The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 329 Post-Fight Show: Conor McGregor's shocking injury, Max Holloway wins, Paddy Pimblett steals show

Episode Date: July 12, 2026

Ariel Helwani is joined by The Boys in the Back and Petesy Carroll for their immediate reactions to UFC 329, starting with the shocking injury to Conor McGregor, then discussing where McGregor goes from here, where the win places Max Holloway, and more (02:48). Next, they tackle the star-making performance by Paddy Pimblett in the co-main event (25:00), before circling back for more thoughts on McGregor (30:47). After recapping thrilling wins by Mario Bautista (44:14), Brandon Royval (45:50) and King Green (48:11), they cover the night's prelims, which included Gable Steveson's successful UFC debut (51:38). They end the show by reacting to some of Dana White's comments at the post-fight press conference (1:03:19).

Hello and welcome to our UFC 329 post show. I'm Ariel Hawani here in Las Vegas. That is New York, Rick. That is G.C. Connor Birx. That is P.C. Carroll representing UFC Freedom 250. UFC 329 just wrapped up right here in Las Vegas seconds ago. And the main event was absolutely shocking and not for the reasons that you may think in case you didn't watch. In case you didn't watch, it all lasted 69 seconds.

Connor McGregor, Max Holloway, ends in devastating fashion for Connor McGregor. He is injured. He's compromised. We don't know exactly what happened. But essentially what happened was the fight starts. He throws like a, what was it? Like a running, flying left kick. And clearly his right knee blows out.

His right knee is injured. Now, there's some cruel irony involved. He did tear his ACL when he fought Max Holloway back. in 2013. That kept him out for exactly a year. And he came back, looked good, went on that magical run. But here he is. I don't know if that was an ACL. I don't know what exactly happened. But he tried to fight through it. He tried to fight through it. And it kept buckling. It kept buckling to the point where Max was talking to Mike Beltran and essentially said the referee, Mike Beltran, and essentially said, like, come on, man, this has to end. And it

So no Carlos Alberg theatrics, no unbelievable showing from Connor McGregor. And they did show a moment as he was taking his shoes off as he was about to enter the cage when they were doing the whole Vaseline check-in thing where he kind of stumbled out of his shoes. Did it get injured there? Was it a pre-existing injury? Did anything happen before the fight in the fight? We don't know what happened other than when he threw that kick. It very clearly buckled.

Something happened. And then it was hard for him to stand. They stopped the fight. He has to sit on the stool. He's in a lot of pain. He's emotional. He walks out of the cage. He does not speak to the crowd this time.

He does not address the crowd. And he seems devastated. And now here we are just days before his 38th birthday questioning if that is the end of Connor McGregor. If that's the last time we see him inside the Octagon. Patty Pimlet won via unbelievable first round Darst Choke against Benoit Santini. All in all guys, a devastating kind of anticlimactic end to what was an unbelievable card from the UFC. seven first round finishes on this card, tied for the most ever. And, well, I guess now it's eight first round finishes, I guess you could say.

It is. So that is the most ever. Eight first round finishes. It just kind of hit me because that didn't really feel like a finish. But yes, it was. It was very clearly a finish. And it was, yeah, it was the best way that I could describe it. But D.C. compared it to Seril Gan v. Tom Aspinol, but it wasn't because Seril Gan versus Tom Asperol.

It was a fight in which we saw them exchange. We saw some drama. We saw Aspinall in trouble. This never really got going. This never really got going. Your immediate thoughts, Rick. Devastating, right? Like all the buildup, all the hype, all the anticipation.

Everything was supposed to culminate with this. And to your point, the card was delivering, right? Every single fight on this card was delivering, delivering, delivering. And then we get this main event. The theatrics, Connor McGregor's walkout, the thing we've been waiting for for so long. For Etienne like this, it feels unfulfilling. It feels like we didn't get what we came for. but the thing that I can't shake is maybe we should have seen it coming, right?

Guys just don't go through the injury that he went through five years away from the cage and come back and be the same. You have to have long-term concerns about his health, regardless of when the injury happened. If he came in with it, if it happened at the checkpoint, if it happened throwing the kick, there isn't an outcome there that makes me confident that this man can step back in the cage and be. healthy. It's an unfortunate reality for somebody who, you know, is one of the bigger stars in our sport and is able to drive the type of attention and excitement that he's been able to, but you do wonder if this might be the last time now. Yeah, I think it is the last time we see him. I think the fact that he was away for five years and a lot of us wondered what he was going to even look like and it ends like that in, what was it, a minute, nine seconds. And it's from a leg injury. I mean,

he threw one kick and he could barely even support himself. I don't know how. I don't know how. how you can, I know Max was calling for a third fight. I don't know how you could possibly sell that. I don't know how you could believe that he's going to be able to sustain a fight at a high level at this point in his career. I don't even know if he could box. Like, there's just no telling where he's at in his career. To me, this is the worst possible scenario for how this could have gone for McGregor. This is always a concern you're going to have what McGregor considering how the last few years went.

The last time we saw him, the last image of him as a professional foyer is him clutching his leg and roaring at Duston Poy. his wife. This was, he had the whole sport eating out of the palm was handled lead up to this fight. Everybody thought he could reel back the years. Everybody wanted a McGregor moment. Everybody was really just waiting for him to come back and be the guy. Give us an indication that he had some part of that guy left in him. And honestly, we saw maybe at the press conference. I know you were saying it was vintage Connor McGregor. That was the furthest thing from that tonight, unfortunately. And I think, honestly, there was something wrong with him before he got in that case tonight. Because when he was in there, it was like nothing I'd ever seen him do. He was looking

out into the crowd. He didn't really lock eyes with Max. Every time McGregor gets into the cage, it's more than any other fighter. He has taught about everything to a degree where every movement he makes is planned. And that looked like a guy who was disassociated with the moment for me. I just wonder, because this guy is magic in terms of his ability to make people believe. and make people suspend belief. I'm with GC. I don't think he will fight again. But I don't believe he can fight again

in terms of his body just where it's at now. I just don't think it will go through it. I do believe he will attempt to. I just wonder, will he get that same excitement that we've seen so many times where everyone goes, he's back. Look, he's got his hair cut. You know, we're seeing that right up to the little fight tonight.

Like, he can do this like nobody else. Will he be able to ever even recapture the imaginations of people like that ever again? after something like that. Well, a few notes. We'll find out if he does do it again. But this was the highest skate in UFC history, $25 million. So still very clearly a draw.

But the next time around, will people want to, you know, shell that kind of cash, considering what happened here and really what happened in the last fight as well? To your point, he was playing the hits. He did shave his head. He did the Mohawk. Long time McGregor France. First thing they noted was, oh, this is how he looked when he fought Marcus Brimidge in his debut way back in 2013.

in Sweden. And so it seemed like he was trying to sort of draw on that. He was trying to take us back to that time with the way he was speaking, with the Billy Strutt, with everything that made him who he was, but, you know, Father Time undefeated,

layoff undefeated, everything that he's been through and done to himself undefeated. And to me, it's deflating. It's unfulfilling. It kind of, it's not the same feeling as Ronda versus Gina, but it's sort of like you sat there

and you were like, no, it's not even close. to it. Honestly, going into that, we were at the Rondagina fight. It was, that was sort of like, well, this is what I thought was going to happen. Yeah, it was a short fight, but like that was the outcome I was expecting. This feels like you had a balloon and it was blowing and blowing up all week and then just someone just beep and then just all the air got sucked out of it. We didn't get to find anything out. And you mentioned like, obviously he is still a draw. People are going to want to watch him. He broke the gate. I would imagine at the time of his walkout,

we saw Argentina finish their game. I imagine a lot of people switched over. It's going to be one of the most viewed cards in this Paramount era. The question is, can he recreate that now? Can you make that happen again? Or does he want to? Do you want to go through a whole training camp only to find out that your body... There's an irony to the point that he's coming out

and he's trying to be this version of himself that he previously was with these acrobatic kicks. And it's the first kick he through, his body gives up. But by the way, let's not pretend that he's the only athlete in the history of time who has tried to turn back the clock when he clearly doesn't have it anymore. Every athlete does that. So that's not exclusive to him, but it's just so apparent.

Like most athletes kind of fall off that cliff gradually. This has become so sudden. Like he can't even do a simple thing that he was able to do in the past. We have some footage here, courtesy of ESPN, of Connor walking to the back. And he obviously is quite emotional, as you can see. I kind of feel like watching these scenes of him walking. out of him on the stool and everything like that, it almost feels like he truly can't believe it. Because you talk about whether he was disassociated or dejected, knew he was injured going into it.

He has that ability to make people believe, and he obviously believes in himself as well to do these things. It feels like he's in disbelief that he waited this long to make the return, obviously, worked hard in the training camp, and this is how it ends. I think he will be able to make people believe again. I just think that he is just such a showman. He could very well say, I'm done. And this is what I was getting to. This is embarrassing. He did.

I don't know if that was to take them off. Yeah, yeah, of course. Symbolically, but this is embarrassing. You know what I mean? For him, you don't want to show up in front of all these celebrities, all these people, and your body breaks down. He needs to make himself believe again. That's the important thing. Like, he will make people believe again.

I'm not sure that he'll believe again. I'm not sure that somebody whose last two times that they stepped in there, their body betrayed them in that way, right? Now, the first one was an absolute, like, devastating injury, not something where... He says that's that there, see that? He kind of just gave it up. That's what he said? He said, that's that. They just showed...

They just showed a series of clips on the post show of... Sorry. Conner's leg sort of, you know, feeling out on him. Yeah. The first was when he threw that kick. The second, he throws a left. He falls. He stumbles.

And then he continues to stumble. And again, the whole thing lasted 69 seconds. I can assure you that. there are people online saying, well, Carlos Alberg knocked out your huska with a torn ACL. You couldn't fight through it. Hang on, hang on. McGregor had to go on courses of PEDs to make himself in a situation to be able to compete again. Sure.

Like, what does he have to do now? This is clearly another injury. No, but I'm saying it only makes it worse. Oh, yeah, it makes it worse. That two months ago, Carlos Alberg won a fight and knocked someone out with a... This all doesn't help the fan's sentiment towards him that, hey, okay. Like, some people would chalk it up to a... freak injury. He's going to get buried for this because they say, you know, you were never

going to come back. See, he should have never come back. Like, you could, you could just see it. I could, I could read all the things. And it's not necessarily unfair, by the way, because it didn't materialize into anything. That is a, that is a proper question here. Like, like, this is a guy that's made more than anyone in the history of this sport. Why do you think he did it? Like, what do you think is the main motivate to get out of his contract so you can fight somewhere else? It does seem, like the lengths that he went to fight here, including all the stuff that the New York Times brought out in terms of PEDs, HGH, continuous use, all this kind of stuff.

And to have that kind of result, I don't know, man. I'm just thinking about all of the shit he would have to do to get himself back in a position to compete again. If that's what it took last time, and it took five years, and we had the tow break before the Chandler fight, which is another indication of his body not holding up the way it was. And funnily enough, you mentioned the Oldberg thing, Pereira walked into that fight, took his place with a broken toe,

and it was a similar kind of thing where people were weighing it up. The more you think about it, the more I'm with GC here where, like, I just don't think you can... I may be a prisoner of the moment in how sort of deflating this end result is after such a fantastic card leading up to this point. But man, I just don't know how you can get back to a point where it's just like, Connor McGregor's back, he's fighting again, and there's that same sort of excitement. Like the numbers he was doing on all of the YouTube on the social, I would imagine for Paramount Plus just now, with the gate, with everything,

I just don't know how that can happen again after this performance. We saw him away for five years. The questions were, does he still have it? It just got answered. No, he does not. Well, he was asked by multiple people, including myself, why? Why are you doing this?

What's the point? And he continued to say for the love of the game. Now, is that the truth? We don't know. I believe that over the course of the last couple of years, he had an identity crisis. And now as he's trying to talk about, you know, religion and purity and all this stuff, well, what's the best way to sort of cleanse your soul in his mind?

It's, let me go back to the thing that I was great at. And so, yes, I do believe that there was an element of, let me just, every, again, it's not unique to him. Every single athlete who's at the twilight of his career tries to turn back the clock one last time. I do think that there's an element of that involved. Does he need the money? I don't know. I don't think it's fair for any of his career.

We really shit, wouldn't it, like if that was the situation around. I don't think it's fair for any of us to speculate that. Who knows what he did with his money, but he wouldn't be the first athlete and boxer or fighter, particularly, to need money and to keep fighting. So none of these things are unique to him. The problem is he is the biggest star in the history of the sport and he is held to a certain standard and over the last few years, that standard hasn't been met. And so he is also a very proud person and I don't think he wants to go back.

If it is truly his body failing him and he is not healthy enough to compete, I don't think we're ever going to see him again. I don't think we're ever going to see him compete again because I don't think he wants to be embarrassed. Now, he does have one fight left on his UFC contract. They're not going to let him walk. Maybe you see him do something like some sort of, you know, influencer fight or something, you know. How much is that damage? Like in terms of we were talking about that and him getting to the end of this deal where there's like a $100 million to fight, blah, blah, blah, blah, Jake Paul or whatever to hell. How much does that affect that, that image? That's twice in a row as Rick said earlier. I personally think it's massive. You just said that

They were showing a slow-mo of him when the fight got called and he said to himself, that's that. I've just had a brief, brief look at Twitter in the in-between, just kind of glancing. And the sentiment from the fan seems to be like, well, that was Gonda McGregor's return. It's over. I'm seeing the Aaron Rogers meme. I'm seeing the Simpsons coming in and out. And I know people are going to say that in the moment and everything.

But it kind of feels like it's like, all right. Well. It's devalued himself. That's it. That's it. We are being prisoners of the moment in the sense that we're calling this career done before he's even had a second to process it, right? Like, he walked out of that cage.

It's a fair thing to bring up. Look at that. No, it's a fair thing to bring up, absolutely. But I don't think we can make any determination on what this is until we hear from Connor McGregor, right? This is the person that I need to hear from. I'm trying to think of a closest comparison. And Ariel, you tell me if I'm off base.

More of these feel like NBA type things, right? There's like Kevin Duran and guys who have multiple injuries. But I guess the closest comparison that I could think of is maybe Dominic Cruz, like devastating type of injuries that really kept him out a long time. and he had the will to kind of come back. I can't quite think of anybody, definitely not back-to-back injuries in the way that Connor has,

but Dominic Cruz is probably the one who has, in my mind, overcome his body failing him at different times and come back successfully. The difference between what I believe Dominic Cruz in those scenarios and maybe Connor McGregor now is that Dominic Cruz had the will to come back.

Dominic Cruz, despite the fact that everybody said, you're done, you're never going to be the same, wanted to do it, and was willing himself to do it, and made himself able to do it. If Connor McGregor has that same willpower, if Conner McGregor had maybe this new faith

or whatever it is that he has found, points him in that direction, I think we will see him again. But if he is sitting there, ruminating and stewing and thinking about his body failing him, and that's the only thing he can think about, I don't think we will see him again.

But I don't think it's a, I don't think that the fan appetite, I don't think that the business of Connor McGregor is over, unless Connor McGregor deems it to be over. But does it affect it? Oh, it definitely affects it. How much? A significant amount.

If this went differently, even if he was like valiant in defeat, I think it would have gone a long way. The fact that this never got started and now you can't trust them in back-to-back fights to step in there healthy, that's rough. That's not good. I think even if he had gotten knocked out in the first round, it wouldn't affect it this much. This feels like an implication on his body being able to hold up to fight at this level. And it just, it feels like he can't. And this was the thing we talked about, for those gaps I used to be saying to you

when we were doing the ringer show and he'd be like, I'm gonna fight down. This was the thing I said. Like his body just, it doesn't seem to be there anymore. And he just makes you wonder how he survived the training camp. You know, we don't know what the training camp was. He didn't see a lot of training camp.

Of course, but I'm just saying if the body was that, like that was nothing. That was a thing that he had done a million times before and for it to break down that quickly. No, like a non-concats. contact injury just for it to happen like that, it does make you wonder, there's a million questions. Was he injured before? How much did he push himself in training? Like all these things now come to light or at least are, I think, fair questions to raise. You do bring up a good point

about Dominic. Dominic didn't have the distractions, though. Dominic didn't have the distractions. Show, I love to hear from. Dominic didn't, let's not try to get people to switch over right now. Golly. Dominic didn't have the... He walked away. Perfect. Dominic didn't have the distraction, So it was maybe easier for him to come back. Also, Dominic came back and won a title and got injured again, but he still had multiple setbacks and came back and reached the very top and stuck around for another six, seven years. So this is, yeah, this is a very, this is going out with a whimper. If this is it, if this is the final, like we all thought, what a horrible final lasting image

for Connor McGregor on the mat yelling at Dustin's wife. And this is just like I don't want to say You could feel I don't know I don't know Which one's worse to be honest It's this one Because you could feel the piss and vinegar

Still there When he's sitting there with his legs Snap and have Can I tell you why I disagree Because that was like There was no class Like at least here he walked out And like he got injured

But like That was like You don't yell at someone's wife No it was classless Like the very What do you mean? I know but how could that How could him getting injured

In a freak injury Be worse than being like Your wife is in my DMs. That was way worth. That was embarrassing to his brand. This is just a freak injury. Are we talking about him as a fighter? Or are we talking about him as a person?

Because as a fighter, this to me is significantly worse. This is a sad whimper. This is like, that's it. His behavior was much worse in the poor. So as an everlasting image, that was worse to me. This is just like sad. Worse in morality in the terms of like, that's what I'm saying. You know, the judgment.

They both suck, obviously. This is, this is sad. This is just like, man. It's almost pathetic. Because to your point, you just said 38, he turns 38 years old on Tuesday. Yeah. In the Porre fight, you looked at a man who was angry, who seemed like he still had the will. This man walked out of the cage, whatever he was saying to the corner.

That's it. Like, that is, if that's how it goes. In a sport and sense, it looks worse. Do you think that was the last time he ever competes? Yeah, I think it's the last time anyone's going to convince me he has a reasonable chance to win a boy. Do you think he ever competes again? Yes. Yes.

Oh, really? I thought you were going to say no. I don't think it's going to be pretty either. I don't think he is going to start, his body can't do this anymore. And he's going to start doing different types of competitions, maybe this influence or stuff in a few years down the line. And I just think it's going to really, all week we're talking about the magic of 2014 to 2016 when he was this phenom, this unbelievable run that we've never seen the like of before.

Every time he gets in there, he's dimming the light on that unbelievable. thing he did and that unbelievable Rune he had. And we're showing images right now and this sounds cruel, not the Bruce Buffer one, but him holding the knee and this sort of Mohawk, this aged look this sounds mean, but it gives

me Shaq Celtic vibes. It gives me players at the end of their career type vibes where it's just like, yeah, they just didn't have it there. I can't tell you guys this. I got a text from our good friend Dr. Brian Suterer who's always on point when it comes to these things. Didn't see the classic

shift like an obvious ACL, I'd say meniscus number one. ACL definitely possible and a concern, but not the definitive kind like we've seen in others, would fit with some meniscus issues coming into the fight that got worse on the landing. So there you have it from Dr. Brian Suter, who always does an amazing job pinpointing these things. Just want to call out a couple of tweets that are floating around right now. Here's Islam Khachev weighing in on the proceedings. Connor beat Connor. Congrats, Max. And here's Jake Paul.

I'm not sure if he's happy or sad about what happened. That was a joke. He's very clearly... Another thing to add on the injury, Josh... Our intern, Josh Markowitz, says that Megynalee said that per UFC doctors, he was offered crutches but didn't use them and hobbled out of the building

about 10 minutes ago. And so if it was a torn meniscus, you know, I'm no doctor. Like, again, if people find out that there wasn't a torn ACL, and they will compare it to Carlos Alberg, they will say, well, why didn't you fight through it? Again, not every injury is the same,

not every body is the same, one's older than the other, et cetera, et cetera. All I'm trying to say is it's not going to be very kind for him out there, right? There's not going to be a sentiment. Like, forget about the Dustin wife stuff. When he injured himself, when he got injured, against Dustin, it was like,

damn, that was crazy, freak injury. This felt like it never even got started, and I think people feel some sort of, away about that, right? Like, people get angry when they feel like they were not conned, but that it didn't deliver. I think a lot of the people in that in that arena tonight that paid thousands of dollars traveling and doing everything like that, they probably feel some type of way. I don't know what my answer is. If you ask me, do I think Connor McGregor will ever fight again? I really don't know. I think we have to hear from him. The fact that it's not an ACL makes

me think that maybe he will because that's obviously an easier injury to come back from. Very clearly, Max Holloway wants him to fight again and he wants him to fight against him because he obviously makes a lot of money when he fights against Connor McGregor because in case you missed it in his post-fight interview, he was repeatedly saying, let's run it back, let's run it back. It is wild that he injured his knee against Max all those years ago, won that fight and now here you go. 13 years later, he injures his knee and, you know, can't continue. I mean, what's more symbolic than that?

Oh, this is all speculation. It's impossible. five years to get back to this one. Yeah, look, he did say in the contract, April's in there, he has to fight before April to finish out that deal. Who knows? The U.S.S.S. He's not going to let him. You expected the blows knee out in the first 10 seconds, though.

No. And I don't know, you know, meniscus, surgeon. Look, we're not doctors. Maybe we get Dr. Brian on next week to talk about this sort of thing. And he's also, to a degree, speculating, but in a much more informed way. But yeah, just a real, I don't know, I don't know what the word is. The reason I said, by the way, the reason I compared it to Gina versus Rhonda, to me, Gina versus Rhonda was unfulfilling. Like, I was, we didn't get to see Gina throw a punch after hearing about her coming back.

We didn't get to see him land a punch. That's why I feel unfulfilled. I think to me this one was just more shocking than that outcome. This one to me feels like, game. Yeah. But it just felt like, I was just like, well, what? You know, that's how I felt after Gina Ronda and that's how I feel up to this one. So this one has an element of sadness because it just feels like we saw him kind of break down

in front of our eyes, maybe for the last time. But that's, yeah, that's how I feel. That's how I feel after seeing that. A weird week, right? Like there were moments where you're like, okay, what is this at the beginning of the week? Is he even partaking in anything? Then he shows up and then you start to get those flashes of the past. Wayans had a huge, what did Dana say?

Like, I think he said 11,000 people or something like that. It looks back. $7,500, I think he said, at the press conference, and then it ends like this. We have some footage of Connor McGregor limping. Where is this? This is out in the bowels of T-Mobile. You see a bit of a hop, skip. Someone behind him had crutches, but he's not using them.

There's none. No fringroaches. A wild one. It's an odd scene. It's just a bizarre scene. We're just kind of. sitting here trying to process it all. Let's talk very briefly about what happened in the co-main event because what happened in the co-made event to me, I thought was going to be related to the

main event. I was even saying as we were doing the watch along, like, oh, do they bring Patty out? Do they have them there? Obviously, much ado about nothing. But Patty Pimbled was given the slot of co-main event, not, you know, not by chance. And who cares what happened in January at this point? Patty Pimble gets the opportunity to showcase himself on the Connor McGregard card. We'll find out maybe down the line how many people were actually watching, but I'm sure it was a big number. And he came out, I mean, the complete 180 of what happened in the main event. He nailed it every single step of the way from the walkout, which was absolutely electric, which had everyone singing and dancing, including all the celebrities in the front row. There's a shot there of everyone from Mike Tyson

to Vince Vaughn to Tucker Carlson, Theo Vaughn, and on and on goes just dancing and doing the whole patty-the-battie thing. comes out, he looks great, he looks happy, he nails the walkout, the entrance, all that stuff and more, and then he submits Benoit Saint-Den-Nei via Darce Choke in what was also a shocking turn of events in a very short amount of time because Ben-Wa-Saint-Den-Ey, you know, throws a kick and then all of a sudden, I think it was a kick, right? And then all of a sudden shoots and gets caught in a guillotine, which eventually ends up being a dars-choke here. And Patty is unbelievable on the ground. He's obviously very comfortable.

that's his forte, the grappling side of things, and he chokes him out. Not just chokes, out cold. Out cold. An unbelievable turn of events. A glowing review. And then he nails the post-fight interview as well because he says, Ilya, Connor, who else did he say? Max, Justin, you can all get it.

Gives a very nice tribute to Diogo Jota, the former Liverpool player who tragically died along with his brother in a car accident around this. time last year. He was, he was unbelievable, right? That was magic. It's perfect. It's absolutely perfect. You cannot do it better than that. And on a night that culminates in an unfulfilling kind of feeling, this will be the lasting memory, right? On the biggest card, on the one that broke the gate record, on the one that everybody was here to see, Patty Pimblitz's the one standing and celebrating. Patty Pimblitz, the one, because Max Holloway doesn't even get to celebrate, right? Max Holloway is kind of just standing there waiting for his hand to be raised, but not really

able to celebrate, Patty Pimblet leaves the lasting memory. Patty Pimbleau's the biggest star of the night. Patty Pimbleau's the one that came in there in a high profile matchup where people were doubting him and going, ah, you really probably aren't at this level. You lost to Justin Gachie. Now, that one, in my opinion, I think is aged better. Some people may feel it as worse.

I think that's aged better because we now see how good Justin Gajie can be at his best. But Patty Pimbleau is the star of the night. Patty Pimlet is the one that when you walk away, when you go, man, that Conner card really, like Phil, But shit, Patty Pimbley, Pimlet. Like, that's the first thing you're going to say. You're going to say, but Patty Pimblit. And so A++, absolutely nailed it.

Biggest win of a square, right? So many options for him. With the back against the wall, undoubtedly, on a stage like that, on a Connor McGregor card to go out there and beat BSD in less than a minute. An underdog as well, yeah. I mean, underdog as well. I mean, we talk about, is Connor McGregor going to fight again. Now, Max is, you know, calling out a guy who we have no idea if he's going to return.

He's sort of in this, like, what's next for Max, BSD as well. Patty Pemblit is just like, yep, champs on the list. He lost him recently. He called out Connor. Oh, well, we still have Elia right there as well. The amount of big fights ahead for Patty Pembley, it was a very special night for Patty Pimble, no doubt about it.

I thought if Patty would have won and if Connor looked good, even in a loss, they'd try to book it. Obviously, now I don't think that's the case. For me, it's Patty versus Ilya. Yes. I mean, it's Patty versus Ilya. That is the one, right? Armament against Justin, done.

Book them. Yeah, it's all there. It's actually roads itself. I mean, it's five years in the making. When did they have that incident in the hotel with the hands sanitizer? 22, yeah, hand sanitizer boy. Isn't it crazy? Like, because we were talking about this earlier this week, that one time it was like laughable to think that Paddy Pimblea had a chance to get to do.

And now suddenly you're like, oh, yeah. It's a really good fight, actually. Absolutely. From what Patty has shown, right, in these last two fights, the ceiling that I had for him has been adjusted. The ceiling that I've had for him has been adjusted. Now, we have to, we must, must, must recognize that BSD put that one on a platter for him. As a Frenchman, he loves the guillotine, eh? We cannot.

We cannot, like, it was unbelievable by Patty, and we've seen it do it before. And as far as it goes with the grappling, he is an absolute wizard. There's no doubt about it. But BSD shooting for that shot and leaving his neck exposed in that way. It wasn't like he got rocked or anything like that. He put his neck out there. What happened? He was shooting a double.

He went for a take time. I think he wanted to dominate him on the ground, I guess. That was his plan. Everyone who broke this fight down, including Eric Nixig who texted me seconds later saying boom because he predicted this everyone who broke this frown down

said yeah for Patty to win he needs to get the fight to the ground well BSC just served that on a platter to him I don't understand Also I do want to point out of PTCS remember there was a time when when we said you know Patty Pemble could never be to

Eliottaporia wouldn't even be competitive yeah that was like a month ago that was like right before the White House card as Justin Gagee was walking out to the White House card it was like Ilya if he found Patty Pembley he would destroy him And now here we are four weeks later, and it's just like, that's a pretty close fight. Book it.

It's done. Like, this is, this sounds so stupid. And it might be just a stupid question. I mean, it's a terrible, anticlimatic. The main event is a shit show. But is it like good in a way like this event for the sport because Patty has been elevated into this situation? I know you don't have options off Connor, but having him a play and really giving him a superstar moment. But it didn't need the moment.

But it didn't need the main event for that to happen. He had it regardless. Yeah, he had it regardless. And if Connor would have had some kind of good showing, you could have had that potential money-making fight down the line. But no, I mean, let's be honest, for the business of the sport, Patty doing that is way better than getting knocked out cold by BSD just because Patty is way more popular.

I mean, you can make a strong case. Patty Pimlet, top five most recognizable names in the UFC? He's up there. Yeah, he's in the top three. I would say top ten for sure. Oh, for sure. I was going to say top three. I mean, like, you're watching champion.

Champions League, he's being interviewed. Like, everyone knows him, especially, I feel like, obviously, the European fans, but here in America, they love him. Look at that walkout. The walkout was, was tremendous. It's like McGregor in that, like, it's a whole performance. You know, like, from the get-go, there's just an involvement. Everybody's expecting certain cues on the walkout for him to do certain things, which

were all very much missing tonight from McGregor when he went into the cage, which made me think there was something up. But he's nearly, like, a perfect replacement. He's never had that run, that McGregor. He'll never have that run. No. That unbelievable run. Nobody will.

But in terms of, like a poster boy, in terms of a person who can get crowd involvement, like nobody else can, he does feel like nearly a perfect replacement. And forget Fight Week. He's interesting to people when he's not fighting. That's the thing with Paddy and that's the thing that Connor had, right? I think you're right in terms of he kind of feels like a successor to that. And I kind of get your point, right? I get where you're going with that, which is, to me, we may not have any Connor McGregor fights left.

but we definitely have Patty Pimbleau fights left and there will probably be quite a few of them and if the next one is Ilya and he wins that there's a chance that that launches him into a superstardom that is very rare. Talk about that storepower man. I didn't even realize I've been sleeping

on Patty's game. He has 1.32 million subscribers on YouTube. And this is what I mean. He has interest that has nothing to do with fighting. He's probably doing eating videos in some of these. One of his most recent videos.

I got fat again. Yeah, yeah. Rip my diet. Yep. 593,000 views. Yeah, people care about stuff outside of the Octagon for this guy, absolutely.

Is there any way that the UFC wouldn't put him with Elliott, Ariel, because the fact that, like, they have something there, they have something with I. They can rebuild the two different directions. Perfect number one.

This is the best time. Also, I think we're learning over these last few months, and everyone knows it in the fight game. Like, you can't plan things that far in advance because it moves so fast. It moves too fast.

This makes Justin Gichi Gitchie look that much better, right? Oh, my God. He just did it. Like Justin Gichi's stock just gets elevated. It has, there keeps, there continues to be, there continues to be talk of Justin Gachi, maybe fighting back into the year against Armin. There's this L.A. card.

I doubt he comes back this soon. Armand fighting in L.A. would make a lot of sense. Here's according to Kalshi, the, what do we call this, odds? What is the word? I know there's another word. These are the odds. These are the odds. Okay.

Justin Gachie. He's trained at 16. It seems as though the people think he will be championed by the end of 2026. I think that's also just a timing thing. I mean, he is still holding on to the idea that he may not fight again, which I think is probably public negotiations. Patty other names up there? I was just focusing on the second highest odds.

Armin, Ili at 5%. Paddy with a large jump here post-fighting. They think that there's a chance. It seems like the public thinks that there's a chance that Patty becomes Justin's next fight. What's interesting, though, is they think that Patty beats Justin in the rematch because they're saying who would be the title holder at the end? end of 2026. 30% of those people in that market

believe that what he did. What was Gathe's percentage there? 65 or so? I mean, that's an overwhelming favorite. Yeah. Let's go back to the main event. Here's footage of Connor McGregor leaving T-Mobile, still limping, has not gotten changed. Can they get him in a car? Can they just give them

those crutches? But maybe that's... No, he refers that. He refused. Get him in the fucking car. Get him out of there. So he is leaving the building, not meeting with the media. I spoke further to Dr. Suter here via text and he says my final thought is he came in with a meniscus injury the video of him stumbling and not wanting to put weight on it while getting undressed walking at the rinks at walking to ringside tonight is what leads him to believe that

when I asked him why do you think that he said he stumbled a bit taking off his right shoe and then went out of his way to not land back on that right knee broadcast pointed out maybe nothing but I think it's worth noting so ACL definitely a possible He says, but didn't see the classic shift like we saw with Ulberg's knee, suspect meniscus number one. Okay. So let's what the injury is. By the way, Max telling the UFC backstage that Connor was yelling to him, fight, fight. So at least as far as what Max is saying, he wasn't trying to get him to stop fighting.

But I think Max being the gentleman that he is and the sportsman that he was, I think kind of felt bad about going after him in that moment and told Mike Beltran to call it all. It was very clear Max didn't want to finish that. he kind of wanted the referee to step in there. I don't think it's fair to compare this to Oldberg. If anybody out there is kind of going, well, Conner's a wimp or whatever because Oldberg tore his ACL and finished the fight, the important thing that you have to remember is

Max Holloway is standing there, stepping away, not engaging and going, look at this guy's leg, stop the fight. Whereas Yeri Prohaska is coming forward trying to, you know, still fight, and Olberg is in there. Like, there's just going to be differences between these guys, and we have to recognize that.

like this idea that like everybody's going to be able to do what allbert did is just not reality. I don't think it changes my opinion of Connor McGregor or anything other than to say I'm concerned about his long-term health. I'm concerned about him stepping back in there. Can I ask a question about what happens next with him? Yeah. Can I ask a question that before next, if he did come in with a long-term injury, like if he came in with something wrong, right? Yeah. Why would you throw that kick? If in fact you were injured going into the fight, you would not throw a kick like that to put that kind of pressure on the right. I watch some videos of him warming up in the back and he's blasting kicks when he's warming up.

So is it possible it was just a freak thing that happens. Obviously, freak things happen when your body is breaking down and not in the same state that it once was. But the idea that like, oh, look at the way he got out of his shoe might be a little bit. It's all speculation until we hear from him. Yeah, we're just sitting here speculating. We need to hear was he truly injured. Now, there's a chance that they don't actually ever reveal this properly, right? There's a chance that if he was injured, they never talk about it, that him, his team, and nobody ever talks about it.

In a way, you'd want to talk about it. But then there might be that other side, right, where you say, I was compromised. Look, the Chandler fight that was booked and he pulled out for the toe, he got slaughtered. He got killed by people saying it was just a little bitty toe injury. He didn't make it. Now, potentially, he's injured in camp and makes it to the fight. then this is the showing. There's really not great options when your body is breaking down like this. He's compromised in a way that I don't know that he can recover from.

We talk about Patty Pimbled and the potential option of him fighting Connor McGregor. He was getting interviewed backstage and when the Connor McGregor was happening and his reaction was, oh my God, McGregor's done already, he's finished, the new boys in town. I can now officially become the face of the organization. Wow. Pretty perfect. That's exactly what it feels like. By the way, we're all focusing on Connor and what this all means. for him and you know we do have to talk about max too like we haven't brought him up and and it's a little bit of a shame it does not still but where does he go where does he go from here does he stay at 170 probably no no no no he said never say never when it comes to 170 but man like you

can i throw one out there what about patty if if i don't hate it if the ilia fight okay if we can't do illy yeah i don't i don't mind that's a good shout the max versus patty is a huge made-a-bent yeah two like iconic characters again and a little bit of a passing of the torch if Patty beats him. Max has been there. And of course, does the path of victory with Olivera

being so dominant in the grappling exchanges against Holloway as well? I'll tell you, Oliver versus Patty would be a fun one too. Yeah. Why are we just,

we're all like, it's definitely the I'm, and they're like, oh. Well, now I'm trying to think about the options. Ilya's up here. Ilya's up here for the options, though.

It's I'm gonna and Patty 100%. That's too good. I think it was a, I thought it was a mistake at the time to book Justin versus Patty and not do Ilya versus Patty at that time.

But it's, Ariel's right though. The Holloway matchup is like if you're trying to build Paddy right now, that might be the way to go. Because you've seen Oliver have that success against him in a game plan, which... You're saying getting a, get him a top-level win if he can do that, if he can do that in the grappling. But what if he can take out of Lillia support? I really don't think I'm going to be rushing back. I don't think he's at play yet.

No, but I mean, he just fought as well. Obviously, he didn't take a lot of damage. Regarding Max, like, Max fought I got knocked out. I can't see them running it back, but maybe because one's coming off a win, one's coming off a loss. Armin, we suspect, is getting the title shot. Charles Olivares, he just fought him, but wasn't great. Benoit Saint-Dinid just looked really bad and lost. And now we're into like a whole...

Once you get past BSD, it's Matthias Gamrod who's fighting Quill and Selkeald. These are the meta-ranking is, by the way. But now you're getting into like a whole... Max is on a different level. He's in a different stratosphere. There's a win over the champion of the UFC. Honestly, if it's not I think it's Patty for Max. That would make sense.

Who else is there? There's no one else. Does this kind of feel? like the first time that like 155 or at least in a while that 155 isn't just like a death's row of killers well there's that little like right there's this is meta by the way patty's below hanaeta moikano yeah because it's on like recent history and patty just lost i think he's sixth in if you look at the media rankings i bet he'll be higher yeah and the classic go down so annoying it's so annoying the flip yeah patty is patty is six okay so lochano is 10 and the media rankings

I know who I forgot about? Moricio. Hoofee versus Max? Marissa versus Patty. Oh, Patty? Yeah. They're right next to each other, five and six. I thought you were saying for Max.

I've named like seven options for Badi. I'm like, oh. It's definitely illy. Shut up. If they don't do Ilya. Mauricio versus Patty would be sick. No, no, no. It's Ilya versus Patty.

It's Ilya versus Patty. No room this. I don't ruin this. I'm a long way from Como back, I think. I've sort of convinced myself that it's Max versus Patty. Two fights that ended very quickly on the same night. Charles for the BMF? It's a great bill for Paddy as well.

Charles for the BMF. Who, Ilya versus Charles? Patty. I mean, this says it all about the night, though, right? We're now just rattling off Patty options. It's Patty. It's Patty. It's in the world. He's the boy.

He is the guy. Is he done to now 45 seconds in the cage with BSD? It's unlimited options. Well, that's the exact kind of shit we're doing with Connor as well. Yeah. You know, where it's just as soon as, oh, my God, all these options, everything, everything sounds good beside party's name.

I know you guys are wondering what Machine Gun Kelly thinks about all of us. He was about to ask him, man. He has taken to Twitter to react. Oh yeah, a long-time rival. Knees weak of old age, the real Connor can't stand up. Fair play for tagging him

with the clown emoji, but there it is. Remember that scene? Literally little face there. Music awards, I want to say. Look at all the masks. What a time. Weak individuals bring them back. Huh?

She's off. Fucking sheep. Freaking sheep. In case you're wondering... Should we rip those desert storm? This would be a great time. In case you're wondering, the gate 26.4 million... Unbelievable.

Absolutely. Yeah, no, they didn't get the resets. Attendance 20,000 and 76. UFC, wow, 26.4. The last numbered event, which was Newark, two months ago, because, of course, White House. The gate was a little over 7 million. Miami was a little over 6 million.

The BMF fight was a little over 8 in Vegas. Sydney was 10 million. Golly, Sydney, crazy. And then the first numbered event of the year was 10 million, this courtesy of our good friend Jedi Goodman. As far as the bonuses are concerned, fight of the night, any guesses? Royval versus Havanaugh.

That is correct. And we'll get to that fight in a moment. Sophie Cunningham getting a performance bonus? Performance bonus. That's right. Absolutely not. No, but she did serve as a special guest, Octagon Girl, Octagon Girl. Oh, sorry.

Before the first round, PtC Big Yon there, get that on camera. Dana White reacting to the injury. I'm only seeing the performance. Do we have the other two there? I'm only seeing the- Patty has to be won. I'm only seeing the fight of the night here. Has to be.

Patty is like the- Patty Pembley and King Green won the other two. And we'll get to those in a moment. Dana White reacting. to the injury. I was expecting at least a one-round war. We're assuming blown ACL. The doctors think the same, too, not our own. Doctor Souter. Can I call him our own? He's sort of a... He's a friend of a doctor. Yep. And, yeah, that's all starting. He's... But is he walking out like that on a blown ACL? Yeah, I don't... Yeah. It's not a doctor.

I remember Clay Thompson walking to the back after a blown ACL. Okay, let's give some love to the other fighters on this card because there were a tremendous amount of performances that were amazing. Mario Batista, Corey Sanhagen was an amazing fight, eventually won by Mario Batista via decision. He won the first round, almost locked in a Suliev stretch once again, and then a knee bar. And it seemed like for a moment, Corey Sanhagen, in between the first and second rounds, was injured. But then he comes back in the second round and looks like a brand new guy and wins that round. But in the end, Batista wins in the third round. He said he wanted to fight for the belt next.

I don't think that's going to be the case. Obviously, there's Marab Diwali-Shealy out there who wants to fight Peter Yan next. There's Sean O'Malley, who he has ties with Arizona boys. But I was really, I love that fight. First things first, it was flying under the radar, and I was very impressed with Mario Batista. Yeah, he stepped up. He did exactly what he needed to do. You have to give a lot of, you know, we're talking about Connor McGregor.

You have to give a lot of love to Corey Sandhagen, who obviously was like very very, very compromised after that first round. His own knee was affected and continued to stay in the fight, had a valiant second round, as you said. But Mario Batista came in and righted the wrongs of last time, right? He knew what that felt like to lose to Corey Sandhagen, and he did not want to feel that again. He's a super talented guy.

The fight against Umar really showed me that he can hang with the best of the best of the best. And this is another example of that. You feel for Corey who has been somebody who keeps climbing up and up and up and then getting kicked back down the mountain and up and up and up. But just another setback for him, I imagine that he'll be able to persevere and come back. But for Mario Batista, he's not going to get the next title shot, but it's hard to imagine that he's far away. It's hard to imagine he's more than one or two away. Brandon Royville versus Lonnie Kavanaugh had a similar flow to it in that Brandon Royville wins the first round.

Kavanaugh wins the second, and then Brandon Royville wins the third. And this was an unbelievable, unbelievable fight. What an unbelievable showing this was from Brandon Royval coming out a year after. the war against Joshua Van on International Fight Week in which he does not win, obviously. He gets this big win over Lonnie Kavanaugh, who had looked amazing. As of late as well, would you think of Brandon Royville, PT? I thought it was incredible.

We were kind of talking about this match of Brady in the week where we're like, that will piss off Brandon Royval being put against this guy that they're trying to kind of wrap a rocket ship onto his back after coming off the Joshua Van last year, like, oh, you're going to put me with another lad that you probably want to just put up in that title conversation? And look, Lonnie came back. He fought his way back into that fight, but Roy Val just wasn't allowing him to gain any momentum.

He took it straight back off him. I think it's not the worst thing in the world for Lonnie Cabinet. He's still a kid. He's still a very young guy. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he ends up in the title conversation further down the line. This is a good loss for him in a way because it's a very exciting fight and Roy Val's a very, very good fighter. And, yeah, I think it was brilliant. I think there was a lot of good fights on this card, but this one kind of takes.

takes the biscuit from me. Paddy performance, but this is clearly the best fight in the card. And King Green as well. I had another brilliant fight, but I won't be too worried if I was Lonnie Kavana. You say a good thing for him. Some might say, in the words of the great New York, Rick, the best thing to ever happen to him. Best case scenario. Best case scenario. I'll leave that up to Rick. No, I'm very excited to see where Lonnie Kavanaughan his career goes from here, an incredibly exciting fight. He's obviously a very skilled fighter, was having a lot of success against Brandon Roy Val, you know. one one going into that third round, anything can happen at that point. Roy Val comes out the victor by getting the choke.

I really want to see him tested more against this upper echelon of the division. You know, he got that main event on short notice against Brandon Moreno in Mexico earlier. Unbelievable performance. At elevation, wins by unanimous decision absolutely puts it on Brandon Moreno. But that was sort of that first foray into the upper echelon. He gets another test against Brandon Royale comes up short. I want to see him continue to test it. That expedited his growth as well.

He wasn't originally booked in that fight. He was ranked like 15. Yeah, so he beats Moreno. Now all of a sudden, where do you go from here? You have to fight a Roy. You got to talk a top. If you take a bit of a step back now. Let's talk about the first fight on the main card.

We were all foaming at the mouth. King Green, Terrence McKinney. They did a great job of selling this fight all week long. Like they were doing their best to steal some of the headlines. And it looked like it was going to be at a time a Terrence McKinney sub. It looked like at a moment Terrence McKinney was going to finish King Green. King Green bleeding, bleeding, crimson mask. Terrence McKinney, as you can see, taking a time.

his back trying to get the arm under the chin. It doesn't happen. And then all of a sudden, King Green, with his own custom shorts, turns the table. Now, in the moment, G.C., I was saying I thought he had survived the round. No one seems to have agreed with me. But he gets the win at 459 King Green of the first round. By the way, great moment. As he's taking his back, McKinney, he's just hitting him with bitch shots.

And I'm not calling them bitch shots because I'm trying to be cool. He's literally punching and calling him a bitch every time he's landing those punches. It was incredible. All of us were on tilt for it. We couldn't wait for it. Anytime Terrence McKinney steps in the octagon, whether he wins or loses, it's always exciting. But the fact that it swung in that way. The fact that it looked like Terrence McKinney was getting ready to finish Bobby Green. He had him mounted. He had him flattened out at one point. Bobby Green fights all the way back. King Green. King Green fights all the way back. Thank you for the correction. Fair play. He's on a four-fight win streak. Got at least give him the respect. He's got the KG on the side of the custom shorts as well. For him to be able to do that. And then we're watching it and we're doing the countdown. Five, four, three, and then he gets the finish there. One of the most exciting rounds that we're going to see the entire year. And for King Green to find himself at almost 40 years old, now on a four-fight winning streak, it's incredible, man. He's just one of those guys, 54 professional fights at this point.

You're always going to be able to throw him on the early fights on a main card of a pay-per-view or on, you know, a co-main of a fight night. Like, he's always going to be there. And it doesn't seem like he's slowing down, man. I did not see this coming from him. Like, this is a guy that we were talking about in Strike Force being his sort of, you know, like Mid Carter in in 2010, 2011. His longevity is astounding. 15 months ago, he was on the wrong end of a K-O-of-the-year nominee against Maricio

O'Houfi to be like one in three in his last four. Oh my gosh. The sport just like, it... Every time you think you've figured it out, and maybe that's a lesson for us for what we're talking about in the main event, every time you think you've figured it out, it's like, oh yeah, and then the guy goes on a four-fight winning street. The fastest moving sport on earth, it's not even close. Be honest.

You're pissed off. about that stoppage a little bit, I think, aren't you? I didn't think it was the right call. In the moment, live, and I haven't watched it back, I thought McKinney had survived the round. And I feel it's sort of, pissed, I think, is strong, but, like, I thought it was the wrong call,

and it reminded me the Pumi Nakuda, Adriana Marais' fight. I thought that was the wrong call, too. It seems like the referees, well, honestly, it reminds me of Rico Verhoeven versus Alexander Usik. We've seen a few times now in combat sports where the referees are stopping fights

post-ending of the round, and they're saying, oh, is that the buzzer? I don't know. It just seems to happen a lot these days. Yeah, no, I understand. But I'd like to watch it again. Maybe I've only seen it live

and I wanted to see them who was so freaking close. In the ref's defense, he was right there. You know, six, seven seconds ago, he is standing right there because that body... I'm not trying to take anything away

from King Green. The comeback was unbelievable. It was mesmerizing. It was amazing because he was literally on the verge of being submitted. He's all bledied up. It looks like it's a horrible situation for him

and he comes back and finishes the volleyball. And then a great post-fight celebration giving the double birds to the camera as well. Let's talk about Robert Whitaker moving up to 205, getting a finish breaking Nikita Krilov's jaw, we suspect. Here we are acting as doctors. But he did land a massive punch and Nikita kind of moved back and said no moss. And that seemed to be the telltale sign. This is a guy who has a finish at 170, who has many a finish at 185 and now gets a finish at 20.

And we were, and look at that shot right there. By the way, are these, are these Esther Linz? She was cage, so it's a, yeah. She was Caged side. I hope we're using some of Esther Lynn shots. I don't know if those are hers, but she was Caged side for us, the great all elbows. This is a guy who, you know, I think in a very shallow 205 pound division, this is a guy who, I think, there it is. Speaking of Esther.

Shout out to Casey. This is the photo. Oh, my God. This is Tony Ferguson against Michael Chandler-esque, turning him into an 80-year-old man. What a performance by Robert Whitaker. This is the guy who I think is like one or two fights away from fighting for the belt, no? He's definitely a name that this division needs, right? Just because the division is so shallow.

It's so shallow and it needs somebody who can inject some life into it in a way that he can. I'll be the first to admit. I didn't think this 205 foray was going to go particularly well. You know, standing across from Krilov, he'd looked small. He just didn't look like he was going to be able to physically kind of meet that challenge. And in the early going, it felt like maybe that was coming to fruition. But when he survived early danger and was able to kind of get into his flow, it was just Robert Whitaker. And he's going to be more technical.

He's going to be better than a lot of these guys at 205 when it comes to the technique. Because as you kind of like creep up the divisions, once you get the heavyweight techniques pretty much out the window. But 205 isn't great at that, Robert Whitaker is all technique. And so if you put him in a division where he can kind of find the right matchups, I think he can have some success. He's always going to be kind of undersized, but he can have some success.

What do you do? Do you put him against Paolo Costa? I was going to say, Nikita Krilov is too well. That's a great fight. Jump him up to... He really could be two wins away away from the title. It's a huge name.

Division is very shallow. Oh, by the way, the champion is a torn ACL, so we don't know what's going on there. There's a big fight coming up with Magamadalakal and Khalil Roundtree. I'm not saying put him up there just yet. There's a difference between Krillov and those guys, but they're going to try to want to expedite him. And let's be honest as well, Whitaker says he's not here for a long time.

Like he's in the twilight. By the way, for a guy who's talked about mental health issues and whatnot, to see him so happy all week long, to see him come out from Australia with his five children, fair play to him to come to fight with five kids under probably the age of eight or something like that. Like we, I know Rick, you can, you know, you can sympathize with this. It's not easy flying that far with three kids, let alone five. So shout out to Robert and his whole family. That was a great moment.

And what about former Buffalo Bill roster, training camp attendee, Gable Steveson? Let's sit back in. Let the line take it away. Tell us everything about what. Guys, I don't want to sit here and just say I told you so, but I told you so. Tell us about Gables. All week I was hearing about Elisha Ellison and how he was. was going to be the stumbling block. He's a fantastic

fighter. Look, the odds didn't reflect that. The odds were all in Gable Stevenson's favorite in a major way. He was the biggest favorite in U.S.E. history. But there was a lot of chatter. There was a lot of chatter about this being the stumbling block for Gable Stevenson. My true feelings, my honest takeaway from the fight were he got he got Cage Time, right? He made his UFC debut. He was able to

get past that, right? Which we've seen in it, and it has hurt other fighters before. They're, there have been, octagon jitters are a thing that has happened. And so to get him in there is step one, but I will admit being a little frustrated by the matchup because I think he's better than that. I think he, like, he could have done this against somebody who has a little bit more of a name and it would have meant more. Getting this didn't really show me much.

There was nothing new that I learned about Gable Steven. I already knew he was kind of tough. He took that head kick pretty flush down in Mexico and ate it and kept on coming. I already know he can wrestle, right? If, if you're living under Iraq, like, Alexel. and stuff to take down. Yeah. I've already got the shirt printed on the way.

Let me put the bulletin. Let me put it to you. How many fights before he fights for the toilet? Look, with all this flurry. You're asking me a question. No, no, no, no. You tried to do this last time. You're asking me a question.

You're asking me a question. This guy right here. You're asking me a question that I can't answer because I think he should have fought somebody tougher than Alisha Ellison in his first fight. He can fight like a Derek Lewis. Were you truly impressed with the performance? No.

It was just what you expected. By the way, there was a moment there. Ref stopped the fight, looked like he hit... Okay, actually, it was weird. It was not a low, low, though. I don't actually think he hit him below the belt. No, it was not a low bow.

But Ellison says he hit him below the belt, and Mark Goddard then reacted to that, which is not exactly what you should be doing in that moment. Like, you should either see it or not. He wasn't going to stop it, or at least pause the fight, unless, you know, if Ellison didn't do anything. So that was a little bit weird. But I was getting flashbacks to a degree of Brock Leicester versus Frank Meier,

one, Steve Mazzagati stops to fight this, highly anticipated. Here's the thing about Gable Steve said. I agree with everything you say, we went and sent Casey to Mexico to shadow him. Like, I believe he's going to be a stud. Rogan kept saying, with all due respect to Rogan, who seems to be a big fan of the show as well, so I'm not trying to. Thank you so much. Careful. Most anticipated heavyweight debut ever.

Brock was way bigger. Brock was the WWE heavyweight champion. Alistair Overeem. Like there's guys that had come in that it's just. There felt like there was no major buzz for this. There was no major buzz. I think it's the fact that he was fighting Elisha Ellison. That's it.

I don't disrespect to O'Lash Allison, but there's the levels to it. Overeux fought Brock in his debut. Yeah, of course. I know this has become a lot of media. I tried to get him on. He only did what was being asked of him. The bare minimum as far as like the backstage stuff. He did start a beef with Bo Nicol, which surprised me out of nowhere.

He's only four and O. He's only four and O in the sport. But I know this has become the thing. I'm the Gableglazer. It's fine. I own it. I accept it. It's fine. It's fine. It is what it is. We've actually updated it to the gable gobbler. That one feels a little worse to me. I don't know if I can abide. All right, Gable Gabbler number one right here. Truth be told, though, if he stepped in there with the

Derek Lewis that fought Josh Hokit at the White House, he wins that fight. Yes? Sure. That's all my point is. We can expedite this timeline. He's going to beat Cyril Gunn. It's fine. It is what, no, I'm just I don't want to go back to that. If he steps in there with Sergei Spiebac. Yes, he will beat Sergei Spiebac at this point in his career. Do you want a quick turnaround? I think you have to. We need to put him on like the boxing.

Yeah, that's it. That's it. Humbud. Hams up. Hams up. I'm thinking Thomas Peterson next. No. Chase Sherman after that.

Oh, get the fuck out of here. Bring back Jared Van der. No, come on. Let's be real. What about my man, Tanner Boser? A fight like that. Big Tanner. No.

Rankings. You want them in there. Okay. Yes, bro. Mick Parkin, Mick Parkin at 14, Ryan Span at 15, Walter Walker at 11, Vitor Patrino at 10. How could he not be in the caliber of these guys? Sergei Spivak, let's do it. Listen, I'm glad he finally out the debut out of the way.

Who's that? Who's that? Ersich. I really was only using his nickname. Brando Ferris. Brando Ferris. You guys were going to get it. I got it, baby.

I'm glad he finally got the debut out of the way. Cool to see, you know, Greg Jackson, Brandon Gibson, John Jones. in his corner like they're putting him on the rocket and you know they're they're taking the time I have no problem with him fighting Ellison by the way fourth pro fight give it some time he's still very raw what burn ass he was overextended like I'm fine with it I'm totally fine with it better to it's oh give him give him five more cupcakes build them up there's no rush one for us just seeing mowling through some guys there's no rush in my opinion no rush

whatsoever two points away from toilet it was okay Adrian Yanez knocked out Cody Garbrandt It appeared as though Cody Garbrandt was taking off the gloves. We never heard from him, so don't want to speculate as to what that meant. Of course, we all remember Brock Lester taking off the gloves at WrestleMania a couple of weeks ago or months ago in this very city, and then he came back a month or so ago. So that's something that is a little bit sad to see because Cody Garbrandt in that very building 10 years ago beat Dominic Cruz in one of the greatest performances by a challenger in the title fight.

Adrian Yannes, is there's all the ground of the world. I think he's one of the best boxers at 1.35. He has tremendous striking, so that was a great win for Yanez. Luke Riley with a great win. I thought a little bit, I'm not trying to be that guy, but a little premature as well against Kai Kamaka. I thought it was just a smidge premature. Preachish stoppage got it. I'm being told your mic is not working at the moment.

I don't know why. Frank's coming in to help you out. Sorry, Connor. Yeah, that's true. It did happen last year as well. Luke Riley beat Kai Kamaka via Stanley TKO, solid win for the next gen up and comer. He's great. look, it kind of, again, we're doing this a lot now, but it does kind of feel like the

McGregor moment with the guys coming in the back, the Colpenters, the Paddy Peeulans. Like, you know, this guy is such a big star that they want what he's selling. And if you're in that same spot with him, if you're in his orbit and you can perform, you will get an opportunity. And Luke Roidy is definitely equal to the opportunities. I'm mispronouncing Kong Wang. Because we've now learned of a new way. They call her Wang Tong.

That's what they say on the broadcast. she beat Tracy Cortez for unanimous decision and then afterwards called out Valentina Shevchenko old foe from the Moitai days

Not gonna happen Yes I think it was a kickboxing fight Or maybe more time I forget Probably not gonna happen I remember asking Valentina about her And she didn't seem all that interested

It seemed to bother her So there's something there Yeah there is something there But I don't think she's She's not compelling Counterpoint towards it She's got personality But she's the performance

Look It was a domination of Tracy Cortez. It didn't look like at any point it was in doubt. Tracy Cortez was not performing well. But she's not going to get to Valentina, in my opinion. Like it's just, she's not going to do enough to get there. It's too far. Damien Pinas beat Cizzer Almeda. The first round knockout. That was incredible. What? PINAS. Yeah, was that not? Damien Pinnas. Am I wrong? He just going to win hired PIN. Oh, geez.

Yeah. Hard or not? Pinyas? They go. There's that. Farid Basharad beat John Garva of unanimous decision. Ryan Gandra knocked out Zach Rees in the first round. Nasty. That was a very impressive knockout as well. And Alessandro Costa with the submission went over Cody Durden. Did you want to say that? What's your, G.C.

I was just going to say, it was a popular meme, the penis wang, so I like hitting that. Wow. Wow. I was not familiar with that one. I'm trying to keep my head or my mind out of the gutter. Dana White, speaking to the press. I will say right now my timeline is flooded with complaints, actually getting a bunch of texts about the press conference being a total shit show.

In what way? All focused on ZUFA boxing. What? What the question. Waste of time. At the post? Right now, yeah. They're asking about ZUFA boxing?

About the questions being asked. He seemed very frustrated. Here we are. Here we are. A mile away. Put up the bat signal. You want real journalists to show up and save the day. Just let us know where to show up back of T-Mobile.

Here's Dana White. Getting about the injury for when Connor McGregor. I mean, I was expecting at least a one-round war, or who knew what Connor was capable of as far as cardio or whatever else after a five-year layoff. And there you go. I mean, we're assuming blown ACL. I'm no doctor, but that's what I figured when I saw it,

and doctors think the same thing, too. Now, it was a great night for the UFC, a ton of celebrities there, all kinds of big names. Their latest signing to Zoufa boxing, Shakur Stevenson, who we spoke about yesterday, in attendance, and they flashed up on the screen. Shakur looking phenomenal, the jewelry, everything. Nice.

On fleek, dare I say. But the lower third, which is, we have a lower third to explain to the bottom. Like the lower third is the thing that happens here. It's like the nameplate, if you will. If you have one of me, I don't know if you have one of me, it's the lower third of the screen. Anyway, it said Jalen Williams of the OKC fund. There's a lower third. There it is.

Right there. That's called the lower third in the business. Well, the one under Shakur said Jailen Williams. How do you think Mr. Dana White felt about... I'd say he took it easy. I'd say he said, you know what, guys, we all make mistakes. That actually wasn't Jailin Williams. That was the new signing I had, Chikor Stevenson.

You think he was... I paid millions upon millions for this guy. It's not a big deal. Understanding. That's where he is, man. The UFC truck, not knowing boxers allegations, I've got to be... Do you not remember Kendrick Lamar for Terrence Crawford? I mean, Ptze, you may be right.

He was very understanding. Let's take a look at Dana. I imagine it was so common that production truck. That's why they were so scared to show any more nameplates. Let's hear it. I'll make the sticks. I tell you all the time. My production team, we just did the White House.

We built a fucking arena on the south lawn of the White House, and it was the greatest fucking thing in the world to be there live and to watch it on TV. I just paid Chaucor Stevenson a shitload of money. for some reason we can't figure this celebrity shit out. They put them up as a fucking O KC NBA player. Are you fucking kidding me? I mean, it's just, it's absolutely crazy. But we are the absolute worst to ever do the celebrity thing.

When we put celebrities up, we are the worst. I just had this fucking debate in the back with my guys while I was screaming and everybody back there. And they said, no, soccer's worse. Soccer shows the people and they don't put up any graphics. Oh, no. We put up fucking graphics. graphics and put the wrong guy's name on it, we win. We're the worst ever to fucking do. It would have, it would have been fucking hilarious if the truck put up a wrong name for Dana White

right in that moment just to fuck with them. They don't know boxing, clearly. But I mean, like, but dude, we're Stevenson, man. Yeah. He did a press conference. But who was like, there he is, yet that's Jalen Williams. Was Jalen Williams even there? I know. They never showed him. They showed Chet Holmgren. Shout out the, I'm sure he was there. I'm sure he was there. I'm sure he. was there. That clip of Dana is hilarious and freaking out like that, but God bless whatever fucking production assistant or AP put that up. And that was, yeah, graphics department that put that up. Maybe Frankie in the back sympathizes with those people with, you know, how the audio went earlier. Cut it out. Okay, sorry, sorry. But the audio was messing up earlier,

or are you talking about on Wednesday? Wednesday. Why are we doing this? Then there was a, what's the way? What's the way? A coppony? No, solidarity. Oh, solidarity. Solidarity. I'm taking a fucking day off. Speaking of audio, there was a very important question asked at the press conference to Dana White about the full replays. He said he's been getting a lot of

shit in his own house from his own kids. They're working on it with Paramount. It's a music issue. Oh, it's a music issue. I was to say, my brother, you know, obviously performed to the White House. He was pissed when there was no full-flight replay. He was like, hey, man, how do I watch the full-flight replay?

I was like, no, man, you can't. Why was it doable on ESPN? Why were they able to show it and not Paramount Plus? You'd think they'd have the money. They're working on it, man. Okay, here's Aaron Bronstetter of TSN. Sorry, not TSN anymore, Sportsnet. Does a great job of recapping the Dana stuff.

Let me just read a couple here. As it just wrapped up, he was very pleased with Gable Steven, called the debut Incredible. Says it's going to be very fun and interesting to match him up. He said that people can read between the lines on Ryan Garcia and Connor Ben being on stage together yesterday at the ceremonial weigh-ins. He said

that Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana fever is going to be fighting for them. No, just kidding. Said it was decided eight minutes before she did the ringwalk thing to do that or whatever the octagon girl thing. So a very spur of the moment. Damn, so she was just like in the crowd ripping drinks

and they were like, yo, get up there. And she was like, all right. I think she probably volunteered. Chukchel said Jalen Williams was definitely there. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Thanks Chuck. He said that it's up to Cody Garbrandt, whether or not he retires. I guess the question sometimes has been asked of Dana, do you want this person to retire?

He's leaving it up to him. And he says that Nikita Krilov's jaw was not broken, as was feared. So there you have it. Guys, it's been fun. It has been. What a blast. Thanks for joining us, guys.

I first ever watch party, your first ever watch party as well. Fantastic, thank you. And then we do it again. Whenever you're ready, man. I do want to let everyone know. We are going to be back here on Monday. Usually we go home on Sunday, but we're sticking around. We thought the whole team could

have a nice day off together, hang out, maybe a little Hell's Kitchen, a little NBA Summer League, like really ball. Give me a fucking break. Broadering. Really come together as what. Because after all, it's all of our days off. Yes. But 95% of us want to hang out together on our day off. What are you doing them off, right? Do we have the plans? Yeah, I'm not sharing them with you Yeah. Maybe we could tag along. No, that's the general idea. We're going to have a great time.

He's going to give us a speech at the end of this and he's going to be like, hey, by the way, guys, I'm not going to see you at all tomorrow. I'll see you Monday morning. I will not see you. Don't bother me. Don't call me. Peace and love. Peace and love.

He's very Ringo star in that regard. Nothing. Beyond October. Peace of love. No more mail beyond October. But we will be back on Monday in this very studio for our final show from Las Vegas. It's been an unbelievable trip so far, but there's still more fun to be had.

I can already tell you that Mayhem Miller is going to join us in studios. Maybe he can help us break it all down. I was going to say, we got security. Careful what you wish for. Wow. Yeah, it must be. Wow. You've seen him in person since, but you had not had them in a studio since.

Yes, yes. Yeah, we're going to need your help there, Frankie, to be security guard. So that'll be on Monday. Hopefully, some of the winners from this weekend, as well. And then we'll be back on the road to return to New York City on Wednesday. Tuesday we'll have something else for you. So stay tuned for that. We'll never leave you empty-handed here at Uncrowned HQ, Vegas HQ. But for now it is time to go for our entire team here in Las Vegas. The whole crew in the back as well, our entire team in New York and

scattered across this great world. I'm Ariel. That's New York, Rick. That's G. That's PC. That's Peece. Good night. From Las Vegas, thanks for watching.