September 9, 2025 • 44 mins
Colin has major questions about Bears quarterback Caleb Williams after his first game under new head coach Ben Johnson fell apart after the opening drive. He shares his Herd Hierarchy ranking the top 10 teams in the NFL after week 1 with the Packers claiming the top spot. Plus, UFC President & CEO Dana White joins the show to talk about the upcoming Canelo vs Crawford boxing match and why Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most impressive people he has ever met
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, it is gonna be a Tuesday for the Ages.
We are live. We are in Los Angeles, the Beautiful
News Studio. It is the Herd wherever you may be
and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us
part of your day. We got the Herd, Hierarchy and
Nick Right in one hour. Dana White in Studio, Jmax.
(00:48):
I don't know if I've ever quite seen a quarterback
pivot like JJ McCarthy. First three quarters he threw for
about fifty five yards, and then in the fourth quarter
he was Joe Montana. He was virtually perfect. So we
got a lot to talk about now winning time McCarthy
delivers baby. All right. So I don't start my show
(01:11):
with statistics very often, but I thought this was very
interesting and it serves a point. So in the first drive,
Caleb Williams is six ver six with one hundred and
two passer rating. The rest of the game he completed
fifty percent and a passer rating in the seventies. That's
a backup. In the NFL. JJ McCarthy in the first
(01:33):
three quarters unwatchable of thirty four passer rating, looked terrified
in the fourth quarter six of eight, one on one
passer rating. My takeaway. The further the Bears Caleb Williams
got off script, the worse it got. The more JJ
McCarthy could play loose intuitive football, the better it got.
(01:57):
So don't be afraid to have a strong opinion after
one game. Caleb on script, velocity, horsepower, He can move
on script, look comfortable and daring and good. But that
opening drive in the third quarter, you could watch Ben Johnson,
who was visibly frustrated with his lack of accuracy. There
(02:20):
were also four false starts twelve total Chicago penalties, eight
on the offense, so and he was missing badly with
open receivers. So I mean, I think he's talented enough
to beat bad teams and mediocre coordinators, but that's not
his division. And he was one in five against his
(02:41):
division last year, the only win when the Packers rested starters.
So there, you can't watch that game and not be
a little unsettled. Off script, it looks like USC Caleb Williams. Wow,
he's talented, and so was Cam Newton, and in eleven seasons,
Newton had three winning seasons. Because Cam was all over
(03:03):
the map and too often relied on talent, his mechanics eroded,
his accuracy regressed. It was hit and miss. And that
was the knock on Caleb coming in. He had all
sorts of talent. But there's a million talented lounge singers
working at bad saloons. They're not coachable, they don't manage themselves.
Well you know they you know they aren't consistent. The
(03:28):
NFL is so much more than just arm talent. Jay
Cutler had a great arm, justin fields. Finally, as a
passing game coordinator he likes in New York. You saw
what he did. I also thought Caleb panicked when the
first and second receiver weren't there. Now again, Brian Flores,
in my opinion, I have said this for like a year,
(03:49):
is the best defensive coordinator in football. In my opinion,
I think the staff of Minnesota this year, the Athletic
to the Piece, it ranked San Francisco's second best overall staff,
Minnesota number one. So you may not face a coaching
staff this good. Green Bays is pretty good the rest
of the season. But Caleb does too many things that
(04:09):
losing quarterbacks do. The false starts now it's first in
fifteen or at second and twelve. He panics with pressure,
his off script, his accuracy dips when he's moving, and
he had an extra year ahead of JJ McCarthy. JJ
McCarthy just hasn't played in a couple of years. I
(04:31):
mean he didn't even play in the preseason much so
I thought, when you watch this game, there is a
way to win in this league. This is what Belichick
talked about with Brady. You can't have penalties, you can't
play behind the sticks. You have got to be moving forward.
In Ben Johnson's body language, he was frustrated, he was puzzled,
(04:53):
he was swearing on the headset. It was just not
good enough. You gotta give me more than talent. And
here was Ben Johnson after.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
We said going into Week one that the team that
would make the least number of mistakes would win the game,
and unfortunately we were on the wrong side of that.
We made too many there late in the game, myself
included twelve penalties. That's got to get clean up in
a hurry. And yet we've been saying that all training
camp as well, so you know, we'll find a way
(05:26):
to get that done. It's going to be a collective effort.
No one's pointing fingers.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
First half, mostly on script, you felt pretty good about it.
The further Caleb got off script, hero ball, panicking, lack
of accuracy, all the things Scout said they were concerned about.
All Right, JJ McCarthy, I've never seen a game like that.
I've never seen a quarterback do that. So the fact
that JJ McCarthy ended up with a ninety eight ASSER
(05:56):
rating after the first three quarters is remarkable. I mean,
the Vikings still only finished three for twelve on third
down and six fewer first downs than the Bears. They
were unwatchable offensively for three quarters. But I have found
my JJ McCarthy comp It's Baker Mayfield play at a
college power, tons of emotion, a lot of energy. I
(06:18):
wish they were bigger, but all they have to do
Baker and JJ McCarthy can go into slumps and get reckless.
But if they make one big throw and they gain
that confidence, their velocity and their accuracy changes. And he
after that pick six, which is about as bad is
(06:40):
any pick six I've ever seen. I mean, he was
bad in the first three quarters. But then there was
a moment for JJ McCarthy, and this is very Baker Mayfield.
There was a moment. It was in the fourth quarter.
He hit Justin Jefferson with a seed and that this
play right here, unleash something. The next three drives, it
(07:04):
was a different JJ McCarthy, and this is Baker. All
Baker needs to step into it. One rope and Baker changes.
The ball comes out faster, more velocity, and more accuracy.
And again he's got Kevin O'Connell and Josh McCown. You
cannot get better as a quarterback. So what you really
saw from JJ McCarthy is an old saying, nobody is
(07:27):
going to believe in you in life until you believe
in yourself. And you watched his body language change. He's
like Baker. He plays with a ton of emotion. He
got a little chip on his shoulder. He wins a
lot of football games, but you saw two different quarterbacks
the first three quarters. Was a coaching staff and again
he hadn't played much. That was protecting him and they
(07:49):
were kind of just waiting for it to happen. I
text somebody last night, an NFL exec, and I say
what I said, what do you make of this game plan?
And he goes in, KO, see, I trust he didn't
play much in the preseason. He hasn't played a lot
of snaps. They're probably thinking in Minnesota, let Caleb Williams
make mistakes with Brian Flores. Let's just try to stay
(08:12):
in the game. He'll make a play later. And he did,
and I gotta tell you that was a different quarterback.
In the fourth quarter. Here is Kevin O'Connell after JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
For him to make some of the plays he did.
I told him at halftime, you are going to bring
us back to win this game, and the look in
his eye was fantastic. And the best thing is just
the belief I felt from the team, the unit, and
ultimately that doesn't get done without him. In the second half,
two passing touchdowns and then the critical rushing touchdown.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
You know at the end, now.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It does help Minnesota's got better ownership, a better front office,
a proven coach, a better roster. They were favored in
the game. I said all week this was the last
blazing five pick. Didn't pick. I picked Minnesota. I thought
this was one of the games. I just trusted the
Minnesota Viking organization, their coaching staff. I think Ben Johnson's
(09:09):
a really good coach, but it's just in big games.
Caleb Williams has often been worse than the one o'clock window.
So Minnesota. Now this morning, J McK and I are
laughing before the show. What is JJ McCarthy. Well, I
think he's going to be closer to the fourth quarter
than the first three. And again it is Kevin O'Connell's
called the tall Sean McVay when he went to Minnesota,
(09:31):
and people have talked about if you drafted coaches right now,
he'd be a top three or a four coach. He
can build a culture. He played in the league, tall,
good looking guy with a lot of confidence. Look what
he did is Sam Darnold. I don't think JJ McCarthy
is gifted enough to get a defensive coach or an
average coaching staff and flourish, But there is something about
(09:52):
Justin Jefferson, the production. They get their left tackle back soon.
They did start to develop a run game, a pretty
consistent run game second half that also helped field position
and confidence. But if you're a Viking fan this morning
and a Bears fan, I know that one quarterback outplayed
the other for three quarters, But a Viking fan looks
(10:13):
at that fourth and says, I absolutely believe we've got
our guy for the next decade. I don't think anybody
in Chicago except maybe Caleb Williams is thinking that this morning.
I don't know if Ben Johnson's thinking that, because the
body language with Ben Johnson was disappointment. Even when JJ
(10:33):
McCarthy was struggling. I didn't sense that from Kevin O'Connell.
He was just sort of monitoring and watching, understanding the situation.
The body language from Ben was there, These are dialed
up to work and you're not hitting them. So J
Mac one of the I mean, how good was we
one of the NFL unbelievable TV game was unbelievable.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Just some more context for McCarthy. So he's only twenty
two years old, young guy. Yes, no left tackle Darris
I was out last night.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
He's in a couple of I think he's coming back
in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
Adam Thielen was just traded for like five minutes ago,
had to draw brutal drop. You know, Jordan Addison suspended,
like everything going against him and you're down on the
road at night in Chicago. I thought that was unbelievable
what he did in the fourth quarter, now quite Josh Allen, unbelievably, No,
but I mean looking pretty impressive. Look at the last
two fourth quarters we've seen in the NFL. Baltimore dominates
(11:27):
a game like it's not competitive, dominating a game the
wheels come off.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
JJ McCarthy. Look, I mean, if I said, you know,
five adjectives to describe it, I mean, they're just It
looked a little intimidated, a little slow, a little hesitant
to sixths. It was as bad as picks. He literally
threw to a bear in straw. Yeah, real quick. The
division based on what you saw this week. You don't
(11:54):
want to overreact. Green Bage's the best team.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
Okay, who's the second best team?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I would say Minnesota over Detroit. Oh. I do I
think those coordinators. I think it's a major issue. Go
back several years ago, think how good the roster was
for Philly. They hired coordinators that didn't work Week ten,
they were circling the drain coordinators. Go look at the
Niners defense with Robert Sala, Go look at it last year.
People don't understand these coordinators are game changers.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
So this week, Chicago visits Detroit one PM. I believe
that's a Fox game colling. That is kind of a
huge game for Caleb Williams and Detroit. Detroit can't lose
that can they can't start oing two. It's over, but
Caleb needs it badly given what happened in the final three quarters.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well, well, Minnesota defensively, in my opinion, is better than Detroit. Yes,
they were a top five defense last year. I think
total defense. I like Minnesota's defense better than Detroit's, which
can be a little hit and miss. I do love
Branch in the back end.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
He's good.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
That's a top five game week. I know there's a
lot of good game, good games every week. That's a
top five game for me because I don't want to
say it's elimination in week two column, but you know
we've seen this.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh and two is a big hole to climb out of.
I can't believe how good Week one was. I cannot
believe how we were close to you know, Bears seventeen to.
Speaker 6 (13:16):
Six, look like they were about to run away with it.
Remember Hawkinson fumbles and I thought that was a legit fumble.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I hadn't seen that when that was seventeen to six.
My take was, if the Bears get one more drive,
and even if they don't score, it is a field position.
Because JJ was playing with no confidence, I'm like, just
pin them deep, make JJ drive ninety four yards. We
could have a game that's over. I mean, it was
(13:42):
just sometimes this league just pull stuff out of a hat.
And between the last two night games, we've seen incredible turnarounds,
one by a team and one by a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
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Speaker 5 (14:02):
Hey what's up everybody?
Speaker 7 (14:03):
It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Arrington, and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast called Up
on Game?
Speaker 5 (14:10):
What is up on Game?
Speaker 7 (14:11):
You ass along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Huschman,
Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yup, that's right, Plexico Burris.
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Huschman,
(14:33):
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Speaker 1 (14:43):
Here we go Herd Hierarchy, our first in season. Heard Hierarchy,
Heard Hierarchy.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'm now go the top ten of NFL teams according
to College number ten.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I'm gonna put the Vikings. I think they're going to
look more like the fourth quarter than the first three.
With JJ McCarthy's growth and confidence listen, Kevin O'Connell was
head coach of the Year in twenty twenty four GM
and Kevin got extensions flores, in my opinion, the best
defensive coordinator. Listen. That start on Monday was the first
competitive football JJ McCarthy had played in six hundred days.
(15:22):
It took a couple of quarters to shake the rust off.
Christian Darisol, the great left tackle is coming back soon.
I like their roster. I like them organizationally, I think
after Kansas City, there's an argument it's the best coaching
staff in the league. I have the Vikings at ten,
number nine, Tampa Bay, Yes, Baker Mayfield. They've won seven
(15:42):
of their last eight regular season games, and remember going
to a division rival Atlanta is a tough ask. And
they didn't have Tristan Wurfs, their best offensive lineman. They
didn't have wide receiver Chris Godwin, and e Ma Booka
is going to be a star as a rookie. So
Bakers now only got Mike Evans. Now he's got a
(16:03):
sensational rookie. Again. I think as long as you have
Baker and Todd Bowles, the complement of a confident, high
end quarterback and an excellent defensive mind in a pretty
weak division, I have the Bucks in my top ten.
Here at nine, number eight, the Commanders didn't score a lot,
but four hundred and thirty two yards of offense Debo
(16:24):
Samuel we said he's a great chess piece, was used
efficiently led the team in receiving yards in his debut.
We know Terry mclaurin's going to get better week after week.
And no defense allowed fewer points in Week one. They
spent some money on it. The Giants there were no
crevices to run between the tackles. They were five and
(16:47):
one in games decided by three or less, so we
know they can be good in close games. I have
the Commanders at eight, number seven the Chiefs, then it
gets real tight. Listen. They were zero for seven on
third down in the first half against the Chargers. They
had a bad first quarter. The receiving room right now,
Worthies Hurt Rashi Rice out for six games. They're still
(17:08):
reworking the offensive line. I think they'll be fine. I
think they're a playoff team. But they're gonna we said
going into it. Okay, they'd won seventeen straight one score games.
If they could go eight and three this year in
one score games, it would be phenomenal. But they're a
home dog against the Eagles and should be, so they're
gonna be fine. They got to get the receiving room right.
(17:31):
They looked a little out of sorts early, but after
the first quarter they were fine. Chiefs at seven, number
six and Chargers at six. I do think justin Herbert
Joe Allt played left tackle, was really good. Didn't allow
any pressures. That was great news. And Jim Harbaugh is
also six to zero week one, so this was not
an easy game for the Chiefs to go to Brazil.
I think the Chargers in seven or eight weeks and
(17:54):
the Chiefs in seven or eight weeks if they met again,
it's a very close coin flip game. I think these
are very teams. Kansas City's obviously dominated this division. But
in the second half, justin Herbert one thing that's worriesome
for the Chiefs. He was thirteen to sixteen and the Chiefs,
I mean Keenan Allen thirty three. Why is he getting
seven catches? I thought there were too many Charger receivers.
(18:17):
The weakness of their team open. I have them at six,
number five, Rams at five. They got to keep Pokin
Nakua healthy and the O line worries me. But they've
won six straight regular season games when starters are actually playing,
and they've held opponents under ten points in four straight
games when the starters are playing. I believe their defensive
line and their defense as a whole could be the
(18:40):
best in the league right now because a lot of
these good teams like the Bills and the Ravens they
gave up a lot of yards on the back end.
They're young, they were the least penalized team. Stafford was
the highest redded quarterback in Week one, and I think
after Andy Reid, there's a strong argument the best coach
in the NFL is Sean McVay. I have the Rams
at five.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Number four.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Ravens should have won the game. If Derek Henry doesn't
fumble their last three drives, they have seventeen total yards.
It's a little bit of a problem. Save Flowers, I
thought was outstanding, had his best game as a pro.
I love everything about Baltimore outside of the fact that
they get these big leads and lose them. And I
do think some of this is when you dominate a
(19:24):
team for two and a half three quarters, it's hard
to convince pro athletes all gas, no break here they come.
It's not college football. Everybody can play with everybody. Raven's
still at four, number three Buffalo and notcha head at three.
What concerns me about Buffalo the back end of their defense.
Their offense got five hundred yards. Josh Allen sacked only once.
(19:45):
I mean that Buffalo O line. We don't talk a
lot about it. Few of sacks allowed last year. They
don't allow a lot of pressure, and if they did,
Josh Allen can evade it. Now they're going to face
six straight teams with losing records, so they're going to
go on a bit of a role here. But that
defense on the back end, it is a problem, and
that Sean McDermott got. I mean, Derek Henry broke into
(20:07):
the secondary and was running away from secondary members who
were smaller and should be faster. So they're gonna lose
some games they should win because the back end of
that defense. I have him at three, number two Philadelphia
seventeen and one since Week five last season. And I
know you're saying, how can they how can they be
at two? Listen, Dallas showed they're a little vulnerable now.
(20:27):
Jalen Carter will come back. I don't think he's gonna
get suspended. I could be wrong if that just came out.
AJ Brown worries me only one target. I sense a
little drama, hyper aggressive GM. Howie Roseman made another move today.
Six trades since the start of August. But I have
them two and number one is number one. I thought
(20:49):
the most complete team I saw was Green Bay. Jeff
Hafley is a stud as defensive coordinator. Micah only played
forty forty five percent of the snaps, already has an impact.
I don't see the weakness. Does this team ever miss
on tight end and wide receiver and quarterback, draft picks ever?
Everybody can play. And for the record, Jordan Love, you
(21:11):
may want to look this up. Jordan Love's last eight
regular season games eleven touchdowns, no picks, and a one
h nine passer rating. Coaching elite protection, elite run game,
elite quarterback, playing elite wide receiver, tight end talent, good
in getting better, and Micah Parsons opens up lanes and
(21:33):
space for everybody else. I said, I have a right
to overreact. In Week one, Packers blew me away. I
haven't seen them play that kind of aggressive defense. That
was Kansas City defense, that was Philadelphia defense. They were
playing with their chest out.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
There.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
You go, j mac am I allowed to take ask
where the Jets are because.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
They were so good.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
I'm I have Seattle at eleven, the same Seattle that
lost to the Darnold.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Doesn't bump into alignment. They beat San Francisco San Francisco twelve.
But remember Seattle is healthier going forward. I have to
consider everything. Rock Purty may not play in one. Are
the chiefs there on reputation?
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Let's be real.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
No, they did not look good. Mahomes looked unbelievable. That's it,
one guy. They also have the best staff in the league.
Miss Magnola did not look good. I mean he got
carved up by Herbert on that final drive.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
One more heard. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd
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Speaker 1 (22:34):
Well. He has been one of the mavericks in sports,
certainly in the last twenty years. UFC president and CEO.
He's now so iconic. He's doing Dodge Ram commercials. I
saw that last night. Our friend Dana White is joining
us here on a Tuesday in the Herd. Longtime, no talk.
It's great to see you again. And you major s mean,
(22:54):
most of these commissioners you don't already want to hear
from him that much, but you're out there. You put
yourself out there with an all the time. It could
be politics, that could be sports, it could be football.
I would imagine it's been good for your business.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
Yeah business is good. Yeah, yeah, business is very good.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
So your entire in my entire life, boxing has been
pay per view. You now have a deal with Paramount
where you're like, listen, we're going to move off from
what I can tell the pay per view model. I
like that for the fans. My takeaway is finally somebody
rewards the fans. I buy your pay per views all
the time. They were about sixty five bucks something like that.
I also go to your fights. But when you made
(23:32):
that decision, it's counter to what boxing and UFC has
been my entire life, which is mostly pay per view
stuff for the big stuff. Why the decision and is
there any risk to it?
Speaker 8 (23:41):
Well, the world is changing now. I mean, you know
all these streaming services. Here's the thing about a streaming service.
You know, you can have tons of great programming. I
can go watch it whenever I want to write, but
live sports you have to tune in.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
At a certain time.
Speaker 8 (23:58):
And I was waiting for the moment I knew that
they were all eventually gonna need Live sports. Now you
see them doing deals with the NFL, NBA, and now US.
It's just been an evolution, you know, as Cable continues
to you know those dive.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, I mean, so you are now doing You're promoting
your first boxing match. Now, we talked about this before
you grew up in Boston. I was a boxing guy
in Vegas. You now live in Vegas. So my first
job out of college was in Vegas. I watched Hagler Hearns.
I was a Pacific Northwest kid. I moved to Vegas.
I fell in love with boxing. You know, I knew
I watched all Lee or you'd hear stuff as a kid,
but we didn't really have boxing. You know, where I
(24:38):
grew up. You were a boxing fan, and I always
kind of waited for you. My takeaway was, I would
argue you kind of ended boxing and then you create
TKO and you go into boxing. So is that telling
me that boxing still has a life.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
I mean every time you think that boxing is dead,
a big fight pop up again. But you know it's
it's it's every once in a blue moon. I mean
we at the UFC, we go every Saturday, pretty much
every Saturday all year in boxing is you know, here
and there. So I'm promoting this Crawford fight this weekend.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Probably the best fight in five to six years. I
would say Canal Alra is the fighter of his generation.
He's a four division champion, yep, never been knocked down.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
I agree.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
I love this fight and the fact that Crawford is
willing to risk moving up in wait to fight him.
I mean, this is if you're a fight fan, this
is the stuff for us.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I've never lost tough childhood, been willing to put on
weight again. He's a knockout guy. Seventy six percent of
his fights are knockouts. This is as good as boxing
to me in the last five years. This is probably
the best fight.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I think it's the best fight.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
I love this fight. I forgot where the hell I
was going with that, but yeah, there.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Is the difference promoting UFC and boxing.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
No real difference.
Speaker 8 (25:57):
I mean, you know, as long as you're putting up
Oh that's so, I'm doing the Canelo Crawford fight for
Shake Turkey. Then in twenty six I'm gonna start my
own I guess we call a league in box. And
basically what I want to do is I want to
build talent. Like tonight, I have a show on called
The Contender Series, which I absolutely love Tuesday Night since
(26:20):
I take the best unsigned guys, yeah in the world.
They face each other that night, and I decide who
gets a UFC contract. And basically that's what I want
to do with boxing too. I want to take these
up and coming guys, you know, ten and oh, twelve
and oh and a ten and oh fights a twelve
and oh, you know. And like the undercard of Canelo
versus Crawford, the undercard is excellent, Like the UFC, when
(26:44):
you know, people show up for the first fight of
the night, not just the main event. It's going to
be that kind of a fight this weekend in Vegas,
So the whole undercard is incredible, not just the main event.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Well, Nick conn who you know very well, and you
Dana White, both are in the business of accumulation talent
and finding guys before the rest of the market moves.
And I have a little podcast company. We do the
same thing. It's exhilarated. There's nothing better than share somebody's ride.
But it's just unbelievable. So when you it's interesting, like
a lot of times on TikTok, I go to a
(27:16):
lot of business guys yourself a Jeff Bezos. It can
be a mark I think it's Andreesner Anderson and really
smart guys, Mark Zuckerberg. I'm looking for. I guess the
thread among successful business people. This is the thread I
oways here Amazon didn't make money the first twenty years
(27:37):
is that I don't think people understand you had a
lot of headwinds. I mean, at one point UFC John
McCain wanted it off cable and I always look at
your rise, and I don't think people understand how hard
it is. Was there ever a time in your rise
that the head went you had the Fatidas behind you.
Was there ever a time though, that you woke up
(27:59):
and thought, is this thing going to work? Am I
gonna get it? Am I going to get a week
of good news? What was the point that was hardest
for Dana White?
Speaker 8 (28:06):
I always thought it was going to work, you know,
just as the timing right. It was the question and
there there there is a time Lorenzo called me one
day and said, I can't keep doing this. I can't
keep pumping this money into this thing. Go out and
see what we could sell this for. So I started
calling around that day and I came back to him
that night and said, uh yeah, probably seven or eight
(28:29):
million dollars when we were probably forty million in at
that time, maybe maybe thirty something million, don't remember I.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
Did to convinced him.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Huh, how'd you convince him to stand in?
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I didn't.
Speaker 8 (28:37):
I just told him that and he said, okay, I'll
call you tomorrow. He literally called me the next morning
when I was driving to work and said, fit, let's
keep going, let's keep going.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
So we did, and you know, thank God who we
are today.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, no, it's it's been pretty remarkable when you you know,
when you look at right now at UFC, I've always
thought the hardest thing your job, and I don't know
if there's any luck involved, but finding the next John Jones,
who who I think is the best fighter I've ever
seen in UFC. I would say, probably pound for pound,
(29:12):
probably the best in my opinion.
Speaker 8 (29:14):
Yes, yeah, you know, you know, as you look at
boxing and where it is now, everybody's undefeated, right, they
have all these guys that are undefeated because they won't
fight anybody now in the UFC, whatever division you were in,
you fought the toughest guys all the way up to
become a world champion, and John Jones did that for
the last However, many years and he's still undefeated.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
So yes, so when you and I've asked you this before,
but I think it's I think it's compelling, and I
think you're gonna find this in boxing. Boxing feels and
UFC feels to me. So global. Is there ever a
moment when when is there talent of plenty? Is it
just for Dana White to find it? Or are there
(29:59):
psych where like it's dry that you go six months
and you can't find talent.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
No, I wouldn't say that. But and especially the sport
gets bigger, you know, there's more and more people that
realize now they can make millions of dollars fighting, right, So, yeah,
there was a point in time. There was a point
in time when that was the case, but not now.
(30:25):
There's plenty of talent out there.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
It's interesting. You used to come to California all the time.
We barely get you out here anymore. There's a lot
of people that.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
We're just talking about that. I was just talking about
that my crew when we were coming in.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah. Well, I mean it's a different time. There's a
lot of pushback. There's a lot of things happening in
the country where when you embraced Trump. That's your audience.
I've been to UFC fights. I've been there twice. When
he's there, people love him, They go crazy. Did you
ever worry when you did this? We're such a tribal,
polarizing country. This could be bad for business. Did you
ever worry for a minute about that? Well?
Speaker 8 (30:58):
Trump and I have been friends for you know, twenty
five years, So it's not like, oh, yeah, that's right.
It's not like I was getting political and you know,
choosing a side or any This guy's my friend.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
He's been my friend forever, so it wasn't really that
way for me.
Speaker 8 (31:14):
And he's a huge UFC fan and he came to
the UFC before he even thought about running for president.
He would be at the events and held the events
at the Taj Mahal and New Jersey. So this guy
is just a person who's been a friend of mine
for a long time, and he's a huge fan of
not just UFC but a fighting period. I mean all
the big fights he held at the TAJ and Atlantic
(31:36):
City back in the day. It wasn't wasn't really a
political move for me.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
You have you and Trump have something in common. You
don't sleep much. You're a live concert, live event, moving
all the time. There are certain there's almost an innate
energy with you that you this is who you are.
Were you always this guy? Were you always like burn
twenty four so you're like a human red bull?
Speaker 5 (32:00):
Was it always like that? Yeah? Yeah, I can tell
you this.
Speaker 8 (32:04):
Though he's seventy nine years old, he's way worse than me.
He never sleeps ever. I mean, this guy will call
me at night and it's and it's two o'clock in
the morning on the East Coast, and and and he'll
hit me again in the morning and he's up already.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
He never sleeps. It's crazy.
Speaker 8 (32:22):
So I'll get four or five hours a night, and
I'm good. I saw a guy on Joe Rogan saying,
anybody that tells you that they sleep four or five
hours a night, they're they're full of crap. No, dude,
you're full of crap. I literally sleep four or five
hours a night. And and I'll can tell you right now,
Donald Trump sleeps less.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
By the way, my staff, can I take magnesium when
I go to bed, because I'm allowsy sleeper five hours
maybe five and a half.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
My eyes are wide open.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I can't sleep anymore.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
So whatever it is it is, I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
You are having a White House UFC. Is it next summer?
Speaker 5 (32:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Okay, So this is interesting because I had a friend
once that was number one at Air Force, and I
think it was Reagan spoke. He goes, you cannot believe
the security with the president, but you don't even understand
what it's like. Literally, one minute before dinner, they changed
all the glasses in case there was poisoning. And he said,
So my take it was, this is a big event.
(33:20):
You're gonna have a president there. Do you already have
to plan that?
Speaker 7 (33:23):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:24):
I mean, how far in advance?
Speaker 8 (33:26):
So we went to the White House last week, me
and my team, and we had the first meeting with him.
We laid out all the renderings and we started to
get him to sign off on what he likes and
doesn't like, and he loved it. So yeah, now we're
diving in head first. Now all the work starts. But
you're right, this is the first time. This last time
(33:47):
I was at the White House, I went up on
the roof of the White House and they got snipers
with fifty cows all over the roof. Of the White
House and it's it's pretty crazy. But yes, I mean
this security is going to be a massive issue because
at the end of the day, Secret Services job is
to protect the president. And I don't know how it's
(34:10):
going to work out as far as having people there
live on the on the lawn of the White House.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
It'll be under five thousand though.
Speaker 8 (34:18):
But there's a I can't remember what they call it,
there's a park that's connected to the White House. We
could put eighty five thousand people over there with screens
and you know, we're gonna put a big stage out
there in new concerts and we're gonna take over Washington,
DC that whole week.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
So when you you know this, this fight this weekend's allegiant. Okay, Yes,
And I think ideally you'd like to be in Vegas,
Vegas McCarn or Harry Reid Airport. Now it's easy to
get in, it's it's the weather's almost almost good. You
don't have to worry about flight delays when with the UFC,
Are there still states that you'd like to go in
(34:54):
that push back or is the world open? Do you
have a second favorite venue? Is there a you've never
had a fight that you're in. I mean, you took
it to an island during COVID, So where is the
place that you want to go that haven'ed? And are
you still accepted virtually everywhere?
Speaker 8 (35:08):
Yeah, the world is wide open for UFC. We haven't
been in Spain yet. I mean this Saturday, I have
two fights. I have UFC Ocha in San Antonio, Texas,
which is sold out. We broke the record for the
gate and the boxing event this weekend is the number
three all time boxing event. Number one is Mayweather Pakiout,
(35:32):
Number two is McGregor Mayweather and number three, by.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
The way, I was in Allo Crawford.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Okay, so I was at the first two. I want
to circle back to this because it's worth noting if
you don't follow boxing and you're sitting here thinking Saturday night,
the college football game you wanted to watch was in
the afternoon. Canelo Averlayers has held the title in four divisions.
That's unheard of. Most of us grew up with Ali.
He was a heavyweight. He wasn't going down four different
(35:59):
He's never been knocked out, never been knocked down. But
Crawford is nineteen and oeren world title fights unbelievable story.
My take on this this it may not be uh
Hagler Hearn's first round, but it will be a fairly
aggressive fight. That's do you have a sense of what
it will look like and do you usually with fights?
Speaker 5 (36:21):
I agree.
Speaker 8 (36:21):
I think that you know, Crawford has taken this fight
to prove that he's, you know, one of the greatest
of this generation, and I think he's going to be
very aggressive. I think he's going to go after Canelo,
and you know, Canelo is an unbelievable counterpuncher, great head
movement and powerful. I think that this fight is going
(36:44):
to be a war. I think that it's what I
love about being a part of this promotion. I think
that the fight's going to be great, and the whole
undercard is going to be great. I think people are
going to turn off their TVs on Saturday and be
happy they stay at home and watched it.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
When everything to me, yeah, no, I mean it's I
am a regular US watcher and I buy for years
pay per view, so the paramount deal for me is
a win. I think it's always a win. I've talked
about this with broadcasters before. I don't want to be
behind to pay per view. I mean even there was
a time Howard Stern everywhere and then you disappear behind
(37:19):
a wall. I mean, let everybody's charged in for something,
give me something I can just turn on the TV
and get well.
Speaker 8 (37:25):
I love being with the Allison's. You know, they're obviously
very smart guys, great businessmen, and very aggressive. So I'm
looking forward to being in business with these guys for
the next seven years.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
So when you go look at your life in your career,
of all the people you've dealt with, and you've dealt
with business leaders, global leaders, politicians, is are you ever surprised?
Are are do any of these people you ever meet
your match? Do you ever think to yourself you walk
out of a room and think, man, that if I
(37:56):
could hire that guy, would hire that guy? Because you're
dealing with indust really a lot of alphas, very aggressive people.
I mean, when's the last time you were blown away?
Speaker 8 (38:04):
Let me tell you this, I'll I got the answer
to that question. So Mark Zuckerberg reached out to me
and asked me to be on the board of Meta.
Right now, I would never imagine that I would want
to be on the board of anything, But when you
look at Meta as a business and the company when
you go in to one of these board meetings and
they start at like eight thirty in the morning, and
(38:25):
first of all, the board of Meta, just the people
they have on there are all just absolutely brilliant and badass.
And when Zuckerberg comes in and starts running this meeting,
I am literally on the edge of the seat the
whole time listening to He's changing the world, what they're
doing and the level that they're doing it at. What
(38:49):
blew me away is that I would be so into
you know, this thing starts at eight thirty in the
morning and we end at five thirty at night. These
board meetings, and he's got every minute dialed in and
he knows everything about the company inside and out. His Cfoh,
his CFO is unbelievable. She's brilliant, and she comes in
and goes toe to toe with the Wall Street guys.
(39:11):
It's it's absolutely fascinating and one of my favorite things
to do, which I would never in a million year's
dream I would be that into it.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Well, congress on that you you are known as an
aggressive is it poker or twenty one?
Speaker 5 (39:28):
What do you play? Well, I'm playing baccarat these days.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
And you're aggressive. I'm aggressive, and you just walk in
and you're going for it. Is there any casino that
has said, Dana, you're too good, there's too much money,
our margins are slim.
Speaker 8 (39:42):
That's not that I'm too good. But what they do
is I have a style where I come in and
I want to bet as much. I want to bet
a million dollars a hand. I'm working on it right
now with MGM. MGM might actually let me do this. Yeah,
and one night, me and me and Michael Ruben so
and yeah, so he and I together one night only
(40:04):
a million dollars a hand.
Speaker 5 (40:06):
Working on that right now, on that deal.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Oh were you always a risk taker? Is this just
who you are?
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (40:11):
I guess yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Who you are. So again, allegiant. You have two events?
You have one in San Antonio on one in Vegas?
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Which one needs you more?
Speaker 5 (40:25):
Uh? Yeah?
Speaker 8 (40:27):
I think they listen. The UFC is a well oiled machine.
We go every Saturday. What I'm looking for on Saturday
Night for Canelo Crawford is you know, I can tell
you right now the television production will be amazing, It'll
be perfect, It'll be great, what I'm looking for is
(40:47):
the live event. You know, we're in a stadium, which
I don't love stadium fights because I feel like, you know,
you're watching two ants fight on a match book, right,
So we have to make sure that the people do
not have that experience. They have a much better experience
live VIP. You know, you get to your seats, you know,
(41:08):
your ticket in and they get you right in, sit
you down. I want everything to go smooth with the
live event. You know, when you think about the live event,
people fly in from around the world in other states,
they have to get a hotel room, they bought tickets,
they got to pay for the restaurants. It's expensive. So
I always it's a big deal to me that the
(41:28):
live event, the people who show up have an amazing experience.
I went to a boxing match a few years ago
and it was a horrible experience. So that's a big
deal to me.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
On Saturday, Vegas has struggled year to year last several years.
I've got my beliefs. Why how does Vegas turn it around?
They have not been on a good two to three
year role economics.
Speaker 8 (41:48):
That's total BS man. You know this whole narrative, right,
now about Vegas. Vegas is always doing well. Vegas has booming.
This weekend, there's going to be over sixty thousand people
coming in for this fight in Vegas, and that's just
one event. You know, Bruno Mars plays there all the time.
His show is great, His show is incredible actually, and
(42:09):
many many other things to do in Vegas. So everybody's
always counting Vegas out. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
The restaurant. I always say this. If you know, when
I got to Vegas, I was out of college. It
was like eighty six, eighty seven, the Rebels, Jerry Tarkanian,
Steve Win. You didn't have pro sports. There was a
stigma that was all nonsense. I said that for years,
UFC didn't exist. There were boxing matches. It was Don
King and Bob Aram. But I you know, I used
to always say this is people don't understand how good
(42:35):
of a food town it is because everything starts in Vegas.
Speaker 5 (42:38):
So true.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
It's like every great restaurant that ever franchises, and I
mean the high end stuff. If I said to you,
you're going to Vegas for a weekend, You're lucky. You
just got a bonus at work. Somebody's watching this that
you can fly in to watch Canelo alv Resident Crawford
and you can have one meal in Vegas. Where would
you eat?
Speaker 5 (42:57):
Carbone? Oh?
Speaker 1 (42:59):
The Italian Place.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
Yeah, it's incredible, that's incredible.
Speaker 8 (43:02):
Always consistent, the services off the charts and if you
have to wait, they got a great bar too. It's
a great, great restaurant. I love Carbones. But like you know,
when I was growing up in Vegas and when you
were there, you know, Vegas was buffets or you know,
ninety nine cent breakfasts and things like that. Now it's
(43:24):
all the best restaurants in the world there, the best restaurant's,
the best shopping.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
You know.
Speaker 5 (43:29):
Now there's live sports there, you.
Speaker 8 (43:31):
Know, and when people are talking about Vegas, the Raiders
are playing again, so you know, all their home games
are going to be sold out and packed and people
coming in from all over the country. And if you're
if you're a fan of the Patriots, right and there's
an away game that you're going to go to, you're
going to the Vegas.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Away we said for years.
Speaker 8 (43:52):
And you're flying on Thursday, you know, have a blast,
go to the game on Sunday and then fly home.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
By the way that was I know what you were?
Torn Vegas again? New England? Who are you rooting?
Speaker 5 (44:01):
I'm not torn at all. It's New England.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Okay, you're not torn at all. You know we lost.
Speaker 5 (44:07):
We just lost Sunday to the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Are you you know Rabel?
Speaker 5 (44:11):
No, we'll know.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Oh he's a butt kicker.
Speaker 5 (44:13):
Yeah I heard.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Oh there's no nonsense with Rabel, sharp as attack.
Speaker 8 (44:17):
Well, I'm close to Max Crosby, so if we're gonna
get beat anybody, at least it's Max gros.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Nobody better in the league than Max Fross. Love great guy. Hey, congrats,
we'll be watching the fight. Haven't seen you in a while.
You look fantastic.
Speaker 5 (44:30):
Thank you brother, You too, man.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
We're doing okay.
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox
Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to
noone Pacific. Find your local station for The Herd at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio
or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Oh, it is gonna be a Tuesday for the Ages.
We are live. We are in Los Angeles, the Beautiful
News Studio. It is the Herd wherever you may be
and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us
part of your day. We got the Herd, Hierarchy and
Nick Right in one hour. Dana White in Studio, Jmax.
(00:48):
I don't know if I've ever quite seen a quarterback
pivot like JJ McCarthy. First three quarters he threw for
about fifty five yards, and then in the fourth quarter
he was Joe Montana. He was virtually perfect. So we
got a lot to talk about now winning time McCarthy
delivers baby. All right. So I don't start my show
(01:11):
with statistics very often, but I thought this was very
interesting and it serves a point. So in the first drive,
Caleb Williams is six ver six with one hundred and
two passer rating. The rest of the game he completed
fifty percent and a passer rating in the seventies. That's
a backup. In the NFL. JJ McCarthy in the first
(01:33):
three quarters unwatchable of thirty four passer rating, looked terrified
in the fourth quarter six of eight, one on one
passer rating. My takeaway. The further the Bears Caleb Williams
got off script, the worse it got. The more JJ
McCarthy could play loose intuitive football, the better it got.
(01:57):
So don't be afraid to have a strong opinion after
one game. Caleb on script, velocity, horsepower, He can move
on script, look comfortable and daring and good. But that
opening drive in the third quarter, you could watch Ben Johnson,
who was visibly frustrated with his lack of accuracy. There
(02:20):
were also four false starts twelve total Chicago penalties, eight
on the offense, so and he was missing badly with
open receivers. So I mean, I think he's talented enough
to beat bad teams and mediocre coordinators, but that's not
his division. And he was one in five against his
(02:41):
division last year, the only win when the Packers rested starters.
So there, you can't watch that game and not be
a little unsettled. Off script, it looks like USC Caleb Williams. Wow,
he's talented, and so was Cam Newton, and in eleven seasons,
Newton had three winning seasons. Because Cam was all over
(03:03):
the map and too often relied on talent, his mechanics eroded,
his accuracy regressed. It was hit and miss. And that
was the knock on Caleb coming in. He had all
sorts of talent. But there's a million talented lounge singers
working at bad saloons. They're not coachable, they don't manage themselves.
Well you know they you know they aren't consistent. The
(03:28):
NFL is so much more than just arm talent. Jay
Cutler had a great arm, justin fields. Finally, as a
passing game coordinator he likes in New York. You saw
what he did. I also thought Caleb panicked when the
first and second receiver weren't there. Now again, Brian Flores,
in my opinion, I have said this for like a year,
(03:49):
is the best defensive coordinator in football. In my opinion,
I think the staff of Minnesota this year, the Athletic
to the Piece, it ranked San Francisco's second best overall staff,
Minnesota number one. So you may not face a coaching
staff this good. Green Bays is pretty good the rest
of the season. But Caleb does too many things that
(04:09):
losing quarterbacks do. The false starts now it's first in
fifteen or at second and twelve. He panics with pressure,
his off script, his accuracy dips when he's moving, and
he had an extra year ahead of JJ McCarthy. JJ
McCarthy just hasn't played in a couple of years. I
(04:31):
mean he didn't even play in the preseason much so
I thought, when you watch this game, there is a
way to win in this league. This is what Belichick
talked about with Brady. You can't have penalties, you can't
play behind the sticks. You have got to be moving forward.
In Ben Johnson's body language, he was frustrated, he was puzzled,
(04:53):
he was swearing on the headset. It was just not
good enough. You gotta give me more than talent. And
here was Ben Johnson after.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
We said going into Week one that the team that
would make the least number of mistakes would win the game,
and unfortunately we were on the wrong side of that.
We made too many there late in the game, myself
included twelve penalties. That's got to get clean up in
a hurry. And yet we've been saying that all training
camp as well, so you know, we'll find a way
(05:26):
to get that done. It's going to be a collective effort.
No one's pointing fingers.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
First half, mostly on script, you felt pretty good about it.
The further Caleb got off script, hero ball, panicking, lack
of accuracy, all the things Scout said they were concerned about.
All Right, JJ McCarthy, I've never seen a game like that.
I've never seen a quarterback do that. So the fact
that JJ McCarthy ended up with a ninety eight ASSER
(05:56):
rating after the first three quarters is remarkable. I mean,
the Vikings still only finished three for twelve on third
down and six fewer first downs than the Bears. They
were unwatchable offensively for three quarters. But I have found
my JJ McCarthy comp It's Baker Mayfield play at a
college power, tons of emotion, a lot of energy. I
(06:18):
wish they were bigger, but all they have to do
Baker and JJ McCarthy can go into slumps and get reckless.
But if they make one big throw and they gain
that confidence, their velocity and their accuracy changes. And he
after that pick six, which is about as bad is
(06:40):
any pick six I've ever seen. I mean, he was
bad in the first three quarters. But then there was
a moment for JJ McCarthy, and this is very Baker Mayfield.
There was a moment. It was in the fourth quarter.
He hit Justin Jefferson with a seed and that this
play right here, unleash something. The next three drives, it
(07:04):
was a different JJ McCarthy, and this is Baker. All
Baker needs to step into it. One rope and Baker changes.
The ball comes out faster, more velocity, and more accuracy.
And again he's got Kevin O'Connell and Josh McCown. You
cannot get better as a quarterback. So what you really
saw from JJ McCarthy is an old saying, nobody is
(07:27):
going to believe in you in life until you believe
in yourself. And you watched his body language change. He's
like Baker. He plays with a ton of emotion. He
got a little chip on his shoulder. He wins a
lot of football games, but you saw two different quarterbacks
the first three quarters. Was a coaching staff and again
he hadn't played much. That was protecting him and they
(07:49):
were kind of just waiting for it to happen. I
text somebody last night, an NFL exec, and I say
what I said, what do you make of this game plan?
And he goes in, KO, see, I trust he didn't
play much in the preseason. He hasn't played a lot
of snaps. They're probably thinking in Minnesota, let Caleb Williams
make mistakes with Brian Flores. Let's just try to stay
(08:12):
in the game. He'll make a play later. And he did,
and I gotta tell you that was a different quarterback.
In the fourth quarter. Here is Kevin O'Connell after JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
For him to make some of the plays he did.
I told him at halftime, you are going to bring
us back to win this game, and the look in
his eye was fantastic. And the best thing is just
the belief I felt from the team, the unit, and
ultimately that doesn't get done without him. In the second half,
two passing touchdowns and then the critical rushing touchdown.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
You know at the end, now.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It does help Minnesota's got better ownership, a better front office,
a proven coach, a better roster. They were favored in
the game. I said all week this was the last
blazing five pick. Didn't pick. I picked Minnesota. I thought
this was one of the games. I just trusted the
Minnesota Viking organization, their coaching staff. I think Ben Johnson's
(09:09):
a really good coach, but it's just in big games.
Caleb Williams has often been worse than the one o'clock window.
So Minnesota. Now this morning, J McK and I are
laughing before the show. What is JJ McCarthy. Well, I
think he's going to be closer to the fourth quarter
than the first three. And again it is Kevin O'Connell's
called the tall Sean McVay when he went to Minnesota,
(09:31):
and people have talked about if you drafted coaches right now,
he'd be a top three or a four coach. He
can build a culture. He played in the league, tall,
good looking guy with a lot of confidence. Look what
he did is Sam Darnold. I don't think JJ McCarthy
is gifted enough to get a defensive coach or an
average coaching staff and flourish, But there is something about
(09:52):
Justin Jefferson, the production. They get their left tackle back soon.
They did start to develop a run game, a pretty
consistent run game second half that also helped field position
and confidence. But if you're a Viking fan this morning
and a Bears fan, I know that one quarterback outplayed
the other for three quarters, But a Viking fan looks
(10:13):
at that fourth and says, I absolutely believe we've got
our guy for the next decade. I don't think anybody
in Chicago except maybe Caleb Williams is thinking that this morning.
I don't know if Ben Johnson's thinking that, because the
body language with Ben Johnson was disappointment. Even when JJ
(10:33):
McCarthy was struggling. I didn't sense that from Kevin O'Connell.
He was just sort of monitoring and watching, understanding the situation.
The body language from Ben was there, These are dialed
up to work and you're not hitting them. So J
Mac one of the I mean, how good was we
one of the NFL unbelievable TV game was unbelievable.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Just some more context for McCarthy. So he's only twenty
two years old, young guy. Yes, no left tackle Darris
I was out last night.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
He's in a couple of I think he's coming back
in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
Adam Thielen was just traded for like five minutes ago,
had to draw brutal drop. You know, Jordan Addison suspended,
like everything going against him and you're down on the
road at night in Chicago. I thought that was unbelievable
what he did in the fourth quarter, now quite Josh Allen, unbelievably, No,
but I mean looking pretty impressive. Look at the last
two fourth quarters we've seen in the NFL. Baltimore dominates
(11:27):
a game like it's not competitive, dominating a game the
wheels come off.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
JJ McCarthy. Look, I mean, if I said, you know,
five adjectives to describe it, I mean, they're just It
looked a little intimidated, a little slow, a little hesitant
to sixths. It was as bad as picks. He literally
threw to a bear in straw. Yeah, real quick. The
division based on what you saw this week. You don't
(11:54):
want to overreact. Green Bage's the best team.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
Okay, who's the second best team?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I would say Minnesota over Detroit. Oh. I do I
think those coordinators. I think it's a major issue. Go
back several years ago, think how good the roster was
for Philly. They hired coordinators that didn't work Week ten,
they were circling the drain coordinators. Go look at the
Niners defense with Robert Sala, Go look at it last year.
People don't understand these coordinators are game changers.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
So this week, Chicago visits Detroit one PM. I believe
that's a Fox game colling. That is kind of a
huge game for Caleb Williams and Detroit. Detroit can't lose
that can they can't start oing two. It's over, but
Caleb needs it badly given what happened in the final three quarters.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well, well, Minnesota defensively, in my opinion, is better than Detroit. Yes,
they were a top five defense last year. I think
total defense. I like Minnesota's defense better than Detroit's, which
can be a little hit and miss. I do love
Branch in the back end.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
He's good.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
That's a top five game week. I know there's a
lot of good game, good games every week. That's a
top five game for me because I don't want to
say it's elimination in week two column, but you know
we've seen this.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Oh and two is a big hole to climb out of.
I can't believe how good Week one was. I cannot
believe how we were close to you know, Bears seventeen to.
Speaker 6 (13:16):
Six, look like they were about to run away with it.
Remember Hawkinson fumbles and I thought that was a legit fumble.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I hadn't seen that when that was seventeen to six.
My take was, if the Bears get one more drive,
and even if they don't score, it is a field position.
Because JJ was playing with no confidence, I'm like, just
pin them deep, make JJ drive ninety four yards. We
could have a game that's over. I mean, it was
(13:42):
just sometimes this league just pull stuff out of a hat.
And between the last two night games, we've seen incredible turnarounds,
one by a team and one by a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Hey what's up everybody?
Speaker 7 (14:03):
It's me three time pro bowler LeVar Arrington, and I
couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast called Up
on Game?
Speaker 5 (14:10):
What is up on Game?
Speaker 7 (14:11):
You ass along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Huschman,
Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yup, that's right, Plexico Burris.
You can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Huschman,
(14:33):
Zada and Plexico Burrs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Here we go Herd Hierarchy, our first in season. Heard Hierarchy,
Heard Hierarchy.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I'm now go the top ten of NFL teams according
to College number ten.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I'm gonna put the Vikings. I think they're going to
look more like the fourth quarter than the first three.
With JJ McCarthy's growth and confidence listen, Kevin O'Connell was
head coach of the Year in twenty twenty four GM
and Kevin got extensions flores, in my opinion, the best
defensive coordinator. Listen. That start on Monday was the first
competitive football JJ McCarthy had played in six hundred days.
(15:22):
It took a couple of quarters to shake the rust off.
Christian Darisol, the great left tackle is coming back soon.
I like their roster. I like them organizationally, I think
after Kansas City, there's an argument it's the best coaching
staff in the league. I have the Vikings at ten,
number nine, Tampa Bay, Yes, Baker Mayfield. They've won seven
(15:42):
of their last eight regular season games, and remember going
to a division rival Atlanta is a tough ask. And
they didn't have Tristan Wurfs, their best offensive lineman. They
didn't have wide receiver Chris Godwin, and e Ma Booka
is going to be a star as a rookie. So
Bakers now only got Mike Evans. Now he's got a
(16:03):
sensational rookie. Again. I think as long as you have
Baker and Todd Bowles, the complement of a confident, high
end quarterback and an excellent defensive mind in a pretty
weak division, I have the Bucks in my top ten.
Here at nine, number eight, the Commanders didn't score a lot,
but four hundred and thirty two yards of offense Debo
(16:24):
Samuel we said he's a great chess piece, was used
efficiently led the team in receiving yards in his debut.
We know Terry mclaurin's going to get better week after week.
And no defense allowed fewer points in Week one. They
spent some money on it. The Giants there were no
crevices to run between the tackles. They were five and
(16:47):
one in games decided by three or less, so we
know they can be good in close games. I have
the Commanders at eight, number seven the Chiefs, then it
gets real tight. Listen. They were zero for seven on
third down in the first half against the Chargers. They
had a bad first quarter. The receiving room right now,
Worthies Hurt Rashi Rice out for six games. They're still
(17:08):
reworking the offensive line. I think they'll be fine. I
think they're a playoff team. But they're gonna we said
going into it. Okay, they'd won seventeen straight one score games.
If they could go eight and three this year in
one score games, it would be phenomenal. But they're a
home dog against the Eagles and should be, so they're
gonna be fine. They got to get the receiving room right.
(17:31):
They looked a little out of sorts early, but after
the first quarter they were fine. Chiefs at seven, number
six and Chargers at six. I do think justin Herbert
Joe Allt played left tackle, was really good. Didn't allow
any pressures. That was great news. And Jim Harbaugh is
also six to zero week one, so this was not
an easy game for the Chiefs to go to Brazil.
I think the Chargers in seven or eight weeks and
(17:54):
the Chiefs in seven or eight weeks if they met again,
it's a very close coin flip game. I think these
are very teams. Kansas City's obviously dominated this division. But
in the second half, justin Herbert one thing that's worriesome
for the Chiefs. He was thirteen to sixteen and the Chiefs,
I mean Keenan Allen thirty three. Why is he getting
seven catches? I thought there were too many Charger receivers.
(18:17):
The weakness of their team open. I have them at six,
number five, Rams at five. They got to keep Pokin
Nakua healthy and the O line worries me. But they've
won six straight regular season games when starters are actually playing,
and they've held opponents under ten points in four straight
games when the starters are playing. I believe their defensive
line and their defense as a whole could be the
(18:40):
best in the league right now because a lot of
these good teams like the Bills and the Ravens they
gave up a lot of yards on the back end.
They're young, they were the least penalized team. Stafford was
the highest redded quarterback in Week one, and I think
after Andy Reid, there's a strong argument the best coach
in the NFL is Sean McVay. I have the Rams
at five.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Number four.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Ravens should have won the game. If Derek Henry doesn't
fumble their last three drives, they have seventeen total yards.
It's a little bit of a problem. Save Flowers, I
thought was outstanding, had his best game as a pro.
I love everything about Baltimore outside of the fact that
they get these big leads and lose them. And I
do think some of this is when you dominate a
(19:24):
team for two and a half three quarters, it's hard
to convince pro athletes all gas, no break here they come.
It's not college football. Everybody can play with everybody. Raven's
still at four, number three Buffalo and notcha head at three.
What concerns me about Buffalo the back end of their defense.
Their offense got five hundred yards. Josh Allen sacked only once.
(19:45):
I mean that Buffalo O line. We don't talk a
lot about it. Few of sacks allowed last year. They
don't allow a lot of pressure, and if they did,
Josh Allen can evade it. Now they're going to face
six straight teams with losing records, so they're going to
go on a bit of a role here. But that
defense on the back end, it is a problem, and
that Sean McDermott got. I mean, Derek Henry broke into
(20:07):
the secondary and was running away from secondary members who
were smaller and should be faster. So they're gonna lose
some games they should win because the back end of
that defense. I have him at three, number two Philadelphia
seventeen and one since Week five last season. And I
know you're saying, how can they how can they be
at two? Listen, Dallas showed they're a little vulnerable now.
(20:27):
Jalen Carter will come back. I don't think he's gonna
get suspended. I could be wrong if that just came out.
AJ Brown worries me only one target. I sense a
little drama, hyper aggressive GM. Howie Roseman made another move today.
Six trades since the start of August. But I have
them two and number one is number one. I thought
(20:49):
the most complete team I saw was Green Bay. Jeff
Hafley is a stud as defensive coordinator. Micah only played
forty forty five percent of the snaps, already has an impact.
I don't see the weakness. Does this team ever miss
on tight end and wide receiver and quarterback, draft picks ever?
Everybody can play. And for the record, Jordan Love, you
(21:11):
may want to look this up. Jordan Love's last eight
regular season games eleven touchdowns, no picks, and a one
h nine passer rating. Coaching elite protection, elite run game,
elite quarterback, playing elite wide receiver, tight end talent, good
in getting better, and Micah Parsons opens up lanes and
(21:33):
space for everybody else. I said, I have a right
to overreact. In Week one, Packers blew me away. I
haven't seen them play that kind of aggressive defense. That
was Kansas City defense, that was Philadelphia defense. They were
playing with their chest out.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
There.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
You go, j mac am I allowed to take ask
where the Jets are because.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
They were so good.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
I'm I have Seattle at eleven, the same Seattle that
lost to the Darnold.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Doesn't bump into alignment. They beat San Francisco San Francisco twelve.
But remember Seattle is healthier going forward. I have to
consider everything. Rock Purty may not play in one. Are
the chiefs there on reputation?
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Let's be real.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
No, they did not look good. Mahomes looked unbelievable. That's it,
one guy. They also have the best staff in the league.
Miss Magnola did not look good. I mean he got
carved up by Herbert on that final drive.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
One more heard. The Herd streams twenty four hours a day,
seven days a week within the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd
to listen live or on demand whenever you like.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Well. He has been one of the mavericks in sports,
certainly in the last twenty years. UFC president and CEO.
He's now so iconic. He's doing Dodge Ram commercials. I
saw that last night. Our friend Dana White is joining
us here on a Tuesday in the Herd. Longtime, no talk.
It's great to see you again. And you major s mean,
(22:54):
most of these commissioners you don't already want to hear
from him that much, but you're out there. You put
yourself out there with an all the time. It could
be politics, that could be sports, it could be football.
I would imagine it's been good for your business.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
Yeah business is good. Yeah, yeah, business is very good.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
So your entire in my entire life, boxing has been
pay per view. You now have a deal with Paramount
where you're like, listen, we're going to move off from
what I can tell the pay per view model. I
like that for the fans. My takeaway is finally somebody
rewards the fans. I buy your pay per views all
the time. They were about sixty five bucks something like that.
I also go to your fights. But when you made
(23:32):
that decision, it's counter to what boxing and UFC has
been my entire life, which is mostly pay per view
stuff for the big stuff. Why the decision and is
there any risk to it?
Speaker 8 (23:41):
Well, the world is changing now. I mean, you know
all these streaming services. Here's the thing about a streaming service.
You know, you can have tons of great programming. I
can go watch it whenever I want to write, but
live sports you have to tune in.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
At a certain time.
Speaker 8 (23:58):
And I was waiting for the moment I knew that
they were all eventually gonna need Live sports. Now you
see them doing deals with the NFL, NBA, and now US.
It's just been an evolution, you know, as Cable continues
to you know those dive.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, I mean, so you are now doing You're promoting
your first boxing match. Now, we talked about this before
you grew up in Boston. I was a boxing guy
in Vegas. You now live in Vegas. So my first
job out of college was in Vegas. I watched Hagler Hearns.
I was a Pacific Northwest kid. I moved to Vegas.
I fell in love with boxing. You know, I knew
I watched all Lee or you'd hear stuff as a kid,
but we didn't really have boxing. You know, where I
(24:38):
grew up. You were a boxing fan, and I always
kind of waited for you. My takeaway was, I would
argue you kind of ended boxing and then you create
TKO and you go into boxing. So is that telling
me that boxing still has a life.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
I mean every time you think that boxing is dead,
a big fight pop up again. But you know it's
it's it's every once in a blue moon. I mean
we at the UFC, we go every Saturday, pretty much
every Saturday all year in boxing is you know, here
and there. So I'm promoting this Crawford fight this weekend.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Probably the best fight in five to six years. I
would say Canal Alra is the fighter of his generation.
He's a four division champion, yep, never been knocked down.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
I agree.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
I love this fight and the fact that Crawford is
willing to risk moving up in wait to fight him.
I mean, this is if you're a fight fan, this
is the stuff for us.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I've never lost tough childhood, been willing to put on
weight again. He's a knockout guy. Seventy six percent of
his fights are knockouts. This is as good as boxing
to me in the last five years. This is probably
the best fight.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
I agree.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I think it's the best fight.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
I love this fight. I forgot where the hell I
was going with that, but yeah, there.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Is the difference promoting UFC and boxing.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
No real difference.
Speaker 8 (25:57):
I mean, you know, as long as you're putting up
Oh that's so, I'm doing the Canelo Crawford fight for
Shake Turkey. Then in twenty six I'm gonna start my
own I guess we call a league in box. And
basically what I want to do is I want to
build talent. Like tonight, I have a show on called
The Contender Series, which I absolutely love Tuesday Night since
(26:20):
I take the best unsigned guys, yeah in the world.
They face each other that night, and I decide who
gets a UFC contract. And basically that's what I want
to do with boxing too. I want to take these
up and coming guys, you know, ten and oh, twelve
and oh and a ten and oh fights a twelve
and oh, you know. And like the undercard of Canelo
versus Crawford, the undercard is excellent, Like the UFC, when
(26:44):
you know, people show up for the first fight of
the night, not just the main event. It's going to
be that kind of a fight this weekend in Vegas,
So the whole undercard is incredible, not just the main event.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Well, Nick conn who you know very well, and you
Dana White, both are in the business of accumulation talent
and finding guys before the rest of the market moves.
And I have a little podcast company. We do the
same thing. It's exhilarated. There's nothing better than share somebody's ride.
But it's just unbelievable. So when you it's interesting, like
a lot of times on TikTok, I go to a
(27:16):
lot of business guys yourself a Jeff Bezos. It can
be a mark I think it's Andreesner Anderson and really
smart guys, Mark Zuckerberg. I'm looking for. I guess the
thread among successful business people. This is the thread I
oways here Amazon didn't make money the first twenty years
(27:37):
is that I don't think people understand you had a
lot of headwinds. I mean, at one point UFC John
McCain wanted it off cable and I always look at
your rise, and I don't think people understand how hard
it is. Was there ever a time in your rise
that the head went you had the Fatidas behind you.
Was there ever a time though, that you woke up
(27:59):
and thought, is this thing going to work? Am I
gonna get it? Am I going to get a week
of good news? What was the point that was hardest
for Dana White?
Speaker 8 (28:06):
I always thought it was going to work, you know,
just as the timing right. It was the question and
there there there is a time Lorenzo called me one
day and said, I can't keep doing this. I can't
keep pumping this money into this thing. Go out and
see what we could sell this for. So I started
calling around that day and I came back to him
that night and said, uh yeah, probably seven or eight
(28:29):
million dollars when we were probably forty million in at
that time, maybe maybe thirty something million, don't remember I.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
Did to convinced him.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Huh, how'd you convince him to stand in?
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I didn't.
Speaker 8 (28:37):
I just told him that and he said, okay, I'll
call you tomorrow. He literally called me the next morning
when I was driving to work and said, fit, let's
keep going, let's keep going.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
So we did, and you know, thank God who we
are today.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, no, it's it's been pretty remarkable when you you know,
when you look at right now at UFC, I've always
thought the hardest thing your job, and I don't know
if there's any luck involved, but finding the next John Jones,
who who I think is the best fighter I've ever
seen in UFC. I would say, probably pound for pound,
(29:12):
probably the best in my opinion.
Speaker 8 (29:14):
Yes, yeah, you know, you know, as you look at
boxing and where it is now, everybody's undefeated, right, they
have all these guys that are undefeated because they won't
fight anybody now in the UFC, whatever division you were in,
you fought the toughest guys all the way up to
become a world champion, and John Jones did that for
the last However, many years and he's still undefeated.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
So yes, so when you and I've asked you this before,
but I think it's I think it's compelling, and I
think you're gonna find this in boxing. Boxing feels and
UFC feels to me. So global. Is there ever a
moment when when is there talent of plenty? Is it
just for Dana White to find it? Or are there
(29:59):
psych where like it's dry that you go six months
and you can't find talent.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
No, I wouldn't say that. But and especially the sport
gets bigger, you know, there's more and more people that
realize now they can make millions of dollars fighting, right, So, yeah,
there was a point in time. There was a point
in time when that was the case, but not now.
(30:25):
There's plenty of talent out there.
Speaker 5 (30:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
It's interesting. You used to come to California all the time.
We barely get you out here anymore. There's a lot
of people that.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
We're just talking about that. I was just talking about
that my crew when we were coming in.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah. Well, I mean it's a different time. There's a
lot of pushback. There's a lot of things happening in
the country where when you embraced Trump. That's your audience.
I've been to UFC fights. I've been there twice. When
he's there, people love him, They go crazy. Did you
ever worry when you did this? We're such a tribal,
polarizing country. This could be bad for business. Did you
ever worry for a minute about that? Well?
Speaker 8 (30:58):
Trump and I have been friends for you know, twenty
five years, So it's not like, oh, yeah, that's right.
It's not like I was getting political and you know,
choosing a side or any This guy's my friend.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
He's been my friend forever, so it wasn't really that
way for me.
Speaker 8 (31:14):
And he's a huge UFC fan and he came to
the UFC before he even thought about running for president.
He would be at the events and held the events
at the Taj Mahal and New Jersey. So this guy
is just a person who's been a friend of mine
for a long time, and he's a huge fan of
not just UFC but a fighting period. I mean all
the big fights he held at the TAJ and Atlantic
(31:36):
City back in the day. It wasn't wasn't really a
political move for me.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
You have you and Trump have something in common. You
don't sleep much. You're a live concert, live event, moving
all the time. There are certain there's almost an innate
energy with you that you this is who you are.
Were you always this guy? Were you always like burn
twenty four so you're like a human red bull?
Speaker 5 (32:00):
Was it always like that? Yeah? Yeah, I can tell
you this.
Speaker 8 (32:04):
Though he's seventy nine years old, he's way worse than me.
He never sleeps ever. I mean, this guy will call
me at night and it's and it's two o'clock in
the morning on the East Coast, and and and he'll
hit me again in the morning and he's up already.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
He never sleeps. It's crazy.
Speaker 8 (32:22):
So I'll get four or five hours a night, and
I'm good. I saw a guy on Joe Rogan saying,
anybody that tells you that they sleep four or five
hours a night, they're they're full of crap. No, dude,
you're full of crap. I literally sleep four or five
hours a night. And and I'll can tell you right now,
Donald Trump sleeps less.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
By the way, my staff, can I take magnesium when
I go to bed, because I'm allowsy sleeper five hours
maybe five and a half.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
My eyes are wide open.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I can't sleep anymore.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
So whatever it is it is, I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
You are having a White House UFC. Is it next summer?
Speaker 5 (32:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Okay, So this is interesting because I had a friend
once that was number one at Air Force, and I
think it was Reagan spoke. He goes, you cannot believe
the security with the president, but you don't even understand
what it's like. Literally, one minute before dinner, they changed
all the glasses in case there was poisoning. And he said,
So my take it was, this is a big event.
(33:20):
You're gonna have a president there. Do you already have
to plan that?
Speaker 7 (33:23):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:24):
I mean, how far in advance?
Speaker 8 (33:26):
So we went to the White House last week, me
and my team, and we had the first meeting with him.
We laid out all the renderings and we started to
get him to sign off on what he likes and
doesn't like, and he loved it. So yeah, now we're
diving in head first. Now all the work starts. But
you're right, this is the first time. This last time
(33:47):
I was at the White House, I went up on
the roof of the White House and they got snipers
with fifty cows all over the roof. Of the White
House and it's it's pretty crazy. But yes, I mean
this security is going to be a massive issue because
at the end of the day, Secret Services job is
to protect the president. And I don't know how it's
(34:10):
going to work out as far as having people there
live on the on the lawn of the White House.
Speaker 5 (34:17):
It'll be under five thousand though.
Speaker 8 (34:18):
But there's a I can't remember what they call it,
there's a park that's connected to the White House. We
could put eighty five thousand people over there with screens
and you know, we're gonna put a big stage out
there in new concerts and we're gonna take over Washington,
DC that whole week.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
So when you you know this, this fight this weekend's allegiant. Okay, Yes,
And I think ideally you'd like to be in Vegas,
Vegas McCarn or Harry Reid Airport. Now it's easy to
get in, it's it's the weather's almost almost good. You
don't have to worry about flight delays when with the UFC,
Are there still states that you'd like to go in
(34:54):
that push back or is the world open? Do you
have a second favorite venue? Is there a you've never
had a fight that you're in. I mean, you took
it to an island during COVID, So where is the
place that you want to go that haven'ed? And are
you still accepted virtually everywhere?
Speaker 8 (35:08):
Yeah, the world is wide open for UFC. We haven't
been in Spain yet. I mean this Saturday, I have
two fights. I have UFC Ocha in San Antonio, Texas,
which is sold out. We broke the record for the
gate and the boxing event this weekend is the number
three all time boxing event. Number one is Mayweather Pakiout,
(35:32):
Number two is McGregor Mayweather and number three, by.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
The way, I was in Allo Crawford.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Okay, so I was at the first two. I want
to circle back to this because it's worth noting if
you don't follow boxing and you're sitting here thinking Saturday night,
the college football game you wanted to watch was in
the afternoon. Canelo Averlayers has held the title in four divisions.
That's unheard of. Most of us grew up with Ali.
He was a heavyweight. He wasn't going down four different
(35:59):
He's never been knocked out, never been knocked down. But
Crawford is nineteen and oeren world title fights unbelievable story.
My take on this this it may not be uh
Hagler Hearn's first round, but it will be a fairly
aggressive fight. That's do you have a sense of what
it will look like and do you usually with fights?
Speaker 5 (36:21):
I agree.
Speaker 8 (36:21):
I think that you know, Crawford has taken this fight
to prove that he's, you know, one of the greatest
of this generation, and I think he's going to be
very aggressive. I think he's going to go after Canelo,
and you know, Canelo is an unbelievable counterpuncher, great head
movement and powerful. I think that this fight is going
(36:44):
to be a war. I think that it's what I
love about being a part of this promotion. I think
that the fight's going to be great, and the whole
undercard is going to be great. I think people are
going to turn off their TVs on Saturday and be
happy they stay at home and watched it.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
When everything to me, yeah, no, I mean it's I
am a regular US watcher and I buy for years
pay per view, so the paramount deal for me is
a win. I think it's always a win. I've talked
about this with broadcasters before. I don't want to be
behind to pay per view. I mean even there was
a time Howard Stern everywhere and then you disappear behind
(37:19):
a wall. I mean, let everybody's charged in for something,
give me something I can just turn on the TV
and get well.
Speaker 8 (37:25):
I love being with the Allison's. You know, they're obviously
very smart guys, great businessmen, and very aggressive. So I'm
looking forward to being in business with these guys for
the next seven years.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
So when you go look at your life in your career,
of all the people you've dealt with, and you've dealt
with business leaders, global leaders, politicians, is are you ever surprised?
Are are do any of these people you ever meet
your match? Do you ever think to yourself you walk
out of a room and think, man, that if I
(37:56):
could hire that guy, would hire that guy? Because you're
dealing with indust really a lot of alphas, very aggressive people.
I mean, when's the last time you were blown away?
Speaker 8 (38:04):
Let me tell you this, I'll I got the answer
to that question. So Mark Zuckerberg reached out to me
and asked me to be on the board of Meta.
Right now, I would never imagine that I would want
to be on the board of anything, But when you
look at Meta as a business and the company when
you go in to one of these board meetings and
they start at like eight thirty in the morning, and
(38:25):
first of all, the board of Meta, just the people
they have on there are all just absolutely brilliant and badass.
And when Zuckerberg comes in and starts running this meeting,
I am literally on the edge of the seat the
whole time listening to He's changing the world, what they're
doing and the level that they're doing it at. What
(38:49):
blew me away is that I would be so into
you know, this thing starts at eight thirty in the
morning and we end at five thirty at night. These
board meetings, and he's got every minute dialed in and
he knows everything about the company inside and out. His Cfoh,
his CFO is unbelievable. She's brilliant, and she comes in
and goes toe to toe with the Wall Street guys.
(39:11):
It's it's absolutely fascinating and one of my favorite things
to do, which I would never in a million year's
dream I would be that into it.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Well, congress on that you you are known as an
aggressive is it poker or twenty one?
Speaker 5 (39:28):
What do you play? Well, I'm playing baccarat these days.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
And you're aggressive. I'm aggressive, and you just walk in
and you're going for it. Is there any casino that
has said, Dana, you're too good, there's too much money,
our margins are slim.
Speaker 8 (39:42):
That's not that I'm too good. But what they do
is I have a style where I come in and
I want to bet as much. I want to bet
a million dollars a hand. I'm working on it right
now with MGM. MGM might actually let me do this. Yeah,
and one night, me and me and Michael Ruben so
and yeah, so he and I together one night only
(40:04):
a million dollars a hand.
Speaker 5 (40:06):
Working on that right now, on that deal.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Oh were you always a risk taker? Is this just
who you are?
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (40:11):
I guess yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Who you are. So again, allegiant. You have two events?
You have one in San Antonio on one in Vegas?
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Which one needs you more?
Speaker 5 (40:25):
Uh? Yeah?
Speaker 8 (40:27):
I think they listen. The UFC is a well oiled machine.
We go every Saturday. What I'm looking for on Saturday
Night for Canelo Crawford is you know, I can tell
you right now the television production will be amazing, It'll
be perfect, It'll be great, what I'm looking for is
(40:47):
the live event. You know, we're in a stadium, which
I don't love stadium fights because I feel like, you know,
you're watching two ants fight on a match book, right,
So we have to make sure that the people do
not have that experience. They have a much better experience
live VIP. You know, you get to your seats, you know,
(41:08):
your ticket in and they get you right in, sit
you down. I want everything to go smooth with the
live event. You know, when you think about the live event,
people fly in from around the world in other states,
they have to get a hotel room, they bought tickets,
they got to pay for the restaurants. It's expensive. So
I always it's a big deal to me that the
(41:28):
live event, the people who show up have an amazing experience.
I went to a boxing match a few years ago
and it was a horrible experience. So that's a big
deal to me.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
On Saturday, Vegas has struggled year to year last several years.
I've got my beliefs. Why how does Vegas turn it around?
They have not been on a good two to three
year role economics.
Speaker 8 (41:48):
That's total BS man. You know this whole narrative, right,
now about Vegas. Vegas is always doing well. Vegas has booming.
This weekend, there's going to be over sixty thousand people
coming in for this fight in Vegas, and that's just
one event. You know, Bruno Mars plays there all the time.
His show is great, His show is incredible actually, and
(42:09):
many many other things to do in Vegas. So everybody's
always counting Vegas out. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
The restaurant. I always say this. If you know, when
I got to Vegas, I was out of college. It
was like eighty six, eighty seven, the Rebels, Jerry Tarkanian,
Steve Win. You didn't have pro sports. There was a
stigma that was all nonsense. I said that for years,
UFC didn't exist. There were boxing matches. It was Don
King and Bob Aram. But I you know, I used
to always say this is people don't understand how good
(42:35):
of a food town it is because everything starts in Vegas.
Speaker 5 (42:38):
So true.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
It's like every great restaurant that ever franchises, and I
mean the high end stuff. If I said to you,
you're going to Vegas for a weekend, You're lucky. You
just got a bonus at work. Somebody's watching this that
you can fly in to watch Canelo alv Resident Crawford
and you can have one meal in Vegas. Where would
you eat?
Speaker 5 (42:57):
Carbone? Oh?
Speaker 1 (42:59):
The Italian Place.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
Yeah, it's incredible, that's incredible.
Speaker 8 (43:02):
Always consistent, the services off the charts and if you
have to wait, they got a great bar too. It's
a great, great restaurant. I love Carbones. But like you know,
when I was growing up in Vegas and when you
were there, you know, Vegas was buffets or you know,
ninety nine cent breakfasts and things like that. Now it's
(43:24):
all the best restaurants in the world there, the best restaurant's,
the best shopping.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
You know.
Speaker 5 (43:29):
Now there's live sports there, you.
Speaker 8 (43:31):
Know, and when people are talking about Vegas, the Raiders
are playing again, so you know, all their home games
are going to be sold out and packed and people
coming in from all over the country. And if you're
if you're a fan of the Patriots, right and there's
an away game that you're going to go to, you're
going to the Vegas.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Away we said for years.
Speaker 8 (43:52):
And you're flying on Thursday, you know, have a blast,
go to the game on Sunday and then fly home.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
By the way that was I know what you were?
Torn Vegas again? New England? Who are you rooting?
Speaker 5 (44:01):
I'm not torn at all. It's New England.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Okay, you're not torn at all. You know we lost.
Speaker 5 (44:07):
We just lost Sunday to the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Are you you know Rabel?
Speaker 5 (44:11):
No, we'll know.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Oh he's a butt kicker.
Speaker 5 (44:13):
Yeah I heard.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Oh there's no nonsense with Rabel, sharp as attack.
Speaker 8 (44:17):
Well, I'm close to Max Crosby, so if we're gonna
get beat anybody, at least it's Max gros.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Nobody better in the league than Max Fross. Love great guy. Hey, congrats,
we'll be watching the fight. Haven't seen you in a while.
You look fantastic.
Speaker 5 (44:30):
Thank you brother, You too, man.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
We're doing okay.
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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