The Ariel Helwani Show - Renato Moicano, Michael 'Venom' Page, Thad Jean, Martin Buday, UFC & SummerSlam reaction

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

Ariel Helwani and the Boys in the Back kick off the show by recapping a busy weekend in combat, including the UFC’s event headlined by Tatsuro Taira, Thad Jean’s big win in the PFL championship, WWE SummerSlam — topped by Brock Lesnar’s shocking return — and more (06:00).Renato "Money" Moicano returns to defend his viral clip about turning down the UFC lawsuit settlement money and further explain his position, talk about his loss to Beneil Dariush, and attempt to identify his next opponent (1:02:11).Martin Buday joins to discuss his surprising release from the UFC after defeating Marcus Buchecha, overcoming the death of his father just days before the Andrei Arlovski fight, his free agency and fielding offers from other promotions, plus more (1:45:51).PFL welterweight tournament champion Thad Jean is back following his big win over Logan Storley. He talks about going five rounds for the first time in his career, sleeping with the belt, who he wants to fight next, and more (2:10:33).Michael "Venom" Page is the final guest of the day, joining ahead of his upcoming fight against Jared Cannonier to discuss the UFC 319 matchup, whether he'll stick around at middleweight, refereeing KSI’s boxing challenge and more (2:33:19).Ariel and The Boys close the show with more news and notes, including Conor McGregor’s failed appeal and the latest on Jon Jones’ upcoming bench trials, before answering your Super Chats (2:57:56).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Errrya YD Show! Back in your life! Oh, that was awful. On this Monday, August 4, 2020. And 25, I should have practiced that before I started. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. Yes, a little bit under the weather on this Monday. And also I feel like my whole desk is off here. Am I crazy about that? Yes. Something seems off, but it might just be the fact that I'm feeling I'm going to collapse on this

Monday, August 4, 2025. It's a beautiful summer day it's been another interesting weekend in the world of combat sports there's a lot to talk about is it possible to restart the intro there or is that not possible this is your flu game man this is your Frankie flu game why do you say Frankie by the way well there was one man in here last week that was sick as a dog. Yes. That touched your stuff.

Yes. Touched you. Oh. Individually and then just a couple days later. It's water freezing there. You got quite sick. Yes. With the exact same symptoms.

Weird. Now the weird thing about it is how come none of you got sick and you're in the room with him? I stayed as, I'm actually, it's between me and Andy, but I think I'm the farthest away from him. But you're still in an enclosed space.

Yeah, I washed my hands, wiped down desks. It was weird on Monday or Tuesday when he came and said, hey, let me just like disinfect. And I'm like, wait a second, by disinfecting, you're actually infecting. So he came here on Monday, sick as a dog, and was just wiping everything down. And I was like, who asked you to do this?

And why are you doing this? And are you trying to kill me? I know for such a germaphobe, I'm surprised that that didn't upset you. Cause like he- Oh, I definitely said it to him. I said- After the fact.

Why- He was deathly ill. Oh yeah, oh yeah no and guess what as of Wednesday night so was I we go back to 20 minutes ago when you're like I don't want to make a big thing oh no I didn't anybody to my credit did I text about it did I say anything about it not a word I know you were laying in your bed slumped over with like an ice pack on your head and you were like, fucking Frank, fuck. I think it was the opening that made him talk about it. I think he would have powered through until he didn't hit the note.

I had him go through it earlier. I was like, let's get a couple of these. And then a flim wad just came out as I said that. Was it food poisoning last week or two weeks ago? Food poisoning was two weeks ago. Get home on Wednesday. Jesus Christ. If you must know. I'm trying to kill you.

If you must know, get home on Wednesday night. I was feeling a little funky, but I felt like I could fight through it. We decided to watch. Was it Billy Madison? It was either Happy Gilmore One or Billy Madison. I'm losing track of the days. Also, Art Jimerson's head is really annoying me right now. I'm sorry, Art. Let me just fix that.

I'm starting to feel it. Wake up Thursday. Mess. Shakes. Cold Starting to feel it. Wake up Thursday. Mess. Shakes. Cold. Just feeling like total crap. But I know no one really wants to hear this. You all have your own problems.

Uh, but since you asked. Since you asked. Um... Yeah, and it was just a tough, it was a tough four days. Usually after day two or three, I, I, I get over the hump. But, uh, I've never had to cancel the show due to an illness. And if this was like, if the show was on Saturday, I might've had to tap out. I'm glad we all signed that paper earlier

using the same pen. Yeah, I'm really sweaty. Is it me or is it just really hot in here? It's really hot in here. I think you know, I think you know the answer to that question. When it starts in the show, I'm officially a little bit worried now

that I'm gonna get it. I hope- Well, if Ariel's saying it's hot in there, I'd be very worried as well about his condition because he's usually very happy in that kind of environment. Can I also just say, I hope you don't get whatever it is Frank and I got. I have you know, Mr. Mysterious is on the up and up. PT doesn't get it.

No, I hope none of you get it. Thanks, thanks Ariel. No, thank you. And if the laws get it, they get it. Come Friday, I couldn none of you guys are you know, thank you I could feel my legs anymore. I Felt like I was like You couldn't you couldn't feel your legs and you didn't seek medical attention We're not big on the doctors right here. Like we try to bounce back from this 2025. We try to ride the wave You know, I'm trying to I'm trying to teach my kids to toughen up, you know The effect of I really thank you Frank for pushing through wait, but Frank yeah, yeah

I regret saying that now. Did you ever have a moment where you couldn't feel your legs? I don't need to talk about the new legs. I feel like this may have been an unrelated Malady yeah well as you know as it mutates it gets worse and worse and worse When he gets yours is it's gonna be crippling yeah, yeah, know, as it mutates, it gets worse and worse and worse. So, GC, when he gets yours, it's going to be crippling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hope not. I hope not. Listen, I'm sorry that we got off on this part. This is the pen, right? This is the pen. I would toss the pen out.

I would toss the pen. It's out. It's gone. We're done with that. How do we get rid of it? Luckily, we all touched it as we were eating lunch. I'm good. Don't worry about me. Wow. I'll be fine.'t worry about me. Wow. I'll be fine.

So that was ground zero, the lunch table today. Well, by the way, when I came in to say hello to you all, you were all eating lunch, I actually put my stuff on a other table and you all said, oh, sit here, sit here. So I said, if you go one, you go all. I just said, hey man, cause you write that letter, you're like, oh, I didn't realize that was for me.

I thought that was an arts and crafts station set up. I didn't realize it was for me. So then you was an arts and crafts station set up. I didn't realize it was for me. So then you waltzed right in and sat down six inches from me. You were like, what's up man, how's the lunch? Weekend good? If I'm being a thousand percent honest, I'm definitely on the back end of it. No longer contagious.

That's what they call it. I'm gonna reach out. Who's they? You didn't go to the doctor with doctors. Your kids? My wife. I. Jacqueline. I also just realized that I still have a Ricola in my mouth. Oh, that might have been what messed up the intro then.

This segment brought to you by Ricola. Is that a lozenge? Is that a lozenge or something? Yeah, yeah. Let me try it again. Back in your life! That's much better. Nailed it.

You guys would have never known, right? You would have never known. Okay, all right. Anyway, great show, lots to discuss, lot going on in the world of combat where I am actually sweating like crazy, holy crap. UFC at the Apex, SummerSlam, two nights, MetLife, you know the drill, nice four pack of guests

on today's program, and perhaps most importantly, I do wanna let you know that our Ben Askren Day was a great success. Our auction has come and gone. Thank you to everyone who was involved either in the Super Chat Ben Askren Day participation or the auction. Shout out to, can I say the man's name? Who won? Am I allowed to? Yeah, Big Colby. Shout out to can I say the man's name who won my lot to yeah big

Colby shout out to Colby C-O-L-B-I-E he is getting that I think it might be on route right it is on route I just dropped her off at the old shipping station thank you so much so that was 5100 for the the poker top and felt top table whatever you call it and also I think the super chats was about like twelve hundred so all told around 63 right am i right about that that is correct

sixty three hundred dollars going to the Ben Askren family Ben himself his wife his kids they could do whatever the heck they want with it and really really am proud of that so thank you to everyone whether you were involved in the super chats or the auction only one person was able to win thank you to Colby and yeah we could do we could do more of this type of stuff it feels good to try to help out one of

our own one of our own Ben Funky Askren on today's program back into the show we will talk to Michael Venom Page Michael Venom Page returning to action on the 16th of August. He's fighting Jared Kennanere and what I think is interesting about this is he's staying at middleweight. I thought after the Shire Bullitt fight it was going to be one and done for him at middleweight but it seems like he's happy at middleweight so we'll check in with the great Michael Venom Page, one of the good guys in the biz, back into the show. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Thad Gene, who is now $500,000 richer. He won the welterweight tournament final on Friday night for the PFL, defeating Logan Storley. I think we all think very highly of him. I think we all think that he is one of the faces of PFL and I think he has been the best story of this tournament format. So we'll

check in once again. We had him in studio a couple weeks ago. We'll check in with the victorious Thad Gene, the pride of Florida and Haiti at around three o'clock. Martin Boudet has, did I say that with a bit of an English accent? Martin Boudet! I think you did, yes. Also what was that Haiti, is that how you pronounce it? Haichi, yeah that's how they say it over there. Also as I just dropped in the pronunciation. Yeah I missed that, I missed that. One that would be better for the years, Boudet. Boudet, that's what the broadcast calls them. I thought I thought it was

I thought it was Buddha Martin Buddha is coming off a win. Keep it together there, BDG. And a winning streak, no less. What is it? Four in a row for him? One, two, three in a row. He just beat Marcus Buccecha back in Abu Dhabi two weekends ago, and now he's a free agent. His contract was not renewed.

Had won, by the way, three in a row, lost to Shamil Gaziyev, and then prior to that, had won one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, thirteen? Thirteen or fourteen, like, was on an unbelievable run. UFC did not want to be in business with him anymore. We are going to talk to him about that at around 2.30 and then at around 2, one of our favorites, the great Hinato Manimoikana will join us to talk about all the things going on in his life. The last time we spoke to him was before the Benilde Aarhus fight. Now we will talk to him after the Benildi-Arush fight,

so stay tuned for that. There it is, four pack of guests on this Monday. Coming off a UFC Apex event. You know what, let's start with the UFC Apex event, and let's talk about Tetsuro Taira, another guy who is 25 or younger, hailing from Japan, there was some talk going into that fight against Brandon Royval back in the fall of 2024. If he won that fight, he could be next in line for a title shot. He did not win that fight, fought valiantly but lost his first pro fight 16-1, took some time off, did not return until this past weekend. He was supposed to fight Amir Al-Bazi, ended up fighting Hyeong-Sung Park, who was taking this fight on, I don't know, six or so days notice. Park was supposed to fight Steve Ersek this weekend at the Apex. Al-Bazi not medically cleared. He enters the fight and I thought, all right, you know, two flyweights who are quick,

who are all action, who are fun, like this should be a fun fight. It turned out to be an incredible fight and it turned out to be an incredible showing for Tyra, who ends up winning in the second round via face crank at a minute and five seconds and Afterwards gave us the I am happy. Thank you he looks tremendous in the fight looked like he was on a different level than than Park and what was What was very? Apparent to me was they need to get this guy out of the freaking apex. It feels like every single one of those I am happy thank yous have been in the apex and I'm not

trying to make this into an apex rant but Kaeya Sakura is coming up as well. If he fights and wins, even if he doesn't win, send those two to Japan and headline an event in Japan. We're talking about the rise of Japanese MMA or the resurgence of Japanese MMA, rise in having 40 plus thousand people at their last event just a couple of weeks ago. I was thinking, you know, send them to Saitama Super Arena, but a great journalist who lives in Japan, my friend Bruno, tweeted me this just a couple of days ago in response to that. Bruno Masami, the problem now is timing. Arial Saitama Arena will start a huge construction and maintenance in the middle of January 2026. Expectations

are about 18 or less months to complete the process. My guess is something like Ariyaki or Yokohama arena for that fight. Do it. Right, PT? You got to do it. Absolutely. And look, like to your point about the apex, this card was full of examples as to why that doesn't work. You know, I thought Duncan and Rabecki had an incredible fight.

Reba Vicks and Brenner had a brilliant fight as well. And they are great fights. Standalone, like fantastic to watch or whatever. But the idea of them being in front of a crowd and how much they'd be amplified by a situation like that, like you can't make an argument against that. Like in an arena, and I know GC has been in arenas recently where they didn't have that kind of buzz. It didn't have that kind of thing happening. Like that's what live events are all about.

And as great as the fights were on this night and as great, and you're talking about Torres performance, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I agree with everything you're saying. You come away from it going. How good could have that could have been so much better had it been in front of a live audience. And that's just the feeling I think we're going to continue to have as long as they keep doing these events and high stakes fights as well. Like these, these guys aren't like kicking around the top 100 and rankings. Like these guys are

towards the top. Uh, Robeski was, was ranked in the top 20 by topology as far as I know, going into this fight like an entire obviously knocking on the door of a total conversation. I just think it's an awful waste and it's an awful shame for these fighters to be putting the situation where they're in great fights And they just aren't getting that back from the audience and we know how pivotal that is and just enjoying fights in general I'm looking, you know, so so I'm trying to One thing about topology topology is doing some incredible things and they actually just came out with some very exciting news that I Want to talk about in a moment as well. Can I make one suggestion to my friends at

topology? I would love if when you click on the little thing, one thing that, um, that, that Wikipedia has that topology doesn't have, it tells you where the fights took place. You have to do the extra click to find out. Do you understand? No, it's not even the plus you have to then

click on the event to get to the event page, to find out where the fights took place. But I do believe for, Sakura, last fight, Royvoll Apex, Alex Perez Apex, Carlos Hernandez Apex, and then July of 2023. Wait, did I say Kai Sakura? Tatsuro Taira is what I meant. July of 2023, so it's been two plus years since he last fought in front of an audience as of course fighting next weekend in front of an audience at the pay per view in Chicago win or lose to flock. When, when, when is the last time they've had two Japanese

fighters in the same weight class around the same ranking where the fight makes sense that you could take it to Japan. I don't even know if there has been a time. No, you know what I mean? It's like a, it's like a sleeping volcano as well in terms of how we think about Japan, like the significance in the, the mixed martial arts movement. Um, you feel like that fan base is like a sleeping volcano, right? Like if the UFC pro weren't in such a successful position, like where they're killing it, they don't really need to extend themselves. Like if

this was 10, maybe 15 years ago, you think they'd be falling over themselves to make an event like this, right? It's just the circumstances. You just don't know if they want to make that effort, right? Even though it will be a joy for us as people consume the sports, a joy for the fan base. And honestly, just the people of Japan would, I think they'd be more open to something like that with that kind of headline than ever before. Well, they're in the, they're, they're in the mode now because they're so successful where they're just going to locations who are paying them a site fee. If Japan is not going to pay the site fee, they're probably not going to do it, right? That's why they

go to Baku or some of these other places that are kind of off the beaten path. And so I understand that, but there was once a time where they recognized, hey, site fee or not, we've got something here which will draw money, which will grow the fan base. Dana always used to say, like, we go to a market, we spread like a virus, right?

And once you, and I know they're not in like growth mode per se, maybe to a certain degree still, though the company is what, 1993 is still like 32 or so years old, but they're now in site fee mode. And if Japan is not going to pay that site fee, we're not going to get it. It's just, it's just pretty damn exciting and unique that you have two, Asakura is top 15. I don't think he's a top 15 guy. I think it's just because he's only had one fight in the UFC. Oh, by the way, that one loss was to the current champ, Pantoja, who's going to go down as one of the greatest flyway champions of all time. Maybe number two behind Demetrius Johnson, and who knows what will happen. Probably won't reach DJ because he's a little older, but you get the point. This is so unique, it would be a shame if we don't get to see it.

But how many times have we said, like, it would be a shame if BJ Penn doesn't fight in the UFC? won't reach DJ because he's a little older but you get the point. This is so unique, it would be a shame if we don't get to see it. But how many times have we said like it would be a shame if BJ Penn doesn't fight in Hawaii, it'd be a shame if Max Holloway doesn't fight in Hawaii, it'd be a shame if Iliya Tupori doesn't fight in Georgia or Spain, Marab, on and on it goes. I don't think they're bending over backwards to make it happen but when I was watching him on Saturday especially doing the I am happy thank you thing in in front of no one at the apex and then thinking oh man Asukura is fighting literally next week damn and plus the one of my favorite stories of the year has been the revival of Japanese MMA and that whole scene and what Ryzen has been quietly doing as one has been just going down down down down

down Ryzen appears to be going up up up, up, up, up. What a great story that is. And I'm sure they'll get some love once the smashing machine comes out and all the stuff surrounding that. Beta showing up and all that. Ah, man, it would be so great. It would be so freaking great to have that event. I would love it.

So shout out to Tetsuro Taira getting back on track. Very impressive performance for him. Park taking the fight on short notice, losing his first pro fight. He shall be back and I'm sure the UFC appreciates the fact that he took it on short notice. Pizzi, you spoke to Chris Duncan before the fight. What a guy, what a fight that was, what a performance.

Man, he's incredible and he's one of these guys that, he's always been given the short straw as far as I'm concerned. The first time I saw him, I think he was like three and oh, came into fighting Dublin against a guy who really, really celebrated kickboxer Sam Slater, still to this day, a very well thought of kickboxer. And he was transitioned to MMA and everyone's like, oh, well, you know, Sam Slater is definitely going to win this. Like he had sold hundreds of tickets.

It was early in the night. Chris Duncan came in and I put away, put them away in minutes. And I really feel like we've seen this guy throughout his career because he didn't get that classic buildup we've seen in cage wires. And really in his last fight before this one really exemplified the situations he often finds himself in with Jordan Vuchenek, a guy, you know, the European, the UK scene has been buzzing about for a long time. It was one of those kind of Paul Hughes things with him.

He was involved in that trio of featherweights, Morgan Charrier, Paul Hughes and Vucenic. And we thought this was probably the greatest generation of featherweights the cage warriors had seen. Um, he came up against Vucenic in his last fight and he went through him for a shortcut and it kind of exemplified his whole career. He has never been given that big promotional push, but here he is doing it again. I mean, it was quite a disparity between him and Rabecki's position in most people's opinions

in terms of the rankings. And honestly, I thought he won all three rounds or certainly had an argument. I think Rabecki, you could give him round one, but I thought Duncan was absolutely savage. His knees, his knees actually reminded me quite a lot of Doriters and his elbows were just nasty. He had burst Robeski open in the first round and it was a bloody war. I think it was certainly fight of the night, but Chris is an amazing story. He comes from a rural part of Glasgow. He was going to be a shepherd until he found fighting. And there is an amazing story about him.

And you can look this up. He spoke about it himself a few fights ago. The day he was to begin his amateur career, his mother died and it was the way in. Sorry. He was weighing in for his first fight when he heard this news, the tragic passing of his mother, and he went on and he fought the next day. His career is absolutely unbelievable. He might not be the loudest guy in the room. He might not be a guy that's chasing down every microphone and every camera to tell a story, but it is an exceptional story. And here

comes another one from Scotland and he's wearing that Braveheart mask too, which always helps with the fan. So very excited to see where this can go for him. He seems to have a great family there at ATT. He's, he seems to live with Robert Wiford, another great Scott, um, who was obviously in the UFC was in ACB as well. Um, so great to see him have this run. Yes, that's right. You are.

Geez. I mean, I forget you and Rob. Me and Rob. Me and Rob. We come on. Oh, here he is up. We're an absolute mess around here. All over the gaff. Rob gave me this, the flying haggis.

Remember this? There you go. I asked him if haggis was an actual thing and he gave me this many, many moons ago. You remember Rob, near Cric, back in the day? Of course. Of course. Shout out to the hag. What happened to the hag?

Very handsome man that Rob. You guys talk amongst yourselves for a second. But you guys are the best. I'm the best. I'm the best. I'm the best. I'm the best. I'm the best.

I'm the best. I'm the best. I'm the best, uh, near a creek back in the day. Of course, shot it to the head. What happened to the hood? You guys talk amongst yourself for a second. Um, but you know what? Like I do think, I will say lads, I do think that's incredibly valuable for UK lads to have a Hoyford over there. Joe liked to just have that little bit of home away from home kind of situation. Like you're in Florida, it's probably a very intimidating environment and then you can just pop down to a Lodge of Nome for the last 10 years or whatever while you're there. I think that's a huge asset especially for Duncan being a Scott. Yeah friendly face in a new land you know yeah of course. I saw a picture from Rebecca he posted a picture of his face did you

see this picture? Pete do you see this picture? Win or lose he's gonna take some shots. Yo Win or lose, he's gonna take some shots. Yo, win or learn. Jeez Louise. That is nasty, isn't it? Yeah, that is nasty. Imagine being on a plane with that. I think that's where the picture's taken. I think that's like-

Did they let you fly like that? I think that's from like 14B. You don't think it's business class? Maybe comfort class. 14B. I see fabric instead of a nice seat. Yeah, a nice seat. It looks like he probably didn't get the carry on space.

These are the rest of the results. Esteban Rebovitz defeated Elvis Brenner, Carol Hossa with the win as well. Neil Magni getting the victory. Nasty knee, man. Yeah, man. Carol Hossa looked pretty vicious out there too. Yeah.

I thought she was gonna finish her. I did not have the Neil Magne stoppage on the- Nasty Neil Magne is a great name by the way, GC. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've been workshopping that together on IGN. Nasty Knee Neil Magne. Oh, shit. Yeah.

Nasty Neil Magne, but it's K.N. Oh, that's the one. That's the freaking one. There it is. Kevin Vallejos with a win as well. Your guy. An enormous decision, yep. Nakamura with the stoppage win.

Adolfo Vieira with the decision win. Andre Pouliève with the stoppage win as well. And there are the rest of the results. Yes. Solid Apex card. Austin Baschi with a great submission win as well. Yeah, it was fine. You know, it's the classic, no, it's the classic card where the hardcores will be like, you

see, this is why you never sleep on a card going into it. And no, like everyone knows that cards are fun. We like MMA, we watch fighting, but you know, You come away from it going, what if the crowd was there? Like every one of them. Oh my God, for the Duncan, for the single fire up for the Duncan. Yes, absolutely and just a reminder that the UFC is putting on the same amount of events today that they were putting on six years ago and

Every single one of those cards were in different city around small cards, man okay, but important card one thing important to note the the the Portion of the pie the pie chart of their revenue is significantly different than it was back then. The broadcast fees and things that they are getting are significantly higher, and the live events, while a significant portion of revenue, are not nearly as significant as some other port. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Same deal. What do you mean? Same ESPN deal. Huh? You're talking about the What are you talking about? Same deal. What do you mean? Same ESPN deal.

Huh? You're talking about the broadcast rights deal, right? Yeah, the broadcast rights from when the USC used to be on the road traveling every single event are different now. Same deal. They're in the midst of the same deal. 2019. Yes.

And now they can afford to get the site fees from the locations that they're going to and put the cards in the apex and get those Without having to move away from it It's the the live gate and stuff is like I don't know 10% of their total revenue Whereas the broadcast fees make up a much more you're defending the apex right now. I'm just saying an apex So what is this it does? Going on the road like this all the time business. It's about making a better product What about the product Rick what about that also? It does not justify going on the road like this all the time. Fuck the business, it's about making a better product. What about the product, Rick?

What about the product? We're down to like eight fights at the Apex now. That's pretty good. So like they could afford eight more on the road. Yeah, like they've whittled it down heavy. Yes, so just do the rest. Like Daniel White said, by 2029, we'll be out of the Apex.

Did he actually say that? No, he said much earlier than that. No, he used to be like, by the end of the year, not a single Apex show. Right, well now that the world is opening up. Yeah, yeah, that was it. Now that the world is opening up, we can blah, blah, blah. What about PFL on Friday?

Thad Gene would the win, guys? Yeah, massive. What do we think? Is this the guy? I thought he was gonna finish him. This is the guy, this is absolutely the guy. This is the Dakota story. It was you win the tournament,

then you get the next step, and then you get pushed along. I think this is exactly the path that PFL needs for upcoming and future talent. Now you just have to manage this correctly. You take them out of a tournament, you don't do another tournament where it's like, opportunity for it to slip on a banana peel or get beat by somebody who has just been a veteran

of the game and around so long, and you can't necessarily capitalize on their win as well. But he's got everything that you would want. He's got the look, he's got the fighting style. He can talk, he's charming, he's got a great story. Now you just, you manage it the same way you have to with Dakota. Like you really take care to make sure that you capitalize on this investment here. Shamil Musayev?

Oh man. Undefeated? That'd be crazy. That'd be crazy. No, they need, they need. So here's the question now. Does he get a title shot? Is he not the champion?

No, he's the tournament champion. Who is the champion? There's the tournament champion that's no champ you got to do this champion he won the tournament 2024 go turny turny winner versus turny winner for the vacant welterweight pfl champion i would like to see that gene get some guys that's not a good meal for tagging can I be honest that's that's what I'm saying I don't I don't like that I don't like that I say but I will I do agree with everything the last Bellator champion was Jason Jackson was he was it not yeah yeah yeah it was I believe he already beat him so

he should be the freaking champion he's the lineal yeah he's the welterweight tournament champion he's the lineal yeah he's the welterweight tournament champion he's the lineal road to dubai champion series champion oh it just rolls off the belt is nice the belt is the belt nice man I like the PFL belt more than I like the UFC belt I'm with you it's like a good looking belt man isn't that a thing that happened though before I think I heard I think Ben Fogg's mentioned this in the crack one sprays like it's like a good looking belt, man. Isn't that a thing that happened though before? I think I heard, I think Ben Fogg's mentioned this in the crack once where he's like, it's never a good sign when your thing is like, but look how nice the belt is. I don't mean, I think IFL had a beautiful belt back when he was working with them or something that they used to say that too. It's a very confusing situation. I do agree with everything Rick said. I think that he is exactly

the kind of guy that when PFL do things well, they produce guys like this. They produce a decoder, they produce Paul Hughes, people we haven't seen in different major promotions coming up through them and looking like a star in the making. I do think they're in a better situation though with that in terms of matchmaking options. Right? Like they have recognizable names at welterweight that you could put in there with him it doesn't have to be Shamil Masayev straight off the bat whereas with Dakota it does feel as

though like she's effectively cleared out the division and when people are coming into Foyhorn now we kind of have to go well who is this person and we have to find out all about them whereas I do think they're better placed with the likes of that because there are recognizable names there. They will point to this and say, look, we created a star off the tournament and they're right. They didn't, no one was talking about that before this tournament. But again, I'll, I'll, I'll go back to what we were talking about last week regarding Johnny Eblen and regarding Paul Hughes, once names are made, now you

have to be able to adapt and make the fights that people want now. I'm not saying that there's a fight that everyone wants to see regarding that but okay now you've made someone you've Created something you've you've you've built a star. This is great. He's homegrown. He wants to be in PFL He wants to fly the flag now You have to nurture that and don't just say okay now he's gonna go do this because our format dictates No Forget about the damn format. Use the format to make these stars. And then once you have made these stars, now you get to do whatever the hell you

want with them, which is why Costello is a star or potential star that you have made rebook them against Johnny Eblen. Paul Hughes is a star that you have made, or at least elevated rebook him against Usman Amang Amadoff. Now that, okay, now you have an opportunity to make something out of him. Don't just put him in there against someone because that guy, if that's the direction that they're gonna go in, because that guy won the other tournament, I don't even know. I don't even know if that is, is that even the way this pyramid works? Does the last year tournament winner fight this tournament winner? It's very confusing.

Did you just want to make a quick correction that Chad called us out for being Bellator casuals the last Bellator had a feeling champion Yeah, was Ramazan Kermaga Maddiff. Yes. I had a feeling even when I said it it didn't sound right because I remember that was on the last show I think yeah, that's that's on us. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I bet Jason Jackson He beat him. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, they said bet. Yeah, do you say bet? I say that in Ireland. Yeah, we do sit out there instead of beat You dropped the fucked up we can move on. Yeah. No, we do we say it off

No, I've had this conversation with so many Americans. Oh, you dropped the you got the shit out of them. Yeah. Yeah Oh, okay Anyway, it's not it's not correct. It is what it is. You know, I mean, I'm sorry This is good, this is exciting. They need more homegrown guys. They need more people that are proud to be fighting for Bellator, that want to do the media, that want to fly the flag, that want to do the PR. And he seems to have everything. Like he's got the personality, he's got the fighting style, he's got the backstory. Very personable guy. I've enjoyed talking to him. We're going to have him on in a bit as well. So yeah, this is good the other tournament final was

Jesus Pinedo against move lead high boolev and that fight was won by move lead Here's some of the action big win for a man Jesus was red-hot Yeah, Habib was in his good. He's a favorite, too, right? I Jesus was the favorite. Yeah, that's what I mean. I am a little surprised by that. Mowgli, like when he fights, he wins. Like that is-

I'm actually shocked. I thought you guys made a mistake. No, no. He was the favorite. He was the favorite. Wow. Well, to be run bro, he was knocking everybody out. That's the thing.

His recent run was absolutely spectacular and full of finishes and he's looked like a guy but like Mowgli when he gets in the cage he wins fights like it sometimes it's I see this this one wasn't particularly like this this was kind of his fight I like how Khabib just gave him the belt oh yeah well you work now this is this is another one of those Dagestanis that's like don't do no I mean like it wasn't it wasn't like one of the PFL yeah Good move by Donny's easier double do Can get up there get out there

Habib was in in the tri-state area because this fight happened in Atlantic City and he did drop the nugget that it appears as though JDM versus Islam is going to be at Madison Square Garden who told you that first who told you that first every single one of The fights that I told you about on this program have fallen in the slots. Pereira versus Ankhalyev to October the 4th. Aspenall against Sorokan October 25th and JDM versus Islam in New York City. That's the fight for this town. You guys like that? Is that MSG worthy? Love it. Yeah, it's Islam Makership, man. ItM it is also JDM of course I love that fight Islam is the biggest stars the promotion Islam moving up to 170 oh oh are we gonna like

skip the watch party be in the building for it hell yeah in case in case you missed it here's you do you guys think Habib is gonna get banned for leaking this news for ruining the surprise because he seemed he seemed like a a bit of a renegade when he uh... broke the news of the crowd here it is in case you missed it required i think that that is the reason is that we have said because i think that information but this is the only thing i thought it was used

but we have been with them is He's gonna fight in Madison Square Garden. And they say yes. There it is. Beautiful. As first reported by Khabib Nurmagomedov. JPM making his second trip to New York City. Second trip, yes. Who's the favorite going into that one? That's a good question actually.

It's gotta be Islam. You think so? It's not moving up to 170. Yeah, I would have had it. Close though, no? The pound for pound number one? I don't think it will be. I don't think it will be close.

You don't think it will be close? Minus 300 or something. 250, 300. Let's see, let's see, let's see. Islam, you think he's fought at 170 before? Solo shot. You love that. By the way, please-

In his entire life, like he walks around that do me a favor every time Connor's looking something up Go solo shot on her. All right. I got it. I got it final guesses. Everybody go fight set in the 253 range I said I'm going Really? I'm tallying the vote. Yeah 175 The number is minus 265 Islam Aga shev, Jack Dalen, plus 225. Yeah that makes sense. He's the number one pound for pound. Just floating out there, Wiley Zhang minus

140 against Valentina Shevchenko. Ooh minus 140. Favorite coming up too. That's two favorites. Historically the the person coming up isn't the favorite. Yeah. Yeah. Well in the Islam case he is the number one pound for pound. If he were not able to be welterweight champion, that would be a significant hit to his case to being the number one pound for pound, right? The expectation is like, if you're the number one

pound for pound, you should be able to move up and get that belt. So I think it makes a lot of sense. Ben, JDM gonna have a case for fighter of the year if he if he wins Oh, yeah big time. Oh, yeah. Oh hell yeah Is he the fight that Craig Jones thing? I love this He's I think it'll be between him and Marab Yeah, what if Magomed wins?

Two wins over Alex Marab w3 3 wins Marab Marab would be first. Okay. Here's the but for Marab, that'll be three wins. Marab would be first. Okay, here's the thing. Marab's front runner. If Marab goes three and O, but JDM goes two and O, who gets the nod? You have a little Ilya, Alex in the last year. Who gets the nod?

Taking out the number one pound for pound? That's tough. But Law was also on like what, like a 12 fight win streak? Yeah. Man, I think Marab gets the, I don't know, the win over Islam, it also depends on how he beats Islam, right? If he knocks him out or something? Yeah, we can have that conversation

if they both retain their belts. Very excited, very excited about this now. Okay, okay, if Magomed has two wins over Pereira, and JDM has the two wins. Well I'm going JDM. JDM for sure because Alex is no longer as valuable a win on your resume the second time. The first time 100% the second time not as much. I also think JDM would have probably the two most impressive wins of the year.

If Magomed has two wins, JDM loses, but Pantoja has two wins. What about Ilya Tafouria though? Marab, I mean not talking about Marab. Ilya only has the Charles right now with no fight book. Yeah, Ilya's only got one more in though. What about DDP, if DDP beats Hamsat. That'd be two wins too.

Yeah, Strickland and Hamsat. Ooh, it's gonna be tasty. I like this, I like this. What if Hamsat wins and we just give it to him on one? Here's the thing, if everyone has the two wins, everyone has the two wins, but Merab has the three does Merab get the nod? It depends on what happens. What if it's being on Micah Madoff, which is the two wins. Yes, like beat an undefeated Umar, O'Malley again, and then of course anything. It's gonna be tasty. It's gonna be spicy. If JDM ices Islam, yeah, it's gonna be tasty. It's gonna be spicy if JDM ices Islam. Yeah

It's gonna be tough Let's just have him defend the belt first like we're talking ices That's why I'm fucking And I can tell people the Or very early embryonic stages early so I'm talking like literally, you know, the night of, what is it called? Consummation? Oh, conception.

Conception. What's, where are we going with this? What's consummation? Kind of similar, but it's called, it's consummation. It's consummating the marriage. No, for a Hellwani Road show that weekend. So if you're coming to New York for Islam vs. JDM, please... Wow!

I'm saying early stages! We're going to do a live show! Not worth a wow! We're going to do a live show and I'm going to go to my first pay-per-view. Consummation, early consummation. This is me officially putting in for my time off request. You're going to that one? That's the one you want? MSG?

Of all the ones. MSG? Yeah, but. Yeah, I guess maybe I should fly to Abu Dhabi for Aspen Hall. Oh yeah. It's a good stretch right there for the UFC. All right, so speaking of events in Tri-State area, can we talk about this now?

I've waited long enough. I wanted to wet the appetite of the MMA hard cores, but the biggest event of the weekend obviously was SummerSlam at MetLife Stadium. I was lucky enough to attend the Saturday event, a friend of mine invited me, and I was very excited to go with my kids. Now in case you're wondering,

regarding the illness and whatnot, I was pretty much like... Oh yeah, you were shaking hands. I was drinking out of like a freaking NightQuill. You were coughing into the complimentary chicken tenders. I was walking in there with like a flask of NightQuill. I was just like, don't mind me guys, don't mind me.

Unknown illness spreads to attendees of WWE SummerSlam. I'm reading this on CNN right now, wow. Two nights, that was debated, criticized by the likes of me and many, many others. SummerSlam was everything that WrestleMania wasn't. SummerSlam was a smashing success. It was such a big success. It was so much fun. It was so good that I think it validated forever doing two nights because I think they

really had to knock it out of the park in order to let people know, no, no, no, like this isn't going to be like your mundane PLE. This isn't going to be like your run of the mill. Not saying that they tried to do that. No one ever tries to put out a mundane product, but it was so good and had so many big wow moments that now forever they can point, at least for the next five or so years, point back to this and be like, no, this is why it makes sense. This is why it is needed because night one ended with a shock with a surprise and night two ended with a shock with a surprise. Night one ended with CM Punk defeating Gunther in a fine match, in a fun match. It was

entertaining. CM Punk wins the belt for the first time and God knows how long it was since the last time he was in WWE. He's celebrating and then all of a sudden there's Seth Rollins. Now Seth Rollins injured his knee at Saturday night's main event just a couple weeks ago and everyone thought it was a torn ACL. Everyone thought he was out. They were playing it up. He filled in for Rich Eisen on his podcast talking about the injury. His wife, Rebecca Quinn, AKA Becky Lynch was posting videos of Seth walking around

with their daughter on crutches. Then slowly but surely, here's the video in question. People started to think like, why is there not a lot of information? I'll be honest, people were texting me, our good friend Tim Simpson threw out a theory to me on text on Thursday or Friday. I think Seth comes back. I'm like, no way. Did you see the way he landed? Did you see that injury? There's no way that looked 100 percent.

I got worked. I got worked. I even texted Becky herself and said, how's how Seth doing? I'm so sorry I got worked and then he shows up and by the time he showed up and he threw the crutches away He threw the brace away. We all knew what was gonna happen He cashes in the the briefcase just like he did ten years ago at WrestleMania He beats up CM Punk and then he wins the belt. It was incredible. It was great theater. It was Shades of Kevin Nash in the...what's the thing? In the wheelchair and he had his foot up in a cast and then he just walked out

of it. Of course that was kind of mocked. This wasn't. It was unbelievable. And it set the tone for night two because we all knew night two, Cody Rhodes, John Cena, what's gonna happen. And on Friday, they pretty much had John Cena cut a promo in which he stated like, the old me is back. It was pretty much their way of letting everyone know,

come Sunday, it's the old John Cena. It was pretty much their way of letting everyone know, come Sunday, it's the old John Cena. It was pretty much their way of letting everyone know like, eh, we're pulling the plug on this John Cena heel turn. And you know what? I'm happy they did. Because it was a disaster. It didn't work. It didn't work from the get-go. What did I say right after WrestleMania? I gave it some time. Initially, the turn, elimination chamber, I said, Initially, the turn, elimination chamber, I said, not as big as Hogan, but a great moment. Where's it gonna go with The Rock?

Where's it gonna go with Travis Scott? Like, we were excited about it, no doubt about it. Once WrestleMania came and went, it wasn't working. Rock didn't show up, there was no payoff, the Travis Scott thing was weird, it felt like he was acting, it felt like he didn't have him in him, and it felt like the people didn't want to boo him. It felt like the people didn't want to hate on the guy in his swan song.

And so fast forward to this, it's almost like they course corrected. It's Cena Rhodes. This time they have the great moment. They hug it out. No heel tactics. Clean win. He sails off into the sunset. Four months left. Solid match. Thought it went a little long but it was very fun. It was enjoyable. He sails off into the sunset. Four months left. Solid match. Thought it went a little long, but it was very fun.

It was enjoyable. He looked great. Cody looked great. They looked like superstars. Everyone went home happy. It was amazing. But they 100% course corrected. Cena's no longer a heel. And it's weird that this comes out at around the same time as WWE Unreal, which I've now watched four out of the five episodes, like four and a half, in large part due to the fact that I was sick as a dog. Thank you very much, Frank. And I have to say, it's much ado about nothing. Yeah, you're getting to see a lot, but it's very calculated. It's extremely calculated. Like everyone, Josh Barnett, all the old timers with their hot takes about this ruining the business, you couldn't be more wrong. They're showing you, and they're showing you just enough

to where it's like, oh wow, this is awesome. But I was talking to a friend of mine who's the mother of my daughter's best friend. She knows nothing about wrestling. Her husband told her to watch it. She's like, oh, now I get it, and now I'm into it. Oh, Chelsea Green is cool, Cody Rhodes is cool. It's for those people.

So like this idea that it's gonna ruin the business or that it's exposing the deep dark secrets of the business is hogwash. It's not doing any of that. It will only attract more viewers. But anyway, that coming out, which a big part of it is the heel turn, around the same time that they pretty much pulled the plug on the heel turn is interesting, but it was 1000% the right move. No one wants to see John Cena's heel.

It didn't work out. Whatever happened with The Rock, whatever happened with Travis Scott, it didn't work out. around the same time that they pretty much pulled the plug on the heel turn is interesting, but it was a thousand percent the right move. No one wants to see John Cena's heel. It didn't work out. Whatever happened with The Rock, whatever happened with Travis Scott, whatever, like we may never know, but clearly something happened because they're nowhere to be seen right now. Pull the plug, course correct, allow the last four months, if it in fact is the last four months of his WWE run to be him being celebrated and then what happens is it looks like they're about to go off the air it looks like it's a nice fun beautiful heartwarming goodbye and you hear the that's not his music i botched that but you get the point the the beast is back Brock Lesnar is back here comes the pain for the first time in

two years SummerSlam 2023 Brock Lesnar who for a while was persona non grata in WWE because he was named in the lawsuit from Janelle Grant accusing Vince McMahon of shocking, disgusting allegations. Brock, not a defendant, Brock not being sued, but named as a participant in all of this, WWE and rightfully so, distanced themselves from him. I always thought at some point he would come back and here he is coming back. Much to the chagrin of a lot of fans online, much to the chagrin of a lot of WWE media, wrestling media, who also noted that they got rid of the press conferences this week, the post-event press conferences, which I always felt didn't really add anything, which I always

felt were very clunky. They're now doing their own post-show, which to me like everything that they do is controlled and everything that they do is produced the way in which they want it to be produced. I don't think they need to do the press conferences did they get rid of the press conferences because he was coming back on this weekend who knows I don't know they they did not address that it would seem like a good time to do it so you wouldn't have to answer it but I was not like I see a lot of people almost offended by them getting rid of the press conferences I don't think they added anything.

The questions were never that great. The interactions were a little bit clunky and awkward. And then you'd sometimes have people ask questions and you'd have characters in character, you know, not trying to break K-Fabe, and it just made for an awkward dance. The most interesting stuff came from the interactions with Triple H because he's sort of serving as the Dana White of WWE. He's the figurehead, he's the guy, that's the way they're positioning him. As they should, it makes it makes the most sense to do that. He plays that role perfectly, but I'm not surprised. It always felt to me like they were gonna get rid of it at some point. And so did they get rid of it on this particular weekend because he was coming back? Who knows? Maybe we'll find out one of these days. But I also think that

there's, like, there's no way that they didn't, from a legal standpoint, cross all the T's dot all the I's, make sure to a T that they were in the clear for him to come back. They had to make sure that they were in the clear legally for him to come back. Like there's no way. It's not like they just jumped the gun and said like, oh, let's just take our chances here. And I believe this is a statement from Janelle Grant, who's the one who filed the lawsuit against Vinsic Man.

Her representative issued this statement to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful. Does a great job. Far too long abuse was allowed to thrive under WWE's leadership. Instead of righting this wrong, WWE has done nothing to ensure those responsible are held accountable. This attempt to sweep misconduct under the rug will backfire. We look forward to the full set of facts, including those about Mr. Lesnar coming out in a court of law where they belong.

But in the meantime, we refer you back to Janelle Grant's updated complaint, which outlines in detail the abuse she endured by McMahon and others while employed at WWE. And so a lot of people are upset about him coming back. In the midst of this, the lawsuit is still ongoing. It has not been settled. It has not been resolved. And yeah, we don't know how it's going to play out. I just feel confident in saying they must have.

I saw Dave Meltzer report this that it was around four weeks ago that the WWE legal team gave the okay for him to return was I surprised to see him back yesterday sure but I always felt like Brock Lester was gonna come back was was anyone like blown away that he came back like did anyone think that they would sever ties with him forever no right well no unless something new developed and since nothing new had developed to that point I was not surprised that he'd be back right um but now you're like just based on this statement here from Janelle Grant's rep like maybe there is something more so we'll see but with without anything new to discuss a report I am not shocked at all that Brock Lesnar is back. This is from the New York Post.

It's the former UFC champion's first time on the company's programming since his name came up in allegations made against the former WWE boss McMahon made by ex-employee Janelle Grant. She accuses him of sexual assault and sex trafficking. Grant filed the suit in January of 2024. Lesnar's last appearance was in the summer of 23. The original complaint. Grant filed the suit in January of 2024. Lesnar's last appearance was in the summer of 23.

The original complaint did not include Lesnar's name, only referencing a world famous athlete and former UFC heavyweight champion who McMahon was trying to sign at the time. Lesnar, who is not a defendant in the case, was officially named by Grant in federal court in an amended complaint in February. Grant accused McMahon of asking her

to create personalized sexual content for Lesnar in July of 2021 during his contract negotiations. She also alleges McMahon flew Lesnar to Connecticut in 21 for a sexual encounter that ended up not happening. McMahon's attorney, Jessica Rosenberg, called Grant, naming Lesnar in the suit a publicity stunt in February. And yeah, essentially since that point, he was

persona non grata. And so now he's back. And so yes, I would imagine that someone would have asked, you know, Paul Levesque this question at the Post Presser, and maybe this is why, but I know that they were not enamored with those press conferences. Like I knew that they were going to come to an end. Again, the timing isn't great, obviously, but I don't think that they were as crucial to the product or at least like the the wheel spinning as they are in boxing or MMA or NFL or NBA. It just, it always felt like just like an awkward dance. I don't know really how to quite describe it. Well, I mean, any memorable moments from a press conference, WWE press conference, like I'm trying to think of one. I know they were doing them, but I'm trying to think like, was there ever a moment produced at one of these things where like, wow, this is. Yeah, and there was a CM Punk one that I remember going. Well, there was a, there was a CM Punk one from AW. That's right.

He went off on everyone. Yeah. And, and it should be told, it's not like it's been happening for decades. It's probably like a last three, four years type of thing. The only really, the only real memorable moments I would say were clunky moments. Like when Paul Levesque was asked about the Vincic Man case

or when Cody Rhodes was asked and he gave a great answer Things like that, but other like nothing where it was like, oh wow This gave us great insight and again, let me just be clear like I'm not defending them getting rid of the press conferences I'm just telling you I never really watched those and found them to be Valuable well the rules of engagement are completely different. They can literally sit there and lie to you because it's part of an entertainment product. Some are in character, some aren't in character.

But even if they were, were not in character, they can literally just lie to you because what are the repercussions of that? There is no accountability on anything that's said in any of these press conferences because it's not actually a press conference. It's part of an entertainment product. It is still part of the show that is going on

that is just continuing further into it. They can be fully not in character and then say, oh, well, the storyline changed, or this changed, or that changed. There's no actual factual-based information that needs to be kind of like had in this setting. If WWE wanted tomorrow, they could replace these press conferences with a fully faked press conference where they have fake reporters Asking fake questions to the characters and it would be exactly the same level of credibility

Because the the people at the dais do not have any obligation to say something factual So it's just this weird dance like it just doesn't quite make sense If I if I were running WWE what I saw saw this past weekend, as far as the post shows are concerned, and I know that GC was locked in, I would lean more towards that in the press conference. Sure there you can control the whole thing. You bring up who you want to bring up, you ask them whatever you want to ask them, you control the message, you go in a certain like, kayfabe, non-K-fabe direction, there's a crowd behind you,

like it's just a much better product. Well, tell me if I'm right about this. It felt like a few years ago, let's call it three to five years ago, there was more of a wanting to be more a sports product and that has kind of dissipated and now it is back to more of an entertainment product, right?

The signing of a Cain Velasquez made a lot more sense when it was like, okay, we're gonna go to a sports product, we're gonna get a guy who's a real actual fighter and say, okay, this guy's gonna come in and deliver some damage to a guy like Brock Lesnar. Or the signing of Jimmy Smith as a fight broadcaster or Morrow or these people. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore

and so that feels like a product of a bygone era where this like, we wanna blur the lines between sports and entertainment is now like, hey, we're just doing entertainment, and we don't necessarily need that part. Yeah, yeah, well said. So, did you guys enjoy SummerSlam? I did. I did not watch live.

I loved it. I'd check in, like, they showed a recap from WrestleMania, and it was like four months ago. I was like, wow, it's only four months since I watched it. I check in, they showed a recap from WrestleMania and it was like four months ago. I was like, wow, it's only four months since I watched WWE. And when I check in on these massive events, it's always wildly entertaining

and I don't feel like I have to be fully caught up with the storyline. I feel like you can just get caught up from a few tweets or highlights online. 100%. I watched. They do an amazing job at that. Like the packages.

They set the table just before. And you're like, oh shit. You could just be a major event watcher and there's a lot of filler. You could be a hardcore fan and enjoy it all, but like you could just pop in every month or every, I don't know, every like quarter and be okay. You know what I mean? This to me was infinitely better than WrestleMania. No question about it.

At the ending of WrestleMania, I was like, damn, that's it, we're done? Was this scene a thing, WrestleMania, when he turned? Yeah, what was WrestleMania, or Miami? WrestleMania was, he turned at Elimination Chamber, March 1st, and then he's bad guy leading up to WrestleMania. Oh no, was that the Rock one? Rock didn't show up.

Oh, there was no Rock. There was no payoff. At the end we're like, where are all the people? Yes, Travis Scott beat Cody Rhodes, they went off and then it was just like, and that's it, that's the same from WrestleMania. Like I was actually- Massive let down.

Because of the WrestleMania, nothing really crazy that happened. The Brock coming out caught me so off guard that it was like this huge shock. I was like, oh my God, wow. Yeah, same. And you know, it was interesting because on Saturday, Seth comes out

and in this current climate where everyone's like, they're giving up too much. And I know there were some rumors out there, but I don't go on a lot of the websites. I've kind of taken- Sorry, what's that mean, Ariel? They're giving up too much. What does that mean?

Oh, it's because of the unreal stuff. They're giving it away. Okay, okay. They're blurring too much. Oh, it's because of the unreal stuff. They're giving it away. They're blurring the lines too much. There's no kayfabe. There's, you know, there's no secrecy anymore. There's no surprises, all that stuff. I will admit, I thought the Seth Rollins thing was a legit injury. And so for him to come out, once he came out, again, like I said, once he came out, I knew what was happening. But I was arguing with people like, no, of course,

like, did you see, did you guys see the way he fell? The way he fell looked like someone who had just severely injured their knee. And so for them to swerve us like that, and even like the thing with the daughter, the video, like using social media in that way was great. It was fun fun I didn't know until he dropped the crutches I thought he was actually in here oh really

yeah once he came out with Paul I was like okay they're doing this with the briefcase they brought guys out before just to cut the promo so I I get that I thought it was like a thought it was like a fuck you punk I'm coming for your belt as soon as I'm healthy yeah but, I was like, they're setting up the next thing. But if they're not gonna do anything right now. Ariel's just a more educated and successful fan than us. He's a nuanced viewer, he's a nuanced viewer. If it's an ACL injury,

you wouldn't do that with eight months left. You know what I mean? What's the point? We're antiquing on that level, mate. We're just going there and there. When he came out, I was like, oh, by the way. I was trying to explain to my kids quickly, like, Seth Rollins is here. Forget about the traffic. What did they say? They were like okay you know there's a guy outside giving

minimades like free minimade can we go get that? Dad, Tetsuro Taira is about to start. Shut up dad! Yeah wait a second Seth he's back the innovator. By the way on this on the like giving up too much thing It's all kayfabe even that is kayfabe We have to stop pretending that like WWE is like willingly just letting people inside and not gonna work them even via this thing Oh, I'm sure in unreal they're like, okay, we're gonna do this in front of the camera now Yes, and now we're gonna talk about the real 100% I'm okay with that blew my mind in terms of this K-Fave stuff the other day.

Our old friend Bill Simmons, a friend of yours, a friend of mine, he's talking to Cody Rhodes and he's talking about one of your favorites, Wrestling with Shadows. Oh yeah. And then Cody says, yeah, but do you ever think that that was all the work too? And we're just sitting there work to what the fuck? I was like, my mind is blown. Like as in that documentary where we see, we don't see, but you know, allegedly Vince McMahon takes a shot from break, you see him walking out all grubby and I'm like, were they working us with that?

No, they weren't. The crazier part to me of that interview, which was a fantastic interview, was when he said he doesn't himself know when K-Fabe ends. When he said, one of the craziest questions he's ever been asked is like, how do you know like when you're out of K-Fabe? And he's like, I don't. Like sometimes I think I'm giving a genuine answer

and it's not. Like he doesn't have an understanding of where that ends. This goes back to the Hogan thing, right? Yeah. You were never talking to Terry Balea, you were always talking to Hogan slash Terry when you were doing- Is there an end point of these two characters?

And it seems like Cody was basically like, he doesn't know if he has that. And by the way, Pizzi, you bring up a great point. Wrestling with Shadows came out in like 98, Beyond the Mat, which if you haven't seen Beyond the Mat, please go on. That sounds great. That's true non-kfabe breaking

kfabe and so the idea that unreal is gonna ruin the business why just because WWE produced it or Netflix produced it in conjunction with WWE like this stuff has been out already we've we've seen the inner workings okay maybe we didn't get like oh here's gorilla position and this is the guy talking to the referee these are all just little things I I didn't enjoy Summers time less because I watched that two days prior and I will say for a kid like I'm not showing my kids that you know like I think I might have said this last week I was hiding it from them I didn't want them to see that and they asked me like oh what's WWE unreal I'm like oh it's just the documentary and that was enough. So I't want, I don't think that should be for kids, but if you're

in your 30s, 40s, yeah, like allow them to still enjoy it, even though when I'm watching with them, they're so annoying. What about that? That's not real. Oh, what about that? That didn't really hurt him. What about that? What about this?

Oh, like the whole time I'm like, we shut up already. Your squid game isn't real either. And like like well, it's not in front of people They're not pretending like it's real. I'm like, no, it's pretending nothing. Okay, it's just entertainment for goodness sakes GC and Rick next year. Yeah, yeah, seriously even my daughter's now. Well, look at the skits Why are they talking like that? And why is he standing there? And why does he hit him right there? I'm like, I watched last night with the kid that like, can never give wrestling like it's full do. He's always just like,

Oh yeah. Credit to him, that was pretty cool. And then every time it looks fake, he's like, it's so fake. Like I know, man. I know. I'm glad I watched by myself. It's better that way. It's better that way. Just have fun, just have fun. Anyway, I thought they course corrected. I'm glad I watched by myself. It's better that way.

Just have fun, just have fun. Anyway, I thought they course corrected. I thought they did a great job. I thought it was infinitely better than WrestleMania. I can understand why people are upset over the Brock return. Let's see how that plays out. But the set thing to me was the highlight.

I thought that that was like wrestling at its finest. Injury on the product, we think he's out, he comes back, he cashes in, it's a shocker. That was good stuff. All right, let's move along and say hello to our first guest of the day. We always love talking to the money man himself, the great Renato Moicano.

He is kind enough to join us first off here on this Monday. Hello, Renato, how are you, my friend? What's up, Ariel? Very good, how about you, my friend? Did you watch SummerSlam? No, I don't even know what summer's name I'm sorry. I love it. The WWE. No, I didn't know what now that you're Mr. TKO, you don't you don't watch this stuff. You don't follow up. No, I don't follow up on on you only like the real stuff.

I mean, yeah. I have a YouTube channel so I'm pretty busy doing the MMA. Like losing money, of course I'm not losing money, but watching the fights and giving my picks and all that stuff and doing MMA content especially in Portuguese so I have been pretty busy. What about the UFC BJJ? You like that? I Did not watch okay. What do you think? It's you think it's gonna go well for them. You think they have something there? I

think UFC has so much money and like Everything they did do like powers lap everybody hates powers lap But they keep doing and I think if they do it's because it's working. So they have so much money and so much like viewers and all that stuff, the market is, they can do whatever they want. So I think eventually gonna pay off and I'm not sure but I think they're gonna, they use that money to write off, you know, so they put a lot of money on this stuff and they write off. So I think they will still do it but I don't think people really like it, you know? And let's be honest, Jiu-Jitsu is fucking boring. I am a Jiu-Jitsu guy but I cannot watch Jiu-Jitsu. I would rather watch MMA. Okay. Last time we saw you, Hinato, was International Fight Week. What happened? What happened?

Oh man, I lost, you know, that he was better than me at the night, you know, I got a little bit tired. And, and I was expecting to finish him in the first round, I almost did. But the motherfucking strong guy, I thought he was old, you know, but when he grabbed me, and I was not like, I think I was not prepared. And hats off to him. He did a good job, you know, but when he grabbed me and I was not like, uh, I think I was not prepared and hats off to him. He did a good job. You know, he was fucking dying over there. He was as tired as me, but he kept pushing. So congratulations to him. Did he surprise you? Yeah. He surprised me. He's stronger than I thought, you know, uh, on the grappling.

He's a good grappler, you know, and, and Ariel, let's be honest. I knew he was a tough, you know, but that's the game, you know, I'm going to talk shit. He's old. I'm old too. And I thought I would fucking, uh, steamroll him, but yeah, I did not. So it is what it is. How much have you replayed that first round in your mind? Did you think that you had him? I think I had him, you know, but at the same time, I knew he was tough because I remember watching Charles Oliveira fight against him and was the same, you know, but Charles Oliveira was his mother because he did not went for the trying to get his back because he's very slick on the ground. And I tried to get his back.

I should have keep punching. But again, I don't think too much about the past because it's gone. There is nothing that I can do you know. The only thing that I can do and that I did was learn you know and the reality is I need to work on my take down defense and I need to work on my cardio and I have been doing that you know. I'm 36 year old motherfucker old as hell but I still have a couple fights in UFC and I want to perform better than the last time. Have you started to think about the return? Yes, this is up to the UFC, but I'm doing my homework.

I don't know if they want me in Brazil. I don't know if they want me in November. I don't have any talks right now with the UFC and the date of return. I'm just working on my conditioning and my takedown defense. And how do you, like at 36, sometimes people say like you're either born with good cardio or you can't improve good cardio. This was the thing that people said about Conor McGregor for the longest time. Like you can get bigger, you can get stronger, you can improve your wrestling, your takedowns, but the cardio is the cardio.

Do you think at your age you can improve that? I think I can improve that because like I got a fight in a short notice against Rafael dos Angeles and I did the all five rounds and I never had cardio issues, you know? I did not have cardio issues, never in my whole career. I always went to the distance before I start to finish. I used to win in decisions. So I don't know what happened on that fight.

You know, I didn't, I did feel, I feel good on the training camp. I feel the best that I ever felt in the training camp and I, and I feel good in the fight on the night, on the fight good in the fight on the night, on the fight day. But I think on the second round he took me down like really early and then I say, okay, I'm not going to try to stand up because last time that I tried to stand up Islam Akashab choked me, you know. So I thought, okay, I'm going to rest this round.

I'm going to try to defend And, but that was a problem. I think on the third round, I was too tired and frustrated. So on the third round, I don't think was a gas tank issue. I think my mind was not over there. I was not 100% committed to the fight. I was not ready to kill. I was not over there. You know, I was not 100% committed to the fight. You know, I was not ready to kill. I was not to, you know, I should have went over there on my shield and like

like Nicolas Mott, I don't know if you remember his fight, like he lost, but he went on, he went out on his shield. And I think I should, I have to work on my mindset, you know, like a third round like that, the fight was very close because I think I had won the first He won the second round and the third was just he wanted more the fight, you know He wanted more and I think that that's the problem So I need to work on my cardio, but I need to work on on this, you know on the third round like that Is kill or be killed you want michael chandler next? I don't know. I think Michael Chandler,

I think that fight will be great, you know, but I think he will still wait for the McGregor. I don't think that's happening, but I think he will wait for that. So if not him, who makes sense? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, Ariel. I have been thinking about this for a long time, but guess what? I don't think I'm fighting up in the rankings and So, I don't know. I don't really know. UFC's coming back to Brazil in October. Do you like that idea? I like that idea, you know, I like that idea But they did not They did not ask me yet to fight in

Brazil. So but I think oh, I will get back in Brazil or November, right? I think in New York. Yeah, but up up to them. I am not in a position to to force anything. You know, I just I just want to work on on stuff that I that I'm working and see what's next because right now I don't see a clearly opponent What about you do you think you think I match up will be good? I think it's a little soon I think we need to see some some fights play out a little bit You know you fought just a bit over a month ago, so so let's see. You know you never know

Also, there's the ATT guys I was thinking maybe the loser of the maybe if if Ruffy loses to BSD, but I don't know if you'd want to fight him. Would you want to fight him? Depends. I don't think he's I don't think that the card is on the table. I don't think Ruffy is losing to BSD. You don't think he's losing? No, any chance.

I think he will knock BSD out in the first round. Oh wow. That's in the first round. I think in the first round. I think Ruffi is, he's the future of the lightweight division. He's pretty good. I know he was not tested. I was not, he was not tested but because a lot of stuff was going on. green is not easy guy to knock out like that He did on the first round. Of course, Bobby green is a little bit older right now, but I think ruffy is the real deal Okay, so let me ask you like in terms of your your self-confidence this year compared to last year Right now couldn't be more different right last year. You're on fire. You're beating bsd in uh in in In france and all that stuff, right?

How are you feeling about yourself, about the state of your career at this point? No, I'm feeling great, you know. Even though I lost, man, I like to compete, you know, I lost my last fight, but in the end of the day, I was a little bit sad because I did not push the trigger on the third round. But that makes me want to train even harder and to get back and get wins, you know? And at the end of the day, I lost to Islan and then Darius. Darius is not a good loss, but... I don't think it's the worst loss. I don't think it's the worst loss. No, it's not the worst, you know? But but I mean he was coming off two losses only to charles and and sarukhian so I don't want to

take anything anything from him you know but I was expecting to beat him and I wish I did because now I would be in a better position on the division but that's my job audio we cannot forget about that is that way that I make money. So I have to keep winning and I have to keep improving. And the way that you improve is like that. I watch my fight, I see what I have to work on. And I'm working on that right now. Okay, so I have to ask you about money. We have to talk about money. You didn't only make news over the past month or so because of the fight but it was because on your podcast the Show me the money podcast the great show me the money podcast

Shout out to the the YouTube channel here You are saying that you turned down the settlement money and this created a whole uproar and not to everyone waited on this everyone Brendan Schaub waited on it all the media waited on it other fighters were writing you and whatnot. Can we start from the beginning? Yes possible. Okay, so there's this class action lawsuit and all the media waited on it other fighters were writing you and whatnot can we start from the beginning uh... possible okay so uh... there's this class action lawsuit and uh... it's settled and every fighter who was

competing during this period of time i believe twenty ten to twenty seventeen if my memory serves me correct is entitled based on how many times you fought and where you were in the pecking order x y and z entitled to x amount. To the best of my knowledge, up until you came out, none of the active fighters had said no. I think there may have been fighters who like were MIA and didn't do the proper things to go on the website to get their money, but you came out and

said I essentially chose not to take the money. Is that accurate? That's accurate, yeah. Okay. When did you make that decision? And was that a, like an instant decision for you? Or did you think about it? Did you ponder it? No, I pondered it. Of course, that was that was good money. I don't know exactly how much money I would make of that. But when they started to ask me about that, the lawsuit, and I saw the lawsuit and I and I read what was about it and I have a few points to to make it clear right now so please the lawsuit what

they want to do they want to to label UFC as a monopoly right so they want to say hey UFC is a monopoly they have not the fair practices and that's the way they keep the the money low to the fighters. So the fighters went to the, they filed a lawsuit to label UFC as a monopoly, okay? So my name was over there because all the fighters at the time they were there. But what that means? That means that I will be saying the money that UFC gave me on the beginning of my career was not enough, but that's a lie, you know, Ariel.

Do you think UFC when they first sign you, do you have to see they are happy or they are sad? I'm asking to you. So when UFC goes to a fight and say, Hey, this is your contract. You're going to make 10, 10 plus 10. I don't, I don't know any fighter that went to the FC thinking that was a bad business, you know, the beginning of the career, everybody's happy. So if I, if I went to this lawsuit and say, Hey, you FC cheating me, you FC

was doing me wrong, I was lying because, the day that my son was born, that was the happiest day of my life. I don't even care about how much money I would get from the UFC. I just want to be in the UFC. So first thing I want to say is I was happy with the money that I got. So if I got this money now, I would say I was not happy. And that's not right. And the second thing is most of the fighters, you would agree for me that they were happy when they got this money from the UFC, from the first forces. Okay. Yes. Uh, and the second, the second point is the whole lawsuit stuff was based on UFC is a monopoly. I think they should treat the athletes better. I think

they should pay more money. So they filed the lawsuit with the lawyers. They went to the court and at one point they say, no, let's settle this down. And they do agreement with the fighters in UFC. And they say, no, we're going to, we're going to give you 300 and I don't know how much millions. And they dropped the lawsuit. So that was not about UFC being a monopoly. That was the way for the lawyers and the fight is to get money, you know? Because if that was about UFC being a monopoly, they would say, no, I don't want the money.

I want UFC label as a monopoly. Let's go to the court and let the judge decide if this is a monopoly or not. But no, they choose the money. And what that means based on their actions, I don't think that was about doing good for the athletes. I think the lawyers, they took more than 20%. That means they took more money than most of the fighters,

if not all the fighters. So 20% or 300 million is a lot of money. So in the end of the day, this is for the lawyers to make a quick cash for the fighters to grab the money that they don't deserve. You know why? Because they don't respect the contract. I believe, I believe our society should be guided by a life, should be respected life, liberty and private property. And once you agree with the contract, you should be able to, to deal with the consequences, deal with your acts. And if I get this money, I would be lying because I was happy. That was more than

enough for me. And the third thing that I want to say to you is, Ariel, do you think, at least I don't think I need a judge. I don't think I need a justice system to say what is right and what is wrong. You know, because I have been thinking on this a lot because a lot of people on the internet I saw saying they saying like more currency more kind of is really dumb because the judge decide that the money is for the fighters. But that's not true. That was agreement. So the fighters in the fighters, but that's not true. That was agreement. So the fighters in the UFC, they want an agreement.

So the judge didn't decide anything. And even if they did, that's not means that is moral because legality and morality, that is nothing to do with each other, you know? Because we know back in the day in America, you used to have slaves and that was legal. And you had a document meaning that, that slave is from this guy and that was legal.

The same thing with prohibition. Back in the day, you cannot drink alcohol because the law says illegal. But is that immoral to drink alcohol? Of course not. It's the same thing with marijuana. It's the same thing with a lot of stuff. So just because a judge or the justice system decide

that she's right and that she's wrong, that doesn't mean that she's right and that's wrong. I live by a law, I live by a code, I live by the natural law. And I believe every individual should be free and should be protecting his life, his liberty and his freedom. And government should not be deciding this kind of thing.

I believe in free market. I believe people should make their own decision. And I don't believe giving the government the power to decide what's right and what's wrong is the right thing to do. I don't believe at all that. So like I say, I'm a free market guy. I don't agree with everything that UFC does, but I don't believe UFC is a monopoly. Why UFC is not a monopoly? Because there is no legal barriers for all the shows. We have PFL, we

have Bellator, and what happened? Why UFC is not a monopoly? Because there is no laws that don't let another competition come in. You know, the thing, what happened is UFC is so much better than the competition and they created that. If we're talking about MMA now, if you have your show, if I have my house and everything that I have, it's because UFC created a sport and they are way better than the competition. That's why they are succeeding. So I think label UFC as a monopoly is like you say, Khabib Nuh Medav was just too good. He's just too good.

He's beating all the competition. So we're not going to allow him to shoot for double legs, just single legs. So when you label a company as a monopoly, essentially what you're doing is you taking the ability of the company being efficient. And UFC is very efficient. And again, I don't agree with everything they do. UFC has a huge market share because they are better than competition. And that makes a pressure on the side of the fighters because we don't have another shows like when PFL just show up on the scene and they were offering money

and that's good for the fighters. And I believe that, I just don't believe you let the justice and a judge and the government decide what's a monopoly and what's not. Eventually, if the market is free, eventually the competition will arise and UFC is abusing the power as a company, the employees and the people will stop to watch. If you're not satisfied with the fighters pay, don't watch UFC. If you don't agree with the terms of the contract don't fucking sign the contract

You know you're free to choose you are free to choose but most of the people they don't want to read about that They don't hear about that You know they want to say now government has to do everything for you and he has to decide and UFC is a monopoly And you had we need to take him down if you don't like don't watch if you don't feel They have the standards that you like, don't sign the contract. It's easy as that. You know? And other than other shows, I don't think other shows are paying more than UFC.

That's the truth. Okay, so let me jump in, and I appreciate the passion and I appreciate the sentiment very much. Honestly, I want to just ask a couple of follow-ups if I can. Since you came out with this, did any other active UFC fighters from this period message you? You don't have to tell me their names if they did, and say, I agree with you and I did the same.

Did you hear from anyone? No, no, no, I don't hear from anything. I just hear a lot of people calling me dumb. And maybe I am. And maybe I am. I am dumb. I saw all the people criticize. I didn't know if someone messaged you privately and said you know what I agree with you

Can I ask because I think you you I think Michael Chandler right? He's Michael Chandler even though I have been thrashing him for a long time He was the only one that say hey white people are criticizing him and I and I believe he he was but he was not in that Period though, so he wasn't subjected to the money, but I understand at least he was supporting you Do you know how much you would have gone? You had quoted 200 million, but then others said it would have been less, or 200,000, excuse me,

but others said it would have been less. You have any idea if it was 10,000, 50,000? No idea. It never got to that point? How do you not know? No, they never got to that point, you know, because on the beginning, another fighters were talking to me and they say,

hey, that's wrong, that's wrong. Why are you gonna take that money? And they say, no, because on the beginning, another fighters were talking to me and say, Hey, that's wrong. That's wrong. Why are you going to take that money? And they say no, because it's free, because UFC already gave them money, you know, and that's true, you know, and I have, and that would be the biggest thing, like ultimately, when it comes to the settlement, do you recognize the fact that the UFC came to an agreement with the fighters and said, look, we're okay with this. And I think other UFC officials were asked this, were like, you will not be penalized, you will not, like, we're at peace with this.

Yeah, but that's more the point, you know, I have a list of points to do it. And I saw a lot of people say, hey, Moicano, you want to be in the good wise with UFC. I cannot care less about UFC. They are a company, you know, they want profit. And how you do profit? You maximize your gains and you cut a company, you know, they want profit and how you do profit? You maximize your gains and you cut the expenses, you know, and you have and UFC fighters are expenses. We saw like

the silvers and all the champions. Now, UFC doesn't care about them and that's okay. That's business. I'm not afraid of UFC. I am like they say, like I not employee, and I'm not saying that I want to be, or I don't want not to be, but this is just about money. It's my work. I'm not planning to be friends with UFC after I'm done. I'm just doing things based on what I believe and my principles. And I don't expect people that don't have principles

to understand me. Right or wrong, I'm doing what I believe is right. And I believe if I take that money, I would say, and let me ask, and let me tell something, people from the UFC call me and say, hey, I'm not going to tell you any names, but they say, take the money because it's better you take the money that people that It's better you take the money that people that feel feel the lawsuit, you know because You have the right mentality, but the money is gone and that's okay. And I say hey, I'm not doing this for you I'm not doing this for the UFC I doing this because I truly believe that I signed the contract because I want and I was happy and nobody was taking advantage Of me before the web see I was nobody. Nobody knew me. I built my career on the UFC,

and I read the contract, and I say, okay, they can have the image, they can have this, they can have that, and I'm gonna sign that for this money, you know? But people nowadays, they don't think about that. They think, hey, if I can change what I say just to have beneficial, just to have like a beneficial gains,

just to make more money, I'm okay with that. I'm not. I don't think that's fair. I don't think that's just. And I like to think in 10 years, 15 years, I'm going to tell my son what I did and that was the right thing to do. So that's very impressive.

So, and again, you don't have to tell us who, but people from the UFC, once this came out, said to you, hey, take it. On the same day, on the same day, take the money. And again, I say, hey, I'm not doing this for you guys. Don't be. Don't be. I love UFC. Of course, people have to understand that I'm a fighter, but I'm a fan of UFC too. I have the YouTube channel.

I talk with FC. My whole life is about MMA. And UFC is the best promotion. But again, I'm not, I'm not changing anything to being a good UFC again. I cannot care less about UFC because UFC doesn't care about the fighters. It's simple as that. So again, I'm not- What do you mean by that when you say that UFC doesn't care about the fighters? That's a big statement.

Let me- you're trying to twist my words, I know. Not twist my words. No, no, no. Hanata, you know, I have... Did you hear what I said about... Let me ask you something. Let me ask you something. Wait, wait, wait, please, please, please. Before you continue, did you hear what I said about this story? No, I did not hear because, again... Okay, but let me just tell you. I said that I think you're an incredibly smart person and an intelligent person and we all have to respect your feelings. Whether I think it's right or wrong, I said I have the utmost respect for Renato as a person. You're very smart.

The way you have educated yourself, the way you think about business, even if I don't agree with everything you say, you clearly take the time to research and learn and read. And so that's why you have my respect. So then when you say you think I'm trying to twist your words, it hurts me. I'm trying to twist your words, it hurts me. I'm sorry. I just want you to clarify or expand on the sentiment because you know people will take that and run with it. So that's why I ask you for the follow up.

I'm not trying to get you in trouble here. Okay, okay. So what I want to say is, when I say UFC, I'm not saying about done a while I told no, I'm saying about the business, you know, the business care about money because they have investors, they have people that want care about money. So they don't see fighters as persons, they see as assets, you know, that they're going to use. And once these guys not giving the return, they're going to release. And again, you cannot expect a business, a company to be your friend. But I want to make a, I don't know how to say that in English, but I want

to make an example, you know. So let's say Ariel Hawani, you have a lot of employees, you know, and you have people that do the podcast with you. And 10 years ago, you have a guy that nobody knew and he wants to do the podcast with you. And you say, OK, let's do a contract over here. I'm going to use 10% of my profit. You're going to sign the contract. And 10 years later, 15 years later, the guy say, hey, Ariel did wrong with me. He was taking advantage of me. Now I want 50% of the company. If he went through you and say, hey, let's discuss this business. The guy went to the justice and said, hey, I want more money because I believe that was not legal and he had signed the contract. I had a company in Brazil before, I have a

gene before and it happened to me before, stuff like that. I don't wanna go to this whole case. But what I believe is, when you sign the contract and you agree with the terms, you cannot sue the company and you can say UFC is a monopoly because I don't think UFC is monopoly, even though they have a huge market share. And again, I don't think that's good, but I think that should be should be fixed with

more competition and not and not and not like justice in making UFC as the business less efficient. That's my how do you feel about the fighters who took the money? That's not that's not up to me to me to decide you know I can talk about myself I don't think he's right, but again. That's a free country the The beautiful thing about America is everybody can choose so that's not me to decide. I don't think that's right I don't think that's right. That's right. Do you think it's right? That's up to you Well, I mean everyone's weighing in on your decision to not take the money

So I was wondering what you thought and that's okay, you know, you know, I know because most of the people They they base their action on the outcome, you know I I base the stuff that I do based on principles, you know So is it's not because I it's going to be more beneficial to me monetary that I'm gonna change what I say. Because one thing is, it's very easy to say, I'm a free market guy, I'm against the government, I'm this and that, but when I can prove,

when I can show up, when I can tell my kids and my family that I live by my word, that's hard. And what's hard for me, I'm not telling that I'm a saint, you know, when I heard that I live by my word, that's hard. And it was hard for me. I'm not telling that I'm a saint. When I heard that I would get like, and they start to say, you're going to get like a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand. I talked to Gilbert Burns and he said, is at least a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand. And that's good money for me. I would get that money and buy two, maybe two, one and a half Bitcoin and that would be good. But I think I want money, you know, but I don't want money just for nothing.

I get it. If I want money for something, like I like money, but I will never rob a bank, you know, I would never step to my work just to get money. So that's my whole point. My whole point is here. My whole point is when these people signed with the UFC, they were very happy about the contract. 10 years later, they say, no, I was not happy. I was abused. And then when they have the chance to keep going

with the lawsuit, they drop it because they do the settlement. So they got the money and the lawsuit is gone. And guess what? UFC will be doing the same thing that you complained when you were an athlete. Can you understand what I said? Yes, I understand. I understand. Yeah. So what about these people that they say they are fighting for the fighters, they are fighting for payment and once they have the chance to prove that was not about money,

they choose the money. So when they came out with the settlement, I think the original number was 335 million. And then the the the the judge, Judge Bullwer said, which was somewhat shocking, at least to me, I'm not a legal expert, but it was shocking that the judge said, no, I don't like this number, go back to the negotiation table. And then they came back with 375. That was the number, right? Three hundred seventy five million that they wanted to disperse.

My initial reaction, Hinata, was I am surprised because the group of fighters and their leadership had been telling us for about 10 years or so that this is all about changing the sport, changing the contracts, right? And- Oh, you understand my point. You understand my point. Yes, yes. I'm backing you. They fucking choose the money't i don't want to say i was disappointed but

i was like oh you're literally uh to steal a phrase from the nfl you're at the goal line to getting this to go to trial to where now there would be discovery you would find out all these things about the practices you would be able to fundamentally change the sport and the ufc basically gave you like a tax write-off and you went away. So that to me was yes, so I understand that being said, but I think you deserve more money. I think you deserve more money and I guess what is not good, bad or anything, but to me, someone like you, it's fascinating that you would say like, oh, you'd be going against your word if you took this money,

because ultimately the UFC is saying, take it. It's the same money, in my opinion, than the 10 and 10 that they gave you when you first signed. Now they're just course correcting and being like, you know what, on second thought, we actually think you deserve 15 and 15. So why not just take it? Yeah, that's my whole point. That's not going back on your word. That's not calling you a liar. No, it's not because- A bonus, a bonus, right? If they wanna give you a bonus in the locker room

because they liked your fight, not an official bonus. That's good, that's good. What's the difference? Guess what? The difference is they doing that because of the justice and because the government. So the government- You say they forced them?

Yeah, of course they forced them. The website would not give them money if they didn't have to do the settlement. This is clear. They want money. They love money. But my whole problem with this narrative is this. We're fighting, and this is like government.

This was like Lyndon Johnson expand the welfare program in the United States. We're going to do that for the single moms that cannot work. Okay. But then 15 years later, 20 years later, 30 years later, we see the debit in America because people doesn't care about what they say. They don't care about the words. They're going to act in beneficial of them. And I like to think I'm not like them. I like to think that I am a man of my word and I want my son one day to realize that. So that's my whole point, you know?

And again, I'm not saying I'm a saint. If the money was like 10 million, three million, one million, two million, I could have taken. I could have taken, you know? But for this money, I'm not gonna do it, okay? I'm not gonna do it. That's fine. The word, and I hope you don't think

that I'm criticizing you. I just wanted to like gain insight because I think some people see the clip or they see the headline and they weigh in on it. To me, I'd rather talk to you about it because yeah, it's up to you. Ultimately, you taking the money or not doesn't affect me. Exactly, exactly.

So that's why I think it's fascinating. That's all. And I don't think less of you as a person. In fact, I actually in a way have more respect because to me you said a word and you know I have a lot of respect for you and I admire you greatly, and I hope you see that clip where I talked about it because I said if this is how you feel, if someone feels strongly about something that is not hurting me, that is not illegal, then we should respect it because

if you have principles, you said that word, principles, that to me is something that is lacking in a lot of people. And so if you thought about this, and I know you did because you're a smart, educated man, and you said, you know what, I don't feel right taking this money. It doesn't it doesn't align with what I believe in. Then who are we to judge you? That's what I've taken money. Well, probably.

But do I think less of you? No, no, that's my whole point. Because first of all, now I have a huge audience especially on Portuguese and if you know Brazil we have we have we've been dealing through a lot of things a lot of things with the government because of this mentality to take to take free money to criticize companies. America was the biggest economy is the biggest economy and was the like the the biggest economy and the the biggest nation in the world because of free market of ideas, free market and decentralization. Back in the day when the Founding Fathers,

they found this and they did the constitution to take power of the central government. Nowadays, the mindset is shifting and people are turning. And now we see like five years ago on the COVID, we saw how many people were saying we need more government we need more uh we need more intervention and i don't believe that everything that i believe is in his opposite i believe in individualism i believe only yourself can can dictate what your life is going to be and once every and single matter we're going to start to

go into the justice system to say what the government because which in the end of the day the justice is just a branch of the government you know the justice is government and we saying government is judging us so I don't believe in government I believe in less government I believe in the power of your decision I believe in new human action so that's my time to prove it you know that's my time to prove it. That's my time to prove it. It was a big protest yesterday in Brazil, right? A big protest in Brazil today. And you know what's funny?

Imagine what we are going through Brazil right now. I'm telling you, the justice system is going over, is going over the the the legislation branch. So what that means, that means that the Congress doesn't do shit in Brazil. The Senate doesn't do shit in Brazil. And now we have a Supreme Court that they issue laws, you know, they can they can do whatever they want. You know why? Because people give power to the justice. People give power to You know why because people give power to the justice people give power to the supreme court

People give power to the government and you know what they're going to do. They're going to abuse it That was like that in every uh, dictation Dictatorship in latin america you start to giving people you start to give him power to the government Guess what? You're going to grow and he's going to dictate every single aspect of your life. You know, 50 years ago, nobody would say that UFC is a monopoly. Nowadays, athletes that work for the UFC is saying there is a monopoly and they deserve more money. Guess what? I believe I deserve more money, but you know my way to do that, negotiate with UFC.

I'm not gonna say to a judge and say, hey, they are paying me not good money. Do the contract by yourself, explain your case. And if you are worth, UFC gonna give you more money. That's as simple as that. Again, it's not because I think UFC is good and everything is 100%, no. It's because once we start to depend on the government,

the government will grow. Once you grow, we're going to have more bureaucrats dictating what is right and what's wrong. And then when you see your society is gone, everybody's depending on the government, like America is now on a huge crisis of debit, you know, they cannot stop printing money. And I don't believe in that. I believe in less government. So that's what my way to prove it. So in conclusion, no regrets. You don't regret this today. You

won't regret it tomorrow. You won't regret it in five years. I don't know. I don't know, Mario life, life, you change, you know, if I wasn again, I'm saying, I'm not doing this for the UFC and I'm not doing this because I'm a saint. I'm not a holy, no. I'm saying on the position that I am right now, I am in a good position right now. So I will stick to my principles, but- Did you consider taking the money and maybe donating it?

That's the problem. I did at the time because was not to show that I was donating, to show that I was doing good things. I did it at the time because it was not to show that I was done aiding, to show that I was doing good things. I just thought that's wrong because I signed the contract and I was happy. You wish you did that? I wish I did that. I wish I did that.

Is it too late? I don't know. I don't know. I think so. Because from the email that I got from the lawyer, he say, hey, this is the last day. And I say, no, thank you. I don't want to.

But in reality, if I have done that, it would be even better. But that didn't cross my mind. So that's what I'm saying. It was not because I want to look good and it was not because I want to please UFC. Was about principles and especially people in Brazil. I have a huge audience in Brazil and I tell them you have to be responsible for your acts You have to be smarter. You have to be stronger. You have to keep Ariel I don't know if you're a religious guy, but I believe in God

I believe I do too and one day one day when I go to if I go to the have I cannot judge I would like to think that Jesus say you did the right thing You know you live by your principles. You were not hurting anybody I never initiate aggression against other people. I don't discriminate nobody. I'm a good guy So keep calling me dumb keep calling me whatever you want I don't care I live by my principles and I don't expect you that don't have principles to understand what I did then him It is what it is.

This is a fucking free country, you know, choose and give your opinions. I don't care. You can give your opinions. Like, again, I did not watch a show and I did not watch Brandon Shelby or whatever did because he spent a whole hour talking shit about me. I saw a small clip and I commentating on that, but I'm not going to be watching every clip that people talk shit about me You know, it is what it is. You can do whatever you want We didn't talk shit about you here. We didn't talk shit about you here just for the record. I just record

Oh, yeah, I didn't talk shit. I was saying I respect you and like you you don't believe me, huh? No, I believe you and especially now what you say because that's my whole point too That was not about UFC being a monopoly. That was not a, that was not a, my point was the, that's not what about fighters pay that was about to grab some cash. And that was good for the UFC. That's, that's what people don't get it. That was awesome for the UFC.

You give him 300 million. That's, that's no money for the UFC. And everybody's happy. And you drop the lawsuit. And now UFC is now labeled as a monopoly, as I think it should be. But if I was in the lawsuit, I would not take the money anyways, because you have to believe in something.

How are you going to live your life? You're going to live 50, 60, 70 years in your life, living like a fucking cow, a life of a fucking chicken, just eating and like walking. Brother, think about that. If you believe UFC is a monopoly, don't take the money and go with the lawsuit. I don't believe it's a monopoly.

I believe in free market. I believe a monopoly is only created by the state. I believe a monopoly is only created by the state. I believe a monopoly is only created by laws when people prevent competition to go on the market like UPS or like FPL. So even if you have the most, if a billionaire wants to start a water company in Florida, they cannot because government say,

hey, I give the concession to this company. This is a monopoly because you cannot go. But if there is no laws and if you have a lot of money, if Mark Zuckerberg want to create his own promotion, maybe he can do right. But guess what? To me, UFC is just better than the competition. They are just way better than the competition.

And we saw that in other monopoly case, you know, the Sharma Act, you know, a lot of times, a lot of times, this is just a competition trying to make the company less efficient because in the end of the day, if UFC has all the fighters and if they have the biggest market share, that's good for the fans because they can see the fights that they want. You know, the difference between boxing, all the people say that and the boxing, the best don't fight the best. I'm not saying that that's good for the fighters because of course they can pay you less money and they can control more the fights.

But for the fans is good. And that's why even when the fighters are in the PFL, they are in RISE, they are inFC, everybody wants to go to the UFC and that is a reason for that. They are the best company in mixed martial arts of the world right now. And if there is no competition, they will be for a long time. And I don't think a judge should rule on that because that's not free market, that's interventionism. Much respect, Hinato. Thank you for coming on. This was a great chat. I wish we could

go a little bit longer, but we are out of time. Always appreciate you and I urge everyone to check out your website, your YouTube channel, moneymoicano.com, the Show Me the Money podcast, keep up the great work and a way to stand on your morals and principles. And fuck everyone else. Let's think that I want to say is sometimes when I'm doing the Show Me The Mind podcast, I cannot articulate like that. I cannot say the things that I believe in because it's a one hour show and I have to be funny.

You know, I have to be funny. I want to be funny. I'm speaking on my second language. And so that's why I can understand why the people clip and they say, hey, this guy is dumb, you know, and, and if you think yourself as dumb, think the people that watch the brand or shall be show on YouTube, the commedia, the special, that's fucking terrible. Okay, but even I can do better than that shit, brother. And I don't even speak English and I can, and I can, and I can be funnier than you, my brother. So

Papa catches it straight. Oh dear. Oh dear. and I can be funnier than you, my brother. Papa catches the stray. Oh dear, oh dear. Thank you so much, Ariel, for the platform. Everybody that wants to follow me, go to my social media, Mani Moicano on YouTube. And if you want, buy a fucking t-shirt, my brother. Yes. Hey, this is the Portuguese one.

I have both now. Yes, we have two now. You see, we show you love thank you so much and not the money moicano and the money moicano show me the money all that stuff you know uh i'm not in good the good wise in the good wise with the fc so buy my stuff and support me on the social media okay thank you so much there he is the great renato money moicano what a guy what a character about by catching a stray on the back end of that. We appreciate him very much. Okay, let's not waste any more time because our next guest has been very patiently waiting,

and I apologize to him for that. He is Martin Buday. We just saw him. We just saw him in action what, 10 or so days ago, less than that, nine or so days ago, beating Mark Spucecha. He had won his third fight in a row, and then he announces on social media that he is no longer in the UFC. Let's get the real story here from the man himself, the pride of Slovakia, Martin Budaj is kind enough to join us.

Martin, thank you so much for the time and I'm sorry for getting to you a little late as you saw there, Manu Moikano, he likes to talk a lot so we apologize for keeping you waiting. Thank you for your patience and thank you for coming on the show today. Thank you for inviting, no problem. Okay so Martin let's start pre Abu Dhabi if we can. Obviously you knew that there was one fight left on your UFC contract right? Yeah yeah that's correct. Usually there's some talk before the final fight about whether or not we want to resign you or not.

Were there any conversations between your management team, yourself and the UFC about your future after this fight against Marcus Buceca? I don't think so, not at all. So it happened for me like on the first contract that they let me to fight it to the end and I was like free agent. So this was like the same scenario again. So I didn't know what or how will you decide. So I was about to find out after the last fight with Marcus Buccecia. And which fight was that? You said the last contract, which which fight was that was that that you had the final fight on the contract?

It was fight with Josh Parisian. Okay, so that was in 2023. So then I guess you signed a four-fight deal after that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. They were also like deciding to not resign me after that I was like for four wins and for like I won all the fights on the first contract. And UFC also was deciding if they sign me again or not. So going into that fighting, I was expecting like this will be like same scenario. I will, uh, I will finish my second contract and they will like take some time

and they will offer me something or we will go to the negotiations, uh, which didn't happen. So you, you beat Josh via submission and going into that fight, were you told or were you under the impression, okay, I need to get a stoppage, I need to do something spectacular? You won that fight via Kimura in order to convince them that I should be resigned. It was obvious I needed finishes. UFC is not happy with the decisions. So I was aware like I need some big finish or something like that. It'll be like better for me to or it will help me to sign a new contract. Okay and so shortly after that win you got a new contract and then you were you were actually stopped by Shamil Gassiev in your next fight. Were you worried that you were going to get cut because

they can cut you after a loss? Were you worried that you were going to get cut because they can cut you after a loss were you worried that you were going to get cut after that loss? Yeah of course because like it was bad performance and I was worried I would get cut of course. So yeah. Okay ultimately you didn't and then you went on to win three in a row as recently as two weekends ago in Abu Dhabi. Going into the fight, were you told we need a finish here, we need something spectacular, it's the same thing. What were the conversations like?

I was told like I need finishes from the after the Arlovski fight or after the Shamil fight also, but after Arlovski fight, I was told like I need some like big performance or big finish or it will not be like good for my future in the organization. So Arlovski fight wasn't like my best performance. It has some background to it, which I didn't share with the people with the with the public What was that? What was the background? I lost my father like four days Three or four days before the fight. It was like not for the fight week so I wasn't like mentally mentally there in the fights and mentally there in the fights and it went that bad.

Yes. Wow. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm very, very sorry. Did the UFC know about this? No, no, no, no. Oh, wow. And did you consider withdrawing from the fight after this happened? Oh yeah, I was considering, but like, I didn't want to like upset the company and upset my fans and like the preparation was good, the fight camp was good. I felt like I felt like prepared for the fight to deliver the finish that UFC wanted and

it didn't work out unfortunately. So it was a very unfortunate situation for me. Ultimately though you got the win and then you got another win and then you got the win from a couple of weeks ago. As you were you know in the locker room after the win after the fight did you feel like you had done enough to to warrant a new contract? In the last fight, you mean? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was confident like I did.

Like it was like my best performance so far in UFC, as I can say that. I didn't have like my previous fights wasn't really attractive because I used a lot of clinching like it was like my main weapon is if I can say that. So I started to ignore the clinching and do more work on the feet and maybe on the ground. So I started to do like more stand up and I show that last fight I can use it properly. I also showed my take down defense is on point. I believed it will be enough to resign me after the performance because I'm getting better and better from fight to fight so I think the Finnish will come in the future. Okay so then it was reported I believe it was reported on July 31st so a little less than a

week ago by MMAfighting.com that you were no longer on the roster and then you confirmed it on social media So it is in fact true. They they didn't they didn't extend an offer. They didn't try to resign you How are you told how did your team find out? How did you find out? Like we were celebrating after the win And I found out like last Wednesday. I believe it was like Wednesday, I got a call from my manager that UFC will not extend the contract with us. So it was pretty rough. Yeah.

What was your reaction? I was really upset and very sad about it because I love UFC uh and I was hoping to get resigned yeah so I was set for the situation. Was there any sort of uh negotiation did they offer something that your team didn't like or was it just hey we're gonna go in a different direction? Uh, there was like no negotiation. I also, I, I do to make it clear, I wasn't asking for more money. And anything I was like, I can like wait for some match to come up. Like I didn't ask for anything. Only ask. Only thing I asked was to resign me.

Sure. You would have been happy to resign at the same amount that your last fight contract was on. Yeah, yeah, of course. Okay. That was the only thing I was telling my managers. Sure. And were they told any specific reason?

Like did the UFC say the reason why we're not going to resign them is because of X, Y and Z? Well, like only thing like I was told was they don't have any fight for me right now. So they will not extend like my contract. Okay. Do you believe that? Do you believe that's the reason? Do you believe that? Do you believe that's the reason? I think there are more reasons behind that. The main reason is some of my fights weren't so attractive for the eye of the fan. But I did everything to secure the win. So I think that was the main problem. I didn't have so much like finishes in the fights and like my fight style wasn't too much, wasn't attractive. Yeah. Yeah, because as you mentioned, there's a fighter named Thomas Peterson, who's been

calling you out and you said you wanted to fight him as well. And you're ranked, I think as of last week, number 12 in the UFC ranking. So clearly there would be some fights for you. Ultimately, and they did a similar thing with Jairzinho Rosenstreich, who was a heavyweight who was coming off a win and they didn't renew him as well. So it seems like they're obviously well within their rights to do that. Ultimately, were you were you more disappointed than surprised? Like, was there a part of you that was worrying about this? Or were you completely caught off guard? Did you think 100% that they were going to resign you again? I wasn't sure that I will get resigned. So it was like not 100%

surprise. But I was like hoping after my last performance, I will get a resign. So yeah, it was like 50-50. You said you were you were sad, you were disappointed, you were mad. That was a few days ago. How are you doing now? Well, I think a little bit better. I have some offers from other promotions from all around the world. Already? Yeah.

So I'm thinking what's next for me and we'll decide in the near future probably. Could you tell us who these promotions are? There are many, like there are many like I think every promotion you can imagine but like if I can tell you some like funny one which are not funny with all respect, the one offer that I didn't like believe that first was offered from glory kickboxing. Oh wow. So yeah, like they were like, we didn't talk like numbers, but they, uh, they reached me out, like they have interest. So they were asking like, if I have interest. So I was like, no, and the first thing I was in my mind, like if they were, I was laughing and I was asking myself like they want to kill me.

Yeah, they want you to fight Rico. Yeah. And how come? Is it because you don't want to do kickboxing? You don't think that's the best fit for you? No, no, no, I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think I will fit in the high competition like glories in the kickboxing because like

I'm a fighter. So I Don't think I can Keep up the keep up with the with the heavy division in glory boxing I Think so I like more I had heard that PFL was interested That a promotion in Croatia FNC that's doing big things is interested in you as well? Are you familiar with these organizations? Yeah, of course. But right now I like the interest of PFL of course, and also for Boktag

on MMA, where I was like a champion before I entered the Contra series and UFC. Sure and they've grown a lot since you were there, right? They're doing incredible things. Yeah, of course. Of course they're doing like incredible things. They are like probably number one in Europe right now and they are expanding, expanding big like they are doing the stadiums and everything. So it's like big promotion and

Good for them. Okay, and obviously you're you're a part of Tom Aspinall's team, right? You train with Tom and I've seen you training with Phil DeFries as well. There you are right there So I was thinking initially like oh maybe KSW against Phil, but I don't think that you would you be open to that or are you too close now? I think we are too close. So I will not I would like decline the offer instantly because like I train with Phil and I train also with With my other sparring partner from Slovakia, who is competing in the KSW also, so I would decline the offer instantly.

I don't want to fight my teammates. Yes. Do you think that we'll now see, you know, you are on a great run and you have a great record already, but considering all that's happened here, do you think that this will give you a chip on your shoulder so that the next time we see you, You'll fight a little bit differently with more aggression You'll want to get out some of these frustrations or you're gonna remain you seem like a mild-mannered guy a pretty you know Relax guy will this affect the way you fight or do you think you'll be able to separate the two? I would like to show I like to deliver some finishes that I

I would like to deliver some finishes that I didn't get in the UFC, so I will probably be more aggressive in the next fights and deliver the finishes and do a good fight. We have seen some people leave the UFC and then come back. Is that a hope? Is the hope to go out there, get some finishes, show them that you're worth their while and then resign with the promotion? I'm not sure at the moment, but as you said, we've seen this before, so maybe that's my way back to the UFC or maybe not. So I'm not sure, But I want to do good fights in my next promotion I will be fighting. How quickly do you want to return?

I would like to fight as soon as possible. I'm healthy, so I would like to get one or two fights by the end of the year. Okay. So we'll see. Okay. And by the way, I know that you posted on your social media about fighting Buceca, like I think 10 or so years ago, you took a picture with him, right?

Like you really looked up to him. Was it weird for you to fight someone that you had so much respect for? It was not like weird, but it was like challenge for me because I know knew him like very well or like his achievements in the BJJ and grappling and BJJ world. So he's a big legend and it was like a big challenge and big honor to fight with someone like Marcus Shesha. Yeah, I was wondering the reason I bring it up is

sometimes when you have this history with someone or you have this respect for someone, you're a little less aggressive because you don't want to hurt them. You don't have that animosity towards them. And I wondered if that came into play. Oh, I don't think so. I don't think so.

I totally did separate any like good emotions towards him. Like through five weeks we met, we shake the hands, we exchanged a few words with all the respect but in the fight I think both of us separated that from us in the fight. When you tweeted this last week that you were officially parting ways with UFC, the tweet exploded. It got a lot of love and a lot of attention It went viral as they say did that make you feel a little bit better? Yeah, this was very nice

and I want to thank everyone or everyone in the MMA community who Who show me love? The post on the Twitter was like skyrocketing in interactions. It was like, I think, 900,000, if I remember correctly. And also on Instagram, it was like doing some good numbers, like I think 2 million interactions or something like that. So I was really, really surprised that the MMA community showed me so that. So I was really, really surprised that the MMA community show me so much love

and I'm really thankful for it. I appreciate it. As of right now, are you leaning in one direction or another? Do you have any physical offers that you're actually seriously looking at? Probably between PFL and Octagon right now. So your team is talking to both entities? Yeah.

Is there one that you prefer over the other? It's hard to say. Hard to say, but probably as I know the Octagon MMA, which I was like the champ there as I mentioned before. I would like probably a little bit more on the Octagon side. Well, two good choices, right? PFL, gaining momentum, number two here in America and maybe all over the world and Octagon, you know them and developing is one of the best if not the best in Europe right now so I would say you're in a very good spot and you're taking the high road you're not burning any bridges with the UFC you're not slandering them on the way out so you have a lot of opportunities ahead of you and you're on a winning streak and according to the

UFC the 12th best heavyweight in their organization. So that's something to be proud of. Yeah, I'm proud of it. As first I want to say, like, I'm not throwing any bad trade on the UFC. Like I love the UFC. I want to thank them too. They make me a fighter that I am today in person. So I want to thank them too for the opportunity to to show myself to the world and to to be a part of the number one promotion in the world so I don't have

like any bad feelings about them and if if I do like good and get some good wins, good finishes, maybe they will be open to resign me. So we will see. Well, good luck to you, Martin. I appreciate it very much. Thank you for coming on. I'm sorry this happened, but it sounds like you've got some opportunities and some very good options.

So good luck in choosing the best option for you. And we look forward to seeing you back in action later on this year. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for inviting me to give me space and have a nice day. Same to you. There he is, the pride of Slovakia, just 33 years young, which for a heavyweight is, in my opinion, quite young. And like I said, as Juan, his last three in a row, this has happened. It's not necessarily something that is unique to Martin, and he's got options. Octagon is doing great things. The PFL option is certainly an interesting one. They could use some names in their heavyweight division.

Obviously still in the Francis Ngannou business. So I don't think he's gonna be out of commission, so to speak, for quite some time. I think he'll find a home. And it sounds like the two best options are Octagon and PFL. I was wondering about KSW, but I know he's good mates with the one and only Phil DeFries. So I appreciate him saying, yeah, I wouldn't consider that one. Glory's an interesting one as well. Glory trying to take a little bit from the MMA pot as the MMA pot is taken from the Glory

side of things. Interesting, but credit to him for saying, that's not my bag. That's not my thing. In a couple of moments, we're going to be joined by Thad Gene, who won the 500K tournament on Friday, the welterweight tournament for the PFL. I wanted to go back to one of the fights that happened on that card. It was a fight between a Canadian, Frédéric Dupras and Nathan Kelly, the Irishman. The referee for this fight was Giovanna, excuse me, yes, Giovanna Scano, who I will admit, not terribly familiar with.

Usually when the major promotions are in the New Jersey area, you'll see, you know, the usual suspects. You'll also see Shaolin Hibero, Vitor Shaolin Hibero, who's a New Jersey MMA legend, former fighter. So not familiar with her, she reffed, according to Tapology, three fights on this particular card, and this one was quite controversial. Soundful, let's listen to it and react to it, because unfortunately, while it was a very impressive finish, it probably went a little bit too long So as you can see and perhaps we can replay it now without the sound.

I mean what a win for Dupont. A very impressive guillotine choke. Dustin Poirier somewhere very jealous of this ghillie but as you will very clearly see Kelly does tap and Skynow is just out of position the announcers well you don't really see it there but the announcers are going crazy and in the in the clip which is why I wanted to play it sound full you hear her talking like diddy tap or is he out and I mean obviously he's not going why I wanted to play it sound full, you hear her talking like, Diddy Tap or Is He Out?

And I mean, obviously he's not going to be able to react. She was just very late. And this is not me trying to shit on her. The referees have the worst job. I've always said MMA refereeing is the toughest job in all of officiating because so much of it is subjective, even more so than being a kickboxing or boxing referee. You have to make these split-second calls. But this wasn't great. This wasn't great. You know, it wasn't quite Jason Herzog of two

weeks ago, but you know, this was not good at all and you know you don't want chokes to last longer especially after someone's tapping so that was that was an unfortunate that was an unfortunate one I understand with regards to the Jason Herzog situation that yeah there there were some conversations afterward like he that one didn't just go quietly into the night. There was some talk, there was some explaining that had to be done, and you know, I don't think that we are not going to see him ever again, but I did look into it and I was happy to hear that it wasn't just one of those things where, you know, it was just like, hey, you know, tough day at the office. If they're not going to be held

accountable as far as the public and the media is concerned And New Jersey is one of the best Commission's so I expect a similar type of thing happened here They should be held accountable behind closed doors with the Commission's and I consistently think that the best Commissioner quote-unquote in combat sports is Andy Foster of California. Tomorrow Andy Foster is going to be on the program to talk about some of these things but also to talk about a new scoring criteria change that he is looking to implement in the not too

distant future. So I look forward to that very much Let's move along and say hello to the aforementioned Fadgene who is now $500,000 richer he defeats Logan Storley very impressive fashion. He's had some impressive wins Some might call this the most impressive he has been the breakout star for the PFL in this new tournament Format that they've unveiled this year. We had him in studio a couple weeks ago. We welcome him back to the program now. Thad, congratulations my man. A couple days later, how are we feeling about what you did on Friday? Yeah, I'm feeling blessed. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling blessed and tired. Five rounds was not a

Five rounds was not a was not a easy easy Walk through of a battle but it was a battle and it was my battle and yeah Like you said, I felt like I I did the best and I felt the best that I have ever done in the match or in the cage Honestly, so so were you surprised to win five rounds? Were you really thinking that you were gonna stop him? Yeah, I thought I was gonna stop him in the second round And I stopped because the referee I was like the referee is like why isn't he stopping a fight?

He's trying to make me gas out my my twitch fiber muscles are not for all this little damage hit So I was like, you know what? I'm done. The referee's not gonna call the fight He's trying to gas me out and I got three more rounds to go So let me just walk away from this and just get back to my corner so I can get the next three rounds going. But you're thinking of all that in the moment. Yeah. Damn.

You're having internal conversations. Literally. Oh, I got to finish this deal. I got to finish this dude. And I was like, okay, this dude's not stopping the fight. So I'm like, all right, dad, you're going to go against a wrestler. You got three more rounds. If you keep punching and you don't finish it out, we see it so many times

in the past where there, where there's one guy who gets the near finish, does everything he can to finish it. The referee doesn't call it. And then he's gassed out and then he loses the fight. And I was like, I'm not going to be one of those guys. So I'm like, you know what? All right. I'm walking away from this.

I'm going back to the corner. He's not going to do anything in the last 10 seconds. So I'm going back before I gasp myself out and by the way when I asked that about you know Being surprised it went the distance. I wasn't necessarily talking about that moment But as you were preparing for the fight and match yourself up against him. Did you did you think oh, there's no way We're going to the championship rounds here Yeah, for sure. Really? Yeah for sure. But yeah, of course. I thought I was gonna destroy Logan like and Like he wouldn't be able to take all the hits in the power that I was gonna give him

But man that guy is durable that that dude is literally Probably the most durable person I've ever won against like I said I felt the best I've ever felt and the amount of output and the amount of punches the amount of strikes that I threw It was more than I've ever thrown before. And for him to be able to take all that and just keep coming forward even into the last rounds, man, I give so much props to him as a fighter and just as a warrior in general. So I mean, I did not expect to go to the championship rounds. But even though we went to the championship rounds, Logan kept, he just kept going.

He just kept going he just kept going did you think that he respected you that he viewed you as as as a threat as someone who could beat him were you getting that vibe from him on fight week yeah I did you know why I got that vibe is because he never really claimed the victory if I always listen to what people are saying and he never really claimed victory He never when we got the first look at the belts. He never Touched the belt and I was just like, huh? That's an uncertain guy right there that's a that's a guy who's Who's not so stirred from shelf right now. So I was like, you know, I'm gonna use that to my advantage and

Take full advantage when I get into the cage. Wow, that is perceptive. Just by him not touching the belt, you felt like he wasn't sure of himself. Yeah, and he never claimed to, he never claimed that he was gonna win. He just said that he was going to take me in the deep waters and make this a tough battle for me.

He never said he was gonna go out there or I'm gonna take this title, I'm gonna be the winner of this. He never claimed he was gonna go out there, or I'm gonna take this title, I'm gonna be the winner of this. He never claimed that victory itself. He just kept saying how much of a tough battle it was going to be. And then again, not him not touching the belt. So yeah, I'm listening to everything.

Filling out whatever the opponent is saying. Yes, what'd you think of being out there in Atlantic City, Boardwalk Hall, what was that experience like? um What is It was cool. You didn't love it No, not at all. It's I thought It was not for me. It's not it's definitely not the city for me. It was definitely

Hanging on I should say. Yeah. I felt like that was the vibes I was getting from Atlantic city. The boardwalk, it was more like a, it was, it was a cool, I, I'm pretty sure in the past it was really nice. And then I asked people in the past, how nice was it? And they were like, it wasn't the best in the past. And I'm like, okay. I guess the glory days was when it first came out, when it first popped out.

But I feel like now it's hanging on by a thread. And I mean, even the commission, everything that the commission was doing, they were like, they didn't even allow elbows, the 12 to six elbows and the grounded opponent role, like everything was super like old school still. So, I mean, they were definitely a hardcore, the commission, so they're really cool,

but just to Lightning City itself was very urban. Yes. New Jersey is one of the I think one of the better commissions. But yes, they were they were in fact the ones who they were the ones who came up with the unified rules of them. They were the first ones to institute a way back in 2001. But you are right about Atlantic City hanging on by a thread is being very kind I would say that it was the spot to be in maybe like the late mid

to late-ish 80s and so it's it's glory days are long past and I personally haven't been there in like 13 years so I was wondering if maybe it was enjoying a Renaissance it sounds like not it sounds like it might even be worse. No, yeah, I wouldn't go back. Okay. If I didn't. Yeah, if I didn't have a fight there, I wouldn't go back and put me in Vegas instead. You know, we're going to go into a city of lights and nightlights.

Put me in Vegas. Fair enough. Fair enough. I did see that you guys did a little face off on the beach. So I thought that that was a cool. Yeah, honestly, let me tell you the truth. I that was the one and only time and I was there for an entire week that I went to the beach okay wow I looked at the beach that was a one and only time you know I don't like look going to beaches where because okay I'm from South Florida and I live right I'm five minutes from the beach

I'm pretty spoiled over here but going on sand and sand is super important and the sand there looks like it's more like concrete sand oh super important and the sand there looks like it's more like concrete sand. Oh damn. Okay. I don't like that. Okay. It's like you're driving.

People are driving on it all the time. But again, I'm not trying to crack on their town or just make fun of them but I'm just I'm used to South Florida beaches. I got you. You're spoiled as as as you should be. It's a very special place. How big of a deal is this 500k? How life changing is this for you?

It's nice, it's really nice, really nice. I have never made that much, but it's nothing. It's just a tip of like, just of what I plan on making in the future when it comes to just money. It's not for my family and for myself and just my generation. But 500,000 is definitely a beautiful start off to get to where I want to be in life. For sure. Definitely want to do some training

camps, things like that. So I mean, and then just winning a title in general. All that is just a really, really, really, really, really nice little kickoff segue to doing what I really want to do in this life. Yes. I saw you had a nice little sleep with the title as well. Yeah. Yeah, man. I was like, who else to keep you warm in the night other than a hard shiny belt?

Yo, it's by the way, it's a very nice looking belt. I must say it looks heavy as well. It is heavy. Oh, there it is. Beautiful. No, it's upside down. No, you don't want that. Oh, there it is. Beautiful. No, it's upside down. No. Yeah, you don't want that.

Oh, there it is. Wow. What was the like going on the plane with that? No, I'm honestly super like, I know that it seemed like it, but I like get like shy sometimes when it comes to attention outside of where I should be getting.

I don't know if that makes sense. Yeah, I got like, unless I'm in the cage or unless it's like needed and necessary for me, I'd rather stay low key. So I packed up my bag of my my belt so that people wouldn't know. Ah, you didn't go through security with it. No way. That's the move. You have to do that and then everyone Telling me no, no, no, no. No everybody was telling me. Oh dad. You gotta just show out do it put it the bell I was like no absolutely no way

I get like honestly I guess I and I will do it like if I if it's in a moment and people want to see it Definitely. I'm definitely a man and people but at the same time, I don't wanna be that guy, oh, look, this guy's walking around with the belt, look at this guy, who is this guy? Let's go talk to this guy, or let's go take pictures with this guy. And then it's not even people who actually know who you are, they're just people who just wanna take pictures with you. I'm like, bro, you're just holding up people,

and now we're bothering people. You know, so I'd rather not. But by the way, your suitcase was big enough and And and it wasn't overweight because like that thing looks like it weighs like 50 pounds No, I actually so every time you fight with the PFO they give you an extra bag I use that extra bag to to carry my belt and make sure I had it on top So nothing was pushing it. So she definitely she definitely had like first class treatments definitely was a was treated the right way Okay, what is right now? This makes you the Walter meant welterweight tournament champion champion What does that mean? Like what?

We're still I have to admit we're still confused like who the champions are and what so like does this mean now you get to fight? Who? It depends. there's a couple of people um personally i want to fight umil atop first but if i have to fight shimil that's that's another one who was the winner last year and then there is the bello tour champion uh ramazon i think that's his name and then after that i feel like once I get through one of these, these, I'm the top contender to go against these people who've already established themselves as titles, not, not Umlautah, but Shamil and Ramazan. And then after that, I want to go to the European scene and go against someone like Bakke or

Cedric Dumbay and just take their, the PFL over there. Okay. Take over PFL over there. Oh damn, I like yeah I'm it's pretty much on my call like where who do I want to go against? It's like do I want to be going against your mill the last year's winner, which I do eventually want to go against Do I want to go against Ramzan go against the unified? PFL versus Bellator belt. I

I'm hoping I'm saying his name right when I'm saying that forgive Forgive me if I'm not. And then, or do I, do I go across the sea and just go against, um, do they or Baki? So have they said to you, it's up to you. We're going to, we're going to follow your lead. No, no, no, no, no. Okay. No, they don't say, oh, they don't tell me that, but they tell me I have the options. Okay. And so if it was your choice and you, and you could pick your number one option, who is your number one option? No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no my status as a ultimate fighter and I'll say Shamil would be the part of me solidifying myself

as really the top ultimate or I could go the fame route and go against those in the in the France like said to do me or Valky. So I mean that's what I was doing. You know exactly. So I would go one that really want to up my fame and go against those guys. But like I said, whoever they put me against, they put me against. But I feel like those are the two routes and those how those two routes look. Do I want to go with solidifying myself as one of the best or do I want to and we're not just kind of, you know, Baki and such do me a really, really good, but I would say they have more of the face of popularity and fame right now that I can take from beating them.

Yeah. Ramazan Kora Magomedov is the I guess the last Bellator champion. I don't know if that belt still exists. It's all a little bit confusing. And so I feel like it's going to be that direction. Or as you mentioned, Shamil, if I were you, if I were managing you, if we were in cahoots together, if we were in business, I would go the Baki doombay route, because those fights fights with all due respect are bigger and there's more opportunities To just grow your star because you're a rising star and and and you have Developed into the story of the year for pfl so far and and one of the faces of the company

And so to me, I love that I just didn't even know if that was an option if they if they wanted you guys to fight You know, I think it's a little bit confusing right now, but that's to me the best idea you were I just didn't even know if that was an option, if they wanted you guys to fight. I think it's a little bit confusing right now, but that's to me the best idea. You versus, number one would be Dume. Dume is a gigantic star, especially over there. You versus Dume would be gigantic for them.

Huge, he's a huge star over there. And they have a huge, it's just France, and then again, I'm Haitian. So it would be another, it would be another big, huge, um, promotional thing, you know, as they would do with Jackson and me and Jackson with the Caribbean, we could do Haitian and, uh, France, you know, there's a lot of history there. So it'll be a huge fight. I mean, ma'am, maybe start little start little turf wars out there as well because of the fight.

I don't care, but let me fight them anyways. So I feel like that'd be a really good move, honestly, on my career path. Is there another Kill Clip fighter that you can fight? Cause I believe you're now 4-0 against them. Yeah, I am 4-0 against them. You know, I don't know, are they in the UFC now? Most of the other ones are in the UST.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is an incredible thing. That's a nice little feather in your cap. Yeah, I mean, I'm ready to go against the ATT guys too. Whoever ATT has that I can take out all these huge gems. I'm ready to take out everyone. No one's taking my zero. And if you feel like you're gonna take my zero,

I'm cool with the target on my back. You can come and try to take it. I'm ready for exactly whoever's coming. Like I'm only getting better. I'm only with the target on my back. You could come, you come and try to take it. I'm ready for exactly whoever's coming. Like I'm only getting better. I'm only getting better. And I feel like I'm cracking a code every time I get into that cage. And I mean, I guess that's what you could say

is the experience part is that every time you get into the cage, you feel you get better and better. And that's exactly what it is. You know, I felt the best I've ever felt going into this fight. I went five rounds. I've never done five rounds. And went five rounds with a four time, five time NCAA grappling champion who not only who keeps his opponents on the ground. He didn't keep me on the ground.

I got up when I wanted to. Yeah. He took me down every now and then when I wanted to take a little break, but I was calm on the ground. was ready to get up when I wanted to but I took my time and once I got up I dealt the damage again Did you get the sense from the brass when you were there that they? Recognized that they have a star on their hands here. Were you feeling the love? I saw them all in the cage afterwards like all the you know, all the the execs and all that we were you feeling that love? Yeah, yeah, yeah. PFL is awesome, man. I really, really, really love PFL. And I really want to stick with the PFL and see where the trajectory, like I said the last time when I was on the show, I feel like the trajectory of the PFL is only going

up and up and up. And I feel like after this win, I'm not trying to say just me, but riding that win, when the PFL is just only getting bigger. It's only getting bigger. And um, like I said, it's still fairly new. Like you said, it's confusing with the new, the new bracket system and the new tournament format and all that stuff, but that's all right. It's going to be here for a while and eventually everyone's going to understand it.

And once everybody understands it, they're going to feel a part of it. And once they start feeling a part of a while and eventually everyone's gonna understand it and once everybody understands it They're gonna feel a part of it And once they start feeling a part of it, they're gonna start writing it and start loving it as they should So I think it's a really cool Really really really good promotion honestly person so that was nice on the fighters point of view sure So that was three fights in in a pretty short amount of time. Do you think you're done for this year? I So that was three fights in in a pretty short amount of time. Do you think you're done for this year? um, I Say yeah, but I feel like um

Once I go a month in or a month into training and just recovery because I'm going to recover as soon as I'm done with This I'm gonna do ice bath. Um I'm doing my recovery as soon as I'm done recovering fully. I'm gonna want to fight again So we'll see what the year what the year holds. If there's an end of the year fight, then I really want to be on it. But if not, then beginning next year or whatever next year holds, and I'm ready to fight whenever they call my name. But honestly, I want to go do some training in Thailand and do all that stuff.

Probably next month. So August of twenty, twenty four, you actually fought on August 16th, you fought on the playoff card against Chris Brown, you improved to 7-0. If we would have talked in August of 2024, exactly a year ago, about like, okay, where are you going to be in a year? Would you have believed all this? You're a pretty confident guy and I think that you have high aspirations, as you said earlier, but would you have believed

the story would play out like this so quickly? Honestly. I would have known that I would have told you I'm going to be a champion next year. Yeah, I would have definitely said that. I'm a champion next year, but I wouldn't have known how I would have become a champion this year. If that makes sense. I wouldn't have known the story of how it because in the beginning from last year becoming after being Chris Brown, I would have thought they would have wanted

me in the tournament. No questions asked. No alternate. No, maybe he's not ready or not. Maybe he's ready or not. No, I'm in a tournament. I wouldn't have thought that a PFO would have thought maybe he's still not ready. He's okay. We'll throw him in as an alternate. We'll see what happens. Oh, nevermind. Now he's in a tournament. Oh now he's not people like, oh he's beating Jason Jackson. Oh now he beat Storlick for the world title. I wouldn't have been able to tell you that but I would have been able to tell you yes, I am going to be the champions. By the way, why didn't they put you in the tournament right away? I guess from the PFL's point of view, I am undefeated and I would be going against people with a

lot more experience than me. So just to keep my record on blood match, to keep me gaining more experience, putting me more against people with the same amount of level of experience that I have would be the smarter route to go on the business point of view. But as a fighter, I'm ready to fight everyone. So I definitely understand what the PFO is trying to do on keeping me, preparing me and preparing me for the tournament and going against people with such a high level of experience. But you know, I've been saying it and I'm gonna keep saying it. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter.

I'm ready. I'm ready. I got the heart. I got the willpower and I'm gonna keep saying it. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. I'm ready. I'm ready I got the heart I got the willpower and I'm just ready to keep going. I'm just ready to keep going And so is that gene? the new face of PFL Becoming I feel like this was my come out party. I'm not I want to say per se I'm the face just yet but or I'm becoming a face of the PFL. I would say that I'm becoming a face of the PFL I would say that I'm becoming a face of the PFL you know there are already still way more established

faces at the PFL um and like I said the biggest face I would say is Dakota we got Johnny even though he just lost uh that still now is really big um you got people like Don Rol who, who if he wins this title will become one of the faces as well. You have again, the European scene is super big on Bakke and then Cedric as well. It's also really big. And then Shamil all, I want to say he's a face, but he's one of the people that who, who I will have to go through to become the face really solidifying myself as the face of this company Well, I respect and appreciate that you're saying becoming I would agree. I think you're well on your way You've been the best story so far as far as these tournaments are concerned

Must see TV was a great fight so close to finishing him which would have been incredible, but the performance was It was spectacular. Nonetheless, you got those finishing him, which would have been incredible, but the performance was spectacular. It was spectacular nonetheless. You got those extra rounds in, you got to prove to yourself and to anyone who didn't believe that you could go five rounds. I don't think anyone needed that confirmation, but if they didn't believe, now they know.

And you fought a who's who. You fought a pretty tough bracket there. So congratulations on the win, on the money, on everything that you're doing. It's a lot of fun to watch and I'm enjoying getting to know more of you. So there it is. There's the belt. There's the man himself. Let's go baby. Well done, Thad. Enjoy the ice bath and thanks for joining us again. Thank you so much, Ariel. I appreciate you for having me on and look, for believing now.

Believe me now. It's going to be just that. and i've been watching a lot of gsp honestly so that's why i was utilizing i just wanna i just want to shout you out for that i was watching a lot of gsp uh utilize because i saw him use his jab a lot yeah one of the fights where he was going against the wrestler i forgot the wrestler's name but i saw him using his jab a lot and if you see in this fight I was really utilizing my jab because I was watching that fight. So yeah, I want to thank you for that. Yes I love that. I love that. There's a lot to learn especially from him, especially that weight class I don't know if it was the Jake Shields fight But I thought that might have been the fight that he used to jab the best UFC 129 April of 2011 In some of this downtime watch Mr. GSP.

You will learn a lot from him. I have, I have. Love that, love that. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate the area. You too. There he is.

That gene, the welterweight tournament champion. Love that he's looking at the legends and who better than GSP to learn from, right? Especially if you're a welterweight, incredible stuff incredible stuff all right let us move along now and say hello to our final guest of the day always a pleasure to talk to him he's going to be in one of the massive fights on next weekend's UFC 319 pay-per-view in beautiful Chicago Illinois back at the United Center of course headline by Drikus Duplessis defending his UFC middleweight title against the one and only the undefeated

Hamza Chamayev. A very interesting middleweight contender fight on this card involves former UFC middleweight title contender Jared the killer gorilla canonier going up against Michael Van Impaige. Now this is interesting because I was under the impression the last time we saw MVP fight of course was back in February in Saudi Arabia against Sharbullah that that was just kind of like a fun pit stop for him at 185 and that he was going to go back to 170. Well here he is two in a row is a thing at 185. So let's get some answers from the one and only Michael Venom Page who once again is

very kind enough to join us on this Monday evening. Hello Michael, how are you my friend? I'm always good man, I always enjoy coming on the show. I hope you're well. This is a nice looking car here. What is this, a Maybach? What do we have over here? It's a Bentley.

Life is good for MVP, I love it. Well thank you as always for coming on. And so can we start there? Was I was I wrong? Did I misread the situation? I thought that that was just like a fun little pit stop. And then we were back down to 170. You know, that's that's exactly what it was supposed to be. Like I said, when I first came in here, I said, I'm in it for the big fights. And you know, make keep make as much noise as like the last like the last lap for my MVP's career. So I wanted to make a lot of noise.

Obviously I wanted to do that at welterweight, but I wanna go where the smoke is. And it doesn't seem like anybody at welterweight is carrying fire. So it seems to be very political and of who you can fight and who's ready to fight. And I called out everybody and I got no answers So I was like, you know what? Yeah for me to just get another fight. Let me just

Fight a middleweight again and now Jared's an amazing, you know Yeah, it's a kind of share the cage with so, you know, why not? So was this their idea meaning did they come to you with a welterweight fight that maybe didn't materialize or did they like the idea of you sticking around at 185, they being the UFC? They offered, you know, after that last win, I was expecting some really big names and the name that I got, and I'm not going to offend anybody, I'm not going to say anything, but the name that I got, I was like,

this kind of doesn't make sense. I just beat one of your prospects. And technically the way it looked anyway, that if he had beaten me, he's, he's looking at title elimination and then moving forward. So what does that mean for me? This guy's supposed to be your prospect, you know, young up and coming guy, talented,

and I've just beaten him. So I was expecting like a big name and just didn't come. So I thought, you know, I'll just push it. I'll just push it myself. I'll ask for a few people. And that's exactly what I was doing. Even at the UFC London, when I was there, I was calling out a few people.

And again, normally I don't usually call people out, but I thought that's probably the best way to make something happen. Didn't hear anything back. Didn't hear it. No, there was no responses at all from anybody. It's like, and then, you know, I was hearing from in the team, it's like, it's just very difficult to match you, which says to me, like, people are just kind of,

I don't like to do the avoiding game, but I think just people are being tactical about who they want to fight next. But I wasn't interested in waiting for, you know, another opportunity to get back in the cage. So I was just like, cool, let me stay at middleweight and fight. These guys seem a lot more ready and willing. Did you like the fact that it was on the same card as the middleweight title fight?

Or is that just like a bonus? Does that not really come into the thinking? That was just a bonus, to be fair. I like the fact that it's there. But yeah, that was more just a bonus. Okay. I have to be honest. When I saw this MVP Chicago, and I don't know if it crossed your mind as well, I went back to Douglas Lima. Because that fight didn't happen in Chicago, but Rosemont, Illinois is a suburb of Chicago and people always kind of call it

Chicago did you think of that as well? And is this the first time that you're back in Illinois since that fight? Yes, it'd be the first time I come back since then But to be fair, it was actually a friend of mine that reminded me that isn't it? Because I actually forgot That's where I remember fighting there, and I just forgot who it was I fought. And then he reminded me that it was there. And, but yeah, for me, like those things never, it's mean anything, it's just part of the story.

And you know, like I said, regardless, losing for me is just a part of my growth. I'll never see it as anything losing for me is just a part of my growth. I never see it as anything else. And it was a part of my growth. I, you know, I managed to get that to get the payback and then continue growing in my career. So for me, it's just a part of the story. And it would be nice.

I like Chicago, so it's going to be nice to be back there performing and just doing what I do best. Okay. I was wondering if there was any part of you thinking like, oh, I could write the wrong here. I can exercise these demons and all that stuff, but it doesn't sound like that really comes into play. Nah, nah, nah. I never like to be too like superstitious in that way.

Like I said, the only wrong that I needed to write was fighting Douglas Dima specifically, and I managed to get that fight again and then win So for me that's that's that's old news now I saw an interview with Jared Cannoneer with the submission rate. You can still see me, right? You could yeah, okay and and it seemed like he had a bit of okay it seemed like he had a bit of an issue with the fight because he Said that he didn't view you as a middleweight. So you know, he was coming off a big win over Robocop and felt like this didn't really necessarily

advance him. He's at number eight. Do you understand where he is coming from? Or do you think that mindset is a mistake? I, again, like I said, there's so much, it feels a bit, I feel like the ranking systems has made everything a bit more political about where people want to go instead of just fighting. And I think that was always the great thing about the UFC is people just fought regardless of where they class themselves at.

And for me, it's a difficult one because I'm a veteran in the game with an established name, but I'm still veteran in the game with an established name, but I'm still a rookie or new to UFC. So I feel like the other vets in the game are not willing to really want to risk fighting such an awkward style. And yeah, I can be a bit of a headache for some people. But then again, it's also not worth me being a gatekeeper, so to speak, and just fighting new guys coming in either, because obviously I'm trying to progress myself.

So I find myself in a bit of a weird situation at the moment, but yeah, Jared is gonna have his feelings with the fact that he accepted the fight and he signed the contract. So it doesn't really matter what it does for him now. And so once this comes and goes, and let's say, I'm sure you're banking on it,

you win, now you're fully entrenched as a middleweight, right? Like now you're on a path here, you're not gonna go back to 170. You're gonna see how far this takes you. Well. Or maybe not. Like I said, I'm in it for big fights,

and at the same time I do want to get to a title fight. So how I see it now is I'm a person that can fight in both divisions and depending on what the best path is to the top, which also includes exciting fights. So for example, next year, obviously once a year or sometimes twice, but mainly at the beginning of the year, they like to come back to the UK. Again, I still think a Leon Edwards fight is a great fight for just for the UK. And obviously that's going to be at welterweight. So if that's offered to me, I'd 100% accept that kind of fight. You know what I mean? But in terms of progression and moving forward, if there's, you know, if I'm told, you progression and moving forward if there's you know

if i'm told you know take this i don't know who next but take up this fight next and then you know you're in line to be a title eliminator or something where it seems to be less political then i'll you know i'll stay up here was the leon fight ever in play again these are people that i asked for i kind of only want it really in the UK anyway, so technically it wouldn't have been in play until next year anyway. But yeah, it hasn't come up. Again, I've mentioned it many times, but it hasn't come up or hasn't seemed to be reciprocated from anywhere else.

But again, I think everything's timing. Like I said, I think if it aligns for next year, that would be perfect. And I genuinely, it's more out of respect and it's more to do with what it does for other up-and-coming UK talents that can see two young guys that are from their country, from their areas, and that can really motivate and inspire them to say, guys that were from their from their country from their areas and they that can really motivate and inspire them to say look I can do this to to see two people at the top of their game fighting in a main event that would be great I seem to remember after the Saudi fight that you said you wanted a quick

turnaround this is like around six or so months between fights was that what you had in mind or were you hoping to come back sooner? That's what I'm saying. I was expecting to jump straight back into it. Okay. And like I said, I fought having an exciting fight like that in terms of who I fought against and who I beat. I was expecting, yeah, I'm gonna get off his left, right and center and it just didn't happen.

This is why it took so long. Cause again, I wanted to get down to welterweight or continue, I fought at middleweight and I could just continue that camp and just continue cutting weight and get down to welterweight for another fight and again, I just wasn't here and anything and every there was just too many seem to be just Too many issues, but supposedly the division was very like everyone was already tied up and it just seemed I don't know it just Yeah, me it was it was irritating But this is why I was saying I'm not waiting any longer. Let's just push for whatever fights available And getting this fight for me still a great fight like you said he's top 10 in the middleweight division

So it's still it's still a sign of progression Well, the silver lining is you got to make your debut as a referee sign of progression. Well the silver lining is you got to make your debut as a referee in the time off. What is this? What is this? Do you ref on like a KSI card? Was this a KSI card? Look at you here. I didn't recognize you in the old school referee outfit. So basically KSI kind of did this new like TV show basically it's like they get or any of his fans that can sign up and try to get basically earn themselves a misfit contract they get they have to do four rounds win or survive four rounds technically uh first first fight i think first round was against an amateur, then it's against a YouTuber, influencer, then it's a misfit fighter, and then it's a pro fighter. And whoever manages to

survive and you get money each round. It was quite a cool concept. And I just got a phone call from him. If you're available, can you come down? I was like, look, I'm happy for him. Happy to do it. So I was just, yeah, I ended up taking up a new job role. And weirdly enough, as soon as I walked in there, there was a young kid that I seen training our gym shoot fighters, but nobody knew he was getting this was just open. I only heard about this a couple of days before. So, and we had a few guys that follow KSI heard about it, obviously, because they follow KSI and signed up for it and he managed to get selected. Randomly, he's a young kid, 19 years old,

and he just went in there and he's the only one that won. So like, it's massive for him because I think he won like 15 K 19 years old and he just went in there and he's the only one that won so like It's massive for him because I think he won like 15 15 K and you know for a 19 year old to do that before he's even had an amateur fight is amazing That's a kia jami, right? Yes, kia jami. Yeah. Shout out. That's incredible big shout Yeah Big shout because again you sometimes you just gotta take those risks and put yourself out there and that's incredible. Big shout, yeah, big shout. Because again, sometimes you just gotta take those risks and put yourself out there,

and that's exactly what he did. Again, very respectful young guy. I see him in the gym, but he does the classes. He doesn't train with us. So I just, as I walked in, I was like, oh, what are you doing? But it was nice to see him actually succeed as well. Did he give you a greater appreciation

for what the referees do? Weird enough, that's not the first time I've refereed. Oh really? Yeah, a good friend of mine, before even like influencer boxing like was as popular as it is now, a friend of mine, Ed Lofts, used to run a white collar boxing show and he'd always ask me if I can come down and referee. So I've been in that position quite a few times I've done a lot of his events um yeah over the years he used to do a an event called victory boxing so um I've done it before. By the way um you came up recently um we had uh Darren Till and Luke Rockhold on you know they're fighting at the end of August and uh

Darren was going on this thing about you know uh bareuckle and why would I do Baron Knuckle you know everyone who does Baron Knuckle that's just all washed up guys and all this stuff and I was like well what about Michael Venom-Page? He did it you know because he was taking a shot at Rockhold for doing the Baron Knuckle and all that stuff and fair play to Darren he did say okay you got me on that one you got me on that one. You got me on that one. Not exactly washed up. I said he's doing even better now than he was back then. Pre-Barenako.

That being said, what do you think of that fight? And do you have a pick as far as who you're leaning towards? So it's a boxing fight, right? It's a misfits. It's under KSI. Okay, yeah, yeah. Again, the way Darren too has been looking in boxing. It looks great. He's obviously, he's spoken about many times about he's done like some camps with the Furies and stuff. And you can kind of see that he's very competent.

He had a very tough fight against one of my teammates as well. Um, Darren Stewart, you know, another UFC fighter, uh, he had a very tough, but I, I understand like Darren Stewart and on other XCFC fighter, uh, he had a very tough guy, but I, I understand like Darren Stewart has actually been a big part of my, my camp, this camp, because he's a, he's a robot man. He's seriously just an Android. He just walks forward and you can hear him with everything and he just keeps, he keeps coming. But again, Darren Till was able to kind of, um, just edge that and come out on top on,

on that fight. Um, you can see how talented and how comfortable he is in the boxing. For me, it's still a shame that he's even not in the UFC anymore. I think he's a great personality, again, talented fighter and just a person that everybody would want to watch because he brings it. But I know he had a few bad fights, but I definitely believe he could have turned that around. Yeah, I mean, he lost to DDP at the end of his UFC run and that quite has aged very, very well. What about that main event?

Who do you like in the main event? I'll give it to Till. I'll give it to Till. No, no, DDP comes up. Oh, sorry, I would say it's a difficult one, man, because again, I feel disrespectful every time I say it. But I genuinely believe this, and I don't, I genuinely don't understand why DDP keeps winning, because he's got such a kind of almost messy,

he's like a super talented amateur fighter. And again, I can see like aspects of his technical ability, but it seems messy. Like it's not a style that is appealing to me. But he just seems to know how to get the win and know how to kind of push through. Like, in all honesty, if this fight came up before, I'd be like hands out the end. No, I just picked that no issues, but DDP just just knows how to keep grinding out a win. So it's for me. It's a hard one to even pick Skill wise I guess I would say

Hands out again, but DDP like I said, he just seems to know how to grind out a win. I just think it's a great fight, and I'm glad I'm gonna be front row to see that one. You're always doing a lot of interesting things outside of fighting. I understand that you're executive producer of two films coming out, right? Yeah.

Runner and Weight. Yes, yes, correct, correct. So yeah, we, like I said, I started a film production company. This one is Wait, I believe. Yeah. And this guy, Jonathan is a seriously, I think I caught two exceptional actors. Ella, that's the other girl there, Ella Bardot. She is going to be, she was so good. We actually casted her for both films. And she's actually in both of our films. And it was quite cool.

Obviously I started a new ITM production company and it was just exciting to start something different. I also want to get into acting myself, but I was like, let me try and experiment and kind of learn the ins and outs from the back end. And yeah, this has been an exceptional, we had a great team, Kishan Lakhaney, he does all of my, this is how we started,

does all of my YouTube stuff and all of my Instagram stuff. And we, you know, we talk, we're both creative minds and we just said, let's start this company and start making films. And literally it's been, it's been fun. It's tough, difficult learning, learning curves and things that you have to really pay attention to, but we're both enjoying it. But yeah, again, with that time off,

I was able to kind of get busy elsewhere. So as much as it was annoying from the fight side, we did really, really well everywhere else. So yeah, and you know me, I like to stay busy. And you don't appear in either film, right? You're strictly EP. Yeah. So literally just wanting to executive producer, because this is my first projects. I really

wanted to just make sure that I could just solely focus on the production and just making sure it ran, you know, the team was good and everything ran well. And seriously, there was people on that work with us, Martina, our producer, there's like loads of people that are very experienced, that all said that like they really enjoyed working with us. Not only, especially with Kishan, as a director, seriously, he's a director that, if you saw him, you would have thought he was on his, 200th film, like he's been doing it 20 years.

He was so, he knew exactly what he wants, very meticulous, he just knows, and he knew exactly what he wants. Very meticulous. You know, he just knows and he knows how to guide people really, really well. And then, yeah, it just it just made everything so much so seamless. And there's always hiccups on films and on set. But we just the team was just amazing. The team was really made. So that's the the trailers for it.

And then the film's gonna be out soon, hopefully. We're just finalizing a few things, but it'll be out soon. Okay, so I was just gonna ask. So you don't know when they come out? So we're still doing coloring. Like I said, there's a lot of stuff in the back end that we're just finalizing.

And then it's also the marketing side of things that I need to learn as well. So we wanna put both films in for all different festivals and hopefully it wins awards. And the goal is to, you know, we start winning awards and getting recognition, then when I push, cause we got a slate of things that we wanna do,

but it's gonna require funding. So, you know, if you've won awards and people can kind of see our work and see how you know good we are And we did this on a small budget We can do that on a small budget if you give us you give us money. I'm telling you. We'll make something real special By the way, are you a man you fan? Yes, many knives really so but But you're not from Manchester? One thing I'd say that Manchester is worldwide. And everyone says that. But seriously, no matter what country you go to, you're going to find a Manchester United supporter.

For me, when I was younger, my best friend at the time lived directly opposite me. And I was probably about six and he was a Man United supporter because his dad was. And I didn't really watch football at the time. And he would just say, just tell everyone you support Man United. And then I would just say it. And then when I got a little bit older, I think things about 10, 11, I was playing the game is that pro evolution. I can't remember which one but that's when I started to learn the names of players and then really started to kind of watch the game and just continue to say I support Man United and to be fair

I love the team. Okay because I saw you repping the the kit and I was like you know London guy thought maybe you know taught them Arsenal one of those clubs but I understand they are sort of the Yankees. So everyone, you know Exactly. Exactly. Yes, when you go out there when you go out to Chicago So I fly next Monday Fly out so I don't I don't need to oh wow Really? Yeah, even with the the the the time difference five hours No, I think it's six hours.

Yeah, I've never really had a problem to be fair. Going that way, I actually feel more tired coming back. Yeah, yeah. So when I get back to the UK is when I'm feeling, I really feel it for about a week. But going out there, I've never really had an issue. And is life so much better as a middle way? It definitely is.

Like meaning like what are you right now if you don't mind me asking? So I'm like, I'll be like 90 kgs. So I'm not sure what I would, I know you guys do it the other way around. 90 kgs and I gotta get to 84. Okay, so that's 198. There you go.

Yeah, okay, so you still have 12 pounds. Yeah, what would you be if you were a welterweight? Would you be this big? No, no Way, no way. No way. I'd have to get a lot lower I usually fly I like to get closer to the way anyway But this one because I'm my body once my body starts losing from this point. I get to that middle weight Weight division very quickly when I'm cutting to welterweight.

So I already know for me, this is easy. So I can allow myself to sit a little bit heavier and then, and then slowly cut down. Okay. So two and one in the UFC now this year, fourth fight. Do we need a stoppage? Are we, are we jonesing for a stoppage? Do we need a vintage, like, do we need to show this UFC public, this audience, you know,

what an MVP stoppage is all about? Yeah, 100%. I've always, I've always obviously wanted to kind of get it. Kevin Owens was just bloody tough. I had a very awkward fight with Ian Gary. And again, another obviously I'll come up a weight when I was against Shahra. So again, there's certain shots that when you land, I'm like, other people would probably have fallen or wobbled. But again, this is

what I've got. I've realized in this division that one shot that I would normally catch, I got to get, I got to get, I got to land that about three times, four times. And that's when the damage really starts to kick in. So I've been doing extra work, extra fitness work, to just be able to push myself to land more, more combinations and just keep the work going. But the goal is I always go in there wanting a knockout, and I'd love to be able to deliver that to the fans. Looking forward to it.

Thank you as always for the time MVP. You're the man. Appreciate it very much. Good luck. Safe travels out there and yeah and good luck with the films as well. Please keep us posted on where and when. Definitely. Thank you so much again.

Thank you for even like you know previewing. Thank you for having me on as always. Say hello to your nephew as well. You're the man. Have a meeting once. Yes of course. But yeah. Love to everybody as well man amen thank you so much that will make his day thank you Michael all the best you appreciate it very much as always there he is the great Michael venom page returning at UFC 319 which is rapidly

approaching just 12 days away the final UFC event of this pay-per-view no not this pay-per-view the final UFC pay-per-view event of this summer schedule, because there isn't one in September, technically September is still the summer, if it's before September 21st, I think fall officially commences on September 21st, or is it the 20th? One of those two days, there was supposed to be one on September 13th, but as you know by now that's Noce UFC, and as you know by now that is also the date of the highly anticipated Terrence Crawford versus Canelo Alvarez card, which is rapidly approaching as well on

Netflix. Now some other news and notes. There's a lot more that we need to discuss. So let us get right into it. We did find out just a few days ago, July 31st to be exact, and P.T. did a great job of covering this on The Boys in the Back on Thursday afternoon, also on The Crack on Friday afternoon, that Conor McGregor has lost his appeal against the civil jury finding in favor of the Irish woman Nikita Hand who claimed she was raped by Conor McGregor in a Dublin hotel in December of 2018. I'm reading this from Uncrowned.com written by the great P.C. Carroll, the three-judge Court of Appeal dismissed all grounds for appeal. Thursday in Dublin, Hand was present for the ruling, McGregor

was not. McGregor denies Hand's claims, insisting they had, quote, vigorous and consensual sex. As part of his appeal, McGregor's team claimed that the trial judge incorrectly directed the High Court civil jury to decide whether he, quote, unquote, assaulted rather than, quote, unquote, sexually assaulted Hand. Justice Brian O'More, who sat on the three-judge panel alongside Justice Isabelle Kennedy and Justice Michael McGrath, said the appeal court had no doubt that the effect of the Civil Court Judge, Justice Alexander Owens' charge was that hand's allegation against McGregor was that he raped her. O'More claimed it was quote-unquote unreal to suggest the jury would have been confused due to the brutally clear way the trial judge had framed

The allegation you can read more of this. It's a it's a lengthy piece on uncrowned.com. And so That's that I mean he did say that he was going to appeal he loses the appeal he did go on social media Shortly thereafter and and comment on it in it in a fairly lengthy post as well. There is still a potential perjury probe that is still active, so this story is not quite officially done. But as far as his appeal is concerned, I do not think that he can appeal the appeal. This is also from the Uncrowned.com article. According to the judge, with regard to his appeal efforts, McGregor failed to show a real risk of unfair trial and his side had not been deprived of the right of an effective cross-examination. Hand's lawyers opposed the appeal and urged the

court to allow the November 2024 jury decision that McGregor had assaulted her and its award of two hundred and fifty thousand dollar euro damages to her to stand. An order requiring McGregor to pay hands estimated 1.3 million dollar euro which is approximately 1.58 million dollars. Legal costs was stayed pending the outcome of the appeal. The court today ordered, and this is back on Thursday, that hands should get her costs in the high court and appeal court against McGregor.

So there you have it. Conor McGregor loses appeal over a civil sexual assault case, potential perjury probe still active. It also did come out this past week that he is back in the testing pool, although it was noted that ally Quinta is still in the testing pool, which I'm not saying he's not. I still don't actually really know what this all is.

Like it is no longer, I mean, they say 2,394, and I believe that, but it's no longer an independent body that is doing this. And off the top of my dome, have there been any high-profile Failures have they caught anyone or are we to believe everyone is just a hundred percent natty at this point. I Don't know But that did come up as well sticking with the

The legal matters if you will, John Jones has a couple dates that he needs to that he needs to know about. This according to MMAFighting.com. These two dates are related to the same case after he was accused of leaving the scene of an accident back in February. Court records show Jones is scheduled for a bench trial on August 14th based on the charge of leaving the scene of an accident, which is a misdemeanor. The second bench trial is scheduled for September 2nd, and that is also based on a charge for leaving the scene of an accident along with a secondary charge for use of telephone to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy, or offend, which is another misdemeanor. While both cases are related to the same incident, the second case was filed later with the additional charge being brought against Jones.

His attorney Christopher Dodd filed a motion to dismiss the second case due to the duplicate charges against the UFC heavyweight, but the judge has not yet ruled on it. Until then, a bench trial is set for September 2nd, with Jones expected to appear virtually alongside his attorney, this according to Damon Martin of MMAfighting.com. So two of the biggest names in the sport with some legal matters, one appearing to come to an end, not in his favor for Conor McGregor, and one just getting started once again for John Jones. Also of note, Max Holloway saying on his YouTube

channel that he injured his hand in the fight against Dustin Poirier. He said, quote, I see a lot of people talking about who's next, who's this, who's that. There's a lot of fun fights for me at Lightweight. There's Charles Olvera. If Justin Gaethje gets the next title shot, that would be cool. If I get the next title shot, that'd be sick as well. But if you have hopes of me fighting before the end of the year, probably not going to happen. I see a specialist sometime soon. I already met

with my doctor now. I got to go meet the specialist, but things are not looking too up for me fighting one more time this year. So all that fight talk is on. Still, we just have to see how the lightweight division is going to pan out. He said he injured his hand at some point in the fight. I don't know exactly when, but it seems as though he may be potentially going under the knife very soon. So we do wish Max Holloway well. The guy that he wants to fight is Ilya Toporya, and he was

at some incredible concert. And could we play this? Are we allowed to play this? I mean, it's, it's no sound. Why? We get ding. We don't want to, we don't want to open that up. It's the people singing the song.

Yeah, that doesn't matter. Really? They were singing his song. What is the name of the song again? There's a name for it. Anyone know it? How does it go again? I can't now think of it.

The one from Desperado? Sing it, sing it for me. There it is. Da da da da da da da da da da da. Aye aye aye aye. Trust me, I wanted to sing it. I just couldn't think of it. Every time hear it I like it puts a smile and that whole what was that by the way was that some sort of like music festival I think that

was just another press conference who's no that was not a press conference I will not accept that pound-for-pound right now is that the best active walkout song question by the way this is is a good pound for pound. I'm strictly speaking active, I think it's number one. Okay, I'd say I really like Max's. Max's is good. Hawaiian Kickboxer like puts me, you know, in a mood. I'm taking LA over it. Okay, okay, okay.

Um... Bulk? Bulk's is not bad. That is, that is... Bulk's is not bad. See, too many guys, they gotta stick to one and it's gotta be iconic. None of this changing songs every time. Man, Volk versus Ilya, that was a fantastic. Honestly, Ilya's 2024, Volk and Max back to back. Those were two great walkout song

fights. What's Aspenall's walkout? Like, I know he had Englishman in New York, in New York, but like, what did he use when he fought in Manchester? I think he's changed it. Yeah, okay. Okay. I got one. I got one Pereira Prayer is fucking incredible. That's a good one. Is that Trump? Ilya? That's a good one. I Think it might ah what you Strictly speaking song. I think I'm taking Ilya's because sometimes I'll just be in my house and I'll just throw it on This is a good and I'm taking Ilya's, because sometimes I'll just be in my house and I'll just throw it on. This is a good, okay.

And I'm just like, ay, ay, ay, ay. Oh, it's amazing. In my living room, I'm just over here. I do the same with my kids. It's so good. Perera's is more just like badass, and then when you combo it with the, stop with the arrow and the scream and everything,

that one. Suga? Suga's been different. Last time, Oh, I know he ruined it, yeah. Walked out there like what? I'm talking about, Thurman or something? No, he walked he walked I'm proud to be an American I was talking about

superstar that was an all-time walkout especially because he came champ but like he's not consistent enough with it mmm yeah that that might be a quick Mount Rushmore right okay okay so, so the current top five, Pereira in no particular order, Pereira, Holloway, Max, Ilya, and who's the five? You named, Volk, Volk. You named, no, you named Max and Holloway. Lucky, yeah.

Max, Volk, Pereira, Ilya, James DeHunna. James DeHunna there. Also Rushmore's four of them. No, but I'm doing- I said Rushmore, he said top five. Top five, yeah. He said Max, he also said Holloway. Well, wait, I feel like we did say five.

Max, Alex, Alex, Ilya. Max, Holloway, Alex, Volkanovsky, Pereira. Max, Holloway, come on. Max, Elia, Blessed, Pereira, Holloway, Volk, now we have Sticks. Fuck you. There's one that we're missing. Paddies? Paddies is good. Yeah, Paddy might be in it. In Cage Warriors it was so much better. They produced it better better but yes, that is a good one. He might be five

Yeah, Patty's five. That is pretty good. I See someone in the chat saying zombie but like he's not active anymore. I'm actually going on active. Yeah zombies incredible McGregor's is obviously incredible but like too long. Let's see. He's got too long Dustin also had a great one But you know change it up. Yeah, okay, so we're going Officially top five best walkouts right now active max Illya Volk For daddy, okay now let's rank them now. Let's rank them. I'll go Wait, let me just write this down. So I don't fuck this up. This is a this is actually really tough. I might go Pereira

Patty Illya Volk Five to one? I think I'm going five to one. I think I'm going Max, Patty, Volk, Pereira, Ilya. Max, Patty, Volk, Ilya, Pereira. Pereira. Pereira all the way last? No no no. God damn it. Oh my head is. 5 to 1. Who starts with 5 by the way? You gotta you gotta keep the anticipation for. Okay blind ranking. Blind ranking. No I'm kidding I'm kidding. Yeah. Someone in the chat says, I don't understand the James Therhuna meme.

By the way, by the way, this started with you saying Ilya's number one and it doesn't end with you saying Ilya's number one. I said Ilya one, you mixed up Pereira and Ilya. No. Five to one, Max, Patty,

Volk, Pereira, Ilya. There it is. five to one max patty valk perera ilia that there it is oh my god this is a mess okay let me get this all away okay max five patty for valk three prayer to elia one yeah like that that's my Alex Alex is one which one Alex prayer is still number one yes various that's tough to beat you're not topping when Patty came out when he fought at the the the echo arena in Liverpool in cage warriors fuck man. It was like a rave

There is also like with both Ilya and Alex a little bit less So just because he lost the belt to magamed but like when Alex was on that run Oh, yeah, and the run that Elias on right now. It's like There they are the a side and they are in the red corner. They're walking out second. It's like you hear that song It's like oh god, like I'm about to die. Yeah, no there isn't like, Hawaiian kickboxer doesn't have the intimidation factor, it just has like the nostalgic good vibes factor.

It's great. I like that he's stuck with it. Same thing with Down Under for Volk. Volk is just like, let's go. That one's wholesome. That's like you're with your buddies and you're like, let's go buddy. Let's go Volk, come on.

Yes, yes other one makes you want to run through a freaking brick wall also it's like the the Volk meme of anybody anybody ever pulls out it's just like Volk and it's him sped up walking out just like yes even if it's not his weight class okay I feel good about that BJ Penn might have the greatest one of all time, by the way. All time? It's probably not my number one.

In fact, didn't we do walkouts? Well, you guys did like, yeah, you did walkouts all time. Or did we do just like the headdress? I don't remember what we did. I don't think we've ever done walkout songs. You haven't? I don't think so, but that's a good one. BJ's was up there, but I don't know if I'd have it number one. Korean Zombie up there McGregor's is quite good. Yes. The remix. In his prime?

Oh like in his prime the Irish flag starts flying. Oh, like switches over to the Tupore. Wait a minute Connor How do you not have The homie? have the homie, Alessandro Pantoja, many men. Pantoja with many men is also fantastic. That falls into the category of the toporium. Has he been doing it the entire run? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really?

Oh yeah, it's probably been many men. Me and Rick were like super hyped for the Alex Perez fight back in like 2022. And he was still doing it then. I don't know about all the way from debut, but he's been doing it for quite a while. Since he's been on like main cards of pay per views. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of which, shout out to Marie, speaking of music by the way, shout out to Mercure Rufi.

By the way, is it Rufi or Huffy? Because I feel like he's Brazilian. It should be Huffy. Anyway, he's fighting BSD as we talked about earlier at this Paris card coming up on September 6th, which is a really nice card. And it's turned into France versus the fighting nerds because in the main event we're getting Nasodin Imovov against Kyle Bahalia, which is a fantastic middleweight fight, should produce, excuse me, the number one contender at 185. And now you're getting this fight as well, which I love. And he posted a fun video. Now, can we not play this? There's French music playing.

Da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da. This is great stuff from Mauricio. Look at him in the Engage jacket, shout out. Oh yeah, he's an Engage guy, I saw that. He's got a nice little croissant. He's got a little cafe. This is good stuff. Hair quaff to the side. Hyping hot. Really ballsy on him to take a sip of that. nice little croissant, he's got a little café. This is good stuff.

Hair quaffed to the side. Hiping hot. Yeah. Really ballsy on him to take a sip of that. Didn't even, oh, he said no croissant. Didn't even like breathe it. He didn't even like blow on it. That thing was steaming.

Yeah. Love it, love that fight. Love it. According to Hanato Moekano, he's gonna steamroll right through him. Yeah, Hanato was pretty confident. Very, very, very, very confident. Hanato called the Chris Duncan as well.

He did. Well, that's his boy ATT guy. So he's a little biased there. Maybe biased towards the Pizzeria. I love Hanato. Does Hanato think I don't like him or something? What's going on? I think he's dealt with probably a lot of... I think he's on the back foot when it comes to this. So many people have asked him and so many people have

criticized him that it's gotten a little bit tiresome for him. Appreciate him coming on. I think he thought that you had an angle with the question as opposed to just, you're looking for explanation. He's probably used to people, instead of looking for explanation, coming at him. No, he says, UFC doesn't care about fighters, so I'm like, explain what. Yeah, that's a big statement

especially for a UFC fighter to make I Don't know I Listen, I'm okay. I thought it was a very interesting conversation Ultimately ultimately like he could do whatever he wants I did think that one of the most interesting parts was he wish he took the money and donated it Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, that he didn't think of that. That wasn't.

Or that he said if it was a higher amount, maybe I would have taken it. This doesn't exist in a vacuum. He's openly saying, like, this is all fluid. There's things that I'm weighing here, but I'm standing on my principles. Yeah, I mean, it's also his life, you know? His choice to make. I bought contacts lenses, didn't the the mail-in rebate Nobody's coming after me for that. That's right

How could you not get the fucking rebate you idiot? Yeah, literally just leaving money on the table sometimes when I go to CBS I don't put my phone number in to get the Yeah, yeah sometimes when I'm on Amazon, I don't click the thing to get the $1 off just because I want I feel like they deserve it. No actually uh yeah whenever I go to Whole Foods, and it's like scan your prime code I'm like no what what if I didn't yeah fuck you guys keep your yeah I'll pay the deserve that money you deserve that money you guys you guys don't make enough Speaking of money guys what about this from TMZ Jake Paul? has retained You guys don't make enough Speaking of money guys. What about this from TMZ Jake Paul? has

retained Powerhouse attorney Alex Spiro to pursue legal action against the people spewing lies about his boxing career TMZ sports has learned the youtuber turned boxer retained one of the biggest lawyers in the biz to be in his corner as the allegations His bouts are scripted have done some serious damage So he's going after them. Spiro tells us, TMZ, I've been retained by Mr. Paul to pursue legal redress for the damages he has suffered. If someone uses their public soapbox to harm him and the sport with lies there will be consequences. He's worked with the likes of Jay-Z, Elon Musk,

Alec Baldwin. He claimed to be going after or would be going after Piers Morgan after Piers claimed that his fighting into the Cesar Chavez was not exactly 100% on the up and up. So he's going after it. You'll recall Eddie Hearn went after Jake Paul when he said in an interview that he wasn't on the up and up with the with the judges. So perhaps he learned something from the playbook. Yeah. What else here? I'm trying to go through all the news and notes. Oh, one of your favorite fighters. Do you see, in fact, two of your favorite fighters have been matched for UFC 320?

Did you see this? Abus Magomedov and Joe Pfeiffer. No, no. You love these guys. This is also breaking news that these are two of my favorite fighters. I thought you... Yes. I mean I love Joe.

Yeah, shout out. Avis? Yeah, you know. No? Yeah, I guess I'm big on the German pipeline these days. I feel like you've talked a lot about Magomedov. Yeah, who's this guy that just won? What's so funny?

Avis, who's this guy that just won? The dude that reps Germany, the model. Why can't I think of this guy right now? Oh my God, he's unbelievable. The handsome guy. Yes. Stay pretty? Yes, oh my God.

Look at Rick, got his mouth Velcroed shut. He has no idea who I'm talking about. No, I know who you're talking about. Dulatak, oh my god. Look at Rick, got his mouth Velcroed shut. He has no idea who I'm talking about. No, I know who you're talking about. I don't know his name like you. Dulatov, yeah. But yeah, I'm big into the German pipeline. I wanna see what's coming out of it. You asked what's so funny.

It's just funny that this is his favorite fighters. I feel like you have said, I feel like you have said in the past that you really like Michael Maddow. You even call him Abus. Yeah, we are on a first-name basis. Speaking of that, I was with my friends who never watch MMA, speaking of German MMA, and one of them was like, have you ever seen this guy? And he pulled up Max Holzer from Octa. I was like, yeah, I have seen him. How the fuck have you seen him?

Yeah, that's our boy. He said it was the walkout. Oh really? Wait, it was just like a random video? Yeah, but he showed me a couple of them. And then he showed me the guy that looks like the giant Patty Pimlet, I think from Cage Warriors. Like the dude that looks like a giant angry Patty Pimlet.

I was like, wow, man, you're big into the European regional MMA so you're sitting there and your friend is just spamming like he's showing me this while we're watching the Abu Dhabi card and I was like Robert Whitaker in the main event and he's like yeah you got to watch never heard of him Wow see Max Holzer though yeah yo that's our guy I't know, I thought you'd be a little bit more excited about that one. I feel like you have specifically said that you're a big fan of Pfeiffer and Magomedov,

but maybe I'm thinking- Look man, I love Joe Pfeiffer. He comes in the studio. He's the man. He drives his truck. He's the man. Tremendous hair. Tremendous hair.

Avis Magomedov? I'm down, I'm down to get in the hive. Him and Doolitav will be my two favorite fighters. Hector Lombard in Czech Congo in the pillow fight championship on ESPN. Did you guys see this? Was it really on ESPN or was that just the screen grab? No, it was on, they had the Ocho.

Yeah, when does the Ocho come into play? I forget when they do it each year, but some, yeah. It's typically, I want to say August 8th they do it, like real dead sports time. Oh, that would make sense, 8-8. Yeah, 8-8. Oh, all right. Wait, no, that doesn't make sense.

It's currently 8-4. No, I know, I know, but maybe just old footage that popped up. Rick says that would make sense. I'm like, no, actually, it's not 8-8. This is like the Paulo Costa, makes sense? No, no, makes sense. No, no, no. It must be in August though because of that being the eighth month.

But shout out to the Ocho and shout out to them pillow fighting. Who won by the way? Shout out to Don. I actually have no idea. Victor Lombard won. I guess we're not gonna play the footage because we somehow got, I don't understand this by the way we got ding okay so I see all these YouTube channels can I just tell you my latest my latest I don't even want to call it a vice because I feel like vice is negative but like my my latest go-to which I'm binge watching like crazy not just

watching but listening because I usually like to listen I okay, I'm going all over the place here, but please stick with me. We're with you, man. I find that the podcasts like Spotify, Apple, things aren't as interesting on there these days. I'm in the mode right now where I go on there and I'm like, I don't really want to listen to any of this, and there's more interesting stuff on YouTube,

clips, et cetera, et cetera. Those fighting words. And my latest thing is Maven Huffman's YouTube channel. Rick and I have talked about this a little bit. It's unbelievable. Hey guys, Maven here. And his stories are amazing and the way he tells his stories. For those that don't know, Maven Huffman, former WWE guy, Juan Toughenough, was in WWE I think from 01 to 05.

Rick, you've watched some of his videos, right? Oh yeah, definitely. His videos are so good and his channel's on fire. What's so crazy about it is he was a jobber, but he's like... He wasn't a jobber, I think that's unfair. No, come on. That's unfair. No.

I've never heard of him, but I'm gonna follow him. Oh, he's great, he's great. He was in like main promos? Nah. He had that big moment where he eliminated The Undertaker and the Royal Rumble. Okay, but Jabber to me is like the Brooklyn brawler. Like he wasn't a guy who just put people over. They were really behind him.

And as he has told on the channel, he screwed up and he didn't apply himself. But his stories are amazing and his videos are amazing. Have you come over to the dark side yet of YouTube on the television? No, I don't do that. I can't do that. You gotta get it.

My kids do that. I can't sit still. YouTube to me is on the phone. Very rarely even on my computer. Now are you sitting there searching for videos or are you getting served like the next up? Like how does your consumption happen? If I'm on a walk, run, walking the dog, in the car, long drive, 30 minutes, 40 minutes,

fire some things up. No, but like how? Are you searching for like... I'll go to the feed, I'll go to the subscriptions, I'll go to the recently updated or uploaded, or I'll just search things out. And then go to the channel. And I'm a little late to his channel, so there's so much there.

His stuff is amazing. I'm really, really impressed. And his... The way he tells his stories, yeah, yeah, is very fun. And I mean, like, that's tough enough. I remember it vividly. I was in college watching it, and then I remember him. I actually took a picture with him at WrestleMania 18

at the Axis. I'd love to have him on the show just to talk about like how he's he's turned this like he might have one of the best channels. In fact, I sometimes I like the way he breaks things down. There was one video where he did this thing where he he picked up these cards and it was like a face on there and he'd have to tell his thoughts on that person so it'd be like Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Vincic Mann and every single every single time he'd pick up a card he'd do this laugh this sort of fake laugh this ah this guy what can you say about The Undertaker and then the best is like you go to the comment

section for him and no one's like shitting on him for the laugh but they're all commenting on it but in a nice friendly way. Like his whole community is very nice and supportive. It's a nice thing to see. I'm very happy for him. Anyway, can I be 1,000% honest with you guys? How the hell did I get on this path? Fever dream.

I don't even remember how I started talking about it. I'm actually not sure. You mentioned something about podcasting being boring now You hate podcast now, and you just wanted to talk about well, we're on a podcast a this magomed off no no no Top five walkouts, I think it was something about the top I'm for real. I don't know how you got on this You just started with can I be honest with you guys, and you just oh, yeah, you just wanted to be honest No, no, that's one of the young and then as you started you're like, I'm all over the place just stay with

No, seriously, how the hell did I start talking about this guy you literally just said can I be honest with you guys never Hound about it. Yeah, the Frankie flu the brain fog yeah, okay? This this might be a sign Seriously this is gonna kill me. It's gonna come to me at some point Yeah, I think you were trying to go somewhere And you've now lost that roadmap like you don't know where you were going yeah, but you just started here No, they just went let me tell you something guys like it was like Sean Strickland, let me tell you something. And you went with it and then lost where you were.

And that was last Tuesday. Nothing worse than being in the flow of a conversation and you completely forget where you were going with something. But this is sort of my job. Like, I'm supposed to. Look, man, when you're sick, you're sick. Is this an existential crisis right now?

Oh my god. This is sort of my job. I do this. Shut on all podcasts while we're recording a podcast. No, I didn't do that I just said you know like the collection I'm getting kind of tired of my collection maybe I'm not subscribing to the right things maybe I'm not subscribing that's okay for you to go to a speaking of like and subscribe yes please we could use it like and subscribe we're trying to hit what's our number that we're trying to hit by

the end of the summer 338 or something 335 335 so if you do that for us. I just genuinely get confused like there's you know Over 2,000 people watching right now. There's only five likes on the video like come on everyone just hit the like button I think you should probably refresh right yeah by the way. That's not true. It's not five man. Yeah,, what the fuck, bro? I'm seeing 322. Yeah, what the hell, bro? Thanks, though. All right. I appreciate it. Why are you hating on our, yo, I for one,

I for one appreciate everyone who's watching and everyone who's giving us a thumbs up. So what the hell, thumbs up to the chat. Thumbs up to the chat. Yeah, everyone leave a like and subscribe. Thank you, Roger. Everyone who's watching right now, a like and subscribe. We're not asking for much.

It's free. Anyway, to the super chats. Is that Mitchell? Oh, there's more, go ahead. I showed my, I wanted to text you guys, but I was like, my reply, my text to reply ratio is like 30% at this point. At this point, I'm just speaking to myself on the chat thread.

And I showed my kids Billy Madison for the first time on Wednesday. Hey, Carl, good to see you. Yeah, what'd they think? They loved it. They loved it. They think Happy Gilmore is better, but I think they're still like in the Happy Gilmore 2.1 vibe.

They were getting really annoyed when I started quoting every single line. Before it happened. Yeah, and I can understand, that is annoying. I did have to very quickly fast forward through Nudie Magazine Day scene. Yeah. That was the only time, and then my wife was like,

maybe this isn't. You know it. I forgot about it. Your favorite movie and you forgot about it. I forgot, it's been a while. It pops up and you start sweating. It's been a while that I watched it start to finish What's the next Santa movie?

Ocean is good for me Shows that he has Frank shirt on oh look at all the way look at all the thumbs up in the chat right now This is amazing. Oh Yeah, when he does the Frank, okay Funny you say that. I've now said for the rest of the summer we're gonna watch all the other Sandlers. So it's a toss up right now between Big Daddy,

Wedding Singer, Clique, Oh Clique's a sad one. Little Nicky. Waterboy. Waterboy. Waterboy next. Waterboy next.

I think they'll like Waterboy the best. Why don't you watch them chronologically? No, Big Daddy water boy water boy now. I think the like chronologically no big daddy's after water boy wedding scene I agree with that I think they'll like Yeah, oh and also 50 first dates, but I think it's a little too romantic first dates So like yeah like 50 first dates click mr. Deeds is more of like this feel good like a little more serious. I don't think you said mr. Do you got about oh I was throwing mr. Deeds in there because like a little more serious. I don't think you said Mr. Deeds. What you got about? Oh, I was throwing Mr. Deeds in there

because Mr. Deeds is a fan of that movie that you like when he gets the fucking Hawaiian punch in the water fountain, that's all time. The Blackfoot. Rensing out MSG. Oh, they're running out of MSG, it's fucking incredible. Waterboy though, I've probably seen like 98 times. It was the only movie my grandma owned on VHS randomly.

It was a nice orange tape. And me and my my brothers whenever we had to go to the grandma's house We would just run up the water boy million times mine my two top Sandler comedies are Happy Gilmore water boy water boy is so good water boys so good. Happy Gilmore water boy. No Billy Madison Number three Wow or comedy number overall, uncut gems. Number one, Happy Gilmore. Happy Gilmore's uncut gems. I love Punchline Glove. Longest yard.

You guys saw that, Punchline Glove? Yes. So good. He does too. We just list off our favorite. Jack and Jill. Number one. Anybody?

Jack and Jill? Miss Libby? Listen guys, I drew the blue duck because I had never seen a blue duck before grown-ups that's quack test it's so good Frank I feel like Frank's the only one who actually likes it as much as I do to the point when I watch it ritualistically you have to quote it before the lines come oh yeah it's like a rocky whore picture show it's like the required watching can I be a% honest with you guys? No, I forgot why I've been doing all of this to try to remember

Why I got into the maven and I still can't remember that Mitchell 2239 says Micah, please don't leave who oh Yeah, yeah, well we're going through our own problems over in Bill's land with what's up with your boy James Cook? He's being a bit of a nuisance right now Nah James Cook went to Georgia, bro. Yeah, that's your boy. I know yeah great. You knew what I was talking about. Pay him his money man Yeah, what the hell stop being such a nuisance if he gets what he deserves in in in in the nine years That our GM whose name is escaping me right now because I can't think of anything, golly, I'm really the GM of the Bills.

Just watching an interview with him. This is awful. Brandon Bean. Thank you, God. Oh, what a day. In the nine years that he's been at the helm, he's never had a contract holdout before till James Cook. Look, man, running back market stuff.

Come on, James. Get your money. Get it together. Oh come on, beam, pay them. We need them on board. This is our time. I know. By the way, I think Hard Knock starts today. Oh. I have to say not happy about it. Yeah, teams are on a Hard Rocks, never win the suit. We need to be focused, we don't need these distractions, but I will be watching. Anyway, sorry about Micah. Go Bills. What else? SammyJ6z3S says, Hello team, can we, as Swedish MMA fans,

take some pride if Homsot wins as he once represented Sweden? Sure. I'll say why not. I mean, he spent a lot of time there. I think he was introduced to MMA there. I think he's still sort of like a part of the All-Stars team in some way, shape, or form, like by proxy. Yeah, climate. Yeah, why not? Sure. What else? Jakeanator722, hey Ariel, just wondering if you and Dave Meltzer are still cool. I know you had some disagreements, but I enjoyed your video with him back at MMAF. Yes, as far as I'm concerned, yes. Very cool, much respect, legend of the game, no issues whatsoever.

Even last week I was talking about going to the basement of the Syracuse Library and eating my sandwich while reading The Observer. I referenced him earlier today, talking about the Brock Lester thing four weeks ago, all that. I still listen to his stuff from time to time. I don't subscribe, but that's just because, I don't know, there's a lot of other stuff. But it's incredible. His longevity, his work ethic. I don't think the guy's ever taken a vacation.

And I know it's cool online to crap on him, but I have a ton of respect. I think he's prolific and a trailblazer. And sometimes he's not been on the same page as me, but that's fine, but that doesn't make me respect him less. In fact, after my interview with Eric Bischoff, he sent me a message refuting some of the things that he said, and I appreciated it and thanked him for it, and it was all good. What else? And lastly, MMA full stop dungeon says, Shady

Michelle MMA here covered PFL AC at the presser with coach. I asked about Ebelan and Van Stenis and Usman and Hughes too and he said no one wants them. I'm very happy that this is the last message. Shady is doing a great job. He's a great young reporter and I've gotten to know him a little bit. And yes, he was at that press conference on Friday and he's referencing asking Jonathan Coachman about the Costello-Venzenes versus Johnny Eblen and Paul Hughes versus Usmanar Magomedov fights and The answer was was very confusing

Coachman essentially saying at least this is my interpretation of it that there isn't high demand for these fights these two rematches and there isn't high demand for these fights, these two rematches, and that, you know, the way that the PFL has it figured out with the tournament winners fighting the champions is the way to go. And the exchange, which you can find online, is an interesting one because I don't God, I'm not. This was a question that was asked here. But we know that there are people within the PFL who make decisions. Why are you trotting out a broadcaster to be put in this position? He is not a decision maker.

He is not a matchmaker. He is not a promoter. He is not a promoter. He is not a promoter. He is not a promoter. He is not a promoter. He is not a promoter. He is not a promoter. who make decisions. Why are you trotting out a broadcaster to be put in this position? He is not a decision maker. He is not a matchmaker. He is not a promoter. He is not a guy who is hiring and firing, signing people, speaks well, obviously has a long and successful

career on camera, broadcaster, all that stuff. But the idea of putting him at the dais to answer these questions, to me, only exemplifies that there's a lack of basic understanding as to who should be up there. Triple H being up there makes sense because he does the hiring and firing, along with others, but he's in those rooms. We know he's a decision maker. Dana White being up there makes sense because he does the hiring firing. Bob Arum, Scott Coker, Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren, do you understand? There's a trend here.

Someone in the PFL saying, oh, let's just put this guy because he speaks well and he could just talk to the people. Those press conferences mean nothing. It's even worse than when the UFC sends Dave Shaw out there because at least he's an executive. He's never going to say anything that's going to ruffle any feathers because there's a pecking order, but at least he's an executive.

And there's a big difference between someone in a pre-fight press conference, which is this there to sort of like put on a show and let the traffic flow as opposed to someone who is, in the post-fight press conference, who's talking about what's next. This just shows that behind the scenes, whoever's at the top making these calls is lacking a basic understanding as to what makes a fight promotion tick,

as to what makes it go round. You need someone up there. It's not about being dynamic. It's not about selling It's about having answers to questions about the future of the promotion Shady asked that question and I couldn't believe the answer. We don't have the clip because we weren't ready for it, but I could I couldn't believe the answer and I couldn't believe how off base it was.

I really couldn't. And again, I would say this about, it's not a personal thing. So I'm not trying to pick any sort of fight. I know we've had our history. This is not what I'm trying to do. I don't think a broadcaster should be in that position. Any broadcaster. It should be the decision makers. And you may be the most boring person on the planet.

But if you're the decision maker, that's who we want to hear from. Bill Belichick was very boring, but he was the decision maker. That's who we want to hear from. We don't want to hear from the play-by-play guy. And he's not even that. So yeah, that was weird.

I wouldn't put too much stock into it. I don't know what they're going to do at 185. It sounds like they're pretty set on this Edwards-Rosta winner fighting for the belt. I still think they'll go in the direction of Hughes versus under Maga made off too But yeah, that was that was weird. Anyway, speaking of PFL. There are some reports that are out now I apologize. I don't remember who do we know who reported this first the Zubaira to hugov Artem lobov fight Did we see that where it was that? Where was that? I think MMA on Censored and Artem did like a collab post on IG. Well there you have it. Tomorrow on the

program we will be joined by Artem himself and this is a crazy story. Obviously these two guys have a history dating back to UFC, what was it, 223 in 2018, April of 2018, Brooklyn, the Dolly. Obviously his relationship with Connor isn't what it once was, but looking forward to that conversation with Artem, who apparently is coming back in October for the PFL to fight Zubaira, who he told us on this version of the show many moons ago that he would fight him for free. Bryan Battle gonna join us as well. He returns to action next week. I mentioned Andy Foster perhaps one more. I had talked about a tapology thing that I want to talk about. They have these new rankings that just

came out. We'll save that for tomorrow because if I'm being honest, my voice is disappearing and so I want to save it for tomorrow. For now though, let us say good night. Was there another Super Chatter or was that the last one? It was all of them. Alright, so we say good night. I think you sounded better than at the beginning. Well certainly how I came out of the gates there was a little bit rough. It's tough. It is tough. How was your weekend Frank? It was great. You sound much better. I appreciate that. Yeah. It was a you know it's definitely a long walk down the hall of sickness, but no I can't imagine now that I was able to shell it off to someone else. No

I didn't want to give a special shout out to a very key member of our team Today's the birthday of one Nicole Gartner who who is a very, very important member of our team. Some like the joke that she's the head of Biz Dev. I'm not really quite sure what her title is, but she does very important things that we appreciate her very much. I think she's turning, what, 25, 26 today? And also, I would be remiss if I don't mention that our fearless leader, EJ New York Rick, celebrated his birthday on Friday! He's the birthday boy! Ah, you know yourself.

Uh, what did you do? Anything fun? Uh, went for sushi at like noon. Oh yeah. Over by 1, 1.30 and never addressed anything about my birthday after that ever again. And it was the best. Why? Not even a cake?

Nah. Over at California Roll, he's got his kid by a collar. Don't ever mention my birthday again. Everyone needs to blow out a candle on their birthday. Nah, not after you're 10 years old. You know what? Enjoy life. Yeah, man.

Celebrate. I am, by the way. By not wasting time on trivial shit like this. Your kids didn't give you a present? No. Oh. My wife, my kids. Leave the room.

No, didn't need one. His wife gave him a present and he threw it in the trash. I burned it in front of their little faces. Thank you MVP, thank you Hennahtamoykano, Thadjeen, Martin, Budai, thanks to all of you, thanks to all of them. Back to Washington.