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Okay, got to play a game of Good news, Bad news. Do you want the good or bad news first? Okay, the bad news. The bad news is that this is just an excerpt, a small snippet of today's episode of Hobletory finds Out with Katie Nolen and Dan Soter, two of my friends who I love having on the show, whom I love having on the show, I suppose. This is one segment out of three, plus some other stuff that is all exclusive over on the Pablo Torre finds out. Oh, this is the good news. This is the very good news, actually. The whole thing is available on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast feed and YouTube channel. It's exclusive over there. Not going to be in this feed. You got to go over there. So subscribe and make sure you don't miss any of the fun stuff that we have made, handcrafted, bespoke for you. Yes, you, specifically the person who wanted the bad news first and then realized, Oh, my God, there is so much good news here. So my dad's a urologist. Nice. He retired, but he still gets shirts from the NYU Urology Department.

I don't know, guys, know this. Urologists love a custom T-shirt.

Do they really? Well, I would, too, if my job was so funny.

Yeah, if you're working with wean tubes all day, I'm sure you want-Is your a pissed dog? -i'm sure you want.

Yeah. You're going to-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -you need a T. A P T?

The reason I bring this up, though, is the back.

Okay, and let's see the back. I don't know if actually I want to see. You've got to.

Describe what the back is.

For our audience. I'm very excited. For our audio listeners. Pablo is now turning around. It says, Let's go crazy. Let's go nuts. Let's go nuts. And it's quoted attributed to Prince.

And it's a banana, a purple banana, a purple banana, bowling.

Okay, and I think it's a condom. I think it's an inflated condom. That's what I was theorizing that this is.

Like an on the right. I'm going to say maybe it represents the bladder. What's this?

Isn't that the top nipple of a condom? Not really, though. Isn't that the reservoir of a condom?

It looks like just like an empty blueberry. Did your dad explain to you what the back of the.

Shirt means? My dad had no textual interpretations of this. But I just like that they attributed very clearly to prints.

Right, me too, because you don't want to get.

That confused. Let's go crazy. Let's go nuts.

Isn't it, let's get nuts.

You want to get nuts?

Let's get nuts. What? Now it's 2016. Do you just get this shirt?

Yeah, I was in my dad's closet.

He.

Texted me a photo of it and I was like, I'm going to wear this in life now.

Yeah, that's the merch you do want. If your parents' job, if your dad's a urologist, you have so many good shirts that have penises on them without having a.

Penis on it. In the middle, it's a bladder.

It's.

A bladder, but it does look like a penis and balls.

But I think that's not-It's the.

Kidneys into the bladder, down into the urethra.

Yes, that's the family crust over my chest.

It's the most cock-adjacent merch I've ever seen in my life. Because you know they can't just put a dick on it. They have to be like, We could put a dick on there. We've got bananas. I bet there's a lot of bananas.

But ladies pay, too.

Ladies do piss.

Ladies do piss. Ladies just piss too. Go on, brush your shoulders off.

Ladies take a piss, too. Sometimes for money.

On businessmen. Well, and what were you saying about OnlyFans?

That's why I'm saying check us out on OnlyFans.

I'm launching my podcast.

Check out Katie's pissy page on OnlyFans.

Onlyfans.

Com/kateyspissy page. It's a soft, wet launch.

We're done doing soda then we pull out the tarp and we make the money that bought those. I can't tell you.

What my cases are. That's right. Here's the article I'm bringing. Pablo, tell them about it.

Yeah, hit.

Them, Pablo. The headline is, I want to get the citation right because it is Aprilapp. Com.

And what's that? I'm down with APP. You know me.

The Asbury Park Press. Of course.

We all know that. Of course.

It's just Bruce Springsteen at a typewriter going, I don't know what's going on else. I guess gym memberships. Today, a factory closed down in sports.

In sports, the screen door.

Is slammed. The Meals seems like a cool kid, man.

Bruce Springsteen. Jaybill would allow consumers to cancel gym memberships online and easily.

Impossible. That's a trap. Why? To quote Admiral Ackbar.

That's a trap.

Why?

Gym memberships are notorious.

But that's what I'm saying. I think this is the government's getting involved.

The government is now threatening.

They're like, Excuse me, you can't keep backing these people into a corner, which to be clear, we were told explicitly to do.

Katie is using the word we, and we should.

Explain this. We should, in a previous life, before her superpowers, before the spider bit her, before the hilarious, the funny spider bit her, she was selling memberships at Equinox on the Upper East Side. That's right.

You got to explain, Katie, though, where Equinox ranks in the.

Hierarchy of gyms. Especially in New York City. It is Upper.

East Side. La Fitness was just coming onto the scene when I was at Equinox. Equinox was the-Was.

Planet Fitness around, aka the Bargain bin? The Ross of gyms.

Bargain bin, the Ross of gyms? It was a 24 hour fitness, which was like a block half a block away, open 24 hours. Is that done? I don't know. I don't keep up on the industry anymore.

Because every 24 hour fitness, I remember being around.

It's.

Closed.

And 24 hour fitness was a literal thing. It was open 24 hours.

A day. Yes. And that was the hardest thing to sell against, is people would be like, Well, I can get this membership for a lot cheaper across the street, and I can go 24 hours a day.

I can go at 3:30 a.

M. And so we were prepared to that's what I was supposed to say. I'm like, Look, that sounds good on paper, but you're basically going to go to the gym at the same time every day. And the odds of it being 3:00 AM are pretty low. It's actually bad for you to go to the gym at 3:00 AM unless you're working that schedule. Do you work that a job where you work at night and you sleep during the day? They would hang back. She's back. She's back. Then I'd say, Okay, well, then let's just be honest. I think you'd rather have a gym that you can know is going to be not crowded. It's going to be clean. You're going to have nice equipment.

Well, what are some of the amenities?

Well, we've got these chilled eucalyptus towels available on every floor. Was that.

The first thing you led with?

Because it was the thing that I cared the most about. I was like, Look, these towels are already cold and they smell like a tree. Just put right on your neck. You can take as many of them as you want to. Did you.

Ever steal them?

I would use them. Look, the most I ever went to a gym was when I worked there.

Did you flem into them?

I didn't.

Did you ever sneeze into them? Yeah.

No, they're wet.

Well, that's the perfect crime.

Yeah. It's like murdering somebody with an bicycle.

It melts. It's snod. Is that snod or just eucalyptus? Who's to say?

I think it would sting to blow your nose with them. They were really strong.

Do you be one of those, I regret this. I regret this. Oh, my God. It's in my fucking eyes. Sir, you didn't happen to sneeze into the eucalyptus towel, did you?

But you had a list of things that you were, I guess, taught, raised to sell.

Yeah, we had a whole training program that I did really well at. It turns out I was a good salesman. I just didn't like the way it made me feel on the inside because I was trapping people into these memberships because it was impossible to cancel them. We would have initiation fees. I don't know if this is how gym memberships still work. This was many moons ago, fresh out of college. I was putting my degree to good work. There was an initiation fee of a couple hundred bucks, and then every month they would pay $175 to go to the gym.

$175.

A month? If you wanted to go to all of them, that was the all access again, at the time, who knows what it is now. One gym was 135.

One gym? Yeah. One gym is 135.

One 75 is every gym. It's like a $300 initiation fee. Unless you signed up in December or January was the big push, and I think you could get no initiation fee.

Now, let's say I'm in. Let's say I come in the.

Door, right? I wish to be initiated.

Jump us in to Equinox. How do you get out of an Equinox membership?

You have to wait a year. You have to be there for at least a year, and then you have to go in and cancel.

I mean, they really- You have to show up. You have to show up. But they make it like a saw movie where they're like, Somewhere there's a key that gets you out of the clock. You have to cut off.

Your leg. Well, at one point it was during the recession, hence why I didn't have a job. People were getting laid off and people were like, I can't join this because I might be about to lose my job. They didn't want to sign.

Up for the deal. Then you have so much more time for your fitness.

Then I think the company started to be like, if you get, I mean, I don't want to say a pink slip, but basically, if you can bring that in and we'll let you out of your... If you can prove they laid you off, we'll let you out of your.

A shamewalk to your Equinox?

Yeah.

Where you go, I can no longer work out here. They're like, Why they let.

Me go? Because people weren't signing up because they were like, There's no way I'm going to be stuck in this for a year, and if I get laid off, there's no way I'll be able to afford it. We were like, Well, don't. We'll still sign. You should still sign. Let's turn.

That pink slip into a.

Punch card. Did you only get paid if they got signed?

That was my commission. I think I got like $12,000 a year. So nothing. Yeah, and then you would get paid based off of- Okay, so this.

Is important. Katie Nolen, as recruiter of vulnerable people. By the way, the story is coming out, coincidentally, it's December.

If you're going to join a gym, do it now.

Right now, the best deals?

Because that was one hour... Again, this could all be different now. Many moons ago, but our highest quota was in December. You were doing anything you could to sign people because they expected you to sign a ton of people. And if you hit your quota, you got your bonus. And if you went above your quota, everything above that, you got extra money.

Damn.

And if you didn't hit your quota, you.

Were in trouble. Do you remember at all what the quota was? No.

How many memberships? No, I don't even remember your phone number. Numbers in my brain just disappeared. It is true. Number are your- Is that the six. No, the 303 because of the ban. There you go. 303.

Got the Colorado area code.

And that's all.

That matters. But wait. So let's take it from... I've walked into this Equinox.

Which Equinox are you at? I was at 54th and second. Have you called previously?

Which was right by where I worked at those Caminos on 50th.

And third. I mean, there's so many times in our lives.

Where we- A virtuous cycle.

I'm telling you, I know this sounds corny, but there's so many times in our lives where we just missed each other. And I feel like that's proof to me that this is.

Meant to be. There is somebody who ate at those Caminos and then had to work out at Equinox. Yeah, I.

Probably sold them on that shrimp quesadilla, folded.

And then I probably had my friend go help clean it up in the bathroom after they left the gym. Had you previously called or spoken to anybody at an Equinox when you walked in for your.

Membership today?

No, I've- You're a fresh walk in.

Yeah, I'm somebody who has wanted to be better about my health.

We'll get into all that. I just need to know, sales-wise, if you've spoke. Because so many times we had this guy, Andre, who was one of the salesmen at our Equinox. He was an institution at Equinox. He'd been there since I feel like it opened, but he wasn't beloved by the company. I wondered why because he sold so many memberships. It's because he didn't do it the Equinox way. He just cast a very wide net with the lead generation. Then whenever anybody would come in, it would be, Katie, you're up for a walk in. Here's a walk in. I'd get all excited. Then they'd look in them. Luckily, if they caught it early, they would go straight to Andre. But sometimes I would get through the whole tour, the whole sales pitch, and then I would put their name into the system and be like, So you spoke with Andre previously? They were like, Yeah, oh, that's right. I did. I'm like, Let's get you signed up. Then Andre would stand outside my office with a big smile on his face because that was his sale now. But anyway, if you'd never spoken to anybody and you walked into anything.

Else- I got to say, I spoke to Andre.

Let me just walk. But see, if you say it early, I go, Let me just bring you over to Andre.

And then he would huff.

And puff.

Hecaden. Caden. I'm going to sign.

You up. It was Andre the giant.

Thank you, tiny little Katie. You're going to love that you got these towels.

But Andre sucked at the tour and stuff. He didn't like doing any of the schmoozing, which was the only part I was.

Good at. Andre was a.

Strategist, though. Yeah, Andre was a... He wanted you to have to.

Do all the work. He wanted to pee on every possible tree.

That's He.

Got.

Them, too. He was a urologist of a salesman.

And they didn't like him.

The company didn't like him. Well, they did. They liked the numbers, but he wasn't held up as like, This is our greatest salesman, because he wasn't a good salesman.

So that's the skill, though. The salesmanship skill is the thing that fascinates me most about Katie and Dole and Equinox salesperson, because if I'm coming in cold off the street in December, I'm self-conscious, but I'm obviously very lazy. How are you possibly convincing me to drop all of the money you've described?

Okay, I mean, you want to know?

Yeah.

I would take them on a walk. It was three floors, so I would show them all the different. I would ask them about their fitness goals. I would ask them about their experience with going to the gym and if they never went before.

Would you ever prod or poke them?

Keno.

Escalated. I can sign you up.

No. You mean like touch their problem areas?

Yeah, I'd go like, Yeah, we can fix that. No. Okay.

I put these calipers on me. I mean, just.

Take some quick measurements. I found a thing to relate to. There was one woman that I- Just nagging people. -that was very rich. I still to this day, I look back on this interaction. I'm like, What was that lady? She was very rich and she wanted a gym membership and then she liked me by the end of it. She was like, I just am afraid I won't ever go. I'm afraid I'll sign up for this membership and I won't ever go. A main thing I always went to was if you're spending $135 on it, you'll go. If you spend 20 bucks on it, you won't go. But $135, that's an investment in yourself. That's an investment in your health. You're holding yourself accountable.

You will go. Giving me a half time speech.

I'm reaching for my wallet. This lady said she still wouldn't go. I said, How about this? If we go a week and I don't see you, I'll call you. I'll call you. I'll go to the gym with you. I'll come work out next to you on my lunch break. We'll go on the days that I can go. I'll make sure you're here. If we don't see you, I'll call you.

I will.

Find you. She was like, Okay. Then this lady became like my friend. She gave me her credit card. She treated me like her assistant. One day she took me to that Fuerza Bruta. Remember that? I had a show in Union Square? I think it was called Fuerza Bruta. I could be making this up.

Fuerza Bruta is a band. It's a postmodern theater show that premiered in Buenos Aires in 2005.

One night she just took me. We went on this trip. We went to Fuerza Bruta. We went to her apartment. I remember it was raining and my socks got wet. I still have these socks that this lady gave me that night. Could not tell you her name. Could not tell you how I ended up... Why I said yes to any of this. But I went, so it's like a live performance that they do right in front of you. It's like a small Cirque du Soleil.

How old was she?

I'm bad at this, but I would say maybe in her 50s? At the time, would you say in her 50s? Maybe.

Do you think there's an off chance that on January ninth, she'll be watching Celebrity, Jeopardy, and she'll be like, That's my Katie. That's wet-talked Katie.

That's Equinox Katie.

I took her to.

A performance. She wrote a big, long letter on the back of a receipt about how I should be promoted within Equinox. She was a very sweet woman. But that's why I couldn't handle it emotionally. I tried to have enough people up for the gym, and I'm like, I got seven people who didn't show up this week. I have to call them. I have to let them.

Know I care. You don't have the thing in you that can shut off that part.

That's like, Oh, I sold you that, but I'm not going to do it. I can't make a campaign promise and then not follow through.

Unlike a real world cast member, you were there to make friends.

Yes. I was there for the wrong reasons, which was to be friendly with everybody.

It just sounds like you had a methodology.

We were given like, I forget what they were called, but we practiced like when somebody's... You have to get- Sounding scientific.

-you have to hear -logical, the more that I.

Think about this. You have to hear no seven times before you can let them out of your office. You can't accept no until the seven. No means no if you.

Say no seven times. Hit the lock.

Button, dude. You get them in. No means yes until seven. It's like Will Ferrell and the spy who shagged me where he goes, Damn, seven times. Three times, damn it. Let me out. No, let me out. No. I think it's seven.

You're like, All right, go. It got to the point where for people like me, you would look for anything that sounded even like a no. I'm like, I count that. That was one. Because I didn't want to have to... Getting somebody to say no seven times, it's like the cable people when they called me, you start to feel crazy. We're like, I don't want this. Cancel this. I had people get to the point where when they were like, Is there anything I can say to get out of this office? I was like, That helps. That's sick. That is nuts.

Closer.

Warmer.

Closer. Well, you could call state Senator Gordon Johnson.

They're.

Going to make a law pass that only in New Jersey, right?

I assume. I believe they will begin in New Jersey.

Which.

Is a big gym. Which is a big gym state.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Gym tand laundry. Oh, of.

Course, GTL. Yeah, Jersey gyms are on a different level.

Yeah, Jersey Mikes, I believe they're called.

But they just the amount of both love cards. It clearly was such a problem that a politician in New Jersey was.

Like, Hey, listen.

Listen, I'm trapped in three different ones, bro, all right? I need a different one for my power lifting, to get toned, to get strength. They finally got it.

They should make it. You should be able to call.

Well, why is canceling a gym membership should not need to be like a Jason Statham movie.

Well, I'm going to tell you this right now. He's like, You've only got five nose. Toward your nose. I'm like, I'm trying to throw more.

Maybe I'll let you out of the office.

Sorry.

You've got to blast your cords on Tuesday or it ain't working. Do you want to try the eucalyptus leaves? You're unbelievable.

Okay, so hey, yeah, right? I'm going to level with you. I don't know if you like me, and maybe you don't. That's okay. Just know that over on the PTFO Feeds podcast and YouTube and otherwise, there is a lot of people that you probably do like, and they're just hanging out. I'm there, too, but you can ignore me, but they're over there. I think you'd enjoy knowing when they're doing fun stuff that I asked them to do for you and me. But again, ignore me. Thank you. It's free. This is getting sad. Okay, talk to you later.

Hello, welcome to The Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. That's David Dworak from The Hockey News. The Florida Panthers are currently on a long road trip right now. The first game was against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and they ended up going to Seattle, where they lost pretty badly. Now they're in Vancouver and they're going to finish out with Calgary and Edmonton. Let's start with the Columbus Blue Jackets game. Nothing happened. Not a single thing. It was a boring game. Actually, it was a boring game up until-.

It was boring for 40 minutes.

Yeah, up until nick Cousins got a boarding penalty. It was initially called a major on the ice against Eric Branson, but they reviewed it and he made it a minor. What made this less of a major and more of a minor penalty?

I think it was just the fact that it didn't come directly from behind Good Branson. It was off to the side. Honestly, didn't see. You and I were discussing before, and I think what happened to Good Branson, the way that his face went into the dasher glass area, it was very violent and I'm sure jarring for him, the way that his neck went into it. I just don't think the way that cousins approached him from the side and pushed him in as they were going at an angle would be my guess as to why it was rescinded to the two-minute minor. Either way, Eric and Branson clearly did not agree with the fissioning decision. As we're going to discuss, it took matters into his own hands a few minutes later.

There was damage to his face based off of his face smashing into the glass. Yeah. There's no in-between here. There's no double minor. It's either a major or a minor.

Right. There's no four minutes for boarding.

Okay. He popped right back up as soon as he realized, Okay, it's just my face, not my neck or anything. I'm going to be okay. Let me try to beat the shit out of the cousins.

Yeah, it was like an undertator moment where he went from down and you're wondering the trainers are running out there. Everybody's worried that he's not going to be okay. Then all of a sudden, he realized, Hey, I'm okay. That was scary as hell, but I'm fine. Then it was game on. Clearly, and look, I don't know what he went through in that moment. It was an emotional experience for Eric Branson, but man, he was seen red for a while. I mean, you saw them screaming at each other in the penalty box before any of the later stuff happened.

Yeah, and here's the thing. After they left the penalty box, after they went to the bench, the very next shift, Eric Branson jumped him. There was no asking for a fight, which is what you're supposed to do in this situation. He jumped him. He pretty much sucker punched him. He grounded and pounding him, and there was no fighting back from the cousins in this situation, which is why the cousins didn't get paralyzed.

Yeah. You would think you want retribution or do you want to go toe to toe with the guy? Like a lot of people in that situation, you would think, I want to look you in the face, fight you like a man. Let's go. To cousin's credit, after the hit against Branson, he didn't stay away or anything. He stood right there and I don't know what he - He took over.

-sick as licking, I guess.

Yeah, well, he probably was expecting it, I would think. But the second time around, De Branson literally wrapped his arms around Cousins, put his hand in Cousins' face and drove him to the ice, got on top of his back, and then just started whaling away. He wasn't interested in the fair fight, or he wasn't interested in any fight back. He wanted his retribution, and he got it, and then he got suspended for it.

In the end, 29 Pony Minutes, he got that game suspension. What's actually not being talked about here is Mark Rakey got the old heapho of a game of Scott. Nobody mentioned that.

At all. Yeah, he was screaming at the officials from the bench after the initial hit. Then once the second thing happened, I guess the refs had had enough from this Columbus assistant coach. I mean, everybody knows Mark Rakey from his playing days. But yeah, I mean, like you said, it went from a game that was really ho-hum for 40 minutes, and it totally took it on a Red Bull High straight through the end.

The Panthers ended up winning the game in Columbus 5-2, and then they went to Seattle and got their asses kicked. What exactly happened? 100 %, I'm telling you the truth here, we had the holiday party here at Metalog Media, and I went to sleep at 8:30. 8:30, it was bad. In fact, I woke up at 3:30. That's how much rest I get from that one. I wasn't able to watch the Seattle game, which was at 10:00. I don't know if you got to see it.

What exactly happened? Your body did you a favor or not? Oh, it absolutely did because.

I was drunk. Honestly, the score...

That's my man. The score didn't really do the game justice as the Panthers didn't play that badly. For a game, they were almost out shooting them two to one through the first 40-ish minutes of the game. Seattle guy, I think it was a breakaway goal at one point on Bob. They got a one-timer on the slot on a power play, I believe. It wasn't a game where Florida was necessarily getting outplayed. They were getting outchanced. They maybe out-bounced a little bit. And Joey Decord, the goalkeeper for Seattle, played out of his mind. His first NHL shut out, so good for him. But it wasn't the game where you're like, what was it? The Islander game a few weeks ago on Home Ice, where the Panthers, they got smacked around a little bit by a lesser team. It wasn't a situation like that. It was one of those games that the Panthers would win five, six, seven years ago, where you play a team that's a lot better than you, and somehow you come out with a happy win on Home Ice. It felt more like that.

Well, it seems like everything went downhill in the third period, though.

Yeah, well, they scored a quick... I think they had two early goals in the first five minutes on their first three shots, and then you're down three-nothing.

Yeah, the Kraken, before the game, they were on an eight-game losing streak.

Yeah, that hurts.

If you bet against the Kraken, sorry.

You probably got good odds if you were betting on the Kraken that night. I'm curious now, just thinking in terms of the Panthers are probably going to be a little pissed. The Pride is probably going to be a little bruised after losing that game. A team would have lost eight in a row. You wonder, Vancouver at home, Vancouver is a good team. The Panthers might be getting some favorable odds.

Going into the game? Yeah, I.

Think so. I don't want to advocate too much for the betting, but you know.

Well, we recorded this show on Thursday, so the game is tonight. Which is why I just want to make sure I build you out on that one because we try to be timeless here, but no way getting around that. But tonight, which is Thursday, yesterday, last night, because you listen to this on Friday or whenever you listen to this, whatever. It's Roberto Lorango Night in Vancouver.

That happened.

Yeah, that happened already, even though it hasn't happened yet. But it's a special night in Vancouver as Roberto Lorango comes back. Where are you ended up going to the Stanley Cup final and lost in seven games to the Boston Bruins. How special is this night going to be?

I think it's going to be pretty cool for him. It was a weird situation in the way the relationship with Vancouver and Lorando ended with getting traded back to the Panthers, which was great for everybody in South Florida. We were all really happy about it. But yeah, I mean, Lorondo took that franchise that they had some good years with Pavell Beray in the 90s and everything, and Marcus Nasland brought some fun.

Oh, yeah, Marcus.

Nasland, yeah. But the Laudato years were something special with the Cedine twins, and they got all the way to the final that one year, and Tim Thomas and the Bruins and the whole thing with Laudato and Thomas was a lot of fun. You remember Tim Thomas was actually the Panthers goalkeeper. He got traded back to the Panthers. That whole situation is a whole other thing. But I think it'll be fun for Lorondo tonight. I would imagine it's going to be pretty special for him. I personally wonder why they are not retiring his number because I think it's probably safe to say he's the best goalie in Cunox history. You wonder why that's just a ring of honor, but maybe that's just me.

That's interesting because we talked about this before we started recording that they haven't retired Kurt McLean's number either. No, no. No, Goaltenders had his number retired.

Perhaps it's some a goalie controversy or a conspiracy against the goaltenders in Vancouver. Maybe that's why Dan Cruet was so angry when he was up there. I don't know.

Vancouver is a very good team. They are coming in with a three-game winning streak, the second in the Pacific Division.

With one of the best American goalies out there, Thatcher Demco.

That is correct. Real quick, I want to talk about the All-Star skills competition. There was a bit of a change.

Man, the events, thankfully, are not... You see, here's the thing. We grew up, I think, loving the skills competition. It was a lot of fun. It was Al McKinnis in the hardest shot and Ray Bork in the accuracy, and guys like Berre winning the fastest stater. But now we both sat through the last years and we were bored out of our minds. Hopefully what they're doing this year, which is incentivizing it for the players and making it so that every is for points and they're getting through it that way. Maybe it'll be a little bit more fun because really, you got to inject some life in this thing because last year it was rough.

And there's money on the line.

Yeah, the winner gets a million bucks, so hopefully, they're going to get the right guys involved that are going to be playing and really get into it. There are some very interesting personalities that are going to be all-stars, so we'll see.

All right, we got the 10-minute misconduct. Coming up next, we have Dimitri, Philopovitch of the PDOcast from sportsnet. It's a 10-minute misconduct. In the penalty box, we have Dimitri Philopovic of the PDOcast from sportsnet. Dimitri, you did a deep dive in Alexander Barclough's season and why he is going to end up winning the Silky trophy. Why don't you talk about this?

Yeah, it's a no-brainer. Listen, this is a subject near and dear to my heart, so I'm happy to come join you guys and chat about this. Yeah, he's been phenomenal. I think when Patrisse Bergeron retired this past summer, there was a bit of a... Obviously, it left an opening on the Bruins in terms of their depth chart, but I think in the league-wide context, it also left an opening in terms of who would take that that mantle as the league's gold standard for two-way center. And Barkov would have been a good choice heading into the season considering he was the last active player to actually win the Selki. But I think he's taken his game to an even greater level this year and reached all new heights. And soI'm happy to join you guys today and just talk about him for as long as you guys will have me.

One of the things that Barkov, you talked about the way that he's taken his game to another level. How much do you think plays into that his current head coach, Paul Morise, arriving in South Florida a couple of years ago and transitioning the team to a much more defensive approach to the way that they play the game.

Yeah, I'm sure there's part of that as well. I think they've become a much more aggressive team over the past year or so under Paul Morise. I think the hallmark for them has been this aggressive form check. We saw it in the post-season, how they just pressured opposing defensemen into making mistakes and then generated a ton of their offense off of it. They've got a really good... I don't know how much of it is chicken or the egg, how much of it is Barkov, and how much of it is the system and all of it coming together. But they essentially just send their wingers up the walls, try to hit the other team as much as they can, force the buck into the middle of the ice. Then you've got Barkov playing this role as the league's best safety in the middle of the ice, just wading, ball-hawking, trying to get everything that comes his way. It's really working perfectly where Palmares's system is playing the other team right into Barkov's hands, and then he's obviously uniquely qualified and equipped to make the most of that.

Analytics, I am not an expert. Coursey, don't know who he is. Finwick. It sounds too much like Finway Park to me. So analytically, can you tell me just what puts Alexander Barclayve over the rest?

Yeah, certainly. I think even beyond those things, let's keep it simple. Let's go with goals, right? I think we are all in regards to our mileage on analytics, we understand the scoreboard. You got to outscore the other team, and that's generally a good thing. With them on the ice this year, they are outscoring teams 23-5 at five-on-five, which is obviously a remarkable rate. It's the League best for anyone that's played consistent minutes this season. Then you take them off the ice and the rest of those minutes, they're getting outscored as a team 38-29. Beyond all the stuff like shot attempts, chances, inner slot shots, we can get into any of those and dive deep into it. But just on the surface, purely looking at goals, his impact on winning in that regard is unparalleled around the League. I think that's where it starts from me, where when he's on the ice, they are the best team in the league. When he's not off on the ice, they're just struggling to get by. And so that really shows how deeply rooted his impact is on this team.

Are you able to also the way that you view Barkov analytically, particularly his five-on-five numbers, the way that he also impacts who he's playing with? Because you look at Sam Reinhardt, who he's been on the ice with almost the entire seasons to this point. And he's having a ridiculous year, too, but not just offensively. The way that Reinhardt's been impacting the game on both ends of the ice has also been maybe something that's not talked about a lot.

No, certainly. And that's become a thing for Barko, right? And it's a testament to being a great player that he is, is that he's going to make everyone around him better and you can essentially put everyone you want with him. We've seen Evan Rodriguez, of course, find a home there. I know they split them up and put Carter Reheghi on that line recently, but regardless of who you play with Barko, they're going to get the most out of them. And it's really good timing for Reinhardt in a contract year, right? Where he's on pace now for 50 goals. Everything's come together for him, and I'm happy for him because he's been a really good underrated player for years now. I wouldn't be worried at all about paying him. I know it's risky once you get into the age territory he's in, but I think he's one of those players that's going to age really gracefully into his 30s because of how smart he is. It's cool to see it come together for him as well this season.

Let's talk about the San Jose Sharks. They started the season bad, historically bad.

But then they picked it up-.

That's an understanding, Roy. Yeah, I'm trying to even things out for him because it was god-awful. But the last 10 are 6, 2, and 2. Now we've seen one team who was dead last and not only made the playoffs, they won the Stanley Cup, and that was the St. Louis Blues. Could the San Jose Sharks do the same thing?

I don't see that in their cards for them.

I mean, just making the playoffs in this case. I'm not even going to give them.

The Cup final. Only seven points back right now with a lot of the season to go.

Yeah. Listen, I think it's a great story. I've really enjoyed. I think their entertainment value, they have not played a normal game yet this season. At the start of the year, we were all watching because it had that car crash element where they're getting beaten 10-1, 10-2 in back-to-back game. So you're watching to see how bad it's going to get. Then recently, they go out east, they have these comfort behind victory is where they're down three, four goals late in the third stormback, winning overtime. They're playing really well right now. I think just the fact that they look like they were going to be the worst team we've ever seen in NHL history, and that's clearly not going to be the case. I think that's a big win for them. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is going to be a Cinarella story in terms of the playoff run or anything like that, but I just think that the fact that they're not a laughing stock and embarrassment anymore is something that didn't look like it was going to be the case as recently as a couple of weeks ago. It's been quite a turnaround for them.

One other thing that I want to ask you about something that you've covered recently is Jack Ikel and how well he has, I guess, fallen into place in Vegas. We watched almost through Tissues last year, the way that him and Vegas came together in the playoffs and the way that they look so dominant during the final. But what do you think has been, I guess, the magic potion that's made Aikl such a... I mean, to this point, it really looks like such a perfect fit in Vegas.

Yeah, I mean, he's in his prime, right? I think he's 26, 27 years old. He's healthy finally coming off those surgeries he had to his neck. And Bruce Cassidy has done a really good job as his coach in terms of empowering him, in terms of getting him to play off the buck and put in the effort defensively. And so I think now playing with a guy like Mark Stone as well, where he's almost the perfect player, similar to how we talked about Barkov, where he's going to get the most out of you. He's going to show you how to play the right way. And so it's really come together for him. They attack off the rush. As we saw all of last post-season, he's one of the best players at that. He's working his butt off defensively and winning all these buck battles. And so, yeah, he's carried over exactly what he did last post-season, proven that it wasn't just this one short-term thing. He's the real deal. This Vegas team is the real deal. And it's interesting because that was obviously the finals match-up last year. And if anything, I would say that both the Panthers and the Golden Nights are playing better right now than they did at any point, really, last season before the playoffs as well, right?

So for whatever talk of how much of that was an aberration or how much of it was, Oh, these weren't actually the two best teams. They're following that up this year and actually building off of it. I'm really curious to see how things go for the rest of the season.

The St. Louis Blues fired Craig Borubi, and they are not having a good season either. They're 13, 14, and 1 coming in the Thursday. Why don't you go over what's going on in St. Louis right now?

Yeah, it's a bit of a confusing one because I don't think they had really any expectations heading into the year. They're stuck in the middle where they still have a lot of bad contracts that have no move clauses. We know this past summer they tried to move one of them in Tory Krug, and that didn't work out because he flexed his leverage with his no move and essentially wanted to stay in St. Louis. They're stuck with a lot of bad money in the books. They're not really competing right now, but they're also not rebuilding because they have all these players in their late 20s, early 30s making a bunch of money. It's one of the worst spots in the sport to be stuck in. Thankfully, they have that Stanley Cup they won a couple of years to latch on to in terms of the memories of that, and I'm sure that goes a long way with the fans. But yeah, it's tricky where I don't really think regardless of what they do with the coach, it's going to make that much of a difference. I guess maybe they just wanted to have a fresh voice in there.

It's really tough to stay with any team as an NHL coach these days for as long as Blue Bay did, him being there five years already. I think they just wanted a fresh start and hopefully maybe get a bit of that bounce back the way teams like the Oilers and Wilde did when they changed coaches this season. But I'm not really expecting that from them. They seem like they're really stuck in that mushy middle for the foreseeable future.

Yeah, I'm with you. I was a little confused as well, just because what exactly were their expectations? It's going to be something that I'm going to be keeping an eye on. But one thing that I've been keeping an eye on all season, as I'm sure we all have, has been Connor Redd. He's really came in. The last guy that got that much fanfare, I guess, was Connor McDavid. He's been as advertised, right, Dimitri? He's been super fun to watch. He's been throwing some eye-popping goals. I just think we're blessed to have another one of these guys coming into the lead right now.

You know what, David? I would say he's been even better than I advertised because I think heading into the year, obviously, seeing the point to the roles he put up in Major Junior, seeing what he was doing with the highlight, real goals he was scoring, I think he was rightly pegged as a generational talent. But I expected him to struggle at five-on-five coming into the League. You got to learn how to play, especially at the center position defensively. There's not a lot of talent around him. I thought he'd struggle at even strength, and he'd do a lot of his production on the power play. It's actually been the opposite, where their power play hasn't been very good. He hasn't been producing much there just because they don't have a lot of high-end talent beyond him. But at Five-on-Five, he's been holding his own, especially when you consider the context of the situation he's in. And then he's scoring goals like he did the other night at Edmonton, where he shows you that specific talent he has where he's coming off the rush. He looks like he can't even generate enough leverage with where the buck is.

And then all of a sudden, it's in the back of the net and the couldn't even react in time. And so if you haven't had a chance to watch him yet for whatever reason, and I don't blame you, the Black Hawks aren't very good, there's not many reasons to tune into the games beyond Bidard, but he's almost worth the price of admission of his own. I think the games he actually played on the road in Florida and Tampa back to back to Sierra were probably two of his most electric ones this season. If anyone's listening there and they were there, they got to see those. That was a nice little taste of what he's capable of. I think as the year goes along, he's going to get even better.

Let's talk about that match-up between the Black Hawks and the Aulas. Those two, McDavid and Badard, actually got together and played hockey. Badard scored their lone goal that the Black Hawks had and McDavid had to assist. What did you think of that match-up?

Yeah, I mean, it was everything you expected, right? The Oilers carried over their success. They built on their winning streak. They wound up winning the game. But they flashed that beautiful goal that I described there earlier. For all the talk earlier in the season about McDavid's health and how he was underperforming, and the Oilers, of course, were struggling, they fired their coach. They bounced back here. Mcdavid's ripping off the pouring totals we've come to expect from him and what he did last year. He's right back all of a sudden in the race for the scoring lead. The Oilers are back in track for a postseason spot. And so that's been really fun to watch because I think the sport is better for it when McDavid's at the top and performing the way he is. I don't know. What do you guys think about in terms of the way that matchup was promoted and how if the League does a good enough job, I guess, of capturing the fans' imagination, right? Because it's like, All right, Conner versus Conner, cool. We could go a little bit beyond that. But it feels like for whatever reason, it probably wasn't hyped up nearly as much as it probably should have been.

Oh, that sounds like sarcasm to me. That thing was pretty much hyped. It's what the League absolutely wanted.

I think we.

Have different perspectives, though, coming from where Dimitri is up north of the border and coming where we are down here next to Cuba. I think people are going to have different perspectives when they look at how that game is being sold to them. I think down here it was sold pretty well just because we don't get that very deep saturation of hockey. Whereas up there, I'm guessing they probably could have played it up a bit more just because people are a bit more knowledgeable in what they're looking at.

I'm here in Vancouver. I was at the Knuxx were playing the lightning that night. I was sitting in the press box ready, getting ready for that game. Then I look at the scoreboard and I'm like, Oh, yeah, those two guys are playing. That's the level of hype that I had personally in terms of those guys were even going head to head that night. But I guess it was an ESP end game, so they probably were promoting it from that angle.

Dimitri, Philopovic of the PDOcast on Sportnet, thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Dimitri.

Anytime, pals.

All right, welcome into the MMA Hangout. Usc 296 on Saturday, and there's only one person that I can bring in. Primo de Norte, Danny Seguiro from MMA fighting. What's up, brother?

Good, man. Happy to be here. Thanks for the invite. We're here to talk some fights.

Usc 296 has a banger set up for us. Last card of the year for the USC in a year of the USC being at its peak, right? 30th year anniversary, and it's been from January to December. All fights, all cards have been great, dude.

Yeah, fantastic card. Maybe not the most mediatic in terms of buzz and all that, but if you just look at the fights, every single matchup has a compelling storyline, great scraps, two title fights. I mean, what a way to close out the year. I know we lost the Ian, Gary, Viscente, Luque fight, which that fight to me was very interesting, but still, the prelains are stacked. It's hard to complain about this card. Very, very good card to close out a fantastic year for the USC.

Let's start in the first title fight in the main event, Leon Edwards, who has been on an absolute heater, hasn't lost a fight since 2015, which is insane, going against Kolby Covington, who the last time we saw in the octagon was against George Moss Vidal two years ago. That was 2021, if I remember correctly. It's been a two-year absence for Kolby Covington. Obviously, he's had the lawsuit issue that he was suing George for the two-piece in a soda he gave him outside of Bobby's Steak. He hasn't fought since then. Your view on a Colby Covington who hasn't fought in two years versus Leon who is just on fire right now.

Yeah. I feel like the initial reaction, because this fight was basically announced a long-ass time ago, but they just haven't been able to book it because apparently, Leon didn't want to fight Kobe, not because he's scared, just because he didn't think he was the most deserving contender. That is 100 % an argument you can make. I can name four or five other guys that deserve to be fighting at U-of-C 296 instead of Kolby. But Kolby sells, and for whatever reason, Dana White thought he merited a title shot, and here he is. We've talked about that extensively, I think, so I don't want to beat the dead horse. But I think this is the last title fight that Kobe Cinghton is going to be involved in. If he wins, obviously we're going to see some more in the future. But if he loses, this is it. This is it. Thirty-five years of age, almost a two-year layoff. This is it. If he doesn't win this one, I don't see him going back to the line and beating two or three contenders, four contenders at 35 years of age and make another run for the belt. This is the last we might be seeing of Kolby, Covington as the title contender.

It's crazy. It's do or die for him right now. -100%. -everything for him is on the line against a guy who is dominating the division, who is fighting at just his absolute apex, who just seems to be not phased by all of the Colby, Covington bullshit that we usually see the character that he tries to pretend he is, which I think is part of the problem with Colby, right? It's like, buddy, we know who you are. People that know you know that you're not this guy, but you put this on this heal version of yourself to try and be- It works, though. It works, for sure, especially when you bring politics into it, and he's the Trump guy and the Magga guy, and a guy. It works for him. I feel like that's why Dana, outside of like, Hey, just end the lawsuit. Let's get everything out of the way. We'll give you a title fight. Hopefully, you win. If not, good riddance. It's over. But to me, just Leon is in the matrix right now where he is fighting so well. I would have liked to see him versus Balal Muhammad. I think that would have been an absolute banger, especially because their fight got ended with the iPoke last time.

That would have been huge. And of course, he's a backup fighter and everything's going to.

Probably go through. We might end up seeing that fight. Who knows, right? That would be huge. Anything can happen.

That would be amazing, though. But your thoughts, is it just Leon Edwards is just too good right now?

Honestly, if these two were to... I think Leon is in his prime right now. I'm not sure if Kobe is. Probably not by all indications. But if both guys were in their prime, I would have a lot of issues trying to do a prediction on this one.

But look.

Kobe is a great fighter. I still think he is a great fighter, but I do expect some downfall from the Prime. I still think he's probably like a top five, certainly a top 10. But Prime Prime at 35 years of age, having fought in almost two years, I don't think that he is. I'm going to go with Leon. I just think he's in a way better moment. As you mentioned, he hasn't lost in forever since 2015. His last few performances have been stellar. Everything just points that Leon should win this fight fairly comfortable. Kobe is a hard worker. I think he's going to have a great showing. By no means is he getting embarrassed himself. But yeah, much better moment, Leon, right now.

Obviously, Kolby has insane cardio, good wrestler. He has all that stuff with him. But those two years of layoff, and on top of that, we saw in the MMA transitive property math of we've seen Leon, obviously the first fight, the second fight, whichever way you want to do that math, against Camaro, who's been when he had the headkick, the original one, he was getting walked the entire fight until that last third round. Yeah, he was, yeah. We saw that happen. But then the second fight between him and Camaro for the belt, he just walked him down. So if you look at that transitive property math, Camaro has walked down Kolby Covington, and then Leon walked down Camaro. So it looks set up for Leon Edwards to retain his belt and still.

Yeah, I think that's a safe bet. Again, Kolby in a different situation, if you were to be active maybe a little bit younger, I'd actually like his chances against Leon Edwards. But at this point in time, I think his better days are over.

So.

Leon should win this. But I leave a small room, maybe like a 25 % chance that there could be an upset here.

Going to the Flyweight title, the co-main event of the night for U-of-C 296, Alessandro Pantoja versus Brandon Royval. Another fight that we've seen before. Yes, sir. What do you think about this thing? Because this division is interesting. There's been a lot of guys at the top for a long time, mighty Mouse, Figareto, Moreno, and now it's Pantoja's time. Is he somebody that can continue to have the belt for a while, have a couple of defenses under his belt?

I think so. This is a great fighter. Just to throw a stat out there, this is the first fight.

Title fight.

At Flyweight that doesn't involve Davins and Figareto or Brandon Moreno since November 2020. So it's been three years since we've gotten a fight without any of these two guys. So it's a breath of fresh air for the division. I love Brandon Moreno. People know that that's my guy. I've been covering him since day one. I also love Davis and Figareto as well. He's a great fighter. But the division needed this. The division needed a bit of a change in air, and we're finally getting it. This is a fantastic fight. We've seen it before. It was an amazing fight then. I'm sure it's going to be even better now because both fighters have improved a ton. Pantoja, you just look at the war he had against Brandon Moreno, probably fight of the year. We'll see when the voting and all that gets done in a few weeks, but a fantastic fight. I do think he has the makings to be a dominant champion. I think Brandon Royval, as good as he is, this should be a comfortable win for Pantoja.

It's insane. For those that don't know, Pantosia has been fighting and trying to get his way up to this title and then beat Brandon Moreno, who again was a lovable and had a great story on his own, getting up to the title fight and retaining that belt. Now it's Pantosia's turn. He was doing Uber Eats before the title fight, trying to get to a place where his camp was paid for, where everything was paid for, and he could put food on the table for people, and now he's the champion. It's a really cool story for Pantosha. I like him in this fight. It's just we always have that 20 % bump for the title holder. Right now, Pantoja was good enough to beat Moreno, and I think he's going to be good enough to handily beat Royval. I think he beat him with a... I think it was a rear naked choke last time, if I.

Remember correctly. Yeah, he submitted them.

Submitted him with a rear naked choke. I could see that in the future. I might put a little something similar than on with draftkings for.

A-dude, yeah, submission, Pantoja, I think that's the way to go. I think if you really want to get specific third or fourth round, but I'm pretty comfortable that we're going to see a rear naked choke from Pantoja. I mean, he's just a better fighter. He's just a better grappler. He's got a good chin. I think Royval might be the tallest fighter at Flyweight at 5'9, which that's huge for Flyweight. It's crazy, right? It doesn't pack much power. His thing is grappling, and he's fighting probably the best grappler in the division. If Brandon Moreno couldn't out-strike him or knock him out, I don't think Royval will. In the grappling department, Pantoja should have a clear edge in this one. But Pantoja submission is a.

Good bet. I like that. Let's move on to Walterweight, Shavcat, Rachmanino versus Wonderboy, Stephen Thompson. This is an interesting fight too, because Stephen Thompson, Wonderboy, he has a great chin, obviously an electric fighter, great kickboxer, but Shavcott is just an animal. Dude is like a cyborg. He's like the Terminator. He just walks in. He doesn't care if he's getting punched in the face. He's putting his nose into the bud saw and just looking for that submission and looking for that knockout. He's in 17-0 for people that don't know. 17-0 from Kazakhstan. The guy's amazing.

Yeah. Undefeated, wears dead skins of animals as hats, eats horse meat. This guy is the real deal. He's the real deal. And he's fighting a former title challanger in Stephen Wonderboy, Thompson, a clean-cut point fighter. This is contrasting styles. Just a fantastic fight, wherever you look at it. For both guys, rare times you get in matchmaking where a match of favor is both fighters. Usually is somebody's getting the short end of the stick, right? And maybe we'll talk about that in a few minutes. But in this one, for Steven Wonderboy, Thompson, he's lost to Bilal Muhammad. He's lost to Gilbert Burns. And all those guys have wrestled him into defeat. But if you want to pick the biggest, most legitimate win while still being friendly to your style, which is striker, is Shafqad. He's the baddest dude in the division that will stand and trade with you. So for both fighters, a fantastic fight and maybe a title eliminating, I would like to think that Bilal is next, but the U-of-C hasn't done him a ton of favors. I think the winner here will definitely get a big spotlight in the division.

Isn't that interesting? That it was first the guy who the U-of-C was downplaying with Leon, didn't give him every opportunity to be the best, and then he finally got his shot against Camar Huston, who had what? Eight title defenses? I'm like, something crazy, right? He had seven or eight title defenses?

Yeah. He was pound-for-pound.

Number one. He was pound-for-pound number one, lands the headkick. All of a sudden, now everybody loves Leon Edwards. It's Rocky. Let's go. They're putting videos up with the coach. The USC didn't want this to happen. It almost feels like the same things happened for Bilal Muhammad, who I saw in Jersey beat Gilbert Burns. I was like, Dude, Bilal looks incredible. Like leg-kicking the shit out of Gilbert Burns. He looked excellent as a fighter, and we're still waiting for that title, Conlethy Fight, but right now it's just in the works. But if Shavcott beats Wonderboy, it almost feels like Shavcott is getting the quick, easy pass, sunpass lane straight to the next title fight, right?

We'll see, man. We'll see. I think the U. S. Likes Shavcott a lot. I think they would want to push him. That's also a guy that, for the most part, this is an American sport, right? The U. S. Is an American company, so everybody always tells fighters, learn English, learn English. But there's these rarities like Pau-Hatan like Shafqot that can pull it off just looking mean and that's it. You just stand there, look mean, fight your ass off, and we love you. That's Shafqat, man. I think the U. F. C. Would love to have him as champion and throw him up there. But I think the hardcore, which is a big portion that the U. F. C. Very much respects, I think they would lose their shit if Bal Muhammad doesn't get the next title shot because he's done it all, man. He's done it all. At this point, he can't do anything else but fight the champion. For sporting sake, I do hope that Bilal is next.

Shavcott versus Bilal for eliminating.

Oh, man. Again, a fantastic fight. I wouldn't complain about it, but at this point, I do think that Bilal is deserved of a shot. Giving him another fight, especially a guy that he sports-Is a slap in the face. -courts me at this point, it's criminal. I wouldn't do that too.

Moving on to the last fight of the night because the Walter wait fight between Viscente, Luque, and Ian, Machado, Gary, has been scrapped due to Ian, Gary, having pneumonia, which is... Danny, I don't know about you, but I don't think pneumonia happens from one day to the next. I think there's been a buildup of pneumonia where you know you have it for a week or maybe two. All of a sudden, for this to come out on... We're typing this on Thursday morning, which the news broke, Ariel broke the news, what, a couple of hours ago? Wednesday night. Wednesday night. We're talking about less than 12 hours ago, the news broke that Ian, Machado, Gary had pneumonia, and now he's out. That fight is scrapped. But the fight that I want to talk about that I feel is going to be... We're going to be on separate sides of it, you and I.

Okay.

Tony Ferguson and Kukui versus a fighter that the USC is trying to make happen in Patty Pimlet. Your thoughts, Tony Ferguson, do or die right now against Patty the batty Pimlet.

Dude, I'm going with Patty the batty. Tony Ferguson is on a sixth fight, losing streak. But I will say this, though. A lot of people think that this is how we say in Spanish, like. Taking him to the outhouse to get killed for a younger, much hungrier lion. But I don't see it that way. I think this might be the easiest opponent Tony Ferguson has ever faced in his entire career of the USC. Maybe there's a couple of names that you can throw in there. But if you look at his entire resume, Patty Pimblet is the easiest fight, and that's what he should be fighting at this point of his career. Almost 40 years of age, 39, six-fight losing streak. I don't want to fight against Michael Chanler or just engage you. No, give him somebody like Patty Pemblet. Contrary to many people, I do believe this is a competitive fight, a very winnable fight for Tony Ferguson. But if I had to pick somebody, I'm going to go with Patty the batty.

Danny, you're missing the point, though.

You're missing-By the way, my-I missed it. -my soul died a little bit making that pick, just letting you know. Thank you. Please don't make me say that name again.

Thank you. Because what you're missing and what the people need to hear is that Tony Ferguson looked good against Bobby Green. Had that eye poke. He had that eye-poke, he had that eye-poke, things went south, but he looked good against... If he dropped Bobby Green, if I remember correctly, right? In that.

First round? I think he might have stumbled him.

I think he might have dropped him and stumbled at least maybe put him to a knee. I'd have to rewatch the film. But the difference is this. Tony, Ferguson, and Kukui has been working with the one and only David Goggins. David Goggins is going to be in the corner. Can you imagine if Patty lands a shot on Tony, they go back to the corner and you have David Goggins in your face telling you who's going to carry the boats?

Who's going to carry the boats?

Oh, my God. I just want a camera addressed on that corner. On the corner. I would love to see it. I would love to see it. No disrespect to Patty, but Tony Ferguson has been one of my favorite fighters for years, even though he's sent me to hell in a media day and told me to eat shit basically. But I love Tony Ferguson. He is a badass. And look, all respect to him, I would love to see him pick up a vintage win, whether it's an elbow or a dars.

-can you imagine?

-called a quins, ride off into the sunset with David Goggins and become an influencer, fitness, mental fortitude guru in the MMA sphere. I would love for Ferguson to go down that path.

He's plus two-forty on DraftKings, right? I might throw a little something-something on a Tony Ferguson win because of the fact of there's too many things going right. Goggins in the corner. Who's going to carry the boats? He went through. -goggins. -goggins. That's what I'm giving Tony first. -goggins, right? -it is, Goggins in the corner. If you get stunned, all of a sudden, you look in that corner and David Goggins is telling you, Let's go. Carry the boats. Dude, I'm locked in.

If he gets knocked out or loses, he knows he's going to have to run two or three laps around the world. You better pick up a dub, you know what.

I'm saying? Exactly. Again, that's it. 296 stack. We're not going to get to the prelims, early prelims. A lot of bangers on there. Josh Emmett versus... Konya, who is it? Bryce Smith. Bryce Smith, Thug Nasty. Giga Cicate out, Bryce Mitchell in. That fight is going to be excellent. Do or die for Josh Emmett, too, I think at this point.

No, I think he's done. He stays in the USC, obviously, but I don't see him getting a title shot.

And he looked good, man. He looked so good and then ran into two buzzsaws. Do or die for Cody Garbrandt. Yeah, Cody Garber. All right, also, I might throw a little something something on... Boom, on Boom on Brian Kellerner.

Yeah, that's not about that. That Cody Garbrandt chance is not it. If I had to put a parlay out there, shots out to draft Kings, Pentogia and Leon.

Pantoja, Leon. Yeah, that's a great part of it. I might go Leon, Kolby, over on rounds too.

Yeah, 100 %. Depending on what the round is. But yeah, that goes to a decision, I think.

He's Danny Seguire from MMA Junky, brother. Thank you so much, as always, for hanging out with us and previewing yet another card. We'll be back next year with some interesting stuff, you and I. So stay tuned.