The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 332 main event mystery, Nassourdine Imavov next for Sean Strickland? | The Craic

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Our usual trio of Petesy Carroll, Chuck Mindenhall, and Ben Fowlkes are back for this week’s edition of The Craic.UFC 332 is just a month away and still without a main event. The lads debate what could headline the Salt Lake City card (07:52).With the lightweight division also in need of some clarity, the boys turn their attention to Justin Gaethje, who has yet to return to the cage. What could be next for the UFC lightweight champion? (22:12).Then, they discuss the rumours that Sean Strickland could defend his belt against Nassourdine Imavov this December (30:29).This weekend sees the UFC returning to Paris with Saladine Parnasse taking on Dan Hooker (43:43), while Katie Taylor prepares for her retirement party at the esteemed Croke Park (57:49). The lads get into it all.To finish up, the trio answer your Super Chats (01:15:55).

Crackheads, it's Friday, baby, and it's going to be a heated weekend of combat action, particularly in my continent, the great continent of Europe. That's right, UFC Paris this weekend, Saladin Pernasse, a man I've been covering since his teenage years, finally takes his first steps into the UFC octagon when he faces Dan Hooker. In my opinion, the toughest test of his young career, just 28 years of age. Of course, he is used to these big stages. KSW have done these kind of massive events in Paris before.

That will be something that he is very used to. However, it is a big step up for the French fighter, and I'm very excited to see that. And of course, while that's going on, there's a big old event in Crow Park, Katie Taylor, Swan Song, and let me tell you, this whole town has been switched onto this fight all week.

People are absolutely buzzing for this. I'm getting messages every day. Like, at least 10, people like, are you sure you can't get any tickets? There was 80,000. How do you not have tickets? Everyone was saying she couldn't sell the place out. They're all gone, okay?

Just stand outside, beat someone up, take their tickets. That's my only advice to you. I don't know what else's tell you. Of course, we have a lot to talk about today. You'll see our thumbnail there. We have Alex Pereira and Hokka there. But this is just playing the sky shit. We don't know what's going on.

I just borrowed from a statement, Ariel Loani made on his show on Wednesday. I know the lad's talked about it yesterday and boys in the back as well, but what the hell is happening for that sort of? Salt Lake City event. Apparently this weekend we're going to find out. Maybe there'll be announcement mid-parri-card, the city of light. Maybe we can shed some light on who will be in the main event of UFC 332. I mean, Jesus Christ, I'm getting better at this every week. I mean, give myself the old Barry eight for that one. That was amazing. Anyway, before I bring in my esteemed

colleagues, we need to have a word from our friends over at Calci. This episode is sponsored by Calci, the largest prediction market in the United States. Here's what makes cali different you are not playing against the house calci is fair to be trading you buy yes or no contracts and whether something will happen and you're trading directly against other users think of it like buying or selling in stock the line isn't set by some algorithm working against you no no no public opinion sets the price calci is cftc approved federally regulated which is why it's available all across the country including that's right california and texas download the calci app and use code crack c r a i cd to get ten dollars when you trade

$10. K-A-L-S-H-I. Calci, trade what's next. Wow. What a read from me, from my friends, from Calci. And without further ado, bring them both in. They're both here. It's very exciting. That's right. Get them in here. Oh, there they are. Ah, there. Yeah, yeah, baby. Yeah. What's going on? Look, we missed you, baby. I mean... Where's your hat? What? Your Raiders hat. I know she'll only break that out when a, when a Ben's on the show, but not when I'm on here. What's going on? Well, I don't think it's going to be on the show anymore, based on what I was told last week.

And, you know, if that wasn't enough, I get another message from Chuck going, yo, just on the side, like, what the fuck was that hat about, Pissy? And I realized I was, you know, treading in some terrain. I didn't really know much about. It is a nice hat, though, Chuck, I will remind you. You've sent me a beautiful Denver Broncos hat, and that will be adorning this head of my... Covering up these pub like curls at some stage during the season. Well, Ben knows, like, if you wear, like,

like a Raiders hat, right? That's basically an admission that you have a felony on your record at some point, right? Like that's basically what that's saying. Only misdemeanor. You're basically telling people, I am either a bad person or I am open to becoming one. Yeah. And I don't know if that's the message that you're trying to send, but that is what the Raiders fandom stands for. And they stand for at, crowd. The Black Hole, baby. Is the Black Hole delinquency? Is that what it is? I mean, no one And here's the black hole and think that sounds like a nice place. Sounds like having fun in there. Sounds like they're very open and welcoming.

No. Well, can I say I wore the hat when I was journeying from Las Vegas, Sin City, back to Dublin. And I had several people say to me, go Raiders. Someone shouted the black hole at me. And I thought he was going to assault me. You know, I did it at the airport? Yeah, got a lot at the airport. My Uber driver as well.

And a guy I bought a sandwich. of so they were all very friendly people, Ben. That's all I'm saying. Really, really friendly. Mine gave me a sandwich. Chook where the hell were you? Well, man. You know, went to Boston.

You guys know that. Checked out some, uh, some bare and knuckle fights. That was fun. Um, yeah, I missed it. You know, I missed you guys last week and, uh, I was, I did watch the show. So I just wanted you to know, I was with you. I just wasn't with you. Oh, all right.

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Yeah. What I want to know is what did you say to those people? in Boston at Fenway Park who thought they could get a fuck Montana chant going. Shook started it. You sent me the video of those people and I was just like, all right, I assume right after you, you hit stop on your recording, you went over there and you took issue with them.

You let them know. This is from Ben. There's many people. I'll tell you what, like, there were, I don't know if you paid any attention to this card, but there were like three or four fighters from Montana. So it was a very strange kind of invasion to Boston from these Montana. And the row that was directly in front of press row was standing the whole time. They had to keep telling them to sit down.

And all of these people were from Montana. And they were proudly from Montana. They're all waving their flags to the point where a lot of the Boston people took exception as we got deeper into the night and started calling names. We can talk about all that later on. But yes, it was the Montana people stole the show, Ben. You'd be happy to know that. Great Falls, Montana has become an unlikely hotbed for bare knuckle boxing. And I'm glad to hear they showed out and got a win.

for C.M. Russell High School's own. Yeah. That's right. That's a big one. You know, you've talked a lot of shit about the Raiders fans, but based on the feeling in Fenway Park that night, it feels to me that other people have this kind of feeling towards Montanans then. No, no, see, that's where I got to, I got to push back on this narrative. When you're saying other people, who you mean are Boston sports fans, known to be the worst sports fans. known to be the worst sports fans in America.

Well, yeah. They are going to act like that about it. Can confirm. They're going to act like that about anything. They're the worst, the absolute worst. There I said it. We have a very strong affinity for the Boston people. You know, it's funny is I've been to both parks.

I've been to, but this one, they're in Oakland. I've seen the Raiders in Oakland, not in Las Vegas, but in Oakland. And I've seen the Patriots, both times Broncos. At the Oakland, which is a Monday night game, they dump. a small barbecue grill on our hood. Wow. And at the Patriots one, they broke out my back window. So you determine, like, which fan base is worse.

I'm not kidding. That's the only time I've ever, both those fan bases, that's the only time I've had stuff like that happen. So that just gives you an idea, you know? How do you react to that? You come back as a grill on your bonnet? Like, how do you deal with that? There's nothing you can do.

You don't know who did it. I mean, they just saw you get out of your car and your gear, you know? So I stopped, anytime I go to a game now. This is a long time ago. I don't, I don't even wear the gear anymore. You used to be painted orange and blue. Not worth it. You were painted orange and blue in the day.

Let's be honest. That was the barrel man. Do you remember him? The guy would wear the barrel. Was there at least any grilled meats left over? It was just the charcoal. Oh, fuck. Oh, man.

There was a drumstick there or something at least you go, hey, you know what I mean? Got something out of this. Speaking of fun times, boys. Speaking of me of getting something out of, uh, something. Terrible segue. Um, a lot of talk today about UFC 333. too. Let's let's let our friend Ariel O'Anne set the table here because let me tell you, when Ariel doesn't know what the fuck is going on, get very worried, UFC fans. Here's what

Ariel said on Wednesday. Ski says, hello Ariel, with the news of Valentina not fighting and it having been radio silence for so long. I did reach out. What I was told was she was never like really formally offered anything on this Utah card. And by the way, regarding the Utah card that everyone's wondering about October 3rd, 3-3-3-2. They still don't have a main event. So that's in 31 days from today. I had heard there's talks of having the main card on CBS. I don't know if that's still going to be the case.

And Dana White said yesterday that they're going to announce something this week. And I'm asking people about it. And I don't get, like I don't see a lot of, smoke where there's fire. They're going to come up with something. Pereira Hokit? I don't know. I'm just making it up. I'd watch that.

Yeah. But that's not for a belt. So? Well, that's where we're up, boys. That is not filling me with a lot of comments. Ben, you wrote about this on the mailbag this week. And what are your spoidy census telling you over there in Montana? Well, if you go to the UFC website right now for UFC 332, it says, TBD versus TBD, the classic, which, yeah, that is, that is a fight promoter classic.

Don't you worry about it. Some people will find one person to fight another person on this date. Don't you have any fear? And yet, we're a month out. Tickets are for sale. Plenty of good seats still available according to the ticket map. You got to come up with something for these people. And at this point, you got to think the ship is kind of.

sailed on any sort of title or near title type thing, even in like interim title thing. Because it's, you're not going to get anybody to, you shouldn't be able to get anybody to put a UFC title up for grabs on a month's notice. And so it would have to be one of these, this is just for fun. Either it's a couple possible contenders or the thing the UFC has historically loved to do in a situation like this. A fight maybe across divisions that you just didn't see coming at times. Remember when they had to go scrambling during. UFC 200 and we're like Anderson Sullivan and Daniel Cormier.

Yeah. Didn't see that coming. You know, we can, those are the kinds of things that the UFC can often pull out because they have the advantage of having just a massive roster, so many different talented fighters, an embarrassment of riches in that regard. If you call up enough people panicked enough and you put enough zeros on the paychecks, you're going to eventually find two people who will say yes and people will show up.

To me, though, the thing that, you know, somebody kind of brought this up in the mail bag and I responded to it is how you got here is that Salt Lake City is paying the UFC to come and put on an event. Paramount Plus is paying the UFC to broadcast an event. And so the incentive structures for the UFCs have, it's really weakened because they know we get paid from these different sources, whether it's a great fight card or just a fight card. And so, you know, we got other pressing concerns elsewhere. We can't necessarily find like a really hot matchup to anchor this fight card. We know it kind of doesn't matter. We know we go to this place infrequently enough and we have enough fight fans in the area that it'll probably sell out just because they hear the UFC's coming

to town and they don't know when the next time they'll get to see us is. But even if it doesn't, we're getting paid by the city just to bring a show there. Even if not a ton of people end up watching on Paramount Plus doesn't matter. We've taken the lumpiness out of the business. They're paying us a set fee just to go there and put on a show. And so there's just, everybody else seems to have a real sense of urgency about it. What are you going to do? How are you going to figure out a headliner for this? And the UFC's attitude on it seems like, we'll figure something out.

Are people really speculating that there'd be an interim title fight between Natalia Silva and Wang Kong? Did we really, was this really a thing going on? I saw that go. I saw that floating around several different places on Twitter. And I was just like, no. I refuse to leave it. Oh my God.

Even if the UFC came out and announced that that was the case, I might still refuse to believe it. Because if they did something like that and tried to tell us it was the main event for this, that'd be a, I don't say a new low, but it would be a new something. It would be a new indication that they've decided we don't really need to try. A main event is whatever we say it is. And we'll throw it out there and you'll eat the slop and be glad to have it. Because that is not a main event. not a main event for like you know especially now that we're not calling these paper views

anymore right and there's sort of you know they're sort of the premiere live events is the uh the premium live events is that what the the WWE was calling them this one is starting to feel not so premium can you imagine if is Alex Pereira like coming back because he's already fought there once and he kind of fought there in a similar circumstance where he kind of filled in right or like he ended up in on that card I think it was 303 wasn't it

was one of those with with Calil around tree yeah that particular fight. I mean, it was a great fight, but for them to get Pereira twice would be kind of nuts if it ends up being something like Hokit. But what about, I mean, this seems like, you're right that they kind of take some strange mixture sometimes and put it together just to be like, oh, I didn't see that coming just because the novelty of something like that. What fights are, I mean, I was thinking about this when, when Ariel was talking about it. I did not hear the boys in backs. I apologize if they went over some of these scenarios. But what about, I mean, Charles Olivera was, like, he's still the B. Right. Like, well, if they, if he had been looking at Armand and then needed more time, but now he gets it and he's able to do it, they give him some incentive to be back in there. Could we foresee him jumping in there in the BMF sense, right? Take him off 3-3-1? Take Armine off 3-3-1 and put them, like maybe milk him up there. Either that or, I mean, or pull something out of your hat against him. But like, you know, you got like, I don't know where Patty the Batty or something like, but I'm saying like if he's able to, maybe they could do something like that. I was just thinking because there's not a ton. Ariel went through the, you know, the champions. And if they stick to the champion thing, obviously that gets very weird. Like Amanda Nunes, for instance, she's got to, I'm guessing she's staying in shape for Kayla Harrison. But would they just pluck her away and say, like, why don't we do something with Amanda, get her rolling at least? You know, could they do something like that?

Germaine is back and she wants vengeance. I mean, dude, imagine if they did seriously, like, Michael Morales versus Carlos Pratchez just to be like, okay, we're going to go and do it because we can't or we need to, you know? I mean, those types of fights are the ones, you know, like that I would look at. Like, I mean, honestly, that would be like a home run. I feel like, you know, I think we, we kind of are, our aspirations for these kind of things. We look at it like right, as Ben said, this is a PLE, this 332. And I love everything you're suggesting here. Like Pereira would be great, pratches, anything like that, Charles.

But something that was discussed as soon as this Paramount deal was that was Sion Chook was the emphasis of being taken off pay-per-views. 331 is great 333 is great this just feels like they've hit a bit of a impasse in terms of being able to make something sizable and make something that really kind of gets the juices flowing going in Salt Lake City but Chuck do you think this might be a sign of things to calm in terms of like there really isn't

all that much pressure on these guys anymore to pull off a massive pay-per-view event you know what I mean or not paper view it's really strange because yeah it's really strange in the sense like didn't Ariel say like you know because I think a lot of us thought that the Shevchenko fight was going to be the one. It's going to be Shevchenko. But like he indicated that in talking to her camp that they weren't really ever offered

that fight. Like it would then you're like, okay, so what was their plan A? Because something, I feel like they had to have had a plan A that didn't work. They wouldn't be this far into it if they didn't. That is weird to me. You know what I mean? Like it seems like they generally speaking, they have some, uh, some idea of a plan B or what they want to try to do. And I feel like in this case, what are we at? Like 29 days away from this event.

And nothing. That's, we, we, we have noticed and we've marked that there's been, you know, they announced a lot of these fight cards later and later. And I know we've talked about this going back a couple years now, those letters themselves. It's like the WWE. It's coming to town. You can pretty much bank on it being a pretty good show regardless. I feel like it sells itself, maybe in a market like Salt Lake City that has had very good fights in the past. Remember, that's where, that is where Justin Gates you won the BMF against Dustin Porreier, right? So they have

They've given them fights in the past. Yeah, right. So like you've had some great fights there. I feel like in that sense, maybe they're, this particular where they're like, well, you know, we always deliver for you guys specifically, you know, that sort of thing in there. And they're not over emphasizing it.

I don't know. But this feels, I don't know how often we've got down to inside 30 days, though, without having any indication, especially when Ariel was basically like, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's where you're like, now we're really in some unknown terrain here. And if you did end up with something like Morales protest or one of those kinds of fights where you're going, okay, that's the fight that makes sense. It would be a big fight. People would get excited about it. But if you're still scrambling to book something like that this close out, I hope those guys are getting a good pay bump.

Can Morales make that way? Could even make the fucking weight. That's, you know what I mean? That is the thing is that we sometimes sit here. And I remember years ago when I did a story talking to the U.S. see matchmakers and they get frustrated when they go, you guys sit around and say who you'd like to see on this fight card as if these guys are just chess pieces and we can move them around the board however we want and they're not. And the thing they said to me at the time, they're like, if there's a fight you wanted to see, we might have tried to make it, but you don't know when we call up somebody and the manager says, now's not a good time. His girlfriend just kicked him out of the house. He's living on the coach's couch. Or now's not a good time

because he's kicking a coat problem or something like that, like all those kinds of stuff that can come up and that can get in the way of us making these fights. And so we don't necessarily know what the situation might be, but especially if you're calling these guys up and you're saying, like short notice, be in shape for a big fight that could determine whether your career goes up or down from here. And you need to be able to make the weight and you need to be able to make the weight and then turn around and fight at elevation in Salt Lake City.

There's one that, I mean, somebody asked me about that specifically. And I'm like, that is the one that fighters should think about. But in my experience, they often don't. That's kind of the last thing on their checklist is to think, oh, wait, am I going to be able to be in shape to show up there and compete at that elevation? And so many fighters. I remember talking to Forrest Griffin about a tournament that he went and did in Denver.

And he showed up like two days before, went for a run the day before the tournament and went, oh, oh, yeah. Now that I think about it, I do recall. hearing some stuff about called the mile high city the mile high city and the broncos have an advantage when other teams come to town now that now that i'm running and i'm exhausted immediately i do recall hearing that but he didn't think about it at all when he was in georgia at sea level accepting the fight do you think that the ufc still does that thing i remember it's john jones actually admitted this recently like for that machita fight uh he was sort of short notice turnaround and they were like

hey we'll give you we'll give you a bentley or pick a car or whatever he chose a bentley if you if you'll step in and do that, which he did. I wonder if they still do these kind of like, we'll give you a car. Dominic Cruz was saying they did the exact same thing with him. I think it was the Demetrius Johnson fight, like, where they were like, we'll give you a car, if you'll just step in and take this fight. This is classic promoter playbook and it proves again why I still think that the Great White Hype is one of the best and truest films about the fight game, even if it's a comedy,

even if it's like satire, uh, is the number of times they keep trying to buy off the same guy with a Merlo Broham, you know? I'm trying to read the tea leaves here. I actually think, Ariel was just throwing names out there. We have nothing to substantial anything he said,

but the hoka part of it to me is interesting because he is a guy in our half year awards. He was the breakout star of the year, whether you agree what he says or whether you don't. Like this guy has serious traction. Pereira, obviously, I don't know, but the fact they're going to announce this weekend, could they be doing Tom a little dirty here

and just Cyril Gan would fight Hokit, they announce it in Paris, he's there. I'm just, you know, throwing shit out there. But here's some. I can't imagine them doing Tom dirty like that, but go ahead. Here's some heavyweight markets from our friends over at Calci. Tom Asmel, who's going to be the heavyweight champion at the end of 2026. Tom Asmell's up there.

He's down, though. He's down. Gan next, then Hokka, then Pereira. So I mean, man, you better, you better just run down the road there in Danbury and tell Pereira. I mean, he's low in these market trading sites, man. He is low. He needs to do something. Rekindle the juice.

I'd like to be a fly on the wall for the conversation where Chuck goes in and goes, hey, look, Alec. Let me level with you here, fellow. You don't have a lot of options. You're low on the market. I know as coach, though, it was out there in Brazil taking on a very old Shogun Hua, so I don't know what the situation. But I will say that that camp over there, man, they are fleet of foot.

They're all over the place all the time. I don't even know how they have the internet. especially Glover. He's like my age. He's running all over the, all over the place, you know? Yeah. Big wind from them.

They flying out of Danbury International? It must be, uh, there, there are no good, uh, there are no good options. New York is probably the closest, or Hartford, but you got to fly through places from Hartford. So yes, New York. It's like an hour and a half from here. Well, I mean, my God, boys, we'll have to wait and see. Apparently we're going to find out this weekend.

One thing we found out earlier in the week was that Justin Gagee is not going to, he's going to be on the shelf for the rest of 2026. We talked about Arm and, uh, Surukian earlier. He's obviously fighting Hoofie. You wrote a bit this as well, Ben. Is this pretty much like path clear for Armin? Everything makes sense all of a sudden. He is no longer, as Chuck would say, eternally two fights away.

This is the one, baby. You beat Hoofie. And you know what? Justin Gage is going to be on ice and he's going to be ready for you in 2027. If I'm Armin, I don't believe it until I show up on fight night. And the champion is standing across for me and the belt is in the building. because he's heard it so many times at this point, right? Like when he beat Dan Hooker,

that was supposed to be a number one tender fight. And the thing is, the stuff you're hearing coming out of Justin Gaichi, it's tough to tell what exactly it's going to take for him right now to decide he wants to get back in there because you hear a couple different things. One is him saying, I'm going to enjoy being the champion for the rest of the year, not going to fight until 2027.

You know, I fought twice already in the first half of the year. My hands are still hurt for me. thumping him onalia to pour your skull over and over again. I need the time off. And so you go, okay, 2027 then before we can even think about booking a fight, arm in fights in September, right? So say he wins that one, then you got three more months of the year. And that's assuming, you know, it's not taken for granted that Justin Gase you

when he says 2027, it's not necessarily that he means to January, you know, like it could be sounds like he's talking about like, yeah, it almost sounds like he's saying, I'll think about it when I get to 2020. Or he's saying, I won't think about it until. Right. Exactly. And so, Armin has been on this conveyor belt before, right, where he wins a fight. People go on, that's it. Armand's the guy.

How could he possibly be denied? Arm is a top contender. And then a few months goes by. And there are other interesting people in that division still fighting, still winning fights. And then people turn around Armin. And they go, well, come on, man. You can't wait forever. You can't just sit around and expect that the title fight is just going to be handed to you.

You got to get back in there and beat somebody again, man. And that's what he's been doing over and over again, is doing that while he waits for the title shot to become available. Meanwhile, Justin Gates, the thing that he has said and the thing that his manager, Alia Abdel-Daziz has also said is we need a big fight. Justin wants there to be a big fight. Justin is talking like, hey, I'm going to sit down with my loved ones and make a pros and cons list to decide if I will fight again. And he says he doesn't think it'll be Ilya, but he also is just talking like it's going to have to be something special. at this point in his life and his career to get back in there to defend the title again. And does Armand's Rukian fit that bill?

Like he fits it more now than he did a year ago because he's done a good job of, in various ways, making himself a guy that we're paying attention to. We just, we don't know what the hell he'll do at any time. He's the guy, you invite him to the party and he might be the life of the party and he might put throw someone through the dining room table. He don't know. Is he a writer's fan? He sounds like a Raiders fan.

He has Raiders fan. energy. He has big Raiders fan energy. Like if he were going to become an NFL fan, he's not a Kansas City Chiefs guy. I can tell you that right now. He's not a Miami Dolphins guy. No. Got to be something like that. So he's more of an attraction now, more of a name, but is that what Justin Gaci and his manager would consider a big fight, a massive fight? I still think like an Ilya to pour a rematch, even though Justin Gacy doesn't seem excited about it.

that seems like probably a bigger fight, you know, but if I'm armin, I'm not believing anything they tell me about. Especially when you got a guy like Usman or Magamadov, just kind of biting out that 90-day window here. Saladin. That's talking about him as well. Saladette, exactly right. Yeah.

Yeah. There's so much that could happen, especially if it's not up to you and you have to wait for the champion to decide that he wants to defend the title again. Yeah. It's actually a good point to make that joke about Usman. Obviously, he's on the rally as well and we saw what's on the Dongyong over there in China. You know, not ideal. But, you know, keeping himself in the headlines, as Ben said.

Raiders, fan energy, again, from Usman Namagamato. I just did a column, basically, that should be posted either during the show or at some point today where it's basically like, you can go back to UFC 330 in Philadelphia. Usman Naramamaamaeda stole some of the headlines because he's there. They show him now it seems inevitable that he's coming to the UFC. you get into this Beijing card and like he steals the headlines away from song by basically going in there

and you know just about throwing that open not quite but you know we start talking about it and then this week both of the principles and the main event have been like looking past each other towards Usmore in a weird way like yeah I take that fight I'll welcome him to the UFC all that stuff it's it's crazy when a dude has that kind of clout before you even take

you know before they even had a punch in the OCE like this is a very rare thing to see as somebody with that kind of like, you know what I mean? That kind of like mojo heading into the UFC. And like, I mean, I know Saladin Pernas is not,

um, a perfect example, but like it's odd that he is thrust straight into a main event, right? Like that's not something you see all the time. It does make sense. Obviously it's in Paris. He has sold out big cards there before with KSW. But I mean,

Ariel was talking about this earlier in the week, with, Usman, or maybe the week before, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was, rushed into a title situation. Not rushed in. He obviously wants it too. But I wouldn't all be surprised if he

became an option. But you guys, you mentioned Iliate to Poria earlier. He's actually made his first comments since the way as he released a video, a kind of a tribute to his son saying like, I'm sorry you had to see this. Together will get stronger. Very well produced, very emotional. And here's the caption

that way. We are back. Character's not built when everything goes your way. It's proven when it doesn't. The only victory nobody can take from you is your We are back. So there you go. He is in presiding. Like, Paddy's also there.

Paddy is definitely there. All of this to say that Armand does not feel like a slam dunk like he should, doesn't it? It's like, I mean, he should be a slam dunk, but. Well, I mean, there's a lot going on. It makes sense. Honestly, the Saladin part and that stuff, I think makes sense because this is a rare thing for the UFC these days to actually have to go out and pay to get a free agent who has already built himself in. to a somebody. Normally, you know, these days we're way more used to people coming up

through the contender series, coming up through one of those UFC pipelines, and then they gradually become a thing while they're in the UFC and they got in on a pretty low ball contract. And here, you're probably having to go pay a whole lot to get the guy away from MVP, take something off of their board for them to work with in the future, but also a guy who people already know and have some excitement about. And so you probably don't feel. like it's worth it to do a super slow build with that guy. You want to throw him in here

pretty quickly and find out what you've got. I think that this is a very interesting main event, him and Dan Hooker, just because for Dan Hooker, it's amazing. I wrote a column about this. I'd probably be up later this morning, but it's amazing to me, Dan Hooker keeps pulling this off. And by this, I mean,

being a capital G guy in the UFC, being a guy who's main event, he's on a two-fight losing streak and main eventing in Paris against the hot new prospect in Saline Parnas. Look at this kid. And my God. And he shows up and he just, it, Dan Hooker seems like not a care in the world.

Nope. Just show it up, happy to be here joking around. Oh, it looks a little rough on that way. Amaciated there, to be fair. Yeah. Ooh. But everybody's kind of looking at it going like, you're probably going to take a beat.

Gosh, she's certainly. Hands of this in enemy territory. Yeah. Although we've been having that thought a lot recently and then just to get the opposite effect. I mean, that's just, this is the year of upset, so it feels like take the dog, right? Well, well, well, look, one thing that Armin

should take some confidence from is the fact that the rumor mail is swollen with talk that Sean Strickland is in fact going to fight, and this is a big moment for you, Ben, he's going to fight the Raven in November. No Raven needed

to get this opportunity, which we're You don't know that? That's true. I do not know that. In a way haven't we given him the raven already here on this show our discussions people are out here making their own images of him with the raven

it's true that's true that a lot of people mention this I mean a lot of people mention this that's funny it's a big lie raven fly does it feel like a victory for you in a way Ben because of like me personally yeah I feel like you know he doesn't he doesn't have to Venmo me $40

to say thank you it's a nice gesture though I mean It would be nice. Yeah. It would be nice. 40 bucks. Go out and get myself something to eat and think about like, okay. That's a sign of the appreciation.

But I mean, honestly, it is just encouraging me to me to see that because I go, all right, we're doing the stuff that just makes sense to do. We're not, we, I got the feeling that they looked around for any of you to do something different. But finally, we're getting around and just being like, all right, Sean Strickland's the middleweight champ. Let's have him take on the guy who seems like he is the, the most love. logical contender and let's see how that fight goes that's an interesting fight to me especially you know like see how they already know each other a little bit but see how it plays out this time uh i could really see it going either way no chance that that thing ends up in salt lake city what do you i mean is it possible like i mean they son strickland's just crazy enough right

i was gonna say he is i don't know if yeah i don't know if the raven would be how did you think you'd go down in mormon country that would be he'd have some thoughts on it would in the story Yes, he would have thoughts on it. He would not hesitate to share those thoughts. He wouldn't keep him to himself. I can tell you that much. You guys, I'm going to get me four wives next time I'm through. I actually think what's doing is being cool.

Especially, I mean, I assume he would drive there, right? Like, from Los Vegas, like it'd be. It's a short trip. And so then he would get to drive through some of those weird parts of Utah. You know, the parts where like you get off the highway to get gas and you feel like the entire town is watching you and being like, you ain't from around here. Beaver, Utah. Like, I better, you know, fill up the car and get back on the highway. Get out of here quick.

It's so terrible. I think that we could get, even though it's a short road trip, a Sean Strickland Road Trip diary where he's just like narrating into his Instagram live from the front seat of the car the whole way. It's all right there for the taken, you know? Yeah, I like it. It's kind of made me want to visit Utah in a weird kind of way. You mentioned that. No. Nope.

Okay. I sure don't. I remember Fabian Edwards. text to me when he was there what Leon said. It's like they've never seen a black person here before. He's like, I'm walking into the stores and they're like, what the fuck? Well, dude, I can remember Utah Jazz, you know, like certain players saying that same thing.

Carl Malone? Big Carl? Might have been Carl. I don't remember. It was back in those days, though. I remember that discussion. Something that made me feel like this, this rumor is in fact true is how Hamzaat Shamoyev has responded to it.

Here is Hamzat speaking to. I believe it is Dennis Gaiko of Red Corner, as it usually is because that lad is all over these Russian fighters all the time. Let's have a listen to Hamza. Regarding the UFC, he's asked, information came out today that there will be a total fight in December between Strickland and Imovov. Was that a surprise to you, he's asked? And how fair do you think that matchup is? No, there's no surprise, says Shemoev. How long has Imov been waiting now? Probably around two years. He's all ready to contender. Whoever wins, we'll take him.

people online often say that you'll be moved to 205 and have your next fight there he's asked can you confirm or deny that could we see you at 205 in the next fight or will it definitely be at 185 no until we break everybody at 185 i'm not going anywhere says shem i have so there you go um you know cordial you'd say chuck right like he's kind of saying look yeah the lad's done what he's done very polite yeah yeah i'm glad he's gonna stick at 185 you know yeah it's like don't take that law and then run out of there. I mean, that would be a bad look. I feel like he's got to stay there. It would further destroy the mystique that Sean Strickland tanked forever. Let's be honest. And I think that you could,

I mean, if Sean Strickland keeps the belt and you end up talking about a Strickland-Chimaya of rematch, I'd be interested in that. It was, the first fight was weird enough and not expected enough

that I think a lot of people would go, okay, but that, that specific thing can't happen twice, can't it? Yeah. It's interesting in Chuck because

you talk to Tyron Woodley and I couldn't help but notice Toron Woodley gets his first win since 2018 and quickly books a match against Hamza Chimayef in

Russia at a wrestling event. Did he talk you through the logic there and all? I just think that he the thing that I sensed off of him was that it hit him way harder than he probably assumed it would like he finally gets his hand raised

after eight years in competition. He's been doing a lot of other stuff obviously, but like to finally win something, you know, it felt like at 44 years old, it was a familiar feeling that he, I don't know, it struck something with him. And I think he just knows the guys over there and saw the opportunity. He's like, you know what, we're rolling hot dice, let's go do it. But what a tough ask, man, because that's what, two weeks apart or is it three weeks apart? Two weeks? And then go over to Moscow. Yeah, two weeks apart, go over to Moscow and take on that guy. That's a, that's a very, very tough ask. He seemed like he was up to it. And

he was basically telling me that, you know, when he came out of high school, he went over to Moscow. I was the last time he was there. And that's where he discovered this one move where he called it something funny where it was like, you know, you pick him up and drop him through a table type of thing. And he did this one move all the way through the competition. And he said he had like Missou and a couple schools looking at him. But by the time he finished with that tournament out there, he came back and there was a bunch of schools trying to get him. Now there was this huge competition. He ended up going with the Missou.

So in a weird way, it's like a full circle moment for him to kind of go back there in wrestle, which I thought was pretty cool. Yeah, it's a thing, Chuck, that I enjoyed about the story and that blew my mind was he was saying one of the things he felt so good about winning that match was coming from behind, like coming down from a deficit, which she insisted he had never done any athletic competition in his entire life. He was like when I was in high school and played a football game. If we were down, we never came back in one. And so like in wrestling matches, I never came back in one. and so here was one where he finally, and I was like, can that possibly be true for I know, that's what I said to him. His caliber who has spent his life in sports.

He even said like, you know, in his UFC fights, he's like, if I was losing earlier, if I was taken down, I didn't come back. Like he was saying that every phase of his competitive career, if he was down early, he didn't come back. So that to me was like sort of, I had to include that in there because I'm like, I did the same thing you're doing, which is like, that can't possibly be true. Is it like, that can't be true. But he insisted that it was.

Damn. It's actually, it's a weird old situation there because I believe this is a very good wrestling card. Jordan Burroughs is on it. Obviously, we talked about the main event, Woodley and Shmoyev, but they had to switch the event, right? Like, I mean, they had to switch the venue. The venue, yeah. Apparently, Fox couldn't stream from Russia, but now the event is in a different venue, still, to my knowledge, in Russia. Yeah.

Yeah. There you go. I think so. So don't know if we're going to be watching that one, but can't wait for the highlights on X, I guess, right? I mean, yeah. Interesting. I mean, it is, it's a, it's a fraught time to go to Russia with anything, whether that, whether you're bringing an event there or whether you're just planning to hang out. So I guess we shouldn't be that surprise, you know.

Is your noble still smoking, like out of its roof? Like, is it still coming out or is it, is that all fixed up? I think it's time enough now. I think beaches are about open and whatever. You know what I mean? Pretty cool. The Chernobyl beaches, yeah. Speaking of kind of

MMA adjacent events, we mentioned this at the start, Chuck being a Fenway Park. I'd just like to read this paragraph very quickly. And he couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic for a bygone day as Stuart and Gigliotti traded punches back and forth at such a historic venue with no glows to cushion the blows. In the August

night air, with just enough cool to suggest the first hints of fall, a good segment of more than 12,000 fans packed into the infield seats, chanted, fuck Montana at the by the way he chants you were. I just want to quote it off there. I thought I'd set the scene and then give you the reality of what was going on there.

You know what I mean? How dare they? Just the interesting. Yeah. That'd say something like that. I wish Ben could have been there. That would have been a fun one to see how. I would like to have seen how you would have handled the situation.

There were some tensions, but I will say that the Montana guys were not backing down at all. Like they were just like, you know, the more they heard of that, the more they were going to dig in and hold those flags up and wave them. And I was like, all right. You know, they're doing a good job. away. I said 12,000. I think it was closer to like 19,000 or something like that.

Yeah, it was actually pretty well attended. It looked fucking cool. It looked really cool. It was cool. The green monster does I refer to the stand? Is that what that's called? No, it's like the, it's at the left field wall. It's, you know, the where the home runs, uh, it's, it's that wall out there. I don't know how tall it has been. Do you know?

It's like, it's something like 100 feet or something like that. I don't know, it's, I don't know, 40, 50 feet, something like that. It's really, it's way taller than any of the other fences. Yeah. I think I went to exactly one baseball game at Fenway Park and just because I hate all Boston sports and Boston sports fans, I was watching. Even more than I. The Tampa Bay Rays.

Yeah. And this was before I heard him yelling fuck Montana. And one of the Tampa Rays hit one over the green monster and left field. And I clapped. And you could hear my clapping. That's echoing to the stadium because it was so quiet. This is just a tradition. Montana people show up.

Did you drive? How dare they? How dare they treat Kai Stewart three-time class AA Montana state finalist out of Charles M. Russell High School. Don't have to tell him. Like that. I will say that he looked like an old-timey fighter. He kind of has that look, doesn't he? Like, he's got a little bit of a throwback going on.

So him fighting at Fenway and all this stuff, the kid from Montana, I was like, it did have that feel of an old boxing event at like old Kaminsky or something like that. It was fun. That says. So Montana is a beak, like a barrenogical hotbed, you'd say, man. It has become one in a weird way. And it's, but though it's not, I can't say it's Montana so much as it is Great Falls, one city in Montana, not a particularly big city. The BKFC has gone to Great Falls several times.

I went there once and watched a fight there. And Joe Riggs, I think, has moved to Great Falls. Yeah, the diesel has moved to Great Falls. He was the main event, the one I went to. He's moved there and, like, opened a gym there and everything. And so they really found a foothold there somehow. And, you know, I believe like Sean O'Malley famously from Helena, Montana, but his coach, Tim Welch, I believe is from Great Falls. And so, like, there's a good fighting tradition.

Like any town that's good at fighting, it's not a great town. It's not a great, it's not a great place to be, you know? Boy, put it in the name then. Boy put it in the name. Because there are, there's waterfalls from the river. They suffer a river. That's right. In competition, perhaps.

Ben, Montana's huge. It's like a country on itself. Like how far is Great Falls from you? Is it like 600 miles? Something like that? It's around like three hours. It's a beautiful drive. It's an absolutely beautiful drive.

You pass right through Lincoln, Montana, where the Unabomber lives. Right. That is a beautiful country out there. It's a long winding drive. It's really scenic. And then at the end of it is Great Falls, where they have the sip and dip lounge where you can watch the mermaids play in the water behind the bar. And that's about it.

Yeah. They also got the Great Falls Voyagers, um, which used to have the greatest logo in minor league baseball because it was just a flying saucer with a little green guy like peeking out the window wave at it to reference some of the famous UFO sightings in the Great Falls area. Well, okay. Add that to your, when you go to Salt Lake City, Pizzi, make sure you stop in Montana too and go check out Great Falls. Are you close, boy?

No. Not at all. I can't understand the geography of this country. I mean, it's no, you can't. Massive. John one time at a McGregor fight, I met a bunch of Irish guys that were working in Utah, and I just couldn't get my head around it.

I was like, what, what are you doing there? And they explained it to me, and I was still like, but what are you doing there? Growing up in Denver, it was always kind of the other side of the Rockies, you know,

it was like west of the, you know, you seem like going that direction. I'm just being honest. Yeah. The only documentaries I've seen, not good about, you know, I'll say less.

I'll say less. Yeah. Utah's not promising anybody a good time. That's not how they're getting people to go there. Well, well. They got money though, Ben. UFC 332. I hope they pull through.

I hope they pull through for you, beautiful people in Utah. But we were talking about this weekend. I'm kind of annoyed that the Taylor fight has happened at the same time as UFC Paris because I love me a UFC Paris card. Because these people just go fucking apes. It's like UFC Dublin event over and over again. It's like every French fire just lose their fucking minds from the word go. I mean, there's so many different scenes I remember. Obviously, Cyril Gan and Toy Tu I Vasa,

the fans just bursting into the national anthem and singing it throughout because, well, the fight went a lot longer than most people thought they would. I remember Kaelin Lockren going over there for his UFC debut and saying, like, oh yeah, like, I can remember, like, when I was coming up on the European scene, everyone used to laugh at French fighters because they were so shit. And then as he was walking out, he came out to complete silence and just let them heap booze on him as he walked. and that was another tremendous thing. I think, I think we all agree

it is one of the hotbeds of MMA at this point. But I can't stop thinking about the fact that, yes, to Ben's point earlier, Hooker is not on a tear. He's on a two-fights skid. I don't, I think it's fair to say

we have no great aspirations of Hooker ending up in a title conversation. This is a very much showcase opportunity for Parnasse. But need I say, the name Patchy Mix. So many of these guys come in here and it's suddenly a different ballgame. As I said, he is used to that kind of stage, but this is a different kind of ballgame when

it's the UFC. Any of you have a slight inkling that Hooker could do something tremendously upsetting for the French people this weekend. First of all, poor Patchy Mix, the way people are using him as a reference point now. He's become like the Wally Pip of the UFC. We're like, oh, that just shows you never know. I mean, stylistically and everything, you think this should be Solidine Parnas's night. But the thing about like Dan Hooker is that he seems to have found such a good niche for himself where he's just like, I'm going to show up with a lot of enthusiasm and just happy to be here, happy to go put on a show.

And with that, it seems like he's not burdened by putting too much pressure on himself. he's got the kind of niche going for himself where he doesn't have to win them all. He doesn't have to win most of them. He has to win every once in a while to keep being Dan Hooker, but mainly just to keep, if he shows up and he fights in a fun way

and he presents a fun personality, and he's the guy that will say yes to a fight like this, which to hear him tell it, the OEC was offering him more than his usual fee because they're having trouble to getting somebody else to take it. And all those things seem to be working really, really well for him and maybe when you come into that, you go, the other guy has to beat you.

In his hometown, he's the big favorite. UFC has big plans for him. He's a younger guy. It's a disaster for soliding partners if he loses. And Dan Hooker can go, hey man, I could lose this one and I could still end up in a main event again at another UFC fight night nine months from now. And that maybe, you know, when you have nothing to lose, the other guy has all the pressure on him, some people perform a lot better under those circumstances.

Yeah, it's a ton of pressure. And I was trying to think of, have we seen anything like this? I feel like we might have. But like, have we seen something where a guy is debuting, I guess in a hot market like this for the UFC, where he's kind of a free agent and they stick him into a main event like this as a fight night? I don't know if we've seen a setup like this. That's why it's kind of unique. It's like generally speaking, one of these types of guys gets, they may end up on a card,

but the UFC likes to start him off either on a prelim or like on the on a main card against you know but not in the spotlight right away this one's right into the spotlight I do think that he is uniquely cut out to deal with that given the the idea um you know that he's fought he's held titles in multiple division he's been in big events before he tried to win a third right a third weight class but the thing is like pizzi you followed him his whole career salad like when you when you look at the guys he's beat does where would you place a I guess hooker, like if you're trying to like say like, what, what's the chance of an upset? Where would you place hooker in terms of the competition of the guys he's beat already? I think it's his toughest opponent. Like, I mean, apart from right, the, the, the welterweight, when he went up to Welterweight the challenge for that title, obviously that, it's not just the opponent you're fighting there. It's like obviously the size. Like he said, a featherweight, he won a featherweight, he won a lightweight.

And then he went up and he fought Adrian Bartosinski. and he's like shit hot over there. Like he is like one of the banner guys with KSW. I think he might have lost once. He's either lost once or he's undefeated, but he's like their guy. He's like the new Caladoff, like what Kaladoff was to KSW back in the day.

Like he is one of the faces of the promotion, massively supported. But there was a clear in evidence, so his disadvantage for Saladin in that fight. I just like, think about like his last fight was against Kenny Cross. And Kenny Cross, to my mind was a really competitive regional fighter and people were like texting me saying

oh your boy's going to get a scare here an MVP he obviously did not get a scare he literally ripped through Kenny Cross fair play Kenny but it just did not go his way in any way I just think a fight like this when you have so much expectation on it when one thing goes wrong a lot of fucking shit can go wrong quickly because there is a

like even right Bella Mir like you think about people stepping into and obviously Saladin's way more way more experience than Bella has fought at the highest level in Europe has proved himself many times there. But this is new terrain and he knows there's all this expectation. You're headlining in the UFC in your very first fight. So one thing goes wrong, Dan Hooker's going to start smiling. And he's going to be like, oh, oh.

This tongue out. And then if he can compound some things going wrong, suddenly you're like, oh shit. It's like the Moses of Tamer, right? Nothing was really going wrong there. like he was beating the shit out of Herkovich but then at the end of the sixth round Herkovich was like I'd have some of these too and then suddenly you're like oh he's not used to this he doesn't have enough energy to move out of the way of these punches from hergovich and then suddenly you're like oh you're in hell you're in hell you are flailing

around the place the ropes are keeping you up your corner man's holding onto the towel watching you closer than the referee is which is never a good sign I'm not saying I think I can go I fully believe Parnas can win here. It's just the new terrain and when things go wrong, how awfully they go wrong in this sport is basically what I'm saying to you guys. I mean, the things that are the big differences that I think Parnas has going for, and like you said, is that, you know, unlike Mosepham and unlike Bellamere, he has a lot of big fight experience.

Now, he doesn't have the UFC experience. And we've seen people who underperform in their first fight in the UFC, the octagon jitters are a real thing, especially when you were. Yeah, well, okay. Good man. Wow, I didn't even think of it. We've seen people, especially where you're the guy anchoring the card as the main event in your hometown. Fighting your hometown can be tough on people sometimes, so there's just a lot more people to be bugging you and being like, hey, can you get us tickets?

Can you do this? And so there's a lot of that that he's carrying in there with him, plus the UFC debut, and then to fight, you know, a tough veteran opponent like Dan Hooker. And yet the one thing that really helps them out coming from KSW as opposed to coming from another promotion is that KSW has had those huge, huge shows. So if you fought there, you've been in those kinds of environments. It wasn't the UFC, maybe it didn't have those same letters. It was a little bit of a different feel. But if you fought in some of those big KSW events, you know what it is to walk out into a stadium of people cheering. And you've had that on you before.

And so I think that that's a big advantage where it might be your first UFC fight, but it's not your first. big, big fight, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's fair. Look, it's a very good card. I think it's going to be a banger. There's an all French co-made event for as I am and Axel Sola. That's going to be a fucking unbelievable fight.

I really believe it. Axel Sola was like, he was nearly like a lot earlier in his career, but the way they were talking about him before he went to the UFC was similar to how they were talking about Saladian. Like this guy came up off Ares FC, which is basically the French equivalent of cage warriors in the UK and Ireland. I believe it was a doubleweight champion. Came in. I believe it was Reese McKin his debut. He won that. He lost some Mason Jones. Mason Jones can just drag, like, I often say like he's like a Welsh gachy. He can drag people into just terrain that only like, you know, evil

and sinister people live in where they're like, oh yeah, this is exactly where I want to be. I'm bleeding. Oh, my eyes falling out. This is great. Do you like it here? Axel and he was like, actually, no, I really, I'm not enjoying myself here. And then he lost that fight. But I do think this has going to be a tremendous fight. So I am, you know, I'm going to be in the match room, press area, watching all of these fights, of course, to annoy everybody. And they'll be thinking, look at this MMA school. But before I get into Katie Taylor, because I do want to touch on Katie because,

my God, this whole town, even if nobody else cares, this whole town is very, very invested in this. But before that, guys, are now weekly update on Joshua and Fury is with us. and this time, once again, the update is coming from Mr Tyson Fury, Andy, take it away. And before I forget, I'd just like to thank Dana White for making this fight happen, making this deal happen with Netflix and getting it all over the line. He's an amazing job, mate. Even if Eddie's a little jealous fucker and hasn't got the guts to come out and say he had nothing to do with it, I'm a man, and I can give another man respect for David.

doing something great that Eddie and all these mates tried to do for years and could never do. So thank you very much, Dana. You're an absolute legend. One of the best promoters in the world, in my opinion. And an all-around top guy. And I can't wait to see you at the press conference on the special invitation from the Gypsy King. And yeah, love to have a beer with you one of the days, brother. Good luck and God bless you.

Get up! Number one. Get up. Get up multiple times. So I don't know what the fuck is. Is it treadmill broken? See, they're exercise and arresting. He's doing one of the two.

I mean, what is happening? Because I'm just seeing Eddie Heron in every video being like, no, they fucked us off. It's England or nothing. Here we, here's an England or nothing post. Wembley are nowhere. Don't believe that's a real picture. Eddie Hearn says, I want to thank everyone for the unbelievable support.

You have been heard and talks I've now reopened for Wembley. Let's make history. of the biggest sport in moments has ever seen. So yeah, this is the situation as we know it based on Ariel's reporting. Netflix, everybody wants it to happen on American time on a Friday so it doesn't clash with college football, I believe it is. The people in the UK, a lot of people, very prominent people are like, this is complete bullshit. Obviously Eddie like five years ago was like, oh, it's happening in Saudi Arabia.

They're paying us low. It's what you want to do. And now he's like, no, we've signed the contract. And now, no. Funny how it works. We are not, we're not backing down from this. I, I have watched all of the same interviews that have been happening for the last three days. All of them are the same.

Like, I mean, I don't know, I literally don't know what the fuck is happening now. We were told we're going to find out in a couple of days. Eddie's saying it's only going to happen in England, Tyson Fury wants to go for a beer with Dana White. This is really eroding my interest in this fight that I really yearn for a... You need a kivorkan type to his pull the plug. We need like a boxing Gavorkian. It goes in there. That's it.

That's it. Or a gong show, you know, a big gong. Nope, we're done. But isn't that what's never going to happen here? Like, do I, do I only use actually think this going to happen now? It was like, it's in fucking November. And they haven't decided where it's going to happen. Like, what the fuck is going on?

I don't know, man. Ariel seems to like he thinks it's so going to happen, right? Yeah, but I mean, I mean, I use him as my weather vein on this type of thing. Because I'm like, I have no, I have no clue. But it doesn't feel like it's going to happen to me. And I mean, we've, we've been talking about this for. so long that it's just it feels like it'll never happen you know just do me a favor just if you guys could just shoot me a text when they're in the ring hey ben ben tune in there's

happening like turn it on it's happening right now and i'll be like that's all i need at this point it's all i need to know is when they're in the ring it's it's it's really like i mean i don't know i feel like someone's about to try the rattle out of prim you know someone's about to be like no that it didn't work like think about all of the egos it's got cella involved turkey dana eddie tyson joshua like if it's not fucking like it's it's so close like for a boxing match i know in m m mary we we booked the fucking fights two weeks before and i was like this is great in boxing it's not like that it is fucking not like that especially when it's fury and joshua i'm just getting less and less eddie was on a aerial day

saying like he's having conversations with the lord mayor of london so that the event could happen at american time in London. Could you imagine how fucking cold it would be in November in London at 3 a.m. in a big

fucking cavernous stadium. What are we talking about here? This is fucking crazy. That makes no sense. Carl She's saying it's a 60% chance.

You know, I admire the optimism in that market. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I felt that. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, look, I've ranted enough about our weekly segment on Eddie Herent Tyson Fury. But let's move it on to Katie Taylor because my God, boys,

and what a week it has been here in Dublin. This is, this is like, like people are calling this like one of the biggest sporting events to ever happen here. And it's like, if you look at the line in this, she's like one to 25 on. Flora Peely isn't given a chance in hell to win this fight by the bookmakers. She did a warm-up on Tuesday. Was it Tuesday?

It was Wednesday at the Helix. The helix being the scene of McGregor's great trance before the UFC, where he beat Dave Hill, where he beat Ivan Butcher. where the great Neil Siri beat Mickle Cylinder, where the great Col Pendred beat Chain Mills. I don't need to tell you guys this. You know all this.

Anyway, that's one of Ben's favorites. Anyway, go out. Sorry, PC. Pele's in the ring and former middleweight champion of the world, Andy Lee, who trains Pai Donovan, who trains so many brilliant fighters, has trained Toys and Fury. He's working the desk for DeZone. And, like, Peeley's just doing

like shadow boxing. And then just immediately, Andy's having a conversation with the cobbos and then suddenly just goes, oh no, no. See when she turns right there, she's crossing her legs. Katie's going to see that straight away. Oh, no, that's, this is terrible for her. And I'm like, oh, my God, everyone else had kind of be jazzed up on press row. Like, she can hit hard, she can hit her.

And you can be crossing your legs against one of those technically gifted boxes of all time in female boxing. God damn it. I don't know. I'm very excited. Okay, wait, here's my question, though. And this, I'm going to ask this one all sincerity. Oh, well, okay, here we go. If Katie Taylor is fighting somebody who is not that great, can't, can't present much of a challenge, what do you guys scare?

You guys want to go to the big party. Watch Kay Taylor one last time. You want to do it in Croke Park and then everybody be, you know, singing the songs and hugging and crying and stuff. And that is what I've learned by reading your coverage about Croke Park, which I appreciate that you wrote that story because I finally felt like I understood. I finally felt like, okay, now I get it. I get why they're always making a big deal. about Croke Park. My Pizzi keeps talking about it.

I understand now that the history of it and everything that really helped explain it to me. But also, it kind of seems to me like, don't we all know what we're doing with this fight? It's a Katie Taylor party. Who cares? She got to fight somebody. And so here is somebody for her to fight. That's right. Oh, here's the way.

And this is a Trinity College Dublin. My God. Look the foil. The fiddle players are out. I mean, my God. They're on the scales. Here she is. The greatest boxer of all time, Katie Taylor.

My God, there's Brian Peters behind her. Ross anime need a bigger team for all those fucking belts. That's what I'd say. Okay, that's how many we got. Lovely jacket there, by the way, lovely. A bit of a leather champion thick going on there. Very, very nice. Here's Flora Peely.

I'm sure she's already weighed in, actually. Flora, lovely hair, if you see the braids there. French flag into the hair. Not quite the amateur accomplishments that Katie has, but she is 12 and I believe as a professional boxer. it's a unified title. I will have you know, Ben, okay?

This is not just a, this is a fucking unified championship bout, okay? All right? Okay. That's our deal with you. Yeah. Hey.

But, you mean, you guys know that there's, you know what you want to see here. Listen, of course, all right, of course. This is the most beloved athlete in Ireland. Um,

she is in the most beloved terrain in Ireland. And thank you for the notes on Crow Park. And thank you to Sheen and Ben as well for help me with it. I vomited so much on the page. I just didn't even know what the, fuck I was writing about anymore. So they had to centralize my focus there. At the 11 there were the day before it's going out.

You say that about every piece. Come on. No, I'm telling you. That's just part of your process. You need to embrace that. So thank you that the boys were doing that. It turned. Psy, what are the odds that they're going to play, uh, sweet Caroline at this thing?

Is that happening? I think so because it's matron. It's not an Irish thing, though. It is not. And we do not fucking like it. I just know if both Katie Taylor fights. I was out with you. They played it.

Yeah, Madison's where a guy. That's a matchroom dude. It's shit. So they have this band called Westlife playing. Ariel texts me last like on, what is Westlife? Westlife are like the Irish equivalent of Backstreet Boys. So that will give you the co-

Oh, wow. I wouldn't have thought that there was an Irish equivalent of Backstreet Boys. You know, you're in for a treat. Andy saw some Irish rap as well on Wednesday, which she's blown away by she's really got into the back catalog of Caswallch ever since because she was like, wow, did not know that you guys did this. We do it and we do it at a very high level is what I tell you. Amp.

Yeah. Yeah. You know Westlow, Vandy? What? I never want to see you cry, because I never. Yeah. So, you know, beautiful timbre.

So she's, she's, you're saying West life. Is it all one word? One word. Of course it is. They were originally called West Side, but then realized they clashed with a band from Compton. So they had to change the name to Westland. Sounds like a diagnostic center or something. West life.

they have sold out Crow Park a number of times Elaine has gone to some of these cases by the way I'm not showing on the bus she will admit this freely but it will give you an idea of the kind of event that they want here right like this is the worry in Dublin boxing went away for so long because the shooting at the Regency Hotel that was ahead of a box that was at a way in a person died and boxing was seen to be kind of caught up in this gangland

situation Taylor is basically redeemed boxing in Dublin to her appearances at three arena she fought Chantelle Cameron there twice they shared victories Chantelle won the first one Katie won the second one and now she's doing Crow Park so that was kind of like an underlying concern when they were trying to book this thing like what type of crowd are we going to have here that's where they've really pushed this idea of a family event the tickets are very very well priced I think

it was like 130 euros so about like for the cheapest $130 euro for a family ticket like so you could get a mother and father and their kids in and they sit in an area where there's no alcohol

being served and I can't take my kids to the movies and give in it out that's true here 100 bucks yeah so I mean that's the way it's been

kind of that's the way it's been marketed and of course Katie is this great unifying force in Ireland but what people a lot of the doubt is like if there is any doubt

here and the bookmakers will suggest that there isn't the one doubt people are having is Shantel Cameron when she fought Chantel Cameron and Chantel Cameron, a much more familiar opponent, I will say, than Flora Pili. The emotion that Katie had coming home and fighting in Dublin that time, a lot of people felt like that was, you know, very hard for her to overcome and maybe drained her energy before the fight. There was a lot of kind of images of her being very emotional. This week she, she can't stop crying. This is the last

sparring session. This is the last press conference. This is, so it's kind of like, how will, how will she react to this? But, We have a fantastic piece as well as mine, I will say. A fantastic photo diary up, I think you've described this, Jackson Morrow. Look at the impact this girl has had. She's talking about, like, you can go into any gym in Ireland now, and there's a shit ton of female boxers in there. We've had many Olympic successes in female boxing. And really, female boxing was only ever a sport because Katie Taylor.

Katie Taylor was brought in front of the IOC, and they made her spar to see her. how good she was. They then bring in women's boxing in 2012 and she wins the fucking gold medal. Like this is a next level story. And we're getting the last chapter in Crow Park, one of the most storied fields in Ireland. Please read my article if you want

to find out more about that. But there's also like a- Pizzi, can I ask you something real quick about this and I don't mean to interrupt, but like we have talked to, the reason we know Croke Park, honestly, is because of the guy that came from Ireland that we had covered for like so long. Do you think there's like a pang of you know what I mean?

for this MMA side of things, like from Connor McGregor, like to see Katie going through this whole thing this week, the national interest in this and the love and just all of what you're talking about. Do you think that there's any kind of pang of like the Connor McGregor just like, dude, I should have had this at some point in my career. Yeah, and absolutely I do. I don't think you'd ever say it, but I think that was his thing, right? Like this is what he used to say. Yeah, forever.

There was certainly a point during his assent where he was. He was never Katie Taylor. Katie Taylor is like unanimously beloved. Like it's like you don't really hear anyone being like, I think she's a bit of a dickhead. You know, I've never heard someone say that like. It's just like it's pure adoration from the boxing community,

from just people. Like they just, the way she presents herself, the way she carries herself. McGregor was different, right? Like he was like lightning in a bottle. It was like,

look how popular this guy is. He could have sold 80,000 tickets, no problem. But the problem is Crow Park is run by the GAA. And they're all about promoting the Irish identity. It's literally fond. to promote the Irish identity, to give us a better sense of ourselves, essentially. Like they were pushing Gaelic sports in a time when garrison games,

like the games from the British garrisons, cricket football, soccer, cricket football and rugby were kind of being pushed into, onto Irish people. The GAA was formed to like, no, this is actually what we're about. So the idea that Connor would be put into a situation where there was so much public outcry on the GAA, on Eddie Hearn to make this happen. I don't think Connor could ever command that kind of groundswell from Irish people where they're like, we need this for us.

Like Connor deserves this. You know, I just think that he's gone way, way, way, way beyond that at this point, you know what I mean? So I'd certainly say, yeah,

look, I'd say certainly like, I wish I could do something like that without a doubt, you know what I mean? I gotcha. Very interesting. Go read the piece. Yes.

It definitely made me understand it better. Yeah, please do. Yeah. So, yeah, So again, thanks to Ben and Shaheen for help me out with that one. It would not be where it is without them. And thanks to the great Jerry Grogan as well. I mean, this guy is the announcer in Crow Park.

He has volunteered for 50 years at Crow Park. He is like a poet, man. Everything the guy said was just fucking magic. And he's right there at the end. He sends a thing home for us. He was absolutely brilliant. I can't wait for the fight. I'm witnessing history.

I don't think anyone will ever be given an opportunity to do this again. out in a sport, out of the game, so it's absolutely amazing. It's going to be a hell of a spectacle. I do like the idea that you're going to be over there watching the UFC on your phone or whatever, just bringing the classiness of the entire operation down a few notches,

just letting everybody know, like, hey, us, MMA sickos, we're still out here. I have to say, the boxing guys are so nice to me. You know, I'm so intimidated by boxing media, you know, as an MMA guy, but the Irish guys are so fucking nice to me. One of the,

like, one of the guys is covering the event is actually, like, was teaching me sports journalism during my master's. He's like, he's like the head writer for the Irish times there. And I can always remember, like,

for one of my electives, I was writing something about Carl Pendwood or whatever, just like 2010, maybe 2009. And he was just always like, Peter, you're just not going to get anywhere covering this stuff. Like, I mean,

just for yourself, you got to spread your wings a bit more. And every time he sees me, he's like, This is the stupidest fucking advice I ever gave someone in my life. Shout out Maliki Clark.

That's funny, you're the man. Is that it? I think that's everything. Do we need to, oh, when are we going to sort out our fancy football guys?

I mean, we have the numbers. Tuesday? Tuesday. We got into Tuesday night. We do our draft on Tuesday. Yeah. All right.

I'm going to pencil that into the diary here at Tuesday night. I need to do some research. The diary. I need to do some research. I need to do some research. You know, I'm not where I want to be

in terms of fantasy football knowledge. Last season, oh, was dying for someone to fucking ask me to play fancy football. Diant. Nobody did. Oh, you had a great deal. You'll get into it fast. Trust me.

You'll get right back into it. Oh, yeah. That's how it works. Okay. Okay. And we're going to have 12 men league, I believe, right? Ben, so this is, this is what I prefer. I like this.

It's harder, right? Like, you get 12, it's harder to do the way for the way. Are we allowed to name the people? Are we allowed to name the people? I don't know. I don't know if we've cleared it with everybody. Okay. But, uh, no, it's the uncrowned crew coming in from all angles to populate.

Yeah. Fantastic. Fantastic. I'm very excited about it. Andy's part of it, I think. Andy, you are, right? We'll say that. Andy's in.

Fair play. See? All the cool people are in it. I'll tell you, some people definitely said no. Some people from another show that we aren't contractually they'll bring up. You know what? I've been in the shoes. I can't hate on anybody who was just like, I can't do the fantasy.

Why? Anymore? Why can't they? It changes the way you, interact with football and the way you watch football the same way like betting does but somehow even worse because you know you'll have somebody where you're like all right i got this running back i need him to have a big game but today he's playing my team what i do with that you know like you also that seemed to get an interception and yeah and you're also you're just like watching it and

you're you're like okay scores whatever i don't care tell me how many yards did he get how many receptions how many touchdown and like that's just a weird way to interact with the only way i watch this this is the only way like even without fancy football that's all i'm talking that's sort of true these days i feel like there's there's as many people who watch it through that fantasy lens now if not more than their traditional way of just watching your team you know it's crazy it's a beautiful sport god bless america i cannot wait for the fancy football league and we also should uh take a moment to mention that the university of montana grizzlies did win their home opener it was it's a little bit shaky You said it was going to, you said, you said that this was going to, this was a nothing game.

This is, we swept aside. And now you're coming up and we're like, what is what I said? And then they needed a last minute interception to seal a 28, 21 victory over the southern Utah Thunderbirds. This is what they do, especially when they open up with a night game at home. They always make it tougher on themselves and they need to, had to shake off some rust. But then this Saturday, 1 p.m. in the one true time zone, we're taking on Drake at home. Oh, yeah. The powerhouse.

The power house. His school. His school that he started. It's a rap school. I'll be up in the house. I'll be in there. Might have a little plastic bottle of fireball in my sock. Who knows?

Gonna have a good time. All those fans at Fenway that were holding their flags were all coming into like a picture now. I feel like you're all kind of with the same ilk. Can I ask one question? This is. You're, is that division two school? Is that correct? How dare you, first of all?

All right. It's division one. It's, uh, the FCS to level right below FBS. What does that mean? What does that mean? FBS. It means they don't, the, the, the, the, the people who go play in the bowls. Boy, can't you?

What? How can you? Why? Why? Are you not in the FCS? They're in the FCS, not the FBS. The B stands for bowl. And, uh, they are the teams that can,

play for like the national championship and everything. The Grizzlies, they are one of the best teams at the FCS level. And so they are always a contender having won a national championship in over 20 years at this point. But we've been to the national championship games several times. Montana State won the national championship. Last year, it was a bitter, bitter salt in the wound for us since the Grizzlies lost only two games all year. But both of those games were to the Montana State Bobcats. and they have a more traditional playoff system in the FCS

where you just you play through the season there's a playoff selection process and then instead of it now they've turned the FBS into a similar thing but they just play for a different national championship at a different level so but part of the thing that the teams at this level have gotten started doing is basically telling high level freshman recruits like

hey I know you think that you're going to go to LSU and you're going to be a star over there. But look, if you go to LSU now as a freshman, you're not going to play. They're not even going to give you a chance to play. What it makes sense. You came here. You were a hero on Saturdays in front of 25,000 people in Missoula, Montana. They won't even let you buy a drink down at Stockmans because they're just shoving you free drinks in your hand whenever you walk through the door, whether you're of age or not. And you get your money up. You get your profile up. People see Maybe you help us win a national championship, and then you can go to LSU and be a big deal.

That's what college football has come to now, and where everybody's trying to compete with each other to see who can successfully pull that off. It's very confusing. It's very confusing. Are you not envious of the bowl situation? No, not at all. I mean, this is the thing is some teams leave FCS to move up, you know, Sacramento State wanted to, I think North Dakota State has this season.

North Dakota, yeah. They leave to go and be at that level, but it's just not the same. Wouldn't you be the best of this level is very exciting. It's like a smaller pool. All the teams kind of know each other and everything. It's a lot more fun, I feel this way, especially, and let's be realistic. Montana's just probably not going to beat Alabama in a football game. It's just not going to happen, so let's avoid this.

Who your college team, too? Well, my college did not have a team, but I always paid attention to, uh, to Colorado, you know, just color. I grew up in Colorado. So the Colorado teams, Air Force, Colorado State, all those teams. Beautiful. But look. I can't get into college football. I can't because first of all, they don't stream his fucking games over here.

Troy to watch them. Troy, it went down my way. It's not there. It's not there. Okay. It's not there. Well, all you have to do is keep your phone on and you're going to get a steady stream via text message from me on Saturday. And it won't all be

the football game. I'll tell you that right now. Okay, okay. Well, that's all we got for you this week, guys. But before we go, I was wondering, Andy, any people with any superchats out there? Oh, yeah, baby.

We got blasted with the superchats last week. There we are? Yeah. Katie Taylor, my favorite Irish sports person of all time because George Best, God rest his soul. I was not around during his time. Fair play.

Congratulations, Katie. George Best, of course. great football player from north of Ireland played in fantastic Manchester United. So I was won the Champions League with the European Cup was called then with Manchester United in 1968. Famously liked a gargle. He had a famous quote once. He said, I spent all my money on fast cars,

women and booze. The rest I just squandered. What a fucking fuck. Like to gargle? Yeah. That's a phrase? Yes, it is. Write that down, Ben.

That's another one. That's saying that he like to drink, like to pull a cork. Yeah, yeah. That's what you're saying? He loves to gaggle. That's what you can say over. All right.

You guys, I think I've heard all the phrases that you guys have. He's always done more. You keep pulling more out of the back pocket. Anything else there I need? Unseen pizza would be incredible to see at a live event. Mr. Carl,

did anyone recognize you at Katie's Open Workout? Did you big time anyone? No, I didn't big time anyone. Yeah, I got recognized. I was talking to Mali McCann. I was talking to Kiefer Crosby. And obviously there was a lot of media people there as well.

I was talking to all those people. Al Foran, famous Irish comedian does amazing impressions. Did you do the impression for you? He didn't. He was actually, he was about to interview Katie or our manager or something. So he had to run off.

We're actually talking about Manchester United and our, our tough old transfer window there. I'm not going to like you. That's what we were discussing. But, yeah, I don't big time anyone. I'm not a big time guy. I'm not big time Ben folks. That's a big time fucking guy.

He'd big time the fuck out of you. He saw you in public. He just like, get away from me. I'm drinking fireball and the gris starts on five minutes. That's what he'd say. People have no problem recognizing you, I'm sure. They see that mop of hair. Yeah.

And it was oil this week. Actually, Keeper walked up and he said, what the fuck is going on with your hair, man? And I was like, yeah, no, it gets to this phase where it needs to be caught and it's just like a bush, you know? It's just like a big fucking hedge. I've seen you rolling in with it looking exactly like this. And you're like, yeah, just got it cut. Got it until yesterday. Fresh from the barber.

Yesterday. This is like, it always looked exactly the same. I don't know what you do. It's un-control. The barber is they're just, they're pocketing your money and they're just making the scissors. Just going around, yeah. It's a couple inches above your head and then just brushing off your shoulders and being like, all right, it's just like, be a mop-a-c-court or whatever. You can't control it.

It's not, it's not, it's unable to be tamed. You can't stoyle it in any way, it just turns into a brillo pot every fucking time. It's great. I couldn't enjoy it, though. Um, yeah. Oh, do you guys think Saladin is small for 155? I think he should start at 145. Nah, he's too big.

He's too big now. He would, he was a very slender 145. He almost looked like, when Anderson Silva showed up at 185, like initially when he was just reading thin, but tall and like a blade nearly. Like that's what he used to look like. He's, he's put on a lot of Muslim, I don't think, I don't think he'd make that. He looks, he looks like 155. He's jacked.

Yeah. He's fine there. If you went up and fall at 170, like, All right, here we go. And Jay Valencia. Usman and Magamatoff has suffered a fraction of what Walter Walker has. Keep up the good work, guys, love the crack. Thank you.

Sorry, I don't really understand that. Can we get that back up there again, Andy? Usman and Maga has suffered a fraction of what Walter Walker has. Keep what. What has Walter Walker suffered? He's won a lot. I don't know. I'll be honest, I haven't kept up with all the ins and outs.

Did he do a post-boyce? Did he a post-point situation? Do you do something crazy after a fight, maybe? Okay. Okay. Yeah. Now it's all kind of coming back to me. Then maybe we got in there and yeah.

And where people were taking swipes at each other or something. Yeah. I mean, winter later. It didn't seem like he suffered too much. Honestly, people were like, hey, did did he should he have been in there? Did he look like he was going to throw an elbow? Nothing actually really happened. Song Yudong was pretty cool about it when he was asked later on.

Yeah. It seemed like it all kind of blew over as they said. It's good for him to have these kind of stories, honestly, right now. I know it's not ideal. It's a bad look. It's probably not a bad, it's a bad situation when patty to body and stuff are getting their wages withheld for hopping over a cage and then nothing happens. That's criminal. I mean, that's, that is honestly criminal for the Nevada commission to do that.

Just be like, oh, we're going to keep some of your money just because we can't. Just going to wet our beaks a little bit on it. And when there's no reason to do that at all, this one, honestly, Chad Dundas and I were talking about it and we were more encouraged about Usman's future when we saw the explosive speed that he just displayed there

that corner shot where you see like how quickly he's behind two people he has to go over Habib's shoulder and he just like he shot out of a cannon I was waiting to see if there were cops behind him or something yeah it was crazy when you see him you see how quickly he got up and got in that kid I know. Like, man, okay, that guy is an athlete.

And the discipline to stop the elbow. He was full. He was nearly completed the rotation. Yeah, people have talked about their strength, you know, like. Yeah, you're right. I agree. Even though we can't quite remember the Walter Walker thing. I agree with you, Jay Valencia.

Anything else, Andy? That's right. Here we go. I want to pronounce this name right. Kamaena. Kamaena. Kamaena. Kamaena.

Best on Crown Show, agree. I appreciate. the proper combat sports banter without drivel about mom's hair. Hey, that's not drivel, okay? Mom's hair is rods, dongs, wood, knobs, bollocks, etc. I think we do. Sounds like somebody's been listening to my Monday show a little bit, you know? It sounds like they're reading your dream diary, Peece. That's right, your dream diary. I haven't had the dream diary. I've introduced things back into my life.

I do not no longer get dreams. I didn't. That was a good sense. have anything else, I think of pizza and friends miss y'all, have a great day. That's from boozy alpaca, a little boogie alpaca, what a name. Nice note. Thank you.

That was lovely boogie alpaca. Thank you. Look, we missed chuk. We miss fucking chook. He's back. That's right. Family's all back together. It's a beautiful moment.

Anything else, I need. The voice thing, I haven't seen it yet. I've been kind of all around the place this week. Have you guys watched that yet? The, uh, I, I want to, though. It's, yeah, me too. I know that much. I saw it being advertised.

I saw he was interviewed by Ariel, obviously. He is an incredibly interesting dude. He was in, he was in the studio with us, Andy. You can speak to this the last day when we were in Vegas. And he was very early, like, in my early fandom, he was killing it in Japan.

And I was like, fucking, like I still get starstruck when I see dudes from that era. I'm just like, oh shit, there he is. And I'm just like watching him talking to Casey and Esther for about three hours or as long as he stayed.

Um, really, really interesting going. I can't wait to see it. I've heard good things. They're usually good. We have to report back on that like next week. We will. I have to check it out. The whole show is going to be a review of.

We'll start with that. Absolutely. Well, that's it. Well, Andy, thank you very much. Thank you very much to all you beautiful crackheads for watching with us today. It's going to be a hell of a weekend. You're going to all be finished basically for the day. You could just watch Katie, watch fucking Saladin and be like, I've got a whole day.

I've got a whole day ahead of me here. Ben's going to be triple screening because the grays are playing or whatever. Well, if it's seven o'clock here's, it's going to be a eight, can't figure it out. It's going to be 8 p.m. my time. Steam coming out of your ears trying to do the math. It'd be 8 p.m. my time, right?

If it's 1 p.m. your time. Sure. Well, then, you know, sorry, mate. The main card is on for UFC Paris. The main, the third four from the top is going to be on with Katie. Perhaps Westlough will be performing one of our many one, number one hits, should I say. You guys are missing. Sing us another bar, will you?

Just like something, something nice. I never want to see you cry, because I never want to say goodbye. I swore to swear your joy and your pain, and I swear it all over again, and I straight back into it. Wow. So it's really a rip-off, huh?

Well, what do you mean? That wasn't fucking Backstreet Boys couldn't write something like that? Can you not hear the poetry and that? I thought it was lovely. Exactly like it. So it's just, no. Andy, who's better?

Backstreet Boys or Wesley? Ha! Shit! Let's just shut the show down. Thank you very much. Thank you from Ben. Thank you from Chuck. Thank you for Andy.

Thank you for Oscar Losef. Wesley, if I'm much better than Backstreet Boys. See you next week. I'm very disappointed with Andy. See you later.