The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 307 reaction: Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree thrills, Julianna Peña reigns again

Episode Date: October 6, 2024

Ariel reacts to UFC 307, including the thrilling main event between Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree Jr. (01:26)Then he weighs in on Julianna Peña recapturing gold in a controversial decision (18:28), Kayla Harrison remaining undefeated in the UFC, and what could be next for the women’s bantamweight division.

back in your life on this sunday october 6th 2000 and 24 hello everyone. Welcome to our instant UFC 307 reaction show, post show, post fight show right here on the brand new channel. I believe all is well. I believe everything is working. You can hear me. We're live right now, my friends. Hit me with a thumbs up in the chat. If you can hear me, if you can see me, give me a thumbs up. Where's the chat here? Where's the chat? Where's the chat? I had it somewhere. I minimized my screen. Oh, there's the chat. There's the chat. Yeah. Give me a thumbs up. Give me a like. Give me a something. Don't forget to subscribe. Don't forget to like. Don't forget to share. This is a great thing that

we're doing here very very excited and very very excited to talk about what we just witnessed holy shit that was insane i'm sorry if my energy was a little bit low there but i was trying to see if everything was working we've got uh producer jordan on air jordan on the ones and twos we've got the great ant evans the biggest heel in the game, helping us behind the scenes as well. And holy shit, what did we just witness at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, also known as Salt Lake City. Alex Pereira defeating Khalil Rountree via TKO in the fourth round. Holy shit, what a fight. He is still the light heavyweight champion.

Look, I'll be honest with you, as UFC 307 is wrapping up right now, like he is literally walking out of the cage right now. So we're reacting to this in very real time. I will be honest with you. I was feeling like something was in the air. We've had this weird stretch where people are, you know, winning belts that maybe the UFC didn't want to win a belt

or they're underdogs or maybe they're not the most popular fighters. It just feels like there's a weird vibe in the air right now as far as the UFC is concerned. And here you have Alex Pereira, who, as I said this week, MVP of the UFC in 2024, steps up for 300, steps up for 303, steps up for 307. That's not talked about enough. This wasn't really the plan.

The plan was Teporia versus Max Holloway on this card. Actually, the plan was Islam. Okay, so it was really Islam versus Armin in Abu Dhabi, Teporia versus Max. Islam and Armin gets postponed because Islam's hurt, so they move Max and Teporia to October 26th. So now they need something for this card on October 5th, and so there's old faithful Al-Aqsa. But, you know, sometimes we see these

weird things happen. And so, you see Khalil Roundtree, he's in incredible shape, he's looking fantastic, big moment for him. Not at the apex. He likes the apex. He doesn't like the attention. He doesn't like the spotlight. He likes the sterility, the quietness, the calmness of the apex. And I have to say, first two rounds, Khalil Rountree was looking like a bad mofo. First two rounds, I had him up. Two rounds to none, 2018. I thought he was looking great. Now, he was throwing heat. He was throwing with bad intentions. Both of them

were, holy shit. First two rounds, this was one of those fights that you just couldn't look away. You felt like you had to watch every single second. You felt like you had to not even blink because both guys were throwing with such bad intentions with such power and some were connecting some weren't but it just felt like two guys who weren't going to you know offer up a takedown who weren't interested in anything like that um yes the kicks were great for alex but it was all it was all action all the time. So I had it two rounds to none for Khalil going into the third. Alex starts to pick up the pace in the third. And then he wins the third.

And then all of a sudden, the fourth round just becomes a moment where it's like, Alex is like, all right, enough of this shit. I want to go home. I'm done. I'm done. And he throws the whole fucking arsenal at Khalil Rountree. He threw everything at this guy. And credit to Khalil, first UFC pay-per-view main event, first title fight in the UFC. And he ate him. He ate everything. He ate all the shots. At one point,

it looked like his eye was drooping off of his head and he would not go down. A little stumbling, a little rockage, but he would not go down. Holy shit. And we know what those shots do to people. Just ask Erie. Just ask Jamal Hill. Ask Izzy. Ask Sean Strickland. Ask all those dudes. And here we are in high altitude in the fourth round. These guys are throwing smoke. They're throwing heat. And Alex just says, enough of this. Enough of this shit. I'm going to throw everything at the guy. And the guy ate those punches. They were hurting him. No doubt about it. They were all hurting him. But holy shit, he ate him. And then finally at the end, and I was saying it, and Jordan can back me up here. I was saying it, go to the body, go to the body, go to the body, because it just felt

like Khalil was on zero. The tank was at almost empty. He gets up against the cage. It was a right hand and then a right to the body and then a left to the body and then another shot upstairs. And then that was all she wrote. And Khalil just crumples to the ground. I tend to hate the word violence because I feel like the word violence has a negative connotation. That was sport. That was beautiful. But I'll give you a pass if you want to go with beautiful violence. I'll give you a pass because that was jaw-dropping stuff. That was, I mean, I'm in awe of what we just witnessed.

Alex turning it around, and he wasn't getting dominated in the first two rounds, but he did have to turn it around. He did have to dig deep. He did have to figure out Khalil. You know, Khalil probably got a little bit tired, and maybe he was, you know, throwing 98 in the first two rounds, and the altitude caught up to him or just the moment or who knows. But to see Alex, the face of the UFC right now, in my opinion, the MVP of the UFC, the male fighter of the year, because make no mistake about it, we're going to do an award show on January 2nd, I think it is. I'll tell you right now, he's the male fighter of the year. There is no question. I don't care what happens on October 26th. I don't care if Ilya beats Max. I don't care if Max beats Ilya. I don't care if Jon Jones wins. I don't care if Stipe wins. I don't care who's fighting in December. There's no argument. There's absolutely no argument against

Alex Pereira. Alex Pereira is the male fighter of the year. Without question, he wins three fights, all via stoppage. And what a run. Since the last time we saw him in Salt Lake City, he's coming off that loss to Izzy. He returns at 205. Remember, he loses in April of 2023. This is his fifth fight since the Izzy loss in April of 2023. He beats Jan Bohovic via split decision. He comes back in November, less than a year ago.

He knocks out Yuri. He comes back in April, relatively short notice, knocks out Jamal Hill, comes back in June on essentially 10 days notice. He's in freaking Australia, knocks out Yuri, and then he takes this fight on maybe a couple months. This wasn't the plan. And he beats the very game Khalil Rountree. Still the champ. Much respect to both. Khalil's stock skyrockets. Alex is the man. Everyone loves him. And look, let's be honest, maybe not the best summer for the UFC in terms of, you know, star building. Um, you have a situation where,

you know, uh, Leon losing to below maybe isn't the best for business below is the face of UK MMA. He is, uh, gaining some momentum. All right.

All right. Then you have a situation where, uh, is he's that close? He loses the DDP. Okay, fine. Sugar doesn't want, you know, like,

who are the stars, who are the draws? The star is the UFC. The UFC is on fire right now. Business is on fire. I was at my cousin's house earlier today, and there's like just a litany of 16-year-old, 15-year-old kids who just want to talk about UFC all day, every day. It's

remarkable. And here we are in 2024, the sport continues to grow and the brand is the top draw. The brand is on fire. These guys are watching UFC Vegas. There are three things that happened to the UFC that made it what it is today. Number one, the ESPN deal took them into a different stratosphere. They became a part of the conversation, the sporting conversation, especially in this country, the United States. Number two, gambling, becoming accessible and available to everyone. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, all these games like prize picks and these fantasy, like all that stuff, massive for them. And then number three was the pandemic. The decision to come on early, being the only game in town on ESPN with the

gambling took them to a different stratosphere. So it doesn't necessarily matter as much as it did in the past that there aren't top draws, so to speak. Who knows what this will do on pay-per-view, but it's good to have some draws. And this dude, Alex Pereira, who has aura plus 1,000, who doesn't really speak English, but has really come into his own as a personality, is, in my opinion, the man. He is the face of the UFC as far as active fighters are concerned right now. You can talk about Jon Jones.

He ain't active. You can talk about Conor. He isn't active right now. He's a bigger star than Islam, in my opinion. You've got other options out there, but no one evokes the kind of emotion right now that Alex does. And then when you continue to produce like that, he's never been in a boring fight. It's fantastic for business. So what a scene at the Delta Center in Utah, home of the Utah Jazz, and of course, home of the brand new Utah Hockey Club.

I was sent something here. What's going on here? I'm seeing a video of, I guess, Jamal Hill was sitting in the front row reacting. What did he do? Was he yawning? Man, how do you yawn after getting knocked out like that i mean fair play much respect but i you're trying to get the rematch i get it i get it i get it um let me see what's going on on the youtube channel here everything good everything good this is fun we got people here are there questions i don't know oh there's a poll up here Pereira the best 205 pound champ ever? No, still Jon Jones by just 54%. Who would have thought? Let's not forget Alex Pereira made his light heavyweight debut in July of 2023. It hasn't been that long.

And by the way, shout out to the man, Bam Bam Baklava, you can get the merch, everyone was asking, when's the merch store coming, when's it starting, there it is, arielhelwani.com, and yes, this is the home of all things Helwani now, this is the home for all our shows, October 14th, we are launching officially, brand new studio, you know by now the deal with yahoo sports everyone has come over and then some the boys are are are involved we've been working so hard over the last few weeks i took a step back yesterday and i was like geez a lot has happened over the last few weeks and months but we are almost there the website is launching uncrowned.com the show is launching on october 14th some of y'all on the

YouTube comment section think that where we did the thing last week is our studio. And then you think that we're only doing audio. And then you think we're only doing it like in front of people at a sports book in Las Vegas. What's wrong with you guys? How many times do I have to explain this? It's not going down in a sports book in Las Vegas. That was a one-off. It's not going to be audio only. That's just because we're giving it to you out of That was a one-off. It's not going to be audio only. That's just because we're giving it to you out of the kindness of our hearts. And it's not in a tiny podcast room. We're building a studio October 14th. It shall be unveiled. And we're going Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, live at 1 p.m. Then the boys in the back on Thursday.

Rick, GC, Frank, Pizzi, a part of the show as well. Piz PT on Fridays, 1 p.m. as well. Everything's at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific. And The Crack is also on Friday, 1 p.m. Eastern. And then we'll do watch parties. We've got a big announcement coming on week one, a lot of crazy shit happening. So I hope that you are ready for all of that. So, all right. So let me go through the results here because I got a little too excited talking about what we just witnessed. That was insanity. That was some of the most fun action violence, whatever you want to call it that fourth round. If you ever have a friend who is like, yeah, I don't know much about this MMA thing. I don't love it. It's a little too much for me. I don't get it. It's a little too hyperbolic.

Show them that fourth round. Show them that fourth round. Show them the heart. Show them the determination, the will, the gumption. Show them the fer ferocity show them all of that it's unbelievable unbelievable um okay we got some questions here thank you very much antoine uh so happy ariel and the boys are back in our lives big respect to the parlay pena for a hard fight give me poiton versus tommy super fight Um, Henry also says I lost a five leg parlay by Rocky losing what she rubbed. What are your thoughts? Okay. So let's get into that. Uh, and, and, and we will get back to Mr. Poitin. Don't worry. Let me go through the results real quickly. So Alex prayer is still the light heavyweight champion at the UFC. He beats Khalil round tree, unbelievable stuff. Holy shit. If you missed the fight, go back and watch it. That was tremendous.

Round four, 432, tremendous. Juliana Pena has made history. She's now a two-time UFC women's bantamweight champion. She comes back after a two-plus year-long layoff, and she becomes the first member of the Parley Pals slash boys to ever fight in a UFC title match and to actually win a UFC title. Holy shit. She wins via split decision. She beats Raquel Pennington. Juliana Pena is the champion.

Our old pal, Juliana Pena. Shame we don't have a show on Monday. That would have been a great conversation. We'll talk to her very soon. Afterwards, she's asked about Kayla Harrison. She pivots and she talks about Amanda Nunes, who was tweeting tonight. More on that in a moment.

I'll get back to it. More results. Mario Bautista, split decision win over Jose Aldo. That one left some people upset. More on that in a moment. Roman Delite beats Kevin Holland. Corner stoppage between the first and second rounds. Kevin Holland, towards the end of the first round, injures his ribs. Not a great scene. Can't continue. The likes of Conor McGregor,

not too happy with him. Kayla Harrison, she wins the unanimous decision. She beats Caitlin Vieira. First time in her fighting career, she bleeds hematoma. It's gushing. Didn't know she was actually capable of bleeding. At least we have confirmed she is, in fact, human. Kayla Harrison, now 2-0 inside the octagon. Joaquin Buckley with a beautiful lunging right hook against Stephen Thompson in the third round of their fight, the feature prelim fight. He wins via knockout. Credit to Joaquin Buckley. He talks a lot, but he's backing it up. He knocks out Stephen Thompson. Thompson, very upset, sad afterwards. Gave a lot of love to everyone. Of course, he's the classiest of them all. He's the NMF for life emeritus,

but a great win for Joaquin Buckley. Yasmin Lucindo, split decision win over Marina Rodriguez. Alex Hernandez, split decision win over Austin Hubbard. Cesar Almeida, unanimous decision win versus Ihor Boteria. Ryan Spann with a nice guillotine choke victory in the first round against Ovin St. Preux. Can he put it together? Three losses in a row. Can he put it together?

Ovin St. Preux, perhaps his last appearance inside the Octagon, he loses. And it was revealed and also confirmed to me that this was in fact his last fight on his UFC contract. So it shall be interesting to see what they do with him. But it does seem like he wants to continue fighting. Someone who doesn't want to continue fighting anymore is Carla Esparza. She recently became a mom. She said before her fight tonight that she would, in fact, retire. She lost to Tisha Pennington via unanimous decision. I thought controversial. I thought she deserved to win. More on this one as well. And afterwards, the UFC did what they did for Michelle Watterson. And I love this. They aired a video package. They paid their respects. And the fans in Utah paid their respects in a very nice, respectful

way, which was really nice to see. I didn't like the boos towards Tisha. I especially didn't like the boos when she was talking about her grandmother and breast cancer awareness month. But someone else told me they couldn't hear what she was saying. So I'd like to give them a pass and just hope that they didn't hear what she was saying. We're actually booing that because that was a little bit uncomfortable and disappointing. And finally, shout out to Utah's own Court McGee, who started the night with a submission neck crank win over Tim Means. Great clip floating around on social media of him talking about just being here and that his greatest accomplishment

is just being sober and being healthy and not drinking and not abusing drugs. So shout out to him. Incredible stuff there from Court McGee. The fact that he is still chugging along 14 years after his UFC debut is rather remarkable. Okay, back to Juliana Pena versus Raquel Pennington. Upon first viewing, I've only watched it once, I thought Raquel Pennington won. Look, we talked about the

buys, we talked about parlay pals, we got to keep it real. I thought Raquel Pennington won. I thought it was 2-2 going into the fifth, and I thought Pennington did enough in the fifth to win 3-2, 48-47. I thought Pennington started slow. I thought her corner work, like the advice from her team was a little bit baffling. Like they weren't giving her any instruction. They're just saying like, you need to let the hands go. Like they weren't telling her what to do. They weren't being instructional with their commands, with their advice.

But she figured it out. She had a big head kick in the third, a knockdown. She was knocked down. She came on strong. She started to get comfortable. The jab looked great. She was starting to press. She was starting to be a little less conservative with her attack. It was very singular. It was very boxing.

There wasn't a lot there. There wasn't a whole toolbox being thrown at Juliana Pena. And she may kick herself for that. But this is, as she noted, classic Raquel Pennington. She loses these split decisions, and then afterwards you say, you probably could have done a little more. You probably could have pushed a little more. I do wonder if Pena was getting tired towards the end. I was wondering that. I wrote that down. The altitude plus the time off, two plus years. But in the end, she wins. Now, it seemed like it went down to that first round. That seemed to be the big dissenting round. It was close. I thought Pennington won three rounds to two. Super close. I don't think this

was a robbery. I know there's that term that gets thrown out there. I know that there's a lot of people who don't agree with it. It's a very close fight. It's a controversial fight. But I don't think it's a robbery. Um, but we were showing you the, uh, the scorecards and, uh, when it comes out to one round, like, I don't, I don't think that that's a robbery. It's very close. And I'm, and I'm telling you, honestly, I thought upon first and only viewing that Pennington won three rounds to two, but the significant strikes were the same. If you look at the significant strikes, the exact same. So a very, very, very close fight. And in the end, you'd be lying if you didn't admit that it's best for business that Juliana wins. Because afterwards she gets on the microphone and they ask her about Amanda Nunes. And she, excuse me, they ask her about Kayla Harrison and she quickly pivots and talks about Amanda Nunes.

Now those are two very intriguing fights. Kayla and Peña were going back and forth at the press conference on Thursday. Very entertaining stuff. I'd love to host a face-to-face between them, if I'm being honest. Very, very, very, very, very entertaining stuff. I think that they'll sell the fight. I think it will be a lot of fun. I think it will feel big. And then the winner hopefully fights Nunez, a returning Nunez. And that will be gigantic because she's coming back and because

she has a history with both of them. She has a history with Juliana Pena. Pena is one and one against Nunez. Obviously she beat her many moons ago and then lost to her in her last fight, July of 2022. And then Kayla and Nunez used to train together and now they're apparently not very close friends. And so there's great story to be told there. But credit to Penia, she came all the way back. She suffered multiple injuries.

She came back from that brutal loss to Amanda Nunes, and now she's the champ. And now here we go. A member of the Parley Pals is the champ. That's incredible. Close one. Would like to watch it again. The promo on Amanda was fun afterwards, but if I'm Kayla,

I'm running with that saying you're ducking me, you're ignoring me, you want nothing to do with me. You know what's going to happen. You know, I'm going to work you all that stuff and more. So let's see, we'll jump around and let me just stick with Kayla here for a moment um look like I said good to see her overcome adversity a little bit of trouble in that second round hematoma she's bleeding got a little dicey was wondering how she would respond in the third she responded like she always does dominant win 30 to 27 maybe if you want 29 she is next. She even swore on the freaking microphone. I remember her at the Olympics standing on the stage there or sitting on the dais talking about, oh, you know, I'm classy. I'm an Olympian. I'm an athlete. MMA, it's cage

fighting. It's too crazy. It's pro wrestling. Now she's out here cutting promos and swearing. Love it. 2-0. She makes weight again. Good for her. It's the fight. There's no one else. I saw some people saying she should fight Macy's, Shea's, so why? What are we waiting for here? What's the point? What are we doing? That's the fight. She had already fought her a couple times. She wasn't feeling it. What more is there to do? What more is there to prove?

What more is there to show? What more is there to accomplish? And so I think she kind of, you know, mailed it in, in my opinion. But the UFC has done that. Bellator has done that. Everyone does that. So people getting their, you know, their feelings heard over that tweet, over that video,

who cares? I can assure you, she does not care. So Kayla Harrison with the big win, shout out to her. Let's go to Jose Aldo versus Mario Bautista. Aldo's the man. He looked great. It's unbelievable at his age that he's hanging with these dudes. He's hanging with guys who offer him nothing. I don't even know why he's taking these fights, if I'm being honest. What does Mario Bautista offer him? A winning streak? Great. Very few people know who he is. And I don't think he won any fans just given the way he fought this fight. Now, he had to fight this fight this way. And another close fight,

29-28, God bless, it could have gone either way. Tough one to score. A lot of takedown attempts, not a lot of actual takedowns. A lot of pressing up against the cage, not a lot of damage. You can make a very strong case it was 29-28 for Aldo. My question is, why is Aldo taking these fights? Just like the last one.

Why is he taking these fights? These aren't big names. These aren't legends. These aren't the type of wins that you're going to pick up and say like, oh my God, you beat this guy. But it's just going to be the type of loss where you're like, ah, come on. To the casual fan, if you watch Batista, you know he's very good. You know he's very tough. You know he's on a five, six fight winning streak. But I just don't understand why Aldo is taking these fights as of late.

Frustrating fight. I don't want to see Aldo in Utah again. It was somewhat reminiscent of the Murab fight. Although Murab definitely definitively won that fight and did a lot more. But I'm done with Aldo in Utah. I'm sure he is as well. Don't think he's done. I think there's a long list of people that he can fight right now. He's still got it, it's unbelievable.

But you know, that one, you book that fight hoping that Mario Bautista becomes a star afterwards and gets the rub if he wins, and I don't think that happened. In fact, I think people are mad at him, annoyed by him. And so it was counterproductive and it was a waste of a Jose Aldo fight. Let's put it up on the poll. Who do you think won? Aldo or Batista? And try to vote with your head, not your heart. I'm assuming a lot of people are still going to pick or say that they thought Aldo won. That's what I'm assuming.

Because he's beloved him, because it was a very, very close fight. It was a very, very close fight. No judges needed in the Kevin Holland-Roman Delite fight. It was very, very clear. Look, I know that Conor McGregor was unhappy with Kevin Holland, and I know that he tweeted about him, and I know that he deleted the tweet. He was very critical, and he deleted the tweet. He was very critical. He deleted the tweet that he said, you know, we want blood and all this stuff. We've got the tweets up. As I'm speaking

right now, you can see them right there. That being said, there was a good like 30 minutes. He was clearly hurt and Dolita was throwing everything at him and he was fighting through it.

And then you saw the conversation with crew Bob Perez, and that's a tough spot for someone like Kevin, who is so tough. He doesn't want to be on camera saying no mas. He doesn't want to be on camera saying I can't continue. He doesn't want to be on camera saying, I'm hurt. I quit. And I think they were affording him the respect. They were trying to let him fight through it. And I think it was very clear after multiple questions and him saying like, that, you know, it was time. And luckily they didn't send him out there. He was going to get knocked out. He was going to get seriously hurt. And a broken rib, a displaced rib, is a pretty, pretty bad spot to be in. It's an awful spot to be in.

In fact, let me re-text his manager here. Let's see if we can get an update. Let's see. Let's see what he says. Dolite afterwards. Dolite was new hair. Did Dolize go to Turkey? Is that what happened? I think it happened. Maybe I'm dreaming. I think his hair was not always that long, right? Is that a thing? Um, he's now on two in a row. He's coming off that unanimous decision win over, uh, Anthony Smith. Part of that lost a majority decision to Nesfaltin Imavov. Um, he's an interesting guy.

I was, I'll be honest. I was surprised he was the underdog going into this fight. I will be a hundred percent honest about that. I was very surprised he was the underdog. Uh, 81% saying Aldo won. Yeah, that's what I figured. 57% are saying Pennington won. And that's what I figured as well. I think a lot of the Aldo votes are with your heart and that's fine. It was very, very close. And the Pennington won, I think. I'm actually a little bit surprised that it wasn't more, to be honest, because I saw in MMA decisions, every single media member who posted their score, I think every single one,

had Pennington winning. So I'm a little bit surprised about that. Just that it's so low. I thought it would be like 85% for Pennington. Anyway, again, Joaquin Buckley with the big win over Stephen Thompson. That's now five in a row for Joaquin Buckley. By far the most impressive of the bunch. Luque probably second, but Stephen Thompson is a legend of the game. Great knockout. Lunching right hook. Very impressive. Trying to see the last time. Shafqat lost obviously he's lost four of his last five Bilal Muhammad

the unanimous decision obviously submitted by Rachmanov last time out Pettis was the last knockout 2019 so five years ago and I believe that was the first time he was ever knocked out because there was the Woodley and Till decisions and Matt Brown decision. Yeah. So just the second knockout of his career. Shout out to Big Buck, my guy. And like I said earlier, Ryan Spann, let's see if he

could put it together. That's three losses in a row that he had going into this fight. He wins. He looks good. That was a submission win. Looked very good on the ground. Seemed to be in great shape. So shout out to him. And I was really happy to see Carlos Barza get the love, get the respect, get the admiration. Newer fans just know her as the Rose Namajunas fight. Not a great fight. Everyone would agree. She comes back, she loses to Zhang Weili, but this is a person who was once the face of the straw weights. She was the most dominant straw weight. She was the champion in Invicta when the UFC essentially took that whole division and brought it to the ultimate fighter. And she was a tough out and she won the ultimate fighter.

She beat Rose in the finale, but then she had to do a really quick turnaround and fight Ioana Janjicek in March of 2015, UFC 185 in Dallas, and she lost. It was too quick of a turnaround. But I mean, in her early run, she fought way early in the day. She fought Megumi Fuji in Bellator. Holy shit.

I forgot about that. Angela Hill, Tisha Pennington, then Torres, Jessica Penne, Rosnami Yunus, Alexa Grasso, Vianna Gianjiroba, Michelle Watterson. These are all wins. Yan Xiaonan, Rosnami Yunus again.

Happy to see the love, hated the boos that Tisha received. Not fair. I get it. They wanted to see Carla win. And by the way, I thought Carla did win. I thought she won 29-28. Another close one, but I thought she did enough. So judging not the best. And this is what happens. Now, a lot of these judges later in the card are all the veteran guys. But, you know, you saw tonight some not-so-veteran refs, some not-so-veteran judges. You saw a bunch of those guys. And this is what happens when the UFC comes to town.

You tend to see some of these green officials get an opportunity. And yes, I mentioned Court McGee. I believe the press conference is happening now. Let's see, let's see. Conor McGregor was calling for heavyweight for Alex Pereira next. Listen, I said it before, Alex Pereira versus Tom Aspinall is the fight. There is a symbolic passing of the torch.

Aspinall-Jones, great. I think it's a great fight. It's a gigantic fight. It makes sense. It would be amazing to see. Aspinall versus Pereira would be incredible theater. Would be absolutely incredible theater. I would love to see Aspinall versus Pereira would be incredible theater. Would be absolutely incredible theater. I would love to see it.

I would absolutely love to see it. But he did not really call for heavyweight, did he? Dana White, this is according to Nolan King, is looking to hit Seattle and Chicago in 2025. Two great cities. Dana called the judges atrocious. Conor McGregor had a bunch of tweets about stalling and points and all that stuff. You can check it out. He was very active tonight.

Wow, Conor quote tweeting our good friend Jedi Goodman wow, you know yourself Jedi Goodman getting the quote tweet getting the quote tweet from the Big Mac, the announced gauge 5 million announced attendance 17,487 what a run Perth was 5.4 million

Manchester 6.7 million 303 15.9 million Newark 7.2 million Rio didn't have a gate these are all according to the great Jedi Goodman 360.5 million Miami 14.14 million Anah, $14.14 million. Anaheim, $7.2 million.

Toronto, $7.8 million. It's actually the lowest pay-per-view of the year, and it's $5 freaking million. It was once a time where they would be doing a happy dance for $5 million. Shout out. Anything else? Hmm. Dana.

Just seeing if there's any... Aaron Bronsetter does a great job of, of, of, recapping, Dana went on the PFL, they're drowning, they're drowning, they suck, they're not good at what they do,

okay, says he would be happy to help the WWE, if they are planning to show the sphere in the future, Triple H earlier today, so, big night for TKO, they had WWE Bad Blood in Atlanta. Shout out to the A-Town Down crew. And they had this card, 307 in Salt Lake City. Bad Blood was

great. Go on Yahoo. Our guy Anthony has an amazing report card and live blog. Also, we have great coverage from tonight and coming as well over on Yahoo Sports, soon to be on crown.com, where you can get everything. The Rock returned. Roman and Cody had a great match together against the Bad Bloodline. Liv Morgan retained.

Hell in a Cell. It was a great card. Anyway, afterwards, Triple H said that they're interested in the Sphere. So that's where that came from. And then there was some stuff on Court McGee. Seems like... Oh, wow!

And Connor out here, quote tweeting, Andrew Feldman? Damn, my two favorites. Jedi Goodman and Andrew Feldman. Give them a follow. A. Feldman MMA and Jedi Goodman, two of the absolute best legends, both getting quote tweets from Connor Mack. Wow, you know yourself. You know yourself.

Just seeing if there's any other news here. So here's the big question, my friends. And we'll kind of ponder this together. By the way, how are we looking? Everything okay, guys? Everything good? Yeah? By the way, has anyone gotten in touch with Mysterious Frank?

He's been avoiding me all day anyone know if he's around is he in the chat has mysterious frank shown up can he text me back if he's there um who does this is the big question two title fights on this card we know that it's um it's going to be Pena Harrison next. We know this. Here's the question. Who the hell is Alex Pryor fighting next? Let's look at the rankings.

And by the way, we're going to do a Monday pod with the boys. Our last Pardon Our Dust audio-only pod. And it'll go up on the feed on Tuesday. It'll go up on our podcast feed on Mondays. Please subscribe. Ariel Hawani Show on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts. And then Monday, October 14th, we commence the new era. I'm told New York Rick is here. Thank you so much, New York Rick. What a guy. Staying up in solidarity. He's been incredible as we've built this plane. Rick, Ant Devon's officially a part of the team.

Jordan, on-air Jordan. GC, of course, Frank. Andy's a part of the team. All the boys over at uncrowned.com, you know about all of them. There's so many people behind the scenes. I mean, it's just been incredible. Read New York Rick's letter on the first episode if you know you know okay rankings rankings um um alex prayer champ iri brokhaska he beat twice uncle ive will get him in a moment i don't think there's much of a demand to see the jamal hill fight again i know he know he's doing that to get it. I mean, again, he will think I'm being a hater, but the circumstances in which he got the belt to begin with, a little bit unique, shall we say? And so I don't think there's a big push, but God bless if there is. Jan, he beat. Okay.

So now we've got Rakic and Ankalayev, and it kind of feels like that's the number one contender fight, right? Those guys are fighting in a couple months. Ozdemir, Nikita, it's Rakic or Ankalayev. And here's the thing, Magomed Ankalayev should have been fighting for the belt tonight, if we're being 100% honest. The problem is, he doesn't have a strong fan base, he doesn't have a strong following. And the question is, where do you draw the line? And I have been someone who has said, no, there has to be a meritocracy. Winning streaks have to mean something. Wins have to mean something. And as of right now, he is unbeaten in his last 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Am I counting right? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Unbeaten in his last 12. Now, he's coming off a knockout of Johnny Walker back in January. And prior to that, there was the illegal knee against Johnny Walker. And part of that was the draw. So I think he's being penalized a little

bit for all of this, just a little bit, but he's fighting Rakic. Oh, actually not in a couple of months at 308. He's fighting him in like two weeks. Three weeks. Yes, three weeks. I feel like the winner of that fight should be next. And what a card that is. Teporia Holloway. Whitaker, Hamzat, Lerone Murphy, Dan Ige, Magomed Ankalayev, Rakic, and Shara Bullitt against Armin Petrosian. That's the main card.

Jeff Neal versus RDA prelims. Not bad. Now you might say Rakic lost his last two in a row. If he beat Ankalayev, should he get a shot? Now it gets a little bit tricky then, but I think, I mean, if Ankalayev wins, he has to be next. And now you're, if you're the UFC,

it's squeaky bum time because you're looking at a situation where Ankalayev has a certain skill set that is potentially dangerous for Pereira, but holy shit, Pereira. What a guy. Dana said, wait until you see the December card any insight into the card I've been asking around about this

I think there was some hope that Shafqad vs Bilal will be on there I don't know if he would say that if that was the main event do they do Zhang vs Valentina if you just look at the rankings and who's available You know, do they do Zhang versus Valentina? I mean, if you just look at the rankings and who's available, Islam Armin is out there. I mean, does Alex come back? Holy shit.

DDP is out there, obviously. Strickland was saying today, January in LA. Bilal is out there. I just mentioned him. Tabori is fighting in October. Murab is out there as well. Pantoja, nothing too crazy happening with him right now. Tetsuro Taira fighting. When is that? Two weeks. So let's see. This is fun, guys. And what about our snazzy new graphics here? You guys like this? Shout out to the man, Jordan. Stuff's great.

You guys like the new graphics? Can we get a thumbs up if you like the new graphics? What do people do? Give us a thumbs up in the chat. Give us a thumbs up. Give us a thumbs up in the chat. Give us a nose in the chat. Hit the subscribe. Hit the share.

These things mean something to the YouTube algorithm. Is it true Quebec won't pay for UFC to come to Montreal? UFC is going to places that are paying a site fee. That's why you see all these commercials for Utah on this broadcast. Tourism and the commission and all this stuff. It's very rare that they're not getting paid. Like MSG ain't paying them. I'd be shocked.

But the Utahs of the world, the Abu Dhabis of the world, the Saudi Arabias of the world, all these places are paying. And then for the fight nights, like the Louisvilles of the world, the Abu Dhabis of the world, the Saudi Arabias of the world, all these places are paying. And then for the fight nights, like the Louisvilles of the world, those are all paid things. And there's nothing wrong with that. They speak openly of this. They speak very openly of this. So absolutely nothing wrong with that. And so, yeah, I would be surprised if Montreal is offering to pay.

Alex in Pantoja in Brazil would be very nice. It would be nice to see Alex fight in Brazil. Remember, he was supposed to fight at 301, but then they moved everything because of 300 not having a main event. I would love to see him back in Rio. Is Conor fighting in Los Angeles for 311? I would hope it's in the first quarter but I haven't heard specifically Los Angeles well this is fun arealhawani.com is the place

for your merch the arealhawani.com is the place for your merch. The Ariel Hawani Show YouTube channel is where you're watching this right now, I hope. Hopefully someone is not streaming this elsewhere. And then the feed, Ariel Hawani Show on podcast. I hope you subscribe to that as well. Monday, we'll be back to do a full breakdown with GC and Rick. I promise you of that. I wanted to come on here and react. We're going to be doing post shows. We're going to be doing watch parties. We've got some other things up our sleeves. We've got a lot going on. We've got a lot of exciting things.

October 14th is the actual launch of all things Uncrowned, the Ariel Helwani show, the Boys in the Back on Thursdays, the Crack on Fridays, and all the other stuff. And that's the week of the PFL pay-per-view. So we've got some fun stuff

coming that weekend as well. I do not look sad. I'm just probably tired because I'm an old man. And it's 2.06am. They make millions of dollars. This is a question from Jmo. They make millions of dollars by these site fees to come on over and host an event over there. It's great for business. They love it. And this is a testament to just how hot they are as a product. So God bless.

Specifically how much they don't make that public. So I would be just hypothesizing. I would be speculating if I say how much. But we're coming back with the interviews. Alex Pereira, still the light heavyweight champion. If you did not watch that fight, go watch it, especially the fourth round. That was incredible.

I loved everything about it. Shout out to Action Bronson for this incredible shirt. El Nariz Grande. Shout out to everyone working behind the scenes. Shout out to Juliana Pena for becoming champ again, representing the Parley Pals slash boys I'm still literally in this moment not sure if it's pals

or boys shout out to the Buffalo Bills who are playing the Texans tomorrow and they have a huge game shout out to Nottingham Forest who are playing Chelsea tomorrow morning massive game for them as well shout out to TKO big game for them as well. Shout out to TKO. Big night for them.

Bad Blood and UFC 307. Shout out to all of you who have subscribed. And shout out to everyone who is here watching this live or after the fact as well. Shout out to Mike D. Shout out to Adam Rogers. Shout out to JMO for sending in some questions. I appreciate you guys. Shout out to Mike D again. Shout out to Henry. Shout out to everyone in the chat. I love you all. Let me know in the chat, give me four names. If you could book the first episode on October 14th, who are the four names that you're picking? Adam Rogers, please do the AYG pod, the questions are perfect for you, what is the AYG pod shout out to Brandon, I see him from back

in the day, Ariel we need badges and emojis those are coming stand by, Ant and GC are working on that what is the AYG pod does anyone know AYG pod? Does anyone know? A-Y-G pod? Are you garbage?

Yeah, tell them to hit me up, bros. Tell them to hit me up. Okay, here they come. Alex Max Pena Alex Max Teporia Marab Mitri O'Minit featuring Sean McCorkle shout out to

Brennan Johnson and Tottenham tomorrow hell yeah Brennan Johnson five goals in the last five games thank you AB15 for that the apology tour rolls on you know why cause he's one of our own he's one of our own. He's one of our own. Alex Jones, Stipe Dana, Mayhem Miller. Khalil, Juliana Pena, Teporia Max, Mighty Mouse, Izzy, Alex, John Jones.

Steven Brunt, that's a great one. Love Steven Brunt. McAfee and Cole, great one. Mike Tyson Chael DC, Rose Connor Brendan Schaub, great one Mighty Mouse, Tyson, Fedor Why am I whispering?

I don't know, because don't you guys like the ASMR? Khalil, Diego, Lopez Renato Who likes a little ASMR? Also my parents Khalil, Diego, Lopez, Renato, who likes a little ASMR. Also my parents. Sorry, my family.

My parents are sleeping. My family is sleeping. Stephen K. Do you think Magomed is next for Alex? Yes. Well, if he wins, he has to beat Rakic in three weeks. He has to beat Rakic in three weeks.

Okay. Out of time. Thank you very much. Wanted to come on quick. We'll do more of these. These graphics look beat Rakic in three weeks. Okay. Out of time. Thank you very much. Wanted to come on quick. We'll do more of these. These graphics look great. You guys look great. I love you all. Alex Pereira, Juliana Pena, and still and new UFC 307 was holy shit fun, especially at the very end. I enjoyed it. I hope you did as well. No, do not go Texans, James. That is not very nice and a horrible way to end this chat. Go Bills. Go Forrest.

Go all of you. Back on Monday with a pod. Subscribe to the feed. And then a little over a week, October 14th, we've got a new freaking era. Yeah. Take us home, Jordan. Good night.