MMA Fighting - Between the Links: Episode 24 | Glover Teixeira's Next Move, Is Khabib Coming Back For 30-0?

Episode Date: November 10, 2020

Check out episode 24 of Between the Links as Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jose Youngs and former UFC, and current Brave CF flyweight Jose “Shorty” Torres as they give their takes on Glover Teixeira’s third-round submission win over Thiago Santos this past Saturday, the chances of the UFC calling an audible and having Teixeira challenge Jan Blachowicz for the lightweight title over Israel Adesanya, and where Jon Jones factors into the equation.  In addition, the panel gives their three stars for UFC Vegas 13, talks how much of an impact losing Islam Makhachev has on the UFC Vegas 14 event (*note, the news of Paul Felder stepping in to face Rafael dos Anjos wasn’t confirmed until the end of the show’s recording), Dana White saying Khabib Nurmagomedov may not be done after all, and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Jose 'Shorty' Torres: @ShortyTorresMMA 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Welcome to Between the Links, with your host, Mike Heck. All right, once again, the iconic voice of Esther Lynn, welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links on MMAfighting.com. Thank you for checking out the program this week. We have a fun matchup in store, and as always, a lot to discuss. So let's just get right into this thing. Let us introduce the combatants first.

back on the show, a former long-time reigning champion here on BTL from MMAfighting.com hosted the A-side live chat, Mr. Jose Youngs. How's it going, sir? Well, I don't know why I'm wearing this hat. It's really hot here in Arizona, even though it's November. Actually, you'll see why I'm wearing this hat because my opponent, whose name is spelled incorrectly, decided he was going to wear this hat. He's just purple.

Mine's black. Mine's better. So I think that just sets the tone for this game show that I'm just better all around. So take it away. There we go. And the aforementioned person joining the panel for the first time, former UFC Flyway, current Brave CF standout, part of their Flyway title tournament, fought Sean Santella to a draw in the first round.

Hopefully they rebooked that one soon, but happy to have. Jose Shorty Torres on the show this week. Hat and all, how are you, sir? I'm great. I just want to say I'm short and happy. Big things come in small. packages and Jose with an accent has no chance against me because I just want to say starting off this podcast, I put this hat on. He goes, I want to be like the little guy. Comes back on the screen

with the hat. So he's already copied me. He's already in second place. Yeah. Well, you know, like in real life, no one wants to copy Shorty. So I figure we give him some virtual copying to kind of build his confidence up for his next fight. So I'm just doing him a favor. That's how I'm viewing it. The bad thing is I highly appreciate that He's probably 100% right. We are cooking with fire right off the bat. Let us continue making this meal right here between the links. Let us start with UFC Vegas 13 this past Saturday night.

We saw Glover Tashira coming into his main event matchup with Tiago Santos as a sizable underdog. And he comes through in a big way. He picks up a third round submission win. Five wins in a row for Glover Tashira. But now we have a little bit of a problem because he's clearly the number one contender for Jan Blahovych and the light heavyweight title. But plans seem to be in motion to have Jan Blahovic defend for the first time against Israel Adesania. So, Jose, we begin with you. I guess first off, what happens now?

Where does Glover Tizier and his top contender spot go from Saturday night? Well, Glover Tashir is screwed at this point because not only is Israel Adesania, most likely going to fight Jan Blajavich for the light heavyweight title to try to become a champ, If he wins, he's already saying he has no problem going up to heavyweight to fight John Jones. So he could hold up not just the middleweight division, but also the light heavyweight division. I know the middleweight division has the number one contender two and Robert Whitaker, but that division is so stacked. Now that Darren Till is certain, say Jack Hermanson does be Kevin Hollins,

maybe they could fight moving forward. I know we had talked about a lot if Darren Till had won, maybe he skips the queue just because him and Israel have had so many fun war of words on social media. And they also praise each other's striking. So it wouldn't surprise me if that happened. But now that Darren Till is out, I think Robert Whitaker is the number of contender. He can fight Jackermanson if he beats Kevin Hollins. But Glover, there's no one left for him to fight at this point. He's done everything.

He's beating everyone. He beat the number one guy. He's on the wrong side of 40. So if I'm Glover-Jera, I wait. I either wait for my title shot against John Bolhovic or I fight for an interim title and maybe fight the winner down the road because there is, of course, the Dominic Reyes. Jerry Paras could fight. If Dom wins, maybe they can set up an interim title.

and if Jerry Peraswin wins too, or if they want to do Alexander Ratchik, that's cool too. But if I'm Gloved Chair at this point in my career, he's on the wrong side of 40, I do not fight unless it's for a title, given how much effort I've put in and how every time it seems like he loses, the UFC restarts him, basically restarts him. He gets a lower-ranked opponent and he has to rebuild himself up. They're not doing himself any favors. He has no one left to fight. So if I'm Glover, I fight, I wait for my title shot or I fight for an Inson title. those are the only two options so i'm glover to share shorty what do you think

all right put my gloves back on so i think well i think i'm better but i just want to say overall with glover he's not a fight fight fighting winning streak against two back to back title contenders he definitely deserves the title shot but he's not as popular as is he

is he's gonna bump up he's definitely going to go for the title and they're gonna obviously card it as a super fight so when it comes a pay-per-view buys and it comes The money overall, the UFC is 100% going to go for that. And Glover is at this stance, so where he is, again, on the opposite side of 40, where he's like, damn, I need the fight. I need the fight as soon as possible, but I can only take this one fight because any other fight is going to be crucial. Unless it is for an interim belt, the only problem is, I don't see them putting an interim belt.

I do believe Jan should defend his belt first before fighting Izzy or even making some type of super fight accusation. But, you know, they want to give Izzy. and then that's kind of how sadly the UFC plays their game where they just, they see big money on the table, let's do that. But I believe Glover 100% deserves a title shot. So here's what's throwing me off about, yes, but what's throwing me off about this entire thing

is the timeline, okay? Because Jan Blahovich tells ESPN that it seems as if this fight is going to take place in March. That's fine. But Robert Whitaker was on what the heck this past week and said he absolutely wants to fight out of Sanya. and the one thing that was holding this from happening was the timeline. He wanted to wait until March or April so he could fight or you'd spend Christmas with his family.

He's got a kid on the way due in January. If this fight was happening in January between Behovich and Not Asanya, yeah, I guess it makes sense. But to have it in March, quite frankly, seems like a giant slap in the face to Robert Whitaker. So with this potential development here, Shorty, what would you rate the chances between one and 10 that the UFC says, you know what? we're going to pull an audible because they, I mean, they have drummed up some excitement,

and now we can sort of put things back in order. You could do Boehovic versus Teshera, do Adasani versus Whitaker on the same card, and then you could save the super fight for another time. Is that at all possible here? I believe it's possible because they both are obviously title fights, very, very, you can capitalize on both of them, especially both in the card. I would personally separate them both just because it's more money in the long run and being able to build a card after that or build a card with maybe Jan and

to share of being a free on ESPN and then Easy Whitaker, too, being pay-per-view. But, you know, UFC does what they want to do. I'm not the business guy. So for me, I think there could be an audible, but I just don't see that happening anytime soon. Any chance the UFC changes gears at all, Jose? Are they just all in on this Behovich versus Adasania fight? I think it would depend a lot on other fights they're announcing because I can't imagine it. Like, because if they do fight, like, I agree with Shorty, they should separate the fights.

are going to hold those two separate ones because the UFC always puts the heavy away class at the top of the cart. I cannot imagine Jan Bel. Because like Shorty said, Glover's not as popular because he's a nice guy. He's a good fighter. He doesn't talk trash. He's just the definition of a martial arts. He's a gentleman that could beat your ass.

The only other one that might be slightly more boring than him personality-wise is Jan Bolivich. And by boring, I don't mean like he's not an interesting guy. He's just not a trash talker. He just goes out there and violently finishes his opponent. And so I can't imagine they want a fight between Janbel Hoves and Glove to share a headlining over Israel's signing of Robert Whitaker, too, so I would absolutely separate them. Now, if they are going to separate them, I don't know when they're going back to Fight Island because I would imagine both of these would probably happen at Fight Island. Or I know we've heard rumblings of the heavyweight title may be in March and April 2.

I would have no issue if the light heavyweight championship of the world was the co-main event to the heavyweight title. So you could put two titles on the same card and Israel's not being overshed. shadowed by the heavyweight championship or the light heavyweight championship. So Yon Glover is not going to move the needle in terms of pay-per-viewed vice. The heavyweight championship will be, especially if it's Steepa v. Francis. So Stepe-Francis as the main event and Jan and Glover as the Co-Man event, that is an awesome top of the card. I mean, we've seen that before U.S.U.20 when Steepa Francis headlined

and the co-man event was Daniel Cormier versus Vulcan Ozdemier. So the precedent is there for heavyweight and light, heavyweight, being on the same card. but don't think that's going to happen. I do think Izzy's going to fight Jan Belhoevich because I really think, which has been the theme for Jan Bolshe's like past few years, they want someone to beat Jan and then catapult them to the next fight. We saw that with Jaceret.

We saw that with Rockhold. We saw that with all of these fighters. And now they want easy to win, champ, champ, champ fighting John Jones, July 2021. So unfortunately, I feel like that's going to be the case. I don't know who's going to win that fight. Obviously, I would favor Israel out of time.

but I can't imagine the UFC's going to not want to make that massive money-making fight. So with that, Jose, is there any chance that John Jones gets the heavyweight title shot? Because we talked about this on the post-fight show the other night. Like, the question kind of was brought up, who fights for a title first, Glover Tashara or Francis Gano? Who's going to get the bigger short end of the stick, so to speak? And it's kind of a tough question right now because to put the sizzle on top of Adasania versus Jones, the UFC just loves slapping titles on everything they can. Is there a chance that John Jones fights for the heavyweight title before he fights out of Sanya?

I mean, there's a chance for everything in the UFC, but I don't think so. I actually think Francis will fight Stepe first. And then I would not be surprised if John Joan is bulking up to heavyway and Izzy said he would follow him up there. Why would you want to jeopardize that? So if John Jones wants to fight for the title, he wins, I don't think the UFC is going to want to put three divisions on notice. I wouldn't be surprised if Izzy does want to move up to heavyweight to fight John Jones. John Jones has no intention of dropping back down 205. I wouldn't be surprised if Izzy fights John Jones at heavyweight for no title.

It's just an awesome fight. You don't need a title between those two, kind of like Connor and Nate. When they fought, it was just a champion moving up a division to fight another guy that he has bad blood with on International Fight Week. So I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to make John Jones Izzy at heavyweight. for a no title. And then the winner, if John Jones wins and he beats Israel-Asonia heavyweight,

fine, he can fight for the title. But I would not allow anyone to skip over Francis and Ghana because the dude is beating everyone with one punch in like sub-minute. So, yeah, no one should skip Francis Gano at this point, but the timelines are all murky because if John wants to move up the heavyway,

I'm sure he wants to fight for the title, but he's not skipping Francis. Shorty, if the play here is to eventually get to Adasania versus Jones, and we're not putting titles on the line or anything like that, why not just make the fight? Like, what if Jan Bolshevich beats Israel Adasanya? Has the fight lost all of its luster before it even began?

It technically doesn't lose its luster yet, because, again, Jan is just a different champion. He hasn't fought Jones. So if he loses to Jan, he loses the Yon, but it doesn't mean that that fight can never happen against John Jones because it still can be in a super fight. I just believe if that were the case, and that did happen where Yon won,

then Jones would come back, he would fight Yan, and more than likely that super fight can maybe culminate one more time. But knowing Jones, especially right now, he's playing his cards. I can see him waiting for whatever fight comes first, whether it's with Yan, whether it's with Steepi, whether it's whoever defends the belt next. Jones definitely wants to create history, especially with this whole Khabib stuff of, oh, I should be pound for pound. He wants the best fight to make him number one in the world. And for me, I believe it's the fight against Steepay first. But like Jose was saying, you know, the guy we don't really mention too much, that you don't, you don't pass Prince Nagano. You just can't do it.

He's been knocking out everyone. And he's been in line right there knocking on the door for a rematch. And I believe it rematch is completely entitled. They should be there. But, you know, again, John Jones is John Jones. And that guy can sell pay-per-views any day. So can you jump both in all-texticality he can. But I would love to see him versus Izzy, but I would love to see the right matchups first.

and I believe that's Tashir versus Jan and, you know, Stipei versus Nengana first. And then Jones maybe come in with whichever one he feels is a better matchup for him first. Right. And I like to see meritocracy go the way it's supposed to go, Jose. So if the, again, if the plan is to get to Adasani versus Jones, why not just book Adasani versus Jones? What is the point of holding up two divisions, Jose? It just could be bigger. I think maybe the UFC is just so confident in Israel, Adasana, that they just believe he'll beat Yonzoan.

John Blahovic and then the fight with John Jones is that much bigger because this isn't Nate Diaz versus Connor where Nate Diaz is filling in on 11 days notice and that that turns into a big super fight. This is he saying he will like, how long has Izzy been saying he's going to fight John Jones International Fight Week, July 2021? He's been saying that for like the better part of the last 18 months. Also, I have a feeling the UFC really, really, really want fans and attendance for that card. Maybe they're holding out. So if they do want to put it in an Abu Dhabi or Fight Island and they can allow some fans in, why not? So I feel like if they booked it now, the chances of fans being in attendance is a lot slimmer than if they waited for the summer. Plus, John Jones is very meticulous with his preparation.

I don't know if there's another fighter out there who takes his preparation for fight as seriously as John Jones. I'm not saying fighters don't take it seriously, but John Jones needs, he needs like ample time. He doesn't take short notice fights. He wants to get his body right. So he's balking up now. If you follow him on Instagram, he's getting big. He's like putting in the work to get two heavyweight sides. He's getting like 230.

So I feel like John Dills wants time to get his body right at heavyweight. And the UFC wants fans in attendance. So what does that lead to? July 2021, just like Izzy said. I agree with all that. But I just don't understand the jumping up divisions. It just doesn't make any sense, especially with the timelines. It makes absolutely no sense.

Like he could fight Whitaker and still fight Jones at heavyweight. And it's the same thing. But we will see what happens with all this, a pretty wild situation for sure. It seems like Glover DeSherra is the odd man out. And it's just unfortunate. So my suggestion, just have DeSherra ready, have him weigh in. He's a backup for whenever that fight happens. And worst case scenario, he slides in there.

Best case scenario, he gets an extra paycheck for making wait. But the point for this round goes to, there's the drum roll. Jose Young's. Jose Young. Boos. It's like, ah, ah. I said it and I was like, I feel like this game's fixed.

I feel like this game's fixed. All right. We, uh, let's go ahead and officially put a bow on UFC Vegas 13 right now as the return of one of our favorite segments is back on the program. The three star segment. Of course, Glover Tashara would be on everybody's list on the three stars. But, uh, that's obvious. So we're going to remove him from the equation. So, Jose Shorty Torres, outside of Glover Tashara, who are your three?

three stars from this past Saturday night's UFC Vegas 13 event and why. Damn, I got to go first. I wasn't expecting that. Damn, I don't know what to do in my hands. Okay, so the three I have is Andrei Alowski, because that guy is beating two guys at the age of 41. How many UFC fights he even have? Is it like 29?

Like, there's no way someone should have this many UFC fights in general, and just as many fights he has overall. Seriously, when was his first? fight, like 1990. Or something like that. To put it into perspective, he made his pro debut, not UFC debut, pro debut, before

Chase Hooper was born. Like, I mean, come on. This guy is still fighting and beating dominant prospects coming up in the game with Philip Lins and his last opponent this Saturday. He might not be super dominant. He might not be getting the knockout finish. But to be at his age, still competing

and adapting to these younger, probably better opponents. he's using his veteran skills and experiences to win all these matchups and he's still improving as his game goes on. I believe he did have that quote that he's trying to be like George Foreman. You know, like my better years are to come. You know, they're just times got to come and I got to keep on fighting. That's what he's doing it. So far, he's my first shoutout.

Next, who's the one that followed Claudia? I don't know how to say it. Yan, Jan, Jan? Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan, John. Jan, John, John.

To beat a former title contender in Claudia Godalia. and to be as dominant as she was in those second and third rounds, again, it was very close. But to be, you know, super just pressuring that first round and get taken down immediately and over and over and over again. It's exhausting to work your way back up. It's exhausting knowing that the adrenaline's up that you are now losing this round. But to come back, again, I'm a, you know, a Justin Gatchie-style fighter. I like to fight in the feet. And so does she.

She wanted to push the pace. Her hands are stronger. Her hands are super, super fast. and she was able to adapt well creating frames being able to circle and landed dominant strikes to get the win on the formal title contenders so i believe that is a huge thing and lastly this is just me more of a personal bias as a fan favorite darren elkins like this guy was in a four-fight losing streak and no matter how many times you watch him fight no matter who you see him fight there is going to be damaged involved and yes i know that is his nickname i use that as a pun because this guy is always getting

beat up somehow some way he's always in the verge of getting knocked out but either finds a way to finish the fight or finds a way to get the finish in the fight. And in this one, I mean, how many times is he just getting rocked and rocked and rocked and takes his opponent down? Rock and rocked and rock takes his opponent down and finally able to get it with a rear naked choke at the end. I mean, Darren Elkins is the people's warrior. He's not the people's champ.

He's definitely not the people's champ. But he is the people's warrior because he always puts on a show and no matter what, there's going to be blood and more than likely it's going to be his. So those are my three. Darren Elkins, the man that Casey Lydden said, bet your house, take out your 401k, bet everything in your life on Darren Elkins because he was due. And if you did that, you were a very rich man right now. But Jose Youngs, who are your three stars outside of Glover-Teshirea? Okay, I'm just going to start at the top of the card and move down.

So it's in no specific order of like who is a bigger star over the other other. Number one, Gigacococci, because he took this fight, I think assuming it would be Arnold Allen's. still stayed on the card and just got his first finish in the UFC. He's one of my favorite fighters on the roster, one of my favorite fighters of Featherweight, was a huge fan of him from his glory days. But he just, he hadn't blown people away in the UFC yet.

I think solely because he hadn't, everyone hears about all of his striking and his glory days and how he doesn't touch gloves at the beginning of fight. Because once the cage door closes, your enemies. You're not high five. You're not doing any of this. He's solely business. He gets, he goes in there, he gets a violent finish, first performance of the night, first performance bonus.

So Gidja Khadji starting off. And then I got to go Trevin Giles, Trevin Giles, however he pronounced his last name. This was his first fight since he was scheduled to fight Kevin Holland, a fight that I was at. And I use this a lot whenever we do preview shows or A sides or between the links or anything. The fight is never official until the Octagon door is closed. It used to be until they stare down. That went out the window due to COVID-19 because we see fights all the time

where fighters square all fighters weigh in and all this stuff. Like Brandon Allen, Ian Hinesh fell off. Like you see Gerald Mirchart stare down. We've seen fighters stare-downs and their fights get pulled the day of the fight. Trevin Giles and Kevin Holland, they weighed in, they stared down. They had their hands wrapped. Trevin Giles was ready to make the walk to the octagon and he passed out. So that fight was scrapped.

This was his first fight since. And before that, let's not forget. it was that fight against, oh my gosh, I can't remember his name, so I'm probably going to lose this point. Krause. Krause. That's it. No. USC 247 in Houston.

I was at that card when Trevin Giles fought Kraus on like, Kraus took the fight on like 24 hours notice. It's been crazy like that. And there was all that controversy around him. So controversial win passes out sex before making the walk. He needed a big performance. And Trevin Giles got that with a very violent finish over Bevin Lewis, who for a long time was like, the prospect to watch a Jackson wink. And now he's obviously lost some high-level fighters like Jariah Hall,

Darren Stewart, Trevin Giles. So he's not, he still has a future. But Bevan Lewis was at one time earmarked as like a future contender. Trevindle Giles picks up the big win. And then of course, I was going to roam enough. Anytime you become the first to do something in any sport, they can't take that away from you. First fighter in UFC history to win by forearm choke, whereas I like to call it the big

brother choke because that's just the joke. You hold your little brother down. and put your forearm into their throat or just push really hard and say, give me my Twinkie back and then you take it from them. So 2 and O in the UFC as a heavyweight, especially heavy weights that are submitting people, you're going to go up the ranks real quickly.

So back-to-back submission wins, still undefeated, makes history of the first forearm choke. I can't remember the last one I think was an arm triangle. So back-to-back chokes with his arm. So anytime there's a heavyweight prospect to watch, I'm going to be excited because everyone jokes at the heavyweight division. There's the old man's division and there's, we need new blood. It's been the same people at the top of the car this whole time.

Now it's on Alexander and Romanov is a guide to watch in the UFC heavyweight division. So those are my three, those are my big three winners outside of the main event. Jose, you mentioned Giga Chikaze, and he calls out Jeremy Stevens after the win. And it's been like a tale of two reactions to this call, at least from what I've seen. It's either, oh, come on, dude, that's a terrible call. Stevens's last four fights in a row. He hasn't won in almost three years. Others, like myself, think it was a magnificent callout.

What say you? What side of the fence you are on? Do you pro this callout, or do you wish he went in a different direction? I think it's boring, but I also think it's just because Jeremy Stevens is a guy that people know, but like you said, he's a four-fight losing streak. So I get it. You want to fight. He's obviously the last few guys that have beat him, like Cater and Iaer Rodriguez and

all these guys, like they're big names now. So people are using Jeremy Stevens as a way to kind of catapult themselves. up the rankings or get a violent fight or you know people are going to want to tune in to watch Jeremy Stevens fight. I believe he has the most losses in the history of the UFC, if not like way up there. So Giga Chkazzi obviously believes he can win this fight. He's a big name. He's an exciting fighter.

He's fought the who's who of the division. So I get it. But I don't want that fight because I haven't asked for Gia Chikaze to fight Edson Barbosa since Giga Chikaze made his debut and since Edson Barbosa dropped down to Featherweight. They fought. They've been kind of circling each other on these cars around the same time. So I've been asking for that fight forever. And I also obviously want Jeremy Stevens to fight Shane Burgos because I just think that's super violent all the way around.

Now that, of course, Jeremy Stevens beat Josh Dammit, Josh Zammett beat Shane Burgos. And now both Burgos and Stevens are coming off losses. I think that's just a violent fight all around. So I get it. If they make that fight, I get it. But there's just other fights I want selfishly as a fan. Arnold Allen, I'll see fight any of them. If they want to rebook Jeremy Stevens' fight, if they want to book him against Gia

Chikazza, they want to book him against Edson Barbosa, fine. But selfishly, I want Giga Jikadzzi versus Edson Barbosa and Jeremy Stevens versus Shane Burgos, and I don't want to lose those fights. Shorty, of the three names that you suggested, maybe we'll throw out Andre Arlowski. You know, he's 41 years old, gets a win, played spoiler. What would you like to see next for a guy like Arlowski? Because unfortunately, he's kind of in the spot where he's a former champion. he's either going to put guys over or he's going to play spoiler once again,

which is always a great story. But what would you kind of like to see next for a guy like that or any of the fighters on your list? Man, I got to pull out the UFC heavyweight rankings because this guy, I'm a small guy. So I don't follow the heavy weights that much. But with Andro Alowski, for him, he needs to pick safe fights. So moving up slowly, the rankings makes sense, but it also doesn't make sense because of his age. You don't know when his body's finally going to, you know, give out type of thing. So for him, he needs to move up slowly.

He hasn't taken much damage in these fights. And overall, you know, find another prospect is dangerous. But so far, his veteran experience and what he's been doing has been a great thing. And people love to call me while I do. Oh. I don't hear him. We lost audio. This is the truck.

Mr. Shorty Torres, can you fix your microphone? All right. Am I back down? He's back. He's back. All right. Oh, nope, you're gone again, sir. You're gone again.

You're gone again. Oh, there he is. Oh, now I can't hear you guys. Can you hear it? Check, check one, check two. Oh, that. What is he doing? I can't hear him again.

What did he do? Who tried to call on him? I want to know. Wait. There you go. Yeah. All right. I was like, I didn't 100% lose that point.

But what I want to say is, I was sorry, people like to call me. So what I didn't say is, Andrei Alasko overall should move up slowly. I don't know who is next for him. But, you know, does Andre Alowski, is he ranked right now? No, right? No. Yeah. So maybe someone in the top, you know, 15, the 10 to 15 is probably somewhere he should be.

Again, he has been UFC champion before. He has been against the top guys. but for him maybe three more fights, four more fights, and finally gets to the top, but it has to be as soon as possible, because again, age won't beat him soon enough, but maybe number 15, number 13, number 11, but no one above that just because I believe

that'd be too much of a step-up of competition too fast for him at his age. Yeah, I think that's smart. I mean, probably an up-and-coming prospect is what he's getting. I mentioned maybe he fights Alexander Romanov, maybe not next for Romanoff because Romanoff called out Marching Tibera, So I think they'll probably run that. And then if he wins, maybe he give Marlowski to try to build him up.

But again, that's scary because Arlowski likes to play spoiler and thwart these progressing prospects. Or, or I'm looking at it right now. I think just a fun one fan-wise would be Walt Harris. Yeah, I don't mind that one. Jose. This is what on a two-fight, two-fight losing streak? You know, so for him, maybe a co-main event, maybe a main event, just one of those, you know, smaller UFC shows. I think it's a fun thing.

Again, you have a guy who's up and coming trying to get back to the top of his old age, and you have Walt Harris that's trying to come back to being a main event in a few different fights. That's actually a pretty good idea right there. Jose, you wanted to chime in? I would like to see Arlasky fight a, I don't want to see him fight Romanov. I mean, it's a fun fight, but it does nothing. Like, it's great for Romanoff, but Arlowski is, again, risking a lot against an up-and-coming prospect. So maybe Blagoi Ivanov, I think he's in the 15, 14, 13 range, fellow World Series of Fighting Veteran.

Let's not forget, Arlowski fought. I think on the first World Series of fighting card, he's coming off a loss. They're both around the wrong side of, well, actually, I don't even know how old Blagoi Ivanov is. Actually, I think Matt Riddle is old than Blagoi Ivanov, which is just baffling to me. So maybe him. And then, oddly enough, JDS and Alasky have never fought. So if you do want to give him these up-and-coming prospect, maybe the winner of JDS and Cyril Gahn,

because if Cyril Gahn wins, you know he's going to be earmarked for something big. And who is Arlosky lost to? Like, in Gond, who, Giorzino, Stepe, like, these are guys that are now top five. So Cyril Game beats JDS. Maybe Arlosky, he gets the Arlosky treatment. If JDS wins, he's not fighting for the title any time.

So I know they're all trained at ATT in various points. But so did Girozino and Jadies, and they fought. So any of those names I'm fine with. We shall see what happens, but it is now onwards to UFC Vegas 14. This coming Saturday, as the road to UFC 255 continues on. But the point for this matchup goes to the man in the hat. Jordi Torres, he's on the board, gets it done. Purple wins this round, nicely done.

Can you say something, Shorty? We can't hear you again. He's been doing it again. This is a truck once again. Mr. Torres, can you turn your mic on? Mr. Torres. I was like that reaction was way quiet and I thought it was going to be. This is the truck.

I need the shorter of the Jose's. Your mic is turned off. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? We hear you now, sir. We hear you now. Yeah, all right. Sorry.

Literally another person called me. I'm like, okay, cool, didn't I? Anyways, I just want to say, I won the point. Aha. Na-na-na-boo-boo. Sig ahead and do the year. I won. Oh, man.

All right. So we are evened up here. I still want to, I still want to re-count on the first one. So I just want to say that. We're going to count the ballots again. No puns it to here. Give us like 72 to 96 hours and we might have an answer for you. But moving ahead.

Is this? Yeah. Are you in Florida right now, Shored? Yeah, I'm in Florida. We were like the first people to open up and just get everything done. Yeah, we can't talk about counting and all that Tom Fooler if you're in Florida. But I mean, I'm not the bright. Jerry, Jerry.

See, I'm from Chicago. I'm technically a tourist here, even though I've been here for three years. This state, no offense to all you Floridians, whatever you want to call yourselves. It's not the brightest state in the world, and it's just always too damn hot or it's raining. So either way, I want to go home. I wear a winter hat here for a reason because I miss hope. There you are. We're reminiscing here.

But as you're probably everybody watching and you two gentlemen are aware of by now, this Saturday's UFC Vegas 14 event has taken a massive hit as one half of the main event. Islam Makachev has been scratched from his fight with Hafeld Osagos for, I guess, a staff infection is the reason that he revealed on social media on Monday. Let's be honest, there are some fun scraps for the hardcores on here, but this is just not the most loaded card. It just isn't. But still, this is happening at the apex.

It's going to happen. Some people are calling for it to be scrapped altogether. There's no chance in how that happens. But as of right now, as of this recording, no opponent has been named for Jafel de Sanjos, but has been the history on this program within an hour after we stop recording. They'll probably have a replacement. And then this question will mean nothing.

But we're talking to here now, Jose Young's. So let me ask you this. What is the UFC to do here? I mean, do they do everything in their power to just, not just find a replacement for Hotfield Los Sanjos. It's not going to be Michael Chandler, as you probably have seen on social media at this point, but find somebody with any kind of a name that is willing to step in on less than a week's notice to do it. Well, I feel like it would have to be a welterweight because I can't imagine a,

he either has to RDA either has to go up to welterweight to get a short notice fight or a featherweight has to move up to lightweight because, I can't imagine there's many lightweights out there that want to cut to 155 on like six days of notice. So off the top of my head, RDA could rematch Anthony Pettis at Welterway. I know they both called like RDA said he fight Pettus after Pettus beat Cowboy. Pettus kind of raised his eyebrows and said that's interesting. I don't know if Anthony Pettis is in camp at all. Luis Pena said he would fight him.

He's obviously not the biggest name in terms of what will move you up the division, but at least people recognize the name, given his nickname and time on the ultimate fighter. Man, I don't know any featherweight. So I feel like he would want some sort of big name of featherweight, too. Giga-chikaze wants to turn around and fight RDA lightweight. I wouldn't say no to that. Yeah, I don't know.

That's a tough one. I don't know the rankings off the top of my head, but I can't imagine he's going to fight a lightweight. He's either going to fight a blown-up featherweight or he's going to have to go up to Welterweight. stay on this card. Shorty, is the answer just we're doing everything to keep RDA on this card? Opponent doesn't really matter at this point.

Are we going to try to like stack the deck at least somewhat to guard any kind of an interest? Or is it just mainly keep RDA on this card no matter how you do it? You need RDA on this card. It's not a stacked event. And people are really just watching for that big name. Islamakachev is that other side of that big name. He is the Khabib replacement.

He is the Kibbid prodig. So I've been punched by both. Khabib and Islam-A-Kachev, and I can tell you, Islamakenev is the real deal. And that was five years ago, and I still feel the pain. Anyways, it's the fact of with RDJ, especially trying to come back, it's been, what, 10 months since his last fight or around 10 months, he needs a fight. You know, especially him getting older, possibly even paying for camp as well, and especially throughout this whole COVID thing, it has been a loss since his last fight.

I would like to see him fight a lightweight because obviously he's moving back down the lightweight for a reason. But because it is last minute, maybe make it. catch weight somewhere or maybe make it just for this one fight at Walterway since it is a last minute event. I personally would love to see an up-and-comer fight him and that would be Drew Dober. Drew Dover is on a three-fight winning streak, has beat three notable guys, and I believe this would be a great fight for both of them in general. Yeah, Dober was supposed to fight Diego Faheda last week and that fight was scrapped because Fier had a was, he said he had an arm injury, but apparently

Diego Fahed is ready to go because I spoke to him earlier today and he wants that fight. So, we'll see what happens there, but let me ask you it. It's crazy. I'm ready a week later, but Shorty, let me ask you, with things as they currently are, and like I said, by the time you hear this, I'm sure there'll be an opponent already named, but if you're Bellator, Shorty Torres, you have an event coming up on Thursday night with a pair of featherweight Grand Prix fights, one of which is for the title between Patricio Pitbull and Pedro Carvalia. You get Aaron Pico back.

Carrie Melendez is on this card. It's pretty good. is this the sort of opening that Bellator needs to grab some of that attention, some of that momentum back since the pandemic shut them down for a few months earlier this year? Because no matter what they've done, signing free agents, you put on Musassi versus Lima, nothing has seemed to work. Is this kind of the opening they need to get some more eyeballs? Maybe it might be the opening as in like, oh, cool, we finally got this one free week where we have a better card than UFC.

The only problem is, I mean, no offense to Bellator, they don't promote themselves well enough. to really be known outside of YouTube, outside of the zone, outside of Paramount or their streaming networks. So for the average MMA fan, you don't really know too much about Bellator unless the big guys at the main, you know, at the top of the car to promote the hell out of it. But more than likely, you don't know those guys. Unless you followed the guys who are from the UFC tranching over, like for example, Sergio Pettis, then cool. Maybe you're going to tune in. But unless you have been paying attention to Bellator since day one or even maybe a few years ago, you really don't know much about them. So is it a huge card for them this week? Yes. Is it still going to

maybe gain a little more views because of this UFC car? Possibly a little bit, but I don't see this being a substantial gain for them. I just believe they need the teams or a whole marketing aspect to really promote in general to not just MMA fans, but the UFC fans as well and show that, for example, Michael Chandler is going to be that that person like Eddie Alvarez was to show that Eddie Alvers when you won the belt. It's like, man, a Bellator champ can be the U.S. C champ as well, man, Bellator has some good fighters. Michael Chandler's that next guy up to see if he can be this great champion and see if Bellator is that phenomenal promotion.

So honestly, I don't believe this week is going to do anything until Michael Chandler finally makes his debut. Jose, I mean, I know Bellator's not waking up in the morning and saying, wow, I wonder what the UFC's doing. I wonder if Popfield DeSandros' opponent fell out. But you have to imagine, I'm sure they're not like overly celebrating the fact that one half of the UFC's main event is out. but at the same time as a promotion as someone who's looking to get a little bit of a bump,

this is not the worst news for them. Is it important for them to go out there and have a kick-ass show on Thursday? Because most MMA fans, when you have the choice between two events, you're only going to pick one. You and I, we're going to watch everything. But you know what I'm saying? Yeah. And I think it would be beneficial if they blew every single card out the window.

So it's a good card. It's an awesome car. Like I'll watch Pitbull, like Petruso Pitbull fight anybody. Pedro Calvalio has been obviously earmarked as one of these upcoming SBG guys. I know our own Garemate Cruz. It bums me out that because these guys were supposed to fight before the pandemic kit. He had that awesome piece where Pitbull and Pedro Carvalio basically interviewed each other. And it was the best trash talking between two Portuguese speakers because obviously Petricio is Brazilian and Pedro Cabalio is from Portugal.

So they were like, Pedro Carvalo was like, first question to pit bull. Who do you think you are? And it was like that kind of trash talking. So I love everything about it. Aaron Pico's obviously a big name. I can't remember off the top of my head who he's fighting, but it's obviously not anyone massive. But Pico is on the rebuild at this point.

So he shouldn't be thrown to the wolves just yet. Again, it's a third. I think what's really hurting Bellator is this switch over to the CBS Sports Network has kind of, their fights are always on Fridays. And now a lot of them are happening on Thursdays. And it sneaks up on me because I'm so. program to think about Bellator being on a Friday. And now that they're all on Thursdays and everything moves up a day,

it just throws me off guard every single week. So I feel like maybe fans are doing the same thing. And I think shorty hit it on the head where it's like they just don't do enough job marketing themselves. And I don't think that's any fault of their own. I think CBS Sports Network has a lot of things going on right now with a lot of other sports coming back. The pandemic is still in full effects.

But now we're getting the big four sports, NASCAR is back. MMA is probably fourth or fifth. down the list in terms of their priority. So I think if they just need to come together with the CBS sports, you don't be like, hey, we need to remind people that we're Thursdays now. We're no longer Fridays, which I actually think Thursday is a better night for them in in general because not a lot of people stay in and watch TV or anything on Friday. It's always Thursday, Saturday.

I know they have to compete with Thursday night football, which is obviously a bummer. So I think in the offseason, that will be beneficial when the NFL schedule is out of their hair. it's a better card than the UFC. I'm going to watch both, like you said. I hope fans make the decision they want to make. But if you're going to watch one fight this weekend, it's Pitbull v. Cavalio. That fight absolutely rules.

That is a great fight. And since we're talking about other promotions outside of the UFC getting a little bit of buzz, I'd be remiss if we didn't talk about the big news from earlier today. Kayla Harrison is going to compete on November 20th. I think it's November 20th. Invict FC-43, PFL's allowed her to go over there. she's going to have a co-main event fight, and she's making her featherweight debut.

She drops from 55 to 45. This is really interesting stuff. Shorty, what do you think of this? This is not necessarily kind of cross-promotion, but still, PFL allowing their fighters to fight anywhere outside of Bellator and the UFC. This is a pretty good place to be on UFC Fight Pass. Get a lot of buzz. What do you think about Kayla Harrison getting an opportunity to fight this year?

I think it's great for her because obviously you're just trying to get as many fights as possible. especially now being in her prime, winning the PFL tournament last year, and now making her featherweight debut, which that woman is massive, man. She is, she's jacked. So for her going down the featherweight, I can just imagine how, like, ripped she's going to be.

It's going to be, if anyone watches Dragon Ball Super, she's going to look like Keflah, when she just becomes the Broly version, you know, the woman Broly. Like, she's going to look jacked. But I like how Jose Youngs. That's the only thing Jose Youngs and I could agree on is that. Uh-huh.

But is it, is it cross-promoting kind of sort of? I just think, you know, you got to look at it from PFL. They had their whole season removed. So they got to find different ways to keep their athletes inside their contract. And all the athletes want 100% want to fight. Whether they're getting a monthly stipend of like, dude, I'm not fighting. I need money. Oh, you're going to pay me monthly to stay in the PFL.

Then cool. I'm going to stay in the PFL because I'm making this much. Or, oh, hey, I need this. But I also need the fight. And Victa is kind of like that. that middle ground, the top of the top of the women, but, you know, moving up to a different promotion. But, you know, Invicta has many high-level women in their promotion that want to get their hands on Kayla Harrison and use that as a pedestal to, one, really promote Invicta

athletes in general and be like, this is the promotion you should really watch a U.S. Fight Pass. And then, two, for PFL, that Kayla Harrison is still staying prominent and still staying active and showing the world that the PFL is one of the best promotions or best up-and-coming promotions in the world and that next year you should watch their season when it comes on. So I think it's big news. It's different news. Very unexpected. But I see this honestly as a win-win for both.

I don't see this being a bad thing either way. I think it's great news for both and probably great news for the PFL roster now that they're seeing, hey, we can go on fight. I know Mohamed Usman just had a fight for Titan FC. I wouldn't be surprised if they brought him back before the 2021 season begins for the PFL. but Jose, what did you think when you saw the news that Kayla Harrison's going to fight for Invicta? I took it.

A, I'm excited that she gets to fight in general because fighters need to make money. Obviously, there's way more competition below 155 in the women's division. But I also, when I saw she was dropping 145, I thought, is Amanda Nunes retiring soon because they train at the same gym? As Kayla Harrison seeing Amanda Nunes might hang it up, so Kayla Harrison wants to either win, go to the UFC and win the 145 found title, horse. She could just go to the UFC Bellator and get that Chris Cyborg fight that she's been talking about for so long. Either one, I'm like, it's cool either way. I just want to see her keep fighting.

She's like, Henry Suhudo calls himself the best combat sports athlete in the world with his gold medals and his tube titles and all this and that. And then when I was at Henry Sego's retirement fight, they asked him, like, who else did you put on that list? Like, if you're number one, who's like in the top five? And one of the people he named was Kayla Harrison because she had the PFL title.

she had the Olympic gold medal and you've all seen the video on anatomy of me of a fighter of them comparing gold medals like what's better wrestling or judo and they had Uzman and Gaichi and Habib Wayne and everything so Kayla Harrison if you remember that dominance M.A. Media Day 2, the second one

she stole the show a lot like her trash talking with Habib, her trash talk with Hendon, all of it wasn't good fun because she has the gold medal they're all comparing it. So awesome to see your fight in general. I don't care what promotion is. I think everyone should be fight should fight right now if they can.

I'm excited to see her back. I'm excited to see it at 145 to get more competition. I think this is a step in the direction of either signing with Belonzer or the UFC and getting even bigger competition. So I've been refreshing Twitter off and on just trying to see if DeSangios has a new opponent is not named yet. So the curse is probably going to continue. But stay tuned to Neme fighting for the developments on that as they happen.

As you get ready to head to the final question of regulation and in the lead, is Shorty Torres, two to one. As we head to the final question of regulation. And we actually skipped it. It's all good. We actually, we skipped this topic last week because I don't know. I know it was kind of like a big deal, but it felt kind of weird to talk about it since we talked about it so much the week before in a different context. But we'll go ahead and bring it up now because a few days.

after Habib Namauga-Madav defeats Justin Gachie and subsequently announced his retirement, Dana White does a radio interview and he states that he had been talking to Habib, and it felt like the lightweight champion may come back in his quest to move to 30 and O. And subsequently, he also stated that Habib will remain the champion. He will remain the top pound-for-pound fighter in the rankings for the foreseeable future. So that brought up a lot of interesting back-and-forth conversation. So Shorty, you mentioned earlier. You know Habee better than any of us do.

You've spent some time early in your career training with that man, getting punched in the face by that man. What do you make of this decision from the UFC to sort of keep him around and possibly entice him to come back for one more fight? Who knows, maybe more than that? I just want to say, if you ever seen a bear attack of fish, I was the fish. Like, that's seriously how it looked. All I could do was just flat my legs like this because I was on the top of fix him.

It was just stuck. Anyways, I miss you, Khabi. You know, I understand what Kavid was going through because, again, my father passed away last October. And I literally made a video about this saying, like, I don't know how he's going to handle this mentally. He might be going in there with a crutch or he might be like Michael Jordan and win the freaking world championship at the end of the year and dedicated to his father. For him, he was able to let his emotions out after the fight. For me, he literally did exactly what I wanted to do. I let it out too soon and it was a sabotage for me.

So for Khabib, one, I am super happy, super proud of him. But when it comes to his retirement, it definitely is 100% emotional. And I know Dana obviously understands that. And that's why Dana's definitely getting into his ear. And being a phenomenal promoter he is, again, the U.S.C. is at where they're at because of Dana White's promoting. He's going to be able to convince people to do things. He's going to be able to make these big fights. And for Kavib, he's super competitive.

So for him to say, I'm going to be at 29 and 0. Yeah, I'm going to be like Rocky Marciano and be 49 and O. never get that 5-0 for him. It's not get that 3-0. It's one fight away. You know, I'm pretty sure your mom would be cool with you having one more fight. And that's what he said. He goes, hey, my mother doesn't want me to fight anymore.

My father's gone. I fought for my father. These are all my reasons why I'm stopping. And out of respect to my family and my mother, I'm going to retire. The difference, though, is Khabib is super, super, super respectful towards his family, towards his religion, towards his people. And when he says something, he does it. So for him saying he's 100% retired,

there's no him coming back, whether it's emotional that day or not. I see him staying retired. Khabibah is a man of his word, and I just don't see him turn it in any time soon. Dana White could do all he wants, especially get the fans involved, get the fighters involved,

get everyone to chime in, keep him in the rankings, do whatever, let him keep his belt. I just don't see Khabi coming back, man. I would love to see him get that 3-0 against whoever. I don't care who he fights next. He could do what Floyd Mayweather did and just fight some random.

them guy, you know, that wasn't even deserving of the fight just so he can get that five zero. But, you know, Khabib, I see him being retired. And I don't think Dana White's going to be able to do anything about it. I would love for him this fight again, but I just don't see it. Jose, we knew this day was going to come at some point, right? Like when Habib retired, okay, maybe a year, maybe two, maybe three years down the road. What if we brought him back for one more? Like, what would happen if this guy fought Habib?

You know, same thing we're dealing with GSP for the second time. around. But to have it like three or four days after he retired to bring this all back up and then talk about it again at the press conference, what did you think of all of this? Indifference? Because like let's let's rattle a few of the other things Dana White said. U.S.C. will never sign women. John Jones won't headline of pay-per-view. Amanda Nunes won't headline a pay-per-view. The UFC is definitely not for sale. Strike Force will continue to run business as usual. We won't add the women's flyweight division. I'm pretty sure he posted a smiley face on a Fador Instagram post when Fadour teased his return.

And guess what? Nothing happened. So I don't really care because it's Dana White being a promoter. Of course, he's going to leave the door open. So if Habib returns, he's still number one. It's like when Henderson Huda retired, he was out of the rankings like the next day. So like it's he wants Habib to be number one because if he returns, it's all the number one fighter in the world is fighting. But who's the be going to fight?

GSP and there's no one really else out there. I would want to see him fight because, like he said, he already choked Connor. He already choked Dustin. If Michael Chandler had fought to Islam-Machachiv and beaten Islam-Mach-Chiv, like that's right there. Habib had already said. If Michael Chandler beats Islam,

he's the number one contender. Didn't obviously happen. The storyline would have been there to go to 30 and O avenging his, as he calls him, Islam is his brother. But I don't know who else is out there for Habib to fight outside of GSP. I know Dana really wants the Connor fight, but Habib's been on all the stations saying he's over Connor. He doesn't want to do that anymore.

And of course, he has to talk to his mother first. He doesn't want to make any decision without her because apparently it was her decision that he would stop fighting. So give him a space. I have no idea what's going to happen. But if I'm going to believe something, I'm going to wait until Habib says it because Dana White has said too many things that has turned out not to be true. All right. Well, let's play a little game. All right.

Let's play a little game of things Dana has said will it become a reality. So, Jose, we're going to compare two things and you say which one is more realistic of happening over the other one. What happens first? Habib fights again in the UFC or there'll be an official fight in a 165-pound weight division. Habib fights first, 100%. And I would give that, like, I'd give it a 0% chance as a 165 pound division and a 1% chance. Habib fights again. So I'm not saying that with confidence. Just one of them could actually happen as small of a chance it is. And one of them will never happen in the UFC because Dana White

hates good ideas and he hates when people come with him, come to him with good ideas. They aren't his own. What do you think, Jordi? Because listen, I mean, Jose just ran off a litany of empty chairs. Hello. I wasn't listening to him. I wasn't listening to him. Some guy knocked in the door. I was just like, ah, it'll be. It'll be a little bit. Jose talking, okay, I'm going to go get the door real quick. And it's funny because I literally was like, oh, I'm sorry. I'm on the phone. Just close the door.

Like, the guy is probably still standing in front. Like, I feel so bad. Anyways. That was wild because, no, no. Oh, my God, that's hilarious. Because, like, when we do, when we normally record this on Skype, like, even if I, like, we have the screen with the lower thirds, like, I could still see everything going on. But on here, I can't really see everything going on.

So to see Shorty getting flashed with an empty chair, which is hilarious. No, I asked Jose, because he ran up this litany of things Dana White has said that weren't going to happen that actually did happen or things he said absolutely would happen that didn't happen. So what is more likely to happen? Habib fights again or the UFC institutes 165 pound division. This is a hard one because, yeah, you know, man, this is a really hard one because Dana obviously said, I'm never going to make the 165 pound division. but you've had so many fighters say, I want to fight at 165. Brave CF has also done a 165 pound division.

So, you know, it's one of those things that's like, why aren't other promotions doing it? It's definitely very, you know, it's in high end of, and why not? I mean, Dustin Porre has been saying, yeah, I fight Nate Diaz, and I believe other fighters say I want to fight at 165. I just, I get why they want Khab to come back. He is easily the most popular MMA fighter, even above Connor McGregor right. now. Like he is easily the most well-known guy, especially overseas. But the fact is, Kabib's a man of his word, and I just don't see him coming back. I can see Dana White kind of kind of folding a little bit and going for that 165 pound division. Kabib is just,

he's too strong for that, I think, to break in Dana White. Once he makes a notice amount of money, which he doesn't really even care about anyways, yeah, man, I think the 165 pound division is going to come first before Khabi comes back to fight. Jose is the plan here? They're just going to hold out hope that Habib might change his mind until the first punch is thrown on January 23rd. Like the fight between Connor and Porre, not official yet. We don't even know if it's going to happen.

We don't know if Justin Gaichi goes in there. We've literally no idea what's going to happen. But until a lightweight title fight of some kind happens in the octagon for the vacant title or an interim title, is that when the UFC decides to move forward with this? No, I think they're going to wait for Habib to make an official decision because I think worst case scenario for them is they strip Habib and then he comes back and all of a sudden Habib's not the champion anymore. Like Habib has to be champion when he fights next.

They don't want, that's what the whole billing, the marketing is. What did Habib say at his free fight press comments next to Justin Gagee? Yeah, he doesn't care about champ champ. He has one goal. He wants to be undefeated, undisputed, lightweight champion of the world. That is Habib Nirmikamato's goal in mixed martial arts. If he said, if he wants to fight GSP, GSP has to come to him. Dana doesn't like catchway fights, especially 165 because God forbid the two biggest, two of the biggest stars in the world have a fight of 165.

And all of a sudden, other fighters want to fight at 165. He wants that. He wants to be 155. Habib wants to fight at 155. GSP's not going to 155. So that fight's not happening, I don't think. So, but I don't think they strip Khabib at all until Habib officially announces, I am done. That is a wrap.

My mom doesn't want me to fight anymore. here's the title. And Abib is one of the few fighters that can do that because he's undefeated and undisputed and he's one of the more respected fighters in the UFC. So, yeah, Dana was not stripping Habib anytime soon. What do you think, Jose? Shorty, sorry, Jose, Jose, Shorty. What do you think?

I don't know what to do it. Yeah, I mean, Khabib has all the power here. He's technically, I mean, obviously a different mindset, different attitude. He's technically the MMA version or U.S.s version of Floyd Mayweather. He is the undefeated guy that everyone wants to face, everyone wants to see fight, especially with his last performance. Who thought he was going to murk Justin Gagey like that? Not me. You know, and who knew that Justin Gage did to practice a little more jih Tjitsu?

But it was the fact of, man, he just dominated that fight and to be so dominant with a broken foot after his father's passing with a possible crutch in his head. he is easily respect for me especially because obviously you understand that his circumstances it's just incredible what he's done and people want to see him fight again especially after the last performance especially after all the hype that was built up from that fight and how it ended and retirement it it would be a miracle-making fight I just do not see it happening they are going to keep him as long as they can and so again like Jose Young was saying until he says say, I'm sorry. I'm listening to my mother. And if she says no, then sorry, I'm not going to fight anymore.

I promise her, and that's what it is. So I don't see Kabib fighting anytime soon. Eventually, they will strip them. But I still believe they should make a 165 pound division. I believe that just makes nothing but sense. You have a bunch of fighters that want to do it. Other promotions are partaking in it. Why not?

Well, this matchup has been fun. And it will continue on into the knockout round, ladies gentlemen, because Jose Youngs has tied things up with his wonderful hat. So now we have... The dude at the door, you know, I was occupied. There was a guy at the door. I'm pretty sure he's still there, which I feel so bad about. That was one of the best moments in the history of the show.

I was talking to an empty chair. And sometimes that's how you feel in this business. But we're going to put the pressure cooker on now. It is time for the knocker on. One question will decide it all. Each competitor will have 60 seconds to answer said question. They have no idea what it is. And then once that is done, we will turn it over to the judge, the jury, the executive producer, Casey Leiden to render the final decision.

So Jose Young's, you are a former champion, so you get some spoils. Would you like to answer this question first, or would you like to pass it on to Mr. Torres? No, I'm not dumb like, A.K. Lee, I'm of course going to let the challenger go first. All right. Jose, Shorty's like, ah, you got to be kidding me right now. All right, Shorty. So you mean, square root of something. No, no, no, no, no.

I mean, we'll see what happens here. Let's see what happens. I kind of came up with this question in the middle of this game. And during today, because I had no idea how I was going to go at this. But this is a conversation that we had briefly on the post-fight show on Saturday. And now it is taking a different direction because we found out on Monday that the fight between Amanda Nunes and Megan Anderson, the main event for UFC 256, that is off the table now. Nunes was forced out of the fight with an injury of some kind.

We don't know what it is, but they're basically putting the pause button on that fight, and they're going to do it sometime in 2021. So right now, UFC 256 is headlined by Al Jermaine Sterling versus Piotr-Yon for the Bannamweight title. Coming up in two weeks, UFC 255 is going down. We get two flyweight title fights, Valentina Shepchenko versus Jennifer Maya, in the co-main event, and in the main event, Davis and Figuerre will defend his title against Alex Perez. So very interesting cards.

If you had the choice, Shorty Torres, if you could only watch one of these cards and you can't watch the other, which one are you picking? UFC 255 or UFC 256 and why? 60 seconds on the clock? Go. There was already four seconds already going. Davidson Figurato, Alex Perez, Schochenko,

and I forgot who she's fighting. The reason why I lost Alex Perez in every single fight he's come into, whether it's before me where he's just kind of getting the decision or getting submission with me knocking me out and then moving on, getting decisions and then fighting for Miga and finishing him on vicious late kicks, he deserves this title shot.

Being six and one in the UFC against Figueroido, though. Figurado is a phenomenal fighter coming out of nowhere being that decision with Jared Brooks and then dominating the rest of the competition and knocking out just being a video twice, which I have no offense to Joby. I don't believe he should have got that second fight, but it is what it is.

And Valentino Shchevchenko, she is the best flyweight fighter in the world. No one's going to beat her, And I believe 100% she should bump up to fight Amanda Nunes one more time. But that's just my prediction. That is the card I want to see because it is fun. It is exciting. And it is easily the best weight class in the world.

Flywates. Gang, gang. What's up? That's three seconds is fair. Three seconds is fair. Look at that. Three seconds is fair. He took those three seconds to just lounge back and pose.

I should just go answer the door. You know? Sorry about the clock. This is a new clock for us this week because it's kind of like the UFC's new nutshot timer clock. I wasn't used to on Saturday night when that happens. Now we get a new clock here. We have a minute on the clock. Jose, you have a little bit of advantage here because we briefly talked about this,

but now we have Sands no more main event at UFC 256. I mean, we have a main event, but the original schedule main event is no more. So if you had the choice, if you could only watch one of these cards, which one are you watching? UFC 255 or UFC 256. Your time starts now. I love Alex Perez versus Davidson Figurano, and I think Valentin Fischenko is the female James Bond.

She speaks like a million languages. She shoots a bunch of guns. She jumps out of plane. She's an awesome fighter. I just don't think Jennifer might has anything for her. But I'm saying UFC 256 totally be different from Shorty. You got Marvin Vittorre versus Jacare. You got Lee Gianne Leone versus Dwight Grant.

You got Chase Hoot, the return of Chase Hooper. You got JDS Serial Gons. You got Billy Q, Gavin Tucker. And of course, McKenzie Dern versus Verna Janderoba. I love grappler versus grappler fights. And these are two of the absolute best grapplers in the UFC, regardless of gender.

I love this fight. And then I think Peter, Peter, Pion versus Al-Azeman Sterling, because you said Sterling versus Yon, champ gets top villain. Kjadr Yon, it could be the face of Russian MMA if Habib Nermanamaan retires and Islam Makhjadr-F falters.

He is an actual champion. So, Jodorian, Alza Misteling, the best title fight of the three, the answer is U.S. 256. That was, that would good. Time by a second and all the people he mentioned beside the main event, no one's ever heard of. So, you know, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter.

You know? Oh, man. I have a feeling where I know this is going because Jose Shorty Torres, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, excuse me. Excuse me. Ladies and gentlemen, we have some breaking news. And, yeah, I'm glad I caught this. I'm glad I caught this.

RDA has a new opponent. Let me guess. He's fighting. Who? Ponsenibio. No, he's fighting Paul Feldr. Paul Feltar. Dang, I love that fight.

Still five rounds, still at 155 pounds. Holy potatoes. You love this two. Wow. I love that fight. I'm so glad. Listen, the question before means nothing. but I mean technically everybody was right because we kept RDA in the card and this is a great fight that is a bonkers fight holy cow

all right I'm so glad this happened before the show ended now I feel a little bit better about it but now we're in great spirits oh he's going to want to say that we're hot taking all already but Casey we go to you my friend we got this breaking news out I love I love the fight game sometimes but here we go Casey you heard the arguments I have a feeling I know where you're going because one man spotline at a fight that you love ever so much. Maybe some strategy.

That's not cool. He ain't out with him every day. That's not fun. Casey, who wins? Ooh. Yeah, yeah. He played to the judges. He played to the judges.

This one's the easy one. We all credit, all credit to Mr. Shorty Torres, you know, pulling out. You know, but. Go answer your door, sir. Let's let the new winner. Your winner, the tall Jose.

Mr. Jose Young's. Damn. I knew as soon as Jose said, McKenzie Dern versus John DeRobo. I'm like, oh, shorty is so screwed right now. Well done, Jose. I just, I've had a conversation of Henderson in the past where he might not be the best fighter.

He says, I might not be the best fighter. He says, I might not be the best fighter. on Saturday nights, but I know the game, and I know how to game the system, and I know what the judges want to see, and that's what I do. So shout out to my fellow Arizona and Henner Suhudo for giving me the idea to play to the judges

because they are the only ones that matter. Who cares what we think? It only matters what the three people sitting outside the cage thing. I just want to say, I feel like I piggybacked Jose up the mountain, and then once we got him so far, he immediately was like, oh, hold on a second break real quick, jumped off and pushes me and he just starts running up. So, yeah, you're...

Don't, don't fight. As, as you said, why would Andre Arlowski take these fights against these barn burners? Fight smarter and more tactical, and you'll win. Damn it. There you go. Wow. All right, Jose.

Well, head butts all day. All right, Jose, young, do you know how this works? You have 30 seconds to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about, good, bad, and different about sport. martial arts and the floor is yours, my friend. Well, I'm still cursed for everyone asking me. Am I cursed? Yes.

So this is, you know, Jose Young's needed this win. After losing his phone, his car got hit, like, because apparently a parked car jumps out and scares people twice in the U.C. parking lot. My Xbox caught on fire. My refrigerator broke. Everything is falling apart, so I needed this big win. You can find this on the A-side on Wednesday. I don't have a lot to say about the world of mixed martial arts,

but everyone watched Patruso Pitbull versus Pedro Carvali because that fight is absolutely awesome. Also, we got the two flyaway fights for all title fights, which all be at. That's an awesome card. I know I said U.C. 256 is better. USC 255 is still awesome. Judges, take it away.

And Shorty, you are the man? I want to say one thing. Sean Al Shotti, come get this heat, and you can be the second smartest man in Arizona after you lose to me. Oh. Clip alert. Clip alert.

Clip alert. Get that out there. Get that out there. It's our tagging folks. We like to see me creating drama on the show. And Shorty, you are the mad. I appreciate you coming on and setting trends with the hats. But I know you have a foundation.

I know you have great things going on behind the scenes outside of your work in the cage as well. So why don't we talk about that before we say goodbye? The crazy thing is actually today, I got to confirm. I was able to donate a good. amount of money to Youth Crossroads in Cicero, Burwell, Illinois, early in the year, but because of the pandemic, they weren't able to take the retreat and use that money, so we're now doing a Thanksgiving food drive at Youth Crossroads. I believe it's November 24th in Burbank, Illinois. All details on my Instagram, Posey Shorty Tour has come out very soon, but the Team Shorty Foundation

is trying our best to keep kids, teens, and young adults, and just overall everyone in the community inside the gym and off the streets and giving them a different opportunities, whether be around mentors, father figures, mother figures, whatever the case, make. be and just be out of a negative environments. But guys, if you want to follow me, Josei Shorri Torres, IG, Shorty Tours MMA on both Twitter and Facebook and team shorthy.com

with all apparel and everything on the website goes to the Team Shorty Foundation, so I appreciate all of us support. We can. We build together. We are Team Shorty. Except for you, Joseo, you take the head off. That's true. I'm pretty sure if you wear a black hat, it's

like the gold medal and the purple hat is like the silver medal. So I think it fits right now. I'm going to be that one kid that's like second is the best. Second place is just the first loser. So I guess I'm third, so I'm the low with the hairy chest, I guess. So you'll be able to hear Shorty Torres' gift of gab on UFC FightPass next week as well. I'll be doing back-to-back commentary duties Saturday next Saturday for, I forget the damn promotion.

I just talked to Lex McMahon about it today. Lex McMahon is fighting. on next Saturday, his MMA debut at 49 years of age against Justin Thornton. I know the name, and I know my apologies, but that's going to be on Fight Past Saturday night, and then Titan FC65 going down the following afternoon in the Dominican Republic. And Shorty's going to have the call for both of those. So thank you all for watching. Thank you all for listening. We appreciate it very much. We'll see you back here once again between the links for Shorty Torres.

For Jose Young's, I am Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Links with your host, Mike Heck. Brought to you by MMA Fighting, a production of Vox Media. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.