First up, for you, what do you make of this thing between White and Hearn? And who do you feel might be edging the other person out right now?

I mean, it's exhausting at this point, right? I don't even know what needs to be said that hasn't been said.

I mean, I feel like obviously Eddie Hearn has got the advantage in this whole thing.

And it's pretty clear given, you know, where the fight ended up being, all that type of stuff.

Like they... you can make all sorts of arguments about where the event would have made more money and like all that stuff.

Is it better off in the States, New York, all that, uh, at the end of the day, Eddie Hearn had a contract that they negotiated in their side and he has, uh, stuck by it and whether you think that's for better or for the worst.

And I know Dana sits up there and says, you know, like we're trying to make as much money for everyone involved in this thing as possible.

But how do you feel about it now being the main event UFC 335?

What do you think about the perception that Uncle Ive has with the fans? Do you think it's harsh? Do you think it's, do you understand where it's coming from? And people almost calling for the UFC to basically, even with no one in 205, to basically consider letting him walk.

Yeah.

I mean, that's foolish.

If you care about, you know, the best fighters in the world fighting the best, like he is, you know, the best or second best or at worst third best, however you want to do it.

If you want to include Alex Purr in that bunch and say he's better than sure, whatever, but like, come on.

Um, I don't know what it is.

It's definitely something that hasn't clicked with him over time.

And being in the main event of Paris against Dan Hook, man, you're setting him up in a big way if you can do it.

But overall, in terms of the sport, leaving, stepping away from ESPN, which I thought was a great thing for the UFC and for MMA, but then leaving that and now going to what should be an even larger platform, what do you think with the CBS and the Paramount deal? Do you think that's going to catapult us even further?

You would hope so, right? Like if they're spending $7.7 billion on this, you'd hope it's a move to elevate the sport and to do all that expansion.

It sounds like they're investing early on.

Like I know a couple of fighters, I don't want to say who they are just in case it's supposed to be like, you know, under wraps, but like are going to LA to film something.

like commercials or a scene for a tv show that's under the cbs umbrella like these were all the promises kind of made in the the fox deal too and the espn abc disney deal like yeah we're gonna get these you may it may seem like every week there's gonna be a fighter on jimmy kimmel or like something like that you know promoting this we didn't really get too much of that right it's very rare we it would happen occasionally that's how i feel you got to grow the sport right like I get what you're saying in terms of a plateau, the sports being around long enough, 30 something years now on the UFC side, where like, this has come across your radar one way or another, right? If you exist in the first world, quote unquote, like where you have access and the stuff is within your peripheral, you've probably decided if you've seen it, you're interested in it, or you just want to ignore it.

You don't like it at all.

So I don't know how many new people are that are out there that just don't know what this is and are going to be discovered, but, so in that way it does feel like it's plateaued in a sense but can you use resources to get more eyes on bigger fights absolutely i don't know how many people to draw in that are going to be sitting there watching apex cards on a random weekend like those people might be what it is but you should be able to sell your big fights your numbered events especially now that they're not an $80 pay-per-view in the U S like you should be able to get more people on the door in the door to expose them to these athletes.

What has been your experience with Francis?