Robbie Fox | Life In Barstool Sports | Dave Portnoy, Dana White & The UFC's Future | Energized Show

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What is up and welcome to the latest Energized Show! On this episode we have Barstool Sports' MMA fanatic Robbie Fox on the show to discuss Life at Barstool Sports, Working with David Portnoy, Hanging out with Dana White & The future of the UFC. Check it out, enjoy, subscribe…

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okay what's going on guys and welcome to a brand new episode of energize ross introduce the guest man we've got the bar still weapon fight island flying ufc apex attendant son of a gone that is mr robbie fox robbie how you doing i'm doing well thanks for having me on the show guys how are you doing great man we're happy to have you great it was a great intro another one of our yeah it was a great intro yeah i may or may not have ripped off the nature boy ric flair but you know since you're an avid wwe fan robbie i have to do it just for you yeah for for people who aren't aware of robbie like he's doing amazing stuff for personal sports an avid wrestling fan i have an mma fan and today we just thought we'd get robbie on just do a bit of a collab go over everything how rob got into barcelona sports everything about barcelona sports the ufc mma just the general crack so if you're new to the show make sure to like and subscribe russ do you want to kick it off yeah robbie um first of all tell us how did working for barcelo sports come about because it's such a big organization uh and it's actually like broken over into europe as well with the likes of troops now from our or from af tv now uh representing over there he is like bonafide in san diego but uh it's great to see he's the man troops is for the friggin best we just did rough and rowdy with him and it was his first time like sort of on the call he was he was absolutely hysterical but i have sort of a unique story getting into barstool i got super uh into barstool when i was like a teenager i was introduced to the website by my older cousins my much older cousins who probably shouldn't have introduced me to the website at this point but i was like 12 years old so i was like this is so funny i saw like dave and big kfc they really only had like a dozen employees maybe and they were all spread out around america like they weren't bought by any big company they all worked from home except dave who worked in like this really crappy office in boston and i just started emailing them and being like i would love to work for you guys like from the time i was 13 and i was like i would send them t-shirt designs i would send them sample blogs i would send them a sample podcast i would send them like whatever i could think of to get my foot in the door because i looked at them as like it looked like everyone was just getting paid to be friends it was like they were like friend or like frenemies at least because some some of the people obviously have rivalries within barstool but it's all like fun and games at the end of the day and i got my first email back from big cat when i was 14 and he was like dude you're 14. we can't hire you uh like thanks though and i just kept sending stuff so like even in high school eventually some of my stuff got through they've used one of my shirt designs he sent me a check i remember like when i was a junior in high school for a couple hundred bucks for a shirt design and i was like oh my god i don't even want to cash this because he signed it but i have to because i i would need the gas money you know um and eventually they got bought by the churning company or bought out by the turning company where they moved to new york the whole company moved to new york which was perfect for me because i grew up 14 miles outside the city oh my god absolutely yes so i was like oh my god they're going to be moving to a big place they're going to be moving to a big office they're definitely going to need interns maybe this is my foot in the door so i emailed everyone and eventually the golf guy riggs wrote back and was like hey i need an intern and i had in my resume like some podcasting experience because i had been emailing barstool and just doing my sample podcast for so many years that i had eventually learned how to edit and he was like we're doing a golf podcast like can you come in and do the edits for that i was like absolutely no doubt about it so as the intern for like golf world news politics everything i don't know anything about um and all the golf fans always get so angry at me because the first golf course i ever stepped foot on was where they play the masters at augustine pretty sure i'm pretty sure seeing this video yeah yeah it was like the first i was like i mean this is amazing this is what golf is like and they're like no this is not what golf is like this is what heaven is like um but yeah and eventually i just started like trying to kind of weasel my way into writing i'd be like hey nobody was writing about mma at the time on the site it was still a very small company i think when i started there was like 26 employees total and now bar stool is the point where i think we have over 200. um but it was just like i don't know can i write one blog a day can i write maybe two blogs a day and then it kept going from there i made a couple videos and that caught the eye of dave as i was like an intern he's like who's this intern making mma videos where he's getting beat up over here uh super kicked in at wrestling shows and whatnot and he told me he's like let's take you off the foreplay podcast and let's just put you on your own content things see how you do mma wrestling whatever you want to cover and that's kind of how that all started that was almost four years ago now i started over four years ago but uh the full-time thing will be four years ago i think this month there's a russ there's a lot of things that like dissect there especially rob could you just turn frame from say you're around sorry 14 until you eventually got in the door with the golf stuff like what was oh yeah yeah yeah dears tony's fine between that those two so i think the first actual like uh application i sent i was 13 and i got my foot in the door when i was 18. i was in college i just graduated high school i didn't want to go to college i knew like i was just school was never like something that uh was good for me like such an anxious kid in school such a they call it what a bad test taker i wasn't you know i wasn't the smartest at algebra and geometry and sciences so i'm preaching to the corner here like i was like man am i going to go to college right now like all i wanted to do was uh go to go to community college for long enough to where i could get my foot in the door at barstool and that luckily happened right after my first semester like actually in my first semester i got the internship and then like as soon as my second semester started i got the full-time offer and i remember i was in uh so i was 18 years old at that point and i was in my ceo's office erica nardini and she made me the offer it was like the greatest feeling in the world right i've been applying for five years at this point like week weekly for five years um and getting so many emails back because we're like they're like they're like oh my god this kid's so annoying the first time i met dave i was like hi nice to meet you i'm robbie and he's like [ __ ] robbie fox he's like did we hire you he's like you've been emailing me for so long jesus christ he was like you have the worst he said you have the worst shirt designs i've ever seen i was like but i made it in um but it was like i got the offer i left her office i dropped out of college and then i called my mom and i was like i have great news for you and i have news that is great for me and that you're not going to be the happiest about but i am hired full-time at barstool and i already dropped out of college she was like oh my god you're going to like continue with online school right because barstool at that point still like four years ago even wasn't as big as it is now yeah and i think there was like part of her that was still like oh my god like what is my son doing he's getting beat up by mma fighters over here um and now she loves it like by the to the point where when i almost got arrested outside the conor mcgregor protest she just texted me great content like she's all in we'll definitely get into that robbie ross once you make it five years just growing and making sure like just not giving up and then eventually getting your dream job well i suppose sometimes when you are tracing your dream i mean you can't give up on it and you have to be persistent and i think two things that are key to anyone being successful in life are persistence and passion and robbie has both those in abundance which is everyone from the story just told so i think you know when you put those two things into perspective you know he was never going to give up you know i mean he was going to camp outside bar still sports before they were they gave him a t-shirt went come on in you're one of us you know so uh look absolutely incredible story um like uh what did you know by the way robbie i'm 22. turned 22 this summer oh unbelievable like i could definitely see you having like some massive successful career just you know you've already had a successful career compared to some people who were in the game probably 30 or 40 years longer than the emperor i i can i can just see it going from you know strength to strength because at the end of the day you do have that passion and i think now that you've already got the job you know your passion is undeniable and i think that's something that is we greatly admire anyway and that's why we wanted to have you on because we're like that guy just like he just gives it sucks every time we see him yeah i appreciate you saying that that's very kind of you and i always like say and people at barcelo actually say like um like say what you will about ravi fox you could watch his friggin fight reactions and be like look at this [ __ ] twerp that they got covering the fights what in the world is going on you could watch his nerdy reactions me balling to the end of avengers end game and like say what you will about him he's got passion he's unabashedly himself and that's like i think like pretty much the key to my success at barcelo has been just like being pretty genuine about it being you know i'm never trying to be like oh yeah i'm an mma analyst i've [ __ ] trained and i've got this uh i've got a blue belt in jiu-jitsu and i've tapped out black belt i'm like no i don't know anything about the intricacies of it i'll interview everyone about it i'll try to get the intel from them i'll try to dumb it down to the people that i want to get into the sport that's who i'm mostly writing for mostly doing my videos for the people that are like what is this crazy like mma guy doing and maybe they watch the pay-per-view because of that and then maybe they're like oh my god this is awesome and then boom we got a guy reading blogs every guy or girl reading blogs every single day because now they're into mma um those are the people i want to get so i'm always just pretty genuine about them like i'm a big fan i don't know much about what i'm talking about i think that comes through in my dana white interviews too i feel like i ask the questions that like the fans want which pisses off some of the media cause they're like ask him about fight or pay ask him about this ask him about that but i always look at it like i've described my interviews more as like late night talk show than they are journalistic you know i'm looking for laughs more than anything and that that's what i mean by that yeah no just the passion you do like you exude on camera is unreal and then like the platform you're on there or barstool is just taking you to another level having the inside access like going into the warm room with dana white like that's something me and ross like would love to do it amongst nerdy everybody look at the board who's fighting next tell the lads but like yeah like one person we have to talk about is very important like what he's doing first of all what he's doing right now for um independent businesses do you want to just explain to the people who like follow our stuff not aren't really aware of dave what he's doing for independent businesses in america yeah so this all started with obviously the shutdowns in america dude covert are pretty harsh especially on like the the coast la in new york city restaurants are just getting crushed like businesses are going under because they put the restrictions on they'll say no dining at all then they'll do the 25 then they'll do um only outdoor dining if you build a structure for outdoor basically just businesses are getting crushed left and right and they've made a video kind of calling out i guess the people that are making these laws that are making these restaurants go under these small businesses because they've built barstool from the ground up you know newspaper originally he's handed it out you could check out i think there's the documentaries on youtube now yeah um it's pretty well done it's yeah yeah um and it's short too the episodes are like 10 20 minutes so you get the story pretty quickly and he has that passion for small businesses still like very much still truly so he said you know what are you doing you got to keep these open and i think like a multi-billionaire a multi-millionaire said hey put your money where your mouth is let's start a fun you put 500 000 in i'll put 500 000 in and dave said let's do it i'll start the bar stool fund put 500 thousand dollars of zone money in right away um immediately the first restaurant that he decided we're gonna help was barely's which is if you watch his pizza reviews he always says all right frankie the cameraman frankie has a restaurant a pizza restaurant that has been in his family for i don't three four generations i feel like it's been there since uh you know they had the islanders stanley cup parades in the 80s and they have the pictures of people holding the signs on the roof of it it's like an iconic long island restaurant there's a great video of his dad reacting to like dave basically making the fun for him to make sure hey we're going to save this restaurant and you know it's emotional and you could feel the passion and now it's gained so much traction that there's over 30 million dollars in the fund we've helped i think over 200 small businesses and if you go on his twitter the barstool twitter tweets him out all the time i retweet him all the time he will facetime the people that own the small businesses to let him know the news and these videos are like in a world where you know twitter is always hostile and politics are running rampant left and right they're the most feel-good videos every time like i get emotional every time i watch people you know crying being like oh my god we were gonna close next month and now you saved us and the way the barstool fund works is as long as the money is in the fund which we have 30 million dollars now the money is you know there every month that the restaurants are still shut down due to covet and the restrictions are still up and they're struggling barstool is going to check in and give them the money they need to keep paying their staff keep the the payroll going until the cove restrictions are done so it is honestly like the coolest thing in my four years at bar stool i've ever seen the company do in my 10 years of being a fan of barstool that i've ever seen the company do and just that like every single day these videos are coming out still like 10 videos a day it's crazy and every single one hits every single one i'm like damn i'm proud to be part of this company that's unbelievable and it's great to see you know well first of all it's an unbelievable p or something but it's not a p or stone like you can actually see the passion that dave has that like he wants to help um helping people at times like this are what really make businesses and brands who they are and the show and it really shows their true colors and barcelona sports trailholders and absolutely incredible and the amount of people he's keeping him work probably in the thousands really you know i mean and yeah those new yorkers need to eat you know i mean and you know you don't want to lose those top quality restaurants so it's very very important i mean where's robbie gonna get his pizza from if all the pizza plates are closed down i know you're domino's get out of here no way robbie like when you look at dave and like how he's like he's um like his inner core has come across to stay the same but his passion has gotten bigger and bigger and nothing is too small it's all it's very like it's almost as if he's looking in the mirror a day in a white like they're very it could be a boston thing or not it's very very similar things but like working with dave and like known dave what about him is it that just like lights the fire in his stomach because he can retire like what he's doing now with them sorry excuse me your mouth for tick tock josh richard he's doing a podcast there oh yeah yeah yeah yeah the way he like he's so diverse obviously he originally started a newspaper but now he's going into take talk and podcasts and no stone is left unturned like and he can retire now like what is it about dave that keeps him going and what a man it's an interesting question it's a great question i think it's a few things i think one is work ethic is just insane i think when you start something as a newspaper and you build it up to the point where like you're ringing the stock bell at the stock exchange and you're in a publicly traded company and you're on radio going i have unlimited money he always loves to say that line he goes i have unlimited money like i can't spend the money that i have um when you go from that level you got to have a certain level of like just drive that can't go away you know what i mean it's almost like to make an mma comparison like conor mcgregor was fighting dustin poiriers like the hell would he fight one of the best in the world he could just go chill on that yacht forever but he still loves the game i think dave still loves the game i think the pen deal that happened so we got bought by chernin like that was like four years ago that was when before i even joined and then recently penn like acquired invested in the company and made it way way way bigger and that is a gambling company so barcelona leaned into the gambling content is being legalized across america and that was big for dave as well because he's such a gambler at heart and being able to like actually finally be able to make content talking about this is the line that i bet on this is what i did and having the opportunity i think even to make those around him like share as much of the successes he's got he's got such loyalty to those around him like he really like in 20 years i was gonna say 15 but now it's like 20 years has barely fired like anybody the people that were with the company in the beginning are still with the company today and the people that did get fired like you kind of look at all the examples and you're like all right that was like a situation that was this but i can count on one hand how many in 20 years so it's like i think there's an aspect and this is me speculating but i think there's an aspect of him having loyalty to those around him being like damn i have unlimited money now let me make these people millionaires even he's even said like after the pen deal he wanted to make sure that all of the people that were originally in the office with him in boston became millionaires which pretty cool boss thing to do for you yeah absolutely he seems like a guy who like wakes up at six o'clock in the morning and then goes to bed at 12 o'clock that night like yeah i feel like yeah sleep a lot right now especially like i was with him uh rough and ratty just this past weekend and he's still like he's calling all of these businesses every day like i said like maybe eight businesses a day so he's making the videos for them he's still blogging he's still doing the piece reviews he really is like uh what do they call that the hardest working man to show business is either him or frank the tank who frank the tank did uh uh raw dog and hot dog review after ruff and rowdy it was it was tremendous one in the morning he went to sheets to do it and it was like a gas station hot dog that's where you get the best ones but like the thing is with dave like like he's after creating something that's so unbelievable that um it's going obviously around the world like myself and ross here we we originally started doing like um uh radio course together just as a duo and we wanted to get on radio and this is even like no one was even we weren't even doing instagram and then also when we move on to instagram we're like here you know what we don't want to talk about kim kardashian we don't want to talk about that sort of uh entertainment world we want to just get into like the sports and the crack and then especially mma is blown up here and like like we both have ambitions for it to be like the biggest in ireland let alone let's see how we get on the rest of the world but like uh conquer your own country first and then let's see what happens with the rest but like that passion that dave shares it's it's like it goes to show that like anything can be built online if you put hard work and passion into it and that's what a load of fighters these days you know yourself are trying to build up their their brands but they have to get themselves out there numerous ones starting podcast as well absolutely like persistence too like that's the that's the key is just and uh i learned like looking back and like i think i was probably persistent in the annoying way not the uh like hard working way but i was still sending like examples like i see all the time people will send like uh what what can i do to work for barstool and it's like i tell them all the time it's like act like you're working for barstool already don't say like i work for barstool come into the border i mean yeah yeah don't do that yeah yeah hey dave but just like the the internet is out there so it's like you have pretty much all the same stuff that we have not that maybe not you can't get credentialed for something but most of the best barstool videos are just like stuff we filmed on the street like the conor mcgregor protest video we didn't need any sort of special capabilities to do that you could have filmed that with an iphone it was just the the fact that it happened was like something funny so i just tell people like the internet's out there start a podcast i say to everyone should start a podcast even if you're like even if you don't put it out even if you it's like a creed thoughts from the office where it's like you're typing into microsoft word and you never press publish i just think it's cool to look back like five years after you do an episode with one of your buddies and you're like that's like a funny conversation me and one of my friends had five years ago you could show to like someone 20 years down the line and laugh at the stupid jokes you made back then i i and podcasting like i've been literally podcasting since i was 12. which what a weird gen z thing to say but it's like some of them like most fun i've ever had some of the best laughs i've ever had like oh my god i i you know would never stop yeah russ like we've been doing this like for about four or five years and for about three of them years we didn't know what we were doing but we were doing something so like it's brought us everywhere else isn't it like yeah really has like we've been over to or like i i suppose uh new york was absolutely crazy we went over to ufc 217 robbie i'm like oh i was there oh were you yeah you probably saw us we were probably the crazy irish guys um but like i won a competition then like we met like your ifa or demetrius johnson joseph benavidez forrest griffin bruce buffer dino cormier chris boyd and robert whitaker we met all these guys on the purple carpet because it was um it was oh it was a metro pcs that's it metro pcs yeah yeah bruce both announced me on stage and everything and then like we had these unbelievable seats that like uh we were at the fighter walk out as well and then afterwards like we got voted tj did the show's after party it was just like an opportunity what we get what a whirlwind yeah we still don't know how we got away with it to this day so what we did on on top of that you know if you we always say if you ask is going over on the plane like what's the best case scenario that would never have been said never in a million years i mean even the the card itself getting the three title fights the three insane finishes that pop for the joanna like surprise and then people going nuts for gsp choke and bisping out that was incredible i went with trent my roommate actually um and that was like through i think it was like another thing where i felt just as lucky it was through like a bar still ad deal where they were like hey you gotta tweet a couple times for i think it was reebok from the event here's tickets like oh oh my god this is the greatest thing of all time and then we got to watch that card so it was like i'll never forget i'll never forget either there was a woman sitting next to me like we were pretty low like on the floor um and there was a woman sitting next to me that didn't stand up for the whole card she was probably 70 years old i was like whose grandma is this literally she's gotta be one of the fighter's grandmas when gsp won the fight she was jumping higher than i could have ever jumped it was crazy she was maybe like just gsp's biggest fan tsp yeah we were actually sitting beside this this polish couple and i actually remember because i think perry was like rubbing vapes off your mouth [Laughter] yeah of course of course i don't remember sitting there and i was like it was like these are the nicest 13 beers i've ever had in my entire life and uh i remember you weren't lost and i'm like no way and only like afterwards because you obviously watched most of my home i didn't realize like people were like that was the best card ever and i was like geez that card was brilliant because you're there for and you're in the moment you don't actually realize the reaction to people at home because you're living that and that's one thing that i think at you at live ufc event you're like that was incredible but then when you hear what people are saying at home and like jesus so i just witnessed the greatest card of all time there was definitely up there free on news yeah yeah unbelievable and three finishes too it wasn't like no boring fights it was normal it was crazy it was crazy because we had uh stephen wonderboy thompson on the podcast live before and we're like and i was like yeah we saw you and i was like [ __ ] we actually did yeah i mean it's crazy because that car was stacked yeah there's plenty more to come though lads robbie you've obviously mentioned a couple of times there for the videos that went viral when you were like saying free conor mcgregor for anyone who hasn't seen this i don't know where you've been living i'm sure you have seen it can you sort of tell us about that video on how because you've done it a couple of times now haven't you there was a bit different yeah so it was a it was a trilogy i did you know as an homage to star wars i i made it a trilogy um no i did so the first protest was after he threw the dolly at khabib's bus in brooklyn he had to come back to brooklyn to go to court there because he got charged of whatever assault whatever it might have been and i found out about that like a week before it was like very recent i was like is he really gonna be in brooklyn he's gonna come to brooklyn like he has to be there in person and i looked into it and people were like yup there might be reporters outside or something so i was expecting it to be a mob scene like i've seen like on tv when you see like a big murder trial i thought it was gonna look like that like everyone there but i showed up it was like the night before i made signs that said free connor and i texted a few camera men at barstool i was like i think it would be funny if we showed it and protested it was kind of ripping off an old bar stool idea actually because like dave and dave feidelberg gaz and hank protested when tom brady tom brady for a long time exactly yeah okay that's what i thought of and i was like they protested the nfl what if i protested like on vape on behalf of uh tom brady i protested on behalf of conor mcgregor so in my mind i was like we're doing like a little new new school generation thing and then i showed up and like i was the only conor mcgregor fan there really it was just a few media members it was way less people than i thought so i was able to make way much more noise than i thought yeah i just started screaming the most ridiculous [ __ ] you could imagine i was like you know the the bus driver was asking connor to throw the dolly up to him and he wanted him to hand it to him i said it was cgi i said i haven't seen the footage that suggests that conor mcgregor wasn't a deep fake in that video and it wasn't done by khabib and now i start saying all this and i'm just like i'm thinking of the most ridiculous stuff i can imagine and the reporters are writing it down and we look later that day it's in like rt sports like one mcgregor fan says the bus driver actually asked for the dolly and all all chargers should be pressed on to him and they wrote it so seriously it was so funny i think that's the first time i ever because his lawyer came out and he like led me to the bail bonds place to meet him and then the second time he had to go back and that's the time that i almost got arrested because i brought the bull horn they like apprehended me and then gave me a ticket and then the third one was uh my own court date where i had to go to court for getting thrown into court for protest and the court date where we also then the third one had za come to protest my court date and when's his court thank you i don't know yeah i don't know he never got one he got away yeah there was enough media there for uh the robbie fox course exactly exactly yeah like that's just the intuition to go and like uh do something that out of the ordinary and for the pop it's it's so creative like you're actually in the perfect like world working with barcelona with so much creative people to be like maybe this maybe that maybe that because like myself and ross we only really sort of bounce ideas off each other and then try and grow from there whereas you have a whole team it's unbelievable but like it's like a writer's room like we we have talked about it in that way like if you ever have a funny idea you could bounce it off like some of the funniest people that i've ever met in my life like and i could just text them like that it's like big cat roan pft what do you think oh my god like that you know sounding board is all you could ask for it's almost like the modern day saturday night live cast like something like that that's what dave said his dream was when uh oh wait oh yeah i swear to god i just said that randomly originally when the when a churning deal happened so that was like before i even joined he said i am going to turn barstool this tiny company this tiny blog into the modern day snl where these all the personalities you're going to look at as like cast members that was his goal he's doing a really good job one thing we'll say is like ireland is actually screaming out for something like that it really really is like there's there's nothing for like males between like 18 34 like that's moist that's my [ __ ] you know i mean yeah there isn't like all the shows over here are so bad and it's like it was actually you actually just mentioned orti like we actually pay like the general public pays 40 as part of our taxes and like some of those guys are on like blockbuster wages now might not seem like a lot to you but like some of those presenters are on like 450 000 euros a year and like they host one show on friday night and maybe a radio show and it's so generically bad it's freudian by the way that does sound like a lot to me do you see the shoe box that is my room like what do you think of the um guy over here i'm more thinking like jay leno or uh you know oh yeah yeah yeah compared to them robbie you're in the ballpark and you're you're only just getting warmed up you know you've you've so much time left in this game you know think about what the ufc and the mma will be in 10 years time like they'll be on the moon like this right yeah still involved but like uh yeah no as we were saying there must have been like we're trying to cover that niche that like that that irish market of like people our age are like asking for and like uh we're trying to get as big as possible like obviously for like provide for our families later on in life but this is what happens you just do a weekly grind you know how it is but like obviously conor mcgregor the biggest forester in mma right now uh when did you first see him because now you're like interviewing him on file and stuff and by the way because we're a good bit into the show if you are new like and subscribe because robbie was meant to come on the show fight week ross we had this huge youtube yeah 57 fight week robbie didn't show up he texted us once we were done he was like that was asleep and you're like you know what it was like it was like you know in wrestling when uh when when the champion is partnered with the number one contender and their taxi match maybe against the tag champs uh you know the champion comes down to the ring first and then the uh no more contenders music hits and he never shows up oh man it's like the week before wrestlemania always it's like before the end it's like oh man he didn't show up now they gotta fight yeah i'm sorry guys abu dhabi i'll tell you what going to fight island the the 15 16 18 hour flight over there whatever and then being nine hours ahead and trying to stay an east coast standard time because that's when the conor mcgregor fight would happen but events later in the week happening or even earlier in the week happening like in normal time it sent me for loop even a week i never got jet lagged before in my entire life flown a decent amount never got jet lag like i think jet lag is a myth oh my god the week after i flew back from abu dhabi i was a zombie i was like a walking corpse oh i actually said to party but we didn't hear from you ago he's probably asleep like uh he's like i said but uh yeah what's called tell us when was the first time you laid always on mystic mac so as a fan the first time i ever saw conor was his entry to the ufc i knew him well i guess a little bit before that but when it was when he signed to the ufc there was a little bit of buzz about them that's what everyone says now they all pretend they knew him before the ufc i did not i don't know if you debut russ everyone's debut oh yeah yeah yeah i didn't see the amateur debut it was it was when when the ufc signed him and there was buzz about like ufc just signed this loudmouth conor mcgregor from ireland um so i check him out i watch a few of his interviews i watch a few of his knockouts i'm like cool i watch a few his fights and the the ufc debut i was like amazing next fight amazing and when it got to the poirier fight i was like man this guy seems like the real deal he's trash talking like a wwe wrestler that was like my main appeal at first i was like man he's he he's like a heel right now this is amazing he was wearing the suits and i was like i remember being reminded of chris jericho when he started coming out in the suits with the short hair i was like this guy is just like he talks the [ __ ] and then he just backs it up he goes and he does exactly what he says i'm gonna do so the night of the pourier fight i was like if he does this he's my guy he's just my guy from here on out he gets done obviously i went i bought the uh the shirt he wore in the octagon that night it was like the playing card where he was the you know dethroned fighting guy or stuff that that's wrong here was quality wasn't it oh such a great shirt and how about this story for you the morning of ufc 257 i go to the w hotel which is the fighter hotel not where we were staying to interview matt fravola who was like a stooly big barstool fan i interviewed him exactly so i go over he says come up by the pool it'll be like a fun backdrop i said perfect go over two seconds after i get there all connors bodyguards walk up and we're the only ones by the pool at this point really and then connor d and the kids walk up they walk right over to us i'm wearing the shirt that we're talking about right now the deep throat shirt because i was like a [ __ ] fight morning i was getting excited about it right but now connor walks up i'm like oh i feel like such a mark i wish i was trying to hide it you know jump into the pool and it was the first thing he said to me he walked over and he's like what's up robbie this is like the day after i got to interview him he's like what's up robbie and he goes oh you got the old school shirt and he was like oh he's like dethroned he's like you know i was too young in the game to sign away that logo i don't know what i was thinking he's like i should get that back one day and uh he and then he like went into mording meditation and i just got out while i was ahead i was like that was good interaction with the champ champ he knows i'm not a lunatic now i'm getting out i'm not even saying goodbye it must be so hard not to linger around him as well it was a little bit when he started meditating i think i lingered for about 30 seconds and was just like oh yeah he looked ready for that fight and then i was like all right this is creepy kids are right there i'm leaving you stand around them and you're feeling richer but yeah this one will say transitions into a perfect question from craig strain19 what does robbie tink is next for conor and does he see him as the lightweight champ again shout out for the question craig so if you if you asked me that question right after the fight i might have said i i think nate diaz is next for connor and i don't know if he's ever the lightweight champ again but i've watched the fight back a few times i've marinated on my thoughts i've re-uh redialed my brain into being a mcgregor super fan to the point where listen if khabib is retired if he's really done if we've really seen the last of khabib that makes dustin poirier the best 155 in the world right now right like without question i would say after the run he's been on mcgregor looked damn good against him so if he could just you know do away with those leg kicks if he could figure out a way to neutralize those in the next fight yeah he could definitely be the lightweight champ again so i'm gonna say what's next for mcgregor it might be the trilogy with poor yeah because now he's saying you know we've heard kavanaugh say he's already obsessing over it kind of like he did the diaz fight he's harassing people he wants the rematch poirier has said it's one of the only fights that interests him he wants a big payday it just did 1.6 million buys for the ufc so it makes sense for connor it makes sense for poirier it makes sense for the ufc the question is like do you want to do that right now do they want to risk conor losing because man if he loses twice to pourier twice in a row in the casual public side like to mma fans will be like okay he just lost the [ __ ] best in the world twice he might be done in the eyes of a lot of casual fans they might view him as like a ronda rousey after amanda nunez situation which i don't think would be the case i think connor could still hang around and fight ally quinta for all i care and we'll do the whole build up like it was cowboy and that'll be fun exactly but uh you know it's it's just a matter of like what the ufc wants to do whether or not they want to risk the public looking at him as like a a washed up husband when really he's just slightly losing to the best in the world after almost knocking them out robbie i have one massive question for you which i'm actually going to know right you're probably one of maybe 50 people if not less who are non-ufc fighters who have been to the apex and to floyd islands during these during the pandemic what's the difference between the two and then which do you actually prefer that's a great question so the difference between the two right away is the apex the coveted precautions are in my opinion they were like safe the lockdowns were as strict but they weren't as um like gruesome to go through because when you're on the other side of the world and me that was the first time i ever was out of america so i just wasn't used to this the tv had like eight channels none of them were in english the wi-fi in the hotel was not very good and a lot of the internet was banned over in abu dhabi so a lot of it was just me like staring at a wall like the fight island experience was just like staring at a wall looking out the window and i was on that weird sleep schedule so it was always night when i was looking at the window there's nothing interesting to see i was outside the week i was on fight island for less than five minutes total like we we just weren't outside it was crazy the event itself was way cooler than it was in the apex because you have even the 2000 fans in the 18 18 000 seat arena were cooler than like the i don't know 12 people that are in the apex that's cool in a fight club way especially for like the main event the rest of the card just didn't feel real it felt like i was at a high school wrestling meet or like an exhibition of some sort it was just kind of strange in the apex in eddie hot arena i mean that was that was like by the time conor walked out and the crowd was chanting the olays and waiting for dustin to walk out i felt like it's that conor mcgregor fight the energy was actually there i will say the wednesday card the uh who was it uh michael chiesa and jeff dean magnate magnet neil magne i always neil magney jeff neal it's like the tongue twister um during that card someone dropped a plate or some kind of silverware in one of the suites and all the way down by the octagon we heard it so like there was a weird dynamic in that point where you're like huh we someone just dropped the plate ten stories up and we heard it but for the conor fight the energy was there so i would say i prefer um the apex experience especially because as a big fan of marijuana that's legal in las vegas and it's highly high illegal in abu dhabi so i didn't have any of that over there i prefer that outside experience the event experience it's way cooler in abu dhabi you know what that actually makes sense well first of all i don't know why but like i always thought if we went to fight i don't i don't know why we've been like will you be staying in the w as well even though you you don't and then also i kind of thought that too you don't [Laughter] the hotel's not bad that you stay in though it's actually pretty nice when you watch it on tv i always feel like one no no yeah there's a content there's a bigger feeling island that's all it was sometimes there's a bigger feel on flight oil cage sizes as well wouldn't have been smaller oh yeah yeah you got the small even smaller cage in the apex yeah yeah but i get okay robbie like obviously you got to go like get both experiences in and you're going to get many many more but like how does it feel to be like uh on first name basis with dana white who's just doing amazing things these days that like that's like some fake life stuff that doesn't even like i still like i posted an instagram story the other day and i called uh what did i what did i say it was a red red hot chili peppers album and i was like this is one of the greatest albums of all time and dana just did the reaction thing and he put a hundred i was just like what he's reading my instagram stories he's like that's the craziest stuff in the world like i'm like i said i'm an n a fan i don't pretend to be anything else so the fact that dana white is like helping me out he helped me get that connor interview he was like let me put in a good word like let me see if conor has a few extra minutes like the fact that he's actually helping out in that way the fact that he gives me the time that he gives me and honestly like the respect that he gives me at this point i feel like he understands that i'm not ever gonna try to be the gotcha journalist that's trying to you know get a big hit piece quote out of him so he i think gives me more access maybe the office stuff where he like you guys said like he let me into the office the war room stuff he gave me a tour of the apex later on this summer that stuff is like i think there's just like a respect he has for the the level of passion i have for the sport too because when i talk to him about it even when the cameras are off he'll be like what do you think about the main event next week and i'll tell him exactly what i think oh my god i think this guy's gonna [ __ ] this guy up and he'll either be like yeah you were wrong about the last seven team you told me or it'll be like oh yeah i'm excited you're excited let me know what you think afterwards like he actually the comparison you made to dave and dana white very accurate i see similarities between them all the time because dana white still has such a passion about like he wants his product to be good he's still involved in the nitty gritty he's involved in the behind the scenes and he's sort of the public figure for the company as well like there's any i mean his relationship with the media does you know you don't even have to say anything there dave and him very similar in that right so the that's a perfect comparison i always say and they get along as well like they they've obviously had a lot of interactions um dana white donated a hundred thousand dollars to the bar still fund and that was that was a funny story as well so when he put out when dana white put out the video calling out the media which a lot of people were very upset about remember when he like made him look like they were like the mafia mafioso bosses in a god f godfather movie yeah um when he put that out i sent it to dave and this was in the early stages of the barstool fund when dave was like calling out all of his rich friends to donate and i said you should recreate this video but instead of calling out like media members call out your rich friends that you want to donate to the barstool fund and his response was just why don't you call out dana white he's just like ah he put me in that spot so i was like all right [ __ ] it i'm gonna do anything for the company anything for the boss and i tweeted at dana white uh listen i'm not rich but i do have a rich uncle like we got the bar still fun going i know you're a small business guy what do you got and he messaged me right away i heard dave actually uh quote tweeted it and he said if you need me to help help break his leg to find his wallet let me know robbie and dana then responded to that and he said tell tough guy portnoy to relax and give me his number i'm in so i gave him dave's number and he called dave and he said how much do you want and dave was like oh like you know whatever you can give us twenty five thousand fifty thousand a hundred thousand dan it was like a hundred thousand done on the spot so he was like in like that they have that same like respect for hey we built businesses from the ground up i think yeah i say they connect as well with the brady thing as well the brady thing the boston thing of course all the sports stuff like that's perfect and that's also i think people don't realize this part of my connection to dana is in the same way that dave and him have the boston sports stuff me and dana like a lot of the same music and that's a lot of what we talk about off camera like as soon as i show up he'll be like i was just listening to this red hot chili pepper song i was just listening to this reach against the machine album like what do you think about it and i'll say something about the bassline and he'll be like oh [ __ ] didn't notice that before or that's awesome i was at a concert for this and they did that like we like all the same music and that helps our relationship i start a lot of my interviews with like little questions about the music just to make it more comfortable there you go that is unbelievable sorry you guys i don't know if you probably did notice my internet went there a second ago but uh like it's so crazy you have almost instant access to one of the most powerful people in sports um [Music] i don't know like uh i don't know what i do if i attain a voice i don't i don't abuse it i don't i i definitely never really reach out yeah no robbie's like obviously you haven't haven't done that like who knows what way the landscape is going to change over the next few years i know they're opening stuff in asia like like who knows what to use that the uc is going to look like in the next years just just a question like how long how much longer do you think dana white's going to be around in the game well how much longer was it or how how long ago was it that he signed that the wme deal at this point because he didn't he signed an extension i think he actually saw an extension around the mazdale diaz fight it was like a seven year extension or something it was a long one i think dana white's gonna be in the ufc for a long time over past 20 30 yeah yeah i do i think i think i think like 20 35 i think he's almost a vince mcmahon type to make another wrestling comparison where like he might be 70 years old calling fighters kids and like trash and performances on the contender series ross what about you how much longer do you think dana's gonna be uh kicking ass literally she's um oh i think 2030 is a good over under and to be honest and i probably bet on the over as well i think you know when you look at the young stars coming through but maybe they're not actually that young and age but young in terms of where they're at their career and like israel like he always says you know you might see the big stars leaving but he's always got the next ones lined up and i think as long as there's stars in the sport that interesting he'll hang around for also he still owns a certain percentage with wme so i think you know as long as he's still financially invested and emotionally invested i think he'll hang around and also he does such a good job whoever actually does take over from next is a poison chalice i don't know if you watch um soccer robbie bought like whoever was going to take over as manager from manchester or some person from alex ferguson and manchester united was never going to do a good job he was there for what was about 23 years 24 years see me 26. the last the next guy lasted 18 months so i mean oh man it's not an easy job to do basically dana's job isn't not a one-person job once he steps out yeah agreed just because we're about to hit the error right i'm gonna just name some of the upcoming title fights that are coming up over the next month or two and one non-title fight and i just want to know what your predictions are for right so uh i'm gonna ask robbie first right this weekend's ufc 258 headliner for the world welterweight total kamara usman against gilbert burns robbie who'd you have this weekend i'm gonna take usman i think at this point you kind of have to be a fool to pick against him or at least if i did pick against him and then he went out and put on a performance like he did against woodley where he just like grapples him into the cage and works him against the fence or any of that stuff i would feel like an idiot for picking against him i think you got to go uphill but i love fights like this against teammates that have sparred a ton as like the wrestling fan in me i immediately play it up into like the edge randy orton like they know each other's best weaknesses they know each other's best strengths you know they're gonna neutralize and so like i get geeked out about fights like this i'm very very very excited for this this is like out of i'm sure out of the eight fights you're gonna give me one of the ones i'm definitely most excited about is this one same here ross what about this weekend using burns oh i think it's about time we start putting some respect on the nigerian nightmare's name camaro oozeman i think not only will he win he'll win across the board 50 45 he has won the most dominant champions in ufc history he is undefeated under that banner he will remain and still ufc welterweight champion kamaruz i'll agree with you lads especially euros because i'm liking the shirt uh then okay again ufc 259 lads uh for the bantamweight title people is taking on alderman sterling this is a great fight robbie who do you have for this one it's an awesome fight i gotta show my new york bias i gotta go with al jamaine sterling i do really think that he has the tools to win the streak that he's been on the tear that he's been on is incredible and i would love for that corey sandhagen rematch to happen because that first fight was that one round like blitz kind of a berserker of a brock lesnar uh goldberg and now i want to see it again i want to see that five round title fight between those two where they're duking it out they're grappling i think that would be incredible russ what about yourself yeah yeah go uh robbie justin's probably you have loyalty to aljo being from around your neck of the woods we've got some loyalty to peoria and little do you probably know that peorian's boxing coach is an irishman and so he's called the the bun crana bomber and he's going to make sure peter yan's hands are vicious come find ufc 259 march 6th and still i did not know that he had an irish boxing coach he was probably the only person at the at the at the irish bar over in that photo well but uh joe i just i love people young striking and that's nothing just blowing smoke up uh john boy's uh technique like he's teaching uh peorian as hands of stone uh then also in for the women's world federation amanda nunes arguably the goat is taking on uh sorry she's taking on anderson megan anderson robbie good job producing megan anderson is a huge supporter of barstool she is a huge supporter of my mom's basement she's done a bunch with us via twitch i've played call of duty with her so i know how much of a aggression she has on the battlefield and i'm predicting she shocks the world i'm predicting nobody sees it coming but for some reason maybe man it says food poisoning or something she fights anyway and megan anderson beats her new champ and uh maybe she brings the title into barcelona hq it'd be like the first time we got that women's featherweight title in the building loving the loyalty ross what about yourself i have to i have to listen i told you i'm not an analyst i'm not a journalist i'm a fan we're the same we're absolutely yeah look the lioness i don't think she's gonna underestimate um negan from one bit but i think just seeing how easily holly holm could dominate and you can understand the grappling exchange i think amanda nunes is a better grappler again and i think she's gonna take her down and it'll either be a tko or a submission win for amanda known as i'm still the ghost by the way amanda nunez one of my favorite fighters in the ufc so that is a tough one for me to declare loyalty on i was at the amanda nunez holly holm fight and oh my god what a finish that was that's i'm gonna have to go from on the newness for this every like i went against her uc 200 and ever since i'm just like team amanda nunes uh lads one of the most discussed fights coming up on march 6th israel out of sanya moving up for the low heavyweight title become the champion taking on jan blackwich what are you expecting here robbie is it going to be like is yang gonna shock the world or is it is it going to be a new chomp champ in town i think new champ champ in town i think otta sonya's striking is just so so so much more crisp than blanchard it's like he he has the uh i always call him blanche is it blakovich i'm so bad with pronunciation um i still i still call uh stefan bonner steven sometimes um i i thought you were gonna say boner oh no no oh my god steven boner yes steven boner my favorite fight forrest griffin versus stephen boner yeah i i just think anastasia's gonna be too fast for him i think he's gonna be too fast for him i think he's gonna knock him out probably uh but i do know you know usually when those smaller champs jump up to the higher weight division is a tough challenge for him right because we just saw dillashaw or dylan no deal move down there yeah so wait when people when when people move up generally successful mcgregor was yeah yeah no it's out of sight it's definitely style vendor definitely style bender do you think yeah you think you can touch the noose again before this fight he's got it right have you guys seen that story definitely you know i was gonna i'll tell you his head is he gonna torture him as in like torture no no no no this is a crazy story i swear i'm not making up it's true bulkovic discovered a dead body in the woods when he was a teenager hanging and like apparently in old folk tale they used to cut the rope off and like the rope would be good luck which is messed up in and of itself it's like one of those old messed up dark things they left the rope there but before every one of his fights he goes back to the farce he touches it for good luck before his last title fight he did maybe i've written i've written a blog about it on barstool and uh he had a quote before his last fight where he's like yeah like i've brought the ufc production crew back to this forest a bunch and you know they've just never included the footage it's like uh yeah i know they didn't include the footage buddy that's some dark [ __ ] yeah maybe uh some logan paul esque [ __ ] um i have not seen that but i don't think it's gonna change my opinion uh come fight as we said henry cecilia moved up conor mcgregor moved up daniel cormier moved up they all went and won the belt and i think we're gonna adam and the nunes moved up yeah yeah four out of five i knew it was i knew it was the four out of four one where there was just like a usb i had a 50 50 shot i pick wrong every time let's go we're going for five in a row israel out of sonia and i think he'll get the job done inside the five rounds well that's i love the the hype and staying on the high train and like just believing in the height of like so i'm going without a son yeah i just love us because then we could eventually get a john jones fighters out i'm just all over exactly exactly that's two more fights right second last one non-total fight leon edwards taking in taking on cosmetics on march 13th in the welterweight division winner of this could argue arguably for the title robbie who are you taking for this one man just like you said in the last one i kind of like believing in the hype train right now i know he come he's come after mcgregor a couple times so he could be a future enemy in some way or another but until then i like the hype train i like that i like imagining that this fight ends just like the last fight where he goes out and like blitzes him in two seconds we're like oh my god is he gonna fight next week now like i like uh the story of him fighting constantly just wanting to get in the cage calling everybody out uh we they should they should do like a tournament where they put like eight regional fighters in in the cage with him and he has like eight fights in one night that would be that's what i want to see so i'm gonna go with uh exactly what else motivate yourself uh no i'm gonna pick you up said here i think leon rocky edwards got to get the job done i think he's so good at disarming his opponents uh he'll be able to come out with a unanimous decision win right that's close for them like i know we've had leon on and this is very very very hard to say but like as i said i love the hype train i'm gonna have to agree with robbie just because he's uh wearing matching color toppings himself but lads but certainly not least uh stephen miocic has taken on francis and ghana for the second time for the world heavyweight championship on march 27th we're going to end with this robbie who do you have to become the baddest man on the planet so i was lucky enough to be at the first encounter between these two gentlemen at ufc 220 in boston if you remember correctly ufc fans that didn't see that go back and watch the first round of this fight the rest of the fight turn it off it's rounds two three five they're very boring stipe was able to neutralize and lie on top of them but round one was one of the most entertaining rounds of heavyweight mma i've ever seen in my life these guys were swinging with bricks on their hands it was like rock and sock and robots some of the shots that steve withstood were insane i think the steep amiocheck we saw in the last fight against cormier might have been the best stipe we've ever seen i know ingandu's improved a lot i know his cardio will be better for this so i'm very excited for it to be a better fight than last time hopefully get round one type action in the whole fight but i gotta go with stipe still i think uh his overall game is still just good enough to neutralize in ghana but it's it's heavyweight mma and it's francis and ghani so he could land one of those overeem punches and we could have a new heavyweight champ like that and then that sets up a trilogy between those two and like who's gonna be angry at that jon jones bosmo john johnson second give me your time out for once mr rossi who's going to leave the baddest man on the planet i think it's going to be uh i think i have a similar answer to camaro versus gilbert burns you know we need to start putting some respect on stephen jojo's name how many times is he going to walk into that octagon ufc heavyweight champion and the underdog i think this is going to be the last time that well actually won't be because when he fights jones if i'll be the underdog too well i think meowtich is going to go in there and he's going to put on a performance that we'll all remember and i think i'm still stepping out ufc heavyweight champion the croatian sensation croatian sensation as much as i'd love to see the poster of francis again and john jones i just think like meowches looked unbelievable there last time ross he looked the best the best physique i've seen him in ever and uh i just think he's going to get it done again but uh that's before we wrap things up robbie i have something to ask you right i'm going to put you on the spot we were meant to get ufc dublin for my birthday was it it was august 15th what was it yeah it was taylor versus whitaker two versus whitaker i'm obviously because oh great card too damn and obviously because that didn't happen because of coronavirus obviously no one's fault but you're gonna have to call in a favor today next time when he announces he has to announce another bell to uh uc dublin but you have to make sure to come over to ireland as well and we'll do this in studio next time oh my god that would be amazing i've so i've finally got a passport boom passport and i can come over to ireland now so i would absolutely love to be at the next dublin event if i could make that happen i promise you i will be in studio and the first rams on buzz the first one well there we go everyone you've heard it we're holding robbie today uh before we before we leave robbie thanks a million for coming on everything you're doing is great us irish fans mma fans are really enjoying the behind-the-scenes content it's great it's cool we really love it hopefully one day we'll be in there we'll be rubbing shoulders those two and that that uh seven-year-old woman who was shouting now for gst ross for watching make sure to like share subscribe and as always stay and stay energized