MMA Fighting - 2026 Promotional Draft: Who Are The Biggest Stars In Combat Sports?

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

In what has become a yearly tradition, MMA Fighting celebrates the NFL Draft with our own Promotional Draft, selecting the biggest stars in combat sports to the four big promotions in the game right now. Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit vw.ca to learn more. SuvW, German engineered for all. That's right, everybody. You know what time it is. Today is Thursday, April 23rd. And that means this evening, this very evening, the NFL draft goes down in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And that means we here at MMAFighting.com are doing our promotional draft, the fifth annual MMA fighting promotional draft where we have circled the wagons.

We'll gather all the troops and we'll draft the biggest stars in MMA and apportionment from the various combat sports entities that are out there. Joining me as we did last year. And I think all of you have been on all of these for each, each of the past ones, is the crack squad from Mayfinding.com. First up, the king in the north, possibly the greatest human being alive. And the man who very recently helped us work our way through whatever UFC Winnipeg was, Alexander Cayley, A.K., how you doing? I'm good. I'm still riding that Winnipeg high. I was just wearing a Winnipeg hoodie.

I should have, Winnipeg Jets hoodie. I should have had it on, but it's going to get a little hot today. I can't be wearing a hoodie because it's going to be a hot show. So, so very, very hot. Man who knows a thing or two about hot. I think possibly the most handsome man in M.A. And certainly the biggest horror fan I know. I'm trying to remember who he's got this year.

We'll talk about that in just a moment. Mr. Damon, Martin, how are you feeling about them bangles, baby? Sexy Dexy on your team now. I was about to ask, can I draft Sexy Dexie is my number one pick? Because that's what the Bengals did. I'm very happy about that. The more that has come around, the more I've been like, you know what? Who needs the 10th overall pick when you can just put a very, very large man in the center of your defensive line.

Plus, he dances. He dances, Damon. and rounding out our crew, though he won't have the last pick this year. I didn't do this in the appropriate order of things. And about hosting the voice of MMA fighting.com, producer, extraordinary, graphic designer as well these days. And I think, personally believe the man who has given the most love to RAF, Real American Freestyle in MMA Media. Mike, how we feeling? I mean, not everybody will say that.

There's some untruths going around there, if you know what I mean. But, you know, it's great to be here. One of my favorite times of the year where we get to create these fantasy rosters. And, whoa, no love for A.J. Brown heading to the Patriots on June 1st, Jedmishu. What's going on here? Only the Bengals get love. What's happening? Well, that's not official that is reported by Shephti and seems very likely to happen.

But once that's through, you know, we've got a new draft coming up in a couple of days. and then we can give AJ Brown to the Pats all the love. But really, you're just trying to deflect from the other major story of Mike Brable, you know, do a whole thing. And the terrible Celtics. Didn't you guys draft an NFL reporter? Am I missing the story on that one? No, something like that.

It's better than whatever. At least you have a draft pick. My team doesn't have any. But we're going to fix that because I have a different team, ladies and gentlemen, this year, things are changing yet again. So I mentioned at the top of the order. This is our fifth annual promotional draft, and every single year has been different.

Orgs come, orgs go, people fall out. It is what happens last year. We had, I think I would have imagined, obviously staples, long-term, viable, healthy promotions, the UFC, PFL, BKFC, and GFL. Shockingly, D.FEL didn't quite make it. They're attempting to still be here, but we decided to cut the GFL from the draft portion of things this year and replace them with the new kid on the block.

Real American freestyle is taking the world by storm, and they're getting some extra love from us to make sure that we give them more love than anybody else in the combat sports space. And guess what? I got them. So before we did the show, we did so everybody could have time, prep a draft board, etc. or we did a random draw to assign each individual a franchise to draft around. I got Real American Freestyle. Damon Martin got PFL. Mike Heck got BKFs and A.K. Lee got the UFC.

In cases is your first time doing this exercise with us. It's very simple. Four of us have each taken one of those franchises, as mentioned, and we got the helm to them. We are going every fighter in the world put into a big old pot that you can draft when draft them, that fighter will then sign a five-year promotional contract with you. Especially important this year because what this means is that fighter can't afford their promotions. And sadly for me in the RIF, what are the niceties? We're not doing the, you know, if you're in the UFC, you can go to the RIF.

Nope, if you're in the UFC, you're in the UFC. This is exclusive contracts all around. Seven rounds just like the NFL draft. at the end we will put up a poll on on the accompanying written piece that will be on mhmapfiting.com great website you all can determine who won it's just a fun exercise kind of let us know where star power lies in the current you know mMA combat sports landscape not really mhm a because half of our orgs are not m m m mcs at this point but uh you know i don't know what's going on with one and bellator died so this is the world we're in

Boys, do you have any questions before we get down to the drafting today? Any comments, thoughts, concerns? I'm ready to go. That's party. I think I'm ready to go. Yeah. We love to hear that. And our draft order, so everyone is very clear, this is not a snake draft.

We are doing round by round NFL style. As the new kid on the block with RAF, I will get the first overall pick. Last year, I was surprised when I went back and saw this. PFL got the second pick. despite them ostensibly being the second largest MMA organization. BKFC got the third overall pick, and the UFC, of course, bringing up the rear as the dominant force, the reigning champions, as it were.

I don't know if I mentioned this before. At the end of this exercise, any fighters undrafted will revert to the contracts they are currently under. So AK kind of got the short straw. UFC is usually the toughest seat to draft here. Not only are going last, mostly people are stealing from you so you are a defensive

player in this as opposed to by default I get to keep a lot of good fighters technically by default you do get to keep a lot of fighters who came through the contender series this

and so ladies and gentlemen I'm sorry Jed you said snake right snake's down not snake son of a gun okay this is round over round buddy you've got the tough seat Ah, it's easy. We're back. We're back. I had to go back and check. I think the first time we did this, I was UFC and now we're back. So that was back in 2022. Reunited. Fifth annual, boys. We've been doing this for a long time.

I've got a soundboard that I'm so excited to play with. And so, ladies and gentlemen, let's get drafting. Round one. Begin. And round one begins with me and RAF. I think there are a lot of different ways you can go with here, but I think I just had to make, I'm not even sure this is a smart draft pick guys, but it is the obvious one and the one I'm going to go with. Functionally the face of RIF, he has been in the last four RAFs.

He is drawing all the headlines for good and ill, maybe one of the very best of Mimay fighters in the world, but we will never know because for the next five years, you are coming to RAF. Armand Serochian, come on down, baby. We are going to build this promotion around you. We'll give you the equity you're looking for as RIF continues to move forward into Fox Nation and beyond. Amon-Serukian is first off the board.

How does everybody feel about that? Congratulations. Smart pick. I mean, R-A-F is where they are today, you know, with good, solid matchmaking and card structure. But Arm and Saruki, you know, without Arm and Saru Kian, they are not where they are right now. They're just not. So this is a great pick.

You're done messed up, A, A, Ron. You're done messed up A.A. Ron. Listen, I'm just going to say, thank you for taking him off our hands. You guys a headache, malcontent, delinquent, prick. And now he's yours. Wow. Wow. You see his shots.

Take him off our hands. We don't want him. Legitimately, when I was just like, I probably don't have him first. I bet he could get him later. but at some point you got to embody the organization. And I think R.A.F. He's the guy for us. And so we are taking our Monserukian.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, puts Damon Martin and the PFL on the board. Damon, where are we going? I know our robbery on limited time. I just want to mention we are doing a rebranding at PFL. It's been a long time coming. So our new name officially is Fights. Thank you, Jeff. I love that.

I don't know who came up with that, but it's smart and handsome. Yes, our new name is just fights. So our first selection for fights, since we feature us coach on every promo, every social media page, everything we ever do involves this coach, our first pick is going to be the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. Isll Mokachathev, by extension, we get to do even more video features on Khabib Naragabed of a guy who has never ever fought for fights or PFL or Bellator, yet we feature him in every single promo we ever put out.

So why not just double up and take Islam as our number one pick? That is absolutely brutal for me, Damon. Islam was on my draft board. We were going to hope that maybe I didn't think he'd get there, but we're going to hope he slid. I think that's a good pick. Taking the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world is usually a solid, solid effort.

And he doesn't really fit in BKFC anyway. So, Mike, it's not like you lost out here. You know, you probably weren't taking it. Islam? No, I was going to take Armin though, because he is just a promotion. I sure was. Oh, thank goodness. Lord, we need some help right now. We don't have a lot of buzz with our promotion right now. We've, you know, we're selling some tickets and that's good. But, you know, where we were like two, three years ago, we are certainly not there now. Our product is not must watch. We have to cancel our plans to watch it. But now, Jed Bishu, we are going to sign the biggest

name we've ever had to actually compete under the BKFC banner. No, he is not the number one pound for pound fighter in the world, but he is the lightweight champion of the UFC. So Ilya Tuporia is now about to throw hands in the BKFC ring without gloves on. So welcome to the promotion. I'm going to call this Ilya fighting championship probably by 2027 because he's got a lot of money and he'll probably invest in us as well. So welcome, Ilya. You get that Richard Mealy, uh, sponsor coming. Oh, yeah. I mean, nothing says Richard Mill like BKFC.

Those are two brands that really go hand in watch as it were. Uh, not a bad choice at all, not where I thought we were going, quite frankly. I am interested to see AK as UFC. Are we going offense? Are we playing defense is the pick in? I just want to say, uh, I think. felt nothing but joy seeing all those names go off uh and guys really have fun with these guys they're not draws uh nobody they're very unlikable all them just completely unlikable uh they

they never want to fight there's all they fight once a year just so much diva behavior man i i i wish i could have given them away before the draft started that's how happy i am what you guys have done uh in the future we're going to talk about me away somebody if nobody drafts this person so keep that in mind i'm uh i'm playing dirty i'm playing dirty guys You know who's time. It's time to come home. Mike Perry, come on down. You're back.

Come back home. He's getting back into MMA. He's fighting ATS soon. If you're going to fight in M.A. Mike, come to the UFC. We want him back. What a missed opportunity. A first round shocker.

An Al Davis-like move taking Mike Perry. Yeah. This one I did not. Playing offense, not even protecting the realm. No. I don't want to say anything bad about the rest of my mom. right now, but I'll just say, welcome Mike Perry, welcome back.

Mike, heck, you have been personally back to how about this. Big time. I feel great about this because, I mean, Mike's not, I don't feel like Mike's going to fight for us anymore anyways. I think he,

I think we've gotten everything we can out of Mike. And I think Mike's gotten everything he can out of us. So new doors, new opportunities. And, you know, something tells me, AK, he's going to be coming back home in the next three to five years.

So, you know, enjoy him. I'd like, you know, I'm very interested to see how he does. in the UFC in a second go-around. Is he going to be more use of Zalal?

I don't know. But, you know, we wish him nothing but the best. We had huge fights for him, huge plans for him, but he decided to go a different direction and we appreciate everything Mike is done for us. That's so gracious, so gracious to you, my best friend. By the way, Jen, I forgot to say we're also rebranding.

Okay. Well, what's the OSCE rebranding? I need Damon's blessing, but we would like to become Belatorial of me. Are we allowed to have that? That's a proven brand. You own the rights. Are we...

You can have it. Okay. It's not official. I think, don't change any graphics, Jed. Let's call it. And for the rest of the show, we'll call it UFC. But let me talk to Ari and let me talk to the boys of TKO. I think they're going to be on board with this.

I'm kind of calling it out of here. I mean, it's such a common name that people inherently understand. So this is a great choice. And really attacking PFL or should I say fights, who was... They were debating. They were debating going back to Bellator. You can all as a freebie, you can also take World Series of fighting off her hand. Oh wow.

I thought we weren't going to get along in this draft. I mean, this has been so cooperative. Everybody is, everybody's just making friends out here. This is perfect. We'll see if that energy changes as we head to round two. Again. I love the gong sound effect. I'm having a lot of fun with that one.

I mean, this is, this is just lovely because I thought there was a lot of a really good chance AK might take this person from me. And I mean, we, we just got to know him realistically, you know, this was, this is a new, it's a new relationship and you want to see how we haven't even really gone into date yet. And we want to see how things go. We've already got his running man, Arm and Sarukin as the, as the first overall, but a very popular fighter, a man who likes to do some wrestling and gets a headline or two as well. So joining our AF, our new new signy, we're making it stick. Hamzaa Chimayev, former UFC middleweight champion,

because he's dropped the belt now that we have taken him. Chimayev, come on down, Boers. We'd love to have you over an RAF. Again, all yours. I'm so happy to hear me of a lot of these people. I don't know where this new UFC thing, but it's an interesting direction. You know, the Ronda Rousey's in the Darren Tills,

who say that Day of White is disengaged, AK is showing you what disengaged truly, truly. No, I'm wholly engaged. All right. I don't want, I don't need these guys. Okay, trust me. They never fight. They never fight.

Dave and Martin, we are back to you. And is the pick-in because the PFL is back on the board? We're fights now, by the way. Just fights. Sorry. I got to get that right. Louise, fights, yes. So one thing I'm noticed about fights when we do international.

parts they do they do a lot better and so we're going to continue with that international flavor we're already signed Islam our next pick is going to be none other than the future you know by the time this happens he's going to have to cancel that white house fight but we're going to go with the the man who is electric and fights across multiple divisions none other than alex peheda i mean what a freaking steal for fights i thought that i thought poeton was for sure going to be in BKFC. I mean, Damon, I think that is an elite

for fights. I mean, Islam versus Poetan, book it. Let's just have some fun, you know? Go for it. Why not? Middleweight, Islam comes up. Poetan cuts back. It'll be fine.

The optics alone would be incredible. Mike, you were nodding along appreciatively there was, were you looking at Pereira for your next pick on BKFC? I mean, I think everybody was looking at Pereira. I think that one really... How was it? I think that one. Yeah.

Not me. That would I have a hard time with, okay. I have a feeling that you're going to be okay with my next selection, though. But, you know, why... You know, not only do we have the first two fighters drafted, but we have just booked officially for October. We're going to save this for October. Knucklemania, six and a half.

And this is going to take place in Dublin. Ireland. Massive event. The main event is Iliot Tuporia making his BKFC debut against not only is he a part owner of the company, but he is now officially a fighter in the company. Iliot Tuporia versus Connor McGregor is going to headline Knucklemania 6 and a half. So welcome to the roster, Connor. Go fight your ass off. We're very excited about this. I can tell you from personal experience, drafting Connor McGregor does not make you a fan favorite. Just see you're aware, Mike. If I'm not mistaken, though, he has not fought since we started doing these drafts.

No, no. His last fight was the year before we started this. I believe he has been drafted every single year, too. I think he was number one, at least once. Yeah. And look, this could pay off maybe Connor as an owner of the promotion feels more inclined to get back into the ring for BKFC. see he is he certainly talks like he wants to do it and if you can get this fight over the line as big a fight as can be made in combat sports today probably but connor is he is a tough

he's a tough guy to rely on he was never even on the r a f board for for similar reasons and okay once again are you just are you thrilled that we are taking all of the biggest names that could be associated in the octagon i am so thrilled again listen these guys are there are either inactive or they're just annoying to listen to or they're close to being washed i mean alex fededa has a what maybe one or two fights left i'm looking five years guys five years which is obviously why i drafted mike perry number one um it'll make more sense with this pick because i i i'm going on the offensive it's all offense today i think not to spoil too much i may not draft a ufc fighter today but we will see why i keep them anyway if you guys

don't pick them it's a waste i love this plan yeah uh Dakota ditch Dakota Ditcha. Dakota Ditcher. Oh, excellent, AK. Come on. Come on.

She's the face of women's MMA for the next like 10 years. Let's go. Bring it on. What a pick. I actually think that is a very good pick because your women's divisions are in desperate need of, of some boost bolstering.

So a solid, a solid effort through two rounds. And boys, we're making great time. I just want to say, we did not want this to be a 90-minute video. And it couldn't be. So we're doing great as we move to round three.

Begin. We are back on the board. Boys, I got to tell you, my big board is shaping up exactly right. The only fighter who I have even considered that is no longer there was Zizlomakov, and he was going to be a late round pick on the off chance he kept sliding. But I've got my first three easy does it, and I love it. I think now I maybe want to be a little aggressive here. I'm debating which way to go, but I think this is the answer.

And it's very simple. I'm a wrestling promotion. You know, I need good wrestlers. More importantly, I need young wrestlers. And I need people who can draw headlines. Are they the best people? Is this guy? Maybe not.

But, you know, we've got some built-in opponents. over at RAF already. We've got Wyatt Hendrickson. You know, we've got Kyle Snyder. We've got some options. What we need is a big name heavyweight, an Olympic gold medalist. Mike Hex's favorite guy who, I'm sorry, will not be competing at the White House card because come on down, Gable, Steveson.

You are RAF. I don't know if that's our phrase, but I'm trying it out. We're going to see how it goes. Okay. I love this. This is going so well for my RAF team. That was my next pick So you just stole my next pick that so

And goodness I was between two My round three and my round four lineup picks Were like I don't know when I was like I think Gable might So But Damon that does in fact put you And fights back on the clock

Well we need Here's the thing with fights We need star power We haven't really had a little You know we're about to headline a car With Logan Storyly That should tell you exactly Where we're sitting right now

So we need star power And weirdly this guy draws He draws a crowd He's controversial, but people love him for some reason. So come on down, Sean Strickland. You're joining fights. Wow. I did not see this one coming.

I mean, I thought Strickland would go, but a little bit early. But I guess Strickland no longer can fight Hamzaa Chimae for the UFC middleweight title, aka UFC 328 is in shambles right now. What are you going to do? We got tons of middleweights right to step in. Don't worry about that. Middleweight division is on fire, man. Again, this is another person I am just happy to get this.

you guys are doing amazing job that's all i'm going to say you guys doing fantastic i'm very happy nashnenev has found himself right where he wants to be fighting for an impromptu middleweight he was waiting for this day against bryndan allen at the stage of things my heck bkfc is back on the clock oh man so i think i'm just going to have to do it i was trying to be strategic about this and and maybe I could make this a surprise pick at the end, but I've realized that we need help. Like we need star power. We need to make headlines.

And, you know, as much as Darren Till makes headlines, this ain't going to do a whole hell of a lot for us. He's going to fight a couple of times, and he's just going to leave us, try to get back to the UFC. So this is what we're going to do. We're going to make a bunker siding.

We're going to boost up this division. And this is BKFC. You can take all the steroids, all the crazyness you want to take in our promotion is totally okay. This man just competed, put over an up-and-coming talent in the best way possible. This guy understands the fight business and the combat sports business. So ladies and gentlemen, signed officially, locked and loaded to bare-knuckle fighting championship, the one and only. Brock Lesnar!

Sorry, Jedd. I knew that. I knew you were just waiting on him. I was going to hold because I thought I could. And I mean, we were going to do Gable versus Brock. No, you're not. We're going to have so many things. That's the first really good one.

And I mean, yeah. Do you want to say it or shall I? Do you want to comment on this or shall I? Go ahead. Go ahead. You've picked a man to do meruncle, Mike, who does not enjoy getting punched in the face. But it's one, but if there's anything we, do well at BKFC, we know how to match make.

We know how to match wake. So we're going to find like Alexander Romanov, someone who doesn't punch. And we're just going to let Brock hit him one time and win. And we only need him just a couple of fights. So it's okay. We're going to go ahead and do this. Brock loves to make money, AK. That's right. And we're going to get a lot of money. And we're going to get a lot of money. Okay. I think you're the first person who's ever had the O.C. that has gone full offense. And I'm, I'm excited to see where you go. This I'm not done. The picks are drying up here, but I'm not done.

A.K. Ball is in your court. What is the new Bellator doing? Well, it's funny. We don't have that clear yet. I don't get me in trouble. I did not clear that yet with the higher-ups. You know, Jed, it's funny.

You mentioned some great matchups for your boys, Gable. I'm going to take one of those away. What? I'm going to one of those away because, frankly, yeah, Gable's all right. But, I mean, there's a guy who just beat him. and I think we would love to have him in the budding UFC headway to fish. We're going to take Wyatt Hendrickson. Yes!

Yes! AK just is choosing chaos. That's awesome, AK. I'm so proud of you. Woke up and chose violent. I might choose Bob Bassett to be a part of BKFC right now. I might just do it. Future star.

Future star. Wow, you guys are really threatened by the rising power of R.A.F. You are just kneecapping me. before I even get up. That snuff that out. You guys got way too hot right now. The gable pick is like half is good now without why I didn't. Nope,

taking that away. Nope. I am reeling, AK. I just didn't see that coming at all. Fortunately, I do have a pick to make up for it. And I don't,

you've generally throw my planet of chaos. We've got to move on to round four. again so I had a plan the board was falling exactly right and now that I know A.K. might just attack me again debating where I need to go here I think

I think the answer has to be the same and if I lose out on one person because of this then that'll be a shame but actually F it I'm calling it audible, AK, you're coming to me? You're coming to me, AK? You're going to take one of my heavyweights,

a guy I can build around, could do things with, then give me a guy who maybe is more athletic than Gable Steve said. If that's who, if you choose to believe him, he could be. And he's the hottest thing you've got going at heavyweight right now, UFC.

That's right. The Incredible Hulk. Josh Hokit, come on down. You are an R.A.F. And you can prove that you are better than Gable Steve's in. I didn't want to do this, A.K. That's, you forced my hand. That's a double shot because our fancy draft that we do,

the other fancy draft we do is UFC only. And I was definitely going to keep Hawking, like, for sure. Hockey was going to be my keeper. But now he's an R.F. Hamstringing you. I didn't want to do that. But you chose violence. Wow.

You mess with the bull. You get the horns, AK. That's, that's what. happens uh while a k and i are engaging in a bloody fist fight over here that leaves some some scraps some pieces to pick up daman martin what pieces are the fight bingles i was trying to figure out a way to make the cincinnati fights what pieces are they picking up as they are on the pot well the reality is fights has not had a ton of success like that we need eyeballs we need eyeballs right away and so this may not be a great long-term investment,

but I will announce our first main event. Haven't decided the location yet, just stay tuned, but we are going to put Alex Pereira in a title fight against our next pick, former strongman, Eddie Hall. That is going to be our first main event. And we are doing,

we haven't decided location yet, but fights is going hard for our first card. We're doing Alex versus Eddie Hall. That's a terrific effort. Yeah, that one, that one stings. I'm striking Eddie off my board as well. We had them. Very, very, very.

solid effort. And I got to tell you, I'm tuning in for that fight. I may not, you know, love other combat sports promotions like I love RIF. I'm going to tune in to watch Poetan fight Eddie Hall because I don't even know what to anticipate. Like, well, that could be anything. It could be a boat. Who knows? Mike Heck, I have to imagine Eddie Hall was somewhere on your board at the very least. Maybe not this round, but I feel like you might have been interested in being in the Beast game. How are you feeling and where is, where's the wonderful BKFC going?

I'm reeling right now because we were going to, we're going to get Eddie Hall. I wasn't necessarily going to, you know, do Brock Leszder versus Eddie Hall right away, but we were certainly going to build up to it. And at least maybe for Leisder's like final fight of his contract. So that one hurts a little bit.

So I guess like taking the excitement out of that, I guess I'm going to have to take a guy who like some feel, some people feel as exciting. And I think he'll fit in good. I mean, as much as my heart breaks, Freddie Hall, I am excited that this guy is going to fight the winner of Ilya Tuporia versus Connor McGregor

for the BKFC, for the new King of Islands championship. Justin Gachey, welcome to BKFC. I mean, Justin Gachi is just, what a match made in heaven. It feels like that man should somehow be involved in bare-knuckle fighting.

point in his life. So, I mean, look, what you've done, you've taken the White House main event away. Sure. No longer. Now you've put it without gloves at some point in the future. Again, the U.S.C. is just reeling. This is right away. My guys can't fulfill the contractual obligations first. And Alex Pereira is gone. So who's Cyril gone? Get a fight now, AK. You have signed. Your White House card has been decimated. They have signed contracts with me to fight on these events. I think these are legally. Why don't you put Wyatt Hendrickson on the

on the White House car? Oh, there you go. Wyatt Henderson versus Cyril gone for the injury. Let me know that goes, AK, you chose this life. You couldn't play defense. That's not what you wanted. UFC is bat on the clock,

K.K. is the ticket. Well, I guess I got to get this guy before you goofballs do. Damon was smart, taking taking guys off, you know, not in any our promotion. So I'm going to do this because I feel I can get him later, but I'm going to get him now.

to make sure none of you grab them. We brought Mike Perry home. We're going to bring Francis home. You know, I know, listen, I know his management has talked about it. I know he's kind of talked about it. I know he's talked about beef with Dana. That's all right. I'm Dana now.

I get along with everybody. So Francis, we're bringing you in. This heavyweight division is just, it's gone from being ice cold to red hot once again. So let's bring home the predator. Francis Ngano, Zero, God, two headlining U.S. White House. And answer questions?

The fans go mild. very, very interesting. As we, boys, let's take a quick recap here. Not a recap, but just how are we feeling? We are over the halfway mark, three rounds left. How's everybody feeling about their draft teams right now? I love it.

I've shed so much dead weight. I just like, I feel free for the first time. I think I heard Dana, like if he saw what has happened to it, he'd like he'd want it back. He'd like, wow, this looks so, like you really clean the place up. Like, yes, you can breathe now, Dana. You seem to be stressed out the last couple. you're stealing with these A-holes.

You've got fun again. So this inspires joy. You've Marie Kondoed. You've decluttered the UFC. Big time. I love that. I also love the fifth round. And ladies and gentlemen, that is where we are going.

Fifth round. Begin. I'm back on the clock. And everything is coming up R.A.F. The Wyatt Hendrickson loss, it hurt. I mean, it definitely hurt. But it's okay because we had, we have plenty. with implants and nobody's done this yet.

I guess that's actually not true. That's actually a total lie. So forget that. Never mind what I was about to say. But I'll tell you, what we've done at RF right now, we've collected a lot of good stars, good names, help us to develop as we try and find our footing in this crazy combat sports world. But we do have a women's division.

You know, we've got female wrestlers. We've got Helmargoulous. We've got some Kennedy Blades. We've got some good names who are just in need of famous opponents, right? And sure, we have Giuliana Penae on commentary. That's a thing. But what we need are real opponents for these very successful, accomplished wrestling names. And while this person isn't a wrestler, she's a very accomplished grappler,

and she's real good on the mic. She can get things over. And so we are once again coming for AK's throat and we are taking another big fight that was potentially going to be booked this year away from him. I'm just stacking gold medalists is what I'm doing. And this is a two for one because she's double gold. Give me Kayla Harrison to RAF.

And we can start having just all sorts of fun. Because we're RIF. I'll put Kayla in there against Armin. I don't care. We can have fun at R. RAF. Kala Harrison, come on down. Mike does not care for this one. Okay. I mean, I feel great about this. I don't know. Y'all are just being negative.

That's fine. It's a fine pick. It's a fine pick. I thought you're going to go with the bigger star, but this is fine. This is certainly fine. The bigger star might be available. We'll see. We'll see. He already has. He already has Julianna Pena on commentary, Mike. That is for now I said you're trying to book the rematch you're trying to book the harrison pain your rematch under the raf umbrella understood we can say that that's a thing that could theoretically happen if we don't have any other options available to us speaking of no options fights you're back on the clock how are you feeling over there damon and what's on extra fights like i said we're all about star power right now at fights and we need to be get people who are going to draw on the one thing i will have you that fights has done well over the last few years is these international cards. So we're going to continue to dip into that pool and our next pick has done another than the man who is supposed to be headlining the White House card, but he couldn't get a win. We're still going to take him. Welcome to fights, Patty Pimbleau.

Oh, I like that. I think that's a very good pick. He's honestly the biggest star in fights immediately. And you can sell out anything you need over at, uh, over in London. It appears that BKFC is on the phone right now. So there's a call going in with BKFC. This is real time, ladies and gentlemen, this is unedited, unscripted footage.

BKFC, we saw a fancy phone call being made over there. What's going on? Knucklemania 6 and 3 quarters has a new main event. We're in. Holiday hell. Nucklemania, 6 and 3 quarters. Brock Lesnar versus John Jones headlines at event.

Welcome to BKFC. We are here to make headlines. You're welcome, A.K. I took another problem off your roster. And you know what? Brock ain't afraid of John's hands because he doesn't really throw him anyways. So we're all said.

He can't kick. Can't be kicking people in the face in BKFC. Can't do it. Can't do it. I think this is the first time in the history of us doing these drafts as someone has gotten John and Connor. I think, I think.

I could be wrong. I'd have to go back and check the scores. I was hoping to sneak John in maybe the sixth or seventh round. But, you know, he's got arthritis in his hip. I don't even know if he can compete anymore. Paul Hammond just called me and said, listen, Brock wants John. Like, that's the only fight he wants right now.

And I got to do it. I got to make our star happy. So welcome, John Jones. And a huge fight. This is a fight you, this is definitely the kind of fight you want. You want this. You'd probably take this fight over the Alex Prairie fight.

So congratulations, sir. Was that Paul Heyman on the phone? That was the advocate for for Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman. The phrase, uh, I mean, Foghesey comes to mind. I just want to say that. It's a, it's a whistle. It's, uh, you know what I mean? It's a whizze.

It's a whizze. It's fair. I'll tell it right now, you, like, you're getting, your investors are thrilled right now and you're getting, going to get a lot of money. I'm just hoping some hearts aren't broken here. That's what I'm saying. Well, AK, TKO is a bit upset as you have. traded a lot of famous people for Wyatt.

Yes. Where is the UFC going from here? They're going to love this next guy because I don't even know if he's still fighting anymore. But I know that PFL has not been using him. International Superstar. Fights, excuse me. I apologize deeply. Fights international superstar, as long as they're in France anyway.

Cedric Dumbay. I still want this guy. Where is Cedric? We will get you. you opportunities. I think it's, I think fights, the former PFL has been jerking you around. You are a star. We're going to take over the world with the help of Cedric here. Not a bad, I mean, if you're going offense, you could do a lot worse than Cedric Dume Bay there. So

I think he was the last pick last year. I think he was the final pick of the 2025 draft also from the UFC. So, uh, has, what's he doing? He hadn't fought in forever. What's going on there? He's getting PFLed right now. It's a tough scene. Exactly.

We're freeing him. We're freeing him. Hopefully fights changes that energy a little bit. And we're going to change the energy as we move to round six. This is where things open up for me because I got all the people I wanted. I wanted six names. I'm the only one I didn't get of that group. And so now I'm sort of free to vibe, feel around, do whatever I'd like.

here. And I don't know if this is even a good choice. It's very possible that we would sign him and he wouldn't even compete for us. But we're accruing famous people. We're accruing star power. And we're just trying to have some fun. And you know, A.K., I know that you, once upon a time, really believed that this could happen. And it didn't because he's a man of his word and he promised he swore to his mother that he would never fight again. But a wrestling match, it's not a fight. We're just having some fun out there.

Some good old fashion competition. One of the biggest stars in the sport and a guy who's great for just to bring in. And so, Damon, I'm sorry because we're not going to let you do a corner cam to this guy when he's coaching fighters that are competing in the fights cage. He is exclusively with us.

I'm speaking of course, Habib Narvigabegov, the Lightw weight goat let's get some wrestling in let's have some fun armand strucun versus abeb we can do that that would be a decent thing to do this cannot be legal this cannot be legal that will turn into a fight that i can assure you no because he'd behabib swore he would never fight anybody again devon arm is just got to punch him well uh habib will turn the other cheek because he swore he hands behind his back michael i swore to my mother everybody he swore in oath and a promise to your mom i mean that that's something we can I'll get behind. Again, I am not certain he will compete with us, but I've already got the people

I really wanted. And the upside here, late rounds, you're always drafting upside. The guy who ran the four three, but has no good college tape, you know, you're drafting on the hope that you can get something here. And that's what we've done with Habib number of the met of. Maybe early. I'm not sure anybody was taking him, but I'm happy to have him here in the sixth round. Damon Martin, PFL, I'm sorry, fights is back on the clock. Where is fights going? Well, we need a hype man and we need some, you know, we need people to help us with like, you know, visas and government support and, you know, listen, Dana White's kind of checked out these days

in terms of doing anybody does have maintained a great relationship with the president. So I'm going to take for a lead commentator and also to help us hype up our fights because we need, we need a lot of hype right now. So we're going to draft a man who can do it all for us. He can commentate. He can help us government. He can help us with government issues. He can help us with visas.

He's got the president on speed dial. He was just there last week. Our next pick, we're bringing in none other than Joe Rogan. Welcome to fights, Joe Rogan. Oh, wow. That's very interesting, Damon. That's very interesting. Drafting a coach, you don't often see a non-player get drafted, but I think this could work.

I mean, look, the commentary team could use. a little bit up and awful, but Rogan certainly adds some star power. Rogan can start putting fights, fighters on his podcast, elevating their stardom. I imagine him hypepping up the smart cage, Jen. Imagine him hyping up the technology of the smart cage. I mean, just I can't think about, here's the issue with the smart cage is a total tangent. They needed to brand it AI and then people would be all over it. Instead of calling it the smart cage, call it the AI cage, everybody would be like,

would like to throw $10 billion at this. This is the future. It can't be avoided. That's my tangent over. Damon, I really liked that. I didn't even have that as an option. So I really liked that pick. I don't think that would have influenced you though, Mike.

I don't think that that's going to change whatever your plan was coming into round six. So BKFC and Mike, back on the board. Where are you going for Knucklemania six and a half? We're at six and three quarters. So we're starting to gear up for seven. And, you know, we'll probably have to build a little bit. I think we, there's plenty of opponents for, for this gentleman. I mean, this guy just fits perfectly.

And the beauty of this is I think he needs, he needs a fresh paint of coat, as the great Paterson used to say. And look, when you're in the octagon and you're wearing gloves and you're about to become a world champion, sometimes you show mercy. Sometimes you just do it. But when you don't have gloves and you're in, in the big in between the ropes instead and you got no no mitts on there's no room for showing mercy

you can't even think about it you can't even use it as an excuse so you're a perhachka not only are you part of the bkfc roster but you were immediately getting a title shot and who knows maybe you get the chance to fight john jones maybe you get the chance to fight brock lester but your world is about to change in just the best possible way you were about to become a freaking superstar for us not just an exciting guy for ufc fans to watch on paramount plus no no no no you're going to sell tickets you're going to get bonus upon those tickets you're going to make a ton of money over here so welcome uri prehachka welcome that does honestly just feel like a great fit for bkfc like that feels feels like a good thing good thing for them to do i wouldn't i wouldn't i wouldn't hate it strike

first strike hard no mercy year that is no my son needs to to learn no mercy But what is that? A phone call is being placed right now. The UFC is on the clock in round six, but AK, R-A-F CEO, Jedmishu, is on the phone. He'd like to offer you a trade. I would like to trade up back in sixth round. I will offer you to move back one place to take my seventh round pick.

I get this pick. And you also get to keep. and or take away from me so she's no longer on my commentary team and ruining my product juliana peña is a great deal a k you're muted he's so excited you can't hear he's at a lost the words from going to deal this is this is this is a hard pass um no no no you take her okay listen there's someone else on your roster uh another woman on your roster that i would like actually who will really uh spearhead our new 135 in up division because I do not think there's any ways

you can make one of our existing weight classes. Give us the young Kennedy Blades. Give us the young Kennedy Blades. Oh, I love this pick, A.K. This is spectacular. 135 and up. This is a new division. Maybe 125 and up.

We'll see. Probably 135 and up. I've always wanted to do this. Bantam weights, feather weights, lightweights, whatever she's going to be a welterweight. I don't know. Let's get her in there.

I don't. She's got, she's got star potentially, okay. I'm telling you. Like, she's got a vibe to her that just, you're just like you know what like you're you're right there you could be a star you can you can kind of feel it once and i think under your tutelage okay i think you could make her that star and plus you take something away from jed and uh this is a terrific pick a aka i'm so proud of you my best

are you're just attacking me like i don't understand this my now you're gonna hate you're you're gonna hate what's about to happen to you my kala picks even worse now and mostly i just wanted you to take juliana pina so she would stop being on my commentary team This is the worst part of my product by far. So I thought I was going to pull it over, get to move up in the draft and shake some dead weight. Alas, that's not what happens. But now what happens, we go to the final round, ladies and gentlemen. We're on great time.

We're going to wrap this up very quickly as we move to round seven again. And we begin with me at RAF. I was trying very quickly to think of what Mike's about to do to make me unhappy. But, I mean, he could do some things, I'm sure. I think the only option here, quite simply put, let's just have a little bit of, let's have the most amount of fun that we can have, and let's not pick somebody who is super old.

A guy who probably, you won't even care about losing, A.K., but he makes a lot of sense for us. He's competed in our promotion before. And if this were, if R.F. had started a decade ago, maybe he never would have even moved into MMA in the first place, give me multiple time NCAA champion and I mean one of the best trash talkers in the game I think we can all agree great Mike skills

Bo Nicol join the RF team it's not my favorite pick but it's the seventh round what are you going to do in the seventh round you know solid uh Damon did you draft a manager for him too you know I'm going to take that over personally and it'll it'll go a little bit better with okay yes pain you

uh Damon Martin Fights is back on the clock for the final time. Where are we going? We're going to, you know, this guy is, this guy is teased to potentially do an MMA one day, and he trains with our number one pick, is on Makhachev, and he could be a star. We're looking for international talent

because Fights is going to be going international a lot. So I'm taking one away from Jed Mishu. My final pick is going to be none other than two-time gold medalist, Abdul Rashid Sadjaleev. Welcome to Fights and you will be fighting. What the shit is going on? Oh, you're kidding.

The benefit to being me is that nobody takes my people. Oh, boy. We ain't done. The bone. We ain't done. Well, I guess let's just keep picking the corpse of what was a fun young promotion. Oh. BKFC.

You know what you think of when you think of BKFC? RAF, wrestling and bare knuckle, basically the same sport. Mike, ruin my day some more. Why don't you? Hold on. We have breaking news first. Yuri Prahachka's BKFC debut is set. Opponent TBD.

It's going to take place Saturday, January 3rd in the main event of BKFC, the bruise cruise cruise. All right. It is made official. BKFC, SEA, the bruise cruise cruise is going to be headlined by Yuri Parachika versus TBD. So, I mean, that just screams the best way to put Yuri Parachka. But you know what, Jed? one of the things that we have struggled with,

and if you watched the most recent knucklemania, production's been a problem. Not only has production been a problem. I hate you. But timing has been a problem. You know, pacing has been a problem. And one of the things that has made RIF so special is that they have nailed this.

They have nailed the pacing. They have made the crowd feel involved while the people at home are watching the video packages and the promo packages because this man is an absolute genius and it is time to put him over and I know how much being the head producer for RAF means to this man but we need help desperately on the production side we have to go back to what made us so special no lags no bullshit just boom boom boom boom boom so since our roster is set we're going to deal with the back end stuff

we are bringing in Eric Bischoff to be our new producer, BKFCT, just get our production and get our timing and get our pacing right back where it needs to be. I mean, I'm actually not that upset with it. It would be better to have him, but I can take on those responsibilities. I feel very confident in my ability to keep our pace going. I thought you were going to take a different person. I thought you're going to take Chale Sunnan. I don't think AK is going to take Chil Sunnan.

I hope AK takes a better level. You get a service provider, so he's less blurry. You also at home may have noticed that we've lost Damon Martin. Look, he's hidden the ground running with fights. He's finished his draft. He is immediately going into his war room and trying to get the wheels turning for these things. He has abandoned us. But AK, UFC is the last group up, and you are the last man standing.

What other, what final piece of damage are you going to do? I assume me because I'm the only person getting attacked. Take show. No more. No more poaching. No more poaching from you guys. This is really a statement pick. Someone who I guess, like I don't know how this works.

I don't know if we were saying like, oh, we could sign anyone in free agency after. I know that's not associated with any of promotions. But I want to make a clear and I want to put an exclamation point on what I've done today. We're using our seventh round pick on a man who just put on maybe one of the best fights of the year. He's been up there in age, but I think we've got some more fights to live. left in him. He's just, he's an American icon. I think that's the only way to put it. We're bringing in Deonté Wilder. We're bringing in Deonté. Yeah. That's what I'm using my last pick on. So what you're saying, okay, is we're going to get Inganu Wilder at the U.S.

I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I didn't not see that. I mean, that's, that's a fascinating and interesting one. Thank you for not choosing violence. for the final round. A couple of things. A couple of news. We're done. We've wrapped it up. There you go, everybody.

I make one last note. You absolutely may, A.K. Yes. I erroneously, we never had McGregor and Joan drafted by this. It literally happened last year by our own Damon Martin. He was Captain Good Ship GFL. I'm looking at here.

Look at this. Connor and John Jones is first two picks. And then France, Ronda, Gina, and Diaz. He accidentally put together MVP MMA without realizing it. I mean,

nailed it. Good. He's a visionary. That means, he was going to have a great year ahead of them. That's crazy. I'm just now realizing looking at my board that I actually

meant, I screwed up seventh round. I meant to take Aaron Pico, who I think just would fit better for us. But he'd think great for me too. I mean, except for Kani, can he really take those shots? I don't know about that. Look, we've had some fun here.

There were not a lot of, I was going to say not a lot of big name fighters left on the board, but how many stars really are there in MMA these days anyway? So I am a little bit surprised Nate Diaz was not taken by BKFC. I feel like you could have built a real roster there, but. We're already on the horn of this people. He's a free agent. I mean, he is a free agent, so you do have the opportunity to get some things done there.

boys any last words before we skiddle from the 2026 m a promotional draft i'm just so happy with how this turned out i i as soon as i got yosc i'm like it's so boring oh i'm going to protect islam i'm going to elita purr and i said wait a minute i don't have to do any of that like we're number one we're playing with so much house money like let's have fun i'm in charge now i'm going to change things up and like i said and i made about like i don't want to draft any any ufc fighters arman i think was the only one in my top four. I was like, okay, obviously, Armin is maybe one most talked about guys now.

I hadn't even thought about Patty, but that one hurt. I will say losing Patty, definitely sucks. I feel like he's actually someone with some crossover appeal. But outside of those two, genuinely do not care. Love Ilya, great fighter. I believe in the whole international thing as well, but man, the guy just talks so much and just doesn't fight. And I know he has reasons for that.

I'm not trying to say, you know, he didn't deserve some time off, but man, I'm really happy with the new state of the UFC. I don't know if fans feel the same way, but I'm happy. well we will find out how fans feel as mentioned at the top of the show there is an accompanying piece on enmefighting.com where at the bottom we will have a poll aka prince of polls i'm going to need you to make that about who won the 2026 in a promotional in a fighting promotional draft so pop on over there let your voices be heard hope you had fun with us for damon martin who is no longer on screen for mike heck frogs inda k lee i am jem mashu Thanks for stopping by.

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