The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC London Preview, Breaking News from Ariel Helwani, Fight Feasts | The Boys in the Back

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

The Boys in the Back kick off the show by reacting to Magomed Ankalaev hinting at the Alex Pereira rematch already having a date (02:21).They preview UFC London from top to bottom (08:28), before being joined by Ariel Helwani for some breaking news (1:10:06).Then, they deliver their UFC London picks (1:31:42) and debut a brand new Fight Feasts, featuring an English breakfast (1:40:02).Finally, The Boys list their top P4P British fighters (1:57:47) and answer your questions (2:16:07).

B-b-b-b-boys in the back. B-b-b-boys, boys, boys, boys, boys. What is good? We are back with another episode of the BITB, the bots in the basement. I am one of the bots in the basement, Connor Burks. Join alongside me, as always, your man, my man, the legend, the myth, the bot in the basement. Mr. New York Rick, if you don't get the joke, Mr. Kevin Durant took to Twitter and he called someone who was trash talking him on there a BITB, a bot in the basement. So now we've lovingly taken that on. We reached out to Kevin, we said you know hey man like you want to come on the show, you want to discuss, want

to make sure we're clear on our acronyms. As you can see, not many views. Kevin didn't respond? Didn't hear back from old KD. So unfortunately, we're going to have to just stick with the boys in the back for now. I know some people who work with him. I'll put in a word and we'll see if we can get him. I bet he'd be down. I wish he just put BITB. And then like, if somebody asked him like, what's that? He clarified in a separate tweet.

Yeah. But I mean, we'll take it. Because if he had done that, you're just a BITB. We could have framed it. We could have screen shot it. We could have done everything. All right. Enough about Kevin Durant.

We are the boys in the back. We are the boys in the back. Enough about Kevin Durant. But not enough about basketball because the NCAA tournament just tipped off. I hope you joined our uncrowned bracket mayhem pool. My dogs tip off later. There's my bracket right there as you can see. Big G-E-O-R-G-I-A as the national champion. The road starts today at 430 against Gonzaga, Bulldog on Bulldog crime. Cannot wait for that to tip, which means, I mean, we got to get out of here.

We got to keep this one tight because I got some basketball to be viewing later today. You got to be home on the couch in front of the TV. That would be ideal. We'll see if that happens because we're going to dive deep. We're going to get all into UFC London. We're going to talk about the entire card. We're going to go to Fight Feast, went and got an English breakfast, and Pound Profound rankings. We are going to do British fighters. Favorite? Best? Who knows?

Pound for pound. Pound for pound. I mean it'll be up for discussion when we get there. We'll also do bets, Barley Pals. The whole kit and caboodle, but before we get to all that, we did get a tweet from the now light heavyweight champion of the world, Magomed Ankaleev, saying that he has a date and he signed the contract for the rematch with Alex Pereira. I have a date and I accept it already. I hope my opponent will accept too.

This time, there will be no five rounds. I don't get paid by the hour. Hashtag big onk. And I love that he does big like normal and then an onk all capitals. Because the onk is big. It's a big onk. He's the big onk. He's the big onk. So do we think this is uh we're just waiting on Alex Pereira they're gonna do it maybe 316 main event? I mean this I mean do we have do we have the the response by Alex Pereira? You know what I actually I don't know if we do I don't know if we sent it

in or not. Okay okay we don't have it but Alex Pereira responded to that on his Instagram stories saying let's go Ali like acknowledging that Ali is writing this for for one big onk Ali Abdulaziz is manager, uh, writing this for big ong. I wouldn't be surprised if they're already moving toward it. It seems like both sides like have pretty clearly said that they, that's what they want. So I wouldn't be surprised if they were moving

toward it. This feels more like a little bit of a pressure than, than, uh, an actual feeling like there's going to be a meeting of terms and an agreement. This feels more like I'm ready to go. You ready to go? And Alex. I was two weeks ago. Yeah. Alex feels more like I'm ready to go. You ready to go?

And Alex. I was two weeks ago. Yeah. Alex Pereira may not be ready to go. So, um, this feels like gamesmanship. It feels, it feels like, uh, Ali on behalf of, uh, Onkali, oh, we've got the response by Alex Pereira here. There it is. Bora Ali Shama.

Yeah. Looks like he's in first class. Yeah. Life's all right for Alex Pereira, even though he's not the champ anymore. But no, I mean, I expect that it'll happen relatively soon. I just don't know that the paperwork has been

on Alex Pereira's side, so we'll see. Yeah. I mean, honestly, if you, if you lay out the paper views, like we already know what's going to happen for 314, 315, we're waiting on 316. There's rumors swirling around 317. I doubt it will be Pereira and Onkelive. I doubt 316 will as well.

So like the soonest we could be talking about is, is late July. Yeah. Which means there's, there's really no reason that paperwork would be being signed now. We'll, we'll see. But I mean, as we had that debate, I think heavyweight should have been his next move for Alex Pereira.

Um, I'm not surprised to see him, uh, want revenge, uh, as well. And, and if you're on Koliiv, it's the biggest fight you can get in the division still, even though there are other contenders that you might be able to face. Uh, down the line, Alex Pereira is still the biggest name in that division and the biggest name that you can get. So it makes sense for him to do a rematch, especially if you feel like, Hey, I, you know, I was able to beat them pretty easily the first time.

I don't think Magomed felt like it was much of a competitive match. So, um, make sense for both sides and, uh, we'll see. I'm sure in the, in the middle of the year, sometime we will see it. I just love how any tweet from an Ali managed fighter is you're automatically suspicious, but the big Ankh tweets, everyone is just like,

this is Ali. No one is fooled by this. Ankh-a-Lyov has given away the gimmick in media day. He has said, I don't run my own social media. So we kind of, he's like the most, he has maintained kayfabe the worst he is the most open about the fact that he doesn't run his own social the other ones are kind of like no no it's mean sometimes you know Ali has my phone like they just

try to bullshit so that Ali can get away with tweeting whatever the hell he wants uncle I have has said no I don't I don't tweet it so everybody knows that that is not quote-unquote big on making these these tweets, these tweets. Yeah. We'll see what happens. I think we likely get the rematch just when and where is, uh, what we still need to decide you'll see Abu Dhabi. He says he knows a date and he knows a location. So we don't. So we'll see.

Yeah. I don't see if any of it is yet either. Uh, yeah. I don't know if anything has been signed. I don't know if anything like that. It almost feels like the, uh, prayer tweet when he was just like, it won't be uncle I have and just left it at that. But now we tweet when he was just like, it won't be uncle I have and just left it at that.

But now we in hindsight realized that he was saying it won't be uncle I have to beat him. And then now we also know that was incorrect. UFC Abu Dhabi announced a fight night July 26. Feels like this is starting to be a two time thing for them. They get a fight night and a pay per view each year. And it makes sense. And I mean, as we've kind of continued to highlight, the

USC is going where the money is. If, if there is economy that can be driven by, uh, site fees and going to locations and partnerships like this, it makes all the sense in the world. And so yeah, um, more opportunities in the middle East. And I mean, you know, selfishly, it just means like there's more opportunities for us to see some fighters who like to fight in those regions as opposed to traveling.

I, namely, Hamsa Chamayev, right? If, if we get more Middle East opportunities, that means we get more opportunities for Hamsa Chamayev to fight. I'm down. And honestly, because of the money that gets thrown around in that part of the world, they're almost always high level fight.

Big names. Islam. Hamsa, like you're talking about the biggest names in the sport. And then let's go even more selfishly fight. Big names, Islam, Hamza, like you're talking about the biggest names in the sport. And then let's go even more selfishly. They usually start at like 10 a.m. I'm just like, this is perfect for me.

I mean, we get a high quality card, it's a great start time. What was the last pay-per-view in the Middle East? 308 Holloway, Toporia. Did that start our time or did that start? No, it starts theirs every time. It was like a 2 PM main call start. It was, okay.

Habib kind of, when this all was like swirling around and Habib was one of the first ones that had the card start at the local time as opposed to the 10 PM pay per view like the UFC has done, I guess that has carried over and I'm not mad about it either, you're right. Like an early start start times not bad. It's beautiful for us I think it's

better for the UK fans. Oh yeah for sure that. Australian fans? No not even because it might be just like the day after. I think it might be like 2 a.m. for them no because that would be 12 either way UFC Abu Dhabi I'm sure it will be good for everybody I'm sure it'll be class it's good for everybody it's good for it'll be class. It's good for everybody. It's good for everybody.

All right, let's go to this weekend. The promotion returns to London for the first time since July of 2023, if I'm not mistaken. They did a England card last year, a pay-per-view UFC 304, but that one was in Manchester. Headlined by Leon Edwards as well. Now he headlines this one. Overall, like I'm pretty excited for this card. Like looking down the roster, like a lot

of a lot of cage warriors vets, a lot of interesting names, a lot of fights that could be really fun, and a lot of hometown people that I think the crowd is really gonna be into. I mean I think there are certainly some notable names missing obviously, right? Of course, yeah. If you want to play that game. You look at this and you're like Patti Pimblitt's on. Arnold Allen. Arnold Allen. Now, Patty Pimlet in a massive fight coming up here, stateside. So that makes a lot of sense.

Tom Aswell, obviously not going to be on a fight night that is a pay-per-view headline fighter at this point. I mean, to be honest, like Leon Edwards is a pay-per-view headline fighter. So the fact that we're getting a fight night headline by Leon Edwards, like it's a good offering, I'm with you.

Like you look down the rest of the card and you're like, this is a very, very solid fight night considering that some of those names are absent. Wouldn't have minded a Lerone Murphy. I know he's got a headline in the Apex. Wouldn't have minded an Oban Elliott. I thought that would have been his goal. Oh, our boy Oban.

Yeah, I thought it would have been his goal. It sounded like when he was on the show with Ariel that he had something like Big coming, so maybe. I think it was to go to Vegas and knock down the doors of the UFC headquarters and be like where am I fighting? Where am I going? Yeah but look as I said there's some names missing here clearly but matchup for matchup like I think this has enough to deliver a really exciting night for the British fans. Oh for sure I think it's gonna be great and you know it's no Abu Dhabi with the start time but it's a

fair little start time for us over here. 4 p.m. main card start it's no Abu Dhabi with the start time, but it's, it's a fair roll of start time for us over here. Yes, it is. 4 PM main card start. It's, it's pretty good. Let's start with the main event. Yes. Leon Edwards, you mentioned pay-per-view fighter, former World Tourweight champion of the

world. Now number one contender takes on Sean Brady, gets the, gets the hometown rub, uh, being in his home country and everything like that. Uh, Sean Brady stepping in on shortish notice. Yeah. Like he's a replacement fighter in this one, but he had time to prepare for it, get ready for it. This is your technical striker versus

technical grabber matchup. Like it's basically just like whose area of expertise is going to thrive. Yeah. It's an old school style versus style fight. I think these days, and we talked about this when we were talking about like the meta of MMA, we had coach Brandon Gibson on and we were talking about the meta of MMA. There really aren't like traditional striker versus grappler matchups anymore because

when you look at Leon Edwards, he's a very capable grappler. His defensive grappling has shown to be pretty decent as well, or rather like take down defense. And then when we think about Sean Brady, like he's, he's shown that his hands are, are capable as well. And we talked about this also when we were talking about uncle live and Alex Pereira. Everybody these days is so well rounded that even though this is going to look kind of like striker versus grappler, it's not going to be

just like Sean Brady shooting for naked takedowns or Leon Edwards. And in Leon Edwards, like falling over for a takedown, nor is it going to be Leon Edwards just piecing up a guy who can't stand with him on the feet. Like I just think those days of MMA are practically over. Like they don't exist anymore. Everybody is so well rounded, but I make no mistake about it.

The best and most optimal game plan for Leon Edwards is to prevent Sean Brady from being in close, to prevent him from getting on his legs and strike with him. And for Brady, if he can take Leon Edwards down, that is going to be his easiest path to victory as well. A hundred percent. Like if Sean Brady can't get the take downs, the fight isn't over.

Leon will obviously be in a much better position and then vice versa. If Sean does get them to the mat, the fight is also not over for Leon as well. Uh, it's incredibly intriguing. I think Sean Brady losing to Bilal was essentially the best thing to happen for him. It feels like he's just leveled up his game,

obviously getting that first loss on the record. It's something most fighters, if not all, it's a very select few that get to keep their all the way through, especially a mixed martial arts career. So getting that loss, I feel like has leveled him up. We saw him go out there against Gastelum, every take down, eventually finish him.

Uh, and then Gilbert Burns put on a dominant performance, got to see him go five rounds for the first time being a main event. It feels like he's leveling up his game. And this is the perfect moment for him to like really break through and be like, okay, yeah, he had that setback, but this guy is still a serious title challenger. Couldn't agree more and not just leveling up in terms of the skill set, but he has a lightness to him now that if you heard his interview after the Bilal Muhammad fight with Ariel, where he talked about the darkness that like kind of crept in and the pressure that he had heading into that fight

and just this like maintaining the O and having to be this prospect in the rise and you can't suffer defeat and him on the other side of, overcoming that and realizing that there are so many more things in life. He just became a new father. Congratulations to Sean Brady and his wife as well. There's so much more. You can feel the weight just kind of lifted off his shoulders. He's no longer undefeated. He's no longer this like, oh my God, this undefeated prospect. We're going to push him to the moon. He's in a fight now. That's the biggest fight of his life. And he's no longer carrying that baggage and all he has to do now is go out there and perform it's a dangerous proposition because I think he's extremely skilled.

And as we've kind of like talked about in the grappling, I don't know that there's many guys who have his combination of like the power in terms of the wrestling aim, plus the submission skills. Like he's, he's going to be a tough out for a lot of people, including the champion, Bilal Mohammed, who in the first fight, Bilal just beat the breaks off him. Like that was a one-sided beat down as bad as it gets. I think that fight was like the, the first one where I was really like, oh, Bilal like, he might actually win the title.

He might actually win the title. Bilal ain't just like point fighting, just this guy that's going to be around just looking for. And then he followed that up with the Gilbert Burns performance, which obviously earned him the title shot, but that's when that Brady one where I was like, oh shit. And to get the finish too, like obviously he's,

he's, you know, always called the decision machine boring fighter, but like to get the finish like that on a guy like Sean Brady, it really wasn't now that loss, you know, he didn't look great in it, but it has aged well to see the law. That's a great point. That's the other thing. Losing the ball.

Muhammad isn't like some stained on your career. Like that dude is the champion of the world. And so I, yeah, I think we're looking at it. I definitely feel like the momentum right is obviously on a Sean Brady side here where it feels like he's on the up, he's the younger guy, he's the one who's coming in and it feels like the the potential is still ahead. Whereas Leon it feels like he's a known quantity. Now that quantity is good enough to be championship level UFC welterweight champion so knowing that quantity is

a good quantity to know. Like he is as good as advertised, but it does feel like there's much more room for growth and the ceiling on Sean Brady is still kind of like unknown. We still don't know what he could potentially be. This will be a fight where you learn what that potential could be. This is the biggest fight. You mentioned he had the baby, you know,

a lot of pressure off. I saw like a little piece with him. He had it like early February, I guess we didn't get the, I guess we didn't get the update. I guess that. Yeah, we were waiting around. Didn't wanna shoot us a text like, hey man, I had the kid ready to do the cycle off, ready to do the bike race.

Yeah, he was just quiet. Crickets, crickets on his end. I'm gonna say as somebody who has now three, well, didn't have, let me be clear, my wife had them, but I was involved in the process. If I need to do a biology lesson, we could do that later. I think we actually did the first episode of The Boys in the Back on the day your son was born.

It was the next day? It was the next day, you had to get back to the hospital. I had to go back to the hospital after to get my wife discharged, but yes, it was shortly after. So Brady should have been in the day after biking again. I was gonna say give him grace because you know there's a lot going on, maybe the text about the bike races.

Baby! Getting a call about London. But you're right, I was there the next day so maybe he has no excuse. We joke but like certainly that can also be like, I talked about the pressure being off him but it can also add some pressure, a different type of pressure. It's not that like I'm the undefeated stud that

everybody's looking at, but like I have to provide for a new mouth. Like this child is, is now somebody I have to take care of and, and think about what I'm heading into that cage that is, that is a potential pressure. I have, it seems like, and Ariel has asked this question, cause I feel like he's focused on this. He asked this question of a lot of new fathers and mothers

when they're competing. And they often say that like it's inspirational. It gives them like a new motivation, not a pressure, but almost the opposite. Like it lifts them to a point that they feel like they can do anything because they know they have to, and they're so motivated by that. But it does, it is another factor to come into.

Like what was the sleep like in the lead up to this? Like how much was he changing diapers? Like all these things matter. Ultimately, I do think, and as you said, like short notice, but not like super short notice. I think we will get a really good version of Sean Brady. I don't think there will be any corners cut.

I also think as we had Sean Brady on a few months ago, even before any of this was happening, this was a fight he wanted. This was a fight he wanted. This was a fight he desperately wanted. He wanted Leon Edwards before JDM got it. He was like, this is the one I want in London. I want to go there and play spoiler. And now he's got it.

So biggest opportunity of his life on the heels of some major, uh, shakeups and things happening in his life. It's all there for him. All he has to do is beat Leon Edwards, easier said than done and things happening in his life. It's all there for him. All he has to do is beat Leon Edwards, easier said than done. Much easier said than done.

Uh, let's play what ifs on both sides. If Leon Edwards loses this fight, where does he go from there? If Leon Edwards loses, he goes into a fight against like an Ian Gary, I think. I think he doesn't fall. So only 33, but like now distance is being created between him and the title. I don't think he falls too far down because his last loss would have been losing the belt

and then losing to a guy who we all I think can say is like a big prospect in Sean Brady, who probably ultimately with a win is going to go on to fight for a title at some point. I would, I would suspect that, yeah, you do like an Ian Gary fight. Um, and that would make a lot of sense.

And then if you can win that you're right back in it. So I think he falls, but I don't think he falls too far. This division is kind of like, there's a lot of different names now. We're looking at the rankings here outside of Kamara Usman. I love every single one of these fights for Leon Edwards, right?

You look here like, would you watch Shavkat versus Leon? Would you watch Jack Della versus Leon? Right, like if, if, if Bilal retains the bell, like you could put him up against JDM, uh, you have to think that Shavkat is, is going to be next for, uh, the winner of Bilal versus JDM. We've seen him take a fight before, so.

Yeah. It wouldn't shock me. Leon versus Joaquin Buckley wouldn't be a bad challenge. The history between Leon and Gary is like. Yeah, that's the one for me, but I'm open to any of those. And so Leon, unlike, I feel like Camaru is feeling like it's like, you've got to be selective on what

this next fight is going to be, right? You've really like got to pinpoint who you're going to fight. And then if you're going to make one more run at the title, I don't feel the same about Leon, I feel like there's a lot of freshness still and there's potential matchups that can get him back. Usman's got miles on him as well. That's the thing, he's been around. We don't need to see Leon versus Usman.

No, no, no interest. Zero. We don't need to see that run back. We've seen what? Third 12 and a half rounds of that already. We don't need to see any more of that. back. We've seen what third 12 and a half rounds of that already. Yeah we don't need to see any more of that. Yeah I really like the the idea of Leon versus Gary if he does come up short this weekend. If he wins though do we think he's immediately calling for another title? He'll call for it he will

not pass Shavkat. There's just no way. I don't think so. I mean I guess there's a chance again. Of course there always course, the schedule, if Shavkat for some reason is going to be sidelined for an extended period of time, you could do worse than Leon versus Bilal, I would say. And I know, like, I don't think of the champions Bilal Mohammed has the most clout and ability to guide this as the UFC within the UFC, but I

don't think he wants to give Leon a rematch this quickly. And I say that because when he wanted to rematch with Leon, Leon really made him wait for it. ultimately, you know, it took forever for him to get it. And I think he remembers that. And I don't think he wants to rush Leon back into another title opportunity now that he's the one in that position and the champion. Again, I don't think Bilal Mohammed's like Alex Pereira or somebody else who's, or Ilya Tupori or Islam who can really call their shot. But I don't think he's anxious to give Leon another shot.

Well I was gonna say like to the point of that, both Leon and Bilal had to wait and wait a lot. Oh yeah, if anybody should know. I'm not sure either of them are gonna get an easy road back if Bilal eventually loses that belt, when Bilal eventually loses the belt. Maybe. Like it'll be tough to get another crack at it.

Alright, let's go to the flip side of it. If Sean Brady loses it feels like it's pretty easy. You just get back on the horse and you keep trying to climb the rankings. You just take whoever they give you, take a top 10 matchup. What is Brady? How old is Brady? 28, 29? No, 32. 32? So yeah, looks young man. As older than me, looks like three years younger than me. Yeah, I mean look, you know, does that make you feel better or worse about the bike? Makes you feel better about the bike. Okay.

Yeah. But younger in the game, that's the thing. Like you guys don't have the miles that a lot of these guys have. Yeah. And so. MMA can just like warp your brain on age. A hundred percent.

It can just warp your brain on age. These guys are one year apart. And I would have like guessed if you had, if you had had me guess, I would have been like, yeah, Leon's like six years older than him. Yep. And he's one year younger. It's crazy. So yeah, you get back on the horse. apart and I would have like guessed if you had had me guess I would have been like, yeah, Leon's like six years older than him. Yep, and he's one year younger. It's crazy. So yeah, you get back on the

horse, so I guess that's kind of the answer for Leon as well. If he wins, we think one more for a title. Or you wait. He might even be able to wait for it. I think the thing with him and basically the Walter, we were talking about it the same way with the Leon thing, it used to be like, welterweight was Kamara Usman, Leon Edwards, Colby Covington, Gilbert Burns,

Jorge Masvidal, and these guys were just doing a round robin over and over and over and over again. And it was impossible for any new names and faces to break through. Now I feel the opposite. Now I feel like you lose at the top of the welterweight division, you get back in there against any other contender and now you kind of just like see where they all play out and they

could get back pretty quickly. So much like Leon where I'm like, yeah, you fight like an Ian Gary and you're right back. Sean Brady, you fight like a JDM or you fight whoever is the loser of that and you get right back. Let's say JDM wins and Bilal's now free. Maybe you do Bilal versus Leon. Maybe you do Bilal versus Sean Brady.

There's lots of different permutations of this that I'm totally interested in. It feels like Walter Witt has some real new life. Now. Oh, for sure. I mean, it just beyond Shavkat who could become. Yeah, and Shavkat's just waiting there. And, and to me, we, we had the discussion a couple weeks ago

when we talked about star power and everything. Or was that last week? That was last week. Gosh, time feels like it's moving slow, but it's actually moving fast. Like I feel like Shavkat could be a massive star there. I feel like JDM with the boxing is on the rise. Brady, Buckley, Gary, there's fresh faces,

Proches down the way, Michael Morales down the way. It does feel like there's new life there. Right now, Sean Brady sitting at a minus 160, Leon Edwards plus 140. Before we get your prediction, there was a, Bilal Mohammed took to Twitter last night and gave his prediction on it. Oh, perfect.

He said, this guy's full of excuses. That's why Brady will beat him. I predict once Brady gets him down two or three times, he'll find a submission because Leon's weak mentally and he'll have flashbacks from what I did to him. Interesting that he says that because he beat Leon by decision, finished Brady, but he has the confidence in Brady.

He doesn't like Leon Edwards. Yeah, I just think he does. He does not like Leon Edwards. And I understand it. As I said, when Leon was the champion and it seemed like Bilal was a natural fit for a title shot, he made him wait. He did not want to do that fight. He was talking about any fight other than Bilal Muhammad.

So if you're below and Bilal felt like he was done wrong in that first one. I know people talk about that first fight. Like it was like some like dominant performance by Leon Edwards. It was like three minutes of action and he poked him in the eye. It was not some like cruise to victory performance by Leon Edwards. I learned nothing from that fight other than

Bilal Muhammad got really badly poked in the eye. So this idea that like the first fight was like, uh, Leon was going to beat him anyway. I really don't buy that. I've never bought that. I thought that was kind of silly that everybody was just like, Hey, he's on his way to victory. I was like one three minutes stretch and an eye poke.

And if you're Bilal, I understand why you'd feel some type of way that it took that long to get a title shot. Now granted, I think it was a combination of both Leon not seeing Bilal as a big star, which is correct. And also the UFC not seeing Bilal as a big star and not wanting to grant him that shot, but either way, I understand why he feels hard done and I understand why he doesn't like Leon for that, for that reason. As you said, if anybody would have known how long it took to get to a title shot and have sympathy for that plight, it's Leon Edwards.

And he had no sympathy for it. Bilal earned it and he was just like, nah, I'm not interested in Bilal. So I get why Bilal would feel that type of way. And now he's the one in the driver's seat with the championship, but he just doesn't like them. Do I, I don't agree. I don't agree. I agree with the first part, which is like,

I think he, Leon will be taken down and I think he will get frustrated. Now is Leon like gonna have flashbacks to Balal, Mohammed dominating him, and is he the quitter and this and whatever other thing he said? that's the part where I check back out. But I do ultimately think, um, I just love the idea of like come Saturday night, we see Brady like take him down and

we see like Leon trying to like scoot over to the fence and he's like kind of breathing heavy. It's it's we're halfway through the fourth round and like Brady's gotten a few takedowns. Now he gets another one in the fourth and like he's kind of leaned back up and he sort's gotten a few takedowns. Now he gets another one in the fourth and he's kinda leaned back up and he sort of has a 10,000 yard gaze and it's just like the war scene.

He's like, yeah. And it's just like fade in him and Bilal Muhammad fighting. He's just having flashbacks of Bilal. That's how Bilal crafted that one up. Bilal in his mind pictured it that way. The first part I do ultimately agree with. Like when I, when I think about this fight, I think Brady's going to be able to keep it close enough on the feet.

And when it does get into a grappling position, I think he's going to be able to be pretty effective there and downright dominant. Like to the point that he could finish Leon Edwards. I don't think that's out of the question at all. I am very excited to see what we get out of Brady because if he comes out here and wins and he makes it look impressive,

it's just like, man, he has really bounced back. He's not jumping Shavkat. He just continues to level up. Yeah, I don't think he's jumping Shavkat at all. Like the performance of Shavkat is putting on, the star power that Shavkat has, the ability to become the first champion from Kazakhstan. He has earned the title shot and then some, he got the title shot, lost the title shot. Put it on the star power that Shavkat has, the ability to become the first champion from Kazakhstan. He has earned the title shot and then some,

he got the title shot, lost the title shot. Put it on the line. Put it on the line against the Ian Gary, won that fight. Dude is getting the title shot, there's no argument there, but it just breathes more and more life into the welterweight division. He's not a bad 1B.

He is not a bad backup option if for some reason Shavkat can't go. If you can go out there and, and really put it on Leon Edwards, I'm like, I'm hyped for a Sean Brady title shot. That makes all the sense in the world to me. Much like I was saying, like, you know, I didn't take much from that first Leon Edwards fight, I am kind of willing to excuse away. And maybe this is, maybe this is me being naive.

I am willing to excuse away, um, the to Baham Mahomet, because it looked like he was terrified. It looked like he didn't want to be there. It looked like all the pressure was mounting up. And I'd be interested to see what a new version looks like, especially if he comes away with a press of performance against Leon Edwards. Yeah, and I can't remember if it was after the

Bilal fight or not when he was having so much trouble on Twitter and people were sending him death threats. It was that. His wife death threats. He's deleted his Twitter since. Hopefully he's found mental clarity from that. So yeah, I mean.

He busted all their parlays and they were like, telling this guy that they're gonna put him in the dirt and his wife. Yeah, you said you're excited about a potential title challenge from Sean Brady. Me too, because then I can be like, oh yeah, I beat a UFC title challenger's ass on the Everron bike challenge.

It'll be great. Big duck Brady out there going out there this weekend. I've been seeing it circling. It's been on a bunch of the big aggregator accounts and everything like this. I don't know, I never really buy into this, but the picture of Leon Edwards training and who knows when it's from, he's wearing the blue shirt.

Oh, he's got a spot? He's got a spot on his elbow got like a spot like on his elbow and everyone's like, oh, confirmed, Leon Edwards has staff. Like you're far away. Where? You're far away, but on his right elbow, the one he's turned to, it's like. Oh, like in the middle of the elbow?

Yeah, see, that's how little it looks like when you don't put the giant red circle around it and then have a tweet in all caps that says, Leon Edwards confirmed staff. Like it could be something, like it could be something, like remember Marab? Yeah, yeah. It could be something, but like, I can't calculate that in the fight.

It could be something. It could also just be the red circle of doom of just like somebody getting on Photoshop and the yellow text of the salaries. Or like something in the past, or like, I don't know. Or he elbowed something and it broke open. You know, like there's a million things. Yeah, he could cut himself open, yeah.

I don't know, I just, I never really buy too much into that until it's been like confirmed or, or the, the fighter himself. We'll never hear it until after the fight, if it was that, um, but Leon, Leon might, you know, might say something after if it, if it was, but either way, like I'm not anticipating that. I'm anticipating Leon Edwards, who is strong on

the takedown defense and really trying to keep it standing. And at range, he's going to be able to, I think he's a fantastic striker. I think he's going to be able to have a lot of success against Sean Brady. Once Sean Brady closes the distance, that's where the fight really begins, right?

If Sean Brady can get inside Leon Edwards and outside the range of those kicks and really pressure him, that's where we have a fight. Because if Leon can't stop that, I think Brady is going gonna be very successful. Is that the official prediction? I think Brady, I'm leaning Brady. I think the pressure and the grappling

is gonna be too much. The enemy of my friend is my enemy? Yeah. The friend of my enemy is my friend? It's supposed to be the enemy of, the friend of my enemy is my enemy. I'm trying to do something here, but I don't think it calculates out.

My enemy. Is your friend in this scenario. Yeah, I'm picking Sean Brady. I'm gonna back the man. I'm gonna back the man just so the name's that much bigger when I take him out on the bike. Yeah. But yeah, I do think, I think he will have success

with the takedowns. I think it'll be close. I think both guys will have success throughout the fight, but I, I'm going to go with Brady getting the takedowns. 49, 46, 48, 47, 48, 47. There it is. Yeah.

And, and by the way, like you don't have to rewind too far, go back to when everybody thought that Kamaru Usman versus, um, Leon Edwards was just going to be like, take down, ground him, grounded pound them, take him out. Now, first fight, it seemed like it was going that way, right? Like Kamara Usman was having a lot of success

and like really keeping him frustrated and Leon didn't have the answer until he had that one, one of the best answers of all time. Um, in the second fight, the range management, the footwork, he was able to avoid everything. And he just completely picked them apart. If that version shows up, I wouldn't be surprised to see Brady really have some struggles

in terms of tracking him down and being able to take him down. It'd be a great fight if. That is, that is the fight I want to see is that best version of Leon and the version of Sean Brady, that's just bulldozing forward and trying to get inside there. So it could really line up to be a fantastic fight.

Yeah. Hopefully we don't see the, the Leon of, hopefully we don't see both guys, Bilal's. Yeah. Well, no, we run against Bilal look fine. It was just that the eye poke did some real damage. Uh, Leon versus Bilal, Brady versus Bilal. Those, those are the guys. Um, yeah, I'm going to go Brady and uh, yeah, I think it'll be,

I think it'll be a great fight. I'm excited about it. I think we're either gonna know Sean Brady's ready for the big time and Leon Edwards is gonna have to take a step back now, like not immediately hopping back into title conversations or too much too soon for Brady, take a little time back. Maybe he never gets to that point. I would predict he does, but maybe he doesn't

and Leon Edwards right back in the mix. Either outcome I think is exciting for the division. All right. Let's go to Komen. Jan Blachowicz taking on Carlos Olberg. First time we've seen Jan since July of 2023. Took on Alex Pereira at UFC 291. Lost. Very, very close decision. A lot of people scored that one for Jan.

Taking on Carlos Olberg. Very interesting matchup here. Jan just turned 42 coming off some shoulder injuries. Carlos Olberg's 41. 41? I was about to say 34, right? Doing what we did with the Brady thing where it's just like, he's only one year younger.

It's like, man, it feels like Jan's like 10 years older than him. It's like, no, Carlos Olberg is actually 41 as well. Uh, no, yeah. Like Olberg is like, as well. Now yeah, like Olberg is like everyone calls him a prospect like he's just a potential title challenger in the light heavyweight division but he is 34 like he isn't he isn't as bright to himself. These days it's about the miles and not the age so much. Yeah I had a kickboxing career before this obviously I liked what I saw from

Olberg going the full 15 with Volkan. Was able to stuff the takedowns later. That was a nice step up in competition for him. Now this is another step up to see where he's really at. I think that Jan is going to come in. I think he's going to have to go for the takedowns. I think Olberg's going to have a speed advantage. I think he's going to have a power advantage too. I know it's the legendary Polish power. In 20 UFC fights, Jan only has five knockouts and eight, Olberg has four. Honestly, if you look at the whole lineage of Jan's career, nine KOs, nine submissions,

and then 11 wins by decision. He's actually a great submission artist as well, and he does win a lot of decisions. So I think Olberg's gonna have the power and the speed, so I think it'll just be the striking. It's just like, can he get the takedowns? And like, what is Olberg going to look like if Jan is able to get the takedowns?

Yeah. And I think the game plan against Olberg is going to have to be similar to the game plan against Magomed on Koliath, which is like, you want to take out the leg. You want to really get on that lead leg and make sure that it gets compromised nice and early so that Olberg's power is compromised and that that's weakened and by the time he's throwing those those bombs at you that he's not able and he's comfortable at

the range he's not able to put as much power on it and maybe mixing those takedowns I think that it's a simple game plan if you're young you have to avoid the big shot you have to compromise the leg and you have to take them down easier said than done because like you that speed advantage I think is gonna be the difference in the fight like just, I can't picture Ulberg not being able to find home with how good his striking is look likely. You pointed to the, to the, uh, Uzzamir fight, like I, I rate Uzzamir higher than most. Like I'm, when he's on and his hands are flowing, like Uzzamir is one of the best guys in that division in terms of that. That's a nice name to have on your resume.

Then you go back, like obviously level of competition is important to note here, but the knockouts, the power that Carlos Ober carries, that combination of speed and power, I think, is gonna be pretty damning for Jan. Jan is tough, man. He is tough as hell. I think he's only been knocked out twice in his career,

once in the UFC, and it's been like six years, the, the Diago Santos one. So like, Ulberg is capable of it, but I, I feel better about his chances after watching him go the full 15 with Othamir, a guy, a guy at that level. Um, so yeah, I, I, I just, I love Jan. Like I'm a, I'm a big fan of Jan.

Like he's just a man. How can you not love him? But at the age, the layoff, the injuries going against, you know, you can, you can say like, Oh, he's not a prospect. He's 34 years old. Well, he's eight years younger than Jan Blachowicz. And like, that's a gap of 34 to 42.

A lot is changing in your body. Like you are, you are really starting to feel the effects of your age coming on with that gap. We're also looking at 40 MMA fights versus 12. Yeah. That's a lot of miles on Jan. Miles matter. I just feel like if Jan's going to win this fight,

it's going to be heavy on the takedowns. And then when he gets the takedowns, he's heavy from there. Maybe a submission. Like maybe he is able to get the takedowns, and he just is such a superior grappler to Olberg, and he's able to feel out of submission. But man, I feel like if this thing stays standing

for 15 minutes, Olberg is gonna have the advantage. Have we seen anybody really try to test Olberg's takedowns? It's not coming to mind at the moment. We saw it in, I mean, obviously not the last couple of fights before Vulcan. Vulcan went for a couple of takedowns in the later rounds and then the ones before that were like a combined, like 30 seconds.

I want to say that Daon Zheng won, he got taken down a couple of times. I mean, I know Nikolai or Potiera didn't, I mean, all of his fights like up until then, the Fabio Charrant fight was like essentially like a staring contest. The Kennedy fight, he just blew his load. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be like, he has like a,

I wrote it down somewhere, he has like a 70% take down defense. Yeah, I don't know enough about his take down game, his take down defense game. He's going against the guy that can execute it. He's going, and we saw it, right? Like we've seen it in even in his last couple of performances, but I just, I wonder But I just wonder if Jan's gonna be able

to close the distance and avoid these shots. The speed is gonna be so obvious. Later in the fight, maybe when Olberg's potentially a little bit more tired, that speed might level out. But that first five minutes, that first seven minutes, it's gonna be real dangerous for Jan. And that speed is gonna be on full display. I just can't, I don't see it going long enough.

I don't see it going late enough that Jan's gonna be able to implement this game plan. But if he's able to get on that leg and really compromise Ulberg early, maybe, I think he has a chance. But the age, the speed, the layoff, every time I picture it I see Ulberg winning. It's 83% takedown defense for Ulberg but like you

said hasn't really been tested. Who's shooting on those takedowns? We're gonna see on on Saturday night when he takes on Yablovich. I kind of feel the same way I just feel like the age the time off the injuries and everything like that going against the young fast dude with a lot of power good striking it'll it'll end up being Olberg. Olberg only seems to be getting better. And Olberg also trains at City Kickboxing. And you have to imagine a guy like an Israel Adesanya,

is somebody good to train with? If your game plan is, I need to stay at range and strike and you can't take me down. That's a pretty good person to try to learn from to execute that type of game. Izzy also fought him. Yeah, Izzy has experience. I feel like I know what the game is going to be. Now in that fight, Jan did get the takedowns. So maybe that is the path to victory. Now that was

some time ago. Four years younger. I was about to say that's some time ago and so it might have been easier at that time. Four years younger against a guy going up a weight class. Yeah. Whereas Olberg is a 205er. Oh yeah. I will say this, the physicality of Israel Adesanya and Carlos Olberg is not equal. They are not the same size, they are not the same build. Jan would have a tougher time with a guy like Olberg if his takedown defense.

This is the one boys, ladies night. Ladies night. Invite the girls over, you know, Henge day, let's watch some UFC fights. And then it's like, why is that other guy just laying on top of him? Yeah. It's just laying on top of him. It's just like so boring.

But I think ultimately Olberg's going to find the mark. Kenny, Jan is so tough, man. Is he going to finish him is a real interesting question. I think he's going to crack him. Whether he finishes him, I'm not sure. Probably at this point I'm leaning yes, but I think he's gonna crack him a few good times regardless of if he finishes or not. And bro, similar to Brady. Olberg sitting at six right now, Jan at three. Like it's a very intriguing matchup because if Olberg wins then it's just like man there's not a lot of names.

You got a new guy at 205. Like you got Alex Prer for the rematch, you got Yuri and then it'd be Olberg after that. Like it feels like Jamal still needs another win. You know, you got Kalua Rountree coming off a loss. Alexander Rokic, where's he's at. Like a win here would do a ton for Olberg's career and a ton for his chances of getting a shot. It's very intriguing.

Let's go to another intriguing matchup. Kevin Holland taking on Gunnar Nelson. Every time Kevin Holland fights, you see the clip. I watched it this morning with you right by me, the Dana White, you know, no one would take the fight. I said, hey, call Big Mouth to call up Kevin Holland. On the flip side of that, you have UFC London. They must just have a phone somewhere

in the war room. That's just like the tiny Icelandic phone. It just goes directly to Gunnar Nelson's gym. It's like, Oh, we got a UFC London coming up. Dial up old Gunnar. His last five fights are UFC London, UFC London, including this weekend, UFC London, UFC London, UFC London, UFC Denmark, UFC London.

He has five fights in the last six years. And they're almost always there. You dial them up. Oh, he didn't fight last year at a three or four. It's cause that one was in Manchester. He just does, he just does the London ones. Uh, from a matchup standpoint, the path is there, man. The, the, the roadmap is written for, for Gunnar Nelson. Like it's, it's, you know, what he's going to do. He said it in the interview with Elwani this week.

Like, it's just like know what he's going to do. He said it in the interview with Elwani this week. Like, it's just like, get the takedown, start fishing for submissions. And if you can't get the submission, just rack up points, win the round and move on to the next one. It's, it's just right there for him. We've seen Kevin Hollins struggle with grapplers.

It's, if that's how Gunnar Nelson is gonna win, I think that's that's the only path. We heading into the RDR fight, the Kevin Holland versus RDR fight, I was like I was thinking to myself, okay against top control American wrestlers right, that's where Kevin Holland struggles. He's gonna struggle against a guy like that. They're going to take him down. They're going to control them. And he's not going to have opportunities for kind of hunt for a submission or, or keep them off his legs. But against the guy like the Ritter, who's more of a BJJ guy, not like a

primary top control double leg shooting wrestler, maybe as a chance, because in the scrambles he can do this and that and this, and then we saw RDR just take him down and have his way with them. And it made me less confident in his chances against Gunner here. Like it really showed me there is some, there are some major, major holes in Kevin Holland's take down defense and there are some major holes

in his bottom grappling game. In the past, he's shown the ability to kind of hunt for submissions, even against RDR. If I recall correctly, he was throwing up some stuff and he was trying to like really get the submission he needs to really get the submission. He needs to get off the bottom. If he gets taken down, spend zero time trying to do Jiu-Jitsu.

Get off the bottom, get the fight back to your feet because you have a huge advantage here, like against almost everybody. Like a lot of guys don't want to really strike with Kevin Holland because he's pretty damn good there. But I have concerns about his ability to do that. Like if Gunnar is able to get him down, I think it's curtains basically, because he is that good on the ground

and he's such a good submission artist. You mentioned from the bottom. Yeah. Since the Jacare Sozo win, where he essentially fought back from bottom and then ends up getting the finish and he was just like flying on, flying high. I think it was five wins that year.

Massive moment. Since then, he's five and eight with no, one no contest. The one against Doc is where he actually got choked out and kind of got lucked his way out into a no contest there. So I just, I just like, don't know what to expect from him anymore. This will be his fifth fight since March 9th of last year.

So like 378 days, almost a full calendar year. This will be his fifth fight. He's one in three in, in the first four. Like, is he making improvements? Is, is he, you know, getting back in the gym, fixing things, making improvements from fight to fight? Or like he told the reporter this week, like I'll fight anybody, that's how I get paid.

Like, is it just like, yeah, man, I think earlier this year before the RDR fight, he was like, I'm going anybody, that's how I get paid. Like, is it just like, yeah, man, I think earlier this year, before the RDR fight, he was like, I'm gonna fight six times this year. And like, he's on the path to that. This is his 20th fight since 2020. Like, he has the most fights by far. Like, he is unbelievably active, but now that he's not winning as much,

is that the best thing to do for his career? Kevin Holland treats his bout agreements like Marab Davalashvili treats takedowns. It's just like, yeah, it's all volume. It's all volume. I don't care if I get this or not. If I get it, it might look pretty spectacular. It'll be pretty great. If I don't, guess what? There's another one right around the corner. We're just doing it one more time right after this. He just doesn't, I don't, I don't, it would be naive to think that he doesn't go to the gym and go, okay, I lost this way. I need to work on this. Of course, of course. But I don't know if he's, he is who he is. Kevin Holland just is who he is. He is exactly who he is and he's going to be exciting if you stand with him.

If you take him down, you're going to have a real opportunity to win. Sometimes he's also able to pull off some pretty spectacular grappling. His submission game is pretty strong, even though like we don't, we haven't seen it lately. Um, I don't, yeah, I don't know. I don't think there is like an improvement in that sense. I think it's more of just like he's a game

fighter who's going to sign on the dotted line, who's going to show up and he's going to try to take people's heads off. And if he can't, then he probably loses. I mean, it's just like two months since his last fight. Three months since the one before that, four months since the one before that, two and a half months since the one before that.

He did take a six-week break, six-month break between JDM and MVP. And then it's just like three months, two months, four months, like he's just been every single time. Like his entire UFC career is this just call big mouth. And then on the flip side of that, you got Gunnar Nelson, who's just like, yeah, training

that coach. And you know, if they call me up, yeah, I'll take an extra paycheck and get in there. Do you think that will play? Like how much do you think the fact that Kevin Holland win or lose has been the most active fighter in UFC history to this point. Like just the pace that he's putting on is insane versus Gunnar Nelson, who might

be the least active fighter in UFC history. I just don't know if it matters because Gunnar is always training. Like he's always training. He's always coaching. He runs the gym up there in Iceland. Like he's, he's staying active and honestly, like with his fighting style, like he, he, he, I don't know how much he needs to fight Like he's just gonna try and take you down

He's not really gonna have a ton of success on the feet and he's gonna try and submit you can he Can he get? Kevin Holland down easily. Do you I don't know that's what we're gonna find out. I I Think he will get a takedown or two. And finish. And I think once he gets down there, I don't know. It could be like the Takashi Sato fight that we saw a couple of years ago where,

but then it's just like level of competition comes into play and it's like, man, Kevin Holland is not Takashi Sato. He ranks higher than that for sure. So it's just like, if he does get him down and Kevin Holland has good finishing capabilities and he's long and he's rangy and he can get knockouts. So it's a fascinating fight to me. I really like Gunner a lot. Like there's just something about this stoic dude that says two words and like the fact that he reps Ireland and he's got this, I mean, fact that he reps Iceland and Ireland as

well. And he, and he just is like ducked off at this sick gym up in the Scandinavian countries. Like there's just something appealing about that to me. So yeah, I don't really know what's gonna happen, but I think if I had to guess, I would say Gunner does get a takedown and has success with it. I'm just an idiot. I think Kevin Holland-

You're calling Big Mouth, yeah. I'm an idiot. I am an idiot and I admit it. Like somebody will clip that out, but I am Kevin Holland. You're calling big mouth, yeah. I'm an idiot. I am an idiot and I admit it. Like somebody will clip that out, but I am an idiot. I believe that Kevin Holland can stop a take down once in a while. I believe that Kevin Holland can do enough on the feet to not have somebody take them down.

I believe he can get up. I've never seen it. I don't think you're an idiot. I think he fights so often that it's just like, you forget the losses and you remember the wins. It's just like, he just, he- What am I doing? I see a few people saying this week,

like it's just like Gunnar Nelson is not good. He never fights, everything like that. This is gonna be a y'all must have forgot moment for Kevin Hollen. Gunnar Nelson never fights. Gunnar Nelson is not good. I don't know if I'm willing to go there. I've seen a couple of tweets calling him a can this week. Oh, Jesus Christ. I'm like, what is this?

People. What is this? I've seen several tweets being like, Kevin a can this week. Oh, Jesus Christ. I'm like, what is this? What is this? Uh, I've seen several tweets being like, Kevin Holland, y'all must have forgot moment. It's like, I didn't forget anything. He fights every few months. I never forget Kevin Holland. You can never forget Kevin Holland. He's always in there. You can never forget him.

I know that he's good. Like, I know that he can do things. The law of Muhammad is, remember the name? Kevin Holland is, you cannot forget my name. It is impossible. Kevin Holland can win fights and he can also lose fights. Yeah.

It's just like, it's almost always exciting. It's a good time. He's gonna talk some shit. He's gonna like be enthusiastic. Yeah. It's gonna be fun to watch. Cause I really, I don't know what's gonna happen. I'm dumb and I think Kevin Holland's gonna win.

I guess the thing for me that just trips me up so much is just the path for Gunner Nelson. Yeah. It's just so there. It is the most obvious path to victory, right? Well, I guess there's an obvious path to victory for Kevin Holland too, which is stuff the takedown and punch him in the face. Yeah. But to do that that many times is much harder than for Gunner Nelson to get one takedown and one submission. But I don't know, I'm dumb. I think Kevin Holland, but I'm an idiot. What do we know? I'll go Gunnar Nelson. Yeah. All right, let's keep it rolling on the main card. Jordan Vucenic taking on Chris Duncan. You know what? You know what? I'm sorry,

Jordan, can we run back the lower third back to the Kevin Holland? I did want to show one tweet from Kevin Holland. I actually forgot about this. We keep saying how dumb we are and everything like that. How's he going to come out? He did take to Twitter and he said, for the ones that support much love to the ones that hate, it's still much love this way, but I owe you all a W and I plan on delivering.

So who knows? Encouraging. Yeah, yeah. Maybe he's been in a lab. Maybe he's been in a lab. Yeah, maybe he hasn't. The last two months he's been in a lab. We forgot about that. Maybe he's been in a lab. Yeah, maybe he hasn't. The last two months he's been in the lab.

He's not in the lab very long, because he's always in the cage. It doesn't take long to make improvements in your big mouth. Yeah. Oh, geez. So we'll see. All right.

I just mentioned it though. Jordan Vucenek taking on Chris Duncan, former cage warriors champ. He has had some fantastic fights in that promotion, despite not having a more UFC experience than Chris Duncan. I think he just has more experience against higher level fighters.

Yep. Uh, it's been going around, um, this week he has a tattoo of Bruce buffer on his thigh. And it's like Bruce buffer screaming into the microphone and it says Corby on the side of his thigh, and he basically broke it down how like his whole life he's like, Ier screaming into the microphone and it says Corby on the side of his thigh and he basically broke it down how like his whole life, he's like, I'm gonna be in the UFC

and one day you're gonna hear Bruce Buffer say, this is truly the moment I have been waiting for. Well done, Frankie. Fighting out of Corby, England and like he told all his friends that and they were all like, yeah, you're full of shit, that's never gonna happen, bro. And so when it finally happened,

you can see it like in the video, he's smiling, he's got a smirk on his face, so he got it, the tat on his thigh. Did he have that for the last fight or is this? I think this is new for this one, unless I'm mistaken, but it doesn't really, it's not too jarring because he is tatted from head to toe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he is very tatted up.

It's nothing crazy. But yeah, I mean, this should be a fantastic fight, dude. I mean, Chris Duncan comes out and just brawls like he's, he's down to take some, to give some, uh, which I don't know if that's going to work out too well here. Uh, but like he, he is down for a brawl and so is Vucenek and he is, he's tough as nails. He actually fought in cage warriors. He fought Paul Hughes, won by split and then rematched him. Uh, and Paul Hughes got it done, which had never been finished. I think we have the picture here,

like he got beat up by Batman, but he hung in there tough, like that is a beat down, but he is tough as hell. I actually think the durability is gonna be the biggest factor for him in this one. Yeah, he's somebody who I'd been hearing about for a while, because everybody in the UK scene was like, yo, this is the guy, this is the guy, he's the next cage warriors guy that's gonna be coming to the UFC. And then obviously like UFC debut against Guram, that's like tough sledding,

like that's not the easiest one. Not the easiest night at the office. Yeah, that's not the easiest one to step in on. But got his, look, if you're the guy who's been dreaming about fighting in the UFC to the point that you have Bruce Buffer tattooed on your thigh, you take that opportunity. You, you take your lumps and now you have a real opportunity to like reset that

level, Chris Duncan, not the same level as Guram in my estimation. And so we're really going to see if he can be that next guy. Um, this is a much more favorable matchup. He's a favorable. He's a minus four 50. I think the durability will be good. I think he's going to be able to outstrike him.

I think he's going to be able to land a lot. He's got nasty grappling. He's got minus 450, I think the durability will be good. I think he's gonna be able to outstrike him. I think he's gonna be able to land a lot. He's got nasty grappling, he's got good submissions. This feels like a moment where home country, he gets a dub, it'll be a great moment. People obviously already know him there from his success in Cage Warriors. So I'm really excited for this one. I think it's gonna be a great fight

and I think it could potentially produce a great moment as well. Obviously a dude insanely passionate about the game if you get your entire thigh taken up by Bruce Buffer. Yeah, man Duncan, I remember his fight against Charlie Campbell on Contender Series because that was just like an all-time banger strap. But now he's got one, two, three, four. This is his fifth UFC fight after that. Like who's got some experience now in the UFC? He's moving. Yeah. To the point that like, in two years, he's

facing a guy who's had a lot of octagon time. It's going to be interesting to see if that's like, uh, you know, um, an equalizer of sorts, but based on just like the, the, as you said, the level of competition that he faced even before he got to the UFC, we're talking to scraps with Hughes. He has a fight against Morgan charriot.

Like the dudes fought top level competition even before arriving in the UFC. I don't know if that's going to be the difference. And then ultimately, like it feels like the, the skills are on his side. Paul Hughes twice, Morgan Charrier and, and Guram is, is probably tougher than most of the opponents.

Any of those UFC opponents, it's still higher. For sure. I think it's going gonna be incredibly exciting. It's funny, we got both Vucenic and Sharia on this card. Yeah. I wish we had Paul Hughes on this card. Ah, shut up. I wish we had Paul Hughes.

I wish we had Paul Hughes, period. Thankfully, we are getting him back. Yes, yes, fighting Bruno Miranda in Northern Ireland. Yeah. Should be a great one for him. But yeah, I can't wait for this one. I think Vucenic gets it done, and it should be really fun to watch.

Another very intriguing one, Nathaniel Wood taking it on, Morgan Chachrier, the Frenchman. Something about these French fighters, they got the swag, they got the promotion, they got the panache that you want to see with these fighters. We gotta run it. The last pirate hype video for Morgan Chachrier. I don't know if we can play the audio because- No, we'll play it, the last pirate hype video from Morgan Chachriet, I don't know if we can

play the audio because I don't know. No, we'll play it with no audio. Yeah, I think there was music on it. I think buffer's in it too. I think he like, it's a good butt. Yeah, I mean, it's sick. The last pirate army is taking over UC London. Like, this is like a high-level production.

First of all, look at the quality. Yeah, like that's what I'm saying, this is a high-level production. Like, he's got the look, he's got the clothing company. He obviously has exciting fights. Like this is the type of dude that you want coming into your promotion. He does a little head nod rallying the troops.

We got dudes showing up with bats. With the baseball bats. They all also, nice touch. They're all wearing his clothing company outsider. All black, got the black pirate flag in the background. Black pirate flag, the French flag. And then it looks like that's the last pirate flag. The white one.

Oh God. It's like him with the face mask. Look at this. He got everyone fired up. And like he said, he's like, I'm a pirate. I love to go into enemy territory. Like he'll be getting cheered against. Uh, Nathaniel Wood, obviously an Englishman.

I mean, it's just like, this, this, this, this, this is an unranked featherweight. And he's just like, this dude, this, this, this is an unranked featherweight and he's just like, oh yeah, here's my promo video. Like we got the slow mo with the screaming people and you got the. The smoke. Yeah, with the, with the colored smoke. It's, it's great, man.

Dude, it is great. Didn't even have to say anything. What a, what a fucking promo. I mean, the moment I saw this, I was like, holy shit, like this dude's coming for war. Yeah, legit. Yeah. It's like, he's either got friends or a production company or someone behind him.

Yeah, shut up. Because promos for his clothing company are sick, too. But yeah, man, he is very exciting. If he can continue to rise, he will definitely be one to watch. He has that star factor. And if he can get the country of France behind him, we know how diehard those fans are, how passionate they are. For MMA, they obviously went crazy for him winning got a win in Paris so it's

it's gonna be it's gonna be great but when it comes down to the fight man I actually like I kind of favor Nathaniel Wood despite him being the underdog I think he's got the better striking he's got much higher volume like if he if he can thwart the takedowns here the thing, if Chahouye doesn't get a finish, he fights insanely close. 10 losses on his record, 10 losses. Okay. Half of them by been, have been by split or

majority decisions. He also has a draw and then four of his five decision wins are split or majority decision wins. So he has nine split or majority fights on his resume and a draw. And I think he only has 30 fights in total. So a third of his fights are ending by split or majority decision. I hear you. Englishman in London.

I'm going with the last pirate and I'll tell you why. Nathaniel Wood, you said striking advantage, maybe probably, okay. I'm so, I'm really just speaking from like an output in volume. I'm, I'm speaking from the standpoint of Chakriere not getting a finish. And that's where I ultimately feel the fight is going to change.

And that's because Nathaniel Wood doesn't have the finishing ability. He is going to allow you to be in that fight for the full 15 minutes. And I think Charier is going to be able to find something in that 15 minutes. Ultimately, or you can also get takedowns too. And if he gets to take downs and it's his world, but I, I, I feel like he's going to be able to find a finish in this fight. What would man, the game plan is always the same. Like just stick to that really crisp boxing, stay on the outside, pepper the

face. You don't need to do more because he's so good at it. But I think, I think we're going to find a finish in this fight. And I think it'll be on the side of the last pirate. I see. It's going to be great. If he gets a finish, he's going to get on the mic and he's going to try and cut a promo in front of that English crowd.

It's going to be fantastic. Yeah. It's going to be, cut a promo in front of that English crowd. It's going to be fantastic. Yeah. It's going to be, I mean, if he, if he leans fully into it as like a heel, it'd be, it'd be tremendous. But if he gets a finish, I think he'll be able to win over the crowd too. I think they'll be, they'll be respectful of, of what he's able to accomplish.

One other one on the main card that I wanted to talk about Molly McCann, Alexia Thainera, Molly McCann getting the UFC debutant this late in her career, but still getting a main card that I wanted to talk about Molly McCann, Alexia Thainera, Molly McCann getting the UFC debutante this late in her career, but still getting a main card slot on UFC London. Honestly, like just at a quick glance, like girl making her debut, it's not the highest level of women's MMA,

you're in Molly McCann's home country, the crowd is gonna be heavy on her side in a fight that almost certainly goes to a decision. What are we talking about, pressure here? We're talking about like the nerves creeping in? I don't know, I think it's gonna be a close fight. I think we're gonna be in England. I think that's Molly's home country.

I don't hate a dog shot on Molly McCann. Yeah, I don't hate it either. I just, I don't know. I don't know enough about Alexia. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, she's making her UFC debut. We've only seen the Contender series. We have the Contender series performance, but like, that is a, to your point, like, that's a real welcome to the big show moment. You know, like, Molly McCann, for a while there, her and Patti Pimbl like the, the star attraction on these cards. It was like them at the top of this thing. And so yeah, I think there's going to be a lot

of pressure on, on her shoulders to, especially to be, what is she like a two to one favorite? Yeah. To be a two to one favorite against Molly on, in enemy territory. That's a lot. I, I wouldn't blame anybody for feeling like, yeah, Molly's going to have all the advantages

in the world when it comes to that. And maybe the pressure just tends to be too much. Yeah, I'm going to say Molly. Yeah. I'm going to say Molly gets it done. Let's keep it rolling. Jai Herbert taking on Chris Padilla, taco.

This one is intriguing just from the standpoint that Padilla is on a five-five win streak and all five of them are via finish. And like how he's come since like once he started this and he became champion in UNF and then punched his ticket to the UFC, now he's 2-0 here. Before that, he had lost four of his last five in like Celtic Gladiator CES 49. He got a shot on Bellator, but he lost in the first round against Gabe Green. Like he was really down bad at one point.

He was 10 and six, young in his career, but 10 and six, lost four of his last five, goes to UNF, rallies off three there, and then goes to the UFC, and now he's potentially gonna get three straight wins in the UFC. Not only that, but the entry into the UFC was a short notice against Yontop.

Who we know is the toughest dude on Earth. Who's the entry into the UFC was a short notice against Yontop. Where he was. Who we know is the toughest dude on earth. Who's the toughest SOB on the planet and he finished him, but not only that, Yontop was minus 450 in that fight when he was like, this was not supposed to happen for Taco this way. And he was a plus 200 against Rongzhu and he got to finish there as well.

His run has just been like beating the odds every single time. I see, I could see it happening again. I like Padilla here. Yeah I think it's gonna be very interesting. I think if it's similar to the to the wood fight, I think if he doesn't get a finish like Jai Herbert can stay at range, he can he can out strike him. Like most people don't have that guy's range. He is long. Yeah he is long as hell and like we I mean the only guy to drop Elias Emporia. Like, he's got some,

obviously it didn't end up well for him, but like, he is a good, competent striker. I think it's just going to be a great fight. It's coin flip on the odds for a reason. I think it's going to be very exciting. Maybe it's just me, like, trying to will another taco win into existence, but just like, the dude is incredible and the run has just been insane. Hair's great. Nickname's great. Tough as hell. Tough as hell. Finishing zero. Obviously has the finishing capability. Zero quit. I think that's going to be a great fight.

Honestly, these, these like last eight, like the whole card is just, it's just pretty quality, man. I am really looking forward to this one. Loner Kavanaugh taking on Felipe dos Santos. This, I just feel like this is, this is going to be another exciting fight as well. Kavanaugh, another cage warriors alum. Interesting note, Loner Kavanaugh 8-0. Okay. In 2025, undefeated fighters in the UFC are 9 and 17. What?

Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. What's that? Where'd you pull that from? That's actually according to Finn's chat MMA on Twitter, who's he is very big into into betting and analytics and stats and everything like that. So shout out to Finn's, but yeah, nine and 17

in the UFC in 2025. And we got Loner Kavanaugh, who's eight and O and Mick Park and who is 10 and O both going on this card. That is something to watch. I was not aware of that stat. I guess it speaks to, once we are seeing more and more young prospects make it to the UFC and then kind of have to try to go on a run. And maybe it's just speaking to that learning curve

of when you do ultimately get to the UFC, what that looks like. But I mean, he's got one under his belt, but yeah, that's tasty. That's a good stat. Who had that? Finn's chat, MMA. Shout out to Finn's chat, blowing my mind on that one.

I actually believe I met him at BKFC, if I'm not mistaken. Holy shit, all right. Shout out to him. Yeah, Finn's chat, MMA. Yeah, after UFC Vegas 104, which was last weekend, undefeated fighters in 2025 are now nine and 17. There are two undefeated fighters fighting at UFC Vegas, 104, which was last weekend, undefeated fighters in 2025 are now nine and 17. There are two undefeated fighters fighting at UFC London, Mick Parkin 10 and 0, minus one 10,

pick them against Marcin Tibera, Loner Kavanaugh 8 and 0, minus three 50 against Felipe dos Santos. Great find there. You can follow him at, at fins underscore the. Um, yeah, it's, it's going to be interesting. And then we go to the Marcin Tibera versus Mick Parkin fight. Uh, you gotta love big McParkin trains with Tom

Aspinall, a good friend of his, you know, skilled, not, not the most exciting heavy weight, but like he's a skilled guy. He's going to be fighting in front of his home crowd. I think there's going to be a big pop for him. And like on the flip side of that, Tibera is a nice step up in competition for him.

Like we're not deep at heavyweight, but now we're starting to get into the rankings for Mick Parkin. It's gonna be interesting. Can we talk about how crazy it is? Like the last time there was a fight night in London, Marcin Tiberio was headlining it, no? Against Tom Aspinall?

July, 2023, Tibera Aspinall? Well, you're right, that is it, yeah. Headlining to buried on the prelims, fighting Aspinall. Well, you're right. That is it. Yeah. Headlining to buried on the prelims, fighting, uh, Aspinall's training partner. Unlike that night, I believe he will get a win. Oh, you got Tibera over Parkin. I'm thinking Tibera. I'm thinking Tibera.

A lot of Pick'ems in this card. There's a lot of Pick'ems on this card. There really are. There's a, there's a lot of close ones. I think, um, yeah, he's one of those guys and I, I'm sure I've said this on the show before. He just finds a way to stifle people. He just, he's like the anti-offense guy who just finds a way to prevent you from doing your game.

And then his game is just good enough. And, uh, I could see it happening here. So I'm, I'm going to lean Tabor on this one. Uh, Parkin coming off of a finished win but before that three straight wins by decision in Tibera has been win-loss, win-loss. He's actually fought three times since the July 2023. Janota, Denise and Taito Iwasa. Yeah I mean he's obviously faced the much tougher brand. He's faced everybody in heavyweight. Like he's faced, you're not a true UFC heavyweight if you haven't fought Marcin Tibera. I'm gonna go

Mick, I'm gonna support, I think we have the picture of him and Big Tom just, yeah, look at these guys. Look at these guys. I don't know if Tom had enough time in there to give him any tips, you know, against Tibera, but I imagine that they did a training camp together ahead of that fight and probably there's some things you can use again there. CLD Christian Leroy Duncan taking on Andrei Pulaev is just like CLD taking on

a newcomer, it feels like he probably gets this done in front of the home country fans. It should be a decent fight. I don't know a ton about Pulaev. I'm not gonna feign knowledge here in this case. Yeah, and no shame in a loss to Robocop, you know? No, not at all. To Greg Cop, but yeah, I think this is the CLB show for this one.

Shana Bannon, Pooja Tomar, Pooja Tomar, first Indian woman to ever record a victory in the UFC. Shout out. Shout out. She's the first Indian woman or first Indian fighter? Did Anshul Ghibli get one? I feel like Anshul Ghibli got one. I feel like it's been a tough go for for India. Oh no, because um what's our guy? Arjun Buller. Arjun Buller? Yeah, Canadian Indian, right? Was he in the UFC? Yeah. Yeah. What do you mean? Am I tripping? Who's the guy that was the champion and won? Yeah, he was the champion and won. Oh, and he fought in the UFC. Yes

Yeah, he's Canadian and Indian Did Jubilee win? It doesn't matter. Either way, first woman. First Indian woman. Jubilee has a win. Jubilee has a win. There you go. Oh yeah, the Jekka Saragi fight. How could we forget? How could we forget? Yeah, that should be a good one. I mean, lower level MMA. Give me the dog and let's keep the night rolling. Sean O'Bannon, I'm sure there'll be a big pop for her. Kailin Loughran taking on Nathan Fletcher. Fletcher's going to try to get it to the mat if he doesn't, I think. I think Lachrin will win. It's just as easy as that. And then the curtain-jerker, baby!

Which is actually the People's Main Event. It's my main event. Guram Kuta Taladze taking on Kawe Fernandez. That's according to Bruce Belfour on the pronunciation there, Coway Fernandez. Uh, Guram is in insane shape. Uh, putting me to shame. Uh, been, been tagged in, in the tweets of his physique several times, look at it. I mean, come on, we're waiting for Brady to hop on the bike, absolutely chiseled head to toe, guy is ready to go.

Um, yeah, I think we saw Fernandez struggle with the takedowns against the E.K. I feel like Guram the plan's there. Get the takedowns, top pressure, lay on the ground and pound and try and get it done. That's always the game plan and it's been pretty good. It's always worrisome cause the Guram fights close man, fights close.

It's yeah, because of that style, right? They're always gonna kind of be around, but he's very effective with it. Yeah, I just think he will be successful there. And the Brenner fight, like the gas tank didn't hold up. We haven't- It looked good though, early. Yeah, we haven't gotten to finish yet in the UFC. I say we, me and Gouram.

Same, same thing. Same thing, but different. We have not gotten to finish yet in the UFC. I say we, me and Guram. Same thing. Same thing but different. We have not gotten to finish yet in the UFC. So yeah, we'll see. Kurt and Jerker, I'm gonna have a lot riding on them. I'm gonna have a lot riding on them because it's fate, man. It's fate that one year after I shaved my head bald, one year after we get a Guram-Kutatalladze fight. On the anniversary? Look at that. Look at that. Baldberg's era begins. March 22nd, 2024. It's the 20th. They'll be fighting on the 22nd. One year later. And this is the pic that Hauwani always says looks like the dead ringer for Guram. Yeah, that's when my beard was quite long. I grew it out to compensate for the baldness. I've learned since that I don't need to do that.

So yeah, man, you'll see London is a quality car. I'm very much looking forward to this one. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun, daytime action over here in the States. Start your day with an English breakfast, get a couple of teas in you. It'll be a good day. Oh, what do we got, Frankie?

Hey, friends. Oh, what do we got Frankie? Hey friends. Oh, really? Frankie. What are you? What do we got? I know yourself. I don't mean to interrupt. It's a great card, but we do have some breaking news on this Thursday.

You know, the UFC. Well, we've been sitting here waiting. I didn't want to be completely. You shouldn't, you shouldn't, you shouldn't. Nah, we're timing things out. We're talking about things out. All right, all right. Fill us in.

What is happening here? Jordon doing his thing. Frankie's doing his thing. Andy doing their thing. Everyone's doing their thing. So some breaking news. Okay. If you guys want some, you know, all week long,

we have been talking about your trip to Des Moines. I have taken it upon myself to cancel said trip because my friends, you are no longer going to Des Moines. You are going to the Republic of Azerbaijan. Yes, according to sources, the UFC is close to finalizing an event, a debut event in the Republic of Azerbaijan in June later this year. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, wow, Azerbaijan, that is pretty random. Well, I do want to remind you that there are over 10 million people who reside in the Republic

of Azerbaijan. It is technically located in Asia, but it is bordered by four countries, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran. So those are, you know. There's a few fighters from there. There's a few fighters on there. I immediately went to Rafael Faze. Rafael Faze. Well, you took the words right out of my mouth.

There is a very famous fighter who hails from Azerbaijan. Great call on your part. He would seem to be a shoe-in for this event. No official confirmation as to whether or not he is in fact going to be a shoe-in for this event. No official confirmation as to whether or not he is in fact going to be on the event. You know, he told us last week it was, right, that he was considering a move to 145. Now I do want to stress this. There were a lot of reports that the UFC was going to Qatar in May and then they seemingly, you know, called an audible and now that event I

think is happening at the Apex, which is, you know, quite the shift. And so I do want to say that things are very fluid right now, but there's a lot of money being thrown around. And Mark Shapiro, who is the head man over at TKO in that conference call that we've now talked about a few times, did mention that they were going to move a few Apex events to international locations right and so this would certainly fit in one of them a date that I've seen thrown

around is the 21st of June so let us see but I think that would be very interesting and I think we can all kind of guess the fighters that would want to be on that card right the fighters that would love to be on that card a right? The fighters that would love to be on that card. A lot of the Dagestani fighters, the Chechen fighters, Azerbaijan fighters, and on and on it goes. Yeah, there's a ton of them. So let us see. But my friends, that's probably not the biggest news that I have for you on this Thursday afternoon. Dana White likes to break news on Wednesdays. We like to break news on Thursdays here on the bots in the basement. I am hearing via multiple sources that the UFC is very close to welcoming back former UFC title contender, former Ryzen bantamweight grand prix winner, former Ryzen bantamweight champion,

and potentially now former Ryzen flyweight champion, the great and very popular, the pride of Japan, Kyoji Horiguchi. Oh, wow. This is a fighter that a lot of fighters speak very highly of at American Top Team. They call him the consummate teammate, professional friend. Everyone loves him and the fans love him as well.

He left the UFC. If you, if you recall in 2017, he was on a three fight losing streak and he just decided to kind of go back home to really like build up rise in once again. I'm not really sure what happened with my throat just there, but anyway, he had a great, he had a great run over in Ryzen and would you believe it in the last eight years he fought 20 times over the last eight years so if you're wondering okay why did you leave the UFC well maybe activity maybe to grow his star power a little more I did notice on his socials earlier today he's he's

sponsored by a new era in Japan which is pretty damn cool. In fact, I'm rocking some new era gear right now. My big league chew blue J's gear courtesy of my friends over at a new era in anticipation for the, uh, the new season that is about to commence. And so Kyoji Oraguchi close to coming to terms on a deal, uh, that would see him to come back, uh, and fight in the UFC's flyweight division. And who might he fight? Who might he fight? Who might he fight? Who might he fight? coming to terms on a deal that would see You mentioned how great a teammate he is. You mentioned how great a friend he is. Naturally it would lead to the conclusion that one of his teammates and friends Alessandro Pantoja is in the same gym. Oh no I mean that would be incredible but no that's not what I'm

hearing. I'm hearing that one of the opponents being discussed for his return fight would be Tajer Ulambekov who is three and own his last three fights who last fought in January of this past year had a win over Clayton carpenter has wins over Cody Durden and Nate Maness, uh, that is a fight that is being discussed as a potential for this card in Azerbaijan. You see how it all comes together. Kyoji Horiguchi versus Tegiru and Beck of

you in Azerbaijan. Potentially. Yes. Now I'm very fluid and I'm not, I'm not trying to kind of play coy here and sit on the fence, but a lot of things are being moved around. There's a lot of fluidity. Uh, like I said, there, there, there was

strong talks that there was going to be a card in Qatar and perhaps they do go back to Qatar at some point, but now we're hearing that it's not going to happen. And so let us see, but the Azerbaijan fight night event, which by the way, I can't wait for that fight feast. I mean, that is going to be an absolute scene.

What is, what is the, the cuisine over in Azerbaijan? What do they got over there? You tell me, Azerbaijan food, uh, plov, uh, dolmas, oh, dolmas are my absolute favorite. How's your passport looking? You good? You do have to acknowledge that one of

Izerbajan's most famous sites is the Yenardaj, the burning mountain. You have to acknowledge that. You have to. A natural glowing fire burning on a hillside along the Caspian Sea. By the way, true to its name, the mountain has been blazing for at least 65 years strong.

Holy shit. So perhaps you could go visit the land of fire. Kebabs? I'm not quite sure. Are you coming with? I might just do a dolma eating contest. I just recently discovered dolmas. It's like rice stuffed into grape leaves.

Oh my God. It's like, I can put those back like nobody's business. Now, do you like them cold or hot? You can have them two ways. I'm chilled. Are you a hot guy? You're chilled. I prefer hot but my grandmother makes them, excuse me, I prefer chilled. My grandmother makes them hot which I like as well and some people actually put meat inside of them. Oh you know I've actually never had them hot so I can't really speak on it. I've only ever had them chilled. Yeah the passports ready to go. Are we booking the trip to Azerbaijan? And are you coming? Any direct, well you know what I appreciate you guys inviting me this

time. It's very kind of you. Like we're getting in on the ground floor. Do we just go, is Rotterdam, is Glory 100 gonna be the week before so we just go to Rotterdam, shows all week from Rotterdam and then we'll just fly out to Azerbaijan. Yahoo Azerbaijan studios will have it set up by then. This is all coming together. Any direct flights from JFK to Azerbaijan? What's the capital of Azerbaijan? LGA, JFK, EWR, we'll find it. Don't worry about it.

Easy work. This is why I love the UFC. It's such a global sport. Baku is the capital. Yep. Flights to Baku. That's right. The capital city of Baku. It looks beautiful. But again, people will say like, ah, you know, they, you know, they, they, they, they can't go every week all across the world. There's, there's literally countries over in Asia that are willing to pay top dollar to,

to bring the UFC to town. Don't tell us that they can't do it. Now, I suspect, I truthfully suspect that we're going to see less and less Apex events because of this, because the world has opened up again, as Dana White likes to say, but I was looking, Azerbaijan, I think has a 10 to 12,000 seat arena, so it may not be the first choice, and I could just hear the fans over in Chicago saying, I can't believe Azerbaijan's getting an event before us.

Azerbaijan got an event before GTA 6! Are you kidding me? I knew that shit was coming. I knew you were gonna say that. Are you kidding me? I knew you were gonna say that. You do have to be sour if you're a Chicago fan. Yeah, we're getting GTA 6 before the Chicago event.

We're going to Azerbaijan! It's just like, we're not going to the winter city. Who's more sour, Chicago or the fans in Lemoore, California who were promised an event in the early days of the pandemic at the Tachi Palace. But honestly, Azerbaijan or not seems like a lovely place. Horiguchi back in the flyway division would be tremendous. It's tremendous.

And you bring up a great point. But it's only interesting to me if this is now in pursuit of the Flyway title. That's the only interesting element. Would you have put him in a title shot, in a title play, off the jump? Well, yes, but that requires a conversation now with Alexandre Pantoja.

Because as I said, teammates, friends, main training partner, that will have to be something that they'll have to come to terms on. I believe in the past when they've spoken about it like they were open to it it wasn't gonna be a potential problem in their relationship or anything they are competitors but that's the only interesting thing for me for Horiguchi Horiguchi is cream of the crop top level you bring him in one fight and then title shot I would have given him a title shot that honestly who

yeah because Panthoshas got no opponents they just gave Kai Sakura a title shot off the bat, honestly. Who? Pentosia's got no opponents. They just gave Kai Sakura a title shot off the bat. It's not like you have to necessarily, maybe you have to reintroduce Hora Guchi, but you have, you have a whole highlight reel of fights. He fought for the belt. I know it ended in a, in a not good way for him, but it's not like he's a, like if Asakura got one off the jump, but why couldn't he that being said, you know strong reports that kai car France

Going to get this title shot. So maybe the timing doesn't work out And maybe he just has to fight one time and oh by the way There are so many fighters who call ATT home like look at look at when Armin was talking about Moikano and DP and all like There's so many different like factions there. I won't sit here and and say that I'm an expert at like you know the state of the relationship between Horiguchi and Pantoja but it wouldn't be the first time that two ATT guys are faced with this quote unquote predicament. No it's a massive gym there's a lot of training partners there's a lot of coaches they typically can find a way to make that work.

Two things. One, on the Horiguchi front, it really feels like the UFC is dedicated to getting a star from Japan. I know Horiguchi is returning, but I mean the Flyweight division will now have Tatsuro Taira, Kai Asakura, Kyoji Horiguchi, like three guys that could potentially be title challengers and obviously Asakura moved right into a title shot when he got here. So I find that interesting.

And then the second thing, Azerbaijan, where will they hold this? Because I'm looking at arenas now and it looks like they're all open air. Like it doesn't seem like they have any closed in arenas. So I saw that too, but I think I saw one that was like around 10,000, but it did seem from the photos open air.

Yeah. I think I'm seeing the same one, maybe a box cell arena and it looks like it is, it is in fact open air. For, oh, it's an open hair. Uh, golly. Yeah. It's called an arena, but there's no, uh, there's

no roof on it. That's the thing that was tripping me up as well. They were calling the arena stadiums and so I wasn't quite sure. Um, that, that part, I up as well. They were calling the arena stadiums and so I wasn't quite sure. That part I can't claim to know the specific. Believe it or not, I've never actually been to Azerbaijan and I'm not too... All right, well when we all go...

Is that where they do the stadium show? Baku National Stadium holds 69,000. Sellout for Rafael Faziv? I mean, now the question is... Faziv would have to be the main event, right? I mean like. Unless it was a pay per view, yeah, you have to think Fazeve. No, no, it's not, it's not a pay per view. So the question is, is he fighting at lightweight? Is he fighting at featherweight? I think, you know, that's in, that's in three months. The bigger fight would

be a lightweight fight, but. And who is it? I don't know. You tell me. I don't know. I mean, like there's obviously big names or maybe bigger names in his vicinity at lightweight. I was too soon. He's not going to be healed up by then. Yeah. I, I, I am very intrigued by the, the idea of him fighting at Featherweight. If you look at that fight against Justin Gicci, he looked considerably smaller than him. Well, we just saw him.

Who was he standing next to? Al Jemaine Sterling, who was bigger than him. Yes. Yes, yes. That was crazy in the parking lot over there. Yeah, that was crazy. I mean, it speaks to just how crazy Aljo's weight cuts are as well.

But I'm curious. I would just think like, you said you probably, you didn't have to look that up, right, when I said Azerbaijan, who'd you think of? You think of? Oh yeah, for sure. All right, I now have breaking news myself. Oh, okay.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Frank, I also have breaking news. Someone in the chat has answered our question. Frank, I also have breaking news. Someone in the chat has answered our question. Baku Crystal Hall is a, it looks like a twin, 12,000 seat arena, 27,000 with standing room, and it does have a roof. I just sent Jordan the picture of it. Absolute beauty of an arena. I don't know where this thing is, but when we go, we're going to have to get some good pictures in front of it because it is a, it's a beaut.

It's a beaut. Shout out to the, it's the crystal hall. Uh, but that looks like that's where they would do it. All right. It seemed like you were going down a path featherweight. What do you think? What are you thinking? I have to top my head.

I don't know. I mean, I mean, who's out there. We've got like, is Emmett in a fight? Could you have something booked? The first name that I thought of was my head. I don't know. I mean, I mean, who's out there. We've got like, is Emmett in a fight? Could you have something booked? The first thing that I thought of was John Silva. Yes. Emmett's fighting Lerone Murphy in a couple of weeks. Right.

Uh, John Silva versus Fazeve, I think would be incredible. Uh, but he's, you know, he's fighting in April and that would be too quick. That's a quick turnaround. There's a, there's a million, I mean, between 145 and 145, there's a million different guys. Um, look, Brian Ortega? Look, Brian Ortega, but that's 155. I think his future is at 55. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess they're kind of

two ships passing in the night, eh? Yes. Swap. I mean, it would be a great fight at 55 if he stays there. Yeah, he would be sick, but obviously he's fighting on 314. Lerone Murphy, if he gets a win? Pitbull, quick turnaround? But yeah.

I mean, that's two months. Yeah, Lerone is also a quick turnaround win. Hit bowl, quick turnaround. Yeah. I mean, that's two months. Yeah, Lerone is also a quick turnaround. I mean, let's call it what it is. As long as he gets an opponent, that stadium will be rocking. It doesn't really matter who's gonna step in there. Oh, Rena, crystal hall, Baku, crystal hall. Sorry.

Ah, look at that. Oh, damn, that's nice. Go ahead and Photoshop me in. That's gonna be a great pick. I know you guys have a lot to get to, so I don't want to take up more time but there you have it. Horiguchi moving towards a return let's hope that they get it done. I think everyone would be very excited about that.

Azerbaijan if you're if you're from there you know cross your fingers if that's something you believe in hopefully it has a better fate than the Qatar debut and so exciting things happening if you are an international fan and a long time fan, because let's be honest, Gucci is one of those hardcore fans favorite fighter. So I think a lot of people would be excited about that. All right guys, I'm out.

Peace. Oh sorry. Can you just sign off? I'll just book it right now so we can all get to Azerbaijan as quickly as possible here. Yes, yes. To Istanbul. What do we got, what do we got? It's like 13 hours, but now so we can all get to Izmir by Jean as quickly as possible here. Yes, yes. It's like 13 hours, but I think we can do it. Turkish Airlines I'm down for.

Shout out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, by the way, this is like 10 hours less than going to Riyadh by the way. Like this is nothing. Easy, light work. This is actually nothing. No direct though? Sorry to the people of JFCams.

No direct man, it's bonding time. Yeah, sorry to the people. Where was the layover for that one? Istanbul. Istanbul. God, how? Both ways? Should we spend more time?

Both ways. Let's do the Istanbul, but we'd stay an extra day. You hit up your boys from Hair Time now. No, not fight, get the plugs. Get the plugs, baby, I'll be back. I'll be back, get the fake hair. I'm telling you, look. And then you're sitting on the back. I'll be back, get the fake hair. I'm telling you, look quick.

And then you're sitting on the flight. You ever see those videos where the dude is sitting on the flight and it's like, there's blood coming out of his eyes. I have seen videos. I'll be pulling up to Azerbaijan, just dripping blood. The picture in front of the crystal hall, I'll just be like posing like this.

I'll just have the red dots all over my head. I have seen videos of people coming back and it's a flight full of people with the dots. Oh my God. It's the place to go. There's two last thing there's two videos that I cannot like swipe past I have to watch it. Okay. Sort of like sort of like Bill Simmons in that movie talked about. I don't remember. The rewatchables. Yes yes yes. Anyway those videos there's something about like the hair transplant. Okay. Yes those videos like with's something about like the whole process. The hair transplant? Okay. Yes, those videos, like with the pencil and the thing

and the limo and all that, I'm always captivated by them. And the other one, I'll tell you my guilty pleasure these days, there's these weird videos of like, spend the day with a 26 year old guy living in the suburbs of Chicago and it's like the most boring, you know these videos? Yeah. And the guy wakes up at 5 a.m. Yeah, yeah, yeah, average day. And he puts his laptop in the suburbs of Chicago and it's like the most boring, you know these videos? And the guy wakes up at 5 a.m.

and he puts his laptop in the bag, and he has a nice breakfast, and then he goes, and it's 9 a.m., and then 5, and then he takes a shower, and then he sits there and he eats his TV dinner. Why am I captivated by these videos? I can't stop watching them. If you're talking about the OG that puts the laptop super slowly into the backpack, that guy is sold out now.

He's now just a full-time content creator. He quit his nine to five. Actually think he's- Wait, someone actually like started that? Oh yeah, there was one guy, and I want to say the username was something like normalize nine to five or something like that. He has now quit the nine to five.

He's a full-time creator. There's that version the whole day. Then there's just the get ready with me, where it's just the prep and then you go out. No, no, I don't want that. I want the whole day. Yeah, you need the whole day the suburbs of Illinois I want to be the most average shit of all time hitting the drive-thru Yeah, you sitting down to watch Netflix and put some shitty music under it. I'm in I was I watched one. Yes for me

Instant skip no I watched some guy in like nowhere Missouri yesterday eat Chipotle leftovers for lunch. I was like. Yes, yes. You know these videos. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He comes home, he'll put on like some random Midwest school t-shirt and hat like Valparaiso or Creighton or something.

And he'll sit down, he'll watch like ESPN college game day. And I'm like, they're- I feel like this guy's gotta figure it like, they're watching TV in this shit? You're watching them watch TV? Oh yeah, it's great. It is, you're the most ho-hum average American going about their day. Yes.

What the fuck kind of escapism do you two need from your lives when you're watching this shit? Brain rot. Jesus Christ. It's just like you guys live in the dream. Thank you for the update, brother. Sorry to everybody in Iowa.

We're canceling the trip and going to- We're still going to Iowa. No, no, Ariel said it's a replacement. We are- Then we're going to Azerbaijan. Then we're going to Azerbaijan. Actually, we're going to Istanbul first and then we're going to Azerbaijan.

I was thinking we do a quick stop in Turkey just because it'd be sick to go to Turkey. Fuck yeah. You're thinking let's get a little business done and then. Business and pleasure and work we'll do the fight feasts while we're there, fight feasts with the blood just dripping from my head it'll be great. I want to go just because it's fun to say Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan.

It's a great name for a country. Azerbaijani? That's what we would call a resident right? Or somebody nailing from there? Somebody who is Azerbaijani? It's. It's calling an azerbaijan Yeah, wait, that's the name of the country. No. Yeah, azerbaijani for sure Now that is gonna be better. I mean first of all that venue that shout out to the crystal all baku crystal. Yeah Hopefully that was an authentic azerbaijani many azerbaijani

Crystal Hall man imagine that with just a big UFC belt in front of it and a Fazeev versus Holloway fight. Ah, chill out, Max. But as Ariel alluded to, a lot of people from the region, but how many like true Azerbaijani fighters are on the roster? Nazim Sadikov, Rafael Fazeev, I think that's it. That's it, just the two. If I'm not mistaken. That's still pretty good because then you get those two, you put them in a good position and then you get people who are from the regions

around and you've got a stacked card at that. You got Taufik Musayev who doesn't fight in the UFC. Yeah he was in PFL right? Yeah, Nazim Sadikov and... Okay, so it's those two. And then you fill it out with people from Georgia, Dagestan, like you'll be able to hit the quota there. Nassim had that draw against Slavikas, but other than that, man, he's 10-1-1. No fight on the books. Yeah.

Ziv, no fight on the books. Oh, you, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. No, no, no, I'm not saying they'll fight each other. I'm saying, no, you can't do azerbaijani versus azerbaijani. Great flag, a nice blue, nice red, a nice green. All right, UFC Azerbaijan. We're in.

Oh, couldn't be more in. All right, let's go back to UFC London though, real quick, let's knock out Parley Pals, picks, bets's all that let's do a quick recap first of my bets last week and the Parlay Pals last week my bets success we bounced back we needed one we bounced back got like 3.26 units honestly the one that got me was Nerg, Nergazey, which you get what you pay for, man. You get what you pay for.

I deserve that. Uh, USC debutant got, uh, what did he get? Camorra from bottom? How is that what it was? Yeah, just that is that, that was a tough scene. If he wins the perfect night, I end up like almost seven units, but it's all right overall record, uh, and this is on the third partyparty track So I bet MMA dot tips we are up over 50 units You can just find all the tracking there obviously MMA hour there was a bunch more

But we weren't doing the third-party track and this is to keep it as transparent as possible Never gonna charge never gonna do nothing like that. These are just my bets you do with them what you will and then the parlay pals won as Well, yes, sir. Look at that four for four. We need to win this week to get back in the green These are just my bets, you do with them what you will. And then the Parlay Pals won as well. Yes, sir. Look at that, four for four. We need to win this week to get back in the green. Yeah, easy, light work. And the five and 11 is tough.

Five and 11 is tough. Imagine your NFL team goes five and 11. You're like, we stunk this year. Yeah, but we're almost even. We're almost even. Even if we are five and 11, or let's say next week when we're six and 11, we'll still be actually like 500, right?

We've made just enough units to get to that equator. Yeah, so- It's the comeback story that people were watching for. I mean, last time we did it, last time we did it, let's see if we can do it again. Didn't ask for big hitters this week, UFC, Vegas 104. It's just been something in my mind. I have to ask on Sunday, this Sunday.

First thing I'm doing when I wake up after UFC London. You know what, maybe I'll do it, it ends early here. Maybe I'll ask as soon as UFC London ends, but I will ask for him because I do love giving the shout outs. All right, parlay pals, Frankie, let's throw in the randomizer. Beedoo do ba da ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba.

All right, I will go first and good thing because I have to get my pick. Rick second, Frankie third, and then Pizzi gave us his pick already. He went with Loner Kavanaugh, uh, the undefeated man. Irish, I believe, right? Uh, Chinese by way of mother, I believe, but grew up in the UK and Ireland. Like, he, he reps the Chinese flag,

and I think he got the fight in Macau? Oh shut up. If I'm not mistaken. I could be misremembering this. No and also yeah fighting out of England. Fighting out of England. But reps the Chinese flag no? Yeah. I believe it's because his mother. And I want to say he fought, yeah he did he yeah he fought on that

he fought on that UFC Macau card. International man. International man and that's who Pizzi will be rolling with. Loner Kevin, pretty big favorite. Undefeated fighter we mentioned earlier in 1917 UFC in 2025 gonna be interesting to see. My pick! There's just no question folks look at that Guram Kuta Taladze, curtain jerker, we will know quick whether or not we got a leg down or whether or not we are losers on Saturday afternoon. Saw that video, Morgan Chariot.

Saw that video and instantaneously knew that that was going to be the pick. The last pirate, Morgan Chariot. Easy. Frankie? For me, I feel really confident about this one. McCann and Tainara are going to go over two and a half rounds. I have a feeling they're gonna go the full distance, but I really just need them to go over two and a half and then then they

could do what they want. I think that's always a good call. I think it's good to go over in WMMA. I think that's a good call. So think it's good to go over in WMMA. I think that's a good call. So that gets us to plus two over plus 200 and if we can get the win here plus 297 if we get the win here we'll be we'll be fully cemented back in the green. So let's do it. Light work. Easy. I say we do it. I say we do it. All right I'll rip through my bets. Not gonna lie, man. Ended up having more action than I anticipated on this one.

Ended up having more action on this card than I anticipated. We'll start first bet. Kaelin Locke-Reyn. Got him at dog odds. I mentioned earlier when we were talking about the fight, I think Fletcher's gonna try as hard as he can to get this fight to the ground. If he doesn't, I think Lockerain's gonna win. 100% takedown defense, obviously small sample size, but I think the experience and the defensive wrestling will work well for him and he will get it done. Next up, the Indian queen, Pooja Tomar. I think she gets the second victory

for Indian female MMA in the USA. By the way, I looked this up and it's a lot of outlets saying the first Indian fighter, period. First Indian? I guess because- Angela Jubilee, no luck. And also Arjun Bhullar hailing from Canada, but Indian descent. So maybe it's from India, hailing from India. Either way- Hujja Tomar. The first Indian fighter or the first woman. sent so maybe it's from India hailing

pretty big dogs plus 150 and plus 200. We're just going to go back to the well on that one. I don't, I don't rate Sean Abannon incredibly high. So yeah, fight that probably goes through decision. Let me push it to Omar. And that one, we keep it rolling. I couldn't stay away. Shout out to big Mick Parkin. Tough test for him, but I'm just, I'm just of the Aspinal family, of the Aspinal gymnasium.

I support team Aspinal. So I'll be supporting Mick Park couple heartbeats on this one couple heartbeats on this one so yeah I'm gonna say he out points him to decision victory Tiberius doesn't get any takedowns and and parking has the success crowd goes wild when they read a 29 28 score card next up I'm actually gonna go with Jai Herbert. Like I mentioned, similar to the Nathaniel Wood fight, I think he keeps the distance, I think he avoids getting finished, and I know he's been, the chin's been checked before,

but I think he keeps the distance, he stays at range and he's able to outstrike to a decision victory against Taco Badia. And then in the next fight, the same thing, I'm going with Nathaniel Wood as the dog, I think he keeps it standing, I think it's very close, I think he gets the decision victory. He avoids the knockout. He avoids getting taken down and he gets it done. Very close fight, but I'm signed with the dog in this one. I think Chafier is, the hype is behind him, the personality, the panache that he puts on. People love him. So I think we're getting a decent price here on Nathaniel Wood. And then Gunnar Nelson. Taking him on the money line because I'm a fan of his and I think the path is just right there. Doors wide open Gunnar, let's just do it. We'll find out about this bet real

quick on the chances of it hitting. And then you got to, if you're gonna take it, Gunnar Nelson money line, Gunnar Nelson sub, little half unit on that guy as well. Take him down, get this up, be the one. Main event, we're supporting the duck, we're supporting Sean Brady. We want him to win just to elevate our matchup. That's what we need to see happen. We need Sean Brady to get it done, elevate our cycle off. Our bike race, Sean Brady gets the takedowns, survives on the feet, does

what he needs to do on the feet to get it in close and get the takedowns. Sean Brady makes his ascension into the upper echelon of welterweight and then a couple parlays. Just for our audio listeners out there, GC does graphics for these and there was an image of a duck. Shout out. Instead of Sean Brady. He's ducking me. He's actively ducking me. He's literally not even in the country.

He left the country to avoid me. Parley here, Guram Moneyline, Carlos Olberg Moneyline. We mentioned it earlier. I just think the age, the injuries, the layoff, everything will get to Jan, the speed and the power for Olberg. And then another one with Guram and Vucenic. I like his chances here against Chris Duncan, whether it's stay standing or goes to the ground.

I think he's got all bases covered and those are my bets. I like it. For UFC London. And I feel like we've tied a nice bow on this card. The only way to finish it off is with this week's episode of Fight Feast. Me, Frankie and camera guy Nick rolled down the T and Sympathy here in Manhattan, got ourselves a full English and a couple more English goodies while

we are there. Fight Feast episode 19, please enjoy. Hello! UFC London this weekend, Sean Brady, the Duck, my arch nemesis taking on the hometown kid, Leon Edwards. So we are here at Tea and Sympathy to try a full English breakfast. Feels like a full circle moment for Fight Feast. Sorry with me cooking an English breakfast at home, got destroyed by the Brits in the comments. I'm not cooking today.

Tea and Sympathy is. Fight Feast episode 19. Let's go. Gotta keep it kind of quiet here. It's a proper tea house. It's people enjoying their breakfast. I don't want to disturb them, but we start for the length of breakfast day proper. Okay. Okay.

Okay. All right. That's how you do that. Proper. Look at this. Beautiful. China. Flowers. how you do that proper. Look at this, beautiful. China, flowers, strawberries on the plate. And then look at this teapot.

Look at this. This is absolutely beautiful, alright. Here we go. Oh yeah, right through the strainer. Little bit of milk, not too much, just as, woo. Stir it up. Nice, beautiful caramel color. The Santu Barista over here, this is just old CB working through a little spot of sugar.

It looks beautiful. Oh, and Mike. Is that Australian? Hello. Steaming hot. Beautiful. Oh, Frank. Cheers, my brother.

Cheers. Have a beautiful morning. Cheers. Cheers. All right, so despite it looking like a volcano right here, just like steaming like Vesuvius, it's actually not that hot. It adds the aesthetic. Absolute beautiful finger sandwiches.

We got cucumber and cream cheese, avocado, tomato and watercress, chicken salad to finish it off on multi-grain. I've actually never had these before. Every time I see them on TV, someone eating tea, I'm always like, God, and watercress. Chicken salad to finish it off on multi-grain. I've actually never had these before. Every time I see them on TV, someone eating tea, I'm always like, God, those look so good. They just look better than a normal sandwich. Look at that, cucumber crunch, I mean.

I feel like I should go see Big Ben now. I feel like I should go see Big Ben now. That's class. That's class. And then the chicken salad to finish this off. Here we go. There we go. Chicken salad is absolutely class. Chicken salad, then cucumber and cream cheese, then tomato avocado maracras.

I just feel a little bit more fancy eating it like this. No crust, that's you. Alright, Frank just handed me this cider. He said it's apple. Oh wow, apple cider is great. Is there alcohol in this? Yes. Alright, Frank just handed me an alcoholic beverage at

952 AM. What are we doing here? All right, we got some HP sauce, brand new bottle just for us. We're gonna crack the label on this bad boy. Smells vinegary. I was told this is what I have to have and it's gotta be London. It's got Big Ben on it. It's got the London Bridge on it.

I don't think that's the London Bridge. You've obviously got the toast and the butter. You got the Heinz baked beans. You've got a sausage link. You got Irish back bacon. You've got scrambled eggs buried under the sausage and bacon. You got a roasted tomato and then you got sauteed mushrooms and you finish it off with the black pudding which is a blood sausage. It's got animal blood, pork fat, filler with oatmeal and barley. It sounds way worse than it actually is. Full English breakfast.

No one can say anything. This is proper right here. Let's dig in. Order of operations here. We're gonna butter my toast first. People are gonna be out for me on the toast, on the tea. I already know it. I know how you Brits work.

You're strict about your cuisines. They're gonna be coming from my head, Frankie. All right, a little H HP sauce on the eggs. Is this like Heinz ketchup? I gotta give it a spanking? There we go, I'm an expert. Toast is butter. Eggs got the HP on it.

Looks like we're ready to eat here. No brainer eggs is class. Yeah, tremendous. Irish-backed bacon, tremendous. These are all no brainers. Sausage is unbelievable. The mushrooms. Huge mushroom fan. Don't know if I love them in the AM like this. These are quite good. They go well with the eggs. The final frontier is the beans. I just, every time I want to like them, I just don't. Do we put it on the toast?

You can put it wherever you want, man. It just like is this like wrench in my breakfast like I love everything about it. I don't need the beans. This is like odd flavor, odd texture in the morning. Black pudding I'd never had before I started eating this breakfast. It does not sound like it would be good. It does not look like it would be good either. What part? Blood sausage. It's so good. Of all the three meats I actually think it's the best. The tomato, tomato and the beans feel a bit unnecessary to me you know. Let's go, let's go egg and tomato on the toast. That's good, that's good. What I love about English breakfast, it just feels like you're an animal. Just like go on in.

There's always something to take another bite of. Whether it's the beans or it's the black sauce. It's just like... Mouth should never not be full while eating an English breakfast. Got a little room left. Stuff a couple beans in there. While staying this breakfast down with some English breakfast too. I mean I get it.

Honestly I'll hold the beans moving forward. But the full fry up is tough to beat. I mean, I get it. Honestly, I'll hold the beans moving forward, but the full fry up is tough to beat. One of England's greatest exports. We got the scones, which sort of look like what we call biscuits in America. Frank just laser penetrating eyes, like shaking his head as hard as he possibly could.

Anyway, scones, clotted cream, jam clotted cream, you let it cool in the pan so it clots up. Can we just talk about how beautiful this is? I mean, oh, the cup is chilled to perfection. It looks like some soft serve ice cream. Nope, this is your clotted cream. The china, the tablecloth, the feeling of coziness in here, the British decoration, it really is top notch, class as they say, proper as they say. Look at all that steam. Fogging up the glasses. Clotted cream first or jam first? What team are you?

I know there's a lot of jam first people out there. We're gonna make us a sandwich. Little c squared clotted cream, shout out. Ah, it hurts. That is as they say, that's tough. Let's get some jam on there though. Oh yeah. Let's force this bad boy up. Reconstruct it here. No harm, no foul.

This and some tea, I could eat for the rest of my life. Team incredible. Jam incredible. Unreal. Okay, this is Sticky Toffee Pudding. Frank demanded that we order it. I was like, man, I'm getting kind of full. I feel like we got the full experience. He said, no, no, no. We got to get this Sticky toffee pudding. Frank demanded that we order it. I was like, man, I'm getting kind of full. Feel like we got the full experience. He said, no, no, no, we gotta get this sticky toffee pudding. It smells good. It kind of looks like meatloaf in mashed potatoes, but I think it's sticky toffee pudding in cream.

I will be taking one bite, and then I'm handing it off to Frankie to finish the rest. Whoa, this is literally like sticky toffee in like a vanilla pudding. Nice and hot. Yeah, that was great. Easy, not what I was anticipating. Not the prettiest dish on earth, you know?

Not what you put on the cover of the cookbook, but still tastes good. That'll do it for me. That'll do it for me. All right, any facts about England you can share with the audience, Frankie. If you look at the Union Jack, it's a combination of three flags. Oh nice, nice. That is actually a good fact.

What are the flags? Wales. No. Scotland. Scotland. England. The Isle of Man. No.

Wales has to be on there. England, Scotland, and Ireland. I think the biggest thing about the English breakfast it's like it's beautiful for a nice like Saturday morning maybe a home over Saturday morning Sunday morning. It puts you back to sleep. I'm ready to go back to bed now. I feel like I'm not ready to attack the day you know. All right we got the full English in our bellies but we're not done yet we got to go next door to the English market get some snacks I'm hoping they got maltesers in

there. Quick fact about tea and sympathy my guy Seamus inside just told me Connor Conor McGregor, a frequent visitor of Tea & Sympathy when he comes to New York. His order though, not the full English, the Sussex Chicken. Shout out. Shout out to the Sussex Chicken and shout out to this place. An old school store stacked to the ceilings with good ship directly from the UK and Ireland. Shout out to my guy Jake behind the counter. This place is incredible. Here we go me and Frankie in the park. Alright let's look at this haul. We got Maltesers. We got a chocolate orange, goat candy. Shout out. They fly off the shelves. Can't keep them in stock. We got some pick and mixes. This was a recommendation. We got some Digestice.

This feels like, this is a log of them. This feels aggressive. This feels like I could have used one or two of these. This is McVitie's, a crunchy, a flaky. We got a Walker's cheese and onion, a prawn cocktail. Oh my God, I love them. Just let you take those Frankie. Wow, already opened them. Okay, already opened them.

Oh my God. It tastes exactly like a shrimp cocktail. We got some hula ho hoops and then we got my guy Jacob's favorite, the Boost. Look at that. I mean it's like exploding out whatever's in here. We got a lot of goodies here. Everything in that store was shipped from the UK. All right, here we go. The Boost. Oh wow. Yeah. It's sticky. All right, here. Yeah. It's sticky.

All right, here we go, the crunchy. I got high hopes for this one. What the fuck is in this? Is that the honeycrisp? Oh, honeycrisp. Yeah. It looks like a sponge. Yeah, they're not kidding.

This is quite crunchy. These all feel like fake candies to me. This does not look good. This does not look good. This does not look good. This looks like I'm about to eat a stick. Who is eating this? A frigging Yule log of digest thieves. Biscuit.

Ooh, these are good. Ooh, these are great. Biscuit. Ooh, these are good. Ooh, these are great. Biscuit with chocolate on it. That is pretty good. Does it help you digest stuff? It does taste like a rich bag. Unsalted Ritz crack. I am fucking walking here, huh?

Bite feast fans. Pick and mix. We're gonna pick them and then we're gonna mix them. It's like dots. Like dots over here, very thick gummy. Lemon wedge. Oh, look at that. They're gonna try and work through that.

This is not coming off my teeth for a week. Pick and mix, no thanks. Okay, here we go. Some hula hoops. We compared these to Pringles. Okay, here we go. Some hula hoops. We compared these to Pringles. Okay, salt and vinegar. I was like, these are, these taste exactly like salt and vinegar Pringles.

Cheese and onion walkers taste kind of like you'd expect. Tastes like cheese and onion. Reminder, it's 10, 21 in the morning, so it's not great. Tried and true, my favorite British snack. Absolutely love these. Love, love, love these. Maltesers. Look at this. Open it up.

Gift box. The best things come in small red boxes. They sure do. Maltesers. It's like someone took Whoppers and was like, maybe we should make these things taste good. And out came Maltesers. They're unbelievable. Are you a Whoppers guy?

I am a Whoppers guy. Last but not least, a little chocolate orange. Terry's chocolate orange. We gotta cut it up like a Clementine so we just. Gotta get the slam, bam, break it up. Yes, look at that. My favorite, it's one of those. America should have had more chocolate. Orange flavored chocolate.

All right, full English scones, tea, stocky pudding, ticky, ticky stuffy pudding, British snacks. It's all in there. Great morning. Now I'm going to go sleep all of this off. Full English, always down for it. Shout out to the Brits. They got something going on with that.

All right, that's it. Fight feast, UFC London. Cheerio, ta ta. Goodbye for now. We'll see you later. ["Fight Song"] Fight week, innit? Leon's getting into a proper scrap down at the O2, yeah? Take the tube then, innit?

Harry Potter? Ooh, shit. We'll go to UC London, then we'll go see the footy, yeah? Proper scrap down at the O2, you fucking... Hello? Hello, Goffner? Cheese day? Hello?

Hello? Hello Goffner? Cheese day? Hello? You're a wizard Harry. Eating my chocolate orange. Reading Harry Potter. Drinking out of my water bottle. Bollocks. Cheeky. Queue up in the loo. Tuesday.

Spotted tea. All hail the Queen. With cheese and crackers. Just being a proper cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky.

Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Cheeky. Queue up in the loop. Tuesday. Spot at sea. All hail the queen. Cheese and crackers. Just being a proper cheeky. You fucking.

I've said more today than I have in my entire life. Shout out to Teen Sympathy. Shout out to the English Breakfast. It was a great time. It was a great time. Frankie, you enjoyed it? Absolutely. How about that sticky toffee pudding, man? You know what, it wasn't

actually what I thought it was. I've had it before and it was like served in a small cauldron and then you poured a cream on top of it. It didn't look yellow. It didn't look like a log of meatloaf. I don't know, but I didn't want to... It tasted alright, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Yeah, I'm not a big dessert after breakfast guy, unless it's like a, you know, maybe like a flaky pastry or something like that, you know? Alas, it was a great time, shout out to Tea and Sympathy. The store next door is like a general store,

everything is shipped directly from the UK and Ireland, the guy Jacob there from the UK helped us out with everything, gave us all the recommendations, and then beyond that all under the same ownership is a fish and chip shop called Assault and Battery. If you're in the New York area and you want an authentic UK experience, Tea and Sympathy is incredible. It is top-notch. We couldn't bring Rick with us because it is such tight quarters. We needed only the essential personnel. Yes, yes, yes.

I would have loved to have attended, but, uh, it looks like you had a good time. I definitely would have really liked there to be there for the snacks for one. I'm a snacker. I love the snacks, but also just to hear you doing like, whoa, like that was, uh, we barely even scraped the surface with,

with the snacks. Like I was like, it was overwhelming being in there. We missed out on the, uh, the Jamie Dodgers, uh, the wine gums, um, the, the pigs, not Peppa, there's some pig over there that's famous. Uh, but yeah. It's not Peppa? I don't, it's like gummy pigs. I don't know.

We, we missed out on it though. Uh, there, there's so much there. Uh, so yeah, shout out to TNCpathy. And I might have another full English on Saturday to warm up for the card. I love it. A full fry of stuff to beat. It's tough to beat it.

It really is good stuff. So that's that UFC London. We still have pound for pound to go, but I did want to highlight one tweet from our old colleague, old friend, Mr. Damon Martin, who said, tweet from our old colleague, old friend Oh, we also have an Instagram post that looks like from Miranda. This is straight from Miranda Maverick.

From Miranda Maverick. Rosanna Younis has been an inspiration for many women, especially in women's MMA, and I am no exception. I watched her fight as I was coming up in the sport, and then I got to train with her on a regular basis. We've been training together for the past few years, but luckily trained primarily at different gyms. Now it's time to duke it out in front of the world

and then go back to sharpening each other's tools. I'm honored to share the cage with a champion, person, and fighter, and I am ready to put the stamp on where I belong. Big fight for her. Big fight. Big fight for her, for Rose, but the key, most important factor there, UFC Atlanta.

June 14th. We just made plans to go to Amsterdam, to, to Netherlands. Rotterdam cancelled. Azerbaijan's still on the following week. I'll take a direct from Hartsfield to Baku. It'll be great. You'll see Atlanta. I will be there though. Stamped. Anyone who wants to join can join. Doesn't matter. I'm coming out baby. Are there any fighters from Atlanta still? Cody Durden is from the okay the return of Rafael Sun so Alright, he's got a he's got

Alpharetta top team up there. He's got the gym. Yeah, you'll see Atlanta. I will a thousand percent be going there's there's nothing stop I don't doubt it mom dad. I'm coming home get the guest room ready for me. Jim 14 a huge fight for Maverick Like to see Rose, you know, still trying to claim her spot and giving an opportunity to an up-and-comer. So yeah, makes sense at this point in Rose's career. You can get Chris Barnett on the card as pointed out by Jonah Sacks in the chat. Shout out to the legend. Yeah, Athens, Georgia. Yeah. Represents, represents. So yeah, that should be a fun one. All right, pound for pound rankings and then we'll do a couple chats to finish this off. This week we'll Athens, Georgia represents, represents. So yeah, that should be a fun one. All right, pound for pound rankings.

And then we'll do a couple chats to finish this off. This week we'll be going with British fighters, all time British fighters. You can interpret this however you want. If you want to go best, if you want to go most accolades, if you want to just go your favorite pound for pound, your pound for pound, British fighters. I can't wait to hear what Frankie's cooked up.

I'm very excited. Can I make a guess Frank, you go? I have to I Think you're gonna do British fighter planes or something you're gonna pick like the the top like flight of British jets that were used in war You already saw the lid. How could you get now so? starting at number five have petty pinblad How could you get now so? starting at number five have Patty Pemblit

Well, I love this this says English fighters. I was under the assumption British fighters Yeah, you know there's always confusion as to what the actual list is gonna be on on show day But here we are English fighters Patty Pemblit and number five specifically for what he does in the octagon I Really like how humble he is after a win where he makes a shout out for like men's mental health and like small children who have hardships this sort of thing like really like that the stuff that he does outside of the octagon I could really care less but once he's in there I fully am for Patty Pemblit. I like the way he gets the crowd going everything else. Number four

my man Dan Hardy doesn't fight anymore I, I get it, but he used to. Look at this Mohawk. Red, love it, and it's almost like watching him now, you know, doing, he's a color analyst, right? Is that the proper title for that? That's it, yep. Yeah, what better color analyst than the guy who knew to have a red Mohawk when he was fighting

on the Octagon. I like what you did there. I love it. Coming in at number three, Tyson Fury. Oh. And every time I think of Tyson Fury, I remember one of the first times we interviewed him, he was in his bed and just couldn't be bothered to get out of bed to have this interview.

So I just did a search. I think it was this exact bed. It probably is. So I did a search for I wanted to get maybe a screenshot of when we did that interview. But instead instead apparently he like helps build beds like he does woodworking and he builds these extremely ornate beds What a unique man So now this like comes full circle I'm like of course the guys are getting out of his fucking bed like he built it with his own hands

You know like it's an interview with Ariel Juane. No, it's an interview with Tyson Fury and his bed Number two I mean, I don't know how else to put this, but it's gotta be. It's all been asked me though. It's just the mensch of all mensches. Like this, these are the kinds of people from England that I want to hang out with. Like they're just super nice,

but like everything they say has that like kind of cheeky, sarcastic tone to it. And then he delivers in the octagon as well. He's been a lot of fun to watch and I can't wait for him and Jones to finally get in there together And let's do it and then coming in at number one Not UFC Not boxing, but as of right now PFO. We've got Dakota and Wow

Right now as far as pound for pound goes like I want to see her go to the UFC I want to see her get you know Challenged a little bit more And I think she wants it too And I'm here to make sure that she gets it by being on the top of my pound-for-pound surely that's enough to get a negotiation Frank's propelling her. It's done into the UFC. I love it. I Love it Frankie. That's it. I love it, Frankie. That's crazy, yeah, wow, crazy.

Perfect, so. Number one. Eric is up next with his pound for pound, and we'll finish it off with Connor. Number one, second, Tom Esmol, second to Ditchieba. Don't jump to call Tom right now and let him know that that's happening, you know? Like, he can find it naturally, that's all right. He's actually calling me, hey, Tom.

No, yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw it too. Yeah, Ditchieba over you. It's all right. He's actually calling me. Hey, Tom. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw it too. Yeah, did you go over you? It's fucking crazy, I know. You want to fight Frank while, the interim while you're waiting on John? Okay, great, great, great, great. Wow.

What a weekend. Okay, I like that a lot, Frank. Frank went with the heart. I'm also going with the heart. Now, as you said, you could have done like, you could have done based on the accolades who are the top British fighters of all time. And I don't think that my list would reflect that, but my list reflects the ones that spoke to me,

the ones that created fandom into me, the ones that every time I watched them conjured something. And I think Frank is the same Frank, you know, trying to spur Dakota onto some bigger fights in the UFC, but he picked from the heart. I also picked from the heart. Number five, Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury has been the author of a lot of

great moments for me as, especially in recent years. I think you'll see like mine has a mix of like older and younger, but in recent boxing, no man has like exemplified British boxing like, uh, like Tyson Fury and obviously we have Anthony Joshua who, uh, did it for a long time. We have Dubois now there are many names in the heavyweight division, but none I think created

the magical moments for me in the way that Tyson Fury did as Frank kind of pointed to when he talked about him outside the ring. He's also a showman. He's also been able to just be a mercurial kind of interesting figure. Inside the ring the getting off the canvas against Deontay Wilder. The trilogy series with Wilder. The recent fights with Usyk. I love Tyson Fury. I'm just a fan of Tyson Fury and he's created some some great moments for me.

Number four. We're going back. We're going back now. This is one that I've come to more recently as I've been building up the excitement ahead of the biggest fight in British boxing between Connor Ben and Chris Eubank. I've gone back to the archives and I really dug deep on, on both Chris Eubank senior and

one Nigel Ben and Nigel Ben's a dog my friend. Nigel Ben is a bad motherfucker. If you've not seen some of the fights from this guy, I encourage you to because he is all action, pure aggression. Honestly, not dissimilar to Connor. Like it is pure rage and, and fire and heart and guts. When he's in there, it's there will be people who have better technique, but when it comes to reaching down into the pits of something and pulling it out, he delivered every time I encourage you, there's a fight against Gerald McClellan. Now there was a kind of tragic ending to this because at the end of this fight,

McClellan was in very rough shape and ended up like in a coma for a certain amount of time then came out lost use of his legs I believe like it was a it was a true war but the fight itself back and forth action I believe eight rounds nine rounds in the first round it looked like nine like it was one of those fights where McClellan had Nigel Benz so thoroughly demolished in the first round in a current boxing scenario, he does not get out of that round. He's finished in that round. It continues and it just keeps getting crazier and crazier and crazier by the end of it.

Um, it was absolutely nuts. He ends up finishing McClellan to the, it looked like McClellan had nothing left and then we find out like later, like later, like it did severe health damage to him. But the heart and grit and tenacity that Nigel was able to summon in that fight just can't speak more highly of the kind of heart that he had as a fighter, but just all action, all power, skilled.

He was an incredible all action fighter, loved Nigel Ben, gets me more excited to see Connor versus Chris Eubank Jr. And yeah, Connor's dad was a bad man, telling you. Worth going back to see his fights. Number three, another one as I was coming up as a young MMA fan that was one of the like pioneers of the UK scene and alongside Dan Hardy was one of the like pioneers of the UK scene and alongside Dan Hardy was one of the names that always continued to come up when we thought of

this scene and that is one Paul Semtex Daley the author of some gnarly gnarly gnarly knockouts and some gnarly gnarly gnarly Knockout wise, and I think I may have mentioned this, maybe it was in the MMA hour era, there's a fight against Romario Manuel da Silva in Bama where he hits him with an uppercut that separates the man, like he lifts him off the floor with an uppercut, not fucking around. He hits him with an uppercut so violently that

he levitates into the cage. Find it if you have not seen it. Paul Daly in his prime was one of the hardest hitters we've ever seen. Just some text was the perfect nickname for him because every time he connected it, it was like a bomb was going off. It was an explosion. The fight against, I mean, people have heard this pairing mentioned many times. Nick Diaz, Paul Daly, one of the best like rounds in MMA history. One of the best fights in MMA history had Diaz face planted.

And as you know, the Diaz brothers are notoriously tough and hard to kind of like knock down, had him face planted. Then Diaz gets up, Daly ends up losing that fight, but just one of the best fights ever. Ariel had that when we did the look back, he did that interview with a Diaz ahead of the daily fight. Diaz daily go see that, go find that uppercut

because it just like blew my mind and it continues to, um, it was fun to go back and watch some of Paul Daly's fights because he was just the knockout king. He w he was the goat. Okay. Number two, another one, as my MMA fandom was growing, just have many years of, of following this man,

many years of experience watching this man, many years of seeing this man go through different twists and turns throughout his career. It's the one and only the count Michael Bisping, um, belongs here. I think he is the, when you think of British MMA, he's the name, right? He is the guy at the top of that. And maybe one day it can be like a Tom Aspin all but for now to me It continues to be Michael Bisping here We see the USC 199 title win the massive upset over Lou Rockhold that nobody thought would be possible and he pulls off the impossible but it was also just like seeing him as a

debutante on tough and this kind of like abrasive guy that everybody hated before the heel character was a thing. He was just kind of an asshole and it endeared certain people to him and it made other people hate him. I feel like early on I probably disliked them because he was an asshole. Then as I matured more and kind of saw what the promotional element of it was and he became more comfortable in the character. He just became this like incredible figure for British MMA but also just for MMA in general. Get to the end of the career, it's clear that like he's beloved because of how long he's

been doing it and the transition he made from just being like an asshole to being a great promoter and ambassador for the game. And then now he's a commentator for the UFC. He's an analyst. He does his own podcast and things like that. Michael Visping means a lot to, I imagine, many MMA fans out there. Meant a lot to me as I was becoming a fan. And then number one, I've talked about this before, if you've paid attention, but it will be no surprise if you've heard me talk about this, Prince Nassim. Prince Nassim Hamed, the goat of highlight reels. Like it does not get better than his highlight reel.

I will put his highlight reel up against anybody's in any sport. If he was alive, he's alive today. The magic carpet. Look at this entrance on a magic carpet. He is alive. He's alive, he just looks carpet. Look at this entrance on a magic carpet. He's, he is alive. So I. He's alive. He just looks very different.

He looks very different. What I meant to say was if he was in his prime today and it was a TikTok generation, he would be the biggest star in the world because of how digestible and, uh, and exciting he is in short burst. His entire career was this combination of speed and power and dodging shots and doing, and putting the tongue out and dancing when people

miss he, I had never seen anything like him when I, when I was growing up and like, you had to download highlight reels on Kazaa and Morpheus and all these other platforms. What was it? Lemon light or lime wire. Lime wire. Lime wire.

I'm downloading Prince Nassim highlights and I'm just like transfixed. I could not believe what I was witnessing. What was it? Limelight or Limewire. Limewire. Limewire. Shout out. I'm downloading Prince Nassim highlights and I'm just like transfixed. I could not believe what I was witnessing. They still hold up today. You can find them on YouTube. You can find them anywhere. If you go look for this, he was one of the most exciting, but it was beyond just like, it was the swag.

It was the way he carried himself. It was beyond the fights. Like his fighting style was incredibly exciting as I've kind of tried to portray, but he's doing legit front flips into the ring over the top rope he's coming out dancing he's coming in on magic carpets he was the ultimate showman and his highlight reel is is one of the best it's still standing if he was if he was fighting in this time I don't know if like tiktok could contain the excitement around prince nassim I love prince nassim I I think there will be many who will say like,

once he hit a certain level of competition, that was when it was over for him and maybe like took his eye off the ball, but I don't care. I ranked this with my heart and the level of excitement. Prince Nassim delivered that for me and I love him. All right, this is perfect because it'll just segue right into my list, which brings me to my number five, Prince Nassim.

Oh, shout out. You've been pushing me to go watch his highlights. This finally forced me to do it. I spent like 90 minutes last night watching dude's highlights. He got the cheetah print trunks. Yeah, swag. The swag, the theatrics, the walkouts, the knockouts, the slips, like he really was just like entertainment.

It's like Ben Whittaker today. He was doing it at a championship level. I watched all the way through that and then to the fight that he finally loses, causing him to retire. And it was almost just like silk sheets. Like he had 40 mil in his bank account and like he wasn't training as much

and he kind of started putting on weight. He's obviously put on much weight since then. I've now gotten to present day Prince Nassim. He's living the good life, man. I fell down the rabbit hole, but man, the highlight reel is incredible. I mean, he truly is like one of the most entertaining boxers I've seen to do it at that level. That's what we're so incredible about it. So shout out Prince Nassim. Number four. So for me, like I did this more of accolades,

a mix of accolades and heart. Number four, Tom Aspinall. The potential here is just, the sky is the limit. Look at that with the English flag behind him. Interim heavyweight champion of the UFC right now has a real shot at being undisputed. Would be the third English champion in UFC history. Would be the first at the heavyweight division. Shortest average fight time right now in UFC history would be the first at the heavyweight division. Uh, shortest average fight time right now in UFC history. 15 wins, 15 finishes, gets, gets knockouts left, right in center. Can get submissions as well. Just an unbelievable fighter is becoming a personality in the sport. Five, six, seven years.

He might be number one on everyone's list. We don't know. We'll see right now. He's number four, number three, first British champion in UFC history. You just talked about him, the count, Michael Bisping, doing most of it on one eye, just just one eye out there. Won the belt as a plus-450 dog. He has done so much for British MMA, he's got the Union Jack right there. And you know, now he's doing great things on commentary as well, so shout out to The Count, Michael Bisping.

Number two, this is where the research kind of came in. Okay. Didn't really know a ton about them. The resume is insane. And this is why I said British fighters, not English fighters. Who we got? Welsh. Joe Kelsagie.

Oh, Kelsagie. Yeah. Yeah, man. 46 and 0. I really, I didn't know much about this dude before I started doing the research. Longest reigning super middleweight champion in boxing history, held the WBO belt for over a decade. Ring light heavyweight champion,

Beacher Boy Roy Jones Jr. Has some really impressive wins on his resume, undefeated champ, like I just said, for a decade. An incredible resume. I watched some of his highlights as well. Very, very impressive. Yeah, when you're talking accolades and resume, he's up there. Now that you've said that, I think I might know who's number one, but Kawasaki like up there.

I'm actually surprised no one else had my number one on their list. I actually find it shocking. Do we consider a Canadian? Is that the reason? Is he a Canadian? It's because, as I said, I went with my heart. I never was a Lennox guy. I'm gonna say he's British. He's, you know, he repped the- No, no, he's definitely British. He repped Canada at the Olympics, but man, Olympic gold medalist,

Commonwealth Games gold medalist. Oh no, he's British, yeah. Undisputed heavyweight champion of the world wins over Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Aseem Rahman, it's Lennox Lewis. Look at him with the Union Jack and the WBC belt right there. Resume is absolutely insane. I mean, before Usyk, 25 years, he was the last undisputed heavyweight champion in the world. Surprised he didn't make the top five. They

didn't crack the top five either. I think he's, maybe I'm out of hand here, but I do believe he's most British people, like most people's number one British fighter. I think and Kazaki's probably number two, like these are the guys. As I said, I went with my heart. I was never a Lennox guy. He wasn't my guy. I don't know. I just never connected with him at the time. I was also too young for him, but like going back and just like watching docs and highlights and just looking at the resume. I get it, and I was also too young for him, but going back and just watching docs and highlights and just looking at the resume, I had to give him a moment. I was like a Tyson, you know?

As you can see from my list, which is like instantaneous excitement, flashy knockout type guys, maybe other than Bisping, right? I don't think Bisping necessarily fits that mold, but I was always more on that side of it, so I was always like Mike Tyson, but if you're talking like accolade if you're talking like skill ring craft like yeah Lennox Lewis is the guy unbelievable all right I like all our lists how do we feel very very very diverse yeah very different lists

Tyson Fury making two of them. Did anyone make all three? No. I was surprised, I thought maybe Tommy would be in all three. Yeah, wow. Me and Frank. Rick has chosen. Me and Frank, yeah. Go to Jitjada, one. Oh, I thought you meant Tommy Fury for a second.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Ah, that would've been great. That would've been great if you did. Me and Frank shared Tyson, me and you shared Biz Bing and Prince Nassim. That's shocking, no consensus across the board. I'd be very interested to hear everybody else.

Yeah, if you're out there, especially I would say if you're British. Way in, we have a British here at the office, he loves boxing and I've been showing him the big ass. I have a feeling my list is not gonna go down well with Ariel, I feel like leaving off Lennox. Yeah, Lennox Lewis is pretty well decorated. All right, Frank, we get any Super Chats today?

Super Chats. We did, and we start with Mr. Queen. He sends in five Canadians. It says, lightweight pitcher, yeah or nah? Nah, Olivia, Olivera versus Hooker, Armin versus Gachie Pourier versus Halloween Islam versus Tupori. Hold on, hold on, leave this up for a second? Each one? Olivera versus Hooker Armin versus Gachie Poirier versus Holloway Islam versus Toporia Hold on, hold on. Leave this up for a second?

Each one? Olivera versus Hooker Oh, okay Armin versus Gachie Poirier versus Holloway Islam versus Toporia Alright Okay, I like that

Let's start at the back end Yeah I like that for the belt Poirier, Holloway, Islam, Toporia, Armin Poirier, Holloway, put that in New Orleans right now No, no, no, bring that back. Bring that back. Eh? Eh? Armin versus Gachie?

He's coming off a win. Yeah, I'm down. Is it a number one contender fight? I don't think Gachie's going to get the title shot, so I don't mind that. Olivera Hooker's a banger, but is Olivera going to take that? I don't think so. I feel like you do Armin and Olivera and Gachie and Hooker. I'm down for that as well. That feels like a win. I think those, you can play with those four. I just don't think Olivera's takingaijin Hooker. I'm down for that as well. I think those you can play with those four I just don't think Olivera is taking a hooker fight and I know Armin isn't taking a hooker fight. Is Gaijin? I think Gaijin might. Then he stepped up

for the for the Fiziv. I know. I think the top two is we do Poirier, Holloway in New Orleans and Islam to Poirier. Do not ruin the Poirier versus Holloway magic I will say that. And yeah I think Ilya look if Ilya is gonna vacate a belt to me that's like A he probably got some kind of assurance from the UFC but if not B I think he deserves that opportunity so I think he can cut the line I'm down for that. What else man? Alright this was a twofer from Nick Gust. He writes, a little while back I heard you guys talking about wanting someone to come on and do post fight breakdowns. I'm your guy.

I'm an expert in striking biomechanics and I have done thousands of hours of film study. Here's the second part. Give me a fight to test my abilities. I'll break down the technical tactical intricacies in an unlisted YouTube video and send it over to you. If I pass the video and send it over to you If I pass the test send it up to the big dog shout out from oh shit Shout out from the Quad Cities Nick Gus that we're gonna see you a to Nick Are we gonna see him at UFC Des Moines that sounds like an incredible idea?

I guess the only hang up is that like we can't show fight footage Yeah, which hurts from that's the technical break down the standpoint. Maybe his breakdowns are so good you don't even need to see it he'll just describe it yeah that rules is the only hitch but I appreciate the super chat I appreciate the commitment the the passion the excitement he's offering you know to give it a whirl I say let's go for it let's uh we've got a fight this weekend Leon Edwards and I mean how could we go against the guy from our hometown of Des Moines the Quad Cities? That's our place our new adopted homes as we found out this week to point not a Quad City But also shout out to this guy

It seems like he'll be paying us for him to do the breakdown since he did just submit almost $40 in super chats Yes, yeah, we appreciate your service. Yes. Thank you very much. This is like a big this weekends fight money speaks volumes Leon Sean Brady Make it make that on list of video and let's see and we'll give you a we'll give you a fair shot Hasib wants to know Umar versus yawn as the main event for azer by John That was the border connection to Russia Umar said he needs six months after his surgery in January Down I don't hate it. That's only five months later, but I'm down and fizzy be the main

I mean the co-main though in in azerbaijan. Yeah, I think so I think you can like that is a very good point like azerbaijan is not a huge country and it does border all of these No, no. Yeah, I mean he said Georgia, Russia like I think that's definitely a great fight at Main Event worthy I'm just like not not only does it border Russia but like it borders in the closest possible spot to Dagestan. Yeah yeah. Ariel was saying I feel like Fiziu should get a Main Event but you could Armenia is right there dude you could you could do Armin Tsarukyan in the main event

Do Armin Tsarukyan in the main event and do Rafael Fiziu in the co-main event and make it to Danny Rubin's Armin versus who yeah shout out to Danny Rubin Armin versus who though on a fight night Armin You could put Armin on a fight night. He doesn't have a belt a main event of a fight night who? Yeah, you can't do Charles. Charles and Armin? That's a pay-per-view. What did that guy just say? Armin versus, uh... Booker?

No. Armin versus Gachie. That's not a fight night either. That's a pay-per-view co-main. Man, man, man, man, man, man. Nah, I don't see it. I don't see it. Faziv, Faziv, Faziv, man, man.

We got the big guns for Crystal. I don't, I don't mind that fight. I like that fight quite a bit actually. Um, Fazeev, Fazeev made that. Bring out the big guns for Kristal. I don't mind that fight. I like that fight quite a bit actually, Umar versus Jan. I'd watch that. I just feel like Fazeev deserves a spot. But at the same time, look, if he's still fighting on the card and he's still able to bring out his fans, maybe he doesn't mind fighting three instead of five.

I'm down for that, I'm down for that. Or just make it five. Or just make it five, yeah, I'm down. Because he's just Fazeev and he's fighting in his own town. I'm hyped for Azerbaijan. That's gonna be back to back UFC events from the Atlantis to Azerbaijan. Ha ha ha. Julian says, love the show.

Rick, what was Prime Showtime like? Oh boy, what was Prime Showtime like? Exciting as all hell. It just felt like, I guess for those who are not paying attention, Showtime is Anthony Pettis or not not paying attention maybe this is a dated reference maybe you're not you know you're a newer fan Showtime by the way I'm assuming that he's talking about

Anthony Pettis. I thought he was talking about Showtime Sports. Yeah I don't know. Let me tell you when they had Bellator and that Bellator intro hit and you had a minus 600 in your parlay that closed minus 9,000 and then you watched them lose a 30-26 decision that was prime showtime baby it was great. Can we ask maybe can Frank Jordan somebody ask that person if they're still in the chat to clarify but I'm gonna talk about Anthony Pettis for a second because I think it's about Anthony Pettis for a second. Because I think it's about Anthony Pettis. I can't overstate how innovative the Showtime kick felt at the moment, right? It was getting to that point where we had thought

we had seen everything inside the cage in MMA and like evolution was gonna be hard. And when he did that, it's so iconic, it's so crazy. It got him onto a Wheaties box at a certain point because everybody is like, oh my god, the greatest KO in MMA history and it's not even a KO, Benson Henderson would have to get up and be in the decision because it just couldn't, like people can't fathom that that happened and that it wasn't a knockout. I feel like that is like the casual barometer there.

It's like, do you know that that was not a knockout? Remember this knockout? Yes, I saw it like 15 times, I was like, man like the the casual barometer there. It's like, you know that that was not This knockout. Yes, I saw like 15 times. I was like man, what a knockout and then one of y'all was just like it's not a knockout But he was doing things that I think were extremely unusual at the time a Great like kind of creative flowy striker Got into like the Anthony Pettis Benson Henderson rivalry is one of those that's probably gonna be lost to time a little bit, but those two were fantastic together because they were so different. Anthony was flashy, he was showtime, he was the striker, and Benson was more this just like kind of awkward meat

and potatoes kind of guy finding weird inefficiencies in MMA and exploiting them, interesting grappling angles, not like the same type of striker, more body work. It was just like a great rivalry that I think if you're a fan of MMA, it would be worth kind of like revisiting. The title run was very short, like it was not a long title reign for Anthony Pettis, but at his peak, cover of the Wheaties box, like Supernova, really fun guy to watch.

One of those guys that is worth going back to see. So loved the Showtime era. I'm considering that more than just the title reign, like just his kind of ascent. And he got his like first kind of like mainstream thing. Like he was followed by a documentary crew for, I believe the name of the series was like Life of Jenks there was a guy named Andrew Jenks who was like a filmmaker who followed him around he did a 30-minute thing for him that aired on MTV and he has an incredible story Anthony has an incredible story about his father and his family and obviously now his little brother Sergio is a very accomplished martial artist as well. Great ambassador for the sport, always did the right thing,

mega-watt smile, flashy. I love Anthony Pettis and I think he's worth revisiting if you haven't. And now if you're talking about Showtime, Connor said it all. If you're talking about Showtime sports, Connor said it all. Before we get to this next one, Jason Carney submitted his pound for pound. Okay. However, there's some confusion. Is he ranking them one through five or five through one?

We'll be the judge of that. We'll be the judge of that. Let's read it both ways. So one, Bisbing, two, Leon Edwards, three, Ian Freeman, four, Tom, five, Lee Murray. Shout out Lee Murray. So that feels like that's MMA?

Yeah. Just strictly MMA, no boxing in there? For sure, MMA. You are aware of the Lee Murray story, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know about the bank robbery. So that's why we put in that one as the top or the bottom of the five.

I mean, if we're ranking fighters slash bank robbers, like he's probably number one. Yeah, they had the incredible walkout. The Hannibal Lector yeah mass it's a good list I mean it's I feel like Tom's already passing in Freeman at this point maybe just on like you know pioneer status but like yeah I don't know if Lee Murray makes the list I don't think he just had enough time and in in MMA I guess you know yeah a decent bit it wasn't guess you know you had a decent bit

It wasn't UFC, but like you had a decent bit Bizz Bing Bizz Bing feels number one for sure. I would say like maybe Dan Hardy. I don't know I like it It's solid. Shout out Jason. Shout out Jason. Then we have Terrence who says Who leaves Vegas with more Rick playing poker or GC with a sports bet? Rick playing poker for sure. I can sport bet wherever. It's not like a special thing when I go to Vegas.

Yeah, do you get any rush from betting in Vegas on sports? So when we went for the Sphere card, I like getting the paper slip. It feels all official. I'll never be doing that again because we went and we bet at the Yahoo Sports Book. And I won a bunch of money and me and you walked the entire strip

at like 2 a.m. after the card all the way down to the Venetian to cash the ticket and then we get there and the Sportsbooks closed and so we couldn't cash it. So I had to give you the ticket to give the Oscar so he could cash it the next morning. Shout out to Oscar Willis. Shout out to Oscar Willis. It was a whole mess.

So yeah, I'll just stick to the apps. So yeah, I think it's fun to sit in the sports books, but there's a sports book down the road for me. And like there's the like appeal and allure. I remember the first time I ever went to a sports book, I was like, this is crazy. Like, holy shit. Now they've just become so regulated

and it's so legalized within the States and you can just pull your phone out and it's just like. There was something that felt like seedy about it. It was kind of like illegal. It's almost like when you start drinking and you're underage, it's just like you get a rush. It's like we're not supposed to be doing this,

but we're doing it baby. And now it's the only thing, it's like in your face. Yeah, it's like so in your face. It loses the appeal of it, so yeah, it's not as crazy. So yeah, when Rick goes, he obviously plays poker and does very well for himself. Yeah, I do all right. So yeah, shout out.

That's all she wrote. That's all she wrote, all right. Super chats are done, UFC London is done. I got an hour to get home before tip my dogs! Taking on Gonzaga, but one last thing I do wanna get to before we go is that BKFC announced, I'm all over the place over here, announced ice fights, I believe is the name. Let's run the promo for it real quick.

BKFC announced a new league for sanctioned hockey fights on the ice. You're going to be in full hockey equipment, MMA gloves, three to five rounds of 90 seconds, 900 square foot ice enclosure. 900 square feet is kind of big. That's that's gonna be ridiculous. First event on June 14th, Ice Wars is the official name, bare-knuckle. Yeah, here's the promo for it. That takes grace ice skating. That takes beauty, ice skating still. And elegance, sure does.

And throws it away. In the trash. Look at that. This is it, so have they done this before? This looks ridiculous. You have to wear the whole hockey gear. This is, is Ice War a thing and like BKFC purchased it. Yeah, I Mean, I'm gonna be watching me up. Did I see a DraftKings tweet in there?

Are they gonna have lines on this because if so, I'll I'll place a wager. I'll place a wager on it. This looks ridiculous You get to flip the the jersey over their head and yeah damn. Yeah, no, no goals. It's just fights important questions Damn. Yeah, no goals, it's just fights. Important questions. Hockey's toughest enforcer. Okay, so are they all hockey players? I assume, I guess I assume that they all had to

have played hockey. But now, as you're one of these guys, do you start training with other hockey enforcers? Or, do you start training with like, boxers, MMA fighters? Probably MMA, right? Cause there's a little bit of clinch work, there's a little bit of dirty boxing. It's a little bit of dirty boxing you get like Mike Perry And oh we see a crossover does Mike Perry

Go into the ice skating. I would love it. I thought that would be so ridiculous There's GSP tweeting Superman punch in the NHL. This is a few weeks ago now, but I mean like pimp looks pretty sick yeah, hockey gear, MMA gloves, and some, either hockey players fighting, but ridiculous, ridiculous. That's a way to make a splash if you're BKF soon. Yeah, I mean it's obviously like outlandish. It's almost like slap fighting. Yeah, I mean to an extent.

No, because they can actually defend themselves actually, so still better than stop fighting It's obviously outlandish and even from the promo where they're talking about like all these things and then it's like throw it in the trash Like they know how kind of like outlandish and ridiculous this is but like if there's a market for it, I guess I don't know how much of a market there is like I don't know if it's gonna stick but like I think No, this will not be like the next new thing. Of course not. We know that. I just think people will watch it, and it'll be like kinda. Does it almost become like,

just like you do it as like a side attraction to BKFC, where it's like we're at X Arena, we just have this as well. You just do something. I think that would be the thing. I don't know if I'm gonna tune into an entire event of Ice Wars. Yeah, like, what's the point of making them both fight worse?

You know what I'm saying? Like, if they were standing in front of each other without the pads on and without the ice skates on, they'd be fighting better. Why do we want them to like fight worse? I don't think it produces like a good outcome. I think just, you know, from the Peanut Gallery here. Yeah, please.

I think the more limitations you make, like you're showing a different type of game You know it's like leveling the playing field almost you you you want to handicap some things just to see well How do you do on this one? So again like if Mike Perry did something like this he could say I do a bare knuckle and I do it on the frickin ice I'm the best in the in the ring and I'm the best on the ice now It turns out he doesn't do well because like the skates screw him up Then we know that about him, too and I just think that's all more

interesting. So you're signing up for Mike Perry versus Luke Rockhold on the on the ice. Yes I think the I think the first... And Eddie Alvarez all of the Jeremy Stevens get back in there you know. I think the first event is actually the weekend of UFC at Linus I'll have to be streaming it on my phone but yeah BKFC Ice Wars. I'll watch that's what that's the tagline for me I ice wars. I'll watch. That's what that's the tagline for me. I'll watch. I'll watch. Yeah. Yeah I'm this is more palatable to me than slap fighting for sure. When do they get their first NHL fighter to sign? Well are these guys not NHL like some of these enforcers are they not former? Maybe like maybe like old school. I feel like we're getting some

AHL. We need to do a little more research a little more digging into the roster Right like yeah, are they gonna allow just fighters to put on like are you do you have to have played hockey at some kind? Of like competitive level or can you be like Mike Mike Perry's not gonna do this But I'm just saying a random like bkfc fighter who's like yeah I just want to get in there and put on the I think someone will do it I want to know what the stoppages are like because you because traditionally in hockey, the refs hang back a little bit. They're like, let them get it out. Does that happen, or is it like, oh, because it's a sanction, we've gotta jump in,

someone looks like they're gonna get hurt, or are they looking for knockouts? Okay, and also, do you have hockey refs, or do you have Herb Dean on ice skates? Oh my god. Herb Dean on ice skates, Mark Goddard on ice skates. Marky Goddard on skates? Yeah, Marky Goddard on skates.

I'm down. I'm down, I'll watch. There it is. I'll watch. What's your review of the, what are your thoughts on BKFC Ice Wars? I'll watch. We'll see what happens from there. It'll be great. You reminded me of one thing. I just want to give a shout out. Floyd Gerand? Gerand? I hope I said that correctly. Sorry, Floyd. He had been asking, he had been writing into On the Nose like 15 times, specifically asking about Taylor Lapilous and in

Ariel's conversation with Morgan Charrier, the answer came about. He got a resolution to kind of where Taylor is in terms of his negotiations with the USC and why he was not released but became a free agent. And so that was answered but I told him I was like if this does not get answered I promise you I will read it. Fortunately it got answered we don't have to ask the question but I just wanted to shout him out because he had been messaging me and shout out to Taylor. Shout out Taylor man appreciate you always tuning in. All right I think that'll do it. Shut up Taylor man. Appreciate you always tuning in.

All right, I think that'll do it. Now it's time to go watch my dogs play 430 tip against Gonzaga. Are we gonna win? I don't know, but we're dancing first time in ten years. It's gonna be great. Watch the crack tomorrow further preview for UFC London. You get that UK Ireland perspective from the great Pizzi Carroll. London. You get that UK Ireland perspective from the great Pizzi Carrol. And then watch the post show. 3Pac is back on Saturday. Chuck, Ariel, Pizzi breaking down UFC London. Everything that happened that'll be on Saturday evening here in the States. And then we'll be right back there on Monday with the Ariel Hawhani show. Enjoy the fights. Enjoy the hoops if you're watching. See

you next time.