"BMF Belt..." Dana White chewed on these three letters repeatedly in his mind, feeling more and more that this was indeed a better design.
The audience at the scene booed wildly for the boring match.
Throwing beverage bottles to vent their frustration while leaving.
If it weren't for the fact that GSP, who headlined the main event, was Canadian, the booing would have been even louder.
This was the situation UFC was in right now.
They couldn't always count on a national hero relying on the national ticket bank to make money; they had to quickly bring out the next global superstar like Brock Lesnar.
"Man, I'll consider your suggestion," Dana said.
"Great, I'm also looking forward to collaborating with UFC."
"So I'll take it as you've already verbally agreed?"
"I never change my words easily," Leon said with a smile. "Especially a promise to a friend."
Within a week, UFC executives had to make a detailed plan for the BMF title fight.
Unsurprisingly, Leon would sign a three-year long contract with UFC. Within three years, UFC needed to hold at least three BMF title fights.
During the BMF competition and promotion period, his image could be used freely for event promotion.
At the same time, he had to come to the scene to present awards to the fighters for every match.
The conversation went very happily. Dana and Leon shook hands while leaving surrounded by security guards.
There were always some crazy fight fans around the exit aisle.
They would splash drinks in their hands and spew trash talk to vent their dissatisfaction when fighters left.
Leon and Dana suffered the same treatment when leaving.
A young white man with short blond hair roared frantically at them:
"Dana! Look at me, Dana!"
"I am the champion of Ireland, the People's Champion!"
"José Aldo is trash, GSP is a sissy with no balls!"
"Give me a chance, and I'll send all the trash here to the grave! I'll kill anyone who stands in my way!"
This thin young man was emotional, looking like a lion with its fur standing on end.
As the UFC President, Dana was used to such scenes.
He didn't even have the interest to lift his head to look at the man, walking straight forward.
Instead, Leon was attracted by this young man, stopping to glance at him for a few seconds.
"Ignore these guys; Ireland is full of punks like him," Dana whispered in Leon's ear.
Seeing that Leon was attracted by him, the young man's next move became even crazier.
"Leon! I know you! Street Jesus, you are a tough bastard!"
"I am also a born bastard! Say something to Dana, I need a chance to prove myself!"
Saying that, this young man actually jumped directly from the audience seats three meters high into the fighter tunnel.
As a result, the moment he landed, he was pinned against the wall by Jorge and the other underlings.
The Diddy shooting incident hadn't been resolved yet, so the security personnel's nerves had been very tight.
What Leon didn't expect was that facing the Mexican tough guy two or three sizes bigger than himself, this man showed no fear.
He kept trying to punch back, clamoring: "Let go of me, you damn Mexican bastards!"
"Look at you, big guy, you think size means everything?"
"Lock us in the same cage, and I'll let you know what cruelty is!"
"Is that so..." Jorge squinted at the hothead in front of him.
His right hand unconsciously reached for his waist.
Fortunately, he immediately realized this wasn't the street and pulled his hand back.
The era where fists were the truth had long passed;
On the streets, bullets were the truth.
Seven bodyguards held the man down, throwing him out like carrying a piglet.
"Wait." Leon patted Jorge's shoulder. "Let him go."
"Boss?" Jorge looked confused.
"It's okay, do as I say," Leon said. "Let me talk to this guy."
The white man immediately broke free, spewing trash talk constantly. "Soft eggs, do you dare to stand in the cage one-on-one with me?!"
He adjusted his shirt collar and walked up to Leon.
Switching expressions in a second.
The fierceness just now disappeared immediately, replaced by a well-behaved look. "Leon Bro~ I'm your super fan! Your works gave me a lot of strength..."
A bunch of nutritious-less rainbow farts made Leon frown. "What's your name?"
"Conor McGregor!" The man let out an excited weird scream. "I am the fighting champion of Ireland!"
"Okay Conor, you are very passionate." Leon asked, "What do you want to get?"
"I want Dana to give me a chance. I will tear those hypocritical bastards apart in the octagon!"
Leon nodded, turning his head to call Dana over.
He didn't know Conor's fighting level.
Just judging from the contact in these few minutes, his ability to talk trash was absolutely top-notch.
The crazy temperament revealed in his gestures also fit the "BMF" theme very well.
"Alright man, I understand what you mean." Dana's expression was quite helpless.
Since Leon spoke up, he had to give this face.
He walked up to Conor and asked, "Kid, what's your professional record?"
"6 wins, 2 losses, all by knockout!" Conor was emotional. "The matches I lost were all submissions by ground locks from those damn gays..."
"I understand. Do you have an agent?" Dana was too lazy to listen to him continue. "Give me your agent's number, I'll consider giving you a contract."
A record of 6-2 in minor leagues was too ordinary in his eyes.
Many fighters signed by UFC were undefeated in minor leagues.
Conor's record meant nothing to him.
A basic contract, the appearance fee for each fight was less than 10,000 dollars.
This amount of money was nothing to Dana.
Agreeing to sign this Irishman was just to please Leon.
"This..." Dana agreeing so straightforwardly left Conor confused.
"What's wrong, kid? Don't you want to work for UFC?"
"No no no..." Conor waved his hands repeatedly, saying in a low voice, "I don't have an agent..."
"Fxxk, you look like an amateur." From tone to expression, every move of Dana was mocking.
"I don't need any damn agent!" Conor's volume rose. "I alone am an army!"
"Alright~" Dana patted the other party's shoulder. "Wait until you find an agent. There are some clauses in the contract I'm worried you won't understand. We only deal with professionals."
After speaking, Dana spread his hands to Leon.
That expression seemed to say: Man, I've given you enough face.
Then he turned and left, regardless of how Conor shouted, showing no intention of turning back.
"Man, I see your potential." Leon comforted him. "I like ambitious guys like you."
Saying that, he took out a business card and stuffed it into the other party's shirt pocket. "If you need an agent, you can call me."
"Relax, you will get Dana's contract."
Conor froze in place, not knowing what to say.
If not for Leon speaking up for him, he wouldn't even have had the chance to talk to Dana tonight.
"Man~ I will definitely contact you!"
"I really don't know what to say, you don't know how bad my situation is..."
"I will swallow Aldo alive in the octagon!"
Conor seemed to have a histrionic personality; talking trash had no cooldown and rarely repeated.
He was a born master of hype.
Amidst his hysterical thanks, Leon's figure had disappeared into the fighter tunnel.
The company didn't involve agent business now.
But a mature record company usually has its own artist management department.
This was a question Leon had repeatedly thought about.
How can a record company turn its singers into money-printing slaves?
As long as the master recording rights and copyrights of the records are firmly held in hand, plus an agent contract, this can be achieved.
According to Bruno Mars, Atlantic Records did exactly this.
Roc Nation was also laying out agent business.
And their gaze wasn't limited to the entertainment industry; their tentacles had extended to the sports field.
Even targeting football players in the top five European leagues.
Enough to see that the profit in this is huge.
After resting for a night in Toronto, Leon took the earliest flight back to New York.
The program Above Ground Rap, after simple editing, went online early to garner maximum traffic while the heat of the Diddy shooting incident was still high.
Lil Durk and King Von slipped back to Chicago immediately after the recording ended.
Both wanted to meet Leon and get the reward they deserved—a chance to release a record and debut.
But considering that after the program aired, it would be difficult for them to return to Chicago unharmed...
Under Sean's arrangement, they still ran away overnight.
The program was a huge success after airing.
Chester Bad Boy Radio, which originally had only about ten thousand weekly listeners, broke through one hundred thousand listeners.
Most of the gossip-watchers outside New York listened via online radio and YouTube.
Online plays broke through 500,000 in a day.
"P. Diddy's music isn't rap at all. What kind of fool would integrate Soul and Blues into rap music?!"
"Drill music is the future. P. Diddy is just a fraud making money off Biggie's fame!"
Lil Durk went full firepower against P. Diddy in the program.
T-ray occasionally interjected to send assists. "Do you know how many men Diddy's mom slept with?"
"Don't know."
"His mom's nickname when she was young was the Flower of Harlem."
"Fxxk Bro, you disgusted me..." Lil Durk made a retching expression.
He was two years younger than Leon; Diddy's mom was more than old enough to be his grandma.
"I didn't lie to you." T-ray spread his hands. "Although his mom was a teaching assistant, ever since his snitch dad was killed, his mother had to come out to work part-time."
"Shxt, every neighbor of Diddy has done business with his mom."
"Are these things you said true?" Lil Durk exclaimed.
"Of course, otherwise why do you think that bastard Diddy has such a business mind?" T-ray laughed while talking. "This was cultivated by his mom since childhood!"
"Hahaha~"
Several people talked like a talk show, one sentence after another.
The studio was filled with joyful air.
Watching on YouTube, Leon also couldn't hold back and laughed along several times.
Throughout the program, King Von spoke the least.
He was in a spaced-out state from being too high the whole time.
But when he opened his mouth, it was a heavy cannon: "Shooting Diddy was my idea. He's too old, should give the opportunity to young people."
"Bro, I'm very unhappy with your method." T-ray accused with a serious face.
"What did you say?" King Von almost suspected his ears had problems.
"I mean why didn't you aim a bit better and directly blow that bastard's skull off!" T-ray laughed back and forth.
Having just been shot four times a few days ago, someone immediately avenged him.
Justice from heaven.
Although the body outline marksmanship of these two nggas didn't hurt Diddy, it was still venting anger.
"Bro~ I'm sorry." King Von spread his hands. "Next time I'll hold an AR rifle and give him a surprise at Diddy's party scene."
King Von was the youngest, but also the craziest one.
So much so that when he said this, T-ray actually didn't think the other party was joking.
"Are you satisfied with this episode?" Sean asked.
"Very satisfied." Leon closed the webpage with a satisfied look. "What's Diddy's reaction now?"
"He hasn't expressed any response to this yet." Bonnie said. "But the wind direction on the internet has changed a lot."
Two unknown slum rappers claimed in a new podcast program that they shot the East Coast rap godfather.
The credibility of saying such things wasn't high.
But in the program, Lil Durk and others described the cause and process of the matter extremely realistically.
This forced many people to believe it.
Especially since Chicago's O-Block was notorious; it seemed there was nothing these young people couldn't do.
They raised themselves in this small abandoned block.
Dealing drugs, killing, rapping...
Just like the scene depicted in the movie City of God released in 2002.
Comments on the internet were divided into two camps.
One camp firmly believed that everything on the program was fake, and the real mastermind was Leon.
The other camp chose to believe what Lil Durk said, that this was an absurd farce.
Anyway, no matter what, Leon's goal had been achieved.
Gained traffic and distanced himself from the relationship.
After the shooting incident, the people who called him the most weren't Phil and Bonnie.
But the couple Beyoncé and JAY-Z.
Beyoncé was always worried that Leon's life would be in danger.
And the latter seemed to have endured his wanton behavior to the limit.
The contract was about to expire, and there was no sign of renewal.
JAY-Z's attitude was tougher than ever before: We must talk!
At 8 PM that night, Diddy's social media finally had a new update.
He left a confusing text—"Is over."
This sentence caused interpretations all over the internet.
Leon also saw this tweet while sitting on the toilet, and even he couldn't help but participate in the interpretation.
"It's over? What does this mean?"
"Did this guy really let this matter go completely?"
Thinking of this, he felt extremely regretful in his heart.
If this Beef ended just like this, where would he go to mooch off traffic?
From an emotional point of view, Leon certainly didn't want to entangle with this ngga anymore.
From the perspective of interests, he wished this storm would never stop, the livelier the better.
However, if put another way, this sentence could also be interpreted as "It's finished/doomed."
Meaning Diddy has bigger moves next.
Anyway, the current crisis was considered resolved.
Two days later, the last scene of Bang Bang started filming.
This record, which had whetted the appetite of music fans all over the world, would be released in a week.
That night, Leon was in a great mood.
Transformed into a coach again, guiding Bonnie to do yoga next to the floor-to-ceiling window.
Opening all the curtains of the apartment.
The night in New York was foggy.
Bonnie was pressed tightly against the glass of the floor-to-ceiling window.
With the East River as the background, the Brooklyn Bridge was covered with neon lights.
Leon was also galloping at high speed.
But his gaze was never on Bonnie...
His eyes were full of Manhattan's bewitching skyline.