Happy Tuesday! It’s that time of the week again. Hit me with your best questions below. As always, everything and anything goes. I’ll answer ‘em on Wednesday’s show. Again, try to keep them short and sweet, if possible. That increases your chances of having the question answered.
If you are able to please give me an incite in to how this works because I’ve been racking my brains since Saturdays PFL finale thinking about it.
It still baffels me that there was 5 fighters winning the million dollar checks on one PPV but also not forgetting the losers are obviously getting paid out handsomely for their troubles.
This for me seems like a incredible outlay of money and in comparison to a UFC PPV which will have: way more PPV buys globally at a higher price, a much higher gate revenue at the venue and they still will never rack up a wage bill that will get within a sniff of them numbers excluding a couple fighter ie Connor/John.
So really my question is how the hell is this a viable business model and surly Dana is correct when he says the PFL are bleeding money.
With Dustin calling for a big fight at UFC 300 it had me thinking. Should the UFC adopt a similar model to the PFL superfights division? The 1-15 system is great for 90% of the roster but for guys like Dustin, Chandler, Conor, and a few others it doesn’t really make much sense. Why not remove these guys from the rankings and allow them to be more selective with their opponents instead of being confounded within the ranking system.
How crushing was that Bills performance the other night, or this whole season for that matter? It can be so frustrating as a fan.. You know what isn't frustrating though? Witnessing magic like Taylor v Cameron or dreaming of rumored super fights like Eubank v Benn..
NYR, please explain to the doubters why Eubank v Benn will be even better/bigger than a potential Taylor v Serrano/Cameron rematch, Cyborg v Kayla, Wilder v Ngannou, and UFC 300 put together!
Lastly, I believe Tom Aspinall is in a perfect spot.. "Hey Tom, can you fight next month?" "No.." "Hey Tom, can you fight in (anywhere not UK)?" "No.." "Hey Tom, can you fight for (not a lot of money)?" "No.."
Surely they wouldn't strip him of the Interim Title and have two vacant belts at HW, right? Seems like he has all the leverage right now and could use a little time off.
Hear me out: I agree with Mike Kogan that mma tournaments across multiple divisions are hard to follow and stay invested in. But you know what wasn't hard to follow? The 1-day tournaments from the early days of the UFC! What if the PFL playoffs were 8-person tournaments, 1 day per weight class? The regular season would determine fighter's seeding, and fighters could name their seconds (maybe another fighter from their gym?) in case they get injured. What's your, and the crew's, interest level on a scale of 1 to 10?
Ariel, since your family was hosting thanksgiving, what was the shoe policy? My family went to my cousins and she sent out a text prior telling us we couldn’t wear shoes in her house due to floors being “redone” dicey dicey excuse if ask me
GC - set the scene for this weekends SEC championship. Whats being served, what’s being drank, how much are you betting?? Is MF invited?? And finally, what’s the prediction?
Hola Ariel! Might be recency bias, but the young bucks, Kenny omega, and Adam page not working together with cm punk after “brawl out” is the biggest missed opportunity in wrestling history. If Tony Khan is so worried about ratings, how does he not get them together to talk things over?!?? Do you agree or do you have any other missed opportunities you can think of?
Ariel - Saturday night, Survivor Series, it was over brand logo showed up, I clicked my phone off and went to sleep. I completely missed Punk's return and had to learn about it in the morning! What a terrible feeling....so this leads to my question for all of you...can you recall any time you looked away, tuned out, whatever....and missed a huge moment!? Thanks everyone Much appreciation for the show.
Hello Ariel! Can you explain how Mayweather-McGregor was made? My theory is that yes there was fan interest, but more importantly, the UFC was in a position where they needed money as this was a year after Endeavor bought the UFC and it was demanded by the heads of Endeavor. With all of this talk about a Jones-Ngannou co-promotion and why it won't happen, I think it's important to state the truth as to why.
I think it's been seen that if Endeavor or the higher ups at ESPN ask for something, Dana will acquiesce. It could also explain why Anderson Silva never got to box Roy Jones in the early 2010s.
Hey Ariel, I've been on a Stern binge lately, I see a lot of parallels between his show and yours with how you incorporate the crew into your show. my take is Ariel = Howard, Mysterious Frank = Scott the Engineer (always messing up audio), Ric = Gary (makes everything work and gets made fun of for no reason), GC = Robin (insane bestie who is only there for a laugh track). Curious if you have parallels for other staffers we don't hear from as often!
Heelwani! I’d love to hear you go in depth about wwe survivor series this past weekend. And your thoughts and excitement level with the huge returns of r truth, randy Orton and of course cm punk? I know you talked about it briefly but I’d love to hear more wrastlin talk
Ariel. In my opinion Volk’s post-fight admission that he took the Islam fight on the basis of suffering a mental health crisis is one of the biggest stories in recent MMA history. I know it’s a trite qualifier, but if this came out of the mouth one of the biggest stars in any other major sport it would be massive headline news that would initiate a firestorm of think pieces, dissections every which way, and possibly even lead to massive cultural shifts within that sport. Because it’s MMA however, it was at best viewed as sad but not a matter of particular importance, and at worst used by fans to embarrass Volk and say he was making excuses. With his fight booked for February we’re all back to business as usual, but do you think the ufc, Dana, hunter, his management, his coaches (the usually great Lopez and Bareman), his friends, the media, the fans ANYONE has at least a partial responsibility to really scrutinize what Volk said fighting back tears at that post fight presser. I love you, never stop never stopping.
I return with the same question as last week as Frank mysteriously left me at the chopping board. I thought it was a good question, but I’ll leave it up to you.
You spoke with Jake Paul about Netflix potentially getting into the boxing business. Is this a possibility for any of the PFL entities? How much of a game-changer could this be for PFL, or any promotion for that matter, with the sheer number of Netflix subscribers worldwide. I know of at least one growing promoter who might call it “disruptive.”
I know Halloween was a month ago and I'm a little late, but I forgot to tell you I had the honor to attend a Halloween party as the 13x MMA journalist of the year Ariel Helwani. How did I do?
What’s up guys.
If you are able to please give me an incite in to how this works because I’ve been racking my brains since Saturdays PFL finale thinking about it.
It still baffels me that there was 5 fighters winning the million dollar checks on one PPV but also not forgetting the losers are obviously getting paid out handsomely for their troubles.
This for me seems like a incredible outlay of money and in comparison to a UFC PPV which will have: way more PPV buys globally at a higher price, a much higher gate revenue at the venue and they still will never rack up a wage bill that will get within a sniff of them numbers excluding a couple fighter ie Connor/John.
So really my question is how the hell is this a viable business model and surly Dana is correct when he says the PFL are bleeding money.
Love
Hi everyone,
None of our business, and I hate to be the one to bring it up, but whats all this with Ian Garrys wife then?
Your fan from Norway,
Finn
Hi Ariel,
With Dustin calling for a big fight at UFC 300 it had me thinking. Should the UFC adopt a similar model to the PFL superfights division? The 1-15 system is great for 90% of the roster but for guys like Dustin, Chandler, Conor, and a few others it doesn’t really make much sense. Why not remove these guys from the rankings and allow them to be more selective with their opponents instead of being confounded within the ranking system.
Thanks!
Hi Ariel (& The Gang),
How crushing was that Bills performance the other night, or this whole season for that matter? It can be so frustrating as a fan.. You know what isn't frustrating though? Witnessing magic like Taylor v Cameron or dreaming of rumored super fights like Eubank v Benn..
NYR, please explain to the doubters why Eubank v Benn will be even better/bigger than a potential Taylor v Serrano/Cameron rematch, Cyborg v Kayla, Wilder v Ngannou, and UFC 300 put together!
Lastly, I believe Tom Aspinall is in a perfect spot.. "Hey Tom, can you fight next month?" "No.." "Hey Tom, can you fight in (anywhere not UK)?" "No.." "Hey Tom, can you fight for (not a lot of money)?" "No.."
Surely they wouldn't strip him of the Interim Title and have two vacant belts at HW, right? Seems like he has all the leverage right now and could use a little time off.
Have a good week, boys
Hi Ariel and crew,
Hear me out: I agree with Mike Kogan that mma tournaments across multiple divisions are hard to follow and stay invested in. But you know what wasn't hard to follow? The 1-day tournaments from the early days of the UFC! What if the PFL playoffs were 8-person tournaments, 1 day per weight class? The regular season would determine fighter's seeding, and fighters could name their seconds (maybe another fighter from their gym?) in case they get injured. What's your, and the crew's, interest level on a scale of 1 to 10?
Cheers to you and the crew!
Favorite segment of the week!!
2 questions:
Ariel, since your family was hosting thanksgiving, what was the shoe policy? My family went to my cousins and she sent out a text prior telling us we couldn’t wear shoes in her house due to floors being “redone” dicey dicey excuse if ask me
GC - set the scene for this weekends SEC championship. Whats being served, what’s being drank, how much are you betting?? Is MF invited?? And finally, what’s the prediction?
Hola Ariel! Might be recency bias, but the young bucks, Kenny omega, and Adam page not working together with cm punk after “brawl out” is the biggest missed opportunity in wrestling history. If Tony Khan is so worried about ratings, how does he not get them together to talk things over?!?? Do you agree or do you have any other missed opportunities you can think of?
Ariel - Saturday night, Survivor Series, it was over brand logo showed up, I clicked my phone off and went to sleep. I completely missed Punk's return and had to learn about it in the morning! What a terrible feeling....so this leads to my question for all of you...can you recall any time you looked away, tuned out, whatever....and missed a huge moment!? Thanks everyone Much appreciation for the show.
Hello Ariel! Can you explain how Mayweather-McGregor was made? My theory is that yes there was fan interest, but more importantly, the UFC was in a position where they needed money as this was a year after Endeavor bought the UFC and it was demanded by the heads of Endeavor. With all of this talk about a Jones-Ngannou co-promotion and why it won't happen, I think it's important to state the truth as to why.
I think it's been seen that if Endeavor or the higher ups at ESPN ask for something, Dana will acquiesce. It could also explain why Anderson Silva never got to box Roy Jones in the early 2010s.
Hey Ariel, I've been on a Stern binge lately, I see a lot of parallels between his show and yours with how you incorporate the crew into your show. my take is Ariel = Howard, Mysterious Frank = Scott the Engineer (always messing up audio), Ric = Gary (makes everything work and gets made fun of for no reason), GC = Robin (insane bestie who is only there for a laugh track). Curious if you have parallels for other staffers we don't hear from as often!
Heelwani! I’d love to hear you go in depth about wwe survivor series this past weekend. And your thoughts and excitement level with the huge returns of r truth, randy Orton and of course cm punk? I know you talked about it briefly but I’d love to hear more wrastlin talk
Ariel. In my opinion Volk’s post-fight admission that he took the Islam fight on the basis of suffering a mental health crisis is one of the biggest stories in recent MMA history. I know it’s a trite qualifier, but if this came out of the mouth one of the biggest stars in any other major sport it would be massive headline news that would initiate a firestorm of think pieces, dissections every which way, and possibly even lead to massive cultural shifts within that sport. Because it’s MMA however, it was at best viewed as sad but not a matter of particular importance, and at worst used by fans to embarrass Volk and say he was making excuses. With his fight booked for February we’re all back to business as usual, but do you think the ufc, Dana, hunter, his management, his coaches (the usually great Lopez and Bareman), his friends, the media, the fans ANYONE has at least a partial responsibility to really scrutinize what Volk said fighting back tears at that post fight presser. I love you, never stop never stopping.
Shalom, Ariel!
I return with the same question as last week as Frank mysteriously left me at the chopping board. I thought it was a good question, but I’ll leave it up to you.
You spoke with Jake Paul about Netflix potentially getting into the boxing business. Is this a possibility for any of the PFL entities? How much of a game-changer could this be for PFL, or any promotion for that matter, with the sheer number of Netflix subscribers worldwide. I know of at least one growing promoter who might call it “disruptive.”
Much love,
YaBoyLanzi
What are your thoughts on the Jerusalem Post article about antisemitism in the UFC?
https://m.jpost.com/opinion/article-775150
The article only mentions muslim fighters, so no comment.
If you have any thing about whites, I'm sure he'll give you an earful...
We will see if Frank even has the courage to pick this question.
Hello Ariel and Crew,
With the darts World championships coming up in roughly 20 days at Ally Pally can we expect any darts related interviews soon?
Also, what do you make of the whole Ian Garry situation?
Bonjour Lord Ariel,
I know Halloween was a month ago and I'm a little late, but I forgot to tell you I had the honor to attend a Halloween party as the 13x MMA journalist of the year Ariel Helwani. How did I do?
https://ibb.co/jy0PFfr
That's an awesome job! Thought it was Heelwani, the female going as Jon Jones' wife looks great also! Much love