Podbit · New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Most fans' passion fades when their team gets relegated. For Prince William, it deepened. When Aston Villa dropped to the Championship, he got more invested — watching every midweek game, living every result. The Europa League title was the payoff.
Where this was said
At 24:20 · chapter starts 20:35
Jason sparks the most technically rich exchange of the episode by referencing the reversed yellow card in the USA vs Paraguay World Cup match, where VAR determined a player had dived. Prince William's response is carefully balanced: he agrees ironing out simulation is good, but warns that the technology creates its own problem — once you have VAR, you can't not use it, and the delays and stop-start rhythm risk destroying football's flow. He cites a clear example: blatant holding fouls in the penalty box during corners that VAR somehow never reviews. [1] — Prince William "VAR can catch dives. It can also turn football into a stop-start video review. Prince William warns that the technology creates its own pro…" 20:35 The Kelces flip the debate to the NFL, where Jason acknowledges that players do exaggerate contact — a receiver going down harder than necessary to draw pass interference — but notes that unsportsmanlike conduct is almost never called for it. William sums up the professional foul culture in football — deliberately fouling to stop a counter-attack — and Travis responds with his most quotable line of the episode: 'That's a cutthroat fucking mentality.'
VAR can catch dives. It can also turn football into a stop-start video review. Prince William warns that the technology creates its own problem — if you start reviewing everything, the free-flowing nature of the game dies a slow death.
Thomas's wife deferred her CrossFit career — she's in the global top 1% of athletes — to put him through law school debt-free. He wants her to chase the dream now; she wants the emergency fund and house down payment first. On a $200K lawyer income with no debt, the opportunity cost is just a few months of slower saving.
Underground calisthenics battles are exactly like UFC meets a rap battle — 150 people crowded around a circle, fighters walking out with masks and chains, nicknames like 'Extra Money' vs 'Calisthenics the Prince,' and people throwing money and betting. The battle set: 100 burpees, 50 muscle-ups, 75 dips, 75 squats with a 65-pound dumbbell. This is the next big spectator sport.
Rico Verhoeven controlled the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion for approximately 10 rounds — and had his appeal upheld when officials admitted the fight was stopped after the bell. The result was never overturned. Rogan calls it either incompetence or corruption, and argues the money behind Usyk made an upset politically inconvenient.
Rogan lays out a blunt case: boxing's 3-judge system is structurally broken, and the judges know who the promoter wants to win. Glory's 5-judge format is the right model. Corruption doesn't have to be conscious — just knowing Usyk is the cash cow is enough to tilt the scales.
With the Usyk-Wilder fight stalling and Fury-Joshua coming too late, the real fight the world wants is the rematch. Rico is a free agent. Usyk vacated his belts. The story is unfinished and both Rogan and Rico know it. His Excellency Turki Alasheikh already called for it ringside — the question is money.
Rico texted Jason Statham during the Canelo-Crawford fight. Statham showed Rico's highlight videos to promoters. Two days later, Rico was on a call about fighting Anthony Joshua. When Joshua pulled out, Rico pitched Usyk himself — Undisputed vs. Undisputed. Usyk said yes in two weeks. The whole thing started with one text.
Every heavyweight who faced Usyk tried to move to the right — straight into his power hand. Rico and Peter Fury identified the obvious solution: move left, away from the left hand, and smother him with size. It sounds simple. Nobody had done it. That one adjustment was the foundation of 10 dominant rounds.
MMA fans boo when fights go to the ground. They love stand-up. Kickboxing is pure stand-up. Yet it barely exists in America while boxing and MMA are enormous. Rogan's diagnosis: no promotion machine. If the UFC got behind kickboxing the way they've built MMA, it would explode. The talent is there — the storytelling machine is not.
A nation of 17 million people gave the world Ramon Deckers, Peter Aerts, Badr Hari, Melvin Manhoef, Rob Kamen, Ernesto Hoost, and Rico Verhoeven. Rico's theory: the country is so small that every gym shares knowledge freely. In the US, you need a flight. In Holland, you drive 40 minutes and spar the national champion.
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