The Ariel Helwani Show - Stacked Combat Weekend: UFC 325, WWE Royal Rumble, Shakur Stevenson vs. Teofimo Lopez, more | The Craic

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

The Craic returns with its regular trio of Petesy Carroll, Chuck Mindenhall, and Ben Fowlkes to see you into a stacked combat sports weekend.To get things underway, the lads react to the UFC 325 weigh-ins, including the announcement of the new weigh-in protocols (6:24).Then it’s on to the main event: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes. The trio discuss Volkanovski‘s retirement rumors and what a win would mean for the Australian (16:39).Attention then shifts to the co-main event, where Petesy and the crew break down what promises to be a thrilling clash between Dan Hooker and Benoit Saint-Denis (29:02).They also preview the rest of the main card (35:34) and deliver their official Uncrowned picks for each fight (39:11).In a surprise development, Patchy Mix has been released from the UFC and signed with RIZIN, drawing an immediate reaction from the chaps (48:49).Switching to boxing, the guys discuss Shakur Stevenson vs. Teofimo Lopez ahead of their highly anticipated clash this weekend (54:49).To close the show, the lads preview The Royal Rumble (59:32) and respond to your Super Chats (01:16:00).

It's the eve of uncrowned Saturday, baby. That's right. We're back again. It is a massive, massive day of combat sports tomorrow. That's Saturday. You've got the Royal Rumble from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You have the boxing event. Tiofima Lopez versus Shakur Stevenson from MSG. And you've got UFC 325 from Sydney, Australia.

It's an awesome, awesome list of events. We have everything covered at Uncrown. Look at these beautiful graphics that we've got here. Absolutely stunning. Get over to Uncrown now. Wet your beak. We have a lot of shit going down. I mean, brilliant articles from, of course,

all of the brilliant MMA team that we're going to hear from now in just a few minutes, but we also have fantastic things on the Royal Rumble. And I believe Big Time Ben Folks has been editing these as well. He is a massive, massive WWE fan. If there's one thing I know about Big Ben, big time Ben folks, it's that he is a massive, massive, WWE fan.

and of course we've got brilliant boxing stuff from Elliot Worcelsel I was reading earlier he is the great table setter for boxing in this day and age so make sure you read that the focus today is going to be on Vogue V Diego Lopez of course because we are in fact an anime show but we might hit

these topics later on the show a lot going on here of course we have our esteemed guests as always big time Ben folks and Chuck Mendenall I'm really falling over that today I really can't get big time Ben folks out of my mouth, but I wish I didn't say that now.

That is, uh, it's out there. I've been struggling through this intro and I'm struggling again. But I was just right to say, last before we get chatting here, surprise Ben Folks is here because, uh, got some reports today. Yeah, I think on Air Jordan has it. Um, you know, he might miss a few shows in November and I think we know why now. As you can see, a buffalo struck an ATM machine in Montana and a man who was wearing a hood and

fleeing from the scene is now $200,000 richer according to reports. Many people have flagged this, many people. And they think it's you, Ben. So when's the last time you're on an ATM machine, if you don't want me asking you?

First of all, isn't it a moose? Is it a moose to hit it? I mean, here's the thing. First of, one of the things that annoys me is when you see reports like this and they'll be like, a man in Montana, do you have any idea how big Montana is be more specific.

Here's his alibi. Here's his alibi. Montana is a big place. Really, Ben? Come on. Montana is the size of Germany. Oh, just just let that sink in. It's the size of Germany and just in terms of like square mileage and you're just going to be like a man out there. Because let me tell you something. It makes a big difference

whether that happens in Billings or Missoula or whether it's in Malta. You know? Because if it's malt. If that happens in Glendai. Yeah, it's what's up there. If that happens in Glendive, everybody who's, well, But Butte is a whole different story, but it's its own thing.

But if that happens in one of these small towns, I don't care what kind of hoodie you're wearing. Everybody in town looks at it and they're like, that's Richie. We know that's Richie grabbing that money. Here's what I want to know, though. Say you find yourself in this situation. You're not robbing an ATM.

You're not going out there. You're not the one breaking it open. You're walking home. There's money on the ground. Are you going to tell me it's illegal to pick up money off the ground? Don't you dare tell me that, Chuck? Because I'm saying, you're walking by. You're just going to be like, oh, there's tons and tons of money on the ground.

I should alert the proper authorities. You know what I love about this, Ben, is you don't even mention the weird part that is, this animal, whatever it is, a buffalo slamming itself into an ATM. I mean, you just skip over that part as if that's normal wherever we're at in Montana. Do you know how many deer I dodge while driving my chin? children to school in the morning in the dark early hours. That part is like the most believable normal part of it for those of us who live in Montana. You know, especially you ever encounter a moose.

When you see a moose out there somewhere in the world, you go, oh yeah, they're enormous. It's basically a feral horse with a weapon like a chandelier on its head. And it's not like a cute cuddly cartoon character. You want to steer clear of a moose. And they'll get aggressive. They turn, they see an ATM look at it. at them the wrong way. They're not having it. Interesting. It's funny when I was

19 years old, I went to Montana, up to Yellowstone, and we saw a moose. And we're like, oh, you're thinking it's like a cow type thing. Let's go get a picture near it. And so I went over there. I saw people get hurt. I was with it. I don't even know, 10 feet of this thing, like throw on my thumb back, like, check it out. Look who I'm next to. And it's only after you did that, like, you know, that people are you an idiot? You know, they kill more people than bears

and anything else out there per year, you know? And it's like, who knew? Who knew? But I made it. He was very, he was very timid, you know. As much as I want to continue to grill Ben folks about this situation, who has implicated a man called Richie, who has commented on the story of Montana as an excuse, but also did not deny that he would flee the scene with all this money. I'm picking up that money. Buffalo accomplice, okay?

You know, you know, Richie is code for he's rich. right now. You know that, right? That's what they've been calling them in Missoula. Let me put it in terms you can understand. A Guinness truck tips over on the side of the road right down the street from their house. There's cans of Guinness or whatever just sprawled out across the roadway. Are you stepping over them very carefully to make your way home and call the authorities? Or are you maybe picking up a can of two and putting it in the pockets of your track suit as you make your way home?

He's just a good segue. You're going to segue out of here, aren't you? Fifth. Fifth. Plead the fifth. Listen, boys. Let's not bring an Irish man in Guinness into this, okay? There was absolutely no need for that.

It's absolutely wild gone. Try to meet you where you are, man. No, it was a great. It was a great analogy. Lads, we had some way-ins today, and there was some drama at the way-ins. Thank God it was not for the main event between Alex Volcanovsky and Diego Lopez, too. but here they are on the scales

by the way. Hmm. And we love a dehydrated champion on the scales. And there is Lopez with the stash, with the hair, with the cowboy hat.

Gotta get your hat on. Here's Stan Hooker, newly. How happy. I'm still stunned by the tattoos every time. You know, it's been like this for a while,

but he is completely illustrated man now. And there's Benoit, Sandini. Yeah, all the lads have weighed in. We're all very, very happy with that. But we had a bit of an issue because the hoop of shame came out and a man used it as advantage.

And I believe we have the footage of this now. Mr. Honor, Jordan will bless us with this hopefully. Needs a minute. Okay, no problem. We're going to riff on this for a second. So, of course, famously, D.C. had the towel incident. For those of you who don't know, D.C. leaned on a towel, took a few pounds off the old scales there when he was weighing in. I believe it was 205 back in the day.

we have a new version of this for a man who was you know every flyway way in is weird i'm sorry every time anyone's weighing in for flyway i'm just like this is going to be a disaster today we had one of these disasters with a man by the name of aron tow he was meant to fight bat byer tow we thought had come in very safe for this situation but um it turns out oh my god where am i gone you see it Did he do it? I didn't see him do it. It looked like he pulled it off.

Yeah, I could see it. I could see it here. So what happened is they brought out the hoop of shame. Yeah. He leans against the back of it. And then John Anick announces weight. He's like, it's 122 for his flyweight point. You take off too much.

That's how you get caught. Everyone on the desk is like, oh, that, that seems a bit weird for a flyweight to weigh in at 122. Commission cop it, make him stand on the scales without any hoop of shame. And he comes in at 129. called off so close yet so far caught so red-handed you know that's crazy with the face hat as well I think it just adds to the shame of the situation I don't know why but it just it doesn't feel it's more glaring it's more glaring you know when DC did it like a UFC 210 wasn't it

in Buffalo how did what was you remember what number he landed on like because he was right there yeah he did it right he didn't take off too much weight to exactly get suspicious just a enough. And that is part of the key, but also it's harder to be the guy who tries to do it after everybody's already hip to us. Exactly. We've already seen it once. It's like was it, I think it was Pop Warner, who in his days of like coaching football, we have a lot of rules on the books because of stuff that he got away with. And people were like, okay, we know it's not in the rule book that says your team can't come out in uniforms that have little football sewn all over it. So we can't tell who actually has the football. But we're going to put it in the rule book now.

Now, the reason we have a rule that says you can't run out of bounds, run along the sideline, and then run back onto the field to make a play is because they got away with it once. And so, like, it heightens everybody's awareness for it. That's kind of what happened here. But also, it's like, you can't take off too much weight. But if you know, if you know your 129, if you know your way over, give it a shot. Why not? But you know what? If you're going to do that, if you're going to go in there and like, okay, I'm going to try to pull a fast one on the committee.

and everybody involved. Show up while everybody is weighing in. Like this dude showed up like 90 minutes into the proceedings, right? Like he was the last guy on the scale. You don't, you don't bring that kind of extra scrutiny to yourself. Try to get on there while everybody's rushing through and see if you can get by with it, right?

Yeah. If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying and Chuck Mendenhall knows a thing or two about cheating. Oh, yeah. Big time. But I would have been right on the nose at 125. I would have just been, you know,

professional because you're a professional. That's why. Oh man, I remember all types of shit going down. Like Habib and Abu Dhabi, I was there with Casey and like, I've never seen a man get on and get off the scales quicker in my life. Matt Ratna was somehow able to read 155.

It was like, it just went, Bop, it just hopped off. And I was like, yeah, yeah. Come on,

Habib, well done, mate. Crazy shit. But do you guys get this when they have the events, particularly in Australia? When you just wake up and all the shit's already happened and you're just so confused. You're like,

Yeah. It's fucking Thursday. And what did they're doing? It's very confusing. What is, what is going on here? Every time this happened. This is just me? No, when they're like, this whole thing, they're like, oh, it's February 1st is going

to be UFC 325, but it's actually, you know, January 31st. And then it's like, they're already dealing with it just on that alone. But yes, every time this happens, I'm like, wait a minute, this just happened. Like, you have to go back and, like, figure out what's going on. I feel like I never get used to that. But imagine being on their side. You know, like if you're an Australian and you have to pay attention to a North American sport, I feel like they deal with it way more than we do. Yeah.

They're also used to it, which is one thing. That's true. But I would think that now that we're in the Paramount era, they would be like, do we have to keep doing it this way? Because you don't have these pay-per-fews to worry about trying to sell back, you know, at least to the Americans. You might still be trying to sell them other places. I know the Canadians are still hopping mad about this situation. But if you don't have to do that anymore, can we maybe get some shows that are in prime time for us, you know, so that it actually feels like it? I also wonder the people who go to these every single time and love them, would that throw them off?

They're used to a UFC event being a Sunday morning affair. Let me tell you, I went to one in Melbourne, and it was quite nice. It's quite nice to go and watch one on a Sunday morning. only UFC event I've been to where the media meal was breakfast. They served us, you know, eggs and bacon and stuff. It was great and coffee. And but you're done by Sunday early afternoon. And it's actually quite a nice change of pace, but it's how they do it every single time.

I wonder if it would be weird to them to show up watch a UFC event on a Saturday night. One person who seems to have struggled with the concept is a man from that neck of the woods, we'll say he's an Manzax fighter, it's Dan Hooker. Here's what he had to say about having two sleeps before this fight. And now I have to wait two nights to fight someone. You're telling me, I got to go to sleep, wake up, I have to go asleep again. I want to hurry up. I'm not liking this whole two-day thing.

Dan Hooker, the violent man, covered in tattoos now. And but is it, it's, it's got to be a good thing for fighters, right, to be able to have the extra time to re-hydrate themselves. Yeah. But it also, at a certain point, don't you start? start to wonder what we're doing? Because it already was a little bit ridiculous because we're going like, this is a 145 pound fight and we take it so seriously. You can't be 145.2 pounds. Are you crazy? You need to be 145 pounds for 30 seconds. And that already is a little bit ludicrous because

we all know what we're doing that none of these guys are 145 pounds. And then the further out from the fight you get, the more it's just like, why? Why are we? doing it if we're just going to end up like if it's if we can do it two days. How about three days? How about a week before? You show up week before. I mean, honestly, it would be safer. We could still tell ourselves we're doing the way and it would be safer for the fighters. We'd cut down maybe on people who get sick the next day. Maybe we'd probably get better performances from people who are not having to completely deplete themselves one day before they go in there and get hit in the head on TV. Like that is already kind of crazy and dangerous. So maybe that's what,

maybe if we just start gradually nudging it back and we all agree not to make a big deal of it we all agree like okay it is kind of silly but it was already kind of silly and at least this is getting less dangerous type of silly maybe we could all live with it because I mean I see what Dan Hooker is saying like it's stressful the more nights you have to go to sleep being like there's a guy who's spent the last six to eight weeks

preparing and training to hurt me that's probably difficult to sleep that'll disturb a fellow's rest It seems like the people who are local to, like, because you remember Tom Aspinall and even Leon, right, like when they were having these shows in the middle of the night. I know you were there at Pizzi, but like it feels like they have the harder time adjusting to win the fights. Like the people who are visiting, they don't know any different, right? They just come in, they try to acclimate and then they just go with the schedule they're given. It seems like the people who are used to being there and maybe their families or whoever's around them are all on the normal schedule.

And they're like, dude, I have to like, you know, be altered. but psychologically it seems to bother the local people more, doesn't it? Like, that's traditionally been the case when you see these things. Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's just the only thing I'd say, like, if they did decide, like, let's bring it back, how many people are automatically dropping away class? They're like, oh, yeah.

There's something about fighters where to like, okay, you're giving me an opportunity to be safe. I have to now make it more dangerous. Yes, yeah. I mean, everybody's looking for an edge. And then at a certain point, if other people are looking for the, the edge, then you have to follow suit just to not be left behind. I mean, that's, that's what the weight cutting that we have already kind of is, because you see a bunch of people where we're all

starving, depleting ourselves to a dangerous degree, all just so that we can end up fighting someone approximately our size at the end of the day. And like, you end up in this arms race. And so, yeah, I'm sure if you did move it back, unless you moved it back and you were just like, all right, everybody, listen, wands are now Wednesday, but whatever you wait, wait, you are, whatever division you're in right now, listening to the sound of my voice, you're still in that division. Don't come up and hear and be like, I was thinking Bantam weight, you know, like we're not having it. Imagine Wednesdays like Anthony Johnson would have been trying to get down 155 pounds back in the day.

Oh, my God, God rest of soul. Yeah. Speaking of talking points going into this event, Volcanowski was hit with the retirement talk quite a lot. He has dispelled it, of course. He has like endlessly been like, please stop asking me this question. we see this all the time. It happens with champions. Once you get over that age of 35, it is coming. Even with Katie Taylor, one of the greatest boxes of all time, she is constantly having this retirement talk up until recently where she's like, maybe this is my last year. But Chuck,

is it disrespectful at this point? Or is it just a natural kind of consequence of getting longer in the tooth? No, I think it's natural because, what is he? He's 37 years old, right? 37 years old. And I think a lot of times it wasn't like he came from, you know, that he's been in MMA a long time, but he's been a pro athlete. He's been an athlete for a long time. And in fact, like, he morphed from a 210 pound rugby player down to, you know, 145 pound fighter, and he's done everything. Like, he was 13 and 0, which is just crazy to think about the guys he went through.

But 13 and 0 was a featherweight and made his name as maybe the goat in that division, if not for sure, the goat, right? Like, he's a guy who's done that. There's just a point, you know, and then you go up, you have a pretty close fight with Islam. You lose the second one badly, but there was circumstances to that. And you look at all of that and you say, like, what's left? What's left for you out there?

You know, especially if you lose, what's left? And I think that it's just natural for people to be like, you're not going to hang around the game. And Peezy, you'd mention this, and I know we've talked about it before, especially for a guy who has admitted or at least confessed on some level, like, you know, I don't idle well. I, uh, my mental health tends to be like, I get stir crazy and, you know, it's better to have a fight. And I think, like, you know, given those types of situations, too, you know, you know, you know, You're like, are you, are you dealing with that? Like, it seems like you're getting close to it. And I think people just want to know, like, how he's going to handle it when he is at that point, too.

But I think that it all comes down to, dude, when you've had a legacy that long and say that you lose, right, what's left for you out there? And it's just a natural kind of curiosity for a guy like that. Ben, what do you think? I mean, Chuck mentioned it there. I think the thing I worry about for Volcanowski, like, I think he's one of the greatest federal weights of all time, if not the, greatest feather weight of all time. That revelation that Chuck mentioned just a moment ago, before the second Islam fight, he had only beat Yaira Rodriguez three months before, finished him. And then he's back fighting Islam. He loses the Islam and he comes out and he says, honestly, like, I just need to have

that goal. I need to have something that I'm gearing my life towards. Say the worst case scenario happens for these Australian fans at the weekend and Diego Lopez makes better on his second round knockdown as he had in the first fight and he knocks this dude out. A lot of people, would be saying, as Chuck just has, you know, what else is there for you, Volk? But it will come, like, I just have a feeling that he's going to have a very hard time walking away from the sport.

And that is, of course, one of the tragedies that we see in combat sports most, BJ Penn, Tony Ferguson, the list is endless. Do you fear that Volk could end up in that situation? And I'm aware I'm asking you this while he is in, at the top of the mountain. You know, I know it's a weird time to ask, but it's something that does,

it's something that comes back to me about Mr. Alexander Volcanowski. Yeah, I mean, he does seem like one of the smarter fighters. And like one of the more self-aware fighters. So I don't see him as being somebody who hangs on to a ridiculous degree. But I think that it is way more common for people to stay a little too long than to leave a little too early. And when you do leave a little too early, as a sport and a community, we're not that cool about that either. Like, look at Habim, you know, he left a little earlier than anybody thought he needed to.

Dana White was taking him out to every restaurant on the Las Vegas strip, trying to talk, come back into it. Fans were going, ah, we don't believe it. He's going to be back. We were just not primed to understand that. And so I could see a situation, especially even if he gets through this one, even if he beats Diego Lopez again, the next guys that you see up in featherweight are tough. They're tough stylistic matchups. that, you know, guys like Movzar, Lauren Murphy, guys like that,

where you're just going, it's going to get pretty tricky to stay there if you're Alexander Volcanovsky. And so I think that you can see it coming on the horizon where you're going like, all right, you're not going to be able to stay at the top forever. It's amazing that you stayed at the top for this long. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy

who's going to take one loss and be like, well, that's it. That's the right on the wall. I'm going to go home now. He does seem like that's only, going to ignite that competitive fire in him, fighters get really hung up on how they end sometimes. And I think maybe too hung up where they go, they lose one and they go,

I don't want to go out like that. But hey, if you turn around, you win the next one, you're not going to want to go out like that either because you're going to be like, see, that's proof. I don't need to go out. And we've seen that over and over again.

I don't worry about it that much with him. I think will he overstay? Yeah, probably. But I don't know if it'll be an egregious example of it. He seems like the kind of guy who's smart enough where, and interesting enough, he can go do other stuff. He needs to figure out how he's going to replace. He's got a good sense of humor too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's got a sense of humor and he's good on camera. People are going to want to do stuff with Alexander Volcanoz. He's not just going to go from like some fighter's face where today you are so-and-so the UFC fighter. And as soon as you retire, you are that guy who used to fight and they can't live with that. He's better fixed than a lot of people to move into something else. I think, though, that one thing you hear from fighters is they go,

you can't start looking for a replacement of what you get in this sport because nothing else is going to give you exactly that. And you can't become too reliant on that. I will say that part of his frustration in being asked this is we already kind of went through it because after those knockouts, right? Like people are like, dude, you know, what's going on? He shows up, it puts on like almost a master class, right, in that first fight with Diego Lopez.

And I think that he was like, does that answer all your questions? You know, here I am. I'm still, I've still got it. I'm still the exact same guy. And it was, it was, yes, he got hurt a couple of times in the fight, but he controlled it. It was a, he outclassed Diego just about everywhere in that fight. And I think in his mind, he's like, guys, I just showed you.

I'm not, I'm not diminished anywhere, right? If he goes out there and does it again, obviously we're going to be like, well, I'm going to keep this going. But from his perspective, you know, like if we, you know, if Ben, if the people are like, hey, Ben, you know, you haven't written a good column in, you know, four years. And then he puts out of his masterclass, you know, he'd be like, look, I still got it. Can we shut up with that talk already? And it's offensive after a while.

I mean, it did happen to the big homie Ernest Hemingway where people were like, bro, you're done. And he did it a couple times where he was like, here's for whom the belt holds. Here's the old man in the sea. What now? Any big titles or were there just those ones? The difference as, as Hemingway himself told. old friends of his who were in pro boxing was our failures stay in the drawer or they go in the waistbats.

That's a great point. You know, and when you're a fighter, you go out there and one of the truest things that Dana White has ever said is in this business, you can get old overnight. You just show up one day and we see you don't have it anymore and you have to find out in an extremely painful fashion that you don't have. I especially think, because you imagine if he loses to Diego Lopez here, you know what Volcano is going to say immediately afterwards is it's one one. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Back. You know? Like, and it's going to be hard to argue with him because he's going to be, he made this same point when they had him fight Max Holloway over and over again was he was like, are we going to have to keep doing these until I lose one? And he will probably feel quite rightly like, hey, I did that. I bought Max Holloway over and over again. I turned right around and fought this guy again.

You owe me a rubber match. You owe me that opportunity. If you make me keep doing these rematch. matches and it'll be hard to argue with that honestly poor mobs are and uh and lorone they're just forever behind the eight ball do you think that uh do you think that fight eight like the performances aged badly for diego because he did have that moment he put volk down in the second round granted volk came back and he he landed some brilliant shots in himself to the point where i think two of the three judges gave him the second round you know

he wrestled back the round yeah then uh lopez had a great fourth as well i thought so i think he I think he won one round on two judges' scorecards and two on another's. And I think he had an argument for two rounds. But the way people talk about it is kind of similar to the way people talk about Valentina Shevchenko v. Manan Firo in the aftermath of the Zhang Wei fight. It's like, look at the dominance here. She's so good. But really, you know, Ben, I think it was like, you know,

Diego had a shout there in a second. He put him down for a minute. You can capitalize on these opportunities. Do you think people are underestimating what this guy brings to the table? And that's why the UFC have given him this spot again. You know, I think we always knew he brought that to the table, right? Power, the ability to just in one big moment, turn it all around, maybe end a fight. I think we knew he had that.

I think the challenge for him, especially in this particular matchup, is Volcanowski has typically been one of those guys where he gets better the more he has seen of you. He gets smarter about how to beat you, how to take you apart. the more just total time he has to be in the cage with you and look at you, the smarter he is about beating you. And there's going to come a point inevitably for everybody where that intelligence he has, like that that line on the graph is going to cross past with the physical decline of age that is inevitable for everybody. We just don't know if that's the point yet. Because right now, though, I still think like if you're Diego Lopez, it would be hard not to look at this second opportunity and go. So I just need to go nuts on this guy. You know, I need to just be more aggressive because that is a good way to walk into trouble against Alexander Volcanowski. He's just telling yourself, like, I just got to get in his face quicker earlier in the fight and not let him off the hook because he is such a smart fighter. He can turn that against you really easily. And he probably is expecting you to be doing that.

He's probably expecting Diego Lopez to have come out of that first fight hearing a lot of people go, you should have put your foot on the gas more, man. You should have just thrown caution to the wind. And I would think that like, that's the hard part for him is like, Volcanovsky is so intelligent as a fighter and such a good strategist and is one of the great all-time mid-fight adjusters. If he sees what you're doing and you're doing something different, he can adjust during that round. He'll adjust on the stool, come out different the next round.

He is so good at picking up reeds on the fly and adjusting his style accordingly. You know, Pizzi, I know we talked. about this like uh in the round table right well yeah well we we remember we were talking about Diego in the first fight and we're like if i'm Diego i'm going out there and i'm trying to take his head off in the first couple of minutes because he was chinny right we were like well he's he's chiny like and he's going to be he's going to have some trepidation to engage because he doesn't want to get clipped early in a fight and his big mistake honestly is i hear what ben saying but maybe one of his mistakes was maybe not starting fast enough like he went in there and he felt it out

And what happened was it was almost like Bokonowski settled into his rhythm. He settled into just kind of getting into the fight. And all of a sudden those counters are landing both hands, big counters. And as soon as he got the chance, he's got him on the fence. I think he might have taken him down in the first or second round. Like he was just kind of mixing it up. But he got into the rhythm of what made him who he is, right? And Lopez did nothing to disrupt it.

He was just headhunting. He was just headhunting at that point and getting beaten up. So it'll be very interesting. Like, you know, when you work yourself back into, why are they fighting again and all that? It'd be very interesting to see how this fight starts. Does Diego go in there, like, you know, a little more, I don't want to say incautiously,

but a little bit more offensively where he's like, I'm going to try to get to him early and see what I can do. Does he do that this time? How does it play? I mean, those, I think that that's where it's at, who makes the adjustments. And as Ben was saying, in fight, or certainly when you look at the Holloway series,

like in the returns of that like how he solved him the second going forward after the initial flur and how he just basically dominated the third fight you got to trust of Okunovsky's going to come in there with his adjustments and he's going to think he knows exactly what to do to beat you this time right?

So how does Diego respond? Like this is like that's that's the fascination to me. What does he do different? It's an interesting thing because Paddy Pimble is being slated more than any fighter in the world right now coming off that fight with Justin Gaitier, I'd say. But his shadow looms kind of large over this comment event between Dan Hooker,

who's a massive underdog against Benoit Sandini, who's the guy on the tear, who seems to be just not really being talked about here. He's been on a tear ever since the loss of Anato Moikano following his loss to Dustin Porre, I believe it was. Three-fight win streak. Hooker, of course, coming off a loss, but he has this massive beef with Paddy Pimble, who, even though he's being criticised as one of the most talked about fighters in the world at the moment. I guess the bookmakers think Ben Walsandini is going to go through him. And if that happens or if it doesn't happen,

does it even matter, Chuck? Is the Paddy Pimler fight the one that the UFC are going to try and make regardless of the outcome of this this common event? I mean, it would be better if Hooker had a decent performance, at least than a loss, right? If you just get smoked in this fight, I think it loses some steam. But because, you know, I've been thinking about this, like because the drama that there's, I feel like drama is going to translate a lot differently in the paramed. amount plus there. Like if you get bad blood and stuff, they, they've aligned so heavily now with

theatrics. Like, even with all the shows they have, you almost wonder if it's going to kind of play into this. And it's just such, it's such a built-in rivalry that they've already got going on with Patty already having lost. I mean, that's the fight I would make. Like, what are you going to, and I still think that even if Hooker loses this, you could still point to like, man, he is going against the who's who, the best of the best, right? And, and like, so you can't really fault him. And honestly, he's squeezed in like, I thought he's going to lose the Gamrod and somehow he found a way to win that fight. So it's like, I feel like his,

it'll extend beyond this a little ways. Like, you know, I think he'll still have the relevance to go in there against Pimbleau and it still look like a big fight to me. Ben, you had a great piece about Gaci. His, like, amazing run with the UFC, everything he represents. Do you come away devaluing Patti Pimble with the way others have? Like, I mean, Josh Barnett, Matt Brown, the list is endless of people just kind of poking fun at this guy's performance against Gage.

And I'm not here trying to say it was a masterclass in any way. Like it was a complete, it was a complete brawl. But do you think he's being unfairly criticized in the aftermath of that for you? Or is it as they say? Well, when I saw Josh Barnett's criticism, and I know Josh Bennett for a long time and I went, the grumpy old man in you is kind of getting the better at you a little bit. And I don't mean that necessarily as like a harsh criticism of Josh. He cares about this sport.

He is a technician. He's a student of the game. He maybe was not the kind of person who is going to enjoy that fight the way the rest of us will. Because you've showed the rest of us a messy, no defense kind of brawl like it's 3 a.m. in the bar parking lot. And we go, hell yeah, brother, this is a good time. We're having fun watching it. And Josh looks at it and just goes, how is this the main event of a UFC?

These guys are just out there just winging it. And I understand. But it also was like, you had to understand, I think, for that fight what we were being offered. It was a title fight and name only, but it was a fun matchup of personalities and styles and stakes, even if no one came away from that going, those are two of the best lightweights in the world. I mean, honestly, by the time we got to the fourth or fifth round of this, weren't you going, hey, whoever wins this, Arman Sarukian and Ilya Tuporia both wad them up. It doesn't matter which guy comes out of this.

And I think for Patty, I was incredibly impressed with Patty's toughness and his recoverability. Like, there were moments in that where you look and you go, he's just about done. Justin Gatesy is just about ready to put him away. And if Patty got a few seconds to rest and recover, he was right back in it. And I was very impressed with that. And I think he does deserve some kudos for that. That said, there were also moments where you could watch what was happening and go, if Patty was a better fighter, this would be an opening for him to me.

maybe win this fight. Because Justin Gachie is not who he was. He's still able to do a lot of the Justin Gachie stuff. But there are moments where you could see him getting clipped. You could see him getting caught. You could see that predictability that has always been a little bit part of Justin Gaichi's style. You know where his head's going to be. He's going to be dipping it off to the right at least a dozen times during the fight. And Patty just couldn't really capitalize on that because he's just not there. And there's a temptation. It has been for a long time for us to look at Patty and be like, there's some raw stuff there. He will get there. But it hasn't totally happened yet.

And that's the thing that I think people are looking at and they're going like, if it hasn't happened yet, you've been a pro for a while now. You've been at this level for a while now. When will it happen? Because it sure didn't, it happened there. And there were openings. Well, you know, like we're talking about Diego Lopez.

You're like, did he do everything he could do to win that fight? And you're like, no. He could have done a lot of things smarter within that fight. You're like, okay, that's what makes intrigue for the second one, that you think there's this other level of potential and also just, having some infight IQ, you know, that will, like, come into play. I thought that Patty coughed up all his charms, you know, it's like he gave it everything he had. There's a difference when you watch a guy who does that and you're like, he still comes up short than a guy that you're like, ah, he just didn't do this or didn't do this.

That was the problem, right? Like, I felt like with Patty, it was like, I felt like we watched the best version you were going to get of him. And he still didn't come up, you know, he didn't. So there's this part of you that's like, okay. maybe this is the, you know, the contender thing was a step far. And, you know, I was one of those guys who was advocating like, yeah, put him in against Ilya, let's just do it. Let's just roll this thing.

And now you look at that and you're like, that would have been a bad idea, you know. Yeah. It's a real, look, I think nobody is going to argue that this is a better card than USC 3,24, but Volk made a great point that the press conference, whenever that happened, maybe Tuesday, I don't even know. But he's like, the collection of fighters on this main card. card is gnarly, like, it is a gnarly, gnarly card. Like, you can see a finish in nearly every fight there on that main card, by the main

event, of course, which has gone the distance before. But the one that's taken the biscuit has got to be Fizov, V. Hoofie. Taking the biscuit, is that good or bad? Taking the biscuit is a great thing. I mean, they are winning the biscuits. You don't like biscuits? Who doesn't like biscuits? I mean, if you're taking the biscuit, you're like, yeah.

No? All right. Well, did you get permission? You're just taking the biscuit. The biscuit is a cookie. Okay. All right. This one takes the cookie.

That's nice. It doesn't even sound right coming out of your mouth. Listen, it's good for you. Isn't it bad forksake? Nothing's coming out of his mouth is good today. Like this is highly sensitive to. An on the show. I think honestly, every time I look at Raphael Fusiv, I kind of think we are always

sort of underappreciating what he can do just either like a mix of circumstances and like who he's fight like he can look really great at times when he's able to do his stuff like he that guy is a tough opponent he's a tough stylistic matchup for just about everybody out there and it's all this is always the kind of fight where you're like i can see a world in which he is forced to fight a kind of fight that is not what he would choose. I could see where he's like pushed a little bit to a different sort of pace. And that will be interesting to me. I think that that as far as which fight feels like the most of a coin flip, which is to

say the opposite of what I think we see in Tai Tui Vasa and Intelligence of Teshera, this is the one for me where I'm just kind of, I'm looking at when I was sitting here making my picks, trying to stay at the top of the food chain since I went five and one to start the year. All right. Well, bring it up later, man. Okay. You don't need to just drop it in there, okay?

Let's not talk about who's... He's alphabetically on top right now. Alphabetically on top and I'll take it. The toughest one for me to pick was physique. That's tough. No alphabetically about it for me. I'm just bottom. I'm just bottom of the league.

Spoiler alert. We'll talk about it in a while. Oh, here we go. We're going to do it right now? Okay. Let me just make this screen beer because God knows my own side. Yeah, I can't see that. All you need to know is right up there at the top.

Is that you, Ben? Five and one. I mean, basically the crack podcast on top as far as I'm concerned. That's the way I say. I'm mysterious, Frank. I'm mysterious. Yeah, yeah. Starting strong.

I don't know if you saw Pizzi, but when they put this graphic into Drake's preview, his USC 325 preview, which I don't know if it's up yet, but it did it. If not, it should be soon. The caption, and I believe this is, you can talk to Drake about this. I believe he wrote the caption because I went through an editor last night. I didn't touch the caption. I just want you to know that. The caption he put under this graphic was,

Can Pizzie Carroll climb out of the basement? Like, that's all that said. It was just like it was nothing else but focused on. By the way, if you just glazed over this whole graphic, I want to remind you, Pizzi is in dead last. I'm glad as an editor, you didn't touch that bin. You just let that go. I was just like, you know what?

That's a choice that Drake is making as an artist and I respect it. Let's bring it up. We may as well do this section. here. Let Penn and Chuck have their flowers as top of the league. Representing the crack podcast as top of the league. Once you're going to, I will say that. It's a win for us all, really, yeah.

Can we see it again, please, Jordan, just for a second? Right, so let me just see. Okay. Roastin, where you've gone Elkanah there for your World Card Pick. Everyone going with either Elson or Elkhana. Okay. Everyone with Salkeld.

Everyone with Teshera. Oh, Visaya. Oh, here we go. Fiziv. I don't know how to say his name. Chuck and Ben both going with Fiziv. Carol has Hoofie down there. Everyone.

I'm only the only one with Hoofie? Me and Mysterious Frank are the only ones with Hoofie? This is your chance. You want it out of the basement. Okay. Al-Shattie's gone with hooker. Sandini, we're all on Sunday other than Al-Shadi, so I'll get that one back on him, possibly.

He's already a count his losses here. Only Chuck going. with Diego Lopez in seems right? I'm surprised. Give us the logic there, please. Give us your logic, please. It's because they went to that country concert together, isn't it? Yeah, it is.

It is actually. He was very excited about, like, anyway, I remember him saying, like, maybe I fight him in Australia. That's how he said it. He was very excited about fighting in Australia. I think that he's been waiting for this moment. I don't know, man. I'm counting on him coming in there with a different, a little bit of a different game plan. And I still think if he lands, like we saw a couple of,

We saw a couple of those shots in that fight where he kind of hurts Volk. I just think if he lands that shot earlier hurts him, Volk may not come back from it. It's just one of those type of things. He should lose, to be honest. There's every reason to think. I watched that fight recently, and I'm like, Volk just kind of outclassed him from pillar to pose.

You know what I mean? So like, unless he comes in and tries something to set up his shots a little better, it cuts off the cage a little better, it probably doesn't happen. but I keep imagining that that he just lands that big shot and puts him in trouble and that's the beginning of the end.

I just kind of hope he wins now so you're ahead of Ben because this is just too much. It's untenable, you know. Oh, right, there it is there. They just laugh it off. That's what we should do is relegate the loser. I think in fairness,

Alshaddy made such a big deal of the losers. A bigger deal than he made of Drake last year. He did. The losers being New York, Rick and Ben, fucks. I'm just saying, just factual here. Okay? I think they should, okay?

Whoever is, I'm going to be bottom for a while, I feel. I did make a claim that I'd win it this year, but I feel that's already dead. I feel one weekend I was like, you know, you don't, there's a lot of picking left to do this year. There is. Don't, don't tell you so sure. Who knows what's going to happen by the end of the year? I do this in the fancy football league. You guys like the wild card?

It kind of adds a spice to it though, right? Like, it's better. I do like it, but it also seems like people are going down the list and just being like who's the biggest favorite on the car. Yeah, because right now. That's what I went for. Yeah, right now the stipulation is you can't choose anybody that's minus 1,000 or worse, right? Lord knows I try it twice. But we should probably shorten that to something like, you know, minus 400 or something like that.

Maybe each week we bring it down, 900, 800, then it just comes up. Ooh, okay. I mean, honestly, the UFC does such a good job of matchmaking generally that there are not that many fights, that it's, you know, Bellator under cards. I was just thinking of that. You know, or somebody even like the PFL under cards where it's just like, we got, a Nirmagomet off against a warm body who we found. And those odds would be like minus 15.

And you'd be looking at, yeah, you'd be looking at minus 3,600 and be like, that's pretty good value for like, a number one. I'm putting 20 grand on it. To win your 150 or whatever it would be. I just thought it was interesting. Ben and your mailbag this week,

you talked about the possibility that we're headed towards another growth phase on the release of the numbers that the first paramount PLE, whatever the hell we're calling it, event got. But this comes just a few days after we were like, this is the biggest thing we're going to be, guys. And then you're like, could we be headed further to the growth face? So those of you who say we are negative, correct them.

Yeah. Well, honestly, the question of response to somebody saying like, hey, with the way the paramount deal works for American subscribers, are people going to watch less total events and just like tune in for a fight or two? because if you got the subscription, it's just on. And you don't need to be making any sort of conscious decisions about, like, is this worth me watching? All that kind of stuff.

I can just pop in for the main event. And I do think they'll probably be more of that. I also don't think the UFC and especially Paramount Care, as long as you were keeping that subscription on, they're not worried about whether you're sitting down at 4 o'clock in the afternoon for the prelims. They just want to know that they get your money every month. And I think that maybe it'll change the calculus.

that way, but I also think it works in the other way where a lot of people go, hey, nine bucks is nothing. And I say that I'm an idiot. I spend nine bucks on the dumbest shit you can imagine. I do it. I do it every week. And so nine bucks to keep this subscription on and then I can just, I can remove for myself even the question of, hey, U.S. 325, is that card good enough? It's not as good as U.S. 324. Do I care enough? I don't have to ask that anymore because it's just I got the subscription. I might as well pop in and watch it. And so I think that you're going to get a lot more people. I mean, you saw the numbers that Paramount put out where they were just like five million people are watching this stuff. And you go, you sit back and you go, yeah, it makes sense. More people are

going to watch it at nine bucks than we're watching it at 92 bucks. You know, like that that's just logic. And so you're going to get people more willing to give it a shot, more willing to just sort of like, be like, all right, let's see what this is about. Let's see what they got tonight. And who knows, you might end up getting like you should end up getting more people to at least give you a look and find out if they enjoy it if they like it or not. I think that you're they're pretty well positioned here. I still don't think Paramount's going to make one point one billion dollars back. I don't care how many ram truck ads you squeeze in there. I don't care how NASCARify you do your broadcast. You're still, you're not making that money back. There's just not enough MMA fans on the planet to make that money back

right now. But I do think that it for the UFC. and for those of us who like this sport and want to see it continue to be a thing and maybe even be like a more popular thing that won't get a strange looks when we talk about it, I think that you're pretty well positioned. You're better than you were when you were on ESPN and you're asking people to clear two different paywalls

in order to show up and watch your stuff on a Saturday night. It's strategic. I mean, the strategy of having two pay-per-views up front, right? Like the kind of like, let's get all these, like a million subs, you know, it's nothing to shake a stick at, especially when I pointed this up before like but the UFC when it went to ESPN plus was basically a package deal to launch ESPN

plus. It was like they were the flagship. They were the ones who were going to build it themselves. Whereas the UFC was going into this one and the and the schick or the novelty of it was that, hey, you don't have to do pay per view. So to kind of front load it with like a couple of events where you're like normally you'd pay and you don't have to, you're getting these for free. You know, it seems to be paying off in that number, right? Like a million subs and we'll see what it does this weekend it's not going to be a million subs, but you take them combined in the month and see kind of what you got in subs. And it's off to a good start, man. It certainly doesn't look like it's hurt at all. Well, especially when you look at that number where they say the average viewership number for

the main card was around $5 million, maybe a little under $5 million. And you contrast it with what's the highest selling UFC pay-per-view of all time as far as we know. And it's Habib versus Connor. So a different time period, basically. And a different time period, especially, Connor McGregor's stardom and you got 2.4 million buys. And if you're doubling the number of people are watching, I mean, I'm sure, granted you're saying when pay-per-view, they're more likely to be people gathering together to defray the cost of it and everything. You maybe don't have that quite as much with Paramount Plus.

But if you're still, if you're increasing the number of people watching, that's a good thing. It's like, I was thinking back to when the, when UFC did that initial Fox show where they did the special that kind of kick it off. And it was November, I think, of that of 2011, whatever that day was. But it was like 5.8 million viewers and it peaked at eight something, like 8.8. And us just thinking, oh, my God, like how astronomical that number seemed to us. And then they never did it again.

I know. And that was because they put on the heavyweight title fight, which was smart. It's true. It's true, man. 100%. They said, heavyweight title fight, free on Fox, come get it. And that was really, and they got those huge numbers. for a 60 second fight.

It would have gone way higher if the fight would have lasted a little longer. They, and instead of learning from that lesson like, hey, you put a heavyweight title fight on TV, you kind of bring us back to the era where you could watch Rocky Marciano on network TV, uh, brought to you by Barbasol or whatever,

like the way my great grandfather did. And then, Barbisol, instead of learning that lesson and being like, let's do that again, by the end of the Fox deal, the, the cards on Fox,

UFC on Fox cards, it was just be like middleweight contender number four versus middleweight contender number seven and then wonder why the ratings aren't that good. Plus Paige Van Zand. Michelle Waterson. Sage Northcutton page Van Zand every time we can get him in. Well, talk about a segue. Sage Norcote, you just mentioned. We had one man who went and pursued options in Asia. We have another North American man by the name Apache Mix announced for Ryzen during the week.

And I mean, the lads talked about yesterday on the back and did a great job speaking about. But this is, it's shocking. I think it's a good move for him. But, I mean, we're kind of sifting through everything if we don't talk about everything we expected of this guy. You know, Chuck, I think we both agreed at the time before that first fight that he was the best signing made from Bellator to the UFC to O and two. and he's out the door already signed to a new promotion. Are you surprised to hear this? Like, are you surprised you can get a third shot?

Not necessarily that part of it, because his fights kind of suck, man. I mean, like that first one, who was he fighting? I'm sorry, like his first one was against. It was a tough... Bautista. Yes, Batista. And I remember we were like, okay, this will be a tough one for him out of the gate, but this is something he should handle,

and this will be great for him to kind of just automatically catapult himself into that top space. And instead, it looked like he just had no rhythm. it almost looked disinterested but it was like he couldn't pull the trigger he wasn't trying to partake it was just weird wasn't it was like you're it was like a fight spent

impending like there was nothing happening and then his follow up was even worse so for him to actually not be fighting a third time doesn't surprise me but going back to the original premise I mean I was pretty convinced that he was the guy he was the best kind of unsung guy coming over

you know from Bellator and it was going to be one of those situations where he would actually be a guy who'd contend and maybe win a belt at some point. I was that high on him and haven't talked to him. He was that high on himself. He was like, oh yeah, this is what we're doing, baby, you know? And instead, it was just, it's got to be one of the most anticlimatic crosovers that we've ever had, you know? I agree with that, Ben? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's tough when you come in to the UFC with high expectations, like when we have those high expectations for you. It doesn't happen that often.

anymore. Like, this used to have more where you'd see where we have more competitors out there to the UFC where their fighters would get a little bit of a name, come in as a free agent, and have to hit the ground running. Because once the UFC pays more than just the regular entry level contract in order to bring you over, they're not going to give you any easy fights. They're going to give you some tough fights. You're going to have to prove yourself right away.

And we've seen, I mean, the example of Michael Chandler shows us that you don't necessarily have to come in and win them all. There are other ways to stick around and stay relevant if we care enough about you, if you are enough of a person that stays in the minds of MMA fans one way or another. But if you don't, and if they look at the quality of your fights and they go, we don't see anything here that we really want to keep or that we can really sell to anybody that's worth our money, then, yeah, it's really a tough cutthroat way of dealing with it because you come in there, we give you two shots at it.

the first one I always got to think is not quite a wash, but your first fight in the UFC often does not tell us everything we need to know about you. A lot of guys are, Yeah, a lot of guys will get those nerds, even experienced fighters will come in there, get the octagon jitters that we used to call it, and we won't see the best of them. And it doesn't mean they're not going to go on to have a good career. They'll pull it together.

And they give you one of those, and then they give you one more to find out if the first one was a fluke. And then they say, all right, that's it. We're hitting the eject button on this one. It's tough. but that is also the situation you deal with when you come in already as a guy, or we expect you to be a guy. Who would you even compare him to?

Like, you know, I was thinking about this, like, a guy like that who he was a little bit unsung, even with Belltor, right? Like, he didn't, I didn't feel like he got the shine. I was like, I remember talking to him when he's coming in. He's like, yeah, I think the O.C. actually do a good job of promoting me. And, like, my name will be more out there than it is. But I was thinking about this and I was like, I think a guy like Will Brooks.

You remember like he was. Oh, yeah. So Will Brooks was like he was on a crazy streak something like eight or nine, ten fights where he'd won in Belchung including Chandler twice. Like he'd beat Chandler. So it felt like he was coming over and like, okay, this guy, he'll do work in the UFC.

I think he went one and three. And it was like just kind of flushed out. Just a weird comparison. It was like he just dropped off. He also did not make any friends at any of the promotions. All of them were glad to see him go and didn't ever want to see him come back. And it was the kind of thing where I was hearing about that from people at both UFC

and Belator and I was just kind of like, what did he do, man? I know. I never got a great answer about it, but put that on the feature list, Ben, I want to read that article, please. When there's enough of a consensus where everybody is like, man, good riddance, go on. I go, shit, all right, he must have done

something. Any chance of Unquote in Blacklats? Patchy mix? Yeah. You know, honestly, he's still young. When I heard of you signed with Ryzen, I was like, that actually might be pretty great place for you. Yeah.

Like I think if anybody, I mean, who knows what the future for Verizon is, but I was just like, yeah, you could go over there and you could do some business over there. Like I could see that maybe that'd be on a pretty good home at least for like the next couple years. Remember So could you when he came to the UFC. Yeah. That beat Ricardo Orona. Like, oh man, then he beats Lil Mogg.

You're like, oh shit, this guy's going to be. He's like huge team quest guy. Just doesn't pan out for some of these guys, man. Yeah. How been a few guys when they came over? from pride. It was kind of like their best days were spent over the site time of super a lot of them.

Yeah. Big point. I think the drug testing might have had something to do. I don't know. It's just a theory. How dare you impuged the pride drug testing system, which is if you ask about it. I'll give you your suitcase of money under the table when we're done

here. And only if you ask about it will we send a guy over to your hotel room to hand you a Dixie cup and be like, here. This will make you feel better? Pee on that. Oh my God. We're just going to throw it away, but here. There's a big, big boxing match in MSG this weekend,

a massive, massive card, honestly. But the main event is obviously taking most of the headlines, Tiofimo Lopez versus Shakur Stevenson for the Super Loebbeye Championship of the world. A lot of testy things going down on this press conference, too. It's a massive, massive fight. They're talking about Stevenson, like he is the guy for this generation. Lopez, always aggressive. well, not always.

He's had a couple of doors to be fair to him when everyone was like, he's about to show up. He can show up and look like the best in the world. He can shock the world. Who shows equivalent in M.

Like, it's like, because I feel like we've had this guy where you're like, dude, if he's on, if he's heads right, uh, he's going to do work and he could win this fight, you know,

and shock everybody like, because he's a pretty big, he's a big dog in this considering his record and who he's fought. But, but yet if his head's not right, you know, you see him kind of,

He's been quite erratic, right? He's been quite erratic in the buildup to it. He's been bit outlandish on social media. Yeah. I don't know what to make of him. I just always remember him showing up against Lomachenko and everyone would be like, it's too soon for this kid. Yeah, exactly. Almost like a Mayweather v. Canello situation where they're like, he's only fighting him now because, you know, he wants to deal with this and he won't have to deal with him. And then he got that win. And then he goes and he loses the gumbozes.

Right. And then he's kind of edged through a lot of fights where you He was going to put the foot down. Very interesting. Josh. Josh Taylor. Like, the Southpaws, like the guys who are like, you know, some people, some people don't want to match up with Southpaws. He seems to do a good job with that, you know, the world-class Southball.

So maybe he sees something in this matchup. But, you know, he's got his father, like, who's been with him the whole way. This sometimes can lead to a very complicated emotional way. Like, you know, we've seen this in boxing so long and in some instances with MMA. And that can be a little weird. And also, man, I was at his fight. I was at that Times Square event against Barpoza. Yeah, I was at that.

And it was obviously very strange. It was like it was not like a true boxing event. It was like, it was like we were watching an exhibition of some kind, you know. But he was on that. And I have to say New York loves him, man. Like he was the one guy that had like people all around who, you know, just in that small area that were just would not shut up. I mean, it was just one of it was like being at an old school where everybody shouts, you know, shouting in. instructions, you don't got to dodge him. You got to, you know, use your left, usually, you know, that sort of thing.

There was like five or six people behind me just yelling the whole time like this. And like there was just love for him all around there. So that may play into it as an emotional fighter. That may actually come into, I know that, uh, uh, Stevenson is from Newark. And he wanted it in Madison Square Garden to kind of avoid having in a barclays or something like that, like where it would be too far one sided. But I think that crowd's going to be on a side. Absolutely. I wanted to point out something about, uh, Elliott, Worcels article on it, which I really enjoyed. Because one thing, he points out how, you know, at one point, Shkore's students and telling him, like, I figured you out. And Tiofimo Lopez being like, listen, nobody figures me out because sometimes I suck. And sometimes I look like I don't want to be there.

And you're like, oh, okay, yeah. So he knows that about himself. And he's turning it into a positive. The fact that, like, you can't know what you expect, what to expect from me. Because even I don't know what to expect from me. But I love that. I love this paragraph. I'll jiggle your balls.

He, meaning Lopez, said to Stevenson that day, disappointing anyone who expected better from him. He then repeated the comment when Stevenson requested clarification. Before pulling his middle finger from the inside of his jacket and flashing it at Stevenson, yes, like a child. Oh, man. Get that article, into you, lads. You know, if you're trying to get the juices flown for that card.

and it is a great card. Kishon Davis on the card. Shushu Karrington's on the card. It's a really, really good. Big Baby Miller is back. A lot of, a lot to be excited about. Adam A's fight has been pulled. He is ill.

He will not be fighting Austin Williams. That came out just before the great honor, Jordan showed me that. But brilliant, brilliant stuff from Worstel. I mean, it always is from Elliot. He's always got a unique angle for these fights. I got to dig it, you know? Yeah.

I love telling somebody you'll jiggle their balls because it's like, of course, the thing that they're going to say after that, whatever tough guy thing they think to have lined up, they're going to be like, I'm so you what? What are you playing? That's like that key and peel thing when the suits are

talking to shit. It's going to completely throw you off. Nothing you can say to that. Yeah, it's a classic. Make sure you read it. But lads, that isn't all because Ben, I know you've been waiting and I'm so sorry that we kept it so late in the show, but it is in fact the Royal Rumble. And from your

favorite place, Ben, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. You must be, I mean, this is a home run, baby. You must be absolutely buzzing. You know, listen, you don't have the Hulkster and the ultimate warrior over here on my wall. If I don't know a thing or two about professional wrestling. Taking the Royal Rumble over to the actual kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an interesting look. And I know a lot of wrestling fans aren't that crazy about it. I love the Royal Rumble.

I've all, like, just conceptually, I think the Royal Rumble, I think the Royal Rumble is, the Royal Rumble is such a fun thing. It's one of the few ones that I can get my kids kind of into. They don't give a damn about pro wrestling or any professional sports at all. But I told him this week where I was just saying something about like, hey, you know what Saturday is? It's the Royal Rumble. And they were like, oh, is that the one where your feet can't touch the floor? And I was like, yes, kind of.

You've got the basic idea. It's like, that's something that kids can understand. They're like, all right, feet don't touch the floor. I got. And then they also, though, like, I think there's just so much fun stuff you can do with the order in which people appear. And that is always a fun part of the Royal Rumble. And like, even just talking with them about it and they were just, you could see them working their way through the thought process where they're like, oh, man, it'd be a really bad deal to have to be the first person in there. And I was like, yes, exactly. And they're like, it's great if you were the last person. And I was like, you're getting it. And then it was just like, we, we had moved on to talking about. other topics and then one of them was like, what if two people were friends and they both ended up as like the two people? I was just like,

welcome to the world of professional wrestling. These and other questions will be explored over and over again over the series of generations. So true. Is Blais still into it? Will you be watching show? Oh my God. He does. I mean, he gets in and out of it, you know, but at the same time, he never misses this. Like, I watch this every single year.

I was doing a little preview and I'm like at its best it's almost like a Hironos Bosch painting like where there's so much going on you can't even take it like at its best so there's like 18 dudes in there and it's funny if you fixate on one guy and you'll see him just

sitting in the corner dead for like a full minute doesn't move like he's just in the corner and I'm like what is it like so what happens suddenly when they get up they recharge and they get up and they go back at it again it's just it's ridiculous man And to this day, the little kid in you wakes up.

Every time the music comes on for the name, who is it? Who is it? I won't even know half of them at this point, but like, you always want to know who is it. Who's coming in there and this time, you know? Tell you one fellow you're going to know is the big guy. Yeah. Brock Lesnar. You'll be there.

I don't know if you've seen, yeah, there we go. I don't know if you've seen recent photos of the man still looks pretty good getting off the bus. Well, really? Yeah, he does. Look, that. Still looks like he knows where they keep the weights. There have been moments just when you see him move around sometimes where you go, oh, wait a minute,

is age starting to gradually turn Brock Lesnar into more of something closer to a mortal man? But also, you see him pop the top off and you're like, you know, remember when he failed that drug test against Mark Hunt and he blamed the foot cream? He thought maybe it was contaminated foot cream. It was foot cream. Fellas, I don't want to talk out of school here,

but I'm starting to think maybe, Maybe it wasn't a contaminated foot cream. Oh, come on. The foot cream had contamination then. I mean, it was pretty clear, wasn't it? Oh, man. Where can we get that cream, though? Seriously.

I got a guy, Pete, you hit me in the chat afterward. Lovely, lovely. You've got the link. Check out Brad Gilmore's article. If you are like me, not a big WWE guy. He lays it all out there for you. what to expect to know what are the big talking points

from the world it's good just give yourself a read it's on net what do you think it costs brock lezner like this is a guy if you ever talk he's just the grumpiest meanest like he's like it's just not a pleasant thing and like for them to get him to go to Saudi Arabia to go compete in this thing

I mean it's just got they got to be open up the the pocket book pretty big here I mean he's just not going to do that this is a guy who moved first of all to like remote Minnesota like up by lake ida where I visited one time on time over the border finally so he could get even more obscure from people

he doesn't this is not something he would do unless you're really like really come and correct I believe you could maybe sell this to him on the basis of Brock Lesnar not knowing exactly how far away Saudi Arabia just past Canada that might be your best hope

and he'll be like how long is the flight you're like not that long just straight through yeah you're gonna be comfortable It's a direct flight and there's movies, you know? Not that long. The Beast of Karna is back. My guy is Alba Femi.

I just found out who he is like last week. And I'm like, he is as big. Yeah. As a specimen. That man's a physical specimen. He's my guy. What about this Heyman faction though? I mean, they're going to have to go against each other.

This is again, you know, there's going to be some betrayals. Once I read some of our Royal Rumble coverage and I was like, oh, you're telling me there's a chance. I might turn on the TV Saturday afternoon and see the ageless Chris Jericho show back up who I remember watching when I was in high school and I'm like, debuting. Yeah, crazy. The Millennium thing.

Jesus. We are old, bro. Chook, we need to talk about your hat because we talked about it throughout the week. And it is a fantastic piece that you wrote from your attendance at Zufo Boxing 1. You're obviously captivated by the product. Zufo Boxing 1.

Yes. This weekend, are you going to be able to fit it into your long list of things you need to watch? This is being worn unironically. Okay. No, wait, I don't know what ironical means, I guess. But anyways, I'm just wearing this hat. It was, what was your question? I mean, it was, it was a, it felt, I was, I was, I'm positive as the only guy in Las Vegas who showed up for Zufu boxing and didn't stick around for UFC 324.

It was the only guy who went there specifically for that. That's what we're talking about. Like, if I said, how do you want to see and Chuck? All right, you go into the fights. See you can fight tomorrow. Not me. Not those fights. The real points.

Got to catch a flight out Saturday morning. I know. At least I try to. But it was, it sounds like no matter which way I went about it, if I had just watched the telecast and caught, you know, Max Kellerman and all of that stuff, I would have been equally disenchanted. But being there was not a fun thing, boys. It was not fun. sit through that. Every fight.

What did the rest of the crowd? Did you get the sense that other people were like, yes, this is what I expected, this is what I came here for, or were they also just sort of like, this is a little little bit like. Well, if you're at like, if you were just in an intimate show in Missoula, right? Like you went to an intimate show. There's, let's say, 400 people there. They're probably going to be fans.

Like, they're going to be like, hey, drink some beer and let's just have fun, man, we're here. This isn't the kind of crowd that the apex draws. They're like a lot of influencers and, you know, Nate Diaz was there, and so was like Tiki Goshen, remember that guy? Like, he's, he's laying out. It's like, it's a lot of people who are associated fight game or influencers are people who are a little more well healed than you would get. So it's like, there's already this kind of lack of passion from just that fan base.

Now, I'm not saying that'll always be their fan base, but that's who was there for this particular one. And, you know, it was like the first fight on the main card drew a little bit of like an energy. Like there was a, but it was a pretty good fight. The kid from Philadelphia, I forget his name now.

Like he was, he was standing in there. He was, he was giving him a show. He ended up winning. The next fight lost everybody. In fact, everybody just kind of like went and,

you know, we're at the concessions and we're walking around. There was almost no interest. Were they buying much? That's when I was in the hat line. Yeah. But I don't know my shirt that says I was there, pizza years in the middle.

And, uh, I was there. And then, and then the main event came on. And I don't know how to describe it because it was like a main event, you're always leading to it's especially in boxing it's usually it's all geared toward that main event yeah you could hear a pin drop from like rounds two to eight it was just it had died so

badly in that room like it was just uh i don't know man i had just never seen a main event that had that lack of energy so it was a drowsy affair man i don't know what else to say it's almost like you walk out of there and the couple people were joking like wow is your heart stopped racing after that thing you know being sarcastic because it was just like it was that bad in that sense just crazy you kind of called this like I was like well the biggest winner this is going to be Callum Walsh and you said when I said that well either the biggest winner or loser and I feel like that's that's kind of what's happened I felt bad for those guys man they were competing in a unnatural environment man it was like a sparring session that you were peeking in on it was that quiet

I knew guys from Ireland who are boxing fans that stayed up for that like they were texting me before the main event and they text me the next morning and I just went to bed halfway through it so bad. You're watching the boxing match. You have stayed up for it. And you're just like, you're already that committed. I am going to bed.

No, I stayed up for the whole thing because I'm hardcore. But at this point, your weekend sleep rhythms are so thrown off, Pizzi. Your body wouldn't know what to do if you went to bed at a reasonable hour on a Saturday Friday. It's just come out with the most beautiful skin. I don't know if you guys saw,

but I had a bit of a skill reunion there yesterday. Have we seen the picture of that 12-year-old Pacey Carroll here. Your hair was much darker then. I have a receding hair line on I'm 12. Do we have? Oh, there it is. Look at that. Terrifying what Blanchard's sound can do to a child.

I was talking about this haircut with someone earlier. And I was like, do you know what that is? That's my mom just getting me a buzz cut every three months. And whatever happens beyond that is up to Brill Creme and me. I like how in the in the screenshot there, we captured my comment on it that I sent to you. after the adem on Instagram. It was a note about pizza.

You could see the zipper of the track suit in this. That's what I told them. A lot of people were like, I think you robbed me when you were 12. I mean, that looks like a juvenile haul mugshot right there where you're just like this. This is an at-risk youth.

That's what I'm looking at-risk. There's jokes notes. I'm sure. The most fucked up thing about this is, like, because everyone got these letters that we wrote to ourselves and these pictures. And I was like, what's the story with the picture? Like, what was that? And they were like, we walked up to you as a 12 year old and said, we're taking a picture of you to show your 38 year old self in 25 years. And that's the face I made.

Wow. What the, I am hot, man. I want to start a skeptical. It's like, it's very. You're like, I won't be alive then. So I'm going to. He definitely rob your 3310, which is a non. your phone from back of the day.

And, you know, who knows? I'm not saying shit on here. I might incriminate myself. Just take my lunch on me. And as I was just wondering, would you like to hear, uh, what I wrote to myself? Yes. Yes. See, I didn't know that that's what this was a part of.

All right. Let's hear this is fascinating now. I can get through this. Okay. Very disappointing, by the way. This is terrible. Uh, there is no doubt about it. Hi.

My name is Peter and I'm in Miss O'Brien's sixth class. I'm in a family of four. people, my dad who was a Tottenham fan, and is named Leam. My loving mother, whose name is Margie, and my brother Luke, who is the best brother alive. He supports Chelsea. These are my number one family ever. Yeah, I mean, you're a fan. Good stuff, Peter. Who's number two? I mean, I have four close friends, Daniel Sansavini, in brackets of road Italian, because that's what he is, aka Sanso, A. A.m. A.m. K. A.m. K. A. K. K. A. K. A. K. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. in secondary school. When I grow up, I want to be a lawyer and rich enough to buy Manchester

United and Ferrari, not a Ferrari, the team Ferrari. Wow. My two favorite sporting teams, sorry, that was it a comment on the other thing. Rinaldo Pelle, I'm a, like, 12 year old you did maybe not understand how global economics work. You thought, like, lawyers make a lot of money and then they buy sports teams, right? That happens. That's bad. You're, wait until you fucking see what happens next. Okay. Ronaldo Pelle, Maradonna, and Mahalo. Hamid Ali are my idols, they weren't. Now into the past is where I'm going to say. Why are you telling yourself stuff that you would know about yourself?

I don't think I knew what was happening. Why are you telling yourself who your friends and family are? That's the one thing that you should definitely know. Don't dig too deep, Ben. Listen, Ben, the next part, if you think that's bad. This is where I've gone with the next part. Now, into the past, over the last century, there were many tragic deaths, such as the assassination of JFK.

Wow. Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. They have made the first test tube baby for people who can't have babies. The main talk in Ireland now is the devolution, which is Northern Ireland having their own ministers and stuff.

I think this could be a major step towards peace. In 1969, man first walked on the moon. It was watched on television worldwide. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins where the crew, Armstrong said One small step for a man

And a giant leap For mankind Just in case that was no longer Going to be information That was available later on You were like This is some shit that People will forget

I need to know Is about the moon landing Also I also love Over the last century There were many tragic deaths Oh really? Over the course of 100 years Some people died

All right I thought it was like As I was standing there And reading this I was like Did all your mind Imagine, like, people had forgot. And I was going to open this up in Blanchard Sound and just be like,

Lads, JFK was assassinated. And they're like, what? What the fuck? And I'm like, yeah, and Princess Diana is dead. It just seems like you were trying to prove. I got a handle on current events. I know. I'm paying attention.

Trying to prove to himself all these years later. Final part of it. It looked at a future now. This is a look to the. Okay. This should be good. And it doesn't deliver again. Everyone thinks the year 2000.

is going to bring flying cars and stuff, but I think it would all be the same. Wow. I think smoking might be banned and maybe we'll have computerized maids, but not too much. So I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope I do all the things I said,

two things I said, I would buy Manchester on Ferrari. A good boy, I love you. That is how I signed off, just telling myself. There he is. What a genius. There's the author.

That kid loves you. Look into his eyes, Pizzi, that kid right there, he loves you. He looks like he loves me at all. He looks like he shanked someone seconds before. He might be a little disappointed in you. He might, he might think, all right, that guy is a little bit of a letdown. From the high hopes I had. Yet?

He doesn't either. Yes, that's important to say yet. But he does look like he could do the helicopter in a breakdancing movie. He could just like, sit down. Well, I'm glad I said. You know, I was so disappointed. out like the writing. I was just like,

and the rest of the labs were like, we couldn't even spell, dude. Like, this is pretty impressive. And I'm like, I'm very upset about this. I just want to point out that if you are a long time viewer of the crack, you have now seen P.C. read a letter from his 12 year old self in addition to his dream diary.

Yes. Live on this program. Just where else are you going to get content like this? I don't know. I mean, it's going to, look, we're going to find something. They're going to call me to open up something.

else I fucking wrote as a child absurd soon but um yeah well do we have any super chats Jordan oh there we go yeah potential UFC events venues oh sorry

in Europe in 2020 well they just go to the UK and France now so lock them in I mean no double the ACO arena and the O2 arena they don't even fucking look elsewhere that is it what about Croke Park

hopes for Spain seem to like they have maybe been put on the back burner for now. It is gone, isn't it? Like, that is fucking dead. Georgia is dead. Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry, mate. I would love them to explore the region, but they, uh, they have previously.

We were all only talking about it with some other European media guys two weeks ago. We're like, that was one of the best times to cover the sport. You're just going to a different European country every month. It was great, but they don't seem to be interested. Hamburg. Hamburg. Oh, my. Yeah.

So good. Prague. Well, at this point, point, you're just not going to roll up into Poland and beat what KSW is doing in either terms of live, live event production or the crowd enthusiasm. So, yeah, you're right. Or Czech Republic and Octagon. Like, Ariel's very right in what he's saying about it becoming like the territories, the wrestling territories back in the day. Harry's in France, uh, well FC in Spain as it is.

Like, all these fucking promotions are doing really, really well there. It's like, it's kind of so open compared to the US, PFL can't do shit there, but they're selling out of a, events left, right and center in Europe. Anything else there, Jordan? Hey, fellas, advice for someone looking to get into MMA journalism. Also, Pizzi, what do you think about Curtis Campbell v. Danny Silva? I got Kurt by so. Curtis Campbell, very, very good, very good submissions.

I would say that is a very good bet. In terms of getting into MMA media, I personally just started going to regional events in 2009. I don't know how the fuck I ended up here. So, Chook and Ben. I would say instead, become a lawyer and by Manchester United. I think that's a better plan.

Yes. I mean, it's a more realistic plan at this point, too, Ben. I don't think there's many seats at the table around here. Unless you're an influencer. Try to be an influencer. MMA influencer. Or comedian.

You just go and you just go, ah, what the fucking? They get you in. Credential, no problem. Anything else, said, Jordan? That person's like, I wasted my money. Whoever sending that was like, I wasted my money. Too wasted my money.

Look, we love his anyway. Thank you for everything. From 12-year-old Pizzi Carroll, from Chuck Menhall, Ben, folks. Oscar Losef, on Air Jordan. I don't know if the music's still playing, but I'm sorry enough. Anyway, it is Uncrown, Saturday, baby. Check us out tomorrow. We'll have the watch-along.

We will have the Post-Fight show. Get over to Un-Crown, read everything there, because it will get you set up exactly where you. you need to be for a whole day of vegetation on your favorite sitting device. We love you all very much. Thank you for joining us. Goodbye. See you next week. All right.