The Ariel Helwani Show - Tyron Woodley, Kai Kara-France, Paul Hughes in studio, Johnny Fisher, On The Nose

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Johnny Fisher previews his heavyweight fight against Dave Allen on the Usyk-Fury 2 undercard and discusses his time in Saudi Arabia, Turki Alalshikh, his history sparring Allen before his rise as a top prospect and more (04:13).Tyron Woodley discusses signing with the Global Fight League, the details of his GFL contract, his first MMA matchup in 2025, advice to Joaquin Buckley and Merab Dvalishvili, untold early stories of Colby Covington and more (33:50).Paul Hughes joins in-studio to preview his Bellator lightweight title fight against Usman Nurmagomedov and discuss Christmas in Ireland, Nurmagomedov's past drug-testing failure, what makes a perfect Guinness pour and more (01:08:27).Kai Kara-France discusses the state of the UFC flyweight division, his case for a title shot against Alexandre Pantoja, why Manel Kape needs to be taught a lesson and more (01:53:27).Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back answer your On The Nose questions about 2025 fights, relationship advice, end-of-day routines, who's going to end Cody Rhodes' title run, Dana White's involvement in the modern day UFC product, holiday traditions and much more (02:25:20).Join us on the bike: avironactive.com/uncrowned

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Ariel Hawani Show! The Ariel Hawani Show is back in your life on this Wednesday, December 18th, 2000 and 24. Hello again, everyone. And I sure hope you're doing well in this holiday season. Hopefully the spirits are high. Hopefully the vibes are high. Hopefully you're doing well. You're happy and healthy, perhaps getting ready to go on a trip, perhaps getting ready to be surrounded by family and friends. And of course, if you are not, and I know the holidays may be a tough time, you have family here. We are here. A ton of content all week long. We've had three great shows already. We've got today's program, which is an absolute stacked banger, if you will. You know we like to shoot on Wednesdays.'s coming as well Boys in the Back on Thursday

The Crack live on Friday Watch Party for Usyk Fury 2 on Saturday A post show And plenty more to come During the holiday break So, so glad that you're all here So grateful for the support Thumbs up to the chat

Thanks to everyone who has been subscribing Liking, commenting All that and more We appreciate y'all very very much Now back into the program to the chat. Thumbs up to the chat. Thanks to everyone who has been subscribing, liking, commenting, all that and more. We appreciate y'all very, very much. Now, back into the program, of course, we'll answer your questions on the nose. You know how we like to do. On this Wednesday, we always like to answer the hard-hitting questions, and I've seen already some great ones there. So thank you very much to everyone who has sent them in. arielhawani.substack.com is the place to be for all the questions. Now, prior to that, we're going to be joined by Kaikar France. We've been talking about him a lot, and I didn't have an opportunity to speak to him

after his win over Steve Erseg. That was during the hiatus, so this will be our first time in the new era. Of course, he's a top-ranked flyweight contender. Pantoja mentioned last week he's interested in fighting him. Obviously, Manel Kapp mentioning him as well. He's right there and seems to be in prime position to get the next title shot at 125 pounds. Let us see if the pride of New Zealand,

the city kickboxing product Kaikara France, will get that opportunity sometime in 2025. Now, prior to that, we'll be joined in studio by Mr. Big News himself, Paul Hughes. He'll be right here to talk about the massive showdown, which is being billed as Ireland versus Dagestan part two, or maybe it should be Dagestan versus Ireland part two, considering the champion is from Dagestan. It's, of course, Usman Nurmagomedov against Paul Hughes for the Bellator lightweight title. That's January 25th in Dubai,

this Dubai Champion Series event that they're doing that has been hit with a lot of replacements and all this stuff. But I will say, very, very good main event, tremendous main event, which I can't wait for. Paul Hughes will join us in studio to talk about it all at around two o'clock. Tyron Woodley is going to join us at 1.30 to talk about this GFL thing, his involvement, what's going on, what's happening. Some fighters have told me, hey, wait, I haven't actually signed. So let's see what T. Wood has to say about it all. Now, first off, yesterday on the program, you know we were joined by Adam Smith, the

legendary boxing play-by-play man who will be calling the action for DAZN this weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Usyk Fury 2, what a card it was. And then afterwards, we had the show with Ade Oladipo, Ariel Anade. It's on right now. The DAZN boxing channel was a great chat about all things Usyk Fury and a couple of the, you know, undercard fights. And so speaking of those undercard fights, to kick off today's program, we're going to go back to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, because there is one gentleman in particular on this card that I'm very

excited to speak to for the first time. And I'm very excited that he's getting this opportunity on this massive, massive card. I'm a big fan of his. I'm a big fan of his families as well. I'm a big fan of everything he represents and how he conducts himself, but he's just a great time, and he seems like a great lad. And so let us go all the way to the kingdom right now and say hello for the first time to Johnny Fisher,

the Rumford Bull. Is he there? Yeah, there he is in the car. How are you, Johnny? How are you? I'm good. Thank you, mate. We're just on our way to the media workout now.

So I've got my team with me in the car. They're all here. I love it. Yeah, we're excited. All business, right? All business, mate. All business. Ready to rock and roll.

Do our job. That's what we're here for. We love everything around boxing, but our job is to be a boxer first and foremost and get the job done, which is what we're going to do. I like it. You're getting ready to get rowdy and Saudi. I hear that's what they're calling it. And like I said, I've been wanting to talk to you. I'm a big fan of yours and your father's and everything that you guys do and represent for quite some time.

And your rise has been a lot of fun to watch as well. When you got the call that you'd be on this particular card, because let's be honest know the copper bosh is great a nice little you know opportunity in vegas is great but this is different this is a different platform and different stakes what was the reaction when you got the call well fighting on these uh re-add cards on the usic fury undercard that's the pinnacle of boxing and heavyweight boxing and it's an opportunity we couldn't turn down this uh i'm thankful to my team for getting that sorted. But like any fight, whether it be in the copper box, it be in Vegas or it be in Saudi Arabia, the job remains the same and we've got to stay professional and get it done. It's on a massive stage

but I'm built for moments like this. I hear your fans like to travel. How many people from your area, from Rumford, from Essex, from that whole part of England, are coming over to Saudi Arabia to support you? We've got a good 100, 150 people coming over, which is fantastic considering the time of the year when most people will be getting prepared for Christmas.

It wasn't cheap as well. A lot of people have invested a lot of money into coming out. And I've also got to have big fan bases back in England, back in Rumford, back in London. People are going to be watching at different fan zones so i've got support not only people coming out but great support at home as well and around the world are these fans aware that you can't drink in saudi arabia yes listen that was another uh another aspect to it we probably put a few people off but i know my fans love a drink they love a party but the most important thing is they love supporting me so it's so good to have so many people coming out to watch a lot

of them are close friends and family but people that i've never met as well so i've got a good mix and similar to when we was in vegas you make new friends as you go these people that support you you know the story of this fight is a fascinating one because uh as as you've mentioned before uh you sparred dave allen in one of your very first sparring sessions. You were just a rugby player. You get the call, hey, you want to spar this guy? Yeah, no problem. But you were very green as a boxer. In fact, probably didn't even have any aspirations to become a professional boxer. How would you now, and here's a photo of you guys from way back in the day, how would you now describe your relationship with Dave? Because I do notice in some of the interviews, he tries, he tries to maybe say that like, you're not quite ready for an opportunity like this. You're not quite ready

for someone like him. How would you describe the state of your relationship with Dave? Well, listen, we have a friendship, but that's to the wayside now. At the minute, he's not a friend, he's an enemy. So that all gets put to one side. I can still be cordial, I can still be gentlemanly and conduct myself in the correct way but we're fighting each other on saturday so that's all that's entering my head right now and um him saying if you say i'm not ready that's up to him letting believe that because it's been four or five years since that spa maybe even more and uh the the progression and the maturing of myself has has been different and there was nothing wrong in that spa either i proved to myself in that spa i've got the minerals to be what it takes to be a

professional boxer so i'm very very happy with where i am now and um it's about executing the game plan on the night would you have ever believed that opportunities like this would be coming your way like if we would have talked after that sparring session like hey you're gonna be you're gonna be this big time prospect you're gonna be fighting on cards with the likes of Tyson Fury and Alexander Uso like any of this part of your plans back then to be honest when I was speaking to my trainer Mark Tibbs and Sonny Cannon my strength and conditioning trainer we were speaking about this in the last few spars before before coming out and we said look where we are now it's amazing but I think the reason that I've got to this point uh considering

back then i wasn't even looking to be a professional boxer as you said but i sparred dave allen is i don't look too far ahead and i don't look too far back i execute the next the next thing that's in front of me and that's what i've got to do now on saturday night we were taking uh we were taking the piss a little bit as they say over in england yesterday we were looking at your grand arrival uh i don't know if you saw this because we were wondering if you were nervous about tripping down the stairs. You were very deliberate. Of course I was.

Here you are. Here you are. I don't want to stack it. Yeah. What's going through your mind as you're going down these, these enormous stairs? I'm going down very slowly. And I thought, well, I've got the most of it done now.

So as I get to the final three quarters of it, I thought I'd get a little jog on because if I fall from there, I can still recover it. But if I fall from the top, I'm doing a whole slide down job done Were you nervous? Not really not nervous, but I was as you said I was just deliberate in in my foot placement because Yeah, that wouldn't have been a good look, but I would have definitely styled it out in some way

I probably would have done a forward army role of some sort and recovered myself What about you meeting big turkey and he references your dad's Chinese? Were you blown away by this? Of course I was. Listen, obviously I'm on this card, a massive card. And then it seems I can't escape Big John wherever he goes. He said, where is your father? Where is he?

I want to see him, which is great. He's a personality of his own and he's coming out on Friday. So I'm sure Turkey can enjoy a delicious Chinese meal with him then. Are there Chinese restaurants in Saudi Arabia? Are you aware? I think so. Rashid is a Chinese restaurant.

Rashid, who's part of our team, he's shown us around this week. He said there's plenty of Chinese restaurants, so I'm sure big John out of anyone will be able to sniff it out. So you'll be sorted for the celebratory meal, perhaps? Yeah, hopefully, hopefully. But listen, I haven't had a chicken ball since January.

I've not had no rubbish at all. I've turned a big corner in my career in the way I conduct myself in the last nine to 12 months. And I leave all the Chinese eating to Big John these days. I'm happy with getting the victory. That's the important part for me. Is it hard sometimes because he's become such a personality and probably people want to do videos with you guys and all this stuff is it hard to kind of separate yourself from that so that you don't

you know eat this stuff or get too caught up in it yeah well sometimes it is very hard because whenever we have business meetings not just media people want to meet at the chinese to discuss business so it gets very hard to to separate it but the only good thing is our local restaurant, the Blue Orchid, I spoke to you about it before. They do fresh, beautiful food and they do steamed fish for me in there and steamed vegetables and boiled rice. So it's just as healthy as if I was cooking a meal for myself at home. I'll stay away from the takeaway items and I'll stick to the good hearty stuff, you know? Yes, of course. And you're looking tremendous, by the way. You're looking very fit. Yeah, I definitely am. I've got a new nutritionist on board. I've had him on for the last six months or so. That's obviously played a part, but it's through consistent training and

consistent eating and being consistent in everything you do, whether that's food, whether that's training or going to sleep. And I've got a great team around me and all them little 1%s add up. And when you're a professional fighter, you can't leave any stone unturned. And I never do that. I always make sure I'm in tip top condition. Can I ask, are you blown away by the scene over there? Like yesterday, the grand arrival, the pomp and circumstance, everything they're doing, this is a little different, right?

It's on a whole nother level to what I've experienced before, the production value of everything. And yeah, it's amazing, but I don't think about it too much because there's a job at hand. And once that job's at hand is done and complete, then I can look back and enjoy the memories of it. But right now I'm just completely focused on my task. Do you have to get out of the car now? Yeah, we're just waiting to get out of the car, but it's not, it's not a problem. We're, we're, we're with you on, on your show, mate. So you call the shots when you, when you say we'll move. Okay. I'll only keep you for a couple more minutes i don't want to hold you up there because i know this is a big deal for you

but you know a lot of people are kind of connecting you and moses on this card because you're the two big heavyweight prospects you're you're a tremendous professional and i love the way you conduct yourself and you always seem to say the right thing but is there a little bit of a competition there like let me look better than him so at the end of the night they say i'm the heavyweight prospect to look out for and perhaps not so much him well listen i'm in competition with everyone in that division but i'm open for business to fight anyone in the division i'm a heavyweight prospect but i'm also getting up there now and i'm showing improvements and i've got to do what i've got to do on my journey but when our paths cross or whenever they cross i'm ready for anything mate i'm a professional fighter i'm a prize fighter and i'll get in the ring with anyone they want me to sure

and and and obviously at the top of the bill you have fury and you say you've sparred both of them yeah yeah yep spot both uh no only fury i haven't sparred who's sick okay i'd love to but i'll spar fury before the deontay wilder free fight who do you fancy in that one? I do really fancy Tyson Fury this time. I saw a steeliness in his look when he got off that plane at the airport in Saudi Arabia. I see a different man to what I saw in the first fight. And it did remind me of how he looked when he beat Deontay Wilder the second time,

that focus in his eyes. And he's going to need it because to beat someone, a technician like Usyk, it's going to take every bit of strength he's got to do that. Let's end on this one, because I loved your line from the press conference. You said you're not Man City,

you're not AC Milan, you're a cold night away in Stoke. And by the way, I know all about that. I'm a big footy fan myself, nodding him for us. I don't know if you heard fourth place in the Premier League. I've heard of Bosh.

Bosh, fourth place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right. For those that may not know what that means, the visual of a cold night away in Stoke, why is that the best description of who you are? Cold night away in Stoke isn't one of the most pleasant experiences. You'll be seeing the air, the breath in front of you coming up. You're going to have to put your biggest shin pads on. You're going to have to put your metal studs on. And to get a win or a result at stoke takes a lot of grit and determination so what i'm saying is to beat me you're going to have to be on your top a game i'm going to give you a hard fight no matter what that's what a cold night away in stoke means i love it and i can't

wait for it and i'm delighted that you're getting this opportunity you're on quite the run i'm happy you're all healed up the bicep is doing good right yep biceps great we had a little bit of kerfuffle with that in september time but um i got a great, great team around me and we've done the rehab properly and it's felt a perfect time. And by the way, in case you were confused by my intro, we're on a new show now. So that's why I said it's like first time on this show. You were thinking like this. No problem. No problem at all, Ariel. It's always great to speak to you, my friend, you're a gentleman.

Yeah, as are you. All the best. Good luck. Love that you're getting this opportunity. Go out there, smash it, and big things coming your way in 2025. Good luck to you and the team. Thanks for squeezing us in. I know it's very stressful out there, so thank you. Great to see you, my friend. I'll see you soon. All the best. There he is, the great Johnny Fisher, the big man, getting a massive opportunity on

Saturday against Dave Allen, and there's a great backstory there. They sparred together back in the day. Dave Allen has been around a great backstory there They sparred together Back in the day, Dave Allen has been around for a lot longer Than him And he was just a guy who they said Hey, you want to come spar this pro? And he's like, yeah, sure

He played rugby in uni As they say And so he went out there, did his thing Started climbing the ranks Has become a massive draw Sells out venues Like the Copper Box or As they say, the Copper Bosch Arena

And now he's getting This opportunity and as we talked about yesterday It's Usyk Fury at the top of the bill But there's a heavyweight theme a little Lower down, there's the Serhii Boachik fight Against Ishmael Davis and the Chief support if you will then you have

Moses Itama who is a 19 years Young super prospect That everyone thinks could be the next big thing Coming out of the UK I mean the guy's 19 he doesn't look 19 It's insane That he's that good And looks the way he does and then you have

Johnny Fisher who's a little bit older 25, 12-0 11 knockouts and he's looking And looks the way he does And then you have Johnny Fisher Who's a little bit older 25 12-0 11 knockouts And he's looking fantastic He's climbing the ranks And he really does appear To be in tremendous shape

I'm very excited About him getting This opportunity So good on him And appreciate him You know Taking some time Because it is very stressful

You're about to do An open workout You got your mind On a bunch of different things So appreciate him And the team for making that happen. A great, you know, it's, you know what? This is what you do, Frank. This is what you do when you're, you know,

when you're a professional. Now, I want to give you a taste, just a quick taste. I love this clip of Johnny Fisher, of who he is. Like you see him, he's well-spoken. He's down to earth. He says the right things. He's a great representative, I think, of the uk and of the uk boxing scene someone that i think those fans can really get behind if he continues to climb the ladder take a look at this clip um from just a few weeks ago i do believe

of him interacting with a young man and give you a nice taste of who johnny fisher is with the addition of the extra cost in travel right before christmas that's good in it it's amazing how much how many people are coming so yeah yeah come on come on be in the interview be in any of it yeah what's your name why did you swear because i could dinner and they're saying i'm talking that's a good what do you think do you think that's a good do you think that's a good way to act put this do this do this for me i don't listen to it listen listen no listen listen i'm trying to help you there help you there. Do you think that's a good way to act and conduct yourself? That's not a way to act. Do you want a t-shirt? Do you want one of these?

When you come over here and act like that, it doesn't give off a good image, alright? I think you're a decent kid and I want to help people in the community, but if you act like that, it doesn't give off a good first impression. I'm expecting that because we're in a local area. There's people around here. It's wearing and coming over is not a good way to act. Just carry yourself a little bit better than that, because it's not a good way to act. What size is this? This is just me.

Medium. What are you? Large? Have you got small or medium? I reckon you're medium, yeah? And there's a good local boxing club there, Lion Boxing Club. If you want to get involved, go and see them. I did box out for a year.

Did you? What did you do? I did amateur. Listen, my advice is get involved in a boxing club again and bring your mates along as well. It'll be good. Yeah? Good man.

Yeah, I see that, yeah. Come on. That is great stuff. I love how he's like, come on, you got to act better. And the kid's like, what size you got? Deescalation. Yes. No, he did a great job.

And he's a great character. He posted something recently four years ago he's out there selling meat and cheese with his old man the great uh big john who we have to get on the show as well one day and there he is with i believe that's joe joyce who i think he sparred with back in the day four years ago i was selling meat with my dad for 50 quid a day we get back at midnight i would train in my parents garden then finish writing my history degree after that now i find myself getting the opportunity to fight on the biggest stage in boxing, Happy Days, the Rumford Bowl. How do you not love, I mean, I'm reading that and I'm getting chills. How do you not love stories like that? That's what it's all about. And he's a very easy guy to root for. And so I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to the whole card. As of right now,

I'm assuming Usyk is the favorite. What was that? What's that boxing odds site again? You almost got it. ProBoxingOdds.com. Oh, it is ProBoxingOdds, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is Usyk not the favorite?

He is, slightly. Minus 125 on a couple books. Oh, I see him. I see him I see it BetMGM minus 125 Yeah Man Actually that's closer

Than I thought Yeah you gotta wonder Is there gonna be a trilogy Because Big Turkey was saying Yeah I mean if it goes 12 rounds I feel like Usyk is gonna have to Put a stamp on it Johnny Fisher minus 1200

Yeah Tough one Same with Moses Massive favorite Minus 1200 yeah And both opponents Allen and Dempsey McKeon Plus 700

Let's see who's the biggest dog Edgar Ramirez Plus 900 But I mean those guys are plus 700 So pretty darn close Maybe there's something with A Johnny Fisher via knockout he likes to get them knockouts yeah he's like minus 350 or something is that it minus 350

knockout yeah i wonder what what's moses let's see unless you know johnny minus 400 by knockout moses by knockout is minus 310 any this card? Yeah, I'll definitely have a bet come Saturday. I'll have a few. Maybe a little Moses by KO, Johnny Fisher by KO parlay. Parlay. Ooh, I like that. Don't mind that. Boys in the back?

Yeah, we'll discuss it tomorrow. Have we sorted out the issues with Juliana? What's the issue? What did it last week, or was it two weeks? Oh, we just didn't get the pick in time, but it actually worked out perfectly. Petey picked Cyril. She also ended up picking Cyril, so it was a combo pick for them. Oh, really?

But when did she get it in? Friday. But then last week she redeemed herself, got it in on like Tuesday. Did she explain why she was so late? No, you know, things happen. Things happen. When you're the champ, you know, a lot of media obligations, things like that. Look, when she's the champ, we tend to not ask too many questions.

It's not really any of our business. No. Exactly. No, no, you're 100% right. The champ does what the champ wants. Of course, of course. All right, well, I'm glad that you guys are back in each other's good graces. Yesterday on the program, we talked a little bit about the Conor McGregor,

Logan Paul situation of it all And the only thing That I can Add to it is again Maintain As I said yesterday there's validity To the fact that phone calls Were made you know what Jake tweeted Based on my understanding

Accurate Saying hey phone calls were made but we're not interested If the UFC is not involved. Phone calls made between one team and Logan Paul's team, Team McGregor, Team Logan Paul, feels like a long shot. And digging a little bit, I don't think that this is what Dana White was referring to. That's my verdict. Again, we'll never truly know unless he comes out and says it, but I don't think this is what he was referring to. That's my verdict. Again, we'll never truly know unless he comes out and says it, but I don't think this is what he's referring to. And when I say this is

what he's referring to or was referring to, I'm talking about at the press conference on Saturday saying I've got something crazy up my sleeve, something to that effect. I'm paraphrasing. I don't think this was it. And so let's see. I mean, historically historically the UFC doesn't love doing these things We connected the dots yesterday Of WWE and UFC And TKO And you know could this delay That second fight Second to last fight on his contract

From kicking in and all that stuff But I don't know And let's be 100% honest It's one of those things where Is it the social media vacuum Or is it a legit sentiment It doesn't seem to have been met With great enthusiasm

Now does that you know Is that the temperature of everyone Or is it sort of like Jake Paul and Mike Tyson Where people on the internet Said I hated this And yet it got the Biggest numbers of all time?

I don't know. I don't know. And again, if you're asking me and Conor McGregor is fighting in 2025 or 2026, he is at his best when he fights in mixed martial arts. That's where we want to see him. And it feels like if you're going to go down this path, as PT said yesterday, this, this could signal the end. Um, I think any MMA fan would vote for a continuation of the MMA career because that is what he's best at.

Uh, so let us see, let us see how it all, uh, transpires, but, uh, nothing really all that new other than to say, based on chats chat conversations, it feels like, yeah, okay, this is something that was talked about, but is it like close to a done deal or going to be a done deal or going to be announced at this precise moment? That does not seem to be the case. I'm sorry to burst your bubble frank what the fuck is that yeah i know i know i'm sorry um anyway uh perhaps there'll be a question or two on this topic later in the

program uh i did i did get a call on monday you, we're going to be talking to Tyron Woodley in a matter of moments here about the Global Fight League that we, I guess, I don't know if we revealed it, but we had Darren Owen, the founder of this Upstart promotion on the show last Wednesday. And he announced all these names and all these fighters and all these plans and the draft and the season and the Scoring system and the schedule And all this stuff and more And I did actually get a call Believe it or not on Monday evening All of a sudden it's like 9.30pm And on my phone Is

Rampage Jackson And he calls me while he's filming A podcast And he's talking to the owner of the UFL, the United Fight League, and a gentleman named Harrison, and they're saying like, why are you giving these guys some shine, and you should be talking about us, we put on events, and we have the team format, and we have the revenue sharing, and all this stuff, and they haven't really been

On our radar I think they've done Some smaller events but I know they had Suhudo involved and Frank Mir Involved and others And you know I didn't really have a good answer As to why we haven't talked about them too much We don't talk about every organization in the sun There's just so much

Of the top tier stuff But I said to him what I said on this show and what I said to Darren I just don't believe in the format um I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong um I said I didn't believe in the PFL format when I was at ESPN and that was a little bit controversial because they were on ESPN and I was saying it. This is when I was doing the show with Chael, Ariel and the Bad Guy. And this is one step further from the format, which is teams, cities, points, standings, regular season, playoffs, all that stuff. I, again, don't think that that is the formula. If you are starting starting If someone gave me 50 million dollars right now And said you could start an MMA organization

I'm not investing in that format I'm not investing in that type of organization I'm not starting that type of organization If there's a model That I'm trying to copy Or recreate It's not the IFL's model It's Strikeforce's model

And what I mean by that is start locally, corner a market, get all the talent that you can from that market, which is what Strikeforce did with the Bay Area and AKA and they had the pipeline of all the great Bay Area talent coming in. And then slowly but surely start to build that out. So, you know, you're in NorCal, and then maybe you do something in SoCal, and then maybe you do something in Washington, and then maybe you venture over into Reno, that type of format. I'm not saying it has to be in that part of the country per se. You could do it on the East Coast or whatever, but that to me is the best way to use that kind of money. And of course there are regional promotions, but if you're getting a big investment and you're trying to go all in, I don't know if this is the best way to

do it. And it's because we've seen it before. We've seen people overpay for older fighters. We've seen people try this format before, IFL, PFL to some degree And to me It works best when you can just go And put on the best, biggest Most interesting, sexiest Matchups possible Standings be damned Meritocracy be damned

Just try to get people talking And you also have to build stars You have to build talent You have to build homegrown talent That people are getting excited about and want to watch and be invested in. We have some of the material of their format and their point system that we showed last week.

But just before we speak to Tyron Woodley, we could show it quickly here as a quick refresher. This is of the GFL, the Global Fight League that Darren Owen announced last week on the program. And the point system is somewhat akin to what the PFL has going. Four points for a finish, three points for a decision win, two points for a draw, one point for a decision loss, obviously zero points for a finish loss points contribute to the team's total score so it's sort of like collegiate wrestling in that there's like meets where it's ohio state versus arizona state and they come together and there's points that's the way i i don't know i i i kind of understood it all and then there's a whole system where there's a regular season and then playoffs and then there's finals and then you have a champion. So you have these six cities

and I believe in total there are six, but they're seeds, right? Oh, I see. So the six... Wait a second. Oh. I see. Okay, so the bottom two actually don't make the playoffs. Yeah, so only four teams make the playoffs, it looks like. I thought maybe they would do a thing where the top two could be getting a bye and then the four fight each other

I love it I love it That's like the NFL playoffs Not everyone can make the playoffs around here Yeah no participation trophies huh Yeah I'm gonna be living and breathing and dying With the New York squad Yeah What do you think you'll be more into

This or the NBA cup next year This GFL for sure Yeah Yeah same amount of stakes Stop What do you mean same amount of stakes Same amount of stakes I mean you could say that these

I mean these stakes are way bigger It is weird like watching the NBA Cup Final yesterday And they're celebrating And it's like oh yeah And you're in Charlotte on Saturday It's like they're celebrating with the cup And it's like did i see yannis crying i don't know if he cried he definitely seemed happy dame seemed happy ownership seemed happy i mean it's a nice

little it's a little a little notch in the belt but it's like you're literally in you know new orleans on friday yeah it's it's it's a nothing burger for me. I'm not the one to ask about the NBA Cup. Your sons are probably the ones that. They're into it. Everyone's into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm not the one to ask. They woke up today. I was like, yo, Milwaukee smoked OKC. What? They were certain that OKC. They thought Milwaukee sucked. They were subscribing

to those early season storylines. This is nothing more than a regular season game. What about the fact that Darvin Hamm is 14-0 in the NBA Cup? Yeah. I did see one meme where it was like NBA Cup Darvin Ham

and it was Phil Jackson hoisting the Larry O'Brien. That was a good one. What about Torian Prince, the only man in NBA history to win back-to-back years? Former Hawks legend. We raised him right. Yeah, that's right. What's a greater factoid, that or Juliana Pena being the first member of the Parlay Boys to win a UFC title? Yeah, they're both great. They're both great. Back-to-back NBA cups will definitely

go on his resume, on his Hall of Fame resume when he's getting, what do they do? Do they do gold jackets? Oh, in the NBA Hall of Fame? No. It's just the Basketball Hall of Fame resume when he's getting, what do they do? Do they do gold jackets? Oh, in the NBA Hall of Fame? No. It's just the Basketball Hall of Fame, right? Springfield. Yeah, yeah. It's Basketball Hall of Fame. It's like, it's not a gold jacket, but it is some kind of color.

Beige? It's some kind of off color. It's not like your typical. Yeah. It's like a beige. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it. I didn't see us getting into the color of the jackets for the Basketball Hall of Fame.

I mean, you brought it up. I know. I will say, I just wish that they would include the G League and European teams and make it like full on. Okay, see, that would be way cooler. Then I would be into it. Yeah. But then you couldn't call it the NBA Cup. Call it the Basketball Cup.

I'm so down for that. Or the Emirates Cup. That would be incredible. That would be. Imagine if some couldn't call it the NBA Cup. Call it the Basketball Cup. I'm so down for that. Or the Emirates Cup. Imagine if some G League team goes on a run. I'm a thousand percent with you, man. Right? I'm with you. Get the what is it? Europa League? Get them into it. No, the Europa League. Yep. Europa League? Euro Cup?

Euro? Get like the top, I don't know, four teams there. Get the top four teams in G League. Yep. And then get the top four teams from there. Get the top four teams in G League. Yep, and then get the top four teams from the East and the top four teams from the West, and that becomes the basketball team.

That's fun. I'm there. I'm there for that. I would watch that. Man, you could get the Australian teams too. They have a great league over there. Oh, come on, man. NBL.

Sign me up. The Wong Tong Tigers or whatever. I don't know about that. They always refer to on Inside the NBA They do? Man, that would be fun Yeah, there's something missing here Because they're clearly trying to take from the

The FA Cup and the Carabao Cup But the magic of those cups For the most part is that you get some of these matchups That you don't normally get Now this is just like Was there any NBA Cup games where it's like They played in the NBA Cup and then their next regular season game was against the same team? Pretty darn close. I know the Knicks and Nets played very close to each other. Yeah. Doesn't work. Unbelievably lame. Yeah. It doesn't work. All right. Let us go to our next

guest. He is the chosen one. He's our good friend, Tyron Woodley. He'll be joining us in a matter of moments. We found out last week that he is a part of the new Global Fight League, and I wanted to get a little bit of color. I wanted to get some insight. We had Anthony Pettis and Kevin Lee on immediately after Darren Owen's announcement to talk more about it, but let's talk to Tyron. He's going to give us the goods. He's going to shoot straight with us, and he's kind enough to join us right here and now there he is hello tyron how are you what's up area how you doing my man it's good to talk to you my man uh wanted to actually have you on last week but you were in the air i think coming over from

uh the middle east so i was coming back from dubai man you spent a lot of time there huh it's like your second home yeah you know i mean i i like dubai because you got to recognize in that in that space is the opposite of what i'm used to i'm from the murder capital of the world right so i gotta watch everybody's intentions i feel like um the business that's presented to me out there it's kind of up front i kind of know people's intentions it's a few fluffers and fast talkers there but um in general just it's a lot of good opportunities and um a lot of opportunities for culture and i feel like i am culture so shit let's let's cook up okay and so let me ask you about this gfl because i'll be honest with you i did hear from a couple people saying like hey i saw my name on that list that was revealed on on our show last week and like i haven't quite signed

just yet and so what is your status are you fully in with this new organization yeah i'm fully in with the organization i feel like you know so many people called me um was asking me am i in right because they know i'm not gonna step to the plate and i'm not gonna be a part of nothing that's bullshit i'm not gonna be a part of something that that's not gonna um pay me super handsomely or put me at a platform where the media and attention I gather from that was just going to build my brand up. Everybody

that probably signed, maybe 90% of them called me and made sure that they said, are you really in? I like it because I like that the OGs get paid, man. Getting boxing money in MMA is a whole flex. I'm just excited to be a part of the new wave.

I've been wanting to get back in MMA. I really just kind of put it on pause. I kind of ghosted it for a minute. It never really ghosted me when I needed it. I've been making this journey back anyway, and it for a minute and then it never really ghosted me when i needed it so i've been making this journey back anyway and it was a good opportunity um it had some rick flart trip with the um with the digits on the payout and then um yeah it made sense for me when did they first kind of come in contact with you and when did this deal get done like when did it all get really serious between you two oh my deal was quick it was me that took longer because i got i do so many different things that i can't um i can't basically agree to a contract that i would already breach

you know i'm going to be commentating as a freelancer i'm going to be commentating on the zone you see me commentating you know with you with the mvp situation commentating pfl so with a league sometimes you see you know i, fighters from the league, maybe not in the PFL, but like in the UFC, you see those guys analyzed. Like I even still have a contract with the UFC and ESPN. I can you still can see me on the desk anywhere. And I like to have that freedom because I feel like big moments and big fights I want to cover. It don't matter promotion. So I had to make sure that was ironed out. I like the fact that when I when I told him what I needed to make, they didn't try to do a whole bunch of negotiation because I'm too far in the game for you to be trying to negotiate with me and play games when you just started, right?

So that was the first thing that made me take it serious. It was no back and forth. When I said this is what it's going to cost for me to put on these four-ounce gloves and bust some nuggets up, this is what they gave out. And also just the thought process of the revenue share and the different branding and the way that, you know what I mean, we can get it closer, you know what I mean, closer to like some of these other sports we watch. It was very interesting. So when you mention like boxing money and MMA and whatnot,

what do you mean? Because to me, I'm like, you know, I always beat the drum. I want the fighters to get paid. I want them to get more. They all deserve more. You guys deserve back pay. But, you know, you've been around the sport a long time. And sometimes you see people come into the sport.

They pay a lot of money, maybe most famously affliction, right? They were only able to put on two events and then they ran out of money. And so are there any concerns if they are paying massive massive money out the gate that that will dry up very quickly i mean if i was if i was a promoter of the organization i may have some concern just because the the roster you can see how many like he sent me a couple more yesterday that's not even on that list that you guys have and i think it's four or five more world champions um so um when i look at that you know me it doesn't make me fearful because i'm not the promoter all i can do is do my best go train my ass off um bring as much value to the promotion i can bring um talk about it you know i mean let everybody know how they can watch it we still got

to educate like mma is still young as hell it they can watch it. We still got to educate. Like, MMA is still young as hell. It's under 40 years old. We still got to continue to educate the fans on what the sport is and what they're even watching. Because they're still saying, it's just, you know what I mean? Are you doing it? What's the difference between MMA and UFC? Like, we still are hearing that. And it's telling us that we need to educate.

So, I don't have any concerns um i'm at the part of my career where you know i'm gonna let people see and i'm gonna remind them of who i am and i feel like that's important for myself and i think it's important for my fans that was with me for all those years that they see me go out and show them that you know what this is why we like tyrant but this is why we didn't like tyrant either way it go you know I'm going to give him something to remember. How do you feel about the format? You know, the regular season, playoff points, the teams, LA, New York, all that stuff. How do you feel about that?

To be honest, I feel like I'm going to be fighting super fights. And I never really got an opportunity to fight super fights when I was in the UFC. I wanted to so bad. And I think that's what me and the brass kind of brushed heads a couple times because I was just begging for the Bisping fight, begging for the GSP fight, begging for the Nate, Nick, Connor. And it was all guys that was around my time, around my weight, and they all just didn't want to fight.

And you can't make people fight that don't want to fight. You can't make people fight that don't want to fight. But in this situation, I feel like you'll see a couple guys that sign that are going to really, really raise your eyebrows. That's probably who I'm going to end up fighting. Oh, okay. Any hints?

It'll be a big fight. It's a fight that I should have had in the ufc that i didn't um i actually spoke about having this fight i'll let you people will be able to do their research i actually spoke about having this fight and then um people were acting like i was capped like it was never a fight like i was just making it up even though i was offered the fight so that fight can take place um it's some it's some fights that I didn't even expect. But I'm like, hell yeah. If you want to let me take this lunch money right quick to this buster, I would kindly beat his ass.

I'm tired of hearing him anyway. So it's a couple of those in there, too. So I'm excited. That kind of stuff makes me excited. You know what I mean? And yeah, it's a lot of stuff on the roster as well um are you exclusive to them as far as fighting is concerned um i can't really talk about my contract because i don't want to have other fighters and managers get upset um but you know me area i gotta do my thing and And I feel like MMA, MMA, I'm going to be fighting for them a couple times next year.

I could fight before then, too. You know what I mean? I could fight early in the year. Right now, it's not looking like it's promising that it can happen. And I could fight later in the year. But it will be a time where you'll see me dedicated and kicking ass for the GFL. And what is the motivation for you at this point um you know you you've won the belts you've you've fought the vast majority of the top guys in your weight class and you've been away as far as mma is

concerned for a few years now to come back in 2025 you're 42 at the moment like what what is what is what is driving you what's the motivation i mean I mean, to be honest with you, when they called me about this offer and this fight, I was praying to God, like, what do you want me to do? I still got it. I'm still fast. I'm still good. The sport hasn't passed me. There's not like a fighter I can think of that's like,, oh my God, he's just too much to deal with. I knew when I got, when I saw fighters, it was way faster, way more skilled. And it was way, they, they wanted it more than those fighters will be the next generation.

You know what I mean? I don't see those fighters that make me feel that way. Um, I do see those fighters for sure in UFC, but not in my division and not in my crosshair. So I was in a point of kind of like trying to define what I'm supposed to do because a part of me could be pride, right? God could say, hey, your last fight was technically supposed to be Darren Till, right? And your distractions and detours made you stay in this role longer, right?

It could be me just wanting to go out on the wind. It could be me just wanting to show everybody else what I got, right? But sometimes when you do too many things that bring it back to you, I feel like I'm not involving God with that. I feel like I got into this sport real clearly to show people that God's real through me and be a vessel and go out there. And people be like, man, this kid is something special about him. And when they ask me, I would explain to them my secret sauce. I kind of got away from that a little bit with all the razzle dazzle all the clubbing

all the money I was killing it I had people that didn't pay me for a year and I didn't even notice because I was working too much I was on Fox 3 or 4 days a week I was doing my own TMZ show I was doing music, I was doing movies

I was fighting 4 world title fights in one year i was on the the 205 card which historically the biggest game madison square garden history um i fought john jones fought cormier which is a big fight card as well so i've been a part of some big cards and even when i fought darren till you know i was smashed in between the triple g canelo one and a conor mcgregor fight so i was smashed in between that but i still showed up showed out um shout out to darren till but i did beat him like a drum and i was thinking about i was thinking about everybody that was doubting me so he got a

whooping that he didn't even deserve like i did it you know i mean what am i gonna go back and win another title and it made me more of a legend? Or like, what is a legend? Like, I feel like my goal is to just ask God what we doing. You know what I mean? Because I could do other shit and probably make the same or more money. But I feel like this chapter deserves a proper closing. Right? Either me saying I'm done or me going out there and turning up one more time for the win. And I feel like the turn up was an option. As I'm praying about that, this offer comes in. It was pretty smooth compared to other negotiations. I'm getting paid. People need to understand what you worth because we don't even know what we work so calm that down i'm getting paid what i asked for and i didn't get and i didn't get i didn't get somebody to try to put me on clearance to try to put a red sticker on my

fucking brand they said okay let's go all right and we did it wow that's my motivation i'm excited you know i mean i feel like my story and my fighting career is going to be spoken about, maybe written about. And hopefully people coming through, not just kids, but also adults, that go through these choices. And I had a lot of choices. I feel like if I never lost focus ever, where you see all these guys in rehab season making these crazy bags. You see all these. These are my training partners. Like, the law is my dog.

That's my training partner. Johnny Evelyn is my training partner. Like, Usman, I, like, mentored Usman, right? So, like, to even think that somebody in those categories, like, I used to torture Kobe Covington in training camp. I used to pay him $500 to dust him up every week, and he left early. A lot of people don't know that. So I got distracted. I let the things that came with success take me off of my focus.

And when you take your eyes off your focus, I was in the season of harvest. I had already planted them good seeds. I was a savage. Nobody was outsmarting me. Nobody was outworking me. Nobody was out conditioning me. Nobody was out training me. Nobody was out thinking me. I covered every fucking base for a long time and I was living a better life. I wasn't doing bullshit. Then it got to the point where I was doing so well when I started planting those other

seeds in the ground, right? I really didn't trip off. I'm sowing seeds that are going to later harvest. Right now, it ain't me training hard and being a good father and being a great businessman that was making me win. It was what I did in the season before that was making me win, right? So as I was winning and winning those titles back to back to back, shutting everybody up, then as I was planting those seeds, what came after that? That's when the drought came. That's when people were there, like, I beat all the savages, Gorilla, Natural Born, Killer, Rufus, and then I lose to fucking Gilbert.

No disrespect on everybody, but just listen to the way it sounds. I lose to Marty, Gilbert, Luque, and Kobe after smashing all the guys on paper. Like, Hunter and Dana called me themselves, like, Gilbert, Luque, and Kobe after smashing all the guys on paper. Like, Hunter and Dana called me themselves, like, Tyron, I don't see nobody that's going to beat you now. After I beat everybody, I'm going to be beating in front of it. So, focus is a big thing. Like, if anybody watching this, no matter what, build you in. Stay focused, man. Like, look at the people.

Like, LeBron James ain't perfect, but him, Steph Curry, and these other people, I think they stay focused just a little bit more. My dog Ray Lewis told me, he said, I lost focus five times in my entire fucking NFL career. I'm like, I lose focus five times a day. You know what I mean? That's long-winded, but that's real shit. That's why you want me on here, because that's really where I'm coming from. that's really where i'm coming from that's really where i said and it's not perfect but it's pure i appreciate that very much thank you for the answer the thoughtful answer as always um you know i'd be remiss if i don't actually follow up on that colby story because i'd never heard that

before can you tell us more about that what is that all about i mean colby colby is a like like i don't want to rain on this parade but the parade kind of over with i think he disrespects the um division i think he disrespects other fighters by just picking his shoes in a fight um i had defended the belt several times while he had an interim belt and then now he comes and fights me when he think when they think i'm down and out um kobe used to in, like, we used to laugh at him. Like, I remember being at Dan Lambert House. No bullshit.

It was me, Hector Lombard, Robbie Lawler, Tiago Alves, Ben Saunders. It was like a walk-away poker night at Dan Lambert House, right? It was really fly, to be honest. We watched them fight.

And I don't think Kobe was there but we was all laughing how Kobe was just so capped he was going and telling other people how we were all scared to train with him how he can't get no good work here like he was talking to these other teams like alpha males or whatever's about that and then we was all like we all made made a bet, like an inside bet. All right, if he can last one round with any of us that's trying to, like, really put it on him, we'll all give him $100,000. It was something ridiculous. That's how, at that time, we was that confident. So I feel like with Kobe, I brought him in to St. Louis. I paid him.

I put him in this nice place to stay. I paid for all his food. I took him to the gun range. I set him in to St. Louis. I paid him. I put him in this nice place to stay. I paid for all his food. I took him to the gun range. I set him up with chicks. Like, I did everything, like boxing private lessons, jiu-jitsu private lessons, strength and conditioning private lessons, on top of paying him. Nobody was doing that for their training partners.

I take care of my training partners. But he was just always, like, running. He ran for me the whole training camp he literally didn't want to work out we doing wrestling drills and you looking around like who the hell else will I want to fucking help me wrestle

besides you that's why you're here I was fighting Roy McDonald come in there because i knew and he did actually he did pressure my ass too did he i figured rory was trying to pressure me and push me against the cage which he did but but kobe came in captain he just ran from me and um he just was do stupid shit like i'll be choking him out and i'll have to make the choice Do I keep choking and put him in sleep? I'll break his arm and then I'm like I'm not gonna be a dick and then he'll be like, oh pop out like he got out Like come you do stuff, but it's a whole movie in itself. Like if I send you a video

It would be kind of shady which time not in that space. Like I don't take the curtain off of an act That's good. His act is trash. It was funny for a little bit when we was bored, when John was on a hiatus, Rhonda wasn't fine, and Connor was out. We listened to Kobe because he just came in. But in reality, I used to torture Kobe. He never won a moment of anything, not even a minute. He never won a moment or any exchange one time.

And I think he left early, acting like his foot was hurt in the training camp. And these are all credit. He asked Taylor Craw, Roger Craw's son, asked Edmund Belbusu, asked Derek Fairchild, asked Dean Thomas. And I remember the final day, like, I should be saving this for my memoir because I got a fire- ass memoir, all these stories. But Arrow, you my dog, you always been 100. So I'm giving you the cream of the crop.

I told Kobe the last day that he trained with me. I said, Kobe if you don't submit to a choke, or if you get mad that I took you down and have an attitude, and I'm a fucking two-time All-American Hall of Fame wrestler, like I'm not supposed to take you down. If you run for me,

I'm going to break your fucking arm today. I'm going to choke you out. I'm going to knock you out. If you run for me and you run off the mat like you've been doing all camp, I'm going to follow you on a carpet and i'm going to commence the beating your ass are we got that clear he said yeah and we sparred he left the next day wow wow that's real shit well you know um he fought another st louis guy and i know you've kind of had an off and on relationship. You guys. Yeah.

Joaquin. I kind of, I didn't, I didn't watch the fight yet. I like, I don't like to do everything everybody else doing. Right. So I'm gonna go back and check it out. Me and Joaquin, Joaquin started training with my first trainer, Mike Rogers, and I started back training. So we kind of started training at the same time. It's kind of like Joaquin's been at my gym many, many years. Right.

But he's the kind of kid that see you like no I think I can beat you I want to I want to get in the gym try to spar you to see if see where I'm at and at that point in my career I couldn't be sparring guys I was trying to measure where they were at because you get hurt or I hurt you trying to fucking um teach you a lesson right either way it goes now there's no bueno for either one of us so we never really got a chance to train when he was trying to train with me but he was at my gym um he was at a couple gyms um quite often but yeah i was going to actually try to make it out to the fight um but i for my first ufc fight going back to spectate i didn't want it to be kobe covington you know i mean that ain't yeah i'd rather crash

alex pereira or something like that because he's a savage. So, you know, I was curious because we actually just spoke about this, was it yesterday or two days ago? It was yesterday with Aljamain Sterling. And, you know, I think in the past we've talked about Aljo, but now we're starting to see the story again with Murab where, you know, they're kind of

pressuring him to come back quicker and he's at the... Man, these people better quit letting pressure bust their pipe. Like, I told Aljo, where, you know, they're kind of pressuring him to come back quicker. And he's at the— Man, these people better quit letting the pressure bus stay pipe. Like, I told Aljo, I said, yo, that shouldn't have fought. Because guess what? Nobody want to hear, oh, you took the fight anyway when you was injured or you wasn't feeling good.

Oh, my nephew coming through. You wasn't feeling good. Nobody want to hear that shit. They don't want to hear that. So at the end of the day, right, don't fight when you're not ready to fight mentally, physically, emotionally, right? Because if you lose, you're not going to get another chance. You'll be better off letting them go on the interim to shit out your division. Come back, fight when you're mentally ready, physically ready, emotionally ready to fight.

Because it's two different things going on a promoter got to get a certain amount of events with a certain amount of rise or downs on it people in asses and seats and people buying t-shirts and beer that's their job their job is not to think if you have a mental health crisis if you are injured like a motherfucker and like i fought all my title fights injured as hell right you don't get them choices and options so I think I'm not trying to start a fucking revolt but

just think about it would you rather come back and fight interim champion to make it an undisputed belt as still champion or would you rather go out there and then after the fight say oh you know boy i wasn't healthy i fought too much and i was injured you know i mean say just think about your career a

little bit more logically do what's best for you and if they don't like it like it was sometimes the ufc loved me because i took that fucking dun Young Kim fight elbowed the shit out of Holloway in like a millisecond took that fight on two weeks notice I took Damian Maia fight on two weeks notice three weeks notice sorry I took Darren Till fight on three weeks

notice and I wasn't healthy for any of those fights but I came through I came through clutch you know what I mean but these guys gotta think about them because you mentioned the Darren Till fight fights, but I came through. I came through clutch. These guys got to think about them. You mentioned the Darren Till fight. I just wanted to ask because I saw Murab. I was worried for him because it seems

like he's not just fighting Umar in January. He's fighting the promotion as well. He seemed very emotional and upset. I don't want to get into that area. I don't want to say that. I'm just saying. You have felt that, right? Where you're not just fighting the guy that's in the cage. I don't want to get into that area. I don't want to say that. I'm close to that. You have felt that, right? Where you're not just fighting the guy that's in the cage. It ain't no fight. No, I did, but now I'm out of it, so now I'm wiser. It ain't no fight.

That's their promotion. You're fighting for them. So these are the terms we agree or we don't agree. It's our choice, right? We can't say, okay, somebody keep doing it. They don't agree it's our choice right we we can't we can't say okay somebody keep doing so they don't have you at gunpoint we can all slide whenever we want or we can set some waters and go fight some rust and just get sued up but we we got choices if i had a choice to go back i would recognize way earlier that no matter what i feel or no matter if i think i'm getting set up or whatever this thing more fucking. And at the end of the day, they're going to do what's best for them. I got to

make a way to keep winning, make as much money as I can while I'm here because we can't act like I'm the biggest signee of this league because I'm a five-time champion. Where? In the UFC. We can act like that and like, oh, it's just because

we just signed them no they i got signed because i did it five times four times in a year right so at the end of the day that that i don't feel bad for mora i talked to mora a long time ago about what he should do i talked to him in private in california when when the audio still had the belt. I told him, this is your brand, dog. Do this right here. Say this shit. Move like this. Stand on this. Because this is you anyway. So if you be like this,

fighters are going to have to fight you, and the fans are going to love you. And that's not what he's doing right now. Now, I mean, I'm not the boss of him. I told Joaquin a couple things, too, but he's doing right now. Now, I mean, I'm not the boss of him. Sure, sure, sure. I told Joaquin a couple of things, too, but he wasn't listening either. Can I ask what you told him?

Joaquin or the other? Buckley. Murab. I told Buckley, shit, your resume is the highlight reel like quit asking for main events and quit asking for you know what I mean like these things in St. Louis and all this that's not that important you're trying to be the best in the world just keep winning

fucking people up like you've been doing you're fun to watch you actually look like you're genuinely having fun out there which is very rare that somebody's having fun getting punchy punchpunchy. And, you know what I mean? You built fucking, you ripped up, you know what I mean? You say funny shit.

You got this uncle mustache. That's the big brother of me teasing him. And it's like, I'm not going to forget you, right? His brand can be crazy. Watch this. I'm going to help my dog out, free. Watch this. Give me a year. I'm going to help Joaquin Buckley with his brand. And in one year, you're going to help my dog out Free Watch this Give me a year

I'm going to help Joaquin Buckley With his brand And in one year You're going to see A whole bunch of different Activations Endorsements Sponsorships

Which when you work more Outside the UFC They have to pay more That was what I did Right They didn't like it When you work more outside When you get back

Going to this other side They got to pay you more I'm going to help them out. Okay. All right. Can I just ask, because you were talking about taking fights on short notice and whatnot. Amazingly, it just occurred to me, the second Jake fight was exactly three years ago today, believe it or not, December 18th, which is wild. Do you regret taking that one on two weeks notice?

I remember you joining us from the set of. Hell no. Hell no. You don't regret it? Corporate card. Yeah, I remember. Yes. No, I don't regret it corporate car yeah i remember yes no i don't regret it at all i i was um i was i had flew my coach out training as if because some of my gut told me that my spirit they never never failed me it's always been a buck so i don't know why i went

against my spirit but i brought my coach gt out brought him out to St. Louis, and he never got a chance to really work on the basics. I'm going to try to get him back. All right. We lost him there real quick. We were fighting through it a couple times. And just a few more minutes with Tyron, dropping some wisdom, dropping some knowledge on all of us and uh reaffirming that he is 100% involved with gfl okay uh tyron you there yeah i'm here sorry about that now what i'm saying is i brought my coach gt i brought him

out and i i brought him out as if i was fighting jake anyway right and then i tried i did that for weeks two or three weeks in St. Louis. He came out to Atlanta and trained me on a set of Cobra Kai. That was kind enough to let me train on set. And literally, it was like maybe four weeks before the fight. I'm like, damn, this fight is going to actually happen. So then I started training more just for fun. So sometimes when you're out in the fight camp, you're, like, sparring and just laughing and poking fun at each other.

And I went to the gym from camaraderie and just to, like, sweat. So I was still kind of moving around, but I wasn't moving around like I was when I was anticipating fighting them. So then when Nikisa hit me about fighting him, it was like two weeks. And I was like, let me go train. Let me go train real hard and see how I feel. That's that. I did. I did that to everybody.

Let me go train real hard. So I go in the gym and I train like it's a fight. And I'll tell myself, yo ass out of shape. Yo ass is going to get beat or not. Let's go ahead and get this. So I said, let's do it. Okay. Um, yeah, I's go ahead and get this. So I said, let's do it. Okay. Yeah, I was beating him the whole fight.

Like, literally, I dropped my hand one time at the wrong time, when the whole training camp was never drop your hands. I got too comfortable. I hit him. I slammed him. I headbutted him. I did some other shit. Then it got to the point where I was kind of just like, whatever. Then I thought he was going to throw overhand because that's my punch.

Then I was like, he's not going to throw it. Right when I said he's not going to throw it, he lit that motherfucker up. So, I was going to win that fight. I mean, one mistake, he threw a punch at the same time as one mistake. I mean, I was winning.

It was a six round. I was winning every single round. What do you make of this Conor McGregor, Logan Paul stuff? What they talking about? Fighting? Yeah, he posted something yesterday. I mean, UFC merged with WWE, so I mean, I would imagine anything's open right now.

I wouldn't downplay anything. For you, though, you're going to come back. do you know when this first fight for gfl would be oh i know the earliest fight is in april yeah um i don't know exactly when like i'm not at the liberty to say yet because i feel like it depends on who i'm fighting if when i'm fighting one of the names that makes a lot of sense, just storyline-wise. People will actually fucking want to go to Washington, no matter what league it's on. I feel like that may take a few more months to promote.

So I may not be the first fight in April, but I'm preparing as if I fight in April. Getting back on the mat, shit. Not wrestling in a long time or grappling. Now, all of a sudden, you elbow oh i miss them so like it's it's it's gonna take me at least four weeks to acclimate so i'm gonna be prepared for april anyway by the way is it ring or cage cage okay and are you talking about gsp hey ariel i mean it seemed like you were alluding to that but you could tell me to go f off but i feel like i should probably just ask straight up you know gsp you i'm gonna call him up after this dog i'm gonna call my boy when you don't get about when you don't get a tyron woodley bobblehead on your desk like do have a Tyron Woodley bobblehead?

Is there one? Let's make one Everybody online, Ariel's the number one dude in this We call it broadcast Whatever you want Me and him need to split a deal No, I don't want to split it, you take it all I just want to have it on my desk

I want you to get paid for it If you shoot the bird down, we break bread at the table That's how it works. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. Well, this is exciting. Exciting things.

By the way, it's not Eddie Hall, is it? Hey, you're a researcher. What's this guy Eddie Hall saying? There was talks of you guys fighting? This is a gigantic dude. He's like 350 pounds. Oh, he said something about me fighting him? Yeah, but then he said, no, I'm not doing it.

Somebody asked me to fight his ass. I said, you mean the dude that fought two people? They said, yeah, but we're going to make you MMA so you have extra weapons. Oh, no. His big ass is going to have a four-ounce glove to fucking punch you with. What am I going to do? Like, no. I ain right for that

circus show i'm for the i'm for the the the shenanigans but i ain't for the shit show i ain't gonna be fighting no 300 he they did somebody did ask me to fight him but one it was not enough money they wanted me to do it in like two or three weeks all the way in fucking ireland somewhere and i was like nah cuz no i'm not the one for. I'm not the one that even offered that. I'm surprised you even offered me that. You did do a reality show in Russia with Luke Rockhold, right? Yeah. I was trashing Rockhold

on that show. Was there a fight at the end of it? No, it wasn't a fight at the end of it. I mean, Rockhold got out of pocket once or twice and we had to make sure we're not ever going to do that again, cameras or not cameras. But I respect Luke. Like, you know what I mean?

When I was coming up, he was coming up at the same time. You know what I mean? He was always trying to prove himself just because of the AKA Jim. And he was a good measure stick for, like, cardio if I was in good shape and if I was ironing and gurgling. So I ain't going to talk shit on Luke, but on the show I was talking mad shit. Man. Always very busy, but it's exciting that you're coming back and I'm happy to hear you

confirm that you are a part of these plans. I'm excited to get in camp. I don't know why. That's the shittiest part of fighting. There's so much stories from camp. I'm excited to get in camp again. I'm happy to hear that you are excited and in good spirits as well. Thank you as always Tyron Thank you for joining us

Thanks for the great stories and the insight And happy holidays to you and your family Happy holidays to you as well my man There he is, the great Tyron Woodley Joining us, the former UFC welterweight champion Now a part of the big GFL plans And we found out more about them

Last week everyone's talking about it Even Dana White was asked about GFL and their plans And He said come on in The water's warm It's nice over here But let's see they say they have a draft

In January End of January And then the season is supposed to start in April They want to have a broadcast deal. I think that would be huge for them. That would be very important. It's a massive way to generate revenue, and then things will kick off in April with their regular season and then the playoffs. But he's talking about super fights as well, so perhaps that will be a part of the plans too. All right, great stuff from Tyron. In about an hour's time, a little less,

we're going to be joined by Kaikar France. I'm excited to talk to him. He's one of the top flyweights in the UFC and of course has been in the news and we've talked about him quite a bit over the last couple of weeks when talking about who Alex Pantoja should fight next. And obviously he came up in the post-fight interview

of one Manel Kapp. So that is coming up. And then after that, we will answer your questions on the nose. Nice to take a little hydration break. However, let us welcome in our next guest, and he is joining us in studio. We have big news, my friends, because the man himself, Paul Hughes, is here, and he's returning to action on January the 25th against Usbender Magomedov. He's back. Good to see you.

Hello, Paul. How are you? I'm good. Are you growing? What's going on? I'm on the... Are you looking jacked? Hey, I'm on the stuff. Don't tell anyone, okay? We don't have to do testing.

Ah, you know yourself,ul you know yourself you know yourself hot off the uh hot out of the gate i like it uh welcome to our new home how about us uh prior to 2024 i don't think we did a single interview and this year i think this is our like fourth or fifth i think so yeah look at that and two in studio interviews yeah i mean here you're very good to me i really appreciate it no problem congratulations on the new move, Yahoo Studios here. Yes, yes, yes. It's really cool. Thank you.

Like, really cool. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. What brings you to New York? Is it just like a media thing? Media run, yeah. I was in South Florida there training, and I'm going to a Boston Celtics game tomorrow night. Wow.

Are you an NBA fan? Casual. Okay. A real casual. My brother's a massive fan, and when I told him I was going to the Celtics game, he lost his mind. He was like, what? He was like, you know their champs? And I was like, I know their champs, but like, is that big of a deal?

And he was like, yes. I'm like, well, here we go. It's a big deal. I actually despise them. Oh, the Celtics? I fucking hate them. Why? Because they're better than the Knicks?

Is that what it is? That is exactly it. That is exactly it. I got the rundown that some of the PFL team are Knicks fans. They were telling me all the time. Okay, yes, yes, yes. Do you know who they're playing? The Bulls.

The Bulls. Okay, classic. Two classic teams. Yeah. I was delighted to hear that, to be honest, because obviously the last dance documentary and all that, I loved it. So just to see the Bulls is going to be pretty cool as well.

And so are you staying here throughout the holidays? You're staying in America, not here in New York, but Florida. I am now, yeah. I was supposed to actually go home today back to Ireland ireland but i'm gonna stay over christmas now just to you know stay in the zone here and any guys training out there still is that difficult not really to be honest um look the job's not finished five and a half weeks until the biggest night of my life you know so. So it's only one Christmas to sacrifice. You know, yes, it will be sad to not see everybody, see all my friends, flying home, see my family, all that fun stuff.

But, you know, it's what must be done. Is Christmas a big deal in the Hughes household? Yeah, it is. What are the traditions? Christmas in Ireland is very big in general. Usually I would take a December and a January off fight, and no matter what, I've always done that because I love to enjoy that Christmas time.

You know, pints of Guinness with the boys, like it's the best time of year. But yeah, Christmas is a really nice time in Ireland. It is amazing. But it is what it is. Look, I have a job that needs to be done, and that's my focus. And so I remember we had you on right after the win over AJ McKee.

And you were saying, you're very clear. I want Usman. And shortly thereafter, we saw the face-off with you two. And you guys did that face-off outside, by the way. Was it already a done deal? Or were you kind of just like planting a seed? It was done. It was done.

Where was this, by the way? Where were you guys over here in this photo? This is the Dubai frame. So this is like a big a pretty historic landmark in dubai we actually done like a few different face-offs done one at the beach done one at not quite as as nice as this the beach but the other one was at the museum of the future with alexa and ghani and all we were at a sports conference there so it's a cool experience and and do you get to chat with him at all do you get a a vibe check from him yeah um i mean as mentioned we've done three different face-offs so there's quite a a bit of time in his vicinity um you know obviously obviously this is a question

that most people ask is like what's he like did you make any reads to be honest i just see a stone cold killer and he's looking at the exact same thing you know we have to he's a guy that has no reason to doubt himself and myself as well so it's just kind of there's not really too many reads to me made i don't think at that at that point maybe fight week you get a little bit more of an energy check when it's closer to the actual fight but you know when we were there it was kind of like business you know is there any talking any trash talking anything like that no words there hasn't been it's been pretty respectful i obviously have a great deal of respect for him um until literally just before i came in here the pfl were reading out some of the translations of some of the shit he's been saying and i actually found that

incredibly disrespectful tell me tom i missed all i mean where was this it was i don't know if they've done it on purpose before i've come in here oh can you give it to me i'd like to read it as well they've got me right up what do you say give me the basis yeah this is at least my understanding of of their translations is basically like you know who am i and i don't even deserve to be here you know he said that about you apparently apparently you know allegedly as i would say um that's unbelievably disrespectful you know but in a way i like it as well because whenever they told me that and i was seeing some of the things he was saying it really just put me in a different place to be honest um i'm a pretty happy-go-lucky guy um but when it comes to competition and when

it comes to my future um, which is everything to me I take it unbelievably seriously Do you think he actually believes that or do you think he's trying to get under your skin? Or just insult you? I think he does believe it at the end of the day

I'm the new kid in the block here he was teed up to fight AJ for a long time there, whatever it was, like a six-month period he was supposed to fight AJ. I've come in, you know, had my debut, and then took AJ out of there, and now I'm in there for the title. So he's probably like, oh, you know, he doesn't really deserve it. He's not big enough in the game yet, but he'll soon find out.

You say you have respect for him. Yeah. You did crack a joke though about being on the stuff. Do you believe his story or do you believe that he was, you know, the story was he had an exemption and it was a six month

thing and all that stuff but sometimes it's true and sometimes it's not. It's really hard to know because I don't know him personally. I mean, all I can do is look at kind of the history of doping in his region. It's obviously very prevalent. It doesn't surprise me that people from his region are still getting popped. Do I believe he's taking steroids?

I don't quite know, to be honest. I don't quite know. At the end of the day, people who are juicing, they're always going to be honest I don't quite know at the end of the day people who are juicing they're always going to be ahead of the game right that's why they're they're juicing

they're not getting caught so yeah I'm not I'm not quite I'm not exactly sure my beliefs on that yet but what I do know is

whatever the fuck he's taking doesn't matter you know it really doesn't matter. I really believe that, especially in MMA, over five rounds, over championship, in a championship fight, I don't think...

Steroids isn't enough to beat me, first of all, but over five fives, it's too long of a time for me to expose weaknesses in his game. It doesn't matter. He could be taking everything under the sun. And whether he is or he isn't, I'm not honestly sure. I haven't looked too much into it. But it would take a lot more than steroids to beat me over five rounds, 100%.

Can you tell when someone's on steroids? Whether by eyesight or, like, feel? Have you ever fought someone and been like, this is a little bit? I haven't fought anyone where i thought this is different i think it's probably just a case of like guys recovering i think that's what people use it for is like to like train longer and lift heavier and things like that i think there's like physical tales of like like shoulders and stuff like that but uh i can't recall ever fighting anybody that i thought was on steroids you know so the Interesting thing about Usman is like

There's always this thing about oh is the PFL as good as the UFC you know all this Talk I feel like right now as far as Their champions are concerned Usman and Pachi are the two guys who people say Like they are as good as any of the UFC Champions in their respective weight Classes do you subscribe to this do you

Think that Usman is as good as people Make him out to be and obviously the Last name helps and all that but the Body of work is impressive as well. Are you as impressed? Yeah, I am. I do think he's, I think he would definitely be top 10. No question.

18-0 undefeated, beat some pretty good guys. Pretty good, not incredible. I would absolutely have him in the top 10. Yeah. Okay. You know, it's been an interesting time now with the PFL Bellator stuff. And a lot of the fighters have been openly complaining. And you have had a great year with them because you've been very active, right?

So you're one of those guys who has benefited from the PFL Bellator model where you can go back and forth. When you see some of this stuff, especially from bellator guys what is your reaction it is all one company yeah but uh it's you know we had patricia on the show on monday and he was basically begging don to release him saying please just let me go well look obviously being a fighter i'm always fighter first so i mean to hear things the guy it obviously makes me sad you know because especially like contractual situations because i was kind of stuck in a way in my old contract where I kind of like I should have been able to leave really, but I wasn't allowed to.

So I want to have empathy for these champions, especially people like Pitbull, who's essentially been there for so many years. But I don't know. I don't see this being talked about that much. And maybe this is controversial. Maybe I should just keep it to myself. But like, you know, obviously Bellator, we're going to be going out of business with power

mount and all that and pfl acquired them great great opportunity great deal it's not like the guys that i'm going to sound like a dick saying this it's not like they haven't got any fights and i know that sounds sounds bad but the way i kind of see it is like yeah but if bellator hadn't been acquired you would have one option you could go to the ufc that's fine you can go there but you're not going to make it would probably take you three four maybe even five ufc fights to make what you were making as a champion in bellator that's kind of just how i seen it like i feel for them not being able to get obviously you want to fight as many times as you can, you want to make money for your family, but

from what I've seen, the PFL are planning like 30 shows next year. You know, that should keep everybody active, so maybe the first year was just growing pains. At least that's what I hope for the fighters. As I say, I'm always fighters first, so hopefully this year was just growing pains

and next year pfl just takes it to a whole new level which i have full faith that they will two fights in you're getting this big fight safe to assume you are happy you are happy with the decision oh i mean beyond beyond happy honestly my my life is has changed so much especially since the aj one it's my life's completely how has it changed oh i mean just honestly everything you know like my career was quite a slow burn you know like i had cage wear success i won my first world title when i was 24 so you know that was just over three years ago now so like i've been in a nice position for some time but it's been like a slow burn which has been nice um but then after beating aj everything changed you know in terms of

honestly every like actually everything financially of course you know such a big opportunity i got a bonus on top of my normal contract that was a big deal for me it was life-changing um that has now allowed me to invest so much more into my training camps i'm able to bring my team out to florida i'm able to go to dubai three weeks early pay for everything that that is life-changing in itself um to not have to worry about rent at the end of the month which i did have to a lot in cagewares where i was barely even covering rent for a couple of months with one fight that's that's how my life's changed you know so it's it's been it has been apps it's unbelievably been it's been unbelievably positive you know and and when you say the bonus is like was that just something extra that they

gave you that you weren't expecting so because the aj fight was just obviously a bigger magnitude of a fight i got it just a better deal for the fight got it do you know because i obviously had an initial contract because that was obviously a big step up in competition not gonna yeah someone like aj mckee for for the same money so yeah it worked out well how is it back home uh more people coming up to more people recognizing you and what's that like how do you deal with that it's it's awesome um it's it's different as well because you know as mentioned like three years since i won a first world title like if you're in the combat sports kind of vicinity which a lot of people in belfast are because we're a fighting city yeah it would it would have been normal for me to run into people all the time everywhere but see now it's like the energy that people bring now

is just totally different it's like it's like holy shit when people see me they're like rolling down the windows or shouting out they're jumping out of cars there's bus drivers shouting that at me it's kind of like amazing it's the energy that's different you know and it's like fuck you're just living your normal i'm just a normal fucking guy living belfast going to my normal coffee shops and then people someone sees you and they lose their mind and you're like what the fuck you know more pressure that comes with that because there's like there's a big spotlight on you not to mess up not to disrespect the the the town you're from or the country that you're representing all that stuff yeah i mean of course there's going to be more pressure there but

thankfully i'm a pretty like chill enough kind of guy pretty happy-go-lucky guy as i say so it's like it's all positive you know when i see someone it's never it's never like oh fuck's sake like it's always unbelievably positive so i mean that's a huge blessing to have that in your life you know so it's something that you know it's awesome a lot of sponsors a lot of people wanting to work with you a lot of businesses definitely a huge bump since uh since the aj fight okay but what about these um these dastardly devils um boojum what's going on with these wankers? What's going on with these guys?

Okay, so what... Wait a second here. What's happening with Boojum? If I do not get... Boojum, if I do not get an endorsement deal or something here, I'm sitting with Ariel Hawani here, the biggest show in the world.

Yeah. MMA show. Well, the biggest show... Biggest show in the world, yeah. Bigger than anything. Bigger than anything. And I haven't got a deal. But we'll leave it at that.

Okay, so I... I feel like, you know, Boojum's like a girl that just doesn't want you. What's going on here? And you're just like, please, please. For those that don't know, Boojum is like... And they're like, nah.

Are they like a jabroni chipotle? They're like way better than chipotle. Okay, here we have Boojum right here. The Mexican burrito boss. I'm going to cry. What is this? What is this? here here we have boujum right here the mexican burrito what's what's what is this what is this what do we have here why is this so great i did some research bro my bits are gonna be fucking testing themselves i did some research here and it just looks like a low-rent chipotle what's going on why do you love them so much chipotle watch remote come on why do

you look so apparently you're hitting them up and asking for a sponsor. I'm sliding in the DMs. You know what? It's like 12 o'clock. I'm saying, are you up? I'm trying everything here. And what's happening? They're ignoring you.

They're not getting back. Are they leaving you unseen? They're leaving me unseen. Wow. I want to talk about it. You're kind of getting... I'm sorry. Well, no.

I'm here to say, this guy is flying the flag on the internet. He's about to fight in the biggest fight of the year for Bellator and PFL boojum get your act together they better have a logo there on the chest this is unbelievable on the butt this is unbelievable i can't believe by the way if i go if i go right now what's the order what's the order what do i need to get um i'll tell you do you want me to tell you just my order well yeah i mean that's probably the order right okay like what's the go-to half a portion mexican rice because i don't want to be too racy, you know? Now, this is out of camp. I want you, like, full throttle.

Like, what are you getting? Oh, this is out of camp. Okay, yeah. Half a Mexican rice. I need to leave room for more protein, you know? Okay, yeah. Both beans. Panda beans.

Black beans. Both, huh? Double chicken. Chicken's the go-to. Okay. Are there certain types of chicken, or is it just one type of chicken? They bring in different types at times, but there's one set chicken. Okay, okay.

That's just the best You know Yeah Hot salsa Chipotle crunchums Which you know What is that What is that So it's essentially

Tortilla chips Like kind of Crunched up Okay With a little bits Of chorizo in them Oh wow It's fantastic

Okay A little bit of crunch Onto the meat Okay But also a wee bit Of chorizo If you want that Okay

You know It's fantastic It's going to work Alright Sour cream Okay Just a little cheese damn chipotle sauce wrapped up boom no lettuce no lettuce wow i don't know nothing no green chipotle guy are you in the burrito i actually i love burritos but chipotle is like that's like

mcdonald's yeah this is like a chain, right? This is fantastic. This is high quality. Started in Belfast, now across the island of Ireland. It's now expanded to England as well. Wow. So there's a bit of a thing there. They have to represent one of their own. I don't know. Look.

This is a source that we're going to work to make this happen. We'll see. Where's Tim at? Where's Tim? Yeah, where's Tim at? I don't know. You talk to him for a minute. If I get this done, what do we get?

1%, 2%? Whatever percent. Whatever percent. I just want to be able to try it. I don't even want that. I don't even want money. I just want a wee card that I walk in and just go, here. They have one of those?

Do you know people that have those? I think they should make me one. Yeah. That's all you want. You want like the Derek Lewis. Yeah, yeah, of course. Of course. Derek Lewis got the card

From Popeye's chicken Yeah yeah Where they said He got it That's what you want You don't even want A paycheck You just want

I just want a wee card That gives me free burritos Anytime You and your friends Or just you I mean it's got a sort of Oh I thought you were Going to say

Fuck your friends No no no Come on They're going to be Watching right now And they're going to be Pissing themselves At this whole

Boojum crack Like I'm telling you What is Boojum by the way I don't know Okay it's just a name Yeah No, no, no. Come on. They're going to be watching right now, and they're going to be pissing themselves at this whole Buzham crack. What is Buzham, by the way? I don't know. Okay, it's just a name. Yeah. Is it hard to talk about this while you're cutting weight? I mean, are you officially cutting weight? Are you dieting right now?

Yeah, but, like, my weights, I've been so disciplined since getting this fight. My weight's basically almost where I want it to be for fight week, so I'm right at that, like, perfect level. Okay. What do you, like, what do you now you know like what do you walk around at um i walk around like a bit heavier now but right now i'm probably like 176 or something so i'm nice and low um for what i want to be for fight week and how long have you been in florida been there i think three weeks now three weeks three weeks yeah were you there

with shafkat as he was preparing for Ian? Yeah, yeah. Interestingly enough. Yeah, yeah. Weird? Not really, because he's been there when I've been there before. He's just part of the team. You know, it's pretty normal. Great respect for him, you know, at the end of the day. Like, especially Kill Cliff.

Like, the environment there is so good. Henry Setz is a great example. I've seen he was on your show. He Setz is a great example. It's very respectful he was on your show um he said it's a great example it's very respectful it's just like you know guys come in they're doing the training they're going to fight each other and what you know like they have no worry about me like being friends with the and coming into the gym around like that it's not i'm gonna be saying like oh here shop cats this or that that's not how it goes yeah of course you know it's just like at the end of the day

shopcast might admit in a way through the club, so he would never do something like that, but yeah. What did you think of the fight? Incredible. Honestly, I watched it.

Did Ian do better than you thought or as you thought? I actually picked Ian to win. Okay. Over five, I thought that Ian was maybe

just going to have that range game and just outpoint him. That was my biased pick, of course um what a fight i've watched it like three times just such high level mma it's one of these things where like the first round one punch got the round for shavkat but that's at this high level of mma that's all it is at times that it could have may have won him that fight is just that first round punch and then the grappling exchanges were incredible ian's adapting to the the takedown that shaft cap was doing to then take us back

in the fifth round it was it was unbelievably high level mma like so it's what i like to watch one of those fights where um i felt ian stock went up despite not getting the nod right yeah i think a lot more people respect him and believe in him now some people for whatever reason i didn't change i i felt like he was the real deal for quite some time but i felt like the fans for whatever reason weren't quite jumping on the bandwagon you gotta put respect in his name like i mean after you know obviously him having the buckley fight done and then going here fight a week earlier somewhere else against shopcut you know and he was like yeah 100 like you gotta put some respect in his name like you know people can say what they want about him but in terms of his

fighting abilities and his gameness to fight the best I mean whenever he started calling out Colby Covington it was kind of like oh like should you call out Colby Covington he's a beast like and now you look how that's kind of played out it just looks like Colby Covington's fucking shit scared of him and that is the actual reality of what it is Has he said that he's gonna help you out or Ian Did he thought there was an interview clip? I think in his

Pre fight stuff where someone was like, oh would you do his corner? And he was like yeah, absolutely Paul done my corner for for the cage warriors were title So if he wants me in then I'll do it. Okay, no But obviously that's not happening. Well, I'll have my own team yeah of course he's not going to show up to kill but if he if he's out to dubai then yeah you know that'd be awesome um you know this all kind of started with you saying you know connor come corner me and i saw what you said to mma fighting earlier today and i don't want to put you on the spot and ask you about everything that he's dealing with but it sounds like that's not going to come to fruition right him being no well look at the end of the day my team's always got to be

in my actual corner do you know what i mean whether or not there's a cage side thing going on like my team's obviously my three guys are going to be in there because i need them in there you know but uh yeah that's where we're at with it um and and he won't be at the fight because no idea no idea no idea but no no contact since the AJ fight, like since the tweets and stuff I got, there's been no, no contact. There's a bare knuckle card on the same night, the one with Eddie Alvarez and Jeremy Stevens.

But obviously all that came up before all this and now who knows where he stands. So I appreciate your stance on that. I am wondering though, if, if PFL starts their season in April, is the plan still for you to be a part of that? Cause that was the original plan, right? When you signed, are you looking to come back win or lose three months later? Or if you win, does that change things for you?

Um, well, if they'll let me go in there as a Bellator champ, then I don't see, I don't see why not, you know, I'm here for as i say big fights big nights and to make money you know and i i would love to win a million dollars plus my pay on top of that that's i'm here to maximize my earnings you know so if they'll let me go in as the bellator champ in the pfl season then we'll talk to them and see if we can get that done okay you know was any of that discussed beforehand like hey we want you to fight on this card and then you're going to do this? No, I think it was more a case of like,

look, this Usman fight's there if you want it. And I'm like, of course. As I said, the big fights, the big nights, this is, I mean, this Usman fight could be one of the biggest ones in the promotion's history, you know, if it's done right. So that's why I intend to do it.

Is it happening sooner than you thought, if we're being honest? When did you sign? You said it was April, right? I, yeah. Or like March? Cage Warriors fight, I think mid-April and signed a couple of weeks later. Yeah.

April. Is it happening? No, this is honestly what I've ever seen. So when the first time I came here, I was telling you about the plan, the master plan and all. You were trying to get out the wee details. And you said you would announce it afterwards. You didn't announce it. And you were giving me shit for not announcing.

You were like, what's going on? Why did you not call him out? I didn't call him out that night because he had got booked that week. But my plan was always to fight Usman. The first call I had with PFL was with Mike Hogan the day after I signed. And I said, I want to fight Usman, the Magomedov ASAP. I said, that's the fight I want. I said, it's the biggest fight in the promotion, in my opinion.

It's a perfect stylistic matchup for me. I want to fight him so give me, I think I asked for like Petrichi Pitbull for Dublin and then give me Usman. That's why I said them on the phone. First call before I'd even made my debut before I fought Bobby King before I'd done any of that. I've just come out of my cage warriors contract. No reason for me to be talking like that. Oh I'm going to fight the champion right away but that's what I've foreseen happening and that's what i've i've really just brought it into reality here you know especially of course doing that by beating aj mckee yeah can i ask and i know these are quite i've tried to get don on the show he said in january he'll come he'll come on and i look forward to that but like it is very apparent that there's no real like bellator

branding on this, the poster. It's called, I think, Dubai Champion Series. Are they getting rid of Bellator to the best of your knowledge? What do you know about this? I honestly don't know. There's a poster right there. You see the belt. I'm fighting for the Bellator belt. But yeah, Road to Dubai Champion Series.

I'm not exactly sure of the details of if that's like a product that's going to run on. I'm not exactly sure. But I kind of like the a product that's going to run on. I'm not exactly sure. But I kind of like the idea, to be honest. You like it? I like it because, I mean, you look at the energy that the Middle East is bringing to combat sports now. They've just signed this new deal with Dubai. I was at the signing party, the conference, all of this with the Dubai Sports Council and the economy tourism. So there's obviously an investment there,

which is good for us fighters. You know, it's good for us. There's big events. This event in Coca-Cola Arena is going to be huge in Dubai. Like this is the first global MMA show there. Myself and Usman. That's a pretty good way to, I guess, start this whole thing. And if that means big events and people getting big fights, big paychecks, then I think that's positive, you know?

For sure. What was that scene like when you were there? What, in Dubai? Yeah. Crazy. Crazy. Treat it like royalty, you know? Shout out to PFL.

I've just been treated so well since I've got here. Like, honestly, it's been so nice. That was cool, hanging out with Ngani for the first time. We met very, very briefly at his pay-per-view that I fought on. But I got to spend a good bit of time with him and just have a crack and get to know him a little bit, have dinner with the PFL, all the PFL execs, get to know them a little bit more, meet some sheiks, meet some heads of tourism, all of this kind of stuff. Great experience.

But definitely the best was hanging out with Ngani. He's a great guy, as you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. this kind of stuff. Great experience. But definitely the best was hanging out with Angani. He's a great guy, as you know. Yeah, he's a legend. He's a great guy. So you were treated like a superstar. Yeah. One of their big faces, one of their big names. Well, I am now.

I know. You're big news. Was it just Francis Usman? That's it? Doombay was there also. Cedric Doombay, yeah. He's a big-time star too. Big-time star, nice guy, good fun. Yeah. There you are with the big man. Yeah. Pretty cool. That's it Like Doombay was there also Cedric Doombay Yeah He's a big time star too Big time star Nice guy

Good fun Yeah There you are With the big man Yeah Pretty cool Who's the other gentleman That's my coach Pat

Oh okay yes Yeah Alright Yeah He's a big boy Who Francis Well Pat's a big boy too

But Francis is a big boy Yeah he is He's just Shaking his hand You're like My god Like

Hard hard man I would not want to be Getting punched man Like Is there's shaking his hand. You're like, my God. Like, hard, hard man. I would not want to be getting punched, man. Is there any part of you when you're, like, again, a year ago, you were in Cage Warriors, your future's a little bit unknown, and you're like, holy crap, look at what's happened to me this year. As the year comes to an end, are you allowing yourself to reflect on this crazy journey? Or because you have a fight coming up so soon,

not time to smell the roses i've kind of been like intermittently smell the roses especially since aj um there's just been moments where i'm like a day goes by and all the amount of things i've done that day that are incredible like these to buy things and the dinners and this and that, where I'm just like, holy shit, this is my life now. Like, this is just my life now. It's unbelievable. Like, it's everything that I dreamed of coming up as a young fighter. I dreamed of being able to do things like this, to be a true professional athlete, to fight the best in the world, which now I've got the opportunity to do, to start setting my family up, to start setting myself myself up which I'm starting to do as well I'd only 27 you know it's um I'm literally living my dream it's it's I feel very blessed like you know so

intermittently I'm getting these like these times and these like pinch me moments but most of the time especially now it's like it's really really intense focus like I'm I'm very very much in the zone for this especially now, it's like, it's really, really intense focus. Like I'm, I'm very, very much in the zone for this one. You know, it's, this is, this is a big one for me. No kids, right? No. Soon, maybe you want? Oh, I would love kids. Yeah. In the future, but married to the game right now.

Married to the game. No misses, no nothing. Wow. You're fully focused. Fully focused. How does Claire feel about this? She understands. She understands, you know, she gets the crack. Fully focused. How does Claire feel about this? She understands. Okay. She understands, you know. She gets the crack. Claire being your mother?

Yes, of course. This is what I must do right now. Okay. You know. But yeah, it's good. Like my life, I'm having a good time. She must be gutted that you're not coming home for Christmas. She is, yeah. I feel for her.

Yeah, she is. Couldn't make a quick trip in and out. Who, me? Yeah. All right. I just got that. make a quick trip in and out who me? yeah alright I just got the who me? oh who me you just did it

play that shit come on Frank where are you who me? there it is that's loud yeah it is that's loud

nah it's too much of a track at the end of the day I'm going home not long after Christmas I'm going home in the new year anyway so go home Belfast for a week and then out to Dubai so it'll be all good i always hear about you know um i was speaking

to obon elliott about this like the boys come together you guys drink before the holidays and all that what is it what is it what is it what is it on top brother guinness really it's on top is that it guinness what would you do for one of those right now oh pfl or actually bring me to some iconic irish bar i forget the name of it. It slipped my mind. In Boston tomorrow to like pour Guinness and things like that.

So I'm just going to be like, ah. Will you drink it? No. Not even one? No, I'll not drink it. Not a sip?

Not a sip. Well, maybe a wee bit of cream at the top. You know what I mean? Wet the lips a wee bit. You know what I'm saying? But that's one of the best

things about Christmas, especially being in Ireland is pints of Guinness with the boys. The boys sitting around. But what do you do? What do you do? The sacrifices must be made.

Of course, of course. And it'll be worth it afterwards. With that in mind, I just wanted to play a quick game with you, if I could. Go, hit me. Called Beautiful or Poor, Poor. There it is.

Beautiful or Poor, Poor with Paul Hughes. Okay, so I keep hearing that there's like a proper way. I didn't watch you all about that for a second. There's a proper way to pour. You're going to make me rate like people? No, no, no, no, no. It's like, bro, come on. There's a proper way to pour, right, the Guinness?

Yeah, absolutely. And then there's a shit way to pour too. Are you going to show me a bunch of shit Guinness? Because I'm going to get really annoyed. No, I don't know. I don't know. The guys didn't tell me what it is. So let's see. What do we have here, guys? First one. What is that? Can I curse in this eye you curse away what is that clean off

out there it's shit i record only i record in glass and mostly in a guinness glass yeah what is that what is that record someone stick a big shit inside a glass that's what it is and a recorder in glass what is a recorder league what is that it's like a cider it's a bullshit cider guinness has to be in a Guinness glass Oh, it's nice. Give me the next one. Look at the music It's like we're in the local pub right now sort of close enough anyway, so this is shite one out What is that? This is perfection. Why is it perfect? 10 out of 10 because It's the percentage of dome to Guinness, you know, this is a perfect percentage where you're getting the full dome but it's also coming just over the top so you can

see the creaminess at the top of this that's how you know it's good I'm getting chills right now exactly that's how you know what's the dome that's why it's so good in Ireland yeah because that's where we make it that's where it's the creamiest so you can see how much like that's like a couple of centimeters over the brim of the glass of cream that's when you just know here boys this is a good one this is a good one you know and by the way the last one like scale of one to ten what are you giving it this one no the last one the the zero point three zero point three what's this this is a this is a nine point five okay i don't know how

i get how you can beat it wow that. That's high praise. Okay, what else we have? What else we have? What? Is that a milkshake? Do you know what's funny? There's a page on Twitter and Instagram that's called Shit London Guinness. We got these from there. I know.

Yes, yes. Shout out to Shit London. Shout out to Shit London Guinness. What is this? What's going on here? How is that even possible? An Irishman would throw that back in your face

in the bar. You wouldn't even drink it? No. Does it change the taste? It wouldn't even it? No. Does it change the taste? It wouldn't even be a question. Does it change the taste? Absolutely. Really?

Yeah, it does. How? Because of the shape of the glass. That's how it's intended to be poured. It sets correctly. You know, and the glass makes a difference to that. This is like a normal American picture in glass. And also, do you have to do multiple pours?

Isn't it like you do it once? You do the first pour and you hit it at 45 degree angle until it comes to about maybe three quarters full or so. Then you let it sit till all of it settles, till it's plain black again. You start to see the dome and then you top it up. But rather than pull it down with, I think it's like nitrogen or whatever,

you push it so there's no nitrogen. Wow. At least in my understanding. I should know this. I worked in a bar for like eight years oh my god i should you've done this a thousand times a million times a million times and then you pour it just so you can if it's creamy enough then you'll get a bit of dome at the top okay it's a real science oh it's a science okay what else what else we have a couple more we have a couple more what about that get it out here. They're taking the piss back there. They're taking the piss. I mean, golly, what is this? Okay, what about that? What about that?

Christmas tree. Like, this is what I'm sacrificing. This is it. This is it. This is what I'm sacrificing here. Sitting around. What are you watching? What's on the telly as you're watching this?

Christmas movies. You got to have a bit of Home Alone or something on there. A bit of Elf. At the pub. No sports. Not at the pub, maybe. Hurling, GA. You'll have a bit of Gaelic or Hurling what about this yeah whenever i was walking in here can i yeah

sure go ahead that was given to me in ireland i know what a story yeah i love how someone just came up and went here take out there with you yeah and then you've brought it home in your bag and set it here i loved it whenever i seen this in your show the first time i was like i couldn't believe that you got this. I thought, oh, maybe PC Carl made you put it there. No, no, no.

You put it there yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so cool. Yeah, when I was there for the Katie Taylor fight, it really meant a lot to me. It's unbelievable. That's hurling or?

This is hurling. Okay. So we play with a stick. We hit this, but whenever I walked in here, I looked at the screen and you were on air and I couldn't see it.

So I thought you'd get rid of it. Oh, no, of course. So I was like, oh, I need to bring that up as soon as I get it. No, no, no. I see nothing I like, oh, I need to bring that up as soon as I get it. No, no, no. No, I see nothing I recommend, so I'll set it back then. All right, what else we got?

We got a couple more. A couple more. I like this inside. How's that? How's that? That's nice, yeah. That's nice. You can see a bit of dome weeds there at the top.

I would like, personally, a little bit more cream on that. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay, so maybe like a seven. I would give it an eight. I mean, it still looks pretty good to me. All right, what else? Stop it with it.

How could that be? How could that be? Even I know. This is just disrespect to a culture. This is like, this is the ultimate disrespect. You would literally say, thanks, but no thanks. You would get knocked out for that. So this is what people refer to as the

shtick oh okay what is that what is that sticking to the glass oh that's good that's a good sign okay you know whether or not this is all a complete pile of balls that i'm saying i love it oh but we just romanticize the fuck out of it you know looks all right not great all right not the best you know uh Prefer the old glasses. See how this got like a design on it? We don't really like this. You don't like that? We don't really like this now.

Why is that? These are like newer glasses. They got rid of them. They just want the clean, just straight glass. Is it like this? Is it like a little bit of a curve? Yeah. Okay.

Alright, well. Bring some crack here. Yeah, that was good fun. Would you believe that every time I have a G, it's my favorite drink by the way. Is it? Always split the G. I mean, I split the G favorite drink, by the way. Is it? Always split the G. I mean, I split the G like a G. You see, this whole split the G, this is when you're getting into some debates now in Ireland. Oh, people don't like it.

Because people say, you know, if you're a real Guinness drinker, you've been on the Guinness for many years. Split the G is like a new phenomenon. It's like a TikTok thing. Ah, so you don't like it. You know, you're a big TikTok, like new age kind of guy. So I just exposed myself. You're a split the G kind of guy. No, no, no, no. I don't want that. I was trying

to be cool by saying that. Well, look. I'm telling you the culture, you know, you would probably, if you're a real Guinness guy, you say, fucking split the G's, pad of balls. Okay. Just say pad of TikTok shit. It's funny because Pete always tries to tout the fact that he splits the G, but that's because he's a wanker.

He's a wanker, exactly. A wanker. And Pete, see, me and Eric were talking about this before we came in here. I think he gave you the impression that he's from like who, like who, like he's like a kind of street guy, you know, grew up in Blanche. Blanche is like, he lives in basically a mansion. What? Just outside of Blanche. He's a fake tough guy.

He's a fake tough guy. There's like a posh part Not too far away from it And he lives in a mansion there He's always told us It's like the roughest part of town He's like Oh here I love tracksuits and all

Yeah yeah yeah The tracksuit culture Street culture and all This is why I actually Wore my tracksuit today I love that I thought Eric and Connor Were going to be wearing theirs

But So he's a Fugazi tough guy Really? Do people know this? Is this a thing? Does he not have the street cred that he thinks he has? I don't know what he thinks he has, to be honest. I don't know what his crack is, Ariel.

Fraud. Fraud. By the way, you mentioned the tracksuits. Last week on the show, we had, he always talks about St. Stephen's Day. Yeah, Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day. You do this? The tracksuit thing? You don't do it?

Fugazis do that. So I think the tracksuit thing Is more of like a city thing You know So like Belfast Like people who grew up in Belfast They would do it Like Dublin Where I'm from

Country side It wouldn't be a thing We'd be more like GA gear You know what I mean Yeah these are the boys Last week we had Rick and GC

Can you rate them They were feeling hard What did you think You even responded I know Fire trackies I must say They're nice They're nice

I prefer the black one I prefer Eric's Okay No disrespect No no You gotta zip it up All the way or no? Yeah if you're going

Full trackie You don't wanna go All the way up Okay Yeah it's tough It's cold out in these streets Yeah yeah yeah But you respect that

Fire fits You liked it Yeah What about this one? What about this one? That's PC That's Tough It's tough Farfetch'd. Farfetch'd. You liked it. Yeah. Well, what about this one? What about this one? That's PC. That's.

Tough? It's tough. It's a hard watch. What about this? Well, he thinks he's hard right here with Reg. Dog. The dog's pretty tough. Yeah.

Dog adds definitely some toughness levels there. He thinks he's tough here. He's always told me he's from like the hardest part of town. How big does that living room look? Yeah. It is mansion like One of many living rooms What about this one? He's doing the Drake

That's the other living room Multiple trees as well Unbelievable this guy What about this one? It's a work in progress But overall not impressed That's not It's a work in progress It's alright But overall not impressed That's not attractive I mean that's just

Yeah what is that Yeah So overall not impressed Got some work to do You know PT what do you think of all of this Oh he's in Oh he's got it back

What do you think of all this shit talking I thought I heard something PT what do you think of all this shit talking I was waiting for a show This little fella I'm a nice guy He's a diva This is day one

A fucking diva Paul Hughes That's what he said He's not coming back to Ireland He's a diva. This is day one. A fucking diva, Paul Hughes. That's what he said. He's not coming back to Ireland. He's not allowed back in Ireland. That's what the problem is. What are you on about? He's just trying to get home for Christmas.

And people are like, we don't want you here, mate. You stay over there with your Americans. You're American to us now, Paul Hughes. I hate you. PT, a lot of accusations here. First, when he started talking

about the rough part of town or the supposed rough part of town that you're from, I was like, oh my God, I pray that PT is listening to this right now. I did. Your thoughts, your retort. I just hope he's not driving through Blanche anytime soon after these accusations, these scurrilous accusations that Paul Hughes

has made. But I enjoyed the tracksuit, I enjoyed the Blanche slander a lot as well. I'm happy to put out that Blanche is the poshest part of Dublin, if you'll have it. I want to raise the property here. As you said, I've got a massive mansion here. I wouldn't mind that going for like two million or so, Paul.

What do you reckon? Do you want to buy a house? A bit of a change in attitude. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you know. One time Ariel rang me and a lad got shot outside my apartment while he was on the phone. That was pretty funny.

What about this little number that you've got on here, PT? That's nice. What is that? Macho Man? Oh, wow. With Hogan, too. I love it. Pretty cool. I was going to get one with Ian, Gary, and Paul Hughes,

and I had Ian done the trek out to Dubai, but apparently that's not to be paul wow well it's not too late i can convince him but you have to wear it with all the money you're on you should be playing the flights you should be you know first class flights you know put them up in a five-star hotel i think that's what you should do yeah well here we'll see the crack if you get the christmas jumper made i'll consider it you know i will I'll get it for next year if he's there There's some crack so if you ever Just abuse PC in your show can he just Go press a button and go

Hold on a wee second This happened with someone else so Tom Aspinall was talking about you And then he just popped in Tom Aspinall said it was a lovely guy He's just ready whenever By the way PC you were the one who told me that Bujum was some kind of like shite Chipotle, right? This is not what I said. Bujum is in Blanche as well.

Hold on a wee second here. What did you say about Bujum? I didn't say that at all. I said it was very nice. It's not, I said, probably not up to US standards, but it's the best one we have in Ireland. What do you mean US standards? US standards are way below Irish produce. Come on.

Burritos? Yes. Bujum burritos? Come on, mate. Our Mexican populace really isn't all there here. Not in Blanchard Sound anyway. I don't know about Belfast, but I think you've got... It is the best one in Ireland, though, by a long shot. Okay, well, that's something.

As I said, there's one in Blanchard. I'm repping... Yeah, who's turned on who? I mean, this guy, Hughes. I'm trying to get a bit yeah who's turned on who I mean this guy Hughes I'm trying to get a bit of crack here but he's been in America

too long he doesn't understand it anymore why aren't you going home to your mom on Christmas that is true though yeah he wants to know why aren't you going home why aren't I going home

Claire Hughes is a saint and she deserves for little angels would you stop calling my mom this is getting out of hand this guy has one phone call with my mother for an interview, and he's texting her, well done, Claire, you must be the proudest mother in all of Ireland.

Wow. He's sliding in my mom's DMs. He's sliding in my mom's DMs, this guy. She's not the first, and she won't be the last. She's a very beautiful woman, so understandable. She's a legend. I can't believe you guys are like the closest family in irish mma i can't believe you're not going home i'm a bit upset i don't think i know i'm

at home this point enough here stop trying to guilt me i've been i feel guilty enough brother you know they don't get they don't get in america it's a lot i feel like because they have thanksgiving they have like a diet christmas in america like our christmas is hard-hitting it's like a three-week affair people have been saying to me oh do you celebrate christmas like much i'm like it's the fucking it's the biggest time of the year yeah it's the biggest time of the year pt told me he was out christmas shopping today he almost got run over by a few people it was his madness there in the center of town was it not pt he was in blanche a couple rolls royces couple of friggin g-Wagons walking down the street. The G-Wagon is so wide,

it's hard to get out of them spots. Do you know what I mean? And it's bulletproof as well, just in case. So, I mean, that adds like an extra inch of thickness. But, I mean, what about that torture, you being shown all them points, Paul? I know you love... Yeah, I wonder who brought that to their table.

That was actually me. That was actually me. Yeah, it was 100% me, yeah. Well, I knew the booze was obviously you so i appreciate that but if i if i don't if i don't get a booze deal here if i don't get a blues and black card i'm just gonna have to i don't know what i'll do with myself to be honest i'll have to probably pack and fighting to be honest because we're gonna work on it we're gonna get tim on the job tim okay no you need to go uh You need to go to the Dead Rabbit. The lad's brought me to the Dead Rabbit.

It's just around the corner. Unbelievable. We've moved offices since then, PT. Yeah, we've moved offices. Remember that big thing that Ariel done with Yahoo? Yeah, come on. Paul knows more about it than you, PT, for fuck's sake. It's in a completely different part of town.

No, I just assumed it was using the same option. It looks so similar. It looks exactly the same. You know what I mean? No, thank you, PT. We'll talk to you in a few minutes We'll get to you afterwards For now though Paul Looking forward to it

This was a good fun Great crack bro January 25th By the way have they announced where it's going to air I don't know I'm assuming it's ESPN or Zone or whatever Alright well we'll find out. Because on the press release and all that, it wasn't there.

And usually the Bellator fights are on max here in the United States. It doesn't mention it, but maybe we'll find out. I'm not too sure, to be honest. All right. But we're going to be able to watch it. And it's January 25th, and it's at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. And it's the biggest fight of your life against arguably the number one pound-for-pound guy in Bellator. And the PFL, you can make a very strong case.

So good luck to you, my man. Yeah, appreciate it, brother. Great to be here. Always an honor to be on here. Absolutely. And it's a massive week for the Nurmagomedov family because they've got Umar and they've got, where they got? They got Umar and then they have Islam in the main. And then a week later, they've got the other, no, Umar and Islam and then Usman the following And then a week later they've got Umar and Islam

And then Usman the following week you get the point Anyway last week we had Armin Sarukian on the program to talk about That fight as we say goodbye to Paul Hughes We'll play that interview and then we'll be back with Kaikar France alright back on The program And uh

The Dave's hot chicken thing always cracks me up That was good stuff with Armin. You can see that interview on our YouTube channel. And thank you very much to Paul Hughes for stopping by as well. Great stuff from him. Should I move this microphone here because we're going to go to the monitor or should I not move it? We'll take care of that.

Or do you want to go? No, let me just do it. Let me just do it. Come on. We workshop things here. I don't need practice. Please don't get out of, we workshop things here I don't need practice Please don't get out of the chair Why? I don't know

I'm just trying to fill the air while you're doing this Yeah, thanks Frank No, listen, I can roll up my sleeves I can get things done Is your back okay? Are you alright? I think you broke a sweat I'm gonna bill it, you know, union hours Anyway, thank you to Paul Great stuff from him january 25th

looking forward to it on the nose coming up in about 30 minutes time uh but in a matter of seconds unless he is ready to go um or do we need a minute all right we're going to be joined by uh excuse me one of the very best flyweights in the world. In fact, he may be next. He may be next for Alex Pantoja. He may be the next man to fight for the UFC flyweight title. He's coming off a fantastic win over Steve Erseg back in August. We didn't get a chance to talk to him afterwards. That was during the hiatus. But now here he is, the pride of New Zealand, the one and only Kai Kaira France.

Kind enough to join us on a Thursday morning, a beautiful Thursday morning in New Zealand. Kai, great to see you, my friend. How are you? Yep, kia ora, bro. I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. So we've been talking about you a lot over the last two weeks or so, the Pantoja win, and then of course Manel Kapp mentioning you as well this past weekend. So I figured, let's check in with the great Kaikar Frantz and see where he's at. First things first, can I ask, what did you think of Alex Pantoja's victory a little over a week ago against Kaya Sakura?

Yeah, I thought it was a good fight. I actually didn't watch it live. I was on a holiday in Tahiti with my family. So I was, um, at the beach when the fight was on. I just thought I saw the highlights, um, obviously saw the result, uh, saw the finish and, um, Hey, this is everything that I said. They got the wrong Kai. Yeah. It's, um, the thing about fighting in the UFC, you got to do it first before you can,

um, really show your, your true potential and give your best performance. The bright lights, the pressure, all of that, you have to do it before you're into a title fight. It's too much to ask. So I knew that was going to play out. I had Pantoja winning before the fight, and I didn't realize he was going to get a submission. I thought he was going to grind out a decision. But yeah, Kai is obviously good. He comes from being a world champion in Japan and Ryzen. And he's fought some great guys and beaten them by devastating knockouts. So no joke, he's definitely someone to watch out for but I feel like it's it was too soon for him to get given a title shot so Pantoja did well you know

he's a great champion his biggest strength is his resilience and you know he can turn a fight into an ugly brawl and that's where he thrives and he always finds a way so you know he's done really well as a champion

so nothing but respect but now you respect. The way this flyweight division is panning out, there's only one fight that makes sense, and that's me. Before they went with Asakura and after your win over C-Verseg, was there any serious talk about you fighting Pantoja next? I think that fight had already been booked even before me and Steve had fought. So I guess to freshen up the flyweight division, that was already something that the UFC was planning.

So regardless of the outcome of me and Steve, that was already in plan. So Steve was in front of me when I got asked to fight him. I wanted to fight the guy that just fought for the belt, and that was Steve. And he obviously went the distance with Pantoja, did really well. And then for me to take him out in the first round, remind everyone who I am and what I can do in this flyweight division just shows that I'm dangerous for anyone. Everyone counts me out all the time. Nothing I'm not used to, but I thrive in that. I thrive in proving people wrong and proving myself right.

And, yeah, that's where we're at right now. I'm in a great place. My career has taken a turn where, you know, I had a few injuries, had a few setbacks, but I just had to sit with it. I think that's a big problem with today. People force things. People want to get back to it straight away and there's signs that are saying, let's just take our time. Taking a year off and then coming back and then making it look easy, that's my job. To take out Steve in his hometown,

landing a left hand, people think I just have a right hand so yeah, just putting myself back in the best position possible and that's title contention, so the way this flyweight division is working Moreno's fought Pantoja three times, he's lost all three times, Roy Vales lost to Pantoja twice and Amir, the only guy in front of me, he lost to Moreno and was just outclassed. And everyone knows that I won that fight against Amir, but the judges thought otherwise.

But hey, I can only focus on what's in front of me and that's what I've always done. So I guess in that top five, it only leaves me at number four that hasn't fought Pantoja in the UFC. We only fought on the Ultimate Fighter. This was eight years ago, 2016. It was only two rounds. We had to cut weight weekend for seven weeks,

so I couldn't really show my full potential, but a lot has happened since then. He's become the world champion. He's done really well in his career, and I've been right behind him. I bring something different to the flyweight division, which is I can finish the fight in any round by knockout, and everyone knows it. And I've got the best takedown defense in the UFC flyweight division, and that's a fact. So you put me in front of Pantoja, he's going to find it hard to take me down.

Even if he gets my back, I've shown it against, you know, Asghar Asgharov, who couldn't take me down and he couldn't submit me. I did it against Rogerio Bontorin, who tried to choke me out and I ended up knocking him out in the first round. So these guys can jump on my back. They can try to cling on. I'll find a way I'll get out of it. I'll be calm in the chaos and then I'll,

I'll find the target and I'll, I'll put them out. So I think in my career right now, you're really starting to see me put that together. And, um, it's exciting. Considering you're so close.

Uh, when you heard him call out Demetrius Johnson, what did you think? Just let the, let the bro retire. the bro retire. He's done his time. He's done everything in the sport. There's nothing that's going to bring him back. Money, legacy, all of that. He's done enough. DJ's one of the goats in the UFC and mixed martial arts. Let the man retire and let

this division play out how it should be. We're climbing these rankings for a reason, and if we're not using that to further the flyweight division, then the rankings don't really mean much. If we're just going to pull out guys from retirement, I've seen Henry Cejudo has been talking about it coming back to flyweight. He hasn't made weight in a long time, and he's coming off losses. Same as Devison Figueroa.

He's coming off a loss against Peter Yan. They're fighting at bantamweight, so let them fight at bantamweight and let the guys that are actually fighting in flyweight sort it out, sort things out. I know I've had losses against a few guys in that top five, but it's just panned out in my favor. I'm the only guy that hasn't fought Pantoja in the Ultimate Fighter, and it's the only fight that makes sense.

So I know Pantoja's been talking about it. He's been saying it's the only fight that he feels like makes sense as well. And I know the UFC are all about stories and what better story. Eight years ago, we fought on the Ultimate Fighter. Now we're going to do it again. He can call whenever that is. I heard he was talking about April

and potentially his hometown or where his gym is from in Miami. So if that's the case, let's do it in Miami in April. Yeah, he was on our show last week and he said that he thought that of all the options out there, if DJ is in fact retired and Figueredo is a 135 pounder and he had trouble making 125, of the active flyweights, you're the one that makes the most sense. Your reaction when you heard that, were you surprised that he said that? Or did you think like, nah, this is the kind of guy that he is.

And of course he's going to say this. Yeah, nah, me and Pantoja have always had a good relationship. You know, every time we fought on the same cards, I always show respect. And there's nothing, there's no bad blood. You know, it's not like me and Manel that, you know, this guy just loves saying my name and loves to talk, but doesn't like to back it up. He has one good fight in a few years

and he thinks he can coast off that. It's different energy when you know someone that is down to earth, grounded, and you can see right through them. That's what Pantoja is. So I know he's the man of his word and if he's going to say Kai's the next guy, then, hey, let's do it. It's perfect time for me, especially right now.

What's going on in the world, what's going on in my country in New Zealand, Aotearoa, New Zealand, it's no better time now than for especially an indigenous person that's Maori to be fighting for a world title. And I'm channeling all that energy when I fight next for the belt. Can you explain to those that may not know what is going on in your corner of the world? It's just a bit of politics with our government and a lot of stuff that's going on is, I guess, yeah, there's a lot that goes into this, but I guess being indigenous and being Māori, there's been a massive hikoi going on, which are massive marches that have been going around the country to show their support for,

you know, sticking up for, I guess, who was here first in Aotearoa New Zealand, and that was Māori, and then we were colonised by the English. And, yeah, there's a lot of – there was a treaty that was signed back in the day, which was the English version and the Māori version. So there's been a lot of stuff that's been lost in translation, stuff that doesn't make sense in the English version that was put in the Māori version. And yeah, there's just stuff that has taken hundreds of years to kind of figure out what's equal, I guess.

And so, yeah, just knowing that where we come from and who we're representing, I just know that there's no better time now than to represent my people and let everyone know where we're from and what we're about and just tapping into that. And so have you heard from the UFC and maybe your management as well? Like, have you guys heard, okay, we're going to go in the direction of you versus Pantoja? Any word? Nothing's final, but there are, I guess, signs that are saying that it's looking likely, but, you know, it's never done until it's on paper. So for me, it's looking likely, but it's never done until it's on paper.

For me, I'm just focusing on training and putting my best foot forward. You can see I'm in Warriors gear. That's the rugby team I coach for wrestling. The NZ Warriors, right? Yeah, the Warriors. We're in our pre-season at the moment. It's our last day today. That's why I've got a bucket hat on. We've just finished running sand dunes. So there's a notorious hill in Auckland. It's at Bethel's Lake where we pretty much run up this massive sand dune and do hill sprints. So we've been doing that for the last two hours this morning. I jump in with the team

and just be of service to the team. And it's cool not being, you know, the person at the centre of the attention. I'm just there to support. And, you know, there's a mutual respect there because I'll jump in the trenches as well. So that's what I've been doing this morning. So I've been training, just getting a bit of variety in my trainings and finishing the year off. So we come back next year, the Warriors have their first game in Las Vegas. So the NRL, which is the competition that the Warriors play in

is playing in Las Vegas at the Raiders Stadium March 1st. So the boys are having a massive pre-season to get ready for that. They're playing the Canberra Raiders, which is an Aussie team, at the Raiders Stadium. And I should be over there for the game watching. So that'll be pretty cool to see rugby league playing in Las Vegas in America, getting a new fan base, trying to educate these Americans on what a tough sport is with no pads,

no helmets. That's what rugby league is. It's all about, you know, a bit of strategy and just all toughness. So it's an 80-minute game, site rugby without the scrums and the stoppages. And you get six tackles and then you can kick the ball on the last and you've got to try to work to get a try. So people that don't know rugby league, it's a physical game

and there's a lot of wrestling involved. That's why they brought me in to kind of help whatever that looks like in technique and the mindset of fighting. And who better than the flyweight that's got the best takedown defense in the division? I love it. So are you a part of the staff or they bring you in just for a few days to help the guys out no no i'm a part of the staff i love it this is this is a career after fighting so i'm i'm in it while i'm in my career you know just just navigating around my own trainings but that's what i love about this is um i'm not just talking about it i'm doing it myself you know

talking about you know not hiding doing it myself, you know, talking about, you know, not hiding behind the team, you know, being accountable. We have the saying, which is about a waka,

which is a canoe. We all have an oar. We all have a part to play and we have to be in sync. One heartbeat, one team. So yeah, just being of service and, and the,

you know, that's fulfilling, fills up my cup um being in this space and it's only going to help me when i'm in my normal setting uh fighting at ckb and training out of our gym does this have anything to do with the 5 a.m club like are you start are you starting your day at 5 a.m and then you're going to this training and then you're doing your mma training that's an insane day yeah Yeah, a bit of both. So yeah, some days I'll train at five myself and then I'll train the boys at 6.30, straight to the gym, doing their wrestling.

So I'll train two groups back to back. Not doing the full training, maybe jumping in halfway through or when I'm needed. And then after that, go to my own trainings in the afternoon. So just navigating around all of that. That's what I love to do. If I'm still young and still active, why not?

And like I said before, this is a career after fighting where I can be a part of a team and just showcase what we can do in martial arts to transfer rugby league and all the gems that come with high-performance sport. And I'm learning on the job, which is awesome. You know, Webby, our coach, the team coach, has really trusted in me to get the best out of the boys. And the best way to do that is to get the buy-in, where if they're going to do conditioning and sprints

and all that running training, I'll jump in as well. So when we're on the mats doing the wrestling, there's that mutual respect there where I'm in the trenches, whatever the training is. So come game day, we can really give our best. And when I go out and fight, the boys are right behind me. I've got a whole club behind me that uh um you know just just supporting me on my journey and um i do the same for them when they they go out and play so it's a pretty pretty cool collab and and um it's more like family by the way speaking of of your great culture um did your did your partner recently um uh graduate and and receive a diploma and then and then there was

a ceremony that you were involved in to honor. I might be screwing this up, so I apologize. You're right there. Yep, that's what happened. So my wife, Sharae, she graduated her te reo course, which is a full year, full immersion te reo course, which is nine to three, Monday to Friday for a whole year. And you can only speak, you can only speak Maori.

So no English and from not knowing pretty much, much at all, to holding a full one hour conversation or speech by the end of it. So massive milestone for her and for our whānau. You know, this is knowledge that she's feeding to our kids and they're going to be, you know, fully immersed growing up in te reo Māori. And just knowing who they are, I guess, being connected to your culture and where you come from keeps you grounded

and allows you to make sense of the world and gives you the right tools to navigate all challenges and obstacles. Because our tūpuna would have done that, you know, navigating over, you know, to Aotearoa New Zealand on a waka. And, you know, they've thrived in their culture. And, yeah, it just allows us to do that. So something I tap into for my fighting is, you know, that warrior spirit is something that's in me. It's in my blood. So, you know, I was born Māori.

I didn't choose it. It's just something that's in me. So it's powerful when you can really connect and use all that wairua, which is your energy, and tap into that mana, which is a source of energy to live your best Māori life. So a massive milestone for our whānau. You know, really proud of my wife. And then the journey never ends.

It's like martial arts, the more you know, the least you know. So one thing we did there was a haka with me and my brother and our cousins just to capture the moment. I don't have to, this really embodies what we're doing is supporting her on her journey and the best way to do that is in Hakka.

So the actions and the kupu, which is the words, really embody her journey and just shows how much Aroha love and support we have for her. And it's just a special token that our culture has

to show our respect that is beautiful well done and congratulations to her uh perhaps on a less beautiful note can i ask uh what is the issue with you and manel what's going on here and and and then he wins on uh saturday and gets on the microphone and and says f you to you to izzy as well there's a great video of Izzy eating while watching, and he's like, whoa, why are you calling me out here? Why are you talking about me? But clearly you're in the same weight class, and there's an issue there.

What is the problem between the two of you? The issue is, there's no issue on my part. I don't hold on to any, I don't have any negative energy or any beef. It's the way he carries himself. He's a very negative person and very hostile. He's obviously got a lot of issues, a lot of trauma, a lot of insecurities. I don't know. That's what I see when I hear him call my name. And something that

happened obviously in sydney when i pulled out of a fight because i i had an injury and i was out for about one year um the ufc flew me over to sydney to be a guest fighter obviously i've got a family to look after if they're saying hey can you come over to sydney to be a guest fighter um i still want to make some money even though i'm not fighting to um provide for my family so that's why i was there and obviously to support my teammates that are still fighting. So being at the press conference, I was going to be going on stage after to talk to the crowd.

And then he sees me and he thinks, look at this guy. He's turned up, pulled out of the fight, but he's here in the crowd. And then he threw a drink bottle at me. He's lucky that my wife wasn't sitting next to me and it didn't hit her. It hit her chair. It didn't to me and it didn't hit her. It hit her chair. It didn't hit anything luckily and didn't hurt anyone, but that's the kind of person he is. He doesn't care about anyone else but himself.

He's selfish and he's not going to go far in this world. That's why I'm in the position I am because I'm putting out good energy into the universe. This guy's all about blaming everyone else. Everyone's against him. Everyone's playing victim. And that's why he's trying to get a reaction out of me. And that's why he's saying my name now,

even though he fought Makaev, he lost. You know, he got very humbled there. And he still needs to be humbled. So I'm not going to give him the satisfaction. I'm worried about a title fight. That's what I'm looking at. You know, when I win the belt and he's still winning or if he's doing well in his career, we might meet later on down the track. But for now, he's all just talk.

A lot of bark, no bite. You can say all he wants. and cameras on when he talks and when he's really getting pretty physical. But on his own, we saw him backstage by himself. He didn't say anything. He didn't do anything. It's all an act. So I see straight through him. And one day we will fight.

It will happen. But for now, I'm worried about a title fight. So that's all my energy is into is Pantoja. I'm bringing a belt back to New Zealand, back to Aotearoa, New Zealand. And that's what I'm putting my energy into. After his performance, is there any part of you that is concerned that they'll go in his direction for the next title shot as opposed to you? No, Dana doesn't even like him. He didn't give him the bonuses.

I can see the body language. The way that he was talking to him like, hey, I'm going to come to your house. We're going to sort out this and get a contract. Bro, don't go to his house. You're going to get cut from the UFC. Just let your fights do the talking, bro. You talk too much. He looks like an idiot.

The way he carries himself just shows no respect. He needs to be taught a lesson, but that will come. Just wait until your turn. For now, it's my time, and that's what I'm focusing on. One last one on the division. Were you surprised they didn't re-sign Mikhaev? He's boring.

He's boring, bro. This is fighting. It's not wrestling. It's not hugging. Don't pull someone's pants down in the middle of a fight. They're just desperate, and it's just ugly. It's the fight game. If we were trying to wrestle and trying to just do bare minimum to fight

or to win a fight, that's what I'd be training in. That's all I'd be doing wrestling. But no one wants to see that. No one pays all this money to see someone just dry hump someone on the ground and that's it. There's not much skill in that. There's just holding on. That's it.

So I'm not surprised, you know these Klingons that come into the UFC they get found out eventually and You know if if he makes it back Well, I think we lost your audio do loses audio we did give us one second, okay Is it back? Yeah, you're back. us one second. Okay. Is it back? Yeah, you're back. You're back. Yep.

You're back. Sorry. In the Manal fight, these guys are just looking at each other's eyes. Before the fight, they're looking like they're going to rip in and tear each other's heads off. And then the fight started. They just stood there getting lost in each other's eyes. And then one person's pulling his pants down in the second round. Come on guys that's not fighting

back it up you've got 15 minutes to do that so yeah the thing about Makaev he's another guy that talks a lot and doesn't he under delivers

in the UFC you've got to step up. You know, me and Steve were on a co-main event on a big card in Perth and we delivered. That's what the fans came to see. Came to see knockouts, came to see violence. That's why you're on the prelims because they're scared to put you on a main card because they don't want to have a um have a no-show you know let the fans down and um people pay good money to to watch this so you gotta you gotta play the game and

and the fight game it's all about you know going going after it I think that's why Dana respects me and and um you know we we have a good relationship final one you versus Pantoja two or maybe one and a half the The ultimate fighter doesn't really count. Sometime in the spring, what do you feel? What do you reckon? How does it go down? How does this fight go down? Me and Pantoja, 2025, the energy I'm bringing into this fight,

into this fight camp is going to be next level. I feel like I'm mature. Coming into my mature age where I'm putting everything together now, I'm more intentional, I'm more focused, I'm more dialed in, more connected, and I've got more to lose. I'm going for everything. I had my chance against Moreno, and second chances don't come around often, so I'm going to take this.

What better time now than to represent my people, my country on that world stage and go after it and bring it back home to my whānau, my gym, CKB, and my country, Aotearoa, New Zealand. So I'm excited, I'm motivated, and I can't wait to get in there and just see what everything Pantoja brings to the table. I'm expecting a tough fight.

I'm expecting a dog fight, but I'll come out on top. Something that I really pride myself in is my resilience, you know, really staying in it. My whole career has been like that. You know, I've taken losses. I've learned from them. I've had the speed bumps. I've had the highs and lows in this fight game,

but I'm still here. I'm still standing, and I still back myself. So put anyone in front of me at Flyweight, and I'll come out on top. Well done. Looking forward to it. Thank you for the time, Kai.

I really appreciate it. Happy holidays to you and your family, and hopefully for your sake, you get that fight in 2025, and we get to see it again the time, Kai. I really appreciate it. Happy holidays to you and your family, and hopefully, for your sake, you get that fight in 2025 and we get to see it again. Awesome, brother. I appreciate your time, Ariel. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, sir. There he is, the great Kai Karfrance, very likely

next for the UFC flyweight title against the champion Alex Pantoja. Great stuff there. At some point, it feels like we have to see that fight against Manel Cap, but I understand why go for that now when you're that close to fighting for a belt. And the options, we've discussed them. Makaev not in the UFC, Figueiredo, I would be very surprised, honestly,

given the issues that he had at 125. Making that weight, I don't think the loss necessarily to Pierre-Erian should preclude him from those discussions, but just making that weight i don't think the loss necessarily to peter yan should preclude him from those discussions but just making the weight and especially in a not so healthy manner and obviously the issues actually making the weight probably are ruling him out uh cap is out there kai kar france is out. His win probably more impressive. As he mentioned, Brandon Royville and Moreno have had their cracks, multiple cracks each.

Al-Bazi coming off the controversial win, then coming off the loss to Moreno. Feels like it's right there for him and I would love to see it. And yes, they did fight, as he said, some eight years ago, but it was on The Ultimate Fighter

and there's a great story to be told and so much has happened to both of them since then. let us see all right great chat there now let's answer some damn questions as we close out this beautiful wednesday before the holiday break for most people i feel like no matter where you are in the world, most people are off starting Monday. Most people, right? I mean, I think that'd be accurate to say. Yeah, but not us.

Not us. No, we're always cooking. Yeah, we got a whole host of things. We got full shows this week. Then we're going to have some fun shows. Different schedule next week. I could tell you a little bit about it now. On Monday of next week, December the 23rd,

we are going to have our 2025 preview show. So we're going to look ahead to 2025 in MMA. We're going to make some picks. We're going to talk about some stories to watch, make some predictions, maybe some prognostications, if you will. And so that will drop on Monday, December

The 23rd On December the 27th Which is The next Friday We'll have a European MMA Year in review, courtesy of The Crack and PZ Carroll and his

Squad that he is putting together so they'll Look back at the year that was as far as European MMA is concerned On December The 30th which is In two Mondays From now. Wait let me write these down Yep let me speak

Slowly. I'm very very Excited about this one We've had a lot of classic interviews. We've looked back at them. We've talked about them. We've referenced them. We're going to start a thing here where I kind of give you like the full story behind some of these classic interviews. Rampage, Dana, Nick Diaz, et cetera.

And we'll drop our first one on December 30th. So it'll be me looking back at some classic interviews telling you the behind-the-scenes stories, reminiscing a little nostalgia. And perhaps if you're a new fan, perhaps it's your first time seeing these, but these are some of the more classic interviews, if you will. On January 3rd, PT will be back

for another edition of The Crack, this time looking ahead to 2025 in European MMA What's to come, picks, prognostication, predictions All that stuff and more And then we'll be back in earnest on January 6th For our award show So usually we kind of go dark In the new era we are not going dark

Four new shows dropping in your laps during the Christmas and New Year's and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. The holidays are too bright to go dark. Break, yes. We'll be dropping those for you, so stay tuned for those. This is the last full week of regular shows, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, but still plenty of fun to come. And can't wait of course for the Helwani Knows Awards show

Which is live on January 6th And you know we like to get the Temperature of the people Actually as I was talking to Kai Our post went up for the People's Awards which is essentially Everyone weigh in The Google Doc is there and then

With the help Of moderator Emeritus Lewis And the great Alex Weber They will help us compile the pick of the people So myself, GC, Rick, PT Will all make our picks It's the most robust award show in sports But then we'll also tell you

Who the people voted for Or what the people voted for And so that is up right now on the Substack page. That's arielhawani.substack.com. Speaking of the Substack page, that's where you can get the questions. And speaking of On The Nose, I do want to let you know that this week's episode or this week's On The Nose segment, I should say, is brought to you by our great friends over at Averon. I love these gentlemen. I told you about them.

It's essentially a husband and wife team. And they're tremendous people. And we're so proud to be repping them. You'll recall the first time we spoke about Averon, both New York Rick and GC went toe-to-toe in a bit of a bike challenge. We may, in fact, be getting a rematch on today's episode. So stay tuned for that. Sean Brady even throwing his name into the hat. He wants some of the smoke as well.

But let me tell you about our good friends over at Avron first. Your workout routine should not feel like a grind. Everyone says, ah, you know, going on a treadmill, going on a bike, going on this, going on a treadmill Going on a bike going on This going on a run it's so boring Well that's why Avron Makes exercise more Fun and easier To stick to using gamification

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because they support us i like that um that irish music that was yeah a little celtic folk music right hadn't heard that one before no i know a lot of people argue they all sound the same i don't think that's appropriate they they each have their own unique uh no i like that that was good tempo yeah i'm still buzzing from pa from Paul Hughes, if I'm being honest. What a spot, right? I've got to admit, I've got a man crush on Paul Hughes. Ah, he's the man. He's so likable.

Look at Pizzi with the grin. Pizzi was dying back here, too. Pizzi gimmick just killed me. By the way, when you were on, right? Blanche, Pizzi was loving it. Pizzi, were you on? On what? Like, were you there when he started talking about that stuff?

Oh, yeah. I was already on the call. Yeah, I was pissed. If we weren't hiding Pizzi from Paul Hughes, it would have been incredible to go to Pizzi's camera because he was legit rolling. Oh, my God. That is amazing.

Do you know what? I don't know where he started. He started that on your show, too. Out of nowhere. Hang on a second. I'm only after seeing GC stuff. Is that a 1990? Take a look at this.

Got multiple compliments from Irishmen on the ride in today. They were like, oh, that's a real jersey right there, man. That's an absolute classic. Oh, there it is. Started up. That is beautiful, GC. I really appreciate that, PT. Coming from you, that means a lot

You know how many Irish children were conceived While lads came home from that World Cup What year did you say it was? 92? 1990 The crack is 90 that's where it comes from right? No Wait you literally told me that

The crack is 90 is about Italian 90 No I think Paddy Huland told you that And you're attributing it to me. Is it not true? The crack is 90s. Like it's 90, you know what I mean? All Irish people are the same. Wow.

You know how many people I've told like these people love Italia 90 so much that there's a saying. No, we do. That is true. That is true. I feel like I've been conned. Boy, that like nearly, he used to get emotional

when he was talking about 1990. We were all like, we're like todd get emotional when he was talking about 1990. We were all like, we're like toddlers. So he was just going out for all the games. And we got to the quarterfinal, I believe,

and there was a, played Romania in the first knockout game and it went to penalty shootouts. And everyone just stayed out all night. I think he got lost

in the park trying to walk home. Like a park that he, is right beside our house. I think he just fell asleep there for the night. Legend. How far did you go quarterfinals?

Quarterfinals, yeah. Do you remember? How old were you in 90? Well, every time they played a game, they'd have these street parties. So like the whole block would shut down. There'd be a DJ. There'd be a massive barbecue.

It was class. So I remember that. I don't really remember watching the football. I remember 1994, the US when we got to the last 16 and that one. And that was just magic. That's why there's so much despair in the country right now, I believe. It's because the football team is doing so well all the time. What about this jumper?

Where'd you get this? I don't know where I got it. I got it online somewhere. It's fantastic. The mega powers. It's a bit big. I thought it was a chief's one at first man yeah me too it is cool it's not as impressive as gc's jersey but you know at least i've made an

effort this time i remember halloween the lads were all dressed up i just came on with a hat on and they're like pz for fuck's sake yeah no it wasn't good hey can i make an admission of guilt here uh i have to do it i have to clear the air. Clear my conscience. Bought the Polaroid camera for the studio, you know, to take pictures of you and guests. I folded. I completely cracked under the pressure. What happened? What? Paul?

Took a picture. Yeah? Realized after Paul had walked out, the camera was out of film. We took a fake picture. Completely, completely folded. Because I've taken so many pictures of all the other ghosts. Really one of my most embarrassing moments. By the way, by the way.

Get him back here now. He's probably eating lunch down the road. He was so excited about the Polaroid. He even like, I was like, oh, you guys are doing Polaroids now? I honestly thought about doing like a hack where I just took a picture of like a screen of the picture that you guys took together. But I just had to clear my conscience. Wow.

It's all right, GC. I'll let it go, man. Hopefully he's not listening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really folded. I folded. Isn't he such a lovely guy, though? If he picks it up, he'll be back, I'm sure.

Yeah. We'll do it again. January 25th, I'm going to be on Penton Eagles. Coming up. All right, let's get to some questions, gentlemen. Kenny is up first. Happy holidays, Ariel and team. This up. All right. Let's get to some questions, gentlemen. Kenny is up first. Happy holidays, Ariel and team. This question is for everyone.

Other than Jones versus Aspinall, what are your three top unannounced fights you most want to see in 2025? And guess what, Kenny? We're not going to answer that question. You know why? Thank you. Because we're going to talk about that in our preview show, all right? Our 2025 preview show. So I don't want to give it away

Is that fair guys or is that unfair? That's the right move I think that's fair Even though I have an extensive list I'm alpha That's right, that's what we do around here But thank you, I do appreciate it And that is to come, you'll get that on Monday

December the 23rd Connor from Canada Hey guys, I need your advice on something. When I get home from work, my girlfriend will ask me about my day and it usually takes me about 5 minutes to recap. I'll then ask her about hers

and she will take up to 45 minutes or something. How can I politely get her to give me a shortened version without offending her? Thanks. I can answer this one. You can quote the television show Space. Just say, skip to the end.

Wow. Yeah, I'm sure that'll go over well. Yeah, my wife loves it. She stops talking. She closes her eyes and counts back from 10. And then I think I get the gist of what the day was like and we move on to dinner. Wow. You guys...

He needs to shorten his answer. Five minutes, mate. Like, what happened? Yeah, that's true. You're setting a wrong question. You think the five minutes is too long. He's setting the tone completely wrong there. How's your day, Grant? And move on. Walk out of the room so you don't have to bat it back. Grant is a great shout. I haven't used that one

In a while He doesn't even wait To hear the response He's just like It was great to see you Grant I'm out of date I'm out the door

If we have a good Compelling conversation When I come back please That's what I want That's what my body language Is saying So I'd advise him I guess you do work from home

So you don't walk Into the house Okay So you leave After your work Yeah well it's Very different Like a line would take

Probably 25 minutes To walk to this side Of the house Wow yeah All this space And you still haven't Prepped the guest room For me

Well you know We don't want Any vagrants coming in Are we going to That burrito place When I come visit There's one in Blanchardstown Yeah what was it called

Boojum Boojum yeah That's where we'll go Weird name If I'm being honest Is it something With like bougie Yeah Bougie, yeah. That's where we'll go. Weird name, if I'm being honest. Is it something with like bougie? Yeah.

Bourgeoisie. Yeah. The one and only says in the chat, say, give me the three-rounder at the Apex version, babe. I think that actually... That's great. Wow. That's great. I mean, you'd have to be a hardcore fan to get that reference.

I don't know about you. Perhaps EJ will understand this you know i i do get asked how was the show how was the day and i don't really want to talk about it i'd rather actually block it all out not not because it's a bad thing but it's like i'd rather just listen to someone else tell me about something else then then we've talked about it enough and and you take the pt route then yeah but it's not because i'm one word answer yeah it's not because i'm being rude I just don't really feel like Well first of all

On these particular days speaking a lot But also I think my wife takes it as like An insult but it's not Like she'll ask me like she'll always say Who's on the show today or who was on the show today And my answer is always people This is a pizza carol you're 100%

in your defense it's all over social media but also i'm gonna be like oh yeah kai kar france was on and then tyron woodley was on and like we're gonna have to get into all this who me yeah what's the point i don't know i don't know if i'm being the same tactic we're using the same tactic yeah i don't know i feel like you could at least give her the lineup you know yeah yours is a bit more rude than mine actually you can you can tell her what you tell me and be like, just look at the YouTube headline. I mean, I should, and I have at times. No denying. Actually.

You should actually just start saying grand and then texting her the link to the full show. Oh, yeah. That'll go well. Just try the grand and leave the room. Just set the tone. My wife and I, we actually, as soon as I walk in the door, we actually sit down together and have a full debrief.

It takes about an hour and a half. Is that true? 90 minutes? After you make it all the way on the long end of the railroad? My wife and I have been together so long that there's an unstated agreement that neither of us gives a shit about the other's day.

Uh, and, don't ask now I will say that, that agreement, that unwritten rule, um, is observed more by me. And then every six months I'll get a,

you never asked me about my day. And so then I have to like, kind of break from it. Oh, then you ask about it for a few days. And then I asked about it for a few days and then I ask about it for a few days and then we move on from that Ariel you

should take grand and then walk out the door but walk out into the backyard and just start messing with the start playing in the come the the giant pile of compost yeah I think

you're gonna say like go outside smoke a cigarette smoke a cigarette while you're playing with the compost yeah the Ben Affleck digging through it yeah exactly

exactly yes do the Ben Affleck do the Ben Affleck that's what I feel when someone asks me how my day is I feel like Ben Affleck in that picture digging through it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yes. Do the Ben Affleck. That's how I feel when someone asks me how my day is. I feel like Ben Affleck in that picture. I'm just like, oh, for fuck's sake.

You know what's funny? I actually am more willing to engage with strangers on how my day is going. Yes. When people ask me in the street, how's your day going?

I pause for a second. I actually try and give them an answer, good, bad, whatever, indifferent. When my wife sometimes asks, if she even asks, I'll just be like, eh, it even asks, I usually throttle it up. I usually am like,

it's up there for maybe the best days of my entire life. Serious? No, it's completely disingenuous. I'm lying to their face. It was an average day that I'll forget within a week, but I pump it up and say

I've never been better in my entire life. What's the reason for this? I don't know. Positivity. Put it out there. My go-to response is it was a fun day. And I think that speaks volumes for working with people. That's how you say it too? What is the point of all these pleasantries? It was a fun day.

How was your day? Oh, it was fun. I realize that I've said that over the past couple years as opposed to like, oh, it was a day. I mean, it's literally like, how was your day? Oh, it was fun. I realize that I've said that over the past couple of years as opposed to like, oh, it was a day. Now, do you expand upon that? Yeah. Like when asked, oh, what was fun about it? It's like, oh, you know, Ariel showed up with bagels. Wow.

Rick acknowledged me. Rubbing this in my face again. Connor invited me out. I brought you a bagel today, Frank. Wow. See, the wires are crossed. Not a fun day today. You won't be telling it was fun today after this bagel's gone.

After this whole thing. Well, actually, when she hears it, I said the whole skip to the end bit. She's not going to like that. She's not going to like that. All right. Well, we'll go back to the questions now after all that. James Portland asks, Hola, Ariel.

How do you see Cody's title run ending? Cody Rhodes, that is. I thought Kevin Owens should have won on Saturday And had Cody win it back at the next Saturday night's main event or Royal Rumble Would WWE really have the rock beat him at WrestleMania I didn't think for a second That Kevin Owens

If you just kind of look at Roman Reigns' run Every time people are like oh it's definitely going to be this time They had him keep the belt for four years And I think Cody's going to keep it for a while as well um i wouldn't be surprised if he retains at wrestlemania and then some and so no i i don't think the rock if he does in fact go up against the rock and i don't think that's fed up completely maybe it's cm punk um i don't think that's a done deal i i think he retains so i i don't see it ending anytime soon He's selling a ton of merch He's supremely popular

Why end it? I would be very surprised They're doing some sort of Fan slash press event Today WWE is And I guess they announced that Logan Paul Is actually coming back I guess there was some talk of him

Vince Conner? No, no, just coming back to wrestling There was some talk of him Vince Conner? No, no, just coming back to wrestling There was some talk of maybe him not coming back Did you hear about this? I did not, but that feels Like, isn't he amazing? I think he was working If I'm being honest

I think he was working, but yeah And then they announced that Or they did a face-off between CM Punk and Seth Rollins For the January 6th Netflix debut. Who's excited about that? Live on Netflix. It's going to be a big stretch for Netflix coming up with the two football games on Christmas Day and then the January 6th debut. I would be shocked if there's any issues.

That was a freak thing But I think it's going to be You're talking from a tech standpoint Yeah streaming standpoint Yeah I'd be shocked as well Here's Debo Shalom Ariel curious to get your insights On how involved Dana White is in the

Broadcasting production for the UFC Do you think he gives feedback to the commentators During the shows or after the shows Is he the one who decides the broadcasters for each card or do you think he is more hands-off all the best for the holidays to you and the boys in the back Debo so in the early days he was supremely involved there was always a gentleman named Craig Borsari who was sort of like the EP the head of production for the UFC and and he's still in that role. But some, oh, wow, now at this point, maybe 12 or so years ago, it's been a while, they hired a young man named Zach Candido, who's incredible at his job from ESPN. And he kind of became the day-to-day head of production,

if you will, right under Craig. And Dana kind of lets them, you know, do their thing at this juncture. There's the stories about Vince McMahon being in the broadcaster's ears. And Dana White himself has talked about having the phone that could go directly into the truck. And he'd chew people out if he was unhappy about something. And I know he does weigh in on certain things, but I don't think to that degree anymore. And he's certainly not the one deciding, okay, on this fight night card, the booth is going to be this. And then the desk is going to be this and then the desk is going to be this no but you know the look the feel that type of stuff he's supremely involved at this point it's a machine that kind of runs itself but he's not sitting

there in gorilla position like triple h or vince back in the day speaking directly to the the broadcasters you see him sitting cage side um he doesn't have, you know, he doesn't have a headset on usually. And if he does, it's just to listen, but he does have the ability, he talks about that red phone, to call the truck and weigh in on something if need be. Crylex, hey Ariel, happy holidays. As one Egyptian to another, what is your favorite Egyptian dish? When are you going to take the boys in the back and Pizzi to get some molachie or macarona beshamel or some stuffed grape leaves, which is known, he didn't write this, as wararish. Or the classic ful madames, which is fava beans. Keep killing it as the uncrowned kings that you all are.

My favorite. So my mom is Lebanese. My mom is from Beirut. And so she was obviously the one doing the cooking and my grandmother as well, who's her mother. And so a lot of it was Lebanese, which is very, very similar. My dad's from Egypt. And so my favorite, all-time favorite is cousa mershi. And that is basically stuffed zucchini with meat and rice inside and like some sort of like lemony sauce on top. Very, very, not like thick sauce at all. Sounds great. And I mean, my mouth is watering just talking about it.

No one makes it better than my mom. Every time we go home, that's what she makes. In addition to majedra and there's, there's, uh, molokhia as he mentioned. And, uh, majedra is, uh, something with, uh, rice and, um, and lentils. Um, you know, she'll make like the classic chicken and all that. And we also were a big Italian food family. So she would always make all kinds of pasta dishes and lasagna and stuff like that. Mom, pound for pound, hands down,

greatest cook of all time. I hope that doesn't offend anyone, but at least as far as my rankings are concerned, she's the best. So number one for me would be coussamerci. Samboussic as well, which is like a sort of like, not really a pastry, but like a cheese thing, like a round little thing, kind of pastry-ish, but not like flaky like that. Kibbeh, kibbeh besanyeh, manousheh. I could go on and on, guys, but I will leave it at that because it's making me very hungry. When are you bringing us?

That was the question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to the floyo tomorrow. Stuffed grape leaves too? Yeah, that's the. Absolutely. The wadadish. There's ones with meat and there's ones without meat.

I'm down with both. I usually typically like the non-meat ones. And then you could also go hot or cold. I typically like the cold ones. Yeah, I'm cold non-meat on the stuffed grape leaves. Yep. I'm free for the next two weeks whenever you want to... Sure, okay.

We'll talk offline. All right. Grab his Rick and twist it. What a year indeed. Good tidings to the crew and big old lump of coal for Franklin. What the hell? I have an awesome work friend who loves boxing and is getting into MMA. I'd love to treat him, hit up the Intuit Dome and get some Roscos.

The upcoming car at 311 is a total killer, but I'm a bit concerned how wrestling heavy will be in the main two bouts. Do you think this would be a good intro event to attend? All the best and blessings into 2025. Yissa Adonai panav elecha v'yaseym lecha shalom. Respect. I would go. First of all, Intuit Dome is incredible It's fantastic, right?

And I think that card is amazing The top two fights are great, but then also you have like Jamal Hill against Siri Prochaska And what else? You've got Peyton Talbot on there UFC 311 Benil Darius against Renato Moicano? I mean, come on.

Just for that alone. Kevin Holland against RDR. Johnny Walker against Bogdan Guskov. Jalton Almeida. It's a great card. Grant Dawson. Carol Hossa. Ricky Tercios.

Yeah. I think you should go. Jesse Orozco, do you ever see yourself retiring from journalism and work for a promoter to do more in-ring interviews and or other gigs? No, I don't think so. I would like to, I like doing it this way. Right? This is more fun. And then I can moonlight, I could do the broadcasting and all that stuff. So I like being on this side of the fence. I love being impartial. And then when there's opportunities to work for the actual broadcaster as opposed to the promoter, i.e. Showtime, DAZN, etc., I'm able to do that. So never say never.

Never say never. But this is something that I enjoy doing more and right now is more my speed and what I prefer. Now, I'm looking at that Averon logo right over there. And so let's not delay the inevitable. We had the big showdown about a month ago, and so let's take a little bit of a break in the action here. A month ago, I sort of sprung it upon the boys and said, hey, guys, let's do a head-to-head.

On that particular day, GC, would it be fair to say, dominated New York Rick? Now, New York Rick afterwards presented some excuses saying, you know, the resistance wasn't quite what I wanted, this, that, and the other. You know. Here's all I'll say. Yeah, you're making a strong case here.

All I'm going to say is the results will speak for themselves today. Rick trying to force a trilogy. I like this, Rick. There's no pressure on me Because I know what happened last time So GC you do the honors I couldn't help but notice That Rick came rocking track pants He's ready to go

I'm in jeans over here Talk about fair play What a shame So let's lay out The stipulations here It's one minute We're gonna go one minute Head to head

One minute GC versus Rick Part two In fact Shout out to Averon They've literally created A program for us For this specific purpose

Called Head to Head Oh I love it Me versus GC We're going head to head Oh my god this is great I was back here getting warm I was stretching up I was doing jumping jacks

I was ready to go And then you know Time went on He's a pure athlete. Now I've cooled back down. Now I've cooled back down. And the way we're distinguishing who wins is via the output, right? Yeah, there's an output measurement.

All right. Well, last time up, Rick went first, so only fair. All right, so I have to post a number. Yeah, here it is. Put up something, GC. Make it hard for me. A lot of pressure. Go on, GC.

What do we got? Any music? Any something? Rick, I love your new attitude, mate. Like, I didn't believe before I heard you speak today, and just hearing

that from you has changed my mind completely. I think you're sleeping tight. I know some things that you don't know. You know, when I was

talking about the resistance. There he is. Oh, here he comes. The champ is here. The champ is here. Can you hear us right now, GC?

I thought he was going to rip those jeans off, strip our style there, and have a little pair of short shorts on. I'm wearing my breakaway pants. Having some issues getting on the bike here. Okay, what are the... Can you hear me right now? GC, can you hear me? I can hear you. You hear me?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I hear you just fine. You look fantastic. You're on there. The bike looks tremendous. We're going to go head-to-head. We're going to go one minute. Okay, what is your resistance? What is your resistance? It's nothing yet. I'm waiting for it to come up. Yeah. We're going to go one minute. Okay. What is your resistance? What is your resistance? It's nothing yet. I'm waiting for it to come up.

I'm just starting off the day top. Okay. Oh, yeah. Beautiful jersey. I'm going resistance 100. All right. Here we go. Can you let me know when you start?

I'm started. Okay. He started. Okay. He's going full throttle. 33 miles an hour right now. Holy shit. We're cranking it up.

130 resistance. Yes. Look at him go. In the darkness of the night. Oh, he just went past 10. And you know what I like about this right now from GC? Let's get a shot of GC real quick. He's out of the seat.

He's going full throttle. He's out of the seat he's going full he's already miles an hour what's your resistance at what's your 130 i gotta crank it back down a bit oh my gosh now he's sitting down he's getting tired he gassed out legs are burning boys what's the screen what does it say i'm at 41 seconds but I think I was a little late. How much time left? 10 seconds. 10 seconds left. That is the final push from GC. I can see Rick getting a little bit concerned. Oh, yes.

26.6. What is it? What is it? 26.6. What did you get last time? I don't know. Legs are jelly over here. Do you remember what he got last time? Did he is it? 26.6. What did you get last time? I don't know. Legs are jelly over here. Do you remember what he got last time?

Did he almost buckle? No. We were like both sub 20. He had like a 15 or something. Well done, GC. Well done, mate. I think I hit like 11. It's a half mile.

Yeah. Can I ask you, do you think you came out too strong out of the gate? Oh, yeah. Legs started to burn bad. Yeah, you think so? Next time out, you think it's better to kind of like... Yeah, I got to pace myself. Yeah, okay.

Got to pace myself. All right, well, there it is. Put it on the board. Number's been posted. 26.6. The man is struggling. Look at this. My legs are actually jelly over here.

Oh, my gosh. With jeans to boot, which I think think is a very It's a questionable move Here comes the track suit Wearing New York Rick This is a great move on his part right PT I mean he came ready The freedom your legs I also had the track suit the first time too

And then for the watch party one GC actually See that bike still spinning Yeah that was still spinning? Yeah, it is. Yeah, that was still going. That's called fucking power right there, baby. What I did say is that Rick actually wears tracksuit every time. No, no, no.

Not true. It was like a wrestling promo towards the end of GC's when he was like, All right, we're starting up here. 26.6. You're starting? Tell me when. It's starting up. It's starting up.

Three. Five. Four. Three. You're going to be able to see him against Juan Alright here we go 26.6 Oh he's going strong but he's staying in the saddle it appears Look at the strength there

Look at those arms Yeah look at the biceps By the way no nonsense from Rick right now Head down He is not messing around with us What are we at frank what are we at what are we at ricky just a simple hey i'm okay can we get the screen 12. you're breathing right he oh yes how much time he's at 12. uh gc got oh man look at him i'm working him right now we're a

little over looking how far ahead i am, look at this. This is amazing. Smoking his ass. That is you on the right. You better catch me, Rick. You better catch me, Rick. You better catch me, Rick. He killed it. You better catch me, Rick.

Oh, he's getting out of the saddle. Smoked. Look at my ass. You can't even see my ass. I'm too far ahead. I smoked them, left them in the dust. That is fine. Look at my ass. You can't even see my ass. I'm too far ahead. I'm too far ahead. I smoked them, left them in the dust. That is time. Pure power right here. That is time.

Pure power. This is horsepower in these legs. Well done, Rick. What was that? Was that 21, Rick? 21.2. 21.2. Not even fucking close.

He smoked me. Sean Brady, where you at? Sean Brady, where you at, baby? Wow. We need Sean Brady in here. at? Sean Brady, where you at, baby? Wow. We need Sean Brady in here. I can't wait for that shit. I think that's, we needed an actual professional athlete to beat GC. Come on, post it a number.

Wait till the finale. Are we even going to do a five miler? I'm calling for a five miler in the finale. Five miles in one minute? No, not in a minute. Oh, okay. Who can do five miles faster? Is he limping back to the controls?

My legs really were jelly. I think Rick is on the DL. I think he might have. Mine in the arena, Rick. Mine in the arena. Yeah, there it is. Commiseration. Rick's back. Rick's struggling to get back in there. Look how slow it is for us to get back. By the way, so that means you're 2-0 against Rick.

2-0, man. At this point, it doesn't even feel like a rivalry. Wow. Ricky, when you hop out there. I need to hit the lab. We need to figure it out this is uh this is like the post fight what went wrong out there rick um you know what i thought it was gonna be easier gc's uh gc's been cooking gc's gc's been in the lab he's been in the lab he's got the stamina lean machine oh he put up 15 last time I was putting up 20s in practice I'm good

I'm good Cardio king When he hit that one What resistance did you start on? Uh 110 Got up to 130 I was doing 135

I was like oh boy I'm not gonna lie I'm back to resting heart rate At this point Doing some pre-workout earlier And then he was stretching The stretching Listen man

Have we tested Have we tested GC's piss? Can we just say Yeah We're all thinking I'm a clean man Come on I'll say paul hughes said he wanted a crack on that thing we'll get him back in oh yes i would love to went he would have went down and there he was wearing a tracksuit today and everything we could have a whole fighter's bracket um and so sean brady you gotta come in what was your what was your resistance rick i i started like 80 then i went down to 50 oh wow um i was

trying to find that sweet spot gc was smarter he went high to start it was good it was a good move all right well uh congratulations well done my belt is in the mail he's uh he's still where's the ground undefeated two and oh we'll see what happens the next time out. Thank you very much once again to Averon, averonactive.com slash uncrowned to end all boring workouts. That's the place to be. You can get $50 off if you go there right now. And again, please support them because they support us.

Their holiday sale, by the way, starts tomorrow. It's a fun, fun, fun device. You see it right there. That was brilliant stuff, the head-to-head. I love that. Looking forward to fun, fun, fun device. You see it right there. That was brilliant stuff, the head-to-head. I love that. Looking forward to the triology, as they say. Let's go back to Jesse now. Can you explain to us the differences you have seen in journalism between MMA and boxing?

Which one has maintained a higher standard, in your opinion, for proper sports journalism? I think they're both fine. They're different. I'll say this, this may not be the direction that you were taking this, but like covering a major MMA slash UFC event, as opposed to a major boxing event is completely different. And covering a major boxing event reminds me a lot of the early days of the UFC, where it was kind of the wild west. Everyone's walking around with cameras, with phones and things like that. The UFC is a lot more rigid.

It used to be a media day where you could get fun stuff with people, but now everyone comes up to the dais. They all have their 15 minutes. And I don't know. Do you guys agree? Do you think they should go back to the old way? Because I felt like we were getting more unique, fun stuff. Now everyone's getting the exact same thing.

Every outlet gets the same thing. I don't know if there's as much of an incentive for someone to fly out there because like back in the day, some of the best stuff that I ever got were those one-on-ones before, you know, like the Khabib one, the Alistair Overeem one,

the Nick Diaz ones. Like those are just rampage. Now it's everyone just getting the same stuff. In boxing, it's more like the old days of the UFC where everyone's walking around you could get this guy there you could get that guy there you could get this trainer this promoter is just walking around it's a lot more loosey-goosey wild west and I think that's that's better for the media because you could get your own unique exclusive stuff so that's what UFC is ever going to go back

to that no because they're not incentivized right they can just continue to do it the way they're doing it and everybody will kind of you know follow that suit the media who could see an opportunity would benefit from that greatly to the point that you're making like you can get exclusive and unique stuff that's not going to be said to everybody else and whoever has the camera pointed oh yeah it would benefit the media but i don't know if the ufc is incentivized to do it i mean honestly when i was coming up if it was the system that you know was in place today it would be a lot harder to stick out you know what i mean it's harder to stick out if you want to be an interviewer one thing i don't understand about the boxing media especially the video reporters why do they all do it the same way why do they all hold the camera here and ask the questions?

Like, why don't they have a microphone and do it that way? Is it just easier? I don't know. If you're one man banding it, I guess. But I would say that the juice is worth the squeeze if you just go like a little step further as far as the production is concerned. Just my two cents. Shots.

You know, no, I know it's not shots. It's just like, this is exactly what I did. I used to, by the way, back in the day, just to explain to you why this is not shots, if I was going to a market, let's say Stockton, I remember the Stockton one because it was hard to find someone there. There was a CBS show in Stockton. It was Thomas Denny against Nick Diaz, Shana Baszler against Chris Cyborg,

and I would go to the local Craigslist, and I would post something and say, I would like to have a local cameraman. And sometimes you get a great one, and Sometimes you get a great one and sometimes You get a lemon and sometimes they didn't know how To even give you the footage so that I can upload It to MMArated.com I mean it was a complete You know crapshoot Until I got to UFC

104 and that was in LA and Casey Lydon had just been you know I don't know if it was let go or parted ways With Elidic C and he was living in LA And I told the editor of The AOL fan house MMA Page Brian Tucker hey let's use

Casey I know he's great he does great stuff He could be our interviewer and it was so easy And seamless that the next event That we went to because 105 105 was In was in Was in England I didn't go to that one 106 was in Vegas, it was close for him

He was able to drive 107 was in Memphis And I said, I think that we should Send him out and he be our Consistent full-time videographer As opposed to, you know, the crapshoot Of trying to find someone in all these different markets And so for the first time

And this was 2009, initially, the editor did not want to pay for this because he was like, just get local guys. And I said, I think it's worth it. And so I paid for it. And then he proved his worth. And then from there on out, he was always the guy. And so we traveled the world and it was always, we didn't have to, oh, like this is our format and this is our look and this and that. It was just consistent. And of course, Esther, his wife, was along doing the photos and it was a fantastic union and partnership. And he's still there at MMA Fighting. And he was the guy for every single one of my interviews.

Literally every single one of those interviews was shot by him and Esther. Sometimes we needed a second camera, mainly for like the walk and talks and stuff like that. But there was never one that he missed. I can't even think of a single one. Every single one of those, basically from UFC 107 all the way until I left the ESPN and the first one in the ESPN era was like

2013 or 14, something, I think it was 14. Every single one of those pay-per-views except for a couple here and there uh my son was born this and that we were at every single one and it was always him shooting it and it was you know myself with a mic flag get dressed up treated with uh respect and professionalism and it worked and so i i say this coming from a place of experience and and i think it worked for me and so i would suggest them that if they want to up it because part of the reason why i got into it was i used to see all these like sure dog interviews where they were recording them with a camcorder like this and i was like there's a better way of

doing this and and i would still maintain that there's a better way of doing it. Back to the questions we go. Thank you very much, Miss Lippy. Wow, that's a great reference. Thank you very much, Miss Lippy. Anyone know? I think Madison. The only film you've seen.

Only film you've seen. A question for GC and PT. I am Irish myself, and I understand St. Stephen's Day, but where does the tracksuit tie in, and how does it correlate with the day? Oh, well, it's not really, it's like a, it's like a, it's more of a, Paul said a Belfast thing. I always thought it was like a North inner city Dublin thing.

By the way, by the way, we're now at three bucks. Does this mean like Eric's gone or what? No, no, no. The question was, I just wanted, I was like, even though this PT, this question is all people. Right, right. I got worried.

I was like, wait, wait, what happened to Eric? I took the gimmick from him. All right. GC is Irish. He denies it because he looks Scandinavian,

but he is in fact Irish. We found that true ancestry, I believe. But yeah. Oh, there it is. Oh, this is a great tune. Well, what happens is, right,

Christmas day, it's a day of excess. I is, right, Christmas Day, it's a day of excess. I mean, food, alcohol, everything. And what they used to do when we were kids was they'd buy you a Stephen's Day tracksuit because, you know what I mean, it's a less formal day. You're sitting around, you're watching the darts, you're watching the football, your belly's a bit, you know, it's not in a good shape. You're feeling a bit swollen.

Put on those sweet track pants. We saw Rick rocking them there during the challenge. It's a day of comfort. And that's what the tracksuit is about. I feel like it's a Dublin tradition. I know all around me growing up, we always had Stephen's Day tracksuits. I've simply resurrected in my later years to show the world what a beautiful culture we have here in Blanchardstown. I think it's great.

By the way, how poor form is it from Paul Hughes to not be going home for Christmas? I feel like I'm going to have to text Claire and offer my commiserations today because, I mean,

what type of son would do that to their mother? Like, that's what I was thinking when he was saying it. I was like, oh, too big time now. Yeah. Is this not a good excuse though?

Big time, big Hughes. Big news. Acting the Flash Harry over in Florida. Wow. World title on excuse, though? Big time, big Hughes. Acting to Flash Harry over in Florida. World title on the line, Usman Ramagomedov. Nah. Kissy lips, fancy trainers. This is Rich coming from Private Jet Pizza over here. He can just fly wherever he wants at any time.

Did you hear him earlier? Paul's a working class man making his way up, and you're trying to shame him? How dare you? How dare you? We don't stand for Paul Hughes We said we wouldn't talk about the PJ It's out there The mansion, the PJ, the Rolls Royce

It's all out there Pete C You hear Rick's breathing man I took this guy out to the wood I'm about to fall asleep back here Are you okay I'm hearing a little wheeze The hair's lost its hoof It's fallen down because of the sweat

I'm ready to go for another round One minute Winner learn By the way PS your next book club is going to be a good one GC Dark Matter is my sister's Favorite book and they made a limited short series On Apple TV which the wife and I just finished Extremely fun concept and a great watch

I highly recommend the series enjoy And happy holidays thanks for the year Brother it is incredible I started it on Sunday I'm already 200 pages And I'm almost done with it it's one of the best books I've ever read Wow I can't wait to finish it highly recommend By the way Dark Matter shout out Can I tell you something there's an

Older gentleman probably in his 60s maybe even 70s, retired, but teaches one course every like second semester, he tells me. And I always see him in the morning when I'm walking the dog before I get ready. And he is always, no matter what, no matter the weather, I saw him this morning, always walking, reading a new book. He doesn't buy the books. He takes them out at the local library. And every single time I ask him, first thing I ask, what are we reading today? Today it was about like the history of the Hoover Dam. And he's reading these books. They're not like, they're like actual books that

he takes out. I asked him today, I was peppering him him With questions What do we average a week He says he averages Around two and a half Books a week His rule Is that And some of them Are like 600 pages

About like The history Of the mummies And this and that His rule by the way If he starts the book He has to finish it He will never

Not finish it He says he thinks He gets to around Like 110 120 A thinks He gets to around like 110 120 a year He will walk around Town no matter what No matter the weather no matter the time of year

Reading a book like not He doesn't listen to anything he's never on His phone he is reading A library book and I'm so and I always Say to him like I feel like I want To live vicariously through you because I'm so impressed That always say to him Like I feel like I want to live vicariously Through you Because I'm so impressed That he takes such great joy

In doing this And so I say this Because I feel like You're on your way To that I mean that's the dream That I can just walk around Does he walk a dog

Or is he just walking the By himself He's got like Like one of those Like bags Satchel Yeah Oh so he's got a little bit

Of swag to him too He walks to the train Which is like a mile away And he's reading no matter what I see him all around town but also around the neighborhood I can't do the walk and read It's tough man I see people at the gym on the treadmill reading

I gotta be just like sitting there chilling to read I can't do anything while reading I'm also no audio book I don't have a Kindle either Give me the brick and mortar Give me the real paper Absolutely not That was such a beautiful story I don't have a Kendall either. Give me the brick and mortar. Oh, I can't do the Kendall. Give me the real paper. Absolutely not.

How about that guy though? Legend. That was such a beautiful story. I mean, it's just incredible. Loving wife and mother, Jacqueline. Ariel, who'd you have on the show today? People. Random stranger walking around the neighborhood. Tell me about the 700 books you read today.

Let's have a four hour conversation. I love it. It's incredible. Two and a half a week. That's like 150 a year. That's insane. I read like 20 a year That's insane It's fascinating I read like 20 a year

And I feel like I'm reading all the time Speaking of which If we ever get like A pub quiz group going We gotta get this guy involved He's amazing Yeah like

Oh my god You would love his stories He's great Is he like a neighbor Or do you know Yeah he's like No he's around the block He's around the block

And he always gives me like Life advice And he always tells I always say like Oh man He gave me another Great line today He And he always gives me like life advice And I always say like Oh man, he gave me another great line today He gives me like little nuggets And he always tells me to appreciate everything And I say I live vicariously through

And he's like you have your hands full You have three kids I'm past that stage and all this stuff And then at the end he said Everything good, everyone's good at home And I said yeah everyone's great And he said remember you're always as happy as your most miserable child. I think that was it.

Banger. This guy just drops bars on you and then he keeps walking. And I was like, I pondered that for like five minutes. Does he ever end the conversation? You keep rambling and he just starts looking back down at the book and he's like, mm-hmm. No, no. I always ask him, what are we reading? Why did you pick that one?

By the way, never buys the book. Always takes it out of the library, which I think. That is legendary status right there. It's got like the thin plastic film that's been used. That's what it has. And he opens it and then I see the little card thingy there in the back. Bookmark. Yeah. No, no, not the bookmark. From little card thingy there in the back. Bookmark. Yeah.

No, no, not the bookmark. From the library. Does he sign each one? Bookmark. He probably signs each one with his name and like a philosophical lesson to each person. This man has figured it out. You're going to find out he's an author. You don't read it all, though, Ariel.

I do read it all. Actually, I just bought it. You read like a book a year. Wow, this is crazy. What's with the slander? He's saying all this when he's across the ocean. I'm just saying. Your bookshelf looks stacked

behind you, Pete C. Oh, that's true. Pete C doesn't like how Paul Hughes came from and he's just coming for next now. He's out for blood. He wants to get revenge on someone. I just bought a new book. I just bought a new book to read very shortly. It's called Man's Search for Meaning. I think you've talked about it.

I don't think I've talked about it It's by I think Viktor Frankl Are you familiar with it? Maybe Is he going into Concentration camp? I don't know Yeah

Man I was just Shitting on Rick I have to go get some water If you have to have Any H2O post bike Alright You put in 26 I feel like

A man in the desert You earned it You earned it Jmall1985 Aloha Ariel, when are you going to chat shit with DDP? I'm assuming you're referring to Drikus Duplessis,

not Diamond Dallas Page. I remember after he won the belt, you had him scheduled like two or three times. It was twice and he canceled. Just no show. I don't even know if he canceled. I wonder if it was because you did a deep dive on all his racial,

to put it lightly, comments he made on Izzy. Is there a beef there with DDP? Well, what's interesting about this, and this is like classic revisionist history After I did that quote-unquote deep dive Which was me explaining The history of the beef

I think he was on three times And so the notion that he doesn't come on Because of that is crazy He was even on the show on the Monday Of the title fight against Sean Strickland Now, of course, and I've seen this before People win the belt and then they say peace out When they're on the come up

When they're searching for a late notice Opponent, when their opponent falls out And they're already in Jacksonville and they're in the hotel gym You know, they're more than willing to come on But once they reach the mountaintop It's fuck Ariel and his Dastardly ways Now, not saying that this is the case here

His coach seems like a lovely lovely guy A gentleman that you really want to break bread with And have a grand old chat with DDP no beef there No chatting shit you never hear me do that You never hear me talk about that Didn't love that there were two no shows His manager Danny Rubenstein

Told me both times that it was all confirmed And all well and good and maybe this was his way Of sticking it to me. I don't know. But after the second time, I was like, all right, I'm not going to go down that road again. But it is important to note, he was on at the very least twice, I know for a fact, and I think three times after that whole thing. Because remember, Izzy beat beat There was Izzy beating

Alex Pereira so that whole thing happened In July and then Izzy beat Alex Pereira and then He came on I remember on that show that we did We were in Remember we were I was in Montreal and we did it and then there was

Another time I believe It was after the Robert Whitaker win And then there was another time I believe it was after the Robert Whitaker win And then there was another time After the No it was the Oh yeah we cleared it all up We DM'd about it anyway All good in the hood

Open invitation Open invitation Still no response back um um ruben ariel bitb and pt by the way something i've wrestled with is pt a part of the bitb of course all right so can we just like make it bitb and he's a part of it that's it's done all right there is there is a ceremony and oh wait hang on gc's made some yeah pessimistic noise there as to my inclusion like he's part of the crew so should it be but like we are technically

like the like like by definition we're like not only are we in the back then i was thinking about it today me and rick are also in the back of the room. We are like as in the back as it gets. Not only in the back, we're in the back of the back. Even Frank is more in the front than us. Yeah, Frank is in front of us. The front row knows. We're as in, we are as back as it gets. Joe, I don't want to be in the boys in the back then.

Forget about it. I'm just saying, are you in the back, PC? You're one of the boys. I'm the boy across the Atlantic. Yeah, you're one of the boys, but are you in the back? I'm a separate entity. I'm a municipality of the Ariel Milani show. That's what I am.

You're like the Monaco. If we're the states, you're like Washington, D.C. He's a colony that we have in Ireland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So are you saying no? I think he's one of the BITBs. Okay.

He is one of the boys. It just comes into question of, oh, is he in the back or not? I just, I can't stamp that. Fucking devastated. You want this seat? You want this seat? Petey, this seat is not comfortable. I mean, it is straight up, 90-degree angle.

I'm sitting here for hours on end. I can't touch my feet to the ground. My back hurts when I get home at night. It's cramped in. I mean, look at it. The walls are closing in You don't want this mess back here Look at your spacious setup

You have an ocean between us What is this the airing of grievances Festivus is in five days guys Shout out I just watched that episode Is there an official date for Festivus 23rd What is Festivus Come on man you don't watch Seinfeld I knew you weren't a real New Yorker Festivus? Yes, 23rd. 23rd, okay. What is Festivus? Ah, Festivus.

Come on, man. You don't watch Seinfeld? I knew you weren't a real New Yorker, Pete. Did you know that the- I'm a Corker enthusiasm guy. I've seen all of them. No. Way better.

Did you know that the strike had come to an end? Yeah. H&H bagels? Oh, no. Come on. Steam and everything. I get it. Look at me.

I get these references. Then invest. Then invest. Ruben, thoughts on releasing your own plushies? That would be sick. Also, wanted to know if there would be a World Cup in the UFC. Which country do you think would take the cake? Mine would be Brazil.

I don't know. Brazil would do Bronx, Pantoja, and Poiton at the forefront, and others like the Fighting Nerds. Happy holidays. Well, first of all, plushies, no. No thoughts. Big shots? If our friends from Big shots

Want to hook us up Yeah Uncrowned plushies From big shots That would be great I'd be down Brazil Russia would be a good one

Right Feel like it's Russia Good Feel like it's probably Russia USA would have a Strong Shot Right John Jones It's Russia Yeah it's Russia Alright there he is USA would have a strong shot, right?

Jon Jones. It's Russia. Yeah, it's Russia. All right, there he is. Bennett. Hey, Ariel, question on fighter pay. Can you explain why Conor's opponents who don't get pay-per-view points

receive a huge payday? Chandler, Dustin, et cetera, cowboy. Obviously, for fighters who get pay-per-view points, I understand. But what triggers a higher payday for those that fight Conor and not on the pay-per-view plan? Most of them will have like a Conor clause in their contract. So if I fight Conor McGregor, I will get X amount. And that's basically it. And if you have a good manager,

you'll put that in there. Paul Hughes kind of referred to something like that, like, oh, he got a little bit more for fighting AJ McKee. So there'll be carve-outs as they say And There's no bigger carve-out than him So they have benefited from that Daniel, what's good boys? I manage a bar in the UK So over the past 9 or so years My Saturdays have consisted of a 12 hour shift

Racing home around midnight In time for the second prelim Sweating out the full fight night Then 4 hours of sleep to fuel me For the nightmare Sunday shift I would like to live vicariously through you guys out the full fight night, then four hours of sleep to fuel me for the nightmare Sunday shift. I would like to live vicariously through you guys so you can each

give me a rundown of your ideal ways to spend Saturday on the day of a big pay-per-view. Also, while I've got you, I wanted to let you know that I am the guy who asked whether I should skip the Manchester card to go on holiday with my girlfriend. You guys steered me in the right direction. I went on the holiday. My girlfriend is now my fiance and we're expecting

our little girl in April. Yeah. That's awesome. Wow. You're creating family. She's conceived on the trip. It takes a village. Would the math work out? Yeah. Wait, when did he say April? Yeah, April. That is literally, Manchester was in July, minus three months. That's

April. The baby was conceived then. Wow. Is that why she's now the fiance? Or is that all part of the plan? July Minus three months That's April The baby was conceived then Wow Is that why she's now the fiance? So Or is that all part of the plan? Well so the baby has to At least then be called Ariel

Frank I was thinking Tom Connor Or just MMA Just uncrowned Name the baby uncrowned Just like

You see Here comes MMA Co-op live arena Anyway That's a great one. Or Bilal. Great name. High sound for generations. Here's the thing about this.

Okay, so my Saturdays are different than yours because you guys are getting ready to do the watch parties and whatnot. And it's all different, right? Because there's sometimes fight nights or sometimes pay-per-views. Thank God for ESPN Plus and being able to listen or watch on the phone. That usually helps. But when it comes to the pay-per-views, I'm usually locked in for the entire thing. And I kind of sit in my room there with the books behind me and watch it on my computer

so I can have everything in front of me. It's not that great. I mean, it's not a great story. There's not really much to it. It sounds like you're living a very exciting life. Now, I will say, I don't know how you guys do it, Pizzi included. If there was a sport that was predominantly playing out in the middle of the night, I don't know if I would be a fan, A, and I sure as hell don't know if I would be covering it. So God bless you guys And that's why my respect for you

Is infinite Amani I remember in an episode of the MMR you said you would not get a tattoo due to Your beliefs but my question is if in an Alternate universe you was to have a Tattoo where would you get it and What would you get I'd love to get one of those like Big sleeves Amani with a sleeve would be sick What would you get it and what would you get i'd love to get one of those like big sleeves you know one with a sleeve would be sick yeah what's in the sleeve though what's the

mixture of things you know maybe it's like the rock style like the tribal oh you're gonna get it onto the pack some moan like here and then it goes over there a carton of oat milk here and then what else some some well-done steak. A little bit of neck. A lot of shots. Even yesterday, we were doing the Ade show, and he's like, yeah, you wouldn't know anything about a gym, and I was like, what the fuck is that? And he was like, wait, wait,

what? He's just like, nah, seriously, you don't go to the fucking gym. He wasn't, like, taking the piss there. He was like, yeah, you know, like, jeez, man. He immediately snapped back With no no no He's a kid from nowhere I'm gonna send them some

Ariel's in good shape too Ariel's in the best shape I mean no Ade is ripped Jack But let's also be honest Ade is single And ready to mingle So like you know

The priorities are A little bit different You're blaming this on the wife No I'm saying Blaming it on the kid The schedule The lifestyle little bit different. Not only do I not care how your day was. There's a lot of mac and cheese

just kind of like sitting around. Feastables. Can I tell you guys something? Can I tell you that I'm not happy about? Yes, please. So the two days on Tuesday, like the two shows, like the two-a-days, if you will.

Yeah, that's a good word for it. It is a two-a-day. Yeah, it is a two-a-day. It's a long day. It's a lot of talking. And yesterday was a particularly tiring day. Uh-oh. And I got home yesterday, and I had a little bit to eat,

and I sat there. I'm not proud of this. I've never done this. I ate a full pint of ice cream. Whoa. Fucking respect. What kind of ice cream? Tell us more details. I've never done this. I ate a full pint of ice cream. Whoa. Fucking respect. What kind of ice cream? Tell us more details.

I've done it before. Yeah, we need details. Can I tell you the best part about it? I was doing the skimming off the top because I thought that maybe might be better, and I just kept going, and I kept going, and I kept going. And then I was like – I've got questions. You get to I've got questions and you know like you Get to like one quarter left might as well

If you could just put this back it's Not the same and then I just I kept going I'm surprised this is the first time If I'm being honest I can't count how many times How many times did you cap it along The journey didn't cap it I would do This I would do I would put it aside I would Move it I just moved it

Where was the like fuck it point that you were just like fuck it i had a long day i had a tough day i'm just i'm just finishing this i don't like like this much was left yeah this much right here like a quarter left and it was it was it was like a peanut butter vanilla with chocolate flakes that's danger and i just kept going and honestly like honestly, I started to feel a little bit better as I was eating it. I mean, you down a pint of ice cream, it's hard to feel bad. But then you do feel bad in the aftermath.

Other than the sheer lack of sugar, saturated fat, dairy that you just didn't do. I'm going to be honest, pint is light work. Let's hit a quart next time. No. Let's hit a tub. What are we talking here? Imagine a Ben and Jerry's.

That's the standard. What brand was it? What brand was it? It was like, it was one of those like. Byers? Byers? Haagen-Dazs? No, it was like a kind of a fancy schmancy one.

Man, you know what I learned from Seinfeld speaking of Haagen-Dazs? I always thought Haagen-Dazs was like a European brand. What is it? Isn't it like a made up name? It's like New Jersey. Oh, really? Wow. I always thought it was asDazs was like a European brand What is it? Isn't it like a made up name? It's like New Jersey Oh really? Wow

I always thought it was as well to be honest I was totally off base with that The reason I don't like the Ben and Jerry's or the Haagen-Dazs is there's There's what's that thing? High fructose corn syrup Yeah yeah yeah So I try to go for the ones at least Like we try to get the ones that don't have that at the very least

But do you like ice cream or are you more like gelato, Italian ice? So I like gelato when you go to the place and they have like the mountain there and you go to the little place in the shop, but like to actually order it, I think I prefer just ice cream. You guys cones or cup guys? Cup.

I'm a cup too. The cone seems just like needless. There's only one ice cream for me. Bluebell ice cream from Texas. Hey, shout out. Shout out. I grew for me Bluebell ice cream from Texas Hey shout out Shout out I grew up on Bluebell ice cream as well Never even heard of it Ooh

Bluebell? Get a big tub Gotta get on that Get a big tub of it Do they even sell it up here? Yeah yeah yeah They had a song too Bluebell tastes just like

We don't wanna get sucked out Beautiful Pizza The good old days In Ireland or Yeah we We recently got it Like last year it was a whole thing you know

that went down on the horse to get out of the shop and you know we obviously got our milk we got the cow yeah just took took the cow to work to get our milk for the day and then they went we have this new thing it's called ice cream we're like what we only got the Sega Vega drive last week

I mean what is this ice cream you speak of you're like it's like cream but it's solid and we went oh shit i love the sega mega drive shout out that's great yeah uh well anyway uh i didn't feel great about it but it just it was it was chicken soup for the soul past is in the past man yeah i hope you enjoyed it while it happened yeah it was it was nice while it happened and then and then i showed it to my son i'm like i just want to let you know i'm not proud of this and i don't post dinner it was post dinner yeah yeah it's hard to stop sometimes especially when you're coming straight from the pint can i be honest with you guys one thing that i'm battling in the new era and i only used to have to deal with this on mondays and then it was mondays and wednesdays i am so hungry after the show that i feel like i'm overeating monday tuesday wednesday yeah and i and i have a hard

time because i don't eat a lot before the show and then i feel like i just go it's just like a bottomless pit a recommendation yeah um when you get your lunch here get two and i know but i said my brain is now programmed to where i need to like treat myself at the end of it and what's crazy too is like what you're doing is exhausting and it makes you really hungry. But also at the same time, like you are just sitting. I'm literally sitting. I'm not burning any calories. Right.

No. It's a tough situation. It's a tough situation. You just hop off. You end the show. Hop on that bike and then get yourself something. Isn't that desk? Can't that be a stand-up desk?

You think so? Because I do it like McAfee. Do it like McAfee. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get you a walking treadmill too desk? Can't that be a stand up desk? You think so? We'll get you a walking treadmill Oh that'd be fantastic He's just pacing as he's interviewing people That'd be hilarious Okay let's hit a couple more here and call it a day TJ, actually this is from Jack

Ariel, quick two parter for you Ireland is a country that is absolutely begging For a UFC event, we haven't had an event Over here in over 10 years. I feel like you should play the music again. Despite having several rising stars, I worked in the three arena and often host MMA slash boxing events. What do you

think is stopping them from coming here, hoping to go to the UK card next year for my first UFC event? I don't really, I mean, they say that the arena is too small. 10,000, you know, they're killing it these days. So that seems to be the issue, right, PT pt yeah that seems to be what's been said that was said to me like last year by john gooden actually i was like what are you talking about man he's like yeah they they need so many different areas uh for the broadcast now and it's just not equipped with it

um that seems to be what they're going with i will say like it'd be a tough time to come back to ireland right now with everything that will say it'd be a tough time to come back to Ireland right now with everything that's happened with Conor recently, this civil case. Unfortunately, he's so big that the sport is associated with mostly just him. A lot of people don't know anything outside of that. Of course, it's a thriving community. The MMA community here is a big one and a vibrant one. But for the casual guy just walking down the street

um conor mcgregor is on their only like reference to what mma is and i'd say if the ufc came here it would be quite a controversial thing right now so i'd imagine like i i think what they say is correct about the three arena like based on conversations I've had with the UFC, UFC people or people close to the UFC. I'm quite surprised by that. Cause obviously I've been at these events that he's referring to the boxing events and the, and the MMA events,

but, um, it's obviously a good time now as well. Cause we have so many people on Ian Gary's in the spot that he is in, but hopefully something will be sorted out soon. But I don't imagine it happening the next year. Unfortunately. Here's another one for Mr. Carol Pizzizi how much do you top up your leap card by are you a five out of ten euro type of guy or are you one of those egypts topping up 50 euro at a

time or are you too big time for the reliable irish public transport ps ariel i met you at the meet and greet in the black forge a few years ago before the katie taylor fight you were a gent with plus 10 000 aura yeah well uh what is he talking about here with the leap card leap card is like your travel card here all right so you can use on the the train and the buses which are never on time um i'm a i'm a like i don't even know what's on it i just scan the thing and i say, all right. Infinite fun. Infinite fun. Yeah.

I've got a gold one. The state just gave it to me. We just get on. They go, all right, Pizzi. And I go, what's the crack, man? I sit down and off we go. Gavin, can you ask Pizzi, what's the best Chinese in Blanche? Jesus Christ.

Best Chinese in Blanche is the Magic Walk, Rubies or the Hearthstone House. If you've had a skin full of points and you've, you know, I'm talking over six here. I'm talking, I i'm actually talking above eight you need to go into the magic walk you need to wear a hood a hooded top and my friend jack dunphy showed me this trick a hooded top one and pockets in the front and what you do is you get your chicken balls and you just put them in the front of your pocket and you can still keep milling points of arthur while you're digging in there and getting the occasional chicken ball to soak up all of the beautiful fluid.

TJ. Hey, Ariel. Regarding yesterday's show and the Conor Talks, as someone who's a diehard MMA fan, watches every single one of your shows, other MMA news channels, pay-per-view, every fight night, every Apex card, every post-pre-fight interview I can find, I can assure you that Conor is no longer the red panty knight for fighters after what he was guilty of, and that is why you had someone in the chat saying hypocrites. First of all, I've never used the term red panty night for fighters after what he was guilty of and that is why you had someone in the chat saying hypocrites first of all i've never used the term red panty night i've never said that now i understand the insinuation but i think the hypocrite part is i don't know this gentleman or people thinking that we were advocating for this fight i don't think any of us

is advocating for the fight we're just reacting to the news. In any event, fans are not going to forget what Conor did. And in my Darren Till voice, we don't care who or what he fights anymore, nor do we believe he is coming back to MMA. All right. That's, I mean. I think we actually voiced these things during the discussion yesterday.

I think all of us at B don't particularly want to see this fight. Yeah. I also think it would be disingenuous to believe that Conor McGregor is not still the draw like every all the evidence is to the exact opposite to the contrary and the fact that if anybody else was going through this the ufc would nearly immediately cut ties like there

is a value to conor mcgregor that still is maintained at least in their eyes um and the assumption is that there are certain fans that do not feel this way now it would also be disingenuous to say that i don't think that there's a certain uh number of people who do feel this way because i think there's a lot of people who feel this way but there are also a lot of people who would still support it and still watch his fight so i don't think it's as cut and dried as the idea like i am speaking for everybody nobody will watch connor's fights again i don't think that's ultimately true um but i think there are a lot of people who will agree with that and will voice

their opinion to say that but i i ultimately don't think from a business perspective that's accurate wow can i can i just say just on that it seems like there's very different reactions either side of the atlantic to this you know there is a a big like connor's as good as a pariah here in in ireland right now it's not it's not like that i wouldn't say it's as it's like that as much in the uk but certainly there are stronger feelings i think over here than there are in the us and i think that's a feeling that most people in ireland have that's not surprising right yeah of course i don't even i mean i i don't i don't watch like the nightly news, but his story was being covered on the nightly news over there. It wasn't here, and that's just because of how big of just the facts. We've seen it with the likes of Gervonta Davis and Floyd Mayweather and other fighters who have been involved with the law

and found guilty of things and found liable of things as well. So, you know, I'm just going off of history. And you don't have to look that far To get those examples This is from Sushi Dude Ariel why is it you eat and love sushi But won't eat rare slash medium rare Beef can you explain I don't know it just feels different It is very different Mason

Hey guys I've been having an awfully rough week So far but thanks for keeping my spirits High during the course of this week No question just wanted to say thank you guys. Shout out, Mason. Much love, Mason. We're here for you, and better days are ahead. Better days are ahead.

TJ, what is one gift for last-minute shoppers that would be guaranteed to be enjoyed by the receiver? PT did some shopping today, right? Yeah, but I mean, I'm not going to expose my amazing gifts on this show right now. I mean, who knows? Who could be listening? Make something. I'm very big on the gifts.

I like to deliver. This has been a thing. It's my love language because it's so horrible all the time. I feel like I have to be like, oh, look, remember? Never got a gift. We're talking about family you know yeah yeah but uh i'd like to know who it was for and i'd be able to give him a banger recommendation but he hasn't given us this information i'm more of an experienced guy same here i think the usc fury 2 pay-per-view would be a great gift to give somebody this year give it to him them on Christmas. Yes. Here's your code to get Fury Horses too,

which happened back on December 21st. Everyone stop chatting shit. You know I meant to give it beforehand. There's so many great questions, but we've just run out of time. I'm really sorry. Just two more. Ariel, do you think ESPN will keep UFC and PFL past 2025?

UFC in some capacity, yes. Pay-per-views, I think for sure. PFL up in the air But I would say I would say They are going to be With ESPN now They're going to divvy it up

You'll hear my thoughts On that On our preview show That's December 23rd Mitchell Hey Ariel Just wondering if you've been Stripped of the

World Openweight Broadcasting Championship I haven't seen it in the new studio No it's right over there actually And I showed it one time But it has the MMA Our logo And the desk is championship. I haven't seen it in the new studio. No, it's right over there actually. And I showed it one time, but it has the MMA logo and the desk is different. And I don't know, it just didn't fit,

but I'm looking right at it. It's right over there. An incredible amount of questions, tremendous questions. So let's go to the super chatters and get those before we say goodbye. On this Wednesday, you see the sun setting behind me.

Am I reading these? Do you want me to read these out? No, I'm happy to read them out. I just didn't know if we had them in some sort of document or something like that. Let me read them. All right. Hey, Ariel, with you busy with Uncrowned, working at the Olympics, hosting slash commentary for Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson, et cetera, has Pollock reached out to you to book you

for the post-wrestling yearly review and prediction show? Joe Poe, the man, yes. He has. We haven't talked about a date, but it is a tradition. We hit a bit of a rough patch there, but we got over it. I was back last year, and the tradition continues in January.

Love it. Shout out, John. Slito, Frank is piloting those New Jersey drones, isn't he? Frank, do you want to confirm? I cannot confirm or deny. I actually saw someone ask earlier. They were like, yo, get New Jersey Rick to tell us about these drones. Nah, I wouldn't know anything.

It's New York, baby. Although, they have been spotted out on Long Island. Arizona Mick. They're starting to get spotted everywhere in the tri-state area, and it's starting to sketch me out a little bit. I don't know how to explain this, but drones have been flown Across the country for years now Yeah here comes Frank

With the classic Everybody The big conspiracy guys Like calm it down Anti-conspiracy Microwaves aren't bad He's always got an answer From one edge of the planet

To the other edge And everyone sees it And freaks out Alright we've got a two pack here From Benjamin Turk Hey guys first timer When will the award show be? Ario

You plugged that earlier January 6th We need to get a best bet awards Also thanks GC for the free money so he's Thankful for this year oh you're welcome brother Thanks for entrusting in me Also we do do the bets the betting awards We will do the betting award this year

GC's got his own same guy Benjamin adds GC thanks for shouting out Applause let's go All timer all timer I rewatched It last week and I was like man or GC's got his own. Same guy, Benjamin adds, GC, thanks for shouting out Claus. Let's go. All-timer. All-timer. I re-watched it last week and I was like, man, this might be my number one

favorite Christmas movie. It's that good. Dave Sandeen says, happy holidays to the crew. Love that holiday graphic on the display. Be sure to split this with the crew.

Spread the wealth. Oh, shout out to Dave. Are we splitting this? Our graphics team is unbelievable. Set design team is even better. Jason Carney gifted 10 The Ariel Helwani Show membership. Shout out to Jason.

I believe he gifted five the other day. Shout out, Jason. He's in the holiday spirit. We appreciate you, Jason. Jason K., baby. Del Red says, what is everyone's favorite KO they have witnessed as a fan of MMA?

Best KO. Aldo McGregor. That's a pretty great one. That is a great one. I'm a newbie. I'm going to go Holloway. Paul Daly, Scott Smith. No, come on. It's a great one, but that can't be the best ever. Bro.

Robbie Lawler, Melvin Manhoef. On the same card, right? No, no. Paul Daly, Scott Smith was Robbie Lawler, Matt Lindland. Are we talking like most impressive knockout or one that you had the craziest react? No, no. Paul Daly and Scott Smith was Robbie Lawler and Matt Lindland. Lawler and Lindland. Are we talking like most impressive knockout

or one that you had the craziest reaction? No, just favorite. When Paul Daly knocked out Scott Smith, he went, he shut him down. Yeah, he did shut him down.

What's the scariest one? That Josh Himm and Bryce Mitchell one was pretty scary, dude. Yeah, that one was pretty scary. Bryce was down for a hot minute there. Stupid question.

I saw a wreckage knock out Jimmy Mano in Sweden. Oh, yeah. That was a gnarly one. Bryce was down for a hot minute there Stupid question I saw a wreckage knockout Jimmy Mano in Sweden Oh yeah that was a gnarly one My favorite is still Silva on Griffin Because I was there and it was just Can I tell you one it's not MMA But the Fabio Wardley Fraser Clark knockout

From a couple of months ago when it looked like The dude's head got like You know Here and here like that one made me uncomfortable. Is it always a TKO if, like, a broken bone happens? Yes. Oh, damn. Alright, so, like, the Weidman Silva broken leg thing is not a knockout.

It's just very gory. That's your favorite knockout? It was the first one I saw. It doesn't have to be your favorite, though. That's bizarre. Yeah, I don't know about that. Let's forget about that one. Uh, Cole B. May I get my Super Chat Red from last Wednesday? Sorry, Cole. I don't know how to do that, but shout out Cole. Shout out Cole. Is that Cole

B or Colby? No, Colby. Colby like the cheese? No, Cole space B. Like Andy Cole B. Jake from the Windy City says, hey Ariel, I don't know if you talked about it yet, but what are your thoughts on Inside the NBA

and the whole crew going to ESPN? I consider it a win for all sides. Props to TNT and ESPN for keeping it. Win in theory. Let's see how it plays out. I mean, are these dudes just going to pick up and go there and be like, yeah, sure, boss. And also, it's not the same cadence and frequency.

Let's see. And are they going to let them cook the way they do on TNT? Are they going to let them cook? Are they going to let them breathe and not just do on TNT Are they going to let them cook Are they going to let them breathe And not just do like 30 second segments Like before we celebrate In theory

Brilliant Love it Love everything about it But Wait Are they going to add Mike Greenberg to it Wait to see

Wait to see That's your boy Paul Cassidy Best part of the bike challenge Was Pizzi's velvety moves Pizzi the dance moves Were incredible Shout out.

I'm just trying to bust out some new flavors every week. You know what I mean? That's what I'm here for. Our boy, regular Terrence Leverett. Since you are your own boss now, can we get Yahoo to make a green room type app? Mischatting with the crew. It's less trolls over there. Yeah.

I feel like the chat's in a good community. Yeah. We're working through the kinks. We're working through the kinks. Let's be positive. Green room. Let's be helpful. Let's be friendly. Yeah. Magical time. I feel like the chat's in a good community. Yeah, we're working through the kinks. We're working through the kinks. Let's be positive. Green room. Let's be helpful.

Let's be friendly. Yeah, green room. Was that Spotify green room? Yeah, it was Locker Room, then it was Spotify green room, then it was Spotify live. I remember. I remember.

I was listening to that. Award winning, top of the charts, best show. All right, Mighty Zan, a member for one month. Shout out for you. He's been a hell wannabe

for one month. If you watch Mr. B, B slash Pump drake you're watching connor so basically he's disagreeing with the person before he's saying like people will still watch conor mcgregor oh wow is mr beast in that category i don't think i don't know i don't think so all right fine neither is drake really but okay i've never watched a Mr. Beast video They're quite impressive That's it no more super chats Love you all great stuff Thank you to everyone thank you to all the super chatters Thank you to all the chatters thank you to everyone on the sub stack page

Again we have the awards up Please contribute We'll tell you as my flag goes down You're a grand old flag You're a We'll get to all of that in January, January 6th. And I wish I could answer them all.

You do have a mute button. How was that? Was it better that way? Yeah. Sorry, I wasn't fast enough. You never even know. You never know. Are you tapping on it?

Yes. Or is it breaking? Come on, man. Okay, I'm sorry. Thank you to Averon, Averon.com. Averonactive.com. I keep screwing that up. My voice is a signal, Frank, to play the music.

Yeah, that would be great. Need some water. It's been a long day. It's been a long couple days. Do you want me to show us out? Get your latest Kielwani merch over at ariel hawani calm look at this thing look at it look at it you've never seen such a nice yeah

yeah look at it thank you all right everyone thanks for tuning in it's been a great week we hope you all have a great holiday. Wow, the Hoot Me water bottle is sold out. Is it sold out? It's sold out. Yeah. Shout out. Anyway. The list one hasn't sold any. Damn. No love for us. In any event, a great day was had.

Look at the Empire State. Fury Usyk on Saturday. Still much more to come on the uncrowned network of programming. Paul Hughes was fantastic. 12 out of 10. The crack was 95, dare I say. Tyron Woodley, thank you very much to him. And, of course, thank you to Johnny Fisher.

Appreciate him squeezing us in before his open workout. And good luck to Kaikar France as he attempts to get that title shot sometime in 2025. There's a lot to be excited about, a lot to be thankful for. Like I said, still plenty more to come. The next time you will see and hear from me, it will be on Monday, December 23rd. We'll be dropping our 2025 preview show. And then I'll look back at some of my classic interviews on December the 30th. Award show on the 6th. So much to come between now and then.

Don't go anywhere for now, though. Thanks to you. Thanks to them. Back on Thursday. Same time, same place. Peace. I'm out of here.