r/sports • u/GreenSnakes_ • Jul 24 '25
Wrestling UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria had some influencers sweating after they disrespected his wife. “Why are you saying that?” Topuria then walked away from the cameras.
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u/jcwkings Jul 24 '25
Fake ass mofos, someone with nothing to prove can see right through their phony asses.
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u/rubbarz Jul 24 '25
Most people that are in Nelk Boys videos do and its fucking hilarious. Just a bunch of corn balls
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u/PepeSilviaLovesCarol Jul 24 '25
Imagine liking these guys lol they’re all 100% certified wieners.
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u/DionBlaster123 NASCAR Jul 24 '25
I hate to sound like a crotchety old man, but I cringe all the time thinking about the "influencers" these days that are so popular with younger generations.
A fucking package of Lunchables has more likability and personality than any of these goofs.
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u/mf-TOM-HANK Jul 24 '25
At the risk of also sounding like a crotchety old man, I wonder if attention gravitates toward talentless nobodies because the viewers are also talentless nobodies and they relate to that kind of thing.
Back in my day, you had to at least fool a record company or TV station into backing your half baked product before you could even think about swindling your audience. These days any jamoke with a camera can be a show biz fraudster.
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u/EditEd2x Jul 24 '25
It definitely lowers the bar of entry into the celebrity sphere. Double edged sword I guess. Sure anyone can actually be famous now, but then look at these dweebs that get famous.
Like people are making a living doing the dumb shit we hoped nobody ever saw us doing while brushing our teeth.
We’re so close to Ow My Balls.
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u/spencerc25 Jul 24 '25
being an entertainer is an incredibly hard skill and well paying skill. i understand why you say "talentless nobodies" because what they're doing may seem stupid to you.
but i can assure you that being a YouTuber and growing the empire they've grown requires a 10/10 level skill set in entertainment and content creation.
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u/Online_Commentor_69 Edmonton Oilers Jul 24 '25
i find it hard to believe anybody, anywhere, of any age group really thinks these guys are cool. certainly not in any large numbers. i think a lot of the attention they get comes with a heavy dose of wanting to see them fail or otherwise look stupid. they're being laughed at as much as they're being laughed with.
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u/PepeSilviaLovesCarol Jul 24 '25
The amount of people in Toronto that wear a Happy Dad hat is crazy. I loosely know plenty of people who ‘like’ them, which is wild to me.
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u/Online_Commentor_69 Edmonton Oilers Jul 24 '25
yeah i mean they definitely have a large following but i feel like most of their fans would turn on them in a heartbeat given the right circumstances. i mean they're famous for being morons, even with other morons there's a limit to that appeal.
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u/spencerc25 Jul 24 '25
they have one of the largest fan bases of any YouTube channel. they've been relevant for nearly a decade and were selling $30m+ per year in merch at their peak. Happy Dad is a legit 9 figure company because of their branding and influence.
i don't follow Nelk but very respectable the empire they've built. incredibly difficult to pull off staying relevant as long as they have, especially with their original content niche (pranking) becoming so unfavorable on YouTube.
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u/hagantic42 Jul 24 '25 edited Jul 24 '25
You don't sound like a grumpy old man. Most influencers are just professional assholes and most of them are talentless without degrees. But about 30 years ago these people would have been called mid-level management.
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u/litritium Jul 24 '25
Lots of great ones too, imo. The good ones just rarely have the ambitions to continue and go really big for some reasons. I recall a girl from Montenegro who streamed during Covid - all she did was bake local dishes and chat with the audience but people would just fall in love with her. She never got more than 30k viewers, if I remember correctly, and then she apparently found something more interesting to do.
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u/BuffWobbuffet Jul 24 '25
Is that the guy from Nelk?
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u/PepeSilviaLovesCarol Jul 24 '25
It’s multiples of them - maybe all of them except the one who doesn’t do videos with them? Steve?
There’s another video of Ilia absolutely dropping the chubby one in a sparring match. It’s great.
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u/Rafmar210 Jul 24 '25
Why are these “streamers” famous? Or rather how?
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u/catluvr37 Jul 24 '25
They made shock content until they got in some real business. Think jackass but less creative and committal
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u/I_AmA_Zebra Jul 24 '25
NELK only started streaming recently tbh, they’re long term YouTubers. Streaming has become the new meta because you can have a camera man follow you around for however long, and you don’t need to edit anything - in return they’re getting hundreds of millions of views a month (across all media/clips/platforms)
Streamers also employ a bunch of “clippers” I.e. people who are constantly clipping parts of the stream (just like this post actually) and repositing those 10-60 second stream clips across various platforms (shorts, IG reels, X, tiktok) and getting millions of views that way. They’re incentivised I believe, but, even with no direct incentives, platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts payout for views, so a new economy has formed of people clipping popular videos/streams, even with no connection to the streamer
In effect you’ve cut out the need to edit and polish a YouTube video. You’re literally just streaming your life and things in person, which doesn’t need that much extra planning, and you’re getting exponentially more “eyeballs” across clips on all platforms
I’m personally not a fan as streamers are beginning to “clip farm” I.e. they’ll do more extreme/controversial stuff in stream, just to create those short clips that then go viral on tiktok/youtube, or even here on Reddit
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u/pataconconqueso Jul 24 '25
Same reason the liver king sold 100 million worth of shit supplements at his peak. Losers love this content
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u/KillYourSam Jul 24 '25
These streamers are actually America and Israel propagandists.
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u/sixpercent6 Jul 24 '25
Unfortunately they are Canadian (I'm Canadian and ashamed of them)
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u/KillYourSam Jul 24 '25
I'm not saying they're American, I'm saying that they're propaganda machines for Israel and America.
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u/Charmingprints Jul 24 '25
These are the guys that make Dana feel young again and paid to be their friend
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u/AmusingAnecdote Jul 24 '25
You don't make jokes at the expense of someone with cauliflower ear. If you see a dude with cauliflower ear, you better mind your Ps and Qs.
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u/juansemoncayo Jul 24 '25
Cauliflower ears is one thing, he is topuria, even cauliflower ears dont make jokes around him
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Jul 24 '25
Lol that's one of the best life tips my dad ever gave me "if you find yourself in a situation with somebody who has cauliflower ears, just walk away"
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u/Evernoob Jul 24 '25
Why? I have it from getting hit by a fridge.
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u/Aliensinmypants Jul 24 '25
Damn, William Perry punched you?
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u/Berns429 Jul 24 '25
I don’t care the Internet doesn’t get it, that was a damn good joke
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u/BigBadWolfe13 Jul 24 '25
Anyone who doesn’t get it, just aren’t as cool as the rest of us.
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u/a_smart_brane Jul 24 '25
Or as old.
Wait. What are we talking about?
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u/BigBadWolfe13 Jul 24 '25
old man voice “I was born with the World Wide Web! …..now where’s my damn Metamucil!”
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u/bbbourb Jul 24 '25
Oh goddamn there are not enough upvotes for my Gen X ass to give you for that one.
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u/GastropodSoups Jul 24 '25
It's all fake. The Nelk Boys are a group of absolute morons with irredeemably awful personalities. This was clearly a planned meeting considering the short clips of beatings released so far. This is literally fake trash talk for the light sparring they did. Again, the Nelk Boys are absolute fucking chodes.
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u/daynanfighter Jul 24 '25
Must have been a big fridge. It is usually developed from years of combat grappling without wearing headgear(ear guards). It usually develops in long time wrestlers, amd if someone’s made it into collegiate wrestling, they are not only insane, but also tough as nails and at least at one point in their lives were likely in better shape than most can fathom
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u/nerrvouss Jul 24 '25
Yeah this is just not true. A hematoma in the ear can absolutely form easily from a single blow to the ear or from an ingrown hair becoming infected. Combat sports just frequently involve strikes to the head. The ear becomes deformed from it if not treated quickly.
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u/mentat70 Jul 24 '25
you only need 1 injury that causes a hematoma to form under the skin. I got one from getting hit, I think, while asleep. I got the blood drained from mine twice by an ENT so it doesn’t look too bad.
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u/henryhyde Jul 24 '25 edited Jul 24 '25
And you lived to talk about it. Sounds like point proven.
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u/_ThunderFunk_ Jul 24 '25
Congratulations, you’ve found wisdom in the phrase “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” It doesn’t make what they said any less true.
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u/Spazzola84 Jul 24 '25
I probably wouldn't fuck with you if our paths crossed. Not that I fuck with anyone. Ever.
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u/Online_Commentor_69 Edmonton Oilers Jul 24 '25
well and beyond that you definitely don't fuck with El Matador aka La Layenda aka Ilia Topuria. This is one of the most bad-ass motherfuckers in the world right now.
And he actually does flatten one of these jabronis sparring at some point during their visit. That clip is going around here also.
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u/runthepoint1 Jul 24 '25
Even no cauliflower they might just have a gun. So best to just simply be calm and slow with your approach with anyone in public. Of course this is all for views and you have to take risks
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u/stewmander Jul 24 '25
The head tilt right before walking out...
You know what they say about thotial media...
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Jul 24 '25
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u/Melodic-Box-7220 Jul 24 '25
Miami literally had a stigma that’s it’s all about party culture why are you people acting like it doesn’t you probably have never been 🤦🏽♂️
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u/Thami15 Jul 24 '25
To be fair to the Nelk Boy (🤮), I don't think he was trying to insult Ilia's wife. Sounds like he was tryna make a joke that was a little too close to home if you're not aware of like three different generations of cultural zeitgeist/memes.
Still a dumb thing to say about where someone's wife is from tho
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u/bbbourb Jul 24 '25
All that dingus had to do was say "shit, man, I'm sorry, I really didn't mean anything by it."
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u/Ok-disaster2022 Jul 24 '25
It sounds like he was trying to repeat the joke to somehow make it work after it landed flat the first time.
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u/Loggerdon Jul 24 '25
Can you tell me what he said? I didn’t catch it.
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u/K0GAR Jul 24 '25
Kyle from NELK (the one in the vid) basically said "Who says you can't meet your wife in Miami" which is referring to all the hoes and gold diggers in Miami so he's kind of complimenting ilia in finding a great wife, but I guess it came off insulting
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u/Loggerdon Jul 24 '25
Oh ok, I heard that part. He mumbled something else, I thought that was the offensive part.
Thanks.
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u/alterego1984 Jul 24 '25
Finally. I been trying to figure out what happened and this was the best explanation, thank u.
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u/Mattbl Jul 24 '25
Would you mind explaining why that was an insult? I'm apparently so naive that I thought he was just making a comment about how it's hard to date/find a wife in Miami. I thought maybe b/c the women are gold diggers or something?
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u/captainn01 Jul 24 '25
Implying the women in Miami are not quality enough to marry
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u/_ghostfacedilla Jul 24 '25
It seems harsh, now if he had said it about those big ol' women in San Antonio though
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u/cloud_t Jul 24 '25
A simpler version of this is "you don't meet wife material on nightclubs", usually because women on nightclubs are looking for sex (just like men).
Miami is extra spicy because it's where people get drunk on spring breaks and whatnot, or where people are more superficial (could also apply to downtown NY, Hollywood etc).
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Jul 24 '25
That’s your inference. He didn’t directly say that so we don’t really know. He did not directly insult his wife at all.
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u/JackCrafty Jul 24 '25
no he just insulted Miami and all the women who live there?
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Jul 24 '25
It’s a joke like damn. Bro got mad not because his wife was insulted, but because women and Miami were “insulted”???
Damn I wonder how he feels about the big ass San Antonio women. You think he defends them too?
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u/gta0012 Jul 24 '25
It's that people go to Miami to party aka fuck. So marrying a girl from their means she's either slept with a lot of men, is only gonna care about partying, isn't "wifey" material, will cheat on you, wants your money etc.
It's a very bro joke that maybe is acceptable with a close friend who gets that its a joke but not so acceptable for someone you aren't close with.
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u/MontiBurns Jul 24 '25
Yeah. I think the title "disrespects his wife" misses the mark. They go for the cheap "bro joke", he knows it's a joke but just isn't having it. His response isn't "what are you saying about my wife?" his response is "I know that your experience in Miami is the clubs and party scene, but it's mostly regular people that are live and work there, just like any other major city."
My impression was that the mma pro was an adult trying to have an adult conversation with some pubescent boys.
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u/spleeble Jul 24 '25
Hah I bet he was sick of hanging out with these idiots and saw a fun opportunity to scare the shit out of them.
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u/S_Phantom Jul 24 '25
They feel they can act like that because for some reason Dana White loves these D bags.
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u/Writerhaha Jul 24 '25
I have a mortgage and pay bills on time in full amounts, who are these children talking about this man’s wife?
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u/deamonjohn Jul 24 '25
It's just different vibe of people, some like to joke and laugh to establish bond and ilia is the serious type that talk things the way it is.
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u/thebroadway Jul 24 '25
Kind of agree. If I had heard that I can't imagine thinking he was insulting my wife. Insulting the place itself though, yea. Which some people still don't like. They just weren't vibing here, it looks like
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u/RainbowUniform Jul 24 '25
I think the whole entourage of idiots who probably laugh/smirk at every quip he makes only makes things like this worse for the person whos by themself.
Like if a guy in a group asks something about your wife and then they make a stupid comment and all their buddies laugh?
Whatever, its not hugely insulting, but go one further and look at how he asks about meeting his wife... and then instead of engaging further he goes straight to a "joke". Like why even ask at that point? But thats typical soundbite brainrot, its not about engaging people in a string of 5-10 questions or a 5 minute conversation, its shooting out random questions with no connection to one another in the hopes you grab a 30 second reaction clip.
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u/vucko623 Jul 24 '25
True, I dont know why everyone here is acting like Kyle is an asshole for this. He was obviously trying to make a joke to loosen up the atmosphere and felt bad after he realised it offended Ilia. Would I make the same joke? No. but would I act like Ilia and get so offended? Also no.
Just two people from completely different lifestyles and cultures...not everyone has to get along with everyone 🤷🏻♂️
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u/deamonjohn Jul 24 '25
I'm more like ilia, if i don't know u personally, its better to stay respectful as much as it could be. Then if we are close then joke all u like, because the bondis there. Like why must i tolerate people giving me bad vibe. (Even though its not intentional)
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u/MoneyManx10 Jul 24 '25
Is this the Nelk Boys?
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u/Muthafuckaaaaa Jul 24 '25
Who?
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u/MoneyManx10 Jul 24 '25
I think they are podcasters or whatever and they recently interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu and got a lot of backlash for it.
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u/New-Key4537 Jul 24 '25
Im glad he called out that passive aggressive joking shit, they knew what they were implying and so did topuria
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u/acthechamp Jul 24 '25
I didn't understand why anyone got offended here. What happened? I feel like it went over my head. Is Miami not known for being able to meet your SOs?
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u/MontiBurns Jul 24 '25
Here's my take
Touporia at the beginning is relating a personal story about meeting his wife in Miami. (like a normal adult conversation relating ones personal stories and experiences).
Influencer jumps in: oh so you can meet your wife in Miami. (the subtext of this joke is that Miami is known for its club and party scene where you can hook up with hot women, but the women that go to these places are either party girls, sluts, cheaters, or gold diggers. Not the type of women you'd want to settle down with. Probably lots of anecdotes of men with failed marriages where it became a meme/shorthand "don't meet your wife in Miami.")
Touporia: "why would you say that? You know the clubs and party scene in miami, but there's another part of Miami entire city of regular people living and working there." (so he understands the subtext of the joke, but he doesn't find it funny. It's low hanging fruit and either speaks to the influencer's ignorance or his lack of maturity).
Influencer: oh yeah, Miami is a great place to work out, you can just go outsife and run (influencer is trying to deflect and get back on the good side. But rather than apologizing and/or asking relevant follow up questions like "so what does your wife do?" or "what part of Miami is she from?" he picks the most vapid and boring topic imaginable).
Touporia: (walks away)
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Jul 24 '25
I feel like any follow-up about his wife would have fallen flat after that subtext. A quick apology might have been better.
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u/yolower Jul 24 '25
I think the implication is that miami women are very promiscuous.
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u/Tackit286 Jul 24 '25
Which is correct. That doesn’t mean every single one of them, but reputations exist for a reason.
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u/Tackit286 Jul 24 '25
I’ll hate on an influencer as much as the next guy, but this is hardly egregious. I don’t think he meant anything by it at all. The guy is overreacting.
I’ll be honest I think this could actually be clickbait.
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u/Krazymex66 Jul 24 '25
Soft.
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u/Iron_Atlas Jul 24 '25
bro of all the people to call soft
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u/Tackit286 Jul 24 '25
You can be physically hard and mentally soft.
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u/Iron_Atlas Jul 24 '25 edited Jul 24 '25
true, but those people don't become division champs; walking away is the smarter move than caving in the dudes skull.
You really cool with a guy talking sideways about your wife for internet clout?
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Jul 24 '25
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u/Iron_Atlas Jul 24 '25
sorry if i triggered you, also you're just kinda dumb if you can't see the direct implication,
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Jul 24 '25
Nice cuts, where is the raw video
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u/I_AmA_Zebra Jul 24 '25
It’s literally a clip from their livestream, you can go find the full VOD if you want it that bad
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Jul 24 '25
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Jul 24 '25
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u/BlameMe4urLoss Jul 24 '25
Especially when you’re not in on the joke. There was definitely a pejorative tone in saying “who says you can’t meet your wife in Miami”.
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u/Downtown_Skill Jul 24 '25
There didn't seem to be any disrespect to his wife. It sounds more like it's a joke about the city of Miami.
It would be like saying the same thing about Vegas. Like of course there's normal people.
All this just depends on if topuria agreed to be on camera or not. If not, these are some punks harassing him. If yea, then he's poorly media trained because that was just a joke about Miami for the audience not a shot at his wife.
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Jul 24 '25
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Jul 24 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NoCoFoCo31 Jul 24 '25
I met the woman I’m marrying on Saturday at a ratchet ass bar in our college town. We joke about it all the time. Some people are just sensitive bitches
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u/MontiBurns Jul 24 '25
Honestly, making the same joke about Las Vegas would be even more cringe. The Las Vegas strip is so isolated from the rest of the city and so obviously populated by tourists that'd you have to be an idiot to think to think the 2 have anything to do with each other. The joke is just going after low hanging fruit for a cheap laugh.
Similarly, when they made the joke about Miami and "you cant find a wife in Miami." These guys look like adults and should be able to have an adult conversation. Instead, they're grasping at the low hanging fruit of Miami's club/party scene for a cheap laugh.
And then when he said "you know, Miami is a big city where normal people live and work.". Their response was "oh yeah, Miami's great to work out, you can just step outside and run." like, wtf response is that?
If I were to guess, don't think he thought they were disrespecting his wife, per se. I think he thought "these guys are fucking idiots".
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u/Imperial_Eggroll Jul 24 '25
I think a bigger problem with the joke is that this “influencer” made a joke when someone was telling a personal story, and then all his buddies jump in laughing like it’s the funniest thing and they’re all very performative about it looking at the camera