The Ariel Helwani Show - Tempers flare at PFL weigh-in, Hughes vs. Nurmagomedov, Arman Tsarukyan’s pickle, GFL | The Craic

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

On today’s episode, Petesy is joined by fellow Irish media members Andy Stevenson and Donagh Corby.Corby, who is on the scene in Dubai, gave his account of the incident between Irish and Dagestani fans at the PFL’s weigh-in for the fight between Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes (3:00).Stevenson underlined the impact a Hughes win could have on Irish MMA (18:00), before rebuking claims that this is a one-fight card (23:00) and lads gave their picks for the main event (32:00).The conversation moves to Arman Tsarukyan’s sticky situation with the UFC and whether the lads believe he should lose his title opportunity due to an eleventh hour UFC 311 withdrawal (40:00).They also discuss the idea of Sean O’Malley meeting Cory Sandhagen instead of the former champion facing Merab Dvalishvili in a rematch (47:00).Finally, the lads rank what event they’re looking forward the most this weekend between PFL, BKFC and the highly anticipated GFL Draft (51:45).

Welcome everybody, welcome back to the crack, crackheads how are you? Sorry about the time here, we were trying to get it going, we were trying to get Andy Stevenson in here to join us from lovely Dublin, just on the other side of the city from us, but it didn't go quite according to plan, but fear not, we are endeavour to get the great Southside man himself, Mr. Stevenson, on the show. So let's hope he can get his technology up to scratch and we can actually get him on here. You know, that's what we're aiming for. Big weekend for Irish MMA. We've talked about it throughout the week on the Ariel Awani show. We talked about it with the boys in the back yesterday. I had a brief appearance i said a lot i was i was channeling my inner phil o'connor i think i said a thousand words

in two minutes which was a big achievement for me but um as i said massive week pfl it's hughes v namaga made off i should have said namaga made off v hughes we have the GFL draft which is very very exciting and then of course we have as you know as the lads talked about yesterday BK FC which is very very exciting um so we may not have Mr. we may not have Mr. Andy Stevenson but we do have a man who was in Dubai who was at the heart of an incident that seemed to break out today at the PFL weigh-in between, it looks

like, as reports on Twitter are telling us Irish fans and Dagestan fans, so I'm very keen to get his take on the whole thing but first let's welcome him in. It is Mr. Dunna Corby, my arch nemesis he is just from down the road but of course he is in the middle east now dunna how are you darling be on with the pizza yeah i mean for those who i'll try and set the scene here we're we're all

on this uh call together um doing this and we just get little images of andy's frustrated face in the corner trying to get onto the show which is absolutely fantastic thank you so much for bringing that up Donna but tell me this um the mood in Dubai um it seems to have been upped quite significantly over the last few hours of this weigh-in something I did not expect to see and the weigh-ins look great by the way a really great atmosphere I could hear the Irish fans ole ole ole um you know it's the kind of thing you want to see ahead of a big fight but then of course we get a video and several videos of service online they're not very long videos it looks like about 10 seconds i'll call it a skirmish you can see it on the screen there the great andy is

putting up there for us because jordan's on again. But we see here, like, it looks like they're on the verge of kind of a fight starting. You can see some punches being thrown. Donnie, you were there. There's no point in me surmising what this video is. Tell me what it was like to be there today. Yeah, look, so basically we're doing the weigh-ins. It's all good. It's all pretty much over.

And we'll talk about the actual content of what happens at the weigh-ins later on in the show i'm sure but it just this incident it finishes up and basically for a bit of backstory it was supposed to be at uh this beach that's where the event was supposed to be initially and they basically at the last minute moved it i believe it was an issue to do with uh filming like the permit at the beach that they they had so they were allowed to film the open workouts there but then a live broadcast was not allowed. So it was moved very quickly, very hastily this morning to Coca-Cola Arena just outside. And they had a huge amount of fans there,

probably more than they expected, if I were to imagine. I mean, they're expecting 12,000 in there tomorrow night. Apparently 10,000 tickets sold, another 2,000 expected of walk-ups. So it was a big crowd the atmosphere was a lot more than i was expecting a lot of irish and a lot of uh people you know support i don't know i don't know if you call them daghestani or just like muslims in general because they're local to the area like emiratis would support a member of the family and yeah basically afterwards uh you know everyone's singing everyone's chanting when

basically all the chanting was started by the irish hughes hughes and uh ole ole ole all that stuff and then uh the dagestanis would boo that they wouldn't necessarily sing in in opposition or anything but they would just boo it and yeah basically it looked like tempers flared a little bit and another little wrinkle was that basically because of the logistical issues that come from from the venue change they didn't have a huge amount of space in the encroach like in the pen where the weigh-ins were actually going on and a lot of people got moved out so you'd see nahomwedi was out there dave roach was out there they weren't involved in this incident but like you're talking important people like nahomwedi is cornering kenny uh mcquad on the main card dave roach is cornering i think three fighters on this card so these are important

people to the show but they're not in there and yeah i guess a couple of the people were uh i think we were saying potty mccrory and um and reese mckee were involved there so yeah just something kicked off and you know it looked like maybe one or two punches were thrown but when i tell you like if people are watching and they're seeing these clips on social media they want to blow it up it was like 10 seconds worth of something and it was way more people taking out their phones and running towards the fight than the actual fighting that's the day and age that we live in donna corby i'm actually glad to hear that because my my initial fear was oh no this is gonna be another story in the irish tabloids about mma i spoke i spoke to some people on the ground over there everyone seems to

be safe like everyone's telling me it dispersed very quickly no one's hurt or anything like that like they didn't need to call in the SWAT team to get this sorted like it all kind of naturally dispersed very quickly what I would say is is uh on the ground here it has done I would like it has had about a out of 10 I would say the impact it's had on anything has been about a one or two, we almost immediately were back doing other stuff at that stage. Paul Hughes, I believe, did another appearance, met with, I think, one of the sheiks afterwards in the venue where it all happened. So they weren't exactly, you know, getting, it wasn't a situation where they went, oh, we need Paul out of here. Oh, it's unsafe. Like, he went straight back out afterwards.

I think he had gone backstage for something. And Usman obviously isn't the kind of guy who sticks around and meets with dignitaries or anything like that. But Paul is that kind of guy. And so he went and met with some of the Emirati important people right afterwards. So really on the ground here, this is not something we're talking about too much in the hotel here in Dubai. Good. I'm glad to hear it. I wouldn't say PFL mind though all the same.

These videos videos look at how much these guys hate each other peter carroll you're wrong you are wrong mate there is irish people around the country like yeah come on i'll tell you what i'll tell you what rivals dagestan they're doing it again yes that that famed rivalry between two countries who are competitive when it comes to the amount of athletes they've had be champions and be top of the leaderboards it's uh yeah but there are like there's a huge irish support huge irish before here ryan curtis is out here he wasn't at the wave he's out here um which is is sick and yeah you're seeing a lot of the um a lot of the expats are coming out to support and a lot of people who have flown i met people today who had flown for this fight so uh

yeah huge atmosphere and it really is feeling like a like a massive massive fight yeah and we'll talk you know you mentioned that talk about the way in aside from that whole issue and i'm very curious to hear about that because um we'll probably show a video of this now just in terms of a face-off that hughes had hughes and armaga made off had earlier in this week and that really got me in you know i was obviously already very excited having covered paul since his pro debut and to see him get to this moment where he's fighting for a world title and as amazing as that is sometimes you just want to see the two guys together and we got this footage of them earlier in the week and immediately they're exchanging words.

Usman's telling him, I'd go now. All this kind of stuff. Here we go. Let's go. Thank you, Andy. We can do it here. If you want, you can do it here. Oh, I love it.

They are two really confident dudes they don't want to look away this is so funny let's go we can't do it here three days who's been looking at the ground like the check and which time we're gonna do gonna do myself bro we're fighting four days you focus on that day i'm focused all day every day you're looking doesn't matter you're looking past me who are you exactly that's your mistake that's amazing i want to i want to ask you don't it like what i love about this is so we we know as irish guys we've been following paul for a very long time like this is a moment it's like an odyssey to get to this moment for paul hughes all the things he's been through with the hand breaks and the situation with cage warriors free agency like an odyssey to get to this moment for Paul Hughes. All the things he's been through with the handbrakes,

the situation with cage warriors, free agency coming along, all this stuff to get to this world title situation. But I love Usman looking at him like, the audacity of you. Like, why? Like, that's what I feel when I look at him. He's like, are you serious? Like, are you really saying this stuff? Like, he's like, i feel disrespected by your

confidence that's that's what i feel um usman is giving me um tell me what you've made being around him this week because he seems quite frosty which i like which i think oh yeah i've not said too words i've seen him in the hotel oh paul good luck nothing not interested in what i have to say at all does not want my luck my well wishes in the slightest yeah his team seemed great uh but yeah I think what's what's so fascinating about it as well we were noting this when we were on the bus back was um was it's almost the inverse of the first Ireland versus Dagestan in that it's really the Dagestani who's you know wanting to fight on the street and cause it like I'm talking a lot of

smack and you know making it like a making it more of a grudge match than it maybe is and then you know it's the Irish guy who's like all right let's focus on Saturday let's all be humble here you know it's a it's a completely different scene to the one in in Las Vegas in in 2018 and I think it will probably end a whole lot less ugly I I'd imagine as well, regardless of what the result is. So, yeah, I thought, look, Paul looks confident. He looks great. Usman looks confident. He looks good. I would say I just I struggle to imagine that what happened on Saturday night to his brother and mainly the fact that he couldn't be there was probably very upsetting for him. And I wonder how that will affect he he insists that it doesn't affect him at all he insists that it's not an issue but these are

guys that do not lose Khabib never lost Usman has never lost and now uh you know Umar has has lost this one and I think um I think it it has to be somewhat playing on his mind so yeah very very interesting fight week very uh tetchy build up and certainly you're seeing a bit more of a feud now between uh between usman and paul yeah do you like do you think um do you think that it means like this means more to uh the people in dagestan this orland thing like because i'm looking at the footage and i'm like as i said like i'm liking how usman's carrying himself with this kind of like the cheek of this guy showing up here to try and take my belt but do you think they're kind of like they all think that these guys are you know training for the last seven years to avenge

mcgregor's like six years or whatever to to avenge mcgregor's loss like he is so central to irish existence that this is all this guy has been doing for years and maybe that's why he's like because that's how it's been presented like dagestan v ireland right do you think do you think that that's what they're saying like they do see a correlation between paul hughes and that initial fight with habib and connor yeah most definitely i think so and i think i mean look if cavanaugh is more available i know that that john is currently or he was at the inauguration. I'm not sure if he's in Dubai yet, but I think he's going to be cornering a couple of the guys.

I think if anyone who was involved in the first fight were here, it would be a little bit different. We haven't seen much of Khabib yet. I know he's in Dubai as well, but even Islam, I know he wasn't involved, but he was around. Obviously, there's not going to be any Conor. He's going to be at BKFC in Philadelphia. You're not going to get, of course,

you wouldn't get a Dylan Danis type you wouldn't be there no one like any of these the central figures on that night that made it so aggravated none of them are really around so it's there's a bit of a disconnect but at the same time it's still there is still definitely something of a vibe that

like yeah these guys I think also like you would forget that Connor was very disrespectful to dagestan and to khabib and to their people and so i would imagine that they yeah but i'd imagine that they probably uh don't take too kindly to that kind of behavior either yeah that's what i was thinking like do they think that you know hughes believes all this stuff that was said this outlandish stuff that was said in October 2018. I wanted to ask, in terms of, like, we've talked about Ousmane

and how he's presenting himself. Paul has seemed elated. Like, he seems, like, to have this weightless kind of energy to him, like, where he's like, this is what is meant to happen. I am here to complete my dream. As I said to GC and New York Rick yesterday, when I was on boys in the back, like you can factor a lot of things going against Paul Hughes here in terms

of it's in Dubai. I've been to fights in Abu Dhabi, Habib fights. And as you said, like the locals there are going to support fellow Muslim guys. They're going to follow the Nurmagomedovs. They're huge, huge figures

in that part of the world. So that's playing against Paul. And then, you know, the bookies have him as a 7-2 underdog as well, which is a huge, huge line. But as much as like that reads on paper, like Usman's going to win.

I also think that lights a fire under, um, under Paul's arse. Like, I think this is exactly what he likes. He said to me before he signed before the AJ McKee fight, he was like, Oh,

thank God I'm the underdog again. I haven't been in this situation my whole career. Pretty much. He seems to, he was like, oh, thank God I'm the underdog again. I haven't been in this situation my whole career, pretty much. He seems to really relish like, oh, you guys don't know what I'm about to do to this guy. Oh, yeah, no, I think so. And I think he's certainly like, he's just someone who, look, the promotion, love him. He's embraced this whole thing so well. And I'll be honest with you, I've had these behind the scenes, not on the record conversations with your Pete Murray's and your Don Davis's

and Dan Hardy's people like that. And they've all been saying like, we really wouldn't have gone this direction with Paul Hughes. If we had a choice, right? Like we were like, he was the one who forced them to say, right,

no second fight. I want AJ McKee. Cause that's not something that the old school Bellator did. Right. Like I saw your article this week where you talked a bit about, you know, the old Bellator promotional tactic of kind of bringing in someone who's tangentially got a tie to Conor McGregor and then having them fight what a casual fan might call a bum

or might call a tomato can and, you know, build them up that way. Yeah, yours was not mine, Donahari. That wasn't in my article, mate. And then, you know, that was the that way. Yeah, your words, not mine, Donahari. That wasn't in my article, mate. But, you know, and then, you know, that was the thing, whereas Paul Hughes is very different. Like, he got signed, he got signed as a super prospect with essentially no connection to Conor. And actually, prior to his first fight in Dublin,

there was zero, like, they weren't even following each other. It seemed frosty, yes. Yeah, it wasn't great. So I think it's obviously been massive, and he basically just, he won that fight in Dublin. I didn't even necessarily i think he would admit himself not even his best performance and he immediately was like yeah aj mckee it was my number of those the names i want and everyone is saying yeah we wouldn't have necessarily gone there if it wasn't for him but he loves it and uh and and he's in great form he looks great uh he seems good i mean he seemed like i thought he

came out the better of of that exchange there in um in the the face-off video that you saw like he just looked more comfortable with it i mean it always looks a bit weird when someone is calling to like let's do it now let's do it now that always seems to be like someone with with you know a little bit of a a different energy and obviously that would have been filmed tuesday i think so uh early in the fight week right after umar had lost so he's probably pissed off anyway uh so yeah I think yeah very fascinating times and I think Paul is uh is looking great and by the way I pick him for this fight oh yeah sure mate sure um anyway let let me uh we have some breaking news on the show uh um thank you so much to our brilliant producer Andy if Jordan was here this wouldn't have happened he

wouldn't have been able to do this but because andy is here we have managed to secure mr andy stevenson here he is it's a big moment for andy coming on the crack again and we managed to get it done andy your technology is terrible but you're a lovely lad how are you getting on i don't know what kind of north side trickery is going on here but they've been trying to keep me out i had to change laptops then my microphone didn't work i see the chat saying l corby l carol and they're saying w and we want andy we want andy to come so i'm here i'm bringing the heat i don't know what these two idiots have been talking about the last while something about i don't know pts probably talking about conor

mcgregor done him i think he's i see a pfl hat there somewhere but look we're here thank you thank you to the great andy great name great producer and i'm just grateful to be here well i am grateful i'm grateful for you to be here as well i know donna is disgusted but personally me i am very very happy um andy there's a feeling and you can tell me if i'm wrong but there's a feeling that irish mma they need a poster boy to emerge of this new group ian gary very very i'd say ian and paul are pretty much neck and neck in terms of vying for that position right now do you think with a win that paul hughes can become that guy a new face for us mma of course he can um we've been crying for this for so long where the carrot has been dangled in front of irish mma where

you know let's be real the vast majority of people who follow irish mma today hadn't a clue what it was uh before the first wave of irish fighters in the ufc and then there was this great expectation of usher of course it's going to happen again there's going to be you know 25 different UFC champions and it was entirely unrealistic as we've talked about ad nauseum at this point um Paul is is the guy who can change it who can finally take Irish fighters in Bellator slash PFL to the next step we've never had a champion in that regard from Ireland um Of course, Ian Garry is doing his thing in the UFC and he looks like he's well on his way to becoming a UFC champion in time,

but he hasn't had the connection. Again, we've talked about it a lot. He has not had that connection with Irish fans. I think it's improving, but it's not to the same level that Paul Hughes can kind of go out here. We're seeing the support that he has brought throughout his Cage Warriors run.

We're seeing the reaction and the reception that he got in Dublin upon signing and making his Bellator debut there. And he's run. We're seeing the reaction and the reception that he got in Dublin upon signing and making his Bellator debut there. And of course, now we're seeing the fans are travelling to Dubai to support him in what seems like waves.

There seems to be a raucous atmosphere out there in Dubai where Donagh is right now. And I do think that he can take Irish MMA to that, not quite to the same heights. That's completely unrealistic. But I do think that there could be

a good story, a good fighter and a good personality to get behind who represents ireland and irish people and by the way i'm seeing a lot of people in the chat talking about andy's microphone no he is just that annoying that's all it is that's a hair microphone quality he's just you're just hearing a voice that is really like nails on chalkboard listen mate i've got two microphones here one of them works apparently and i'm doing my best i love you that's all i can do um it's actually really encouraging to hear like from an artist perspective that fans have traveled for this like like from what donna describes is a load of people showing up and i know paul actually puts a lot of effort into this himself uh from his cage warriors day, I think you guys will remember, he always had that Facebook page or was it an Instagram page?

It was like big news tours and he organized buses, everything like that. And they've done it for this event here. And I think that's really, really cool. Because it is, it's a trick. Dubai, expensive trip for Irish people. And to see them show up and be that vocal at a press conference where we assumed that Ousmanman would be the heavily favoured guy on the ground in Dubai.

I mean, that's really promising, isn't it, Donagh? Oh, definitely. And look, there's also a lot of Irish expats here. There's a lot of guys who I know from school. Kenny and I are from the same area as UPT in D15, and he's telling me, you know, oh, this guy from school is going to be there. And people we know from, like,

secondary school who, like, have now lived in Dubai and, you know, might be out on, you know, different work stuff or whatever. So a lot of that, obviously, you put the name Nurmagomedov on a poster in the Middle East and people will show up, whether it's, you know, even if it's Saeed Nurmagomedov,

it's not even related. I'm sure people would still go to those fights. And I think, yeah, it's a massive atmosphere atmosphere i mean i i couldn't believe what i saw today to be honest with you there was about there's a couple hundred people there uh on a new like in a location that had just been announced a new location and uh middle of the day as well huge huge atmosphere and i think there's like i said 12 000 expected tomorrow and i think usman's rattled by it i'll be honest with you now maybe that's just my irish bias talking but if you saw his little post thing interview with dan hardy he kind of took the mic off down and was like hey you people out there

you know that you guys can chat what you want but there's 100 dagasani fighters here and you could try saying it to our face actually if you want to talk about that brawl maybe instigated by uzman nummer of telling the dagasaniis there to fight with the Irish people during his interview with Dan Hardy I forgot about that part uh but yeah he's like it is it's great and it's such a great story and I think it's great because Paul is is so likable and Usman is so much more villainous than Khabib like he's so much more naturally easy like Khabib is actually you find yourself quite liking Khabib I think think. I definitely found at the time it was tough to be like, this guy's the most evil guy in the world. We hate him.

Floyd was easy to hate. I think even Eddie Alvarez could get a bit annoying at times. Not really, but a little bit. This isn't just a list of fighters you don't like, don't I? This is a different conversation. Yeah, don't like this guy. He's an asshole. Tom Asselin, asshole. Yeah, but I think that Usman is really the perfect villain for Paul Hughes.

And yeah, great atmosphere today and really exciting. I think he may, hopefully, I hope he's a bit rattled. Yeah, Andy. I stopped myself from clutching my pearls yesterday when I was on the Boys in the Back show. And they said, I think everyone would agree that this is a one-fight card. You, I can imagine, as the Irish-focused journalist here with three other Irish guys on this card, Kenny, as Donna mentioned earlier, John Mitchell's on the card as well, Nate Kelly, a brilliant, brilliant prospect from Fingless a guy who i feel nate is in a situation

where he wants to be counted among dean gary's and paul hughes and i think he's in a situation where he's in against a guy from dagestan it's only dagestan guys he's in against a guy from dagestan a really tough test um tell me are the lads right is it only a one fight card hughes none am i gonna made off you may as well just have the thing off up until then. The disrespect towards you. I mean, we've got a humongous card here full of incredible Irish talents. As you mentioned, Nathan Kelly

riding an 11 fight win streak. This guy lost his first two fights as a professional. You know, was battling some mental health issues, was battling struggles with drugs, which he came out about later on. And since since then he's gone on this absolute tear 11 fights nine finishes uh 11 wins he's seven and oh inside the bellator slash pfl cage i mean this guy's primes to if he can you know overcome this test to announce himself as the next uh let's say paul hughes the next irish guy to put his hand up and say you know

what i want to be in those tournament mixes i want to be uh fighting for titles of course we've got the other title fight between nemcoff and tim johnson who's not excited for that one it's actually disgraceful they said that really now now just saying there's another title fight gc and rick saying this it's awful we've got john mitchell the local boy, boat to Ireland, but also to Dubai. Going to bring the waves, the absolute waves of fans to this fighting against another guy. And yeah, we've got some brilliant fights. On a serious note, the Kenny Mokunwana,

this guy has been, he's been struggling to get a fight for ages. He left Bellator. That's right. He was signed with Aries, never came to fruition. And now he's kind of been, you know, he's been struggling to get a fight for for agency left bellator that's right we're signed with uh aries never came to fruition and now he's kind of been you know he's given this opportunity but really like if you look who's going in against her ibrahim ibrahimov he's the guy right who's his brother plays for man united if i two of his brothers three brothers three brothers

not one i think two or three i think there's there's one who's like on the verge of the first team 216 is it not two brothers on the verge of the first team, 216. Isn't that two brothers and him, which is the three brothers? That could be it. But how about this? He had trials at Man City before he went to... He has just signed for Man United.

No, yeah, I wish. But he had trials at Man City before deciding to go to MMA. And I think if you look at who's the next Khabib, who's the next big star out of that region in Dagestan, I think Ibrahim Ibrahimov has a good shout, but he's got a very tough test ahead of him against our boy from d15 kenny that well i would have said the other way around i would have said that the way they're building uh ibrahim who lives in manchester very tough to be fighting out of dagestan when you're from manchester but um against kenny i thought that was the tough tough draw like when

i look at all the others for us i'm fair play to kenny for taking this fight because the way they're talking about ibrahim is like the same way as they're talking about doom bay early on dakota like cues like this is the way they're talking about this guy this guy is an uber prospect obviously when you've become a family tree full of players of that caliber so many of of that caliber like your generic uh pool is obviously insane and then you're put up against kenny um do you not think that's the toughest one for the irish irish charges on the night well hughes hughes take away hughes and hughes man hughes definitely is the toughest job but but i would say that kenny you know the other three kenny's got the toughest

right now i will say nathan kelly was originally slated to fight hasan uh magomed sharapov obviously the famed to beat magomed sharapov, obviously the famed Zabit Magomed Sharapov's younger brother. That never came to fruition. Obviously, he ended up pulling out of that fight and Nathan got the replacement. But when we think of, again, looking at it from the Irish angle here,

the whole conversation around Bellator and that Irish run for the space of about five years was the SPG bias, the matchmaking. Well, if you look at this one, Kenny McInerney, SPG Ireland fighter, he's certainly not getting an easy test here. I do think that's one of the tougher ones of the draw. The way they seem to be prepping or positioning this card

is the prelims. I spoke with, as I was clutching my own pearls earlier on today i spoke with the member from of the pr team from from pfl and the way they were kind of saying it was that the prelims are essentially angled towards the the mina uh kind of area the middle east north uh north africa so it's a lot of that's where this guy that's where the guy john mitchell is fighting is from suheil is that he was on the the MENA tournament. Yeah, so the conversation I was having was around this, we're seeing brawls taking place and a lot of animosity ramping up and you've got John Mitchell on the corner of the Dagosan fighter.

Seems like a pretty terrible idea to have him in the same changing room. Yeah, hang on. I want to ask you about that. I saw this Andy's podcast, The Old Triangle, absolutely brilliant, especially for Irish MMA consumers. It's the best show you can listen to. I saw the clip earlier this week, just so we can give the audience an idea of what's going on here. So all of the Irish guys are in a dressing room together,

and John finds out, like, no, you're actually going to be in with the Dagestan lads. Surely, surely that's been remedied, Andy. Can you please tell us it's been remedied? I don't think it has been remedied, but I do think that it's not. I'm going to take PFL at their word, and I don't think it's as big of a deal as I initially thought.

But still, I think it's a bad idea. John Mitchell is a Cork fighter. He's from Cork in the southwest of Ireland. He has been living in Dubai for the past four years or so, training out there. And look, he's got a big fan base out there too. There's a great community kind of behind him. They see him as one of their own. So you have the prelim section of the card is stacked with these kind of Middle East based fighters uh john is kind of grouped in with those and so he's sharing a dressing room for the prelims now what i'm told is and what you will notice on the the card is that all of the dagestani fighters are on the main card and up so the the thought process there is that well they're not actually going to cross paths so yes he is in the same dressing room as as the one that they will be in but they won't be in there at the same time now i sincerely hope that that is the case uh considering the scenes that we've seen so far,

because I don't think that's a good idea whatsoever, but perhaps it's not quite as drastic or as, yeah, hopefully it won't go too badly there. It should be okay. Yeah, good. I'm happy that you're optimistic. Like, after, you know, putting this all over the web, we need to be disgusted about this. I call call them idiotic okay fair enough fair enough yeah and

corbs you've been there is there any fights um that really have a lot of metal uh over there like when you're there you're like jeez i can't wait to see these lads going on maybe one that's flowing under the radar yeah i mean look we did kind of talk about the ibrahimov and the the kenny fight i mean that's that's a big one i think nathan kelly's fight is is big too there's i mean i think uh one fight that's kind of interesting is this vadim nemkov one in that when i spoke to don davis a couple of weeks ago obviously he was supposed to fight cory anderson and don davis pretty much said to me on the record he was like like, yeah, he was afraid to fight Corey Anderson. I want an easier fight.

And he went for, you know, he, he wanted to fight an easier opponent. So we got him Tim Johnson. And I mean, if I'm Tim Johnson, I'd be very offended by that,

that I'm considered a way easier opponent than light heavyweight Corey Anderson. You know, and that was an interesting, but then we're talking to Pete Murray this week and all of a sudden he's saying, well, you know, if Nemcov. But then we're talking to Pete Murray this week and all of a sudden he's saying, well, you know, if Nemkov wins, maybe Francis Ngannou for him.

So that sounds like they've got plans in place. And I think Francis is maybe, he might be due to be there tomorrow night or maybe he is not now going to be in attendance. But if he was there and Nemkov wins, they might do a little face-off or something. But that seems to be like, that was the direction. Like Pete Murray doesn't say things unless he means them.

And I think, he also, he's not like a guy who really like, he's not a guy who's like making fantasy matchups, right? That's not the kind of, that's like, he's not as much of a fan of the sport

as Don Davis is, or I mean, certainly not a Dan Hardy. So I think if he is mentioning that, then that's something that has been discussed. So yeah, I guess this Vadim Nemkov one will be interesting. But Chase, I don mentioning that, then that's something that has been discussed. So yeah, I guess this Vadim Nemkov one will be interesting, but I don't know.

Tim Johnson's a big puncher too. So we'll see. I'm so happy to hear you saying that because we were only talking about yesterday. How I think one of the big Achilles heels for PFL is the fact that sometimes they don't do a good job of teasing what's coming down the line particularly with champions like with dakota right now kind of feels like at a loose end she's climbed to the top of the mountain what's next uh we've been talking about liz karmouch people don't seem to be

too excited about that but i would love to see that like just to wet the appetite for uh francis fight potentially down the line obviously the first time it happened uh didn't go down so well that night after poor old ryan bader took a beating from ferreira and then he wouldn't do the face off so i'd really like to see that happening um we we better have a talk about how this fight will actually go with paul hughes and usman amagamadov i gave my feelings yesterday on the show with the lads so um andy we'll start with you what do you think we're going to see from paul hughes tomorrow against usman amagamadov and why is it that you believe he can get the job done and take that oh from habib's cousin i think we're going to see the best Paul Hughes we've ever seen.

And the reason why I say that is not just because I'm Irish or because I've been covering Paul Hughes. It's every single time that he has had to step up a level,

he has delivered. When it comes to his Cage Warriors title fights, when it comes to the fight that he had most recently against AJ McKee, a fight in which you speak to his coaches after the fact, they said it was a terrible camp, it was a terrible weight cut,

or sorry, not a weight cut, it was a terrible, due to illnesses and things like this. Yet still he delivers, and I think that Paul Hughes, his entire career has kind of been building towards this moment. You know, he's not, this is not a fight where it's an irish puncher going in against a well-rounded dagestani grappler who can also strike they're an incredibly high level fighters who are very evenly matched i would say who are very skilled in all areas like you know irish fighters are not known for our grappling but throughout paul's career he has always been a very solid wrestler he's always been a very solid grappler with finishing abilities via submissions.

And I really think that we're just going to see two of the best fighters in the world going toe-to-toe tomorrow. Now, that's not to discount at all Usman Armagomedov, who is literally dangerous everywhere. Again, look, they've built this fight as this Ireland versus Dagestan 2 if we go back to Conor versus Khabib essentially it was a striker versus a grappler for the most part

of course they can both do you know Conor can wrestle Conor can he's got Jiu Jitsu the same way Khabib is striking of course we saw

with the knockdown but this is like the evolution of that in that they're entirely well rounded it's not a puncher it's not a strier it's not a

striker versus a grappler it's two high-level elite mixed martial artists and i do think that we're going to see the best paul hughes tomorrow night now can he get it done 100 will he i don't know i i back him i think that he will get it done but i'm not certain like the usman or maga made of is so good at fighting um and there's no reason to believe that tomorrow night is going to be the night that he falters. That's not the case here. But I do think that we're going to see the absolute best version of Paul Hughes and I do think that there is something to what Dono was saying.

The energy that each are carrying into this fight, Hughes knows that he's going to have to go through hell. He knows just how good Use Armagomedov is. Ousmane has not shown the same level of respect at all. He's been outright dismissive. He seems to be angered at the fact that people are even talking about them in the same breath. And I do think that's a very dangerous way to approach a fight. Now, maybe it's all part of the build-up.

I don't think so. I think that's him being sincere. And I think that could be his downfall tomorrow night he's doing a lot of coulds perhaps all this kind of stuff weigh in Andy what is your pick

give us you said you know I think he's going to do it he might not do it who knows give us a fucking pick Andy

I said this on the L triangle earlier this week and I'm going to stick by it Paul Hughes round three knockout oh donna corby now now that we got andy stevenson off the fence there um who are you picking all right let's see here so let's talk about who's my number about of a little bit

obviously uh great great fighter undefeated uh and clearly clearly has skills to pay the bills. The issue is we have not seen him tested against top, top, top, top, top level opposition. Obviously, he beat Benson Henderson. 2023 Benson Henderson, not exactly the same win as maybe a 2013 Benson Henderson might have been. So if you look at his record in Bellator, Mike Hamill wins by decision. Manny Muro, he knocks out. Patrick Pietila, household name uh chris gonzalez and then he wins the belt from patricky pitbull that's patricky not patricio um who had won the belt vacated by his brother against peter queely if you recall um in the

rematch there then benson henderson again 2023 benson henderson i think immediately retired afterwards or maybe had one more fight and then retired then he had a no contest with Brent Primus he beat Brent Primus but it was overturned because of the drugs test which apparently was fine so then Alexander Shably

which is probably his best win I just don't know is Paul Hughes is there any of those guys you would back to beat Paul Hughes right now like is there any of those guys who you would back to beat Paul Hughes right now? Is there any of those guys who if they fought Paul Hughes on Saturday night, you think they'd beat? No. I don't think so. I would be surprised. I think maybe Primus would give him a competitive fight. I think obviously Shably would maybe give him a competitive fight.

But I think Paul Hughes is the toughest opponent he will have faced. And look, I mean, you could have said the same about Conor when he fought Khabib as well. I mean, you could have said Khabib's record outside of maybe a couple of sort of trademark wins. Like he had won the belt as well from Aliyah Quinta, right, because of the cancellations of the Tony Ferguson and Max Holloway fights. And he was not a super active fighter like Guzman's a bit more active than Khabib was at the time. So I think personally, I'm coping, by the way, I'm coping and seething about all this. I really want Paul Hughes to win. So I hope that that's the result uh but yeah i guess if you run through the record um i think paul hughes shouldn't um shouldn't have too much necessarily to worry about and also i do think this umar thing

has to be playing a factor like i do think these guys don't know how to lose like these are not guys who lose generally so the fact that he wasn't able to be there the fact that he had to watch his brother go through all of that uh from a distance and then has to go and fight himself the following week under all this pressure with all this media scrutiny um i think that it might have an effect as well again do i think that do i hope it probably hope it but uh yeah i i paul gave out to me he came first thing after the agent mckee fight he comes up and goes proved you wrong because of something i said on the crack so i'm picking paul hughes to win i want him to win and i think he will i think pc is having some uh audio issues

right now this is live great some great loads don't know how are you yes look at the pt guy live broadcasting i can go this way sometimes. So, yeah, I'm now your host of The Crack. Sorry, I'm back. I'm back. Oh, okay, okay. The second I take over. Everyone must have been panicked. I accidentally hit a button on my mic that Frank's always given out to me about.

Sorry, Andy. Apologies, world. We're live, pal. What I was going to ask you guys about is we have a few moving situations within the UFC. I am trying to show you guys about is uh we have a few moving situations within the ufc i am trying to show you guys uh show you guys off to the world like it's not just irish mma these guys can speak about they can speak about it all they can speak about arman sarukian and potentially him not getting his fight again this is something that was on earlier on the week obviously we've got a lot

of previews to do but uh dana very annoyed it seems that arman did not fight at ufc 311 arman seemingly accepting that i might not be the next guy who will have to will fight for the title um andy stevenson tell me how do you feel about this we see a graphic up on the screen andy's giving here. He's not getting the title shot. That means he's going to have to fight his way back to the title. That is what Dana White said in reaction to Armin Sarugian's 11th hour withdrawal. Seemed like the natural guy to fight next. Here's Armin. I agree with Dana White.

Once my back heals, I'll be ready to prove I'm the true number one contender by taking on anyone they put in front of me Andy um do you feel as though Arman is just kind of accepting his fate at this stage like what good is it going to do me to to protest this decision that Dana White has already made yeah I mean to be honest it's probably the best move you can make I would say like it's it's completely it's entirely unfair of you know mma is unfair like the ufc is oftentimes unfair uh dana you know basically said without outright saying it that he didn't think um you know that he should have not fought i think he or that rather he believes

he should have fought and you know he kind of gave a non-answer to to whether they you know whether the doctors had cleared him or not um but i mean what are you supposed to do when you're in armin saruki in shoes like you know they're clearly pissed off at him or at least dana's it sounded like from what he was saying to ariel that hunter campbell was a bit more empathetic to his situation you know it's like you know you're young there'll be lots of chances um but i mean what are you supposed to do when you're when you're when you've caught the crosshairs of dana white and he's your employer it's probably best to just like yeah you know what i'm gonna fight my way back and show i can do attitude and show

an attitude of um it's inevitable that you're going to get to the title because you're willing to fight the best in the division and you're going to beat the best in the division because you know you're better than them um i think in the heat of the moment in the aftermath that's the that's the approach that you take. I think cooler heads will probably prevail and we will see him fight for the title next. But let's just take a chill. Whether it's right or wrong, you need to be able to just see the lay of the land, read the room and be like, OK, I'm going to take it on the chin here. I'm going to give a positive attitude and then we'll have a serious conversation maybe uh you know maybe a month from now when uh when things have calmed down should he be next on it i mean i don't know who the next contender is um charles olivera

they're saying will be the right who islam's already smoked uh like i no but i don't think like it's not a super compelling fight to me. I thought it was going to be competitive the first time. I was really excited about it the first time. And I don't think he's... So what has he done? He's beat Chandler again. He lost to Sarukian. It's not like he's sprinting through the division.

I mean, look, it's not exactly the most packed up division either. And Islam is so dominant. But yeah, i'm not not enamored with it uh i think i mean unless they wanted to let ilia come up and they want to let ilia go for the second belt um i think sarukin's got to be the next one yeah there's all types of problems with this kind of champions moving up i feel it just it kind of sacrifices a division to to some degree like as bad as they're trying to make arman feel about this i feel like he he will be he will have felt like you know this situation occurred i had to withdraw i wouldn't have been at my best like back pain you're suffering for

with a back injury before you fight islam makashef what like i mean come on you're not you're not gonna be doing yourself any favors tom aspinall fought through the exact same thing right daniel cormier i think i mean heavyweights tend to be just if you're bigger so you're on. You're not going to be doing yourself any favours. Tom Aspinall fought through the exact same thing, right? Daniel Cormier, I think. I mean, heavyweights tend to... If you're bigger... Oh, so you're on Dana's side here, is what you're saying, Tony. He could have fought. It's a joke that he didn't fight.

I don't think it's a joke that he didn't fight. I think that, look, generally... I know these are mad examples, but just in Irish MMA, Conor fought through some bad injuries to fight Chad Mendes, to fight Khabib. Ian Gary fought through a pretty bad injury in his Cage Warriors title fight. And then at the top, top level, you mentioned Tom Aspinall. Daniel Cormier fought through a pretty bad injury, I think, against Derek Lewis, I want to say, but maybe Stipe the second

time um and i think look someone not from our man's background maybe does fight in that situation but of course the fighter first uh the fighter first answer is to say that dane is wrong dana's bad and he shouldn't have done that uh and look i thought moicano was a lot more fun anyway so i thought it was class if we kind of got got slotted in and i think it's great the production team certainly uh didn't love that i imagine the uh the 11th there were switch and then with all the graphics in the intuit dome but one thing that moicano has underlined on his pre his uh previous appearance on ariel's show this week is a disdain for paddy pimble which we were all quite aware of but andy isn't that the fight to make with paddy pimble and moicano at this stage obviously paddy had the video come out moicano's reacting to that the

video uh with him and orleans and dennis frimpong of course that was having a gym battle a real throwback to the gracie heydays of the 90s. But I think that is a huge fight because of what Moicano has become and what Paddy is. In the UK, you're putting him in against Moicano, who's going to talk a lot of shit, who is very good on the ground. I think a lot of the conversations have been, oh, they're putting Paddy in squash matches. Once he gets this guy on the ground, it's over.

Granted, Moicano had a pretty emphatic loss to Islam on the ground, but he is a very, very good jiu-jitsu player, and I just think it's a fight that the fan base are crying out for. Yeah, I mean, also, you know, call Paddy out these days online, and it sounds like you do get a fight, as you mentioned about old Dennis Frimpong there. So it's a tactic that could work here for Moicano. I mean, yeah,

I'd love to see it. I think that it's a step up in the right direction for Paddy, especially given Moicano's kind of rise to fame over the past couple of years

with the personality that he's now shown. I think it's a great fight. I think, as you mentioned, you know, Paddy, when people think of Paddy,

they think of his jiu-jitsu. Well, it's a great test against moicano and look they've been going back and forth for a while now so like why not i mean to be honest with patty there's plenty of fights like it doesn't have to be moicano like you look at a michael chandler uh you look at a benil dariush and matthias gamrot dan hooker would be a great fight it really doesn't matter which opponent you put patty in there with right now but yeah i would watch the shit out of a moicano fight work for him i i don't think it necessarily matters i think fans specifically want to see him get that step up obviously you know he smoked bobby green in there

uh in manchester and i think that um you know let's just see him against the top 10 guy now he's ranked 12th in the world moicano's currently ranked 10th why not let's go for it and you know the shit talk in that one's going to be amazing as well be so good i mean they should actually charge money for that press conference like that would be absolutely fantastic i absolutely love that um from lightweight to bantamweight we had a discussion after mirab's win over uh umer brother of o usman which we have highlighted at the top of the show could he be carrying that solitary loss into this fight week with but uh immediately the conversation when mirab wins is who's next everyone's like sean o'malley's

available you can slot him in their immediate rematch but we have had a bit of a well an option put out there by mr cory sandhagen and i believe we have a video of it there mr mr sandhagen not too keen on marab's idea and he in fact wants a go at mr omali so hey let's be real omali has no business fighting marab for an immediate rematch he got beat up in the first fight he's gonna get beat up in the second fight no one wants to see that fight I'm not booked yet I want to fight I am so damn bored I'll even give this for as much time as he wants the way that Aljamain gave him as much time as he wants just UFC make the fight that the fans want to see which is me and O'malley make it happen soon i'm so i love carrie sandhagen man oh my god like i just want to say the lengths that you have to go to

to to push sandhagen to making a video like this like he is not this guy and he's coming out and calling him out look he makes some he makes some valid points at the start there um we talked about it earlier in the week like if if o'malley fights marab again and marab continues to win like marab looks fantastic at the moment as he did against umar at 311 but if o'malley loses again he's put himself behind the eight ball in terms of future title fights joseph benavidez all these guys, Robert Whittaker when Stolbender was there. You know, we see this situation an awful lot. Is there an argument for Sandhagen v. O'Malley instead of Murab's rematch with O'Malley doing it?

Yeah, no, I think what would be more compelling if you were going to do another fight and leave Murab on the sidelines for a bit would probably be the Peter Yan and Sean O'Malley rematch I think that would probably be one that makes more sense um I mean like a lot of people think Peter Yan won that that first fight and um I would probably be one of those people and I think it was super competitive I think that's the fight more interesting and then also the winner of that matchup. They both had good, solid fights with Murab. I know that Murab,

he did dominate Sean O'Malley, but at the same time, with the way MMA fights are judged and scored, O'Malley was coming on late. I don't agree with O'Malley's wild argument that he somehow won three rounds of that fight, but I at least... The Sugar Sean Commission said that he did,

didn't they ruin the commission said he won all 510 8 but he's still on the field according to that commission yeah exactly so no i thought uh yeah it was an interesting uh it was it's interesting but i think sandhagen is is quite a bit down the queue as far as i'm concerned and would need probably a big win to even be in the sean o'malley discussion so i I think, yeah, I would rather see O'Malley and Jan battle it out once more and then we can do the winner against Murab in a rematch. Yeah.

Not that I fancy any of them against Murab by the way. Yeah, he's a nightmare. Do you, like, I mean, John Wood made a case for me before that fight against Umar that, you know, they're dying for this like one of these nomadic made offs to take them the the mantle left by habib but he's like what if mirab's the new

abib and like the more you like you saw the reaction to him winning that fight and it's nearly like it plays out like a shakespearean play he's so like the first two rounds go completely against him i know you're like all you need to do is beat this undefeated fighter for the next three rounds and you'll win the fight and he's like yeah no problem and he goes and does it so it's like this emotional journey he's bringing the crowd with him on and i think his stock couldn't be higher after that one um i think what's hilarious is how about this this? He lost to Ricky Bandejas. How wild is that?

Only the greats lose to Ricky Bandejas. James Gallagher. I think James Gallagher actually maybe, you know, they got these new contracts and I don't know. Maybe we do, well, it would be Marab versus Gallagher, but yeah, maybe James Gallagher over there. He could fight for the Bandeway belt.

Georgia v. Ireland won. It's the one everybody's been waiting for. Yeah, it's a super hot rivalry after Sean O'Malley represented Ireland the last time. I think that's what we need to see. But I think two Ricky Bandejas victims, maybe Ricky Bandejas gets the rematch. How about that? He's back. He was actually... Back, maybe?

I really thought Bandejas could have a great career. Yeah, it didn Patchy Bix. Yeah, it didn't go the way I expected it to. What I wanted to ask you guys is, obviously we talked a lot about PFL today. The lads talked about BKFC a lot yesterday. We've seen Conor's amazing call to arms

to the BKFC fighters last night. Fantastic stuff. There's also the GFL draft this weekend lad so oh yeah i mean that's the one right that's the one we've all been waiting for what i wanted to ask is if you had to rank them andy in terms of what you are most looking forward to uh you know one being the one you want to watch the most three being the the one you want to watch the least. Where are you going with this? We're talking between BKFC and GFL. BKFC and GFL.

PFL. PFL, way... You should have gone 3-2-1. It would have been way more exciting for the audience. No, no, fuck that. No, no, no. PFL's way ahead. I mean, it's so different.

I do want to see... I do want to see Eddie Alvarez throw down in Philly with no gloves on. That's just going to be violent. But it's a very different kind of wanting to see. It's like a slow car crash. It's like the carnival has come to town and there's this freak show happening. And that is this GFL draft where they have 20 000 fighters ready to go lined up all all contracted yet multiple promotions coming out and disputing these contracts and perhaps

threatening legal action um we have fighters who are competing in different weight classes apparently norman park has a nickname of hot chocolate now that i had never heard of that one before that's from Fame MMA. Do they just, did they do the Danny Roberts one? Hang on, is Norman Park in the GFL draft? Oh yeah, baby. What? Oh yes, oh yes.

Tom Higgins is in it as well. You know that you're in the PFL draft also, PC, right? Don't know, I got the contract yesterday. I'm still waiting on it. I'm fighting Juer i want to castro yeah i mean like this gfl draft is is gonna be interesting let me tell you but like what does it mean no one knows um will it ever happen probably not and that's about as optimistic as i can be right now so i kind of want to see that so you know what that's number two

gfl number two and then number three yeah yeah I'll cash that on Sunday okay that's a deranged hang on we're really looking forward to Dunn's day because Dunn has traveled Dunn has traveled

to all over the world to watch BKFC he's a massive BKFC fan Marbella I believe you and Dizzy Rascal there so tell me what's it going to be

okay so I've been to two BKFC's Albuquerque, New Mexico last year no 2023 for Bryce Hall versus Jeep Perez, remember? How could you forget? How could you forget? And then I would have traveled to Philadelphia for this probably if I weren't in Dubai.

But I was at, yeah, Marbella, Ben the Bane Davis versus Oscar Willis. There was also a main event. I couldn't tell you what it was. I think... I genuinely couldn't tell you what the main event was of that card. No, Austin Trout fought someone. So, yeah, I think the GFL drafts could be so funny. If they were all in person, it would be better.

If you could see Dylan Danis' live reaction to not getting drafted by any team, that would be very like dylan dennis is in the job oh yeah so yeah at least he's been announced as being in the draft he's posted about it tony ferguson as well tony ferguson is in there uh like i said tom egan is in there so i think it's going to be a really fascinating thing i mean look it's going to be hilarious i won't be staying up till what time is it 8 p.m 1 a.m 1 a.m Irish time 5 a.m Dubai well constitutionally we may if our president dictates we may have to watch it you never know yeah well no BKFC I'll probably have to stay up and work uh first so I'll do that but yeah not staying up for the GFL so I guess no in at number three is GFL but I'm

really excited about it nonetheless uh in at number two Bkfc also joey duecco on that bkfc card the guy who uh uh allegedly uh is was the beginning of the end for anthony joshua's career in that sparring session uh and then in the main event on pfl yeah you got paul hughes and he's my number one so yeah i got pfl gotta be number one uh don't call me a shill for that, but it's, yeah, it's got to be number one. It's a huge event. So yeah, PFL number one, Big FC two, and number three, GFL draft. But that's three events I'm really excited for.

And three different moods you can take into them as well, which are like, you know, GFL is like our version of watching, keeping up with the Kardashians or something at this stage. Like it's, like, as you said, Andy, like the stories about these guys who are contracted to different organizations commenting under GFL's posts,

announcing them as being in the draft, being like, please remove this. I'm still contracted to the PFL. Unbelievable. I'm actually, I'm going to watch all of them. Most excited for Paul, of course. But yeah, it's a very... It's a busy L week in combat sports

despite the UFC not being here. There's lots to feast on in terms of entertainment. Oh, yeah. So, lads, may their knuckles become knives, as they say, as we commonly say in Ireland. Gloves off, baby. Gloves off. That's it. Gloves off. Their knuckles are now knives.

Anyway, lads, that is all that we have today. Thank you to Andy. I'm sorry for muting my mic at one stage, but I'm very happy to see you two guys being very cordial with each other.

I just could have burst out. You think Dubai scenes are bad. These two could go off at each other. We have to do it in different locations in case they get physical it's absolutely mental but andy stevenson of severe ma and the l triangle podcast donna corby of bloody elbow thank you so much for joining us thank you to bloody elbow.com biggest website never made baby don't know we forgot to we forgot to turn on pc for this one yeah no're running out of time now. So thank you very much.

Ten more minutes. Thank you to us, the producer, to Andy for taking George's place. We love you so much. Enjoy the fight.