D (1:50)

Yeah, I was there.

C (1:51)

I was just like.

D (1:51)

I was right there. You'll get the note later.

B (1:54)

Yeah, no, I've already written it down. So. So you. Yo, I've got a ton for Roy today, so.

C (2:00)

Oh, come on, man.

B (2:01)

The UF see this weekend a couple of surprising results. But what's not surprising is that that sport is more prone to the gambling issues where Dana White had to this time, now that he's learned the lesson, had to pull a fight that had suspicious activity in it. And the reason I say this sport is more prone to gambling corruption, it's because it's not only an individual, as opposed to a team that you have to buy in order to contaminate the. But it's an individual in a sport that does not pay well. And so the athletes are more vulnerable to this kind of thing because Dana White famously Does not pay these people well. And so your thoughts were what? Tony, you covered this weekend from Dead Flamingo. You covered a couple of surprises this weekend in the sport. There were a handful of upsets, betting upsets. But I am unsurprised to see that Dana White's got a problem on his hands when it comes to suspicious gambling results. Because of that combination I'm telling you about, you can get a vulnerable individual. You don't have to buy a team. College basketball. It can be pretty easy to infiltrate college sports in general before recently, now that we're actually paying athletes. Well, I think UFC more susceptible than tennis or anything else because of how poorly they pay.

D (3:28)

The months ago we told you to keep an eye on college basketball. There've been like, four, five things that have happened since then. The early odds in college basketball, a toxic wasteland of that kind of stuff. But continue with the ufc.

C (3:40)

So, Dan, we. We'll start. We'll start with the fight that got pulled. Yeah. There was increasing pressure from sportsbooks and the gambling agencies that told the ufc, hey, something's going on here as far as the spread is concerned. So did Dana learn from the last time pulled the. Pulled the fight from the card? And you know that that's part of, like, what you said. When you're not paid, when you're seen as a professional athlete and not paid like a professional athlete, not unionized like a professional athlete, you have more incentive to maybe do things to get more scratch when, you know, maybe if you're on a. If you're on a 25 show, 25 win where you're gonna make 50 grand. Yeah, but if I can make a hundred doing something illegal but nobody knows about it, like, it's. It's more incentive for that. So, yeah, Dana did the right thing. That's gonna happen. I mean, I feel like that's the only thing you could do is pull, because if not, you might get somebody killed.

B (4:29)

No, he learned the lesson. He learned the lesson from the last time. He's going to pull those fights every time now that he gets a call about suspicious. You have to learn this stuff as we go because it's still a relatively new sport. And the normalization of gambling is something that is also new.

A (4:46)

I saw they're giving out a lot more money for bonuses.

C (4:49)

So bonuses are up, or is that.

A (4:51)

Like some phony baloney?

C (4:52)

No, no, no. Absolutely.

B (4:53)

Bonuses, in part because of this, I would say. I mean, it's been a complaint for a long time. They are more bonuses, but.

C (4:58)

And the $7.7 billion that they made from the Paramount deal, which is also nice. But from 50k up to 100k, fight of the night bonus. And if you finish somebody without getting the fight of the night bonus, you make 25k also. So, like, that's an, you know, a little bit more of an incentive there. But we'll go with the biggest ups of the night, which is Justin Gaethje beating Patty Pimblett. Patty Pimblett, a super huge fan favorite. People were wearing the wigs, they do the dance. He's a very personality driven.

A (5:23)

He never lost in ufc.

C (5:24)

Hadn't lost in the ufc. Have been fighting a couple old guys in tomato cans on the way up. This is his true first test when it came to fighting somebody that has championship caliber. Like, we've seen Justin Gaethje wear the interim golden lightweight division before. But Justin, at 37, 38 years old, absolutely battered and beat down Patty Pimblett. But again, Scousers don't get knocked out. Dan. There was a couple times where Justin had him dead to rights with elbows, with hammers, with fists, and Patty just.

B (5:51)

Kept more of a chin than I thought. Went immediately to the hospital afterward. And Gaethje's like, don't. No, I've been in a ton of these. I don't need to go to the.

D (5:58)

I'm good.

A (5:59)

Dan, did you see during the weigh ins the day before this guy Smotherman, where he weighed in and you know, they cut weight and they're. They're crazy the way that they do this. It can't be healthy. And did you see this where he. Where he. He passed out. But the part that really stands out is the commentators who are talking over it, specifically Michael Bisping. Watch this. Give us a listen.

B (6:23)

There's a dog, but he's been on the wrong side of a couple of decisions. 35 and a half for Cameron.

D (6:28)

Oh, no.

B (6:29)

Oh.

C (6:30)

Oh, no. Oh, my God.

B (6:32)

Oh, gosh.

C (6:33)

What happened?

B (6:35)

Oh, that's not good.

A (6:36)

Okay, right before that, I'm sorry. I should have set it up better. Maybe right before that, Michael Bisping literally says, because they see that he looks like, not, well, frail. And Michael Bisping is saying, I don't feel bad for any of these guys. You only have one job. That's to cut weight. And then dude face plants for the audio audience.

B (6:55)

What you just saw is a guy during the portion of the telecast where you're doing the weigh ins. You're standing in front of people wearing only your shorts. You're shirtless. He looks a Bit sedated and not totally there. And then as he walks off the stage to just leave after making weight, literally falls right on his face because of how unhealthy it is to cut that amount of weight in a short period of time. If you're not familiar with how they do this, in terms of just like wrapping yourself in Saran Wrap and then jumping rope in a sauna while not.

A (7:31)

Drinking water for chewing ice and towels.

B (7:34)

No, but not even. Not even being able to chew ice because. Because you can't have. You're trying to lose water weight.

A (7:42)

Right. But apparently they chewed in the towels because apparently it tricks your brain into thinking that you're drinking water. So by chewing it through the ice, you're not actually getting any of the water.

C (7:52)

It's terrible. It's terrible. It's the worst thing in professional sports when it comes to any sort of training or any sort of getting ready for either a game, a match, whatever it is that you're gonna do. Nothing, nothing is worse than cutting weight. And a lot of these guys, Alex Pereira famously, who walks around at 235 pounds, would have to cut down a buck 85.

A (8:09)

But why do they do this? I mean, isn't it, like cheating? Because they all cut the weight and then they put like £25 on?

C (8:14)

Yeah, but it's about getting down to.

B (8:16)

The weight that you can be strong enough in the Octagon to fight at 205 or a higher weight, 20 pounds heavier is an advantage.

C (8:24)

Right.

D (8:24)

He's saying, why do they allow.

A (8:26)

Yeah, why shouldn't they be that way?

D (8:27)

They should be at that weight for the fight.

C (8:29)

That's more conversation of, like, there should be more weight classes so people don't have to drop as much. Right. Because Alex dropping from 235 now he's a, you know, 205 champ. From dropping from 235 to a buck 85, you're talking about 40 pounds, 50 pounds. It's like. It's a lot of weight.

B (8:43)

Zaslow's not wrong. Sort of wondering, ethically, why does the violent sport not do more things in order to have people be healthier? Crazy, unhealthy things, by the way, others for money.

C (8:55)

UFC 325, live from the dead Flamingo. Alex Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopez 2.

D (9:02)

What'd you think of the Paramount debut?

C (9:04)

I thought it was good. I thought it was. It was clean. Obviously, watching it from my perspective, like, doing the show, I didn't really notice as much of the commercials. People are Saying, there's a lot of ads, a lot of commercials. Dana White came out and said, hey, it's 19 bucks a month. Like you're gonna get commercials. They gotta get their money to complain about it is what it is. But from the perspective of the show itself, production was amazing. But that's a ufc.

B (9:25)

That's UFC producing, not Paramount. Paramount badly, badly needs young men. And that is why they got into that investment. It's all Murder, She Wrote and Matlock and a bunch.

C (9:36)

Now it's Taylor Sheridan shows. Dan, you got 19 Taylor Sheridan shows in UFC. They got me, baby.

B (9:40)

They have to get young men. Jeremy, update the polls, please, for us at LeBatard Show.

E (9:46)

First poll. Did you know Mike McDonald spelled his name with a lowercase D? 80.8% of the audience said no. Small D. Can you name five good football movies? 53% of the audience says no. If you were watching football for the first time yesterday, would you think that those four teams were playing the same sport? 79.7% of the audience says no.

C (10:15)

Ah, Dan. The NFL news. It never stops breaking. As of seven minutes ago, the Chargers have officially hired former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as their new OC capital.

E (10:22)

D. Is the program a good movie? 60.7% of the audience says yes. Does Jerry Maguire count as a football movie? 62.4% of the audience says yes. Is the original Longest Yard the best football movie ever? Dan? Unfortunately, 75.7% of the audience says no. Did you enjoy watching the Broncos Patriots game? 66.3% say no. Is Any Given Sunday a good movie? 63.1% of the audience says yes. Does propositioning a sex worker before the super bowl take you out of the running for the Walter Payton man of the Year Award? 74.2% of the audience says yes. If you want to be a champion, can you see your family? Do you think your family? 78.2% of the audience says no. And best movie, Friday Night Lights, Jerry Maguire. Remember the Titans? Or the Original longest yard? 50% of the audience says remember the Titans. And those are your polls.

B (11:24)

Hylaeus.