The Ariel Helwani Show - Sean "X-Pac" Waltman, Brian Stann, David Loiseau, UFC 315 preview

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Ariel Helwani starts the show with some UFC and PFL breaking news, and the Boys in the Back join to answer your On the Nose Questions (04:39).Retired UFC fighter, veteran, and former FOX commentator Brian Stann checks in to discuss his move from broadcaster to CEO. He reminisces about fighting on Memorial Day weekend, his start in MMA, potentially running for president, the current state of the sport, Bo Nickal’s setback, his Khamzat Chimaev prediction, Jon Jones, and more (1:01:22).Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Sean “X-Pac” Waltman joins the show to talk getting through a dark period in his life, WrestleMania 41, his experience as a heel, Marc Raimondi’s new book on the NWO, his relationship with WWE, some adventures from his storied career, his infamous chop taunt, being a fan of MMA, and more (1:32:34).Canadian MMA legend David Loiseau stops by ahead of UFC 315 in Montreal this weekend to break down the card and discuss training fighters, writing a self-help book, his relationship with GSP, the lack of opportunities in Canadian MMA, teaching Jon Jones, his life-changing accident, former boxing champion Jean Pascal’s callout, and more (2:19:06).Ariel and the Boys end by answering some Super Chats (2:53:34).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Err-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r- And 25, hello again everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be inside our New York City studio. As you can see, it's a beautiful day in New York City. It looks picturesque, dare I say. And the vibes are high. The weather is warm. The Knicks are back tonight. The city on fire.

And we are on fire here on this here program. What a day we had yesterday my friends. We were in the presence of royalty, the greatest trophy in all of sports. The Larry O'Brien trophy was right here on my desk, right there. It was like literally right there and I was debating internally. Do I touch it? Do I not touch it? Do I hug it? do I just pose next to it, do I do the sort of like air hug thing. And in the end, it has been described as the kiss heard around the world. I went in for not just a kiss, but a set, it is actually a lot longer than I remembered. In the moment, I didn't realize I was going in.

It's the hands. Yeah, the hand. It's just a gentle touch, I'm a gentle soul. That's not, that's. Weird? A man touching anything like that with those hands. I mean, look at that. It means something.

Oh, look at that, what a shot that is. I didn't even see that shot, who took that shot? GC? Yeah, that'd be my photography skills. Thanks for sending it to me, golly, I mean, I did the carousel, I didn't even have that one at my disposal. By the way, I saw your pic that you posted,

and I took a Polaroid for you, but the Polaroid is completely blurry. Did I take a blurry Polaroid? Is that even possible? I think they're all like a little bit blurry. See, I got it behind me. Yeah? It's not that blurry in person, but yeah, on IG,

it was quite blurry. I thought you were throwing shade, you were like, look at this guy, ask him to take one Polaroid, and it's completely out of focus. No, no, no, you gotta get the carousel. You gotta get the carousel. Yeah.

People appreciate it. We did a whole tour with the trophy. Big Rick. I mean, look at this, look at this. Hawks jersey. Very, you know, you're holding it. I look like I'm struggling a little bit. Your picture, it looks effortless.

It looks like it's three pounds. I mean. It's all 30. I can promise you that. It's all 30 in there. It looks like it's three pounds. I mean it's all thirty. I can promise you that it's it's all thirty in there. It was surprising how heavy it was. You know the day after a team wins the NBA championship the NBA will have like every player holding it. That shot looks like that looks like the eighth or ninth man in the back with the backdrop just holding it like. I'm thinking I'm thinking seventh man who like one game he came in had 12 points

and six rebounds. Someone was hurt, but it was big. It was crucial, it was crucial. And then he averaged like four and a half minutes every other game, but people remember, the diehard fans are like, remember when old CB got in there? Seventh Man saved this game three.

That's right, that's like Vinnie Johnson-esque on the 89-90. Sitting elbow jumpers, just like wide open, big rebounds down the stretch. And then of course like you need someone to, you know, clean the glass, chair him into the board, and you know, that would be Rick. That would be kind of like the eighth, ninth man. He comes in like Precious did on Monday.

You know, he comes in, he saves the day. This is my tee up to the Rick picture, by the way. There it is, all right, yeah, there we go. The angle, it feels like the trophy is giant. It looks gigantic. In Rick's hand, it feels like it's outsizing him. You know, I'm a small man and so. For some reason in this look, Rick looks 12.

I don't know what it is. You know what it is? The trophy looks massive. I'll tell you exactly what it is. The trophy looks massive. Yeah. We're going at a down angle, right? And also, most importantly,

that jersey is Sean Kemp sized, because that's a Sean Kemp. What is it, a 52? A 48? 52. Oh yeah, that's big. Look at those pearly whites. I'm nine.

Come on, stop. Connor got me laughing, so I did show some. That was good, it was good, I liked it. I liked it. But yeah, what a moment. I sent it to some of my Cavs friends, and they're like, is that the jersey? I'm like, yeah, you know, had to rep. And then unfortunately, you know, what happened? Seems're like, is that the drill? Yeah, you know, had to rep.

And then unfortunately, you know, what happened, happened. Seems like bad luck to touch the pro skill. No, you know. What happened, what happened? Oh, with the Cavs. Nah, I don't want, listen, don't put this on yourself. Nah, nah, nah, nah. Don't put this on me.

I don't want this. Down 0-2. Everybody die. Not just down 0-2, blew a 10 point lead with like a minute to go. Oh no, do not put this out there. I swear to God. Everybody getting hurt. You know, the Pacers. just like last year where the Pacers got a walk because they were already hurt

They were now on the calves are hurt. Don't do it. It hurts. It hurts. I have to be honest I can I can already tell you right now if the Knicks lose stop stop final score I think that the no post I'm responding don't even say no Where do you guys even referring to? I will kill you. Are you talking about, did somebody touch the trophy? Like- No one touched the trophy. In fact, we have actual visual evidence of us not touching the trophy.

Look. Look at that integrity. Look at that hand placement by Jordan. Refuses to touch it until the next voice. I have nothing to worry about. The Hawks are never winning. The Hawks are never winning the NBA finals. This looks like the trophy was there

and then Jordan just slid in. Like he just came in for a pick. He's just like, Connor's talking about how he's like the ninth man off the bench gets like five minutes. I'm like the water boy who just got lucky to be near the trophy. You're the marketing executive who stepped in

while everybody else was taking pictures. Still get a ring though. Still get a ring. It was amazing. There's some guy on my Instagram tried to get like a gachi. He's like, that's the closest to hocksters you'll ever get to it.

I'm like, yeah man, I know. You're not telling me anything new here. I know we suck. Nice burn, sick burn. We were all like, this trophy's for me, not the hocks, relax bro. It's all right. And that's the thing.

We can't bring that bad juju out there because we're not a part of the team. Them's the rules. We were having the time of our lives. Unfortunately, as a result of Larry coming in and taking up a lot of time, it did bump Pizzi. And so I was just wondering how Pizzi felt about getting bumped for a trophy. Is he, is he okay? It's usually like, you know, it was a champion the last time.

This time was a championship. So I think it's all the same tier. You know, only four boxes. You know, only four boxes. Great job. You see, you got to understand only four boxes. Yeah. Like, you know, it was fine. Um, I actually was worried about you today. I was worried because I wasn't sure how you were going to feel about that.

I was, I was quite frankly, worried that you were not going to show up. Um, you probably didn't watch the Giuliana interview, but she did. Has I watched all of it? Did we, did we have your back? Did you, you had didn't watch the Juliana interview, but she did. Has I watched all of it. Did we, did we have your back? Did you, you had my back. Okay. And to be fair, the lads weren't dragged into the situation. I think you did have my back.

I think she's a lunatic. Um, if I'm being honest, they call me a scumbag for picking one of the biggest favorites ever challenging for a title ever. That's fine. Um, obviously to say that there was a sexual connotation into my pick with Kayla, I think it's actually disrespectful to women's MMA as a whole. Usually Juliana, fantastic ambassador of that. But you know, I don't know Juliana, so I'm not going to get too offended about it, as

they say. That was my point, by the way. She could get mad at me. She could get mad at me. 100%. You? You have no relationship. I don't know if she gets mad at me though.

It doesn't affect me whatsoever. No, I know. So I think no relationship. I don't know how much she gets mad at me though. It doesn't affect me whatsoever. No, I know. So I think fair enough. I get it. You know, it was a close group with the lads and everything like that. I've never spoke to Juliana.

I've never, I don't think I've ever been in her presence, but these things happen as they stand. We stand with you, Pizzi. We're in full support of you, man. Well, I don't know about that. No, I don't know about that. I'm Juliana. Yeah, look at that. No doubt, Pizzi. We're there for you. As the man. I don't know about that. No, I don't know about that. I'm Juliana. No doubt about it.

We're there for you. As the honorary Scott Australian on the show, we support you, man. You know what I think needs to happen? Yeah, I do feel I need to... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your allegiance to Casey O'Neill, the Scott Australian representing in the U.S. too. Very Irish, obviously. Did you find that offensive?

As an Irish man, to correct people when they misidentify your nationality? So I feel I should do that. And surprised to be honest, that a Venezuelan would do that because they had their own fight for independence. Obviously the 1800s, Seaman Boulevard. Wow. Wow. Who was his right hand man?

You ask who is that? You want to tell me? Florence O'Leary from A man from Cork! Thousands of Irish people who gave their lives to fight for Venezuelan independence from Spain. It was a matter of Venezuelan vixen, obviously. But look, we all have our opinions. I'm still riding with Kayla. Journalistic integrity.

Who could forget Defoe? Daniel Florence O'Leary, legend. Can I tell you what I love so much? Honored boy to Venezuelan people in 2005, they released a bust of him in the Capitol building there. Shout out Defoe. What I love so much about this is we didn't talk about this at all. There was no text, no nothing, but you were ready to go. You had it ready in the chamber.

Good for you, fair play. And I tried to stress to her, again, you could be mad at me. I didn't love the whole Australia and this. She's trying to do a gimmick. It's fine. But we have the relationship. We have the history. You don't. We want you to pick. And I appreciate your relationship. No, we want you. We want you to pick. Everything has been mended. Yeah. Oh, we'll see. We'll see after this. Let's go, Caleb. The house divided on June 7th is going to be elected. No, there's no division. There's no division.

We're just there for... We're Switzerland. I don't want her to win, like to lose anymore. You know what I mean? Because she said that though, to be perfectly honest, I don't. I actually think it would be a great story if she won. I think we're just going to get some libubus and everybody's going to be happy. We're just going to get some libubus.

I told my daughter about that. She had no idea. She had no idea. Maybe a little too young, maybe a few more years, but we'll get some libubus and everybody will be. I'm gonna get her some info on the Venezuelan War of Independence as well if she wants to read about that. Gentlemen, we do have a great show. We love Wednesdays. We get to answer your questions. We will do that in a moment, but I'm dubbing today's show Legends Only Wednesday. Why? Because we have three tremendous legends from the world of combat sports. Back into the show,

I've talked about this man before. I've said that he was my first favorite fighter. Really the guy who like introduced me to, you know what, like I knew what the UFC was, but like wow, like one of us, this could happen. A guy from Montreal could do this. This is amazing. there before GSP he's the pride of Montreal he is the crow David Loazo will join us and I thought just a few days before the UFC's highly anticipated return to Montreal why not have a Montreal legend on the program to set the table he went to Dawson College which is right near where I grew up a lot of my friends went there as well and so he was one of our own, one of our own, David Loiseau, one of our own. And I thought it would be appropriate.

So I hope you all appreciate that and we'll look forward to that as much as I will. I've long wanted to have the great Sean Waltman on the program, formerly known as the lightning kid, formerly known as the one, two, three kid, formerly known as six, formerly known as six pock, formerly known as the one two three kid, formerly known as six, formerly known as six pock, formerly known as X pock, break it down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down grade there was an English teacher who I really didn't get along with and I'm sure there were a lot of kids in the 90s, 10th grade was 98, a lot of kids in the 90s who were in this boat and at one point we got into like a little argument and I swung open the door and I kid you not I did the DX chop then I got sent to the office they threatened to suspend me and it was all because of Xbox by the way and so yeah to suspend me and it was all because of X-Paw, by the way.

And so, yeah, to have him on the program is great. And I actually do have to apologize to him about that. By the way, funny story about that. One of my best friends ended up marrying that teacher's son. So I ended up seeing her many years later at their wedding. Did you give her the crotch chop then too? No, I was afraid that she would remember. She claimed she would remember.

She claimed she didn't. Oh, she remembered. She just didn't want to embarrass you. You get crotch chop by Helwani, you remember that. Oh, she knew. So anyway, Xbox joining us, Sean Waltman, the one, two, three kid cannot wait. In fact, it was, I do believe, uh, I think 32

years ago, I think it was 32 years ago next week that he defeated, what was it? Mace, yeah was 32 years ago next week that he defeated. What was it? Mace? Yeah, 32 years ago next week, he defeated Razor Ramon in one of the greatest upsets in WWE history on Monday Night Raw at the Hammerstein Ballroom. We'll reminisce about that. Prior to that, the great Bryan Stan, who honestly should be leading this country.

Who doesn't love Bryan Stan? Who doesn't appreciate him? The one and only, the American hero. Recently named the chairman of the board of Higher Heroes USA, a tremendous foundation that he works with and works for these days. We miss Bryan Stan and it's been about three years since I last spoke to him, so looking forward to having him on. So like I said, legends only Wednesday around these parts. Look at those gentlemen. A great show. I'm looking forward to it oh so very much. By the way, in regards to yesterday's show, we had an interview with Bo Nickel that a lot of people obviously were

looking forward to, reacted to, etc. I did fail to ask him one important question. There was a bit of a talking point leading up to our chat and in the aftermath of his loss to RDR. And I think Aljomain Sterling was one of the first to bring it up suggesting that maybe he should move down to 170 pounds. He currently fights at 185 pounds and I meant to ask him. And then it just slipped my mind in the, in the midst of the whole interview.

And so afterwards I texted him and asked him that question and he responded right away and said, I can't make 170. I'll be at 185. And so for those wondering where he'll be fighting next, he is remaining at 185 pounds. So a bit of a breaking news update, if you will. I saw Ali Abdulaziz, who is the manager of RDR saying that he has already been offered a fight. I saw Robert Whitaker say that he has fight news coming up. Some are putting two and two together.

I haven't been able to look into this, but we did mention that that could be an interesting matchup. Let's see if they get, uh, if they get matched up, uh, speaking of some breaking news this morning, we woke up to the news that PFL Africa is in fact going to be a thing. Uh, July the 26th, there you have it. Johnny Eblen on the card Dakota ditch of on the card yes on the PFL Africa debut they're having a tournament and they will also be having

their PFL champion series showcase now this is what's interesting about it it says that Eblen's fight is a middleweight world title fight, and it says that Ditcheva's fight is a women's flyweight fight. Why isn't Ditcheva the flyweight champion, and is Johnny Eblen the PFL middleweight champion? How could this be so confusing? Well, because Johnny was the Bellator champ. I know, but they've never made this announcement.

But in the same way that Usman defended his title. What Usman? Usman defended the Bellator title. That's what I'm saying. So isn't this the same title? No, the Bellator doesn't exist. Bellator doesn't exist. It's not that hard.

All the Bellator champions should have become the PFL champions. Is that not what this is? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, but I guess you're right. You and I are- It's confusing because now we're like, what the hell is happening we're like what the hell is happening they haven't made it clear

they haven't made it clear and by the way why wouldn't Dakota be the flyway champion well cuz you won the tournament not the Bellator it's so crazy so so anyway this is what who was the Bellator flyway champion Liz Carmouche so is Carmouche still the champion but she lost in the tournament but it's not the champ it's not a championship. This is fucking bad. But by the way, do you remember when UFC took over WC, they had the big thing, Jose Aldo gets the belt,

and Aubrey Hills runs. And they made it very, very clear who was coming over. It's not that difficult. Also, just want to point this out, Dakota's bio on Instagram, PFL flyway world champion. Whatever the fuck they need to do to make her happy at this. I think, I think not only should it be for a belt, I think she, she should be main eventing.

It's a great point. She, she is arguably the biggest star in the promotion. Yeah. And BFL, I think she should be main eventing. So it's interesting. If you read the press release, it says, the event will be headlined by five PFL champion series road to Dubai bouts. So that's what they're calling this promotion, which again is so freaking clunky.

Johnny Eblen, it says, in the world title main event. So does it even call it a PFL world title or a Bellator world title. It's just a world title. What? Johnny Ebel? And then when you go to, and he's fighting Costello Van Stenis, then we get to the Dakota part a title fight. The inaugural PFL Africa tournament will feature eight-man brackets in each weight class starting with the heavyweight and bantamweight divisions. The full tournament schedule and host cities for the semis and finals will be announced shortly. They announced the opening round fights. Extremely confusing, if you ask me.

Too much of the pie has been chopped up. We've got to simplify. And it's happening in Cape Town, by the way, for those wondering. So look, happy they got this off the ground. This is approximately two years after the announcement that Francis was coming over, and they would be launching this, so they have stuck to their word. But I don't know, Dakota and Johnny fighting on this card seems a

little bit interesting to me and them not being champions or at least it being, you know, explained properly as to what they are is a little bit weird to me. I'm just getting fights though, as a step in the positive direction. Sure. Sure.

How many both of them have been very frustrated. Yeah. I mean, and where's Patchy Mick like I'm, I'm just happy they're getting fights though is a step in the positive direction. Sure, sure. Both of them have been very frustrated. Yeah, I mean, and where's Patchy Mick? Like I'm just happy they're getting fights at this point. Yeah. I'll take it. All right, gents, time now for everyone's favorite segment of the week. It is time.

Yeah. Josh. Josh, hello boys for UFC 315. Who of the four fighters in the main and co main has the most to lose? So Bala Muhammad, Jack Dale and Madelena, Valentina Shevchenko, Mano Fioro. Who of the, I mean, obviously you gotta like start with the champs. I mean, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie.

I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. Valentina Shevchenko, Mano Fioro. Who of the... I mean obviously you gotta like start with the champs. I think Bilal has the most to lose. Easiest answer. It's a belt. If he loses the belt, he's... I had to get there. He's probably not getting another crack. Yeah. And at his age, it isn't beneficial to him. I think I'd probably go Bilal and then Manon just because of her age as well. And she's probably not getting another crack, Valentina. Valentina's the least, right? Her legacy is set.

There's nothing left for her to do at this point. This is just another title defense. Jack Del is only 28. Yeah. This is kind of like a circumstantial title shot. Yes, he could be back. You know what's interesting? From afar, they will never admit it,

but there's so much riding on the next fights in that let's just say all right well obviously if Bilal wins we're getting Islam who do you think the UFC deep deep down they'll never admit it but who do you think the brass wants to win the main event because but if you're getting if Bilal wins you're getting Islam versus Ilya yes but you're getting, if below wins, you're getting Islam versus Ilya. Yes, but you're, but if you, if he doesn't, then you've got Islam as your champion and potentially Ilya is your champion. And now you've- Well, Islam moving up. Yeah. But don't you want Islam versus Ilya for International Fight Week or you don't guess?

No, I'd want Islam at 170. That's where I want them. I wonder. I think they want Jack. You think they want Jack? Yeah. Isn't it like- Alternatively, the answer for who has the most to lose is Islam Makachev, actually. Oh, well that- It's out of the four, but the one out of the two fights, it's actually Islam Makachev,

because if Bilal remains champion, he has to go back down to 155, and he's just doing the same thing that he's clearly trying to escape. He wants to escape to 170, but he just can't say it because he has this thing where he's just doing the same thing that he's clearly trying to escape. He wants to escape to 170, but he just can't say it because he has this thing where he's like, I'm not going to fight Bilal, kind of. Bilal says, you know, I don't want to fight Islam, and then Islam has to be like, yeah, sure, okay. Also, if JDM is champ and Islam moves up to try and take that belt, JDM feels like a favorable matchup for Islam style. Oh boy, big time.

PT, what do you want to say? I was just saying, like, isn't it interesting? Like, there are good fights on this card. I quite like the card. But the most interesting thing by a long, long shot is this subplot that's attached to it. You know what I mean? Like, it's genuinely for me, it's the crossroads right here, the kind of fork in the roads

in Islam's career, which is the most interesting thing. He's not fighting, but the implications it has for the rest of the year on the UFC for me is the main topic of conversation going into the fight, which is strange for a UFC event because we get so clustered with the schedule. It's like onto the next one, onto the next one, constantly looking at fights. I think this is a whole, we're looking at a whole plot for the UFC for the remainder of 2025 with this event, which is unique in a way, no? A hundred percent. And that was actually the point I was trying to make. It's the same. It's not on the same level, but it's the same type of theme in the co-main because if Valentino wins,

you're getting Valentino versus Zhang Weili. Yeah. If Valentino loses, you're not getting that anymore. And so there's a lot attached to that one too. Obviously not as talked about as what's going on in the main event, but I wonder if deep down the brass is like, okay, we need this to happen in the main and we need this to happen in the co-main for our plans to work out. I don't think the UFC operates in that way,

like transparently. I'm sure there's some kind of like preference, right? But I think it's more along the lines of if it plays out this way, this is the best case scenario because XYZ as opposed to we want this. I don't think they can guide it in that direction. You just can't, right? You put the fighters in the cage and what happens is gonna happen. But to me, it would be beneficial to the UFC to have Islam as the 170 pound champ if Jack wins and you get that fight for him next and

Ilya or Charles potentially is the 155 pound champ, as opposed to knocking off one of Ilya or Islam, and then Bilal remains the 170 pound champ, you're just getting a better option out of that if I'm the UFC. And so I'd want that one. Follow up here from Josh. For the most handsome of the show,

Monsieur Pete C. Carroll, and he spelled your name by the way, Pete, and then S-E-A, Monsieur Pete C. Carroll, and he spelled your name by the way, Pete, and then S E A. So Pete C. Um, what are the most can't miss things to do slash C slash eat slash drink in Dublin for a first time visitor will be there for a few days in two weeks and extremely excited for it. Already booked the Guinness storehouse and

King Citric in Houth. Cheers. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now that's a lovely, Hoth is beautiful. A lot of people wouldn't get out there when they're, I tried to bring Halloween, he wasn't having none of it. It's a beautiful coastal place, you can hike up around the coastline there. I'd say try and stay off the beaten path of your there. Go to rat mines, go to stony bar. You've been to stony bar, Ariel, the Brooklyn of, of, uh, Dublin, I believe we told him the glimmer man is there at Dartsport where Ariel smoked me in a tree dark game. A lot of people would say an exhibition, not a real game, but you know, I lost, I will, uh, I will say that, but, um, really it's a, it's a kind of city where just go,

don't give yourself a lot to do and just soak up the vibes. I like to do it out in all the cities in Europe. Just try and, try and just live like an Irish person would bounce around the place, enjoy what we have on offer. It's a fantastic place. People are very friendly. Maybe go and see the book of Kells at Trinity college, one of the only oldest universities in the world and go and see fill in its statue Also, brook sales. He's one of the most there one of the most revered musicians of all time from Ireland and the thin Lizzie of course and

Lots of do if the Sun is shining you'll have a great time and Points and waltzes in and stony bar. I always bring anyone from out of town They come and they say where we go for Guinness? I go to Wallach's in Stony Bar. They usually have a nice little trad session on there. If they don't, two minutes down the road in the cobblestone, Guinness spectacular. I'm telling you, this guy works for Dublin Tourism. It's unbelievable. You just laid out the tour you're gonna have to take GC on when you... It's unbelievable. Yeah, it will happen. It will happen. Due to Pizzi, but it's been delayed. It is my fault. We will will happen. We will get there. It's been delayed due to Pizzi, but it's been delayed. It is my fault.

We will get there. It's my fault. Absolutely. We will be there. We continue. This is from the flying Dutchman. Hi Ariel and the gang. Looks like my last week's view about RDR was right. He was massively overlooked by most before last Saturday. How far can RDR go? I actually think Strickland is a good matchup for him as well. How do you guys think he matches up against the current top five? I see him as an outsider for the title also.

Will we ever see him on your show or is Ali going to stop that from happening? I mean, regarding the last point, it's really up to them, but I don't ask when it's an Ali guy because I just honestly, I don't want to put them in that awkward spot. Would love to have him on. I know he follows me. I've never had an issue with him, but I just don't ask just because I don't want

to put anyone in that awkward spot. Look, as we said on Monday, not that long ago, people were saying like, this guy was a bust. He comes over to the UFC and people are like, what, this is the double champ? And so, we have seen people come over. We have seen them maybe not blow your socks off in their debut.

I mean, look at Patty's debut. It wasn't, you know, he got rocked. But it takes some time. They get comfortable, octagon jitters out of the way. And here we go. He's a very interesting fighter in terms of his skill set. Obviously, he's had great success and won. And here we go. He's a very interesting fighter in terms of his skill set. Obviously he's had great success in one. To win in two divisions is no small feat.

You look at the middleweight division right now, the top five are Whitaker, Izzy, Hamzat, Sean, Imovov. Izzy obviously getting towards the end. Whitaker also getting towards the end. Hamzat going to fight for the belt? I think he could beat Shawn Strickland. I don't know if you guys disagree with me, but I don't see why not. And Imavav is obviously an up and comer, but I don't think that he's unbeatable as well. And so there's also Kaio in there in the top six.

I would love to see that fight at some point. And then under those guys, the canoneers and Dalites, the Vittoris of the world, like he could beat those guys. Paulo Costa's still in there, he hasn't fought in quite some time. So he could be a player, 100%. I definitely think he could be competitive against the top of this division, but I have to admit transparently, I have lowered my ceiling on Bowe more than I've raised my ceiling on RDR, like from that fight.

I took more away from the Bowe-Nicoll side of it than I've raised my ceiling on RDR. Like from that fight. I took more away from the Bo-Nickel side of it than I did the RDR side. All right, let's see. Hutt, Juliana Godzilla Pena versus King Kong Kayla. Can't wait, let's go Juliana. I believe in Pena power. I think we've done a great job ourselves in building this fight up if I do say so myself.

Jamik, sup Ariel, who would win in a match between Eddie Hall and 50 Roxanne Montefiorez? I don't know, but sign me up for that. If Ilya and Charles can't do 317, just make that the main event. Eddie Hall versus 50 Roxanne Montefiorez. The best part of this is Eddie Hall is gamed for stuff like this, which is what I love about him.

Like he's like literally the guy who wants it. For anybody else, it's like a ha ha. Eddie Hall, it's like, this, which is what I love about him. He's like literally the guy who wants it. For anybody else, it's like a ha ha. Eddie Hall, it's like, yeah, let's put in six guys against him and he's like, fuck it, the money's right, we'll figure it out. Like that's what I love about Eddie Hall. He has no illusions of being this like

long reigning champion of this. He's like, what is the craziest spectacle I can put on? And that's what I love about him. Along these lines, this is from Left Leg Cemetery, Goat Connor, if you were in the crowd of 100 men facing the dreaded silverback, are you a gas em out guy and attempt to run laps around him to deplete his cardio or a let's bum rush this son of a bitch

and go down in a blaze of glory guy? We've seen you on the Avron, we know those legs can churn, but your pack and a half a day may really inhibit your cardio these days. It's tough. It's definitely tough. There's no doubt about that. The issue is gorillas can run like 25 miles an hour.

So you gotta think that bum rushing him, you'll tire him out that way. So I feel like if we're in the arena and it's a hundred on one, you know what you've gotten signed up for, I think you just bomb rush him and hope for the best. Who started this by the way? It was all just one singular tweet that ended up getting like 300 million views or something. Crazy how that happens.

It is crazy. This is from someone's, okay so his name is Islam's Phlebotomist, and I'm gonna skip the first part of his question and read the second part. He says, P.S., please ask Frank the cultured one for help pronouncing my name, since its pronunciation trips you up every time,

which it just did. Much love. Frank, how do you say this man's name? Islam's Phlebotomist? Phlebotomist. And what is that? It's a phlebotomist. Alright. Isn't it somebody who draws blood?

Isn't that? I don't know. Oh, totally. Alright. He asks, will we get the International Fight Week main event announced during the 315 broadcasts or are we actually waiting to see the result before booking Islam? I mean, we're literally three days away from the fight happening. So at this point, what's the point?

And let's say they cut a deal with him right now and say like you're fighting and then you can move up, which could happen. I don't know, at this point, I have no intel. I haven't even asked around to be honest. Let's just freaking wait and see. I'm voting and hoping for the press conference reading off the piece of paper. It's minus 300 right now.

It's minus 300 right now. Pre-produced package during the broadcast is like plus 250. Some major announcement is plus 500. Dana White IG Live plus 125. Wait, do we think there's any chance it's during the broadcast, like pre the main event? I don't think so. No, because I think the reason we do not know yet

is because we're waiting on the results of the main event. So I'm definitely thinking main event, but would you be shocked that they had a package after the main event, like that they post on social? That I could see. I mean, they had something for, you know. That would mean they would need two packages ready. I don't know if they've got that in them.

Yeah, just two packages ready. Islam packages. I mean, it's not that hard. Just two freaking packages. Just like, you know, there's holes in there. Islam and Charles. Swap them in. You'll have the same Joe Rogan sounds.

Oh! Like, you could use the same things over and over again. The same announcer is going. Yeah, going crazy. Yeah, it's perfect. Easy. So who knows, but hopefully by Monday show, we should know the answers.

I feel confident that we will. Here we go. Shy, hey Ariel, B-I-T-B and P-C, P-E-C-Y. Randolph. In this era of MMA, do you think we will ever see champions with championship brains like GSP, Anderson Silva, and Mighty Mouse? I feel like while many of the champions we have today have better skill perhaps, a better skill set than some of those dominant champions from the past, it's a lot harder to put together

long championship brains because of the well-rounded skill set that most contenders have. I mean Islam's on a run, it's not the amount of defenses, but yeah I mean I guess maybe to your point there's a little more parity, but I don't think I'm not gonna I'm not gonna rule it out. I think I don't think so and I think there's a confluence of things. It's one the well-roundedness right there there was a time when when those guys were coming up there were specialists you could kind of prepare in certain ways. You being well-rounded was by default your skill, right? John Jones, GSP, Demetrius Johnson,

because they were good everywhere, they could kind of take out those contenders that were not as well-rounded as they were. That's one aspect. Two is, Conor McGregor opened the door for this double champ thing that has now never been closed, right? We talk about Islam, but Islam's eye is on 170, right? If Islam wanted to, he could

stay at 155 and just churn out title defenses forever, but he's already thinking about the legacy of going up. So that is a second factor. And then third, most important, this is the one that I think is the most important factor in this conversation, the UFC does not develop challengers anymore. They have a lack of challengers ready for any champion at any given time. So they run into these problems with creating a queue in terms of getting it up. And how many times have we seen a logjam at the top of the division where it's like,

well, this guy needs a title defense. Sorry, this guy needs the next shot at the title, and then there's a second contender behind him, and then there's a third contender behind him, and we have this glut. Like, we're sitting here with, oh, could it be Ian? Could it be Sean Brady? Could it be Shavkat?

Now we've got six guys lined up for one title defense. It just not going to feasibly work anymore. That era is over. It's harder to defend. There's a lack of building of contenders. And everybody wants a second belt in a division above theirs. So it just can't happen. Well put.

Nothing to add. Let's go to Puddingboy. Hale, no question here. But with regards to this past Let's go to pudding boy. Hey all, no question here, but with regards to this past weekend's Ryzen event, I was actually in attendance while I didn't see the opening ceremony, I actually met Yuri and Mark Coleman

at the event. Both were super nice, willing to provide photographic evidence to GC or Rick if needed. We believe you. Overall, it was a very long show, 19 fights total, and I was there for 16 of them for a total of about seven plus hours. While the fights themselves were mostly ho-hum,

big wins for Danny Sabatello and Kai Sokora's brother Mikuru, and the skill level is not near the UFC. The energy, the atmosphere, the pageantry, the entrances, the boxing ring, and the overall vibe is miles above the UFC, in my opinion. Highly, highly recommend anyone go to a Ryzen event if they are in Japan or honestly, even just watch online for $20 in the States.

Also the food at the Tokyo Dome was very, very solid and extremely reasonably priced compared to US venues. It's one of our missions. And in case you missed it, they posted something earlier today of Yuri and Alex Pereira who was also in attendance. They brought out all the big guns. A brief interaction here between the former foes.

I like it. Respectful. Not a lot of chatting. Not a lot of hobnobbing. I love that Tokyo Dome. Site of many great baseball games. Also, we talked about the opening ceremonies or the opening ceremony on Monday with Yiri and Mark Coleman. I failed to mention Nobuyuki Sakakibara, who is the founder of Ryzen, used to also, of

course, work for Pride back in the day and is a real survivor as far as the world of combat sports is concerned and MMA in particular. And it's great to see you, Yiri, and Mark Coleman, and is a real survivor as far as the world of combat sports is concerned and MMA in particular. And it's great to see the sport had been at such a high point in the early 2000s where there was like 30, 40, 50 million people watching these Pride events, the K-1 events as well

on New Year's Eve on TBS, Tokyo Broadcasting System, and you know, the likes of Bob Sapp and Fyodor and Antonio Rodrigo Noguera, Big Nog, Little Nog, Mirko Krokop, Josh Barnett, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr, etc. And I remember when we went in 2012 for UFC 144, myself, Casey and Esther. And I remember we did a video package where we went on the street and asked people about MMA and no one knew what it was. Like there were no fans anymore of it.

It went through some really rough times. So to see the crowds getting bigger and the production getting bigger, the pageantry getting bigger, it's really wonderful. It's so much fun when Japan is on fire. This is Sakaki Bara. This is the promoter. This is the founder at the beginning of the show.

I mean, you talk about, I mean, you talk about laying it all out there. I mean, that's production right there. The drop down. What's it saying in his thing? Who knows, but it's fantastic. By the way, great shape. I think he's in his thing? Who knows, but it's fantastic. By the way, great shape. I think he's in his late fifties.

Oh, he's on the real, man. The guy is just an absolute legend, but like that's, that's amazing. Like how do you not want, you see, this is the thing that Ryzen has. Look at that. That no one else has. KSW to a degree in Poland.

Like there are people that, you know how that, that special thing, that, that tribalism that we talk about in pro wrestling with AW and TNA and New Japan, that doesn't exist with PFL, that didn't exist with Bellator, there are people who just want to support that because of what it represents.

They want to support him because of what he represents. That's what these other guys are missing. Like, I mean, I'm not trying to start a thing here, but like they continuously don't get it. PFL do not get it. They don't get it. Now they're doing a thing where the post-fight press conferences are hosted by Jonathan Coachman. And look, I had my thing with Coachman. We buried the hatchet.

We were forced to work together. He was fine. All good. No problem. But you don't put a broadcaster up there. He's not a decision maker. He doesn't bleed, you know, the comings and goings of the company. He's just figured out.

You think that because he speaks well or because he has a history doing other things on camera, that's the best guy. You're missing the point. People want to talk to Saka Kibara because he's the guy who's living and dying with the company. People want to talk to Eddie Hearn because he's the guy living and dying with the company. They want to talk to Dana. They want to talk to Scott Coker back in the day. They want to talk to Bob Arum. They want to talk to Don King. They want to talk to Vince McMahon. You don't put a figurehead up there.

You don't put a broadcaster up there. They, they just continuously miss the point. And so like Saka Kibara doing this while everyone else in MMA seems to not get it is, is to me a beautiful thing to see. It really is. I love that stuff. I can't get enough counterpoint. I think that's how Dana is going to announce, uh, what's

happened on the professional fight week. He's going to come out looking like that. There's some crazy stuff get enough. Counterpoint, I think that's how Dana's gonna announce what's happening on International Fight Week. He's gonna come out looking like that. There's gonna be a fireworks show. And when he drops down the, whatever he was wearing, it's gonna say the matchup for International Fight Week.

Or slap. That's right, for power slap action. They don't do rise in events that often. It's only a few a year. Well, that's what's cool about it too, right? 100%. Old school UFC. Yeah, it just feels special.

The scarcity of it, the production levels, to your point, there's not a lot doing it out there, period, but the KSWs, the Ryzen, they continue to invest in the show beyond just getting week to week, which is what the UFC and other promotions have a say. Are we thinking New Year's Eve? Ah, who knows? Ah, that'd be a say. We think in New Year's Eve? Ah, who knows?

Ah, that'd be fucking war. We're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. I'm telling you. By the way, speaking of Ryzen from Ryan Holland, question, what does Ryzen have to do to become the number two promotion, or at least have the same amount of viewers and respect Pride did?

I mean, their crowd on the weekend was bigger than all the P of Hell events so far. Look, I think they just have to keep at it. Just keep at it. Keep doing what they're doing. When Ryzen debuted, when it was resurrected, if you will, it took some time and I don't know if they're quite there just yet where they have the matchup that can... But by the way, if they could get an Eddie Hall on there, he's perfect for them.

You know what I mean? For New Year's Eve. They have to have a bit of a mix of the good and the bad. And who knows? Maybe the guys who were going to one back in the day, the Eddies, the Sages, the DJs, are now going to go to Ryzen because, you know, one is not in that business. You see Ryan Bader going over there, makes sense with the movie coming out. It's an interesting thing to watch. Maybe they maybe they were right there this whole time. There's work to be done but maybe they were right there. Joe, hi Ariel and crew. With the title fight coming in on the weekend, just a question for all of you, does JDM have one of the most

underrated unbeaten streaks of all time? He's won 17 fights in a row with an over 80% finishing rate. He's defeated every welterweight he has ever fought with the only uneventful defeat on his record being at 185 pounds. I understand that he has only three ranked wins on his record but I feel like previously there have been fighters with a lesser streak and a less fan-friendly style who have been more respected leading into the shot. Maybe it's inactivity and maybe it is. That's, look, he hasn't fought since March of last year. Think about how many fights, how many events have happened

since March of last year. And the circumstances in which he got this title fight were very, very unique as well. And so it wasn't like this thing where it's like, he's gotta get it, and he gets on the microphone, and he cuts a promo. And by the way, that's probably a little bit, you know, to this point as well,

like he isn't boisterous, he isn't loud, he isn't cutting promos, he isn't getting on the mic and yelling and calling people out. And so I think all those things matter. But yes, if you look at the actual stats, you look at the resume, it's very impressive. And maybe people are sleeping on it. What is, like what are the odds right now?

What is the line for are the odds right now? What is the line for this? They're actually coming in a little bit. Last I saw like JDM, like a plus 140 now. He was as big as like a plus 200. I think some people are believing in him. Plus 141. It's a very impressive streak,

but the thing that is missing from it is the names, right? Like compare it to, let's say, Ilya Toporia, who's what, like on 16 in a row, undefeated. He's got Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovsky on his ledger. This would go a long way. I think is what's so crazy about JDM is that he started out O and two,

then him and his coach were like, all right, let's get to 10 and two, and like, we'll go from there. We're better than being an O and two fighter. And then, you know, it ends up the story is Dana white contender series was the tenth fight That's what got him into the UFC and he hasn't lost since I think 17 wins in professional mixed martial arts it really doesn't matter who you're fighting is impressive Also got a little rock there against Gilbert in his last fight. I think all these things he said Dicey moments the split against

Basil and Kevin. Oh, yes, that's right. If he comes in here and blows the doors off Bilal, it will change overnight. It will change overnight the way people view him. Another one from Joe, hi Ariel, with you comparing Bo's first loss to Sage Northcutt, it got me thinking about how much of a rough few years Sage has had with promoters since leaving the UFC. Do you have an update on him?

I see he has signed with both GFL and PFL, which doesn't bode well if he's trying to be active again. 29 now and has fought twice in seven years. Well, he had that horrific facial injury when he fought Cosmo Alexander in one. He actually never signed with PFL. That was an erroneous report. He did have a deal with GFL,

but we all know that that is not a thing anymore. I've asked him actually a couple times since he left one to come on the show and he has been hesitant saying he wanted to wait for things to play out so I think he still wants to fight to a degree but yeah to your point it's been it's been tough. It's been tough. Adam, hi Ariel and the gang. The Rampage interview last week was brilliant. Love the chemistry between you guys. At two hours and two minutes and seven seconds on Apple Podcast, Rampage does this.

Gary Coleman, what you talking about Ariel? This needs to be clipped and added to Frank's soundboard ASAP. Love the show, peace and love from Northern Ireland. That's fucking bullshit. Oli beef hooked. Hey Ariel, question for Pete C. Is that Oli?

I'm laughing. What's the name again? Has he ever successfully split the G? I have come within a couple of millimeters, but I don't know if it can truly be done. Also GC, you definitely used too much Vegemite and Frank should be fired for the toast he provided you. All right, can we talk about that?

Wow, that was like three months ago, shout out. Did you use too much Vegemite? I feel like you used the right amount. He made his own goddamn toast. Any Vegemite is too much Vegemite. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Hey, some of the worst toast you've ever made there, Frank. It's not my toast.

Split the G, PC? Oh, I mean, we all knew what happened that night in Jack Dempsey's it was I see you split the G before like I've been there for it I did six it's absolutely possible I've seen them do it I've you you taught me by the way I split the dude as well yeah it actually started like a phenomenon within my friend group. Everyone drinks Guinness. That night in Dempsey's was magic. Honestly, everyone was splitting the G. We fucking tore the arse out of Dempsey's.

I turned down the opportunity to draft James Cook to be there that night. And you were delighted. I was delighted. Look, it all worked out. I got to cut a promo in Green Bay a couple years later. It all worked out. Great lesson. Here's our boy Abay.

Ariel, you're my guy, so I can't let the disrespect from Eddie Hall slide. He claimed two of him would dominate a gorilla. He then told you 100 Hellwannys couldn't take on a gorilla. So for doing human versus gorilla maths, he is saying two Eddie Halls dominate 100 Hellwannys? Set the record straight, Hellwanny boxing is a real thing. How many Hellwannys defeat the world's strongest man?

P.S. Happy belated to little Wanny. Much love your boy, Abay. We appreciate you, Abay. I say one-on-one, mano-i-mano. Can he handle the jab? Absolutely not. Can he handle the jab? Can he handle the speed, the movement?

Can he handle the- This ain't gonna be no 30 seconds, Hall. Bob and Weave. No. You ever been in the pits of hell with a man with a jab like a fucking metronome? Ooh, this is a fun one. Lon Don with two thirds of the year left. Does anyone want to update their prediction for male fight of the year?

As a reminder, Pizzi said, Shavkat, Connor said, Aspenal, Ariel said, Merab, Rick said, Pereira as of right now, guys, I would have to say my chances are the best. Right. Merab's getting a second fight already within six months, Shafkat no sign of a return. We'll find out. Uh, Aspenall no fault of his own, no fault of his own, but if he gets that one win. I was going to say, is Aspenall the one guy

that if he wins the fight that he has, if it's against John Jones, can he easily be? 100%. Yes. 100%. What if my guy comes in and steals that John Jones fight away? What if, uh. Pereira. What if he wins the fight? What if he wins the fight? What if he wins the fight guy that if he wins the fight that he has, if it's against John Jones, can he easily be made for the beer?

100%. What if my guy comes in and steals that John Jones fight away? What if Pereira comes in? Well he's got Uncle I. When I made that prediction, I was trying to thread the needle on Pereira winning against Magomed and then sliding into that slot, so missed it. There will be no updates. You have to ride your pick.

My Zhongwei Li pick, not looking bad. Yeah, we're not. Go Valentina this weekend and then we get the- Yeah, that's a good one. That's a great one, yeah. I pick Tatiana Suarez, I think. Yeah, that's a tough one. That one's cooked.

That's a tough one. We need some Loke Dog fight news. That was my- Your breakout. Breakout for you. My breakout was paying Talbot. Yeah, it's dumb. Yeah, so was mine.

Makun. Last year was fucking Benoit Sandini. Oh, that's cursed for me. Well, big one for him. Big one this weekend coming, hopefully. Speaking of which, Makum asks, Hey Ariel, how would you rate UFC 315? Much love. Well, you know, it's interesting.

I saw our old friend, Damon Martin, post the seat map. He loves to do this. He's, I don't know how he gets these things, but he will post it for time to time. And I was actually's, I don't know how he gets these things, but he will post it for time to time. And I was actually initially a little bit surprised

at the state of things as far as tickets sold for Saturday's event at UFC 315 in Montreal, the Bell Center. Do we have the seat map? Yay, nay? Yeah, there it is. Um, so here it is. You just pulled this up on Ticketmaster. Okay.

I mean, that's, so just in case you're wondering, the blue are not sold. That's a lot for a pay per view. That is a lot. That's gotta be at least like 5,000. Six, seven? Oh, wow, man. It looks like half the arena.

So as I've said in the past, UFC 186, 10 years ago, was the last time the UFC held a pay-per-view in Montreal. Last time they held a show in Montreal. Worst crowd I've ever seen for a pay-per-view. That whole top two sections that you saw there, put that up again if we can, the top two, so like the top top one in the middle were tarped off. It was that bad.

It was just the lower bowl. That's the one that was headlined by DJ versus Kyoji Higuraguchi. If you remember, Rampage was on, he was off, he was on, it was the whole thing with Bellator. And I said to myself like, they ain't ever coming back here. And there's a few things that you have to know about Montreal. Number one, you know Montreal is one of those cities, people say this about LA, two-degree New York as well, there's so much going on, no disrespect to the Des Moines and all that of the world, but there's so much going on in Montreal

that you really need to like come out with a big time event in order to get people to come. They're not front runners per se, but you have to have something special in order for people to pay premium dollars for the event. That's one. Two, I think it has become more popular in Ontario than Quebec.

We'll see what it turns into come Saturday. Three, let's be honest, like Bilal and JDM aren't known commodities as far as pay-per-view headliners. Three out of the four on this bill at the top aren't known commodities as far as headliners. Yes, the UFC has headline shows in Montreal without Canadians at the very top, but there isn't, or I should say Montrealers like UFC 97 didn't have any Montreal influence at the top. They

did have Lozo on there, UFC 113 didn't have any Montreal influences on the top of the bill. But this one, like other than Ayman Zahabi at the very top, there are the likes of Jasmine and Mike Malat, Marc-André Barrios is down there, but like there isn't a lot of Montreal on here and they like supporting their own. Also worth noting that Montreal and Quebec, it's not the same as the rest of Canada. They really do tend to support their own, meaning fellow Quebecois as opposed to other Canadians.

There's a whole separatist thing that, you know, we don't need to get into. But part of the reason why it was very smart on the flag, excuse me, on the poster to have the Quebec flag and not the Canadian flag. The general feeling in the province of Quebec, there's more of an allegiance to the Quebec flag and not the Canadian flag. They, the general feeling in the province of Quebec, there's more of an allegiance to the Quebec flag than this flag. Um, they, they tried to, um, they tried to separate from Canada a couple of times. Once in the seventies, once in the nineties. Uh, and they got pretty damn close to the nineties.

Like the, the, the, the no vote lost by less than 1%. It was like 0.7 and everyone, I remember, I remember vividly, I was in the eighth grade. Everyone said they were going to move to Toronto if the yes vote won, cause they had no plan in place. They didn't know what currency they were going to use, actually quite reminiscent of Brexit, to be honest. Um, so anyway, I think all these factors are at

play in the end, I think it will look packed, but I'm, I'm worried about the future of events there. If this is how it looks compared to how it's looked in other parts of Canada. And, um, I think it's going packed, but I'm worried about the future of events there, if this is how it looks compared to how it's looked in other parts of Canada. And, you know, it will be interesting. Will the tourism board, because you notice like the tourism board, the Quebec tourism board, just like in New Jersey and other places, they're paying a site fee.

Will they think that it's not worth it? I don't know. We'll find out. But all to say, I don't think it's a bad card. I think it's in line with what we've seen in other Canadian pay-per-views as of late. You know what I mean? The Toronto pay-per-view last January, the Vancouver one several months prior, below Jack Delamadelena, Valentina

Shevchenko-Manoferiro are two very solid title fights. Jose Aldo, who's all fired up today, I saw at the media day saying he was so pissed off after the Mario Bautista loss, he didn't watch combat sports for months. Going up against Eman Zahabi, that is the people's main event, make no mistake about it.

Montrealer going up against a legend, Zahabi's younger brother, GSP in his corner, the loudest pop of the night without a question will be for Eman Zahabi, at least going in. Alexa Grosso returning from the fight against Valentina, against Natalya Silva. Benoit St. Denis versus Joel Alvarez was a great fight. Unfortunately, not happening, but BSD staying on there and Kyle Propolek is replacing. Mike Millaud against Charles Radke. Millaud an up and comer obviously. not happening, but BSD staying on there and Kyle Propolek is replacing. Mike Malad against Charles Radke.

Malad, an up and comer obviously. JustKantrots against Jasmine Jazdivichis is somewhat akin to Zahabi versus Aldo in that it's the Canadian getting an opportunity to fight the legend. So that's solid. And then you've got the likes of Iwan Kucelaba against Bukaskis. Marc-André Barriot against Bruno Silva. Usually something crazy happens there, Brad Katona and that's it. But they've lost a couple of fights.

You know, a big one that they lost was Michael Morales versus Gilbert Burns and they didn't lose it due to injury. They just moved it to May 17th because they didn't have a main event for that card. So that's a bit of a tough pill to swallow. So overall, long, long, long answer to a very short question. I don't know. A C plus? C plus? I don't know. Is that unfair? I don't know. How many asses is Baterbia have put in seats out there? Oh, in Montreal. I mean, he's, I don't know, maybe 11, 12, you know, because those cards

are a little thin as well. And he and, and he actually fought, he actually fought in Quebec city the last time he fought in, um, in front of 10,000. This is a, which fight is this? I just typed in 26,000. Oh no, no, that's, uh, that's the, uh, the Bival one. There was 26,000 for the bit of Bival one. Calum Smith, 10,000.

So it's like 10, 12,000. It's a kid, you know, the UFC brand is always going to be hotter. No, like when boots and has fought in Philly, like he got 10, 12, but BKFC comes in with a, with a, maybe a deeper card and we'll get more. But, um, again, better be of calls Montreal home, but you know, he's an adopted Montrealer. There's not the same connection there, if you get what I'm saying. Anyway, it's going to be interesting. Looking forward to it.

This is from Chris. Question for GC for UFC Atlanta. Are we thinking pre-fight dinner at Hankook Taqueria with post-fight drinks at Northside Tavern? However, you know as well as I do that an ATL fight feast can only include Magic City Kitchen. I will go ahead and start coordinating with Ramondi and Jed Mishu.

Hankook Taqueria, for sure happening when I'm in the city. Magic City, pick the wings up, feel like it's best to go on a Monday if you really know, but yeah that might happen. Then I feel like I gotta go to the tourist trap. I gotta go to the varsity, show people what you're actually supposed to order. A lot of local Atlanta people hate it. You just don't know what to order. By the way, if we're doing the lemon pepper I might have to make a trip. Lemon pepper from Magic City, legendary. Magic City, the famous one?

Cripple. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Lou Williams one? Yeah, Magic City on a Monday. Why is it called Magic City Kitchen? DJ Esco. Seeing the kitchen at Magic City. Oh, got it, got it, got it. Fight fees with Malcolm Wellmaker at Magic City.

Ooh, boy. Now we're talking. I mean, could we address the elephant in the room? Address it. I mean, fight fees spin a staple. Here we are, Montreal Fight Week, proud Montrealer. No, no Montreal fight feast. Seems, I mean, it's just,

I'm not really sure what to make of it. I would, I could- We were like, hey, Haweani, let's all go to Montreal. Nah, nah, nah, we're gonna go there. What do we have to do? That did happen, but also we had that lengthy conversation where it was just like, man, we're in a real pickle here because we got UFC Des Moines.

We'll obviously have to play that afterward. Now that I- Straight into Montreal. And then you were like, ah, just do the Des Moines one We'll obviously have to play that afterward. Now that I- Straight into Montreal. And then you were like, ah, just do the Des Moines one. There'll be plenty of Canada cards. Connor, you're misremembering. Now that I play it back in my head,

it was completely full of sarcasm. He was like, oh yeah, why don't you just do it in Des Moines? And I'm all out. That's so not- That was gonna be the first guest on Fight Feast and it was gonna be you, showing us around Montreal bagels,

black seed, you know the local spots. Orange Jubilee. That's a good one. Hey this is a good one. The revolting blob. Hey Ariel, there's been a lot of talk this week on what is and what isn't a fraud check. So my question to you is can you give us an example of an actual fraud check? Help me out here guys. There is there is not a fraud check's not a thing. Fraud check is a it's definitely okay can I ask was was Northcutt against Barbarina a fraud check? No because if you believe Robles the spawn getting ousted from the UFC in the way that he did, not fraud checking him?

Okay. He now fights at Karate Combat. That's not bad, that's not bad. For something to be a fraud check, you are bringing your own interpretation to it, right? I never thought Sage Northcutt was good, therefore it was not a fraud check, right? Okay, what about Robles, Robles?

I dumped stupid money on Robles. I believed in him. So fraud check for me. It's too subjective. It is too based on your personal opinions and feeling on how what the fighter's ceiling is. By the way, GC, did in your opinion, Bo get fraud check? No, I don't think he got fraud check because I don't think that he is a fraud. I think he still has a bright future ahead of him in mixed martial arts. I think that his expectations definitely got tamped a little bit.

I think it was surprising. I don't know, I guess is that a fraud check? I don't think Bo Nickles is a fraud though, that's the thing. But I don't think Sage Northcutt is a fraud either or Robelis, like they just weren't that good. And if you paid attention. Fraud. No, but were theyis like they just weren't that good and and if fraud paid attention no but but were they were they presented as they were better than

that was fighting guys that were level for seconds he's gonna be the next this guy's the future division he's a fraud Rick okay they just were not that good there is no there is no fraud check because first of all, if you make it to this level, period, you're not a fraud. But second of all, it's all so based on like, some people think that this guy's good, some people don't. There are plenty of people who don't think Bo Nicol has a high ceiling, right?

Now, especially in the aftermath of that, they go, mm, in fact, I just said earlier today, I've lowered my ceiling on Bo Nicol. But do I think like, he's not a top level athlete? Do I think he's not gonna be something in MMA? No, like it just doesn't, I don't know. It's too subjective in my opinion. It's too much based on your personal read

of how somebody ranks out their talent. I also think you like, you have to see what happens next before you can stamp it. If Bo Nicol goes and wins four in a row after this, then it's kind of like, oh, he just got got tested he lost and he got better because of it like was Jack or Manson beating Joe Pfeiffer a fraud check Hmm no no Jack or Manson is there is I agree with you I don't think it was none of these guys are fraud so there can be no fraud check that I'm planting my flag It's just a trendy fucking thing to say.

That's all it is. Did Sam Alvey fraud check Tyrone Spong? No. Yes. No. No. It's crazy. I'm not into this fraud check yet.

I'm looking up on Urban Dictionary fraud check. By the way, this is actually incredible. You know what it is. Okay. Fraud check, a term used in the MMA community. Is this exclusive to MMA? I don't have a dictionary. I don't really hear it.

For when a fighter whose skills have been severely overrated due to only fighting low-level opponents finally fights someone at a higher level and gets exposed as not being really as good. That's what we used to call that. As their fans. Read the second definition. Overrated, I think this is just like the Gen Z version

of saying they're overrated. It's trendy. It's weird because like I type in the People's Main Event and it says fight on a car and this phrase is generally used by MMA reporters near Creek and then and by the way and then there's a there's a conversation between us. New York Rick, colon. So what do you believe should have been the people's main event at UFN 76?

Ariel. Ben Rothwell versus Stipe Mičić, assuming the injury bug did strike again. I don't even know. By the way, this was- Golden, right? This, oh, oh, that's the, oh, so people actually put this in.

So then the next one is people's main event. And then it says this phrase originates from the MMA hour. Oh, let's go. First coined by journalist Ariel Hawani. Ariel Hawani colon Volkonovsky versus Ortega is going to be insane, but let's be honest. The Nick Diaz versus Robbie Law rematch is the people's main event.

Let's go. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and there's another one. No. There's another one. People's main event. No. There's another one. People's Made Event. This was put in 2021. Invented by Ariel Hawani,

a phrase used to denote a fight on an MMA card that garners much attention from the fan base. Ariel Hawani, colon, the fight that the fans are most looking forward to is Todd Duffy versus John Belante. Oh, fuck yeah. It is without a doubt the People's Made Event. Okay guys, I'll see you next week.

Same time and place. Till then I say peace, I'm main event. Okay guys, I'll see you next week. Same time and place. Till then I say peace, I'm outta here. I love how I started in the lead spot and then by three I got erased from the conversation completely. But shout out to the real ones. UFN 76. That's a lifetime ago.

Oh my God. What's that Dublin? I don't know. Who the hell knows? I don't do that. You would know. By the way, speaking of someone who is not, wait. Our guest has been here this whole time? No one told me? By the way, speaking of someone who is not, wait,

our guest has been here this whole time? No one told me? No, we told you. No, no one, he's been here for 13 minutes? Guys. He listened to his blabber about projects. You gotta tell me this in my ear, guys. I'm not looking at freaking, I can't believe this. Okay, well now, guys, you gotta tell me this.

In the future, I sincerely apologize. I did not realize. This guy is such an incredible human being that he showed up 13 minutes early to the interview. How is that possible? And he's been sitting here listening to us blabber on for the last 13 minutes. I am utterly embarrassed, but it is a great privilege,

pleasure and honor to say hello to my old friend, a man who really should be leading this country. I only became an American citizen so I can vote for him. I didn't vote this past election. I am saving my vote for when he actually runs for office. He is the one and only the all American Brian Stan. There he is. Brian, how are you?

No one told me that you've been sitting here for 10 minutes, so I sincerely apologize. It was no problem whatsoever. I think your producers had given us a heads up that, hey, we're scheduled for two, not an issue. I was getting some work done and chuckling at the definition of fraud check, as I was newly introduced to that term as well until this past weekend, I had never heard of it. Okay. Perhaps that exposes maybe your age a little bit and we're sort of in the same bracket.

It does. There's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm actually happy to hear like you're aware of stuff. I was prepared for Brian to say, I don't watch this. I have nothing to do with it. I don't want anything to do with it. I don't even know who Bo Nicol is, but you're aware. No, I certainly know who Bo Nicol is. And, and definitely think that he's got a tremendous ceiling and you know, sometimes you get in over your head, but other times I think you just fight poorly, right? Sometimes you have a bad performance and that could have been the, you know, what happened this past weekend, but no, I definitely still keep an eye on the sport and watch it. And we'll certainly be watching this weekend's pay-per-view. It's a big part of my background. It's crazy now when I start to think and reminisce how long ago it was and how much of a has-been

I am. But it's cool every once in a while with my teenage daughters to try and remind them that there was a time when I was cool. Do they have any recollection of when you were actively fighting? They do. They do. But now it's more like it comes up more in reference when they've got dates to different dances or people don't want to show up and come to the house and the doorstep

when they've got to take them out places. And my background gets blamed for that. But on the flip side, you know, my daughter's asked me to come to their school and speak to the school once at chapel. And in that speech, I had embedded some fight clips strategically in there. And I think that they still blame those clips for maybe why boys are hesitant. I love that. I also love this scene right here, like where you you look so important right now. You look like the president, the

CEO of like a fortune 500 company. And and what I love so much about this is, I remember when you were at Fox and you were deciding, do I stay, do I go, am I going all in on this MMA broadcasting thing post-fighting career or do I just cut the cord and go out and do something? And from afar, it seems like it's all working out. I remember when you got your MBA, I just found out that you were recently appointed the chairman of the board of Higher Heroes USC. Congratulations. And I'd love to ask you about recently appointed the chairman of the board of higher heroes USC Congratulations, and I'd love to ask you about you know what you're doing with them in addition to that correct me if I'm wrong

CEO of hunt military communities, and so I'm probably missing a couple things and please let me know if I am But what is the day job now like what's the day to day? What is occupying most of your time? Yeah, no, I'm the CEO of Hunt Military Communities. We're the largest military housing provider in the country. We've got a portfolio of about 60,000 homes that span from our largest density, which is in Honolulu, through the Pacific Northwest, to Florida, to Boston, and throughout the Midwest as well,

which is really interesting. And that opportunity really allowed me to combine my private equity background with my affinity for the military, which is great. And me taking on and becoming the chairman of Hire Heroes USA, which that is the nonprofit that I was running while I was fighting. And that was my day job in between fighting in the cage. It's really cool in that their mission is to help military service members and military spouses get jobs post their military career. In my current role, just last year, we actually hired over 100 military veterans and over 100 military spouses.

And so it's really cool that, you know, the things I'm into now can really combine a number of my different passions. And so it did all work out. I still remember my broadcast career very fondly, and there are a tremendous amount of skills that I pull from that background in my current role. So much of being a CEO is about communication and can my communication influence the behavior and the things that my teams do so that we could accomplish our larger goals and ultimately serve the residents and the families that live in our communities. And so I still draw on that an awful lot, still reminisce

and think about how much easier that job was relative to the one that I have now. And so do you remember the date of your last event that you called? So do you remember the date of your last event that you called? Oh, I do not. I think it was 2017 though. And it was tough.

I mean, it was like leaving a family. Cause as you know, right? You get so close to that production crew that you travel with all the time. But for me, it was really challenging in that my children were starting to have events every single weekend and I was gone two to three weekends a month. And so it was really a decision on, okay, number one, do I want to be present for all

these memories as a father? And number two, do I want to be a broadcaster or do I want to run companies? And for me, you know, the absence of a leadership opportunity in my life really helped aid that decision along with not wanting to miss all those moments with my kids, which you know is really challenging for broadcasters. When you took that headset off

and someone would have said to you like, okay, it's gonna work out like this. You'll be at this point in 2025. Would you have been content with that option? Oh, absolutely. I miss it. No different than I miss being a Marine Corps officer, no different than I miss very much that walk to the cage and the ability to compete in octagon. But what I get to do now, I mean, the team of people that I work with, they're incredible. And their passion to serve these military families is beyond anything you can truly

measure. And so it's a really inspiring place to be where you get to lead them and try to find different ways of providing better service to making these military communities more financially viable so that you can reinvest back in them. And we've got an obligation to obviously provide communities for today's military, but we also have to provide it 30 years from now as well, which means that the strategies with which you do that so you could ultimately sustain and reinvest back in them are very, very complicated. And it's been tremendously challenging, but also really, um, probably some of the best work of my career to do that with these folks and really improve how we're doing that.

Um, and obviously my affinity for the military, as you know, right, runs really, really deep. So it keeps me well connected to them. Um, and so, yeah, I'm really satisfied with the decision. No complaints. One of my favorite Bryan Stan moments, a moment that I'll never forget, Memorial Day weekend card, when you beat Jorge Santiago, you in the middle of the cage, down on your knees,

a very emotional moment. So I almost struggle saying favorite, but just like when I think of you, I think of that moment. It's one of the first that comes to mind, obviously the WEC title fight and some of your other great battles. But to me, that's like quintessential Bryan stand. That's what you're all about. Is that a fair one to bring up? It's still a memory that I look back on today. It's just what an incredible opportunity. You know, the funny part was the UFC didn't realize that.

Like I had my agent, you know, asking, hey, schedule on this card, schedule on this card. But for me, it was a lot card, schedule them on this card. For me, it was a lot more spiritual and a lot more personal. There's a lot you deal with after those types of experiences that you're able... Fighting for me gave me the opportunity to channel all that energy into something constructive. It was really symbolic for me and a chance for me to communicate with colleagues of mine that I had for my military service and use something to maybe bring a little bit more brightness to that day because it's normally, it's a challenging weekend for a

lot of service members. And I think we do a better job now of messaging that and that, hey, look, nobody who's died in service to their country would want us to sit around being sad on that weekend. But definitely an awesome memory for me now. To that point, I saw that you recently gave a speech at the naming of the USS Travis Manion. Can you tell us who Travis was and what he meant to your life? And also, I do believe what he meant to your MMA career. Yeah, that's a great question.

Thank you for bringing that up. So Travis is one of my closest friends. And when I was in the Marine Corps, he was my first wrestling coach. And we'd finished our training for the day and we found this little tiny gym inside of our barracks that we would go and we would just crush each other every night and train what we knew. And he knew a ton of wrestling. I knew a little bit of kickboxing. And he was going to compete mixed martial arts when he got back from his second deployment, which ultimately he never got the opportunity to return to. He was part of a military training team

training the Iraqi army and during an ambush ran out to save one of the Iraqi soldiers and was caught by enemy sniper fire and passed away. And he meant a tremendous amount to me. He was just one of those rare individuals who had an incredible combination of character, tenacity, leadership and compassion. He just cared so much about the people in his life that he'd run to gunfire. He would always be there and stand up for what was right. And so he continues to be an inspiration for me. And it's awesome that in my current role as a CEO of this company, they're one of our partner organizations, the Travis Manning Foundation, and we can bring them and hire heroes into our communities

to work with the veterans who live in our communities and provide services to them as well. And so it's been really, really amazing to see how his name has been memorialized and to have a ship in the fleet named after him represents all the best things. Cause that is certainly someone you want all your sailors and really warriors across all of our services to emulate. He was just that person, right?

And who he died for and what he died for and what it represents is incredible. I know that you've been closely linked to Hire Heroes a very long time even dating back to your fighting days to be named Chairman of the board though recently and congratulations once again. What does that entail? What does that mean? Yeah, well, it's really it means that I've got to lead this board and take an overall look and have a say in the direction the strategy and the governance of this great organization. And it's wild to me because when a gentleman by the name of John Bartus, who was a businessman who saw a military officer that he just wanted to hire, even though

I had no skills whatsoever that meshed with his company, and he hired me and he asked me to start this thing with him, We started it from nothing. A handful of people with great ideas, but no resources to start anything and to see where it is now. Being one of the few organizations that McKenzie Scott Bezos decided to fund to the tune of $16 million because they're just that great of an organization is incredible. They help over 13,000 service members and military spouses each year find meaningful employment and not just a job.

They're helping people find jobs where they're starting north of $70,000 a year. So it's an incredible organization and what they do. And for me to be the chair now after being one of the founders and one of the people that kind of started it and didn't really know what the heck I was doing is such a full circle event. And so it's both something that I'm really proud of, but at the same time, it's really humbling, right? Because you've got to be really careful. The decisions you make are really important. And so I've got to lean on the fellow board members and the organization's executive officers to make the right decisions, but we've got a great team.

And it's hard to mess something up that is as good as they are. I remember post-fighting when you were doing a lot of the TV work, John Anik always used to call you the greatest living American. And there was this sort of like joking push for you to run for office. It doesn't, and probably because you're not, you know,

in our little world anymore, so it doesn't come up as because you're not, you know, in our little world anymore, so it doesn't come up as much. But I still in the back of my mind wonder if this is going to happen. Have you, have you thought of this a little more? Is there anything you could tell us about a potential run for office? Sure. There's, there's nothing in there. There's nothing that I look at, but I'd be lying if I said there aren't times where I sit there and talk to my wife about having this idea about serving again, especially with the state of our country and our current politics where we're just so divided and we really don't have the ability to sit down and have meaningful conversations, meaningful dialogue with people who maybe have a different background or have a different belief than us and attempt to find mutual purpose in that dialogue.

So that gets very frustrating, but in my current role, I've got to work with members on Capitol Hill pretty often. And so I see a little bit behind the veil and that leads me to not want to do that in my career. And shortly after speaking about using my broadcasting career, shortly after taking this role, I had to testify in front of Congress when they had questions about our industry.

I definitely get a lot of exposure to that world. There are times where I think about it, but there's nothing in my near term. I'm really happy with the people I work with, the mission that we have. We've got a lot of unfinished business as we continue to grow this company and continuously improve how we deliver goods and services to our customers. Have you ever been close?

Have you ever like seriously made a push towards it? I had a group meet with me several years ago and they were interested in me either running for Congress or Senate. It was just a preliminary conversation on gauging whether or not I was interested and if it was a strategy worth looking into. But that's really as far as it was one lunchtime conversation and that's it. And so no, outside of that, there's been nothing else.

Last time we spoke was about three years ago, amazingly. Time is flying. And I remember you telling me about PFL kind of like gauging your interest, whether or not you wanted to work with them and you respectfully declined. And obviously things are working out great. I'm wondering since then, has anyone knocked on your door in the MMA world? Has PFL knocked you? Lord knows they could use you. I would say that, you know, unequivocally right now, has anyone tried to do that in recent? No, no, you know, I don't think it's necessarily that I burnt that bridge. I just think that they, you know, they realized that that wasn't for me. It was, you know, I was leaving broadcasting and

I wasn't sure if that was the right move, right? The UFC was phenomenal to me and treated me really well. And I was having conversations with them about whether or not we could do a long-term contract and try to really decipher whether that's what I wanted to do long-term. Is this what I want my career to be in? And that was right when I got accepted to go to Kellogg. And then I got a job offer from Cerberus Capital, a private equity firm out of New York to work in one of their portfolio companies. So it was comparing those opportunities and looking at the PFL, I just didn't have a strong

belief in their balance sheet and their capitalization and their long-term direction with the tournament format. It was tough because I had such close affinity and real bonds with people at the UFC that taking that opportunity as well would feel different for me, right? Because I've been treated so well on the production side of the UFC. So no second thoughts about that whatsoever, but there's never been anybody else to reach out since then. And there haven't been a ton of players pop up.

We had this GFL thing recently, which seems to be DOA. Can I ask, you know, your perspective, outside looking in now, I said recently that the MMA business industry is in a recession, not talking about the UFC. The UFC, obviously the brand is on fire, their gates are high, their ticket sales are high, all that stuff, but I just feel the sport as a whole, other promotions aren't as visible here

in America not having as much success. What do you make of the current state of the industry? I think the barriers to entry are massive, right? The success of the UFC, the growth of their brand are just so big. So if you're gonna try and enter into this market and compete directly with them, I think it's a real mistake.

And I think that it's gonna be a hard business model to get investors in because there's just better investment opportunities out there and there's been a string of failures. If I were on the outside looking in at this business and where the opportunity is, I think there's actually opportunity more at the feeder level. We've seen the bell of tours, the strike forces, and they try to come in and it's almost like, they come in almost like the age, they're going to go get the stars that have aged out of the UFC, grab them at the end of their career and try to wring them out of all the viewership that they can draw off some of your more age stars. And that doesn't work long-term, but I think if there's

any opportunity in the sport, I think it's really to help fighters train, build a name and get good before they go to the UFC. I think that's where the opportunities are. I think that the UFC has done a darn good job using their Fight Pass streaming network for the LFAs and some of the other promotions that are out there. I mean, the Pettis has got a promotion, but I think there's opportunity there. But trying to enter right now, big and in a primary market, where you're gonna try and put together fights and say you've got the best fighters in the world, I'd have a really hard time wanting to invest my money

in it, that's for sure. All right, so speaking of the UFC specifically, who or what do you like right now? Is there a guy or gal that you really like or a fight that you really like? What about the UFC has piqued your interest right now? Yeah, you know, one of the number one things that piqued my interest is the talent

of all of these athletes, where I could be watching a card and it's the undercard and I don't know who these fighters are because I can't, I don't have the time to dive into it as much. And their level of ability, their knowledge and the well-roundedness of their skill set just blows me away all

the time, especially the closer you get to the 155 pound, that lightweight weight class. I mean, that the talent level in those, those weight classes is just through the roof. That jumps off the page. These athletes are so good and so skilled now beyond where we were. And I think that it's just going to continue to grow. This sport is attracting a higher caliber athlete than we used to now. And that makes the product more fun to watch. And while some people will say, as you guys were discussing earlier, look, these cards aren't as stacked as they used to be. They may not be selling as many tickets. I think there's a market there and they're always going to, the UFC is going to do really well to

find equilibrium, but you can throw on any card now, and this is why the content value has continued to go up through the roof. It doesn't matter the name of the fighters. You could end up watching an incredible bout between two people you've never seen before, and it could be on the undercard

if that ends up being the best fight of the night. And I think that people that aren't mainstream MMA fans, that's what they love about the product. If I'm in a room with people and we're gathering on the weekend after one of our kids' games and the UFC's on, they're gonna put it on and they're not watching it for a specific fighter, they're watching it for any of these athletes

knowing that, man, this product could have an incredible fight at any time with any matchup that they might have. Your PA guy, one of the big stories this week has been centered around Pennsylvania's own Bo Nicol. Are you following all of this? Are you aware of all of this? And do you think he has what it takes to bounce back

from what he's experienced this week? Absolutely. I think that things like what just happened are either the best or the worst thing that's ever happened in clinical. If he'll look back on his career and he'll know that this was a defining point, and whether it's a positive or a negative will really depend on him, but if I look at his competitive background, I would put my money on this being something that just makes the fire burn even greater inside of him. He's a phenomenal athlete with tremendous success in combat sports.

I think that he's only gonna get better from this and he'll find a way to use his core skillset more in fights and build off of that instead of, you know, trying to be maybe what, whatever he was trying to be that night that helped cause him to fight. I think it was a mixture of, look, he fought a really good fighter who fought a great fight.

He also didn't fight well, and that's not taking anything away from Derrida, but I think the ceiling on him is still very high, and that things like this tend to be really good for athletes from a humility standpoint, and helping them make sure that are the other aspects of your life, are they really in a position to support your career? Because if you're gonna be a world champion in mixed martial arts, all aspects of your life, are they really in a position to support your career? Because if you're going to be a world champion in mixed martial arts, all aspects of your life have to be aligned towards

you putting on the best performance you can, the two to three to four times you get to a year. And that's hard to do, right? That's hard to do if you're not a selfish person and you've got family members and you've got other passions. You know, I always think about fighters like, you know, Michael Bisbing always comes to mind where, you know, Mike was a family man. He had other things that maybe he was interested in, but first and foremost, Mike Bisbing was a fighter. He was always incredibly focused on every fight that he had

and look what it resulted in from a career standpoint, from world championship to being a hall of famer. And I think that, you know, that mindset, we're gonna find out if that's where Bo Nicol is. Every so often that video of you at that Q&A, when I think it was 2017, someone asked you about someone who was, you know, outside of the UFC on your radar,

and you mentioned there's this guy in Sweden, we find out it's Hamza Chamayev. It pops up every so often still to this day because it was an incredible prediction. This is the clip here. It will every so often just like pop up on social media. Have you been waiting for this story arc to come to a completion? He still hasn't fought for a title. It seems like it's imminent, but I feel like you'll get to spike the football when and

if he does become champion later this year. I don't know. You know, he's had some really bad luck from what I understand, but you know, I was talking to so many athletes. I mean, just for every single fight that I called, I would talk to the fighter, I would talk to their coaches. You know, if they had allowed me,

I'd talk to their manager while they were cutting weight, I'd talk to anybody who was around them, sometimes family members. So you would get information coming from all sources and you would hear about all these up and comer. So I had to get lucky once as much as I was running my mouth, whether it was press conferences, television, podcasts, whatever it was. And I think I got lucky that time and I'm lucky somebody remembered it. And now that video keeps resurfacing and makes me sound smarter.

Before I let you go, I'd love to ask you about your old teammate. There aren't a ton of them left, but there is one named John Jones who is still around. If you were him, what do you do? Do you take this last fight against Tom or do you get out of the game with the perfect record? You know, I think if I'm him, I take the fight, but that's easy for me to say because I'm not. I have no idea what's going on in his personal life. And the John, I knew him when he was very young. And one thing that always stood out to me is he was always very responsible with his money.

He saved his money, which is not something a lot of fighters do. So he's probably in a really good financial position. But until until I see him actually lose a fight, I think it's very hard to bet against him, even against somebody as young and as hungry as Tom Aspinall. But as we know in this sport, everybody has their time. But I don't think anything changes

his legacy in terms of being the best ever to do this, regardless of the outcome of that fight. But when I see those two athletes, you could absolutely see a path, the victory for John Jones and one where he could be standing there again, looking at all of us and laughing at any one of us who doubted him, cause he's just that good. And I think the thing that makes him most unique, having fought on a couple of fight cards for him is even guys as great as George St. Pierre, the level of anxiety GSP would get before he made that walk was insurmountable

to the point where he, he didn't really like it. There were times when Cowboy Cerrone would say he absolutely hated fighting, he just loved the training. When you see John Jones in a locker room before he's fighting, right? He looks like a kid who's getting ready to play a middle school basketball game. Like he's genuinely excited to walk out there

in the octagon and destroy the person in front of him. He, he, there's never a single doubt in his mind as to what he's going to do in there. I've never seen another fighter, um, mentally like that in all the times that I fought and all the times that I called fights, never seen somebody with that level of mentality and that little anxiety before they walked into the octagon. Part of the reason why I think a lot of people consider him the greatest of all time.

This has brought me so much joy, Brian. I miss you, we miss you, but I'm so happy that you are enjoying this great success. It's a beautiful thing to see. And man, I think back on those days covering you and then getting to work with you was such great fondness. Like it was just so much fun being your colleague. Not to say that we don't chat from time to time,

but it's just being reminded of how great of a person you are, how great of a speaker you are, how great of a representative for this sport and this country you are. It's lovely. It's really lovely to reconnect with you. And for those that wanna learn more about Hire Heroes

or see if they can help out in any way, where can they go and do that? Sure. Yeah, they can go to HireHero see if they can help out in any way. Where can they go and do that? Sure. Yeah, they can go to HireHeroesUSA.org. You know, especially if you're a service member out there, you're a military veteran, you're a military spouse, and you're struggling to find work right now, they will assign you to one person, one career coach who will walk you through every step of the process from resume to interviewing to job placement.

They just do some phenomenal work. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to say that. You're the man, Brian to interviewing to job placement. They just do some phenomenal work. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to say that. You're the man, Brian. Thank you so much. Good luck with what you're doing with HUNT military communities as well. And keep in touch. All right. Don't forget about us because when you do eventually run for president and win, I just want to say that I know the president. A lot of people these days say they know the president, but I want to know Brian Stan, the president. That's the guy that I'm waiting on. You got it.

Deal. Ariel, thanks so much for having me on, buddy. It's great to see you. Yes, same here. There he is, the great Brian Stan, the All-American, a Silver Star recipient in the U.S. Marines, retired at just 32 years young, then of course worked for Fox as a commentator. His last fight was in 2013. It's been 12 years since that fight against

Vanderlei Silva at the Saitama Super Arena, former WEC light heavyweight champion. If you're one of the newer fans, just look him up. Look up who he is, what he stands for, what he represents. And he was such a great commentator, such a great commentator. And most importantly, and I had this experience with the vast majority if not all, such a great commentator and most importantly, and I had this experience with the vast majority,

if not all, such a great teammate. He was a teammate after when we were both working for Fox. So you would be at events, you would be on the road and he is who he appears to be. And yeah, that's the best thing you could say about Bryan Stan. So really, really appreciate him coming on. It was great to catch up with him.

In a moment, we're gonna be joined by the great Sean Waltman, but a bit of breaking news here, my friends. A tweet here that has caught fire from one Alex Poitain-Parrera. He tweeted this just a few minutes ago, 30 or so to be exact. I always answered the UFC's calls but if they want to play with me we can do that. I've never spoken poorly of the

UFC but with what I've just heard I'm disheartened. I've always had thoughts of not fighting anymore and after what was just relayed to me, this may be the start. Now, after getting this, I did reach out to his team, not saying anyone specific, but one of the texts was read, I see that. I got a Face Palm text back from someone else. I'm not really sure what it all means. I was kind of half waiting for the tweet to be deleted because he doesn't really tweet like that, does he? But it appears to be a thing.

And I'm not really sure what it's referring to, obviously. Obviously we've heard of the rumors of him fighting in August. He told us about that being a plan as well coming up. But when you consider what this man has done, when you consider what this man has meant to the UFC, just almost exactly a year ago, taking that International Fight Week opportunity on extremely short notice while being in Australia,

who knows? I mean, he fought three times in the span of six months, turned around and fought in March as well. So that was five fights, excuse me, four fights in the span of six months, turned around and fought in March as well. So that was five fights, excuse me, four fights in the span of 11 months was, was, you know, as sure of a thing that the USC had on its roster. As far as the last couple of years are concerned, curious to know what he is referring to here. I don't think that there is a subsequent tweet, but this is alarming, to say the least, from Alex Poitain-Pereira.

Let me just click on his name here and see if there's anything else. A reply. Sometimes you got to go to that reply. No, nothing. And if you look at the kinds of tweets like he does, he's not a big just a text guy, you know? There's usually pictures, there's a video, one of him and Ilya. Yeah, this is surprising. Alex Poetan-Parrera, 36 minutes ago.

What do we think he's referring to? Did they not want to pay him? Did they not offer? I don't know. Interesting. All right, let us move along and maybe they'll update us, or maybe he'll update us. Or maybe someone will text me back. Let me see. Did someone text me back? No, no one text me back. We'll keep an eye on it. Some developing news there. I am so excited about our next guest. I've never had him on the show before. Very much looking forward to this, an absolute legend from the world of professional wrestling. And someone, if you ever hear people do interviews about wrestling, about the time in which he was a superstar in WWF and WCW, speak so highly of him as an opponent, as a colleague, as a dance partner, whatever you want to say. And it does really feel like over,

over the years, he has gotten his flowers. He has gotten the respect and admiration that he has earned and deserved as well. He was once known as the lightning kid, then the one two three kid, Xbox six, many other monikers. Today he's just Sean Waltman, a two-time WWE Hall of Famer, an absolute legend of the game. And he is kind enough to join us right here and now on the program. Hello, Sean, how are you? It's great to have you on the show. Hello, Ariel. Thank you so much, man. You can hear me okay?

I can hear you just fine. Yeah, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on here. Really, I know you don't do a ton of interviews, so thank you so much. Yeah, I don't really anymore, but like, hey, people don't probably know that I had a podcast for a while and you were nice enough to come on mine. I appreciated that. Yeah, that was about three or so years ago. I was, I was blown away that the great Sean Waltman will want me on his show. So I always wanted to have you back on.

And this felt like a good time. And you know what? Off the top, if I can, I actually wanted to apologize to you. I feel like throughout my career, a few times in trying to convey a point, I have been guilty of using the term Xpok heat in a somewhat negative light and I don't think that's fair or right to you because your legacy is- Oh, come on. So I want to apologize. I don't use that anymore because I

actually think maybe one time I upset you when I used it it's possible I may have seen a tweet so anyway I just want to say I apologize if I offended you and I don't like using that because you deserve better than that. I'm pretty thick skinned Ariel and plus you know honestly the term was appropriate at the time you know I mean we don't like when it's about us, we don't really want to hear it or whatever, but you know, uh, I'm cool with it. Matter of fact, I got, I, I, um, I got a website. I haven't, I haven't used it yet, but the domain xpockete.com. Oh, wow.

I use it for something. Who came up with that term? Do you remember when it started? I have no idea. You know, the people, you know, um people online or, you know, whatever. All right. Well, I'm happy that you're in a good place with the term, but I did want to say that. How are you doing in life? From afar, it seems like you're very happy. You've got your dog, your cat, you're in a relationship. It seems like you're healthy, you're content. How is life treating you these days?

Well, man, it's, I couldn't ask for a better life, Ariel. Especially, you know, I mean, a lot of people know, you know, I had a really rough patch of my life, you know, like over probably a dozen years or so, maybe even more, I was just in a real dark place and just constantly, you know, in the news for all the wrong reasons. And so, you know, when I finally got it, you know, finally got this thing figured out, seems like. So, you know, life is great. I've been married

for five years. You know, Buster, my dog, my best friend. I take him hiking all the time. It's just, life is great, man. My wrestling and personal life, business stuff is balanced perfectly right now. I love to hear that. Can I ask, when you say you were in a dark place, how did you turn things around?

How did you get back on the right path? What was the turning point for you? Well, you know, just like a lot of other people, you know, you keep trying and keep falling down and, you know, people get tired of helping, you know, after they've, you know, they've tried and they've done their turn at helping you. Like, I kind of almost ran out of all those people. Luckily, I just happened to be ready to do this. I have dear friends now, Marie Menounos and her husband, Kevin Undergarro. They kind of took me into their world and got me set up with all the podcasting stuff and just around all of their people. And it was exactly what I needed.

And I was ready for the help and I took full advantage of it. Yeah, there was obviously a time where it was like getting a little scary, right? Where, you know, I had Lex Luger on the show recently and he said that there was some odds out there that he would be the next pro wrestler to die young. And there were some headlines that were concerning And so for you to be in this state in 2025, all these years later, perhaps there's a part of you that is a little surprised if you take yourself back to those days, right? That you were able to make it because a lot of guys, as you know, don't.

Yeah, because like, you know, at some point I just remember going, you know, I was in the NBA, I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in the NBA, and I was in know, don't. Yeah, because like, you know, at some point, I just remember going like, what the hell is wrong? Like, I just, am I ever going to get this? You know, because I'm in a spot in my head where I want to want it, but I'm just not quite there yet, you know? and it's like, man, you saw I'd given up, you know, but I didn't. So God bless. Well done. Yeah. And, and, and as far as your, your relationship with pro wrestling now, we just saw you recently on TNA, you showed up at TNA rebellion, which was a great spot. It was great to see you back in there looking good, moving well. Was that a one-off with TNA? Obviously we know about your history with them, you know, some, some 20 or so years ago, but, uh, was that just a one-off with them or are there more dates to come?

Those kids I did that, I did that segment with the rascals, uh, Trey and Zach and they have another guy, but he's in WWE, uh, NXT Wesley. Anyways, they, they like idolize me their gear. They would have their gear like, uh, you know, inspired by mine and, and, and, uh, just really good kids. And, and I knew that TNA was going to be here having a pay-per-view. And so I just hit Tommy Dreamer up in a DM and I said, Hey, you know, if you guys wanted me to do something with the rascals,

you know, I would be happy to do it, you know, and so they came up with that and I loved it. Now I had a great time. It felt good. Are there plans to do more with them? No, there was, that was, that was it. You know, they were in town and I just, you know, want to give a little rub to the rascals and get in there and let people see I could still move around pretty good. It's tough when you see your heroes and people you idolize and they're not getting around good, like walking on a cane. And eventually I'll probably get to that point, but, you know, I just wanted people to see me, you know, get a little nostalgia, but like happy, you know,

see me moving around good. How is your body doing these days? Just pretty good, man. I mean, I'm beat up. I got, you know, torn peck, two torn bys, like a bunch of stuff, but I feel great. I walk around like, you know, I don't, you know, got a little bit of arthritis here and there, but I have no right to feel as good as I do, Ariel, for all the damage I did to

myself. So you're 52 now, right? And you look good in the ring. Afterwards, was there any part of you saying, like, I got one more in me, I could do this? I mean, you know, probably, I mean, I could do it. Let's just put it that way, but it had to be the right, you know, or something special, you know, like some guy with pay per view, event or, you know, something, something big.

But I'm fine with just showing up and do something like that every now and then. No, you know, I didn't really have the itch really bad. Like a lot of people get, what was your impression? Um, just from the one night that you were there of TNA, because it does seem like they're enjoying this Renaissance. Um, this relationship with WWE has helped them out a lot and they're really getting back on track.

Were you sensing that this was a ship moving in the right direction? I felt like it and it was nice to see, you know, like the talent and everybody involved, you know, they were really upbeat, you know, positive attitude everywhere, watching everybody, like, you know, putting their things together, working out what they're going to do in their segments, everybody getting along great, you know, and I'm sure it's not perfect there. But you know, the other hell of the crowd there, it just feels really good when you're, you know, a part of something like that and things are doing good. I read recently, I believe it was in March, where a report came out saying that you were working

with the WWE ID program, you were helping some of the the up-and-comers go over matches and things like that. Is that in fact true and could you tell specifically what you are doing with them? Yeah it is. You know being at the performance, when people come into the, you know, get into the system down there and they're part of NXT, they have these things called stall sessions and they're kind of like they do in like the NFL, like where, you know, you study, it's like tape study, you know, watching the footage of the game or however you want to put it. And, you know, just dissecting it, breaking it apart and, you know, watching the footage of the game or however you want to put it. And, you know, just dissecting that, breaking it apart and, and, you know, showing them where, yeah, hey, maybe you could have done this a little faster.

Maybe, you know, just things like that. Um, and I do it over zoom and there's a, you know, they got about, I want to say about 20, I want to say I call them kids, but you know, similar, you know, in their 30s. So whatever. But they got a lot of really talented kids in that program. And, you know, I do the I do the coaching over zoom. I don't have to. I don't have to move to Florida.

So yeah, it's great, man. I love it. I get I really get a lot out of it. Is there a name or two that you can share with us from the program that you're you're very excited about that You're very high on They were the on that there's a show on on to be called it's evolved yeah And they do it they do it at the PC and you know, it's in a little Little studio. It kind of reminds me of old Georgia wrestling when I used to watch it, you

know, uh, uh, so it's got a nice feel for me anyways. And, uh, like a lot of the ID kids are on that evolve show. You've got these kids, uh, they're really young to, uh, swipe, right. Uh, uh, Jackson Drake, uh, um, there's some other kids that aren't, uh, I haven't been on evolve yet. There was a kid named Sam Holloway, I haven't been on Evolve yet. There's a kid named Sham Holloway, I think is going to do really well. Zeta Steel, she's already, like she's part of the, you know, the group on Evolve with Jackson, Drake and Swipe Wright. But I have to go on and on, but there's a lot of talented kids out there at

Ariel, you know, tons, man. Like, it's crazy. And WWE in itself is on fire. I'd love to ask you about WrestleMania. It has come and gone and it was much talked about, the aftermath. How did you feel about the main event, the night two main event, how it was booked, Rock not showing up, Cena going over, the Travis Scott thing, I'd love to get your opinion. Honest to God, it's the same thing that Steve Austin told you. I got out of there before the main event so I could beat the crowd.

So I mean, I got tired of like, it wasn't ideal. I don't wanna get too much into it and like step you know, step on too many toes, but you know, I think a lot of people, you know, were disappointed. Obviously. Have you enjoyed the Sina heel turn?

I did. I did. I honestly, I never thought it would, uh, would happen. Ariel. I mean, I just, I thought he was going to retire and like, I mean, you know, it just never seemed like something he was going to do. So, um, you know, uh, it could, I mean, I guess we could, we can nitpick and dissect it and, you know, talk about whatever, you know, we want as far as, you know, what they could do better or whatever. But, you know, that's the fun.

That's the fun. The Monday morning quarterback. What did you prefer, heel or face for yourself? I liked it. I liked them both a lot. Uh, there were, honestly, man, there were times though, like as a heel where I got to be a lot because, you know, just like when, when you're a baby face and they're cheering you and you can all that positive, you know, energy coming to where it feels great. And like, man, if you don't watch it, like, Oh, like that, that's real negativity coming at you, especially when to where it feels great. And like, man, if you don't watch it, like, oh, like that,

that's real negativity coming at you, especially at me back then, you know, like, I mean, they, it was before that, the expat heat thing where they just, Ariel, they hated my guts over that cane stuff. You know, when I turned on cane and like then took his girlfriend, I mean, the chip people are still out about that. Uh, so I mean, there was a lot, man. It was a lot. And you don't hear people talk about

that kind of thing that much. So I was really good at being a heel. It just, you know, I can get to you sometimes. Did it ever get uncomfortable, like when you say it was a lot? Did it ever like cross over to where you're out, you're in the airport, you know, that's, that can get to you sometimes. Did it ever get uncomfortable? Like when you say it was a lot, did it ever like cross over to where you're out, you're in the airport, you're at a restaurant and people are taking it too seriously?

Oh yeah, and I didn't hear, I got a specific incident. Something, there was something online, like on Twitter about, you know, how bad Philly sports fans can be. You know, like there's something on the internet where they're like messing with a woman and calling her bad whatever uh they were philly sports fans were in the news and somebody else brought this up uh and i had told the story before i was i was leaving i was coming out of the the the tunnel

there with uh i had my kids and my wife with me and the people, Ariel, they started, I mean, the stuff they were saying to me in front of my kids, it triggered me. I blew a gasket. I ran, I hopped over the fence and like they all scattered and I was like, dude, I'm glad like they, you know, I mean, I don't know what the hell I was thinking. Luckily they were scared. I mean, it could have been bad. Wow. Anyways, yeah, that happened. Damn.

People remember it. Yes. I was pretty stupid. You know, crazy enough, it was just brought to my attention this morning and it wasn't really the reason why I wanted to have you on, but the timing is amazing. 32 years ago next week,

anniversary of you defeating Razor Ramon as one, three kid on Monday night. Wow, May 17 32. Isn't that wild years? I'm just blown away. I mean, I know we all talk about how fast time flies and everything but I mean, that's just It's just like that man. So it's all behind us That's the most important moment in my entire career. There's not even a close second aerial. And easily one top three most important moments of my life, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah.

When you look at these photos, what comes to mind? What are the emotions? What are the feelings? Like that one there in particular, the 69 position. Anyways, I just, just so grateful to Scott, you know, and you hate to say like you take somebody for granted, especially so you're one of your best friends, you're like a brother. But like, I did, like his brilliance and just like, like, he's gone.

And like, all of that's gone now. Like you can't like, you know, like, just it's, it shows I'm concerned he was the smartest guy in the car of the five of us. I mean, there might be some, somebody might dispute that, but that's how I felt. He was just, just brilliant, man. But it's just no, not too many people in this league when it comes to that. There's a book that's coming out in June called, uh, say hello to the bad guys. It's actually written by a very good friend of mine, Mark Ramundi, who works for ESPN, I believe he spoke to he spoke to you a couple of times.

I'm just about done. I'm like 85% done and I've enjoyed it immensely. And of the many, I'm not going to give away too much. He did tremendous reporting for this book. It's really a great read. It comes out in June, like I said. But one of the takeaways, speaking of Scott, from the book, at least for me was he was a brilliant team player as well.

Like he didn't mind. He was very unselfish. He wanted to put people over. So the fact in retrospect that he would be the guy, cause I would imagine there'd be some guys being like, I'm not going to lose to a guy named one, two, three kids, a quote unquote jobber, right? To the best of your knowledge, did he resist this at all? Did he push back on this idea?

No, no, no. It was actually the other way around. As soon as, uh, you know, as soon as. You know, Scott, you know, got to be at a point where he's a heel and he's doing everything, you know, right, as far as he's not trying to be a baby face, but he's just, people just loved them, you know, and they couldn't wait, you know, they were going to turn them on their own. So Ben saw that and, you know, he wanted to, uh, you know, and they couldn't wait. You know, they were going to turn them on their own. So Ben saw that and, you know, he wanted to, you know, solve that problem, if you want to call it

a problem. And, you know, this was a great way to bring me in, introduce me and turn, raise a Ramon babyface. And, you know, I'm thankfully I did my part, I was able to deliver on my part and take full advantage of that opportunity, man, because that's about the best way I can... Well, let me just say this. Usually back then, you know this, Ariel, when they would introduce a new star, it would just be the same old thing, right? Some vignettes and then some squash matches on TV.

And then it's like, go out there, get over. This is what I got. Right. That was my introduction. Unbelievable, man. Can I ask? Unbelievable. I love the behind the scenes stories. What do you remember from that day? Like when they told you this was happening, the feelings backstage, the nerves, if there were any, you had Hammerstein ballroom in New York city. What, what, what could you tell us about that day that you remember?

Well, I was the one with all the nerves. Uh, I'm there, I'm there bright and early. I'm there, I'm there, I'm there, I'm there. the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. What could you tell us about that day that you remember? Well, I was the one with all the nerves. I'm there bright and early, you know, just about anybody else was there. And the rest of the crew, they were coming in from out here on the West Coast. They took a red eye in, you know,

right from the red eye going right, come right to the Manhattan Center. So everybody's dead. It was just dead tired, you know, Scott comes in and I'm all like, happy I got all these ideas, you know, and I'm ready to share them with him. And you know, he just like looks over at that and he goes, Pat, what do you want me to do with him? With this? And he goes, just beat the shit out of them. And, uh, you know, I move on something and he gets you with something quick. Yeah. And I said, moon salt. He goes, yeah, okay. Now it's it, man. Yeah. Yeah. So that's just, that's basically it. And Scott loved it. He loved the whole idea. He was, he even, you know, just was even surprised that, you know, when he was laying this whole idea out,

he goes, yeah, we got this kid, he's 150 pounds soaking wet, and immediately Scott said, lightning kid? Vince was like, you know him? He goes, yeah, he's great, you know? So anyways. At the time, correct me if I'm wrong, you got, you know, we obviously know about the clique

and whatnot years later, but you weren't like best of friends back then, right? Not at all. Wow. No, I didn't even know. There was a little bit of a connection because I had, I had hang out with Kurt Hennig, like in the back in Minneapolis, you know,

we would all get together at the world famous Dutch Gym in Plymouth, was at the Road Warrior Zone, and you know, like started, like everybody trained there, Ariel. Like it was just road warriors owned and, you know, like started like everybody trained their aerial. Like it was, it was just a place to go, you know, uh, you could walk in there, Jesse Ventura being there and, you know, Wayne Bloom and Barry Darcy, just like all these guys, you know? So, uh, I was in heaven man going there and just being around

everybody and all these guys I looked up to, but Kurt was one of the guys that, you know, his mentality was to help out the younger guys, you know, dig into that passion on the knowledge and everything. And, you know, so we hung out a lot and he was just really good to me. I think Kurt, I would stay after my trial, uh the day after WrestleMania, I'm standing outside Vince's office, like waiting just to get like, you know, Vince walk out and even just get eye contact with him or whatever, you know, and walk somebody goes, you want a job here? And I was like, yeah, obviously he walked into the dentist's office and then walked back out and I got Vince walks out, comes up, shakes my hand.

And I was like, wow So yeah, I don't know Kurt actually said anything but you know, he was the one he's the one that Got you in Well, I mean, you know, I like to think my talent got me in sure sure that kind of stuff didn't help right or didn't hurt Right. I love that. Yeah, I absolutely love that Are you surprised that no one's tried to recreate that moment? And maybe they have, but it's just obviously not worked the same way.

Why is this remembered so fondly 32 years later? And there's been so many matches, so many opportunities, but it's never happened quite the same. There have been times like, you know, like they try to do something with Barry Horowitz and different people. Like, I don't know, man. It was just that one hit just right.

And like, I really, I mean, I don't think it had ever really been done, especially on, you know, on that grand stage. Like, you know, there's been upset wins like the Malky brothers and, you know, W, you know, Georgia when I was a kid, stuff like that. But I don't know. It was just who it was that got beat. Like how it happened, how he sold it. Like just, um, and then I just think after that people, I think it was, you know, anytime there was gonna be an upset,

I think it was compared to that, you know? Oh my God, it's the most famous one of all time. Yeah, I think so. Absolutely. Yeah, I think so. I remember where I was when it happened. I remember watching it. Also, 29 years ago this month, amazingly,

the famous curtain call at Madison Square Garden, you weren't actually there. Unfortunately you were, I think you were in rehab at the time right? I was in rehab my first my first stint in rehab but I was like up to speed on everything. Scott would call me you know while I was in there and show me everything that was going on. Did they tell you beforehand that they were going to do this? Were you aware that this was happening later that night? No, no, I don't even think they knew they were gonna do it up until, you know,

up until that night. Yeah, no, it wasn't mentioned to me. But I tell you what, man, excuse me. I mean, when Scott called me afterwards, I mean, he told me, you know, like it was pretty heavy, you know, and that, you know, it was like, he, like, you know, it, it was a big deal, like, but they were, you know, they were going to be gone. Not really anything you could do to them.

Right. Even though Vince, Vince kind of gave him the blessing, right? Beforehand, but then once like the fallout happened and I called the boys like, you know, you know, came down on ventures. I could, I can understand him going, well, you know, I mean, I know I said you could do it, but I didn't know you meant that, you know,

I was saying amazingly, regarding that, like there's like one grainy home video for you from like, if that happens today, there's a gazillion cameras. Like I always wondered if that one guy didn't record that, if like the legacy of this story would have been the same, you know what I mean? If there was no visual evidence of it. That's a good question, you know? Because it was a house show. Yeah. And it was like, you know, like way up in the, in the, you know, the nose bleeds, right?

I don't know. I'm gonna tell you what though, like that existing really does help the, you know, the whole, the legend of the curtain call. Sure, sure. Did you have FOMO like when you heard it happen, did you say, damn, I wish I was there? I'm glad I missed out on that one, man.

You wanted nothing to do with it. I mean, I would have been out like, cause I would have been, I'd have been right up in there with them. You know, so yeah. You had your fair share. I came back, so I came back after, after my rehab, Vince brought me into Connecticut and, you know, uh, I sat outside

for three hours waiting for the meeting and, uh, and it brought me in and basically said, you know, if you want, you know, if you want to stay, we love you, but like, you're going to have to basically was telling me I'm going to get the punishment just like Paul. Wow. And are you? Yeah. And then he said, oh, you can you think you can get a better deal for you and your family. I'll let you go down and work for that billionaire asshole.

And, you know, I'll give you a week, give you a week to decide. I mean, I knew right away, but it was still really tough. It was really tough to tell him, you know, yeah, I want to leave. Why would you get punished if you weren't involved? I just, because man, guilt by association and we were all like, oh yeah, I wanna leave. Why would you get punished if you weren't involved? Oh, just because, man. Guilt by association. And we were all like, you know.

That's how it was. Like, you know, the clerk, you guys are all in trouble. Right. Do you think- Quiet finally. If that was never on the table, like the current call doesn't happen, yes, you're in rehab, but you come back,

but there's no punishment to be had. Do you think you don't leave to WCW? No, I leave. You leave the money was just good. Oh, yeah. The money and just so I was at this point where in my mind, and you know, Vince looked at me a certain way. He liked me

like I was, you know, the guy they could put anyone in there with and, you with and have a great match and all that. But I just thought Vince, there was a ceiling for where Vince thought I was upwardly mobile up until that point or whatever. And I had to leave Ariel to get them to look at me in a different light. And to go down there and do what I did down there, you know, which great before I got to, you know, got to do things with Ric Flair and all that stuff with the horsemen and just being

part of the NWO, man, you know, that was the biggest thing in wrestling bar none. And so like, you know, all that really helped man when I came back. So Mark, the great there's some great reporting regarding the end of your time at WCW and the relationship with Eric Bischoff and then you jumping back to WWF, WWE. When did you start to feel like this honeymoon is coming to an end? Because you only lasted around two years, right?

Yeah. Um, well, there was a, there was a point there where, um, even when I wasn't scheduled for my, my dates, I got on the road, like Scott was in a pretty bad way and Eric would have me come and like on my dates up, I was supposed to be at home. I'd be on the road, baby, sitting Scott, you know, I hate to use that term, but that was basically what they were, you know, doing with me there. And I wouldn't even necessarily be in a match that night, you know, so, um, uh, that and just, I don't know, there were other things I was trying to get a raise. I don't know. Um, I don't know. There were other things I was trying to get a raise.

I don't know. Um, it's just a situation, like the circumstances, like around, you know, how I got fired, you know, I was pissed. I was pretty pissed about it, you know? So, you know, and it was just the timing, Ariel, the timing. Scott Sean was, Sean was, you know, dropping the title and he was going to be gone and they wanted to continue to do the DX thing. And so Paul, it was just really perfect timing and Paul called me and he was like, man,

this is perfect. Come here and we'll do the DX thing and yada, yada, yada. And I just, I knew that was what, that was the plan. That was what I needed to do. And, you know, I, Kev and Scott and Eric, they'd smooth things over. And, and Eric was like, yeah, I have, have Sean call me and like, man, I already had my mind made up, honestly. Your return was brilliant. That promo, the, the cut the mustard promo, uh, legendary stuff. Did they really not know behind the scenes that you were gonna talk about any of that? Hogan saying that Hall and Nash were being held hostage.

They just let you with an open mic go out there and say whatever you wanted. That's right. Yeah. They love, this is what Ben said. I'm getting ready to go out there. I'm nervous too, you know? Cause I have a, I don't know if people know

this, some people do. I have a fear of talking in public. Really? So that was something I, oh yeah, that was something I dealt with like my whole career. But just that they're expecting, excuse me, they're expecting something big from me and give it to them. And so that was what I gave them. You know?

Yeah, the Scott Long, Kevin Nash would be right here with us if they weren't being held hostage. Like they didn't know I was saying any of that. And you know, we got sued, right? We got sued over that. And I remember doing the deposition and you know, they asked me, why did you say that? And I was like, well, I was on the phone with Kev the night before and he told me it would be a good idea

if I said it. And then he was like, Jesus Christ. You know, so. What was the reaction when you came back after saying all of that? Oh yeah, I got the whole, you know, Vince gave me the big, you know.

Oh, he liked it. Thumbs up. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And how did the lawsuit end up? Did it get dismissed? Nothing. Yeah. Yeah.

Amazing. Yeah, nothing. And there's like clickbait headlines where X-Pac got sued. I was named in the suit. Like it wasn't just me out on an island all by myself getting sued after defending against the big WCW. Right, right.

I was taken care of it. I was saying at the top of the show that a lot of kids in the 90s, including myself, got in trouble at school for doing the crotch chop. But the one thing I've always wondered, there's the X one and then there's the one like this, right? Which one do you prefer? Which one are you more a fan of?

Because there's two different versions. Well, this is the one, I was the one that started doing that. And I started doing it before I went to end up before I went to WCW. You could see it a little bit here and there. And it was just like this, you know, they just changed it to this, obviously, for DX and like, OK, either way, either way, it's good. But the number one thing, Ariel, that I get told when I meet somebody in the street or anywhere is when I was like in the third grade

or however in middle school, I got suspended for doing, you know, some variation of that. Like that's the number one thing, man. And there's not even like, just like the moment for what, where I beat Scott, you know, the one, two, three kid moment being the number one moment and not even a close second. Same for this.

I love it. Same for this, not even a close second. And it's amazing. Like you'll see like pro athletes doing it now. Joel Embiid was like, when you see it still being a thing in 2025, what do you think of that? I'm just grateful to have been a part of all that, man. And left that kind of an impact on people.

There's a certain age group there that, like you said, man, they all got suspended in school and everything. And it's just really cool, man, to be remembered. And, you know, there's a lot of great, great wrestlers out there that worked their ass off and, you know, for years, man, and even successful, but don't get remembered like that, you know?

And so I'm really grateful. You mentioned that your dog's name is Buster. Is that because of the Bronco Buster? No, he came with that name, yeah. Oh wow. You remember I had Lula, the little dog with the tongue hanging out and everything? Well, when she passed away, I was just devastated.

It was like the worst moment of my life, man. I was just, just done. And I helped rescue dogs. I helped a lady with a dog rescue. She hit me up and like this dog's in trouble. And there was like this whole social media posts, tearjerker, like, you know, sad music and everything. And, you know, the dog is blind and they need to get him out of the shelter. So I'm like, okay, bring him. I was a mess, man. He was blind, but we got a site back. After like about a month, taking him to the doctor, we got a site back and

this he was real traumatized. We got like, my wife just amazing at like training dogs. And so she she did a lot of work on him, man. He's just the ideal dog now. Just happy dog. It's my best friend. My best buddy. Do you remember when you came up with the Bronco buster? Yeah. Um, uh, it was just in WCW and I used to work with hot cushy. You remember him?

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Well, he would do that move to me, but without all that, you know, extra stuff that I added to it. And so, you know, he was gone and like, it wasn't coming back. So I was like, okay, I want to do that. Because I liked it. I thought it was a nice simple move.

And I was like, but you know, my character, my persona, like, you know, it was, it was right up my alley and all that stuff and You know that got banned WCW for being lewd and lascivious Wow, so I had to kind of yeah And what why why do you call it Bronco Buster? I? Didn't somebody else started calling it that really? Yeah, do you know why? I just cuz I could you know, but busting a bronco like a horse. Okay, I gotta get you know why? Yeah. Just because I could, you know, bust in a Bronco like a horse. Okay, I got it, I got it. You know how?

Yeah. It's another legendary part of your career. And I'll let you go in a moment, but I just wanted to ask you. I'm good, man. I appreciate it. You mentioned that chat that we had was Stone Cold last week.

And one thing that he said that caught some attention was, you know, I asked him about this documentary series that they're doing where you could see behind the scenes, the creative process, that he said that caught some attention was, I asked him about this documentary series that they're doing where you could see behind the scenes, the creative process, and he said, look, I'm old school. Like, I don't wanna know how the magic is done. I'm a Houdini fan. There are certain things. Do you subscribe to that same theory

or do you like that the business is evolving to where we get to see this type of stuff? I don't know, man. It's, for me, it's a case by case thing. Uh, sometimes I think it's too much. Uh, and I, like, you know, I haven't seen any of this show they're talking about yet. I haven't even seen the trailer, honestly. Uh, so I mean, I there's a good chance I could agree or hardly Steve, you know?

Um, you know? I don't know if I would have wanted, as a wrestling fan at a certain point, I would have loved all this stuff, but it changes you forever as a fan, once you see stuff like that. It makes it a little harder to go and watch it as a fan, like to just to watch the product and just consume it as a fan, you know, like to just, to watch the product and just, you know, consume it as a fan, like without being tainted

or however you want to put it. So I get what Steve said. One thing I've always appreciated about your style, obviously, is that there's a heavy martial arts influence to it. Yeah. I believe like when you were a young kid, you used to practice taekwondo, correct? Used to compete. Yeah.

Yeah. Taekwondo. I would do some term like take one, do tournaments and like some open tournaments to like those point, you know, point tournaments and stuff like that. So, uh, love that. And that was the number one man. Like, like honestly, the being able to like, it was Taekwondo. Like I did other stuff too, like Tsuka, Shinkai and stuff later.

But, uh, that's how I made it in wrestling. Honestly, being able, like it was Taekwondo, like I did other stuff too, like Kukushinkai and stuff later, but that's how I made it in wrestling. Ariel, like if I didn't have that, that was like, that was my equalizer, you know? That was like, that helped me be able to work with big guys. I had offense they could sell. So, you know, I mean, thank God for that.

No, and it looked very real. It didn't look like you were doing a parody of it. It was very authentic. And I see just following you on social media, you appeared to be a big MMA fan. In fact, I think you might be a huge Patty Pimlet fan. I've seen you tweet about. I am, yeah.

Is that your guy? Yeah, he's one of them. I mean, for the guys I follow now, and like he was a big DX fan when he was a kid too. So, you know, that, that helps. But yeah, no, I'm a big fan. He has, I think he's like, I think he's money. So do you follow UFC regularly?

Me like, you know, a hardcore. Santa's just so much going on. Compared to when, when we were younger and like, you know, in the nineties, when UFC came out and even like when some of those other ones came out, like it's still like, you can follow it and, and, you know, well, I mean, everyone can still follow it. It's just, it's harder for me. It's a lot.

Yeah. Yeah. I always say it's hard to jump on the treadmill. It's like going at 15 and to try to jump on there and know all the stories and the personality. Same with wrestling, right? There's a lot of wrestling on there. If you're trying to watch WWE, AEW, TNA, everything, the indies, there's Japan. It's you almost have to pick and choose at this point. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, and I only have so much bandwidth at this point in my life. It turned out everyone uses these days. Of course. Yes, I know that. Obviously, I'm not a fan of the word, but I only have so much bandwidth at this point in my life. It's a term that everyone uses these days. Of course. Yes, I know that. Obviously, Paul leading the charge, Sean leading the charge as far as NXT. I know Road Dog involved backstage.

Have you ever wanted to do that? Have you been asked to do that? Would you be interested in doing that? Being an agent backstage recently? I'm open to it. And you know, in the future, like something might come up and like, I mean, because even, you know, WW or TKO, I'm sorry, just bought AAA. Yeah. You know, and I spent four years living in Mexico City and worked for AAA and you know being involved and like the creative process down there too at certain points and you know, so There's things like that. There's a lot going on there, but I

Honestly, man, like I said earlier Ariel. I got a really good balance in my life right now You know as far as appearances, stuff with WWE, and you know, hanging out with my dog. So, you know, I'm not saying it's, you know, maybe in the future, but right now I'm just, I'm good with how things are. Even without talking to you, you give off the impression of someone who's very happy,

very content, very at peace. Was there a point where you thought you would never reach this type of happiness? That this was unattainable? Yeah. Yeah, there was, man. And it's just, I think I used to pick myself up a lot, you know,

cause I was like, not to get too far into all that, but just you do things and you fail like people and disappoint people. And like, you know, when you're, when you're messed up and you know, like I think decent good people, like it bothers them when they know they, they damaged other people. And, and I carried a lot of that around with me for a long time. And I've just, you know, in recent years, been able to, you know, forgive myself for it, you able to you know forgive myself for a lot of that and it just it makes it much easier man like just yeah life is so much better. When you go to WrestleMania and you're you're around you know the the current wrestlers the younger generation do you

feel that respect and love from them? Yeah. Yeah, it's so great. It's, it's great. And I, you know, you, you work your ass off, uh, you know, like all my life and, um, just use, we walking into WrestleMania, going backstage or whatever. And just like the respect from everyone everyone top to bottom, you know. Amazing. It means a lot, man. It means a lot to us, you know,

that's when we get a little older. Not that I'm like a old fart or anything, but you know, as we get older, these things mean more. Is there a name or two right now that you're really enjoying their work, that you're really, really high on, that the old you would have loved to, uh, you know, have a feud with. I'm a big Damien priest fan.

Like I kind of helped mentor him a little bit. So I'm always going to mention him. Uh, Oh man, there's a lot of guys in there. Jacob thought too, I'm real high on like I would have had great matches with him. Like, is that supposed to be a good David and David and Goliath guy? You know, I could, I could do that really well. Like for the women, man, like, like Eos guys, amazing Bianca Belair. It's just a total package to me, honestly.

So, uh, and there's. It's just hard, man, because I don't want to leave a bunch of people out that are amazing and incredibly talented, but they stick out to me. Can I tell you someone who's like under the radar right now, maybe not, certainly not online who's doing incredible stuff, Karrion Kross. I really love, I don't know if you see his videos that he's been posting on. really i love when guys just say you know what i'm just gonna take matters into my own hands i'm gonna try to control my own desk maybe i'm not getting the shine or the opportunities on television but there are other ways to get over

i think he's doing this wonderfully yeah you don't like if they're not do what you gotta do man like uh it reminds me of matt cardona when he was doing it like Zach Ryder and like doing those little like, you know, shooting his own angles and like putting stuff online, his own little talk shows or whatever. It's vignettes and everything, getting yourself over. And, you know, I could see like carrying across being frustrated and like feeling like, you know, he's got all this talent, like all the look and just, you know, uh, you know, hey man, like I'm right here, you know? Give like, give him the ball,

let him see like, see how far he runs with it. Well, this has been wonderful, Sean. Thank you. I really, really appreciate the time again. I know you don't do a lot of these, so we greatly appreciate it. And I understand you have an appearance this weekend, I think in Lodi, right?

Yeah, yeah, Lodi Comic-Con, Lodi, yeah. I have a new Funko. Oh, you got a new Funko? Oh, yeah. I waited, I was on them for five years for this Funko pop. Finally they made one for me. Oh, man, that's a nice looking one. That's a nice looking one.

And I saw there's a new 123 Kid figurine that came out recently. Yeah, figurine, yeah. Look at that one. Yeah, with the purple. Yeah. That's tremendous. You know, like look at man, I got, you know, I'm an old retired dude, like, you know,

I got these kinds of things coming out all the time and I've just, you know, life is great, you know? So, and I appreciate you having me on your show, Ariel. Of course. I don't do a lot of these. Cause I don't like, you know, getting up in the morning and looking at my phone and seeing Xbox said this or like,

I get it. You know, so I don't do it a lot. It's why I quit doing my show. Oh really? Okay. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this and it meant a lot to us. And it's been like just an absolute pleasure watching you and watching you over the last few years Get to this place because it was like I said a little scary there. So much love to you. Congratulations on a

Incredible career and again, thank you for the time today. Just amazing to see you in this state. It's really really nice to see Thank you so much. I really appreciate you man. All right. All the best. Take care. There he is, the great Sean Waltman, formerly known as 123Kid, formerly known as xpoc6. What a guy, what a legend. And appears to be in great spirits, had a recent health scare, but all good, it seems like. And love to see that because there are far too many, you know, sad stories, horrible stories in the world of pro wrestling. I once worked on a story for Real Sports about wrestlers dying young. So I'm really happy to see him in this state because if you look at some of the old headlines from about 10, 12 years ago,

no one could have predicted this, including himself, including himself. All right, let's move along. Like I said at the top of the show, the UFC is returning to Montreal, my hometown, La Belle Provence, for the first time in 10 years. Last week we had GSP on the show.

Of course, no one carried this flag to the highest of heights like GSP did. He was the face of Canadian MMA. But for me, my introduction to the thought that a Canadian could actually do something in this sport, be successful, fight for a belt, be a worldwide global commodity, it was when I saw Montreal's own David the Cro-Loiso compete on the highest stage, that is the UFC. And I've said it before and I'll say it again, my first favorite fighter. I was aware of MMA, I was aware of the UFC, I watched it, but I didn't have like a guy, you know. We all have that guy and we all have that first guy. He was my guy. Went to Dawson College,

like a lot of my friends, I grew up very close to Dawson College. It was very relatable, very local, one of our own, like I say. And so with this big week in Montreal, in the 514, I thought it would be great to reconnect with The Crow, David Loazo, the man who fought Rich Franklin for the title at UFC 58 many moons ago, and there he is, the legend himself, David the Crow Loazo, my guy.

How are you? My friend, Ariel, thanks for having me, bro. Thank you. Thank you. It's, it's, it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure to have you. It's a, it's a real great privilege and it seems like you're doing great. Like life is good.

Everything going well in your life. Amen. Thank God. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm teaching. I found my, I found my calling, you know, I'm, I'm teaching. I found my, I found my calling, you know, helping others, motivating others. It's a, it's a fantastic journey, man. Um, I'm teaching every day. I train every day. Uh, I got some projects going on, finishing up a book. Wow. Uh, yeah. A self-help book. Uh, you're the first one ever that hears about this. Um, uh, yeah, man, I'm just finishing up some stuff and, uh, yeah, I love the

journey, man. I love the journey. This is great. Where are we right now? What's, what's the name of this place that you're in? This place is called the Crow training center. Pro training center in Montreal. Yes. Yes.

Yes. This is my gym. I opened, uh, I opened my gym in 2015, 2014, end of 14, 15. And, uh, yeah, it's been, it's been 10, 10 years, about 10 years. Yeah, man. And, and, and the type of people that you're working with, are they regular Joe Schmoes like me, or is it a fight team where you're trying to develop the next UFC stars? like me or is it a fight team where you're trying to develop the next UFC stars? Regular Joe Schmoes and I train pro fighters too sometimes they come around it but I don't have one fighter that I train you know that I'm trying to build or anything like that but I'll work with

anybody. Kids, I have a big kids program. I do self-defense for women, cardio boxing, I do self-defense for women, cardio boxing, Muay Thai. I got a good thing going on here. I'm very happy. And regarding the book, so you say it's a self-help book, not about your career necessarily, but more like motivational? Motivational is like, you know, over the years, you know, like I gathered a lot of information

from different coaches, mentors, and psychologists, sports psychologists. So I just put everything in, in like a toolbox to give out, to help people out, you know, people that deal with the, with anxiety and pressure and all that stuff. And I think it's a great thing, uh, to do because I have so much knowledge, so much experience in the real world, in real life situations that cause me anxiety. So yeah, I found ways to deal with it and now I want to share it. Did you deal with that as a fighter? As a fighter, of course, of course, absolutely. I was an anxious person before fighting. You know what I mean?

But martial arts helped me a lot. It helped me a lot to calm it down. But yeah, I've dealt with it 100%. I think most fighters deal with it, but some guys are better at dealing with it than others. You know what I mean? You just had Bryan Stan on earlier and he was talking about how,

and GSP has talked to me about this, how he would get sick before his fights. He would get so nervous he would throw up. And then on the other side of that, you'd have someone like John Jones, who he said looked like a guy who was gonna play like in a high school basketball game. He was so calm, cool, collected.

Where were you on that spectrum? Were you more like GSP or more like John? Oh, I was like George. Okay. But I don't know if you heard about the story. George and I, before he fought Thomas Denny and I fought Tony Fricklin, it was UCC in Montreal, Canada. I think it was 2001 or 2002 and we do the weigh-ins. Me and George were like this before, like we're very tight and then after the

weigh-ins we go eat, we go to a restaurant on Sherbrooke Street, you know Montreal, right? Sherbrooke Street and Veo called Benihana. Ah, a Japanese restaurant. Yeah, a Japanese restaurant. So after the wins, you know, it's just me and him. And then we're just, we both almost have tears in our eyes. We're like, yo, man, this is too much pressure. You know, like, like, like, forget about this, man. Like, like, let's just do this fight. Then we retire. Then we just, I go back to, I was going to go back to school. He was going to go back.

I think it was going to go back to school as well, or just, or just work. And then, yeah, man, just, just do that fight and then forget about it. We're done with that. It's too much pressure and we're not making money or what the hell is this? So we finished the fight. Boom! I finished Tony Fricklin. He finishes Thomas Denny. So I see him in the locker room. I come back. I'm like, yeah, who's next? Who wants some? And from there, we just went on to do big things in the sport. You know what I mean? That's amazing because the spotlight and the platforms only got bigger from there.

And so if you were feeling like that, fighting for UCC, how did you deal with it when you were fighting for the belt, fighting for the UFC? I got better and better at dealing with it. That's the thing. I got tools. I was provided with tools to deal with it. Psychologists, I read books, you know what I'm saying?

So it's a learning process. It's just like training the body. You know, you learn to train the mind. But, you know, obviously, it didn't always work. You know, these techniques and all these things, but I was always able to go forward and fight. I never pulled out of a fight. You never heard, David, you know, he pulled out last minute.

I've walked into the cage, not 100%, you know, and physically and mentally, but I never backed down. I always walked forward. I always walked the walk, no matter what. That's one thing you can say about David, Luazo. You know, I may have had some terrible performances, but I always walk the walk. I never backed out. Love that.

What is the vibe in the city right now? The UFC's returned first time in 10 years. Does it feel like the UFC is in town? Does it feel as big as it did back in the day? It feels like the UFC is in town. Yes. Yes. But as big as back in the day, like when, when GSP wasn't, wasn't on the card.

No, it's not the same. No, it's not the same. Uh, George, George brought something special. When George fought, it was, it was special, man. You know, um, um, the fans divide the energy. I remember when George rematch Matt Serra, they were screaming, they were chanting GSP in the prelims. Yeah. From the prelims till the main event. You know, it was, it was great, man. Great vibes. But I'm just glad the sport is

back here because you know, you need something for these up and comers to look up to, you know, like they, they, they, they got to see the dream. They got to see it live. I want these up and comers to look up to, you know, like they got to see the dream. They got to see it live. I want these up and coming fighters in Montreal to go to the venue and see the UFC themselves. Wow, you know, I could do this one day. You know what I mean? Because it's possible. It's possible. It's just that right now, obviously, there's not that much of a platform for the local fighters to there is one. There's samurai MMA But um, but um, I want I want something bigger for them. I want something better something something Something to help him out because there's no stars. We don't have stars TKO built stars Yes, but Loiseau Colt a GSP and. And then from, you know, from after that,

a lot of guys came out towards Valérie Le Tourneau. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, so, so it started. That's one thing with that TKO, the TKO and UCC, they built Canadian stars. Even the likes of Cyril Gan went to fight for TKO. Absolutely, absolutely.

Not just, not just Canadian. So why do you think that is? You know, even throughout Canada, there was once a time, you know, there was maximum fighting championship, there was score fighting. Why are there none of these promotions throughout Canada anymore, in your opinion? I have no idea. I don't know why. I don't know. Maybe it's the money. Maybe there's not enough money in the sport. There's not enough support or I have no idea I'm not involved in in the sport like I like I was before before I used to eat sleep MMA, you know, like that's all I did. But now I'm just focusing on on

martial arts teaching martial arts My side projects in there. I have, hey, I have pro talk. You can see here, pro talk. Yeah, check it out on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, pro talk, man. That's your podcast? Yeah, that's my podcast. Yes, yes, yes.

Now you were doing one with Patrick Cote. This is your own. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my own little thing. That's my little thing. I like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, some people hating on me on there

because I said that John Jones was the goat. Hating on me, yo. Wow. I said, John Jones not number one. He's number one, two, three, four, and five. Like, that's what I said. So they're hating on you. Hated.

Why, why? Is it because they're GSP fans and they think he should be the goat? No, no, no, no, no cuz not cuz they were comparing him I was comparing him to Tom Aspinall, you know, the Tom Aspinall fans got oh god Real upset now why why so I wouldn't be surprised if you would have said GSP is the go. Why is John above him? No, no, I'm just saying right now right now greatest of all time. Who's the greatest of all time? Oh I'm just saying right now. Right now.

I'm saying greatest of all time. Who's the greatest of all time? Oh, to me, to be honest, 100% George St. Pierre is number one. All right, right. George St. Pierre is number one. Yeah, but I'm talking about like right now, who's the best right now? Who's the best right now?

It's John Jones. It's not even close. You think he beats Tom? Absolutely. Well, absolutely that easily. John Jones will always find a way to win. Even at his words, father time words, John Jones will find a way to win. He's he's not only not he's not only super smart athletic, he's got heart.

He's got all the skills. He's got Greg Jackson with him. He's got, he's not only super smart athletic, he's got heart, he's got all the skills. He's got Greg Jackson with him. He's got, he's got a solid team. He's got, he's got these masterminds with him. John Jones is not stupid. John Jones is taking his time before stepping in there with, with Aspen. Because he's analyzing, he's studying, he's doing his homework. John Jones is a bad man.

He's a bad man. He, but he's smart. He's smart. He's not, he's not going to go out there and just please the crowd and okay. Oh, they want him to, they want me to find him in June. Oh, okay. I'll find it. No, no, no, no. This is warfare. This is war. He's, everything is calculated. That's why he became the champ and stayed the champ. If you were him, would you take this fight or, or fight or or does the the risk outweigh the reward? I would take my time. I would do what he's doing They get time job. They get time. Just just go do your thing Just do your thing man. You think he ends up taking it. I

Think so I think so and if taking it. I think so. I think so. And if he doesn't, so what? He's still the best. He's still the man. He was a light heavyweight champ, defended, defended, went up in weight, went up to heavyweight, beat Cyril Gagne like very easily. Listen, man, I think he's the's, I think he's the one. I think he's the man.

You train with him, right? I've trained with him. Uh, when he, when he was young, like I think he had one UFC fight, one UFC fight. Uh, and you know what, man, you could ask him, like I showed him back in the day. I showed him the spinning back. Oh yeah. Yeah. I saw him giving you props recently.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. John Jones, the man he you props recently. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. John Jones, the man, he's a guy that doesn't forget. A lot of people forget. A lot of people forget, but he doesn't. He like, he'll shot me out sometimes and give me my props, man. He's a great dude. In my opinion, still to this day,

maybe I'm a little biased, but honestly, I don't think, the spinning back kick, flying knee finish against Charles McCarthy is one of the greatest finishing sequences in UFC history and and and I try I was showing it to the guys some of the newer fans here that work on the show like there I mean it was it was magic it was absolute magic if you've never seen it please go out there do yourself a favor it's on YouTube do you get bought there's so many new fans who let's be honest, they weren't watching back then. Does that bother you? Does it bother you

that they don't know what you did, that they don't know what you're about? Hey, hey, hey, there's a one of the comments on, on the John Jones thing that I said that he's number one, two, three, four and five. Some guys said, Oh, this guy's a casual. Some people call me casual. Oh man. Are you crazy? And then I replied, yeah, I casually headline the UFC. That is crazy.

That doesn't bother you. No, I mean, it's, it is what it is, bro. I'm, I'm from the old school, bro. I'm from the old school. It's I wish more people knew about me. But but yeah, man, I did what I did, bro. And I'm just grateful for the journey, for the opportunity that UFC gave me. I gave my best. You know, I was not always I did not not always deliver. But man, I did my best and I came from far.

Ariel, I came from far, man. I had some stuff that happened to me when I was younger. Man, if you would put yourself in my shoes, you'd be like, yo, just making it to the UFC? Enough, enough. What a blessing, what a blessing. Since you brought it up, can I ask what are you referring to?

Oh, I got into a very, very serious car accident when I was 18 years old, 1998. I don't know if you can see it here. I have a scar on my neck. They took a part of my hip bone. I fractured my spinal cord. It was a C5, C7. And, uh, man, I was, I was out unconscious for like two hours, three hours.

It was, it was bad, man. It was bad. I had to, to rebuild for real. Like a lot of, a lot of people, they lose a fight. They're like, yeah, you got, let's go back to the drawing board. Yeah. I had to go to the back to the drawing board of life. You know what I'm saying?

I had to, yeah. And that, that caused man so much just random panic attacks. And because I was sleeping, I was sleeping in the car and then the, the, the driver, um, um, was speeding and then lost control of the car. Then the car started flipping over. And then, and then I just woke up in the ambulance. I mean, I woke up in the ambulance. So, so imagine, you know, like going through that experience and then you wake up in ambulance. So, so obviously you're going to be, it's going to be hard for you to, to trust people, to trust

life. It's, you know, you're going to be a little paranoid and, and, and, uh, to trust life. You know, you're gonna be a little paranoid and that's why you don't judge others, man. Like you don't know what people go through. Everybody's in the middle of a war. Be kind, you know what I'm saying? But I was blessed, you know, I was blessed. I survived. You know, I was able to rebuild and become a UFC fighter, a professional UFC fighter. I was able to keep going and keep living my dream, which was to become a pro fighter since I was young, right? So, yeah, man, it was tough. It was tough to rebuild. You know, I have like a big plate and four screws in my neck. You know, when it gets very humid, it hurts when it's when it gets very cold, you know, it hurts.

You know, it's, it's, it's for years, for years until a few years ago, I would wake up in the middle of the night and, you know, like, like, like dreaming of the accident, you know, like, and we're talking about 1998. Yeah, 1998. You know what I'm saying? And sometimes it's tough to deal with. But but man, I'm just I that's why that's why I gathered so much information. I want to share with people, you know, I mean, like I want to share with others because if I could overcome, you know, and find ways to deal, to cope with anxiety, I believe anybody could do it.

By the way, all these years I've known of you and known you, I never knew that you overcame that. Yeah. I'm very, very private man. I'm very private. Like, like if you see by Instagram, it's me at the gym. I don't post personal stuff. I don't I'm very private. I'm a private person. And, and to be honest, reason why I'm sharing it

with you, I'm sharing this story with others, is because I want to, I know people are going through a lot of stuff since the pandemic, you know what I'm saying? So yeah, so I know that I could help because I've had talks with some students, you know, and I've helped I've helped out a lot of people, a lot of people that have helped out that I've mentored told me David, David, you have to write a book, you have to share, you have to share this, you're changing my life, you're changing my life. I was, I was, I was down and out and you brought me back up. So I said, eventually I said, okay, I started taking notes and then writing a little bit here, a little bit there.

And yeah, yeah, it's my calling. It's my calling to motivate, inspire others. So what's going on here? What are you trying to fight, John Pascal? What's happening here? I saw this on your- Hey, hey, listen, I'm minding my own business. I went Pat Cote, my boy Pat Cote.

We're doing an interview promoting the UFC in town, blah, blah, blah. We're at the 98.5 radio station and then Jean Pascal calls. Yeah, I'm the king of Montreal. I'll take both of you in a boxing match. Blah, blah, blah. I said, listen, listen, John, Mickey Mal, John, I'm not scared of you. I'm not scared. I'll fight you. But if we fight in boxing, will you give me a rematch in MMA? You see guys, David is scared.

He's already talking about losing. Listen, you're a boxing world champion. I haven't fought in 10 years. You think I'm a realistic guy, but I know for sure that in MMA is going to take one kick and you're going to go down. You're going to go down. John Pascal. You're going to go down. Is there, is there a beef there between you guys or was he just talking smack? He's just talking. He's just talking. You guys have kind of been talking about this for a while, right?

He's just talking. He's just talking. You guys have kind of been talking about this for a while, right? Back in the day, we're going back and forth on on Twitter, on X, you know, a few times. And never and never manifested. But now this guy's hey, man, I was my own business. Like I didn't I didn't mention him once. They mentioned him once. And then he comes out here. And do you guys see Cro-Tongues? Yes. Yes. Yes. I didn't mention him once. And then he comes out here.

Hey, do you guys see Cro-Tong? Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. All right. Cool. Yeah. So, so yeah, I was just minding my own business. And then he just comes at, he just comes at us. He came at me and Pat. I said, Pat, hold on a second. Hold on, Pat.

Let me take care of this. Let me take care of this, man. It's been a while. So yeah, I don't know if this fight is gonna happen listen man I'm 45 you know I haven't fought in a long time I've been focusing on different things I teach a lot I teach jiu-jitsu every day I boxing and then I teach women kids adults I'm I'm in the teaching business you know and uh, and it's taking a lot of my time. So for me to accept a fight is gonna have to be

for a lot of money. All right, well, let's see. Are you gonna be there on Saturday? Yes, yes, I will be there, I will be there. You know, one thing that we were talking about earlier was I feel Montrealers, they like to support their own. They're very patriotic about Montrealers, they like to support their own. They're very patriotic about Montrealers or Québécois, sometimes not so much with regards to Canadians.

And there is Ayman Zahabi at the top of the bill, which I think is the fight that Montrealers are probably looking forward to the most. Do you remember him when he was, you know, the little guy at the gym? Of course. He's been around. He's been at the gym for a long time. Like, like I remember when I was preparing for, for my first, my first UFC fight, he was in the gym. That's 2003. Wow. He's been, he's been, he's been in the gym for a long time.

You know, like he, he turned pro later, but man, he's, he knows, he knows, he knows what he's got to do. he knows what he's got to do. He knows what he's got to do to get this fight, to win this fight. And I believe you will. You believe he beats Jose Aldo? Yes. You know why? Why?

Because he's, he's, man, he's, he's got smart people around him. He's, he's got Zahab. He's got that are, he's got the right people. They're going to approach this fight strategically. It will not get, he's not going to come out there and start swinging and no, no, no, he's going to be very strategic. And I think, I think he has what it takes to beat Aldo. I, I, I'm not saying that because listen, I'm not, I'm not, I don't train there

anymore. I'm not affiliated with them anymore. I believe, I believe in my heart and I, I really want him to win too, but like, I believe in my heart that he really want him to win too but like I believe in my heart that he can he has what it takes to beat Jose Aldo. This is not prime Aldo either you know I'm saying so it's a different Aldo I believe it's a different fighter he's a different fighter than he was and I really believe Eamonn has a chance. He's, I think he's on a winning streak. Yeah, he is on a winning streak.

Yeah. I think he's good. What do you like in the main event? The main event is, what's it? Balal Mohammed against Jack Delano Adelena. Listen, I think, I don't follow these guys enough. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to be back out.

Let me back out of this one. I'm not going to call because I don't know the guys. I haven't seen enough footage of both guys to say this guy or that guy is going to win. You know what I'm saying? I'm not, I'm not. A lot of people do that. They'll be like, ah, no, no, no. Cause I know Bilal.

I don't know. JDM. So yeah, JDM. So I'm not going to call. I'm not Bilal, I don't know Jack. JDM. JDM. So I'm not going to call it. That's fine. That's fair. You were so confident in your John Jones pick.

I thought you were like Mr. Predictions now. No, no, no, no, no. Some fighters, some fighters I've studied, I've watched over and over. I watched their patterns, how they fight. I just know John Jones could do it again. He could do it one more time, 100%. And on Friday, before the event, you, GSP, I think Patrick Cote, Valerie Letourneau, you're having a meeting greet, right? Yeah, a meeting greet at Vogue Hotel is going to be at 5 p.m and yeah there's going to be

there's tickets on sale if you go on GSP's IG page there's a link even on my page actually there's a there's a link for tickets if you're in town come and meet us it's going to be a special event you know there's going to be a t-shirts the pictures that we're going to sign myself valérie litourneau pat cote and olivier obin merci will be joining georges for uh for yeah man it's a they call it a night of the legends or something like that you know they're just they're just giving props to the the pioneers of m Quebec and I think it's important. It's important to recognize us and to give us props because we paved the way. I'm the first one. I paved the way. I'm the first one to fight in the UFC from Quebec and I remember after my fight, that was 2003, it was in Miami, Florida and I was like, right ran after the fight. Um, no, the day after the fight

we're at the hotel and then I saw Dana Dana Dana had hair back then. Hey, sir, thank you. Thank you for having me. Hey, good job, kid. Good job, kid. And then he said, um, I said, Hey, listen, man, there's one there's one guy that's gonna come up soon. His name is George. Look out for him. I remember saying that the day after my, yeah, cause I, I knew, I knew I was very close to George and George was, was on a tear already. So, so it was just a matter of time.

I love those stories, man. Yeah. Mark, we're way back in the day. Uh, UFC 42, I think it was sudden impact. And, uh, that's why I wanted to have you on. You're, you're the trailblazer. You're the pioneer and you deserve that recognition and those flowers as well. So I'm so happy to see that you are doing well, that, that you're, you're, you're, you're thriving,

looking forward to the book. Can't wait to read that as well. And I love the fact that you'll be there on Saturday, that you're doing the thing on Friday. You deserve to be front center anytime the UFC comes back to Montreal. So thank you so much, David, really great to have you on to catch up again and wishing you all the best on Friday. You deserve to be front center anytime the UFC comes back to Montreal.

So thank you so much, David. Really great to have you on to catch up again and wishing you all the best, my man. Hey, thank you, my man. I appreciate it, I will. All the best, thank you. Always. There he is, the great David, the Cro-Loiseau,

the very first Quebecois Montrealer to fight in the UFC, UFC 42 sudden impact Mark Weir knockout in the first round 355. That by the way was the last show in Miami before they came back all those years later when when Izzy fought Alex Pereira. The headliner that night Matt Hughes, defeating Sean Shirk. And you know what's a funny thing about that one? Do you guys know who the play-by-play man was for that card? We've talked about this before.

The play-by-play man for that card was anyone? I got nothing, who? Anyone. We might be looking it up. Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan did the play-by-play. For those that don't understand what play-by-play is, that's the Annick role. That's the Mike Goldberg role. That's the Mauro Ranallo role. The Jim Lampley. He doesn't do that. He's a color analyst.

Why did he? Goldberg was doing hockey. He had other commitments. Couldn't do it. So it was Rogan and Phil Barone. Holy sh-. That was the broadcast team. Oh my god. Joe Rogan and Phil Brony. That's the time capsule right there. Yeah, it's the American Airlines arena. Was he any good? Do you remember? It was not bad. And remember, he was very, very early.

I think he started in 97 or 96, but he was first the sideline guy, the backstage guy. And I believe, top of my head, that it was the only time that he did that. By the way, attendance that night believe, top of my head, that it was the only time that he did that. By the way, attendance that night, 6,700 at the American Airlines Arena, which is the same arena that they were just at, the Cassez Center, it's had a million different names.

The buy rate, 35,000. Those were lean years back then. There was a crazy, if my memory serves me correct, Loazo was the curtain-jerker. There was a, yeah, Pete Sprat beat Robbie Lawler, Rich Franklin beat Evan Tanner, that was a crazy one. Bang Ludwig beat Genki Sudo, great stuff. Love it. All right, well that was a lot of fun. Very, very heartwarming interviews today, very heartwarming chats. Brian Stan, Sean Waltman, David Loazo, looking forward to that. And the boys in the back tomorrow will have a lot more

on the Montreal card, a deep dive into all things UFC 315. You could also call them up, leave a voicemail. The number is? 415-SUP-BITB. S-U-P-B-I-T-B. Here it is right here. There it is. Slowly becoming. 7-8-7-2-4-8-2. Yeah, slowly becoming a sensation,

one of our favorite things to do. As expected. It was a great idea from the jump. Can't wait for the Montreal fight fees? Hmm. Des Moines fight fees. Mm-hmm. Des Moines fight fees.

Imagine going with Des Moines fight fees over Montreal fight fees. See, because we talked about this, because it was, we came up with it. I'm going to be careful moving forward on it, Des Moines fight fees mm-hmm the more fight imagine going with Des Moines fight fees over Montreal fight Careful moving forward on Conversations we have behind the scenes you know trying to take things into careful consideration Absolutely do the more do the more again. It's gonna be plenty of Canadian cards. We can do Montreal anytime that rolls around That legit shoot, I don't remember ever saying that. There it is, doesn't remember anything.

This, me saying this, by the way, by the looks of the seat map, they coming back to Montreal anytime soon. Oy. By the looks of the seat map. Yeah, it's good to see a Damon Martin seat map tweet. Yeah. My favorite. Okay.

Are people saying now that the Alex Pereira... Alex Pereira saying. He has gone to Instagram and he posted this video right here. We have the video. Hello everyone, I've received a ton of messages from everyone. I saw a post from my Twitter. I didn't even know about it. I was hacked. It's been a while since I posted anything. You guys did, but I was hacked.

I don't even know what's going on. He doesn't even know what's going on. Wow, great relationship with the UFC. People like to do bad things. That's that Shama. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so it's fake. Wait, so why wouldn't this team just tell me that?

Maybe the facepalm emoji was like, bro, we got hacked. We're dealing with it. We're putting out fires. We're working through the kinks. Okay, all right, well, I'm glad to hear that. Magomed Akhalayev has since posted something, right? Biggong?

Yeah. No, I don't think so we might have flagged a an earlier tweet oh oh from April 24th yeah before we knew that he was hacked we were looking treated on April 24th you like do you still like fighting I have a feeling you are done I don't really get that feeling well this this original tweet would have aligned with that feeling but now Alex saying Big Onk's last tweet it looks like is from April 11th for pizza emojis and an AI rendition of him in a Bulls Dennis Rodman jersey. Oh I'm actually

seeing Big Onk replying to a video of Yuri and Mark Coleman Oh doing the drums saying Yuri. This is not good style. Okay, our disagree. Yeah I mean this is one of the all time we got it. We got a dial in the big onk account I gotta be honest not loving I'm not Or are you loving it because like we're talking about it when we weren't ever talking about I could talk about things I don't like I don't like it. Dial it in. We need something better. The AI him on the balls is great.

And the pizza emoji. Yeah, for sure. Do you know what's wild about the hack thing? Usually when someone gets hacked, it's crypto things. It's like, hey, retweet this and you'll get a free PlayStation and Xbox, right? There's two things I'm thinking. One, that's why it would be a brilliant hack

because you're actually doing something that people will believe. Two, maybe there was a miscommunication with the folks that run the social pages and you know what I'm saying? As more and more athletes do not run their social pages, now we have somebody who has a voice potentially utilizing it.

So who knows? It definitely seemed out of character. But if there's a miscommunication, they could just take it down. They clarified it with the, yeah, but maybe that person has the login. I don't know. Who knows?

I don't know. Trying to figure this out, it's crazy. But Alex on video is saying, that ain't me. That ain't me. It ain't me. Ah, ah, no, no, no, no, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. You know that song? Nope.

It ain't me. Nah, nah, nah. All right. Oh, now that you've done it a second time, yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah. It clicks. No, I've literally never heard that. It ain't caught.

I was there. It ain't me. Who sings that? Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da Now you get it. Oh. Yeah, by Kygo and Selena Gomez. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it Selena Gomez? Yeah, yeah, yeah, hold on. Wow. My other, uh.

Love Selena, what's happening over there? Oh yeah, this is when you do the double. See it, let's see it. Yeah, there it is. It ain't me. Uh, uh, I'm done it. Uh. It ain't me, yeah.

Yeah, there it is. It's how these how these how these how these how these. Don't get, don't, don't let us get a demonetized. By the way, do you think he'll walk out to that song? Alex? Yeah. No. By the way, I have not heard anything regarding the Chicago thing. Like last time.

Yeah, Ankh was pushing it. Teasing that. Or maybe he just wants to fight in Chicago? Who knows? Yeah, I don't know. Ankh was teasing that. Or maybe he just wants to fight in Chicago? Who knows? Yeah, I don't know. All right, well, I was ready to talk. Honestly, I wrote to you guys in the Slack saying, let's talk about Alex,

because I just sort of briefly touched on it. I didn't know that there was a hacked video. So this is news to me. I've been locked in. This is where we're bringing it up to speed. Thank you, guys in. We're still bringing it up to speed. Thank you guys, thank you. Not bringing me up to speed when Brian Stann is sitting there for 13 minutes.

I mean, I'm just. That's just a miscommunication. God. Is it in the slack? I mean, this is a. The way we, every single guest, you know, talk about. 13 minutes, at some point, like at 12, what is it, 1.55, you're not like, hey, maybe he didn't see this,

like he's been talking for a while. I mean, 13 minutes for the guy to see. Again, I'm gonna reiterate, the exact method that we used for that, and then also, and then also used the rest of the show the exact same way. That method was the one used, and so just trying to- I'm just saying, if it's 13 minutes, new rule.

You're just ripping through urban dictionary definitions I'm so embarrassed People's main event made by Ariel. Oh my god. This guy is the CEO of a massive company He's like, what have I agreed to? Just a reminder. He's telling himself personal reminder This is why I left MMA because this loser is sitting here trying to get credit.

For what it's worth, he looked like he was quite enjoying it. Was he enjoying it? The big pop from Brian Stan when we were questioning whether or not Sam Alvey fraud checked. That was bomb. You know, when GC suggested that. By the way, I got one, actually, I think it's a Super Chats. Let's go to the Super Chats.

Super Chats. Is there not one that's, there's the fraud check example in there, right? I's a Super Chats. Let's go to the Super Chats. Is there not one that's the fraud check example in there, right? We're just going to skip ahead. Well, I just saw it. So Cito says CM Punk was fraud check. OK, is that a good one? Again, who thought CM Punk was going to be good at fighting? There were some. There were some. I think the both falls perfectly because people thought he was going to.

I mean, including him thought he was going to be, you know, minus a thousand as a favorite against Toms Atchimayev. Like you do have to have expectations to be fraud checked. Wasn't CM Punk like a plus of 900, the mic action? Nobody thought CM Punk was going to be good at fighting. I thought he was, I thought he was, he was highly regarded. By who?

The streets. No. The IWC. I'm not sure if he had punked on. He was just giving it a go. Alright, alright, fine, fine, fine, fine. No, this fraud checked. I don't stand for this. Alright, alright. What else? Jake from Winnipeg City, Ariel as a Brett fan, who was his greatest rival? If you ask me, I know most people are inclined to say, HBK, Shawn Michaels, if you ask me, it's Mr. Perfect. I enjoyed those matches more so than any of his matches. Brett, Mr. Perfect, I talked about the time there at the Montreal Forum,

the time limit thing, all that. Magic. Summerslam 88, I do believe it was magic. He was incredible with everyone. But if you ask me, it's, it's Curt Henning. What else? And lastly, Duncan says, if Ariel's son was drafted by the Pacers and the other son was drafted by the Chiefs, who would Ariel support if they met the New York Knicks in the NBA finals and the Bills in the Super Bowl?

Well, neither of those matchups can happen. That's a good point. Thank you. OK, so I don't have to answer. Yeah, that's right, because they're both in the NBA Finals and the Bills in the Super Bowl. Well, neither of those matchups can happen. That's a good point, thank you. Okay, so I don't have to answer. Yeah, that's right, because they're both in the same conference. They're in the same conference. Yeah, but I understand the point that he's trying to bring up here, the scenario.

I've actually thought of this a lot, like Obe Toppin is an example. I know he was drafted by the Knicks, big Knicks fan, but now he's on the Pacers. Is it easy to change allegiances if you're the family members? I would like to think so, right? I don't think that's even like a moment of hesitation.

Without a shadow of a doubt, if your kid makes it to the league and he is playing for a title, you will be cheering for him. If my boy is playing for the Patriots or the Chiefs, like I'm all in. Well, that's number one. like I'm all in. But I'm not dropping them. I'm not dropping them. No, they're number two. Number two.

You'll always cheer for your teams, but like you will support your. And then, okay, so if, okay, let's say, let's say he gets drafted by, who do I hate in the NFC? I don't really hate anyone in the NFC, but let's just say he gets drafted by the Giants and then it's Giants bills. Am I rooting for the Giants or am I rooting for the bills?

Like I always say, just one, just one. Well basically will my son winning the Super Bowl trump my at that point... Ten thousand... No question. Million. It'll be a nice little like nice little gift if your son loses you can be like well the bills at least got one. It would almost be silly, the other answer, because imagine a scenario where your son wins a Super Bowl for a team, and you get to celebrate that. And then the alternative is, well, I rooted for this other team that has no real affiliation.

Imagine the conspiracy theory that you planted him to just go make sure the Bills could win one. Your son wins the Super Bowl, and you're huffing and puffing because the Bills won the Super Bowl. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. You have all the bills, gear on when he comes home. You're standing on the field next to the Super Bowl trophy and it's like, wasn't the bills

though. Yeah, okay, you're right. You're right. Yeah, come on. Next though, like next Lakers, I'm going for the Lakers. You'd be the biggest Lakers fan ever and it'd be fantastic. You'd be in purple and gold fan ever and it'd be fantastic. You'd be in purple and gold.

All right, all right. By the way guys, very busy weekend in combat sports. Once again, UFC 315, completely flying under the radar is the fact that there's that PFL card in Belfast. The great P.T. Carroll had a very, very nice chat with Paul Hughes, that's this Saturday as well. I think it's flying under the radar. Lee Wood's return to Nottingham also on Saturday afternoon.

There's an Invicta card tomorrow. And don't forget, on May 9th, the day before UFC 315, we do have the return of Tommy Fury. Did you guys know this? No, I did not know. Yeah, Tommy Fury's first fight. Who's he fighting? Who is he fighting?

Well, that's a phenomenal question. Not fair until. Also, you said PFL flying under the radar. I don't even think it's on the radar. We don't care. What you had with Paul Hughes after that Usman Ramada fight, and now I was just like,

oh yeah, I guess Paul Hughes is fighting this weekend, and he's like a minus 1500 favorite. Tommy Fury fighting for AAA promotions. Nice, nice. Friday, May 9th, live on Dzone. It's being entitled The Comeback and he's going up against Keenan Hanyulik. Let's see what Keenan's record is here. It's actually happening in the the combat sports hotbed known as Hungary. Well, according to-

Derry Keenan in Hungary? Yeah, yeah. Five and one as a pro, according to Tapology. Here he is representing Bosnia and Herzegovina. Here he is coming off a big win over Edhem Herstic. Prior to that had lost his first pro fight to Angelo Morizhin. Does have a win over Boris Nenetsch.

And another- Is this a bit, what are we doing at this point? What, who is this? Also, this is, oh, whose birthday? Tommy Fury's birthday. Oh wow. Happy birthday Tommy. Big birthday weekend for him, let's go.

Tommy's getting this type of treatment? He's getting the birthday treatment? I thought it was like someone's birthday on our team. It is the only one to have beat Jake it's May 7th oh yeah it is May 7 1999 how about that I ain't t99 how did you how did you realize that he knows everything about Tommy you gotta know your enemy his last fight we were there we were there Wow we were there for the last fight. I thought the olajid ola tunji. Yeah, isn't that just yes. I also Yeah, we will not be there. I will not be watching that but

Not check up on social media about that. I will not look at the results Oh, you're a hundred percent gonna be locked in it's the return baby. The return the comeback return It's the come back. It's damning that he pulled out of the Darren Till fight and now this is the fight. No, no, but Darren Till said he was gonna kick him. You remember? Don't forget. Keenan should just say something.

Was it Keenan or Cal? It was Keenan. It's Keenan. Oh boy. So look, there's a lot to get into. Deep dive on that card on Friday's crack, I'm being told. Oh, for real? Yeah, I mean it's Friday.

That's what I'll be watching. Watch party, Pizzi? We'll do one for Dizone. We'll do a Hellwani vision. I love it. Friday afternoon. By the way, we announced this yesterday. If you're in the city, June 20th,

we'll be at Fanatics Fest doing a, we need to get some like imagery for that. I keep thinking of this. Who the fuck is we? Yeah, I guess you're right. You're right. Anyway, we'll be there June 20th. We're going to be doing a show that we will post on the channel at a later date.

Oh, oh, oh. Okay. No, no, no no no okay anyway that'll be on June 20th other exciting things to come it is time to go we got to get ready for game two and I'm nervous I'm nervous you know why because we could be up to oh how do you feel Rick right now you're down to about our team, we're as cooked as cooked can be. Is that it? You're destroying in the towel?

Garland, Mobley, and Hunter out? Like, what? There's not even a shot in hell. If my team was the number one seed, dominated the year, dominated the season, and this happened, I would be devastated. Does it not hit the same because not? It's the sixth team.

Yeah. So it's just like, whatever. I love this team. I'm very disappointed, but it doesn't hit like that. It's not like I got one Are we gonna are we gonna get Nick's Pacers Eastern Conference final? Yeah, it'll be incredible and and then this fake rival and then you'll be able to claim that the figure which is so which is one Of the worst takes ever uttered such a nothing nobody cares about this right? It's not even a lander This is plan to do this now. It is such a bad bad take such nothing offensive. We were just in Pacers country Do you know was this past weekend, and they don't even talk about they don't care what it pays your country

You were not in, Indiana never near near Fucking I don't have a protein they care more about the Hawkeyes They care more about pork fest 37 30 years ago today actually Reggie Miller scored eight points no was was it six points anything in recent history or just the 30 years yeah literally last year's play on ever literally last year right ever be 2024 Roy Hebert block bellow 2013 the memes nothing it was it was exactly Boston all months ago is more significant by the way They can't tell you how to feel in the last

Honor Jordan, but in the last 30 years we played the Pacers more in the playoffs than the Celtics anyway Thank you, David Llazo. Thank you Sean Waltman. Thank you, Brian said thanks. Hope you. Thanks all the back to Mars