The Ariel Helwani Show - Shakur Stevenson, Johnny Fisher, Mario Bautista, Scott D'Amore in studio, Vegas Recap, On The Nose, news & notes

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show recapping the team’s adventures in Las Vegas, then reacting to the announcement of Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn, Conor McGregor’s first appearance since UFC 329, and more (10:37). Shakur Stevenson is back to discuss his signing with Zuffa Boxing, other offers he received, whether he’ll be able to wear his own gear, still having hard feelings with the WBC, how Dana White and Nick Khan sold him on signing, wanting to fight Devin Haney in his debut, attending UFC 329, and more (36:09). Ariel touches on the latest comments by Ilia Topuria, Alex Pereira’s commentary on Michel Pereira’s release, and more (1:06:12). Johnny Fisher joins the show to talk about his move from Matchroom to Zuffa, getting a massive raise, his conversations with Eddie and Barry Hearn after making the decision, his father “Big John” and their viral content, and more (1:15:36). Mario Bautista returns on the heels of his huge UFC 329 win over Cory Sandhagen, discussing injuring Sandhagen’s leg and capitalizing on it during the fight, believing he’s worthy of a title shot, being willing to fight former teammate Sean O’Malley, social media chirping from Vinicius Oliveira, and more (1:28:26). Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling President Scott D’Amore joins Ariel in-studio to talk about the status of MLP, his time working with TNA, his early wrestling career and how he got into the business, recent WWE angles, and more (2:02:29). The Boys in the Back jump in with Ariel to answer your On The Nose questions, with topics including journalistic ethics, UFC 329 fight week, the UFC light heavyweight title picture, Conor McGregor’s injury, and more (3:09:10). Finally, the show ends with Super Chats (3:46:56) and an impromptu Argentina vs. England World Cup watchalong.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the air... On this Wednesday, July 50, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be back in our New York City studio. What a trip we had, what a week we had, what a time it was in beautiful Lost Wages, Nevada. But it is back to New York City, and it is...

And it is back in our studio and we are so happy to be back. And you know what? I am so happy that we had the week that we had. I am so grateful. I am so appreciative. I am overcome with emotion because I look back at all the things that we did over the course of a week. And as I said in Las Vegas,

it is not easy to pick up a show and just plop it into a different city. And so I do want to give a massive, massive shout out to the Venetian, to the Yahoo Sportsbook, to the fan caves, to everyone in Las Vegas, our new friends that we met over there who helped us. I want to give a shout out to Mama Rabbit, who were an incredible host on Friday for our live show with DJ. But most importantly, none of this happens, none of this looks the way it did, sounds the way it did, comes off the way it did, if not for the team back there. And so a massive shout out to Andy, Jordan, Frank, G.C., Rick, everyone behind the scenes in New York

who help us from a technical standpoint. You know, you guys complain about, oh, the stream. Stuttered for a second. Do you know how hard it is to do what we did? In total, 12 in studio guests, one quote unquote Zoom guess. Some of the biggest names in the sport. I think we counted over 20 hours of live content from the Wednesday show, Thursday show, Friday show, Friday night show, watch party, post show, Monday show. I'm compelling, as they say, about the work that we did. there was a debate as to which international fight week trip was better year one or year two i vote for year two year two is amazing i mean do you remember what happened on wednesday live show joe mazula

interview number 16 award i brought something by the way regarding that back from our trip i brought the envelope guys i brought it there it is yeah there she is i brought that so a little memento afterwards which then I got to put this back sorry which then coupled into the Thursday show sushi meal of a lifetime on Makase a wizard no I'm trying to think of the name what was the name what was the name of the sake dreams come true dreams come true I mean you got to be kidding me to the Wizard of Oz which was the best version of Wizard of Oz which was the best version of of Oswald. I mean, it's just a lot. It's just a lot to process. Flying home last night,

you know, a little bit tired, but the good kind of tired, you know, the proud kind of tired. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did. Of course, there was a fight. We covered it. You know everything that happened. We're talking about it more on today's program. But yeah, man, I just feel great. Everyone feel good back there. Everyone recharged. Everyone Completely recharged. Yep, ready to roll. I mean, we were kind of fizzling there at the end, right? We were kind of, at the end, everyone, I was like, guys, we want to go for. for dinner, we want to have a final meal. No, I've had it enough. Even walking

back with Pizzi, I was like Pizzi, quick little sushi, quick little hand roll? Nope. Can't do it. No one. You got to go back and have dinner. Oh. I mean, you chose this life. You chose the red eye. I wish I had the picture right now of you and Pizzi as you. Oh, the red eye. Oh, that's just

part five of the adventure. Wait, what happened? What happened? We got to get that. Oh, we were at the Ovanition a little bit later, loading the cases up in the truck. Excuse me? What, what? Just a little bit later, we were at the Venetian, a little numbness. Oh, yeah. The scratchy voice.

Yeah, oh, you guys, oh, well, we left. There are a few of us still hanging out, doing some work. Everyone knows. Oh, you have Pizzi strolling alone. You guys strolling at a record store. Okay. Oh, yeah. Oh, you bet.

Oh, gotta. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. So what you're saying, okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. I told Pizzi explicitly. I was like, let's, let's hang out in solidarity. and let's get it loaded up. Okay, so Pizzi was the one complaining the most

about sitting around, sitting around. And then at one point, I said to Rick, like, we're out and you're like, yeah, yeah, please. Was there an implication that you wanted us to stay that we missed? Some people don't need to be asked as well. Wow, wow, whoa, wow, wow. All right, you know what?

You're right. We should, that's on me. We should share the duties. Just like how you guys helped me booking the show and stuff like that, you know? You want us to? These are the same thing. What the fuck is this?

Carrying large boxes is easier than booking the show. I'm going to go there. Actually, I've sent text, just no one answers. What's that? I've sent text, no one answers. What does that mean? What does that mean? For booking the show, he's sending out text.

Oh, yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. Mike Wantsover doesn't want to come on. Mike Wantsover is a tough guest to book. Sorry, so I guess what I'm... So here I am. Let's just rewind. Here I am talking about the feelings, talking about felling, talking about my heart, talking about my passion, talking about my gratefulness, my appreciation. And in reality, what was happening was you guys were talking shit.

You guys were picking up boxes and being like, that fucking Ariel, that Pizzi. Pizzi deserves it. It was Pizzi. Yeah, I don't deserve it. I actually, did you not see me as y'all were leaving? I literally said the Pizzi. I was like, you fucker. You're actually leaving.

That's what I said to him. There was no behind the back thing. I was like, Pizzi, you fucker. That part I missed. We did see you walk in and you're like, oh, you guys are leaving. You're doing the thing that I do literally every day. Oh, no, you guys are leaving?

Pee-Cee, you fucker? Wow. I think those were my exact words. So this is bad. Can someone call it Pizzi right now? No, Pizzi's in the air, I think still, right? I think he's got a 26-hour, 100-hour Frank, too, I think Jordan hit Frank with like a Oh, yeah.

Frank, you'll hang around and this will be easy. This will smooth work. And he's like, I got to go to Barnes & Noble. See you. Yeah, why did Frank have to go to Barnes & Noble? That's shit to do. Wait, wait, let's see, let's see. Do you think he picks up?

No. Let's see. I'm being attacked here, and this wasn't even my fault. No one even told me to stay. Okay, here's the question. Do you think I would have stayed if you asked me, or do you think I would have left? You think I would have left? Wow.

I'm a man of the people. I remember we loaded out a... Where is it? The first city winery show. It was just us. Pizzi. The answer? Pizzi, it's 107.

What are you doing? You got to be on the show. 607, no. No. Petez. No. I think this is it. I think I want to die before England

cannot go to the World Cup, ironically. Pizzi, I just have to say, it's fine that you're not there. Pizzi, I'm being attacked here. I'm literally being attacked here. Why? Why? I started the show saying how happy I was,

how quevelling I was, how appreciative I was. how it was the greatest week of our lives. Unbeknownst to me, there's all kinds of resentment, all kinds of tension, all kinds of hatred from the back there. Because apparently there was a deal in place that we were supposed to help them load the boxes into the truck, and you agreed to it, and we didn't stick around. Listen, you're my boss, you taught me to leave. I said, okay. You said, fuck these guys. You said, remember he took me to the side and you went, you're really going to stay and put these fucking boxes in a way.

on. I was like, I mean, I thought you were making me. And then you said, listen, let's get the fuck out of here. We're talent. You know what they do. You know what we do. Let's go home right now. Wow. That sounds about right. I missed all of this and I actually feel horrible. And the best part is I asked you to come eat with me and you said no. So not only did you not stay with them, you didn't stay with me either. Very selfish. I'm barely staying alive. Guys, he can't, he's not opening his eyes. Do you see this? He's like this. In bed, you look fantastic, Peece. It's 6 o'clock, by the way.

You know that, right? Yeah. Yeah, you're right? You're all right, mate? I think so. I think I'm okay. Do you want to apologize to anyone for not sticking around? No.

I was just following orders at the other day. All right. All right, well, enjoy the rest of your day. Yeah, do I look like I'm enjoying it? Yeah, come on England. Yeah. Yeah. All right, bye, bye.

See you, man. See ya. Bye, bye, bye, bye, I hope you feel better. I think that's Pizzi's best appearance on the show. Holy shit. He's lying in bed. I mean, what time did he land? He had to have landed just like a few hours ago.

Why isn't he on the show? I mean, he left what? He left Vegas at 2 o'clock Vegas time, so that's what? 10 o'clock Ireland, I? Yeah, eight. So are you guys mad or what? No. Oh, okay, perfect.

Well, it was a great trip. Yeah, it was a great. Fantastic. Highlighted the trip? Kame. Kame. For sure. Wow.

God damn. Yeah, Kame was amazing. Unbelievable. that Wednesday to Thursday was probably the best. It was all good. Common was good. Summer League was fun. I mean, we got to visit the meta apex.

Hell's Kitchen. You know, did you see they shut down AJ, your boy? Yeah. They shut him down. Did what he had to do. Did what he had to do. His last summer league point was the point to put you on the book. Incredible.

God, incredible. It was a great trip. Frank, did you have a good time? I'm curious about and worried about Frank's social bandwidth. Like has it been restored? Eh, we were getting there, and then you just... Are we going with bandwidth or battery? He said bandwidth, I think.

Battery. Oh, was it battery? See, this is why, even I'm not even being listened to do anymore. I'm sorry. It's fine. But everything's okay. Yeah, Barnes & Noble, amazing. Yes.

A couple throbbing gristle albums from Zia record. Throbbing what? Uh, throbbing gristle. Okay, okay. I didn't hear it. It's a big surprise. Griswold. Not listening.

Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Barnes and Noble, you got albums? No, Barnes and Noble was a new copy of Doom that came out. Wow, you really went on a whole like, so you had a lot of personal time to shop. Yeah, sat at the bar at the airport, plates of fallout. Okay. On the switch? No, no, on my PC.

Were you on the same flight as the others? Yeah. Did you talk to them at all, or was that like you off the clock? Ran into one of them in the bathroom while they were washing their face. Wow. Who? Who's doing that? I'm not naming any names.

It was Rick. The highlight, the highlight of my. My trip was getting to spend time with Andy's son. What a legend, Rahan. Shout out. I love this young man. He is the cute. He is the cutest kid.

He really is. He is such a sweetheart. He likes you too. He shared his favorite trains. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I don't want to, but. That's an honor in his culture. Does it not feel like he likes me the most?

Like, it feels like we really bonded. It's always a competition with you. I just, it's always a competition, man. Come on. It felt like he's giving me a high five. He's giving me the train. Yeah, now you got to,

Now you come to Brooklyn for the birthday party, right? I would love, when's a birthday party like next week? No, next week. No, I know, but his birthday is next week. Oh, his birthday is the 27th, yeah. Yeah, so is the birthday party next week? No, because we won't be here. Okay, neither will I.

Next week? In the picture, can you guys put the picture that I sent in the control room one? I feel like it would tie everything really nicely. In the meantime, Rick's still raw dog and this blueberry bagel back here. It's somehow made the control room. covered in cables. What do you mean raw dogging it? What does that mean? Show it to the camera. Dude, you have a bagel. You have a baked potato-sized bagel back here. No toasting. What do I mean raw dogging? No toasting. No toasting. No cream cheese. No butter, nothing.

I have not touched this yet. Pauls have been all over it. Cables have been all over it. This has not been pre-peracet's all over the shit. Check that for the explosive diarrhea parasite A-7. Oh, it was there. This has not been prep for consumption. This is just it's Ross- carrying it around for like two hours. Why is it coming everywhere with you? I'm going to heat it up. I'm going to decide because I'm not hungry for it yet. I'm just reserving.

I'm just reserving this is a fucking football-sized blueberry bagel on a plate coming everywhere. Yeah, what is up with that? Who just eats a blueberry bagel playing like that? No cream. I have not prepped it to eat it yet. You have cream cheese. I don't know what will be out there. I have not.

You guys have been more planning for this bagel. He has the diarrhea of parisome. You have been doing it. more planning for this bagel than I have. I put the bagel here because I'm going to eat it in a few hours. I have to look at it. It's taking up 20% of the desk. It also looks, it looks

dry. It looks delicious. It looks spoiled. It looks spoiled! Well, look at the color. The color is off. It's dyed. It's blueberry. It's probably from yesterday. It's probably from yesterday. It looks green. They brought them this morning. That's a lie. You know they're from yesterday when there's no everything bagels left. They brought them this morning. It was like plain.

They brought them this morning. Poppy seed. Take it out of his back back. I would never By the way Backpack no bag No back With the record show I would never take a bag like this

Out of my backpack I only go to Turnpike bagels They are much better than this In case you guys are wondering What the fit was To go on to the plane For the Red Eye flight This is PITC

Who's there for work That's Rick's fit I was like Rick When are you gonna get dressed for the flight This is the dress for the flight Blown off I've never seen anything like this You guys are very anti-shorts Yeah you guys

No, no, no. It's not just, it's the combo of shorts. Yeah. T-shirt. Yeah. On a flight, a freezing cold flight, socks and slides. This is diabolical. I've never seen anything like that. I've never been more comfortable.

The whole flight, he was so comfortable. I've never been. This was the fight. I can confirm he did not wear that only on the flight. That was his pre-flight meal outfit. Okay, what was on the flight? We went to Thai food and then he. No, I changed into this and then I, we ate and went on the flight.

This is what I wore. Also, Thai food before the flight. You guys don't know. I can't be fucked with when it comes to this show. I am unfuck with the bull. Yeah, you never have it. Even if I got the diarrhea of parricide, I wouldn't have the difference. I ate tie hot drunken noodles before we went on for the watch party.

It's scarfed it down in three minutes. I don't give a fuck. Man, this is crazy. That chip was a motherfucker, though. I'll say that. We're talking about anything else today? No, we're good. Bullshit.

Today's... The power of it said, Frank scared me out of eating my lunch. He was like, oh, man. He saw that. He shamed you. Jordan, you want a bagel? By the way, it was out of love. He was right. All over it.

I threw away a sandwich after someone pointed out, you got a lettuce on that sandwich. I turned to Connor, I was like, they could be right if I take the lettuce off. He's like, nah, man, it's not worth it. No, like $10. Stay away from the produce. Eat as unhealthy and as processed as possible, just for the foreseeable future. Today's program, by the way, is brought you by our good friends over at Cal She. We love Kalshi around these parts

And there's a lot to get into as far as Cali is concerned Yes, there it is Sign up right now, $10 and you get $10 back There's a lot going on in the world of sports They are the number one out there Peer to peer, you're not playing against the house For example Back in the traditional sports book days

Had you bet $200 on Max Holloway You would have gotten 86 100, excuse me, 200 on hallway on Cali would have gotten you 100 back. Do you see the difference? Anyway, download the Calci app and use the code Helwani right now. And please support them because they support us. There's a lot of exciting things happening in the world of sports as we speak in a couple hours' time.

It's football's coming home. It's coming home. It's coming home. It's coming. Spain has punched its ticket. England, Argentina coming up. What do we got? What do we got?

What do we got? Yeah. The football's coming home. Hey, Jude, it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. What else do we have? World Cup winner right now as we speak.

Spain, 57.5%. Well, of course, because they don't know if it's going to be England and Argentina. That's going to change in about four hours' time. What about Golden Boot winner? Lionel Messi, 52%. Killian Mbapé, 36. Harry King. Drew Dunham, right there.

What's the difference? Well, the difference is there's two Englishmen on this list, and then there's a Frenchman who's not there, and an Argentinian who is about to get eliminated. What else? Driggis Dupli versus Kumar Usman, that's this Saturday in Oklahoma City right now. DDP is going to show up. He won't show up if you book him on a show, but he'll show up the fight on Saturday, and he's at 67%. Kamar Usman at 33%. The mid-summer nights classic was last night in Philadelphia, the American League winning 4-0, an absolute pitchers delight. And right now, the pro baseball champion is trending at 31.2 percent Los Angeles Dodgers. New York Yankees 13, Atlanta, 7.4. Toronto, 1.6. Surely that's not the top four, but I do appreciate that you put Toronto, not looking too good at the moment.

Last place in the ALE. So, them some breaks. S.Bs tonight, guys. It's a summer classic. SPs tonight, the best team category is the one that everyone's excited about. And would you look at that? 93% for the Knickerbockers of New York. What in the world?

What is this timeline that we are living in? Unbelievable. Oh, and this is an interesting one that Mr. on-air Jordan added. S.B.'s best athlete? There she is. my gal and yours. 91% Asia Wilson, baby.

Not to be confused with Aja Wilson. I don't see Caitlin or Sophie Cunningham. Yeah, neither was more. Okay. Oh, a couple more. Best play of the year? Of course, it's O.G.'s tip in. 73%.

That is an absolute no-brainer. What about best athlete? The King of New York. Ah, J.B. Knicks are going to sweep. Do I need to pull up to the SPs tonight to see my... boys. Give him a hug and a kiss. I think intern Jack can get you in. Yeah. What's up with that? Jack,

where's the invite? We let you hang around here with all our famous people. You don't get to just go to the SPs and not invite me. What's up with that? Today's program is an absolute delight. We have four great guests back into the show, Scott DeMore, our old friend who used to be a contributor at Uncrowned. Now is the man over at Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. They have their debut show tonight on TSN, the Sports Network, which is the gold standard as far as sports television is concerned in Canada, he'll be joining me in studio. He has done it all in the world of professional wrestling. I'm looking forward to the chat very much and really appreciate him stopping by. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by Mario Batista, who, of course,

had the big win over Corey Sanhagen. We showed you the picture on Monday. Corey's leg, absolutely, I mean, just insanely bruised. Suliev stretch, unbelievable that he was able to not only continue to fight, win the second round, and then eventually lose the third. Bautista is going to join us one of the top bantam weights in the world. Our old pal Johnny Fisher, the Rumford Bull, the newest member of Zufa Boxing. He's going to join us at about 2.15. Talk about why he left matchroom to sign with Zufa. And in about 10 minutes time, one of my favorite characters in all of combat sports,

the pride of Brick City, the pride of Newark, New Jersey, Mr. Shakur Stevenson, is going to join us to talk about why he's signed. Wazoofa boxing to talk about why they faunted him as Jalen Williams on Saturday. What do we have here? What do we have here? Oh my gosh. We do have some breaking news. Oh, there's the lineup, but we have some breaking news here, guys.

Wow, this is fascinating. The great Turkey Al-Shake has just tweeted seconds ago that Ryan Garcia versus Connor Ben is a done deal, WBC welterweight title fight September 12th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas live globally on Paramount Plus and exclusively on DeZone in the UK and Ireland

wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow oh wow congrats this is a big deal for multiple reasons A they got it over the line B clearly there's a deal in place with DeZone Now, DeZone is going to air it as it says in the tweet in the UK and Ireland, but not in America, which is where, of course, Ryan Garcia is most famous and most popular. And so it's on Paramount Plus.

This is the first big boxing match of the Paramount Plus slash Zoufa boxing era. What now becomes of the relationship between Ryan Garcia and Golden Boy? Now, you recall, Ryan Garcia, my understanding is Ryan Garcia fought that fight in Times Square May of last year. and my understanding was he signed a two-fight deal with the Saudis. I believe this is fight number two, which is allowing him to not do it under the golden boy umbrella in case you're wondering how they're getting this done. WBC title is going to be on the line. So that means that Zufa Boxing is promoting a WBC belt, which is, you know, interesting in its own right.

This is going to be a big time fight. It's a massive spot for Ryan Garcia. It's Mexican Independence Day weekend, which is a weekend that historically over the last few years, years has been dominated by Canel Alvarez. There's a lot to chew on here. I wonder if Shikor Stevenson is going to have some thoughts on this. So we'll talk to him in a matter of moments, but there you go. USA versus the UK on Mexican Independence Day weekend, obviously Ryan Garcia has some ties, and we saw the two of them on the stage prior to the Connor McGregor fight. I thought that was a bit weird. If I'm not going to, if I'm going to be honest, I thought it was weird.

It may, like, usually that's reserved for, you know, friends of the brass, you know, people getting an opportunity to be in the presence of greatness of fighters, things like that. Ryan Garcia, Shakur, Stevenson, Connor Ben, like, they are superstars. And I don't know if they should be up there being like, wow, there's Connor McGregor. That would be me. If, like, I was, if I was looking after them, I don't know if I would have done that. But interesting, you know, Connor Ben's lawyer was up there. there, his manager was up there. Good times. Let the good times roll. Now, speaking of good times, yesterday, I told you we were going to have something on Tuesday. We didn't have a show,

but we did have an exclusive interview with Celtics head coach Joe Missoula. And a clip from this video, which was shot so beautifully by Casey, our guy, Casey Leiden, went nuclear viral. Like, as of this morning, over 5 million views on X posted and reposted by everyone. In case you missed it, here it is. I can talk over it. This is Joe Missoula hitting Mitz with Eric Nixick, the great Eric Nixick, holding Mitz for him. Look at this guy. Absolutely shredded.

I was there. This was right after our Wednesday show, right before I went to the awards. It was amazing. You know how much fun this was for me? And if I'm being honest, the best part was the chat afterwards. Not so much the chat on air, but the chat off the record. About media, about life, about the NBA, about coaching, about mindsets, about all that stuff and more. This was so much fun.

And I'm so happy that people enjoyed it. We spoke to him about Mitchell Robinson, about signing him, about the playing game six of the NBA playoffs. Two years ago, second round, there I am, talking to Coach Joe. And, yes, I'm a Knicks fan. Knicks fan for life, but it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. And I do have to say, I walked away really respecting him, really appreciating his mind, his love of MMA, his approach to coaching, all that stuff and more.

We spoke about Mitch. Mitch even reacted to the interview. Mitchell Robinson reacting to the interview. That sort of maybe kind of means that Mitchell Robinson knows who I am. Here's his Instagram story. Hell yeah, now we're talking. Because I said to him at the beginning of the interview, I wasn't, I was like, man, you know, basketball players, they don't hit Mitz very well, but you do.

He said I wasn't a good basketball player, so I was able to do MMA. I have a lot of respect for the art. He was kind of joking when he said that. But Mitchell Robinson reposting a clip from our interview. And if that isn't crazy enough, I wake up this morning to the actual Boston Celtics Twitter account reposting my tweet. Joe's been in the gym. Are they trying to win me over? Are they trying to seduce me?

I'm not for sale, guys. I'm a one team man, I'm sorry, not for sale, will never be for sale. I will die before I root for the Boston Celtics. But I can't appreciate the coach, the personnel and all that stuff. But surreal, absolutely surreal. I think they're trying to win me over.

I would never. I would never cross enemy lines. Okay, but are you rooting for Coach Joe now? Absolutely not. I told him. I told them. I told them. No.

I hated you before. I still hate you. I like you now. But when we say goodbye, it's back to hate. Oh, how did he take that? I feel like he's somebody who would take that way. He said, I get it. Yeah.

He said, I get it. Yeah, he said, I get it. I said, listen, if it's between you and Coach Brown, I got the big man's back. In the trenches, no doubt. Not even a question. But it was a lot of fun. So if you want to watch it, it's up on the channel right now. And I really appreciate Coach Nixick.

Like, he didn't have to do that. He didn't have to invite us, let us film. It was a really nice gesture on his part. So really appreciate that. And I thought it really, you know, it really capped off our trip extremely nicely. There's some other breaking news that we'll get to before we get to Mr. Chaucour Stevenson, who's going to join us in a matter of moments. Probably the biggest is Connor McGregor surfacing online.

And it was his birthday yesterday. Happy birthday to Connor. 38 years young. Here he is with his wife, D. Seemingly in good spirits. Eight years of age? Yes. Happy birthday.

Happy birthday. We'll be back. It matches your outfit. We'll be back. Come on. It's okay. Let him the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let's go.

Let's go. I know. So there he go. He seems to be in good spirits. He seems to be happy. He says that he is going to be back, which is probably the most, you know, the most important nugget of it all there. he seems to be grounded.

Who knows? It's a 30-second video. I saw some people breaking down, you know, whether or not this means it's this kind of injury, that kind of injury, including our pal, Dr. Suterer, who said this on Twitter when he saw the video. Lack of brace, assuming he didn't just take it off for the video,

means no high-grade collateral ligament injury, MCL-slash-L-CL, means nothing about ACL and meniscus. Range of motion being at least 90 degrees of flexion, and looking relatively comfortable is good. How he took all that away from that video, I have no idea, but that's because he's probably way smarter than you and I. As I said on Monday, I really do believe he's going to fight again, and I believe the mindset around the team right now is,

all right, we talked about obstacles, we talked about overcoming obstacles, this is another one, and we're going to try to overcome it. And so I don't think, look, you never know what can happen, but I don't think in his mind that was his last fight. I don't think he wants it to be his last fight. And I think, you know, he's going to have to have probably surgery and then recovery and then come back and give it a go. The question, whenever, and we don't have to deliberate this for the next freaking 365 days. But who would they book him against?

You know, you see people saying Chandler, if I had a vote, it would be Chandler. 1,000% it would be Chandler. If I had a vote, I don't think it will be Chandler. especially if it's his last fight going into free agency. They're just not going to do it. A year from now, Chandler's older. God knows what he'll do between now and then. It just ain't going to happen.

It ain't going to happen. I could see the Holloway one, but I could also see some people feeling like, ah, we just went through that. Thanks, but no thanks. The whole landscape could be different between now and then. But I think he wants to fulfill that last deal and then I think he wants to test free agency.

As of right now, we don't know the extent of the injury. Hopefully we'll get more word on that. They're keeping their lips pretty tight at the moment. And I can understand that, but it was good to get some kind of update and see what's the crack, as they say. We'll talk more about this. I suspect there'll be more questions and comments regarding all of this on the nose, which we'll do back into the show, by the way.

Ariahawani. Substack.com is where you can leave a question. or comment, and we'll get to those after the Scott DeMore interview. Benoit Saint-Denie has resurfaced after his shocking loss to won Patty Pimble. This is what he had to say on social media. Benoit-Saint-Denie losing in the first round via submission. Shocking. It was a dars choke that submitted him.

He went for the shot early on. And yeah, it was an absolute shocker. No one expected this. Certainly not that quickly and certainly not considering he had looked so good as of late. Here's what he had to say. Thank you all for your support. I'm sorry for letting you down and for not delivering the victory we had hoped for. This is translated from French, by the way.

I could have done it in French if you guys wanted. This defeat is brutal and hard to swallow, but it's part of the journey. I learn from trials, through trials, excuse me. I'll draw every lesson from it. I'll keep working hard and I'll come back stronger. Congratulations to Patty for his performance. I'm convinced that one day our past will cross again. See you soon, BSD.

Speaking of fighters who lost on Saturday and took to social media, here's Cody Garbrand, who may or may not have retired. We're still not sure. There are moments, he writes, in life, when hope fades and the weight of endless problems makes the path unclear. But remember this. lose when you choose to give up. Let your struggles be your fuel, not your downfall.

Don't let the storm break you. Let it strengthen your will to rise and keep fighting. That would suggest to me that Cody Garbrand is not done. Now, could he possibly be done in the UFC? Yeah, but that would suggest to me that he is not done fighting. He lost to Adrian Yannis, by the way. We did get some breaking news regarding... Shocking.

Regarding the UFC's return to France, Michael Venom Page is going to be fighting on that card. We were just talking to Adi Yattar about this. What's up with Mr. Michael Venom Page? And we got the news that Michael Venom Page is going to be on that card against Nerseltan Ruzibiev. Mm-mm-mm. Did I get that right?

I think I mispronounce his name. Ruzibov? Who's to check. Ruzabayev. Ruzabayev. Ruzibiev. How did I screw that up? How do you guys feel about that matchup?

Do you feel like they're trying to kill him off? Last fight of his deal doesn't look like he wants to resign. It's just been weird bookings for MVP. Like, I don't get it. It's not a sexy matchup, right? Yeah, I don't know about kill him off, but they're just not giving him a star-studded matchup. This is a guy who came in, and it was like the showman's finally here,

and then it's like they just... He thought Ian Gary at one point. Now we're getting Sam Patterson and Ruzabai back to them. I don't get it. It feels like this is his last fight, right? Yeah, I mean, is he 40 now? No, I just mean like in the UFC. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

It seems like they don't value him for some reason. I don't imagine he's going to resign. Yeah, but, I mean, he's still winning. Yeah, he's doing, he's done well since coming into the UFC. Is he actually 40? 39, maybe. 39. 40 in April. Looks great for 39, right?

Looks phenomenal. Looks the exact same as well. It's amazing. It looks like he hasn't aged at all. Yeah, they announced. a bunch of other fights. They did not announce the main event for that card just yet. So, stay

tuned for that. That is in September. When was that September 3rd? Fifth? Fifth, in Paris. We're starting to hear some rumblings about who could be in that main event slot, but stay tuned, stay tuned. There's still a lot to be

announced. Oh, shout out to Bruce Buffer, by the way. Bruce Buffer was featured at the Spain, Argentina, no, Spain, France game yesterday. Argentina is playing England. Look at big Bruce out there. Look at Bruce making the announcement here.

Look at Bruce. Come on. At Cowboy Stadium, AT&T Stadium, to be exact, everyone loves Bruce. Bruce getting to hang out with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Who's luckier than Bruce Buffer? Take a look. What a guy. Is anyone better than Bruce?

And I think he's going to be featured at the final as well. I think he's going to be featured at the final. How about that? This is truly the moment I have been waiting for. Scott Coker's group starting to add more members to the squad. We still don't know a name. We don't have a broadcast team, broadcast partner, platform, whatever, whatever, whatever. But we did get this in the email inbox.

How about this? This is a nice little addition. Former ESPN NFL Network CEO Steve Bornstein. If you know Steve Bornstein, legend of the game, legend of the TV game, joins advisory board of Scott Coker's MMA League. Quote, Steve has consistently been ahead of where sports media and fans are going. His experience connecting fans to premium live sports is invaluable as we continue to build. That's a nice little signing and addition and someone who can help open doors when you're trying to get a TV deal.

Massive stuff. All right. First guest of the day is here. One of my absolute favorites in the world of combat sports. and we found out last week that he is not only the newest member of Zufa boxing, but by far, by far, their biggest signing to date, the pound for pound great, the pride of Brick City, the pride of New York, New Jersey. Shakur Stevenson is here to talk about it all.

Is he there? Yes. Hello, Shakur. How are you, my man? How are you? What's good, my guy? It's good to talk to you. Thank you for doing this. Congratulations on the signing. I have a million questions for you. And it's not going to get contentious like with these other interviews that you're doing, all right i'm not going to disrespect you okay yeah let's do it you know that by the way work or shoot those interviews are that's a wrestling term work would be fake shoot would be real uh like you said

work or shoot and shoot is real shoot like like like like Shannon disrespecting you like that that's legit oh yeah that was real that was real that's how he truly felt you know he got exactly what he was looking for which was what i mean he he felt like i'm this boring fighter, but I feel like that I'm a very entertaining fighter and I'm a hell of a fighter. So I don't know why he'd be talking the way that he do,

but he understood that I'm one of the top level fighters in the sport. Incredibly disrespectful to talk to you like that. Yeah, it's disrespectful when you don't know enough. Like, when you don't have the knowledge of like knowing the true science and the things of the sport. It's like you're just talking out of out of your body, you don't know enough.

So that's why I called him ignorant. Yeah, good for you. Okay, when did this start? The talks with Zufa, when did they first reach out to you about potentially joining the team? I mean, it's been that way. It's been this way for a minute. I've been new for a minute. And truly, I want to say, honestly, started probably, like, after my last fight, but

it's a long timeline. But like I said, I'm glad that these guys believe in me. and they invested their money in the right person. Okay. And did you talk to other people? Because it seemed like for a moment, you know, post top rank, you were kind of enjoying doing your own thing to now sign with them. Did you talk to other promoters about exclusive deals or was it only just them?

Really, I didn't talk to too many promoters, but I talked to, um, the zone. And the zone kind of offered me a big-ass deal, too, to be honest with you. but they kind of came too late. And I think when they came too late, it kind of messed it up. But it could have been either or, but they definitely offered a big-ass deal, too. And that deal would have been just you and DeZone, no promoter attached. Yeah. Wow.

Is that, do they have deals with other fighters like that? I'd not heard of that. Not that I know of. I haven't seen that before, but probably in the future, they're probably looking for somebody else. I appreciate DeZone. I don't got no, nothing to get some of my love fighting on the zone. It's no bad blood from me at all. Was the deal that they were offering you more than what Zufa was offering?

It actually was like similar. It was very similar. Okay. And the deal with Zufa. Is it an exclusive deal? I got to go back in Western name, but I don't try to get into the contract. Okay. I'm just going to ask the question just for the sake,

and you could tell me to go, you know, take a hike. But could you tell me, is this the highest, you know, paid deal of your career? Is this the most lucrative deal of your career? No question. No question? Okay, amazing. And would you say it's like buy multiples of what? I can't tell you.

I'm not trying to give up nothing that's inside of the contract. It is really, I try to keep my contract to myself. I got you. And how many fights is it for? Like I said, I'm going to see very. myself, but they announce it, they announce it, but fair enough. It's a good amount of time, man. I'm with them, though.

We all, you know, heard when they signed Connor Ben, that was like a huge deal, A, that they signed him, but B for the amount. If Connor Ben is the line, where are you? If that $15 million is the Mendoza line, so to speak, are you above it or below it? See, I can't tell you. I can't see. Well, you better be above it. You're Shakur-Stevenson. I don't speak on contracts.

Like, if I tell, okay, let me, let me, let me, let me, you this, right? Tell me. If I tell you right now, oh, I'm above and do-da-da-da, then I got an answer to like my family or somebody asks me, then it's like I put a lot of people in my business that I really don't want in my business. So I got you. I'd rather keep it that way. Okay. I saw, I saw, I saw a, there's a million questions I have here. I'm fascinated by this Shakur. I saw a photo shoot, you in the back after signing, and you're wearing the Zufa gear. Yeah. Yeah. Are you now going to be wearing a, you? uniform when you fight?

No, not at all. I'm going to be putting on my own uniforms. They may help out or something that they, on the designs that they want. But as far as, like, me, I'm putting on my own uniform. I already made that establish when I talk with them. Okay. I got to be honest. I was a bit devastated when I saw the video.

Yeah, that was, like, one of the first thing I said. But, man, I can't say nothing against what they like. They like, what they like. I like what I like. That's all. But your gear is always so cool and it's personal and you show, you know, look at this. Look at this. We can't stray away from this.

Nah, not at all. Not at all. Okay, okay. So that's one thing that a lot of people were concerned about. As far as everything that they're doing now, like, does this mean that you can also be on ring cards as well? How does it work? Are you just going to be on Zufa cards? I'm pretty sure I'll be on ring cards and Zufu cards, but it just depends.

Like, it depends on. Dana and Nick is with Turkey, so I'm pretty sure just as Connor Ben was able to fight on the ring card, I should be able to do the same. Okay. You're WBO champion, yes? Yeah. Still? For right now. Oh, what does for right now mean?

I mean, I don't know, like, how to WBO feel about it. So I will hope that they feel good. Like, I appreciate them for everything they did for me. So if they're not tripping and they want me to continue to hold the belt, I'm down with holding and defending my title however they go. But it's all on them, like, however they feel. Your first fight for ZUFA has to be for a ZUFA title, right? Do it have to?

I mean, if it is, once again, look, I'll fight for all of the belts. I'll fight for a Zoufa belt, the WBO, the I BF, the WBA. I just want to fight for the WBC. you're done with them yeah i don't want to fight for their belt forever yeah i'm cool i don't want they disrespected you yeah i felt i felt i felt they did wrong about me and since they did wrong by me i'm cool i'm good okay um that that video that we saw of you and dana together was that your first time meeting with him or had you met with him prior no that was my first time meeting with him i want to say i ran into him before but like it was something quick but like that was my first time

actually me and talking with him So my theory when it comes to Zufa is like the real brains behind it is Nick Kahn. Is that who you were dealing with and your team was dealing with? No, we was talking with him and Dana. I felt like when we was in the room and it was Humman, Dana, and Dana put its input too. So it wasn't just like Nick running. Okay. What impressed you?

Like what sold you on signing with them? What really sold me? You know, I'm a guy at like the study. So I go study people there. You know, a lot of people talk shit about Dana. but when I see him, I kind of think, like, he's just a motivated dude that want to, like, outdo his competition, and that's kind of, like, similar to me. But I feel like with somebody that's motivated and want to show that he's the guy in boxing,

and to me, it's a no-burning. It's like, shit, let's go make this money and take over the sport. You know, there are some people who are trying to sort of, like, resist having Zufa come in, or they don't like what they're doing. Obviously, Eddie has this feud with them. Did you get blowback when this was announced? Did you have people who reached out to you and said, like, man, I can't believe you're linking up with them? No, Eddie can't be mad.

Eddie is my guy. So, like, me and Eddie is cool. And Eddie understands that this is a business. And if I could make a shit ton of money over here, and he got respected, too. So I feel like it ain't no type of bad blood. I actually just talked to Eddie on WhatsApp not too long ago. So I don't think there's no type of heat or nothing from that for me. But I know that they're competitors.

They might go at each other. But as far as me, I feel like I'm a businessman. I'm cool with all of these guys. If these guys want to be cool with me, I'm cool with them. When you spoke to Eddie, did you ask him why he broke the news of you signing with them? No, I don't get into that. Like, I don't know why he did it. I felt like that was kind of crazy.

But I don't get into that. That's their beef. They got a beef and he did it, how have he found out the way he found out, that's all on them. I don't have nothing to do with it. Okay. Can I ask, have they told you

when your debut for them will be? I'm thinking like around like October. Okay, and have they told you who the opponent is yet? They won Devin. They won Devin as far as I know. If they won Devin, I'm down. Okay, that would be incredible

because I do want to ask you, there was a man named Jose El Rayo Valenzuela. on Twitter who said that he is your first fight, and then you called him out and said, no, you're not. Where is he coming up with this? I don't know who he's talking to. I can't tell you, but at the end of the day, a fighter has to say yes, and a fighter has to say no,

and that's how boxing work. I'm not saying yes to Ryo because that doesn't, like, entertain me. I like to be entertained. I want to get in there and have something to fight for. I feel like Ryo ain't really do enough. to where I'm like, okay, let's go fight Rio. Like, he's not really no big name. I'll be more interested in fighting Gary Antoine Russell.

I think Gary Antoine Russell beat the shit out of Rio. So why wouldn't I fight against him rather than Ryel? But you're mentioning Devin. So we're talking big fights off the bat. Yeah, that's what I want. But I'm just saying, like, say I can't get that. That fight, I would rather go with a fighter that I know is going to bring the best out of me. What weight would the Devin fight be at?

144 is what we talked about. And have you agreed to it? Yeah. Oh, wow. Have you signed? Yeah. For real? Yeah.

Okay. And has he? Oh, I don't know on his part. Wait, so you signed a contract to fight Devin Haney in October? I was told that I'm not going to say signed, but I definitely verbally agree that we're going to be fighting in October. And I told them to put my part down. Which part of the country? East Coast, Newark?

I can't, I ain't going to give out their plans. They got to... All right, all right. But that's insane. So has Devin signed with them, too? That was the rumor, but we haven't gone to the confirmation. Everyone suspects he's going to sign with them. As far as I know, I don't know.

Okay. I have no clue what Devin's doing. What's the hold up? I don't know. I see you guys going back and forth. I just know his how it really went. After my fight with Teal, I wasn't speaking on Devin. I didn't, like, bring up Devin.

I didn't, none of that. And whom and Bill constantly had mentioned me, and when they constantly mentioned me, I was chilling, I was minding my business, and now it's like, shit, y'all want to fight me, I'll fight y'all. And I believe you, I saw Bill Haney tweet on July 13th, which is two days ago,

Devin Haney doesn't need to drop anything first, sign the 144 pound bout agreement or D.HP moves on. And then you wrote, stop it, my part been signed, you see who I'm with. What do you mean by you see who I'm with? I'm with Zoufa. They said if you go listen to Bill, Bill said that Zulfa was the ones that want the deal.

They are the people that want the fight to happen. So I want some to the people he was talking about. And then you tweeted, trolling can only last so long. It's either me or key, lose, lose either way, now make y'all decision. Are you referring to Kishan Davis? Yeah, Kishon Davis.

He became a mandatory. And what actually happened in, this is the real storyline. of it is, um, Kishon became their mandatory. And when Kishon became their mandatory, um, they started mentioning my name, like, oh, we want to fight Shakur, we'll fight the big bro. We'll fight the big bro. And once they did that is where it's like I felt like they was kind of trying to run

away from the Kishon and it would rather lose to me than Kishon. So I'm like, shit, however y'all want it, I'm down. Like, if y'all say, oh, Shakur, Shikour, then come see Shakur, cool and then bright lights. Oh my gosh. And why 144? Why 144? Because I'm not a 47 pounder. I just came up from 135 to 140. So if I'm going to move up to make the fight fear, I feel like he should be able to move three pounds down since he just fought Jose Ramirez at 144 with no problem. Okay. Would this fight be on Paramount Plus? I don't know. You got to ask the business people. Okay. You're the businessman. You run everything. You got asked them.

They just announced seconds ago. I don't know if you, I'm sure you knew about it, but Turkey just announced Ryan Garcia against Connor Ben, September 12th on Paramount Plus, which I found to be very interesting, not Netflix, not just on you, you're making a face. Are you surprised about this?

No, no, no, I see. Oh, you saw it. Okay, what do you think of that? It's a cool fight. I think Ryan should win because of his experience, but it's a good fight. Do you have any idea how it's working with, you know, Golden Boy and Desone and all that stuff for Ryan to fight?

Man, I think in boxing, I feel like we want these politics and things to play and come in to play. But that ain't really what boxing fans should win. I feel like Turkey is above all of these guys. And like, if he can get it done, it's going to get done. I don't see no problems with any fights happening when Turkey is involved. The Cheddar makes it better. For sure. You know?

I was secretly hoping it would be you against Connor Ben, so then I could somehow, like, interject myself into the story because I feel like it all started on my show. Yeah, I wanted that fight. That was a fight I wanted, but, I mean, kind of been got other plans. I mean, if you think about it, he probably feels as though he got a better chance beating Ryan Garcia than me,

so I understand it. Did you talk to them about it? Like, hey, he's with you down the line. I want to make this happen? I just talk with him. Not so long ago, because he was afraid that the Ryan Garcia fight wasn't going to happen. So I told him like, shit, if it don't, I'll step in. Okay.

Did you tell the guys about that, like the Zufa guys about that? And Watoa kind of been himself to keep me updated. Okay. He had real conversation about it, so. All right. Who do you think wins that fight? Ryan Garcia. Do you think it's a close fight?

Do you think it's a dominant win for him? How do you see it playing out? No, I think Ryan should win that pretty easy. think this should be a hard fight for Ryan. But you know, you never know who shows up with Ryan. Like the guy that fought against Roley, kind of Ben might get in there and scare him and put him in his place. So we'll see. So when you say like you want to fight Connor and all that stuff, but if he loses in, you know, dominant fashion to Ryan, does that make you less interested in fighting him down the line? Yes. Okay. So there's a lot hinging on this in some regard. Like if

people are hoping to see you fight him, if Connor doesn't show up or does he doesn't show up or doesn't look good, maybe it evaporates. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Can I say something, Choucourt? This is out of love and respect. You know me, I keep it real. I didn't love seeing you guys up there on the way in stage on Friday. Wow. I'll tell you why. You're a superstar. You're an A-lister. You're an A-plus lister.

As is Ryan and as is Connor, to a degree. That spot is usually reserved for like, oh, the friends of the VIP who just want to catch a glimpse of Connor McGregor or the guy. you shouldn't be catching a glimpse of anyone. They should be catching a glimpse of you. If I were your handler, I would have said, now my guy ain't going up there. He's not giving you the rub. He's the man.

He's going to sit in the crowd and look at it, but I don't want to be a part of this. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah, I agree with, like, well, I don't agree. I kind of understand what you're saying, but for me, it's like, shit, I'm a fight fan, so if I could go to a fight and watch a fight and whether weigh-ins or how it go,

I'm go enjoy the environment. You get to see fighters, and what they think and even like with Cona McGregor, respect to Connor McGregor, but when I watched the way it was and I seen like the, and I don't even watch the UFC, I just seen Connor McGregor how he looked and I seen Max how he looked. I'm like shit. I think Max going to win. So I just like being in a fight environment. I'm not one of them dudes who think like I'm just too big for the, for the program. I'm not bigger than the program in my brain. I would rather be Shakur, just be Shakur and enjoy these.

shows and all that shit. So I understand what you're saying, but for me it's like shit, I will go watch weigh-ins and fights any day. All right. I'm just looking out. You know, I wasn't coming from a malicious place. No, no, I got you. I got you. I understand. I'm just telling me like, yeah, no, I appreciate that. Did you enjoy going to the event? Yeah, I enjoyed it. It was definitely an amazing event. What's the guy that for it right before Connor or? Patty Pimbleit. Man, he had a hell of a hell of a performance. And man, that man came out part. party in and he partied in the ring and then after the fight he was partying like that dude had an amazing event so respect to that guy he's he's got like star power right aura yeah it was

like this dude was dancing now I thought he got to get his ass with the way he was dancing out there and then back some push-ups with my homie and shit he went out there and beat that dude that so and I respect him and was that your first time going to a UFC yeah wow what did you think of the energy, the production, the fights, the flow. I thought the energy was amazing. I feel like security probably was a little too top flight, but I think like the energy was amazing. What do you mean by top flight?

It was just a lot going on. Like, they was just so, like, stern and, like, everything was, like, so serious. I feel like, you know, they got to relax a little bit. Just relax. In boxing, it's a little more loosey-goosey? Yeah, it's more loose. Like, you can go there and enjoy a event. I feel like they just was like messing with people.

Like I'd seen them mess with so many people that night. I'm like, God, damn, like, lead them along. Okay, okay. Now, what about them fawning you as Jalen Williams? Man, that was some crazy shit. That was some crazy shit. I didn't understand that. What is that?

I mean, I don't know. I don't know. Whoever is behind a production. I think that is right. They need to be fired. Somebody needed to talk to them because I don't even understand how y'all even get me mixed up with Jaylon Williams. We don't look, none of the light. Yeah, they had

Terrence a few months ago, and they had him faunted as Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, he don't look like Kendrick either, so I just did it. Yeah, when you saw that online, were you bothered by it, or did you just laugh? I don't care. That shit don't do nothing for me. I mean, at the end of the day, when I go in there on flight night,

ain't nobody going to mistake me for nobody. He's going to see me for who I am, man, that's what I really care about the most. In fairness to them, they did show you again and, you know, had you listed the right way. Yeah, I seen it. What did you think of Connor in the end, him coming out with that kick and then getting injured and all that? Shit, that shit looked crazy. I was so hype.

Like, as soon as I seen Connor McGregor, I don't know why I got mad hype because I think I'm a fan of Connor McGregor. When he threw the kick, I said, oh, shit, it's over. I've seen his leg look funny, and I seen him kind of keep going down. I'm like, yeah, this shit is over. Did you feel like it was a letdown? Did you feel like you were, you know, you're not paying like everyone else, but the sentiment was like, oh, we were robbed, this and that. How did you feel afterwards?

Nah, I'm more of a boxing fan anyway, so it didn't really let me down. It was like whatever. It didn't really bother me at all. But seeing that production and knowing that it's the same people who are doing Zufa boxing, did that get you excited about what it would look like if you, you know, when you fight for them? Yeah, for sure. That makes me, uh, it let me know like the light's going to be bright and it's going to be an amazing event and everybody going to be on point come fighting night. Um, have they told you, are they okay with co-promotion? Like, would you be,

are you going to be subjected to fighting fighters outside of Zufa or will it just be Zufa guys? Fighters outside of Zufa? Yeah, that's the main thing. I don't want to just be fighting Zufa guys. I feel like even the guys that saw in with Zufa, I don't see nobody like on the resume, on the fucking thing of fighters that is like, should be fighting against me. I don't see nobody. No, but they're going to be adding people.

And eventually the UFC model is they don't co-promote with anyone. So that might take some time, obviously. But eventually if we get to the point where they don't want to fight, you know, their guys against other people, how would you feel about that? I don't see that. I don't see that.

I mean, if that was the case, Ryan Garcia and Connor Brandon wouldn't be fighting against each other. So I don't see that. I think that with Turkey being involved in boxing, he wants to see the best versus the best. Turkey is not investing into Zufa to say, I want to see Shakur fight

the worst fights. He wanted to see Shakur fight the best fights. And that's what I'm in boxing for. Same way he's into the best fighting and best, I am too. Would it be fair to say, I know you don't want to get just, are you the highest paid guy in Zufa? I should be, yeah.

You should be, yes. Do you know that for a fact? I'm not, I told you, I don't get into the country. Are people, can I just ask about the fans? What kind of response have you gone from the community about this deal? I don't know. I keep it moving. Sometimes I get on my phone and look at it, but I can't tell you what the fans saying.

The fans say whatever they want, but what matters is what happens on fight night, and that's what I kind of stick with. If you do get this fight at 144 and all goes well, will you, do you think you'll stick around in the 40s? Like, do you think maybe your days of 35 are done? No, I'm a 35 pounder. I can make 35 right now easily. Okay.

So which would you prefer, though? 40, 35, not 47, you said, right? What would be the sweet spot for you? Well, I would prefer it would be 35. That's why I would prefer to fight at. but um where the most money fights and the shit that make the most sense i got stripped at 35 so if i gotta be at 40 i don't mind being at 40 either okay but not 47 hell no not yet no all right so what can i ask you before i let you go square what's the message to bill and devon what's going on

here sign the contract that's it you're you're done you're signed sealed and delivered do you think they want to? Do I think they want to? I don't know what they don't. I feel like they was talking real big to me, but once I started talking back and letting them know I'm going that too, they kind of got quiet. Okay. So let's see. I can't wait for this. This will be phenomenal. Thank you so much, man. Congratulations on the deal. Appreciate you very much and always appreciate you coming on. I thank you. Take care. There he is. Shakur Stevenson. Kind enough to join us on this Wednesday afternoon. Wow. That interview, did you guys see that interview with him and Shannon Sharp?

I did. I mean, social clips. He was being very disrespectful. Yeah. Why was he being so disrespectful? I don't know. I thought to Shakur's point, like, I don't think he knew enough about the game to be talking like that. And then tried to do something and got shut down. Cracks me up when he gets into those modes when he's like arguing with people and stuff. Not with me, of course.

You know, because we're part of the family, I'd like to think. But I'm glad that he's not going to be wearing the uniform. I thought he handled it well. Yeah, for sure. He always does. I'm glad we're not wearing the uniforms. Yeah. You know?

I'm okay, by the way. Like, ultimately, they're into the uniforms. If those smaller cards at the apex and stuff are uniforms, fine. I could live with that. But the big dogs can't be wearing uniforms. And why can't it be like that in the UFC? You know what I mean? like McGregor should be able to wear whatever you want.

Oh, don't you know they give them the custom shorts. Oh, that's right, that's right, that's right. Sorry, sorry. Another new addition to the Zuffa roster, Johnny Fisher going to join us in about 15 minutes. And it's a big day for the fishers because England's playing. I saw his dad. There he is.

I saw his dad, Big John. He said that, so there was a story that came out that said, if England wins the World Cup, it should be a bank holiday the following day, or at least the following no, it's Sunday's here, so the Monday should be a bank holiday. But not in Scotland or other parts of the UK,

just England. And some people got mad at him before that. And then Johnny Fisher was on Talks Board and they asked him about this and he's like, yeah, he said, Scotland, Ireland, or Northern Ireland, Wales, they're not rooting for us. So why should they get the bank holiday? Kind of liked it.

spicy some people thought it wasn't politically correct they're also inviting Dana White to the the Blue Orchid which is the

Chinese restaurant that Mr. Big John likes to frequent and dare I say has made famous and Dana accepted the challenge

could you believe that I think we have video of this actual here it is but if we could get Dana to the Blue Orchid and B2, I'm told, is the one to go for. I think that'll be epic. He won't be disappointed and he will not have a better Chinese than the Blue Orchid.

Trust me, I've eaten plenty, as you can see. That is the best by far I've ever eaten. He won't finish the B2. That's the challenge to Dana White. Will you finish the B2? No, you won't. What is the B2? I think G.C knows what the B2 is.

What's the B2? I don't know exactly. I'm just finding, I'm finding like overviews of it. What's it saying? It's a mound of fried rice. A mound? A mountain of fried rice.

Let's see what else we got here. Mountain of fried rice. Crispy chili beef, chicken curry, sweet and sour chicken, and various sides. That's what I'm saying. Various sides, huh? Yeah, I'm not saying. A little more detail than that. That's why I have been the Romford Bull on.

He can explain it to you. Hell yeah. Oh, that's right. I should ask him that. Seeing Big John wear the hat is wild. What is it like? They immediately got that zoo. Ufa-Fo-X-Romford Bull hat going.

Yeah. Oh, what's this? You know what it looks like? It looks like... It looks like... You ever see Wainsworld? Oh, yeah. Wayne's World, too?

Sure. When they make it big? Yeah. When they're selling out, you mean? Yeah. Look at that. Rompford Bull, X. Newfound Bockeh boxing. Also, it's like...

They printed these up at the local shop that morning. No, how dare you? Come on. Frank knows this, right? You know the reference. Yeah, with the Pepsi. The Pepsi. The Pepsi.

the Reebok. Somewhere in Essex, Eddie Hearn is not happy about that. Okay, intern Josh tells me the B2 menu is crispy seaweed, sesame prawn toast. It's not as fun when I read it. Spicy pork, mini spring rolls. The highlight is the crispy aromatic duck.

The mains are a variety of classic dishes, such as the sweet sour chicken. Hong Kong style. What's the difference in Hong Kong style and just regular style? I don't know. Special fried rice, chicken chalmayne,

and chili beef. Many patrons also add on traditional Chinese curry sauce chips and salt and chili prawns. And then dessert is banana or apple fritters

served with golden syrup. Do you think people make the pilgrimage over to the Blue Orchid just so they can, you know, partake in what the fishers eat? I had Chinese for lunch. in trying to figure out what the B2 was, I saw YouTube videos of people doing the B2,

so probably. With them not there. Like no fishers there, they're just going to the Blue Orchid. Inspired. Wow. I mean, it sounds great. That menu sounded pretty good.

Sounds amazing. Hell yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, I got a great idea. My face B2? I got a great idea. That would be phenomenal. No, that was it.

Oh. That was exactly it. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Okay. There's some new. Do Ilya Toporia footage out there, guys. But this is pre-fight, right?

I think this was done before the Gaichi fight. I think it's with the guys who did that reality show with D.C. and John Jones. But anyway, they posted it recently, and there's some spiciness to it. There's a little bit of an AI dub situation, but nevertheless, we fight through it. Here's Ilya talking about his relationship with Dana White.

Relationship with Dana White, like. And what can you tell us about him in general I have almost like zero relationship with him what I can yeah I don't have any relationship I never I never spoke with him about any fight about any anything like maybe I saw him like in in Las Vegas or in another place that I went to watch a down alive yeah I'm talking about Dana what I think about him I respect him as As a businessman, he builds a monster. He builds something that gives us the platform to shine.

So I have nothing than respect for him. Does it surprise you guys that Ili Tupori, one of the biggest stars in sport, has no relationship with Dana White? Is that weird? I think it's weird, yeah. But it doesn't surprise me. I think it's weird, but it doesn't surprise me.

How many fighters at this point have said, yeah, I don't talk to Dana ever. I just think it's weird to not, like, I don't know. After White House, do you think Dana reaches out to him? Hey, kid, hope you're feeling okay? No, no, maybe Hunter. That's weird. Is that not weird?

Yeah, it's just where they're at with the business, I guess. Tom gets poked. Hey, mate, I hope you're all right. Yeah, it's becoming the standard, it seems. Connor hurts his knee. I wonder. He may have texted Connor. Maybe.

Anyway, here's Ilya to pour you. talking about Isam Makhachev moving up and wait. Islam Makatshev, Arman Sarukyan. Many people talk about this matchup. In general, your trio, Islam Makachev, Ilya, and Arman Sarukyan. Islam said, I don't know why he provokes us. The reason is simple.

The guy was the war champion in the lightweight division. When I moved up, I wanted to face him because he was a great challenge in that weight class. And I wanted to beat him as I did. in the failure division with with with with with wakanosky so i was like i'm going to move up i'm going to bid a guy that dominate the the division during i don't know three four or five years and at that that that moment he decided to move up and i'm like listen we need to fight this is a

fight that everyone wants to see why not if i have some personal reasons i don't have any personal reasons with with islam with armand it's like i wish them all the best and in their lives. But when it comes to the sports, I know that I'm the best. And if you think, you have the same thought about yourself, let's do it and let's show to the whole war who is the best fighter in the world.

This was definitely tape before the fight because it doesn't age particularly well. He was asked about Connor McGregor, let's see what he had to say. As a professional and as a, as a, a fighter let's say not not not as a professional as a fighter I like him I I like to watch him fights actually he's one of my favorite fighters to to watch I respect for everything he has done in the sport inside the octagon for everything

he has done outside the octagon I don't want to talk about about that that's he's he's private life if he's saying that I'm copying him or something like that mm at least I'm doing it better than him okay and Finally, one more from this interview. Here he is talking about Armand Serukian. But it doesn't matter for me, personally, I don't care if I fought someone with the same level of Armand or not. The only thing that I know is that if we face each other,

for the first time, he's going to feel my right hand. He's going to feel my skills. He's going to feel every with my power, my speed. He's going to give up. He's a fucking kid. He's not even mature. Okay. I'm seeing, so again, like this was posted recently, but very clearly shot pre-Gaichi fight.

A few things, going back to the Ryan Garcia stuff against Connor Ben, I just saw that he posted on his Instagram regarding Connor Ben. I'm going to show him how Mexican my something, something tastes. when he's on the floor talking all that shit about my heritage that's a promise this clout demon slash fake loyalty p word is getting put to sleep this is for all my UK and Mexican fans also all my fans across the world you will remember this one ring magazine de zone paramount viva mechico shout out UK as well I'm putting a beating on this sausage okay okay okay okay it's getting spicy also what about Shakur saying de zone offered him a deal that's that's new and i guess what de zone is thinking is like hey we got everyone essentially other than MVP and zufa under our umbrella we can offer you and you can fight on our platform

and uh you know we'll just figure out which card to put you on but you won't be tied to any specific promoter it really is just kind of like almost a turkey deal right it's like because he operates above it all and you can kind of just, wherever the scheduling allows, you just slot him in. It makes a lot of sense from their perspective. Yeah, I'm curious if they're going to do more of that,

to be honest. I would think a top guy can get that offer, you know, like whoever the next guy that becomes available is. I'm curious. Everyone's focusing on this Oscar Delahoya, Dana White thing. I would be very surprised if,

I mean, let's wait for clapback Thursday. But we've seen situations where, you know, AJ is fighting Jake Paul and Eddie's not on the stage. Katie Taylor is fighting Amanda Serrano on Netflix for MVP and Eddie's not on the stage. I would not be surprised if Oscar isn't involved. And I guess maybe they'll think as well like, hey, maybe we'll just do it. And it will draw a lot of interest and a lot of eyeballs and a lot of buzz and why the hell not? I mean, that would be fun.

But I wouldn't be surprised. I don't know if we should get hung up on it. Connor Ben has told us a million times about how much the WBC title means to him. And so for him to finally get a chance to fight for that green belt, I know is a really big deal. Is he going to go head to head with Noce UFC? Just thought of that. And also, does this mean that a Zoufa boxing card is going to be airing on DeZone after Dana talked mad shit about DeZone? Do you remember when he was like, what that?

hell is the zone? No one knows what DeZone is. But that essentially means that a Zoufa boxing, a Zufa boxing card is going to be airing on DeZone, at least in the UK and Ireland, right? Very interesting. There's a report out there, by the way, that Michel Pereira has parted ways with the UFC. Here is Alex Pereira weighing in on this. They could have sent this guy earlier and maybe it would have been acceptable, but paying such a high price because of a refereeing mistake is impossible to accept. The UFC has already done and continues to do everything I ask within the organization's reach. But it's sad to see this and not be upset. Many athletes don't say anything, but tomorrow it could be you going through this kind of situation.

And there will be no point in sending me a message asking for help. It's sad that not even the UFC has control over this and because of that our sport keeps being tarnished. My kickboxing record is 40 fights, 33 wins, seven losses. MMA, 16 fights, 13 wins, 3 losses, Vali Tudu, one fight, one loss. Is he mad about the way this is being handled or that he is a byproduct of a Herb Dean mistake and he is fixated on that issue? Unclear.

I think, I think, if I were to guess, he's leaning towards the Herb Dean of it all. But let's see. Okay, we just spoke to Shakur Stevenson, one of the newest members of Zufa boxing. In fact, I think the actual newest member of Zufa boxing is the Rumford Bull. So popular.

We found that on Monday. going to be fighting in London at the Copper Bosch for Zoufa boxing. Massive deal for him, and he's kind enough to join us just a few minutes before kickoff, so I don't want to keep him too, too long. There he is. Mr. Johnny Fisher is here. So great to have you on the program again, Johnny, congratulations on this big news. Are you going to be watching the football in about 45 minutes' time?

Hello, Ariel. Thank you for having me on. Yeah, brilliant news about Zufa, but yes, you're correct. I can feel the hustle and bustle around my. local area where I live, everyone's clambering to get ready. So I've got time for Ariel. Don't worry about that. I've always got time for you, my friend.

I really appreciate that. That means the world. Could I ask, how do the fishers watch a match of this magnitude? I'm going around my mom and dad's house. We're going to sit in the front room and watch it there in the peace and quiet of our own home. Because Big John's enough to deal with on an important occasion like this. Don't worry about that. We don't need any more chaos.

I can appreciate that when it's a big match for my team. I want to be left alone. I don't need to be in a bar or pub or anything like that. I want to be left alone. And we are rooting for you guys. Come on three lions. Let's do it on our way to Sunday's final. Ruding for you as well and so happy for you.

Could you tell us, Johnny, when did this all start? You and Zufa boxing. When did it all start to kick off and they show real interest in you? Well, I was meant to fight first and foremost for the British title in March. And the guy I was fighting was with Ben Shulam and I was with Eddie Hearn. There was a bit of politics going on there between. them to and it was off and on about four or five times. Then I was meant to fight on the Fury Macmill card when I got offered that by Spencer Brown and Dr. Rakhan and then obviously went

to Eddie because I was with Eddie at that point. That didn't happen. So I was left in a position where my contract was up in a month or so. So I sort of said to Eddie, look, I'm going to hear what other people are going to offer. You've made me a great offer. But I'm not going to sit here in light of you. I've got one career and I'm going to make sure that I hear from the context of the whole market before I make a decision. And within a few days of that, Zufa Boxing had made me a fantastic offer for a fight. So I had to go to Eddie and tell him what the offer was.

And it didn't want to match it. So I went on to join Zufa Boxing, and I'm very happy to be there. Did Eddie even try to match it? Was there a talk of matching it, or did he say no right away? Well, it was before the offer came in, we was trying to,

we was trying to make a fight with whether it be on the AJ undercard or there was talk of even Eddie rang me with he was with Turkey Al Shake his excellency and there was talking about a wilder fight then it moved to wilder being which is a lot of politics going on and then because I had an idea in my head already what the money is that I'm worth when I fight and it was before any offers would be made and I just thought Eddie's offer was a great offer I'm not saying that but I thought I was worth a bit more And good job I did wait it out because Zufa then came in with this offer and it blew everything. And my expectations all out of the water. So I had to take it.

I remember a few months ago in talking about the Connor Bend situation, Eddie would always reference you and say, look at the loyalty here. If someone's reaching out to Johnny or AJ, he comes straight to me and tells me, look at this, you know, I'm your guy, this and that. How did we go from that to this? Just a few months later, you're now no longer with Matrim. Well, that's the thing with it. I was offered that offer from Netflix, which was a huge offer to fight on a Fury Macball love card. But I went straight to Eddie.

I made him aware of it. And it wasn't really suiting what Eddie wanted and what we wanted to do in the plan that we had. So I thought, all right, I'll sit this one out because I was quite fatigued anyway from the fight being on and off four or five times before that in and out of camp, out of camp. And I wasn't in the right head space at that point

to then go and take that fight. fight. But when I say loyalty and when Eddie's talking about loyalty, I think it's loyalty to my word and the contract that I was in. I was in a contract with Eddie. And then it came to the point where I wasn't in a contract anymore. So I think that's fair game. And if you make everyone aware of where you are and you're open and honest like I was, I think I put myself in the best position and Eddie was offered the chance to match it and didn't match it. So I had to go with what's best for my career because as much as I respect Eddie, Eddie's my friend as well. He's got to look out for the interest of match and boxing, and I look after the interest of the

Ronford-Balami. And that's given me the biggest fights, the biggest financial reward, of course, but also the biggest promotion. And being with Sky Sports, being with Zouffer now, we're putting this big push. I think it's now time for me to make that step to someone new. You shouldn't always stay in the same position all the time. And sometimes you've got to take a bit of a chance. And I did take a chance going away from Eddie, but I think it's going to prove to be a wise move.

And by the way, just for the record, just so you understand my sentiment, I don't, I'm not suggesting for a second you did anything wrong whatsoever. You did everything right. Even when comparing it to the Connor Ben situation, you went to Eddie. I heard you went to Barry as well, et cetera, et cetera. You have to look out for what's your, you know, like your deal, like your best interests. I was just wondering how, like I thought based on the way he was talking about you that they would do anything to keep you, that they would keep you around forever because of the loyalty you showed them. And so that's what I meant when I said, How did we go from that to this? Yeah. Well, I guess there is an element of loyalty to it. But as I said, it's loyalty in being straight up to people. Rather than loyalty being the word, I think it's about being honest. Yeah. I think Eddie was quite honest in the way that he said, look, I can't front that money up for what I think is going to be delivered.

But we don't know who I'm fighting yet. I don't know who I'm fighting. And one thing to sure, it doesn't really matter who I fight. I'm going to set out the cop of Bosch three times over. But it's going to be someone who's going to give me a test. You look at my last fight in Monaco. I thought someone who's 7 and 0, an unknown quantity, but I'm still an unknown quantity,

and we don't know if I'm going to be British level or beyond. I've still got a lot of improving to do. So whatever fight you put on, it's not going to be as if I'm guaranteed to splatter someone all over the floor. They're going to be hard fights for me, whoever comes in the ring, because I don't know if I'm English, British, European or world level yet. I've got a long, long way to go.

So I guess what the better phrasing of the word would be that we had an open, honest, frank business discussion about where I stand. And I think for me, the financials that are on the table, the promotional, like they're taking me to New York on Friday now, Zufar, to go and do WWE main event, to have dinner with Dana White. But these are massive things for me as a professional boxer and my own commercial value. So I've got to be open and honest and say that's going to be doing a lot for me, where Matcham probably could not deliver that for me.

I love that. So just to be clear, you don't know who you're fighting yet on the 26th of September, right? No, I don't know yet. We've got, what is it, 10 weeks, 11 weeks. We should know in the next week or two. And I've been asked this question a lot, who it's going to be, what sort of level of opponent. I think I look at my last guy in Monaco, an undefeated guy, maybe a little step up from that guy, maybe a little bit lower than what Joshua was fighting now in a 20-0-20 knockout geek guy.

Maybe it'll be someone who's 11 and 1 or 15 and 13. too, something like that. But to be honest, Ariel, I've ever made no bones about I'm not a world level operator, obviously. I'm probably a domestic level fighter. So with my second camp with Tony Sims under my belt coming now, let's get someone where it's going to pose me some questions and pose me some problems, but someone who's at my level because there's no point going into a fight where it's a life or death one and I'm the underdog.

I want to be in a position where it's a fight that I can win and I can win well if I do my job properly. So considering that, why do I keep hearing Eddie saying, you know, we can't offer him the type of opponent that he's going to face, that this is below what they want to do, the standard that they have set for you, et cetera. He is speaking, and I'm not trying to create a riff between you two, but I'm hearing interviews where he's speaking like he knows who the opponent is and that it's a very subpar, you know, type of challenge for you. And so why is he doing this? Well, I was perplexed by that as well, because I don't know who the opponent is. My only, in interpretation of that in a positive way could be that he thinks it's the level of opponent

that he thinks I'm going to face. I'm going to choose someone who's going to be not good enough or up to his standards. But it's going to be the same level guy that when he was trying to put me on the Saudi Arabia card what Joshua is on, Joshua Pringer, it's going to be that level of guy that we already spoke about. There was a couple of guys floating about in there who were like a 15 and 2, 16 and 2, that sort of level guy. It won't be a known name.

It'll be someone from who's an unknown, but they can pose problems in themselves. Look at my last guy. He posed me serious problems in that first round where I went down. So in answer to your question, I'm a bit perplexed myself by that, but that's what promoters do as well. They've got to talk it up for their guys as well who are on their side. But I'll know he's been offered someone easy. But let me tell you, Ariel, I know from first-hand experience, there's no such thing as an easy heavyweight fight. Sure. And it felt like he was maybe trying to get ahead of the story. And so I'm just wondering, based on what he was saying about the type of opponent that he thinks you're going to be matched against. And honestly, I've also heard him to say, like, who you want to fight and the type of money you're getting, were you bothered by any of the things that he said? Were you hurt by any of these things?

Not at all. As you said, I spoke to Barry on Friday and he said, Johnny, you're doing exactly the right thing. Eddie is the one I've been dealing with throughout this situation. He's got. an idea in his head and a narrative that he's probably trying to put out there that it did sound like that, didn't it? And I felt that I'm only want to fight easy people and I want to fight lists and fight that. Well, who is an easy person for me is my answer to that? Who would you say as an easy person? Was my last fight an easy person? Was my fight before that with Dave Allen an easy person? And the one before that with Dave Allen, my last three fights have all been life and death fights. So I don't think there is such a thing as an easy fight for me anymore. I'm at the level I'm at and every single time I step in the ring there's danger.

There is huge danger because of the way that I box and the way that I box is to go in there and be confrontational and if I don't get you, there's a huge chance that I'm going to get clumped on the chin as well. So I don't understand what the narrative is there from Eddie, but I suppose we're cutting some slack because they've taken a huge ticket seller, someone who sells out venues in the south of England and up the north of England as well. So we have to cut some slack there because he's obviously got fighters on his roster who will be thinking, well, if Johnny Fisher the wrongful balls going there. Why can't I go there too?

But I can't moan at Matron because they've given, they look after their fighters immensely. They're paid on time. They look you in the eye. They're frank and their business-like review. But they're honest. So it's just Eddie, Eddie being Eddie is what I would say, Ariel. Okay. He has also said that you were offered six and a half times what they could offer you. Is that an accurate number? That is an accurate number. That is an accurate number without going into the actual nitty-gritty of numbers.

That was what that was offering me. I'm actually being offered double or triple what I would have been offered to fight someone for a British title under any. Wow, wow. This is an incredible deal for you. It's an amazing deal. But if I'm being honest, Darry, It's fantastic, it's beautiful. Listen, we all need money. We all need to earn a living. But I was asked this question today. They were saying, you must feel amazing.

You must feel great. Well, yeah, it feels amazing, but I know there's work ahead of me to do. So I've got to go and earn that now. I've got to go and show Zufa what the best version of the Rompheball is, which is explosive, which does bring a massive crowd. And there's work to do. And I never get complacent.

And I don't get too high when things are going well. Because when things are going low, you can't get too low either. So my mom, my dad, my family, they teach me to keep a level head and the work is ahead of me now. And so why is it just a one-fight deal? It's a one-fight deal because for me in my stage of my career, the only fight that matters is the next fight that's coming up, Ariel. There's no – why would I look ahead to what's next? And in a way, that gives me the freedom and the focus to look at this fight and think, well, it's now and ever. If I don't win this fight, I've had three hard fights of my last three.

I've lost one of them in the last three, and the other one was very close at the beginning. I've got to think long and hard about where I am in this, in this junction in my career. This is pivotal now. It's a big move for me, and I've got to make a success of it. So why look beyond this fight?

This fight is the only one that matters. The only reason I say that is because when you're going to leave, you know, a sort of established great relationship, maybe you want the comfort of knowing that there's a long-term deal there, not just a one-off. Yeah, well, the way I live, My life now, Ariel, is you live in the moment. You live in the here and now.

This fight will secure me financially for the next, at least the next decade. But you have to prove yourself again and again. When I've been comfortable or when I thought, well, I'm secure now, you know what it's like. If you're in a pressurized environment where you know you've got to perform, you perform better. That's the same for my sporting background, for my academic background. I've got to perform now because I've got impressed Sufer.

If I don't impress them, maybe we don't do another deal. If I do impress them, I impress Zufa, but then I impress match them again. I impress Queensbury. I impress everyone. So I'm in a position where I've got win my next fight in good fashion, and that's all that matters. We've got a one fight deal, but the only fight that matters is the next one. This will be on Sky. Does Sky contribute to the deal as well, or is it all a ZUFA deal?

It's a ZUFA deal, but obviously Zufa are in conjunction with the ballcaster, which is Sky Sports. and Sky Sports was a massive pull for me, regardless of a financial deal that I've done with Zouffer, because it's the home of football. I'm a massive cricket fan. I'm a massive British and Irish Lions rugby fan. But the opportunity is that they're going to offer me from an exposure point of view as just a sporting fan as well, a massive.

So it's a match made in heaven. I think back to when Eddie was with Sky Sports as well, when you had them big nights with AJ coming through, you had Belue and Hay, you had Chisora White, You had even David Price and Usick was on there. Like, Sky Sports feels like a good place for mainstream sport to be, you know? Hell yeah.

No, it's massive, especially, you know, obviously, especially for a British fighter. And so when do you expect to know who the opponent is? How, you know, what are they telling you? Are they close? What are you hearing? What I've heard from my management, so Adam Morley is my manager and Archie who helps assist Adam in the next week or two, I'm imagining. Okay, and you'll be the main event.

Right? On the main event at the Copa Bosch, the Bull Army will be there, Triple B, and the Army will be marching Uncle Mike will be there. So hopefully one day, Ariel, you can come along and be part of the Von for Bull Army. That would be an absolute dream, an absolute delight. I did see your father invite Dana White to the Blue Orchid for the B2 challenge, and we were trying to find out online what exactly, because it's a little bit, like it's not quite detailed enough.

Can you tell us what is the B2 challenge? So the B2 is a set menu that you have in the Blue Alkid, and you can only get it in the Blue Alquid. You start off with your mixed horseroyalb, so you have a spicy pork dish, which is a secret recipe just from the Blue Alkid, sesame prawn toast, your crispy seaweed, chicken satay.

That's your starters before you get anywhere. Then you have a second starter, or an intermediary course of crispy aromatic duck with pancakes, hoitin sauce, spring onion and cucumber. That is probably my favourite thing in the whole of the Blue Orchid. Wow. If you get through that,

You get to your main dishes, your special fried rice, you compo prawns, your sweet and sour chicken. Anything you want really from a main dish, you can customize that bit. And then if you've got enough left in the tank, you get to the end course, which is deep fried apple fritters or banana fritters with a toffee sauce and ice cream all over the top, which I'll tell you are delicious. So you've got to try it one day area as well. Sounds heavenly. Have you finished it beginning to end? No one has ever finished the B2. Wow.

Not even your dad. No, he can't finish it because you end up going too mad on the first courses and then you get to the end and it's like no one's ever finished it and Richard from the Blue Alkin, Daniel and Stingway they'll tell you

no one's ever finished it. Do you believe Dana White will at least show up to try to finish it? He will. I've heard about his series that he's got of eating challenges and I think we're doing something with him on Friday in New York so that can be a good appetite for this as well so

let's see how he gets on there first. Does this mean, John? Johnny, if England makes it to the World Cup final win today, are you going to the match? I won't be going to the match. No. I'll be on the plane home as the World Cup thing is going on. You can't be doing it. Which is crazy.

What? You got to change your flight. I can't. I can't. Johnny. My dad's going straight on to New York, to Australia, to see my youngest brother, William, who lives over there. And I'm going to be on the plane. But apparently, Jake, who's traveling with us, has said that they've got streaming services.

But, 1966, Johnny, you got to be, you got to be watching. I know, but as an Englishman, we understand that work is work

and you have to go and do your job. But I think it will be even more exciting being on the plane. I've been on the plane when we got knocked out of the 2018 World Cup

back from Iron Apple with my mates. Oh my. It was one nil up. And then we had an announcement from the pilot that we'd lost it. So I hope it's not a repeat of that.

No, me too. As long as it'll be all right. Yeah, I agree with that. By the way, so you're going to be out there hobnobbing in New York City with the big wigs you're going to wwee i mean this is this is this is this is vip stuff this is it's insane is how i described it to my to my manager it's just

insane but i don't i don't dwell on on things like that i'm just i'm just happy and grateful and for these opportunities that i'm getting and um i'm just so excited for the next phase of my career and as i said ariel in this game of boxing it's a really high pressure my stakes gain to be in, but I've learned over the last year or two years to just live in the moment and take every day and appreciate it, because it's bigger than boxing all of this stuff. This is life, and life can be over very quickly, and it's precious, and I just want to enjoy every moment of my life, Ariel, because a lot of people can't, and I'll just want to be grateful for every opportunity that I'm given.

Amen to that. Could I ask you, Johnny, you know, and I hope this doesn't get, this doesn't get perceived as disrespectful, but you know there's a war right now between Dana White and Eddie Hearn. Do you believe that you are a pawn in this war? Like, they're clearly trying to go after big names under the Matcham umbrella. That's not a secret. And so they zeroed it on you. You're a big name.

You're a draw. Do you feel like you're a pawn in this or do you feel like they genuinely want to be in business with Johnny Fisher? Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, of course. Of course, I'm a player in the game of boxing, in the heavyweight boxing. anybody that can fill up an arena is going to have a value one to Eddie Hearn, two to Dana White or any promoter in the game. So I'm not stupid, I'm not deluded.

But that's also because that also is an indicator that they want to be in business with me, isn't it? I'm only useful to any promoter while I sell tickets or I'm winning. Either of them stop or both of them stop. Zouffer, Matrim, Queensbury, Ben Shalom, whoever it is, no one wants to know me. So that's the nature of the game that we're in. and I've got no qualms with that because people were trying to run businesses here.

You wouldn't go to the Chinese every day if they couldn't cook you sweet and sour chicken and they didn't know how to do a charm in. It's pretty simple, isn't it? So as long as I can sell tickets and I'm being in exposed to the entertaining fights, long may it continue and thank you everyone who wants to be part

and do business with me. When Eddie Hearn says he's happy for you, do you believe him? I do, and I believe Barry Hearn as well. I was on the phone to Barry Hearn who I said it's on social media. He's been a bit of a mentor to me over the last couple of years and his good friend Jess Hardin is heavily involved in my career.

And I believe that he is happy for me because he wants to see his fighters go on and do financially well and be successful. Of course he's going to be a little bit, a little bit, what's the word I'm looking for? He's not going to be completely happy because it's an ego thing. It's a thing of he's got a problem.

promotional company. As you said, he's at war with Dana White. So I'm caught in a crosshairs of that. But I think when Eddie goes to bed at night, he's a good man. And I know a good man when I see one and he'll be happy for me at the same time. And me and Eddie are on good terms. I know if he turned up at my house, he'd be welcomed in the same for if I was at his house. We're friends. So business is business, but that doesn't get in the way of being friends and good friendship. And I believe you when you say that. Lastly, do you think that at some point you will work together again? Are you leaving that door open? At least in your mind, obviously it's a big hypothetical and a lot can happen.

And I'm not going to suggest you're going to just leave Zouf after one fight. But at some point, do you think your path will cross with him again? Of course it will. Of course it will. I mean, Eddie's from Montford. He's from Brentwood. He's the same couple of the same cloth as me. So that door will always be open because that man has never done me wrong.

We've had some of amazing nights over the course of it from, from places in the UK to Monaco, Saudi Arabia, Vegas, I don't burn bridges with people. And I think that's a good bit of advice my dad and my granddad will give me. You don't burn bridges unless you absolutely have to. And there is no bridge being burnt here. And my arm is always out to Eddie and Barry because they're good men, they're stand-up gentlemen.

And I'll say that to the cows come home. Have you met Dana yet? I've spoke to him on video call quite a few times. and I'll be meeting him on Friday. And Nick Con, you've spoke to him too? Yeah, I spoke to Nick Khan, obviously, head of WWE. And I think he wants to get Big John in the Ray Mysterio, I'm all smashing a chair over.

Are you going to be on the broadcast on Saturday at MSG? I think so, yeah. I've just been told that I'm going to be live on the main event at WWE. So let's see how it plays out, Ariel. It's the crazy world we live in. Your old man, too? He's there Friday. but he's traveling to see my brother in,

we're doing a TV show with Paramount Plus, so obviously you're in conjunction with Zufa. So he's actually got a flight Saturday afternoon straight to Australia, so I don't think he's going to make it. So the main man and the star of the show might not be there, which is gutting for everyone. No, no, no. That's you.

And has filming started for that yet for the show? Yeah. It's actually nearly finished. The last episode is my mom and dad going to see William who's moved to Australia for two years to work. So they're finishing up now and it should be due to air in October time. So that will be on your screen soon. Meet the Fishers.

And so in conjunction with you fighting September 26, it's perfect timing. It's perfect timing. They've filmed a lot of stuff regarding my career as well. Our discussions with Eddie, one of them discussions when I went to his office, that was all filmed by Paramount. So that would be great viewing as well. And yeah, all the stuff about me building up to this deal. and I reckon they'll get a bit of the fight itself as well.

So let's see how it all plans out. So perhaps we should have known when this was announced that there was something in the works. Maybe that was the first clue. What? The meat, the fishers. Yeah, it feels like it's all sort of, no, it doesn't feel like it's all symbiotic? No. I didn't know anything about it at stage.

I don't know what I'm doing day-to-day, Ariel, let alone what's going to happen in three months. Bloody hell, I wish I was that good. It was that much of a mastermind. Well, everything worked out from afar. It's a beautiful thing. It worked out beautifully. Congratulations. Much love to you and your family. You guys deserve it and then some, and I'm so delighted for you and that you're getting a nice home game, if you will, back at the Copper Bosch. Come on, England. It's coming home, Johnny. Let's go.

Coming home. Two one. Come on. Two one. Big Dan Byrne is going to score a hat trick today. Oh, wow. Okay. I wasn't going with that. I was going to go with Bellingham or maybe Harry Kane, but I'll, I'll go with yours as well. Can I wait for it. Much love to you, Johnny.

Congratulations. Thanks, everybody. Have a good day. You too. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. There he is.

The Rumford Bull. What a guy. I mean, is there a nicer, more salt of the earth mench than Johnny Fisher, the newest member of Zoufa boxing. I mean, it's quite, you know, it's quite the roster. It's quite the roster.

Not going to lie. As I said, millions of time. millions of time do not doubt these guys they are coming they are coming for the jugular now the question is

you know how's Eddie how's Frank how's Ben Shalom how are golden boy MVP etc etc etc all these people how are they going to fend them off but they are coming

they have unlimited funds they've got turkey on their side they've got Paramount Plus on their side it would be shocking if this fails now what is your definition of failure, what's your definition is? It ain't going to fail, at least for now.

They've got brilliant people behind. Like, it's just, it's inevitable. This is the one sure thing in combat sports. Dana, Nick, Turkey, Mark Shapiro, Paramount Plus, you're betting against these guys. You're making a massive, massive, massive mistake. Massive mistake. The Shakur signing, Devin Haney's coming to, Johnny Fisher's a nice piece, and more to come. No doubt about that.

All right. In about 20 minutes, Scott DeMore is going to join us in studio. He is the founder of Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. They are having their first show tonight on TSN2 in Canada, and they're doing big things over in the Canadian market for professional wrestling. But first things first, I want to say hello to our next guest who had a phenomenal win. One of the best fights of Saturday's UFC 329 card, a massive win over Corey Sanhagen. He's had some big wins in the UFC, no doubt.

But perhaps this is his biggest. and best to date and getting very close to a potential title shot. He is the one and only Mario Batista, who is kind enough to join us right here and now. Hello, Mario, how are you, my man? A pleasure, as always, and congratulations on the win. First, can I ask, you know, you've been in the UFC since 2019, but to be a part of a Connor McGregor card, did it feel different in Vegas? Did the buzz feel different?

You're a part of it. You were on the main card. How would you describe how it felt? Yeah, you know, I think, part of the reason why the vendors and all that stuff wasn't there is because they did a lot of that in Washington for the White House card and so they didn't want to do it twice. That was my understanding. Of course. You fought Corey's first ESPN card back in 2019, a short notice fight for you, didn't go your way. When you got the call that they wanted to run it back seven years later,

a little more than seven years later, seven and a half to be exact, what did you feel? What was your reaction. I'm sure, you know, I know it's a long time ago, but everyone wants to be in the UFC and everyone wants to make a good first impression. The loss to Corey back in 2019 in Brooklyn, how much at the time did it bother you, did it deter you? It was short notice, but you never want to lose your first fight in any promotion. And so how much did it bother you in the immediate aftermath? And so you have this opportunity to fight him. He's one of the top guys at 135, first round watching it, it was a close first round, and then there's that, you know, that moment towards the end of the first round

where you grab his leg and it looks like a combo of like the Suleyev stretch and then maybe a knee bar, and it's mesmerizing that he's not tapping and it seems like you have it locked in. What are you feeling in that moment and are you shocked that he's not tapping? So what was interesting about that was I saw him limp as well, but then second round, it looked like it didn't bother him at all. And I scored the fight first round, third round for you, gave him the second round, and I was shocked that he was showing no signs of what transpired at the end of the first.

What are you seeing and what are you thinking in that moment? Were you trying in that second round to attack that leg? Was that a conscious thing that you were doing as a result of what happened? So when it comes to something like that and, you know, there's a moment in which it looks like someone's been injured and now you're thinking to yourself, okay, let me try to exploit this and attack it. are you straying away from the game plan? And is that potentially why the second round went as it did for you? And so what are you thinking after the second round going into the third and what is your

corner telling you in order to get it back on track? After you did that, after you're dropping him and then, you know, you kind of secure the round, you probably thought, okay, I got this in the bag, right? Have you seen the photo of his leg that he posted on Monday, how it's looking? There it is in case you didn't. What do you make of that when you see it? Yeah, he said in that post he thinks he tore his hamstring, which just makes the fact that he was able to fight for 10 more minutes and maybe potentially win that second round that much crazier. I would imagine it never seemed like you guys had any bad blood, but I would imagine your respect for him after all this has grown even more.

So you said afterwards that, you know, you'd like to get a title shot. Everyone wants a title shot. It seems like it's going to be Marab and Puritanian. and that's always kind of been the direction that we've heard ever since they fought in December when Jan beat Marab. And so if that is the case, what's the next best thing for you? Obviously, Sean fought Sugar Sean back in June. He gets to win.

He wants a title shot as well. We were trying to figure out the state of your relationship and whether or not if push came to shove. You would fight him. You're both from Arizona. You seem to be friends. How would that go if it was offered? Yeah.

When's the last time you trained together? End of last year, towards the end, obviously you have the Umar fight. Since then you've won two in 2026 February and this past weekend. What were you thinking after the Umar fight about, you know, the state of your career, what you needed to do to get back on track? Because, you know, for someone like you who's soft spoken in such a, you know, stacked division, you could be overshadowed at times. Now, one loss sometimes equals like five for a guy like Sean who is so outspoken and

popular and stuff like that. And so what were you feeling about what you needed to do to get back after? that fight. And so, you know, that main event fight that you were talking about, that was against Vinicius Olivera. And he's quite aggressive online. And I don't know, you know, why they would consider running this one back, but have you seen his tweet after your fight? Okay. You're perplexed by it, it seems, because, like, you just fought him back in February. Why, you know, why would it ever be something that they would consider running back? Yeah. This one, how about, You see this? Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow. And so does that hurt still?

Yeah. Okay. And will it ever go back in? Wow. Okay. Well, you know, just another reason as to why we have to respect you guys so much because you just kind of deal with stuff like that and go about your life and then fight other human beings. Just curious, what did you make of what we saw in the main event, how Connor started the fight, the injury, all that stuff? The rest of the car was amazing, but it sounds like you agree. Like we were wondering on Monday and we're not fighters, like, why would you, you haven't found five years, why would you start the fight that way, like so aggressively? I would imagine someone of your expertise thought the same when it was all playing out. Like, what's the point of that?

Did you ever see him in the back, any interactions with him? Okay. But still, I would imagine a memorable moment for your career and especially as it gets, you know, capped off by a massive win over the guy who beat you in your debut, a pretty damn good weekend for you in Las Vegas. If it was up to you, when would you return? Do you want another fight this year? Amazing. Well, congratulations. Well done. What a fight. Both, I mean, if we didn't get the the Brandon Royval fight against Lonnie Kavanaugh, I would imagine your fight would have been on the short list for a fight of the night. That was an incredible fight as well. The two fights going back to

back was really great. An amazing main card. And part of the reason why it bothered me so much when people were complaining that this was a bad night for the UFC, I thought the entire card was great. And your fight was definitely a big reason why. So congrats on the win. Enjoy it. Thank you for coming on as always. And looking forward to the next one from you later in the year, hopefully. Anytime. There is. Mario Batista coming off the massive win. And you know we love Corey Sanhagen around here as well. But that was a huge, huge win over one of the best guys in the division. and coming off the loss to Umar at the end of 2025, two big wins over Loke Dog now and Corey Sanhagen, Batista, definitely well on his way. The rankings are interesting.

Let's look at the meta rankings here real quick. You've got Yan is champion. You've got Marab as the number one contender. We suspect those two will fight each other at some point this year. Umar is fighting shortly the 25th. Sean O'Malley doesn't have a fight. and there's Batista who just beat Sanhagen. Like, he's right freaking there.

He's right there. He's right there. Okay. In about an hour's time on the nose, we'll answer your questions, comments, and that will be it for me for this week. Gave you like five shows last week, all right? But BITB tomorrow, and hopefully PTC has recovered by the time we get to Friday's crack.

I'm so excited to have our. next guest in studio. He is the president of Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, an absolute legend as far as Canadian pro wrestling is concerned. I'm going to take it a little quick. We're doing this again, Frank. I thought it was a Vegas thing. Three decades of experience in the pro wrestling industry has competed, has been a Booker, has been a producer, an executive, has done it all. And he's got a massive, massive night ahead of him because Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling will make its TSN debut this evening, Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling Mayhem, MLP Mayhem

and they are the crown jewel of the Canadian wrestling scene. He's the one and only Scott DeMore who is here in studio. Is he actually here? Wow, look at this one. This is great. This is exciting. The headman of Team Canada. How are you, sir? Great to see you. Yes, thank you so much. Please have a seat.

Wow, what a treat. Former uncrowned columnist, Scott DeMore. Probably the, you know, the most exciting thing to ever happen in your career, working for a little bit there. It was a lot of fun for someone who's dealt with a lot of media. I've done very little print. So it was a great process for me to get back to writing, which is, I only made it out

of high school because of writing, right? I don't know when you came along, but like in Ontario, you needed six OAC credits. Like those were like your grade 13 credits. Yes, yes. To get into university. And I took three English. So that's, that was, it was like 88, 86, 85. Like, that's what coasted me into university.

And you studied communications in college, right? I did, yeah, at the University of Windsor, yeah. Okay. So you wanted to be a journalist? I didn't know what I did, but I knew I wanted it to be in media. Okay. Yeah. And now here you are.

Here I have all these years later. It's great to have you in studio. There's my friend Brett, by the way. I don't know if you saw him. You know, we have a lot of Canadian. Yeah, great representation. Yes, that's my guy. Very exciting night for you.

MLP Mayhem making its debut tonight on TSN2. Midnight Eastern, correct? Yep, midnight Eastern 9 p.m. Pacific, yep. This is the sports network. Yeah. This is TSN Sports Desk. I used to grow up watching

Geno Redda and Vic Router and Van Horn and all these people like, this is a big deal. How did the little engine that could that's less than two years old, right? You launched in August of 2024. How did you guys get a TSN deal?

You know, it's funny because from from the very inception for the idea of Maple Leaf Pro, we wanted to be on TSN. reached out to them, you know, made a connection through somebody, had a whole discussion. It kind of, it kind of, you know, just sort of stalled. You know, it happens in television. And then last year, as we were running, you know, we set up and we said, hey, I've been saying for over three decades, we're going to run Maple Leaf Gardens, you know, and we've never done it.

Like, this is the time. If nothing else, if MLP does nothing else other than run Maple Leaf Gardens, we're going to accomplish that goal. And that was our big thing last year. And then, lo and behold, at the event at Matamy Entertainment Center, I better get it right. You know, formerly Maple Leaf Gardens. Our spiritual home. One of the head guys from TSN was there because of a friend of mine, a longtime associate, you know, Paige Megan, Page McGahn, the Megan Boys, the Bar Mitzvick Kings of Toronto. They are.

One of the very top guys in the company showed up. And I hope it doesn't get mad, but it was David Bross. And, you know, he's like the executive director of programming. he showed up just to check out the show and he kind of looked at it and was kind of like wow and then he kind of told me that night I know you guys had talked to us before

and it kind of, you know, like went quiet he goes, I don't know if this makes it better or worse but I'm the reason it went quiet. Oh, wow. He said there's just so much on the go and we're trying to get organized and we just didn't have enough hands for the work we had and I just basically said

everything below this on this list is done. Like don't pay attention to it. So us running Maple Leaf Guard, gardens, Page and Gian getting David Bross to show up, him looking and seeing the show and seeing a full arena and going, wow, this is cool. That got our conversation started again. Amazing. And so for now, it's 12 one hour episodes, right? 12 one hour episodes, yep, which culminate right back there at the Matamy Athletic Center, you know, the former Maple Leaf Gardens. So we're stoked. That's October 3rd and we're really excited. And so is it a one year deal or like just for the, how does it work right now? It's structured as one year with options. Okay.

And we're certainly looking at it as a long-term deal. We know we have to produce. I mean, we've known since we started, right? Like, I got let go from T&A. And, well, I found out in January, everybody else found out in February of, of 2024. We probably started talking around May, June once, you know, my, I was done sulking and feeling sorry for myself. And then, you know, from that point forward, to us, it's been a long-term plan. It hasn't been like, hey, let's run a show.

show. It's like we know we're going to have to go out there. We're going to have to do proof of concept. We're going to have to assemble, you know, 27 Yankees, murderers row of people. And that's where he went out and got Keith Mitchell, arguably the most legendary producer in wrestling history. That's where we got Tim Walbert, who's directed WrestleMania and done like thousands and thousands of hours of sports and everything in MLB. And we got Kevin Sullivan as our chief, as our chief creative officer, right? And him over the looks and the fields of the graphics and the videos.

and literally just from top to bottom, the people we assembled, we were planning for a long-term build. It's kind of like when I stepped into TNA, we told people, don't judge us where we are, like in a month and go, hey, well, this is what happened a month.

Judge us in six months a year, two years, three years, and see where we grow and where we go. And that's our approach with MLP. And you've got the inimitable Morrow Renalo as your voice. I mean, I heard the promo, we were listening to it earlier. I'm like, just hearing Morrow talk about anything,

let alone wrestling, like, makes me tingly inside. Morrow could read the obituaries and make you happy about it. Yeah, I'm so grateful. Morrow and I got our start. Well, not our start. We first met each other in Stampede in the late 90s when they were doing one of their revivals. We've stayed in touch over the years with his time at Fight Network and as his career, you know,

grew and blossomed into, I think it's indisputable to say the best combat sports announcer in history. If you want to argue this person's better. at boxing, this person's better at MMA or this person's better at wrestling. There's conversations to be had, but there's no conversation about cross-genre

combat sports, nobody touches them. And you know, he had kind of reached out to me, which we've always stayed in touch and checked in on each other. He had reached out to me, we talked, and I could see there was a little something that there's a little spark in there for

Morrow. Because Morrow's, like a lot of us, loves wrestling, you know, He's known for all the big boxing matches and the, and the MMA. And, you know, of course, right. But wrestling while maybe third on his depth chart of the great stuff he's done, it's a passion. And we talked about him coming in to call those first shows. And he was the approach that he takes is so next level.

It's so next level. It's, I worked with Mike Teney for a long time. I have a world of respect for Mike today. He's a great friend. He was a men. tour to me in many ways. Like we were, we were a road couple. You know, we, we traveled, you know, we split cars. We always stayed at the same hotel. We went out to dinner or drinks together, you know, like he was, and we were attached at the hip when we did the original T&A

creative in like that 05-06. I thought Mike was the only person in the world that showed up with 100 page of notes. And then I think Borrow my top, the professor. And that's that's something that's unbelievable. I've always kind of had a dream of having the professor and Moro call just once, one thing together, because they're both just so good, so sharp, and the most prepared, you know, like insanely prepared human beings I've ever seen. Like, if they, if they need five facts, they have 100. Have you broached that subject? Have you tried? I bring it up every so often. Mike and I still talk, and we will, I think, for the rest of our lives. I've brought it up here and there. Like he's, like, look, when, when Don Callis and I took over

impact wrestling, you know, going into 2018, first call I made was Mike today. Can you come back? Let's write or wrong. What they did to you was, was inexcusable, but let's fix that. And we, he went back and forth, but I think ultimately Mike's at a great point in his life, him and his wife, Karen. They live out in Vegas. You know, they make their trips to Utah. You know, they're going You know, the kids didn't grow out, now grandkids. And, you know, they have a great life. And I think the idea of getting on a plane on any type of regular basis is, is something that I think Mike's kind of left in the rearview mirror. But Mike, if you're watching, just one time.

I mean, maybe Maple Leaf Gardens would be a great spot for it. Mike's such a hockey guy. You know, he did a lot of writing for the L.A. Kings. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, huge, huge hockey guy. So, I mean, maybe Mike, just the cathedral of not just. wrestling, but hockey in Canada, you know, the former Maple Leaf Gardens. Come on to just call one match. Let's chill out on the cathedral of hockey in Canada. There's a place called the Montreal Forum,

now Bell Center. All those cups. As a Montrealer, I, you know, I do have to push back on that statement. Well, you're certainly a more successful franchise, and you just, you just have to give us, you know, Toronto fans something because I always say, I don't want a lot. I would just like to watch the Leafs win a cup in color. Oh, yeah. You know, because it's, it's like the footage I watch is black and white. Like, even if you told me the Leafs could win a Stanley Cup, but I would never get to be there or to celebrate it, then just show me a 10 second clip in color.

Like, I want to see some, like a goalie other than Johnny Bauer hoist the cup. Well, I feel a kinship towards Leafs fans, believe it or not, because I'm a diehard New York Knicks fan. Oh. And I said the same. That's why I have the trophy here. I'm still on, that's why I have the hat here. I'm still on cloud nine.

I always said, I just want one in my lifetime. And I never thought, but I never gave up. And so I hope for you, I actually hope for you guys that you get to see it because the feeling that I felt last month is something that I'll never forget, especially as a father and going through it all. So don't give up. Because when it happens, when it happens, my man, it is unlike anything you've ever felt in your life.

Yeah, you know, I'll keep holding faith. I'll be Charlie Brown running up to kick that football like so many otherly faithfuls. But, I mean, look, I've been blessed. I'm a Celtics fan, so I've seen a lot of championships there. Oh, okay. Jay's fans, you know, we had a great run. I've been able to be part of that. And a Bears fan.

So we suffer some, but I mean, I was there for 85. So, I mean, you know, that was a moment. That was, to me, the greatest team in football history. So, like, I just need the least. I don't feel too bad for you now. All right, fair enough. You mentioned TNA and people know about that story. I have great love and respect for TNA.

In fact, I had Jeff Jarrett in studio last week, and it was one of my favorite conversations that I've ever had, and I told him the story about when I was a youngster in this business, I met Kurt Angle, and I did a couple of things for spiketv.com, and Kurt told me that I reminded him of Brian Goertz, because I went to Syracuse. And so he asked me to email Jeff and say, hey, you know, do you have anything on the creative team?

Because I loved wrestling so much. Jeff kind of dismissed me and was like, hey, if you're not willing to move to Nashville, you know, Scram Kid. But I always loved it, and it was fun to be able to tell him that story all those years later. And that's when I was introduced to you with Team Canada, and the hard, the camera and all that, I loved it. And then, of course, you leave and you come back.

And I felt like TNA, this is my preamble, was like, or impact wrestling five feet under, not quite six, but five. And you brought it back to life and then some. And so when I found out that you were leaving, it was shocking. When you got that word and when you digested it and you sulked as you said, was there any part of you that thought maybe you were done with the pro wrestling business, that it was so, it was so shocking and abrupt and out of nowhere, and you did so much good work

that maybe that was it for you? I don't know. I mean, certainly there was times that I probably said it. I don't know if I ever felt it. To me, it was, you know, and I got the call a few days before Hard to Kill where we were, you know, TNA was coming back.

We had done the announcement, done the build. I mean, I only got the call because I literally told Len Asper, like I'd been trying to talk to him. And he was say, hey, let's talk after Vegas. And I text him and said, not getting on this plane to Vegas tonight if you and I don't have a conversation. And this is the head of Anthem. This is, yeah, Leonard Asper.

Yeah. Yeah. He owns TNA. Yes. Yeah, he's the head of Anthem Sports. So we had that conversation and I was like, okay, I'll go do these shows, like, going to do my thing. So I was so much in a zone for that.

We did those shows in Vegas, which I'm so proud of, that pay-per-view, that hard-to-kill paper-view thought was amazing. The next night, we did the first two television episodes of TNA, and that had the, that Will Osprey Josh Alexander match, you know, which I thought was such a huge match for T&A and wrestling in general. And then I, and then we had Okada, which a big thing to me was finally putting to rest this, you know, Okada TNA thing from which I was never a part of, but had lingered. So we did all that, you know, I cut that promo in the ring, go back and watch it that night of the TV. We were short on time. We had to

to fill out the TV episode so we could get it aired. So Tommy Dreamer came to me and said, you got to go to the ring and cut a promo. And I'm literally, they're putting my jacket on me as I'm walking through go position. So I go out there, I cut that promo, you know, tears in my eyes, talking about what wrestling meant to me.

It was part me talking about TNA was back, part me, you know, in some ways kind of like grieving my own. You knew at that point? I knew at that point. I knew at that point. Going into Hard to Kill that I knew that. that I was done. I'd said I'd do the Vegas stuff, and then the following week, we had some shows in Orlando. So I think strategically they knew this is a good time in the sense. We'll get six

weeks of TV in the span of eight days, or even less, and we can we can then use that runway to get ready, which is fine. So I did that. Then we went right into making the Orlando shows, did those Orlando shows, and within 20 minutes of the show ending, that's when I decided I was going to make a run at buying TNA. So my first thought was I'm going to go home, you know, I just want to sulk and be in a dark room. Then I was like, F this. I started sending text messages before the show was over, like looking for people that

might want to support and invest in an acquisition of TNA. So then I worked on that for a few weeks. And I remember I sent the offer to Len Asper from the balcony of the Jericho Cruz. just as we were getting ready, I was like, I got to get this out because once we get out to see, I don't know if it'll get out. So I sent it then.

Ultimately turned down, obviously, as people know. And then I finally went home to Salk and realize how all-consuming TNA wrestling, impact wrestling, anthem sports had been for seven years of my life and kind of went, oh, I've got to figure out what I'm going to do. And was there ever a point where you thought

wrestling wasn't going to be a part of that? Like I said, I mean, the thought was there, you know, the anger, the hurt, So, I mean, I didn't watch wrestling for a little bit. I mean, and I talked to a lot of people. And when I found when I did get near wrestling, it stirred feelings that I didn't want to have. So I needed just a little bit of separation

just to detach myself from the situation because there's literally seven years of me living and breathing, you know, impact TNA wrestling. I mean, really, in Anthem Sports, I was part of the Access Acquisition team to oversee that. You know, I did the New Japan television deal. I basically, you know, I handled a lot of, like, basically they used to joke that, like, I was basically the sports director for Access TV, right?

I mean, you know, Impact and New Japan and, you know, Invicta. I ended up, like, Invicta got thrown on my plate at one point. And Shannon Knapp, who's a passionate, dedicated woman, I feel for her, because I know they've been, have not been getting a lot of events. And it has shown a year. No, more than a year. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, you know, and I'm grateful for that experience because, I mean, look, I'm not the world's toughest man. You can tell to look at me. But, like, I love, I love MMA. I was part of those early Dan Severn training camps, not because I was good, just because back then, in those early days, anybody who was doing mixed martial arts was probably 170 pounds or smaller, it seemed. So I ended up part of Dan's camps just to be a big body. Wow. So I got to be in the corner for some U.S.

FAC fights and other stuff. Yeah. I know this. Yeah. For Dan. Yeah. Wow. You had no idea.

Yeah. Cornered Dan and also we had a fighter in his camp, Giza Coleman, who did a couple UFCs and some Valley Tudos and that trained a lot with him. Do you have a martial arts background? No, not at all. Not at all. So how did you get just because of your size? Yeah.

Literally, I knew Dan and Giza and they, you know, like I kind of, I would help Giza with his pro wrestling and then we'd do a little grappling. I mean, I loved it. I mean, what a great workout. And Frank Trigg, who actually. I trained for pro wrestling. I encorned in, what was it,

Zingoku, I'm trying to think of the name of the fight company that ran the Seatomas Super Arena. You go back, I cornered him over there when he came back. That's amazing.

Frank gave me the best insult or the worst compliment because I would do his pro wrestling training and then afterwards, you know, we'd grapple around and do stuff and just like nothing serious.

So at one point he looks at me, he goes, you know, he goes, you are the worst fighter for a good fighter to face, but the best fighter for a bad fighter to face. Wow. And I go, why? He goes, you just went out there with Samoa Joe for 15 minutes almost.

And like, he was in, but he couldn't beat you. He goes, like, and we weren't striking. It would be a hold of, this is just grappling. Okay, okay. So I had learned how to lie on the ground, lower my heartbeat, let the guy on top. let the guy on top, you know, exert energy. I was pretty tough to choke out or get out. So I was slippery.

Plus, I sweat like crazy. So I'm really slimy and move around, and I just look to get an elevator when I can. But me, like Joe would clearly, but he couldn't get me, which is ridiculous because Joe should, you know, should hook me in 30 seconds. Then I was grappling with a kid who was just there just to be the bump guy for a trig.

And it took me over 10 minutes to get something on him. he had no MMA training at all. So that's where Frank came up with that line. And it's probably kind of true as I look at it. Like I got to be on the mats with Dan, with Don Fry, and like some really great people. So, I mean, I've taken an ass whooping from some of the best. What a life, man. I don't know how many people know that.

And I want to ask you a little bit about your own training back in the day. But staying on this path for a moment, the idea of Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling, obviously, I remember Saturday afternoons on Channel 11. in Montreal. CH, CH. There it is. Yeah. I mean,

when I hear of Maple Leaf Wrestling, I think of the blue and all that is, I mean, that's my childhood. And then when you bring that back with, so Maple Leaf Pro, I know you bought the library. Did you have to call it pro

because someone owned that name? No, no. I mean, like actually our corporation that we first incorporated was Maple Leaf Wrestlinging. Okay.

And you bought it. Yeah, the rights to the footage from the, from the tiny family. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah.

I actually should say they come through Aaron Weiss. I better shout out to Aaron. He's the one who acquired the rights from the Tunney and passed them on to me. Okay. When does that idea start? And why? Why do you decide to go this route as opposed to other routes? Yeah, it's funny.

I'd have to go back and look at the year, but I'm going to guess it was around 2012. I was pretty much out of the wrestling business for any major level. And there was something I was going through. a lot. I was restructuring the De Moor group. I was dealing with a lot of, you know, concerning things coming on the heels. My father had passed in the summer of 2011. I think at one point, 2012, maybe 13, as I looked, as I was like, oh, I can acquire these rights. To me, it was just, I just loved it and just sitting there now, I could sit there and watch these old videos and not own them. And there's certainly a value to that. Like, lots of people do. But to me, just

looking for something, the fact that I could own that piece of history. So, I mean, that's where I looked at acquiring the rights. And to me, after, you know, long days of dealing with a lot of stuff, I could come home, go in my little, my little room in a basement and put on the big screen TV and, you know, whether it's watching Thesson Hutton or whether it's watching, you know, steamboat and Piper, but watching all these old Maple Leaf Wrestling, you know, matches and stuff, I just, it was so cool. and it just gave me so much joy.

And I always was just kind of like, I want to do something with this. Obviously, like we talked about, I'm a big Maple Leafs hockey fan. Maple Leaf Wrestling was huge for me as a child. I've always wanted to run Maple Leaf Gardens. There's a lot of Maple Leaf here. And acquiring those rights just seemed like the thing to do.

And at the time, I thought, hey, like maybe we'll, you know, look at doing, I can't remember what everybody was streaming on at the time, but people were just starting to look at streaming and stuff. And we looked at that, and then ultimately I got busy in life and never got a chance to really, revisit it until here.

And then it became, rather than just do something with the library, let's do something that can honor the library, but can build a platform for Canadians. And so you decide I'm going this route. Did you talk to anyone else? Did you talk to AW, WW, WW. Did you talk to them about joining the team? I have a great relationship with Tony Kahn.

You know, he reached out right away like a lot of people did. like I always say when I got let go, the outshow, the outpouring of support from people. It was truly touching. Like I honestly, you know, they always say people, people, it's too bad people can't be there at their funerals for all the nice things people say. I feel like I sort of got to, got to experience that, right? It was so wonderful in the amount of people that reached out and like, you know, said I had touched them, like touched their lives and made a difference was huge.

And whether it was fans just saying, hey, I love you. or so many people in the industry was really touching. You know, Tony was one of that. We talked. I mean, I think I don't ever close the door on anything. Actually, one of the very first people to text me when they posted the news, like as I looking at my phone, like on the first time I looked at my screen after it went public, you know, the screen was full of messages, including one of them was Triple H.

Wow. Yep. And it was just, are you okay? which I think is a classy move. Wow. You know, so I had discussions. I think at this point in my life, like something has to fit in the right mix for me.

And I wasn't sure what I wanted. And even as I talked to people, you know, like I know I don't really want to jump back in where I was in TNA, where it consumes my whole life. But I love wrestling and want to contribute. And as I was figuring out what that next step might be, like, yeah, I finally got a chance to go see the performance. Center, you know, in Orlando, because I have a lot of friends that work there, and I got a tour

of the place, and it was awesome. It's everything Eric Young told me at one point. He's like, he's like, yo, coat, you got to understand. It's near Vodda. It's everything you think a wrestling school is going to be until you walk into some crappy old dungy, you know, abandoned building. And it is. It's super cool. Great impersonation. Thanks. So, so, so, so, I mean, look, ultimately, when I decided if I'm going to do something in wrestling, what I want? I want to do. I want it to be meaningful. I want it to be something I can be passionate about. And as somebody who'd gone through the process of having immigration problems, trying to get into the U.S. to wrestle, you know, I spent like, thankfully, I only spent 16 months not able to go to the U.S. Like Mike Bailey and other people ended up with five-year bands. Wow. So having dealt with all that and seen and been in the room when it's like, hey, you know, we've got these two guys here on the desk, you know, both can be in the

this spot. Oh, what's the difference? Oh, the one on the right. He's American. We don't have to pay any immigrate. Let's just hire that one. And seeing how Canadians and non-Americans in general, with some very logical good reason, you know, Americans, you know, get more opportunities than non-Americans and Canadians, which is, you know, important. And your guy, Brett, you know, talked about it years ago. Like I always say, like, Maple Leaf Pro kind of started in Brett's brain years and years earlier, when he put that wrestling ring over top of the pool in his house, I thought two things. I was like, wow, the biggest star arguably in the business cares so much about Canadian wrestling

that he's going to take the limited time he has and set up to train and help nurture talent. And too, that's the moment I decided, I want a freaking indoor pool. So, you know, Brett started that. And then as his life went, it kind of didn't involve. But that's what Brett always wanted was like a pipeline for Canadian talent. So I think as I started looking at what I could do, I think that that having that pipeline with my experience coaching, with my experience, you know, running businesses, I thought that building not just a company, but what can eventually be a fulsome pipeline for talent.

So whether you, whether you're just dreaming of being a wrestler and you want to come to our academy coming soon, which, you know, starts your journey, or whether you're out there wrestling and you're just looking for a break whether you want to come and get an opportunity with MLP, get in the system where you're still getting developed. You're getting, you're getting coaching from Billy Gunn. You're getting coaching from DeLo Brown and Don Callis and Jimmy Jacobs and all these these great pros. Like you're getting, you know, you're getting so much coaching and nurturing that I think no matter whether you haven't started at all or you're, you're actually quite advanced and almost TV ready. There's still things you can learn from these

people and we can help you develop. Son of an immigrant from Italy, right? Your father? Yep. When do you get into pro wrestling? How old are you? It was on, you know, I grew up in a house with my grandparents. My grandfather watched it.

I didn't really watch it until he, like the, like watch it, watch it. My real thing where I'm like, oh, this is something. He died in 82, so it was probably 81. One, I would go to the hospital, like a lot of people, I hated going to hospitals. It's scary. I'm a kid. We go in there. They have the little TV, remember the little square TV.

The screens are only like this big, you know, and I'd always be up there on Saturday afternoons. And we'd put on wrestling. And he'd give me, you know, you just had the one earpiece for the TVs then, so they'd give it to me. So I could listen. I'd just sit on the bed with them and watch wrestling. And that was kind of like my first real emotional attachment to wrestling. You know, then he passes away in 82, and I don't really keep watching it, but then WrestleMania comes as that whole thing,

and rock and wrestling, and my brother was into it. And I remember we didn't get to watch WrestleMania live or anything, but we went to school on Monday or Tuesday, and one of my brother's friends, you remember the big satellite dishes, the gray market satellite dishes, you know, where people are using to pick up their Greek in Italian. You could get it to the right space. and you could pick up the pay-per-views, right?

Yep. So this friend of ours only got the, it was like the Body Slam Challenge, the women's match, and the main event. Wow. And we watched that on the Monday or Tuesday night. I think it was the Tuesday night. And then I was hooked. You know, I'd watched Sunday, like kind of building up to WrestleMania and all that

because my brother was, but then watching those three matches from the first WrestleMania, I was like, okay, I'm in, I'm all in. So that's where my real fandom started. you go from being a fan to actually training? When I was 16 years old, I was obsessed. I loved wrestling. I knew I wanted to be a wrestler. I'm playing baseball.

I'm playing Mickey Mantle ball, competitive baseball. I played for, they basically have your league in Windsor. Then they have, you know, teams that they, you know, like we were the Windsor Titans and we would go play in Michigan, Ohio, get to play like really quality baseball teams, like Cincinnati, Midland, and the best baseball teams in the U.S. And I loved it. And I would say wrestling and baseball were right there, like, neck and neck.

And it's funny, I was at a game. It was in Westland, Michigan. They have an amazing baseball complex, one of my favorites to play in. And I just loved it. I love getting there early, stretching, you know, playing pepper, taking BP. And I thought it was good. I mean, we're all the best of the best from Windsor, I think, right? you know, you kind of start to learn who the scouts are in the stands.

And there is a scout in the stands. I remember that I wish I knew his name because he actually, you know, like hollered my name. And he basically said, you play baseball the way it's meant to be played. And I was like, oh, wow, and my heart's beating. And I'm like, I'm so excited because this is a Major League Baseball Scout. Like this is a guy who can draft, you know, part of big drafting players. And I was, oh, thank you so much. And I go, do you think, you know, do you think that there's a chance that I could get drafted?

And he literally laughed in my mates. And he goes, what? He goes, not a chance. He goes, you're what, five foot eight, five foot nine? He goes, what are you? Like, 250? He goes, you're slow as molasses. You're blinding your left eye.

He goes, and you're terrible in the field. And I'm just like, uh, and then I think he saw what he said. And he goes, look, kid, he goes, I love watching you play because you play hard, you play smart. You run so hard. You never take a playoff. You don't swing at bad pitches. He goes, everything you do usually takes a baseball player until they're 20, 22, 23 to get to do. He goes, but you just physically don't have the skill set to be a pro ball player.

So ironically, not that day, but later that week that we had lost a game. And the manager of the team, as he's cussing everybody out, turned to me and goes, I had only pinch hit and I got a hit in the game. And he just starts MFering me and going, D'Amour, you pick, it's baseball or it's that F&BS wrestling. And he's like, he's like, I'm sick and tired of like, why this had any bearing at this moment? Because I had started training to wrestle.

And at that point, I was kind of like, well, nobody's told me I'm not going to make it as a wrestler. That guy the other day just told me there's zero chance of me being a pro ball player. So I went to my manager like the next day and I said, coach, I'd, I said, I heard what you said, and I said, I understand. He's on, I was mad, don't know. I said, no, no, I said, you're actually right. I do need to choose.

I go, I'd like to finish out the season. But if I can't, I said, I've got my uniform here cleaned and ready. I said, I'll turn it. But I would like to finish. And he said, look, you'll change your mind. And I didn't. I finished out the season. It was awesome.

The scout was right. I was not could ever be a pro baseball player. And I just jumped wholeheartedly into wrestling. And you started training in Windsor. Yeah, my brother's first baseball and then hockey coach, Doug Chevalier, was the Canadian Destroyer. Oh, yeah. And I was fascinated by the fact that he had been a pro wrestler.

So I would, like, do that thing the kids do, or like, if Doug was standing, like, if he was coaching first base, I would just wander out, like, in that area, like, in the foul area, just to be near him. When I was 16, I was like, I'm old enough. Like somebody had told me you had to be 16. I don't even know that that was true.

When I turned 16, you know, he was, I saw he was doing something to start training wrestlers. So I bet you I called his phone number. Thank God there's no caller ID 30 times. And every time he answered, I hung up. Oh, really? Yeah, because I was so scared. And then finally I stammered out that it was Scott DeMore, you know, like Kevin's brother. and he goes, oh, and it's funny because earlier that year, my brother's hockey team had played the Detroit Junior Red Wings, which was a much better team.

And it's like when they played in Detroit, you know, they got massacred by the Junior Red Wings. Then this team with their fancy bus and all their millions in funding had to come play in Little Dinky Amosburg Arena. and they actually lost to the Annesburg North Stars, which is super embarrassing. It's the Globetrotters losing to the generals. And the Red Wings were so... But I mean, every time a Red Wing turned, he got murdered. He got hit by somebody because the Vikings small ring,

typical small town, Canada. When the team was getting off the ice, you know, you have to wait as the players go, so the people in the stands have to wait. The guys are breaking their sticks and throwing their helmets and spitting and, and swearing, and my mother, God love her who can never keep her mouth shut, said, maybe you could learn some manners.

And the one guy turned and said, F you, and used the C word. No way. So I just went white out hot. I was, I was, I guess I've been a few years earlier because I was 12 years old. I attacked this guy. He took him down. He's on skates in fairness. Took him down and just started wailing on him.

And then as they pulled me off him, I punted him. As hard as I could in the head, I spit at him, and I told him I was going to murder him. So as they pulled me off and all do this, they pull me away, all my brother's team, the North Stars are sitting there banging their sticks on the ice, like cheering on. So when I called the Canadian Story, when I called Doug, he goes, oh, I remember you reckon that Red Wing. So, and then I went and started training with them at 16, yeah. And you make your debut at what age? 17.

17. I hope the Ontario Athletic Commission isn't, isn't. What is the cutoff? 18. Okay. So my brother had a wrestling license for one year in 1992, and he wrestled. So me under his name. Oh, really?

Yeah. Ah, got it, got it, got it, got it. Which is funny because years and years later, the athletic commissioner had been the athletic commissioner the entire time through my career. And this is a handful of years ago. I'm at a boxing show. I'm visiting a friend of mine, Tom Triber, who does a lot of boxing ring announcing. He usually works the undercards with Buffer. Yeah, Queensberry.

Yes. Former pro wrestler as well. He was my tag team partner. We did our first WSW match together. Wow. Yeah. What were you guys called? Tom Driver and Scott Moore.

But yeah, and the commissioner came over to me and out of the blue, this is now like 25 plus years later. We're having this nice type of goes, hey, whatever happened to your brother? He only wrestled that one year. Wow. Wow. Wow. What a memory. How old are you when you make your WWF, I don't want to call you a jobber, but

what would I call you? I mean, I guess, the, like job guy or whatever, like they, all the terms were fine to me. Those were,

those were, you were a staple of the Maple Leaf scene. Like, it was all jobbers back then, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what TV was, right? You had your established star and they were going to beat somebody.

So I, that was 1993. It was June of 1993. I was in my senior year of high school. Wow. So I was 18 years old, I think. And I actually had to miss

one of my English exams to go wrestle the Steiner brothers, yeah, which is pretty cool. So who calls you? How does that happen? Mickey Doyle, Irish Mickey Doyle, 1971 NWA rookie of the year for Sheeks Territory in Detroit. I've got to get that in for them. Mickey was a huge influence on me. Like Doug trained me at first, and then when we started getting out there, Mickey was a guy who had wrestled for big time wrestling.

He's actually wrestled at Maple Leaf Gardens. He had wrestled in Hawaii, you know, in the territory. He'd been all over. him and Mike Boyette were the California hippies. Okay. You know, through the south, you know, and he was back in Detroit, and he kind of took me under his wings. So he just kind of said, oh, like, I could call Charlie Fulton.

And literally, like, he went home that night from where we used to train for wrestling. Say, he went home at 10 o'clock. At 11 o'clock, he called me. He said, yeah, Charlie says he can get you guys on in Ohio and, you know, next month. Because, you know, WWF would have, like, people they were all in each area. And Charlie was one of those. So me and two other guys hopped in my Jeep, my Jeep Cherokee and headed down to Columbus, Ohio. Were you nervous?

I think it was too dumb to be nervous. Serious. I mean, I'm 18 years old. You get a little nervous around the guys. You're in the back and you're seeing familiar faces, right? Yeah, people that you've only seen on TV really, right? Or when you're sitting in the crowd. So it was a lot.

But, I mean, I just, it's, there's something about. not being smart enough to know how scared you should be. Like I just soaking it all in. I thought it was so cool. You know, getting to be backstage. And actually, again, your buddy Brett walked up to me.

Because my ring jacket was actually, because I'm only 18, it's the jacket from two years ago from the Windsor Titans baseball team because it's a blue and red jacket matches my trunks and it has a Canadian flag. So Brett literally walks into the elevator, I'm like, oh my God.

And then he doesn't say anything as he goes, he goes, you Canadian? And I like, look at the flag and I go, yes, sir. And he goes, where from? And I literally look down where it says, Windsor. And I go, Windsor. And he goes, oh, nice. Elevator door opens. He starts walking out.

Then he stops. He turns back. He goes, you need anything. Come find me. And he has no idea who I am. Wow, wow, wow. That gave me chills. Yeah.

Like, so to me at 18 years, like, oh, my God. Like, I can run to Brett. And I start going, geez, what would I need from Brett Hart? So yeah, I mean, 18 years old doing that was a great experience. And then a few weeks later, I went down to Georgia. The power plant. And that's where I started to rest. Before the power plant, I just started, I was doing the, like, I was doing jobs for

WCW, right? Going in and doing the TVs, we drive the 10, 12 hours to go down there and get to wrestle two or three nights in a row and, you know, make what was crazy money for the time, like maybe $150, $200 U.S. per night and then drive home. So I was doing all that at 18 and just like, I was just living life. Did they let you guys interact?

Like that's an interaction in the elevator. But I always wondered the enhancement talent, if you will, like were you sequestered off? Did they not want you talking to the stars or was everyone in the same boat? That's more how it is today. Back then, WWF was a little more, you know, uptight.

Okay. In WCW, like we had, like, like, center stage where we did a lot of the TV, only had two locker rooms. And there was like, there was the locker room that had Flair and Lugar and all the, the big names. But then our locker room still, like, we had, we had Booker and Stevie, who were the best, right?

Like, Harlem Heat, and Terry Taylor would change in there and was still when he was a wrestler. And, you, like, so there was a mix. And, and there was a lot, like, disco in front, there was a lot more of a mix. Like, in WCW, like, after the show, we went, going out to the bar, didn't matter. There might be five or six job guys, and then there'd be Tech Slashinger and Shanghai

Pierce and whoever, like, you hung out a lot more. Okay. You also got to spend a lot more time, right? It was a smaller company. The shows were mainly in Georgia. And even like the guys are doing jobs, the enhancement guys, like I was going down there every few weeks at one point. So you get to know them, right? They know your face. And it's just, you have those moments, right? Like where I go, oh my God, like, Arne Anderson knows who I am. Like, you know. How many matches for WWF How many matches for WCW? I honestly don't know. Like, are we talking five, or are we talking like 50?

For WWF, it was, I mean, if it's not single digits, it's not a lot more. For WCW, it's interesting because since I booked the enhancement guys, like, you know, at one point I was booking 10, 12, 15 people at a time. Oh, wow. Jody Hamilton, who was kind of like my boss, you would always, he'd always be a kid. I'm only going to use you when I need to because I always get told I have to keep the talent fresh. So I would have to rotate the other guys. But since I was going all the time, it's like when I first down there, the first 15 shows,

I probably had 15 matches. And then after that, when I started going regular, regular, Jody said, you know, I don't want you thinking, you know, it's a problem and you did anything wrong or that they don't like you. It goes, it's just me protecting you so they don't say leave you home. So, I mean, it's certainly, it's certainly. Certainly more than 50, I think. Okay.

But yeah, because I probably did, I probably did 100. I mean, geez, there is times when I'd go down and I'd do, like, when we're doing MGM studios, we do, we do seven, eight shows at a time, right? We do four days of four tapes a day, you know, do 12 shows. Then we take a break, then we, for a day or two, then we come back and do three or four more days of doing four tapes a day. Like, it was a time. Win a single one? I beat Diamond Dallas Page. You did?

What? Was he Diamond Dallas Page? He was Diamond Dallas Page. He was doing a thing at that time where he would come out to the ring, and I can't remember if it was a hat or what it was, but he would pick a name out of the hat, and that was going to be who he would wrestle. And he was going to pull out like Hulk Hogan or something.

He was at WWF right, and then he's going to refuse to wrestle. So the thing with me was I was the wrestler in the ring, and when Page gets told he asked to wrestle me, he basically says, this guy ain't worth my time. He's chump change. and he throws a bunch of, like, change at me, and he just walks out and get counted out. Oh.

But I'll never forget Nick Patrick standing in the middle of the ring, and he walks up to me, he gets almost like knows. Nick's a great guy, Joety Hamilton's son, too. And he gets out of this kid, you're about to win a effing wrestling match in the biggest company in the freaking world. And I'm kind of like, okay. Were you told in the moment? No, I mean, I was told backstage.

So Nick was just like, yeah. That's wild. Yeah, so it was, but like, WCWW. was a cool environment. I mean, you look, it had a lot of its problems as it grew. Yeah. But one thing about it, like, it still had more of a feel where like the boys were the boys and everybody, everybody, like when we would do TV in Orlando, we would stay at a residence in and they had a pool and they would put out a breakfast spread for us. And we come back from the tape things, they put it like a dinner spread and they tap a keg. And it was just like, everybody

just hung out. And I mean, it was whether it was, you know, the biggest stars on the show or was there me and my job guy crew from Canada and, you know, in the, and, you know, upstate New York. Like, we're all just hanging out by the pool. We're all eating the same food. If there's a big boxing fight, they're going to put it on in the lobby for us. We're all going to sit around and have a party. It was a very cool environment for a, like an 18, 19 year old guy like me. Like this, I was like, I would do this forever.

Yeah. Your last match? How old were you? My last match? Yeah, like you're like in that era. Before you transition over to TNA and we start to know of you as, you know, Scott DeMore. Team Ken and all that. When you decide this isn't exactly for me.

Like the wrestling? Yeah. The physical wrestling. Yeah, like I was still wrestling some when I, when Jeff Jarrett hired me at TNA. Okay. I had, I had taken some real shots to the head. And I had a really, really bad case of post-concussion. Like it, like, it lasted months.

And there was days that I'd wake up and I just, my head wasn't right. I would get sick or I'd be dizzy. I couldn't stand up. And it was the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life. Coming after that, I don't know if I ever quite felt the same. But, I mean, I got back in the ring and I had to. I kept working. I mean, it was probably a year before I felt right.

Okay, well. That was probably around 2000, 2001, somewhere around there. And I kept wrestling like 2000, 2001, 2002, into 2003. And then it was early 2003 that, well, I guess first I got to, I got to say the world wrestling All-Stars was a big break for me. I got to be part of their pay-per-view in Vegas. Then I got to do tours in like Europe and, um, in Australia. And, and that was huge for me because I was, uh, I was the talent booker.

I was like, like, the tour manager. Like, I got to really like work other than like independent stuff for border city wrestling. I got to really work behind the scenes. Okay. Um, and that's, um, and that's, you know, like, well, like, I got to really work. That's where I got to work with Jeff and like disco, Conan, staying like a lot of the guys, you know, like on a real, much deeper level than just, you know,

being some underneath guy on the show. So then, you know, like I was still wrestling when I went to work with Jeff. I was 28 years old, I think. I think it's 28 years old when he hired me. And from the, I would say from the day that Jeff hired me and it was like, hey, like you're a producer and you're working the office.

I don't know that I ever considered myself a wrestler again from that day. Okay. I think I knew really early. on. Like even like in WCW and that when I started booking the guys and I started planning the because I'd book the talent through the office like with Jody. I'd book like you however many guys he needed. Then I'd book the hotel rooms. I'd figure out our travel who's riding with who, what we're going to do. And then when I got there like I started being put in charge of trans sheets, which in

WCW a trans sheet, you filled it out. They sent you 100 bucks extra on your check. So it's my job to walk around and make sure that people that need to have trans sheets fill them out. So they get paid. and people that aren't supposed to have trans sheets. I'm supposed to not give it to them, and that leads to some fun sometimes. But I was kind of like, I like this. And that's why, like, I think I kind of knew, like I still would like to be a wrestler,

but I really like this, and this could be my path. That's where I was introduced to you, Team Canada and all that at T&A. Did you happen to see Dark Side of the Ring yet? Yeah, I've watched all three episodes. What do you think of it? I think they did a good job of telling a story that if you made that a 20-hour documentary, you couldn't even tell half of what happened there.

Wow. I think it's, and there's a lot of people that I would be like, oh, well, it wasn't really the TNA. Well, it was Jeff Jarrett's TNA story. It's clearly what they're telling you it is. And you didn't even get, barely crack the surface of a lot of what Jeff's story is. And then there's a lot of things in there that I was like,

oh, like I wish they could have dove into this or this or this, but ultimately there's not the time. And then also it's Jeff's TNA story. But I thought they did like a pretty good job of it. I mean, it's so much to cover, so much, you know. Yeah, I mean, I thought it was great. I enjoyed it. It does feel at times like you're just scratching the surface.

You almost have to decide which route you're going to go and what you're going to devote time to and invest in. I'm curious what you think of the current TNA product. I'm sure you watch it. What do you think of it right now? I mean, I keep an eye on it. I don't watch the shows regularly. Okay.

I keep an eye on what they're doing. Give me your honest take. That's hard for me because anything I say that's anything other than totally positive gets taken the wrong way. Okay. And anything that I would say that positive, they'll just say that I'm kissing ass. So it's like, I really have. There's no reason to kiss ass. No, I know.

But there's a, like, look, I want TNA to succeed. There's no animosity there? With TNA? No. Well, I mean, yeah, like, and I don't want to say animosity. I don't want, like, you know, Len or anybody there to get hit by a bus. No, no, I know. But, yeah, no, there's frustrations.

Because, I mean, there was frustrations while I was there. Sure. You know, it was a very rewarding, very frustrating seven years. Very proud of what we did. You know, to your point, you said, you know, maybe it wasn't six feet under, but it was five. I think it might have been six and a half feet under when we got there. Like I didn't even know, like Don and I talked, we didn't even realize until we fully got in there how bad it was.

Really proud of how we built it. And we spent a couple of years just trying to stabilize it. Then COVID hit. Then it's like, okay, there's two billionaires and us trying to produce content in the world at that time. Like for Tony Con and Vince McMahon to go out there, they can get whatever building they want and pay whatever they want. Like literally, it was myself, Josh Matthews, Dan Raill, who's like the VP of production.

And not just us, but like we were kind of the team. They're trying to figure out where are we going to shoot. Like at one point we had holds and buildings in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, and Alabama. Wow. And I remember we were having the trucks loaded because our production company comes out of Texas. And Dan Raill called me and said, well, they're loading the trucks. Like, where are they going? I said, well, when are they done loading the trucks?

trucks. He said, end of day tomorrow. I said, well, then I'll tell you by four o'clock tomorrow where the trucks are driving to. Wow. And we were monitoring the executive order state by state because they could change every day. And then like literally the day that the trucks had to pull out, Bill Lee, the governor of the great state of Tennessee, put extended his executive order. And one of the things that was essential was television radio production. So we felt safe and mobilized the trucks to to Nashville. Crazy. So it was, it was such a crazy,

and cool time in a weird way. But yeah, we made it through that. And then we came out and we started rebuild, like, you know, going into 2020, it was like, hey, let's get some positive growth, which I think we were starting to get. And then 2023 was supposed to be the year for TNA. Like, it was originally,

we had everything set for TNA to return at Slammiversary, 2023. The name, the brand. Yes. Yep. So, and it was going to return completely unannounced. It was going to be, you were going to watch the pre-show, and you're going to be watching Impact Wrestling Slammiversary,

and then the cold open was going to be the reveal that it was going to be TNA. And while the cold open was playing, the crew would be changing over the skirts and everything else, and when we come out of that cold open, the entire arena would be built as TNA. And why didn't that happen? Because we couldn't properly fund it to X&A. execute that. Okay. And then it was like, okay, let's, let's not screw this up. So that's when we kind of went back and kind of thought, okay, how else can we do it? And that's when we came up with the idea of announcing it at the end of Bound for Glory. Excuse me. We knew we were going to have an interesting production schedule. I'll say nicely between October and January, because it just came down from above, you can't run TV tapings. So it's like, okay. So we're going to have to figure out how to make content for a few months while we plan on announcement.

announcing the biggest rebrand. So it was supposed to be slam. Then it's like, well, maybe we can do it for bound for glory. Then so why do it abound for glory if we're not going to run a show for three months? Right. So then it became, well, how do we announce it and how do we manage the growth until we get to the new year to hard to kill? Which was a, like the pearl at the palms is a great venue for wrestling for anything. It was a great like stake your flag, I think venue for TNA.

So we worked, we worked that out and planned towards that. But originally, like, we were, we were set to roll and slam 2023 was going to be, you know, the relaunch. So it was kind of like, I always felt like as we got a little bit of momentum, something always kind of like worked against us or pulled us back. But I thought the entire crew there, you know, there's so many people that work so hard on that product and continue to this day. But I, to get back to your question about resentment, I wish we could have. tackled it a little differently. I wish we were, you know, and Jeff said it on dark side. I'll use Jeff words. Like, you know, that he said that he, you know, came in in 2017 with everything. And he heard, you know, anthem sports and the Asper name and everything else. I said, great, we're

finally good to go. Then he's like, you know, what do you mean? There's no money. So it was a constant struggle on the, on that side. And it was a, I mean, it's, it's a, it's a part of business. Sure. You know, it's not unique to that. But I mean, I think there's some things I would have like to have executed on. I think there's some things. I really think that if we would have executed on for like TNA from hard to kill to the end of of 24, I think we had a lot of good things in the pipeline that I think would have worked. I think that them taking me out and that's their decision, you know, hurt them for the, like, I think they spent six months trying to get their feet back and, you know, and ultimately found their footing. And having the hardies doesn't hurt.

Sure. There's rumblings now that it might be for sale again. Have you looked into this? I haven't talked to anybody. No interest? I mean, I think I tabled what is a really fair offer. I put together an offer in a matter of days that I think fairly represented what the company was worth and paid a little bit for the excitement of we just rebranded.

Like I think there's an argument hard, hard numbers-wise, that our number was, was a little heavy. Wow. But ultimately, and I deal with this, because my main gig is real estate development, right? That blows me away, by the way. You mentioned the DeMore group, but like, you said you gave your life for seven years, eight years to TNA. How do you have two jobs? How do you, like, you sleep three or four hours a day? Because I would imagine that job takes up all of your time or could take up all of your time if you let it.

and now you're running a pro wrestling organization? Yeah, and I mean, I did it at a pretty, like, inconvenient time. Like, as the stuff got going at one point, I realized that we're, like, we're currently, we're still developing it. It's a $200 million, 24-acre commercial shopping district. And in the middle of that, I'm doing all this, you know, TNA and Victa and Access stuff there with Anthem sports, and I'm enjoying it, but yeah, it was, I'll tell, it's funny, I told the intern who...

Josh. He was great. He was very excited to meet you. He knows his stuff. We had Connor McGregor in here. You're more excited about meeting you than him. I'll tell you that much. But I told him that because he asked about the same kind of thing.

And I said, he actually asked a lot of good questions. He was going to make a hell of an interviewer one day. Probably glowing back there. But I told him a story. Sanjay Dutt. I was big on, and it's funny, Josh Matthews will say, when I first took over, I'll send out 100 emails before I go to sleep. So Josh would wake up, you know, he's an early morning guy. He wakes up at 5.30 in the morning or whatever.

And he sees that he's got 17. Because I'm a guy, if I'm sent, I might send you 17 emails. Each reline is what it's about. I won't send one email because you can keep them siloed, right? This one is about the TV truck. This one is about the, so on. So Josh would figure, oh my God, I have to answer all these. And then Josh didn't realize I send those at five in the morning.

And I don't touch a lot of times, you know, like TNA work until maybe noon because I got other work to do once I get a few hours sleep. So, so I get a call. I press out an email to Sanjay. I put my phone down. I take my glasses off and I see Sanjay's calling. So I answer the phone. It's probably 5.30 in the morning.

Hey, Sanjay, what's up? Scott. go to bed and I just kind of laughed I go I know I'm going to bed he goes Scott you emailed me at 10 o'clock at 1045 at 1152 at 1220 and he goes

goes on all the way because you just emailed me at 529 you need to sleep and I go Sanjay went away he goes Scott me and Ashley we're talking about it we're worried and I go wait you're talking to your wife about my sleep schedule he's like yeah so that was part of it is you know you burn the candle at both

And I'm not asking anybody, like, nobody's holding a, having a tag day as we used to do in Canada or holding a fundraising pasta dinner for me. You know, I'm very blessed in life. I have two, I had two jobs that I loved doing. I still, with Maple Leaf Pro, have two. Yeah. You know, I don't know if it's a job when you're the one that has to pay the bills at this point, but I have two really passionate things. I love the D'Amour group. It's the successor of D'Amour Construction, which was what my father built. one of the last things before he passed is we formed the DeMore group together to become more diversified and handle more property in real estate development than actual physical construction. I'm proud to sit at the same desk, you know, in the same chair that he sat in in the same office.

I love it. And I love pro wrestling. So, you know, you just, if you, if you, what's it? If you find a job you love, you never work a day in your life. So I love what I do on both fronts. So it's on two. Yeah. You're blessed. Can I ask, were you surprised Tommy Dreamer left T&A? I mean, yes and no. I mean, it's like it's nobody's irreplaceable.

And I would tell people it all the time. And then when I got the call, I was still kind of like, what the? But it's, I mean, there's going to be change. I don't follow the day to day of it, but I knew that there was, you know, chatter about people, you know, as far as for, you know, complaining about it. But that always happens. It's just at the end of the day, if you don't,

if you don't own the thing, like it's, then you're at the mercy of whoever. And I can't comment whether Tommy did a great job or a terrible. I can comment that Tommy Dreamer has been a wonderful, amazing friend to me. Tommy's one of those guys who, if I called him, now and said, Tommy, I'm down in a bad end of Brooklyn. I'm surrounded and I think this is where it ends for me. If he could, he would teleport, stand back to back and die in that alley with me. That's the type of friend he is. But his firing, I don't know. I know that he's my friend.

I called him and said, I love you and I know you're going to be fine. You know that. You know, so, but if you don't, if you don't own it, it's not yours. And it's like I try to remind people all the time and I would say this. Just for, for, seven years, I took day-to-day carriage of TNA wrestling. I would be like, that's my baby, or people would say, that's my baby. And I would say, well, no, it's Anthem Sports Baby. I'm the nanny. I'm a very well-paid nanny. So at the end of the day, it's not my baby. I can love that baby, I can nurture that baby. I can do my best to raise that baby. But at the end of the day, it's not my baby. So if it's not your baby, it's not your choice. So I mean, I don't know.

if there's anybody who could get let go where I'd go, oh my God, how did that happen? Like, it's inconceivable. Nothing's inconceivable. I used to look forward to your articles very much on our site because I loved your take. I think I told you this when I was a fan in the late 90s, early 2000s, the Ross report on www.com was must read, I think, every Friday for me. And I'm just curious, you obviously don't do it anymore and you're very busy. We appreciated your your contributions. Can I just ask you one, the Sammy Zane winning the belt, then losing it like nine days later to punk,

good or bad? I honestly, I didn't follow it enough. So I think Sammy deserves his moment with the belt. Yeah. I didn't follow the day-to-day creative. Like that sort of thing of like a nine-day title reign? If you don't do it a lot, like I'm a big believer in not bouncing around. And really, this comes from a lot of the things that are in my brain are there because of people like, like Jody Hamilton and Terry Taylor and one of the biggest is Jeff Jarrett and his dad, Jerry.

And one of Jeff's big things is you don't, you don't hot shot, you don't flip-flop titles around, like the world title. Yeah. The X title, the tag titles, whatever. But the world's championship does not get like a title change means something. And I agree with that in general. But then I think there is times where having a shorter title reign can do something for something. Like Brett's first title reign, the day he won it, they knew when he was losing it. The idea was he would go in there being the fighting champion that defended it, you know, every night,

blah, blah, blah, blah. And he'd lose it right. They changed it on a house show in Saskatchewan is part of trying to pump up the house shows. Like that was done, I think, with the idea of whether Brett ever won it again or not, it would elevate Brett, even though it was a short reign. I think the Darby Allen reign. Similarly, I think the idea was, now and forever, Darby Allen will be a world champion.

I don't say former because Dallas Page correct to me one time in a press conference where I said he was a three-time former world champion, and he said, you're never a former. I will forever and always be a three-time world champion. I can hear him. And he's right. But Darby Allen will forever now be a world champion, and he carries that with him, and that gives him some credibility.

if the Sammy Zane thing does that similarly for Sammy to where it gives him a little something going forward where you can always say he did win the big one. Like, you know, like Kerry von Erick will always be NWA world's champion. Dusty Rhodes, one of the greatest world champion, one of the greatest wrestlers, one of the greatest performers in history, the guy who was on the TV when I looked at the TV and thought, I think I can do this.

Like he like I look up like this guy like I can be this guy He never held the title for a long time But he's a three time world champion and a legend of legends So I don't think you necessarily need to judge it based off the days I say that having like I said not followed it But I think you make every decision in a booking room On what the net positives are against the net negatives And you try to always keep moving forward

I love it okay so MLP Mayhem It premieres tonight So premieres sent out on TSN2 at midnight If you're in the states, you can watch it on MyEW. MyAW at 1 a.m. Eastern Time, 10 p.n. Pacific. So as soon as it goes off the air on TSN, it starts on MyAW. And that gets us all Americans, all people. There's 100 countries around the world can get it through MyAAW.

And we're stoked to bring it to you. It's, I guess it's 30 plus years in the making. It's truly special. It's a platform that I think is important and meaningful to Canadians, but not just Canadians because the support we've gotten from around the world. And one of the reasons why we did the my AW deal besides the fact that AEW has been a very good partner is the amount of people like, how do I watch this? Like I mean insert the name of country.

How do I watch this? I want to watch this. And now we're able to bring it around the world. I love it. Well, I wish you guys nothing but the best. Congratulations on getting to this point. I know it's not easy to start your own promotion and I know you're taking the name and you want to pay homage to the name. Getting to this point and I hope it succeeds.

I love it. I look at the YouTube channel all the time. Obviously, friends like Aunt Evans who work with you and more than that. The man, yeah. Love and Maple Leaf Wrestling really like tugs at my heartstrings. Wait, well, you know, you keep putting me on the spot with a bunch of questions. It's like, what are you doing October 3rd? Ah, wow, this is it.

Now is this, okay, so please keep going, keep going. So October 3rd, Northern Rising, Matamy Entertainment Center, the former Maple Leaf Gardens. We go in there. I think there's some announcements for Maple Leaf Gardens for that Northern Rising show October 3 that are going to blow people's minds or as my friend Violent J from J.C.W. would say flip their wigs. Okay, okay. Can't wait. Those will be coming out in the coming weeks and I think it's going to be a truly special moment, not just in Canadian wrestling, but in wrestling in general and in Canadian sports and entertainment history. And having

a guy like yourself there, you know, a Canadian with such a vast reach. I do appreciate that. You know, a lot of people are coming at me. Like there's one thing left really. on my list. There's a lot of things I want to expand on, but there's one thing that I haven't done just yet, and that's work in the business. Heel manager, Heelwani, the dirty Jew manager, and squeeze everyone over. I could say that as a Jew. I can't. Yeah, I could say that. Yeah. Come on. Hey, Heelwani sounds like a great name. Right? Think about it. I like it. Maybe a little stable. I'm the guy who left Canada that's that stinking 51st state. I left Canada. to go make it in the big leagues in the United States, in the big city.

And I have to come back here to this crappy arena. They've never won a championship in that. In 1967, I have to come back here in front of all of the U.S. wearing a Canadian's jersey. Waring a Canadian. Can you imagine the heel heat? Could you imagine? You know what?

Jeff Jarrett should have hired you. You should have. Though you couldn't have moved to Nashville. You're right. That's a good angle. Well, we'll keep talking. For now, I'll keep watching. Thank you, Scott.

Appreciate you coming by, and good luck tonight. We'll be watching for us. Thanks, man. Appreciate everything. We'll say goodbye to Scott. We'll be back with On the Nose. don't go anywhere. All right, back on the program.

Here I am. That was Scott DeMore. How great was that? Love hearing about those stories. Man, Maple Leaf Wrestling. I used to watch that back in the day. Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. Very fun.

We're going to answer some of your questions now. I do believe it's time for everyone's favorite segment of the week. It is time. We got our guy. Let me pick this up here. El Emmanuel. I love him. He's done a phenomenal job.

He's done an amazing job being our moderator. Not Emeritus. That's Professor Lewis, but he's done an amazing job. Wow. There's a table of contents this time that he's given me. Holy smokes. This guy's the freaking man. Give me a fucking break.

This guy is unbelievable. He is unbelievable at what he does. Where do we find this guy? I picked him Where is he from? Colombia Where's he from? Columbia

Is he from Columbia? I love Colombia Wait No, he's from Puerto Rico Oh, okay Why'd you get my hopes up there? I'm a big fan of the Colombians We love the Colombians here, don't we?

We also love the Puerto Ricans We love the Puerto Ricans too We love all of Latin America, don't we? Except for Frank We love Venezuela I'm from Honduras We love Puerto Rico are you frank

are you frank yes I'm surprised you guys don't know this to you Jimmy are you I'm not sure about that I feel like you're a token this is I already had to have the talk about racial identity with Rick

and here you go on air saying Frank I'm removing your Hispanic origins from you what city in Honduras go fuck you were you born in Honduras no but what okay what is it like it all comes out now

Were you born in an Arab nation? I don't claim. I don't claim to be from an Arab. I say my mom is from Lebanon, my dad is from Egypt, but I am from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I don't go around telling. What do you say? They say they're American. They don't say we're Canadian?

No, not at all. In fact, when I try to tell them that they have 100% Canadian blood in them, they shunned me and say, we are Americans. We are born in America. Frank, where were you born? Dallas, Texas. And your father? Dallas, Texas. Mother?

Honduras. Okay, all right. So now you know what? I take it back. If you... You don't get to decide what my racial identity is. I like this. I'm just saying.

I'm just saying. Yeah, I'm just saying you're fucking up. Okay. When's the last time you went back to Honduras. Yeah. Have you ever been to Honduras? My mom left there under the oppression that was happening during a dictatorship. So out of resolve, I was told never to go there that there was no reason to go there,

even when my grandmother passed away and had land to give up, the idea was, don't go. So I'm not going to go. But I don't understand this has anything to do with Hispanic or not. We just want to know more about your backstory. There's a difference between Frank, tell me what your backstory is versus... He's getting very defensive right now. Not defensive, but just think it's funny that you would have most people I would think would agree that identity is not something that someone else does.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Wow, wow. Wow, wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Me of most people. Out of all people. Have you ever been to Columbia, Frank? No, they don't allow me there.

Not since the answer. Okay. Have you, Andy? No, but very close. What do you mean very close? Maracaille was right next to it. Maracaille. Maracaibo.

Maracaibo? Yeah, it's one of our states. Oh, in Venezuela? Yeah. Okay, next to the country. Yeah. Okay. What about you, Jordan?

The college or the country? What about the South Carolina City? Yes. What about you? Has anyone been to Columbia? No. It's on my bucket list. I hear amazing things. I had a friend who went there recently and told me it was amazing. That's why I got excited. For some reason, I thought that El Emmanuel was from Columbia. If you actually want to know a story, I dated a Colombian girl for a while. You did?

I had plane tickets booked and the relationship ended before the trip. Devastating. It is devastating. What was this? Is this pre-MMA? hour. This is college. College? Several years prior.

Colombian, like, from Columbia or like Frank, Honduran, like, you know. In quotes. I'm just saying, like straight off the boat or? Her dad is American. He went to Columbia, met her mom, got her pregnant, and then came back to the States with it. Okay, that's pretty legit. Did you get a refund? Yeah, yeah.

Well, why do you say it like that? It's just the whole thing, you know. Okay. All right. Did you get insurance on the flight? I don't even know if they did insurance back then. Oh, yeah. It's because of South America.

Yeah. England 1-0. Oh, shit. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Did it just happen? It had to have happened recently. Who, who, who?

Jude? No, Ali? I'm not sure. Ali Watkins? Wait, Ollie Watkins, my guy from Ashton Villa? No, Anthony Gordon. To the corner. Anthony Gordon?

Tremendous. Tony G. Football's coming. home, it's coming home. Wait, what time? What time? 55th minute? Oh, we're already in the second half. Yeah. Oh, my God, I've been so locked in on Scott Tamor that I forgot about the World Cup semifinal. You really didn't miss much in the first half. It was boring? Yeah, no, no, it wasn't boring, but no goals. Okay, all right. Wow. And where is it?

Atlanta. Wow. In the Ben's, baby. You know, I don't love the fact that the two semifinal games are in enclosed stadiums. There's something about the enclosed that bothers me. It's actually that Spain had six other seven matches in enclosed stadiums. Is it going to throw them off on Sunday? No, I don't know. I don't know. Oh, yeah, you know what?

It's going to be a scorcher. Okay, that's very exciting. Wow, England's up. That is nuts. Okay, let's answer some questions. Anyway, to finish the point, a friend of mine went to Columbia, said it was amazing. I would like to go there because I hear amazing things. Mejayan.

How do you say it, Andy? Mediian. Wow, I screwed that up Rook, have you ever been to Columbia? We were just talking about it. I have not. Because moderator emeritus is from Puerto Rico. For some reason, I thought he was from Columbia.

Oh, is this a botch? Okay. Yeah, a total botch, which then we went down to Frank's family history. Did you know Frank is pseudo-Hondurian? And then the girl that G. G.C. dated. And then he had the plane ticket. You missed a lot.

Okay, here we go. Craig Grocott. Hi, Ariel. What did you make of the Rajah? rather strange occurrence on Twitter after Saturday's main event where Brett Okamoto and Oscar Willis both posted the same call for May Mac 2 at the same time word for word. Honestly, I viewed that as Brett having an opinion and then Oscar trying to be funny. He has a dry sense of humor, if you will, and he just copied his idea.

And it was really much ado about nothing. Does anyone disagree? No. Does anyone agree? Of course. Okay. I thought it was, yeah. I couldn't believe that there were articles on it.

I didn't ask them what happened or what the fuck is that, as Francis once said. But I thought it was just crazy that everyone... I would ask again, what would the conspiracy be here? I don't know. You know, what is the thing that is trying to be achieved here that they would have been colluding on? That doesn't make any sense. I thought it was weird that there were articles written about this. Yes.

And, yeah, I don't know. It was... I just feel like it was stupid, all and all. Yes, it was. And I can't believe that's the first question. El Emmanuel, you're now on shaky ground. I'm just kidding. You're the man.

Jordan. Ariel, thank you so much for the endless shows you provided us last week, including the live audience show and your appearance on the Mighty Podcast. That's right. That was fun. Go check it out on his YouTube channel. On top of your regular scheduled programming, what was the highlight of your trip? The highlight of my trip.

Gali. Well, I think Kameh with the boys, I was in a euphoric state. I will admit, I was in a euphoric state on a, Thursday, we finish our second show. We already did the awards on Wednesday. We already went to in and out. We had a great time, Joe Mazzulo, this and that. Went up. My birthday was Wednesday. It was amazing. Got calls for my friends, my families. Members are calling me. Everyone's texting. Everyone's in a great mood. Wednesday was amazing. Go into Thursday, do the show, and then go to the gym, shower, and then go to Kame, like, so fresh and so clean with the boys who I

had been, you know, telling about Kame for quite some time. And the reason why we go is because the Knicks are champions and they give us this bottle of dreams come true. And I'm like, what is this, what is this reality that I'm living in? And it's not only that, the meal, I think, exceeded all expectations. Would you not agree, guys? Absolutely. Undersold somehow. The people couldn't have been nicer, like the chef and the waitress and everyone was so nice. It was a beautiful day. That felt like, I mean, and I'm there. I'm wearing my Knicks head and it says champions.

It was surreal. It was really surreal. And then we went to the sphere and all that stuff. That was great. But honestly, like getting to spend time with everyone and, you know, getting to do all those interviews with everyone in person, the live show was amazing because then we got to talk. to people and there was this one couple from Vancouver and they were so sweet and they couldn't come in because they had a six month old and that broke my heart and I really wanted them to come in but there was a rule they had to be I think 18 or 21 but that interaction was amazing was really

amazing so I know by the end everyone was feeling like a week in Vegas but you know just the camaraderie and esther and Casey are there Chuck is there everyone working together I thought it was a great time. By the end, I felt like everyone hated each other, but I wanted more. Everyone was like, okay, we had enough area. You kept alluding to us hating each other. Yeah, but not me. I felt like I made it pretty clear. It wasn't each other.

It was just, I was ready to get out of the city of Las Vegas. Edward 40. Clark County. Yeah, Edward 40 was great. Summer League was great. Hell's Kitchen was great. All the shows were great. It was amazing. Watch party post show, live show, Kame. Everything was fantastic. But, you know,

Vegas, as it does, it, It slowly creeps in on you. Hello, Ariel. I had an amazing time to the live show on Friday. This is from MBE 28, meeting you, the crew, and DJ honestly didn't feel real.

Thank you again for the signed DJ glove. Oh, yeah, I have it in my bag. I have more. We gave out three. DJ signed UFC gloves, and then we gave them out to the crowd, and he gave me two extra ones, which I'll put in the studio.

I was curious about your mindset going into a live show compared to a regular YouTube show during the live event. You seemed incredibly calm and completely locked in while DJ was answering your question. Is your approach any different doing it live?

I can't wait to see you guys again. It was fun. P.S. I'll never forget Frank's face now. Oh, my gosh. No pictures, though, right? That wasn't even there. Okay. No, I don't know.

I don't really think about it in advance, especially with someone like DJ, we're so free-flowing. We're so, I don't know, we're close, we're friendly. I knew, you know, we'll talk to him about this, talk to him about that, but those shows are fun. Those shows are a lot of fun in the moment, the selling tickets, the planning.

not so much fun, the worrying is anyone going to show up, but they always do. You know, amazing. Stressful at times. A lot of anxiety. But once it happens, it's a wonderful thing. But it's no different than like my interview here with Scott. I'm locked in on him. When I'm doing the Zoom interviews and stuff, sometimes I'll look down.

There's things happening. There's Twitter stuff and all that. I like when I'm locked in on the guests and there's no distractions whatsoever. That's my favorite. And so what you were seeing there was a variation of that. James the tuna. Ariel and Boys love the Vegas shows. Great work to all involved.

I've noticed over the recent weeks that the journalists during Media Day and or press conferences will bring up points and statements made during one of your interviews, usually during the week leading up to the fight, but do not mention the source. Oh, yeah, you notice that, James. Of course. It's, I don't know. What can I say, guys, that would be a nice thing to say about this? It's, it would it be fair to say, what could I say it's nice? Cowardly? Is that nice or not nice?

I always give the source. I never say I heard, when I know, and they know, who said what, you say the source. When I know who said what, I say the source. There's a lot of cowardly shit. I mean, I'm having, I'm having a moment here, Rick, you know. There's a lot of cowardly shit. Because I could sense him saying don't bring it up He's kind of smirking back here

That's why I'm laughing Is cowardly nice? No, but is it Is it how you feel? Is it truthful? Don't be cowards! Give credit where credits do. Don't be cowards. Give credit where credit to it.

Cowerly is maybe like unethical a little bit. It's cowardly. Okay. Our former home, MMA fighting. They act like cowards. I love those guys, but you're acting like cowards. It used to be credit, the Ariel Hawani show. When people say something on our show, then it was credit uncrowned.

Then it was credit, Yahoo! Then it was credit, Yahoo! Are you kidding me, guys? That's cowardly shit. And I've called out the appropriate people in private, but it annoys me. I'm not going to lie, it annoys me because it seems deliberate that you don't want to give credit where credit is due. That's mean-spirited. We've never done anything to them.

We've never tried to pick a fight. We had a great time. We left. We came back. We had a great time. We left. We're cool, I thought. But that, to me, seems like there's an issue.

And then it's like you need a magnifying glass this big, the size of this bad boy, to actually even see the Yahoo. Are you kidding me, guys? That's cowardly. And so when you're at the press conferences and you say, literally in one question, oh, I heard on so-and-so, like, oh, I heard you say so-and-so, and not say the source. But then the next time you do say the source, and you do say the source. because you view that as a sort of like UFC friendly outlet, that is cowardly. You're being a coward.

Do you understand? Just give credit where it's due. Or don't ask the question. Because the question was derived from something that happened on this show. So if you don't have the cajones to give credit where it's due, then don't ask the question. And if you don't have the cajones to freaking credit a source on social media, you're a coward. Is that wrong? Am I being wrong?

Am I being unfair? Has Uncrown or my Twitter or this show, do we put a source of credit on the top of every video? Has it been possible that we've missed? Sure. But do we go out, when we credit Junkie, do we say USA Today? No, we credit Junkie. And if there was a show on Junkie, like MMA Junkie Radio, we would credit them too. Don't get me started on this.

Jack, there's been a lot of discussion in English. recently about journalists asking questions designed to provoke football players into giving a reaction. One example was Jude Bellingham, being told that the manager was disappointed with the team's performance without the full context. You know, I saw that clip, and it did seem like Jude was annoyed, and maybe the full, you know, it's tricky. It's tricky in the moment. I don't know what Thomas Tuchel said before that, but I did see the clip of Jude getting upset, and that's a tricky thing. His question is two-fold. Do you think it's a journalist's responsibility to present the full context of a story when asking a question, or is it acceptable to frame a question in a way

that creates a more interesting interview? No, the former. Responsibility to present the full context of a story when asking a question. Two, in your career, have you ever known journalists who openly admitted that they try to catch interview ease out, provoke them, or create headlines through the way they ask questions? No one that I trust. That's why sometimes I would get upset, you know, when people would say like I'm trying to instigate. I'm not trying to instigate. I'm just trying to ask the most pertinent question. I'm just trying to ask the most interesting question.

And sometimes those questions aren't the most, you know, hunky dory. Like it's all, you know, rainbows and lollipops. But it's never malicious and it's never to try to trip them up. It's like with Johnny Fisher, I'm not trying to create a wedge between him and Eddie Hearn, but there are some interesting things that need to be asked in my opinion. Cosmo. Hey, AH, and boys, little hungover. It just had some Mongolian beef.

Anyway. Shout out. Yeah. You know, I made a huge mistake earlier. The food that I ate was a big mistake for lunch. Would you see? Salar greens? Whoa, what?

Why are you laughing? The, that intro, yeah, the Mongolian beef thing is just hilarious. No, I know. It's an inside joke. I know, but it's just made me think of the caller and how ridiculous it was. And then it made me think of you eating lunch. And while you were eating it, you kept going back for plate after plate. And I was like, I wonder if there's any risk in this, you know,

it's about to sit down for like a four or four and a hour. Yeah, it was a mistake. It was a mistake. It was a big mistake. Hey, H and the boys, a little hungover. It just had someone go, oh, yeah. Anyway, the question pertains to BSD shooting a take down on Patty, 30 seconds into the fight without a setup when both fighters are fresh.

What is the biggest fighter IQ issue that drives you crazy? I mean, every fighter is different, but I don't know what happened there. Did he panic? What happened? That was just the weirdest thing. We all said, if you're BSD, you don't want this fight to go to the ground, right? Yeah. Not necessarily, but just not in that way.

Mm-hmm. Just naked shot, neck right out there. Not ideal. Not ideal. A toll. A toll. Patrick McCrae, Ariel, during your week in Vegas and fun run-ins with the fighters or managers that you haven't seen. Oh, wait.

Oh, during your week in Vegas, any fun run-ins with fighters or managers that you haven't seen? Not really. I got peace in love with everyone. Peace and love. Peace and love. I got no beef with anyone. Chris H. I was so happy to see your interview with Celtics coach Joe Missoula. How did the interview come together any behind the scene stories? Does he know your Knicks honk? Ha! 24-inch dubs.

We're interviewing Nixik. Nick Sik tells me he's coming in. I was like, hey, can I really come? I texted him after. Absolutely. We show up. There he is in the cage. Nixik's like, yo, this is my guy, Ariel. He's a Nix fan. And Joe's like, that's cool. No problem there. Like the Nix. Happy for the Nix. telling me stuff. I don't want to talk about things that we spoke about off the record, but he let Casey film him. Then we sat down for the interview. It was kind of funny.

I walked up to him. I was like, hey, coach, do you mind if I get a few minutes of your time? I'd love to chat with you about this. And he starts thinking, thinking, thinking. And then he's like, all right, all right, fine. I like you. Okay, we'll do it. And the best part was sitting with him and Nixick

afterwards and just shooting the shit about all kinds of things. That was really, really great. That was really great. I really appreciate his mind. Like I said, how cerebral he is, how he thinks, how smart he is. That was really fun. Nick W., Ariel, great to hear Rogan, say he watched your John Kavanaugh interview on the UFC broadcast. You've interviewed DC and Annick.

Can executive producer Rick get Rogan on the show? Yeah, Rick, can you get us, Rogan? I'm on it. Don't worry. Thank you. Rogan has been on the show before in the old days. We've also done, like, a backstage interview with him. Type in Ariel Hawani backstage Joe Rogan.

and it shall be there. Two parts, by the way, black and white. I appreciated him doing that, not only on the way-in show, but also on the actual fight broadcast. People were very excited. I could tell you, I reached out to Joe, and I thanked him, and he was very kind as well.

And that was it. Again, isn't this not what I was just talking about? Joe could have sat there and said, you know, Conn McGregor did X, Y, and Z. But what did he do? He credited the source, right? That's what a proper broadcast journalist does. Credit the source.

And he didn't just say, I saw it on Yahoo Sports. He didn't just say I saw it on Yahoo.com. He didn't just say I saw it on uncrowned. No, Joe Rogan, best friend of one Dana White, said, I saw it on the Ariolwani show. Ain't that what journalism is? Doesn't that say it all right there? And you guys are afraid to say my name in a press conference?

You're afraid to have my name on a graphic? Come on. What are you so afraid of? Matt Chiuwis. Ariel and crew. Happy National Hot Dog Day. Same to you. Simple question. Any updates on the light heavyweight title picture. Is there going to be an interim title fighter? Can we expect some different news soon? TBD. Don't know anything yet. Fred. Hey Ariel, where does UFC 329 rank for you among UFC numbered events so far? Best of the year. Not even close, right? Best of the year.

Worship. Hey guys. Can you imagine if Connor fought on the White House card and that has. happen? What a disaster. Oh yeah, you know what? Didn't think of that. That would have been a disaster. I have a quick question about this weekend's UFC Oc. If you know, you know, yep, I know. If Usman beats DDP, can Usman jump ahead of Imov for a title shot? I mean, I guess anyone can jump ahead of anyone. I wouldn't expect that, though. I don't expect it. I expect Hamza to jump over him. Yeah. Right? If anybody. Donnie delivers so sad that Cody's chin has completely failed him. He must hate Dilleshaw to his core for what he did to Cody's career. Sad to see because he isn't a bad fighter, his chin has just completely failed him.

It's tough mentally thinking the entire fight that if it gets touched, you lose. Cody was the best fighter in the world for five minutes, pound for pound number one for all but five minutes. Why just five minutes? On that night against Dominic Cruz, UFC 206, he was, oh, 2007, excuse me. He was unbelievable, but I don't know if it was just five minutes. The rain wasn't long, though, is what he's... Yeah, because he fought in December and then when did he lose? Was it November?

Was it 11 months? I'll never forget the, I'll never forget the press conference with Kobe Bryant and Francis Inganu and Cody Garbrandt. You remember that? For body armor. Cynthia Calvio, too, I think.

Was she there? Yeah, I feel like it. Yeah, so he was champ for 11 months, December to November. Yeah, that was wild with Cody up there. Cynthia Calvio. I'm seeing someone, Ariel, sometimes you say I saw this somewhere.

Let me assure you right now. Let me assure you right now. If I say that on a live five-hour broadcast, it's because I actually don't remember. Not because I'm sitting there deliberately trying to not credit someone. They are. They are. Oh, yes.

They are. Mullins, why do you think older fighters try to fight how they did in their prime rather than adapting their style to get the best out of what they currently have left? Peace and love. Man, you'd have to ask them, but, I would imagine most of us think that I still got it. One more. Let me go back to the well.

Father time undefeated. I guess this is in reference to Connor McGregor, which our next question is about. Knows knows. I don't get all the disrespect towards Connor and McGregor after the fight. He was winning the fight before his knee gave out. Oh, come on. Just last minute.

Okay. Shai, hey Ariel, I think Connor's injury ultimately came down to nerves. It seems like he threw the kick to impose himself early in the fight and show that he's here to fight. I mean, he was very clearly working on it in the back. But are you saying he looked nervous? Yeah, he looked nervous. Did he have the same type of like flow, aura, confidence, all that?

No. But that also could be because he hadn't done the thing in five years. And he's coming back from, you know, a five-year layoff, two injuries, one broken leg, all that stuff. if he wasn't nervous that would be weird irish lad the kick that mcgregor came out with was very reminiscent of the nick dyes flying back kicky through in his five plus year return to the octon it felt the same vibe pizzi was 100% right the entire walkout i knew something was off it felt like a movie script and you could feel it coming he looked like he was so worried of something like that happening that he manifested it to happen it looked like a full-blown anxiety attack that led into his self-fulfilling prophecy all right love and war also says it looked like a anxiety attack. The moment was too big for himself. First time I've ever seen that from Connor. I think, again, the first time you've ever seen him for Conner, no athlete is the same five years later after multiple injuries. It's like everyone just wanted him to be back to 2016 Connor, and that wasn't, you know, that wasn't in the cards, and it was foolish to think that.

I'm not making excuses for him. I've said it a million times now, I don't understand why they started the fight that way. I'd love to ask them, why would you start the fight that way? You know? Why not just like flow? Flow, guys. Flow. One minute. You know? I think this is from Frank Kissed my mom's ass.

I think it's clear as day. Connor was injured going into that. No, I don't think it's clear as day. Stop it with this. Okay. Gaza Brew says, I was one of the few Irish fans that traveled over to Vegas on Saturday night.

It was actually shocking to see how little support he got from the Irish. I even didn't really divulge. I was going to Vegas watch McGregor because of the judgment I'd get. It was a little heartbroken with the main event, but love MMA, so the card was fantastic. My question is, do you think Connor lost

the last of his support in Ireland? I was a little pissed. He couldn't even shout at his fans that traveled over and everything. I got to admit. I didn't meet a single Irish fan. Did you guys? Not really, no. Didn't meet a single one. Nope. Not one. Didn't see one.

I mean, one that was very clearly, like, you know, with the flag, that was wild. Do I think he lost? I don't know. It's impossible to say. It's very clearly not the same. MacDady, Conner is in purgatory. UFC will not let him fight out his contract, and he will not want to sign for more fights.

I mean, he only has one more left, so why would they let him fight out his contract? He has said multiple times he wants to fight out his contract. He wants to be in the UFC. Greetings crew. Since Conner's return from the leg injury, got me thinking about athletes who have had career-ending injuries and yet decided to try and come back. but were only a shell of themselves.

Well, it's not really career ending if they come back. But, okay, I think you mean like devastating. Some that come to mind, Rogers, Jets' career. Sure, but he was also much older, and he did come back and play for the Steelers. Derek Rose, I mean, Derek Rose played like another 14 years. Was he the same? No, but he still had a very solid NBA career,

including on the Knicks. Bo Jackson is a good one. Joe Thysman is a really good one. Joe Thaisman had his leg snap by Lawrence Taylor. Hi, Ariel, without pay-per-view, do you think card placement means more, less, or the same compared to before? I mean, if you're like right next to Connor, I think that's big. Otherwise, no difference. Like, in this case, it really helped Patty, you know?

Exactly. But it doesn't always work that way. So it's more times than not kind of not important. but in this scenario it was very, very important. 100%. Like it doesn't really matter that Gable wasn't on... No, if he was the first fight of the pay-per-view or the main card or this or that.

But Patty being in that spot really mattered. Okay, finally some good questions. Nick, and I'm just kidding. Damn. They're all good questions. Nick W. Peace and love. Peace and love.

GC, please blind rank these five burgers. Oh, yeah, here we go. Five guys. Ooh. Do it. Yeah. One. Wow.

I've never had five guys. Oh, it's fantastic. I don't know how you have it. Culvers. Four. In and out. I think we're all out on In-N-Out, right? I'm going to go three.

I'm fine with it. Shake Shack? Two? Grindhouse Killer burgers. Oh, wow. That's like, I would be shocked if anything you'll have that. Never had it. Down in Atlanta.

I'll go five, but I would rather have it four. but yeah, I'm satisfied with that ranking. Nick W. says Frank, the audio file, please blind rank these five sounds. Strong winds through tree leaves. Five.

How five? Ocean waves. That's a solid three. Rain on the roof of a tent. Tent, damn, two. That's nice. Distant thunder. I'm going to have to park out four because I want to know what one is.

Dustin Porre saying IGVM That's a proper one That is a proper one Rick Please blind rank These five heavyweight grates All right

Randy Gator Three Frank Mirre Five Alstrovrin Fuck Four Cyril gone

Oh Jesus Two Gable Steve's Yeah I mean naturally. You knew where this was going, right? I knew where it was going, but I didn't know who the other names would be. I obviously wouldn't have gone above fucking Randy Couture. This is Stevie B. Hello, All. Do you think Robert Whitaker should embrace the fat guy image and adjust the nickname to Bobby Knuckles?

Wait, oh, blobby knuckles, excuse me. No. That's actually pretty funny, though. No, no, no. Like Blob-Tang and Blobby Knuckles? That actually is pretty good. I thought he looked great. No. I thought he looked great. I like the sub-sell yet. Did I what? Oh, yes. Phil and Swalt?

Have you seen... Sorry, is this too big for that, you know? It doesn't even fit. Yeah. Yeah, you got a sound effects. Got to do the... Okay, Ariel, real question. You complain about Buffalo Bills games when you're at home.

Is this all the same guy, by the way? Is this all the one... No, sorry. Am I not giving... No, you haven't said a name. Oh, sorry. Sorry, shake Turk. Keep my fucking name out your mouth.

When you're at home and you get completely bent out of shape, but people being upset about the McGregor outcome and ludicrous are ludicrous and unjustifiable? How so? Do those things differ for some reason? I mean, okay, do you hear me getting upset when the bills lose because they lost? Because, like, they were screwed by the refs, that and the other? Or do you hear me getting upset that, like, the game wasn't worth my time?

That it was, like, an embarrassment and all that stuff. Do you not see the difference? I choose to sit down and watch the bills game, and I know that there's a very good chance that I will leave that game thinking, golly, I hate my life. You guys, some of you, some of you were like, that was an embarrassment, that was a joke, that was the worst night, da-da-da-da. I'm like, well, what about all the other great stuff that happened? All those other great fights.

Like either, listen, if you're just a Connor McGregor fan, the only people that can really complain about Saturday, in my opinion, are the ones that flew in there, bought tickets, spent their time, hotel, all that stuff. I feel for you. We met a guy from Scotland paid $8,000. I feel for that guy. You sat at home watching on Paramount Plus. What are you so mad about?

Sports don't go like that. It's not fairy tale stuff. Sometimes it's a bit of a downer. And guess what? If you would have paid for it on pay-per-view, I would have said you have every right to be upset. It wasn't on pay-per-view. If you have a Paramount Plus subscription,

you don't have to pay anything more. There's no ultimate package. So come on. I just don't like the entitlement. That's all. Anyone disagree with me? I just think it's like, it's, I don't know. Everyone stopped chatting shit.

Ace Cruden, hi, Ariel and team. Do you guys consider doing the Las Vegas show in public, like in the sports book or on the casino floor? It would be cool to see fans. We did that in September of 24. It's just a little, there's audio issues, right? Frankie? Yeah.

It's just also just such a hard environment to control. Not ideal. Distracting. For the production, yeah. Yeah. A couple more here. Tyler, hey Ariel, just want to know your thoughts on the Cain's owner putting his entire family's name on the Stanley Cup.

Yeah, I saw this. People were all up in arms over this. You know, I wouldn't do it. It's a bad luck. It's a bad luck. They probably had to leave off some training staff or someone who worked all season to get those guys on the ice just so that like your grandson can be on the standstill.

Was it really his grandson? I don't know. I'm just using it. I thought it was his kids. It's not my thing. Now, when it gets full of names, they replace it, right? So they eventually, when it gets full of the ring, they take it off, and then they can replace it and put a new one, so they put,

and then they put that ring in the Hall of Fame, actually. So they get immortalized, but then there's always, like a fresh place. Is that the first time someone's ever done that? I was reading recently that owners have been pushing the limits a lot more. This has obviously been the most egregious, but yeah. It's just... Does the owner get whatever they request on there? I guess so.

I didn't know that that was even a thing. The guy who owns the Hurricanes also, I believe, owns the Blazers now, and was getting a lot of heat about giving away free shirts. Wait a second, wait a second. Is Tom Dundon? Wait a second. Wait a second. This is the same guy? Same guy.

Wait a second. First of all, that's crazy. I can't believe it's the same guy. What is the connection between the trailblazers and the canes? Tom Dundon. Yeah. Apparently. Here's Pizzi with the... Did Argentina just tie it?

I've never seen someone hate watch something so much... Yeah, they did. They did, right? Also, it's very annoying watching sports. Very... 84th minute. Yeah. Wait, I'm watching the game.

They just scored. Yeah, catch up, Jordan. How's that sound? Oh, my God. I literally just turned it on as well. Okay, so the ball's out to Messi on the right flank. Goes down the right... Beno Enzo Fernandez.

Oh, my God. Outside the box? Oh, that's a beautiful goal. That is a beautiful goal. Oh my God. Gotta be going crazy down in the A for the A. In disresput.

That is, they've got to call offsides, right? How was England playing up until this point? Are they saying the game is in disresput? They were holding on to their corner kick. Wait, where's the off sides? There's got to be an offside. There's always an offside. Come on, here we go, here we go.

Is he offside at any point? There's no offside. No, there's no offside. We're going to extra time, but you think so? Yeah. 85th minute. Yeah. Top!

Bins! Oh, what a kick! Holy smokes! Ah, I'm gutted. Jude was coming out. Almost, oh, he almost blocked it, Jude, huh? It's okay. We've been here before.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Are they checking? No, they're not checking. Referee's sweating like crazy, huh? It's hot in there, man. Schwitzing. These dudes were five minutes away from the World Cup final? maybe a little more.

Thanks for tuning in to the uncrowned World Cup semi-final watch. My group chat is actually, one of the guys in the group chat is saying this is how England loses every game and corporate Jake was like, it's a tie game and then he said just wait. So it seems like

your voice from the future. Have you guys seen the tweet that's been going viral from 2021? That is weird. And the guys like just in 2026, World Cup final, Argentina beat Spain 3-2. Yeah. One second.

That is weird. Do you think they edited it? I feel like they did. No, you can't edit it after 90 minutes. Hmm. Is that true? Yeah. Really?

Oh. Let's do some super chats, shall we? Yeah. What was that? Super chats. What was what? I heard Andy go, oh. Yeah, she was pissed about the super chats.

No, it was just the animation. I wasn't ready to clear. Oh, sorry, sorry. We did it. We're doing things. There was a super chat. I did want to read, actually. Oh, sorry, a substack comment.

Oh, okay. A bay Maja? Oh, my guy. Our boy, a bay. He said, guys, I'm about five episodes behind, but refused to skip anything, which led to the most embarrassing and hilarious moment a couple weeks back. Please, Frank, or one of the BITB, find the clip of you guys arguing about merch on, I guess, June 23rd. and gave a time code.

So let's just take a listen. Intern Josh has already gone ahead and clipped it. Wow, we've done a whole thing here. Yeah, it's 10 seconds. Nice and quick. Let's hit it. And he's... But there's really no difference between that or Dix. It's Dix.

Excuse me? Whoa. Excuse me? You guys, you guys... You know what? If it was Dix, you'd love the Dix. I don't want... Stop. You guys are crazy.

He said he was pulling into a Tim Horton to get a mango cool. and he rolled down the window and that's what the lady in the window heard. Oh my God. That is amazing. Dix is a sporting goods store that was popularized

here in America. Do they have it in Canada? I don't know, but it's quite popular. What's with the sunglasses? What's happening? It's 5 o'clock? We're just working through it. Yeah.

Oh, no, it's 450. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you need context. It was the horrible take that we actually miss Models. You know, actually, can I tell brief story. It'll only take a couple seconds from Las Vegas. Me and Rick are out and about

gallivanting around Las Vegas, running errands and everything like that. And we pull into a shopping center and he's like, what the hell is a Habet sport? And I was like, it's a Hibet sports. Dude, have you never heard of this? Nope, no, never heard of it, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, actually, it's perfectly comparable to a Models. And we went in and he was like, this place is a disappointment. I was like, just like Models. But if Models wants to sponsor with this, we're more than happy to take it. There is no Models, man. No, it doesn't exist.

There's no Models. That was the whole conversation we had that day the week. Yeah. Dicks? We have talked about a lot of different... Dicks. Dicks in Seattle. Dick's sporting goods.

Big Dicks to the body. Here's 24-inch Dubs who says the Joe Mazzula interview was your best one ever. Okay, let's relax. I mean, it was a 10-minute interview. England looks distraught. by the way. They look, they look rattled.

Let's get through these super chats, eh? Okay. T. Ho Deer 7665. From one Q's journalist alum to another, why not ask Anik about his thoughts on the fury awkwardness during the White House? You know what?

That's a very fair question. I did not think of it. Even MJ misses from time to time. It's a very good question. And you know what? I'm going to be bothered that I didn't ask. No one in the back told me to ask about it. Let's call them up.

Yeah. Hey, John, real quick. You're 100% right. I should have asked that question. Gara, Pizzi. Have you heard of Emmett Brennan? We need him on the show. Olympian, Celtic Champ on Katie's Croke Park.

What a story? Hey, Pizzi, what do you think? What's going on? Yeah. Like some A.O. shit. Like, I don't know. Ezra, Ezra, Ezra, Ezra. We're all in this together.

Peace and love. Peace and love. Peace and love. peace and love peace and love sucker free fourth wall breaking question does yahoo cover the expenses to fly out and stay in Vegas if so is in an easy process to request the work expense p.s. i vote you keep the doorbell sound for in studio guests it's not a bad shout should we keep it frank oh my god i mean i tried to exercise it today then you took a show i was a little thrown off they just hit the post these guys uh mcallister listen watch watch watch

Oh my God, they just fucking scored! They just scored! Argentina just scored! No! No! No! They're going crazy in Atlanta. They just scored.

91st minute. Oh, my God, England. What have you done? I want to give a shout out to my friend Jacob Manasci or telling corporate Jake what's good. I muted our group chat because I knew P, I'm sure PTCRO. Oh, my God. Did I not say,

that they look distraught. It was actually Rick who wrote in first. Where is Rick? Where is Rick? Oh, I think he might have gone to get someone. This is... Oh, we've got to stick around. Oh, did you see this?

Replay. He hit the post. Oh, my God. And then they came back and scored. I like that cutaway to those England fans. They've done it again. They've done it again. England has seven minutes to try to salvage this.

Wow. That is... Pussy vibes. They can do it. They can do it. Yeah, let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Seven minutes, boys. Come on. Yeah, that goal was nasty. That was tremendous. Nasty. That was tremendous. What a header. Oh my God.

Who scored it? Who was it? Alvarez? Oh, my God, boys. Another assist from Messi that's 12 now in this World Cup. How do they keep doing it from the show? 12 assists for Messi? Yeah, they show before 11. On top of like, what, eight goals? Yeah, someone take he's good.

Fucking hell, dude. 12 assists. Have they even scored 12 goals? What is this? What is this? This is, look at Jude. I think they're going to score. You know, not a bad shout from Ronnie 2K.

Argentina are basically the 2026 Nix. You know, it's not a bad shout. It's not a bad shout. Continuously from the jaws of defeat, this is crazy. We got to stay with you guys till the end here. There's only six minutes left. Okay, let me keep reading. It is not coming home.

It is never coming home. Well, not yet. Not yet. I don't know. You've been given everybody that don't give up. I know. I know. Everyone who says their sports. I feel so bad for these guys. Okay, okay. What is this?

Wait, did I not answer the other question? Oh, yeah, sucker free. Fourth Wall breaking question. Does Yahoo cover the expenses to fly out in stay in Vegas? If so, is it an easy process to request the work expense? P.S. I vote you keep. Oh, yeah, I read this already. Do they, yes, they do cover our expenses.

The vast majority of them, it's part of the deal. there are a few things that we do on our own. But yes, they've been very kind and we're very appreciative. What is your clock at, by the way? I'm at 9412. Aye, you're three seconds ahead of me. I'm in 9412 now.

Mute the group chat, because PT somehow is like three minutes ahead of all of us. It's because he's over in Ireland. Yeah, he's closer to the action. Okay, here we are. Should they pull the goalie? You can't do that in talker, by the way. You can have him go up.

Oh, there's a smug look on the Argentina Gaffer's face. Oh, here comes Marcus Rashford. This is going to go great. Okay, we go back. Black and gold Trianda, eh? Oh, what is it? Here we go, here we go. What is the black and gold?

The ball has gone from the colors to black and gold, the trianda. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They update it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. What do you guys think of Infantino from Jake from Windy City? Who, my boy, Johnny? he's everywhere he's omnipresent

I don't know I mean the the bollagon thing was weird was it not is he corrupt who's the check oh Ivan Tony coming in who's the check

you know who could be of use right now a guy by the name of Cole Palmer how about him usually good for a goal or two what about Morgan Gibbs White huh Thomas why'd you leave those guys awful

okay what else Ma 7 shoot gave me 1999 What is this? Not even a question or a comment? Nice gesture. Now, what country is you from? SAR.

Is that South Africa? Rubies? South. Saudi. Oh, for real? Oh, here we come. Here we come. No.

Is it really? Saudi Arabia. What is it? Do you think I lied on purpose or you just like to double check? Okay. How much did he give us? 1999? 19.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. $19. It's about $6. Nah. Five bucks, five bucks. You were very generous with your six. Five-thirty-two, all right? It was off the dome.

We round down under 50. Okay, we go back. What's news? Excuse me, what's next for Max? What did he gain any news? I mean, he beat Connor McGregor, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. I think the question is, I mean,

the amazing thing about Maxes, he has a unbelievable knockout win over the current undisputed lightweight champion and that was his last loss like he could easily be inserted into a rematch

against Justin Gici do I think it's going to happen? No but did you guys see Diego Lopez hint at a fight against Armand for the BMF title I really hope they don't do that Armand's competing this this weekend

he was a hint at Olivera he was watching the Olivera Syrucan fight from 300 which Oh is that what he was doing no no that was later that was a foul That should be a penalty right there. And now Martinez is saying he hurt his bum.

What is this? Anyway, I think they'll do Armand versus Gachi for the belt. And then the question is, what do you do with Max? Max says he wants to wait until 2027. He's in no rush. He made a lot of money the most of his career. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes his chances, sits back. There's a super-roided-up guy in the crowd right there.

and just waits to see if they do the Conner fight again. Why should he rush? He's fought twice this year and four months apart, fought for the BMF, probably got paid well for that, and then comes back and fights on this one. Okay, England is pressing right now, guys. Here we come. Here come the boys.

That was an awful pass. Maybe I got a couple more shots at this. Well, there were two goals in stoppage time, so probably... Not just the one, just the one. No, the other one was 91st minute. Wait, oh, 85th, that's right. I think they probably got three more minutes. Three more minutes?

They're wasting time, Argentina. They're time wasting merchants. That's kind of what you do, no? Yeah, that's kind of what you do. Oh. Okay, it's a little bit of a patty cake going on here. I think something's happening. I think something's about to happen.

There's no sign that something is actually happening. Oh, here comes Rashford. On the wing. Corner? No. Oh, go. Oh, no. Nothing. It's been three seconds.

Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just hit the refresh. I'm way ahead of you guys now. Are you? What are you at? 9834? 9857. For real?

So if they score, you're going to beat us by 20 seconds? I won't even react. Mine buffered a little bit. I'm in 9831. Jordan told me that already scored. Now I'm getting messages from intern, Jack. Wait, wait. That what?

That it's over? I didn't read it. I didn't read it. I don't want to hear it either. I just want to hear it either. I just want to, let's just let's just, Let's just, we can, we can witness an all-time moment right now. Okay, now we're at the 99th minute.

Come on, boys. Oh, man, they can blow it any minute now. I don't really care about a Spain-Argentina final, if I'm being honest. I actually love it. You like it? Yeah, I do. I feel deflated. Oh, it's the rematch of the UNICEF picture.

Isn't that crazy? You guys know about this, right? Yeah. Yeah, the Laminia Mall baby picture. picture. It's actually him, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's been like confirmed, it's real. Confirm, confirmed, yeah. And now they're going to play in a World Cup final against each other? What are you even talking about? That feels like it can't possibly be.

No, it's true. No, I know. It's just, it's absurd. It's impossible to wrap your head around. It would be like Tom Brady taking pictures of Patrick Mahomes as a baby in a bathtub. It's absolutely ridiculous. Is it really him? Has it? Yes, I think like multiple outlets have confirmed it. That's insane. Okay, I mean, this is over. Argentina has the ball, and they can't, oh, I can't believe they choke this. I can't believe, okay, here comes Elliot Anderson, kicks it all the way down. I mean, this is just, this is painful. They had it in the bag.

I'm not even looking at our group chat because I'm sure Pizzi is insufferable right now. Actually, not a single text. Yeah, nothing yet. Wow. 100 minutes, 15 seconds. 100 minutes and 40 seconds. The players are all standing on the sidelines, hands up. Still nothing.

Jordan's still going Jordan's still going We're still around I've moved my watch station here So I can see what's going on there To see on his This is good TV Yeah he's too far ahead of me

He's too far ahead of me Yeah that's what I was saying earlier Welcome into the uncrowned Oh Oh oh oh oh No different than watching a fight On a stream What's the difference

Welcome into the uncrowned Argentina England watch party Everybody We want to welcome everyone I feel like something's about to happen I feel like I'm a morning Like DJ disc jockey right now. Welcome in to B98.4.5 for your morning drive. It's

ha! No, no, no, we're ahead. How much more time left? We're definitely going to need to get a clip of you when Argentina scored the second goal. Was it bad? No, no! Was he watching? Yeah, he was watching it. We've been doing the uncrowded Argentin team in the hall and I saw it. Yeah, it's been a great day. This is so great. This is so great. They could blow this at any second. Oh, there it is. Is it over? Is it really over? Yeah, it's over.

It is not coming home. England is eliminated. Guys. Pete was, you know, looking forward to that losing. Can we call PT on FaceTime again? We need Petezy on right. You're 100% right. As annoying as he's going to be.

We have to. Is he going to be like eight guises? What's going on? Whoa, he answered quick. That might be my all time. Ariel, man. What the fuck is this? Real quick.

We must get his reaction. Yeah, we need his reaction. What's going on? Do you think he's nine deep? No. No, I think he's dead to the world. Still in bed. Do you think he's even watching?

He was texting earlier. Oh, this is crazy. This is his chance to stick it to the English, and he's nowhere to be found. Oh, P.C. Go ahead. It's not going to. Tell us. You didn't show up to work today.

You didn't show up to work today, but I'm giving you the floor. I'm giving you the floor, Pete. Go ahead. I'm just letting you know. We knew this is going to happen. You sang that super fucking song in my face. The whole day after the Norway, I'm so happy.

The way it happens to you. Cheer red, chin in the back to the red. Yeah. Get out. See his little blue scarf? That's for Argentina. So happy. I mean...

What do you have to say to the English fans right now who are distraught? I look, lads. Hard look, you know. Not coming home. Staying home, in fact. It looks more likely. that Argentina actually the champions. Yeah.

But, um, hard look, lads. Would you not say that last, that last attempt in the box where it seemed like Jude got tripped would suggest that the game is in disrepute? It's well... Now you're saying disresput.

Was, uh, let Messi get absolutely manhandled no dead time. Reggie's had a few beers. Yeah. Um, but... Listen. In consolation to this, yeah.

I too, I'm upset that they're gone because my only job. was the countdown to him eventually lose them. So just as happy as I can be with this World Cup. That's very poetic. Well, we wanted to give you the opportunity to lower them into the ground

one last time for this World Cup to let them down. That's okay. We love you and we don't mind that you didn't show up to work today. Don't worry about it, all right? No, no problems. Thank you. Bye-bye. Of course we all remember

how Ireland did in the World Cup this year. Oh, you hang up before you see that up. Host hang-up. It's crazy words. Crazy work to hit the hang-up before that. I do want to let the English fans know that one day you two can become champion. This is what happens when you believe.

This is what happens when you don't give up on hope. And so I do want to let you all know that you should not give up on hope. And that one day, a trophy such as this one can be yours. But I know you're distraught right now. I feel for you all. After Canada, after U.S., I was all about England. After two other teams, yeah. All about them.

I was all about them. It's Argentina, Spain. Bain, Kalshi, what are you saying? Oh, there it is. You think Messi was talking shit in this moment? Oh, my God. Doesn't be a dirty baby? That's got, that is the greatest foreshadowing in the history of humanity.

What a chin on this guy, huh? Yeah. What a chin on this guy. That's where you go? He's like six months old. He has no neck. And I love that it's in one of those turquoise little tubs that we all have. You know?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, amazing. I can't believe it all played out this way. A lot of people, cut to LeBron James saying, a lot of people were saying back then that they didn't think it would play out, but he knew. LeBron always knows. He always predicts everything.

Okay, we have to go soak our sorrows. Spain, Argentina, both underdogs in the two matches. Oh, serious? Yeah. Oh, there it is. So Spain 58? Yeah. There it is, guys.

Wow. All right, it's time to go. Spain. You had a future on Spain? Yeah, I placed it in April. Come on. That's why I bought this jersey. Why is this the first time we hear about this? How much?

A lot? Get a grand if they went, yeah. Serious. I feel like you should have been more into Spain. You were more excited about AJ DeBantz's as 19 points. Bro, that was a moment. I flew to Atlanta to watch Spain for that reason. Didn't get to watch them, but I flew to Atlanta to watch them.

You also, it was a convenient weekend in your hometown, no? Yeah, but if it was Norway against Iran. If it was Iran versus Uruguay, I probably would not have made the trip. Would have been cheaper. I actually probably would have gotten to see them at that. That's true.

Anyway. I got to see AJ DeBanza. The man. Laminia Malho. And Patrick Ewing. It's DeBanza season. Right there. I got DeMansa and my pants.

He didn't have anything on Ewing, though. Why did Scott Amor bring a full cup of water but never drink out of it. And he put it there for some reason. Yeah, he was to check. He maniacally laughed when he told us he wanted the water. Serious? Was he going to pour it on his head like Darby Allen?

Was that the gimmick? What was he doing with it? Actually, I think it was all just a bit to try to get an Ariel Hawaiian show mug, but we ran out of it. We ran out. Did we get new ones? Yeah, I'm staring at him here. But he put it there and I'm like, that's an interesting place to put your water right there. Wait, you're staring at him.

Oh, yeah. I see it. Yeah, it's right there. When he put it there, I was thinking to myself, why would you put it you're never going to remember that it's there. And lo and behold, he did not. It's been a great day, though. Thank you to Scott DeMore for coming in.

Good luck to him and the whole crew. Thank you to Johnny Fisher, Shakur, Stevenson, Mario Battista, commiserations, England. Thanks to you, thanks to them. Back on Thursday, same time as this episode. Peace, I'm right here.