MMA Fighting - Between the Links: Holyfield vs. Belfort, Dana White vs. the Media, Next For Derek Brunson & Darren Till

Episode Date: September 9, 2021

Host Mike Heck is joined by MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew this week as they discuss the biggest stories in combat sports in a one-on-one banter session. This week, the panel discusses Derek Brunson's fifth straight victory in the main event of this past Saturday's UFC Vegas 36 fight card and where he goes from Saturday night, along with Darren Till, Dana White calling out the media again, this time in regards to the fighter pay conversation, Evander Holyfield replacing Oscar De La Hoya to face Vitor Belfort in the main event of Triller Fight Club's return this Saturday, Anderson Silva boxing Tito Ortiz in the co-main event, Donald Trump on the broadcast team, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Brian Kelleher: @brianboom135 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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Podcast Network from MMA Fiding Studios this is Between the Links and now your host

My The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between

the Links here on MMAFighting.com Hope this week finds you well I'm currently in the outside the Caribbean ballroom in Fort Lauderdale at the Marriott, the site of the Triller Fight Club press conference on Thursday. I am here. So the show is going to be a little bit different this week.

We're not going to have your classic one-on-one matchup, even though Jed Mishu would be feeling pretty good about that. But it's just going to be him and I bantering about in MMA. And you guys can judge for yourselves. Like, I don't even think it's going to be like a competitive thing. I'm thinking I'm just going to ask them a bunch of questions. and just kind of let him go off, and then I'll jump in when I can. But that's what we're doing. We have topics to discuss.

We're going to do a full-on thing because I didn't even know if we're going to do a show. We wanted to give you something. So here we are. And speaking of Jed Michoud, here he is. Let me introduce him right now. Four wins in a row. He has found his mojo against Stella has officially gotten his groove. Jed, how are you, my friend?

I think it's more than four in a row. I think it's four defenses in a row. I think I'm on five or six wins in a row. Now, last week you were going for four. And I think you misheard me and you said, yeah, I got four wins in a row. I didn't even know that. Maybe I did, you know, it's too hard to keep up when you're this winning. I'm so good, Mike, and nobody even wanted to contend against me anymore.

Also, I will just note, because it struck me after we did, after we signed off last week, that I have conveniently won a lot since E.K.C. Lyden is no longer the judge. I don't know why that might be the gates. but maybe next time we can get him to come up and catch these verbal haines. Oh, now that would be fun. I mean, he has a lot of victories over me.

He is arguably the only person never defeat me, so I would love to get a chance to go at Casey if he wants to step from behind the booth and into the hot seat. That would be a hell of a BTL main event right there. We will work on that, see if we can get the matchmakers involved. go to the BTL Championship Committee,

see if they can make some phone calls. But speaking of main events, let's discuss the main event from this past Saturday inside the Octagon. And by the way, Jed, can I just say, what a welcome it was to have a fight card that only had eight fights.

And I think maybe it was nine. Yeah, it was nine fights. It was nine fights. I didn't want to get too cocky here. Nine fights. It started at 2 p.m. Eastern. By like 6.30 Eastern, we were already doing the post-fight show.

It was an amazing day. I enjoyed it so much. I was refreshed. I love that. But in the end, the last thing we saw before we went to the post show was Derek Brunson, get his fifth consecutive victory. He goes out there. He dominates Darantil.

Darantil came out throwing hams early. But then Derek Brunson uses wrestling, submits Darantel in the third round. This man has now won five in a row. And he's calling out the big dog. He wants the rematch with Israel Adasania. So before we go to what is next for Derek Brunson, And anytime we talk about a middleweight fight on this show, Jed, you always like to say things to the effect of, you know,

I'm sure Israel-Aidani watched the fight, but he's not losing any sleep over it. Was Derek Brunson's performance enough to make him lose a little bit of sleep, even like five minutes to get up and go to the bathroom or something? Anything? Not at all. We're going to table that for a second. I do want to address what you led with because this should be the blueprint for all UFC cars moving forward.

It was so lovely, Mike. One, it got over in time so I could watch UGA put the boots to Clemson. That was great. Two, nine fights. Almost everybody on the fight card had a wiki, as we talked about last week. Like, you knew who these people were. There were a lot of engaging personalities. It was odd being the British invasion on U.S. territory.

Like that whole dynamics on why it happened to was a little odd, but it worked out so lovely. and I wish that this is what the UFC would just do moving forward. I'm convinced that half the reason people like the contender series is it's just five fights straight to the dome, not a lot of nonsense, not a lot of extra. Hear your fights move on with your life, and I really would love them to do more of that. As far as the fights go, yeah, Izzy ain't losing any sleep, man.

I thought Derek Brunson, I want to give Derek Brunson the props before we start discussing all the other things ago, here because I haven't seen anybody else say anything about this and I don't understand it. That finishing sequence was freaking awesome, man. Brunson was hurt. Like he was half conscious and was shooting the desperation, oh, I'm totally about to get my doors blown off. I need to hold on. And instead he held on, but then finished the takedown, moved immediately to mount, transition to the back and got a tap. Like all half conscious. That's an insane finishing sequence. and nobody like gives that any credit at all.

It's been super frustrating for me. It was a great finish. It was, it was like, it was all Derek Brunson. Darren Tell at his moments, when he had his moments, he made him count. But of course, there's a lot of talk about injuries and things like that. We'll get to Darantel in a moment. But Derek Brunson goes through, he calls Roda Sanya.

That's not happening unless he gets, unless some unlock hits Robert Whitaker or somebody else. But right now it seems like. Derek Brunson is two choices. He can wait for Israel, Adasania and Robert Wittaker to fight, and hope that Adisania wins so he can get in there and get a title shot. Or you take another fight against Jared Kannonnier or maybe the winner of Martin Vittori versus Paulo Costa when that fight happens. He's got some options.

I feel like, especially like in just straight up context and terminology, Derek Brunson has done enough to get a title shot at 185. He absolutely has. Israel Adasania is the man. It's Whitaker first, and then we'll see what happens. What should Derek Brunson do? Should he sit out and wait and just hope that things fall into place that Robert Whitaker doesn't win so they don't have the trilogy fight?

Or you got to take another fight because I feel like, and let me just get your take on this, because I feel like Jared Canaaner is the popular choice. Fight Jared Canonier. But I think Canonair needs Brunson more to solidify a title shot, much more in my mind than Brunson needs Cannoneer to solidify that title shot. shot. Am I crazy? Yeah, I don't think you're necessarily crazy for that. I just don't think, I don't think

Brunson has options, right? Like in, in this world of meritocracy and, and earning things, yes, Derek Brunson put together five-fart Win Street. None of this has come against, like, the top, top tier of the division, but still five fights, he has established himself as a firm top-five fighter. He's on the best run of all the people in that top five. And and he, you know, I know he already does have a loss to the champion, assuming is he beats Whitaker in their rematch, but everybody else either has one fight win streak, like came here, or they just lost.

He makes the most sense in a meritocracy. We don't live in a meritocracy, and the UFC certainly isn't won. So there are really options here. I know Derek Brunson said he wants to sit out wait for the winner. That's great. He can attempt to do that. But ultimately, what is going to happen here is the UFC's going to come knocking on his door and say, hey, okay, Izzy Whitaker, hopefully that happens by the end of this year.

I'm not even sold that that's going to be the case. And though they're trying to make that happen, but it seems like given how COVID is and everything that's just not going to happen until early next year. So one, if Brunson sits and waits and then Whitaker does win, then he can't wait at all. There's no option to wait because they will immediately run the trilogy back and they're not going to let Brunson sit on the cell for 18 months and collect a title shot. the only person that I can think they've done that for was Tyrone Woodley. And it was honestly astonishing that they did it for him in the first place.

So Brunson can't do that if that happens. And even if it doesn't shake out like that, one, I don't think Anastanya just roasted Brunson immediately after the fight. I don't think he's losing any sleep. And I don't think he cares at all about Derek Brunson. He already beat Derek Brunson very decisively. And I don't think he thinks blonde Brunson. and this is really a thing that's going to affect him in any way.

And so, look, Adasania has been pretty open about wanting to fight Darren Till for some unknown reason. Just king and commander of the fail upward all stars, Darren Till, keeps trying to get a title shot off losses. But Adasania also has just been like, yeah, I want to fight Jared Kananir. So Ken Nier coming off a loss to Whitaker and now this most recent win, again, not over, again, actually a win over the other. the tag team dual of the fail upward all-stars and Caldicastel him. Still, he had a competitive fight with Robert Whitaker. I think if Izzy had his brothers

and he kind of gets to call the shots, he might just snipe Canoneer to take the next title shot. Brunson just doesn't have the option. He's going to have to fight Jared Cannonier because we are going to get the Vittori Holocaust fight that's next month, I'm pretty sure. And the winner of that will then be like, let me fight Jared Canaanier, maybe as the undercard bout to Izzy Whitaker,

and then the winner of a fight between Canaanier and the winner of Costa Vittori, that has a better claim and a lot of regards for a title shop than Brunson does. He's going to have to fight someone. If he sits out and waits, he might then have to fight, I don't know, who has any fault that's in like the top issue of the division? Costa. Yeah, but, well, yeah, he might have to fight. a loser of cost of a Tory to try and get, try and get a title fight off to that.

He needs to come out to take his claim and just say, hey, man, Jared Canineer, lets you and me fight on the undercard for this inevitable middleweight match, winner gets a title fight. That's his cleanest way to get there. It's a really hard fight for him, but I think that's his, I don't think he has options. I think that's where he has to go. Yeah, I think that's probably where he's going to end up having to go for sure. But if you're Brunson, you lobby to put it on that same card as the title fight.

And if something happens, you're the first man up and you get to fight for your title. So we'll see. Yeah, exactly. Like I think, I think you said it earlier, and that's the only way he's going to get there, is if something happens to Whitaker or Or Adasania, and he can step in as a short notice. I think that's the only way. Yeah. And now with Darren Till, you talked about the failed upward team captain.

Fail, fail upward all stars. It's Derek Till, Kelvin Gastilom. I had a couple others in there. Those are the two, those are the co-captains of the fail upward all-stars. Yes. He did not, he did not fail upwards. He took a little bit of a beating. Yes, there's talk about the injury and people are now coming out there saying excuses.

It seems like the masses have kind of turned on Darren Till a little bit, Jed. Have you noticed that? Do you notice that the fail upward fans are turning their backs on him? They're more on Gasolm side these days. So he had, I've definitely noticed that there's been a groundswell of, Darant Till needs to go back to Walterway. But that's the thing about failing upwards. It's not the immediacy.

It's not like Darantil comes out of losing somebody and immediately gets matched up with somebody higher ranked. It sits around for a little bit. You think, oh, Darantel, he's so interesting and such a personality. Maybe he can do it. And then suddenly he gets this fight. And so what's going to happen here with Darren Till is we're going to stay here. And we're like, you know, Darren Till was about 10 seconds away from knocking.

out Derek Brunson because he really was. Like Brunson was really hurt in the third round. And if he doesn't get that takedown, I think he's done. I think that that is the end of the fight for him. And so we're going to start thinking that. And then Till's going to come out and he's going to say the right thing, which is going to 170. I've got working with the UFCPI, got a nutritionist.

It worked for Josiealdo and it has worked for Edson Barbosa. I too can be a disciplined fighter and go to 170. And when he goes to 170, hell, he might just get a title shot. That's right. Because that's how it works with him, man. Like, Ousman doesn't want to fight any of the other people in his division, because

most of them, he's either already beat the hell out of them, or they're boring. Like, and I don't blame him. I don't blame him, Cymar Ousman, for never wanting to fight Leon Edwards. As we've discussed many times, that's Leon Edwards's fault. So if Daryne Bill just says, hey, man, I'm going to drop to 170.

He might get a fight with, like, Vicente Lucke, and then maybe he beats Lucke. There he is. He's a title shot. like right out of the gate it'd be awesome. He'll get the freaking Nate Diaz fight over Luque. Oh, that's actually totally true. I didn't even think about Nate Diaz. Yeah, that's a very clean line.

All right, he drops the 170. He fights Nate Diaz. Or maybe they just fight it a catchweight like a 175. And then from that, Oostman's like, I want to fight that too. Like, that is very much on script for what Darren Till can do here. Oh, man. Yeah, I mean. Yeah, I thought about it because 170 is tough for him, man.

He's a big dude for 70. Like he's, he is the definition of a tweener, man. Like he would benefit from a 175 weight class largely. But I feel like I like the idea of he gets the winner of Luke Rockhold versus Sean Strickland. Because I know that Till's record as of late has not been very good. However, as you sort of noted, in the top of the landscape of this middleweight division, a win over Darren Till has way more volume and way more meaning

than beating like anybody else in the top of that division right now, outside of Robert Whitaker and the champion. It's craziness. I know. It makes no sense at all. But beating Darren, like if Sean Strickland beats Luke Rockhold and then beats Darren Till,

he will get a bigger fight than if he beats Luke Rockhold and beats Marvittory. Like, it's just the way that it is. And Barivore has had much, much more success over the last five fights than Darren Till has. Honestly, you're 100% correct. If Sean Strickland pulls out of the Rockhold fight for some reason, Rockhold is actually like a perfect opponent for Darren Till.

Because Derrickle might actually be able to knock out Luke Rockhold. And I say might actually, because if the listeners haven't figured this out yet, I like Darren Till as a personality, he's engaging and interesting. he is at best an okay fighter and I am sorry to burst everybody's bubble but go take a look at his record if you haven't he has one win that is arguably good and that is over Donald Seroni old ass cowboy Seroni who he outweighed by probably 35 pounds on fight night his other wins quote unquote that are good were bad decision wins like he didn't beat stephen thompson

and he didn't even beat Kelvin gasplum who's also not nearly as good as people think he is Like he, he's just, I don't, he's a magic man, and I respect his ability to smoke and mirrors his way to a title shot. But yeah, Luke Rockhold is actually a totally, like he can totally knock out Luke Rockhold. Luke Rockhold's chinny and doesn't like left hands. And Darren Till has, at least can kind of punch some, though I think that's a little overrated from him. And it's, and he has a pretty good left hand. Like, that's actually the fight that they should have made for Luke Grochold. Sean Strickland is probably going to, I don't know, I'm 50-50 on how that fight looks.

I think Sean Strickland certainly can beat Luke Rockhold, but I also don't think Sean Strickland anybody's that pumped about Sean Strickland, whereas at least Darren Till knocking out Luke Rockhold has smoke and mirrors cachet, if not actual cachet at this point. Yeah, and he would get a title shot afterwards because that's the world we live in. And that's fine. I watch the hell out of Izzy fight Darren Till. I watch Izzy fight anybody.

to steal a phrase from our colleague Jose Young. I'll watch his dog Avassania make a bowl of pudding. So I'll definitely watch him play Darren Till because he's going to light Darren Till's ass up. So yes, I would watch that fight, and I'm okay with him getting a title shot, but he's just not that good, and I want us all to understand that.

Real quick, before we move on to the rest of the show, Patty Pimbled obviously was the probably second biggest winner of the night. He might even been the biggest, of the show. Getting that victory, knocking out Luigi Van Germini, coming back from adversity. I feel like there's more buzz

coming out of Pimbled's win than Brunson's win or anybody else's. That's just the way it is. His fan-based group, more people were talking about Patty. Patty was on the M.A. hour. That was a very big deal. Your thoughts on Patty's performance

and where our expectations should be because that's been a pretty contentious subjects since Saturday. Oh, your expectations should be extremely low. Patty Pimblit, is Patty Pimbley is maybe the greatest, in my opinion, I guess I'll qualify it with that. He is maybe the greatest example of that old adage that you hear about why Vince McMahon wasn't worried about the UFC in the first place. Because like when the UFC was first getting on Spike, there's a story about how Spike was where Raw was at the time.

And Vince McMahon was like, I don't care, not going to counter program or deal with any, it's fine. because they the competitor because they did not have the power of the book. They could not control their outcomes and so it, you know, they can't build stars.

Not the same thing. I'm not worried. That obviously, I don't know that they came to bite them in the ass because I think that they've had a successful symbiotic relationship in a lot of ways. But in the immediacy,

that came off looking real stupid when the UFC exploded in the mid-aughts. But Patty Pimble, is like the perfect distillation of that because this kid has everything in the world except for the fighting talent like he he's not a bad fighter but he's not a he's not a good one uh which is why he almost got knocked out by luigi vintramini who's like a fine fighter that you don't know because there are a lot of pretty good fighters in the world that you don't know because they're just they're the best guy in their gym or the third best dude in their gym but they're not

world renown need to know patty pimble is that level of talent. Everything else through the roof. People love him. He's charismatic. I think the name does a lot for him because Patty Pimbled is like, that's a star name. That's a name in like an Elmore Leonard novel. That's, it's a great name. His hair is a trademark weirdly. I don't get why it is, but it works for him. Like everything else he has going, he's really good on the mic. He's got the scouser accent. Like all of these factors bundle into what should be a future star. But he is, he is going to find a ceiling extremely quickly in the UFC. Like the lightweight and or featherweight division,

wasn't that the other one that he's a cage warrior champion of? Yeah. Both of those, one, the lightweight division is the best division in the world, said it many times. The UFC's lightweight division is an absolute shark tank, and the featherweight division isn't much easier, and he's just not, he's 26, and I said this after the fight, and I caught a lot of flack on Twitter because Pimble has fans,

You know, he's 26, he can grow. One, not really. 20 end of when you start seeing fight like prospects develop. There are very few fighters in history who have made like these huge career turnarounds once they push, start pushing 30. And the ones that are really noticeable, but you can look back to them and be like, oh, they had a defined weakness that they fixed. Patty Pimblitz just, he's not a very good athlete.

He's a, like, he's okay, but I think he's a minus athlete. for both the divisions and that's hard to overcome and he's just he's a little chinny like again luja vindramini had him on skates like real bad full credit to him because the comeback was dope that fight was sick it was an awesome round of action but like luigi vindramini you should be beating dudes like that really easily if you want to be the next connor and that's that's what patty wants to do he's got all the other things going on with it the cage warriors background but our expectation should be he's going to be a fun dude he is probably really soon to join he is the new recruit for that that tag team uh fatty pimble at that look he looks like uh

he looks like my 44 year old brother's like elementary school photo like that the hair the clothes like all that stuff and that works for him and i appreciate that about him um with instacart you get groceries that over deliver so you you can overshare your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it. Want turnips that look light but feel heavy? Easy.

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Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at dejjardin.com slash business coverage. So that's Vegas 36. I know some other stories came out of that, but I want to move ahead to our good friend Dana White saying just brilliant things. So Dana White appeared on all shows. Of all shows, he appeared on Travis Brown's podcast, which I didn't even know Travis Brown had a podcast or was doing anything with media.

But he was asked about low fighter pay and Travis Brown had some things to say about it. And then Dana White just went off on the media. And he said, quote, you have these scumbags out there that know nothing above the business, telling all the fighters, oh, you're being underpaid, you're not being paid enough money, you're not this, it goes on every effing day. Every media member that talks about fighter pay is a scumbag, who is basically just out there to get attention

because they literally know nothing about the business or the pay or how any of this shit works. It's all part of the game. That's who they are, that's what they do, and I literally could give an F. So that is Dana White's response to fighter pay and blaming all the conversations on the quote-unquote scumbag media. Jed, your thoughts on the UFC president's amazing words of wisdom that he bestowed upon Travis Brown and the 14 people who listened to his podcast.

Wow. Mike Heck throwing shots at T. Brown. Love that. Yeah, I'm happy to be a scumbag, I guess. It's just a lie, and that's all it is. And I'm just going to call it where it is. He is making personal attacks and or lying about what he's doing because he doesn't have a good moral ground to stand on. And that's, I mean, that's fine, I guess.

Like, that's the way a lot of things work these days. And, you know, it's going to work for him. There are going to be a lot of people who pick that up and say, yeah, he's right. But he's objectively not telling the truth that we don't know anything about finances. He's right. We don't know everything about finances because the UFC has kept that in a black bond. for a really long time, which should be your first clue that something not good is going on. When people aren't willing to talk to you about their finances from a business perspective,

that just begs the question, what shady shit are you doing, dude? But actually, we do know because there is a lawsuit. It's been going on for quite some time. And the 20% number that fighters have started banning about that the media has been saying for years, that doesn't come from nowhere. Fighters make about 20% of revenue. That number comes from Dana White. It comes from the UFC because that number was uncovered in this lawsuit.

So either Dana is lying both in legal documentation and in the middle of a trial about what he is paying fighters or he is lying to those you think is more likely, but it's certainly not that he is lying in a position that could get him jail time. Like he's telling the truth. Fighters make 20% of revenue. And if you want to say that that's okay, you're frigging moron. That's it. I don't have any kind words or I can't soften that blow. You're just dumbass. Because why in what world would it make sense that the fighters who are the product make 20% of the revenue and 80% of it goes elsewhere?

There is none. In every other major league sport in this country, the athletes make somewhere close to 50%. the U.S. fighters literally make less than half of what any other major pro athlete does. This isn't to have a discussion about other ways that the revenue could be spent or fighter compensation could have. Because that I'm totally willing to say, you know what, the way you have structured fighter, like that's fine. Fighters should just be paid for fighting and win bonuses.

I don't agree. I don't think wind bonuses should exist. but the basic, you know, architecture of how they're paid, you want to argue that that's optimal or not. Again, I would disagree. I think it would make more sense for every fighter to make a yearly salary and then get paid extra for fighting. You know, they get a bonus or whatever.

That way these fighters can take care of themselves over the long term. But again, then they're employees and not contractors and then you can do a lot less things with them. But ultimately, you can't argue the numbers because Dana gave them to us. So he can call us scumbags and that's fine. that's just who he is. And like I'm not going to get too been out of shape by him calling me a scumbag because I'll call him a scumbag. Like it's the same thing.

You know, this is who he is. It's unfortunate that honestly my biggest issue is with Travis Brown here because Dana was always going to do this. He's been doing this for years now. And so this is like I can't expect anything different from him. He has shown us who he is. But Travis Brown ostensibly should have some sense of loyalty or companionship with fighters being one. And instead, he's boosting Dana White's profile. I guess, frankly, he's getting his profile boosted by having Dana on his podcast.

But like, yeah, man, it's just sort of the same thing that's always been like, all right, Dana, call us scumbags. I'll call you a scumbag. That's it. nothing else is going to happen from either side of this. You're not going to pay fighters more. Fighters aren't going to nut up and make you pay them more. We're going to be going around in this circle forever, apparently. It's crazy because I've talked to a lot of fighters about this.

And by the way, I agree with what Ariel said during his Q&A rant on the MMA hour that fighters are coming out and talking about this themselves. Like, they're bringing it up. Julina Rosa brought this up. He wasn't talking about fighter pay. He was just talking about the bonus structure and how it's a little frustrating. that if he had made the $50,000, that would have ostensibly doubled his pay. Him going out there, taking a short notice fight on a new contract against Charles

Jordane on like 10 days notice, his win and show equaled around $50,000. So if he got the bonus that went to Patty Pimblit and went to Meatball Molly and Gian Kim and went to Tom Aspinall, what a lot of people felt that Julianne Rosa should have at least gotten a fight at a night bonus. Like that is life-changing money right there. it just sucks that these are the conversation we have to have. Nothing makes me sadder than when a fighter goes on the broadcast, it says I'm broke,

please let me have the bonus. Like, it sucks, dude. It sucks when you hear people say that. And it's just horrible. We're different because that doesn't, honestly, it doesn't do anything, though. It doesn't do anything. It doesn't make me sad anymore.

Like, it did previously, but now I'm just so inured to it, I guess. Honestly, what, it makes me angry because if for no, other reason than to make that stop happening. Dana White should have done something. Like if I ran that business and on a weekly basis, my consumers, the people watching my product were being reminded that I do not pay my employees a wage that makes them comfortable and happy and they are begging for a handout. I would immediately fix that. And even if it's just, yeah, everybody gets, instead of win bonuses, they're just finished bonuses. Just get a finish.

Like, oh, that's better. It's still not great, but it's better. Like, it's, all this is dumb. And it's, I, I have tried not to spend a lot of mental energy on it because, I mean, outside of everything else I previously said, which all still stands. When was the last time any reporter or news person asked Dana about fighter pay? They don't. It's not like it happens at every press conference. They're like, so, why aren't you paying fighters more?

It's like Ariel and you just said, you're talking about it. and we're reporting the stories of fighters saying, hey, man, I am broke. And that's news. And I'm sorry he doesn't like news. We're not a frigging PR company. Though I am a PR company for Fight Circus, shouts to them. There you go.

What, Patreon? They have a Patreon. They have a Patreon now, baby. I am a, well, I think he's called Big Boss. I just found out about this via their YouTube channel. And, of course, had to go show them love. because right now I want to show Fight Circus all the love because in the not too distant future,

they're going to Triller the hell out of themselves and then I'm not going to be able to like them anymore. Yes, that is what we call in the business a segue. Because we can talk about Dana and Fighter Pay all we want. And maybe the Fight Circus folks can make this Donald Trump versus Joe Biden fight happen before Triller because apparently that's going to be a thing, according to the press conference we saw today.

So let us move on to Triller because it has been a crazy several days. for this company and for combat sports because on Friday, we were all preparing for an event in Los Angeles eight days later, which would be headlined by former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort taking on the returning Oscar Delahoya. And yeah, we kind of like shrugged our shoulders a little bit, but then we sort of understood the fight and we were like, okay, like, sure. And then we found out Anderson Silva was going to box Tito Ortiz,

and then that thing's got a little more interesting there. and then we found out Oscar Delahoya on Friday, came down with COVID-19, he was very sick, he was out of the fight. So Vitor Belford is without opponent. And then we find out that Evander Holyfield, the 58-year-old former cruiserweight and heavyweight champion of the world, is a possibility to take this fight if California will clear him. If not, they are going to shift this entire event to South Florida,

which is where I'm doing this broadcast right now. And that's what happened. Evander Holyfield versus Vitor Belford is going to main event Triller Fight Club Legends 2 this Saturday. And I don't know, man. It's been an interesting fight week, that's for sure. Evander Holyfield answering questions. I interviewed him yesterday. I mean, I'll be honest.

I was a little concerned speaking to the man. And then he did his workout. It did not alleviate any concerns at all. So a lot to digest there, Jed. It's been a busy few days for Triller and Combat Sports and Evander Holyfield and Vitor Belfort. When you found out this is a thing. When you found out this is moving to Florida, when you found out that this is a full-on professional boxing bout sanctioned by the Florida Athletic Commission

and that we're going to see this in a little over 48 hours to record this right now. Or your thoughts on it. My thoughts were many. I had a lot of them, as you can imagine. they really boiled down to I'm not going to see this anymore so we had talked about this this has been an ongoing segment for us

for basically this whole year I was super not into trailer then I slowly got around to it and then I went to the trailer Ben Asker and Jake Paul thing and it was awesome and the best experiences of my professional career it's so much fun so I was fully on board

and right after that event happened I went to our editor Brian Tucker and I was like hey Brian the next time Triller does a thing, you got to send me. Like, I want to go to the next one of these. This was awesome. I want to do it. Ended of not happening.

Hey, buddy. Congratulations on being in Florida. And I feel like I dodged all the bullets somehow. Because, look, I didn't care much about the main event anyway. I would have watched it with some kind of a perverse sense of interest. But as soon as there. the co-main event was announced. We talked about it on this very program.

I was stoked. I am still enthused about the idea of watching the greatest, most accurate striker in MMA history, Karam shots off that big old cranium of T.O. Ortiz's. That's just a good time in anybody's book. So that's going to be great. But the main event went from a thing that I had a passing interest in to a thing that I actively do not want.

want to happen. It shouldn't happen. Evander Holyfield's workout was awful. Vitor's wasn't like great, but it looked substantially better than Holyfield. It really begs, I guess it would beg the question how Holyfield is being sanctioned for this.

If it weren't for the answer is just that this is Florida and like Texas or whatever, there aren't rules there. You just do whatever you want. But you shouldn't. And it really creates a risk. Like, I am not saying this lightly or to be macabre or anything like that. There are legitimate health concerns about what is going to take place on, I think,

Saturday night. And I will not be giving any money to support that. Because, look, MMA and boxing are these really weird sports where legitimately every fan base goes into it wanting to see somebody almost die. You want to see somebody get knocked the F out in horrible ways, but you want them to ultimately get up of their own volition and move on. And probably that is what's going to happen on Saturday. And hopefully that is what's going to happen because there is a much, much worse world where the thing that you don't want to happen happens on Saturday. And you can't unsee it once you see it.

and you can't take back the money you've given to that. And so I'm not. Like as much as I want to watch Anderson Silva, piece up Tito Ortiz. I'm just not, I can't. And I can't in good conscience contribute money to almost 60-year-old of Vanderholyfield boxing after,

after what he looked like in his open workouts. And the only thing I can really say is I wish him the best. I hope that things do not go as badly as could happen here. but nobody involved in this should allow it to happen. Vitor should not take this fight at all. He just shouldn't do it and be like, but everybody's going to let it go. And Triller, it took less,

it took one and a half events for Triller to jump the shark in a bad way, which is awful. Like that is truly terrible. I agree. Like, I agree with pretty much everything you just said. The fact that I'm here, is just eff it, you know?

Let's go. Because, I mean, and at the same time, like, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Like, Holyfield had been put in a couple. There were talks about him doing the fight with Tyson again, which was cool. Then he was booked to fight Kevin. He actually made a lot of sense at the time

until you watched Holyfield hit Mitz. Yeah. Then he was going to fight Kevin McBride in June on the undercutter of the Lopez fight. All right, all right. So, like, in my mind, I'm like, all right, the dude is training, whatever, like, then seeing the workout. And I'm like, man, and then interviewing him.

And I'm like, man, like, it's, it was just kind of rough to watch. After interviewing Vitor and spending time with both of these guys, I don't know, man. Something tells me that although the Florida commission is allowing this fight to happen and that they are doing, they're calling it 10, 8, 2 minute rounds and it's full on heavyweight rules, I feel we're going to see an exhibition fight out there, Jed. Like at least the stylistic of an exhibition fight. Like, I just don't see, especially after looking in Vitor's eyes and speaking with him and seeing what he had to say at the media roundtable today, I don't think he's going to go out there and try to kill this man.

I don't think he's going to go out there and try to hurt him. I really don't. I hope I'm right about this. I hope I'm right. I'm hoping these guys move around. They have a, you know, pretty much a sparring match. Like, that's what I'm hoping to see. but a lot of people are like, Vitor's going to go out there.

He's TRTVitor. He's going to go out there and murder this, man. I don't think we're going to see that. I'm not happy about the fight, but maybe it's just, maybe it's just the positivity in me, the silver lining in me that's just like, listen, this is going to happen.

Let's try to put a positive spin on this as much as possible. So I really feel like we're going to see just two guys moving around and throwing some punches and that the real main event will be the Silver Ortiz fight, where those two guys are going to try to beat the brakes off each other. well man i didn't realize Alex K lee had joined the show but uh good good for

good for you to just be be so so rose-colored about all this i hope you're right man and vitor is is not a dumb dude at all like vort's really smart and so it is entirely possible that vitor is reading the tea leaves correctly and that that is

that is the way that this should happen but i i am i just have a fear that that's not it and i hope i'm wrong because nobody wants to see 60-year-old of Vanderholyfield get slabbed by Vitor Belfort in a boxing match that doesn't mean anything. So I don't be right. And if so, that won't make anything else better. Because Vitor was very self-aware and aware of the moment does not make anything better that this happened or was allowed to happen in the first place.

And it doesn't fix the Triller's other horrible inclusion that I don't want to spend time about, but we can't not say because how do you not talk about the fact that a former U.S. president is somehow going to commentate this thing. Oh, I thought you were going to talk about them trying to bring Marvin Gay back to life to perform on Snoop Dogg. But yes, I mean, look, I love Marvin Gaye, so I'm okay with it. It's not good, but Marvin Gay is the man. True story, whenever I'm having a really, really shitty round of golf, we throw on Marvin Gay to try and pick me up back out of this

because Marvin Gay is just, he's an icon. What's going on is a peaceful jam, dude? Literally everything he has a peaceful jam, but yeah. I mean, I don't know if you're blasting sexual healing on the golf course, but here we are. Sexual healing actually is, that really gets me going. I got to be feeling strong. Out there, you know, just any, it's on like a Spotify playlist or whatever, but you just let it rotate through and let Marvin take you home, man.

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in Canada. As a consumer, it's important to understand your rights. Visit let's stay connected.com. So what do you think about this whole thing? We got we got Donald Trump who was, who phoned in at the press conference. We had Donald Trump Jr. who was at the press conference. And I felt like between the two of those guys, it was 30 minutes of the freaking press conference was asking those guys. I get it. Like it's a big deal, you know, for those guys to get those guys. You can't just like let them come in and you got to ask them questions and make them part of the show. So yeah. So it's, what the hell is his name? So it's Trump, Trump Jr., Todd Grisham, that's the name I was looking for, and Jorge Mazadol. That is the alternate commentary.

And then we don't even know who's going to be commenting in the other car because Jim Lampley has reportedly walked away. Mad props to Jim Lampley. Because there was like one of the first things that was said in some private conversations with me. or like once the Trump thing was like, wow, Jim Lampily is really just cratering his reputation right now. And he could have done it. He could have settled for tying his sagging reputation Oscar de La Jolla and Anderson Silverstitio Ortiz. But this carnival of failure and sin, he's like, no, man, I'm not. I'm not going to. I'm better than this and good for him.

He is acting like a responsible adult. So as far as the rest of it, man, I think it's an awful idea because it has no value that I like the what bringing Donald Trump in does not bring value to the broadcast in any sustainable way. It is a clear it's a clout grab and like that's fine and maybe it gets a few more eyeballs. So I really doubt that's the case. Because like who's going to are people really going to pay just to hear Donald. Trump not commentate on a fight they don't give a shit about? Because it's not like, it's not like former president, Donald Trump is going to, he's going to give us a rousing play-by-play.

Like you, it is not clever at all for me to tell you what's going to be said because I'm not making a joke, but you, listener at home, can probably just quickly sketch out Donald Trump's commentary. And I bet you you're going to be like 80% right. Like the only good, the only thing that I think. would be of value is if somehow in this professional fight, quote unquote, a bad decision is rendered, then having Trump commentate that would be funny because he would immediately be like, that is a worst decision than Joe Biden taking the election for me.

And that would just be funny to watch that man deal with his pain in that way. But other than that, like, there's nothing. He brings nothing. He's not going to talk about the fights. the one bad thing from Trillard the last time was all the other people they brought in. Like Mario Lopez, who doesn't know fighting, was trying his best to make things interesting and that was awful. Like, just have Jim Lampley do it, but now you can't even get that. So it's going to be awful.

And again, I'm not going to watch or give it money. And I suggest you not either. Instead, tune into MMAfighting.com. You can get all of the coverage that you need and anything. relevant, you can read and or watch about it there. What is your gap? Okay. Me and me and Oscar Willis were talking about this today because he, we're talking about it and looking at the landscape and what's going on this weekend.

Yes, we got college football back. We get the NFL coming back. It's Tom Brady's about literally about to go and defend his title and just do the damn thing because he's just the greatest of all time. But how many pay-per-view buys does this thing do? over under 200,000. Does it be 200,000? I think it does 250. I think it's under, I think it's certainly under half a mill. I think it's under three probably.

Is that successful, though, with this card? If they do 300,000 pay-per-view buys with 58-year-old of Vanderholyfield versus Vitor Belford, who is 1 in 0 or 0-1 as a professional boxer, and they do 300,000 pay-per-view buys, is this a win for them? I have no idea. Like, that would almost entirely depend on financials, realistically. It was like 300, if they do 250, like, honestly, 250 might still be a little high, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Like 250 is what you can expect a pretty bad UFC pay-per-view to pull just in general. And this, for all the failures of this card, and there are many, it does at least have really marquee names at the top of it. I also, I changed my mind, Mike. I'm actually totally pro Donald Trump commentary. if and only if one major caveat, if someone can link me to a sports book that is taking an over-under bets

on how many times Trump mentions the election and or Joe Biden, then I'm in because I would absolutely watch that. You give that man a microphone for however long, and I'm smashing the over, whatever it is. Pick a number can't go too high. I'm smashing the over, and I'm trying to make some money on Saturday.

What would be more surprising? Trump not mentioning the election at all or this card doing a million pay-per-view guys. Oh, definitely Trump not mentioning the election at all. Like there's a zero percent chance he doesn't at least make it it's not common about it. There's some world we're putting Donald Trump on the pay-per-view just galvanizes his fan base into buying it.

And if so, then that's a calculated genius move by Triller. And fair play to them, they did it. I don't think it's going to work out that way. but I could at least see O Universe where that happened. There is no one that I can imagine where former U.S. President Donald Trump just graciously compensates a fight and doesn't bring up himself or his stings in any capacity.

Yeah. I mean, here we are. It's 2021. Like every interview I've done, I'm... Weirdo, you know. I mean, the first question to ask Tito is just like, dude, it's 2021. Like, how wild is this year?

It's insane. also this does beg a very good question for my my dear and good friend colby covington you know you know me and colby great great friends uh can he credibly claim to be donald trump's favorite fighter anymore because he's he's now he's now going to commentate on a card where tito ortees is fighting and in a booth with horhe moshidol a nemesis of my good friend colby covington so I'm not sure. The next time you talk to Colby, after you let him know that I have very graciously offered

to give him a title fight for my BTL belt, please then inform him that I would like to know how he feels about not being Donald Trump's favorite fighter anymore because I'm interested. Yeah, I wonder if he was offered this. Maybe he was. Colby likes to go off, like just disappear when he has a fightbook. So maybe he was just like, nah, I'm good.

I can't get in there. I got a fight. I don't know. He's like that. Maybe. Or maybe he's just crying because he realized that he's not Donald Trump's favorite fighter anymore. And that's a sad, it's a sad realization to come to. Kobe, you will always be my favorite fighter.

So don't worry about it, buddy. You come on here and we will talk through all of your problems and we will fix your career right here on between the links. Nice. And apparently 50 cents is going to be part of the broadcast team as well, Jed. Oh, good. Why not? This is going to be some of it. Triller,

they're just putting names in a hat and drawing out. Triller is legitimately playing cards against humanity and whatever, whatever thing they come up with, like, all right, let's get that grouping as the commentary team. Let's go.

Yeah, let's bring in Casey and Jojo to perform during the show. Like, come on. Like, I'm sure. What music pairs better with Marvin Gay than Casey and Jojo? That is an excellent point right there. And 50 cent. I mean, that is a seamless integration of musical taste as far as I'm concerned.

And then here comes rage against the machine. And we just bounce around all different genres. And here comes Krista Berg singing Lady and Red. Lady. I can't say. I can't say. I can not say on this program. Yeah, that's an AK thing. So I think the show is kind of running away from us at this point.

I think we talked about everything we really need. What is running away from us, Mike? Yeah. The whole damn year. This is unbelievable. What is happening? I got a freaking hurricane blowing to the right of me. So I got to say I'm a little bit nervous.

I don't know what's going on. I'm still like half an hour away from the hotel. I'm used to the whole hurricane life. I know. I mean, once in a while. This summer has been crazy. Just Massachusetts, we got destroyed. I mean, you saw my driveway.

It got ripped into shreds from freaking rainstorm. So here we are. 2021 is all sorts of weird, Jed. All sorts of weird. South Carolina, I mean, you actually are a place of South Carolina that's not going to get hit that bad but your state gets gets pummeled yeah I'm supposed to have a softball my team has a softball practice and it's still happening tonight despite getting rained on all day AK made a great speech about so yeah first thing I did

when I got down I was like I'm going to jump on something either a basketball league or softball league whatever we got and I jumped on a softball I threw myself into a free agent pool and I got a call the next day. Do they know? Did they know who they got on their team? Are they aware that they have the leading man in MMA right now? No, I don't think they do. I mean, wow. That's fine. They just care, listen, they just care that I could catch the damn ball and hit and not pop out to the to the pitcher. So they care about it. Be able to recede into the, into the fabric, not let your fame and stardom really influence how other people perceive you. I wear a face. mustache and sunglasses. Like my name's Eric, Eric Joseph Langley. It's not even, I mean,

I mean, it's Joseph Langley. Okay. I like it. That's beautiful. To be fair, that was my fake ID name when I was 18 years old. And you still remember that. I do. I do. Eric J. Langley. Was that like a person that you knew or you just got a fake one? So I had, I had friends I went to high school with who were very young looking. They're identical twins. And they had an older brother named Eric J. Langley, who ended up moving to California to go to college. But he left his non-expired Massachusetts license around. And for some reason, I had hair. I had, you know, and I kind of looked like him.

So I got it. And I never got turned down once, not one time. Oh, man. I have a sorted history with fake IDs. I bet. We think we all do. I at one point I had a fake ID that said I was 6-2. I'm not 6-2.

I'm 5-9. And one, bars in Athens, Georgia, you don't have to. You just have to have a piece of paper that looks good. It would be fine. They did have a few bartenders be like, dude, you're not 6-2. And I was just like, you're right. I'm going to go. Kids, don't get fake ideas.

You probably will, but don't get fake ideas. I'm not here to tell you how to live your life because that's not a judgment call I make for you, children, or grown-ups. You got to make decisions that you can live with, whatever those are. Maybe it's watching Triller this weekend. But if that's a decision you're going to make, okay. But again, you don't have to because what you can do is go to mhmapfiting.com and read and watch all of our coverage there.

And while you're there, you can comment on any of the blogs or what have you and say, man, you know it was great. You guys finally gave Jed Mushu a show. And Jed Talks needs to become a real thing. because I've been I've been campaigning for a show for five years and it needs to happen at this point. I need to stop, I need to stop intimidating opponents away from between the links for you, Mike, so this can flourish.

Other people can come in and I need room to, I'm a peacock. You got to let me fly, Mike. Oh, man. Well, we have a lot to discuss on Jed Talks next week. That's for sure. The fallout of this card, we will get you ready for you. UFC Vegas 37, which is on the road to UFC 266, which is a really good card. Of course, UFC Vegas 37, that's headlined.

Right now it has 15 freaking fights. Anthony Smith versus Ryan Span, the main event. And then Jedmishu, you have a decision to make on Saturday. You have a decision to make because on one channel you get Spann versus Anthony Smith. On the other channel, the Bellator debut of Yowell Romero taking on Phil Davis. same night, same coast, UFCs in Vegas, Bellator's back in San Jose. We finally get, you all Romero,

the best middleweight in the world in your mind, fighting at 205 against Phil, Mr. Wonderful Davis. It is, it's tough, because I have three things going on because I also have the Georgia football game that evening when we will take on South Carolina in the new state. And we should beat them, but South Carolina has an annoying way of, ruining the best laid plans of Georgia football in the most inconvenient times.

So I will also have that contending. But yes, we'll talk about it. But it's hard because I love YOL, but there's nobody less interesting to watch than Phil Davis. Oh, even after the Nemcah fight, that was a fun fight. Brogan clock's right twice a day, buddy. The Phil Davis-Jol-Rammer fight, I am fully prepared to be the worst fight we've ever seen at it.

that entirely seriously. Well, we will preview the potential worst fight we've ever seen. Right here next week on between the links, back to normal, less chaos. If you can find anyone who wants to step up and take the challenge. I think we can find somebody. I don't know, it'll be coldy, but maybe we can make it happen. We'll figure it out. Maybe you and AK get rid of bad.

You and Jose haven't battled in a while, have you? I mean, it's hard to, look, like Israel, Adasania, it's hard to care about facing Jose Derek Brunson Young. I already whipped him so many times in so many fashions that it's just, it's difficult. So you know what? Maybe I'll just, maybe I'll retire until my good buddy, Colby Covington, come on.

We can crack a beer and talk about some things and maybe work some stuff out for him while he gets prepped for his fight. I love him, Missy, and I can't wait to see you. Yeah, you can't retire. You're like half the show. Like you're, like, yeah, I keep you somewhat in line, but you're like, you're the guy. This is, this is your show. As John Antig would say, you're the reason, the reason with whom the show is built around Jed for show.

I like that this happened just because I, I had nothing to do one day. I was like, ooh, I want to join. And then I never left. I know. That's kind of who I am as a person. It just knew. It clicked right away. I'm like, Jed is made for this frigging show.

And it's great. It is. Though I liked Chuck Mindenhall's tweet earlier today, and somebody responded to it. Chuck said that they need to bring back the MMA beat and we tag it as something. I don't remember. Scumbag, 2.0. Scumbags, there you go. I was like, I think that's, that is really the place where I will thrive the most,

where three other people can be like, this dude's the lunatic. I'm like, hell yeah. Well, see what Jet has to do and where his lunacy goes next week on between the links. Thank you very much. Back to normal. Appreciate your patience. And I appreciate you dealing with a little bit of a different format. So listen, Triller Fight Club events happening, whether we like it or not.

So you can either enjoy it and hope for the best or you just don't buy it. Just don't buy it. And that's it. And I need to sign off and say this, Mike. I think we can comfortably say this is the first 50. I won 5-0. Like, we didn't go to an overtime round. I won all the house. First knockout in VTel history.

I'm just breaking ground, breaking new ground. Again, again, I've done it. You knocked me out, or you knocked out the knock? I knocked out everywhere. Knocked out everybody. It's a referee. I can't knock out the referee. That's a DQ, and then I lose my title,

but I knock out the referee. Ah, well said. All right, we're going to get out of here. We've dragged this exit all on way too long. But for Jedbushu, I am Mike Eck. We'll see you back. Once again, next week, everybody. Good night.

Hi, I'm Sophia Loper Carroll, host of the Before the Chorus podcast. We dive into the life experiences behind the music we love. Artists of all genres are welcome. And I've been joined by some pretty amazing folks, like glass animals. I guess that was the idea was to try something personal and see what happened. And Japanese breakfast. I thought that the most surprising thing I could offer was an album about joy. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and remember, so much happens before the

chorus. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything, like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember, 988 Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. Thank you.