for someone like Golden Boy, for a title like the WBC. or WBA or WBO or WBOIBF and I can't see a fighter who has talent who has a future wanting to to literally be suppressed and not find out his real worth are you surprised are you surprised that California is on board that Andy Foster I'm I'm I'm shocked I am so shocked. I mean, the head of the California State Athletic Commission, he's a friend of mine. He's a good guy. He loves boxing. He loves what we're doing in California and all the

shows we bring to them. So I was very surprised. I was very, very shocked. Why do you think he's on board? I don't want to say anybody's getting paid, but I kind of have to scratch my head and think did something happen here did somebody get to you I'm not accusing anybody of anything but when you're a boxing purist the way Andy Foster is

the way he preaches about California boxing and the way he loves the fact that Golden Boys always putting on shows in California and we're doing great for the fighter I was extremely shock in June you posted a text message from Ryan Garcia

and you said he was having an episode unfortunately Ryan was having an episode where are you guys now, you and Ryan? I think Ryan I think Ryan needs to wake up yeah what do you mean I think I think that when

when you have this kid who is tweeting and saying all this nonsense. I'll give an example when my fighters, Kit Austin and Raul Curiel won underneath a Jake Paul fight, the Jake Paul card when he fought Chavez.

You know, I tweeted congratulations to my champ or something, and then instantly right away, a tweet comes back from Ryan, fuck Golden Boy. You know, it's like, I understand the whole mental health. It's a serious, you know, it's a serious thing. It really is.

I know people who really are mentally ill. But there's a line, there's a fine line where you're just being a fucking asshole. Grow up. Shake it off. Grow up. You know, there's one thing about having mental health, but there's one thing about just being an asshole, a jerk, you know? so yeah I still promote him

and I'm still gonna wish him the very best and do the best job I can do to grow his career but um where you guys at right now yeah we're gonna like when's the last time you spoke to him I haven't spoke to him at all yeah I haven't spoken to him at all

it's like through a manager yeah I've done I've done everything I can do when I met the kid when he was 17 16 when he walked into my office with his parents, I gave him all the advice in the world, okay? All the positive advice, all the advice that I went through, that I, my struggles, this, that, gave him, gave him everything on the silver platter. And look at him now.

They clearly didn't listen. And it's a shame because I have, I have the answers. All you got to do is ask. I'm not your enemy. I'm your promoter. I don't know what people are whispering in your ear, but I've treated you with respect. I've treated you like my own kid.

On a silver platter, I've given you your career, giving you your opponents that you're going to knock out, you're going to look great, you're going to become a star, and you throw it all away, and you blame me? Why does he blame you? I have no clue. I always thought it was the people around him. Okay.

And it's always normally the case. Same thing happened with Canello, you know, the whispers in the year. Oh, you can do much better. Oh, he's not paying you enough and this and that. And most of the time, because we've only had one fighter, I believe, that tried to break a contract because he wasn't happy. I go, okay, bye. Go see if the grass is greener on the other side.

A month later, knocking on my door, you know what, I'm sorry. I guess I was wrong. Who's that? Some fighter. Did you take him back? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. A world champion.

How many more you have with Ryan? How many left? We have a multi. Multi. Okay. Yeah, multi fights. I thought it was nearing the end. So this is not going to have any time.

Yeah, it's near the end, but we have a multi. Okay, okay. Multi years. You're still dedicated. You're still interested in promoting his fights. Absolutely. Does he have anything in the works right now? That's what I do.

Well, right now, yeah, Ryan is, I believe, I don't know, he's still going to rehab with his hand or his shoulder or something. But is there any fight talks? There's fight talks. Okay. As we speak. Who do you think? Not sure yet.

Not sure. Who would you like? I would want him to fight the very best again. You know, what do you fight? He fought last May. Yeah. Lost against Roleys, got dropped in a boring fight. Not a good fight.

Not a good luck for both of them. But I would love to see him up there against. one of the top champions, whoever it might be. There's no tune-ups here anymore, not at this level. You know, all fighters want tune-ups and this and that. Oh, I had an injury. Oh, I was off six months. No, you got to, once you're at that level, you fight the very best.

And that's the way I want to treat everybody, all my champions. Do you think we'll see him maybe like first half of next year? Hopefully, yeah, absolutely. Okay. Would you like to try to fix it, or do you think it's good as it is? You talk to the managers, intermediaries, and that's just the... way it's going to be i i think that i think that people have been talking in this year for so long it's already embedded you know in his brain i thought at one point you had the dinner together

or something yeah it's it's crazy we work right yeah we had dinner this that look i'm there to help i'm not going to leave a fighter you know out in the cold it's just it's not in my nature but again there's a fine line with with with being a jerk you know know, and claiming or saying you have mental issues, you know, it's a fine line. I'll just ask you a couple more, and then we'll let you go. Thank you so much for the time. You're happy with the zone still? Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.

They treat you well? We're extremely happy. We've been with the zone now for seven years, I believe. We're the promoter here in the U.S., and we're only getting started. I believe that this seventh year coming up with the zone, it's going to be our best year. Okay. Yeah.

We're going to be super active. We're going to be doing some major fights, first quarter, second quarter. Talks are going great with the zone. Was the deal up soon? About future plans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, just like every other deal. Yeah.

You've got to work it for the year's coming up. So, yeah, we're extremely happy. And what I love about the zone is, that they know and we know that to build the U.S. market, to build U.S. boxing and Mexican boxing, Golden Boy has to be part of the equation. And I like that. I like that mentality because it's true.

There's no other promoter out there in the world who can build champions and stars in the U.S. Look, Eddie's a UK promoter. God bless him for trying, you know. God bless him for being involved and wanting to, to, you know, be involved with the U.S. market. But, you know, after so many years of trying to build stars, it just didn't happen. It wasn't filling with boots. Well, yeah, but he's, you know, he didn't build them. Right.

You know, he inherited a star like boots, just like he inherited all the other champions, you know. But when you build fighters from scratch, from the start, you have an investment in them, you know. You try really hard. But see, the one thing about us here in the U.S. is that we have that secret sauce. We have that secret, that anecdote, that, you know, we know how to take fighters from level. A, B, and C, we can take you to the top. We can take you to championship level. We can take you to superstar level.

We know you're worth. We know exactly how far you're going to go. You know, that's what we do. How do you feel about Tank versus Jake? I think, I really do think, I respect Jake. now I respect Jake because of what he's doing especially when he fought Chavez you know he's taking strides

step by step you know there's no rush in his game all he wants to do is become a world champion and but this fight here I do have to admit it's a little feels kind of like a circus you know you have

an 80 pound discrepancy there's a I don't know how bigger he is Jake Paul versus Tank I mean people are going to watch it will you I will I actually will because I like Jake

sure and I like Tank I really do but come on guys the size it's it's it's gonna be a little a little circus for a while but it's gonna be fun but again it's not traditional boxing and so that's why I'm not worried about it see everything else that everybody else is doing Jake Paul with tank and you know that's entertainment that's fine

that's not traditional boxing where my space is at what I'm focusing on building traditional champions for the future back there you have all these amazing robes and all your belts which one means the most to you off the top of your head which one oh the one inside the ring the Olympic robe why is that that's what started everything that's unbelievable that's the one for the gold medal match that's the gold medal match that's the gold medal match

That's the one that started everything. I wore that robe three days straight after I won the gold medal. Yeah, I never took it off. Oh, like just out and about? Yeah, just out and about. We're wearing my gold medal. Wow. And on top of my clothes, my street clothes, I would put my robe on, just walk around.

Who made it? I think it was Adidas. Okay. At the time, they were USA sponsors. Incredible. Do you have all your robes? I have every single, I only have, I have here in my home, in Vegas. I have, I think it's seven, six belts.

I have all my belts in L.A. in my office. I have, I think, 10 robes here, but I have every, I have all my rows, my wraps, my boots, gloves, gloves, every, you name it. I have everything. All at home in L.A. All at all, yeah. Okay, so we're here in this amazing room with all your robes. Not all of them, just a few. A lot of them, yes.

This one? This one here, so the whole promotion was Gladiator, because. Because me and Gotti were gladiators. You know, Gotti was... I love Gotti. From my hometown, Montreal. So the inspiration came from... I believe it was the movie Gladiators, the colors.

And, you know, I wanted for it to look like... Kind of like these, you know, fighters, you know, from fighting lions and Rome and stuff. So this was Artura Gotti where I knocked them out, I think, in the fifth round or something. And so you're involved in the design process. I was involved in the color, everything. You loved it. I loved it. This one here was Floyd Mayweather.

Wow. Yeah. This is when I fought Floyd Mayweather. And probably one of my favorite, okay? My favorite robe is this one right here. Oh, yeah. I mean, do you recognize that one there? Mexican-American?

Oh, yeah. I fought Julio Cesar Chavez in 1996 in that road. Wow, wow, wow. It gives me chills. Yeah, no, it's... And you kept them in such great condition. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I still have all my, the rest of the robes in LA in my office. Any particular reason why you chose this select few for here? These were important, you know, fights, great memories. Yeah. Like that's Hector Macho Camacho. Wow. Yeah, I remember him talking so much shit. It was the funniest thing ever.

Just a lot of great memories. And what about the belts? Yeah, the belts, just those are the, you know, just belts. Wow. WBC ring belt. Yeah. those ring belts were pretty special because when you hold a ring belt, you know you're the very best. Yeah, of course.

So having to win. Do you miss owning it? No, no, it was a good business deal. Yeah, you're happy. And I held it. I held onto it for quite a while. And I, you know, held its integrity and kept it afloat. And, you know, because the history involved in the ring belt, it's so precious.

You can't buy that. And so I had built it, you know, to where I can build it and hold on to it. And Turkey came along and, you know, gave me a great offer. And I said, hey, it's in your hands. Take it. Do you like where it's at, what they've done with it? I love the fact that they keep promoting it as the belt because it is. I do not like the change of the belt.

Okay. The look of the belt. I would prefer, I mean, look at this belt. Yeah. That is, that's just, it's beautiful. You know, right now they're using a big, bulkier belt. I don't like that. I like the traditional, beautiful, you know, just like that one down there.

Yeah. It's just a gorgeous belt. One more, one more that sticks out? One more that sticks out. Oh. Yeah. So, funny story with this one. This was my debut.

Wow. My debut, my pro debut. Your pro debut. And when they gave, they, my, my tailor gave me the, he was my uncle, my tailor gave me the, the, the, uh, the robe, the day of, I tried it on. And I was like, holy shit, this is like too short. So, so, I was, I was so pissed trying to figure out what can I do, what can I? And so I think it was my brother who convinced me, just go out with it.

The girls are going to love it. And sure enough, there was like 9,000 women out there. and I had my robe open. So it was pretty cool. My short robe. Thank you, Oscar. Thank you, appreciate it.

You got it. All right. Great stuff there with Oscar at his home in Las Vegas. He claims the first interview that he's done with a journalist reporter, interview, or whatever you want to call me, from his home. So a huge honor and privilege. Hope you enjoyed that as much as we did, more of that to come. All right, let's not waste any time.

A lot of you excited about this chat. We've talked a lot about Derek Moneyberg over the past. month or so, stemming from that confrontation with Sean Strickland in the hotel hallway. There's a lot to talk to him about. Let's not waste any time. Let's say hello to Derek Moneyberg, who is here in studio to talk to us right here and now. Appreciate him coming in. Hello, sir.

How are you? Good to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. Thank you so much for coming in. Really appreciate it. And I appreciate you taking the time as well. How are you? Doing well overall.

Yeah? Overall? Well, if you don't have a couple problems, in life. You're not doing much of anything, aren't you? Sure. Is there, is there a big one or just you're just saying the daily? Okay. By the way, just out of respect, what do you prefer to be referred to as Derek? Or do you want to go by your real name, which is Dale, right? If you say, say, Buzkowski. Did I get it? That's why we use Derek Moneyberg. Okay. In Poland, you'd say Buzkowski. But nobody in America, nobody can pronounce the name. So this became a good marketing name. So you prefer to be. Derek is fine. You call me either. I don't mind. Okay. Where did you come up with the name?

I know, it's just a fun marketing name, you know. It has to be something, you know, related to money because I'm in a finance or wealth-creating type of business. And I'm half-Jewish on my father's side, which, you know, some people say that's not a Jew. But my ancestors died in the Holocaust, so we were Jewish enough for that. And it was just a funny marketing name that's catchy, slightly obnoxious or provocative to some people. And it works, you know. Why didn't you go with Dale Moneyberg? as opposed to Derek

I thought Derek sounded fine Okay, all right And when did you come up with this sort of persona How long ago? We started that business in 2019 And what's that business? So you're the Moneybird business So that website and the social media assets

We start creating in 2019 And who's we? Me and my team Okay I have 100% of the business How many people are a part of your team? I have several contractors And then a few people I work closely with

and then a couple extended groups of contractors and whatnot. So when you say the Moneyberg business, that's the wealth management business? Yes. So people come to you to learn how to get rich, invest, increase their portfolio. First of all, I don't manage anybody's money. So to be clear about wealth management. I don't touch anybody's money. I don't manage anybody's money.

That's not the sort of thing that I'm interested in. I'll leave that for Wall Street people that are nearby here. Sure. I help people with entrepreneurship and help them understand how do we start a small business and scale that. I help them understand fundamentals of real estate and how to invest in real estate and there's many ways to make money in real estate. And then I help them understand global markets, primarily the stock market. So kind of like a consultant? I think of that as like a wealth coach or I try to help people make decisions that would lead to long-term wealth.

There's no get-rich quick. There's no get-anything significant quick. but yeah, I try to help people think about their finances in a way that over a period of time that they could have a lot of financial freedom. And this question may come off the wrong way, but it's not from a malicious POV. What makes you qualify to be that guy?

Well, I did all of those things. Okay. I built a real business. Unlike most people on the Internet that talk about those things, I built a real business. Which was what? I helped build, let me answer the question.

Okay. Well, no. So I built this business. I just got my ClickFunnels, for 50 million in revenue in this business. Previously, I was involved in a dating business that I didn't own, but I was involved in building it. And my brand within that business, we did about six and a quarter million per year at the time that I left that business. I made tens of millions of dollars in the stock market. I made over $10 million in real estate

and profits. I went to the number one business school in our country. I went to University of Chicago's graduate school of business. So I do have the right academic credentials. I'm not a PhD. if you want to, there's a lot of PhDs that don't have any money. So most people on Wall Street aren't PhDs either, but they make a lot more money than PhDs do, you know. So someone may be watching this and thinking, okay, why is Derek Moneyberg on? Is he on to just talk about, you know, being a wealth management coach. Of course you're not on to just talk about that. You have become somewhat of a combat sports and I should say specifically like an MMA slash BJJ story over the past three to four years or so

I first kind of started to notice your work when I would start to see a lot of fighters with you on your show, a lot of fighters on your YouTube channel, on your social media, and the first thing that drew me to the scenes were that they were all wearing these

shirts with you. And then we started to hear about your journey as a BJJ practitioner. Could I ask, just starting at the beginning, your interest in MMA and BJJ, when did that begin? And why you just start to feature so many of these guys and gals on your YouTube and your socials. Related to that, and I'll answer your question directly.

But just for one moment, you know, Jeff, Duke Rufus died the other day. He did, yes, on Friday. I never met the guy. But I knew a lot of people, Blah Mohamed trained with him and, you know, Alan trained with him. And I feel bummed that, you know, he was right in Milwaukee, and I wish I had the opportunity to meet him. And just last second, brief thing. Sure. It's Polly Malinashi I saw on your show. Yes, yes.

And Polly was, related to your question, Polly was one of my first trainers. We worked on boxing for about 14 months together for, I don't know, maybe 40-something, 50 days we trained together. Okay. Is this before the Jiu-Jitsu? Was that like your first interest? Simultaneously.

Simultaneously. And, you know, Pauly won his fight the other day. Congratulations. And he had a pretty serious eye injury that we've been talking about. And I hope you heal up well, Polly. Big respect to Polly. Thank you for everything you've done for me. And I hope you heal up well.

Regarding, you know, that journey, you know, I, when I was a kid, I was, you know, I was in some pretty rough environments, and thankfully I was a bigger kid and I could protect myself pretty decently. But, you know, over time, I was always interested in martial arts, you know, since I was a child. I think a lot of people are obviously you are as well, you know. And I just never did that. And then, you know, after, after 2020, when you had the, all the crazy things that happened at that time and all the turmoil, in the stock market. I did very well in the stock market. And I thought, yeah, you're really doing well financially, but I was 300 pounds. I was fat 300 pounds. I was pretty out of shape. They closed the gym. So I saw I was good about lifting weights. Never trained in MMA, but they

closed the gyms. And you couldn't go to the gym at that time. So yeah, you know, I focused on money and I did very well in the market. And I found myself by 2021 in a situation. I'm like, wow, like you you kind of made more money than you ever thought you might in your in your lifetime you know and you know what are the things you'd like to do with your time now and I grew up poor and I really focused on financial things and educational things so much that that was kind of a weird idea for me at the time I'm like oh like of course I'm going to still do that but I could do other things too and have like hobbies hobbies was like a new idea to me if that's I mean you must be a pretty driven and obsessive person yourself you know so maybe you could find that relatable in some way

But, so yeah, I asked Pauley. Polly was a little bit of a fan. He had started writing me on social media. And then when I found out who he is, I'm like, oh, that's the guy that trained Connor McGregor. So I asked Pauly to come train with me four years ago this month. And then the next month, I asked Jake Shields. I knew him for some time.

I met him through Nick Diaz. And I asked him if he would come train with me. And then very quickly, I realized if you're only training a couple weeks, you know, eight days a month, you're not going to get good at this, you know? So then I kind of scaled that up. I asked Titor, T's and Mike Chan. learn a lot of other people if they would come just people that I knew and then pretty soon you know that expands and you know as it's done for you then you know quite a lot of people in

the MMA community over time you know and so this all leads to you getting your black belt you're your black belt in Jiu jit too oh four years later and it from what I was told it was around three and a half years from what I've read three years and seven months okay three three years and seven months which is as you know you don't need me to tell you an unbelievable feat like almost unheard of some of the greatest B.J.J. practitioners of all time, B.J. Penn, three and a half years, Kayotera, three years. You're in that discussion. And I think this has drawn the ire of the jiu-jitsu community. You probably don't need me to say this to you as well, right?

Well, BJ Penn congratulated me, by the way. And BJ Penn was my inspiration to do that. I knew about that for, I don't know the number of years, but maybe a decade before I started, that I'm like, wow, like, if I ever do that, if I ever get into MMA, I need private lessons. I need to do that with the best guys because I'm getting, you know, I was getting older. You're not going to catch up. Old are you if you don't mind me asking? I'm 46. Okay. Um, so BJ Penn was like legitimately my inspiration for that, that I'm like, I had, if I ever do this, I have to do it the way he did and have, you know, private instruction with black belt, with high level

instructors from the beginning. Um, regarding the amount of years, yeah, maybe that's a shorter amount of years. Regarding the amount of time, I spent more time in the gym than most of these people that, I'm not a professional fighter. And I think there's some confusion. on the internet about that. I'm a professional businessman. I'm not a professional fighter. There's nowhere on the internet that I ever talked about. You know, I'm going to win this competition. I'm going to win worlds. I'm going to win ADCC. I'm going to be a UFC champion. I started in my 40s, dude. Like, I started a realistic thing. It was never my goal. But it was a good thing for fitness. It was something that was in the back of my head that I always wanted for self-defense

that like, you know, I'm a big guy and I'm in my 40s and I can travel around the world and feel pretty safe. 20 years from now when you're in your 60s, you're really going to be able to protect yourself or protect your girl or your family if you don't have some like you know real fight training it's probably not realistic you know and I really like to travel I've been in a lot of countries probably you have too so you know I'd like I'd like to have that confidence later in life and it's a good fitness thing but because you are a businessman that that also calls into question how you're able to pull this up because pro fighters are doing this 24-7 if they're able to right they have no other job for the most part and so for someone in their

40s to get a black belt while also being a business and running this multi-million dollar business, as you say, it does ring some alarms, right? You can understand why. I'm not a Wall Street stock trader. I don't have to buy and sell them, buy and sell them, but sometimes I buy things. I might sell it three years later, four years later. But you're doing stuff in your business. So you have to have an awareness of what's going on in the market day today. Yeah. Regarding, you know, my business helping clients, it's like, I spend time with clients. We do live events. I spend one time with clients for the right type of clients that have been around for a long time and been, you know, done their part.

Then I'm happy to take their phone calls or help with things, but I don't exactly have an office to show up to her like a normal person. But you have another job, right? I haven't had a job since I'm 19. I have a business. Meaning you do something that isn't martial arts related, isn't jih Tzu related, that I would imagine takes up a lot of your time. You mentioned some of those fighters, those pro fighters. I don't think ever in the history of Jiu-Jitsu has someone received a black belt with not any sort of competition on their resume.

To the best my knowledge, you've never competed in a Mundials or an ADCC, right? BJ got his black belt after winning the Mondials. Hamza Chimaev got his black belt after winning the UFC title. Have you competed against anyone to earn this black belt? I got my ass kicked for two years by a bunch of UFC champions and top contenders. Behind closed doors though, right? No one's able to see this.

No, I don't get this shit. No, I understand that. No one sees your bathroom or what you do behind closed doors either because it's not the fucking business. I don't win a, I don't get awarded a belt for my bathroom activities. You got a build, a change of context. Sure, sure. You have a black belt as well, yeah. I do not.

Well, I have a black belt right here, and some might say, with all due respect, it's as legitimate as yours. I don't know a lot about you, honestly. I see clips of your show and I see, you know, people that come on. The thing is, no one has ever received a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu without competing in events. And certainly no one has ever received it at. your age so you can surely understand why there's some questions surrounding the legitimacy of your black belt questions do you get bothered by this are you offended by it much honestly i think the people because it's a big deal to win a black belt to be awarded about the better the people that

trained with me which is quite a roster of people you know many of them um the people that trained with me they know where my skills are and they know what i've done and the people you know if you you don't spend your life trying to satisfy random people on the internet either no you would never you could never live your life this way. My equivalent of your black belt is winning awards, journalists of the year awards. People see my work every day. So they're able to judge whether or not those awards were earned. That's your profession. I understand. But I understand, but you still got a black belt, which is the highest honor possible in Jiu-Jitsu. In three and a half years, if it would take you 20 years, people have been like,

all right, that makes sense. Three and a half years as a mid-40-year-old with with fighters who, you know, sometimes their decision-making is called into question, you can, you can certainly understand whose decision making is called into question are you paying these guys of course to teach you are you paying are you paying them to come on your show i also paid tuition at my university sure that's how that works when you have a teacher or a coach or a mentor you pay them but there's a conflict involved when you're paying top dollar for people to come to your house and and and sleep with you and then they want to sleep at your house you know in another room or something in your apartment correct in chicago be clear about that they're not sleeping yes i mean like they're they're

People stay in a guest room. Exactly. In your apartment. That's part of the deal, right? People stay in a guest room at a property that I own. But they spend the weekend with you. Like you'll have fighters come over. I've talked to some of these fighters.

I want to understand what your business is. And so my understanding is they get paid to come on the show, right? On the YouTube channel? It depends on the context. The way that I've done that, I did interviews with 300-ish professional athletes and, you know, people of interest, you know. interest, you know. A lot of them were athletes, a lot of them were fighters. And yeah, some of those people came on because, you know, it depends where they're at in life and what their

circumstances are. I mean, some people, frankly, came on for free and maybe they should have paid me to come on because it did a lot more for them than it did for me. I've never paid anyone to come on my show or channel. That's okay. I'm not ashamed to say that I have. There's something wrong with that. If you respect someone and you value your time, then you should be their best option of what they should do at their time. So if I compensate somebody, they say, hey, would you go out of your way to fly to me and make time to do this with me? And then I buy their flight and give them some amount of money, depending who it is. Yeah, if somebody values your time, then you should show respect for their time.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with it. No, I get that. The issue I guess I'm bringing up is if someone is getting paid well by you to do this and you're describing maybe some people who could use a buck or two, they're going to be incentivized to continue to, you know, be around you and reward you with these great things without there ever being a sort of checks and balances involved, which is the major competition. Do you not agree? Do you know the number one thing that I pay those people for is harsh criticism? I want them to tell me the truth. What am I doing? I'd like them to tell me, hey, what's one thing that's going well that I should keep doing? I'd like them to tell me two or three things that we got to work on this. You got to focus

over. Why not compete in any sort of competition? Because I don't give a shit because I'm 46 years old and I don't make money. I'm not a pro fighter. I never had the dream to be. Not a pro fighter. You have said you will compete against Sean Strickland, right? That's a very different context for him specifically. He is a pro fighter. So you want to compete against him because you have an issue with him or you feel disrespected by him? It seems like he has the issue with me.

I've been nothing but a gentleman to him. It seems like he has the issue with me. And he said a lot of nasty things that are false. Like what? Like what is he accusing you of that is bothering you? You could look on the internet and see the things that he said. And I don't want to misquote him here. But now he said a lot of things about my care.

about my business that aren't true, that are they're outside of the black belt. Sean Strickland, he's allowed to have whatever opinion he might want to have about my black belt. He has a black belt. He's a world champion fighter. You'd be hard not to argue that he's a subject matter expert at fighting. So he could have whatever opinion that he wants to. When he says things about my business or about me personally that are derogatory, you know, that goes beyond the realm of, you know, a fair opinion.

And, you know, he's just being malicious at that point. So if he would have just said, look, man, I don't believe. you actually earned this black belt three and a half years or three in seven months, you'd be okay with that. You feel like he's crossed the line and made it personal. Yeah, I think that's a fair way to say it. Okay, because you had that interaction. Was that in a hotel hallway? Where was that? We happened to be staying at the same hotels. That was a lobby of a hotel, yeah. Okay, and what happened there? Because you were saying that you were trying to talk to him,

and then he started speaking into his phone, right, to his camera? Well, you'd have to know a couple details ahead of time is, you know, from the moment that I was presented that belt, which was July 3rd, I think, of this year, by Jake Shields. Yeah. And also in the room, we're Glover Tashira, the Odomachita, Frank Mir. So the, the four of them came to... None of those guys have any connection to each other in terms of like, they don't come from the same lineage or trained together. So it's kind of like this hodgepodge of MMA superstars, which is unique in its own right. I don't know that I would call any of the four of them a hodgepodge, but they are a random group of guys. There are three of them are UFC champions.

I understand, but they're not connected. They don't train together. They're all jiu-jitsu black belts. Okay, but you know, historically you get, you know, you get a sort of belt upgrade based on your coach that you've been with from the white belt to the black belt. I received my belt from one coach. I received my belt from Jake Shields. All of them.

All of them. Like brown, purple, blue, yes. And regarding the Sean thing, so the, the, the, those four gentlemen were in the room with me that they had coached me, they had trained me, so they'd help me develop that skill set. And, you know, when we left that room, there's already, you know, commentary, a lot of congratulations and a lot of nice things. And then, you know, Sean Strickland had a lot of negative things to say about it. And again, regarding the belt, he's entitled to do that. He can have whatever opinion he wants to, but, you know, he never met me. He's ever had a

conversation with me, and he's making a lot of interesting assumptions or, you know, pretty negative assumptions based on that. But in any case, and I wrote him privately, and I was gentleman about it. I wrote him privately and I said, you know, Sean, I asked you twice to do an interview with me, and you declined. It just never happened. And, you know, I know the guy that owns your gym, Randy Cocherer. I know the, I know the, uh, your coach, uh, Eric Nixick. I know plenty of people at your gym. Like, if you wanted to train together, we could. I'd be happy to train with you. If you have doubt, I'd be happy to train with you. That's the essence, not word for word, because I'm reading it, but that's the essence of her communication. Then you attack me some more.

And then you attack me some more. And then I see you, you know, him in person than at that hotel. First time in person. First time we ever met in person. We were, I was at Glover Tashir as Jim. Alex Pereira was doing his fight camp, training for his fight camp for the October 4th, I think, Magamatta Fight. And, yeah, anyway, so Sean had come to al-Spar with Alex to prepare him for his fight

as somebody that Alex invited. And I don't want to cause a fuss at their fight camp. I'm very respected. You know, if you look at anything that I would do on the internet, I don't go pick fights with people. I don't go talk bad about people. You have no idea that, you know, hundreds of interviews, people said things that maybe they got too comfortable and said things on camera. They wouldn't be good for their career. It wouldn't be good for their future.

And I never published that stuff. I'm very respectful to these people. They're people that I think very highly of. And including Sean, I think Sean's very talented person. You don't become a world champion by accident. I think there's 118 or so UFC champions ever. So, you know, that's not an accident. He's a very talented person.

There's a person I was interested in meeting that'd be happy to do an interview or train with or both. But anyway, he kept saying nasty things about me. And then I said the first time I see him in person is in the lobby. I just walk in the door of the hotel. I've been training all day with Glover and people at his gym. And then we went for lunch. And then Glover, I said, hey, just drop me off. I want to take a shower because feeling pretty sweaty from early in the day.

I said, let me take another shower. And I'll meet you back at the gym. There's a class at seven, class at 815, that we'll do one-on-ones after, you know. And when I walk in the hotel, Sean is there. And I said, you know, Sean, take a minute to talk with me, please. And he's like, you know, he don't really want to. And I was like, Sean, I'm being respectful. I've been respectful.

You say a lot of things about me. You never met me before. We never had a conversation before. And there's some chairs over here. Would you just take him in and chat with me? Take a minute and chat with me. And I was very polite about it, you know? And then he don't want to do that.

And I said, okay. So you want to say a bunch of negative things on the Internet. You can only talk when the camera's rolling, and you can only talk for the Internet. You don't actually have any interest in getting to know me, you know anything about me. You just want to say nasty things on the Internet. And I said, you know, I was at the gym all day yesterday.

He was in town. He didn't go to the gym. I was there something like 11.30 in the morning, 11.45 in the morning to like 10.30 at night, minus we left for like two hours to eat and came back. So I didn't see you at the gym at all yesterday. You know, I have seen you at the gym all day today. And I'd be happy to talk with you.

If you want to roll respectfully, if you want to roll and test me, like, you know, come, I don't want to be injured. I'm not challenging you to a fight. But if you want to come roll with me, come to the gym and roll with me. I'm going back at seven. We could go together. And then he just started talking to the camera. And then I said to him to his face, and again, still respectfully.

I've never said anything disrespectful about him. I think he's a talented person. I like some of the funny shit he says. I don't agree with everything he says. but I don't agree with anything. Everybody's, you know, that's life, you know. Welcome to Earth. So I've always been respectful to the guy.

And then I said, you know, if you really, I said, I don't even think you believe the things you're saying. But if you really believe that, why don't we do a public match? So I'd do a public match with you. And I said, you know, I don't think you could tap me in five minutes. I didn't say I could kick your ass. I didn't say any of that said, in a grappling match, I don't think you could tap me in five minutes. He's 12 years younger than me. He had his black belt for over a decade.

Again, I respect the guy as a very talented fighter. Do I think I could beat him up in an MMA match? No, I don't think they'd go well for me. But in my grappling, I feel confident, but I don't think you could tap me in five minutes, that's all. You think you tap him? I don't know. You think you can beat him?

I don't know. What did he say when you offered him that challenge? Then we start walking towards the elevator together, and remember we're in a hotel? He made a comment that, like, oh, I followed him. I'm like, where would be the natural place you would go if you walked into a hotel? you'd walk in and you'd go to the elevator

because that's how you get to your room. So we walk to the elevator together and then he takes his phone out and then a totally different person on camera. So I think Sean likes to talk for clicks in views. Seems like a very insincere person otherwise but he likes to make a lot of noise

for clicks and views. Just my impression. How many hours do you think you've put into the black belt? At that time, something around 3,000. 3,000 over the course of three years and seven months. Yeah. And when you train, I've seen some, There's very limited footage of you rolling with these guys.

One thing that's been brought up is that you are often on the mats wearing socks. Why is that? I'm wearing socks right now, by the way. No, I know. Your audience might be interested to know. Yes, as am I. But when you typically see jihistu practitioners on a mat, they're not wearing socks. Okay.

That's their prerogative. But is there a reason why you are? You're sort of the anomaly when it comes to this. I've never seen this before. A typical jihitsu practitioner is in a sweaty room. With, you know, I've been to some of these professional gyms where I don't need to say their names, but nothing wrong with it, but I've been to some of the professional gyms where it's, you know, 80 degrees in the room and there's puddles of sweat. And you know what this looks like. You know what it smells like. I'm in a room with one or two people are with me, and it's air conditioned to my liking. And I got 15 rooms in that property that have marble floors. So if you want a funny joke, but happens to be true, is my toes get cold on all those marble floors. So I happen to wear socks around the property. And then we go. over to the training room and then we go train and I have my socks on and who cares can I ask how much have you paid Jake over the years I don't know exactly what do you think I pay him well what do you

think a few hundred thousand dollars is it would it be unfair to hypothesize that he gave you a black belt just because you pay him very well yeah I do think it would be unfair for numerous reasons why I mean I mean you have you trained with some of these guys have and sincerely I'm not trying to poker. No, no, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't train with them. I'm mostly a businessman. I understand. But, um, yeah, I mean, if you, this, this, Jake has come to me. We started in November 2001. So, and it comes like every four weeks. Plus, we've trained in other places together. 2001. 21. 21. Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. My mistake. Um, and thank you for correct to me, 2021. So four years. Um, and yeah, he's come to me 50 times. He's, he's, he's never had an

excuse. If he had an injury, he shows up. If I have an injury, I show up. We work around it. He's been a great person. He's helped me a lot. Um, Shail Sonan said about, actually, I had a conversation on Shail Sonan where he brought up a quote from, um, George St. Pierre. He says, you know, when George St. Pierre said that Jake Shields is the, the best MMA grappler ever. And Shale says, like, I thought to myself, is that true? Who's better? Is it? Maybe Damien Maya? No, Jake beat Damien Maya. Maybe somebody else. I forget who else? his name he said. He's like, no, Jake beat him too. He's like, shit, Jake is the best MMA Grappler ever. So I think the guy's very talented. We could debate that, but that's

what GSP said about him. We could debate, you know, anybody could have a debate about those type of things. But he's extraordinarily talented. He's very loyal. He's been consistent. How many black belts has he given out in his career? Has he awarded? I'm not sure. Do you think more than five? I don't, you'd have to ask him. I sincerely don't know. Really when you said that, and this is a guess, and I don't, it might not be true at all. Really, the number that came to mind is 10 or 12. But I'm not sure if that's true. So it's an elite group of people. I'm not sure if that's true at all. Probably on more. I don't know many Jake Shields black belts. I know he's a part of the Caesar Gracie group and all that, but I don't

hear of him awarding a lot of people black belts, which would then make your black belt extra special, right? I don't know how, I don't know what gradient of extra special. I don't know. It feels very unique to me. All right. Do you have any interest in expanding into other? Like, are you trying to get a karate black belt, a judo black belt? Like, where does this end for you? Or are you content with this?

I've been training in MMA. So I learned, you know, my takedown defense is good. My, you know, my takedowns are good. I'm not going to be some world champion fighter. I just want to be a good, well-rounded MMA guy that has, you know, good solid self-defense. And I can take care of myself. old man. I don't think it's, you know, the, the controversies online, people focus on three and a half years, three and a half years. A big deal. Because this means the world to these guys. No, dude,

I did the same, I did the same amount of training they did in less years. And I did it with, I did it with their icons and idols. And I think there's a jealousy component to that. Respectfully, I don't believe that. You know, men and women may or may not believe it. Since they're teenagers, and it takes them 10, 15 years to get a black belt, through blood, sweat, and tears, UFC title For some of that, that's... We've never seen you in a competition. We've never seen you in one competition, even like a white belt competition. Because I never tried to be a competitor.

I had no interest in that. But then that calls into question this black belt. The black belt feels like a happy meal black belt. Then you hear questioning it, and that's okay. I don't really mind if you question it. You don't. You don't, because I'm happy to hear that because, you know, you've had some issues with people who have criticized you in the past, right?

There's a famous case with a YouTuber, Spencer Cornelia, where you... That's not a criticism. some of it's slander and defamation you felt like he was he was hitting you below the belt so to speak he said numerous lies about me and repeated them to a broad audience ultimately the case got dismissed though um the next the next the next court date we're on appeal yeah and in the ninth circuit court the next court date is less than two months from now so can we take a step back though and and i'd love to know because this is a rare opportunity to ask you about your past in history because i think that's what you know it gets brought up when people are starting to look into this black belt as you mentioned

tough upbringing, right? Didn't have, you know, a lot of your name had to fight. People would pick on you. Is that all accurate? I mean, there's no context for the things that you're saying. So yes, those are accurate things with... You didn't have a lot of money to your name. You weren't a kid who grew up in a multi-million dollar home. I wish, in some ways, I wish that were true. And all the ways, I probably am grateful that it's not, you know. It shaped who you are as a person. That's fair. Your first million came when? Late 20s? 29. 29? 29. 29.

You had a kid, though, in your mid-20s, right? I was 20 20 is his name Dylan and do you have a relationship with him now um I was I tried to be very good to him in the past and we don't talk much if he calls me I answer his call how come he texts because he's my son so if he calls him no no how come you don't talk much why don't you talk much your son your only son correct your only child yes um yeah we just don't have the type of relationship okay does that bother you I suppose I wish I had ideal relationships with my parents and I wish I had an ideal relationship with my son and then there's life, you know. Did you not have an ideal relationship with your parents? I don't think,

well, I was going to say I don't think anybody does, but that's probably not fair. I feel blessed. Do you think you do? Yes. That's nice. Yes. That there's something to be happy about. Absolutely. You've had a few run-ins with the law, right? I have, expand. Okay. 2006, obstructing an officer. Dispissed. Dismissed. And then 2006 and 2008, you were served a warrant for failure to appear in court, right? There was a warrant out for your arrest. Is that for traffic? I'm not sure. That was, I think, for obstructing an officer as well. But these are still run-ins with the law, is what I'm saying. Is that accurate? 2006, 2008? Well, if you pull my, you know, criminal history, I can legally say I have zero criminal convictions, zero. I've been, I've never been convicted of a felony crime ever. I had four

misdemeanor convictions going back to 1997 when I was a 17-year-old child or, you know, what was that one for? Aggravated assault, I think. And, you know, and the, so of those four misdemeanors, which I don't even have to talk about that if I don't want to, I can legally, I think you have in the past, though. Yeah, and I am again, so I don't mind. I'm not unearthing anything that you haven't talked about in the past. No, my clients know this. No one in the world that knows me well would be surprised of like,

oh, Derek had some misdemeanor crimes. Sure. 2014 domestic violence and domestic battery first degree. What happened? Never had a court date, dismissed. What happened? Nothing dismissed. No, I know, but I mean, like, no one's coming to my house and arresting me for that.

So something obviously had to, an accusation. There's a misunderstanding on the side of security at a hotel, as I recall. And again, this is 11 years old, so I'm searching. But, yeah, anyway, I was taken to jail and then released. And I never even went to court. There was never a court date. You've never spent any time behind bars, even if it was one night? When I was a teenager, when I was 17, and when I was 17 and I'll go back to that

because those are the pertinent things when I actually did have some misdemeanor conviction. that you were digging for, I had four misdemeanor convictions in my life. Since then, I got three university degrees. Since then, I built a business. I did a lot of other things in my life since then. And three of those were expunged entirely, which means in the court's eyes, this has never happened. Got it.

And the fourth one, the one that I mentioned, involving the aggravated assault, is sealed by the court. So if I fail out a legal document, of any kind, I could fill out any legal document for the government, I'm legally allowed to say that I've had zero criminal. criminal convictions ever and you can you can leave the country you can travel there are no restrictions 60 or 60 something 60 something countries and then the the the five properties that

you inherited I believe from your mother right after she passed there was there was there was there was some you know questions called into that as well right um you I think you're you had a few facts wrong but I think you're talking about the legal disputes from 2012 where the Eighth Circuit Court overturned that had unanimously ruled for the five properties, right? I don't remember how many properties are involved, but that had something to do with.

Five properties were Cs that you inherited from your mother over allegations that they were used for manufacturing drugs or used to buy via drug proceeds. I never charged with anything, zero conviction. Is that the wrong way to describe what the... I don't know what the internet says.

Oh, I'm asking you, not the internet. You're right here. This is a great opportunity to clear it up. My name's not on that. And furthermore, there's the way that I recall this, and now you're asking me something from 13 years ago, I believe that's 2012. These are big moments in one's life that shape you into the person that you are today. I don't think it's such a big moment. No? What is the big moment? If, I mean, if, if I was

arrested, I wasn't arrested. You were not, you were, no one accused you of any of this? I was never arrested. You said you were not. I was arrested for what? At that time, are you talking about this case? Or are you talking about this case? Yes, yes. Well, just in general, if I was arrested once, it would be a big deal, let alone, you know, these handful of times. If you grew up where I grew up, the people that I grew up with, some of them were dead from drug overdose or violence. Some of them are doing 30 years in prison. I get that. And I'm like, when did you graduate from college?

I avoided all of those things. When did you graduate? I avoided. I never had a drug problem. I'm not in prison. I never been to prison. I never did all these crazy things. I had to go to go to a community college originally to answer your question.

Because when I was 17 and 18, I was in jail, as I mentioned. I spent like three. What years was this? 20, no, no, 1997, 1990, 1997. When did you go to University of Chicago? 2011 till 14. Right, so I mean, this stuff, we're talking 2018 years. So you're already a college graduate.

You're not someone who's living on the streets when this stuff is coming into your life. My second, working on my third university degree in, you know, 2012-ish. And so how were you able to overcome these things and then start to get on the, you know the straight and narrow so that i mean these are these are run ins with the law right here are they not if you go if you go outside and get charged with jaywalking you've had a run in with the law it's a little bit different no it's not there's no charges there's no there's no charges fair enough okay but there's no charges putting that behind you because to your credit you know since 2018 there seems like nothing's nothing's come your way there's no drama of any kind

the biggest drama in your life is people calling it the question your black belt which you know we should all be so lucky right so how did you kind of put that that side of your life behind you to where there's no drama. Anybody that knows me well, I always keep my word. I always do the things that I say I'm going to do. I work hard. I've been a smart, hardworking person. Did I grow up in a beautiful place?

No. A lot of people come on your show. There's not one fighter. There's not one person in, you know, from my, as I say, audience, that's the wrong word, from my client base. It's not one person that would be surprised about any of this. I'm not, there's a damn thing that I'm ashamed of. That's how I found it.

I've consumed a lot of your content. I didn't do a damn thing. I'm ashamed of. Nothing. Real social dynamics. This is like a dating sort of guru that you were. I never thought of myself as a guru and I've never used that word about myself. People come to you, they have, you have these seminars, these boot camps where you teach primarily men on how to pick up women. Is that accurate? People came to me mostly for dating advice about how to have better relationships. You know, my number one city, when I had an affiliate relationship,

with that company. The number one city was right here in New York. Okay. And my number two city would have been London. And so the primary client base that I was working with are tend to be college educated people. I kind of thought of it like this and give me 30 seconds to explain this. Sure, sure. Is, you know, a lot of the problems that men have with their relationships with women, they either tend to have, and I'm speaking broad brushstrokes, so we can say this in a short period of time, but they tend to have either, you know, value problems or marketing problems, you know, communication problems, if you want to say. And, you know, if you're a bum and you're kind of a shitty human and girls don't like you, then probably

got a lot of work to do. You know, there's not really the client base that I was interested in working with. What I did like working with and who I made, you know, real relationships and friendships and some of them became my clients in my current business are people that, you know, maybe they spent their 20s, you know, going to college, graduate school, building a career. They PhDs or they went to their attorneys, their consultants, they work on Wall Street. And they're smart guys and they're high quality guys. You would say an above average man, like a man with an above average income, above average education, good intentions with a woman.

But it's kind of useless, doesn't know how to communicate very well with the woman, you know. So if I could help that guy to be a better communicator and realize like, no, like you're an above average guy. You have a lot of good things going for you. And there's a lot of women that would like to meet you. but then I come into you, bro. You're going to have to walk up there and say hi, he'd introduce yourself, you know.

So when I asked you, you know, what qualifications do you have to be the wealth management coach that you've become? You explained to me, the PhDs and all that stuff. What qualifications did you have to be this, you know, dating coach, if you will? People got good results and they kept coming back. I don't know what would be the qualification.

I don't know. I don't know what becomes, like how you become that guy, you know? I wouldn't even. I say this respectfully, I don't mean, to be disrespectful. I have no disrespectful intentions towards you whatsoever. But that's like saying, like, why are you qualified to run the show? It's like, I don't know, because you're pretty fucking good at it.

You know, you're good at it. I went to Syracuse University, have a broadcast journalism degree. So I would say that's the biggest qualification, plus the hours that I've put in. But yes. I didn't know about the degree, but I would say the primary thing is like, you get a degree in dating, you know, dating advice. I only had degrees in business. If there's one, maybe there's some new politically correct things that I'm not aware of where you can get a degree in victims, daddies are all kinds of shit today.

Why did you stop? You know, that company, that was like the coolest thing in the world for, they started that company in 2002, the co-founders, and I met them in 2003. And I was around that from that time. And we had a lot of fun, you know, and you were in your 20s, a guy named Neil Strauss. I don't know if you know who Neil is. We're not friends, but we're not enemies, but we just, you know, haven't seen each other for a long time.

A guy named Neil Strauss, you know, wrote a best-selling book about that that kind of about that is a more mainstream thing. He also wrote a book about Motley Crew. He also wrote a book about Tito Ortiz's ex-wife. So he had a lot of best-selling books. And yeah, he was writing a book about the company. Courtney Love was living in the house with the main guys that owned this. Courtney Love was married to Kirk Cobain. So Courtney used to make me some chocolate chip cookies and, you know, be Courtney. And Courtney is exactly, when you see her on television, that's exactly how she is in real life, you know. So she's different but delightful in her own ways. But, yeah, it was fun.

We were in our 20s. It was fun. The guys that owned the company, they're in Men's Health Magazine. They're in Rolling Stone. It was a cool thing. And you're helping up a lot of guys that there's no shortcut in life where you're going to be like, you know, you get a lot of big things that you don't deserve, you know. One of my favorite quotes is from Charlie Munger.

Charlie Munger is the long-term business partner, born Buffett. I recently passed away about two years ago now. And he used to say The best way to get in what you want in life Is to deserve it And that really echoes in my head I like that saying quite a lot The best way to get the things you want in life

Or to deserve them The world's not such a crazy place To go around highly rewarding A bunch of undeservate people I've heard you say Poverty is a lifestyle choice In a first world country I think that's true

That's tough It is tough, you know I grew up tough And I decided That choose to conquer scene Right It just means like you could choose To overcome your current

circumstances and earn better circumstances. But sometimes people, you know, you're put in a situation, there's bad, I mean, there's a lot of things. I could have said all the same things. Sure. When you're poking at me right now, I could have said all the same thing. You consider this poking or do you think they'd be a good journalist? Fair questions. I would, I would say, no, would you not say? I think you are poking at me and I also think you're being a good journalist. I appreciate that. Um, different style than the ones, you know, the kind of interviews that you have on your show, right? We're good. Can I be honest about your videos? I'll lie to me. Okay. Uh, I, uh, I, I,

won't do that. I'm not a liar. Go ahead. What are you got? I'm a little uncomfortable sometimes watching the interviews because it feels to me like these are fighters who are taking a paycheck from you, just being honest. I've heard around like 7,500 or so. Is that accurate? That sounds pretty high to me. Okay. Even with inflation. That sounds pretty high. What is it per appearance? It depends who it is. Some people I give them nothing and some people I may have to give them for those people. Other people are getting paid and they're not getting anything? Well, I mean, And when somebody shows up on your show, you have to make a decision who you're going to put on your show or not. Who are you going to – so there are some people.

They're at a place in their career where they're a talented person who I personally like them. And I think, like, oh, like, let me help give this guy some attention. Maybe that's good for his career. I guess the thought is that people think that you – And if I could fully answer, then, you know, there's somebody else that's a – if somebody's a multi-time UFC champion and I pay them five grand to show up, then, like, I'm just showing respect for their time. There's a lot of things they could do for that. Do you think you can get guests without paying them?

I get a lot of guests without paying them. Okay. So then on the show, it seems like it's a lot more of you talking than you interviewing them. Okay. I like to be something like 50-50 story telling you back in place. Do you think it is? I've never measured it and I don't really give a shit. I feel comfortable doing exactly what I'm doing.

And a lot of those people, you know, that was a good vetting process, if you will, or a good, of feeling each other out process where I asked a lot of people to do interviews. and then people, if we kind of had a natural fitment together, then I say, you know, hey, would you consider coming to train with me? Right. I've heard that. It's been very useful. You'll pay them X amount to come on the show, and then you'll say,

hey, here's a deposit or so to come to stay with me in Chicago. I heard you have an incredible place in Chicago. It's a nice place. The question is, though, as far as the wealth management is concerned, how much do people actually have to pay you? How much do people have to pay you to do these? We have programs starting at $97. Then we have things that are only available to something.

somebody who's been around, has gone through the courses, who knows the material. And, you know, they're going to be able to have a coherent conversation in a room full of people that have similarly gone through the same training. And we can talk about, you know, those topics fluently between real estate, interconnection of business in general, of entrepreneurship, real estate stocks. Because I saw some of the numbers. And again, like, this is not my world. So I could be completely off base here. But the numbers seemed, you know, quite high in terms of how much.

you know, courses I saw are from 5,000 to 20,000 to even one-on-one mentoring for around 60,000. Is that accurate or no? Yeah, I mean, the 5,000 to 20,000 is very common. And we've done a few one-on-one things that somebody requests something specific or particular that we could do, you know, one-off things for more money, sure. It's a lot of money. So you're dealing with like a higher echelon of clientele? I don't, the people that are interested in learning about, you know, business and finance,

or they're trying to make serious money. Right. So I don't think it's so much money when I pay somebody five grand to come do something for me. And they have to post, they have to post like reviews, right? Testimonials. Reviews is the right word.

Okay. I don't, I literally, I have, we have how much footage where I say, you know, you are required to create a review as part of the homework. Yeah. You can say. Midway through.

Because all the ones that I say, you can say in your review, you can say, you know, Derek's kind of grumpy, and I don't love his personality, but I learned some useful things from the, from the program. You can say whatever you want to. They can say anything they want to. I saw a lot of reviews.

But they are required to post a review, to create a review. Midway through, right? I don't know what week it is, week four out of ten or something maybe. Well, I saw a lot of the reviews said, I'm halfway through. This has been incredible. Like, I saw a lot of the ones on your website, and they're all positive. But it struck me as to why everyone was saying, I'm halfway through. Like, why not just wait until the end to give them the review?

We do it at the end as well. Right. But why do they have to do it? Is it because I also saw you say, if you don't get your review in by tonight, you're out? It's a feedback mechanism that I can understand. Where is that person in the course? I can see their face on a video. I can see them saying to me, you know, this is the good and the bad.

It allows me to create a linkage of that face and name more strongly. And it's a feedback mechanism. I think we really do like week four and then it's do week five maybe. So the whole thing's 10 weeks? Two of the programs are 10 weeks. and the one about entrepreneurship is 12 weeks that it would just a lot and I put more in there

and it's a lot of information to cover. Okay. And then what happens after the 10 weeks or 12 weeks? Like what happens when you're done? Then they're done with that course. They could choose to... Is there some sort of guarantee?

Like, okay, you're going to set them up with X, Y, and Z? Or is it just like, hey, good luck to you? Like a college diploma, basically. It means they went through that course. There's no guarantee. I went to the university of Chicago and you went to journalism school.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to know. I've never, I've never taken one of these before. I didn't get to do any guarantee with any of my diplomas, but they were certainly very useful to me. What's the issue with Mikey Musamechi? You know, I think a lot of that smoothed out, actually. I think... You just posted like two days ago on your channel.

You called them a jiu-jitsu Judas. And we had a conversation since... Since? In the last two days? Yeah. Okay. And so where are we at? Well, because that's news.

This is breaking news. Breaking news. This is prank. Hit the music. No, I spoke to Mikey. since then. Thank you, Frank. It's cute.

I love it. Thank you. I spoke to him since then. And I think, you know, there are a couple things were, I think he miscommunicated a couple things. And I think that he had good intentions overall. Mikey's a good person. I don't have anything bad to say about Mikey.

He's tried to distance himself from you, it seems like. Would you like me to answer the first question? Are you going to just? No, no. Then let me answer the question. Okay, all right. Fair enough. I'm sorry.

I'm long-winded. I know. You have a heart out, too. So I'm trying to give you. I get it. But I am trying to give you a sincere answer, you know. I appreciate it. I spoke to the guy on the phone for 39 minutes, okay?

And, you know, he said, hey, Derek, you know, I didn't mean it that way. I apologize if it came off that way. I mean what? And mostly. Just because I don't know. Well, he made comments in some of the other videos. And a couple interviews that he was in. He made comments that, like, you know, well, Derek doesn't train.

Derek doesn't this and that. And, you know, he clarified that to me that, you know, from his perspective, The guy's something like a 20-time world champion. He's UFC champion twice now. I think he won worlds five times. I think he was five or six-time champion at one championship. He won some other big tournaments.

The guy's amazing, by the way. He's super talented. He's brilliant. Sorry, there's a lot of things I really like about Mikey. And I don't want to say one bad thing about him. But when he makes some of his comments, then I'm like, you know, why? What are you doing, bro?

And then he did it again. And then he did it third time. And then he did it a fourth time. And I'm like, you know, I have to address that after the fourth time. and like, and I think from his perspective, and I'm not putting words in his mouth, but, you know, he and I are going to leave that lie,

but my last word on it, it'll be on your show, okay? Is he said, you know, from his perspective, he's like, Derek, you know, I spent my life training to be a world champion, and that's how I think about, you know, training is like, you're not doing that kind of training. And I said, well, you know, I never said I could beat up Nicky Rod. I never said I could beat up Gordon Ryan. Gordon's a good friend of mine.

When I roll with Gordon, he fucks me up in about a minute, you know, in about a minute. Gordon's amazing. Should a black belt be beat up in a minute by the best guy in the world ever? But I'm just saying, black belt versus black belt. If he beats me up in a minute, I don't know what he'd do to you, but it wouldn't take a minute. It wouldn't take a minute. I would have a negative white belt if I went in there.

I have no skills whatsoever when it comes to this, but I'm not parading around with a black belt and trying to defend it. I'm not parading anything. I don't give a shit with the public things about my black belt. The coaches that trained with me, no. The coaches that trained with me know, the people that matter know. and the people that don't know it's not my job to satisfy every critic and hater in the world

you know what you know what critics don't get paid much you don't care what people think so can I ask why would I care what a random person thinks okay so then that's you should be that way why when I go on your Instagram do you have like 40, 50,000 likes but 100 comments that would suggest to me that a lot of those

likes are bought and that would suggest to me that you do care what people think if you're buying those likes you know marketing is marketing And you market your show the way that you want to, and I'll market my band the way that I want to. That's 100%. But you just said you don't care. So then why would you buy engagement? You just changed the context three different ways.

How? How? So we were talking about Mikey, which I was going to clarify and say the last word here. And I'll do that. And then we'll carry on as you wish. But Mikey and I are good. I said, I don't think it's fair to be held to that standard that I'm supposed to beat world champions. I never trained to be a pro fighter.

I'm not a pro fighter. I'm a hobbyist fighter. I trained for self-defense I'd be very effective in those areas Mikey and I are good so shout out to Mikey respect to Mikey Darth Rigottoni

Darth Rigottoni indeed man the guy's very talented I like him I respect him and I wish him well and you know will you follow this up on your channel or no are you just going to leave I'm here with you

no I mean but your last video maybe it's on my to do list this afternoon it's a tough it's a tough title to give someone you and Jake Shields been 45 minutes slagging him off, the poor guy. I wasn't mean to him in that thing. I thought you guys were a little harsh. I thought he was harsher.

Okay, fair enough. And we had a conversation since then, and I'm done with that. All right. And I respect him, and I wish him well. And I'll probably take the video down furthermore. The Instagram likes, they're bought. You've just confirmed that. I didn't confirm that at all.

I don't manage every little thing in my business. Do you buy Instagram engagement and social media engagement? I do have marketing agencies that help me with things, and however they want to run things. If the results are showing, then I'm good with whatever they do. But that's hollow, no? Isn't that hollow? Because then it's not real.

You know, the one really weird criticism is sometimes people say, like, you bought followers, blah, blah, blah. There's bots. Everybody has bots. And I don't want bots. And you don't want bots, but you have them. And you know, I don't buy. And I don't either. I don't either.

And you know who has the most bots is the more famous you are, the bigger account you have? I read. I don't know if this is true. but I read that Kim Kardashian like 35, 40% of her followers are bots like fake. Not because she bought them. Well, they're attracted to the big sites. They come to the big sites because they're...

But your thing has like 50,000 and then like 100 comments. So it's unbalanced. And then you go on your YouTube, it's the same thing. It's, you know, 50K, 30K, 40K but the comments kind of give it away. I think we limit the comments in some of those. Oh, you do? How come? How come?

Because it's my fucking house. And if somebody wants to come shit on my floor, then they don't to be there. Oh, so there's a lot of spam. There's a lot of... Well, there's also, if you run a business page, you may or may not know this. If you run a business page, then you'll have, like, extraordinary amounts of spam that are like, you know, crypto by Christie, you know, 6241. You know, if it wasn't for crypto by Christie, 50K likes to like 75 comments, no? I don't, I'm not a social media expert. What about YouTube? Do you buy those views on the channel?

No, I don't think we buy views on YouTube, no. Okay, so. That's all legit. I get like 20, 30,000 views on most of the stuff. Do I run ads to stuff? Yeah, I run ads to promote some videos. Sure, sure, sure. You know who else runs ads? Apple, Coca-Cola. Yeah, yeah.

If on my Instagram, and I posted the screenshot recently because people were saying, like, you know, you're paying for this, you're paying for that. My, my, the views that I was getting in from advertising was less than 2%. And during, you know, during the peak of the hysteria, when everybody is super excited talking about my black belt, it was like 0.8%. It was less than 1%.

So we're not paying it. significantly for for views on these things we run ads to targeted groups that's called a business if a guest comes on your show do they have to wear the shirt if they don't want to wear my shirt and support my brand then but is that part of the deal it's not even it's not like we have like a contract or a lengthy negotiation it'd be like you know hey bro you want to would you put this on please okay okay we don't have a contract no I know but the vast majority if not I saw DJ wasn't. He's one of the few that I saw, are wearing the shirt. So I wonder how that worked. In a different video with me, he is wearing a shirt. Oh, okay. So DJ, I take it back. You wore the

shirt. Point is, I've never asked someone to wear something on my show. So I was wondering how that happened. It's not part of your branding, but it's part of my brandy. So do you tell them, hey, if you come on and I pay you X amount, you have to wear this shirt? Well, these are relationships. It's not like contracts. I'm not asking for a contract, but if you're literally standing in front of someone be like, yo, man, hey, here's the check for whatever, and here's the shirt. Please put this on if you want to be on the show. I think they understand. If you look at it, if you look at any of my social media, you see people wearing those

shirts. Sure. It's part of the branding that we do. So if a person, I've never had this precise conversation. I've never had a person object to, I'm not wearing that shirt. If someone would object, would you say thanks but no thanks, no interview? Maybe. Yeah.

It's a big deal. I mean, this is all part of. the is it should should apple not put a they shouldn't put their logo on the phone they're they're selling a product i am too i have a business when you're when you're doing the interview with i have a business yeah selling a product you also are running a business whether you know it or not i think you know it yeah yeah you're also running a business sure there's a look to your show there's a feel to your show there's all these trinkets and memorabilia which are super cool i keep looking at some of them pretty they're they're super cool little distracting they're so cool sincerely so um yeah

there's a look to your show, there's a feel to your show, that's your show. That's how you know it's a real show. I get it. I guess to circle it all the way back, because I know you have to go very soon. I appreciate again, you coming in. You've got to go soon, right? That's what I do. Yeah. Let me just check the time in for one second. We got 10 minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got my clock right there, so don't worry. I'll get you out before. The point is, there's people who don't believe, essentially, if I could boil it down in the most raw way possible that you are who you say you are because you're paying, famous people to hang around you do things that you want them to do by putting on your shirt

and almost being like a sponsor to them and then they're going to you know they're going to hook you up with stuff that people put their blood sweat and tears and never accomplished in their life that's what this boils down to that's what i think sean's issue is that's what i think the jih Tijuana's issue is and and i guess your reluctance to acknowledge that is what rubs people the wrong way that's my read on the situation is that fair or unfair um you can have any opinion you want too. You could have any read that you want to. I know what I did. You know, before one of your guys reached out to me and asked me about coming on your show, okay? And you know who? For the record, for the record, you reached out first. I don't know about that. Yes, you did. I asked. I have the DM.

I'm not arguing with you. No, no, but I don't want you to throw my guy under the bus. I'm about, I'm about just, I just want the, I like truth. You reached out to me. I could read the DM right now. This is what happened. And I told my guy to text you because you gave me your number. This is what happened is my, my name was mentioned on your show. Yeah, we talked about And then you reached out to me to come on the show. And then I told Eric to reach out to you. And he said you were lovely. So there are no issues there.

But I just, I want the record to be accurate. I'm not trying to misstate that. I heard your name was brought up on my show. So for clarity, my name was brought up in your show. Somebody sent that to me. Somebody sent that to me. And then I reached out. And say, hey, if you want to talk about it, we could talk about it.

And you were great, yes. So in any case. And then I asked ahead of time, I said, I asked about you to a couple of fighters that I know. And you know, Henry Hooft, you know, Henry Hooft is a kick. I love Henry. He's a great guy. Kill Cliff. Yeah, Kilcliff. Yeah, Kilcalfight Club. Shout out to Henry Hooft.

Yeah. And Henry said very good things about you. He said, you know, of course, he's going to poke at you. He's a journalist, but he'll treat you fairly. Polk seems so negative, though, if I'm being honest. He didn't mean a negative. You said poke. He gave you a good conflict.

All right, right. And here I am. And by the way, I think you're a good journalist. I appreciate that. Did you enjoy this? There's a reason that, I enjoyed most of it. I got to look at, I need 30 seconds at the end to look at some of your... Can we get a Derek Moneyberg?

bobblehead? I don't know that I have one. You don't have one? If you know how to make them. Come on. I have a hard time believing that. All the wealth that you have. And get you a Derek Moneyberg coffee cup or a t-shirt.

Not as fun. Could you imagine a Moneyburg bubblehead? Be incredible on the desk. Put it on the list. Put it on the list. If I send it to you, will you put it here? Absolutely. All right, there it is.

Can I get your black belt for the desk too? I think I'll keep my black belt. Okay, fine. Is it a Jake Shields? Like, is it branded American. He signed it. He signed it from Jake Shields. Wow, do you wear that?

Because it would devalue it. No, it's, uh, you don't wear it when you go? I have my own, I have my own walls of trinkets where my university degrees and some other awards and stuff are. Mainly ghee or no gee you do? No ghee. Okay, no ghee. But then you've got the, uh, the belt, you know, do you ever do gee? I would, I was interested in ghee.

I don't, I'm not going to wear a geese. I trained for self-defense, Bill. Sure. Do people, you know, hoist, he comes over on trains with me. He's okay if I don't have a ghee. No, I understand. You may be okay with it or not. I don't care.

I don't really care what somebody else thinking. about it. Do any of the guys ever say no socks or they don't care? This is an internet thing for Christ. No, you're, you're smarter. On my life, I saw it and I was like, that's unique. I mean, I've watched thousands of hours. If the biggest thing, if they want to look at feet, there's a different website for that. I don't even know the name of that website, but I've heard there's a website.

It's a good retort. So if you got guys in your audience that are into a foot fetish and they really want to know about my feet, I don't know, man. what is what is the end goal for you as far as your martial arts journey is concerned are you just going to keep doing this until you can't i just want to keep training as much i'm 46 so i have to be mindful about longevity things you know there's not a lot of people that are you know in their in their 60s that are training hard you know so uh yeah i trained very hard and i want to be mindful about longevity things and and not you know i have a couple injuries that i don't need to talk about on the air but um you know they're taking it easy are you taking it easy right

now? No, I'm in my same training schedule. When I fly tonight, Leotto Machita is going to be waiting for me. We're going to train tonight. Late at night, we're going to be training because I'm going to land at 9 p.m. or something. And, you know, we're going to be training at midnight tonight. Wow. Where? Like, in which state? Which state? I don't want to say that in there for, you know, for his privacy for my privacy. If you want me to tell you privately, why do I tell somebody on a live show, hey, this is where I'm going to be at this time today. Do you have that paranoia? Do you feel people are coming after you? You know, you have of all kinds of people say mostly very nice things in the DMs and some ridiculous, horrible things in the DMs. And realistically, if you have a big

following, which you do, and you understand this. I get it. If you don't have some awareness of your safety, then that's naive, you know. You have a big following. One out of 30,000 people is like a true sociopath, psychopath, psychopath, it's real problem. So we should start having a big audience, you have some of those people in your audience and I have some in mind and you should be mindful about your safety. Do you think you'll ever get to a point where you're awarding people black belts? That's sometimes what happens. I'm not trying to run a gym, man. If you want me to answer that question fully, if my goal's going forward is, yeah, I want to keep training. I'd like to avoid injuries. I'd like to build my skill set. Not get injured too much,

same as any other intelligent person in life. And I really like martial arts. I was interested in it my whole life. I have a lot of respect for these people that I have the amazing coaches. I don't know who had a more amazing coaching team and I don't mean that in an arrogant way of like if you've seen the roster of people that I had the privilege to learn from it's still surreal to me. It's a who's who it's the best team money can buy but I don't say that in a facetious way. It's true. But you you have put together a 1927 Yankees like lineup of coaches if you get the reference. Yeah. You know what I mean? And most people aren't as lucky as you are. I don't know that I was lucky. I think that I worked my ass off. I got a lot luckier after

about three decades of hard work. Right. I don't mean lucky. I bet you got pretty lucky after 10, 15 years. I don't mean lucky in terms of, I mean like to be able to have that type of disposable income to be able to fly people to your house and stay with you and there was times I didn't have food when I went to sleep as a kid. Right. And you know, that doesn't justify. And I decided, you know, that choose to conquer thing I mentioned. I decided to work harder and overcome my circumstances and earn better circumstances. It's a real American success story. I think that's a a fair way for anybody to live their life. And wherever you're at, you could do better.

So in conclusion, you're not looking to fight or compete in any sort of competition. We're not going to see you at some ADCC tournament or anything like that. I'm not a professional fighter. But there's a lot of black belts that are not professional fighters. But I've seen them compete. I've seen every single one of them compete if they are.

Yes, they're a prerogative. They can do that. But if Sean Strickland accepts your offer, the official offer is what, five minutes and he can't tap you with... I don't think the guy I tapped me in five minutes. We have a legal dispute to clear up first. Oh, what's that? If he's open-minded about that later, I'd be open-minded

about it. What's that? What's that? I'm not going to discuss anything, but he has a pending legal case here. Are you suing him? I am suing him. For defamation? I'll let my attorneys deal with that. Okay. I do it. It looks like I'm going to have to sue him, yes. Okay. Because of the things he said? He's had a lot of very nasty things that are true, that are false, that hurt my reputation and hurt my band. And I don't like that. If he says yes to the match, does the case get dropped or the lawsuit get dropped? Those are two separate things. Okay, so that has to be settled first the lawsuit and then the match? I think that would make sense, yes. So I feel like we're not going to see the match. I was kind of excited about it, to be honest. I asked him to his face before this

if he would like to do the match, and then he continued to say more false things and repeat lies and create new lies. And I wish it wasn't that way. Okay. I respect him. I think he's a very talented fighter and I have very good relationship with many other people around him. So I don't know why he made that decision, but that's the decision he's made. 30 seconds left. Is there anything you want the public to know, maybe your, you know, your non-Derick Moneyberg type of audience member to know about you and to clear up before I say goodbye? You know, I just, I grew up poor and I worked hard. And I think anybody, wherever you're at in life, you know, people ask me, you know, how do I get started? Where do I get started with money or with MMA or in any context?

Except where you're at right now. Take an inventory of your life and be honest about where you're at right now. What are the assets and what are the liabilities? And start right now. Get rid of some of those liabilities and build new. assets. And over time, you could create a lot of wealth. You could create a lot of success in whatever area that you most value. Choose to conquer. Best wishes. Ariel, thank you for inviting me. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Good luck to you. Congrats on all your success. Appreciate

you coming in. It's, look at that. Right on the dot there, we got you out. Man of my word. My producer will bring you in here. We're going to forego the break because we have Cheeto Vera standing by. You know Cheeto Vera? We've met each other and met in the same room and probably shook hands. But last time I seen Cheeto, we're at Madison Square Garden together. okay in a VIP room in the back okay Connor if you're out there is Connor out there Connor or Eric anyone okay uh need need someone to come in and and walk Derek out thank you so much Derek really appreciate it all the best to you thank you yeah good luck quick photo oh sure sure sure let's do a quick photo uh we'll just keep this going guys just

because i don't want to lose she know come right here right here all right here here here here we are do i have to pay for this i'm kidding i'm kidding you have to wear the shirt no right now there we go thank you guys all the best good luck to you good luck Eric will walk you out appreciate it okay Derek moneyberg everyone thanks for coming in all right thank you guys let me get rid of this in the interest of time i wanted to uh to get that going okay um let us let us move along now and say hello to our final guest of the day uh he has is a man who was in action this past Saturday in Vancouver needs no introduction he is marlin

chito vera marlin uh is joining us right there via two boggs hey marlin sorry for getting to you a little late there um but appreciate your your patience my man how are you great man killing um oftentimes i don't ask fighters after a loss to come on the monday show um but i was getting the sense from social media from you know your your vibe after the fight that perhaps you wanted to talk about because I do think two days later that you won the fight. So I wanted to give you the floor because we didn't hear from you afterwards. How do you feel about the fight on Saturday? Man, I felt great.

I work on a lot of things like pushing the pace early, star strong in the first round, you know, kind of like the whole year that I was not competing, I was really working on things. I was, like, doing a lot of grappling, a lot of wrestling, defensively, if not, like, not to get stuck in the ground and chilling too much in my guard, my striking, my numbers, my health, like, you know, I'm a nerd. All my brain is scans, make sure my brain is healthy, if I think, and I know my brain is healthy, I'm going to keep pushing myself and shit like that, because I, we do sport hard, and I like that. I believe in the sparring, and, you know, change my long distance running to quick runs and fast, and fast. to each stretch, so

heading into the fight I felt confidence. I did know the momentum wasn't in my side. Of course, I'm coming of two losses. But I'm losing in a title fight and I'm losing to a former champion in a fight

that it was kind of like you know, no one did too much, which is it's okay. It's whatever. It's in the past, you know, turn the page, the better. This fight I came with energy, I came, I came hard and I honestly, you know, I watched the fight last night by myself just, just let me, I'm going to, I'm going to judge myself because I'm my biggest critic,

I'm going to be honest. And I still thinking I won the fight. I still thinking I, I'm not saying I fucking, it was a 10-8 round each round, but I believe I won the fight. You think you won? I mean, round two is the easiest round to score, right? one and two I won the term I can be like it's whatever by watching it yesterday it was better than I thought and I mean

because how I think and how I approach life to me it's done deal like it's not worth talking about it it's not worth you know what could be better what if what you know it's in the past the only important thing right now is like

perhaps I don't have the momentum in the outside in the bigger financial you know more sponsors more more more loots in me because that's what a win will bring but at least mentally

and spiritually the momentum went like a win so it's positive going forward so okay that's all the matters in in in in in in in in real life because i'm 32 um you know i'm not in i i'm not in a rush i'm not 20 but with experience i have the health i have and at the level that i'm fighting you know you got to see things with uh with positive mindset and with uh we just mind your face because it's like the finish line is still far far so might as well keep on going, because you keep on going, you might find something great

down the road. Okay, this is great to hear because, you know, I got much love for you, and I saw your tweets, and even the one that made me a little bit concerned was when you said this is going to be a long night afterwards, and it was a long night. What does that mean? It meant that, I mean, first is first. We got back to the room, shower, take all the blood in my body, you know, put soap, you know, put some shorts, a tissue, and people around me, my team was like, you want to go out,

you want to get us drinks, you want food, you want to go eat to a resident. I say, I'm okay having some sort of food here in the room. There's no time, there's no reason to celebrate. There's no reason to go out. I say, I'm fine. I'm very hurt, but I'm fine. If anyone has plans, we want to have fun, but I know, I know what's going to happen. It's my team, we're family.

So we always stay in my room from like four hours, just talking and, you know, me and coach talk, had a long conversation about things. He's sure I won the fight. He was happy with me pushing faster in the first round. So it's like, it's all good. It's just, it's okay. Sometimes life gives you. hurdles and obstacles and you have to either jump them, going around, go through them,

doesn't matter, but it's just part of the road, it's part of the road, and it's okay, it's all good, but what it meant going back to you to what's a long night means, it's like, if I'm not getting really, really drunk, I'm going to look at the roof until like 6 a.m., which it was what happened once everybody went to sleep of course because you know people got flights and shit I literally my wife always lived next to me and I was just like looking out and just like you know just building just you know those calls in my guts they're just getting fired up and okay shake it's hard it's time to go harder push harder like more discipline more will more I want this like

there's people that don't want it and fortunately I still want it but I still have a lot of like interest I'm saying like I want to fight I want to do better I want to train I want to get better so it's my soul

fuck I'm blessed with a good one like it's just you know I find it I put it and I'm able to use it you don't want to use it but you want to use it and my heart is in a good place, my mind is in a good place, and moving forward just keep doing it and try to do it better. It's everything I can do. I mean, I'm a guy from Ecuador, made it this far for in another country with the local guy. The whole arena is

cheating for me, which is fucking incredible. So it's okay. It's okay. So it's just, it's a taste. It's a test on my faith, on my will, on myself. And if that's the case, I'm going to welcome the challenge and I'm going to go to war. Is there any moment in the fight, any sequence, any period, as you say, you watched it, that you're like, damn, man, I should have, I wish I would have done this. Is there anything that's kind of gnawing at you at the moment that you wish you could take back or do over? I mean, kind of silly to. wish or think what could be if you did this and that, but I was saying the second round when I heard him, I was patient in a way, like I'm going to see where he lands in the ground

to run there instead of like getting on a crazy scramble and let him survive. I saw him. I attack her away. When he's trying to get up, I go and put in a body lock, you know, to take the bag and control and possibly submit. Fuck man, the way he got up holding the fence killed the whole momentum because he's a different animal when you get up on your own than when you, you know, hold the fence like that. And there was no warning and there's not going to be a point deduction. They don't really take points ever, even if you poke someone really bad or a nut kick.

So that kind of like, I mean, I would say, because my goal was to like pull him down. drag him to the ground and either stay on his guard and half guard or take the back. But when you get up like that from the fence, you know, the referee didn't put us in our force back again. So that's, it is what it is. There's nothing to do about it either. But, you know, third round, I was, I was busy. I was, you know, I was in control.

And the rule says control the center and damage. And at least those two. I'm pretty sure they got those too I mean bossed it up bleeding from mouth and nose you know it was a point five it was good

you know we've talked about this like sometimes the knock has been you start slow right and then you need some time did you feel like that came into like do you wish that you came on a little stronger in the third round

did you feel like you needed some time second round obviously was the best round but did you feel like you needed a feeling out process in the first, and do you wish that you can speed that up? Yeah, but I was on the gas. I was pushing forward. I started, like, I watched, I was kicking, punching, I was mixing it up, like, I mean, the slow start was not a thing in this fight.

I get it. In the past, I take a break. I'm kind of, like, chilling and checking. This time I went straight to him, and I started fighting. I mean, I can force someone to stay in front of me and try, he was moving a lot but it wasn't like I was chasing the tail I was like courting him the whole time

so if that's not control fuck I don't know what it is you know what's interesting is I've seen some people put the stats the stats as you know don't always tell the story because even in the second round which you clearly won you were outstruck in that in that round

so you can't always go by the stats but when you see this what is your what is your reply when you see this because in every round he did outstrike you including that second round, which everyone had you winning? Yeah, I mean, if you go quantity versus quality, that's a simple answer. You want a lot of quantity on everything,

or you want quality? I already have quality, and the quality of my shots were more impactful. They were landing better, kicking a lot. Sure, you throw a fluoro, four or five punches, and things goes to the earth, to the forums. then yeah that's cute but that's why I'm not the one going to the ground

that's not the one I'm fucking bleeding my ass off so that's it I mean I don't have to argue with people no that's why I'm a happy person because I don't have to and I don't need to and I don't do it so it's like

it's okay but the reaction that I have seen it's very similar like the Sonja don't fight like I don't see a lot of people questioning the shit that I'm saying but I mean

but that's also what I say at the beginning of the conversation is like it's in the past like there's not really nothing we can talk about it is don't deal I still am losing my record it's still half of my paycheck

and it's still going to affect in some sort of areas but the momentum heading to the next one I feel very positive because I feel good I'm on my feet I'm healthy

you know just you know this little finger I gotta figure it out but it's fine it's a fucking finger broken I don't know

I had MRI and x-ray tomorrow that's why I put the ring in the other one doesn't fit here but shit

I got the hyperbaric here I got the ice bat here so I'm not gonna go and you know get fat and drunk that's that's not the plan

the plan is fucking back in the horse put the hat and just go fucking forward that's it I mean what else can I do I'm glad to hear that this was I think the longest layoff

in quite some time maybe even of your entire UFC career 10 months right how did you feel like did the layoff help you did you know ring rust is something talked about cage rest or did you think that it did your body good I feel the ring

rust might hit someone that is mentally done that it's like you know what this is not for me anymore but I'm gonna give it a go because I need money I also say this on firework if I wake up a morning or I go to the gym

every day and it's just not me anymore it's like it's like that version of me is dead because that happens to everybody there's you know there's always times in your life that you're good at something on them

just you know you can be perfect at something forever. So if that's the case with me, that day I will retire. If I go to the gym and I'm kicking ass and I'm competing with the best and I bring good sporting partners, good wrestlers, good grapplers. If I feel like I can do this, that day I make a call, I'm like, hey guys, thank you, but I'm, you know, this is not for me anymore. The only reason I'm balls deep is because I feel good and I feel my strange, my mind,

everything keeps, you know, getting better and taking care of shit. And yes, it's a fucked up time, you know, three losses in a row

is not what it won. It's not fun. But also, it's with quality competition. I'm not fighting, you know, dead guys. So I know that.

And I don't need everybody to know it. I know that. I feel good and I probably should wear but that's not the case and that's not going to define me going forward

me not try just as hard or even harder to achieve my goals and keep moving forward what did you think before they announced a scorecards did you think no doubt I got this or was there any part of you that was like ah you know when the fight ends

I was like I won I took the decision. When they say split decision, I went, oh, no. And I literally say, word for words, I say, please God, give me the opportunity to advance. That's all I say in my mind when I close my eyes. Then when they say his name, I fucking say, fuck everybody. I'm just fucking... You were pissed, man.

I was pissed. Yeah, I was fucking pissed. I was, I thank God Elliot, the UFC security guy, it's, you know, it's someone that I love and respect and he's a very cool guy. Thank God he was the man

on that moment, because if I wouldn't encounter a judge and I would have slapped the motherfucker. So I'm glad he was there. And then, yeah, I was pissed off. I literally, yeah, I was pissed off. I left the arena. Oh, wow.

I went a straight to my room. I stopped by medical, I was pissed off, they took my wraps, and I literally walked straight to the car, go to the hotel, sit on the ground for quite a bit and just, okay, it's in the past. It's a deal. There's nothing to do about it. You can either sit, cry, complain, put excuses, but you can say, fuck it. Eat. I'm going to do it. And I choose that over giving up and sitting down and complaining. It's all forward from now. Like, there's no, what if there's no plan B's. Like, it's fucking, you know, the fucking mining for the goal gets harder. So might as well, you know.

I was just going to ask you, did you have a chance? Obviously, I didn't see you talk to, Amon, in the cage, because you left, I don't know if you saw him in the back, but I guess you just left and didn't see him, right? Was there any? I left. I probably left before he even gave. Wow.

That fast. I was, like, I was, like, I was, I was, I was, I was pissed. Did you walk? It was the hotel right next to the arena, or did they have a car? How does that work? No, I nearly, where the medical's war, where they cut the wraps and ass, you'd be fine. I was like, I'm all good.

I say, just gave me fucking an extra from my fucking finger. I won't fucking out. That took like 90 seconds, and I literally walked from that to the car, barefoot on my shorts, no t-shirt, no hoodie, nothing, just walk out, go to the hotel, and just walk straight to my room. Damn. Have you ever felt that before? That kind of anger after a fight?

Yeah, and the son Javert. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not the first time, but. Fuck. It's the battles that you have to face. And, you know, if you have the fucking wheel and you have the heart to overcome the heralds, jump those motherfuckers.

Just keep going. And you keep going. You might find something soon. You fought all the top guys at 135, the vast majority. What did you think of Zahabi? What do you think of his skills? very very durable uh the way he moves and walks it's not as technical or cling as omiley or san hagen like the food we're talking or even cruz but he moves so awkward that

it's still hard to punch and you know like the philly show kind of like he goes left and right he got a rhythm and those rhythms you have to break uh and it's not easy and he carries some power when he there was a few times that he was really throwing hard you know carries some power

then the kids were okay and then you know still fighting bossed up like he's the guy at that you're coming up seven wins or six weeks at a time

you have to be some good but yeah I mean he's a good fight or two. I'm not going to fucking say not. Afterwards, he called out Sean O'Malley. You obviously know Sean.

Do you think if he gets the fight that he could beat him? I don't know. Honestly, I mean, it's a perfect fight for a guy that fights sniper, but I'm probably the wrong guy to answer. That was I'm going to be biased because I'm like,

fuck this guy that I beat you and then fuck you I were one-on-ones. It's like, I want to I don't know. I let you guys decide. I would watch it for sure. No, I know. It's just because you have the knowledge of both of them. You've shared a lot of time with both. I mean, Sean definitely hits harder.

I don't know if Sehavio will wrestle him or clinch, and he doesn't really clinch wrestle much. Yeah, I mean, probably good fight. I don't think what happened. Why not? I don't know. I think Sean might want someone higher in the rankings. Like a Corey Sanhagen?

I mean, that's the perfect time to do it. The two tallest guys fighting for who's the tallest. Yeah. Actually, that would be a fun fight. Way bigger fight than Sahavi. But you never know whether you see. You get the chance fucking take it. What do you think of Vancouver?

Fong little city. I didn't found coffee shops the way I liked the coffee shops, but it looks cute. It's all right. Did you, you didn't really get to, like, you just left right after, right? I left, like, that was there for at 7 a.m. Right. And I heard you say before the fight, like, you've pretty much cut everything out, right? No more alcohol, just, what is it, just weed?

Well, I, it's not like I cut alcohol. I say I don't drink at all. Like, I don't drink at all. So I don't have to cut it. You never did? I mean, I seep on wine. Okay. once in another moon but it's very minimal okay i don't like if i go to a to a to a to a

restaurant with my family i will never order a beer or a drink like never like that's not even happening if i'm eating a steak i see it with a with a nice organic natural red wine or an orange wine if i'm with my friends and there's cooking involved and and, you know, we're doing, you know, some sort of, like, nice stuff like that, then we pop some wines and you drink a little bit, but, like, you know, like an active, active drinker that's someone that drinks on in the weekends, that have never been the case. And I don't go out, I don't party, so that's what I say.

I don't, I don't do much, what else should I do, but just fucking turn my ass off. But we're still on, right? We're still do that. I smoke a little bit, yeah I mean I stopped like 20 days before every fight so I have a smoke

like I didn't smoke in Canada I did smoke a little bit but like too buff I'm not a big smoker I guess or maybe yeah no I mean well I guess fight week would be do you usually do it fight week

I never smoke a fight week that's not that's not I like to you know respect the game and pressing and hard and you know

I stopped doing everything there's no reason to do nothing but focus on fighting and you know stay focused and all that shit like even during five we got to do much I don't go out

I walk a lot it's good to walk I like to walk I walk this morning like two hours I went to the trail see the birds going I have to say, Chito, you seem to be in a great place. I wasn't sure, you know, what kind of mood you'd be in or what kind of, I mean, you're always

in a pretty chill mood if I'm being a thousand percent honest, but this really makes me happy because I know that, you know, as a fighter, a few losses string together, you start doubting yourself, the confidence, it doesn't seem like any of that is happening right now, and this is lovely to see. You're not even coming across as sour grapes or complaint. I mean, like, I feel like it's a really. professional and respectful way to handle a tough night at the office as they say there's there's no reason to be other ways i feel like if you were otherwise

it's it's bad it's almost like a looser mentality like uh it's not good for you that if you really believe you're going to get back to the top and you're going to actually do it you can be like that you have to like you have to let go you have to be able to like hey When you really thought that that was the moment and didn't win your way, means, like, it's, your time is coming bigger and better. But if you keep putting in work, he's just not been wishing. Like, I know how hard it worked this whole year for this one fight. And he was like, okay, whatever, the split, okay, okay, they give it to him, okay.

That means it's going to circle harder than my way, because I know how hard it worked. I know I don't have distractions. That's what I also say. I don't go out. I'm not drinking. I'm not going to every event. I don't go to every UFC. Like, I try to don't do none of that.

I try to, like, being inaccessible because that's good for the sports. It's good for when you want big things. And I try to live like that. Like, you know, if I'm going to do something, got to be with people that I really love and like, otherwise I'm not doing nothing. How soon do you want to return? I mean, the moment they told me this is just whatever. Because I'm probably taking two more days off

before I start putting miles. Fuck soon. Everything depends if this, if I can punch my feet, my legs, my head is good, everything's good. So I'm going to start doing, you know, hyperbaric And, you know, everything I can use a lot of good food for the next few days to get, you know, all my vitamins and all what I need to be strong. And then probably I do like a three, four day water fast to like get rid of all inflammation and just stay optimal top prime fucking shape, you know, some mushrooms, let the brain go and just health. everything is hell

get strong keep this trench go kick some ass we'll see do you even think about who makes sense or is it too soon doesn't matter

yeah I did the same with my last fight I was like doesn't matter just call the phone let's see

I get to the point that I don't need to call down all the fights are going to make sense and all the fights are going to be big so

I just got to go and kick some ass It's focus recharge and go again And by the way What about Team Ecuador

1-1 against the US 1-1 against Mexico Not bad, not bad Right Gearing up for next summer Warming up Warming I was like

The boys don't need to go crazy now But right now Right now is the best Best team ever Bro We got fucking Moe Pacho Incapier

Plata Like Bro that shit right now Pacho right now is the fucking moment this is the best thing ever and they all fucking play outside

so they're not going to be shy these superstars and huge names because they play with them they train with them and they get you know way better technology way better training way very facilities because

in Europe which is top prime people come crazy but these motherfuckers might win the world The whole thing. If that happened, bro. You got to be there. I don't got,

I don't know. I do there. That's facts. I'm fucking. That's, I'm there. But I fucking, I tattoo everyone's face on my back.

I go over my fucking back tattoo. Because these guys are, these guys are the truth. And they, they might need more experience, of course, but they're getting all that in Europe. They're getting good over there, bro.

but this team is good, bro. This team is fucking good. It excite me. I watch a lot of soccer again. And even when they play in Europe, I try to keep track a bit and watch live. But soccer is in a great fucking sport. I mean, it's poor.

Like, it's just like everything. The players and fires of today are better than the ones in jazz. But every year, just keep getting better, bad, better, and bad, and better. One last one before I let you go. what about this young Michael Morales? What do you think of this young man? He's looking very good. He's, bro, that motherfucker looks so strong.

That is scary. Yeah. And I feel his biggest advantage is coming from wrestling. So in MMA wrestling is very important. And, you know, I love to crack people in their face. But if you're honest and you really want to become the best, you gotta understand that's a dominant sport. And he came with that already.

So he got the base and most residents have power because the strength of what they train, he can fucking crack. And he's fucking young, motivated, and he's extremely healthy, low

mileage. He's the truth. Like, right now, like, if I go all Ecuador, yes, I can just talk crazy and just no one beating, but If I'm like objected this and try to give the best opinion, now he already beat everybody to get to this point. Now, from now on, all the fights are the real harvest.

Sean Brady, Chaffkat, Ian Gary, Prattis, Belau, Jack Della. Missing one of the John was there? Just both me. Yeah, geez. Ian Gary Jack Della Islam who's

Islam is a new one I didn't name them all Yeah yeah of course But that one week is incredible And he has an He has an incredible opportunity If he goes Yeah

And smokes Brady I think that's it I think he's fighting for the time They might give it to him Yeah I honestly The fact that Brady Didn't get the title shot

After beating Leon And they booked them against Michael makes me think that they want Michael to win. You know, they kind of always want certain people to win, let's be honest, you know, and because he's got the look and the style and everything, and he comes from... He's a fucking monster. He's terrifying. His back is gigantic for a welterway.

He's yeah, enormous, right? Sometimes he's seen, I have, like... You know, you boys with them? No, I mean, I love him by default because he's from my country, but you don't have a relationship. never trained together never hung out never by the time i was in the ufc yeah he was already like about to start so we never shared times on when we started on stuff like that the only thing that i did at the beginning of his career was people was blowing me up about him and i was like hey i'm i'm cool but i don't fucking take decisions like if you think i'm gonna post it on my social

meeting he's going to be in the UFC. It's not going to work. What I did behind doors, I told my management, like, yo, just contact and, you know, they already know you guys have with me so simple. And they did it and they put him in containers and then they got into the UFC. Everything was good. I don't know what happened later and I don't need to talk about it, but they split away. And now he's with different people, but that's everything I did like behind doors. Like, we don't know each other, but I can put you with these people that will do more for you than I do because I'm not a promoter and I can promote you. But that's all I did.

But otherwise, that motherfucker is a monster. Like it's going to be fun to watch. Walter, Walter, where right now has those six, seven dudes that they're very young. That division, the top ten in that division is fucking fun.

It's phenomenal. And we'll see what Islam does. I'm hoping for Jack Della to do Jack Della to him, so... One last one. Can I just ask, since it's your weight class, you think Marab gets it done in December? I mean, based on past fights and they already fought and the way the fight the fight went, seems they're going to be similar, but, I mean, let's be honest. Jan can really strive. And he was saying that he had a bad hand and, you know, now.

they came with a stat that he only throw in the right hand twice per round. Maybe. I mean, maybe it was true and everything. I won't get negative with neither of them because I don't have to. But John is a phenomenal striker. He can fucking box beautifully. Kicks great. Great takedowns with that, with those kind of like judo throws that he does

when he punch the left hook and hook your back leg. All that is great. Marabia's pace and how he make it ugly is also beautiful. So I feel competitive fight. I mean, at that level, really, people is winning by edging by a little bit. Even Marab said, like, it's, fuck, these fights are going to be like that because the level keeps getting higher and higher. I think it's a great fight.

Hopefully Marabdo get burned down of going from captain to capital. because that can happen we're just humans and i don't mean for who you are at some point you're going to get a little bit down because it's it's a lot this is a lot that we do and sometimes it's too much but hopefully he's healthy and it's not the case and they put in a crazy fight you're the man chito thank you too brother i really appreciate you much love you're handling it with class i know it was tough for you and I know that you feel like you were you know something was taken away from you but thank you so much for coming on and for speaking so honestly and and well about it all all the best to you get well soon hopefully the finger is is all good and we'll see you very soon yes sir

thank you all the best there he is the great marlin chito vera great to have him on and as i've said before i always appreciate when the fighters come on after a tough night at the office i don't usually ask. I'll be 100% honest. I actually just was talking about this recently, but felt like he would have been into it, open to it, and as you can see, was in a great place. Also did ask Amon to come on. I think he's flying today. Didn't work out. But we'll talk to him very soon as well. A lot of people, by the way, were saying that they were going to do a parlay of Claire's picks from the show last week. If you guys recall, Claire made an appearance on Tuesday.

I hit her with some fights. She gave predictions. I mean, it would have been busted by now. I think she's 0 for two already. So hopefully none of you actually did that. She picked RDR and she picked Cheeto. Some people were saying that she was always picking the second person that I was saying.

I don't know if I can verify that if there's any truth to that. But nevertheless, it didn't work out. I just saw a video, by the way, of Vladimir Greo Jr. coming to the Rogers Center, and he's rocking in Austin Matthews, Leif's Jersey, which has made my heart sink to my ankles. Bold move, bold move to essentially say,

you know, to hell with your history, to hell with your demons, I'm rocking this. Wish he would have went with the Kauai, maybe, Kyle Lowry, even Damon Stoddemeier, Leafs, Jersey, but, I mean, he is the man right. now in the 6th and I guess he's saying up yours to the the Toronto demons. I like that kind of attitude better. It's, it is pretty damn cool. I saw it. I was like of all, because I don't know if you know like the Maple Leafs have a pretty bad history. I think they haven't won in 58 years or

something like that and they've not made the Stanley Cup finals and this guy is saying this one's for you. F the doubters. Yeah, love it. But you know what's going to happen if they lose. You know what pisses me off about these places? I'm only a Maple Leafs fan, excuse me, a Blue Jays fan and I see like the Toronto fans always go, woe was me, woe was me. Toronto sports history. And I feel like every city does this. And I'm like, guys, I was talking to a friend of mine who lives there.

Oh, it's Toronto sports. Of course we're not going to bring in the closer in game six or what was it, game five and we're going to blow. You guys won the NBA title in 2019. Shut up. Like, you know what I mean? Enough of this. Oh, we have such.

No, it's hard to win championships in the four major sports. It's just hard. There are some cities that have not won one ever. Like before the calves. won, they didn't win shit. The Browns didn't win anything. They lost their team. The Cavs suck. You know, the Guardians, the Indians. It's like,

come on, stop it with this. You're not doing too bad. If you want a championship of any kind in the last 10 years, I don't feel bad for you. Actually, you know what? If you want a championship of any kind, yeah, in your lifetime, I don't feel bad for you. Yeah. Falcons, oh, 28 to 3. Oh, guess what? The Braves won, like two years ago.

Braves won two years ago. Braves won two years ago. Braves won two years ago. I know, but the Braves won. So I don't feel bad. I couldn't have anything in 28 to 3. At the time, but now it got rectified. Now it got rectified. Okay, but you're allowed to commiserate 28 to 3. Like, that is...

I was rooting for you guys. Super Bowl World Series. I'm taking a Super Bowl any day of the week. That's because it means more to you. Yeah. Yeah. But I just mean, like, as a city. NFL just bigger.

Braves won in the 90s, too, by the way. Braves won in the 90s. So it wasn't like you guys were that far off. What was that? 2013, 2012. What? The 28 to 3. What year was that?

2017. Not that long ago. I just love how this has become... I have to say... Atlanta complains about titles when nobody even said that. I know, I know. If you had a 28 to 3, we would still be hearing about it. What do you talking about?

I witnessed my team lose in the Super Bowl four straight years, including on a last second field goal that was like a 35 chip-in. What are you talking about? Way more... Three is the Lombardi in your hands. It's 100%. You won the Super Bowl. Someone came and snatched.

Four straight years. Four straight years. a title from any of his teams after that, he would forget about it, I think. No, but I'm saying, you say that I wouldn't stop talking about it. Do I sit here and lament the four straight? No, we're about to win this year and everything. 28 years ago, the four straight was like 35.

I love it. I'm still, I'm still scarred. What about Nick's game one against the Pacers? They're a bit of rival. Let's stop with this. Guys, we're about to be Tom Brady. Oh, yes, peace and love. Any, anything to report when you said goodbye to Dale?

Derek. Derek, Dale. No, just as pleasant as before. This is all your fault, by the way. The two of you. The two of you were the one that, you know, introduced me to Derek. So I felt like we had to do the end. I'm kidding when I say all your fault.

But what did you guys think? Any thoughts on the chat? Look, he kind of just answered. He had an answer ready to go. I mean, he stayed calm throughout the entire thing. He kept essentially the same demeanor. Yeah. You can think whatever you want about him and the credentials and the things like that.

But you cannot say that he did not sit there and answer the questions. If you're an outside observer, you can question it all you want. You can say, like, I don't believe this. 100%. But he sat in the chair and spoke to Ariel who asked him everything. And so that, you know, take from that what you will. He didn't really react emotionally to anything either. No, it's true.

I mean, I would argue that there were some conflicting statements. Sure. Like when you say you don't care what people think and then you, you know, allegedly buy followers or views, then that means you really do care what people think. because otherwise, why would you do it? But ultimately, I think he answered everything. Yeah, I had no issues. I felt like there were some questions

that had to be asked of a character within the world. I saw some people say, like, why would you have this guy on? I think he's a notable figure in the world of combat right now. He seems to be coming up all the time, whether it's the Strickland thing, the Musumechi thing, getting the black belt thing, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know... He's in this world.

Like, it's just... We've had less relevant people on the proclamation. program, if you will. Who me? Yeah. But, Frankie, thank you for, I thought you brought some great levity to the conversation with the. He liked it. I liked it.

You came up big for me there. Of course. Yeah, no. But for the most part, I hope that people enjoyed it. It's now out there. What do you say? Was he okay on the back end? Totally.

As nice, respectful and everything as in the front end. And as you told me, he was that. while setting this up. Yes. Although he did kind of try to throw you under the bus by saying that you reached out to him. No, I think he was trying to just talk about how it all came together and misremembered something.

But, yeah, legitimately. Like, prompt, respectful, move things to make it happen. Like, I don't have a bad word to say about him. All right. A couple other news and notes before we call it a day. Ilya, Tuporia, getting a homecoming of massive proportionate.

Back home in Georgia, we all wondered what it would be like, because we've seen the scenes when Marab came back. Look at this. I mean, this is something else. Guy can't even move. Look at this. He is being mobbed, like the true definition of mob. This is on his Instagram, an IG live.

And, I mean, I don't even know how you get out of that situation. Like, legit, where's he even going? Yeah, I know. Thank you, Georgia. I love you all. Look at this. I mean, it's an absolute. sea of humanity. All showing him love. All showing him all kinds of respect. It's got to be

amazing for them over there to see him. I saw that he signed a couple deals. So all good stuff. And hopefully we get some news. I'm seeing some stuff about him and Patty. This is what I've said from the beginning. It should be him and Patty in January. That should be the first PLE, the first numbered event. Let's see. Let's see. What about Yiri Pachasca, oh wow, you guys beat me to it. Yuri Pachasca, look at this. Blowing fire? What is that?

Yeah, last week, what was it, swallowing fire? This week, he's spitting out the flames. What's he putting in his mouth there? Alcohol. Yeah, some sort of alcohol. Is it like vodka? I can't make it out, but something like. You need a certain, wow.

You do need a certain mixture. Yeah. It's got kerosene, usually. Oh, gross. What about over in Japan? Terence Crawford, arguably the number one pound pound fight in the world, doing a little, what is this, samurai training? What's he doing over there? I mean, Terrence is unbelievable. What's fun about Terrence is right now he appears to be

living his best life, right? I mean, the guy is just traveling the world. He's either doing stuff like this or at sporting events. I saw him at the Packers game this weekend. Look at those moves, by the way. You know, the guy is so good as a boxer, but what I love so much about him is that it It seems like he has tremendous respect for the martial arts. I don't know if you guys know this, but really good decorated wrestler. A lot of people have said that if he wanted, he could be a Division I national champion. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

The hips, the feet, the lateral movement, the sprawls. Look at this. This is Terrence right here. Look at this. I just love the fact that Terrence got a whole bunch of money probably from that win and it's just like, let me just. sounds. Yeah, Terrence. It ain't that tough.

You're living your best life. It's a tremendous thing. Doing all the fun things. Look at that outfit. Incredible. Shout out to Terrence. There's a big story that is raging on in the world of boxing regarding the Ali Act. We talked a little bit about it on Wednesday's program tomorrow on the show.

The Executive Director of the California Athletic Commission, Andy Foster, will be on to talk about these items and more. in the press release that was issued by TKO, they had mentioned that widow of Muhammad Ali, Lonnie Ali, was in support of this. And in her quote, she said that the great one, Muhammad Ali would have been in support of it as well. The amendment.

Well, Nico Ali Walsh, who is the grandson of Muhammad Ali posted on his social media that maybe that's not the case in his opinion. Anyone who truly knew my grandfather knows he'd never support this revival act.

Legacy isn't about last names. It's about principles. I stand with my grandfather's principles. If you're not a fighter, don't speak for us. It's disappointing the CSAC is backing this. So you see that. You saw what Oscar said in our chat. Let us see.

Let us see what happens when the executive director of the Athletic Commission, the California Athletic Commission, Andy Foster, stops by tomorrow to talk about all of this and more. We're not going to go through all the highlights from this past weekend, but do yourself favor. Go on Capos's Twitter page. He always does an incredible job of recapping all this.

Saturday just had an insane, like, we probably won't talk about a lot of these when the awards come because there may be lesser-known fights, but it was just like one incredible finish. after the next, whether it was KSW, whether it was Octagon, whether it was PFL Africa. Did you guys even happen to see Benny Safdi

interacting with Caposso on Twitter? I did, yeah. This is amazing. Caposa made it. Posa's got that kind of, when it comes to combat sports, that's unbelievable. That's the guy right there. That's the G. And then, of course, there was that incredible round on the MVP card that I think

would have been scored like a... Actually, I was going to make a joke. I think the round was a log. I think the round was a legit six-seven. I'm not even joking. I swear. Did you watch it? No, fuck it. I saw it. There was multiple knockdowns and then multiple point deductions. This is a crazy round. I honestly, I mean, here's some of it. I guess we could show some of it here. Look at this. Look at this. He gets knocked down. Have you watched this, by the way, Ray? Yes.

Connor, you see this? Yeah, I've seen it. I was hoping so. Frank, did you see this? I have not. Oh, perfect, perfect. Frank, you got to watch this. You got to watch this.

Look at this guy. Look at this guy right here. Okay, okay. He's clearly out, right? Clearly out. Shout out to Kenobio and Sean Grant. Look, the guy has no, he's no legs. He's stumbling all over them.

Yes. This is Juarez on the audio list. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's right. That's right. He's got no legs, Dan. He's got no legs, Dan. He's got no legs.

Sean Grady voices the Celtics doing a great job. Now he takes away a point Uh-oh Look at this Holding, holding, holding I mean I thought at this point Like the guy's hanging on One arm

I thought it's over again Look that's So how many knockdowns is this And how many point deductions Okay now all of a sudden At least a 10-7 right now At least and now he drops him So what is that?

A 9-7 And he drops him again So what would that be an 8-7 I think it's more than I think it's like a 6. I don't know because... Oh, actually, I don't know if he dropped. Okay, does he drop him again here?

Whoa! I mean, this is the craziest. The dude who couldn't stand ends up winning. I saw people, there's nothing like Hagler-Herns. I never said it was, you know, the great... It's nothing like Hagler-Herns? That's your bar for everything? This is not like Goddy Ward, but I was like...

Did you say what Hagler-Rus? No, I said this might have been the craziest round that I've ever seen just in terms of like sheer insanity. I didn't say greatest round. Haggard's greatest Godi Ward greatest But this is just like When do you see that

Multiple knockdowns Multiple point deductions Insanity Did you see all the stuff on Twitter From the Ares FC The Bakke Kitten Kahn That too

Everything I saw on that Was like 60,000 90,000 likes Like it was like The French MAA fans Like They ride Last Suer

They love They love these regional Rivalries I don't even understand How Baki ended up in Aries, why would PFL let him do that? I don't know, man, but then I... What's going on with Cedric and Bucky?

And then I saw Cedric way in. And Cedric was all in there with like 20K. And I'm like, what happened to you? No, 20K, bro. He had like 65K on like his original tweet. I couldn't believe the engagement that the Ares FC title was getting. But yo, where is Cedric Dube? We need to get them back on. What is going on? He says he's going to get, what do you say? I think he tweeted something like he's going to get paid 20 million. for a rematch with Zibo.

Cool. POV, PFL when they call me for a $5 million rematch with Zbo. 21,000 lights. That's pretty good by Cedero. All these guys are big deals. Like the French, they follow this, wrestling, MMA, boxing.

Where are they? Why is he heading for Ares? And why is Cedric not in the PFL right now? I'm hoping John Martin is looking at Usman and Paul Hughes and is like, get rid of all this stuff and let's just make the best big, sexiest fights. The fights that are getting people talking.

Enough of these tournaments, enough of these champions league, this, that, and the other. A year ago we're like, oh my God, Cedric Dube is the biggest star in the sport. Legit. He's got Mbapé sitting.

Best crowd, best walkout. And it's like, where is he? Yeah. Where has he been? I need my fix. Frankie, any super chats today? Yep. Nice.

What is this? What do you think of the national? Whoa, whoa, nothing? Just want to. moment. Is it because we didn't rehearse this? It's because we didn't rehearse this.

Andy is in here today. Sally's doing a phenomenal job, so that's on me. I don't actually know who presses the button. Forget it, forget it. We don't need to think. What do you think of the national anthem being booed?

Oh, there it is. Yeah. What do you think of the national anthem being booed at events? NHL Games Canada latest at Crown Jewel down to Earth last week? That's dumb. I mean, there's some people who think

that the national anthem shouldn't be played at sporting events? I don't mind it. Does anyone mind it? Why do people care about these sort of things? I'll be honest. I went to Canada, Columbia, and I loved hearing the anthem.

It was like the highlight of my night. I was not really pleased. I went to the Yankee Blue Jays game, and fans were booing the Canadian anthem, and there were Blue Jays fans behind me being like, just be respectful. Like, it's kind of gross. I know.

I don't love it. I don't love it. I've never understood that. It's like, first of all, I don't think, well, I guess, Vladdy's Canadian. He might be the only can. No, there's one other one. But you know what I mean? Like, these guys, they're not even Canadian, first of all.

I know they're representing Canada. But like, where's the vitriol? And it just seems so kind of low rent. I would never want anyone to boo the Canadian or the American or any national anthem, to be honest. I think everyone should respect everyone, but does anyone

believe that there shouldn't be national anthems at sporting events? No. Is anyone in that camp? Because there are people out there. I could do with or without. I'm not. anti but I'm also like it feels like a hearkening to a bygone era like I don't think that as we can see from the booze there's not a lot of respect for the anthem

no but like I used to go to a ton of Canadians games obviously all the games I went to as a kid were in Canada so we'd always get both no one ever booed and it was kind of what I'm saying now they do like they're not respecting it so what's the point I'm indifferent I'm indifferent I'm indifferent too but I would err on the side of just keeping

it you know and especially when it's a national team game you know what I mean? National team game is different I think you should play them. Oh, those are the best in soccer when they line up. Like, I feel like crying. It's incredible. Olympics, international competition 100%.

This is not the same, though, to me. That's actually a really good question because we don't get it in an MMA. It's weird. No MMA promotion really does. Actually, the PFL do it? I think they might have done it. I feel KSW definitely does it. One thing I love about KSW, please don't ever get rid of the back tattoo ads.

Like, you know. Don't get rid of that and don't get rid of that. don't get rid of the tilted camera everything about it is great please don't drug test as well just like he stay exactly some of those backs are just like

holy shit shout the field of freeze by the way winning a 14 in a row in boxing it tends to drag a little bit but like man what was it it was you guys did the watch party Tyson Paul Tyson Paul

the lady who did the American National Anthem. Do you remember it was like a little bit of a Latin-inspired version? It might have been the greatest national anthem I've ever heard. Greatest rendition. And then, again, shout out. Like being at MSG when they did the Puerto Rican National Anthem for Taylor Serrano, it's pretty damn cool. It was good. I think the best national anthem I've seen was actually had a Canadians game. Montreal? Yeah, in Montreal. And in Montreal. And Plato, Canada. What about when the Oilers play and the whole crowd starts singing it? Yeah. It's amazing.

So. I'm indifferent. All right. Frankie, what else? What else? Happy Monday, everyone. Sweet. Thank you, Darren. Appreciate it.

What else, Frankie? What else? Why does this guy remind me of Gene Simmons? Who would that be? Frankie? I believe we're talking about Derek. Oh, I guess the hair. He did kind of look like Jean Simmons.

I will admit that. Without the makeup, obviously. What else, Frankie? I will never respect a man that wears socks on the mats he didn't think that was a big deal what do you guys think i mean i've never really quite seen that i've not seen it but i don't i also don't think it's a big deal i have not seen how could it be a big deal

you're slipping and sliding i mean there's sweat there now you got wet socks what if he's embarrassed about his toes you uh gc thinks not a big deal yeah uh what else frankie what else great homework have a coffee um i think this was During the interview, someone was giving you props for... Oh, okay. Why the coffee? Well, the $5 is like, here's the coffee.

Thank you. You need like $2 more in New York. By the way, I just want to let you know that back in Vegas, we went to our favorite coffee shop. I walked there. Who the fuck is we? Yeah, that's right. I walked 40 minutes back and forth. It's Dandelion.

Dandelion is the best one. There's no doubt about it. Then I posted this on my threads. Please go follow me on threads. And I actually got a, I don't want to call him out, but I got a very notable person from the world of combat who texted me, who never texts me. And he just wrote, it's actually this place. And I was like, well, technically I was saying on the strip. So we had a bit of a back and forth.

And he promised me that he'll check it out the next time he's in Vegas. Did you try the other place? No, because it was one of those that we talked about. That's like 18 minutes off. Yeah, I ain't doing that. You know the one, right? We talked about it. I walked 40 minutes back and forth.

but I can't go off the strip for five. No, 18 minute, like Uber. I'm not... You really didn't have to bring in all that chocolate, too, but thank you. I'm going to trek next time. I'm going to go off the street. Should we do it? Yeah.

I mean, he's not the first one. He's not the first one, but I'm looking for the best place on the strip. It's just Starbucks and Duncan. Why don't we license put one on the strip and just make millions and millions of dollars? I don't know if we can. I don't know how much real estate like Starbucks owns there. Most Starbucks per capita there. People want it.

Still out of a hotel room. People want it. Every casino hotel has a Starbucks. Multiple. Yeah. Everything has a Starbucks. No, but like in Vegas. And then there's the odd Duncan sprinkled out.

There's the odd McDonald's. I mean, I was walking legit 40 to 45 minutes to get this back and forth. It was so good, by the way. So good. Not as good as that place off the strip, though. You didn't think it was great? I think it's pretty good. I think it's for a strip coffee.

It's the best. And by the way, and just for the record, for anyone listening, no one's actually stripping in the coffee shop. It's just a coffee shop on the store. Thank you for it, for it. I mean, it's Vegas, is Vegas. The chocolate is also tremendous. That's the best part.

The hot chocolate. You mix that with the espresso's nice. What else, Frankie? What else? Derek, I don't give a shit, Moneyberg, L.O.L. Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, better to be that way than not. What else, Frankie?

Ariel, I adore you and the crew. Can you please fully explain how you managed to get poop on your shirt? Oh, yes. You were on the bus on a family trip. Wow. That's a real, yeah, that's a real blast. Already know. Maybe they were thinking of the hot chocolate.

Well, if you must. I feel like I've told the story before. We were in Egypt. My dad is from Egypt. We went to Egypt once as a family. I was probably 11, maybe 10, maybe even 9 now that I think about it. I was wearing a Snoopy Detroit Red Wings T-shirt. I remembered very well where he's the goalie,

and there were a ton of pucks behind him in the net for some reason. I'm not sure why. And, you know, Something didn't sit well with me. We were on a tour bus. You know, we had to, we just had to relieve ourselves, not like, just like, you know. And something just seemed a little bit off and got off the bus. And I remember my brother being like, yo, yo, what happened to your shirt?

And it was just like. By the way, I think the question is about like the gravity of the situation. Like, how do we get on the shirt as opposed to like? You didn't realize it was on your shirt? No. But how did it get on the shirt? I don't know. Maybe it was tucked in.

I was sitting in a shirt tucked in. Listen, listen, I was sitting on the bus when this happened. I wasn't walking. So probably the pressure of me sitting on the bus. Did you know that it happened while you were sitting on the bus? No. No, I just said I had to, okay, to be as crass as possible. Sure.

Let's do it. We might as well. I had to, I had gas. Yeah. No, it wasn't gas though. No, it was. But it was, it was awful. It was awful. You couldn't tell the difference to turn to an S.H. Yep, yep, 100%. And then later that night, we went to the airport. And my dad got, no, no doctor. And my dad got pulled up. Both my parents would always get pulled over, you know, like when we would cross customs.

Okay. And then I went to, and the reason for that is like we were in the Middle East and why we were going to Israel. This is like 91, 92, something. I was probably eight, nine. My sister wasn't born yet. My sister was born in a... So I was like maybe eight years old. Wow. And they interrogated them. Why are you coming?

Where are you coming from? What's your background? I go to the bathroom and... What is your son's... Wasn't it the other brother? No, then I go to the bathroom and it's just a trail. And I'm like, David, what's up? Yeah, David.

Yeah. Oh, he shit, his... Yeah, David... Well, I don't know if it's just like he couldn't hold it in. So if I was eight, he was 10. which by the way at that time I thought he was like 20 you know like he was so much older than me like now I think back he's younger than my middle son um so yeah thanks for asking bud Harrison I appreciate it just you know I'm still not clear yeah what's not clear what's not clear what's not clear

it gets from right it's a it's a downward pressure everywhere this is coming downward yet somehow the pressure it was intense what I don't remember if I'm being 100% honest is what we did Like, I don't think my parents had a change of clothes. I'm 10, I'm 8, I'm 9. You know what I mean? Well, I don't think I'd ever forget what I did. I don't remember how we fixed it. I don't think I'd ever.

Just roll with it? No, I think maybe we bought something, you know? I would hope so. Listen, we're on a tour in Cairo. Nightmare. Nightmare situation. I'm imagining just like the pyramids in the background. Imagine what my parents are thinking, because I can assure you, if I'm in that situation

as a parent right now, I'm like, this is a nightmare. Yeah. You know? Nah, there's enough tourist clothes. that you could find something nearby. Next to the pyramids? Yeah, you know, just put up a little gift shop. Have you been to the pyramid?

There ain't much going on over there. It's the freaking desert. Is there? Yeah, they've upgraded. Right next to the pyramid, the sphinx? The question is, did you have to replace the shirt, the pants? I think we threw it out. Oh, everything, everything.

What are you talking about? I went through my shirt. It went through. It was on my back. You probably don't have underwear at the gift shop. You're probably just in the pants and the shirt. But when you're eight years old, you're kind of, you're riding with it. Whatever, yeah.

Still on the shirt. That heat, too, God. The pants, the underwear I get. July and Egypt. Yeah, summer. Somewhere in Egypt. I know what it is. If anyone out there knows about Middle Eastern Egyptian cuisine, there's something called

Fool, which is like a fava bean. Like some sort of bean, it's amazing, but it's, it's heavy on the bean. I think it might be black eyed, no, not peas. What is, what is foal? Fool is a fool. A lot of fiber, yeah? Cooked fava beans. Oh, okay, yeah, that's what it is.

It's amazing. It's a little lemony, yeah, so. Yeah, so be careful we're eating it. Oh, yeah, look at that. What else, Frankie? What else? Hey, Ariel, great performance on Saturday. Not as great as GC, but still good.

Keep up the good work. Who is GC on Saturday? I'm assuming they're saying you looked like someone, but was it the ref or someone? Kyle Nelson. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't see that. I didn't see. That's a stretch.

Well, when he had the, when he had the beard. Oh, yeah, we have this. This is, this is a class right here, yeah. Oh, this is the gang. Oh, fucking amazing. How many of those guys can you name? Guram, Kutaladez, Lucas, it's like Bartowski. Kyle Nelson, before he shaved.

And then this is a new, a new ref that has entered the bowl. I don't know. You know what's amazing about the picture of you there? like the beard there is longer than it is now right it's longer than it had ever been that is literally like we're talking 45 minutes after i shaved my head for the so good that's the one people always go back to because it's so because the beard is so long so it's the closest to guru i thought i was like man i'm going to need to make up for the bald head with a long beard i've now discovered that that that is not the case wow it's crazy how much longer it was it was it was the longest my beard

would you ever go what happened to november by the way i can't do that with the bald why i was actually everyone I was with when Kyle Nelson was fighting they were like a weird looking bloke with just the mustache I was like I used to do this thing Movember and everyone's like no I think you should do it I think you should do it no no I can't you doing it me no I can't do that yeah yeah what else Frankie what else uh baked potato says giving Ariel his flowers oh thanks oh I should have the BP yeah oh masterclass Beelzebub thanks Well, someone texted me that I was being rude. Who?

No one important. I love that. You're not going to get another text. No, no, no. I'm kidding. I always try to be fair, respectful, but I knew we had a limited amount of time and I wanted to get as much of it in. And I thought that there were certain questions to be asked. So hopefully the feeling was mutual.

What else, Frankie? What else? This one, a little on a somber note. Hi, Ariel. Could you please hold a moment of silence for Daniel Danya Neraditsky, who passed away in his sleep today at only 29 years old and true role model and hero? I'm sorry to hear that, Lolo. He was a professional chess player. Wow, okay. So maybe not someone that he knew personally. No, yeah, he was pretty famous.

Got it, got it. Did you know him? No, but... Passed away to sleep, how old? I am seeing it on social. 29. Yeah, 29 years old. Wow. Oh, holy shit, man.

What is going on? I mean, there's always tragedy around the world. And certainly we have felt the Duke Rufus thing. Not trying to steer away, but we knew Duke on a personal level, very, very hard to process. I think we'll have Anthony on the show tomorrow, which I appreciate him. But my condolences and, yeah, that is awful. That is, wow, 29. I mean, a baby.

So thank you for letting us know about that. and Mike Indolts is to his fans, to his friends, to his family, to his colleagues. Awful, awful, awful, awful stuff. What else, Frankie? What else? That was it. Okay, that was it. All right. Well, tomorrow will be another interesting day.

O-TN tomorrow. So get your questions in. Ariahawani.substack.com. The great Booneckle going to join us tomorrow. Looking forward to that, he'll be fighting on the Madison Square Garden card. A guy by the name of Jarron Boots Ennis. is going to be joining us in studio. So one of the best fighters at 154 pounds

is Virgil Ortiz next for him. We'll talk to him about that, his win recently. Andy Foster, as I said, most likely Anthony Pettis. And Jasmine Nix is also going to be joining us in studio. She is a former WWNXT star who somewhat abruptly left the company very recently.

I believe this will be her first interview to talk about where she goes from here, former soccer player as well, where she goes from here, and what exactly. happens. So another jam-packed day. Very excited about Wednesday as well, but I'll tell you about that tomorrow. We got a game seven. Picks, what do you think? G.C., what are we betting on? What do we got? What do we got? You betting or what? I'm not going to bet on it, no, but we'll support the J's. Yeah, Shane Bieber on the mound.

Beaver. Beaver. Fever. I feel good. I feel good. The jersey kind of messed me up, but I feel good. Yeah, I can't wait. Honestly, the best thing is of like the major sports, I would say my kids have been least interested in baseball and now we're getting to like what's the score who won when they woke up. Like they keep saying Vladia's aura. They feel like Vladia's aura. I mean, he's unbelievable.

The smile, like the, I mean, it was unbelievable. It's hard to not have horror when you're last. They like Trey is Savage. I mean, he's unbelievable. The pitcher yesterday, the 22-year-old. So it's nice. They always just knew Vladian Bo and George Springer, but now they're starting to get into the characters.

Whoever wins, I want him to beat the Dodgers. Oh, my God. That's going to be tough. Shohei Otani's game on Friday, I think, is the greatest performance in the history of baseball. A single game performance in the history of baseball, and I think there's a strong case to be made that he's the greatest player of all time. I think both of those are true. I'd go so far as to say it's the best performance in all those sports history. Maybe, but that's tough to compare because we're comparing literally Apple's oranges.

But I think 10 strikeouts, six innings, I believe it was, three home. runs in an NLCS clincher sweeping the very good Milwaukee Brewers. Zero earned runs. Zero earned runs is the greatest performance in the history. And I don't even think that's a hot take. There's 20 ish or less people

that have done either of those two things on the offensive side of the ball on the pitching side of the ball. There's only one who can do both. He's unbelievable. But we'll slay that giant starting next week. For now, we have a game seven to win. Let's go, boys. Let's go. Game 7. Can't

Yeah. Yeah, we want it all. Nope. And, and you may recall, I got that wrong twice. Nope, three times. Nope. Yeah. Yeah. You may recall it was right here on this set. We should play that, by the way. Right here on this set back in March. We set the tone. Could, if the Js win the World Series, you think they're asking me for another hype video, that's how down bad they were at that point. Did you get a ring? You know what? I should get a ring. At the, do they give out ALCS rings too or no? They put up a banner. I should get something for the studio, right? I'm going to get a Derek Moneyberg, uh, freaking bobble and, uh, and a LCS banner. Maybe, maybe World Series banner? Update the forest logo to a Choose to Conquer. Freaking hell.

You know what? How much you think he pays for that? Find out. By the way, I can't, I can't take that off now. And I won't. I haven't even considered it because people would then. be like, oh, you're a bandwagoner, you know? You jumped from Forest to choose the concrete.

Have they announced John Dych yet as the new gaffer? You're totally off the bandwagon, too, huh? The chat has freaking tumbleweeds. That's red. I think Jacob deleted after. I'm still there. I'm still hoping for the turnaround. He's going to write the ship. He's going to write the ship. Great day here on the program. Thank you very much

everyone who stopped by. Thank you to Oscar Delahoya for his. time on Friday. Thank you to Derek Moneyberg for coming in as well. Thank you to Martin Chito Vera. Thank you to Mike Malad. Ted too I'm still waiting for your response. Bitch. Back on Tuesday. Save time until I say peace. I'm out of here.