Fuller up. You're listening to the guest of Ditch.

On the way. Conceive, believe, achieve. Shut the fuck up.

You're listening to Believe You Me with Michael the Count.

Big.

Bang, and Anthony Lionheart Smith.

Anthony, good to see you, brother. We had a death in the family.

You had what?

Not a human death. Not a human death.

You could just say it all nonchalant. Calleigh's back, someone died.

Yeah, he died. Kyl is back. Didn't go too well. He's an ungrateful little son of a bee.

It's not Harry, though, right?

I had to let it go. No, it's not Harry. Thank God. Thank God. No, no, no. Rebecca had some birds, which I told you about. She got some budges.

Some budges. Yeah.

Yesterday I'm in the garage, right? I'm working out. And in the garage, by the way, just for context, it's hot in there because there's the boiler and all the air conditioning and stuff. It's always really warm in there. I work out in my underpants, right? I'm always in my underpants, and I get super sweaty. Rebecca says, No man alive should sweat that amount. Do you know what I mean? I just put it in my underpants because no one's going to see me and it reduces the laundry. You know what I mean? I'm a thoughtful guy. I'm working out. I've got the trance music blasting loud as hell. I'm on the rowing machine, right? Giving it death like a champ. And then the door flies open. Rebecca's screaming over the music, which is loud as hell. She's like, No, the birds. The birds. I'm like, What? What are you saying? I turned the music down on my phone. She's like, One of the birds is dead. Oh, no. I'm losing her mind. I'm like, Shit, just like, Quick, help. I jump out to try to run and help, but my foot is tied into the rowing machine because it's.

I'm dragging a bloody rowing machine along with me. I run outside and the bird cage has just smashed the pieces on the ground. Bird cage smashed the bits, and it's on a stand with a hook. And the wind here right now is wild. And it picked up yesterday while we were inside. So the wind must have blew it over. And when it hit the ground, it smashed. Rebecca said she was in the bathroom and she was doing her. Harry came walking in with something in his mouth going...

Oh, no.

And then very delicately just put it down in front of her. And it's the bluebird, Hawk with no head. -so Harry's.

Taking the head. -our heads are.

Falling off. -our heads are falling off, literally. Oh, no. I'm like, Hold on. Where's Raven? Stupid names. I'm like, Where's Raven? She's like, Oh, he's dead. I'm like, Rebecca, focus. There's another bird. It'll be here somewhere. She's like, It's gone. It's gone. I'm like, No, it's not. And she goes, Oh, my God, he's there. And we have a fence along the back. And on the other side of the fence is just wild growth. You know what I mean? Trees and bushes and whatnot. And it's right there just on the fence. Fence. I walk over slowly, try and grab him, and he flutters off into the undergrowth. I'm like, Shit. I'm in my underpants. I jump over the fence. I jump over the fence. I'm going after him. He's fluttering away because he.

Can't fly. Because he can't fly or they're clipped, right?

The wings are clipped, yeah. But he flutters a few feet at a time. I'm trying to get him and I'm going through all kinds of thorns and brambles and everything. I'm getting clipped a bit. He goes through another fence. I jump over that fence in my underpants. I'm in someone else's garden, bloody dog's barking at me like crazy. I'm like, Oh, shit. In the commotion, he flutters over another fence back into the original undergrowth. I'm chasing after him. He goes into some bushes. There's phones and all kinds of stuff. I run into him. I'm cut to bits. I had about 1,000 scratches all over my legs, and my ankles and my stomach, and everything. Eventually, I get him, I catch him. We get a towel around him. We saved Raven's life. We've already replaced Hawk.

Robin, we're down at Budgy.

I was thinking of Robin.

We're down at Budgy. I just have this mental picture of if I'm just sitting in my backyard, I'm having a coffee, probably making some business phone calls, and here comes Michael bisping over my fence, freaking out, chasing the tiniest little bird.

Didn't have my IPs on. Oh, my God. There's a cyclop running around in his underpants trying to catch a little white bird. Oh, God. You got to laugh. -that's just good. I'm in the poor thing. The poor thing. Then we had to tell Lucas. I'm like, Lucas, come here. We've got some bad news. But he's very mature. I said, Look, listen, Hawk's dead. He was like, What? I said, Dude, look at it. Look out there. That's wilderness. I said, These animals dying every minute, getting hunted and all the rest of you. He's like, Yeah, okay. By the time I had had a shower, they'd been down to PetSmart. They were back and they had another budgy. It's like it never happened. Hawk, rest.

In peace. Right. So it was Harry that got him.

Harry's a Yorkie-pool, so he's half Yorkshire Terrier. You know what I mean? He's been.

Waiting like, Let that thing fall over and pop open.

Harry has one eye. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, I didn't know that.

Yeah, Harry has one eye because Dieta, our old German Shepherd, got him. We're good.

We're responsible for-This is left hook Harry.

Oh, my God. Left hook. I'm a liar. Left hook, Harry. Oh, that's brilliant. That's the best one you answered it. That's. Anyway, so that's what was going on in our world yesterday. What's going on in yours?

Okay, so I worked the desk.

Left hook, Harry.

That should be the name of the episode. Rest in peace, left hook, Harry. There we go.

Left hook, Harry.

I don't know what you were saying. I work over the weekend. We had it. It was a pretty good fight card, but it was an early fight card. I didn't know that until I got there. I don't know if you ever pay attention, but I never pay attention to what time the fights start. But I guess you probably do because you drive.

Every time, because I was going to say because I drive.

I don't pay attention. When I get there, I'm like, We're going to be done by 6:00 or 6:30 at the latest, I could probably find a flight home. Well, the F-1 thing was going on in Vegas, so it was a disaster. But I found a normal direct flight the next morning. But I know that the Formula 1 thing is going to be crazy. And my kid, she always plays on Sundays, my nine-year-old. And a lot of times when I'm working, I miss those games because I'm traveling home. I find a Red Eye. It leaves at 11:45, but it goes from Vegas to Atlanta, which is about two hours past where I'm supposed to go. I go all the way to Atlanta, land there at 06:00 AM, jump on an 8:30 flight, land it nine, my time, and then drive. I'm barely any sleep at all. Spend all day at her basketball games, which I'm fortunate I was able to make her games. I was a dead body all day yesterday. But today I'm getting ready to come on here. My head is about to explode because I don't know what's going on with my new computer.

Sometimes it won't connect to the internet. I don't know why. I got to figure that out. But you know how it is.

Boom is of the highest degree. I don't know if you saw that thing I'm interrupting, but press F4. Did you see that, me.

You told me about this.

I was on a live. Anyway, sorry, I'm trying to go ahead.

No, you're fine. I'm a bit of a boomer, so I'm losing my mind because I'm supposed to be on here. It's 20 minutes past when I'm supposed to be here, and I'm just losing it. I'm waiting for this thing to reboot. I look at my phone, and I have a bit of an issue that's had with me from Bobby King Green. Bobby had done an Instagram story and tagged me in it, and here it is. We'll let it play. Hold the fuck up.

I just got to say this shit real quick. I don't know where you all keep… I've been heard it's like two, three times from fighters. I'm talking about real fighters like Anthony Smith, like Patty Pimp… Well, Patty ain't no real fighter. But anyway, all these news is saying I got dropped by Tony. Let me make this shit real clear for you all. If you want to count as a drop, you want to count as a drop. But really, I was doing a low leg kick, and then when we were doing a jab, he didn't knock me or dropped me with a jab. I was doing a low ass leg kick. He just caught me at the same time of balance and then knocked me back. Did not knock me down. I mean, did not hurt me. Didn't rock me. Nothing changed. Anthony, you're my dog. But clear that shit the fuck up. That's what I'm going to say about that.

Bobby King Green. I already.

Sent Bobby a DM privately, and I have no problem.

End of the show, Anthony. Yeah, youbending them.

Yeah, me and Bobby go way back. I've said it over and over and over that I got a special place in my heart for Bobby Green. This is past fighting and past all the other BS. This is just like some man to man thing. I love Bobby Green. I have no problem clarifying. When I say that, my point in saying that is to, I'm highlighting Tony. My point is that number one, it's counted as a drop. He's counted as a knockdown on the record books. He did go down. I remember him stepping into a jab. At the time, I didn't remember it being a kick. When I look back at it. It is a kick. But I remembered him stepping in. Tony throws a jab. Bobby goes down. I never said that he was rocked or he was almost finished, he was hurt. He just went down, got back up and finished, and he still won the round. I never got into it very deep because it was a very passing comment. My point is that people are discrediting Tony saying that Tony has absolutely no chance and no shot at beating Patty Pemblet. My point is that I hold Bobby Green in such high regard that I think he is so good and he is so skilled and Tony was able to hang with him as long as he did in that fight.

That alone tells me that Tony Ferguson can beat Patty Pemblet. That was my point. And so it wasn't meant to be in a disrespectful way towards Bobby Green. It was like, look, at some point, he was able to counter something Bobby was doing. And Bobby went down and got back up. And at times, Tony made it hard for Bobby. I never meant in a disrespectful way. I'm trying to use how good Bobby is to show that even though Tony got beat every single round, he still was competitive at times with a guy that good. So theand that said, I think he can beat Patty Pimpel. That was my point. Typically, I would not give a shit what anybody says.

She might have given a few shit.

So on. I do. I don't even care if it makes me look like a pussy. I really care what Bobby Green thinks because I have that much respect for him, and I don't want him to think that I'm trying to say it in a way that I didn't mean. I don't have any problem clarifying it. Most guys or whoever, I couldn't care less what they think, but I really, really care what Bobby Green thinks, so I at least owe that to Bobby Green to clarify that.

Well, very well said and very honorable of you. By the way, excellent news of couldn't care less. Americans usually say it could care less. Could care less. Which means the exact opposite thing, but still. Just for English people or non-Americans, you guys say generally, I could care less. I'm like, You mean you could care less, meaning you care a lot. Anyway, it's couldn't care less. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I think when we've spoke about Tony versus Paddy, we've always used that as an example that Bobby Green deserves more respect than maybe what he gets. And we've even lauded him and spoke so highly of him regarding stopping Grant Dawson in 33 seconds. Seconds. Yeah. The reality is, fighters are sensitive. We all are. Do you know what I mean? Bobby, I think everyone's a fan of you. I love how he carries himself. Do me a favor. Don't be pissing our friends at the show, Anthony.

I know. I do it a lot, but I don't mean to... I don't know. Bobby Green bothers me. No, I get it. He means a lot to me, so I don't want to... I don't have any problem clarifying it. I think he deserves it. He's owed it, and I'll give it to him.

On the flip, jobs can do a lot of damage. Drink is too blessed he drops Robert Whitaker with the job before the finish came. A job done properly. People underestimate jobs.

You can't get how many fights we watched, too. With this roll of decks of fights in my head, it was like, Where's Tony done good? Well, he wasn't doing that bad in the Michael Chanler fight until that nasty knockout. Then I'm rolling through like, Oh, I remember one time he stuck with Bobby for a little while. He stayed in there. Oh, I forgot. Bobby went down one time. It's not like it was, Oh, he almost finished him. It was like, Oh, I remember there was a time there where he had a good moment. We got a lot of fights going on in our heads. It's not personal, I promise. It is what it is.

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Well, speaking of friends of the show and fights, I'm trying this segue thing. Oh, my God.

But I had a segue into something that is directly related. But I don't want to hear it. I answered it with the segue.

We're going to let go. You know where I was going.

I don't know where you were going. Are you going what was in the notes about Paddy Pimba?

No, I was going to Paul Craig.

But that's not segue champion trophy worthy.

Okay, Patti Pimba. Let's hear your segue.

I just feel like we should bring this whilst we're on the subject of Patti and Tony and Bobby.

Smart. You're better at this than I am.

Listen, it was a really good shot.

Do you know what I'm saying? You know what? You missed 100 % of the shots you don't take.

Hey, listen, you're going to get better. You're going to-You're.

Going.

To learn. One day, brother. I'll be.

As good as you.

Slow your own, baby. You might.

Know you won't.

Jesus Christ. Harrington, talking of Paddy Pimblet and Tony Ferguson, and of course, Bobby Green is a common denominator in that. Harrington? Yes, sir.

You look like you showered today.

I haven't, but thank you.

I guess you just came in to know just on that note, it's 3:44 PM in the afternoon in New York City. Why have you not showered today?

I'm a shower before bed guy, dude.

Oh, that's right. You said that. I'm a multiple shower per day guy, dude. Go on, take the floor, dude.

So Patty Pimblet came out. He had an interview with Skye Sports, and essentially said, MMA fans are focal. When I beat Tony Ferguson, everyone jumped back on the bandwagon. What?

He's not Irish.

I was a low hanging fruit. It was easy to jump on the hate.

Bandwagon at the time. Lads, these fucking MMA fans are focal, lad. When I beat Tony Ferguson late, everyone's going to jump back on the bandwagon. Carry on in your normal accent. Go ahead.

I was low hanging fruit, and it was easy to jump on the hate bandwagon at the time. You got to take the bad with the good. That's just the way it is. In this sport, we only get judged on our last performance. It doesn't matter that in my first three U-of-C fights, I got finished shits within the first two rounds. People just judge me on my last performance.

Well, fans are a ficle in mixed martial arts.

That's how it works. You weren't complaining about the love after the first three.

Oh, good take.

I mean, that's how it is. It is. That's why you can't get so attached to what everyone thinks about you, because you can't believe you're as great as they say you are, and you're not as bad as they say you are. You got to fight more in the middle. -what's the expression?

What's the expression in combat sports? You're only as good as you last fight.

Exactly.

Because that's what people remember. That's what drives the narrative. Because they are focal, and it's what have you done for me lately? And in that Jared Gordon fight, it is what it is. We've talked about that. We've done it to death. But he's right. If he comes back and he can smoke Tony Ferguson, I don't think it would be quite the same as taking on Tony in his prime. We know that. And we've talked about this at length, but he has got a point. But that was a fantastic point that what you said right there, hold on a minute. You weren't complaining when they were all...

When they were riding your nut sack.

Riding your nut sack.

Yeah. I mean, he wasn't complaining. Listen, this isn't towards Patty, this is towards everyone. But Patty wasn't complaining about all the love when he was getting a million-dollar deal from Barstool. He didn't stop and say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're only being like this because I... Yeah, slow down. You're only being like this because I won my last couple of fights. If I lose, people are going to be mean to me, so give me less money. You got to take the good with the bad.

Here's how you do a segue on today. Okay. Pay attention. You ready for this? I got you. Speaking of Paddy and those last three opponents that he had, one of those opponents was Jordan Leavitt, who we did finish in the second round after eating a few strikes. Jordan Leavet was in action this weekend against Chase Huber.

It's pretty good. That's a good one. That's okay.

I'm a freak.

I'm sorry. No, that's a good one.

But what did you think about that? And what do you think that does? Because obviously, Patty, coming back, I think when you get... Because what is he? I think he's still under 30 years old, and we're all human beings. We're all human beings, as we know. And even though we have this shell and this armor, this mental shell and armor where we don't care and all the rest of it, when there's enough backlash online, it does penetrate for most people, I would say 99 %, especially when all of a sudden, one minute, everyone's kissing your ass, they can't get enough of you. They're all chanting, Oh, Paddy, they're baddy. And then next minute that goes from that to just a vitriol, just a wave of hate and shit talk, which to be fair, he wasn't the judge. He could have handled it better.

To your point, Michael, in that earlier in that interview, he said he hired a social media team because he physically cannot open Twitter and Instagram anymore due to the hate that's coming in for him after that fight.

Now, thank you very much for totally interrupting my speech on mental health and the awareness there. No, but that's a good point that Harrington brought up. To go from being so loved to then potentially loathed, right? But when you see Jordan Leavet, because he was one of those three, do you think that would affect Paddy's confidence? Because Jordan Leavet, he went out there, he beat him. I think it was round two.

It was round two.

Chase Huber took him out of there in pretty spectacular fashion.

And pretty easily. I'm assuming. Yeah, I think the more fights that happen, the more time you put in between his last performance, he's going to start going, Well, I mean, he was in there with Jordan Leavet, so he felt as I don't know, that guy gave me a tough time here. He was competitive here. I struggled to this position. Then you watch Ben Ashgren's son go in there and pretty much walk right through.

The least intimidating fighter in the USC, according to him.

I think he was the least intimidating person in Las Vegas that day. I actually really like Chase Huber a lot. I give him a lot of shit, but I like him a lot. I like that kid.

Yeah.

Not me too. Congratulations. I think he announced he was having a baby in his post-fight interview, so congratulations to Chase and Huber.

What we'll do is we'll just run through some of that action Saturday night, and we will now go to Paul Craig. I was only teasing you, Anthony. You can drive this ship. You can take it wherever you want, brother. You take this ship. Give me your thoughts. You were there in Vegas. We haven't got this in the notes, Harrington, but we should talk about this. In Vegas, as you mentioned, the Formula 1 Grand Prix was happening, and that got off to a rough start. Did you see that one of the drivers hit an open manhole cover? Just look for that, Brian. The only reason I'm bringing that up is look for that video and we'll maybe talk about that. But the main event, Paul Krieg versus Brendan Allen. Break it down.

Yeah. Well, I never had an opportunity to talk to Paul. I was going to, and I was going to bring it up, but I was like, Yeah, he's got this other fight going on. There's no reason for me to go in there and make it about me or mess with his focus. I never brought it up or said anything, but-.

You didn't want to bring up a segue?

No, I didn't want to bring it up. I didn't want to bring it up. I went the way that I thought it could. I knew that Brendan Allen was going to be the positionally more dominant fighter. He's the better wrestler. I thought that they were going to cancel each other out on their feet a little bit because they're both... Although they're both getting better. They're getting better every time they go out there in the striking department. Neither one of them are heralded as the guys are going to stand out and throw down on their feet for 25 minutes. I thought that would cancel each other out. I thought Brendan was probably just a little bit better on his feet than Paul. But I really thought that this different weight class, Paul was going to have a better time maybe defending some of those take downs. I thought he was going to threaten the sweep a little bit more. He did get really close on that calf Slicer, but never for a second. I thought it looked close by where the position and the way his leg looked. When I looked at Brendan's face, he wasn't even considering tapping.

I think he would have let him rip it off before he tapped.

It was a nice creative attempt, though. I did like that. I used the lockdown. Cruz was going on about that like it's some genius move. The lockdown is pretty basic for anyone that doesn't know. You just intertwine your legs like that and it stops people from progressing to mount or side control. You can use it to set up sweeps, to some submissions. He had the lockdown and I wasn't sure what he was going for at first. He kept reaching underneath.

I was afraid he was going to get caught in an arm triangle as he was reaching over. I didn't understand what he was doing. Then when he dove under and got that leg, I was like, Wow, that's tricky.

It was a pretty sick attempt. It was a sick attempt. It would have been amazing if he.

Pulled it up. He probably taps 99 % of the people he gets that on.

Yeah, Brendan Allen just slowly but surely took over, did some great ground and pound.

Yeah, nasty elbows. And he didn't get too outside of himself. He didn't get wide and crazy and huge shots. He kept the pressure. He did a good job of floating on top when he really dealt with Paul's butterfly hook very well, which is how Paul starts his attack. He uses the butterfly hook to start elevating and getting people uncomfortable, getting them floating so that people really want to clamp down and not let anything go, then he starts jumping triangles and armbars. But I thought it was a great performance from Brendan Allen. I thought he looked really good. I was afraid that a lot of the media stuff he was saying throughout the week... There's a lot of those interviews you won't really pay attention to when you go back and watch the fight and the guy has overlooked him, you know what I mean? Those are the interviews you point to. Remember when Brandon Allen overlooked Paul Craig? Look, he said this, this, and this, and then got caught. He was very confident, bordering the way overconfident, that line. But he looks incredible.

Teetering on arrogance, you might say.

Yeah, he was very, very sure of himself. We talked about it on the post show. You were right there on that like, you're making people nervous, people in the game that understand how this works. You made a lot of those people nervous with the things you were saying.

Yeah, well, it doesn't matter. You went out there. You look phenomenal, and he is a phenomenal fighter. That's six wins in a row now, five stoppages all by Rue, Nakey, Chalk. He's talking a big game, said he wants pretty much a number one contender match up next. I think, to be honest, even though he's not one of the standout stars of the middleway division, shall we say? I don't think that's being mean. He doesn't get spoken about your Rizzies, your Stricklands, your Hamzats, your Whitikans. But I think we should hold him in that regard.

Yeah. Here's a fun little note for you. He would not get into the octagon until Dustin Poirier would acknowledge him. That's how present he was in the moment. Poirier was there. And credit to Jorge, us as fighters sometimes when there's a decent card, we'll show up in the last three or four fights. You'll come in, have a couple of drinks, watch the last two or three fights, and then leave. He was there. First of the night. Dustin Poirier stayed from the very first, at an Apex card from the first fight of the night all the way through the main event. But Poirier was on his phone while Brendan Allen was getting in the ring. He's looking at his phone and Brendan is like, Hey, yo, Dustin. He's at the door and I look over at Pory and he's just like on his phone, no paying attention. He went, Dustin. Then like, Pory looks up and he goes, Hey. I'm giving him a thumbs up. Then Porya was like... And then he got in, but he would not get in until Pau-Rie acknowledged him.

No, that's awesome.

He's just in the moment, very present and just he wanted Pau-Rie's acknowledgement.

That's great. Dustin Porya. I sat with him the week before in Madison Square Garden. Same thing. I was there pretty early with Harrington, and he was there the whole time as well. The man's a fan. We're all fans. We love this sport. We won't get into some of the other fights that happened that night a little bit later in the show, but relating as it regards, should I say, to the middle of weight division, where is it? Drick is de Plessy doesn't want to see Hans that leave the division so quickly, and he welcomes about with Boars after he gets past Sean Strickland, Harrington. Do you want to break down and give us the lowdown?

Yes. So Driek had said following a win over Sean Strickland, he said the U-C is probably going to want to do Hamzaat. He's a big draw. And they said, if he won the fight against Camaro, he would get a title shot. That's a fight I would gladly accept as champion. Take out the bogeyman, it would be a massive pleasure. He'd try to take me down, and he should. I don't think Hamzaat realized the power difference between 170 and 185. In terms of style, he tries to outpower everybody he fights because he wants to show how strong he is. If he fights me and he fights that way, he's going to find out what strength really feels like.

So... I mean, first of all, fair play to Drickus.

He's supposed to think like that.

He's supposed to think like that. He's got his hands full with Sean Strickland, which is just around the corner, man.

We're almost in a quick turn.

It's wild. 2024, we're almost there. Do you think Hamza would be the next guy in line? Because he was supposed to be a number one contender matchup, as we know, but then he hurt his hand. I believe that's why Drickus was able to get back to the position he was previously in. Yeah. I think that would probably make sense.

Yeah, I think it's possible, for sure. I think that he beat a guy like Camario. I don't know why that's what they wanted anyways. I think they probably just kicked that down the road a little bit and let Hamza get healed up and rolling back in there.

Here's a question, an opinion-based question. What fight would you rather see? I'm not saying who do you want to win between Drickus and Sean Strickland, but it sounds like that. What would you rather see? Sean Strickland versus Hamza or Drickus versus Hamza? I think I'll go just because I love the violence that Drickus brings. I'd love to see Drickus and Hamza. I'd like to see them both. But if I could choose his matchmaker, I'd go with Drickus du Plessie.

In a perfect world, I would like the Sean Strickland fight week leading up to the fight, but actually, du Plessie getting in the...

The fight weeks with Strickland, they're always good, though.

Yeah, I would love to see Strickland just ride Hans out the whole time. Because he's not going to let him off the hook.

At all. Oh, man, it'd be hilarious. It'd be funny.

It'd be hilarious. Hans is not getting all fired up. That seems like a dangerous guy. But I think you're right. I think just in terms of pure violence, I think the physicality of Duplesse and Hamzaat would be something to really behold. Those two guys powerhouses going up against each other. I think Strickland's magical in the things that he does, but he's not necessarily the most physical guy in the world. Actually, Jordan Leavis said that. He was like, Wow, why can't I be a guy that wins the title? I have all the physical attributes. Sean is a one-legged white guy. That's what he kept calling him, a one-legged white guy.

Racist. Jesus, Louise, it works the other way. Let me see. What was I going to say? Did we ever talk talk about Strickland? Did we ever talk about what Strickland said about fighting in Canada? Did we talk about that?

No.

Because it was hilarious. Did you see? He said, Why on Earth are you booking me in Canada? Taxes, no guns. What else did he say? Brian, I'm sure you can find it. I'm sure you remember it. And, Brian, welcome to the show. How are you, sir?

Hey, what's up, Mike? Sorry, I was just rummaging through some.

Questions that we had. Yeah, no, my bad. I'm sure you remembered that tweet from Strickland.

Oh, is that the one where he said, Oh, no, I think that was Andrew Tate who said he can't be a man and from Canada.

I'm not talking about- Okay, that one's funny. -right, he goes straight to an Andrew Tate. To be fair, parallels, you know what I mean? Sean Strickland and Andrew Tate.

Not that far apart.

Not that far apart. Sean Strickland is going after Andrew Tate all the time. Have you seen that shit?

No, that's weird because I would think that those two guys would agree on a lot of things.

I forget now what it was, but I've definitely seen quite a few tweets. How much did you have a smirk on your face like you know something?

What do you know? I just have Sean Strickland's tweet. He said, Canada. Why Canada? No guns, no freedom of speech, just why? Gsp. You do this shit?

Can't take a good in the octagon, so they're not required. You know what I mean? So the strickler is just talking shit for the sake of it.

But he's not fighting-He can't take them to an airport either. Can't take him to.

The airport. He's not fighting a Canadian opponent. I don't know why he's trying to offend all Canadians. He's just got to go there. You know what I'm saying? Just doing it there.

The taxes are insane, though. The taxes are insane.

The taxes.

Don't matter.

At the end? No, it doesn't, initially.

They don't matter. I think we've talked about this before, and I don't want to seem like I'm pro-government. I'm just explaining the situation. When you fight throughout a year, they add it all up. If you paid an abundance of tax in one country, they take it off your tax that you pay in America. Yeah, but I don't like it. No, I know. It sucks short term. But you know when it does play off beneficial?

When.

You get random tax returns years later that you don't know about. I've had loads from New York City.

Oh, really?

Oh, yeah, some decent ones as well. Not for a while, but the GSP fight all of a sudden. I had the blue one there. I was like, I checked for 27 grand.

And.

Then I got another one a while later. I was like.

Let's go. You're like, I want to always fight New York. Now they're.

Paying me. Yeah. So it will put a smile on your face at some point.

I got a follow-up quote from Strickland as well. He said, Well.

I didn't want to- Sean, or Canada?

No, on Canada. He said, Well, I didn't want to fight in January. Canada is the enemy of freedom, but I was asked to help two women do their job. So here we go. And they call me sexes.

What is.

He talking about?

I don't know what he's talking about. I don't know what Harrington is talking about either. Harrington, formerly, don't appear on the show unless you've requested, okay? You're coming out here with nonsense, brother. Strickling is.

Funny, though, man. Who's the co-main event?

Harrington, who's the co-main event? You are officially requested back.

It's Rocky, Pennington versus Maya, Buena Silva for the Bacon, Benemont.

That's what he's talking about. That's what he's.

Talking about. Oh, dear. Okay, let's talk about Shopify. Really quickly, they have been supporting this podcast for a while, and they will support you if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a businessman, if you want to get your business online, or if you've just got an idea, if you've got a business idea that you think will work out, then get it online. Shopify is the e-commerce platform, which is revolutionized in millions of businesses worldwide. It makes getting online, having a website, and being able to sell your products very simple, cost effective, and anyone can do it. There is 24/7 customer service available. There is an extensive business cost library and it lets you sell across all social media marketplaces like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. And it is easy, as I said, Harrington could do this. So if you've got an idea or you've got a business, do yourself a favor, get online today and do it in a very cheap way. By the way, Shopify lets you accept every major payment method. So that's a breeze. And by the way, wait until you hear this offer. Get serious about selling today. Try Shopify today, and you can sign up for one dollar per month.

One dollar per month trial period when you go to Shopify. Com/believe. It's a trial period. One dollar per month. The code is BELIEV. Shopify. Com/believ is the website. Take your business to the next level today. Shopify. Com/believ. We will talk about some of the other fides, but should we have a little bit of light, comedic relief in the form of a non-MMA story. I think so. Harrington, jump on. Formally requested, sir. Let's have a look. We'll throw this to Antony. Antony, so here's what Harrington has put on. A woman put her engagement ring on Facebook marketplace. I don't like this one. She got a proposition to sleep. We got the senators almost getting into an MMA fight. The rental marketing in Toronto was gone insane, where a woman is now offering half of her bed as a place to live. There's another word for that. I believe it's called prostitution.

I'm curious about that one. Yeah, let's go.

With that.

One, Harryton. Yeah, I'm curious about this.

There we go.

This is exactly like I said, the rental market in Toronto specifically is getting absolutely nuts. This woman posted a photo of her queen-size bed and said this half of the bed is for rent. Obviously, it's a woman. She's renting to females only. And she makes it very clear in the post multiple times that it is just the half of the bed that you are renting. She needed first, last, and security. And I believe it was $1,100 a month just to share a bed with her.

It's a little sexist. Yeah, the.

Women-only shout. Yeah, the women-only thing.

Is -2023, bro. You know what I mean? Diversity, equality, and inclusion. You know what I mean?

Nine hundred. They said the listing is $900. Now, at your Brokest, just say she was.

Accepting men, right? Okay, I like this.

By the way, we're single- Yeah, and we're single, right? Would that be something you would do?

Well, let's kick it up a notch higher.

Okay.

You got $900. That's the perfect amount that you've had allotted for rent, right? Just about survive. I need somewhere for $900. You find it. There it is. Half the bed.

Yeah.

But she's not exactly good looking.

And she farts a lot. I don't know about this part of thing. If she don't look that.

Good- The same hygiene routine as Harrington.

That's a hard no.

Showers before bed, though.

That might be okay because it's really that close. See, now you got me sold now. She doesn't have to be good looking. I'm just sleeping there, right?

All right. All stupidity aside. It's a shame, isn't it? This is what the world's coming to.

Because I think you find people need money. People need money.

In most cities, big cosmopolitan, metropolitan cities like a Toronto, New York, L. A, London, so on and so forth. Rent is just absolutely astronomical. Like Callum. Callum is living in San Francisco. Just gone back last night, as I said. He currently lives in a tiny, tiny apartment. There's three of them. I think it's a one-bedroom apartment. Callum has the bedroom because he pays a little bit extra than the other two. The other one sleeps in the lounge room. And the third guy, and I feel sorry for him, he sleeps in the kitchen. He just has a little blow-up mattress on the floor. But this is... This is what they have to do because rent is just ridiculous.

What's it cost?

I don't know what it does. Off the top of my head, I genuinely don't know.

You know those... When we're headed to the Seaport, when we're in New York City, we're going to the studios and stuff. Those crappy-looking apartments that are on the side of the highway there. I was driving and someone of one of the ESP and crew pulled them up on a rental website or a Zillow or something, what the rent was. He was like, Look at this. One of those apartments, they look not great. It's like $4,000 a month in rent. I couldn't believe it. That's insane to me. That's insane. I don't know, maybe that's... Again, where I live ateverything's pretty cheap. The cost of living is fairly cheap. The rent's pretty cheap.

Brian just puts here, The average rent for an apartment in San Francisco is 3,326. The cost of rent varies depending on several factors, including location, size, and equality. Yeah, and quality, pardon me. Yeah, and absolutely right. -brian.

-that apartment size, though. 736 square feet. That's nuts. That's nuts.

Yeah, it is. Brian, just look up. Just find us a listing in New York, a one-bedroom apartment, semi-decent. I'll just bring it up in a second on the screen. In Clitherow, where I'm from, I remember it was like £300 a month to rent a full house, two-bedroom, a terraced house, modest accommodation. I think now it's about eight or 900, obviously times have changed. I went from living in Clitherow, and then I moved out to California. We rented this house. At the time, things were going well, do you know what I mean? But we rented this house. It was $4,500 a month, but coming from Clitherow, I was like, What? How much? We bit the bullet and we did it, and we ended up buying the place. It all worked out. But Jesus Christ, man. I don't know what rent would be now around here. What is rent in Arkansas, Nebraska?

Honestly, I don't know. I used to rent a house in this neighborhood, and I wanted to just buy a house and stay in the neighborhood, and it didn't work out for me to buy that one. But my rent there was like, I think it was 1,500 bucks in the neighborhood I live in now for a five-bedroom. It was like 1,500.

Or.

1,600. Yeah. He's the weight. The one I bought is a little bit bigger, so I pay a little bit more. My mortgage is a little bit more than that, but I own it.

It's still pretty cheap. Hold on. When you say a little bit bigger, that believes me to think, Anthony Smith is loading it up in a six-bedroom mansion.

No, it's not six.

Seven.

It's five.

All right.

Just the square footage is a little bit bigger.

Oh, sorry.

Still five bedrooms? That was a ranch. Now I'm in a two-storey.

Yeah. Brian, what's the average rent in New York City?

I didn't look up average rent. I just looked around the Lower East Side. I looked at the cheapest listing I could find on the Lower East Side.

Let's take a look.

It's going to be $2,100 a month for a one-bedroom, one-bath. Yeah, but you know what- It looks like a closet.

Yeah, but you know what? I'll be honest. I don't think that's too bad. I mean, granted, $2,100 for a small place like that, but you are in New York City. You're in the Lower East Side. It looks clean. Is that two bedrooms or one? We said two.

That was a one-bedroom, one-bathroom. What is this? When I flipped the search the other way, this is the high end on the Lower East Side.

Yeah.

$12,000 a month. Who can afford that?

Some people can, man. Some people can. It's crazy. It's wild.

They want 3X rent and income. I mean, you.

See this thing now all the time, don't you, on social media? Here's what you do. You just buy a house and then you Airbnb out and all the rest of it. It's that easy. Grant Cardone, he loves going on about that stuff. 10x your money. Let's go. All you got to do is this. If you don't earn 300 grand a year, or there's loads of people, being broke is a lifestyle choice. If you don't want to be a millionaire, that's a lifestyle choice. And shame on you. It's like, What? What are you talking about? You think people are choosing to be broke? You know what I mean? Yes, you're doing well, but you can't put down other people because they're not killing it and they're not crushing it. You know what I mean? And you're not a millionaire. You're just a hundred there or a thousand there. I see that term being used a lot lately. Have you encountered people talking with such a douchey?

The thousandaire thing?

The.

Thousandaire? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. We know who we're talking about, don't we?

Me and Harrington are right here. Yeah.

No, we're not talking about you two. There's some people that we know. If you choose to be a hundredair, a thousandair, that's your fault. You could be a millionaire. And it's just a lifestyle choice, bro. Yeah, just.

A lifestyle choice. Come on. I was poor forever.

Yeah. There's a woman, a politician in the UK, Soella Braverman. She just got fired for a bunch of different things. Some of it was bad. Some of it wasn't so bad, to be honest. But she said that being homeless is a lifestyle choice. There was a big amount of pushback for that. Do you think being homeless is a lifestyle choice, Anthony?

Not broad stroke, no. Sometimes it is, for sure. But I think broad stroke, no, I think most people would not want to be homeless. I think sometimes people make choices that end up putting them in positions where they are homeless, whether that's drugs or alcohol or... Okay, so I watch this YouTube channel all the time. It's calledtails from the streets. This guy goes into, I think it's the streets of Phoenix, Arizona, I believe, and he interviews all these homeless people and people that are addicted to drugs and pills and gets their story. Then there's a lot of... Again, excuse me, I'm not condoning this, but there's some of these girls out there that are just very open about how they make money, how they survive. It's a lot of sex trade stuff. It's a lot of prostitution, a lot of stealing, selling drugs. Some of these people are making $3,000 a day. They're smoking it, or they're shooting it, or they're stuffed in their mouth in the shape of pills instead of doing things like getting housing and getting themselves inside somewhere with some mayto see, or you know what I mean? I think in those situations, it is a choice.

They're choosing to live that life versus a better one. Now, one, you could argue that they're all grabbed by addiction, and that's the situation they're in. But anyways, I think, broad stroke, most people are not making a lifestyle choice to become homeless.

Yeah, I was going to say what you're talking about there probably does exist, and I don't doubt that you're not going to make that up. But I would assume that that's the I know it. I don't think there's too many people. I'm sure there is.

Well, I think in that area, I think there is a big epidemic as.

Far as the sex workers and drug addicts. There's a lot of it. I don't want to say it goes hand in hand, but it is a big problem. But there's also a lot of people that are falling upon hard times. You know what I mean? I always say this, because people, they ask for money. If I've got something on me, I always try and help them out. I remember it's awful. My heart goes out to them. I always feel for them. I always give them something. A buddy of mine was like, What are you doing? They're just going to go buy drugs. They're going to buy drugs or alcohol with that. I'm like, So what?

Me.

Too. Good for them.

-me too.

-if I was in that situation, yeah, take me out of this misery for.

A temporary moment. No, I meant like now. If I'm giving someone some money and someone says they're just going to buy drugs and alcohol, I know, me too.

What's the problem? I was walking past one in London and it was a freezing cold January and there was snow everywhere and it was so cold and there was this dude just led on the steps in this car park. He was only a five pound. I stuck a fiber in his little cup and he was fast asleep. Then he woke up and he thought I was trying to mug him or something. There you go. And someone said-Go ahead. I was just going to say the guy goes, He's just going to buy booze or put that towards some smack or something. I'm also, What? Good for him? I don't blame him. If I was freezing cold like that and I could do something to temporarily alleviate that suffering, fair play. Fill your boots, man.

I don't know if I'd started on here with you yet or not, but I think it was two Christmases ago or a couple of days leading up to Christmas. It was real cold outside. And my wife and I had made a late night trip to Walmart. Now, this would have been pre-COVID because Walmart was still open 24/7. So I guess it was more than that. Anyway, we made a late night trip to Walmart while the kids were sleeping with her mom here and grabbing some wrapping paper and some last-minute gifts and stuff and the stockings and all that stuff. And there was this family sleeping in their car. It was like a baby, like in a rear facing car seat, like an infant. And a dad, young kids, though, they were early 20s, sleeping in their car in the parking lot. And so me and my wife got into our vehicle and went to pull out. And IThey were parked up. You could tell there was nothing else around, but they were parked under a light, trying to be safe. And then when we went in, the car was on and we came out, it was off.

And then when it came back in, they turned it back on. So they were turning it on, running the heat, turning it off, like saving gas and they're turning it on and off. I don't know, we just felt so bad because we've been broke with a baby before. I understand. Never that broke, but never a point where I was sleeping in my car. I don't know. We pulled off and then I couldn't help it. I had to pull back in. I was shuffling my pockets and I was like, I don't know how much cash I have. Whatever I have, they can have it. We knocked on the window and I was like, Hey. I think that I was stuck because I didn't know what to say. Like, Are you homeless? I don't want to start asking questions either. Are you homeless?

Yeah. Get it together. It's a lifestyle choice, bro. You got a baby. What the fuck? It's cold.

Well, I was stuck. I didn't know what to say, but he rolled the window down. You could tell he was waking up. I was like, Do you guys need anything? He was scared No, we're good. I was like, Man, I'm not trying to be weird. You want to just pull over here to this gas station and let me fill your car up or something? He was real standoffish for a little bit. Wouldn't take any cash. He did let me fill his tank up, though. But he really didn't want to talk, very embarrassed. Because I really wanted to just chit chat and be like, I'll give you whatever you need. I'll help you out. I just felt so bad. It's a young couple on a couple week old baby sleeping in the car. But at least he let me fill his tank so they could keep the car running all night at least.

No, good for you, man. Good for you. I often find, Jesus Christ, we're going off on the right segue here. We're going to go back into in just a minute. But some people...

I guess my point was some people will tell you you got to let people figure it out on their own. They're just looking for handouts. But my point was he was embarrassed and didn't really want me to talk to him. But I think he was-That's what I was going to say. -he couldn't turn down the tank of gas.

He just couldn't turn it down. No, of course he can't. But people still love their pride. And all right, he's obviously, I don't know the situation, but he's there with a young family. It's a pretty desperate situation. I find just trying to talk to people as well, just speaking to them with a bit of respect, treating them like another human being. You know what I mean? Chug them a little bit of money, ask them about the situation if you have time. If you have time, if you don't, you don't. You know what I mean? But wish them good luck and just treat them normal for a second. That must feel very nice. All right. Anyway, we're losing subscribers as we talk because they're like, We don't want to hear about this. We don't want to hear about how great Anthony is or how great this thing is. You are great, Anthony.

You are. You are. You are. Don't lie. No, come on. I almost dropped a movie quote earlier.

Oh, come on, Anthony.

What were we talking about?

You're taking everything I worked for, man.

No, the bed thing with the half little sleeping in a bed. We were talking about prostitution. I was like, She must be a... God damn it, I lost it now. What's the prostitute's name in Breaking Bad? Wendy. I was like, Oh, just go over there with Wendy over there.. I'm in season two. I'm rolling.

It's great. It gets better. Have you got to the vending machine episode yet?

No, not yet. I don't think so.

Strap yourself in, buddy. Strap yourself in. Let's have a look. Talking about prostitution, talking about sexiness. Nice little segue here. No matter what, I should be voting to Tyson and Furi as the sexiest man alive. But apparently, Tyson and Furi has been rated the sexiest sportsperson on the planet, according to a poll. Harrington, Bryan, please explain what Madness is going on here. Because I just-.

These five spots above Cristiano Ronaldo?

Are still falling off.

No, no, no, no, no. Don't even read it. That fucking story is nota refutable. Reynaldo might be the most beautiful man in the world.

Right. So that was what they were-.

Come on, baby. I'm sliding my DMs.

Yeah, that's why it was so shocking. So it was this website called Elicit Encounters, and a big part of their- Sounds like.

A tab on Craig's list. Kind of.

A big part of their marketing is like, Hey, if you're trying to cheat, this is the website for you. So they rated men both on their physical attractiveness and how fun it would be to have an affair with them. So not surprisingly, two boxers ended up at number one and number two with Tyson Purey, number one and Anthony Joshua at number two.

So you mean this trash website pulled a bunch of trash people, and then this is the answer we got?

Yeah. Shocking. I know.

I know, Brian.

Thank you very much. Everything is Joshua. Yeah. He doesn't seem like he'd be very much fun to have an affair with.

No, he wouldn't be. But guess what they both do have in common? They are big, large men with lots of money.

Lots of money. Yeah, lots of money.

That makes sense. Anyway, I just thought it was hilarious. But anytime you see these sexiest lists, it's always just a popularity contest. But that wasn't... Harrington, never, ever, ever take it upon yourself to put things in the notes. Drix de Plessi, we did that. We got lots of stuff to talk about here. Should we talk about what happened at the weekend? Trey Ogden in that fight. Now, who did he fight again? Just to remind myself. Tré Ogdom versus -Nichola. -nichola's Motor. I think he had him in an arm triangle, right? On the floor, on the ground.

Deep. Referee was watching. What referee was it?

Mike Beltrain.

Mike Beltrain? Of course, my Belgium. I like my Belgium. Good guy, good referee, solid bloke.

For the first time in my whole career, I stuck up for a referee on the post-show versus Barry. The first time ever. Yeah, instead of like... Normally, I had shit all over referees and judges. I'm the.

First one that- You had shit on.

Mike, Belgium? I did, and I felt for him because I had a pretty good view from where I was too.

For those people that didn't see it, he had him in the arm triangle choke, right? Tréagdon had motor. He was looking closely. I think he asked for him to give him some signal.

He said, Show me you're okay.

Show me you're okay. There you go. He didn't, but he didn't tap, and he was still conscious. I like my Belgium. We're friends, you know what I mean? I used to see him at wrestling tournaments and stuff like that. Great guy. He serves as a sheriff and a cop, so outstanding human being. It's been ruled a no contest. Good job there, Brian, for bringing that up. Obviously, Anthony, you were there. I was let on the couch. I was drifting in and out of consciousness, I'll be honest. Just one of those days. He's fighting it off. He's trying to do something now. I would then squeeze him, passes off to the side a little bit more. My Belchire is right there. He's looking.

I was talking to him.

Then any second now, he stops it. There it is, and he stops it. Immediately, and look at that. He jumps up straight back to his feet and protests. I know Dominic Cruz said, It's not our job to signify to the referee. Brendan Fitzgerald, they're called that. I understand that because if you're trying to take a second to... Well, here lies the discussion then. Because if you're in a position and he's pushing on, I think it was the elbow, whatever it was-.

Yeah, the shoulder, whatever it was.

You're making a little bit of resistance. You're trying to not let it be locked in. If you stop and go, I'm good, then maybe they could advance a little bit more, tweak the ankle, change things, and then you might be done. That's what I think. It was ruled a no contest. I think Mike Belton is a tremendous referee in the heat of the moment with human beings. I think maybe that was a mistake, but I am open. I'm very much interested to hear you take.

Well, Mike Belton admits that he made a mistake. I'm not saying he was right. What I did is I put myself in his position. I grabbed him in the back maybe 30 minutes later. I said, Mike... I feel like I would say him and I are very close friends, but we're very friendly. Anytime we see each other, we talk, we've hung out a little bit.

Same. Probably a lot of the same.

Yeah, it's a lot in passing, but he's a really good guy. He's always that guy that's constantly asking me questions about how I feel about something that went on. Like, Hey, a couple of weeks ago. Remember this fight and this thing happened andthis is what... What do you think about that as a fighter? Then we'll go back and forth to give our points. We do that a lot. I felt comfortable enough just to go up to him, put my hand on his shoulder and say, Hey, man, listen, mistakes happen. It's not that you're human, but what happened? It was the same thing I seen was he couldn't see the other side because they're up against the fence, so he couldn't use the other arm to see if it was a limp because they were up against the fence and that other arm was stuck and he was turned. It was the way that the arm was. It just wasn't a position he could get to it without interfering. I could hear Motta snoring from where I was. Sometimes when you chuck a fighter unconscious, we're gurgling, trying to catch some air. But sometimes- I.

Just chucked myself out live on.

The podcast. That would have been great. But sometimes it's actual snoring when they're out, those two sounds sound alike. Different people sound different. You see they're a gurgle because you're catching just a little bit of air. Sometimes you're full on snoring because you're unconscious. I could hear it from where I was. Even I was like, Oh, man, is he snoring? Is he out? I was wondering. Then he tries to get a response from him, anything. His eyes were smashed, closed. A lot of times you can get some confirmation from someone's eyes like, Hey, you okay? They're looking around like, I'm good. There was no eye contact. He couldn't hear anything but I'm snoring. He couldn't get a response from him at all. If you have to look at this from a referee's point of view, your number one job is to keep fighters safe. There's a lot of time left on the clock. If he was wrong and if he was to assume, okay, Mota is okay, he's still there. If he was to make that assumption, but he was wrong, how long could he have left him in that position before there's damage? Again, I've seen a lot of people online say, Well, I get what you're saying, Anthony, but his arm was a limb.

We've been in this game long enough. You're not always limp when you go out. Sometimes you're stiff as a goddamn board. You can't always use that as the decision making thing. I felt for him because if you leave him in that choke for two minutes thinking he's okay and he's not, now we got a Nicholas Motel with brain damage and-Yeah. What does.

That look like? That's a bit extreme, Anthony. I understand what you're saying.

It doesn't take long to get brain damage from loss of blood to the brain.

It doesn't take long at all. But he wasn't unconscious, though.

But what if he was?

That's-we've seen that. I've been choked out and conscious. And yes, I might have brain damage. I'm not the best example. And unless you're my German shepherd, he did it last long in the bisping house either. There's a lot of animals with one eyes and showing lives in our house. Alphae used to sleep and snore with his eyes open. Do you know what I mean? Most human beings don't. Right. Agree. I think you can tell. And listen, the reality is Mike Belton's a great referee. I know, but a.

No- I'm not saying he's right. I'm just trying to put myself in his shoes a little bit.

No referee and no referee, and we know this goes out there with the intent to rob someone on a decision to make a bad call. The world is watching and judging and commentating. Your job is on the line. They value what they do, and they respect the fighters and they respect the sport. So they're going to make split-second calls. I guess in hindsight, he could have tried to pull his hand because we often see that, right? No, of course. All right, granted. So Will and Good, after the fact saying here in the cold light, they're sitting in our rooms in front of a computer having a discussion, drinking, messing around. I said drinking a drink, messing around and say, Well, you could have shook the hand and he would have known that he wasn't unconscious because there would have been a bit of resistance. Yeah, granted, you're right, maybe. You live and you learn. It wasn't on purpose. Years. I don't think he was trying to rob anyone of a victory. He was thinking about the fighter's health and safety. I know that for a fact. I know in my, and knowing all the referees, and to your point, I'm glad you brought that up, I always have it.

Mark Smith, a lot of referees always.

Come over. Yeah, Mark Smith a lot.

Mark Smith a lot. The very, for want of a better word, anal on trying to improve. They want feedback. I respect that about them. When I'm at the apex or whatever, they come up and they say, What did you think that call? What did you think, Ben? Do you have an issue with it? He hits me.

With that all the time. What did you see there? What do you think of that?

Because I want to learn and I want to know what you think, because if you've got a difference of opinion, I want to know why you think that, because I want to take that into consideration next time.

They make me feel like I'm part of the team. For so long, we feel like a lot of times it's like the referees and the judges and the commission, they just do their own thing and we just got to deal with it. We just going to oversee you and that's the decision and we don't care what you think. But when those couple of guys will say, Hey, we want to get this right for you guys. Tell me what you think about this. You guys are the experts. You do this every single day. Give me your input and your feedback. It makes me feel like I'm part of the conversation. It makes me feel like we're being heard just a little bit.

But I hate to say this because I do like respect all the judges and referees. Not all the judges, all the referees. Not all the judges. Not all.

The judges.

I like the referee. All the referees, they're all great guys. They are. None of them have... There's no malice. Do you know what I mean? We're all human beings. I've misspoken probably 50 times on this podcast. You made mistakes. It wasn't the best call because it has officially been ruled a whole contest. There it is. There it is.

It wasn't-Well, I think there's a rule mess up there too, because there is no rule in place in MMA right now where you go to judge of scorecards if there's a mistake by the referee or there's an inadvertent foul. Apparently, the commission is working.

No, but they don't need to. If the referee calls the foul because he makes the wrong call. If there's a foul and the fight can't continue, if you're a certain point in the fight, I think it's past the second round, they will go to the.

Judges scorecard. But they're going to include situations like Saturday in that.

I don't agree with that.

What do you mean?

I don't agree with that. Let's just say it's a five-round fight. You're going to say five as opposed to three-round fight because that affects the... Let's just say you're having a five-round fight. I was always known for my cardio. I want to get this guy out of the first couple of rounds, slow him down a little bit, and then start to piss him and start to take the piss, start to weaponize my cardio against him. He might have me in a couple of sticky situations in round one and round two. He gets me in a head and arm-jowl. I'm fine. I'm chilling. I'm chilling. He stopped the fight, say, All right, we made a mistake. We're going to go to the judge's scorecards. Well, he would win on the judge's scorecards. So I don't think that's going to fix the issue. I don't think that's the correct call, in my humble opinion.

Well, I think during those conversations, especially with some of us just at the apex, I think that would have got the right result because it just worked out that Ogden dominated the first two and a half rounds. So then it happens.

After you do the round. Yeah, in that situation- That situation- -and it was a.

Three-round fight. That remedies the problem. Having that rule in place would have remedied that problem. But it sucks to both go. It's not context. I did hear that Trey Augustin is getting paid, though. Did get his win money. Oh, good.

Good.

Good. And Trey Augustin didn't really care about the win so much because he was like, Everyone else seen what happened. I'm sure the USC is going to treat me as if I got a win and move me along in the division as if that's a win. I want my second check because I fucked my ass off for two and a half rounds and I deserve the win bonus. That's what he wanted. He didn't really care about the win on his record. He wanted the win bonus. And as long as the USC views it as a win, he's okay with that. And that's what he got.

And as fighters, I mean, yeah, listen, we want the win on the record. Of course we do, because you got through that. But ultimately, you want the recognition from the company. You want the payment, which he's going to get. And I think the reality is to your point, let's be honest, I'm not sure how long was left in the round, but that was in deep.

And I do understand- He was headed to a finish. Yeah, he was.

Going to go- Yeah, it was. It was. It was. Do you know what I mean? He jumped the gun ever so slightly. And the.

Reason- If you had waited 20 more seconds, he'd.

Have been- And this is where a human element comes in because, listen, we all saw it. It was deep. Try to know what he's doing. He's got you. You're going to go. You're going to go. But he hadn't quite gone. You know what I'm saying? But if you'd just waited a bit, and again, I understand he's doing it to help him and he's trying to think of fighter safety. That is ultimate. That is paramount to everything. But he just- Right.

He just jumped in just a little bit. And really, he might have waited- He.

Was.

Teetering. -and really, he might have waited. Trey Ogden is a legitimate high-level Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Blackbell. He's good. He's really good on the ground. I've rolled with him a bunch. He's very good. So once he gets to his spot, when that's his game, I bet had Beltran waited a solid four or five count in his head. One Mississippi, two Mississippi. Trey had just gotten to his spot. He probably would have been out.

Yeah.

That's what I think. I think Motta probably got away with one, too, because he got out of it without a L.

Well, there you go. There you go. But it does suck because we had it just recently as well. And again, we're not trying to rip on the referees far from it. A USC No-chair, I forget what that was. It happened there. The problem is you go through a whole training camp and then for that to happen, it sucks for both guys and it sucks for the referees. Mike Belton holds himself to high regard. As we said, Mark Smith does all the referees. All the referees do because they're martial artists, they're professional men. They're doing this to their second job, a second career, if you will. They come under a lot of scrutiny. You know what.

I'm saying? Sometimes I wonder why they do this shit. It's a thankless job.

They're perfectionists in what they do because they want to get better because they know if you make a mistake, then it's going to be nothing but shit talk. Speaking of shit talk, there's been a bit of shit talk coming out of the mouth of Deonte Wilde, as we know. I just use that as a terrible segue. Deonte Wilde is doubling down on fighting in mixed-religion. I'll paraphrase this. He says, if it balance to it, I'll read out the whole thing. My thing is I'm coming to the USC family. I'm looking to cross over, do boxing and USC. I'm serious about that. I'm getting a lot of calls. I can see myself doing both. Since boxing is not going to go as fast, whatever. He says, You have a USC fight? I know you ain't going to worry about records. You ain't going to worry about managers or promotions or whatever. The best is going to fight the best because they are going to make sure they get what they want. Like you said, this isn't all about the records. It's about fighting the best. That's where I want to be at. I got several years left of me to do this.

I just want to run it all out. I want to squeeze it all out until my time is up. I got a lot to deal with right now. I want to benefit from both worlds, being champion in both of them, boxing and... You know me. Love that Deonte Wilde wants to test himself. Love that a boxer actually, and we have seen it before, once or twice, but love that a boxer wants to come over. Certainly one with a high profile, certainly somebody that's in his prime with respect to like James Toney against Randy Cato back in the day. This is different while there's a top heavyweight. I understand that they say losses don't matter because that's the big thing. In boxing, you lose a fight, you're screwed. But in the MMA, it's not like that. You won a win.

Yeah, we don't like taking them either.

And by the way, I think there's a misunderstanding there. In boxing, if you lose a fight, maybe two fights in a row or whatever, a lot of the time, you'll never hear from these people. They'll drop off, they'll take the money, and that's that, right? On the way up, if they did take a loss, then the promoters forget about it because they go, Right, you were never going to be that guy. Then I'm going to invest a ton of money in, then I'm going to put a lot of money into marketing you and all the rest of it. You're not going to be that guy. But in U. F. C, it's a little bit different. But yeah, you take a few losses, buddy, and you're going to get your walking papers.

Yeah, we don't like taking them as much as anybody else. The difference is we know we're taking those losses against the best guys in the world. And boxers, what happens? You take a early loss. You took a loss to a guy you were set up to beat anyways. Their records are so padded for so long. Yeah. That's part of it. Now, I get what he's saying. He was like, These guys aren't afraid to lose. I think I get the point he was trying to make, but still, it's a bit offensive. I just don't know who's Deante Wilder going to fight? He's going to have to fight at 205. He won't hang for even a second at heavyweight.

I'm just going to look at the rankings right now off the top of my head. Well, number one, it ain't going to be Tom Aspenol or John Jones, right? We know that... By the way, Tom Aspeno is ranked number one in the heavyweight rankings according to ESPM. We'll get to that in a second. That's a good talking point. Let's forget about the top 10 because that's just nonsense. From 10-15, it's Tybora, Derrick Lewis. Oh, God. Derrick Lewis, Deonte Wilde.

There it is. There it is. We just booked it.

Oh, my God. Derrick is on a fat page yet these days. They want him in big fights. Deonte Wilde. We know Dana has always been a fan of boxing. You see Deonté Wilde often at the apex in the USC fights. I'm sure there's been a lot of discussions happen. I'm sure he's not talking out of his ass. I'm sure this is definitely something that is in the works and there's been contractual negotiations and discussions.

Yeah, Derrick Lewis might be too big for him.

I know, Jim. I don't know. He's like- He's like 2:15. -he went up against Tyson and Furi.

He's like 2:15.

Yeah, but he went up against Tyson and Furi.

Yeah, but they don't wrestle, grapple, or push up against cages, or throw flying knees, or kick. You see the size of his legs.

I'm just going to keep saying everything you say.

I like Deonte.

Wilde, but sexiest man alive.

He's got the legs of Chase Huber.

He does have the legs of Chase Huber, and Tyson Furi, and Deonte Wilde. If he's going to fight a heavyweight. If he's going to fight at Heavyweight, that's the one. That's the fight. Because that's got main event written all over it. That's got Fight Night Saudi Arabia written all over it or Fight Night in wherever. Do you know what I mean? That is the one. Derrick Lewis, Deonte, Wilde, I'll be honest, take my money right now. My God. There's Derrick Lewis. Jazinho, Rosenstroik, not a bad chow? Yeah, not a bad chow. Not a bad shout?

Yeah, it's a bad shout.

Not a bad shout? Who's after that? Alexander Romanoff. Romanoff is a wrestling. Marcus Rosario, Dilema, and Rodrigo, Nassah, Mentor. Out of all of them, and there's another one. Where is it? Number eight, TITO A VASA.

That's a good one, too.

Tito A VASA, Derrick Lewis.

Yes.

Rose and Stroke. They're the three.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, me too. All of a sudden, I'm like, D-O-T is talking out of his ass.

Now we're like, Book it. Yeah, let's book it.

That would be good, though. That would be good. Yeah, as I said, ESP and MMA rankings, which, as we know, is in the official MMA rankings, but is from a board of their journalist, Brett Acomato, being one of them. They have Tom Aspinola at one and John Jones at two. They said, listen, if you compare their... I'm remembering if you compare their careers.

This.

Is Brett Okomoto speaking, by the way, not me, just for you people. So don't take me out of context. And he's right in what he says. He says number one, Jon Jones has a fought. He's fought once in the last three years. One fight at heavyweight against Cyril Garn. He said, When you compare Tom Aspinol's record, he's gone through everybody very easily other than a 15-second loss to Curtis Blades by a leg injury. He said, Their resumes at heavyweight do not even come close to being comparable. Therefore, we have Tom at one and Jones at two.

Well, I think he's probably only got Jones at two because of what we know about John Jones previously. There might be arguments that you could put... I guess, Cirol Ghan's only loss is to Francis and Ghanu and John Jones. Putting him there, it seems to make sense with their resumes add heavyweight, you can't necessarily only just use John's credentials at 205.

All right, today's episode is sponsored by Chalk. That is chalk. Com, which is a Men's testosterone boost. Men's testosterone levels are an all-time low. As you get older, your 30s, 40s, 50s is dipping all the time. They said that your muscle dips by about 1% per year if you're not taking care of it, if you're not being proactive. So Chalk is on the market and they're taking over with their all new natural testosterone booster, which is taking the world by stone. Listen, the supplement industry is filled with a lot of garbage. A lot of the labeling cannot be trusted. Chok uses full disclosure labeling, so you know exactly what is in it, you know exactly the amount of each ingredient. This stuff works. You're going to get back your energy, you're going to get back your libido, you're going to see the results from your workouts, and you're just going to feel like more of a man. You're going to lose weight, feel great, and you're just going to take the world by storm. Listen, you need it? Testosterone is so important. It's the vital ingredient in being a man. So do yourself a favor and give that stuff a boost.

Now listen, Chuck Daily is the cleanest research-based testosterone booster available on the market. And along with Chok Daily, be sure to check out the male vitality stack and the Stack Ultra. Listen, Christmas is around the corner, so give the gift of better health to yourself and to others. Check out chock. Com. That is chalk. Com. And while you're there, use the promo code. Bispiga. Check out for 35 % of your entire order. Start this year off with a bang. Start Christmas with a bang. Give your Mrs. A good bang. Go to chalk. Com. The code is BISPIG for 35 % off. Here's a bit of a booking in the spirit of Mike Harrington that wants to talk about fight bookings. Here is actually one that I'm very intrigued to get your take on, Anthony. It's a huge fight. And then Ir, the heavyweight division, booked for the first Fight Night headline of 2024. Magamed, Ankalayev, and Johnny Walker are going to run back their No Contest. Speaking of No Contests, as a man that's fought both of these, as we saw the first fight play out. What was it again? What caused a no contest?

Remind me in.

Abu Dhabi. The illegal knee.

The illegal knee. The illegal knee.

The illegal knee. It was going the way that... Again, I think, Johnny Walker deserved to win that fight. I think that there was an irresponsible knee thrown by Magamad Al-Khalif. It was so intentional. I don't know if it was a legal intention. It was intentionally illegally thrown, but nonetheless, it was an intentional knee, and he wasn't being responsible with his weapons. I think there was some miscommunication. I think the fight should have went on, but if it was going to end, I think it should have been a DQ. That said, it was headed the direction I thought it would. I thought Johnny Walker would make it tough on the outside, and Alkaliif was going to have to close the distance, clench in, put him up against the fence and drag him down, which is what he was in the process of doing. Now would Johnny have gotten back to his feet and fought his way off the fence and then continue to be dynamic and be what he is on the outside? It's a possibility. But everything that I thought was going to happen leading up to that point started to happen. Johnny was elusive, hard to hit.

He was explosive on the outside. He had that real crazy way he pretended he was hurt from the body shot and then jumped up with the knee. I figured Uncle I would have to close the distance. That's what started to happen. But I want to see the ending. I want to see how the K. J. J. Walker continue to get free.

I just started laughing because you're right, it should have been a disqualification. It shouldn't have been a no-contest. We had that whole saga with the doctor going, Do you know where you are? I'm in the desert. Do you know what I mean? That was just a monumental mistake. Do you know what I mean? I'm all the way around. I think levels. Do you know what I mean? They should run that back. Oh, dear. Where are you? I'm in the desert. He wasn't wrong. He's not wrong. He's in the desert. I don't know. Abu Dhabi, the Middle East, the USC, octagon, and the Etienne Arena.

There's a lot of answers you could have given that are all right. There's a lot of answers to that. I'm excited to see that fight though. Good for those guys. I'm glad they get to run that back.

No, they should do. All right, well, listen, we've waffled on for a while. Should we do some questions?

Yeah, let's do some questions.

I love this product. If you have a question, you know where to send it. It is the BYM, not the, it's bym. Gmail. Com. Be creative. Test our intelligence.

And if you're listening on Spotify or wherever you find podcasts, make.

Sure- What the fuck was that?

I didn't know where you were going, man. I thought you were just the same place.

The same place he goes every time he does this. It's the same every time.

And then his camera went, and he's like... And if.

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All right. So the first question we have here today.

Is from- Hold on, Ryan. See, look at that. You do like a dream every time. Harrington goes, you're on, you got the question lined up. You got to do a lot of things. You got to have this queue. You've got to have it lined up. You got to be ready to press play.

It's very complicated.

It's very complicated. You seem to pull it off seamlessly. It's almost like we've been doing this show for years and years and years.

Wild, right?

You know, one day.

Well, this is Jake's question.

Yo, BYMPI, Jake here.

From Pennsylvania with another quick question.

My question.

For you guys is.

Being U-of-C.

Analysts, what are some of the things that goes into your preparation work.

About a week out from the fight.

Hell, yeah.

Jeez, Louise, bro. I mean, come on. Yeah. I don't want to hear what... Yeah, no, it is. It is.

What goes into you delivering pizza as a Domino's?

Correct. You get in the car, drive to the address.

You catch his Domino's shirt?

I did it. No, it looked like a pizza delivery job. Yeah.

Now, you want to take it? You want me to?

You watch some fights. Yeah, you know. You look for patterns.

I think your prep work is harder than mine.

Oh, it's way harder. You're going to do every single fighter. If there's 15 fights, that's 30 fighters, which is a lot of work. You got to watch your last few fights. You got to know their history. You got to know their story. You got to know their background. What was their first martial arts? Why did they start doing it? Talk to me about... You're going to figure out all this stuff. Then you're going to watch their last few fights, of course, and see what their style is. Then you're going to speak to them. Then you're going to watch interviews. Then you got to look at their media day. Then you got to look at their social media. You're going to try and know as much as you can about them, not only as a fighter, but as a person, so we can tell their story. Get their story across A, what is their fighting style? B, what is their strategy coming into this fight? C, what is their background? Certainly, if they're making their debut and people are familiar with them, we're going to try and get that across and educate the viewer as to who this person is and why you should give a damn and try and be invested in this fight.

I try and find a little nugget of a personal information that maybe the viewer can relate to, things like that, as well as, for the most part, the most important part, assessing them as a fighter, what they're good at, how you break down their skills, et cetera, et cetera.

I think yours, and that's why yours is so difficult, because your job is different than mine. Not only is your job, I believe, in my opinion, is harder because you guys are from the very first fight to the very last fight, you guys are on the whole time. You guys are talking at length about every single guy. We don't always get the opportunity to talk about every single fighter on the desk. And also, our show is primarily, especially the one on the preshow that's on ESPN Plus, it's very much for the hardcores. So we get really deep into the skill set and the fighting style of those guys that we talk about, and girls. We really nerd out on the fine details of what they have going on. We don't always get the opportunity to talk about the rest because that's the time that we play the features for the main event. There's a lot of those the countdown type shows, and so that all stuff gets to place. We don't always get time to dig so much into that. You guys have all their walks from the time that they walk out of the tunnel.

That's when you guys are talking about that person. It's quite a long time, to be fair. It doesn't seem like that long, but it's quite a long time to talk about someone and try to get people to invest in them, like you said. You have way more fighters. But I do the same thing. The process is the same, Mike just has to get much more in-depth than I do.

Yeah, it's the same thing. You just got to do your homework. You just got to do your research. You just got to watch. You're going to put the hours in. There's no shortcut to it simple as that. The odd person here and there has a researcher. I've had Callum sometimes assist me, but it's a waste of time, and it's a waste of resources and a waste of my money, because I've done it sometimes to throw him a few bucks, you know what I mean? But then I still have to go and do it all myself, do you know what I mean? Because he presents me with stuff, but it's like I will not take it on face value unless you see it. I play by play of a fight. I'm like, No, I want to see that. I want to make that assessment. I want to look at his fights and I want to say how good he is. I don't need somebody else's opinion. He's a great striker. He's got a mean white hand. Well, I don't want to make that determination.

Because maybe I think his right-hand sucks.

I might think it suck. I might think that his defense is awful. Do you know what I'm saying? So having other people do research, I don't think works. I don't.

Think I-.

Not in this game. I really don't. No. No. I mean, listen, things like typology pages and stuff like that, yeah, great. They're a great resource because it shows you the history and stuff like that. They're good because then you can look at their past opponents. They're not meaning past opponents in the U-F-C because we should know them and know what level that is. But certainly people that are making their debut, you can go to a typology page and it has their opponent and what their record was. And often you can look at that, you can say, This guy's fought nothing but guys, you might have a good win streak, but they're all on losing records. If you combine the records of the opponents that he's faced, it might be four and 37. One-four lost 37 if you add them all up. That's not hard competition.

Right. But then you go to typology. Sometimes we get a debut guy that no one's heard of. Sometimes I'm like, I have no idea who this guy is. You start looking them up and you go to his combined opponents records. It's like 110 and 14. You're like, God damn, this guy's fucking.

Killer on the regional team. Exactly. Exactly.

No, you do. You could have two guys with 14 and all records that are drastically different.

Notice none of us said, Sherdog.

Do not say Sherdog.

I don't go to Sherdog. There's nothing to get, Sherdog. Although I did use to have a beef with Sherdog. I don't anymore. They used to write nothing but nasty shit about me. One of my open workouts years ago, I think it was USC 114 in 2008, Quinton, Rampey, Jackson versus Vashad. I was a co-main event versus Dan Miller. Doing my open workouts, someone was from Sherdog. I was like, I love Sherdog, and they're fun claps and stuff. I've got nothing against them, but it's not as- It's not as user-friendly.

It's.

Not as user-friendly. There you go. Took the words out of my mouth. What else we got, Brare?

All right. Next question we have is from Joe from Maryland. Hey, Martin, Anthony.

It's Joe from Maryland. I just got a question. We've heard stories about these super talented guys in the gym, but for one reason or another, personal problems, nerves, they just couldn't make it on the big stage. Does anybody pop out in your mind talking about this subject? Anybody you know you can link? Thanks. This podcast on Spotify. Oh, my God. Not just Spotify. My baby. You know what I mean? Anyway. Don't pick and hold us into Spotify for crying out loud. Go hunt and don't go on me. He's back into a corner. Jeez, Louise, go and get me some grouse or a pheasant is on his way hunting by the looks of it. Not's true. No, there isn't. Not because I won't name anybody, because those guys generally that can't compete on the night, and we talk about people in gyms being gym fighters and all the rest of it, they don't necessarily make it to those big leagues. I can't think of any of them. Some examples the other way around.

What do you mean? Oh, the guys that are-.

I don't know, guys.

-pillars in the acid guys, but they're shit in.

The gym. They're fucking useless. The best example of that, I'm sorry, I know you've got some examples- No, you're good. -that the questionnaire wanted? No, I won't give them.

The guy asking you the question. I won't give them. Because I feel like you're shitting on someone. Be like, Yeah, this guy's really good, but he fucking sucks when it matters.

Yeah.

I just feel like an asshole.

I'm doing a Bobby Green all over again.

Yeah, I'm not doing it.

Quinton, Rampage, Jackson. Really? Rampage, Jackson, of course. Legendary fighter. Knocked out Chuck Liddell. Some amazing fights, some beautiful violence delivered in pride. Legendary fire. In the gym, don't get me wrong, in the gym, sometimes he could knock you the out, you know what I'm saying? And he was very effective. But a lot of the time, because it wasn't game day, he didn't care. He said he wasn't bothered and his ego. I actually really respect this because for me, even in the gym, I was so competitive. I had to win every minute of every single round that I wouldn't tap and I'd end up getting injured and hurt myself because I wouldn't tap to an arbar and shit like that. Rampage is just like, Whatever, tap. I don't care. I'm not even try. Do you know what I mean? People would get all high on themselves. You see that shit? I just tapped Rampage. Good luck fucking doing that in the obstacle, buddy. Good luck doing that. He will pick you up, he will slam you on your head and we'll put you to sleep with the right hook left or whatever it is. Rampage is one of the best examples, but there's a lot of people that they do suck in the gym.

But when it comes to the night, when it comes to when it matters under the bright lights, they turn it on.

Yeah, there's a lot of examples. I don't know by first-hand knowledge, but I hear that a lot about Clay Gweda. Clay really struggles in the gym. No ego, doesn't seem to really care. God goes in and is obviously a monster. I think I'm like that a little bit. It's not because I'm not trying. I don't know what it is. I go in there. I just get worked all of training camp. I don't know what it is. Yeah, I just getting work. Can I soak? Yeah. Sometimes I'm excited to go fight someone that I can beat because I spend all training here getting beat up. It's crazy. But I actually do have an example, and I'm only bringing this one up the first way that he asked because he's talked about it publicly, and we've actually talked about it on here before. Cody Brundage is a guy who in the gym, he won't give me or Dusty and Jacob or Rob Wilkinson, he won't give us a inch. He won't let us have anything. It's all we can do to maybe be ahead of him in anything, whether that's wrestling, grappling, striking. I don't see him lose rounds almost ever, and I rarely take one-off of him.

If we're doing full sparring rounds, he'll win a lot of those. And in the grappling department, I'll catch him, you know what I mean? I'm a better jiu-jitsu guy. But when we're putting the whole thing together, he'll find a way to win. And then he goes in and fights and it's like, Who is that? It almost makes me angry. I would rather you went and fought the way that you train with us. And why are you giving us all the best that you have? Because you're beating the shit out of three world-ranked light, heavyweights. And then you go in with just a regular ass middleweight and you just can't put it together. I can't think of anything that's more frustrating. And that's only because I'm so close to him. It's the most frustrating thing. Let me win and go beat those guys. Stop giving me so much shit and go give it to them.

Well, that's because you care, because you see these guys and you do form such a brotherhood in a gym. When you're in there every day and you're going through this and you're dieting, and you're going through fights and training and whatever, there's so much drama and you learn about their personal lives and what's going on at home because people bring that baggage into the gym. They tell the little story as they're warming up or whatever. You form very very close relationships. And when they go out there and they fight, and as you say, you see them in the gym, they're doing great, and then they can't get it together on fight nights after crying out loud, What the fuck is going on? What is the issue? What is.

The problem? Yeah, what is wrong with you?

But I will say this. You just made me think of this and not trying to bring myself into it. And I think this is probably true. What we're talking about there and what the question, guys, sorry, Mr. Doc Hunter himself was asking about is those extreme circumstances. But I do think for the most part, we all suffer from that because I can only think of maybe once or twice where I felt like I fought to my ability. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. That's a real thing. In the gym, I have looked significantly better than I have in any fight. You know what I'm saying? Which is not the way it should be. It's not the way it should.

Be, but-None of us seem to be able to get close. Yeah. It's like you'll win fights and go, God, I'm way better than that. That's what gets us so mentally, just mindless, where even my last fight was Span. I'm in the back like, What do we got to do? Just one time. One time, Let me show up how I feel in the gym. I don't know what it is. All of us say the same thing, though. I think that's across the board. But like you're saying, I think the Cody Brundage is of the world, and I hope he figures it out in his next fight, he's got another one coming up, that's the extreme, because that's the most extreme case of it I've ever seen personally. I mean, to have three world-ranked light heavyweights sitting in a Kumbaya circle in the gym after practice, having a self-help talk with each other like, What do we got to do to get one over on this kid? Then he goes in and just can't quite put it together even anywhere close. It's frustrating.

Yeah. Well, I've said it many times, and you've probably done this. I've talked about this many times. I remember not every five, but a lot of the times I remember vividly on a couple of occasions for sure saying to Perilla, Backstage, Why do I do this again. Why do I do this? Why do I put myself through this? I'm Backstage, I'm warming up. You got the pressure on you. Of course, the answers are easy because when you win, it feels great. There's money to be made. This is what you're destined for. This is what you're built for. There's all these obvious answers. But when you're backstage and the pressure starts to mount and you're in that pressure cooker and you hear the rumbling of the crowd and people are walking past you and they're black and blue and they're bruised or they're coming past on stretches and all the rest of it is like, Whoa. How about do you really want this? You could now be at home on a couch watching this. You could be going to a regular job Monday morning. Probably not making very much money if you know it's quite holistic.

If I ran now, they wouldn't catch me on the.

Out the door. Yeah, it's like, What the fuck do I do this for? Oh, my God. But then you go out and do great and you can't wait to do it again. Brian, we got one more.

We do have one more question, and that question is from moderately upset black dude.

Bobby Green?

Yeah.

This thing, Smith, Bryan, hair and bone. What's good? M moderately upset black dude from California here. So this is something that's been on my mind lately. It's not so much a question as much as an idea. I just wanted you guys to weigh in on it. So to be honest, I'm so sick and tired of this whole double champ shit. Like somebody goes up, they're not really risking shit. They're trying to make history, even though people have already done the double champ shit before and nobody's going to do it as good as Amanda Nunez, to be honest. So really all they're trying to do is cash in for a super fight. It's fucking annoying. He gets over it. Defend your belt in your division. This goes out to everybody, including vocal, who's currently my favorite fighter right now, but that was annoying. Now, Leon's trying to go up. Leon fought like twice in the past 30 years. Hasn't even defended against Kobe. He's talking about going up there. That shit's annoying. So here's my idea. If people want to be double champs from now on, I think the way we got to do it is I know in most places for champ weight, you got to be exactly on weight, but fuck that shit.

If it's like a 155 or fighting a Walter weight, do that shit at 156. Say it's champ weight for both of them, and they both got to put their belts up. The other option is you got to jump in that division, fight people in the top 10, work your way up to that second belt while defending both. Have a career in both divisions and then go double champ. I'm sick of this shit. Annoying. Peace out, you all. Q. Harrington.

Well, number one, that's a great question. Brilliantly delivered, apart from the stop-start motion graphics. Great, excellent screen name. What was it? Moderately upset black person from California. Yeah, I love that. I like this guy. I like this guy a lot. And I feel his pain. I really do. I understand what he's saying because, of course, you become champion. You want to do that straight away because you get a free fight. You get a free pass if you lose. You get a chance of becoming great. You get a big pay-to-view champion versus champion. We all want to do that. I wanted to do it. Tyrone Woodley wanted to do it against me. Everyone wants to do it. They're all saying it. Leon's saying it, of course, because it's risk-free. I think, and I don't like his idea of doing it 176 against 156 versus 170. There's unfair advantages. I don't like you having to beat a few people in the top 10 to get there either, because if you lose, it's going to devalue as a champion in your weight class, and that affects a lot of things in terms of the economics of the business and yourself.

But I do believe there should... Well, this is not a hard and fast criteria, but it should be something along the lines of, Vokinowski did it, Israel, Arasany did it. You've got to go through the division. You've got to prove that you need fresh opponents. You need a fresh challenge because no one in your weight class is able to do it. I don't know off the top of my head what it was with Izzy, but he was cruising through everyone. Alexander Vokinowski, if I'm not mistaken, defended about multiple times before he went up against Islam, so he didn't really have any competition. I think in those situations, it's fine. What's your take?

I think you got to clear out your division. Like Leon moving up, that one hits a little harder than some of the previous ones because come on, dude. I like big Leon fan, but he's only ever fought Camara, Oostman in title fights. There's a lot of challenges that are coming. You got obviously his next fight with Kolby. Bilal is going to be in there somewhere. You're going to have some up and comers or Shotcots. There's guys that we got to keep rolling. Gilbert Burns. Gilbert Burns is right. These one went away from a title shot. I mean, he's got a tough list of people coming his way. I just don't know if right now is the time to move up. And of course, he's going to want to move up right now. The if Hamzat was the champion, I don't know that we'll see Leon run into middleweight so quickly. But I think we have a champion in Sean Strickland that he believes matches up well with him, and it stylistically makes a lot of sense. But yeah, I agree with some of the frustration. Listen, if I had a world title, maybe I'd do the same shit.

I don't know.

100 %.

That's why- John Jones, you're taking everything I work for.

Yeah. That's why when... What, U-of-C? Was it 200? When DC was meant to fight John Jones and John Jones popped once again and DC needed an opponent. I tweeted out, I'll do it. I was the middle of a champion then, and I was deadly serious and DC laughed it off, Viscop and what he's talking about? I was deadly serious. I'll step in there with... Now, as we know, it was Anderson Sylvie flew in on a day's notice, went to a decision, got beat soundly, of course. There's not even a discussion there. Nice bodykick by Anderson at the end. That was about all he landed. But 100 % I was serious. Step up last minute, no training camp. I don't give a shit. He's going to take me down. He might pound me out. Who knows? Probably chong me. It's another training session, and I've got nothing to lose.

You know what I mean? You're not losing your title. You get a big old fat check.

I'll give it a do. I'll give it a do. Come on. Let's go, DC. Let's see what you got. Listen, he's a beast. He's a monster. And it wouldn't have gone well for me. But 100 % you get a massive payday like that on USC 200, a champ-champ-fight. Risk-free. Risk-free.

Exactly. Built-in excuse if you needed it.

Built-in excuse. Well, I had no training camp, did I? Andy's way bigger than me.

He was a heavyweight champion. He's a wrestler.

Yeah, and I'm English. I've got one eye and I'm retarded.

I.

Couldn't go on all day. I don't think they should bring... I think it would be too much of a stretch to actually bring in a defined rule. You have to defend it at least three times because you just never know. I think because of that, in theory, great. But I think you might have possibilities for missed opportunities for certain fights down the line. You know what I'm saying? You always.

Want to be able-If you get a guy like Robert Whitaker who's fought everybody already. Say, Whitaker beats one guy and then goes up and wins the title. He's already fought all those guys before. So him moving up after one or two title defenses wouldn't be that big of a deal because he's already fought all those guys and beaten most of them.

That's a really good example. Yeah, that's actually a perfect example.

Right.

Yeah. But you never know. Sometimes fights fall off and some madness happens. Look at what we just had with Camario and who was the other one to set a bulk, and Camario stepping up short and. You know what I mean? We just had Tom Aspen. That's different. But you know what I mean? Sometimes shit happens and they got to shuffle the deck.

If you put a rule in and then break it, then people get mad. Well, you didn't do that for me when I wanted to do it, so they don't make.

It-that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. They don't put in rules like that. But I think generally the practice should be you've got to go through.

Most of the three. You got to get two, three, four of them first.

But that was a good question, and I'm glad I asked that. It was. I'm a really upset black guy. Feel free to come back to the crowd. You are welcome on the BYN podcast anytime, and you are welcome for watching. Thank you all very much. Make sure you subscribe and ring that bell. Antony, I'll see you on Thursday. What am I saying? Not Thursday. Thursday is Thanksgiving. We'll see you on Wednesday. Special Wednesday episode.