Your thoughts on this main event, Harrington, because Volkanovski... I understand what Gilbert was saying. I do. But I also understand the mindset of Volkanovski, right? Because I think for a month, he's fine. I really do. I don't think he's rushing back too soon. He is probably getting up. Well, he is getting older. I don't know what he gets paid. He gets paid a lot of money. He wants to be back in fire camp. He wants to eradicate that memory or loss of memory, whichever way you want to put it, of losing to Islam Makhachev because you're only as good as your last fight. He wants to remind the world and probably a little bit himself, prove that he still got it and he's still the man. Problem is, Elia Sephora, he was walking around yesterday, the hotel with the belt on. There was a little interaction with Balkan Tepooria. They're very gentlemanly like. There's been no shit talk. Topodia has been very, very respectful, although he is firmly, firmly of the belief that he goes out there and smokes him. And when you talk to him, it's not It's not just hype. You know what I mean?

He does truly believe that. And there is people like Gilbert that have trained with him that are of the same opinion. But you got to remember this is Volkanovski. And when you look at their resumes on paper, Volk's probably, well, he has fought the better people. What is your opinion and what is your pick?

I mean, it's so tough because I've been on Volkanovski since this fight was announced. It's so difficult to pick against this guy. But Gilbert made a great You're saying four months is enough time, and I agree in general. But I mean, it's just you're 35 years old, right? You just got clean KOed by a lightweight. Now you're adding- Did he go to sleep?

Or was it a T KO?

He was still awake.

Yeah, but he was slumped over. I don't know.

He was having a bad day.

Yeah, it was a rough visual for sure. It's the worst I think anyone has ever seen, Volkanoffski look in a cage. So to have this fight now four months later and add a weight cut in, cutting back down at 145, there is just something about a guy being that confident, that sure of himself, that whole, this is my destiny, my story. One of these guys is going in there with way more doubts in his mind. You just can't tell me that Iliate Tabori is not the more confident guy heading into this fight. And nine times out of 10, that's who I'm going to side with.

Regarding the four months thing, And the reason I say that it's fine is because I've done that and I was fine. And it was after that Henderson one. But of course, I'm no doctor. I'm no concussion expert. You know what I mean? I don't know the ins and outs of that side of things. I'm just speaking about my own personal experience. But Vogue did say that it did a 14-week camp. So 14 weeks from now, that brings us into probably start of December, one would think, something roughly like that. And he said, The reason he did that, and he said, It's smart. I'm not going to count the week back, weeks back because I couldn't do. But he said, The reason I did that, and I wish I did stuff like this, because when you do a camp, the final week, you're over it. You're sick of it. You're just mentally, you're physically tired and beat up, but mentally, you're just over it. That's why at the end of every training camp, and you do your last spa, you're just like, Thank God, thank God this process is over. Now it's fight week. Now it's the fun part.

The hard work is done. He said, I trained about four or five weeks, first of all. He said, And then I took a couple of weeks off at Christmas. A, so he could indulge. He could have a good Christmas with his family. And then he picked up training after Christmas. But he said also, because then you get a mental and a physical break. And then you're hungry to get back into the training camp. So I really liked that approach, and I think that's really smart, and I'd like to do that. If I could do it again, I'd definitely try and implement that. But yeah, you didn't give a pick. Who wins?

I'm going to say Ilya Teporea.

Right, Brian, what say you?

I'm a Vulk fan boy till the end, man. I think he's going to take it.

The reality is it's a fantastic fight, and we can sit here and we've done it. Me and Anthony have broken down several times. They're both very good at what they do, and I guess we're going to find out on Saturday, and we may have a new champion of the world. I'll tell you what, Elia Seporia, not only does he drink loads of wine, which blew my mind. I was like, I like this guy. He rolls deep. He walked in and he's got a team of about 25 people with him. I said, Jesus Christ, man, you're rolling like a world champion already. He said, Oh, this is nothing. This is even all of the team that's with me. He has got a real posse around him. He's rolling deep down at the fighter hotel. Bigger than Nate Dias.

Say again? Bigger than Nate Dias' posse.

I don't know about that. Probably more respectable. They're not throwing water bottles and starting fights left, right, and center. Co-main event, Robert Whittaker, I'm Laura Costa. I spoke to Costa for the first time yesterday. I've said hi, of course, exchanged pleasantries over the years. I've seen him around, said hi, whatever. But I had a proper conversation on my YouTube channel. What a lovely guy. What a lovely guy he was. Number one, he's absolutely ripped. He always is. And I was speaking to his coach. I think his name was Gilbert, his new strength and conditioning coach, but his mind coach. And they were talking about how Paolo has now finally got his mind right. And now he's this new animal. He's an absolute monster. He's a beast, and it's going to be the best performance ever. Of course, Robert Whittaker last time against Drikus DiPlece. He didn't go his way. We know what happened. He got dropped essentially by a jab and finished off. Robert asked us not to share this, so I can't, but he said he wasn't himself going into that fight. And he also talked about how complacent is in the correct word.

But because he's been a part of the UFC for so long and had so many big fights, and I know exactly what he means here, let me put it like this. When I first started fighting, it was just a blaze and a whirlwind of aggression. Then you learn to handle those emotions and you learn the sport. You get better technically. And then after a while, you're over-technifying, for want of a better word, you're over-complicating it and you're making it all technical and this and that. And you lose the animalistic side of it a little bit. You look at it as a sport as opposed to, Hold on a minute. At the end of the day, we're in a good old fashioned fucking fight, dick to dick, nipple to nipple. Do you know what I mean? And I asked him to clarify his remarks, and he agreed that that's what it was. He got away from that side of things. So he said in all of his training camps, it has been war. Every sparring session, he said he's been nasty as fuck. And that's what he's going to bring to Paolo Acosta. He said he's taking it to him.

He said, Yeah, he's big, he's strong, he's formidable, he hits hard. But if I put him on his back for it, if I fucking take it to him and I just throw down and fight, that's the way to beat him. So Robert Whittaker is coming in here Saturday night with a point to prove, and he's going to be coming balls in all the way.

That is super exciting because we're talking maybe five years since we've had a motivated Robert Whittaker. The last time I can remember is that image of him alone in the arena before he fights Israel out of Sonia. From that point to this, he's had nothing to prove. Any of the top guys who he's fought outside of Dreyas Duplece, he's beaten with ease. If they want a big challenger to come up at a certain point for Israel Adesanya, they would navigate that guy away from Robert Whitaker. This is the no doubt or number one contender in the division. Now he's been knocked off that perch. Drikus sitting there, Sean Strickland sitting there. He has to prove something again, and that gets me super excited. It's like that a motivated Robert Whitaker.

But that's exactly what I said to him when I was interviewing him yesterday. I think, I don't know either, because It was the last interview of the day for me and for him. It was like almost five o'clock in the afternoon. It's the day before the wake up. You're doing all your media and stuff like that, and you're tired, you're exhausted, and you're sick of it. And pretty early into the interview, I essentially said what you I said, For the longest time, it was you and Izzy. And I said, I did say, Clearly, you were the next best guy, because the reality was Izzy was the champ for a long time. I said, But now the landscape has changed. Now you got Drix DePreci, you got Sean Strickland, you got Hamza Chimeyhef, you got Bolt Nickel coming up. There's a lot of new blood and a lot of new faces. And I don't know if he was just tired or that just pissed him off, because the answers started getting really short. They were essentially the yes or no answers. And I'm like, I love Robert Wittaker. He's one of the best human beings ever.

I was like, I was hating myself inside. I'm like, Shit, I could have worded that maybe a little bit better. But either way, I think it's a tremendous fight. I enjoy Paolo Costa, man. He's absolutely hilarious. He really is.

How could you know? The guy just brings entertainment, right? Think about when he fought Izzy for the belt and he was handing him out a white belt and talking about the nail-picking.

Yeah, but I wanted to bring that up as the entertainment because he didn't He's really fight, and he ended up getting bloody finished easily and then dry-hunked.

Yeah, I know.

That's not a selling point.

I'm saying he's managed to maintain his spot towards the top of the division despite some less than stellar results because he is one of the most entertaining 185ers on the planet, and there's no denying that.

And Costa is only 32 years old. You know what I mean? You think... Because he's been around for a long time now at the highest level. Think about that war that he had with Yola Romero. That was 17 or 18, 17 or 18, 18, maybe. God knows whenever it was. Seven, eight years ago, and he's still only 32 years old. Who have you got winning in that one?

I mean, if you're telling me this is a motivated Robert Whitaker versus a Paulo Costa that's been on his couch since he fought Luke Rockhold three years ago, I have to take Robert Whitaker in that fight. I think this is a big yardstick, right? Because it's like, if Robert Whitaker doesn't win this one, then you know the writing is on the wall. So I'm not ready to let go of Robert Whittaker being Championship caliber just yet.

Yeah. Well, I did an interview, a YouTube video, basically, UFC 298, what's at Stake? Or massive pressure on these four, because that was essentially it, what you just said there. For Volkanovski, if he loses this fight, not only does he lose the title, but he's lost two in a row, he's 35. And then people start to form an opinion that is the end of the career. The end is now. The tide has changed. For Robert Whittaker, precisely the same thing, a former champion, tremendous fighter, lost to Dreykers, can't beat Costa, new people coming up. Maybe the title aspirations could be a thing of the past. Ian Gary versus... Who's your friend, again? My mind's gone blank.

Jeff Neil.

Ian Gary, Jeff Neil. Gary's got a lot of pressure on his shoulders because he's talking... He's saying what he's saying. He's very confident. He's rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Sean Strickland has also joined in the rubbing of that to ensure the Rob gets rubbed off. So I think he's going to get booed out of the building Saturday night just because he's become this pantomime villain to a certain degree. Maybe he welcomes it. Maybe he's partly to blame. Maybe he's not. Who knows? He does show up and he does fight. But the pressure to get the win on Saturday night is big because if he loses to Jeff Neil, the tidal wave of the shit storm that's going to come his way is going to be of epic proportions.

Yeah, I mean, that was definitely... Conor McGregor was able to navigate the whole being cocky without getting everybody to hate him until he started throwing dollies through bus windows and things of that nature. He had already won the title. Ian Gary is already starting to rub these people the wrong way, talking about he's too big to bring a show back to Ireland. I didn't see that.

Did he say that?

He said that at the Media Day today. He I said, I've been trying to bring it back to Ireland. Who knows after I put Jeff Neil, after I bury Jeff Neil in the octagon, I might be too big to bring a show back to Ireland.

That's what Patty said, though, about the O2 Arena. Paddy said, After this, I'll be too big for the Alter Arena. Granted, he hasn't come back yet, but the Alter Arena is one of the biggest venues in all of Europe. It's probably bigger than... It's up there with Madison Square Garden. Do you know what I mean? It's a big arena. I know he's He's speaking, hypothetically, not hypothetically, proverbially.

Hyperbly?

He's speaking a lot of shit. He's what he's speaking. I forget the word right now. Jeff Neil's a bad man, though. Jeff, I've been watching his fight, doing my research, of course. Jeff Neil's got some proper power, man. Proper power. What's your pick on that one? And Brian, I'd like your opinion as well, please. I I don't know.

There's something in my brain where the bat signal is going off. He was booked against Vincente Luque. He's the one who got sick, and all of a sudden, they didn't want that Vincente Luque matchup anymore. Jeff Neil, your number's up. There's something in my brain that's saying, Ian Gary is supposed to win this one, and I think his style is suited to beat Jeff Neil.

Just real quick, did you see what Jeff Neil did to Vincente Luque?

No, was that? He peed the shit out of Jeff Neil won that fight. Jeff Neil won that fight in stunning fashion.

I mean, it was a hell of a beat down. It really was. Brian, how do you see it? What's your pick?

I hope Ian Gary gets the shit kicked out of him. That's just how I feel about it. I'm just spite betting against him at this point.

You're not pulling any punches on that, are you? No. Hey, listen, you have no allegences to anybody. You can say whatever you want. As a fan of the sport, then you're allowed your opinion.

I appreciate it. It's just the way he carries himself. He's great. Technically, everything we've seen out of him, he's been pretty impressive. I just hope he loses.

Oh, God. I looked that up- I'm not in this podcast.

These are my opinions and my opinions alone. I'm going to eat shit for that one. I don't care.

I'm sorry. I looked that up. You are correct. Jeff Neil did brutalize Vincent DeLuca. He's the one who sent Luke in to the hospital, and that kept them out of action for a year. So, yeah, good point. This is arguably a way more dangerous fight. So, yeah, good luck, Jeff Neil. Let's get it done, baby.

It's a tougher match. He was supposed to fight Luke, right? Gets pneumonia, gets pneumonia. Now he comes back with Jeff Neil. That's a tough fight. I mean, all right, granted, MMA math doesn't always stack up, we know. But Jeff Neil is fired up for this one as well. He really is because let's remember, Gary was walking around with the mugshot T-shirt, right?

He's still selling it.

It's wild.

Is he really? Yeah.

As far as the last I checked, he was still on his website. I'll check right now.

Yeah. I take him one of the lowest moments and then turning it into a T-shirt. If I was Jeff Neil, and I'm not suggesting this for one second, I'd be like, I'll be sending him a lawyer. I'd be getting them to send a decent cease and desist letter, or give me some of the profits, you prick. That's my face. Let's talk about this Henry Saludo situation, Marabda Valesvili. Two great fighters, as I said before, Saludo I've said, Listen, if I don't win this, I'm going to retire. That's obviously putting a lot of pressure on himself, but also that's just who he is. That's the ferocious competitor that he is. And he said something before today at the fight meeting that I really liked. And you could call it a line from a movie, or you could call it Hype or whatever. He said, I'm not here to be a fire. I'm a conqueror. I've come to conquer these weight classes. I've conquered 125, I've conquered 135. I'm going to conquer 35 again, and then I'm going to conquer And he said, If I can't beat Marab, then obviously I ain't conquering shit, and I'm going to retire.

I'm like, Listen, call it overconfident, call it whatever you will. But as a fan, as a guy sitting there calling the fight, I'm like, Shit, you got some good sound bites. Sound bites that didn't go down quite so well, though, was this whole thing with his coach, head coach Eric Albarracin. I have been in the middle of this all week because Volkanovski said you're a piece of shit for doing it. Then it looks like the whole thing was a stunt. It was just a joke. Because on the embed, each other more pally and pally and all the rest of it, and he's back in the corner. So I woke up, I said to Coach Eric, I'm like, You Bastids. I said, You guys got me. He said, What do you mean? No, that was real. So what do you mean it was real? He said, Yeah. He said, No, that footage that was on the countdown show was filmed ages ago. He said, Yeah, I'm going to be in the corner because we're buddies. I haven't been a part of his camp. I've been in Brazil trading Paolo Costa and another couple of guys. He said, So yeah, no, that was true.

That was real. Volkanovski says, That makes Henry a piece of shit. What say you guys?

Well, look, dude, Again, I thought this was him trying to put him over, but I don't know, dude. Eric did say, to be fair, he did say, I knew something was coming when he pulled me aside and we were on camera. And it's like, I invented the king of cringe character with Henry. You have to expect this coming. So it's like, I don't know, dude, you made money with the guy for two decades. You got to do the favors and get fired on camera at the end of it.

Yeah. Well, Brian, jump on and let's have a three-way discussion, if you don't mind. This is what I liked because I've spoken to them both quite a lot, and they're both cool with it. Eric's fine with it, they're buddies. He said, And you'll know where I'm going with this now. He said, Listen, we've been friends for a very long time. Sometimes we fall out. You know what I mean? He said, We're fucking brothers. We're brothers, and sometimes we tell each other to go fuck themselves. Sometimes we really fall out. He said, Yeah, maybe a few days later, it's all forgotten about. And I was like, Well, yeah, but that's how you know that you're really friends, because it's only with true friends. Because if you can't truly be yourself, sometimes you got to put a false nicety on it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like your brothers at home, siblings, you love them, but sometimes you do want to strangle them. But like real friends, you do fall out, but it still means you care for them. It still means if they need anything, you'll still help them. And over a few days or a few weeks or even a few months, you forget about it and you're always there to depend on one another.

I thought that was a really good point, and I totally get it.

Yeah, they did say they butt heads from time to time, but he was like, Look, I was down in Brazil with these guys who are actually brothers, and I watched them. They hadn't seen each other for a month. The first day there, they're at each other's things because that's how brothers are. And he's like, If that's not what that guy for this camp, you can't fault him. He said that they trained Davis and Figareto together to a world title. He's like, let him coach himself. See how it works.

Let Brian speak.

Sorry.

No, you're good, man. I don't have too much to think about this situation. I just think that it's a real piece of shit move. Number one, that they faked that it was a very recent firing, and that two, that he did it on camera. I don't know if they set that bit up ahead of time or if they set it up ahead of time, be like, Hey, buddy, we're going to fire you on camera. No, well, that's fucked up, man. You know what I mean? If you fired me on air, if you brought me on air on a show to fire me one day, dude, I would be so fucking pissed. You know what I mean? It's just a bad look for everybody, I think.

Well, listen, guys, I hate to say this to you. I did actually call you here for a reason today. And with the way the show has been going lately and with the inconsistencies and whatnot, guys, this is the last ever show. I'm starting up with Helmani. I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. And then... All right, so that's a nice little preview. Who wins that fight, Marab? Listen, Marab is a monster, man. He never stops coming forward. The cardio is absolutely insane. The pressure, the wrestling, the boxing is decent as well. I think Henry Sahudo, when he fought Al Jamain Sterling, I think he put too much stock in the wrestling. I think he thought he was going to outwrestle him relatively easily. That didn't go to plan. He wasted his gas tank. Henry all week has been talking about he had a terrible wake up because he came back after three years. He got the wake up process wrong. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. Only he knows that I've got to take him at face value. I don't think he's making excuses, but he wouldn't have got as tired if he wasn't trying to wrestle.

So Houda has got heavy hands. Noctab Cruz, Noctab Dillashou, I think he made a critical mistake there. That's just a nice way of setting this up. Who the hell do you think wins this fight?

Well, good luck knocking Marab out, I think. He's a Russian bear fighter. So that's going to be tough. I honestly think this is just one more name on Marab's resume to a title fight.

I don't know, dude. This feels like it could be. This has a chance on Saturday to be the biggest night in Georgian MMA history. You got Ilya going for the title. You got Marab clearly stepping into that undisputed number one contender position with a win. Marab has not been knocked out before. He was submitted after the Bell by Ricky Simone. But I don't know, dude. It's tough for me when Henry Cejudo's best weapon is his wrestling, and all Marab wants to do is be in the clinch with you, working those wrestling positions and becoming the lower man, being the grittier guy with the better gas tank. He's the younger man. Everything about this has me leaning Marab.

And when I spoke to Marab as well, he's got a chip on his shoulder. The thing is, when you look at Marab, he hasn't fought very frequently. I think one time in 2023, 2022, once, 2021, once, 2020, once. Do you know what I'm saying? So the strength of schedule has been terrible. But he did say, he said, Listen, he's annoyed. I can't do it, Marab. I I think I changed. But when I beat Alto, he had to beat Maren Verde at time, and I didn't get fight. When Amali beat Pyotoyan, he got title fight. When I beat Pyotoyan, I don't get this. He said, If I don't get this for this weekend, then this is fucking shit. Yeah, he's pissed off. If he doesn't get that, I thought that was pretty good, actually. That wasn't bad for Marab. You heard that, yeah.

I was like, What are you talking about?

You know what I'm I did an interview with him and I thought he was fucking with me because I asked him about something and I used the word valued, right? And he kept trying to say valued. What is the word? And I'm like, valued? He kept stopping and then he kept trying to say it and then got, oh. And Marab is a funny little bastard.

He's inadvertently funny.

Yeah, but I thought he was doing a bit. You know what I'm saying? I thought, All right, stop it now. He's like, What do you mean stuff? Anyway, so well, it's a tough one for both men. And there it is. There's a nice little preview of the big fights on UFC 298.