The volume.

What's up, guys, Welcome to a brand new episode that Daniel Cormier a TV brought you by Toyda Wallace, the official Wallace Right of USC.

They're in your corner with unlimited five you data that will not slow you down.

Let me tell you who's not slowing down.

Is this man right here, the great Nick khn.

Nick.

Thank you for joining me.

Man.

I appreciate it.

DC.

Happy to be on longtime listener and viewer first, so thank you.

Yeah.

I like that.

Hey, Nick, I got a question for you, because I like going to the WWE.

Is there a limit on comps and is there any celebrity or person that has kind of pushed up against the limit of people they would like to bring listen.

Assume that most of the requests we get are hey, I'd like to attend plus one, maybe plus two.

But we set a new a new limit about year or two ago.

It's called the Daniel Cormier.

It's usually me reaching out saying, hey, DC, we're going to be, you know, in your neighborhood.

Would you like to attend?

Yes, I'll be plus forty three eight or whatever it is.

Now it turns out these are all of your students.

Yes, yes, wrestling, so yes, you certainly a soft spot for what you're doing, and so we usually approve that.

To which sort of note of who approved forty four tickets?

Oh, Daniel Cornier, And the answer is we did.

That's awesome, man.

I appreciate that the kids love it.

Hey, I'm making dreams happen, Nick, I got all these kids like love the Wwe just like me.

They want to be in the building and we also get to go watching the access.

We appreciate it truly.

But I wanted you on because so many things have happened.

I was there at the Stock Exchange when TKO was put on the market for the first time, and there was so many promises of great things.

I don't know that even the people there could have imagined Ari and Dana and you guys all could have imagined that it would be what it is today.

Well, by the way, just so you know, going into that, which was September thirteenth, two years ago, twenty twenty three, when the conversation with Dana and Ari and Mark Shapiro happened about Hey, who would you guys like to have from UFC?

There the first name mentioned by all three was Daniel Cormier.

Oh, thank you.

It was an honor to have you there and to be there with you the first by all three and by the way, to me, you're a true American success story.

You had a goal, you did what you wanted to do with your life.

You continue to do what you want to do with your life.

Most athletes have a tough time segueing from in the octagon, if you will, or on the field to being a broadcaster.

You've done it at the highest level.

So all kudos and congratulations to you on that.

Look at TKO, we're merely a two year We're merely two years into the race.

Two years in and you've seen the UFC deal with Paramount Plus, which, by the way, that's all Dana and Ari and Shapiro and a number of other great executives.

You saw the WWE's move of its premium live events are ples to ESPN, which you know years ago would have been unheard of.

I saw WE and Monday Night Raw going to Netflix.

You see our continued partnership with USA Network for SmackDown.

So things are humming at this moment in time.

That being said, that can change in any moment so in our business no different than your business.

You got to earn your keep every day, and that's what we're trying to do.

Yeah, and it's been great to watch something go from an idea and turn it into what it's become a monster.

Speaking of you know, PLS and ESPN.

I remember covering the WWE at WrestleMania Mack in twenty twenty three in Los Angeles, and ESPN got the red carpet rolled out for it because it was such a big deal to have the ESPN at Mania.

Now they're a partner.

How's that been?

I know, it's a short time and initially it was thought that the partnership would happen in January, but it was fast forwarded, right, it happened earlier.

And Russell Palooza, how's it been working with ESPN to this point?

So look, even if you look at our launch which was September thirteenth with Russell Palooza from Indianapolis, the way that ESPN covered that event, they made us feel like it was the super Bowl, so much so that on College Game Day that morning, they had Pat McAfee, Kirk Curbstreet, Nick Saban, Rayce Davis, and Desmond Howard do their pick for the Brock lesnar Sena.

Now you know what Brock's all about.

Yes, pushed Doctagon go and all of that stuff.

Well, by the way, what was that?

Why did that never happen?

Because brockway back to the WWE.

W E.

Hey, listen, Brock Brock into WWE is such a monster.

He looks he looks in best shaped and I've ever seen looking his life at at Survivor Series war Games last week when he walked out.

His body get real out there right now, and it was awesome.

Man, it was awesome.

As you know, and I'm not saying you know in the UFC every day, but when he walks into a room, he looks and usually is the baddest dude on the planet.

And that's what he looks like, and that's his personification.

By the way, he's a gem to work with easy.

So as long as you know he sort of knows things in advance, there's no issues.

We're honored to have him back and I'm happy he's here.

Hopefully you enjoyed the War Games match.

It he was in.

I didn't doude.

The War Games match was awesome.

Hey, he's got it.

So many of the guys have it now.

But I tell you, man, when he walks in, when Roman walks is a different ball game.

It's just a different ball game.

Look, you saw they were the last two to come out.

Yep, Rock came out and did his damage.

You heard Roman's music hit and that sort of face off, you know, coming down the That was intense, and you know the fans seem happy with it.

That is what that is what you hope for when you have those moments.

But Nick, it doesn't happen easy right in life.

Oh by the way, so my assistance sister was one of your classmates.

Her name is Genesis.

That is a girl named Pannis.

They were like, tell Nick, We said Hi.

It's like Nick, you know what's crazy is like we go and we're in these high school hallways with these people.

We may not even remember them, but you become a part of their life.

Right.

I was in class with Nick Khan.

The journey that we all take it's so different, obviously, but it's so fun.

Your journey was not as easy.

You told Stephanie McMahon that you had to go to your girlfriend now wife and say, hey, could I borrow some money to finish law school.

Hey, hey, Nick, we make investments.

We make investments.

Your wife talk about making an investment on King A right horse.

It's kind of you to say you were friend of Genesis.

So I went to school with in Hawaii.

Yes, yes, I remember her, of course.

Yes.

We went to middle school together.

We went to high school together until I moved back to Vegas to finish high school.

Yeah, here's what I'll tell you.

You know, some people do make bets at the time, and as you know, in boyfriend girlfriend relationships, people break up, people make up.

So she and I, you know, we met.

It's the fifth It's a thirtieth anniversary of our first date.

December one.

Yeah, today, that's today, I know, thirtieth anniversary of our first date.

She was nineteen, I was twenty one.

We met at UNLV.

She was working at the Sharper Image.

I was working at a Moroccan restaurant, and she decided, you know, to take a bet on me.

And when I needed to get a loan approved for my third year of law school.

Look, DC, I know you were very rich growing up.

Oh hey, not tell me.

I can tell I could tell by even the look even your shirt now of the shirt.

I'm a man of the people.

So all I know is I didn't have some relative to sign off.

All my relatives had bad credit credit.

And you know, she and I were broken up for a moment in time because I know how rich you are.

You're so crazy my life today.

I told L Sending one day when he was talking about the pit bit, I love Christmas.

The pitter patter coming down the stairs.

I go in the ghetto.

There's no pitter patter coming down the stairs.

We don't have a Santa clause.

I'm only teasing you.

Of course, I know the richest story.

Look and I were broken up at the time.

Like I said, people break up, people make up.

I called her and said, I'm not gonna be able to finish law school.

You know.

I got knowing to co sign on this loan, you know, And I was not calling her to ask her to do that.

I don't like to ask people for that.

She said to me, oh, you need a coast signer, and I said yeah, she said, I'll do it.

She said, just don't tell anybody again.

I said, wow.

I said, that really means a lot to me.

You know this and that, and it's something I don't forget to this day.

So she and I children together.

You'll often see them at WWE shows with me.

You know, that's my family and I'm greatly appreciative of that.

That's awesome, man.

And you know what I love most about that, Nick, And I think that's probably why I was so drawn to you when I met you, is that it's always about your family.

And you have a very.

Busy schedule, right, But you even said it's always family first for me, And that's that's my thought, right, Like, I love my children more than anything in the world, and I'll do anything for them.

How do you balance that?

How do you balance life as a high executive in one of the biggest country companies in the world.

Busy schedule would make sure that the ones that are most important still feel the love that they deserve from their father and their husband.

Look, I think I try to do what I think you try to do and without going down you know, a sadder, dark path here.

You know, you went through the unspeakable.

Yep, yep, right, yeah, at that you went to unspeakable.

And there's not a day that I breathe that I don't think about something like that, or a day that I don't think on a much lighter side, Hey, once they hit eighteen, they're gone.

Well, they're gone.

And I read the stat that you know, by the time they hit they leave after high school, you've spent ninety percent of the time you're ever going to spend with them.

Oh No, that resonates with me, and I want to take advantage of every day.

And by the way, I'm not a perfect father, I'm not a perfect businessman.

I make mistakes, but I try to put in the effort to be present.

And I think I got this off of a Shack podcast.

He did it with Ryan Clark.

Something was done, but he's the first person I here to articulate it.

He said, when he comes home from work, he walks in the house and you know his if it's lady, friend or wife, I'm not sure you know his status.

He says, She'll say how is your day?

And he also said today was a great day.

How was your day?

So, no matter what happens at work, it is my job to not bring that home.

Yep, sure those frustrations.

You know, the drill to your children August didn't go well, So they don't need to hear that.

They want their father to be there to talk about their tent disappointments and their homewark and their friends and you know, all of that stuff.

That's what I try to do, and I try to have them with me certainly at every weekend ww event that I go to.

That's awesome, man, that's awesome.

We just had Survivor Series War Games last WEEKND in San Diego.

It was absolutely amazing.

I mean, Dominic Masterio is a star, obviously, Roman and John Cena and brock Lesnar those guys all in the you know, cmpunk, They're all amazing.

But as you get into twenty twenty six, is there anything that you guys are looking forward to, like elevating again and raising the bar because it seems like in every single step you guys just want to raise the bar and give a better product than the the athletes are delivering, and so are you guys in the bank.

Look, there's many impressive things that I inherited at ww A.

One of those is that the current generation of top stars will embrace the perceived next generation of top stars.

So he's been in that match that you just referred to.

You have Seth is hurt, as you know now we know the mass Man came in and we don't know who that is yet, but Seth is hurt.

So if you remove Seth from the equation, you got Roman, Brock, Cody Punk all in one match together.

And who are they in with.

They're in with people who might just be the next generation of a plus talent bron Breaker.

That's my boy right there, that's a bad boy, bron Breakers.

Hey, you know I have an interested store.

I was in Philadelphia when I was the referee for the pay per view and bron Breaker was just a young kid stilling enagty.

He sat in my locker room all day.

Nick.

He talked fighting, he talked wrestling, he talked knowledge force, and I was like, man, this kid is just a sponge.

He wants knowledge, and I'm telling you he's taking from that knowledge from the great Paul Ayman and spending time in the ring with those guys.

And keep in mind, his father's Rick Steiner, remember when we were young, the uncle Scott Steiner, right, big big Papa Papa.

You know, it's a geen pool there, but sometimes with the good gene pool will come unnecessary outward arrogance.

He doesn't have that, Nope, so it doesn't surprise me that he was in your locker room asking questions and wanting to be a sponge.

That's what we found with him, so Logan Paul.

By the way, look at the time that he's put in to hone the craft or who you know get to hone the craft.

Amazing.

He's in the ring with these guys, with Braun, with Bronson.

Don't underestimate Bronson for a big man.

You know that guy can move.

He was on ESPN, he was on our show, Me and Chales show the other day.

I love Bronson reed.

The studnami might just be my favorite move in all of us.

He is so big, he just puts all of his weight on him.

You can't kick out.

There's no kicking out of his tsunami, Dick.

That move is unstoppable.

Remember earthquake used to do like the earthquake spike.

By the way, the earthquake earthquake would jump around John ten and he comes for like a butt squad.

Yes, yes, right, this is the full splash.

Oh God on the top rope.

And by the way, just so you know, and I don't know if it's this way in your home, that is now the signature move in our house, father to fourteen year old battle ten year old son.

They're laying on the bed full soon.

But it's a lot of fun in our house.

I love dropping my weight on people.

When I get my athletes and they're like training doing sit up, I might just hit him with a tsunami.

I just come across the top drop the zunami on him.

They're like, coach, what is this.

I'm like, let's call azunami.

As we look.

Ahead innovatively, uh, major changes?

What can we expect from the WW going in the next year?

By way, just quickly, when you did that ref guest stint for us, I think Triple H came up with the idea.

I called Dana White because you and I knew each other a bit, but yeah, had never he does this together.

And I said, hey, you know we're thinking of using I texted him, you know we're thinking of using Daniel Cormier, you know, for a guest referee road.

He calls me like two seconds later, He's like, I just want you to know this is the best guy will Obviously we know your athletic prowress and and all that stuff, but just so complimentary of you.

And how it is to work with you.

So that's all.

That's awesome, and Dana's the maand I appreciate him in my relationship so much.

Man, people don't even understand.

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You're also doing Zoofa Boxing.

No, Nick, you don't stop.

You're doing zoo for boxing.

There's a bunch of us doing it, including Dana, who's face and the lead of that promotion.

We have our partners Turkey al Shaik and doctor Ricconnell Hartney in al Hartey in Saudi, who have been phenomenal partners.

They're eight year plus partners of the WWE.

There are partners in Zufa.

Dana's the promoter, so you're going to have all of what we considered to be his magic all over boxing.

We're trying to get this thing into shape.

To me, you had what was one of the top three sports in the United States in the fifties and sixties, which has now dropped off with here in terms of its popularity in the US.

And you know, our goal is to help reestablish that.

We'll see if we can do it.

And part of that is in matchmaking, right, Like matchmaking the fights is one of the reasons that boxing that struggled at times.

How's zooperboxing going to differ from that?

You think?

So, here's what I tell you.

So the UFC card that was announced, the Paramount Plus premiere on January twenty fourth, I love that card.

Yeah, so I don't know it like you know it, but I know Nunez versus Kayla, I know Gaichie and Natty Pattie.

These to me are matchups that I perceive as fifty to fifty matchupsp It's one of the things that has made the UFC special.

The champ fights the number one contender.

If the number one contender isn't available, the number two contender comes in, or whatever that might be.

If you look at what Dana the Fertidas and subsequently Dana with Ari Lawrence Mark, Mark Shapiro, everybody have built.

That's the model of what the fight team should look like.

So is it going to be the boxing of UFC?

Nothing will ever be anything of UFC.

UFC is standalone.

It's one of one.

The next one never looks like the last one.

So to us, we want to make it the best form of boxing it can be.

And part of that is the best have to fight, the.

Best features, features production.

I don't believe that any companies can match the UFC in WWE.

When you do these features before the main fights on the pay per view, or when you do the features on the main before the ples, it builds an anticipation that most can't really comprehend.

How can you guys do that in boxing and use all that great production and all of that storytelling to help to elevate boxing, Like, how do how do you move all of those things that are so great into boxing?

So you just nailed it.

It's the storytelling.

So if you think about boxing current boxing at its best, you'll see a fight or fight, let's say twice a year, and then you won't hear about them for the rest of the year.

Why is that?

If you look at the NFL, which is an eighteen week regular season.

As you know, in the postseason, then you got hard knocks, then you got the draft, then you got the combine.

It's something present year round.

So even if the athletes are fighting a handful of times a year, the fact that you can tell their stories year round, that's what people want to know, right.

It's part of the reason why people got hooked on you.

It wasn't simply because you could fight at an A plus level.

It's because of the story behind it.

If they don't care about the story behind the person, there's no reason to watch.

No.

So we think storytelling is going to be a key part of this.

Yeah, and it's going to be awesome.

Exit there's a lot of existing promoters in boxing.

Is there an ideal relationship with these guys or is it kind of going to be like, Hey, we're going to do our thing and operate in this base and you guys kind of continue to do it as you did before.

Because I'll tell you one thing.

Hey, when it was time to do to the belt.

At the last bite between Floyd and not Floyd, it was.

Cadelo and Crawford.

There was some old boxing people were like, hey, we need to be involved in this, Like is there an ideal relationship between Zooper Boxing and the existant promoters.

We're just going to do our thing, So let them do their thing.

If they want to have sixteen different championships and sanctioning fees and all of this nonsense, you want to do that, do that what we're doing.

And one of the things you know that's top of mind for us, the Muhammad Ali Enhancement Act.

Yes, yes, Lawrence Epstein, who you know quite well, who's again one of the architects of the UFC on the board of trustees for Vanderbilt University, an honest broker in my opinion, is going to appear in front of Congress Thursday, December fourth to talk about the Muhammad Ali Enhancement Act.

Also appearing will be Lani Ali, Muhammad Ali's wife, and Andy Foster of the California State Athletic Commission.

As you know, the California State Athletic Commission voted unanimously six nothing to support the Enhancement Act.

And again, what this means, DC is the act is currently written that'll stay in place.

We're not looking at one word of it.

We're not looking to change one comma.

But in addition of what exists will be this new option where you don't have to use these sanctioning bodies and pay three per in your perse and there's a super champion champion in recess, all of this chaos and nonsense that we think in part ruin boxing.

Our effort is going to be to do away with that, at least for us, and if fighters want to stick with the old way, go ahead.

That will remain an option.

And why you know that having more options in that way is very important for the boxers and for the fighters.

Andy Foster has long been people talk about, well, this guy's not getting paid, this guy's not patting paid.

This Andy Foster has many a time fed to people I was doing this at the beginning of the UFC in boxing.

I know that these guys are making money at.

A crazy rate today opposed to what it was before, because as the sport has grown, the compensation has grown.

He's been a supporter and it's great to hear that he's going to be there.

But that seems important to you.

Why is that important to you to be a part of that, and why do you think you guys are taking such a strong stance and trying to help win the Ali act.

Look, we think if you look at boxing again, one of the most popular sports, you know, decades ago.

So think about this, DC, how old are you now?

You're forty six.

Forty six, you young man, So I'm five years older than you.

It doesn't make many wiser, It just makes them five years.

So nineteen seventy one, Ali Fraser fight each other Fight of the Century Madison Square Garden, such a big fight that Frank Sinatra's credentialed as a photographer for what was then Life magazine.

Jerry Perencio, who later founded Univision, is the promoter of the fight, along with Jack Kent Cook, who subsequently bought the team now known as the Commanders the Washington Yep Yep Yep Redskins.

Ali and frasery May each made two point five million dollars for that fight.

Your average NFL player in nineteen seventy one was making thirty thousand dollars a year.

Yeah, they made big money.

Big money.

And it was nineteen seventy one.

YEAHBA because of the competition between the ABA and NBA, ABA average player was making about seventy thousand dollars a year, so again two point five million, verse seventy or thirty thousand dollars.

So if you were a big athletic kid you went into boxing.

Yep.

What happened if you fast forward remove the Steelers from the seventies.

I really focused on Joe Montana in the eighties and the forty nine er.

The NFL became the NFL and it took off.

Yep.

Berner Magic come in in seventy nine, Jordan comes in in eighty four.

The NBA takes off, but the individual sports stay the same.

YEP.

So if I said to you in nineteen eighty eight, who's the fastest man on the planet, you would say Ben Johnson.

Or Carl Lewis's correct.

Let's see in the Olympics, if I said to you, who's the best gymnast in the world, and yes, we have some owned biles now the only one, the only one compared to what it was in the individual sports, so much so that in the early eighties, if I said, hey, in the United States, two of the most popular athletes, Okay Montana, Bird Magic, we got that McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, yep, Mike Tyson, Mike Mike Tyson, Boom Boom, Mancini, Sugar Ray, Leonard Ye, you know the golfer Jack Nicholas, Nicholas sports stars, but the leagues became the leagues in the individual sports.

Outside of UFC and outside of WWE Sports entertainment, they all stayed the same, yep.

And that's why one of the reasons why you start to see boxing fade out to us again the storytelling with the right athletes, there's a way for an opportunity with young fighter.

We want to get back into the localized gyms and subsidize some of those gyms so it's easy for people to find boxing.

It doesn't need to be cofficult, especially in the United States and certain key international territories.

And let's see if we can do it.

Nick.

It was I tell you, man, when I was growing up in Louisiana, there was a boxing gym everywhere.

There was a boxing gym everywhere.

If there was one thing you could do, you could box and it costs nothing.

And there was always a guy in there that was willing to train kids that didn't have money because they knew that it could provide an option for you to try to make a living.

For yourself.

Nick, I'm gonna let you get out on this one.

Man.

You won sixteen thousand dollars on will of fortune.

I did right.

We all fortunate.

It was a long time ago back I needed that sixteen thousand dollars.

So and by the way, you may remember this from your own life.

When your bank account goes from zero to sixteen, you think like, I never have to work again.

It's all I'm ready, that's aver.

Drinks are on me, me money, and I got lucky to win it.

And then next thing you know, a month later, you're like, oh my god, that sixteen thousand dollars was not actually that much.

I'm still in trouble, Nick Con, you are the best.

You are the best, my man.

I appreciate you coming on.

You are the absolute man, and I wish you all the best and good luck, and I will see you at the start of WrestleMania season next year, guys, which is the Royal Rumble, which is now on ESPN.

The Great Nick Con thank you so much for joining me, man, I appreciate your time.

Until next time, guys.

Peace,