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LifeLock will remove that too. Save up to 30% your first year at lifelock.com/slash podcast. Terms apply. Welcome to the jungle, Alvie. Happy hump day.
In fact, a happy hump day to all of you and not just Dalvi. But primarily Alvik. What's going on? Welcome to the show. Big time Wednesday program for you.
Lots to get done. The show, as always, is brought to you by FanDuel. My thanks to our pals at FanDuel for making this possible. Big, big day. We have got some football.
NFL, in fact. All right, so let me lay it out for you. If you want to take part in the program, go ahead and hit us up. Remember, Wednesday is our big day because we have, well, not only the opportunity to hump, Alvie. We have our podcast, episode number 425 of the Jim Rome podcast coming up later on.
I will tell you about that. But first things first, here's your phone number. Go ahead and use it: 1-800-636-8686. Hit me up on the X at Jim Rome. Email me at Rome, R-O-M-Havatake.com.
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In fact, I already know you will. You have your own show there, chat. Do what you do, chat. All right, coming up later on, 12:40, or in about 40 minutes from right now, I've got the president of the UFC, Daniel White. Big time fight coming up.
We talked to Ryan Garcia yesterday. He's a part of that big time fight. And we've got some UFC action to talk about, too, as always with Dana White, 1240. Coming up at 140, the head football coach in Colorado State, Jim Moore Jr. They beat Wyoming.
Really nice win and That stadium was electric in his opener. Jim Moore Jr. joining me at 1:40. I've got the ATP coming up a little bit later on. And once again, I do have a podcast that we are going to lay down and push out after the program, which I think you'll like.
All right, all of that coming up.
So just jump up in here. Let me start right here. I want to Welcome All of you to a brand new NFL season from the epicenter of the NFL, Southern California. Yeah, I said it because it is true. This year, the NFL revolves around SoCal.
The Super Bowl is right up the road once again, and the overwhelming Super Bowl favorites play right up the road once again. Hell, even the Bolts have good reason to believe that this could be their year, a special year. And in fact, it better be, right?
However, you all know that despite being a lifetime SoCal and a SoCal native, I do not root. I'm not rooting for the Rams. I'm not rooting for the Bolts. I'm not rooting for anybody other than team content. Which is why I am just relieved that we made it through the dog days to opening night.
I am relieved to finally get to an actual Pro Football game that counts. But of course As relieved as I am, nobody on earth. Is any more relieved to make it to a football game that counts than Mike Vrabel? Congrats, bro. You did it!
You survived the offseason from hell. Vrabel has officially survived the smut. Faucet Deluge. In all the awkwardness, in all the uncomfortable conversations, and being followed around by paparazzi, and having his entire life upended. And now he finally gets to try to do the only thing that's going to get anybody to actually move on Win some football games.
First though One more Diana Rossini headline.
Sorry, Mike, but you had to know that was coming, right? Because of course, the New York Post was ready to fire off an article first thing this morning about how Diana is not only planning immediate comeback. but will tell her side of the story. upon taking her next job. Whatever that means, exactly.
Doesn't matter, who cares? We have real football today.
Now I guess for those of you who are hooked on the smut faucet. You know, looking up at that thing with your mouth open. And desperate for more, there might be more coming. And congrats to you, Degenerates, for that. But for the rest of us who are ready to move on, hopefully tonight is the beginning of moving on.
Judging by a column that ESPN dropped earlier this week, the Patriots have in fact already moved on. Here was the story from Monday, If You Missed It, ESPN's deep dive into, quote, how the Patriots and Mike Frabel survived a wild offseason that tested one of the NFL's dirtiest words Distraction. End of quote. Oh, the D word. Oh, that's the dirty word we're talking about here.
I thought the dirty word was affair. Or adultery. as in adultery alarm. I Or if we're talking dirty words, plural, how about couples retreat. Private, pregnant, boat ride.
Private. I mean, all of these words are dirtier and filthier than distraction. Very cool. Is distraction one of those words on the Rome TV channel I'm not allowed to say? But alright fine, let's just go with that.
Distraction. boat that's sinking Damn Rome. Rome, there's kids in the car. Can you stop going with those D-bombs? Distraction.
First it was the meat whistle and now it's distraction. Because I'm not going to deny. That this story has been a massive distraction for the Patriots. I mean, of course, it was. Of course it has been.
Of course it is. Mike Vrabel is not going to deny that either. In fact, he came, come to find out, that's what he apologized to the team for when he finally did address his players about the Rossini situation. Come to find out, again, via that ESPN article, that when Vrabel addressed the team on the biggest topic of the offseason, he pretty much apologized for creating a distraction. End quote he said.
Shared no details about his relationship with Rossini, nor did he explain what he had done to cause the distraction, he acknowledged. According to five people in the room. Pretty specific number. Five people. Not two, not three, not four, but five.
So it sounds like there was no shortage of people in the most awkward room who couldn't wait to tell ESPN what happened in the most awkward room ever. But I don't really know what he was supposed to say at that point, right? I don't think anybody on his team was expecting any specifics or any deets about how those two wound up on a boat together or why they met up at that New York City bar or when the relationship started or why they thought they could be so sloppy and open with it. One anonymous Patriots player summed it up to ESPN this way quote It's difficult to explain to people outside the building how he approached it and how players took it. Of course, players care about what happened.
Vrabel is a great leader.
Sometimes you have to mess up to become an even better leader. Oh. I guess sometimes you have to run around with a national reporter for five years in order to become a better leader. I guess we're about to find out if this whole ordeal makes the team closer or gives them even more buy-in. Makes him even more motivated.
and inspired than they were last season when they made that run to the Super Bowl. Obviously, this will all be judged on whether or not they win. As I've been saying for months, the easiest way forward for Vrabel, the easiest way to turn the page is just to win some games. The problem for Vrabel tonight is the same problem he faced back in February, the Seahawks. They're pretty damn good.
In fact, Where we left off with Seattle, that team was a freaking buzzsaw.
Now, it's not exactly the same team that we're going to see tonight. In fact, there have been some pretty significant changes. We all know their offensive play caller, Clint Kubiak, is now the head coach of the Raiders. We all know that Seattle Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III is now in the Chiefs. We all know that Zach Charbonnet is still not back from the ACL injury.
The Seahawks are going to roll tonight with their first round rookie as an RB one.
So there's plenty of unknown on that side of the ball, for instance. I think defensively, they'll be dominant once again. Offensively, there's going to be some question marks.
However, Dude, do you know Michael McDonald? Do you know about Ronald? Do you know about do you know about Michael McDonald? Dino. If you know about this guy, you know that he will have them ready to play.
If you know Michael McDonald, you know that Seahawks have got a whole new vibe and a whole new plan this season. Do you know Michael McDonald? Do you know about Ronald McDonald? Do you know about Michael McDonald? Do you know about Ronald McDonald?
If you do, you know that they will be formidable once again this year. Yep, yep, yep. Yep, yep, yep. Do do you know about Cheryl Teagues? Do you know about Ronald McCauley?
Do you know about vodka? Do you know about Ronald McDonald? Do you know about gin? Yep, yep, yep. Look, I'm sure things feel very different in Seattle.
With the whole new owner as well. Let's just hope that the new owners' first game tonight goes a little bit better than the owners' first press conference, when he made headlines for telling everybody in Seattle how much he really loves The Steelers? I also happened to come to this country in 1976 when the Steelers were winning the Super Bowl.
So actually, I was originally and still am a big Steelers fan. Also, a little known fact, but I still watch all the Steelers games too.
Okay. My dude. That's a fact, not a fun fact. But a fact. My guy.
I mean, you and I have something in common. And not that we're both rich. Or that we own NFL teams, but same year, that's how I became a Steeler fan, 1976. Actually, that's not true. I became a Stewart fan in 72 with the immaculate reception.
Anyway, anyway, I wonder if that dude was just like me in the regard that he went to a mall and he bought a Terry Bradshaw painting to hang in his room. I had my parents do that for a birthday present. I wouldn't blame him. I mean back then the Steelers were cool as hell. Although it is pretty funny that he showed up in Seattle as the new Seahawks owner, fresh off a triumphant Seahawks Super Bowl win, and then he was like, Hey, Seattle.
Yeah. Lifelong Stealer diehard here. We got a deal. That's who I found out about when I first came to this country. And by the way, I'm still a diehard fan.
I mean, yeah, I bought your team, but man, I love them. We got a deal. Big Steelers fan. Go Hawks. Go Hawks.
Anyway, 12s, don't worry. Go Hawks. Your brand new owner is obviously all in on getting his dub tonight. He just paid $9.6 bill for that team. I'm pretty sure he wants to win in his debut at home on opening night.
Morning. Why a dude that smart and that rich who just bought your team would spend even a second? Talking in his opening presser about how much he likes another team, I have no idea. I don't remember Rams owner Stan Cronke buying the Rams and saying, This is an incredibly proud day for myself and my family, but man. Did I ever like the Niners when I was a kid?
In fact, I still do. Never miss any of their games. I mean, if they're playing at the same time the Rams are playing, ooh, that's a tough call. Lucky for this dude though. You do you know Michael McDonald?
If you know Michael McDonald, you know he's gonna have his dudes ready tonight. And if Rabel wants to start to put a scandal behind him, he will have the patch ready tonight. And you better believe I am ready tonight. I am ready for some ball.
So much so that I'll just say it for the record: I am laying the points, I am taking the defending champs. I'll take him at home. You know why? Go hog. I know Michael McDonald.
Do you know about Ronald McDonald? I think Michael McDonald, I do know about him. I think he's Alva Coach. Hey, he's got a great voice. He can really build it out.
He's the king of Yahrok. Yep, yep, yep. He's probably sold some in records. He has a yard. He's the captain and the owner.
I can't carry this on much longer. I said I Kermit. All right, so we have that. We have football. That's the most important thing.
We have football, we have pro ball. And then we have whatever the hell it is that's going on in the NCAA still, the SEC. Hey, by the way, credits LSU, they backed the hell down. I guess the SEC didn't really get the memo. The SEC is finally Dialing it back a little bit.
But long after OSU made it clear that you know what? Not worth it. You know, kind of like I said last week. when my guy T-Bot Babier called me a son of a bitch on X. They agreed with me though.
It's just not worth it. It's not worth it. It's all worth it.
Somebody should tell the SEC that. Oh, the NCAA has weighed in. The NCAA has weighed in on the whole two clocks thing. Saying this is actually only one clock. Oh.
You don't say. Thank you for that, NCAA. We've been waiting for you to weigh in, NCAA. Signed, nobody ever. Does anybody give a damn what the NCAA says about anything anymore?
I know the Big Ten doesn't, because you know they still have their little private clock for when they're going to need it. You know what I want to talk about today actually, believe it or not? Tennis. And not in a gratuitous way, but tennis. Like, there's some amazing things happening at the US Open, and I love the event.
I've always loved the event. I love the sport. There's some incredible things going on. It's just too bad they're taking place at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Somebody help me understand what that's all about. Like, hey, New York. I understand I mean I've never really understood But I understand that you start games like at nine o'clock at night. None of us here on the West Coast could ever really understand that, but I understand that that's ingrained in you. That's how you were brought up.
That's how you were raised up. You're used to football games starting at nine o'clock at night. But why do tennis matches have to start at eleven o'clock at night? when you know they might go five hours.
So, the best the sport has to offer is taking place in the middle of the damn night. Even New York won't stay up until three o'clock to watch a tennis match. Not really understanding that too well.
So thoughts on Mike Tomlin. I saw a rather uplifting and heartwarming video Of my guide Zellante West. Hope that's accurate. Hope that's right. There's so many things going on.
Like you read, you see something on the internet. If it seems good, then it's too good to be true. You see something really horrible like the robots were gonna kill us all before the end of the decade. Oh yeah, that just dropped. Damn, we better start living.
We better start getting to living if we only have until the end of the decade, allegedly. How do we go from the robot?
Now, you know what? I'm gonna stick to the robot Olympics and that one robot that ran into the wall and fell back on his back and sparked out. Yeah, I'm going to believe that that's going to give me a few more years than the quote end of the decade. But obviously Scary stuff. Neither here nor there.
Dana White coming up at 40 past. Jim Moore Jr. coming up at 140. ATP a little bit later on. Jim Rum Podcast, episode number 425 with John Talty.
He's got a brand new book out on Lane Kiffin. That's coming up after the program.
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All right, some quick reaction. Dana White coming up in about 15 minutes. Romey, I hope the Seahawks shred the Patriots tonight for two reasons. First, I just like The rest of the country I can't stand the Patriots. And second, So that we can keep the Vrabel Rossini scandal topic as a talking point for as long as possible.
Doug in the Bay. I think they're all trying to move beyond it. I know that some of you want that smut faucet back on. But believe me, if there was anything else new or anything else that we didn't know about, somebody would have found it. Because a lot of you have nothing better to do than to spend all day looking for it.
So I think they've found everything there is to find. Unless she were to come forward and tell, quote, her side of the story, and that part of the story has something that we haven't heard before. I don't know. I think essentially her strategy is Stop asking. I'm not saying anything.
Obviously. I'm not saying anything. I'm not coming forward. When I accept my next opportunity, they will get it first. Which makes sense.
She's not giving it away. But But If Mike Vrabel wants to move beyond it, the best way to move beyond it is to have the games start to begin or to start playing the games and to win those games. A good way to start to put this behind you is by getting revenge and beating the team that knocked you the hell out in the Super Bowl. That'd be a great first start. If they get hammered again, not a great first start.
Galen Valencia is in early. Any bets on Diana talking junk about her husband when she tells, quote, her side. I would guess not. I would say probably not. Oh, look at Gail.
Gail going with the normal chat and then chasing it with a super chat. Gail ain't playin'. Romy Under the lights, baby, I stayed up. Thank you. Forta Ing Tennis.
War Big Ben. Damn, Gail, did you? But then again. I'd be even more impressed if you were in New York and not Santa Barbara. I mean, that's middle of the night stuff there in New York.
Three thirty That match wrapped. I'm not saying that it wasn't worth it if you could, in fact, stay up, but who can stay up? But then again, it is New York, right? The bars are up until 4. Stucknot, quote, five people in the room Double it.
Double it. Regards chase two. Double it. That's good. That's good.
Double it. What the guy? Double it. With guys. With a guy.
Sean in Aliso Viejo. has his wife Cut Off part of his manhood, yet. I mean, that was apparently an option, according to Vrabel himself. Would you cut your call for a Super Bowl? Been married 20 years?
Yeah, probably. You've got three. as a player. You guys will be married for 20 years one day. If you came home, would she be upset?
She'd probably be on board. She would be like, Do you want me to do it? You wanna do it now? Couple of thoughts. Number one, since he did not win.
in February. I'm gonna guess that his unit is still intact. And number two, you gotta admit. It was one of the great exchanges ever, but not as funny now. I mean still kinda funny.
But not as funny now. More dark than funny now. Eric on the South Side. The NBA finals on tape. The NBA finals on tape delay thinks that the U.S.
Open is whack. Yeah, but that that's different. Like back then, nobody gave a damn about the association. Back then, you had a bunch of guys. There we're just all strung out on blow.
There was a reason why they tape delayed the NBA Finals at 11:30 p.m. They're not tape-delaying the U.S. Open, they're playing it live. But they're playing it in the middle of the night. And I'm trying to find somebody.
I think I need my dude, Pat McEnroe. To explain this to me, why are they starting matches of that magnitude that late? Like I can imagine maybe Early in the tournament, when you've got the early rounds or even some qualifiers. And they're Randos, they're unranked, they're on side courts, they're getting bad start times. I mean, I get all that, but why are we talking about the quarterfinals?
And some big name, big time players playing some incredible matches. In the middle of the night.
Now, granted, if you have a five-set match that goes to a tie break in the fifth set, it's gonna be a long match. All the more reason not to start it at eleven o'clock at night. If you think that a match might go four or five hours, maybe you don't start it. When we're all going to bed. At hospital balls.
It's actually Rams gym day. It's actually not. This is my whole point. How many times do I have to go over this? I'm not Ram Jim, I'm not Dodger Jim.
I don't have a favorite team. I don't have a favorite player. My favorite team is Team Content. I want to say it for the last freaking time. I don't care who wins or loses.
Ever I don't root for anybody. Any individual, any team, any program, I don't care. All I care about is that when I roll in here every single morning, I've got a way to give you three hours of good content. I'm only rooting for something to talk about. I don't care if the Rams win or lose.
It's 100% gospel, it is the truth. I don't care. Haven't since I was, I don't know. 12, 14, I can tell you exactly the minute I really stopped caring, the second I got my first paycheck. Because we're paid not to root.
But I come from a very different time. Craig D. Randall. Listening on the radio and commenting at a stoplight is Peak 26 clone. Wow, bro.
The power of the shot. That is peak 26. But then again, it is peak 26, and we all may only have until 30.
So you better get it in. That is peak twenty-six. This guy's just blowing up chat at a stoplight. Careful, my dude. Hey Craig, I'm not sure what state you're in.
They'll get you here, you know that. Aaron O sixteen. Ooh, Aaron. Aaron sent Twenty Jim Rome gift memberships. Aaron in chat is making memberships rain.
Damn, Aaron, thank you. You know what that means? 20 of you are gonna have that bitching little R. In about a month's time. And your members.
And your members. Oh, now you get the R right away. You get the R right away. I take that back. 20 of you, thanks to Aaron, are going to get that R right away.
Love it. This is at Ramlee Tie. Honestly. Never heard of Jim Rome. What?
That's incredible. I love that so much. Honestly, never heard of Jim Rome. Randomly was gifted a sub. I will be watching in the background, lol.
This community seems cool. I hope Jim has good football takes. What? Hey, Ramlee Ty. Brother, dude, I have incredible football takes.
In fact, I have great takes on everything. My dude, why do you think they've allowed me to do this for 35 years? I'm a take machine. Why do you think I'm in the Radio Hall of Fame? Because my takes.
Welcome to the family. Ramily At Ramley time. Hey Aaron, did you gift him That membership? Whoever gifted you that membership? Awesome.
Hey, Aaron, wait a recruit for me. Hey, Ramily, you got a jug? You got a jug band with that Ramilee? Family! Hey, answer me this, Rambly.
First of all, I'm not clowning you. I am so happy to meet you, but can you do this? Get it, Ramley! Hey, Ramley, have you got a washboard? Can you scrape?
You do that? Like BK? I know you got a couple spoons. All right, when we come back, no, dude, I got really good football takes. You'll be happier here.
And by the way, it was a gift. It was a present. It's free for you. Keep watching. Keep participating.
And now that you're in the chat, man, you'll be an addict. Anyone who enters the chat, Comes out addicted. Daniel White, when we come back. You're listening to the Jim Rome Show. Your information may be for sale online.
LifeLock finds and removes exposed info from data brokers that could put your identity and finances at risk. Nine email addresses, please. And if those sites put your information back online and a dozen phone numbers. Life Lock will remove that too. Save up to 30% your first year at lifelock.com/slash podcast.
terms apply. I'm not giving up. I am selling the building. The final season of FX is the Bear. Hey!
The restaurant is flooded. Everything's either gonna be okay... Nope! Or not. We are outgunned and we are outmanned, but we have each other.
FX is the Bear, the final season. All episodes now streaming on Disney Plus. That is true. We are live. We are on Westwood One.
We're also on Sirius XM. We're also on the Rome TV channel. We are also on YouTube with that feed. And with that said, we are joined right now by the UFC president, also the co-founder of Zoo for Boxing. Of course, I'm talking about Dana White.
Dana, my dude, huge weekend for you and the company. How are you doing, Dana? I'm awesome, man. I know you are. You're in the war room, man.
You're all about the business. What what's going on in the war room? How how's the life in the war room right now? It's been good. It's busy, you know.
Obviously, listen, I have three war rooms now. I have this war room, I have the boxing war room, and I have the power slap war room. We have three of them here at the headquarters, so and they're always busy. That's really funny. All right, I didn't know there were three war rooms, and now I do.
Listen, Dana, I had a great conversation with WBC welterweight champ Ryan Garcia on this show yesterday. He's going to take on Zufa fighter and top-ranked contender, Connor Benn, in the main event on Saturday. Look, lots to like about both these dudes. We'll get into it, but what kind of a fight are you expecting when they step between the ropes? Yeah, it's interesting.
You know, I'll tell you something. I'll give you a little inside information.
So, apparently, Crawford was down with Connor Ben for like a week and said, This guy is not a three-to-one underdog. God's makers are crazy, you know. I expect a great fight. You know, both guys are extremely confident. A lot of talk about Connor Benz's weight.
Honor Ben's been on weight for a few days now, so he seems in good spirits. He seems strong and healthy and. You know. Everything right now is lining up for this to be a badass fight. Dina White joining us.
You know he's not buying that. Ryan Garcia, who just keeps talking so much crap about Ben, about how he's an amateur, about how he doesn't belong in the same ring with him. Look, I understand he's got a fight to promote. And by the way, Garcia talks some of the best junk ever. You've been with these guys.
How much of this is promotion? And how much of this is, well, they don't like each other, actually.
Well, I think it's... Obviously, they don't like each other and they've been talking smack about each other for a long time, long before the fight was ever set up. But I also think that as you prepare for fight week mentally, you mentally start to talk yourself into this guy isn't as good as me. I know he's not. And, you know, it's all part of fight prep.
All right, how much of that is he's talking himself into that, hyping himself up? Then, how much of that is him trying to get in the other guy's head and under his skin? And is it working? That too. And that's what we'll find out when the fight starts.
I mean, there's nobody that was better than that than Muhammad Ali, Conor McGregor. I mean, if you look at the all-time. Great trash talkers. It definitely is part of the gamesmanship and it definitely works. On certain fighters.
Oh, mental warfare. Conor McGregor, man, when he was at the peak of his powers, nobody was better, signed Jose Aldo, who ran right into a, well, he got clocked. He ran right into him.
So we're talking to Dana White. Dan, I spoke to Garcia, and when I did, for those who know boxing, they know this, but we're talking about a dude, a really charismatic dude, great fighter, obviously he's got a great rap. If he were to win that fight and to win it in spectacular fashion, is he your new face of boxing? Yeah, I think he definitely can be. One of the things that we always point out is for a boxer, how many social media followers this kid has, and young kids like him.
Young kids like him. My kids never really grew up watching boxing, you know, obviously. And I remember my son was going to school down at USD, and I was talking to him one night, and he's like, I was like, what are you guys up to? And he's like, we're all at my house. We bought the pay-per-view.
We're watching the Ryan Garcia fight. Like my kids were into him when they were in college.
So Ryan has a big following, a young following, much younger than any of the other boxers in the business. All right, so all the more reasoning for should he win. That's important. When you talk about social media following, I checked it out this morning, Deanna. This dude's got 13 million followers on Instagram alone.
Yeah. Yeah. No, he he uh he has a really big following wi with uh with the younger demo, which you don't see in boxing. No, you don't.
So what about Ben? You mentioned Ben and talk about his weight.
So has he made the cut? And what do you like best about Ben? There's a lot of things that I like about Connor Bennet. First of all, In all sports, in anything I've ever done, one of the most professional guys that I have ever worked with. This guy is such.
A pleasure to work with. It's unbelievable. He's a real pro. And then, you know, like I said, Crawford was down in his camp. Crawford is very high on Connor Benn.
And this is a massive fight for him, not just financially, but where he sits in the you know And the pecking order in the boxing world, and obviously lives in a big shadow, you know, his father, Nigel Benz.
So this fight means a lot to this kid. Dude, his father was a great fighter. All right, so obviously a high stakes for both these fighters. How do you see it ending? Does this fight go the distance, or does this fight end with somebody on their back?
That's a great question. I don't know. I mean, listen, I've promoted a lot of fights where there's trash talk and they hate each other. Those fights those fights sometimes suck worse than two guys who really like each other. But We'll see how this plays out.
Like you said, there's a lot at stake. Obviously, stylistically, both guys have a lot of power. Ben is a kid who just keeps coming forward. He's like a bulldog. And You know, Ryan has the power to stop this fight.
At any time. Yeah, I mean, two points. Number one, to your point, hate does not always make for a great fight. And number two, Garcia's on record. He's flat out saying it.
I'm going to win in five. I'll win within five.
So that should be really interesting to see. UFC President Dana White joining us. Dana, what about UFC three thousand? Dan Rowan. The other thing that's great is.
UFC Noche is the same night. We roll right from Noche to that. No pay-per-view, no more papers. This isn't a pay-per-view. If you have Paramount Plus and you already have a subscription, it's free.
And if you don't have a subscription, it's like $12 or $15.
So you get both fights. Uh the same night, and one rolls right into the other. You don't have to start flipping around and all these Different channels. Incredible night on Saturday night for Combat Sports Film. Dan, I liked it so much better when I had to pay $75 per fight.
Then I could have paid $150 for this. Dan, are you going to be at both of those fights? I will. I'll be in Noche in Arizona, and then I'm flying straight from there to the boxing match in Vegas. Dude, how happy are you that Noche is in Arizona and not on the other side of the country?
I am thrilled. I did it last year, too, with the Crawford Canelo fight, but it was in Texas.
So I'm getting closer and closer. I like it. Smart. Dana White joining us. All right, so then UFC.
Now that we hit that, and that's key. UFC 331 next Saturday, September 19th, here in SoCal at the crypt. How do you see the main event? You've got the flatweight champ Joshua Van going against the former champ Alexandre Patriswa. And remember the last fight, for those who don't remember, Joshua won that belt in only 26 seconds when Alex suffered that freak shoulder injury.
What can we expect in this? Yeah, it's a crappy way to win, but he won. You know, nobody wants to win that way. Since then, he's defended the title. And now these two face off again.
I think that the fight that Van got under his belt.
Sort of gave him the confidence to say, you know what, I do belong here. I've actually defended this belt, and this should be a great fight.
So, Dana, that fight's here in SoCal, you've had fights almost everywhere, except for one locale that I know that you would love to have a fight, and it looks like it's going to happen. Is the UFC going to finally get to Hawaii?
Well, you know, they're building an arena there now.
Southern California and Hawaii were like hotbeds for mixed martial arts when we bought the UFC back in 2001. And Hawaii is like one of those. First of all, I love destinations, like great destinations. And there's no better destination than Hawaii. And to be able to do a massive fight there once they build that arena.
Um, yeah, I look forward to that. I mean, that's been the reason, right? They just haven't had the arena. It was the first event in there. Yeah, they just have not had the arena.
That's been the reason, right? Right, there's no infrastructure there. That you you know, th they they just tore down the old uh Football stadium, too, but it was outdoors. And, you know, I'm done with outdoors events. Unless we're in like.
Abu Dhabi again, where I could be the weatherman. We're not doing Abu Dhabi. Why was Freedom 250? Were you sweating the outdoor, the elements, and everything else?
Well, I mean, we did a documentary that came out on Fox Nation. This is. Literally, we're getting ready to get hit. We're getting hit, there's no doubt about it. The military Telling us we're getting hit with this storm.
So we're batting down the hatches. We're getting ready. Things are going to get broken in the storm. Everything's going to get wet. We got the whole team ready after the storm hits us and goes by.
The flyover isn't happening. The planes are already on their way back. Uh to the base. Literally, the storm comes to the White House. breaks in half and goes around the White House in the ellipse.
And we ran quick to do the walk-in, the flyover happens, and all that stuff. Yeah. Never again will I go outside. Never again. Yeah, but it went around.
You got right through it.
So to that point, yeah, to that point, let me ask you this. Ilya Tapuria made his first public post last week since losing to Justin Gaitchie. Have you been in contact with him? What's next for Tapuria? Yeah, our guys are always in touch with them and uh We are looking at we don't have him on the uh We don't have them on the schedule right now, but listen, Topori is ready to fight.
We're ready. We're ready for him. Dana, you know my next question, what's more likely? Running it back with Justin Gaiti or maybe a fight with Patty Pimlett? Yeah.
Both sound good to me. Which one sounds better? They're both great. We don't lose with either one of those fights. They're both great fights.
I don't know. Listen, anything I say on this show, there's going to be a hundred of these goofy. Instagram goes, Dana White just announced Patty Pimblet for you. You know what I mean? Bro, only a hundred?
Why can't there be a thousand of those goofballs? Why can't there be 500,000 of them? No, no, you're right. You're right, Dana. Dana, because you've been so good about feeding this show, you're right.
Those goofballs wait for you to come on this program and wait for me to ask that question so you can feed them.
Well, I don't really have the answer to that question. I mean, obviously, the rematch with Gage is incredible. Um And A Patty Pimblet fight is amazing. You know, as bad as those two hate each other. Dude, I love Patty.
I love Patty, man. I get such a kick out of this dude. I can't even tell you. Him walking around at 75 over what he fought three weeks after what he fought at is amazing. By the way, Dan, I got about right after that.
I ran into him at Philly in an Italian restaurant. And how'd he look? He looked like he was eating. He looked healthy. He looked healthy.
Did he get some slap snacks? Ah, I like it. Did you try them? I haven't gotten them yet, but I know you're going to send them to me. Send them to me, and I will.
All right. You're coming. All right, Dana. Appreciate you. Great, Dan.
Listen, have a great weekend. Make both those fights. Always good to have you on the show, Dana. Thanks so much. I appreciate you.
Thank you. All right, you too. Dana White joining us. He's like, every time I come on this show, you've got these goofballs that jump online. You already said.
That's why I keep trying to ask those questions. I try and sneak them in at the very end. Like, see if Dana's in the mood to kind of feed us something. All right, when we come back, my thanks to Dana White. Second hour is open with the exception of.
By the way, I love that fight. Love that fight this weekend. Ben and Garcia. Jim Mora Jr. is coming up next hour.
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