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Conceive, believe, achieve. Shut the fk up.

You're listening to believe you me with Michael the Count Bisbing. You know my name yet? And Anthony Lionhardt-Smith.

There we go. There we go. Welcome to the show, everybody. The Believe You Me podcast is back for my brief hiatus. How you been, Anthony?

I've been good. I've been good, man. Just hanging out. It's a shit show at my house right now. I just got this. I might have an office. I might have an office on Monday, maybe.

Well, that's great to hear. Thank God, bits and bobs all over the place, I hope. Welcome to the show. We didn't do one on Monday because I was in Hawaii. Got a nice little tan. How was it? It was great. It was nice. Nice to decompress. Enjoyed ourselves, all five of us together. First time in a while. So that was lovely. It was excellent. Expensive, though. Oh, my God.

That's what I hear.

Oh, my God. Jeez, Louise. I was like, What?

How much? Yeah, I hear Hawaii is expensive.

Breakfast every morning, $300 for the family for breakfast. I'm like, We're going to go hungry at this point, guys. My God. But still, what a beautiful place. It was amazing. But I was having a heart attack every time the bill came. Welcome to the show, though, everyone. We were just saying, Harrington, or Brian said, Harrington is frozen in space. And that leads me into this non-MMA story that I sent through. Have you seen this? Two NASA astronauts who were supposed to stay on the International Space Station for less than a week. I've been stuck there since June.

They're still there?

They're still there. They're still there because of Boeing, Starline, and spacecraft. And NASA have said now, they're probably not going to get back until February 2025. So Well, Harrington is not the only one stuck in space. That sounds terrifying.

That's a nightmare. You kiss your wife and your kids like, I'll see you in four or five days. And next thing you know, it's February. What do you What's the view up there?

Well, there's not a lot to do. They're at the International Space Station, so I googled that because I thought, wow, it's so cool. We have an international space station where all the different nations, they go up there and they share the space and all the rest of it. I thought it was some big, huge thing like out of Star Wars. I googled it. It's about 200 feet long, something like that. It's about the size of a football field, so maybe a little bit bigger than that or equivalent to a 3,000 square foot house is the space that they have inside. But when there's two people there in space floating around-There's no Netflix? I don't know. I reckon they got Netflix.

They think they got pretty good Internet?

Bro, there They're in space and they have a way of... They got better Internet than Harrington in the Carolinas right now. That's for damn sure. But I reckon if they can converse, they got to have video calling. If they've got all that, I think they got Netflix. That's true.

Can you imagine the freak out you would have when they call and say, It's looking like February, guys. Oh my God.

They need to be up there less than a week, a few days. Yeah.

Think about how angry you get when your flight's canceled something. That's one day, possibly. I'll get delayed two hours and want to throw a beer across the bar that I'm sitting in.

I've gone past that now. I don't care. When a flag gets delayed, it is what it is. You can't do anything about it. It's just like, it's not for getting mad.

I get annoyed.

Yeah, it is annoying.

I definitely have a plan, and it always messes my plan up.

I don't mind if I'm going on a work thing and I get delayed on the way there. I'm like- That's not terrible. Not my fault. But if it's getting delayed on the way back- That's a big problem. When I'm going home and it's my time, I'm like, now we need to have a word with somebody. We're going to put a few mean tweets out.

I thought I was going to jail in Dubai because they lost my luggage. I can't handle it. I about blew a gasket in the airport. I was like, Wow.

Hold on, Dubai or Manchester? Because this happened in Manchester.

No, Then it happened in going to Abu Dhabi, and I flew into Dubai. Same thing. Lost my luggage again.

It's a conspiracy.

It is. I think there's someone that works for United, and that goddamn prick is back there. There's another Anthony Smith said, Put it in the bag.

This prick wants to carry guns onto the airlines.

Take a gun on a plane twice. We're going to make him pay.

We're going to make him pay.

I never got it on the plane.

Say again.

I never got the guns on the plane.

No, but you tried to.

I didn't try. You don't give me... I don't want to end up on a list after this podcast comes out. I didn't try.

Your bags keep going missing. So you were in Abu Dhabi, what did you do? The desk?

I did. I worked the desk. Yeah.

Did you like Abu Dhabi?

No. Okay. I like the people. It was a really beautiful place. I'm really good at handling heat and humidity. I live in Nebraska. It gets crazy hot in the summer, really humid. That shit was different. That was like no place I've ever felt like. It was hard to breathe. I felt like you could take a bite out of the air and chew on it.

Saudi Arabia, same thing.

I had to wait outside for an Uber one time for two minutes. Mike, I almost had to go back inside. I almost couldn't make it the two minutes. It was miserable. I don't know how people live there.

It's insane. They just get used to it. I've been there several times, I went there, coming back from Afghanistan, I went out there on a US auto to see the troops, and same thing there. It's like, it is miserable. It is hot. And then you've got troops out there living in tents with no... I was bitchy because we just got back from Maui, and when we got here, the air conditioning had broken. So inside the house, and it's hot as hell right now. It's in the mid '90s. So it's like 90 degrees inside the house. No airflow whatsoever. We We opened all the windows. We turned the fan on, we're sleeping on top of the bed, sweating like pigs. Imagine living in that in Afghanistan whilst you're serving in the army. I mean, come on. I mean, those guys and girls, fair play.

Yeah, that's insane. Other than that, I had a great time. The people are super cool, really, really educated fans. Everyone was super nice. I had absolutely no complaints other than the God awful heat.

Yeah. Well, there's a lot of hot places out there. There's nothing.

I wanted to ride jet skis. I wanted to go to the Ferrari place and race a car. I left the hotel one time other than to go to work.

Same in Saudi Arabia. I never left my hotel room at all. I stayed in that room. It's like, keep a low profile. Well, stay out.

We like to keep it low.

It's not the place to be bloody causing a ruckus. I thought it was going on about chop, chop, square down the street where they do the beheadings and stuff like that. I'm like, I'm staying in.

If anybody's getting their head chopped off that works for the UFC, it's probably you.

Yeah, no, it is. Just stay in the room. So there was fights there in Abu Dhabi. We won't spend too much on that because it feels like that was a long, long time ago. But Tony Ferguson. Tony Ferguson, I thought... Obviously, went out there. He got tapped by Michael Chiesa pretty quick. Took his time, decided to initiate the take down, got it nicely, took the back, body triangle, rear naked chop. Perfect. Nicely done. Tony Ferguson didn't retire, half retired, put one glove down. I thought he was pulling the Wolf of Wall Street thing. He was like, I'm not going. I'm not leaving. I'm not doing it. I'm staying. He did do that. But the fact that he didn't retire, the UFC, I haven't seen anything. I don't think they've officially parted ways with him yet. No. Have they? No. No.

No. And then he did an interview saying that he's not done. It's not the time. I just got a few things I got to fix. I'm not done yet. But now that puts the UFC in a very precarious situation. Not precarious, an uncomfortable situation because they have two options. If he's going to continue to fight, they either have to give him a fight or they have to release him.

They are the options, expertly broken But they care about Tony.

Where does Tony go if they release him? You want to see Tony Ferguson in Bear Knuckle?

No, I don't want to see him in Bear Knuckle. I don't want to see him in PFL. I don't want to see him anywhere. I think his time as a mixed martial artist has come to an end. It's a sad reality. It happens to everybody. He's 40 years old. He's had some epic wars. He's taken a lot of damage. He's lost eight fights in a row now. Like, B. J. Penn, he's a guy that Dana absolutely loved, but forced him to retire by terminating his contract, if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure that's what happened. Begrudgingly, they don't want to do that. I'm not sure what the circumstances were off the top of my head with Chuck Liddell, but it was something similar. It's like you're not getting the job done. You're taking a lot of damage. Granted, Tony is not getting knocked out like Chuck Liddell was. Chuck Liddell was getting knocked out time after time after time.

He got shot off, yeah.

Yeah. And And there's serious danger of long term brain damage or brain injuries when that happens. For Tony getting choked out, all right, it's not as bad. Yeah, he got front kick to the face against Chandler, turned into a chicken nugget. That was the mean, not me. It's a shame to see, but it's why fighters need protecting from themselves, because Tony is still a bad man. He still feels like he got it. He still feels like he's got something left to give, but the result Salts say otherwise. It's just that time.

But if he doesn't, that's the problem. If he doesn't decide that he's going to do it, and Tony, I've always admired this about him. He does it his own way. He's going to do exactly what he wants to do. So if he wants to continue to fight, they got to release him or give him another one. I hope if he decides to fight and not retire, I hope that they keep him in the UFC because I think that's the safest place for him.

Yeah, but But the only way to do that is by giving him another fight.

That's what I mean. I would rather him fight in the UFC than outside of it.

You can't just keep giving somebody fights because you don't want them to go fight somewhere else. And by the way, you got all right, well, so 13 losses in a row, 14 losses in a row. You got to say, eight is quite a lot.

Special circumstances for special guys, you know what I mean, I think-Yeah.

And the special... By the way, I'm not being mean to Tony. No, I know. It's a fair conversation. Eight is a special circumstance. It really is. Back in the day, three losses.

I mean, four, five, six, Seven and eight were special.

Four were special. Five, six, seven, eight. Eight losses in a row. That's more than the average career in the UFC. And I'm sure Tony gets paid Decent money. So there's that to consider as well. He does. Okay. Of course, there was a lot of love for Tony Ferguson in the crowd. And that's also why it's so hard for someone like Tony to walk away because you feel the love, you Feel the appreciation. And even though you didn't get the win, you get those endorphines, and you get all those chemicals running through your brain. This is why I do this. I love it. Win or lose, you're still getting the warriors' reception. But, dude, the results just aren't there. There is a whole other life after fighting.

When Habib said that, I thought it was amazing.

Yeah. His life is just beginning. His life is just beginning. There's so much more to life. Because when you He's not on the path as a fighter. For Tony, he was wrestling in high school and college, I believe. Then he starts MMA. That's all you've ever known. It's all you've ever known, and you can't see a life outside of that. 40 years old is still in the prime of your life. I'm 45. I just said to Rebecca last night, I'm going to do something big. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is yet, but my journey is not over. I'm seeing a doctor tomorrow because I'm in serious neck pain all the time, the blazing headaches, all the rest of it. I'm going to get a disk replacement, hopefully get scheduled tomorrow. And as soon as that's recovered, that's it. It's a new me. It's a new challenge. I don't know what they're going to be. And I've had a good run from retiring from I thought there was nothing else outside of fighting. What am I going to do? I'm going to go back working in factories and all the rest of it.

That hasn't been the case. Some years I make more money now than what I did when I was fighting, pretty much. And I don't have to get my hands dirty anymore. So there is a life after fighting. And for Tony Ferguson, being 40 years old, there's so many other options he can do and explore. And Khabib did it. He said it perfectly. But sticking around isn't the one.

And I'm I'm not trying to champion the cause to get Tony another fight and keep him fighting. I really care about Tony because only guys like fighters like us can completely and totally respect the way that Tony's done his career. He's done it his own way. He fought the hard... Like one of the hardest ways to fight. None of those fights are fun. It's a lot of misery. It's a lot of... It's just hard. It's a hard way to make a living inside of a way that's already a hard way to make a living. But he did it the hard way. And I don't know, I just feel like... I guess I think what it is, I want Tony to be comfortable with it. Because right now, he's not. He doesn't want to, and you almost want him. I feel like when you retired, of course, you didn't want to be done.

You didn't want to- But I retired Without a fight, which pissed me off. And I wanted to do one more. I was going to do one more because you want to retire on a win. And that's what Tony wants. I'm sure if he can get one more- Then let's just get him one.

Let's just get him one.

I don't know.

You can't give somebody- Bring in a fucking amateur making his pro-debut. Sign him to one deal, pay the guy 10 grand, let Tony do his thing.

So do you know what the critic would say to that? Oh, my God, what are we doing here? We got a veteran like Tony Ferguson that's lost eight in a row, been loved by fans, and they're throwing him to some young, hungry lion that's just going to make a name for himself out of Tony Ferguson's sacrifice. Or you give him someone else on a losing streak, like Michael Kieser, who had lost three in a row. And that's No disrespect to Kieser. That's why the match was made, and he was finished in the first round. He's had a legendary career. Longest win street, 12 in a row. It's just such a shame. The matchup with Habib never took place, match five times. It's He's provided so much entertainment, so many one-liners, so much craziness, and just personality, and warrior spirit. The beating he took, and then he turns it around. But that's why it takes its toll.

Four40 years old. That's where we are.

40 years old at Lightweight.

It's time. Yeah. I mean, that alone, even if take away the losses and the battles and the wars, 40 years old at Lightweight, that's hard.

We know the stats. Thirty-five years and above, it all goes south. It all goes downhill. Old man, Volk.

He took the piss out of it.

And what happened? Tupoyer knocked him out. That sounded bad to Volkanovski. I'm not saying anything bad about Wokunowski. I can't believe you say that.

He's coming from a wheel.

No, no, no. Wokunowski is the man, but that is what happened. It is what it is. He joked around a bunch about it, and it bit him in the Yeah, but that's the risk we take. Any time you step in there as a fighter and you talk shit and you say you're going to knock them out and you say you're going to beat them-Chat shit. Get banged.

Get banged.

There we go. Chat shit, get banged. We've all done it. I've chatted shit and I've got banged. But you know what? You bounce back. You get up unless it's eating or- You always got to bounce back from a banging. Oh, God. It's my favorite type of banging when you're bouncing. Look, listen, what was the main event? Main event was Cory Sandega and Umar Namaga made of very, very technical fight. I thought both men showed a lot of skill. Umar Namaga made of got the job done. Close technical fight. No need to get too much into it. Well done to Umar Namaga made of. You got to think that he's the next man for the winner of Marab versus O'Malley, going down at the sphere, of course. Co-ment, Shara Bullet, once again, getting the job done. Mahal Al O'Neill. O'neill made him work for it again, though. But yeah, there's a quick recap.

Yeah, good fight.

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I think that's going to be uncomfortable.

Yeah, it's going to get uncomfortable. We got to choose our words very carefully because the Alex Pereira thing. I want to choose my words super carefully Because I don't want to be disrespectful to the woman making accusations, but a lot of things don't seem to add up. And as I said, I wasn't there. You weren't there. They're the only people that were there. She's deleted the post now, apparently. I saw a video when I was in Mowing. I was like, This doesn't sound good. Of course, you can get in bed with a man that's naked, and You can maybe want to engage in those relations, and you can change your mind at any time. Of course you can. Of course you can. And maybe she did. But it certainly seemed like the situation was trending that way. But you also got to remember that Alex Pereira is a very, very successful man and extremely famous. And it's just a sad reality that is a shame for women. And I'm not saying she's lying. I'm not saying she's lying, but there's a lot of inconsistencies. There's a lot of questions that arise.

You're saying if she is?

Yeah. Well, I'm saying it's a shame for all those women that do have legitimate concerns and legitimate accusations. But there is people out there that just make up bullshit stories as well.

And try to get paid or get famous or whatever. Yeah, it's an uncomfortable one because you're going to piss off someone no matter what you say. But again, I don't know. I wasn't there. I'm not saying she's lying. I'm not saying it's true. Someone called me yesterday, though, and said that... No, the day before yesterday, and said that they listened to her whole story that she had posted and that this person, seeing them leave, they were there at the event and was staying in the same hotel and seeing them leave that morning that she was talking about when he put her in an Uber and they went their separate ways or whatever, that they watched them leave and they looked very happy and very comfortable with each other and very friendly. It didn't look like anybody was uncomfortable in that situation. Again, that doesn't mean anything. It's just that threw off the... It was different. You know what I mean?

I'm not trying to make a joke out of it, but that just reminded me of Jon Jones high-fiving. He's like, They looked happy as well.

Right. Well, okay, so that situation is different, too. I got a little A bit of inside news on that. That sounds like a bunch of bullshit, too. It sounds like Jones is in the right.

Yeah, it does.

And that's what we said. But anyways, that doesn't matter.

We've talked about that. But you know what? If this is lies, it's totally disgusting.

I hope she goes to jail if she's not telling the truth.

If this is lies, it's totally disgusting. Alex Pereira doesn't deserve it. We don't know. That's the reality. Nobody knows other than the two people there and the other two that were in there for a while, the coach and the other one. They were having a good old fashioned get down. What do you guys call it up in your part of the woods?

A good old fashioned get down.

Yard Pimson glizzies.

Yard Pimson. I forgot about that.

Yeah, it's a shitty deal all around.

It's a shitty deal all around.

It is. Should we try and bring Mike Harrington on?

Because it is been- Well, he's stuck at the space station with the bad- Mike Harrington, are you stuck on the international space station?

And does it have Netflix?

No, I'm here. I'm locked in on the ground in a place that does have Netflix.

I see that you wore a T-shirt to match your background. Yeah, well, you're in the ping room.

Yeah, I mean, this is my mom's room. It's the only room that has hardline internet in the whole house. So, yeah, she let me use her workstation. You know what workstation isn't working?

What?

The one on the ISS?

We've already done that, Harrington. You missed it.

We've already talked about it. I'm a damn fool.

We've already talked about it. Get out of here.

Come on. That was a good... Had we not talked about it, that was a pretty good lead-in, though.

It was a segue. It was a pretty good segue. It was okay. It wasn't award-winning. He doesn't have the trophy for it. But speaking of winning awards, the Olympics are on right now. Have you been watching the Olympics at all?

All of them.

Really?

Yes. I love the Olympics.

I need to watch some Olympics. I haven't seen any of it. I was just in Maui, of course, and then landed yesterday. Fight meetings, this meeting, that meeting, never a bloody minute to myself. Walk up today, TNT Sports, three or five preview show. Now straight into this, what have you been enjoying the most in terms of events?

We're a big volleyball family, so we've been following all the volleyball, wrestling. I've been following wrestling these last couple of days, which It sucks because the times are like, it started like four in the morning or something, so that was tough. But I've been getting into weird shit, like team archery.

Oh, yeah.

It's like, number one, it's crazy impressive, but you And you don't get excited as these teams are battling back and forth and you're like, Bullseye. You're just going crazy. What's the other? Oh, did you see this guy from... Brian, I don't know if you can look it up. I think he's from Turkey, but they shoot. It's like the shooting. And so they got pistols, and they get these people, and they come up to this line, and they got these weird optics on their one eye that they're looking down the barrel of the pistol on. And the other one got this cover on it. They got these fancy hats and shirts and shit. This 60 something year old guy from Turkey comes up, regular ass T-shirt, glasses like you, just normal regular everyday glasses, walks up, starts shooting, looks completely out of place, gets a silver medal.

Yeah, the And I don't know if this is true or not, but I saw some tweets relating to this. Apparently, United States aren't doing too well in the shooting.

That's weird.

That is weird.

Yeah, that's weird.

More guns than people in America, but you don't know how to use them. Oh, shit.

Yeah, that's hard.

Do you know why-Look at this guy. Yeah, I've seen that guy. He looks so nonchalant. He's just walking down the street, walking the dog.

He's just like- That's amazing.

Brother, I should this. Do you know why they bite the medals in the Olympics?

I don't.

I was wondering. Would you like to know? Would you like to bestow some knowledge upon you?

I would like that.

Well, back in the day, the actual medals were solid gold. They're not these days, they're gold-plated. But back in the day, they were solid gold. And to check that it was real gold, they would bite it because gold's soft and you could leave a little imprint If they were lead, you couldn't.

So they're checking them?

They're checking them. And that was just a tradition.

Yeah, you're not giving me no cheap ass metal.

I'll tell you what, these veneers, man, if I was to buy a metal, it feels weird.

Yeah, I do like a lightning bolt right up your mouth.

Do you know why there's five Olympic rings?

I don't.

Five continents on the planet.

Look, and you're not even watching. You know everything about it.

Bro, do you know why the colors are the colors that are chosen? Because every one of those colors is in the flags of the nations around the world.

See, we don't learn all that shit here in America. Maybe we do, and I just wasn't paying attention.

Do you know when the first Olympics was? Do we?

Yeah.

He's like, We did.

Did we learn that stuff? We did.

Oh, dear. The Olympics, the first one was 800 and something BC, long, long time ago. They were made to honor the Greek God, Jesús. No women were allowed to compete.

You're not making this up?

No, I'm serious.

Oh, okay.

No women were allowed to compete. It was men only. And they had to be naked.

Hell, yeah.

They had to be naked. They were naked and they were covered in oil, just to make it even weirder.

I was like, Why the oil? That doesn't make any sense.

Slipping and sliding. No, that was in the pankration. The pancration, which is basically MMA, because I was looking this up yesterday. Pancration, which is basically MMA, was one of the first Olympic sports. The first one was running, but pancration came a little bit after that. Everything was allowed other than biting and eye-gouging. What does that sound like?

That sounds like...

Ufc One.

Yeah, true.

Yeah, no biting, no fish-hucking.

But they were naked, covered in oil.

They were naked, covered in oil. The sport has evolved.

Checking oil.

Checking oils. But it's crazy to me- That's weird. That mixed martial arts is not an Olympic sport.

That is crazy. That you can have breakdancing. You can have all these other... Not that I don't respect those people. I'm sure what they're doing is hard. There's Olympic kite flying on today.

Oh, my God. Kite flying. I I used to try and fly kites as a kid. Never went well. But the fact that you can have all of these sports, but not mixed martial arts, which I think is the greatest sport, obviously, I'm biased. But boxing, Olympic sport, wrestling, Olympic, judo, taekwondo. You just do them all at the same time.

Can they just add jiu-jitsu?

Did they really? Is BJJ in there?

It should be. I think they were going to, or maybe it's the next Olympics they're going to start it.

Yeah, I remember some talk about it.

I think they're taking boxing out.

That is correct. And they tried to take wrestling out as well, which is just insane.

Yeah, wrestling was one of the original sports in the Olympics.

What was it going to say? I was going to say something. Pancration. Yeah. That was one of the original sports which wrestling was a part of.

It's close enough.

It's close enough.

It's fine. And this Taekwondo guy got... I just seen this Taekwondo guy got eliminated for striking too hard.

Which is ridiculous.

It's stupid. It's not the first time that's happened. It happened in the last Olympics, last summer Olympics as well. Really? Yeah.

I used to do semicontact striking tournaments. I have not described by for hitting too hard. But in the Olympics, I don't think it's semicontact, is it? It's contact.

Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. It was a nasty little switch kick, too. Was it? The argument that they make is that it's not in the spirit of good competition to be swinging hard enough to knock your opponent out.

Yeah, no, no. I understand.

You're trying to go fast. It's hard not to sometimes.

That's exactly what I was going to say. Speed is what generates the power. Yeah.

It didn't look like he was really leaning into it. It didn't lead with his head. I mean, it's Taekwondo, so it's a lot of speed stuff. But that poor guy, like, dipped his head a little bit, and he threw up a nasty lead kick.

It was nasty. So we had a big announcement for the Sphere, not the Sphere, UFC 308, going back to your favorite place Abu Dhabi. Some big, big fights announced. Speaking of Pereira, Magamed Ankaleev, his next fight is not going to be against Alex Pereira, which I found to be a little surprising. That makes me feel like they must have something big in store, because if you ask me, Magamed Ancalyev is definitely next in line.

Yeah, I thought so. And he's fighting Alexander Rackage, too, which I thought was also surprising. Coming off the loss to Yuri, typically, they don't do that, that matchmaking. But maybe Anca Live just needs to fight, and Alex Pereira is not going to be ready. It sounds like he's nursing some injuries still. He's got the toe or foot thing he's got going on. Maybe he's just going to take off the rest of the year, and Anklayev wants to fight.

You know what? That's actually very, very sound reasoning. That's probably what it is, Anklayev wants to fight. Unless the holding Pereira back for something big and something special, the only thing bigger than that would be a heavyweight title fight, which certainly isn't going to happen because Dana's confirmed Tom Aspinal will be next. Outside of that, nothing too surprising. Ilya Teporea, Max Holloway, Makes all the sense in the world. Cyril Garner, Alexander Bolkow, Whittaker, Shimaiev. I'm not surprised to rebook that one.

No. It sounds like Whittaker asked for it, though, which probably doesn't happen a lot with Hamza.

But that's because Whittaker, that's his ticket. You beat Hamza and Chimaev. Five rounds as well. See, because I thought maybe if they rebut that fight and it becomes three rounds, that swings in favor of Hamza Akshimev because of the cardio issue, the supposed cardio issue. But five rounds, I think that favors Whittaker.

Yeah, Hamza, he's really hard to beat in three rounds because he can sprint for 10 minutes. As long as he can survive the last round, he'll beat almost everybody. Yeah.

What's early thoughts, Elia Teporia versus Max Holloway?

Before the Gecci fight, I was leaning heavy Teporia. But, man, Max looked so good in that fight. He turned back the clock a little bit, and he looked really, really good. And I mean, Justin Gecci isn't quite as technical of a striker, in my opinion, as Teporia, but he's absolutely as dangerous or more.

Yeah. No, no, no. Without question, Gage is extremely dangerous. It's weird, isn't it? Because your mind instantly goes to, well, Volkanoffski beat Max Holloway three times. Teporia knocked out Volk. And we know MMA math does not stack up, but it gives you a good bloody idea.

You know what I mean?

If you have two opponents, one guy But maybe Volkanovski got old overnight.

Maybe he was a shell of himself, or not a shell of himself, but maybe he had regressed a little bit by the time he went into the Tepore fight. Maybe he took the Tepore fight too early.

After getting knocked out against his lap.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And Volkanovski has been pretty vocal about his mindset and his mental health and all that stuff, where when he sits too long, he gets in his own head. And he seemed like he was a bit in a chaotic He's not in a space there for a little while. He's taking short notice fights. He's doing crazy shit. It just seemed like he was living in a vacuum the whole time.

I was speaking to him in Manchester. He says that when he comes back, his fight is for the title, regardless of whether it's to, or Holloway. Whoever's got the Championship at that point, he will get that match up. So fair play to him there. It's early, it's way out. Who do you think fights Volkanovski for the belt? I'm asking for a prediction. Nice and early. Because you're right, when you look at Hauleway, outside of O'Kunnavsky, he put a masterclass on everybody, and he put a masterclass on Justin Gagey. And not only was it a masterclass, it wasn't like he was point fighting him and being smart. He was digging his heels in. He was throwing spinning back kicks and nearly knocking him out. He face planted him and put him to sleep. That version of Max Holloway there, it's almost impossible to pick against.

Yeah, it is. And I'm not going to right now.

Unless you put him against Teporia that's just so fast, so powerful, so well-rounded, and so goddamn confident.

I think that confidence could get him in trouble. But I have to go back to the strength of schedule and the experience. Max is so experienced at this high level. It's essentially a neutral location, which I think makes a big difference. It's not like a home game for Teporia. I'm not trying to This is going to get taken out of context for sure. But Max has been fighting at a higher level for longer, and he's used to these situations. Teporia is just starting to do this. So he did beat Volkanovski. But before that, we're talking, Bryce Mitchell, Josh Emmet, yada, yada, yada. Not that those guys are bad fighters, and he looked incredible and did exactly what he should have to each one of those guys, but they're not on the level of the last five guys that Max fought. You know what I mean? So I just think Max has been doing it at a higher level. He's going to be more experienced and comfortable there. And just that version of Max, I would be very hard-pressed to pick against him with anybody.

I hear what you're saying, but the Bryce Mitchell, that to probably afford, that was the undefeated Bryce Mitchell. He was the first person to beat him.

But then Bryce came out and said he was super sick, and he was shit in his pants before the fight.

I ain't going to talk shit about Bryce Mitchell, but that's what you all say. That's what you all say when you all lose a fight. You say, How I worked for shit in that one.

I was shit in my pants, he said.

Is that what he said?

Yeah, he was super sick, apparently.

Oh, Bryce Mitchell, man. We're going to get him back on the show. He's the best. He's the craziest sum bitch you all ever going to meet.

It's the craziest interview I've ever been a part of.

I loved it.

One time I interviewed Diego Sanchez when he was during that FABIA days. That was a rough one, too.

Yeah, Diego. It goes like that. All right, this episode is sponsored by Fit Body. If you're looking for a workout in the gym, but you can't afford a personal trainer, or you don't have time to get together with a personal trainer, you're on the road all the time, or you don't even have a gym membership, Fitbot is the app that you need on your phone because it will create a personalized workout for you based on your goals, your fitness level, and the available equipment. It also adapts as you improve. So the workouts continue to challenge They continue to get results. Okay, Fitbot will track your muscle recovery, so you avoid burn out, you keep your momentum. All of these workouts, by the way, are fine-tuned by experience certified personal trainers to bring the best practices and exercise science to you. Also, the best bit, you learn the new movements the correct way with over 1,000 demonstration videos. So you just put in the equipment that you have available. Maybe you got a few bits of workout stuff in your garage. Maybe you're just in your hotel room. Maybe you're down the local park putting what you've got, put in what you're trying to achieve.

You're trying to get ripped, you're trying to lose weight, you're trying to get in shape. Increase your VO2 max, whatever the case may be. I put all that info into there. Fit Bod will create a personalized workout routine for you, and you've got no excuse after that. So add Fit Bod to your workout essentials. Join Fit Bod today and get a personalized workout plan. Get 25 % off the subscription or try the app out for free when you go to fitbod. Me. Try the app out for free. See if you like it. If you do, you then get 25 % off the subscription when you go to fitbod. Me/believe. One more time, fitbod. Me/believe. Who's the craziest fighter? I mean, we just went through, Bryce Mitchell, Diego for sure, Tony Ferguson is at his moment. Who's some other? Utterly, a bit out there, crazy fighter. Diego, for sure. Bryce Mitchell in the best way possible. I love Bryce Mitchell.

Yeah, In the best way possible, for sure.

Just so we know, just to clarify, we're not necessarily talking shit.

No. It's just fun. Fun people that- Yeah.

Who's one of your the crazier ones? I don't know.

If Ryan Garcia was an MMA fighter, he'd be at the top of the list.

If Ryan Garcia was, it'd be the Ryan Garcia Award.

Yeah, we'd call him Ryan Garcia List.

Jesus Christ. Because just speaking of Garcia, he came out, he looked like a genius because he was trolling everyone that he was crazy leading up to the fight, but now he's gone completely crazy.

Yeah, he's actually crazy.

Was that bullshit all along?

I think it's the Heath Ledger thing where he lived the life of the Joker so long that he became it.

I don't know.

I don't know. Actually, Mayhem Miller is probably the craziest person I've ever been.

Jason Mayhem Miller. I filmed an ultimate fighter with him for two months.

I was around him for four days, and I was like, You got to get this guy away from me. You got to get me out of here. This guy's insane.

He's doing okay these days, though, because he went to prison, and he had some issues with With drugs, some pretty heavy stuff. I'm not entirely sure what it was. I don't want to say because I'll get it wrong. But he had the live SWAT team outside his house, and he was-He was like, Hold up in a church one time, too. Hold up in a church. Yeah. He had a breakdown, a public breakdown, substance abuse issue, a lot of mental illness. Apparently, he was on all kinds of medication that he wasn't taking. So it's a shame to see. And of course, for Jason Miller and a lot of people, again, you're at the top. He was never a champion, but he had the show Bully Beat Down, and he was making big money. I'm sure he got paid a lot of money from MTV back in those days. So he was making big money. He was winning fights. He was flying all over the world. He was coaching the ultimate fighter, signs with the UFC again, gets beaten.

Come ask me, beat the shit out of him.

He's never been in the same sense. Everything No, but your identity is taken away. I'm not talking about me beating it out of him. Far from him. It's just a fire. It's just a fire. But when all of a sudden you're up here and the world choose you up and spits you out and your yesterday's news and you're not relevant anymore. It's hard to deal with. And I'm not making excuses for Miller. And that's why guys like going back to Tony Ferguson, that's why they want to continue fighting. Because mentally, if If the UFC were to cut him, he feels that he's been used up, chewed up, and spat out. That's not the reality, but that's how you perceive it. And I'm sure guys like Miller and other people, a lot of fighters go off the rails when they retire from fighting.

Oh, for sure. For sure, because that's the only thing holding them together. And he was interesting. The first time I met him, he walked in and poured a whole bottle of water on my foot and just laughed and walked away. I never met him. We didn't even introduce each other. He He just walked in.

Why did he do that?

I have no idea. It was the weirdest thing I've ever been a part of. He just poured the whole bottle of water on my foot. Where was it? Rain. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rain Training Center. Yeah. I used to go in there.

And then just walked. Just walked into the gym. I was in that little front sitting area, and then he poured it on my foot and then laughed in my face, staring at me in the eyes the whole time he was doing it, laughed and just walked away. And everyone else was like, That's just mayhem. That's not normal. I don't know him.

I used to have a guy do that to me. When I was a kid in Clithero, there was this one guy, and he was a bit of a psycho, a bit of a tough guy growing up. And I was a bit of a scraper, so I had a bit of a reputation. But I was 14, 15, and this guy was like, 90. Do you know what I mean? We're not in the same ballpark. And he would always sprint over to me. I'll get this get right in my face, and I'd be shooting my pants. And then he just started laughing. And I did not appreciate it at all. No. He kept doing it and doing it and doing it. So one guy just flipped a lid and beat the shit out of him. He ripped his shirt off and I just... That was that.

We never trained together. We never, to this day, we've never spoken two words to each other. We've never even had a... We trained at the same time, but never together. And he would just poke at me all the time. It was the weirdest thing. Like a poor bottle. Did the water on the foot thing. And then I'd be walking through a door and he'd check the shit out of me and just leave.

That's just straight dick moves.

Yeah. And Ellenberger, like Jake, would always be like, God, that's just Jason. I'm like, You need to tell Jason. He might beat the shit out of me right now because I was young and wasn't very good back then. I was just a young kid. And you better tell him, I'm going to give it all I got. And I'll jump him in the parking lot. I was pissed.

We pulled some epic pranks on him on the ultimate fire. Oh, my God. The best one ever was the We smashed holes in his changing room walls, because the changing rooms are a joint. We've just one plaster board, we call it. What do you guys call it? Drywall. Drywall, yeah. Just drywall in between. And then there's another one on the outside. So four of us got slide jambers, put four holes, whilst the whole team was in there. The whole team was in there, Jason, they're all having a big pow wow, synchronized effort, four holes in the drywall, four fire extinguishers through the thing, and just blasted them with fire extinguishers. They were all pissed off. But then you know what the piece de resistance, the creme de la creme was? Then while they're all Losing their minds, we'd hired a mariachi band, and the mariachi band was on deck. And it's all on TV. So while they're all going, blah, blah, blah, a 14-piece mariachi band is the greatest thing ever. And I was just dying with laughter. Got to find that clip, man. It's online. You can see it. It's so good to know that you're an asshole.

I'm fighting in two days. And I am literally just holding. We all are just dying with laughter.

Whose idea was that?

Well, I'm going to give credit. I said about the fire extinguishers. And then as we were walking through a casino one day, there was a mariachi band, and Tiki. Tiki Gosen, he manages a lot of fighters now. I used to train with him at his gym, and they said, Oh, and he got a card for them. I said, We should get the mariachi band. And they would pay for everything.

The show would pay for it. So you're like, Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course. We got this mariachi band.

If it makes for good TV, we tried to get them to get his rental car picked up by a crane, dangling, and when he walked out to drop it and smash it. They were going to do it. But then after a while, they weighed up the risk assessment. It was too dangerous because they didn't give a shit. It's just a rental car. You know what I mean? It's making TV. We were trying to do a lot of crazy shit. All right, let's get Harrington on. Harrington, are you there, Harrington? Are you coming from the space station? No, I'm here. How is the Netflix there?

The Netflix is pretty solid, honestly. Maybe stick away from some comedy specials, but the Netflix itself has been working. What?

Take it and dig at Joe Rogan's Comedy Special.

So you hated it. Who said anything about Joe Rogan?

I loved it. You hated it.

You said, Stay away from comedy specials.

Yeah, like Hannah Berners.

What's the big comedy special that just dropped? I watched it last night. I thought it was very good, by the way. Okay. Look at his face.

He didn't like it.

You thought that was...

Dude, I'm not going to be... I work in comedy. I'm not going to go ahead and do this. But you thought that was good.

You already did it.

You thought that was capital G good.

This is Harrington not talking shit. Okay.

Oh, my God. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I laughed. Do you know what? To be honest, I'd seen a lot of those bits already because I went to the mothership, and in October when the UFC was in Austin. And obviously, you're practicing and perfecting the bits and all the rest of it. And I laughed my head off. So I'd seen a lot of that stuff already. But no, I thought it was great. I really enjoyed it. Do you ever know an MMA story before you go slagging off the godfather of MMA commentary. My God, Harrington. I did.

Once again, did not say a bad word. The Federal Reserve, they released a study on how much each age group has in savings. I think people were pretty shocked at these numbers. I think the big overarching thing is people were commenting that for parents, their children have way less money saved at their age. They're in a way worse financial position at their age than they were when they were that age.

Yeah, so 25 to 34. All right, so under 28. Under 28.

$28.

$28, which sounds about right. $25 to 34, you got 15K in the bank. 35 to 44, 36,000, we'll call it, to be generous. In the bank. Moving on, 45 to 54, 60K in the bank, and then 55 to 64, 87,000 in the bank, 65 years of old, 65 and up, $88,000, which is... Growing up in the north of England, if I could have imagined having $68,000 in the bank, I would have thought that was a fortune. But living in America and how expensive everything is, and you got to pay for health insurance and the cost of living being what it is, My God. I mean, that's the average person. That's the average person. So there's a lot of people with more, but there's also a lot of people with less. I mean, what do you think, Anthony?

The only one that made sense to me was I'd have been happy with $28 when I was under 25.

When I was... Prior, pre-UFC, we lived in our overdraft. I had an overdraft of £2,000. And if we were overdrawn £500, In our minds, we had £1,500 in the bank. We were like, We're going shopping. We're going T. J. Max, or TK Max, as it's called. That's where we went shopping back in the day. Tk Max, get all the-Yeah, if you were up to zero, you were living. Whoa, we're going on holiday. We got two grand.

I got no money.

I'm rich. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah. I mean, it's a sad state of affairs. I was just talking about it offline before we started. Did I say it on the show? I just went to Mowi. Oh, no, What have you said about it at the start?

It's expensive.

Expensive as hell. Expensive as hell. It makes you realize how lucky you are. But that was shocking.

Five meals every three times a day.

The kids, man. Hotels. The kids, the rattles, they all drink. Like Callum, by the pool, I'm not trying to get... Well, we're ordering whatever we want. We're on vacation. I'm not going to stress it. But he's ordering these little drinks that have about three sips. They were $25 a pop. I'm like, Callum, I'll put it on my dad's tab. I'm like, Do you want to order a drink where you get a few more sips? So maybe it lasts longer. You know what I mean? Stop ordering.

He drinks 40 of them.

I'm sipping away on one. He's on his fourth already. That's $100, bro. What are you doing? Get to work.

That's dad's money, though. It's easy.

Yeah, it is easy. What do you think about those numbers?

I guess I don't have a comparison. I don't know what it would have been before or what that would have equalled before. I feel like it's not enough for sure. If you have a tragedy happen or someone gets sick or you lose your job, I don't know, a pandemic shows up for two years and you got to live off your savings, it doesn't seem like that's a whole shit ton of money.

Brian, can you just Google? And obviously, these numbers are never reliable. What do they say the average amount you need is to retire? Let's say you're 65 years old, you retire. What do you think the average... Well, While Brian looks at it. What do you think you need to retire in this day and age? Because I have no idea.

I have no clue. I couldn't even get... Because hopefully, when you're 65, you live in a home that's paid off or close.

Yeah.

Hopefully, your monthly bills are fairly low. I don't know.

All right. So Brian's put in here, According to a 2024 Northwestern Mutual study, Americans believe they need around $1.46 million dollars to retire comfortably, which is a 15 % increase from the previous year. However, most Americans are far from reaching that amount, and many have no savings at all when they retire. No savings at all when you retire. It's awful. And it's like when you see these posts on Instagram all the time, you've been brainwashed, you're working till you're 65 years old, but then you're old, and then you retire, and then you no longer have the energy to want to do anything. And it's completely true. But to your At the point, if you get a 30-year mortgage, it used to be 25, but now it's 30. You get a 30-year mortgage at the latest 35, which I think most people should have a mortgage by the time they're 35. And I know the new trend is, don't get a mortgage, don't buy a house, shut the fuck up. Do not pay a rent your entire life.

He's paying someone else's mortgage.

He's paying someone else's mortgage. Do not rent a house your entire life. Do not do. Or you take that money and you invest it elsewhere. Yeah, okay. Invest it in a house. That's a good It's a good start. It's a good start. So you own your house at 65, so you retire. So at least you don't have to pay that. But it says that you need 1.46 million.

And that seems like a lot.

For most people to have 1.5.

Million in the bank? Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, that seems like a lot.

That's insane. Most people are not going to get that.

Even if you're 65 and you retire and you live to be 80, you probably don't need... If your bills every month are low and you own your house, you probably don't need a million and a half dollars.

Well, you probably do. I mean, let's just say you spend 100 grand a year, which sounds like a lot, and it is a lot because-That's a lot.

That's a lot.

It's not in California, but I've got a family of five with four cars because they're all the kids drive cars now. I can't wait for them to get jobs. I love my kids, but please get out the house, pay your own bills. All right, then. Well, What do you think you need on average to survive a year when you're a retired person with no mortgage? Fifty?

I could probably make it with fifty, fifty maybe.

But do you want to make it? Do you want to scrape by when you're retired? No, I'd want to be comfortable. You work your entire life?

Okay, so if it's 100... I'm bad at math. So if you take $100,000- That's 15 years. You'd have to spend... Okay, $100,000, you'd have to spend over eight grand It's like a month.

Yeah. That seems like a lot.

In California, it's probably not. But in Nebraska, that's a lot.

No, it is. In Clithero, that's a lot. I always made this joke. If we sold up and took everything we have, I could go to Clithero and live like a king. I could live like a king to the day I die. Clithero would not be the place. Thailand would be the one.

Thailand would be the place.

If you could retire anywhere, where would it be? Because it wouldn't be Thailand. That'd be a place I visit.

Probably Aruba.

That's not what I was expecting.

What were you expecting?

I don't know. Not Aruba. Where's Aruba?

I don't know. It's a place for me.

You might want to figure out where it is first.

I went there one time.

Well, where did you go? Where was it?

I don't know.

You just got on a plane and went to Aruba?

Yeah, I didn't know where I was going until I got on the It was on the plane.

Did you not look at the map?

No, I was on the plane.

You raw-dogged it.

We did one of those surprise trips where you don't find out where you're going until you're on your way there.

Hold on. I'm going to look at where Aruba is. Oh, here we go. It's right there. Middle of the- It's right there.

Yeah, it's fine. That's what I would have guessed. It was nice, though.

We've got Costa Rica. Costa Rica in our mind right now.

Yeah, Puerto Rico was pretty... No, the DR, the Dominican It was a lot of fun. Actually, guys, I do like greenery and trees and forests and stuff, too. Costa Rica is nice. Maybe Costa Rica. That's a good one. Where's that place where we're going to build those houses? Where was that at?

Who?

Remember, you could buy a house.

You could buy a house in Italy for one euro.

Yeah, right there.

Yeah, let's go.

That's a good place, too. That was pretty cool.

My plan, though, when I retire, and this is the plan, and plans obviously always go out the window. But we've always said, When the kids are older, we're going to travel the world. We're going to go here. We're going to stay there. We're going to live in some places that we've always wanted to live and go rent an apartment, stay there for three months, get bored, come home, see the kids for a bit. Then we're going to go travel around Southeast Asia for a while. But by then, you can't be arsed. By then, I've had 20 more surgeries, and I'm like, bollocks to this. I just want to sit on my couch like a grumpy old bastard.

In North Carolina.

Which is the Olympics opening ceremony.

In North Carolina.

In North Carolina, man. Jesus Christ. All right, this episode is sponsored by Shopify, which is revolutionizing the online world, right? If you have a business, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're already in business, but you're not online, you need to do that. It's never been easier than it is today with Shopify. Shopify will allow you to pretty much instantly be online selling to the worldwide platform. Shopify Shopify covers every sales channel, from an in-person POS system to an all-in-one e-commerce platform. It even lets you sell across all the social media marketplaces. It's packed with industry-leading tools ready to ignite your growth. Shopify gives you complete control over your business and your brand without having to learn any new skills in design or code. There is 24/7 help available. There is an extensive business library course, and Shopify is there to support your success every single step of the way. And what's incredible to me about Shopify is no matter how big you want to grow, Shopify is there to empower you with the confidence and control to revolutionize your business and take your business to the next level. It really is time to get serious about your selling and try Shopify today.

If you think about designing a website that's very, very expensive. With Shopify, it's very quick. It's not complicated at all. You will instantly be able to accept all major payment methods. And this is the possibility, which is powered by Shopify. Right now, you can sign up for $1 per month for a trial period at Shopify. Com/belief, all lowercase. Go to Shopify. Com/belief to take your business to the next level today. Whatever it is that you're selling, get on Shopify. If you got a business, it's time to get online. And to get online, go to Shopify. Shopify. Com/belief.. Com/believe. $1 per month for a trial period. All right, give us an MMA story, Harrington. What do we need to talk about? Let's get this show back on track. Should we talk about Francis N'Garnu? He's returning.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Francis N'Garnu is set to make his MMA return against a reigning PFL champion, Hennie Ferrera, at a pay-per-view in October. So it's been a while since N'Garnu fought mixed martial arts. I think it was Cyril Garn, that was the last one. Negotiated with the UFC for a while, fought Tyson Fury, very, very close fight. Got violated by Anthony Joshua. Made an absolute fortune. In the meantime, two big Big, big fights. Sadly, had an awful, awful... How do you word it? His son passed away. His son passed away.

He lost a child.

He's lost a child. I know. I'm trying to find the right words, and it's like, there is no correct words. You just got to say it. And now he makes his return. I mean, that is... That tells you everything you need to know about Francis in Ghana, if you ask me. Because that is not an easy thing to do, to come back after losing a child and to now be making his MMA return. One would assume, I don't know, what do you think? One would assume there isn't a boxing offer? Because I think he broughtI don't know what to do a boxing- No, there is.

I talked to Eric Nixik yesterday. Eric's not sure if there's some contractually he owes them a fight. He's not sure about that part of it. But it's super important, Francis, to continue to build MMA in the place that he's from, in African MMA. So that's a big deal to him. Eric said that he's really been using his training and being back in the gym and surrounding himself with the camaraderie of the boys in the gym and to heal from the loss of his son. They talk about that a lot from what Eric said, and that he does really well during the week and on the weekends when he's alone by himself and not preoccupied, that he still does struggle. But Eric said that it's been really good for Francis in terms of healing to occupy his mind, put him in a better place, surround him with people that really care about him and love So it sounds like this is exactly... I was very curious. The first thing I asked Eric, why is he fighting MMA? There's got to be big boxing opportunities. There's got to be bigger money opportunities. But apparently, this is what Francis needs to heal.

Well, of course. The last thing you want to do is sit around idly. And I don't mean idly, that sounds insulting. But when you've been through that tragedy, having nothing to do with your mind and having seemingly... You would feel like there's no purpose. You need that distraction. As you mentioned, having the camaraderie with the boys, with the team. That's one of the main things that I miss about being a professional fighter, going down to the gym and having a laugh with the guys every single day. So that's so good for his mind and to take his mind off it. And it's no surprise that at the weekend, he goes home and you're resting, and then you go to a dark place. It's only natural. It's only natural. Interesting about the PFL. Thanks for bringing that up, because that does make sense. He did sign a contract with them.

And they let him go make a fortune.

And they let him go make a fortune. It's like, okay, listen, at some point you got to come over and uphold your side of the bargain. Totally get it. That's totally fair. It's not like they're being mean in that regard. They're a business as well. Problem is, Heden Ferrara is an absolute beast of a fighter. 6'8. I'm looking at his record now, 13 and 3, 11 knockouts. Last time took Ryan Bader out in 21 seconds back in February, Saudi Arabia. And I'll be honest, that was the first time I'd seen this Heden Ferrara fight.

Me too.

I'm very interested to see it. And I was like, holy shit, because apparently his ground game is very high level as well. And he's a gigantic person. Granted, Ryan Bader.

He's a 205 person.

205, a blown up head, blown up 205, let's be honest. And he's no spring chicken these days. But even still, being away from MMA for so long, it's a tough match to make you return back to a cage.

I think his boxing endeavors are probably going to help him a lot, though. Tyson Fury, really big dude, big, tall, long guy that's going to... Having to train for and then be in there with him for so long is going to help him going into a Henn and Ferrera fight for sure. I I'm excited to see Francis back. I'd rather see him in boxing, though. It's more interesting to me because this is one of those fights where I don't know that we ever really find... A fight like this, I don't know that you find out who the actual better fighter is. Of course, it's going to be exciting. Someone's probably going to get knocked out. But if Francis wins by knockout, does that mean he's the better fighter? I don't necessarily think so. If Hena Ferrera either shoots a takedown and submits him or catches Francis in a wild exchange, do we find out who the better fighter is? The result of the fight doesn't really-Yeah, it. It doesn't really matter to me.

I mean, if two guys-Not when you take two real heavy hitters like that that are just knockout artists just because of how powerful they are. Yeah, but that's fighting, though, isn't it? Who can have the ability and the skill to land the shot? It's not just about having the power, it's about having the ability to connect.

I just don't know the result means.

Anthony Joshua versus Nganu, not ripping on Nganu.

That's more interesting to me.

But we saw who the better boxer was.

Yeah, but okay. I used to always... When I did that breakdown, I've talked about this a couple of times. I did the breakdown of Curtis Blaze versus Derek Lewis. I'm standing on the desk and I'm like, Curtis Blaze is a better wrestler. He's absolutely the better jiu-jitsu guy. If he gets a takedown, he's going to have vicious ground-up, the more technical boxer. He's got better conditioning. With that said, Derek Lewis by knockout. You And then it's funny because then it happens. But I feel like I don't care about the results so much because I'd rather see Francis in boxing where it's more interesting to me.

Yeah. I understand what you're saying. There's certainly some interesting fights. I would love to see Deontay Wilder and Francis in Ghana, somebody like that.

I think that's probably where they would have went had Deontay Wilder not gotten- Even a Derek Chesora or someone like that. But it's I just think Francis needs a willing, an equal star that will match him. And not to Hena Farrera. I don't mean to be disrespectful to Hena Farrera. He's absolutely dangerous, really good fighter. I liked watching it. I enjoyed watching him fight the short amount that I've watched. It's just not the star power of a Francis Nganu.

Yeah, but that's the only guy. That's the biggest guy, the best guy. He's the champion of the heavyweight division, and that's all the- He's going to make $3 million, which I think is pretty cool with the Francis N'Gano. That's all the PFL. That's all the PFL can offer. And the PFL, no doubt, made a massive contractual offer. I don't know what the numbers are, but if I remember rightly at the time, there were some grumblings of some very, very big numbers. So of course, he wanted to come back and fulfill that contract. So he's going to get paid handsomely. He's got a tough test. Yeah, it's not the biggest name.

Hena Ferreira is getting paid pretty good.

Hena Ferreira is getting paid pretty good. I love that. And that's honorable that he wants to continue building MMA in Africa, which seems to be booming now. Certainly with this fight coming up next week with Drikus and Israel Adesanya as well, that's going to put a big highlight on African MMA and then Francis Banu coming back, of course. But yeah, when I think of him losing a child and coming back and fighting, I have so much respect for the man because I don't know how people do that. You forget. And I got to be really respect for when I bring this up. Daniel Cormier lost a child, and he doesn't talk about that very often. Mike Tyson lost a child. There was an accident on a treadmill. How these people continue-I heard Mike Tyson talk about it one time on this one clip.

On a podcast? It was insane. I had a hard time watching it. It was so sad. If I was Francis N'Gono, if something that terrible happened to me, that I had the funds that he We had?

That's what I'm saying.

You guys would never see me. I don't know how long I'd live.

Yeah, but as you said before, you need that distraction. It's like when you make a bunch of... Because there's a lot of wealthy people out there that are still working away. Look at Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet. He doesn't need to be going through all this bullshit and attacks that he's getting right now. He doesn't need to be figuring out a way to take the human race to Mars, but you need something to keep this going. You need something to stop yourself from going crazy. You need something to stop me from self-sabotaging. And Francis N'Garnu, no doubt, lets you say, he made 25 million, 30 million, 50 million, whatever the number is, coming from his humble beginnings. He's got a lot of money in the bank. Prior to that, he was already the UFC World champion, so he was a millionaire already. Now he's a massively multimillionaire. You can't sit around and dwell because to use the old expression, idle hands, what are they? Is the devil's tool or whatever.

What's that expression? Idle minds are the devil's-Idle hands are the devil's playground.

There we go. Well, whatever it is. I don't think it's that either. But I'll take it, Harrington.

I agree.

I didn't attend Bible study every week. You'll be shocked to hear, but it's something like that. But it's so true, though. It is. And given what he's been through, you've got to keep going. You can't just go, right, sorry, I'm going to retire. I'm going to enjoy my life. I'm going to travel around the world. I'm I'm going to spend money. I'm going to go to places because you got no purpose and you got no reason. You got nothing to keep you on the straight and narrow. For Francis and Garner, who haven't gone through that, you're going to go to a dark place. You're going to end up drinking. You're going to end up getting in trouble. You're going to end up lashing out. Instead, you can take that energy and that anger and that frustration and put it towards something positive and go into a gym and use it to fuel you in the gym and give you a direction and something positive to do. And also something positive to honor his son's memory rather than just using it as a reason for a spiral into decline.

And that's got to be so hard to do because the dark place in the spiral would be easy. If So he's- I have so much respect for him, for him being able to stay out of that and get himself into a place of somewhat positivity. If I had $25 million and something happened to me, a $24 of it would go to charity because I wouldn't make it through a million in the sink hole that I'd be drinking myself into. You know what I mean? I wouldn't make it that far. I drink myself right into a casket. So it's more of a man than I am. That's for sure.

To find some way to wake up every day. That's incredible. Because in this life now that we live in, everybody wants to be a victim. Everyone wants to be a victim. Everyone feels sorry for themselves when, yeah, okay, sometimes bad things happen, but most of the time, it's not as bad as that. And these people that feel sorry for themselves when they hit a little hurdle, a little obstacle, something doesn't necessarily go their way, and they start feeling sorry for themselves, and they look for excuses, and they look for reasons to act like an asshole to pretend to be, Oh, woe is me? I've got nothing going on. It's all right, well, you've hit a roadblock. You've hit an obstacle. You got to get past that. You can't give up on yourself. There's N'Garnu with a real for a reason, a money in his bank, and he could say, Listen, I made it to the top of the mountain. I became the UFC champ. I went over to box and I made a fortune. I've got enough money to sit on my ass for the rest of my life. And my son, sadly, passed away in tragic circumstances.

But he's not allowing himself to... It's not not being a victim. Of course, he's a victim of that situation, but he's not allowing himself to just burn into, what's the word I'm looking for? Just to spiral into decline.

He's not letting that happen. And good for Eric Nixik, too. He was saying on the weekends when Francis by himself, Francis is coming over to his house and spending time with him and his family, and they're just surrounding him as a whole team. Good for all those guys.

Good for all those. That's why you need a real coach. And that's what Eric Nixik is. And that's what Jason Perlo is. And I'm sure that's what Mark Montoya is. You need a real coach. In MMA now, you have all these... There's a lot of fakes. There's a lot of impostors. There's a lot of Johnny come lately. There's a lot of people you see in every show in the gym now. People are holding pads, and they just learn the routines. That doesn't make you a coach. That doesn't make you able to tap into the mind of a fighter. Because, yeah, the physical side is one thing, but the real coaching comes from the mental side, helping them out mentally through the emotions, the struggle of a camp, the ups and downs, the nerves, what the fighters go through, the self doubt, losing fights, and then being able to help that guy get into a mindset to where they feel confident stepping in there again and going again at the highest level, and to be able to break these cycles which are downwards and then to trend It's really upwards. And having a coach that really cares about you, that you trust, because you got to trust your coaches.

If you don't trust your coach, forget about it. Having someone like that around, like a Parillo, like an Eric Nixik, like a Montoya. Having someone like that in your corner, you never forget those relationships. Never.

You never lose those. You take those with you for a lifetime.

Parillo is one of my best friends on the planet. We don't speak to him often because he's busy doing his thing. I'm doing my thing, but I get a phone call off him, and it's just starts with five minutes of abuse. He's like, You're a dick. What are you doing? I'm on the balcony with a beer. What are you doing? He's like, I'm hammered. We just have like... We just bullshit for 15, 20 minutes on the phone. And they're the best 15, 20 minutes I've had in a long time, just having a proper catch up with an old friend. I like that. Those relationships never go away.

They never do.

I love that. Well, dear. Well, well done to Francis in Ghana. How Vincent, what else we got?

Well, notably, there was one guy missing from the 308 announcement, and that's Islam Mahachev. Islam was obviously projected to be fighting Arman Sourukian on that card. Islam apparently sustained some a ligament injury that he's going to require surgery, so he's going to be out for a little bit longer. Arman Sourukian, on the flip side, the guy who was supposed to be the challenger for that, says, Okay, if this guy's not fighting by the end of the year, I think I warrant an interim title fight. So I'm just wondering what you guys think about that.

Islam has been pretty busy. He's fought a lot recently. I don't know that it's time for an interim title yet.

That Insane talk. Of course, Arman is saying that because he wants to fight for a belt. He's like, Well, if he's not ready, bring him an interim title. I don't think that's going to happen.

He doesn't want to wait. I get that.

No, he doesn't want to wait. There's not too much meat on that bone. We both disagree. Harrington, give us the background on Balal Mohamed. Balal Mohamed and Kamaru Usman. They've been talking a bit of shit, right? What's going on there?

Yes. Balal came out and he made a statement saying that this Champ-Champ thing might be closer than you'd expect because there's no clear number one contender at 170. He says, Shovkot, sure, I guess, but he hasn't really put the exclamation point on and made himself a number one contender. He said, Kamaru Usman, right? This guy's talking about dominating the division. He had a couple of cardio kickboxing fights with Kolby Covington, who sucks, and he beat up Jorge Masvidal twice. That's not dominating a division unlike Balal, who claims, I've taken out all the top contenders on my way up. Nobody has earned a number one contender shot. Why not look at Second Belt?

To be fair to Balal, he took the long path. Along the way, he did take out Wunderboy, Maya, Lou K, Sean braided. Who else was there?

Gilbert Burns.

Gilbert Burns. So he has beaten a lot of the contenders to get his shot. Having said that, you can't forget about the one guy that you didn't fight that is 18 and 0, or is it maybe even more now? Maybe it's 20 now. Maybe it was 18 last time I checked. And they're all finishes. And that one's name is Shavcat Rachmanov.

Yeah, you got to fight that guy.

That's the guy.

Although I'm with you, bro. I'm with you. I'm a fan of the journey. I'm a fan of the hard road that you took. Super happy for you. You can't dodge that one. That one's coming. You already said you would do it. You got to do it now.

Yeah, in terms of other contenders, I mean, love him or hate him. Ian Gary is undefeated. He's there as well. He's What, seven? Five Wind Street now? 7 or eight. Yeah, a bunch. So there's him. It's the champ-champ thing. I mean, fair play.

He went out there- There's Jack Dela Madalena. We can't forget about that goddamn guy.

Jack Dela Madalena. Jack Leon Edwards with another win or two could get a rematch.

Right. You get a Leon Edwards versus Jack Dela Madalena.

Say it. Say it again.

Jack Dela Madalena. There you go. If say that fight happens, now you got to fight the winner. You got to. If Jack beats Leon, if that situation happens, while you're preparing for a shop cop fight and immediately afterwards, that's a long time, it could be a lot of shifted and shaken happening in the division, and all of a sudden, now you got yourself another contender.

What do you think about his claim? What he said about Usman? Who did Usman beat as champion? Hold on. So he beat... So the Bells Woodley.

He beat Gilbert Burns He beat Masvidal twice. He beat Leon twice. Or beat Leon once. He beat-Not his champion. No, not his champion.

Colby twice. So Colby Burns, Masvidal, they were the three. Okay. Still, Joseph here is the greatest of all time, well to wait. For sure. Simple as that. The champ, champ, talk, bro, you just won the belt. Yeah. You can't. Hey, I'm not lipping on my... Yeah, Balal. I forgot his name.

You better remember his name.

The Jam Jam talk is crazy, man.

Yeah, it's a little early, but who knows? I'm just trying to... I've been very actively making sure I'm not trying to... I don't mean shit on him, but I want to let him have his minute. You know what I mean? Let him do his thing. He earned it. He earned it. He deserves it. So I don't want to... Even the champ-champ thing, like, all right, it's a little bit crazy, but all like... And he knows that when he says it, he was like, People are going to be mad about this or people are going to think it's stupid. But I just let him say it because he earned it.

He earned it 100 %. You can't take that away from that man. He went out there, he worked his ass off. You could see the improvements. When he got the rematch, he made it count. He beat Leon fair and square. It wasn't even close.

But you got to fight Chef.

The champ, champ, shit's crazy. But so what? Let him have his moment. You can't criticize. He's on top of the world, man. He's on top of the world. Fair play to him. And I'm happy for it. Me too. Anyone that works that hard and takes that many fights and gets it done, you got to be happy for them. You got to look at that as another human being and be like, respect.

Yeah. And that's how I feel about it. That's why I don't want to give him too much shit about the champ, champ thing. You know what? He's on top of the world. He feels like the king of the mountain. Let him have it.

Yeah.

But you got to finish off, Captain.

All right. Anthony's left is in the lurch. Literally, I am with the lurch. I apologize. Harrington. Harrington. Well, we're going to have to finish this show, just me and you.

Okay. That shouldn't be too hard.

No, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. You do a fantastic job, all jokes aside. What have you got?

So John Jones says that Tom Aspinal wants to figure this out. All he has to do is give him a phone call, and they'll figure out when they're going to fight. He actually posted a number on Twitter and said, Yo, give this a ring, text it, whatever. Yeah, We'll figure out this whole who's the real champ thing.

Yeah. No, I saw that. I don't know when this went up. It was shortly. Hold on, I'm looking at it here. August fifth. So when was that? That was only a few days ago. What is it today? Yeah, three days ago. There's no way that's Jon Jones' number for one, 100 %. Because I remember when Darren Till put Helwani's number on Twitter. Helwani lost his mind because he was getting spam calls for ages. If Jon Jones put his number on there, it'd be crazy. Do you think Tom tried to call that number? Shall I call that number?

Dude, A, yes, Tom definitely had to have called it.

No way. Listen, Tom has a YouTube channel. If Tom called that number, there would be a YouTube channel about it. But I'm going to call it right now. I'm going to call it.

Dude, let's see if we can get you on the show.

It's Glenview, Illinois. It doesn't live there. It's 224-463-7532. I'll put it on loudspeaker share. I don't want to withhold my number. How do I do that? Celular. I want to block my number.

Star67, I believe.

Is it really? Is it not Star69?

No, Star69 is you find out who just called you. Star67, I think, is going to be as on the- Does it really?

Does that work? Okay. All right.

When I was a kid, it did.

4634. 4634. 7532. I was expecting it to be some porn site or something.

You've reached the phone of John Jones.

Unfortunately, you got to go through me, Rob McNutt, up in Canada, to get a crack at John Jones. Tommy Aspital, let's go. Did you hear that? Sorry. So he set it up with a voicemail. That's pretty good. I didn't know that at all. He set it up with a voicemail. It's Rob McNutt, up in Canada. If you want to shot at John Jones, you're going to go through me. John, Tom went to a lot of effort with that.

Did he? Or did he just set up a Google voice number and then make that the thing when he was just sitting around with 20 minutes and nothing to do?

It's a bit of effort, isn't it? When you're the champion of the world and there's a guy chomping at the bait and he deserves the shot and he's the guy and you're fighting steep AMIHH, you're putting a bit of mental energy into the fact that that guy's there and you're trying to troll him, you're trying to mess with him. So Tom calls that number and you get that voicemail. I just want to know Tom, did he call that number? And what would the response be? Because I'm sure Tom didn't. Tom's not going to do that. He's not going to fall for that. He's not an idiot like me that's calling him live on a podcast. But what do you think? Do you think that was good for John?

I mean, I think it's more of John Jones being the villain, which is what John Jones has been doing his entire career. He's a known bully, right? That's everything about him is, I'm going to mess with you, mental warfare. That same thing where Tom does the tap on the shoulder, John Jones has been... He pulled that out of the John Jones Book of Tricks. Jones has been doing everything he can to get whatever little mental edge he can get over any opponent. So, yeah, I think it's very in line with the John Jones, the Bones Jones persona.

Yeah, no. What I mean is from my perspective, if I was the champ, if I was John Jones, if I was the greatest mixed martial that we've ever seen, that, by the way, could potentially be undefeated soon, because I know they are trying to appeal that, the loss because they changed the rule, the 12 to 6 elbow, to try to have that eradicated. I don't think that will happen, by the way, because he did 12 to 6 elbow him, and at the time, that was illegal. Just because they changed the rules doesn't mean they can go back in time and change things. I don't know. What do you think on that?

Well, what I think is, did you see Matt Hamels response?

Matt Hamill said he wants to fight him.

He said, Bring it on. Let's go. Let's figure this out.

Could you imagine that's the next person that Jon Jones fights? And the twist is, well, this is a chance for Jon Jones to avenge his only loss that has been eating away him for years. So never mind Tom Aspinal. This is a man that's already beaten me. I want Matt Hamel because he already beat me. I'm looking for the toughest test. That would be ridiculous.

Tom Aspenal, go take care of Cyril Ghan and Alex Pereira. And then maybe when I'm done with Matt Hamel, you can fight me.

No, I just feel like... Listen, I get it. John's having a laugh and you're just trying to pass the time of day and you're just trolling him a little bit. I just like to see him come out and say, Listen, Tom, 100 %, when I beat Steepay, I will fight you. That is my 100 % intention. That is my duty as a champion, and I respect you as a challenger. You can talk shit. You can deliver it in any way you want. But I would like to see him just come out for the record and state that. All this talk of potentially retiring. I mean, Dana said that Steepet says Steepet's definitely done, definitely retiring. But if Steepet wins, Steepet wins and he retires, he's already stated that he's going to retire, which is not surprising. He's 42 years old. He's been away from the sport for a while. If he beats John Jones, he retires as the champ, makes some money, walk away into the sunset. That leaves Tom in a weird situation. Go on.

Do you think, though, that... Yes, I know Steepay has said multiple times, this is it. He's going to retire come hell or high water. But if you're the heavyweight champion of the world, the interim champion is there. He's super popular, has a big fan base. This is a fight where people want to see this belt unified. There has It has to be some size of dumb truck of money Dana White could drive up to Cleveland and put it on Steepay's front door and get Steepay to take the unification bout, no?

I don't think so. I mean, yes, of course there is. The UFC can do that. And he can do that without question. But I don't think that that would be the move. Steepay's at his career, he's 42 years old. I think the fight that people want to see is Jones versus Aspinal. If Steve Bair wins and he retires, then you just do Aspinal versus Jones for the vacant belt. Technically, Tom should be promoted to undisputed champion. You can make Jones his first defense, whichever way you want to slice it. But I think that would be the fight. But I think if Jones loses, there is a potential that he would retire as well. But even still, I would just like to see Jones come out and emphatically say, Listen, it's not guaranteed that I beat Steve here, but when I do beat him, Tom, you deserve it. 100 %, you deserve it. And listen, he's having a laugh. He's being funny. He's got some spare time. Who knows? Maybe he's had a drink or two, whatever. He's just having a laugh. He's sitting with his boys, thought it was funny at the time, and it is funny.

Made me laugh. And I get it. I get it. But I just like to see him come out and once and for all say, Yeah, listen, let's stop messing around. The shot's yours because you deserve it. All right, support for this episode comes from If you're buying protein powder or other supplements, you should be concerned about the ingredients. It's no secret that the supplement industry is not heavily regulated. Many products on the market have fillers and even harmful chemicals in them. That's why I'm excited to talk about today's sponsor, Tru Nutrition. Unlike most supplement brands that focus on marketing and a product that is manufactured elsewhere, Tru Nutrition manufactures its own products while marketing takes a back seat. Tru Nutrition was formed to give protein powders and supplements with absolutely no fillers, no additives, no gluten, and most importantly, no bullshit. It can be incredibly difficult to find the correct protein powder to match your body and fitness goals. That's why with true nutrition, you can create your own fully customizable protein powder mix with the exact ingredients you want based on your activity, taste, diet, and goals. And what's more, you can even see your nutrition facts in real-time as you create your mix.

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Well, we spoke about this once and the cows come home. Is there anything else before we get questions?

Nothing too pressing. Am I missing anything? You tell me because I'm dumb and I forget things often.

Well, I'm not going to agree because people will say that I'm mean. Faes This weekend, there is Serge Spivak going up against Marcin Taibora for a rematch. I'll be calling that one, so I can't get into that one. Can't give any predictions or anything like that. Some rule changes that I wanted to talk about with the 12 to 6 L bar. I was going to talk to that with Anthony because I wanted to get his take because I have my take and I wanted to see if his was any different, but he's half a job in it. He's legd it.

Bankers' hours.

I know. What the hell do you think this We're working from home and you get it paid premium. Five this week. No. All right. Well, I guess at this point, we'll do some questions. If you have a question, send it in, please, to bympod@gmail. Com.

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All right. Today we got this first question from Mr. Thomas Foot.

Hey, Mike. Hey, Anthony. My question is, do you think fighters give up too much of their game plan or too much of their tendencies on UFC Embedded. And I could think of four or five instances where the winning fighter said that they picked up on something that they've seen on UFC Embedded and they exposed it. Now, if that's true or not, I don't know, but I just like to know your opinion on it. Thank you. Well, thanks for the question, bud. I appreciate it, but I got to say, no, I don't. I don't think that really comes into it. If people have said that, then fair play. Maybe they have. I do know a lot of the times coaches are very, very restrictive in terms of what they will let the UFC production team film. When They're doing the countdown shows. There's been many times, We don't want you filming this. I think even in my camps, some coaches have said, Yeah, we don't want you to film this. Because for example, you're fighting a wrestle, you're getting up a certain type of way. A good coach could look at that and go, He's getting up this way every time.

Look at that. Look at this habit that he has. He's doing this. So when he does that, we'll go to the side, grab that arm there, whatever the case may be. So there is definitely times like that, and there's probably times like that with Embedded. But Embedded, you You don't really see too much trading stuff, to be honest. You'd have to really have a keen eye. Embedded is the final week. You maybe have a quick bit of a training session. It's packing the bags, it's jumping on the plane, saying goodbye to your family members, and a bit of hyping up the fights and all the rest of it. Not too much training stuff. To be honest, anyone with half a decent brain for mixed martial arts knows what your opponent is going to do, knows the approach they're going to have. No, I don't. To answer the question briefly, I don't think it is. I don't think it is. And I think any fight that says... If anyone said they lost because of something that happened on Embedded, they need to give the head a good wobble. Do you know what I mean? Because that's one of the worst excuses.

Granted, it could be the other side where they said, We saw on Embedded, we saw on Embedded, he does this. Well, they have got a keen eye. Granted, they might have two keen eyes. I only have one. But I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Well, I mean, there was that thing Pereira said about Yuri where he's like, I saw how he was preparing to block the kicks, and that's how I set up the high kick. But that was off of footage that they got in the back while he was shadow boxing. So it's not even just on Embedded. If you're that good, if you're that tapped into the matrix, you'll find any footage you can of this guy. And it doesn't need to be that was shot that week. It could be something that was shot that day, hours before, or from training footage from... You have a library of fights to look back on these guys. So I don't think the three minutes in the training room that you're getting on a UFC Embedded is really going to change up much of the gameplay.

Yeah, just remind me, that one with Pereira and Yuri. What did he see again? Just remind me.

It was the manner in which he was blocking the high kicks. Sorry, blocking the low kicks and planning himself, dropping his hands to help block the low kicks. And he said he saw that, faked the low kick, it went high, and that's how he got the K.

Well, number one, that's just a bad setting. You don't use your hands to block a low kick. And yes, of course, you might have seen that, and maybe that highlighted it, but that was more on Yuri's mistake than Pereira's brilliance. Yeah, okay, of course. If he did see it and thought, I'm definitely going to go for a head kick, I guarantee that he was going to throw head kicks anyway. It wasn't like this revolutionary thing. The man's a world-class kickboxer. A hefty part of the arsenal is throwing head kicks. That wasn't the first head kick he's ever thrown. You know what I mean? But it just adds to the brilliance. And I saw it and I did this, and I'm such a sleuth. I'm like, Oh, my God, genius game plan, kick him in the head. Of course, when the head kicks connects and he goes to sleep, then you can make yourself sound like a genius. Go, Oh, yes, I saw him, Chama. You know what I mean? It's like, no, you can kick people in the head. We know that. Brian, what else you got?

We got a question here from Mr. Caleb Young.

What's up, fellows? Caleb coming to you from the farm in Southeast Texas with a question about the notorious Conor McGregor. Really, the question is about the pay for his opponents. We've seen guys like Nate Diaz, Dustin Poirier, Habib Nirmogamadov get in there and beat Connor McGregor and make life-changing amounts of money. I'm under the impression that when you sign a UFC fight contract, you're agreeing to make X amount of money for your next, whatever it is, two fights, six fights, however many fights you sign on to fight. Do you make more money? Does the UFC pay you better to fight Connor McGregor? Or is it just that when you fight Connor, you become the main event, you have a lot of eyeballs on you, so you're going to get better sponsorship deals, you're going to get more social media following. Does the UFC actually fork out more money to these guys, or are they just in it for the more exposure, hoping that their star will grow, like in the case of Dustin? We know that champions get pay-per-view points. Connor gets pay-per-view points. And possibly Poirier gets pay-per-view points. I'm not sure about that.

But we know all these contenders are not going to get pay-per-view points. But everyone is calling out Connor, lining up to fight Connor, and super desperate to fight him. Muscle milk, Mike. So why is that? Why does everyone want to fight Connor so bad if the UFC has already agreed to pay them X amount of money for their next fight? So presumably, they wouldn't make more money to fight Connor than they would Joe Blow on the undercard, because either way, you've signed the contract, you've agreed to make this.

We get it right. Sorry to cut you off there, brother. Thank you for the question. And down on the farm in Texas. I'm glad he brought this up because it's a good question. There's some good talking points because Connor McGregor right now is walking around looking like an extra from Sons of Anakey when he's not in the bare-knuckle ring. He's looking like a promoter more than a fighter these days. And poor old Michael Chandler is still doing the thing, Muscle Milk Mike. Yeah, I don't think... They had a little back and forth, didn't they, on Twitter the other day? And they've moved on from on the fire. Go on. Do you remember it? Do you recall?

Yeah, it was Chandler said, I think at this point, I've accepted that the fight isn't going to happen. I think McGregor is somewhere in step two of his seven stages of grief in saying goodbye to his career. And then McGregor responded, All right, you're out. Hollowway, what's up with that BMF belt in December?

Which is a good come back by McGregor, to be fair. So the Red Panty Night, that's what people are talking about, right? And I don't know everyone's personal situations, but you do have a contract. People say this a lot. I'm fighting for this. I want this. And Dana said it to me. I know he said it to other fighters. He said it at press conferences, You have a contract. You have a contract in place that you agree to that you sign at that time. Granted, before every fight, you sign a bout agreement. So before you sign that bout agreement, you can make the attempt to change the conditions of the agreement, of the contract. For Poeya, I don't know. I would assume for the second fight, maybe He got a new contract, maybe it was his regular contract. But when he knocked him out in Abu Dhabi for the third fight, I guarantee he got something bigger. I guarantee because he had no reason to have to take that fight. I mean, other than a good old fashioned rivalry in a rubber match. So I would strongly suggest that he did. But it's not the written rule.

Dennis Siever would not have got a massive bump He didn't pay for fighting Conor McGregor. Michael Chandler, I'm assuming there's probably something written in. In fact, I'm pretty sure there is, but I don't know the terms of that, and it's certainly not my place to be revealing what I've He's heard anyway. But he's waiting on the sidelines for a long time. He could have fought multiple times by now. So there's a reason why he's waiting. Otherwise, you just say, Forget this. Listen, I know McGregor is a big name, and it'll be good for me and good exposure, but I'm waiting on the sidelines for one payday when I could have fought three or four times by now. There's a reason why he's not. I would assume that's because it's a massively increased payday. But I don't think it's necessarily a rule for everybody. Just because you fight somebody, if If you've got a contract in place, that's down to the UFC. If you have a contract in place, they can keep you on that contract. If you go to them in good faith and renegotiate, try and renegotiate, and they see value in renegotiated, then great, you'll get that.

If not, you're probably stuck to your contract.

Yeah, the only thing I can add in this discussion was, I remember during the press conference for the Eddie Alvarez fight at Madison Square Garden, Connor made a point to say, You're the dummy who's on the same contract he had before you agreed to this fight. So that just makes me assume that most guys will try to renegotiate during that battle agreement period. And it was shocking to him that Eddie was like, Yeah, I'll take this fight for whatever my contract is just because I want to fight McGregor?

Well, no. Number one, Eddie Alvarez was champion. Right. So fighting Conor McGregor, he would have definitely got what they called the Red Pantie Night because McGregor sells pay-per-views. So therefore, regardless, Eddie Alvarez was making significantly more money for fighting Conor McGregor. I think what he's referring to there is the standard pay-per-view split when it comes. You know what I'm saying? Because I don't know. I would be surprised. Let's put it like that. I don't know for a fact, but I'm assuming Conor's contract because he gets paid astronomical figures, and he sells astronomical amounts. There's a reason why the two correlate. But I'm I'm assuming his split is more than the average split because of who he is and what he does and the numbers that he generates. So I think that's what he would say, because Conor always likes to piss people off with the money side of things. But for that one, Eddie Alvarez, that wasn't a good example with respect fight because he was literally benefiting from buying Conor McGregor because he was the guy with the Bell. But still, no, it's a good question because people do throw that around. Is McGregor going to fight again?

I don't think. I hope so.

That leads us into the next question we have here from an old acquaintance of yours.

Oh, really? Go on then. Go on then. Go on then.

Ant Brooks.

Oh. Bym crew, what's going on? Ant Brooks here, one of DJ Mikey B's music acquaintances from the UK.

A little hypothetical one here, but do you think that we'll see Michael Chandler fight Mike Perry and Ben for boxing before before we see him face Connor in the UFC? Cheers, boys. Love the show. Ant, hope you're well, brother. Thank you very much. Good to see you. Thanks for sending in a question. That made me laugh as well. It's like, What the going on? All of a sudden, now he's fighting. Now Michael Chandler's, not only is he not fighting Conor McGregor, he's fighting Mike Perry in bare-knuckle. That's quite the shift. I don't think that at all, buddy. I don't know what Michael Chandler is going to do. Listen, McGregor got injured. Fair enough. He hurt his toe. Fair enough. I don't see him in training camp. If he's fine, all right, no, no, no. To be fair, playing devil's advocate. If he fights at the end of the year, which is what they're targeting. We're way off. We're way off. It's August. August, we're at the start of August. Are we? August? Yeah, pretty much. August eighth. August, September, October, November. Five months. Yeah, no, it's fine. He's probably still going to fight at the end of the year.

A lot can change in five months. If he's not going to fight anytime soon, he's got no business being near a training camp. Yes, be in the gym. Yes, be keeping fresh, keeping sharp, working on things. But McGregor is not one of those guys. There's some people that train year round like a Sean Strickland, and there's people that don't go near a gym until it's time to fight. That's not what I would advise. Quintin Rampage Jackson was that guy. I was that guy for a while because when I lived in England, I didn't have a training situation. So I trained for two months, have a fight, win the fight most of the time, and then just go back to middle of nowhere in Clithero, hang out with my mates and my wife and kids and just whatever, put on a load of weight, go for the odd run here and there, lift weights, whatever. Then two months before a fight, go back to the gym. Because it was like a two hour drive away. People like Rampage Jackson, they were the same way. And a lot of old school fighters were like that. It's not what I would recommend.

Mcgregor is now at the point in his life where he's 36, I think now, 36 years old. He's got the money, he's got the lifestyle, he's got other things going on. He doesn't need to be in the gym all the time. He's just got to rock up two months before training camp, before the fight date and just get in shape. I don't think he's trying to improve all areas of his game at this point. He's just trying to get back to where he was and get sharp.

Then why bother?

Well, it's not about why bothering, because if you can get to where he was, he was a double champ.

Yeah, but you You think he can... Hold on. He was a double champion in 2016. It's 2024. That's eight years ago. He was 28 years old at the time. You think at 36, you can get back to where you were at 28?

Yeah. Okay. And more.

Okay.

I was better at 37 than what I was at 28.

All right. Fair enough.

I mean, you know what I mean? Sure, better, but were you faster? Because that's a big factor in it.

Yeah, I think so. I beat Anderson Silver.

That's fair.

Hey, man, that's fair. I wasn't slow anyway. Do we have one more question, or is that the lot for this time?

For this show? That's it for today. We snuck that last one in a little early.

Okay. All right. All good. Thank you for the question, Ant Brooke, our man in Texas. I think there was three, right? Did we do three?

Yeah, we did three.

We did three. All right. Thank you to Anthony Smith. Part-time Hart Smith is what we'll call him.

We're going to run with that.

Anthony Part-Time Smith. It's going to ring to it.

It's better. It's better than Part-Time Heart. That's hurtful.

Oh, God. Oh, Jesus Christ. That's not what I was thinking. I was just trying to blend it with the nickname. Anyway, watching. We'll be back on Monday. Have a great weekend.