The Ariel Helwani Show - Sean Strickland next For Khamzat Chimaev? Ariel Helwani joins, UFC Houston recap, Conor Benn to Zuffa, more | The Boys in the Back

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

The Boys in the Blizzard kick off the show with Ariel Helwani, who gives his thoughts on Sean Strickland's UFC Houston win, Zuffa Boxing signing Conor Benn, and more (00:56). Then, the Boys give their own takes on the main event (14:12), before recapping the rest of the UFC Houston card (34:03). After touching on a few UFC fight announcements (56:03), Petesy Carroll joins the show to discuss PFL revealing Paul Hughes' next fight (1:08:18) and weigh in on the Conor Benn drama (1:18:07). The Boys recap more action from the weekend, including Gable Steveson's win at MFL 3 (2:06:35), Ryan Garcia capturing WBC gold (2:15:24), and more (2:20:06). Covering other news and notes, they discuss Conor McGregor wanting a new deal (2:23:14), Khamzat Chimaev teasing a move to light heavyweight (2:28:20), and Jailton Almeida signing with ACA (2:33:43). After reacting to breaking news of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao boxing in September, (2:35:03), the Boys hit a few more news items (2:41:01) and answer your Super Chats (2:48:46).

But boys in the back. But boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys. What is going on? We are back with another episode of the Boys in the Back, or I guess today. It is the Boys in the Blizzard. As you can see, we are not in the studio. We are at home because the roads are shut down, the trains are shut down in New York City has about 20 inches of snow accumulating.

Rick, how are we doing, brother? We're snowed in. But we're making it work. And I'm excited to talk to you on this post-UFC Houston Monday. Big boxing card, big UFC event, some motion in the Zufo boxing world. Like, you know, things could be worse. We're snowed in, but we're thriving. Yeah, there is much to discuss.

There's a lot to get into in both the worlds of MMA and boxing. But let's not just keep it us to. We are not the only one stuck right now. Let's send it out to Italy where our very own Ariel Hawani joins us, because unfortunately he is stuck there as well. Ariel, what is a big dog? Hello, guys. How are you?

Bonjourno. Bono serra. I don't know what I'm saying anymore, but it is great to be here. It's both good and it's both bad to be here because I should be on my way home right now. But unfortunately, as you guys just mentioned, they had to storm on us.

And so my flight got canceled, which means I can join you. So that's the good news. By the way, guys, do you know that this is a historic show? Did you know that? Tell us what. What makes it historic?

We have never had to record from home due to the weather. And I guess that means that my streak continues because technically this isn't my show. But, you know, is there something to be said for like when Hawani's hosting? You know, it's come hell or high water. We're there in studio. I mean, who's to check, right? Who's to check? But I'm happy that you guys are doing this.

And I'm happy that I'm able to join. How's my internet? Is it crappy? is it good, is it bad? Yeah, it's absolute shit. It's absolutely shit. God, this is awful. This is awful.

I'll say the audio's good. We hear you loud and clear. Oh, you hear me? Okay, it's just like I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're telling you, when you just leaned back there, you were right in front of the camera, and then the next frame you were sitting.

Fudge, fudge. Nah, it's good. You are right. Your street stays intact. It's actually perfect because I actually physically don't think all of us could have made it into the studio today with the road closures and train shutdowns. No, no, I understand.

Trust me, I was devastated. I don't know what hurt more. Seeing Jack Hughes score that goal or getting the notification that my flight was canceled. And they initially told me that I was on a Thursday flight. I was like, God, I mean, I love it here. It's been a great time. But Thursday, it's been three weeks. I've got to get back to my regular life.

Luckily, as of right now, if everyone could just pray for me, as of right now, we have a flight home. tomorrow so I'm hoping that that remains. I'm doing prayers up. We got the hands. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. If I may, can you still hear me? Let me know if you can hear me. We can hear you loud and clear. Okay. I do want to, honestly, I want to give you all a massive, massive congratulations. It's been amazing. I know I've popped in here and there, but not live.

It's been such a thrill to watch this whole machine move on without me. And I know I've said this in some way, shape, or form, but I want to say it a lot. I'm proud that I got to cover the Olympics for my home country. That pride hails in comparison to see what you guys have done, see you guys pick up the baton, see the whole thing move on without me, see us add the two new podcasts in the midst of this time and all that. It's just been amazing.

Like sometimes we'll be working and I'll be like, oh shit, it's 7.30 local time. The guys are on or the crack is on. And I just pop it on. I'm like, wow, this is so amazing to see the whole ship just kind of sail on without me. It's just been really incredible. So I just want to congratulate everyone from YouTube to see you guys grow into the broadcasters that you've become, the host that you've become with the interviews and the breakdowns.

It's not easy doing your version of the show. And what I like about it is you're not doing my version of the show. You're doing your version of the show. And I love that. And so to see you guys do your thing, to see it kind of continue, to see it. everyone from behind the scenes. Not everyone gets to see the behind the scenes, but like everything that Eric's been doing behind the scenes with the podcast, everything Frank's been doing with the podcast, Andy, Jordan, the whole crew, the social guys, it's just been unbelievable. The whole studio

team, I could go on and on, but like I feel such immense pride. There was once a time where like if I was away, the show would just stop. And that would be it. There would be no show. And we've just done three weeks of shows without me. And I don't think we've skipped the beat. I think we've not missed a day. We've had two uncrowned films. We've we've unveiled two new podcasts in the span of that time. It's just unbelievable. And to like get flopped into another world and then to just see my my usual world continue and not just continue, but thrive and grow and evolve. I can't even describe the happiness and pride that it made me. Like even on some mornings where like this thing feels like it's never going to end and it's cold. It's not the summer games. It's freezing cold.

and I'm going for a walk to clear my head and I need to think about something other than the Olympics and I could just go to the feed and listen to you guys and PTC break things down. It was like such a breath of fresh air. It was like medicine for my brain. So really congratulations. I'm so proud of you guys.

I really am and honestly if that's all I can say here today, I'm fine if you want to kick me off if the internet is bad but I really just wanted to say that because you guys should be proud. You should be very, very, very proud of yourselves and just know like sitting there showing other people at CBC. I'm like, look at this. Look at this shit right here. And they're like, whoa, who did those

graphics of like you skiing there? And I'm like, that's my guy Connor did that. And who does this? And that's my fucking guy, Rick, who does that? And like, I'm like, this is like my proud baby. It was amazing. It really was amazing. So I can go on and on, but salute. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate the opportunity and the kind words, man. We're ready for you to get back. Because like you said, it is not easy, man. We have definitely learned a whole new respect for what you have to go through on a day-to-day basis. So we really appreciate everything you said. But please, prayers up that you get on that flight tomorrow so you can resume normal order on Monday. Yes, I echo that sentiment. Thank you very much. I will be in studio quasi on Wednesday.

We do have a classic interview show for all of you where I look back at some really nice, tasty classics. But the plan is Monday, a week from today, March 7th. second will be the first live show with me in studio. And I can't wait for that. I can't wait to get back to a normal life. But this has been an incredible experience. And I do want to congratulate you all on the gold medal victory yesterday. And I have to say, I wasn't even that.

I was upset because our show would have been a million times better, had Canada won because I was at a bar with like 500 Canadians. But honestly, like seeing the Johnny Goodro stuff and Jack Hughes, New Jersey Devil, my cousin works for the devil so I've gotten to know of his story. Like I think this is great for hockey. I think it's amazing that the U.S. has finally won that there's a proper rivalry that like, you know, now we're going to have to

retool and come back in four years. It's a huge kick in the nuts that it happened with the men and women in overtime in both gold medal games. But, and maybe this means I'm a little more American than I thought. I definitely was rooting for Canada, no doubt about it. But I thought it was amazing. I thought it was great.

I thought these Olympic games were great. I know G. G.C. you're a fan of the Olympics. I love the Olympics. Olympics. Like 1992, I fell in love with the Olympics, the dream team Barcelona. I thought these games were amazing. Like the 2002 Olympics in Beijing, I have zero memories of them. Like I had no idea who Eileen Gu was in Beijing. I know exactly who she is now. And I know I've been immersed in it. But I thought these Olympics, just like Paris, reminded us in the post-COVID world, like just how special the Olympics can be if you immerse yourself in it, the stories, the conquest, the ups,

the downs, all the heartwarming things. I thought it was an incredible, incredible time to be a sports fan. So yesterday was amazing. What a game. I still think three on three overtime hockey for gold medal is bullshit. But yeah, congratulations to all of you. It was great. And thanks to all my buddies who texted me to rub it in.

The great answer to all of their text is just like, hey, you know, I have an American passport too, so you can suck it. But it was all good. It was a great game. Congratulations. Thank you, brother. It looked like we were going to lose for a while there. And then, yeah, I think we lucked out with the three on three because the ice was completely tilted those last two periods. I was just waiting for you guys to score and beat us. But yeah, it was a fantastic

game. The celebration afterward, the Goodrow jersey was awesome. And, man, you said you were proud of us. We were proud of you. Likewise, man. You absolutely smashed it during the Olympics. I love waking up and seeing all the tweets and the Instagram videos of everything you were doing out there. So you killed it, man. You killed it during those three weeks. Thank you. All right, let's move on to this past weekend. We saw UFC Houston, Sean Strickland, ends the Fluffy Hernandez eight-fight win streak

by finishing him in the third round. Surprising outcome, to say the least for me, I did not expect him to finish Fluffy, and I did not expect Fluffy to get zero takedowns and only attempt one. What did you guys make of the fight, Ariel? We'll start with you. All right.

I thought it was an incredible win for Strickland. obviously he didn't look great in his last fight I know that was a year ago it felt like this was the moment where he had to step up Fluffy had looked amazing as of late maybe you could say he hadn't fought anyone of the level of a Sean Strickland but I still thought that he was one of the best middle weights in the world

and I still think he's one of the best middle weights in the world and it's kind of crazy that we thought we were going to get maybe a fluffy RDR title shot and both of them just on the cusp of getting that title shot they both lose in very surprising fashion.

Obviously, RDR losing, what was it, back in October, I think it was, against Brandon Allen. So a huge win for Sean Strickland, a setback for Fluffy. I still think he can get there. And now the UFC, you know, I still think that they're going to go with Hamzad versus Nasrudeen. I think the bigger fight is Sean versus Hamzad. And I think Sean is doing whatever he can to try to, you know, steer the talk in his direction with the stuff that he was saying either before or after the fight, but I still think they'll go with Nasrudeen, and that's the right move. But the more sellable fight, if you want to call it that, is Strickland

versus Shemayev. So Sean looked great. He looked absolutely great. I did not expect that out of him, especially with the layoffs. So you have to still say that he's one of the top middle weights in the world, in my opinion. All right. One last one here before we let you go. I'm getting reports. You know, the internet, unfortunately, just isn't operating with us. Ryan Garcia dominates. he calls out Chakor, but obviously Connor Ben on the table, a Devin Haney rematch on the table. Any other major thoughts from this weekend? The biggest thought of them all is Connor Ben signing with Zufa. We put up a video on Friday.

I still can't quite believe it. And I still think that there's like a lot more to this story. Eddie's saying that, hey, you know, I tried to reach out to him and he said talk to my lawyer. Dana's saying he could have matched. Connor saying I still want Eddie involved in my career. What a fascinating story. I can't wait to see how it evolves. I can't wait to see.

The most interesting story in combat sports right now, without a doubt, is boxing and it's Zufa versus Matrim. And oh, by the way, it's how does Turkey Al Shig fit in all of that? Because he's kind of on both sides right now. And he's funding this side's attempt to hurt this side. Golly, what a fascinating story. It's the best story in combat sports. right now. I can't wait to see again how it evolves. There's so much that's happened.

And I'll just leave you guys with this from the Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano stuff to Strickland's big win to Zufa boxing and Ryan Garcia and everything in between. I can't wait to get back to it. But I will hang up and listen. Leave you guys. I try to do my best here with the internet. But it sucks. The internet sucks. Just like everything else. No, nothing else sucks. The weather doesn't suck. We're all lucky to be alive. Shout out to all of you. I'm going to enjoy the rest the program and hopefully I'll be able to talk to you guys. IRL very soon. All right, brother. Thanks so much, man. Get home safe. Yeah, a bit of a bummer there with the internet. We're trying to do, we're trying to do an international program here. We're stuck at

home. The blizzards going on. Well, you know, what can he do? Nothing. We are at the mercy of the elements right now. We are at the mercy of hotel Wi-Fi. But it was good to hear from Halwani. Very touching words. It meant a lot, him, you know, talking about how proud he is of us. it's been an interesting and fun ride and a good opportunity. But like you said, I think the people are ready for the Helwani return. And next week, you'll have that. The people, I'm ready for the hellwani return. Yeah. And I think about halfway through this, I stopped everyone. I was like, all right, that last Thursday without Hawanee, we all got to go out and get drinks and celebrate because we'll have made it to the end of it. Because this is, yeah, it's no small task, man. I have a newfound respect for everything that Halwani always does. So shout out to him. He crushed it at the Olympics, and hopefully we'll be seeing him in studio on Monday, and he doesn't get delayed any further safe travels back to him. Let's continue with UFC Houston. Obviously, he gave his thoughts on Sean Strickland's performance, a fantastic one where we saw a knee to the body sort of be the beginning of the end for Anthony Fluffy Hernandez.

What did you make of it? Who do you think's next forum? Everything from UFC Houston, your thoughts? An absolute masterclass by Sean Strickland, right? That's the best he's looked since Israel, Asana, and maybe even better than that, right? Because the anticipation, Israel-A-Shania is not the type of guy who's going to walk you down. Israel-A-Sanya is the type of guy who's going to, you know, strike with you a little bit, but mostly be a counter-striker.

And Sean Strickland's game works a little better against Israel-A-Sania, right? If he can be the aggressive one, you can see the world where he's able to execute what he was able to do. Now, granted, that was championship fight and championship level. But I think of Fluffy and I think of Sean Strickland of that same caliber.

So to me, this performance was as good as the Israel-A-Sanya performance or even better from the perspective that my expectation was that I thought Fluffy was going to sell out more. I thought Fluffy was going to be even more aggressive than he was. Now, granted, he was pretty aggressive. And you have to credit Sean Strickland's defensiveness, his ability to evade attacks, his ability to stifle. The jab just being out there constantly is such a good tool to stop somebody in their tracks and stop them from getting off their offense. And so you have to credit him, but I did expect that, like, Fluffy was going to basically just wade through the jabs instead of reacting to them and kind of allowing them to stop him and try to get a hold of Sean's legs, try to do something with him in the clinch against the cage. And Sean Strickland just did not let him. He absolutely had no thought for Fluffy being able to get entries into the positions that he's so successful in.

the jab was there all night the counter wrestling was fantastic every time fluffy was digging for something Sean would get those underhooks and and bring them right back up and it looked like fluffy had nothing for him once plan a was out the window which was I'm going to march him down and break him with my cardio there was no plan B and strickland's cardio proved every but as much as good as fluffies and it is underrated you don't see it as often how effective he was on the back foot you see guys guys who are able to like typically either more power or the or the um incredible counterstrikers who are able to fight on the back foot because once they get on the back foot that's where they plant their feet and then land that counter shot but sean strickland's not that guy right he's not the guy who's sitting back and trying to land a bomb off his back foot he's completely controlling pace completely controlling rhythm and not being the one advancing forward for most of the fight although in most fights he is it was a masterclass man it was a it was a beautiful performance if you're looking for you

guy who's a one hitter-quitter-type finisher guy that's not going to be Sean Strickland. But you see enough here to get the TKO when he's got, you know, fluffy dead to rights. I was extremely impressed. I was extremely impressed. Yeah, those first two rounds were close. They were competitive. I scored them both for Sean Strickland. But the fact that Anthony Hernandez was not only not getting any takedowns, but he only attempted to one and it wasn't even really close. He wasn't able to get on the legs or anything. It felt like just a dominant performance from Sean Strickland. And then he goes out, lands that knee that starts the finishing sequence, I was, I was blown away with it. I mean,

Fluffy Hernandez had reached that territory over the eight fight win streak where it was just like, is this guy going to ever lose? Is he just going to walk his way to the championship fight? I mean, it was, it was truly a unprecedented, you know, run for him winning eight in a row. And then Sean Strickland just put the brakes on it like that was incredible. Let's go to the post fight. He obviously talks about Hamzaa Tremayev. He calls him out on the post. by Presser. Do you think he's next or do you think it's still Nassardine imabov? It's probably Nassardine, but the bigger fight is Sean Strickland, as Ariel also alluded to, right? Like, there's no doubt that there's an appetite for Sean Strickland. For one, I think the performance

warrants it, right? I think the performance was good enough in a guy that Fluffy was probably going to be entitled conversations after this fight. If he won, that you could do it on performance alone. Now, I think Nassardine's resume is more than enough to get him a title operation. opportunity against Hamzat, but the bigger fight, the one that's going to sell more, the one that is going to have a more heated rivalry, is going to be Sean Strickland versus Hamzat Shamaev. So if Nasrudeen can't fight on Hamzat's timeline or the UFC's timeline, I guarantee that Sean Strickland will take that opportunity. I guarantee that he'll be ready. So it's really going to come down to if Nasrudeen is still ahead of him, which I imagine he is, I would expect

T is. If he has any inkling of I'm not ready for what time frame they provide to me, he better rethink that because I imagine Sean Strickland would take that opportunity no matter what shape, what condition, what health he's in. So it's going to be interesting to see, but I do imagine that Nasardine is still ahead of him. Okay. So even with what we've seen with UFC making title fights, Diego Lopez against Alexander Volcanowski, you know, the bigger fight sometimes getting it instead of, you know, meritocracy, you still think it goes to Imova overstripling. The biggest difference to me is

Nasrdeen's been beating top. Like he's, he's an armin, right? For me, if he gets passed up, it's something not the performances. It's something completely outside. Because he's not boring. He's coming in there and he's knocking guys out. He's beating top level competition.

You could do worse than giving Nasradi and Imov a title shot. I think he's a game opponent. Sean Strickland doesn't have the recent resume that he has, right? Like, that is just the reality. Sean Strickland has the other thing. He has the thing outside the cage. So, no, I mean, I don't think Nassardine is a situation where you've got like a Mavsar Evloev where you're like, I would rather do anything but give this guy a title shot, right?

The UFC looks at Mavov and they're like, it doesn't matter. I'll take anybody. I don't think you're in that position with Nassar Dene Mavov. I think he's done enough. and I think his performances have been fantastic. So I think it's one of those that you've got, you've got options. You've got a gift here. But as I said, I know if both those guys get a call,

Sean Strickland will say yes, no matter what. He could have his leg chopped off the day before and he will say yes, no matter what. I don't know if Nasardine is of that same build, right? That's a, that's a, you have to be a unique type of fighter to say, like, no matter what the circumstances are, I'm taking that fight. So it's Nasserdines to lose, in my opinion, but I know that Sean Strickland would take it no matter what. Yeah, I feel like just with the star power that Sean Strickland has and finishing Fluffy Hernandez when he was on this eight-fight win streak, I'm actually leaning that they're going to go with Sean Strickland here.

It wouldn't shock me in the slightest. At the post-fight press conference, obviously, Sean Strickland, no stranger to the microphone. He always is catching headlines on Fight Week. But at the post-fight press conference, we saw something we haven't seen before, something strange. his microphone actually cut off. Take a look at the video here. These motherfuckers are so boring in this sport. Like, these guys have no personality.

You got Colby, like to pretend, you know, the pretend Republican. But like, who's really, like, entertaining? You got Chimae of the fucking go fucker. Like, who's really entertaining in this division? Nobody. So, that's a wrap. Anyway. All right, so as you can see there, he completely loses audio.

There's nothing going to it. It seems like someone from the UFC came up to him and was like, yeah, bro, you're done. And then he tried to keep talking and they were like, Zoot, you're actually done. You hear the PR guy. The PR guy offstage is like, okay, you know, we're wrapping up. They cut the mic and he was not ready to wrap up, as we see from the behind the scenes footage, which we have here. That's a wrap. Anyway, wait, no, I got one for Smoh.

I ain't a rap, dog. We relax. U of C motherfucker. What's up, Smok? I gotta ask you this. You stop the guy with the eight-fight win streak. Do you feel like Sean Strickland did enough to get the next title shot in the middleweight division?

Yes, I fucking did it. I don't think the same works. I'll say that. Yes, Judge, enough. Listen, you don't want to see any of these motherfuckers fight that little Chechen war. You want to see the last fucking American in this sport going to fuck that guy up.

And that's what's going to happen. What is Sean Strickland do to beat Hamzaa Shmaa? Anything I fucking want, dude? Anything I fucking want, dude. I'll bring a fucking go. He'll get distracted. Anything I fucking want. Okay, so obviously two things to take away from there.

He was not happy with his microphone getting cut off. He kind of tells the UFC PR guy to essentially fuck off. And then he gets asked about Hamzaa Tremive, and he says, yeah, I did enough. You don't want to see any of these boring-ass people fight, and I can do whatever I want. First, most importantly, what do you make of his microphone getting completely cut? It felt odd and for a few reasons. one he kind of wrapped already like he said everything he's going to say and he's already called hums out a goat this and that and a whore and a this and that like if you were going to cut the mic cut it before like why cut it at the very end it doesn't really make much sense like he's already seemingly pulling into the station and this one's done so it's just like if you're going to cut the mic for that reason do it sooner than cut it then and the other part is if you've got sean strickland this is this is you've got sean strickland this is is what he does right it'll be like if somebody stepped into the cage mid left hook or right hook

from ilia to poria and was like no no no no right there stop don't do that don't do that and just stopped him from doing the thing that he does best right or in the middle of a habib takedown they just stop it and go no no no no no don't you don't don't complete that take down this is sean strickland's gift this is what he does this is how he sells fights this is how he makes the money for you let him just do this, right? Like, if you've already decided as a company and Dana White and all other people, stakeholders in the promotion go, we support Sean Strickland's ability to say whatever the fuck he wants, no matter what he says. There's no lines that are that are, you know, available to be crossed, right? He's going to call, uh, he's going to call bad bunny the F slur and

just say whatever he wants. Then let him, right? Like, don't, don't half measure it. Don't all of a sudden right at the end be like, no, no, no, no, don't say that. Just let him do what Sean Strickland's going to do. You've already, you've already encourage us. You've already decided that this is what you want to do. So it just feels odd that they'd even get into this territory. I've never seen that before. I've never seen like, let's cut a guy's mic, especially after winning in the main event. Does this feel like because of everything he did on the mic last week and the repercussions on social media, people calling him out and being like, we're done with Sean Strickland? Does this feel like the UFC in Paramount were like, let's not let him go too far? Or was it just like,

we're at time let's get him out of there it's probably more likely it was we're at time but even then right he just won the main event give him the time and also he's the guy who's selling the next fight for you let him talk like what are we doing i i totally get the idea the idea that like not everybody's going to be happy with you know what john strickland's having to say i myself don't personally tend to align with some of the things he says but this organization has already decided they're okay with that. And then you mentioned the word repercussions. What repercussions? Right. True. Who said or did

anything that had any lasting impact on what Sean Strickland did or said? Nobody, like, we saw some tweets. We saw some prominent like sports media people be like, what is this? Why is the UFC, why is MMA still a gutter sport and why are they letting him say this? But like, did anybody not

tune in? Did anybody go, I'm not watching this fight because Sean Strickland's fighting? There were no repercussions. There's never been repercussions. As I said on Thursday, Thursday, last Thursday I said, Bryce Mitchell saying, I want to go fishing with Hitler is worse than anything Sean Strickland's ever said.

And they didn't give a shit about that either. So I don't really care about anything Sean Strickland saying, they've already given their stance that they're going to let him continue to do this. So I just don't get the logic. Like even if they're at time, again, we've seen, if Sean Strickland's holding court, you leave the mic running until he decides it's done.

What's the advantage of letting it go? This is how he promotes. This is how he makes your organization money. A thousand percent. And it's not like he's not going to get another fight and have to go through week again and go through press conferences. And even if you try to silence him, it's not like he doesn't have Twitter and social media. Like he's going to be able to get his takes off. And just to do it after he won a main event and is trying to sell a potential massive title fight for the company, it just feels like a strange time to do it. Let's talk about him calling out Hamza Atchamayev and essentially saying that like he's going to be able to do

whatever he wants. Did the anti-grappling, did his ability to not even let Fluffy Hernandez, who we've seen get nine take-downs, eight, take-downs, six takedowns in a fight and use that to dominate the fight? Did his anti-grappling give you confidence that he would be able to do something similar against Hamzachamayev? Not more because I've always known how good Sean Strickland is defensively, right? I think more of his defense than I think of his offense, right. His offense is kind of a plotting attack with jabs. Now in this one, again, he wasn't plotting forward because Fluffy was bringing the fight to him. He was allowed to be on the back foot and jabbing. But it's typically a very like straightforward attack. It's walking forward, feet pretty firm on the ground,

throwing teep kicks, throwing jabs, throwing one-toos, and he does it super well. But the defense is where he's the best. The defense and, you know, you hear, I think it was Michael Bisbing talking about it in the broadcast. when he gets in the training room, he's extremely hard to hit, and you see it in every single fight, right? Sean Strickland is a very sound defensive fighter. He shoulder rolls with all the punches. It's very hard to catch him.

It's why when you're somebody like Alex Pereira, you see the difference between when Alex Pereira hits people and when everybody else hits people just by looking at Sean Strickland fights. Because everybody else, he seems to be Teflon and the punches bounce off him. And he's rolling with them, and it's not doing the same thing.

And Alex Pereer, nukes them and puts him to sleep. You see the levels of striking there. I'm not, I'm not any more confident because I always thought the world of Sean Strickland's defensive skills. It just makes me think that this is a good fight, that this is a good fight that I want to see Hamza Chamaev, test his medal, test his strength against somebody who's defensive grappling is extremely good. I ultimately land on the side of thinking that Hamzat Shemayev and Fluffy Hernandez are not the same, right? I respect Fluffy. I think he's fantastic. His, His style is more a combination of cardio and wrestling.

It's more of that breaking pace. It's not necessarily just straight wrestling. It's not a, I'm a wrestling technician. I can control everybody on the ground here. In fact, we've seen sometimes when he gets to the ground. He's in scrambles with Brendan Allen, right? He is not Hamzat Shemaya, who's got DDP, who's walking through everybody looking helpless, right?

Just on the mat looking like a newborn baby got no answers and Hamzat just, you know, grappling with him. I don't think the level is the same when it comes to the wrestling. I expect Tom Zott to be able to wrestle Sean Strickland. I also expect Tom Zott not to be as thwarted by the jab and the defensive weapons that Sean Strickland employs. But I want to see it, but I sure as hell want to see it. I want to see it way more after watching that performance. Him able to get the finish combined with how well, how sound he was defensively in the grappling.

Like there was never even a moment where you felt like Fluffy Hernandez was going to going to get a takedown. So it's made me intrigued. You know, Nasr-Din would be a fine fight as well, but with the star power, with the shit talking, with this rivalry that's brewing. I mean, we saw Hamzot take to Twitter. We just showed it essentially being saying Habibi, calm down, bro. Like, I dominated the guy that beat you twice referencing to DDP. So, I mean, I love it. They're always talking shit. The press conference would be fireworks. They would be going at each other in the buildup to it and a ton of people would watch. So leaning with the way that the U.S. has been working, meritocracy be damned,

and Sean Strickon finishing Fluffy Hernandez and immediately getting on the mic, calling out Hamzot talking shit, it makes me think that that's the fight I want to see and that's the fight they're going to make. Let's say they did cut the mic, right? Let's say they cut the mic not for the purpose of, we're just at time.

And again, I've never seen them do that to another champion. I've never seen them go, hey, Izzy, great win. Get the fuck out of here. Shut your mouth. Stop talking. Hey, Islam. Fantastic. Can't believe you did that.

get the fuck out of here Ilya, it's just not happening. And so if that happens, right, if we see that as evidence of something, does that give you any concern at the idea that they're like,

yeah, maybe, but we're not as thrilled about him as we used to be. Yeah, yeah, I guess that's a great point. I don't really have a rebuttal

other than like, that might be a sign from the UFC that, you know, they're not as hot on them as maybe the numbers he brings in says. You know,

He's obviously on social media with viral clips and everything like that. He's going to do more numbers than Nasserdeen-imov. It's just inarguable. But maybe that's not the direction that the UFC wants to go. And they're going to be like, well, Imov was in waiting anyway. You just kind of proved you're the number one contender now. Not for nothing. We've had a Sean Strickland championship run, right?

And maybe they're looking at it and just going, do we want that again? Are we keen on that? If he beats Hamzot, is that the guy we want? Not that I'm guessing one way or the, the other. If I had to put on my business cap, if I had to put myself in the shoes, I think Sean Strickland is better for business than worse, and I'd probably be okay with him as champion. Not that Naserdin I'm looking at and going like, I can't wait for this guy to be my champion. Maybe he will be a fantastic champion. You know, if he's able to get it done, I don't know.

But I'd probably, I'd probably go that direction from the business perspective. I do just wonder if all of a sudden, maybe there's an executive at Paramount or somebody else who saw the attention that Sean Strickland was getting and was like, do we really need this attention, right? And then that makes you wonder, is he going to get the title shot? I would give it to him because I tend to think more of the business upside

than I tend to think of like, I think this would be a fantastic fight. But I don't think you have to choose here. I think Sean Strickland is a great fight for Hamzot, and I think Nasredini Amavavav is a great fight for Hamzot. So I don't think it's one or the other here. Yeah, I guess just the biggest question is, when is Hamzot going to fight next?

When is Tom's not going to fight? And this is why I'm, I'm harping on the timing so much. Hamzat's windows are very small. When Hamzat's ready to fight, you jump on that and you have to take advantage of it if you're the UFC because he's ready to fight. Now, if Naserdin is on the other side of that and he's like, man, you know, I've just been on holiday, I've been eating, my ribs a little hurt.

I promise you that Sean Strickland won't say that no matter what condition he's in. So it does create this interesting thing based on how limited the windows are for Hamzat Shammai to typically fight. and how infrequently they get him, when he says he's ready to fight and you have a date for him and it's go, whoever is available is getting that fight between Sean Strickland and Nasrini Mavov. That is just the reality of the situation. So if I'm Nassardine, I'd be training in shape.

As soon as they say go on the Hamzot stuff, I'm ready to take that opportunity. Because I do think he's still in the driver's seat. We will see as the calendar rolls along your guess is as good as mine when we'll see a Dutch of Maya fight. but hopefully it happens sometimes mid this year. Maybe we can see him fight twice this year. Let's go to the co-main event. Talk about capitalizing on your moment.

Uros Medish, taken on Jeff Neal, knocks him out in under 60 seconds, his third straight win, knocking someone out in under 30 seconds, hits the six, Selly, cuts one of the best promos of the year being like, Houston, we have a problem, it's me. This division needs people like this.

And then just like, yeah, I might lose again. It might be soon. I might get knocked out again, but I'm still going to come back and I'm going to knock people out, calls out Leon Edwards. I mean, just like this feels like a guy who hardcores knew him because he's dynamite when he gets in there. He's killer be killed. He's the definition of it. But that felt like a moment for him in front of, you know, 20,000 people on an actual fight night,

co-main event making the most of his moment. Yeah. I mean, the knockout itself was absolutely incredible. But then you couple that with the promo that he cut, the inspiration that he provided to people. it's perfect. He had an opportunity where the card on paper, and especially as we were going through the prelims, was looking pretty rough. We're looking at this thing and I'm going like, this is a slog. Now, by the time the main card started hitting, it started picking up, and we'll talk about some of the other main card performances. It started picking up. But he had an opportunity here on a card that I don't think was like one of the premier cards that the UFC's ever done.

he gets a co-main event slot underneath what I thought was a fantastic fight and not much else, right? It was kind of like main event or bust for me. And he made it clear that like he was here to put on the show that everybody deserved and he couldn't have done it better. I can't get enough of that promo. That promo was like a plus plus plus plus plus for a guy that like it felt like there's there's those rare ones that like come from a midcard guy that elevates them and you never forget it. as an example, right? It's the Brian Battle, you know, in Paris, cutting that promo, that all of a sudden, Brian Battle is now a name.

When you have that mic and you have that opportunity, coming off the heels of that performance and you capitalize on it like that, it's, it compounds your star power to a degree that you can't even fathom. The promo, and like, not only did he knock him out in under 90 seconds, that was his third straight win, and it's taking him a combined three minutes and 25 seconds to get those wins. Like he really is about that life when it comes to either knocking people out or getting knocked out. He said as much like that is the game plan for him is to starch people, which we've seen the UFC favors that. It's only going to help him.

He teased, I don't know if he was breaking a little news or anything. He teased UFC Serbia and Belgrade this summer. If they do a fight night there, I could imagine Euros Medish would need to be at the top of the card, either co-main or main event for sure. Are we going? I feel like we got it. I mean, I'm not going to lie. He said UFC Belgrade this summer and I whispered to myself. I was like, I feel like we got to.

I mean, it's like this cyclical thing at this point where anytime they go to like a new exotic location, like some place that I've never been before, I immediately start Googling it. I look at pictures of the town. I look at pictures of the arena. I look up food places that I could go to. And I ultimately find myself being like, I feel like we got to. and then I try to sell it to you guys and then I know it's just never going to happen. We're doing it. Belgrade.

This summer, if the doctor is in the main event of UFC Serbia, we're going? TBD. I feel like we got it. I feel like we got it. Well, now he's going to find himself with a ranking next to his name after beating Jeff Neal.

And it just feels like Walter Waite gains another killer. Like they have another guy that you can slate in there that you know is going to be exciting. And if he keeps knocking people out, you're going to be forced to put him in those, those massive fights and put them right there in line to potentially start talking about a welterweight title shot did they lose one though is this the end of jeff neil now as as a top level guy like it has been a rough go uh and this did not inspire confidence i'm with you i think that was the trade off uh getting knocked out by carlos proches this knockout too too bad bad knockouts he's only

getting older we haven't really seen him in his heyday in several years now uh yeah i i i do agree with you there that like this was this was sort of the end of elite level jeff neal yeah he had a great run he fought every single guy that you could possibly fight and now he's moved on to like not big name guys who also happen to be killers and once you start losing those that typically signals the end of like elite level competition but he's he he was a stalwart of this division fighting the like that ham's a chamaa fight i know you know it's it feels like it's been a while but you go back and watch that like he had moments against what was the boogeyman at that time. Jeff Neal's a gangster and a fantastic fighter, but it does feel like...

The Chavcott fight. Shavka fight. What did I say? Hamza Shamaia fight. Yes. Shavkat. Yeah, you put on an unreal performance against Shafcott. One of my favorite ones was him against Vicente Lucke. Hell yes. Dude, like he put a fucking beat down on him, like inspirational stuff. It was incredible. So yeah, salute to Jeff Neal. It's unfortunate to see... Great fighter. His career go this way out. An unbelievable fighter. But yeah, Ros Madesh. Next man. up. It's going to be very interesting to see what the UFC has slated for him. Let's go to the feature

about talk about next man up. Melki Costa wins his fifth straight fight in 365 days. Started the win streak, I believe, on February 22nd of last year. It is now February 21st when he got this win. 365 days, five straight wins. He becomes the first man to finish Dan Igay and does so by caoing him with a spinning back fist. And like, that's saying something, dude. Ige has fought killers. Edson Barbosa, Calvin Cater, Korean zombie. him and Nate Landware, Diego Lopez. Like, the list goes on and on, and this is the first guy to finish him. He's going to be ranked now.

Six straight wins for him. Like, there are huge fights ahead for Melki Costa. Whatever the fuck his name is, right? Yeah, Danny. That's rough. That's rough. Dude, Melky, unless I'm mistaken, I feel like Melky was on all of our, like, prospect, breakout, like, honorable mentions.

He had a fantastic year, and it just continues. Like this dude is on fire right now. And to do what he did to Danny, he gave the level of skill and technique to land that type of highlight reel knockout, he's dangerous, he's scary. There's not much more you can say. Like every time the competition has ratcheted up, he's actually getting better and better and better on to like big, big, big fights for Melki Costa. Yeah, I think he's going to probably grab like that 14th spot. That's where Daniege was sitting. So man, like you can put him at, you know, 11, 12.

a back end of the top 10 at this point. Like, six straight wins is nothing to, you know, bat your eyes at. Like, it's, uh, we're, we're coming up on like getting into that wind streak territory of getting into the, the upper echelon of 145. Of a, of a really good division and some really good fights that I think you can have ahead of them.

I'm, I'm very excited about Melke. Diego Lopez was sitting, uh, cage. Fuck, let's do it. Oh, there's someone y'all love here. I'm willing to go against them. Did he, oh, he said Diego, did he say Diego or Yaya? Oh, he said Diego if, if he doesn't fight Yai,

year right is that what he said right maybe it was like obviously you know we were getting some translations and everything yeah uh during the interview but but remember them showing Diego lopez and he was just like yeah i am mad at that i am mad at any of those guys like yaya year Diego any of those guys who who will trade with uh melchi that can be exciting and to and not for nothing i wouldn't mind seeing him get tested against some of the grapplers at 45 too like i really he's he's one of the like most exciting guys I can think of right now just because of how good a year he had. And as you ratchet up the stakes to fight a guy like Danny Gay to do what he did, I cannot wait. Like I'm brimming with anticipation to see what his next move is. He's definitely one of those guys that I'm like, Melke's fighting.

Let's watch. And the best part of it, he's been so active lately. I don't think we're going to have to wait that long. I would imagine we're going to be seeing him in the summer. He didn't take a ton of damage as he's played. As long as he's healthy, I can't imagine he's going to stop this momentum he has going right now. Let me look up the rankings right now. Let's let's, let's, let's, let's, Let's call it. Let's see who we want to see him against. I think there's like, is a Patricia Pitbull, I think is 11. I'm trying to go off. Okay. So Onama's 15. I gave was 14.

Okay. So I think he'll take that spot. Oh, there's a, I know you're about this. I know you're about the. No, no, not yet. Gio's at 13? No, because he's booked against Cub? Who's he fighting? No, didn't he call out Cub and he ended up getting the main event? He ended up with Josh Emmett. He called out Cub and ended up with Josh Emmett.

Okay, Josh Emmett is 11. patricio's 12 i hate to do it to him do it to him but wouldn't steve garcia versus milky costum be a bit of a banger steve's all the way up at number nine and he probably deserves a fight up no doubt like he's been tearing through everybody but steve garcia versus melky would be a banger no that's not a bit of a bangor that that is a full that's an all-time banger i am i could not be more in on that that's how about this how about arnold allen arnold allen Donald Allen's number seven, but you kind of need to get back on track. Maybe you reach a little bit down further into division.

Arnold Allen versus Melchie Costa could actually be pretty fun. Why are you doing my guy almighty like that? Let's reach further down in the division. Go further. Okay. Fight, win streak. Let's get him like. Let's get one where Arnold Allen's like a minus 250, man.

I need to see one go through the hoop from my boy. Yeah. Yeah. But, man, as I said, look, you get now. So now we're in Yusef Zalalalal, John Silva, Aljimine Sterling. Like any of these fights are going to be so much fun to see Melchicasta in. I'm loving that he can like enter this conversation the same way Veshae Hosted. Like these are two guys that really can like reinvigorate this division in a major way and start some of the turnover.

Yeah, I mean, 1.45 is stacked up and they got coming in the way, dude. It's fun. It's a really good spot right now. Yeah. So we will stand by and see the next time Melchie Costa fights, but I will be very intrigued to see who it's against and excited to watch it. Let's keep rolling along. Jacoby Smith gets a massive finish over Josiah Harrell. It was brutal.

But the biggest storyline coming out of it has to be Carrie Hatley, the referee in this one, just letting it go way too long. Josiah Harrow was out. And, yeah, Hatley just, you know, didn't step in quick enough. And Harold takes unnecessary damage. You know, you hate to see it, but it's something that just happens every once in a while in this sport. And it's a reminder how serious this is.

Can we go back for a second? I want to go in this P-R-R-O, can we go back to the one where he's on the ground and he's punching him? It's the second to last image. I just want to hang on that. Can we pause on that? As you do that,

I'm going to just talk about it. So the stoppage was late. The stoppage was so obviously late, right? Like, it's not even a debate. We can't even have a conversation about whether the stoppage was late or not, because that's a, this, next one. Keep going.

Keep going through it. This one right here. Let's pause right here. So the stoppage is late, no doubt. He was late to get in there and the punches were landing. This is the part that I think is up for debate. And the part that I got into it with some people on Twitter is, the referee's job here, in my opinion, actually not really my opinion.

This is what the referee's job here is to prevent Jacoby Smith from landing these additional punches. Once he's trying to make the stoppage, I saw a lot of people saying, Jacob's Smith's an asshole. He should have stopped punching. And it's not the referee's fault anymore. It's Jacobi Smith's fault. I could not disagree more. And you see it from the posture in that image we just showed.

Kerry Hatley is trying to push Jacobi Smith off with one arm. And it just isn't being effective. That's not up to Jacobi Smith to stop punching. We would hope he can. We would hope he would. We would hope that he's thinking about the opponent there. But not everybody is going to cooperate here. Not everybody is going to go, oh, he's done, I'm done.

It just doesn't happen. There's adrenaline coming. And sometimes the punches are still coming. And it's the referee's job to separate that. It's the referee's job to take Jacoby Smith away from that situation. Or alternatively, and we have seen this from referees before, put themselves in harm's way and be the one to absorb the impact, right? To get their body in front of it. Now, Kerry Hatley tries to step in.

Jacobi Smith is continuing to punch. And Carrie Hatley is holding his arm. and it's not working and then he inevitably shoves him off. Some people are saying that's up to Jacoby Smith and I just can't, I can't get on board with that. Carrie Hatley needs to have a firmer stoppage there. It can't just be he was clearly trying to stop the fight. Yeah, he was trying and he was failing and that was a bad job and he should have done more to stop that fight. So not only was he late, then when he tries to break it up, he's only grabbing his hand instead of sliding into position to push him away sooner.

I had a big issue with it. I had a big issue with it. And some people were trying to pin it on Jacoby Smith, which I can't. Of the two people other than Josiah Harrell in that cage, only one of them has a responsibility to stop the fight. And it's not Jacoby Smith. Jacobi Smith is trying to harm his opponent. It's Kerry Hatley who has that responsibility.

The referee is there to protect the fighters. That's right. The one that is there to stop the fight. Jacobi Smith is in kill mode, man. He is not adrenaline on 10. Like, what if he thinks that the fight should be done? and then it's not actually done. That's right.

He comes back and loses it. Go watch the Jalen Turner and Nato Moikano fight. He doesn't chase him to the ground. He doesn't go for the finish. He thinks it's done. And he ends up losing that fight, man. Like, you can't judge a guy who is, he is actually in kill mode. Like, he is in like, I am here to hurt this man.

And I'm going to do so until I get pulled off. It's on Carrie Hadley to see that Josiah Harrell is hurt badly. He doesn't need to continue the fight and to step in and completely separate the guys. Yeah. And people. People were pushing back against that, right? Because we have seen instances where fighters do stop, right? They hold themselves up and they say, my opponent's done.

But again, it comes down to intent and responsibility. Jacobi Smith's intent is to harm Josiah Harrell as much as he possibly can until somebody says that's enough. And when Kerry Hatley comes in and he's not really doing it firmly enough, he is not doing the job. And so that's the responsibility that I believe falls on the referee and not. on Jacobi Smith. Again, what I have loved if Jacobi Smith stopped punching? Of course. I don't want Josiah Harold to be suffering this on the heels of the stoppage, which was already late. But mistake number two, in my opinion, was he didn't put his body in front of it and he wasn't strong enough on a stoppage on a guy who is clearly hammering an unconscious body. And so I had a real

problem with it. People seem to think, okay, you know, well, it's actually his fault or his fall, I think there's enough blame to go around. I don't think, you know, Jacoby Smith did his best job to stop fighting. But as I said, it's not his responsibility. I put that responsibility on the referee. And it was a bad night. And don't get me wrong. Let me be very clear.

I think that is a nearly impossible job. Being an MMA referee is nearly impossible to do at a high level. The action is too fast. The consequences are too dire. and it's a very difficult job, but on this night he did a bad one. And that's okay to admit. We don't have to launch a defense,

you know, for this job that he did. It was a bad job. But I also couple that with the understanding that it is a nearly impossible job. It is so hard, the sport moves so fast, and there are going to be situations where you can't do it. We played an uncrowned film last week of Big John, leading a seminar talking about everything under the sun.

You know, how do they fix eyepokes? how do they score this? He admits up and down in that in that footage and we only showed 20-ish minutes of it. Casey was there for two full days. He admits up and down the times he's made mistakes and the errors he's made. And it is impossible to do this without having errors. Kerry Hatley made an error in my opinion. But it is an impossible job and I don't feel he did his best that he could.

Yeah. That and judging are the two, you know. Judging is hard. Unless you're getting it absolutely perfect, people are going to, going to shit on you. nothing you can do. And unfortunately, this is not the first time we see it. And I know that it won't be the last either, but it is always just that reminder of how serious these jobs need to be taken and how quickly you need to be willing to step in. I would rather see an early stoppage than a late stoppage any day of the week. So a great win by Jacoby Smith. We'll see what's next for him. He's

undefeated. The future seems very bright. Unfortunate debut for Josiah Harrow. Some other results on that card, Sergey Spivak, getting back in the wind call him beating Ante Delia. Delia, who just a few months ago It looked like he was about to get a knockout win over Waldo Cortez-A-Costa, and now he finds himself losing a couple in a row here in the UFC. That sliding door is pretty nuts. The sliding door of he had Waldo Cortez-A-Costa dead to rights, knocked out, basically, and they resume the action. Waldor-Cortez-A-Coste knocks him out,

goes on to win multiple fights, and now be in position like sniffing at a title shot, and Ante is now two in a row dropped, and in bad shape. Like, a loss to Sergey Spivak is not a good look if you're somebody

who's thinking you can aim to the top of the heavyweight division. I mean, I swear there's no sport on earth that moves quicker than MMA. It's just like you blink your eye and like these fighters are an entirely different career

and life scenarios just by the smallest of margins. It's truly wild. Michel Pereira gets a split decision win over Zach Reese. An entertaining fight. You know, they were slugging it out. You know, both dudes got hurt, but ultimately

Michel Perey gets his hand raised. Carlos Liao Beach Cheaty, Injuquani. You know, eight of the first nine fights on the night go to a decision, and the only finish on it is Jocelyn Edwards. My take is Jocelyn Edwards is one of the most entertaining fighters at Women's 135. No one responds to me in the group chat when I say that, but she's now on a four-fight win streak,

and she has gotten a finish in every single one of them. You're not wrong, and I agree with you. She's extremely entertaining. But what's her ceiling, right? Like that's the question. Like there's a point where you have to go from entertaining fighter in good scraps to can you be an elite level athlete, right? And that's where I asked the question. But it's hard to deny the recent success she's had.

And she's very dangerous. And she has a finishing capability that you don't look around a lot of the women's divisions and see. Like she is an absolute finisher. And so, yeah, how far? can she go? I'm willing to find out. Like, I don't think she, you know, how far away could she possibly be from a title shot in a division that doesn't have any warm bodies?

Give me Edwards versus Dumont. I'm down for it. Puna Osoriano gets a decision win. Jordan Levitt with a massive upset. Shut out. Biggest upset on the card. Our guy, Monkey King, gives Yadir del Valley his first loss. Now, a lot of people ran to Twitter after

after that one. Yadirda Valley was in the Isaac Dolgarian fight that caused all of this scandal and everything and appeared to have incredible grappling in jujitsu did not appear to have the same this past Saturday. Oh boy. I actually missed that. Was that the

scuttle butt on Twitter? Oh, yeah. Oh, no. We were like, lock him up. Isaac Tolerty. Oh, no. FBI. Yeah, I mean, dude, he looked great

against Isaac Delagarin. He looked incompetent against Jordan Love. Okay, but let me, can we try to level set for a second here? he looked great against Isaac Delgarian but Isaac Delgarian might have allegedly also been throwing the fight so allegedly allegedly allegedly allegedly like it's hard to gauge how good you are

on on that circumstance right and so is he actually like worse than that that's my takeaway like I think Jordan Leavitt is a good fighter and I think he's proven that So I think more that this was Jordan Levitt just being too good than I think it was him not living up to his expectations. I just don't think, I'll be honest,

I think Isaac Dalgarian at his best smokes him. Like, no doubt. And so, Isaac Dolgarian at his best smokes Yadir Dahlia. Yeah. Okay. Do you not? I don't know. We'll never know.

We'll never know. I don't think we're going to see Isaac Dahlgarian fighting again. Okay. Well, yeah. I mean, we'll never know. Yeah, I don't, I, I'm going to give the credit to Jordan Levitt. Jordan Levitt, look, Jordan Levitt is a very tricky kind of guy to prep and fight because he's so good in the grappling and he's athletic and we've even like, even against Patty Pimbley, like he was, in my opinion, he was one of the guys that I thought like was really going to give Patty Pimbleau trouble on the rise. Now, Patty has continued to escalate and ascend and really looked better, but I think Jordan

Levitt is a good fighter, better than his record and better than his, is he ranked? He's not ranked, right? Better than his status would show. I think Jordan Levitt can be very tricky and very dangerous for a lot of guys in the division. Yeah, he presented that to, to Galler-Daradel Valley on Saturday night. Not the most exciting win, but he did what he had to do to get it done. And in a very oppressive underdog fashion, and the curtain-jurker, my girl, Bicarla Judeeis gets it done against Juliana Miller.

It wasn't just the fights that were exciting on Saturday night. We also got some pretty big announcements. Josh Van made it official on Saturday night from the UFC broadcast, but prior to that earlier in the week at a fan Q&A in Houston, he had this to say about his potential next fight. First title defense attempt. So you have Tauta Tairo, who has a lot of hype in the UFC, and also Manil Kopp, who's had a lot of,

to say after his last fight. Which fight excites you more to start this title defense? I'm fighting Tasura next, bro. You are? Okay. Thank you. So what do you think he said there to John Anick? Was he like, yeah, can I say it, bro?

I think he was weighing whether he wanted to reveal this because, you know, the UFC can be very prickly when it comes to fighters announcing the fights before they're ready. So I think he was just like, shit, is this coming out anytime soon? Can I do it? What do you think?

And he was just like, the pause is very long, and he's just like, fuck it. I'm just going to say it. John Annic had already read the promo card that he was going to say the very next night. So he was like, yeah, bro, just go ahead and rip it. A few things to take away there. It's not going to be Minow Kopp. It's going to be Tatsuro-Tyra. And also, it's going to be in Miami.

It's going to be the second undisputed title fight of the year happening at UFC 327 in April in Miami. And, you know, there were rumors. that if it was going to be Tatsuro Taira, there was potential of it being in Japan. Maybe that's now going to become Tatsuro Taira as champion in Japan, or maybe that's going to become Kioji Horaguchi versus Joshua Van in Japan. Yeah, versus Joshua Van in Japan. So I don't think that's off the table now. I think it just shifts that, right? And if you're Tatsuro Taira and you win this opportunity, it makes all the sense in the world to go to Japan with him as champion. And alternatively, if, you know, you have Horiguchi waiting in the wings as somebody

who's a ready-made kind of title contender, I don't mind doing him as the headliner of Japan, whether it's against Tyra or whether it's against Vann or who knows what happens with Alashandre Pantosha and all of this. But I feel like this signals more of let's delay the plan than like abandon the plan. And who knows, Tatsuro may be the champ by the time they go there. Yeah, and it's kind of felt like for the last few years, the UFC has sort of made this push to attempt to get a Japanese champion in there. Obviously, Kai Asakora is stepping in immediately getting the title shot to push on Tutsu Ro Tira. Now they're bringing in Kiyoji Hori. It feels like that is a market that they want to capitalize on. And also Tatsuro Tira just finished Brandon Moreno, one of the best fighters in the

mission. So it's not shocking that he got it. I felt like they had two great options with both him and Manel Kopp. Now, Manel Kopp could end up getting a little bit screwed in this situation because let's say, you know, it's Josh Fanner or Tatsuotara, whoever wins. Then Pantosia's healthy to return and now Manel Cop is getting pushed even further down the line. Yeah, but is he screwed? Or is it just like, okay, you're just going to have to wait. So, like, I don't mean screwed as in like Manel Cop is screwed, bro. I mean just like get screwed in this situation and the fact that he's not getting the

title shot now, so it could just be delayed. But what I mean, though, is like, everybody can't have a title shot. He's, he's only got three in a row. He's got Bruno de Silva, Asuamabayev and Brandon Royva. I'm okay if he has to fight one more time before getting a title shot. I don't think this is like he has to have a title shot. I think Kyoji Horiuchi has just as good a case as he does. So I'm not like sitting here going like, ah, Manel Cop, we can't believe it.

I think that would have been a fun fight. I would have had no problem with Menel Cop getting a title shot. But I'm also not like, boy, it really stinks. I'm like, all right, fight somebody and then see if you can get a title shot. man shout out to the gooch i would uh i would love that as well so very exciting stuff how about goch versus uh cop eliminate one of them you could do that as a fight night in japan yeah i feel like we got it or you yeah you headline with tyra versus somebody if he wins or van versus horaguchi and then you mix in the other japanese fighter whether it's tyra or horaguchi against cop and now you've got a

sick uh a sick uh card for japan uh cop was was in risin had a great run there if if tyrant wins, I think you could do like a Tyra versus cop in Japan as a sure. The only hard part of all this is where the hell is Alessandre Pantosia and when does he come back? That's the mystery part. The other stuff is just have him fight. Yeah, I agree. And I think maybe the most exciting part of that is that they did not say it was the main

event. It was not the headliner. So I would anticipate we're going to be getting two title fights for UFC 327 in Miami. They usually deliver for those cards. We've seen some great cards. down in the 305 so we will see what happens there. We also got the announcement that Sean Brady is returning after his loss in November against Joachim Buckley, who's been banging the drum to get a fight in this

division and he gets so against Sean Brady, which will be the main event of the UFC Apex card on April 26th. You know, I feel like this is this is a fair fight for both guys. It gives Buckley an opportunity to bounce back and Sean Brady the same. This is a big fight and it's good matchmaking. I'm totally on board with this. who's going to drop further down the division and who kind of still hangs around the top. I like, I like this fight a lot. UFC also is going to be heading back to Winnipeg, Manitoba. The week before on April 18th, the event will be headlined by Gilbert Burns and Mike Malat. This is actually going to be the first Canadian to main event, a UFC card since 2020. So big stuff there for Mike Malott, a massive opportunity for the Canadian. Of course, if you're going to go to Canada and you're

going to put Mike Malone on the card. You're also going to put our girl Jasmine Jashtoficius on the card. She's going to be going up against Karini Silva. Do we have a drop? Oh, no, I think we disbanded those. Frankie is here, of course. Jordan here, Andy is here. Shout out to all of them. The only reason we're even able to do this is because of them and they're incredibly hard working, creative systems to get this thing up and running. We also got... Did you know that Gilbert Burns is still ranked number 11? Yeah, I think I've actually talked about it on the show, despite him losing three. four straight yeah. Oh boy.

Yeah, Gilbert Burns has not seen a W since what? I think the losing streak started against Bilal in 2023. Yes, his last win is Jorge Mazadal in April 8th, 2023 and then he lost next month in May to Balal Mohammed. Walter weight rankings are a bit rough, huh? Bit rough, a bit rough, but Jeff Neal's 12, he just got flatlined, Colby Covington's 14.

God knows why that is. Somehow, Venom page is below Colby Covington, only one slot, or tied rather. Sorry, that he's also 14 with Colby Covington. No, but make sure you take out Shofcott. Make sure to get Shafcott out of those. Yeah, let's remove Shavka, but not any of this other fuckery happening at the bottom here. What about Colby at 14? No, no, no, no, he needs to stay.

That's respect. We need Colby at 14. That's for sure. One other announcement that we got was Hanato Moikano versus Chris Duncan. That's going to be the main event of a UFC Apex card taking place on April 4th. 4th, he kind of was supposed to fight on 326 against Brian Ortega, but Ortega had to pull out. I'm looking at my notes here. I said April 4th, April 18th, and April 26th. I wouldn't make any sense. I'm thinking it's April 25th. I'm doing the math on those because

it's all got to be Saturdays. One of those is wrong. I think the Brady Buckley is the 25th. Either way. Let's correct the record. Good for you. Yeah, you know all the fights that are coming up here in April. A stacked April. as we start to get these fight announcements coming out. We got another announcement from the Emerald Isle this morning. So we're actually going to head out there and be joined by the patron saint, Mr. Pizzi. Welcome to the program, Pizzi. We're all fully remote today, man.

How you feeling? It's kind of jarring to see you guys like this. You know what I mean? It's a, I'm used to you in the studio, but it's been fantastic. You've absolutely nailed it today. Ariel's internet. Come on. Yeah, yeah.

You're right. You're right to call that out. I mean, look at you, crystal clear. Mike's working, looking handsome as ever, sounding beautiful. I got Botox. Okay. Do you want to give a shout out to your doctor? Just get the eyes on the balls done.

Just so it's all. Get rid of all those wrinkles. The balls on the ball? By balls? Yeah, sure. Okay. No, no, she gets Botox on his balls, G, G. That's actually a smart move.

I can't lie. I can't lie. It can be heinous at times. I actually really respect that. I love your background pizza. I got to show some love to my own. Can we, can we go full screen on this? I mean, I paused it earlier and I started zooming in on things in the background. This pizza hut lamp is absolutely unbelievable. This is real glass. This is an actual like Pizza Hut lamp turned into a lamp. I mean, we're talking fully functional over here. It's incredible. We're talking fully functional. Sorry, did you say it was a lamp turned into a lamp?

So like, if you've ever been to pizza up back in the day, they hung them over the tables and it was like, you know, iconic, you know, real ones know, no pizza hot buffet for lunch mom takes you. you got a half day from school or something, maybe the Wednesday before. We used to cut class to go. We used to cut class and go to pizza. That buffet was absolutely legendary. That and CECs, you get the dessert pizza, everything like that.

So yeah, shout out to that. We got the Jean Galang. Oh, yeah. Still hanging on to this UFC 300 Prime. That's going to be worth something someday, boys. Not going to drink. It might make me sick. But, you know, we got the outcast action figures.

That's unbelievable. That's a little Atlanta homage. GSP right here. Hang it on a set? I put on a custom hook behind this guy. We're holding him up by his belt. Install that hook this morning, guys. Don't know if I'm going to be able to get them back on there.

But, oh, no, we were Texas belt buckle. A little homage to H-town. Metro card, rest in peace, you know, real ones now. This is the Trindadora or whatever it is called. Triumda. This is the World Cup ball. Nice little thing. A couple ghost faces, Yahoo, UFC.

This is an interactive, real. real time subway. No way. Look at that. F trains are running with delays today. You can see when the next train's coming. A train, F train, all of them. A little Brooklyn Cyclones Bumblehead and then my guy, the Kim Bayment combo.

So shout out, this is all makeshift. This is normally scattered around my apartment, but I have torn my apartment to pieces to make this setup just for you guys. So, you know, shout out. Incredible. Incredible. Now, Rick, take us through yours there, please. Yeah, so that way is a bed.

That's a bed over there. there you can see it there's a bed right here right there right there and back here some of my wife's shit this is like some of my wife's shit over here like in this general vicinity a lot of it there's a lot of shit in my wife's side of the bedroom and then there's my very clean uh side of the bed over there i don't have a lot of possessions uh that you can't see um there used to be a crib back here we've got uh some folks visiting in town and my son logan is sleeping back here so yeah you know you know No, we blurred this one out. I think that was the right move to do.

Because I've been evicted from my previous. Like, when I used to come out on the MMA hour, I had what was my office. That was my office. Logan now sleeps in there as a bedroom and it's also our guest room when we have guests. We got the pull-out couch in there. So I'm in our bedroom. I don't have another space to be. And you're going to have to live with it.

Who are these people who have taken over your house? All I'm hearing is there's people. There's people here. They won't let me do anything. The sister-in-law is here. with her daughter, my niece, and they're staying here. My brother-in-law was also here previously. They left.

My mom's been popping in and out because she just moved to a new house, needs to do laundry, has stayed a few days. My mother-in-law has been here. It's all over. We're all over the gaffe, as Ari will say. Listen, I'm barely hanging in, but you guys are giving me what I need. You guys are giving me the energy and the life.

Okay, we're bearing the lead here. Pizzi, we got some breaking news from the Emerald Island. today. I'm just going to let you explain. Take it away, brother. Yeah, so we have very, very from left field this announcement because all of the rumor mill has been telling us to Paul Hughes about the fight in Boston in April. So we're all bracing ourselves to hear about this Beantown fight. And look, I would have made a lot of sense with Hughes. He's a big name in Ireland. And anything that's a big name in Ireland is a big name in Boston. I've been over there myself for McGregor fights, 2014, I believe it was, for Siverr, 2015, I believe, January.

and it was absolutely crazy. It was like the whole town towards the war as a fight. I'm sure PFL were looking for something similar. Today we find out they have moved the event to Belfast.

We find out that Paul Hughes would be fighting J.J. Wilson. You'll remember he went to Belfast last year. It was an amazing homecoming and he really thought he would never fight there again

because he'd be pushed into these bigger cards, US cards, potentially Dubai cards and obviously he went on to do that. He lost to Usman de Magamato for a second time in another incredibly close fight.

This is a very different fight. to what we saw last year. It was Bruno Miranda. Bruno Miranda is an accomplished fighter, but not on the level of JJ Wilson. JJ Wilson has only lost to the cream of the crop in PFL. He has lost to Gadsie, and he has lost to Archie Colgan in his last fight.

So really, Hughes knows he has to go in there, and I've got a quick word with him. It should be going up on Crown shortly. But he knows that a loss here is devastating, because first of all, Wilson will build his own toilet credentials off a victory over Hughes. And as we said already, like Hughes knows there's no point in calling

for a trilogy fight right now with Usman de Magamatov. He needs to put together a series of wins which make him undeniable. And of course, we don't know where Usman of Magamatov is going to be next year. We know he has a limited amount of time

left on this current contract. If he has to fight again, we do not know. And we believe that at least the option for UFC will be there and to continue that lineage with lightweight titles obviously held by Habib

and Usma and excuse me, Islam previously. So it's a big, big fight, it's a very important fight but there's another little curveball. I believe the rumors that we're hearing about Boston were true and that's why the time of this event is quite unique. It's a Thursday night. The press release reads

the main event will happen beyond midnight. So they haven't been very specific in terms of when this is going to happen but we do believe, I've been talking to a few people today. We do believe that we will be out of the venue at about 1.30 local time. So not crazy, but still tough. Thursday night. You know, last year, lads, there was 8,000 people in Belfast and I was talking to here on the show. It was the first time I'd kind of seen a kind of an organic buzz around a fighter since those early Bellator cards with Galaer-Quili, James Galaher,

Liam McArthur, would agree as well. Seeing 8,000 people in Belfast last year for Hughes was a huge, huge moment but I do think with the time the fact that it's happened on Thursday it could be a bit more of a struggle but this is a way better fight and really we're going to have to see the best version of Paul Hughes to get back in the win column and to renew some kind of stake to that lightweight title

held by Us Man I'm Agamadeoff. What do you make of the thought to do this at that time? Do you think that's going to impact like the buzz the energy, the ticket sales around that or do you think because it's Paul Hughes everybody's just going to show up? I think look, Belfast

is an incredible fighting city. It's been a boxing city for many, many years, but that last year just kind of made me feel like it's gone from Dublin to Belfast in terms of what is the focal point of MMI in Ireland right now. I think Hughes is the guy. You know, he is the guy that the Irish feel most represented by. Of course, you have Ema Chattogarie,

who's an unbelievable fighter, but as I've talked about here before, he just hasn't stirred up that kind of kinship with the Irish people. that could be for a variety of reasons, of course. He was very strong and kind of correlating himself to Connor McGregor. And as I've spoke about here before, Cona McGregor incredibly polarised and due here. Like, it is not like it was in 2015

when everybody wanted to be on the McGregor bandwagon. Everybody wanted a piece of this guy. Things have changed over the last decade. But for whatever reason, and maybe assisted by his beef with Connor McGregor following that first fight with Usman Namaemadov, where Habib and Paul had this embrace in the middle of the,

Cage and there was that snippet released by Anatomy of a fighter where Hughes was saying, I'm not like that guy. I don't think he is like that guy. I don't know why anyone's offended by that. I think he's a very different dude to Conne McGregor. But because of that beef inflamed and because of the public's opinion of McGregor, it's kind of bolstered Paul into this bigger spot than he was already in. As you guys know, we've been talking about Paul Hughes for a very long time, right back to him when the fed away toilet with Cage Warriors. He was an unbelievable prospect from the second he went pro, broke his two hands. So this is a huge buzz around this. think that it's going to impact the card, Rick, to your question. Like, it's a Thursday night. People

work Fridays. If they're going to be like, well, I have to be in work at 7, 8 a.m. tomorrow and we're going to be finished up at the SSE at 132, it's impossible to say that that won't have an impact. I do, however, think they have the good graces of Belfast built off the last card. And similar to what we saw in Dublin over the years, and even with those Bellator cards that were kind of on the back of McGregor's success, when people see an event like that and they see a moment, like we, we voted Paul's, I think it was myself an aerial voted Paul's walkout from that event with Foy Vance as the walkout of the year.

People want to be part of those things. So I think they'll be assisted by that. But the time, a Thursday, and a happening beyond midnight for the main event, it's impossible not to acknowledge that that will have an impact on sales. Okay. I don't want to give away too much. You said you spoke to Hughes,

and that's coming soon. From your chat with him, though, does it seem like title is his focus, right? Not necessarily like Usman Nirmaga made up. of because, as you said, like his future is murky. Is it Paul Hughes wants to be PFL champion? Paul Hughes is, I asked him straight up.

I said like, you saw the fight with Usman and Alfie Davis. In a way, it underlined Usman and how brilliant he was because he had a dazzling display against Alfie Davis just a few weeks ago. But it also kind of underlined how close that rivalry is. There is not much of a disparity between Usman's skill set and Paul. I personally had Paul winning both fights, but I'm also Irish, so you have to take that with a pinch of salt, you know what I mean? I'm watching that with them green tinted glasses on. What he did say to me was, and I mean, this is everyone's position, so I don't think this is breaking news, but he's like, I don't plan to ever lose in mixed martial arts again. So I'm going to keep winning, and we're going to fight at some stage. I don't know when it's going to be. I know that I'm in a situation now where I've lost two fights. If I come out here and say, if I beat JJ Wilson, I want that third fight with Usman and Magamato, people are going to be like, well fuck off paul you know what i mean we're giving you two cracks he knows that himself he needs to build up a desire for people to see this again i just wonder if it'd be interesting taking that

for it again dubai if it came up that way because i think we need an old neutral venue if that's going to happen for a third time yeah um yeah so it'll be interesting to see you know what happens on the usmander maga made outside of it but as you said paul hughes has to get his a assenarder right he needs to get a massive win here get back on track and then it's hard to imagine that he's behind anybody in terms of one of the biggest faces in PFL, one of the front runners for getting a title opportunity,

everything kind of gets solved again if he can just get a big win here. The Belfast crowd will be going absolutely a bit shit for him. It's set up. It's set up perfectly for him to be able to do it. Yeah, it's one of those moments, lads. Like, PFL don't have a lot of dudes like Paul. Yeah. They have some great superstars,

some unique talent. Dakota, as we talk about Cedric Dune Bay. Patrick Haberora is being that guy as well Like when he is fighting in his hometown People are going to show up and show out And it amplifies any kind of victory You know, when you show up and people are losing their fucking minds People are like, I want a piece

I want a piece of it Belfast as well being this fighting city People love supporting their own guys The other thing about this is J.J. Wilson's never been finished Never. He's fought these savages Hasn't been put away I think Paul is expecting a war

So we have that 42 second kind of coronation for him as the Belfast boy last year. I think this is going to be a war. I think Paul hits hard. I think JJ hits hard too. It's a striking match and I think it's going to be a real war for 15 minutes. So if there's an incentive for the people to go, this is not like a Bruno Miranda where you're like this is Coton Dry. Paul's going to win.

I can remember walking around Belfast. The sun was beaten down on us before that fight last year. All of these fans from the big news crew flying in. from all over the world. There was people there from New York, the Middle East, London, Australia, and I asked everyone beforehand,

like, seriously, what way do you think this fight is going? And people are like, it won't last a minute. And I was like, and you still want to come and watch this fight? And they're like, it won't last a minute. This is a lot more competitive. And there is a lot on the line, not only for Paul Hughes, but for JJ Wilson, too.

So I'm looking forward to see how it goes. Can't wait for that one. It's going to be a nice, like, 730 here over in the state. It's nice and easy for the guy's station. You'll only be home, GC. You missed it. Wait, like a week. I was thinking that.

I will be there on the ninth the week before. We could have taken a train up the Belfast together and watch big news. Not for nothing. I'm missing BKFC Hawaii by a few days. Unbelievable. Unbelievable what our luck provided here. We almost timed out vacations into great combat sports vacations as well. Pizzie, you got a second.

I know we brought you on for the Paul Hughes. You got a second to hang around or the blower going off. You know, obviously on Friday, you and. you know, everyone on the crack discussed Dana versus Eddie Hearn heating up and things getting spicy. Once you guys got off the air, a bomb drop, an absolute bomb gets dropped. Connor Ben signs with Zufa boxing and now it feels like it's on more than it's ever been. This feels like a direct shot from Zufa boxing to Eddie Hearn and Matchroom and the rest of the boxing world that we are not here to play around Dana White talking about we're actually

beating up babies. We're making this happen. Obviously, you were talking about the rivalry. What was your reaction to this signing? It's the most exciting thing in combat sports right now. I'm buzzing off this. Like, I've been saying, you guys know, I've been putting it in the group every fucking talk sport take on this. Simon Jordan to small. Shout out to our guy, Simon.

Yeah, no, I can't. I was counting down for that interview since Friday. I'm like, when is he going to talk about this? It's crazy. It feels like a very, very targeted attack on match room because of it being Connor Ben. Like, not only is he one of their big. biggest stars, I'd probably put him behind Joshua and Taylor. That's it. The next was Ben, and they put a massive amount of the promotional arm around him for those two Chris Eubank fights.

They've made him a massive commodity. You know, I know, Rick, like you were on Connor Ben before a lot of people, but that was rare for people in the US, you know? Like, he was very much a kind of a UK product. Those Chris Eubank fights have pushed him into a completely new stratosphere, and he is suddenly the most hated man in boxing of people are calling him in the UK. I think that's fucking great. I think he should lean into it.

I think the UFC are coming in on the big dog in the yard. Sorry, Zufo boxing with Sela owning a big stake in that company too. Hamm it up. Ham it up. We are an evil entity. We are the empire of boxing.

I want to hear the music. Dun, dun, dun, dun, do-dun, when they come in, this is fucking amazing. amazing. This is what combat sports is all about. We've been crying out for something to happen like this in MMA. Honestly, just give us like, because the contracts are so sewn up, we want to see this movement. We want to see these people competing with each other. No one can touch Dana White. Maybe Netflix will have something to say about that. Maybe Netflix will have something to say about

that further down the line. But right now, he's took his balls and he's put him right on the table and he said, this isn't even the start, lads. There's a lot more coming. And I cannot wait to see where it is. And I can't wait to see how Eddie reacts. I thought he was very candid. In the aftermath, he did the interview with Cuggan Cassius. We actually have that sound. Let's play that for everybody. Yeah, let's play that for everybody so they know what you're talking about. I blame myself because I just, I forgot it was boxing. You know? And I was like, I just felt that the loyalty that we've shown would never ever put us in this position. And I just felt that I never really needed

to push Connor Ben to sign a new contract previously. And I probably could have got him to sign a new contract previously. But I just, and like I said, I blame myself. I made a mistake because I misjudged the character. And again, I'm not going to hang him out to dry. And he will say, well, it was a big offer, right? But, you know, when I received the email from his lawyer, I text him and said, I think we should have a call. I think you, for everything I've done for you, I think you deserve, I deserve a call.

And he said, no. And I was like, man, I can't believe it. And, you know, I just, I don't know what to say other than I just, you know, felt that, everything that we gave him, the loyalty that we gave him, the support we gave him would be enough to talk it through or just, you know, get close to a number, but it wasn't really the interest. So very, very surprising, very painful. But just another moment in life that you live and learn from. I don't really know what to say, really. You can just hear how gutted he truly is. He is taking this personally. He is taking this on the chin. Connor Ben released

his statement. He said, first and foremost, I want to thank Eddie and the entire team at Match Room for everything they've done for me over the past decade from guiding me when I first turned pro to headlining stadium shows. They were not only with me for those highlight moments, but stood shoulder to shoulder with me during the tough times. It's been a journey beyond anything we could have imagined, and for their beliefs, support, and guidance, I will always be truly grateful. But Zufa boxing presented me with an opportunity. I simply could not. refuse. I'd love Eddie to continue to be part of my own team and for our partnership to evolve in this new chapter. I'm filled with excitement and hunger for what's ahead with Zouva boxing.

I want the legacy fights, the biggest fights, and the biggest stages. I fear no man at any weight and I'm ready to give the fans the fights they've been calling for. Yeah, calling for, sorry. It's blurry on here. I'm out of a hard time. My face is right now. You're doing great. You're doing great. I'm in my prime and together we have bold, ambitious plans. Unfortunately, now the Connor can't read rumors are going to start up. But Pizzi, I cut you off to show that sound of Eddie reacting. You were going to give your thoughts on like Eddie's, Eddie's response to this and how Eddie's taking it.

What were your thoughts on that? First of all, like, you can see that Eddie Hearn is in a similar vein to what Dana Hoy is in M.A. Like, he has told people how to react to this and they have acted according. I have seen the whole fan base torn on this guy overnight and look I think Eddie is one of the best

speakers like the best promoter on the mic I think at the moment without a doubt but this is a massive shot across the ball like the bowling like I'm thinking about it in terms of like this is his guy like this is why it's so personal right like this is the guy that he

went down it's his number two guy though we have to be clear like Anthony Joshua is his is his guy right Katie. So Katie Taylor. So it is his guy. It is definitely his guy. It is Matt Drew's guy. No doubt about it. But if Anthony Joshua or Katie Taylor went over to Zufa,

I think Eddie's off a bridge somewhere. Like that's a different level. So we do have to admit that. But at the same time, they brought him up. They had him through the system. They stood by him and believed in him when he did it. I just wanted to say that, though. I just wanted to add that.

Absolutely. But the thing is like, it's the, that's the, that standing by him episode went on for years. And Eddie Heron would go in and speak to people who were just eviscerating him. Shout out to Simon Jordan again. Oh, my God. It was just like, you could see the grimace on his face, like just sitting down at studio going, right, here we fucking go. And he just get absolutely lanced for, like, some of the fucking interviews are over an hour where Simon Jordan's just like, this whole sport's in disrepute.

You're a prick, basically. But here's the thing. A lot of, and I've seen a few people mention this. I'm not unique. This is not a brilliant boxing take from Peter Carroll. A few people have brought this up. Are we forgetting the way Eddie Hearn was acting with the old Ben Whitaker signing? And how he, how, like, I don't feel like Dana has slammed this down in, in, down people's necks as much as Matrim.

We're smacking it down people's necks about Ben Whitaker. And just publicly abusing Ben Shalom. like a guy who's trying to come in and just being like look what we did we took your fucking best guy oh my god you must be absolutely distraught because we just took your main guy and you are fucked now like that was that was genuinely the tone of the interviews that these dudes were doing this is boxing like eddie we'll learn from this in a way that i don't think he's probably learned from a different experience in his look unless we're all being worked which i think ariel hawani no we're not we're not no way okay but he's making the post of

chestnut checkers it turns out of out that, oh, this is actually just a one-fight deal. I'm just saying. The one-fight deal is, I think, a very important part of this. I actually want to bring up a tweet from Lou Debella, boxing promoter, who had an interesting thought on this that we should talk about. I'm reading it here. Lou Debella says, boxing's different these days.

Since when is a one-fight deal, a promotional deal? It's a one-fight deal. You aren't exactly building anything. Until Mannix, this is Chris Mannix, reported otherwise, you'd think from all the hoopla that it was a long-term thing. One fight doesn't make you a... promotions poster child and is a bit puzzling to me but all parties could still make a score so that changed how i felt about it a little bit not reading lose tweet but just what he's getting at here

the one fight deal part of it does change how i feel about that right when your match room and you're eddie herne and you're frank smith and you go hey ben shalom i got uh whittaker we're taking him and he's ours that feels different than connor ben wanted a one fight payday and it was so much money that he couldn't refuse it and that's unfortunate but we have to figure out a new way forward it feels a little bit different to me and that and that one fight aspect of it is the difference now if he has this one fight makes the most money he's ever going to make and then resigns the zuffa boxing for multiple new fights then it's the same then it's exactly the same but the fact that they've limited the terms of at least this one to this one fight deal does feel to me more like a mercenary

going out and getting what he's worth then it does feel like we got your guy ha ha ha ha And so I understand like Dana and them not necessarily being like, we got him, we got them, we got them, because they only have them for one fight guaranteed. Yeah, yeah, look, it's a good point. Here's another point. I don't really think he's going to win any of these unification bets. Like, I'm being honest with you, man, like the Chris Eubank fight, I wasn't, I didn't go away from that second fight when he won like, holy shit, Connor Ben is incredible. Really? I was going, well, Chris Eubank is done.

Well, that's true too. That's for sure. That was more of a takeaway than look at the skills this guy has. You weren't impressed from, and I'm not trying to sell you, Connor Ben, because I think there is a ceiling for Connor Ben. But I did leave that second fight going a little bit like he didn't have the cardio in that first fight that he had here. The sustained attack, even against, like Chris Eubank may have been the meat hanging in the locker from Rocky that he's just beating up. Like he wasn't even there.

He was just a shell. But even in that scenario, the boxing was fan. fantastic out of Connor Bent. Like, I was impressed to the level that I'm at least like, look, like, can he capture a world championship? Is he more than just a British level boxer? I kind of believe he can. Now, is he going to be an undisputed champion? Yeah.

Exactly. Like, can he be in a fight with those guys? I'm now opening my mind more to that reality than like the cap that I had for him before, which was like, he can put on these fun British boxing fights. He can do a Chris Eubank fight. Now I'm like, okay, could he at least threaten some of these? guys now I'm more interested. That was my like feeling after but you know

I'm not 100% on it. Yeah. Yeah. That's just it makes me feel like that's why it was so, it's so much more targeted if you get me. Because he's not like you know, it's not like a guaranteed like this guy has all the belts and he has He's not Canelo. He's not Canelo. He's not Terrence Crawford. He's not Tyson

Fury. He's not the guy that you're like okay, these are like the biggest names in boxing. He's a younger, more exciting, dynamic kind of flashy guy. Not necessarily unify, undisputed world champion level. But maybe, it's a guy who's hot right now who has been in the trenches with Eddie Hearn for the majority of his career. And now they're like, yeah, we'll just go ahead and take that.

Like you thought you thought you had loyalty from this guy. We'll just go ahead and take that and truly start this war. I mean, the, the drama is the best part of all of this. So you guys talked about Chris Eubank. Like he was weighing in on Twitter as well, just like feeding into into this drama machine from it. Eddie, how you feel in today, buddy? This was Christmas for Chris Eubank. This was fucking Christmas for Chris Eubank Jr. He also said, So Eddie Hearn's number one fighter has now left him.

Eddie's stuck by Connor Bren through thick and thin, getting him off drug charges and giving him money to live when he had nothing. I guess this really shows just how much of a scumbag herne actually is. He takes his life and career, and Connor still doesn't want to be involved with him. Or has been the scumbag for dumping the man that built him. This really is a conundrum. Scumbag on scumbag vial.

I didn't tell you guys. Just absolute gold from almost all parties involved. It's like a soap opera. It's like a telenovela. It doesn't get much better than this when it comes to out of the ring antics. And I need to come up here and say, like, this is what I've been waiting for Rick.

Remember I was pessimistic. I was saying, this is the kind of shit I need to see. I'm not like, oh, they're going to dominate this. Boxing is just going to roll over and die. But this is the biggest statement. they feel like they've made. Like this feels bigger than Joy Appetoya. You know, it feels like a massive, massive, massive moment for them.

To me, and I said this when we were talking about it earlier, but I want to say it again, which was my initial feeling on Zufa boxing was they're either going to do Apex Slop or the biggest fights ever and nothing in between. There was going to be a huge chasm. They were not going to be involved at all. I thought they were just going to be involved in like, we're promoting Crawford Canelo.

We're doing Apex Slop fights, headlined by, you know, our guys. guys and nothing in between. And now they're showing with Jay Apataya and a guy like Connor Ben, who's not like Canelo Crawford level, but somewhere in that like high tier, we can headline a really good show level that they're just taking every opportunity to get involved in this. And that to me is a departure from what I expected when this was first announced. And they were booking all these apex dates and things. And we were hearing the commission saying that they booked the dates.

Now I'm like, shit, they're coming for it all. They're coming for everything. It's taken, what, like six weeks? Like, we're only three Zufa cards deep, and now it's what I most want to see. I mean, it's incredible that this war that they've started. Pizzi made the best point last week on this when I was like Zufa's coming to take over is you have to be able to sustain it. That's the thing, right? How many fights can you do with Connor Ben?

And is Connor Ben going to only be able to fight Zufa boxers if he signs a long-term deal? I imagine the reason he's not signing a long-term deal is because, he wants to challenge for championships. The same way it would be very hard to get Canello or Terrence Crawford or Tyson Fury to sign a massive long-term deal. They're going to be the ones you do the one-off contracts with that do those super mega big, big, big-time fights, but they're not going to be sitting at the apex. They're not going to be guys that you have long-term deals that are sitting at the apex. So can you sustain enough of these little one-off like Jaya Pataya, who is fighting at the apex, Connor Ben, one-off fights?

as well. Andy Ruiz. There's lots of talk and rumors of him potentially going over. How does that all shake out? There's so much on the plate. There's so much still to be seen. That's going to be their path forward to longevity. But in the meantime, if all they're doing is sniping opportunities that cost money, they've got the backing of the right people to spend that money. And so they can continue to do this over and over and over again. And so it's going to be interesting to see what the mix of Zufa boxing ends up being. Isn't that crazy as well, guys? It's a 15, million dollar, reportedly a $15 million for one fight and we don't know who he's fighting. Like, Eddie Hearn has made suggestions in the past, like they will overspend on people. I wonder what a person

with boxing eyes is looking on this. But I'd say from Dana and Turkey who's in this very precarious position as Ariel spoke to earlier on, but I wonder if they're like, this isn't about how much money we're going to make back on a fight. This is about sending a message to the biggest competition out there, which I

feel is match room. G.C. I've got to ask you because you know about this way more. You can contextualize this way better than any of us can. My constant question is, like, how big is Connor Ben? Like, to the general U.S. sports fan, how big is this going? Like, has this catapulted him and doing it in a stratosphere? Just all this talk about him? Like, what, is he a big name? Okay, so see, this is what I was going to say. Like, this is incredible and the drama's amazing. And you've got all this shit talking and this soap opera series of Eddie can't believe it. Now he's making all these, you know, post.

posts where he's sub-tweeting and he's sub-instagram posting Dana White and everything like that, chestnut checkers. But is it going to convert into people, the viewership tick up for Zufa boxing? Because while we all know Connor Ben and he's a big name in the sport, we know the history of Eddie Hearn, I'm not sure the casual boxing fan in America knows him outside of the two Chris Eubanks fights. Before those, they definitely didn't know him. Now, I think they're more familiar with him, but I still don't know how huge of a draw he's going to be. He can't fight in the apex. No one's going to do it. He's fighting in the apex. not going to be in the apex.

Not for the 15 million. What do if they do in the UK, they have a chance to come up against this matchroom backlash as well where people are like, fuck, I'm not going to go, fuck it. Does it see this fight? Go to Vegas.

Ryan Garcia versus Connor Ben. Done. Sorted. Easy. Huge fight. And it's going to sell massively. They don't need casual audience for these types of moves. This to me feels like a boxing move.

This to me feels like one, Eddie Hearn, mind your fucking peas and cues, right? That's them sending a message like, you better be on your ship because we're coming. But also to the boxing world, hey, we're interested in these big fights. And a guy like Connor Ben, we know you love to watch him fight. The UK is going to feel however they feel about Connor Ben. They already hated his ass because of the drug test failure.

And we're willing to crucify him at that time, let alone this. Like, I'm sure the UK public isn't his biggest fan right now. But the boxing fans know that when Connor Ben's fighting, you need to be watching, right? He is one of the most exciting guys we have. As you said, not a master technician. He's not Floyd Mayweather. He's not Chaucor Stevenson. But the motherfucker can fight and he brings it with the aggression.

You put him in there with another guy who can fight in Ryan Garcia and you've got something. And every boxing fan must watch that. You don't have a choice. If you care about boxing even a little bit or if you're a casual Ryan Garcia fan, now you're in for that fight. So they could, I feel like they've got a good recipe going where it's like, we're doing enough of the fights for the boxing fans. if you're a Zufa boxing fan, now you're getting like a real showcase of Jayapataya. If you're the ones who's tuning in for those Apex shows,

God bless you, but you are getting like an exciting little tasty dish with Jaya and then come later in the year when all of a sudden Tyson Ferry and Anthony Joshua gets starting to talk about again and Zufa finds their way into, you know, the poster for that one. Now they've got the casual fans

and the wider global audience too. They're hitting it from every angle if they do this properly. Ryan Garcia is the box office fight in my opinion for this. I understand Shikor Stevenson's big, but in terms of fame and notoriety, I think he's probably the biggest American boxer today. I mean, Terence Crawford is incredible. He's one of the best. He's retired now. Shikor Stevenson is incredible, but in terms of getting eyes on it, that star power, Ryan Garcia is that a lure. And when you're putting titles on the line and everything going on with it, that's the box office one that you want to sit.

And he's not that good sentiment as well now because he had this great performance against Barrios. he looked great, he presented himself in a great manner all week and look it was a tricky fight Barrios is very very good and of course he was being trained by Garcia's old coach put him down in the first round and just really really just put on a clinic in that

fight I thought and it's kind of what you wanted to see because as much as there was this fascination about his outlandish behaviour this guy's been a prospect a blue chip prospect since he's a teenager and it would have been such a waste if that had it been it right if this guy couldn't accomplish a world title and we'd already seen his best

days. I think the sentiment behind Garcia is massive now, and I completely agree with you G.C. This is the fight. And not for nothing. The Raleigh performance was abysmal. It was an absolute stinker, right? I thought it was gone. He sandwiched a fantastic championship

winning performance against Mario Barrios and a life-altering beatdown of Devon Haney, like legendary beatdown of Devin Haney with the stinker of all stinkers. And so he needed this desperately. And now not only did he look, give a good account of himself, he's now a world champion. And he's able to, like, look toward a Connor Ben and go, now you want me. Like, I don't just want you. You don't just want me. This is a fight that could make sense. And so we'll see, like, you know, Connor Ben has options because as we've seen in the Chris Eubank fights, he's willing to go up. He's willing to, you know, fight at the, at the way class he's most comfortable. He's willing to do whatever it takes for big fights. And I think the one fight deal signing with Zouf's,

shows the exact same thing. If there's big fights out there, I'm willing to take them. And he says it even in a statement. So it's perfect to have Connor Ben on your roster right now because I think there's a lot of different options for him for that one fight. Yeah, I think that would be the biggest of them all. Pizzi, you mentioned taking shots at Zufa taking shots at Eddie Hearn. With this signing, Dana just did it directly at the press conference.

Post-fight press for UFC Houston. He had some words for Eddie Hearn. Take a listen. Connor Ben, an amazing signing for Zufabwe. boxing. How long was that deal in the works? And did you know about it when you were saying beating up babies? Did I know about it when what? Did you know about it when you were saying you were beating up babies? Well, I think you saw this week, I am really beating up babies. Is there a bigger pussy than Eddie Hearn? He was quite upset that Conner Ben left. Is there a bigger pussy than Eddie Hearn? This guy's supposed to be your friend. You're fucking crying. He made more money.

He's going to make more money. And he had the right to match it. He could have matched it. I think he said he tried and Connor Ben wouldn't return his calls. What a crock of shit. Yeah. We're literally beating up babies. Oh, I love it.

We are so back. Beating our babies, baby. Just directly calling Eddie Hearn a pussy, calling him, calling bullshit on the fact that Connor Ben wouldn't take his call. Like this feud is on fire right now. Oh, look. I love that Dana's just like, you know, he's upset about this guy signing with someone else. Do you remember Dana Hoyt's press conferences after Francis and Ghana went to the PFL?

And we can never just pretend that this like, you know, this guy's completely fine? But can I tell you what I keep thinking about, lads. And I can't stop thinking about it. Like, we will never have this in MMA. Like the way boxing is structured is that it's very fighter-friendly. They have basic control over these contractors. There's no long-term deals, clauses in which just completely ensnare them into contracts.

Like Eddie Hearn thought he didn't. For whatever reason, this is his story. I didn't think we needed a contract with Connor Ben because we were that closed. And this opens him up to this absolute shit show, which is riveting for all of us. But I would just, I'm begging for the excitement to stimulate the sport. I would love to see Dana in this position. He has the upper hand against Match Room now. He's after doing, as I said, balls on the table.

So I'm Connor Ben. and this is all we're only getting started I would love to see that Netflix entity because I don't think PFL can do this after the Francis degano thing I really don't and I know that they have a big year ahead of them where we don't know what the future to promotion is beyond 2026

this new Netflix entity have money and they need to fill a card I know it's only a once offer now but if they start putting on in the same way as Zufu boxing has said like four big cards a year if we got like four Netflix cards a year and they needed to just get like three or four dudes

and girls to have on their cards to boast of them to get people interested I would love to see UFC Dana White Zuffa fighting a war on two fronts, one in boxing one in MMA but I think it cannot be done right Rick I think the structure of these contracts won't allow it

it's exactly the right comparison to make and it's the one I made last week when I said I would not want to be beat in the ratings by Ronda Rousey versus Gina Carrano if I was the UFC and I got roasted for saying it's going to be a massively watched

fight. I stand by it. I don't know where anything would indicate otherwise. I think this is going to be a massive event for Netflix. I think you're 100% right that that would be the thing. That's the way to kind of needle

and be a thorn in the side of the UFC is putting on these one-off massive cards. Here's the biggest problem. And the reason you kind of alluded to it already, there isn't enough talent out there. You can steal You can poach Connor Ben because boxers are true free agents, right? When their contracts up, they can go to anybody.

When they're in contract, they can fight against anybody, right? They are not required to only fight fighters that are on your roster. In fact, we see some of the biggest fights, the biggest fights, are made between two promotional entities where Eddie Hearn's got one guy, Frank Warren's got another guy, let's pair him up, let's fight. Ben Shalom as a guy, Eddie Hearn as a guy, let's match him up and fight. Bob Aram's got a guy. And so those are how the biggest fights are made.

So you don't need to leave your promoter, right? You got your promoter. They're on your side. And you can just have those massive fights still. In MMA, the UFC only has you fighting, whoever's under their roster. And in their favor is the fact that the biggest fights remain on their roster. So there's really no mobility and no ability for a fighter if they wanted to leave UFC and only be a Netflix MVP fighter.

There's just not enough sustained fights. And so I think it will be a thorn in the side. I think there will be an opportunity for them to draw big ratings and to needle the UFC. But it does feel like the shots are going to be less significant than something like this where it's like, yeah, we took your guy, you're done, you're cooked, we got you. What do you lads think about?

I've done a bit of polling myself. Is that a euphemism or is this? That can be a euphemism. Uphomism actually, yes, because a poll being a long... The polling was on the blower or what? It was on the blower. I was more texting. I wanted to hit a few people at the same time.

Didn't want to get stuck on... You know, don't want to be on this one, want to be on this one. And... Oh, boy. But it was... I went and I talked to as many high-profile MMA fighters from across different promotions as possible. And I said, what do you think of...

Connor Ben making 15 million for a fight. And to the UFC people, I said, how does that make you feel about what you get paid in the UFC? And of course, this is all off the record. I'm not going to name any of the people I spoke to. But everyone, I'm like, this is a fucking job. I can't fucking believe that this guy is getting paid this much money when they're telling us, they're basically gutting the UFC for parts. We heard Ronda Rousey speak to Jim Rome about they don't, they're trying to put on the least valuable product as possible after. maximizing the value of the company. And then you're going the same dude

that is like, Ronda, listen, don't have enough money for this. He's 15 million for Connor Ben in a fight that we don't even know who he's fighting. We don't even know where it's taking place. He's just like 15 million. There you go, buddy. Come on in.

Anything happen. You're 100% right. And we even have video, we'll play that Ronda video in a second, but we have this interesting video from Eddie Hearn saying exactly what you're saying. If I'm a UFC fighter sitting here right now, what would I think about this? How do you think UFC fighters will be feeling seeing the figures?

Sick as a dog. Sick as a dog. Yeah. I mean, if you're a UFC fighter, you're looking at this Zuffer, going, what the fuck? I'm being absolutely ripped off here. I'm generating more revenue than these guys, and I'm getting a tent for the money. But listen, there's no loyalty in that game. Look at Aspinall.

I mean, he gets his eyes gouged out, and he just gets humiliated by UFC. I basically told everyone he's a liar. He's a pussy. You know what I mean? This is a cut-throat business, but everyone's different. It's an impossible topic to ignore. Like, you're seeing this guy get a one-fight $15 million deal when, who knows what these UFC fighters are making? You know, we see different headlines and different numbers.

You know, a lot of people posting the screenshot of Francis and Gano making 600K for his fight against Cyril Gahn at UFC 270. You can't ignore it if you're a UFC fighter. You're fighting under the same umbrella as these guys, and you're making 10%. like if you're lucky like that that would be 1.5 million for a fight it would be 10% of this guy like to your point pizzi that you don't even know who he's fighting against it's you know the the fighters i always think of ben folks and chok kind of saying to be like we care about this more than the fighters do we keep complaining about this and we rarely hear them complain about it so if you're a fan of the sport and you're watching us talk and heads discussing the sport you're like these guys have more of an issue with it than the actual athlete you're like these guys have more of an issue with it than the actual athlete you're do. But what is the straw that breaks to Kamel's black here? I think there is going to be a straw. I don't want to, I don't predict doom and gloom

for the UFC. I think the business is to establish. Oh, they do too. I think something will happen here and here's why. It became very clear once Connor McGregor did what Connor McGregor did, that the big paydays were in boxing, right? And what did we see on the heels of that?

We saw every single fighter on the UFC roster after they won their fight, calling out a boxer in their weight class, a professional boxer who is not an MMA fighter and saying Sean O'Malley wants to fight Tank Davis. Depe wants to fight

Tyson Fury. This guy wants to fight this guy. O'Sman wants to fight Canelo. It was mind-numbingly stupid and never ended. Here's the issue that I think the UFC is going to face. Not only are you

not paying us major money and Eddie Hearn eludes to Tom Asper, right you know everybody's shitting down tom aspinall's neck and he's getting paid 10% of what the guy who's uh just got signed to the promotion uh to box is why should i care about this why should i come back at all why should i even care about what how this organization is handling this they have a boxing arm now that's the problem because if i'm a ufc fighter and i'm looking around and like oh the big pay days are in boxing oh you just paid them it's not you let me me out to go get a payday from top rank oh you let me out to go get a payday from uh MVP oh you let me out to go get a payday from matchroom you control the boxing you Dana white you are you manual you control the boxing and so if you're saying i'm only going to pay you this much for m m ms what's to stop a relevant guy like an alex perera from being like oh if but if you're paying 15 million for boxing i want to box for you instead that's what i actually want to do i want to fight

Jayapataya and get a massive payday. I want to do whatever it takes to get out of the MMA side of things and go into boxing. That, I think, could be a real tricky issue to deal with because now it's in-house. Now it's not just release me from my contract, which U.S.C. was never going to do, and we're never going to let any. Connor McGregor did something that was impossible and nobody will ever be able to do that again. Now you have it in house, and that's going to cause real problems, I think. Also, like, they signed Connor Ben.

They did not sign, like, they didn't sign an answer. Anthony Joshua, they didn't sign an Alexander Rusick. They didn't sign like a long reigning champion. Canelo, Terrence. Who's bringing in massive, massive numbers. They signed Connor Ben. He is a star in the sport. He's not a superstar. If you go internationally and who's drawing more numbers, is Alex Pereira not a bigger star than Connor Ben?

Is Charles Olivaire not a bigger star than Connor Ben? Hamzaa Chamaev, Islam Makashev, Ilya, Elia Teporea. The names just go on and on at the UFC level that's generating more views and more attention than Connor Ben. and they're getting paid significantly less than what Connor Ben is getting paid for this fight. I can't imagine that they're all just going to be willing to sit by and take this if it continues to happen. Because earlier we were talking about, like, you know, this new feud, Zufa versus the world. And this is just the beginning.

We're going to keep signing guys up. We're going to keep signing guys up. They're going to have to put out these massive paydays where they're overpaying people. How long can the UFC fighters sit by and be like, no, it's fine. Dude, it's fine. I'll take my my 600 win 600 show and like it's all good. What if you're Iliate Tuporia, right? You're I'm illiotsiporia and you're like,

I can get paid X million to go fight the hardest fight of my life against Islam Makachev or I have to beat a fucking killer like Armisturukian. What's to stop me from picking up the phone and saying, hey, Dana White, let me beat the fucking breaks off Callum Walsh for 10X. Like what's stopping? Callum Walsh is a great box. Shut up the king.

No disrespect to King. No, but truly, though, like when we're talking about the level of paydays, I'd be curious, like, we know what Connor Ben's getting paid. I'm curious what the, like, mid to low level tiers of Zufa boxing is looking like from a contextual perspective. But again, it's in-house. It's over the fence. It's my neighbor's yard. It might even be partially in my yard. Whereas before, it felt like a, Connor McGregor was the only one with the juice that could have got done what he got done.

Now I'm like, we brought this in. house, did they, did they awaken a beast that they maybe didn't want to? That's going to be the concern for me. And Eddie Hearn's been alluding to this. He sat in studio with Ariel and he mentioned this. He said that this was coming. I'm interested to see if it is. I mean, you mentioned Connor McGregor.

What does he think seeing this? Hell yeah. Conner Ben's getting $15 million. That's about the playout. Y'all got another Connor that's going to need to get a lot of money now, too. Yeah, I need 30 at least. If John Jones was offered 30, Connor Ben is offered 15. I need 50 if I'm Connor McGregor. That's a problem. That's a real problem. And we've seen tweets from Connor McGregor recently being like, I'm ready to fight, I'm ready to fight, I'm ready to fight, where's my contract? I'm not surprised by the fact that they ain't sending those deal terms right away. They got to figure out how they're going to handle this situation. He calls it in this tweet, Connor McGregor's deal. I would imagine that's for an exorbitant amount of money. Pee, I know it's getting late over there on the Emerald.

You got to bounce, brother? Yeah, lines just made fish tacos boys. But listen, it was a great 10 minutes. Fried or grill? What are we thinking? I think she's frying them up down there. Palapia, cod, what are we looking at? Cod, I think.

Fried cod tacos? It sounds great little lime squeeze on there. Yeah, you know, all this shit. We appreciate the 10 minutes, man. You're always, you know, very... We needed you to fill the void that Ariel Hawani left us with. You were the avatar. You were the fill in to get us whole again.

that's beautiful. I actually volunteered myself as I was like, saw Ariel going off with a text Jordan. I was like, Jordan, look at the lads, no, I'll jump in if you want to like, no, we'll just keep the same time. I was like, well, well, it's nice to feel, love Jordan, who recently left the crack. Listen, Jordan, fair play to you, mate.

All the best, which are life. No longer my friend. Love you so much, guys. Have a great day. You can't say anything back. You can't say anything back. Thanks, Pitsy. We'll talk to you soon, brother. Bye. Yeah, I mean, like, the fighter, is going to be an interesting thing as we go through this.

He alludes to, go ahead, go ahead. I was just going to say, it's not going to go away, right? Like, I don't know, I don't know. Again, we've talked about this many times when it comes to Fighter Pay, and the only way they're going to have any true power is to get together, right? And I'm not necessarily advocating for union, association, organization, anything like that. But there has to be some kind of collective effort, right? There has to be some kind of fighters coming together on this to say, we can't stand for this.

Because if it's just one fighter who's upset, but his opponent doesn't care, they'll just fill in somebody to take that opponent's spot. If it's just Connor McGregor, they'll go, eh, it's Connor McGregor. You're not fucking Connor McGregor. We don't care. But if 10 fighters, 20 fighters, 30 fighters start going, shit, this is a problem. And it sounds like Petey talked to quite a few who are, who are. are feeling that way. Now it can kind of start to snowball. Yeah, I mean, especially if you go down to like the down low ranks of the USC

where these guys are earning next to pennies and they're begging for bonuses and things like that. And then they see boxers making significantly more. It can really stir into something that's going to be troubling for the UFC and TKO. Ptze alluded to Ronda Rousey joining Jim Rome and sort of talking about this issue of fighter pay and the fights that the UFC wants to put on. We have that clip. Let's go to that now and take a listen to what Rhonda had to say. I wanted to do it for New Year's. And I went to him and I'm like, dude, you always say that I'm the best fighter you ever worked with.

Like, reward me for it. Don't punish me for being easy to work with. Give me the best deal you ever gave anybody. And he was, all right, I'm going to go back and get you the best deal I ever had. So he came back and he's like literally brought me a deal where I would make more per pay-per-view buy than anybody in history. Like if I hit my historical numbers, which I know we would have been able to exceed, I would have like made as much as I didn't my entire career.

And I was like, hell yeah, Dana, high five, thanks, you know. And but Gina needed more time. And it happened to go to the other side of when ESPN deal and their paper view model would be ending. And they would be going to streaming. And, you know, they're now a publicly traded company. And they, it's, how do I put it? they didn't want to set a precedent of giving me the guaranteed money that I deserve because once I rise that, raise that tide, it lifts all the boats. And they just made a $7.7 billion deal at Paramount.

So it's in their best interest, actually not to put on the best fights possible, but to spend as little as money as possible so they can keep it. They're legally, Dana's not legally obligated to maximize shareholder value. It's not just about, you know, proving the concept of fighting and putting on the best fights possible and proving that this is a sport to be taken seriously. I think now that it's gone into, now that they've sold the company, it's kind of out of Dana's hands, unfortunately. And now it's falling on to Hunter Campbell and UFC Corp, where they don't care about putting on the best fights possible. They care about putting on the most cost-effective fights possible. It no longer made sense for me to go over there because they didn't want to pay us the money that we deserve because then for the rest of the time of the deal, they're going to have to pay everybody else more. And so then I decided to look elsewhere.

Yeah, those are serious accusations from Ronda, essentially just like they don't want to put on the best fights. They want to put on the most cost effective. They don't want to set a precedent to where they're going to have to pay more fighters. So the fans are going to have to pay for it by not getting the best fights. Yeah, and it's grounded in reality. It's grounded in what she's kind of seen, which was they were willing to pay for this fight when the upside was on payper view and they didn't have to lay out the upfront cost and change the baseline level of a contract. Once it shifted into that paramount era, now it became okay. There is no more pay per view.

So we have to compensate you with a flat rate, a base pay. We're going to see this happen with Connor McGregor. There is no doubt that that is what is going to play out over the. the next couple of weeks to months, which is Connor McGregor wants to fight. The UFC has talked about Connor McGregor potentially headlining the White House card. Now they're going to have to pay for it.

And she made some very interesting points. There's so much in there. I'm very happy to have Ronda Rousey back in the fight game. I've always been sympathetic to her and thought she got an unfair shake. She talked about the rising tide lifting all boats, right? While you don't

pay Ronda Rousey 50 million because then everybody's going to come calling. We just got done talking about you're doing that. You're already doing that, right? You're going to have to do it with Connor McGregor if you want Connor McGregor to fight for you now in this non-paperview era. You're going to have to pay, overpay for boxers like Connor Ben if you want them to come over to Zufa boxing. They may have unwittingly done exactly what Ronda Rousey said they didn't want to do, right? They may have already put themselves in a scenario where this is now going to happen. She also said something also very interesting, which is, they're interested and legally obligated to maximize shareholder value and put on cost effective fights as opposed to the best fights. And that to me struck me because she's saying the quiet part out loud. If anybody listens to this show, we've been saying this forever, right? We have been talking about how the general UFC product is watered down. The top level fights are no longer happening consistently.

The card quality has gone. down overall. Ronda Rousey has laid out exactly why that is. The UFC is a business, right? And they're running it like a business. And they're running it to have cost savings. The reason that everybody cries and wants the fights out of the apex

is because that's not the best energy. That's not the best atmosphere for a fight. On the UFC side, that's the best option for them to save money. That's the best option for them to not have to travel with all their production and incur costs. Now, they may

make money on that exchange because they've gone to another city, right? They just went to Houston. They made the cost analysis. They probably got a site fee from the venue and were able to make enough money to offset those costs and make some major money. But on most fight nights, if they're going to do this many per year, it makes way more sense to stay at the warehouse in the desert. And so that is the new UFC business model. It is not just we make the best fights. They might still, they might still because they have the best fighters on the roster. But consistently, we are seeing the value of,

the quality, rather, of fight cards go down. And it's because it's a business. And Ronda Rousey said that quiet part out loud and laid all of this out. I mean, the proof is in the pudding as well. Like, look at the first card of the Paramount Arrow was great, but it was headlined by an interim title fight. Then you get the undisputed on UFC 325 with Vulcan them,

and then we get an apex card, and then we get a Houston fight night that was really kind of being, anchored by that main event at the top. Now, there were some great performances on the main card, but that was a top heavy card in itself. And then we get the BMF title for 326. Like, we're going to be four months into this Paramount Plus deal and we'll have had, you know, two, three undisputed title fights. So like they're, they're separating them out. The, the cards are thinner than they used to be. And I think we're seeing that.

Yeah. And it's interesting that there was a world where the UFC got this Ronda Rousey fight. That's also interesting, right? There is a world where they're able to get this deal done and they have this fight, but the shift away from pay-per-view is what precluded it. And again, there's only a few fighters that the pay-per-view hit is very significant. Ronda Rouse is one of them and the other ones out there on Twitter talking about send me a new contract. So it's very interesting what's going to happen next with one notorious Connor McGregor. she was not the only fighter talking about UFC pay, UFC structure, everything like that.

Sean Strickton, who just won in the main event this weekend. You definitely said Sean Strickton there. Was it on purpose? Was it me trolling? Or was it just a complete slip of the tongue? Or do I actually think his name is Sean Strickton? Either way, here's what he had to say. The UFC is the most as far as the pay scale.

There is no, you compare it to any other sporting event, the UFC is the most fucked up. But you compare it to, like, pay versus athletes versus what they're making, there is no argument there. It is like, it's not fair. It's predatory. There is no argument there. Now, we're a bunch of fucking idiots. You take our clothes off and go fight for fucking, you know, short our lives for this. So, like, do we deserve better?

I don't fucking know. I'm just telling you that, like, there's no argument here. The UFC is not a, it's predatory. Like, what would you like to see it as? Do you have any sort of ever thought about it as an idea about, like, this is the share that I'd want to get. Well, I would just like it to match any other sporting event. Any other sporting event

on how what's they're making, we should get paid. Like what I'm saying is like, you know, let's say the NFL gets, they give 70% of profits to the, I'm making this up. Profits to the years. The U.S. You should do the same, but it won't be a predatory. But again, we take our fucking clothes off

and get in the head like assholes, so maybe we deserve this. I mean, I feel like, I know obviously you speak candidly no matter what, but I feel like a lot of guys are even afraid to say that, because they're afraid that Dana won't give him, like, another fight, you know? I mean, there's nothing to be said, dude. It's fucking, it's public knowledge, dude. It's like, I mean, didn't it, uh,

didn't somebody just go and bitch about the Gaichi, you know? It's like, this is public knowledge, dude. Like, but again, does it change? No, it fucking doesn't change. You say no to a fight. Well, guess what? They're going to go find some fucking guy in some fucking sandpit. They'll do it for fucking five and five.

Like, it's not how it works, you. This is why, this is why, like, That's why you're slowly going to see the American roster die. Yeah, so you have a guy who was a champion who has a massive following, who has been in big fights, talking about how shitty the pay structure is. And, you know, he alludes to it at the end. You're going to stop seeing so many Americans competing this because of the pay structure compared to other athletic events. You know, it's not as enticing.

When you can make generational money off of signing one big contract in the NBA or fight your whole career, get brain damage and and you know not be able to to pay your bills afterward which one are you going to want an attempt to go do no absolutely and it's always been that way and to sean's point nothing's going to change unless like sean's saying it pretty explicitly right he's like justing gaitie just complained about it nothing changed i'm complaining about it now nothing's going to change if i make us if i make us think about it they're going to replace me with a five and five dana white's contender series fighter that's just how this goes And so as I said, the only way this ever changes is if people with the influence of

Connor, Tom Aspinall, John Jones, Alex Breyer, champions actually start to like wonder, can I be getting more and if so, how. Or a lot of fighters get together and decide that enough's enough. But Sean's absolutely right. There is no stopping this train. Like you cannot just like hop off because you're going to be shelved. you're going to be sidelined, you're going to be replaced. That is the benefit that the UFC has by how they've constructed the sport, basically.

And rarely is there another option? In boxing, there's almost always another option. There's another promoter who's willing to pay you more. And the UFC, that's not always the case. No, with boxing, even if I'm fighting for this promoter, I can fight the other guy no matter what. So it doesn't matter as much who your promoter is as long as they can get you the big fights. And if you're a big time fighter, you get the big fights. So it is very different and it is very difficult.

Let's see. This is interesting times, though. It's very interesting. And me proving the point of saying UFC instead of MMA, just because that's how much of a chokehold they have on it. Let's transition to some recaps from this past weekend. Your guy, the man you have planted your flag in. Ryan Garcia?

No, no, no, not Ryan Garcia, man that we could soon see in the UFC, Gable Steven. your savior for the heavyweight division. He fought? Sure did. Sure did. Oh, you two to MFL3. What?

Head kick, clean. Sweat goes flying when he takes it. I mean, look at this in slow-mo. Bang! If that's a Tom Aspinall head cook, I don't know if he's holding up to that. If that's an Alex Pereira head cook, I don't know if he's holding up to that.

But he ultimately gets the takedown, gets the ground and pound, and gets another first round finish. Do you think it's UFC time for Gable Steven? Yeah, a lot of people, obviously, I'm joking and I saw the fight. A lot of people wondered if this was the point where I jump off the Gable

bandwagon, they go, oh, look at the clean head kick that he got landed. This is where I quadrupled down on Gable Stevenson by telling you, if he's eating head kicks like that and can still wrestle the way he can wrestle and has the athleticism that he

has, you're actually more fucked than I thought before, which was, oh, maybe I can flash KO this guy before he double legs and dumps me on my head and then pounds me out with some elbows. Now you can't even do that. So this is where I go even further into the Gable-Steveson glazing and hype train. The guy is going to be, he's going to be fighting for a title at some point very soon. There's just no doubt in my mind. I do think you do the White House card next. He mentioned it in interviews, I believe, with ESPNMMA, saying he's already

in contact with the UFC, he's already in contact with the decision makers over there. And he's dangly for that White House card. It's time. It's time to just rip off the band-aid, see how good he can be. But I have less doubt than ever. My position has not changed. I have less doubt than ever that Gable Stephson could come in there and dump the heavyweights that we saw on the card in Houston on their heads and pound them out. No doubt in my mind. New York, the Gable Glazer, Rick, is as confident as ever. My real name is not even in there. So it's Eric. New York, the gable glazer, Rick Jackman. Like, it's all, it's all combined into a...

It's actually Eric, New York, the Gable Glazer, Frederick Jakeman, Jackman. I think that's the full name we have for you now. The Gout Gable Glazer, Rick, it just continues to extend itself. So you say, he takes a headkick from Hugo Pandemonium. William Lazzama, he can take the biggest shots in the UFC. He needs to get his fucking hands up. No doubt it's heavyweight MMA. Look, don't get me wrong.

Let me be very clear. I don't think Gable Stevenson is an unbeatable fighter, nor do I think Gable Stevenson is perfect, right? I think he's good enough. The skill set that he currently has is good enough to be a champion in the UFC because heavyweight is so shallow. Not that I think he's Islam Makachev, right? There's a confusion that because I think Abel Steven can be a champion,

that people think I think he's Islam Makachev. He's the number one pound for pound guy. He's unbeatable. I could not be further from that. I just think that there's a big opportunity and he has all the tools that are required to be able to get it done. What was your take? Were you like as unimpressed as everybody else seem to be? Not unimpressed.

He gets it done. But it's just like I'm just waiting for the jump to the UFC level. Is it a jump? That's my question to you. Is it actually a jump? Yes, I think Ante Delia gives him a tougher fight than Hugo Pandemonium-Lazama. I don't know if I agree with you. We're talking about the bottom 10 here.

You don't think that Alexander Volkov is a tougher fight than Hugo Pandemonium. Okay, Volkov, we're at least getting to a point where, yeah, it is going to be a tougher fight. Volkov's a former champion in Bellator, a really experienced fighter. But how much tougher is my question? Like, he is way bigger. Like, he's going to have like a seven-inch height advantage. Like, I understand he struggles with the takedown. and everything. He also... Jaltern Almeida, who's

now fighting for ACA, completely ragdalled and controlled Volkov. Yes, I understand. A light heavyweight who's not in the UFC anymore is now... We're also saying he is ACA like because he's a terrible fighter. It's just because he's a boring ass fighter

that the fans hated. Like he was still a solid heavyweight in the UFC. He's a light heavyweight though. And Gable Stephens every bit of heavyweight and it's like a goddamn truck and wrestles like nobody's business. I want him to go to the UFC. I would be excited for his first fight.

I will be watching with bated breath. But I can't give a pass off when he's fighting these guys. I want to see him come to the UFC and fight a top 10 opponent in the heavyweight. And then I'll be able to give a real caliber of where he's at. All this really tells me, though, is that the expectations for Gable Steveson are extremely high, right? Because he did exactly what he's supposed to do, right? He beat this guy senseless. Like, let's not pretend that that head.

kick was effective or did anything to Gable and it was a completely one-sided beat down. Hugo was throwing crazy shit slipping all over the range, all over the cage and Gable pounded him out and did exactly what he's supposed to do. The expectations for Gable Steven are, that's not

even good enough. You need to kill the guy in five seconds or it's not, like it's Hamzat Shemayev, right? If you don't if you don't absolutely murder somebody, we're like you fucking stink, right? Like that's the bone nickel, Hamza at Shemayev. These like blue chip level guys.

And so it tells me that people believe like Gable Steveson is supposed to be that level. And I'm I'm totally fine with that. I think he is of that level. I think he will be of that level. The hype comes with it, the Olympic gold medal, the, you know, national championships in college, training with John Jones, the star power, the media training. Everything that is there will come with immense pressure. And I'm very excited to see him come to heavyweight. I mean, I want to reignite this division.

We need to reignite this division. Antidelliya versus Sergei Speback is not getting it done for 265. Yeah, 100% not. And like, is Hugo Lazama not a guy that could have won a contract on like contender series? That's my point. This revisionist history. Now, last week you were, you were literally like Hugo Lazama just delivered me my subway sandwich. And now you're just like, listen, I think he could actually be a contend.

No, no, no, no. Sorry. I'm not saying that from the perspective of like, that guy's really good. Good. You should be impressed that Gable beat him. I'm saying that from the perspective of the UFC heavyweight division is so shit. This guy could have been a Data White Contender Series fucking guy and nobody would have blinked. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who is good at what. Name a good heavyweight from Dana White's Contender Series.

Hugo Lazzama would have fit right in there. Stephen Aspland? Yeah. That's the Hugo Lazzama level. Yeah, I just don't know. I don't know what people are until they get to the the UFC. Sometimes you get, it's like, oh, he's coming back. Is he really going to be good? And he looks like a world beater.

Then you get guys like patchy mix and people are like, this is the greatest bantam way to ever lace them off. And he's out in two fights. Like it's just like, I don't know. I need to see him make his debut. I'm not going to sit here and be like, oh, there was a head kick where the sweat went flying. And then he finished him in the first round.

He's not ready for the UFC. Sign him. Let's find out. We're done with these buildup fights. It's time to get him in a UFC gloves and in the octagon. prediction does he fight at the white house is gable steveson making his ufc debut at the white yes yeah yeah it makes too much sense it makes too much sense is a guy that can be making his debut lower on the card you fill it with but he's but he's a huge name and he represented america at the

olympics and he won a gold medal like it's it's a no-brainer to have him make a debut because if he goes out and he and he kills the guy in in 30 seconds you now have a new star at heavyweight to push towards the title and and if he struggles now you know how to adjust the level too right Like now you go, oh shit, okay, maybe he's not as, as finished a product as we thought, right? We've seen Henry Sehudo, right? Henry Sehudo comes in and has instant success, but then he suffers a setback. Then you kind of like readjust, right? Henry Sehudo was a gold medal Olympian as well.

And so, you know, Ronda Rousey, a Olympic bronze medalist, a bronze medalist, comes in and dominates, right? You just have to cut bow nickel, one of the most decorated amateur wrestlers we've got. He looks great, then he stumbles. We'll find out. We'll find out about Gable Steven, but I'm fairly confident that the skills, the skills are all there. It's going to be great.

It's going to be great to watch. Let's go over to the world of boxing. We already mentioned it. Ryan Garcia, he absolutely dominates Mario Barrios from pillar to post, drops him in the first, what is this? First 20 seconds, he puts him on his ass. One of the scorecards was 120 to 107. The other two, 118 and 118 and 109.

like it was it was pillar to post beat down essentially blanked him a huge bounce back after the roly romero performance last year at times square sort of like a is he good like is he all there and like this this was a moment that that answered all those questions and now dude the the array of fights that this guy has in front of him afterwards he calls out chakor stevenson being like come on man you know that's the fight i want uh they ran into each other backstage and and they're you know discussing Terrence Crawford's right there. Huge money for that. A massive fight for both guys. Connor Ben signing with Zufa Boxing.

He's calling him out, you know, posting tweets. Congrats, champ. See you later this year. Make sure you keep my belt warm. Would be a massive fight. Devin Haney rematch in a title unification bout. That was a huge fight when it happened. It would be just as massive to run it back to see if Devin Haney can write that wrong. Roli Romero rematch for a title unification.

And that's down the list. list, man. Yeah. The options that Ryan Garcia has right now is, is bountiful. Ryan Garcia is above belts for me. He's outside of belts. I'm very much less interested in the Roli Romero fight just because I can chalk that up in my own head to Ryan Garcia wasn't, didn't show up that night and I'm okay with that.

I would much rather see him resolve the issues with Devin Haney. I would much rather see Connor Ben. I think Connor Ben versus Ryan Garcia could. be one of the most exciting fights we've seen in a very, very long time in the boxing space. And so I'm less interested in Roley, but if he wants to like, hey, that was a boxing performance from Ryan Garcia. That was the type of performance where all the people who are like Ryan Garcia can't really box. And that's followed him his entire career kind of quiets that a little bit, right?

Like I'm, I'm okay with where Ryan Garcia is at in his career. He's still a very young man. I like what we saw from him. and I'd be okay if he's like, hey, I want to actually like try to capture all the titles I possibly can. But man, the money fights are are not Roli Romero. The money fights are Devin Haney, Connor Ben, and others. Shakur Stevenson. Yeah, I think from perspective for him, I actually don't know of the three.

I think it's Shakur, Connor, and Deb. Those are the big three in terms of like money to be made, views to be had. Do you mean in terms of what he would do? or what you want to see? What I want to see is the Zufufa boxing getting it done and doing Connor Ben versus Ryan Garcia. I just think that would be huge business and would just be such a shakeup in the world of boxing. Skill-wise, like fight that I really want to see that tests Ryan Garcia's level of boxing

would be Shikor Stevenson. I think that's too stiff a test. Okay. I don't think there's a boxer in those weights on earth that can really think. threatened Shakur Stevenson, man. I think he's too good, and I think it'd be a shame. If you have Ryan Garcia now holding a belt, I think you can have a more fun fight with Connor Ben

and reduce your risk there, because I think he'd be able to be very competitive in a fight with Connor Ben. I just don't think there's a guy alive, like in the weight classes around him that can really touch Chaucer Stevenson. I think he's just the Mayweather. He's just the new evolution of this incredibly defensively, boxer who really can't be fucked with. And so I don't want, I don't, I like Devin versus Ryan a lot more than I like Chacore

versus Ryan. I was at that first fight in, in Brooklyn. It was, it was massive. I mean, when he started dropping him, the crowd went absolutely insane. I've, I've never seen like a, a response on social media. It's crazy with the, with the lead up of like how insane and, and the one with Devin in the fucking corner sitting down and Ryan screaming is an image seared into my brain. It was absolutely incredible.

So, yeah, any of those three works for me. Ben, Heaney, or Shakur. I got Ben, Hayney, and then Shakur is down here. And it's not because I don't think it would be a good build. It's not because I don't think they make a lot of money. It's because of where I have Shakur Stevenson in my list of boxers in my pound for pound rankings. I just don't think that's a good use of Ryan Garcia. Yeah.

You make the call, Ryan. I'm down for any of them. They're all big business. They're all fantastic. one other boxing fight to touch on. Richardson Hitchens had to pull out of his fight canceled due to an illness, undefeated fighter from Brooklyn,

obviously in a title fight on that one against Oscar Duarte. But did not happen, so we'll see when that one comes to be Clarissa Shields. Shout to the quote. Hey, your girl, Clarissa Shields gets it done

against Franchon Cruz de Zona. Don't sound so a ho-hum about it. This is undisputed champion. For sure. For sure. bro they're fighting here how dare you how dare you disrespect the quote like I'm not disrespecting or I'm giving you facts

she be nah you're just you're just hoom in the highlights you're just doing look at this they're in a fucking scrap Clarissa Shilds is trying to end this fight uh shout out to the quote um another another big time uh crowd for her

um in her hometown and look at these weights the same thing I just said about Shakur Stevenson right I don't think there's person in those weight classes that can or around those weight classes that can really mess with chikor stevenson i don't believe there's anybody even on the horizon anywhere born on this earth right now that can beat clara shields at these higher weight classes the only then we see chikor

stevenson the aforementioned giving giving credit to the uh to the quote also applauding fran but she's skilled she's the greatest like chikour knows ball look i think everybody knows how good Clarissa Shields is right like the accolades speak for themselves there's not really anybody in boxing male or female who has the accolades that she has in terms of uh multiple weight undisputed uh gold medal like Clarissa Shields is is a one of one the problem is there just is it's UFC heavyweight there is just not competition out there for her the the the weight class is too shallow her biggest challenges are going to be if she has to suffer on the scale, right? If she has to go down and fight somebody who's coming up and she's

coming down a little bit, that's going to be the biggest challenge because she's going to have to be so disciplined. She's going to have to lose some of herself in that weight cut. If it's at heavyweight, man, you might as well write the scorecards now. And she's just, she can't be touched. She's the quote. I don't care what anybody says. I know the level of competition is what the level of competition is. But you see the skill too. And Chakor Stevenson's pointing that out in his messages on Twitter. It's not just like she's just

a bar room brawler coming in there. Clarissa Shields is an extremely, extremely, extremely talented boxer. I love watching her. I know that, you know, she's not fighting the best competition, but she's giving every single thing she can to that fight. And we saw some of those

exchanges there. She's fun. I will never apologize for being the biggest Clarissa Shields fan. I don't blame you, man. She is very talented. I'll always have Katie Taylor in the quote debate, but, you know, that's that is neither here nor there. There's a one quote.

Let's go to news and notes around the world of combat sports from this past weekend. We mentioned it. Connor McGregor, getting active on Twitter doing the old tweet and delete. First, he said he's going to have to fight a no name in his return. It's a no name up next for me, possibly, folks. And as you know, I don't give a fuck. I accept. Send the contract, lads.

Connor McGregor's deal. And then earlier today, he said of waiting to sign the contract that he also tweeted and deleted. So it feels like Connor McGregor is antsy to put pen to paper and get a date done for his UFC return. Is the UFC antsy to put pen to paper

what Connor McGregor is a question? It feels like no. It feels like no. If he's having to get on Twitter every day, 15 days. 15, that's too weak. man. This is going to be the issue. And look, Connor is unique. And we've talked about this earlier in the show. There's only one Connor McGregor. And he's the only one with the leverage to be able to

tell the UFC, hey, make this contract right for me. Right. Even Ronda Rousey, who was one of the biggest UFC stars, I would have her as the number two behind Connor. Habib is in that conversation. but it's because of the proximity to Connor McGregor. They told Rhonda like, in this new era, take a hike, right? We can't pay you what you're worth here. Go find it elsewhere and she found MVP and did the deal with Netflix. Connor McGregor is the only one that can be like, no, we need to get this deal done and it's going to cost X number of dollars.

Now the question becomes, though, does it become a waiting game where the UFC says that price tag is too high? so we're going to wait until your contract sunsets. I think both scenarios are in play, which is the interesting part to me. I think there's a world where Connor McGregor never fights for the UFC again, and I think there's a world where Connor McGregor gets this deal done and fights on the White House card. If I was the UFC, and I don't want to get aggregated again and shit on and everybody coming from my neck, if I was the UFC and I saw that they were doing a card that I think is going to do well viewership,

why's on Netflix? I would meet Connor McGregor's price tag. And if anybody else comes asking, I would tell them, fuck you, you're not Connor McGregor, so you're not getting that money. There is no bigger fight that you can put on in the UFC than a Connor McGregor fight. It just doesn't matter who he's going up against.

He alluded to a no name in the tweet. It does not matter. He is the biggest star far and away, bar none, in the promotion. It is not even close. It doesn't matter how you feel about him, how you feel about how long he's been. been off, what level of fighting you think he's at,

if he returns to the Octagon, it will be the most viewed fight for the UFC in 26 without a shadow of a doubt. You have to get the deal done. Thinking about the chess on this, right? We're playing 4D chess here. If you do, see, this is a real inflection point for the UFC,

and I'll tell you why. If you do pay Connor McGregor's fee for this, right? Now he's got another fight that you're going to have to pay him the same amount for or more, right? because if you pay him X number of dollars and you say, okay, we're in the post payper view era.

Here's your money, Connor. He's got two fights left. And so now you're going to have to pay him that again. Now, if you've paid him that twice and he now has the ability to be a free agent, now you could have paid him that money and now he's doing business for somebody else. So the USC has a dicey situation where they now have to pay Connor McGregor a lot of money

to get this deal done. Then they have to renegotiate with him before. the second fight of the two fights remaining at probably a higher rate because if I'm Connor McGregor, why am I getting less money for my next deal? Before he has the ability to

leave the UFC and potentially fight elsewhere. So this now becomes an escalation, right? And this is what Rhonda Rousey was talking about when we played that clip earlier in the show. The rising tide kind of raising everything. John Jones got 30, so I want 50. All right, they give them 50 for the White House.

Now I want 60 per on my next deal because we're renegotiating for this new deal. Or they say, well, we'll give you one, but it's at 40. Okay, now he's got 50 and 40, and he gets to walk out the door as a free agent. Or do you have to succumb to the 60 or the 70 or whatever it is for his next deal, which however long that may be, two, three fights, whatever. It's a very tricky situation that they're going to have to navigate with Connor McGregor now with all these numbers that are floating out there for what would.

offered to John Jones for what Connor Ben is doing and your long-term strategy of are we in the Connor McGregor business for one fight, two fights, or a renegotiation after. There's a lot at play here. We're going to see how it plays out throughout the course of this year because that contract isn't going to last forever. I'm hoping that we see him going to the octagon again and it would make the most sense to be on that White House card. Speaking of the White House card, Dana White, I want to be able to be as good at something as Dana White is at finding random Instagram posts reporting fake news in the UFC because he's done it once again.

We see from op.m.a on Instagram a post saying it's going to be Cyril Gahn versus Alex Pereer at the White House and he responds with like the girl giving the side eye or whatever. Yeah. That ain't happening. Or what the fuck are you talking? talking about. He always finds it. He always finds it. He always find the post. I don't know how

he does it. Are you not a big follower of OPMMMA? You don't know about that? O.P.m. Don't forget the dot. What was it the other week? It was like poundhouse garagefights.com. Poundhouse garage is something else I've seen before, but that was a bit of the blue lad.

Yeah. Data White does somehow get like these meme aggregator accounts. He somehow always does find what's going on there. All right, so he's shutting down Cyril Ghan Alex Pereira, at least at the White House. Maybe we see it elsewhere, or maybe Alex Pereira isn't going anywhere, and he's going to stay at 205, because we had one Hamzat Shemaya. He's caught up in this whole, you know, Sean Strickland title next, maybe.

He just tweeted 205 this past weekend, you know, cryptic, but not so cryptic. We know what you're saying. You could potentially be going up to light heavyweight. And he was actually on the Jackson podcast as well, and he was asked about the potential move up to light heavyweight. he had to say. So 205, is that something that you're, I know you were calling out Pereira. He ignored that, right? There was never any response.

No, no response. But so we'll see if anyone else, I won't just become a double champ. And then I can go back to my weight class or stay there or go out more. I'll try. I know that guy was trying to go out from the U.C. like undefeated this and I don't care. Just want to make some thing stuff. all right so he's not concerned about remaining undefeated he wants like the the big fights the belts the

legacies i gotta say that's an interesting perspective because a lot of guys are concerned about like i want to you know be retire undefeated i want to have this you know crazy uh streak and career and hamzat's like i'm chasing greatness man so if it's i'm going up and fighting alice perrera let's do it look sell there is a selfish element which is he knows that alex perrera has a belt and he wants to win that belt. But there is something interesting to me about Hamza basically saying like, yeah, like I don't necessarily need to defend the middleweight title. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. I might go up to 205. It seems like he's in this very interesting space of being like fluid, right? Where it's like, whatever is the biggest fight right now, that's the

fight I want. It doesn't necessarily have to be, I'm focused on title defenses. I'm focused on moving up to 205. He's so confident in himself that it's like, pick a division that the biggest fight is. in and I'll go fucking kill him. Like that's, that's a fascinating mindset, and I kind of believe him, to be honest. I definitely believe him. I don't think he's scared to fight anyone. I don't think he's scared of losing that. Oh, I think in his head he doesn't think he's going to lose that.

He can't lose it in his head. It's inconceivable. Exactly. Dana White was actually asked about the potential of him fighting at light, heavyweight after the tweets and the comments and everything like that. Here's what he had to say on it. You've seen Hamzaa, Chima, fight at Walter White. We see him fight at middleweight.

Is he someone that if he says, hey, I want to fight at light heavyweight, we'd see him fight at light heavyweight. like to see him defend his title at how to wait first. Yeah, I'd like to see him defend his title before he talks about jumping around from, you know, you're going to keep going up and wait divisions without defending. Yeah, I'd rather see him defend. Yeah, so, I mean, Dana says that now. Who knows what's going to happen?

Honestly, whenever we get the Hamza Tchamai have fight announcement, whether it's at 185, whether it's Timo-5, whether it's Imovov, whether it's Strickland, whether it's Alex Pereira. at 205, whatever it may be, I'm just going to be like, okay, nice, nice. That's what we guys. Hamsat's back. Yeah, Hamsat's back, baby. I have no idea what it's going to be, what it will be next.

I guess if I had to put money on it, I would guess Strickland at 185. I say that with next to zero confidence. What was fascinating to me was Dana White saying keep moving up, like keep vacating the belt and moving up as if it was like a foregone conclusion, Hamsat would have been champ at 172. It's like, he would have won the belt. that 170 and then he went up but he never actually even competed for about that 170 he's just this kind of like freak and like you i don't really care who he's fighting i'm just interested in hamzachimaev like he is one of the most fascinating characters we've ever had he's one of the

most skilled wrestlers and grapplers we've ever had you you hear people talk about the training room with this guy and it inspires you to be like holy shit i can't wait to see what he does next And if it's Alex Pereira, I think he's game in that fight. You see him. We just the other week showed him training with Khalil Roundtree. He's every bit of 205. I don't really care who he fights. I'd love to see Alex Pereira,

but I'd love just as much to see Strickland or Naserdine. I just want to see Hamza fight. Yeah, he's the A side, no matter what I'm with you. I can't wait to see him back. Speaking of light heavyweights, Jelten Almeida, signs with ACA. Nolan King broke the news this past weekend. Multiple sources say there were brief discussions with PFL, but instead he's heading to Russia.

We actually found out further information from the Brazilian Bs, Guillermo Cruz. Shout to my boy, Guillermo. It wasn't just PFL. It was Risen, it was KSW, it was Octagon, and even MVP for the Rousy Carrano card in a span of just seven days since its UFC release. But ultimately, Jeltena Almeida signs with ACA, whether it be the money, the matchups, who knows? Maybe it's the Russian friendly grappling style. You know, the fans will appreciate him over there. You know, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Who knows? But ultimately, Jelten Almeida is headed to ASEA. Yeah. Look, if the money or the, you know, level of competition or whatever reason he didn't sign with the PFL wasn't it right, I think this is just as good in terms of that, right? Like, I don't think Jolten Almeida has a lot of value for the PFL roster from the perspective that outside of a Francis,

in Ghanu fight. He's not necessarily the guy you really want to build the whole thing around. So it feels like he's going to have a high price tag. He might as well let him go to ACA. Makes a lot of sense. But I'm not surprised that everybody reached out because he's one of the most talented non-USC fighters around now.

We've got a bit of breaking news though, Connor. Oh, wow. Wow, I haven't seen this. Please, fill me in. Inside Ring Show. I always love the little at the end. That's the best part. Frankie, insert that later

right here in the timeline. This is where you insert that. All right. So you haven't seen Slack. I'm going to read this to you. Tell me your reaction. No, no, no. I'm bad at looking at Slack. Tell me.

Inside Ring, that's the Rings studio show. Oh, shit, okay. Time to run it back with Sirens. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. And Manny Pack Yao rematch is being planned for September with the sphere in Las Vegas being looked out as possible venue.

Sources tell Mike Coppinger, both are slated to compete in exhibitions this spring prior to meeting in the ring. So we got news last week of Floyd Mayweather saying he was ending his retirement, right? Because everything Floyd has done to this point since officially retiring from the boxing ring has been an exhibition, right?

We're talking about he fought Logan Paul. He's done other fighting events. He has an exhibition against Mike Tyson coming up. Those are all exhibitions. He is coming out of retirement. to fight in a real fight Mani Pachiao who just in his last fight

a professional fight took Mario Barrios to the limit and in my opinion beat him and would have been WBC champion. So now we're looking at two guys who are definitely past it, right? There's no doubt in my mind

that these guys are not in their primes anymore. They are way too advanced an age. But like still good boxers going at it, are you interested in Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao too? Absolutely. professional, not exhibition.

For several reasons that we learned in that tweet, A, what you just mentioned, how Pachial looked last time out against Barios, they're both going to have warm-up matches and exhibitions, you know, to get a little practice under their belt. Well, Floyd's not exactly going to have to box against Mike Tyson, let's be real. Yeah, I guess that is a weird one. The Congo, we're still doing that? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that feels out. It could potentially be at the sphere, which we know from NoShay UFC is an incredible venue to hold a fight. Sometimes it even takes away from the fight itself. but the level that Manny Packeo looked against Mario Barrios, we know Floyd is going to be in shape and he's going to be ready to go. The fact that it isn't an exhibition, this is a professional bout. Floyd Mayweather, if he loses this, he will be 50 and 1.

He will give up that 50 and O. The O that he's retired on that is his biggest claim to fame. The 50 and O losing that would be massive. And then also the rivalry that these guys had. This is the number one most purchase pay-per-view in boxing history. They're over what, like 4 million buys or what? whatever it was. Like, this is big business.

People will tune in. They're also at lower weight classes. So, like, I understand, like you said, they're advanced in age. We're not fooling anybody thinking that they might still be at their prime. But they can still box. It will be entertaining. And they're two massive names. I'm in on this.

I will absolutely be watching. And not for nothing. I mean, it's like one of the worst kept secrets is that many Pacquiao had a hurt shoulder in the first fight with Floyd Mayweather. I dare say we might get a better. fight, right? It was not super competitive. Floyd kind of like cruised to a victory. Not that Mani didn't have moments because Mani is still Mani,

but like I never felt like that was in doubt. I was kind of just looking at that and going like, all right, Floyd's got this fight. It's one of the worst kept secrets in boxing that Mani's shoulder was giving him problems. If he's even healthier, I expect a more competitive fight. I still think these two are very

evenly matched and I think it could still be a lot of fun. And if Mani's healthy, even though it's not the best. best version of this fight we would have ever had, right? It was already five years too late the first time we got it. It should have happened five years before that. Now we're getting, what is it, 10 years later than that, a version of it. But if he's healthy, it's still to me a very competitive and fair fight and I'm still excited to watch it. So yeah, like this is not Mike Tyson versus Floyd Mayweather, right? This is Mani Pacquiao, who as we just said, was competitive with the

WBC champion and in many's eyes won it. This is not that like, you know, attraction thing where nobody's going to really box. I'm very interested in this fight just because I think these guys are still very good, even at their advanced age. And what you said is very interesting, which is Floyd Mayweather is going to be training his ass off because he is actually putting his undefeated record on the line, right? In all these exhibition fights,

not that I ever thought Floyd would ever lose any of them, but in all these exhibition fights, there were no stakes, right? You lose the exhibition and you move on. There are stakes for this. And if Manny Pacchio is competing with WB, BC champions, Floyd's going to train his ass off. And I'm excited about that. Also, like, you mentioned the Mike Tyson when it just feels so pointless, the difference in weight.

Yeah. It's a nothing. It's a nothing. It's a nothing, burger. It doesn't interest me at all. We talk about the advanced age also. These are two guys who are the same age. They'll be 48 and 49 respectively when it happens. So like, it's okay that they're at that age. We're watching And Andre Arlovski and Ben Rothwell in BKFC at Advanced Age. And it was a great fight. And it was super exciting. And it's awesome to see Arlovsky doing that. This one feels more to me like Tyson versus Roy Jones. Now that, I believe, was like a modified exhibition as well. But they were really fighting, and this is professional.

This feels, if we're going to do like the, what's the recent comparison? To me, that's what it feels like. I felt like when Tyson and Roy Jones fought and everybody was like, holy shit, this is amazing. I'm in on Pachio and Mayweather. That's what it feels like to me. Yeah, it'll be fascinating to see how that one comes to be. If it does, where it will be broadcast, pay-per-view, and everything like that. and the potential of Floyd Mayweather losing that.

Oh, let's get back to news and notes. Back to the light heavyweight discussion. Yeri Prohashka down in Mexico City. That's where the fight card is this weekend. And he is up to, I don't know, doing his best Alex Honold impression. I'm not sure what he's doing. Let's roll the tape on what Yiri Prohashka is up to. It's always something.

Yes, but I think the best for you, you can film. is right now. It comes sort of like a floor hat on, Humphred and Sun-inspired. Pena de Bernal. You know, like mid-2010s millennial hat going on. I'm climbing back, so right now. Climbing on a mountain.

Little floors and I'm down. Let's go for that. What is he doing? He says that was a private message, but okay. Yeah, you have Steve Post. of this video where they said essentially the caption was like, we asked Yuri if he's still in Mexico City and what he's up to. And then he sent back this. And then Yuri followed up with like, that was private. I didn't necessarily want that posted. The dude is an absolute psycho.

Like he is on like the face of a mountain climbing up it over Mexico City, which is already an incredibly high elevation. I think it sits at like 7,000 feet. So yeah, let's go for that. He's always up to something. Shout out to Yuri. Is Yuri the most Forget the most interesting fighter in the UFC Is he the most interesting man in the world? Is he the Dosecchi's commercial guy? Like is it just like

I'm in a dark room Like learning about myself I'm going to college I just did a little detour Went to college Learned Anything he puts out on I'm in on

I saw someone say it Just put him and Marab together And just strap them up Both with Gopros And then just like Shove them into the woods And see what happens I dare say, I think Yuri is the leader in the clubhouse on that.

I just, he's just, the way his mind works, the things that he decides to do are unlike anybody else in human history, in my opinion. And it's also the contrast of like, yeah, I want to spend a few years studying and going to college. And then I also just want to like free solo this mountain just cause, you know, he's, he's a fascinating cat. He's a madman. How can you not love him?

But make sure, you know, not too much love, not too much love. Yeah, yeah, don't show him too much love for him. we keep rolling along Paddy Pimblet was on record calling out an opponent for his next fight take a listen

on who he had in mind to be honest I'll be honest we just all pissed me off that St. Denise moved above me for beating that bummed annucka know what I mean why is Stenny moved above me

for beating the bum danocha who's fucking shit what's going on there you know I'll fight to anyone as you know whatever name gets sent to me

on a contract I sign in I fight them but St. Denise sounds like a good fight to me Europe's two best lightweights going at it against each other or I won't get the winner, but the loser of Max Charles, fuck, I'll fight Armand if you just want me to.

I don't give a fuck. I'll fight anyone, but I'll be back in the summer. Just let me know when and we, Hunter, Dana, Sean, and I'm ready to go. First and foremost, man, the way Paddy balloons after a fight, we're talking about that was like four weeks ago that he fought and he was in tremendous shape washboard abs

and now, like, he just looks like a dad on the couch who's been eating KFC for the last three weeks. the fluctuations between like holy shit look at how ripped and muscular patty pimble it is and like four weeks later i look like i've only been eating tacos and cheeseburgers i i've never seen a fighter like it i've never seen any athlete who's able to like vacillate between the furthest extremes the way he does it can't be good on his organs man it just simply cannot be good on his organs uh patty versus bSD though you end 100% i mean that i think that'd be a lot of fun and as we've seen from the toughness of patty pinballes I think he's able to kind of like potentially give BSD a fight. So I like that fight. But yeah, it's just, it's like the shape that Patty's able to get it. Because when you're a big guy, sometimes it's like you get into good shape. But when Patty Pimbley gets into shape, it's like, holy shit, like carved out a marble shape.

It's like four percent body fat. Yeah, yeah. Five weeks later, it's like 40 percent body fat. It's amazing. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy to see. I don't know what he's going to look like post-fighting career.

It's going to be a wonder. Like the first time we see him on a celebrity camp at a UFC event, we're going to go over to the lightweight legend, Patty Pembley. Like, is he going to be like in normal shape or is he going to be like fucking happen? You're talking like a Prince Nassim, like, oh boy, situation. His team is unrecognized. Patty Pimbleau versus BSD, though, I think is like a sneaky, amazing fight.

Obviously BSD was angling for a title shot. But I think the good thing about Paddy Pimblit losing to Justin Gaci in the way that he did is he's kind of like established now in the guys that like, I'm a top guy no matter what, right? Because there's a world where that performance goes where Justin

Gichi beats him and it's like, okay, too much too soon, Patty Pimbleau falls out. I think he's very much still in the like top guys competition which is fantastic for him. Yeah, Patty BSD and Paris. I might be too worse than that But that would be an incredible

I think Paddy's fans would travel for that too So that'd be a lot of fun Do you see Terrence Crawford Supporting the wrestling this past weekend His son he was he was getting hype in the crowd Look at this just like The most stereotypical like Athlete dad

Thousand percent He's just in there coach and screaming Filming on the on the camera And I believe he won this meet right Didn't his son? Yeah I believe so I mean, he comes from great wrestling gene.

The sprawl of Terrence Crawford. The sprawl of Terrence Crawford is stuff of the legends. Shout out to Terrence Crawford. He was there. And then he was also backstage at the Shikor, at the Ryan Garcia fight with Shikor Stevenson. And Ryan Garcia's cousin came up and was like, oh, yo, Shakur, Ryan Garcia, he'll beat your ass.

He'll beat your ass. And Terrence looked at him and he's like, are you a boxer man? And he's like, Tom Rinn's cousin. And he's just like, just completely no-selson. He just ignores his ass. Terrence is so about the business. I just love the way Terrence is like, he's a guy who doesn't suffer fools, you know? Like when the sanctioning bodies are like, we're going to take your belt, he's like,

I don't give a fuck. Like, who cares if you take my belt? You know, this guy would beat this guy's ass. What the fuck are you talking? Like, he just does it. He has no time for bullshit. No time for nonsense. It's so good.

It's so good. I love, right. Last one before we get out of here, I know we don't have help wanting here, but we still got consume a little bit of Armand Saruki in content. Not eating this time, though. On the treadmill. Here's to be with some sort of model influencer. Each shit on the treadmill.

Talk about selling out, man. Like, he's doing it for the content. Even if that's an acting. Yeah, even if that's an acting performance, his face hit something there. Hard time stunt, man. We saw him eat shit on the slopes as well. Like, he's willing to sacrifice the body in, you know, for the likes, for the content. shout out to Armand another

runner for the most interesting man in the world but I do still have to like give the edge to Yuri, shout out to a Yeri Armin pizza party would go a long way No but do you think that Armin and Yuri would have the right vibe together My concern is the combo

might not like a little oil and watery I just graduated college let's go for that and then Armin responds and he's just like oh well congrats and then they eat caviar or something like that. I don't know.

I don't know. But yeah, love both of them. Shout out to Armin. Shout out to Yeri. Shout out to all of you for hanging out with us here on this blizzardy day

in New York City. I think we've covered everything. But I'm just in the flag. Oh. I knew we missed something. I knew we missed something. What do we got? How can slash should

Eddie Hearn respond to Zufa taking Ben? Well, he made an Instagram post with like a rap music playing in the back. background and a caption of chest not checkers. I can't imagine Eddie Hearn's going to go quietly, but I don't know how he responds to it. I don't know if this is a 40 chess thing with it only being a one-fight deal and he's going to get Conner Ben back or what's going to happen from here.

I mean, he said in that video where he's just like, I guess I just forgot it's boxing. So he knows that this is a cutthroat business. So we'll see what we'll see what happens. I don't know how he responds. Who knows the depravity of boxing better than the son of the son of a man, you know, he grew up in boxing than the son of a boxing promoter and who takes over the mantle. The only thing he can do is continue to put on big fights, right? He has to continue to put on the biggest fights that he can possibly do, and he has to go on the offensive, continuing to say things like he said in the video that we showed earlier about UFC fighter pay, about loyalty, about all these things that are going to remind his athletes, hey, don't,

don't forget that you've got it good here. It may, you know, the, the, the, The shiny thing may be over there right now, but let me remind you that this is where the real money's at. This is where the people who care about your career is at. And he just has to kind of like keep beating that drum because Zufa's going to come in with some big offer, some big money. But he's going to be behind the scenes being like, oh, you want a one fight deal? Is that what you're after in your career? You want to be like Connor Ben? You want to fight for one fight and then God knows what.

Stay with me. We'll get you multiple fights. We'll put you on the right track. We'll build you into a champion. We'll build you up the way we did Connor Ben. He has to kind of just hammer that home with a lot of the roster and everybody from the outside. What else we got, Frank? Connor Hellebuck, our MVP and Secretary of Defense, this Olympics, Canada chirping at us for many years.

Now it's our turn to chirp back. USA, baby. That's Jake from the Windy City. Thanks for the $5, brother. Yeah, you see it on the hat right there. Let's go, baby. USA in the house. Get it done in overtime.

Get it done in the women's game as well. We take both the gold medals in hockey. Hellebuck was on his fucking head yesterday. unbelievable performance. Then New Jersey's own, the New Jersey Devil, Jack Hughes sends it home. It was a beautiful performance. First gold medal since 1980, 46 years.

It was magical stuff. The Winter Olympics were amazing. I'm sad they're over. A lot of stars born from it, including R1, Hawani, over on the CBC. So yeah, shout out the Olympics. Shout out to Hellowick. Shout out to Team USA.

You know, we're second in the medal table, but we're behind the ski-walking merchants in Norway. They got like 20 gold medals off of walking through the woods in their skis. Get the fuck out of here. We're out here winning real medals, man. We're the best of Olympic. Ski walking merchants is incredible. I mean, get out of here. Jonas Klepko or whatever his name is. That's the guy who has the most gold medals, right? Most gold medals in the Winter Olympics. He does the same thing just a little bit longer each time. If Erling Holland's watching this, I'm sorry for offending Norway. I love the Norwegians. I'm, you know, I'm taking a

cruise here pretty soon. I'm going to Oslo. So yeah, shout out, but yeah, the USA are you actually? No, I'm not doing any of that. I'll never step foot on a life. I was not to say, I didn't know about this. Maybe for the World Cup. Norway's got a sick jersey, so I might get a Holland, Norway jersey, but I would love to go to Oslo. It would be great. I want to go to one of those Scandinavian country. Meet some of the ski-walking merchants. Yeah, I don't know if I'll keep the same energy when I get there, but yeah, for now, on the internet behind a keyboard. Yeah, ski walking,

ski walking merchants, it's USA was top of the table. Sammy, shout out for the 50K Swedish. Kron's, I think? Yep. Or is it Crohn's disease? No, it's just Crohn's. Love the change of scenery in today's show. Same time, hopefully you guys get back to normal

due to weather, stay safe. I actually can't confirm, Sammy. Looking out the window, it was blizzarding most of this program, but it is now officially stopped. I think we're good for a few days. I am looking at legit, like across the way, like untouched snow. It is like two feet. I'm talking about 25 inches. Like, I keep seeing on the window, the snow's getting so heavy. It's falling down in front of the glass. Like it's, this was, this was serious business here. Like, there is so much no. But I think, I think we should be able to get in the studio tomorrow. Yeah, we got, we got, same over here. Yeah, praise B, because these remote shows are tricky. They are, they're allowed to get

to it. It's not the same energy sitting alone in my apartment as when we're in the studio. And, you know, the body language, you feed off the energy, all that, everyone back in the control room. So yeah, hopefully back in studio tomorrow. We got anything else, Frankie? Bougie Alpaca, 8250, thanks for the $5, brother. He says, is a strike the best chance fighters have an improving pet? Yeah, probably. Like, they're going to have to have. band together and they're going to have to really shake up the landscape to get what they want. I mean, that's really, that's really the only way. If they just keep taking fights or people below them taking fights and people keep watching, nothing will change. If they can be as easily

replaced as Sean Strickland kind of laid it out, right, in that interview of complex where he's like, if I don't do it, somebody's going to come in and take 5K and 5K and 5K to do exactly what I was supposed to do, unless that changes, unless all of a sudden they're like, I'm not going to take 5K and 5K to replace Sean Strickland, I'm thinking in the long term, yeah, it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. All right. Last super chat here comes from Electric Bootsable. Thank you for the 1500 ISK. I don't know what that one. I don't know which I'm sorry. Isk 1500. Icelandic Crohn's. Oh, shout out. Shout out. Shout out the Iceland. I don't know. What is it actually? I actually made that up. Got the Gunner Nelson. Do we see Eddie go for the jugular and set up a UK spec? Wow, it's Icelandic Crona.

I was actually pretty close. Great call and great call from Bootsay. We'll hear UK Smack League. Will he poached juicy fee now? Is Bono Bao making deals on the side? Interesting time. Yeah, it feels like that's what he's going to have to do. He's going to have to go,

he's going to have to start his own slap league, the match room slap organization to go right back at Dana. That's actually a great point. Is slap just dead? Are we done with that? No, no, it's still going. Does anybody care? Does anybody know? I don't know.

The real sign, the real sign of slapping dead will be when we no longer see Dana holding the slap cup and it's officially switched over to a Zufaboxing cup. That's when we know. That's when it's time to jump out of your stocks on Slack. It actually could be kind of hilarious if Eddie Hearn did it. Just because with the darts, they're going to like ballrooms and shit already, you've got like a venue sized for slap fighting. You could conceivably do it if you were matchroom. I do think they are

a little classier than maybe the slap provides. All right. Well, I think that just about does it. We've covered everything. Wow. Then Connor, Ben Zufa, yeah, this was a beast of a show

almost three hours in the bank here. Prediction. Are we going to be in the studio tomorrow? Yes. Yeah, yeah. I think so, too. It stops knowing. I mean, I could have made it the whole time.

Like, I, it was, they shut down the trains in the cars. How are we supposed to get there? Please, come on. You know, we can't do it. Yeah, shout up to the star of the show today, the old pizza hut lamp. Can I be honest with you guys? I purchased this and I was like, this is going to be such a statement piece, bro.

Everyone's going to be like, that shit's so sick. No one asks about it. I'm like, how about that pizza hut lamp, huh? And they're just like, oh, yeah, cool, man. Okay, I've been to your apartment because I know your roommate and I went to the apartment. Shout out. First thing I noticed, first thing I asked about. Thank God.

Thank God. Yeah. The star of the show is the train map. Is that for real live? Is that live? I'm just like, yeah, it's live. But like, what about the show? that pizza hotland. Second thing I asked about the scrolling subway.

So I appreciate all the love it's gotten. Every time I opened up the chat, I saw someone commenting on it. It's a gem. It's a gem. I think I got it off at Etsy. I'll post a picture of it with the link. I'm proud of it today. All right, that's going to do it for us. Same time tomorrow. Different place. We will be in the studio. I'm making the call right now. I'm manifesting it. We will be in the studio tomorrow. Last Monday you had to deal with us. All goes according to playing aerial will be on a flight tomorrow and you will have him back in studio on monday and you'll be done with the boys in the back you'll be rid of us forever until tomorrow though we will see you then we're out