The Ariel Helwani Show - Paul Hughes responds to Conor McGregor, Michael ‘Venom’ Page, Jim Lampley, On the Nose

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Michael 'Venom' Page previews his UFC Saudi Arabia fight against Shara Bullet and discusses how he plans to exploit Magomedov's striking patterns (03:07).Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back answer all your questions in the latest edition of On The Nose (20:32).Paul Hughes discusses his Fight of the Year contender against Usman Nurmagomedov, whether a rematch is next, and responds to Conor McGregor's nationalist attacks after the UFC star's latest social media tirade (59:37).Boxing legend Jim Lampley breaks down all angles of David Benavidez vs. David Morrell Jr. and discusses the state of the sweet science (01:32:47).Finally, On The Nose resumes to close out the show (02:35:46).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Erya Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Wednesday, January 29th, 2000. And 25. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It's great to be here on a somewhat mild Wednesday in New York City. Two great shows this week. We are inching closer to a very fun Saturday, a Saturday that we are calling around these parts as Uncrowned Saturday. Haven't thought of anything better than that. So I think we're going with Uncrowned Saturday because there is truly something for everyone

on this Saturday, February 1st, that is just a few days away now. If you're a big fan of mixed martial arts, that Saudi card is tremendous. Israel Adesanya, who we had on the program yesterday, going up against Nasruddin Imavov, Shara Bullitt against Michael Venom Page. That's tremendous stuff.

And the rest of the card, very solid as well. If you are a fan of pro boxing, you can't beat David Benavidez versus Dave Morel on Saturday night in Las Vegas. If you're a fan of pro wrestling, Royal Rumble might be the best PLE of the year. All of those happening on the same day this Saturday. And so I am very excited for that. I also love Wednesdays around these parts. We answer your questions on the nose. ArielHawani.substack.com is where you can leave said questions.

We'll get to a ton of those. We got to a ton of them last week as well, which I was very, very happy about. Some 30 or so. I think it was almost even 40. And we have to get to some super chats as well, which I was very, very happy about, some 30 or so. I think it was almost even 40. And we have to get to some super chats as well. So please do keep them coming. On today's program, back into the show, we'll answer your questions, of course. Prior to that, we will talk to one of the greatest combat sports play-by-play men of all time.

And really, it's unfair to say greatest combat sports play-by-play men of all time. And really, it's unfair to say greatest combat sports play-by-play men. You should just say one of the greatest broadcasters of all time, one of the greatest sports broadcasters of all time, the one and only Jim Lampley, who will be working with PPV.com this Saturday live from Vegas. He takes part in their fight week coverage for these big PBC cards and also is part of the chat and whatnot. And so looking forward to having Jim on and he'll be joining us from Las Vegas. He has a new book coming out in April as well about his illustrious career. So I'm looking forward to that chat. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Paul Hughes. Looking forward to

checking in with him. A lot has happened in his life, of course, since Saturday. Prior to that, we'll answer your questions, and we'll get into all things this weekend, and God knows what else. But we kick things off, and we need to get to it right away because we don't want to keep this man waiting. He has never changed, not once, throughout all the years, from the early, early days up until now. He's a UFC superstar doing big things. He's an engaged man. He's a happy man. He's a

middleweight on this Saturday. A rare middleweight appearance for him. He's fighting in the co-main event against Shara Bullitt. Joining us from all the way over in Saudi Arabia. I think the media workouts just wrapped up. Kind enough to squeeze us in the one and only Michael Venom Page. There he is.

Mike, you're the man. How you doing? How you doing, brother? You good? How are you? All good? Oh, man, yeah. Because as you say, we just did a workout. It's my first workout and it was nice. It was enjoyable. So I'm just soaking it all in. How was the atmosphere? How was the reception from the people?

Very good. Very good. To be fair, it's like Saudi's got such a calm energy here. And even with the crowd, it's like they're engaged. Like, you see the smiles on their faces. The eyes are locked in. But they're not, like, overly loud. They're very respectful.

You know, they clap and everything. But, yeah, it's a different energy, but I like it at the same time. Right before we went on air, I saw a clip, courtesy of the Mac Life, of you doing some sort of, like, magic thing with your training. What was going on? I wish we had the clip, but I just saw it, like, a minute ago. What exactly of you doing some sort of like magic thing with your, with your training. What was going on? I wish we had the clip, but I just saw it like a minute ago. What exactly are you doing there?

What is this? I would do just having some fun, man, having some fun, showing my, uh, my, my energy.

Is this some sort of anime thing that goes over my head? Cause I'm not really in touch with that world. It wasn't anything specific. It's just obviously where, you know, we're still weight cutting and stuff, so it's difficult for me to really want to show off my moves. I was like, I'll save it for Saturday,

but I want to have fun with the open workout. So I just literally, just me and my brother Norbert in the venue, we just had a bit of fun on stage. The guys liked it. The guys liked it. It was good. Weight cutting? I thought this would be a piece of piss, as they say over there. Like, this is middleweight for you, right? Yeah, yeah, no. So it's good weight cutting i i thought this would be a piece of piss as they say over there what like this is middleweight for you right yeah yeah no so it's definitely it's definitely easy but i like to cut down to the weight instead of just sitting there at the weight i still want to gain

weight shall i say uh for the fight the following day um so i don't i didn't want to just kind of sit i could have just sat around at that weight but i'd prefer to cut down to the weight weight. So I stayed a bit heavier, and then I'm still going to cut down. It's not going to be a difficult cut at all, but I just want it to be heavier. Could I ask right now on this Wednesday, two days before, how much more to go? About four kgs, which is basically normal to what I would probably do even when I'm at 170. Okay. So nothing too crazy nothing too drastic sometimes we have seen in the past I've seen some fighters and and I remember this most famously with BJ Penn when he went up to fight George St-Pierre at 170 pounds you you find and he talked about it afterwards that if you're making a rare

appearance up in weight you tend to sort of i don't know take your foot up the gas cut corners in training because you know you have that cushion did that ever cross your mind i had those extra 15 pounds i don't have to push i don't have to diet as much because it's sort of a safety valve no well i think that's that's probably the reason why i kept it very um you know systematic i'm still doing it in the same way i would normally have done it so that kind of saves me from those moments of uh you know cheating and doing that kind of stuff i had to still do the same thing the difference is i'm nowhere near as stressed being like 10 kgs heavier than i would normally be so i'm nowhere near as doing it, but I'm still doing it in the manner

that I would normally. Do you remember your last middleweight fight, when it was? I think like 2013. It was in the Super Fight League in India. It's Ramdan Mohamed at Super Fight League 15 in India back in April of 2013. So it's been almost 12 years.

Yeah, it's been over 10 years. Yeah, it's been over 20. It's been a while. I keep forgetting how long I've been in the game, but yeah, it's been a while. You know, it's funny because when you called out Shara Bullitt, and I remember talking about it with you when you were doing the Polaris thing,

it's such a fun fight, but you're 170, 185. The UFC does, like, I thought back in my mind, to be honest, I was like, this is so fun, but they don't usually, like, mix and match like this unless it's like and so I was like love it love love the energy love where he's coming from but it's probably not going to happen were you surprised

when they actually went through with it no man it's the MVP effect you know I think if I you know if I put certain things over there I think everyone just became excited with just the potential of that fight. I feel like I've got that style where the UFC will look at me and allow me to match up with any other good fighter anywhere. It wasn't surprising at all. If you have a spectacular performance, you knock about whatever, you look tremendous in the fight, is there any chance? Because I've heard you say this is just kind of a pit stop, but given how you may feel this week and then your performance, any chance you stay at 85? I'll definitely return to 85 at some point, but the goal is always going to be 170.

I want the belt at 170. I think it's a great time in that division to really pursue and make big steps towards the belt at 170. I think it's a great time in that division to really pursue and make big steps towards the belt. But as you say, every now and again if there's a great fight to be had, I may take some more pit stops. So regardless of this performance, this result, next fight is 170?

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Unless it's a really exciting fight, the next step is definitely 170. What do you make of him as a you're an expert striker you look at his striking, it's somewhat unorthodox if you will, it's very flashy it's fun, there are elements

that I'm sure you admire and like as well but when you break him down and look at him what do you see? it's as you say all the above of what you just said it's exciting, it's explosive it's all all the above of what you just said it's exciting it's explosive it's dangerous but there are patterns that i see there are patterns i'm gonna look to exploit and then again my game tends to frustrate so i'm gonna try to you know

incorporate the game plans that you've made specifically for him um and then go and go and do what mvp does best Do you think he shoots once? I think he's going to be stubborn to shoot because if he shoots, he's never going to hear the end of it. Yeah, that's a good point. For the rest of his career, that one time MVP made you shoot. So he's going to be very stubborn,

but again, it's different when you're taking damage and you feel like you need to just be safe. So it may happen. Mouthwatering stuff for you considering the last fight, knowing probably in the back of your mind, you have to be prepared, but knowing in the back of your mind this is going to be contested

where you want it to be contested? Oh, 100%. This is what made it so much more exciting to want to call out and want to make it happen. So, yeah, I'm just looking forward. I'm just looking forward to this fight. Cause, uh, I always put myself up there.

Any, any, any top striker. I do have to say, I also just saw a clip before we went live of him palling around doing takedowns and whatnot with CR seven with Christian Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, who,

I mean, that's a big deal. That's a, that's a, that's a, that's a superstar. Who are you at? Like,

who's, who's your Ronaldo this week? We, we can't, we can't have you left hanging. Nah, I'm, I'm my own Ronaldo this week? We can't have you left hanging. Nah, I'm my own Ronaldo, man. We don't... You don't need the rub.

Nah, we create our own spotlight. Alright, alright. So you're okay with that, though? You're not offended if Ronaldo shows up and is rooting for your opponent? I don't know if you're a big football guy. Nah, I'm obviously a big football fan. Like I say, I always keep things separate, man.

I'm a fan. Anything that he decides to do as a person will never take away that I am a massive fan of him. Obviously, he's a Man United legend. I'm a Man United supporter.

So, yeah, nothing will change that. Sharing the bill with your friend Izzy. What's that like? Oh, boy. And are you able... Have you been training together

this week? Have you been sharing anything? Have you been doing it, sharing anything? Have you crossed paths at all? To be fair, today we did, you know, we did a little, we sat down and caught up properly. Again, you're on your own schedule, so it's very difficult to kind of do more. You're still focused on the fight.

But yeah, we got to catch up properly today. And it was just nice to just feel his energy, how he's feeling, and I'm excited. As I said to him, I'm just so excited to share the card with him because it's a pleasure, a privilege for just being a fan again. Where are you right now? Because I'm seeing all these pro wrestling guys. I see Stone Cold, Steve Austin.

Where are we right now? Andre the Giant? The WWE experience. So we're actually going to go and do that straight after this. Me and Izzy are going to go and do that as well. Wow. So yeah, that's it. For me, it just turned me into a little kid again because I'm that as well. Wow. So yeah, that's it for me.

It just made, it turned me into a little kid again because I'm looking at, as you say, Andre the Giant, Stone Cold, this was one

of my favorites here. That's amazing. You know what I mean? So yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you walked through, I heard it's fantastic. Have you walked through it at all?

Not yet. So that's what we're hoping to do just afterwards. Okay, okay. So I'm not going to, I'm not going to keep you too long because I know

this is very exciting stuff and I'm actually envious. I would love to go check this out. By okay. So I'm not going to keep you too long because I know this is very exciting stuff and I'm actually envious. I would love to go check this out. By the way... I'll send you some videos. Please, please, please. By the way, congratulations on the engagement and you did this right before leaving,

right before... Why did you choose some beautiful images there? Why did you do it right before the fight? Sometimes people wait for after the fight, in the cage. Why did you plan it out this way? No, just the timing. The timing was just right.

Uh, I've got a beautiful partner on my side. The timing was just right. It made sense. Even where we're both going to Mecca, we wanted to go there married. So obviously what we're having actually posted is, uh, we had a Nikar, which is a Islamic wedding. So literally the full 24 hours later, we had a nikah which is a islamic wedding so literally the follow 24 hours later oh we had an actual wedding so um uh we're gonna have a more traditional um western wedding

should i say next year but we're so technically we're married now well okay so you're actually not engaged anymore wow you kept that on the wraps it's breaking news right here thank you thank you thank you yeah so is that is that the plan like what did she because sometimes when you propose someone they don't know it's coming did she know that she was getting married the next day yeah so it's again it's it's very a very weird one we kind of did things slightly backwards because this was more to do with our religion than it was to do with just that kind of conventional but we made a decision that we're going to do it in the car she didn't know when i was going to engage to her so she was happy that i kind of at the at

the buzzer shot the steph curry buzzer shot i managed to get the uh the engagement just before we actually were wedded and i know you recently converted to to uh islam and to fight in in saudi arabia after going through this major life change if you will has to all feel very it kind of has to feel like everything is aligning for you here in life it really it really really does like um not only that straight after this fight we're going to be going to Mecca which is obviously a big thing in Islam it's just all aligned as you say I just found out it's the the in Chinese new year it's the year of the snake so ah oh my gosh that is crazy um very quickly polaris you did great you won any plans to do that again this year i'm not sure about this year just depends on if i have

spaces in between the fight uh but i definitely would love to to grapple again a hundred percent i really enjoyed it and i'm still you know keeping up with the training and the grappling work so yeah i'm just enjoying it we just saw the last Bellator fight on Saturday Paul Hughes Usman any feelings did you feel anything seeing kind of the brand that introduced you to us go away or is that so far removed at this point there's no kind of connection anymore no of course there's always going to be a connection because they they gave the platform to be who I am today. And it's part of my legacy. So, yeah, but obviously, I think all things can, no matter how big they get, can rise and fall. And it's about enjoying the moment and enjoying the memories that you have with not worried about where they're at at the moment.

But, yeah, I'm always going to be so thankful for what they've done for me the guys, the team there and just the kind of connections that I yeah, the connections and the friendships that I made with Bellator, so as they said on the post, RIP Bellator, man, it was a great run, it's an exceptional

fight. Last one, how do you envision it playing out on Saturday? What's the finish what are you feeling what are you what are you sensing i just want my i'm chasing my highlight reel ko okay this fight it definitely fits to be that highlight reel ko so that's what i'm chasing and that's what you're gonna see and a little y'all must have forgot as well you're the underdog going into this fight i don't know if you know that but uh i love that i love that i don't mind being an underdog i don't mind being the favorite it's all of that doesn't mean anything the performance is what you know everybody remembers nobody goes

back and say oh he was the underdog for that fight no one cares if i knock him out in the fashion i know i can knock him out and that's all anybody's gonna remember you're the freaking man thank you so much michael really it. Enjoy your time out there. Enjoy the experience. Congrats on the wedding, and good luck on Saturday. Can't wait for it. Thank you, man. Appreciate you always, man. Take care. Legend. There he is, the great Michael Venom Page.

I mean, who's better than him? What a kind guy. You know he's busy. He just did a workout. He's going through the WWE experience, which I've heard is fantastic over there in Riyadh. I've only been there once to Riyadh. I don't think it was open when I was there. I may be mistaken, but I definitely didn't go. But I heard it's amazing. And I think they're doing something sort of, well, it's a physical building. It's there all year round with all kinds of artifacts and Hall of Fame stuff and memorabilia.

They're doing some sort of fanatics WWE world, if you will, in Vegas for WrestleMania, but very cool stuff and very much looking forward to this fight. I love this fight. And I'll be honest, definitely didn't think that they would make it. I really didn't think that they would make it. Like I said, unless you are planning on moving up, they don't usually do this sort of thing. Oh, let's just put two guys who don't fight in the same weight class and make a fun fight. I wish they would sometimes, you know, maybe no real movement to be made in the weight class, but

it's just a fun fight that the fans would get crazy over, that they want, the fighters want. They have an amazing, you know, clash of styles. Historically, like, these fights get thrown out on Twitter, on social media, in interviews, but nothing really materializes unless it's for, you know, a belt. It's Islam versus Volkanovski, things like that. And then they made it. Love it.

Currently, I'm looking at a few places. Ben MGM, Michael Venepage, plus 145. Shire Bullet, minus 175. You agree with that, GC? I don't know, man. It's going to be a striking battle, and MVP thrives there. You got anything on it? Might have to throw a little dog wager on MVP.

H-Dow? Are you naming it? I mean, I feel good about this one for him. I do. I mean, Shara Bullitt is incredible. And his last one was tremendous, the double spinning back fist. If I'm being honest, I actually feel like we didn't even mention it when we were talking about honorable mentions during KO of the year discussion on our award show. Did we even mention that one? We had to have mentioned it.

Cause I think it was my number two. Oh, was it? Okay. So my bad. So then we did mention it cause it should have been mentioned. And, and in a year that doesn't have Holloway knocking out Justin Gaethje,

the, the way in which he did it, it may even win the whole damn thing, but no, he's, he's's been incredible he's undefeated hasn't been tested really as far as his his rest is concerned but i don't think anyone really cares i think they just want fun fights out of him uh and this is a this is a fun freaking fight mvp needing to get back on track after the loss to Ian Gary back in June. Did get back on track winning ways back in October, I think it was. Was it October or November? No, it was November. Yeah, it was November 2nd against Carlos Condit and Polaris. Won his first grappling match, which was very fun. And now he returns

on Saturday. By the way, worth worth noting if you live in the united states this card starts at 9 a.m so it's not quite like the uh the uk cards that start a little bit later prelim start at 9 a.m and i believe main card starts at 12, right guys? 12 p.m. Eastern? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Sign me up for that. So, you know, this thing is wrapped up at around 3. Love it. And we'll have a post show on the channel for you.

So, I mean, that's great. And like I said, it rolls right into Royal Rumble, which rolls right into Benavidez versus Morrell. The other fights on the card that are of note, in my opinion, Sergey Pavlovich against Jairzino Rosenstreich. I mean, it would be very surprising if it goes the distance between those two. Saeed Nurmagomedov against Vinicius Oliveira. Fariz Ziyam against Mike Davis. What else we got?

Terrence McKinney on there. Our good friend Jasmine. Jazz the busiest. Yeah. How many women's fights are on here? Is it just her? Yeah, it is just her. Shout out to Jasmine.

So that's going down this Saturday all on ESPN+. All right. Shall we answer some questions, guys? Shall we answer some questions? guys? Shall we answer some questions? Let's do it. Yeah. Time now for everyone's favorite segment of the week. It is time.

Some people have been asking for the theme song back. I know. We need to get one. We need to get in the studio and record it. There was usually like a buildup, you know? Yeah, and the camera changes. And then some people were like, oh, it's making me dizzy, and I'm feeling uncomfortable.

I think I found one that we could use. Oh, can I hear it? Can I hear it? Protect your neck. Ah. Because you'll come next. All right, everyone. It's on the news.

That's not bad, by the way. Do we have the rights to that song? Yeah, I feel like we might be overusing it at this point. I don't know if we're allowed. We need to buy the rights. Come on, Ariel. Buy the rights. Come on.

We need that song. Working on it. Working on it. Ahmed is up first. Any truth to the Lopez versus Volk fight on March 29th? I mean, last I heard, it's still Volkanovski versus Ilya Teporia. So I didn't see that anywhere. Did you guys see that anywhere?

I saw like a tweet about it, but the legitimacy of it, I have no idea. Yeah, that's last I heard. And even Dan Hooker, when talking about his fight on March 8th, alluded to the fact that there was some talk of maybe Volk fighting on that card as well, but Tepoya wanted more time and all this stuff. I'm kind of looking at that Miami card for this one. And I think Ilya and Miami would make a lot of sense.

And that's the April 12th card. So, no, I have not heard that. March 29th isn't even a pay-per-view. At least as of right now. They're not going to have those guys fight on fight night. Henry, hey Ariel, just wanted to push back on something you said last week, if you don't mind. You said that Magomed Ankhalaev is not the type to go for takedowns,

and you use misleading stats. For example, against Jan, you said he attempted two takedowns while landing two takedowns, but attempted 10. This shows that if he feels he's in trouble with Alex, he will shoot like he did with Jan. Just wanted to point that out. Did he attempt 10?

Let's see here. You go to UFC stats. You type in... UFC stats is a great website, by the way. If you've never been, type in Magomed. You click on... UFC stats is a great website, by the way. If you've never been, type in Magomed. You click on the little search thing. Of course, that didn't show up. He's talking about the Jan fight?

Yeah. Four fights ago? Yeah, he went two of ten. Okay. 20% there. Landed one against Johnny Walker, zero against Johnny Walker the second time, zero against Alexander Rakic, zero against Anthony Smith, one against Thiago Santos. The most he's ever had is three against Nikiti Krylov. Yeah. Now, other than the 10 that he shot against Jan, what's the most?

What's the second and third most? Let's find out. 31% takedown accuracy, I can tell you that much. Yeah. But, I mean, is he usually going double digits? They make it so you have to click on it. You know, I mean, it's the worst. He didn't even attempt one in the Walker or the Rackage fight.

Attempted one in the second one. I mean, I'm just clicking through here. But, like, you see... No, no, I actually don't see it. I haven't seen more than... Here we go. The one he landed three, he attempted nine in. Okay. Listen, do I think it would be smart it. I haven't seen more than, here we go. The one he landed three, he attempted nine in. Okay. Listen, do I think it would be smart for him to try to shoot? Yeah, but the idea that he's just going to walk in there and take him down when you have a striker as good as Alex who's able to control distance and knows how to fight at range and whatnot,

like, it's just a ludicrous thought. He is, historically historically i think everyone would agree he is not islam khabib like grappler he's just that was the argument we're making though like like they say that that that is what we were talking about specifically we were saying he is not a light heavyweight version of khabib and that statistic of success successful takedowns kind of speaks to that as well yeah um ryan any thoughts on making an uncrowned app i would love it i would absolutely love it um i think it would be well received are there any plans as of right now no there was once a glory uh period where there was an mma fighting app if

you guys recall and i thought it was great and then they got rid of it for some bizarre reason i would I would love it um and I don't even know like how do you even make an app I guess you have to hire someone to do that yeah yeah you can't just make it on I can do it sure Frank can do it yeah we'll put that under advisement I think you know look I I think it would be uh I think it would be great and if Frank you can get on that for maybe Monday. Yeah, we'll do it. We're going to start small though. It's the app is just going to be like a crossword puzzle for the first couple

months. Okay. That works. Develop it as we go. Sudoku? Sudoku? Sudoku. Sudoku is like more numbers based.

Yeah, my wife loves it. Does she? Yeah, she's a big fan. Shout out. Yeah. Are you a fan?

No, no. I'm a word finder kind of guy. I've never played Wordle. Oh, you're missing out on that. I do play that daily. Yeah? It's good to get the brain kind of doing something other than that.

That was a COVID sensation. Is it on an app? Kind of. It's on the New York Times app now. Ooh. Yeah. By the way, shout out to On Air Jordan, who lets me know that Magomed Ankolaev averages less than one takedown per 15 minutes.

So I don't know if I was sharing misleading stats. We also, I missed this. Is that possible? I mean, this is what he told me, unless he's telling me the wrong information. Landed. Yeah. Yeah, takedowns landed. But not attempted.

What did I say? No, but I was just like, that's also a misleading stat. Like, yeah, he lands one, but he lands 0.92 takedowns. We've really gone down a rabbit hole here, haven't we? A big breakdown. He would be an idiot to attempt less than

40. He should shoot from second one until the time he gets probably knocked out. Like, shoot takedowns until you have no more takedowns left to shoot. All I'm saying is, if he's still the underdog, I think there's tremendous value on Alex Pereira. Yeah, I think so, too. If he's still the underdog. I missed this during the chat, but we have the Michael Venom Page video that I was referencing from the Open Workouts.

This is what he did moments ago in Saudi Arabia. Here he is, courtesy of the Mac Life. Big breath. Deep. In, out. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. And then just scared his guy. By the way, the guy on the right, pretty much my reaction when Alex Pereira yelled in my face on Monday. People have been asking for the BTS footage on that. We burnt it. I saw the other angle. It was damn. No one saw it.

If it makes you feel any better, we all collectively jumped as well in the control room. Frank, the next morning, was really trying to show support for you He's like everyone keeps asking for Ariel's jump video Like he didn't really jump I was like hey The angle I saw Listen the whole world saw it at NJPAC And I was stoic

I threw my headphones across the room I was like what was that This is from Trin Happy midweek AH and crew. Any update or teasers for some of the additional knows-it-all perks? This brings up a very, very important thing that I wanted to talk about.

And so as you guys know, we have these membership tiers and we have this breakdown and I have felt, look, when you launch something like this, something that we've been working on and that we launched in earnest in October, there's a lot that happens and there's a lot that you need to sort of adjust with

the times and there's things that work and there's things that don't work and there's things that you kind of workshop. Last week, I know a lot of people were upset where we were putting out like shorter clips for the videos. We're working through the kinks. We're trying to find our footing. This is all very new.

We have a channel with less subs that we are essentially like resuscitating from the dead. And it's a whole new world with algorithms and whatnot. Extremely happy where we are, but I'm not one to just kind of, you know, rest on, on, on our laurels, you know, just stick with everything, the exact same, you need to adjust, you need to evolve. And so with that in mind, I have felt like the, the membership pricing and, and, and what we are offering is just, it's just a little too steep. And so beginning February 1st, we are scaling it all the way back down to what it was during the MMA fighting era, which essentially was, correct me if I'm wrong guys, a small price, like a 199 or so to be a

part of the chat and to also, you know, get the emojis and whatnot, but that's it. There's no extra perks because to be honest, I think we're giving you a lot already. I think we're giving you a ton for free already to then produce more content on top of that. Just doesn't make sense in my opinion. And we just don't have the personnel or bandwidth and it's been weighing on my mind, feeling like I'm not giving enough.

And I don't wanna feel that way. I've prided myself throughout my career being someone who gives for the most part, everything that I do away giving enough. And I don't want to feel that way. I've prided myself throughout my career being someone who gives, for the most part, everything that I do away for free. There was that one stretch on ESPN+, which I always felt a little bit uncomfortable with when they put the bad guy show behind the paywall, which I thought was a mistake. But nevertheless, I don't want to have... And I did see some people getting confused at times thinking that we were making content exclusively behind a paywall. It was a lot of ad-free stuff and chats here and there, but the shows were never behind a paywall. So anyway, beginning February 1st, all that is going to go away.

And are there going to be tiers or is it just going to be the price for the chat and the emojis and that's it? That's the one tier. That's the one tier. That's the one tier. Is there even a name attached to this? Or is that all gone? We'll just keep it the same name. All right. So there you go.

Or look, if you want to change it up, you know, you're feeling frisky, change it up too. Is this to me or to the people? To you. No, I'm good. I'm good. All right. Same name. I want nothing to do with any of this stuff.

I just want to do the show and make the content. I'm like Dana White when people talk to me about DVDs and marketing and merch. I just want to focus on the show and the channel and our other shows and whatnot. All this other stuff is a little bit over my head. don't regret it, but I just feel like over time we have to adjust and, you know, make decisions and improve and give you guys what you're paying for. And I feel like just scaling it back to that, in addition to not changing any of the shows or the schedule or what we're offering is the right way to go. So thank you, Trin, for bringing that up and reminding me because I have been meaning to bring that up on this particular show. Hope everyone's okay with

that. Please don't hate us. Please subscribe to the channel and thumbs up to the chat. Hunt, Ariel, and by the way, we listened to you guys. Last week, you said you didn't like the way it was cut. We listen. So we come back this week, we adjust, stick with us. We're working very hard and working through it all and building something great, in my opinion. Hut, Ariel, Poirier is hinting a fight is close. Who do you think it will be for his final dance? Side question, are any of you going to the Rumble this weekend? We do have a member of the team, Alan Murphy,

who does a tremendous job on the research side of things, who will be attending the Rumble in Indianapolis. But none of us that's actually on the show right now attending. Rumble's always a great time. I think it's going to be amazing. This individual, Hut, says he'd love to buy us a beer as a thank you for all the hard work and content you pull out. I'll be the one in the Halliburton 317 shirt.

Go Pacers. Big fan of you all. Even Rick. Thank you. Shout out to Rick. I don't. How'd you feel about that, Ariel? I don't want your beer, bro.

I don't want your beer. Pacers. Oof. What is even Rick supposed to mean? No, I just, I think he probably thinks that sometimes you don't get the love and respect that you deserve. I agree with him. I agree with him as well.

I love you, Rick. I love you so much. You wouldn't accept the beer from him because he's wearing a Pacer shirt? Nah, I'm kidding. But I do hate the Pacers. No, you smash it on his head and hit him with a steel chair. Fuck the Pacers.

Pants him. One of my least favorite teams. Why go Pacers? What do you like about the Pacers? I don't know, I'm just laughing. I fucking despise them. I know the history of it. It's just like,

it's just such a random team to hate. They're so insignificant. What do you mean random? That's what I'm saying. Random team to hate. I told my dog was named after Reggie Miller. They're the complete opposite of a random team to hate. We had horrible rivalry with them in the 90s.

They broke our heart. A quarter century ago. And they also eliminated us from the playoffs in a heartbreaking way like eight months ago. What are you talking about? This is like the complete opposite of a random team to hate. They are our rival. They're not your rival. We were up three in a pace.

They stink. What are you talking about? They stink. We were up three games to two. We blew it in game six. Our team was hobbled and then they beat us. Yeah, your team was hobbled. How was it?

First round? Second round? It was second round. Halburn shows up with the fucking choking. Listen, you can make these jokes as someone who has seen his team wins, but I live and die as a 42-year-old man staring now at the reality that I may die without

seeing any of my team win. I do take this very personally. Alabama owned me for like 15 years. I still was just sort of like, meh. We're built different. What can I say? I take this shit personal. It's not going to be the Pacers that prevented this. What do you mean they prevented it last year?

Because you're talking about it literally prevented it. I love this. We're firing up the Pacers hate even more. I hate the fucking Pacers. He was just ready to move on. It's garbage. I hate the fucking Pacers. I don't think I've seen a minute of Pacers basketball since like 2012. What does that have to do with me? You're not going to be able to hate like since 2012. What does that have to do with me?

You're not an NBA player. What does that have to do? I'm allowed to hate these fuckers. It's like someone hating the Florida Panthers or something. No. That's like me saying, how could you hate LSU? I don't watch college football. Because you like college football.

I don't watch it. It doesn't mean that it's not a valid thing to hate. I fucking hate the Pacers. And I'll go as far as to say I hate Reggie Miller as well Okay that one I get I get the Reggie Miller thing What? It's the same team

It's the same guy I know It's not the same team It's just the Pacers Tyrese Halliburton This guy walked into MSG And went like this in front of us And then he held onto his crotch

In front of Spike Lee I hate that motherfucker And not only that 90 90 Fucking 90 90 94

He drops 25. By the way, we beat him in 94. 95, Ewing misses the finger roll against him in game seven. Awful moment. That's when I was crying. They throw the Kleenex box at me. 99, we get him back. But, you know, we've had some.

Who threw the Kleenex box? My fucking brother. My brother went upstairs, got a Kleenex box as I'm crying on the floor and whips it at my head. As I'm in fucking the floor and whips it at my head as I'm in fucking, how old was I? I was 13 years old and he whips it at my head as I'm crying on the floor. That shit sticks with you, by the way.

That shit fucking sticks with you. They stink! How can you say they stink? They just eliminated us from the playoffs. They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Because you had no players! I didn't think anyone hated Roy Hibbert, but I know that you were in there like... Roy Hibbert? I fucking

hate Roy Hibbert. 2013, Mello's going up game six. Who blocks him at the rim? Roy fucking Hibbert. Roy fucking Hibbert of Georgetown, number 55. And you know how much I hate Roy Hibbert? Roy Hibbert is friendly with Michael Bisping and all these guys, and I think he's an MMA fan. I think he does karate. And you know how much I hate Roy Hibbert? Roy Hibbert is like friendly with Michael Bisping

and all these guys. And I think he's an MMA fan. I think he does karate. And there was one day, maybe in 2017, 2018, he gets in a thread and someone tagged me and said like, oh, you like MMA? Ariel loves basketball. You guys should do a thing.

He writes back, big fan of Ariel. Listen to his show, da, da, da. I write back, I don't like you. You blocked Carmelo Anthony at the rim. He followed me and unfollowed me on the same day. Somebody find that. Somebody find that. I back my boys, alright? I thought you were gonna say

something like, he was like, nah, fuck Ariel, or something like that. No, he's like, I love Ariel. Yeah. And you're like, well, I don't like you, Roy. He blocked Melo. You ever see that block? Melo going up for the dunk in 2013 Game six at the rim. It was a tremendous block, to be fair, but fucking broke my heart. Jordan, do you hate the Pacers?

Jordan hates the Pacers, for sure. He's got it. Jordan just texted me and said they have a record of 26-41 against the New York Knicks. So you're the winner. Yeah, that's not a rivalry. They stink. He also just texted me him with a selfie with a Pacers shirt on. That's...

That is such bullshit. No, no, no. Do you remember when I told you that my dog was named after Reggie Miller just to get a reaction out of you? Like, he'd been tweeting

the week before about his hate for Reggie Miller for some reason. And he rang me one day. Sounds like he doesn't need much of a reason. Yeah, and I was like, I named him after Reggie Miller and I literally got that same, and I was like, I named him after Reggie Miller,

and I literally got that same rant, and I was like, no one will mess with me. We don't know who he is. Oh, he was so unprofessional. Game two against the Knicks in the playoffs, this past playoffs, when he's talking all that shit, and then Josh Hart went up to him, and everyone's saying, fuck you, Reggie.

Trust me, any New Yorker out there, you can back me up. Any Knicks fan backs me up. We fucking hate the Pacers. I hate them for life. I can't stand them. It's Kn fan backs me up. We fucking hate the Pacers. I hate them for life. I can't stand them. It's Knicks versus Hicks for life, and that's right. Cheryl is better than Reggie. Shout out to Cheryl.

Mr. Green. By the way, it's Pacers, it's Patriots, it's Heat, it's Bulls. The Patriots, the Heat, the Bulls, those are good teams. Those are teams that prevent people from winning championships because they're winning. The Pacers don't prevent anything. They suck. Where have you been?

They've prevented us. Last year. As recently as last year. Because you had nobody healthy. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Tibbs is more to blame than the Pacers. No, that's crazy talk.

How dare you? Mr. Clean, sup gang? You guys are the best. Some quick fire true or false questions for the whole crew to answer. There will be at least two champ versus champ fights in 2025. Yes, interim counts. I don't think interim counts. Interim doesn't count.

That's not champ versus champ. Definitely not champ versus champ. The answer is no. And I say false, right? Yeah, false. Two is a lot. What? Okay, so if Tom fights Alex and, you know,

the John belt is not resolved yet, we wouldn't count that? I would count that. Okay, let's just say... No, I'm saying that would count, though, in my book. Right, but John-Tom would not count. I don't think it should. According to this guy... No, unification, no. But what if Alex and John... Alex and Tom?

So that counts for two, is what you're saying, Rick? No, I would count that as a... Maybe, but I just don't see there being two. Yeah. I don't think there's going to be two bouts. With no less than seven former champions

in the division plus Murab that includes the Bantamweight and Featherweight Goats 135 is the most stacked division

in the UFC. I've long said this. It's 135 155. It's 155 it's always going to be 155. 155 is insanely stacked. It's 135, 155. It's 155. It's always going to be 155. 155 is insanely stacked.

It's always 155. I'm slowly shifting my stance. It's not always 155. What are you talking about? Forever and ever, as soon as 155 was... By the way, do you remember when they got rid of the 155-pound division because it was so shallow? Once it came back, it has never relinquished the title.

It can't be forever if they got rid of it. You can go to a top 30 lightweight, and they're a guy who could be top 15 in any other division. It is insanely stacked from top to bottom. It's always lightweight and always going to be lightweight. We're doing this again? Forever. Lightweight. Top 5 at lightweight. Okay, but the thing

I agree. By the way, there's no real wrong answer here. It's 35 or 55. I think we could all agree on that. The difference between 35 and 55 right now in my opinion is a lot of the top 5, 6, seven guys at 55 have already fought for belts or are potentially on the back end of their careers for example islam okay champ fair number one path arman charles how many times and how much left justin how many times how much left dustin how many times how much left max holloway how many times how much left that? Dustin, how many times, how much left? Max Holloway, how many times, how much left?

Those are some pretty good fighters. Yeah, but that's the top five. My point is it's all how many times and how much left, guys. On the flip side, Bantamweight, Marab, O'Malley, Jan, Umar, Corey, Figgy. Then you get to the 6, 7, 8. I think it's six in one one half dozen in the other. Patty. I'm with you.

I think both of them are just insane on the stack. Pick your poison. When you get to 15 and it's Grant Dawson, and then you've got 10 guys underneath that that could be in the rankings, it's lightweight. It's always going to be lightweight. I don't feel too strongly about it. Despite the setback,

Armand still ends up being the next fighter to get a lightweight title shot. Who are we talking about this with? Was it yesterday? We talked about it with someone and they brought up a point. Someone was on the show recently and I was like,

how do you feel about Armin not getting the title shot next? And they were like, is he really not going to get it or is Charles going to say he's not ready and then they go back to him? It was me. Yeah, it was us. We were just having a chat like...

Was it not someone on Monday's show? Dan Hooker. Thank you, Jordan. It was Dan Hooker. Stop taking credit for Dan. He stole Rick's idea. Yeah, Dan Hooker said it. But Dan Hooker said... I know you said it, but something about the way he... I was like, you know what? He is right. But I do..., here's my

it's tough with the schedule and whatnot. They fought in January. I think Armin fights for the belt in 2025. Is it next? I don't know. It could very well be next. I'm truly baffled on why all of a sudden

like, do we just choose when Dana White's word means something and and when it doesn't it has never meant like in the last 10 years it hasn't meant anything because he changes his mind overnight and the the circumstances change like why are we putting so much stock into what dana white said in the heat of the moment like if the calendar comes up and the next person that they had in line can't fight, they will call Armin because they will need to fight. That's just how this has gone. So I would not be shocked if it was Armin next.

We continue. We'll end the year without an official retirement from Dustin Poirier. No, I think we do get one. And then Francis Ngannou's next three fights are in three different promotions. I mean, it's possible. He only has one fight left with PFL. And his next fight could be boxing. So that is possible.

Mitch. Ariel, what are your thoughts on the main card for UFC 312? I'm from Australia. I watch every event all year round from the first prelim. And even I don't know who the three people fighting on this main card are. Three people. round from the first prelim and even i don't know who the three people fighting on this main card are three people um do you think on paper this is the worst pay-per-view offering there's been in recent memory if not do any of the others come to mind for you and the crew i mean i gotta be honest the last card that ddp and strickland headlined in toronto was pretty damn bad it was bad it was pretty damn bad this one this one. It was pretty damn bad. This one is not great, man, beyond the two title fights.

Tatiana versus Zhang Weili is so damn good. I'm with you, and I want to see the DDP-Stricton rematch. I think it'll be entertaining, but like Taliesin Teixeira versus Justin Toffa, Jimmy Crute versus Rodolfo Bellato, and Jake Matthews versus Francisco Prado finishes out the main card for me. Those three just don't feel like they should be on the main card of a pay-per-view. So compare that to the 297 main card, which I know one of the fights was Michael Malott against Neil Magny,

which ended up being a crazy finish. If you just take the top two versus the top two, with all due respect, give me Tatiana versus Zhang Weili over Raquel Pennington versus Mayer Buenasilva. So that's why I think it's elevated. But I can understand if you're from Sydney and you're saying like, golly, this is a tough one.

We also did get Mozart or Arnold Allen on that one too. Yeah. That is true. That's a good point. By the way, he also says, please quickly shout out your biggest listener in Perth, Peter, who's going to lose his shit hearing you say his name. Good day, Peter. Much love.

This is from James. Hola, Ariel. Quick one for New York Rick. After Jordan's recent win on the Challenge Season 40, is he the GOAT? Okay, he's not the GOAT, but that's a great question because he's in the running. He's in contention for this title.

It's a very LeBron, MJ kind of situation playing out here with Johnny Bananas and Jordan. It would be fair to ask if Jordan is the best competitor individually at his peak. It would be fair to ask that. And if he was in competition with CT and Johnny, if he would win. But the resume speaks for itself. And it is still uh it is still uh johnny bananas um but he's he's making a strong run for it a few more titles and he might get it wow and and by the way where do you watch this paramount paramount plus does anyone else

uh all stars the new season starts tonight by the way does anyone else watch this tons of people no no like of this oh no i've never seen it never? I don't even know what he's talking about. Tons of people. No, no, no. Like of this group. No, I've never seen it. Never seen anything. Don't know anything about it. Michael Jordan is on a TV show. Didn't know it even existed. No, no.

His name is Jordan. What are you talking about LeBron Jameson? It's so weird. It's so weird. I was comparing it to the MJ and LeBron. Jordan is akin to... Y'all have MTV, PC? MTV?

They play like Geordie Shore all the time and stuff? It's not on MTV anymore. Now it's on Paramount. When you go to Europe, MTV is like old school MTV. They play videos, music videos and whatnot. No, but the main channel isn't.

They have loads of eight different ones. MTV hits and whatever else. It's Geordie Shore yeah it's really bad remember some of the competitors Aaron Chalmers Aaron Chalmers I mean apart from Aaron apart from Aaron some of the competitors on the challenge were from Geordie Shore man there was there was nothing there was nothing more exciting back in the day coming home after school and you got total request live with Carson Daly on your TV.

And they show you the new videos, and you see the countdown, and the people stop by the studio in Times Square. I've told you guys about my one appearance on TRL, yes? No. I've never told you guys. I'm sure I've heard this. You've definitely told it before. Behind the glass.

Frank, I mean, if you guys heard it, I don't know how Frank didn't hear it. Yeah, exactly. I don't recall it, so tell me. So there we are. It's 2000. We're on a trip in New York, Times Square. It's around Martin Luther King Day weekend, I recall, because I remember it was very cold.

And it was a Friday, and I'm walking around. I'm walking around Times Square by myself. I went to the WWF New York store. I'm just kind of living the dream. What a time capsule this is. Oh, yeah. I'm 17. TRL and WWF store. I'm loving it.

I'm loving it. And all of a sudden, outside the MTV studios, I see a whole bunch of people outside going crazy. And I see cameras. And I'm like, what the heck is going on here? What's happening so i walk up there i remember i was wearing a jacket that was kind of like nascar like with all kinds of logos no no it was like it looked like yeah it looked like nascar it was a nat it was like marlboro no it was it was the last time you described i need a marlboro jacket this is

it was like an echo jacket What was the other one that we used to wear The 8 ball jacket No not 8 ball But it was echo And they always used to sponsor The only jacket But

The one Mitchell and Ness you're talking about It was in the FUBU? It was in the FUBU kind of... No, but the... The barrel thing was like a company called like UNK. That was the one who made like the team patches and stuff like that. Buckle was big. Hot topic.

This is going to kill me. Anyway, so I walk up there. I'm like, what are you guys filming? Oh, we're filming TRL today for Monday because we're off on Monday. It's usually live, but we have to pre-tape it. I'm like, holy crap, this is nuts. Like, what are the chances? And so I just stand there and everyone's going crazy outside. And then the person, the producer out on the street says, all right, the next song is Korn's Falling Away From Me. Who wants to request it? That's what it

was. You remember when the person used to show up on the screen and it would be like, hey, I'm Pizzi from Blanchardstown and I requested so-and-so. And then they would play the song. So everyone's like, nah, I hate that song. I hate that song. And I was like, what? I'll request it. This is incredible. You get to be on TV. So I raised my hand. They brought me to the front and they said, okay, it's Korn's falling away from me. Do you know what you're going to say? And I said, I have no idea. I didn't even really know the song. I mean, I knew who corn was, but I wasn't a big fan. And so I said, yeah, yeah, I'm good to go.

And they say, all right, here we go. Five, four, three, two. And I say, hey, I'm Ariel from Montreal. And I requested corn's falling away from me because all us Canadians can't get enough corn in our diet. Yeah. Did you actually? I swear to God. Did it make the cut? This is amazing.

We need the footage of this. And it made it on the air? So the next Monday, my friends come over after school, and it's rare that you can watch TRL pre-tape, right, because it was always live. And so I was like, guys, I'm going to come on. I'm going to come on. And sure enough, I think it was like the eighth one.

Boom. Recorded it on my VCR. Ariel Helwani popping up in his NASCAR jacket, requesting corns falling away from me because all his Canadians can't get a corn on their diet. He was a corn fan. Yeah. My mind is like exploding here. So number one.

This was my TV debut. I'm assigning Jordan to reach out to his Paramount contacts and get that video. Oh, please, please, please. I would love it. If not, does the family have a copy of this? It is somewhere Do we remember the day when did you say it was? Martin Luther King

I think it was January 2000 It was either January 2000 or 2001 We gotta get this It was a tremendous time in my life January 17th So it aired on MLK Day? Yeah.

Wow. Off from school? No. Canada. No, but we can't, you know, you'd come home, you know, at 3.34. All right. So I guess it would be what, the Friday before or something? No, we recorded it on the Friday, but then it aired on the Monday.

January 17th. Wait, so are we revealing? I feel like I've read an article about this, but TRL was kind of fugazi, right? It wasn't real. I don't think it was always live, clearly. No, not only live, but I think the voting was not. 1,000% fugazi. Yeah, we had an old coworker that worked there for a couple years.

Yeah, Joe worked there. Yeah, Joe said it was fugazi. The whole thing, yeah. The whole thing was. That's actually how your story came up. Oh, right. So maybe you never told him. I must have not heard this.

This was like a Wednesday story when I was in the back. Oh, this was when you never told him about hair. I must have not heard this. This was like a Wednesday story. This was when Adam Rick was a fan. By the way, Jordan just sent me a screen grab. Did you see this? Holy shit. Monday, January 17, 2000. This is crazy. Cords falling away from me.

Number three. Now we know Jordan. So we found the date and now we have confirmed it. This is incredible. We need to get into the archives at Paramount and see if we can pull this. What a top 10, right? Jessica Simpson. DMX number 5, baby. I want to love you forever. Juvenile, back that thing up.

Limp Bizkit and Method Man. That was a great collab. Mandy Moore Candy, that's mine. Shut up. That was a classic. What's my name? Britney Spears from the bottom of. Korn's falling away from me. So I guess I was higher up. I thought I was 8th. Christina Ag My Name, DMX. That's DMX all day long here. Britney Spears from the bottom of. Korn's Falling Away From Me. So I guess I was higher up.

I thought it was eighth. Christina Aguilera, What a Girl Wants, and Backstreet Boys, Show Me the Meaning. If you told me the top 10 songs right now in America, I couldn't probably recognize one of them. But I recognize every single one of these songs. That's when music was music right there. It's pathetic. We have the exact episode that this happened. We just have to be able to find it somehow.

I wonder. We just need to get the archives. By the way, how about my memory that I remember it's around this time? That was good. I just wonder. Wait, we're sure it's 2000? We know the year? Well, I mean, here it is.

No, we've confirmed it. The date. What are the chances that. This was MLK Day 2000. It's confusing. Yeah. No, but what if they recorded another, like another mid-January. No, I remember it being a holiday. Because I asked them, why are you taping this on a Friday?

My one question is Is it 2000 or 2001? I doubt Falling away from me lasted I doubt it lasted a whole year I mean, we could probably check real quickly But I doubt it lasted a year And it's very possible that this is it

That's incredible Just looking at these names and these songs quickly, but I doubt it lasted a year, and it's very possible that this is it. That's incredible. Just looking at these names and these songs has taken me back to a much simpler time. Jedi Goodman will find it. Find it, Jedi. Yeah, Jedi. You find that. Thank you. What's your favorite Korn song, Ariel? I think it's Falling Away for me. How is the Korn in the diet these days? It's not bad.

Good to know. What was the one that Jay-Z did a collab with? Was that Lincoln Park? Yeah, you're thinking of a great album. Different vibe. Yeah. TrinDaddy in the YouTube chat, shout out to Trin, says it wasn't a top hit in January 2001. How do you even find this stuff, by the way?

How did you find that, Jordan? Yeah. I guess you just type it up in Google or something yeah yeah all right we continue that was fun by the way my actual TV debut and if you're wondering I was in the I was in the seventh grade and there was a show that

is now one bills live but there was a different version of the show in in seventh grade on MSG on a low on the like kind of local MSG wasn msg plus but it wasn't the main msg it was like the sub msg because we had direct tv even though we weren't supposed to have direct tv in canada in any event i'm watching this show and uh ruben brown uh offensive lineman of the buffalo bills was on and i called in to ask him a question and and it was like a call-in show, but also on TV, and I got to ask him a question, but my face wasn't on. It was just my voice asking Reuben

Brown, number 79 of the Buffalo Bills, a question, and that was, to the best of my knowledge, the first time that I was ever on TV, and then the first time my face was on TV in any kind of capacity was this TRL moment that was really kind of the start of my broadcasting career, if I'm being honest. Anyway, we continue. Third down miscues, Dier Ariel Helwani, and I couldn't help but notice that he capitalized the

L in Helwani. I think that was not on purpose. Or actually, I should say, I think that was on purpose. He says, commiserations always. Your bills made it way further than my Raiders. Shout out to them. All right. GFL is a nice little niche as a retirement home for the UFC fighters.

All the heroes long past their prime have a place to be relevant and make some dollars. What are the keys to victory for whomever is behind the shadowy organization? Also, shout out to you for believing in GC and Juerk Rick. Toss them birdies out of the nest and look at them boys go. Would you ever consider an on-the-nose section for them? What would it be called? Axe the boys?

Oh, axe the boys, boys in the back, clap back. I think Mr. Oscar De La Hoya has that one on lockdown. And thanks for all you do. God bless. Regarding GFL, they have to get a TV deal of some kind, a broadcast deal, something. They must get something because without that, I just don't know if they can actually make money because they're not going to sell tickets off the jump. You get some sort of streaming deal, some sort of broadcast deal, you're able to get revenue because this is a pretty to recoup some of that money. Now, of course, you'll have sponsors and whatnot.

But off the jump, the best way to make some money off the jump is a broadcast deal. So I would say that needs to be item number one. I think we have time for one more. Yeah. Rizwan. Hi, Ariel. What does a typical week look like for you? Do you prep for the following week's show on Thursday and Friday or during the weekend? Also, how is

doing the Extra Tuesday show change things for you? Thanks. I mean, you know, I'll tell you my favorite day of the week is Wednesday after the show. It's a nice load off. Monday through Wednesday is a grind. We do the two shows on Tuesday. I start to think about who we're going to have on the show for Monday on Thursday.

Sometimes you have to wait for the events to end on Saturday to really get into it. Try to have everything laid out by Sunday, the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday show. But then, of course, you have, you know, you have our Thursday show, you have the Friday show. And by the way, going back to, you know, the previous question, I don't really tell, and they can attest to this, Eric and GC, what to talk about on their show. So they could do whatever they want. If they want to do it on the nose, they could do it on the nose. All the stuff that have come up on that show has been theirs. And the same with Pizzi's show,

unless they want my help. I don't like when people tell me what to do with my show and I don't want to be the same with others. And then of course there's the dot-com stuff. So there's a lot, but it's very fulfilling. It's very fun.

I'm enjoying every step of the way. And I feel like we have just, I mean, we're only three months old, a little over three months. So, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's an amazing thing that we've accomplished in the span of three years. I'm laughing by the way, because I'm, you found the tweet, but you found the tweet, Jordan. Spencer. Oh, Spencer found the tweet. Do we have it?

This is it. Okay, so I didn't say as much as I remember saying, but here's a picture of Roy Hibber with Carlos Condit and Martin Katman. Hoya to a pacer. Congrats on your buzzer beating three-pointer tonight. Hope to see you at a UFC event. And I retweeted it saying gross. So this was in the olden days where you had to do like the RT.

So that was like an old school quote tweet. Yes. It appears he got confused and thought you were congratulating. 100%. And then people in the comments told him Ariel is a Knicks fan and actually just likes you. So he followed me after that and then unfollowed me right after. I remember that vividly. But this is me keeping it real.

And by the way. There was one important follow-up though. Yes. There was another tweet. Uh-oh. What did I do? and then unfollowed me right after. I remember that vividly. But this is me keeping it real. And by the way, there was one important follow-up, though. Yes. There was another tweet. Uh-oh, what did I do? No, not from you. From the UFC.

Oh, wow! How about that? Don't be a hater, Ariel. We've seen you play ball. Aw, grateful being that. Wow! Look at the jovial interactions. It's beautiful. Back when I wasn't blocked.

I'm not blocked by them, by the way. But yes, that's me keeping it real. And that's me, you know, that's five months after the block against Mello. So I keep it 100 around these parts. All right. Let us move along to our next guest and we'll get to more questions. We have the super chats coming up. Jim Lampley in 30 minutes.

But for now, let us talk to perhaps the most talked about MMA fighter on the planet right now. What a performance, what a weekend, what a fight week for him, and what a subsequent several days for him in the aftermath of his incredible fight on Saturday in Dubai against Usman Nurmagomedov. He is the pride of Derry. He is the pride of Ireland. He is the one and only big news, Paul Hughes, kind enough to join us. Paul, it's great to see you. Thank you very much for doing this. I really appreciate it.

My pleasure, bro. Always an honor to be here. Congratulations on an incredible fight, an incredible performance. You said everything and you backed it up and then some. Usually I like to work in chronological order, but just as a sort of, you know, entry into our conversation here, can you even put into words what life has been like for you since Saturday? Because I feel like so much has changed in your life as a result of that fight, despite

it not going your way. Yeah, it's, uh, everything's changed, bro. Everything's changed. Um, the magnitude of Saturday night was obviously miles ahead of anything before. And then the aftermath and then obviously recent things. So it's been crazy, bro. It's been crazy. Yeah, life is a whirlwind at the minute.

It really is. But I'm trying my best to kind of take it in. But I'm feeling very good. I'm very, very blessed for sure. it in. But I'm feeling very good. I'm very, very blessed for sure. Okay, so that last line, very important. You're feeling very good and I'm delighted to hear that. Do you feel, obviously it was heartbreaking to see your reaction in the cage

as the results were announced. You fall to your knees. We share your pain. You were so close to realizing your dream. Do you feel better about Saturday or is it still too raw, too fresh? No, I mean,

to be honest, I kind of felt better instantly after kind of watching it back. It's for me, it's always the most important thing is actually just watching it back after, because, you know, on the night, I obviously clearly thought that I won.

My team obviously thought that I won especially because of how I ended the fight as well I thought okay this is a given it's mine um so it hurt a lot of the time but look when I watched it back I seen like it was obviously a close fight any close fight in MMA can go either way um i just yeah i really thought that i won and i still think that i won have you had a chance to re-watch the fight i have yeah sorry am i lagging behind there it's just yeah no yeah there's a little bit sometimes this happens do you hear me it's it's it's coming in and out okay yeah there's a little bit. Sometimes this happens. Do you hear me? It's coming in and out. Okay, yeah, there's a couple of times where it's kind of lacking, but I'm cool with it. It happens all the time. Yeah, okay. What did you say? Did I get to watch it?

Yeah, have you had a chance to watch it? And if so, when you're watching it, are you scoring it? And what do you think the proper score should have been i need to watch it back again so i only watched it like directly after the fight as in that night and then maybe the next day um look the thing to me right that i think that most people are missing, like there's been a lot of debate over the scorecards and how each individual round was scored. And obviously, it was a varying between all the scorecards. So, yes, people are going to debate that. But less people are talking about the momentum change of the fourth round when we clashed heads.

Ousmane was about to break. I was about to get him out of there. That was that point of the fight where he was going all the way down, and I knew, and I was waiting for this opportunity. I had spent three rounds breaking him down, making the reads, and getting him exactly where I needed him to be to finish him. I was folding him over, almost folding him over at the almost folding him over at the end of the third round coming out for the fourth I knew I had his number and I felt it

in the cage when I was ripping him to the body I could feel his energy and his spirit break and I knew I had him and the headbutt happened and he got about five minutes of recovery time and that momentum change was the reason that I didn't finish him because I know for a fact that for round four or five he was done there was absolutely no chance he would have had the energy to get me down or keep me down and there was no question that I was going to empty the tank at punches towards his head and body that one of them would have put him out cold or one of them would have finished him to the body. There is no question. Absolutely zero.

That's why I'm also so excited to fight him again because I know I have his number. I probably just didn't do enough early. I scored round one definitely for him. Round two, I think maybe one of the judges gave them to me. I can't recall. I need to look back. Everyone's been moving so fast

but here are the scorecards by the way was there any round two for me there yeah there was one so maybe i i didn't put enough pressure on him early but i know for a fact darryl that he was done like i i know i would have got him out of there and I think that that's maybe not what people are talking about enough as to like him being able to get energy back and just withstand and stay alive in the fifth round essentially that's kind of

how I when I'm thinking and assessing the fight that's what I'm thinking about right now not like individual scoring rounds because obviously the scorecards were bullshit there was absolutely zero chance that it was 4-1 I think everybody is in agreement with that but uh yeah that's where my head's kind of at with it by the way just curious in that moment during that five minute break are you thinking are you getting antsy thinking like i have them on the ropes so to speak and and i need to get back out there like are you dying inside there if you could only see

and i'm sure that there are a lot of cameras with if you could only see and i'm sure that there are a lot of cameras with this kind of footage of what i'm walking around the cage and saying to people i'm seeing the seat i'm seeing don davis and i'm going i could get give me give me five more rounds with him i was like i won't fight him again i'm talking to people saying let me at him again i'm saying he's fucked i'm looking at people i'm going he's getting out of there now and i'm staring at usman and he won't even look at me and habib is kind of like saying chill chill chill and i'm just standing and that's when like the viral clip of me with the blood or the photos and all

that's just me staring at him going like he's done like i'm gonna get him now because his spirit was broke and he just had enough time to get his energy back to survive a fourth round and then just survive a fifth. But it was, yeah, a game of true inches. You know, the fifth round again, I overthrew a shot. He got behind me and he helped me for two minutes, just doing nothing, just kneeing my hole. Like I'm and I'm saying to him, let's fight, let's fight. And the crowds go mad because he's kneeing my hole like i'm and i'm saying to him let's fight let's fight and the crowd's going mad because he's kneeing me like there's nothing going on there but he's just surviving but anyway anyway that's that's my thoughts on it like my general thoughts on it

is i'm happy uh i'm not like insanely disappointed because i know the rematch is got it's got to be next and i know that i will beat him in the rematch is got it's got to be next and I know that I will beat him in the rematch absolutely zero question so I'm feeling I'm feeling pretty good about it all by the way uh there was someone on Twitter it might have been Andy Stevenson or one of the other great Irish journalists out there who put together a compilation of all your your switches through the years dating back to the cage warriors days this is phenomenal stuff Paul who gets the credit for this who Who taught you this? Because you were putting that on display on Saturday

against, you know, the vaunted Nurmagomedovs who take everyone down and keep them there with the Dagestani handcuffs and all this stuff, and you were flowing. We don't see European fighters look like that on the mat usually when you're going up against a Dagestani. Who taught you this from the early days?

Look, it's very simple. It's Patrick McAllister. It's my head coach, Pat. I mean, he's been kind of my secret weapon, maybe not so secret anymore after this, but he is, Pat is without a question, the best grappling for MMA coach in the planet. I've said it for a very, very long time.

Now people, I guess, can't believe me or see where I'm coming from because of my performance on Saturday. You're seeing how I'm moving. That's just not something you pick up without being taught. That's Patrick McAllister. I've been with him for a very, very long time. In the end, people in the worldwide scene won't know now, but they surely will know in the future so that's all pat you guys did a tremendous job of building this fight up so did pfl in my opinion and i thought you in particular with all the stuff you were doing here in the states and then over over in dubai that face off that you guys had the sound up of you saying to him like you're looking past me you're overestimating me, or underestimating me. And, and then his response saying, Who are you? And then your response back

exactly was just it was class, it was phenomenal stuff. And so I'm just wondering, what made you feel like he was looking past you? Why did you feel that way? He ended up agreeing with you and admitted afterwards that he was in fact doing so. But why did you feel that way in the moment? Well, look, it's just the things that he was saying. The interview clips that I was seeing on my socials, the things that I was seeing from the production side of what he was saying. I can tell when somebody's playing the game for marketing and I can also tell when someone's completely overlooking me and I knew there was glimpses of him overlooking me and then when I seen him on fight week and we

were doing these kinds of things I felt the energy I felt like he was looking down on me I felt like he was just like like this kid's just got a little opportunity he's gonna be he was saying things like he this he's gonna be famous for one day and everyone will forget about him and then when we done the face off i could just tell he was like looking down on me and i knew that that was going to be his mistake and then as we've seen then what happened and what he said after it was the truth but he certainly won't overlook me in the rematch. And I feel like the rematch is going to be even better of a fight. The vibe that I got from him in the post-fight interview was almost of relief. Like he knew he got away with one, like the way he was speaking and saying, did you feel that same way?

Ariel, you have no idea how lucky he was to have that headbutt in fourth round. Like this is why I've spent so much time talking about it there. It was the reason he survived. And he's now playing this like, oh, Paul needs three or four fights to get back to the belt. What does that indicate to me? That indicates to me that he's like, I do not want to see this guy again for a long time. And why would he? I've got his number.

I'm a terrible stylistic matchup for him. I was nearly folding him over to the body many times. So many, like to be fair to Usman, he is good at not getting hit because I must have winged so many knockout punches that just missed his face. And I'm telling you, one of them connects as we've seen before it's over but he'll uh he will not get so lucky next time trust me on that so so he says

three to four right after the fight do you think pfl agrees with him do you think they're actually going to to listen to this i think they would be absolutely foolish out of their minds to not try to run this back right away it's the biggest fight it's the best fight in pfl history it's one of the best fights in belt tour history if we want to include that as well it was incredible theater and the second one proves to be even better in my opinion given the fact that you know each other it's going to be this this chess match do you think they'll listen to him or are you confident that they're going to run it back uh look they have to run it back like i mean there's how couldn't you run it back like I know Usman

has mentioned he's not going to want to he's going to at least try to get as much time as he can until that happens because he wants to I guess hold on to the belt he did say I think he doesn't want to fight to the end of the year which is it's too far away the momentum of this it has to

happen soon um obviously i wanted to be in belfast whether or not that happens um i don't know but if he's if he's not gonna fight to the end of the year then i have to get somebody in belfast in like the summertime that would be the only thing that would keep me seeing right now um what have the brass said to you or your management about this? Like what, what sense are you getting from them? Nothing yet. Like usually at this kind of point,

fair play to Tim. Tim's always kind of like, look, take a week and just enjoy these things because how we're wired is always moving forward. As, as you know, you're always looking to improve.

So immediately I'm thinking I want to do this. I want to do that. do that usually he's like look let's give yourself a week and then we'll plan so we'll uh we'll take it from there after a week i'd say i saw the interaction between the two of you uh backstage where you say in belfast and he says in dubai um it's out and then you're like no no in belfast he's like no no in dubai do you think there's any scenario in which he goes to belfast um only for the trilogy i would say only for the trilogy um because at the end of the day it's a big advantage for them to fight in the bay i think i think the scorecards kind of do reflect that um obviously it's kind of more home turf where i do agree for them in terms of support in terms of having 50 guys from dagestan backstage so uh yeah maybe for the trilogy we'll do belfast but i don't know i'm obviously gonna push for it now yeah uh would

you be okay with if they say you're getting him again but it has to be in the middle east it has to be in dubai are you okay with this yeah look i'm right i just need to fight them out because next time we'll be going to the scorecards like i need to make sure of that um so wherever it's out it's out um you've only felt this feeling once before and that was a that was a very close fight back in 2020 how are you dealing with you know just the the sensation of not getting your hand raised honestly very well i mean my initial emotion was obviously disappointment my team were just devastated i was devastated as to how devastated they were yeah because my brother's like um honestly look i had a couple of counts against that night i sat down with everyone we kind of watched the back of it and i was like right look game of inches

game of inches i wish i had the belt right now and i wish i was on that champions contract which is a lot more money but i've done a hell of a lot here in the last seven months um since my first fight although it's not a case of you know a lot of people are saying to me oh you know very short period of time you've done so much oosman it shows that you're that level to be at the elite and i'm just like i know what i i know i am i should have beat him like i should be the champ right now so that. That's still annoying. But now as the weeks went on, I'm kind of just like, look,

I get the rematch at the end of the day. I get the right, the wrong, and that's what matters to me right now. That's why when it comes Monday, I'll be back in the MMA gym in Belfast, and that'll be me as locked in as ever making sure that this never happens again.

Just curious, did anyone before the fight or even after explain to you what you were fighting for? Because like is Usman the PFL champion now? If you guys fight again, would it be for a belt? It's still a little bit unclear as to what happens now with him and the

other champions going from Bellator to PFL. Well, I was kind of hoping that they would do a new PFL belt for our fight, but you know, obviously it was marketed as a Bellator title fight. My understanding is like, that's the last Bellator fight. So it would only make sense that either he is promoted to the PFL champion or his, our next fight is for the first ever pfl champion series belt okay or the first step well i don't know that's me speculating yes no no i think it should have been for the pfl title or he just becomes pfl champion and and sort of like when the wc guys came over to the ufc aldo cruz they just became ufc champions uh ronda rousey became ufc champion and i thought you know this fight's big enough

that you don't need to add anything more to it. Whereas, you know, the next fight, having a new belt could, like, just make it go next level. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah. No, it makes total sense. This is the best that they could put on

any division, any weight class, any two fighters. And you guys are homegrown, if you will. You're not former UFC fighters coming over. You're one of their own. So it's amazing. When you see the love that you're getting from the likes, you know, veterans are coming out.

Dustin Poirier, guys like that are coming out, showing you love and praise in the immediate aftermath. Everyone was tweeting about the fight, writing about the fight. Does that make the pain go away? Does that make you feel any better, or is that just kind of empty because you didn't accomplish what you wanted to? Fuck no, it's certainly a nice thing for sure. And obviously in my mind, it's like,

yeah, they should be tweeting because I'm the new champ. But it's certainly a cool thing, Errol. You know, it's been a very quick thing for me, for my life to be totally changing and for me to be on this pedestal. I obviously wouldn't be in this position if I didn't believe I was that guy, but it is, uh, it's still cool for sure.

You alluded to this earlier. Uh, it's, it's been a whirlwind since Saturday and as recently as, as this morning. And so I understand this is a very sensitive topic for you. What's transpired with Connor and this clip coming out of you talking to them and his tweets that have been deleted and your response, which I thought was very classy as well. What, if anything, do you want to say about this? Because I've seen you receive a lot of support from other Irish fighters, Irish fans seem to all have your back. And I understand that there's history involved here and there's politics and there's just, there's a lot, there's a lot at play here um so i just want to give you the opportunity to respond if you'd like to yeah well look i mean i appreciate how you've kind of addressed that as being a sensitive thing and and to i can speak about it how i want

it's actually not like i wasn't offended at all and you know nice a lot of people in Ireland especially in the north of Ireland will be like couldn't be any more deeply offended as the thing he said but I'm not actually offended or didn't heck personally at all because it sounds bad but it just seems like it's another day in his life of being just tweeting madness you know it's not like I seen that and went oh you know I can't believe he said this about me I think it's just another day in the life for him and I don't as I just don't hold weight to his opinion anymore as to these sorts of things and it's kind of a sad thing to say that but that's actually just the reality of how I felt in fact I kind of just laughed at it when I seen it it's not something i've been thinking about all day and going oh this and my identity

and this and that it's like yeah initially i was like don't come don't come with my identity like that's ridiculous but then i was just like this guy he's on one like and i just don't care you know um but yeah i i appreciate that i'm just i know you've always spoken very highly of him and shown him respect as recently as a couple of months ago right and so i was wondering if there was any part of you that felt i don't know let down or just kind of bummed out about it all because i know this is someone that you've looked up to in the past yeah i mean obviously i mean, I've always paid Connor homage at, at every opportunity. I'll,

I'll always say that he's the greatest ever do it always. Well, I would say always believe that, but nah, man, it honestly just, it didn't really bother me coming from him because it, it just,

I don't hold that much weight to what he says anymore, which is, as I say, kind of a sad thing. he apologized would you accept it um not right now anyway not right now i understand more more so not for me but more so for my people you know from where i come from what he said I mean like it and when I kind of realized like before I came in the show I was scrolling twitter and stuff probably not a good idea I kind of just realized like it's actually one of the worst possible things that you could say

to a fellow Irishman like in term in terms of how deeply insulting it can be to to someone personally now as I say as i said i didn't take it i don't take much weight to it i don't take it deeply personal but people from my area certainly certainly will you know like where i come from dairy dairy has a uh i don't even need to know how to describe it like a very tumultuous history when it comes to Irish history. It's a very, very important place where a lot of important things has happened. And it would be incredibly and deeply insulting to a lot of people where I'm from to say that we're not Irish. But I'll not get into history, but I've told you my thoughts and how I felt about it.

I could easily have just went off on one aerial and just came on here and said this and that and this, but I just don't really care about what he says, and that's kind of sad. Much respect. I appreciate that. One last thing on this topic. Did you know you were being filmed in that moment in the cage? I saw this YouTube clip come out from Anatomy of a Fighter,

and I guess they're working with PFL. i know they're very close to that team and i'm not insinuating that there was any sort of foul play but i i know this is a private moment that you're sharing and it's a very you know it's it's it's a sensitive one right um did you know that this was being filmed and that this would come out i didn't know it was being filmed and i didn't know it was coming out and to be honest, when I woke up this morning, I seen it. I think it's only,

that's a very delicate thing. And firstly, when I seen it, I was kind of to myself, I was like, ah, the way you're saying that, like the way I referred to Connor as that guy or,

or what was it? I said, I think this guy, because Habib referred to him as the other. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, I don't even, I didn't even remember this guy. Because Khabib referred to him as the other. Yeah. Exactly. So, I mean, I didn't even remember this happening. Obviously, I just fought five rounds.

It's just ended. I can remember I'm talking to many people. This is a short clip. There was a lot more going on than just this short clip. So when I seen that just that little bit went out, I thought, hmm, that's, you know, that's a, why put that out? Just why not the rest of the conversation or why not what he was saying to me or why not anything else i think that i think they knew what they were doing there 100 and i kind of wasn't all right with that because i do know that they have to heavily

proof everything with the russian side yet they didn't come to us with anything i'm not making excuses i mean i that's what I said. As I say, my initial thoughts were like, ah, you know, why'd you say it like that, Paul? As in like that other guy. Kind of sounds like a dickhead thing to say. But at the end of the day, I was just being honest in that moment.

Like I am my own man, as you well know. Like I'm my own person. I'm just trying to be me. Like I don't want, like I'm creating my own story here. I'm doing my own thing. So it just, the initial way it came across, I was like,

oh, that doesn't sound too good. But at the end of the day, like it's, it's what can I do about it? You know, it's after a fucking five round fight. It's just a small thing that's been clipped up. And yeah,

just is what it is. Like, uh, what do you think the reception will be like back home? Uh, you said you're going to be back at the gym on Monday do you think the reception will be like back home? Uh, you said you're going to be back at the gym on Monday. I think you're, you're not home quite yet,

but I feel like they're, they're going to throw a parade in your honor when you, when you get back home. What do you think it's going to be like? Uh, I, I don't know. I haven't really thought about it to be honest.

Um, I'm still out in Dubai here at the minute, just chilling. Um, I don't know. It's going to be cold at home. That's all i know so stay out here as long as i can um i haven't thought about it bro i guess things are gonna

be pretty different now as to just how much this fight has transcended anything i've done before um and then now obviously this shit that's happening today yeah there's a bit a lot going on like yes uh i can't imagine what life is like right now just curious i mentioned and we'll let you go in a moment i mentioned the interaction backstage with usman was there anything that we we didn't see that was said between you and the team you and him um other than that you know brief one minute clip that's been out there quite a few things said oh really both sides i mean you know if he was to clip up some things some of the respectful things that i was getting said maybe didn't want to make them look soft or or too respectful but like none of that went out just

a wee clip of then that guy but here this is the game aerial isn't it that's uh i need to be aware of these things now the position that i'm putting myself into anything that i say can be taken out of context as you well know anything can be anything can just be flipped but it's kind of just this is a really good learning experience for me now because you know there's something that like i don't even remember it was just a one thing i said after a five round fight it was all respectful i was just saying i'm my own man there was nothing crazy said but that little thing has now sparked a fucking war in ireland yeah and a war other war between habib and connor and ireland and dagestan well more so habib and connor but it just goes to show you it's it's uh yeah it's just the game

isn't it yeah when you got back to your phone and saw that the, uh, the clip was out there of him saying three or four more after all the mutual respect, are you like, what, what's, what's changed here?

Like I, it seemed like you guys are talking about the next fight and then it's like, nah, he needs to fight three or four more. I think that's just reality. Um, kicking in and going, yeah,

I need time or I don't want to fight this guy again. Like, Errol, that man was, I had him there folded over the body shots a couple times. They are not nice, and the pressure I was putting on him, he could barely get me down. He couldn't hurt me. Look, it's the rematch. It's going to be a big one.

It's going to be a different level. Last thing, we had Dan Hooker on the show on monday and he was he was singing your praises as well and he said that he was he was really surprised to to kind of hear what usman was saying in the aftermath and and he feels like it's sort of it sort of alludes to the fact that maybe the the aura the myth around this team is sort of dissipating, that in the past people were defeated before ever actually competing against them just because of their presence and aura. Do you share that sentiment?

Do you understand where he's coming from? And do you think that you have contributed to that? We saw what happened to his brother the week before against Murab, and then this performance. Do you feel like there is something to that? Not really. I mean, I never thought of them in that way um so it doesn't really relate to me that much um what he's saying there maybe there's some fighters out there there is some fighters out there that they just automatically assume that they're different gravy i've never believed that

and i think i showed that on saturday i mean i had for a lot of people and I had no right to be in there even with Usman, but a lot less fights, a lot less experience, but I went in and showed that, uh, you've got the right game plan. If you're damn good enough,

if you're, if you're fit enough, if you're game enough, like you can take any of these guys out. So just, uh, just need to get them next time. Or I'll just need to get them next time. Paul'll just need to get him next time paul you're

a pleasure to to cover and to watch uh in the cage out the cage uh you're all class it's it's a real pleasure to get to know you and to watch you flourish as a as a fighter in person so congratulations uh i remember you were you were when the first time we met in studio you said you had someone in mind and a lot of people probably would have scoffed at the idea of a debutante into the promotion, calling out Usman. Two fights later, you get him

and you take him to the brink. So, you know, what a stretch. And that was less than a year ago. It's not like we're talking five years. So what a 10-month stretch for you, my friend. That was, I think,

was that April? That was probably May. It was late April, yeah. Done your show with it. Crazy. Crazy. And look at you now. That's, what is April? That was probably May. It was late April, yeah. Done your show with it. Crazy. Crazy. And look at you now. What is that?

That's eight months ago. It's unbelievable. So I hope that you get that fight. And by the way, if you don't, when do you want to fight again? When are we going to see Paul Hughes fight again? I mean, if it's not Usman, it's got to be Belfast. I have to drag them there. 9,000 people, SSE Arena,

that literally has been number one on my list for mixed martial arts career. Probably number one in my life right now. Something I've been aiming towards for years. I could get to do that this summer. I really, really hope that we can get it done. Okay, well, hope you get the rematch first. If not, that would be a nice consolation.

Thanks for doing this. I know it's late over there in Dubai, done okay well hope you get the rematch first if not that would be a nice consolation thanks for doing this i know it's late over there in dubai uh and and and well done on on answering some tough questions with with grace and class so thanks so much paul really appreciate it it's my pleasure to be on here uh don't take it for granted thank you paul all the best and safe travels home appreciate it bro speak soon yes sir there he is big news who made some massive news on saturday who is now the talk of the sport uh that it i i don't how can i put it i don't envy the spot that he's in uh given who you know connor is in the country and everything that comes with um comments like that or some sort of conflict friction like that but man uh master class

master class speaking from the heart not not shying away not making things any worse uh he's getting a ton of support he doesn't have to worry about that um but i i will say i i do i do feel for him because as he put it and i brought it it up before the show, you know, you're in that moment, you're talking, you're saying things, emotions are very high. You've just shared 25 minutes with your opponent. You now have a bond and, you know, we see interactions all the time. We see interactions all the time between people and then the tone changes afterwards this is not new but that's a that's a that's a big they knew what they had on their hands with that that clip uh 1000 percent um and uh he's not shying away from it but i i thought his answer about it uh about

you know that part being put in and other parts not being put in was interesting as well. So this is the game. As he said, he's learning. He's getting to be put on a big stage. Things are said, but I appreciate him not kind of making it into a bigger deal, and I appreciate him handling those questions with, like I said, grace and class. So kudos to Paul Hughes. And very curious to see how they handle things.

They need to make that fight. They haven't quite, I mean, it's only been four days. They haven't quite set it in stone. I don't think they would set it in stone this soon. But to me, that's the fight to make. Back in Dubai, obviously, would make, you know, a ton of sense from a business perspective. Did you see that crowd? It was unbelievable, but anywhere, I would say, in Europe, in Ireland, I don't see, and again, credit to Paul, he's realistic. He doesn't see him going over to Belfast for the rematch,

but as he said for the trilogy, perhaps, alluding to the fact that if he wins, he'll be able to call the shots. He's handling this, all this beautifully. So well done to him. We're big fans, and I hope we get to see that fight, and kudos to both men. It was a tremendous fight. It's, to me, the best fight in PFL history and one of the best in Bellator history as they turn the chapter to their new era. All right, let us move along now. Great stuff from Paul Hughes. And we've been talking all weekend long about how big of a weekend this is in combat sports. And the crescendo, if you will,

happens on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. In my opinion, it's the best boxing match of the year so far. So obviously there's big ones coming up later in the month February 22nd is an incredible card but this is the start of the year if you ask me and it may just be the fight of the year by the time December 31st rolls along. It's two

of the very best fighters in the world two of the scariest punchers, best boxers on the planet, fighting at light heavyweight now going going toe-to-toe, bad blood, undefeated, everything under the sun that you would want from a big-time pay-per-view fight. It's David Benavidez versus David Murrell Jr., and they were going back and forth not too long ago on this here program. PPV.com is the best place to watch this fight, in my opinion.

They have a tremendous service no subscription required you could be a part of their chat and the man who will be there manning the chat is the legend himself arguably the greatest play-by-play man in the history of combat sports obviously for a very long time a part of hbo boxing now a part of the ppv.com team the one and only the the inimitable, the often imitated, never duplicated, Jim Lampley joining us. Hello, Jim. How are you?

Not at all embarrassed by your introduction, Ariel. I'm doing much better having heard those last 20 seconds of overblown celebration of me and my appearance here, but I'm very grateful for those opinions and grateful to be with you once again. Oh, it's always a pleasure. It's a treat. I look forward to this, really. It's an absolute privilege. Could I ask, you know, I remember talking to you in April, May, when you were just kind of teaming up for the first time with PPV and going back to the fights. Now you've done it several times. Does it feel like you're in a groove again, like in the old days when you were a fixture at these big fights, or do they still kind of feel unique to you?

It's a different thing. I'm still, I think, kind of finding my way into what it is that I can do in text, communicating with the audience on a keyboard rather than with my voice, that is most helpful to their understanding and appreciation of what they're seeing in the ring. So that makes sense. I called fights on ABC for a couple of years before I eventually moved to HBO. That was different because there were no commercials between rounds, so it was an inherently superior telecast. But I really believe it took me a few years at HBO to find my footing and figure out what I was best capable of doing for the viewer in that situation. And this is similar. I'm several months into this first year of working for PPV.com, and I'm figuring out night by night, card by card,

as we go along, what it is I can best use to illuminate and enhance the viewer's understanding of the fights. But I think it's getting better. And I do get compliments now from people who are taking advantage of the opportunity to be in the text on ppv.com. And, you know, they still say, oh, you know what you're talking about. So that's good. Yes. I don't think that goes away. I'm curious because sometimes, you know, I'm at the fights and you'll see legends and perhaps this is a silly question, but you'll see legends sitting ringside or cage side if it's an MMA fight, and they can't help but move as if they're fighting as well. Like, you know, they're moving their head, they're moving their body. It's amazing to watch them because that

never goes away as well. For yourself, when you're so close to the action, but not on a headset, not calling blow by blow, are you doing things that you used to do when you were back calling the action? Are you speaking to yourself? Are there any of those old habits that come back because you did it for so long, so many years? It's a great question. And I wondered if I would have those kinds of interactions with Lance Pugmire and Chris Algieri and Dan Canopio, the people who work with me on ppv.com. And every once in a while, I'll write something into the text and then look over at Lance, and he'll look back at me and kind of nod or smile to indicate, yeah, I agree with that one. But again, it's not a spoken verbal interaction. It's typing into a

keyboard. So I don't have the same exact kind of connection with these three colleagues that I had, of course, with Max, Larry, Roy, Emmanuel, all the people I worked with at HBO. That was more kinetic, more personal, and just a different thing than what I'm doing now in text. Okay. I love this fight. I love everything about it. The buildup has been tremendous. The fire between the two of them, tremendous. Their records and resumes speak for themselves. They've done a great job. I will admit, though, I was a little bit, a tiny bit surprised when I found out that Murrell was taking the fight, if only because, you know, he's a little younger in his career. He doesn't have as many fights. Historically,

you know, you'll get a fight of this caliber when they're both in their, you know, 20 fight stage, 30 fight stage. And it has been suggested by Benavidez himself that he's biting off a little more than he could chew this early in his career. Do you subscribe to that theory? No, I'm not at all surprised that the fight is taking place now. I think it only makes sense that Morel, as a Cuban defector who has lived in the USA for a while, but hasn't gotten nearly as much attention as Benavidez, would want to step up to that level and demonstrate why he's the one who deserves that kind of attention. I can certainly understand why Benavides, who has been forced to wait for bigger fights to take place, most especially the Canelo Alvarez fight, would step forward and

take a fight against Morel at this moment to enhance his own credentials. I think it's a really strong matchup for both of them. And it doesn't surprise me that the fight is taking place at this time in this way. What do you like most about the matchup? Punchers. What's not to like? Anytime I'm headed to the arena and you're telling me that these are two guys who can box, but like to punch. And that at the end of the day, a TKO or a knockout appears to be more likely than a tooth and nail decision. I'm in. And I think in this case, you have two guys who really want to prove a point. Both have punching power. Both have a record of knocking quality opponents out. I think we are likely to see a KO or a technical knockout.

And even if we don't, I think it's going to be a hellacious, high-contact, physical confrontation fight. Those are the fights that fans most love to see to your point last 10 fights combined for the two of them eight out of the 10 have ended in some kind of stoppage right k or tko so these guys finished fights that didn't or their their last outings in which both guys were going against long-armed, relatively tall, technically highly trained boxers who might have been expected to find ways to go the distance, and they did. So, you know, Morel got a decision against Kalachik. Benavidez got a decision against Bozdik. If you look at the scores of those two fights, the six judges' scores are eerily similar.

They were similar fights in both instances. I think that the opponent had made a silent decision. We're going to go the distance here. I'm not going to let him knock me out. And that's what happened. I said eight. It's seven. Point still stands. These guys finish fights, and that's why we love them. Can I ask, them fighting at 175 at light heavyweight, who do you think is better suited for the higher weight class? I don't know. And that's one of the things I'm going to learn from the fight. I would, I would instinctively say Benavides is better suited because, and I've made this point to you and others, he weighed 230 plus as a 13 year old. So, uh, it, Benavidez wanted to become a heavyweight. It's not a matter of going to a neighborhood where he's never been. It's just

a matter of putting the weight back on the right way. Morrell is a different story. He has graduated up to a 175 and might still be more comfortable at 168. But at the end of the day, I think it's a great weight for the fight, a great weight for both fighters. And 175 instead of 168 heightens the chance that somebody is going to land something big and get in a position to score a TKO or a knockout. It's a tremendous time in the light heavyweight division because three weeks later, we get Artur Beterbiev against Dmitry Bivol 2. Their first fight was a classic. And I think we all want the winner of this fight on Saturday to fight the winner of that fight. Do you think that happens? the Riyadh factor, and Beterbiev has already appeared and won a big fight under the banner of the Riyadh factor. So yeah, I think that there's a strong interest in Riyadh and continuing the series as it were. And unless one of these two can ring up Canelo Alvarez and convinced him to give them a shot at 175, then they're likely to be

looking for the winner of Beterbeev versus Bivol 2. And that's another toss-up fight. I don't know who wins Beterbeev versus Bivol 2, but whoever it is, he's a likely opponent for the winner of this fight. What do you make of the quote-unquote Riyadh factor of Turki Alsheikh, how he has turned this sport upside down, delivering these cards, these matchups, bringing together these promoters who were sworn enemies for decades, for years, right? As you are watching this all unfold, what do you make of this, the state of boxing right now, in large part due to his influence? Money talks. And that's really all you need to say to say, what do I make of it? I make of it that money talks. Money talks in every arena, whether it's

global politics or oil economy or boxing, and money is talking in boxing now. So for fight fans, it's probably a tremendous and somewhat unexpected bonus that the Saudi Arabian power structure has decided to take an interest in this particular sport. And for the moment, it's providing fans with big benefits. Did you think it would last this long? And do you think it will last longer? I don't know the Sheikh. I don't know Mohammed bin Salman. I don't know enough about

Saudi society to give you a knowledgeable and intelligent answer to that question. I think it will last until there's some dud fight that prompts somebody into that power structure to say, wait a minute, we're not getting everything we want from our expenditure of money in this regard. But as long as the fights are good, I mean, Baderiev versus Bivol, who wouldn't want to see a replay of that? Usyk versus Fury, who wouldn't want to see a replay of that? If the fights are good, it's going to keep going on. There's been some talk of Turkey trying to make like one organization like the UFC, where everything is sort of under one umbrella. Would this be good in your opinion for boxing or bad? Both. Uh, you know, anytime you have a single umbrella, then it makes it easier and more

efficient to get the fights that people most want to see. Uh, but it also leads to favoritism and sort of carefully constructed cakewalks for the fighters that the public likes most. So it can be both a stimulant to great competition, and it can be an inhibitant against great competition. And if this continues for another eight, ten years, we'll probably see both of those scenarios play out in some instances. Canelo Alvarez is a perfect example of what happens when all the economic power is consolidated in one corner. the wherewithal to choose any fight he wants to take. And if that means he doesn't want to fight David Benavides, it means he doesn't want to fight David Benavides. And his audience, his public, is in no position to push back and say, no, no, Canelo, we don't like what you're doing here. We're not going to buy it. You have to do something else. They don't do that. So unless you want every fighter to have the kind of self-determination power that Canelo has, you want something that logically stimulates competition, spreads the money around so that everybody has the chance to make money and creates fights like Benavides versus Morello. And so to that point, it sounds like we're moving towards a potential super fight between Canelo and Terrence Crawford.

What is your level of interest in this fight? It's a big jump for Crawford going from, you know, 154 to 168. And he fought so long at 4740 as well. Your interest in this type of fight? I first saw Terrence Crawford the night when Top Rank had a pay-per-view card in Las Vegas. And they were showcasing a South American fighter named Bratis Prescott. I believe he was from Venezuela. And they needed an opponent, and they were at a loss for exactly whom to put in against Prescott.

I believe the fight was at 135, a lightweight fight. And Tim Bradley had sparred with Terrence Crawford and told Bob Arum and the matchmakers, you ought to put him in. He's ready for this kind of fight. And Crawford took Bratis Prescott apart in a big upset. I've always been tremendously interested in him as both a person and a fighter since that time. It doesn't surprise me that he rose to the level of being seen as number one pound for pound. It doesn't surprise me that having gotten to the number one pound for pound, he feels like it's logically important for him to fight number one dollar for dollar and make the biggest possible income he can make from the fight. So I'm in no way surprised to see that Terrence Crawford has made his point and earned the right from the business structure

to fight Canelo Alvarez. Is it logical? Can he win the fight? It's hard for me to imagine how he can hurt Alvarez, who is larger and has, by my lights, the best and most proven chin, the best and most proven punch resistance in the sport. So it's a hard matchup for Crawford. He has to summarily outbox Canelo and avoid getting hurt by one of Canelo's left hooks. It's not impossible, but he's not seeking that fight on the basis of the idea that he's sure to win it the way he has been in certain other matchups. You're the best person I know to ask this question to. The February 22nd card has been called the greatest card of all time due to its depth. Do you agree with that statement?

I would never agree with a blanket statement that something is, quote, the greatest card of all time. I was not around for the Dempsey Tunney card. I was not around for the Lewis Walcott card. I, you know, I haven't seen enough myself as a human being in the sport to make that statement. Mike Katz died yesterday at age 85. Maybe Katz could have answered that question based on his fabulous background as a writer, as a journalist. There are others in the sport who are more qualified. Maybe Tom Hauser could give you that answer. I'm not qualified. Fair enough. And there's been some great stories and obituaries written about Mike Katz that I've enjoyed reading over the last 24 hours. My condolences to his family. Could I ask you another one that is in that same sort of vein? But again, I do think that you are a great person

to ask this question to. I strongly believe that Oleksandr Usyk doesn't get the credit that he deserves as a generational great considering what he did at cruiserweight and now what he is doing at heavyweight against the people he is doing it against. Do you share that sentiment? Should he be in the discussion with some of the greatest of all time? Yes, he should. What he's fighting much larger opponents like Fury, who make him look diminutive in the ring and handling himself perfectly with such competitive aplomb, maneuvering the way he wants to maneuver, making it into a boxing match, sometimes stepping up and slugging.

He's an amazing talent. He's an amazing person. It's another indicator of what it means to have an Eastern European sports training background and having learned the craft from the kind of people that he's been around and worked with. And yes, I think he will probably be retired before he gets all of the kind of credit that he deserves. But most mass communications are Western world phenomena. They are not Eastern European phenomena. Those people aren't as interested in advertising to the global public everything that they have and everything they do. Vasily Lomachenko had to fight several fights at the top of the sport before he really began to get the credit he deserved for being the best in the world. And I think that Usyk faces the same problem and maybe even a bigger problem

because of course, Lomachenko was a weight class fighter and Usyk is a heavyweight. We'd love to get your take on this. I talk about this a lot on the program. I'm kind of blown away by the way in which boxing is viewed and covered in Europe, and in particular in the UK. I talk about this all the time. Midday radio, they're talking about boxing like we talk about the NFL here. It's unbelievable. You go to Wembley, 90,000. They're about to sell 60-something thousand for Ben Eubank in April. And unless you know, unless it's Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, there aren't a ton of stadium fights happening here in America. Why do you think the sport is taken so, I don't know, I don't want to say seriously, but differently over there

and covered differently over there as opposed to here in America? Because they know that it's their sport. They know that American football is a sport that was adapted from others and fundamentally invented by Americans. Baseball is an American sport. Basketball was popularized and its growth began here in the United States. Boxing began in Great Britain. They were the first progenitors of the prize fight medium, and then later on, Americans picked it up. fistfighting back here in the United States. But even before Sullivan began becoming the largest public figure in America in the latter quarter of the 19th century, there were stars in England, and they know that. That's why they flock to the sport the way that they do. By the way, speaking of bare knuckle, it has become quite popular these days,

a resurgence, if you will. Are you a fan? Have you seen any of their events, BKFC? Yes, I've seen some of them. And the events that I've seen, some of them have provided some excitement. Some of them underline what I was told from the beginning about Bare Knuckles fist fighting, which is that it's less violent than boxing with gloves. And it's less violent than boxing with gloves, number one, because you can break your hands. Sullivan himself led the charge toward fighting with gloves because he was tired of breaking his hands. So I don't blame anybody who says, I don't want to go in with no glove on. If I hit somebody right on the jaw, I might break my knuckles or, uh, break the little

fingers inside the bones or little bones inside the fingers. Yeah. At the end of the day, what I'm seeing from bare knuckles fist fighting is exactly the level of unfulfillment and disappointment that I was told from my boxing instructors back at the beginning to expect if I saw it. You know, late in his career, and I've talked to you about my admiration from afar of Howard Cosell, and you shared some stories that you've experienced with Howard. I'm actually reading a great book now written by Dave Kindred about Howard and his relationship with Muhammad Ali, which I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't read that book. And as you know, late in his career, he sort of soured on boxing, right? And he would talk about, you know, Muhammad and what the sport did to, you know, some of his friends. Do you think that will ever happen to you, given your time knowing these people on a

personal level? Do you ever think that, do you understand where he was coming from? Do you understand what he experienced towards the end of his life when he was more anti-boxing than pro-boxing? Well, I have a particular advantage in this regard, which is that I am not a distant observer of Cosell. I knew him personally. I worked on his ABC Sports magazine show, Sportsbeat. I had an office down the hall from him. I used to get called down the hall to sit in his office and listen while he read me the latest galleys from his book. The fundamental point of the exercise was the moment when he would finish reading, and I would say, Howard, that's amazing. That's spectacular insight. Nobody else in sports has the kind of awareness and knowledge that you have. Only you could have written that.

Once I had finished with that, I was ready to go back down the hall. So I knew him and I knew enough about him to understand ultimately what he was about. What he was about was self-glorification. We should congratulate him for having achieved that at the level at which he did. Very few people have ever had such a massive and successful ego trip as Howard Cosell did. Ali supported it and was a willing partner to it. And then at some point, when Ali got bigger than Cosell, then Cosell began gravitating toward a different point of view. Uh, and it doesn't surprise me knowing Howard, knowing Muhammad, that once Muhammad rose to the level to which Howard would say he built him, then at that point,

it was necessary to begin chipping away. Okay. Fair enough. I appreciate that. Could I ask, you have a book coming out, I believe on April 15th, called It Happened. Speaking of great books. I don't want anybody to call down the hall and make them listen while I galley's from the book. But yes, it happens. I would listen to it. There it is. April 15th, and you see the subtitle, A Uniquely Lucky Life in Sports Television. I can't emphasize that enough. The book is about a career which, by all logic, should never have happened and shouldn't have happened exactly the way it did. And just to be sitting here in front of you today, to hear the things that you say about me and my career, to get the kind of treatment I get from many other qualified, intelligent, brilliant reporters like you. And I mean every word of

that, Ariel. I am astonishingly lucky because my career was one of a kind, lightning in a bottle, shouldn't have happened, did happen. And therefore, my call of George Foreman's Knockout of Michael Moore, November 5, 1994, becomes the ideal title for my autobiography. I can't wait to read it. I'm just wondering, was it hard to remember everything? It almost feels so daunting to capture an entire career for one book. Did you find yourself at times wanting to remember more things than you could have? I'm sometimes accused by people of having a photographic memory. Obviously, that's flattery. I do remember a lot of things. I don't remember everything.

However, my experience in that regard is influenced by a phrase that you'll read in the book. And my wife likes to tell me that all of my stories begin with the same six or seven words. And those words are, my father died when I was five years old. When my father died when I was five years old, I remember acquiring this innate sense that if you forgot something, you lost it. It was very important to remember everything you could possibly remember, because otherwise that would be gone from your life. It began with wanting to remember my father, which, by the way, at age five, wasn't all that easy. So, um, so at the end of the day, I wrote my autobiography, not from written notes. I didn't, um, write a first draft and then correct it and stuff like that. I would lie awake at night in my bed, memorizing

what I needed to write the next day and the order in which it needed to be written. I would commit some phrases and some thoughts and some identities to memory, knowing that I would use them word for word when I sat down to write the next day. And then I would get up and write and write another chapter for the book from memory, not from notes. And, uh, and it, you know, I, it scared me. It wasn't an easy way to do it, but eventually I reached a moment where I said, oh my God, I've written a book. Uh, and, uh, and it was to me internally a stunning accomplishment. And I'm very proud that I was able to do it now. You know, I hope a few people buy it, but at the end of the day, you'll find that it's an unexpectedly spontaneous, unpredictable tale of how somebody

achieved a level of privilege that wasn't likely within his life. I can't wait to read it, truly. I'll let you go in a moment. I just wanted to ask, you know, I had the great privilege of working with some of your longtime colleagues from HBO. I think I told you when we first met that I was once an HBO sports intern way back when. And so to work with the likes of Dave Harmon and John Crystal on the Netflix broadcast this past November was surreal for me. These are these are legends from These are legends from behind the scenes that produced that event. And I know you worked very closely with them for many years.

It was an HBO Sports reunion of sorts. And so I know you were somewhat, shall I say, critical of the fight and worried about the potential dangers of Mike Tyson fighting Jake Paul. Now that it has come and gone and seeing the numbers and whatnot, in your opinion, was that a good night

for the sport of boxing, a bad night for the sport of boxing, somewhere in between? What was your takeaway from what you saw in November, if you watched? I watched. I wouldn't call it a good night for the sport of boxing, and I wouldn't call it a bad night for the sport of boxing, because to me, it wasn't within the sport of boxing. It was within the sport of human spectacle. It was within the sport of what social media tend to care about and glorify. It was a way of presenting what looked like a boxing match to the public that doesn't always tune in for meaningful or important boxing matches. God only knows how many people there were who watched Mike Tyson versus Jake Ball, who now will not watch a spectacular and meaningful fight between David Benavides and David Morella. And, you know, as a boxing lover, I want to say that's sad, but that judgment is really irrelevant. If people want it, people are going to get it. But if you want to call Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul boxing, I don't. I call it business.

I call it internet world. I call it a new step in the evolution of mankind toward our ultimate oblivion. Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano too, though. That's boxing, right? Totally. And it was a fantastic fight. Really, really terrific fight. I didn't score it. I don't score fights off of television. My instinct was to say that, uh, Serrano had won, but I don't

denigrate or criticize the judges, uh, who chose the opposite result because they're the ones who are trained to do that kind of scoring and they do it as well as they can. I know when you call fights, you can't pick a winner. You're working with ppb.com this weekend. Who's Jim leaning towards? Can you give us a feel for this weekend, for this main event? Well, for cultural reasons, I know Benavides better than I know Morel. And it's impossible to keep your personal predilections completely out of your assessment of a prize fight going in. But at the end of the day, I think it's an even matchup on paper,

and you can find reasons to believe that either one is going to win the fight. When I wrote a scouting report for ppp.com, and it came down to the question of, okay, pick a winner and choose a reason for picking the winner. And normally it would be some technical difference or some physical capacity difference or something like that, which tilts the scale in one direction or another. And in this particular instance, I thought to myself, incentive. Incentive in the sense that David Benavides is a Mexican-American fighter with an American cultural background who has a chance to become, long shot, but let's suppose he graduates up to heavyweight. And let's suppose

he becomes the recognized heavyweight champion of the world. At that moment, because of his last name, because cultural background, you're talking about the biggest economic entity in the sport, even bigger than Canelo Alvarez, and one of the biggest economic entities ever in the entertainment world. That's what's in front of David if he continues to succeed. Is that kind of thing in front of David Murrell? No. He's a Cuban defector. His English is obviously not quite as fluent as that of Benavides. He's a southpaw, so people are going to automatically penalize him going in thinking, oh, he's technical. He's got that Cuban amateur style. Even if Morel wins a spectacular knockout over Benavides, he does not climb to the same level of public eminence to which Benavides climbs if he wins

a spectacular knockout over Morel. So the incentives lie with Benavides. And that was the fulcrum on which I chose him in the PPV.com scouting report. Tremendous insight. And it's a great card as well. Stephen Fulton versus Brandon Figueroa, a rematch of a great fight back in 2021. Isak Pitbull-Cruz is always great fun to watch as well. It's always a great privilege and pleasure to have you on the program, Jim.

Good luck this weekend with PPV.com. It's the best place to watch these fights. The stream is fantastic. No subscription required. The chat is a nice companion piece, and I don't take these chats for granted. So thank you so much for the time. Good luck with the book launch in April. Looking forward to that one sincerely, and appreciate your insights and your candidness as always. I hope I'll be back to see you then, Ariel. I'm very excited about

Saturday night. This is a huge and overwhelmingly attractive night for boxing. Thank you, Jim. All the best. Enjoy. There he is, the great Jim Lampley. And a reminder that you do not need a subscription to watch on Saturday, ppv.com. They'll have the stream beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific Live from T-Mobile Arena this Saturday, February 1st. And so, like I said, you got UFC in Saudi Arabia,

you got the Royal Rumble in India, and then you could go over to Las Vegas for a nightcap. A great card. Surely you've heard of Issa Cruz. You may be familiar with Stephen Fulton. His only loss was to the great Naoya Inouye. Brandon Figueroa is a tremendous fighter as well, a champion in the featherweight division,

WC featherweight division. That's 126 pounds in the sport of boxing. They had an all-time classic fight back in 2021. Fulton got the majority decision nod on that night. Figueroa now the favorite heading into this fight. It's a great service, and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't. What a treat to speak to the great Jim Lampley.

If you would have asked 1999 Helwani what it would feel like to have Jim Lampley say his name, let alone anything positive about him, I would have been more excited than the kid getting to request Korn's falling away from me. 1999 Helwani. Fuck the Pacers and holy shit, Jim Lampley. Fuck the Pacers. We beat the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1999, led by the great Alan Houston and LJ, Larry Johnson, four-point player.

Are you kidding me? Yeah. But that, yeah, Jim Lampley. I mean. Ledge. Ledge. Legit. Like the word legend is going around a lot.

Legit. By the likes of me. I throw around legend. By the way, what's going on outside? Every time we cut away, it's like. Do you notice this? It looks very ominous. Yes.

It looks very ominous. Is it about to rain? It is the winter time. Yeah. Like every time we cut back and forth, the clouds change. Everything changes. It's a wild thing. In any event, that was a lot of fun.

And that does it as far as interviews are concerned. But we got more questions to answer because we only did, how many did we do? I don't know, maybe 10 or so. Look at that. Exactly on the money. Was it actually 10? On the nose almost. Wow.

I would like to go to the super chats now, if I may. All right. Let us go. Actually, Frank's doing it. Yes, I'm sorry. We went through this. Frank, the floor is yours. And can you do it in the voice that you do it on the boys in the back?

I can't do that on command. I'm sorry. Oh, there it is. We got Dylan Bevan. He's been a member for three months. Yes. It's your show. Talk about whatever the hell you want. Good to be here on this lovely Monday. Much love.

Thank you. So naturally that was from Monday and not today, obviously, for anybody who's confused. Yes, and I did see that and I did appreciate that. Why? Did people not like the fact that I was talking? I mean, look, I wasn't trying to make a whole big thing about it. I'll be honest with you guys,

I'm still feeling it. And again, I always preface this by saying, I know there are more important things in life, but I care deeply. It affects my mood for better or worse. And I know a lot of Bills fans, I've heard from them, I've texted, DM, you create this bond with these people and I know a lot of Bills fans, I've heard from them, I've texted, DM, you create this bond with these people, and I know how much it means to them. Here's the truth of the matter, and I say this with the utmost certainty. I do not sugarcoat this, I do not take this back, I know this for a fact, and if you argue with me, I don't believe a word that you are saying. This means more to Bills fans than Chiefs fans, than Eagles fans, and to a lot of Commanders fans. There are Commanders fans of a certain age that remember 1992, Mark Rippon beating the Bills. There are Eagles fans that

remember, what was it, five years ago when they won the Super Bowl. There are certainly Chiefs fans, although there's probably a lot of Johnny-come-latelys as well, who remember last year and the year before, we have never won a Super Bowl. And that shit hurts. And then when you start to see the stats, Josh Allen most wins by any quarterback to never play in the Super Bowl. And then when you see stats like since 2020, teams that have scored four touchdowns and no turnovers in a playoff game are 20 and two in the playoffs. The two losses, the 2021 game against the Chiefs and the 2024 game against the Chiefs. And by the way, I hate how they call this 2024, even though we're in 2025. It's all very confusing, but you get the point.

The 13 second game and this game this shit hurts and i and i do believe by the way that the window is still very open and i do want to remind bills fans that they all said that we weren't going to make the playoffs that this was the rebuilding year that we lost gabe davis and stefan diggs and micah hyde and jordan poyer and everyone left and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I believe this. You know, when's the last time I said this about someone? And it came to fruition. I believe this in my heart. Josh Allen is going to hold that trophy. I believe it in my heart. I believe it in my soul. And the only other time I said that about an athlete was Chris Stapps-Porzingis. I could envision Chris Stapps holding the championship, right? The Larry O'Brien trophy, the Larry OB.

All I will say about Josh is I hope and pray it's as a member of the Bills. He is going to win a Super Bowl trophy. I have no doubt about it. He is that good. He is a winner. He is one of my favorite athletes of all time at this point. The way he conducts himself, the way he leads, the way he plays, the heart, the determination, all the footage of him after

the fact, like that is class. Do you see that footage of how Mahomes dealt with the loss and how Allen dealt with the loss? I don't know if you guys get fed the same videos, but like it's all over my feed. The guy is the best. He's the type of person that you want your kids to root for, to wear his jersey, to support. I just absolutely adore him. And I would love to just shake his hand one day. I would love to have him on the show, obviously, but I just absolutely adore him. And I would love to just shake his hand one day. I would love to have him on the show, obviously, but I just, I love, he's given me so much joy over the past seven years. It's wonderful. Peyton Manning got it. Eventually, John Elway got it. Eventually, he will get his eventually. I just hope and pray it's as a member of the Bills.

Damn right he will. I think he's a Bill for life, but you know how this game goes, Frank. This business is a crazy one. So I just hope it's with us. Absolutely. And you know, Michael, who's been a member for a month, says, I understand your heartache from Baltimore. Yeah, listen.

I don't like to be... I think everyone will attest to this. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not a rub-it-in-your-face type of fan. I know what it feels like because I have hurt. I won't throw them under the bus, but there's a colleague of mine who's a Chiefs fan who DM me saying, oh, you know, I saw what you said about watching with your kids and, you know, I hope you get, you know, I hope you guys get a win, a Super Bowl win one day, just, you know, after the Chiefs win their, you know,

fourth and fifth Super Bowl with a smiley emoji. Like, I would never write that to someone. And I didn't write back to him. I would say, F you. I would never, ever. I texted Anthony Smith congratulations after the win. I believe you have to, karma comes back and you have to be happy for you know the other people and i and i feel for i feel for ravens fans i was delighted i feel for mark andrews he has to live with that and lord knows those fans aren't too forgiving i feel for dalton kincaid i have my feelings on certain things but i'm not one to to rub it in i would never do that because I know what it's like to never win. To never win. I just want one. Sorry. You'll get it.

Yeah, thanks. Simon 98, member for three months, says, GFL draft song is going to be top of Spotify rap this year for sure.

Yeah. How does that song go again? Yeah. The wild thing about, yeah, there it is. The wild thing about it. Yeah, there it is. The wild thing about it is there's so many comparisons to the IFL, and the IFL had a rap song too. I think they might be the first promotion since the IFL to have a rap song.

Is it a hot take to say that it is catchy and that it's somewhat good, or is that not true? It's catchy. Catchy, yes. Good. Objectively horrible. It's a banger. It's a banger. Oh, come on, PC. Come on. somewhat good or is that is that not true uh catchy catchy yes good objectively horrible it's a banger oh come on peetsie come on we were all singing it's not good it's catchy we were all singing it my heart glows every time i hear it like it just lights up my day so i mean how is

that a bad song peetsie if you put this thing on one time unironically it would be the first time let's be real i can't listen to it unironically. By the way, does catchy imply good? No. No. There's earworms that get stuck in your ear, but they don't have to be good. The lyrics are terrible. The lyrics are terrible.

It feels like they really A-O'd the song as well. They just wrote into Chachibiti. You're next? My chest is getting messed yeah something about a mess yeah i mean a lot of it just like doesn't make much sense it feels like a euphemism at some point something about my blood is spilling over black ink at some point it's like a satanic ritual he's gotta have the full lyrics out by the way uh can youruct a song

Via AI Is that Oh yeah So what do you do Like how does that Would even work The music too Someone sent me

Like Like pretend songs For the crack and everything So how does that work What does it do I don't know Put prompts in Yeah

You give it things to Songs to be inspired by Everything like that That's wild And the music too Or just the lyrics Everything Not the music

Everything What the hell man You could say like Write a rap song about Ari Lawani's shirts And they'd give you one That's amazing And would you say

Something like I want it to be A male Who sounds like Like you have to go That detail Wow But if they'll send you a song

and I think you can say, well, make the singer a man or whatever, you know? Got it, got it. Make it a country and western song. Identified by the way when I said yes. Can you, yes.

Wow. Wow, Frank. Fair play, Frank, right? Is this free? Relax me. Like, can people do this for free? Yes. I feel bad for teachers today.

Like, how are you supposed to keep track of all this stuff? They use it too stuff They use it too It's big in education They have all sorts of Education models that are AI driven Ask me how I know this How do you know this?

My wife works in curriculum She's not excited about it I'm actually surprised that you revealed that Information you're very tight lipped Usually about your personal stuff. You know what? It's a new era. I love it.

Got to protect your neck. Protect your neck. What else? What else? Lazy bed. Yeah, there it is. Boys in the back, watch along for GFL1. Protect your neck.

Yes, sir. Musical notes. I can't wait. We were this close to a draft watch along Any regrets that we didn't pull the trigger? Not one That would have been brilliant If we had just been watching in real time

I would have loved it What else Frank? Ryan Hackenstad Writes Perry 5 wins in a row BKFC Jeremy Jeremy three wins. Wait, I don't understand it. He's saying Perry versus Jeremy.

Mike versus Jeremy Stevens. I didn't understand it. Oh, like them fighting each other? Yeah. That's the fight 100%. Well. Is it not? That's the best fight they can make.

Bit of a weight discrepancy you know yeah it's kind of too big i feel like what do you mean too big he could that that last fight was at 65 i know but i just feel like and also perry fought eddie yeah and can you play a heavy weight as well he's too big uh you know what he's not too big it's a good fight i guess yeah you know what let's let's run it that's good i'm with it i'm with it too nice i i mean i i really think unless there's some guy well okay well actually i forgot about the robbie lawler fight the robbie lawler fight is just bananas right and then i will stay i will say the darren till fight is still big business, right? Darren Till versus Mike Perry.

That's a bigger fight for me. It's top five for BKFC right now. And who would have thought after his stint in PFL, Jeremy Stevens' stint, who would have thought we'd get to this point, right? Who would have thought that he would be this type of draw? That's kind of the story of BKFC, you know? Right? Like, it's like Paige Van Zandt,

you know, not having a super successful UFC run. Go to BKFC, get a little bit more notoriety. Mike Perry, become the face of BKFC. Jeremy Stevens, Ben Rothwell, you know, kind of completely on the outs by the time his UFC career is done.

Complete rehab job uh on his career like this is a place that has turned around quite a few kind of notable names no i i i i i'm really impressed and i'm i'm very very happy for him really i'm really happy for him and then you see that emotion like think about all that being bottled up right you think about all that emotion all those years the who the F is that guy, you're the butt of the joke, all this stuff, right? It's a beautiful story. And Ben Rothwell too. What I love about it is it doesn't feel like they're castoffs necessarily. It feels almost like a resurgence. It feels like they have found their sport. They have found their lane and it's

not necessarily in the lane that we have seen them in over the past 10 years it's it's in the you know it's in the the new lane that is perhaps better suited i meant to ask about that ben mentioned that he liked to not wrap his hands when he was in the ufc was that true can you do that uh that is 100 true yeah there's another fighter that used to do that, golly Gunnar Nelson Fucking great call, yes, Gunnar Nelson I mean, there are some commissions That demand it, but then also If you're overseas and whatnot and you can get away with it

There are definitely Some people that do it It kind of reminds me of the baseball players Who don't wear batting gloves You know about these guys? They prefer to urinate on their hands. Not suggesting that Ben or Gunnar did that sort of thing, but there are

baseball players who don't like to wear batting gloves and some of them urinate on their hands before games. Vlad? Did Vlad do that? Isn't it Moises Alou? Vlad famously didn't wear batting gloves. He didn't urinate Vlad... Isn't it Moises Alou? So Vlad famously didn't wear batting gloves. He didn't urinate on his hands, but Moises Alou did.

Of course, we all remember the story that I told back when I was in fifth grade. Moises Alou was my favorite player. On the last game of the season, I said to him, Moises, you're my favorite player playing for the Montreal Expos No. 18. Can I get your batting gloves? And he looked up and said to me, if I'm your favorite player, you should know I don't wear batting gloves. I shrunk.

I mean, I'm literally like nine years old. You should know I piss on my hands. And then it comes out that he would piss on his hands. You think if Tom Aspinall told you he pisses on his hands, you'd believe it? Yes, 100%. I mean, I did. It wasn't gasoline, it was piss.

You think if he started a new one? By the way. Piss hands, Tom. The PT. It wasn't gasoline. It was piss. Think if you started a new one? By the way. Piss hands, Tom. New nickname. There's got to be something to it. It's like Machida with the. The drinking. Drinking of the piss.

Yeah. Piss in your hands is cool. Call me Miles Davis. Oh, call me Moises Alou. Yes. Well said. Good time. What else?

What else? Jeremy Stevens sends in $10.48 Jason Carney sends in $10 Jeremy Stevens Sends in $10.48 That would be weird I think he has some disposable income Is he the BMF champ?

I don't know Has Mike Perry fought since he won the King of Violence? I don't know. I guess it's, has Mike Perry fought since he won the King of Violence? I don't think so, right? He fought Jake Paul. I don't know. Are they going to defend that thing? Who the hell knows with these belts? It's getting crazy.

What else we got? Ryan Walsh. Who would win in BKFC, Rothwell, or Prime Mayweather? That's a great question. By the way, that is reminiscent of Mayweather versus The Big Show. Rothwell kind of looks like The Big Show, right? What a shout. That was a great one.

Are we answering this? Sorry. Rick, give it some thought. I was about to answer, and then I realized how stupid it was. Oh, boy. Mayweather versus Rothwell. Rothwell's the man. Prime. Prime Mayweather, no less. Rafa's the man. Prime.

Prime Mayweather, no less. Prime. What else? What else? CR says Chama LG. Wow, this is great stuff. Amazing. Thank you for the support.

Slido writes in. We can feel the authentic appreciation there. To donate to get an alternate angle on Ariel jumping back in genuine fear when Poetan did his war cry. Shout out. He's not the only one asking. There's been a lot of requests. Listen, this is what these people don't understand. That's for the members only thing.

Well, that's going away. There's something to the art of putting someone over. Right? You have to put people over. You have to make people feel good. When you welcome them into your home, they go out of their way. You have to, you know, you have to do the job, so to speak, as they say in the business. And that's what I was doing. I was selling for him. Do you understand? Like, how much more do I, do you remember what Anthony Smith said about me? He said, I stand on business, that I'm one of the toughest SOBs that he's ever come

across. Do you remember this? You guys heard it, right? Yeah, he did. He said it on the show. He said that? Yeah, well, yeah. Go back to the tape, bro. Recap the whole behind the scenes, the backstage. He said the whole thing. He said it. This is one of the toughest men in the business that I'm tougher than anyone he's ever walked in front of. He said it was basically a shack, like I wasn't familiar

with your game. He learned about you that day. You said it, not me. So in any event. So you were faking it. You weren't really scared of Alex. I get it. No, I was putting him over. I was making him feel good. I was like, wow, you do this in my face and what am I supposed to say? Not because a six foot two terrifying guy is screaming directly in front of your face.

That's right. He's like six foot five. Yeah, six foot four. He's a big boy. He's a big boy. What else? The video continues. Day two of super chatting to ask how much I need to donate to get an alternate angle of Ariel to jump back in genuine fear with Poetan did his war cry. Is this the same guy? Yeah.

Day two. All right. So I guess $10 so far or $9.98 is not enough. Appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you. No, not enough. Freddie writes, MMA related question for Andy and Jordan.

Fred can answer if they are out of office who are your top three mma fighters and who is your favorite co-worker wow we can just move on no i want to hear it he buried the uh the second question um yeah let's hear it i mean do they have the ability i would actually love to hear andy's top three mma. On the spot, right here and now. On the spot. I'm thinking. Is this on the air, by the way? This is on air.

Okay, this is on air. This is on air. Hello, Andy. Hi. I got to rep Juliana. I knew it. That's my girl from Venezuela. I got to rep her.

Good job. Good answer. We love you. We miss you. Please come back. Miss you. Yeah. I'm thinking.

Thinking. Jordan, you want to take one? Andy from Venezuela, for those that don't know Andy Tell them what you told me about Paul Hughes Okay Paul I'll add Paul right there I said Paul is adorable

He's so cute I just want to hug him He's like a badass but you're like oh you're so cute She said to me He comes in and he says Look at me, I'm the big news. He said that? Jesus.

It's all love, it's all love. He's so cute. I was like, he'll love to hear that. I will pass the message on. Now he knows. All right,

so there's two, there's two, one more, one more. Um, actually like Diego. Diego, oh, Diego Lopez. Yeah, it's a great one. Yeah, I don't blame you. Brazilian more. One more. I actually like Diego. Diego. Oh, Diego Lopez.

Yeah, that's a great one. Yeah. I don't blame you. Brazilian Patrick Swayze. Yeah, he's fantastic. That's a good comp. That's a great list. What about Jordan?

Jordan's going to struggle with this one. I don't know. You can't pick Iron Rodgers. This is on air, by the way. Oh, wow. Is this Jordan's on-air debut? Yeah, yeah. This is my first time.

On-air Jordan. Wait, is it actually? No, he was on Action Brunch. Oh, yeah, you're right. No, but he didn't speak. He didn't have a speaking part. He only had a cooking part. Okay, let him answer.

Let him answer. Here we go. All right, so, you know, we're going to start with the number one goat, Chael Sonnen. Okay, yeah, fair enough, fair enough. Solid. Undefeated. Number two. Undefeated.

My guy, Paul Felder. Big fan. This is going to be all ESPN. Good one. This is good. This is great. Number three ESPN. Good one. This is great. Number three, Daniel Cormier. Nice. These are good, but it is corporate. Company man standing on the old four letters.

Wait, no. Can I add a note from behind the scenes? When Yuri won the last fight, it was lit in here. I feel like everybody was so hyped. I'll add him to my list. Okay. Four works. Mount Rushmore.

That's all great. Favorite co-workers. I don't give a shit about the MMA list. I need to know who your favorite co-worker is. No one's listening, right? Chael, back in the day at ESPN, used to text me asking for footage of Bellator guys

for his grappling thing he was doing and I'm pretty sure he thought I was Jordan Coker that's amazing Jordan Coker for those that don't know is Scott's son who would work behind the scenes that's amazing so are you trying to say that despite producing his shows

he had no idea who you were? 100% we've eaten meals together. Who, me? That is amazing. And you know what? Jordan, loyal to a fault, had him still number one. And by the way, did you get him the footage? Yeah, no, I did.

I do what I'm told. Okay, wow. Well done. Thanks, Jordan. What else? What else? I thought we were going to rank our favorites. Oh, wow. I was trying to move on. favorites. No, we're not moving off it.

I want that stuff. I'll give Fred his money's worth. I'll just go bottom to top everyone we work with. Least favorite, the guy who hosts the Friday show, Pizza Carol. Okay, yeah. The feeling is mutual. Frank is just slightly above.

I'm the middle child. I love it. Ben, I guess Eric. I'm the middle child. I love it. I guess Eric Connors is right above Eric. Andy, number two. I guess, you know, I signed off on our paychecks as number one. Oh, thank you.

BLJ over here. Brown Nose or Jordan. It's a fair ranking. Brown Nose or Jordan. What else? I have just one. I'm trying to move on from this. No, I need it.

Who is it? It's Tracy. That's a good answer. I've never met Tracy, but I've only heard good things. Tracy is Frank's wife. She works in education. You just broke her heart, you asshole. I didn't know it was your Tracy.

What kind of animal? She doesn't belong to me. She's my wife. I thought it was a completely different person. Pizza, you fucked up. I like how it came in. I should have been on the show. Yeah.

So it's just Tracy. It's no one else? I only like Tracy. Okay. All right's just Tracy. It's no one else? I only like Tracy. Okay. All right. Fair enough. I don't know who to take in the fun on Saturdays. You know, that's when they say,

Quand les chats sont pas là, les souris dansent. Do you guys know what that one is? No. We invite you in, man. No. It's Quand les chats sont pas là, les souris dansent, which means like when the cat isn't here, the mice celebrate. And so I-

Yeah, you asked this one. What was the question the last watch? What are the vibes in there on a Saturday night? Yeah, yeah. The vibes are empty, nothing, black. There's nobody. Every single light is off except for ours. I love that.

There's no one. There's six of us all around eating dinner. You're like, is it like a 6.30 on a Monday evening? It's like no It's literally just us here By the way when I said that I meant 6.30 on a Monday evening here is pretty dead Yeah but this is even better

It could not possibly be any more dead It is only us It's us, they open up the building for us And an engineer and a security guard Who have to be here because of us They hate you guys. Oh, for sure. No, we're fun.

They love us. They're getting paid. By the way. They are getting paid. This is great. You don't have to make small talk. You don't have to chit chat. You go in.

You do the work. You go out. You see, Connor is the king chit chat. You're asking how the vibe was. He's a schmoozer. He needs this. All right. Everybody feels better after a convo with Connor.

Benjamin Turk writes, Yes? Will there be a belt or trophy for the Sean Brady match? Ooh, that's a good question. That's a great one. By the way, did Alex Pereira take your trophy? 100%, yes. Yeah, he gave it to him.

He wanted it. Wow, shout out. I gave it to him, and he wanted it. He kept the other one. Lino said, where's mine on the way out? He was like, ship it to the gym. Listen, production team. Oh, he wants it in the gym.

That's sick. He said, ship it to the gym. All right. Will we get a belt? I mean, I don't know. We were supposed to get a face-off. Didn't come to fruition. Where's the contract?

He's ducking. Rick was talking about the belt. Will it come to fruition? Are we ever going to get a date I mean we're waiting the date is a little hard I think we need to let him get the whole kid thing done and then set the date

exactly I'll be training John Tenz writes what 5 PFL later, I like that, fighters would you like to see signed with the ufc and how do you see them faring in the year respective weight classes i appreciate the question i don't like these questions because i feel like it's disrespectful to the promotion like implying

that these are minor league fights and you know you know who the top dogs are let me just say this what i do think is very interesting uh the patricia pitbull situation i think is very interesting and i'm not implying that he misplayed his hand, but I really do wish for his sake because I want to see him in the UFC. And it's really the only place that's of interest for his career at this point. I wish he wasn't so open in that process about where he wants to go. If I were guiding him, he should have played it a little bit coy because as you can see here, I think they were banking on the fact of like release one day, sign with the UFC the next day. And it hasn't quite worked out that way. Why? Because they have no leverage. The UFC is not, you know, they're not going to jump to be like

the ones like, oh, we're going to pick up the PFL's scraps or Bellator's scraps. And so I just kind of wish from a business savvy perspective that he played that one a little bit differently. Ultimately, I hope it works out. I don't see how he gets what he wants from a monetary perspective. And I know he talked about not being about the money, the legacy and all that stuff. And I believe him. But you still want to get compensated and you want to not take a pay cut. Who wants a pay cut?

How can you play that game? How can you negotiate with an entity that knows you only want to go there and don't really have any other options? It's just business, right? So anyway,

I know that doesn't answer the question, but that's what I wanted to say. No, you're 100% right. I think there's a path, though. You get in the door, you show you're as good as you say you are, and then maybe you parlay that.

100%. But if you just would have kept it at, I want to be free, I want to explore my options. Hey, maybe I'll go to Ryzen, or maybe I'll go to GFL, or maybe I'll go to one, or maybe I'll go box, or maybe I'll retire, or maybe I'll just do jiu-jitsu. Maybe I'll go to the UFC. Instead of being like, I only want to go to the UFC

and this is all I care about. Yeah. No, you're 100% right. What else? Does Justin get a title shot with a win over Dan? Oh, does Justin? I don't think so. I mean, he's literally coming off a knockout loss.

And if Armin's not next, then he would have to be after the title shot you know the title fight so i don't think so what else um jake from wendy city writes just saw that pw insider reported that paul levesque will headline the wwe hall of fame this year oh he was surprised by nick khan and hpk today your thoughts okay first of all it's levec thank you aka triple h uh that's a great one i mean obviously well deserved he's not in it already no i mean he just recently retired because of the it was two wrestlemanias ago that he went in there and do they actually have like a like a thing like how in the nba it's got it. Okay. I mean, there's some guys who got inducted and came back.

Yeah. But I didn't see this, obviously. I guess it was happening or it happened during the show. And I'm sure people will scoff at it. But because of who he is in the company, he 1,000% is a Hall of Famer. And that's a pretty good one. That's the thing that's interesting, though. Is he going in as like the executive or is he going in as Triple H? Triple H, like wrestler. No, Triple H. I mean, that's a pretty good one. That's the thing that's interesting, though. Is he going in as, like, the executive? Or is he going in as Triple H? Nah, he's going in as Triple H.

Triple H, like, wrestler. Nah, Triple H. I mean, that's a Hall of Fame career. This executive role is relative. Is DX in there? So he is in there. Is DX not in there? I don't know, man.

It's hard to keep track. But yes, there are some people who have been in there. There's, you know, NWO was in there. And the single members of NWO are in there as well. But no, he deserves that moment 1,000%. Anything else? Slido doubles down and puts in all caps, I need the alternate angle.

Wow. $19.99 this time. Wow. So he is now paid $29.97 at this point to try to get the alternate angle. Sorry, bud. $5,000. Sorry, Slido. $5,000. Slido, DM me. We'll figure this out on the side angle. Sorry, bud. 5,000. Sorry, Slito.

Slito, DM me. We'll figure this out on the side. I got Venmo. And to finish us off here, Beelzebub sends in $9.99 saying, we need an office tour. Also, Joey Burrow is the MVP. Yeah, right. Office tour?

Making the playoffs. No, office tour. Office tour could be done. Yeah, that's easy work. I can tell because you're going to do it, right? No, I mean, you know what I could see? Like someone, what's so funny? What are you guys all laughing about?

What was that? Now I'm laughing about the laughing. Yeah, I know. I actually don't know why they were laughing. Just do an OJ look. I could literally just record it on my phone. In fact, I could connect to the Zoom and then you could go to my phone

and I could walk with it. We don't utilize that enough. I'm always throwing that out there. I'm like, we can just connect on Zoom and do something crazy remote. Why don't we do that? Yeah, sure, man. When does that guy ever shut the hell up?

By the way, that's actually, like you could, correct me if I'm wrong, you could go outside, right? Hell yeah, I could go wherever. Wherever you connect Zoom. You could go to the coffee shop, POV, you know. Why don't we do that? I throw it out every time.

To me? Yeah, for sure, man. To who? Everyone looks at me just like, who, me? I actually love that idea. Yesterday, Connor threw it out because I was in the cafeteria area and Alex Pereira was playing on the Papa Shot, just killing time. He was just shooting on the Papa Shot, and he was like, why don't you play him? We'll go on the Zoom.

I'll hop on Zoom. I'll hop on the phone. I was like, we'll walk in. You challenge Poetan to Papa Shot. And he said no. I did not want to embarrass that man. I would have loved it. It would have been great. It would have been great. Yeah, we can do that anytime. Didn't we do darts with Pereira? Yeah. I can't remember who won. He we do darts with Pereira? Yeah.

I can't remember who won. He said he needed to be ready just in case if you challenged him in Papa Shot. But I don't remember who won. Does anyone remember? I think you won. No. I was beating everyone. Anything else, Frank?

That's not what my memory was. No. That's it. That's all she wrote. Shout out Skye Nicholson. Still the number one. Still the champ. Okay.

A few more questions here. Hello, Ariel, Rick, GC, Petey, and of course the mysterious Frank Lenz, L-E-N-S slash L-E-N-Z and the rest of the crew. I repeat a question that I sent in last week on the hope that you will read it out. I have a fight fee suggestion that you can all partake in. Goddards of greenwich is local to the o2 it is british pie and mash that means you can experience something quintessentially

british on fight week in person they have the obvious pie and mash and a few other british classics that you can enjoy as always peace and gout peace and gout now the question is this is the o2 in london i think he's referring to, yes? Yeah, I've been in that pub. Yeah, I know, but like, I mean, I guess he's thinking that we're going to be there. What's the review, PZ?

I only drank. Very nice. The food is great, according to PZ. Yeah. If we're there, I'd love to do it. If we're there, I'd love to do it. Yeah. We are going to do it We are going to go

We are going to go Is it going to be London? No no no There was a second part to that Eventually Is it going to be March 22nd? Don't know

Might as well just drop the don't No listen Lest you forget I mean How was Manchester not that long ago? You know, I make shit happen. I know, but our uneasiness towards this one makes me. Well, you know, the clock is ticking and a lot going on.

It's because I believe you. I know, I'm with you. It's going to be April. It's coming back. We're going in April. Ben Eubank. Yeah, Ben Eubank. Ben Eubank.

Is that the one? That's the one. Maybe that's the one. Russ, hey, Ariel. As Darren mentioned on yesterday's program, the UFC may be returning to Montreal sometime around May. Have you heard any reports that this is true? Would it be a PPV or fight night?

All the best to you and the crew. I have, in fact, heard that this is true. PPV or fight night, I don't know. Coleman T. Let's hear three good memories about Dana White white and the ufc wow uh three good memories i will say the first time that i ever interviewed dana white in person it was ufc 97 in montreal and i was extremely nervous i was there for verses.com and i was waiting in line there was a thq sort of like video game release party and i was waiting in line. There was a THQ sort of like video game release party and I

was waiting in line, waiting in line to get to him. And I was there with my cameraman, I believe it was my high school friend, John, and we were waiting, waiting, waiting. We get to the second to last person, I kid you not, and we realize that our XLR cable is broken. The microphone is not working. Here I am, I've waited in this line probably 30 minutes to get to the front. Dana's doing these interviews back when he was doing a lot of one-on-ones, and my camera, my cameraman tells me that the microphone is broken or the XLR is broken. And so I get to the front now of the line, I introduce myself to him, and I tell him that I've been waiting in line for 30 minutes and my microphone is broken and I'm devastated. He says, go get another one. I will be here for a while. We got in the car. We went to the nearest audio visual

spot, which was at the very least back and forth 20,25 minutes. Got a new XLR, got back there, he was there waiting, I did the interview, was over the moon, and was incredibly appreciative of that. That is one. Another good memory was UFC on Versus in Milwaukee, Dan Hardy, I believe it was Dan Hardy versus Chris Lytle. No, this timeline doesn't work out. No, excuse me. UFC on versus in Louisville, Kentucky, the UFC on versus three, Alessio Sacara versus Chris Weidman, Sanchez Catman, classic fight. I asked to do an interview with him for the pre-fight show, the much-talked-about pre-fight show on this show, the one where I played the Rashad Evans,

John Jones thing, John Jones saying he would fight him, all that, that pre-show. And the day we were supposed to film it, he said he wasn't feeling well, he has to cancel, but he'll make it up to me next week, and so I was bummed, because I was like, I promised, you know, the producers I would get this thing, I said I would deliver, but all right, cool. A few days later, he said, all right, you know, time to make it up to you. Come to Las Vegas to do an interview. And I said, what's the interview about? Why do I have to come? We

don't really just go. I'm working for MMA Fighting at the time. We don't really get on a plane and do interviews like this. Trust me, it's worth it. It will be worth it, but I can't tell you what it's about. So I remember talking to our editor at the time, Brian Tucker, and selling him on this idea. And he was like, oh, it's going to be another toy announcement. Remember, that was the big joke back in the day. People said that Dana's big announcement would be a toy announcement, because one time it was a toy announcement. Another time it was that Lorenzo was leaving Station Casinos to work full time at the UFC. And people thought that that was a bit of a bummer as well. They thought it was an announcement that it was going to be sold to WWE, that it was going to be sold to Fox. There was all kinds of rumors. The Lorenzo one was

a legitimate, massive deal because he was now moving on from the family business and going all in on the UFC. But in any event, took his word for it, went out there with Esther and Casey, walked into his office, they closed the door, and he said, we just bought Strikeforce. And I was like, holy shit. And we did the interview, and I would say it was worth it. This would be a good story, by the way, for a Helwani Reacts classic interview video. Anyway, that's another good memory. And I would say actually, and I hope he doesn't mind me saying this, although I probably will never know. I was actually like reminiscing this weekend and looking at old stuff about the Bills and whatnot. And some texts came up between him and I. He always used to give me shit about the Patriots and the Bills,

and the Patriots would always kick the Bills ass. I mean, this is 2012, 2013. The Bills sucked. The Patriots were winning Super Bowls. And there was one part of the exchange that popped up where he asked me about my kids, and I showed him a picture of my kids who at the time were one and three. And then he showed me a picture of his son who at the time was 13, 14, looking absolutely jacked, ripped, like super, super fit. And what was wild to me,

what struck me when I was looking at this over the weekend was he said, enjoy them at this age because they will get to this age in no time. And now my old son is that age um and that you know was kind of like holy crap like time has has passed and so that was that was the relationship uh it was uh you know it was it was it was great for 95 of the time uh there were some there were some dark moments um and then course, everything went to hell in 2016.

So those are some good moments. And I would say for the UFC, it's when they tweeted at me after my Roy Hibbert tweet. I thought that that was a great moment. The UFC account used to be a lot more – it used to have a voice. Remember – Rick, do you remember her name? Shonda. No. Before Shonda. No. Before Shonda.

Oh. Laura Gilbert. Laura Gilbert. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Laura Gilbert used to be one person running the UFC Twitter account, and she had a very funny, sarcastic tone, and it was all kind of like you would never see the UFC account write stuff like that now.

But in the early days. Well, not to you, at least. Well, and to no one. They don't reply like that with smiley faces and have like a tone an admin if you will yeah admin that's very uk that's right europe uh laura gilbert was great at that um nate fought a bear ariel and frank can we please get the video on Spotify? This would be next level. Yeah, we can effort that. People keep asking about this. I love when this comes up because it just becomes a conversation

where Frank just starts getting red and it's like, there's no next steps. There's no next steps. He's looked into it and we just wait till the next time somebody asks. Jordan, happy Wednesday crew. After last week's pound for pound list being sandwiches, just wondering if the chip crisp sandwich is part of the crew's diet.

I imagine PT will be aware of such a thing, but wondering if the American slash Canadians of the crew are. A packet of your favorite crisps between two pieces of bread and butter. Beautiful stuff. PT, I do believe that you introduced me to this. It was not as good as the chick fillet.

Wait, so that's just the sandwich? It's not like you put chips as an extra on the sandwich? It's a working man's sandwich, right? Yeah, it's like it's not something you make often. It's a working man's sandwich, right? Yeah, it's like it's not something you make often.

It's like it's not even a snack. It's less than a snack. It's just like a peckish thing. And usually, for some reason, I eat them around Christmas after a feed of Guinness because there's always like a big packet of crisps or potato chips, as you call them, in the gaff bowl.

It's a thing of beauty. Did you say a feed of Guinness? I got a bag of crisps. you say a feed of Guinness? Yeah. I got a bag of crisps. That's over eight points. How many Guinness and a feed? Needs to be over eight. Over eight.

Over eight is a feed of Guinness. Yeah, for me. Is the plural actually Guinness? That sounds horrible. No, it's not. Guinness is a, it's a, it's a, it's a. Guinness is a, it's a, it's a. I'm a fan of the crinkle, you know,

crush up the chips, like add a little crunch to a sandwich, but I've never had like a chipinkle you know crush up the chips like add a little crunch to a sandwich but I've never had like a chips sandwich I've seen the Americans do this yeah no we're purists

we just go full and it's potato chips but no we call them crisps potato but it's fried potato crisp and no it's called

crisps and fries are chips right fries are chips yeah different though you know we do it different over here but they're not potato they're still fried yeah And fries are chips Right? Fries are chips, yeah Different though You know, we do it different over here But they're potato, they're still fried Yeah

Mate, the nuances of the potato Are mind-blowing You can't simply just say Is there like a daily calendar Where they tell you a fact about potatoes And like how you should There's a different kind of potato For every day of the week, mate

Every day of the year Did you guys know that the That there are 40 quintillion variations in the Rubik's Cube? No. Why are you... I actually saw a crazy stat that

no matter what it's at, you can solve it in 20 turns or less. Yeah. Is this from the Yahoo bathroom? Yeah. Ariel was pissing earlier.

Let's go. It was too random. I was like, what the hell is this? And that was the first line and what he said was theing earlier. Let's go. It was too random. I was like, what the hell is this? And that was the first line, and what he said was the second line. Gecko da. Hi, Ireland crew. I'm loving the new Uncrowned era. And that British guy you have, PT.

What was that? Our local Brit, PT. This day of all days. Due to the controversy that's happening in Ireland This is Too far But he also calls you PT Is a great new addition Like personal trainer

That whole tuxedo bit Was legendary Thank you Since you all seem to work well And vibe together My question to all of you Is what were your first impressions Of each other

Golly Okay let me just say This guy does sound like a This guy does sound like A genuine fan of PT So let's Oh 100% I don't think that was enough Yeah I think he was making A mistake there But he does This guy does sound like a genuine fan of Pizzi. So let's, you know. Oh, 100%. I don't think that was enough.

Yeah, I think he was making a mistake there. But he does love Pizzi. And also, like, for a long time, people used to reference, remember the shop clip of him saying? Yeah, that's what he was doing. Yeah. Oh, is that? Oh, okay.

I think that's what he was doing. That is what he was doing. Okay, my bad. My bad. I over-explained it. I didn't recognize. I can hear my ancestors screaming. Shop did good on that draft, man. My bad. I over-explained it. I didn't recognize. I can hear my ancestors screaming. Shob did good on that draft, man.

He did. He was the line. He was the lone bright spot. No. He's back. Yes. Why is Connor just no-selling it? He's heard enough.

Wow. I'm sorry. I'm distracted. I'm distracted. I'm in a... I'm in an email war right now. It's the longest story of all time. You were sitting there. You were sitting there like fuming.

I didn't hear what anyone said. If we want to just break the fourth wall, I am in a war with my apartment right now. You're fuming. Over this payment stuff. What payment stuff? Tell us. Now you have to tell the whole story.

No, it's a very long story. It's a very long story. Give us the two minutes. The short and the long. I gave them a cashier's check when I moved in. They endorsed it. Then they whited out the endorsement, added on a second endorsement. Now they're trying to say that it's bounced back.

And it's this whole thing. It's been a feud that's been going on for like four weeks now. And they're trying to say that it's bounced back and it's this whole thing. It's been a feud that's been going on for like four weeks now and they just keep pushing the can down the road. But ultimately,

what is the issue? Are they asking you for more money? Are they saying you didn't pay us? Yeah, they're asking me to repay money that my bank has confirmed.

They're like, no, this is paid. There is no question it is paid. Here is the evidence right here. It's a whole thing. Yeah, sorry.

I really am in a war. The look on your face in that was either that you hate this song. I didn't hear anything you guys said. You look very angry with the song. White hot rage. It's been very rare. I've seen this a few times. This was one of them where you just know that there is

a rage inside Connor that was waiting to be unleashed. The tiniest thing would have set him off. I didn't mean to be doing it during the show. No, listen, listen. Just don't disrespect me. These useless emails. By the way, speaking of

this sort of thing, Agent Spooky says, you guys need to go back and watch the Royal Rumble draft and just focus on PT. He seemingly never figured out how the snake draft worked. Kept asking whose turn it was and when it wasn't his turn, he looked upset. PT's a great addition to the show.

Keep it up, lads. That's so true. I can see it in my mind's eye. He also had no concept of what numbers were good or bad. Also, him writing down his pick was amazing. Writing it down was the best part. Don't cheat me out of 29,

you motherfuckers. Nobody has sent the money for escrow, by the way. Yeah, you'll get it once you get it. I'll do it right now. I'll do it. Getting PTSD.

You want me to write you a cashier's check? No. Never got it. Never got it. I heard some stories about your cashier's checks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is from Marco Olario. Wanted to hear your opinion on the new 2C, Central C album, since you are a huge fan or did you fall off the bandwagon? Still waiting on that interview, by the way. Also want to hear PT's opinion as well since he's tapped to those ends.

Love from Atlanta, Georgia. But more of it. Shout out to the OG CB Connor Burks. We holding it down for you over here. My son told me it's crap. I haven't heard it. Oh, no. Have you heard it? No. More of a Yanko, man. You know? Yeah. That's what. I haven't heard it. Oh no. Have you heard it? No, more of a Yanko man, you know? Yeah.

That's, that's what I'm rolling with. Ariel said, yeah. Do you know? No. Do you know? No. What is Yanko? Yanko. American music?

He's like, yeah. He's in the, uh, what do they call this music? I'm not going to lie. I thought his name was Yanko man. No, his name is Yanko. He, uh, you see, it's more of like a sociology thing for me what's happening in the uk in this scene particular is there's loads of different areas and they're all killing each other and there's a thing called scoreboards so like they're talking

about scoreboards all the time that's how many people they've killed from the other place it's really talking about actual murders yeah yanko is my favorite one He's in prison at the moment For free Yanko Wow okay Wow this got dark By the way there's no way I've only answered 18 questions today I'm calling cap on that

No you did like 20 of the super chats Oh Alright I mean I think they should count Should they not? Yeah but they're not They're not on the nose They don't fall

People paid for those you know By the way The revolting blob says Frank can we add Yeah, but they're not on the nose. They don't fall asleep. People paid for those, you know. By the way, TheRevoltingBlob says, Frank, can we add Izzy whispering, I'm always horny to the soundboard? So, EPEJ had said a couple weeks ago that we're no longer taking requests. Yes, that's right. All right, fair enough.

Here's from Corey. He says, don't you think Kimbo Slice would have been perfect for BKFC think Kimbo Slice would have been perfect for BKFC? I feel like he would have been a massive star. Yeah. Oh, man. He would have been. He's the one. He's like the one you're like, I wish. Yeah. Oh, my God. Could you imagine

Kimbo in there? That would have been crazy. Freaking hell. Also, just even the influencer scene, right? He is the quintessential influencer. This whole thing would have revolved around him. He would have been the guy. Pecan pie up in this. Would the inevitable Josh Allen and the Bill's Super Bowl victory feel the same if they don't right the wrong and defeat

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs? Let me tell you what. If next year they're the number one seed and have to play like jabroni teams like the Texans and the Steelers and then make it to the Super Bowl and play the Lions and wins, I couldn't care less. I don't care who they beat. Would it be nice? Absolutely. Would it be sweet? Great. Yes.

Absolutely. For sure. But no, I'm not one of these who says, we have to beat the champs. Screw that. I just want to see them win. That's really it. By the way, a lot of questions this week about Louis Theroux saying, here's one from Corey.

Okay, just short and sweet. Top three interviews you have done off the top of your head and top three interviews you want to have, i.e. Louis Theroux. Shout out to the boys in the back last week, as well as some solid sandwich choices. Louis Theroux is up there. Howard Stern. Reggie Miller.

Bourdain. Bourdain. I mean, he's not with us. Oh, sorry, is it? Oh, sorry that I ruled you out. What are you doing? I can't even be bothered to look up. Are you texting while you lob up a dead guy?

I'm trying to send you this money. Is anyone paying attention here? Speaking of paying attention, Jordan grabbed an incredible screenshot of you guys dancing. Yes, yes. Here it is. Here it is.

That's murder in his eyes. That's murder. I remember that. What's going on? That is a 10,000-yard stare. I am blacked out. I don't know where I am. I just got done reading this latest email of just crock of bullshit nothingness.

I am just like i'm i'm calculating my next move i am put it back on the screen oh man yes that's i mean can you imagine i'm like it actually puts me in a good mood the song and you're looking like that i I'm like, what is wrong with this guy? Jesus. I don't even remember that moment happening, man. I think I blacked out. I think I blacked out. I'm not even going to lie. He had a rage out. Amazing.

Okay, by the way, speaking of On Air Jordan, this is from Gabriel. Can On Air Jordan share his matzo ball soup recipe? The world needs to know. Oh, that's important. Yeah. Just send me your DM. Oh, that's important. Yeah. Wow. Send me your DM.

No, just say it. What do you mean? Oh, say it? Okay, so you got homemade chicken stock. Yeah. You know what? Just send me or I'll just all come to your house. Nah, come on.

Keep going. I want to know. Is this something you actually don't feel comfortable sharing? I mean, it's pretty basic. You know, I make chicken stock. Yeah. So I roast some chicken wings. That's not basic. Making chicken stock is not basic. Chicken wings

and then you got some herbs, onions, and stuff, and then cook it for pretty much the whole day. Then you make the matzo balls. You know, like I said, it'll take too long to repeat on air. He's so shy. It's delicious. That's what you need to know. Alright, my takeaway is you don't want to

share. No, I'm happy to show anyone how to cook. I offered anyone in the program here. Do you have a Patreon? You can put it up or something. No, we'll put it on your sub stack. I tell you, you need to show who had to cook. Aaron Rodgers. That's who you need to show, mate.

You know what I'm saying? The Jets. Shit. Oh, wow. PT, I've made my decision for the 2025 NFL season. The Bills? No, no, no. No, no, no.

We're going with the Houston Texans next year. Oh, gross. Yeah. I went last year. It didn't go well for me. No, no, no. Let's throw the Texans in the bin. We'll all choose one to root for.

Yeah. Unify? Yeah. Okay. We'll Unify. Ariel's just like. No, no, no. You got the Bills.

Oh, you guys. Okay. We'll take a picture on someone. All right. By the way, New York Rick, surely you have seen Wicked Considering your irrational love for The Wizard of Oz I have not yet Wow Look at his hand Wow

Bro has not seen Wicked yet I have seen The Wizard of Oz and Wicked In the last like four months And Rick hasn't watched anything Wicked, Fire Inside, those are on the hasn't watched anything. Wicked, Fire Inside. Those are on the list. The fact that he hasn't seen Fire Inside. Popular.

I'm going to be popular. Is that the Fire Inside? That's from Wicked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Popular. I didn't even see it, but my daughter plays it all the time. It's also one of the most famous Broadway shows. Gonna be popular.

It's a great one. Sounds like a banger. It is a banger. Are you getting vocal lessons? Sounds great. Thanks, thanks. By the way, GC. Forget the singing, the dance moves. From Nick, GC, can we get a book update? I read both Project Hail Mary and

Dark Matter. Enjoyed them both. What's next for you and what's next for the book club? I read both Project Hail Mary and Dark Matter. Enjoyed them both. What's next for you and what's next for the book club? I think you're doing Atlas Shrugged. Wow. Atlas Shrugged. Crazy people around the office keep recommending that to me. I'm not reading it.

Dark Matter, great. Did the book club on it. Project Hail Mary, even better. Can't wait for the movie to come out. Shout out Ryan Gosling. Supposedly he's going to be playing Rylan Grace in that one. Fantastic read. Next book for me is Ministry of Time. That out Ryan Gosling. Supposedly he's going to be playing Ryland Grace in that one. Fantastic read. Next book for me is Ministry of Time.

That's for Book Club, but then on my own. Starting the Lord of the Rings. I'm starting with The Hobbit. Hell yeah. Pretty hyped for that. Wow. Pretty hyped for that. For those, yeah, it's amazing.

That was it. Thanks, Frank. No soup. Ariel, when are you going to reach out to Louis Th theroux he is the greatest i see he's having leon edwards on his podcast in a couple weeks although i think it was recorded a good while back reach out to him see if you could get on his pod um wait if i could get him to get on i think i would i would love to have him i would i would i would absolutely love it uh also uh i do want to say uh no soup rights also got to say really disappointed in your

political views regarding the usa elections and all that goes with, no soup rights. Also, got to say, really disappointed in your political views regarding the USA elections and all that goes with it. No soup for you. You didn't say, you didn't vote. Yeah, I didn't vote. But, I mean, I think people know, you know, how I felt about it all, and that's why I didn't vote. I don't know. But, yeah, I don't know. Even know my wife's name, Pete. See, come on.

What's there to be disappointed, truly? You're never going to let this go. Wait, is that true oh because earlier right yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no trust me neither did i what i don't know his wife worked here either his wife doesn't work here bro why is it so what happens she comes she comes in on the watch parties okay yeah when are you coming in for a watch party it would be nice nice. Just flow me out, man. After his next feed of Guinnesses. Oh, you don't want me on there after a feed?

Yeah, probably not. Jamal2020, all this talk about Philly cheesesteaks has been getting me hungry. What do you think is the best greasy bar food? Buffalo wings, cheeseburger, fries, Philly cheesesteak, chili cheese dog. What's your go-to? Let's hear it from the crew. I think wings. I'm a wings guy.

Wings are just such a staple. Wings and beer is just a fabulous combination. You know what I'm not a big fan of? At bars, pizza. Some people love bar pizza. Yeah. I don't like it. Same. I don't know what that is. We don't have that. Like a bar pizza,

what's the difference? It's just like a smaller personal pie. And it's usually a little thin. Pass. Pass. Do love some nachos. Oh, nachos is solid. Yeah, nachos is good. I feel like I've got to be at a real restaurant for the nachos. Wings is the number one by a mile.

Nachos can go wrong as well. People can really fuck them up sometimes. Nachos can go really wrong. By the way, blown away by the amount of GFL questions. Like, truly blown away. Play a song. Protect your neck. What are you doing?

Hit it. Buzzy Beans. Every time GFL is said, we need the sign for that. How am I to take GFL seriously with all these different fighters coming out saying they haven't signed anything even though they're drafted? I don't know if that many said that, to be honest. I think there's optimism. I think there's hope. I think their plans are grandiose and lofty.

I don't know. Yeah, there's a lot of money being allocated. There's a lot of money being promised. There's a format that a lot of people have questions about, including myself. But listen, credit to them. They have captured the imagination of the MMA fan base. I would say most fans don't think they're going to succeed.

There's a lot of cynical people out there, a lot of skeptics. And I think we've been fair in giving them an opportunity, and Darren in particular, to get the word out. But I think we've been fair in our criticism as well.

I saw one person saying on Twitter that he thinks I'm being paid by them for this stuff, which is not the case. We're just doing a show. I have a real question which is before this thing has even launched do we have to have a declaration

of whether it was successful or a failure? Why is the question like how can I take it seriously? You don't have to. Not yet. There's nothing to really weigh in on. Let's see what it ultimately becomes. It's way too early in the game to kind of make any proclamations. If you're

forecasting, if you're making a bet, if you say, I bet on them not being successful, that's one thing. But to say, you know, it's already a success or a failure, the game hasn't even started yet. There's nothing to weigh in on. There's nothing to weigh in on yet. Have fun with the

draft. Have fun with the music. Let's see what the first event looks like. Let's see if the fighters check's clear and then we go from there. Well put. They need a broadcast partner to the point you made though. There has to be a way to distribute this thing. If the song's not getting the go boy it's going to go really fucking well. There you go.

Our good friend Jason Hagholm asks about Dark Side of the Cage. Has anyone watched any of those episodes? Nah, I didn't mean it to them. I watched the Kimbo one. I haven't seen Diego.

Yeah. Esther was great. Esther Lin was brilliant in the Kimbo one. There's a Diego. There's a Nick Diaz one that is either coming out or... Where are they streaming?

Well, they're on Vice, but then I think they post them after on YouTube. Yeah, I gotta watch those. Very well done. Dark Side of the Ring is just the best And it's the same people Dark Side of the Ring is about pro wrestling The thing is like The dark side of pro wrestling is a lot more

Well publicized and known And obviously wrestling has been around longer Than the dark side of MMA I do wonder how many You know how many episodes they can get through for MMA only. I think they also have like a dark side of music, of rock or something like that. It reminds me, there used to be a show on VH1. What was it called? Behind the Music.

Behind the Music. Yes, there it is. That was a great one. Okay, just a couple left. Andy Hell Window, he calls me. This is Andy Koufax, by the way, who we saw. Or maybe it was just me. Was it just me? I saw him in Brooklyn. And he comes up to me, the guy who's like, Ariel, it's me, Andy. Andy Koufax. From Substack, like expecting me to recognize him.

His Substack profile is an orange dot. Guess what? I also met Andy Koufax. Oh, were you? Oh, yes. At a different time, right? At a later time, I also met Andy Koufax. Oh, were you? Oh, yes, at a different time, right? A later time, I also met Andy Koufax. I, too.

Did he say the same thing? You, too, met Andy? Met Andy Koufax. The same guy? Same guy, every time. Well, we have a lot more in common because he says, when you said the Subway veggie patty last week that you ate it, well, this is what he's saying.

I don't want to say what he said when he heard it. But anyway, in 2009, I ate one almost every day. It was the best year of my life and blissful memories immediately came flooding in. Whole wheat bread,

mayo, honey mustard, cheddar cheese, bunch of veggies, and jalapenos is how I freaked it. When's Murab headlining UBS? That would be great. That's the arena on Long Island.

I would never describe eating a sandwich as freaking it. I wouldn't describe eating a veggie patty sandwich as freaking it. Nah, that's brilliant. Andy, fair fucking play. I'm going with that from now on as well. Andy, you do you, man. How do you freak your chicken fillet roll?

Has anyone tried it since? Fuck no. I'm not going to Subway. Come on, man. I'm telling you. If Wegmans had it, I'd try it. Hey, Ariel, this is from Connor. I saw some posts on Twitter about Jake and Logan

in a boxing match on HBO Max. Any truth to this? The amount of people that send me this crazy, no, no truth. It is a reality show. It's brilliant marketing on their part. I don't love the sort of misleading the public. If I'm being 1,000% honest, I don't think that's the best way to go. I don't love the sort of misleading the public, if I'm being a thousand percent

honest. I don't think that's the best way to go. I think the most important currency that a public person can have is trust. And I get it. I'm kind of looking at it from like a journalist's perspective, but the audience has to trust your word. And if you're pulling a bait and switch on them, I don't know. Don't love it. but uh ultimately here's the thing here's the thing like okay so you put that out right you put out march 27th people are talking about it eventually it's going to come out that it's not a fight that it's a reality show then what was the point of it just so that on monday or tuesday january 28th you were trending like it didn't lead to views it didn't lead to to downloads it didn't lead to downloads. It didn't lead to anything. So what's the point?

What's the end game here? Do you know what I mean? Like what was the point of telling people this? I don't know. And I guess you could say, oh, they were just being coy. And there was the face-off and everything. They knew exactly what they were doing. Let's be honest.

But I'm just wondering if it doesn't lead to actual action, which is viewership, downloads, engagement. What the hell's the point? What was the point? Do you know what I'm saying? It gets people talking. At least they know what the documentary is. It's not a documentary. It's like a series. You at least know what the series is.

If they released the series, I would never have even known. Now I know. Do you think, just playing devil's advocate, do you think that they were trying to test the waters If they released a series, I would never have even known. And now I know. Okay. That's the only thing. Do you think, just playing devil's advocate, do you think that they were trying to test the waters to see if there's an appetite? I mean, it's not a bad idea.

Could have been. And I think they proved the appetite today. Yeah. You know, because didn't they try to pretend like it was a crazy idea to suggest that they would fight? No. Have they? I don't know.

I thought so. Like when you first kind of mentioned it, but I guess I was wrong. No, I don't know. I thought so. Like when you first kind of mentioned it, but I guess I was wrong. No, I don't think so. Sorry. But I do think that there is an appetite. Okay. One last one.

Let's go. And it is from Matt Moe. Sup, Ariel. Last night, my girlfriend and I went to the movies to watch Nosferatu. Upon entering the theater, we noticed another couple sitting in our designated seats, top middle row. There wasn't anyone else in the

theater, so I didn't make a big deal and we simply sat somewhere else. The movie starts and the same couple continued to yap out loud constantly. It went on for close to 40 minutes before we got fed up. I wanted to scream at them to shut the hell up, but because it was only just us in the theater, it would have made it extremely awkward. As the yapping continued, we finally had enough and I went and told the manager,

who quickly came in with another staffer to tell the couple to be quiet. During this time, I went to the washroom to avoid the whole thing as it was quite obvious

I was the one who reported them. Thankfully, they didn't say one peep for the rest of the movie after this. My question is, being a socially awkward guy like yourself, excuse me, how would you have handled the situation? And for the crew, have any of you ever had to complain in a movie

like that before? Thanks for all you do. I will say, when my daughter went to Wicked, I didn't go with her, but she was with a friend and my wife. Someone actually, here's something supremely awkward, someone actually turned around and told them to be quiet because I guess they were talking a lot. Lights come on, movie over, my wife knew her. And she didn't say it in the nicest way. You know, that's awkward. Anyway, I've never been in this position before. Meaning, been in a in a theater where people have been talking i've never been alone and the other two people in there are are speaking so i i don't really know what to do uh honestly i don't think i'm as socially awkward as you seem to think matt mo

i would have just probably turned around being like hey guys can you turn it down like like we're trying to we're trying we're trying to watch here. Take it outside. This isn't a cafe. Anyone been in this spot before? Yeah, get straight in their faces. Yeah, absolutely. Tell them to go fuck themselves, whatever it is. I had a fella I was going to watch once upon a time in Hollywood, and he had his phone on.

Like he's sitting right there, and he had his phone, and he was like looking at his phone throughout the thing. You know, it was like completely dark, and then you can see his phone all the time. So I had a few colorful words with him. Yeah. It was awkward

because he's saying it back and we're having this argument down in the middle of the cinema, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's annoying. When I learn. Indefensible to be on the phone

in the movie. Oh yeah. Indefensible. If you need to be on it, walk out. Can I tell you something? Someone shouted like, stop being a wanker

or something and he just went and sat down. It's like it's so bright it distracts from the movie. Or if you're talking on it, step out if you need to be on it. Shout out to Alamo Drafthouse for really cracking down on that kind of thing. It's a really awesome cinema. Alamo Drafthouse, for real.

You guys used to go there all the time. Yeah, not one near here anymore. There was one right down the road from the office. By the way, can I just tell you guys, back in 2006, 2007, I swear to God, I used to go maybe to two, three movies a week by myself, on purpose by myself. Absolutely. I looked forward to it.

I'm a big solo movie guy. No, because you guys laugh that I don't watch movies. I used to be like, what haven't I seen? What theater is showing Billy Madison three times a week? That's honestly, that's a good one. Probably Alamo Draft House. Yeah.

By the way, I lied. One last one. One last one. CE, sup, Ariel. Tomorrow I move to a new country to start my first job out of uni. There's obviously a lot

of nerves. So Ariel, as someone who's moved to a foreign country, what unique tips do you have? Note, by the time this episode airs, I will be tuning in on my flight. And so CE, I do want to wish you the best.

Good luck. You got this, my friend. That's a big jump. It's a big move. It takes a certain kind of person to make that kind of move, to make that kind of leap. You got this. Obviously, there's a lot that you are going to learn. There's a lot that is going to come your way. You're going

to grow. You're going to evolve. You're going to mature. You're going to flourish. And so, you know, day by day, as the great Coach McDermott of the Buffalo Bills like to say, humble and hungry. Remain humble. Remain hungry. Be gracious, be courteous, be professional, do your best to make friends. I would highly recommend that in the community. Put yourself out there, even though it may be uncomfortable at times. Try to get together with friends, either from work or outside of work. Join a club, join a gym, join a sports league. These are all things that are tough, that take you out of your comfort zone. But let me tell you what.

Don't have a steady diet of alfagettis and blue diamond almonds and just watch old pro wrestling videos and MMA pay-per-views in your room by yourself. It won't lead to a lot of happiness. Eventually it might, but not in the moment. And so, you know, basically don't do what I did when I moved countries. But it all worked out. Here we are. It all worked out.

Protect your neck. It should drop all the time. I just want to 18 times every fucking show. No, we lost it. We lost it. It's been a great three days. I now pass the baton over to the boys in the back. What are we getting tomorrow on the program, guys?

Yeah, we're going to look at the Saudi card, the UFC. Big UFC Saudi preview. Yeah. And what's the pound for pound list? Okay. Best lyrics from the Protect Your Neck song. Oh, breaking them down No it is not actually that

The best AI figures from the Protect Your Neck music video Okay by the way I didn't think of it at the time We have gotten a further insight People have been asking what's up with this dog The bulldog We got insight what is it There's insights

These are teases to To the teams The mascots Insight? What is it? There's Insights. These are teases to... Oh, yes. Oh, I can't wait. Yes. Oh, yeah. To the teams. To the teams. The mascots. Yes. Are you sure it wasn't just... Oh, you should have left that as a teaser for tomorrow. I would have just logged in just to find out what the... Oh, areas. No, I'm not... I mean, I'm not revealing anything.

Who got drafted by New York? They're Easter eggs, right? Easter eggs. Oh, shit. All right. GFL just won up 10 points in my book. Yeah, yeah. The pound for pound for tomorrow? Pirates. Top five pirates.

Top five pirates. I thought that was a Shara Bullitt. Yeah, obviously. Spired by Shara Bullitt. Pirates from movies? No, no, no. Any pirates you want. Any pirates.

But it could be from pop culture. Sure. Captain Hook. Yeah. Could be. Jack Sparrow. Captain Phillips. Could be.

Roberto Clemente Those types of parts Willie Stargell Wow The dude The famous pitcher now What's his name? Maybe

The one that's dating the gymnast Yeah, what's his name? I don't follow baseball Paul what? Steens. Yeah, he's great. Paul Skeens. Oh, Skeens. Skeens, sorry. Okay.

And then we've got the crack. The crack will take us home. Are we getting a big Royal Rumble preview on the crack? Yeah, that's what it is. I've done a lot of research. I'm going to take you behind the numbers. No, I'm only the numbers I don't know We'll see what happens We want to move with the times

Sure you can lock in on a Wednesday We'll have a post show Be elusive Be water And then on Saturday After the fights There'll be a post show Also lastly Boys in the, Fight Feast Philly.

Cheese steak breakdown. This is it. I'm going to rank the board. I'm actually real proud of this one. No, no, no. But are we getting the actual show? We're getting the segment. Yes.

We're getting the segment and the breakdown. No, the segment has the ranking in it. Oh, I thought it would be like as a sort of Capper to the Oh my dear oh wow In the moment Well I slept on it Okay interesting so I'm just curious Will it be in the clip or will it be like

When you come out of the clip All self contained as they say You're going to have to tune in Ariel And it's four right Yeah just the four Everyone's going to come at me and, Ariel. And it's four, right? Yeah, just the four. Yeah, yeah. Everyone's going to come at me and be like,

you didn't go to Steve's and X, Y, Z, but the four that I had are ranked. I think you covered all your bases. By the way, very quickly before we go, and perhaps more of this to come on Friday, I did want to ask you, PT, obviously, because this Paul Hughes story is such a big one right now. What did you make of his appearance and his answers about two or so hours ago?

I thought the guy is absolutely class. I think a lot of people react a lot more emotionally to that. The part of the world he is from, and I know he touched on this, is a massively historically significant part of Ireland. It was greatly affected by the Troubles in Northern Ireland. These are people who were persecuted for being Irish. And for someone to say that he was in fact not Irish

is very offensive and um you know you're brought up in in Ireland and you're hearing stories about the people from Derry your whole life so to to be that out of touch um is pretty crazy to me but in the spirit of what Paul said and rising above it and not getting into it I think that's a that's a nod to his maturity and he's a fantastic ambassador for Irish MMA and I think long long may that continue a very very ugly situation there and I don't know what prompted that kind of reaction I think it's really really bad and the the reaction in Ireland's been obviously very negative towards Conor because of it I see he has tweeted a lot of things there and walked back some of them

sentiments but really bad man like I say fair play to Paul I think he's a great ambassador and I think he was a touch of class on the show today yeah i i agree as well not just an ambassador for ireland but for the sport i mean think about this is all new to him right like it's not like he's headlined 10 shows and this is all old hat he's izzy who's been there done that this is all new this is brand new a year ago this guy's fighting for cage warriors and again that's not a knock on cage warriors but there's a there but there's a step up in terms of the attention that you receive. He has the fight of his life on Saturday, the moment of his fighting career, of his athletic career, of his professional career. In the aftermath, he's showered with all

kinds of praise. There's a mix of emotions. He thinks he won. He thinks he was robbed. There's a rematch talk, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, of course, this happens. And then, you know, there's a rematch talk Blah blah blah blah And then of course this happens And then he's live And credit to him Didn't hit me up and say don't talk about this Don't talk about that, I don't want to touch on this Just handled it, I think In the most classy Fair and honest way possible

Didn't make it worse I thought Didn't incite anything worse Could have been a lot more emotional as you said said, could have really, you know, when you talk about personal things, family, history, lineage, politics, it can incite all kinds of emotion and it could just make things worse. And, um, dare I say, I think he took the high road, right. In, in, in this moment when a lot of other people wouldn't.

Um, well, there's people like there's people in that part of the world that will not react to it the way Paul did. I can assure you that. People all over Ireland, you know? Hopefully, yeah, of course. And there's people, hopefully they take a cue from him in this regard, but everyone's allowed to react in whichever way they want.

Paul is leading the way as to how one should handle situations like this, but it can't be easy. It really can't. One thing you did say there was, you know, you don't know what incited it. Of course, we know what incited this. This is all very personal for Connor, and he sees this guy who-

Yeah, but that doesn't relate to the people in northern ireland no no it doesn't excuse it but he flew off the handle right like it doesn't excuse saying anything of that sort if he would have just said something to the effect of like wow you turned your back on me like i can't believe you're siding with them over me like okay i get it you know this is all very personal and it's it's as you said multiple times last week there is no beef between dagestan and ireland there's a beef between con Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. That's it. They just so happen to be from those places.

But there was a beef between George St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. It wasn't Canada versus U.S., even though people tried to play it up like that. You know what I mean? So I think everyone involved did a great job of diminishing that and really just kind of extinguishing that notion. But this is all very personal to him. And now, you know, you hate to see it. You really do hate to see it. Yeah, it's really, like he's right.

Like it is sad. This is really sad. Like it is continuously sad, what keeps happening here, so. Yeah, so unfortunate, but I really do give Paul a lot of credit. Not easy,

especially for someone who's new to all of this. He weaves through, even when we had him in studio and I asked about the state of the relationship, he weaves through these things very well,

like a seasoned veteran who understands that there are people watching and there's a greater spotlight on him and there are there are consequences and ramifications involved and he continues to to knock it out of the park in those face-offs in in the fight like he's what what a what a signing for the pfl obviously francis is is a known commodity but their investment in him and as he said in the post-fight interview they took a chance on him and he wants to repay them and he flies their flag with great pride might go down as as one of their best decisions ever for a promotion that has made

some questionable decisions that have overpaid over the hill fighters past their prime fighters to recognize and and whoever led the charge on that one kudos to them i don't know if it was dan hardy behind the scenes because that's his market but to recognize his superstardom and and to recognize the kind of person and talent that he is it's it's really paying off and and and and if they don't do the rematch shame on them now his point, it may not be a factor in that he wants to return soon and Usman wants to take a good portion of the year off. If he wants to come back and they set up a fight for him in Belfast, that would be incredible. But you almost want their next fight to be against each other

so nothing crazy happens, no one slips on a banana peel or gets hurt or whatever. So they've got something special with those two, and if they build it the right way, there's not a lot that needs to be done. Just play all this stuff all over again. It would be one of the most watched fights and anticipated fights, I think, in PFL history. So fair play to them.

As you said, Pete C., and much love to everyone out there who continues to support us. Thumbs up to the chat. Much love, much love, much love. Great stuff. And member, a valued member of the team at the end of the month is going to be moving on. And that is my dear, dear friend, Ant Evans. I appreciate him and love him very much. And he has been someone who has had my back through thick and thin, especially when he was working with the UFC and I was a persona non grata

for the back end of his time there, uh, has been, um, more so than a, than a, than a great colleague and incredible and loyal friend. And, uh, he helped us get this off the ground. He helped us, um, from a YouTube perspective, uh, do a lot of great things and, uh, really, really appreciate everything that he has done for me personally and for this uh this new venture so uh much love and uh please try to keep the hot takes on twitter to a minimum um you've done such a great job over the last few months and i would love to see that continue uh but uh always going to be friends always going to be mates and and and we'll still be working together in other

capacities just not in the the specific one that uh that you know you guys have seen over the last a few months on the youtube chat so give a thumbs up to the chat to the great antoine evans and all his uh incredible hot takes we appreciate him he'll be with us till the uh the end of the month and we thank him very very much as well we also thank everyone who joined us on today's show michael venn and page jim lampley and of course big news paul hughes the uncrowned champion dare i say of the pfl lightweight division thanks to all of you thanks to all of them back on thursday same time place the same piece i'm out of here