The Ariel Helwani Show - The Craic: Behind the Scenes at The Ariel Helwani Show Live from Las Vegas

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

Returning to The Ariel Helwani Show feed for the first time since its inception in 2022, The Craic with Petesy Carroll goes behind the scenes at the soft launch of The Ariel Helwani Show at the Venetian Sportsbook in Las Vegas, the day before UFC 306. Featuring commentary from the all-new Uncrowned roster with appearances by the man of the moment, Ariel Helwani, his loyal lieutenant NewYorkRic, the biggest baby face in the industry Conner Burks, the legendary bard Chuck Mindenhall and Uncrowned editor-in-chief, Shaheen Al Shatti. Petesy recaps all the thrills and spills of a magical launch in Sin City.

The crack is back on the Ariel Hawane show feed. This is PT Carol. You might remember that this show was in fact created on this feed maybe two years ago. We eventually went out and made our own feed for The Crack of Pizzi Carol and now we're back. This time in the Uncrowned era and what an exciting time this is. I mean I'm just back from Las Vegas where we had the soft lunch and it was absolutely incredible. For those of you who don't know, this will be the new Friday show on the Ariel Helwani show feed, on the Uncrowned feed. And as I said already, I am Pete C. Carroll. You might know me from the Ringer MMA show,

which I did with Ariel Helwani and Chuck Mendenhall. You might know me from my time at MMA Fighting, where I did Eurobash with the great Noel McGrath. You might know me from my time at MMA Fighting, where I did Eurobash with the great Noel McGrath. You might know me from my coverage of Conor McGregor, dating back to 2011, 2010 maybe. I've been doing this a long time, but this is the most exciting thing I've ever been involved with. So for those of you who don't know, I'm kind of based in the European side of things. That's how I came to prominence, covering European stars. You name it, I've probably covered them. Recently, the likes of Paddy Pim, the Tom Aspinall, guys like that.

I've been covering them since their early fledgling cage warriors days. And now obviously they are having great successes. McGregor, of course, being a classic example, but as well as that, Ioanni Njajic, Darren Till back in the day, Jack Shore, Leon Edwards. I mean, you name it. And obviously if they're Irish, I've definitely covered them too. I'm so excited to be a part of this. And it all really came crashing home there in Vegas

to how absolutely crazy this whole situation is. You know, obviously, you guys have seen the team that's been assembled here. And we're about to talk to all the guys who worked that night. The great man himself, Ariel Owani, without whom none of this would be possible. His Honorable Lieutenant, New York Rick. The biggest baby face in the industry, GC, the greatest feature writer of all time in mixed martial arts, possibly in combat sports, Chuck Mendenhall,

and, you know, a fellow great in Shaheen Al-Shadi, who is now going to be the editor-in-chief of this uncrowned thing. You're going to hear from them all. I recorded this directly after the show, but what a show it was. I'm seeing things from Ariel that, you know, he's number six in the charts in the US. Absolutely brilliant. What a start. The scale of the thing, what Yahoo did to make this happen in the Venetian sports book. Absolutely incredible. Like mind blown i have never been involved with such a a big and ambitious project you know greg matt addy ben stark all these guys who helped uh make it happen

on yahoo's end i'm forgetting so many people there when i say this as well but just absolutely incredible we had aunt evans I finally met Ant Evans. My last show on my old feed, The Crack of Pizzi Carol, was with Ant Evans. Las Vegas native. Former star of the UFC PR team. Now video wizard. Ant Evans. Unfortunately, the only person we're not going to hear from today on the show is one of my besties

mysterious frank frank was there it was just he was so deep in the edit as my great friend abby subban would say that i didn't want to disturb him and it ended up taking a very long time to the point where i was out eating with ariel's agent jerry and you know everybody was meant to have this big group dinner and then they arrived in like an hour later so absolutely crazy but um just to give you a scale of what this room was like on the day like you saw the guests we're all chilling out there Ariel's friends there you're gonna hear John Beer reference an awful lot throughout this show today because I'm obsessed with the guy he's Ariel's friend you'll hear Ariel will give him the full intro in his segment which is coming up first here but um what a fascinating dude but as

well as him luminaries from the MMA world just in and out all day we had Casey O'Neill in there we had Roy Jones Jr in there Jim Blampley, Figgy, Figgy Smalls, Davidson Vigorato, Captain Eric, Chael Sonnen, Steve O. I mean, we're just, our heads are spinning back there in that green room. And the vibes were impeccable, of course. But I thought this would be a nice way to reintroduce myself, give you guys the scoop from backstage. Excuse me. But yes, here they are. I thought this would be a nice way to reintroduce myself, give you guys the scoop from backstage. Excuse me. But, yes, here they are.

As I said, in this order, you're going to hear from Ariel Hawani, New York Rick, GC, then Chuck Mendenhall, then Shaheen Alshadi. Enjoy it. I'll be back every Friday. This is the first one. Get ready. Mwah. The man of the hour, Ariel Awani. Amazing to see what you did today.

Let's just look here or there. Yeah, look at me. I'm the one fucking talking to you. Do you think I'm going to do the Gareth A. Davis where you just... Come on, man. You look fantastic, first of all. I think you've slimmed down. I think... I mean, you look like a...

No, but you just look beautiful now. Look at the fuck... Oh, my God. I'm so tired. I'm so tired. I'm so tired. The first thing you did was you give me shit for asking you to do this. Listen, this is my idea. How can I give you shit?

Well, sort of my idea. You're kind of peer pressured. We workshopped it, as they say in the business. Here we are backstage at the Venetian, the Yahoo Sportsbook. Just finished a three-hour show. Everyone seems happy. The vibes are immaculate. Can I tell you I'm extremely annoyed?

Two people bailed. Why do you focus on the negative, on an otherwise? I'm annoyed because I predicted this. I predicted it. I saw it coming a million miles away. Stick to Old Faithful. Stick to the ones that you know are going to show up but anyway um i signed my contract with yahoo on august 21st it's september 13th that's 23 days

ago right for all these people who have never worked together to come together and pull off something like this not in a studio not in a controlled space in a sports book in las vegas with a million different factors involved it's pretty freaking amazing and for yahoo to do this for us in our essentially our like our first thing together when we came from a couple of places that were great let's not kid ourselves but we didn't get this kind of love let's just be honest right this type of like tlc um yeah i could get past the two people not showing up and feel very very grateful and appreciative that we have made it here like i just look around

like i'm looking around the room right now chuck is there jerry gc new york rick spencer frank Jerry, GC, New York Rick, Spencer, Frank, Sean, one of my best friends, John Beer over there. What an amazing guy. We could do a whole podcast on that guy. One of the most fascinating people on the planet. No, but I'm honestly looking at this and this is a... And you know what's the best part about this? You, of course.

The best part is me. He just said the best part. The best part about this is we've done shows before and it was like, oh, it was the our crew and like you and chuck came to visit this like we're all on the actual same team now we're all on the same team how the fuck did this happen because of you it's crazy it's really like now it's like hitting me we're all on the same team john beer right like you mentioned him earlier like he is by the way your audience john beer is one of my closest friends he's from montreal he grew up with a lot of my friends

he went to summer camp with my wife when they were like six camp walden i met him in like 2004 2005 in new york city he was a lawyer i was at Spike TV. And we both wanted a better life. We both wanted a more interesting life. And our first initial goal, before I went into journalism, was to open a fight bar. He was telling me this earlier. Fight bar, fight bar.

I'm telling him about fight bar. And the goal was we were going to have a bar that would play fights 24-7. Japanese fight. Japanese wrestling. Everything. And his girlfriend at the time and my girlfriend, now wife, were not the most supportive.

Like, they thought it was a bit of a crazy idea. Thank God we didn't go down the path of Fight Bar. I went down the journalism path. He went down the marketing PR path. And he owns a great company called Jack Taylor, which represents the best health and wellness brands on the planet. The likes of NeuroGum, Woo, AG Athletic Greens, Averon, The Rolling Company.

Some have been... You haven't had sleep yet? I do not. The Plunge. Cold Plunge. That was you? You were the hype man behind Plunging? He also represents,

I introduced him to the great Jesse Katz of Roots of Fight, who has been so kind to so many of us. I do believe you even got some free clothes. Once I got the free clothes. It was a token, like you complained enough about it, and he was like, all right, I'll give you a Cassius Clay shirt. I complained so much, too. I'm just going to send you the Irish, and do more stuff, and he was like, all right, I'll give you a Cassius Clay shirt. I complained so much, too.

Yeah. I was going to send you the Iron Man, but you wore stuff, and I'll buy it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll take it. Hey, that would work. I was just saying, I'm looking around here, and it's like this eclectic mix of people,

and we're all on the same team, sitting here in Las Vegas. It's not like you guys are here to support. We're actually all here to work, except for you. But you're here to support. I'm not here to work. No're actually all here to work. Except for you. But you're here to support. I'm not here to work. No, you are here to work. We've got Jerry Silbowitz, who never likes to be seen. There he is.

So it's great. I'm overjoyed. I'm filled with joy and gratitude. And yeah, I wonder how I got so lucky. Well, I wonder how I got so lucky too, Ariel. Thank you very much. I'll let you go now. Oh, that's it?

Yeah, I mean, there's other people to interview here. I'm sorry, you're just behind the scenes. I'm doing a behind the scenes. Steve Bunce-esque look at the Hellwani show. Why do you want me to be Steve Bunce? I don't know. I enjoy it. He's a legend.

He's an absolute legend. Shall we break down Bellator London? No, you know what? We're grand. Thank you very much, Ariel. Have a great time. Thank you. Bye-bye.

New York, Rick, you beautiful man. I mean, what a We're grand. Thank you very much, Ariel. Have a great time. Thank you. New York, Rick, you beautiful man. I mean, what a day you had. You know, I was very busy, as you know, making those three appearances. But you have done Goliath work here. Tell me, you had to run around the place. You're bringing all these amazing guests up for this launch of the Ariel Awani show.

How has your day been? I can take no credit. It was a team effort. I owe it all to pt carroll chuck mindenhall shaheen alshadi uh ariel hawani everybody involved connor burks um but no truly like it was it was uh hectic it was chaotic but it was a lot of fun um and this is what we get to do like this is our job which is like incredible yeah man i was kind of thinking that earlier when we're all in the room just before it started and i was like this is like a dream situation like this is our job, which is, like, incredible. Yeah, man, I was kind of thinking that earlier when we were all in the room, just before it started, and I was like, this is like a dream situation.

Like, this is unbelievable. I can even remember, you know, obviously a massive fan of the MMA over so many years. We were with The Ringer, and now it's just, it's all collided together. Shaheen Al-Shadi back from the MMA fighting days. I mean, this is like the Harlem Globetrotters of MMA right now. I've likened it to, like, the Avengers, right? Like, Ariel is like the Harlem Globetrotters of MMA right now. I've likened it to like the Avengers, right? Like Ariel has assembled the Avengers. The Team USA basketball team for the United States has been called like the Avengers.

Like he's the LeBron and he brought all the pieces together. Under that analogy. Amoy Halliburton, is it? You could be Jason Tatum. I like to consider myself Steph Curry, but I mean, you know, mileage may vary. Jason Tatum didn't play, if I remember correctly. That is correct. That is correct, Pizzi.

Shit, I didn't think you'd know that. Fuck you. It's who we want to do this with. Who better? As you said, joining the two forces. In fact, I feel like when we last spoke in Jersey, I kind of talked about that, right? The idea that he has these different things going on, and now it is one thing under the uncrowned umbrella and it's

incredible did we know in jersey or were we just kind of feeling around in the dark i feel like we may have had a little bit of a inkling and hint of seeing the things going on but at the same time like you never know which way that goes and then it becomes a reality and then you have a moment like today where this thing coalesces and we get to see this and we get to be in front of these fans and we get to have the people on youtube watching we get to have all the people working on it behind the scenes it's it's you can't describe like how incredible it is to be a part of it yeah and i'm absolutely delighted and it's a pleasure to finally be on the same team as you my friend i think that's right i think even when when i joined mma fighting you were in the espn we had no. When you were at MMA Fighting, I was elsewhere.

This is the first time we will be formally working together. It's horrifying. You don't even know, dude. This is like the first day. It's going to get even worse. Any funny stories from today? Because obviously you were running around. You were getting all these big stars into the building and then getting them out.

Roy Jones Jr. was here. And I was like, holy shit, dude. I was in awe of him. do you have any got any good stories i don't have anything funny but it there is a bit of like you like ro jones jr walks into a room there's a presence also just like jim lampley getting on stage and just turning on that thing that only he can do like an incredible voice an incredible mind for boxing and then the moment those two were together like i was running but i was able to run back and i just heard their voices together and i was just like holy shit this is taking me back to the hbo boxing days it was an incredible thing that helwani tried to make happen and then didn't make happen

and i heard as jim was leaving the building i'm not betraying any confidence he was just like i had no idea that was going to happen and it was like absolutely electric it was incredible for him to be reunited with roy like that rick, I love you. I'm looking forward to a long, long time of working together. Thank you for being so nice to me as I join the new crew. I was quite nervous today getting up there, but you've made it an absolute walk in the park for me.

Thank you so much, Rick. You should be nervous. There's a high bar that's been set, and you've been known to underperform. What we're going to do is we're going to bring you up. No. Motherfucker. I love you dearly. It's weird that we've never got to work together

because we've known each other in some capacity for so long and been so close. And I really enjoyed the energy that you brought to that first segment where you were just at Conor's throat. It was incredible. We hate each other. I better go and interview him now. Thank you again.

I love you. GC is in the house. We had some friendly banter about our betting situations there early or we have different strategies but yours is a winning strategy i will give you that much i was gonna say the the strategies are i enjoy winning bets you enjoy living in a fantasy world where you can hopefully get rich one day off of bets that is no that is completely accurate and i'll stand by it mate that is that is what i'm trying to do i'll say this though your pre-bet speeches the motivation that you give us to go to the window and place that losing ticket that certified losing ticket it can get men through war it can get men in the trenches back home from war

i promise you that i really appreciate it and you had a different role from the nj pack thing today new york rick was doing the running around and a lot more chilled out today i'd say from the version of uh usr in newark yeah you were there at nj pack uh yeah uh very limited on the people that were helping get fighters from point a to point B. It was mostly just me. I had to deal with all the cars, put it all on my own credit card. It was quite expensive. Are you serious? Obviously, we got it paid back. We got it paid back.

I didn't pay for it, but it was incredibly stressful. We had Alex Pereira, real behind-the-scenes stuff here. We booked him a car. Then Plinio calls me up. His coach, Plinio Cruz, the great Plinio Cruz, is just like we're gonna go to dinner first then I gotta call Ubers it was it was an incredibly stressful affair uh and yeah today that was that was my man New York Rick's role so I was like show started I was like I guess I'm kind of just chilling uh so yes this was a much more enjoyable experience for me I feel like you guys resent me because I've carved out a situation for

myself where I don't do an awful lot do I just kind of yeah so i mean i got here at like uh 10 a.m this morning was working relentlessly until the show started at four o'clock uh and like yeah you just came in you're just like where's the food at uh nothing to offer other than your presence that was all you gave to us uh so yeah resent isn't the right word but at one point someone was like should pt still get here at noon i was like fuck no tell him to get here later i can't deal with him just moping around just bullshitting everywhere thank you that that is what happened i just texted rick and i was like i'm not coming till two yeah we didn't need you here we didn't need you here at noon it actually would have just made me angry i was completely

locked in in the zone uh but yeah once you're here it was great it was great well it's been an absolute pleasure it was great to be up there thank you for being uh so welcoming to me you know for a long time i've been a big admirer of you ever since you came on the aerial show i was like this guy is fucking amazing and i think you're absolutely brilliant and it was great to be up there for the first time doing a show with you today my friend i can't appreciate i like i cannot tell you how much i appreciate that a huge fan of yours uh you got me to the split the G for the first time ever. And it was basically a love affair from there. I absolutely fell in love with Guinness.

I read a book on Guinness. I own Guinness merchandise. And now any bar I go to, I drink Guinness. I've gotten my friends hooked on Guinness. It is my drink. I don't drink often, but when I do, it's going to be a pint of the black stuff. You got me started on that. It was Dempsey's, wasn't it. Jack Dempsey's, was it?

Jack Dempsey's, April of 2022. I've been going at it for two and a half years now. And when anyone asks me, they're just like, why Guinness? I'm always just like, well, first of all, an Irish man put it on to me. So that feels like a badge of honor. Second of all, everyone's always like, it's so heavy. I'm like, it's 4% and it's 100 calories. You're basically drinking a Bud Light out there.

So, yes, huge fan of yours. Glad that you are on board. This is just the start of something beautiful, and I'm happy that we're here, man. We need to do like a Guinness thing on ground, I think. Absolutely. We'll figure something out. Can we look into this? Guinness, if you want to sponsor us.

Listen, I'm Forge Irish style. You know, I'll chill out for anything. Let's just get some sort of sponsorship but guinness sponsorship is actually my dream that is that is a dream of mine people always ask me what's your dream i say i don't have a dream the dream has just been hatched get a sponsorship from guinness the dream for me is having one of these outrageous bets come to fruition on this show and so I can never stop talking about it for the rest of my life. And I better be on it too. You talked me into your bet. I put less than you.

You talked me into your fucking bet last night. It didn't hit, of course. I just threw $15 into the incinerator. But yes, hopefully I'll be on it with you when that does cash. Yo, our bet. Am I going to cost us the loss here? Do you feel because I've gone for the underdog? All of you went for weak sauce?

It will be so fitting if we're three legs down. I'm about to cash you part of the way to cash you out, like $250. And your leg is the one that loses. I hope that's what happens. I actually kind of hope it happens too. It would be too fitting. It would absolutely be too fitting. A pleasure as always, sir. Thank you.

My man, an absolute pleasure. He has worn three hats today. He has a hat bag with him. He is the man in the hat. What an amazing introduction you got today on the stage at the Venetian Chook. I mean, an absolute pleasure. We've been working together for a long time here. I'm up there with two of my heroes again,

Ariel Luani and Chuck Mendenhall. And then Shaheen Alshadi joins the party as well. I mean, this is like a fever dream at this point. It is like a fever dream, and it was almost surreal to see all of you guys on stage together with me. And it was like old times, even though those old times were only a couple of weeks ago. But it was a lot of fun, and yes, I brought a lot of hats.

It's like a variety show, Pete Z. I put on different hats for different things. I mean, it was nearly like you were playing, like, you're Led Zeppelin and you're playing Stairway to Heaven. As you change your hats, everyone's like, yeah, this guy, he's got so many fucking hats. Well, it was like that, but I had to bring the one that I'm typically wearing. You know, the one that's

in all my profile pictures, the little flat cap newsboy one. I had to put that on for a little while, so. Who didn't recognize you because of the shape of your hat? It was Chael Sonnen who was't recognize you because of the shape of your hat you went uh it was chael sonnen who was uh he was part of the show and he didn't say anything i was like i've always been friendly with him but at the very end he's like oh wait chuck i didn't even recognize because i was wearing a ball cap he didn't know but um i mean how does it feel like to be on this

team um we spoke a bit today about like trying to resurrect feature right i mean this has been a conversation we've had on the ringer show for a long time about how feature writing has kind of been diminished. It's been downsized. You look at the guys now on this team. I've said it before and I'll say it again. You, Shaheen, were my heroes when I was getting into this industry. Absolutely amazing feature writers. And then you've got Ben Foulkes as well.

So many brilliant guys. How exciting is this for you? And do you think this is the best way to resurrect that art form? I do. And when we were doing the live show, we were mentioning the influencers and stuff like that. I really don't care about that stuff. I guess what I want is the substance again.

And this seems like the one dedicated place that's going to try to do that in the combat space. And I think fans have been wanting it. And so it's exciting, man. This is like an all-star crew, and I think being with Ariel on this is really like what makes it. I know we did the athletic and stuff like that before, but Ariel was not part of that.

Being with Ariel, it's almost like being with, you know, it's kind of like the old Golden State Warriors, right, with a loaded team like that. It feels like that again everybody checks their own boxes everybody does their own things everybody has their own talent so it's going to be a lot of fun man was it weird for you like when we were announced right and you could see like myself and and the boys right we got announced first and in the comments and i i used to stop going on x or twitter for a while because it was constantly like what the fuck is going on with chuck chuck chuck and i was like i'm not doing anything i feel like people were nearly accusing me of uh of kind of of not making something happen

but of course we kind of knew that something was cooking was that a was that a kind of annoying period where you're like i know i'm about to be announced here but i can't formally announce this yeah that was really weird because obviously the whole time I'm in talks to do this. And I think there's some people like, oh, why is he being excluded in this whole thing? But we knew. I mean, you were in contact with me. I knew what was happening. And, you know, like I said in my tweet, I was like, where was it?

You think I was going to let my buddies go off and start a website without me? No way. And I knew I'd be there. And I'm really excited because I wanted to be writing again, like some more writing along with doing the stuff with you guys, but just getting it out there again. That's kind of what I'm always good at.

So it's kind of like getting back to the roots. I used to see Shaheen as your understudy in ways at MMA fighting. And now he's the editor-in-chief. What an interesting dynamic. Are you going to have a few diva meltdowns they're not gonna be not really known for them but you're gonna hang on a second dude i shot you i taught you everything you know things like this yeah probably i will have some meltdowns you've been working with ariel for a long long time right of course we're messing but you've been working with ariel for a long long time one thing I noticed today

about him is he goes level up. Every time he kind of hits one of these things and he enters this new period. Today, he just gets up, literally no stress here backstage, gets up and just starts the show. It's really impressive to see, isn't it? And it's almost impossible unless you really, really pay attention, because

this was a guy who carved out his own show and studio at MMA Fighting. Was able to get the MMA Hour going. He was at every event. Just carved out that name. Leaves there. Goes to ESPN. Does everything there.

You know, against huge resistance, too. Like, from Dana and everything. Ends up doing stuff in the NBA, all that stuff. And then does the whole piecemeal thing where he's working with us at the Ringer, gets his show back in. And then to do this, this is the natural next step, right, is to be in business for yourself. And I think he could have three years ago done this move,

but I feel like this is the perfect time for him. I feel like he's grown into it. He understands it. And it's just cool to be a part of it. Like he said up on stage tonight, he's like,'s like hope we're all together we don't break up again that's all you ask for isn't it you want that kind of thing so it's been awesome man amen brother well i have had a fantastic time working with you um and i'm gonna have a lot more fun working with you in the future so delighted to be back on the same team as

thank you thanks man welcome to the Big Dance, Shaheen. You've made it to the crack, mate. I mean, we used to do podcasts together. You taught me how to use a microphone famously during the A-side day. Was it the A-side? I think it was. But now I'm here.

Look at me, dominating the microphone. I mean, you must be so proud of me. Proud doesn't even begin to describe what I feel towards you right now. It's like, really, I've watched the flower bloom into just the most beautiful thing. It's incredible. Watching you work the room tonight, just throughout the night, has been one of the great joys of my night.

It's my only skill set, I feel. I feel like this is why Ariel's put me on the team. Dance clown. You're just very charismatic. Everyone loves you. Not as charismatic as John Beer, who we won't get into again, because I've already spent too much time talking about him. You are obsessed with this man.

I am, 100%. You have become this man's personal hype man. First of all, it happened so quickly. I got lost in his eyes. It happened within two minutes. And every single conversation I've been involved with you this entire night has somehow come back to how incredible and amazed you are by this man

it's really, I would pay money to have someone do this for me I'm actually amazed by you and you're finally back in this editor-in-chief role and I've told you this before when I came to MMA Fightin' I was so intimidated because you and Chuck Mendenhall were my heroes, I wanted to be a feature writer

I don't know how the fuck I ended up doing this this clown show I'm doing at the moment but you're going to be my editor you've been demanding written work from me I don't know, as I told Ariel, I don't know if I can write anymore how are you going to how are you going to try and make me

perform in that way again that's the question that's the question I have so much confidence in faith in you perform in that way again? That's the question? That's the question? I have so much confidence and faith in you, Pizzi Carol. I believe in you more than you believe in you.

I don't know. This is all a ruse. I actually really believe in myself. Well, that's excellent. That's what I want to hear then. I expect like multiple pieces on my desk by tomorrow. No, man.

I'm so excited to be able to be working with you again in this capacity, but I'm also excited just to be able to get you back to your roots because that's who you were initially, right? You were the grinder. You were the hustler.

You were the dude who had 40 different newspaper jobs, and you were just cranking out the best stuff coming out of Europe. That's who you are at your core, and I have so much faith and belief in you and your ability to crush it. It's going to be incredible, man. It's going to be an incredible situation. I'm so excited to get going with you. how cool was it today when we're all up there and like i mean several moments today when i'm just looking around thinking like

if you like gave me a list and you're like write down all the people you'd like to work with in mma it would be every single person in this room um this is like we text each other a lot over the years just kind of being like i wonder if we'll ever come back around. And today, Ariel up on the stage was like, let's never be apart again. I mean, it's a pretty amazing feeling, right? It feels like 2016 all over again, if I'm being honest. MMA Fighting Circus 2016. Just to have, I mean, we said it a couple different times tonight,

but just to look around the room and see the level of talent in the room, see all your friends in the room, all the people that you came up in this game with i was talking to ariel at some point throughout this process of just you know like we've all reached certain points in our life right like we've reached different levels of just like becoming real adults becoming real men like speak for yourself well you know some of us but like at this point like i'm not the kid anymore. I got two kids. I got a wife. Like, I got a family.

I've kind of understood at this point, like, what's important to me in my life and what I want out of this. And me and Aaron have said this to each other. I'm just like, I just want to do cool shit with my friends. And, like, that's genuinely what we're set up to do at this point is just to do what we are meant to do with the people that we care about the most. And it's just, I'm so freaking excited. It's just, a night like this, like this like it's unbelievable it is absolutely unbelievable and i'm so excited about it all um but promise me this you're going to give me the week off with

elaine right like you we we have made a deal you will give me that one week and then i am yours forever you get the week you get the week and then we'll have to start with the alphabet and then hopefully work our way up to written word. And I'll be able to do it again, hopefully, in a year. The Amalfi Coast. That's where you're going, right? The Amalfi Coast. I don't know exactly what that is, but it always sounded very fancy when people said that they were going there.

It's way too fancy for me, dude. I promise. I'm very excited for you to really bring the place down a notch, you know? I think they probably need it. And then, yeah, dude, we're going to hit the ground running it's gonna be great there they were i mean what a buzz this is the crack on steroids now in this wonderful new vertical i heard chelso and referring to it as the vertical of course is the website which i'll be featured on too i'll be learning to write again how intimidating is this i saw chuck mendenhall and Ben Foulkes putting up their first articles

on the uncrowned network in reaction to UFC 306 which was absolutely incredible by the way but they're absolutely amazing I'm terrified I'm going to be in the writers room with them next week I'm currently away on holiday on the Amalfi Coast with the wonderful Elaine and um that's my fiancecée, by the way. I keep on forgetting you guys haven't listened to the show the whole time, so I have to keep on explaining myself. I'll get used to this. But look, being around these guys,

I hope you get a sense of the energy that we have, the buzz we're on at the moment with this whole thing. It really is an absolutely incredible time. This is the most exciting thing that's ever happened in MMA media, as far as I'm concerned, and we're just getting started. I mean, Ariel's energy in Las Vegas was incredible. I don't know how this guy just keeps leveling up every time he does something new. He's absolutely buzzing.

He looks incredible, by the way. I know you heard me talking about his guns and whatnot during that interview, but, man, to be around these guys I can only improve and you're doing this as long as me that's what you want to feel like you want to feel like you're keep evolving like the great Helwani himself so I'm absolutely buzzing and thank you all for listening to this let me know what you thought of it and obviously this is going to be a video show on Fridays every week it will be the go home show so we're going to be skewing things slightly towards what's happening at the weekend as much as possible. And we'll have fighter interviews, coach interviews, talks with journalists, and we'll try to keep it as interesting as possible for you guys. I'm really excited to get going. Consider this the soft launch of the crack on this network. It's returned, let's be honest, to the RL1E show feed, but in a completely new era.

I'm absolutely buzzing, lads. Thank you so much for listening. I know it's new. I know it'll probably get you a while to get used to my Irish brogue and whatnot. I saw people during the video thing saying that they thought I was putting on an accident. I mean, I've been born and raised in Dublin. My whole family is from Dublin. The cheek of you.

Anyway, I love yous loads. I hope yous enjoyed the boys. Thank you to my great producer, Oscar Losev, who's coming along on this journey with me. What a guy. Absolutely tremendous. I'll see you all soon. Thank you so much. See you next Friday.

Well, probably not next Friday, the Friday after that. But anyway, you get what I'm saying. Lots of love. Mwah.