Transcript of BISPING'S BELIEVE YOU ME Podcast 609: Will Pereira Save UFC 310?

Conceive, believe, achieve. Shut the up.

You're listening to Believe you Me with.

Michael the Count Bisping and Anthony Lionheart Smith.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Believe youe Me podcast. I know we weren't on last week, and I said I would be and all the rest of it, but you probably saw online going through. I had two neck surgeries last week. Obviously, I had the disk replacement about seven weeks ago. That provided zero relief whatsoever. So we had another surgery on Tuesday. We. Where they did two operations, and I'll tell you what. Holy. I can hardly move. This is me. I've gotten zero range of motion. The pain is through the absolute roof. It's ridiculous. But every day is getting a little bit better. On Wednesday when I came out, I thought, oh, this is fine. I was helping Rebecca cook dinner. Even went for a walk Thursday. Holy shit. Could not move. Like, my neck swelled up from the back. Crazy. They sliced my neck open. They pulled all the muscles apart. And he said what we saw was tons of bone spurs. So they shaved them away. But the bone spurs were also covered in cysts and, like, some, like, gunk and, like, nasty fluid all around them. So they had to get rid of all the cysts and shave all the bone spurs off.

And then the fusion that they did in 2019, that was loose. So they did a bone graft, filled it up with the bone graft, put a lot of wedges in, redrilled the screws and refitted the screws and put it all back together. So the doctor was like, look, listen, I have done so much to you. I said, I find it very, very hard to believe that you will not be recovered once the swelling and the bloody pain goes down. But anyway, the show must go on, boys and girls. The show must go on. How you doing, Harrington?

I mean, I'm doing a lot better than you, I guess, for the first time ever.

I'm good, buddy. I'm good.

The. The.

The.

One of the wildest things you sent me, like, we're actually, like, passed the phone around to my friends who were in the room was the. For the metal spikes that they put into your head. Bro, that's like 1800s medicine.

Yeah, dude. Dude. So it's called a halo. So they put a halo around you and they drill these spikes into your head. Because when I came around from surgery on my Instagram, there's a picture of me doing this. I was totally out of it, by the way, when I made that post and the doctors came in, I'm like, how you Feeling. I'm like, why is my head so bad? He said, yeah, we have to drill these. Screw these spikes into your head because obviously they're doing neck surgery and they're operating on the spine and the nerves and stuff as well. Oh, that was another thing. One of the nerve exit was all compressed, like caved in. So they had to make that bigger and stuff. There was a lot of shit that they did.

That's probably why it hurts so much.

Yeah, yeah. But then they screwed these spikes into my head and I was just like, oh, the pain was so bad. And then like, the last few days, I've been icing my head and icing my neck. That's been my life. And I had these giant scabs on the side of my head. I'm like. And the side of my head's been all, like, misshapen and swollen. It's like I've been kicked a. Of a gang of bloody. Gang of bloody Venezuelans come after me, you know what I mean? The side of my head was like, I've been kicked around like a football and all these scabs were falling off. So, yes, you could. Rebecca was like, you can actually see the screw holes in the side of your head. So it's all good, man. It's all good. The price you pay, you know what I mean? For living a great life and providing an amazing lifestyle to my family. So I wouldn't change a goddamn thing. And hopefully a few days and this will be a thing of the past. I bloody well hope so. Saturday night, I'm back in the commentary seat, so let's go.

I'm shocked. I'm genuinely shocked. You weren't in Edmonton this weekend with giving your work out of it.

Oh, dude, dude, dude. I was terrified. Well, not terrified, horrified, because D.C. and Felder, they were both there. They were both in Abu Dhabi. And then obviously they flew home for maybe a day or two and then straight up to Edmonton. So tell you what, tremendous work ethic. Anyway, let's get into the show. As always, Harrington has done a great job of compiling some notes for me because I've been kind of out of the loop. The big story right now, obviously there were some great fights at the weekend in Edmonton, but the big story is probably. What? Well, what have you got? Because you never do it in order, but is it.

No, I think I did this time. I think.

Number one. Number one, Bilal Muhammad out of UFC 310 and he's fired with Shavkat Rapunov. Well, not in jeopardy. It's off. Simple as that. You can't blame Bilal. You know, sadly, injuries are a part of this sport. Your shoulders tall, all sewed up and swollen like a balloon. My foot was a balloon.

So, I mean, yeah, there I was reading an article by, by Forbes that, you know, put together. It was like four possible replacements for it. So I'm not sure which one you're most interested in, but I think the one that a lot of people are talking about, you know, from the, from the moment that this was announced and Alex Pereira commented underneath the post with a telephone icon. I think a lot of people want to see Alex Pereira come in, try to get a fourth fight in this year and steal back Fighter of the Year honors from Ilia.

Yeah, yeah. And that's what everyone's talking about right now. Certainly there is a potential for that. You know, Pereira for. What was it? June, July, something like that. Right, Something like that. So he could do it. He could do last night. Yeah.

No, he fought last month.

So what month was that? September.

Yeah, September.

September.

All right, whatever.

I've had neck surgery, guys. Don't hold me on technicalities. Anyway. Yeah, look, listen, he could easily do that. He could easily do that. Magameter Life fought last week or the week before, so that one would be a quick turnaround. But if anyone's going to save the day, it's Mr. Save the Day himself. I mean, Alex Pereira is right up his street. And to be fair, if he was to do that, disregard everything we said about Ilia Topuria, right? If Alex Pereira was to do that, that would make him the Fighter of the Year. And who cares, right? That's not what we're trying to do. Nobody. Yeah. Being Fighter of the Year is a great thing. It's a great accolade that people bestow on you, right? But it's not what you're actively trying to do. You're not trying to be Fighter of the Year. You're trying to be the best fighter possible. You're trying to defend the belt. You're trying to make money and set yourself up for a great lifestyle down the road. Okay? And if people want to talk about you and give you these titles like Fighter of the Year, that's fantastic. But you shouldn't let that sw.

Your decision making one little bit.

But I mean, if you. If you think about it like the guys who do. Who really earn that Fighter of the Year, I mean, obviously, you know, Kevin Holland earned it with the, with the five victories in a year. And you know, he's still in the contender sphere, but I mean, guys who, who win the belt, defend the belt multiple times a year and go down for, for Fight of the year. I mean, like, that, that whole series UFC has is like, year of the fighter. Like, that is kind of what makes you legendary and makes you a little bit bigger than the sport. And it's like, you know, I mean, people take it for granted. People took it for granted that Tiger woods was going to pass Jack Nicholson's record for most green jackets, right? Like, Ilya Saporia might have another year down the line, but right now he's in that catbird seat and it's like, you know, the. I think it would be kind of cool for Prayer to step in and be like, no, I'm. I'm making a statement now.

No, 100%, I'm not disagreeing with you. It would be very cool, you know, and that is why, you know, people love this guy. The willingness to step up on short notice, fly around the world and take on, you know, the top guys. That's why people love Alex Pereira, and he deserves all the accolades. What I'm saying is, my point was that shouldn't really come into your decision making. You don't really consider, oh, well, hold on a minute. Will this make me Fighter of the Year? It's like, no. Will this get you another title defense? Will this get you another multi million dollar payday? Will this help set you up for your future? Not will a bunch of nerds on a podcast sitting around going, do you know my fighter of the Year is Alex Pereira? Because what he did was legendary. And you're right, when you're talking about Fighter of the Year, that's what you want to see. They're the traits and characteristics that you want to see from potentially a Fighter of the Year candidate. But ultimately, who cares when it's all said and done, right? Defending the belt, winning fights, ultimately making money.

These are why we fight. Simple as that. So the question is, if it's not Alex Pereira, which it might be. Which it might be, and if it does, I think that's the best replacement possible. Scrap the fight altogether and then put Alex Pereira, Magomed Ankolaev, that would be fantastic. It really would. But who were the four people on Forbes? I know it was Ian, Gary, Kamara, Usman. Who were the other two?

Well, no, so what they were saying on, on, on Forbes, it said Jack Della Maddalena or Kamaru Usman? Because Gary. And that was the other thing in the notes there. Gary and Joaquin Buckley are actually already matched up for December in Tampa, so Ian Gary pulled himself out of there. The. Yeah, the. The thing I was reading was either either Kamaru Usman or Jack Del Madelena. There are rumors that those two are. Are, like, tentatively supposed to fight each other early next year. So it would be like, instead of that matchup, one of you guys come fight for the interim title or, you know, fight a fight against Shopkot. I don't know if there would be an interim title on the line.

Yeah, I mean, it's too early for an interim title. It is. I mean, Bilal just fought in July, right? He just fought and beat Leon Edwards. I saw that. He was in that Forbes article as well. I just think it's. I mean, listen, UFC can do whatever they want. They want to bring in an interim title to try and jazz it up a bit and create, you know, a lot of tension like we have in New York right now going down next month, Madison Square Garden. I saw Stipe doing some interviews this week. That man did not look like he was enjoying the interview that he was having with legendary interviewer Damon Martin. Yeah, look, listen. Leon's number one, Usman's number two, Shavkat's number three, right? Yeah, it'd be lovely to see Shaft got still on the card. Man's undefeated. He's a finishing machine. But who do you put him in with? Kamara Usman would be fantastic. You know, we said this recently, that Usman's performance against Hamza Chimaev aged very, very well, as did Gilbert Burns. You know, I mean, the way that Khamzat went through Robert Whittaker was unbelievable. You know, so Usman, as we said last time, you know, he was probably sitting at home kind of smiling and going, look, see, look.

There's an argument that I beat this guy. So Usman, without a shadow of a doubt, still got it. I'd say I'd like to see Usman in there, but ultimately, this is kind of a silly conversation because it all remains to be seen.

Well, yeah, I know. I understand what you're saying. I hate speculating, but, I mean, there was a time where Shavkop was matched up with Jack Dell and Madalena. And it's like, if you're going to take that guy, like a potential big fight like Kamaru Usman away from him, you know, to just have him sit on the sidelines, that doesn't seem really right when a guy who you were booked to fight when an injury happened to you, like, you know, that knocked you out of what would have been certainly a number one contender fight. So it's like if. If we are talking, this is quote unquote, interim title or just number one contender, guaranteed winners fighting Bilal, you know, after Ramadan, let's say it should be in my mind, Jack Della Madalena vs Shavkat. Just settle that because.

Yeah, but there shouldn't be any talk of an interim title. I don't think so whatsoever. Listen, the champ got an injury. He'll be back soon. It's not a massive injury. He's done something to his toe. What was the actual injury?

Infection.

A bone infection. Yeah. Which is what I have, but it's this all over my spine. Disgusting, let me tell you. Yeah, he'll be back soon. Of course, of antibiotics. It looked like they had to cut him open for whatever reason on the toe. He'll be back a couple of months. He'll be back. So him versus Shavkat, they can have to do that down the line. Replace the fight altogether, I don't think. Yeah, it looks nasty, though, doesn't it? Jesus Christ. Not a million miles away at the back of my neck, to be quite frank. Yeah, I. I don't think there's any need for an interim title. He got injured. It's legitimate, and he'll be back soon. It's not like Jon Jones taking a year out, so they had to bring an interim title. A year is a long time. I'd imagine that Bilal Mohammed will be back by March, something like that.

Well, yeah, I mean, he said Bilal's actual quote on it was, there shouldn't be an interim title. I'm not out for six months, I'm out for weeks. Like, this is actually crazy. He did say, hey, if you need to put an interim title on the line because it's going to be, you know, a pay per view main event, then so be it. I'm fine with it. But either way, it just. You're only fighting to find out who I'm fighting next, so it really doesn't matter.

Well, that's the perfect attitude from Bilal. And that's what exactly what I said to Dana White, you know, when I was the champ and I was injured and I had to have knee surgery. And he said, right, we're gonna have to do a. An interim title. So. All right, cool, Fine. It just means the title fight will be even bigger. It'll be champion versus interim champion, which just makes it a little more sexy to sell, which is exactly all it is. You know? All right, today's episode is sponsored by Mando. That is Mando's deodorant products. And listen, if you're one of those guys that struggles with bo, if you struggle with sweatiness, if you struggle with a natural odor that is unattractive, then Mando is here to save your day. Mando is clinically proven to control body odor for 72 hours wherever you stink, pits, package feet and beyond. So make the switch to Mando Whole body deodorant and smell like a zero every day. What am I talking about? Well, if we did a 0 to 10 scale with 10 being the worst, okay, what do you smell like? Because in a clinical study, men who showered with soap and use Mando Whole body deodorant in their pits had an older score of 0 out of 10 after 12 hours.

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I was going to say next month. It's round the goddamn corner. I can't wait. I saw it stipe, as I said, doing an interview when I was out on my walk this morning. It's all I've been able to do is like I let in bed for four days without moving at all. I'm like, right, I've got to do something, I've got to move. Went for a little walk, get a bit of sunshine, a bit of vitamin D in the eyes, set that circadian rhythm and all that other bullshit that they talk about. But. So I was watching an interview with Stipe and Rebecca's like, do you mind you kind of ruining this bloody walk for me? You know, trying to enjoy the peace and serenity of nature. And we've got Stipe chatting away. Stipe versus John Jones. I. I mean, listen, I'm excited for this one. What do you think about that, Harrington?

I mean, who.

I know we're going to talk about this a little bit closer to the time, but I saw Steve Bear doing an interview. What do you think about this fight?

It doesn't get much closer. I mean, we're.

We're.

We're what? We're 11 days out, 12 days out, something like that. From. From you know, UFC 309, which I'm very excited for. And I have another question about. For you off air, but I. I.

Mean, I want to know what the question is on air.

Do you know what the question is? Are we doing a live show? The same question every year.

I thought it was going to be something to do with, I don't know, ask me something about steepest. Let's listen. I don't want to say it on air. I'm like, no, let's have it on our live show in New York, bro. I've got enough fish. I'm juggling enough sticks as it is. I'm trying to recover. I'm trying to bloody. You know, just stringing a sentence together right now is pretty difficult, guys. So thank you. If you're watching, we appreciate it, but no, there won't be a live show in New York.

Okay, well, then I think my only thought coming out of this is whether or not, you know, whether or not either or both men retire at UFC 309.

Yeah, but that's what Stipe said. He was asked about that, and he said, of course, in typical fighter fashion, it's an automatic response. I'm not looking past November 16th. I'm not looking past this fight. You know, maybe this will be. He said. He said, but every time I fight, I feel like this is going to be the last time that I'm gonna fight. Anytime I do a 12 to 16 week training camp, it's hell. You enjoy so much physical and mental pain, kind of like me right now, and you don't want to think about doing it again. So he says that it might be. It all depends. It all depends. Listen, if he goes out there and beats John John's and does it in spectacular fashion, then he might stick around because Guess what? Millions of dollars is a hell of an incentive. It's hell of a motivation. You know what I mean? Listen, he loves being a fireman. He's made millions of dollars already. But when you can cash in, when you beat Jon Jones, and there'll be a lot of people watching that, if he gets pay per view points on that, he wins.

He becomes undisputed champion. And then it's Tom Aspinall versus Stipe. And it's not like Stipe is a. You know what I mean? It's not like Stipe is going to be like, you know, oh, no, I don't want to fight this guy. You know what I mean? The man's one of the baddest men on the planet. I think people look at Stipe's last fight against Francis Nganu, because that was the last time that he fought, and it was a great knockout for Francis. I think people are underestimating him in this fight, you know, And I can understand that because I always say, you're only as good as your last performance, right? Stipe, he got flatlined. It was a devastating knockout. He was led back. The knee was all kind of bent in weird places. That's fantasy, man. That's what he does. And they're one on one apiece, by the way. He said that one just kind of got away the third match. But what I'm saying is, based upon that, I think people are forgetting. Yeah, he's older, but he's also had three and a half years away, which in hindsight is a great thing to recover from the knockouts take time away from the sport, to come back hungry, fully motivated.

Push yourself in training camp. The hardest part is when you're a fighter and you're doing camp after camp after camp, you get burned out. You're just sick of it. You're like, why am I doing this again? But Steve has had three and a half years away, and granted, granted, he was ready for a fight a year ago, and then so he's been delayed even further. So I think we're going to see Stipe looking very, very good.

Well, I was going to ask you about that because specifically on the burnout comment, because how. How does one just keep the fire alive for a fight with a guy for 18 months? You know what I mean? Like Stipe, there was no point. Jon Jones had to go into surgery. There was recovery time, there was pt, Et cetera, et cetera. Stipe, in theory, has been training for Jon Jones nonstop for the better part of two years now. How do you keep that same of fire going and not get burnout in training during the process?

Well, there's no way he would have kept up training the whole time. There's absolutely no way he would have taken some downtime. Probably took, I don't know, six months off doing anything. You know, the thing is, when you get to a certain level, you're not reinventing the wheel. He doesn't need to learn how to throw a punch and all this type of thing. He is who he is. He's stipe mi. Right. And you can just take some time off, have a mental break away from all of it, step away from the gym and the media and the appearances and hype in a fight and all that. And he can go back to working as a fireman in. Where is it, Ohio?

Cleveland.

Yeah, Cleveland. Yeah. He just goes back to working a regular job and that's such a great stress relief from it all. And then come back and say, right, get fired up. The motivation is that it's Jon Jones, you know, I don't need to sit here and go through all the John Jones stuff, okay? We don't want to encourage all the bispins oiling up. Dana White comments now. Do you know what I mean? But Jones is a guy that you would get up for. If Jon Jones can't get you motivated and work your ass off, you're not going to get motivated by anything. You know, Jon Jones also is the heavyweight champ. And beating Jon Jones, whether or not he wants it just opens the door to so much opportunity. When Tom Aspinall finally gets his hands on whoever that is, that's going to be a massive fight. And both men involved are going to get a massive payday.

Yeah, I mean, especially if. Yeah, I mean, I guess both guys are carrying bells at that point. I mean, the. And it's not like a regular belt. Tom's defended that thing. If he's not getting points, nobody should be getting points.

Getting points. He's got points all day. Speaking of fights, I saw you put this in the notes here. Florida vs. Georgia football is colloquially known as the world's largest outdoor cocktail party. And things got wild over the weekend. Brian, play this clip if you can. Is this the clip where initially the guy gets tased?

I didn't see anybody punching him. I didn't see anybody getting tased. Oh, no, no. That was. That was something else. That. Yeah, that's pretty brutal.

Yeah. Let's have a look at this one.

There you go. Good ground and pound.

Look at those hammer fish Closing down. I mean, that's an old dude there on the ground. That's an old dude. I don't know what happened before that. And there was a video that I saw, there was a guy, it looked like a similar kind of setting. A guy didn't look like he was being Brian. See if you can find this one, just Google it real quick. Guy gets tased at football game, then beat up by the cops. The guy's trying to be arrested and he's like, well, I haven't done anything. Then the guy tases him and like a G. He stands there, takes it, just rips it out. So they tase him again and he kind of falls over, but then he gets his balance, stands back up. Look at Brian on the fast response. Look at this.

Oh, it is the same guy.

No, no, it's a different one. It's a different dude. This guy got tased as well. He's definite. Definitely a different guy. But anyway, who cares?

That's Florida Georgia football right there.

And I'll tell you what, this cop, then he got the, he got the cuffs and he used the cuffs as brass knuckles.

No.

As we call them in the uk. And he's smacking the hell out of this old. Not an old guy, this guy.

Yeah.

Using them as bloody knuckle dusters. You know what I mean? If that cop does not get in some kind of trouble. It is insane. Oh no, here we go. Well done, Brian.

He's teased, now he's throwing hooks. Oh, he does have the cuffs around his hand.

Yeah. I mean, this is just. I mean that's police brutality. Look at that. I mean it goes.

He sliced his face up with the cuff. Cuz it opened. I just saw it like, it opened up and it like hooked his face.

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm not surprised. You know what I mean? That's ridiculous. That is ridiculous.

Yeah. That's absolutely brutal. I mean these, these. Yeah, I mean, some of these are getting absolutely out of control. But it is a thing where, especially in a stadium environment, I don't know, like I could see a situation where you don't know how many of these people in these stands are this guy's friend. You know what I mean? And like that, you know, herd mentality kind of kicks in where it's like there's so many people in there. If, if 10 of these guys decide, nah, that's not right. We want you to let this guy go. Like you're not stopping ten guys.

Yeah, well, we didn't see the start of the Video. The reality is the cops did probably, you got to assume, didn't get involved for no reason whatsoever. So they had a reason to be there. You know, I will say this. I feel like cops in America certainly get more respect than what they do in the uk.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, for sure. They have guns, for one. You know, like in the UK, the cops, they're all about 22 years old. They've got, you know, they're dressing, the uniforms. They've got little pencil necks. You know what I mean? That. Oh, they're very, very out of shape. They're very polite, you know, and the most they've got is a trungent, you know. Now, granted, you mess around, you f around, you will find out because armed response can be there in a minute. So don't think there's no guns. But generally, generally, you know, the people's attitudes towards the police here are much, much more respectful, I would assume, in my. In my experience, anyway.

Well, I mean, I don't know. I feel like you kind of got to respect the police in the US like, for instance, would it. Would an English copy come into your home and kill your pet?

I shouldn't laugh. I'm. I'm sure you're talking now. You're referring to Peanut the squirrel.

Rip, not dude.

Jesus Christ. This is terrible. Ladies and gentlemen, Tell me you've seen this. It's all over the Internet. I saw it yesterday. I couldn't believe it again. Went on a walk with Rebecca. Look at this. Look at this beautiful little squirrel, right? This guy took him in. Nick the Indian Peanut. He says that it's his best friend, lives with him, goes everywhere. He's his beautiful little man. I saw a better video, but, like, the squirrel was jumping into his arms, feeding him and all kinds of stuff. You know, it's a. It's an obscure pet, but clearly these two guys have a bond, you know. Look at that squirrel. Happy, go lucky. Living his best life. Three square meals a day, eating bloody waffles. You've never seen a happier squirrel. Look at that. It's got a little hard hat on and everything. Some bloody must have reported him for having a squirrel. And the police have gone around to the house, taken the squirrel off him and euthanized the squirrel. Please explain. What? Why?

So the craziest part about them euthanizing the squirrel is they kidnapped this dude's pets. The pet bit them, and they had tested it for rabies. And to do that, you have to essentially cut its head off because you got to test the spinal fluid. So because they kidnapped the squirrel, it bit them, and then they had to kill it because they had to test for rabies.

Right. So, look, listen. I mean, the squirrel doesn't know it's police. It just thinks some armed men are coming in. I don't know what a squirrel thinks, to be quite honest. I might have a lot in common with the squirrel when it comes to iq, you never know. We've both got small brains, so. All right, I didn't know that the squirrel bit the cops. Yeah, they take it off him, the euthanize it. The Internet is up in arms over this.

They also took his raccoon, but it's not as cute, so.

It's not as cute, so he's not getting the attention. Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. My question is this. Surely the police have got better things to bloody do with their time.

No, Mike. Just like in England, there is no crime in America.

Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, they gotta have better things. There's real crimes going on out there. Some guys got a little pet squirrel. All right. I'm sure he's breaking some code, you know, that maybe you're not supposed to, you know, have pet squirrels that come from the wild or something like that. I'm sure there is some kind of cold brand. Just look that up if you can. But so what? So what? Let it go. Let it slide. No one's getting hurt. No one's bloody. You know, he's got one squirrel. He's not like, he's breeding loads of squirrels in captivity and they're going to slowly take over parts of New York with wild squirrels.

No, but I did read something about him. Like, so Peanut had, like, his. His tail, like, badly mangled due to an attack when it was a baby, and it wasn't fit for life in the wild, which is the whole reason that he adopted the pet. And after, you know, he kind of blew up on social media with the pet, he took some of that money that he made, you know, from. From being an influencer and put it towards, like, a habitat for. For these animals. So not only was he, like, taking care of animals and providing a sanctuary for them, he was getting some good press off of it.

This is a beautiful human being. This is a great guy doing great things.

You want to hear the worst part?

Go on.

So I don't. I can't verify this, but I did. I read, like, a long Twitter thread today that said the person who reported him was some other, like, lady who lived close by who was jealous that the guy had like half a million Instagram followers. Yeah.

So she called the cops. So she sees this guy's getting all this attention. He's got social media followers. She's jealous. She sees that he's making money and donating it to good causes. Again, she's jealous and she's like, you know what? I'm gonna make a call. You nasty, nasty person. Disgusting.

Yeah, yeah. I've seen a lot of people, like, she's apparently deleted her Instagram because she was getting so much hate on it for. Yeah, for doing exactly.

The death of Peanut is on her hands.

100. It wasn't the. I don't think it was the police, actually. It was the Department of Environmental Control. So it's. Honestly, it's like we do the amount of ecological disasters with the global warming that they say is going through the roof. You got nothing better to do than going to get some guy's squirrel?

Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah. You know, the poor squirrel. The poor squirrel. It is. It is. Rest in peace. Unless you take a moment of silence for peanuts. The cutest squirrel ever. While we're here, real quick, I just want to say, you will notice, of course, Anthony Smith is not on today's show. He will be hopefully on every Monday show. Obviously, he's got a big fight coming up against Dominic Reyes. I did say that we would do the show yesterday. We would pre record on a Sunday, but I misunder. I underestimated this surgery and I was not in a fit state. I'm not in a fit state right now, to be honest. So I kind of dicked Anthony around a little bit. So it's not his fault that he's not on today, but he will be on next week's show. How are we feeling about Anthony's big fight with Dominic Reyes?

I'm feeling very confident.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know, like they're, you know, if I'm. If I'm being honest, like the. The Khalil fight, being somebody who hits as hard as he does and taking it on such short notice. I was on pins and needles all day when he was going to fight Khalil Roundtree. From the moment that this Dominic Reyes fight was announced, I was like, all right, all right. One for the good guys in the books. Let's go, Anthony. Let's write this shit.

I'm just looking on the Wikipedia page. Dominic Reyes versus Smith, obviously. Michael Chiesa. Max Griffin, Clay Guida, Chase Hooper. That's a good fight. Cody Durden. Joshua Vang. Good Fight. Teleshund Teixeira versus Lucas Brzezewski. Randy Brown. Brian Battle. Brian Battle going at it once again, I guess Randy Brewboy Brown as well. We're going to get Rude Boy on. Love both of those guys. Marvslawev vs Aljamain Sterling, Vicente Luke vs Nick Diaz, Cyril Gain gone against Alexander Volkov, and Pantoja versus Kai Asakura. So they've got. I mean, that's a pretty good fight card already. So they don't necessarily need to replace Bilal. I mean, how many fights is that? 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Oh, it's only 10 fights. 10 fights? Yeah. Typically they want to have more fights than that on there anyway because dropouts happen, people get injured, people miss weight and all the rest of it, and fights get canceled last minute. Go on.

I thought there was another great fight added to it today, I think. Nate the Train. Nate the Train is fighting on. On.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Dominic Reyes, though. I mean, Anthony's doing the right thing. He's leaving no stone unturned. He's training all over the place. He's gone to a lot of different training with Dean Thomas for this. He's training with Stipe for a little bit as well. He's been doing the rounds. Dominic Reyes, last seen, knocked out Dustin Jacoby, round one. Before that, though, he lost four in a row. He got knocked out three times of those four before losing a decision to Jon Jones, which is crazy because before that he was taking out everybody. Dominic Reyes beat Chris Wideman, Volcanoes De Mayo, Vince. He's a big guy. He's got heavy hands, you know, so it's going to be. I'm just worried for Anthony in terms of him being a friend. And you're always worried anytime a friend steps foot in the Octagon. You know, I wish him the best of luck. I know he's got the skills to get this one done, but I'm just nervous for him. Yeah.

I mean, that's what he is. Yeah. No, that's. That's normal. I mean, like, I. I remember sitting next to. Next to Rebecca at a fight one time and. And really being nervous because a buddy of mine was fighting and.

Hold on. What fight were you sitting next to Rebecca at?

Lewis's fight.

Oh, Lewis's fight.

When Lewis fought Ryan O'Neal, me and. Me and Maddie. Jessica were flipping out and Rebecca said, boys, calm yourself. And I said, rebecca, you don't understand when you know the person in there, it really means something to you.

Yeah, yeah. She's like Are you. Are you serious right now? Bullshit bloody skank fest, bloody circus that you guys are doing. And Louis is boxing with one glove on and a prostitute tied to his other arm. You know, and you're like, you don't understand Rebecca. Big deal.

I gotta laugh at Rebecca on that one.

Yeah, yeah, no, fair enough. All right, guys, I just want to tell you quickly about better help. Listen, in this day and age, there's never been a bigger focus on mental health problems. That's because we know that most people are going through them. There's some kind of problems, some kind of insecurity, maybe an anger issue, a dependency issue, alcohol, drugs, whatever it is, speaking to somebody helps. And that's where better help comes in. This is not a crisis line. It's not self help. This is professional counseling online. And they are committ to facilitating great therapeutic matchups. So it's easy and free to switch counselors if you need. Listen, you know, I mean, I was doing anger management and it really, really helps. But the guy, I wasn't really vibing with him too much. So I changed counselors and now I'm less of a psycho these days. But old jokes aside, it does definitely help. They always say a problem shared is a problem halved. And it really is. And of course, these aren't quacks. These are licensed professionals that can help you with whatever your issue is. So join the over 1 million people that have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional.

Now, listen, you can call them anytime. You can schedule weekly or video phone sessions. Also, you don't have to sit in a waiting room. You haven't got to go through traffic. You just do it all by your phone. So very, very easy. And as I said, the first thing to remember is these are licensed professionals. They're not some idiots on the other end of a phone call. So check it out. Listen, take charge of your mental health. Get better, do better things, be a better you. You go to betterhelp.com believe B E T T E R H E L P. You know how to spell it. Betterhelp.com believe to get 10% off your first month. One more time. Betterhelp.com believe 10% off your very first month. All right, so as we know, last week in Abu Dhabi, well, two weeks ago, well, not a week ago in Abu Dhabi, Max Holloway was knocked out for the first time ever against Illitia. We said or we talked about him probably going up to 155 for the rest of his career. And you Said that Max Holloway is done. You're leading us down a path here of absolute nonsense, Harrington.

Here's what Harrington puts in the notes. Max Holloway says he is officially done with featherweight. Explain yourself.

Well, I mean, I'm just trying to show Max the level of respect that he deserves. That's how he made the announcement. So I figured I would honor that.

Max Holloway went full clickbait to 155 because he will get more people clicking on the video thinking that he's retired. That is not how this is going to work right here. Do you know what I mean? You don't need to click bait me in the bloody notes. Yeah, it's not surprising. He said that he's done with featherweight. He's coming back up to 155. He's going to stay there for the rest of his career. We kind of went into this at depth on the last show when we talked about it. Makes all the sense in the world. Makes all the sense in the world. A lot of fun fights for him, but one guy's popped his head out and said, hey, he's willing to throw down with him a third time.

Yeah. So fan tweeted out. You know, now that Max Holloway is going to be at 155 for the rest of his career, I would love to see a BMF title fight between Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier. Dustin Poirier saw it, quote, tweeted it and just put last dance.

Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, he wouldn't want to see that, especially now. The version of Max Holloway that we saw 155, that's not the version that we saw against Dustin Poirier those two times, which sounds really disrespectful to Dustin. It was. It was Max's debut. And then the. The other fight was about five years ago. We always get better. Maybe we slow down. Whatever the case may be. Right. We're always evolving and changing. I. Right now, say again.

I was gonna say, wasn't that for the second fight with Dustin, wasn't it also a short notice, like, interim title fight? I believe.

I. I can't remember about the short notice, but I know it was an interim title fight for 1 155. Of course Dustin got the job done, but I'd love to see a third one. The thing is for. For Dustin Poirier right now, that man has got so many good options for his final fight, and it doesn't even have to be his final fight. He's the one throwing that around, teasing everyone Every five minutes on social media. He's got Justin G. A rubber match. He's got Max Holloway. A third fight, not a rubber match, but a third fight for the BMF belt. He's got Conor McGregor for the fourth fight.

Right.

Because McGregor would want that back. What else has he got? I mean, he's got anyone in the bloody top 10 as well, you know, I mean, Max. Sorry, Dustin Holloway. Jesus Christ. Sorry, Dustin Pudge. In fact, you don't need to edit that out. I mean, Jesus Christ. It's hard. Okay, guys, I'm doing my best. Dustin Poirier has got a lot of options. That's what I'm trying to say, Harry.

Yeah. I mean, dude, you know, free agent right now, Eddie Alvarez out in the world.

Oh, stop it, stop it. Nobody wants to see Dustin Poer versus Eddie Alvarez. Listen, what I like to see as a fan. Yes. Out of all the options that I just mentioned, would that be your number one? Pick a guy? Yeah. Okay. He was the lightweight champ. He's not even in the UFC right now, and he hasn't been. I. I hesitate before I say this word, relevant in the UFC lightweight title picture for quite some time. That's a respectful way of putting it. Eddie Alvarez is the man. I. I'm a big, big fan, but that wouldn't be my choice for the final fight.

I mean, it's. For me, it's Max Holloway then probably at it. But that's just me.

That's just me.

I don't know. What do I know?

Yeah. Yeah. Moving on from that one. Drinkers. Dupless. He says that Hamza Chimiev's performance was so exceptional at UFC 3 or 9 that he thinks or says that Hamza gets him more excited than Sean Strickland.

Well, yeah, he said that, you know, going into that fight, he said if anybody did anything spectacular in that fight, you know, it would. It would make sense for them to jump the line. And then you have Hamza go out there and do you know exactly that. Something absolutely spectacular against Robert Whitaker, the thing everybody was talking about last week, and he says that fight gets him more excited. He said, I've already beaten Sean, stricken Strickland. Right. As the middleweight champion of the world. Right. And as somebody who wants to entertain fans, that seems like a much more interesting fight, you know, for me than Sean Strickland.

Yeah. And of course, if you're in Sean Strickland's camp or you are Sean Strickland himself, that's going to piss you off, seeing that the champion Is, I wouldn't say he's campaigning, you know, to fight somebody else, but he's saying if he could make a choice, Khamzat would be that. But I like it from Drickers, if I'm totally honest. And what I mean by that is, I'm not saying I prefer one way or the other. If it's Sean Strickland, fine. If it's Hamza Chima, fine certainly deserves it. But just for the fighter mentality, I love that from Drickers. You know, you. You fought Sean Strickland. You beat him once relatively well. It was a very, very close fight, you know, so you're not 100 confident that you can beat him the second time, but you did win, win. But then you look at Robert, sorry, Hamza Chimney. Have you just destroyed Whittaker like that? And you're saying, as the champion, yo, yo, yo, that's the guy that I want right now. Some people might twist that another way and say, no, it's because he knows he lost against Strickland the first time. I don't think it's that at all.

I think he wants the biggest challenges. I think he sees Hamza, and that does excite him. It gets him up for it. And I think, of course, as a champion as well, he understands that that would do massive, massive business. So for. I love it, that's what you want to see, somebody saying, hey, give me the toughest test. Yeah.

And it's like, you know, the. At some point, a champion is going to take on Hamzat Chimaev, right? And it's like, there's no better time to take on Hamzat as a champion right now than right now, right? Like, coming into that fight with Robert Whitaker, people were a little bit down on him. Whatever the case may be, going out there and doing that once again, reestablishing yourself as, like, the phenom that is Hamza and getting all those eyes on him once again, now is the time to strike while.

While.

While the iron's hot, at least for somebody like Drinkus. And it's like, you know, I went out there and had a 50, 50 fight with Sean Strickland last time, went to a split decision one way or like, however you find it, right? That. That Hamza payday might not be there. I can understand 100% why it's like, yeah, dude, let me get my first defense against Hamzat and then figure it out after that.

If I had to guess, though, I still think it would be Drake is versus Sean Strickland, if I was to guess, because Hamza, as great as he is, as much as a force and as dominant as he can be, he has been a little bit unreliable. So I would want to see him if I was. If it was my company, which of course it's not, but if it was, I'd want to see that Hamza can be a little bit more reliable. Book him in Saudi Arabia. Making the main event there. I think that goes down early next year. Book him in Saudi Arabia, see that he can do a quick turnaround and remain healthy. And if you can do that fight twice in six months, months or five months, whatever the case may be, probably less than that, then. Then give him the title fight, because he's proven that he can do that and he can travel the world. And then in the meantime, Sean Strickland, the Drickers can have the rematch, and then it sets the table.

I really. All right, you know what? You're making a really good point right here, because it is like, yeah, the Sean Strickland, in my mind won that fight. So, yeah, I think he should get the next shot. But it's just so hard to deny Hamza.

You think Sean won that first fight?

I did. Yeah, I do. I think just. Just by the. I'm. And I. This is a fight I've gone back and watched maybe once. Yeah, the night of maybe once. I mean, I. Definitely not. It's definitely not, you know, you know, playing as, like, background stuff while I'm taking care of the baby. Like, Like a lot of fights are. But the, the, the. Yeah, the point I'm making is like, I like that idea of making Hamza prove it, make him see if he can stand up to a champion's pace. But the real question is, who do you put him against?

Well, Well, I mean, it's going to be a sacrificial lamb at this point because it certainly appears that no one, no one can defeat him. Not yet.

One of your top 10 guys, or. How do you. Main event, a not top 10 guy. That's.

Well, let's have a look at the rankings. If it wasn't Drickers next at middleweight, I mean, Israel Adesanya, he's right there.

That's your sacrificial lamb.

Well, I'm not saying it's a sacrificial lamb is he showed that he can stop a takedown. Do you know what I mean? But can it stop a Hamzat takedown? These takedowns aren't the same. Do you know what I Mean, Hamza Chimiev's wrestling, He's a different kettle of fish. You got Nazar, Dean Imov, Kyle Bohayo. He doesn't have a fight yet, does he, Kyle? Does he?

There was a rumor he was booked, but I think that actually fell through.

Yeah, Marvin Vittor is there. Jared Cannonier, I mean, any of those guys. Lesb be honest, any of those guys would be great. But, yeah, I had a good point, what I was going to say. Oh, you said that you watched the fight a second time with Strickland and Hamza. I have.

I haven't done that.

Yeah, sorry, sorry. Strickland and Dr. Share. I haven't done that. And to be fair, I probably should. When I watched it on the night, I thought, Drick has got the job done. But often when you watch a fight back a second time or even a third time, you see a different fight. You really do. And maybe it's because of the emotion at the time, or you're caught up in it, or, I don't know, someone's chatting to you for a second, so you look away at key moments. You know, that's the thing when you watch a fight live. It's when you're there in the building. And granted, I watched this one at home, but when you're in the building a lot of the time, it's hard to watch it properly as a fan. When you're watching at home with the commentary, it's a lot clearer. But when you're in the building, as good as it is, as amazing the atmosphere is, you know, you get the bells and whistles, but you've also got, you know, run into the toilet for a pee, which takes bloody 20 minutes. You've got grabbing a drink, you talking to someone, you meet someone, and you look around and someone's been knocked out, and you're like.

Like, I missed it, you know, then you gotta watch it on the big screen and stuff. So to be fair to Sean, I haven't watched it back a second time, and maybe I would feel differently.

Yeah, I think. I think one way or another, though, coming out of this fight, those two probably are not gonna. There just seems something, you know, diametrically opposed about them. Another pair. You could say that about D.C. and Jon Jones. Years later, it seems like the beef is still not dead. DC was taking some questions from fans at UFC Edmonton, as you said, after a long trip to Abu Dhabi, then up to Canada. So I could see why I'd be a little bit pissed off here. Brian, want to Roll the tape. And on a lighter note, how does it feel to be the son of Jon Jones?

On a lighter note, you. So, yes, I guess we aren't great.

We aren't great, and I don't think.

That we ever have to.

I think people need to stop, like, longing for the perfect happy ending.

Guys don't have to do what Mike.

Tyson and Evander Holyfield did.

Can be okay to just be okay.

With us being as we are.

And I'm fine with it, so you guys should be, too. Yeah, yeah. You don't want to be honest. Fair play to D.C. there, because these people, they get up there, they wait in line, they get a microphone. We've seen him before with, I think it was Marab the Balashvili and stuff like that. People saying, like, really nasty comments. You have a little bit of respect. Yes, of course, you know, we. We don't live in a society where hopefully you. You're gonna go and beat the guy up. You know what I'm saying? Okay, that's frowned upon, but you wouldn't say it to his face if it was just you two standing right there in a bar without a huge crowd around you. Just have a little bit of respect and all right, granted, you could argue that maybe it's just a playful comment and all the rest of it, but to dc, it's not a playful subject. It's a topic where he's gone out there, put his life on the line for John Jones on two occasions and lost on two occasions. And you can then bring up all the bloody. What were they called? The pulsing, the picograms and all the rest of it, you know, so, like, you're bringing up a very touchy subject, and you're doing it in a very, very disrespectful way.

Speaking of which, in that same situation, did you see DC was asked about Derek Lewis? Did you see that one? Yeah, yeah, there's a. D.C. was asked right there in that same time about Derek Lewis. So did you see Derek Lewis's comments about you? And obviously lying in bed all day for five days without much to do. My phone screen time has been through the roof, so I looked it up, and Derek Lewis was asked about D.C. at media day. And, you know, sadly, Derek Lucy wasn't able to compete at the weekend. We'll talk about those fights in a minute, by the way. We'll give a quick recap on the big ones. And Derek Loose was asked about D.C. and he was like, yeah, now D.C. is a piece of shit, and he's like, are you joking? He's like, well, other than the whole Popeye things, yeah, DC is a piece of. And I'm like, I, I was kind of left scratching my head at that a little bit. And DC was asked about it there because to my knowledge, and I work with DC and I see him all the time, to my knowledge, there's no, I don't think there's any bad blood between D.C. and Derry Lewis.

I just don't know who has beef with DC like that other than Jon Jones, who seems to be just always in kill mode when you're an opponent, you know what I mean?

I feel like Jon Jones is not holding the same kind of grudges that DC is rightfully.

I disagree.

Yeah, but it's easy to be the bigger guy when you got the two victories. No, no, that's what it boils down to. At the end of the day, these two are competitors. D.C. is a lifelong wrestler, right? At the highest level was an Olympic, you know, was on the Olympic training team. He was an Olympic hopeful. You got to work your ass off to, to that level of wrestling, you know, it's insane. And then he becomes a two way division champion of the ufc. The man's an ultra competitor, right? And when somebody beats you and the only person to do that. All right, Steve. Got him. No, no. Yes. Deep. Got him in his final fight. In final two fights.

Last two. Yeah, they did a trilogy.

Two fights, bad decision. But other than that, the only person was Jon Jones. Don't tell me that doesn't piss him off. That pisses him off greatly. And it's easier for Job to be the bigger man and all the rest of it, but you know, that's still going to burn. Still going to burn a little bit.

But Jones is not the bigger man. Jones takes every opportunity he can to needle a dc. You saw it in that Roku show where he gets on the call with D.C. and he had to be like, you know, Daniel, I love we're able to talk like this. He knows what he's doing.

Yeah, no, I know. That's what I'm doing.

You know what I mean?

And he's doing it in a really non passive aggressive way. You know, I'm talking a bit of. And being all come by our, we're all buddy buddies now over hey, Daniel and kind of like, you know, not belittling him, but what's the word of like condescending him a little bit, you know what I'm saying? In D.C. because he's not Actually coming out and saying, you're a piece of. You're an ass or fu or anything like that. So DC's response is going to be like, he's also going to play nice with him as well, which hurts him even more because all he wants to do is say, bro, bro, let's go a third time, right here, right now. Or maybe not. Not with DC's back these days. But, you know, it's. It's weird how people come at dc, man. They forget there's pictures of DC when he was in his wrestling prime. That man was an absolute monster, and they forget what he did inside the Octagon. And, yeah, okay, he lost to Stipe, knocked him out the first time, and had two very, very entertaining fights. One time he got finished with the body shots later in the second round in Anaheim.

And then, of course, the final fight went to a decision and had those two fights with Jon Jones, you know. So, yeah, you need to put a bit of respect on these people's names when you, A, you see them, and B, when you talk to them and when you talk about them, for crying out loud, out. These are different people. These aren't your average human beings, you know what I mean? These people, for the most part, they're ticking time bombs. You pulled the bear enough, I'm telling you. You don't listen. We always joke about the last person you would want to piss off is Francis Nganu, you know, coming into a bar, wasted. You know, I've used that, like, I've painted that picture many times. DC as well, I'm telling you, you know, to stand there and say, how's it feel? Feel to be Jon Jones's son? He would not say that in real life.

No, no, there's no way, dude. There's no way. And these. That really does piss me off when, like, it's one thing to do it behind the keyboard. You're commenting, you're trying to get a rise out of someone. You're literally. That's DC's job, dude. Like, it's. He's. He's doing a favor to the ufc being like a. A guy who comes out and takes some interview fans from the quit. Like, it's. It's a nice thing to do for the fans. You're going into that guy's job, trying to piss him off, trying to get him to say something that's going to get him in trouble at work. That's. That's really just behavior.

Yeah, well, that's. To be honest, that's the way DC is. DC is like. Whenever you see him, he's like a happy guy, you know? And because he's very comfortable, he doesn't need. This is what you find. It's like. It's like when that guy robbed my wife's purse or I was assaulted by that in New Orleans. You don't feel the need to have to prove yourself and be a tough guy and have a chip on your shoulder throughout life, because you've done it. You've proved yourself, yourself. You know what I mean? You don't need to go out there and not be the only thing that you're known for or recognized for, because everybody knows that. Everybody knows it. You know, speaking of dc, we just saw the picture of him on there. You know, he's a big guy, so he doesn't need to prove himself. And this kind of. We were going to talk about this on the show with Anthony, but Saturday night at the fights, and we'll talk about those in a minute, there was a tribute to Derek Thompson. Derek Thompson was a guy that worked in the graphics department for the ufc.

And I could not believe this. I was led in bed. It was Saturday. The email was sent on Friday, but I wasn't checking emails. You know, I was out of it. And then the email was informing us that Derek Thompson had passed away. And I know to a lot of you people watching this, that name means nothing. You might have saw the tribute on Saturday night, and I thought Brendan Fitzgerald and Paul Feldman. D.C. did a tremendous job, but Derek was a guy that was always on the road. Anytime you went to a UFC event, he was always there. And you want to talk about a big guy guy, he was a gigantic human being, but the epitome of a gentle giant. One of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Him in D.C. were pretty close as well. He was very, very close with a lot of the people backstage. There we are sharing a drink. About this time last year in Sao Paulo, I believe it was. There's rj, and that's Margie Casey from Manchester. Just. Just an unbelievable guy. But talking about D.C. and not acting that way just made me think of Derek.

Derek, because he's. He's one of those guys that. Jesus Christ. If you wanted to act a certain way, Derek was that guy. But he wasn't like that. He was just smiles, and he was just warm and funny. You know what I mean? Just a beautiful human being passed away suddenly at 39 years old.

So young.

What was it? I. We don't know. We don't Know, we don't know, but rest in peace. To Derek Thompson. Just a great guy. Just a great guy. Makes you think, man, life's short. Life is short. You know, you think that you've got all this time and you make all these plans, and to be honest, you do have to plan for the future, but also, you've got to live your life to the fullest while you can as well. You know, it's such a cliche. Tomorrow's not promised. It isn't. I mean, Jesus Christ. For the most part, it is. It is. Right? That's why. That is a silly statement. For the most part, it is. But you don't know. You just don't know. And that's why, you know, I try and call my mom as often as I can. I check in with my dad as much as possible, try and speak to family members, some friends. Dude, you think you got all this time, you just never, ever know. Such a hard world.

Yeah, I mean, I. Yeah, I can't really speak to Derek at all, because I didn't know him. But, I mean, I can. I can speak to his work, and I can certainly say that, you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the UFC production is second to none. Right. Like, it isn't. It's. It's an example that I think a lot of people who work in the industry that I work in look at is like, wow, those guys are really doing it well. And, you know, he was a part of that machine.

So it's just. Yeah, I was heartbroken, to be honest. I really was. And I can only imagine. And I didn't even really know him that well. I knew him for years, and we shared many a drink together after work. You know, we celebrate. We're on the road, we sit at the hotel bar, and we have a couple of drinks. So I knew him like that, but I wasn't, like, necessarily really close with him. So I can only imagine what some of the people that are really close friends with him, how they feel. I mean, I was shocked. I was in disbelief. I couldn't believe it. I remember reading his name and thinking, no, no, no, not Derek. That can't be Derek. You know, it can't be. I was just with him in Abu Dhabi last week, you know. Crazy, man. Crazy. Anyway, as I said, rest in peace, big time. And next time you meet DC or any fighters in public, have a little bit of respect. Have a little bit of respect. Anyway, tell me about the store in California.

Okay. So I think this is actually kind of a cool Concept. This store in California is sick and tired of, you know, people, people getting away with people pretty much. Right. Like if somebody takes something, the cops aren't going to be able to hold them or charge them with anything. So a lot of people, a lot of stuff has just been going missing. Right. Like it's just been okay.

I've had this here the whole time. Yeah.

What are you doing? Put that on my arms.

Cramping up. I can't do it.

Rebecca, get that on.

Rebecca, you are. Ah, I'm cramping up.

Oh, that's not good.

Christ. Jesus Christ. Come on. You were saying about this store in California, right.

So one stories figured out a way around this.

They I can't do it. I can't see him without on the whole time looking like an absolute. I'm sorry. I will enjoy the pain like a man. And I'm complaining to Rebecca. But anyway, go on. California.

So California. This one store has raised the price of every single item in the store to $951. They said that they make it very clear, clear if you bring this to the register and pay for it, we will be giving you a very steep non thief discount. And it shows the price for that. But the valued price of everything there is $951. So that if you get caught stealing it, you will be able to be charged with grand theft. As 950 is the cut off point.

Before Brian, just click on the image so we have a little bit of visual context. But. Right. Store in California raises the item to $951. So. Right. And this is because apparently, apparently if it's under $951 essentially what is it? You're not committing a crime.

It's not that you're not committing a crime, it's that it's a misdemeanor and it's very tough to prosecute. Especially in San Francisco or California where they're, you know, just throwing a ton of this stuff out. You know, police won't respond to the, to the calls about it.

Yeah, yeah. I mean it is crazy. You see it on the news all the time. These flash robberies, these massive crowds of people running into the stores and just grabbing everything. It's wild. It's insane. The world's gone absolutely mental. This is, I mean I don't want to talk too much about it because is that really a thing? Is it really a thing? Because I, I saw that a while ago about, you know, this $951 thing. But then some people pushed back and went, ah, that's. That's not true. What's actually true?

If it's 900, if a.

All right.

Product is less than $951, it's. It's only a misdemeanor.

Yeah. You know that target all over the, all over the country keeps a file on people when you come in and steal shit. And they will wait until you have stolen a felonies amount of stuff to prosecute you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Someone. I'm not going to say who it was. I'm not going to say. He might live in this house and recently lived in San Francisco. And he was like. But I'm not saying anything. Not incriminating. Yeah, it's wild, man. It's wild. Hopefully that changes. It's crazy. Of course people are going to steal things if you're essentially going to get a slap on the wrist or you're not going to get arrested if it's not going to go in your record. And for the most part, people in these stores these days, they aren't even allowed to come from them.

No.

They're not allowed to confront them. They're not not allowed to stop them. They will then be sued for assault and arrested and charges put on them, which is just crazy. It makes me think back to that story with Dana White, Best Buy employee in Hawaii. She kind of tackled someone that was robbing something in Best Buy. She got fired from a job for stopping a thief. And then Dana gave her a job. You know, I mean, it's. The world has gone absolutely backwards.

Yeah, it is pretty mental. And it's like, you know, we, we showed earlier in the show, right. Like cops at a football game tasing a guy. Right. So it's like there has to be some kind of middle ground between police having, you know, being able to tase people and beat them with handcuffs with impunity and then, you know, people being able to steal anything up to $949 without getting prosecuted. There has to be some kind of middle ground in.

There is a polite society.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously, Brian, jump back on. Let's have a three way conversation. It's election day tomorrow, boys. You know, you guys just can't sit here and give it all this. If you want to make a change, you've got to go out there and vote. Oh. You've got to be heard now. I can't vote. I'm not a citizen. Okay. I'm an. I'm a legal alien. Okay. I'm a green card holder. Older, lived there for quite some time. I pay a shit ton in taxes, but that doesn't matter. I cannot make a vote.

California, Mike.

Yeah.

It's not like I. Not like any of our votes matter anyway. We live in New York, you live in California.

What are we doing? Realistically, I usually don't vote in federal elections because, like you said, it doesn't really matter. I live in a blue state. That's never going to change. But I'm just going to do it this time for funsies.

Me too.

Are you showing ID when you go?

No.

You don't see, this is the wild thing.

Illegal for them to ask in New York.

Yeah, apparently it's illegal to ask for ID when you go to vote in California. Is that correct?

Yes.

That is insane. You need ID for everything. For everything. You need what's, like, the most petty thing. You need ID for fishing.

You need a license to fish.

You need a license to fish. You need to show ID when you buy a gun, obviously. Alcohol, cigarettes, tobacco, to mail, something first class to get on an airplane. But you want to vote. Don't worry about it, buddy.

To sign up for Uber, you need an id.

So you see, the theory that Elon Musk has put out there about this is the most important election in history because they're bringing in this is his theory, not me. I don't want to ask your opinion on this. As two American citizens that the flooding, the swing states with immigrants because they're going to be helped out, and then going forward, more than likely they would be inclined to vote Democrat because that is who helped them. Right. Get accustomed, get set up in the country, give them housing and healthcare and food stamps and all that kind of thing. That's the theory that Elon Musk put out there. And I saw Joe Rogan quizzing somebody on it. What's that? Fetterman.

John Fetterman.

Yeah. Yeah. You could not string a sentence to together.

No, he has brain strokes.

Dude, has he had four strokes? Yeah, he's had four strokes.

He was a vegetable and won his election.

Oh, w. Oh, God. Listen. Not well. Fair play to that guy. That guy's a warrior. That guy's bouncing back. I mean, Jesus Christ, if he can do it, I can do it.

I like how you come back from.

Having two strokes and essentially being brain dead to now being a governor. Is he a governor?

As a senator? Yeah. Senator Fetterman.

He's now a senator. Then. Jesus Christ, anything's possible. Guys, I'm looking at him as inspiration.

I feel like everybody should be Running for office, if this is the thing that could happen.

Dude, his opponent was Dr. Oz. You could be Dr. Oz in a senatorial race right now.

I don't even know Dr. Oz is.

Yeah, I know.

He's a TV doctor. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're not bolting Harrington voting. You are.

Yeah.

In the uk, it's impolite to ask somebody who they're going to vote for.

It's also implied here.

Is it? Well, I mean, who are you going to vote for?

As an avowed anti communist. I won't be voting for the Communist Party this election. That's all I'm saying.

All I'm going to say is, if you're living in a swing state, do the right thing. Thing.

Yeah, yeah, do the right thing. But you know what? Like, listen, Callum gave us a very, very good alternative arguments in our house. He's. He spent a lot of time in San Francisco, so he's like, you know, maybe the politics have got a little bit ingrained into his mind.

They got to him.

So we've. We've had some good conversations in our house, you know, and is that. That's, that's, that's not true. I'm like. I'm pretty sure it is. Is. It is. You know, when I bring up certain points, agendas and so on and so forth. But he can vote. Pardon me?

He can vote, right?

No, we can't vote. Oh, no, no. We're all on green cards.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. But I will tell you this. I'll be happy when it's all done and over and. And I can just stop seeing everything on TV to do with the election. I don't know about you, but I've got. And it's very, very important. It's. It is, it's very important. But there's a little bit of election fatigue going on in the Bisping household.

I mean, it's been like that for almost 12 years now.

Yeah, it does. It does seem to me there's one certain party that will bring. There's right and wrong on both sides, though. There's a lot of stuff that I don't agree with. On the Democratic side, there's a ton of stuff, but also the stuff on the Republican side that gives me a lot of pause as well. You know what I mean? Just gotta pick the lesser of two evils.

It's always that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, should we talk about some mixed martial arts at the weekend? We did have some fights go down in Edmonton and it was the first fight now, where we saw the integration of the new rule changes, which was the 12 to 6 elbows and the grounded opponent.

I think Jack Shore was the first one to capitalize on that.

Jack Shaw. Why? What did he do?

Just Yusuf Zalal was like one hand down, or what would have been a grounded opponent. Jack Shore was able to get a strike with that.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. But I was about to say it didn't really come into play too big, you know, and I knew the 12 to 6 elbows wouldn't be too big of a thing. You know, people think it's going to revolutionize things. It's really not. It's really not going to change the game. Against the fence is where I probably think it's going to be more useful, you know, because you can literally do that to your opponent's head, you know, so against the fence is one thing. On the ground, I don't think it'll change too much. Sorry, but.

Sorry, Mike. You still can't hit him in the back of the head, though, right?

No, you can't hit him in the back of the head.

Like, it's. How many places are you going to be able to 12 to 6, elbow somebody when you're clinching?

So let me tell you this. A lot of people think the back of the head means the back of the head. I mean, that's what it sounds like. Now, if I turn around here, the back of the head. Am I on camera?

Yeah.

The back of the head is when you do this with your hands and do that. Where are my hand covers? In the middle there. Not showing you. Can I show the scar? That's. That's the back of the head. It's not the whole back of the head. Anytime that the referees come into your room, and when I speak to referees as well, like Mark Smith, great referee. He's always. He's always keen to talk to the commentators and explain his decisions and stuff like that. You know, his thought process when he did some. Something, you know, and just recently, he was saying, because when you do that with your hands and you do that at the back of the head, there's like a circle. It makes. That's the back of the head here. Like here, around there isn't necessarily counted as back of the head. And certainly the top of the head, you can do that to the top of the head all day long. To the top of the head, straight to the top of the dome.

That might change some things then.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

Someone's heads down.

I Mean, people are getting knocked out with like the chicken wing elbows from, from there, you know what I mean?

On top, when you're doing ground and pound, it won't really make too much of a difference because to do a 12 to 6 elbow, you've got to really come up, you know, you've got to. If you're led on top of each other, the guy on top would have to come up like that to be able to do that. And when you come up, you give separation and that will allow them to stand. So I don't think we're going to see too much of it from the mount position, the way Jon Jones brutalized Matt Hamill. Okay, okay, there's a good example. But other than that, other than those 20 odd points I just listed, it won't change a damn thing.

Yeah, look, I like the, for the downed opponent thing, I always thought there was way too much gamesmanship in there, so anything to take that out and get it closer to a real fight, I think everybody's going to be all for. And the 12, 6 thing is, you know, that was always nonsense.

The grounded opponent thing, I hate, I hate it's. You know what I mean? Oh, look guys, I've got my hand on the ground.

Yep, safe.

Safe.

Touching base.

A real fight, you'd be getting murdered right now. You know, look at what they used to do in pride to people with elbows and so the knees to downed opponents.

Holy soccer game kicks.

The soccer kicks and the stomps. But the knees, you see, some people, I'm trying to think who was the best example of them. But the knees to the head from side control, side control and the knees to the head, they were brutal. See if you can find any clips, Brian, of those. Jesus Christ, man. Unbelievable. So, yeah, yeah, I think there was another rule change today actually, regarding Wayne's. Hold on, let me bring it up right here, here. Effective immediately, there has been a new rule change. Oh, this is only for Nevada. The official way in window for foreseeable Nevada event will be from 9am to 10am Anybody who misses the contracted weight on their first attempt will be given one hour from the time that they step on the scale to re weigh in. Please note, any weight loss that exceeds two pounds after first weighing in will not be permitted committed. So basically they're cleaning up the this whole debacle with weighing in and missing weight and all the rest of it. They're just trying to come down and give them less time and less windows. And I think that's a smart way because you got less of.

You got less error for margin. Get your together, get away, be a professional, and when you step on the scale, be on weight.

And what was that saying about anything over two and a half pounds?

I think if you're over two pounds.

Don'T even bother coming back for the second weigh in.

Yeah, I think so, if I'm reading that correctly. So, yeah. So, yeah, people miss weight far too much. It pisses me off. It's become. It's become almost accepted now as part of the culture of mixed martial arts, that every weighing event, multiple people will miss weight. And it's just. It's just absolutely bloody crazy. What else have we got? Hamilton in the nose. Before we wrap this one up. A shorter show today for obvious reasons.

Because I'm in a lot of pain before we. Oh, yeah, please find. We're probably gonna have to blur this out somewhat, but this is a nasty.

Is this shotgun?

Yeah.

Oh, bream on the ground.

That's over him on the ground at 185, looking lean and mean and skinny as hell. It's crazy, man. It's crazy. When you see Alistair Roverine, it's certainly backing pride when he was fighting at 205. Middleweight was 205 in bride. Skinny as hell. And then all of a sudden, I mean, he was on some good stuff, let's just put it like that. Remember when he. When he fought Brock Lesnar? Brian, see if you can find Brock Lesnar and Alistair over him weighing at the UFC 2, just gig gigantic. I mean, ridiculously muscled men with skill as well. I mean, that is obviously way pre usada. You know, let's have a look. Bryce, see if you can find it, because, my God, it's a great picture.

Oh, man, this was. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, here we go. Here we go. Go. I mean, look at that one in the middle. That one in the middle.

Bry, listen.

No, no, no, no, no. That one. Yeah. No, no, go back, go back, go back. That one there. Yeah. I mean, look at that. Zoom in on that.

Even the ring car girl can't believe it.

Yeah, look at the size of that guy. I mean, that is wild. Look at that dude. Jesus Christ.

Yeah, that was legal.

A lot of horse meat.

It's tasty. It's good stuff.

Yeah. No.

All right, so you were asking what else talk about. We started UFC Edmonton and literally only talked about the rule change.

Yeah, well, we did. We did. Okay, okay, well, Brandon Moreno defeated Albazi in the main event. I thought Brandon Moreno looks fantastic. Controlled the fight. Albazi Had a really tough time. Just kind of getting going. Just a little too active throughout the entirety of the fight. I think for Brandon Moreno, it was a big win. He talked about it, you know, maybe all the pressure of being the champion. And with that maybe comes a little bit of complacency. Excuse me. You become a superstar, you're making massive amounts of money, you're flying all over the world, you're defending the belt. There's a lot of pressure that comes with that as well. Last time I lost to Brandon Roy, Val, you know, you start to wonder, is this the beginning of the end for Brandon Moreno? Well, certainly not Saturday night. I thought he looked absolutely incredible.

Yeah, I think my biggest takeaway from that fight, I tweeted it out on Saturday, and I had some people calling me an absolute idiot.

What was the tweet?

I said this. Moreno beats Pantoja within three.

I don't know about that. I mean, it's. It's. It's. It's not a bad tweet saying it, but I don't know about that.

I mean, look, I just. It's. It is a weird situation we're in where the champion of that division has. Because, you know, he's won every fight and, like, there's no doubt about any of those fights, but he's also been made to look ridiculously human in all of those fights and pretty beatable in all of those fights. So it's a thing where maybe that's just messing with my perception of it, but that Brandon Moreno that we saw on Saturday, he was looking fast. He was looking. The boxing was so on point. Like, he. The jab getting able to go two, three times. I just. There's something. Something. I can just picture Pantoja's face falling off, you know, halfway through a third round. If that. Brandon Moreno shows up to their fourth fight.

Yeah, no, absolutely. We'll have to wrap this one up soon because the pain levels in my neck are spiking like crazy. Co main event, though, Aaron Blanchfield versus Rose Nama Eunice. I was very much looking forward to this fight. It didn't disappoint. Well, Rose number Eunice. Of course, her path to victory was to rely on the fees. Float like a butterfly, sting like a. And she was doing that, but she just couldn't continue that over five rounds. And either that was a case of Aaron Blanchfield making some adjustments, or Rose number Eunice kind of slowing down a little bit and just being a little too willing to engage. You know, when you're dancing around and you're using the footwork and you're getting in and out like Rose was doing early. It's extremely tiring. You know, you use a lot of energy closing the distance and then getting out again and then resetting angles. You're mentally stressed out the whole time, you know, and you make one mistake, and Erin Blankfield's gonna have you. She's gonna get a clinch. She was naturally the bigger girl, the thicker girl, the stronger girl, and of course, the better wrestler or grappler as well.

Rose got off to a tremendous start, but I agreed with the scorecards in the end. It was close, but Aaron Blanchfield once again got the job done. I mean, last time out, who was the last fight?

Blanchfield was me.

Yeah. Man of Fiore in Fioro in St. Louis. Or was it Atlantic City? Of course. Yeah, yeah. So well done to Aaron Blanchfield. Yeah.

I mean, you know, a great fight against a massive name in the division. And, you know, like, the star had, you know, similar to the hamza thing, the star kind of faded a little bit after that performance in Atlantic City. So it was good to see her deal with that adversary adversity in the first two rounds. Right. Like, all three judges gave the first two rounds to Rose. For her to dig deep, come back and be like, no, I can turn around the second half of this fight. That's a new level to her game because there was like, she didn't give up against man on. But there was certainly, like an air in it after that, that second round. Like, I just don't see a path to victory for Aaron Blanchfield. And she kind of fed into that. The same thing could have happened here instead, you know, turns the tide against the former champion. I think that bodes very well for her future. And once again, only 23, 24, someone like that for Blanchfield, the super young.

Yeah, no, no, no. I totally agree.

Now what happens to Rose?

Yeah, it's a shame for Rose. It really is. I mean, this was her big. I mean, she lost a man on, of course. No shame in that. Now she's lost to Erin Blanchfield. She was trying to become a two weight division champion. I mean, it's definitely been a big barrier for her. She could still go on, have some fights. She could still win a couple and get on a win streak. And then before you know it, we're having those conversations again. But in terms of being a champion right now, 125. Yeah, of course. Of course. It's a crushing defeat in that regard. Right, guys, look, listen, I'm in tremendous amounts of pain as I'm sitting here, and the longer I'm sitting here, the worse it's getting. So we're going to wrap this one up today and we'll be back with another show. We appreciate you watching. We appreciate you tuning in. If you haven't subscribed and rung the bell, please do so. And we'll be back with Anthony real soon. Take care. Enjoy your week.