The Ariel Helwani Show - We’re back! Francis Ngannou, Tom Aspinall, Sean O’Malley, Michael Chandler, Julianna, Peña, weekend recap

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

The new era of The Ariel Helwani Show and Uncrowned kicks off with a loaded lineup.After a spirited intro (02:25) where he runs down all the new shows coming to our channel, Ariel is joined by NewYorkRic, Conner Burks and Petesy Carroll to look back at the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol and the controversial scorecards. The crew briefly touches on Brandon Royval's win over Tatsuro Taira and the two title fights announced for UFC 310.Francis Ngannou is the show's debut guest (49:29), opening up about dealing with the tragic death of his son and refocusing on MMA after boxing Anthony Joshua. Ngannou goes on to respond to Dana White's comment about his earnings, preview his fight against Renan Ferreira, and pick his winner in the upcoming Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic fight.Next, Michael Chandler joins the show to talk about the Conor McGregor fight being cancelled, his booking against Charles Oliveira being a No. 1 contender fight, and who he thinks will win between Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan (01:29:05).Sean O'Malley returns and gives an update on his recovery from hip surgery and expresses his desire for a rematch with Merab Dvalishvili (02:00:05). O'Malley combats the narrative of being dominated by Dvalishvili and explains why he thinks the champion is scared of Umar Nurmagomedov.UFC women's bantamweight champion Julianna Peña reunites with the 'Parlay Boys' to explain why she believes the judges got it right at UFC 307 before taking aim at Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harrison (02:30:27).Finally, interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall returns to properly celebrate his UFC 304 win, go deep on overcoming pre-fight nerves, definitively announce he's the backup for Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic, and respond to Francis Ngannou claiming he's still the best heavyweight in the world (03:04:22).Before we say goodbye, the boys surprise Ariel with a message from his closest friends in the biz and family (03:46:29).

Hello again, friends. I'm back, baby. I am back, and I have missed this more than you can imagine. Oh my gosh, we are back, my friends. Remember about three months ago, on the Monday after Jake Paul defeating Platinum Perry? Doesn't that feel like 10 years ago? Well, it was just three months ago. Remember, I was signing off from our old New York City studio and I said, I don't know when I'll be back in a studio, but trust me, whenever I come back, we're going to level up. It has been a very long three months. I went to the Olympics. I came back. There's a bunch of new champions. We built a whole new set. We've amassed an incredible team. We've launched a website. We've partnered with Yahoo Sports. And now we are finally back. And I know you've missed us and we have missed you even more, but I can't fully describe, fully explain just how excited

I am to be back sitting in a chair like this, next to a desk like this, in front of all these little toys that have come with me a very long way, and some have come back home. More on that in a moment. I can't even tell you how excited I am to be back on a Monday afternoon, a Thanksgiving Monday, no less. Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends out there sitting here talking combat sports, talking MMA with all of you. This is very exciting.

This is a dream come true. We've got a lot to get to, a lot to explain, a lot to go over, a lot to run down, a lot to digest, but know this, this, my friends, is the beginning of the Ariel Helwani Show era, an era that I've been dreaming of for a very, very long time, but it's not only the beginning

of the Ariel Helwani Show era, it is the beginning of the boys in the back era. It is the beginning of the crack era. It is the beginning of the Helwani vision era. It is the beginning of the Ariel and Ade show era. It is the beginning of watch parties and post shows and all kinds of fun things. It is the beginning, my friends, of the Uncrowned Era. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Area Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Monday, October 14th, 2024. Hello again, everyone! I sure hope you're doing well.

I know I am, and I am so happy to welcome you inside our brand new New York City studio on a lovely, lovely, lovely Monday afternoon here in the Big Apple. Look at that. That's a real window. You'll see birds. You'll see planes. You'll see rain and snow. And, yes, look at our studio.

Show it off, Andy. Show it off to the world. You know yourself. It's a brand new, new, new, new, new New York City studio. And yes, you may be saying to yourself, this looks a little bit familiar. And yes, you are in fact correct. And you know why? No, we didn't take the old studio with us. When we were going over the plans and this all began quite some time ago, I kept explaining what I wanted. And everyone was like, you know, you're explaining the old set, the set that made you go back to the MMA hour, the set that you had been dreaming of when you were at ESPN, the set that

you always said you loved the most, the set that made you feel at home at your best. And so yes, we took a little of this, a little of that, but with the help of our new friends here at Yahoo, with the help of the great team over at ShowFab, thank you very much to them, the great lighting team as well that helped us put this all together over the last few weeks, we have built this brand new studio and there's some new trinkets and there's some new settings and there's some new looks. And I'm just so, so, so freaking happy to be here with all of you on a Monday afternoon. And it's so wild because when we got here and we've done some part in our dust shows, and we did that show in Las Vegas. When we got here and moved all our stuff over from the old set, and thank you so much one

more time to Vox and to Spotify for an amazing three years. The birth of the independent Heelwani era was a great one. But now we are a fully formed baby and we have taken one giant step towards independence, but now doing it as owners, as leaders in partnership with our new friends here at Yahoo. And you know, it was so crazy when we were bringing our stuff over, when we were packing up all the stuff, they're all here. Everyone's like, oh, where's this one? They're all here. DC's here. Chael's here. Casey O'Neill's here. Virna Janjiroba's here. Jesse Jess is here. Man of my word. Man of my word. I was like, man, you know what? This address is familiar. There's something familiar about this lobby. There's something familiar about this

elevator. I feel like I've been here before. And then I went deep into the archives. Then I went into my email and holy smokes, would you believe it? This address, this floor wasn't just familiar. I actually resided here for quite some time. I worked here. I called this home and I didn't just call it home. You'll recall, the OG fans will recall, back in May of 2009, I was walking up and down the AOL offices, AOL fan house to be exact. And I saw a little room that had a little board and a camera and a couple of chairs.

And I was like, I could do a show that's on video too, just like my hero, Howard Stern. I could do a version of that. And in June of 2009, we launched a show, which for three episodes was known as Fight House Radio. Remember that? And then after three episodes, because of a whole trademarking issue, we had to change it to the MMA hour, which initially was only supposed to be 15 minutes. And then it was an hour, and then it was 90 minutes, and then it was two hours, and on and on it went. That show happened in this building. That show was born in this building. That show aired not only from this building, from this

floor, I kid you not. AOL was the home of that show, and then it was bought by Vox Media, and then I took it to ESPN, and then I came back to Vox. And then we came here for this new deal with Yahoo. A few years back, Yahoo bought AOL, took over this office, this floor, this building, the show started. Is that not wild? 15 years ago, 15 years ago.

You know, the famous Alistair Overy moment, birthday king, balloon, hat, that moment, that happened here. That may have happened exactly in this spot. Life is a weird, weird thing. And by the way, happy birthday to my wife's Nana, who turns 100 today. What a day. My family's in Montreal. I'm here doing this because I love you all so much. Turns 100, we should all be so lucky. So happy birthday to her. Mazel tov. Happy Thanksgiving.

Anyway, we're back. But in reality, this isn't 15 years in the making. This is truly 23 years in the making because when I was a student in September of 2001 at Syracuse University and I told my parents, everyone's going this way, I wanna go that way. Everyone's talking about basketball and baseball and football here. I want to talk about fighting. And I launched a show at

WERW in the bowels of the Shine Auditorium at Syracuse University. There may be some students out there who know exactly what I'm talking about. I started a show called The Main Event. It was called The Main Event. And what did I do on that show? I talked a little bit and I interviewed fighters, fighting personalities. Bruce Buffer, I've said famously, my first guest. Dave Meltzer was on. Dan Severin was on.

Don Fry was on. Bobby the Brain Heenan was on. Tommy Dreamer was on. And on and on it went. That is the exact show, the exact format, 23 years later that we're doing now. But now finally it's called the Ariel Helwani Show. And I always felt like I didn't earn the right to call my show. Everyone has a show with their name on it. I didn't feel like I earned that right. Not like Howard Stern, not like Dan Lebitard,

not like Bill Simmons, not like Rich Eisen, not like Pat McAfee, not like Dan Patrick, people that I looked up to. I didn't get there yet. ESPN, I wasn't quite there. After ESPN, I wasn't quite there. I'm here now. And I think everyone knows exactly what this is. And when I left and was figuring out what I was going to do with my agent, who has been so incredible throughout this process

for the past year, spent hours upon hours upon hours. Thank you so much, Jerry, for all the guidance and support. We dreamed of this, owning the show, bringing the show back to the YouTube channel that I started in 2009 with Jerry Park. That's where you can get this show each and every day. The Ari Helwani Show podcast feed, which perhaps you're listening to right now. By the way, do me a favor, give us a sub, give us a like, hit the bell notification, do all the things that you do. It helps us us a sub, give us a like, hit the bell notification, do all the things that you do.

It helps us out a lot. But we said, we want to own, but we want to partner with a great brand. We want to partner with a great institution. And so we found the good people at Yahoo Sports. And so now we're in partnership. It's no longer the employee days. We're in partnership, ownership, executive ship, all that stuff and more.

And so we have launched the Ariel Helwani show, which now you can get, and it's the same old show, same old format in a very similar studio, but better. You can get it Monday, 1 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, 1 p.m. Eastern, Wednesday, 1 p.m. Eastern, but it ain't just that And it's the same length by the way No no no we're giving you something Monday through Friday We're giving you something Monday through Friday Thursdays 1pm Eastern It's the boys in the back

More on them in a moment Fridays Look at that beautiful lineup Shout out to Spencer The king The crack Fridays Look at that beautiful lineup Shout out to Spencer, the king The crack 1pm Eastern With P.T. Carroll

Live from the epicenter of all things European MMA Blanchardstown In addition to that Watch parties for all the major Events Post shows after all the major events Beginning next Tuesday in partnership with DAZN

Ariel and Ade, 5pm Eastern, from this studio with my friend Adeola Depot another new entity, there it is launching next Tuesday 8 days from now and in addition to that

Helwani Vision just announced, Think Manningcast, alternate commentary, alternate feed, myself, the boys, the crew, this Saturday,

October 19th, Riyadh, PFL, Battle of the Giants Francis Ngannou Against Hennon Fajera You buy the pay-per-view Exclusively on DAZN

Not at ESPN Plus Only on DAZN And much love to ESPN We love them But this particular one Is with my friends at DAZN We're open for business You buy the pay-per-view

You can either do the Official broadcast Great Or you can come hang with myself The boys Ch, Chael, Tyron Woodley, Megan Anderson, Tim Welch Jake Paul gonna join us, Rob Gronkowski gonna join us Incredible, incredible That's this Saturday, by the way, at 4 p.m. Eastern All these things launching

And oh, by the way, what made me really want to do all of this, it wasn't just about the shows. It wasn't about the pods only. It wasn't about the YouTube. It wasn't about the ownership. I wanted to bring journalism back to the fight game, proper journalism, good journalism, good storytelling. And so I called my old friend, Shaheen Alshadi, who I've known for so long. And I said, you're going to be the man here. You're going to be the editor-in-chief. You're going to lead the way. And over the last couple of months, we have talked for many, many hours about who we want to create a team with, a dot-com, if you will.

And we did it. Just like Jerry Colangelo did back in 1992 when the Dream Team was assembled. We launched uncrowned.com today. New home of all things combat sports. And what an all-star team we have. It's live right now. Go to uncrowned.com right now. Again, in partnership with Yahoo Sports. What is Uncrowned? Uncrowned is the home of all of this. It's the hub, if you will. It's our ringer. It's our MMA fighting. Do you get it? It's the home for all the things that we are doing. It's our destination. It's what we've been dreaming about for so long. And so you got the website, you got incredible journalism. We have stories up there right now from the man in the hat, Chuck Mendenhall. What a feature on Francis Ngannou. Incredible stuff. Cameron Haynes, a great story on Trick Williams.

My old friend from the MMArated.com days, Ben Folks with an amazing story on BKFC's Wild Night in Marbella, Spain. And in my opinion, the best boxing writer in the business, Keith Eideck, with a great story on the aftermath of Beterbiev Bivol in Saudi Arabia. We'll talk about that in a moment. That's live right now.

So to recap, a new website, incredible journalism, features galore to come, a whole new slate of shows each and every day, Monday through Friday, plus the weekend special features, Helwani Vision, Ariel Anade, Watch Parties, Post Shows, on and on it goes. And you know that we had to start today's program off with a bang. You know that we had to come out with a super stacked Monday lineup because that's how we do. Y'all call it super stacked. I just call it Monday.

And so who is joining us on today's program? Well, I thought it would be fitting that our very first guest in the history of the program would be Le Predateur, Francis Ngannou, who has been the story in combat sports in many respects, not just MMA, but in boxing as well over the last couple of years. Free agency, the Fury fight, the AJ fight, the PFL deal, and now, of course, the return to MMA

on Saturday, October 19th. Francis Ngannou, Le Predateur, joining us live at 145 from Riyadh, site of the Battle of the Giants pay-per-view. Following that interview, we'll be joined by Iron Mike Chandler, the man who'll be fighting Charles Oliveira for the second time in a little over a month's time, right here in New York City. Iron Mike is going to join us. Not Conor McGregor. It's Charles Oliveira to Dubronx, a rematch of a fight that happened a little over two years ago for the belt.

Chandler deciding it's time to move on. What about Sugar Sean O'Malley? He'll join us at around three o'clock. Talk about the loss to Murab, the subsequent surgery, where he goes from here, what went wrong? His first interview, by the way,

since the sphere card, Noche UFC, Shuga Sean O'Malley joining us at three o'clock. Tomorrow, we've got another whole host of guests, a massive lineup, but we're not done today. Juliana Pena, a member of the Parley Pals, the first member of the Parley Pals to fight in a UFC title fight, to win a UFC title. She did so about nine days ago in Salt Lake City. She will, of course, join us. And then we end things off

with the pride of England, the pride of Manchester, the pride of Wigan, Tommy Aspinall, the real heavyweight champion. And so, of course, you hear hear that music you hear that music playing and what does that mean that could only mean one thing that means that mysterious frank has joined the party frank hey what's happening hey frankie's in the house and you brought your your trinkets too right i brought them all which ones what the fuck? Yeah! Did you bring any breaking news? Did you bring Jasmine? Yeah! Did you bring when Jasmine gets upset?

Shut up, booze! Suck it! It's like a warm blanket. What about Cheeto? Did you bring Cheeto? What the fuck is going on, bro? Yeah, no. What about Rampage? Did you bring Ramp? What the fuck is going on, bro? Ah, yeah. No, yeah.

What about Rampage? Did you bring Rampage? I'm awful. Yeah. Oh, my God, Frankie. It's so good to hear from you and your friends. Thank you. And remember what I said, Frankie, when you guys doubted me, when we used to meet after the show, I said, guys, don't worry.

I got you. Guys, you're coming with. Don't worry. Ah, everyone was worrying, talking behind my back. Yeah, they were worrying. Oh, this guy. I don't know. with don't worry oh everyone was worrying talking behind my back yeah they were worrying oh this guy i don't know i don't know i don't know if i trust him i don't know if i believe him and what did i do what did i do when i was in paris frankie i called you all up and i said are you ready like like warren g once said what did i say regulators mount up that's exactly what you said and here we are and here we are The boys are with me

Let's get a good look at the boys back there in their new spot Ah there they are Yeah Yeah the boys are back in town As someone played Do we have the rights to that Someone sing it Frank The boys are back in town

What's up guys Looking great. Yeah, looking really good back here. Excited. New era, man. Though we didn't doubt you. I don't know why. No, I mean, I did.

Maybe Frank did. I had some Snickers. Yeah. I mean, you guys look great. You got that setup back there, GC. You got the pictures. We got the Georgia. Yeah, purposely encroaching the BMF belt onto Rick's territory.

He's forcing it. Got to put the silver out there, man. Got to respect it. New graphics here. A beautiful photo of one Max Holloway, who, of course, defends his title. I think he defends it. I'm not even sure if that's been cleared up yet, but he's fighting for the featherweight title. That, courtesy of our good friend Cooper Neal.

Shout out, man. Yeah. He said I look terrible in Atlanta and I needed stuff to put up. He said what we were all worth. But look at these lower thirds still. Yeah. It's pretty great. The boys in the back.

It's Thursday at 1 p.m. You and Rick. Everyone asked for it. They said we need this show. We need this show. You guys are getting your show on Thursdays at 1 p.m. Eastern. It's a beautiful thing. Look how clear you look.

Oh, you know yourself. By the way, how's the stream looking? Is it looking good? Yeah, it's looking good. Look how clear you look. Oh, you know yourself. By the way, how's the stream looking? Is it looking good? Yeah, we're golden. Oh, look at this. Excellent health, Ann Evans is saying.

No problem, man. Yeah. Well, this is great. And Rick now stepping up. No longer just a social, you know, they said you were just a social media guy.

That's all he was. I don't know about that. Some loser social media guy. That's what they said. And I said, hell no. They said, oh, which executive could we get to run this show? I said, we got him. Who said this?

People said it. People said it. Who should we hire? Which big name? I said, we got him. Just put another zero on that check. You know what I mean? All right.

Big shot, it makes it better. Yeah. Oh, we've come a long way from those days. Happy to be here. Yeah. And with that in mind, I wanted to read this email that New York Rick sent me. No, no, no. We're not going to do that

on show one. Let's move that back. That's day two. That is day two. In addition to the boys, you can't hear them, but Andy is back. Familiar Andy running the show.

Oh, look at this shot. I didn't know this was a shot. Holy smokes. Andy looking great back there and joining her to the left is an old friend from my ESPN days, On Air Jordan. look at this shot i didn't know this was a shot holy smokes andy looking great back there and and joining her to the left is an old friend from my espn days on air jordan look at him rocking the yankees hat he's wondering if you were gonna say on air jordan or no what'd you come up with long island jordan listen i threw it out no one liked it i moved on long beach cams and the lbk

nah we don't like it. What the fuck is that? Yeah, that's pretty much the... That was the response. That's pretty much the response that I got. He's rocking the Yankees hat. We won't hold the fact that he is a Jets fan against them. Big day. What a day to launch a show.

Bills coming to town. MetLife Stadium. I mean, look at this. We got the Bills stuff here. We got Josh Allen down there. Look at that. It's an amazing thing. And, you know, anytime you do something like this,

anytime you take a big step, you want to try to level up. You want to, did I mention this is a new, like this is an actual window right here. Like you'll see if it's raining. You'll see when the sun is setting in the winter. You'll see it. It's crazy. Anyway, I felt like we needed a little, I felt like we needed a little oomph. I felt like we needed a shot of adrenaline.

I felt like we needed a, dare I say, a shot of Irish whiskey. And so we have expanded the team. It's not just everyone that you've just seen or heard from. Now, a member of the team, part of the fabric of the team, and boy, did we have to drag him. He didn't want to come for whatever reason. He was kicking and screaming. He's a man of, you know, of customs and of just kind of familiarities. He didn't know if this show was big enough for him, but we finally cut the deal. We finally signed him and he'll be contributing not only to uncrowned.com, but he'll have his own show right here on this YouTube channel. It's called The Crack.

You may have heard of him. He is sometime the patron saint, sometime the bearded saint of the Emerald Isle. He is the host of the critically acclaimed podcast, The Crack. There he is. PT's here too. Ah, you know yourself, PT. Welcome to the team, PT. Well done.

What a time to be alive, boys. It's an interesting feeling, you know. Welcome to the team, PT. Well done. What a time to be alive, boys. It's an interesting feeling, you know. I understand you're excited about having us here, but you seem to be more excited about this window than anything else. You just keep coming back to the window, and it's going to make me feel a bit bad about the situation. I thought, you know, I'd get a bigger intro.

He keeps explaining the window exactly how windows work. No, it's like a real... You're going to be able to see stuff out there. It's an act. That's how windows work, man. Because the likes of Chael would come in here and be like, is this real? Is this in a basement? No, it's a real window.

It's a big upgrade. When it becomes nighttime, it will be dark out there. Yes. You'll see the sunset. That actually is true. And you can actually see right there, there is the Empire State Building. That's right. The middle of it.

There it is. Shout out. And at night, it gl Building. That's right. The middle of it. There it is. Shout out. And at night it glows and it lights up. And if a sports team does something in particular, like in around, you know, eight months time when the Knicks win the championship, it's going to be orange and blue. It's going to be orange and blue skies. So now we've got how windows work and how the Empire State Building programming works. We've knocked those off. Really upgraded.

Look at this. I mean, isn't this beautiful? Everything's working. The audio's working. The streaming's working. Yeah've knocked those off. Look at this. Really upgraded. Look at this. I mean, isn't this beautiful? Everything's working. The audio's working. The streaming's working. Yeah, yeah. Camera looks good. It is legit four hours of squeaky bump time to

just get us to the end of the show like that everything. Nah, just don't talk about it. Don't think about it anymore. How long until the window gets its own show? That's what I'm wondering, you know? The window in the back. Nah, that's encroaching on our territory.

How do you guys feel though? Can I get some thoughts? Can I get some feelings? How do you guys feel? I feel like Pizzi's got to go first. We kind of have a moment. Okay. All right.

Pizzi, go ahead. I kind of feel like the new kid at school, you know, I'm coming in. I'm kind of worried. There's these bullies all around me. Like, you know, GC. Frank is in fact the biggest bully. He's painted as a sweetheart. He is a cruel guy, and he rules this place with an iron fist.

So, intimidated, but I feel I can find my way. I have to push back against this, because I feel like in Vegas, nobody came in hotter than you. Like, you were just throwing your weight around all over the place, like, to the point that you were making me uncomfortable um but i still love you yeah that's probably true well he wasn't it's a different type of buzz when you're around pt in vegas speaking of vegas it is important to note a lot of people were confused uh a lot of people thought that was going to be the show in front of a live audience at a sports book no that's a fun thing that we will do more of. And shout out to the Yahoo Sportsbook in the Venetian for hosting us. Perhaps we'll be back in the near future.

I hear there's a big wrestling event happening in Las Vegas in about six months' time. So perhaps we'll be there for that and many other things. These are the opportunities that are afforded to us now due to this great partnership with Yahoo that I'm so excited about. So I know some people were confused. They thought that was going to be the show. Then they thought the Ariel and Ade show was going to be in front of a press conference audience. It was tough. It

was tough to get people to understand, but hopefully now you understand that this is what we are, that it's just the same old thing, but better. We're back, baby. We're back. And so in about 20 minutes time, we're going to be joined by Francis and really kick things off. I know people have missed the interviews, but we are coming off, guys, a very busy weekend in combat sports, highlighted by what happened in Riyadh, which has become, in many respects, the epicenter of... Oh, there goes my Dan Hooker because I banged on the desk, my skateboard. It has become the epicenter of boxing

and MMA coming up. And Sir Conor McGregor even talked about it at the BKFC event. We had boxing in Riyadh. We had BKFC in a freaking bull ring in Marbella.

And of course, we had the UFC at the apex. Uh, some things never changed, but we, we did find out finally who is going to headline UFC apex 100, which is a huge bit. Oh my God. That was in my week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Neil Magny couldn't ask for more than that. I mean, Neil Magny was built to headline UFC apex 100. You know, Magny's on there. Uh, we also found out that UFC 310 is going to be headlined by Bilal Muhammad versus Shafqat Rachmanov. More on that in a moment.

Co-main event is a really interesting one and somewhat surprising as well. Kaya Sikora becoming one of the very few fighters in the modern era, in the modern era, to fight for a belt in his promotional debut, going up against Alexandre Pantoja for the flyweight title. This all goes down December 7th in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena. So for now, things are okay between Dana White and MGM. But that is a really interesting two-pack of title fights. Not only that, the official confirmation that Nick Diaz is in fact going to fight Vicente Luque on the card. We also found out that Cyril Gann versus Alexander Volkov is on that card and on and on it goes. But let's go to the boxing for a moment because Artur Beterbiev

versus Dmitry Bivol was such an important fight. The first time in the four belt era that we would get a unified light heavyweight champion. These two guys have been talking about each other. These two guys have been flirting. These two guys have been circling each other, but they never had an opportunity to fight because of the finances. And here comes Turkey Al-Sheikh and he says, no, we're going to do it for the opening of Riyadh season, which I don't even know when it opens or when it ends, but this is the official opening of it. And what a card it was and what a fight it was. And ultimately it was won by one Artur Beterbiev. Now, I love the fight.

And I thought it lived up to the hype. I saw some people who said it didn't live up to the hype. And ultimately I thought Dmitry Bilho won the fight. I don't think this takes away. The story should be, A, that the fight happened. Because for years we thought that it wasn't going to happen. And then we thought it was going to happen in May. And Beterbiev injured his knee, but now we got it. And I asked someone afterwards who's in the know, is there a rematch clause? And they said the rematch clause is turkey ala shake.

And so if he wants to make it happen, he will make it happen. And Keith Idek wrote a story about this, how it has to happen and it has to happen next year. PT, I know you were locked in. Bivel, Better BF, A, did it live up to the hype? And B, who did you score it for? I thought the fight was absolutely outstanding. I was gripped by the whole thing. There was ebbs and flows. I scored

for Better BF by one round, 115 to 113. But there was incredibly close rounds. And I don't know for sure i think round three and round seven could have went either way i know maddox had them different on the broadcast um to the point where you know they were so close when they were reading out the decision i was like this is this is going to bevel you know this is this is going to be the bibbles fight but i thought it was very close um i think that scorecard the four rounds for better bf is

very hard to justify and i think you know you heard eddie hern talking afterwards about you know the celebration in the corner we had you know ramazan kadirov making an appearance on the broadcast which was crazy um you can understand why people would see something like that and get up in arms. Like, in terms of the winner being Better BF, I don't think it's a robbery. I think that scorecard is very questionable, but that fight really could have went either way as far as I was concerned. I agree. I had two rounds in favor of Bivel in the end, so 7-5, which I believe is 115-113. The 116-112 for Beterbiev is crazy. Everything else is super close.

When it comes down to one or two rounds, that's not a robbery. We've said this time and again. I understand why Eddie is upset. You know, they were talking on the broadcast, look at this, look at this audio. Look at this audio of them telling Beterbiev in the 11th and 12th rounds,

like you got, or going into them, that you've got to knock him out. Isn't that an indication? No, that's just good corner work, I think. like that's not an indication that they thought he was losing or they disagree with the scorecards that just means hey it's coming down to the judges and if we want to be safe here let's go for a knockout let's just step on the gas a little bit so that's not a gotcha moment like i think it was being presented rick, how did you score it? I have to be honest. We were watching it here together in the studio.

Ah, yes. And I wasn't exactly locked in on the scoring of it. I did think Bivol was ahead when we got to the 11th and 12th. I thought that Beterbiev was going to have to win those rounds, but it turns out he was already in good shape. I guess I had it even, but I... Even is totally fine, by the way. 114, 114, totally fine.

I will say, I was not... I wasn't watching as closely as I could have, but it felt like a much closer fight than the scorecards that I heard, is what I'll say. He was not locked in. He was watching his ring notification app. Oh, no. It just never stops.

Notifications are on. We were sitting shoulder to shoulder watching it. I was just like, what's this happening? watching his ring notification app. It just never stops. Notifications are on. We were sitting shoulder to shoulder watching it. I was just like, what's this happening? A squirrel just passed by in Long Island? I mean, we really need to watch this. Fight of the year is on right now, Rick. Give me a break, man.

If phones have notifications enabled, what is the point of turning them off? That is the whole point of having notifications. No, it's more like common consideration. Yes, just because you offer it doesn't mean I have to take it. No, I need it. Otherwise, don't have it. Don't make it a function if you don't need it. Did you score it? All notifications. Yes, I had it 6-6. I was actually

saying to Rick going into the final round, I was like, I think if Betterbeev wins this round, we might be looking at a draw, and then the first scorecard ended up being a draw. And then when I heard 116-112, I was just like, this is bevel i i threw i threw a bet in on better be of just because he was the dog right before the fight started uh and like when i heard 116 112 i was like i this i i think this is this one's going to bevel

i i mean they were very close rounds i felt like it was kind of like a game of runs like it was like first three rounds were bevel next three were better be of and they kind of like went back and forth but very close rounds especially in those in later rounds. So like I'm not calling robbery and I just want to see a rematch. Got to do a rematch. I know there are people out there, there's nothing bigger than this. Now the rematch is even bigger. Supremely uncomfortable watching Bivel's ex-wife be so happy. Now, I know there's a lot there, but wow, I didn't realize she was doing like a live stream of it.

And I think watching a dodgy stream as well, which is like super. We're not going to say names around here, but she was definitely on A.A. Yeah, which is just like going full on. Yeah, 100%. Well, yeah, you can't put money in his pocket. I love it.

That's next level hating. I respect the game. Yes. I respect it. And who knows what really went on there, but that was wild to watch. Bivel handled it like a pro afterwards. Obviously, so did Beterbiev.

And obviously, Eddie Hearn, as you said, GC, very, very upset. Just a great fight that lived up to the hype. And really, the whole card, I thought, was very entertaining. I was watching it in a very uncomfortable state as I was fasting for Yom Kippur and technically probably shouldn't have been watching, but you know, the job is the job. Yes. I know people get upset about the concerts and I say, yes, I understand you're buying a

pay-per-view. You want to just get on with it. I think what made it worse was the fact that Fabio Worldly knocked out Fraser Clark in one of the most vicious knockouts that you'll ever see. And he did so in the first round. And so as a result of that, just the way things were timed out, they had to fill for an hour and then out. And I think the concert, which was fine, Ciara and Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott was entertaining for what it was, would have been a little bit more digestible. But that knockout was scary as hell. Wardley came out there and just starched Clark. Got hit in his own right,

but the final blows led to a indentation in Wardley's head, excuse me, Clark's head and his mouth very clearly, like the jaw was very clearly realigned. Scary, scary stuff. I understand he had surgery. I know Gareth saw him at the airport. Gareth A. Davies talked to him. His jaw was wired shut. Just vicious stuff. It's everywhere.

It's on my social feed as well. If you didn't see it, very, very, very, very scary power and a very scary knockout. And I wish the best to Fraser Clark. Prior to that, we had Chris Eubank getting back on track, finally getting a win. Everyone thought he was going to win. But the big story, of course, was the aftermath. Conor Benn just walks right into the ring. And they have a face-off, and you can hear them, and it gets a little testy, and you can hear Eubank say, like, let's do a face-off,

let's do a face-off. To me, it felt, from the moment Benn got to Saudi Arabia, and you're seeing them, Benn rocking the leather jacket and the slick back hair, looking like a character out of The Bronx Tale or something like that, it seemed like there's already a deal in place look at neymar in the back there as well right i mean it looks wild and then neymar is just in the back like you just get the most ridiculous the way they were pushing this so hard made me feel like there's something already in place and and even turkey al shake saying, I want that fight in February, makes me feel like they've given up on the British Boxing Board of Control sanctioning Conor Benn for the foreseeable

future and just moving this fight, which shouldn't happen in any other place but the UK because of the history there with Nigel Benn and Chris Eubanks Sr., their fathers, but they're moving on. And I think, and people got mad at me on Saturday for saying this, like, it's time to move on. The guy's paid his dues. It's been two years. I've talked to multiple of the best commissioners in the United States who have all told me, yes, we have no problem with him. He should be allowed to fight here or elsewhere. But for whatever reason, I feel like there's a bit of a, I don't know, an ax to grind here with Ben for maybe the fact that he wasn't apologetic. He wasn't contrite. I don't know what it is and they're not doing it. And so it looks like that fight is going to happen. It certainly seemed like they were pushing it.

And I couldn't help but think of one thing and one thing only, what is New York Rick doing as he's seeing this face off in the middle of the rain? Is he freaking out? Has he restored his, his excitement and faith in this being the biggest fight of all time? We got a little teaser earlier in the week with some video that came out, but once they were standing in the ring, I mean, I let it wash over me.

It was like manna from the heavens. It was just coming down, and it was engulfing me. I love this fight. I will never stop believing that this fight is going to happen and never stop believing that it could be one of the biggest fights in boxing you're still your number one fight across all sports your dream fight yes this bit is still going it's not like this is think of the story think of the storyline here the fathers had the rivalry i know but they have one rivalry fight then the fathers another guy at 147.

It makes no sense. Yeah, I don't care. I don't care about that. It makes no sense. I don't care about that. It is a great story, and if told correctly, it will be beautiful. But, I mean, you can see it in the face-off. There's a massive size difference, and one guy was fighting and the other guy wasn't,

and there was still a size difference. Yeah, that's okay. Not worried. It probably has to happen at like 160 or something like that, because did you see the video of eubank cutting weight but i was yeah i was i was gonna say man i don't i don't know how close we're gonna get eubank down to to where connor ben is at it's it's gonna have to be connor just just gaining some weight to go up but you love this you love everything about it there's too much drama there's too much actual animosity it is it is exactly what you want from a fight whether

it be boxing mma, whatever the discipline is. This is the level of animosity. This is the level of actual build that you crave. This is all we ask for. There's nothing manufactured here. This is real. Okay, what about the fact that it would probably happen in Riyadh? That part, I mean, man, that sours it a bit.

Imagine that fight at Wembley. I mean, next level, next level. Man. I'll take it in Saudi. If the only way it gets made is it's going to happen in Saudi, I take it. Jaya Pattaya wins. If Chris Bill Smith wins next month at the Latino night, I'd love to see that fight.

Cruiserweight title to crown the best cruiserweight in the world. One of us was talking mad shit about him while watching the fight. And I'm not saying names, but one was talking shit. I believe one of these people referred to the cruiserweight division in boxing as, what was it? The women's featherweight division in MMA? No. What? I don't know who's laughing i can't tell the the mics all sound the same but um it's pc man okay it was pc okay yeah i was just laughing at the notion of someone saying something so ridiculous you know it's crazy i'll tell you what it is right when you're texting ariel and you text him something and he comes back really violently at you,

you know you've got him. And then you just keep on pouring fuel on the fire. So I just kept on making up silly things to do with the Cruiserweight division. I was like, it's kind of like becoming the cage warrior champion before you get to the UFC, isn't it? Sure, sure, sure. It was like, ah, ah!

It was freaking out. That's how I enjoy myself, I apologize. But what a performance, eh? Always was a big fan of Jay. Great to see him. Yeah, Jai. Sky Nicholson does it again. Jai.

Jai Hartfett. Jai, Jai, whatever. Sky, again, via decision, everyone said Raven Chapman would be her undoing. Oh, yeah. They all said that. They did.

No, that was a legit. Everyone did say that. Everyone said that. She was only like a minus 600. Everybody was saying that. Who was this? Everyone. He keeps on reprimanding everybody. Overcame all the odds. Overcame them all. did say that everyone said that she was only like a minus 600 everybody was saying listen who was this everyone overcame all the odds overcame them all it was it was a master class it was a master class was it was was it really minus 600 yeah yeah i thought she'd get a stoppage there you

think every sky's gonna end in a stoppage and she has like amateur and pro she has like 180 fights that's fine like three stoppages and then we get to the weird uh ben whitaker fight where it was shades of uh lex luger and um and brett hart circa 1994 royal rumble look it up a weird one where they both went over the ring uh and then uh they go to the scorecards and it ends in a draw because of where the judges were, were at that point. And some people have suggested that, uh, Ben was in trouble. Ben didn't like what Liam Cameron was doing. Liam Cameron was an opponent. Look at that dude's face. Who's that? The photographer over there. He looks like he's in shock and they just toppled over the ring. And, uh, and some have suggested that Ben was looking for a way out. This is a guy who many people have said is one of the biggest prospects in UK boxing

and in the world as well, a silver medalist at the Olympic Games two Olympics ago. And this was, I mean, the last fight wasn't great. The one at Crystal Palace wasn't an amazing fight, but it was a win. And some people are saying he has to change his style. He has to be less of a showman and, and, and less Roy Jones and less Prince Nassim and just do his thing. This was a great PT. Dare you suggest that these people who are claiming that he was looking for

a way out are in fact telling the truth? No, I don't think, I didn't think about it like that. I will say like, I believe he was actively involved in that situation like he's overhooking both arms and you can see him everything to to move back when when a shock can't come at him right he's i think he's overhooking the guy's arms so i think it's his fault they spill over like that what happened what the impact was uh i can't speak to that you know it was just a very deflating end to a fight that was actually very intriguing to watch. Obviously, Whitaker is hot shit, right? Everybody's like, this guy is, he can be this.

He can, as you said, Nassim, all this kind of stuff. The funny thing about that for me is, right, they're saying he needs to change his style. He actually didn't fight his usual style. I didn't find in that fight. So he was kind of coming out. I felt with a chip on his shoulder, like I'm going to, I'm going to really like beat the shit out of this guy.

And then everybody will know, but it, it worked against him completely. He was getting hit more than I've ever seen him get hit. Honestly, I'd love to see that rematch. Um, has to be,

but I think it, I think it's too, it's too early to be writing this guy off. Like, he's obviously an incredible athlete. He has a different way of fighting, a very spectacular

way of fighting. Obviously, the ending was pretty bad, but it only makes me want to see this fight again. So I think it actually works in his favor down the road.

Well, Liam Cameron is like a journeyman who feels like he's been disrespected and since then, I believe, Queensberry has signed him. I've seen those reports, so good for him. It's a weird thing with the UK fans, man. I feel like

people in America like Ben Whitaker more than people in the UK. I think people in the UK, and I think you understand this mentality because I feel like Irish fans say the same about certain athletes. Like we want you to be humble. We don't want you to be crazy. We don't want you to be too cocky. We don't want the showmanship. We don't want the hot dogging. And it feels like UK fans are like, you see, you see, we told you he wasn't to be. He was a fraud.

He never was. While the American fans are like, yo, look at this guy. This guy's awesome. This guy's fun. And it felt like, I don't know, it felt like a gotcha moment for some of those naysayers

as it pertains to ben whitaker i think it's always it's an extreme one way or the other they're either going to be completely in love with you and i guarantee he will get there at some point you know i guarantee you they'll be like well who would have known this guy you know in a few years time i think he has the ability and she only have to look as far as Brennan Johnson, I think. Wow. They're all giving him the SH1-T early on, and now he's the saviour of sports, you know? He's one of our own. A lot of people said, by the way, that my rant on Sky Sports, lifting his spirits, changed everything.

Because he then scored six in six games. I mean, and that's not He didn't score 6 in Every game 6 times He did 1 per game for 6 games straight You get that? I thought it was actually That was the last thing he saw before erasing

The internet from his phone, I thought that was what it was Some have said That's all I need, just take it away from me now Some have said, some have suggested I wouldn't it away from me now Some have said Some have suggested I wouldn't dare be so bold But some have suggested That's a great shout by the way Thank you for bringing that up

That's among the many things That have happened to us Over the last few months Since we were last in a studio Doing a show Now it just feels like old hat right Now it just feels like we're rolling here Like everything is good

And it's so wild going from watching that scene and missy elliott and um uh ciara i didn't know she moaned the whole time ciara that was was she faking it let's be honest absolutely like uh come on was missy pain it definitely wasn't buster wasn't definitely wasn't I mean he carried himself like a gentleman up there I thought it was fantastic With Spliff still by his side after all these years Incredible You know Sierra was bottom rung for me Not even an effort made

Like you know sing The combo of the first round knockout Into the concert was Was a lot Oh you mean of the Wardley knockout? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Going into the concert. Well, it's just an hour. If that would have gone the distance... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Of course. I know. I'm saying. The combo... If it would have gone the distance, would you have been okay with... I personally don't need any of the concerts. I feel like they're trying to recreate the Super Bowl. They're obviously getting these massive names for form. But with the Super Bowl, the halftime is going to happen no matter what.

Whereas this, you just want to see the next fight. It's just the weight. They should have just trotted Busta Rhymes out there as soon as the fight ended. Then we would all have been like, yeah, let's go. Kill some time. Missy Elliott. By the way, did they even promote the Busta Rhymes? I knew about it.

I knew about it. I had no idea. They just showed up. Yeah. I heard it on the broadcast, but it wasn't like the – was it Liam Gallagher or Noel Gallagher? I think it was Liam. Oh, my God, Frank. Are you serious, Harry?

It was Liam. It was Liam. Don't say it. Don't say say it don't say it don't say it i don't care i went to get a coffee and a guy came up to me and he said oh i'm on the phone to me by the way you're on the phone to me i'm in italy and uh naryl's like oh hang on someone's walking up to me here turns out to be like a member of Oasis or something. And Ariel's there telling him, no, I love your stuff. I listen to it every day. And I was like, no.

I was speaking at the phone. I was like, no, you don't. But incredible. Meets Oasis. They come to you as well. No, he said he was the bassist. And I was like, yo, wow, you're the guy for Oasis? And he's like, no, just for Liam.

I didn't realize it was separate. I didn't realize it was separate I didn't realize it was separate people separate bands yeah I didn't know that they're doing a tour what happens to the guys who are with Liam they're just out

they're waiting for the next outing they're waiting for the next breakup sometimes there's session musicians that are working on other albums come on man they're not getting bonehead in the guys back are they you know And sometimes there's session musicians that are working on other albums. Come on, man. Barry Sanders. Yeah, it's going to be an amalgam of both of them. They're not getting bonehead on the guys back, are they? You know? Who's that?

It's going to be just session. He was an old member of Voices. So I don't think the actual lineup is fully being restored, but I think Noel and Liam will be back together, which is the main thing for everybody, you know? So Sally can wait. Are we going to get demonetized? sounds exactly like the album version yeah and now the bot's gonna pick it up speaking of which you may be watching our uh our live youtube feed right now and you may be seeing

an influx of uh polls being thrown up shout out to everyone in the chat right now. Thank you so much. Enjoy the free commenting while you can. And yes, we do in fact have an official moderator running the YouTube feed. And yes, he is in fact the biggest troll, the biggest heel in the game, one Antoine Evans, who was once head of PR for the UFC, now joining the Heelwani-verse. What a turn of events that is. So please give him a nice hello and a warm welcome. He is one of many who have joined the uncrowned dynasty, the uncrowned era, an incredible team of people over on the website as well. I mentioned Chuck. I almost wanna mention all the names here. Let me see if I could get them. Cause I mentioned all the team here,

an incredible group of people who work for Yahoo, Jeff and Kirsten and Tyler and Chris and Richard. And the problem when you start naming names, Frank, is that you start to forget people, right? And Matt and... Me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was looking

for a little bit of help there. And then the entire team, of course, the President del Presidente, Ryan Spoon and Sam Farber leading the way. Ben Stark, how could we forget him?

Unbelievable. Absolute legend. Shaheen Alshadi on the website. Chuck Mendenhall, Ben Folks, PT Carroll, I've heard of him.

Drake Riggs coming over from our old stomping grounds to write about all things combat. Keith Ideck, I mentioned. Elliot Wursel, who I think is an unbelievable combat sports writer. In fact, Ant had been talking to me about him for many, many years, and I didn't believe he was a real person. And yes, in fact, he is a real person.

He is a part of the team. Cameron Hawkins. I may have said Cameron Haynes at the beginning of the show, Cameron Hawkins, why did I say Haynes? That's a different person. We've got some surprises. We've got some members of the Yahoo team. And we've even got a young man named Darshan, who is the man who runs the Everything Boxing Twitter account.

He does an incredible job. He is joining us as well, in addition to some new faces that are gonna be popping up. So it's a real who's who. It's a real incredible collection of talent. And you have come to know and love and expect from all of us,

in addition to the bluster, in addition to the talk, in addition to the debating, in addition to the fun, the guests. the debating, in addition to the fun, the guests. The guests are what make this show. I've always said that. And when I was trying to lay out our lineup,

I had two things that I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to end with one person and I wanted to start with one person. They just so happened to be two of the baddest men on the planet. And in particular, I wanted to start with one person because like I said at the top,

he has been the story as far as I'm concerned in combat sports for the better part of almost three years now, dating back to January of 2022. And it has been such a journey, such an incredible story, a story that you couldn't even imagine if you try to write a movie about it. And another chapter of that story is going to be written this Saturday back in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It's his debut in PFL. It's his return to mixed martial arts for the first time since 2022. It is the return of the baddest man on the planet, the lineal MMA heavyweight champion of the world,

your friend and mine, le prédateur himself, Francis Ngannou. There he is. Francis in the house. My man. Yeah, he's barking stronger than ever. Francis, our first guest ever in the new era.

How are you, my friend? Congratulations on the show, the new show. Thank you, my friend thank you a show with the crown yes you're the king i'm the king it's not only about the the guests that make the show i think the host too the host also make the show and you're the man thank you sometimes i mean without your respect sometimes some hosts um they don't conduct interview properly i think they have to learn more and

get some experience i agree i agree but we won't thank you so much francis it means a lot that you'd be here i know it's a busy time for you. It's another fight week. And by the way, you're back in Saudi Arabia, which of course you were... I couldn't miss the Aryan Awani show. Yeah. My guy. You're the best. Thank you so much. Francis, off the top, I'd be remiss if I don't give you a hug. I know we talked privately, but I know it's been a tough time for you and your family. So I just wanna send my love to you and my condolences publicly as well. And I hope that you are doing okay.

I don't think you will ever truly heal from what you experienced a few months ago with the passing of your son. But I just wanna say, I hope that you are feeling a little bit better and that he is still in your heart and that you are honoring him this Saturday. But I just wanted to express that off the top because i felt like that was the appropriate thing

to do thank you i appreciate that just as truly i appreciate your message uh at the moment when it happened but as you said that we will know it's something it's not something that you learn from. You just learn to roll with it. And that's what I'm doing. I'm trying exactly to figure out the way to move on, to roll with it. Because there's not anything that I will ever do without it anymore. It's just to find a way i i said when it happened and in fact i think like to be honest

even though like uh i'm excited like to go out there and fight but for me it's like going out there to discover myself you know where i am to find out where i am exactly in life as a person deep inside me, you know, and that's the only way for me to dig deeper. Where do you think you are? I don't know. I mean, there's been a lot of confusion lately. There's been a lot of questions that I kind of asked myself about reason, purpose, motivation. And I don't know you know like this because like uh this was I mean eventually in a any case scenario it's always going to be like basically like the toughest thing that a man can face um

but I think one of the things that brought a lot of pressure out is that it's exactly the thing that as far as I can remember is the reason why I've been fighting my entire life you know like to be able to provide for my family to be able to secure them to provide security for them to be able to like

give them health care you know like not to see somebody pass away like my dad did without having a chance to uh have any treatment you know like and then i tell myself that i can fight hard in my life not to let that happen again and you know, then I did think that at some point I feel like, oh, I'm not doing bad. I think I'm on the right way. I'm fighting good.

You know, I'm securing. If ever is the case, if ever somebody in my family need a medical care, whatever it takes, I think at the point of my life that we will hand I can handle that you know whether it's like medical plane or whatever it is like name it I was like okay I think I can fight that off but then the thing that

you've been fighting for is the thing the exact thing that happened to you like didn't just have a chance to like take him to the hospital and stuff like that you know then you're kind of like okay then why all this like all those years what was the purpose if it's to end up exactly feeling exactly like I felt back then, like being powerless, you know, have this feeling of being useless, not to fight for your own. One thing that I think a lot of people said was that I think a lot of people didn't even know you were a father. You kept your private life very, very, very private. Some people like to show pictures or bring their family to fights. Could I ask just about that mentality?

Why do you keep that side of your life so private? Because, as they say, it's a private life. And I think, like, you know know what we do is fun and also like get on the screen in front of people and everything I think is not always like great things and I I think like for myself my family will choose or or my kids will be the ones that will choose to be on the screen. But at least they have that option. I don't just have to pin that on them. Because not everybody enjoys that.

And at least it's good that you choose. So whenever it's hard, you know that it was your decision. It's not something that maybe your parent chose for you. It might be cool, but did you really like it? Or can you handle it? So I think that's the reason. I wondered when it happened when we were talking about it. I said, I wouldn't blame Francis if he

doesn't fight for the rest of the year if he takes a year off if he takes two years off maybe if he says to hell with all of this I want to be left alone can I ask about just the process of when you decided okay you know because I know PFL was saying they're giving you space and no one was forcing you I think that was the case to where you felt comfortable in coming back. Yeah, nobody was forcing me. I mean, I'm a free man, you know, I'm not in the position to be forced by anyone and nobody to even try to force me. I think everyone respect my grieving and to be honest like there was a moment that I didn't just give a shit about anything

whether it's firing or anything you know like everything should taste tasteless like what's the point what's the purpose what's that for you know like but like what's the point, what's the purpose, what's that for? You know, like, but, and then you process it,

you grieve, you mourn, and then you also like, wanna make a reason, wanna give a reason for it, you know, wanna give a purpose for him, at least for his existence even though he wasn't long um because what would that have been if that was the reason for me to um uh to stop to retire to stop fighting i mean is it what I wanted? No. Is it what he would have liked? No. Is it the best way that will honor him?

No. I mean, I want him to be remembered, but not as the one that make me retire, or maybe instead, but maybe the one that make me keep fighting. That's a beautiful way to look at it, and I think everyone supports that and understands, but I would have understood either way,

any way that you would have decided to go. And so I wonder, just like, I remember seeing the first photo of you and Eric Nixick and Dewey, and you started to train a little bit and were like, okay, I was wondering if it was therapeutic for you at least to get back in there. Was it that way or was it hard to start training and even caring about a fight at the end of the tunnel

he wasn't hurt you know like um honestly like when i first went to the gym for me he was just like let's go to the gym and see. I'm not really sure of anything. I don't really know if I'm going to do this or if I can give it all. And if I cannot give it all, maybe it's just better to call it out, to take your time, or to just call it out. Because fighting, again, is not like a game. When you're there fighting, you better be's not like a game. When you're there fighting, you better be there,

focused in there. And then I went there and one thing that I realized is that when I was in the mat, I was in the mat. Whatever my day is going, it might be like a sad day because I had a lot of sad days.

Starting really bad that I'm sad, you know. But when I'm in the gym, I'm just focused on training. I don't think about it. Maybe once I finish training. So then that's when I kind of realized that, oh, I can still do it because it's not interfering in my training. It's not like in between rounds, I'm thinking of it because it's not interfering in my training it's not like in between round I'm thinking of it you know in between round I'm just thinking of what I'm doing right there

in the fight uh in training you know so that's when I thought he he could be okay because I didn't know anything. I was just going, following the flow to see how it goes. So your last few fights, Stipe Miocic, Cyril Gann, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, these are some of the biggest names. With all due respect to Hennem Feajera, he is not a household name. And so has it been hard to be motivated for him because you're on a different stratosphere from him? I'm not talking about talent.

I'm just talking about the name and just like what he brings to the table from a promotional standpoint. Has that been a difficulty for you for you to be motivated for him? Or is that not something you think about or care about? We don't fight name. We fight talent.

The name in that octagon doesn't matter. It's useless. We fight talent. And let me tell you something. This guy has talent. And from all my openings, I think he's definitely one of my toughest fights. Let's just be serious. Look at his athleticism. Look at his grappling, black belt grappling, striking, like high level, you know, like

very well rounded. You never have to fight a guy that is almost as perfect as a fighter if he's not a stupid miyoti, right? But if you think of all of the others, like this guy is a black belt, but when he strikes, you don't even know that he can grapple. Then when he grapples, you think he's just a grabber. So it brings a lot of challenge because he's high, he's speed and everything.

Yeah, I think he's... For me, as I'm taking it, he's very serious. I see it as... I need... I see it as... I take this fight as a underdog. Wow. I feel like a underdog.

Yeah. And just curious, did you consider boxing at all? Or after, you know, everything happened and the fight with Joshua came and went, was the idea always to go back to MMA at this point? No, I mean, the idea was always to go back to have to fight to fight MMA at some point. Like, even before

the Joshua fight, this fight was scheduled already as opposed to fight the winner of the PFL Bellator Champ. Right? this fight was scheduled already as opposed to fight the winner of the uh pfl belatorcham right right and uh i even have this i haven't signed a deal this deal before uh my defense boxing fight so this was a contract that i had for a long time and i intend to honor the contract, even though I still want to fight boxing. Okay. And, and, you know, I remember the first Stipe fight and then the, the, the, the subsequent

fight, which was against Derek Lewis in Las Vegas. And you talked about, you, you felt almost like you were frozen out there. And I'm, I'm wondering if you have thought or contemplated how you will feel coming off what happened against Joshua, your first fight back. Do you think your body will have the same issues? No, that's not what I was contemplating. I mean, the first Tipee fight and the Joshua fight was two completely different fights. I think I prepared very well for the Joshua fight. I get ready and i get there ready

to do everything that i could have done so again regardless of the result like if i when i look back at that fight and on my end i think i didn't let any stone unturned unlike the first tp fight you know like i think i really i did think right and then you know maybe get little my hand was little tight i would say that i always say that but uh either way i think for is different you know Listen I mean I'm not in the point Of my life that Compared to the First TPA fight That I care about

What this Person think What they say And then it affect me I don't just Give a shit I just do me And then whatever

Comes out Comes out You know I just make sure That I give I do my best And I'm good you know and I think that was it that those were the thing that I could have I

didn't get back then you know I was so like worried about what this person say like what they think you know and now okay and you free of all of that amen by the way when you saw Joshua get knocked out was there any part of you that said man I could have done that that should have been me doing the knocking out I didn't need to I didn't need to see the knockout to say that I know I can it didn't happen but I know I can nobody can ever take that from me nobody can ever make me say no for that I could

it didn't happen but yes I could but fight is a fight sometimes someday is yours someone is not and again you could have you could have been

I could have been in my better shape tried my best fight and still lost still have the same result against Joshua right because

it's a fight game he happened that's that's what we do is this your first time back in Saudi Arabia since that fight no

okay I came back I was here in June Is this your first time back in Saudi Arabia since that fight? No. Okay. I came back. I was here in June. I remember when we spoke like 10 days after the Joshua fight, you talked about being tired and all that stuff in the locker room. How are you going to, this won't be as late, I think, right? Is there anything you're going to do differently so that your body doesn't feel that way?

Well, I think here they have time, they have schedule proper. And then I don't have to go to places and wait for hour before event starts, before it starts during the five week, before it starts. You know, like, for example, like this is a five week, this is a fight week.

I have a fight week obligation, right? So I don't have to show up somewhere and then wait for one hour, 90 minutes or two hours before he starts. Otherwise, I'm calling him out. Like, I'm done. That's what happened on the fight night. You got there too early.

On everything. On the fight night you got there too early on everything on the fight week yeah fight week too right yeah yeah he did he did that aj dubois was getting annoyed too he he showed up to the press conference late and the workout late and all that stuff do you think that's something he does or do you think it was more of the organizers that were disorganized no i think it was more the organizers i think it was more of the organizers that were disorganized no i think it was more the organizers i think it was more the organizers because the time that they was giving me you know they have to give they give the pickup time to you and to the driver and they will pick you up and then you get there and have to wait one hour and a half two hours before the beginning and now i'm like you didn't you know what time is going to start you know so it was stuff like that

okay and then we get to the press conference in August even before the fight even before the fight got it that was the entire week I have to ask you about this because it was very controversial the press conference in August

you and Henen Fajeda he received a lot of blowback from people like myself because I felt the comments that he made about your difficult year were very tasteless and out of line. And he has since said that's not what he was referring to. He was referring to just the knockout and not what you and your family have been going through. I felt like, and other Brazilian fighters have backed this up, that he was referring to everything that you have been going through. When you heard that, and since then, how did you interpret his comments? Because I feel like there are certain things that should not be talked about. well i think um i don't think he's that kind of guy that's gonna uh say such a bad thing and personally i didn't i mean i didn't take it personal um i i have been in this situation that i have to speak english not his first language just as mine right and i have been in the situation that i have to speak and they have to translate for me and most of the time it doesn't come out the way that I was expressing it you know so I think that's how

I view it and then it come out and make a statement about it but I didn't take it any personal again I mean some people can even do that say say that for real a minute but what is that going to change about my life i mean it's not a decision maker uh some people are mean some are not mean uh but life goes on but in his case i believe that he didn't mean that okay so there's no there's no bad blood there it's not personal between you guys you don't feel okay no no i mean he was very nice he seems to be a nice guy overall like even before the fight even before they announced that we are going to fight i have met him and he's very respectful so i don't think he will he was going to say he can intend to he intend to say something like that.

He didn't, at any point, he didn't show any sign of disrespect or something like that, which wouldn't matter, but he didn't. Okay, I'm glad to hear that. I saw comments from your head coach, or one of your coaches, Eric Nixick, of course, very good friend of yours, who said that he wished that this fight would be better promoted.

Do you feel the same way? Feel what? He said comments recently to Bloody Elbow that he wishes that this fight was better promoted, more promoted, that there was more attention on the fight, that there was more people talking about it, more stuff. It's all about you being giants. But to me, this is kind of for the lineal heavyweight championship of MMA because you were the UFC champion and you never lost the title. So he was just expressing some, I guess you could say, disappointment that the event, the fight, your return to MMA,

your debut in PFL wasn't promoted enough. Do you feel the same way or is that not something you're thinking about as well? I just think about fighting you know i um i was i'm not lately i wasn't really checking what is going on in term of promotion um if it wasn't if it wasn't a body fight i mean personally i didn't do much i didn't what i supposed to do what i should have, I didn't do much. I didn't know what I was supposed to do, what I should have done. I didn't do it myself, like using my platform. And then, like,

they had to push me, like, to post, to promote the fight, to talk about the fight because I wasn't using my social media for months. At some point, I even thought about deleting that. But it's just my work too. Right.

And I understand that as well. I do wonder if this one came across your radar. Once again, Dana White was asked about you and the money that you made in boxing, and he referred to it as a myth and that you would have gotten more in the ufc and on and on it went did you see his comments and if so what was your reaction yeah i saw his comment well i saw that but i mean i didn't at time i didn't have any reaction i mean i wasn't expecting anything from dana so if i was expecting something from him then i would be like oh i'm disappointed that he said this or that he did this that what he's saying is not true you know i'm not i don't just care

about what dana said but for the for reference it wasn't right it wasn't true there wasn't offering me any money that was close to what i have basically the freedom because we always i see like trying to drive this into money but nobody mentioned the the terms of the contract uh you know, the freedom that I had to do what I want, which was never an option. It is. So there's nothing at all comparable. But even if the freedom is aside, could you once and for all tell us like money for money, money versus money, what you've made outside now the two boxing fights and

the pfl fight is that more than what they were offering you no not even if not even the pfl one and let me and let me point this out he was only for the john. The other one wasn't the same. And the reason why they offered that, because after the Syringa fight, since the Stipe fight, they were proposing a new contract that I didn't sign. And after the Syringa fight, they called me for a meeting and they promised me that

they're going to make a they're going to back pay me they said they're going to back pay me right and then when they were making this offer which again is slower

to what other fight I have made or i'm going to make from there um and then i was like you talk about the back pay they say it's included then i'm like okay if the back pay is truly included that doesn't mean i'm not being paid in this fight yeah that's right that's right. That's right. Because it should be back paid on top. Yeah. I can't. I'm not a mathematician,

but I can do the one plus one. You know, like, at least like on September 10th, I can count. So to be clear, because you said no there,

I just want to be clear because I know some, the Jones, let's say it was the two Jones fight, the Tyson fight and the AJ fight compared to the two Jones fights, which one would you have made more for? You mean two Jones fight combined? Yeah, because they were offering you two Jones fights, right? Weren't they offering you like a Jones fight and then a potential rematch? So if you compare those two, not even the PFL one, to the two boxing matches that you had. Not even close.

Not even close. Yeah. Different stratosphere. I mean, there wasn't two Jones fights. I requested two Jones fights, match and rematch. I mean, they didn't really say anything about it. So we were just talking about that joint fight,

the one joint fight, which wasn't that point. Okay. By the way, what do you make of all the... And if this continues, if he wants, I can bring up all the numbers. I have all the numbers. Okay.

All the receipts. You want to bring them up now or? I have numbers. Now or later? No. Okay. Let's keep it again. You know, let's keep it.

I don't like to bring numbers up, but if I need to, I will. By the way, why do you think he takes this so personally? Why do you think he still is trying to make it seem like you made a mistake? Well, I think he's the better one to answer that question, but I'm not sure you're going to be able to answer him. Oh, come on, Francis. That's not very nice. That's not very nice.

Personally, I have no problem. And if I have a mistake, I have no problem making mistakes. Because I face my mistakes. I take a responsibility of my mistakes as a man. I have a problem making a mistake. And if I have made a mistake, I'm okay with it. So then if it was my

mistake, why can somebody move on from it since I have moved on? So then that gets me to question, who really did a mistake here? Because I'm good. From where I am, I'm good. This could end up like, okay, we couldn't come to an agreement.

Sorry for this and blah, blah, blah. And good luck. And we move on. And everybody moves on. Never had to come into a drama. Right? And then after over two years, you come to drama and drama. Like, come on,

man. I think I'm getting old for those shit. Um, and, and, and by the way, what do you make? I don't know if you follow it,

but like Jones, everyone wants him to fight Aspinall and now it's not happening. He's fighting steep and it's reminiscent of your situation where everyone wanted to see you guys fight and there's all kinds of stuff being made. Do you feel like this is like deja vu? Do you you do you feel like you're watching the same movie play out i think the same movie being played out so many times people sometimes don't just recognize the movie that they are watching who do you think wins what i will say please please who you doing uh jones and stipe but i wanted to hear what you were going to say there sorry Who do you think wins? What I was saying... Please, please. Who? Between who?

Jones and Stipe. But I wanted to hear what you were going to say there. Sorry. On the back end. No, I think... No, what I was going to say is like Jones can want to fight whomever he wants to fight. Then whatever happens is not his

responsibility right I think he's supposed to fight Stipe since last year and then he still wants to fight Stipe obviously the situation of Aspino is not great I also understand where he's coming from. But, I mean, can't blame anybody. That's fair. Who do you think wins that fight? You know Stipe well.

You fought him twice. You beat him last time or Jones. I haven't seen Stipe. Stipe haven't fight since what, three, three years and a half.

Since your fight. Since you knocked him out. Yeah. So, I don't really know like where he's at i don't know how he's gonna show up uh i know he's always show up good but it's been a while and uh he's not getting younger he's not getting any younger. So, I think it's slightly, all those questions slightly

make me shift slightly into John's side, even though at first I was like half-half. Okay. And so, as... But, Stipe is a guy that when he's very committed, when he shows up, he shows up in full. very committed when he show up he show up

in full so if he show up in full and he can really surprise you right so I wouldn't be surprised also

if he if he wins as far as heavyweight MMA is concerned who's the best heavyweight in the world in your opinion as far as MMA mhm who's the best heavyweight in the world in your opinion?

As far as MMA? Mm-hmm. Well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm the best. That's what I wanted to hear, by the way, just for the record. Yeah, just for the record. I'm the best. And for you, I know you're focused on Saturday. 2025, would you like to box? What are see what's open next. Again, one step at a time. As I said, this for me was like, I'm basically discovering myself now. I'm in the process of discovering myself and then therefore, I will make a plan.

Is that comfortable for you or is it a little uncomfortable? As you say you're discovering yourself as you're about to fight a giant of a man, rarely are you smaller, like shorter than your opponent. This guy's gigantic, six foot eight, I believe.

Is that a comfortable position for you to be in do you like this this feeling of discovering yourself or is it uncomfortable well i'm worried about it's not a it's not as high if it was just as high that wouldn't be a problem i think it's just cute. He's talented. I think that's what we should all be worried about. But as far as his height, I'm not worried about that at all. Is there an outcome or a finish in mind that you keep thinking about that you envision for Saturday? No, I think he moves a lot and he has a good grappling. I mean, he's a black belt. So unless the fight goes longer, if the fight goes past two two round I think uh it's likely gonna end up into like a decision otherwise if you stay into two round I think it's a knockout so yeah oh why not a submission

ah that would be crazy that would be crazy that's that's I'm not a crazy. I'm not a black belt, but I'm not bad too. Yeah. I have some, I've been working on some little tricks. That would be insane. And I don't doubt you. We never doubt you, Francis. We will never doubt you. And we appreciate you very much.

Thank you so much for being our first guest. Thank you for making the time. Much love to you. All the best. Can thank you for making the time um much love to you all the best can't wait for saturday can't wait to see you in action once again i really really appreciate it thank you ariel i appreciate you thank you also having me as a first guest yes sir you're the man au revoir francis and hopefully we could talk after the win on Saturday. There he is, the great Francis Nganou, le prédateur. And so, yes, he does return on Saturday, October 19th. And if you buy the pay-per-view, like I said, on DAZN, via DAZN, you get Helwani vision. First time we do this, something I've been dreaming about for about five years. If you've seen Manningcast, and look at that logo, that is something. Shout out to the whole team here at Yahoo, Amber, Grant, Girk, Shirley, they've all done a great job. I believe there's a TJ. I might've gone that wrong, but I'm trying my best here, guys, to give everyone a

shout out in some way, shape, or form. You've seen Manningcast, you'll watch the feed. This is in a watch party situation, and those are great. We do them here. But this is in partnership with everyone involved, DAZN, airing the show, airing the fight. Beginning of the main card, you buy the pay-per-view on DAZN, which is available worldwide, including here in the United States, 4 p.m. Eastern. You can watch the official broadcast. You can watch us from right here. And there's the face-off. There's Francis, and there's La Problema, Henan Fajeda, a mountain of a man. I'm glad to hear that there's no grudge.

There's no hard feelings between the two of them. And yes, Chael P. is going to join us. Tyron Woodley is going to join us. Megan Anderson is going to join us. Tim Welch is going to join us. Rob Gronkowski is going to join us. Jake Paul is going to join us. Tim Welch is going to join us. Rob Gronkowski is going to join us. Jake Paul's going to join us. Yes. And you could probably figure out who booked which guest, but it's an amazing card. It's an absolute banger of a card. A lot of people said,

I'm in for this one. You know, a lot of money is being asked of us to spend on these pay-per-views, but the main card is great. Francis versus Henan Fajeda is a tremendous fight, arguably for the lineal MMA world title. I love the AJ McKee-Paul Hughes fight. I love that one. I think we have the lineup, right? Do we have the lineup? I love the AJ McKee-Paul Hughes fight. An amazing matchup between two studs, the former Bellator champion going up against Paul Hughes, who signed with PFL slash Bellator mid last year and made his debut in June. Chris Cyborg is returning finally to fight Larissa Pacheco in a female MMA super fight. And yes, they promoted Pacheco beating Kayla Harrison. So what? That happens.

I don't think anyone should really care, to be honest. It's not the biggest deal. And there it is. Johnny Ebelin against Fabian Edwards is the other big one. Johnny Ebelin versus Fabian Edwards. Obviously, Ebelin, one of the best middleweights in the world. And they had a fight back in the day. And I can't wait.

I can't wait to see them in action. I can't wait to do this. It's going to be fun. It's going to be different. It's going to be a grand old time. So again, you buy the pay-per-view, four o'clock Eastern, one Pacific, DAZN only, DAZN pay-per-view available worldwide. You get the pay-per-view, you get Helwani Vision.

You could go back and forth if you want. And we'll be doing it from here. We'll have guests. You'll have the feed in the middle. You'll have the guests on the side, myself, the boys are going to join me. And I can't wait to get into it. Chael P. Megan, who fought Chris. Tyron Woodley, who helped train AJ McKee back in the day. It's great stuff. Great, great stuff. All right. So trying to put this show together, trying to put our first episode together, I wanted people who are obviously big names. I wanted people who have been in the news as of late. I wanted people who we haven't had a chance to talk to since things have happened in their lives. I wanted reliable people. I wanted friends of the program. I wanted people who have been featured on this show over the years who have been good to us and hopefully they feel we have been good to them as well. And so it wasn't that

hard when, you know, you've been out of the game for three months. There's a mountain of things that have happened. There's a ton of news. And one of the big stories happened around a month or so ago when we found out finally that Michael Chandler is in fact returning. It's going to be almost exactly two years since his last fight. And fortunately for him, it is not against Conor McGregor. And this has been quite the saga, which we have talked to him about on numerous occasions. It is going to be a rematch against Charles Oliveira, and it's going to be back at Madison Square Garden here in New York City, the site of his last fight two years ago. And so much to discuss with the former Bellator champion,

with the former contender, and perhaps a soon-to-be lightweight contender in the UFC. Let us say hello now to Iron Mike Chandler, who's kind enough to join us. There he is. What's up, Ariel? How are you, sir? Welcome to the new program. It's great to see you, my friend. You as well, man. Congrats. It looks good. So I'm excited to be here on your first episode.

Let's do this thing. I appreciate it. Okay, so like I said, I laid it out. A lot has happened since we last spoke. And this is the big question that I wanted to ask off the bat. When I say unfortunately, I said, unfortunately, it's not against Connor. We talked about it. We know you wanted it.

Is that a sentiment that you share? Is it unfortunate? Do you feel that way when talking about how this all played out man uh yeah i mean you can use the word unfortunate obviously man but when you've been in the game as long as i have i've had numerous opponents uh get injured pull out of fights uh get sick whatever whatever it may be so um you got to deal with the uncertainty obviously this one had a lot of uncertainty uh surrounding it since day one since the ultimate fighter back in january of 2023 or whatever that

was um you know and uh people said it was never going to happen obviously we had a contract signed june 29th was the date i am a man of my word and i was ready to go but it fell through so i would say uh yeah it was unfortunate but the next best uh option would be to fight charles olivera in a number one contender fight at madison square garden the world's most iconic arena with john jones and stipe uh claiming to be uh or crowning the baddest man on the planet so it's worked out well and i'm excited to go out there and work in five weeks. What was the tipping point for you? Because so many things happened where everyone was like,

okay, man, it's time to move on. And then you finally moved on. For you, what was the point where you said, all right, I'm done, I'm moving on? It was about a month or so later. I mean, I think when the fight got canceled, I went home, licked my wounds, spent some time with the family.

I was 10 weeks through a 12-week training camp at that time. So just needed to get home and recalibrate. And I was in constant contact with the UFC. They've been phenomenal throughout this entire process. My wife and I had a lot of conversations. I sought wise counsel with the greatest people around me. And, you know, we came up with a decision once it looked like, you know, when you talk about a broken pinky toe, it looked like it could have been, uh, August, September, October. Um, but it just wasn't in the cards. So as soon

as I knew that wasn't in the cards and if it spills into 2025, it's time for me to go work. It's time for me to go, um, take on another challenge. And Charles Oliveira is that challenge. And, uh, we get to, we get to go chase that belt. And so how does it work? Does it work? Like you say to the UFC, okay, I'm ready to move on. Or did they present you something which helped you move on? UFC has always been, UFC has always been adamant. Hey, listen, we think this fight's happening even before it got, uh, you know, signed, just take a little bit more patience. And then once the fight did get booked and then it got canceled, I was in constant contact with Hunter Campbell and Dana.

And they said, hey, this is an option. Charles needs a fight. You guys have some history. This fight makes a lot of sense. This is a fight that we can give you if you want it. And I mulled it over for a couple weeks, looked at it. I needed to also think about my weight. I was preparing for a 170 pound bout for about a year and a half. And then all

of a sudden, you know, they talked about Utah. I wasn't going to be able to make it that quick, or I at least needed to experiment with my body and try to get down into the 80s to even be thinking about getting down to 155 by October. And then we settled on November 16th. But the UFC said, hey, Oliveira's ready to fight. If you want to fight, let us know. And they said, are you sure you want to do this? And I said, yes.

I bet on myself my entire life. I bet on myself walking on to the University of Missouri. I bet on myself leaving the relative security of Bellator and coming over to the UFC, knowing darn well that I could crash and burn here, and this would not turn out well for me. I'm going to go bet on myself again. I'm betting on myself to go beat out Charles Oliveira for the counter fight to still be there. If it is, it isn't. Or if it is or if it isn't, I'm fine because I beat Charles Oliveira. I fight Islam or Armin in 2025. Has that been promised to you? Is that in stone? You win this fight. You're number one. It's a number one contender fight. That's what Dana announced. Dana announced

it whenever he got on his social media and said, hey, this fight is happening November 16th in a five round co-main event, number one contender fight. So that is from the boss's mouth to your ears. So he said it's a number one contender fight. Charles Oliveira is the highest ranked guy in the division, not named Armin Sarukian or Islam Mahachev. So, um, I beat him. I'm the number one contender. How'd you feel about five rounds? I love it. I think, uh, you know, the last fight, obviously we didn't need five rounds. Um, I started off a little bit too hot as I, uh, tend to do. Um, but it's a five round co-main event on a huge card and it's a number one title fight or a number one contender implication. So if I got to work for five rounds, I'll work for five rounds and I got a sneaky suspicion it's not going to take me that long, hopefully this time.

And by the way, you mentioned the weight. Just curious, like when you agreed to this, how much did you weigh and how difficult has it been to transform your body back to a lightweight? I was, I was about one 90 and, uh, yeah. And that's not, it's not atypical for me. I do get up to about one 90, depending on where I'm at in my training cycles. Um, but at that point, obviously I was, I was trying to keep weight on during that one 70 camp for Connor, um, which was great and it was fun and it was nice actually. Um, but then as soon as I went home, hung out for, uh, you know, took a week off to let my body heal up a little bit and started training again. I needed to get the cardio in, start dieting and, uh, get back down into the low eighties and then hopefully into the seventies

a couple of weeks later. So we're at, we're right on track. My body has bounced back. My body knows how to make one 55. I've done it without fail 32 times in my career now. And I've never missed weight, never pulled out of a fight. So we're going to keep that going. Connor has obviously been very, very present over the last few weeks. And he does continue to say that, you know, he wants this fight, that he wants to figure it out. He wants to settle it. That doesn't necessarily mesh with what you just said there. Number one contender, then title fight if all goes well. And so how does he factor into your plans when you hear him say that? No, I mean, I think all I think about is the number one goal, which is the one fight that I have in front of me. Obviously, if we get done with this fight, you're going to have

Islam and Armin. I don't know what that date is, but it sounds like it's going to be January. They're going to need a couple months to heal up. Then you got Ramadan and all that stuff. So who knows what happens? The whole world knows, you know, and Conor knows, I want to fight Conor McGregor. We have to finish the Ultimate Fighter 31 or else it was all for naught. We have beef. We have a history. He needs to remove the stain of the MMA communities in their mind of him pulling out of this fight with a broken pinky toe. It needs to be Chandler versus McGregor. His road back to the UFC goes through Nashville, Tennessee. So that is a fight that I want.

All I'm saying is I'm more focused right now on the more immediate goal, which is beating Charles Oliveira. And then all of a sudden you've got Chandler versus McGregor becoming a number one contender fight. And then the whole world goes bananas. So we'll see what happens there. He did say on Saturday that he's returning February 1st against Dan Hooker. Now, I dug around a little bit, and I was told there's nothing yet on the table. Perhaps that's what he wants. It was a very quick clip.

I don't know if you saw it, but it just felt like he was throwing it out there. What's your reaction to him saying that? Yeah, Conor's a very flavor of the week kind of guy. You know, he just had a conversation with Dan Hooker. Everybody knows Dan Hooker's an awesome dude. You can sit there and have a beer with him at a Forged Iris Stout in the middle of a squared ring and be like, hey man, I like you, you like me.

We can make some magic, let's fight each other. So I look no further than that, honestly. Dan Hooker's in the top five now. And if anything, it just, it strengthens my case that I deserve to is in the top five now yeah and if anything it just it strengthens my case uh that i deserve to be in that top five top six anyway because i have a win over him in my debut so um i'm happy for uh dan hooker i don't think the the ufc is going to be very keen on uh mcgregor versus hooker compared to mcgregor versus chandler since we need to make this fight happen so i'm not really that worried about. It's been up in the air for the better part of two years.

So I'm not going to spend any time or energy or effort worrying about it. The good thing is I have a great job to do in front of me, and that's November 16th at Charles Oliveira. I do wonder, though, how you feel about this. A lot of people continue to say they don't think he ever fights again. I'm not one of those people. I do think he fights again, but it's out there. Do you subscribe to that?

I believe Conor McGregor fights again. I believe the way it's all happened, the campaign he put on calling it the greatest comeback in combat sports history, the ultimate fighter signing a contract to fight me and then pulling out of a fight. I mean, if you really think about Conor McGregor's legacy, the guy who was known for having opponents pull out of fights and then him saying, I don't care.

Dana, figure out who I'm fighting. I'm going to go train. You let me know when I get done training. That has been his legacy. So to let his career end a couple of years ago, really, when he broke his leg, and then to do a training camp, do all the promotion and do everything for Tough 31, to have a contract signed against me, to then pull out with a broken pinky toe. The broken pinky toe becomes the last thing that you did inside of your legacy. So I don't think Conor wants that. I got a ton of respect for what Conor has done and what he has built.

And yes, if you look at the way he lives his life, it doesn't look like he is thinking about training and fighting and putting in a 12-week training camp like the rest of us savages. But I do believe he's a romantic about the sport. I do believe he's coming back. And when he does come back, I do believe he fights me. Last thing on Conor, if the timing doesn't work out and his return isn't against you, how will you react to that? This sport moves fast, man. This sport is, it's the most beautiful sport in the world. You have covered it now for decades. You love it. And you love it because of the parody.

You love it because of the stories. You love it because of the ups and the downs and the craziness that happens. This is the sport that I chose. And I've been very adamant and very vocal. I chose this as well. All right. I'm not mad at Connor. I'm not mad at the UFC. I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad at the UFC. I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad at the media. I'm not mad at anybody who has naysayed me or questioned my, um, my decisions over the last year and a half. I am taking this squarely on my chest.

I am the man who chose to wait that long and then sign the contract and then him pull out. So it's unfortunate. Like you said, you can use the word unfortunate if the fight never happens. Um, but I was told that the fight is that he's coming back in 2025. And, uh, I got the first bite at that apple. So we'll see,

we'll see what happens there. Two years since your last fight, same venue. It's crazy how life works. Any concerns about the opening round ring rust, all that stuff? No, not at all.

If anything, this was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me. Um, Aaron, you, you, you followed my career for a very long time. Um, you've seen how I operate. You see the attention to detail that I put in. You see how I pour my full self into these training camps and to go for the first 26 months of me signed with the organization with six training camps, five fights, every single fight, a banger, every single fight, a fight of the night, title fights, um, main events, co-main events.

Um, it took a toll on me and I didn't have a lot of time to do a lot of searching for who the best athlete that I need to be was. So having a year and a half kind of off and out of the octagon, doing some cool appearances, working on my other businesses, spending time with my family, it was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me. My body feels fresh. My body feels ready. My body feels energized because I was running on empty in those last couple training camps just because the constant grind and no time off. By the time I healed up from these fights, I was getting back into a new training camp.

So I don't want to sit here and sound soft or sound like I was making excuses, but the year and a half off was the best thing that could have happened for me. I also made some very, very big realizations and epiphanies about this sport as a whole, and I think it's all going to show November 16th. Like what? Could I ask?

I just think I've made this sport harder than it needed to be um i think i don't want to let the fans down and make them think that i'm going to go out there and fight any different it's going to be michael chandler put on the gas non-stop pressure non-stop on the edge of your seat action but there's ways that i can fight there's things that i can do there's how there's there's game plans that i can implement as a veteran of the sport to not just make the sport easier, but to increase the likelihood of me not just winning, but winning in dominant fashion. So that's how I've been training over the last year and a half. That's how I've been visualizing. That's how I was going to fight against Conor.

And now Charles Oliveira gets to be the guy who takes the brunt of that. And I'm excited to become their more contender. Okay, so that's really interesting because I think most people will interpret that as like, oh, the Rock'em Sock'em firefight Chandler that we saw in the last couple of years now in the UFC is going to go back to like the Missouri wrestler Chandler that maybe we saw more in the Bellator days.

Are you implying that? Because let's be honest, there haven't been a lot of takedowns or at least attempts out of you and you've delivered every time, kill or be killed, but some have questioned whether or not that's good

for your health and longevity. Are you going back to old school, Michael Chandler, more? Yeah, I think even in Bellator when I was getting a few takedowns, I was never in a boring fight. If I ever did get a takedown, I got the finish

for a extremely dominant, unanimous decision, 10-8 takedown, I got the finish for a extremely dominant, unanimous decision, 10-8 rounds. No, I just think we as human beings, we can operate in a certain way that actually stifles and stymies our gifts that we have. I think I have got some great gifts that I've been blessed with. I've worked extremely hard to hone in those skills and hone in those gifts. I've got a phenomenal team of training partners and a phenomenal staff of coaches around me. And I've got a crazy calling on my life. And the calling on my life is not just to be a guy who was inside the top 10

for a couple of years inside the UFC. Who's got some great fights in the nights, fights of the years and some highlights. My destiny is to be UFC champion. So it's not going to be boring. I can tell you that much. All it is is explosiveness and fast when Michael Chandler steps inside the octagon. So don't get that twisted.

But I can make the sport a little bit easier and still be extremely dominant. There's a beautiful story to be told here. You were literally that close to beating him the first time in the first round. And that was for the belt in your second UFC fight. How long did it take for you to get over that? Because we know it was heartbreaking

to see you in the aftermath. We know how much that meant to you, winning the title and being champion. And now you get a chance to right the wrong. I know the belt isn't on the line, but hopefully you get to punch that ticket if all goes well. Going back two plus years,

how long did it take for you to get over being that close? Yeah, I mean, the great thing is the belt is on the line again. You know, the belt is not on the line that night, but fighting for the belt is on the line November 16th. And I get to step into the octagon a completely different man than I was my second fight in the UFC. I'll never forget. I mean, I got done knocking out Dan Hooker, coming back from Abu Dhabi went on a vacation and while I was on vacation for about two weeks after that fight I got the call from Hunter that Khabib was retiring he's really not coming back you and Charles are fighting for the the lightweight title in Houston

Texas I got that call like 14 days after my debut right so and I and I had just come off of my training camp with Benson Henderson in August then went right back into another training camp to be the backup in October, to then go into another training camp to fight Dan Hooker, to knock out Dan Hooker in January, to then go into another training camp to fight Oliveira in May. I told Hunter Campbell in our first meeting, I'm not here to tiptoe around the top 20. I don't need any tune-up fights. Either I am who I say I am or I'm not. And they gave me that opportunity because I went back to back to back to back. So who I was fighting in Houston, Texas at UFC 262, I think it was, I just wasn't ready. I thought I could just go out there and break Charles Oliveira, um, fast. And I was that close. I mean, you can go back and watch the highlight. Uh, the referee was milliseconds away from sticking his arm in there, step stepping in between us because Charles

Oliveira was in a bad way. So he felt the power. He knows what happens when I hit him. And, uh, this time I'm going to finish the job. I'm assuming you watched his fight against Armin. And if so, I did. I was I was cage side. So I saw yeah, the UFC was gracious enough to give me cage side right in the middle best tickets I've ever gotten because they were like, hey, this guy was supposed to be fighting this night. This sucks for him. Let's put him front and center. So I got to see that fight the best I've seen in a UFC fight. Okay, so what was your takeaway from that? Were you expecting that, or were you surprised? Why did it not go his way against Armin? I just think Charles didn't do enough. You know, Armin did a good job of circling around, utilizing his feints, doing a great job of threatening the takedown when they were on the

feet to then land the left hook and touching the legs. And then when he did get the takedowns, Charles just couldn't do much. Either Charles was just being a little bit conceding to the position, a little bit lazy down there, or Armin is that strong and that controlling on top. But I think Armin just put together a perfect game plan to beat Charles Oliveira. Keep your hands up. Don't get hit by him. Don't get taken down by him. Put him up against the cage. Pick him up. Put him down.

And beat him up until the ref pulls you off of him. Obviously, that was a decision. In that first round, though, that guillotine was very tight. So I think Armand just had a great game plan. And Armand was the better guy that night. And I think this is the perfect time to fight Charles coming off of a loss. He becomes a little bit streaky in these times when he takes losses, and it's a perfect time to fight him. By the way, Armin and Islam, I've heard the same, January, perhaps in L.A.

Who do you fancy in that one? I fancy Islam. Like you said, I don't know. I've heard that fight is January. It's good timing. Um, you know, I'll get through the, uh, the holidays and I'll be sitting there cage side seeing who my next opponent is. I think Islam, I think Islam is just, he has evolved a lot over the last couple of fights. Um, he's, he's, he's going to get the takedown. Um, if he does get the takedown, I think he can get the submission. And obviously he showed against Poirier that he's, he's something to be reckoned with on the feet these days.

So, um, I think, I think Islam gets the job done and I don't think it's that close. Um, I'm not necessarily saying he dominates Armin, but I do think, I do think he,

he takes this one, uh, pretty handily. Cause you know, they fought once before and it was a short notice fight for Armin and it was, it was pretty close. Yeah. But Islam's come a long way. Yeah. He, I think Islam has come a long way Cause you know, they fought once before and it was a short notice fight for Armin and it was, it was pretty close. Yeah.

But Islam's come a long way. Yeah. I think Islam has come a long way. You know, I was one of, I was one of Islam's biggest, uh, uh, retractors,

if you will. You know, I, he, he kind of came in, he called me out and was calling a bunch of guys out and that's what you got to do in the UFC. Once you get there,

um, to start calling your shots. Um, and you know, he got a title fight off of what beat number 12 or number 15 or something like that. So obviously I, I. And, you know, he got a title fight off of what, beating number 12 or number 15 or something like that. So obviously I wasn't, you know, expecting him to win the title, but then he did.

He proved everybody wrong and he has done nothing but improve over the last couple of fights. So I don't think it'll be as close as the last one was. Why is Armin always talking smack to you on Twitter? What's going on over there? And is there a part of you that's hoping he wins so that you can settle this with him? No, because I'd rather fight Islam. I really would rather fight Islam.

I mean, if Armin becomes the champion and Armin wins that title, then I'm completely okay with it. You know, what's funny about this tweet that you say, you know, there's been numerous tweets have been thrown out. And it's so funny that it's it's easy that these fighters can stand on their Twitter soapbox and say what they would have done in my position when ninety nine percent of them, if not all of wait, you know, a full year for this fight, for this Islam fight to materialize, then that would be, then he he'll do it. And I'm like, well, that's 17 months out of the cage. That's the exact, the exact amount of time I spent out. And you can make the case, okay, that's a title fight compared to, um, fighting Connor. But either way, you said you wouldn't wait that long for a fight and and you will. So it's no big deal, man. I wish him the best. I think Islam smokes him. And I'm sure Armin and I will share the octagon at some point, but it will not be after this fight because I do think Islam fights him.

Okay, fair enough. By the way, are you in Florida right now? Yeah, are you in Florida right now? I am, yes. Killcliffe? Killcliffe, yeah. We just found out on Saturday, I believe a teammate of yours, Shavkat Rachmanov, fighting for the belt. How do you think he does in his first title fight in December?

Shavkat is an absolute animal. So, yeah, that was great to see that fight materialize. I mean, obviously, I've heard the rumblings that that might have been happening. You know, because obviously I've been looking at these dates for the last couple of months since this fight got canceled. It all becomes, Hey, you're, you want to fight Connor, but what actual date are you going to fight Connor? December was one of those things. But, um, so I heard this fight was going to be happening, but Shavcott is good, man. Shavcott is, he's, he's an absolute stud. He's a nice guy, but a savage whenever, whenever you're watching him spar, whenever you're watching him grapple,

whenever you're watching him in the exchanges in the gym. So he's a great asset, but a savage whenever you're watching him spar, whenever you're watching him grapple, whenever you're watching him in the exchanges in the gym. So he's a great asset to the team down here. And I'll probably be watching that one as well. I want to enjoy going to all these fights coming up because there's a lot of big fights coming up. Yeah, he's unbelievable. Obviously, when you fight for the belt for the first time, things can change. But I think there's a lot of people picking him. I don't know what the odds are right now,

but he could be the kryptonite for Bilal, who's looked incredible, I think, on being in his last 10, 11 in a row. Do you ever get to spar with him? Or when you were preparing for 170, are you ever in there with him? No, I did not. I had my sparring partners, and I keep them all the same ones. The older you get, the more you realize it's not about going with all the different bodies. It's about going with the right guys, the right bodies that are going to make sure you get to the octagon safe and not injured on fight night.

So I did not get the chance to spar or do any kind of training with him, actually. I just watched him and grew a relationship with him, and he's a cool dude. Okay. Before I let you go what else do we got you you've got you you always got your hand in all these different businesses tell us what we got are we doing the promotional speaking yet are we doing the motivational stuff yeah what are we doing there are we still doing the the sandwiches are we so what do we have what do i feel like you've always got a million things we got a lot of stuff going

on man uh yeah i did a lot of speaking over the last year and a half, obviously, being outside the Octagon, just spreading my message and the similarities between the fights that we go through inside the Octagon and the fights that everybody's going through in life. Cram Nutrition, our PB&Js are crushing it. Hiatus Tequila is crushing it. I got a huge announcement coming up with my Walk-On fitness app um that won't be able to be announced for at least another month or so um but there's a huge huge fitness community that we are building there we got version two coming out and a huge partnership that's gonna uh absolutely blow it

up so we're excited about that i just always liked i've always just liked to be more than a fighter i always wanted to change the view and the vision of what a fighter is. And I'm trying to do that to the best of my ability and spend time with my family and make a lot of money, help a lot of people and have a lot of fun. That's the goal. I think you have done all of that and then some. Mike, you're the man. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Looking forward to your return here in New York City in about a month's time from now, a little over a month. Well done to you. And thank you, as always, for coming on and giving us some time. Really, really appreciate it. Of course. I'm honored to be on the first episode, man. Congrats on everything you have done, continuing to be steadfast and immovable and never be denied. You are the man, Eric. Appreciate it. Thank you, Michael. There he is, the great Michael Chandler returning on November 16th. Really appreciate those words. Very, very kind of him. And that is some card. We are a little over a month away from UFC 309. Of course, we have 308 coming up in less than two weeks.

And we'll be doing a watch party for that. So stay tuned. The boys are going to be holding it down. But Jon Jones versus Stipe Miocic is, of course, the main event. Let us knock on wood that that finally comes to fruition. And of course it has been announced that our last guest on today's program, Tommy Aspinall is going to be the backup fighter. So we'll see how he feels about that. Charles Overe versus Michael Chandler,

five round number one contender fight as he put it. Viviani Araujo against Karine Silva. Bo Nickel against Paul Craig is a very fun fight at middleweight. Also fun. one contender fight as he put it uh viviani araujo against karine silva beau nichol against paul craig is a very fun fight at middleweight also fun eric anders versus chris weidman still kicking it i like it yeah nikita krillov against azamat morzakanov and jonathan martinez is on there mickey gall is back and veron Veronica Hardy, friend of the program, who essentially calls New York her second home these days. And what about the Welsh gangster?

He sent me a message. I think he said almost 40 years since Hulkamania was born in Madison Square Garden. What did he refer to it as? Like, Welsh gangster mania will run wild against Basil Hafez on November 16th. That's the night after Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson, which Frank has told me he's still quite nervous about because you're afraid that it's going to be bad news for Jake, right? Not at all. Jake's going to deliver 1,000%.

You pumped about that? He's already dead. Yes. Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano. Some are calling it the people's main event. It's certainly the people's main event. Okay, fair enough. I'll be working that card

for Netflix. I'm very excited about that. You can hear Frank's enthusiasm for Amanda Serrano there. His favorite fighter, he's like, yeah, it's going to be good. His two favorite fighters. It's an MVP night. And he's just like, yeah. It's a dream. Do it, do it, do it.

By the way, when you press it, you can't take it back unless it didn't work. What happened? I'm not sure. I fat fingered it. Okay, no problem. I mean, apropos uh commiserations of course to tetsuro taira who uh what a fight that was failed to prevail it was a great fight it's just not trying to be uh what tell us well to go from that scene in riyadh to that is just such a bummer like what is it what is that what does that equal to? Going from the pageantry of all that in Riyadh to the Apex.

Yeah, Missy Elliott to the ESPN Plus employee sitting in the crowd. To the silence of somebody. To literally the employee. Sorry, man. We're doing Apex 100. Then who knows when we're going to be back there. I mean, you got to get a poster for that. Yeah.

I mean, I'm not just talking about A printed out one signed by I was going to say Do you think I could apply for a Credential? You have to go November 9th? Yeah there it is

Arguably November 9th heading into November 15th Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, Serrano Taylor 2 and then 16 fair to say you're probably more excited about November 9th yeah I that was never in question UFC Apex 100 if you don't go will you do a watch party for it I almost feel like the watch party needs to be like in your kitchen. Like it has to be apropos. It just needs to be my, my like me zooming in on a phone,

no microphone walking around, like how I would watch an apex card. Maybe I like go to a bar and I mount it up on like a drink and I, and I watch it like that for a minute. I think that's a, that's a good idea. By the way, a lot of people have been asking me this.

Um, I don't know if we can talk about it, but a lot of people have enjoyed, uh, fight feasts. They back they're back first one back 308 yeah um are we you know in in the theme of of everything going on are we upping the stakes are we upping the production value are there new trinkets hopefully i don't know about trinkets but we're yeah we're trying to levels and whistles. We might be going from vertical to horizontal.

Ooh, that's big. I mean, that's about as big as it gets. Okay. I mean, I would say that's a leveling up, just turning the camera. Speaking of which, we were framing up Michael Chandler, right? Yeah. And we were like, hey, can you turn your phone sideways? And he was like, do you want north and south or east and west?

I'm like, man, this guy's a pro. I was expecting maybe like hamburger style or hot dog style, but east and west versus north and south. I'm here for it.

I wouldn't even know what's the answer to that. We go east and west. What does east and west even mean? Left and right. Wow. Horizontal. Like what is it?

What the fuck is going on, up? North is up. South is down. I don't know if you do. Where are your flashcards? Hamburger hot dog is a great one. Is that a technical term? Is that like 10-4? That's what I was taught. I haven't heard that in forever. Is that a real term? It's like an elementary school term.

Fold the paper, hamburger style. At least it was in Texas. I don't know. No. I don't know anything about that but i love the way everyone looks in the squares i was just admiring all that uh those are rectangles yeah that's right uh we even have like the war hat here we've got derrick lewis there we've got all kinds of things and and there's actually a whole other side here um casey o'neill and whatnot we we've got to show it off. We've got to show it off properly. But again, as I was, and still to come is Tom Aspinall, and of course, the first ever member of the Parlay

Palace to ever win a UFC belt, Juliana Pena. She'll be joining us as well. But I was going through the list. I was going through the possibilities. I was going through the things that we haven't had a chance to weigh in on and talk about and have a proper show on. And obviously Noche UFC was a big deal. And obviously it was a difficult and disappointing night for our guy, Sugar Sean O'Malley, a joyous night for Murab Diwali Shvili. But Sean has always been great to us and always been accessible and gracious with his time. And so I know he did his podcast afterwards,

but the show with Tim Welch will be joining us on Helwani Vision on Saturday for the Battle of the Giants pay-per-view. But wanted to have a conversation with Sugar Sean O'Malley following the event, see where he's at, see how he's feeling following surgery as well. And he is kind enough to be joining us. And so there he is, the Sugar Show in the house. It is good to see you, my

friend. How are you? And thank you for doing this on our very first episode, Sean. I appreciate it, Ariel. It's good to chat with you. It's been a while. Yes, it has. You're looking great. Are you feeling good? Could you tell us first and foremost, after surgery, how are you feeling good could you tell us first and foremost after surgery how are you feeling how's the body feeling how did it go god i feel so good i literally that's where i'm driving back from is i just had a my uh checkup my it was like 11 day two week checkup whatever and uh i feel so good and they're like just slow down just make sure you slow down just because you feel good you got to make sure everything stays stays where it needs to stay so that's kind of been the been the hardest thing is just kind of doing less doing okay and so what was it it was hip surgery i had a torn labrum 10 weeks before the fight i fucking snapped my labrum and it you know it's

just it is what it is it's you know called an excuse but what is the truth and excuse i guess it is whatever but yeah it was unfortunate did you consider pulling out no why not ufc no jay fucking it's rob sucks like there was no reason to pull out do you regret not pulling out no because i'm gonna whoop rob's ass it's gonna make it that much sweeter when i beat him the second time okay but. But so like, I remember the Aljo fight, right? And you talked about in the aftermath, how big of a nightmare that training camp was and fight week was and whatnot. Was it the same this time around? Like, did it preclude you from, from rolling, from boxing, from kicking? How limited were you in the preparation for this i'm not i'm not overall i had a good camp way better camp than the aljo camp the rib injury was was a lot harder to train with than the torn labrum

the labrum is just it's just pain it's not gonna i mean the ribs pain too but it's a different it's a different pain i was able to do a lot more I was not able to wrestle as much as I would have like um you know there was I know I can wrestle better than that I've been training with really really good guys for a long time and I know I can do better that's what was so frustrating it's just it wasn't Marab's good you know he's not great Marab's good and that's what's frustrating is I just you know it is what it is I'm gonna get it back though ariel and it's gonna feel that much better this this next time does it like in the aftermath it's been almost a month does it eat you up inside you feel like you're that much better than him you say he's good not great to not be at your best to lose to him has it been has it been festering in you has it been bothering you you a lot? Um, this far removed, I'm, I feel like I'm somewhat over it.

It still bothers me a little bit. So the first two weeks after, oh, it drove me crazy. Like, especially cause the narrative was, I just got my ass whooped and I went and I didn't even want to rewatch the fight because everyone was saying, oh, you got fucking smoked. You look like shit. I was like, God, I don't even want to watch the fight. And I, I know I would learn a lot from it.

I still need to rewatch it a few times, but I rewatched the fight and my bias. And we'll say my unbiased humble opinion. I mean, the judges gave me around three and five. That means he won two and four, which I'm not arguing. He for sure won around two and four. I don't understand how you give me around three, but not around one. I thought round one was more of my rounds than round three. Even I thought I won round one, three and five, let alone didn't get my ass kick round two and four. He definitely won.

But, uh, you know, I rewatched the fight and, uh, there was, I stuffed nine out of 15 takedowns, 60% of the takedowns.

I stuffed more than Henry Cejudo silver medalist in the Olympics. So, um, I'm still a better wrestler than Henry. You know, it was, I stuffed two more takedowns in that fight. I win that fight. I had him running around holding his guts in, uh, in the fifth round, uh, the cardio machine, I won the third and the fifth round. So three out of the last or two out of the last three rounds I won. Um, so that, that was, that was frustrating. The the narrative around it i mean

the thing is about this stuff is each week something else happens and you get brushed under the rug so you know i wouldn't i talked a lot of shit going into that fight so i wasn't you know i'm not surprised that i'm gonna have a lot of hate on the internet that's just how it works so i'd say this far removed still bugs me a little bit because i know i'm better than that i know i'm better than him. And that's what bugs me. But that's also what's going to drive me to beat him next. By the way, I don't mean to be a stickler, but I think Henry won a gold in the Olympics.

That's your opinion. So right now you think you won, right? This is not you trolling or anything like you think you you deserve the nod is that fair i thought round if you judge it per round damage per round i thought one three and five i did more damage in those rounds um i've never felt so good after i'm like, dude, how, how did I lose this fight? I fucking, I can go, I can do anything I want right now. I feel fine. Like how it's just, it sucks that this guy's the champ is just so ugly. I'm like, how, how is this guy the champ?

It's just, that's what drives me crazy. Damage per round one, three and five. I won. That's, I mean, that is what it is. By the the way how was the whole experience i mean i know now in the aftermath it's a it's a it's a bad memory but just like everything noche the walkout you're a showman they really upped it for your entrance in particular i felt like it was the cherry on top of a great production are you able to look back with fondness were you able to even enjoy it or were you so locked in that you couldn't even enjoy any of it? The first time I even saw this inside the sphere was the fight. Right when I walked out.

The first time I kind of got to experience it. I thought it was cool. Overall, it was a cool experience. I like the arena vibe more. Like a T-Mobile or Miami, to where it's like full 360. I feel like it was a weird energy there. It was just different.

A different energy than fighting in an Abu Dhabi or Miami or Boston or even T-Mobile. It was a different energy. I'd prefer the other energy than the spear. But i as a fan i don't know i didn't get to sit and watch the spear play out so it's hard for me to talk from that perspective but from an actual me fighting i'd rather fight in an arena like that okay wow so so next time out just give you the the the regular nba nhl type arena give me miami that's what i want next that's your spot all right are they going to miami i'm assuming they i don't know i'm just trying to put this out there into the universe man i think don't they go to miami every year yeah these days it's it's huge business for them

yeah and so when would be ideal for you what are your doctors saying like realistically when could you fight again i'm saying march or april i i think wow miami yeah. I think I'm doing everything I can do to get back in there. My mindset, my ambition, my drive, everything is at an all-time high. I want to get back in the gym. I want to get back to work. I want to get back on the bat. I want to get back to, you know, I want to make that walk again, and I want Murab next.

I know I'm better than him. I need to right that wrong. I think Miami would just be sweet. You know, that's where I got to prove to everyone. that walk again and i want marab next i know i'm better than him i need to write that wrong i i think miami would just be sweet you know that's where i got approved to everyone everyone for three and a half years i kept saying i'm better than cheeto i'm better than cheeto that was bullshit and miami this year i got approved that so you know i would like to go back to miami and prove that one again rematch marab that's what i want if you fight in march or april that means you're probably starting your training camp like end of january early february that's not that far

away that is that doable like medically is like will you be cleared by then to start going full i mean i think all when you get surgery like they give you they're you, they're very cautious. They're very on the caution side of things. And they're kind of on a, they're probably talking about average humans that do average stuff. I live, I'm living my life to recover from this surgery. I'm doing everything I possibly can for my labrum to heal. And a lot of that's, you know, right now staying off it. And I have my pemf machine i'm taking i have dan garner my nutritionist wrote me a meal plan all the supplements third party

tested of course all the supplements that i can be taking that's going to help increase uh this recovery time so i uh and a lot of it too it sounds like some woohoo shit but you lay down you do a nice little meditation visualize you visualize that labor healing and repairing. And, you know, I think the mind is very powerful when it comes to things like that. And if you can, you know, if that's going to help my recovery, I'm going to do it. So I've been doing that. So, yeah, I think March, April, May, whenever they go to miami i know that's what i want you say the marab fight the rematch with like conviction with confidence do you know something

that we don't know like is the ufc interested in this have they told you that they're interested in running it back right away i haven't heard anything from the ufc but it's like marab or why is this not being announced where's the where's why aren't they fighting in november why aren't they fighting in december i think january's wasn't january islam that's the word that's the word yeah that's the plan february i mean i don't know i'm just kind of i feel like i mean umar said he's not he's down to take a fight that's not that's not mar. If Marab wants to wait around, blah, blah, blah. So I'm here.

I'm ready to, well, not ready to go yet. I'll be ready. I'll be ready. Do you think Marab would be down with this if they offer him you as opposed to Umar? According to Instagram, he is down anytime, anywhere. So I think he would prefer me. I think he's actually terrified of umar if i'm being a if i'm being honest not trying to troll not trying to be goofy

i think rob's scared of umar and uh would rather fight me he would probably look at me as an easier fight um so yeah i think he would pick that if he could did you guys really dm afterwards he posted some stuff but you never know is that real uh i I did, yeah. I told him. I said, push that rematch. And then I called him out on Twitter for ducking him. I thought it was a little funny troll. Did you see any of the footage of him being celebrated back home? And if so, that was once your title, not that long ago. How does that sit with you?

I mean, he's doing his thing. He's living his life. He's experienced what he's experienced. I'm not living his life he's you know experienced what he's experienced i'm not you know gonna hate on it it it is what it is good for him um celebrate while you can because a few months from now that you know he's not gonna have that to celebrate he's gonna be he's not gonna be that guy anymore you alluded to people like okay you put yourself out there you talk smack and then people are going to hate on you on the internet do you feel everyone now piling on getting their licks in or are you sensing that and if so how do you handle that oh yeah i feel it i don't feel it i i see it i see it i

don't feel it uh i i'm i'm it is i understand how this works you know you go out there so you're gonna knock someone out and then you get fucking humped for 25 minutes uh you know it it yeah i it's the internet i get the internet it's uh yeah um i i saw you got community noted how did you feel about that um what's that oh on twitter yeah when you wrote undefeated and then like the people reported as not being accurate. I couldn't even believe it got to that point. Yeah, we're showing it right here. Readers added context they thought people might want to know. So that's...

Well, I mean, I don't think that's fair. What if I was referring to my boxing record of 1-0, Ariel? That's true. That's a good point. I am undefeated in boxing. What if I was referring to my boxing record of 1-0, Ariel? That's true. That's a good point. I am undefeated in boxing. Do you still want to do that? That's not on my mind. Rob's on my mind.

I want to get that one back. I'm going to get that one back. And then me versus Umar is going to be massive. Yeah, it would be massive. And so, I mean, obviously a lot of things. By the way way i can't help but notice top uh right i think you're up right eyebrow yeah oh is that a crown that's a that's a crown right oh that's old i know knocked out aljo august 19th remember second round knocked

him out about house's head off the canvas boom couple more times boom boom i got that it kind of looks like our uncrowned logo i feel like this is that you see our logo right there oh oh shit it does kind of yeah you're in honor i think i had this first though maybe you inspired us maybe no i was just you know are there any new ones there is is the other one new dreamer no new tattoos no no no new new tattoos dreamer who wrote that does that say dreamer yeah um i actually did that one and i had some it was in miami i don't remember exactly who did it but like who actually like is it meant to be in that type of writing is that like your handwriting and someone copied it or? My handwriting, you couldn't read that shit.

I write like a fucking four-year-old. I have such bad handwriting, it's embarrassing. Do you think you're done with the face tattoos or do you think you want more? I just kind of go with the flow, Ariel. If I decide tomorrow that I want a fucking dumb face tattoo, I probably will get it and that's just kind of how my life is i i respect it by the way uh you're wearing the w hat congrats on that deal i i don't think we spoke since that happened and uh jake paul made some waves because he showed up to your fight incognito did you know that that was going to happen i had no idea i seen him i seen the day, I think it was after WANs. I seen him after WANs

and he told me he wasn't going. I was like, I mean, I knew he was banned or whatever, so he told me he wasn't going. But yeah, I had no idea he was actually going to do that. That's crazy. When you saw it,

what did you think? I mean, it was an impressive outfit. Yeah, I thought he did a great job it's crazy that he went to those lengths just to support you i know i appreciate it and uh you know it turned didn't turn out to be a fucking great night i did it how how is that going w w w's crush can have you had any aerial they actually sent me some i i you know what i i will say um i really like the uh and i'm not being paid this is they just were kind enough to send me that perhaps it was you that sent it to me i don't know who uh perhaps yeah but thank you if it was you uh the

body wash is quite nice it has that like exfoliating those little balls i don't know what those things are i like the way it feels what is it not balls i think there's a little they're like little almost we'll call it like uh like yeah i don't know if balls is the right word but yeah no it is great that is great i appreciate it um what do you think about that mike tyson jake paul coming up ariel are you into are you gonna go i'll be there yeah i'll be there are you into it i don't i definitely don't hate it okay you know i don't know if i love it it's the only thing you know obviously i like jake jake we're buddies we're business partners it says mike tyson is you just don't want to see mike tyson get hurt but you i don't know it's a it's a tricky one i think

just the all-around you know uh invent will be really cool it'll be something special so i'm i'm excited to go are you going i'm actually uh working it for netflix i'm working the broadcast which is a huge honor i mean 200 yeah 270 270 million subscribers around the world and that's you know all the people who are just using it for themselves who knows who else is passing it around uh in a 60 000 or so seat stadium wow it's a pretty big deal that's massive yeah that's gonna be that's gonna be fun what was that november what 15th the uh the day before the msg card here in uh in new york so it's a huge weekend of heavyweight fighting and jake is uh adding the weight i don't know if you've seen him, but... Thick boy. Big guy. Yeah. Double C.

Double C. And Tim Welch is joining us on our alternate commentary. Did you hear about this? He did. He told me he was doing that. What is that? This weekend? Yeah, for the PFL pay-per-view. Ah, who's on that?

That's Francis. Francis. Oh, AJ McKee against Paul Hughes. Johnny review ah who's on that that's francis francis oh uh aj mckee against paul hughes uh johnny eblin against uh fabian edwards and chris cyborg finally returning against larissa pacheco damn johnny eblin was talking shit but i can't talk shit he fucked me up so i well he was talking shit about you yeah why he said i because when we were watching the fight me and tim and then my boys we were watching the fight, me and Tim and then my boys, we were watching the fight for the first time. And I was like, damn, I thought I won round one, three, and five.

And they agreed. And he said, that's what happens when you have a bunch of yes men around you. Oh, damn. Where did he write this? It was on Twitter. Someone showed me. I was like, man, I thought, and you can't even have your opinion anymore man yeah it was it was okay i mean i saw people not saying oh you're working through it the emotions

this and that you just put it out there though do you even read that stuff not a ton i uh i watched the fight i thought i genuinely thought i ran i won one, and five, and I expressed my opinion on the internet, and everyone else expressed theirs back. That's how it works. It's all good. Nothing to get worked up about. Yeah, nothing to get worked up. Life's great.

Life's good. The winter's about to hit in Phoenix. It's about to be beautiful out for the next however many months. I'm building a fucking 8,000-square-foot house on my property. Wow. Kim and Mariah are buying a house right next to me. And then I bought the land in between us. So we're about to be neighbors and have like an eight acre compound.

Holy shit. Life's good. Yeah. Is this the farm? Yeah. Wow. So you're building another property on the farm that you already live on? Yeah.

Damn. And is that a house? Yeah. i'm building a barn dominium have you ever seen those a barn dominium is that legit is that a real thing yeah yeah barn dominium they're beautiful is it for animals no it's a it's just it's like a barn style house it's uh it's still a house nostyle house. It's still a house. No animals will be in there, except for me, the dog. Yeah. And are there animals roaming? Like, are they?

We have chickens. Mariah and Tim have horses. We might get a dairy cow, some goats. We'll probably get maybe like a little uh like a mini horse some shit like that okay if you need if you need a goat you know i could come over you know you're more than welcome to come up pop down to arizona anytime i appreciate that can i can i just ask you um and we'll let you go in two minutes um you know jose aldo just fought two weeks ago, and he's kind of fighting these names that aren't really, you know, with all due respect, at his level. I know you have your sights set, but I would love to see Sean O'Malley-, Jose Aldo's a legend. Um, yeah, I mean, that's, that's definitely a possibility. I like having options. I definitely, I don't know if the Marab fight's going to happen. I'm kind of pushing for it, kind of putting that out into the universe, hoping that happens. But, you know, I mean, I'm here for big fights and I want, I want people to be entertained. I want people to have that feeling of you know big fights around the corner i for me ilia versus max right now is my is a fight that i just fucking can't wait for i'm so excited for

that fight it's a big fight feel and that's the type of fight i want to put on and give to the people and uh so yeah i mean that's that's a possibility okay and by the way can i just say i i was uh i was very happy to hear uh some very nice things said about you from conor mcgregor i feel like uh is perhaps are the fences being you guys were a good tandem a good a good duo and i heard him say some nice things about you i don't know if you saw this have you seen this uh yeah he said afterwards he was asked in some sort of live stream and he said he liked you and uh you know all that yeah you saw that are you guys good now because it got a little it got a little ugly there for a minute i'll always be one of the biggest connor fans he influenced my career

so much um i would love to uh i'd love to party with con someday, but we'll see if that ever happens. Who knows? Yeah, I don't know. I'd rather be friends with him than hate him. Yeah. I'd rather not be friends with him. So, you know, I've... Yeah, Conor's still the man,

even if I try to talk shit. You know, I still still a huge fan i remember you guys at texas stadium like where did you guys were in the in the suite together you were chilling you were having where did it all go wrong connor started randomly throwing shots at me i just out of nowhere just talking shit and i was like damn i can't i gotta retaliate so i started talking shit back but uh, it definitely started with him just kind of throwing shade. But, you know, who knows if that was, you know, a late night, some, you know, under the influence of something, I don't know.

Okay. But you, you're open to a reconciliation. 100%. Yeah. Okay. I'm glad to hear that. Um, this time next year, where are you at? Where, where's, where's Sean O'Malley at October of 2025? You know, possibly gearing up for Sugar vs. Umar. Might have already happened. Yeah, you know, belt on my shoulder.

Chilling. You're not going anywhere. No, i turned 30 here in a few weeks and i feel like i am yet to hit my prime i think uh you know i have a lot more to do a lot more to improve on and uh you know i'm excited for the next five six seven years i want to you know continue to give everything to this sport and i want to be active i want to be i want to be, you know, continue to give everything to this sport and I want to be active. I want to be, I want to be, uh, you know, I want to be active. I want to take advantage of these, these prime years. Love it.

Well, get well soon. Thanks for jumping on. Really appreciate it. Um, great fight, fought your heart out and, and hopefully we get to see it down the line sooner rather than later and, and, and you back, uh, with that belt. I, I wish that for you. So thank you thank you so much sean really appreciate you coming on our first episode wouldn't have been the same without you so really really appreciate it thank you hell yeah appreciate you guys have a good one fuck rob all right there he is sean o'malley

um great stuff there from sean and uh happy to hear that perhaps a reconciliation can be made. Maybe we have mended the fences. That was on, I'm not sure. You know, Connor does those like live streams. I think it might be for like a gambling app or something like that. But it would be nice. It would be nice to see them back in each other's good graces. I mean, in this era, we're trying, you know,

I know a lot of people were talking about the, you know, they were talking, they liked the Helwani, high road Helwani era coming to an end three years ago. We're trying to mend fences here. You know, we're trying to bring positivity and peace to the world. That's what we're trying to do. And I do think he speaks with confidence and conviction. I do think he speaks with great confidence

when he talks about that. So I feel like he knows something that we don't know. Let us see, let us see. And let's see how this whole situation plays out. The scene when Murab came back to Georgia was incredible. Really incredible. Good for him. Well done. And by the way, he did mention an individual who will be on our show tomorrow. Can I share some of the names? I mean, this is the thing now. We're going Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday now, guys, as far as the age shows concern.

Tomorrow. Can I? What? What do you mean, can you? It's up to you whether or not. I don't know what the protocol is now. Who's going to stop you from doing it? You're right. I am alpha, Frank. Thank you.

Thank you for that rampage. Yeah. Tomorrow on the program, a man that Sugar just mentioned, the reigning defending UFC featherweight champion of the world, the one and only, the pride of Spain and Georgia, Ilya El Matador Topuria is going to be one of the gentlemen who will be joining us. In addition to Ilya, we'll be joined by El Diamante, the man who wears that hat when he fights, Dustin Poirier. Stay tuned for that. Oh, also, by the way, you want more? Money Moicano, Renato Moicano is going to join us. Oh, you want more? We come out with the fucking big guns on the first week of the program. Kayla Harrison going

to join us as well, coming off her big win in Salt Lake City over Caitlin Vieira. And in addition to that, my soon to be co-host officially, Ade Oladipo, joining us live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He will join us as well. He is going to join us to talk about what transpired on Saturday at the Kingdom Arena. Yeah.

A lot to discuss with Ade. He's still there. He's doing all the tennis stuff. There's a tennis tournament happening there. Rafael Nadal is retiring. Is that your guy? No, your guy. Is your guy Nadal, GC?

Or is your guy Djokovic? I keep forgetting. Djokovic. But Djokovic's playing too. Yeah. You know about this? Yeah, the six kings. It's supposed to be like the six highest ranked tennis players.

But is it an official thing? No, it's just a thing. I mean, it's official for they're going to play tennis, but are people going to value the trophy? Probably not. Who are the six? Do you know off the top of your head? Djokovic, Nadal, Sinner, Alcaraz, Holger Ruhn,

I think one other one. Holger Ruhn? Yeah, Holger Ruhn, I think one other one. Holger Ruhn. Yeah, Holger Ruhn. I'm not familiar with him. Who are you familiar with in tennis? Alcaraz for sure, the pride of Spain. Marty Fish. Alcaraz, Marty Fish, the man. I'm sorry uh i just got a funny text from kayla she might be

watching right now so um that's why i was laughing but i don't want to say it because i think our next guest is almost going to join us uh um um uh andre agassi. Retired. Legend. Andy Roddick. Retired. And of course, Felix, the Canadian, FAA. Aju Alas. Yeah, yeah. He had a good run. Bianca Andreescu. Wow.

All the Canadians. Yeah. Grand slam champion. Listen to you, man. You just sent me something in our Slack. Is this, I don't know if this was just for you. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. Born Dominium. Yeah our slack I don't know if this was just for me No no no a barn dominium Yeah we have that I was told we could get things up right away these days

Were you told that I certainly did not tell you that I was told within an instant Maybe on day two We're all just living for day two right now I wanted you to get an idea of what a barn dominium is Yeah there's an actual barn dominium here Yeah barn dominium They seem to be very popular things they look great they look great if he has a get-together

uh slide me an invite it looks it looks fantastic uh he seems to be in good spirits have you tried w no not yet i was hoping you were going to bring in some free samples no i didn't get the exfoliating beads yes just the plastic you're just rolling in your skin. I love it. Is that bad? I don't know. I'm not a doctor. Is it plastic? What else would it be? I don't know.

I thought it was like some stuff that is like supposed to. I mean, now you've got me worried about it. Listen, I haven't read the ingredient list. I don't know. I can't speak for anyone. Now it's like those videos. W is a great product, man. I bet it smells fantastic too.

Your skin has been looking better i've said since you started the w that's a good point you have been saying that i'm not here i'm not here to shame anyone's products no listen there's this thing where um i keep seeing them on my instagram where it's like you ever do you ever cut your meat i didn't say what you thought i said i said you cut it and then there's little pieces of plastic that come into your food if you cut it on the cutting board the plastic cutting board like a plastic yes i see this all the time and it's freaking me out why you've been using a plastic cutting board for the last like yes oh yeah you're you're chock full of microplastics, brother. Stop.

Stop. All right, let's move along now. Aspinall, Tommy Aspinall, that is, joining us in about 30 minutes time. But of course, as we were going through the list, we had to, okay, we had to have Francis and we wanted to have Michael and Sugar has been in the news, but there was one no-brainer.

There was an absolute no-brainer. And I told the guys this. Win or lose in Utah, she had to come on. She had to be a part of the show. Here's the problem. She wins the belt. She makes history. First member of the Parlay Pals to fight for a UFC title.

She then makes double history. First member of the Parlay Pals to win a UFC title. She pulls it off, never doubted her, never questioned her. By her side, all the way, we talked about throwing our journalistic integrity out the window. We talked about being unbiased. We talked about all this stuff, or being biased, I should say. And we're happy. We're loving how things turned out. One of our own. She's one of our own, doing it for the little person. What a story. Two years after the fight in Dallas, we go to bed, the vibes are high, they're immaculate. And we wake up to like a knife in the heart, a text saying that I have let her down. And then, and then there is great concern,

there's great worry that she will not be a part of the first show. But true to her word, pro that she is, mensch that she is, she is here. The new reigning, defending UFC women's bad to boy champion, the one and only, your friend and mine, a member of the Parley Pals, the Venezuelan vixen herself,

Juliana Pena. You did it. We never doubted you. Whatever, you never doubted me. I saw those tweets. I was so upset at you and you're lucky. You are so lucky that I like you guys because seriously i was considering to never i know work with you guys again i felt so bad i woke up to a text and i felt like it was like a knife in the heart that i had let you down and and and and there's a great difference juliana you must know this there's a difference between believing and just keeping it real and I was trying to offset our bias towards you by keeping it real. And it blew up in my face. Dude, where's your loyalty?

You're supposed to be loyal to the soil. I'm your girl and you freaking hanging me out to dry on freaking Twitter of all places. Like talk about knife in the heart. I was crying when I read that. You hit me with the screen grab too. Did you see that yourself or did someone, be honest, someone send it to you and say,

this is your guy right here? Be honest. Yes, yes, yes. They're like, look what Ariel said. And I was like, oh, I had to text you immediately because I was livid. My blood was boiling. I was like, wow, Ariel did me dirty.

I'm sorry. It was probably Bilal, wasn't it? It was Bilal. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm joking. I'm joking. Listen.

Don't get me started. Do not start something you're not going to be able to finish right now. Listen, listen. I have gone back. I have gone back, and I have atoned for my sins. I don't know if you heard our partner, but I have said to the world that upon further reflection, watching it, I thought you won that fight five rounds to none. I thought it was a whitewash. I thought it was a complete domination. I just want the world to know this. I've gone back and fixed this problem. Do you accept my apology? Don't be a smart ass. I'm not some person that obviously can't like handle the truth. I can. However, when you throw less and land more, when you're giving the other girl a bloody nose and a goose egg on her head when you're taking her down when you're freaking making her freaking eyes get as big

as plates because you're hitting her so hard and rocking her shit that she wants to freaking find a way out of there you you can't tell me that i lost the fight i will for sure say that i lost round four i got dropped and i was in a submission attempt. But I got back to my feet. And then when I got back to my feet, even all of those punches were harder and more significant in round four. So yeah, I got dropped, whatever, I'll give her that round. But round one through three and round five, obviously, I am biased, I'm gonna say I won that fight. And I'm so sick of all these people trying to like, make me feel like I didn't win. i don't know who i pissed off but i'll tell you the one thing that i think made everybody so upset at me was the elevation thing they couldn't get off of the elevation she didn't train the elevation they just

want to be right they just want to be right you're like yep she's gassing out she's petering out because she didn't train an elevation it's like stop with elevation, rewatch the fight without all the commentary bias, and you will see clearly that I won that fight. And so which round specifically do you think you won? One through three and five. Oh, wow. So you think you won? Five was close.

Give her that. Five was close. I'll give her that. But again, my strikes are landing more. They're more significant. And she's throwing punches in the wind. I'm parrying it all. Like all like literally they don't get through it's just like it's like that one fight with macy barber i can't remember who she fought where she's just like punching in the air and nothing um it's just

like one of those things where it's like she's punching in the air it's not landing whenever i punch i land get the hell out of here with those stats. No, that's not the stat. That's a scorecard. That's backing you up. That's a scorecard. That's a scorecard. Somebody said one of these judges in the round that I took her down that I lost that round. Let me see if I can see that. Well, Sal D'Amato had the first three rounds for you. So he agrees with you and then he gives her the fourth, which you agree with. And then you said the fifth was up in the air but he gives it to you then you have derrick cleary who gave her the first uh two

and three you and then four and five her and then of course you have the great mike bell who once again agreed with sal first three for you last two for her that's how you won yeah. So I would say that all three of them have round five wrong. Interesting. I won round five. And so does the backlash, does the people saying, oh, you didn't deserve this, has that soured this for you? Have you been capable of doing, but you weren't able to show that. And I think that for the first time I was trying to beat this person at their own game. Like she thinks she's a boxer. She thinks she's a striker. So I'm like, I'm going to beat you in the striking. And I'm going to make you feel, you know,

my power on the feet so that you know that like you thought you were a boxer, but you're actually facing somebody who has better striking than you. And so I think that at the end of the day, my mistake is not sticking to the bread and butter of like how I've won a majority of my fights and how I've been able to be dominant in a sport, which is taking people down into the ground. And I rewatched the fight and I'm like, why didn't I ever try to clinch? Why didn't I ever try to, you know, get her taken down in the fourth or in the fifth, you know, whatever.

I just never did. I was like, I'm just going to stand here and just her taken down in the fourth or in the fifth, you know, whatever. I just never did. I was like, I'm just going to stand here and just keep punching you in the face just because I want to prove to myself that I'm a better striker than you. And I think that that was my error because I wasn't even that tired. And I felt like I could have pushed more. And I really didn't push as hard as I feel like I could have. And I think that there's an air of fear that everyone was playing in my head all week long of you know not training at elevation so i was like no gas out you know i think i had her in

a submission attempt to runic and choke and i just remember myra buona silva gassing out and choking so hard and then she's freaking laying on the mat like this you know during the rest of their fight and so i was thinking of myra buona silva gassing out during the chokes and i was thinking of being at elevation and maybe that this is a real thing that i you know didn't take into consideration and that i should have so fighting those two demons were the reason why i feel like i played it very safe in there and i don't think that i risked uh as much as i have in the past'm like a wild banshee and just freaking going crazy, just trying to freaking be on you like white on rice. And in this fight, I think that I was just trying to prove a point that I could outstrike the striker and that I

didn't need to try to take her down because I can beat her where she is the best. And I do feel like I showed that. I do feel like all of my punches were um more significant in terms of damage like i said only one of us had a bloody nose in there only one of us had a goose egg on their face what about the layoff i was wondering if that was gonna thank you yeah thank you and there's so many things that like people don't know they think that i just broke my ribs they have no idea the truth of actually what has delayed me for so long so tell us what happened oh i can't i'm not going to you have to pay me money i'm doing a tell-all like oh damn for real i have to like write it in this you know autobiography because they have no idea the amount

of crap that i have been through in order to claw back up this mountain so it's just i'm just gonna like be quiet let them think what they want get a little vin diesel in there whether you win by an inch or win by a mile a win is a win and the name of the game is to pass the class so order is restored i have my belt back and now i can just focus on the next thing and like that's in the past forget okay so considering that nightmare of a of a two-year stretch two plus years like what is it like do you look at the belt did you ever doubt that you would get it again is it does it feel surreal i mean it's a crazy journey that you've been on since that fight against amanda

and to now be back as the queen of the bantamweights like it does it make you emotional did you cry afterwards like what how did you process all this i cried in the background when i was like getting pictures with uh mike roach you know how he always takes like the family photos and stuff that's that's when i cried i i was i was i was crying for quite a bit after that um but i would say that i wouldn't necessarily call it surreal because when I walk around in my everyday and like, when I like look in the mirror and when I go places or when I walk around, I'm like, I am the champ. I am the champion. I've always thought that I've always felt that, you know what I mean? So I don't have these belts on display all over the house and trying to throw

them up in people's faces. It's like, I don't need to do that because I know that I am on the inside of the champion. So it was just for me, just needing to get to the fight and needing to just get to let them get my hand raised so that i can you know have that gratification for myself and say yes i am the champion just like i knew i was and now everybody knows again and so it's all great but it was one of these things where it was like it was just a matter of time before they gave me my belt back and i knew that all along leading up into the fight. You never doubted it. You never thought, will I not come back?

Will I not be fit enough? Will I not get this chance? Oh, I can assure you that I'm always doubting, can I make it to the fight? have seen in my history injuries and you know surgeries and stuff like that as what has been prolonging my career all these times and staying healthy and actually making it into the octagon is always the hardest part it's not my opponent it's not the person that I'm fighting that is a worrisome for me it is can I make it through the camp without breaking down can I make it to the octagon without freaking going in there like a bag of bones with broken everything and that's always my biggest um obstacle through all of my fight camps and it always has been and it always will be it's me versus me every single day okay so how

were you going to this one like how was the body how did it hold up I mean it held up but I definitely can say that like I needed to make sure that I was very uh safe in training because you know normally I'm balls to the walls but you can't be like that anymore it's got to be you know train smarter not harder you have to make sure that you're doing the recoveries and getting the massages and everything like that so every day camp was great I will say like two weeks before the fight was really scary because I was doing some promotional stuff for real American beer and the move that they had me do actually, I don't want to say injured me or got me hurt, but like, I was like, oh no, like the whole week I was really contemplating is my body gonna

hold up in there is it gonna tweak is it gonna mess up and it didn't and i want to thank wayne gregory for that and the uscpi team because they worked on me i was just waiting to get to fight week just so that i could have the pi team work on me every single day and thank you bobby uh with the uscpi for freaking giving me the shockwave massaging me for an hour you know and making sure that i was like physically fit and then right before i went out there my coach wayne came in and he held my hand and he said a prayer for my body and when i won i was like it was the prayer and the pi and thank you so much for praying for me you know like obviously i'm real um you know, conspiracy theorist and, you know, superstitious in a way where I think that, like, it was the prayer that, like, made me win.

You know, like, God is, like, you know, giving me blessings. By the way, what did they do in the commercial that hurt you? I did a takedown. Like, I did, like, a double leg takedown. And I don't normally do those kinds of takedowns you know i'm not like some you know shooter like that so it like it hurt me and it was against demand and so it was like a big like running into like a wall you know what i mean and i was like oh i wasn't expecting that and so it was one time and then they needed to get a second time and then

they needed to get it a third time so like after the third one i like walked away and i was like oh no this is not good um and so i was battling that uh that injury leading up to the fight for sure you win the fight they go split screen kayla sitting there kayla harrison who beat caitlyn viera and and you you kind of not you decide not to address her you you you you spoke only of Amanda. I don't think you retiring too early I knew that she didn't want this third fight with me and that she was like literally blessing in disguise that she didn't wait for me and fought Irene Aldana instead and then retired then when you know Kayla was going to fight Holly she gives a victory speech to Joe and she never mentions Amanda's name so much the point was like she's talking all this smack about Amanda the whole time and then she gets her first victory speech to joe and she never mentions amanda's name so much to the point where it's

like she's talking all this smack about amanda the whole time and then she gets her first win in the ufc and amanda's in front of her tv being like what was that you didn't say my name that's what i thought that's what i thought you know and it's like no one she's like voldemort in the mma world with these girls no one wants to say her name but i know somebody who wants to say her name and i know somebody who is only saying her name and that person is me. And you can see that I'm right because the next day she made a video shaking her ass and tagging Dana and I miss you and I want to come back. So when they give me a call, they say she wants to face the winner of you versus Kayla. And so she will come back, but she's waiting to fight the winner. So she thinks I'm

going to lose to Kayla, and when I beat Kayla, then she's going to say I stay retired. You think so? Yeah. But if Kayla wins, then she's going to come out of retirement and look like some hero. Because the reality is this, and I know this for a fact, she feels that she doesn't have anything to prove against

me, and she feels that she hates Kayla more than she does want to prove something and fight me for a trilogy. So she doesn't. First fight, I took her pride. Second fight, I took her soul. And she walked out of there with freaking elephant Titus on half her face, crutches in a wheelchair. She knows that it's not going to be some walk in the park, easy night in the office. She knows that she's going to like no amount of money that they pay her is going to

be worth the amount of damage that she's going to have to sustain in this fight because I'm not going away. And she knows that. And so again, I know she wants to fight. It was the right call out. And that makes me so mad that DC was like, oh, she dropped the ball. She dropped the ball. Really? I dropped the ball the next day while she's shaking her ass and tagging Dana saying, please call me. I know she wants to fight. I know she retired too early.

And so does Dana. And so does the promotion. It's just that is the fight that entices me to want to get out of bed every morning. All these fights make me want to get out of bed every morning. Truly, I'm blessed that I get to do this. But what I'm saying is, I want the big fights. I want to fight Ronda Rousey.

You're almost freaking running from me for years, too. I want the fights that are going to generate the most interest, the most pay-per-views, the most biggest fights that you can create. And a trilogy fight with Amanda Nunes, settling the score, to me, is the biggest fight that you can make.

However, big however, and I didn't have time to say this to Joe, will I fight Kayla? Yes. Am I going to fight Kayla? Yes. Am I running from Kayla? No. But at the end of the day, it's like, who are you going to get your body in the train wreck first with, for Amanda or for Kayla? And it's like, if you ask me, it's like, the amanda fights a bigger fight than kayla but i'll take kayla too whatever let amanda sit there and and cower away like she normally does and when i'm done with kayla then we'll have our victory dance but do not be surprised when she says that why are you even calling me out girl i'm retired like dude. I'm like, dude, shut up. I'm so sick of her, seriously.

I have to say, you and Kayla at the press conference were magic. I mean, the buildup is going to be tremendous. You guys were incredible. It is so refreshing to finally have someone that can string a sentence together and that speaks the language and that understands the game of freaking, we are fist

fighting in a steel cage. And it is important for people to be interested in it. And so, like I said, block of wood, Raquel, the only reason why she started talking crap out of nowhere is because she's realizing that that's what you need to do to gain interest for the fight.

And same thing with Katlyn Vieira saying that, you know, she needs to start talking more. And of course kayla she's like a freaking saturday night live skit so why why is she saturday night live skit she's just a clown you know what i mean she's just like like clowny you know and so what i'm saying is you're right it is great to finally have somebody who is going to banter back and forth with me now all of these girls are starting to understand what you need to do. And it's like they're taking a page out of my book in order to

do it. And that's great. Finally, somebody who's going to play ball. I only have one wish, please, if you could, I would love to do like a virtual face to face with you two on this show, you and Kayla, would you would you do? Are you down? She's on the show tomorrow. I'm gonna but I want to ask you first as the champ, would you come on at the same time as her that's my only wish that's the only thing I want in life well it depends on the time and oh geez tomorrow Tuesday no it doesn't have to be tomorrow I want her to have her own interview tomorrow but down the line okay okay okay we'll talk we'll talk wow okay yeah I mean I'm not opposed to it the only problem is that this girl's always cutting me off and she thinks that like being the louder one is the one that wins, like whatever.

And at the end of the day, I was fighting Raquel. Like I need to waste my energy on the things that matter and the things that are important. She's not important right now. Now she is. Now she is. And now I'll talk to her all day long and we can freaking, you know, hack it out, whatever. Talk that crap. But before it was like, my only focus is on raquel i don't need to waste my energy on dealing with you and your freaking

clown talk i'll i'll deal with that later now it's later and now is the time to do that so yes i would absolutely welcome that uh what did you think of her performance against caitlin what did you think of it i thought it was dominant i thought she dug dug deep. I thought, you know, we saw her bleed. She came back very dominant and explosive in the third round. I thought it was a very, very solid win. I was impressed. I thought we learned a lot about her. Sure, sure, sure.

I also think that, you know, in that fight, you can see that she was gassing out a bit. And in order to fight me, you have to fight for 25 minutes. Those are championship rounds. You also have to make championship weight. And she had said that, you know, to get to 136, that that last pound is God helping her make that last pound. She's going to have to cut one more pound after that and come down to 135.0. And I do believe that her gas tank is going to be an issue. And so, you know, yeah,

she's going to throw me on my head, probably. But am I going to go away after one throw? No. And she knows that. So her, you know, she can talk all the crap that she wants she can say whatever she wants but at the end of the day honey i am not afraid of you you are not some oogity boogity person who can't be beat i see you bleed the same blood as me i seen you losing the pfl and that's when you came running over to the big leagues like you are in the big leagues now you were playing over there in the triple a's you over there in the minors. Now it's the real shit. Now is where we find out what you're freaking made of. Can you make a wait? Can you fight for 25 minutes? And I guarantee you, I will not go away. If she thinks she's just going to take me out in the first round or the second round or the third round, like,

you know, Holly Holm or Ketlin Vieira, she is sorely mistaken. And I'm just so sick of her trying to act like she's some freaking boogeyman it's like i'm not afraid of you plain and simple i am not afraid of you there are some people who say you got to make 35.0 like like that i'm not entertaining 0.1 0.2 even if it's a non-title fight no way are are you saying that like if she doesn't make 35.0 or 34.9 you know what i mean you're not going to entertain any sort of catchweight type of situation i i i don't know look she said leading up to this fight with katelyn that she was going to make championship weight at 135 just in case me or raquel uh what is that? Withdraw, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She didn't do that. So it's kind of like, where are you at with that 135? Number one. And number two, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. She's a consummate professional, and I have no doubt in my mind that she will make 135. However, you can already tell that it's taking a toll on her because now she needs time off, which is the first fight. The first fight is actually making the camp, making the commitment, making it to 135 and actually signing on the dotted line. And right now she's saying, time out. I need to go on a sabbatical.

And that to me is like already a loss. So what are you hearing? So it sounds like you just said earlier, they said Amanda's going to fight the winner of your fight. So you made the pitch. They said she's going to fight the winner, right? And when realistically could we get you versus Kayla? I'm not sure.

I really, I have no idea. You know, I think that that's something that, you know, the machine and, you know, my dogs, my agents and everything like that, we're going to have to be going back and forth for a while and make sure that this is going to be the best case scenario for me. And so, you know, that is a bridge that we can't cross yet. And right now you're getting all corporate on us. You're tired. No, but whenever I check Hunter, they're like,'re like they're like chill you just want to win yeah just enjoy the win just like relax you know what i mean and so that's kind of what i'm getting right now is just kind of like when would you like to return when would you like to return if it was up to you you're the

champ you get to call the shots you have to wait for raquel right um when when would you like this to happen um i i i don't know i don't know i i think maybe international fight week maybe would be a good time but we'll see summer there's some things that i need to do on my end and like what to do those things what are we talking about and you can figure that out in the tell-all book when I get that written. When's this coming out? I'm looking for a ghostwriter. Oh, I know someone. Send them.

Okay. We'll talk offline. You really want to do this, though? You really want to write a book? Oh, I think that I, yes. In my head, I'm like, the kardashian show ain't got shit on me i'd freaking have an amazing show oh okay all right that's that's how i think but i'm kidding because i'm not trying to shit on him at all i love the kardashians i love kim k

um but i i definitely feel like i have some story to tell and some wisdom to give. And if I can help anybody through the journey that I have been on through both since 2008, I think that, you know, that that could definitely be something that I'm interested in in the future. Right now, I am focused on being healthy and making it through a fight camp and raising my daughter first and foremost and the tell-all book will come later i'll have time for that stuff later but right now it's time to fight can you can you rate um can you rate these dance moves for us uh real quick i want to know what you're thinking when you see oh what do you i can't believe you won't look for me oh we won't look for you. I've suffered too much beyond what I deserve.

Shush your mouth. You know why she wanted to retire? So that she could get on those roids and not get caught. Look at how big she is. What do you think? Nice? Good? You know what?

I'll tell you what. I've seen some of her little videos of like the, you know, and she can do it. So she's she's really good at that kind of stuff. So I think that that's great. Those dancers obviously are horrible, but the message is what is important. And just like I said, it's like I'm like, no, it's for Don is over here. She's not done and And she wants to come back. She doesn't have a purpose outside. Like, who is he outside of fighting? He doesn't know she's struggling with trying to find this identity of what her life is now after fighting. And that's

a very hard thing. And that's not anything against her personally. You look at, you know, people in the Marine Corps that get out of the Marines, or you look at fighters that retire and they're done or any sort of, you know, professional athlete, their identity is being a fighter, their identity is being a professional athlete. When that's done, it's kind of like you have to find yourself all over again. Who am I? What is my purpose now? And I think that she's been struggling with that. And that is why you see this video of her shaking her ass and begging Dana White to give her a call.

You know, it's for a reason. It's because she knows that she's got that itch. Two last things. And number one, the biggest question of them all. Now that you're a champ, now that you're the queen, now that you're on top of the world again and the bell of the ball, are you now too big for big for us the program there's a lot of concern back there you know we're new we're a new outfit now so we don't have our sponsorships lined up just yet but the parlay pals were an institution and there's some concern that you're now too big time for us i i

have i have tried my best to squash those concerns but it would be nice to hear it from you. First off, you said now that I'm the queen again, I've always been the queen, okay? And I'm going to be the queen, so don't get it twisted. Second off, the parlay boys, the parlay boys, the parlay boys. I'll tell you what, those parlay boys were making me stressed. Every week I'd be like, what am I going to do? Who am I going to pick? I think I can manage making a pick.

I think I can join the boys again. But I would like questioning. So now that you're here on this thing, your new outfit, what – We're working. You guys are back on with the parlay. We're working on it. We're working. But there was some concern. I think, Connor, am i allowed to bring up some of the concerns or is

this uh what concerns i want to hear i want to hear it directly from the horse's mouth well the double tap dm i mean there were some concerns no i mean there was the double tap dm i wish you know the best of luck just got double tapped he just got double tap he didn't he felt like there wasn't it felt frosty that hurts my heart i'm so sorry do you see there's so many people hitting me up all the time and i am like trying to like not be on my phone with the screen time as much as possible because i just like every time i look at the phone it's like die bitch um so like i'm so sorry i uh i i apologize dc i wait you're saying that because i double tap you don't want me to be a part of the boys no no no there was concern that you wanted out we want you we we we called you we wanted you that's why i felt so bad we want we want you now more than

ever we're we're out there on the front lines trying to make you an official part of it we want you to get paid but there was the double tap left us a little bit befuddled you like me you really really like me it makes me feel so nice um of course i want to be a part of the boys but you guys are if you guys are working this outfit and and going back to the parlay boys i'm'm an honorable member. Hello. Of course I want it. GC, you good with that? Oh, yeah. I'm great with it. I actually have to Venmo Juliana,

you know, maybe $5, $10. I'm the only Parlay pal that actually put cold hard cash down on it. Thanks, New York Rick and Mysterious Frank. Yeah, they didn't have the fake. I don't have a bit of a gambling problem. Time out, time out, time out. Only one of us went on air and said that they scored round one for Juliana and had her three to two. I mean, I'm not going to say who it was.

I'm not going to point any fingers. I'm not going to say any names. But there was only one person who scored the fight for you. I also didn't tweet anything saying anything about rounds or anything. Yeah, whoever didn't tweet. What was that? Was that mysterious Frank? That was Frank. Yeah, thank you, Frank. Thank you. yeah whoever didn't see what was that was that mysterious frank that was that was frank yeah

thank you frank thank you um obviously all of the freaking mma media hates my guts because i thought it was like a post is like yeah i'm squirted against me i'm like what is what did you do to you guys why do you hate me so much no wonder why ronda was always so freaking upset at the media is it possible they were just calling it like they saw it? Why does it have to be a bias? They need to go re-watch it without all that freaking garbage commentary and look at the significance.

I threw less and I landed more and they were harder shots. Re-watch it. Who are you most mad at? Who was biased in the commentary? Everybody told me that the commentary was garbage. So when I did rewatch the fight, I didn't even turn it up. I know that like Joe Rogan embarrassed me.

He's sitting there behind me. Like when they call it for me and his eyes are like, Oh, I can't believe this is ridiculous. You know, I'm just like, Joe, dude, like I thought you were my boy, man. It's like heartbreaking to like hear these things like you know what dc told me before the fight i'm like you're gonna win and i i think that you need to go bum rusher and just take her out on the first round and like i truly believe that because i didn't go like push the pace like psycho juliana in the first round that they were just

upset that i didn't go do what they wanted me round that they were just upset that i didn't go do what they wanted me to do and they were upset that i didn't train at elevation like they wanted to be right now and so i just think that obviously and you know what's sadder about all those guys commentating against me is like man i thought that we were cool dude like i thought that like and obviously they got a job to do you know but it's just heartbreaking because i want everyone to be on my side and when they like look at you and they talk to you and they're friendly with you and they say all these great things about you but then publicly on the freaking broadcast they're just trashing you just maybe listen to it maybe listen to it and not don't listen to the

people who are saying they're and and maybe you'll feel otherwise i don't know yeah yeah i think i think that's best i need to do that i just haven't okay but i'm going to because i do think you could be right i think people are just being protective yes yes that but if i listen to i don't think it was biased i really don't yeah um last thing kayla harrison on the show tomorrow she texted me right before you came on any anything you want to say to her, any message to Kayla that we can play to her tomorrow? Don't interrupt me and be nice. Okay. I wasn't expecting it to be that short and sweet, but I'm not sure she'll oblige.

Be nice. Okay. Well, then if you want to throw barbs, you can throw barbs. I'll hit you as hard as you want to be hit. Legit. I don't know if there's a fight that I'm looking forward to the buildup more than you versus Kayla. Well, let's make it happen then. Let's do this. Yeah. I'm ready to go. All right. Juliana, thank you so much for being back in our lives. We've missed you so much. I'm so happy that we were able to mend the fences. And I'm so happy that you were able to do this because I did remind you nine times leading up to it. And then of course, this morning, everyone confirmed for the ninth time. And Juliana then tells me there's a scheduling conflict, which was the last thing I wanted to hear on this first episode with all the technical problems. So thank you. Thank you. I can't even see what time it is. I gotta go.

Okay. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Thank you so much, Juliana. Bye, guys. Bye. DC, text me. We'll get you six done. Okay, you got it. There she is, the queen, Juliana Pena, the champion of the women's bantamweight division. What a time. What a time we are having, guys. It's like we never left, right? It's like we never left. And yes, there is one guest left. And yes, as I said on the very top of the program, I wanted to start the show one way and I wanted to end the show one way. Because a lot of people say that it all kind of stops and starts in fighting with the heavyweight champion of the world. And in our particular world, this pie can be sliced in

multiple different directions, of course, because Francis Ngannou left the UFC and never lost that belt and went to box for a couple of fights. He is still considered by many, including myself, as the lineal heavyweight champion of the world. He returns to action on Saturday. On the UFC side of things, of course, John Jones fought for the vacant title against Cyril Gagne. He beat Cyril Gagne in March of 2023, and he has not fought since. He hopefully returns to action in a little over a month's time right here in New York City against Stipe Miocic. In the midst of that period, a man has emerged and he has had his own ups and downs, but now has returned in full force to become the interim heavyweight

champion officially, but in my eyes, the real heavyweight champion. And the last time we did a show, it was right before his return to the cage. The last time we did a show, it was right before his big showdown back home in England, the card being built around him and Leon Edwards, the rematch of the fight that ended very, very quickly and unceremoniously, the rematch against Curtis Blades. He, I mean, blew right through the competition, unscathed, and now we await his next assignment. Obviously, we hear that he's going to be the backup fighter, but we all want to see the showdown come 2025. You know that we had to end today's program with the pride of the United Kingdom, the pride of Great Britain,

the pride of England, the pride of Manchester, the pride of Wigan himself. Tommy Espinel is back. Our good mate Tom, who did in fact text me a week or so after the fight saying, where's the interview? Where's the chat? You felt empty. Did you not? You felt like something was missing

in the victory tour. You needed the chat. Here we are three months later. Welcome back to the program, Tom. Three months I've been waiting to come on this thing. I mean, everybody's life is empty without you, Ariel. Let's be honest. But here we are. I'm not complaining.

You got the new show and everything. Congratulations. How's it going? How was the first show? It's been amazing. Everyone came with bells on. You were the only one, by the way, in the book in the show said you needed to see the full lineup before you agreed to

join, right? You wanted to know if it was up to your standards. You've changed a little bit since becoming the real heavyweight champion, yes? Everything changes. If there's one thing you can guarantee in this life a real it's change that is true yeah i wanted to know i wanted to know who else was on that's all i you know i'm an mma fan too just like everybody else so i just wanted to know if it was going to be a good show or not it's been a great show and it's great to end with you by the way what about

this shirt here is this new merch i like this new merch? I like this shirt. This is new merch. I like it. This is new merch. You can find this on DOSPRAC.com. Oh, you're working with DOSPRAC? I love him. I'm working with DOSPRAC. Look, it's even got my face on the, it's even got my biceps on the t-shirt. Look at that.

It's Fence. DOSPRAC, I didn't know he made stuff like that. His drawings are incredible. It's nice. Yeah, so I've got quite a few designs over there. If you want to go and check it out ariel i support you with the t-shirt i don't see it yeah i mean i thought it would be a nice touch you wearing the shirt you know the first guy to wear the shirt on the show i thought

it'd be a nice touch i've got it i've got it just over there no listen i want you to support your stuff i'm seeing a photo right now of you and uh your old man mr aspinall they're rocking the shirts with those you know who's probably foaming at the mouth looking at these shirts is our guy, your biggest fan, Connor back there. He buys all, he goes through great lengths to get your merch here to us. I actually already ordered one. He already ordered one, he just said. He's already ordered one.

Go on, Connor. We love it. We absolutely love it. Yeah, there's quite a few different designs on there. Some nice stuff. I also paid homage to see, is that on screen right now yeah this is on screen look at us the one bottom in the middle that is paying homage to the great drop band of all time oasis and i actually sent one to noel gallagher last week who is obviously one of the lead singers of oasis so wow good stuff good stuff wait a second wait a

second are you going to the reunion? Are you going to any of the shows? Come on. Come on. He's water wet. It's like asking that, Ariel. Of course. Wow.

Of course I'm going. What, you're good mates with Noel Gallagher? Me and Noel, we're like that these days. How did that happen? How did that happen? Well, he's a UFC fan. He's some UFC fan. His son's a UFC fan. Obviously, two Manchester guys.

My son is now... My son's a big Manchester City guy. Ah. So, Noel actually does stuff with City as well. He's been involved with Man City for as long as time. So, yeah, we know each other through that. Who's the one that played at Wembley

when I was there for AJ? Noel or Liam? That was Liam. How do you feel about Liam? Well, I like both, obviously. Yeah,

I like Oasis and getting back together. So, everyone's happy, like in Manchester, in the UK, but in Manchester especially, like this is a massive

massive deal which one are you going to which show well i can't i can't be telling people that oh geez all right are you going to be on the stage we've got uh so i think they're doing two two different places in the uk they're doing heat and park which is in manchester i think they're doing hide park Park in London. Wow. It might be somewhere else in London, but I'm going to the Manchester one. By the way, there have been times where I've WhatsAppped you, like, oh my gosh, did you see that goal from Phil Foden,

from Erling Haaland? You have proudly told me, not only do you not care, you don't even know who these people are, now you're telling me your son is a Man City fan? Does that mean he has finally converted you? Listen, ariel as i said at the beginning of the interview there's one thing you can guarantee in this life exchange and uh listen i'm i've never been into football all my life like i'm for a massive massive football community, football area. Everybody who I know, who I knew growing up is into football

in some respect and I've never been into it. Now, at the tender age of 31, I have jumped ship. I'm in. I have been to a City game now. My son actually met all the players.

It was great. He met Harland. He met Phil Foden. He met De Bruyne. He met everybody. Wow. I actually didn't. I actually didn't meet anybody.

But he did. Where were you? That was good. So, you know, Manchester's torn in half when it comes to football, obviously, reds and blues.

And my area, most people from my area actually support United. football, obviously, Reds and Blues. My area, most people from my area actually support United. But if the kid's supporting City, I've got to be with him. If I don't support anybody, the kid's supporting City, I'm a City guy. So where were you when you met these players? Basically, they give them like a they give it like a full experience so i think the game kicked off like four or five p.m and they had the kids there from like what so i had to take the kids and then we we had like a dinner and stuff and they take

the kids like for a full day of uh like going in the changing rooms meeting the players wow they like mascots to go on the pitch with the players they meet the managers the other team everything it was fantastic it was amazing that's incredible i'm glad to see that you have uh jumped on the football bandwagon it's a pretty popular sport uh i hear over in england so it's it's nice to see and um you mentioned change by the way a couple times already i can't help but notice correct me if i'm wrong are uh are the chompers a little bit different have those changed too what's good also new jumpers look i got caught up on that what is going on what's happening in this place but yeah the uh new nash's mate. New Nashers are in. Look at you. You got the Darren Till, huh?

Isn't that right? You put a picture of my teeth on the thing. That was uncalled for. I mean, there's a lot of people. That's an incredible difference, by the way. Dr. James over there. You know what? I never thought my teeth were that bad until I got them done. And now I'm like, oh, my other teeth are quite shit. But now I'm happy with them. You know what I mean? I'm only a few days in. I've only i got them done and i'm like oh my other teeth are quite shit but now i'm happy

with them you know i mean i'm only a few days in i've only just got them wow so uh yeah i'm happy with them big shout out to james the dentist fantastic guy um uh yeah i think i like him i like him any change like can you not eat certain things is it painful it's it sounds painful getting those no obviously it's been really good it took i was actually under the what do you call it you're not under the knife under the anesthesia no no no no i was awake i was awake but like i was i was in the dentist chair is what i'm trying to say i was in the dentist chair for seven hours eight hours no way yeah it was a long day because I got my full top and full bottom done.

But yeah, it was worth it. It was a great... I feel good. I feel like I have a good smile. No one's going to be looking at my ugly teeth. You look fantastic. I even think your facial hair changed a little bit, no? I mean, did you shave this part? Yeah, sometimes I go a bit short with the stache a little bit.

No, you look great. You're glowing right now. You're absolutely glowing. It might be all the petrol that you've been dipping your hands into. Listen, it worked. I knocked everywhere out of the job, near enough. Incredible. Did it work or not?

It did. I remember being in Paris when you called me in the middle of the night. I was trying to get my sleep, and there's you and your dad showing me and proving that you actually got it done, that you're a man of your word. It worked. It worked, mate. It worked. Is that your house, by the way? It looks incredible.

Is that a compound or what? No, that's not my house. That's a hotel. Okay. That was a hotel. Beautiful hotel as well. Very nice hotel. Could I ask, I know there's a lot that's happened since,

but just because we didn't get a chance to talk, what were the nerves like? You're fighting in the middle of the night. You're fighting this guy that, you know, it went all wrong just a couple of years prior. How are you feeling? Obviously it went great, but like just in the buildup that night, how did it go?

Yeah, well the the whole um at the time obviously you've got to push this all to the side um being like a high level athlete like top of the food chain level athlete all the negative stuff that happens you've got to kind of get rid of that to a degree but fighting at like 5 30 a.m is not something that i'd like to do again if i can help it um because i just messed the sleep thing up massively i just messed it up big time like i was awake for nearly 24 hours by the time i fought wow so that was that was hard to contend with um just the occasion for me was massive. Like for people looking in, it was probably just like,

yeah, another fight. But to actually like have been and watched every UFC in Manchester and then to defend a title there against a guy who has technically already beat me in front of 25,000 home fans at 5.30am. It was a lot. It was a lot. And to answer the question, the nerves were extremely high. Wow.

GSPS-esque? Were you throwing up back there? Like your guy, like your idol? He's told me many times he's thrown up in the locker room. I wasn't throwing up, but I wasn't far away okay but you know every i used to think right i used to watch um i used to always watch like when i would be like way before the ufc even before i was like fighting professionally i used to watch these guys fighting the ufc and be like oh i'd love to be there because when them guys are fighting obviously they're not suffering

any nerves or they're not suffering any nerves or they're not scared or anything like that and then i realized like the more success you have the more scary it gets every time like this thing's tough man there's so much weighing on you every single time there's so much at stake that yeah it just doesn't it doesn't get any easier but that being said not everybody can do it and i'm one of the i would say one of the lucky few because i don't think luck's involved but i'm one of the few people uh who makes really really good decisions under massive massive pressure uh like i've seen many guys even like guys fighting on the contender series and stuff and on the local scene and in the gyms and whatnot, they are absolute world beaters.

They can't be beaten. And then they get the pressure of not even fighting in the UFC, getting a chance to fight in the UFC, and they just completely crumble. So to do it at the top, top level, fighting for a UFC title in your hometown, that is a pressure that you can't even be describing in words, to be honest with you.

So I am definitely one of the few that can deal with it really well. MSG Pavlovich was incredible the moment you were dead, but is it possible, given the history and given where you were, that July, the aftermath felt greater when you won that fight? That's a tough question really because the the pavlovich fight there was just a disaster in all honesty so usually i'm like well it's heavyweight mma first of all so you never really really know what's going to happen but usually i think i've got a good strong chance of winning i'm like 80 20 that i'm going to

win probably every time but you never know it's every way i make small groups massive guys you never know what's going to happen really but i'm usually pretty confident that look i'm better than this guy and when i fought paulovich i definitely was confident that i was better than him i definitely had a lot of ways to win and I knew it. But I was ridiculously underprepared for that fight. So, I don't know. That was kind of like, I did expect to win, but I didn't expect to win like that so quickly. So, to answer the question, I don't really know.

They're both kind of the same and then the pressure the blade thing fighting at home defending a title especially an interim title it's kind of a weird thing that you know people were saying i shouldn't do so um yeah but they're both similar to be honest with you i i'm not i'm i promise i'm not trying to take anything away from balal he won that fight fair and square he he looked great I will forever believe that Leon lost that fight in part because he was fighting at 5 30 in the morning it was it was okay for you you won but I I don't I don't know I have doubts that the fight goes the same way if it's happening at 1 a.m or 12 30 as as you usually fight do you think there's anything to that based on what you saw based on maybe what you spoke to him about afterwards it's very difficult to say and i think that you as a media person and other people if other people in the media would struggle to get out of it because he doesn't

want to make them kind of excuses and i understand that um but i guess you'd have to speak to him off the record to find out what really went on. But in my opinion, Bilal Mohamed fought absolutely out of his skin in that fight. He looked incredible. I've never seen him fight anywhere near that before. Granted, I've not studied his career at, you know, huge length and huge detail.

But yeah, Leon looked a little bit off and balala was a little bit on like i would never look at anybody and be like look that happened just because of time because that's unfair to the guy that won but i think it's fair to say that leon didn't look himself but on the flip side of that balala how it looked incredible so i ain't taking taking nothing away from him that can't happen again though right these 5.30 in the morning cards I fucking hope not

it's not fair to you guys I keep telling myself you know like and I think about this a lot when I've got a fight coming up if I could put myself 10 years ago where I am now, like, I would

do anything, anything to be where I am now. Anything that you can even think of. So, me complaining about a time difference or injury or something being inconvenient, I try not to

let that weigh on my mind too much when it comes to fighting like yeah it was shit yeah it was inconvenient but as i said in the build-up i've got friends literally still to this day who are getting up and working at 5 a.m every day every single freaking day and they don't even like the job and they're getting up in the cold. They're going on a building site. They're going messing around underneath cars. They're going working in a factory,

making money for other people. And I do not have the right to complain about getting up and fighting at 5 a.m. once. I just don't have any right to do it. That's fair. And much respect. I would say you're just a high level athlete who, who deserves a little bit better,

but I, I totally understand where you are coming from. And it's, it's nice to see, like even yesterday you were telling me, I hope you like, you said Monday's your favorite day of the week. And I,

and I said to you, you know, you don't usually hear that, but this is just your perspective on life. And actually I saw a clip. I'm sure you may have seen it or not it was circulating around the time that you fought like a young tom aspinall talking about that he was going to go to boxing because he felt like boxing was i think it was an interview with ifl tv do you know this clip of you in the gym i'd never seen this yeah so why where did the like where did it because in that clip you're like i'm going to go

to boxing i'm going to have a career there i'm going to make more money there does how did you then come back um well it's quite a long story okay because i did i'm trying to put it down for you so basically i was like i've done mma and grappling for like most of my life since i was like eight years old really and then i was struggling to so basically i was going sparring with like tyson fury huey fury tommy like the fury family yeah there's loads of officers in the fury family a big guy so i would go down there for a bit sparring and i kept having like fights pull out on me uh shows cancelled, etc. So as I was down there,

the coach, who's still one of my coaches to this day, Peter Fury, he said, why don't you just do boxing for a little bit, get some money? So I was like, yeah, okay, will do. So I got the boxing license. Anyway, after quite a while boxing,

even though I only had one fight, I was doing a lot of sparring, and it took me a while boxing even though i only had one fight i was doing a lot of sparring it took me a while to get a license and i was boxing probably all in all about 18 months two years i just decided like shit i've been grappling for all this time and i'm just letting it go to waste and i didn't really in all honesty i didn't really love boxing like i love mma like i absolutely love m mate like you said monday is my favorite day of the week because i get to drop my kids off at school and go and train and then i get to come back chill for a little bit and then i'll go and train again and that's just what i love doing I just absolutely live for making myself a better MMA fighter.

I love it. Like, my whole life and circle is surrounded by me being the best version and the best MMA fighter that I can possibly be.

And with boxing, it wasn't really like that. It was more just like doing it for kind of something to do and to get as much money in as I can rather than getting a normal job so um i believe that mma is the place that i should have always been and it and it's all

coming together and it's all culminating and so can you tell us officially are you in fact the the backup fighter for the the title fight at msg on november 16 16th. Are you training for this? Will you be here in New York? Have you agreed to this? Yes, it is official. I mean, Dana announced it a while ago now, but I didn't actually hear anything from the UFC. But now, we... That is a good UFC verse.

But now we've actually spoke. Everything's going good. We've come to an agreement about it. We know what's happening going forward we've got plans we've got future fight plans everything is right there wow it's going to be a good couple of years let me tell you okay so what do you got what are the plans tell us tell us big plans big big massive plans okay what do we got what do we got laid out i can't lay out ah tommy come on you've changed old tommy would have told us i know i know but is it all is it all coming

is it is it can you tell me this are you happy with what has been laid out in front of you because you don't have to be a rocket scientist and and dana has said it himself fight happens november 16th you're the backup fighter and he wants the winner to fight you. This is what he has said. And it's right there. There's no other option. Is this what you're hearing as well?

That's what's happening. Great. That's what's happening. And we've got other options in place too. Ooh. In case, you know, one guy wants to retire,

one guy wants to continue. Both guys want to retire. Whatever. We've got all bases covered luckily if if both guys retire are you then the champion obviously right we'll find out ariel it's all it's all to be revealed it's all to be revealed what do you okay obviously i would imagine knowing you being the competitor that you are you want to fight the winner you want to make this right you you want to rightfully become do you think there's a greater chance one guy wins and he fights you

as opposed to guy wins and doesn't fight you, and then you're then gifted the belt like Robert Whitaker was after GSP retired? I think that's probably most likely, yeah. You think that's what happens? I think that's most likely. But I don't know. Who knows? Maybe one of the guys is going to come out,

look absolutely fantastic and think, yeah, I'm going to shut this guy up now. Everyone thinks I'm going to lose to Aspinall. I've got to shut him up. Maybe he's going to have a big ego thing. Or maybe they're just going to take the money, take what they've done and just retire. Who knows, man?

We have no idea. Me, the UFC, the fans, nobody's got any idea, which is fantastic. That's great. Let's get this thing done. Let's get it sewn up and let's get this division moving and put some big fights on.

Would you be disappointed if it goes down that way? You don't get to fight the winner and you're just the undisputed champion because that guy walked away? I would like to fight one of them, of course, but I don't to fight one of them, of course, but I don't get,

I don't get emotionally attached to business really. Like there's stuff that I would rather happen, of course, but I try and emotionally detach myself from business as much as I can. And to me, fight, fight is the way I make my living. It's fine.

It's the way I feed my family. And I don't think you can get emotional to that. Like there's some things I prefer than others. But at the end of the day, I'm here to be the best in the world. I'm here to fight everybody and anybody that they want me to. And I will continue to do that. Who do you think is going to win and who do you want to win? Oh, can you hear me?

Hello? Yes. Also, where's the audio gone what's going on do you not hear me hello hello frank we good oh did we lose him is my audio still there yes it is alright I'm not sure what happened there we were flowing we were doing weird we almost had a whole show with no technical difficulties that I know of at least

is everything okay Frank yeah we're just gonna get him right back one second alright so you think that was on him no no no one's going to tell him that. All right. Just a few more minutes left with Tommy Espinel. Everyone enjoying the new era?

Let us know in the chat. Can we get a thumbs up if you're enjoying the new era? And again, we're back tomorrow and we're back on Wednesday. Give us a thumbs up in the chat. You know my screen is too bright. My screen is too bright. I got you. Oh, you you there you hear me tom i've got you oh weird weird well we'll only leave you a couple more minutes because i know it's late over there but can i just ask who do you think is going to win and who do you want to win uh well john and steve yeah yeah um i would say i would edge towards john of course um

just because he's younger and he's a little bit fresher than steve like steve let's be honest we don't really know where he's at he's definitely uh the best heavyweight of all time but he's also like 42 years old 43 years old in last fight he got knocked out which was like three or four years ago now we have no idea what he's gonna look like i have no idea whereas john even though he's been pretty inactive he has fought recently and he looked pretty good in the fight so i would give the answer to john but it is heavyweight mma you absolutely never know and that's why this sport is so damn exciting so i would say say probably 60-40 to John, yeah. Did you see when he did that interview recently saying,

oh, this could be my last one? Do you think he's just messing around? He's just trying to rile you up or do you believe him? I have no idea. The guy seems a little bit weird to me. I don't know. Why do you think he's weird? Because we're talking about John. i think it's pretty obvious he said he wrote

there's been some stuff that he's done over the years that isn't normal behavior i don't know what you're talking about but he did write this on on i think your instagram um this dude literally has my large blank blank in his mouth every week talking about you. I'm flattered. I absolutely guarantee he will not win more world championships than me. That's truly all that matters at the end of the day. There's been many champions. No one like me.

I sleep good at night. You saw this? Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I don't want to win as many championships as him. I just want to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

That's all. You don't want to break his record? Don't care. I want to make as much money as I can in the shortest amount of time possible and then bounce and do something else. I don't want to get out of this sport healthy. So once I've done what I want to do, I've got no interest in being the best heavyweight ever

and fighting into my 40s. No interest at all in it. Do you have a date or an age? Some say 35, 40, 38. I don't know. I think you've got to say how it's going and how you feel. Right now, I feel amazing. I feel on top of the world.

I feel like the best heavyweight walking around the planet Earth and that I'm head and shoulders skill-wise above anybody else in the division is how I honestly feel right now. So right now, I have no thoughts about stopping, but I don't know how I'm going to feel in the future. You can't say. We had Francis at the top of the show, and I asked him, who's the going to feel in the future. You cannot say. We had Francis at the top of the show, and I asked him,

who's the best heavyweight in MMA right now? Probably not to your surprise, he said myself. I'd ask you the same question. I'd imagine you think yourself. Yeah, but I have a lot of respect for Francis. I have a lot of respect for him, and I really appreciate his story. I really appreciate what he's done in the sport.

But it's hard to debate right now. Like, the guy who's fighting, he's not elite. Do you know what I mean? And the guys he'll be fighting in the future aren't elite. And it's as simple as that. Like, these aren't the best guys in the world. But the guy who's fighting, a friend of mine,

and a training partner of mine, Ante, earlier last year, and Ante just destroyed him within a minute or two. Took him down, ground and pounded him and stopped him within the first minute. And now this guy's fighting Francis in Carnage. So the guy isn't elite, his opponent. Yeah, he's big. Yeah, he's powerful.

Yeah, he could knock you out. But he's not an elite heavyweight. powerful. Yeah, he could knock you out but he's not an elite heavyweight. I mean, I'm not disrespecting him but that's just the only thing. I get it. The elite guys

are not in PFL. The elite guys are in the UFC. So, like I said, I've got a lot of respect for Francis and his story and what he's done in the sport

and what he did in boxing even. But it's difficult to say that he's the best heavyweight in the world when he isn't fighting elite guys right now i understand he's not a top 10 guy it's as simple as that right now um the guy the guy's nowhere near top 10 maybe he's fighting yeah he's a big dude big athletic guy but uh he's not a top 10 guy. Yeah, you're right. What does your gut tell you as you gear up? You're going to do a full training camp, yeah? You're going to pretend like you're... Do you think you fight on November 16th?

It's not a crazy question, right? It didn't... It was around this time, maybe in a couple of weeks, like it was two weeks out, right? That Stipe was left with no opponent when john got hurt so what is your gut telling you do you think you fight in new york in a month um my gut's telling me no to be honest but that being said i will be ready to fight you ain't catching me not ready again ever like we already know we almost already had that banana skin when i bought

pavlovich because i wasn't ready for that fight now i'm in full-blown training camp i got sparring partners here i'm all ready to go i'm ready to go like i'm fit ready i will be ready on november 16th if i need to be do i think it's going to happen is it likely in my opinion probably not anyone can say what they want but i i personally my gut feeling is that it won't happen but will i be ready absolutely and will i fight if they need me to fight on five minutes notice i will fight in the never gots and and is it is it hard to prepare for two guys for a fight that you don't think is going to happen is that weird no like i'm training like it's going to happen okay i'm not turning the light off this is not going to happen we'll just

take it easy today or whatever like i said i've got sparring partners here flown in high level guys ready to go but like you say i can't prepare for one guy but i'm getting myself as fit and as strong as i possibly can within the next like five weeks and I've already done like four or five weeks training as it is, hard training I train every day anyway but I mean hard training twice a day going at it, preparing my body and mind for the fight, I'm already doing that so

I'm prepared for a million fights at this point, I know what it takes to prepare for a fight so it's not difficult but tactically would I like one guy to train for a fight so no it's not difficult but tactically would i like one guy to train for yeah absolutely absolutely i would like it'd be silly not to but i don't have that luxury right now is is is that is that something like does your dad sit down with you and say like okay today we're doing steep a work today we're doing because they're two different people right different

fighters different styles do you do you actually specifically game plan for them or are you just kind of doing general training no we just gotta yeah i mean i think that's really difficult to do that i think that's i mean my dad is sticking stuff in my dad by the way obviously he's not got a whole massive stable of fighters but the fighters he works with are absolutely elite um the results speaker himself is one of the best MMA coaches out there. He might not have a massive team, but the guy is ridiculously smart when it comes to MMA.

But yeah, we're adding stuff in that both guys are good at. We're trying to prepare for it, obviously, but it's difficult when there's two guys. It's really difficult. You will be coming to New York. Yeah. We would love to have you at the new studio. It would be nice.

Well, invite me in. Are you still doing Mondays or Wednesdays? What days are you doing? Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Well, no way. Could you believe that? We're working three days plus. The boys in the back, your boy, Connor, and New York Rick,

they have their own show on Thursdays, and you would never believe it,mmy the great pizzi carol who i do think is a favorite of your father's if i'm if i'm being honest he now has his show officially as part of our uncrowned empire on fridays at 1 p.m eastern six o'clock in the uk could you believe that every day we have a show now let me tell you pizzi PC Carroll is the only media member that my father will ever speak to. I don't know why. He loves them. They love each other.

It's fantastic. I love PC Carroll also. So big shout out to PC. I don't know. I might as well be on Sean Duke Connors and New York Rickson's desk. Wow. They would love that. Now we're talking, Tommy.

They might appreciate me a bit more that's crazy that is it killed me I woke up I don't know how these European fans do it I woke up I was struggling more than you were out there

waking up in Paris at 5 in the morning to watch you fight 6 in the morning because they're an hour ahead it was awful I don't know how fans do it I have so much respect for the European fans how they follow the sport each and every week

they're staying up until five in the morning watching these Apex cards for goodness sakes. It's tough. It's not easy. It's not. You're crazy, guys. I ain't doing it.

It's awful. I'm definitely not doing it. Fair play. If you are doing it, thank you for doing it. Thanks for supporting our sport, but I ain't that dedicated. I watch the big ones.

Well, you've got to get to bed, Tom. It's way too late for you you you've got training in the morning it's a wonderful wonderful way to end today's first ever episode with you the real heavyweight champion of the ultimate fighting championship I say that people get mad at me when I say it but I believe it

you have more wins at heavyweight people get mad at you say don't worry about that I don't even think it's a hot take, Tom. You have more wins against more quality opponents. I mean, it's like, it doesn't even make sense, but we're not going to, everything will be rectified, I think,

in very short order. And I appreciate you very much. I appreciate you buying the merch. I gave you the code 100% off, but you wanted to do it. And that means a lot. And I will now, I love Dos Brock. I'm a huge fan of his.

So I'm now going to get that one because that's that's great stuff that's well done on your part is it a 50 50 split what are we talking revenue wise you don't have to share it's okay don't worry about it i hope he's taking care of you though he's taking care of me we're all taking we're all taking care of each other in this game that's what it's all about that is what it's all i guess you just messaged me at bc carol what do you say i'm not telling you that's between me and beatsy but he's a top man i like you very much the cheeky he's probably sitting in his chair right now peter is it peter even there he's right look at this he's a part of the show now he's now on the show

he's just ready he's ready to go, Eddie. How are you, bud? Can you hear him? He just said, how are you? No, I didn't hear anything. Sorry. The audio's failing. I mean, can people hear me now? I'll let it be. Do you think so? Yeah, Ariel's been giving me a lot of shit about it, to be honest, Tom.

It's alright. It looks good. It looks like he's... You see, now, if it was bad, he'd go in. He would have went in bad there if it was going to be... I think he looks fantastic. It looks like he just had a nice 48-hour bender. He looks great.

That's true as well. That is a fact. Both are real. PT, before we let Tom, any response to what he said about his father only talking to you and you being his favorite media member? Well, he's my favorite as well um he's a fantastic guy he's actually turning people away now tom isn't he i mean there's lads trying to train with you guys and he's having to say i can't actually

have you i'm actually he's zoning in more on you as far as i know as more people look to join team bfg so it's not called Team BFG for a start. Team BFG, that's a great name, man. The first bit of the statement was all right. I'm not sure about the last bit, but yeah. We've got a lot of big guys. We've got a lot of big guys in there already. We don't need any more.

Well, this is amazing. Now PT's going to claim that Tom Aspinall was on the crack. This is not your interview, PT, okay? So stop hijacking. We're just going to copy and paste the interview and then put me in instead of you, and then everyone will be happy. Tom, you're a gent.

You're a salt of the earth. Thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate you, and looking forward to seeing you here in New York. Don't say goodbye so quickly. Jeez, it sounds like you're... Look at those... You know, my wife's always saying that to me.

She's always like, you know when I'm on the phone and I have people do that? Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye. Yeah, let it linger a little bit. I literally just go, like, when the sentence is over, I'm just like, bye, boom, cut him off every time. Just pretend like you had a good time.

You know, you let it linger. It was a lovely time, but we don't have to drag it on. All right, all right. It's done, it's done. Cut it off. Bye-bye. Bye. Thanks for coming on my show, Tom.

There he is. Wow, that was incredible. You're doing a good job. Bye-bye. Bye. Thanks for coming on my show, Tom. There he is. Wow, that was incredible. That's a highlight right there. He mentions P.T. Carroll, and there's P.T. just showing up. He summoned me. You're some kind of piss, P.T. Carroll. I'll tell you that. What about that?

I mean, that's amazing. I love that one. That's incredible. Got a little note here from Ant Evans. More than half of the fans in the chat who have been on fire today. Thank you very much. I saw the thumbs up come in there. More than half of the fans in the chat

think neither Jones nor Miocic will actually fight Tom as an injury replacement. Over 85% feel he is the real heavyweight champion. Ant's been on fire, by the way, with the, uh, with the, uh, the polls and everything. So thank you very much to him for all the hard work. And, uh, that's, that's actually, by the way, PC, that's actually a really interesting thing. I didn't even think of that. If one of the guys withdraws and I, I, I think that they are obviously preparing and, and,

and I feel like the fight happens. I guess there's a chance that one of them says, thanks but no thanks, I'm out. Yeah, I absolutely believe that's what will happen. Oh, you feel this is happening? Or if it comes to that? If it comes to that, I feel like that's what will happen. You only have to listen to what Jones has been saying.

He has made no positive kind of acknowledgement of wanting to fight Tom. So yeah, I think that's, even if that happens, we hear something pulls out on fight week. I feel like that's just, that's just the beginning of a saga that will fall over the next few days.

Like, will it actually happen? I think John is trolling him when he does that. I hope so. Cause I'd love to see the fight. Like, I mean, that's,

that's a tremendous fight it's nearly taken the mantle that was in ganu v jones yeah it's now jones v aspinal like which is a good thing for the ufc right when in ganu goes to pfl that that conversation quickly gets taken over by aspinal and jones but the only problem is they can't make either of them happen so i mean that's a that's, that's a bit of an issue. What is not an issue, I don't know if you've noticed, but the sun is setting a little bit in New York, and you can see behind me, it's getting a little darker.

Is it not? I was not lying. The way windows work like that. There it is. Look, it's a little cloudy. What about this set, huh, Pizzi? We've come a long way. We need to work on that deck That was the last one, yeah?

Oh, wow Dude, you said you weren't going to say that on the air Okay, sorry There's some differences The desk is smaller, which I like Which makes it more intimate Need to work on this Dan Hooker Skateboard that keeps falling

It's fallen three times, I believe And it makes a loud You would think that after the first time You would have just left it on the ground skateboard that keeps falling. It's fallen three times up there. Yeah, yeah. And it makes a loud. You would think that after the first time you would have just left it on the ground. No, I wanted it. I wanted it up there. But nevertheless,

there is a big football game coming up tonight, which we have to get ready for. A lot of traffic around MetLife. So we need to be cognizant of that. And I do want to remind you that we're back tomorrow and we're back on Wednesday

and the boys in the back here on Thursday and then PT on Friday, all at 1 p.m. Eastern. And it's amazing looking at this. It's amazing taking it all in because not that long ago, I might be getting ahead of ourselves here. I don't know if we have that. I didn't look at the thing.

Oh, do we have that or no? The picture at the thing. Do we have that or no? The picture that I asked you for, Rick, or no? No. Okay. I was going to do a whole shebang. It's tough. Yeah, that is tough. That was louder than the other times.

It's tough. That is tough. That is also louder. But overall, I think everything went pretty well, right? I mean, considering the fact that 35 minutes before the show, two of our cameras weren't working, I'd say we landed the plane at this point, right, Frank? Oh, wow.

No? Yeah, I agree. Good show, man. Yeah. Your mic sounds good? Yeah, it sounds better than it did this morning. Are we wrapping up? It sounds like we're wrapping up. Yes, kind of. I mean, what else? Is there anything else? I feel like there is one more thing. There's something

that I feel like would be appropriate to kind of like celebrate the end of this. I don't like surprises. Is there surprises? There's a little bit of a surprise. Is someone going to walk in with a belt? No, nobody's going to walk in with a belt. We can do one better. Oh, God.

Oh! Oh DJ Alexa My man Errol Wani I want to wish you nothing but the best I want to wish you the best I know you're going to fucking kill it You are the best in the business I was going to show my support

Errol Wani knows Man uh i'm super excited for you to be able to go off on your own to build the own your own content as i am on that journey right now you've always been a big inspiration to me and i appreciate you believing in me and my skill set and also the content that i am creating as you always know if there's anything you ever need do not hesitate to reach out to your boy like you said man when you come shooting for the king make sure you don't miss deon darkest here from the buffalo i want to say congratulations to the huge launch of the helwani show you already know it's your boy deon darkest knock him launch of the Helwani show. You already know. It's your boy. Dion Dawkins? Knock him dead.

Of the... Dude. Pablo. What you have done is... What the fuck is this guy? ...is legitimately inspiring and incredibly impressive and jealousy-inducing. Congratulations on being...

And this is a thing that Dan says. I co-sign it. I'm an actual pioneer in this industry. You deserve everything. Congrats. Wow. Congratulations, brother Helwani, on the new endeavor. And all the boys over there, Yahoo, Uncrowned.

Bad, bad. It's fucking going down. I love you guys. Oh, my God. I love bad, bad. You may ask yourself, why is this asshole wearing sunglasses indoors? And it's because everything that Ariel Helwani is doing is way too bright for my eyes. It's incandescent.

I cannot handle what it feels like to be in the shadow of all his empire building. I am presently in a bomb shelter just because he's making so many explosions in the sports media world. Congratulations to La Nariz. La Nariz keeps getting bigger. All right, what is it? Are we saying vertical? Do we say vertical? He's calling this thing a vertical.

Hey, Ariel, congrats, buddy. Oh, my God. Congrats on the vertical. Does this seem sincere? I don't even know what he's doing. Let's just do another one. Ariel, I hear everything's going great, man. I know you got the new launch.

Looking forward to seeing you succeed before being fired. Good luck on the thing you're doing for now before the next thing. I'll congratulate you on it because you're not doing this thing anymore Wow Ariel Cheal Congrats I guess Okay

One more Hey Ariel Glad everything's going well buddy If I can ever be part of myself I I'd love to join you over there. Oh. I don't want to be. I don't want to be. All right.

Let's just do one last one. Ariel, congratulations on everything. I got to tell you, I'm not surprised. I think that covers it. What's up, Ariel? I'm in Greensboro heading back to California. I wanted to make sure that I sent you a big congratulations. In the car.

Launching Uncrowned and keeping the Ariel Hawani show going. It's been a staple of this. Come on, join us. For a really long time. You are the best reporter in MMA, hands down, man. I'm glad that you continue to benefit from your hard work. I know you're gonna do a tremendous job so uh dc my corporate dc you're winning you just keep winning oh my god

i'm emotional right here how did you guys pull that off that's some big guns right there i mean how about that yo that was incredible we called in some favors we sent some text messages fucking hell i i gotta say um i gotta give credit to jordan who i was just about to say who's the we this was all rick and jordan wow thank you guys i see the problem with me is when i see things like that then i'm like oh were they bothered were they annoyed now i feel guilty now i have to text them a thank you and i feel like i'm not worthy of this type of love but this is friends You're amongst friends I gotta say, how did you get Deon Dawkins?

I know all those people We had to pay for his cameo I 1000% believe that But those are the friends Fucking hell, that was amazing But I feel like it wouldn't be complete If we didn't If we didn't bring in

The family Stop, don't do the family hi my name is leon i'm five years old and i'm an uncle oh my god i wish you good luck that's my idea oh my god i just wanted to congratulate you on the launch of your new MMA show with Yahoo. We've always been so proud of you, not just for what you've accomplished in your career, but for the passion and dedication you bring to everything you do. From watching you grow up, loving sport, to now becoming one of the most respected voice in MMA. It's been such an incredible journey.

This new chapter is so exciting and we know that you're going to make it amazing just like everything you've done before. We love you so much and we'll be cheering you on every step of the way. Congratulations again. Love you. This step of the way. Congratulations again. Oh, I love you.

Oh, I love you. Oh, mama knows. Oh, gosh. Now you're going to make me cry. I wanted you to know how proud I am of you for reaching this exciting milestone. And I can't wait to see all the great things you'll accomplish. Without them, I'm nothing. Without you.

And I love you very much. Interview skills from mom. Hi, Ariel. I just wanted to say how proud we are of you. And good luck on your new show. We love you. It. Interview skills from mom. Hi, Ariel. I just wanted to say how proud we are of you and good luck on your new show. We love you. It's been an amazing journey and you and your team should be so proud of yourselves

and we can't wait to see where you guys go on this next chapter. I predict the show will be amazing. Oh my God. And a lot of people will watch it and enjoy it. I hope so. Good luck. Good luck on your new show.

I love you. The last one. The best. Legends. You're going to do it. Good luck. That was incredible. That was amazing.

Did Jordan get those too? Yeah. Jordan did it all, if we're being honest. Jordan, like, did this by himself. Jordan actually just showed up today with all these things. You know what I mean? Yeah. Is that it?

That's it. Oh, thank God. Now we're actually done. Now it's the strangers. Congratulations on the launch. Congratulations to you guys. That was for random people on the street guys I still wanted to talk about Tatura Tyra and Brandon Roy

It was a great fight Yeah I mean if you're really Chomping on the bit we got a Super chat from Jason Carney asking For fight news for Jessica Rose Clark So I know you're dying to I believe it's champing at the bit It is champing at the bit

Someone actually told me recently that that was like a big pet peeve. Notice how the sun changed. You saw that? Is that a real window? Yeah. The way a window works is truly incredible. Just anything to divert and avoid the emotions

that just... 1,000%. Now that we've already... Let's not address that. That's reminiscent of what you and Andy Mayer did for UFC 300. Not UFC 300. Episode 300.

Episode 300. A throwback to that. But yes, Jordan, Jordan start to finish killed that. So shout out. Thank you guys. Thank you so much. I appreciate you all very much. I don't have any news on Jessica Rose Clark.

She's over there though. You can see her right there. She's on the set. Man of my word. Man of my word. Yeah, it's been a great day. And we get to do this tomorrow. What are the plans?

Do we get to stay? Do we stay in? Are we doing one tomorrow? Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm for Clempt. PT, who do you have on the show Friday? Have you done it yet or what? Can you get on that?

We got Paul Hughes. I went down to Belfast. Oh, there it is. Up to Belfast. Went to a different country to secure an interview for the show oh perfect so it went it's paul hughes and it should be the great don hardy oh i love him for the show it's a big weekend we'll be having a preview for the uh paul hughes interview with pz carroll on boys in the back on thursday it's a lot of P.T. Carroll on the show.

Get you ready for that Paul Hughes interview on Friday. Amazing. Amazing. I mean, we've got some pretty important things to do tonight with this fancy football team. I was going to say, you keep talking about Jordan's got his Jets fandom, you've got the Bills fandom. The fantasy football team is on the line tonight. We've got Josh Allen and James Cook,

and the people who are playing the Cooligans have two Jets. Garrett Wilson and Bryce Cook. And the people who are playing, the Cooligans, have two Jets. Garrett Wilson and Bryce Hall. Yeah, yeah. It's Bills versus Jets in fantasy football, too. And Kincaid. They've got Kincaid as well. What's the score? What's the score?

82 to 80 right now. Our way. We're good. We're projected 113. They're projected 112. Me and Pete, you'll be texting it out. My thumbs will hurt by the end of the evening. We're good.

It's an emotional few weeks, like two losses in a row. There's a big difference between four and two and three and three. I'll tell you that much. Massive. And Oceans is harder. I probably should have put this on, not on the headphone. But, yes, speaking of the Buffalo Bills, thank you so much to my friends at the Bills for giving me this.

I screwed this up big time. Dude, we just got you that microphone. We told you not to move. Look at that. Do you see it? Can you see it now? Yeah, we see it. We see to move Look at that, do you see it? Can you see it now? We see it, what is that, 8 point font? It says the Ariel Helwani show

It was a long message, it was a long name 24 for 2024 The new era is here No better time than now To launch this and I'm so happy That this first episode is in the books And that we get to do it all tomorrow Frank, I've been waiting to do it all tomorrow.

Frank, I've been waiting to say this since 1.01 p.m. Eastern time. You get my music. About that. There is no music. Okay, Jesus. By the way, you joke, but a little hot now with the music or? Just in your can. Got to touch your man in there for a second. No, I mean.

Well, they really warmed it up. No, I'm one step away from hypothermia you see the this is your flu game this is no not the flu game doing the show in 74 degree uh there have been times where like we had Paolo Costa in studio and he was legit sweating like it was like pouring off of him remember that time um yeah then frank had to come in and microphone right on his chest sweaty chest oh yeah those were the days i listen i like it hot i don't know david letterman historically has always uh had his studio at like legit 50 degrees fahrenheit that was the thing and they said it was the equipment he likes it i like it toasty i think that you're at your best when you're hot You know I'm a warm

Blooded middle eastern man And so Yeah that's the way I like it But I'm happy that this episode is in the books Thank you very much to everyone Everyone who has worked so hard not easy There was once a time not that long ago Where this studio was just a green screen

and we've come a very long way. Although this is all real by the way, this isn't a green screen, but there was one here before. So thank you to every single person out there who has made this happen. Go check out uncrowned.com. Please subscribe to this show. Press the subscribe button, the channel,

hit the like, all that stuff. Go subscribe to all the feeds on social. Thank you to the crew back there. I can't thank them enough. Thank you to everyone at Yahoo. Thank you to everyone in my life who helped make this happen. And thank you to all our guests who joined us today. Thank you to all of you.

I love you all. Back tomorrow, same time and place. Until then, I say peace. I'm out of here.