Hello there friends, it's your old pal Ariel Hawani back with another episode of the Wednesday pod as you know I was gone last week but I'm back and guess what?

I'm never leaving again, that's right. I'm never taking a vacation ever again because I feel like I left you all with a void in your lives and I never want to have that burn on my shoulders ever again.

So here I am and of course we've got fights going on every single weekend from now until the end of time so I will be making a friend I promise and that starts today with this show because we've got an exciting one coming up for all of you later in the program

we'll talk to Tarn Woodley about his big fight coming up against Colby coming then but first an old friend stops by so stay tuned for that before we get all of that.

You may be wondering what the heck is going on with the world of college football and I am wondering the same as well it's all very confusing big 10 playing packed ball of not playing what is going on I don't know it's all very confusing so we've got a great podcast for all of you to figure out all these questions we've got the great Paul fine bomb one of the best journalists out there covering the world of college football he joins Pablo Torre on Wednesday's edition of the ESPN Daily Podcast phenomenal.

So we've talked about it before you can download and subscribe to it wherever you get your podcasts if you want some answers to those college football questions they got him for you now onto today's program and remember as always listen to discretion is advised.

Hey show.

Back in your life on this Wednesday September 2nd 2020 hello again everyone welcome back to a brand new edition of the pod and as always we are presented by

the Modelo Modelo Espacial.

Brute for those with a fighting spirit and so my friends today's show represents the dawn of a new era this whole week represents the dawn of a new era for yours truly as you probably have seen and heard by now Monday we relaunch DC and how many with new graphics and new intro new music new color is all that stuff and more.

It was the return of Daniel Cormier we had a great show if you haven't listened to it or watched it by now I do urge you to do so it's on the feed same feed where you got this particular podcast and on Sunday night you know since March a lot has happened a lot has changed on Sunday kind of laid out the new schedule and long time listeners and viewers and followers will have noticed that this all is a little different from what you may be used to and so I wanted to do it.

So I wanted to take some time at the beginning of today's show and by the way we will be joined by Tarn Woodley later in the program and it's a great conversation about his upcoming fight against Kobe coming to and everything going on in the world so stay tuned for that but I wanted to take some time at the beginning of today's show to as I have enjoyed doing throughout my career and I think it's something that you guys appreciate and respect break down the fourth wall a little bit and be transparent about what's going on because I feel like I haven't done that over the last few months.

Let's rewind the tape very quickly here and go back to March in March we were actually going to make some changes to the Monday show not drastic changes but little things here there I was going to go and do the show in New York not a Bristol Connecticut anymore just some things like that and I think the changes would have ultimately been good for the show in the long run and would have put the show in a good spot of course I'm talking about the classic how many shows slash MMA hour show that we've been doing for the past 11 years.

Believe it or not and then the pandemic hit and we were like a week away from doing these changes and so when the pandemic hit we all had to work from home and stay home.

We had to make some adjustments obviously we couldn't do the same kind of show from home and so Daniel Kormier and I had been talking for the last maybe two three years about when he retired we would do a show together and we would call it DC and

how many and it would be a lot about MMA but about other things that we enjoy as well basketball pro wrestling football baseball et cetera we really thought that we could do a great show together and if if you recall the week before actually no not the week before three days before UFC 248 in Las Vegas.

I guess any ever since we're there we did a radio show that was the first official episode of DC and how many and so the plan was that before every pay per view we would do an episode of DC and how many on the radio is a radio deal only DC at sign it was going to be on radio and we would continue with the Monday show and the Wednesday stuff and all that stuff but then the pandemic it's and now we can't do our regular Monday show anymore and so I I asked the powers that be if we can just do DC and how many via YouTube as a place holder to get us to the point where we can go back.

And so I can start doing the Monday show well loan behold what happened a funny thing happened what happened was we really like doing the show I really like doing the show DC really like doing the show powers that be really like doing the show and I believe hope I'm not speaking on behalf of all of you but I believe that you really like the show as well and so then week after week week after week I started to think about wow what if this was the new normal what if this was the change that I needed because I'll be honest with you doing the show for 11 years.

Booking every single guest that has ever appeared on that show the grind of getting 8 9 10 remember the old days I was getting sometimes 14 15 16 guests I think that was the record on the show and it was obviously much longer back then that was a grind and I realized after not doing it for several weeks that it was a massive burden and it was becoming somewhat of a chore and honestly it was actually making me not really love MMA as much as I once did because I wasn't watching fights like

who's gonna win excited there's buzz all that stuff I was watching fights with the with the thought in mind like who can I get from this fight on the show Monday who will be available who be hard to book et cetera et cetera and that's not why I got into this that's not why I love doing the show and I know most host don't have to do that sort of thing but that was the the job that I assumed and the role that I had and I was not only hosted but I was booking it as well and it just became a lot.

And so when I started doing the show with DC it was so much fun it was such a pleasure to do a show with my friend who just so happy to be one of the greatest fighters of all time talk about the fights and then on Wednesdays we came to a spot where it was like all right we're going to do the

hell want to show but it'll be a little different it won't be live but you'll talk to two or three big names each and every week that's great I love that a tire and woodly a dominant grace and Anthony Smith et cetera and not have the burden of booking 5 6 7 or 8 guess so once you know the time came to make a decision

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