The Ariel Helwani Show - The Craic: John Wood on Khalil Rountree Jr. embracing underdog status, Alex Pereira tests Chuck Mindenhall's 'untouchable theory'

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

The Craic is back and this week Petesy previews UFC 307.Fresh off cornering Merab Dvalishvili to UFC gold, John Wood looks to upset the apple cart again when he leads Khalil Rountree Jr. into battle with promotional golden goose, Alex Pereira. Wood joins the show to discuss Rountree Jr. embracing his underdog status, being bolstered by Dvalishvilli’s win and much more (04:41)The Man in The Hat, Chuck Mindenhall, is reunited with his 3PAC brother to discuss whether the 'untouchable theory' applies to Alex Pereira (34:02). According to the theory, when a champion is perceived to be at their most powerful state, against an unassuming challenger, all kinds of crazy can occur. But is Chuck picking against his fellow Danbury native?Petesy talks about difficult selfies, growing a beard and gives his pick for 'Underdog of the Week' (01:02:26).

Welcome back to the crack everyone and we are hurtling towards the official launch of Uncrowned October 14th. The only unfortunate thing about this is UFC 307 is here, and of course we'd love to have the show running. I know Ariel and the lads have done some shows, and they've been fantastic, but the full juggernaut will form like Voltron in mid-October. And it's going to be a hell of a week. It's a big fight week then,

it's a big fight week now. 307 is really, really good. Like, really, really good. I know the stakes, I mean, the odds in the main event are heavily stacked in Pereira's favor, but I mean, the fight itself is absolutely unbelievable funnily enough Raquel Pennington and Giuliana Pena are in the UFC bantamweight championship fight but I think Kayla Harrison and Caitlin Vieira are going to

probably grab more headlines and we got Jose Aldo on his resurgence tour, this time against Mario Batista. Roman De Lidze, who last fought at light heavyweight, is fighting Kevin Holland, who sometimes fights at welterweight, in a middleweight belt. Joaquin Buckley v. Stephen Thompson. There's a lot of great stuff on that main card. I'm really looking forward to it. You know, it wasn't,'t you know i know i had my calls last week for ufc paris but what a what a show that was like what i said to guillaume

stands when that crowd is in full is at full tilt it's absolutely unbelievable obviously the results didn't go the way obviously benoit sandini in the main event deflated the crowd somewhat. But man, if you are an MMA fan, try and get over there. Try and get over there for a dune bay fight. If you can't make a UFC, just get over there and feel that energy. It's absolutely incredible. So on today's show, we're obviously going to be talking a lot about 307. And 307 is very interesting to me, particularly from the Khalil Roundtree point of view. Because Khalil Roundtree is in a very similar situation to Merab Davilashvili when he went in against O'Malley. He is an underdog, a greater underdog than Davlashvili, who is taking on one of the poster

boys of the UFC. This is one of the golden geese of the UFC, Mr. Alex Pereira. And later on, we're going to talk to Chuck Mendenhall about his untouchable theory, as I like to call it. Like, it's when you believe that a star is at the height of their power, you believe that... When we say you believe, I'm talking about the general consensus. People believe that Roundtree isn't the rightful guy to come in and fight for this title. Not only because Magomed and Kaloyev exist,

but because of the failed test situation, even though Roundtree self-reported and all that stuff, it kind of takes away from his glow. So we're going to talk about Chuck's theory later on that he always used to bring up on the Ring Around with Me show, and if it pertains to his fellow Danbury native, Mr. Alex Poetan Pereira. However, before all that, we're going to talk to John Wood. John Wood cornered Merab Develashvili to his win over Sean O'Malley. And it's very interesting because, as I said, this situation kind of mirrors it.

Granted, Roundtree's a bigger underdog, but it's all the same things that you're dealing with. Like, I was in Vegas that week. O'Malley's everywhere. I'm sure in Salt Lake City, Pereira is the guy who was driving the promotion. And now he has Roundtree, this unassuming guy going into the spot. How much can he take from Merab and his situation and bring it into this? Did the gym take on a broader culture of we're going to stick our fingers in the chest of the biggest commodity in the UFC.

I also wanted to just talk about Khalil because he's such an interesting guy. Anyway, let's get over to John. I hope you enjoy it. I'll be back straight after that. I am delighted to tell you all that the head coach of syndica mma john wood has joined us he's fresh off leading marab divilashvili to dethroning sean o'malley he'll eventually do the same when he corners khalil roundtree jr this weekend in salt lake city when he takes on the apparently impregnable alex perera as far as a lot of people are concerned john thank you so much first of all

an absolute pleasure to speak to you and congratulations thank you so much, first of all. An absolute pleasure to speak to you, and congratulations. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on, man. I appreciate it. Tell me, you're just back from Paris. What was that like? I know you had Morales fighting there, but I mean, it seems to be the toughest road gig for any fighter at the moment. The scenes I'm seeing over there remind me of what we saw in Dublin in 2014 2014 those people love them some mma right oh yeah yeah i mean for sure um you know the crowd over there is pretty impressive they showed up first fight place was pretty packed um you know and they they're they're they're hometown people man they love they love the friends um i have a feeling they hate the americans but the good thing after is like even though we got booed to shit and you know the fight didn't go we want the way we wanted over there they were still very respectful after everybody was you know on the way out thumbs up shaking

hands and very respectful so i appreciate that crowd and i like that i like the hometown crowd i wish i wish we'd get on more of that in america you know we're backing our own guys and stuff and so i'm all about that so as long as it's too in America, you know, we're backing our own guys and stuff. And so I'm all about that. So as long as it's two is especially like, you know, some, some other countries that I've been in, when you leave, when you leave the crowd win or lose, they'll throw a shit at you and spitting on you and doing stuff. So, so France was cool other than having to go there for two days in the

middle of camp. But other than that, it was, you know, the, the crowd and the people were it was a good good fight crowd it does make a difference right as far as i'm concerned when when it's that partisan like it's like i saw brendan allen um and other guys kind of talking about how like geez we feel like it's nearly against us the whole situation here but i can imagine how easy it is to feel that way when you're in an environment like that. And you're the guy coming to enemy territory, right? Absolutely.

I mean, you know, I I've always found, um, you know, if you're either getting applauded big or booed big, the energy is still the same, you know,

when you walk out and then there's thousands of people, you know, booing, and it kind of fires you up the same, if not more. So I think it's cool. Either way, it's better than a dead crowd where, you know, people are just like, booing you. It kind of fires you up the same, if not more. I think it's cool either way. It's better than a dead crowd where people are just like, it's great.

Their commission over there, there were some issues with the commission. I think what Brandon Allen was talking about is right after the weigh-ins, after their official weigh-ins, the French drug commission athletic commission decided to test everybody at right then and there and no one was rehydrated no one was nothing so everybody sat literally sat there my guy vince morales sat there for three and a half hours before they even before they were released before they finally came and said hey we'll take blood instead you know and so that's what branded out. They made, they had crew people. Those guys, nobody could go to the bathroom down there at that time.

You don't have a single ounce of fluid in your body. So that was a big thing right off the bat. And I did see, to be fair, I did see some French guys get tested. So I don't think it was like, I don't know, all Americans or all other people got tested. It was whatever. But it's pretty easy to feel that way when you have such, like I said, hostile, you know, in an enemy territory. So I think that's what he was talking about.

But like I said, the crowd, whether they're booing or they're cheering, I mean, at least there's electricity. You know, you want a crowd that's alive, that's shitting on you. You want a crowd that's, you know, praising you, whatever it is. It gets you going. Yeah. No, i can only imagine even like how scientific everything is even refuel at that stage right like when you're just after it seems crazy to me but um mirab was in the building of course um he is a media sweetheart

at the moment i just wanted to ask have you seen the scenes that he got in georgia it is insane dude like those people we're talking about the french could you imagine a uf he got in georgia it is insane dude like those people we're talking about the french could you imagine a ufc event in georgia with with uh mirab and iliana i mean you know i think they're looking obviously if those guys you know keep doing what they're doing i can't imagine that they wouldn't do it like that you know there was when mirab fought there was thousands of people standing out you know outside, outside of the stadium watching on TV. And so, you know, the support of a country when you have fighters that have the support of an entire country behind you, that's something special, you know,

that doesn't happen a lot. So, um, yeah, I would think that they would be trying to push to make that happen eventually. So great. Yeah. And I would have loved to have gone with marab obviously and gone over there that was the plan but you know i've got this other little thing i got these these title shots getting in the way of everything john this is terrible ruining my free time um i realize i'm saying this to a man as accomplished as you and a guy who fought a guy who's built an amazing gym a guy who's already um been a coach to world

champions but in terms of a personal achievement with the murab thing like do you give yourself a second to smell the roses after this achievement you know um i got a day or two you know i got a day or two but like we have so many guys in camp this the last month has been like pure chaos you know um but all in a good way except for you know we have the whole cody steel fiasco which that that camp was supposed to be done so we've been like thank god i have such an awesome assistant coach you know coaching staff right now um that is really pulling the weight in i wouldn't be able to do what we do right now with all this chaos without them you know the coaching staff at syndicate's been amazing but you know we had cody's fight was supposed to be before all of this stuff kind of happened it

was the week before the tuesday before rob's fight well we show up you know cody steals guy you know freaks out has a panic attack refuses to fight okay so now we missed that fight the rob's fight excuse me they reschedule cody's fight for now the tuesday after khalil's fight so we're back in camp and we had everything kind of played out planned out who's going where what was doing what and so we've had to kind of do all this stuff and then two days after that uh vince morales gets a short notice fight in paris so he can't say no to that so now i'm flying over to paris for the weekend i got coaches coming in danny my coach jane garcia one of our boxing coaches comes out here to be with khalil while i'm gone uh you know and we've got all these guys. I sent one of the guys early.

Dom Pollard went over to Paris early with Vince until I got there to corner him. Then we had Max Soares, another one of our coaches, is out, you know, taking care of it. We've got seven other fights going on at the same time with all this. So we're just literally all shuffling around all over the world.

And like I said, thank God for those guys, man. It's all been, you know, it around all over the world. And like I said, thank God for those guys, man. It's all been, you know, it's all gone pretty smoothly. We're just, like I said, still stuck in the spot where now, you know, we get Khalil out of the way, and then I got to literally jump in my car right after Khalil's fight, drive home, cut weight with Cody Steele, get him on Tuesday, and then, you know, I think we have seven fights that weekend.

After that, Tuesday, seven fights that Saturday, Friday, Saturday, next week, surgery, next week, back at it again. So it's nonstop, you know, and I wouldn't have it any other way. And like I said, all that is due to the fact that the staff and the coach and the culture and the people we have at my gym are making that available to you know for us to do this so it's been really awesome as chaotic as it is it's all gone smoothly and i think we're going to get really really good results with all these fights i'm surprised you have time to catch your breath never mind um celebrate these things i mean that sounds like a wild wild few weeks i'm sure it's every day in your life but absolutely insane schedule yeah it's just it's better that way than the other

way if it's not insane you know you're not you're not doing it the right way so i'll take this any day over over not doing nothing this might be a ridiculous question um because they always talk about you know a confident fighter is um a dangerous fighter how much does the role like of the coach and his confidence play into things do you think because obviously you're on top of the world right now and you're doing amazing things i'm sure you're always confident pursuing a field like this you have to be you know deliriously pursuing these things you can't doubt yourself a lot you can't let that creep in but coming off that it must give you an extra pep in your step or do you notice no difference whatsoever no i was actually talking to one of our coaches here this morning about it um it is you know i've

worked as wayley for the last three or four camps but you know she it's a little different she comes in and does her camps with me and let me do that so having rob there for the last three or four years of something you know we're off the bottom process and then going through it really did actually help me going through that process where it was different because you know in a lot of these fights you know yeah you might be on the countdown you might be a little bit of this a little bit of that you see a flash this but when you're the main event against these guys that the UFC they're stars in the UFC, Sean O'Malley, Alex Pereira, those were like two of the top stars in the UFC. So all of the promotion, all of everything is

driven towards them. So, you know, you have this, I'm very confident. I was always extremely confident in Rob. I was always, you know, and I'm extremely confident in Khalil. You have these, you know, these things where usually you don't hear about it or see about it as much, but now you're watching every day. You've got a camera crew on you every day. You're seeing everything you just did. You're seeing what they did. Those little doubts in the promotion, like I said,

the Sean O'Malley promotion was insane. You know, there was a point in time, like I said, even for myself the week before, two weeks before the fight, I was like, Jesus Christ, is this, are we, we're fighting this unstoppable monster. He's going to knock, you know, knock Marav out in, you know, 30 seconds. This is going to be crazy. You know, you can't just tell these, your mind tries to play tricks on you. And it actually really helped me because I went back and restudied a lot of Marav's old films and things.

And I actually picked up even things from that process that really helped us fight. And I was just like, as soon as I rewatched the fight, I was like, oh man, we're fine. This is going to be a great fight. This is going to be an easy night. And, but you can get caught up. And so that kind of, it was for the first time in my life, first time in 20 25 years of coaching 20 years of learning gym where i felt like nerves where the thing was such a big deal i was like oh my god this is weird but that process for sure helped me rolling into this

because now i don't you know i've done it like it's the hype machines on barrera but it's it's very easy to kind of talk myself and talk kil through and like I said the confidence level that I have my guys for the program we have and and what our team is doing right now top to bottom no matter what happens in the fight I know they're ready they know I know they're ready so the belief in each other and having the support of your coaching and teammates and everybody around you is massive you know i know as a fighter um you know i wasn't that successful but i never had i never had that person pushing me or there for me and you know at the tail end of my career especially and so i you know i know how important that is that it's such an important piece so surrounding yourself with the right team and the right people that believe in you is is priceless if you don't have that you're not going to go as far as you possibly could you know

and i think if you said this is going to roll over and pay dividends for for this fight with us you know having the experience of these title fights and having this stuff and even good for you know Khalil's even said man it's really awesome to like see a teammate go out and achieve this and do this and now you know he knows not that he didn't know before but it just reconfirms everything that much more that he can do absolutely and look you you touched on it there there seems to be so many striking similarities between this situation and the Murab Sean one you know you talked about Sean and I was was in Vegas the week of that fight, and he's everywhere, right?

Like, it's everywhere you look. He's on all the billboards. He's on the sphere. Pereira certainly is that guy right now in the sport. He's the guy bailing the UFC out all the time. He's taking on this iconic status. Near mythological, right? Like you're saying about Sean,

where it's like people seem to be like, is this guy a superhero all of a sudden um tell me having been through the camp at marab the fight with marab coming out having your hand raised um how much does that help you like you have you have i feel like it's nearly like a mirror image of the situation you faced just two weeks ago i mean it helps a lot it really is it really is the confidence booster it really does reconfirm okay man the things we're doing um are we're doing it the right way and it can be done and these these monsters that are built up you know behind the marketing machine of the ufc they are beatable they are touchable they are you know we can do what we want to do you know if we go out there and execute the

game plan the right way so um you know having that just happen right before this it honestly is it does help push and help motivate and you know being so close together two weeks apart um you know it's awesome everybody feels it and you know when marab secured that position everybody's you know i think it just put that much more positivity behind everybody on the team you know khalil everybody of just being able to go man you know we're gonna get this done and we're gonna beat the the next boogeyman which which alex is the boogeyman he's definitely the scariest man um currently you know on the roster and come saturday i truly believe there'll be a new scariest man you know

i've been watching a lot of uh khalil's just his interviews in the lead up to this obviously he's an underdog going into this fight but i actually think it gelled so well with his mentality that status like he's talking about honoring the struggle all this you know this stuff that kind of plays into that underdog status what I wanted to ask you is and from a coaching point of view now I'm a layman asking you this of course but from my point of view it seems like it's much easier to light a fire under an underdog than it is to do that to a guy in Pereira's situation where as we've talked about he seems to be this immovable object as far as

the public are concerned yeah I mean I think the struggle of getting there is always much more motivating than the struggle of staying there you know it's really really hard to get to the top it's really really hard to even get a title shot but it's even harder to stay there and sometimes that grind beats people down or if you do it so long complacency of becoming the champion you know there's guys talk about all the time i just they want that weight off their back i don't see that to be a problem with perera i don't think he's living that kind of lifestyle that puts out that tons of pressure this is what you know that guy really is built for is made for

you know so but I do believe that the climb is much more intense to get there to get it um you know and an underdog I always liked the underdog situation because the pressure, you know, the pressure is on the champion to always win. The pressure is on. They're supposed to win. We're supposed to lose. You know, the underdog is always, hey, we're going in there. We're basically the sacrificial lamb, you know, put us out to pasture and, you know, put one in us and we're done. And, you know, that's just not what's going to happen obviously but i think it really does champions are champions for a reason champions

that get there and maintain it are usually the guys that can handle it they can handle that pressure you know you you didn't get to becoming a champion or title because you can't deal with pressure but it is different when you're at the top for so long um i don't think perera he's been doing i mean this is a whirlwind for him you know so i don't even think it's like settled in how crazy his last couple years has been has been but uh you know with khalil you know i think the underdog the underdog position suits us well and i think it fits his story and i think that you know he's going to make an awesome champion when he gets there. And, you know, Pereira's an awesome champion.

Nothing but respect to him and his team. But I do believe it's our time. I do believe it's Khalil's time. Can you create, like, that atmosphere in the gym in terms of, like, keep that narrative forged through the gym? Like, Murab going after Sean, Khalilhalil going after perera like we're here to take out these golden boys like do you think like that crosses over from camp to camp like there's a general feel in the gym when that type of stuff is happening yeah absolutely one thing we've worked on a lot in the last couple years is changing the culture vegas is a rough place it's very you know

there's a lot of people coming in and out it's very you know we got the pi there so there's constantly new fighters new coaches new people the new next it boy shows up at the pi to become a coach or this or that it's it's constantly there so we're up against it building a team but the last couple years we've kind of set some standards and some non-negotiables and change the culture of what we do and a lot of that had to start with me, you know, making some mistakes earlier in my coaching career and allowing certain things to happen, but we changed the culture and that culture from, whether it's a title fight or whether it's an amateur, you know,

going out for his first fight, we all take it the same way. Everybody in their supports, everybody in syndicate is there for each other and believes, you know, you really having your team back, you having your coaches back, you and having, you know, the entire support of the gym overall,

even our students or members, you know, we have a big watch party. We've got hundreds of people coming to a watch party to come watch them at the gym that my wife, you know, Joanne set up. It's just,

it's really awesome. So it's just from fight to fight, it's the same mentality for all of us, no matter what the level is. I've seen you discuss, like, it's kind of funny to me. I'm looking at your interviews online and the publications are using the headline, like, Khalil won't shoot for a takedown.

And I'm like, yeah, you know, like, of course he's not going to shoot for a takedown. And I'm like, yeah, you know, like, of course he's not going to shoot for a takedown. Have you watched this guy fight? Like, I feel like everybody is only viewing this as a positive from the Pereira point of view. Whereas if you've watched Khalil fight, like, you don't want to stand with Khalil Roundtree. Like, is that a ridiculous notion to you

that these people are saying to you, John, are we going to mix up a bit of wrestling, completely abandon what got Khalil to the dancer and, you you know throw on the singler for the night is that crazy to you it makes me laugh it makes me laugh just you know it's one of those things where it's like i think out of 30 some combined fights there's been one takedown shot between both of them like why are we talking about this like yes i get it it would be smart Maybe for both of them to shoot a takedown because they're both knocked out capable of knocking each other out. But that's not either one of their games.

And either that's not what got either one of them to the dance. Now, with that being said, it's MMA. So do we train for it? Yes, of course we train, take down defense.

We train, get us, we train, grab and change everything every day. It'd be stupid to be at this level and not training that you know everything top to bottom we're an mma gym so that's what we do every monday through friday there is you know it's cage work it's groundwork it's sparring it's grappling it's wrestling it's it's all specific stuff that we do every day

putting it all together so like getting in here is, is it, is it a possibility? Do we shoot on him? Sure. We can, we could. Yeah, absolutely. Is it part of the game plan? Sure.

We do shoot shots. We do take people down. It's definitely something we work. Do we, are we defending takedowns? Absolutely. Do I think either one of these guys in their DNA, no matter what the coaches are telling them,

their DNA makeup as a fighter is not one to like, oh, I can't wait out there and hit this double leg. You know, like that's not the thought process. Maybe it is. But as soon as they start bombing on each other, I don't believe that that's going to be the go. Or maybe it is. Maybe we're chaining, you know, with D1 wrestlers and shooting takedowns every day.

I don't know. Maybe that is the case. Maybe that is what we're going to do. And who we are, I've been working nothing but but ground game maybe we have a band that you know who knows we'll see i love it just a bit of teaser there if ferrera's watching this he's gonna be concerned he's gonna say hang on a second what's going on i laughed because i forget who it was somebody asked me and they're just like you know do you think a little shoot and i said listen if anybody shoots it's gonna be ferrera he's got a track record. He shot one time.

You know what I'm saying? It's going to be him. He'll shoot first. And then everybody's, you know, quoting that one. And then, oh, Coach, Khalil's coach says Pereira's going to shoot. Oh, my God. But tell me, like, Khalil is one of the most refreshing fighters, I think, in the UFC. Like, when I watch him being interviewed, I'm like, nobody else would say this. Like, this is an answer that is unique to Khalil is one of the most refreshing fighters, I think, in the UFC. When I watch him being interviewed, I'm like, nobody else would say this.

This is an answer that is unique to Khalil. He has a different way of operating. He has this seemingly sensitive side contrasted against this absolutely brutal striking style. A murderous striker with a heart, a visible heart, a heart he wears on his sleeve. How unique is he in terms of the people you've coached? I'm sure everybody is unique, but to me, he seems to stand out like as a fighter. 100%. You know,

there's definitely individual fighters that have specialties to him, like Rob, who's a unique guy. And Khalil is one of the more unique guys I've ever worked with. You know, he is a special kind of guy. He follows his feelings. He wears his heart on his sleeve like you talked about. He's an emotional guy. He's a sensitive guy.

And he is a straight, absolute killer in the cage. And he does things when he's in there to put you out. He's trying to kill you in the cage. That's his job. Does he feel good about it right after probably not but you know like he's a great guy with a great story and he's got a great big heart you know and most fighters have a lot of craziness going on in their life and have dealt with you know believe it or not cage fighting does not bring the most well uh acclimated human beings to the floor like it's

there's there's there's people we all have issues mommy daddy issues whatever there's lots of crazy stuff and um you know khalil is like i said he's just a very special guy and um it's been very you know we've we've had an interesting you know the last 10, 11, 12 years, whatever it's been working with. We've never not got along. We've never had any kind of beefs. But it did take me a little bit to figure out how to work with him in a unique way. And that's part of coaching is I try not to make people do what I want to do. It's blend to them and make them better at what they do but he was a different kind of character where kind of had to go with you know not only what what happens in the

gym but also his life and like you know he's got a lot of big dreams and big ideas that i think this you know this fight here will help him fulfill but it was you know just worrying learning how to work with him as a human being also learning how to know that he was you know he's a different kind of guy he's he's into art he's into music. Learning how to know that he's a different kind of guy. He's into art. He's into music. He's into golf. He's into a bunch of just weird stuff.

So you have to let him be him. And we had a good run. I built a fighter and did some things. He left to Thailand and really kind of found himself as a man and as a fighter. And then when he came back a couple years later, we both had kind of matured in the right way. And we kind of hit the ground running. Like, no time was lost.

And really found our way to work with each other. I found a way to work with him, you know, in a unique way. And it's been great, you know. So he is a special dude. And he's definitely different than most everybody else. I've got one more for you, John. You know, as you've said throughout this interview, like, you know, you are predicting a knockout for Khalil Roundtree.

That is usually what we see when Khalil Roundtree fights, in all fairness. Give me an idea of what you expect this fight to look like up until that point man i you know without giving too much i think too many people sleep on perera you know looking at his fights looking at his tapes looking at his things of like that oh he does get hit he can't get jabbed he can't get touched but a lot of what he does is just baiting you in to find what he needs to find and baiting you into knocking you out so i think we're gonna have you know a good technical go i think we're gonna see a good technical rounds with some some heavy violence mixed in between you know and then i think eventually you know we're gonna find what we've been working, you know, and then I think eventually, you know,

we're going to find what we've been working for. You know, I think we're going to find the timing, Khalil's vision, Khalil's timing, Khalil's speed, his power, his accuracy.

Khalil's one of those guys that touches you. And I'm sure Pereira's too, but it's just different. His speed and his timing, his vision, you know, he's one of those touches you without trying and just, you know,

you just kill you so i think it's going to be a very fun um entertaining fight and then you're going to see one of them drop flat on the back well john congratulations on all your success of late and i hope it continues in salt lake city it's been a brilliant run and best of luck with everything next week and thank you so much for your time sir hey thank you man i appreciate it there he is one of the best coaches in the world the head coach of syndicate mma john wood so interesting man a lot of the things he said there were so interesting like how the omali promotion actually snuck into his head briefly you know that line where he's like oh my god he's gonna knock out Murab in 30 seconds. Of course that didn't happen.

But I found it funny listening to that and then listening to Khalil's very open and interesting chat he gave at the media day. He's so introspective compared to other fighters. And he hits like the Holy Ghost. I think John's sentiment as far as like this being a tentative start will ring true on fight night they're just too high level there's too much risk on either side khalil can put you out predator can obviously put you out it's such an interesting fight. I will have an article, my debut article, should I say,

for Yahoo Uncrowned based on that article. That should be out, I don't know, Friday, Saturday, maybe. I'm not too sure. I'll leave that on the capable hands of Shaheen Alshadi. Funnily enough, I thought I'd be really stressed out about the article, and I was because of, you know, the imposter syndromes coming back here with Chuck Mendenhall, Ben Foulkes, what could possibly go wrong? The greatest writers in the history of the sport. Oh, and your editor is one of the greatest writers in the history of the sport as few years. And these guys were essentially my heroes when I was trying to get into the sport. And then I get signed by MMA Fighting,

I get my dream role, and once again, complete imposter syndrome, because guess who else rides features here? Shaheen Alshadi and Chuck Mendenhall. God damn. All the lads have been absolutely fantastic with me. The biggest stress, as i was trying to say earlier right so i thought it'd be the article the biggest stress was getting a picture for my

profile on yahoo so shaheen gets on to me pt oh we need a few pictures i send him off these pictures these professionally shot pictures i have over the years he's like no no there's too much going on in the background i go okay okay i said i'll just take a selfie i take the selfie and i send it to him elaine's not home she's away and he's like you're just not taking this seriously mate i was like oh my god i was i was trying my ass off actually uh thank god elaine came home and got some nice pictures over to him so you'll see that maybe friday saturday my article with john would please uh give it a read and criticize me um and make me a better writer don't please don't criticize me I'm only joking anyway I told

you at the start that Chuck Mendenhall and his theory of the the untouchable theory as I call it it doesn't he doesn't have a name on it and he even he even will say I'm sure when I ask him that this goes back to old boxing days and all this kind of stuff but I want to trademark it for Chuck. Chuck one of the greatest minds the greatest writer in the history of our beautiful sport he has an article out with Juliana Pena now I think you should all go and check it out but here he is of Uncrowned of Yahoo Sports Mr. Chuck Mendenhall. I'm back with my best pal Chuck Mendenhall, one of the greatest of all time of course and I have him on today for a very specific reason. Many times over the course of

our tenure on the Ring Around MMA show, Chuck would talk about this thing that a champion would eventually get to this level where it all just seems too easy and the narrative is completely fixed on them retaining their title it seems like the eyes of the world are on this person and then suddenly a contender seemingly out of nowhere will come along and dethrone them of course i'm referring to ufc 307 and a son of danbury like chuck menon hall, Mr. Alex Pereira. But it's also about Khalil Roundtree and the cries going up against Khalil. Why is this guy in this spot? He can only strike with Pereira. Pereira is clearly going to knock this guy out. It all feels like it's playing into something that I've called, and you can tell me if it's wrong. I call it Mendenhall's Untouchable Theory is what I've coined it for today.

You can tell me if it has a different name, but tell me first, Chuck, how are you? Welcome back to the crack, my friend. Mutt is what we call it. Mendenhall's, whatever you just said, Mutt, M-U-T. I'm well, man. It's kind of fun to get together with you. I see you're a Knicks fan now.

That's good. That's changed basketball in general. I didn't even know that you cared. Well, got this hat and when i was in new jersey that time okay makes sense funnily enough the knicks had just been knocked out of the playoffs but they were selling these cheap when i went to the mall so that's when you buy stuff is right after the season right after a disappointing season now they were pretty good last year. It's like, it's a nice blue hat, you know? This looks good.

And I know it's the beginning of the pre-season this week, right? So I felt like it was on brand. Yeah. Well, you wear that with Helwani sometime, and you'll just break into a 30-minute dialogue about Cat and what he's going to do for the team. But we'll leave that to another time, PC. Okay, well, tell me, Chuck.

This Untouchable Theory, broadly, without referring, like, well, refer to me if you want, but, like, what is it that gives you this inkling every now and again that everything is just too perfect in the world of this untouchable entity? Well, I think, like, it's always existed because, even through Boxing Chronicles, like, way back in the day, I think when it's almost existed because even through boxing chroniclers like way back in the day i think when it's almost it's just there's a there's a crazy amount of superstition involved in fighting anyway like there's a ton and it's all sports but i think it exists in fighting and i think whenever things are truly taken for granted we used to always call it like uh you know um you know the the mma gods would down, whatever, like they would try to destroy something.

I remember talking about this with like Tony Ferguson and Habib. They'll never let it happen. You know, like there's some governing body. So if you kind of have this sense that you're tempting fate in a weird way, it comes back. And I see it, I think, most glaringly and the thing you're talking about it's usually when there's a literal like overlooking of somebody in a situation where it's just a slam dunk for a champion or like even like a dustin poirier against uh benoit saint denis back when that that type of fight where you just think ah dustin's getting fed

to the glue factory he's gonna get killed in fight. There's something about it that tempts, you know, like the fate, the fate, the cosmos or whatever. And it kind of turns and you, it's just a feeling. And it sort of seeps into the conversation all fight week. That's what's kind of fun about fight week. You get to see the fighters on the scale. You get to do all this stuff, their demeanor. You start to form your opinion. What are you dealing in?

Some of it is intuition. So I guess it feels like that. You know, it's like, you's like you're kind of like oh god we're putting the high hex we talk about this all the time on guys like khalil roundtree like you're sort of like oh yeah this is a striker's fight what are they doing there you know they're just feeding feeding this guy to perera to keep him hung you know keep him satisfied for the next guy dangerous territory yeah no absolutely i was actually just as you're saying this i'm thinking about the amount of hexes i've put on guys during our time same and and i think like this you and i have done it together multiple times holding hands yeah come on i think most

notably right like if you look back over the last year or so, Sean Strickland, Israel Adesanya, right? Like, that was one of those things. 100%. Where it was like, this guy is going to absolutely beat the shit out of Sean Strickland. Like, I was openly saying it for weeks. And then Strickland just comes in and gives him a boxing clinic. Like, this supposed generational striker gets boxed around the octagon by Sean Strickland. Like, do you think

that fits a similar dynamic to what we're seeing here with Pereira 100% I can remember going on I think it was morning combat with those guys over there it was when or maybe it was with you guys I don't remember but it was like Grasso was fighting Shevchenko the first time and just adamantly saying like you tell me even even with the wildest imagination what the path to victory for grasso is here because i can't see it you know going on this whole rant and just convinced beyond 100 that there's no way that grasso could win that fight and what happens and as it was happening i'm thinking about that you're like oh my god did i just like you know like it feel that's your personal attachment to fights right like that you feel

like this gamblers go through this all the time. They feel like they personally, because they touch something affected it in the, in a negative way or a positive way, whatever it is. But that Strickland one, it comes to mind too. There's a bunch of fights like that, where it feels part of it is that you feel like the best contender is not being thrust in the position, right? Like, so you could look at the situation that's going on right now and be like, well, where's uncle I have, maybe he should have been the guy. That's the guy that casts doubt over the situation by nature of that. You say, Oh,

it's Khalil round tree. You discount it on an illogical level just because he didn't deserve it. Right. He doesn't deserve to be there where he's leapfrogging in the position. Something in our nature just says, ah, well, that guy doesn't have a chance. He's down the rankings. He's not even supposed to be there. It just doesn't make any sense to think that way, but that's how we do it. You know? And we did that with Strickland.

We've done that with a bunch, man. It's just, I feel like it hasn't quite got there with Cleo Rountree. Cause I feel like he's so tough. Like he's a, he's a big monster puncher. Like you can certainly see a scenario where he could land one just like that puncher's chance but it's bordering on that right the way people are talking about it makes me feel that way it's like you're gonna derail our guy Alex Pereira just because you want to take for granted that he's gonna win well like Pereira is a model for this situation right like and look we only saw it

three weeks ago at the Sphere. Well, you saw it in person at the Sphere with Sean O'Malley. But I'd say the difference between O'Malley, Merab, and Pereira v. Roundtree is that, as you mentioned, with Merab, at least everybody was like, well, this guy is the deserved contender. And as you mentioned, Angeloyev is being lifted up in that regard for Khalil. But speaking about Pereira specifically, he has got to be the biggest frontrunner in the sport right now.

If you've taken Sean O'Malley out of the situation, this is the bona fide poster boy right now. If Sean O'Malley doesn't have a belt around his waist, that devalues him in terms of promotion. There's no doubt about it. And meanwhile, you have Pereira,

the guy who steps up on short notice to save 300. The guy who steps up because Conor broke his toe at 303 and goes in and beats up Uri again and then reveals to the world that I too, in fact, have a broken foot.

Like, I mean, it's nearly walk on water stuff and that's why I feel this is most fitting. And I feel like, you tell me if you feel this way too, and again, this is just stuff you trick yourself with into like whatever but Pereira has

basically bailed out the UFC three fights in a row like big fights, right? Like he just steps in and these were, all of those fights, I think had more of a, uh, an element of danger or a minefield feel to them than this one. And he got through them. So now it almost feels like this is counter UFC booking because they're saying like, all right, we're going to give you a guy. This is sort of a thank you. You know, it's like a welcome basket. We're going to give you Khalil round tree for for, like, helping us out. Thank you for that, Alex.

And then we'll get back to the business of really booking you. That's how it feels. And, again, this is where the territory starts getting very dark and crazy, right? Because you're like, whenever we do this is when guys lose. It gets derailed. It's just an interesting thing. And I would say that we've seen this kind of thing before where a guy kind of gets thrust into a situation and ends up being a champion.

The Michael Bisping thing, you know, is a prime example of this. Like he felt like he was inevitably going to get killed. He'd already lost to Rockhold, you know what I mean? And then he gets thrown in that situation and it just feels like it's a foregone conclusion that it's going to happen again. And then you see what happens and it not only derails rockhold who never was the same like he never comes back and it you know it derails that division in this big way for the longest time everything's an upheaval it was just a bizarre thing um that could happen and i mean

chaos is like the is the key thing of to fighting anyway so i i could see this happening can't you imagine if just ferrara gets hurt can't continue or something i mean just fluky stuff i mean could happen that would be wild and and look you you mentioned about bisping and obviously he was i remember he was filming that movie triple x the time mcgregor was actually meant to be in that role um bisping replaced really yeah that that Because remember, I was supposed to be writing his book, supposed to be, because I never actually did. But there was a certain time where the people, the book company were like, you have to go to Canada and stay with Conor while he's in the trailer or whatever,

and that's when the writing is going to be done. In the end, he turned it down. Bisping took it. That was a sidebar for absolutely no reason. But the reason. I like your sidebars. The reason I was thinking about this and the Bisping situation is like Khalil is definitely that. Because it's not just like he's not the rightful guy. The guy's coming off a failed drug test. The guy has been suspended.

Right. And granted, like he is. His red flags do wave. He's self-reported and all this stuff but that makes him even more less of a guy you put this spot which again plays into the theory i know there's there's there's so many things if you cover this sport long enough like you realize that what makes it brilliant is i do believe the matchmakers are always trying to take out the champions. Like it's not like boxing in that sense,

you know, where they're like the, they're trying to keep a champion there as long as they possibly can. Or there's a lot of different entities trying to protect a champion. It can happen in UFC, like where they try their best, but eventually they get taken out. I just feel like this setup,

I don't feel like they want to be in the roundtree business. I feel like the setup is for Alex Pereira with the understanding that they could be in the roundtree business. That's the way the UFC operates. I can remember, man, the most hilarious example of this was

this is way back. I was talking to Seth Kelly who used to edit UFC magazine. Do you remember that? They had a glossy magazine and uh it was when frankie edgar was going to fight bj pin the first time out in abu dhabi and i can remember seth kelly looking at me and saying this might literally be the first death we see in the octagon he's like he's like frankie edgar has no chance in this fight. And I'm, there was a bunch of people around and they're all like,

I know, man, this is stupid. You know, all this stuff. And look what happens. You know what I mean? Like, I just feel like when we all inevitably agree on something like,

oh, you're right, man, this fight is stupid. It doesn't make any sense. That's when it happens. And I'm like, I've seen it too many times.

I've seen it too many times, too many dreams smashed with this whole thing. Do you really believe that the UFC are still trying to, like, take out the champions? Because surely if the UFC were trying to take out the champions, Magomed... They wouldn't have booked Marab, though. They wouldn't have booked Marab in there. That is fair, right? That is...

I think I knew from the second that fight was booked that O'Malley was losing. I'm glad you didn't say it out loud but i i do feel as though like even though i've pointed out to you in the past like ankle if is not mr company man he obviously retired after the draw um he retired after that draw and then kind of didn't come back when he drew with jan blahovic they went on and did the fight instead but glover and jamal he's been kind of didn't come back when he drew with Jan Blachowicz. They went on and did the fight instead with Glover and Jamal. He's been kind of an awkward customer. He's booked to fight Alexander Rakic, which feels to me like a bit of a strategical booking from the UFC.

Like, oh, we would have loved to put you in here. But of course you're fighting Alexander Rakic in that huge fight in Abu Dhabi. Huge. Tell me this. Should Pereira get through this fight and we we've cast out on that for now for 13 minutes but should he get through that fight do you expect them to book that fight with Magomed Ankeloev or will he be put into this heavyweight mix which we also believe is an option at this stage so you're taking for granted that Ankeloev is going to beat Rakic

now you just put the high hex on that one. Well, let's presume both of them prevail, all right? Let's theoretically say that without tempting any bad juju on this thing. I think they have to, don't they? They would have to make that fight. I can't imagine what they would say

to prevent it from happening. Unless Pereira just is out for a long time. But at 37 years old, and he keeps saying how much he wants to stay busy, and he likes fighting and is feeling healthy and all that. As long as they're both healthy, I can't imagine how they would sidestep making that fight next, if both those guys win. Yeah, no, I agree with you.

I did just another thing on the Roundtree side, which I thought was a bit juicy and i spoke to john wood about it um there will be an article on on uh uncrowned or the yahoo about this um but the fact that you're picking the pin up again i like this my hand is broken i just wrote my name it's all like a carpal tunnel um but wood was the head coach for marab against sean and you're talking about a situation where you're walking into vegas and we were there o'malley's everywhere like it feels like the the the town is painted technicolor for the homecoming of this guy you know like it's it's yeah it's all over the place um he Murab obviously goes in and wins.

It's an upset. It's against one of the poster boys of the company. And then just three weeks later, you're sending your guy in to basically do the same mission in a different way, in a different style of fight, no doubt about it. But it's the same kind of context, right? It might not be in City City. It's in Salt Lake City this time, which is quite different. Very different. But you're going in to take out one of the golden geese of this company.

If not the golden goose, right? Well, now certainly. Thanks, Sean. It's one of those other kind of situations where you're kind of stacked with a, almost in the Chris Weidman sense against Anderson Silverback, you're being asked to do your job and go beat a champion who's beloved by many. And I actually sort of, at this point,

had risen to mythological proportions in the combat psyche. People are like, dude, this guy's crazy. Anderson Silverback and the entourage and all that. I wouldn't say that Pereira is quite like that, but nobody's had the kind of run he has and nobody has made it become a star as quickly as him in the last bit of time right like he's just uh people love everything about him there's almost not a negative thing to say about him yet but you're being sacked you're being tasked with going there and to beat this guy and what is your reward for that people's hate

what you dude you know you ruined it you know that sort of thing he's like you can see that happening too um you take out one of the popular guys and uh people don't dig it like we i just you know there's some guys who just don't recover from that for whatever reason you know uh it's it's just a thankless task he's going to do but for his own thing he's got to go in there like this is his probably his only chance probably his only chance he'll get at a title so dangerous anybody who's like thinks like that there's only chance there i wouldn't say desperate but opportunistic and training that way they're dangerous man you know yeah um one of the lesser talked about fights in the car doesn't fact the event which is the uc bantamweight it's the ufc bantamweight championship between raquel pennington and someone you're going to be covering ahead of this fight

miss uh juliana penny who i believe you know when raquel became champion i think we both agreed that the best thing that they could do is get her in there with penny if they're not going to go the kale away you got to get in there with opinion simply because she adds so much to these fights in terms of promotion she is great on the mic she you know she can spin a yarn I think fans react to her one way or the other and that's what you want in this industry you don't want that feeling of a difference that is not something that Pena brings to the table and what's interesting to you about this fight it's interesting in the sense that i've you this division is basically you have like a placeholder type personality in pennington like people don't really see her as the champion they see the three wolves surrounding her as the as the dangers of

the vision so you've got a man of nunas who at any moment can pop back up from retirement and be right in there. You've got Pena, who she's fighting, who I think has a very good chance of becoming a champion again. And then you've got Kayla fighting on the same card, who inevitably is being put into that position strategically to challenge the winner of this fight. So, Pennington, it's weird that you have a champion that's such an afterthought in a division like that. It's just – and it's kind of crazy. And I know Pena, in talking to her, and I have a piece coming out just like you do for Yahoo probably today at some point, whenever this drops out, around the time of this drop here will be that article will be out. I forgot what I was talking about. I went on too big of a rant.

You said when you were talking to Pena, the interesting thing about it, you were talking about the wolves surrounding the champion. She says that, oh, yes, thank you. Thank you for that. Old age. She was saying that the division is just not interesting. She called it like a ghost town. And I was like, I get what you mean if you're talking about Pennington,

because Pennington is not going to make the same kind of rounds that Pena did back in the day. I remember she was popping up all over the place um but there's big intrigue all around that like i you look at the you know kayla harrison you look at amanda nuna's possibly come back you look at pena i feel like it's actually in a in a very good spot and i guess she's kind of saying in its current form, but as of UFC 307, that all changes, right? So I think there's a lot of potential for big fights in that division. And we'll see if we'll see how it all pans out.

But I mean, ultimately if Kayla wins, I think that's the biggest thing because then you get her probably through to a title shot and things pick up from there. Yeah. What do you, what point do you think Amanda reemerges here? Like if raquel

wins i don't think we're going to hear much from uh sorry nunez like straight after that but i do believe if it's a kayla pena situation and amanda just has to show up and watch that fight and suddenly the juices are flowing right like if there's a winner there's a loser she has a re-entry point like do you believe her re-entry is reliant on pennington not having the belt see this is what's so fascinating about it like i was thinking about this earlier everybody's kind of side-eyeing it's almost like every like you're in a circle everybody's side-eyeing the other way so it goes in a circle like so so like basically you know it's like uh you have like you have a you have pena right who has the obvious obstacle in front of her she has to win the title but she's looking So, like, basically, you know, it's like you have, like, you have Pena, right,

who has the obvious obstacle in front of her. She has to win the title. But she's looking only at Amanda Nunes. She's like, I want Amanda Nunes. Well, Amanda's sort of like, well, I want to fight my old training partner, Kayla Harrison. And then Kayla's sort of like, I want who has the belt. I want, you know, it's like they're all kind of looking at each other.

But, you know what I mean? There's no cross-looking here. I don't really feel like P wants harrison next if she wins i don't feel like that's i think she wants amanda nunez yeah you know i think that's right i don't know if she's i don't know how that shakes out it's just one of those crazy things if you could buy stock and how would you and how would you plug nunez into anything other than a title fight? So it's like, I feel like whenever she's ready to come back, she's got to be in the title fight.

So then she may have to wait out if Harrison fights Pena. Let's just say that's the situation. She might have to wait that out to make her comeback. I don't know. It's just a crazy scenario. If you could buy stock in any of those three uh pena kayla amanda right now uh say like what have you two holding the belt i don't know what the theory is actually because pena's fighting for the title next but right now who is your favorite of those three who would rise to the

top so long as harrison is keeping her weight within distance of making the 135, I would put my money on her. She's going to make more headlines than the title fight this week. I know. Like 100%. I mean, it's Rocky Pennington. Rocky Pennington is almost like Mark Hunt. She was a 500 fighter coming into the UFC, and even through years and years, she was near a 500. At one point, she was 10 and 8 before she went on the streak right now six six fight streak she was

10 and eight she was basically like Mark Hunt she was just kind of floating you know doggy paddling in the you know and like all of a sudden she's like boom she makes a move out of nowhere it's just a it's a bizarre run and I don't think it feels like a legitimate one i feel like she beats pain and then you start to yeah it becomes more legitimate that way but um yeah it's just it's a it's a crazy thing but i i think that you're just going back to i mean harrison i feel like she kind of looms over all of it and because she has that name she will be next to the main event the most talked about feature on this fight card no absolutely i wonder um i haven't actually seen the odds but i mean is pennington the underdog as champion she's got it you know what i didn't

look those up either um i'll find it hang on i didn't i didn't see it yeah if you paint it painting is the dog crazy yeah so i mean given that given those uh those i mean it's been two years right yeah two years so she fought so i guess you you kind of have to take all that into consideration here. So let's do some picks. Are you comfortable with doing picks? And now our old friend Ariel does not do the picks. I do the picks.

Reluctantly, I'll do it. Let's do it. All right. So co-main event, Raquel Payton against the underdog, Julia Pena, which we're about a bit shocked by. Five rounds. What are we saying, Chuck? This is a toughie, man.

But you know, I'm going to lean Raquel Pennington. As crazy as it is, I just think that if you've watched her fights, and probably you haven't, like most of us, but she kind of finds that gear. She kind of grinds and she finds ways to win. I could see a scenario where she just does enough just does enough to get by

juliana pena so i i you know just outworks her in the end so what's your i could see that scenario your bet sounds like it's more like fight goes the distance more than anything else yeah oh yeah i think so i mean i don't think pain yet I don't think Peña... I don't think Peña... You're really selling those sticks when they're checked. But I don't think Peña is going to... Well, if Peña can't get it done, I don't think Pennington is going to have a finish. I mean, I just don't see that happening. Oh, my God, yes.

Downhill like a tractor she is when she gets going. And then, look, we've cast doubt on the man purely because of his brilliance. Since the start of this show, it's Alex Pareda against the unlikely challenger at this point, Khalil Roundtree Jr. What are we saying? After all of our bullshit, what are we going with, Chuck? This will sound crazy with the guy living near me, but,ill roundtree not one in this fight it's an old mendenhall trick you know bait and switch it's like the greatest hits it's like

zeppelin getting open you know i'm playing stairway you're like one of their licks um i think that this is tailor-made i mean honestly it's kind of tailor-made for roundtree too right in a weird way but i think that the better striker and i mean dude he's the way he's looked on his feet over these last few fights perera just looks so so good and so like poised in there if he just shows up and he does that man i think he'll be fine you know if he goes in there and just uh fights his fight i think he's gonna be all right yeah i've got to go with you you know um it's just you know uh you know i i believe in the argument like this is taking place in both of these guys wheelhouses but like it's when one of them is a two-time glory champion and he's ko'd every person apart from jan behovich

it feels that gets anywhere near him um it's very hard to go against him but I do believe now that we have an asterisk because we've done this whole podcast on the untouchable theory we can simply say the untouchable theory took over that night we had nothing to do with it if right in fact I do like having something more to like um just account for like that that belongs to that now it's not me you know that's just account for. That belongs to that now. It's not me. That's just the way it works. I like that.

I don't like accountability. It's the whole MMA gods thing again. What's Salt Lake City like? What can fans expect if they're traveling up there for some partying? You know, I've only been there a few times. I went there once for a Nuggets jazz game, and I've spent a few nights there. Karl Malone? Z-Plan? Karl Malone. few nights there. Carl Malone? Was he playing?

Carl Malone, yeah. He's fallen under some disfavor lately. I don't think people were... Well, look him up. It's an interesting thing. I grew up in Denver, so it's the other side of the Rocky Mountains. It's kind of like a reverse Denver, and it's very highly religious, and there's polygamy going on around you and the liquor's harder to get but ultimately a beautiful place you know sounds like my idea of hell if i'm

being honest religious place it sounds like actual hell to me i can remember like fabian edwards telling me like he was walking into places to get lunch people are looking i'm like i think i'm the only black dude in this town you know he's like what's going on there is that element too well look there is that is true yeah it's given us some fantastic knockouts over the years and you were a knockout today as always chuck mendenhall um will you just make your articles a little bit shitter so when mine's come out people will be like oh no he fits right in he fits right in yes yeah i'll dumb it down thank you so we'll get down to your level pc come on i appreciate it man give yourself some credit man well look um thank you so much i hope to have you on here as much as possible

it's always a pleasure picking that beautiful brain of yours uh chuck mendenhall thank you very much there he was what a man um i realize it broke his heart i wore a knicks hat during that interview as i did during the the wood interview as i'm wearing now um and as a nuggets fan i'm sure he's disgusted i told chuck for a long time that i couldn't support the broncos because they had too much orange on their jersey and here i am with a Knicks hat on with the orange logo. Come on. I'm a sucker. I did like the Knicks last year.

I'd like to see them do something this year. I used to love the Boston Celtics, but they're just boring. I'm sorry. Okay? They're a fantastic team. I get it. They're brilliant. But I'm, you know, I'm very much in NFL mode now.

Until the Super Bowl ends, I will get back in. Hopefully the Knicks are doing well. If they aren't, you know, I'm a mercenary in NFL mode now. Until the Super Bowl ends, I will get back in. Hopefully the Knicks are doing well. If they aren't, I'm a mercenary in these American sports. I'm just going to jump on someone else. Who were my guys last year? Donchus' team? The Mavericks. They were my guys last year.

I bet them at the start of the playoffs, and of course they crashed out in the final. Fantastic. Boston absolutely nailed them. Anyway, my underdog of the playoffs, and of course they crashed out in the final. Fantastic. Boston absolutely nailed them. Anyway, my underdog of the week didn't hit. On batting 500, I went Merab, and then I went Kevin Jussie, who I still think will be a force to be reckoned with.

And there's some very interesting underdogs in this card, ladies and gentlemen. We obviously talked about Khalil at length. Giuliani Pena is the underdog in the co-main event. Jose Aldo is the underdog against Mario Bautista. Caitlin Vieira,

obviously, an underdog. Roman De Lidze against Kevin Holland. Oh, I like that one. I am not going to lie to you,

but I think it's got to be Giuliani Pena. I mean, people are going to say the disrespect the disrespect we have for raquel painting but and look it is she should lean into it there is a certain amount of disrespect when it comes to raquel painting um you know this the story of her title win should have been one of overcoming all kinds of things but it just kind of the standard of fight was so poor that she just didn't get that kind of praise she didn't get her just rewards i don't think but in saying that like here's me doubting her again juliana pena uh the subject

of chuck mendenhall's brilliant article that's coming out and uh someone who hasn't fought in a very long time, as Chuck explained. That's my underdog of the day. I mean, if I lose this one, I might have to scrap the whole fucking feature. But thank you all so much for checking this out. I hope you're enjoying it. I know it's not the same as the other guys' show,

but I'm hoping to give you a bit of a pep in your step leading into these cards at the weekend. Please, Juliana. Avenge Kevin Jussie's loss. Anyway, I've grown a beard recently and Ariel's asked me did I turn heel. I didn't know that's what people did when they grew beards. It actually started off because the blades on my raids are a duel but i still had a little cutthroat thing so i had to go somewhere and i was like oh i'm just gonna tidy this stubble i have up but you know what i'm kind of feeling myself with this ginger beard that's cultivating

real irish man you know what i mean my uncle paul had black hair and he still had a ginger beard that's when you know that's when you know you're truly from the turf Anyway, talking shite now I love yous loads, I'll see yous again next week Let me know if you like the show I mean I know it went away from this feed for a while But it's back baby, tell me how you feel Have a great weekend

Enjoy all of the sports It's a great time to be a sports fan But it's an even better time To be a UFC fan Salt Lake City baby, even better time to be a UFC fan. Salt Lake City, baby. Let's see if there's another upset on the cards out there. We won't forget Leon. Headshot bang. See you soon. See you next week. Love is love.