Ben Askren Retires, Foley, Romero, JDS, Gracie, Nickal, More

Ariel opens the show by talking to Junior dos Santos about the severity of the UFC heavyweight contender's infected leg, his thoughts on Curtis Blaydes and more. After that, Ben Askren tells Ariel he's decided to retire from fighting, choosing instead to focus on rehabbing his hip injury and to pursue his many other interests (23:09). He also discusses whether he regrets not joining the UFC earlier, and if he ever even loved fighting. Next, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley dives into the crossover between wrestling and MMA and how he would fare in today's world of combat sports (1:03:14). Cesar Gracie, trainer to the Diaz brothers, then talks about the latest with each brother before explaining why newer MMA fans don't know the real Nick Diaz (1:28;16). Next, the UFC's Cory Sandhagen discusses his title fight hopes, his interest in transcendentalism and the significance of his January bantamweight showdown with Frankie Edgar (1:50:38). Then, Yoel Romero tells Ariel why he's the top contender in the middleweight division, comparing himself to Muhammad Ali in the process before directing a message toward the champion, Israel Adesanya (2:14:16). After that, two winners from this past weekend in Brazil, James Krause (2:33:52) and Paul Craig (2:52:31) discuss their victories and hopes for their careers moving forward. Lastly, the 2019 Dan Hodge winner Bo Nickal tells Ariel why he's decided to begin a career in MMA following a decorated collegiate wrestling career at Penn State (3:04:18).