The Ariel Helwani Show - Shavkat Rakhmonov, Valentina Shevchenko, Jasmine Jasudavicius, Aiemann Zahabi, Sayif Saud, weekend recap

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back break down the state of the UFC welterweight division following Belal Muhammad's injury withdrawal from his UFC 310 title defense against Shavkat Rakhmonov (09:36).Shavkat Rakhmonov discusses Belal Muhammad dropping out of their scheduled UFC 310 title fight, how he found out about the news, what happens next, the option of fighting for an interim title, Ian Machado Garry, Muhammad's title victory over Leon Edwards, and more (31:07).Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back recap the highs and lows of UFC Edmonton (01:08:22).Jasmine Jasudavicius discusses her big UFC 310 win over Ariane da Silva at UFC Edmonton, why she walked out to "La Bamba," her mindset, running into Tracy Cortez, her fight night routines, getting a post-fight bonus, kicking trees, and more (01:27:47).Aiemann Zahabi discusses his UFC 310 over Pedro Munhoz, his five-fight UFC win streak, the running joke about how much he looks like Ariel, how working with a mindset coach has changed his career, Georges St-Pierre's role in the gym these days, and morev (02:01:29).Sayif Saud discusses Brandon Moreno's vintage win over Amir Albazi at UFC Edmonton, Moreno's path back to the belt depending on what happens at UFC 310, how difficult life is in the UFC flyweight rankings, Pantoja vs. Asakura, Geoff Neal's recent win over Rafael dos Anjos, and more (02:30:40).Valentina Shevchenko discusses recapturing the UFC flyweight title with a win over Alexa Grasso, her world travels since winning back the belt, her determination to make a statement in that trilogy fight, people's narratives leading into the bout, a potential Zhang Weili superfight, and more (03:05:29).

Hey everyone, I wanted to let you know that we are doing today's episode with a very heavy heart and are dedicating this episode to the memory of Derek Thompson. On Saturday during the UFC broadcast we found out that Derek, who was a very important part of the UFC production team for the past 13 years, had suddenly passed away. I'm aware that the majority of you who watch this show and who enjoy MMA are maybe unfamiliar with Derek. He was a behind-the-scenes production team member. But if you do love MMA, if you love the UFC, if you've been a fan for the past 10 plus years, there's no doubt that you have enjoyed and appreciated his work. He was a graphics producer that has been a part of the team since the Fox days, since 2012, and was really an

integral part of everything that the UFC produced. Traveled the world, was at every event in the truck, and most importantly, was an incredible colleague. He was an incredible friend. I had the opportunity to work with him for many years while at Fox and then the ESPN days, a mountain of a man, but a gentle giant, someone who just lit up a room, had an incredible smile, had an incredible demeanor. You heard Daniel Cormier speak about him so eloquently. They were very good friends and he was extremely close to head producer of the UFC's broadcast, Zach Candido, close to other members of the team like Jimmy and Lappy and so many others who are just so important to what the UFC does each and every week. And Derek was as well. Always a great friend, always a great teammate, always great to be around,

always great to work with. Just one of those guys. You see the smile, you see his demeanor, you see the look on his face, just a beautiful soul. He was about to turn 40 years old. I saw him on Instagram recently. He appeared to be in the best shape of his life. And this all happened so suddenly. And so I wanted to let you know that there's a GoFundMe page up. I've linked to it in my Instagram story. You can see it there. If you're someone who obviously doesn't know Derek, but enjoy the UFC, enjoy the broadcast, watch each and every week, perhaps you'll consider contributing. All the funds will go to his family, to his mother in particular, Gail,

who we send our condolences to. We send our condolences and our thoughts and our prayers and our hearts to all of his family members, to his friends as well, to his UFC family, to everyone who knew and worked with Derek Thompson. Again, Derek Thompson, we're thinking of you, we're thinking of your family, and we hope that you are resting in peace. Derek Thompson, we're thinking of you, we're thinking of your family, and we hope that you are resting in peace.

Derek Thompson, just 39 years young. We dedicate today's welcome to the R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R The Waddy Show! Back in your life! On this Monday, November 4th, 2000. And 24. Hello again, everyone. Hi, sure. Hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a lovely, lovely... If I'm being honest, somewhat frigid Monday afternoon in New York City. It is great to be inside. Thursday was beautiful.

Trick-or-treating, wearing shorts. Can't recall that ever happening. And then it got really cold. We've turned the clocks back, so hopefully we're on the same wavelengths as everyone else. Because I think the UK turned it back earlier. They beat us to the punch they beat us by a week and then there's some parts of the u.s right like arizona doesn't even do this they don't even do this are we getting rid of this is this going to be a thing that is going to go

away at some point i feel like there's a push to make it go away for a while but i don't know where it landed all i know is i had to change my clocks yeah and now you know the days get uh darker earlier the sun rises a little bit earlier and you know, the days get darker earlier. The sun rises a little bit earlier. And you know, it's the good news about all of this, Frank. You know what the good news is, right? No, you got to tell me. Well, you know, if we're here at like five o'clock, it's going to be pitch black.

Yeah. You know, I love this optimistic autumnal aerial on it. What does that mean? Like it's autumn. Oh, got it. I thought you meant. I learned that from Bake Off. I thought I thought you meant like um like i'm autonomous like i'm oh yeah it's like the british say it autonoma yes yes well uh you will see that you will enjoy that and hopefully you will enjoy today's episode we're coming off uh ufc edmonton the crowd was a rocking

highest north american gate in ufc history they continue to break all kinds of records the product continues to be hotter than ever Canada goes 6-3 6-3 for the Canucks not bad some nice wins some solid wins and we'll be hearing from some of those individuals I just screwed that up why did I

have to do that Patrick Ewing fell I mean it's just a mess of a situation we'll be hearing from some of those individuals on today's program. A lot to get to, a lot of news, a lot of items, a lot of things have happened since we last spoke. And off the bat, I think we're three weeks in now. I think this is the start of week four. Time is a flying. Is that possible? Is it the start of week four? Anyway, we hit 200,000 subscribers on the YouTube channel. So if you're watching right now and not subscribing, give us a little sub, give us a thumbs up to the chat, hit us up.

And you know why? Because the drive for 25 on 25 is still live. We're trying to get to 250 by Christmas. You think we can get to 250K by Christmas, Frank? Absolutely. I feel pretty good about it. It's November 4th. We got a month and a half or so, a little over.

So we're trending in the right direction. Now, what are we talking about on today's show? Back into the show, one of, if not the best female fighters in the world, on the planet, the pride of Kyrgyzstan, the pride of Peru, the pride of Las Vegas, the pride of the world, Valentina Bulychevchenko, the new reigning defending UFC women's flyweight champion. She regained her throne. She was the queen without a crown. Then she got the

crown. She beat Alexa Grasso back in September, UFC No. 6. She'll join us at 4 o'clock. Talk about that. My first time talking to her since she regained the title. Looking forward to that. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by one of the best coaches in MMA, Saif Saoud Of Fortis MMA

I mean Saif Saoud is on some kind of role You know their team is based in In Dallas, Texas Beautiful Dallas Take a look at this Team Fortis went 2-0 At UFC 308 Jeff Neal beat RDA

Kennedy and Zetchuku beat Chris Barnett. Brandon Moreno won on Saturday. That was this past November 2nd. Edmonton had the big win over Amir Al-Bazi. Tremendous performance. Unanimous decision win. Earlier in October, so about a month ago, Ryan Spann won. He submitted OSP at 307 in Salt Lake City, won the performance bonus as well. October 1st, undefeated Jacoby Smith improved to 9-0 and brought Team Fortis' record on Dana White Contender Series to 18 wins.

That's most wins for one team. So they're rolling right now. One of the good guys in the game, Safe Suhud, he'll join us at about 3.30 to talk about all of that and more My doppelganger, Amon Zahabi I know Amon Zahabi's fighting When I get a flood of tweets

Either when he's weighing in, or when he's walking Or when he's performing, or when he's winning And he's doing a lot of that these days The Montreal boy improving to 5-0 in his last 5 Solid, solid, solid win for him Over the veteran Pedro Munoz on some kind of role.

And he'll join us at 3 o'clock to talk about all of that. And what about our own Jasmine? Yes, the busiest. Yeah. No need to tell anyone to suck it this time. She was glorious in the cage on Saturday. A very impressive win

over Ariane Lipski. She is now on her last three in a row. She gets the D'Arce choke win. She likes that maneuver very much, and she is moving on up in the rankings. So let's see where she goes from here, but it's always great to catch up with Jasmine.

Yeah, and what about that team? Niagara top team going 3-0. Shout out to Mike Millat as well for a big win on Saturday. We'll kick things off at 1.30, talking about Shavkat Rachmanov, who was quoted in a great Action Bronson song. I tried to find the

song on Instagram when I posted the graphic for today's program. I believe it's pronounced it's S-A-L-V-A-J-E S-A-L-V-A-J-E S-a-l-v-a-j-e salvachi i don't know sounds right to me yeah but they didn't have it anyway love talking to shavkat and uh it's it's a good time to talk to the undefeated shavkat rachmanov what a run he's on 18 18-0, all his wins via finish, obviously undefeated in the UFC. These are the five individuals joining us on today's program. But before we get to Shavkat, let's talk a little bit about the state of the 170-pound division because a lot has happened since we last spoke to all of you. Wednesday, we thought that it was going to be Bilal Muhammad against Shafqat Rahmanov on December 7th, UFC 310, the last pay-per-view, the last pay-per-view main event of 2024. We wake up on Thursday and we find out that fight is off. Why? Because Bilal Muhammad has suffered a very serious

infection in one of his toes. There's the tweet from the 170-pound champion. Caught a bone infection in my foot. Had to put a pick line in my arm for IV antibiotics. The next six weeks with no physical activity. Allah's plan is the best plan. I'm sorry to everyone that were coming to see me. I'll be back soon, inshallah. So he's out. The picture's pretty gnarly. Have you seen him by now? I mean, that toe is a balloon. Awful stuff. The whole foot looks like it's a balloon, to be honest. And there's after the surgical procedure. Not good. And so he's out. And so after that news came out, there were a series of people throwing their name into the hat.

Shavkat Rachmanov saying, hey, I wish you the best, my friend. Quick recovery will meet when you're back at 100%. For now, I'm ready to take on any contender for the interim title UFC 310. And so with that news, came tweets from the likes of Kamaru Usman. Came tweets from the likes of Ian Gary,man, came tweets from the likes of Ian Gary,

Ian Machado Gary, to be exact. And when we were on the boys in the back on Thursday, there's Ian Gary. That's a Photoshop. Even some talk, he posted a video of him talking about their old sparring sessions and whatnot. These two used to train together back in the day. This is a tweet from

June after Ian's win over MVP. Shovkat replying, looks like Ian forgot what happened during those training sessions. I don't mind reminding him in the future. And so we were thinking, okay, maybe they're going to do a number one contender fight. Interim seems a little bit rushed. Not a huge fan of that. The BMF title has become the interim title in many respects. He won the belt in July, July 27th. Seems a little bit rushed, but maybe a number of contenders. Maybe it's Ian versus Shufka. That seemed to be the push.

And then we find out on Friday. Excuse me, something in my throat. Then we find out on Friday, it's Ian Gary fighting in December, but not on December 7th. It's on December 14th. The last fight of 2024 will be headlined by Ian Machado Gary versus Joaquin Buckley, number seven versus number nine, December 14th at the Amelie Arena in Tampa. I was there in July for the Mike Perry, Jake Paul fight. They've been there many a times.

And so that kind of ruled them out. And so now welterweight all in flux. The chef cut weight. Does he fight someone else? What does the winner of this fight get? All that and more has really zeroed us in on the welterweight division. By the way, shout out to MVP, Michael Venn and Paige, speaking of the welterweight division. By the way, shout out to MVP Michael Venom Page, speaking of the welterweight division. He was successful on Saturday at Polaris 30. He defeated Carlos Condit, and it was pretty impressive. A duck under here, a slam there, a big dub for Michael Venom Page in his first grappling match. match pretty darn cool And so like I said 170 in focus Wanted to talk to the boys

About the 170 pound division New York Rick Is here the bearded Saint of the Emerald Isle is here Got over a bit of a stomach bug You know I wanted to do this gag And I forgot to mention it so much Was happening before the show wanted us to start

With the four box and the empty chair next to Rick. No, why do we need to? Why, why, why? Let's just let the man have his piece. Where is he? He's in Mexico. Ah, you hear that, Petey? He's in Mexico. He's in Cancun.

Ah, there he is. Your favorite place. Yeah, that is tough. Is it not? Emotional. It's tough. Yeah, there he is. Your favorite place. Yeah, that is tough. Is it not? Emotional stuff. Yeah, there he is. Yes, GC will be back tomorrow. He's enjoying a little séjourn in Cancun. He's there for a wedding, mazel tov to the happy bride and groom.

Watching UFC Edmonton. Yeah, I mean, he's tweeting us about UFC Edmonton more than he would have if he was at home with his phone locked in his drawer. I'm like, what are you doing? Why are you even watching this right now? You're in canned freaking coon. But nevertheless, the grind doesn't stop. PT, let me ask you, because we did speak a little bit about the Bilal situation on Thursday's show.

When you got the news that Ian was going to be fighting Joaquin Buckley and maybe not getting one of the more high-profile fights he was. He was campaigning for a Shavka fight before Shavka got booked against Bilal. What was your reaction? Yeah, I mean, I would have thought he would have been one of the options for the Shavka fight. He certainly seemed to present himself as one of the options online, putting his name forward as he should. And I guess the reaction to this fight over here is kind of like, himself as one of the options online putting his name forward as he should and i guess um the

reaction to this fight over here is kind of like it's great like the story is more about this is the first irish guy since patty hoolan to be in a main event you know like outside of mcgregor of course like it's a you know he's reached a certain milestone with the company i think a lot of people are just excited to see him kind of progress to that highest echelon of the division see how he got on and the shavkat thing is interesting like you mentioned the sparring um situation i remember when brendan allen was on your show not so long ago he was referencing somebody knocked in out while he was here a lot of people were were whispering about oh that was sh oh, that was Shavkat, that was Shavkat. I think Alan actually said it wasn't at one stage, but then we see Shavkat doing this again.

I think it's more like, you know, we're glad to see him in the main event. I don't think Ian would be thrilled with that fight with Buckley. I mean, there's footage out there from about a year ago where he's kind of saying, like, we're not in the same league, pal. Like, I'm after proving all this stuff. But, of course, Buckley has gone on and got a good win over Stephen Thompson, kind of puts him in the same league pal like i'm i'm after proving all this stuff but of course uh buckley has gone on got a good win over stephen thompson kind of puts him in the same neck of the woods as in i would have loved to see him in the chef cat fight i would have loved to see that i think it's great that he's in a main event i think the fight with buckley is fantastic i think

purely based on a like a spectacle it's going to be a brilliant brilliant fight um i just feel like people kind of thought he was going to be in a situation where if you're not taking like a short notice call up to get shavkat here you're certainly one away does joaquin a win over joaquin buckley put him one away like as in he beat he wins against joaquin and then he fights for a title i don't think so i think he probably needs another one another victory over one of them staples of the division yeah you bring up a good point about that interaction because that clip resurfaced and then he addressed it in some comment section somewhere i saw it um and so yes around a year ago he was essentially insinuating not on my level and uh hey what happened to izzy here he got flipped

over that was weird um but of course now they are going to fight. And to your point, Joaquin Buckley, you know, he has been very active as of late. He has won five in a row. He's coming off a very, very solid win over Stephen Thompson. And here's what I do know for sure. Yes, he did not want this fight. I don't know what's going on in my throat, guys. Yes. Sets falling apart.

Everything. We're an absolute mess. he wanted he wanted colby covington and for whatever reason they can't seem to figure it out and then he wanted uh sean brady and sean brady uh isn't available and so i think he really just wanted to fight at the end of the day he wasn't getting the rachman off fight it seems like they'll and we'll talk to shafqad in about 13 minutes time it seems like they're saving him we'll talk to Shafqat in about 13 minutes time. It seems like they're saving him. And so he takes this fight and I give him a lot of credit for that.

You know, you can sit around and wait. I thought maybe they would try to do Ian versus Leon Edwards. And maybe this fight is the one that gets him to a Leon Edwards fight. Perhaps, you know, if they go to the UK in March or April or so, as is being rumored, Leon versus Ian would be a gigantic fight, an important fight for both, and a fight with a backstory to it.

And I was surprised, Rick, a lot of people, when I asked about it on, I didn't do a poll or anything, a lot of people were favoring Buckley in large part because I had a few people quote The infamous Moment there with Yoel Romero back in March of 2020 Shorty man, diddy boxing

You broke me with that I was hoping to get you on the screen there Oh man, what a moment What a moment You got me I don't often break. You got me. Right, right.

Is it not true? Go. I'm not surprised that people are favoring Buckley because I think, you know, he's kind of shown that, like, while sometimes the, like, as an example, right? It seemed like Thompson was having success against him. But he has so many ways to win and he's so varied in what he can do. It does feel like he's in every fight and there's an opportunity for him to win, whether it's the first round late. You know, he has a highlight reel knockout that tends to not be the way he's winning fights these days. But he's so well-rounded and he's such a he's's such a physical, uh, competitor that I understand why

people will be siding with him. I will say I have been more impressed by Ian Gary than I have been by Buckley. So maybe it's a little bit of just, you know, people not in favor of Gary at the moment. I think it's a great fight. I mean, I know, you know, Ian was, was saying that Buckley wasn't in his league and didn't want it at that time. It is a hell of a fight. Like, I think that this is a perfect kind of who's the guy who will take a next step and be a title contender between the two. So I'm a fan of how this shook out. I wouldn't have been mad if we had Ian Gary versus Shavkat Rachmanov. As they've both said, they've trained together and they seem to each like how they performed in that. I'd be curious to see what the net result is and who

who really dominated the room there um but i think if this is the the alternative that we get i'm pretty happy with it you don't have a timeline yet for balal but you got to stick with balal and shavkat right if you're if you're shavkat it it'll be tough right for him to not have this title opportunity after having had it but we've seen this before with the UFC. So I don't think it was a guarantee that they wouldn't try it. In fact, he seemed to proactively be saying on social media, I'm ready to fight anybody. And we've seen Kamaru Usman and others take that opportunity

to throw their name into the hat. I like the Shavkat and Bilal fight. I think Shavkat is worthy of a title shot i think balal is is a champion who's going to face one of his toughest threats right off the bat in his first title defense and i respect him for that and i think he'll be ready for it so i like that matchup i wouldn't have been mad if we saw shavkat but from shavkat's perspective like there's really not much to gain it's it's really just a lose-lose the problem with it though is that shavkat's last fight was in december of 2023 it's been a while um and so this will be a year and then let's say by the time they fight again it's i don't know april may march it's a

long layoff for the number one contender i get the impression that shavkat is the type of guy who probably trains pretty hard and uh sure some get some rounds no momentum that that feel like fights at times no i i listen it's it's a dilemma but the options are you fight and risk right you fight and take a potential risk and if that goes wrong you've really set yourself back or you you train hard and you really uh you know make the improvements in the gym and get as close to a fight as you can approximate, and then you come in there as ready as you can be. I can't tell you which one he would choose to go. I would say he seems like the guy

and has proven to be the guy that would choose either option, right? If they offered him a fight, it sounds like he would take it based on the social media response, but I wouldn't be mad if they reserved that. Who are you favoring in this pt buckley or gary i think in i look everyone i've spoke to over here in terms of uh the orishan mike and mary they think it's a great fight for in i guess concerns from inside

would be this is a battle of two guys who are known for their stopping power for their potency we have not seen that in gary for the last three fights even though he toyed with magni in august 2023 in the page fight and in the neil fight we didn't see that potency that um we're used to on his ascent he also you know has this moving around him becoming a far superior grappler than he was uh according to ian based on what we saw against page as well like has this moving around him becoming a far superior grappler than he was according to Ian based on what we saw against Paige as well like has this moved to Brazil has this changed what his route one is what his go-to game is and that would be some of the concerns but I think it's Ian I think it's Ian's fight to win um one thing I am wondering about Ariel is in terms of

these matchups at 170 that could potentially be offered to Shavkat. Is Leon, do you know if Leon Edwards has been asked about that fight? And why do I get the feeling that it's going to be Kamaru Usman v Shavkat when the day comes around? Oh yeah. And that was something that a lot of people were predicting. I checked in on Leon. I think that they want to save him for their return to the UK, which is being rumored for March, April.

I think that they are, for now, sticking with Shafqat versus Bilal. One guy that's been forgotten about, who shouldn't be forgotten about, but I understand why he's somewhat forgotten about right now, is Jack de la Maddalena.

They are returning to Australia in February. He is targeting that card to return. I'd love to see him versus Kamar Usman on that card. Does Usman take the fight though? Does Usman go to Australia and fight Jack de la? In case you forgot, Jack de la Maddalena right now is ranked fourth. Kamar Usman is ranked second. Third is Shavkat. First is Leon.

So if it's a scenario where Bilal is out for a very long time, then I think it should be Leon versus Shavkat. I don't think that's going to be the case. And I think they'll just, at least as of right now, wait for Shavkat to fight Bilal Muhammad. The question is, what do you do with Leon? Does the winner of this fight, the December fight, fight Leon in three, four months? Ian versus Leon would be huge. And then do you do Jack Della versus Kamar Usman? If you can't do Jack Della versus Kamar Usman,

would you do maybe Jack Della versus Sean Brady? That's four versus five. Those are the guys. And then of course, Colby Covington, but like, who the hell knows with that guy? I don't know.

His absence is a little bit up in the air. They seem to be making a conscious effort of matching the old guard with the new guard. New guard being Shavkat, Gary,

Jack de la Maddalena, and I would have said Sean Brady as well. I think that makes it a far more appealing option to Joaquin Buckley to essentially steal Gary's thunder with a view to that title picture um I love Jack Della Madalena v Ian Gary as a fight I think it's absolutely magic but I can understand them keeping keeping them away from each other as this kind of ushers in a new generation

of contender for the welterweight champion yeah and that probably doesn't happen next right because if you have jack della fight in february ian's not going to turn around i would think not and fight in um in february two months later do you think ian would have an issue fighting in london against leon i think he's always seemed to have an issue with fighting in London. I remember from the very start that. Yeah, that's why I'm asking. It seems like something he's not too keen on, right? Yeah, and I mean, Irish fans want that.

Like, we only have to look as far as the Manchester card with Kiefer, Caelan, and Shawna on that card. They all came over. Like, despite it being a horrific time of night, everyone came over. Put an Englishman against an Irishman, and it it's gonna sell a lot of tickets as well like obviously uh leon and jamaican as well but that is the kind of thing that stirs up interest you put irishman against englishman and of course there's the history there that could put a few arses in seats really he needs to stimulate the fan base in ireland and i think that's a good to do it. But the problem is a lot of people in Ireland really, really like Leon Edwards as well. They don't like him more than Ian.

The problem with Ian is he hasn't really become, like he's certainly, he just hasn't i feel like it's more of an event when the other guys fight because people associate them more closely with ireland for whatever reason it's probably due to the move to florida and all that stuff early on um like for instance there was far more of a buzz around paul hughes fight here than there was for any of ian's fight needs ian's fought in massive massive situations all these big pay-per-views big name opponents Michael Page etc far more of a household name than AJ McKee but there was just more of a buzz here for this and look I don't think that's lost I think you keep winning and eventually you're beloved by everyone um but yeah that that has been a problem for him I've wrote about it now for about two or three years. But, you know, the only way is up, I suppose.

Far be it for me to tell someone who lives in Dublin about what the temperature is in Dublin, so to speak. But I disagree. I heard you and others say, biggest win for an Irish fighter since McGregor, Paul Hughes. AJ, I love Paul Hughes, but come on. Ian Gary beating MVP and some of the other wins in the UFC, I love Paul Hughes, but come on. He and Gary beating MVP and some of the other ones in the UFC

way bigger than that, in my opinion. Like not even close. Well, like, you know, when AJ McKee was the featherweight champion of Bellator, people were saying this guy could come in and be vocal. When did anyone say that about Michael Page? When did anyone say?

UFC 303 had a $25 million gate and had a million people on pay-per-views. People were laughing. There were six people. I'm going to fight Leon. Everyone's like, all right, mate. There were six people. There were six people in attendance. That isn't even my argument, by the way.

That was Andy Stevenson and the Houseboys. But it's certainly, if you don't think that's a debate to be had, I mean. It's a debate, but I don't know. I don't know your ass from your elbow, mate. You're so. There are high profile. When you say like biggest win, it being high profile has to come into play, right? And Ian's wins have been way, like the one in Charlotte on ABC was way more high profile.

Way more people saw that than the PFL pay-per-view that was bought by 5,000 people. And Ian's wins have been way, like the one in Charlotte on ABC was way more high profile. Way more people saw that than the PFL pay-per-view that was bought by 5,000 people. And 90% of those people were watching Helwani Vision. Yeah, I mean, it's a good point. I mean, fair play to you. Wow, you disagree, huh? I'm not, I mean, I'd take either, yeah. I think that's fair. I mean, by the way, the fact that we're even debating this

is a good thing for Irish MMA, right? The fact that there's even a debate to be had, okay, whose win is bigger, this, that, like that. The fact that there's two actual people that are pretty close to the top of their respective weight classes in their respective divisions is a great thing. But I just, I vehemently, vehemently disagree

with the notion that that win was bigger than any of Ian's wins. You're going to have to get Andy Stevenson on and have a word with him then, aren't you? Yeah. We got to sort out your internet situation, first and foremost. What's going on over there?

Is everything okay? I think it's okay. He just glitches out sometimes. That's the poorest glitch we've had. Yeah, it's a problem. No, it's all good. We still love you. Rick, who's the welterweight champion this time next year in the UFC?

Shavkat Rachmaninoff. Wow. You're not just saying that because he's coming up in 30 seconds. No, I wouldn't have said that any other time. Really? Yeah. Shavkat, you think he beats Bilal? Yeah.

Man. I mean Yeah I think he beats everybody In that division Everybody Yeah I think Shavkat versus Ian Would be some fight

It'd be a great fight I'm not picking anybody Over Shavkat at the moment Wow You're that high on him Yeah 18-0 Wins over Stephen Thompson

Jeff Neal Who looked great Neal Magni Headlining UFC Apex 100 Carlston Harris, Shel Perzeris, Alex Oliveira, cowboy. Those are his UFC wins.

In fact, did you guys know that he made his MMA debut almost exactly 10 years ago? October 17th, 2014. Where were you, Pizzi Carol, when Shafkat Rachmanov beat Adam Tsurov at M1 Challenge 52? Were you watching it?

Kaposa was probably watching it. It wasn't a big M1 guy. You know, Kaposa definitely watched it. ACB was as far as I went into the Russian terrain, I think. Oh, okay. His next one was in Kazakhstan, KZ MMAF, Battle of Nomads 2. That was November 30th, 2014. So actually, his second fight came a little over a month later.

And so let us put a pin in our 170-pound discussion and let us speak to the man that we were just speaking about. They call him the Nomad. He is undefeated in his pro MMA career. 18-0, undefeated in the UFC as well. 6-0, he's the number one contender at 170 pounds. He is the great Shavkat Rahmanov. There he is.

Hello, Shavkat. How are you? Thank you for joining us. And we're also being joined by your manager slash incredible interpreter, the great Syed is here as well. Thanks, guys. Спасибо, ребята. Привет, Эрил. Хорошо, давайте начнем.

Очень извините за новость, Шавкат. Когда вы узнали, что Белял не смог драться? Неделю назад. Какая была твоя реакция? Конечно, плохо было. Мы готовились с ним подраться. Неприятно. Что мы будем делать? Он травался и как бы отказался от боя по получать не знаю у него какой как серьезно травма или нет но говорят как бы какой-то индексы занес но будем ждать когда вернется пока не мере неизвестно вот за это я думаю и все 310 я как бы любим готов если Я думаю, что я готов к любым действиям. Если Паттат на пояс будет, как раз для нас будет удобно. I don't know how long it's going to really take for him to come back. That's why I'm ready to face anyone on December for interim belt.

And your situation, it's a little bit different because I understand you're in the U.S. already beginning to train for that date, right? It's not like you're at home. It's a long journey from Kazakhstan to where you train in Florida. And so what are the things that go through your mind when you hear about something like this? Some people, when there's a delay, they just длительность, просто перестают тренироваться, но потом перейдут в жизнь. Ты сделал огромный шаг, чтобы подготовиться к этой бою. И я понимаю, что это будет огромная неприятность. В этом бою я готовился очень усердно.

Сначала я подготовился дома в Казахстане вот заключительный этап приехал в соединенные штаты как бы майами и здесь как бы у нас чуть-чуть как бы основной подход остался но я готов с кем угодно если будет какие был каким бы соперник не был достойным самое главное дайте мне тайте мне титул временно хотя бы, потому что Билала неизвестно, когда будет драться. Я готов, в принципе. Я заслуживаю бой и титул. getting ready and now I came over to Miami, Florida, you know, to finish my camp and it's the last stage of my preparation and, you know, I cannot just, you know, go back, you know, I want to fight and I want to fight for the belt, you know, just to secure my spot as a number one contender and I believe I deserve it. Has anyone talked to you or your team, your management, Что ты знаешь по поводу твоего статуса на 7 декабря? драться или еще какие сейчас новости но они вроде бы соперник есть принципе надо это все и от еще зависит я готов любимого любимых подраться самому достойно

соперники как бы пока от на титул еще я принципа готов спасти этот умер я думаю Я думаю, что если Усман поставит нас, мы сможем провести отличный бой и показать хороший шоу. for the interim belt. And I believe Usman is the worst opponent who's also probably going to be ready to jump in, you know, to face me. And so maybe this question is for you, Sead, since you are his manager. Is there any talks of this happening? Is there any talks of keeping him on the card and fighting someone like Usman

for an interim title? Yeah, right now negotiations going on and obviously they're talking. I don't know if they're talking to someone else, Да, сейчас идет договор, и конечно же они говорят. Я не знаю, кто они говорят, кто-то другой, но я уверен, что они предложат Камару. Как ты уверен, что ты будешь бороться на 7 декабря для первого титула? Ты уверен, что это будет драться за временный титул 7 декабря? Я уверен, что заслужу за временный пояс. Потому что Билалу неизвестно, когда он вернется.

В следующем году турниры заняты, людей уже поставили. Я думаю, для Билала тоже будет интересно, если я стану чемпионом. Oh, did we lose Sia too? Yeah, they were on the same, but we'll get them right back. It looked like he got a call maybe and he pressed the button there. So interesting to hear that, and I don't know what he was just about to say there, but it sounds like there is some confidence attached to the notion that he will remain on that card. Bilal Muhammad, in response to the idea of him fighting for an interim title, Shafqat fighting for an interim title at UFC 310, said on his show recently that it's six weeks, not six months. So I'm not really sure why interim title. Those are his words.

Let me ask Shafqat now. We bring him back in. He was in the midst of his. Did you say he's back or no? Yep. We have Shafqkat and Sayed back? Yeah, there they are. Okay, he got cut off there, Sayed,

so I don't know if he wants to finish the answer or if he was done. Done. I'm sorry. So, do you finish the answer or... I'm done, I'm done. I'm talking, I'm talking. So, obviously, he doesn't know if it's going to happen or not

because he just knows he's worthy, he deserves it a chance for interim belt because we don't know when Bilal is going to be back you know, these kind of injuries these kind of infections they might say it's six weeks but you know, look at

JDM, you know, it's taking a lot longer, you know so it's also, I think it's good for Bilal too, because it's just going to make their fight even bigger, you know. It's going to be champ versus champ. So whenever Bilal is ready, obviously after him securing the interim title, he's going to fight him.

And the first quarter of the next year already, I believe is already taken and scheduled. So he cannot come back soon anyway. And just to be clear, if the UFC said, we want you to stay on the card, we'll make it worth your while, but no interim title. So you can fight someone like Usman, but no interim title. Is he interested in that?

Let's say the UFC wants to leave you on the card, Он интересуется этим? Но посмотрим, время покажет, что куда торопитьсяября, то ты уже не хочешь бороться. Но в целом, я думаю, что ты просто не хочешь вернуться в подраться, и эта ситуация сбивает. Да, конечно, у меня тоже проблемы были. Но я вернулся, хотел бы литуль забрать. Соперник травмировался, я думаю, я заслуживаю пояс. Если я временным чемпионом стану, думаю, Я тоже сталкивался с проблемами в начале года. Но теперь я готов вернуться. Это был титульный бой.

Я был очень рад. Сейчас все на полной, но я не могу сказать, что я не буду играть. I had my problems in the beginning of the year, and now I'm ready to come back, and it was for a title fight. I was excited, and right now it's off the table, but I still believe I deserve the title fight, even if it's not going to be against Bilal. And like I said, it's going to make our fight even bigger, you know, two champs, and it's not going to give an option to Bilal,

you know, to run away from this fight. Could I ask, why didn't you fight for the majority of the year? And is it, and like, what are you referring to at the beginning of the year? And is it true that they offered you, or they wanted to maybe do a fight, you and Leon at UFC 300 for the belt? И почему ты не смог драться в начале года? И правда ли в том, что UFC хотела сделать твой бой против Леона Эдвардса на UFC 300? Нет, нет, нет.

Насчет Леона предложений никакого не было. Свои проблемы были, травмы туда-сюда. Долгое время восстанавливался. Вот как восстановился, уже готов выйти в бой. Ждем соперника, ждем дату. Дата была сначала, потом соперник травный бой был, я хочу в поиск забрать его. Я за это сюда приехал и жду от UFC ответа. Нет, это не правда. Я никогда не был предложен бороться с Леонтом в UFC 300. Я не мог не противостоять, потому что никогда не был предложен. so I couldn't refuse this fight because I never was offered it. And I had some injuries, so I took care of it. But even though I was injured, I never got offered this fight.

So now I'm ready. I'm training. I want to fight. I want to fight for the belt and just waiting for the UFC to hear back from the UFC. In response to the idea of you fighting for the interim title, Bilal Muhammad said on his show, like, it's six weeks, not six months.

You know, I don't really understand why you would make an interim title, but if they want to make one, everyone knows who the real champion is. I'm paraphrasing here. And, you know, I'll know who my next opponent is if they make the interim champion, but I'm the real champ, obviously. Can I ask what his response to Bilal's response is? если они сделают чемпиона, но я настоящий чемпион. Могу ли я спросить, как вы относитесь к Балалу? Он понимает, откуда Балал? С чего это должен быть временный титул? Я выбываю на 6 недель, а не на 6 месяцев. Поэтому он не видит причины вводить временный титул. Хотя он не против этой идеи.

У тебя есть ответ к нему? Я не знаю. Я не верю, что через 6 недель он будет готов драться. Но я думаю, что у него тоже как Магдалена со здоровьем инфекция занесла. Пока непонятно, когда Магдалена будет драться. Так же Билал говорит, что хочет сохранить свой титул. Если я чемпион, то у нас будет более интересный бой. Я не знаю, как у них политика.

Я не думаю, что будет 6 недель. yeah I don't believe it's going to be six weeks to be honest you know I believe like Jack Dale had a same problem with infection and you know and he's still not back so it can take a while you know and Bilal don't need to be greedy you know if I become an interim champ he's still going to have a belt too you know and it's going to be champ versus champion or even bigger fight for for a minute there on Thursday... Oh, go ahead, go ahead, sorry. Yeah, and I don't know what UFC's look on this, you know, what's UFC politics about

this, so we'll just wait and see. For a minute there on Thursday, it seemed like maybe you versus Ian Gary was a fight that people were getting excited about. Ian was pushing for it. Of course, on Friday, we found out that he's booked against Joaquin Buckley, but Ian has been pushing for this fight for a few months after his win over Michael Venom Page. He mentioned in his post-fight press conference that he would love to get his

hands on you. He said, quote, I've trained with him. I have nothing but respect for the guy, but I want to be the first guy to take his zero, and I know I can do it. You then, quote, tweeted that with, looks like Ian forgot what happened during those training sessions. I don't mind reminding him in the future. And so can I get your reaction to Ian wanting to fight you back in June and as recently as last week, and what those training sessions were like that you're referring to? Какие тренировки с тобой, уважает тебя. На что ты в твиттере ответил, что, видимо,

Йен забыл, какие были эти тренировки. И ты не против напомнить ему о будущем. Какая у тебя реакция на вызовы Йена Герри? Да. Да, у меня без разницы. Я готов. У него соперник в данный момент. В будущем встретиться с ним готов. В любой момент. Самое главное, чтобы обоим было удобно. У него соперник в будущем, я готов встретиться с ним.

Самое главное, чтобы обоим было удобно. Я сделал свою работу. Пусть мой «нулик» хочет забрать. Пусть попробует так же на тренировках, как я раньше делал. Я буду работать так же. Думаю, у него шансов мало против меня. Я беру мое зеро, он может попробовать, но я знаю, что то же самое произойдет в тренировках. Я буду просто держать это в том же направлении и я уверен, что я смогу победить его. Как проходили тренировки это одно, но я с ним в любом направлении спокойно дрался.

Никакой стойки, партеры, везде я ему спокойно конкуренцию даю и где-то в какие-то моменты я лучше его. Это только тренировка, я не хочу обманывать себя, но я чувствовал себя комфортно. В тренировках, когда я стрелял или играл в поле, я чувствовал себя комфортно и в контроле. Я очень уверен в этом матче. Из всех, кто доступен сейчас бойцов, кто был бы твоим приоритетным выбором на 7 декабря? Я готов с Усманом подраться без проблем. Он свободный, я свободный. Других соперников не вижу. Мы друг друга рейтингом подходим. Ждем титульный бой. Что можно сказать временного? yeah I think it's the only good option now is Usman you know we're both close to the ranking

he's a former champ you know I believe he's not against this matchup I think it's going to be a good matchup you know we're both ready for this date we're both free and both of us we're just waiting for UFC to make a decision about the interim belt um we haven't talked to you since uh the uh sorry we haven't talked to you since the Leon Belal fight in July were you surprised Мы не разговаривали с тобой давно, хотел спросить по поводу боя с Белялом и Леоном. Был ли ты удивлен именно когда Белял победил Эдвардса? Конечно, был удивлен. Белял хорошо отработал. Почему-то Лион как будто совсем не в своей форме был. Не знаю, как он дрался. Вообще непонятно. Постоянно стоял и Билал переводил. Непонятно. Не знаю, что там случилось. Может быть, это как бы 5 утра они дрались. Может быть, они дрались в 5 утра?

Может быть, это сказалось? Я думаю, что Билал свою работу сделал, выиграл, стал чемпионом. Но самое главное, что ему надо защищать свой пояс, не убегать. Когда получают мелкие травмы, от боев не отказываются. И достойно защищать свой пояс. Думаю, вот так. Да, я был удивлен, что Беляу хочет сражаться таким образом. Леон не выглядел таким же образом. Беляу просто снял его, когда он хотел. Это было странно. Не знаю, что это за причина.

Может, это был момент, когда было очень поздно. maybe it's part of the time that it was early in the morning or something else but you know Bilal did a good job and he deservedly won the belt and right now his job is to defend his belt and not run away and not pull out with some minor injuries You say minor injury Shafkat Bilal was critical of Conor McGregor

for pulling out due to his injured toe and now he is pulling out Do you feel like he should have stayed on the card Вы говорите о маленьком ранении, Шавкат. Билал был критичен Конору Макгрегору за выстрелы из-за его ранения. И теперь он выстрелил. Вы чувствуете, что он должен был остаться на карте, в зависимости от того, что вы видели и слышали об ранении? Вы чувствуете, что он должен был остся с боя из-за травмы пальца ноги. И в этот раз тоже убелял похожую, можно сказать, травму. Считаешь ли ты, что с такой травмой он должен был,раться, конечно. Я думаю, когда мы даже у него травму получили, мы уже слышали, что он тренируется. И, может быть, который он фотки скидывал,

и вот это видео, это давно было, может быть. Он понимал, где-то он осторожничал за это, как пришлось ему отказаться, вот и все. Я думаю, это видео, которое он закидывал, что он осторожничал за это, пришлось ему отказаться. Я думаю, это видео, которое он закидывал в Твиттер или Инстаграм, это было пораньше. Когда мы через неделю назад узнавали, что у него травма, он тогда уже занимался. Вот и все, в принципе. From what I heard and what I know, he got the injuries even earlier before it went public. Because I heard him train recently. Maybe he just posted this picture recently, but the problem occurred even earlier. So I think he was able to fight on December 7th, but he wasn't just sure and just being extra careful for that.

You're on an incredible run, 18-0, all finishes. Obviously, you were very confident going into the fight. Can I ask you, as you were thinking and preparing for December 7th, against Bilal in particular, how did you think the fight would actually play out? How did you think it would end? Как вы думаете, как будет играть Беллау? Я не знаю, каким бы способом это ни было, но мне надо выиграть. Чтобы, самое главное, мою руку подняли, пояс одевали и все. Билал, конечно, хороший соперник, неудобный, постоянно борется.

Но я думаю, я могу с ним спокойно пострадать и везде его контрить и работать спокойно, свое дело сделать и выиграть бой. Ты знаешь, я просто надеялся на победу. ideal as JLT you know I was just envisioning myself getting the win it doesn't matter how in which way

you know Bilal is a good opponent but I believe I can work with him in any

field and striking on the ground you know I can counter him I can

pressure him so I just only see myself getting raised in a fight against him just a couple

more questions and we'll let you go. I promise. Spasiba. Thank you very much. By the way, happy birthday. I know you just celebrated your 30th birthday.

And I saw a video. You see here, we have a lot of toys on our set. You see all these nice toys. And I saw an amazing video of Shafkat Rahmanov toys being made. I'm sure you've seen this as well because I think you posted it. We have the video here. These toys. And I know it's your birthday. У вас есть видео с рождения, и я хочуцов, игрушек, бойцов. И он увидел, что есть такие же игрушки сделанные по подобию тебя,

твои. И он спрашивает, как ему заполучить эту игрушку, чтобы она тоже там стояла у него на столе. Ну, мы ему, наверное, как подарок, наверное, чуть-чуть еще. Ну, а так вот эта игрушка больше не им, наверное, подарим чуть-чуть еще. Ну, а так, вот эта игрушка больше не будет, думаю. Это как бы мой один друг сделал, чтобы больше не сделал.

Мне не нравится так, когда головой как будто. Вообще, как бы, не люблю такие игрушки. Вы знаете, это была, можно сказать, ограниченная серия. Они больше не будут делать одну из этих, потому что You know, it was, you can say, limited, limited edition. You know, they're not going to make one of those anymore, you know, because Shavkat, he personally, he doesn't like, you know, his head to be like tilted this way, like that. But they're going to arrange one for you.

They're going to send you. Ah, thank you. Спасибо. Thank you. Thank you so much. And by the way, did you know, Shavkat, I've been dying to ask you this. Did you know that the great Action Bronson, the упоминал тебя в одной из его новых песен? Ты помнишь Акшен Бронсон? Ты какой-то своей новой песне, именно у него отрывок есть про тебя, он вспоминает тебя.

Да, я не был на честь, рэп особо не слушал. Редко был рэп. Нет, я не слушал рэп. Ты знал об этом, Сая? Нет, я не знал. А, Дэнни не сказал тебе. Окей, мы должны это ухаживать за тем, что я тебе послал. Я буду послать тебе песню после этого,

и ты можешь послать ее Шавкату. Это невероятно. Последнее, что я упомянул, это теннис, который был в течение 10 лет. fix this. I'm going to send you the song after this and you can send it to Shavkat. It's incredible. Last thing, I mentioned your debut was 10 years ago, around this time, October 17th, 1994, and then your second fight was in November of 1994. What, if anything,

Shavkat, do you remember about your debut? Just to jog your memory here, it was on a M1 Challenge card way back in the day against Adam Tsurov, M1 Challenge 52. What do you remember about this Вместе с Адамом Цуровым, это был м1-челлендж, который был на м1-челлендже. Что ты помнишь о том времени, о своем первом бою? Да, о первом бою все помню. Второй раунд закончился. Тригольником заряжал местного бойца.

Как раз дебют. Хорошие воспоминания. Первая победа. Радостно было. Очень приятно было. I remember it clearly. It was the second round. I got a win. It was a triangle choke against a local opponent. It felt great to win my debut. Just good memories all along. Yes, and of course it was in 1994.

You were born in 1994. It was 2014, 10 years ago. My math sucks. Thank you very much. Spasiba, thank you, Shabkat My math sucks. Uh, thank you very much. Spasiba. Thank you, uh, Shavkat for coming on.

I appreciate it very much. And, and if you can't get Kamaru and you can't get Bilal, maybe you can get Ilya Teporia in December. Maybe we can do that fight, uh, super fight. You versus,

ah, we got him to small. There he is. Yes. I like that. I heard Teporia want to fight me, can fight him with one hand. So maybe we do that fight.

Uh, thank you Shavkat and, and good luck to you. I appreciate you coming on. So nice. All right. Thank you, Syed, as well. There they are. Syed waking up or staying up very early over where he lives.

So we appreciate him very much. And I got him to break. I got him to smile at the very end there, guys. Yeah, you did. You know, we had to work for it, but we finally got it at the bus. He doesn't know about the bus he doesn't know about the uh he doesn't know about the oh what do we have here he doesn't listen to rap uh i was just i was just gonna tell danny not cool now danny texts me that he sent it to him so what

the hell i mean come on maybe he heard it was rap and was like i don't listen to this and stopped i mean he is uh couldn't be bothered personified, isn't he? I'm going to have a word with our friend Danny here. I mean, this is crazy. Couldn't be bothered, right? Yeah. That's Action Bronson quoting him in a song. I said that the soy out with the lyrics as well.

Danny, the great Action Bronson quotes your guy in a rap song on his new album, and you don't tell your client or your co-manager? What's up with that? I sent you the screenshot when I sent it to Scott. You have to tell the guy.

You have to go straight to the guy. We're live on the air, by the way, in case you didn't know. How do you not tell him that Action Bronson just casually mentioned his name in a song? Yeah, I mean, it wasn't that casual.

I mean, it was actually... Dennis Pazuki is the one who sent it to me. It was pretty blatant, right? I mean, he actually mentioned Shavkat Rachmanov in a song. That's huge. He's got to walk out to that. Yeah, I don't know if he's walking out to it, but... Dennis Pazuki is actually the one who sent me his song.

All right, shout out to Dennis. Fellow... Fellow New Yorker. Fellow Albanian. Okay, wait, who's Alban out to Dennis. Fellow New Yorker. Fellow Albanian. Okay. Wait, who's Albanian? Dennis. Oh, Albanian, because action is.

Yeah. Ah, now I get it. It's all coming together. All right. Thanks, Danny. Thanks for coming on. Goodbye. Bye-bye.

There he is, Danny Rubenstein. Add him to the list of guests on today's show. It's a great song. You know that song pc salvachi i'm the only one that hasn't been introduced actually i didn't get a pair of his runners yeah oh they're great i got i got the jilted i got the new ones right here oh yeah now you know yourself uh yeah now you're so you know yourself uh yeah i don't even have shoes actually if you can send some over i I've been tying me toes together, walking to the shop every day.

Shafqat is the man. I don't know what's going to happen. Something tells me they might keep him on now. I wasn't feeling confident. You're doing Usman. Are you joking me? Come on. Are you joking me?

You didn't think that's what was going to happen. For interim. For interim. Yeah, everyone's an interim champion these days. Why not? Would you be bothered? It's a fine fight, you know? It's just...

Main event worthy? Usman's a legend, but he's coming off three losses. I mean, that's... I mean, the other one was like... Main event worthy. 100%. I think it's main event worthy. By the way, you asked him if he'd do it for not a title on the line,

and he didn't seem to turn that down either I'm convinced that he will fight Usman title or no title yeah I mean they can make it worth as well what's the title what is the interim

title worth the interim title acts as a real title what do you mean you get you get the perks of being a champion so you get the fight will be for a title so what does it

matter because when typically when you're the challenger fighting for the belt you're not getting it matter? Because typically, when you're the challenger fighting for the belt, you're not getting pay-per-view points. If you're the interim champion, you get pay-per-view points.

But he's not the interim champion. He would be the interim champion by the end of that fight if he wins. No, but I'm saying that's why he's pushing

for interim belt because the interim title has perks. If it's just, hey, fight Kamar Usman for a few extra dollars, he doesn't get those perks when he fights Bilal Muhammad. You understand?

Oh, coming into it, he will have those. Yeah. It's that ticket. Yeah. Fair enough. I get it. Also, that suits the UFC as well. They want to put a showing.

Yeah, champ versus champ. Yeah. These titles don't mean anything. They're meaningless. Who cares? Well, the other problem is. Apart from the BMF. Apart from the BMF.

Yeah, other than that part. Yeah. The The other problem is as we went through on Thursday There's no options There's not a lot of options We can go through the whole exercise again The UFC has punted on pay-per-views before They have just gone They will put the flyweight title in the main event And just say this was not our best effort

And move on I think they're going to try it Although I do think Asakura is going to be a star. He has the look. He's got the following. He's got to get that dub first. No, no. That's what I mean.

Like I think down the line, he could be the guy and this could be the fight that propels him. But going in, it's going to be a tough sell. I would have loved Shafkat versus Ian for the interim title. I don't know why that wouldn't have even been considered. Why'd they move on from that?

I'd much rather prefer Shafkat versus Ian. And I understand know why that wouldn't have even been considered. Why'd they move on from that? I'd much rather prefer Shafqat versus Ian, and I understand why Usman wouldn't want Buckley, but Shafqat with Ian was right there. If we're doing interim title, I much would have preferred that. Why did that not even have a conversation? It wasn't really talked about from what I understand. I don't get it either.

That felt like the most appealing option, to be honest. I get, look, Usman is championship medal And is a former champion And one of the best welterweights of all time I get why you'd want that guy on top of a pay per view But for me the intrigue around Gary versus Shavkat

Is significant I mean honestly Gary versus Shavkat Gary versus Leon I like Gary versus Leon versus Shavkat, Gary versus Leon. I like Gary versus... I prefer Leon versus Shavkat as well. Yeah. If I'm being honest, I prefer Leon versus Shavkat over Shavkat versus Usman. Just given what Leon has done as of late, right?

I like Kamaru better. Why? Stylistically, I think it's just a better fight. I don't think Leon's going to have much of a shot at stopping Shavkat's takedowns. Don't think that would be a very good style matchup for him. When was Kamaru Usman's last win? I don't know. You tell me.

Colby Covington, November 2021. It's been some time. Yeah, I mean, getting in there with Hamzat doesn't help the record. No, but Leon twice, and then it was the Hamzat fight. So let's see. Let's see what they do. That's coming up on December 7th. Still to come, Jasmine.

Jazz division. Yeah. And Ayman Zahabi, Saif Saoud, Valentina Shevchenko. Let's talk about Edmonton. We didn't get a chance to really dig in. Gate over 2.6 million. USD over 3 million Canadian. That's a North American gate record at the beautiful Rogers Place Arena.

Canada goes six and three. So shout out to the Canes. I'm not going to touch the flag, but there it is. Not bad, not bad. Unfortunately, we lost the Derek Lewis fight. Derek Lewis was scheduled to fight on the card Didn't show up to the ceremonial weigh-ins He weighed in on Friday morning

Didn't show up to the ceremonial weigh-ins And then we found out Late Friday, early Saturday That the fight was off We found out that it was not related To the weight cut But he suffered some kind of issue which forced him out. I reached out to his team and they didn't want to reveal and I totally understand that. This is an Instagram post

from, or a story, excuse me, from his head coach crew, Bob Perez. As you know, Derek was not medically cleared to fight tonight. It's a medical issue unrelated to weight cut. He's doing fine. Thank you for reaching out to check on him. So unfortunate news because he always adds a lot to the cards. So we didn't get Derek Lewis. We did get new rules though. Did you guys catch that? We got the new rules. And in fact, the California State Athletic Commission did a great job. And of course, Andy Foster, the gold standard when it comes to these things, they put together a video heading in to saturday's card because saturday was the the first major card to uh showcase the new rules that are being instituted into the unified rules of mma and it

was uh it was led by mike beltran the referee uah Faber was involved. I thought it was a nice little two-minute video. We have that video for you to check out, and then we can react to it. Here it is. Hello, everyone. My name is Mike Beltran. I'm a licensed referee for the California State Athletic Commission. There are two major changes in the unified rules that I'm going to cover. First off is going to be kicking or kneeing to the head of a grounded opponent.

As of November 1st, now what's going to be considered to be legal is going to be the grounded opponent with one hand placing down. If Czar decides to kick or knee him to the head, that is going to be legal on November 1st, per the unified rules. Kick or knee to the head, both hands or one hand down, it doesn't matter, that is legal. Uriah, do me a favor and get on one knee.

Okay, that kick or knee to the head, that is gonna be considered a foul. That is a grounded fighter. So if a fighter is on his knee or his butt, or his forearm touches the ground, or on his back, that is considered to be a grounded opponent and therefore it is illegal to kick or knee to the head. Also a new change is going to be the 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock, north-south. This rule is now also taken out of the unified rule. Uriah is now going to demonstrate what is considered to be a legal technique as of November 1st.

That's a north-south elbow. As of November 1st, that is going to be a legal blow. North-south elbow. As of November 1st, that is going to be a legal blow. North-south elbow. November 1st, that rule to the head or to the body, as long as you are targeting a legal area, it is now considered to be legal. Thank you very much for your time.

Once again, I'm Mike Beltran. Thank you for listening. Love that. Well done, California State Athletic Commission and the head of the California State Athletic Commission, Andy Foster, will be on the show tomorrow to talk about these new rules and all the other things that he is doing to try to make this sport as legit as possible.

The grounded opponent rule has obviously come into play a ton of times. People playing that game. In fact, it came up in one of the fights on Saturday. And the 12-6 obviously doesn't come up as much, but is an infamous rule because it's responsible for the sole loss on Jon Jones's record.

That will not be changed, but if that rule is not in place and it's a very old rule, then Steve Mazzagati isn't stopping his fight against Matt Hamill, and he is still undefeated all these years later, and that is pretty darn significant. The main event on Saturday

featured Brandon Moreno returning to action, winning his first fight since january of 2023 getting off that losing streak and beating amir al-bazi who you know was uh was on quite a roll he was 17 and one going into the fight a solid five round decision win for the former ufc flyweight champion what'd you think of his performance, Pete C? Did you get a chance to check him out on Saturday? Yeah, no, he was great. He really made Amir Al-Bazi look like a passenger. And it was just a case in point of

there is a different level at the highest echelons of these divisions in the UFC. Obviously, Moreno's coming off two losses, but he looked exceptional. I didn't think the fight got away from him for a second. Al-Bazi constantly chasing it, his corner appealing to him, please, please, you've lost every round,

please do something. I don't think it was for a lack of trying. I just think Moreno was that good. I thought it was a fantastic display from him. Really, really good stuff. The best he's looked, obviously, in quite some time, and he's fighting the best of the best. He's a former champion. He was supposed to fight on the Noche UFC card. Didn't pan out. He fights in Edmonton, which is a little bit awkward, but seemed to get

that sort of, like, he's become a star in the UFC. He's become a favorite, which is great for the division. And just a few years ago, who could have ever imagined that? They are returning to Mexico in February. He did say, you know, give me one more before I get in that title picture. Obviously, we know that Pantoja is fighting Asakura. Was that enough in your opinion, Rick, to make him next in line? Or do you like the idea of him fighting someone else before fighting for the belt if he wins that fight? Of course, it depends on what happens with Asakura and P pantoja like if it's asakura then yeah let's go like i love that fight i think moreno is like pete said it perfectly albazi was a passenger

in that fight that was all about moreno showing like i'm not done um because i think you know it started to feel like hey how much does brandon moreno have left in this division uh losses to pantoja already. He needed something like this to remind people that he is still that guy. And this was the performance that did. So if it's Asakura, then I want to see that fight. If it's Pantoja, I have to admit,

look, I'm the guy. I'm the one. If they're the number one and two, I will run it. But I think I'm alone. I don't think everybody else is going to come with me. If you're asking me personally, I would love to see that fight again

because I think these are two of the best guys, if not the two best guys. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with seeing it as many times as it takes. If you're Pantoja, though, how do you get motivated for that fight? And if you're the other fans who are not sickos like me, how do you want to see that for the fourth time, I believe it is,

including one that was on tough. So if it's Asakura, though, yeah, throw Moreno right in there. The tough thing is Pantoja has fought a lot of these guys now, right? You know what? That was actually not respectful enough to Royval, who I think has a great case as well. Well, I was just going to say, Royval and Moreno, he has wins over. Yeah, so if Asakakura wins then you've

got two good options in moreno and roival i think moreno has a bigger name and you'd probably be more inclined to do that quicker um but i think roival with the win over moreno probably is ahead of him in the queue there it really all hinges on can asakura like change this division up otherwise it's more of the pantoja show not that i'm mad that that guy's one of my favorite fighters but he is continuing to kind of knock off the contenders and do it repeatedly which is the sign of a real dominant champion I wonder what they do you know Kaikar France is out there he was upset that he didn't get the title shot are they saving Kaikar France for the winner of that fight do you do Moreno and Kaikar France again? Do you do Royville versus Moreno?

I mean, we've done all these so many times. It's a problem. Pantoja's too good, man. What do you want to do? Pantoja is too damn good. I just don't know who makes sense for him. Yeah. You know what I mean?

I mean, this is why we're in the spot we're in, right? Asakura is an option because he's been so dominant. You have to look elsewhere. You have to find somebody outside of the guys because he just continues to dominate. Do you know what was a good show actually just to add into that mix as well if they'd ever think of signing him? Mohamed Makhayev.

Pretty good fighter. Well done. It seemed like he was implying like they were getting back on good terms or something like that. I don't know. I guess Dana was asked about him It didn't seem like that to me He lost a grappling match And then Dana starts going

I guess he's going to the PFL No he didn't say it like that He said I always liked Muhammad It was the other guys And PFL should sign him It's exactly what I said Who else did they have Who was my guy from Dagestan

And he just left. How can I not think of this guy's name? I love them. Well, Royville one, Moreno two, Albazi three, Kaikar France four,

Tetsura, Tyra's out there. I know he's coming off a loss, but I wouldn't mind seeing Tyra fight one of these guys as well. Alex Perez, Asu, Amabayev,

Manel Cape, Erseg, Mateus Nicolaou, who I believe is gone, so I don't know why he's in the rankings. Tim Elliott, Tajir, Ulanbekov, Bruno Silva, Cody Durden, Charles Johnson. It's just like one big pot of killers who all of them have sort of fought each other

at some point or almost fought each other. So I don't know what makes sense. Askar Askarov, that's who I was thinking of. You're saying to bring back Askarov. Bring them back. Bring back the lads. Let them have a go. You know what I mean? Why not? And while we're at it, bring back Ali Bagoutinov too. Love him. Love Ali.

I mean, that drug test went horribly wrong. I don't know what happened. But Demetrius Johnson, bring him back. Get rid of that. Out of retirement. Yes, we need to stimulate this. By the way, I would love to see DJ versus

Steve Erseg, DJ with the shoddy man. Come on, give me Eric. Danny Vox. Did you just watch that video recently? No, somewhere along. We get the clip. We get the clip at some point.

We need to get this. Jordan, you got to get it. Jordan, can you get the clip? You know the one that you all remember. Because I ask people, who do you think is going to win? Ian Gary or Joaquin Buckley? And someone said, as the great Joel Romeroero once said, shoddy man, diddy boxing. And it made me go find the clip and just watch it over and over again. I mean, pound for pound, that whole sequence is one of the greatest things that's ever happened in MMA.

It is just next level. Also, aren't you responsible for that clip seeing the light of day? Tell the people the story. There's a few people involved in this so phil murphy recorded an interview with yoel for international because phil works on like the the anzac and other like um international properties and so that was not going to run on the youtube channel and he said dude i just had an extremely intense interview with yoel romero i was like oh really like tell me more about it and it turns out they weren't going to run it they weren't going to run that video at all so me and tessa hirsch go back to the the hotel room shout out to tessa hirsch at espn

uh we go back to the hotel room and we pull up the feed the behind the scenes espn feed to see because they actually did feed it back to bristol And when I saw what happened there, I was like, there's no way this can just like die in the backend of ESPN's archives. And we put it on social. And then obviously after it blew up on social, everybody put it else everywhere. So Phil Murphy, myself and Tessa Hirsch are responsible for that one seeing the light of day.

That was about to be buried. Nobody was going to have that moment. That, like, I just looked it up on YouTube. That clip alone has 740,000 views, but it's been passed around on social. Billions. Millions of times. It's one of the all-time great clips.

In fact, the last time I was at a UFC event, it was right before the pandemic, March of 2020, before his fight against Israel Adesanya. And you know what I also love about it? He's cutting weight, so he's got a cotton mouth. The hair is not cut. The glasses are on. The whole thing. You know this clip, PT?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. It's a classic. Oh, wow. PT doesn't know the clip. It tickled me. You don't know the clip, huh? I do know the clip. You dismissed it like... Seems a little sussy. I don't know the clip, then.

What the fuck do you want me to say here, Elwani, right? I mean, Jesus Christ. Wait, you don't know the clip? Thank you, Frank. He knows the clip. I know the fucking... Everyone knows the clip. No, it sounds like you don't, and you're trying to cover it up. Okay, I don't know the clip.

Wait, so do you know it or not? I don't know what is going on here. Ariel's going to start doing the, like, what's your favorite thing from the clip? It's whether you saw the movie. He's upset because I smoked him on the Paul, you, Z, and Gary thing. What is this about? What are you talking about? Wait, wait.

What is he wearing in the clip? What's he wearing in the clip? I don't know. I can't think of what he's wearing. Where's the interview taking place? Like it's, is it backstage before? Eric, he doesn't know the clip. One of the most famous.

He just needs to see the clip. He doesn't know the clip. That's on it, Jordan. Do we have the clip? It's the Pizzi It's the Yoel with the glasses going go That clip No he doesn't know what you're talking about

He knows it He knows it No I don't know I don't know We just started watching Oh man You alright Pizzi? I'm so confused

Yeah I'm fine Alright What did you want to say? We were talking about Flyway right? I just think this is payback Smoked you on the poll using everything I think that's what this is How did you smoke me?

Look at the, Ant put up a poll, I won Oh, the poll I don't pay attention to that Ant won, thank you for the poll Yes, yes Hey, thumbs up to the chat Thank you to everyone in the chat No, it's just

When people know the clip, they react like Eric reacted. And so since you didn't react, that was a little bit. I love this. I love the non-reaction reaction. I'm going to ask Rick to send me some reaction tips in future. So I can be on point. Wow. Okay.

Okay. Sorry. Do we have the clip? I didn't get an answer. Do we have it? Not yet. Not yet. I need to see it.

I need to see the clip. All right. We're efforting. We'll circle back. Yeah. End of show, I think it'd be a perfect capper to just send by the end of the show we have to wait three hours well you know we got some other things to get into i think we just send us out on it jeez i mean i just i just wanted to to educate young pizzi here i know he's a little bit i need i need to see the clip please yeah uh and get me the clip speaking of the 125 pound division uh aaron blanchfield getting back on track defeating rose nami unis pretty dominant right what i thought it

was dominant i thought it was pretty dominant he said this as well you're on the same him sheet as them they put out a social media thing saying dominant win i actually think it was brilliant because nami unis clearly won the first two rounds and I guess I can win which is really impressive though you know to set a pace to to kind of put your you know to put your best foot forward the way Nami Yunus was a former champion and then for Aaron to come back and wrestle it back I thought that was the most impressive thing about it by round three I was having shades of the Manon fight I was like oh she just doesn't have the tools to deal with this and then she turned it completely around I was impressed I don't know dominant but I was like, oh, she just doesn't have the tools to deal with this. And then she turned it completely around. I was impressed.

I don't know dominant, but I was impressed. All right, fine. I guess the back end, how she turned around, because you're right. She's not used to fighting five-round fights. Second time she, I don't want to say got exposed against Manon, but, you know, wasn't a great showing. She didn't seem to have answers for what Manon was doing. And it seemed to be that same way again in the first two rounds. Then it just switched on a dime. It was Rose who seemed to not have the answers for what she was doing and it seemed to be that same way again in the first two rounds then it just switched on a dime she see it was Rose who seemed to not have the answers for what she was doing

um so I was I was impressed but it does show like there are ways to get to her right it's not the kind of championship blowing the doors off everybody that uh people predicted I think for her I think that the expectations for Erin Blanchford were like oh my god she's gonna come in and just destroy everybody. And it just has not been that once the level of competition increased. It's got to be Mano Fiora against Valentina Shevchenko, right?

I think so. I think she's... No? No, I like it, yeah. I think that's right. I guess the only other option is Valentina versus Zhang Weili, but... Oh, yeah. If you're giving me that on the table, then I'll take that. But I think at flyweight it's got to be manon like i i genuinely like as you're saying rick when that tour around started i was like i don't see i don't see erin win this fight yeah the way it was going like she looked so cumbersome compared to rose so that's where

that's where it's impressive to me, that turning it around like that. Like five minutes later, the fight is gone. You had to deal with Dan and she did it. And I thought that was really, really impressive. And you have to think that forecasting-wise, right? Valentina Shevchenko is somebody who is not going to give you those opportunities. So you need to figure out

what is happening in the beginning of these fights that is not allowing you to kind of do your thing and switch and change that. Because if you do get a shot at Valentina Shevchenko or Manon who already you know beat Erin Blanchfield she's going to be in trouble so she needs to figure out how to get started faster and whatever it is that's not allowing her to kind of have the same dominance she had earlier she's going to have to figure that out but to have the the grit and to have the ability to kind of find that in the middle of a fight, not everybody has that either. So I was as impressed as you were.

True or false, Rick? Before her career is over, Rose Namunis will fight for a title one more time. True. Because I think they could run out of options at strawweight and she might have to go back there. I don't think she'll fight on a flyweight title. She's getting pretty big for 125. I think the options will be limited at 25 now.

Back down to 115. What do you think, PT? Yeah, I tend to agree. That's my feeling on it too. I know it's shit because obviously we don't want to be seen to be like promoting fighters to go through horrific weight cuts again.

And she's obviously put on muscle to get up to 125, but it's not looking good in terms of getting a total shot there. I'd be with Rick in that it would have to be a throwaway. I just want to remind people, there was a period where Rose was one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC. Some great stoppages, great striking, great submissions. I get annoyed sometimes with the Rose slander, but it is a what have you done for me lately type of sport. And she has been around for a while, even though she's only still 32 years young.

Incredibly, she started so young. You know, there was a period, you know, the Ioana KO was crazy. She got slammed by Jessica Andrade. The Zhang Weili kick was crazy. The flying armbar back in the day that we saw her, you know, she was introduced to us via flying armbar. She had a string of submissions early on in her MMA career. People talk about her like she's just some decision merchant. She's not. She's a very talented and exciting fighter. It's just, you know, the game evolves. It's one of those things. So those two fights went the distance and both of them were five rounds 25 minutes each and a lot of people were uh wondering

why the co-main event was a 25 minute fight because it wasn't technically a number one contender fight um because of course we don't really know who valentina is fighting next we assume it's going to be mano fiora originally uh the main event for this card was rose versus aaron and then because the brandon merino fight didn't happen i know g UFC, they bumped it to this card. And so they had signed up for 25 minutes and there's some economics attached to that. And so they kept it a 25 minute fight, a five round fight, and they just added the Moreno fight main event, 25 minutes as well. So it was a lot of rounds towards the end there. But some other notable performances, Jasmine Jazdavisius, who we're going to be talking to

in about six minutes time, with a very impressive submission win over Ariane Da Silva, a.k.a. Ariane Lipski. Dustin Stolzfus with a knockout in the first round of Marc-Andre Barriot Who tends to get hit a lot these days But a win And an impressive win for Dustin

Mike Malott gets back on track We spoke to him on Wednesday Hard fought victory over Trevin Giles Eman Zahabi with a unanimous decision win Over Pedro Munoz Very impressive stuff Got a message from GSP before the fight wishing him well and telling him that he had to be better than him for 15 minutes strong and he got it done.

Charles Jourdain moving down to 135. Air Jourdain defeating the veteran Victor Henry via submission. What about Yusuf Zalal beating Jack Shore via submission in the second round triangle choke, an impressive win for him. And then there was Alexander Ramanoff with a win, Serhii Sadi with a win, Cody Gibson with a win and Jamie Lynn Horth with a split decision, somewhat controversial win as well.

Tough one for Jack Shore, PT. What were your thoughts on that? I thought the first round was great, but credit to Zalal, that knee was just beautiful. Like I don't think anyone is going to eat that and be able to continue the way you normally would. And look, just to make a point to that, Brito is a beast in that division and he needed the referee to stop that fight with Jack over the cut leg, which we talked about at length last week. Zalal went out there and did it. I thought the first round was very competitive, but you've got to take your hat off to him.

I think Charles Jourdain looked brilliant at 135 as well. I think he's going to make some moves there. And Zahabi, again, against Munoz. I think anyone else, if anyone else is against Zahabi that night, they're probably going out, but Munoz tough i will say mike malott 15 minutes uh didn't blow my socks off trevin joyle's a good fighter don't get me wrong but i think they were sending him in there to get a finish look he he said like he he sees himself much beyond the canadian scene and all that kind of stuff but he is kind of our the vision in our head of like the

future of canadian mma he was kind of we were drawing comparisons between him and Rory, obviously in the Carlos Conda fight there. I think I was expecting him to go in there and make a statement against Trevin. It was a good win, but I don't think it was a massive statement win,

if I'm being honest. Yeah, right now it's wide open. And I'm hearing that there's some talks about a return to Canada in, I don't know, in a few months time. I'll leave it at that. And there are some names, but as far as face of, you know, that takes some time. And when you're talking about the likes of GSP and Rory, who everyone is going to compare the new generation to, it will take some time. But I think that Canadian MMA is in a very, very

healthy and strong spot. That wasn't the case a few years ago. There's a lot of talent. Like I said, six wins on Saturday. And perhaps none more impressive than the one scored by our next guest. She was incredible out there and is on some kind of run now. She's won her last three in a row. And what a finish.

And just seemed energized and propelled by the crowd. She's one of our own. She's one of our own. Jasmine, Jazz the Vicious. She's one of our own. There she is. Hello, Jasmine. How are you?

I'm well. How are you? We're still, we're still representing. It's right here. Yes. you? We're still representing. It's right here. Yes. And we still play your drops, you know, multiple times a show. I don't know if you know this.

I don't know if you consume the program, but you're still playing. Oh, yeah. So that's why I say you're one of our own. Oh, appreciate it. Congratulations on the win. Are you on cloud nine winning at home like that? Winning in Canada with a submission like that winning in canada with a with a with a submission like that that has to be incredible it's amazing i love fighting on on home soil and like like you said the crowd was electric it was wild like walking out and i i

played um la bomba to like kind of like get the crowd going because I knew that it was like the Euler song. So I just like felt that energy going in there is awesome. I'm happy you said that because I could imagine there's people watching in America around the world thinking, why is she playing La Bamba in Edmonton? You're not really know, but that is the Oilers victory song. And so you thought to do that to get the crowd behind you and they clearly reacted to it. Was that your idea. And so you thought to do that to get the crowd behind you and they clearly reacted to it. Was that your idea? Did someone tell you to do that?

No, I wish I could take credit for that. But no, that's my coach Jelly. He's from Edmonton and he loves the Oilers, like diehard fans. So he suggested it and he suggested it like early in camp when I like first found out that it it was in Edmonton he suggested it and I heard it I was like oh that sounds sick but what we always do is like pick my walkout song kind of like on the travel to the the fight and like kind of get feedback from my fans and say

hey what do you guys think I should walk out to and then we just listen to all the songs and see what hits but this time around Jelly said hey you want to get the crowd going this is the song to play and so I kind of was like letting that marinate in my mind all camp and then when it came to fight week I I sparred the one day and then we put it on the speaker at the gym. There was only a couple guys left cleaning the mats and everything. And everyone was dancing and hyped from it. And so I'm like, okay, if it's getting these guys going, I know for sure I'll get the crowd going. And it was just like the perfect song.

So you're not one of those people like there's some historic fighters with incredible walkouts and they always stick to the same songs. You don't care about that sort of thing. You don't mind if your whole career, the song changes. No, I like do it for the fans, right? It's like, what's going to kind of get everyone pumped up? Or if it's like a way, what's going to kind of get the team pumped up and the team ready for war? It's like, we choose it together.

And after you remember, of course you remember, I'm telling you, do you remember, you were there, the reaction, the reception, the very rude fans in Colorado, you remember this moment, right? Shut up, booze! Suck it, man! I even went in the chat, Jasmine. I even went in the chat and wrote i even went in the chat and wrote get the clip ready and there's i still am left to drive frank how do you know what that means yeah you were just telling me to suck it oh i was just telling you to suck it i said

i mean i thought that would be enough as shorthand anyway we remember how rude they were towards you must have been nice to get some love from the people right that's exactly it you know i i love the energy of the crowd. And even if it's a negative energy and I have to play the heel a little bit, I'll still take that energy. And you're now selling Suck It Man shirts, right? Aren't you selling merch that says Suck It Man on it?

Why not, right? I love it. Anything I can kind of run with. I have to say, not only are the Niagara Top Team fighters on fire, you guys went 3-0 on Saturday, and it seems like it's a real package of a lot of people chipping in from a creative standpoint,

from a forward thinking standpoint, from a marketing standpoint. It's not just about the fighting with you guys. You're really thinking of the whole thing. Yeah, we're blessed to have, like, such a great community around us and, like, good people that genuinely care um so we really like help each other out and like when somebody's getting ready for a fight

not only are we there like physically on the mats with them but we're also there like hey you should say this in an interview like one of the guys like the coach Chris actually he said hey say punch her in the lip ski you know like just like silly little things like that that like just hit that are like funny like you know quick little like you know bites yes and um and so we we have such like a wonderful community that really like bind together and help each other out. Like it's, yes, it's an individual sport, but within that you need a community and you need tight knit people that you trust wholeheartedly.

And we're very like blessed and fortunate to have such great people around us helping with social media helping with like aaron jeffries he's like a nutritionist like he helps out like it's our whole team we each have skill sets that we can contribute because we're not we're not perfect everywhere but everyone has a strength. And so we bind together and that's how we kind of like reach the top, all of us together. Yeah, like for example, I would imagine you didn't do this.

I was at the Olympics in the summertime and I was schooling some kids on the court and I shot an incredible shot and then someone made an edit. You're probably not making this edit, but it's coming from you. And I appreciate that effort. In case you missed it, let's just take a look at my incredible

skills. Here I am on the courts in Paris. Do we have it? Do we have it? Yeah. Oh yeah. Suck it, man! I mean, that's good work. That's good work from you guys. Thank you. I appreciate that. Hey, you're the one that's giving us the content we

just roll with it um and and okay so what about that that submission can you tell me how it all materialized how'd you get that done beautiful stuff from you and you've is it would you say darce or is it bravo what do you what are you going with for that one i say darce but like i make up names for everything like it's's, you know, everything is fluid. Okay. So how did you, can you tell us how you got it done? Yeah. So that particular darts, like I kind of like hit it everywhere.

I'm always kind of looking for it. I feel like, you know, with these long arms, I'm able to sink things in kind of unexpectedly um so i'm like continually trying to hit that on like the girls and guys in the room and um yeah it was it presented itself and i decided to feast on it uh i think she's fought 27 times as a pro, including your fight, never been submitted before. Did you know that? I didn't know that until just recently when after the fight, they told me that I was like, Oh, wow, like, that's amazing. Yes. Well done to you. Another feather in your cap. And so three in a row now. What's what's what's the confidence level like? Like, do you feel like you're at a different spot? Do you still feel like there's a lot more work to do how are you assessing yourself obviously the last the last fight that you dropped was the fight against tracy cortez that you were still frustrated about

and i understand why but on quite a run since then so where would you say you're at confidence wise um like i i feel good of course i know there's obviously it's martial arts. There's all always going to be things that you need to learn. Um, that being said, I know that I do have like a high level skillset. I, when, when I'm on top of someone I'm heavy, I know how to use my weight. I know how to control position. Um, that, that being said, I will like continue to learn as if i am a white belt and try to to learn more more more and then the the next fight i want to be an evolved virgin from myself like i it's a never-ending task to learn new things and develop new skills and sharpen the skills that i have and just continue it.

I saw Tracy was in Edmonton. Did you happen to see her while you were there? Yeah, I saw her around the back, but I've got a fight going on, so I'm not putting any thought, any judgment. It's like I see another person. I see her. It doesn't register. It doesn't exist. I have a task at hand. I'm not trying to get uh i would imagine there aren't a ton of things at least that we know of let me know if if there are that really piss you off does the topic of that fight maybe go to the top of that list yeah of course that pisses me off man ah

it kills me but hey whatever sleepless nights they're good for you right maybe supposedly uh that's what we hear but but like in in your day-to-day life what do you have pet peeves i feel like you're just someone who goes through life in a pretty damn good mood all the time does anything really truly piss you off outside of fighting yeah of course i get i get frustrated with things but i just try to like check myself right away any any time i'm getting frustrated it's me getting frustrated so whatever it is it's like i'm drinking that poison i'm frustrated with them but it's like holding a hot stone and thinking it's gonna burn them and that it doesn't exist

so as soon as i feel myself getting frustrated then I look inwardly okay why is this frustrating me like what is it about myself that's another person is bothering me like what they don't well how they don't have control over me why why am I letting them bother bother me like having space in my brain and so i just like look inwardly okay they're bothering me because of an insecurity that i have because of blah blah blah okay well now i'll work on that insecurity instead of thinking about what's bothering me i i'm trying to be productive in like to cure that bothersome thing if that makes sense wow yes i love that that was a very mature measured um just like a very very impressive answer i didn't expect you to

go that deep is this did you work with someone to get to that mentality to get to that point no i just that's just like of this all this bro science in my mind i like it i think it's like i didn't start martial arts until i was like 26 years old so i had to learn a lot of like life lessons in other ways and so i just translate them into martial arts or vice versa the one i always use and i'm sure the audience gets annoyed of me always repeating this one, but it stuck with me, is our minds are not hotel rooms.

We can't let people check in and out as they please. And I feel like that's kind of a succinct way to recap what you're saying. Exactly, yeah. Whatever connects with you to make sure you actually believe it. I have so many things in my mind that I think

like in training, for example, an ounce of vengeance is worth a pound of cure. I literally say that to myself so many times, like thinking about if somebody is on your legs and it's like, okay, I'm going to fight this takedown or I'm going to let them put me on the mat. Now my ass is on the mat. I got to work from here. It's like, nah, I went to branches with poundicure. I like that. I have not heard that one, but I like it very much. Um, and you have so many good things going for you. Obviously the team is, is on fire. Uh, your teammates to know going into your fight. Did you think about that? Like, I can't be the one to make us go two in one. Did you put that kind of pressure after they won?

So that was like another one of those things. It's, I can't let that be in my mind when I'm about to go get into a fight. So I was very thankful that there happened to be this kind of like matted room right outside of the big workout room where every everyone was with the coaches working out we got shuttled in at like four o'clock and this room just happened to be there they were wrapping hands in there and um so i'm like hey can i just like chill in this room and the the um commissions like yeah no problem and so it was so nice because i just kind of like laid on the mat there was a tv in there so i could watch the fights. But, like, when Siri and Mike were fighting, I don't really like watching fights. Before I fight, I don't really like watching the other fights. So I just, like, chill. I lay there, put my sweater over my eyes, and,

like, just kind of, like, not think for an hour until I got to get ready to fight. Um, but I know like the fights are going on and I do, I am curious of, of the result. I know I'm going to hear the result. So I'll just kind of look what round they're at and like watch just to see the result, make sure they're not getting knocked out, make sure nothing crazy is happening. I'll kind of look in for that but i don't i don't like to watch any of the fights before i fight i'm very happy that everything was nice and they they won and it was like no other stress but yeah i did feel that the pressure like okay these guys are all winning now i gotta i gotta to go and win too like that the last thing. But it's another one of those like, okay, this is something I can't let really enter my mind right now. I've got a bigger task at hand.

So I'm going to just let this one sit. What are you doing for that hour? Like what are you, are you thinking of anything? Is there anything going on in your mind? Are you listening to something? Are you listening to music? Anything. An hour is a long time.

Yeah. All that you said, I have laid. So sometimes I just put my headphones in so it looks like I'm listening to something. So people don't talk to me. They think I'm listening. But I'll just be, I'll have nothing on and i'll just lay there with my eyes closed and like let whatever thoughts come to mind i just let them come because i i let myself be free on on fight night once i get there it's like okay give myself

up right and then so whatever whatever thoughts come to mind come to mind i just i can tell when Right, right, right. distracting thoughts or thoughts that don't need to be in my mind when I'm getting ready for a fight. I see those, I try to chew them out. But I sometimes if I get a little bit anxious, then I'll put on like I have an audio book that I'm listening to. I'll put that on for a little while. I fell asleep for a little while, I think maybe 20 minutes, half an hour. Once I got there, just like chilling on the mat. So I don't know, whatever, whatever I feel, half an hour. Once I got there, just like chilling on the mat. So I don't know, whatever, whatever I feel, I just do. What's the audio book? It's called the performance contact context or something like that.

It's, you know, the movie money ball. Yes, yes, yes. So it's like, kind of like talking about like the science behind what that like the guys that made this like data entry kind of thing. They are it's it's like how you're like neural system fires and triggers. And I don't know. It's hard to. OK. This is what you're listening to before you're like the third chapter wow okay this is intense stuff i thought maybe you'd listen to like i don't know bob marley or something just to go into like a relaxed state but you're

listening to uh pretty intense stuff that i i don't even know if my brain can you know figure out on a normal day let alone before a fight sometimes i sometimes i will listen to music or audiobook or or um like just maybe like zen music but i don't know it's just like whatever i feel then that's what i do and i felt like listening audiobook this time last time it's funny you say bob marley because i did listen to Bob Marley last time. I felt it. So it's, yeah. I love that. I love that.

I also loved the reaction of your teammate and friend, Mike Malott, when you scored the submission. Have you seen this clip when he was at his press conference? For those that may have missed it, here it is. Here's Mike reacting to Jasmine's win as he's sitting there talking to the media. This has been a much better night for Canada as we just saw with Jasmine just winning. Did she just win? Yeah. What happened?

What happened? Let's go, baby. Fuck yeah. What did she catch her with? How great is that? How does that make you feel when you see that? Unbelievable, man. I have so much respect and admiration for Mikey and to just see the happiness within him when he's watching me do that. It's so cool to me. That's a very, very special thing that you guys have. You ended up getting a submission, a bonus, excuse me, because of the submission. We saw that video as well.

Is that like the video that we saw? And this is it right here. Did you have no idea prior to this? I had no idea. I was like over with my family and I was just like talking to them. And then I came over and they had like the camera out. I was like, what the heck are they doing? Like, get out of here.

It's fine. Leave me alone. Yes. And then they're like, you got the bonus. I was like, what? No. And like, it completely got me off guard. Congratulations on that.

Mike was telling us before the fight that he trained so hard for this fight. There were some days where in the back of his mind he was thinking like man you know if i get rear-ended maybe i don't have to go to the gym today he was he was sort of dreading it because of the the you know the ringer that he was putting his body through were your training sessions leading up to this one in similar fashion were you doing the same type of stuff um a couple of the things like i know mikey had a particularly rough camp like he did a lot of grind houses he he really pushed himself to the limit this camp um i didn't do as many grind houses just because i i he's so skilled and so technical that it made sense for him to do it,

whereas I needed to work more on the technical side for my particular fight. But yeah, there were times we were in the trenches together and I feel for him, but he actually had a harder camp than me, I think. By the way, what is grindhouse? What does that actually entail? It's like the worst 15 minutes that you can do.

And it's like they kind of change it up. Sometimes it'll be like first you'll do some pads and then one minute or whatever a person will come in and then they'll be on your legs and you got to wrestle them for a minute straight and then you're back on pads and then you you have to do a burpees and it like they'll always kind of like change it up depending on for what you need sometimes you have to defend defend defend defend your shot defend a shot defend a shot sometimes it's like moving defense only and it'll be like timed things but it will be three five minute rounds oh my and it's just like terrible the point is to kill you the point is by the end of the 15 minutes that you're like

this is insane there's no way i can even stand up, let alone do five more minutes. Like it's, it's crazy, but man, he was killing them. Um, I saw you kicking trees. That looks pretty intense. Are you actually kicking the trees by the way? Here you are, or, well, there's a tire, but I also saw some tree action. There it is. How hard are you going there? Um, so right there, not, not not very hard that was like after practice and we were kind of like fucking around but there were like times before that like for training i guess that we're we were trying to like kick down some trees but it's more like a competition thing like okay you you get three kicks and then i get three

kicks like piñata kind of thing so but in that video it wasn't it wasn't anything crazy but by the way did someone shoot that video on purpose like they were like spying on you why are they so like far back in the trees why does it look like voyeuristic because there's like a ditch there, like right kind of like where you would be standing to take the video. So it would have been either from there far away or like really close to me. Okay. And so it just didn't really make sense. We've seen your surroundings before.

Do you still go? Is it, which river is it? We've seen you jump in the river over there or the water. Do you still do that? Yep. I'd still i actually like before i left i went and did it but it wasn't as cold as i kind of anticipated it being it was it's still kind of like mild so it was it was more refreshing than like a cold plunge is that like a thing you do right before you leave to the fight you only do it once or do you do it throughout the camp um it's like one of those bro signs

things i have in my mind any any time that i feel like i need to do it then i do it like when when i feel like i need to do it is when i'm like having a lot of like scattered thoughts and getting like emotional then I'm like I should I should probably like kind of like shut my system down a bit and I think like that cold plunge is like part of doing that I uh I think it's like another one of my crazy mind bro science thing is like you know when there's a sand in water and it's all murky and you can't see through it sometimes you just have to like let the sand kind of like settle and then you can see through it that's essentially what i think about like the cold plunge when i do that it's like allowing that sand to settle i love that as well i love that and and do you feel it like when you

get out do you feel do you feel dramatically different yeah i mean it's probably placebo but i'll take it yeah whatever i believe is true is true and are you just figuring these things out on your own yeah i just like make them up in my head i love that uh when you go around town now because of the success that you're having mike and the team are you starting to get recognized more yeah i am a little bit i'll like go grocery shopping and people like oh are you jasmine i was like yeah nice to meet you i saw a video you were doing a signing and there were some kids who came up to you um i think you were at a at a there were some kids who came up to you.

I think you were at a local spot doing some top signings or something like that. When you have young kids coming up to you and showing you that kind of love, that must feel incredible. I love it so much. It's so cool because I help out with the kids wrestling program at our gym. So I don't really help out with like any other programs other than this particular one, because it's more like I it's, it's open to everyone, but we run it kind of like a harder practice for, for kids that like,

you know, want that wrestling grind. And so there's a lot of kids in that program. It's like young kids, there's like some seven, I know, I think eight years old is like the youngest and then to like, probably 17 or something. It kind of depends on size, how big they are. I don't know. I don't run the program. I just help out. But yeah, it's so cool. It's like my favorite thing at the end of the week,

just like seeing them run around. I always make them say like best coach when I come in. Best coach, best coach. I make them chant that to like tease the other coaches. And I just like come in and give them stickers and like get to be like the cool, fun coach. I love that. Well done. Um, my daughter just started Taekwondo as well. So I appreciate, uh, someone who is, who is, you know, good to the kids at, at the, at the school. That's great. Um, by the way, uh, right after you, we saw Aaron Blanchfield beat Rose

Damunis. Did you think the fight would go like that? And if so, and even if not, what did you think of her performance? I didn't see the fight. Like they, afterwards they shuttle us out of there and then I go home and I shower and I spend time with my family. I forget about fighting existing a little bit. So I didn't see the fight.

I actually thought Rose was going to win. So I don't, I don't know. I haven't seen the fight. So I rose was gonna win so i don't i don't know i haven't seen the fight so i don't really know like how it went or any of that fair enough um that was the first card that had some new rules um updated rules for unified rules do you like especially the um the downed opponent rule do you like that yeah i love the the new rules that i was hoping that i was going to be like the first person to like utilize one of the new rules but yeah whatever did they did they come to you before the fight and tell you about these things just so you guys were up to speed yeah so when you when we checked in for like the ufc check-in they give you a package with like you know your times for

media and interviews and and check-in scale phone numbers all that kind of stuff all the important information and there was a page specifically about the rule change they did that as well as when we went to the venue they they talked about it after we all weighed in they talked about it and each commission i mean i'm assuming my commission did i'm assuming all the other ones did after they wrapped their hands and signed off on your gloves they went over it again like they were very very clear on the rule set they said any questions they they like went above and beyond to make sure that we were like aware of it and know exactly kind of like where it is all right that is great to hear uh when do we want to return what are you thinking i don't know you know i always said i'm not here

for a long time i'm here for a good time i want to stay active but that being said i'm not here for a long time. I'm here for a good time. I want to stay active. But that being said, I'm going to Indonesia with a teammate of mine, Danielle. She's fighting in, uh, in like a tournament there. And so super looking forward to that, but that's just in December.

So I'll be back soon. Um, but yeah, I don't, I don't know. Well, I'm going to, I always tell the coaches,

give me some time. Give me like one week. Don't talk to me about fights. I always tell the coaches, give me some time. Give me one week. Don't talk to me about fights. I want to hear nothing. You guys talk behind my back, and then we'll go from there. So we'll see next week what they say. What do you do during that week to not think about fighting? Whatever I want to do.

I cook a lot. I cook a lot. I go on on hikes i play with my cat like i just try not to think about fighting over and it's it's hard because i genuinely love fighting but i do understand that i need time away from it to keep that love fresh and and and that week after when like the one you had on saturday must be amazing right that week after a win like the one you had on Saturday must be amazing, right? The week after a loss, probably not as a joke. After one like this, you're flying high. That's exactly it. No matter what you do, it's fun and exciting and you'll love every minute of it because you're still like riding that high. Well, enjoy that week. You're in the midst of it now.

Enjoy the victory. Congratulations on another great win. looking forward to a big 2025 from you and uh thank you as always for the time cheers jasmine well done thank you as always all right there she is jasmine yeah there she is i was is that her who said that was that her that was her okay wow uh wow. Great stuff. Great win. Great personality. Great character. Enjoy speaking to her very much. And, you know, one of the best wins from a Canadian fighter on this card, which took place in Canada. We'll have another one join us in a matter of moments. His name is Eman Zahabi. And a lot of people say that we are doppelgangers, that we look exactly alike.

And this time actually he he uh let the uh the beard grow what do you think frank you think we're no no joke i was on twitter earlier today and someone posted a picture of you in 2016 like a basketball thing oh yeah yeah and i thought it was him wow and so because i you know i hadn't seen you in 2016 in a while and then i'm like oh wow this wow, this is actually Ariel. Why? Is it because he's that much younger than me? Let me see. I mean, look.

He's 36. You know yourself. Yeah. I mean, he is from Montreal. That's the crazy part, right? He is from Montreal. My family is Lebanese. I believe his family is as well. We might actually be related.

That's the crazy thing. I was going to say, you know those stories of people at the uh hospital and there's like two kids and then one goes with one family one i don't know if it could actually work like that i mean it could yeah they just they were like well he looks just like you you know yeah but we're six years apart well you math who needs it yeah yeah um but everyone loves that joke uh when he's fighting i always kind of feel weird about it to be honest because people are like oh great win area i'm like well i didn't really do anything so i don't know if i should be taking credit for this win um i feel weird about it if i'm being honest but uh he is winning a lot these days he's won his last five fights in a row. And this past one was probably, I would say,

and I think he would agree, against his most accomplished and well-known opponent. Pedro Munoz has been in the game for quite some time. And that was a supremely impressive win. He talked about the rankings. I don't know if he's, I don't think he's there at the moment. 135 is a buzzsaw. Montel Jackson, Dominic

Cruz, Jonathan Martinez, Kyler Phillips. He could be in that mix for sure. What was Pedro Munoz? Was he even in that mix? No, he wasn't. Ah, tried to sneak in a little crack and you got me

it's kind of messed up I mean they are so spontaneous so a big win for him a 5-5 winning streak dating back to February of 2021 in about an hour's time we're going to be joined by Valentina Shevchenko

the new and it feels weird saying that, but it is accurate, the new flyweight champion of the UFC's women's division. She is coming off that great win over Alexa Grasso back at the Sphere in September. That was during our partner dust era. We did a little post show there at the hotel. That was a our partner Dust era. We did a little post show there at the hotel. That was a great time. I was reminiscing about that time as I was looking at some of the footage from that night. And in about

30 minutes time, we are going to be joined by Saif Saud, who is the headman over at Fortis MMA. One of the best minds when it comes to breaking things down, he does a show called UFC Breakdown

that I believe has been nominated for a Fighters Only World MMA Award for best programming or best show, something like that. He does a really good job with those. If you haven't seen him, you can see him on UFC Fight Pass. So he'll be coming up in about 30 minutes time. But for now, let us go to our next guest, the man that we were just speaking about,

coming off that huge win over Pedro Munoz. Now has won his last five in a row. Well done. Eamon Zahabi. And he's kind enough to join us right now. There he is. Oh, look at this setup here. Hello, sir. How are you? How's how's it going bro are you doing well i'm doing great you look fantastic i i it

took me a minute there because uh i'm not used to you having this whole fancy setup here this is what this is what you and your brother are doing now right you guys are doing more podcasting stuff well no this is me and my wife i'm usually doing it with okay i'm sorry but your brother does as well you do a show with your wife yeah yeah it's the fighter and the casual that's brilliant um that is yeah she has questions that most people want to ask but don't want to ask me you know so she gets away with asking like questions that you know would seem like dumb to a fighter but are very important to casuals. Like what? Like asking

who's getting more tired, the guy offensively wrestling or the guy defensively wrestling? And she brings up good points and then sometimes the guy who's offensive gets fatigued and they get beat up after trying to take the guy down so hard. Even though technically they're on offense, they're gassing out. If they're inefficient know so she brings it up and some people won't

say that they'll be like oh no obviously he must be winning but there is a nuance to all of that right so she asks questions when things are confusing to her and i feel like a lot of people appreciate her questions yeah how long have you been doing that for uh since my my my win after javid basharat i started doing the whole YouTube channel. So guys, follow me on YouTube, Amos Ahabi Official. I'll just plug it right now. Thanks for the setup. I love it. That's what I was doing. You're a real mensch. Yes. Thank you. I was trying to set it up for you there and it's a great setup.

By the way, I do have to say, I know, and we'll get into that in a moment, but the beard is looking fantastic. I love the fact that you've now grown out the beard this is this is a great look i like this what's the inspiration behind your hairstyle amazing i don't know who your barber is but i gotta get him uh why and and you know what i also like about your hair i mean it's very look i mean just look at this guys look at this it's unbelievable look look up for a second i mean look, look at that, look at that, it's like, we're brothers, look at this, it's Helwani boxing in one picture, here, everyone loves to joke, and I have to say, I have to say, like, I feel bad, I have guilt when it comes, because anytime you weigh in, you fight, everyone's tagging me, and I don't try to play it up, because I'm like, I don't want to

take credit for it, you're the one fighting, I i it's a funny joke once but like my my timeline gets flooded do you get annoyed by this because i don't want i feel weird about it i honestly do i don't know i don't know how to handle this i think it's hilarious but i think we've got a funny thing going okay all right you know we both come from there and we have the same similar look and i feel like it helps me it helps you it gives you the street cred nobody's gonna mess with you when you walk down the street oh i know where you're living in new york yeah yeah you're safe now you're safe man you got the rep now and you know what i get to use it i get to uh ride your coattails a little bit any truth to the rumor that you grew the beard out a little bit to look even more like me yeah that's a hundred percent okay all right i heard you get all the girls so i was like you

know what i gotta grow it out the people in new york they get mad at me that i don't line up my my hairline but you don't do it either you keep it natural as well it's very similar you know you wouldn't want to mess with what god gave you right god made you look good you know what i mean we look great i think so too i think so too and the and the longer beard what's the inspiration i don't know it's just i i kept it long for fight camp you know how like hockey players they grow out their beard And it was a really tough camp And I wanted to keep it out And I just trimmed it fight week

I had the guy just clean it up a little bit But I thought it made a nice look So it just helped me stay, you know what, I pushed it hard And this was the hardest camp I've ever had For us, it went wild on this one We hit pads five days a week Sometimes two times in a day And we put in so much work for so long on this one. You know, we hit pads five days a week, sometimes two days, two times in a day.

And we put in so much work for so long. And also I had like Rob Font do his training camp at the same time. So we're both like pushing each other to high level fighters grinding next to each other.

It was a great experience. So why do you think this one was harder than the other ones? Oh, just like, because we knew how durable and how much pressure

Pedro was going to put on me. And it was going to be hard to knock him out. And I hit him with some bombs in there, too, on Saturday. And he didn't go out, man. And so my brother wanted me to make sure that I don't fatigue and I can maintain the same pace all night. Because we knew Pedro was going to bring it. And he was going to be the highest quality opponent I've ever had. So we just wanted to pull out all the stops.

Do you ever get annoyed at your brother? Like, man, can you chill out? Like enough of this? Like his brothers fight, right? It's a different, it's a different, it's a different relationship. Do you, does this happen? He was, he was, my brother's taking, takes it so serious. Don't forget. I'm his baby brother. He was younger. He doesn't want anything to happen to me in there. And sometimes I wish I, you know, I was thinking to myself, like,

I wish he would lighten up or whatever but then i saw this amazing clip of tom brady uh one of his ex teammates was saying that you know since tom left it's kind of more fun or whatever and tom was like he's reacting to he's like i thought we wanted to win championships i didn't know he just wanted to have fun yeah like you know that's exactly how my brother thinks my brother wants to win championships right look and have fun right so i was like you know i don't need to complain or say anything i'm just going to do what he says and go as hard as he wants us to go because in his mind we're going for the belt and that's exactly what i want so i'm not trying to have fun right now

i'm trying to get that belt and uh you're on a roll to see it all come together for you like this to get wins over guys like pedro muniz you were always a part to see it all come together for you like this, to get wins over guys like Pedro Munoz. You were always a part of the TriStar team. We'd always see you around, but you were a little bit in the shadows as you were coming up and guys like GSP and Rory and your brother were doing their things for so many years. Now to be like the guy, like in many respects,

you are the face of TriStar and it's incredible. Oh, yeah. You are the guy. How does that feel? How does that sink in? It feels great, man. I wear the letter C with pride. You know, if I'm the team captain right now,

I'll wear it with pride. I'm going to try to carry it with honor like George did. I'm trying to be a good mentor. I do a lot of things like GSP did. You know, like he used to fly in the best training partners for each individual opponent. He'd bring in specific guys, and I do the same. I'm grinding in the gym as hard as I can.

I do everything my coaches say, what my nutritionist says. Even for this fight, I hired a mindset coach. I was doing daily journals and stuff like that and having a meeting with him once a week. I'm just trying to carry myself the way George carried himself, and hopefully that inspires the next generation of TriStar. Okay, I have a few questions about this. The mindset coach, this is your first time working with someone like that yeah you know i went four straight uh without one and i'm just always doing the research like

reading the books and trying to piece it all together and uh my good friend jordan dykler actually one of your friends jordan dykler really jordan dykler jordan dykler was my best friend in high school yeah what he's my good friend i've school. Yeah. What? He's my best friend. I've known him for like 12, 13 years now. Wait, he's not the mindset coach, is he? No, he brought me the mindset coach. Okay. I was like, wow.

I didn't realize. He's working as a manager, matchmaker, and things like that. He's in the MMA world now. Yes, yes, yes. That's right. That's right. That's crazy. He works with the BKFC champ, Kai.

And Kai works with the mindset coach. And so he got to meet Mindset Mike from Kai. And then he asked me, he's like, would you be interested in something like that? I'm like, you know what? Why not? I have a coach for everything else. Maybe if this guy can help me, because now I'm going to the next level. You know, Pedro Munoz is a legend.

I have so much respect for him. Even after the fight, I absolutely love the guy. I think he's a great person, great athlete, and he's a legend. And when I was facing a guy like that, I was like, you know what? If I can get an extra edge mentally, I'll take it. And so what are the things that you work on with him? Like what kind of made you like this experience? Oh, I loved it because, you know, like it's interesting.

It's like fighters are like hot girls, okay? Okay. But we don't think we're hot. We don't wear that girl. Everyone else is so much hotter than her. Yeah. But she's actually, right? But we see mostly our shortcomings, and we don't see the shortcomings in others.

So, like, when you get a name, sometimes you're like, oh, my God, yeah, but he's so good, and he could do this, and he could do that. I don't measure up. So, my mindset coach, Mindset Michael, he basically held a mirror up to me and he let me see me for who I am, like how others see me. So I'm able to lean into actually who I am, you know,

because it's all about self-image. If you have a smaller self-image than your actual capability, you don't perform to your best. If you have too much of a large self-image for your capability, then you don't perform to your best because you're an egomaniac you know and i was an egomaniac in in madison's fair garden when i knocked out by ramos i was too egotistical and when i fought

vince morales i was too much of a shallow uh a shell of myself so i didn't fight well but the last four fights i was getting it but i didn't have it dialed in like a science to be able to tap it in on and off and i was lucky that i performed all four times like without having a system but now mindset mike gave me a system so i'm hoping to tap into it every time will you keep working with him yeah i will yeah definitely definitely i like it man i think it's great he was there he actually flew in i didn't ask him to fly in he wow he told me he's like i can fly in and you know so you know he took a chance to like work with me and come in and you know so you know he took a chance to like work with me and come in and spend the whole week with me and uh i thought it paid off

big time so i felt like tom cool and collected the entire fight wow and and will you keep talking to him in between camps or like let's say you get a a date and an opponent in i don't know february or something then you call him up how does that work yeah honestly i don't know, February or something, then you call him up. How does that work? Yeah, honestly, I don't know. It's my first experience. I'm going to see with him now, like how we're going to do it. If we're still going to be doing like, because normally it's a weekly call. So I don't know if we're going to keep up now or only when camp starts, or if he's going to give me a few things to do like in between until camp starts. I'm going to figure that out with him. But I really it and i felt like honestly i had never felt such little stress in fight week you know i felt like i believed in my actual training

i believed in everything i've accomplished so far i believe that i earned to be there and one one other thing that was really cool is he helped me understand that i should surrender the outcome because in the end i'm the man in the arena you know there are millions of people around the world who are sports fans. You know, NHL, UFC, NBA, doesn't matter, every sport. There's millions and millions of fans. They all wish they were the person in the arena, you know. But what kind of father, husband, or person would I be if I didn't compete bravely, if

I didn't compete courageously? I get the privilege of being the man in the arena and I'm going to doubt myself. No, no, I got to go in there and I got to lay it all out in the octagon. Ah, this is fantastic. This guy sounds brilliant. I like this guy, Mindshead Mike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like him a lot.

Nobody else use him, man. That's it. Okay, that's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't tell anyone his last name. But my impression of your brother is always that he's a very thoughtful person as well, that he likes the psychological part of the game. Do you have these types of conversations with him as well?

Yeah, of course. That's ongoing all the time. But, you know, like, it's not my brother's specialty, you know? So he tells me all, my brother tells me all the right things, tells me so many things that a good mindset person would tell you or a psychologist would tell you for sure. My brother is very philosophical. But he didn't have the system to keep me accountable,

you know? And I just like having that other guy keep me accountable, keeps me true. Tremendous. And the performance looked great. You look great in the performance. Pedro Munoz, I said before you came on,

highest profile fighter and victory of your career. Would you agree with this? Yep. Totally agree. And I feel like I dealt with it amazingly. Like in a sense, I thought I won every round. We went after the fight, we went straight to the hotel and we put the fight out. We do that after every fight. Win or lose doesn't matter. We have to look like what I did right, what I did wrong. But we didn't see how they could have given him any round, especially not the last round. The

last round was the bloodiest round. I feel like I damaged him the most in that round. And so when you're watching this and your brother's there and your whole team is there, how critical are you and the team of your performance in the immediate aftermath? Oh yeah, very critical, man. Like I want to hear it ASAP because, you know, I want to put it in my mind because sometimes it's decisions we made it's not skills that we need to learn you know so why and after like the emotions are fresh and the memory of the fight is fresh so that way like when i if i do something right or wrong they ask me what did you feel what did you think at that moment you know and then i can go back and we can kind of like have a better assessment of what was going on in my head and at the time what did your brother say

he thought i looked phenomenal he said it's my best performance ever wow that's got to feel good of what was going on in my head at the time. What did your brother say? He thought I looked phenomenal. He said it was my best performance ever. Wow. That's got to feel good. Look, you even got a thumbs up over there on the screen. Yeah, I know. I just said, I feel good.

That has to feel amazing from someone like him. Yeah, it feels really good. You know, and even like throughout camp, it went really well because like my brother, it's very hard to get compliments out of him. Like he really has a high bar, you know, high standard. And even by the last couple of weeks throughout camp, it went really well because like my brother, it's very hard to get compliments out of him. Like he really, he has a high bar, you know, high standard. And even,

but the last couple of weeks of camp, he's like, you're doing excellent. He's like, you've done everything you could. You've turned every stone. He's like, I don't care what the outcome is.

Just go out there and do your best. He's like, you've prepared to your best. It's in God's hands now. Wow. I saw GSP tweet about the, the performance and the victory afterwards. And you told the media

that he reached out to you before the fight was that a phone call or a text message yeah yeah because i had it was a phone call okay i had asked him to come to my corner but he had uh something else booked so he wasn't going to be able to make it so he decided to call me uh while i was backstage which was nice of him to do and uh he called me and he told me, he's like, look, he's like, you're better than Pedro everywhere. He's like, but this guy's very crafty, lots of experience, and extremely durable. So you're going to have to be on for 15 minutes straight. You can't make a mistake for 15 minutes.

And then after the fight, we called him, we FaceTimed him, and he's like, whoa, he's like, you've got a nice jab, baby. He's like, really, really good. I told him, thanks, man. I stole it from you. I gave him his props. He's a great mentor, great role model to have. And it took a lot of inspiration from him in that fight.

Is he at the gym at all these days? All the time. If he doesn't have something booked, if he doesn't have a gig where he has to go show up, he's in the gym training every day. Wow, that is amazing. And the thing I always say about GSP, and I obviously hold him in very high regard as well,

one of those guys who from the moment I met him, probably the first time I met him was like 06, 07, to now, same exact person. Has not changed, doesn't get too big. I saw him in Paris at the Olympics. He was so excited to see me. I'm like, you're George St. Pierre. Why are you so excited to see me?

There's a million people who are here that want to talk to you and want to take a photo with you he's just like he's just a regular dude doesn't change doesn't big time anyone and i'm assuming he's the exact same at the gym yeah he's exactly the same you know and uh it's funny because like if you're not a fight fan or you don't recognize him you'll never know number one that he's a millionaire yeah you would never know that he's the greatest one of the greatest fighters of all time you would never know any like you would never know that he's the greatest, one of the greatest fighters of all time. You would never know any, you would never know anything about him other than he's a sweetheart.

Yeah. You know, and I love that. And I'm trying to copy that. You know, I don't want to be a big mouth. I don't want to do, you know, do anything like that. I want to stay like him. And one thing that's really great about him, I don't know if you saw that picture,

but like I posted a picture like the week before my fight, or six days before my fight, I took a picture with gsp both of us topless and he's more shredded than me and he's like 40 something years old looking nice baby it's incredible uh what's going on in your forehead are these are these from uh is this from the glove or what what's it were these cuts over here scratches yeah most of his punches hit me here wow yeah i did a really good job of keeping my chin down and my nose down. Yeah.

I didn't have damage in my face. His face was way worse than mine by the end. Yeah, for sure. But it's just like little cuts. Yeah, the little scratches. Listen, I love the new gloves. You do? Why?

I have no soreness in my hands whatsoever. Actually, this is the most punches I've landed in a fight, I think. And I feel absolutely no pain in my hands and no pain in my face, which is really good. Yes. It's a nice to have. It's a nice to have. I want to thank the UFC for updating the gloves. They're amazing.

What about the new rules? Did you like those? Listen, I really think the grounded opponent rule is going to make all the difference i don't know if the 12 to 6 is going to make much of a difference to be honest it'd be hard to use except unless you're like in mount or someone's shooting on you you know i don't i don't see how it can work uh but the the grounded opponent it's gonna it's gonna make it more advantageous for the wrestler in the sense that if i can you in head, you're more likely to put your knee down or your elbow down. And if you do that, if you do one of those two, there's an easier path to taking your back than when you're on four points. And there's an easier path of pulling

you back and getting you on your back. So I can take like side control or knee on stomach or mount or something like that. So I think there'll be less stalling in terms of grappling exchanges because of the new grounded opponent rule. Okay, that is interesting. I like that. Yes, and I like the fact that they're just trying to continue to evolve and make the sport, you know, just as up-to-date as possible. 12-6 doesn't come into play a lot, but it's something that should have been abolished 10 years ago. It was a silly thing. I saw one guy while I was warming up. I think it was the Charles Jourdain fight.

I think it was the Charles Jourdain fight. I think Charles got elbowed 12 to 6 on his spine. And I was like, whoa, man, you definitely can't elbow the spine. Yeah, no, no, no. Don't hit him on his spine. It makes no sense. Even with any other strike, you can't hit him in the spine. Sure.

But it was one of those brilliant fights. I'm pretty sure it was a Jordan fight, but I'm not 100% sure. But everyone backstage was like, wait a second. Can we hit the spine? What's going on here? No, no, no. They don't get everything. They don't catch them all.

Not only are you doing the podcast, but I see you're doing some stuff with Sportsnet. You're doing media stuff. Would you like to do more of that as well? Yeah, I would absolutely love it. You know, I did my first gig with that at UFC 303. And last minute, I sprung in that two-hour live show. So I did two hours live on air. How was that?

It was great. I nailed it. The vice president of Sportsnet was there. He said I knocked that out of the park, which was great. You know, I'm happy to hear that. And, you know, I have a good relationship with them they said i can come back anytime like i don't want to take a contract now like i rather just focus on fighting you know fighting is the most important but it's it's nice to have in the background and i think it's like you know like

nhlers or nflers or nba players it's it's nice for us fighters to have a place you know to retire without eating punches anymore like instead of fighting until i'm 50 you know eventually i can retire and sit behind a desk and uh it's a lot nicer listen when i made mistakes in the interviews the producer didn't come over and slap me or punch me he was very nice he's like this exit like this oh blah very gentle very sweet were you nervous i don't know i wasn't nervous because you know i went on the mindset like why don't i just talk to all the fighters like uh we're all on the same team and it's just like locker room. I just tried to go in depth.

I just have one question ready and however they answered it the follow-up question would be derived from their answer just to make it a little bit more natural and it worked out for me. I don't usually look at the rankings if I'm being honest. I know they're controversial,

but when you mentioned the rankings in your post-fight interview, I was like, is he not in the rankings? Is Pedro not in the rankings? I don't really understand what goes on with the rankings, if I'm being honest, but I feel like you should be in there after a win like this. How far away do you think you are? I think 135 is the deepest weight class in the UFC right now.

How far away do you think you are from being in that discussion with those top guys? I feel like it's possible they slide me in tomorrow. There's a couple of guys who have been inactive in there. Yeah. See what they think. I think it's like 12 journalists that we don't know who they are. Yeah. It's a mess.

They make the selection or whatever. But Dana doesn't like it. I don't know how I feel about it. It's good. It's bad. Even the new system, it's going to have its bad parts. Nothing in life is perfect, obviously. But, you know, I'm hoping to slide in.

I'm hoping tomorrow morning I get a nice little Christmas gift in a way. But if not, hopefully they'll give me someone in the top 15, you know. I'm going to talk about that and see when we can fight next. Who comes to mind? Someone on that list. You know, that's really what I want. That's somebody behind me now. I feel like I've earned my stripes to move forward.

So I'm hoping that's the direction we're going in. Are you hearing any rumblings about a Montreal show next year? Listen, I'm dying for there to be a Montreal show. And to be honest, me and Jordan are looking pretty good right now. Yes, yes. We could do good on that card like we could get a couple of names and i honestly in my opinion i don't think they did jordan any favors in terms of victor henry i think you know victor henry's a you know he's got a lot

of fights a lot of experience very well rounded fighter for first fight at bantamweight i think jordan did a great job of getting a finish over that guy i don't think he's ever been finished you'd have to check that out, but he looked good. He looked very good. And 135, obviously, when you're fighting at 45 all those years, sometimes it could be very detrimental. He looked fantastic. My thing is, Montreal, you remember those days back in the day.

It was on fire, incredible crowds, and I know GSP was the guy. And then there was that last show, the one that was headlined by DJ versus Horiguchi, and no one showed up to it. And that was UFC 186. And I feel like we, I feel like we've been penalized, and they haven't gone back since. And I know the pandemic and all that kind of came in the middle. But I think it's time.

I think it's time. I think it would be great. You know, the thing about Montreal is there's always so much going on in terms of events. So if they do come to Montreal, they're going to have to really pay attention and do their research to the date. And make sure that it's the hottest thing in town that weekend. And obviously, I'm hoping they stack the card. I'm hoping they put at least one title fight on the card or something.

I'm hoping it's a pay-per-view. Because a fight night might be hard to put on in Montreal. I'm not going to lie. Like Edmonton, I totally get it. Like it's a very quiet city, not much going on, not too many big events to compete against.

But Montreal is like a pay-per-view city, not a fight night city. Wow. The shade on Edmonton, huh? They're not going to be happy with this. Oh, no, Edmonton's great.

That's not what I mean. Smaller population. Yes, yes, yes. They've got a great mall over there in Edmonton's great. That's not what I mean. Smaller population. Yes, yes, yes. They've got a great mall over there in Edmonton. That was so nice to me. I absolutely loved them. I had a great time. Guys, have you been out there?

Yeah, I've been there a few times. Yeah. We went to a great steakhouse. And the steak, the beef, Alberta beef. Oh, yeah. I've never had that. I've been to steakhouses in Vegas, Chicago, Florida. There's so many places around the world.

Best steak I've ever had is in Edmonton. Wow. Do you remember the name of the place? No, I don't remember, but I had the rib steak. Melting. It was melting in my mouth. Amazing. This is after the fight, I would imagine.

Yeah, after the fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. Celebratory dinner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I went there with the team. It was great. Your boy Jordan was there.

He was there too Geez I had no idea He's my guy bro He's my guy I didn't realize Okay I love this He was my best He was with all the

Media guys now For this week For the interviews and stuff Well he didn't help With this one Shout out to Danny Rubin I heard you reached out I heard you reached out

I did yes of course Yeah because you're a bench bro Yeah I mean Absolutely But yeah Jordan and I we used to go to baseball expos games together we'd sleep over at each other's houses he was the one actually Jordan Dykler was the one who told me that we all went to high school together and my wife did as well and he was like you need to start looking at this girl

who eventually became my wife because I was ignoring her and he was like this is the one not these other ones this is the one yeah he knows he knows stuff like that yes crazy people man yeah that's crazy that he knew that about you yeah awesome so we're even more connected we're even more connected than we thought going into all this yeah we're united bro um being back in sometimes people talk about Canada like it's a dirt road and it's like oh yeah you're fighting on your you know your hometown uh Edmonton and montreal aren't exactly next door neighbors but just being in canada did it feel different did it feel like a little bit more special yeah it's the best like i love fighting in canada honestly they give me the most love out of any other area right you know like uh when i had the at the ceremonial weigh-in

sorry i had a really nice pop when i came out and then they chanted zahabi in the beginning in the first round of the fight and then they were chanting Zahabi in the first round of the fight. And then they were chanting Zahabi at the end of the fight. It was great. It was nice to have that love, you know. And I'm hoping to grow my fan base in Canada. And I'm hoping, like, I had two great performances. So I'm hoping the Canadian fans like me even more now.

I knocked out Eric Killeng in Vancouver. And I feel like I, you know, I outclassed Pedro on Saturday. You know, so hopefully I'm building my reputation in Canada. Because I know they all know Firas. They know GSP. I just want them to really get behind me as well. You're the guy. You're the face of TriStar MMA, Montreal MMA.

What a great history both those entities have. Well done. Congratulations. Go check out the YouTube channel, Iman Zahabi Official. Check out everything that you're doing, your brother's doing. Very, very happy for you guys.

Well done and congrats. One shout out. Yes, yeah of course check out that jujiclub.com if you want to learn from faraz sahabi okay what does it say it again it cut out for a second oh it's at jujiclub.com how do you spell juji i like uh jujitsu like j u j i and then club club.com all right we shall do that thank you very much thank you and uh congrats and thanks for joining us again and uh i i say keep the beard i don't know how your wife feels about it but i say keep the beard i like it yeah she thinks i should just trim the mustache a tiny bit okay but the rest all right i like it i approve well done thank you amon take care there he is amon zahabi great win for him. Five in a row.

And he has really become the face of TriStar MMA. And he's been around. If you've followed and covered Canadian MMA, you know he's been around for a while. And so to see him now become that guy, pretty damn amazing. Hey, you feeling all right? Yeah, what's wrong? You just kind of zonked out for the last 30 minutes just talking to yourself ah that's a good one i thought you were talking

about my like the pan ah what do you see i feel i gotta say i feel weird i feel weird about it do i deserve this i mean i didn't do anything we do kind of look alike i mean i mean it's really remarkable it's because he used to have longer hair he used to have he used to have like a like a little bit of a mullet thing going on there now it's just and i trimmed the beard a little bit yesterday i should have kept longer for this. He's one of our own. Yeah, I love the Canadian cards. Nice poster too. The blue and the black. Or is that purple? Fuck. I don't know. By the way, UFC Apex 100 coming up on Saturday. I got to say, I know I say this all the time. It is funny that I say this all the time and I'm still branded as being too negative.

It's a sneaky good card. That's how we know this is authentic. Neil Magny versus Carlos Paredes. Cody Garbrandt against Miles Johns. Karolina Kovalkevic against Denise Gomes. Ricky Tertios against Bernardo Sopage. Gerald Mearschardt against Renier Derrida.

By the way, what about the sky right now? What is going on? It's just getting darker, man. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Remember the clocks? I forgot about that. We fell backwards. RDR making his debut. Jillian Robertson, Canadian.

Nicholas Dalby against Eliseo Zaleski. I mean, it's not bad. Cody Stammen. It's not a bad card. You also have the two boots card. The two boots card coming up in Philadelphia on Saturday. Bam Rodriguez and Boots Ennis, who he had.

Wait, did I say two boots? I meant two kings. Two Boots is a pizza place here in New York. Have you ever been to Two Boots, Frank? No, I haven't. That's fantastic. Sounds amazing. Really? You haven't been to Two Boots?

It's all over the city. I really have never even heard of it. Serious? I'm dead serious. Two Boots Pizza. Two Boots Pizza. Look it up right now. I'm going to look it up.

Tell me after this. I will. What you think of it. As I said at the top of the show, our next guest, the owner and founder of 4-7MA is enjoying some kind of run. They went 2-0 at UFC 308. Kennedy and Zetsuku and Jeff Neal picking up big victories. Obviously, on Saturday, he was the head man in Brandon Moreno's corner. What a great win for Brandon Moreno against

Amir Al-Bazi earlier in the month in Salt Lake City Ryan Spann with the performance bonus great win for him what about Jacoby Smith with his win on October 1st and now they have the most wins of any team in the the contender series circuit that's 18 wins for four to seven may he's doing great stuff on the analyst side of things with ufc breakdown and of course at the gym in dallas in the corner all over the world safe so killing it these days wanted to have him on to talk about saturday and all the great things that they are doing these days coming out of four to seven may he is kind enough to join us right now here on the program. Hello, sir. How are you?

How we doing, my man? Thank you for that introduction. I was blushing over here. You just couldn't see. Some kind of run. You guys are on fire right now. What's the secret sauce? What's behind all this? I mean, I honestly really think it's just been work. We had some losses earlier in the year. behind all of this? I mean, I honestly really think it's, it's just been work. You know, we've had, uh, we had some losses earlier in the year. We've had some tough fights when you're at the highest level and you're fighting the best fighters in the world. Uh, it's margins, you know,

some split decision losses that Brandon had that were really tough. Uh, just, just momentum and timing, but it's, it's really been great lately. And the guys are really catching fire and it's a fun time at the gym. When things are rolling like this and you come back home and you come back to the gym, do you notice that the vibes are a little bit better? You nailed that one. There's an energy. When everybody's winning and people are having these awesome performances

and these big cards, and these were all really big cards, right? You first, like you said, we had salt Lake, which Utah was really a lot of fun. You know, Darren was out there, you know, uh, he, he, he runs Utah. So we had a lot of fun. We had a good setup there and Ryan just had, had a great performance and, you know, he really needed that a great bounce back. And it kind of showed, you know, what he's capable of and everybody loves Ryan and sees that capability. It's just, can he, you know, be consistent? So that was awesome. And then,

you know, went all the way to Abu Dhabi and, uh, another huge card and Jeff, you know, looked like his old self looked like prime form and it sucked that the fight ended so quick, but you know, he was really looking good.edy now heavyweight and then obviously brandon so just a lot of momentum and and a lot of excitement and so let us talk about brandon for a moment because that was a huge fight for him looking to get back on track uh the last two were close ones and so you know this is a guy who's still supremely popular and still one of the best flyweights in the world what what was the you know i don't want to forget about game plan but like you know what what was the vibe going into this fight and and what were we trying what were we trying to accomplish and what were you feeling going into how he you know when you consider how

he was looking in the gym going into a fight against a guy like amir al-bazi who has looked very good as of late in the ufc very good and we took him very seriously i mean look the reality is and you know this from being around him for a long time, is when you're rocking at that level, fighting the best of the best, you look at Max and Ilya, what a fight. That was a great fight until it wasn't a great fight. But no one's going to remember how good Max was fighting. No one's going to remember any of that.

They're just going to remember the knockout. When you're fighting at this level against the very best all the time, Brandon is always fighting against the very best. I mean, that's just, you know, he's a mainstay. He's a two-time champion, man. It comes down to margins. And I think he just, he had so many high level fights. He was just kind of tired, you know, in Mexico city, he was, he was gone away from his family. Uh, he's a family man. I mean that he does this because of his kids like just flat out he loves to fight but you could tell that that's really his his source and his inspiration you know you have to know your athlete in order to coach him successfully and he was away

for so long and i told him after that fight you know it wasn't a great fight i said brandon you just need to take a break man take some time and he's such a competitor he was he wants to compete all the time so he called me like i don't know a few months later he's like coach i want to fight i'm like no man no you know you just need a break and sometimes when you take something away from somebody and they love it so much that love comes back and that's really all i was trying to do uh and his wife too you know um and he's got a really close relationship with her and we're just like hey man people that love him just say hey you know dude just to step back for a little bit let's recharge a battery uh you know he's never had is not used to losing and have such

an awesome fight with pantoja that was incredible. And then have that, you know, fight with Royval, which was supposed to be with Al-Bazi. There was just a lot of things that happened. It was good for him to just take a break. And Brandon's break still isn't very long, you know, nine months, ten months. But it was enough. And it was exactly what I was hoping for, man. He was so happy.

You could tell how much fun he was having in the octagon arrow. He was having so much fun in the fight you know he just kept having more and more fun and and the more fun he had the better he was fighting i mean even at the end you know uh going for the kick and just enjoying himself and for me i i think these guys they fight their best when they're having fun especially these high level guys championships championship level guys you need to get them in that relaxed state. And that's not easy to do. So it's really just comes down to the athlete and the timing.

We were talking about the fight earlier and PT on our show said that I thought he nailed it. Amir felt like a passenger throughout the fight. Like he was never quite there. This was all Brandon from the get go. So why did you not, Do you not like that? No, I just look. You know, Brandon, this is like the other side of Brandon that people don't, you know, really, I guess they do know it, but I love him. We're getting ready to go post-fight.

He's getting ready to talk to Tiesa and Dean. And he looks at me, he goes, man, I feel bad. He's like, you see his face? Like, he's like, I feel bad. And, you know, Al-Bazi, his see his face. Like, he's like, I feel bad. And, you know, Al Bazzi, his dreams are shattered. You know, who knows what happens for him. But I mean, he had such a long road to come back, all the injuries and all the stuff he dealt with and everything he went through, you know, you're seeing another guy's dreams

just kind of get crushed and that's the name of the game. But it, you know, he just kind of looked like he was a step behind, putting it nicely from the start. And who knows, man, the ring rust. And then talk about you got to come back and fight Brandon Moreno. And, well, Brandon was very, very well rested and really ready. So it was just a perfect storm. And credit to Al-Bazi that he took that, took those shots because we were trying to finish him, especially in the fifth. You saw Brandon was leaping into those hooks and leaped into the elbow.

And, I mean, the damage that Al-Bazi took was similar to the figgy fight where his eye was closed up and they stopped the whole fight, right? And his eye was closing up pretty good, and he kept going. So credit to him, but Brandon was really on point and and on fire as he said and it was a great performance one of his all-timers for sure brandon said afterwards like you know give me another one and then we could talk about title picture are you on board with this yeah that's what i love about brandon he's such an honest kid like you know anyone else is like people now like after they win like give me the title shot and everyone's like and you should call your shot

right i mean you know you're a big believer in that you got to do it but he's just so honest he's like man i gotta be honest right now i do think that you know the asakura if he does beat pantoja that fight is so potentially huge between him and brandon it's exciting just talking about it you know those their styles and the striking and the speed but you got to give respect and credit to Pantoja and he's still there you know and um and after the war that him and Brandon have had it seems that he's had an easier time with you know his other two defenses they were still close but um you know Pantoja's still there so and obviously they have a history he has a history with Roy Val credit to Roy Val. He's fighting excellent,

incredible. And we're just going to have to see how it shakes out. I think if Pantoja wins, it's different. I think we do kind of, you know, probably we'll have to fight again because those guys have fought so many times,

you know, even though it's incredible. Uh, but if, if Asakura wins, I think that I don't, I don't know. And, you you know for me

we're we enjoyed the process so much it was such a great fight such a fun week for our team all our coaches uh each coach was so happy uh you know with what happened right incredible boxing great check that box capatio you're the man. Incredible wrestling, takedown defense, Israel Silva, my man, incredible job. Crew Hoya, the elbows, the kicks to the leg, the clinch work, you know, he knocked him down off the break. That was all Crew Hoya. So our team just, and then the game plan, Brandon never got wild. He stayed disciplined. He listened so well. We were all so happy. I think we're ready, you know, to do it again if we need to and and we'll enjoy the whole process you know obviously you never say no to a title shot but we'll just see

what happens when you say do it again they are going back to mexico in february do you do you like that idea or is that too soon i think it just really all depends on the fight and the matchup and, and then all the rest, you know, it's like I told you, um, I think that Mexico and February's not too soon. Um, if, if that lines up, but I just, I be remiss if I started kind of getting ahead of myself when, you know, Pantoja still has the title and, you know, right valves and that, it's a real weird position. And the other thing is, this is a shout out to Mick Maynard

because he made the flyweight division. No one understands how hard it is to get that title, that flyweight undisputed title. These guys are ninjas. I mean, all, and Mick Maynard told me this. He said, I want to pick a name out of the hat in the top 15 and I want them to be able to fight anyone in the top 15 and you see the matchups you know credit to roy val fought uh number eight you know and that was

a scrap and uh ursic fought pantoja right and it was a scrap yeah and then kai knocks out ursic so it's like man the flyweight division i honestly think it might be one of the most dangerous divisions and no one because they're small i don't know i don't know if people don't understand but the skill level at flyweight is unrivaled i mean you can't make a mistake because everybody's so well-rounded well-balanced so uh we're just gonna have to wait and see what happens you know how did my home country choose you and then the whole whole team. Man, I love Canada. You know, I've never, let me knock on wood here. I've never lost in Canada.

Oh, wow. I went to Edmonton. Never. Let me calculate it. Edmonton, 2019 Jeff Neal, Nico Price. Toronto, Uriah Hall against Shoe Face. Okay. Miles Johns too. Macy Chasson, Ottawa.

And then what was the other one? We had one more. Well, Brandon on Saturday. Brandon on Saturday. I've got one in Vancouver though. I just can't remember. Maybe Diego Ferreira, I think. Maybe.

I can't remember, but I think it's like six and oh, and, uh, I love Canada, man. And I told the guys, I said, I've never lost in Canada. Um, I said, and Canada is fun. You know, Edmonton is like the Texas of Canada. Alberta is like Texas, right? And then, yeah. And then Vancouver has got the West Coast vibe, kind of like the Seattle, LA, San Francisco combination. And then Toronto's got kind of a New York, London kind of. It's really unique. And I enjoy it. There's only 39 million people in the country.

So it's this huge country with not a ton of people. And it's close by. The flight's not difficult. We had fun. We had a great time. Brandon stayed in edmonton he's uh going to the oilers game yes uh and so that's going to be fun for him and uh we had we had a really great time as a team when you win ariel the trip is always good i love that he was

getting the love you know he's obviously not canadian uh not a ton of mexicans in canada obviously there are some but it's you know it's not like you're fighting south of the border and he was getting a ton of love right well whatever mexicans are in canada they were all there that night i mean let me there's some brandon has this kind of energy that he just draws people to him they're magnetized towards him in a way that's just different you know and i and the, see the reactions on people's face when they see him is just something different, you know, and we, we're at the weigh ins and we got done and we were going to the, he was going to go to the desk and he was walking. And I mean, here they saw him and here came a couple hundred people. And I mean, they were

going nuts over him. I mean mean you got to really kind of get around him surround him i mean it's people go crazy like he's a rock star not just a fighter it's just different and he tries to take his time to say hi to everybody i mean he'll stop for every single person and you got to kind of watch out for him because you know he's not a big guy right he just kind of gets swallowed up by all these people and you're just kind of like oh man and and then he got a lot of love and then we all these people and you're just kind of like, oh, man. And then he got a lot of love. And then we were cutting weight and we went to a local gym and we thought we were going to be pretty incognito because he is Mexican and it is Canada.

And we're like, you know, not that many people are going to know him. He's cutting weight and we're walking the check where he's at on the check scale. And this guy's on the phone and he just stops and his eyes get all big and he just turned out and he was just about to start freaking out i'm like chill man chill just chill you know and uh so i mean he just he did not know what to do like he was about to explode and i got brandon in the room and he was like is that brandon moreno he's like i gotta see him and i was like hey man and he's in his boxers checking his weight, right? So it's like, and Brandon still will never be rude to people. He'll say, hey, brother, you know, yeah, thank you.

Like, I mean, what a class guy. And I really feel like that's why such great things happen to him, man. Karma, energy, all those things are real. And what you put out is what you get in. And that's why Brandon, I think has had such an incredible run. That is the person that he is truly. And, uh,

lastly on that, he had on this pretty bad-ass jacket. I don't know what it was, but it was a good, it was a nice jacket. He had an incredible night, right? What an,

what a memorable night. And it'd be one of those things where you'd be like, Oh, I remember wearing that jacket that night that I won the main event and had a great performance. And, uh, somebody,

one of the coaches was like, Hey, something about the jacket. And he takes the jacket off. Right. And he said here and give it to whoever. And, and that was,

that's a one-on-one, right? Like it's not like there was another jacket like that. And I put my arm around him and I said, this is why God blesses you like this. Like you're just, this is who you are. And people need to hear those stories, man. Like, and I think people see that in Brandon.

That's why they love him so much. He's not a guy that doesn't need love. There's something about him that attracts people, maybe that sweetness and that decency, but he's a monster once you lock in the octagon. I mean, he doesn't play any games as we saw on Saturday night. You know, you have made a habit of building people up from the ground up. With Brandon, you guys came together a little later on.

And so I'm wondering how you can describe your relationship now. Do you feel like there's a full trust there between the two of you? How would you describe where you're at? Because it's only been, correct me if I'm wrong three fights or four four fights and it's a great question because when you look at it we had the figgy fight which was you know an a plus obviously he dominated figgy and that fight has aged well because figgy has been yeah incredible i mean since that fight and brandon really fought lights out then we had the pantosia fight which was uh all timer you know maybe one of the best title fights ever definitely the best flyweight title fight

ever i mean incredible uh and obviously we're upset we lost a split we wanted to retain and then he had the roy val fight and you know that was a bad fight just wasn't really on all the other stuff that we talked about. Long camp, switch opponents. And he lost by split decision. People are taught, oh, he's washed, man. He's done. That's it. And it's like, man, you really aren't respecting the level of athletes he's fighting.

The performances that he put in, when you really think about it, I mean mean those two fights were incredible figueredo and pantoja then you had the roy val fight but now you had this fight right which i would say is one of his master classes as far as not taking damage and really inflicting damage and showing his levels so we've had a real range of emotions that we went through and i really feel like we me and the team spoke about it and me and him, this is really what bonded us, right? Is that we had that early success and you can't get any more success than winning the title. And which was hard,

that camp was hard and the circumstances were different as you know. And then we had a really close fight with Pantoja that really broke our heart, but we were so proud of the fight, you know, and then we had Roy Val. So we had all these emotions and that's what coaching is, Ariel. It's like, you got to be there through everything. How are you going to act? Our team got so close after those losses that I think we're even closer now than we were after winning the title, right? Because we had just won that when we first kind of got together. So I think that we're poised to really push far now because of all the different experiences that we've had together. And, you know, everything happens for a reason.

So I'm really happy with where he is as an athlete. I'm really happy with the team. Like I named all those coaches that work with him and everybody is so invested in his success. A lot of credit to Jason house who, you know, this guy loves his guys, man, you know, he does. And, uh, you know, I, I see that relationship and how much he cares about Brandon and Brandon pulls that out of people. He pulls that love out of people. And so it's just a fun, it's been an incredible ride.

And I do want to see him try to get back to the title. And I think him being a three-time champion would be incredible for his legacy. It's already incredible. And we'll see what happens. I mentioned earlier that you're doing great work as an analyst as well. You were nominated World MMA Awards, UFC Breakdown.

I've told you this privately. I think you're amazing at it. Thank you. Can you put that hat on for us and let us know what you think happens between Asakura and Pantoja? You know, let me go ahead here and just give Pantoja all its flowers, man. That guy is incredible. He's a force. You understand?

He's not the fastest guy. He's not the biggest guy. It's not about his power or anything i mean but his will is very strong and to be a champion you have to have a very strong will and he's proven that so we need to really just kind of give him his flowers like he's going to be going after asakura. But when you see Asakura, the speed and that right-hand counter that he can throw, and Pantoja will take shots to get in. Everybody knows that. He just kind of comes right at you. And you saw Brandon really damage him in the second round.

He really hurt Pantoja, and Pantoja did not quit. You saw Roy Val in the fifth round going after Pantoja. Pantoja has a great chin and has a lot of experience so and the other question mark to me is Kai making 125 he hasn't made 125 in some time so will that deplete him will the grappling attack of Pantoja the aggressive grappling attack we know right when the bell rings what put on the gas i mean that's it pantoja does not step back uh unless you really hurt him he'll step back for a little bit and then he just recalibrates and then he comes back at you again in waves so pan what

does kai look like in the octagon never fought in the octagon it's different man and you know it's not about the ufc being the best this that and the other what it's really about is just you know it is the big stage i think we can agree on that right and i just feel like i don't know i would lean towards pantoja because of the experience because of the grit the tenacity and the championship experience, I would lean towards Pantoja. But I think if Kai wins, it opens up the division. I think that's why. You haven't heard anybody get someone brought in a division, and everyone complains, like, this guy's getting a title shot. Like, what the hell? Not the flyweights. They're so crazy. They love that.

You know, they were like, Brandon Revell's like, yeah yeah i think it's great you know like yeah man and you can see it in his face he's like yeah you know what let's see and then you know brandon moreno too you know because they've all fought each other a bunch right and they're all so so good and it's so close uh we'll see what happens man and uh you know it's just another player and we'll see if he becomes a major player. He might very well become a major player. He's got incredible accolades and he's got a really awesome style. So I'm going to lean towards Pantoja. Um, you know, and if he wins, you know, we'll see what happens with the division. Um, uh, but if Asakura wins, I think that that opens up obviously some really exciting

matchups and we'll see. I want to ask you about Jeff Neal. He did look amazing in that fight, but then it ends with the injury. And so what was the mood afterwards? Because everyone loves RDA. He's a legend. He's a former champion and it's sad. But as I said on the show afterwards, it's not fair to tell the story of that fight by just focusing on the injury jeff looked fantastic he was very apparent and so how do you balance that yeah i mean you again you're just spot on on that like you know he got done and if you look at his face first of all i have a ton of respect for jeff for not hitting rda when rda went down and grabbed his

knee jeff just stood over him and you know um he, um, he, he, he didn't react. He didn't, he didn't go down there and hit him. And Jeff wanted to bang, you know, I mean, even when RDA, he knocked him down the first time he saw Jeff jumping his guard and he started hitting him. And I told him, I said, let him up, you know, let him up because I wanted him to try to finish it on the feet. And I could just tell he was so dialed in Ariel. He was so when he's dialed in Ariel to me, he's one of the best fighters I've ever seen and definitely at 170 pounds. And credit, honestly, to the fans and to everybody else, everybody, the journalists, but really the fans. They love seeing Jeff win. I couldn't

believe how many tweets I saw. Everyone loves Jeff. Everyone wants to see that form of him that fought Bilal and fought Mike Perry. Everyone loves that. that form of him, you know, um, that fought, you know, Bilal and fought Mike Perry. Everyone loves that. And I, that to me as his coach, I saw that form. I saw it in practice. I saw it leading up to the fight and he started so quick, nothing but respect to RDA, but man, RDA was not, it was not going to be good for RDA, you know? So it did end badly and it sucked for Jeff I could tell he was a little upset but you know who wants to see RDA get knocked out viciously you know and I think that's where that was going so again everything happens for a reason and Jeff's really excited right now you know

Shafkat he went life to life or death with Shafkat and honestly he was probably 50 percent in that fight and you know he's never missed weight he He missed weight. He was just, it just, he had a lot of stuff going on, you know, and that's on him, but, and he, that was a close fight, you know, I mean, he had him on ice skates in the third round and Jeff, he couldn't fight. He had to stand still. He was tired after the first round and he still fought amazing. And then Bilal, nothing but respect to Bilal. I hope he gets better. I don't think people understand how serious that is. When you get that kind of infection, osteomyelitis, it's in your bones and it can spread. And that's like serious stuff. And I think it's pretty pathetic that people like clown on Bilal.

It's like the guy had the hardest, longest road to the title. You know, like, you know like you know now he can't fight and he was fighting maybe one of the toughest guys too right he wasn't trying to fight somebody else so respect to him but jeff's the last one to beat him right so it's like balal's on top and shavkat's the number one guy well he's got to win over one guy and then the other guy he went life or death with so him coming back into the picture is exciting for people i talked to sean about it as well um and i think that if he can put together you know a couple of wins people are going to want to see that um again and nothing but respect to ian gary and these guys

but man people want to see knockouts they just do you know people want to see an explosive guy who's going for broke and that that's nothing against guys that are playing the game or being smart i mean you know they're feeding their families they're trying to win paychecks but fans don't like it and the ufc is tracking that you know why do you think they will have shack that so much because he's all violence all the time. I mean, he might be quiet, but when he gets in the octagon, similar to Brandon, he is vicious. So I think Jeff's future is bright, and I think he feels that energy and momentum. And so we're just going to try to build off that.

I would love him to fight maybe Gilbert Burns at number eight, Jeff's number 10. And that fight makes sense because those guys are kind of in a position. It's like, who's going to stay in the top 10 and who's not because nothing but respect to Gilbert either, because that's, it's so hard to be there. And he's been there for so long, you know? Uh, it's just hard, man. The UFC is incredibly competitive right now. And MMA is we're so, we're so saturated with high level MMA that we're like, oh man, this isn't really good. Like this fight's boring. It's because we've seen the five prelims before that were so good.

And me and you remember, you remember, I've been doing this next year is going to be 20 years. And that was my 95th win on Saturday night in the, in the UFC. Wow. And I remember like a card, it'd be like all right there's 10 fights 12 fights seven of them aren't really that good right the skill wasn't even there right it's like this guy gassed out this guy doesn't have a ground game this guy's got no stand-up right so it was kind of you know i mean and then there'd be one incredible horace griffin type fight right and we talk about it

forever right oh like man that martin campman fight or whatever like random fights where guys Horace Griffin type fight. Right. And we talk about it forever. Right. Oh, like, man, that Martin Campman fight or whatever, like random fights where guys would brawl. Now watch a contender series, watch UFC, like every fight, there's so much violence all the time that when there's not violence, we're like, man, this is so boring. And now grappling is just, it's just on its way out, man. I mean, if you can't stand and bang, and we saw that Saturday. Amir had one shot, and Brandon was up in, I don't know, three seconds, five seconds. And I think they're going to really start moving to penalize grappling even more and more. And really, it is exciting for the fans.

It's scary for the fighters. But I just feel like the evolution is moving that way, and that's Jeff's style too. I mean, if you want to talk about a guy that wants to knock you out and is all explosive and all violence with his kicks and his punches, it's Jeff. So timing is everything, and we look at the great Jan Behovitz, who started two and four and became a UFC champion. We look at Glover Teixeira, who we all love, who had his best run at the very end, incredible Glover Teixeira, who we all love, who had his best run at the very end.

Incredible Glover Teixeira. So for Jeff, I mean, I have really high hopes for him. I think his level is incredible. And I just love the kid. And as their coach, you just want to see your guys shine, man. And I couldn't be happier with the last four or five weeks. Just an incredible. Every single guy

shines so bright ryan jeff kennedy brandon just shines so bright they didn't just win but they were shining so um we're just going to keep going uh charles olivera another one of those guys who started slow and then became a champion yeah um by the way one more quick thing before i let you go uh you were on with bisping and felder a couple months ago talking about some of the the fake coaches out there more uh concerned about being instagram celebrities and whatnot any blowback from the community from the fraternity yeah you got to remember dude i fought mma you understand i fought right like uh sean shelby these guys they met me when I was on the Matt and Jackson's taking punches from Rashad Evans. So like you earn your stripes, man,

you earn your stripes. And I got nothing to say, you know, I mean, uh, if I have something to say to somebody, I'll say it to their face. But for me, I don't really, I don't care what anybody else is doing. All I know is this sport being in it for so long. I just, I just don't like seeing people sneak their way in and sneak their way up it. And it bothers me. And you feel that way too. You know,

people can talk as much shit as they want about you. How long we known each other? Yeah. 15 years. How long I've been seeing strike force. Where were we at Fresno? Weren't you there? Weren't you at that Strikeforce? I was at a lot of them.

We're talking about 2005, 2006. People can say whatever they want, but it's like, man, earn your stripes. No, I mean, and I leave that to again, it doesn't matter to me. People want content. They can do that, but you got to look at

numbers, numbers and wins. And, uh, that's it. You can go back to numbers and wins. And I think that we've gotten so much into the entertainment part of it and that's fine for the athletes. Uh, you know, but for coaches, it's, there's something so disingenuous about it. Like you're a coach. So if you're being shady and taking credit for things or acting a certain way or being in a certain place, just so you can get that hype, right. It's disingenuous. And if you're in your forties and that's what you do as a, as a human being, there's something about that, that I personally think is distasteful.

And I don't think that's how you lead. And I think that the athletes probably said, Hey man, this guy's like, it's all about him, right? Like, man, this guy cannot stop talking. And, uh, there's something about that. That's very off putting personally for me when I look at coaching and, um, Greg Jackson was my coach and I don't think he gets enough credit, but he's just a quiet guy, you know, and a lot of these great John Crouch is incredible coach, a quiet guy. These guys have been around for a long time. They're really quiet and the newer generation, they're a little different. I think they feel like they need to make themselves seen and, and, and heard. And I get it. You know, I understand maybe I'm old timer. I think they feel like they need to make themselves seen and, and, and heard. And I

get it. You know, I understand maybe I'm old timer. What do they call that? A boomer, but I'm only 44. So maybe, maybe I'm just getting old, but I just feel like coaches, coaches need to be kind of in the back, you know, leading and, uh, you know, uh, strong leadership, quiet leadership. You know, I'm not a quiet guy. Like I'll get loud if I have to, but it's just not about me. You know, when I go in the octagon, people are, they're not like, Ooh, wow. They're just waiting for Brandon to get back off the stool or Jeff Neal to get off the stool or amazing athletes like Ryan Spann. And so I feel like for us, it's our job to facilitate their moment. It's our job to, to kind of be in the background and just be that you know

be that support system and they're like my kids man i've had all my guys from the beginning you know except for like you said brandon um and uriah i got in the middle and i and i got him going again got a resurgence with uriah but besides that i've had you know 23 athletes in the ufc and and uh you know we have i think it might be 19 wins now in the contender um my apologies my apologies it's all right it's kind of just we just built it up you know that you interviewed me when i first opened the gym god bless you you remember so so you were there when we had the opening when rose was hitting the pads yes that was ufc dallas it's a beauty i know i think it was ufc 211 if my memory serves me correct steep a steep a i think jds jds yeah

so it's it's like you everybody in the community kind of watched me do it and build it from zero from guys from amateur take them all the way up it's just a different it's just a different dynamic that we have. And, you know, I mean, I just stay in my lane and worry about me and my athletes and I will never, ever talk about another coach publicly. Cause again, it goes back to what is that? Like, that's not what coaches do. Right. And what I think, and even my opinion about other coaches really isn't important. What's important is that my athletes are, are performing, they're shining. And, you know, we had some rough times and now we're having some great times.

And that's this game, this game will humble you and smack you around and, and, uh, and you got to learn from it. And, um, and we're still here. So we just feel blessed and fortunate, uh, to have these opportunities and still, they'll be at this level in the game. And like I said, next year will be 20 years and you never know, man, like you just never know what's going to happen in life. We had some, you know, we had someone that was near and dear to the UFC staff that passed away just this weekend, you know, from a heart attack and you just never know. And I think that it's just important that your legacy,

especially with your own athletes is really kind of clean heart to heart that, you know, when they look back at you as a coach, they're like, man, that dude, he, he was all about me, right? It was never about him. And there was a, there's a real respect there. And to me, that's really important. The respect factor is important. And I've said this before and I'll say it again. I don't have one written contract, not one. I never have my whole career. I manage every one of my guys except for a couple of them.

And if I can't trust you and look at you face to face, man to man, shake your hand, or my girls either. I don't have one contract. Then I don't want to work with you. Right. You know, I want it to be organic and I want it to be fun and I want it to be real. And I want there to be real love and real, real passion. And you hit on those talking about like the struggles and the ups and the downs and, and, uh, yeah. Yeah. Well, well done. You guys are crushing it. Your football team is crushing it. Do you like that? I had to. Let's talk.

Let's touch on that real quick. No, I can't. I can't. We have Valentino waiting. I can't. I can't. We'll do that another time. We'll do that another time. I don't want to keep the champ waiting, but well done.

You're right. Eighth in the country, 9-0. Congratulations on all the success. And we'll talk smack about IU football at a later date. Very happy for you well done safe thank you brother all right there he is the head man over at uh four to seven may safe so he wanted to go on a rant about iu football but we couldn't do that right now because we've got the champ waiting the brand new champ uh the brand new reigning and defending ufc women's

flyweight champion she is back on top she is the the one and only Valentina Shevchenko, and she is kind enough to join us right now. Hello, Valentina. Thank you so much for joining us. It's great to see you again. And really, really happy for you. Congratulations on the win back in September. Thank you so much.

Thank you. By the way, thank you for doing this. It was hard to nail you down because you're traveling the world, a part of the world that I've never been to, but it looks amazing what you're doing. Is this like a victory tour for you? Oh, yeah, it's not a victory tour.

It's more like a recovering tour. And we are now in Pacific Ocean, like exploring all islands, like the Polynesian islands. And just South Pacific is beautiful. We've been in Fiji, we've been in Cook Islands, American Samoa, Tonga. And yeah, for me, it's very first time I'm visiting these places. And it's very interesting and very like charming to see the culture, to see the food, the cuisine.

And I like all the like people who are on the island. They are very good bringing. They have very good heart, and I'm just enjoying very much. Yes, beautiful people there, beautiful souls. Favorite island so far? Hard to say because we didn't finish our travel yet. So I'm still waiting for more emotions and to see more about all islands we're going to visit. So I would have a better idea by the end of the cruise.

And it's kind of like longer. It's going to last about two months. So, yeah, it's a lot of emotions going through my mind right now. And speaking of emotions, I'm sure there were a lot of emotions when you got the belt back in September. And so could I ask, now that that period is over,

you not being champion and now you got the belt back and all is right in your world, what was that like for you? You were so synonymous, you were so connected to that belt, to that division, and you lose the title, and then you get robbed of that weird judging situation last September, and then it's out for a year, that whole year and a half without a title. How would you describe it? Oh, you know, it was a lot of work, I would say. It was kind of like the longest training camp, the longest preparation.

We had a lot of working physically, mentally, all the training plans. And yeah, it's kind of like I knew that I had to do the things and I had to do my job the best way. And yeah, going into the third fight, like second event, second Mexican Independence Day, I knew it's going to be like even harder than the first time. So yeah, we just like was training a lot, thinking a lot. And yeah, the most important that the belt is back where it belongs. And here it's like in my house with me. This is a place where it has to be forever.

Did it feel like a little empty without it? did it feel like a piece of your identity was missing no um it's it's not like that it's not a piece of my identity i um it's how you identify yourself like internally i am champion i know that um what i am capable of and because of like someone who was under so much pressure and the um we have resulted draw on the second fight and it doesn't define yourself it's like it doesn't say who you are and i knew i want that second fight I knew that I had to do things like right in the third fight even with much more pressure that I had before and I just did it and I followed the game plan what my coach had in my head like before the fight he he said like yeah definitely it's kind of like you um uh have to finish the fight but if it's

uh not about finishing you have to make it like that she didn't hit you no one time and make the gap between you and her like that no one can do anything about that that they didn't have any question about who is the winner and this is was as a plan what game plan for the fight and i followed this game game plan of my coach and we did it so no one had any doubts uh like 45 50 in the entire fight no one hit from her side and this is the most important that i what i am saying the uh belt is belong where it's belong yeah it was extremely dominant and one-sided and so this may be a silly question but i'll ask anyway first fight obviously goes to her second fight was super close most people including myself thought you won why was

this one so one-sided why was this so dominant what was the difference in this fight and the other two you know they are the most important they are like the um first of all um taking the fight the third fight i knew that it's gonna be um much more pressure it's gonna be a second time fighting mexican independence day it's a bigger event, bigger pressure, not only on me, it's bigger pressure on the judges. And for example, I saw that in the second fight, I did everything to win. But because of it was a draw because of the like pressure what judges had. And I, you know funny is that I saw that even you are successful in like 100 combination You did so many strikes It doesn't matter now with the modern like Modern era of Internet someone make a clip move

one successful combination of your opponent and start to like put it like all over and over or over the all internet and people just um they don't watch the full fight and they don't see the full picture they don't see like who was better who who hit harder who hit uh faster who had more successful combinations they just rely rely on result number one and the clips what um they saw from the internet and for for example if they put one strike uh of one person all over, this is how propaganda works. This is what, like, and seeing this thing, my coach said, yeah, if it's happened,

and it happened, like, for the last year, you have to make it that no one will try to do that again. So it's going to be one- one-sided like no matter what so um if it would be fight like fair fight when you have uh like even condition even everything even you and your opponent it's one thing but uh i saw it's not like that and leading to the fight i knew it's gonna be hard for me to fight not only against your opponent, but also to fight against everything. And yeah, no matter what, I'm a fighter. I'm a champion. How harder I seem, like my challenge in front of me, it's just put me in the killing mode and go there to do everything what I have to do.

Yeah, I believe you said this in the Post-Fi press conference that every time you felt like every time on ESPN, they were showing her looking very good and not you. Did you feel like there was a sentiment that, you know, the network or the UFC was trying to... It was not only ESPN. It was all tendency what I saw from many, many media people. Did you feel like people were trying to push her as the more dominant one and wanting her to win? Were you feeling that? You know, Ariel, I really don't want to focus right now on that and say like, oh, my God, it's happened. We already passed it.

It was a year ago. And now I see like what people can be and how not that many professional who really see the picture of the fight, who just see this like highlights and they give their opinions on the basing on these highlights. But we already passed it. I already showed that no, you're wrong. All of you are wrong. And someone started to say even about

the age, silly stuff and whatever. But I feel it's very silly. If you have power inside you no matter like what whatever like people saying you just go there and use your chance and show that you have so much power and you are the champion no matter how uh uh one can want to play their games you if you have this power inside you you you overcome as a winner, as a champion. And this is what I did.

So I don't want to focus on what was like a year ago. I don't want to focus on like how unfair or something like that. No, I don't care. I don't care because I'm here. I'm champion. I go forward. And no matter how hard the challenge is going to be in front of me, I will go forward and I will be the winner. So now we are focusing on defending the title

and keep going. I do what I love to do. I love to fight, I love to train, I love martial arts and this is for me what is really important. When do you think you'll return? Um, now, right now, uh, the main focus is to, um, heal everything because, um, like for the last year I had injury, um, on my neck and it's nothing, nothing like serious that require like surgery or something like that. And even during the training camp all this year what I was training, so I had to deal with the pain and I had needles in my neck every day. I was like doing physical therapy, like cups and like everything, whatever I can imagine.

But I knew that if I stop and i just like say oh no i i have to like take time off uh it's not gonna lead me nowhere so i took decision go forward no matter what so now right now it's um like people who are doing my physical therapy and like needles they're saying like it's gonna pass but it's uh you have to wait. It's going to like, it's time. It's just like time heals. So yeah, it's the most important to focus on the good health recovery and then I'm ready to defend the belt. So yeah, definitely. I'm not looking to before the end of the year, but 2025 next year for sure. We were trying to figure out what could be next for you. And I think everyone agrees that 125 Manon Fiorot is the top contender, but then there's always the

idea of you versus Zhang Weili champion versus champion fight, because there's no real like clear cut person for her also at 115. What do you think is more likely to be next? The Fiorot fight or a champion versus champion fight with Zhang? Oh, know i am here i am ready to fight anywhere anyone and you know myself like once you see offers the fight and i agree to that i never decline any names so yeah whatever they have in mind or whatever they think it's gonna be like super fight or whatever yeah I'm up to it I am I don't care I fight anyone anywhere can I ask which one interests you more or excites you more for me fight by itself it's already excitement fight by itself it's already something that it's turned my um like brain into the different uh mode and even uh you know uh was

funny for example i had before my third fight um how many like three months three months before the fight and usually like three months it's a lot and you kind of like don't think too much about the fight you are not focusing like dedicating every time watching the fight or something like that but every time I started to think about the fight I start to sweat it's like all my like palms were sweat my feet were sweat so this is how it's like this feeling it was not just three months it was like almost a year I had the same it's kind of like you you never go to sleep with the quiet um like conditions where enjoying the day or something like that i go to sleep and all my

emotion is like inside me it's going like uh it's just it it was good feeling because i i felt that um something like turning inside me that it's kind kind of like putting me on the different beast mode for the fight. And I was feeling, oh, yeah, this is what I like. And I felt that it's going to be a great fight. Do you ever get tired of that feeling because it's so intense? It is intense, yes. And you have to know how to. Because it's not going to let you go. It's not going to let you go in in like quiet mode and you have to know how to control it if you don't know how to control it oh my god it's gonna it's gonna

eat you from the inside and for the time of the fight you're gonna oh my god i don't want to fight let me out from here you have to know how to control. Well, could I ask then, here you are walking out this whole, you know, Mexican Independence Day weekend. There's so much hoopla. You're trying to get your belt back. You've been doing this a long time, but, you know, those feelings, were you feeling more nervous than usual? You're usually so unflappable and stoic, but I'm just wondering if you were more nervous or anxious for this one because there was so much at stake um i would i would say and i would like to say that a little bit not um right before the fight right going into the

octagon it's like the whole fight week it felt different the whole fight fee week it was i would say it was not hard it was easier for me even doing on all obligations with media i just had this like uplifted energy and knowing that it's gonna to be like all about Mexican Day, all about like, I knew that people who support me, they are with me. And my training camp, the last part I did in El Paso. And it's the border with Mexico, with Ciudad Juarez. For example, all my friends from El Paso, from Ciudad Juarez, they were saying, Valentina, we are with you. Here, all fans, it's like the bullet. So I knew that no matter what, for example, in Chihuahua, we have friends.

They have like academy and also always they are supporting me. In Mexico, they have invited Bravo. They are like from Mexico, but they keep supporting me. And this is what's important. And, you know, I kind of like felt this love inside me that doesn't matter your like haters who hate you. They can turn in like things upside down. But the people who really love you and support you, they're going to stay with you. And this like internal love and energy, I just felt through the whole fight week.

And when I went into the fight, when I was walking into there, first of all, I didn't say anything like what's happening around and people saying like, how does it feel to fight in this fear? And I said like everything what I was like seeing in front of me is the face of Alexa. Because I'm so focused. It's a tunnel vision. And I knew that I have, like, a goal. And I just have to do everything to make it happen.

I knew the game plan what Pavel gave me, like, to have this gap. And don't let her do anything that it's gonna like turn the fight upside down that's why 45 50 the result like the like she couldn't do anything and i just like put the uh like the statement that i'm still the best no matter what happened like before and if you didn't see the full picture, it's not my fault. If you rely only on result and only highlights, it's not my fault. I'm still the best and I'm here to stay. It's amazing.

You shared something on Instagram. You started in 2003 and 21 years later, you're still the best, like you said. It's an incredible journey and very few people are able to sustain that for that long. And so if we would have talked back in 2003, would you have believed that you'd have this type of success for this long or are you even surprising yourself? 2003, it was the first year when I became an MMA champion in South Korea. Definitely, I started way before. It was a year of preparation and training to finally start a professional career and everything.

But yeah, if I look back, oh no, oh no. I never was kind of like, oh, I have a plan for my future in five years. I see me here in two years. I've seen me here. No, I think this is the best that you're, um, living the process. You're enjoying the process and you are just love what you're doing. I never thinking like what's gonna waiting for me in about like, I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. I don't know what's gonna happen in two months. And you are people asking me what's gonna happen in like how you see yourself in five years. No, it's every like journey,

every event what I had in my life, I just live every single second of this moment. And this is the best that you are not expecting something. You are just trying to give the best of you and live the best of you inside of the octagon. I think this is a true love for martial arts. The performance was great. But even in the post-fight press conference, I remember you gave answers in English, and then you gave answers in Spanish, and then I think you gave an answer in Russian, and then there was like four different languages, maybe Thai as well. You're fluent in all of these. How many languages do you speak? It is four.

Four. It is four languages. You were just ruffling them, and you're perfect in all of them. I would say English, Spanish, Russian, definitely it's fluent. But my Thai, it's kind of like I communicate with the people, I speak with the people. But if I want to go a little bit like express myself or something like better terms, it's still, I have to work on it. So I need

to practice more. And so not only that, even you and Marab dancing in the back was incredible. And I even saw you at a steakhouse, I think, afterwards. You were dancing in the kitchen. You were dancing all over Las Vegas that night The dance with Murab that we're seeing now

Are you guys dancing the same type of dance Or is this like you're from Kyrgyzstan And he's from Georgia And you're kind of combining it together The name of the dance It's called Lesginka It's the same dance It's the same type of music for Georgia, where is Mirab from, for south of Russia, and it's the same dance. Like 15 countries all together like all people all different nations. They was moving like from the

like Russia Ukraine, Belorussia all over the places to the Central Asia, this is how my grandparents appeared in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia my grandmother she was like Because it was kind of like a law when not a law but this is what like normal practice when people finish university they stand to like Asian Central Asian Republic to like study there to do things there to work there like like whatever and my grandmother she was sent to um kyrgyzstan and she met my grandfather they fell in love and yeah she decided to stay there like and live there this is uh where my mother born uh this is where i was born in kyrgyzstan and because

so many people so different like nations was coming into Kyrgyzstan as well, we had the huge community of Georgians, from Chechnya, from all around. And this Lizginka became one of the most important dances as well. It's because we have in Kyrgyzstan our traditional dances. It's a little bit different. But Lizginka is considered also like our dance because everywhere we were dancing it. Like all the parties, all the marriage parties, anywhere it's like fun, it's celebration there is lesginka that's why i was dancing the same type of dance was for example very um like traditional for the uh for

mirab from georgia uh because in kyrgyzstan we it's kind of like um it i would say it it's like um united states where all uh nationalities live together and and like they're happy so this is what we have in Kyrgyzstan it's very like all nationalities live like in one country and feel great about that I feel like you enjoyed and appreciated being champion but now that you're champion once again do you have a different kind of appreciation for it? You know, it's very hard to say that it's different. I definitely know how hard to maintain it. And, for example, I definitely know that, for example, the first fight, there was a mistake.

It wasn't a technical mistake. It was like human factor. I, for example, underestimate the situation in the fight, not opponent, situation in the fight. And this is what lead to this like super long delay that I had to fight back my belt. And yeah, definitely all these things, it showed you that, oh my God, you better don't do it. You better fight now. You do everything and you be focused. It's going to be very hard afterwards to make the things right. And definitely all of that um it's kind of like

staying me already it's i i i know that feeling and um you know uh all this history what we had in this trilogy fight it's made me uh so much so better fighter so uh like my mind i feel it's just like different level i say about my mind my physical condition i feel myself so strong right now that i never felt myself that good uh even when i have all seven uh title defense before i just feel like it gave me so much power. And yeah, I'm just like ready to continue. I love that. And just curious, I know you didn't want to talk much about Zhang and Mano, and I totally understand that.

You're the top and that's the way it should be. The UFC has made a bit of a habit recently of, you know, with Izzy, they signed Alex Pereira. And then they signed the guy that Alex fought in kickboxing. And now recently they signed someone who you fought in the world of kickboxing, Wang Kong, back in 2015. Are you paying attention to her? And is this maybe something that you would like to explore in the future? You know, I heard someone mention, and it was before the fight someone asked me about her and i was like they said oh you know it's it you fought and she wants it and i was like people you

are don't know what you're talking about and someone started to even make a comment but you But, you know, like back then when I fought in China, if compares the judging system, what it was in our second fight with Alexa and see what fight and judges were back then in China, judges in the second fight, they are angels comparing to judging system in China back there. It's like I fought in the organization. It was like kind of like the worst. And if you are speaking with the fighters, like Muay Thai fighters, kickboxing fighters who fought in China that time, they said like, oh, my God, it's kind of like if you don't do knock, and not only knockout that your opponent is going to be, like, down on the floor for 30 minutes, they will make your opponent stand up, like, shaking the towel and say, okay, continue, go fight. And then they will make their fighter win the fight.

So this is the judging system back there. And there are people saying about that she lost to her. And I posted a video of the fight. And I had like thousands of comments on there. And it was on YouTube. And the people started to say, oh, my God, we cannot believe what happened. And judges are crazy. But then the organization, they sent a request to YouTube to delete their video.

Because of, like, copyrights or, like, whatever. And they deleted it. They did it. So, yeah, it's kind of, like, crazy to see now. But I'm not worried about that. I know how fight it was. And, like, she has like so much like to go. I'm,

I'm, I'm, I'm happy for her that finally she's like fighting in UFC. It's a biggest league of mixed martial arts. It's like, I feel it's good for like entire country for all like martial artists system. And like people will cheer her in like whatever her country. And that is great. But the judging system is a judging system. And sometimes it's like, whew, unbelievable what can happen.

So realistically, with your travels and the fight just happening in the neck, probably like back end of the year, we see you again, right? Like second half of the year? oh i don't have any like predictions right now and i completely rely on my health and definitely uh once i return back from the trip from the from pacific ocean yeah i will go back to the gym and feel uh how my body is feeling and go back to the physical therapist and what they're gonna say me okay and by the way congratulations to your sister as well i see her doing great things uh with the planes and being a pilot and everything like that it's uh it's remarkable to see what she's doing is she with you on this trip too no because of she now on a different schedule it's very hard for her to have this huge gap for the travel she now cannot travel anymore she has to

like in advance like make all the changes to speak with other pilots to make at least one week like for her uh be like for a vacation because her schedule is very uh very different it's like uh she's working like seven days she's resting resting like two days and now it's a different schedule. It's not like it was before. Is she a commercial pilot? Yes, she is. She was working in Tradewind, an air company and she's like a captain. She was their captain and recently, a few months ago she transferred to another company,

NetJet, and now she's working in NetJet. Wow. Amazing. Well, you guys are incredible. Well done to you. Congratulations. I know you're on vacation right now. I really appreciate you coming on and joining us from wherever in the world you are at the moment. Enjoy your time off. Enjoy everything that comes with being champion again well done to you and congratulations once again thank you so much ariel i'm on vacation but i'm still training every day i'm on like on the upper deck it's like open deck when i when i see all the ocean and i'm still training and you know what is the best about mixed martial arts that no matter where you are you have your training partner you don't have your training partner, you don't have your training partner, you can work everything you can like make exercise like grappling exercise,

like striking exercise, and your body will work perfectly. This is the best part. You don't need any gear, you don't need any equipment, you just go there and work. And this is the best what I love the most in my about martial arts i love that imagine you're on vacation and you're just like walking around a cruise ship and then all of a sudden there's valentina shevchenko just like you know shadow boxing on the on the on the top of the the boat i can't imagine that happens right this is how how it's happened it's pretty like what they say people say oh yeah it's interesting what's happening here amazing well enjoy it and thank you so much for joining us thank you ariel have

a good day all right same to you there she is the great valentina shevchenko the new uh once again flyway champion imagine you're on vacation there you're you're on your cruise and you're just walking around you're having your your morning coffee or croissant, there's Valentina Shevchenko doing probably the most insane workout because she's a freaking beast. And you're like, oh, okay, I'm going to go over here and go on the elliptical. You're like, I'm going to have another lot. Yeah, exactly.

All right. Good luck. Well done. Amazing stuff. There she is, the champ, Valentina Shevchenko. Okay. A few other things to get to before we say goodbye. Speaking of champions, I do want to give a shout out to Jermaine Durandamy. She announced

late last week that she is calling it a career. She posted this on social media. And, you know, Jermaine Durandamy is one of the all-time best as far as women's MMA is concerned. There was, I don't know, something a little bit sad I thought about her message. Hey guys, with so many mixed feelings, I'm sharing this message with you guys. I definitely didn't plan or envision or dreamed it this way, but hey, it is what it is sometimes. I begged the UFC for one more fight, but it had to be this year. I promised myself I would retire from fighting December 31st, 2024. Unfortunately, the UFC told me all the cards are fully booked. That's why I decided that the time is now. I really wished I could have walked the walk one more time, but I guess it was not meant to be

to many people, too many people to thank personally. So thank you all for being a part of my journey. Thank you for all the amazing memories. I'm forever grateful for all of them. Like I always say, die with memories, not dreams. The Iron Lady has left the building. I don't, I mean, I get it. Look, far be it from me. Can't stick her on a UFC Apex 100 card. I mean, can't throw her on there, you know?

One last walk. I get it. I get it. Who knows what the circumstances are? Maybe they offer January. But nevertheless, congratulations to Jermaine Durandamy, one-time UFC champion and has been in the game for quite some time, a legend of the game Nurmagomedov MMA school that Islam Khachev versus Armin Tsurukin at UFC 311 on January 18th in Los Angeles is going down. Remember, I've said this to you guys.

I even was the first one to say the Intuit Dome. And now people are running with this and saying, I mean, like, where's the respect, Frank? I mean, what's going on? Shut up, booze! Suck it, man! I said it. Like Valentina, you know, we don't listen to that stuff, all right know we don't listen to that stuff all right we don't

listen to that stuff uh speaking of former champions and speak look at look how it's all flowing here guys uh speaking of the 155 pound division what about Max Holloway announcing on his YouTube channel that he is done with 145 and he is now a full-time lightweight fighter in case you missed it here's what he had to say it takes a total cutting weight period and whatever weight you are like i said i had to give up ramen for my 45 cam so i'm done with that i don't ever want to give up ramen again i'm probably not ever going back to 45 i loved what i I did. I did what I did. You know, I did what I had to do there. I worked my way back. I clawed my way back up to the championship fight

multiple times there. I was the champion. I defended it that way. Now it's time to move on to the next chapter. And 155, there's a bunch of fun fights that I cannot wait to take. I love how the catalyst for this move is his desire to continue

eating ramen. I mean, you have a problem with that? No, it's fantastic. Actually, there was once a time that the great P.T. Carroll came to my house and what did I feed him on that lovely evening? It was ramen.

Beautiful as well. It was in fact ramen homemade ramen or like from a cup no it was homemade he was no he was there all day yeah he made his own broth yeah it doesn't take like two days to make the broth yeah no i was slaving i was slaving um beautiful yeah no of course by the way how about the fact that of everyone on the team here i think pz's the only one who's been to my house. Yeah, we've noticed this. We've taken note. I told them all. I can remember.

I was like, oh, how many times? Oh, no one. Okay, yeah, just me. Just me. Probably the first and last. Yeah, yeah. No, Claire's still talking about it. Yeah, Claire's still talking.

Did you invite Pizzi to the holiday party? We weren't supposed to talk about that. Oh, my bad. But Frank already texted me during the week. He's like, oh, I can't wait for the holiday party. And I was like, what is this holiday party? Do you guys celebrate Christmas over there? We actually invented Christmas.

Oh, wow. The more you know. Do we all agree? I mean, we need probably to see Dustin Poirier versus Max one more time. I know Dustin tweeted. I think he tweeted Last dance or something like that. I feel like that's the one, right? That's the one.

That's the one. I think you tweeted about it too. That's the one. Right, that is the one. I would love to see it. By the way, speaking of the guy who just fought Max Holloway, I saw a clip of Cristiano Ronaldo, once a superstar,

on the former proud soccer slash football club, Manchester United. By the way, PT, did you happen to catch the Premier League table after the weekend? Did you happen to check out who's number three?

Did you happen to see? Tell them. It's a great story, Donningham Forest. Let's hope you can keep hold of Chris Wood, who seems to be... Ah, yeah, now you're... I mean, once the laughingstock. Everyone said, are you going to stick with them when they get relegated?

Are you going to stick with them when they're bottom of the table? Not only did we stick with them, here we are laughing. I guess we'll never know. We'll never know. I guess we'll never know. That's right. Third place. Oh, my God. Buz my god buzzer magic on and

off the pitch tell us frank tell us i actually don't have that ready to go how do you not have that there's only so many you literally you literally teed me up i'd even asked for it i thought i was like it'll suffice with me just saying it myself i'm delighted for the supporters i'm delighted for the city ground i'm delighted come on you reds what was that pt i get a weekly chant from you now uh that's that's uh i'm watching the games and forrest will come in and i'll get an audio note from elwhan and it's just him singing one of the crowd songs. It's great. Take me on a trip, I want to go someday.

Leverkusen, Copenhagen and Marseille. I really want to spend Thursdays with you. Super Callum Hudson, I do. That's a great one. You have to admit. It's brilliant. It's class. It's class. I love it. They're geniuses.

The crowd songs are unbelievable. You have to say, Ariel, that is the one thing. You've got to give them over the US crowds. I'll give them many things

over the US crowds, but yes, that is one of the many things. They're amazing. I'll listen to the games. I'm like, what are they singing? And it's always like

these fun 80s, 90s hits and they all, here's my thing. How do they alls hits and they all how do here's my thing how do they all jump aboard and and start singing at the same time how do they know so well i can only give an example like i used to go over to a lot of manchester united games and there was a guy called pete boyle and he and he he was the songwriter essentially this guy's really really famous supporter and you'd meet up in the strap what was the name of it about the trafford inn i

believe it was and he would would debut new songs there. And they just sing them every 30 minutes or so. So it's all in your head. But by the time you're leaving to go to the ground, everyone's just singing them on the way. They've just drilled them into you so many times. He used to release tapes. And if one of the lads went over to the game,

he'd make sure he'd get the tape and he'd bring it back and we'd have all the songs then. Some of the songs go back to the the 50s 60s as well so um really really cool thing about the the soccer fans over there that's amazing we are buzzing over here loving it and my son no longer gets made fun of for wearing a forest jersey to school it's a beautiful thing um so anyway speaking of uh Ronaldo Ronaldo is in the locker room of one Francis Ngannou and uh he's talking about the Ilya Teporia versus Max Holloway fight you may have seen this clip and it's him talking to Eric Nixick and they're talking about Holloway and they're leaning Holloway and and and Ronaldo likes Holloway and I saw this and I was

like oh Ilya is not gonna like this he is not. I mean, of course, he's a Real Madrid guy. So the end of the day we all reflect our own reality onto others i wish you the best for what remains of your career and god bless your family i thought for what remains of your career to be a little sneaky shot what did you make of that pt i just think you've got to laugh this one off earlier you know what i mean what I mean? You know, he calmed down. He's not fighting you anytime soon, mate. And, you know, he's a bit of a legend there in Madrid.

I actually liked that he reacted like that as well. Like, gives you insight into his competitive mindset. But, I had the exact same feeling. I think you might have sent this to me and said, Ilya's going to be bullying. That's exactly,

that's exactly what it is. Like, I mean, it's, it's a, how do you explain that one to your mates like i'm out here in the barnabell mate like how are you even picking against me at this stage very very questionable selection from ronaldo he has a lot to be uh proud of and excited about i don't know if you guys saw this in barcelona a street artist made these this incredible mural it incredible mural it's straight out of Banksy the way it's presented and the way it was

how you connect with it this is it from Alberto Leon I mean look at this this is amazing and this is in Barcelona this isn't even in Madrid look at this stuff it makes me feel like are they trying to claw this event from the Bernabeu

and bring it to the Camp Nou or whatever it is in Barcelona? But two brilliant, brilliant cities. But it's such a good thing. And look, you don't see this kind of thing in Europe. This is a true measurement of how big this guy is getting. We saw it when he won the belt, when he was brought out on the pitch, the respect he gets from the likes of Sergio Ramos this is rarefied air I know it's a bit more commonplace maybe in the US to see guys in big spots but this isn't stuff we've

seen since you know McGregor basically he's the first guy to be doing this in Spain it's very very exciting stuff and he he looks every bit the real deal as well like i can't wait to see this guy fight again and um yeah it's it's a buzzing time in spanish mma yeah i mean you don't see it in america you you don't see it anywhere it's uh it's amazing seeing all those people take those photos incredible stuff uh someone who means a lot to his uh his country is naoya in a way pound for pound One of the best in the world Photo with Turkey Al Sheikh Which was released this morning Referring to him as A Riyadh season

Ambassador And that they Are going to be sponsoring him I love this from Turkey Turkey just comes in and be like Alright you're with top rank and those guys Yeah I'm just going to sponsor you. And then next thing you know,

you're fighting on one of our cards and then you're fighting in Japan. And so, uh, that is a meeting of the minds right there. So let's see how that, um, what about, um,

your boy going over to work with the app, your boy, Frank Warren. What? I'm literally going through the, I'm going, I'm going through the, the,

you see how I was going through all the things here. Did you not get the script? It was literally going through the script here going through the You see how I was going through all the things here It was literally going through the script here And of course Congratulations to Queensberry on their new deal With DAZN which was announced Yesterday I do believe we even have a photo here How about that PT isn't that amazing

There's our good friend Pete Oliver Sitting next to the Warrens George And Frank positioning DAZN as truly the home of boxing. Now with a deal with obviously Matchroom, Queensberry, Golden Boy, MVP, Misfits, and on and on it goes. The top-ranked deal is up next year Now important to note This goes into effect April of 2025 So they still have

November to April With TNT Sports In the UK This is a big freaking deal And really it's because of Turkey Let's be honest There was a time Eddie Hearn And Frank Warren

Those two entities would never be Under the same broadcast umbrella honest, uh, there was a time Eddie Hearn and, and, and, and Frank Warren, they would, like those two entities would never be under the same broadcast umbrella. They would, they would refuse it. And now look at everyone, uh, playing nice. And, and I think that's good for UK boxing. And I think that's good for, uh, you know, for the, for the business. And I think it's good that DAZN isn't the home of just one promoter, because hopefully that helps make the big fights. Speaking of Frank Warren, he too will be joining us tomorrow on the program to talk about this big piece of news. And for the first time, I'll have the opportunity to talk to Todd DeBuff of Top Rank. So some two heavy hitters from the world of boxing will be joining

us in addition to Andy Foster, and in addition to Yusuf Zalal, who had that big win over Jack Shore over on Saturday in Edmonton. Anything else you want to throw out, PT? No, I just thought it was funny. You know, Frank, he was giving Eddie a bit of shit, wasn't he, when he signed with the Zone back in the day? Oh, that's why you said the app, huh? Okay, now I get it. Yes. I was like, oh, yeah, his fights are going to be on the app, wasn't he, when he saw the zone back in the day? Oh, that's why you said the app, huh? Okay, now I get it.

He was like, oh yeah, his foils are going to be on the app, aren't they? Yeah. That's right. Let's clip this off and play it for Frank tomorrow. How about that? Yeah, as thick as thieves now, him and Eddie, huh? Oh yeah, oh yeah. They're singing Kumbaya all over

the gaff. By the way, speaking of clips, I wanted to end the notes on this great clip. PC's actually never seen it before. Little scene clip. Here's the aforementioned moment that we were talking about with Yoel Romero. Shorty man. Did he box him?

He beat him one time. Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Did we not keep go? Did we not keep go? No, we just did the... Say go in this video at some point. Literally, I get... You get?

No, not only did I watch it during the show, I actually gave the time code, and that was ignored. I said 32-second mark to 44-second mark, the whole thing. That was not 32 seconds to 44. Damn. Jordan, you're getting... What do you have to say, Jordan? Time codes?

Time codes and you ignored? That's what those are. Yeah. I thought you were just showing us your new numbers. There's the moment there where he says, go. That's almost as iconic as the Shorty Man Dirty Boxing. First time seeing it. Wow. What's happening here there where he says, go. That's almost as iconic as the shorty man dirty boxing. First time seeing it. Wow.

What's happening here? No, no, no. Time out. Time out. What's happening? Time out. What time codes were sent to me, Jordan? What was showed to me? Is he going to respond via lower third? Because he's getting called out. I literally put it in there.

32 seconds. Just to be clear, who'd you send that to? To the THS production chat. We don't have to read the names. 32 second mark. There's no way that was a 12 second clip. Let's play it again.

Andy, how long is that clip? Nine seconds. Where's the goal? Yeah. Bad botch by Jordan, but he'll get them next week. Shut up, booze! Suck it, man!

Do you know when this happened earlier and you start asking me, like, have you seen this before? My hesitancy was because I thought you were using that as a segue to show the clip. So I was like... I 1,000% was trying to build it.

I didn't realize in this new era that it actually takes 45 fucking minutes. We used to be able to get the clips up like that. Yeah, gone are those days, Ariel. Well, yeah, of course. By the way, of course PC doesn't know the clip. We didn't show him the full clip. Yeah, I mean,

I can only imagine what happens next. PC, you're not helping the situation. Sorry, John. First, you don't show up for rehearsals. It's pretty riveting what happens next honestly go find it really 32 to 44 how much time we got we can we can see if we could bring that in no listen i'm not sitting around till seven o'clock for this damn clip it took us two hours there you i mean i marvel at steve-o in a van being able to pull up clips within seconds oh

so all you want is like sloppy screenshotting of things totally okay good because we can do that in like i would love that point one second i would love that okay so that's what you so you don't want any of this production anymore no no i just want it up right now okay okay so can i we're on the same page now okay so so on that on on that note can we get the clip up sloppy yeah we'll get the clip we'll get the clip. We'll get the clip right now. You see that? You see that, PC? And we'll get the screenshots. I get shit back, but nothing ever actually happens.

Where's the screenshot? I'd love to see a screenshot. No, I'm saying, like, instead of photos with the credit and the... Remember the talk about the border and how we had to have that little sliver on top and bottom

that everybody thought looked really ugly? Here it comes. We will remove all that and we will just throw up the images. I just want clips up right away. Okay, okay. Clips and images,

naked, just quick and dirty. Can we just say this? Today, Ariel has been an agent of chaos on his own show. We're all trying to work hard here, and you are just constantly putting down Ariel. It's all wrong. Your attitude today stinks.

I need a new Ariel tomorrow. Fair enough. I mean, I'm a new Ariel tomorrow. Fair enough. I mean, I'm in a great mood. Tyler Bass. I'm giving you a talkie too. I like that. Tyler Bass with the last second win yesterday. Just call me when it finishes up here so we can remember.

Buzzing. Nick's with a huge win on Friday. My daughter had a birthday party yesterday. I think what threw me off was the fact that GC sent us a picture that Peyton Talbot cut his hair. And I was just absolutely devastated. I'm not even going to show this picture. By the way, I'm not even going to ask for this picture to be posted because we're going to be here until 8.30 to get this photo that we claim that we can throw up photos right away. But there is a photo floating around the internet of Peyton Talbot cutting his hair and it's very, very, very, very deflating. I don't

know what to make of the whole thing. It's disappointing but you know what the beauty of doing a daily show is that we get right back on the horse you could do this can i ask like are you like you're very big on the knicks now not so much talk about the buffalo bills you had an absolutely amazing result that's such a lie the weekend and you text me about it i know you're still interested but you always get to this stage the airfield when the basketball is kicking off we're deep into the nfl season where do your loyalties lie right now helani where we don't have to pick and choose it's like having multiple but what is the strongest what's a motive what what is making you a most the best defense oh there it is in the heavyweight there it is the best move why did this take so fast heavyweight Why did I have to wait two hours Go on Yoel

Yes Yes You see the contact Yes you built up to it He beat him one time Yes There it is Oh where's the go

Where's the go Where's the go Oh there When you believe Full screen What When you believe. Full screen. When you believe,

everything is possible. Did we lose him? Not the same without the visual for me. I don't know. Something must have happened. There's Mortar back there. I don't even know why. Get the fucking clip. By the way,

how did that happen so quickly? Did you say you wanted 32 to 42? I know, but I wanted to go. Okay, now, all right. Oh, so the timestamp is wrong is what you're saying. It's just an open book. Oh, okay. Oh, all right then.

Oh, what a... But wait, we had the audio. What a reinforced error that was. Just revealed that he had the timestamp. Just to give myself the old Barry Harrow. Oh, man, that's rough. That's so crazy. That's rough.

Can I get an it's tough for that one? How did you get it up so quickly? That's what I want to know. Actually, front to back. When you want things in whatever format and just like no care and consideration for the people that made them and wanting to credit and wanting to. I don't care. Stuff. That's not vindication.

That is not vindicated. That is not vindicated I'm sorry I'll give credit where it's due We don't have to credit ESPN MMA We built that channel With our hands Off our back My face is all over that place

Chael and Helwani We did it Gentlemen it's time to go I know we've talked about this before We were just about to get out of here And you're going to start this now What are you saying say it again it. Gentlemen, it's time to go. I don't know if DC and Chell get in it, though. I know we've talked about this before, but not one hour. We were just about to get out of here, and you're going to start this now? Wait, what are you saying? Say it again. Just saying, DC's advertisements.

Oh, check out ESPN MMA's new show. How long is it a new show for, guys? I mean, at some point, it's not new anymore. Every time, John, I actually go watch it every week, mate. It's the new show. It's not new anymore, guys. It's happened. It's been going on for like a new show it's not new anymore guys it's happened uh it's been going on for like a year it's not new anymore i mean there's there were more plugs

for that show during one seven hour broadcast than i got in three years over there yeah must be nice was that was that connor so that was me and connor simultaneously saying must be nice randomly on the show. Was that on Boys in the Back? When was that? I don't even know. No, that was a, I don't even, must be nice. Wow.

That was so weird. I thought he just like popped in. Yeah, he just came back in. His booming bass definitely comes through a lot stronger than mine. Oh my gosh. All right. What else? Yeah, you got anything?

You got more stuff? What do you want call for it we'll bring it up real quick the hand motions uh it's time to go bye see you guys tomorrow god bless i mean just look at the window look how dark it is. Now I know it's time to go. Look how dark it is. Take me on a trip. I want to go someday. Leverkusen, Copenhagen, and Marseille.

Singing Frank. I really want to. It's tough. Santa stays with you. What are all those haters going to say, huh? City ground always on. No, listen. There's the Drake curse and then there's the Helwani rub. You know, there's two different things. And clearly what we're seeing here is then there's the Helwani rough. You know, there's two different things.

And clearly what we're seeing here is the effects of the Helwani rough. All right, let's pick a team, you know, coming up, 23 years, and let's go all in, and look what happens. Ah! Ah! Ah! Did you just push the yahoo button you've gotten here too early today oh i've been here since like 9 45 wow really long day when i was here it was it was light out there and now look i'm waiting to keep these things in mind when we're scheduling the show and making jokes like oh you bothered to come in today now we're doing we're doing a today. Now we're doing a late night show. We're doing a late night show now. It's crazy.

Thank you very much to all our guests. What a day it was. Appreciate you all very much. Let me see if I can remember them. I don't think I can. Oh, yeah. Shavkat Rachmanov, Valentina Shevchenko, Jasmine, Jazz DeVizius, Eman Zahabi, Saif Saoud.

Thanks to all of you. Thanks all of you. Back tomorrow. Same time, same service. Right here. Jazz DeVizius. to all of you. Thanks all of you. Back tomorrow, same time, same place. Peace.