The Ariel Helwani Show - Yahoo! We’re back! A behind the scenes look at the launch of our new era

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

The boys are back! Ariel, NYR, GC and Frank recap a crazy summer in their lives, while talking about how they ended up at Yahoo! Sports and all the exciting Uncrowned plans in the works.Plus, they talk about our live show this Friday at The Venetian in Las Vegas, our launch date, and more.And a little fight talk, too: Demetrious Johnson’s retirement, Sean Brady’s win and the vibes ahead of this weekend’s massive events in Sin City.Enjoy! And welcome back.

Hey everyone, welcome back. It's great to be here. I've missed you. We've missed you. And yes, we didn't announce this. This was a surprise. But you know, it's a Monday afternoon. There's a lot going on in the world of combat sports and something felt off. Something was missing. And so yes, we're not in our studio. We're not live on YouTube. We're not doing the usual show, but we wanted to drop a surprise pod because truth be told, there's a lot we need to talk about. There's a lot that we haven't been able to talk about. There's a lot that we need to share. And if I'm being honest, there's a lot that needs to get out of the way so that we can truly move on with this very exciting new chapter in our lives,

all of our lives. And so we are here on a Monday afternoon in New York City at the beautiful Yahoo Sports offices. And I say we, because of course I'm not doing this on my own. I am Ariel Helwani, joined as always by New York Rick. Hello, Ariel. GC. How we doing, man? Mysterious Frank. What's going on? We're all in here in a cramped little podcast room.

It doesn't have the glitz and glamour that we are used to. Why? Because our brand new studio is being built as we speak. But we wanted to do this. We wanted to drop this because this is a very big week in our lives. And let's be honest, it's is a very big week in our lives. And let's be honest, it's been a very big three, four weeks and a very big summer as well. And so my thought process was it's Monday. A lot of you have told us that you've missed us.

You're used to hearing us on a Monday, especially big pay-per-view fight week. Makes sense. But I wanted to get all the business out of the way. I wanted to get the behind the scenes out of the way. I wanted to get to how we got here out of the way so that when we do our big show on Friday in Las Vegas at the Venetian, at the Yahoo Sportsbook on the floor, taking over the casino, a stone's throw away from the sphere this Friday, by the way, September 13th, and I'll get to all those details. I wanted to get all this stuff out of the way because on Friday, we could then focus on the fights, on the glitz, the glamour, Sin City, the dual fight night, Canelo versus UFC 306. And so get into all of that, talk about all of that, and then we'll get ready to talk

about what's going on on Friday. There's so many emotions, there's so many thoughts, there's so many feelings inside, because this only occurred to me as we were packing up our old studio at Vox Media and coming here. Someone mentioned the address of the Yahoo Sports offices, and it kind of struck a chord. And then all of a sudden, I started putting two and two together. And then all of a sudden, I started to realize that this address and this floor were very familiar. And then I went into my emails, and I typed in this address, and I typed in this floor and then all of a sudden emails from 2009 were popping up of me inviting people to come to this address and this floor to take part and be a guest on the original the MMA hour. Not only that, Fight House Radio, the three episode run that we had,

emanated from this building on this floor. How is this possible? I'll explain. Yahoo bought AOL a couple of years ago. The MMA Hour originated on AOL in 2009, June of 2009 to be exact. We were there for two years before SB Nation slash Vox bought us. And then we went over to them and I was there until 2018. Same floor, same building is absurd. Rick wasn't even back on the team then. GC was in like second grade. Yeah, I didn't even really know what AOL was. 2009?

2009? Nah, high school. Ninth grade. Surely you had heard of AOL. No, I know. I'm just kidding. Okay. I'm only kidding.

AIM is the messenger? Yeah. And that's how you got the women back in middle school. Uh-oh. Was it that? No, that was ICQ. Oh, you did ICQ? Yeah, ICQ was big in Canada.

Do you guys remember Yahoo Insta Messenger? Yeah, of course. Of course. By the way, that was actually my favorite. Oh, really? I never used it. I actually had no idea what that is. I had no idea what that was.

I didn't know. Was that a thing? It was a thing. It was their competitor to AIM. Oh, AIM. Pure nostalgia.Messager. Oh, AIM. Pure nostalgia. MSN, ICQ, AIM, and then WIM or Yahoo InstaMessager. But I digress.

No, okay. Well, it's just kind of, it's still very eerie because obviously the lobby looks the same. The elevator looks the same. And it's all coming back to me, those early days, the embryonic stages of the program. And the floor looks completely different. They renovated it. It's Yahoo Sports, but there's still some remnants of AOL. Like you look at, like I saw like a mail cart thing and it says AOL on it. And so it feels like what's old is new again. It feels full circle and it's just wild being here. And I'm so happy to be here with the

guys and yeah, I can't wait for the launch. So let's take a step back and discuss a little bit how we got here. In case you missed it, we are no longer the MMA Hour. We now work on a show called the Ariel Helwani Show. And we have partnered with Yahoo Sports. And this is a really big deal for me personally. When I left ESPN in 2021, I had thought about doing something like this, but when it came down to it,

I didn't quite feel like I was at that point. I wasn't ready. I've always looked up to the likes of Pat McAfee, Dan Lebitard, Dan Patrick, Rich Eisen, Bill Simmons. They all had their own kind of empire and own operation and that's where I wanted to be. I wanted to get there, but I didn their own kind of empire and own operation. And that's where I wanted to be. I wanted to get there, but I didn't feel like I was there just yet. And so I was able to build a real cool situation for myself where I was working for Vox, I was working for

Spotify slash The Ringer, did this year for these guys, that for these guys, that for those guys, and it was all very nice. But once the three years were done, I really had my heart set on own operation, owning the content on my YouTube channel, on my podcast feed, because last few years I've asked people to jump around, to subscribe here, to subscribe there, to follow me here, to follow me there. And I don't like doing that. I want to have a permanent home. And so when the time came to decide the next steps, and it really started to ramp up in the spring, the main thing that we told everyone, and when I say we, it was mainly myself and my agent, Jerry, who was fantastic throughout this process. We wanted to own, we wanted to, you know, have it on our feeds

and we wanted everyone to come with. It wasn't just me. Everyone had to be a part of it. Everyone had to be, you know, included in the deal and then some. And much to, you know, my happiness, a lot of people were open to this. Vox were great to deal with. Ringer slash Spotify, great to deal with. There were a couple other entities who I don't feel like I need to share at this point. They were great as well. There was a solid five offers, I would say, on the table. And one that emerged was from our new friends here at Yahoo Sports. And this was a really intriguing one for me for multiple reasons. Number one, there's a man named Ryan Spoon who I used to work with at ESPN.

In fact, EJ actually reported to him. Reported to somebody who reported to him. Two levels. But yes, I knew Ryan. He was incredible at ESPN. He was great to work with. And around the time that we left ESPN, he also left maybe a little bit before.

It was kind of around the same time. He went to BetMGM. And that's actually how I got hooked up with BetMGM. And then he left BetMGM and went somewhere else. But last fall or so, he was named the new president of Yahoo Sports, which opened my eyes because, you know, Yahoo was once a behemoth. Then maybe there were, you know, some some tough times.

And now I felt like, OK, they were really rebuilding something. And I said something in the video when we announced this. I said, it's not your granddaddy's Yahoo Sports. And I think some of the old guard were a little bit upset or maybe offended, like, hey, what is this guy taking shots? And I was mainly, to be honest, referring to the combat sports section. But what I was just trying to really say is that it's a new era here. There's a lot of new faces. There's a lot of new leadership. And there's people that have come over from some really incredible spots, some people who are incredibly talented and accomplished, like Ryan Spoon. And so when of a roadblock a couple of years ago,

but now contender status, baby, beasts of the East. And that's what I felt like the vibe was here. And I got to meet Sam Farber, who was the head of content, used to work at the NBA, very impressed by him. And when Rick, Jerry, and I came here, you know, around a month or so before I left for Paris, I was really impressed with the vibe at the office. I was impressed with how they designed the office. I was impressed with the people here and it really started to become a very intriguing thing. Now again, this was a tough one.

I don't like change. I don't like moving around. I don't like change. I don't like moving around. I don't like, you know, starting over, all that stuff. And so I was very comfortable at Vox. I was comfortable at The Ringer, at people there that I loved working with. And there were some new players involved that I was really intrigued by as well. But every step of the way, I felt like they answered the call, they being Yahoo. They were open to things.

They were open to ideas. They were open to ideas. They loved our ideas. They wanted us. They were checking in. They were into combat sports. They loved combat sports. They loved the vision, all that. And the one thing that I really loved about all this is the cherry on top

that some couldn't necessarily equate was the website arm, uncrowned.com. Wasn't just about the show, wasn't just about the YouTube channel. It was the two-pronged approach. As I referred to some people, like it was the Grantland. And I really, really wanted that. Now, some people did offer that, some didn't,

but I just loved the entire package here. It was really, really intriguing. Now, I'm the kind of person, and sorry for going a little long here, but I wanted to get all this stuff out of the way and then we can all kibitz as you will. But I'm the kind of person that I like to think, I like to overthink, I like to analyze, but then I also like to make decisions. And I get a little bit antsy. I get a little bit, I don't know, I start to lose

patience. And so I want things done yesterday. And so in my mind, I was like, okay, this is going to be wrapped up by July 23rd. That was the date that I always had in my mind, July 23rd. Why July 23rd? Because that was the day that I was going to Paris to cover the Olympics for CBC. And I'd known about that date last year when I agreed to it. And the timing was going to work out. It was going to be the end of my contract. Either we'd take a little break and we'd come back or we'd finish things up and start a new chapter. But in my mind, I was like July 23rd. Well, as fate would have it, mid-June, late June, early July, things were still very much up in the air. And I was telling the guys here about things. I was telling them, honestly, they may not believe me, but I was oversharing, I thought. I usually like to keep everything. I don't even like to

tell my wife things because I feel like if I speak things into existence, they will get, you know, jinx. Things will fall apart um but i was trying to tell them and i don't know if they were believing me or not did you guys believe me i believed i mean yeah i mean of course we believed you okay uh because sometimes i was like i really don't know i really don't know and uh it was true i really didn't know i think that was the thing like of course we believed you but it was just like, I don't want to say vague. Like you were telling us everything you knew. It was just like there wasn't necessarily anything to report. I think sometimes, yeah.

I'm in a very unique position, right? I've kind of put the faith and been rewarded before. So it was easier for me to just be like, yeah, I know. Yeah, it was essentially just standing by. Yeah. And by the way, I recognize that that's not an easy thing because you're, you know, I'm there on the front lines. I'm getting whatever updates that I'm getting. You guys are waiting for my update. And so you're standing by about something that pertains to your life.

And so I was trying to share as much as possible, but there were times where I didn't know or I didn't have. And I was starting to be like, okay, like this is the, this is really going down to the wire and it's, it's probably not going to get done by July 23rd. And so I know some fans were saying like, you never said goodbye on the MMA hour or the ringer show. And the truth is I couldn't say goodbye. I, I did. I remember this. There was, it was a show a Monday after the Jake Paul fight, the Terrence Crawford, um, episode. And I remember this. It was a show, a Monday after the Jake Paul fight, the Terrence Crawford episode. And I remember saying,

this could be the last time I'm sitting here or it might not be the last time. And that was the truth. When I left the studio that day, I did not know how the cookie would crumble. I really didn't. You know, was I feeling this way, that way? Yes, but there was no definitive answer.

And so that was weird. And I, that way? Yes. But there was no definitive answer. And so that was weird. And I wish that wasn't necessarily the case. Maybe it made it less emotional. Last time I said goodbye on that set, I was crying like a baby. So maybe, you know, maybe I avoided that. But there was a part of me that was like, all right, I guess I won't be able to say goodbye here. And then there was a part of me that was like, all right, I guess I won't be able to say goodbye, you know, on The Ringer show because I didn't know how that was going to pan out. And I had already exhausted all the episodes that I owed them. So it wasn't exactly as clean as maybe I had hoped or had envisioned. But, you know, again, that's the way things go. And so I leave. Can I just say one thing? Yeah. I think people have to understand this. If you did it that way, you would have shortchanged yourself. By seeing it through to completion, knowing that these are the right decisions, you heard every option and you picked ultimately what was the right one.

If you had cut that process short, you would have shortchanged yourself. Yeah, that was the thing. I think you needed to see that all the way through and you did. And that is how ultimately I feel like you arrived at this. It's a great point because I was imposing a fake deadline. You made it based on like all these other things have to fall into place. But in reality, you needed to see this all the way through so that you could feel at ease and feel like you didn't leave something behind, leave something on the table. And that's what you did.

Yeah, no, it's a great point because at some point in early July, I was like, yeah, screw this deadline. Like it's going to happen when it's going to happen. And we made it this far. You know, we just have to see this out in the best way possible. And it's not the same for those I may not know. Like it's not the same as saying like, hi, I'm going to work for you. And that's that. Like this was a very complicated thing because of the ownership, because of the stuff being built, because of the people coming on board, et cetera, et cetera. So it made it very complicated. And I had to respect that, you know, that process, if you will. But it was wild because I leave, I'm now in Paris, involved in like the most challenging slash rewarding rewarding experience of my my professional career and like the days are long i'm six hours ahead of you guys and i'm so immersed

in gymnastics and swimming but at the same time my entire career is potentially getting blown up not in a bad way but it's just a lot to process as opposed to being like, no one bothered me for two weeks. I'm all Olympics all the time. I was doing both. And that made for some stressful moments. Yeah. You had a huge thing that you were going through while at one of the most stressful and important other, you have two very important and very stressful things happening at the same time, which is hard to juggle. And you, you did it quite well. Thank you. But once we got to Paris and a couple of days in, it started to crystallize a little bit. And it was very exciting because I was starting to realize like the thing that I dreamed of having my own show, Ariel Helwani show. That's what I always wanted. I had always been hesitant to use that name because I didn't

feel like I'd earned it. Anyone could throw their name on a show, but like I wanted people to know what that was and what that represented. I was admittedly getting annoyed when we'd have like Canelo on the show and people would be like, it's not about MMA. Where's the MMA talk? Also, we hadn't been an hour long for like 10, 15 years. So that's all gone. Thank the good Lord. And everything was coming together. The ownership, the website, the days of the week, the people coming over. And it started to really crystallize a few days in to where I was starting to really get excited. Now you still have to see things through and get it over the line. And there's little details here and there. But once

I started to get, and I'll always look back on that time in Paris as like, I was able to appreciate and keep reminding myself, this is stressful, but this is good stress. You're going to be 80 at some point, God willing, and dream of these days when you were working at the Olympics and also building this thing with your friends and your colleagues and exciting and a new chapter and all that stuff. And so I was appreciating it while in the midst of this incredible experience in Paris. And we did a couple of shows together, which were weird because I was doing them in the afternoon, you guys are in the morning. I just couldn't wait to get on the same time zone as you guys because it felt like everything was just somewhat out of sync. But ultimately, like I said, Yahoo continued to come to the table. Ryan and Sam in particular, we were able to reconnect with Matt Ufford, who we had worked with at Vox, who we had worked with at ESPN as well. So that was a reunion of sorts. Other people started to come up, people working on the sales

team. It just all started to feel very fresh, very exciting, very promising. And it was really towards the end of the Olympic period where I was like, okay, this is happening and this is a real thing. And, you know, I had to film the goodbye from my hotel room in Paris. I had to film the hello from my hotel room in Nice, France. The internet was super damn slow. It was not ideal to upload an 11 minute video from a hotel room in Nice, France. The internet was super damn slow. It was not ideal to upload an 11-minute video from a hotel room. I was sweating it out. There were a million different emails and phone calls and stuff like that. And there were moments like, oh, why can't I enjoy this European adventure that I had planned with my kids? But again, I was always, and my wife, I was always trying to appreciate like, I will never forget this. This is an incredible way to start something new. And it was fun. By the way, like the mornings up

until three o'clock was great because all of you guys were sleeping and no one was bothering me pretty much. And then come like three, four o'clock, everything would come fast and furious, all the texts and emails and all that. But I was really, I'm actually, dare I say, except for maybe one day, proud of myself that I was able to not let it overtake my emotions or compartmentalize things in a way where I'm able to take a step back, appreciate what's going on, the stress of it all, and actually welcome the stress as opposed to crumble under the stress, if you know what I mean. I've known you for a long time. I don't think crumble under the stress was even a possibility. I've just never seen, like, I know you to be very like composed, but what I was, what I have saw that was different. And I've known you for a long time was how much you were willing to seed controlled in a certain degree, right? Allow people to just say, Hey, I got this for you. Let me do it. And you sit back and be like, look, I'm doing this thing with my family. This is what I'm going to be doing. And I have to kind of sit back and let these things play out. And you did that to a high degree to a degree that I hadn't seen before. Oh, wow. And so I still

don't feel like I do it very well, if I'm being honest, but getting there that this was the shining example, if we're going to point to one, right. I would feel like this was, but yeah, there was a lot of, there was a lot of stuff moving at the same time. Oh, it was great telling you guys, like, you guys do the meeting and let me know how it went. Yeah. I love that. They'd be like, yeah, Ariel's not going to be on for this one. You know, he's over there in Europe right now.

The other thing that I really wanted to know about was the, how long did the 11-minute upload take? Because I've uploaded four five-minute videos and it's taken so long. First of all, I did that video four times because um the audio was bad i'm just like recording it on my phone you know of course and then i finally got the right loaded it onto your phone as well i was struggling with that because man thank god you can now upload more than two and a half minute videos on Twitter. And holy smokes, the thing goes slowly. The goodbye, the goodbye, I was in a coffee shop in Paris, even worse, sitting there and my family's like, oh, how long is this going to take?

And then I get the Twitter video upload. This is the goodbye one. And then I have to go on Instagram and do that one. Yes, because I went, when you uploaded it on Twitter, I went on Instagram and then I was like, oh, there's nothing there. And then I went like 20 minutes later, I was like, he must be struggling

to get this 11 minute video up. I'm like, I've been, I've been connected to ethernet trying to upload like a five minute video and it takes 10, 15 minutes to get up on there. And then the other thing was I had written out this whole long thing

about the hello video. And for some reason, I think you were here with Frank, Eric. Literally standing in the studio i was like every time i was copying pasting it it wasn't coming over correctly to my twitter i would write it in my gmail drafts and copy and it wasn't doing it so i had to literally go paragraph by paragraph and that was stressing me out as well your family is trying to like enjoy the vacation while this is happening oh yeah it was it was and you're just sweating

i know when could we go for dinner? Because at this point, I think it was like 6 or 6.30. And the other thing was, like, someone had asked me, when's it going up? Because I teased it the day before and I said 10 minutes. Well, it ended up being 20 minutes past the 10 minutes. So I'm seeing the tweets going like, bro, we're sitting here waiting. Oh, yeah. You gave the 10-minute warning.

I'm not going to lie. I saw that. I was just like, man, he missed the mark on this one. 25 minutes late or something. And I was like, why did I even do that? No one's waiting for this. Why did I even put this pressure on myself? But when it came to signing it and to realizing like we really got everything that we wanted,

everyone was able to come over. And by the way, I'll just say there are more people coming over, a lot more people coming over that you don't know about that hopefully you'll find out about in the coming days and weeks, which I'm extremely excited about. YouTube feed, podcast feed, the show name, the days, the show for you guys that we've been kind of talking about, the watch parties, PT's show, and then the website and all the people involved there. Honestly, a dream come true. Really a dream come true. And it was really nice when it was done, and then it was out there. And then I still had a couple of days left, and I went to a Chelsea match with my kids, and I went to the Spurs match. I was like, man, I just feel so lucky. I feel so blessed. And honestly, I have to thank Vox. I have to thank

Spotify and the other two entities as well, because they really made extremely good offers, offers that I would have been very happy with, offers that were very competitive, offers that almost got me exactly what I was looking for. It's just that the guys here like went above and beyond. And I felt very lucky to be in that position. And I felt very lucky that I was able to bring everyone that I wanted to bring over. I told everyone that that was going to be the case. When I said goodbye, people were doubting. I'm like, did you guys not hear two months ago when I said that that is a non-starter, but I get it. I get it. We kind of left you in the dark a little bit there, not because we were trying to be cheeky, but just because of, you know, we had to do it in a certain way. But it was a great three run. And I didn't go to Vox again, and I didn't go to Spotify thinking that I would leave in three years. I had grand visions. I didn't know if it would be another three years or six years or whatever. But as things started to move towards August 15th, which was my last day, I felt like I was ready to assume this, to be an owner,

to be someone who leads the way, to be at the big boy table, so to speak. And so what a process. I'm happy it's behind us. Now we have a whole new process in front of us, and that is building the spaceship. And that's where the gentlemen in this room and many, many others, and I don't want to name them all because I'm going to forget some, are involved in so many different components because it's not just the show and all that, but it's also the website stuff. And oh, by the way, we've tacked on this live show in Las Vegas this Friday, which has made things even more fun. But what's different about this, as opposed to when we came back to Vox in 2021, there's two big differences. Number one, there was a studio there already. So it was very turnkey. I took a little break after ESPN,

but we were able to come back. I think it was on August 15th and everything was pretty much set to my liking. This is different. There is no studio here. We have to actually build it. And that takes some time. And so that's number one. Number two, and I mentioned this to the guys, when I left Vox in 2018 and went to ESPN, I left alone. Eric joined me several months later, but I was just literally walking in alone. When I left ESPN to go to Vox, I left alone. People started joining me. Eric joined a few months later

and then obviously met Frank, met Connor, et cetera. This time I come with a crew, with a family, with a unit, with an army. And that is such a big difference because everyone has a role. Everyone has a job. Everyone knows what they want, what needs to happen, what needs to be done, what the show is, back end, production. Everyone in

this room has gone above and beyond, has done incredible work behind the scenes to get us to this point. And we still have some work to do, but it's been a lot of fun not being alone, not feeling like I'm on an island by myself. And so in the process, for those wondering, you keep saying, I'm seeing the tweets, I see the messages, miss you, miss you, when are you coming back? The current plan, I don't want to attach a date to it just yet

because I don't want you to be disappointed if we can't. But the current plan is we return in mid-October, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and it will be from the studio that we're building. Fresh look, fresh logo, fresh studio on the Ariel Helwani Show YouTube channel, on the Ariel Helwani Show podcast feed, which you're listening to this on right now.

And then we're business as usual, full steam ahead. The watch parties, PT Show, The Crack on Fridays on the YouTube channel, and we're adding shows as time goes along. That's the hope. Now, between now and then, we'll pop up here. We're going to pop up with a post show on Saturday. I could tell you that. Audio only post show from Las Vegas. We're doing our show on Friday. I'll tell you more about that in a moment. And we will 100% pop up more often between now and this mid-October date

when we're actually up and running with a studio live streaming on YouTube and Yahoo Sports on crown.com is going to also launch on that same date with all the articles and all the writing, which I'm so excited about because we're going to bring back great fight journalism,

great combat journalism with some of the best writers in the history of combat sports. It's been like an unbelievable experience being a part of all this. And I just can't wait to show it to you all. Just give us a little bit more time, a little patience,

but we're giving you stuff to nibble on. We're not going dark. We're not going to disappear. We're giving you stuff to nibble on. We're not going dark. We're not going to disappear. We're giving you stuff to nibble on. We just need a little bit more patience. That being said, this Friday, we'll talk about that. September 13th, this Friday, we're all going to Las Vegas on Thursday. We will be there for a live show at the Venetian Resort at the Yahoo Sportsbook 4pm Pacific

which is 7pm Eastern which is midnight over in London till around 6.37 Pacific so a three hour show. We're going to be live in front of the fans on the casino floor right before the ceremonial weigh-ins for the Sphere event

UFC 306 presented by Riyadh Season. Noche UFC. Or is it UFC Noche? Noche UFC. Noche UFC. You hit everything though. You hit everything. And we'll be there with special guests. The guest list is

looking fantastic. Some legends. Some familiar friends and faces and names. And it's going to be great. The whole crew will be there. PT will be there as well. Others as well. And that will be live on the YouTube channel, Ariel Helwani Show YouTube channel.

Subscribe now and the audio will be up on this feed. That is going down on Friday. And then on Saturday, and please, if you're in Las Vegas, it's free, no tickets. You could come check it out, hang out, watch, see the legends that are coming, see the guests that are coming, see all of us. And it's going to be a great time. I hope that there'll be a nice little audience there. And the weigh-ins, by the way, are happening in the parking lot of the Sphere for the UFC. We are literally connected to the Sphere. So you come to us and then go to them. It's a grand old time. The UFC, I'm sure, is very excited about all of this. So that's happening on Friday. And then we'll do a post-show. We'll be all together in Las Vegas after the UFC card. And also, don't forget Canelo, Edgar Berlanga happening on Saturday on DAZN pay-per-view. And so we'll react to all of that. I mean, this is like a real Las Vegas dream weekend.

Mexican fight fan or not, this is incredible. Canelo going up against Sean O'Malley versus Murab. Alexa Grasso versus Valentina Shevchenko, Diego Lopez against Brian Ortega. I mean, what a weekend. So I can't wait to get out there, and we'll give you that. That'll be sort of our soft launch, our kickoff event, our unveiling of the YouTube channel, or re-unveiling of the YouTube

channel, which you may have been a subscriber of already where I was doing my old interviews, which by the way, when I was here at AOL, was the channel that we used. Again, full circle, crazy. There's fan house interviews on that channel from 2009, 2010. Jerry Park interviews

on that channel from 2009. Unbelievably, we're going to do all that. So if you're in attendance, if you're in Vegas, please come by, come hang out and then go to the ceremonial weigh-ins. And if not, we'll be live on YouTube as well.

I think I got to all the business-y stuff. Yeah, I think you covered that quite well. I just, again, just so thankful and grateful for this opportunity. Here I am with you guys being able to do this the way we want to do it. People are listening to us. They're giving us the opportunity.

They're giving us the ball to run with. And it's just so fun to use this side of our brains, I think, as opposed to like, who's going to be on the show tomorrow. It's like we're having meetings and planning about the show as opposed to the content of the show, if that makes sense, which has been fun. Don't get me wrong. It was weird waking up on a Monday with my kids going to school and not worrying about like who's on the show. And I kind of have these mid panic attacks like, oh my God, I didn't book anyone. I didn't book Sean Brady on the show. Like I keep thinking that I can't really like enjoy the events without worrying about that, but we'll get there. And this will all feel like a distant memory and we'll be back in the, in the, uh, in the swing

of things. And, and for those wondering Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 1 PM Eastern, same slot as always, um, the exact same show. Remember I would, I. Remember, I would have the Jared Andersons of the world, the Canelo Alvarez's of the world, the CM Punk's of the world, the Becky Lynch's of the world, in addition to all the MMA fighters. MMA will always be the anchor, but we'll also talk a little boxing. We'll also talk a little wrestling. We'll also talk a little darts, a little football, both the American and world football, and whatever the hell else we want to talk about. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is the same type of show.

It's the Ari Helwani Show. Thursdays, that's when the boys take over. Have we said the name or no? I don't think we have unveiled the name. I think you did on one video because a couple people have tweeted at me. What is the name? The Boys in the Back. The Boys in the Back.

I love it. I love that name. Who came up with that, by the way? Was it Frank? The Boys in the Back came up is the name boys in the back the boys in the back i love it i love that name who came up with that by the way was it frank the boys in the back came up with the name i might get credit for that one we had two we were playing with yeah what was the other one or do you want i don't know what the what was the other one it sucks that's how bad it was yeah i'm not gonna lie the boys in the back is uh that was that was me because it came up i don't want to take credit or anything wait it was you it was you wow wow i gave it to frank and he tried to do the humble like no it was all of us you know i gave it to frank and he was like wow that's great i can't believe you just thought of that

off the top of your head i was like wow for months by the way i can't wait for you guys to see the logo i love the logo is i'm hype about the logo amazing that was amazing. That was Rick's idea. No, well, okay. I mood boarded, and then Connor brought things to life. He Pinterested it, then we brought it to life. I'm very excited. The logo is fantastic. Everything looks fantastic as we sit here today. And so that will be Thursdays, and then Fridays will be Pizzi's show, The Crack, and then Saturdays when there's a big event, or really when there's a big event on any day. It doesn't have to be Saturdays, but they're usually Saturdays when there's a big event or really when there's a big event on any day.

It doesn't have to be Saturdays, but they're usually Saturdays. We'll do the watch parties from here and there's other shows that are to come, boxing, wrestling, and God knows what else. And that's all in addition to the writing on the website. It's just a lot of stuff. It's a lot of stuff coming.

You summarized everything well. I just want to say I'm thankful to be a part of this. I can speak for all of us here like you know obviously as as you laid out we were we were involved in the planning of this but this doesn't happen without you doesn't happen without jerry doesn't happen about yahoo sports and all the people involved in like actually bringing this all together and making this happen it is also a dream come true for me like for for one like i get to see you do something that I think has been a long time coming. Like, I think this level of notoriety, I think the idea of launching your own thing has been something I've always wanted for you, but not necessarily like, and we, you know, we have a relationship where we could talk about these things. I, I don't know. I don't have the means to tell you or to help you figure out how to make it. I can't do that. You found the right people who did have the means to tell you how to figure out how to do this.

And I think you deserve this. I think this is like, this was the inevitable step and I'm happy for you as your friend, but also just like, so thrilled to be a part of it. Like I couldn't, if, if this came and went and I wasn't a part of this, it would kill, it would actually kill me. Like I, I want to be involved in this. This is something that like I want for you. And now I want for myself. And now I want to share with all these guys. Like it couldn't be more perfect. Yeah. That's another thing that you said is that like you walked in with a crew. It's great to walk into this office, which is still sort of foreign to us. Like we're, we're new to this space, but walking in and then I just go to a conference room and there's Rick sitting there.

And then there's Frankie sitting there as well. I'm like, what's up, boys? How we doing? I saw you in the kitchen when I came here. And that's the best feeling. Yeah, I'm standing in the kitchen. I turn around. Ariel walks in, big grin on his face.

He's like, what's up, man? I'm just like, what's up? It's an amazing feeling because we're all kind of, it feels like something that I wish I would have experienced that I never did. I always said I had a horrible time at Syracuse because I felt so lonely. And I was like, if I could just have one friend and it feels like I'm getting to be a freshman in college, but my best friends are coming with me. You know what I mean? That's a great way to compare it. Where's the student center? Let's go find out ourselves. Where do you get coffee? Let's go

find out where do we get lunch? As opposed to those jitters where you're like, hello, should I sit over here? You know what I mean? You're coming in with all your high school friends yeah just like we're taking over this shit it's such a difference it's it's amazing man and to echo everything that rick said i mean i couldn't be more thankful more grateful to be here i feel incredibly lucky and blessed just to be in this position i mean like you talk about like july of 2021 this was unimaginable for me an impossibility. You joke about like saving me, you know, like,

oh God, you got you out of ESPN radio and everything. You come to me in July of 2021 and present this to me. I would be like, where do I sign? My God, how could that ever possibly happen? And for a moment there, it looked like it wasn't going to happen, at least for you, because you ditched us and went to Atlanta. Yeah. Ditched is the wrong word for it. I think we're really high and dry. I think we're really throwing on the guilt here.

Yeah. That was something that just had to be done. What a strange timing, right? Oh, incredibly strange. So like, yeah, like peeling back the curtain a bit on it. My roommate moved back to Baltimore, who, if you know the real estate in New York, it's not cheap to live here. It's much more expensive to live here by yourself than it is with a roommate. Lost my long-term roommate of three years. Congratulations to him moving back to his hometown for a job. So my lease was running up in June. And like you said, there was a lot of unknowns. I did not know what was going to happen. Didn't know where we were going to be uh in the in the forecoming future and uh yeah i just couldn't commit to continue to pay very exorbitant prices uh not knowing the future so yeah luckily i have loving parents that took me

in for uh two months uh but every every time anyone was asked they were like are you coming back up to new york the answer was always 100. And never in my mind did it ever even waver that I was coming back up here. It did add a little pressure. I was just going to say. It added pressure on two fronts. Someone leaves, you never know what's going to happen. You walk down the street, someone's like, holy shit, here's the job of a lifetime for you. Or God knows, maybe you're back home and you like your mom's cooking.

You're like, you know what? This is way better than New York. So just when you left, I was like, man, we've got to do everything to entice him to come back. Not that I felt like you were leaving and I had to convince you, but just to make it comfortable. And it felt like when you left, like the countdown clock was really on, you know what I mean? Because like this couldn't, again, I didn't want it to drag to like September, but I couldn't let clock was really on. You know what I mean? Because, like, this couldn't, again, I didn't want it to drag to, like, September, but I couldn't let it drag to September.

You know what I mean? And what's so funny is that from my point of view, I thought I was doing it to take away pressure of just, like, all right, I'm going to go move here, and I can just chill until the dust settles. Yeah, it was the complete opposite. See, like, I was like, let me just go chill until the dust settles. There's no pressure on anyone. Every time we'd come to you on the show and you're in your freaking house, I'm like, well, this isn't right.

I can also promise you this. You're like, oh, if you like your mom's cooking too much. My parents would not have allowed it. Loving parents, blessed beyond belief to have them. The fact that they even welcomed me for the two months was tremendous,

but they were actually flying out of Atlanta the day that I flew back up here, and I gave them this long, like, can't tell you how much i appreciate you guys thank you so much you know this this has been amazing like a really it's been great getting to spend this much time with you blah blah and they're just like kind of nodding their head they're just like yeah you know we're happy to do it but uh let's never do it again all right see ya i'll see you guys later that's amazing yeah yeah i can uh i can see both sides of that i knew you were coming from that place of like trying to alleviate the

pressure and i can knowing you i know that you're just thinking i need to get this done so i can get him back here asap and get this thing started and just like i really did kept trying to reiterate i was just like i i want to do this so you can so you can can show. I see where you guys are coming from. I guess just in my own head, there was never a question of me coming back up here. It was just like those last, what was it? Mid June that you left?

Yeah. Left like probably like June 12th or something. Yeah. So like the last month and a half or so, it just was so different at the, at the Vox studio because I, as much as I love the show, I always loved the post show show, you know, the meet I love the show, I always love the post-show

show, the meet-up in the kitchen, whatever. On Wednesdays, so Eric was great because he ended up coming Mondays and Wednesdays, but you don't usually or didn't usually come on Wednesdays. I was thinking, man, she's going to be me and Frank in the kitchen. Sorry to disappoint.

It just felt empty. It didn't feel like the full the full crew that's why it's gonna feel that much more special yeah but also for her every day i have to say for like my own personally it felt the exact same way you know i would log on to this zoom and i'd be like what's up frankie how we doing man and he's dealing with some tech issues just like yeah what's up man and then just, it was just such a disconnect. And then kind of like you said, instead of going and just chatting shit about whatever happened on the show,

it was just like, all right, see you guys. Like there were sometimes where I like echoed into the control room. I was like, all right, if anyone's listening, I'm logging off. All right, see you, dude. Just, there it was. It's tough.

I mean, there were no technical issues. That was my biggest concern. Shout out to Frank.. It's tough. I mean, there were no technical issues. That was my biggest concern. Shout out to Frank. Shout out to Andy. I mean, they won. Yeah, and everyone at Vox. Joe and Alex. You know, like, it was as seamless.

Matt, Miles, everybody over there. Yeah, they took incredible care of me as well. I mean, I was getting any tech that I wanted. I had the microphone arm. I had 4K cameras. I will, like, we went to espn it wasn't quite we were spoiled by the vox experience and then we came back and it was just as good so and then and then we had to pack up all the stuff i was i was away i came back on august 26th and august 28th

we came here we packed up all the stuff and walked into that studio and it was all broken down and all our stuff were in boxes it was like man it's like it's it's a it's a it's tough to see the studio like that because i genuinely love that that place but we were able to bring all the stuff with us so there will be tchotchkes and toys toys that have now gone from aol to vox to espn back to Vox back to AOL I'm going backwards here multiple studios in Vox as well like throughout

different trips yeah you said something that I wanted to ask you about yes within this you said you didn't feel like you were

you were worthy of the Ariel Helwani show name yeah what was the what was the threshold for that what changes

what do you go through that then says, okay, now it's time? I felt in the last three years that I'd grown as a broadcaster that the show had outgrown the name, The MMA Hour. A, because it wasn't just an MMA show. B, it wasn't an hour long.

And that was the case a long time ago. And you'll recall at ESPN, I sort of, ESPN gave me a lot of confidence on multiple fronts. Before I went to ESPN, I never considered myself much of a p time ago. And you'll recall at ESPN, I sort of, ESPN gave me a lot of confidence on multiple fronts. Before I went to ESPN, I never considered myself much of a pundit. And they were like, no, we want you and Chael together. And I'm like, you don't want any other guests? You just want me? And they're like, yes. Then they're like, we want you to write columns. Columns, like you don't want just news, you want opinion? Yes. It was Ariel Helwani's MMA show. It wasn't quite the Ariel Helwani show.

It wasn't, you know, there still was MMA attached to me. And then over the last three years with the stuff that I did with Showtime, with HBO, with DAZN, with BT Sport, the wrestling stuff, I felt like people were starting to recognize me as not just an MMA guy, as a combat sports guy, or as just a sports guy. And that's a big reason why I wanted to do the Olympics. So I can show people I'm not just a

MMA, not just a combat, not just a regular sports guy. I could hopefully do anything in people's minds. And so I felt, part of it is insecurities. Part of it is just like, oh, you know, confidence. But I felt around two, two and a half years into this three-year process to get to this point. I was like, all YouTube page and I was doing those like weekly one-off interviews. And I was calling that the Aria Hawaii show. And that was my way of kind of dipping my toe into that water for the first time. Feels good. It feels good. And it's not a vanity thing. It's not an ego thing.

It's just like I grew up with the Howard Stern show. Totally. I grew up admiring Lebitard and Eisen and Dan Patrick and all those guys. And that's just what it is. And a hundred percent, like part of the motivation was I was getting annoyed with people saying it's not an MMA, but I will reiterate, it will always be an MMA show, but it's also going to be. And the best example is everyone knows that McAfee's bread and butter is football. That's his anchor.

That's his house. But then he'll talk about hockey and basketball and wrestling and MMA and all that stuff. And I kind of view us the same way with MMA being our football, if you get the analogy. I'll also give credence to like anytime someone would come on the show or like someone said something that made news, people would be xyz said on ariel's show yep like it was time it felt like it was it felt like it was time everyone like vox was open to that spotify was open to that um everyone was open like really it was it was a real like from a confident standpoint like the process was great you know like people were into it and and I will say, and I know people don't love when broadcasters talk about agents and stuff like that. But like, Jerry gave me the confidence

that I needed to believe around a year ago. Like he had the vision. A lot of agents in this business are very like, let me get you through the door at this network or this outlet. And then I'll see you in two or three years when your deal's up. And he's like, no, you're going to do this and you're going to do it for X amount of days and it's going to be yours and you're going to own it. And it helps that he also works with Rich Eisen who has that blueprint.

And I was like, all right, yeah, we can freaking do this. And everyone was open to it. No, not a single entity said, this is absurd. Not a single entity said, no. Like some said like, man, maybe we can't do this financially whatever but like no one's like what are you crazy laughing at it was like no it was the complete

opposite and then i had to make some tough decisions then you just have to go and and pick one um and i'm very confident that we made the right choice uh but but yeah that that in its own right was a journey to get to that point you know but i'm so excited it's so great to see like yes this is exactly what i wanted and i can't wait to just have the freedom to talk about whatever we want now i don't think that we're going to take liberties you know what i mean like i don't think we're just going to we're not going to like sit there and talk about politics um and stuff like that it will all be if you close your eyes and don't look at the logo or don't look at the name it's going to be the exact same show. Yeah. Adding one element to the show, which is our friend Pizzi from Dublin.

He will be a fixture on the show as well. Just like when I go to the guys for stuff, he'll be a part of it. And I think he'll bring a great new wrinkle to, you know. Oh, yeah. I have no doubt about that. You guys are on the Yahoo fantasy. I was just about to say, I mean, at the very bare minimum,

I mean, this guy's going to get off fantasy football takes like nobody's business. I mean, this guy debuting as a fantasy football manager, I've been helping him along the way. We've been in the trenches together. We're running the, everyone here at Yahoo,

that each show gets their own fantasy football team. And, uh, yeah, I mean, Pete's he is to say that he's in is like the understatement of the year. I'm in the trenches here worried about this guy. And he's like, they just proposed a trade.

He's going on and on about this trade. Freaky out. I got 80 texts about this trade that morning. And I was like, I got to a point where I was like, Pizzi, you got to chill. I'm like driving right now. We're going to figure this out. We're going to get it vetoed. Don't worry about it.

He's just like, he's writing up like eight paragraph emails to send to the league about how this is just like a violation of the oath of fantasy football. Didn't get a veto, by the way. Trade went through. We got the first one vetoed. Oh, okay. And there was a secondary one. Listen, why, whatever.

Do you remember what the trade is? It was Devante Adams and like one of the best, one of the other, oh, Tyreek Hill and Devontae Adams. Whoever is the, whatever show owns them, they're just itching to get rid of them too. And it's just like, this was your pick in the first and third round. Why do you want to get rid of them so bad? I actually am with PT. I think there might be a bit of collusion. I'm not going to immediately, but it

seems very suspect that we can figure that out at a later time. I mean, we still got Monday Night Football tonight. We're locked in a week one battle right now, and Pete Z has been sweating all day. I mean, I know you guys received it, the fantasy football update. The voice note. The three-minute

voice memo we got this morning, and it was delivered eloquently. I mean, he sounds like an absolute... I called him to tell him about the show that we're doing on Friday because he's going to be there as well, and all he is worried about is the fantasy football thing. All he cares about is that Thursday night

we're watching the Bills because Josh Allen and James Cook are on our fantasy football team. I love that, by the way. Thank you for that. He killed it. He killed it. He doesn't want to let us down,

which I can appreciate. He has taken this very seriously. He's also a rabid NFL fan. He's mentioning names that I've never heard of. Oh, he's in it. He's in it good. He told me about Greg Kittle and someone else, a guy on the Steelers, and I don't even know who that is. George Kittle.

George Kittle. What's hilarious you say that is, for some reason, people always want to call him Greg. I don't know why. Who's the other guy, the Steelers guy? He kept telling me about this thing, this matchup between the two, and I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. If it ain't Keon Coleman, I don't care.

I don't know, but he's Chris Alave, I believe, on the Saints. It looks like he might get his walk-in paper soon from our team. Oh, wow. Saints put up 47 yesterday. Breaking news from our team. Oh, wow. The Saints put up 47 yesterday. Breaking news? Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. You did it.

Yeah, there it is. Yeah, I mean, it's incredible how much he's into it and it's so funny that we have Puka Nakur on our team. We're really getting

into the weeds out here. He got injured last night during Sunday Night Football. PT is texting me off the chain. He's just like, I don't like the looks of this man.

This isn't good. And I'm just like, isn't it like 3 a.m. in Ireland right now, dude? Can you go to bed? He watches everything. It's incredible. It's a madman. It was great being in Paris

and meeting all the French fight fans and meeting people from all over the world. And one guy in particular told me that he loves, his favorite part of the show is when I'm waiting for a drop, I'm waiting for a breaking news, and Frank doesn't deliver it, and he sees me getting a little bit frustrated.

That's a real fan right there who notices things like that, right? That's exactly right. Yeah, are you kidding me? Yeah. Honestly, I consider a real fan if they can just give me surface-level stuff about the show,

but to do something that deep, that's a diehard. What about the side-eye? Do you remember that one? show, but to do something that deep, that's a die hard. What about the side eye? Do you remember that one? No, I don't remember that. We lose a Zoom guest for a moment and you're looking over at the confidence monitor waiting for us to tell you it's okay.

It became a trope. There is a... Silence is deafening, I'll just say. I think Ann Evans is a big fan of that one. He loves that. He does love that. Frank has been incredible from the technical side of things. I mean, you have really stepped up to the plate.

Dare I say, in the last month, you've made up for three years of... No, I'm kidding. How's it been, Frank? Tell us, how's it been? How's everything been? The experience has been great. Yeah, there's a good community of like-minded engineers here. We all like to kibitz at the water bubbler and talk shop.

It's actually kibitz. You know what? It's stronger on the kibitz. I'll take it over the engineer group, and we'll see if we're going to adopt that enunciation. I have to say, Frank, I was sitting with him at the lunch table, the community area, and a couple people walked by and he knew both their names. Wow.

How you guys doing? He's just like, doing great, Ben, thanks. I'm just like, wow. Regular in here, Frankie. I'm talking about town, Frankie. My favorite is when we're doing these meetings for, like, the September 13th show, Friday, Vegas, Venetian, for Pacific, 7 Eastern. And Frank and the

other technical guy on the call just completely take over. Talking about the X14 microphone. Today, today. They're like, the HBO 88, that's going to be dead. We're not going to be able to get that in eight weeks. He's just like, that's just a backup plan for the XR977. And he's just like, that's what I assumed.

You know, I'm not an opposite. I was just like, wow, this is great stuff, man. And there's like 18 other people on the call. It's so good. Nothing gives me greater joy than that. I hope you continue that. Absolutely. It's great when you guys, I don't even want to say nerd out.

It's very impressive. Yeah, it's being expertise. Yes. What they're being expertise. By the way, how do you feel about Friday's show, Frank? You've really... I'm stoked, man. That's what I love about this job is that the moment where i

feel like nothing about it when i'm not already thinking about how to solve problems i haven't even come up yet like it's not the job for me but the fact that that always happens and something to look forward to it's like it's like game day you know so yeah that's why i love when we do live shows when we change things up it's like i've got to tap into the engineering side, which is important. Like you don't want anything to get stagnant because then you just feel like you're probably repeating the same mistake over and over again. You're not even aware of it anymore. And one great thing about this situation, we'll be doing more of those. They're building us a Vegas studio, not just for us, but Yahoo Sports is building it.

And we hope to use it. It just so happens WrestleMania is in Las Vegas this coming April. It just so happens there's a lot of big fight cards in Las Vegas, including this weekend's cards. So very excited about that. Taking the show on the road. Down the line

we'll get back to the road shows, if you will, like the one we did in Newark, which was fantastic. Also, also, breaking news. What's the one dominant question that we've had over the last three years? Where's the merch? Where is the merch? Is Conor McGregor going to find Michael Jackson?

And that one. That has been about three years. There is a merch site, ariahalwani.com. We've got bottles. We've got cups. We've got shirts. There's new drops to come. There's a collab-o, if you will, with the great Action Bronson, which is absurd.

Yeah, thank you to Brandon in particular, who's a new member of the Helwani-verse, if you will, who's helped with that. So I feel pretty good about all the things we've done in the last month or so. You talked about it earlier. It's been chaos, but the type of chaos that you want to be in. Yeah, this is great, man.

It's actually kind of weird on Friday night slash Saturday when everything just kind of quiets down. It does get weird, yeah. And then Monday it ramps ups up it's like i could use like three emails right now yeah yeah something to respond to put some time on my calendar please for the love of god hell no please god no that has been something that i circle back on yeah yeah it's the the the same day like uh can you guys hop on a meeting in uh minutes? Hell yeah, let's go. Technically I can, yeah. Let's do it.

And Lord knows a lot of things have happened since we said goodbye. Obviously there was some overlap there. There was the Manchester card, which we did talk about. Leon Edwards losing to Bilal Muhammad. Bilal Muhammad, the new welterweight champion. Tom Aspinall, still the man in the heavyweight division,

the real heavyweight champion. The following week, there was the Terrence Crawford card in Los Angeles. There was the Abu Dhabi card as well on the same day. And then two weeks later, you had DDP versus Izzy in Australia, which was quite the event. So things are happening, and I know that we're not there to react to it all. This past weekend, we had a great main event between Sean Brady and Gilbert Burns. Sean Brady I think is

there was that whole thing about him being fraud checked which was weird. He's fraud checked by the current welterweight champion. Yeah the champion of the world. Yeah. He said he wanted to fight Ian Magado Cherry. Yeah that was a bit of a botch. I don't know if he meant to do it that way.

Like, was that a... I think that was his time to say his thing. I mean, dude, he just fought 25 minutes. Like, you're tired. The adrenaline's pumping. I think it was...

The good news is they're managed by the same guy and Lloyd can just hook it up. Let's make it happen. Yeah. I don't know if they're going to go in that direction, to be honest.

I still feel like they want Ian Gary versus Colby Covington. Makes sense. Sometime. Who knows when that will happen if they're waiting for Conor. But probably the biggest, and we're not going to get

too hot and heavy on the news, but we have to mention Demetrius Johnson. On Friday, Demetrius Johnson retiring, one of the greatest fighters of all time. I think he's one of four

all-time best UFC champions. Anderson Silva, Demetrius Johnson, George St. Pierre, and... John. And john jones of course uh that's the mount rushmore for me and i don't think that there's like if if i had a slot for five i would put jose aldo as the fifth um but i mean it's not a hot take to put dj as one of the top five best ufc fighters of all time mma fighters of all time. Even if you want to start including the faders of the world,

like he has to be in the conversation. And then if you want to do a separate list of non-PD, like there was never even a suspicion with him. There was never even an accusation. There was obviously never a positive test, never did anything criminal, never did anything to embarrass himself. The family, the company went to Juan,

Juan the belt, lost the belt, won the belt back. What a guy. And just one of the nicest human beings you'll ever meet. Been very, very kind to our show. I'll never forget. Remember that whole thing with TJ Dilsha? And he joined us from Hawaii. And this was like, for the longest time,

DJ was kind of like, you know, he was just sort of vanilla DJ. He wasn't giving the personality that we know him for now. You see him in the ring on Friday, and he's like, you know, he was just sort of vanilla DJ. He wasn't giving the personality that we know him for now. You see him in the ring on Friday and he's like, give me the damn microphone.

He was not that guy. He would never do that shit. Even the closing line, like, they wanted me to get back. He would never ever do that. But that interview, he was so offended

by the TJ stuff and how he was being painted as a bad guy. Remember, he was swearing. Oh, yeah. Now he doesn't stop swearing. Now he only swears.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it's amazing. But I was like, wow, okay. And then, ofaring? Oh, yeah. Now he doesn't stop swearing. Now he only swears. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it's amazing. But I was like, wow, okay. And then, of course, he gets traded. I'll never forget one thing about DJ. I'll never forget

till the day I die, A, how great he was to me and how great it was to cover him. And I always appreciated him and I feel like he's going to be one of those guys that we are going to appreciate

way more once he's done or now that he's done. I think we're already seeing that. Yeah. After he left the UFC. YouTube channels help. No, but after he left the UFC. YouTube channels help. No, but after he left the UFC,

I think people appreciated him more, actually. Like, I think he needed to, like, separate a little bit for people to appreciate him. A hundred percent. But I also really do think the YouTube channel is helpful. Oh, yeah, definitely. It was DJ versus Henry Cejudo 2 in Los Angeles. I don't know if I've told this story.

In Los Angeles, it was like a month into my time at ESPN and Vox was going head to head with me with their version, their new version of the MMA Hour. And I was doing the Ari Helwani or Ari Helwani's MMA show. And it was media day. And this was back when they were,

you know, they were bringing out all the fighters and you could just interview whomever you want for an hour. And then it was over. And I was sitting around talking to Mark Ramondi, who was still working at MMA Fighting. He had not come over to, you know, to ESPN just yet. And we're sitting around and DJ's coming to do, I think like his pre-broadcast interview or something photo shoot. And, you know, MMA Fighting was going toe to toe and they were having

trouble booking guests because they were going toe to toe. They believe that I was doing something behind the scenes. Not the case. I proved that I backed it up, et cetera. But at the time we were just a month in and, and Mark said something to him and, and I love Mark and he's doing a great job with the Falcons and I wish he was able to come with us, but he's got a great situation over there and I'm very, very happy for him. He's got his book coming out next year. So can't wait for that. The NWO book. Um, he said something about like DJ man, like you won't come on the show. And DJ says something to him. He's like, when to like, you know, I'm paraphrasing here, but he's like, when's your show Monday, same time as him. Yeah. I'm going on his show. Meaning he's like,

that's my guy. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll go on your show. And he's like, that's my guy. I'll go on your show. And I never asked him to say that. And at that point, it's weird. I'm going up against my old show and all that stuff. But he was just so loyal and so good to me. Every time I asked him to come on, and I know this is personal to me, but who says a bad thing about DJ? Who has ever said a bad thing about DJ who has ever talked any kind of crap about him or accused him or said that he mistreated a training partner what you know it's just what a guy that I was really happy someone said it was like his Mariano Rivera moment on Friday not everyone gets those moments you know in in fighting and I was so happy that a he went out on a win and and be like he was able to be celebrated and also that his family was there too because it was in denver if this was in singapore or the philippines maybe his kids aren't there you know so it was just beautiful stuff and him getting emotional and fighting the emotion he's going up he's like he started real emotional off that one oh so good

there is no perfect time right you can never do perfectly. But I feel like this is as close as you can get to a perfect retirement from the perspective that a lot of people will look at DJ and know that dude could still kick 99.9% of everybody's ass. Unreal shit. But had zero left to prove. Just not a thing in the world left to prove. Zero. It's very hard, right? You feel like somebody like Habib, there was still something left in the tank. He could have been somebody who gets to that Mount rushmore i think he was a little bit short just

because of like lack of time dj's there dj did all these things he's done everything under the sun but you still get the sense if you match them up with like any lightweight or at this point bantamweight because of his weight on the planet like he's gonna he's gonna come out victorious so it's it's a really good time he He really nailed the timing in my opinion. I also appreciated that it wasn't surrounding a fight. Like he wasn't the one fighting. There wasn't any pressure of him winning or losing or anything like that. You just got to give him his flowers.

They gave him a nice walkout. Like they just gave him. And he stole the belt. So it's all good. It was amazing. And I love the fact that he's just so comfortable and so at peace with everything. And now he's really going all in with the youtube stuff and then the jiu-jitsu stuff it's crazy to think about what you're talking about of how different he was when he used to

come on be the very like down the middle safe guy and now he's just flagrant with everything says whatever he was he's like i obviously am a newer fan of the sport and i wasn't really around for when he was such a dominant long-running champion in the UFC. I think one time I said to you, Rick, I was just like, man, I wish I was around for that DJ era because I'm seeing him coming on the show and it's so flamboyant and obviously I'm watching him fight and I'm like, this guy's incredible.

You're like, it wasn't really like this. He was way more reserved. He went to a lot of decisions. You were like, I feel like he wasn't appreciated as much in his time as he was like he went to a lot of decisions like it wasn't like i've you were like i feel like he wasn't appreciated as much in his time as he was afterwards so uh yeah they were putting him on on fox and main events and people were like oh not another dj and now like when dude when he was retiring any post i saw about him on friday was just doing insane numbers me too yeah the legendary picture of like him with all the belts like It felt like he got so much love.

It was great. Which is great to see because everything you just said, I mean, he's such a genuine dude and obviously such a wildly skilled fighter. A question for you. During this hiatus, are you still betting? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. On fights?

Yeah, yeah, on fights. You're not taking a break? I mean, you say hiatus. I mean, the last watch party I did was for the Izzy card. Yeah, but are you doing Brady Burns bets? I had no bets on that card. I did on the, gosh. I actually, what is so funny, I had four bets on that, clean sweeped it,

and the entire time I was on the MMA Hour, I never had a single clean sweep. Wow. Ever? Ever. Never had. I always came one bet short, and then the first card post the era,

I clean sweeped it. Wow, that is crazy. It's also nice, like, picking and choosing the cards that I bet on, like the Brady one. I was just like, yeah, this just isn't a card

I need to bet on. Obviously, 306, I'm going to have bets on. Yes. That's not a work-related thing. That's a fandom. I will definitely have bets on that. And, by the way, speaking of Spivak-Taibora, which will now forever live in infamy,

or what's the opposite of infamy? We need the trilogy. We need the trilogy as well. But infamy is a bad thing or a good thing? No, infamy is a bad thing. No, not necessarily. Ah, infamy? Oh, yeah, maybe. Because famous, infamy is a bad thing. No, not necessarily. Infamy? Oh yeah, maybe.

Because famous I guess would be the positive run and infamous would... Anyway, it goes down in history because Frank and Eric were at an Action Bronson concert. Can you tell the story? When I got this clip, I woke up to this

clip. I have to admit I'm a little embarrassed because it put me in the spotlight and it just makes me me this is one of the most amazing things to ever happen to it is amazing if only to say let me let me start by saying if you have not gone to see an action bronson concert if you if you have never seen him perform like you have to rectify it was absolutely incredible he's amazing you've been yes i wasn't at this one but i've been in the past and it's just it's such a an incredible experience frankie this was his number two the second rodeo um action bronson was performing three blocks from my house at a venue called mokahe's in wanton long island like literally next to my house and i was like we have we have to go to this right and

now this is two days before i'm leaving for my cruise my little vacation you're still gallivanting around the whole thing is it's wild there's so much going on um i go with frank and his wife tracy and my uh my brother-in-law um ryan we go to mulcahy's and we're just at the concert like we bought tickets and just wanted to go have a good time the venue's great according to frankie like he's let me know like it's a good venue like solid if i want to go see concerts at mulcahy's in wanton it's great um and uh we're just there enjoying the show we get like a really good position because frankie has told us where we need to go and selected a nice location. We're like kind of dead center, but like not like right up against it, but like maybe four or five rows from the front.

But like we're in a good spot. Good acoustics. Everything's great. Perfect lines of sight. Everything's amazing. Action's performing. It's an incredible show. I'm like, wow, like i should go to more

concerts because i'm not like a huge music guy frankie's kind of taking me under his wing and helped me and at some point in the show maybe i want to say like 45 minutes in something to that effect action bronson uh had it looked like it looked like we locked eyes it looked like we like he like i think he points at me and i'm just like oh that's cool and frank's like do you think he like noticed you or was he like point and i was like i don't know for and we were just kind of like okay maybe maybe he did that was cool then like two minutes three minutes after that he wraps up the song he comes back and he goes shout out to my guy new york rick uh part of the mma hour my favorite mma show and then at this point that they

turned like a spotlight almost on me and i'm like how do they know how did they know they were just reacting because he's doing the whole concert they know who it was how did he know no how did they know where to point it to the adam pointing at me and we're talking anywhere i'm not talking but i'm just kind of at this point i'm just like blushing i'm turning beet red because i'm just like oh my god this is crazy like I couldn't believe what was happening my brother-in-law

is like like he thinks he doesn't know me he's like how the hell is this happening in the middle of this concert and the pop was immense

the pop was immense but I mean obviously shout out to Action Bronson for like seeing us in the crowd and like saying and he also

I think recognized Frankie which is incredible he did he told me after and didn't want to he didn't want to out you didn't want to out you um it was just it was an all-time moment and he's and then so he's like shout out to new york rick he's the man part of the mma hour he knows his shit and then he goes but it's a rough one this weekend

he starts talking about i was, it was already cemented. I mean, we talk about it. Like we know action is like of the top tier, like MMA fandom. He's 1% of 1% of 1% of 1%. But if you're on your stage, like in the middle of a concert hall for three people in the venue,

if that probably knew what the hell he was talking about, to like talk about Spivak Taibora, like he's the top, top, top, top top top tier of MMA fandom it's incredible did you expect anything less from a guy that put Shavkat Rakhmanov no yeah of course that is a lyric in a rap song but it was extremely cool and it was an amazing concert and like it my brother-in-law just can't like I mean can we talk about like just like the the brother-in-law had to have gone home that night and just been like, yeah, we were at this concert and, like, Action Bronson shouted out Rick. I didn't know it. It was crazy.

To be in the moment and have the presence of mind to, like, recognize you is pretty damn impressive. And the other thing is, I was just, like, he doesn't know I'm coming to this show. Like, we literally just watched the show. That's crazy, man. Just like, oh, shit. And the fact that he knows who Frank is, like by face. How does he? Oh, because you mic'd him up.

Yeah, we mic'd him up when he came to the studio. What a guy. What an absolute legend, though. On a world tour. And happens to stop in my town and just do a concert. There's nothing cooler than that. Great venue, though. You have just a small venue near your house, and it's just like,

oh, Action Bronson's coming. We can walk to the venue from my front door. It's not just some dive-y venue. No, no. It's a nice venue. Yeah. But it's not what you'd expect. We're not going to Jones Beach,

which is 10 minutes down the block. Crazy stuff. Shout out to Action Bronson, who is an absolute legend. See, which, Frank, what are we doing on Friday as far as your face? I'll be in a control room. Oh, okay.

So you don't need a mask or anything? I'm actually looking forward to our live show where I don't have to wear a mask. Okay, yeah. Were you talking about that or were you talking about something else? Well, because I was like, you know, Action recognizes them. Who knows? What about the fact that when they put out the press release, it was your real name in there? As opposed to my fake name?

Yeah, you do have a fake name. I swear when I read the draft, I thought for a moment, should I say? But then I was like, oh, the new colleagues might think we're weird. But now I have said for future references, it should only be Mysterious Frank. Capital M, capital F. It had to be. It's how we do it. I think it would have been hilarious if it said... It would have been funny, but... A, I think it would have been

hilarious. B, you talk about our new colleagues thinking we're weird. Me and Rick are on these sales calls, and we're having to put little profiles of who each of us are, and me and Rick are having to be like, yeah, so this guy Frank's going to supply a picture, but we're me and rick are having to be like uh yeah so this guy frank's gonna supply a picture but we're gonna need to pixelate it yeah no one can see that they're like what do you mean like we're like pixelated as if like

he's like on tops or something and like you don't want to see his face like a minecraft character yes they're like uh all right well you know what to their credit we haven't gotten a lot of pushback or questions about that. They kind of just know they got off the call. We haven't gotten a lot of pushback or questions about anything. Yeah. Have you seen my avatar on Slack, by the way? Yeah, it's a reference

to something. It's Norm Macdonald as Frank and Billy Madison. Oh, that's amazing. Good. All my avatars throughout the internet now are just like different characters named Frank in different movies I thought it was Billy Madison for me

maybe that is did you even onboard bro? it's been great it's been great have we discussed it all? have I

have I addressed everything? I feel pretty I mean once we hit speedback Tibera it's yeah kind of it level level

of excitement for this weekend for vegas yeah by the way you said we're not giving people you know the the the reaction to the stuff saturday you're gonna get one saturday there's yeah yeah i meant today we're all gonna watch the card together watch the first time ever did you get your i got my sphere tickets did you guys get on oh i wasn't on the on the list for that i mean me and big turk up in there mine up at the will call i saw the prices dropping i said to rick today i was like what's the magic number where we just pull the trigger and go what is it i was in at five i feel like you get 400 after fees on there.

It's going to be a love letter. I'm excited. I'm excited. I think they're going to smash it. Did you see? I put out some of it. They put out this press release about all the new stuff

that they're going to be unveiling. One of the most impressive things... I saw your tweet on it, to be fair. One of the most impressive things was all the other production people that they've hired for this. And it was like pretty much everyone had taylor swift eras tour on there but also super bowl also uh oscars grammys like

they brought out what appears to be oh yes yeah i mean daniel i think i saw a quote graphic that daniel white was just like the sphere is the star of the show yeah i just can't wait to see what they do during the fights oh it, it's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing. I saw something he was on. Was it McAfee? No, First Take maybe? He was on something earlier

and he was talking about they're going to play like movies between. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cinematic experience. Multiple chapters. And then they were saying that the chairs

are going to have like impact things. Oh, sick. Yeah, there's like reaction to it. Like if someone gets like slammed on the campus. Yeah, you'll feel it. Oh, that's so things. Yeah. Sick. Reaction to it. Like if someone gets like slammed on the campus. Yeah, you'll feel it. Oh, that's so sick.

Yeah. I mean, I, their production is second to none, especially in the fight game. Like they're going to put on something special. You guys think that Canelo, I don't know if there's a big crossover between the Canelo fans. I don't think that's a thing.

I don't think it's like Canelo is drawing away from the UFC. Or vice versa. Do you think UFC is drawing away from Canelo? No, because't think that's a thing. I don't think it's like Canelo is drawing away from the UFC. Or vice versa. Do you think UFC is drawing away from Canelo? No, because first of all, the price tag. You don't draw away from Canelo with a card that costs your life savings, right? Nobody's like, I was thinking about going to Canelo,

but actually I want to drop 1,500x on UFC tickets. I don't think there's much of a crossover. I think the audiences are very distinct there. I don't think it's like... It's also hard to draw away from Sugar Sean O'Malley at the Sphere in this once-of-a-lifetime event. Sean coming out

to Superstar? And you're talking about like... I know it's Canelo Alvarez who's an unbelievable superstar, but it's just like... Well, it's the fight. Like Berlanga is not exactly the most compelling fight

for them. I like that fight. I think he has a shot. I think he's a live dog. I mean, he's very powerful. Everyone has a shot, but like... Is he like a plus 1100 or something crazy, right? He's a live dog. I mean, he's very powerful. Everyone has a shot, but like... Is he like a plus 1100 or something crazy, right?

He's a massive dog. I don't have any... It's the thing where I almost think that this fight is suffering a little bit from like the what we know it's not, right? We know it's not Benavidez. And so people are like, it's not Benavidez. But I think Berlanga is a fun fight. Like, I think this is going to be good. I think it's going to be better than expectations.

I'm kind of excited about it. But I don't think there's much crossover there. Like, I think this is going to be good. I think it's going to be better than expectations. I'm kind of excited about it, but I don't think there's much crossover there. Like, I think those- It's actually also, like, they've done a pretty good job of putting together a solid- I think this is part of the turkey effect, to be honest.

Like, Kayla Plants on the undercard. Roley Romero, Danny Garcia. You're seeing it more with a lot of these boxing cards, obviously Saudi Arabian influence. Like, they are making cards bigger and better. Yeah, Canelo minus 1,800 right now. Oh, jeez, really?

Wow. I feel like you're just like the sphere is so much, it's such a sexier pick. Yeah, no, no. If you were able to go to either of them. I think there will be potential fighting for pay-per-views though. I don't think that they're fighting in Vegas, but I do think the battleground of like what are people watching is going to be interesting.

Vegas is going to be great. I was at the Cinco de Mayo card, the Canelo one, and that was just that, right? There was no UFC. And I felt it. And now here's Canelo again, Mexican Independence Day weekend, plus a big UFC. And O'Malley's there. Grasso's there. And all the Mexican fighters.

I think it's going to be amazing. It's been a while since Vegas really felt like the fight capital of the world with all the stuff going on. It is this weekend. Yeah. And the Middle East and all that. Um, man,

what timing for us, right? That we get to do this. The Venetian where we're doing the show again, September 13th, this Friday at 4 PM local time is right next door to the sphere. Like I think you can actually walk through a tunnel from the Venetian to the sphere.

So that's going to be sphere. Like, I think you can actually walk through a tunnel from the Venetian to the sphere. So that's going to be amazing. I'm actually going the following week to a card that I can't wait for in a fight that I can't wait to witness. Anthony Joshua

versus Daniel Dubois, 96,000 at Wembley. That'll be for DAZN, which is, I think, I mean, like, to see Anthony Joshua in a London stadium at Wembley,

I've never been to Wembley Stadium, going to be amazing. I would love to see a wrestling or boxing event at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. I went there for Spurs versus Everton. Shout out to Spurs 4-0 against Everton, those losers.

And shout out to Brendan Johnson, who stuck around to say hello to my kids and I. That was incredible. What a stadium. Probably the nicest stadium I've ever been to in any city, country, football, soccer, NFL. It was unbelievable and so clean and so high-tech. A wrestling or boxing event. They've done AJ there, but I would love to see a WWE event there. I think that would be incredible. So a lot to be excited about. Again, we're back on Friday in video form, and I'm happy that we were able to talk about all this because I don't feel like I need to talk about it. Hopefully, I know more people probably watch the videos than listen, but hopefully this

gives you something to chew on. How long have we gone for Frank here? You know, who's keeping track, but one hour 15. Okay. I said about an hour. I said about an hour. And then on Friday, we'll be back in your lives. On Saturday, we'll drop a post-show pod, which I've been doing the last three years with the Ringer guys. So you'll get that reaction to the UFC card and then obviously Canelo. And then we'll pop up between now and mid-October. We'll announce the date soon enough, but I'm being as close as I can possibly be. And then it's... Just rest assured, we want to be back as much as you want.

I wish we could be back yesterday. We want to be back. So just know that there's good reason that we are counting all the chickens and getting our ducks in a row and making sure that everything's good. But we want to be back and we will be soon. And it's going to be. Yes.

It felt amazing to get up and come into the office today. Yeah. It was very nice. It was nice. It's a routine. It's a structure. Not like a stay-at-home dad. There's a different energy when you're in an office with other people, right?

For sure. For sure. And you got to get ready and make the commute and everything like that. And Frank's greeting everybody and knows everybody and already took over. It's great. How's the gum, man? Is it lost flavor yet during that hour and 15 minutes? It's pretty gone.

But you know what? It's some of the best gum I've ever had. Thank you. Shout out to NeuroGum, our good friends. Appreciate that. All right. So a lot to be excited about. A lot happening behind the scenes.

Stick with us. We appreciate all scenes stick with us we appreciate all the nice messages we appreciate all the support we appreciate all the honestly it doesn't bother us the where are you guys

or we miss you guys it's nice to be missed but we're not sitting around we're not taking vacation we're here doing a lot of stuff

Friday we'll be back Friday night and again thank you so much to everyone here at Yahoo for doing this. We kind of sprung this upon them a little late in the game. And thank you to our old friends at Vox and my old friends at Spotify and everyone that we were associated with. It has been an amazing three years. We leave on great terms. We leave very amicably when we were there

packing things up at Vox. Everyone was so nice and kind and warm and wished us well, which is amazing, which is what you can only dream of. And now we start this new chapter back where it all started, for me at least, the ninth floor of this building in New York City. Wild, wild, wild.

Life is a funny thing. As the great Alanis Morissette once said, life is a funny thing. Ring-a-dow-wow, ring-a-dow-dow-wow. Yeah, I don't know what the actual words are in that. Is that the lyrics? Life is a funny thing. That is exactly what I mean.

It hits me. A great Canadian, Alanis Morissette. Oh, and oh, how about the Canuck where we had our big celebration party a couple weeks ago? Amazing spot. Yeah, amazing. I could use a little poutine now, you know. No, let's just go. After a hard day's work.

I'm not used to these hard days work, you know, at the office. I know, it's new. Meetings, back to back. Then we come make content. I mean, it's all happening. Was it a lot to just show up today? It was a lot. It was a lot.

All right. We're out of time. Thank you so much to the guys here. Thanks to was a lot it was a lot all right uh we're out of time thank you so much to the guys here thanks to all of you we love you all back on friday uh different time different place until there's hippies