The Ariel Helwani Show - Too many new UFC champs? UFC Vegas 112 & PFL Lyon previews, P4P finales, more

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

The Boys in the Back submit their final show of the year, starting with some news and notes, including Kron Gracie being forced out of his VFL fight (02:49) and Islam Makhachev defending a potential Kamaru Usman title shot (04:04).After a conversation about the massive amount of turnover for UFC champions in 2025 (22:42), the Boys preview UFC Vegas 112 (41:18) and PFL Lyon (1:14:39), before touching on John Cena's retirement match (1:25:45) and making picks (1:35:53).The Boys deliver their P4P lists of finales (1:40:48), then answer your voicemails (2:05:22) and Super Chats (3:00:47).

But boys in the back. Boys, boys, boys, boys, boys. What is good, and welcome in to the very last Boys in the Back of 2025. It's a little bittersweet. It's a little bittersweet, you know, looking to, you know, maybe a little break. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, but also going to miss getting to do this and missing all these beautiful faces watching us. I am one of your hosts of the Boys in the Back, Connor Brooks. join alongside me as always

Mr. New York, Rick. How we feeling, man? Last show of the year. Bittersweet, as you said, looking forward to having a little bit of time off, although that doesn't feel like it's around the corner just yet because we've got still a lot of things to do

for the shows, but also going to miss this. Like, we put in a good amount of work this year. Who the fuck is we? Including Frank, including everybody in the back, for this show, and it will be bittersweet

to not be doing this for a bit. Frank, how are we doing back there, man? You know, I'm doing great, man. Got a tonic espresso after lunch, feeling the vibes, feeling great, thanks for asking. No better way to digest a slop bowl than a nice espresso tonic.

You're damn right. Can you imagine it right now for yourself? We're back to Chaddy Frank. Like before, it was like, Chaddy Frank made his debut. Look, man, you're just telling me to shut up. Then it went to like, I'm going to give you nothing, Frank.

Like, yeah, I'm good, man. And now it's back to Shadda. Now we're getting the coffee order and everything that you ate for lunch and breakfast and all of that. 47th episode of the year, of The Boys in the Back. Confirmed by Mysterious Frank. He kicked it off with, we've done 49. This is actually going to be our 50th episode. I was like, wow, this is huge.

50 episodes in a year. And then he comes back 10 minutes later. And he's like, actually, we've only done 46. So this will be 47. 47's still pretty strong. 47 pound for pound list. Out of everything, I think that is the most impressive of all of this. Yes, probably.

47 pound-for-pound list, and we have one more today. Finallies, in honor of our finale, in honor of the UFC's finale, in honor of John Sina's finale. Pound-for-pound finale. What does that mean? TV? It's bored. Who knows? Movies, theatrical releases, music, you're just going to have to tune in to find out.

We'll also talk about John Sina's final match briefly, what we can talk about, you know? We're not raw every week, guys We're not tuning into Smackdown on Friday night But I feel like you've been tuning into more wrestling lately though Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's just more than none. Yeah, exactly. That's the only thing there.

We'll talk about that. We'll talk about PFL Leon, two title fights on that one. We'll talk about UFC Apex 112. Plus, if you saw the thumbnail, are there too many new champions in the UFC? We'll talk about all that, but we've got to get in some news and notes off the top. First and foremost, Crone Gracie, who sat right here just a few days ago, interviewing before his VFL fight,

featherweight championship bout over at VFL, has been called off. Last night, we got some reports that he was not medically cleared by the New York State Athletic Commission. Those have come true. He has confirmed on his Instagram story, as well as VFL's Instagram. He is out this Saturday night, which is a bit of a bummer, but they say they want to get him booked as soon as possible in the new year. Yeah, it's unfortunate. it. It seems like all the promotion was kind of around that. Obviously, we had him in studio and he's going to be the biggest name that you're going to have. And the thing that's going to draw

the attention and the eyeballs and sell the tickets, hopefully VFL can still put on a great show. But certainly a hit, right? Like, he is the man that this was built around. Hopefully he can get back in there. I mean, we don't really quite know what the medical issue is at the moment. So I'd be curious to kind of find out what was going on. But for now, Crone out of VFL. to see. I actually had to break the news to someone here at the office that was going to go to the fights. Our boy, Leo, shout out. Yeah, he was going to go to the fights this weekend

and he was like, yeah, I'm going to see Crone this weekend. I was like, well, if you're going to VFL, you're not going to see Crone, unfortunately. He is not going to be fighting this weekend. Some other news. Islam Makashev and a video posted by Red Corner MMA, a great Russian YouTube outlet media source for all of the MA news. Talking

about who he's going to fight next and he is still adamant on Usman, not just because it's a legacy fight, but he believes that that is his toughest test in the division. Here's the quote from him. I said I wanted to fight tomorrow Usman next. In my opinion, Usman would steamroll through these up-and-comers, Michael Morales, Carlos Prochest, the striker. Those guys haven't been checked yet. I think Usman would be the hardest fight for me in the division.

We could build it up like former champion, the most title defenses in my weight division. We could promote this fight and make it fun to watch. So when he says the most title defenses in my weight division, is he talking about him at lightweight? Is he talking about Camaro is the most, is the most title defenses of any active welter weight? I'm not sure what he's saying, but like essentially former pound for pound great, current pound for pound great, legacy fight on the line.

Yeah, that's kind of how he framed it up as the legacy fight. There was a part of the quote that we omitted, which essentially said, I know the media has been talking about this and not really like in favor of this, but this is what I still want. So he's hearing the murmurs, he's hearing the noise about the fact that people seem to be, especially in the media, right, seem to be opposed to this fight, seem to be opposed to Hamar Ustman getting the title opportunity, but he's laid it out that it's what he wants in exactly why. So fair enough. I don't agree, but fair enough. If he wants it, if Usma wants it, if Dana White wants it, then that might be what we're getting.

Certainly. If the same manager, it seems like you could make it happen. He also had some comments on Armin Saruki, and he said he doesn't understand why the UFC doesn't give Armin Saruki a title shot. They make more and more fights that I don't understand, while also mentioning a fight that is getting potentially made that I don't understand. Let's be honest. Armin isn't going to fight any time soon. It's Pembley versus Gehche. Whoever wins gets a title shot at Toporia, meaning one more year of layoff for Armin.

It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. We need to get the Islam. It's tough drop in Russian. I don't think that's it. Armist should probably wait a bit and be patient.

Obviously, he's out of the 155 scene now, so he can comment on this as an outsider looking in and a man who was supposed to fight him back in January. But yeah, they make more and more fights that I don't understand while potentially making a fight that nobody understands. Yeah, I mean, again, as you said, he's an observer now. He can kind of call whatever he.

he wants that lightweight. I think, yeah, as we've kind of talked about, last week we did a whole thing about like the craziest things that are going on in combat sports. To me,

the Kamaro Usman one, while I don't like it, has some semblance of sense. Arm and Sarukian not being involved anywhere in this title picture and Dana White, essentially being like his number one ranking means nothing,

is more bizarre to me than anything else that could happen, including a Kamarro. Usma title shot. I just don't understand how Armist Rukian has gotten into a position of just being in no man's land. And then you get that little sprinkle on top of Dan Hooker having a fight the week after 324 when he's the one who got battered around. And Armin could have fought. Armand's fine. So it's bizarre, but we make a lot of these things. We tend to get everybody gets up in arms about that. It's like, no, this person deserves it now and it has to happen. The fight will happen. Let's say it's

Kamar Usman versus Islam Makachev. Let's say it's not Armant's Ruky and getting the next title shot. And then after that, things can resume order and everything will be fine. We just have to wait a little bit for some delayed gratification, but things will work out in the end. So the same page, but also the different page from one Islamakashev. Some interesting comments there. Some more interesting comments. Dana White sat down with the MacLyves, Oscar Willis.

Yes. And we'll play two videos here. First one, he clarified his comments on the altercation that him and friends, Francis and Ghanu had in his office. Here's what he had to say. So safe to say, no interest in bringing him back. I don't know how I can make it any more fucking clear. I do wonder how PFL feel about him going out and saying that his contract's nearly done.

There was nothing that made me happier than throwing that guy over to the fucking PFL. Let me tell you what, if we let guys go, feel bad for the fucking company that gets them. We let him go for a fucking reason. reason. Yeah, I get it. I don't have to let anybody go. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't want to be in business with guys that I don't like and that I don't think are good guys. Okay, so that was actually his comments on Francis going into the PFL and him having essentially no remorse with sending him over there. Strong comments. Yeah, strong comments beyond no remorse about him being over there. Like, he made that very clear. He also then said, how much clearer do I need to make it that this guy's not going to be back

in the UFC, right? We had Francis Inganu on the show yesterday. He spoke to Ariel. Ariel asked him many, many things. Over the course of that conversation, it became clear that Francis's time with the PFL is potentially coming to an end because it seems like his contract is coming to an end sometime this spring-ish. Potentially fight or no fight. I don't know what the sunset clauses look like in PFL.

I don't know what that exclusive negotiating period is. I don't know what Francis's individual contract looks like. But when asked, you know, point blank, Ariel asked him, is there a chance? chance that he doesn't fight again before that contract expires. And he said, yes, but he would like to fight. Like, let's not kind of explore that option. So we'll see what the end of Francis and Gano's current contract with the period, what the PFL looks like. Maybe he resigns with the PFL. Maybe there's a different route he takes. Who knows? But what's interesting is, even with that like crumb of potential for Francis and Gano to be a free agent again, Dan, Dana White was like,

yeah, no, that guy is not coming back here. Don't like to do business with people who are not good guys. And that's kind of been his thing about Francis and Ghana. It was just he's not a good guy. He's not a good guy. Another interesting part of that is that he said that feel bad for whoever gets who we let go because we don't need to let anybody go. I just thought that was a very interesting comment. And it doesn't make me feel any differently about the Francis thing because yesterday when the interview was taking place, Ariel was like, oh, that gets us excited. And Francis is like, don't get excited. It's me versus John Jones is almost certainly not going to. Yeah. I think Francis is very aware of kind of where that situation

stands. I don't think it's impossible, but based on these comments from Dana White, I think it's very, very unlikely. Although I will push back a little bit on Dana's like, yeah, you know, these guys are garbage who leave the UFC. God forbid anybody pick these guys up. Meanwhile, we have guys

who like leave the UFC, come back, have spectacular runs. Like a Brandon Marina was like discarded by the UFC and then brought back and was a champion for them for so long. Like there's not, there's not a hundred percent truth to the idea that it's just like, if UFC gets rid of your year, an absolute garbage can. Like, it's just not real.

A bit of a lack of professionalism there, but, you know, it is what it is. All right, now here is his comments on clarifying the altercation that Haman and Gano had during Francis's time with the UFC. Let me be clear on something, too, when I say the physicality. It's not like, it's not like Francis and Ganyu came in here and, like, threatened us, you know, or did anything like that. But as men, everybody who is a man knows there's these situations. situations that, you know, we're in there and he's telling me that I deserve the 50,000.

I want the 50,000. I said, you know, again, this guy fought, whatever, whoever the fight was on the card, we had determined that they were going to get the 50,000. And I'm in there with them for however long we're talking, and I'm like, I'm done. And I had another meeting. And this guy just used to walk around, wander around UFC headquarters like this was his house. This guy literally spent the whole day here. Breakfast, lunch, fucking dinner, you know.

So I started to walk out, and he put his hand on my chest. says we're not done talking yet and i said oh we're fucking done talking you know it's not like you know francis and ganoe came in here and was like physically but that's what went down so safe to say no interest in bringing him back you're just you know i don't know how i can make it any more fucking clear all right so his original comments on the flagrant podcast with andrew sultz yeah seemed like it was a little bit more violent a little bit more aggressive from francis and gano he left it to imagination he said put hands on him so it's like when you think of Francis Sigano

putting hands on somebody grabbing by the collar picking them up like a movie scene or like the Dana White Mike Tyson PJ video where it's like that's my seat

get the fuck out but it was more of just like a stopped and it was like yo bro older right there Dana yeah like the famous Tony Ferguson hold on I'm still talking brother

the problem after Francis and Gano was on the show yesterday with Ariel a lot of people were talking about, a lot of people were discussing how Francis Inganu came off, got a lot of text messages about Francis Inganu. I think one thing that is very clear here is Dana White is very willing to come out and talk about this situation, right? You mentioned it on the Flagrant

podcast. He continues to talk about how Francis Inganu is not a quote unquote good guy. Again, like the evidence seeming to be that like one time he told him stop. I wasn't finished talking. And Francis Inganu is not, right? Like when Ariel asked him, hey, do you want to say anything in response to Dana White here, Francis and Ganu kind of just said, like, I don't really like have interest in talking about this. The UFC HQ has plenty of cameras. So if that happened, let Dana White release the footage. That was kind of his stance. And I don't know if that did him any favors, right? A lot of people's minds have been kind of swirling and wandering on the basis of that because it wasn't an outright denial, right? Francis didn't go,

I didn't do that. And nobody should talk about this again. Dana White's lying. And now everybody's kind of jump into conclusions. It's unfortunate because that allows then Dana White to go out and say whatever he wants to say, and that becomes the official record, right? Every time Denouet has now talked about this, people are going to go, well, Francis didn't have anything to say about it. So if Dana White's saying that, he must be the one who's telling the truth. So we're in this weird position where Dana White's kind of like sculpting the narrative

around this and Francis doesn't seem to want to like combat that. But at the same time, I don't fault Dana White from the perspective of if he doesn't want to do business with Francis and Ganu, you have. has all the power in the world to be able to not, right? That's up to them. That's up to Hunter Campbell. That's up to Dana White. That's up to the executives at TKO.

If they don't want Francis Ngano, Francis Ngano ain't coming back. It's as simple as that. Like, he can't force his way back into the promotion. So this seems like maybe we're just better off with them as separate entities. Yeah, nor do they have any obligation to do so, like you said. Like they have all the power. I mean, and Francis doesn't have to do business with the UFC.

That's right. I did find it a little bit odd that Francis wasn't just like. yeah, bro, that did not happen. I get it from, I understand Francis is in a very tricky position, right? Because he has to kind of play this game. If there's a world where he can get a John Jones fight, it doesn't behoove him to now get into a war of words with Dana White. So I think people reading it as this like, oh man, he didn't say anything. So it's, like he's damned.

Not really, right? Like he's in a very precarious situation. If his contract is indeed running up with the PFL and he's going to go into a period where he has to negotiate with all different parties, you want the UFC to be one of those parties that you can negotiate with. Hell, you may want to even pursue an opportunity back with the UFC and get into position to fight somebody like a John Jones. You're a big enough name, heavyweight desperately needs it. It would behoove you to do that.

So it's a dicey game that Francis has to play. And also, I think he's probably just sick of. He's been out of the UFC for years now. He's probably sick of the idea of like I keep getting pulled back to tied to the UFC in this regard. Like everything's about like how I exited the UFC. I went out, I boxed Tyson Fury, I boxed Anthony Joshua, I had an MMA fight for the PFL, he's done some things in the time since, and he's probably just sick of answering it. It's a very complicated kind of situation.

I don't envy the position, Francis Ngano's in, but I ultimately agree with you. I can't deny that I don't know if he did himself any favors with the way he kind of just didn't describe the situation. Also, doesn't it just show the power that the UFC holds with the fact that, like you just said, boxed Anthony Joshua, boxed Tyson Fury, one. a belt in PFL, dominant first round finish, and almost everything still just goes back to is he coming back to the UFC or not? Yep. The exit of the UFC. No, it's powerful. The UFC has a huge amount of power in this combat sports industry, and it's about to get a lot more with this

TKO boxing and the potential passing of the Ali Revival Act. One last bit of news here, actually involving our good friend, our old partner in crime, Mr. Mike Heck. I'm going to let you My man. I'm gonna let UT this one. Yeah, I just found this quote. We have a quote here from Diego Lopez, which came from an interview with my guy, Dennis, at submission radio. The quote is, of course I think Mavsar Evloev and Lorone Murphy deserved the title shot, but the UFC came to me because I had a great win and I took it.

This particularly struck me, one, because, like, great sentiment by Diego, right? Like, I think those guys probably earned it, but guess what? Like, they came to me. I'm not going to say no. I don't think anybody would fault him for that, right? I have, I think there's a lot of people who have an issue with the idea of like Mavsar and Lorone getting passed over, but I don't think anybody looks at that as like, yo, F Diego Lopez. A, because he's a freaking exciting fighter. He puts on amazing fights every time he's in there.

His first fight with Volk was an all-timer. No issues with Diego Lopez. And B, because he's kind of acknowledging, hey, maybe I didn't, like, maybe I wasn't the number one choice for this in the fans' mind, but they came to me with an opportunity and I took it. So I thought it was very gracious by him. But it struck me because I remember, and I want to give flowers to Mike Heck, at the time that Diego was like first talking about this fight on social media, he

posted something that was essentially like, it's my time. I forget what the exact post was. But Mike's response to that on X was the following. I'm not sure it's even him posting this because it came from Diego's social, but if it is, it's an awful job. I can't believe it's this difficult. All you have to say is, hey, I understand

the outrage. I was just as surprised as you were, but I'm not going to turn down a title fight. Baby face move. Stock actually rises a little bit. Whoever's guiding Diego, please give me a call. Happy to help. That's kind of verbatim. Not exactly word for word, but it's pretty damn close to what Mike essentially laid out.

And I believe he got killed for that to the point that Jason House even came after him and was like, you're crazy. These are the flowers for Mike Heck. He suggested that Diego take this route. Diego ends up at some point now down the line taking this route and he got killed for it. So I'm here for you, Mike. I've got your back.

I think that tweet was deleted after the exchanges with Jason House got a little bit contentious, but I think he was right. Babyface Diego is a lot more likable, and that was a great kind of hearkening back to me where I was thinking, shit, didn't Mike Heck say that?

And then everybody came for his neck on it. Well, guess what, Mike? We've got your back. Diego ended up saying it. Shout out to Mike Heck, man. Shout out to our boy. And your base, Mike. Who was he?

My man. My man. One last thing here. Also from the Oscar Willis Dana White interview on the Mac Life. Damn, Oscar been busy, huh? It's the same interview, but a new quote has come out on Dana White clarifying that there is no bad blood with Armand. Okay.

You know what I didn't do with Armin? I didn't cut him. We're not sideways with him. We do not dislike him. That's it? That's the whole quote? That's it, man. Oh, fuck.

I'm just saying. Jesus Christ. All right. I guess that gives me a little more confidence. But, like, how about we love them? How about, like, not that we don't dislike him. How about our amazing lightweight, like who could be the best lightweight in the world is incredible. We don't dislike him, but at the same time we also don't like him.

And we didn't cut him. Yeah. Oh, you didn't cut the guy who could be the best lightweight in the world? Oh, that's good. That's good to hear. Like, I'm glad to hear that. It's just, it's very bizarre. It's the behavior around Armin has been extremely bizarre to me.

And despite Dana White saying, like, we're not off-sides. of them and we don't dislike him. I get the sense that they do dislike him. Like, Dana's made it pretty clear, in fact. Like, it came down to the fact that he pulled out late of that title fight that was lined up with us on Makachev. And when you're the UFC, your business is built around making these fights happen. No matter what, we're going to put on the best fights.

They're going to happen. You're going to see them. And Armin compromised that in a way. Now, Ariel made a great point when we reviewed this earlier this week. It was either on Monday or Tuesday where Dana was touting that when Moikano stepped in, the numbers went up, the ticket sales skyrocketed. So, like, Armand kind of did them a favor. It sounds like the way Dana was trying to frame it at that time.

Maybe that was bullshit at that time. But either way, the friction between the UFC and Armand Sarukian just doesn't make sense to me. I get it if this was a year ago. If this was a year ago and it was like, you think the UFC likes Armand Sarukian, I'd be like, yeah, it's probably pretty tough for him right now. He needs to kind of get back in there and dust himself off and get a win. time has passed. The guy's got a huge win. He's been only growing in terms of stardom,

these videos that he's making on social media. Everybody consumes them the way he consumes the food. There's no reason to still be upset with Armand Saruki. There is a point where he will probably be your next champion. I think he's the best lightweight on the planet right now. And if he gets in there, he might have an opportunity to prove it. It'd probably be better if we just kumbaya and put all this shit aside.

Maybe this is Dana White's version of it, but I don't believe him. basically. I don't believe that he's still friendly with Armand Sarukian. Yeah. Doesn't hate him, though. I was going to say friendly, definitely not. Maybe he doesn't dislike him. I don't hate him. He's not cut.

You could say that about, I think you could say that about 99.9% of the roster. And 90 of it is because he doesn't know the names of those people on the roster. There's like 10% of the roster he'd know. The 9.9% of those, I don't think he hates. You're saying you think Marab, like, ran up to him

after the fight and and was like thanking him and stuff. And then when he walked away, Dana looked at 100. He was like, who the fuck was it? No, but some guy from the prelims, if he ran up to Dana White, I'm fairly certain he would it. All right, so we'll see what happens there. We'll see if in 2026, Armand Surukian does get his title shot that feels inevitable at this point. Obviously, had the one at the beginning of 2025, had to pull out due to injury.

We'll see what happens in 2026, which is a perfect segue to the discussion I wanted to have. Are there too many new champions in the UFC? So in 2025, we just talked about titles changing hand. Let me just break it down for you. Heavyweight, John Jones vacates to Tom Aspinall, Tom Asno because it becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion. I guess he retires. Do you know when that, like, do we know the timeline on that?

I've forgotten it. June. Okay, so in June that happened, okay. We got to see an undisputed heavyweight title fight, unfortunately, ends via no contest due to eye poke. Tom retains the belt. Yeah. Light heavyweight.

Alex Pereira changes hands to Magamette on Kalaya if you get the Ann New. And then we get Annew again, changes back to Alex Pereira. When did those happen? When was the first fight? That was March. First fight. Gives it to Ancolaev, October, back to Barrera. Middleweight, Trigues 2 Plusy, defends against Sean Strickland in February, and then

changes hands to Hamzaa Shemayev in August. Yep. Welterweight. Balal changes hands to J.D.M. in May. J.D.M changes hands to Islam in November. Yep. Lightweight. Islam vacates. Ilya defeats Charles.

That's in June. June. Featherweight, Ilya vacates, Volk beats Diego Lopez in April. Yep. 135. Marab three-time title defense in January, June, October, and then ultimately loses to Peyotea in December, title change, Ann New. Pantosia won defense earlier this year, and then Josh Van becomes Ann New, obviously due

to injury, but still Ann New, our number. new champion at flyweight. Over to the women's, Zhang won tighter defense, vacates. Mackenzie Dern defeats Veerna Janjuroba. Then at Flyweight, Valentina, two tighter defenses, one in May, one in November,

and then Bantamweight, Giuliana Pena, and new to Kayla Harrison. Wow. So in total, there was eight title defenses in the UFC in 2025, and I believe there were 11 new champions. Wow. That is a crazy year.

is another graphic here as well. Among the active champions of their current belts, none of them have a title defense. So Tom undisputed heavyweight does not have a title defense. Islam Welterweight does not have a title defense. Ilya lightweight does not have a title defense. And then obviously Volk regained the belt. Alex Pereira regained the belt. Van Nu. Jan, regaining the belt after a years away. Hamzot knew. No active title defenses among male fighters. It's a very startling graphic to see, it is a little bit misleading, right? Can we put that back up? I just want to walk it through because

Alex Pereira, many title defenses in that weight class, but not current, right? It's not an active streak. Islamakachev, many title defenses in the weight class down, but not in this current one. Volk, many title defenses in the weight class or he's champion,

but not in this active streak. Ilya had one title defense, one or two. He had one against Max at a division down. So, Did Yon have any? No. No, his first defense would have been Aljo, right? And then he lost that?

Correct. Yeah, so it is a little bit misleading from that perspective. Like, it almost makes you feel like they're all brand new. None of them have been champions. But, like, we have some guys who have actually been quite long reigning champions. But at the same time, that turnover is the part to focus in on. Not necessarily like the title defenses themselves, but the fact that even those guys who were like established names either lost the belt and had to regain it to start a new streak or came from a different weight class and had to start a streak in a new weight

class. It has been crazy, the upheaval. Now, this is from a stat from Twitter that says the number of new champions in 2025 was 11 setting a new record. The previous record was set in 2016, 10 champions. Wow. 2016 considered one of the greatest years in anime history. Are they, is, so 11 is Magamed gets it, then Alex gets it, right? So that's like a two, that's a two. I guess let's see. Tom, now on dispute. Just takes it. Magamette, Pereira, Hamzat, J.DM, Islam, Ilya, Volk, Jan, Van, Dern, Harrison. That's 12 right there. So I think that's probably counting, it's not counting the Magamad. The Maghamed take. But then why would it count the, oh, I guess it would count, it wouldn't count the JDM to Islam because Islam was already a champion and then he just fold.

into the lightweight one. But yeah, that's very fascinating. And I wasn't aware that the last time that something of this magnitude had happened is 2016, but I guess it would kind of make sense. I actually don't think this is an issue at all for the sport because, like you said, like it's kind of misleading on the no title defenses.

Yeah. You have these superstars in Alex Pereira and Islam Makashev and Ilya who have defended the belts. Volcanowski is defended the belt. Pejorian is a two-time champion now. Hamza Tremayev is a star in his own right. So it's not like we're just getting a bunch of like

no offense to like a Josh fan but he's more of an unknown compared to those other guys. It's not like we're just like oh like who are these champions here? Like these are long reigning people Aspinall has been holding a belt since November of 20203

just no active title defenses. I don't think it is an issue at all. I actually really love the parody within the sport. Okay. I'm playing devil's advocate here because I actually haven't thought about where I stand on this. I think it's kind of a complicated issue.

I want to ask the question so we can arrive a conclusion. Is there a problem if the UFC can't have dominant champions having long, long title reigns, because that is how the stars are developed, right? If we think about the John Joneses, the Demetrius Johnson's, the GSPs, the Anderson Silvas, these guys became those, those legends, those heroes of the sport by continuing to show up and rack up the title defenses. Look no further than Marab, right? We're looking at his activity and going like, wow, this is the guy. He finally felt like he was getting some momentum toward that superstardom.

He finally felt like he was becoming a guy that was going to be a household name for the promotion and then lost it. Is there a downside to not having those long runs that propel many fighters into startup? So that was actually my whole, the genesis of this idea was that because we aren't getting these long title reigns that like you're going to have an issue building these stars, but I think because of guys like Islam and Ilya and Alex Pereira and guys, and guys like this, that it isn't an issue. I actually think the major issue is if you go through it, John Jones vacated, Islam vacated,

Ilya vacated, Zhang vacated. You're seeing these people having to vacate these belts as they go for two division championships. Yeah, and Zhang, like, by all accounts on what we assume to be happening, is going right back to that division. She vacated it to take one fight in another division and then likely come back to that division.

It really is, like, let's say she just held her belt or even they established an interim title, there would have been no change in that division, right? It would have been just Zhang Wei Li remaining as the champion and everything would have resumed fine. So I think you're right to narrow in on like maybe the vacating is the thing that's making it seem like there's more upheaval and also kind of the cog in the machine and the issue.

I don't know. I do feel like it would be nice. I would like to see these champions kind of just be like in their divisions and go for these runs and not necessarily have a look at the divisions up, but it's hard to then argue against the greatness of in Italy at Sophoria or an Islam Makhachev, right, climbing up and achieving that goal, seeming like they were ready for the moment

and now staying in those weight classes. But I don't know. I think the year after is the year that you find out. I think it's not like the year itself where all the upheaval happens. It's what's going to happen next year? If we start having all this turnover again next year, then I might get a little bit concerned,

but I think it's more of a let's wait and see kind of how this shakes up. If Islam just becomes a one-seventh year and is racking up title defenses again in that division, then it's like, okay, it's fine. All's good. But if these titles keep changing hands and keep changing hands, it'll be interesting.

Another thing I was thinking about, and you mentioned this word when we were kind of talking about it behind the scenes was parody. Do you think that parody is responsible for this? Like, do you think, I feel this way about a lot of other sports. I feel like the metas of some of these sports

have been figured out to where everybody plays a similar style, and the gap between the best teams and the worst teams is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking and shrinking, right? The way that you achieve victory and the overall level of talent and skill across these sports is raising and raising and raising

to the point that even the very worst teams in a lot of these sports are still pretty damn good, way better than the teams that used to be like the Washington generals of back in the day. And so I wonder if the parody is that everybody in the UFC

is so fucking good now that like anybody could kind of be champion. The worst guy in a weight class is usually pretty damn good to the point that when you're looking at the top five away class, most of these guys could be a champion on their best night. I see yes and no to this one because if you go to 125, it's like we didn't actually see Van Best Pantosia. When you go to 135, there's sort of this built-in excuse of like, where Marab fought four times this year, dude, he was way too active. Like that's why he was like kind of off on the night.

But then you go up to 265 and you look at the Aspinol-Sir-Zer-Gon fight. It's just like people had built Aspinol into this Terminator in their head. And then when it's close, it's like, oh, shit, like, these guys actually are this good. And the fighters know that they're all this good, that they're all like this close. Like Tom Aspinall gave him the proper respect, Marab, even after his Corey Sandigan's howder defense was like, bro, I can lose any night. Any one of these nights someone can get me. And it turns out that night was two months later.

Two months later, yeah, yeah, gets the best of them. So it's like yes and no, because then you have Volk returning and, like, now he's champion once again. Like, it's, and Islam has been dominating everyone. Now, like, some are closer than others. Like, you know, he gets into some wars, but. But, like, man, you talk about, like, a difference between, like, a number one versus, like, a number 10. Like, Moikano stepping in on short notice, stood no chance against this Lombachov.

Like, he was going to run through him any day of the week. Let's limit it to top five. And I want to do, like, an exercise with it. Like, could Amir al-Bazi, Brandon Moreno, Manel Kopp, Taira, be champions? Absolutely, yes. I think Amir al-Bazi is kind of on the back end of that. But, like, we've seen Brandon Moreno go to split decisions with Pantosia. He could be Pandosia.

Like on the right night, he could absolutely beat him. Or Van. Or Van, Van, Van, Van, man. The current champion. I mean, I'm sorry. What about like a Song Yadong, Corey Sanhagan, Sean O'Malley, Umar, Nirmaga, Madov? Most of those, yes. Yeah.

What about Al Jemaine, Sterling, Lerone Murphy, Yaira, Rodriguez, Diego Lopez. I'm sorry, I've love. Again, most of those, yes. What about... Like, Volk is not going to be bigger than like a minus 300 against any of those guys. Against most of those names. All right, what about Patty, Justin Max, Max, Charles Armin.

Paddy, Justin, Max, Charles, Armin. Yeah, dude. I feel like that one, the story's a little unwritten on the patty part of it, but like you think about a Max Holloway, Charles Olavera,

championship legacy, Armand Saruki, indefinitely. All right, what about Balal, Michael Morales, Shavcott, Ian Machado, Gary, Jack Della,

Madelena. Brendan Allen, Fluffy Hernandez, Sean Strickland, Naserdine, Imov, Drickis Duplasi. Okay,

maybe not because that's Hamza Shemai. Tush. Jan Blahovitch Wow Jan Blahovitch Khalil Roundtri Carlos Oberg Magamette on Kalaya

of Uri Pajaska Alex Perr that one needs some work that division needs some turnover needs some work but like a Carlos Oberg right

that's not out of the question a magamette certainly not out of the question Erie might be tough sled in just because it's Alex again and then Waldo Wurtez Acosta

shout out to your boy going to be champion obviously Curtis Blade Circuit Pavlovich Alexander Volkov Syrogon this division also needs some help but like my point

and I'm not even going over to the women's weight classes. All right, let's do it quickly. Amanda Lemo, Jan Shanan, Verna, Jani Roebate, Tatiana Suarez, Zhang Wei Lee. Certainly, Zhang Wei Lee could probably be a champion in that division. Barber, Blanchfield, Grasso, Silva, Manon, Fioro. Like, yeah, the top fives of every single one of these weight classes, I do think on their best night could be a champion.

And I don't know if I would have been able to say that for a long time in the UFC. I think we've reached a point in this sport like we have in other. sports where, like, the depth of talent at the top level, right? Not necessarily the middle, not even necessarily the bottom, although I do think the floor is raising, is so good that there is parity. There really is this idea that, like, on a given night, a lot of these fighters could be champion. If a fighter has an off night, their worst night, Marab Devalosvili, who's walking through everybody, on Piotrion's best night, that guy is a champion. And he showed it on that fight on Saturday. So I do wonder if the parody is catching up to the point

that like will we ever have a guy rein again? Will a Pantosia or a Marab or somebody like that ever be able to rack up title defenses in that way? Or are the challengers that are going to come up in these divisions just so fucking good at this point that you can't really do that anymore? Right. Is the new 12, 10 title defenses now like five or six? Yes. I'm wondering if like that is now the barometer for greatness. You look at some of these older ones where it's like GSP had 10 title defenses, 12 title fight wins. Demetrius Johnson had 12 title defenses, 13 title fight wins. It's just like John Jones over the course of his career, how many times he's defended his title?

It's just like, how was this even a thing? And then you have guys like Habib where it's like three title defenses. Yeah, three or four, I forget. And then it's just like Islam all time great. It's like four title defenses. It's just like are we at that now where the pantheon of greatness is just five or six title defense? I think we might be. Usman, is he?

These guys only got to like five or six. It just becomes so hard. And famously, shout out to another colleague of ours at MMA fighting Jed Mishu has always said, like... My man! Shout out to Jed. Has always said, like, the double champ thing is nice and it's cute and it's a good achievement.

But much harder is to stay in your own weight class and defend against Challenger, after Challenger, after Challenger, after Challenger, after Challenger. Because the hardest... In addition to just like everybody's so good, you get a crazy thing that just happens. like a Pantosia where it's just like

in your fifth or sixth title defense all of a sudden your arm just snapped like your elbow dislocates like it's just impossible watching it he was like oh my title defense streak is intact and I just want to say like

whatever you think of my competition during that run I still had to go in there and defend again and again and again and again and again and again and it's to the point of 12 and now it's just it really is it's just so difficult

but at the end of the day I think I think parody is it's good for sport in terms of how interesting it is, how exciting it is for us fans, but also to your point, racking up title defense is becoming multi-weight champions is also a way to build stars. Rob is never that star if he doesn't, if he's not as active as he is, just winning title fights. I mean, from September to October, I think he won four title fights. It's very difficult. I think the UFC is insulated in a little bit of a way, and it was a

calculated move on their part. They have always made the UFC brand, the star, right? Regardless of who the names on the poster are, right? Save for like a Connor McGregor, the UFC is still the biggest brand, right? There's nobody who's really bigger than the UFC. If John Jones goes away tomorrow, like he seemingly did, the UFC is going to keep going. They're going to keep churning out fighters. They're going to keep churning out stars. They made the UFC the brand.

Again, save for like a Connor McGregor. Connor McGregor might be equivalent to a UFC. He could go out and start something on his own and do business, no problem, just fine. By doing that, you insulate yourself. from like, we need this guy to be champion, this guy to be champion, this guy to be champion. Like, this whole narrative was around like Sean O'Malley. It's like, he's the UFC's pet project and they're going to keep him as champion no matter what it takes. Eventually he has to fight Marab and eventually he might not be champion.

But they've insulated themselves by going like, if you tune in on Saturday night, you're going to see two of the best fighters in the world competing for our belt and may the best man or woman win, and we're just going to move on and move on and keep that aggressive schedule and just keep turning them out. If people continue to have faith in that UFC product and the UFC brand to deliver that, also some of the craziness like helps, right? It's like, holy shit, Rob lost his title. Like that also helps a little bit to a degree. I think they've insulated themselves from like needing people to go on the long runs. But I do think that the best way for a fighter individually to become kind of that God tier type guy or girl is to go on that type of run.

I'll always say it. In my short career as like a diehard, every single fight card fan, quickest way to build a star is to just win fights by finish, get on the mic and say something afterward. That is the formula to success. Show a bit of personality and win fights by finish and people will love you eventually.

It's a good formula. Get into wars and people just, people love you. Look at like all the fan favorites. They get into wars, they win by finish, and they show their personality. Diego Lopez got a title. shot off it when everybody else was like, Monsar and Laron. Now, I'm skeptical of how many people were actually saying that as opposed to pretending to say that and being like, they got jerk job.

Like, I can't believe this happened to them. By the way, I'd rather see Diego. Like, I'm skeptical of how many were like the truthers on that scenario. But to your point, Diego Lopez has made himself a fan favorite extremely quickly. And it's no surprise to me that he's in this conversation now. Going to be fascinating to see how many new champions we get in 2026. I think we at our prediction show at the beginning of the year. I think we all said different numbers. I said seven, and I was off. And I said over seven?

Yeah, I said over seven the most. I think it was just, I predicted precisely seven. Okay, okay. Eric had the least. He had four. Wow. Not right. Yeah, not right.

Neither was going to right. You got the breakout fighter, though. Actually, it was a boys in the back math equation, four plus seven, 11. Oh, we did it. All right, teamwork, team work. Who was his breakout fighter? you know I'm not sure if he was breaking up it

no no no we'll talk about it let's talk about it later this year or early next year let's talk about UFC Apex 112 the final UFC show of the year this weekend taking place at the warehouse in the desert

no better place to have it and we got a banger in the main event Brandon Royval taking on Minel Cop and I just have to say Eric Jackman what am I missing on this line man

Brandon Royval plus two four 50, plus 250. This man has only lost two champions. Joshua Van, incredibly close fight, your current flyweight champion, Pantosia, the one before that, and Brandon Moreno are his losses in the UFC. Twice to Pantosia, I believe. Menel Cops' best win is Asu Almabayev? I will add to what you're saying here. Minus 300? Okay, let me add something. Typically, when you do the,

this person has only lost to. Yeah. It's always like a consolation prize. It's like a, look, they're really good, and they've only lost to these guys. And it's always like really good guys who are championship level, and typically they're not there.

But to add to your case for Royval, his wins are good too. Like this is not just, oh, he only lost the champions. No, he's also beat champions or like top challengers. His two latest wins, he lost that crazy fight to Joshua Vann where they both put up 200.

Which literally came down to like the wire. It was one, one in the third, and it was like a super close third round, and then Joshua Van ends up dropping him with like 20 seconds to go, like an insane, insane fight. 200 combined significance, 200 each significant strikes between the two. They went to war. Shout out to Joshua Van for getting it done. But like Brandon Royval could have been a rifle winner of that fight.

Tatsu Roitara, Brandon Moreno, then the loss to Pantosius before that, but then you go down to Matthias Nicolao, Matt Schnell. like these are the cream of the crop in the flyweight division his wins are very very good in addition to like potentially close losses like even against um pantosia it's like the last royval fight with pantosia wasn't like some kind of like whitewashing you know uh it was he he did very well in that fight and so i'm not ready to like toss away brandon roival because of that like i'm not ready to just be like yeah he can't quite just like get a over the hump. Now, I think he's good enough to get over the hump. And I think a guy like

Manel Cop is a perfect opportunity for him to kind of show, no, I'm actually at this level. Like, you think you're, I'm the guy who it's like, I can't quite make that leap. I actually think he might be able to be the guy who can make that leap, but he just needs another crack at it. One more time, one more time. He's only 33 years old. I like the grappling and the striking. Yeah, Manel Cop, like probably more powerful, a little bit faster. Powers on his side, no doubt. Cop has the power advantage. But I think, Brandon, you know, he could put up the volume on it. He could take. this to the ground? Like, he's a complete game. We've seen him go five rounds a couple times.

Like, I wouldn't be shocked if this fight is much closer than the odds appear. And I'm actually going to pick Brandon Royval to upset Minowocop here. I'm kind of with you because stylistically, my fear with Menlo Cop, like, I think Minotop is very, very good. He's an extremely slick striker. He's a great grappler, too. And he's just a difficult guy to deal with because of that power and physicality. The problem with Manal Cop is a problem that Brandon Royval has the perfect answer for, which is volume. Manel Cop's a guy who likes to pick his shots, and when he picks his shots, they're extremely powerful and they're devastating, and he's very slick with it.

But over the course of this fight, the volume's going to be coming from Royval, and he's not afraid to get hit, as we saw in the Josh Fan fight. He will plant his feet, and he will go to war with anybody. It doesn't really matter. A concern there is if he plants his feet, Manel Cop lands the proper shot and puts him out. That has a chance of happening, and that's why I think the line is what it is, right? I think Brandon Royvah's style is going to play a little bit into Menel Cop's hands in terms of Cop doesn't have to chase him down, right?

There's some guy when you're a good counterstriker, when you're a guy like Minel Cop who can sit on shots and wait for somebody to make a mistake and then snipe them, the thing that you fear the most is not like the guy who's going to be in your face. The one that you fear the most is the guy who's going to try to stick and move to and he's not going to do anything and you're not going to be able to track him down because he's kind of been bouncing around the whole fight. Brandon Royvile is not that guy. Brandon Royvile is going to bring the fight to Minno Cop.

to me it's going to come down to Can Manel Cop land that shot? If he cannot I think he's going to have numbers put on his head. I think Brandon Royval can do that to pretty much anybody in this division unless you take him down to the ground and just kind of control him there he's going to be coming at you from jump. The moment that first bell rings

he's going to be on your ass. And so I think it plays into Royva's advantage that he has a guy who's not going to match him volume for volume in the way that Josh Van did because Josh Van threw it back at him and landed the harder shot. But will he put himself in danger and potentially get clipped, yes, he will.

That is the reality of what this fight is going to be, and that's the reality that Royval is facing. But his chin's been pretty damn good. I think it'll probably hold up. If he gets dropped, I'm not scared that he'll remain down unless it's the absolute kill shot from Manel Cop. So like you, I kind of even favor Royval outright. I kind of think that he's the guy that I've seen do better work in the Octagon, but that

power is such an equalizer for Cop. He is silly with it Honestly, you talk about his chin He has one technical knockout loss In his career And it was a shoulder injury To ground and bound against Brandon Moreno

Rear Naked Choked by Alessandra Pantoja And then everything else Were decision losses Yeah, I don't know, man No matter who you're picking Whether or not you think Manel cop The line is justified And he's going to blow Brandon Roy Val's doors off

This is a bangor fight This is a great fight. It's a fantastic fight Flyweight's getting in there And just scrapping like fast, you know, high volume, twitchy, powerful. It's fantastic. I think it's a great final UFC fight of the year.

Who I think is going to win? I'm going Roy Val as a dog. But no cop also, you know, not for nothing. They assume I would buy a fight. Some eyepokes there at the end leading to the finishing sequence. Sure. No, I'm just saying. I thought we cared about eye pokes around these parts.

I thought we cared about I poxed around these parks. Another banger in the co-made event, Giga Chacotez, getting Kevin Veeho, 16 and one only loss on Dana White Contender Series 2-1, John Silva. Not too bad, not too bad, getting Giga Chacate, who's lost three of his last four, now 37 years old. I favor Veejos. The only thing that does worry me just a little bit is the veteran prowess of Giga Chacatee in the UFC, and also he is going to be five inches taller than him and have him. a sizeable reach advantage as well. On his best night in his prime,

Giga's a very dangerous guy and somebody you don't want to be in there with. Especially a dangerous striker. In the striking, he's a glory kicker. He's a high-level glory kickboxer. I do not believe that we're in that era anymore. I do not believe we're in the era where Giga can kind of punish a guy like this.

So ultimately, I don't think he's going to be successful. Hot take is the golden age of Georgia and M.M.A. behind us. No, stop. I'm just asking the question. No, no, no, no. Ilya's still champion. Okay. So I'm going to claim Spaniard?

Splitting. Okay. We're giving half. Rob will be back. Rob will be back, maybe champion again. Roman DeLite Dark Horse at 185? Yeah, I mean, how many times are we going to hear that before it actually, like, turns into anything? I don't know about that.

And then that's fine. We're okay. I'm very excited to watch Kevin Viejo's work. Exciting fighter. I think Kevin gets it done. Has personality, 16 and 1. I think he gets it done, kind of a... 24 years old.

Youngen, man. It's a young man's game, unfortunately. It really is. As most things are in life, but fighting, fighting especially is favorable for the young man. Next up, featured by the evening. Saezer versus Caesari. Almeida, Oleg Shayshuck.

Another fight that I think will be exciting just because Seizra Almeida, as we know, nasty kickboxing can get finishes. and OXHACC kind of likes to throw caution to the win and just let it rip out there which could benefit him if he's able to finish Cesar or it could not if Almeida is able to land

the proper strike on him and knock him out. Yeah, another one also where we've got 25 years old versus 37. Like, you know, the young lion is coming for the old lion's head. Although, yeah, who do you favor in this one? I feel like Caesar Almeida,

I believe he is a dog as well. in this one? He is a dog, yeah. I'm leaning towards him just because I think Oleg Seishuk is going to get a little reckless and he's going to get caught. I was thinking the same thing, but he's not the favorite, so I was a little surprised. It's a dog-eat-dog world at the apex, man. Yeah, they have the young bulls up. I'm like you, I think Seizar is going to be able to get it done, but it's not a lock

by any means. Honestly, dude, the top four fights on this card are pretty nice. Yeah. Morgan Chachrieh against our boy, Melki Costa. Melki. This is kind of like a flip of coin. and just hope for the best like two dudes with really nice resumes

but like they also have losses I think Chattrier is at 11 losses and Costas at seven but I'll ride with Costa just because he's been good to us I've picked him as a dog a couple times I kind of enjoy him in that spot four straight wins for him now

plus like sometimes watching Chaturier can be a little bit inactive I was just like fuck man you said Melchie's been good to you I'm picking Sharié who's been horrible to me I was just about to say I feel like you've picked Shardier who was it that I was like

no, no, no, stop, dude. It was me against Nathaniel Wood? Yes, yes. I was like Nathaniel Wood plus 175. I will never stop believing in the last pirate and he's never failed to make me look like an asshole. I don't want to like, I also enjoy him, but it's like, he has so much like swag. Yeah.

And like personality and like you really want to cheer for him. And then he gets in the cage sometimes and you're just like, and the personality didn't match the energy going into it. It's that, but it's also like within the fights themselves, he has the. these flashes and these moments of brilliance that make you go, oh, this is the guy. Like, I see it. I get it. It's right in front of me. He knocked Nate

Wlanwear out last time in a fight of the night. Yeah, but here's the problem. And it's the same thing with every fight with him. Until that point, there were some moments of like, hmm. Like, what is he doing in that? What's he doing? Huh? Hmm. Like, sometimes he has these advantages that he doesn't utilize. Sometimes he's just like, it seems like he has a game plan that's different than probably the

ideal game plan to take the fighters out. But talent-wise, when he's at his best, when you see those flashes of brilliance, you understand why he has that swagger. You understand why in the gym, he's probably the guy that kind of like bullies everybody. He's probably the guy that is like one of the hardest sessions for everybody else in the gym because he can be that on his best night.

And so I'll never stop trusting and believing in him, no matter how many times he makes me look silly. So I'm going with The Last Pirate. Is this the best nickname matchup on the card? What's Melke's nickname? The Dalmatian. I mean, that's pretty fantastic, considering the origin of it. So, yeah, it's a pretty fucking great.

Last Byer versus the Dalmatian. It's a great nickname off. A great fight. Both guys coming off of a fight of the night bonuses in their last fights. Yeah, you knock out Nate Landware. That's something. They're going to be up for one in this one, I think, as well. And then we have to talk about it.

Rick's main event. He's back, baby. This is his Super Bowl. The return! of the next heavyweight great Marcus Buccecha taking on Kennedy in Zichukwu. Last time we saw Bouchetia out there, I believe it was late July, U.S.U. Abu Dhabi, a sweltering summer day when Buccecha came onto the scene. Yeah, just like the guy's got to get takedowns where he's fucked.

That's as easy as a breakdown as you can make. If this guy does not get takedowns, he is fucked. Okay, let me ask you a follow-up question. Yeah. Because I agree with your opening premise, which is, this guy's got to get takedowns or he's fucked. Is he any good at getting takedowns? Uh, no. Especially if you go back and watch the first round. I was like, I was sitting down. Yeah, it was one of those. I was visiting one of my friends in South Carolina. None of them really watch UFC. Like, to the point where, like, we were watching the card and like, it was like, it wasn't the Robert Whitaker RDR fight. Like, it was one of the bigger name fights. Let me, let me pull up that card real quick. But like, I'm sitting with it. them and like as we're going through the card they're just like oh like yeah have you heard of this guy before i'm just like uh yeah dude i've i've heard of every guy on this card like that what are you talking about it was the main event was robert wittaker already are oh dude and then it was like peter yon marcus mcgee and they're like you've heard of this guy i'm just like yeah dude

i've fucking heard of this guy i've watched the name was it marcus or pewter yeah uh just both them both of all you heard of these dude's crap like you're like brice mitchell sai Nirmaga Madov, they're just like, you've, you've seen this guy fight before? I'm just like, yeah, man. Yeah, I've also, I'm a diehard subscriber to Arcan sanity, dude. Come on, man, of course I know him. This whole card. Oh, my favorite podcaster, I know him.

Like the whole cards, you knew everyone. Billy Alicana versus Ibo Aslan, Tabitha Ritchie versus Amanda Heba. It's like, nah, man, I don't know any of these guys. Anyway, Buchetch is in the curtain jerker. We're going to go to the beach. I was like, I'll stream the prelims from the beach. We'll come back for, like, the later main card. But, like, we're getting ready.

Yeah, but Cheddar comes out. I'll just go to the beach. I was like, yo, this dude is making his debut. He is, like, a demon on the mat. Watch this guy. He is, like, the next at heavyweight. Like, this guy's about to fucking put on a show. Wait for this, man.

First round, 0 for 6 on takedowns. He's fucking waddling around, like, trying to grab a singling. I was like, Jesus Christ, this is why the sport isn't growing. I was like, God damn it, Marcus. What is happening? I remember vividly the texts from Pizzi Carroll A lot of fights are going on. He was your parley palpig.

The texts and then also the tweets. People were like, I bet my life savings because he yells breakdown of Buccecha. Like, what the fuck am I going to do? Yeah, he was so bad. But then he comes out in the second round and he gets a takedown and you're like,

oh, watch him work. Watch him work. And like, he kind of just like controlled for like a couple minutes. He completely sold out, shot his entire load to get the one takedown and did essentially not. nothing with it, loses 29, 28.

And now he's back against Kennedy, who is going to be, like, three or four inches taller than him and have, like, a six-inch-reach advantage. The game plan, if you're Kennedy, is just like, it should be the Michael Morales gameplan against Sean Brady. Michael Morales? Just staying there with your just ass out, just like, come on, Marcus, let's do this. And just stay at range and just grab his face off. Or the Brandon Marino-Taira-Tira game plan, where you're so tight and low to the ground that

there's no space for him even. get down there. Yeah. Like, he's got to get a take that. He's going to box his ass up, probably. But if Marcus Buccecha grabs a leg and finds a way to get it to the mat, I'm just saying. It is the fucking sickest part about all this.

Marcus Bucetcha opened as a plus 220 underdog. He has been bet all the way down to a plus 108. People are like, buy low on Buccecha, baby. Buy the dip on Buccecha. We're saying all this, too. Bucrecha is going to go out and put on a master class. Quick blast double, dump him down and then just isolate the arm arm bar just like 45 seconds. And he's going to get on the mic and be like, Tom Aspinall, I want you.

Last time, I had staff infection and I couldn't even fight. I want to apologize to everybody in Abu Dhabi. I had neurovirus, a staff infection. Me and my wife were in a huge fight. I wasn't in a good headspace. I'm back, baby. But Tech is coming for everything. Okay, but I think we, this is one of those fights.

that I wouldn't feel really comfortable betting on anybody because... There's no chance I'm touching it. Yeah, Kennedy's not exactly like the guy who always makes you feel good about it. Kennedy's going to try to box them up might be successful or Bouchetch is going to try and get him down and sub them. Those are the only two outcomes in this fight. Like there's really not a middle ground. I don't think maybe Kennedy can actually finish him.

When he wants to, Kennedy's pretty good at putting stuff together and especially against the guy in Bucccio, who I don't think is going to offer much back on the feet. But God bless, he's... He has a problem that a guy like a Moreno or not Morales necessarily, but Moreno in the fight with Tyra had a good position because he was able to kind of like minimize the legs, right? You're minimizing the space. You look at Kennedy.

He's gigantic. He's just too big. He's very big. And it's going to be hard for him to minimize those opportunities for Bouchetia to get in on his legs. He has to do, though. That is his path to victory. I actually have control of how this fight goes. Oh, okay.

I place a wager on Kennedy. Buccecha will dump him on his ass and choke him out in 90 seconds if I bet on Buccecha he will go 0 for 18 on takedowns and get his nose jabbed completely off of his face. Let me throw something crazy

out there. Just for the lulls just for finding out what the universe thinks bet on both sides in equal measure and let's see the best man win. Draw. Draw. I feel like

come Saturday morning morning, I'm going to end up just for the, just for the, I hate my life, making a Bouchetia fuck it. If you do it, if you do it, I'll ride with you. Just for the like, just for the absolutely just like, I don't value American currency anymore. I'm going to place it on perfect. Text me when you're putting it in. I will, I will match you. I can't wait. Let's keep rolling. Late edition, Lance Gibson Jr. making his UFC debut, which means him and his father, Lance Gibson, become the third father-son duo in UFC history, joining Randy and Ryan Cotor and Gilbert and Elijah Smith to both fight in the promotion. Lance Gibson, here's another little

stat for you. Last time he fought in the UFC, December 16, 2000. Two days away from being to the day. Holy shit. Twenty-five years later, Lance Gibson Jr. makes his debut last February, this past February, he made a strong push making a bunch of promotional. videos to try to get into the UFC calling out Dana and Sean Shelby and Hunter Campbell. He wanted to be on that card because he grew up in Seattle. That's where he was born 10 minutes from the pledge, climbing arena or whatever it is. Doesn't end up working out for him. Now he gets King Green on pretty short notice to make his debut. But happy to see him in the promotion. Don't know if this is a great starting point for him. He's only got 10 professional fights. The last time he fought

in Bellator, he got knocked out in 60 seconds. Toccov is very good, though. Toccov is good. I will give you that, but, like, Bobby Green is also good. He's a 50-fight veteran. He's been in the UFC Strike Force since I was a young-in. So, like, the experience of Bobby Green makes me think that he probably gets it done here. This is a very tough fight for a guy, as you said, whose experience is, like, very limited. Even in Bellator, right? The only name on here that I'm putting any stock into is Tokov, and he got beat up.

He then went to, by the way, like, one of the greatest. for a promotion names I've ever seen, muckle chute fight night. I need a muckle shoot, fight night. He fought twice in muckle chute and won those fights. But yes, the difference in level of competition

is one of the craziest that I can think of. This is going from regional, regional, regional to one of the most experienced guys in the UFC. One of the guys that has like really, and not only just the UFC, even priors of that strike force and other promotions as well. Like, Bobby Green is as battle-tested as they come, and that's the guy that you're stepping in there with. This, to me, comes down to you, we're going to find out if Lance Gibson Jr. has the skills and the talent, and if Bobby Green is still Bobby Green.

Sorry, if King Green is still King Green, that's, he is not Bobby Green anymore. He's actually literally a different person. We're going to find out if Bobby Green is still Bobby Green. Wait, wait, wait, what is that? Oh, he's literally not Bobby Green anymore? he's actually King Green now? Okay, we're not going to find that out. We're going to find out if King Green is still Bobby Green, the guy who won all those fights.

But what I'm trying to get at is he's 39 years old. Like there is a point where the veteranness, all those number of fights is actually a detriment and not an advantage. This may not be that fight, but there is going to be a breaking point where King Green is just not able to rev that engine up to that point anymore. And so there's a critical kind of like tipping point happening here, and he's getting a guy who might just be young enough and ready enough, even if he, in his best day, King Green would have like blown the doors off him. 39 versus 30, but 50 pro fights versus 10. It's very, this is as steep a climb as they come.

And I think it's kind of like saying what they thought of Lance Gibson, right? They did not seem to, he was not one of those names that as soon as Bellator fighters and PFL guys started becoming available that they were like, we have to have this guy, we have to have this guy, and they're putting him in there with one of the toughest matchups you can get from a experience perspective. Yeah, you're getting a guy from muckle chute, you know?

Muckle chute. Which I've now confirmed Muckleshoot is a casino resort in Auburn, Washington. So near his hometown, he was fighting at Muckle Shoot. Yeah, a Muckleshoot Casino Resort Hoodie would go hard. I'm down for that.

Hell yeah. You're like, oh, you went to Muckleshoot to gamble? It's like, gamble. Ah, dude, I went to Muckle shoot. fight night nine to watch Lance Gibson Jr. before he made his UFC debut. Thanks, though. Also, not for nothing. Yeah. Seattle Times. Best of the Pacific Northwest. Winter 2024 and 2025. Shout out to Muckleshoot Casino. Best Casino. Resort. Yeah, not just Best of the Pacific

Northwest. Oh, like one of the best things that you could do. The people's choice. Holy shit. Yo, do we need to take a trip to Muckles? He's actually right, dude. I'm looking at pictures of Muckleshoot Casino and Resort. Bro, you're sitting in out of bar and you're out looking at beautiful evergreen trees and Mount Rainier in the distance. Yeah. Shout out to Muckleshoot. Did we just, did we just like work up like a let's take a trip to Muckleship? They've, they won in the Seattle Times, Best of the Pacific Northwest, People's Choice Award polls.

They won best casino, best hotel view in the state, best resort, best romantic getaway, best table games, best day trip, best casino entertainment, best casino spa, best place to work. Holy shit. Best fucking salad is at Muckleshoot Casino and Resort Best Fine Dining and Best Chicken Wings Holy shit Okay, let me just ask something Wow

Let me throw a potential question out there to you Is it possible that Lance Gibson could have signed somewhere else But actually just ended up at Muckleshoot To fight there and go to Muckleshoot Casino This is fucking amazing Those are all the categories that they won gold in I mean I Who knows what they won silver?

Oh, best in silver hotel paying slots date night activity wedding venue breakfast chef steakhouse sports bar dessert concert venue nail salon bronze in best sports book in the state best family getaway best sushi best sushi all right we got to get to muckle sure i'm throwing a hail mary out there if you are a viewer of this show or any of our shows uh the ariel hawani show the crack watch parties whatever if you consume any uncrowed content and you work at muckle shoot casino and resort and hotel and everything else please get in contact with me

I feel like we need to make this happen if you've ever been to muckle shoot nah I don't want to hear stories I just want to go not for nothing man that's the bronze silver and gold platinum and name muckle shoot is an all time name man fucking hell

I gotta get out to the P&W bro I've never been I've never been I've never been it seems amazing all right I think we need to book that alright and there's your Lance Gibson Jr. King Green Breakdown shoot casino review. Look at that fucking place, man.

Look at the mountain. Just peeking over its shoulder. I understand why they won gold for best view. I get it. That's in the Pacific Northwest. Because if you're on the back side of that, I mean, I don't know what the side facing us looks like. But if you're on the backside of that and you've got the window view to those mountains right there, you're doing all right. Dude, there's someone out there that lives in the Pacific Northwest listening to this and is just like a diehard muckle shoot fan.

And they're just like, yes, I've been saying this. Somebody. All right, let's go to the prelim. Just a couple of fights I want to hit on here. Amanda Lemo is taking on Jillian Robertson, Robertson, on a four-fight win streak. Now gets a shot to become a top five straw weight. I think she gets it done.

Lemos shorn four in her last eight. Talk about getting older. She's 38. I feel like her best days are behind her. Gillian Robertson has looked like an animal as well. If Gillian can control where this fight takes place, and that would be primarily on the ground, she's going to win this fight.

On the feet, it's obviously a lot closer. I think Amanda is the more talented striker and has the power advantage. But credit to, I believe she still worked with Dean Thomas and has for a long time. Like, they've turned her into a pretty complete mixed martial artist. She's very good on the feet now to the point that I'm not concerned about it. There was a point where I kind of viewed her as like take down her bust. And I don't think that she's there anymore. She's become like a very solid, well-rounded mixed martial artist.

But her best pact of victory is when she gets on the ground, she puts people in deep, deep, deep water. and it's hard to get out from there. Yeah, I'm going to go with Gillian Robertson. Lance Gibson Jr., not the only former Bellator fighter making his debut on this card. Landskipson Jr. on the main card. Yaroslav Amasov, promoted to the prelims. I'm not sure. Former Bellator champion, 28 and 1, making his UFC debut against Neil Magny,

who Neil Magne is in just the most Neil Magny position of all time. You got a 28. and one champion in another promotion, making his debut be a real shame. If I were to 29, 28. That's exactly it. It's the most Neal Magni position he can be in. Licking his chops for this one. Nathaniel Wood getting rocked in the first round or Neil Magny facing an absolute stone cold killer who the UFC has high hopes for. Those are the two like can't miss positions. Look, man, people sleep on the Haitian sensation, bro.

He just gets it done. His run in, like, 2014 was stuff of legend. The fighter of the year run. And now he's just, like, the ultimate gatekeeper. It's literally, like, you want to be a player at 170? This is the guy. Yeah. This is the guy sitting there to decide whether you're in or not.

But in the most, like, respectful version of gatekeeper, like, it's not just, like, if you can even hang with this guy, like, you're good enough. It's really, like, he is the measuring stick. He is the bar for every single person who's come through this division because he seems to fight every single one of them. Like you just look at the names. He's fought everybody. He has fought everybody. Legitimately, last fight, Jake Matthews, sorry, bro, you didn't pass the Magni test.

Which that was a controversial one now that I'm remembering. We disagree, yeah. We do disagree. Eliza Zaleski, sorry, bro, you didn't pass the Magny test. Also, Magny beating Jake Matthews in that way is like the most Magny way possible. You thought he was dead. Nope, not yet. But then, Carlos Proches, you pass the Magnetest.

You're in, bro. You did it, brother. You made it, man. Michael Morales, congratulations. You passed the Magnet test. You're in, bro. Michael Malott? Not this time.

Not this time, man. Ian Machado Gary, ding, ding, ding. You passed the Magnet test. Welcome to the hierarchy of the welterweight division. Phil Rowe, maybe next time. Gilbert Burns, do you still have it in the Walterweight division? Almost like a, almost like a people are shoving Gilbert Burns out. And he's like, no, no, no, no.

And they're like, all right. Beat Neil Magny. This time he's gatekeeping from the other side. Sorry, bro, you didn't pass it. You're out. Daniel Rodriguez, nope. Shavkat Rogmanov. You passed the Magnet test.

Has he fought everyone in the top 10 of wealthiness? He's about everybody who's ever been a welter rate in UFC history. He fights so much, too. Like, he has 36 UFC fights. What's crazier is as you're doing this exercise is when you get even further down and you're like, okay, so like, you get to the Robbie Lawlers and you're like, Like, holy fuck. Then you get down and it's like, oh, fucking Carlos Condit,

Raphael dos Anjos, Johnny Hendricks, Kelvin Gastilum, Eric Silva, stun gun, Kim, Hector Lumpart. Like, there isn't a guy who this motherfucker has fought who's fought in the welterweight division. People also don't want to recognize this. February 2014 to May of 2015, he goes 7 and 0. Yeah.

In nuts. In 14 months, he goes 7 and 0 in the UFC. He was Kevin Holland before Kevin Holland. Was Neil Magny the best welterweight on planet Earth from February 2014 to May 2050? Not a chance in fucking hell, but there were a lot of people who failed the Neil Magny test at that time. And then he loses the Damien Maia and then he rattles off three more wins. He was 10 and 1 on that run. Also picked up four bonuses along the way.

Neil Magny, man. The winningest fighter in UFC welterweight history. Do not ever fucking forget that Neil Magny is the winningest fighter. Absolutely. I can't fucking wait for this fight. It's going to be iconic. Talk about legends as well. Yaroslav Amosov, a video that came out in 2022 of him recovering his belt from his bombed home after his city was occupied during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. There it is. Pull it out, baby. We got it. The Bellator belt. It's back to the end. Got to keep that baby safe.

I mean, look at this. This is ridiculous. He's coming out of like a bomb shelter in full military fatigues. And he's got that Bellator belt wrapped. Got it. Belator belt back. Legendary video. A lot of the videos from that time are like pretty crazy when you see like the Klitschko's on like the front lines.

Yeah, Loma and you're just like holy shit. Like Usek, obviously. But yes, Amasov is a like extremely talented fighter. Like this is a guy unlike Buccecha where it's like it was a little bit like he's a great Grappler like we're talking about like this is a debut that matters this is almost weird that I don't understand why this is on the prelims but I'm not the like about order guy I really ultimately don't care like Magni versus Amasov is a great fight and I'm happy to see it but it is a little bit weird that like a guy like you know pit bull and pico and all these other guys were in these

like super super highlighted spots and a guy like Amasov isn't because Amasov was a champion in Bellator. He's an amazing, amazing fighter. I think he would have deserved the kind of level and accolades and treatment that they're getting, because I still think he could be very viable in this division. He's fantastic. I'm expecting him to beat Neil Magnet. I believe he will pass the Neil Magnet test. He is a massive favorite. He is about minus 400 right now, and he's still only 32 years old, Amasov is. Honestly, like, when you do the math on it, what we were just talking about, the winningest fighter in Walterweight history and a debuting champion, and from another promotion, 28 and 1,

you would think would get a better treatment than... That's what I'm saying. He is good enough, in my opinion, to have been, like, yeah, alongside the pit bulls, the picos, the patchy mixes, like, why wouldn't he have gotten the same kind of treatment? I'm not sure what the difference or disconnect potentially is there. Maybe it's like in the weight class. He's just not somebody who they're kind of grooming

because there's to be a top guy because there's so many different guys already ahead of him. But make no mistake, as far as the skills and credentials and accolades, he is on par with all of those guys. This is a very, very exciting former Bellator champion debut for me. That is UFC Apex 112. I feel certain at International Fight Week next year in the nation's capital, we will be opening a randomized poster gift box, history gift box, have signed posters, and we'll be pulling the Roy Val Cop signature. That just feels like an automatic.

As long as they put Buccecha somewhere on there, I'm in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'll be signed, and we'll be getting in that. Yeah, we'll have the Buccecha signature on there as well. It'll be great. Drew Anderson, Brito, Isaac Thompson, also on the card. Sean Choraph, Stephen Aspland on the card. I know you're really excited about Aspland at heavyweight.

I love Asplena. Luana Santos, Melissa Corden, Alan Frye, Guillorye-May Pat, and Teresa Bleda versus Jamie Lynn Horth. Great to see JLH back in action. Let's jump over to PFL Leone. A fantastic card for PFL,

because at the top of the bill, there are two vacant titles that will soon have champions on them. Vadim Nemcov taken on Hanan Ferreira for the vacant heavyweight championship and Chris Seidwork for the vacant featherweight championship against Sarah Collins.

Let's start with Vadim Nemcov versus Anon-Ferara. Videmnnecob. A former Belmontonov, a former Belmont champion himself. Well, it was at light heavyweight since moving over to the PFL. He now finds himself at heavyweight. Hanan Ferreira, you know, lost his belt too or his super fights. Yeah, the super fight, whatever. We're cleaning it up now. We're cleaning it up now to Francis Inganu last year. Nemcov, two and oh so far at heavyweight and PFL. Yeah, Demkoff's a beast, man. Like, he is a real problem. He is going to beat Hanan Ferreira. Like, there's no doubt in my mind.

He's of that caliber. He's of that level. Hanan's run up to the Angano. fight was something for me, like, was impressive enough to that. I was like, okay, at least Francis Inganu has somebody with a pulse, like, has a heavyweight that, like, it matters if he beats him. Nemcov is going to also show the levels. Like, I have no doubt in my mind, this, this is a fight that I believe Nemcov will win quite handily. Yeah, I mean, like the guys that Hanan Ferreira before facing Francis Ingano, Mo Green. Yeah, that's not a great one. And his Goldsov. Goldsov's okay. Ryan Bader. Bader's good.

I think it's kind of like Flash K-O-M or it's going to be a long night for you. That's kind of how I feel about it. But Nemcov, man, Stud, Stud and Bellator will be a two-division champion. Do they count that? I mean, he had like four title defenses at Light Heavyweight and Belator, and now he's trying to become, you know, heavyweight champion of P.F. Elitore. Yeah. I don't know.

The lineage of these belts is now insignificant at this point. But, like, the light heavyweight champion of Belator when that is something, right? We're talking about the Corey Anderson's, the Phil Davis, Ryan Bader, Yo-Wo Romero. Like, this was a guy. This was a true guy for Bellator in the light heavyweight division. And as a heavyweight, I think he's potentially even better, right? Because he has a lot of speed and physicality advantages that he's able to bring with his frame. Yeah, he's a real issue in one of the top heavyweights in the world.

So I think this is going to be easy work for him. Speaking of easy work, the co-main event. Yeah. Chris Cyborg, 28 and 2, taking on. Sarah Collins 6 and 0 is not really a young up-income she's 35 years of age for the vacant featherweight championship

I just I can't I can't pick Sarah Collins with a good conscience No you can't you can't Cyborg is going to walk through her that is what we're lining up for at this point with Cyborg fights because I don't know how many people outside the UFC like even the last fight that she had

with Larissa Pacheco which was a great fight but a fight that you know both of us were on the side of thinking that Cyborg isn't able to get it done you're now losing options for people that you can throw in there with a body that is going to give Cyborg any, like, issue. Like, there's just not women big enough at this point

outside the UFC that are going to give Cyborg a problem. And quite frankly, like, even in the UFC anymore, like, there is no 145 pound division anymore. There really are not women around that Cyborg can fight. Like, it's just going to be the Cyborg show. Continues to just roll. And even at 40 years old, it just

does not bother me. I mean, I think she's just going to box her face off. She's too powerful. She's too fast. She's too skilled. She has way too much experience. I just honestly, I was kind of surprised that the line was only like minus $6.50.

Yeah, it seems like there's value there, honestly. It's a parlay piece. You could just throw her anywhere. Yeah, it feels like she's just going to run through her.

I mean, and not for nothing, the only thing I could see here, and believe me, I am picking Cyborg. Cyborg is my women's goat. All my feelings on Cyborg are very clear. She has been boxing, though. Like, that's where her focus

has kind of been lately. If maybe she slips on a banana peel or hasn't been training enough or whatever. Is there an opening? Maybe I just don't see it. Cyborg is one of the most relentless workers we have. She keeps herself in shape all year around. But the focus on boxing, maybe if you're trying to convince yourself, if you're trying to come up with some fantasy scenario or some world where how Cyborg could lose, I guess it could be that her attention has kind of been on the boxing world for the moment. But man, when she steps in there, you see the levels of difference. Outside

of Larissa Pacheco, who we all know now, like after her battles with, Kayla Harrison and Cyborg is an extremely, extremely good fighter. Unless you were talking about that level, you really don't have much to offer Cyborg. And how much is the PFL going to have the offer Cyborg? I don't think they have it, yeah. Yeah, so we'll see. I mean, there's no telling how many fights she has left in MMA, but we'll see after. These types of fights she could do for another five, 10 years.

And she could just walk through, yeah. We'll see after Saturday night. Kevin Drissette, also on the card, former UFC fighter as well as Taylor Lapel. fighting out of France. There's that Lappalus gang who were like, yo, he didn't deserve to be cut. We love Taylor. I hear this.

Hey, in France, too. They're getting to rep in Lyon as French fighters. I don't necessarily disagree, man. He went six and two in the UFC. The style, though. On two separate runs. The style, though, was not exactly exciting, and we know how they feel about that.

I know what you cut him after a Cody statement, Ms. Morales. Now he's getting wins in the PFO. Now, Lappalus is a great fighter. He's, you know, He's a truly great fighter. And to be in France, like, I'm sure this will be a very, like, exciting time for him. That is the PFL Leon card.

A couple good fights on that one, especially those top two on the bill. Where the fuck is Cedric Dunebe? Man. You tell me, bro. That's your guy. I know, but I wish I knew the answer. What is happening? Where is Cedric Dunebe?

If you look at his Twitter every once in a while, it seems like he's going to come back, and then he's not. And then he's posting his picture with his kickboxing belts. Keep my fucking name out of your mouth? Sorry, Cedric, I'm sorry. He last fought May 17th, 2024. This was like one of the guys that, like, it seemed like the, the, the PFL was dying for stars out of the ashes. Rises Cedric Dumebe, Dakota Dichiva. Oh, my God, we finally got some talent that's homegrown.

We can build on this. And it's just like, where the fuck is this guy? I mean, at least we got a Dakota fight. Thank God we finally got a Dakota Denserva fight. But, like, where the fuck is Cedric Dube? That's not a, that's not the splinter fight, is it? Thank you, Dumbay has posted on his story that he will be at the fights, though, because he wrote, Oh, perfect.

Which translates to, I will be present. Great. Thanks for the updates. No, he fought Jaliel Willis and beat him. Before that was the Bakke Splinter fight. But, like, where is this guy? He is one of your biggest stars. Yeah, what is he?

He is... 36 is my guess. 33. Okay. So he's not quite there. Sorry for the disrespect, sir. You have a little. bit of time with him but like a year plus off like why what like this is the guy and you're going to

france unless he he is just not interested in fighting anymore this is unexplainable they need to get him back france is a hub for them and like this is the guy he can be one of your biggest stars stop fucking this up uh just taking a quick peek at the chat here uh benny vina is asking where's gregor gillespie another good question no we know gregor's just like not fighting anymore yeah where is he man what's he doing No, but he's just not fighting. What's the beat doing? He's also not fighting, but he's training with all those guys.

Also seeing a berserker bee dog, not for nothing, but ultimately, that's the new phrase. That is very true. I saw last week someone commented, Connor G.C. Not for Nothing, Berks. Connor, Georgia, not for nothing, Connor, as my name. Double Connor? I will admit, I find myself saying, not for nothing way too often.

So now I need to put the clamps on it like you have with ultimate I feel like you've come back I feel like you got it. I feel like you got it. Is that a drop, or were you saying that live?

I said that live. Somebody somebody who really knows Ball and I forget if this was a tweet to me a comment I saw but somebody dropped that I feel like you gotta

and I was like yo there's levels right if you know the keep my fucking name out your mat like if you know the common drops and shit If you know those, you're a hardcore fan. But if you know, like, Frank teasing me about saying,

I feel like we got a, you're the 0.01%. Like, you are top tier. Yeah, speaking of, I feel like we got us, if Tatsuro Tahr is actually on to something about U.S. Japan, April May. I mean, I'll go by myself. So this is one that I actually don't need anyone to go with me. Four, I will actually just go by myself.

But I feel like we got it when comes to U.S. We just have to. We will be there. Sabrina was telling me last night, You got to go to Japan. Sabrina said this. Yeah, she speaks Japanese. She said this to you in Japanese, so now you speak Japanese.

Does she even speak English? Well, we're six weeks into Japanese. Aren't we also six weeks into life as well? Smart kid. Smart kid. Nobody knew that during his family was Japanese? No, just Japanese. Okay.

The walking's a bit of a concern. It feels like... She did smack her, like, little tomato thing. And then she said tomato in Japanese. I was like, oh, shit. Tomato smack feels like day six stuff, not weak-six stuff. Yeah, it feels like an issue. Okay.

More feasible, like on the scale, right? There's a scale. A Japan trip is great, and we all want to do it. But like there's costs associated, there's a lot of travel, right? That's like a 13 to 16 to 20 if you're connecting our of travel. Yep. Newark does directs. There's price, yes, but like the timing of those is kind of hard.

I've done it once, and it's not easy to get to Japan. The difficulty, the expense, the yada, yada, yada. Okay. Or do we just go to muckle chute? Hey! You know, like, that seems easier. That seems like a... Is there a Seattle card this year?

I don't know. Is there a muckle chute fight night? Fuck the Seattle card. I mean, a Seattle card into a muckle shoot weekend or a muckle shoot Thursday. Friday into Seattle card. There is a Seattle card. They announced it as part of the 2026 slate, if you guys remember this week. No, I don't, man. I don't. I got a lot going on in the old dome. Wait, is Michael Schoon? I've been planning my UFC Japan trip. All right. That is PFL Leon. That is UFC Apex

112. The last UFC card that we're going to get for six weeks. Next one is not until UFC 324 on January 24th. I'll be an entirely new man. By the time the octagon door closes at T-Mobile Arena on January 24th, then I am gonna be when the octagon door closes at the UFC Apex on December 13th after Minel Cop versus

Brandon Royval. So it's a long gap. It's a long gap. Last thing to get into for the weekend, uncrowned weekend, as the experts say. John Sina, speaking of finale's in his final... Final Final match ever at

W.W.E. Saturday night's main event. Also, isn't it the last thing they're ever going to do on Peacock as well? Is that true? No, aren't they off peacock already? But this is on Peacock. Oh, yes. You know what? They were off Peacock for the PLEs. They moved the PLEs. But yes, I guess this is, right? I think so. He's going to be taken on. No, no, no. Because don't they have programming that

runs through the end of the year? I don't know. We shouldn't have started this conversation because I'm not that aware of WWE writes here. He's going to take on Gunther in the Saturday night's main event.

Gunther was the winner of the 16 man. The time is now. The last time is now tournament. So that's your final opponent. We hype for it? I'm hyped for it because I'm interested in the spectacle

surrounding it. This whole scene of like run-up has been fascinating to me. but I'm not like enough in the day-to-day storyline that like, oh, it's Goonther and those aspects of it are going to like appeal to me. But yes, I mean like John Sina is, he was not my era of wrestler, right? I was out. I was stopped watching wrestling after the attitude era.

So this, this didn't like cross over into the ruthless aggression John Sina run. But naturally he's somebody who I've known, you know, to be like the top star for a long time. I kind of quite like him in like candid interviews when he does like. you know, out of K-Fabe, John Cena, the human being character, the human being interviews. And I think he's actually become, like, quite a decent actor. Okay, I was going to say, I'm most looking forward to this so he can just get his ass back to acting. Yeah, like, what's your favorite, Tina? The Tour de France spoof is great, where he's the one guy on steroids. I have not seen this. Oh my God, are you kidding me? Yeah. What's the most

recent one he came out with as well well Ricky Steeniki Ricky Stenickey he was fantastic in yeah I agree with you I really It was a stupid ass movie but like it was pretty good Peacemaker on HBO he is a plus plus A plus tour to pharmacy

Didn't even see it oh my god Dude it's like I'll check it out now that you said that It's like a 40 minute mockumentary on the tour to France Love it John Sina is a guy on juice And like he's absolutely fucking huge in the movie And it's ridiculous I mean he's just huge in general. That is a massive man.

I also watched Heads of State where he was the president of the United States and he was the prime minister and they were like traveling together. It was almost like buddy cop-ish. Wasn't great, but Sina's still pretty good. Like I really enjoy John Sina.

I like him as, I like him more as like the entertainment, like person. Almost how I like the rock, right? Like I don't really watch the Rock's wrestling. I don't really care about the wrestling storylines of the Rock, but as this like pop culture-y, figure. I like the rock and then naturally, like the one that, you know, I kind of wanted to save

to the end is, you know, the brother of Dominic Torretto in the Fast and Furious movies, which is the best franchise that we have going. He is a king for being in the Fast franchise. The Rock is? No. John Sina is also in it? The rock is in the franchise as like a cop, like kind of officer of the law type guy. John Sina is Dominic Toreto's brother in the franchise.

Okay. Vin Diesel and John Sina, brothers in this franchise. Family. Family. Yeah, yeah, I know all about it. I know all about it. Yeah, I also just want to tune in just because it will be like a bit of a cultural perspective. Like, it'll just be like a...

It's a moment. It'll be a scene. It'll be a moment. Like, it's going to be getting clipped out everywhere on social media and stuff. Like, I do enjoy tuning into the major, major wrestling events like WrestleMania and Royal Rumble and SummerSlam. And like, this is one that, you know, Saturday night are all around. I'll have the apex on the small TV. I'll be like, yeah, let's flip on, see what old Johnny boy's up to.

Because I also know it's not just going to be Sina versus Gunther, and they're going to do a match, and that's it. And it's like, ah, bomboyotch, thanks for everything, John. Some bullshit's going to go on. Some bullshit's going to go on. And also, do you think, like, this has been the hot debate? I don't, do you think Sina will ever wrestle again? Yes, of course.

I think we all think that, which is kind of weird. No, he's going to wrestle again, but he's never going to be like a regular. He was a regular this year. He was, he did, well, what's crazy is I was listening to his podcast with, was it the Rogan one or was it the Bill Simmons one? It might have been the Bill Simmons one where he was talking about back in his day he used to do 220 dates a year

and now this year he was full time and he did like 40 dates like he was comparing the craziness of the schedule now to then and it's not quite the same. He was there when it was like the wild wild west where you're still driving town to town and making it happen

it was quite crazy but But yeah, respect to an absolute legend in John Cena, I like you think he will wrestle again, even if he doesn't, right? If he sticks to it, and by the way, in all the interviews he's doing, he is saying, I will not wrestle again. I promise you I'm not going to wrestle again. Habibask. Everybody, yeah, I'll be best. Bill Simmons was like, yeah, I don't believe you. Like, everybody comes out of retirement and wrestling.

He's like, I'm going to be the one. I promise you, I am not going to wrestle. He is really, like, pushing that hard. If that's true, he will still be around wrestling, right? he will still be the guy who shows up and you can still have him cut a promo or do something because he loves it so much and also because he's so damn good at it. But like The Rock, you don't really have the time to just keep dropping in. When the Rock actually came back in a storyline that was kind of massive because all his

previous comebacks have just been like, I'll get on the mic, I'll roast somebody, and then I'll step out. If we get seen it even in that capacity, I think it will be still good for wrestling and good for that sport or entertainment product. but I'd be I just feel like nobody retires nobody retires I think he'll wrestle especially not in this word I saw one graphic

where it was like WWE superstars in the year 2000 and it was like 27 29 31 28 it's like WWE superstars now it's like 44 42 like they've just like continuously progressively gotten older and older if you want some odds

if you like to place a wager on scripted wrestling Gunther minus 300 John Cena plus so Sina is going to put Gunther over, huh? That's what they think. That's what the odds makers do.

Do you know about like the wrestling like the, what's the term I'm looking for? Like what you're supposed to do, the rules. Well, yes, that. But like the rules of how you're supposed to leave, right? So you as the guy, John Cena, you are doing a service. You are giving a gift to a guy like Gunther. The way it's supposed to go is when you're a guy of that status and this is like your end, this is your last match, you put Gunther over because they can't make money on you anymore.

You're the guy going out the door. So the way they book it is traditionally like you take the pinfall so that this guy can look like a million bucks and they can build on Gunther and then he takes it from there. So like this is in line with what is supposed to be done in wrestling. You're supposed to go out on your back. You're supposed to like lay down and let the guy pin you and then he gets the coast and capitalize on having a win over John Cena. So that what happens?

Those odds make sense to me It would be surprising If he didn't do it that way The only way it wouldn't is maybe if he comes back He's probably going to come back at some point Get in price Yes To the arena down in Washington D.C

If you go on game time Great app to get tickets Only app that I use $414. So that's the cheapest ticket available right now Cheapest ticket to get in Is it worth it? That's not bad though

You don't see this final match People clamoring for these tickets man Let's see like Let's get like a lower damn section 100 row j 980

so like you're probably 10 rows back not bad floor seats 2,500 if you are buying these tickets

anywhere in this arena it is predicated on the fact that you are the one one of the few people who does believe this will be his last match

because otherwise it's like man imagine the feeling like you buy you buy tickets and you go and you're just like

I did it And then raw, the first raw of the year. You're like, ah, you mother fuck. You motherfucker. It's going to be a spectacle. It's going to be interesting. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of like memes and celebrations and everything coming out of it.

Wrestling has a very good ability to kind of cut through the noise. And like when they have a big moment, it really does like travel. It always finds me. You also realize like in these massive moments in wrestling how many people actually like wrestling. 100%. Like some of these clips on social go instant. insanely viral. To me it's like

soccer. It's one of these things that I just do not have on my radar, but when something hits me, it's a reminder to me of like, oh shit, everybody else in the entire universe loves this and I have no interest in it. It's one of those things. Yeah, I think I'm finding our tickets

right here. Mid Bowl 686, after fees, club seating. Beautiful view of the ring. Shout to games. It's Washington, right? Yeah, yeah. Are we going? Yeah, I'm down. Let's take the Amtrak. That's the part about game time is that when you click on the ticket you can see the view that you're going to have

the 3D view like you can see what you're looking at oh yeah you can look around the whole arena what it's going to be like shout out to him all yeah will I be there TV'd be you know I thought we just agreed to but if I am there I'll be getting my tickets on game time my favorite ticket again all right also on that card WWE champion Cody Rhodes versus NXT champion Obafimi I know you I know you're salivating over that one

I actually don't know him I don't know who OvaFee me I know Cody Rhodes obviously I bet 50 bucks I'm mispronouncing Obafimi's name. OBA space FEMI. Who's to check? That feels right. I will be supporting the Atlanta's own

Cody Rhodes in that one. If it is a farewell, farewell to John Sina. What a career. Incredible. Incredible run. Absolutely incredible run. All right, let's get into

bets and parlay palpics for the weekend. The parlay pals back in the losing column. Back in the red from last weekend. Died on Pantosia's arm was brutalized

in the main event. Fucking pizza. That's rough. I feel like we did this in honor of Christmas. Red green, red green? Yeah, I think that's what I was thinking when I picked green. We got to finish the year on a win, boys. Come on, let's do this.

Let's get tight. Pizzi already sent me his pick. Let me pull it up because I can't remember what it was. It was. Bedeem Koff. Frankie's pre-screening the randomizer. I'll go first because I'm going to take Chris Cyborg and then you guys can bail it out for two. I'm going to go on a no cop.

I don't like that. Oh. But I want to change it? Who might have to tell you, Frankie? Exactly. No, no, no, no. Trust you. I trust you.

You know, there was some problems with the picks that I was making last week as well. And I just have you know that the pick that I was going to pick and the pick that I did pick. Both made it. Yeah. When you got the gift, you got the gift. Got the gift. All right. No cop is the pick for Mysterious Frank.

If it loses, I will never let you live it down. Yeah. You really got on your high horse there. You know, you really celebrated. It says the man who took a minus 720. Yeah. All right. Should be minus 7,000.

Honestly, though, yes. You know what's, okay, I know this is kind of like cliche and stupid. There is a reminder, though. Like we sometimes were like minus 700, you really stuck your neck out there. The Pantosia fight happened. Like shit like that really does happen. So like it's not. Fight is a fight, you know.

Fight is a fight. Business, exactly. Exactly. It just hits so bad drop. Exactly, Kiyoji. The drops cannot be that long. Exactly. The fuck gives a fuck about Carl Fock or whatever his name is.

He gives a flying fuck about Carl Frock of what he's got to say. Does anybody really interested? Oh, thanks. Okay, but back to my point is, I know you're picking Chris Cyborg as a massive error, but like, shit, there is a world where this, like, even 700. There is a world where she throws a head kick and Sarah Collins catches it, and she posts on her arm and it explodes. There are no guarantees.

What? There's a world where someone spontaneously combusts as they get into the... No, there's not. How would that happen? How would that happen? You watched it happen with us, right? There are no safe bets in MMA. It is a very crazy sport.

All that to say, who are you taking? I'm taking Amasoff. I think he passes the Neil Magnet test. All right, we going chalky here. We always do, but this is especially chalky. I put it into Draft Kings. Our graphics team's already got it. Plus 122.

The only one is the balls on this list. A little... Yeah, only one with any balls. He took a minus 305, man. Fuck you. And we hated it. We both picked against you. Yeah.

I'll never live it down. It'll be that much more. Two UFC, two PFL. Not bad. Two UFC, two PFL. The best part is, Frank, is if our picks... And I picked a guy who is... Bellator.

Yeah. Even though he's... What is Belator? Who knows? Do you remember Bellator? Is that, is that like a subdivision of one? If all of our picks hit, Frank? And mine does it.

Well, Manel Cop will be the last one, so it'll be all on you. It'll be all on you. As Brandon Royva cruises to a decision and we're just like shitting on Frank in the group chat. All right, my bets for the final time this year. Last three card winning streak for me. So we'll see if we can finish it out. Four cards in a row. Last week we finished up just over a unit.

A little bit over exposed on Maratha Vashvili, but we still won. First up, Jillian Robertson. I'm going to take her to beat Amanda Lemos. I think this is a changing of the guard. She's looked fantastic on this four-fight winstreek. Amanda LeMosch, just getting up there, and A, just don't think she is the fighter that she used to be. Let's roll along.

Saezer versus Cesari. I think this one's going to get, going to get heated, going to get contentious because it's a fight. But no, I think they're both going to come in here swinging. Omeda can knock him out, so can't Seizari. But I think Seizari just gets a little too, a little too loose in the striking and I think he gets caught by Omeda

but just in case if he doesn't if he takes him down and he finishes on the mat I'll just take the under two and a half to be safe let's go to the main event Brandon Roy Val 2 DeVite Manal Cop I think he's just getting slept on with this line I think plus 250s just disrespect in the raw dog baby this guy's got wins over

Brandon Moreno got wins over Tatsuro Tyra losses close fights to the very top of the division he has incredible experience five rounds you know power disadvantaged sure, but volume advantage. I think he's also got an advantage on the ground. I just think he's a live dog. So Brandon Roy Val will be my pick. And then Parlay, Yoroslav Amasov. Yeah. And Kevin Viejos, the co-main again to get it done. And those are the bets for UFC Apex 112.

The final UFC card of 2025, the final UFC card of the ESPN era before we launch into Paramount in 2026. And for that reason, that takes us into our pound for pound ranking. for our final boys in the back of 2025. And what else could it be? Pound-for-pound finales. Frankie, what's the order, baby? The order today is Frank, followed by Eric Jackman. And then rounding third with Connor Burke.

Sweet. I'm excited for this one. I think this could get funny. All right. I like it. A little bit ridiculous. My number five is The Dinosaurs. And actuality, it's a television show called Dinosaurs.

Was a favorite of mine growing up. It was on TGIF. You know, you know. I do not know. I'm a baby. Yeah. Boy, what was a sleeper about this is that you had the, you know, slapstick comedy going on for the entire series. And then when they ended it, it's literally with some shit where they block out the sun.

And now they're dealing with volcanic winter. And they all end up dying. And like the little baby is like, oh, what happens to us? And the mom's like, I'm not sure. And then it just goes to the. The end credits, and it's like, holy shit, did that really just happen? Yeah, they ice-aged them. Yep.

So, like, it's like a nice, fun comedy show, and then the way it ends is, like, how it... And it surprised everyone. Like, critics, everybody was like, what the hell did we just watch? That's incredible. Coming into number four, saved by the bell. Now, I have to unpack this one. Saved by the Bell had gone through four iterations. There was the one where it was basically just Zach Morris and, like, a teacher.

I think it was like, sorry, Miss Bliss. I can't remember the name of it. They rebooted it. Yeah, Miss Bliss. You got it. Called it. Saved by the Bell. They finished that.

So you would think that's the finale, but no. They made a whole other series that was them in college. It was like saved by the book college years. I finished that. And then they did like a movie where Kelly Kapowski and Zach Morris get married. And to me, that's the true finale of this entire thing. Are you fucking kidding me right now? I don't understand why you're so upset.

Of all the different iterations you picked the fucking movie version thing? Look, the college years existed for one reason only. and that was to give a little bit of backstory for inevitably the marriage. That was all that was. Because the college one wasn't actually that far. I don't know what it is. What's your number three? My number three, if you love that one, you're going to love this one.

Oh, Jesus. It's the office. But here's the thing. It's when Michael leaves the show. Yeah. Because I'm a huge James Vader fan, but to me, this was the end. And especially as an audio guy, this specific scene where he forgets to take off his laugh mic. And he's like, oh, I don't need this anymore.

Almost brought a tear to the eye, man. Sorry, I just want to be clear. not to interrupt again I just want to be clear though this is the end for me like that was that was your quote yes like you you have

selectively chosen when the finale occurs I've seen your list you sit on a throne of lies you decide when the finale is we'll get to you okay number two

MASH now this list came to like what are the finales that I think of immediately I haven't watched every MASH episode because they're There are a shit ton of them. But I'll have you know that the last MASH episode

is the most watched television show episode of all time. Still, reigning. Still. Wow. Live, correct? Live, yes. And are they not like the most watched show ever or something? Like, still probably.

I don't know. I think they've been replaced with that, like prime time, but like this episode was the most watched. And heartfelt. And I mean, MASH started as like a satirical movie kind of dark. then they went into like the more lighthearted show and then they kind of ended on a somber note again the war is never something that you can laugh about all the time right so then number one is cheers now technically cheers was the second most watched episode of all time but i just feel like

it's ending ends on a better note because literally you know it's about a bar people hanging out of a bar but the end is someone trying to get it in the bar and ted danzen is like sorry we're closed And it's like, ah, man, that hits you right in the fields. So that's my list. Rick, it's your turn. Okay. Were you a guy who watched Cheers and MASH and some of that older TV growing up, or did you come to it later?

While I was growing up. What was the Cheers theme song again? Something where everybody knows your name. My back's getting weary. Yeah, yeah, something like that. It's closing times again. No, that's not it for it. You don't have to go, man.

Traffic on the Queensborough Bridge. No, isn't that the King of Queens. Queens or some sure. Gotta catch them all. All right, Rick. All right.

So you didn't, you didn't veer from TV at all? No. When I think of finale, I think of television. So you're okay with the, you're okay with the,

the ruling is you're okay with him just going, the office ended when I decided it ended. You're good with that. Yeah, because I kind of agree with it. Why did they keep it going? And it was, it was very sad when he left.

It was very sad when he left. I don't love it, but okay. I will accept. I'll accept. You're such a, such a poser. poser

he just bent it all you were like so much conviction and then you find out no I'm out voted there's three of us and the boys in the back and the two

the two have decided that we can just decide wherever the fuck the finale is is where we want it I can just decide as executive producer you get an extra vote

so it's technically no but it's not tied because they it's not an extra vote Jordan you keep misunderstanding this the voting is if it's tied I have the tie breaker

it is not tied you can just make it tied though It's not tied. Do you want to disagree? Do you think we should uphold, you know, parliamentary ranks? You're going down, Jackman. I like when you dig into Frank in these things because I find enjoyment in it. Without the sex.

Without the sex. Okay. So let's get into my list. Let's get into my list. Here we go. Mine is not as television heavy. I mixed it up a little bit more. But it starts with a TV moment, but it's also a sports moment.

One of the most indelible, incredible sports. moments of our lifetimes. All of us were alive. Yes. All of us were alive. Game 6, 1998, The Shot. The Hawaii drop took me out for a second. Game 6, 1998, Michael Jordan, Byron Russell, the shot. The greatest closing sequence. Not an NBA finals history, because there has been better, and I'll talk about that,

maybe later, maybe not at all. but to close the bull's run of Michael Jordan to close that season of the NBA this was it indelible like this is the poster on the wall this is the moment this is the thing that everybody points to about Michael Jordan why he's the goat 6 and 0 in the finals

makes that shot iconic just iconic moment for one of the most iconic sportsmen of all time Michael Jordan number four this is the final flight of the eagle This is the final go-round for...

We're going to do this on every single one, Frankie? This is really going to bother me. You're calling this like a retirement as a finale. Oh, yeah. This is the closing credits for one of the greatest fighters we've ever seen. The submission of Justin Gaichi. What was it? UFC 2?

You would know this better than me. What's the number on this? 54-249? No, that was the Jacksonville, like, comeback one. Yeah. As you're looking that up, Either way. The final fight of Habib Nirmaga Madov's career, which I believe, and I'm putting my stock into, unlike, as we were talking about John Cena, or, oh, wow, it was $254.

I was going to say, yeah, you did have it $0.54. Nice. Typically not good with those, as the prop quiz watchers would know. The final fight of Habib's career, I believe that will stick. An incredible way to go out. We then get some lore later where he's talking to D.C., and D.C.'s like, yeah, he looked over at me, and he was like, I wanted to submit him because I didn't. and want to hurt him in front of his parents. Like, just crazy level shit from Habib in the final fight of his career.

And even the main event, it's the finale of the night if we want to add that additional stakes. But yeah, crazy way to go out. Habib is a gangster and an epic performance, if that was the final one of Habib's career, which I believe it was. Number three, the comeback. I mentioned that the Jordan moment was one of the best finals moments. to me the best finals moment ever is the finishing closing sequence of the 2016

finals. LeBron James getting the block, Kyrie Irving, hitting the shot. Kevin Love getting the stop. The comeback complete down 3-1 for the Cavaliers coming back against the 73 and 9 warriors, getting it done.

Cleveland, this is for you. Cleveland, this is for you. The whole deal. Personally, for me, very important, very meaningful as a Cavs fan, But I think everybody out there can acknowledge, like, this is one of the best NBA finals ever. Easily. In my opinion, it is the best. Three one, you have a superstar like a brawn accomplishing that.

Yes. It was nuts and a crazy sports moment. Number two, I am going back to TV now. Now we're going TV. Okay. Number two, my controls. My controls is the name of an episode, the season finale and possibly the series finale of the rehearsal. Nathan Fielder.

here's the back story on this. Nathan Fielder, season two of the rehearsal, was predicated around. There are a lot of plane crashes popping up recently. And he believed his theory was that this was because of a lack of communication

between pilots and co-pilots where they didn't want to offend each other and nobody wanted to speak up when there was a disaster. He goes through all these episodes, kind of doing these mock rehearsals around trying to improve these things between them. The end episode,

The finale, My Controls, he reveals that he's been taking pilot training and he flies a commercial 737 with people on it, some of the actors that he had hired throughout the series on it and pilots a jumbo jet airliner. Like he's a fucking crazy person, but in the best possible way, I love everything Nathan Fielder does. There could have been a, that Nathan for you season one finale or even season two finale, but Nathan Fielder is an. absolute genius. The fact that he just became a pilot as a bit to end a season of a TV show is nuts. Then him and his co-pilot had a communication issue during the... A little bit. He kind of played it up, but yes, they had a little bit of a communication issue. But shout out to Nathan Fielder and one, my personal favorite, like, season finale of all time, other than, but I put it into a different category because this one is

reality television. Oh. We're going over to the world of reality television. The season finale of Rivals 3 on the Challenge, the iconic moment where Johnny Banana steals the money from Sarah Rice.

iconic. So here's the context for this one. Rivals 3 is the concept of this season of the challenge was they pitted rivals together. Right? You are at odds, but you have to team up to this challenge and so johnny had been done wrong by sarah and i'll get more into that in a second at the at the season finale the final tj calls it his final they're both climbing this mountain

they're both going through absolute hell the final the final part of any season of the challenge is this like treacherous two-day climb up a mountain you have to sleep intense or sometimes not even sleep it's just absolute torture for two days basically but during the final of that season they were timing individually the two partners and when they came to the end and they had won they reached the finish line tj informs them that they had timed the the individual activities of both of the partners and johnny did better than sarah so at that point 500 000 prize on the line he says to johnny johnny is the one who did better in this in this team you have the option to either split this money with Sarah or take every single dime of it. And they had worked so hard

all season together. They were perfect partners. They were so happy to be together. They were like, oh my God, I can't believe we were ever at odds. And in that moment on that mountain with $500,000 on the line, Johnny Banana said, I'm going to take the money and run, Tej. And he takes all 500K and she ends up with zero dollars for that. It was an iconic reality television moment. It has now been kind of like entered into the pantheon. There's many series that kind of crib on that. The context for this is even deeper, which is the season before on X's 2,

Sarah was paired with Jordan. Johnny was paired with Nani, who you might remember from the most recent season that we were watching. And right before the final, right before you get to the final, Sarah throws Johnny into elimination. They were friends.

He was friends with her. He was friends with her. Jordan, Sarah threw Johnny into the elimination because she thought her chances of winning the final would be better and so she threw Johnny in and he ends up getting eliminated. He internalized this, harbored

this, devised this devious game plan and then they get on rivals the next season and he executes his game plan and steals it from her. 500K in his pocket, zero in hers. She never showed back up on the challenge again. Wow. iconic moment. Shout out to Johnny Banana. Shout out to Johnny Bananas for getting it done.

That was a nice list. All right. My number five. I'm actually going to the world of MMA. A kin to your Habib now. I am going to a finale. Dana White has coined this the most important fight in UFC history,

the tough season one finale. Bonner versus Griffin. Yep. We wouldn't have had 34 subsequent seasons if it wasn't for this fight. We potentially wouldn't have the UFC as it is today. if it was not for this fight.

Let me add. We might not have actually had the UFC, not even as it is today. Like, they put all their money into getting this on TV and hoping that this would happen. And it delivered. And it delivered.

Shout out to him. All-time moment. Not just for tough, but the UFC and MMA as a whole. Number four, The Sopranos. Controversial final, if you've seen it.

Don't stop believing. Everybody's walking into the diner. A couple sketchy people. A guy goes to the, the bathroom, and then it just, boom, cuts to black. People at the time, oh, that's nice. That's nice. People at the time literally thought their power went out.

Like, they were like, what the fuck just happened? Because there's a, there's a pause there before they show the credits, and I'm talking like, it's like, don't stop, believe. Yeah. And it just cuts to black, and you're left to ponder what the fuck just happened. How could that actually be it? My theory is you're viewing it as Tony and the guy that went to the bathroom

went around behind him and shot him in the head and kills him and that's it. You're following the story of Tony Soprano and it ends right there. He's now dead. You could pick this just because it's like iconic. Did you like it? Are you somebody who enjoyed it?

I liked it. I'm cool with it because I thought the show was like damn near perfect all the way up until it. And then I like the whole like it leaves it up to interpretation. I enjoyed it. I didn't have a problem with it. Loved the show as a whole,

especially living in this area. I watched the Sopranos when I lived in New Jersey, so it was kind of fun. I felt like you related to it more all-time show, all-time classic. Number three, actually took place this year, the 2025 French Open final. Carlos Alcoraz versus Yonix Center, number one versus number two in the world. They had many battles this year, but this is the key moment to look at. If you don't know tennis, Al-Qaraz is down, two sets to one. It's the first to three, best of five.

He is down a break, which means Sinner will be serving for the match. But right now he is serving down Love 40. Sinner has three championship points. To put this into perspective on this, if you know betting odds, at this moment Alcaraz's plus 4,000 on the live line should have been even higher. Like he is dead to rights. Even if he comes back and wins this game, he then has to break Sinner's serve just to be able to try and attempt to force a tie break in this set, and then he needs to go on and win the fifth set.

This is a Leon Edwards. This is a holy fucking shit. I cannot believe he does that. Yes, Leon Edwards is a proper comparison. He fucking does it. He pulls it off. He comes all the way back. I mean, and it's not like it was easy in the fifth set either.

They go to a fucking tie break in the fifth set. Like, it was unbelievable. And like, if you're looking at the first one, he's down two sets to love and gets broken in the first game. It's like, this guy is fucked. And then comes back when. that set. And then he's dead to write's triple match point for triple championship point for Yonik Sinner. And then he comes all the way back, wins the fifth set. One of the greatest

sporting events I've ever watched, the best tennis match I've ever watched. It was unbelievable. World number one, world number two, iconic scenes, cinema, unreal. Let's keep it rolling to more cinema in sport. The 2002 World Cup final megastars pitted against each other. Lionel Messi versus Killing Mbapai. This moment right here in the 123rd minute to try to seal the victory for France gets blocked. Before that, you have Messi with two goals. Killing Mbapé gets a penalty and then follows it up a minute later in the 81st minute with an absolute screamer to tie it up to two, and then an extra time.

It felt like they were going to score a million times over. Mbapapé ends up with a hat trick. It goes to penalties. and the biggest, maybe Rinaldo, but one of the biggest stars in the entire sport gets his moment, World Cup victory, Lionel Messi in Argentina. Absolute scenes. Three three to penalties,

both of them scoring an extra time as well. One of the best sporting events I've ever watched. It was an absolute classic. Me and my roommate were just sitting on our couch and like, you're in the 75th minute and you're like, damn, Argentina really just kind of rolled to this. And then it's just like, oh, don't bro. It's about to get fucking crazy

And it did Because even in the first half of extra time It felt like they were all going to score like 10 times before they finally ended up scoring it Cinema to the highest extent Absolute perfection when it comes to sport And then number one perfection In the form of television

And that is my favorite show of all time And that is Felina The finale to Breaking Bad Ends as the camera rises Walter White bleeding out On the ground Fucking out. Walt dies, but the family gets the money.

The rivals are dead, and he frees Jesse Pinkman to go to Alaska. A bow on the gift that is Breaking Bad. Shout to Vince Gilligan. Shout out to Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and the whole crew. Brian Cranston, obviously. It's a great finale. It's a great finale. I've heard postured many times that Ozzy Mandus is the real finale, and this is epilogue.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where do you stand on that? I think the fact that Walter White dies and everything in Felina, that's like the final shot, that that is the finale. But every fucking season of Breaking Bad is perfect. It's like one of those guys. There's someone out there watching this right now, and they're like, yeah, I tried to watch it, but like season one's pretty slow.

It's just like, fuck you, man. Fuck you. Sit and watch it. It's a great shit and watch. Andy just said that's her. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. Makes sense.

It all adds up now. What was the disconnect, Andy? You just didn't get into it into it at the time And now it's like It's too late or you watch it and you didn't like it Tell me where you're at with it So I watched like maybe a couple of episodes in season one And I was just like this is again

I was like this is too slow But to be fair to be fair I did the same thing with the office And then I tried again like five years later And now it's one of my favorite shows So it might have just been like where I was Got to try it mentally or maybe I was tired or something Like I don't know

But I'm willing to give it another shot I say give it another shot Definitely just gave a couple of spoilers there. I rank the Breaking Bad as too slow take on similar planes as Lord of the Rings is just walking. So do you think I need to re-watch Lord of the Rings now to give it another crack? I think we should all go to the movie theater for the extended releases, re-releases in theaters. Oh, there's more walking. Could potentially be the last time that these are ever in theater.

Thank God. No, no, no, no. That's not because people don't want to put them in. It's because, you know, theaters might just die with this whole... What is... What is the difference between the regular and the extended? What am I getting? Yeah, more walking.

Fuck, they actually... I've actually never watched the extended. They actually put Gandalf on a treadmill. The whole, like, montage of them warming up for the big walk. They're like, we're getting ready to walk here. Another great finale. Better Call Saul from the same... I never watched Better Call Saul.

I love Breaking Bad. I've never watched it. bad to me is the OG, plus I just absolutely love the cast, but better call so. Honorable mention. Is that over? Fantasy 7? Yeah, it's over. Okay. Battle of Sephiroth. Oh, oh, Frankie. I woke up in the middle of the night and I was like, shit,

why didn't I put that on the list? I'm like, you know what? That is an absolutely all-timer. Me and my brothers beat that on PC in like probably 2002 or something. And we had to leave to go to church or something and we left it

on in the middle of the battle because we were about to be him and my parents were like, we have to go get out. And we were so nervous the entire time that we were going to lose the data and we weren't going to be able to beat him. But we came back and it was still where it was at and we beat him. So not only was it an epic, epic final boss battle, but your experience of it was also an epic kind of life. If you've never been it, it's like you literally like fight the dude in like a different universe. Like you're just like in space. It's crazy. He gets the torso with the horse and he starts flying and the music's epic, it's amazing.

I think that could have probably made the list over like, you know, a mid-season and another season. I definitely agree. You could have used that one to bolster your list, Frankie. Frankie, this might be a weird thing to ask. Do you ever go back and... Only once. Oh, go ahead.

No, no, no. This wasn't about kissing your mother's ass. This is about... Do you ever go back and watch your favorite boss battles from video games growing up on YouTube? Like, you don't want to go and replay the whole game, but you kind of want to just relive the boss battle again. Absolutely. And I'll take it one further.

Sometimes I watch the beginnings as well. Like the beginning of Final Fantasy 8 is goaded. Like, I was so excited when that was coming out as a kid. And, like, it still delivers that they get some of the best, like, direction you could do for an intro to a game. Yeah. So, yeah, I do that. Sometimes I'll watch this whole walkthroughs and I'll just kind of click through to different parts. I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember that.

I did that for Banjo Tooie recently. Shut out. Would you rather watch that or a mediocre movie about the game that, include some of those notes. Like, would you rather watch what they, as they constructed it, but it's like somebody else playing, so you're not really, like, getting the dopamine here. You're not getting it as, like, strong. Or would you rather watch, like, a new thing where they're, like, cribbing the video game,

making a movie version. So it's, like, something new and exciting for you. But it's, like, good to not, like, good to maybe, like, almost great, but not, like, perfect. I want to rewatch the battle because it's like, it's the nostalgia hit. Because you have your memories of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just like reliving. I never have been able to rewatch

video games. Oh, fuck. I'll go back and watch like the Elite 4 of Pokemon Red every once in a while. Because it's not me, I'm kind of just like I'm bored of them. I just want to relive it. The music everything, it doesn't hit for me. I don't know why. Bray, we got any voicemails? We do.

Voice mails! Ohoy, hooy, hoi. I just wanted to come on here and address that what's going to be going on with me fight being butts and that I'm just not fucking ass about these haters saying I don't deserve a title shot

and that I've seen that I've seen their graphic saying that they've had their combined loss streak or dirty you know whatever the fucking they're all washed and they're all fucking old and whatever that lad's

I don't give a fuck it's the fucking paddy show here and I'm ready to fucking win the belt, lads. Honest of God Gagie's just not been a fucking same since he had his fucking chin spun by

Holloway in the last second and it's just going to be easy work for me boys. But, you know, while I'm getting all this flack, I need a chair. I've got a big sacrifice I'm making it. We all know don't goose me dead in this

bike camp. but as much as that's a bit of I don't know we all know I love my food and really and they're giving up food for if I can't and they're fucking munched boys and

it's your sad boys but you know I go fucking dig deep if I'm going to be the champ and then once on the interim title I'm ready to spin the chin on fucking hand sanitizer boy is going to be fucking brilliant lad

it's going to be a great 2026 for me and yeah I just want to say I have a love and support from old Berksie and Eric and Frank the mystery nonce

Frank the mystery nuts I appreciate that Patty thanks Patty man good luck yeah good luck next month we can't wait dude we can't wait honestly it could be a big 2026 for him yeah huge so up guys

my name's Tim I don't know how long I've been listening to but I just wanted to say thank you for sticking around during Thanksgiving because I was home alone watching my sister's dog, so no family this Thanksgiving. It got me thinking with six weeks of no MMA until January 24th, will we still have the boys in the back? Anyways, you guys are awesome.

Thanks for hanging out with me on Thanksgiving. not literally, but you guys are awesome. Have a good day. We appreciate you, man. Yeah, appreciate the call, Tim. Appreciate you listening, man. Sorry you had no fam on the on the Thanksgiving. Watch the sister's dog.

Where is the sis at? Who knows? Maybe a thanksgiving. Who's to check? Who's to check, man? We appreciate you, Tim. Yes, you still have the boys in the back. This is the last one for 2025, but we'll be back on January 8th that Thursday.

And then we'll obviously do the following 15th and then 22nd leading into UFC 320. Yeah. We'll be here, baby. Uncrowned shows will be dark for about a two-week little stretch, but we'll be back. Typical times. The last aerial Hawaiian show is the 22nd. We'll be back on the 5th. Yeah, we'll be back. We will not leave you hanging to the first UFC event. There will be plenty of content before that. Back with the award show. Yes. Yo, what's up, boys?

The sport has become a complete fucking joke. Oh, wow. We're fucking, Camaro Ouzman's fighting for the title. Maybe. Michael Morales is right there. He's been lighting dudes up. Yep. He's throwing shit that's so unorthodox.

Punches are coming from completely different angles. He's got an 82-inch reach. He's throwing shit that hits you fucking behind the head, and then you're fucked. If one of them even grazes you anywhere in the back of your head, your chin, anything. He's clearly most deserving for the next title shot, especially the way he dispatched of Sean Brady. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks.

Yeah, I agree. I think it should be Michael Morales or a Shavkat or a Carlos Prochase or an Ian Gary or any of the young up-encomers that are ranked ahead of Kamarouzman. But sports not a meritocracy. So we'll see what we end up with. I just appreciate his passion for Michael Morales. Yeah, me too. It's similar to you.

When you were like, ass out, his ass is so out there. His ass was so out there. He's still striking. He's jabbing his face off. Look at his ass. I don't know if I said, look at Michael Morales's ass. Without the sex. Without the sex, naturally.

What's up, boys? What's that, man? It's Thursday. Sure is. Drove home from work. I'm sitting in my car. I was listening to your show on the way home. And it got me fucking fired up a little bit.

Who, listening to all that chat about the fights that have been announced to the matchups that have been chosen. and my question to you guys is is this the most like dumb fuck era of MMA ever are we at peak stupid? Have we reached peak stupid in MMA?

Like, fucking hell, man. If I got to watch Kamaro Ouzman fight for the title, I might just claw my eyes out. I thought it was pretty fucking dumb the first time around. They started calling him the greatest welterweight ever after George St. the post-GSP era when Dana White started calling Kamar Uzman the greatest wealth rate of all time, that's when I thought we were at pretty peak stupid, but lo and behold.

And what is the possible selling point for Katie versus Rhonda? Like, she can't get kicked in the head this time, so she has a chance. Like, Jesus, fucking Christ. Yeah, I hope your editor didn't have to work overtime, bleeping those ones out. He did. Take care, lots. Shout out, Jake. Shout out to you, brother.

Appreciate the, appreciate the call. Yeah, I don't know. Is that how I was going to go? Like the Pride era, the Connor era. Okay, let me just say. The dumb fuck era. Don't get me wrong. We are definitely in a dumb fuck era.

Like, this is happening. But there really was a, like, we're looking at this through nostalgia glasses. There was a time that Fador, like the best fighter in the world, was fighting like freak show circus fights. Like, even in the UFC, see, Anderson Silva's fighting Forrest Griffin and Stefan, like, it wasn't always a meritocracy.

The big difference for me now is that back then, MMA was like a little bit of like banned Wild Wild West. Anything can happen. Now it's become much more of a like real mainstream sport and you would think that those things get left in the past and now we're still seeing some of the thing, like the carryover from it. But don't get me wrong. there's been some circus dumb shit that happened back in the day and way worse than anything like a Kamaru Usman title shot it's just that that was the nature of the sport back then and now it has become like real like this is a real sport now this is on ESPN

now Paramount like this is a this is a real deal sport the sport also it's not like it's been a meritocracy and we and we lost that at this point now I think the thing here is that it's just like a collision of so many happening at one time like you're getting the the Gaichi Pemblin, now we might be getting Usman, and Armin's not getting a title shot. No, Diego Lopez is getting the rematch. It's sort of like this tornado of all these fights getting announced, and you're just like, wait, no, like, that should be Lorone Murphy.

Why is Armin not in there? And like, we're really talking about an Usman title fight when you have all these contenders here? I feel like it's just kind of a bombardment of it. As I said all along, it's for me, I think it's a UFC optics issue. If they just came out and said, yeah, we make dumb fuck fights. So what? What are you going to do about it? It'd be way different than if they're like,

like, well, this is the number one rank guy against the number three rank guy? Like, how many times does Dana White get on those stupid? Like, if you don't know, now you know, and be like, this is the number three rank versus the number six, where he's reading off the paper, talking all this shit. Just pretend those don't exist.

Fuck the rankings. Two things about the Usman thing. One, that fight has not been booked yet. There is still a world where they do not book it. I understand that it looks like it is trending towards that, but there is still a world where they do not book it. Number two on the Usman thing, we haven't seen the fight happen yet.

so if anything other than it's like it's almost like the Jake versus AJ thing yeah if anything other than Islam just rolling through him happens if it's competitive if it's like a god forbid if it's a 4847 Dana White will get on that on that uh dais and just be like

told you Ali will be firing up six Twitter accounts we make the best fights around here you think we don't know our own roster we know our own roster what do I always say you cannot just judge a card until it happens. And this is, even if it's a 49-46,

I think they'll still be like that. Yeah. After John Jones, like, disposed of the body of Stepe, it was like, all right, cool, we did it. It's a win-win for the fucking UFC. If they're going to make the match-up, they're going to sell it, it'll do big numbers. And if it's competitive, he's just like,

what I tell you? We make the best fights, all right? Yep. And if it's not, he's going to be like, Islam's just that good. Yeah. we needed to see it and we needed to see it for sure

hey Frank this is the guy that just dropped all the top fives on everybody oh we're not going to play those I live in Maryland it's tough three calls I am still currently watching

you're in the background the salsa boys in the back that's pretty fucking strong who the fuck is this all right good talk Jason see you guys out there yeah

yeah so Frank only played the one and not the ones before that's an interesting move number 12 to number 14 no that's interesting I am I am a see out there guy

last night we were at our Christmas party and me and Frank were both in the bathroom and I didn't he was still in the stall or whatever doing his business but I was going to hit him with a

see out there man you were going to tap on the stall door to say, no, I dropped my water bottle. You were still in the stalls, and I actually like awkwardly waited out. It sounded like a nuke just went off. There's ice in it. Wait, you, you were going to, you're going to give them one of these?

Just give them the, stay out there, man. See you out there, Frank. Normally you hit like the, the... Yeah, yeah. I thought you were still in the stall, so I was actually like hanging around the bathroom thinking, like... Whoa, you were hanging around the bathroom. Oh, you, you were just, and it was a, it was a multi-gender like, common room waiting for like a bunch of private stalls. Oh, wow.

How funny is his people's expression when they open the door, and they think they're in the wrong bathroom. Frank was just at the corporate holiday party with his hands in his pocket strolling around the bathroom. Are you there? Connor? Yeah, nice, a nice... See you guys out there.

As if we're about to go play for the Super Bowl or something. Yeah, yeah. Like it. What is up, you guys? It is Stephen from Washington Heights, right up the street from you folks. Hey, shout out to Washington Heights. I don't have a question today.

I honestly just wanted to show some gratitude and some appreciation for you guys. I'm actually part of your 0.1% of listeners this year. Oh, yeah, thank you. Where to go, Steven. And I just want to let you guys know how much you need to us. Remember, by us, I mean this community. A few months ago, I was completely homeless.

I had nothing in my name. Couldn't get enough money to buy a meal. Now, I moved back to New York City, and I am better than I have ever been before. Fuck, yeah. And honestly, part of that is thanks to you guys. You guys helped me keep me sane during that time, kept me afloat, and always kept me laughing. I appreciate all you guys, Andy, Jordan, Frank, G.C. But a special shout out to New York's own, baby.

Let's go, baby. Let's go. You guys. Keep doing your thing, and we'll see you again. Bye-bye. Fuck. Damn, Stephen. Congratulations on turning your life around, man. That's incredible to hear.

We are super stoked for you, dude. Appreciate the call. Appreciate you listening. And most importantly, congrats, man. Keep going. Yes. Keep it up. Love that.

This message is not for the voice in the back. Okay. It's messages for Frank only. Okay. We'll do that. We'll tune out. Why did you play that shit, bro? I get home from work.

I'm excited to watch the boys in the back, thinking, oh, man. I really hope they didn't play that embarrassing-ass series of voicemails I left. But you did, bro. Why? I had trouble sleeping last night, Frankie. Anyways, add me on Steam. My username's Jack.

Maybe we could play Counter-Strike. Oh, Frank. You know, actually, you're probably going to play this. on here, so I must ask a question. Yo, guys, when was the time you really enjoyed something, but you had an embarrassing moment,

absolutely ruin it for you. You could go back to it. Thanks. This is Jack from Massachusetts. I appreciate you, Jack. Embarrassing moment that completely ruined something. I don't know.

I don't have one. I don't have a great one. I don't think I have a great one either. I'm trying to think of the last time I was like embarrassed as fuck. You know, the years. thing was tough. What about you, Frank?

Did it ruin Yuri for you forever? No, no, no, I'm still Uri. I think the moments that have been embarrassed have overshadowed any, like, memory of enjoyment. Do you know what I mean? Like, if something was truly embarrassing, like, the things that led up to the embarrassing moment, don't mean shit anymore.

Yeah, like, I'm trying to think the last time I was, like, really just, like, wanted to crawl out of my skin embarrassed. Like, I'm not talking to her, like, it's, like, really not even that funny. the eerie thing you can at least like laugh about it's funny I'm trying to think the last time where I was just like oh fuck dude I cannot believe I did that

I don't know I can't think of any it's probably since like high school when you get stoned and you get that anxiety are you like oh shit why would I ever have said that in my life and then you're like in a spiral happens to me all the time it's a big issue you say something that you're like oh fuck I don't like I will be sitting in bed like stoned and then I'll be like oh my

God, at 9 o'clock, why did I say that out loud to other people? That was probably the dumbest thing I could have ever said. No, man. Sorry, I just want to be clear. You're thinking back on old shit, you said? Like that's a real thing. No, no, no, no, no. That's a real thing.

Like, the, I used to never get paranoid when I got high. Now it's like, it's through the roof. Sometimes it's just like a little uncomfortable. Suppose you've got to, like, be like, yeah, it's all good. You'll wake up completely fine and not be worried about any of this shit. Yeah, I don't know what happens. Strain's stronger? by just a bitch?

I think it's just a stranger Strang's on my plate Have you guys seen this new thing that's been coming out?

I keep seeing the New York Post talking about it it's like a CMA or something CHS or something or something like that it's like

people who smoke too much get this thing called scrumitting where they're vomiting so much they scream from pain and like

What? Yeah it's like I mean to laugh I think you have to like smoke like a shit ton for like years and years and you

you're throwing up and just you can't, like, you're, like, cannot stop puking. Now, I'm going to be thinking of this shit the next time I light out. No, I think you got to, I think you gotta smoke, like, a lot, a lot over, like, the course of years. And, like, the only way to stop is to just quit smoking. Better do it. Oh, just quit smoking, but, yeah, shout out. What's up, fellas, it's Connor.

I got two things for you today. First off, an idea. New York, I know you probably will like this, but I think you guys could implement something similar to the ringer with guests aligns. Could be a fun idea with cards moving forward. And then second is the question, is Bill O. Muhammad the most disrespected slash mean fighter of all time? Looking at some of the stuff, obviously, without the sex. Without the sex. When he first became champion, B.C. said Leon Rocky Edwards.

When he tried to do a face-off of Shavcott, they didn't even know he was champion, as Joe Rogan said on the mic. And then, of course, like even up to his title run, he had to win something like nine fights. and everyone his nickname Remember the name And the whole thing Was remember the decision So just curious Is there anyone that comes to mind

That maybe is more disrespected than him And I love the show Keep it going Yeah I don't know man He's got to be up there Because when you think about it Like a guy like Mofsar It's almost

He doesn't exist I was gonna say this is kind of meme But it's like the Mad Men meme Where it's just like I don't think about you at all Yeah I'm over you And it's like I don't think about you at all

Yeah Like that's kind of what it is like With Mofsar Like there's times where you're just like oh yeah Mozart is 19 and 0 on a 9-fight win streak or I mean a 9-fight

UFC win streak so like that's like another level like Balal is like he puts himself out there and like people just shit on him relentlessly I don't know man

I think he is the most disrespected but without the sex because like dude there's without the sex for sure for sure because like there's a guy like Colby Govington like people shit on him

but like he had a strong fan base but people in addition to shitting on him also love him that's what I'm saying Not find the Bala Muhammad hive. I've never even come across someone on social media that's just like, bro, I'm going to die hard. Yeah.

Or Bala. No. He's the number one. I feel like the biggest you get is just like someone being like, yeah, you know, I support him. He's fine. He was a UFC fucking champion and everybody's like, fucking loser. You suck. Cringe.

You suck. I was watching with one of my boys who first time I was watching a UFC card with him for the guitar card. And like, he's like, I fucking hate Bala. He's like, I fucking hate him. And I was like, why? I was like, I mean, he's, he's fine. Like, yeah, like, he's a little bit, like, dorky and, like, some people don't like his fighting style. But, like, he's not that bad.

He's like, nah, he's like, I'm taking Gary by knockout. I was like, I don't think that's going to happen. He's just like, he's like, I just hope it does. I was just like, chill on him, bro. This dude hated him. Hated him, man. Oh, fuck. Hated him.

That's great. But, yeah, it's probably below. Yeah, he's up there. Without the sucks. Yo, boys in the back. What's up? It's Jammer. Yep.

First off, a shout out on air, Jordan. Congratulations, brother. On the new baby. Brina, shout out. Speaking Japanese are... Yeah, dude, just fucking awesome for you, man. He's the man in Jim. Question this week for Frankie.

Frankie, uh, you said you were starting Metroid, bro. I'm not buying the game unless he's, just the fucking Frankie seal of approval. Give it to us, Frank. Let me know, dog. Early first impressions, you know? Let me know what you think. Let me know if I should buy it or not.

Yeah. All right. Anyways, do you guys. Love you too. Jim needs to know, Frankie. What do you think? You already finished the play through. What do you think?

Didn't finish the playthrough. Boy, I had this conversation with Al Shadi the other day, which was the same thing. He was like, I'm on the fence. I don't know. And by the time I was done talking. He said he was going to buy it. Need to check in on that.

I haven't gotten to play too much. Been a little busy around here. However, what I've played, liked just manage your expectations like they're not rocking the boat they're not creating anything absolutely new like it's a continuation i've waited it's not glowing 18 years for the next metro prime it came out it's hitting it but i'm in no absolutely no rush to finish it because like it could be another 18 years before i see the fifth you waited 18 years for this and you're like manage your expectations this guy is a simp for for samus and we're getting uh yeah you said

He said it's hitting it, first of all. Whoa, super whoa. And then he's like, but it's okay so far. Like, he's doing a... Just say you don't like it, Frank. Absolutely like it. If the most biased Metroid fan I know is like... Damn your expectations.

I'm not really looking forward to finishing it. I'd skip. No, this is actually... A lot of people have been shitting on it because they're like, I don't know what they're expecting or what they expected. You think the time between has created these impossible to reach expectations.

Right. And like you could tell from the hype train, it's like, guys, you're aiming too high. Like, that's not what's going to happen. Because Metroid as an entire, like, it started a whole genre called Metroidvania's, right? They're not going to reinvent the wheel each time. If that's what you're looking for, then find that. But as far as a Metroid Prime game goes, it's fucking nailing it. So it's fair to say if you grade it without those built-in expectations, it's a good game. And Jimerser.

If people are looking for, okay, this is a genre that I've never played before and the hype is so great, I've never played a Metroid, this is going to be the one that seals the deal. Like, if you haven't already known what makes the genre good, I don't know how to explain it to you. Like, it's a good game, though. Okay. Try the fucking game, dude. But support the cause. I still feel like that's a fuck no, though. Hey, what's up, boys in the back?

This is Chris from Northern California. What's up, Chris? What's up, Chris? A, Calabama, just wanted to shout out everybody on this final Saturday pay-per-view morning. Oh, he's calling from Saturday. A little nostalgic. I'm going to miss paying that $80 a month. Me too, man.

Watch what will be free on Paramount Plus. Wanted to also say shout off to New York, Rick, and G.C. on the prop quiz performance. Rick kept him honest in the end, but G.C. knows ball like no one else. He knows ball. Yes, sir. That's all I got. I just wanted to send you guys some appreciates.

Let's go Marab, let's go Pandogia. I was there when he won his belt at UFT-290, Las Vegas, International Fight Week. I'm a tough one. No shot he loses it today. I hope this age as well. Oh, fuck. Aye, it did not.

As a man who was cheering for both of them as well, it did not. It did not. That's all right. Well, that's all right. We got two new great champions in Piotriona and Josh, man. And they'll be back, but we do appreciate the love. Appreciate the love. Like, that was, that was great. Thank you for checking in.

Prop quiz was fun. She's Danny calling in from Doncaster again. She has to publicly ask my mate to do one of my... Yes. He asked Harry Styles. Okay, yes, please do. I think I've been mates with this guy for so long that I've become numb to the fact that he shares his name with an A-list celebrity. I do regret to inform you that my Harry is not the Harry style as you were thinking of. Okay.

You can't just say Harry Styles. Bill Cup 1966 winner Nobby Stiles Which is pretty fucking cool Also, I chat with my missus And the wedding invitation stands So hop on that Yahoo PJ, swing by Dublin and grab pieces And we'll sink a few cold ones

Peace Pace All right, so we're invited to the wedding still But I will admit, you can't say Harry Stiles Into a mic and expect anybody to be like Oh, your mate Harry Styles The non-superstar guy What did he say?

His dad was the... Players' last name, World Cup winner? His dad was like a... Knobby Stiles. Nobby Stiles. Holy shit. All right, so Nabi Stiles is going to be there? Is he like...

Give me like the rundown. Give me like a career retrospective on Nabi styles. It has to be his grandfather. Rest and peace to Nabi Stiles. Has to be his grandfather. This is also Stiles, S-T-I-L-E-S. Tommy. Born 1942, passed away in October of 2020.

Manchester, England. was on Manchester United, 311 appearances for him for 11 years. And I think he was on the, the 1966 World Cup winning team. Oh, shit. He sure was. He sure was. Shout to Nabi Stiles. All right. Yeah, wedding, when did he say the date was?

I don't remember. We'll be there. Yeah. Send those invites. Just everybody in Ireland, I'm sure. Yeah, we'll grab P-TZ. Yeah, like P-2 will get it for us. What up, boys?

What's up, bro? Thomas. From Queen. What's up, Thomas? Question for Georgia Connor. Yes, sir. Did you happen to catch the trailer for Project Hail Mary, which dropped after the Thursday night Cowboys and Lions game?

And are you pumped to go watch it? The trailer gave me super interstellar vibes. Oh, yeah. That's all. I just wanted to ask my guy, Connor, a question, because I know he loves space. All right, boys. Have a good one.

A, love space. Great question. Interstellar is my all-time favorite movie when watched an IMAX last year for the 10-year Annie just confirmed that it's the greatest movie ever made. Absolutely love it. Two, didn't watch

the trailer for Project Hail Mary because I read the book, so I already know what happens. I know for a fact I'm going to see the movie. I don't want anything ruined about it. I like this. So I want to go in blind. Good move.

Raw dog, as the kids would say, into the movie but I will absolutely be there love Ryan Gosling loved the book I read it in January and up until now it is still my favorite book of the year

Andy Weir shout out I've been begging Frank to read it he's just been no selling me the entire time he's never going to read it he's like we'll go see the movie

because like that's usually how it goes the movies always blow the books out of the water can't wait for it literally did not say that no actually word for word I said I saw the trailer and it looks like trash

but I'll still give the book a chance and I love Ryan Gosselin Was this in the bathroom At the holiday? I don't need all the like Oh my science to shoot out of it Like that's so dumb And that's exactly what they did in The Martian

And you told me that the book Doesn't do that Science the shit out of it Is a line from the Martian It's fucking It's young adult literature You can keep it Uh

Pause that for a second Love the Don't watch the trailer Go like that's a very good move Whenever if anyone ever shows me a trailer if I've decided that I'm going to see the movie I cut it off I've been done I'm good I don't need to see it I've been very like

I don't want trailers or ancillary things I know I'm going to watch this let me just go into it I've been on that for a while I have a friend that sends me a trailer for every fucking movie that comes out I don't watch any of them I don't need it I there's times where I'm deciding on what movie I want to watch and I'll start up a trailer I can get 12 seconds into it and be like

watching it don't need to see anymore done I'm about to watch it myself good strategy Botkins What's good, boy, it's your boy, Bobkins, baby. That's no, Bobkins. Six long weeks after this Saturday. It's going to get gold news. What are we supposed to do for six long weeks?

Spend time with our family. That sounds awful. I mean, I know we're going to have a little bit of football kind of sprinkled in if that's your game. That's my game a little bit. So, you know, we'll be tuned in. But six weeks without the UFC, six weeks of, like, I don't know, like, spending time with your family and going to, like, Christmas things. Count me out, but I guess I got to be in. Boys, I got to ask you, what's you guys just play after those long watch-alongs?

Is the play like you go home or you just pull out a pot there in the studio and take a nap and then go home? Obviously, you guys had the last one, hopefully the last long one, right, this past Saturday. You know, other than that, Frankie, shout off, baby. See you later. Bodkins out, baby. I love Bodkins, man. My man. shout off

forgot about that one last week Frank's trying to get that to catch you on the plan of the watch parties is I mean we have to go the crew in the back is still working during the post shows as well

we kind of deconstruct the set everything like that it's kind of mosey over the watch parties take it out of you man because you're talking the whole time because you're reacting because you got these big bright lights on you and it's late as fuck

by the time it's over like you're pretty wiped so it's just go home during the daytime ones we, which we get rarely maybe twice a year, we go out for like dinner or drinks or something like that. But yeah, usually it's home, shower, bed, sleep as late as I can. I can't speak for the people with kids that get them up. But yeah, nothing hits like that shower post watch party at like 3.15 in the morning and like you kind of just digest everything that happened.

I'm hitting that shower, but it's not to like five. Me and Jordan are often carpooling, commuting back together. We've stayed a little later to make sure the post show gets off. I was just as soon as that post show is gone, I'm just like, pace y'all Uber's here. I'm out. It's tough. It is definitely tough. But once I get home, I do get a second win.

So it's typically like drop Jordan off or Jordan drops me off or whatever. Maybe sneak into some late night Taco Bell, get that going, hop in the shower. Then I get a little second wind and maybe I'm on the computer for another hour or two. crazy six six 30 crawl into bed wake up like 8 830 because the kids are up and we just start the start the day i will say it is it is zombie mode no how no matter how much sleep you get like there's i'm almost better with less sleep honestly like you can't sleep that late because it just gets so bright and like you want to start your day like your your whole circadian rhythm and shit is fucked up so like yeah it's always zombie mode on those sundays sundays sunday is full zombie

Jordan, does that align? All aligns. Yeah. I mean, you're also lack of sleep at the moment, just like that's your default position. I mean, the classic line is when we're leaving is the, see you tomorrow. Because it's already Sunday, and we'll obviously be back again on Monday as well. What's up, boys? This is Drew from Long Island?

Quick question here. Is it possible that the UFC or Zupa boxing could potentially become a feeder league of sorts to the other boxing leagues. I mean, if it's possible for a boxer to go from one to the other in terms of the Muhammad Aliak, could it one grow up, per se, in Zupa boxing, getting more money for the lower cost fighters and then once they become either champion or something of a higher echelon, drop that and then go to the, you know, any other league and get those mega bucks at these other championship fighters are getting. Just want to hear your thoughts. Appreciate you guys had a good one so unlikely because what they're trying to install with the ali revival act

is the ubo system like much like the ufc where they'll probably be under exclusive contracts they will probably fight for one promotion their ranking systems their belt yada yada yada and you wouldn't be able to kind of like traverse that's the whole point like there are going to be some boxers that stay with these sanctioning body uh systems and just like kind of like fight WBO, WBC, blah, blah, blah. And then there's going to be people who are just like, I'm locking into this thing, but they're not going to be bouncing. Like, if a guy

or girl became good enough under this Zufa boxing banner, the UFC would lock them up the same way they lock up UFC fighter, so you're not bouncing to another promotion. So I don't think that's possible. They wouldn't be a feeder. They'd be a separate thing. I was going to say, who is running the show with the attempts that they're making with this

Muhammad Ali expansion, enhancement, Revival Act, whatever you want to call it, however many names it has. With the moves they're making and the people that are running the show over there, they're not in this to be a feeder league. No. If they get talent and they get stars,

they will build them, they will lock them into contracts and they will make sure that the best are within their organization. The people that are heading up WWE, which is like damn near a monopoly on wrestling, and the UFC, which is a damn near monopoly

on mixed martial arts, is not looking to join boxing and be like, we're a feeder league. Like, yeah, for sure. Go fight with Matchroom now that we've built you up as a star. They will lock them into these contracts and make sure they don't go anywhere. Yeah. B-O-N-N-B-A, man.

Yeah. Got I missed you, Donnie. He's back. I missed you. The president and founder of the PFL. Founder. I've missed you. I've missed everybody.

P-F-L-L-L-Oen. We had to get them back. Extended vacation with the family. Took the wife and kids on a tour, some great locations. We started off in Kansas City, headed down to Iowa City, and running out the trip right now in Baku, Azerbaijan. It's amazing. Classic family road trip, Don't.

They haven't been on my radar, but here we are, and it's amazing. It's good to take some time off of the sport we love, but I had to call back in. I had to break my silence because of a top turn of events. Yes, Tom DeGonaro, lost. to a fighter named John Hancock, no relation to the more famous John Hancock. And he was a huge favorite.

Beethoven's Symphony has gone nowhere. We absolutely support you. You will be back better. Yes, he will. I love that. Boys, let me know what words of support you have to offer to our friend, Tom DeGenaro. Frank, I haven't forgotten about you either, buddy.

Add me back on Rock Simulator. That is exactly what it sounds like. Frank knows what's up. It's a multiplayer game. you simulate the experience of being a rock watching the landscape around you change and evolve in your voice

look forward to what's to come in this great sport of ours in 2026 take it easy fucking hell thank you Don it's good to have you back buddy it's good to have you back my man my man my man he's referring to Tommy Dijanaro

Beethoven yeah Beethoven the grappler who we became aware of because of Ally Aquinta and Don Davis calling in and foe offering him too. He's come on the car, but unfortunately he got his first loss, but he will be back.

He will be back and he'll be back better than ever. We're Beethoven guys over here. The best in the world face losses, and that is what you are sure to be. Shout to Beethoven, bro. Every time that he has a video game suggestion for Frank, I'm like, surely this is not... Like, it cannot be real.

It can't be real. It cannot be real. And sure enough, the rock simulator is exactly what you'd imagine it to be. You plant a rock somewhere and you just do nothing. Oh, and you actually just do absolutely nothing. It's just a rock. Can the rock get cooler over time? Can you get points or anything?

I don't know. No. You're just a rock. Rocks don't get points. Shout out rock simulator. Shout out. Thank you, Don. We love you.

Boy, this is Swole-O-L-E-M-A-U-5 from Austin. in Texas. Shout out. What's up? Swamount-time listener, first-time caller. Okay. I'm a die-hard MMA fan and a full-time health and fitness coach. Sick. I listen to you guys every week, and I feel like we are all best friends at this point, but not in a weird, creepy way, more of like a cool, popular way.

But I have to know, is there any other fans who have had Frank Soundboard become a permanent part of their everyday conversations? None of my bros know what the hell I'm talking about when I hit him with the random. Stop checking shit, or who's to check? or on Thanksgiving when my girl said we have bills to pay in conversation and I immediately, yo, who the fuck is we?

Man, thanks for all you guys do. And I want to thank Dana for giving us all the explanation we need for the matchmaking in January with an all-time great quote. That's what we came up with in the war room. That's what we came up in the war room. Yeah, and most people aren't going to get the drops.

This is a niche community. So the real, ones know, but yeah, I wouldn't expect to be able to just drop that in everyday conversation and people understand it. I, I, I, uh, sympathize with you. I also dropped the who the fuck is we with my wife, uh, recently. I let the boys know on the group chat. And, uh, yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that one's, that one's, that one's dangerous. That one's very dangerous. You got to, you got to have that in the right hands. Yeah, be careful. Be careful. Careful. Who's the check?

What's up, guys? My name is Adam. I'm a South Florida videographer. recently I got into the combat sports niche probably around two years ago my first fight I watched was Jake Paul Ben Asgren surprisingly enough I know it was a little embarrassing but now I do this full time I film UFC fighters boxers you know all these guys

recently I started filming for America Top Team so all their new video content is all me and yeah it's amazing know you guys are coming to Miami so I want to extend my free services to you guys whatever you want it would be a sincere honor to film for you guys and a big fan watch all your stuff. So yeah, whatever you need. Reels, YouTube. You want to start

Only fans, dip each other from a talk cocktail, you know. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. I'll film that too. So you guys go on. Love the show, guys. Appreciate you. Really hope we can link up. See you guys next week. Appreciate you. Appreciate you shooting your shot. Now I'll pass you off to executive producer New York Rick for the decision making. My email is in my ex-bio. Shoot me an email. Glad you reached out.

What's off, boys in the back? It's Nico from Miami calling again. Yeah, my guy, Nico. He's got to have the parents' problems. Yeah, yeah. Driving. Some old shows. Driving from Miami?

I noticed, I really hate it when Ariel just hammers the Yahoo button repeatedly. Me too. And if he has his own little drop on, I think the boys in the back should each get one drop button themselves. I know who's to check is really hot. right now maybe an iron maybe I'm happy thank you

but if you could only pick one drop oh man like Ariel has with the Yahoo button what would it be that's a great question and why

that's all I got have a good holidays peace so I think appreciate the call Nico I think the thing he like I think he thinks he's like DJing

when he's like yeah yeah Please don't Frank hates it Yeah I think he thinks he's like DJing When he's hitting it You gotta let that puppy sing man

You gotta you gotta let it What's your number one job You have to put it on the button I think the key is it can't be the long ones Because then you're like interrupting for too long You gotta do Is that yours? That one's not that bad

Nah Mine might be Mine Who's the check? mine would probably be between keep my fucking name out your mouth keep my full name out your mouth I already know mine

so good mine is 100% locked in or pourier's who the fuck is we just because he says it with such who the fuck is we it's and it's there's so much context around it like the story behind it and that's mid interview that he's saying that mine is my number one

it's been number one since we dropped it and I love it to death it's D1 Glazer D1 Glazer is the way this one fucking hits the piercing sound of Logan Ball. It's so fucking good. This guy's a D1 Glazer, bro. It just destroys conversation. The storyline behind it as well, the fact that it's Logan on his own YouTube video secretly saying that about Ariel. Yeah. When Ariel's trying to put him over big and do him a favor and he's just like

D1. But the force with which D1 Glazer hits, that has to be my butt. It's also like you got You got to focus on, like, how applicable they are. Yeah. You know, who the fuck is we you can use all the time? Oh, 100%. Keep my name out of your mouth. Who's to check might be the most? We don't care.

It's also great. Yeah, they're great. My favorite is... It's tough. Because I was there when you said it unironically, like you were actually just saying it's tough, and then someone did the edit where it looked like you were saying... Wait, Connor...

Also, do you know the lineage behind... The origin is like, we were not talking about anything serious, at all. It was something about like, I want to see we were talking about cheese steaks and there was like a new cheese steak that had just come out and like Ariel was like, how do you even make that? He was doing, he was doing the thing where like he's like kind of tease us up and we don't really have anything to say and the camera pants to me and I'm just like, it's tough. Like, you can see it in my face in the OG video. I'm not even looking at the camera. I'm like completely zoned out. I'm just like, it's tough. It's tough. Is your, is your, is your, is your, is

You're not choosing Terti Million for a kitchen strap because Frank did not pick the right one. Like he picked the one that's not the original. Frank got Pizzi to re-record that, but also there just isn't, you can't use it that often. The fact that this triggers me so much. I have no fucking idea. Also, the best part about the It's Tough OG video is that it looks like I'm emotional. It looks like you're just spondent. Yeah, I'm just like, it's tough.

You would think if you didn't know the concept. context, like something very bad happens to you in your life. It's not even remotely serious. It was cheese sticks? We were talking about some bullshit, dude. We were bullshitting heavy in it. And, like, Ariel does like, though, what do you guys think? What do you think?

And, like, sometimes we just have nothing to say. And it was one of those, but the camera paned to me. I was just like, uh, it's tough, man. Oh, so good. Hey, boys. It's Michael. What's up, Mike? From Covina, California.

Hey, you're out of Covina. I have my first amateur title fight in MMA this Saturday. Let's go. Sick. And I was just wondering if there's any advice. Sorry. Couldn't wait. He got emotional with me at the eye man.

My man. Any advice you guys had for me before I go into this fight, you know, without the sex. Without the sex. Brother, out the sex. Thanks, you guys for all that you guys do. Thanks for all the entertainment. Shout out New York, Rick. Shut out.

G.C. Shout out. Shout out. Shout out, mysterious Frank. Shout out. Yeah. Shout out. Fuck, I don't know his name.

I want to say Robbie. Jesus. Is he talking about Dan? Maybe. Any advice without sex? Probably. Dan or Jordan, one of the two. Either way, appreciate the call. Any advice? No, because I've never had to do that for a fight.

I can give you words of encouragement, though. Yeah. You know? You got them. Hang in there. Hang in there. I know that has to be incredibly difficult. It is a massive taxing on your body. I don't plan on ever doing it. I mean, like, you know, piss and blood and being all drawn out. And, like, insane dehydration. I have no words of advice because I've never experienced I've never lived it. You don't want words of advice from me.

But words of encouragement, man, hang in there. Best of luck in the fight this weekend. We know you're going to crush it. Send in a voicemail next week and tell us what round and what method of victory you finished your opponent with

and how you became champion. I'll listen to it in three weeks after that. I think you want to do maximum damage while evading any damage being done to you. Smart. Well, he was really looking for words of advice on the weight cut. Yeah, my only thing to add to what G.

he said is the other guy's suffering, too. Oh, yeah. Like, just remember that when you're suffering, that other guy is suffering too. So take solace in that. And then come for, you know, blood and pick your teeth with his bones. And we'll talk about your championship run after that. Breakfast salad, Frank? That's a good way to cut weight.

Hell yeah. But yeah, maybe don't leave a voicemail because we're not going to get to it for weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good point. Good point. And good luck. Good luck. You know, boys in the back.

Chunk from South Carolina with the ESPN deal coming to a close sort of the change of era and Rick I know you and Ariel have talked about you know just how important your time there was and shared little stories

here and there and so I was just wondering if you in particular have any others that you know good or four stories that from your time at ESPN and you know building up the ESPN MMA channel and I always think about the U.L. Romero

crazy boxing interview where you sort of like sat on that clip for a little bit and then you're like, oh, this is gold, which it is. And so things like that are cool insights to hear. So anyway, love you guys, love the show. Frank, I love the new drop of Ariel. Like yelling or whatever he does when he's supposed to drink. That made me laugh really hard.

today so all right have a good one like appreciate the call brother you're you're fortunate and then you've got

spit there yeah yeah I was born on Ariel you're four you're fortunate in that you've got four ESPNners

no three yeah three ESPNners Ariel included but he's not here to tell us Ariel included to four

I also didn't work on combat I guess I did work on the Irani radio show that's how me and Ariel met my one memory

would be everyone cussing on the show we were alive on ESPN radio and all the fans would call in and be like I can't fucking wait for this fight tonight and you're like dump dump like it was like a bad thing to be the board op

on Haldi show on radio because it was your FCC regulations and people are like oh that motherfucking fight's gonna be so fucking sick you'd be talking to the guy and be like please do not cuss when you get on they'd be like oh for sure for sure and then they would cuss every time they went

they went and got on and also last thing they gave us free espion accounts and the pay-reviews were already bought on them so that really kind of birthed my fandom because I was like, well, I can just watch it so I might as well. Jordan, what about you?

Memories? The first card I went to, I believe, was the oh no, the second card I went to was the Zhang Joana fight. Incredible. Fuck. 2.48, I think that was? I think it was 247. 48, maybe.

Who's the check? Who is the check? And then during, I don't know if it was that media week or the other media week I went to that Jose Aldo had an insane weight cut and I was taking photos during Media Day when Ariel was

interviewing people and I was with him and he intentionally thought it was hilarious to tag me in a tweet with the picture of Jose Aldo just so my phone would not stop ringing for two straight days. Love that. Shout out. The Yolo Romero is a classic.

Shout out to Tessa Hirsch, my compatriot in the ESPN MMMA growth and everybody who was over there. maybe a story I haven't told before pandemic when it was the pandemic everybody was going live on Instagram that was the thing

like celebrities would just be going live on Instagram because everybody's in their house and they'd be making these things from that bird like me and Tessa and a few others were just like hey we should just like start having talent go live this birded the idea of DC and Ariel like it was birded as this like yo let's just go live

do a thing we started thinking about how to like record it turn it into a thing and then DC and Ariel kind of like came from that and then that initial run of DC and Ariel was just like incredible like that that was just a fucking legendary time uh of of content creation and the stories that came from that um it was a good run I had no I had no bad things to say about ESPN I had a really good time at ESPN made some cool shit did some fun things really didn't that was the least amount of that stretch was the least amount of interaction I had with Ariel in my entire career which is hilarious because we were at the same company doing things but I was really just primarily a social person Jordan spent more time working on Ariel show by magnitudes than I did

during that stretch which is something people probably wouldn't like know from the surface level but yeah, I was not involved in the show. Jordan, Jordan, Jordan, Jake, Lisa, Nick, who else, Jordan? Addison. Addison, shout out, legend. Vacation Brit. Yes. So, yeah, that was the, those were the people running the ship back then, and I was just off doing my social thing, but it was, it was a fantastic time. You actually put me over also, because you would always post the things that we were producing during the week, and I had done the billionaire strut. The Conner, the billionaire strut, I remember it well. whenever it was everywhere.

Yes, sir. Well, good job on that. But it was fun. It was a lot of fun. Man, shout out to ESPN. Yeah. Hey, it was your back. Shout out.

Shout out, brother. This is B.A. from Kansas City. Shout to Kansas. I was just going to a quick question. Does she have a only fans? Just curious. You got to have a good one. And also, I know it's not going to happen.

And we've got a new BFL. I know he's coming upon. that I guess this shit's come up the end but we like Stevenson I know anything will happen I was pregnant side of USC but hypothetically what do you guys say thanks what he said

what he said what he said next time thanks guys what the fuck did he say Stevenson PFO oh is Gable Steveson going to go to the PFL is that what he saying yeah that has to me

it has to be it sounds like he was like no shit's coming to an end Steveson PFL he should have just ended it on the Brings mom That's got Onlyfans. How fucking disrespect. Does she have Onlyfans, right?

Does she? I can't believe that that made the cut. You are the one who screams them. I'm so upset. You're the one who screens them, bro. I can't believe it. Yes, she does. Subscribe, OnlyFans.com slash.

Frank's mom's ass. I mean, it would be smart if Frank managed it and then, you know, the only thing I managed was kissing that ass. Jesus Christ. Jesus, Chris. My God. Fucking weirdo. Here's channel,

Sky, trying to find them to watch. Oh. Go to channel right in the sports section, channel 2341.

Yep. Yeah, who's sports network is. And who's talking to you? A horny show. Yeah, buddy. In poker stars TV.

You're, you're with good, good side counterparts here. Hell yeah. I'm a fuck. All right. almost like we made uh you know we're on tv now we're on tv and and i don't know if you guys have noticed i saw someone in the chat being like man they got all these ads and they still

do the ads within the show don't know if you guys noticed we don't do the ads in the show anymore yeah we don't do the ads we fought who the fuck is we we fought to not do the ads and we we want we no longer do the ads so uh you're welcome you're welcome and thanks for watching us on uh connected devices yeah shout out to fast shout out to fast shout out to Samsung, Roku. Who's Sports Network. That Who's Sports Network. We're not just on YouTube anymore, Mom.

Is that it? Hello. What up, boys, in the back. John, the barber with a daughter getting her bastard. Oh, yes, an update, an update. Check me back in to clarify the situation a little bit further. But first, we need it. The blunder of GC from your Miami-inspired fight feast regarding the coffee.

coffee in Miami has to be a colada Has to be drinking in a plastic cup Plastic cup I sent you further details in your DMs All right sweet Daughter's graduation

First of all What university Schedule a graduation on a Thursday Yeah Exactly my point Okay I thought you were going to tell us the university But

My wife Has decided that we need to celebrate All day We have a party bus Picking us up at 8.30 p.m. So it's going to be an all-day affair. Yeah, you're out. You're out.

You're done. You can do my problem here with the meat and greet. In any case, I hear you may or may not be at the Hard Rock. And if that's the case, my daughter may or may not. Who's to check? Work for administration at Bayside Marketplace where the Hard Rock is located. And she may or may not be able to hook you guys up with some passes to the amenities around the scene there. So although I would not be able to be there, I would love to contribute to my favorite show visiting the backyard.

So anyways, have fun on Miami. What do you say? Appreciate you the call, brother. Thank you for the clarifications. We needed those. Maybe the party bus just comes to the hard rock. Yeah, maybe bring the whole party. Shout out the Bayside Market.

Shout out to unnamed University and shout out to your daughter for graduating. Man, that is tough. Miami guy. And then we announced a Miami show and that's the one that you can't go. Now, he mentions this Bayside Market. It looks fantastic.

There are a lot of different things there. But, like, what are the amenities we can enjoy? It looks like shopping. So I'm not sure what the... Much like our videographer. Three-hour Miami hip-hop yop party. I'm down. I am not.

My email is... What? Connor, if you can talk to the mic. What's up, man? It literally sounds like you're in a bathroom right now. My email... Sorry, dude, what's up? My email is in my ex-bio.

Shoot me an email. You need to just fucking get a shirt with your email printed on it. Yeah, it's in there. Send it to me. Guys, it's in the X-bio. Let me know what this base-up market's all about. What's your X account so people can find it easily? New York, right.

Am I pulling the Chrome Gracie here? Frank? Because you're just talking to the mic? No, no. I'm really excited for the VFL fight this weekend. Yeah, it's just like, when I'm doing the stomach breathing, you just got all, really. My favorite was. Yeah, you know, I really like all these nicks and knickknacks here, Ariel, you know?

Can I have a water break? No. All right, no, I will actually give him the water break. He was cutting away, bro. Come on, man. Have some respect. For what? Wow.

Wow. Frank, said it not me, disrespect. That is disrespectful, man. And that's all the voice bells. Hey, super chats. Thank you to everyone for calling it.

We really appreciate it, man. Last time of the year, we're going a little long today, but, you know, hopefully that we don't want to lead for 2020. Don't forget about us. Speeter Pan says, how will poke gate 2025

and the lack of depth at heavy weight ultimately affect Tom's legacy when it's all said and done. Hashtag, I need more iron drops. I couldn't agree. Give them more on the iron drops. Speeder pan Give him one for it

Um, I don't have it What? You got rid of iron? Yeah, because I haven't written down as Arn. Oh, you got rid of Arn? Damn. That's an all-time one with...

Ah, there it is. Great backstory as well. We have to wait and see on Tom. The book's not done being written, man. If he goes on a fucking crazy run, then none of it will matter. If he ends up losing his next fight... I agree with you.

on that part, but man, we have wasted a lot of Tom Aspinall's time sitting and waiting and this thing with Cyril now, like, still only 32. We're in the hurricane right now. We're in the tornado of all of this. Like, we're in the valley, so to speak. Like, we need to, we need to just wait and see, man. Have a little patience. The guy wins two fights in 2026 and then follows it up with two more fights in 2027. All will be forgotten. Yeah. I feel the pain. though of how long it's waited to really kick this thing off. Oh yeah, and I think the frustration with Tom is definitely starting to

set in. Yep. Benson Mojo says, my Spotify wrapped number one genre with space music. G.C., you might like it, given your interest in space videos. What is space music? I actually asked him in the chat. I don't think he replied.

I'd be down to listen to it. I mean, interstellar, one of the best soundtracks of all time. Anything Hans Zimmer on the keys, I'm down for. to Han Zimmer music in college. It felt like you were going to find the cure to cancer or something. Space music or space ambient is a tranquil, hypnotic subgenre of ambient and new age music characterized by electronic soundscapes for a relaxing or, sorry, for relaxation, study, or meditation. So it's like vibe music.

So I would reckon, and I ask them in the chat, there's a group from Norway called Carbon-based Life Forms. That's like ambient music that's kind of space-themed. I would recommend it then. If that's what they're talking about. It's also Space Rock, so we really need to find out which one they were... Yeah, let's get to the bottom of this. You guys are rival fans?

I am a rival over Interstellar. Insane take, but I do love Arrival. Arrival is goaded. I'm a rival over Interstellar, not even, like, close in my book. Oh, it's, it is the opposite of it. Yeah, disagree. Arrival. Dani, Dani, all dead.

Oh, yeah, Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway. What now? Ann Hathaway was short air JP beats AJ Then faces Francis What a time, right? And then I think it was like a sarcastic face No, though

No, we don't need to Actually, you know Jake's not beating AJ It'd be crazy It'd be crazy No, no Clapback season, team Frank Yeah, clapback season

What was Frank's clapback? I think it was during the pound for pound All right Glorkex says Switching it up, bad ending How I Met Your Mother? Yeah, I met your mother's shit. I never really got into that show.

Was the ending that ending that ending that ending that's just stupid it's shit? What was the ending? Not meeting the mother? Uh, I can't remember. Did anybody watch this? What is the ending? How does it happen? All right, I guess nobody's...

It's not Robin. It's not the mother. It's some woman. Robin is who? Robin is the main character's the entire show. And she's not the mom. Yeah, you always thought she would be? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Who did it end up being? How did it end? how I met your mother ending I recently watched a couple episodes I was like The ending to how I met your mother was He meets the character

Kristen Milagotti Who I believe Oh shit for real She dies And then he ends up with Robin anyway Anyway And people were like What the fuck was the point of this show?

Which Robin was like Kind of raised Or like the kids were raised as like The aunt Yeah Robin was raised as like They called her aunt Robin You know when you do that With like a close family friend

And she at one point was married to Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris, then they got divorced, and then, you know, it was not great. She becomes the de facto mom, like, she's the stepmom, basically, but they call her aunt? Well, the whole thing is he's leading, he's telling this whole story just to be like, so do you guys care if I go over to Aunt Robbins and be like, hey, you want to get back together? Oh, she's not the, she's not the step mom. She's the mother who stepped up. Wait, so Christina Miliotti, though, is the actual mom. Correct.

Okay. She's in maybe like three episodes. Ooh. Yeah, I rewatched a couple episodes recently. That's show shit. It's not funny. No, but everybody loved the Barney character. That was like the thing.

I think it's of its time. Yeah, it's of its time. And then you watch it now with like, I watched it with someone who had never seen it. And like, it's played by Neil Patrick Harris, who was gay in real life. He's like a player in the show. And the person just like was so hung up on that. They were like, so like he comes out of the closet in the show. Like, no, no, no.

Like, he's a player. He's straight in the show. And they're like, yeah, but he's gay. in real life. I was like, you can't be gay in real life. I was like, that doesn't have anything to do with it. Like, just watch the show. And then, like, he hooks up with a woman.

So he's gay? But he wouldn't do that. I'm like, it's just a character. And I'm watching this whole episode. And I'm like, Kevin James would never actually be a delivery man. I thought you were going to say he'd never get Leah Remney. I thought you were going to say he never end up with, uh, is he Chuck or is he Larry? I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry without him saying.

I don't know which one he is, but yes. He'd also never be a teacher. And here comes the boom. He'd also be never a painter on TikTok or whatever that fucking viral thing was. He's also in a new movie on Paramount Plus called Guns Up, I believe. Man, get your P-plus propaganda out of here, bro. All right, super checks. Keep going.

I live an hour away from Muckleshoot. Uh-oh. The boys in the back can stay with me as we hit Muckle Shoot on the way to U.S.D. Seattle. Debo, appreciate the offer, but I will be staying at Muckles. Yeah, we can't go to Muckleshoot. We're not going to Muckelshoot to stay at your house. Yeah.

We've got to go to Muckleshoot, bro. What's up, Mr. Mrs. Debo? We're going over to muckle shoot later. An hour also is not as short of that time, dude. That's not that close. We got to get to fucking muckle chute. We'll meet you at muckle shoot, Debo.

How's that sound? And then lastly, I do bank stuff says nothing at all. I do bank stuff. That's how we end the year on super chats. Yeah, perfect. Wow. No better way. All right.

Thank you for sending in the super chats. Thank you for sending in the voicemails. Thank you for watching the boys in the back at any point in 2025. we cannot tell you how much we appreciate it. Hopefully big growth in in 2026. The channel continues to get bigger, continues to get better. We keep adding new iterations. 47 episodes down.

I cannot believe how fast that went by. I cannot believe we're about to turn to 2026. Hopefully it is another fantastic year. But until then, the boys in the back, start the music whenever you want, Frank. This is sort of man. Oh, there it is. On Crown Saturday.

Don't forget about it on Saturday. Yeah, yeah, there it is. Uncrowned Saturday. How to get that in? Yeah. Yep. Stacked. I stacked an apex card and PFL card. You will see us around, but this show, the boys in the back, you will not see until 2026. The boys in the back will be in the back, but the boys in the back, the actual program will

not be back until January 8th. Until then, try not to miss us too much. Don't forget about us. We love you. We'll be back in 2026 for another 47 episodes. But until then, thanks for watching! We're out of here!