The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 306 post-fight reaction show

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

Ariel is joined by the boys to recap a memorable night at Sphere in Las Vegas where new champions were crowned and the UFC put on one of the most memorable shows in their history.Plus, they react to the UFC 309 news and talk about Canelo Alvarez’s win over Edgar Berlanga.

back in your life on this sunday september 15 2000 and 24 hello again everyone welcome Welcome back to the feed. Welcome to our UFC 306, aka our Riyadh season Noche UFC post-fight show. I'm Ariel Helwani doing our very first post-fight show of the brand new era. What a time it has been. What a weekend it has been here in Las Vegas. We kick things off on Friday at the Venetian at the Yahoo Sportsbook, the very first episode of the Ariel Helwani Show. What a time that was. And you can watch that entire episode, by the way, over on our old slash new YouTube channel. Just type in the Ariel Helwani Show on YouTube and you can see the whole thing. Seven illustrious guests stopped by. It was a grand old

time. It was a blast. And we've got a bunch of stuff up there right now. We're doing a post-show here in our hotel room as UFC 306 just wrapped up at Sphere in Las Vegas. What a show it was. We're going to break it all down. We're going to dissect it all, digest it all. And there's a lot to dissect because this wasn't just about the fights. It was about the spectacles, about the shows, about a one-of-a-kind event that Dana White in particular had been hyping up for months, for pretty much a year.

I mean, since the first Noche UFC last September, he's been hyping up this show. It was pretty much shortly thereafter that he announced that they would go to the Sphere, that they would do a show on this historically boxing-heavy weekend, Mexican Independence Day weekend. We later found out that Canelo would be fighting just a block or so away on the same night, and he did fight tonight as well at T-Mobile Arena, and it felt like Las Vegas was the fight capital of the world. And it felt like a really fun time to be a part of it all. So UFC 306 just wrapped up. There is a new UFC bantamweight champion.

His name is Marab Diwali Shafili, the pride of Georgia. Georgia now, two UFC champions hailing from that country. The other, of course, Ilya Teporia, who fights next month. He defends his featherweight title for the first time against Max Holloway. An outstanding performance from the machine, a very dominant performance. He wins via unanimous decision. He beats Sean O'Malley. O'Malley's reign is over. Some thought it was 49-46. Some thought it was 48-47. It was never in doubt a very one-sided performance by Murad Dualishvili. O'Malley had a moment there with about 90 seconds left in the fifth round, but it was really one-way traffic and a huge moment for a guy who has now won 11 fights in a row,

who had to scratch and claw his way to just get a title shot. He is finally the king at 135 pounds. And what about that Sarah Longo team? Matt Serra, Chris Weidman, Aljamain Sterling, now Murab. They continue to somehow produce champions. And of course, Murab calling Las Vegas home these days, training with the likes of John Wood as well. But a pretty huge moment for that team hailing from Long Island. Also, Valentina Shevchenko has regained her UFC women's flyweight title. She defeats Alexa Grasso. Many people thought she should have won last September.

Did not happen. It was a draw. She kind of got screwed with the scoring. But this time, there was no controversy. She's the champ at 125. And she performed masterfully as well. Diego Lopez with a big win over Brian Ortega. Those were the big results.

But really, in many ways, the story was the venue. All the talk, all the intrigue, all the questions, they were all answered, and it was quite the show. We're going to talk about it right here on the show with the crew, with the guys. I got New York Rick here. EJ, how are you i'm doing great we got gc here what's good man massive smile on their respective faces after the uh the very first parlay of the new era has hit oh it hit man and uh shout out to pizza carol yeah the underdog in mirado alishvili calling and new uh, looks like there's some bad traffic out there,

but I'm going to have to get over to the Iowa Sportsbook and cash this ticket out. Yes, unfortunately, we are not joined by the newest member of the team, the patron saint of the Emerald Isle, Mr. P.T. Carroll, the host of the critically acclaimed podcast, The Crack. He is en route back home to Dublin, so he is not with us. But we do have Mysterious Frank here with us. How's it going?

Yeah. Good to hear from you, Frank. Frank set up an entire great thing for us here in the hotel room. We appreciate him very much. We appreciate everything that the good folks at Yahoo, our new best friends, have done for us as we kick things off. And it's a bit of a soft launch situation, just so you know. We did the show on Friday. We're doing this audio-only post-show, and we'll trickle out some more shows between now and our official launch in our brand new studio in October. Tomorrow, New York, Rick, you're at the airport. You're back home. Someone says to

you, so what was it like? Sphere, 306. Obviously, it can't just be an answer about the fights, right? This was a spectacle. The mini movies, the lights, the show, the videos, all the scenery, the love letter to Mexico. What do you tell that person when they ask you how this show was? Now, I just want to caveat. I was not in the building, which I think is a big part of the experience, right?

If you want to ask somebody who was in the building, I think you're going to get a different answer. Sucks for you. But watching on TV, Dana White promised something unlike we have ever seen before, and I think we saw something unlike we have ever seen before. The prelims, transparently, left a little bit to be desired for me, right? Like, I did not feel what I was expecting to feel in the prelims. Once the main card started, it immediately flipped for me, right?

I was, like, underwhelmed, and then the moment the opening scene started playing on the wall in the sphere for the main card, I was flipped. I was like, this is tremendous. This is incredible. The big tails of the tape were my highlight of the sphere experience. I loved that specific thing, but all the mini movies were great. It felt big. They delivered a truly special television experience. You said earlier today that you think there might be some Emmy awards and things like that in store. I agree. One of my big issues you see with the UFC these days is that it feels like the McDonald's of MMA. Every show, no matter if they're in Japan, in Australia, in the US, in Canada, in Brazil,

in UAE, in Riyadh, they all look the same. You have no idea that they're in a different place. This looked so dramatically different. That in its own right was fun and to rick's point yes prelims were maybe a little bit less than spectacular but still if it was just that this was so different it was so colorful it was so unique that that in its own right made it fun early on right yeah i mean just the magnitude of the screen and watching from the first fighters walk out it was just like wow this this really is something different i i do agree with rick i would fast forward maybe not to the main card but to the featured prelim that that irene aldana norman dumont was the first time they did they changed up the scenery in the background they didn't do a movie for that one but i i felt like the ufc was just like all right this is gonna be the last fight before we go to pay-per-view we got something in

store it's about to get crazy we're about to start switching things up and then going each different fight having a different background having a different movie leading in a different theme essentially to it going through this timeline of mexico uh yeah it was it was really special they they really put on something great. I mean, they just showed the credits. I don't know if I've ever seen that after a UFC card. I mean, it looked like a Marvel movie. There were so many people involved. So what's interesting about it is I said yesterday at Chael on our show that I thought the entire card, start to finish, prelims to main event, should have been a pay-per-view because the scenery, the venue was so intriguing.

I was locked in 4.30. I wanted to see everything. I wanted to see all the bells and whistles. And I agree with you guys. What we saw on the prelims wasn't as cool as the main card. I still thought it was spectacular from start to finish. But I do wonder about the psychology because we didn't know that there would be a shift. And so I wonder if by kind of trickling it out, it led to some people like kind of thinking like,

okay, I saw it and now I don't have to buy the pay-per-view. Because let's be honest, you know, it wasn't the deepest card of all time. It wasn't the most stacked card of all time. Who knows in the end. But what they did essentially starting the main card on from the mini movies, from the intros, from the video packages, from what the octagon girls were wearing each time. Like there was a theme before every single fight from like the early, early days of Mexico all the way until future Mexico at the end. And how everything was just so different than what Dana White has always believed. Dana White has always believed, keep it uniform, not unique entrances, no dancing, no crazy stuff, no bells and whistles, none of that. No pomp and circumstance, no pride-like entrances, no WWE-like entrances.

And this was the complete opposite. And I loved everything about it. I thought it was so much fun. I kind of hope we don't get this just once. I hope we get this every year. Now, I don't think it has to always be about Mexico. I don't think like, let's get it on July 4th about the US. Let's get it about International Fight Week

and all the different themes, who knows what it is. But to me, it would be such a shame after seeing this, just getting it once, right? I will say, I think it's specific to the sphere right like the idea that oh yeah yeah i know like a yearly sphere show but with a different theme i don't hate it i had daniel cormier raised the question like how do you where do you go from here i guess the answer is like maybe you return to the sphere and kind of keep that as the home for like this kind of thing i feel like international fight week is come back to the sphere

for those cards you just start doing like the most special card of the year you know it's it's always in las vegas you do it at the sphere obviously i don't know about budgets i don't know about you know staffing and how much of just like a hoss of an event that this was behind the scenes but yeah it's gonna be tough to watch a normal just arena show after seeing something like that yeah and and i thought the way they shot it for those watching at home was brilliant in the sense that if you would have gone full screen on what was appearing on the big screen you wouldn't have appreciated the magnitude of it all but what they did was zoom out and you could see how small the cage looked and how small the people looked in attendance, you really got to see just how gargantuan everything was and how beautiful

it was with the color. Obviously, in the venue, a million times better. It's always better. But I thought they shot it brilliantly. I thought the presentation was brilliant. It was really breathtaking at times. And maybe if you want to present one criticism, it's the fact that it was a 10 fight card and it might've been the latest UFC card of all time in terms of duration, the longest.

It ended about 2 a.m. on the East Coast. And there's just two title fights on this card. There have been cards with three title fights that didn't end this late. And that's because the movies in between were just a little longer than usual in terms of, you know, the stuff that was happening in between fights. And so maybe that's the one criticism. And, you know, the fact that eight out of the 10 fights went the distance, including the two title fights, it felt by the end of the night that the crowd was a little bit tired, right?

That they were a little bit, you know, spent. That's the only criticism for me. Like I cannot, if they don't win some kind of TV award for this, some, you know, whether it's an Emmy, whether I would imagine it would have to be an Emmy. I don't know about Oscar and Grammy and all that stuff. I would be shocked. This is one of the most unique and beautiful sports telecasts that I've ever seen. Yeah. When it comes to sports, I can't think of an equivalent, right? Like I can't think of like somebody that has done something like this. Certainly, you know, a lot of the concerts that have gone on at Sphere, people have raved about.

I don't imagine like many people are going to be able to foot the bill that it costs the UFC to be able to try to replicate this. I wonder if they'll try. Dana White said one and done. We'll see. For now, we got this experience. It lived up to the hype. They should be very proud. And I'm sure they're happy to move on because I'm sure it was a behemoth putting this all together. Let's talk about the main event. Rob Doley-Shvealy is the new UFC bantamweight champion. You think Dana White is upset tonight, GC? I asked you before the fight was starting. I said, champion. You think Dana White is upset tonight, GC? I asked you before the fight was starting. I said, who do you think Dana's cheering for?

Just as they were making their walkouts. Yeah, I can't imagine they're thrilled just because of how much of a star Sugar Sean O'Malley is. I mean, he holds that star power where people that don't really watch fights, people that aren't into the UFC are hitting me up on days like this. You know, I got a bet on sugar tonight,

right? Like, you know, when you're walking, when we arrived here, you're, you're getting on the plane, you see people wearing sugar merge,

you get, you know, you're walking around, people are wearing his t-shirts. Yeah. I, uh, I can't imagine they're,

they're too thrilled for me for my star power standpoint, but I mean, there's not much you can say. I mean, I remember Rob DeVos really 11 straight wins now. And, and it was a dominant performance and, uh, you know, 48, 47 I mean, there's not much you can say. I mean, Marab Davos, really 11 straight wins now. And it was a dominant performance and you know, 48, 47, 49, 46, however you had it. I think, I think when they originally read off the scorecards, I was a bit shocked to hear two 48, 47, just because of how one way traffic it felt, but I can see how you had three and five for,

for Sean O'Malley, but it was just a beautiful performance from Rob. Some of those level changes that he had to, to get Sean O'Malley down. And then once he did get him down, the top control was great as well. I mean, it was an unreal performance and he's going to be a very difficult champion to knock off. I was just going to say, the only thing I'll add to that is certainly I think you're right, right? Losing O'Malley, but like, let's call it what it is. Recently, Dana White has been critical of Rob Davalashvili when he had the cut and posted it on social media questioning his intelligence and all these things he definitely has not forgotten about the times that Merab did not want to fight Aljamain Sterling it can't be a great time for Dana White to have Merab Davalashvili as champion

but I think Merab can be a great champion for them I do I do like certainly I don't think it's great to lose Sean O'Malley as champion. But Murab, man, he reminds me of Habib in the way he kind of weaponizes that. If he can put together enough, I think there's a world where he can go on a dominant run. And maybe this changes. This all changes. He's also become very entertaining. He's really showcased his personality on social media.

He's fun. But Sean is a superstar. I mean, there are some people who believe Sean is the face of the UFC or one of the most popular. Certainly with the youngsters, they adore him, and he taps into a whole different audience, as does Murab. But there is a case to be made that this has been a tough summer for the UFC as far as superstars losing are concerned.

Leon Edwards felt like he was just about to reach a certain status, especially in the UK, and he loses to Bilal Muhammad. Izzy looking good in the comeback fight, he loses to Drikus Duplessis. And now you have Sean O'Malley the following month losing his title to Murab Diwali-Shvili. That's a tough stretch yeah the ufc like those are three of the more popular fighters in the sport all losing and uh you know izzy maybe can get another crack because that was a very close fight but the other two like it was wasn't really all that close no uh they share something in common though is that those three fighters are weaponizing their their pace right like you're looking at the more dynamic strikers going up against three people who know how to just

put a pace on you and dominate and you you can do worse than those champions but i think you're right that like if we're doing q rating right if we're doing star power the other side of it would have been the ones that would have been preferable for the ufc i was so impressed with marab though like the level changes the takedowns. Yes. I mean, I was saying in the first, like, couple minutes, I mean, this is, we're looking at the screen right now, 85 takedowns. What was that?

85 career takedowns. It was a list of most takedowns in UFC history. GSP, number one, with 90. Murad Dabal is really now number two with 85. And I would imagine you give him one more fight. He's going to break that from GSP. Although he is going to fight Umar Nurmagomedov, who isn't the easiest to take down. But yes, that is amazing. Before he even has a title defense, like all this had to happen before he even gets to the title fight, which is insane how much he had to do, how much he had to scratch and claw just to get here. But there is a bit of a theme.

These guys who have had to struggle to get title shots, in the last couple of years have won. Leon, Bilal, him, you know what I mean? I think just to be fair, he could have potentially had a title shot if he was willing to fight Aljamain Sterling for this. I think they say that. I'm not saying it's true or not true. I'm just saying Merab may have had a hand in part of that.

I think Dana says that There is no indication that they sat the guys down and said This date you guys fight I think that's something that they say Because let's be honest And he wasn't a fan He wasn't a fan of Aljo's There was no offer and date

On the table They were doing everything in their power To keep Aljo active To make this fight against Sean. And now the Murab situation just kind of materialized because let's be honest, at this point, there was no denying him. He had to fight for the belt next. But I was just really impressed. And in the first round, it felt like the fight was being played at one and a half speed. And it started very weird because it seemed like he was saying something to Tim Welsh. And then Herb Dean got involved and it maybe wasn't Herb's best performance

as a referee fifth round. He was getting involved as well. You know, I think he's had a bunch of weird performances, a bunch of questionable moments and calls, Herb Dean that is. I could see Murab losing the fifth round just because of the damage to the body. But it's going to be very interesting to see

what they do with Sean, where he goes from here. Afterwards, Umar Nurmagomedov was in the crowd. They showed him on the screen. David Cifriguereta was on our show yesterday making the case to be next. But Umar took a picture with hunter campbell earlier this week and they very clearly made it out that he is next and so we're going to get georgia versus russia which uh obviously is a very you know intense storyline from a historical

perspective early early handicapping of that oh gosh i mean you'd have to think umar is likely going to be the favorite undefeated i i know he hasn't proven nearly as much at the ufc level but you talked about marab potentially being set up for a long reign at 135 he could very well lose the belt in his very next fight he's getting an undefeated nirmaga medov who's looked spectacular uh as of late in his shoot in his last few fights but if marab can win that, what a run he would have gone on because that would be a win against Umar, giving him his first loss.

Sean O'Malley, who was the champion, Henry Cejudo, former champion, Fyodor Yan, former champion, Jose Alder, former champion. You're putting together a pretty incredible resume at that point. I was really surprised how many people were picking Sean, not because I didn't think Sean could win,

but it just felt like everyone kind of forgot just how good Murab has been against some of the best of the best. What I said yesterday was, if you told me the fight went the distance, it's Murab. If you told me the fight wins via knockout, it's Sean. And yeah, there were just never real moments for Sean, in my opinion, where it seemed like he

had marab in serious trouble other than that moment like with 90 seconds left um it just i i don't know anyone that was just like really puffing their other than pizzi by the way shout out to him it seemed like the sexy pick everyone's pick was was Sean. I guess as the great, excuse me, it was Murab, as the great Roy Jones, who was in attendance, loving the action at Sphere, once said, y'all must have forgot, because it had been a minute since we saw Murab in action. Yeah, I agree with you.

I feel like people have forgotten, like, this cardio, this pace, this aggressive takedown style that he has is very difficult to deal with. No matter who you are, no matter what your style is. The UFC broadcast said he has a great game plan. His game plan is the same every single time. He is going to be on your ass and he is going to try to take you down. And if you cannot stop that, if you cannot prevent him from doing it, that's it.

That's going to be a really long night for you. I will say, I thought sean o'malley looked pretty damn good in the first couple rounds like defensively he was doing the right things he was trying the right things to kind of thwart what marab was able to do but eventually man it just wears on you it's just it's just too tough a style to kind of combat i would love to see that umar fight in georgia in georgia could you imagine but it would i don't know i know they have an arena um and what a time for georgian sports they had a nice run in the uh in the euro for the first time ilia fighting next

uh next month against max in abu dhabi and now they've got their second ufc champion an unbelievable story and an unbelievable guy. I mean, salt of the earth guy. I always talk about the story where we had him on the Ringer MMA show in New York and he just showed up three hours early just to chill out and wait. Just like, and there's the pictures of him working in construction when he came to New York. Like, just a guy who has really had to take the long road to get to this point. You saw the emotion, you saw how much it meant to him. And you know what i love the fact that aljo like just seemed so happy for his guy you know like there's no jealousy there they're just true friends he was happy for his

guy it's now his time he was always talking him up i remember ally quinta telling me about marab before marab was in the ufc like this is the. This is the guy that you need to be talking about. This is the guy you need to have on your show. And I was like, yeah, yeah, Al, yeah. You're a great teammate. You're a great friend. And now here he is, UFC bantamweight champion. He is champion for the first time, Valentina Shevchenko,

champion once again. Are you surprised at how dominant she was against Alexa Grasso, GC? No, and actually, like, Rick made a good point as it was sort of wrapping up. If you go back and watch the three fights, Valentina Shevchenko won a majority of the rounds across the three fights. I mean, obviously, Alexa Grasso had that incredible moment in the first one to get the win by finish. But then I, as many other people thought, she won the three of the five rounds uh in the

second fight and then tonight it was just a clean sweep it felt like Alexa Grasso had nothing I maybe I wasn't expecting that maybe not a 50-45 uh but she just came in with a game plan of wrestle wrestle wrestle and just implemented it throughout the five rounds and then she was having success on the feet in the fifth round as well. Really just impressive performance from Valentina Shevchenko. Yeah, I was a little bit – the surprise was not on the Shevchenko side. I was surprised at how poor Alexa Grasso looked. Yeah, that is a great point. I mean, once it hit the mat, I mean, she really wasn't making any attempts

to get up. She had a couple of submission attempts. There were a couple of arm bars where uh it looked like there might be something but valentina shevchenko credit to her was able to get out of everything uh but yeah once it got to the ground it was it was just shevchenko just top control for essentially the the remainder of the round once it got down and this is what i mean when i was saying like i was impressed by o'malley he's trying to get back to his feet. He knows that that is his way to win.

Grasso was not, right? Grasso was looking for submissions, but she really was going to be there underneath Valentina for a long time. And it just looked like she wasn't prepared for that. What impressed me so much about Valentina is considering her age, she's getting up there. She's been fighting for a long time not just an mma and now she she gets robbed last september she has to have surgery it's a year in between fights perhaps you could say alexa has the momentum and then she comes back and looks like that and we

were we were looking at alexa shadow boxing before and we're like oh damn she looks sharp right she was going crazy in the back i was just like wow you know we were talking at Alexa's shadow boxing before, and we're like, oh, damn, she looks sharp, right? She was going crazy in the back. I was just like, wow. You know, we were talking about the parlay pals picks. I was just like, she looks like she's trying to go under two and a half here. She does not look like she wants to last long in this one. And then all of a sudden, it's just all Valentina Shevchenko.

She does more than enough to win. Very dominant, perfect game plan. Maybe not the most exciting fight of all time, but she did exactly what she had to do to win, very dominant, perfect game plan. Maybe not the most exciting fight of all time, but she did exactly what she had to do to win. And now we have an interesting scenario on our hands here because for the longest time, Valentina Shevchenko, champion at 125, she kind of cleaned out the division. And there aren't a ton, I think 125 in the UFC is infinitely more interesting today than it was when she was champion the first go round.

There are some names left that she hasn't fought, notably Manon Fureau. You can make a very strong case for her being next. But Zhang Weili was in attendance and Captain Eric Albarracin told us yesterday

that she wants to move up and fight for the belt. Do you think there's any chance they do Valentina versus Zhang Weili next, as opposed to Valentina Manon and probably Zhang versus Tatiana Suarez? Do you think there's a chance they do that fight? Because it's a way more, you know, way more... Champ versus champ. Yeah, it's just a bigger fight. To me, I think it comes down to Tatiana.

I feel like if Tatiana is ready at 115, you go Zhang versus Tatiana. I mean, undefeated. It feels like we've been waiting forever to see her get a title shot. But if she's not ready, Zhang versus Valentina is very interesting. Sign me up for that.

But I'll be honest. I'm interested in both. I'm interested in Tatiana versus Zhang. interested in both. I'm interested in Tatiana versus Zhang 1 million percent. I'm interested in Mano Fiora versus Valentina. It's just a much more marquee fight, right? Yeah, of course. It's two of the biggest names in the

women's divisions in the UFC. And plus, they're just so damn good. And I would love to see Zhang at 125 as well. I was going to say, I think we've got some interesting things because I'm interested in Tatiana versus Valentina too. Like I'm interested in a lot of the different permutations that we can get out of 115 and 125 kind of mixing.

But I think the best next step would be Manon versus Valentina and Tatiana versus Zhang. Did you guys think that the crowd lost some of its steam after, I mean, she was kind of the biggest Mexican fighter. One thing is, yes, the Mexican fighters, if you're counting Raul Rosas, I believe they went two and seven on this card. And it was a very long card. I mean, it went till 2 a.m. Eastern.

And then also, there was two finishes out of the 10 fights and none on the main card. And you're having two fights go 25 minutes. I don't really blame them for losing steam. I mean, the thing that gets the crowd going, I know the Daniel Zellhuber, that third round was unreal. But other than that, like it was kind of, you know, ho-hum stuff and and not really

major moments to get the crowd riled up it's also kind of maybe underrated but when you think about it like there's also an energy that goes into like just watching these movies and being part of this like night where you're having to get your energy up and you're getting excited and your adrenaline's rushing and then there's a bit of a come down like it's not just move from fight to fight maybe there's a lull in between like you're getting up and up and up and it's amplifying and amplifying and amplifying and then it can really like kind of hit that point

where you just got too much the adrenaline spiked and you're done great segue though because there were a couple of very very very close finishes like it felt like we were seconds away yes from finishes and that was a theme close finishes. Like it felt like we were seconds away. Yes. From finishes.

Um, and, and that was a theme in the Diego Lopez, Brian Ortega fight. I thought, I thought Diego Lopez almost just went like, I know he won and it was a great performance. Unanimous decision went for him 30,

26 and then two 30, 27. Never really in doubt. Sure. He just continues to skyrocket. Yeah. But if he had come out there and gotten a finish of Brian Ortega in in that first 30 seconds 60 seconds whatever it was it looked like he was about to finish him there it would have just been like this guy is unstoppable it appears like he is just

unreal still fantastic performance should be ranked top five the number three guy top five ortega going into tonight number three yeah and he was supposed to fight him and then took the Dan Ige fight. Like, I feel like they're probably going to put him up there. I couldn't see it. Top five? I wouldn't be surprised if he takes the spot. Just put him at three? I wouldn't be surprised.

In what, one more fight and then we're talking titles? He was supposed to get a crack at three already, and now it's just like he finally makes good on it. What does he do? He fights the winner of Aljo versus Mozart? Wants the rematch? Is Mozart out there? I mean, wouldn't hate an Arnold Allen, Diego Lopez.

There are a lot of good fights out there. Arnold Allen just fights killers. I like watching Arnold Allen win. That's a hard fight. Yeah. That's a hard fight. I mean, he's right there. I think he's one max two away. He's so popular's so fun i love the idea of the winner of of mozar

they have a history right yeah there is a world where mozar is calling for undefeated i will say there's some deliciousness in my mind though to the idea that like maybe lopez is kind of like now surpassed him a bit and like when he wanted the crack at movsar and movsar was saying like nah you got some work to do kid maybe he's the one who kind of controls the fate a little bit brother i love a title eliminator between if movsar is able to beat aljomaine sterling at at ufc 307 uh love a rematch can i throw a crazy one out there yeah diego versus alexander volkanovsky oh wow if you want him to take the big step you talk about where Diego Lopez has Volkanovski is gone is

right there he's like number two yeah he's number one technically you know under the champion he's the real question is Alexander Volkanovski taking that fight I actually think he does I think he does because you say to him you beat him and now you get a crack at either Ilya or Max. Wow. It's a win-win. Who doesn't sign up for that?

I feel like there's a world where if Ilya Teporya wins then Volkanovski is able to just step in for a rematch. Without fighting anyone? Yeah. He was such a long-running

champ at 145. Lopez is great. What a story he's become. Either way. Yeah. I think this is the last time We see Brian Ortega At 145

For sure It seemed like that was Honestly I'm surprised We even saw it Like it seemed like He was forecasting that Already Yeah

The first time They were booked to fight I think it was more of like We need to make good on this We have something to settle But he could use A new coat of paint And 55 seems like

A good division to do it We have once again Seen that he is unfinishable. Like Brian Ortega is just like made of something that's not from this earth. I've been on Brian Ortega as an underdog several times where he is just losing the entire fight. And then it's just like, oh, we won the bet. And it's just like we were watching it together.

And obviously I was riding on Diego Lopez, Frank's pick. After he survived that first-minute onslaught from Diego Lopez, I was just like, we're going to lose. This is Brian Ortega's bread and butter right here, boys. As you guys mentioned, the night started with Raul Rosas Jr. defeating a Richie Langby unanimous decision. They obviously put him in that spot, I think, to showcase showcase him off the bat they wouldn't usually put him in the current jerker spot but I think it was a smart call Joshua van defeated Edgar

Charez the unanimous decision as well which is also another great fight that was like yes many times like I don't know how that didn't get finished Caitlin Souza beat Yasmin jaragway via uh technical submission a rear naked choke ignacio bahamondes defeated manuel torres via tko and he's his first round he's his thought of manuel torres is just kill or be killed that was that was another wild fight speaking of wild fights norma dumont versus irena aldana. I mean, Irene Aldana may have suffered the worst cut in UFC history. And there have been some absolute awful cuts. As soon as the fight ended, which is another fight that,

that cut was insane going into round three. The cut man, me and Frank were like, dude, that guy's Q-tip is the darkest red I've ever seen. Like she walked out there and it was already just streaming down her face. And she went another five minutes on it. And the cut man at the end of the round like came over and was trying to close it up or whatever and it literally looked like he was like pushing two sides of her head together that's how like split open the cut was it was gnarly there's a great guy on instagram

ufc doctor he's been a long time uh plastic surgeon for the ufc and he posted a video of the before and after after he sits her up and it's like 25 stitches not for the UFC, and he posted a video of the before and after, after he stitched her up, and it's like 25 stitches. Not for the squeamish style. It is crazy how that thing is just flapping. It's just like a door. The toughness on her is just so crazy. I can't even imagine that.

Norma Dumont beat her, beat Irenia Adana by an incision. It was a tough night for the Mexican born fighters. Yeah, it was. Ronaldo Rodriguez, though, lazy boy. He also had a, you know... I thought there was going to be another finish in that one as well. He was so great to start off the night.

He was playing to the camera. The videos were great. He was mean mugging. And then it looked like he was almost done like 30 seconds in. Jode Osborne dropped him. I was like, golly but he uh he survived it and ended up winning the unanimous decision and esteban ribovich beat daniel zell huber via split decision uh that was another fun fight as well like these were all very entertaining fights some close calls but um the lack of finishes plus the videos and all that just made for a

a long night. Oh, for sure. For sure. I was going to say that Zellhuber, Ruvich, round three, is going to be in contention for a round of the year. Oh, it was unbelievable. I thought he was done. I thought Zellhuber was done.

I thought he was done like three or four times. And then when he started firing back, he was catching Ruvich, and I thought he was going to knock him out. It was crazy. We were all in here going nuts. So overall, what do you guys give this night for the UFC? Is this an A plus? That's a good question.

It's really solid. It's got to be at least an A minus, if not an A. If Sean O'Malley wins, is it an A plus night? Yeah, it might have been. Is that the thing that's dominant? Are you talking about for the UFC or for my own personal? I'm just saying Dana White goes home. Obviously, he's thrilled that the show went off.

It seems to be universally beloved, all that stuff. But you take the mixture of the show, the production, plus the results. Maybe it's an A, not an A+. I don't know. He says he doesn't care. You know he does. Sure, of course. I mean, when it comes to revenue, the business, everything like that,

I think it affects him. I mean, you saw O'Malley, like he kind of gave a shrug to Dana and dapped him up as the decision was about to be read. But I mean, man, it was great, especially once that featured prelim started and we got into the video packages and we're going through the galaxy and one of the comments has the og ufc man logo and then we're getting those incredible tale of the tapes and we're getting the the custom ring girls like they really put a lot of thought into this and the production value was just so high like everything just looked so hd so crisp none of the videos hitched there was no like freeze or or shutdown or anything like that i mean i thought I thought they did an incredible job.

I know that this was a very difficult task for the production team, and I thought they knocked it out of the park. I'm going to say A-plus from the perspective that I think the only thing Dana White cared about tonight was making sure that this was a spectacle and something that nobody else can do and will not be replicated, and I think they achieved that. I think that, look, I get it. Like, it's probably like,

I would rather have Sean O'Malley as my champion than Merab Davalosvili. We're speculating here on that. But I don't think that was his primary concern. I don't think that was his chief concern. Getting that gate, getting that monster gate and making this thing go off in a way that people will not forget

was objective number one and two, and I think they were successful there, like extremely successful. I would love to see a WWE event there. I don't know if they would ever do that. I just hope that the takeaway is switching it up is fun, man. Yeah. Even if you're in a regular show in Rio, give us the Brazilian bells and whistles.

We keep talking about the Octagon Girls, not because they were beautiful to look at. It was just so cool to see the outfits and the face paint and all that stuff. Give us that. Give us different entrances. Give us different scenery. It was just so fun to see the shots of the corner. And in back, it's like a as you pointed out gc like a mexican market yeah it was incredible you know like it was just so different and and fun and

unique that's that's you know in in the era of of the apex cards we're all jonesing for that with so many ufc events so i hope that this is part of the takeaway that it's okay to switch it up the product is so great um but there's a lot of uniformity um in addition to the uniforms like we're watching the yeah the the highlights here and it's just so fun to see these visuals because you're you're so not used to seeing the visuals um i i do wonder though like the price tag of the tickets the way the sphere is built like the crowd wasn't the most boisterous, crazy crowd of all time. It's not your typical Mexican crowd. And so you lose a little bit there.

But as far as a night and getting to watch it with you guys and seeing something different, it really, to me, A plus, A. It's a great night. It's a great night for the organization. Here's the best part of what you were saying. You don't need to spend $20 million to do that, right do that right you can go to you can go to brazil you can go to rio and do something different you can go to another u.s state and you can do something

different it does not have to be the sphere you can make things feel special without spending the 20 mil now granted they knocked it out of the park with this one but you can do that and how many of those clips are going to go viral from tonight sure you always see the clips of the concerts and everything that go viral several days afterward. I mean, how many of these videos of just how incredible the production was, is going to go viral? They're already going viral.

Yeah. And I mean, yeah, of course. And like, you just talk about like other sports leagues seeing this and it's just like, wow, UFC really did something crazy.

But yeah, I mean, it was, it was awesome. I feel like once we all kind of like figured out that it was like oh it looks like we're going to do a different theme for every fight it was like almost something to look forward to what's going to be the theme for this one what are the the ring girls going to be wearing how crazy are the outfits going to get uh yeah it was

it was just really fun all over all yeah and there was a a star-studded crowd in attendance. A lot of luminaries, of course, Turkey Al Sheikh was there because this was a Riyadh season event. You had the likes of Dominic Mysterio, Ray Mysterio. You had a bunch of UFC fighters in attendance. Andrew Schultz was there as well. Terrence Crawford, not Kendrick Lamar in attendance speaking of things that have

gone viral unfortunately they put the lower third under Terrence arguably the best boxer in the world

and wrote Kendrick Lamar maybe that's because Kendrick was supposed to be there you don't just whip that up

that's a mistake by someone in the truck and I feel bad for that person because that thing has gone viral but a great night.

And as he told us yesterday, Roy Jones Jr. choosing to attend this event and not the event headlined by one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Saul Canelo Alvarez, who, by the way, defeated Edgar Berlanga Jr. via unanimous decision. A fun fight, an entertaining fight, a dominant fight for Canelo. But a fight where no one gave Berlanga a chance. I think Canelo was like a minus 2,000. Yeah. But I'm seeing a lot of people give Berlanga some love for just surviving.

Bringing a fight to him. Yeah. When we were watching it in like round two or three, Canelo dropped him and then he was just putting it on him and we were like, oh, this might not last much longer. To make it to 12 rounds, be talking some shit near the end.

He had something left at the end, which I think is commendable, respectable by him. Around a year ago, Canelo didn't fight on Independence Day weekend, Mexican Independence Day weekend last year because of the UFC situation at T-Mobile. But a couple weeks later, he fought Jermel Charlo, who didn't show up. At least Belanga did show up this time. So I think he'll get some love and some street cred from that.

One of the interesting storylines heading into this weekend was Dana White versus MGM. The UFC has a logo at MGM that's like, you know, built into the statement. It is their unofficial home. And here they were putting on a show at Sphere, which is not owned by MGM. MGM does the Canelo show essentially a mile away. And Dana White continues to say like, my beef is not with Canelo. My beef is not with Al Heyman. My beef is not with PBC. It's with MGM. So I'm curious to see where that relationship goes because MGM is obviously the main player here in Las Vegas as far as the arenas go. They're not going to go to the Sphere each and every time they do a show. And they do, I think, around four to six here in Vegas at the big venues, not the Apex. So I'm very curious to see how all that plays out. Also, in addition to the action in the cage and in the ring,

the UFC officially announced the November 16th card at Madison Square Garden. It has long been rumored that it's going to be headlined by Jon Jones versus Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title. And it was officially announced it is going to be Jon Jones versus Stipe Miocic for the quote-unquote disputed heavyweight title. Whose quote-unquote is that? Me. But it's a solid card. Charles Oliveira versus Michael Chandler. As we found out yesterday, the five-round co-main event,

Michael Chandler moving on from Conor McGregor. We could do a whole show on just that decision and the back and forth between the two of them over the last 24 hours. But Chandler and Oliveira are running it back. They fought a couple of years ago for the lightweight title. What about Bo Nickel returning against Paul Craig? Minus 2,000 on opening. Really?

Holy crap. Yeah, I don't know if it's moves, but I saw it open at minus 2,000. Paul Craig plus 1,000 coming back. I feel like there was almost an attempt there. I'm not I'm not Natalia Silva Against Viviani Araujo Anthony Smith

Against Dominic Reyes And the pride Of New York Now South Carolina Chris Weidman Against Eric Anders Nice little card

At MSG That is By the way The night after Jake Paul Versus Mike Tyson So what a weekend. What a weekend that's going to be.

It's going to be an amazing weekend in combat sports. In November. In case you're wondering, as far as stats are concerned, the announced gate, 22 million. Announced attendance, 16,024. Do we know the capacity of the sphere? I feel like it's more than that. I imagine that's not a sell out but they still make quite a

Nice little penny on that If you're wondering as far as all time gates This is courtesy of our good friend Jedi Goodman This is the record as far as gate 22 million Previously the record 17.7 million UFC 205 The debut show at MSG

In 2016 Conor McGregor Versus Eddie Alvarez. In third place, 17.18. That's UFC 229 at T-Mobile in 2018. UFC 300 in fourth place, 16.5 million just a few months ago. And UFC 303 just two months ago, 15.9 million. They're hot. So of the top five, three in the last five million. They're hot. So of the top five,

three in the last five months. They're hot right now. They cleared the record by five million. Yes. Yeah, so I think Dana White's going to bed saying A+++.

We did something that no one has ever done before. We put on the first sporting event at this, what's becoming an iconic venue in the sphere,

doing something that no one's ever seen before. Yeah, I think he's going to sleep well tonight. Dana White's saying that someone came up to him tonight. He's saying this at the Post Fight press conference. He said, you've got to do a 4th of July one. Which we said. Maybe he's interested.

Wouldn't that be cool, right? History of the US. Are you kidding me? It would be fantastic. It feels like an international fight. We could be the perfect regular spot for it. It just makes a lot of sense. Do you think you have to do it on 4th of July or you can do it on like a second?

No, you don't have to do it on. You just do it the weekend. Yeah. He did say, in case you're wondering, that this is one and done. He's sticking to that. But he says that he is very, very happy. He's getting blown up everyone loved it but it was just such a behemoth that um he he knows the budget he knows how much work went into it so yeah i'm gonna take him at his word for the one and done the gate was 22 million and

it was all to pay for the the event itself now certainly they made some money on the pay-per-views and all that but it is an expensive show to run. What a time. What a time in the sport. What a time in our lives, guys. New Era. Fun weekend, right? How are we feeling? How are we feeling on the back end of this weekend now? You know, I was saying this to Pete yesterday.

Well, two things. We were in the green room after the show, which was incredible. Thank you to everyone that came and and and and and watched the uh show thank you to all the guests as well and it was so amazing for me to see you guys to see the ringer boys pt chuck to see shaheen alshadi yeah uh to see my old friend john beer to see all the new yah faces. And we're all on the same team now. Like before we were doing,

like we did the NJPAC show in Newark and Chuck and Pizzi were there, but they weren't on our team. To see all these different worlds now, all under one umbrella, the uncrowned umbrella, we're all working together. We're going to officially, officially launch in October. And the reason for that, in case you're wondering,

is we're building the studio. We've got to build the website there are still people coming in there are still new faces that are going to be announced but to see everyone now like this all-star cast of characters was pretty damn amazing um and also when you consider the fact that i signed my contract with yahoo on august 21st. Yesterday was September 13th, Friday. And usually you do a show like that, you know, a year into a relationship, two years into a relationship. We did that three and a half weeks into a relationship with some new faces that we have never worked before, some that we just met a couple of weeks ago. And for it to go off without any technical issues and all that stuff,

pretty freaking amazing. Absolutely. And I don't think it happens unless, as you said, like the people assembled are all pulling in the right direction and everybody's on the same team and everybody knows what they're supposed to be doing and you get it done. You just assemble the people that you really want to do it with. You get passionate about it and you work your butt off and it happens and it went off and I thought it was fantastic. And, yeah, I'm excited about everything that's from here to come. Yeah, incredible show, incredible weekend, incredible to be with all these people. And, yeah, it really is.

It's just the beginning. Yeah, what a weekend. I mean, first the Bills beat the Dolphins on Thursday. Drubbing. That feels like an eternity ago. Absolute drubbing. Then the show on Friday. I mean, what about the boys from Nottingham Forest

with the big win at Anfield earlier this morning? Oh, my God. That was today. That feels like years ago at this point. A win over Liverpool on the road. 66? 69? 66.

69 years, yeah. Or 1969? 66 years, years. Yeah. Or 1969? 66 years, 1969. Yep. Nailed it. Nick signing Landry Schammett

this morning as well. I mean, for me, just for me personally on a selfish level, a lot, a lot of exciting things. And in a few days time,

go home tomorrow and then off to London for Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois. Oh yeah, and yesterday announced a new show with Ade with our shout out to Ade Oladipo yeah Ade Oladipo

Ariel versus Ade Ariel and Ade show the double-a show still workshopping it workshopping titles yeah yeah yeah but that's in partnership with our friends at DAZN we'll be doing that from the studio in New York so Ade now an extended member of the Uncrowned family, if you ask me. He's got some fans over here.

We're big fans. What's that? Expanding. Oh my God. Continuing. England. Oh yeah. Morocco.

International flavors. Morocco, yeah. England, yeah. Ireland, yeah, you said that. And Parts Unknown, Mysterious Frank. Can we give Mysterious Frank a round of applause? I mean, he has been the MVP of the weekend. I mean, the best part is you're at these meetings

and people are turning to him and asking him questions that are really not part of his purview, but it's the ultimate compliment to him because he just takes control when it comes to production stuff. They're asking you directorial and and like tv production questions and you're like yeah we'll get the 469284 camera and everything will be uh 10-4 frank walks into the control room everyone's like frank yeah well how do they know you man

it's mysterious i feel like you know there was like 6,000 producers on the Sphere show who are going to get Emmys and things. But we only got one Frank and he's making all these things happen. I feel like pound for pound, we got the guy right here. It takes a village. Oh, so humble. He's so humble. Great job, Frank. But yes.

Everything since the move over from vox to now uh has been incredible so yeah this is the new feed by the way if you're listening to this this is the new feed a lot of people a little bit confused i can see on twitter not a lot i feel like i feel like some people a lot a bit confused yes there it is uh no our show is not going to be just on friday nights no it's not going to be happening at a at a sports book it's going to be at the same time as it always was uh 1 p.m eastern 10 a.m pacific 6 p.m in the uh the uk and ireland uh it'll be monday tuesday wednesday boys in the back on Thursday, The Crack on Friday. This is the audio feed. I love when people are really like, yeah, this is great, but I really miss the MMA

Hour. It's the same fucking show with the same people. It's just a different name. Just get to October. We'll get you there. Just wait until October. You're really going to see how similar it is. Similar it all is. And yeah, this is the feed. Apple, Spotify, all the usual places.

New YouTube channel. Let's build that bad boy up. You got your merch store. There are a couple of new drops coming up there as well. It's everything you wanted and more. Anything we can tease on those new drops? What do we got? Oh yeah, there's a nice one that we're working on.

A bit of a tribute to my favorite baseball team. Okay. Excited about that. Also a tribute to the great old Dirty Bastard. Oh, wow. Oh, I think I know where we're going. Yeah. Oh, wow.

We've got a couple. So Washington Nationals. Oh, wow. H-E-L, the big W in it. I like that. Oh, yes, yes, yes. That'll be good. Maybe a crown instead of the W.

Oh, gosh. No, a lot of exciting things. We thank you for your patience. As far as the shows between now and mid-October, there's not going to be a Monday show because we're doing this now. And what the hell else is there going to be to talk about on Monday?

But we'll be dropping some more, as we like to call them around these parts, part in our dust pods, right? Between now and the launch. So stay tuned for those. Maybe we pop up on the YouTube channel here or there. Just bear with us. We're almost there. We're almost there. We're working feverishly to get to the finish line so that we can be back on track. All this stuff is extra. The Yahoo guys were like, oh, you guys want to do this? Like, you can just chill. Like, we're not, we're not chilling. We got to put out the content.

Thank you for the support. Thank you for bearing with us. Let's do this. A lot of nice support from here in Vegas. People coming up to us, excited about the new era. We're even more excited. Alright, it's time to go to bed. It's been a long day. I like this idea.

I'm not going to bed though. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you for subscribing, for downloading, for following. Rate, review, comment, all those things. Do those things really work, Frank? They absolutely work. Okay, so please, rate, review, comment, download, subscribe, follow. All the things that you do both here and on the YouTube channel.

Hope you enjoyed the content. Hope you enjoyed the unofficial launch slash official soft launch of the new era and much more to come. For now, though, we say goodnight. Congratulations, Marab Dwalishvili. Congratulations, Valentina Shevchenko. Congratulations to us all. For Rick, for GC, for Frank, for Pizzi, for the entire crew.

I'm Ariel. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you very soon. Good night.