Joe Pyfer, Mike Perry, Ilja Dragunov on leaving WWE for AEW, Ade Oladipo, news & notes

Jordan (0:01)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Ariel Helwani Show!

Ariel Helwani (0:15)

Back in your life! On this Tuesday, October 20th, 2000 And 26 Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. I have been waiting for this particular date for essentially 33 years. Tonight, my friends, in about five and a half hours from now, myself, my two boys, Oliver and Walter, 19 or so thousand of my best friends and millions and millions across this great world will finally witness the NBA Champions banner go up to the rafters of the world's most famous arena and the world's most famous ceiling as well. For the first time in 53 years, I will be in the building. Nick's hat right over here, back page of the New York Post. I'm like, Regis Philbin out here. Remember that back in the day? Raise the roof.

Thank you to On Air Jordan for this gift. I can't believe it. The vibes cannot be higher. My mood cannot be better. I can't believe it's actually happening, that I'm going to get to witness Ring Night. I think they're going to go with this one. Ring Night, Cup Banner. They're going to go Championship Banner. And then we're going to lay the smack down on the Philadelphia 76ers, which is kind of like an afterthought. I just want to see all of that. Mike Breen, MCing it. I mean, if you've been on this journey with me, if you've been on this ride with me, there were some dark, dark days in the midst of hosting this show, right? I mean, like some 17-win seasons, awful, like a drought between 4 to 12 without a single playoff appearance, without a single win between, I think, 1 to 12 No, to 13 without a single win in the playoffs. And then some bad years recently, a litany of coaches, NBA champions, defending champs. I'm going to get to witness that. I can't freaking wait. It's going to be a great day to be a New Yorker, to be a Nick fan and I know there's a vast majority of you out there that don't care about any of this and I understand that, but please indulge me for one more day because it feels like today is the culmination of the greatest summer of our lives. Oh my god, I can't believe it's actually happening. We have a great show for all of you. Back into the program, Ade Oladipo is going to be joining us. My good friend, Ade, to talk about the wild and wacky world of boxing. Wow, Shakur Stevenson, gone from Zuffa Boxing.

Obviously, predictably, Eddie Hearn, speaking earlier today to his good friends over at IFL-TV, spiking the proverbial football, dancing right now over this news. And let's see how it all plays out. It continues to evolve and change, but he's very happy. We'll give you some of that sound and do suggest that you check out that interview. Prior to that, chat with Ade, Ilja Dragunov is going to be joining us. The newest member of the AEW roster. He debuted on Saturday in Orlando at Wrestle Dream. He had left WWE in August, not released. Decided not to re-sign, had not been seen since April. Contract expired in August, leaves in August, and here we are in late October. He finally debuts. It was a little dicey with the visa. He has not talked to anyone. He did a scrum after Wrestle Dream on Saturday. This is first chat. Looking forward to talking to one of the most gifted wrestlers in the world, hailing from Russia. Obviously has also spent some time in Germany. If you know about his story, he's a tremendous fit for the AEW roster. And I'm really looking forward to talking to him.

That is going to be at 2 o'clock. Stay tuned for that. At 1.30, Mike Perry, in what I do believe is his first chat since that wacky, wacky event, also in Orlando at the Kia Center, that was the one where he was supposed to fight Dillon Danis. And then Brandon Jenkins stepped in on very short notice. He ended up separating his shoulder. We haven't heard much from him since. It appears as though he's doing better. We heard from David Feldman yesterday. We brought you that sound of him talking about, it seems like he's not coming back to BKFC after all. That was an interview that he did over the weekend. So we'll get the story from Mike Perry at about 1.30. In a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by Joe Pyfer. You may recall, Joey Pyfer was talked about yesterday on the program. We had Bo Nickal on, and Bo Nickal is going to be fighting him at some point in 2027 We thought that they'd be fighting on December 12th. Nickal apparently injured. The fight got postponed. I was hit up late last night by his team saying he wants to respond to some of the things that Bo Nickal said about him. And so I can't wait to hear what Joe Pyfer has to say. I remind you, as we show you today's lineup, this four-pack, I remind you that today's program is, as always, brought to you by our good friends over at Kalshi. Think of Kalshi as a marketplace where the price on something is basically the odds of it happening, sports, politics, whatever is going on. That price moves in real time based on where people are putting their money, so you aren't playing against a house like you would on traditional sports books. Trade $25 right now with the code HELWANI, that's H-E-L-W-A-N-I, and they'll add another 25 to your account right away. It's that easy.