MMA Fighting - Between the Links: Francis Ngannou's Future, Jon Jones vs. UFC, Leon Edwards vs. Nate Diaz

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

Mike Heck hosts the Between the Links matchup between Jed Meshew and José Youngs as they discuss Francis Ngannou’s second-round KO win over Stipe Miocic to become heavyweight champion in the main event of UFC 260, where Miocic could go from here, the potential blockbuster title fight between Ngannou and Jon Jones and how the former light heavyweight champion has approached the negotiations thus far, the UFC booking Leon Edwards vs. Nate Diaz as a five-round co-main event for UFC 262 on May 15, Bellator’s 2021 debut coming up on Friday, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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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19 and over. Physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Live from MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... Yeah, the iconic voice of Esther Lynn,

welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links here on MMAFighting.com. Hope you're having a great week. We have a lot, as always, to talk about on the program. That's for sure, coming out of UFC 260. The news cycle has been rampant. The BTL title is on the line. I am excited. We hope you are as well as we invite you to participate in the program on Twitter, on YouTube, in the chat.

And let's have some fun on this Thursday. Let us introduce the combatants first. The Challenger coming off of a hard-fought victory against Alex K. Lee last week, his hot takes got people a little fired up. Maybe they were too hot. But that's what he does best. He evokes emotion at the end of the day. Mr. Jedmishu, welcome back to the program, sir. Mike, I take a lot of umbrage with you calling that a hard fault victory.

I am extremely confident that I blanked him 5-0 for the first time in the history of the show. Well, there you go. I was hoping you would have that reaction and you paid off. That's beautiful. And let us introduce the reigning, defending, undisputed BTL champion. He's back following his coverage of UFC 2C. in Las Vegas, the host of the A Side Lab Chat, the champ Jose Youngs, back on the show. Hello, my friend.

How are you? Mike, I am no longer going to be known as the champion. I will be known as the icon of MMAFighting.com. I am the greatest BTL champion of all time. Jed took this little hiatus before returning last week. Coincidentally enough, it was the week I was on the road. So I don't want to say he was, you know, not wanting to face me. But now he's forced to face me.

His little hiatus, he was off doing whatever. Like, I think I heard him say he was like trying out to replace the dancing raisins in those weird commercials back in the day. So he's pursuing his career as an above average mascot for an above average snack. The above average rival I have, Nathaniel, Miss you. Nice to see you again. I feel like that was almost complimentary. Like, if I'm going to be the dancing raisins, I'm okay with that.

Like, that's maybe not as good as Mr. Peanut. That's not bad. Like, I'll take it. Yeah, well, see, that's what, but see, as you said, dancing raisins, not as good as Mr. Peanut. Just similar to you, not as good as Jose Young's. Okay. I think there's like two more than.

Sure, why not? This is going to be a banger. So now, normally this doesn't happen on this program, but we have a supposed breaking news here because Darren Till, as we heard earlier this week, is out of the April 10th fight with Marvin Vittori. And it appears that Kevin Holland, good old Big Mouth, is going to be stepping in to take his place.

Now, we have confirmed Kevin Holland's side. He is good to go. I guess Martin Vittori revealed the news on the Team Vittori podcast that this fight is a go. So there we go. Just before we get to the first actual question, Jedmishu, we talked about Kevin Holland quite a bit on the show last week. and he gets himself another main event fight in nine days from right now on ABC.

How about that? What are your thoughts on Holland stepping in and fighting Martin Vittoria, a fight with a little bit of heat on it? I think this is probably the best they could do on short notice. It's really good. They had to do something because the rest of that card is really lacking for anything that even could be considered a main event. So interesting.

I assume this wasn't Dana's first choice just because of his reaction to Kevin Holland last time. But I think this is a good fight. I'm interested to watch it. I like Kevin Holland. He's going to do Kevin Holland things, but he's probably not going to get laid on for 25 minutes. So that'll at least be more entertaining for most people.

What do you think, Jose? We got Vittori versus Holland. This has been a rivalry that's been building for about a year or so. What do you think? Yeah, Marvin Votori is probably, the most emotional middleweight I've seen in a long time. I mean, I was in Jacksonville when the fight with Carl Roberson

fell out and I think I heard him screaming down the hall for probably a good two hours. When I say screaming, like at the top of his lungs, screaming at someone. And then he tried to fight Carl Roberson in the hotel lobby. So you stick Kevin Holland, who talks a whole lot of greasiness and you match him

up against someone who takes things very personally. Like, what did he call? He called Darren Tillow pussy because he dislocated his shoulder or broke his collarbone or something like that like give the man a break he broke his collarbone and marvin vatory said he's not manned up to fight so yes i'm all in it's a pro i still favor marvin at tori just think he's a better fighter but i'm all in for the the the chitter chatter and the marvin tory just seeing red as we've known marvvotory has done in the past counterpoint

uh there's a sucked it up and fought who needs a caravan hit him with his collarbone car there's a reason the korean zombie is the most exciting fighter in the history of m-mama and that's because he tries to put his arm back into place while facing Josealdo. Daryntel didn't want to fight. That's what we can take from this, is that he just didn't want to fight. Oh, man. Jet has already pissed off a lot of people,

and we haven't even officially gotten to the first question yet. This is like a WWE match where there's a fight on the outside, and the referee rings the bell once they get into the ring. But let us begin with how UFC, 260 260 came to its conclusion on Saturday night. We have a brand new heavyweight champion of the world. The title reign of Francis Nganoo has begun.

He stopped Stepe Mietchich in the second round. It was an incredible performance. Jed, you kind of hit this one on the head. So we're going to begin with you. Your thoughts on Ngano's finish, his newly acquired championship reign, and his performance overall. I thought it was awesome.

I'm not going to take too much credit for being right about it. this one because I think everybody kind of knew this could happen. I just felt far more confident that it would happen. And it happened sort of exactly like I thought. I thought Angano was going to have learned from the first iteration. And he clearly did. Like, he looked extremely composed in there. He had all of the right things working for him. He had a great game plan. He got outside himself a couple of times. He tried to take SEPA down for a minute, but then he recentered, refocused. And if he's going to fight like that, he is going to be just a nightmare for anybody, including John Jones.

Like, he has all the physical capability to do anything you ever want from a heavyweight. And he has started to figure that out. Like, the thing that was the most impressive to me was the finishing sequence, aside from the fact that it was obviously a great knockout. It's just the way that he threw that. Previously, you've seen Inganu load up a lot of shots, like really swing hammers. If you go back and watch the Irysino Rosenstrik knockout, like he's trying very hard to knock him out. And obviously, if Inganu swings really hard, he's and hit you,

it's probably going to kill you. But actually, he doesn't need to do that. If he just doesn't swing hard but hit you, it's still going to really hurt you. And that's what we saw there. He had tight, composed hands, and they just obliterated steep. And that whole finishing sequence was,

awesome, especially when Steepa hit the counter right and then thought he hurt Ngano and stepped in, the check hook that got him, like, that thing maybe moved half a foot. Like, it covered this amount of distance and it completely put the lights out on Steepa. It was awesome. And Ganu's dope. He has, like, the best story in the sport. It's, we are lucky to have him as a champion. And I hope we have him as a champion for a while because that will be both really cool and like really deserving to have a guy that good as champion. No knock on steep. It's obviously really good dude as well.

But like it's nice. It's nice to have good people be champions. That's fun. Jose, I know we kind of got your quick immediate reaction because you were backstage. You're doing the press conferences and all that stuff. But now that we've had five or so days to let it all sink in, What did you think of Inganu's win, the new champ, performance, etc.

I mean, he gave an interview with Damon Martin, and he himself said, like, you can't imagine a more perfect way for this fight to end. Like, it was a knockout. He obviously showed some improvements from the previous fight stuff to take down, landing some good hammer fist and some hooks around from the back. And then he dropped him, of course, before the finish. But it is kind of telling, and I saw some people talking about this on social media, where it's kind of come full circle.

Do you remember in 2007, we had this great Croatian fighter who was primed up to face probably the best heavyweight champion of all time in Randy Couture, and he got knocked out with his own kick and fell on his foot. That was Mirko Krocob. Now we see Steve Amy Ocich going up against someone, and the winner will probably face the greatest fighter of all time. And what happens? He gets knocked out with his own punch and falls on his foot.

So, as our former colleague, Sean Al-Shadi, has said, Time is a flat circle, and it is all come full circle, and Croatian fighters can never face that next step because they fall on their feet after getting knocked out with their own blows. Wow. What an interesting way to look at this whole thing. So, Jose, we're going to get to where Stipe goes from here in a matter of moments. We'll also get into where everybody wants in Ganu to go as well a little bit later on. But in terms of where this division goes, and Jed sort of touched on it about, you know, Francis just being a good dude. he's well deserving of the spot.

The excitement surrounding the heavyweight division seems to be in a different place now. Like having France and Ghanu, an absolutely terrifying individual with that kind of power, it's like if you were to talk to somebody who was interested in combat sports but never watched the UFC and you showed them footage of Francis and Gano or if they saw Francis and Gano walked down the street, nobody would ever want to mess with that guy. Brock Lesnar kind of had that appeal as well. but I'm curious, like, putting all that in perspective, how big is this for the UFC for the division moving forward?

Like, nothing against Depe because he was a tremendous champion and a tremendous individual as well. But Francis is champion? Do you think he can expand the viewing audience? Can he be that big heavyweight championship draw for the UFC that they've been looking for for a while since Brock? Yeah, 100%. I mean, just look at the dude.

He looks like an action figure as it is. It also helps that is the third African champion. speak multiple languages. We know MMA just became legalized in France. He himself said if he had his choice for his first title defense, it would probably be Paris, but he understands that's probably further down the road. So helps them break into the African market, helps them break into the French market. He lives in Las Vegas so he can always headline cards here. And like you said, he just looks good getting off the bus. And more importantly, outside of the aesthetics and of the man and how hard he hits and the languages he speaks and the marks he can break into, the man wants to be active.

And that's kind of been the knock on the heavyweight division for so long. It's been tied up by injuries with Kane or with JDS when they would have to go through with each other. And then Stipe and DC, same thing. Brock Lesnar was coming in and he tried to be active. But then there was all this kind of Tom Foolery going on with the heavyweight division. Sort of like how lightweight was for so long. But now we have a heavyweight champion who historically has not been one to get injured and wants to keep fighting. And he himself said, I'll fight John Jones.

I want to fight John Jones. But I want to keep this division moving forward. So I think that is going to be the most beneficial thing for fans and this heavyweight division that they get to see this monstrous behemoth of a man fight two, three times a year and not have to wait 12 months in between fights. What do you think, Jed? How big of a draw can Francis Ngano be as the heavyweight champion? Because again, like Jose gets off the bus, people are just like, holy crap, who the hell is that guy? How big can he be for this division and for the company as a heavyweight champion?

Huge. I don't think he can get to Connor Greger level of stardom, but I think he can be the second biggest star in the sport. I think that is on the table for him right now. He's got a couple of things working against him. He is not like super young, but he is young in fight years. So that's really good for him. But yeah, like he's first team getting off the bus all star. Like he looks spectacular. He absolutely has the kind of it factor. charisma. Also, just as a quick aside, I want to throw a shout out to Francis Ngano because he learned English after joining the UFC, which he did like five years ago, and his English is already phenomenal. So really, really tremendous stuff. That'll help him a lot in being a big star here. I think, you know, being active is never a bad thing. But I think for him to hit that level, he needs a John Jones fight. He'll probably get close to that in general, just building up over time. But I don't think he has that kind of Connor McGregor whirlwind once in a generation style. Oh, it doesn't matter. He was going to be famous. So he's going to need a lift from somewhere else

and there. Steppe wasn't a star. I don't think that's controversial. It's a fact. So he doesn't have anybody to get it from. Brock Lesnar has, I know, flirted with coming out of retirement. There ain't a chance in hell he's got out of retirement at this point. So he doesn't have. have anybody to give him that bump. I think John Jones is the best he can expect to give that bump. And I know Jones is not like the biggest star in the sport, but he is a really well-known fighter. Like he is a star, certainly.

And that fight should it ever come to pass will be absolutely enormous. And that I think would really launch Angano up into the upper echelon here. And then if he can just build some title defenses. Like it, the comp, being a star in the sport is. some combination of natural charisma and awesome performances and duration. And Gano was obviously going to give you awesome performances. He has the charisma. He just needs to do it over an extended period of time.

And I think that's very much in play for him. Yeah, absolutely. Let's talk about steep A real quick, Jed, because, I mean, listen, the man has put together an incredible resume, widely considered the greatest heavyweight in UFC history. I know he lost, but I think you can't take that title away from him just yet if you actually gave it to him. He has, okay, well, we'll let you get there, but he has the dominant win over in Ghana in the past. He's got two wins over D.C. He's got wins over JDS, Overeem, Fabrice, overdoing. The list goes on and on. The man has nothing more to prove in this sport, in my opinion. So I'll let you wax poetically on Steep A

and your thoughts about him being the greatest heavyweight in UFC history if you like. but I'm curious where you think he goes from here, Jed. Like, do you, and I hate asking this question, but do you think we see him again? So first of all, Mike, I'd like to say that I'm upset with you because I thought the best thing that happened on Saturday was we didn't have to talk about Steepa anymore because we only talked about him because he was a champion. Now he's not the champion, so we don't have to bother ourselves with the least interesting person in the sport. Again, he is obviously a good dude, but he is a. a black hole of charisma and he has never been a fun person to talk about in the context of fight sport. So really upset that I'm still having to do this. That being said, I think Steve A

probably gets the title still of greatest UFC heavyweight champion because there's just so much up in the air about that and he probably has done enough to earn it and hold on to it. I do think it's funny that you talk about his dominant win over in Ganu because sure he won convincingly but dominance is getting knocked out in the second round so i think that's a more dominant showing but uh really steppe like he's obviously a good dude i think he wants to keep fighting so we're going to see him back again and that's fine he actually hasn't fought most of the top contenders at heavyweight so it's totally okay to have him back like my my big issue with meoch's entire run through the the top of the heavyweight division is not a knock on meochich so much as i always felt that he

was the beneficiary of really good timing like he rose up during a time when the heavyweight division didn't have any talented young prospects and everybody that was good was in the old guard honestly you can make the exact same argument about john jones but nobody wants to and i get a lot of shit when i make that argument but it's true steepage just did it at heavyweight and And so he didn't have to beat a lot of, like, young fighters. He just beat a lot of old dudes who were the best in the world because the division's really bad. So it's interesting to me that if you look at the rankings now, there actually are a bunch of young dudes and Stepey hasn't fought any of them because he spent his time beating up all the old guard. So if he wants to stay, that's great.

He can have a bunch of fights against the guys he hasn't fought. He hasn't fought Zero Guy. He hasn't fought Derek Lewis. He hasn't fought Alexander Volkov. Like, I think he wins most of those fights or certainly has the capability of winning them. And if he wants to keep fighting, he will headline fight nights. And that will be a thing that he can do because of his former name. But we don't need to talk about him anymore unless he got the belt again because the man is boring.

I'm sorry, he's boring. Jose, where does Steve A go from here? If he does come back, what sorts of? matchups make sense. Like what do you thinking about? I mean, obviously he's got another kid on the way. So that's good for him and his wife and the family. But where does he go from here? Well, he's probably not going to fight for the rest of the year, especially with a new kid on the way, which also he got decapitated on public television. So probably wants some time off. And rightfully so, greatest UFC heavyweight of all time. Up for debate if he's the greatest MMA heavyweight of all time. But we can talk about that down the road.

If he does come back, I just think I don't know. I don't know because the heavyweight division. could be completely different. I'm sure we're going to have questions about John Jones and Francis and Gano. Let's make that fight happen or let's make the Derek Lewis fight happen. And then Cyril Gahn can fight whoever. But let's have fight play out first before we start fantasy match, make. Because like I always say, no one in the UFC gives fans what they want. They don't even give fighters what they want half the time.

It's like trying to fantasy come up with theories for TV shows. You're just saying what you want to happen. Doesn't mean it will happen. Let's see what happens first before I start putting my foot in my mouth and after fights that will never happen. Pop quiz for both of you. How many currently ranked heavyweights has Steve Miotr's fought? I got to look at the rankings. Don't look at the ranking.

I'm guessing. I'm guessing zero. I'm guessing, well, is the champion ranked or is he a champion? Yeah, we're including Ingano is ranked. All right, one. One. One is correct. Yeah.

That is stunning. Because what? Cormier retired, Jadius Overeem gone, Redume gone, O'Hourg, Unranked, Hunt retired, Maldonado, light heavyweight, Roy Nelson, Belletor. RIP, Shane Del Rosario, Strew retired, DeFries gone, Beltron, Bear Knuckle. Am I missing anyone? No, it was really good. But, yeah, think about that. Like, the heavyweight champion of the world had effectively beaten one dude in the rankings.

and now he just lost that dude. If he sticks around, great. I mean, I definitely want to see him again. I think he's got more gas to the tank. If he chooses to move on, man's one of the all-time greats, but we'll see. I've been an advocate because I don't think he's going to fight again this year.

If Chris Doccus can run off a few more wins, you do firefighter versus the police officer, because Docis will probably be like a top three guy by that point. And I think there's some good story there, some good stuff. Gotta win first. Chris Dawkins is going to be a top three fighter. Maybe.

Dude, close the whole damn division down. Maybe. We'll see what happens. Listen, that's, he's going to be out for a year. A lot can happen in a year. We'll see where the wins take us. But like you said, he and the wife, they're having a second child. He's going to be a very busy man, great champion.

But let's discuss what could happen with the new champion in round two, but the point for round one goes to the champion. on Jose Young's up one to nothing. I sure did. I was like, it's April Fool's. How can I stretch this out just a couple more seconds and make him sweat a little bit? But listen, we talked about Stepe,

we talked about the results of the fight. And normally at this point in time, after a big fight like that, there's a debate as to what should be next for a new champion? Maybe you run it back with the former champion. Maybe you give it to the guy who has run off a bunch of wins in the division, a bunch of finishes.

And I guess in this case, while you can make arguments for both of those sides, if you really want to, the fight to make universally is Francis Ngana versus John Jones, right? We've already talked about it a few times. Jose, sure, we could do the Steep A trilogy. We could do the Derek Lewis fight. But John Jones is the fight everybody wants to see. Now, we all understand that this will not be easy to get to this place where we have, have pen to paper and we have a date booked and two guys walking into the octagon to fight.

It's already been a struggle, which we'll discuss. But Jose, should the UFC strike while the proverbia iron is hot, do everything they can to making Gano versus Jones happen ASAP or can we wait on this fight? No, we don't wait on this fight. We've been talking about John's going to heavyweight for like 10 years. Enough waiting. Just make it happen. Like, this is the fight to make.

John Jones is already balking up. Like, no, this question, this question, do you strike while the iron is hot? Oh, oh, what, what scenario in the world? In the world has the answer been no. In any scenario, when should we strike when the iron is cold? So yes, book it now. Give the greatest fighter of all time what he wants. I know it might backfire for the UFC because what if John Jones wins and you gave him all this money?

You're going to have to keep giving him money and more money and more money and more money. but if he beats Francis and Ghanu, he becomes the greatest fighter of all time, and then he fights Steepei, and then you have the proverbial greatest heavyweight versus greatest light heavyweight. Oh, Steepa can get his title back if he wins, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, just make it happen.

Just make it happen. Or better yet, you know what? Don't make it happen. Wait for this rivalry to cool down and they can fight one in their old, like Pacquiao and Floyd Mayo with it because that was a lot of fun. Oh, April Fools, make it now. I was hoping.

see this is this is why I love being in the hosting chair because I was hoping for that kind of response and that kind of fire we got a jed can you match that fire i mean this is the fight to make like this is silly i mean so sure it's the fight to make because it's the fight the most people want to see uh i am weirdly very interested in in ganu lewis too like i'm kind of i think that fight might actually be more fun to watch, like from an engaged perspective than Angano Jones. But yeah, look, like, this is obviously the fight that should be made. I can't get that pumped about it because it's clearly not going to happen. You guys have been not watching the sport long enough. Like, it is no super fight ever happens. Think back to all of the best fights that could have ever been made. How many of them got made?

Like, none. None of them have been made. It is a miracle that the Connor Floyd fight ever happened. And a lot of people clearly wanted to watch that damn thing. Like, this just isn't going to happen because even if it did somehow get booked, 100% the MMA gods are going to shit all over it. Like, we couldn't get Habib, Tony. There ain't no chance in a hell working this fight. And so frankly, it doesn't matter.

Like, yes, this is ridiculous. I wrote all about this. it's up on the site right now about how Dane is being an asshole and should just make this fight happen, but they're not going to. And it's the same reason they haven't made any of the other fights. Like they have a price in mind, and this is one of the few times fighters have ever figured out, oh, I actually deserve more money than I'm getting and I maybe have leverage here. But they don't because fighters don't have leverage.

None of you have leverage. Connor has a little bit of leverage, and the rest of you don't have shit. but you won't unionize, so you're all broke. Like, that's the choice here. If you guys, if this fight wants to happen, like if us as fans ever want good things to happen in our lives, we have to somehow find a way to make fighters get paid what they're worth because otherwise every single time this occurs,

every time that there's a fight we want, fighters will then view that as an opportunity to get more money, but they won't because the UFC's not going to compare. ham. So we will just get worked up and excited for a thing that cannot be. So that's where I stand. Like, yeah, this is a fight you should make. It's not going to happen. So we should just get pumped for the Derek Lewis, Francis and Gano too, because that's what we're getting. All right. You give me that sound, Casey. Where am I wrong? Spot the lie.

All right. You lied. You incorrectly called Flamont. whether and Connor McGregor a fight, L.O.L. Move on. I mean, they competed, sure. They were in the same room, and they did some things. Wouldn't call it a fight. They hit each other.

Did they? Connor hit him like five times. Everybody got really excited when he did. Come on. We all remember the uppercut, the uppercut. I remember going to the circus that day. That was fun. All right.

are you serious? I don't know how you found that sound effect, but kudos to you. So Jed, kind of building upon what you just said, because John Jones, as he's been over the last year, since he's talked about going to heavyweight

and fighting Francis and Ghana, he's been quite public, quite open in regards to negotiations, the business, money, conversations with the brass, telling the world, then deleting what is actually happening along the way from his perspective.

So recently he tweeted out $8 to $10 million was not going to be enough to get this done. So let me ask you, Jed. How have you reacted to how John has dealt with this whole thing since the Show Me the Money tweet after In Ghana won the title to where we are right now? Like how would you grade Jones's approach to trying to get this fight done over the last five days? Among the many questions that I have in the sport of MMA, you know, what would Habib and Tony have looked like? I think the most curious one that I just cannot understand for the life of me is why, in the name of God, does John Jones not have a publicist? And if so, what does he pay that person for? John Jones should just never tweet.

Like he is actually 100% in the right here. Like he is very obviously totally correct. But he has no ability to not come off terribly. Like he has no, there is no way to view him as an empathetic person, even in a situation where he is getting screwed over massively or has the potential to be screwed over massively. I guess it hasn't officially happened yet.

Like he he needs to just not tweet about this at all because he's bad at it. And it's not going to help anything in general. Like if he hadn't tweeted about that, right? Like just imagine a world where John Jones had said, sweet, I'm really excited to fight Francis and Ghanu. Like that was the tweet he made on Saturday. Dana doesn't go off off the hip and is like, oh yeah, he doesn't want to fight. Now he's fighting. Now John Jones is stuck battling this.

admittedly, like aggressively hoarshit line from his promoter, but he still has to do that. Like, he can just leave those contract negotiations to be quiet. And he can just be like, yeah, super want to fight this dude really excited for it. Or just not say anything at all. Take it from me, a guy who says a lot of things all the time, often, it would be way better if I just shut the fuck up. So John Joe, just shut the fuck up. And everybody will figure it out. I was wondering what kind of sound effect we were going to get from the live studio audience. And apparently they're with you. Jose, going to you on this topic, Michael Kiesa, obviously, is a fighter.

He was on what the heck. He feels like John Jones is kind of like where Jed's at. He's making a mistake, putting all this stuff out in public and social media, doing these negotiations on Twitter, essentially. How would you sort of rate what John has been doing? Should he have left it to just show me the money? money? Like, would that have just, would that have been enough? It's an interesting question. I think the fact that he put his month,

hit the exact amount he was asking for out there. It's probably a little bit of a mistake. It's showing your hand too much. But he does have a publicist. The problem is he doesn't listen to her. I mean, we remember that UFC 200 press conference when he had the failed drug test and he sat there crying and Malky Kawa, his manager, and I can't remember her name off the top of my head. She was sitting there next to him. And then Casey, who's running the ones We were at the UFC 239 Media Day, and she was standing next to John Jones the entire time listening to all his questions. The problem is when she's not there. And I'm pretty confident that someone else is John Jones's Twitter account, has access to John Jones's Twitter account and is just deleting while he's tweeting.

It's not John Jones tweeting, it's John Jones tweeting, someone else deleting. And then John Jones is viewed as the one that's trying to delete it. So that's my theory on that whole matter because no one can tweet and delete that quickly unless your name is just. to shoot probably. But yeah, probably just don't put the monetary out there. Like Mike Chesa says, I don't really know I'm not a fighter. I'm not going to try to get in the mind of a fighter. I've never dealt with contract negotiations with a fight promoter like this.

So I can't tell you the right path. I'm not going to pretend. I'm not going to sound like an expert. So as a journalist, I love it because I get to see what's happening. And I'm sure some fighters like it because like Nate Diaz says, don't fight for anything less than you're worth and he kind of lambast fighters like cowboy and all those fighters that will just take fights because they want to fight and make money and Nade Diaz wants to make a lot of money and he holds out and then as we've all said before when they try to make these fights

the most logical answer just like in this just like Jed said we're probably going to get Francis Lewis too because Derek Lewis is the cheaper fighter John Jones said eight to ten million dollars what did Derek Lewis respond right away all fight for eight million shit that's your answer right there because that's what's going to happen. John Jones said what he wanted. Derek Lewis is already offering the fight for less. So it's going to blow up in his face. And now we're going to get Ingana Lewis too,

which is not something to shake your head at. It's just unfortunate for John Jones. He's not going to get his money. Let's say, let's put the over under on at September 30th, Jose. Does this fight between Ngano and Jones even get close? Like, are we

even discussing a date for this fight? Like, is it on the books at least? Has it happened? Or just, this is just like wishful thinking at best. This is wishful thinking at best. I'm pretty confident that Dana hasn't even spoken to John Jones because he usually speaks to Hunter Campbell and John Jones are the ones that speak. Hunter Campbell, of course, if you ever see Dana Wade of Press conferences

speaking over to the side about fights, it's either someone from UCPR, but most of the time it's Hunter Campbell who's dealing with all the businesses with that. And that's why he said, what did Dana say? when John Jones tweeted, call Hunter. Not call me, call Hunter. So I'm pretty confident that the person that matters the most in the scenario that can make the fight happen.

Dana White hasn't even spoken to the man that he's trying to book this fight. So not even close, not even close. No date, no timetable, no money. Let's get him in the same room before we can even possibly try to figure this out. Jed, what will your face look like if you're watching UFC 261 in Jacksonville and they cut to this promo, John Jones saying I'm here, pen to paper, it's going down August 15th or something. What's your face going to look like?

What's your surprised face? Look, I'll go one step further. Not only has Dana White not spoken to him, I think that's probably very true. I don't think he has any intention of even really trying to book this fight. As far as Dana White's concerned, he knows the lay of the land already. There are no negotiations here. John Jones told them his price range. That is very clearly not a price that they are willing to pay.

So he's like at best Hunter Campbell would just be like, yeah, here's 10 million. Like I know you said you wouldn't fight for it. So that's our starting point is what you will not fight for because we hold all of the cards. And so John is either going to cave and take 10 million, which he's not going to do at least at first blush. I don't think this fight gets anywhere in the neighborhood of close. I think in the next couple of weeks here, we very quickly just move on to, oh yeah,

we're already booking Engano versus Lewis too because, you know, like we talked about last round. Ngano wants to stay active. Lewis ready to fight will take pennies on the dollar of what he probably is worth. So they'll just move along because the UFC is going to just do the math

and say, all right, we can get 80% of the return for 20% of the investment here and it's just not a headache. Again, they're totally morally trash in this instance, but it is what is going to happen. So I don't have to concern myself with the fantasy world. The only way, the only way I think we get Inganu Jones this year is if a fight probably would even have to be like an Inganu fight falls through. somebody pulls out like a month in advance or they are desperately in need of a headliner for an end of the year show. And then they maybe open up the pocketbook like just a little bit to make it happen. Because otherwise, the UFC is just going to sit there.

They don't need this fight. And they'll just sit and wait because they have a deeper war chest than John Jones does. So it'll be Usman Mazadol, Fight Island all over again. That's the only chance we get. Yeah, exactly. that's the only scenario we get there. Well, hopefully we can get this done some way, somehow. I'm a little more optimistic than you guys,

just because I'm trying to be positive. But at the same time, I'm with you both. Despite how the first fight went, I'm very interested in Franzenegano versus Derek Lewis, too, as a consolation prize. So if this can't get done, I'm okay with that option as well. We shall see. We're going to move ahead to round three,

but the point for round two goes to, I mean, got to give it to Jed. here. This was kind of a no brain of the people were with them as well. It's one to one. It's kind of like a baby face turn. There are a lot of peeps on Team Jed with that one. This is, this is good stuff. So let's talk about some very interesting. An emotional roller coaster. All sorts of terrain where we're in the water, we're on the land, up the mountains, down the mountains. But let's talk about some very interesting and surprising news we found out earlier this week. We found out what the co-made event for UFC 262 will be on May 15th in Houston.

It's going to include the return of one Nathan Diaz, his first fight since UFC 244. That BMF title fight at MSG with Jorge Mazdal. The fight did not, that did not go very well for Mr. Diaz. He will be fighting Leon Edwards, and not only will this fight be the co-main event, it will be the first non-title five-round co-main event in UFC history. So I'm not going to mince words, Jose. Were you as surprised as the rest of the world when this news dropped? Yeah, there's a whole lot to unpack here.

I am very surprised that in Nate Diaz versus Leon Edwards, I'm very surprised. It's a co-main event. And I'm very, very surprised it is a five-round fight for a possible number-old contender fight. And I am pleasantly surprised at that last one, because I've been saying that forever. I mean, I did this long interview with Carl's Condon, and he laid it all out. Like if we're fighting for number one contender, we should be fighting five rounds because what if it's a draw? We should show that we can go five rounds.

A number one contender should be able to go five rounds. It doesn't have to reach it, but that should be there. So yes, I am 100 in favor of contender fights happening in five rounds. And for people saying, oh, it's not the normal one contender. Let's come on, guys. Let's be real here. Here's what the UFC wants to happen. Nate Diaz beats Leon Edwards.

Jorge Mazel beats Kamar Uzman. Nate Diaz and Jorge Mazvahal fight for Lerner. the two for like two belts blah blah blah blah blah and then the winner fights connor mcgregor because in this hypothetical scenario connor mcgregor beats dust and pour it and it goes up to welterweight and they make a lot of money and john jones still hasn't fought in the meantime so yes uh that's the scenario they want to happen to maximize all of these fake bells that they keep throwing around they can even give connor his mcgregor belt and they can make it a three belt person four because connor would be going for the welterweight so you got four belts and that's what the ufc needs in their life right now giving

more power to Conner Greggard because then when he goes and fights Jake Paul, he's a four-time UFC champion with two fake belts. Yes, this is a blood-soaked hellscape that I am putting in front of you, but this is what the UFC wants. And it all starts in Houston. But I am so excited for Leon Edwards versus Nate Diaz because Leon Edwards is about that life. Because for all we say about Nate Diaz being a bad motherfucker, might as well being a bad motherfucker, Leon Edwards is about that life from Birmingham, England. I go watch his BT Sport promo. He is, he is, he is not wanting to back down from any sort of fist fight. So yeah, I am all in. Just a quick reminder for anybody watching this on, if they put it on their smart TV or something, there's kids running

around. Viewer discretion is advised. Just throwing that out there. But Jed, you know, I've been working with you for just over a year now. And there are certain things and certain pieces of information where my natural reaction is, I wonder what Jed thinks about this. And I have to say, when this fight was announced, this was exactly, I was like, I cannot wait for Thursday because I want to know what Jed thinks about this. So what do you think? Your reaction to the fight, five rounds, et cetera. What do you think about this whole thing?

I have so many thoughts because this is out of freaking left field, man. Like, nobody had this on their, on their Scrabble card. Nobody was like, oh, yeah, definitely saw that one coming. Like just from the rafters, and it's weird. This fight, I'll talk about that last because I think the fight sucks. It's good planning by the UFC. Like Jose's right, they very clearly have an agenda here. They want Nate Diaz to beat Leon Edwards because that's the only reasonable way to view this.

The only other way to view it is they're really likely on Edwards and they're trying to get him a big profile win to set him up for a rematch with Usman. And that's clearly not the case. They hate Leon Edwards. So they're really just hoping Nate gets this done. I am astonished that Nate took this fight. Like Nate Diaz, what a weird dude, man. We just talked about John Jones and sitting out and getting his worth.

Nate Diaz, like, does that mostly right where he doesn't really put his business out there that much, but he just talks a bunch of shit that's usually ridiculous, but people seem to like it so it works for him. And then it'll just out of nowhere be like, all right, I'll fight Anthony Pettis. Like, what? Nobody was calling for you to fight Anthony Pettus, but sure, I guess we'll take it. Like, this is another one of those. The best thing about this is the five-round co-main event. I have been an incredibly vocal proponent that the only purpose the rankings should serve as far as I'm concerned should be that when ranked fighters fight, it should be five rounds.

because grown-ass men and women fight for 25 minutes, not 15. And at any point in time, any fight between two ranked fighters could end up being a number one contenders belt, whether it is or not, because the UFC doesn't like to say the number one contender thing because that limits options. Like, they should just be fighting five-fives. So this is great. I hope that this breaks the dam. And moving forward, we just get a lot more of those because the sport and fandom will be way better off for it. So all of that's good. The fight itself sucks.

Leon Edwards is going to whoop his ass. Nate Diaz is washed. If you watch the Hoare Mosidol fight, you watch the wash dude get beat up by a good dude. Leon Edwards beat up Jorge Mosidol. Leon Edwards is very not washed. He's in fact very good. And but for the I pox was putting the wood to Bala Muhammad. So I'm glad that they didn't run that back because I have actually, I'm with Leon.

I have no interest in watching that fight, even though I think Balaamah. with a pretty good welterweight. He can do a lot better. This fight, again, I don't really have much interest because he's going to just beat the tar out of Nate Diaz. But Nate Diaz is tough, so he's going to be there for 25 minutes to get his ass beat for that long. So that's cool.

This is the plan works from the UFC. The outcome is not going to be the one they want. But what it will eventually set up is Usman Edwards, too, and that's a really good fight from, like, sport meritocracy standpoint. So when that's your floor, when the worst thing that can happen is you probably get like the champion defending against one of the legitimate top guys in the division,

you're a pretty good situation. Jed, if you are Colby Covington, if you're Wonderboy Thompson, if you Gilbert Burns, Michael Kiesa, any of these top five, six, seven guys at once, if you're for Sente Luque right now,

who called for Nate, seeing him get the Leon Edwards, type people trashing his callout saying that was a stupid call. That was a waste of a call which I did not. I thought it was actually a pretty good call out. It made sense compared to what Nate Diaz was looking for for his next fight since he's a surging guy that's finishing fights. But if you're these other guys, if you're Colby, Wonderboy Burns, etc., what are you thinking right now seeing this fight getting put together? Thinking what the hell? Like one, Lou Geh, that was a trash callout. Like you shouldn't be

calling for a fight with Nate Diaz. Like, Connor McGregor is the only person who should be trying to fight Nate Diaz. I get that he's a big name, but Nate's just not going to fight you unless you're apparently Leon and Edwards. So maybe I'm wrong, actually. Upon further consideration, maybe you should just shoot your shot because I would have thought Leon Edwards would be the last dude. Nate Diaz would try to fight. So, but I mean, if you're the rest of these guys, like, you're not in the conversation and you have to accept that. Colby's not going to because Colby is real business dumb.

I don't think that he is dumb promotionally. I actually think like the whole schick he's getting better at it. It was probably a good move for him to adopt it or to turn the knobs up on his natural personality, if you will make that argument. But he has proven to be one of the worst business people in the sport because he has done nothing but consistently talk himself out of big fights for no real like any. increase in income. So, but he, that's, he's just going to do that. That's Colby. Colby's going to be him. So you can't really worry that he's going to keep waiting for an Usman rematch that's never going to

materialize. But if you're a Wonderboy, like you, the same thing is the case. You always knew that you were at best and outside, like outside looking in. You need another win. You're not going to get to fight one of the top two or three guys because they aren't going to fight anyone. They're just holding on and hoping they get the title shot. So you just got to fight somebody else. Like Wonderboy to me is the big, the big one here. Because as we've talked about on previous episodes, I have no respect for Michael Keesa, not because he's bad, but because I'm clearly an idiot. And I can't in my head think that he's good at Welterweight, despite all evidence to the contrary. So if you're Wonderboy, you just got to try and fight Gilbert Burns because Burns does seem willing to

fight anybody. And if you beat Burns, then you're going to get a title shot. And Burns needs needs two wins to get back in the title conversation. So you're probably just looking out of this going, yeah, Leon Edwards is about to get a title fight. I need to get back to work. I need to find an opponent. And I need to make a statement so maybe I can get the next one after that. What do you think, Jose?

Anything you would veer away from or change from what Judge has said in terms of the rest of this division, how they may react to this news? I mean, Wonderboy is the big loser right here because he's to A, the close. Like he's the oldest of this whole crop of fighters. He's coming off a couple injuries. He's coming off fights against rising prospects. And now he's probably going to have to fight another one unless he fights Gilbert Burns or Colby Covington, which is unfortunate for him.

I thought the Leon Edwards fight would have been awesome or the Colby Covington fight if it's a no-moly contend to fight. But like we said, the UFC has showed their hands. They want the winner of Leon Edwards and Nate Diaz to fight for the title. And now what? Two wins away? They're going to make Stephen Thompson fight two more. of times for possibly being in the title of intention again.

So if I'm him, I just take a fight to stay ready and keep my fingers crossed that someone falls out or hopefully not, but gets COVID or whatever, because we've seen these, like Kevin Holland, we just talked about, loses Derek Brunson, and now he's fighting someone else in the top 10. And imagine a world where Kevin Holland beats Marvin Vittoria and then all of a sudden he's ranked higher than Derek Brunson. What a bizarre world that would be. So yes, if I'm Stephen Thompson, just stay ready in case someone falls out.

It's crazy, man. Of course, we got Tony Ferguson versus Binal Daryush on that card as well, which will be interesting. Jen, let me ask you this. I understand from a dollars and cents perspective why Nate Diaz is in this co-main event spot. But if we're taking all that out of it, if all things are equal, would this be the co-made event five rounds? Or would you do Darius versus Ferguson five rounds? I mean, this would be the co-made event only because this is ostensibly a number one. one contender fight.

Like they're not going to call it that. But if Nate wins, he is obviously either fighting Connor because Nate will always choose to fight Connor over anything else. Or he is more likely going to fight Usman because Usman, when he defeats Mossadol again, will immediately start calling for Nate Diaz. Like that, that just makes sense. So from that standpoint, yes. From every other standpoint, no, because like I said, I think that,

ranked fighters should be fighting 25 minutes and there yous ferguson like those are ranked lightweights i'm also i'm not that upset about it though mainly because i think tony ferguson washed so i don't need to see him get beat up for 25 minutes 15 will suffice Jose your thoughts i know you're a high see you look at things differently that you look at things as high level martial arts competition so if we're up to you all things equal what's the better high level martial arts competition sort of fight here? Probably the Leon Edwards, Nate Diaz fight. Because we've back-to-back fights, Tony Ferguson has gotten beat up pretty badly.

And yet Nate Diaz lost to Horny Mazur, but it was on the stool. He got that big gash overshed, which is not going to play into his favorite one, left elbow Larry, as Leon Edwards calls him, is just slicing his face up in there on the clinch. Also, this, and I'm a big Nate Diaz fan. I like watching him fights. I'm always going to tune in to watch and play. I think he's a high action fighter. But you know the narrative is he starts slow,

and in the later rounds, he picks it up and he can win. I can imagine, and I'm imagining this right now. Leonhardt just pieces them up for two rounds, and then Nate Diaz wins the third round, and then everyone goes, oh, if there were two more rounds, he would have won. Now that excuse is out the window, because we have five rounds to work with,

so they're taking the built-in excuses for the Nate Diaz fans, and they're giving him two more rounds. So if he loses a decision and gets beat up for four there's no oh if there were 13 rounds you would have won nope 25 minutes it's it's right there we gave you what you wanted and your boys still lost not saying he's going to lose i haven't made up my mind yet i obviously lean very much into the favor of leon edwards but here we go you got five rounds but that's fine but i i can't even look past this week let alone 262 because remember chas skelly walked into the octagon and he didn't even fight so i'm not even going to pretend to

imagine those two men making it into the octagon just yet. So yes, give them five rounds so you can take away the excuse of Nate Diaz needs five rounds to compete. You have such a vivid imagination, though. You just imagine the world where Nate Diaz beats Leon Edwards in the third round. Nate Diaz beat Leon Edwards in the 20th round. He's getting his ass beat for as long as they fight. This is a very non-competitive fight. I live, as you can see behind me, I have a lot of fiction books behind me. I'm even wearing a shirt with John Sina and the word slip knot and Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie on my shirt. I live in the achievement of the mind. So, of course, in this scenario, Nate Diaz has a chance against Leon Edwards.

That's what a crazy shirt that is. You don't believe? I know. If there's one person I believe, it's you. Why the shirt exists is beyond me, but I own it now, and it's the greatest share of all time. Right now. Minus 310. Leon Edwards is the favorite over Nate Diaz. Bet the house on that. That line is soft.

Right now, the marks and the sharps are predicting that the line will get up to minus 4.30 come fight night. So we'll see. If you're a Leon fan, if you're a Leon fan, you might want to jump on that now before the lines go up. But U.S. 262, May 15th, Lace Jose said, a lot can happen. Houston, Texas. It all goes down. should be very interesting. We're going to move to the final round of regulation. The point for round three in a very tight round goes to, he stole it in the ends. The champ, Jose Youngs, takes a two-to-one lead.

I got to bring more props. I'm not bringing enough props to this contest. That's the problem, yeah. Hey, Jed, why are you dressed so normal? I don't own a slip-knock John Cena. Nicole Ritchie? Your own shirt. You forgot.

Paris Hilton. You forgot. Oh, I'm currently. See, and that's my fault. I should have known that coming in. I know what a big Paris Hilton fan like is. Listen, there's four things,

Jed, there's four things you need in life when you wake up, and they're all on my shirt. John Sina, Slipknot, Nicole Ritchie, Paris Hilton. And then you two can be between the links champion

someday when you grow up. Wow. By the way, as, as, As interesting as the shirt is, it had nothing to do with why Jose won the round. So I'm just going to put that out there. That's four, rounds four and five for a Nate Diaz fight.

There's no excuse. It's the shirt. Had nothing to do with it. Ford was built on the belief that the world doesn't get to decide what you're capable of. You do. So ask yourself, can you or can't you? Can you load up a Ford F-150 and build your dream with sweat and steel? Can you chase thrills and conquer curves in a mustache?

Can you take a Bronco to where the map ends and adventure begins? Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. Ready, set, Ford. No UFC, no UFC this weekend. No UFC. First time in a long time. But tomorrow night, for the first time in 2021, Bellator is back at Mohegan Sun in,

Beautiful, scenic, Uncisfill, Connecticut. The Bellator on Showtime era begins. Patricio Pitbull defends the featherweight title against Emmanuel Sanchez in the main event. Last semi-final bout of the Featherweight Grand Prix, winner gets A.J. McKee later on this year. We got Neiman Gracie versus Jason Jackson in the co-main event. Tyrol Fortune versus Jack May on the main card. The Bellator debut of Usman Normaga Madoff against Mike Hamel.

We got Kana, Watanabe versus Alejandro Lara kicking off the main card, festivities. Jedmishu, are you excited about the return of Bellator MMA tomorrow and I? Where's your excitement levels at? I would be a lot more excited if they hadn't picked the one weekend we get off in 2021 to have a fight card. Like, I get it. That's probably good business from their standpoint. But I was so pumped to be like, oh, yeah, I finally don't have to do a thing this weekend. And it's like, oh, actually, no, I have to go watch Pitbull rematch a duties clearly going to beat.

And like, if this was the Pitbull, AJ McKee fight, 100% all in. That fight is a banger. I'm pumped. I'm very excited. The main event here, it's the tournament. You got to do it because that is what decorum dictates. But nobody's excited about this fight. Like, there is no question the outcome here.

It is, this is just biding our time for the fight everybody wants. And frankly, the fight everybody's wanted from day one of the Grand Prix. The rest of this card is actually pretty good. Honestly, like, if I can pull back my sadness that I have to do something tomorrow night instead of just get drunk, then I can objectively admit that there are a lot of people that I'm interested competing on this card. Neiman Gracie Jason Jackson is actually like a really good fight. I like Jason Jackson a lot. Neiman Gracie, he has a very important last name, so that's good.

The rest of the card is not bad, especially by Bellator standards, because sometimes they'll put out a real shitbox or two. But it is definitely a bit of a downer because I don't get to be drunk tomorrow night. Now I have to pay attention to fighting. But, you know, I'll give it a solid B. It's good that they did this on a non-UFC weekend, but I just, I wish we were already at Pitbull A.J. McKee. Like, that's what we all want.

What about you, Jose? How excited are you for the return of Bellator MMA in 2021? I'm excited for the main event. Anytime you have a champ, champ, champ fighting. And Patricio Pitbull gets it. Unfortunately, he can't really speak perfect English yet. So I think a lot gets lost in translation, especially when Captain Eric is translating for him. And he kind of colors up his answers a lot.

during press conferences and virtual media days and so on and so forth. But he's clearly the best fighter in the history of Bellator and he's still in the primary career. He might be the best featherweight in the world, but obviously I don't. You still got Balkanowski and Max Holloway and Brano Takeout there. And those fights are never going to happen anytime soon. And Michael Chandler is obviously the flavor of the month over in the UFC. He's fighting for a goddamn UFC title in his second fight for crying out loud.

And so people knocked him dead in Chicago. So I'm very excited to watch him fight. but Emmanuel Sanchez, his opponent, it's like Jed said, he's just like, he's the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. of this right now when Canelo fought Caesar Chavez Jr. And everyone just needed Triple G. Or he's like the Usec when he fought Anthony Joshua when everyone wants the Tyson Fury. No one's paying attention to this fight. They want to look to what's coming next.

Emmanuel Sanchez is an absolutely awesome fighter, a high-level fighter. This fight's already happened before. Everyone wants pit bull in the key for either belt. because AJ McKee said he can make 155, no problem too, and throw it down there. So if he beats Pitbull at 145, why not fight him again at 155? Then all of a sudden, AJ McKee is your champ, champ, and he can hold all the chips. The Patuso Pitball can go to the UFC if he wants, and he can fight all of these fighters. He keeps calling out.

Maybe we can get Michael Chaley Pitbull 2 inside a UFC Octagon. But yes, Jackson's awesome. Roger Warritz is on the prelimbs. He's, of course, the original SI cover guy. He beat up that clown in Austin. I remember everyone remembers that video from like 12, 15 years ago when that that dork was hitting a woman in Roger World's that just broke brick on his face. So yeah, I'm excited. But after the top three fights, it's going to take a lot for casual fans to tune in.

It's on a Friday. What weren't these fights on Thursday for a bit too? I liked when they were on Thursdays. But yeah, at least we're past pandemic and we can finish this featherway Grand Prix before we start the light heavy one. All right, Jose. What is, well, let's get the casuals and invest in. here. What is, you know what question's coming. The Dark Horse Fighter Fight storyline heading into tomorrow night that maybe people aren't talking about enough here. Well, obviously, anytime you see

someone named Nirmik Amadov, you're going to have to watch. So Usman Nirmikamatov, Mike Hamel is obviously one you got a circle. Neiman Gracie, Jason Jackson, Jason Jackson, what, his last two wins over Jordan Mean and Benson. So if we're talking about casual fans, a lot of people think that if you don't fight in the UFC or haven't fought in the UFC, you're a job. just a bad fighter, which is stupid. And Jordan Meenaed Benson, they were very, very high-level UFC fighters. Benson Henderson was even a champion,

and people consider him one of the five greatest lightweights ever, and then he went up to welterweight, and Jason Jackson beat him. So those are the last two guys that Jason Jackson's won. Neiman Gracie, of course, was kind of the dark horse of that welterweight Grand Prix when it happened. He had the win over Ed Ruth. I believe Jason Jackson's only loss is to Ed Ruth,

or his last loss to Ed Ruth. So interesting matchmaking. Tyrell Fortune has, what, one loss? and Timothy Johnson. Jack May is another guy that fought in the UFC. I'm pretty sure I saw him get knocked dead in Bangor, Maine. I can't even remember because that fight card was just, that was a weird fight card. I had a fan sitting behind me who told Brad Tavares to go back to his own country, and the dude is from Hawaii.

So that was a weird card. That should tell you how that crowd was. So yeah, a lot of interesting fighters. But in terms of fights, there's a lot of fights that are going to be used to propel the fighter that wins rather than have a high-level matchmaking. point of view. What do you think, Jed? What's your, what's your dark horse heading into tomorrow? Even though you can't be drunk, what are you going to soberly look forward to from a dark horse perspective? Look, I think Jose talked about a lot of things. He said probably the most

salient point, which is there's a dude named Nirmamadov on this. So that's probably important. The big ones for me, there's another dude with an Eddafi name, Macamette, Megamad, Magamatov is a really good prospect, dude. He has one loss. His one loss is to a little dude. You might have heard of him. His name's Peter Jan. And he also has a win over Yan as well.

So he is 17 and Jan. Like that that's what he is. Dude is a really good prospect. He's taking on a dude that I'll be honest, I don't know much about CJ Hamilton. And this is probably a set-up fight for Magamad and Megamatov. But like that's a guy worth paying attention to. because he's very good at fighting.

Like he is very clearly a very good bantam weight. But for bang for your buck, I'm going to go with the tried and true. Like, if women are fighting in a card, dollars and donuts, they're going to be scrapping. Kananwata Bay or Watanabe, or Watanabe, sorry, I've said that real bad.

Kanao Watsunabi and Alejandro Lara is, like, they're both pretty good fighters. Like, they're not the best. but they're both pretty solid and they're probably going to scrap here. Watanabe has a background in deep. I always have mad respect for Jules. So that's kind of the low-key fight I'm interested in. But, I mean, really, that's the problem with this card in general.

It is all deep cuts. And then a main event with a guy you know versus a guy that no one cares about who's decent but is already lost to the guy you know. But this is a really quintessential Belocator card a lot of ways because there are a lot of people who kind of matter, but the fights themselves aren't tremendous. And it's a lot of noise, just kind of falling on deaf ears. Of course, for some New England flavor, if you want to see a six foot seven welterweight, you're going to get that on this card. Trevor Goody has his fourth professional fight, six foot seven, 170 pounds. What a crazy thing that is. Last thing on this, Bellator obviously, news-wise, they've been off to a pretty good start in 2021 with the signings, the showtime deal, a lot of the matchups they made.

We got a light heavyweight Grand Prix. We're going to see Rumble versus Joel Romero in the first round in May. A lot to like here. But, Jed, we talked about this. I remember it was you and Aaron Bronstetter, and we talked about what Bellator needs to do better. Now it's a new year. They've made some moves. They've addressed some things.

What sorts of gaps do they need to fill in 2021? they need to have cards that has been a big problem for them at the point i frankly don't remember what i said when i was just pulling the wood de bronzetter last year but i suspect it wasn't what i'm going to say now because really the big problem for bellator thus far in 2021 has been this is their first event like they they lost all the momentum on this grand prix like this i mean the grand prix think about it. This was a thing that everybody was super excited about. They did the seating show that was like different and cool and interesting. And then I know that you can't really bank, like plan around COVID, but they lost all the momentum from that. So now that they're having shows again,

they're going to need to have shows be consistent. Consistency is key. Like Jose said, they used to do these on Thursday. Now it's on a Friday. Like it's, I work in this space and it's hard for me to keep track of this shit. Like I can't imagine a fan doing it, especially because it's bounced from DeZone to Paramount to wherever the shit it is now. Like they need consistency and they need to just turn stuff out and they really need to strike while the iron is hot

with this light heavyweight grand prix. Like they need to take all of the good stuff from the featherweight one and put it into the light heavyweight one where they have their most marketable names, their most marquee people probably. And they need to run with that as, best they can. I think that will get them the most traction this year. Jose, your thoughts? What can Bellator do to make this the best 2021? It can possibly be? They need to start making, like, they need to stack these

fight cards again. Like, remember when, when Rose and Amunas fought Jessica Andrage and Rio, that same day was Bellator. I think it was 221, and I was there for that. Like, normally, at MMA fighting, we go to these big events. And if we go to the Belator cards when it's a big event. We had a UFC pay of view in Rio, I believe, or South Pile, I can't remember which city was in. And then they also had a Bellator event in Chicago and they sent me because I had Pitbull Chandler, Lima

MVP, AJ McKee, Pat Curran, freaking Jake Hager fought on that card. And then remember when Bellator, they had those dynamite shows where you'd have like Tito Ortiz and Liam McGarry on the top of the card and a bunch of other fun fights and people would tune in and was built as this big flagship show of the year. And they even throw kickboxing in there

and you had the kickboxing and the MMA cage in the same venue and it just looked crazy and they introduced Fador. They had all this cool stuff. They get it when they do that cool seating show where you get it. You have the ping pong balls and you can go up there and you can mix and match who your fights are. They're great at that, but they have to stack the cards because right now they're putting these awesome high-level fights in the main event. And then there's a lot of fights in there that people aren't going to tune in for. It's like the AJ McKee, Darren Caldwell fight. I can't even remember who else was that card. And that fight was, like, that was a high level martial arts fight. They have to do a

better job of stacking these cards and shy away from the Bjorn Rebony bookings where they have a tournament and they have these really good fights at the top and then a bunch of random fights below. Just stack the cards. The UFC does it sometimes and it's great. U.S. 2509 was awesome. U.S. 260 was supposed to be awesome for the featherweight title fell out. For all the flack the UFC gets for the business practice and rightfully so because it's all ridiculous Tom Fulner and Skull-Duggery. At least they stacked the cards and they forced people to tune in early and stay until the end. And Bellator is just not doing that right now.

I can't believe you can't remember you or Bellator 253, the co-main event. It was Jason Jackson versus Benson Anderson. There you go. See, I remember that fight happened, but I don't even remember what card it was on. And that's the- You know why you don't remember it? Because it happened in Uncissville. And Uncissville is where fun goes to die. So they should just never hold events in Uncissville.

Like Jose said it They went to Chicago It was awesome Do that go to places That aren't Uncisfill You're not wrong Jose has a lot of love For Moghergian son

It's his favorite place In New England And maybe in the world That place sucks ass I'd rather go to Newark, New Jersey That's really a condemnation Of any place I've ever heard I live like

Oh man I have friends that work in Mohegan Sun and they're like, well, when I go to visit, they're like, oh, should you come to Mohegan Sun? I was like, no, I'm okay. Oh, man. Do you have some mercury? I can pull it in my ear? I'd rather do that. Oh, man. We're besmirching the hallowed name of Mohican Sun, scenic Uncisfill. Man, oh man. We apologize to the people of Uncisfil. But listen, we are excited for the return. We do not. Listen, we are excited for the return of Bellator. We'll have obviously coverage tomorrow night, so stick with us at MMA fighting. We'll post-fight scrums on YouTube, results, et cetera.

You know, Jed Sober takes on the card. I do want to say Mohican Sun has one redeeming quality, and that is the first place that Gotti Ward took place. Gotti Ward won. So I think they have that going for them. That's a good point right there. So stay tuned for all sorts of Bellator since we pumped you up so much for tomorrow night on M.AFunning.com. But also, go ahead.

Is it more than Thackerville? Like, I think it is, right? Like, it's not as good. I've never been to Thackerville. I can confidently say I've never been to Thackerville, so I couldn't tell you. I also have not been to Thackerville. Thackerville is like right next to the Joe Exotic Zoo. Like it's like right in the neighborhood

It's got something going for it Oh man You know what after that talk You know what's going to happen right now We got to do the knocker around I don't even know who I'm giving the freaking point to I just know we're doing another question Because I'm all sorts of confused right now

I believe Jose Youngs Does not get this point I believe Jen Michoud gets the point To tie things up So that means I was so excited for you to watch that No I know what I'm a mess Speaking of Tom Foolery and Skulldoggery, that's kind of where this question is going.

But we have one more question. It's a fun one. And I had no idea where I was going with this until I heard Tom Foolery and Skulldoggery. And I'm stealing Casey Lyon's idea. We had a little DM conversation about something that was kind of funny. And we're going to go ahead and do that. I'm hijacking it. But each of these gentlemen are going to have 60 seconds to respond.

And then we're going to turn it over to Casey to render the final decision with the help of our wonderful. viewing audience here on Between the Lings. So Jose, you are the champion, and this is one of those questions. While it's fun, so basically I'm going to allow you the choice. You can go last if you'd like, or you can go first, but you can choose how this plays out. And I'll explain in a moment, but basically there's two sides. You'll get to choose the side you want to represent, but you'll get to go first. So do you want to go last, or do you want to choose which side and go first?

I'll go first because I have no idea what's about to happen. So I'll be the adult. Well, because as the adult, you always have to watch out for the minors. You know, protect the children, women and children get behind me. So, Jed, I'll go first and take this for you. Okay. So basically, here's where we're going. Jed, you're going to know where you're going in a matter of moments as well.

So the Reebok deal has come to an end. Venom has joined the UFC party. They are now the sponsored brand for the company. We saw that the fighters were beginning a very slight bump in the fight week sponsorship pay. But, Jose, I'm giving the option. You can either give a welcome speech to the fighters on behalf of Venom or you can give an exit speech to the fighters on behalf of Reebok. What would you like to do?

Oh, I'm going to give the exit speech for Reebok 100%. Okay. One minute on the first. clock you are the uh the combat sports representative of rebach you are addressing the ufc rostered athletes of fighters they're all there sitting in front of you right now the microphone is in your hand we turned it on it's live your time starts now well first of all i like to thank you all it's been a lovely seven years that we've been together i know you've only got half of the money we promise. But you know that glass half full glass at 50 that 30 million as opposed to 70 million.

Let's look at the positive. At least you got $30 million. And we gave you a Snoop Dog concert at the new UFC apex. I mean, we gave you 10% off even though you wear our stuff for free. And we got past the whole scenario where your eye of favorite shorts were falling down against Dominic Cruz. We got past the part where Gibler Melendez. We got past all that. Like remember Mirko Flipevich. We put his name and we spelled that right. And of course, no one complained about that. We put Ireland in a Northern Irish fighter. We said all the fighters from Northern Ireland are from Ireland, but no one brought it up because of this great, fantastic partnership. So I say goodbye to all of you. I hope you enjoy Venom. Where can you buy Venom? We don't know, but we can

buy Reebok with 10% off at all of your Dick's sporting goods. Peace. Very nice. And now we say goodbye to one era, and we welcome in a new one as we welcome Jed Mishu, the combat sports representative of Venom, as he now gets to address the fighters. He's now on the stage. The mic is now hot. You have 60 seconds, sir, to wow, everybody. Your time starts right now. So, everybody, I'm supposed to come here and get you really excited about this new partnership. I'm not really sure why, because you had no say in this partnership, and you still don't. You can hate it or not.

You're wearing it. So deal with it. On that note, I will say we have generously decided to give you a very slight pay bump from what you previously had. Don't go looking into the math there too hard because it's actually lower than what just a general inflation raise would have given you. But you know, you're going to get more dollars in the bank account. And again, you know, if you're a champion, it sucks to be you. I know that you're looking at 40K for a title defense, which is less money than you could get if you just scouts tickets outside that you have for sure.

40K, that seems like a good deal. But what you're getting in exchange on top of all of this, I know you're going from Reebok, a brand that is, you know, probably some third-tier dog shit, but is at least known third-tier dog shit, you're going into a brand that nobody knows how to spell and it's stupid and awful. enjoy way to represent your company jenn unreal i don't even know what to say i'm so glad i took this question off of gasey because i literally had no idea where it was going to go because what i was probably going to go to is what we're going to what we're going to do with april 10th it's on a bc and we don't have a main event but that box was checked off before we got into the first

question with kevin holland stepping in so we now turn it on over to the judge the jury the executive producer, the man who made this question, what it was, the Honorable E. Casey Lydon, Casey, you heard both sides, you heard from Reebok, you heard from Benham. We did not hear from the fighters. We haven't, Reebok hasn't heard from the fighters. Venom didn't hear from the fighters when it came to making these deals. So we go to you. Who wins? Who's the champ? Jose or Jed? Great performance, gentlemen. Great performance. Yeah, you're right. I don't know how to spell venom. I did keep misspelling it, so that's a point in Jed's favor. And we got gibbler on this side. Oh man, oh man. Gosh, dang it.

Okay, I'm, oh, we got so many ways to go here. All right, here we go. Here we go. Oh, boy, okay. You're a winner. Jose Young's. And Jose's reign continues and Jed cannot. believe it. Yeah, and the beat goes on, and the beat goes on. I was going to make a crack about how Venom is spelled, like if Reebok spelled it, but then when Jose did the Gribbler thing, I was like, I can't, that's just retreading ground. I don't want to do that. I feel like maybe I left that on the table. It's very possible. It's very possible. Novermatch, gentlemen. Judge Casey, let, yeah, Casey broadcasting from some sort of tunnel somewhere,

But we appreciate you that. Jose, 30 seconds, my man. Good, bad, and different MMA. The floor is yours with your victory. I mean, is it a victory when you beat someone that almost has as many losses if they have wins? Like, look at my record. And look at this Jester's record next to me.

Like, come on. I'm not going to use my... You know what's bad about MN.A? When reigning dominant champions to beat up children from the Make-A-Wish Foundation live on between the links. Get this clown away from me. He can come back in a month.

After he goes on and contends for all of his weird mascots that he really wants, and then he can come get this again. I don't know who I'm going to fight next. Line them up. They'll probably lose. No, they will lose. Just like Leon Edwards will beat Nate Diaz. I'll say it.

So, Jed, you are, of course, the Nate Diaz in this scenario. Very popular. It says a lot of things that they probably don't understand. The fans love you. but of course the dominant champion wins who's in the physical prime of their career. Also, you want to hear a really funny April Fool's joke? That's a really nice haircut.

Wow. He's still frozen. I thought like this screen actually froze. Just a personal shot. Whenever I do probably rematch this bum, I'd like, instead of my record, I'd like you to just put my record against Jose up there at 2 to 1 because that's where it currently stands.

It's a good point right there. It's a good point. Well, I'm sure you guys will meet again. If I'm a lead to yes, that's a better choice. I would way rather be Nate Diaz than Leon Edwards. You don't want to be from Birmingham. What would you rather be from Stockton or Birmingham? That's honestly a tough choice for me.

I don't want to be from Ireland. My only real knowledge of Birmingham is Pee-Bliners, so I'm going to go with Stockton because I don't think I can live the Pee-Py Blinders. Yeah, you're not wrong. Jedd's going to be maintaining summer residence in Uncasville, Connecticut by the time his BTL career comes to an end. But listen, it'll be fun. Jose, do you have a callout? Is there anybody you want to go against?

I mean, you've taken on, like, everybody at this point. Is there somebody you haven't faced a... What's up? Take on Kaufman, you bum. You got to avenge the draw. Oh, yeah, I did fight to a draw. Yeah, sure. I'll fight Sarah Kaufman again.

there we go very convincing you know as a man of the people when you're the people that look up to you request something you have to give it to them so naturally Jed looks who's been watching me on this show since he was a young lad he goes oh I really want Jose to face Sarah again because you know Jose's my favorite contestant

Sarah was his toughest test and I can't let Jose have that draw on his record so I will grant Jed who's written a handful of letters to me over the years saying such things, yes, of course. I will honor your request young Jethead and face Sarah Kaufman again. Thank you. And it's really just fitting because you are wearing John Cena, so your make-a-wish, it's really working out very well.

Hey, man. Never forget. Jed, do you want to talk about Fight Circus in the card? It's awesome. I would like to say that I have clearly affected Jose Young. who is now a fight circus fan based on some tweeting he did yesterday. And I'm just going to take full credit for that because I have been beating the drum the loudest. They just released their fight card.

It's going to be dumb awesomeness, which is basically a summation of fight circus. So you're really excited for the phone booth fight, which is not so excited for that. I'm so glad you said that. The premise is exactly what it sounds like. going to be great and the like the new generation siamese kickboxing where they're going to tie two guys together to fight two other dudes that are tied together like a sack race fight is this whole thing is funny there you go mike mike this one's for you i know jed i know jed is redid but here's the actual press release for the phone booth fight ever walk past a phone booth and

thought what would happen to a highly experienced mozai fighters We're locked inside and fought to the death. Well, think no more. Are they promising that somebody's going to die? Is that what's happening? That's one can dream. Or is this just wondering, just getting our wonderment and our imaginations flowing like crazy.

One can dream. You can't think about it too hard because that is the like bad. If you think about fight circus and how unsafe all of the things they do is, then you'll start to feel bad. But if you just go along, they are the best promotion in combat sports. I don't think it's close right now. I mean, we got a phone booth fight,

but we're getting out of here. Thank you for watching. Jeff, for Jose. I am Mike Heck. Big shout out to all of you. Big shout out to Casey on the judging and the production. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn, I think, takes you home. But we'll see you next week right here,

Between the Links. Good night, everybody. You're right. This is Esther Lynn. This has been between the links. Thanks for watching. Hit this subscribe button. Leave a comment. Thanks.

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