The Ariel Helwani Show - Tom Aspinall first interview since UFC 321, Sean O’Malley, Arnold Allen, On The Nose

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show with On The Nose, answering your questions about the UFC 324 main event, Ronda Rousey’s comeback, how to convert casual fans, and more (05:14).Tom Aspinall returns for his first interview since UFC 321, responding to critics who believe was looking for a way out, discussing what he learned from the experience, his behind-the-scenes exchange with Daniel Cormier, comments about switching to boxing made by his father Andy, Ciryl Gane being a tough matchup, Dana White’s reaction after the fight, Jon Jones’ barbs, his potential timeline for return, and more (1:01:28).Sean O’Malley joins next to preview his fight against Song Yadong at UFC 324, talk about how he landed on Song as an opponent, the card order for UFC 324, Ilia Topuria being out to start the year, the footage of his sparring with Alexandre Pantoja, and more (1:59:32).Arnold Allen returns to discuss the shoulder injury that kept him out of action since 2024, his upcoming fight against Jean Silva, being offered the short-notice Aaron Pico fight, Diego Lopes getting the title shot over Lerone Murphy and Movsar Evloev, the fan reaction to Tom Aspinall’s recent videos, his viral joke about being jumped in Montreal for not speaking French, and more (2:31:10).Ariel answers your Super Chats to close the show (3:06:47).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Eriya-Hawadi show. Back in your life on this Tuesday, December 2nd, 2000. And 25, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. how are you oh the weather outside is frightful and the clouds are so delightful i don't think that's how it actually goes but bit of a storm outside not quite snow but something like it and so i'm so happy that we're inside i'm so happy that we're hunkered in we're here we're talking m-ma we're talking fighting we're talking combat sports and yes if you are saying to yourself ariel

you seem to have a bit of a glow to you. You seem to have a little sort of, je ne se quo. That is perhaps, perhaps, and you are right, by the way, that is perhaps, because I strolled into the office today with my brand-new OVO-X Buffalo Bills, jacket, pull-over, starter co-lab.

I, what? What is that? I received this note from October's very own. You know that, Al. we all know that owl and it's what did it say what did it say read it with me frank one two three Ariel

welcome to the family ah you said it best you said it best this is like is this the official invitation am I now a part of the sixth god familiar am I now a part of the mafia

like the multiple there's the bills mafia there's the OVO like does that and do you guys do you feel the glow Do you feel like, see, this is the thing. When you hit your wagon to the wrong horse, i.e. the Kendrick Lamar horse, you're left with nothing. When you hit your wagon to the right side, to the right horse, to good versus evil, to the victor goes to spoils.

To the victor goes to spoils. You know, what more can you say? So my kids, you know, they were loving it. We did an unboxing. Yeah, I just sort of grateful, you know, just sort of thankful. know, just kind of appreciative right now, taking a moment to reflect, taking a moment to count my blessings, and in a good mood as a result. In a good mood as a result. I'm also in a good mood because we had a phenomenal show yesterday. We have an even better lineup today.

A star studded. Some call it super stacked. What do we call it around these parts, Frank? What do we call it? Just another two. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, G. You know, just when I thought Frank couldn't let me down once again, he doesn't complete the sentence. It's just a- He's not telling you as he was engaged in a conversation with me. I got two ears, though. One works for convos, the other works for the show, man. Yeah, what else? What else is happening?

What's more important than this? Great hoodie and apropos hoodie that G.C. is wearing. There it is. We got the champ. Direct from England. Yes. In his first interview, that guy right over there. The reigning, the defending champion of the world, the bad.

man on the planet. The pride of Wiggin, the pride of Manchester, the pride of Great Britain, the pride of the United Kingdom, the pride of Poland as well, he's got ties to Poland. The great Tommy Aspinall are going to join us in his first live interview since UFC 321, since the eye pokes, since all the craziness afterwards, no holds barred, everything goes. 2 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. in the UK. Stay tuned. It's going to. to be, dare I say, LIT lit. Now, after that, we're going to be joined by Shugashon O'Malley, the former UFC Bantamway champion. He is returning to action on the 24th of January, UFC 324, first paramount card, Song Ya Dong, big fight, big fight. Love that fight, important fight at 135.

Sean O'Malley, you're going to join us at 3 o'clock. And then at 3.30, one of our favorites, also fighting on that card. He is finally back. AAA, the Almighty one. Arnold. Billy Allen, going to be joining us to talk about his big fight against John Silva, where he's been as of late. There is much to discuss with AAA. I mean, what a lineup. This is just a tremendous lineup right here.

Shout out to the Booker, by the way. The Booker is just on fire as of late. Aspinall, O'Malley, and Alan following yesterday's five pack of guests. And you know, there's been so much news as of late. There's been so much going on. This is how I decide. When there's hot things happening,

OTN has to be on a Tuesday. because I know you guys are revved and ready to go. I know there's some hot tags that need to be tagged if you get what I'm saying. I know you want it. I know you have some things that you need to discuss. When it's a bit of a choir appear, we put it on a Wednesday.

But Thursday was crazy. This past week was crazy. And so time now for everyone's favorite segment of the week. It is time. It's time for all the night. And as if today couldn't be any better. I got all the schmuts from my hoodie on my hair. I mean, thanks for telling me, guys.

as if today couldn't be any more exciting, the long-awaited, much-anticipated return of Ireland's prodigal son. He is here. Yes, there he is. The one and only P.C. Carrie, Carol, our long national nightmare is over. He is back from his sejourn. I mean, he was all over the country. He was all over the gaffe. He was all over the continent.

I mean, if you follow him on social media, you will see frolicing in the countryside. and I'm sure he's in fine form. I'm sure he's in great spirits. One of his own countrymen, what is his name? Charlie Smith hitting a 56-yard field goal for the New Orleans Saints over the weekend. One of the prouder moments, dare I say, in the history of Ireland. P.T., what is the crack? Crack is, yeah, I mean, there wasn't a dry eye in sight there when Charlie nailed that 56-yard field goal,

know that about it. Just before they can bring it up on the show. Yes? both Tom and Arnold have caught me with social media posts in the last month and before they ridicule me

if they do attempt to when they come on the show I just wanted to come out here and say it openly I caught the Aspinall post as I was frolicking in the countryside and I didn't notice the goggles on him in the post

and I was like, whoa Tom, what the I didn't see this coming from anywhere is like, are you fucking serious? And I was like, yeah, like it didn't expect you this to be happening so soon. He's like, read it again there, buddy. Wow. And I also got caught with the Arnold Allen getting bothered to boil out of French lads. Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a a second. Beep, beep, beep. The picture that Tom posted of him wearing goggles to promote a fake

UFC 324 fight, I do think we even have the visual evidence. You thought that that this, you thought this was the real announcement? You know. It's tough. Exactly. Thank you, GC. This is, you. You Yeah, I mean, in hindsight, you know what I mean? It probably looks a bit fake now. But, you know, just before he can say, I want to get it out there. I'm like M&M and 8 mile here. Yeah, no. I'm just putting it out there first.

And then, and then the story that Arnold Allen put out on his YouTube channel that he didn't speak French and so he got beat up by some Montreal thugs, which I know some of from Montreal. So I was like that, I expect that. You know what I mean? Ranged UFC fighter, Arnold Allen attacked on Canadian streets for not speaking French. This story is- Oh, there's New York Post. The prestigious New York Post also did it.

So it's not just my fault. But I went a step further and reached out to Ireland and being like, listen, man, that's shit. I can't believe that happened. Yeah. I mean, you're all right. And he was like, nah, that didn't happen, Pizzi. I'm taking the piss. And I was like, oh, yeah.

No, so am I. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, all right. Okay, well, I'm glad that you got ahead of it. We will not allow them to slander your name. We have missed you. We know that yesterday was a post- Thanksgiving Monday show and you have historically said that you don't work. Yeah, you have always said that you don't work on the post- Thanksgiving Monday show.

And so here we are. And we have a lot of things. to discuss, Pizzi, because you have yet to weigh in on all the craziness that has transpired over the past five or so days. Of course, no crack. Everyone was very sad about that. But of course, Thanksgiving, I know big holiday. And there's a lot to get to. So let us get to it. Shall we get to it? Yeah. Let's get to it. As fate would have it, first question to you, Pizzi. Okay. Gavriel. Hey, Ariel, question for Pizzi.

regarding the well-documented regarding the well-documented ancient rivalry between Ireland and Dagestan where do historians first traces origins? Why am I having a hard time reading this? Was it A, when St. Patrick famously

banished all Dagestanian wrestlers from Ireland B, the 16th century battle between Prince Habib and Connor I'm not going to say those names The Great Sea Russia versus Ireland were for potato distributions rights across Europe. I didn't know about that one. Well, they're all through so far.

Okay. It was just three options. Just three options. Yeah, I mean, it's all of those things. All of them happened. And look, as I've told the lads, there's a different mood about the country now that Dagestan v. Erland 26 is happening.

I mean, people, we think this is the one. We think we're going to finally get it back. Some say part two. Some say part five. Some say 26. There has been one victory in the storied battles between Dagestan and Ireland. One for Ireland, as I know, I'm looking into it. I'm passing through documents as we speak.

So I believe that's one victory in 15 or so, maybe 20. Okay. I'll keep you post. All right. Well, you'll get that one. It's going to be a big year for you guys. World Cup qualification. Get one up on the Dagestanis.

Finally, your bit of rivals. It's going to be huge. It's going to be huge. McGregor at the White House. Oh, my God, that too. Yes, yes, yes. No more Mr. Nice Guy says, Ariel, are you the type to do something

but tell your kids they can't do it or would you allow it if they were of the age with you or around you in a safe environment? Example, if you were a PRJ indulger, would you tell your kids no weed smoke or would you normalize it and allow it in moderation

as long as they are good kids? You know, I'm not. So, but I get your point. I'm not a hypocrite, but you know, sometimes I do feel like I'm a hypocrite. I have a phone and my son doesn't have a phone. Now, I do think that there are certain things that, you know, you reach a certain age and then you should be allowed to use them.

So maybe I'm being too hard on myself. That being said, I don't really partake in, I don't really drink alcohol at all. I can't even remember the last time. Maybe a sip here or there. I don't drink wine. I don't do drugs. So I'm not faced with this. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know, I don't know how I would react. Frank, you're a known, you know, consumer. How do you, how do you deal with this dilemma? I mean, they're going to experiment one way or the other. Sure. So the best thing to do is just teach them the risk of doing such things and be there for when it happens. The most important thing is keep an open dialogue with them.

Don't, don't shun it so much so where they're afraid to talk to you about it. I agree. I agree. I think that's. Also, you had a beer last Wednesday. I did have a beer. He had a little brusky with the boys last one. And then he blacked down and continued to drink. no no you're 100% right and uh you're 100% right and thank you for calling me on that that that was

that was a good bye party right yeah yeah i mean it was a it was a it was a great vibes it was a great vibe i thought it was a welcome jordan back party yeah i mean uh just look at rick's reaction to us reminiscing about said vibes i mean he's locked in right now he's reviewing just deep in a magic game right now um what are you doing right now vertical phone he's not matching yeah he's texting he's texting people. Now here's the thing. We went to this Ukrainian restaurant. Can we give them a shout out? Selka, shout out. Perogi's unreal. One of the all-time great meals. Latka's unreal. Pti. Mutzabal soup, Latkas, borsh. Oh, yeah, the borsh. Perugis of... Boorch sausage? Snitzel. Beat soup.

Beat soup. Okay. It's unbelievable. We had pierogies that were fried but also steamed. Boiled. Boiled. Boiled. The boiled way better than the fried. Way better than the fried. A wide array of fillings in the pierogies. There was one that was like, what was it, beef short rib or something? Oh, yeah, the beef short ribs. It was phenomenal. Gosh. Got to Veselka.

Then schnitzel on the back end, and we topped it off with an incredible dessert. It was like. Honeycake. Honeycake with, like, sour cream or ricotta? Sour cream. I got one to go, and like, when I watch it on the restaurant eating it, I was like, and it looks okay. Phenomenal, right?

Take a bite or two when I get home. whole piece was gone in 30 seconds. Couldn't recommend it more. I got to be honest with you, my Thanksgiving was kind of ruined because I was still full the next day. Oh, yeah. And then Rick and I did the veteran move,

we got a blue and yellow cookie to go. I got three, actually. I didn't realize they were that big. They were like the size of my head. Instead of the black and white pizza, blue and yellow for Slava Ukraine. You understand? Very nice.

Yeah. Is this like some type of a massive boy face for Eusek's next boy or something? They did it. They did it. Yeah, we actually had been. Yeah, last year. And we went, we went, yeah, thanks for watching.

Any other brain busters? Favorite episode. What else you got? What else you got? I appreciate. Shot to Veselka, though, all time. Oh, tremendous. How you spell that?

How you spell that? V-E-S-E-L-K-A? Lower East Side, right? Yeah, East Village. Tremendous. Technically, Ukrainian Village. Oh, yeah. Slava.

Guys, we do have some breaking news. Uh-oh. I wanted to address this off the top, and I sort of forgot. I was all, you know, crazy over the return of Pizzi, the OVO. Some big news, you know I love the media rights news. Some big news out of the world of pro wrestling, total nonstop action wrestling, TNA wrestling, which has had seemingly 15 lives in this business.

I've said in the past, maybe not six feet under, but definitely five feet under. And they've enjoyed a resurgence in large part due to their relationship as of late with NXT and WW. They announced this morning a new TV deal with AMT. How about this? First time AMC is airing pro wrestling. Here's a little teaser for you. It starts January 15th. I believe that was Jeff Hardy. It's a great looking shot. That's Matt Hardy. And that's Jeff Hardy. Anyway, January 15th from Texas, live Thursday. Now, their first show is live. They don't specify in the release if every episode is going to be live. Maybe it'll be one of those things where they have one live show and then they pre-tape next week show from that same venue and they go one week live. when we're not live, et cetera, et cetera, like WW used to do back in the day. But this is huge.

In a day and age and in a climate, you see the release right here, the tweet from TNA, where top rank still doesn't have a deal, and it's, you know, it's been almost five months since their last show. Golden Boy's deal is up with DeZone.

Matchroom's deal next year, up with DeZone. What else? PFL's deal up with ESPN at the end of next year as well. It's a big coup. Now, I don't know the details. I don't know if it's a,

it's a barter. I don't know if it's a time buy. I don't know if it's a massive, you know, multi-million dollar deal. I don't know. But I think it's very good for a company that, like I said, has had some trials and tribulations. They were on Access TV. They were on Discover America. Their heyday, of course, they were on Spike TV. I'm happy to see this. Very excited about it. And I think it's great for the business. So, you know, there's people arguing online. Oh, is this because of WWE? Did they help them? Who cares? Honestly, who cares? I understand what, you know, Matt Hardy said, and I kind of agree with Matt Hardy. I think that WW is in business

with them to kind of box AW out. But all's fair and love and fight promotion, and TNA is benefiting from this. I think they have a solid product, and like I said, they've had many different iterations. To see them on AMC is a big freaking deal. AMC, may I

remind all of you, I know you guys are new to the TV world, but like, Mad Men, right? Breaking Bad? They were on AMC, right? you know walking dead you knew yeah walking dead less we forget walking dead has a million spinoffs now i mean this is a big time channel oh yeah i mean from like 2008 to like 2006 like 2014 they were crushing it they were

major they were in like the HBO mix of of great original series right prestige television they had a strangle hold on for yeah yeah so anyway i think this is great for tNA congratulations everyone involved them very excited about it okay uh we can continue. We continue, gents. Oh, I like this one. This is from Lex. Hey, Mr. A.H. With all respect, why do you care that Kayla and Amanda are the comane when you were the one who told us time and again, who cares that Bo Nichols on the UFC 300 main card? Much love just playing devil's advocate. Oh, I'm so happy that you've brought this to my attention because others have tweeted it and said it and written it to me. There is obviously a massive difference between being in a

non-title fight anywhere on the card you're not a champion you're not fighting for the belt and you are the undisputed champion you're a two-time olympic gold medalist and you are fighting the greatest of all time and you're that close to the top but we think that you'd be better off in the comane and we're going to put a fake interim title fight above you if you can't see the difference between bow nickel being the fifth fight or the six fight or the fourth fight or even the eighth fight, and Amanda and Kayla being this incredible fight that we've been talking about for years for the undisputed belt, which also signals the return of the greatest of all time, and they used to be teammates, and all the history involved there, double champion, two-time

Olympic gold medalists, everything there, everything on their resume combined, being good enough to be all the way up, but not quite at the very top of the card, then I don't know what to tell you. There is a massive difference, a gigantic difference. like I actually think if you wanted to start the card with Amanda Kayla I'd be less upset because all this means to me is you think they're good but just not quite good enough if you start the card with them now this is a strategic decision like we want to come out with a bang we want to start the new era with prestige WWE does this from time to time they'll start with a big you know fight I don't love

it but I can't believe I still can't believe and again I'm not going to belabor this I'm not going to harp on this Amanda's at peace with it Kayla's at peace with it God bless. But to me, what it told us was they're good enough, just not quite good enough for the main event spot. And I can't believe that. Now, again, if it was an undisputed title fight above them, regardless of weight class, go ahead. God bless. But it's not. It's an interim title fight that doesn't even feature the number one contender, doesn't feature a former champion, doesn't feature anything like that. You've got the great prestige of just a gate sheet trying to become the two-time interim champion for the first time ever. No one has ever won an interim

belt twice. The dubious distinction. It's crazy. So yes, there is a massive difference. Pete, we haven't heard from you on this topic. Do you think that this is as insulting as I do, or do you think that it's much ado about nothing? I think it's not too shocking given the UFC these days. They're going to prioritize what they think is most exciting, what most people want over everything else. I understand your position on it, but I think in this day and age, it's not too,

I mean, I would have predicted they would have went this way, honestly. Like, it's, they always go for the biggest spectacle, whether that be the most prestigious

over everything else. And that's what that seems to be here. Yeah. Again, as I said, I'm not going to belabor, but I'm a stickler for the prestige. I'm a stickler for the belts. I'm a stickler for the history

and I just feel like ultimately at the end of the day I don't think less people watch this card I don't think less people watch this card if Amanda and Kayla are headlining over these guys I'm not saying don't have Justin and Patty on I'm not even saying don't have them

fight for the interim belt if that's what you really want just have them in the co-main event and end the night with the prestigious undisputed title now Sean O'Malley by the way Sean O'Malley is going to be joining us later and he disagrees with me

I was watching his show This morning, the Bro Malley show on YouTube. Highly suggest checking it out. He disagreed with me. Here's what he had to say about it all. Ariel, I love Ariel, love Uncle Ariel, going on a show on Tuesday,

was mad that it wasn't main event, Kayla Harrison versus Amanda Nunez, and it should have been co-main Justin Patty. And I'm like, Ariel, what in the... What are you smoking, brother? What are you smoking? The UFC is a goddamn business. The first fight, too, of Paramounts.

And they are not going to put Amanda Nunez versus Kelly Harrison. It's a big fight, women's history. Yes, I get it. We want to watch Patty versus Gates at the end of the card. We don't want to watch. Why? Amanda, they're Comaine. I like that. I should be opening up the paper view. I should be in the prelims. But I don't, I think the cards, you know, it is where it is and I think that's okay. Why does it have to be last, though? We're going to talk about this with all the love and respect in the world. But why does it have to be last? I don't get it. The belt, the big belt, the undisputed title needs to be last. And if you don't think that it's good enough to

hold its own to be at the top of the bill, then why are you in that business? That's what I'd like to know. Why are you in that? Is there anything be said that like, and correct me for wrong, because I am a complete novice when it comes to this. Is this kind of like a WWE bill the way they build a card? Like sometimes I always look at them and I think, oh, I didn't expect this to be here or sometimes I'm looking at it from a traditional boxing our MMA card build and I see like a title is on very early or something like that. Is there anything to be said to that? Like it's an influence from there? I mean, I'm sure that there's a lot of people who got together.

There's a lot of attention on this card. I'm sure there's a lot of people who got together and said, what's the best way or what's the most exciting way or who's the biggest name that we can. And by the way, I think that the plan was, I know the plan. It was Ilya versus Patty. And it didn't work out. And so then you have to adjust. And if it was going to be Ilya versus Patty, which I had no problem with if that was

going to be announced in book before Armin fought, that would have been an undisputed title fight, and that would have been totally fine at the top. But there ain't no announcement. The fight was never made. To the best of my knowledge, it was never even signed. It was never, like, that's what they wanted, but life got in the way. And so to me, it should have been Patty versus Armin, co-main event. If you wanted to be for the interim title, fine. I said yesterday, I don't think an interim title needs to be made. Ilya just fought in June. Co-main event to the undisputed title fight. Armin told us he's available. I don't think he's lying about that.

It's two months away. You're not doing Armin, fine. Ilya versus, excuse me, Patty versus Justin, co-main event, five-round fight. Why not? And the other problem is, of course, that we haven't brought up, but we did bring up yesterday.

Now what do you do with Armin? Are you going to have the winner of Patty versus Justin fighting Armin for the interim title? It's going to be Tom Aspin all over. again? Or is the winner of Patty versus Justin going to fight Ilya and then Armine gets skipped over? Or are you going to do Armin versus Ilya and then the interim belt is just useless? Mess. Steve Bouchemi, why is Suhudo a three-to-one underdog against Talbot? Am I missing

something? Help me decipher this. I know this is purely MMA math and therefore not credible, but Barcellos held him down for rounds. Sohudo's not going to? Is it the height difference? The fact that he's washed? Help me understand why this isn't going to go the same way as the Barcellus fight. What do you make of this GC, these odds? Three to one.

I didn't even know that. Yeah, I don't know. I guess Talbot bounced back in his last fight. Sohudo's been on a bad run as of late. He's getting older. I guess the thought is that Talbot's on the way up. Sehudo's on the way out. Do you agree?

Like, do you like them? I don't know. I'm probably not going to bet on that fight. But if, like, if you feel so strongly, just take the bet. You don't need someone to explain to you the odds. Like, if you feel so strongly and you see him as a big underdog, takes a hoot. Triple double. Why do all these proud American athletes work with?

I'm just going to replace what he wrote with Ali. Do they believe this information isn't true or do they convince themselves it isn't a thing? I think they all think that it is interesting, that there's a lot of, it is interesting that there's a lot of proud Americans who do work with him. And I think that they think that he is very good at his job. They appreciate his loyalty. They appreciate his relationships, his work ethic. And he does right by them.

That's what they think. And I guess they are comfortable living with that. Curro's dad. Another question, Ariel, why don't you read the most popular questions instead of sorting by newest? Let's the fans decide what questions. You answer based on what they want to hear, I guess. I usually start there, but I jump all around.

To be honest, some of the questions aren't good or some of them I don't want to read, and I'm reading them quickly on the fly. I never look beforehand, but I always start with most popular. Left Leg Cemetery, Goat Conner. I'm starting a new job in January. My boss, a longtime friend, is not a sports guy. Any strategies for getting him to start casually watching him in Maine hopes of the sport, fully engulfing him to the point of having a strong.

of having a stranglehold on all of his time and finances and at the expense of his family. Thanks for the picks. You can still make me money on Saturday nights aside from the Parlay Pals picks, of course, it's tough. It's tough.

Parlay Pals on a one week week week. He's not a sports guy at all and you're going to get him into MMA? I guess that is a strategy because a lot of the times people that love MMA don't like any other sports. I don't know, man. You just got to get lucky with a card, right?

You just got to show him one card. and it happened to be a banger. Or the personalities. Yeah. Get them hooked on to someone. Hey, look at this guy. Did you see this? Or come, you know, you might have to say, like, come over or let's go out.

Let me show you this fight, you know? Oh, come hang, man. Yeah. We'll chill. We'll kick it. And then you casually put them on. Yo, check this out. Yeah.

I've always felt that way. Like, once someone gets emotionally invested in a character or two, and now they get into that journey, they will start to gravitate towards, oh, this is kind of fun. I like how this makes me feel. This is kind of a cool thing. Oh, these fights. And then, of course, if you're into the gambling thing, it's very fun to gamble on it because you can make your parlays

and it's all in one little neat package. It's 13, 12 fights, blah, blah, blah, blah. Hit a parlay with them and get them a favorite fighter. They're on board. Arnold Allen, look at this guy. He sharded in an Andos one time. How could you not love him? How can you not love him?

Mr. Miyagi, Ariel, whatever happened to your old mate, Kilosha, maybe an on-air welfare check is needed. And do Frank, G.C., or Andy, know about the legend of Killash? Do you guys know about Kilosha? Oh yeah, Roll Killshaw was around for like a year or so when I started. Spotify Live Days, right? Petey. He was a legend.

And then, like, I think if memory serves me correct, like, Forrest, did we like tie Liverpool or beat Liverpool? Which happens all the time these days. And then he got so mad that he just kind of disappeared and turned into like a massive hater or something. Tornt Hill on TSD one day. I remember that. He did, yeah. Can I tell you, I actually looked at his Twitter account when we beat them again. 3-0 a couple weeks ago and I thought about sending him a cheeky little tweet but then I was like

yeah he's big business now man yeah 9,900 followers damn he was great I remember the first time that he came on he came on our live show on Spotify live he was tremendous that was the best part of that show because we were able to like have these interactions with these characters and we got to know them and the apex of course was the night Leon beat kamara Usman host of the Because I'll be having beefs with people on the show. The various people would be calling in. Oh, my God. Beef with them, it was insane.

It was a good time. Also, scrolling pretty deep in his Twitter, it's all football. Is he a big crypto guy? A little bit of F1. Crypto sprinkled in there. I'm not seeing anything about M.M. Okay, maybe he's just off the wagon completely. Yeah, it's been a hot minute since we got an MMA tweet.

This is from Pizzi's Ashtray. G.C., please blind rank these eats for a big night out. All right. All right, this is what I'm eating before I go out for the night, or it's just this is... After, after. After a big night out. Yeah, all right, sweet. Cabab.

It's a very euro. Yeah, three, three. Pizza, you agree with that one? Cabab, like, the drunker you are, the better it is, you know, so... We're kicking off with the kebab. I need to hear the other four. Yeah, no, that's a burger. You said a burger?

Yeah. Like a four. If I'm getting a burger, it's like McDonald's. I don't need like a... gourmet burger after a night out. Pizza. Pizza's great, too. Fries.

Five. That's just like a side dish. What does that leave me with one? No, there's two. There's two more. There's six. Fried chicken. Fries six.

Fried chicken like a bucket of KFC or chicken tenders? He just said fried chicken. A bucket of KFC, five. Chicken tenders, too. I scroll down very quickly and the last one made me laugh. Now, I don't want to read it the way in which he wrote it, So I'm just going to, I'm just going to, like, censor it a little bit and say. Oh, no.

Oh, no. No, I can already tell what this is going. Don't read it. Frank's. One, baby. Absolutely one. Oh, yeah. That was incredible.

I'm glad I left one open for that. Frank, I censored some of it. Yeah, I appreciate it. Frank's mom's ass is what it was. There was actually one other word. There was one other word. Frank's mom's. Juicy?

No comment. No comment. No comment. No comment. I love it. Kevin from Ottawa. Hey, Ariel, let's look behind the curtain or as you say, break the fourth wall. Let's.

Why do you wear your headphones backwards? The BITB have their headphone cord coming from their left side, whereas yours comes from the right side. And when you joked about screaming at them for talking your ear, your headphones fell off. And then the left side had the R in them. Kevin. Wow. This is, this is, deep core.

Okay, so Frank, this man is right, Kevin. Yes. It does say L, and I have it on my right. I think the reason why we did this was where the mic stand is. No, because the cord would then come, yeah, come across. So, G.C., you wear it like this? Yeah, they wear it properly.

No, mine is not. No, and you sit here. No, I don't wear that. He wears the I.P. Yeah, where I.FB. Ah. Cables usually on the. That's why, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't remember.

Yeah, this feels, this is tugging. So we have like a little box here and it feels weird that it's like tugging this way. I guess, why do we have the box here? Oh, because of the mic? Like, why couldn't it be this way? Can you swap the headphones back? I feel uncomfortable. It is weird.

It's like, your head looks a little bit weird. Yeah, it's weird. And you know what's weird about it? The left just feels better. Yeah. And to answer their question, like he's not listening in stereo. It really doesn't matter. But if he was listening in stereo, I would absolutely insist.

Do you put them on right? Here's Darren. Hi, Ariel. I have a scenario for you. You are minutes away from boarding a solo 10-hour flight. You rush to the airport bathroom, but your AirPods fall out of your pocket. Golly, and scatter across the floor. Oh.

I feel like this is something that I've encountered. What do you do next? You don't have the time to go by another set. You leave them where they are or pick them up and take the risk on your flight. Oh, what a nightmare. I think, can I wash them? Can you wash Airpods? No.

No chance. What do you do? That's a crazy scenario, but I feel like that's something that could easily happen to any of us. Wipes. You grab a few lysol. So I have wipes in my backpack at all times. Wipe them off. And then you just kind of, you succumb to it.

What do you mean? You're cleaning it. I know, but you just kind of succumb to the grossness of it all. It's not gross. You've just cleaned it. Airport bathroom. It's sanitized. It's awful.

It's all good. All right. I guess that's what we're doing. Just on the floor? Do you guys believe in, Did it fall into the urinal? Did it fall into the toilet? No, no, floor.

All right, so then you just wipe it off. Yeah, piss soak. Piss soak. The floor is worse than the toilet. Do you guys help in the airport and just piss all over the floor? Is that what you? Piss soak. Have you seen the Dublin airport floor?

Do you guys believe in the Dublin airport? No. Do you guys believe in airport calories not counting? No. Yeah. So you believe in it? No, I don't. Oh, okay.

I believe in it. That's not a thing. What do you mean? My head is melting. What are you saying? Like, you can have a synobon in an airport and it just, it won't hit the same way. Is this like how Google Maps

doesn't count towards screen time? Is this? Yeah, 100%. There's certain things that just don't count because I want them not to? You just can't count them. This from Willy Wonka.

Rick, do you get buzzed on the wacky tobacco before seeing horror films in the theater? No. I'm not much of a smoker in general, so no. All right. Here's Grant Young,

two-part question. If you and the boys in the back had to choose one streaming platform, which would you choose right now? And if you were just a fan with no MMA-related job requirements, would that first answer

automatically be Paramount Plus on January 1st? Hmm. HB.O. Is it Netflix the easiest, most obvious choice? Oh, I'd actually probably go Hulu. Wow, Hulu. I never use Hulu.

I love Hulu. What do you watch on Hulu? Various things. You know, we got every episode of Modern Family, got a lot of good movies, smiling friends comes on there, Attack on Titan is on Hulu I've been watching that

You know the anime Do you use any crunchy roll Connor? Yeah, yeah, yeah I've been ripping DBZ on Frank's Crunchyroll app What the hell is that? That's the anime streaming service

Okay And so He said non-MMA fan, right? No, he's saying You don't work in the business But you're a fan Oh, Paramount Plus Yeah, Paramount

It would have to be, yeah For sure Yeah, I guess it would have to be It also has the challenge I mean, between the challenge and MMA, like, I'm sorted for the rest of my life. Spongebob. Also, Champions League.

Don't care of about that. Europa League. No, okay. Yeah, I guess it would have to be. If I'm a hardcore fan, but I don't work in this business, you would miss out on every single card. Every single card is going to be on Paramount Plus. Prelims, main card, everything.

So I guess it would have to be. If we're going to ignore that, I'd say Netflix, obviously. Netflix is the best, yeah. Pia's platforming the world, 300 plus. Jake Paul Anthony Joshua, live and exclusive on August the 19th. No, not August, December the 19th. Now, yesterday, guys, there was a story, Pizzi,

did you happen to catch the story of Katie Taylor versus Rhonda Rousey being a thing? Yeah, that is insane. I didn't think Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua would be topped, but here we go. Okay, so here's the thing. Like, I don't want to put the cart before the horse. I personally think it's like a, I don't want to say pie in the sky idea, but I don't think it's like being final. I don't think.

Oh, hang on. So they've done what Eddie Heron initially thought they were doing with the Joshua fight. That's what they're doing her? You know, he was like, are you using Anthony Joshua? Who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, he isn't, this is an actual fight, but remember he said initially his fear was that was what was happening. Yes, sir.

Okay, and now who are you thinking is doing that here? Well, I think with Ronda Rousey'd be using Katie Taylor to prop herself open to a big spot. I would think it's the opposite. How dare you? No, I'm about to say anyone is using anyone, but Katie's the one that's already commented on this fight. Ronda hasn't.

So Katie is the boxer. I just, I don't see a world where Ronda's like, yeah, I'm coming back and I want to fight Katie Taylor. I see a world where Ronda is teasing a comeback and someone is saying, let's go after that. Do you understand what I'm saying? Okay, yeah, I got you. terrible idea I don't

do you think it sells here's the thing I think Katie versus Holly Holmes sells more than Katie versus Ronda like if Holly wins on January 3rd

she's fighting Stephanie Han for the belt then I think you do Holly versus Katie in Ireland I think that's a bigger fight and a more interesting fight

Holly's a boxing Hall of Famer a former champion the one who beat Ronda Rousey Ronda hasn't fought in 10 years and isn't a good

striker makes no sense yeah that i will absolutely agree with all of that what i will say is more i've got more text messages about any katie taylor fight ever um about this but this story than any any one of the fights even when the first fight against arana the first women's fight to fight to headline madison square garden um the being on the jake paul v toys and undercard i got more messages about this ron the rousey fight than i have any of them people interested or not just not not interested but just like, what the fuck is going on here?

You know? You guys are out of your minds if you think that Holly Home versus Katie Taylor is more compelling than Ronda Rousey versus Katie. Wait a second, wait a second. That's a sport and contest.

When you say compelling, what are you talking about? It's more of an interesting fight. I'm saying it's just a more... You said that just a second ago. I didn't say it's bigger. I said it's more... It's a more even fight. No, but you said people will want this more.

They will not. Nobody will want that more. I'm not saying wanted more. Of course, Ronda Rousey fighting in a comeback fight, but it's a, it's a, It's silly. That's a silly fight. It doesn't make any sense.

Holly versus Katie is a more interesting fight because Holly has a better chance of beating Katie. I don't think she does be Katie. So is Katie versus, you know, the second ranked fighter in that weight class? If Katie Taylor is going to fight a former MMA fighter, she might as well fight the one who beat her, who's a former boxer as well. Couldn't disagree more. She should fight the biggest name. Ronda Rousey is the biggest name. I'm not talking as Katie Taylor's advisor or manager.

I'm talking about what I want to see as a fan. Obviously, go get the money. It's the same thing as Joshua and Jake. It's the biggest fight for the most amount of money. Yes. I'm just saying as someone. It might be the easiest fight as well. And the easier.

Also, the pressure, though. People are talking about the pressure on Joshua to do something with Jake Paul. The pressure on Tyler to get rid of Ronda Rousey in what would potentially be on Fairblade to Colomarsso, he brought this up when he was speaking about it. He said they will, no sanction, no one's going to sanction this for 10 rounds if it is Ronda Rouse.

It's going to be six rounds, six rounds, two-minute rounds, and you have to put her away, basically, or you come away looking kind of bad? Like, that is a different kind of pressure than what Joshua was facing with Jake Pollard. I don't know, wipe her tears with the biggest paycheck of her life. Also, Joshua is like this power-punching heavyweight. Katie Taylor, if she just battered her for six rounds,

I think people would still be okay with it. Yeah. Do you think so? Jake Paul's a better boxer than Ronda Rousey. Does anyone disagree with that? 100%. No, correct. 100%.

That's what I'm saying. She would need to put her away as far. She's never box before in her life. Right. I know, but she will beat the brakes off. She was on the cover of Ring. She was on the cover of Ring magazine. We should point out.

Don't forget that. Don't forget that. And Joe Rogan did say she beat Mayweather. I've said time and again that the Ronda Rousey comeback talk is real. I've said time and again. And I've also said that Rhonda versus Gina is a real thing. This was something that the UFC was interested in several years ago. It went haywire, pardon the pun.

And now it's becoming a thing. And wouldn't you know it yesterday? All of a sudden, in the aftermath of this news coming out, courtesy of boxing scene, there's Gina Carrano posting on her social media training with John Wood. Now I see what you're doing. At Syndicate MMA, grateful to be here for my health, the people around me, the people who inspire me, and the desire to do better. Now, no indication there that she is planning a comeback, but this is what the word on the street would suggest.

Looking pretty good there, Gina. Tremendous to see, you know, we love Gina over here, despite what she is. may think of what others have told her. Peace and love, peace and love. That to me makes a lot more sense, Gina, Rhonda, than Rhonda versus Katie. Now, when I say sense, let me clarify, I would be more interested at Rhonda versus Gina is like the two pillars of women's MMA coming together for one fun night. That's cool. They're both, they've both been inactive for quotes of that. By the way, by the time 2026 rolls around, it will have been 17 years, believe it or not, as crazy as that sounds since Gina Crono's last fight. Her last fight was in August of 2009. Absurd.

Rhonda's last fight, December of 2016, then WWE. That to me is more, I'd rather sign up for that if I had to pick one or the other. But of course, if I'm Katie, I'm going after this. And by the way, of course, if I'm Katie, I'm sprinkling this or her team, I'm sprinkling this in the media to try to drum up some interest for it, right? Why not? But I'm just saying, as someone who is saying okay these are the options the home one means a little bit more in my opinion and is a lot more interesting than that one

in both these equations though Ronda Rousey is the A side it's Ronda right it's Gina on her own coming back against anybody else doesn't matter that much can I ask you a question Taylor's next fight outside of Rondo even if it's against Holly Home

isn't that big it's Ronda's world Chantal Cameron Shantelle Cameron Wait a second wait a wait a minute and PTC weigh in Katie versus Ronda in Ireland Headline Netflix

PZ? In Ireland In Ireland Katie's the A side Yeah Yeah because she's going to sell The tickets at the gate Is she headlining on the U.K.

She's the A side Is she headlining on Netflix Against those other opponents Against Holly Home? Yeah I don't think that that's That's fair I think that that's fair

I think that that's an absolute no I think it absolute yes Is Ronda Rousey But it's bigger It's a bigger name than Holly Would be that's a bad line Rousey would be the headliner if she's competing. Rhonda's a bigger name than Holly, but even if they do go on Netflix...

And Katie? 100%. But I don't think that... I don't think that she's the A-side in that equation. What? She's not the A-side, maybe in Ireland, and Katie's home country. Yeah, she's not the A-Side for the tickets. But internationally, she will be the A-Side.

It will be the reason people are tuning it. Yeah. That deal doesn't get across the line without Ronda. Ronda is the deal here. Which deal? Which deal? The, like, headlining on Netflix? That's a guarantee you with... Ronda Rousey and not the other names.

It's a 100% guarantee. We're assuming here, unless it was in the article, which I didn't see. I'm using Netflix as the top platform. Do you think Netflix would be interested in that? Ronda versus Katie? Yeah. Why wouldn't you be? Everybody should be interested in that.

It's going to be watched. Again, this is not an argument for a competitive fight. Katie Taylor will bash Ronda's head and it will be silly. It will be like Jake Paul versus speed would be... Versus Anthony Joshua, which is going to going to end an illegalized murder of Jake Paul.

Katie Taylor will beat the brakes off Ronda Rousey, but it's going to be watched by everybody. Which fight are you more interested in? Of those two? Yeah. No, no, no. Gina Ronda, M. M.A. Ronda, 100%, because that's actually a competitive fight,

and it's also big. Is Gina and Ronda not watching, like, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messey fucking have a juggle off? And people would watch the shit. By the way, people would sign up for that. If anything, Messi and Rinaldo is getting to get watched. Yeah. You're not into that.

I'm playing tennis, though. You don't like that one, Petey? No, but I like that. I think Ariel, after he's teasing out, I think that's what's happening. So we've got our balls tickled once again with the Katie Taylor and Rhonda Rousey freak show, only to be left with Ronda Ronda v. By the way, give me Gina versus Rhonda. Give me Holly if she wins against Katie.

That's a phenomenal fight for her. No, Pizzi, we're saying Ronda versus Gina in MMA, no? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Pizzi's not into it. Oh, in MMA. Oh, sorry. In M&A. No, we were talking about boxing.

No, not boxing. Gina versus Rhonda and M.M.A. That would be insane. I thought your joke was just like, oh, they're past their prime. That's what I thought. No, no, no. In MMA, PT. Now, is that compelling?

Yes. Okay. Yeah, well, I think we're all on the same page. Other than I think Ronda is the bread and calls the shots and for the undisputed. Can we stop disrespect Kate here for it? Rick, you've said it once, okay? She's fantastic. Move on.

Let it move on. She's fantastic. Can I ask you this, Ptze, if Katie, if Katie, If she were to take this fight, if she were to take this fight, would she hear the same stuff that Joshua has heard, ruining it? Oh, yeah. You think so. People would dare criticize the patrons. She's more of a bastion of sporting brilliance than anti-I-I- know. I know, but I feel like she could do no wrong. So people would be like, you know what, fair play, Katie, go get your money, we love you. There's probably been an element that too. Yeah. Probably have a lot of Irish people going. You know what? Also a UFC champion. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true. She does have the credentials also. judo bronze medalist Olympic Games. I know that has nothing to do with boxing.

It feels akin to me to Mayweather McGregor. That's what that one feels like. I know. That one feels the closest comparison to Mayweather McGregor. Yes, but she is not in her prime, nowhere near her prime. No, McGregor is a much better boxer and would have always been more competitive of Floyd,

and Rhonda is not and will not be competitive with Katie Taylor. But in terms of star, magnitude, and stature, like it feels like that would be the closest that we've seen to it. At the end of the day, do you think it happens? I think that it's a thing that is, just like I've said about the Rhonda thing, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't fight, and I would, I wouldn't be surprised if she does fight. I do know that this is something being explored. I mean, who would have thought the Gina thing would be a thing? And look at her. She seems to be in great shape. She seems to be, she's training with a great coach at a great gym. So it's hard to say, because if I say yes, that's just a total guess. I don't think we're anywhere near that. But I think all these things are being explored. And I think people have to come to the realization that, this is boxing and this is a part of boxing that will always exist, as we've talked about since the Jake Joshua fight has been announced, you reach a certain point, a certain status and stature, these fights are going to draw interest, just like they did for Ali back in the day

and Foreman and Jack Johnson and many others. But you're still going to get the Shakur's and the Tiafima Lopez's. You're still going to get the Benavides's and the Haynes and the Brian Normans and all the other great fights, the Inouways and all that other stuff. of. There is plenty of that. But for whatever reason, this stuff gets all the attention, and then people say, oh, my God, the sanctity of the sport. It's a travesty. It's a travesty. I would not poo-poo Katie getting that money or Rhonda coming back. Like, go ahead, do your thing. All I'm saying is, as a fan here, the home fight is almost right there. And I think home going to Ireland, the preacher's daughter and all her,

like, Irish heritage and all that, she used to walk out with the, what is it, the four-leaf clovers. her on her jacket and all that. Her going to Ireland to fight Katie. Croke Park? She's been in the same way. Listen, here's what I think. Can I tell you what I think? And this is not with, I have no inside knowledge.

I think MVP would relish getting Croke Park done when Matron couldn't. You know what I mean? And I think that they would be... They'll spend that money. I think they'd be willing to spend it. I think they'd be willing to spend it. And that hinges on home winning on January 3rd. It is also in line with like MVP's promotion of women's boxing and saying like, we are the ones leading the charge here.

We are the ones doing the biggest events. They were very proud of the numbers that came in for Taylor and Serrano. It would make sense, right, to just be like another tick of the box. Like we have done all the biggest things done. Whatever you guys said couldn't be done, we're going to do it. Yes. Yeah. I think that would be massive.

MSG, women's card, Tyson. line MSG. All those things. You tick off one more. I think it's worth taking a loss. That's easy for me to say. I'm just sitting over my millions of dollars. But if that is your calling card,

if that is your leverage, and if that is your way that you can entice other female boxers to sign up with you, to me it makes a lot of sense. Yahoo! Of an office here in Dublin, that's what a time. By the way, speaking of Anthony Joshua,

did you guys see the shape that this guy is in? Holy smokes. This is from the promotional stuff that they shot almost two weeks. ago now. Look at Anthony. There is no tomorrow 19th of December only on Netflix. I mean, the guy, that's him a month out. Now, I know he said that he was going to fight end of November, but like, holy shnikes. Look at that. Is that a Jake Paul Toonstone in the back? What is that? Look at that, dude. Man, he is absolutely ripped. Absolutely ripped. I mean, he's chisel,

there I say. Great cheese on those bobboys. You can a thousand percent. You can do that on his Abbs and, dare I say, Armisturukian's abs. Have you seen Armisturikian's latest video? He's on the plane, guys. He's on the PJ, eating more McDonald's. Is this the same shot as the first time? I can't recall what he was wearing. Different shirt, I believe.

Different shirt? Why is it? You know what reminds me of? There used to be a commercial back in the bag of cheese meals there, right? Oh, my God. Same time? No. Smash them together.

Wow. Let's see. Let's see. I don't mind the play. You guys ever have a, we call it a McStupid where you'd take the double cheeseburger, split it in half, put the McChicken in the middle, close it up?

That's a dollar menu special right there. Oh, yeah, back in the day. How many pieces of bread is that right there? Not enough. He doesn't count calories in airports, I'll tell you that much. Hell, yeah. Now, what do you think the scene is after he's done eating the like 10 bites that he has?

What happens to all, no, no, what happens to all that food? The boys, the boys just come in and scavenge it. Come on with it. Be gone. question is my big question was what does this mean for Dave's fried chicken yeah it's hot chicken Dave's hot chicken it feels like they've they've sort of reached a relationship we haven't seen a meeting that felt like a shot that felt like a subtle shot remember he went to in and out a few months ago as well and got 18 cheeseburger that's

right what happened to loyalty yeah what actually feels like a small meal by armand standards yeah I don't know I don't know how he keeps I mean the physique the skin right you eat that kind of oily food you'd think that the skin would get all oil You have all kinds of issues. I stumbled upon a video of him getting a haircut. Did you see this guys? I mean, he looks fantastic while getting... Look at this.

Look at this. Look at this. Look at this. A little bit here. A little bit there. Off the top. I mean, what's... He's glorious hair.

Look at this. It's almost like... It's almost therapeutic to watch it, right? A little zoom in on the watch. I think any Armin content, you'll say is therapy. Yeah, I think you just want to be Armin's like vlogger. It's like, follow him. The comb over that really gets me.

What's he using that hair, I'm not. Can I tell you something? Oh, Armin's sleeping now. Gosh, is there anything better? I haven't gotten a haircut in five years, almost six years now. Why? Is there anything better? What are we talking about?

The little mid, the mid haircut nap. Oh, oh, you're talking about like getting a haircut. I thought you just meant Armin's sneezing during the hair. Every time I'd go, every time I'd go to the barber and they'd, you know, trim the beard and all that, I would inevitably fall asleep. Do you not fall asleep? No. They spend me talking about him just talking bollocks.

There's a guy that I barely know with a razor blade to my neck. Nah, that's cool. What is that? What is that? What are they spritzing there? A little aftershave maybe. What a life. What a life.

He's not just talk endless bollocks when you're getting your hair going, no. Yeah, shout out Jesse from. I try to keep the talking to a minimum. In fact, I've always been, I've always been hesitant to do this. I don't. No, no, no. I'm not the fun. I can't.

Don't pull up the phone. Going down, I'm talking absolute shit for as long as I'm in that chair. No. I like to keep it out of minimum. He's a brick. He's a brick deal. The sitting in the chair and doing this, I'm not down with it. I don't have the, I don't have the chutzpah to do it.

Don't do it. Yeah. You know, the arms out of the cape, you look at a clown. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Respect the sanctity of the hair. And then hair gets on the phone inevitably. Just enjoy yourself. Yeah, I agree.

I agree. Any more questions? Let's see, let's see. Matt Berkeley, this is probably more for PT than anyone. No offense. People always talk about different alcohols. They can no longer do. drink because of a horrible experience usually in high school. Is there any particular alcohol

you can no longer stomach because you overdid it during a UFC MMA boxing card? You can broaden it to football and football as well if that helps to get an answer. Truth is, mate, I love them all and there's no bad experience that can take me away from any of them. You know, I hear some people say this. You know, oh, I was in Oianapa when I was 18 and I drank too much Sambuca, so I can't drink it again. They're all good experience to me, even when I puke all over myself. So it's all I've got to say to you. Win or learn, right? Yeah.

Yeah, you know, it's not going to defeat me. I'm going to get back on the horse and I'm going to come out of it again and I'll defeat Sambuca. I want Sambuca to have nightmares about Pizzi Carroll. Ever clear, absent, pure ethanol? Yeah, I mean, absent. I've had a lot of absin the last time I was in Paris. I went to the hotel where Oscar Wilde died because he drank a lot of absent there.

And I said, right, let's see, let's see what you can do, absent. Turns out very strong. Yeah. Didn't expect to take hold of me quite as quickly as it did. But alas, I'd do it again. I'd go straight back to the same place and all the same goddamn cocktail. By the way, I got one of those emails where they, like, give you the lines about a fight that's being discussed. Have you seen the lines for Rousey versus Taylor?

No. Minus 5,000. Yeah, minus 5,000, Katie Taylor. Minus 3,300. Free money. Free money. None of mortgage. There we go.

Me and Pizzi are not going to be living in a home for a bit. Could you bet on it? Can you bet on it happening on a polymarket? Can that be a thing? So it's like a 3% R-O-I? Perfect. Easiest 3% you've ever made in your life. Here's Connor from Canada.

Hey, Ariel, years ago in the Rampage interview, he did after losing to John Jones, right after you said, mm-hmm. I don't even know if I said that, to be honest, but we can go with it. About his physique. He said, what's your wife's name, Frank? You now have someone on the team named Frank. Who you also said was DTF. Can you explain this, please?

Eric connecting dots. All comes full circle. All kidding aside, the story of him asking to mention how he lost his amazing and great insight. Thank you. Yes, we did that in one of our videos where we looked at some old interviews. So please do check that out. Stevie B says one of my favorite moments of the show is when Ariel tried to hold back his laughter as he read out a substack comment about a man watching the UFC with his youth pastor.

What other occasions have you had to hold back laughter at inappropriate times? Do you guys remember that one? Sure do. We got updates. And then it was like a five-week story. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do. I wonder what happened to that guy.

Got a whole saga. He emails from time to sign. Oh, he does? Shoot me an email. Update us. All right. Let us know about the UFC with his youth past. No, no, I think they had a falling out.

Oh, Jesus. Pizzi's ashtray is back. Howdy Boys and Andy. Two weeks ago, I asked a question about getting the most out of conversations at my vintage store. Thank you for such a thoughtful answer. I wanted to give you a story about something that happened since then. Along with some of the fellow listeners from Australia following the shop on Instagram, I had someone come into the shop who was a sunglass rep from the area.

The first thing he said was, quote, I heard you on the show and wanted to come check out the place. I now stalked the sunglass brand, have played multiple games of pool, as I have a table in the shop, and talked to all things UFC. Shout out to the community, Jesse, from Old Soul Vintage. How about that guys? Isn't that something? That's amazing.

Yeah. What a great story. Shout out to the executive from the sunglasses place that came in. Here's Stevie B who says, and by the way, four minutes away, sound the alarm, sound the alarm, sound the alarm, sound the alarm, sound the alarm, sound the alarm,

Tom Aspinall joining us live on the program, then Sean O'Malley, then Arnold Allen, what a day, what a day. Stevie B says, Ariel, you asked Kayla yesterday if you could walk her out at UFC 324, and it got me thinking, if you could walk out with any fighter before any fight as part of their entourage.

Maybe you're carrying the water bottles. Which fighter and which event would you pick? Is he talking historically or coming up? What's say historically? I mean historically like Connor coming out to Shnade O'Connor was pretty damn incredible, right? UFC 189?

That was amazing. GSP walking out UFC 83 before the Matt Sarah rematch, final answer. That's what I'm. I would, that's what I would say. Maybe I misunderstood the question. Oh, upcoming?

Weren't they asking, who would you walk out if you had? Yeah. Then I show, I feel like I'm too biased if I say that. Okay, so then say that. Like, I'm not going to answer that. I'm going to answer this one, because I just thought I had a stroke. Oh, okay. Wow.

We the People says, does the never too hot, never too cold, Ariel Hawwani succumb to any midlife crisis urges? Maybe a nice motorcycle or a double-sleeved tattoo? I'm guessing no, considering you haven't grown a blade of hair since 15. P.S., can I see G.C. cruising on a nice Ducati, cheers. I can see G.C. cruising. What's a Ducati? It could as well. It's a motorcycle. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. A little, look at the look on G.C.'s face. He can see it, too.

He's thinking about it right now. He's like, you know what? Nice little leather jacket, popped collar. Leather jacket, popped collar, no. No? No. Not just a hoodie on the Superboy. A sweet Superboy. Short-sleeve shirt, two tat sleeves, fully tatted, sick helmet, nice jeans, get off. You think I'm going to take the helmet off to a sick head of hair, but I'm bald. Yeah, and then pull out a sick that's rolled up in my...

Oh, yes. Yeah, now we're fucking talking. I do wonder if the midlife crisis is going to hit me at some point. You want to buy a fucking Volkswagen van. You're the furthest thing from buying a motorcycle. I mean, I can't wait to buy this and bring my family everywhere. on midlife crisis. No, but I'm saying

at some point it could hit me. I mean, at this current point, I'm excited about getting, you know, a bright red pullover hoodie jacket with an owl on the back of it and Bill's logo, like not exactly midlife crisis type material, but maybe at some point, you know?

You think tattoos? You think I ever get a tattoo? I'm afraid they won't bury me in a Jewish cemetery if I get a tattoo. I know you won't get a tattoo. You don't think so? Yeah, I don't think it's your style. mom you're not you look the idea of the sleeves

no let's go for tattoos next time you're in town yeah black pieces sleeves hell yeah what's uh

what's Rick doing back there he's framing up big Tom oh he's there well now he's not there he walked away oh he's framing him uh shrimp cocktail says

ohla Ariel can you rank these New York hip hop groups tribe it's hard for me to do the blind rank when I'm reading it tribe Wu Tang clan

mob feet or Zelda Griselda, you're boys from Buffalo, don't forget that. Of the four, Griselda four, Mobb Deep three. You're going to go tribe number one, yeah. I thought, no, I was leaning towards Wutang Clan. Bhutan clan ain't nothing the fuck. I think your Void matches tribe more than Lerangings.

I mean, I'm wearing Della Souls as we speak. There you go. You know? They're a different pattern, aren't they? Yep. Delausole is from the soul Just me, myself, and I Duna, da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-

Yeah, they are a different band But Tribeco question is pretty cool I love Tribeco guys Can you kick it? Can you kick it? Yes, you can. Mr. Dinkins, will you please be my mayor? You go under the stairs from San Francisco?

Not familiar. Just imagine an aspirin the soundtrack there I listen to you. I think he's feeling it. I think he's feeling it. All right. Thank you to everyone for the questions. We'll squeeze in a couple more on the back end. Like I said, back into the show, Arnold Allen going to join us. Can't wait for that conversation. He returns action on January 24th. And prior to that, another guy who's returning on January 24th, Sugar, Sean O'Malley, still to come in about an hour's time. But for now, we say hello to our first guest of the day, a man that I've wanted to speak to

for quite some time. He is the reigning, the defending UFC heavyweight champion. And don't you dare forget it? He is the pride of Wiggin. He is the pride of Manchester. He is the pride of the UK. He is the pride of Great Britain. Dare I say he's the pride of Poland as well. He's the man who fought Suril Gan in Abu Dhabi in late October. Of course, the fight ended inconclusively. We suspect and hope that they will run it back at some point in 2026. And now for his first interview, interview, I should add, since that fight, he is here to answer every and L questions. He's the one and only Tommy Aspinall. Hello, Tom. How are you? How's it going, my friend? It's good to talk to you. It's good to see you here. Thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.

Of course, like you said, I've done a little bit of media over on my YouTube channel, but the first interview, of course, has to go to my mate, Ariel. I appreciate that. And yes, I do urge everyone to out what you have already posted on your YouTube channel, and we played some of it yesterday and talked about it and dissected it. But here, getting this opportunity to talk to you is a great privilege and honor. And so we thank you very much. First, let me ask you, not your typical how are you, which people then just say, good, and we move on. How are you doing? Obviously, the last time we saw you, major health scare, the eye pokes, everyone knows the story by now. How are you doing? How are you feeling a little over a month later? I'm generally, generally doing

Pretty good. Thanks, mate. Yeah. Everything in my life is pretty, pretty amazing. Can't complain. How are the eyes? The eyes are, unfortunately, not back to full health yet. So we're still waiting. We put the doctor's reports out recently. Yes. Which has been a bit of a world wind, to be honest with you, because I know there's lot of haters out there. I know there's a lot of haters out there. Of course, this is a, this is professional sport at the highest level. We have haters. Um, but when the eye poke

happened, obviously, eyepokes happened all the time in her, mate, unfortunately. And got the eye poke. Obviously, everything went on from there, went to the hospital, returned home, didn't even like check my phone or nothing for a while. And then I realized, like oh shit people like people genuinely think that i fake this people actually think that i was faking it and then i was like did people actually see the replay of what happened because that was that was that was a full-on i poke so then i was like what the what what is going on what why are people thinking i'm faking this like after everything that i've been through to get there um so then i left it quite a while i thought right i'm going to get all the doctor's notes

included. I've been through it for loads and loads of tests for weeks. I've literally been in the hospital two or three times we're getting different tests. Then I come up with a doctor's report and then people are like, oh he's fucking crying about it, he's doing a media tour on it, he's

milking it, and I'm like bro, if you don't believe the eye poke and you don't believe the doctor's report, like what are we doing? Like what's going on here? Like, I didn't make the shit up. Go watch the replay check out the doctor reports uh look man i'm in the point where like you just cannot please these guys these guys are fucking losers man these guys are just crazy haters who've got nothing uh good

going on their life obviously i have still got a lot of fans only to keep my fans updated with what's going on and i appreciate everybody that's uh stuck by me why do you why do you feel like that's the sentiment why do you feel like people off the bat were blaming you and sending more hate your way than to the guy who inflicted the damage, who inflicted the foul on you. I have no idea because I think I'm generally a pretty liked human being, but the thing with success, right, this is something that I've learned and I'm still learning even more and more. It's like, you do good. People always want you to do good like on the way up. As soon as you get all the way up, people get uncomfortable and they want to bring you down.

and unfortunately I have experienced my fair show with that which is crazy like you say I think I think this might

be the only sport that like you can be the not the fowler but the foulie is that a is that a is that a term a foulie

yeah I get it got fouled and it's your fault when you get fouled like it's fucking crazy bad I did not know that

I would be getting so much hate for a guy that I was going I was going I did everything right went out there, played fair, tried to knock my guy out, and I got fouled, absolutely no fault of my home, and I'm getting loads of hate. But you know what? There is some sour people out

there who don't like people seeing good, seeing other people do good. And I've realized that, I've learned from it, my skin's got a little bit thicker because of it, and we move on. So I was just going to ask you that, because over the past year, you were sort of viewed as as the sympathetic figure in the John Jones saga and a lot of people had your back but here we have a situation where it felt like a lot of people

were turning on you and this being the first time in your career that you experience it how have you handled it how have you handled people questioning your integrity your character your motives things like that

you know what I don't think it is that a lot of people have turned on me I think I've got a lot of really good loyal fans and I think there's a lot of amazing MMA fans out there who absolutely love the sport I think that the guys the haters out there who are not real MMA fans

they think like, for example I don't say anything for weeks after my fight and people are like, he's gone into hiding because he knew that he quit and then the same people when I put out doctors reports

and footage from doctors are like he's fucking crying about it he's milking it blah blah blah all that stuff like I don't carry on the fight because I can't see. And the same people, if I would have carried on

and got knocked out, it would have been like, his ego's too big, he shouldn't have carried on. Like, these are just haters. They're just haters, like, I've got so many loyal fans, so many positive people around me. My inner circle is so positive and good that I'm just trying to focus on that

rather than these, like, low-life people who just want to drag successful people down to their level. Like, I'm the frigging heavyweight champion in the world, don't you forget it? I earn my way to get into this spot. I've got multiple records in the UFC and I did shit that most of these people couldn't even dream of doing

so that's why they're trying to drag me down At the moment Tom which eye is bothering you more So I got the double the double eye gouge actually I'm going to stop call it an eye poke In fact to be honest I want to

I want to get these interviews done and just move on with it because I've been quiet for a long time I'm aware that I need to update people and then, like, we can talk about it and move on. So after this week, I'm not even going to bother with it. But I got a double-eye gouged, so it wasn't even like an eye poke. It was like an eye gouged.

So both eyes, the right, so the left eye, my left eye, the left eye looked worse, but the right eye is the one that had the most damage. So I'm still, yeah, there we go. Look at that. I'm like a frigging human bowling ball there. big shout out to an MMA guru who said that

that I'm like a human bowling ball it's like yeah the one that looked deeper actually did the least damage

okay and so as of right now it's the the eye on the screen left or right yes my right eye

and what do you what are you feeling what are the symptoms right now I'm just struggling with like a lot of double vision and stuff

still so I'm just trying to navigate the next moves on that I've had a lot of a lot of time in the hospital over the last four, five, six weeks however long it's been I did it seeing multiple specialists everything has been reported back to the UFC

since the first appointment and yeah we're just waiting and moving forward that picture there by the way let's just touch on this so when we're in Abu Dhabi and as I said I always like to keep open and honest with my fans because I was in a position where like I couldn't dream of having fans or supporters like that was a dream for me to have that

and now I've got a lot of them so I really appreciate it so I like to be as honest as I can with with everybody so we kept rolling in the hospital in Abu Dhabi and mate this hospital was crazy so they took us at like 1 a.m. 2 a.m. by the time we got there in Abu Dhabi and they drops us off I don't know what you guys would call it but in England we'd call it like an A&E accident and emergency room which is like where the drunk people are

where they're like I just literally had to wait in a line like in a queue for like three four hours just to get seen off a guy who seemed to know absolutely nothing about eyes so basically the hospital in Abu Dhabi

was a big waste of time we started getting treated properly when we got back to the UK And I saw the footage of you, you know, back home and the doctor that you met with. What are they saying, for those that may not be up to speed or have seen it, what are they saying right now in terms of what the recovery time will be, what you're facing when you could be back to 100%. So obviously, I want to get back as soon as possible. That's the plan.

But I'm also aware that with eyes, you've got to be careful. So they don't really know when I'm going to be back at the moment. I'm still, like, not even clear to train or do anything. They're talking about doing surgery on both eyes. They're talking about injection. I have to get an injection in the eyeball soon. Jeez. So I'm not looking forward to that.

So, yeah, I don't really know at this point. I don't know. Have you been able to do any type of, like, physical activity at all? I've just been, like, doing bits of weights, like, just put, like, bodybuilding weights. and just a little bit of cardio as well because I've got a double vision if like I change direction too quick I start getting really dizzy and stuff

so I've just been doing a little bit of cardio like a little bit of jogging a little bit on the bike and stuff like that nothing to brag about mate so from like a mental health standpoint Tom you had not fought since July of 2024

all the stuff that went on over the past year the fight ends inconclusively right? You're engaged in a war here it's a battle. Tough fight as you predicted it will be. You get the eye pokes. You have to deal with the aftermath. You have to deal with, you know, the criticism from people. How are you just handling all of this

over the past month? You know, like how, from a mental health standpoint, this is a lot of shit to deal with at one time. After all the stuff you had to deal with over the past month, you know, excuse me, year plus, over the past year plus since your last fight the John Jones saga. How are you handling it all? Well, I've learned a lot.

learned a lot to be honest in the last since this happened people will turn the back on you quick like if you're not meeting expectation in the way that they put up for you people will turn the back on you quick so like I said luckily I've got some really really good

people around me like my family my wife my friends and stuff like that I'm very very lucky to have good people around me the other stuff the people online and shit like that I just starting to to realize that they're just a bunch of low life haters, man, a lot of them. There's a lot of amazing MMA fans out there as well who really support the sport, really know what the sport is, but there's also a lot of just like weird kids online who are just sat behind a fake

profile, commenting, and stuff like that. So how am I dealing with it? At first, not very well, but I guess my skin's getting a little bit thicker now, and I'm starting to see what the world is really like. Okay, so let's take a step back if we can. Fight Week, leading up to the fight, how was it how are you feeling how are the vibes when you look back on it now oh mate you know what actually of course if you ask a fight in fight week like how's the fight week going how you're feeling and stuff like that everybody says the same thing it's like yeah best shape best shape of our life i'm feeling good uh whatever um for me i actually was feeling amazing i knew that like sometimes mate i act like a bit of a dummy

Some people might look at me and think this guy's an idiot. But you know when it comes to fighting? Like I actually really know what I'm talking about. Like I didn't just accidentally land on being the best every weight of the world. Like it took a whole lifetime of work and dedication and knowledge to get to where we are on today. And I knew, mate, I knew that Sir O'Gan is a tough stylistic matchup for me. And I didn't for one second think this was going to be easy. a lot of the hype behind it and stuff

people made it out like this is going to be a walkover fight Surrogam mate is a tough stylistic match up for me so the fight we was going great the training camp went amazing injury free where a great squad over there in Abu Dhabi I absolutely love Abu Dhabi we're staying at an amazing hotel and everything was

on point for a tough five round fight which is what I said I said that so much mate in the in the pre-fight I said from the beginning that I'm taking Suragam very serious more serious than ever taken anyone before. I didn't think it was going to be an easy fight. I didn't think it was going to be a walkover. I've knocked a lot of people out in a minute or two or whatever. I didn't think that this was going to be one of them. There's interviews and interviews of me saying that

on Fight Week and before in the lead-up to the fight. So I was mentally and physically prepared to go in there and have a tough fight with that guy. I want to ask you about a couple things that transpired on Fight Week. One was a conversation between you and Daniel Cormier that ended up on your YouTube channel, which he said afterwards he was a little. bit disappointed that it was posted, that he thought it was a private conversation. Are you familiar with what he said about it? And do you have any reaction to his response to it being a part of your fight week video blog? I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I mean, I apologize to him about that. Okay. You spoke to him privately? Yeah, I spoke to him privately about that

here. Okay. Do you think that that was a mistake? Do you wish that you could take that one back? well the guy who does my videos and stuff he actually messaged him and asked if it's all right to put it on oh well that's important and did he did he say yes i don't i'm not sure i don't know okay anyway if dc was uncomfortable with it then like i'm obviously i'm not in control of doing that stuff but it's come from from my team so um i'll take of course responsibility for it and i apologize for it um the other one was a conversation that your father had with a friend French journalists talking about, like, wanting you to fight out your contract and go box. And the reason I'm bringing these two items up, Tom, is because in the aftermath, people have

said, like, ah, this was a tough fight week, and maybe there was a lot of distractions and things like that. This is what some pundits said afterwards that, as I'm sure you saw people saying, like, oh, you know, these were a couple of missteps, if you will. Can I ask you about that conversation? And did you have any issues with that conversation coming out in the buildup to the fight? Um, well, my dad said that I was, he wanted me to box from the beginning. And also, um, those remarks were coming from my dad and not me, but also, like, what did we get into this combat sports thing to do?

Like, I'm a, I'm a prize fighter. Like, before I had UFC champion and all that stuff on my Instagram bio, I had the word price fighter there because we want to fight for the most money possible. Like, we put in our health and safety on the line. for other people's entertainment. So we want to do it for the most money possible. And my dad being a dad for me, if he sees me going out there and risking my life, that he wants me to do it for the most money possible.

So I think that's what he was getting out. It wasn't like in public negotiation with the UFC or anything like that. He was just speaking honestly. You know, you know, the UFC, they don't like when people talk about boxing or fighting out the contract, especially as champion. So I was wondering if this became an issue or a distraction and the build-up to the fighter

if you guys heard about it that they were unhappy that this was being discussed? I didn't hear about it until after the fight. Can I ask, do you share his sentiment? Would you like to fight out

your contract and go on to boxing? Never say never, but I think that I've got more, I always said it for the beginning, like I got work to do the UFC, so right now and before the fight, that wasn't really something

that I was thinking about. Okay. But I do understand, I do understand, like, Like, we fight for the most money possible. We fight for the, like, we want to make as much money out of this stuff as possible. So I understand completely about where my dad or anybody else would be coming from with stuff like that. Do you think it's inevitable at some point?

You will try that out. You will go down that path before it's all said and done? I don't know. I have no idea. I have no idea. But I just want to make it clear 100% while I'm answering these questions that might be seen as distractions is that. that these things did not distract me at all in fight week. So this is, I'm not like, I'm not making excuses for being eyepoiced

all the way the fight went or anything like that. Like this was an amazing fight week all around these things didn't distract me. I didn't even know about any of this stuff until way after I thought. I stayed up for the full fight week, I didn't have any social media. For weeks after the fight, I didn't have any social media. So I didn't see any of this stuff. Okay. I wanted to bring those up because those did come up.

in part of the build-up to the fight and all the coverage and things like that, and I'm sure you were aware of it, or at least your team was aware of it, then we get to the fight itself. And on that shirt, which, you know, we have one of those shirts as well, it says two minutes and two seconds, that great champion shirt, heavyweight champion. You know, you have... This one actually doesn't, but of course... No, right there, on the sleeve.

I'm always representing champion. Oh, it does. Yes, it does. Yeah, it does. Sorry, I thought that was a different shirt, but of course, I'm always representing the prestigious champion. of course. The reason I bring that up is, and it's a great looking shirt, the fight wasn't ending in two minutes and two seconds. It wasn't one-way traffic as you have been used to.

And so I think part of the aftermath, the critique and the aftermath has been like, oh, the going got tough and Tom looked for a way out. That's what people have said, right? And so what are you thinking in the early portion of that fight? As you predicted Cyril Gana's game, it seems as though he may have, you know, caused the bloody nose, right? And we're seeing you in a position that we're not used to seeing you, was someone actually bringing the fight to you? Exactly what I said beforehand. Exactly what I said. Like, Sir Rugg has a tough, stylistic matchup for me, knew it.

And for people to think this was a way out is crazy to me. Absolutely insane. And, yeah, I mean, I'm in trying to convince anyone one way or the other. I know what happened. I was in there. And look, I was expecting a tough fight. thing I said for weeks and weeks and weeks building up to that fight. I was prepared

for the toughest fight in my life. Surroghan is a very, very dangerous opponent and I was ready to do what I needed to do to win. I wasn't trying to knock him out. I wasn't trying to do anything like that. I was just trying to pace myself for five rounds.

And just to be clear, that shot where it appeared as though your nose was bloody, was that a bloody nose? Was that a broken nose? What happened there? Hey, my nose is sweet. My nose is all good. It's just like a mate i broke my nose probably three or four times in my life all my sparring partners know that hit me in the nose it's going to bleed but mate the the the gen z i don't even know if it's gen z so i don't want to blame that generation but the uh the kind of

casual noob hater mama fan that sees one bit of blood and think that a guy's losing a fight. It's wild. These people must think I'm literally unstoppable to think that just because I've got a bloody nose, I'm losing a fight. Like, I got hit with a couple of jabs and a couple of low kicks. Like, you think, you really think I got to this position having like 30 MMA fights or whatever I've had, including my amateur career, that if I get hit a couple of times in the nose, I start looking for a way out. Like, come on, mate. Fairly early in the fight, Tom, around three minutes and 11 seconds of the first round, you guys are in exchange, you quickly kind of shoot for a takedown and he defends it by putting his hands in your face and it look like he poked you in that

position too. And I've seen a video of your dad look at a bunch of highlights from the fight and he counts like four or five instances where it seems like the fingers are in your eye. Did any of those moments? Here it is. 311. You quickly level change and then that happens and then you stand back upright. Any of those moments affect you as well to the point where you thought like shit what is going on here why are there so many fingers coming towards my eye yeah yeah definitely

well the first the first part was pretty hard as well but I could I mean I wasn't really shooting for a takedown with that do you see my chat with Kabib before you see my chat up oh yeah yeah yeah in the locker room in the locker room yeah so

so Kabid was basically saying to me the same plan that my team was saying to me is that I need to just mix it up in between the striking and the takedown. So I was mixing it up, but I didn't really commit on a full takedown. It was just like I was kind of faking to go for a takedown. But each time I did it, he stuck his fingers towards my face, towards my eyes. So I didn't actually fully commit to any takedowns.

I was just showing him that it was there. Okay. In the video you posted on Sunday, you full-blown called him a cheater. You think that he is a cheater? And dare I say a dirty fighter as a result of that? right why do you feel that way why do you feel like he did this on purpose maybe evidence is there my friend it's not the first fight that he's uh been a big meanie and uh cheating and cheating and cheating pulling out dirty tactics even the goal

john john himself said that uh he cheats and and was this a concern going into the fight were you guys talking like how are we going to have to deal with this if these types of things happen to us in the fight yeah i mean we asked the referee before in the locker room. We literally said, I think my dad literally said, this guy cheats a lot. Like, what are you going to do about it if he cheats? The ref said to us, how did you word it now? Something like... The best part about cheating. Yeah. Yeah, the best part about cheating is that it works. So, not the response I was hoping for. So I understand, it's an awful answer for a referee to say that. I understand, would you

was trying to say was, hey, it's going to affect you if he cheats. Let me do my part. Let me do my job. And you just worry on handling the situation. But the point, the real point is that people cheat in MMA all the time and there are no repercussions. That's my issue with it, right? And so it's almost worth it to poke someone in the eye or kick them below the belt because you get a stern warning. The fight continues. But now you're compromised and the other guy is okay. So do you feel like this is going to change anything in the sport? Because look, in the end, happen, it's a no contest. I think it should have been a DQ because this nonsense about intentional or unintentional is crazy. I think you commit a foul. The fight can't continue. You have now lost because

you just committed a foul, an illegal foul. And it seems like even speaking to Andy Foster in the aftermath, this is bringing about some type of discussion about changing the rules. What do you think should happen as a result of all this? What I think should happen is if there's a foul, like in my case, double eye gouge was what happened to me. So if we want the fight to carry on fairly, I get a free foul on him. So I'll double eye gouging back and then we wouldn't restart the fight.

I think that's fair. I feel like that might be a tough one to pull off. Well, Seoul's continuing when you've got no eyesight. No, of course. I think that the first time a foul was inflicted, there should be an immediate point deduction. But if you're fighting a five-round fight, and so say you get kicked in the nuts, for example.

Sure. You get kicked in the nuts really bad. You know what it's like where you get kicked in the nuts. It frigging hurts. It's not very fun. You feel sick. You can't move around properly. Yeah.

So you get kicked in the nuts really bad in the first round. The other guy loses his point, and you win the round. The guy who's fouled, the victim wins the round. Now, there's another four-round. after that. You have to fight compromised with, you know, sawballs or no eyes or whatever it may be. So, yeah, you lose a round, but if it's a five-round fight, you've still got another 20 minutes to go. Right. While you compromised. But realistically, they're not going to let you, like, stand in front of him and nail him in the nuts, right? But why not?

What? If one guy's poking in the eyes, let the other guy ever go poking him in the eyes, and then it's fair, isn't it? What about this intentional, unintentional stuff. Because I can see sometimes how it can be unintentional. Like, if we're talking about eye pokes from a grappling exchange, your hands need to be open when you're grappling.

So I can understand if you put your hand in the wrong place, it might slip in someone's eye. But if you stood at range, like when it happened to me, he was stood at kicking range. And if we're talking, Like, I personally think that Sir O'Ghani's one of the most technical strikers to ever fight in the heavyweight division.

I personally genuinely believe that. If he's one of the most technical fighters in the heavyweight division, why is he not learned to punch with his hand closed at kicking range? Like, it doesn't make any sense how that can be unintentional. So you think it should have been a DQ? I'm not saying it should have been anything. I'm not there to make the rules, but I wouldn't mind giving him a double-out. poke and then we'll carry on.

So do you think it's part of his game plan to do this? I have no idea. But if you say he's a dirty fighter, he's a cheater, then it would suggest that he tries to do this in order to gain an advantage, right? Well, they cheats are near enough every fight. I ain't seen the Cyrilgan fight that he's not cheated in yet. Because of the way you feel about these tactics,

do you have any concern? about fighting him again? Maybe I'll be doing the fouls next time. Who knows? But do you have any concern about fighting him? No. No, okay. And could I just ask about, you know,

this has been a debate, especially in the aftermath, about the gloves and about Jim Miller. We've had a million conversations about this. Do you think anything can be done to stop the eye pokes or at least curb them? Or do you think this is always going to be a part of the game just because of the fingerless gloves?

and the way in which you guys fight? It's a good question. I mean, we could debate about it for days. The UFC gloves and compared to some other organizations' gloves, are very open. So it's definitely easier to extend your fingers. But I think if you want to extend your fingers in any gloves, you can, you know, you can extend them. But yeah, at this point, I just want my health back. I just want my health and my eyes to be good

and we can move forward. Did you rewatch the fight? Yeah, I've watched it. You know, in that moment when the ref is talking to you and the doctors, well, the announcers keep saying, like, don't say you can't see, don't say you can't see. And I find that crazy too. It's like, what does that mean?

Like, you have to lie? You're supposed to be able to say how you're feeling in the moment without repercussion. How do you feel about that talk of like, the worst thing you could do is tell the doctor you can't see if you can't see you can't see what are you supposed to do yeah well first of all i got poked and it was like right just give me a minute so i like wanted the time out and then the the ref just kept coming up to me or the doctor or whoever it was i can't really remember and he was just like you're okay you're like he's

following me around saying you're okay you're good and then i was just like i can't fucking see just like give me a minute um but then the site absolutely was not coming back and um i've seen a you know as heavy weight like not even as heavyweight fighters sorry just as as mhmay fighters um you know you get a punch in the eye you get a kick in the eye whatever it may be we've got to fight through it like that's part of the sport like that's absolutely fine that's a legal punch knead in the eye elbowed in the eye punched in the eye kicked in the eye like those are legal perfectly allowed moves when I fought Andrea Alofsky actually

I know it's a long time ago and I'm sure you remember this area you got good memory this was 2020 2011 no 2021 maybe something like that I actually got punched in the eyeball

against Andrea Alofsky and during that fight I had double vision I wasn't moving my feet around because it was making me dizzy and I was adopting a stance that was kind of like this I was doing, like I usually find it with my hands pretty loose I was adopting a stance that's kind of like this

so I could see him properly and stood with my feet in the middle of the cage so look, I fought through having one eye before but when you get a double eye gouged and it's against the rules and you can't see anything like if you're going to continue that's just suicide especially against a guy like Surrogam

like if I can't see somebody because I'm in a legal move look if it's legal everything's good it's a punch kick knee elbow oh, we've got to carry on, we've got to fight through it. But if it's both eyes and it's an illegal technique, I'm not a dummy, like I'm not going to carry on in a fight that I'm definitely not going to win because somebody else is cheating

and I can't see. This is the... Oh, there it is. What a great job by our team. There it is. I'm doing, I'm adopting the stance that I've never adopted before or since where I couldn't see my opponent. I'm just looking through there.

just to try and see them properly because I couldn't see in that fight. But again, that was because of a legal technique, so we've got to fight through it. You know, we talked about fans and stuff like that, but when you had some former fighters, active fighters weigh in and say, like sometimes, you know, this is the way it's got to be.

Sometimes, you know, like Anthony and Anthony Smith and Chale's sonnen got some heat. And Chale came on the show and clarified his statements. But their stance, it seemed like in that moment was like, you're the champion, you got to fight through it, you got to fight with one eye. When you saw it from fighters, how did that make you feel? I completely agree.

If you get punched, kicked, knee, elbow in the eye, you've got to fight through it. I did fight through it against Andrea Lovsky, as we just spoke about. If you get, and that's with one eye, if you get double eye gouged and you can't see anything because of an illegal move, why are you got to fight through it? Why have I got to put my UFC heavyweight title on the line that I've worked for my whole life for, just to go and get knocked out in front of everybody, just so I can be a bit of a brave guy. Like, I fought through a lot of stuff in fighting, a lot.

Like I said, I fought with one eye before when I fought Aloski, because I got punched in the eye, but this was different. I got double eye poked illegally. And then we get to the post-fight press conference, Tom, and Dana White is there, and his demeanor initially seemed to be one of someone who was upset, annoyed. And then he said the line that has been dissected, and you talked about it. a little bit on your YouTube channel where his take was Tom didn't want to continue. It didn't feel like he was defending you or the decision not to fight or the injury

or even being critical of Sorrell. It seemed like he was upset that the fight didn't continue because it was back and forth and it seemed like he was actually rather complimentary of Surreal. When you heard his comments, how did you react? Yeah, slightly disappointing because he hadn't spoke to me he hadn't give any up he was already giving updates on my health and he had no idea what's what had gone on um yes so disappointed me disappointing the notion of it being framed as tom didn't want to continue as opposed to he got poked in

the eye he couldn't see he can't that stuff that that phrase the way that picture was painted in the moment you're in the hospital you're hearing this you're seeing this and how did that sit with you i was very disappointed yeah very disappointed do you think the way that was was phrased led to some of the criticism afterwards in other words if he would have come up and said poked in the eye illegal couldn't see couldn't continue serious injury etc etc people would have laid off they would have taken cues from him it definitely didn't help the calls definitely didn't Have you spoken to him since?

No. Is that disappointing? I've spoken to the UFC since, but I've not spoken to it. I don't really, me and Danny don't really speak like that anyway. Ever? No. Ever. Is that surprising?

Not really. I mean, no. No. I mean, I've never really, I've said hello you're in there, but I don't really. relationship with, then I have a relationship with, I speak to Hunter. You're the heavyweight champion of the world. You're a huge star. You've taken fights on short notice. You've been backup fighter. You stayed on the sidelines, etc., etc., etc. It surprises me a little bit, the face of the UK fight scene, all that stuff. It surprises me that you have

no kind of relationship with him. Yeah. I don't really know what to say. That's the way it is. Has he sent you a text or DM in the aftermath? hope you're feeling better no no no nothing like that nothing like that he actually uh gave like said he started giving updates that there was nothing wrong with my eye when that isn't the case so right um no i i've done like say i've done i've done a lot for the ufc so yeah disappointing you feel let down i have been in contact with the ufc so it's not like dana isn't the whole promotion Okay.

I've still, you know, I've been in contact with Hunter and stuff. But yeah, like I said, I don't really have a relationship, close relationship with Dana anyway. Do you feel like they've taken care of you, the organization? In terms of what? In the aftermath, they've, I don't know what, you know, they're telling you, go to this doctor, we'll take care, we'll fly you out, this specialist, we have your back, take your time, have they shown you the love and support that someone in your position deserves? not really is that frustrating um yeah well it's disappointed me yeah are they already asking like hey when can you come back uh yeah yeah but i'm not in a position to be able to answer that right now we sent we sent them all the uh the doctors reports and stuff so that's all we can do okay and

you mentioned surgery when will you know if you have to have surgery So apparently with eyes, I mean, I ain't an eye doctor, so I don't know, I don't know, but they said that they need to let it heal as much as possible, because especially with the stuff that's going on with my eyes, it's quite intricate with the surgery that they're doing in it. It's quite risky, so they're trying to leave it as long as possible before they take any medical stuff, because for me, fighting now is like secondary to my health. do you know what I mean? My health is like I never realized how much how important my health is to me and also they're talking about doing these injections so the injection

the damage to me is predominantly done on the back of my eyeball and in so I broke my I don't know if you've seen on the doctor's report the CT scan showed that I have a crack like on the back of my orbital like around the back of my eye as well

and the damage is done like on the muscles back there as well and that's actually the orbital wall or whatever at the back of your eye. It's only as thin as a fingernail apparently if that's the thickness so it cracks really easy but obviously it doesn't get touched much because it's so far back

so all the procedures and surgeries that need to be done potentially pretty risky because they're at the back of my eyeball so they have to go far in to be able to get to it and obviously if you've got to go far in

that's pretty risky so they want to leave it as long as possible before they do that so right now I'm just waiting I've got another appointment I've got appointments weekly so um like I said right now mate fighting what I'm thinking about fighting his secondary I just got to get I just got to get better are you in pain like does light bother no no I'm not in pay at first I had it I like a bit of headache and stuff but now it's um I don't know like it's just more like dizziness and double vision But the health's got to come first because their little gloves are dangerous, man. I'll fancy getting poked in the eye again. Minutes after the fight, John Jones changed his profile picture, the duck with the eye patch.

A few days later, dirty boxing, he's on a horse coming to the wands, a horse with an eye patch. This scene here, he's made some comments in the aftermath about, like, you know, your heart, your determination, you've looked for way outs. What do you make of the way John Jones has talked about you and acted towards you in the afternoon? aftermath. Yeah, good for him, man. Good for him. He, uh, I thought this guy was the goal. Focusing yourself, bro. You're retired. Just do your own thing. If you're so much better than everybody else, just go and enjoy yourself. Don't worry about what I'm doing. Him talking about like an old fight where you got submitted and all this stuff, like questioning your heart and all this. You see that?

Um, yes, I mean, I've seen bits, but like... Does it annoy you? Does it piss you off? Not at all, mate. Not at all. I was trying to get a fight with him. I realized that's not going to happen. But John's just doing some damage to himself out there. So I'll let him do his thing. Okay.

It just seems like he's trying to pile on and it doesn't, you know, he has since admitted that he was offered $30 million to fight to that he said yes and that he backed out. He has since admitted to this and he's very apologetic and he's trying to get on this White House card. So to me, if you are, my take is like if you're such, an easy fight. If you're such a quitter, why didn't you take the 30 million to fight you? Oh, mate, you know what? I feel like I've just spent enough energy talking about John Jones.

He's a waste of time. Okay, fair enough. Were you surprised by that number? Can I just ask you that? 30 million? Yeah. I wouldn't mind 30 million, mate. I'd take that. Were you getting close to that? I was getting nowhere near that. Okay. Can I ask you about Waldo Cortez-A Costa? because the following week he fought your teammate Antidellia who had some things to say about eye pokes and then unfortunately he poked Waldo

and then Waldo came back and knocked them out that was just a crazy turn of events and now he has had some fun at your expense with the eye patches and whatnot. Have you seen any of this? Yeah, good for him man. Good for him like you know

like infighting For example, punches, some punches, you punch somebody and they just look at you. Other punches, you punch them and they get knocked out. Like, not every punch is the same. And he got eye-poked, and his eye was good. I got double-eyed poked, and I've got damage. So, look, good for him. Okay.

And I'll let you go in a moment. I really appreciate the time I know we've kept you a little bit longer than usual but there was so much to get to you did post on your channel no more Mr. Nice Guy were you just having fun there

or is this actually going to be the new Tom? Are you going to show us a different side of you? What did you mean when you put that out? No, this is I mean I'm always going to be me when it comes to

people I know and love and stuff but as far as this fighting and stuff this stuff's roofless and I mean, I think that my fighting record speaks for itself in how quickly I can finish somebody, but I ain't

I ain't gonna be nice to people no more. Okay, what do you mean by that? Like, who are you referring to? My opponents, mainly. Okay. Did you feel in the past you were too nice towards them?

No. No, not at all. Not at all. not at all but I'll be less nice going forward okay does that also mean towards the public towards the fans the media no I don't think so I got some really some serious fans out there and they appreciate all of them

the people who are talking they're not my fans anyway so I don't really care about them do you have any concern that you may never fight again I care about my health a lot especially my vision and we just got to see what happens with that. I obviously want to fucking again. But we'll see what happens.

I just got to wait for the doctor and get back moving before I think I've got to start training again before I start thinking about fighting. So as of right now, they haven't given you any kind of timeline like, hey, we think in six months or eight months or nine months or four months, any type of even like loose timeline that we think you'll feel better by this time.

do this so that you can get back to doing that? Not right now. Nothing. I don't have any of that. I'm still waiting. Okay. Is that driving you nuts? That is driving me nuts.

Yeah. That is. Yeah. Are you helping out with the team at the gym? Are you coaching guys? Are you doing something just to be a part of things? Not right now. Okay.

No. You're just staying away. There's no. Yeah, I'm just staying away. I thought we might see you with Rico in his UFC debut. What'd you mean? He doesn't sound about the UFC, has he? No, he hasn't.

He has left glory, as you know, and I reported that he has talked to the UFC, but he has multiple options on the table at the moment. But wouldn't that be something? What are the options then? I know the UFC is one of them. I know there's a potential big fight in 2026. I do believe boxing is one of them as well.

Okay, all right. Yeah, well, I'll be wishing him look, whatever he does. I'll be trying to help when I can and stuff like that. Would you like to see him in the UFC? I'd like to see him do whatever he wants to do because he deserves to make big money. So whatever he's doing, he deserves to do it and get paid the most for it. So I wish him look, of course. Okay.

Is there anything, last thing, is there anything that we didn't touch on that you wanted to get out there? I know you said that in due time you're going to move on from this and not talk about it anymore and totally respect that. Like I say, it's going to be, I'm just going to do, I've got this interview today. I've got one tomorrow and I'm going to talk about it now. or more so I just wanted to update everyone from my perspective because everyone obviously has their own stuff on it look if you still believe what you believe after everything that's been put out there that's absolutely fine and look and in my time off we're going to be doing bits on the YouTube channel anyway so we got

UFC what UFC is coming up this weekend Arab 323 yeah we've got a review that going down this weekend and we're going to be doing little bits over there on the YouTube channel. So that's all for now. And I'll be in the gym lifting weights and in the hospital. Okay. Well, I appreciate it, Tom. Thank you so much for coming on. Really do appreciate it. Hope you get well soon. Have a great holiday season with your family. And don't listen to the haters, all right? I ain't listening to it. Don't worry. You can't keep a good man down. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you, Tom. All the best. You. Thanks so much for this. Good luck. Good luck. All right. There he is. Tom Aspinall joining us, the reigning defending UFC heavyweight champion.

Appreciate him coming on. Spoke for quite a bit of time and a little bit long. Wow, look outside. It is dark and disturbed out there. Fucking out. Yeah, Oban. But we covered a lot. We said a lot.

He said a lot. And, yeah, hard not to feel for him. It's a shitty situation. Can't imagine what it would be like to have to deal with the frustration. of the last year and then getting the fight and the fight, you know, ends inconclusively and the aftermath and the injury and the uncertainty. It's just a lot. It's a lot to deal with. It's a lot to handle. So we wish them the best. Thank you very much to Tom and the team for stopping by. And let's see how this story plays out. Surely there will be more twist and turns

along the way. No doubt about that. In about 10 minutes time, We are going to be joined by Sean O'Malley. And then after that, Arnold Allen is going to stop by. Sean O'Malley, of course, is fighting on that UFC 324 card. It's 324 on January 24th. T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. And he is fighting Song Yudong. And it might be, let's see, I was actually thinking about this earlier.

It is the first time since 2022, since October of 2022. So about, is my math correct, if I say three years, two and a half years? First time in two and a half years, first time in one, two, three, three, four, five fights that he is fighting in a three-round fight, 15 minutes. It's not for the belt. He's not the champ, not for an interim title or anything like that. It's just a really important fight in the men's bantamweight division. Currently, Sean O'Malley is ranked second. Sonia Dong is ranked fifth.

Number one is Umar and Amaga Madov. He's also fighting on that card against Davidson Figredo, who's currently ranked sixth. Obviously, Marabdo Wally-Shele is fighting against Piotr-Yan, who's ranked third. So it's a good time to talk to Sean. And of course, we found out about this fight on Thursday when Dana White made the announcement during halftime of the Cowboys v. Chiefs game. Following that, we'll talk to Arnold Allen, who is also fighting on this card against John Silva. It is a stack card, no doubt about it.

And the other fights that have been announced, Rose Namajunis against or Namajunis against Alexa Grasso, Atiba Gotei against Andreiub. of, they are clearly trying to get off on the right foot, start with a bang, and Waldo Cortez-A-Costa versus Derek Lewis, I mean, it's the classic, there's no way this fight is going the distance, and it's like one of those where you're like, oh, shit, it actually went the distance. I mean, I really do think there's no way this fight goes the distance. But that is a very good five pack of fights. You know, again, my one complaint is where Kayla and Amanda is and the interim belt not featuring the number one contender, yada, yada, yada, them's the breaks, them's the breaks.

By the way, yesterday I mentioned very quickly, I think Marab Duolishvili, if he wins this weekend, it is feda complete, case closed, no questions asked, no problem, all good, he is the male fighter of the year. There have been some good, you know, contenders, namely Asamachev, 2 and 0, moving up, winning the second title, but I think defending your belt four times in a calendar year. Also, this is if he wins, so we're not going to count our chickens before they hatch, but four times in a calendar year. And oh, by the way, two of those fights will be rematches, O'Malley, Anyon. You fight a killer in Sanhagen, who is in great form. You fight a killer

and previously undefeated Umar and Amagamatov. I think it's not even a question of debate. and we'll have our award show at the beginning of January. What do you guys think back there? G.C. Rick, am I crazy? Or does the 2-0 moving up to 170 outweigh the four wins in your weight class? I think it'd be crazy to say otherwise. Yeah, I don't think there's a discussion.

It's Marup? He goes four tighter defenses in a calendar year. You're the fighter of the year. Okay. Yeah, last year you were premature. This year, you are not. What did I say? What did I say?

Remember, like at the midway point of the year, you called it over. It couldn't be anybody but, and I forget if you picked Ilya, Alex, whatever it was. This year, I have no recollection of you. I think it was Alex

because he did 300 and international fight weeks and he was saving cards and everything. But I think we ended up giving it to Alex in the end. I gave it to Ilya, but that was also 3 and O

versus 2 and O. This race is, the names he was beating. This race is over if Marab wins. There's nobody in his... Islam is a late replacement Moikano. And then I understand going up to 170,

but four tighter defenses, the conversation is over. I think the more interesting debate is actually where does this rank in the all-time calendar years in MMA and UFC history? Because I think this would be in that territory of the John Jones Shogun Hua years.

This is going to be up there with an all-timer if he can... If I'm not mistaken, first fighter to go four and four with four title defenses in a calendar year, correct? I believe he would be the first, yeah. I believe he's the first. Yeah.

If he can do it in this, you know, this week, then he will have done it. But I think that's the, I don't think the fighter of the year conversations in, you know, debatable at that point. But I do think the, where does this rank is one of the best years that any fighter has ever had, best calendar year. I think he's in that, in that debate. Oh, my God, 100%. And by the way, I think what really makes it interesting is that there's two rematches there. Because these guys have seen him. They've seen him at his best and they still couldn't beat him the second time around. And so I think that that makes sense. it even more of a strong case for Hay.

And like, Umar was undefeated. Corey was great. Again, there are title defenses and there are title defenses. And all four of those fights were really, really tough fights. There's not a cupcake here. There's not a like, hey, we're going to do this one as a favor to somebody. Every single one of these guys is a rightful contender that he made it look relatively easy against except that first Umar fight.

He is, he is unbelievable. By the way, yesterday I asked if the break in between fights, December 13th, last fight of 2025, January 24th, first fight of 2026 is the longest. This obviously Jedi knew. This according to our good friend Jedi Goodman, it would mark the latest start to a UFC calendar year, January 24th, since 2007, when UFC fight night Rashad Evans versus Sean Salmon, remember that, was held on January 24th. 25th, head kick. Incredible knockout. It would also represent the longest gap between UFC fights since 2020 when the pandemic caused an extended hiatus at of eight weeks.

Okay, fine, fine, fine about the hiatus. But I want to know, like, as far as the actual scheduled events, what's the longest gap there? Because that wasn't planned. It wasn't going to be that long. When's the last time they've had that big of a gap in between fights? Is there any chance this means they're going to do less cards than they've been? been doing? No, he already said

43? I don't think so. It is interesting. I think, is it possible they don't want to go up against football? Who knows? There's got to be a reason for it. I mean, won't they be going up against the divisional and the AFC Championship, NFC Championship weekends? Well,

AFC... No, I checked on this yesterday. Conference Championship weekend is that 25th. So it was the day after 324. So big weekend on Paramount Plus, because you watch 324 and then potentially watch the bills still in the Hell yeah, but that's the thing. The previous week, you might have a Saturday game, right?

Divisional and wild card, you would have a... You definitely will. You definitely will, yeah. So this is Sunday only, and then the week after for 325, there'll be no... That's my theory. They don't want to go up against football. They're really only taking that one week that they normally do before the pay-per-view off. They shift that one card to later in the year.

When we had that... Well, usually it's the 10th. Usually it's like the 10th, and it's like, it's earlier. And then the pay-per-view is like the 17th, 18th, 19th, and then... And then on and on it goes. UFC 311 was January 18th this year. Right. And they did the Dern Keybust the week before.

Yeah. They'll take the one off. They'll shove that one week to the middle of the calendar and everything will be fine. Same number of events. Hell, maybe they'll do more. Maybe they'll just put on more. I hope for 50 cards. The About page on the Paramount Plus.com slash shows slash UFC slash news.

They will still be 43 events, 13 UFC numbered events, which I have asked some people over at Paramount Plus. that is the final name for that page I love that we have a Paramount Plus Insider, thank you, thank you on it. 30 UFC fight nights. Okay, there it is. Get strapped for some more back-to-back.

UFC numbered events. No one knows more about the state of Paramount Plus than are very known. Actually, they have just, as I'm looking at Paramount Plus, there's now a UFC numbered events in Spanish and Portuguese pages up. So go brush up on your dual lingo or what's this language transfer?

Yeah, shout of the language Yeah, is that what it's called? I don't know what that is. It's an app. By the way, before we get to Sean quickly, quick thoughts, G.C. on Tom Aspinall. Yeah, I kind of like this, this him against the world type attitude, him not listening to the haters, him coming back, not Mr. Nice Guy.

I like it. I like it, man. No more Mr. Nice Guy. I also like the fact that he says that he's doing this interview, he's doing one tomorrow, and then he's time to move on from it. I mean, he's getting all this flack, he's getting all this hate, but by the time he competes again, people will start forgetting about it. If he gets two, three wins in 2026, no one will be talking about this at all. Right.

The question is, when is that going to happen, right? So, like, if it's, gosh, if it's another eight, nine months. Yeah, no, it sucks. I can't imagine these people that actually believe, like, he is cleared, but he's just saying he's not. Oh, my God, no, no, no, of course not. I mean, look, the only thing that's going to erase all of this, unfortunately, is getting back in there and winning the fight.

convincingly. And it's just, as he put it, like he's, he's developing thick skin. It's a part of the game. It's a part of, it's a byproduct of being a superstar, of being famous, of being a very popular fighter. And yeah, there is, there is something to, on the way up, everyone's pulling for you, everyone's backing you. And then when you get out there, you know, people are going to be super critical of you. It's a crazy, crazy couple of years for him. All right, still to come, Arnold Allen, who is fighting John Silva at UFC 324, but UFC 324 will also feature the long awaited, much anticipated return of one of the most popular fighters in the sport. And dare I say, actually the most popular fighter to hail from the United States right now.

It's an interesting time as far as the globalization of the sport. He's your friend in mind. He's the one and only, the Sugar Show, the host of the Bromalley Show. sugar Sean O'Malley is here. Yeah. What a bonk. Hello, sir. How are you?

Nervous. Why? To be on the biggest MMA podcast. Yeah, man. Appreciate it very much. It's been a great day. Tom Aspinall and Sean O'Malley and Arnold Allen. What a show.

What a lineup. I was watching perhaps the second biggest MMA podcast yesterday. It is entitled The Bro Malley Show. It was actually this morning on my morning run. I just wanted to see what you guys were talking about. I wanted to see, you know, I want to take the temperature of the boys.

And all of a sudden, I hear my name mention. I hear my name mention. In case you missed it, here's the, here's the little conversation about me. Here it is. Ariel, Hawani, love Ariel, love Uncle Ariel, going on a show on Tuesday. It was mad that it wasn't main event, Kayla Harrison v. Amanda Nunez, and they should have been co-main, Justin, Patty. And I'm like, Ariel, what in the, what are you smoking, brother?

What are you smoking? The UFC is a goddamn business. The first fight, too, of Paramountsian. And they are not going to put Amanda Nunez versus Kill Harrison. It's a big fight, women's history, yes, I get it. We want to watch Patty versus Gates at the end of the card. We don't want to watch. Amanda, they're Comaine.

I like that. I should be opening up the pay-per-view. I should be ending the prelims. But I don't, I think the cards, you know, it is where it is, and I think that's okay. I disagree with the last point about you on the prelims. And I definitely disagree with the first point as well. This is an undisputed title fight, Sean, between a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a former PFL champion, and the current reigning defending women's batto-way champion going up against the goat. How could you say, the returning goat?

How could you say that that should be below a Fugazi interim title fight? I mean, I just really don't feel like there's an argument there. What do you mean? Gage versus Patty? Okay, if you had only watch one of those fights. And you ask America. You ask the world. You only get to watch one.

Yeah. January 24th. You only get to watch one. Who do you guys want to watch? Be honest. Easiest decision. At least I can only answer for myself. Easy.

No brainer. No questions asked. It's Caleb versus Amanda. This is a generational fight. It's one of the greatest fights in MMA history. Two-time Olympic Olympic Olympic. Come on. I respect your love for the sport, Ariel.

I really do. I really, really do. here's my problem. Why can't it be the comane? It's an interim title fight that's not for a real belt and the number one contender isn't involved and the champion obviously isn't involved. Why can't it be five rounds interim title fight below? Don't you think that it's a slap in the face to the champ and it's spitting in the face of the belt? Like don't you think that the belt has to be at the end. The undisputed belt has to be the crescendo of the card. I'd be curious what those girls say. And I don't know if they already talked about it or not. But I'd be curious what their opinions on that would be. Well, clearly you missed yesterday's Ariel Hawwani show because we did have Kayla Harrison on. Yeah, I know you were traveling. She was like, Ariel, shut the F up, control the controllables.

I don't care. That's what she said. So credit to her. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, if she really thought she should be the main event, I feel like she would have probably said that. Yeah, I mean, what's in it for her, though, right? Why would you bring that up?

Hey, we get a fight earlier. I love the 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. Yeah, how about that? I love that. I love that. And I'm third fight. I'm fucking fighting early. I like that.

That's cool. How did we end up with song? I asked for A-Man. I was like, can I just give me something a little, let's just do something, you know, a little something easier. But song, they're like, no, we want you to fight songs. I was like, all right, I guess I'll fight song. You feel like Sahabee is easier?

I don't, I mean, easier is not, sorry about these jets. I own an Air Force base pretty close by to my house. No problem. I didn't actually hear them. Jets taken off. Oh, okay. Well, that's good because I got my air pot in. You probably hear it now?

No. Nothing. Oh, anyway. No, real, I know, a little joke. I said it was supposed to be a funny little joke. Amon, I think, an excellent, he's an excellent fighter. You know, if I looked at him in song, and I don't think any, any, no one's easy. There's, you know, you get an oxygone, no one's easy.

But I did ask for Amon. I was like, that one seems a little easier. I've always took on Uncle Chale. um philosophy and fighting fight the easiest guy for the most amount of money you know we're making the same amount of money fighting any of these guys who do i who in my opinion was would be the easiest sure and i don't want to say easiest i don't even like that word who's the most beatable i don't know if there's a different word for it better matchup that you think you think it's a better yeah song song song song i do like the song matchup you know he's explosive fast um good fight

got a lot of experience he's young he's hungry it's it's it's gonna be a great win it's it's a it's a big fight so i'm i'm happy with where we're at by the way were you into the aim and idea before he called you out or as a result of him calling you out um no the first i thought i saw him fight aldo that was the first time i didn't know i didn't know who he was not in a like ha ha way but i never i didn't even know he was in the ufc didn't know who is and i saw him fight aldo like damn That was a sick fight, good performance, gutted it out, beat a legend. And I was in a poker tournament when he fought Cheeto, but I would look up every once in a while. And it looked like a close fight.

I heard it was a super controversial. Just didn't have the time to go back and watch it. It's been super busy. So I didn't have the time to go back and watch it. But I'll take his word for it, close fight. He got the job done. He called me out. And I was like, shit, sure, I guess.

I've been ready to fight November, December. I've been ready to go, so I've just been waiting. What took so long? I think they wanted me on this Paramount card. You know, I'm not main event or co-main event, but I bring something to the table, I guess, and they wanted me on the Paramount card, open it up, maybe let's roll. Hell yeah. What about the fact that I was mentioning first time in about three years, 15-minute fight,

three-round fight? Do you like that? Does that matter? Yeah, it matters. I'm excited. just more so for the fight camp itself um you know the five rounds are especially the marab camps they were they were long they were very long camps um so yeah i'm i'm excited 15 15 minutes still going to be you know high pace still going to be you know hard 15 minutes still a long time

to fight so you know taking it as serious as i possibly can and i'll be and ready to go but definitely mentally 15 minutes of that a lot more, just a lot freer and less stress to build up for a 15-minute fights. By the way, they announced this last week so it's about two months out. Do you hit the ground running or have you known for

a while that this was going to be your date? I kind of when I was asking for fights and they're like, ah, no December, they kind of told me a lot of month ago, it's looking probably like January. So I've been in pre-camp,

getting the body ready to to go so we're in fight camp right now we uh yeah we're in camp hit a little mountain run this morning felt felt great and uh excited doing some movement right getting the body ready yeah yeah we have this guy cameron shane down here was like a movement expert um kind of like playing touch butt in the park kind of like that kind of stuff but it's it's been really nice every morning for an hour we meet out in my warehouse he's been staying on the property in his van with his wife we meet in the warehouse and we just wake the body up with some movement it's it's you know a very simple concept but it goes a long way um these last few years my body just has felt broke down just been feeling like

uh just hard to get through a week good hard training and you know so i'm i'm really this movement i feel like it's really going to help and it has been helping already i've already noticed some differences in the you know the movement in my spine and the range of motion in my joints and You know, I'm feeling better, noticeably better, and I'm excited, and I feel like this is going to add years to my career. I really want to fight till the fucking wheels fall off. I don't want to get out too early. I don't want to get out too late, but I do want to push it and fight for a while, and I can only do that if the body holds up. And so I feel like this is going to be a great addition to the team.

Ito Portale-esque. Yes. You know that guy, Ido Portel. He was the Connor's movement coach. Yes, exactly. That is very similar stuff to that. that we are, yes. You know, one thing about your mentality that I was wondering about, at a young age, you climb the mountain, you won the belt, and, and obviously you're not the champion now,

but I wonder if there's like a monkey off your back. Allegedly. I wonder though, like, you don't have to go, you don't have to worry about the chase. You already accomplished what everyone dreams of accomplishing. And I wonder if there's a monkey off your back as a result of that. Now you could just have fun. You can look for fun fights. You can do it. Or is the belt still item number one do you do you do you desire that the most and is that what the motivation is you know what i can't really decide that i've thought about it multiple times and i never really it's like the belt being the champ is great i do feel like there's some freedom like i did that um there's a sense of relief just like okay i accomplished that what's next it's like winning the belt again

sounds sounds fun sounds exciting marab's obviously there at the top um We're one in one, so a trilogy makes sense. Peter goes out there and wins. The rematch with Peter is a big fight. And, you know, I want big fights, but, you know, if the title's on the line, that just adds more to it. But also three rounds. That could be a three-round champ. Like, maybe if Rob wins, like, he's the five-round champ.

I'm the three-round champ. That sounds sick to me. I might just do that. Be the three-round Bantamweight UFC champion of the world. You probably don't think about these things, but I really do. think that you're the most popular American fighter right now? Yeah, I know. I heard you

said on a little introduction. I was like, ooh. Right? Is that true? There's no American-born male champion right now. There's only one American female champion, Kayla Harrison. And there's not a lot of guys in the pipeline as far as like soon-to-be superstar and number one

contender. You're that guy. And that guy, Ariel. As far as active. John Jones is there, but I don't view him as an active fighter. Fair. Yeah, I guess I didn't really think about that. I just feel like, I feel like, you know, we're obviously not just get started, but we are a lot closer to just getting started than we are towards the end. So I feel like, you know, you're only as good as your last performance. Last performance didn't go so well. I go out there and put on a really, really fun, exciting fight, a finish over song. You know, I'm back being that guy. I'm, you know, one of the top three of the UFC right now. Not quite there. Kind of, you know, he goes, it fluctuates.

This is how these careers go. Right now, you know, a little bit, you know, two-fight losing streak. One and a half, depends how you count that first fight. Sure. Next fight, I go out there have an exciting fight. These fans, you know, you're as good as your last fight. So I go out there and put on a beautiful performance. I'm, you know, I'm him again.

Yeah. I dare I say you're still him. the wins and losses don't define you I do wonder though why did you give the belt that you won when you beat Al Jermaine Sterling to Steve will do it? Why would you do that? Steve is a great human being

he means well I know he's a little all over the place I hope he's doing good right now you know he got me a lot of a lot of stuff when I first met him and I wanted to give him something meaningful and what better that was the most meaningful thing I could have gave him

So I'm hoping it's not in a, in a closet somewhere, and it's cropped up in a beautiful location. Or in a pawn shop or something, right? Could be in a pawn shop. Very well could be. But I don't think so. I think he, you know, I don't know, man. Do you regret it? No, I mean, if he enjoys it, if he looks at it, he sees it once in a while and gets some inspiration from it, some motivation from it, then it's where it needs to be.

I would regret it if it is on eBay. Okay. We disagree about Kayla being the comane, but it seems like we agree on maybe like the announcement lacking a little panache, right? I saw you talking about that. A little needed a little flare, right? Like, what's going on? There's been a lot of talk lately, and I've been talking about it as well. I feel like it's a little uninspired right now.

The promos, the marketing. I feel like we need a little bit more. What do you think? Yeah, I'm just used to Dana just being excited and turning red. He's so excited about the next fight. And, you know, it's on, it's half time. It's a halftime show on Thanksgiving. You know, there's so many, but what I feel like is it was supposed to be Patty Elia.

It was supposed to be Elia Justin. Ely was supposed to fight. And then, you know, I think moving pieces, it kind of falls out. Now we're, Dana wants to see the biggest fight. And I think maybe was supposed to be the fight, fell through. Now he's kind of doing that. But I don't know. Who knows?

Who knows? I don't know. How do you feel about Ilya not fighting? I don't blame him, blame him at all. You know, if he's going through, you know, that kind of stuff, divorce and relationship stuff, you know, it's, you got to figure out that stuff, personal stuff before you get in the fight camp. Your mind needs to be ready, focus, sharp. You need a good team, good, you know, people around you and you're dealing with that stuff. It is not a time to be in fight camp.

So, yeah, I think he's making the right decision. I like how it's starting out with you in song. Um, your tweet when it, uh, when it first was announced was, I don't beat my dong, but I will beat you dong, which was, I thought, which was a good one. He then came out with something about like, you know, having some sugar and all this stuff, which was not bad. But then this video that he posted yesterday, have you seen this one, how he was greeted to. No, I have, I didn't, I didn't even see the sugar one. You said, I haven't seen anything. Here it is. Thank you, O'Malley for celebrating my birthday with me. that's funny i like it you like it it's a little it's creative right i like it i like it i bring i bring the i bring this kind of social media out of people i bring uh you know maraub really turned it up when he when we first fought and kind of went into his own little lane you know songs doing that i like it you know it's it's you know it's fun social? I have not been on social media this year and

it feels good. So even like that tweet, who's posting that? Garrett, I have Garrett, he runs all my socials. If I want to tweet something, I text him, go Garrett, tweet this. We have scheduled posts. He's very active on there. But I don't actually make those posts. Incredible. And you don't miss it. I feel better. I feel I feel better I feel like there's less noise

pointless noise in my head I feel like I'm less sugar the character in my day-to-day interactions I feel less more free I feel noticeably better any other big changes like you've talked about

you know staying off the weed and stuff the social media the phone all that any other big changes since the Marab fight no I actually have been smoking my marijuana again and god damn and i missed it i've been just i hit my vaporizer once twice at night a little puff and it just feels good feels good but other than that no i'm just off socials um pickleball the pickle dojo okay i was out of yesterday as of yesterday as of yesterday the pickle dojo we opened up four pickleball courts right next to the gym literally the walls

separating the pickle dojo from the dojo and really been enjoying pickleball. Tim and I opened it up together. It's like this 80s kind of theme. Look at it. Look at this right here. Look at this. This is incredible.

It is beautiful. The pickle dojo. Is it true that only 200 members? Well, there's only four courts. Yeah, I know, but like, we can't have too many people. I mean, we're just going with the flow of figuring it out. You know, if we have 200 members and there's, you know, there's four hours. hours out of the day that are available.

It's like, okay, we could add more members, but we want to make sure, you know, if you sign up, you have time to play. So 200 was kind of a number we thought would make sense and kind of go with the flow. Neither of us, you know, we just started playing pickleball eight months ago. So it's like we're just, we're kind of learning as we go. It's beautiful. Who designed all of this? I think that me and Tim were just kind of bouncing ideas back and forth.

I definitely wanted colorful courts. The Pickle Dojo, shout out chat, GPT. We helped us come up with the name, the logo, and, you know, we found some people that did pickleball courts and got in contact and kind of just busted it out. I love it. It's great. Also, you ever play? I've dabbled. My wife's a big tennis fan.

So we're a tennis family. She's one of those, like, elitist who's like, oh, the pickleball is ruining the tennis vibe and the culture. And I think she's getting old enough to where she should probably start thinking about pickleball because the knees are starting to break down. Yeah, I don't know. She's a bit of a snob. It's unfortunate. Maybe we could go check it out and get some, what is it, the Red Hawk Cafe? What is the cafe? Oh, yeah, the Java House. The Java House. Organic quality coffee. Take a little hit of that and then head over to the pickle

dojo and get some, some dinks in. It would be incredible. What about you and Jake Paul? Was that fun? What was the experience like being over there in Puerto Rico with him? Yeah, that was super fun. It was sure. short two-day trip I went out there originally you know just to shoot with W and like some Christmas promo stuff and um yeah the fat suits were interesting it took like two hours to put on and and the guys the team that did it did you know did an incredible job it's um that was cool that's cool i can't believe he's fighting anthony josh i i like jake a lot i want him to win and i I'm, who, that shit, like, it just scares me a little bit, Ariel.

I'm not going to lie. I really do. Do you think he's crazy for doing this? I mean, there's anybody that fights just in general is a little bit crazy, but, yeah, I think he's a little crazy. But watch him, I mean, watch him go out there and win, then what? I mean, I just, I don't know. I'm going to watch. I'm going to tune in.

It's going to be huge. It's on Netflix. It's a big deal. Big paydays. you know, a big fight, but I'm, I rarely watch the TV and just, like, I'm, you know, I'm nervous, but this is going to be one where I'm, I'm nervous. Have you seen how AJ is looking? Um, not really.

Look at this, look at this. Look at this right here. There's no tomorrow. Forget about that part. Look at those abs. Yeah, he's terrifying. That's how I feel like when I get out of a cold plunge sometimes. Yeah, no, I know.

I know what you mean. I thought he brought you in maybe because you're around the same size as Tank Davis. I thought you guys actually were sparring. Ariel, come on. What, what? Not with the low blows. No, 135. 5'3.

He's 5'3 foot 3. Same weight class. Same weight class. Yeah, but, I mean, that was funny. You got jokes, Eric. I know you set that one up. That was hilarious. You still looking for that one?

Tank, I would love to fight Tank. That would be very interesting I would love to, I'll say box tank I would love to box tank Fight, nah, it would be kind of boring I mean it would be fun but easy Boxing would be difficult Zoufa boxing have you asked

I definitely I'm always saying like hey Do you guys want to throw me in there They don't seem too interested in bringing in UFC guys to do the Zufa stuff At least from what I You know from my conversations But you never know

I go out there You know beat song, knock song out look good, blah, blah, boxing looking good. Giovante gets out of jail and says something funny and, you know, things can build up. But, you know, other than now, it's definitely not enough interest. Who do you think wins? Marab or Jan?

I mean, the only way I see Jan beating him is Maraub's getting confident in his hands. You know, he damn near knocked out Corey Sandhagen, but he's, he's punching more. He did it with Umar too, where he was, you know, kind of throwing some more combos. and he did it with Corey. Peter is someone you've got to be careful with on like keeping your chin up because he'll capitalize. He's got such good counter.

He's fast. He'll sit in the pocket. He'll trade. But Rob's just, I mean, he's got, I think his fight IQ is smarter than his regular IQ. And that's, he's got a good fight IQ.

So I think he's going to go up. I don't think he's going to necessarily sit and try to trade with him. But you never know. So ultimately you're leaning towards, Marab unless he kind of falls in love with the striking and gets caught. Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm thinking. I think he's the fighter of the year if he wins this fight.

Four title defenses in a calendar year is kind of crazy, right? How could you not be? I mean, yeah, 100% fighter of the year. That's super impressive. It's insane, actually. It's a wild four. I mean, just the fight camps alone, going through four, five-round fight camps alone, let alone the fight, it's very impressive.

You think he's making a mistake by coming back? so soon. His last fight was in early October. I mean, I guess we'll see. He seems like he's not a dude that literally just eats healthy, sleeps good, gets to the gym and warms up, and he doesn't really live by those rules, and it's working out for him. So I don't know if these rules apply by coming back too early. Sure. What do you think about this Peyton Talbot now that he's bounced back? He's fighting Henry. Yeah, super random. I like it, though. I mean, it was just super random. I just kind of, You know, Henry's retired, came back, retired.

I didn't know where he was at. And then he just gives the fight announced. I don't know. I think Henry, if Henry's going to accept the fight, book a fight, I feel like Henry's going to show up. He did look pretty good against Song, even though he got eye poked. He looked good in the fight. He didn't look bad.

Didn't look old. So I think he's going to show up. And I'm pretty curious how that one plays out. I saw you do a breakdown about the eyepokes and whatnot. And we just had Tom on. How do you feel? How do you feel? How do you feel about the eye pokes? What can be done? I don't know, man. I don't know. I mean, the glove thing seems like the only real, maybe glasses. Maybe we wear goggles. Maybe we start wearing some sick goggles. What about, what about the fact that, like, if you poke someone in the eye, it's an immediate point deduction? And that would stop people from being so loosey-goosey with it, you don't think?

I don't think so I don't I mean I don't really think maybe there's some guys that intentionally do it knowing like the repercussions aren't that bad to where it's realistically I mean you're in a fight you're doing shit your hands come out and happens like unfortunately and

I mean it's still gonna happen but if you just take a fight you gotta do something to prevent to prevent it happen in general but I don't know what that is the breakdowns are great you're killing it I even saw you giving you gave out money to some strange like just some guys on the street i saw this you know what time out yes nice i mean

yes it was so nice you went to like someone's house and you just gave him money just like that oh those were old those were old that was uh with i was wondering where which yeah that was with juan from that was epic are you familiar with his youtube channel i'm not but i was very impressed by you doing this yeah he he does these kind of these videos all the time and we collaborated on this one um But yeah, these, that was a funny one. But yeah, that was a while ago. Okay, my bad, my bad. By the way, before I let you go, Alex Pantosia fighting on this card,

he says he's not interested in moving up to fight Mara, but he is interested in moving up to fight you. What do you think of that? He's trying to get it back, Ariel. I'm wanting to know against him. I got the first round liver shot finish. He wants it back. I get it.

um yeah i mean that's probably smarty doesn't fight him rob i think that's just a bad matchup for him but i think i'm not a great matchup for him either to be honest but that's what i'm saying that three round champ shit maybe i'm getting called out by other champs is a real thing three pound or three round ufc champion um i'd fight him you know obviously yeah that was first round you said first round liverish i'll send you a video actually i think i posted i didn't even want to post it but he kept bring it and I feel bad because he didn't bring it up but everybody was so like would bring it up in the interviews so he'd have to kind of be like forced to talk about it and talk shit about it and like oh you don't have the video you haven't post I'm like no I do have it I just don't want to

post it because you're not supposed to post it yeah but then he kept saying it kept saying I didn't have the video I'm like I do and I think I did post it and uh just a left body kick right in the liver this was this was probably this was before I was in the USC it's eight years ago nine years ago it's a long time ago So we were both babies But I didn't want to post it He just kept bringing it up To where I'm like I kind of felt forced to

One and only time That's the one and only time you sparred We sparred I think the we sparred It's actually a funny story Henry Sehudo was involved in the story Oh wow So I think it was Pantosia was about to make his debut

He had just won the ultimate fighter I think I was 1 in0 pro Or 2 and O pro Henry Sehudo comes rolling in Five foot three just kind of like waddling like a penguin with pentosia I was just get like I was just got done it was Saturday morning I didn't have any fights coming up

I was you know ripping the bong the night before so when I was like smoking the bong heavily just lungs inflamed and uh Henry's like we want we want Sean like me and Henry don't have any beef at this time um we want Sean so we we writes my name down on the paper you know usually when you have a fight you fight this guy fresh guy fresh guy

so we fight round one boom finish him he takes a knee we finished the round out you know i'm ready to get out of the cage henry's no we want we want him again like just just chat but yelling and how we want him again so the second round we train we fight whatever and henry's like whoa whoa pull some shots pull some shots he's got a fight coming up so now i'm getting yelled out to pull some shots after i'd already finished him i'm gassed out already at this point completely gassed out was not ready to fight like literally i have a fight today i was you know get done with the second round then there's the third round

and I'm puffing and puffing at this point I'm dying and then Benson Henderson who's you know he owns the lab I was training at the lab compensation we don't get people don't call us out in our gym and like yelling at me in between second and the third round because I was trying to get out the cage and I was like no we want him for a third I'm like

bro I already finished him the first I'm gassed out and so we do a third round and that's where Pantoja's like I choked you in the third And I'm like, maybe you did, maybe you didn't. Maybe I don't have video. So I don't remember the third round very much. But yeah, so I fought Pantosia in like 2015.

But to be honest, I like the guy. I like him. I think his story's cool. What he's done, he's become a legend of the sport. I really have no beef with them. But if he wants to get that one back, I totally understand why. I get it. Well, we love you.

You're a legend. As is your coach. the one and only Red Hawk. Actually, we were talking to him recently, and I did happen to notice before I just want to show you this picture. This is you, Tim, and Tommy McMillan. This looks, the gentleman in the middle, 9-0, just won on Contender Series in September.

This kind of looks like the Sugar Show, Circa, like 2017. Am I crazy? Like, he kind of looks like you. Pre-tattoos, the hair. No, am I nuts? Like, it feels like he's got the next one in the pipeline. Yeah, no, I can see it. There's something there.

young, talky, confident, trust his skills. He's a fucking dog. You saw it in the Contender Series fight. Got in some bad positions, got dropped with that elbow. Was in a high elbow guillotine, guard close, figured out a way to get out of it. And he wants it.

Sometimes that's what comes down to is who wants it more. He really wants it. So I'm excited for him. Hopefully we can get him a fight booked in the next, you know, a week or two after mine. So I could be there for him because it was on the same car. It would be tough. you're the freaking man Sean thank you so much all the best I urge everyone to check out the

bro Malley show on YouTube all your great stuff over there you guys are killing it much love good luck in training happy holidays and good luck of course on the 24th of January thanks sir appreciate you all have a good one there he is the one and only sugar Sean O'Malley what a guy what a personality what a fight what a card always great to catch up with him always great to get his insights and yes he did speak about a whole bunch of stuff Big Win C fan as well. He loves Wing C. He spoke about him, Moneyburg, all kinds of things on the YouTube channel. So go check that out as well.

Now, as I said, it's not just the return of Sean O'Malley on the 24th of January. The very first Paramount Plus card. Finally, we got some sort of indication as to when they are going to debut, how they're going to debut, where, who's going to headline, all that and more. But perhaps other than the fact that the main cards are now starting at 9 p.m. Eastern time, which is very exciting for everyone involved. Perhaps the best news of all is that we finally got the answer to the question that had been on all of our minds plaguing all of us, the great mystery that was, when is Arnold Allen coming back? And where in the world is Arnold

Allen? We had not seen him in action since July of 2024, that card that was headlined by Leon Edwards v. Bilal Muhammad, Tom Aspinall versus Curtis Bates too, in the middle of the night. That card in Manchester. He fought Giga Chiquata, UFC 304. That's how long ago was. This is going to be UFC 324. Well, we found out it's Arnold Allen, the almighty one, against John Silva, and thus we have a reason now to speak to Arnold. And I have been waiting for this moment because I've missed Arnold.

I've genuinely missed our conversations. He is here with us right here and now. Ah, there he is. What's going on, buddy? Hello, Arnold. How are you? I'm good. I just woke up from a little nap.

Oh, wow. Okay. You see my hair. No, you look fantastic. I like the hair. Thank you. What's going on? What is this?

A nice little mullet thing going? What do we have back there? It's kind of a mullet. I got it trimmed up because it was getting a little bit too crazy. Oh, that's trimmed. Okay. Yeah, it's getting a bit too wild. It's a whole new you.

Yeah, yeah. We're back. Where have you been? Um. Injured. What happened? Why have you not fought since July of 2024? Just had an injury that just it was a real bastard.

I did it a few weeks before the Moseva camp. I got thrown and I separated my AC joint in my shoulder. It just is one of the ones. You just kind of ignored it, ignore it, ignore it. And then eventually you need to get it. looked at. And then I did the Giga camp. It was an absolute nightmare. I was like, oh, okay, I feel I'm going to have to get this sorted after the fight. But then it was just one and once I kept like, I'd see a surgeon and he'd tell me, oh, I think we're going to be able to get away with it

without surgery, going to be good. And then I start training, training, training, and then something goes again, and it gets worse and worse and worse. Luckily, I have like eight friends that have had shoulder surgeries, and, you know, I avoided it. I had the stem cell route, and it's so slow a bit, it seems to have done the job. But, man, it's such a slow process. Wow. Okay, so I remember in the immediate aftermath of the fight, you talked at the Post-Fight press conference about your hand hurting. I thought that was the reason.

Was that ultimately okay? Yeah, that was fine. It was just a few weeks. It was a few weeks. Then the shoulder was holding up pretty good. But I wasn't really training. And then I went, because I was trying to fight, I was trying to fight that December. And then the first, like, day I started training camp.

Like, I woke up and I couldn't raise my arm. And I was like, okay, well, that needs fixing. That needs fixing. Wow. And so ultimately, did you have surgery? No, no. I had an intensive stem cell treatment. But, like, you know, obviously that is a bit.

slower. The rehab was a bit longer. But speaking to my friends that have all had shoulder surgery, I think I'm in a good place. How do you feel now? Yeah, good. Good for hard shots, punching, wrestling. Everything's good. No restrictions. It pops and cracks a little bit, but is what it is. Okay. And is this one of those where you could have been, you know, ready to go a couple months ago? It was just this particular date that they had for you, or are you happy with the way in which things turned out? Yeah, I was told, like, in passing, it was going to be Yaya in December. So I flew back to Montreal to start a camp for that.

And then obviously he had a, I think he had some sort of surgery on his wrist or something. So that ain't happening. So then we just waited, waited, waited, and this is what they offered. Which one did you like better, this one or Yair? For like ranking purposes, I like Yaya, but the rankings don't even mean nothing really, do they? Right. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Who gives a shit?

Do you think this will be a fun fight? Like, does this excite you this one? Yeah, you know, it's the funny thing. People, because everyone calls me autistic. So, everyone's saying we're two different ends of the spectrum. You've got the loud barking autistic, and then you've got the quiet awkward autistic. And I'm like, yeah, I can't even deny it. I can't even deny it.

We're going to be at the face off. He's going to be barking. And I'm probably just going to be stood there like, what the fuck? what do you make of his demeanor like he's a very energetic guy yeah he's cool he's uh i think he's a nice guy he's just um it's loving life man good for him good for him you know i'm english we're just like quiet and reserved and a lot of brazilian guys are very energetic excited characters it's like two opposites but i think it makes her a really good

fight i think it's a phenomenal fight um did you watch this fight against Diego Lopez back in September? Yeah, of course, of course. What did you think? Because some people thought in the second round he was having some success and then ultimately he wasn't having success.

What did you think of how he did against Diego? Yeah, he did great. Two real tough guys. Diego's a beast. His work, right? You can't knock it. And yeah, he was doing great. Like, he hurt Diego a couple times

with some shots, but, I don't know, maybe he stumbled on a shot. Right. he was playing a very uh you know smiling in the pockets staring in through the guard i'm sure Diego's playing some sort of game you know how do you feel about Diego getting the title shot yeah you know what I think it should be Mosvar but you know he pulled out I don't know if he's still injured so from his last pull out um I understand I get it for like star power and stuff like this and hear rumors of

Volt retiring and things like that I know Lorone was saying he should get it I guess he took that short notice fight against Pico I got offered that first but I think I was I was no I don't think I was definitely still injured then Yeah is that a tough point to turn down

Yeah you know it was like It was it would have probably been Well it was going to be you know I think it was co-main event on a big pay-per-view title contender on the line potentially and yeah I would have would have loved it but yeah I'm not foolish enough to think I could go in there

and take a guy out of zero training when I'm literally do a rehab for sort of bands and stuff sure sure I think it should be Lorone only because he has won the same amount of fights in a row as Mosar he replaced him in that fight knocked the guy out he's been more active

and I have nothing against Diego and I think it's going to be a great fight but I do think if you've won nine fights in a row you should be rewarded i know this is something that you can sympathize with as well because i believe you want ten fights in a row and weren't rewarded you're talking mr ten i know i know i know i know so i guess you're not really crying for anyone else no you know you know how it is and it's entertainment isn't it like this you have to remember the entertainment part of it and yeah and uh like you know john silver he's very entertaining he brings the hype

it don't fucking matter what his ranking is he's going to get top ten fights all the time did you do a triathlon while you were rehabbing yeah and it was that's crazy so it was like a duathlon it was like cycling and running so it wasn't

but how were you able to do that as you were dealing with a bum shoulder as they say I was right like running and running and it doesn't hurt when like you're I don't know pounding the pavement or so, I don't know. I even did a bit of a swim. It's just one of those things.

It was pretty good. It was pretty good. I knew I had this issue. And then I was planning to fight in December, last December. And then it was like, okay, I think when Yaya fought pit bull, was that January, I think it was? Yeah. No, that was April. Okay.

I think they wanted to do, if I remember, correctly. They wanted to do me and Yaya in January. I remember being pissed off because it was the first time, or not the first, one of the first times I called a guy out and I actually get what I asked for. And yeah, I just, I couldn't fulfill my part of it. So it is what it is. Do you feel, I know we've talked in the past about the entries and the lack of momentum. Do you feel, do you hope, do you pray that you can get, you know, now that you're fighting in January, maybe three fights in 2026, be active, get in the mix. At a hundred and five.

I loved that. I mean, this is a thing with, like, the fans and stuff, they always send your message. They, you know, the amount of haters, haters I got for being injured. People were like, you shouldn't be in the rankings. I'm like, mate, I'm depressed. I want to fight. I don't make the rankings. Like, what do you think?

Like, I've sitting at home looking at the rankings. Like, I'm sitting there just trying to get back to the gym. Yeah. But, yeah, that's the goal to be active and, you know, fight for that title. that's the goal. How do you deal with that? Like that inactivity, being injured, not being able to go to the gym. How do you deal with that depression, as you say?

I was struggling, but like, I'm kind of one of those people that, maybe it's the autism, but like I will do everything. So my recovery was like a training cap. So friends are trying to do stuff. And in the morning I'm going to the hyperbaric oxygen. therapy. In the evening, I'm doing like some rehab with a physio and then yeah, so all day,

every day I had something going on. Is it true you were in like a pretty scary car crash before your last fight? I wouldn't say scary. Oh, okay. I mean, I went backwards down a highway. That was quite scary, I guess. That's pretty damn scary. You went backwards

down a highway? Yeah, yeah. How? Pretty tight. Just like, it was raining and I was picking my car up from a, I had like at old BMW, like a classic, I say classic, classic to me. And I just hit like a, I think it was like a diesel spill or something. And the back end just getting it out and I overcorrected.

And luckily didn't hit anyone. And I was fine. I was just sitting there like, oh shit. Oh my gosh. So you didn't get hurt from that? No, no, I was fine. I was just sad about my car. But luckily no one else got hurt.

But what was it? the that was the last sparring for the gigafite that was i was on the way home from the last far so yeah there's always so much you know so much activity so much drama surrounding you know it's just better for the story right you need something if it's all plain sailing sure works it's easy you need to have these setbacks and obstacles to uh to make things worth more i thought maybe during the the the layoff um the milkman podcast would put out more but it seems like you're stuck on two. I have two.

We've been watching. We did like 20 something. Is that true? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was, from what I saw, I saw two. Is that, okay, maybe I apologize. Maybe I'm not looking. Is that up on the channel now?

Yeah, yeah, there's like 20, 20 life. What do you guys talk about there? Anything, anything, anything, and a lot of like local stuff. Because we live in like a funny town. It's like all the Facebook pages are just people moaning about, I don't know, like a, I don't know like a you have like crow scares in farms and stuff it basically makes like a shotgun noise when there's like crows on the field and it scares everything away so people are like complain about shit like that and it's just it's just funny to discuss and who's your co-hosts uh it's my best friend max he's uh yeah he's my best mate so he's uh he was injured he blew his knee out playing rugby oh my shot so then we were sitting at home the press together and we were sitting at home the press together and we were just like, why not? And why is it called the Milkman podcast?

I don't know. Okay. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. All right. I don't really think. Congratulations.

I see that you're the new face of venom. Oh, yeah. The face. The face. It feels like you are the guy. Look at you. And look at that mullet, by the way. Yeah.

Yeah, I should have probably got that trimmed before the photo. Yeah, it looks fantastic. I don't know. By the way, with all due respect, I don't know who the other two guys are. exactly who you are. The guys at Venom, they're awesome. They're awesome. Really, you know, even in this long layoff,

they've been supporting me and helped me, so that's sick. That's been, like, really helpful, obviously. I bet, yeah. I did kind of bury the lead because I said, like, the great mystery was solved of where you've been

and your comeback and whatnot. I should have started with what happened. I heard something crazy happened at Nando's recently to you. What happened at Nandoz? I saw on the news that you nearly sharded in Nandoz and that you're... Why's the water all the way up to my bollocks in these toilets? That's like a North American thing. Wait, wait, wait.

Was that in North American, Nandoz? Yeah, yeah. So I went to... I was in Gatano, the corner, not corner, I went to... In Quebec? Yeah, I went to watch my teammate Louis Sanadakis fight. He won on. samurai but they had a nando's and i was like oh sweet like i'm gonna get nando before the fight and

i'm gonna you know be great and it was not great it was not great the toilet situation was not great and uh but he won his fight so yeah here's what it is i had no idea they had nando's in quebec i i knew they had one in toronto well technically it's not quebec it's across the war in ottawa okay wow look at you look at you Canadian connoisseur huh I know I know. Yeah. And so it's nothing like the UK one? No.

No. No, nowhere near, no, no. You don't have the peri, pari, all that stuff, or is it just not the same type of quality? I just don't have the same Genese. Yeah.

You go in, everyone's all confused, like, oh, what do I do? What do I have to do? You know, they don't get it. Is this when someone was talking about you looking like a UFC fighter?

No. No, no. No. What is that? You said you overheard someone in Toronto saying that you look like a UFC fighter and it was, this is the one. Yes, this is the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was actually, though, so that wasn't in Toronto. That was in Montreal. I was at the spa, like getting changed. And they were definitely from Toronto that, you know, that weird slang? Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah, Ontario, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they were like, man's looking like.

like that UFC guy, no? And I was just like, what? He's talking about you right next to you. Yeah, well, they were like, I've got big ears, I can hear me. Yeah, okay. And I was just like, what the hell? But yeah, they were some crazy characters. Did you tell them I am that guy?

No, no, I don't feel they were interested, to be honest. Is this before or after they beat you up on the streets of Montreal for not speaking French? Oh, man. Like, you know, I've never been stopped. in Montreal for being in the UFC. But I've been stopped like multiple times for this. People don't even know I'm in the UFC. Guy just stopped me like at Walmart.

He's like, you're the guy they got beat up, right? And I was like, well, yeah, kind of. Not really. Like that didn't happen. He was like, oh, okay, okay. But yeah, I upset some guys. So you really, you just said it as a joke on the YouTube channel and it's spread, like wildfire.

Yeah. And like, people were sending me message that I, don't know and they all had like uh they all kind of had names like jean pierre yes i know these characters i know these characters very well they were very upset they were very upset and i was they said i'm causing divide between the english and the french and all this i was like i was like well it was a french guy i did it but you know he's my friend so uh okay at the gym yeah yeah you you don't need me to tell you this but it's very tense it has always been very tense between the French and the English over there.

And so any English person who is even making a joke about this, they will think that you are trying to paint them in a bad light. Yeah, it was quite funny. A guy sent me a whole essay basically calling me an asshole or whatnot. And I need to apologize. And I couldn't help it. So I just responded to him, thank you so much for show and respect and writing in English. Ah, oh my God.

He's just like that. That must have pissed him the hell off. They hate that. Yeah, I know, but I, you know, well, I know a little history. I know a little history. I heard the great Ptzee Carroll even sent you a message checking in on you. He fell for it too. Yeah.

Ouch, my mom fell for her. She was like, what happened? And I was like, ma, what? Like, you know me. Like, it's a joke. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Was it uncomfortable at the gym when this was going on?

No, like, everyone got it. Everyone got it. But everyone was, like, asking a few guys. that weren't like you know you have the casual guys that come train they're like oh what happened man and i was like it's a joke and then what about the move to 55 that that got people talking too do you know what actually happened somebody some dickhead some dickhead some troll because uh he was like you know what you're fucking irrelevant or something and i was just like you know what we'll see who's fucking irrelevant we'll see so i made some fake news and then everyone's talking about me

again. Yeah. I mean, multiple times. Yeah. Yeah, you never know. Maybe one day. You never know. It is crazy. I mean, if you ever wanted any kind of indication as to whether or not you're relevant, you joke about getting beaten up, it becomes like New York Post News. You joke about moving up to lightweight. By the way, I fell for that one, too. I think I wrote you about that one. Yeah. I mean, maybe one day, but now it's not true. I saw you weigh in on AJ versus Jake. You think You think if he doesn't spark him in one round, the fix is in? Surely, right? Like, surely, surely.

Why, why, why? Why can't Jake move around, chuck and jive? Chuck and jive. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's why I said actually, that's why I said in the thing second route, because it might take him two rounds to find him if he runs away. But like, I don't know, you're working part of the show. You probably know more than me.

but like there's no script there's no script there's no fix no I believe no I believe it and I think AJ will you know

like he should win I mean let's be real he should he should knock him out yeah like also I know

he gets a lot of flack but he's a great heavy weight of this era you know people give him a lot but

whatever you think he's he's one of the greats of this this decade right so the

I don't know I don't know Chavonda Davis the AJ that doesn't make sense. Well, I mean, he got in trouble and he looked for the next big name. Yeah. What's the date of that one? It's a few weeks, right? December 19th. I feel like it can't happen. It can't happen. Oh, you don't think the fight's going to happen. Surely. Like, surely like there's someone,

someone will be liable, right? Like, no, I know money fixes all problems, but like, what commission is going to sanction that? The Florida Commission. They've already sanctioned it. yeah that's okay will you watch it yeah I'll watch it of course I'll watch it yeah

yeah I'm not I'm not like a hater on Jake pool or anything sure sure I don't I appreciate what he's doing and all that stuff I think you know

I think he can box too it's just there's like being able to box it at a big level and then box AJ and you're also not a heavyweight speaking of heavyweight you know something that kind of irked me

I've seen all the success that Fabio Wardley has had as of late and I see Ipswich Town giving him all kinds of love what about the guy that put Ipswich Town on the map I feel like you were you were you were reping Ipswich Town long before Wardley was yeah no I know he's great Fabio is great but you know what it is so the club go ahead so I went for a dinner with him and I think they were you know they were going to plan to do kind of the same thing but there were a bunch of like back then it was

kind of all the owners were like old boys. I don't know if that makes it. They're just an older boy. Sure, sure. And they were asking me what I do. And they were like, oh, so you box, right? And I was like, no, no. And I do this.

And then it kind of was like, oh, you do the cage fight. And I could see their, like, their demeanor changed immediately. They went from, like, we've got this, you know, the noble boxer is going to come out and do all these. Now on the cage fire. So I get it. I get it. It would be nice to have the back. But, you know, they've had me do things and interviews and obviously nothing like him.

But, you know, I'm not but hurt about it. I get it. I want to see you at Portman Road. I want to see you fight there. Actually, they're playing right now. Oh, they are? Wow. Sorry for taking you away.

What are they now? League one or two? What are they? Nah, I just, I know their championship. Thank you, too. Struggling a bit there, right? Not exactly in the playoff hunt at the moment. yeah it's like on the door but like i don't know it's not um after getting relegated you expect

like a big sure you know big season after that but no it's not was that disappointing what the relegation well that it was one and done no it wasn't a surprise after like back-to-back promotions it's kind of like yeah what do you expect um and now there's a lot of guys left so there's a whole new team yeah we've we've had the benefit of having the great um Mari Hutchinson on Forrest. Yeah. Yeah, he's good. Yeah, he's a nice young player.

I like him a lot. What about poor Tom? What do you think about what's happened to him all the flak that he's received? It's such a tough one because I really feel for him and I don't think he definitely didn't quit and he's definitely not like, you know, whatever. I don't think he's lying about his situation. But the more you put it out there and the people don't want to hear it, people don't care, right? this is what I know, obviously my situation is quite different, but I know when I've

being injured, if I put a video out there, like doing rehab work, saying what I'm planning to come back or something, people don't give a shit. They just hear, people just hear you whining. You say, oh, I'm hoping to fight soon, but I'm still injured. People don't, like, the fan, most fans don't go, like, hope you're okay, like, you know, see you soon. They'll be like, fucking inactive bump you know so I think that's just the kind of the shit we're dealing with these days we're with like young fans maybe maybe you know you know the guys of the the faceless Twitter accounts those guys yes yes yes but what about the eyepokes is there anything that can be done yeah I think Dana said it the other day like um like harsher harsher

punishments you know but yeah yeah a be the fucking BBC asked me to do an interview on eye pokes, and they said, regarding when I fought Nick Lentz, because I poked him in the eye and he had it, I accidentally poked him in the eye and he had an injury after. How's it you fuckers? Wow. Did you do the interview? No, I don't fuck off. But I just, you know, I remember actually, I remember in the fight, I was faking a jab, and I jabbed that side of his head so many times.

Not to bring up, I've not got a bit, but I remember in the third round, I poked him the eye. And I remember backing off for a second because I thought, oh, the ref's going to, the ref's going to pop him because that was, you know, I got, I definitely got him there. I was all shit. So I remember, like, lowering the tempo to be like, right, going to stop the action there. But yeah, whatever. And I do remember having double unders on the fence, like double underhook on the fence, trying to work a trip. And I remember this happening in my eyes as we broke, because I was like, I was strong here. And there's something I couldn't see that at the break. And we broke away and everything was a bit hazy.

They called me all these names and out, I'm dirty and all this. I was like, man, accident and intentional, but whatever. That's the old news, right? Who cares? Oh, no, I understand. Is that why you were wearing goggles after the fight? You have to be safe out there, you know? It's tough because it is hard when you're faking jabs out there.

And I don't necessarily think people are doing it intentionally. But then there are fighters that they have a higher frequency of fouls and others, right? I still think you're the most underrated tweeter in combat sports. I mean, it's just bangor after bang. Sometimes if I just need like a laugh for a few minutes, I literally just go to your page and scroll down and laugh. That means a lot. I'm glad it brings happiness to see.

Oh, it does. It does. Not a lot of Tesco talk these days. Are you off the bandwagon? You know, you know what? Since the meal deal, I don't even know what the prices are now, but I'm like, I don't even, I don't eat that shit. Why? Since being an idiot, I've kind of like cleaned my game up a little bit.

Oh. I wasn't living on the edge before, but like, I'm definitely a lot more focus, healthier on things. Is this Pacer's doing? No, no, no. Pacer had me on KFC and kebabs. Really? It looks like he's on a lot more than that. Yeah, you can't get at the, at the shop. So for this fight, you're training in Montreal or in the UK?

Yeah, Montreal, Montreal. Okay. Are you in Montreal right now? Yes, I am so. Okay. Hey, I see Trafford over there. Yeah. The man.

It's the big guy. The man. I like that you have him over there too. He's everywhere. He's everywhere. I love it. And what's the vibe in Montreal right now? Amon's doing great.

A bit of a resurgence in the Montreal fight scene. So yeah, Amon's doing great. Mandel and Lalo just got signs to the UFC. Rat garbage. Louis, like I said, I cornered Louis and Gat. I didn't corner. I was in the corner while he was warming up, but they had a weird rule you could have two people in the corner.

So I was about to come corner, and then I just went and took my seat because it was free. But, yeah, I went out to support Louis Sanda that because he's always one of my main training partners. That guy's a killer, too. I like the best. Okay, I like this. This is obviously a scene that's near and dear to my heart.

And finally, Arnold, before I let you go, did you hear the great news? they were telling me this before the show. I don't know if it was because you were coming on, but did you hear that the cast of Peep Show is reuniting on the great, what is it, the Great British Bakeoff? Is that what it is? Yeah.

The Great British Bake Off. Have you heard of this? No. No. You seem skeptical of it. No, you know what? The Peepshaw had the heads of funny skits and stuff, but I haven't watched it in years.

I know it's long gone. They're reuniting. That's on the bakeoff? You're here. You're not. excited about it was a holiday special holiday special i'd love to go on the bake off i can't bake for shit but like it would be pretty good you watch it no i don't to be honest i don't watch any shit like that like i don't watch nothing like that what do you watch um at a minute i'm watching myami

voice wow like the old one or the new one the old one the tv show yeah yeah they did a movie remake I don't know if you were like watching it in parts or something. I'm watching the old one. With Don Johnson. Don Johnson, yeah. Why? Why are you watching that? I don't know.

I was just like my dad always, my dad always jokes it. He looks like a young Don Johnson. And I was like, who the fuck is Don Johnson? And I saw a Miami Vice. So I just started watching it. Are you enjoying it? Loving it. The only thing is, it's like everyone you watch, there's like no plot.

There's no continuation of the story. It's just the 80s. It's nice. It's fun. relaxed the fashion is tremendous I know the rolled up

the rolled up jackets and stuff it's the dream yeah yeah I wonder if the boy imagine

I wonder if the plots like hold up in 2025 so so okay and by the way what's this tattoo on your

left hand over here did you get married yeah yeah I did I just you got married yeah last year

Yeah, last year, actually, yeah, last year. Congratulations. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, it's been that long since we've talked, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I did a Vegas wedding with Elvis. It's pretty cool. Oh, my gosh.

And so what does the tattoo represent? So I refuse to wear a ring. I'm scared of it. Like, I hate the feeling. I've seen too many videos of, like, de-gloving, and I'll lose it. And then we're in Vegas. I was just like, I'm not going to wear a ring. So my wife's like, we would get my initials that.

yeah okay okay but the worst thing as soon as i come to the gym oh people sort of see and they said see for cuck oh my god that's not nice yeah yeah but it is what it is i don't give a shit yeah was it a spontaneous thing yeah yeah the wedding or the tau uh the wedding no so after the giga fight i went on a two week um trip in italy when my wife's her family from italy and I proposed in Venice and then because we both live like, well, she's Canadian, I'm English, all our family are in different places, we always just say we'll do like a kind of elopement thing in Vegas and then I went out there to do some rehab on my shoulder and it just seemed convenient

to do it then and there. So your family wasn't there? No, unfortunately, so. But they get it. Were they okay with it? some people not so much but yeah how did mom feel about it she's got mom so my mom likes she'd love to be there yeah she also loves she likes to be on the casinos as well so I think she won an excuse to come to Vegas

your mom's a legend will she be at this fight yeah of course course yeah still scrapping in there my mom no I don't know recently she's kind of chilled out a little bit pacer will be in your corner No, no, no, I don't think so, no. So I've had to, just because usually, like, me and Farras, like work together, we drill together the warm up,

but obviously the opponent is kind of very unique style, different stature, so I had to bring someone in. And my dad, bless his heart, he's not making, you know, he needs to lose a bit of weight, and he's also, he can't really move, like Jean very well. Okay, was this a tough call? Yeah, I just don't want him to think it's like a personal thing because, I mean, I love having my dad there, but yeah, just, yeah, I'm having my teammate Louie in and he does a great job of emulating the guy, so yeah, yeah, it makes sense. Will this be the first time he's on your corner? No, no, so it actually happened by accident in the UFC having my dad in the corner. my manager got stuck he he was on his uh he was on like his anniversary on holiday and he was

meant to fly in to the fight week but he had a there was like a storm where he was he was in spain there was like a storm and he couldn't fly uh all the flights were grounded that day so he couldn't make it to the fight and then uh he's a baldy too so we had to substitute a baldy with a baldy and we put my dad in the corner okay wow i didn't realize it happened that way yeah and i just I just remember because it was the Mads of an L-fight. Okay. Dana shook my dad's hand and was like, good luck, coach. And my dad just started laughing and trying to explain to me.

He's like, no, I'm his dad. I'm not, you know. I was like, dad, shout out. Listen, just go. Yeah. He's a legend in his own right. And love the merch. And I want to urge everyone to check it out.

Mustache Mania? Oh, yeah. Shout out. Look at that. Tremendous. Yeah. That's actually we got that last year. Oh, wow.

But whereas I kind of depressed and injured and annoyed, we just kind of left it and didn't do anything with it. So it ended up being left here. Where can people get the merch? All rightymerch.com.c.c.c.c.c. Yes. Just the O. I love it. I love it.

Well, welcome back. It's great to have you back. I hope everything goes well in this training camp, healthy, smooth sailing. And then how about the honor of being on the first Paramount Plus card? This is a big deal. Yeah. Yeah, it's really cool. I was, you know, I was hoping that I was really frustrated. I wanted to get a fight January 2025, oh, in 2025 at any point. That was my goal. It was like, I want to be back. 2025. I don't care when. But, you know, it is what it is. Things happen for a reason. And yeah, that's fine. It's a great fight against a really tough opponent, a very unique style on a banger of a card. So it's going to be good. I love it. Well, welcome back, Arnold. Thank you so much.

to have you on, wish you all the best, and can't wait to see you back in there. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate it. There he is. The great Arnold Allen, the almighty one. What a guy. So great to have him back. And he returns in a little less than two months time. That card rapidly approaching. I know there's a lot of talk about the big break between December 13th and January 24th, but there will be a lot to chew on as we get ready for that first Paramount Plus card. And we have just heard exclusive to our program as first reported by Arnair Jordan, they are referring. referring to them still as UFC numbered events. It's going to be interesting to see how they distinguish them, if they still stack the deck on those.

They're all going to be on Paramount Plus. No, tonight, no, not tonight. This Saturday is the final. This Saturday, by the way, if you take a step back, could be the final time that an MMA event is behind a pay-per-view paywall. It also could be, if you're a combat sports fan, it could be the final time you ever buy a pay-per-view. I know boxing is still dabbling in the pay-per-view world, DeZone doing their thing. But like, we are moot. UFC was the last mainstay.

WW Off it. If you're an AEW fan, you're still doing it. But this could conceivably be the end of pay-per-view for you as a consumer. It's a big deal. UFC 323. This is the way it ends. 200 events since UFC 123. Who headlined that event in York, Rick?

Do you remember? Do you remember? I was in the building for it. How about that? Yeah, that's why I asked you. What do you think? What do you think? I think. I think I think I think I. Think I was. I mean, Auburn Hills. You talk about it every time. Rampage Jackson, Leotamichita. That's not what I talk about. It's Edson Barbosa, the light kick. Curtain Jerker. Yes.

Unaired. There was a time you didn't watch the fights that were happening in the arena. Lulo? Mike Lullo? Wow. Look at you. Shut up. Of course, I remember. I think he was like a gym teacher or something. He was a Chicago area, like, guy with a day job. I forget what it was. Maybe, yeah, teacher sounds right.

And he just got his legs chewed the fuck up by Hanson Barbosa. Imagine that's like, you know, I'm kind of a fighter. Oh, I step in there with this unknown Brazilian guy making his debut, death, leg kick death. It was also, that was the same card where Jose got his belt, yada, yada. Who would have thought? Who would have thought some 200 events later? It would be the end of the pay-per-view run. Wow.

What a day it's been, guys. But still a little bit more to go. There are a bunch of super chats, I do believe. Frankie, do we have them? Yes. We do. I want to thank everyone who's joining us on this lovely Tuesday. A lot of viewers here live, we appreciate you all very much.

And I see a ton of super chats. So let's get into it. The first one I believe is to bully, Bully, Spinal. who'll be espinal i'm thinking that's it hmm i wonder that pirate flag does give me some kind of pause but all right nevertheless

hi ariel you're the man keep up the good work oh thanks appreciate that luke ass now are we supposed to are we supposed to give them a shout out or what like what's when they have names like lucaus all right fine fine all right anyone collect tcg as a kid before you ask trading card games uh ex-pokemone would you be rich now if kept pristine do you play anything

now, if so what? Second question, that's actually the third. Second question, who would admit to saying on a mic, Patty wouldn't fight for a title? Yeah. Do you collect those or did you collect those? I did as a kid. I collected, I actually still casually collect a Magic the gathering and Lorcahanna, which is like the Disney one. Okay. But I think Connor used to do Yu-Gi-Oh, yeah, big into Yu-Gi-O and Pokemon. Had all five pieces of Exodia. Wow. Sold it for like 1,100, my full set of Uguo cards in like 2007. Who knows what they'd be worth now?

I saw a picture on Logan Paul's IG story where he had like a mountain of cards, Pokemon cards, and he said this is what we do backstage, we rip packs. You think like the big wrestlers are like opening up Pokemon cards backstage?

Depends on who he means by we. Yeah. Probably. Who the F is we. Like maybe like a Xavier Woods type, you know. I love Pokemon cards, man. Still, like still to this day? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's still a massive... Adults, too?

Especially adults. Do you guys have, like, a good collection, though? Like, if I did keep mine pristine, they'd be worth a lot at this point. I don't like Charzard and all that shit, but it wasn't first edition or nothing. Oh, I had all those... That's my goat. Wow, what a hot take, bro. It's ham, man.

It had this little card of the black car around. Gregor's my goat. Hmm. I don't get that. It's just a, you know, it's a very popular Pokemon. McGregor? Charzard. You are doing the equivalent of being the casual. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, excuse me.

What else? What else? It has to be last because Justin v. Patty is going to be an absolute war, and you end the night on a high. There's a zero percent chance that fight is boring, but there's a decent chance that Kayla versus Amanda. Caleb versus Amanda won't be boring, I guarantee you, and what if it ends in like an eye poker some nonsense like that?

Huh? Huh? Oh, is that what we're doing now? We're just putting on fights that we think are going to be good at the end. So, like, let's just put any fight. Let's put, I don't know, let's put, like, this weekend, let's put paint halbit against Henry Sehoud on last night. Fight is a fight.

I get it. I get it, Ki-O-G. I get it. Finally, finally, it's so long. It is long. It was like a lightball. It just went off. It's so long.

I actually asked Rick, though, when the whole Bo-Nichael thing was happening. I was like, what? So now we're just going to put Islam on the prelims. And Rick was like, yes, I don't care. Put it anywhere. No. I don't care. There's prestige.

prestige in the end-disputed title going last. I'm sorry. I have a lot of beef with the interim title. The order I'm not as concerned about, but the interim title, stupid. And please, don't confuse like this guy opening the card or this guy in the, I don't care about that. Yeah, those are different. I'm talking about the belt being last. Yeah. Has to be. What else, Frankie? What else? I asked Pizzi about Katie Taylor versus Ronda a while ago, and he took an Irish poop on it. Wow. I didn't know that was the thing. Yeah. Not very nice of Pizzi. What else, Frankie? What else? Armin gets winner of Holloway versus Charles next. No, no.

Armand should be fighting for the belt necks. Charles and Holloway are fighting for like the fun stuff. They're not in the title picture at the moment. They're out doing their own thing. God bless. You know how I feel about the BMF title. I hate that too. The champion of the division should be the BMF champion.

Like that's literally what it means to be the champion of a division. Besides the point. If Armin goes after that belt, I question his sanity. What? No, you should be, you can make a case that he's the best lightweight in the world. He's the uncrown champ of the lightweight division. So please no, absolutely not. No, thank you.

What else, Frankie? If Tom wins the rematch, do you think the winner of Alex Jones will fight him? I hope so, but like there's just a lot of ifs there, right? Does Alex Jones even happen? I don't mean Alex Jones. I mean Alex slash Jones. That is a weird one. Alex Jones, you know?

Does it happen? What else? What else? Does he, you know, oh, I was just like doing the scenario. It's like, does he fight surreal? When does that fight happen? You know, like there's just a lot of ifs there. What else, Frankie?

What else? Yeah, no, no. Okay, all right. What if Tom's eye problems persist to the point where the UFC strips him of the belt and puts vacant belt on the line between Jones and Pereira at the White House? Oh, my God. Could you imagine that? Yes.

Oh, if you're asking me, could I actually imagine that? I could actually imagine. Oh, what a kick to the nuts that would be. And it would be pretty heinous, but I can't imagine. it. If Tom does not come back in the first half of the year, I could see them very much How does Surreal not get the shot? Because they have Alex. Sorry, buddy. They have Alex and John lined up, man, for the White House. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. If we go to Tom in April and they're just like, hey man, how are we feeling? It's just like, still not cleared, don't know

when I will be cleared. I could absolutely see it happen. Could absolutely see it happening. That would be wild. But yes. Yes, yes, but it would be wild. What else, Frankie? What else? Hopefully we don't get to that point. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Oh, stop it.

Keep going. Could it agree with New York, Rick Moore? Katie should want the biggest fight that will generate the most money. Doesn't hurt that it'll be the easiest. Yes, yes, of course. I wasn't talking about it from Katie's perspective or her management perspective or matchroom's perspective. I was just saying what I would like to see.

That's all. And also, there is a difference between Katie Taylor and Anthony Jobs. Joshua. Katie Taylor is an undisputed champion. Anthony Joshua is not. So there is a little bit of a difference there. What else, Frankie? What else? And lastly, G.C., can you flip your calendar to December, please? Oh. Great call. Shout to the dose brought calendar. Hell yeah. I can't believe he noticed that. What are we got? Oh, last one. Oh, we got GSP Habib. Yuri Alex Ali Foreman. Shout out. Got my 2026, Dosep. calendar on the way.

By the way, I'm seeing a ton more. What are you talking about lastly? Did we just skip a bunch of them? Frank has decided to take into the control of Super Chats and they decided what will and will not be shown on the screen. Okay, I'm going to go from the bottom up. Executive editor. If Henry wins, will he call for a title fight?

What's wrong with that question? What's controversial about that question? Him and Jordan are bickering now. I didn't hear you. Oh. If Henry wins, will he call for a title fight? I guess, I mean, they're all getting title shots, right? Is he maybe comparing this to Usman?

Maybe, but I think it's a little bit different. I guess it's not, actually. It'd be more like losing streak, breaking it and getting a dub. It actually makes, if you compare the two, it actually makes it even that much crazier that one guy thinks he deserves a title shot. The difference is the one that he has in his hat is like, oh yeah, but I took a fight at 185 two years ago

and I went the distance with Hamzad. So that she kept for something. No, Henry did have the eye poke situation. By the way, I defended Henry in that one. Actually, I think quite, I defended them quite vociferously. And then we had Sonia Dong even on the show that day, or maybe the next day. I was thinking about something those two guys said in that clip. And one thing that I found funny was, like, them calling me a glorified fan as some kind of an insult.

and I find that funny because you guys make money because of the fans. Like, why is being a fan, if that was true, and of course I'm a fan, of course I love the sport, of course I watch it and was once just a fan who wanted to do this for a living, but why is it an insult to be a fan? And why is it an insult to have like that sort of fandom for the sport? And why, like, to try to diminish me and discredit me, why would it go to. to like, oh, you're just a glorified fan. It's just a very weird thing to say.

But that's their constant trash talk. It's always like misspeaking and missteps and whatnot. I mean, the funniest thing is they're on their show telling fighters not to go on my show. They're telling fighters. Why would you go on his show? Like, that's like some knock or shot at me when, as you can see, just look at the channel, more often than not, the videos that, the videos that.

do the best are the non-guest videos. So even if they were successful in convincing everyone to knock on the job, I think we'd be fine. I don't want that. I love the interviews. Even if it means lesser, like, I enjoy this very, I love these interviews, love them. I get up for them. I get excited. And obviously, there's different levels to them. But you're not like, you want to believe that I'm dependent, that we sink or swim based on the fact that we sink or swim based on the fact that gets interviews or not. That's not true. The most successful show I ever did was D.C. and

there were no interviews on that show. It's nonsense. So glorified fan, nonsense. We're reliant on the interviews. Nonsense. Not, you know, not credential. Nonsense. Don't have, you know,

don't have the journalistic chops. Nonsense. Discrediting us. Nonsense. Nonsense. Nonsense. Nonsense. Everyone.

Stop chatting shit. Um, okay, someone says, chef nerdman, please answer. Was everyone wrong about Patty? I sure as hell wasn't. We were talking to Patty and talking about how great he was long before the UFC was looking in his direction and all of you knew who he was. And even when he got to the UFC, I never subscribed to the notion that Patty is just an entertainer or an influencer or any kind of nonsense out there. Patty's very good and he's getting better too. The version of Patty that we saw in April was the best version we've ever seen

of him. He's strong. He's athletic. He's great on the mat. He's a great grappler and jiu-jitsu practitioner. Striking has come a long way. So I don't know who the Wii is there. Who the fuck is we?

I was wrong about Patty. I didn't think he'd be able to beat most of the guys he beat. I don't think he'll beat Justin Gachie. I'll be wrong again probably. I listen. I don't think beat Jared Gordon. No, he didn't beat Jared Gordon, but I didn't think he'd beat Michael Chandler

and especially not in the way he did, and I don't think he'll beat Justin Gaichi, and then he's going to go out there and do it. So yeah, I've been a doubter for Patty. He still am. And there are weirdos who think that that's like some kind of personal shot. No, I'm just saying who I thought won the fight. And by the way, again, I thought that he should be in the mix

to fight for the belt. And I have no problem with Patty fighting for the interim belt. It's the Gaichie component that I feel like is a little bit off here. It should be Patty v. Armand. That's the fight. Here's Slept Rich. Why you don't get Hamzad, he's not with Ali. We've had Hamzad on before during this whole like Ali nonsense. And after he won, I did speak to his manager about having him on and it didn't work out, but, you know, there's no real reason. Once the last time we had Hamzad on? We had him with Darren Till one time. We had him after that as well. We had him outside the, uh,

The chicken restaurant. The chicken place. I think that was before Darren Till. No, no, no. We had to pre-tape. I think that was after it. We did,

we had one with him after him and Till together. We had one more after that as well. Yeah, so. Believe it or not, some guys are hard to get. I stand as witness and agree with Joey V.

Vegas, not for everyone, sadly. Who's Joey V? I read the next cool. Just scroll up to the two super chats above that that Frank did not approve. Okay. From Joey V. was good friends with Killishaw late 22, 24.

OG Spotify Live days. Shout out Poppy Live, my BFF. Hell yeah. We were all in Vegas for Sphere Card, and drunk Killishaw crashed out hard and turned his back on everyone. Yes. Okay.

Oh, there it is. All right. All right. Okay, wow. There it is. Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Watch a vid of Ben Ascreen back in the gym

after almost dying while Tom talks about not being able to lift slash cardio to truly be inspired. everything's different. You can't be comparing these two things. Guara says, Cornett is saying he won't do your show. No, I mean, I never asked Cornett to do my show. Someone asked me, would you like to have him on?

And I said, I'd love nothing more. I'm a big fan. I enjoy his commentary. I enjoy his work. I enjoy his place in the business. I don't know if he has any he with me. I saw his co-host say that, what do he say? Like, we're over here.

I don't know if that means like we're just doing our thing over here or we're big time here like the term over the pro wrestling term over but I don't know no heat on me I don't know I've never asked him to come on because I don't even know how to get to him to be honest but if they don't want to do the show no problem it's all good doesn't change how I feel the respect that I have I think he does a great job with this podcast I'm not looking for any beef or any heat with the great Jim Cornett.

No thank you. I think we got it all, right? Do we get it all? Who's to check? It's hard, you know, because now I'm like sifting through what did, Armine gets the one, no, we did that one. Okay, I think we got it all. Oh, it has to be, no, I think we got it all.

Hey, Ariel, you're, no, no, that was it. Okay, well, thank you to everyone who sent in the super chats. Let me just answer like a couple more here, I feel like we didn't get to as many as possible on the OTN front. On the nose. Good day to you, Ariel, and the crew from Cole. Ariel, would you ever consider making another

We didn't start the fire song on the show? Do you guys remember that one? The M.MA hours on fire. Where does that ring versus your odd-langing sign? That was a great. That was a great. Addison loved editing that. So I think he's free to edit another one this year.

Man, what was the song again? How did it start? It was like, what a year it's been in MMA, nah, na, nah, nah. I mean, I would sit down and write that, and it would just go, it would just like all come out. It would take me five minutes to write that. It would just flow out. It was crazy, crazy, crazy. Oil beef hooked.

Hey, guys, true or false question, UFC 325 will be the retirement man. match for the following Aussie fighters, Volk, Whitaker, Krut, Tuyvasa. I say false to all. How about that? What does unblind rank mean? I don't know what that is. That's just crazy. What are we going to unblank? What does that mean? You get the things ahead of time and you just rank them. Not blind. You rank them, not blind. Question for G.C. Can you walk us through your real-time reaction to the tweet you were tagged in by King of 3PO last week. This is from Andrew G.

This is so crazy. We're choosing specific tweets from a week ago that I got tagged in. Do you know exactly what they're talking about? No. The one, the guy said something crazy and you said, why am I tagged in this? I mean, how many tweets have you actually said, why am I got, why my tagging? That I responded to me. That would have helped.

Yeah, real-time reaction. I was sitting here with Rick. Well, read the tweet. Read the tweet. I was like, what the fuck. Yeah, King of 3PO said, heaven will be great because I'll be able to see all my favorite fighters naked and sweaty in the son and it won't even be gay at Connor burke's hashtag UFC 322 completely just like that's a great one Lou yeah great one and then

and then it's an all-timer and then it's an all-timer I don't know why I'm the only one nobody else tagged and I said why the fuck am I tag in this and then I went on the guys I went on the guys account and it's like UFC guitar final prediction and then just like excited to see how UFC 322 shapes out and then you have pantosia and marab on three 23. Wow, that heavyweight fight was boring. Like, it's just all these normal tweets. It just came out of nowhere. I don't know what happened.

He felt like you would understand. He felt like you would get it. I guess. I guess. I mean, he still, he never answered me. He never answered me on why I was tagged. He didn't respond. How about this guy actually picking it up? This guy. No, for some reason, my response got a lot of traction. Okay. And then Ben Davis responded with crying emojis and King of 3PO.

responded to him, but not me, and says, The dude two cubicles over from me doesn't know this is what I think about at 10 a.m. Wow. That's inside knowledge. I appreciate that. King of 3PO is a little sucks. He's freaky dinky.

Need more Frank coming at you with a heavy hitting observation. I must say Frank's drink choices, especially tonic with espresso, and his love of shrimp cocky, any time of the day, officially makes Frank a national treasure. He must be protected at all costs. It's your wife's account? But for real,

that drink choice has had beachfront real estate in my head since I heard it. May I please get a meow? I actually don't have that one anymore. Wow. The last Irish bender. Hey, Ariel, love the show and watching you. Pizzi and the boys having the crack week in and week

out. I saw a recent video from Patrick Gavia. He does a great job. Montrealer that talks about Joe Rogan and how podcasts have replaced mainstream media as news sources for people nowadays. What responsibility do you think your podcasts and other podcasts have to give accurate and unbiased news to people so they are not misinformed? I mean, I take that very seriously. This is my CBS evening news. So I don't view it as podcast, mainstream media. I view us as mainstream combat media. And so yes, I don't come on here and tell you fake news, false news, misinformed news, whatever you want to call it. I take it very seriously.

and I take our track record very seriously. I do think that people are people, the days of people sitting down at 6 or 6.30 to watch the local news or the national news, you know, obviously they still get a lot of viewership, but as the younger generation is getting older, they're not consuming news the same way. They're listening to podcasts. They're consuming YouTube. The times they are changing, just like back in the day, They didn't have radios, and then they had radios, and then they had TVs, and then the

internet came along, and there were newspapers, and now newspapers are a little more, you know, obsolete, and people are reading their news online, and they're getting it via social media. There's a lot of things, and so it's up to you, the consumer, to understand who's real and who's not, who's informed and who's not, who's on the ball, and who's not. It's up to you to know who are, you could still find very good, trustworthy sources. You could also very easily find misinformed BS untrustworthy sources.

And not only that, I think you said the perfect thing, which is that media literacy is as important as ever. It is so important. Not only can you find untrustworthy sources, but you can be confused about what the intention of something is, right? Something may be for entertainment and not for news purposes, right?

I don't consider Joe Rogan like sitting around reacting to stuff a viable source of news coverage. Like that's not his lane. That's not his role. Whereas you may be learning about news items from that contrasted to the idea of like if you are talking about a report on something that you've done the work on and reported on on this show, that has a different purpose than just reacting to, hey, this fight was made.

Let's react to that. Media literacy is extremely important. And it is up to us to like educate ourselves and understand what the purpose of each of these different podcasts is, what the purpose of these. news sources is and who is reliable and who is not, as you said. Yeah, it's now more challenging than ever because there just used to be TV news, local news, national news, newspaper. You didn't have to sift through the BS and now you do.

And there are times where you see people getting influenced by fake news. I don't like that term, but there is not like, I see people like, I'll go to the gym and my trainer will be like, you see the Knicks are going to go after AD. I saw this on Instagram. I'm like, where did you see this? This is nonsense. You know, like there's pages that make up fake trades

and stuff like that. Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense. News and entertainment have also intertwined in a way that is very difficult to unpack now for some. Here's Ryan Goss. Hey, Ariel, Ryan from Swansea Wales here.

Shout out. My girlfriend knows nothing about MMA apart from dropping the occasional would you do it for Alex Perea anytime I don't want to do something. Anyway, she's studying journalism in uni, and we often have debates on what it means to be a journalist and also a good journalist. Just wondering if you could give her a little insight as to what this means to you

and what are the most important values and how it's important to report facts and not include feelings, keep up the great work. Well, first of all, shout out to Wales, been there once, loved it. Shout out to the Welsh national team, my guy, Brandon Johnson, also Stevie Cooper, Nico Williams. I'm kind of big on the Welsh football squad. In any event, it's something I take a lot of pride in. again, people like Camaro and Henry who know nothing about journalism, who know nothing about what it takes to be a journalism, kind of throw it around, and they think journalists are people

who just kissed their ass and talk to them before fights and write articles, whatever the hell they were talking about there. I went to school to become a journalist. I learned about journalism. I took all kinds of journalism classes. I took radio. I took writing. I took newspaper writing. I took video editing. I took local news reporting, all that and more. I actually went to school for this because I was very interested in it. I used to consume, you know, magazines and newspaper and watch the news as a kid. Like, I was taken by all of it. And, and I've said this before. Part of the reason why I love the name Walter, my middle son's name, is because of Walter Cronkite. And I would hear as a kid that Walter Cronkite was called and known as the most trusted man in

America. They refer to him as Uncle Walter. And if he said something, the world believed it, or at least the United States, because he was the anchor of the sea. CBS Evening News, and I love that, and I always strive for that, and I want people to feel the same way about me. I don't think I will ever have one tenth of career that Walter Cronkite had. He's one of the greatest of all time, so respected and loved, but I want you to believe that when I say something, it is the truth. Now, of course, I'm a human being. I have feelings, I have emotions. You kind of get that. But when I tell you news, it is not wrapped up in bias. and when I tell you news, when I tell you information, it is true.

And I dare you to point out one time in which I did either A or B, it's never happened. And it never will happen. And so that's why I was thinking about this yesterday with Kayla, she's saying like victim mentality. It's not victim mentality. I never say, woe is me. I never say, you know, cry for me. I never say, I never talk about the things that have happened. There are some things that you guys don't even know that have happened to me.

And the money I've lost, the opportunities that have lost. I've never, I've never come on here and talked about those things. I come on here to defend myself. I come on here to defend what I believe in. I come on here to defend journalism, to defend my track record, to defend our show. Because when they're talking about me, they're talking about all of us. They're trying to discredit all of us. They're talking about uncrown.

They're talking about everything we do here, the shows. They don't think so because they don't hold these things, these values, to the same high regard that I do. But I do. just like they hold wrestling to a high regard, just like they care about that and the nationals and the tournaments and the Olympics, I feel the same way about all of this. It's not just about sitting behind a microphone

and speaking into a camera over here on a Zoom stream and it's split screen and you're talking to your buddy about some nonsense, about some news that usually you get from shows like this one. It's not about that for me. It's about the responsibility of sitting here and being honest with the public,

bringing you the newsmakers talking about the news and quite frankly holding those in power in check I feel like we need to talk about the belt being diminished I feel like we need to talk about

the lack of enthusiasm when it comes to the promotion I think these things matter I think this is all part of covering a sport and there's other things that are part of covering a sport the gambling stuff the eye poke stuff the John Jones stuff the negotiations tell me once

that we have led you astray. It's never happened. So not qualified, no, overqualified. That's what I would say. And if you want to talk about HBO real sports and the Olympics and all these other things that I think add to the qualification, we could get into that as well. Just a couple more here. And so by the way, just to answer this young man's question, it's about being honest, it's about being truthful, it's about being unbiased, it's about underst, it's about understanding the responsibility. It's about taking pride in your work. It's about saying things and hoping that the people believe you because you have done your research. You have spoken to the people. You have asked around. You have done what a good journalist does. And that is do the

proper legwork before you actually report something. Not hope that it's right. Not ask one person and, you know, take a shot. And if it fails, like, yeah, you know, like, okay, on to the next one. know. Every time you say something, it better be right. And if you're not sure about that, just don't say it. Better to be, you know, right and fifth than first and wrong, in my opinion. Mark Traynor wants to know, Ariel, what's up with the Camaro goat talk? Where did this come from? Do fighters truly believe this? Do they not like GSP? I'm baffled by this. I mean, GSP is arguably the overall goat, let alone welterweight goat, and he had almost double the number of title defenses. some sense into people. I just think it's newer fans or I think it's people just jumping on

things or it's just like, hey, say something enough and it will be, you know, it will be a reality. It will come to fruition. But it's not the truth and it's not my personal feeling. Just look at the stats. You don't have to have had 20 fights in the UFC or an Olympic gold medal or be a national champion or anything like that. Just look at the actual stats. We went through them last week. It's not even like you could at this point we could debate like oh Islam or Habib or you know Anderson or Fade or like this one is is not one of those I'm sorry. Abey wants to know and it's not personal by the way. I've never had a negative thing to say about Camaro who has run any of that. In fact my relationship with Colby deteriorated after I thought

Colby's trash talk towards Camaro was inappropriate, unacceptable and borderlining on racist but whatever um obey wants to know when there's going to be a fight feast for nigerian food and he wants to know if you'll do it before the a j fight gc uh no okay why not takes time we're not going to have the time to do that okay nigerian food for anthony joshua yeah yeah not going to happen um let me find one last one okay here it is link one hey all i was there for the birth of most drops jazdivisius

who me james de juna to name a few every time i hear them i remember exactly where i was when their origin story was born it feels great almost as if i'm part of a niche community whenever they're played. So thank you all for creating this awesome environment. Suck it, man. And...

Shut up, booze. Suck it, man. And effing illegal... That's fucking illegal. ...are my personal faves. Also, Frankie, add me on Xbox Link 1. Oh, that's a shout-out.

I'll find you on GameSpy, brother. Can I just tell you something? There's nothing. As someone who grew up listening to Howard's... Stern and Dan Patrick and Jim Rome and all these guys. These inside jokes are everything to me, are my life. Like the add me on or the drops, the fact that we have reached a point where there's a community and that people care to this degree and that I go on the CBC YouTube page and I see that's effing illegal or it's tough or who's to check. Like the joy that you bring to me,

I can't even express it. It's hard for me to put it to words. So thank you all. Appreciate you all. My man. That one still like on the fence about it. No, that's the best. That's the best one. That's our favorite.

I'm still a little. My man. My man. You see, and you always exaggerate it. You always exaggerate. No, no. It's not driven. But.

My man. My man. Who was that too again? Devin. Yeah. You know that was, that was dripping with like passive aggressiveness, right? Yeah. Okay, okay.

I just want to make sure. By the way, speaking of Devin Haney, Bill Haney, his father, Going to be joining us in studio tomorrow. A lot going on in his world. Can't wait to hear what he has to say about Eddie Hearn's critique of his son's fight, where Devin goes from here, Tiafimo, Shakur, on and on it goes. Chris Bungar, the Pride of Scotland, who just had a big win in Cage Warriors, also dabbles in the world of pro wrestling.

He, too, is going to join us in studio tomorrow. So 2, 2, 2, count them 2 in studio guests. Malcolm Wellmaker in his first chat, at least with us, since the loss to Ethan Ewing, He will join us tomorrow on the program And we'll have one other guests At least one other guests Who will be stopping by with some news More on him tomorrow

So we'll leave it at that for now Another great show has come and gone A great show tomorrow But it is time Please stop Begging it It's the only thing I've ever asked you not to do To say goodbye

Time to say goodbye You know that song is about Old Hore 1. Is that true? Yes. Andrea Bocelli? It's about saying goodbye to someone who's about to go to war. Okay. It's about like the emotions that you feel.

You can do closing time. You don't have to go home. Closing time. Sing, baby, it's cold outside. Oh, Jesus. Oh, the weather outside is frightening. Is that not it? That one's cold.

Stop. I really can't say. Maybe it's cold outside. abort i have to go away baby it's cold out there what's in this drink no no no no that actually is no that actually is but no you don't sing that song oh that's right that's right that's right is that in the song oh yeah frankie frankie you know this from a jewish composer did you see uh did we talk about this on air gougoo dolls tiny table tiny des tiny des we talked about it last week we did on the show yes sir oh it was great

And I'll give up forever. Did you ever see them playing in Buffalo on July 4th in the rain? I did see that. It's one of the all-time great. Good friends sent it to me. Oh, yeah. Thank you, Frankie. My man.

Yes. Well, it's been a great day, guys. Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by. Thank you very much to the great Tom Aspinall. Get well soon. Thank you very much to Sugar Sean O'Malley. Much love to him. And of course, welcome back and thank you to the one and only Arnold Allen.

Thanks to you. thanks to them back tomorrow's same time place till they say peace i'm out here