Ariel Helwani kicks off the show by recapping a huge combat sports weekend that included thrills from the Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis vs. Xander Zayas card (10:07), developments in the the Dana White and Eddie Hearn rivalry (33:03), and a fun UFC Baku Fight Night (45:13). Rafael Fiziev returns after a big win in Baku to talk about fighting again in his home country, getting back on the winning track, scoring his first knockout since 2022, being surprised by Justin Gaethje’s win over Ilia Topuria, not appearing in the new Meta rankings, and more (1:04:12). Anthony ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez joins to discuss his main event booking for UFC’s return to Sacramento, being excited about fighting close to home, lessons learned from his loss to Sean Strickland, recently training with Strickland, thoughts on the White House card, and more (1:31:14). Inside Boxing’s Dan Canobbio makes his show debut, breaking down the weekend’s action, touching on the fallout from ‘Boots’ vs. Zayas, a potential fight between ‘Boots’ and Vergil Ortiz, what’s next for Ben Whittaker, Turki Alalshikh trying to play peacemaker for Dana White and Eddie Hearn, the current state of Zuffa Boxing, Oleksandr Usyk vacating his titles, Canelo Alvarez vs. Christian Mbilli being postponed, and more (1:51:05). UFC strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern is our final guest of the day, discussing her upcoming title defense against Gillian Robertson, why the fight with Zhang Weili isn’t happening, her experience at the Golden Globes, not being able to fight on the White House card, Ronda Rousey’s comeback, playing in celebrity poker games, and more (2:3731). Ariel covers some news and notes, before answering Super Chats to close the show (3:05:26).

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related