MMA Fighting - Between The Links: Jailton Almeida Cut, Ageless Andrei Arlovski, And UFC Vegas 113 Fallout

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

There was a full combat sports slate last weekend with UFC Vegas 113, PFL Dubai, and BKFC Knucklemania 6 all going down on Saturday. In the UFC, Mario Bautista throttled Vinicius Oliveira, Kyoji Horiguchi stamped himself as a legitimate flyweight contender by schooling Amir Albazi, and Rizvan Kuniev and Jailton Almeida had one of the worst fights you'll ever see—leading to Almeida’s release this week. Meanwhile, Usman Nurmagomedov delivered a dominant win over Alfie Davis in PFL, and Andre Arlovski turned back the clock one more time to claim the BKFC heavyweight title. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to UFC Vegas 113, PFL Dubai, and Knucklemania 6. Topics discussed include whether this win changes things for Bautista, whether Horiguchi deserves a title shot next, what to make of Almeida’s release and whether the UFC should keep the heavyweight division, where Nurmagomedov ranks in the lightweight division, Arlovski's career longevity, other news and notes, and more. Join MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew, Alexander K. Lee, and José Youngs as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. We're live. Woo! Between the Links is here. I didn't really, that went live way faster than I thought. Hey, everybody. My name is Jedmishu.

You can see it on the Chiron down there. Mike Heck is not here this week. And so I have taken over BTL with the help of, I mean, you heard him already. I don't know what's the best adjective I can describe, Jose, with wonderful. amazing, talented, Jose Young's on production, and the equally talented, wonderful and amazing, Alexander K. Lee, who is filling in in my role since I'm taking the Mike Heck role, and we're going to shoot the crap about all the fight stuff, because we got an open weekend. Mike is on a well-earned vacation, didn't want to leave y'all hanging, and, you know,

there's no, I'm sorry to Roadside Grapefruit Cellar on the feed, but there's no major MMA taking place this weekend. There's a one car, there's an octagon, some stuff is happening. A lot of combat tomorrow night. UFCBJ is tonight, is that right, AK? UFCBJ tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern Time, free on YouTube. I think the last card was too. I think they got a good thing going there. Because I don't know what the UFC's like relationship is with fight pass now, at least in the United States.

I think we have a little bit slightly different programming outside of the U.S. So we kind of still need it for stuff. I don't know if you guys use it for like, there's no prelims on there anymore, right? There's no early prelims or anything. So I don't know if they're also trying to take some of there. I never used it for that. Yeah. You used to be able to watch it there, but I never used it for that.

Yeah. So I don't know if that's changed since the Paramount Shift. We know some of the prominent, like, regional promotions that were on there. Obviously, you know, those deals didn't get renewed like LFA's on advice TV right now, stuff like that. So, yeah, I don't know if they're also planning to just know UFC BJJ stuff on bypass either. I'm really not sure with the fate of UFC bypasses. But if you guys are looking for Musumechi versus Montague tonight, it is on YouTube.

You guys by the YouTube. Yeah. We're not going to talk about that unless you all want to talk about that because you all know how this sort of works. It's basically a live chat. You're going to fire questions. We're going to answer them. So, you know, start asking questions, super chats, get priority. But before we get to that, I do just sort of want to talk about the weekend that was AK,

because we did have a lot of stuff that just happened. We've talked about it separately, right? I was on the post show with Mike Heck. You did on to the next one, which I just. just listen to today with Mike Heck. But the biggest thing that has happened, we'll talk about in just a moment. The big thing that happened over the weekend was Mario Batista. He ran through Venetius Olivera. Congrats to him. But the biggest news, frankly, is not Mario Batista's big win, though I would love to hear from you about that as well. It is what happened in the future

bout, AK, because Jailton Almeida, your guy, he lost to Rizvink. Kouni have and not only did he lose AK he lost his job we have I believe we've confirmed that that Jailton Alameda has in fact been released by the UFC uh the number eight ranked heavyweight or number seven at the time in the UFC rankings how heartbroken were you last night when this first kind of came came into your vision if you go to the UFC rankings right now Jed he is number eight uh they probably will not update these within until really until Tuesday until next week yeah or and we don't even have an event this weekend it might not get updated for two weeks jettit we that name that name the memory of jettum might still be imprinted on the

uc.com rankings uh for two weeks i don't know i actually think i think they'll move pretty swiftly on this one i should say probably within the next couple of days it's not hard for them to probably take out a name because i don't think they need to hit all the panelists up again right just knock out that name and i'm sure they have the math of how the voting worked and whoever the next person up slides in Okay. Josh Hook, honestly, Josh Hookett might already have a number next to his name before UFC Houston rolls around. Mario Pinto, I don't know, man. I don't know where they're going to go with it. But I was heartbroken last night. I'm heartbroken now. But to say that, you know, I'm surprised. Come on. We, none of us are surprised. I think our immediate chatter was afterwards was one. Maybe he lose that. Huh? I'm surprised. You are surprised? Oh, okay. I'm surprised. No, because like, like, I'm surprised. No, because, like, Like Mike said it on onto the next one.

He's like if they let him go and I don't. Why? Like what it is like that was a terrible fight. It's probably going to be the worst fight of the year. It's certainly going to be the top five or his bottom five. How do you want to view it? Worst fights of the year. But he's the number eight heavyweight.

Like he's one of the few younger ones at heavyweight right now. And so it's just like and maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, they let Jarzino Rosenstir walk away. Who else did they lose? Not Marcyne Tebrough, but I think of him when I think of Marcyne Tebrot. Because Martin Boudai, who was a ranked dude, they let walk away. I mean, Francis Igano, a little bit different, but they obviously let him walk away as well. They don't seem to care at all about retaining, you know, heavyweights on roster, which is shocking to me.

Hamdi? Well, Hamdi wasn't really top talent. He was winning. He was winning fights. He was winning fights. Yeah, but he wasn't ranked at the time. So like that, the idea of just being like, here's a guy who's ranked. Here's a guy who we are telling you is one of the 15 best guys in the world. And, you know, see ya, bye. It's like, okay, well, then you are actively not trying to build the best division you can. here to tell you that man is exciting he has become very very tough to watch over his last few bouts but

like in on one hand say we have the best fighters in the world and on the other be like nah you could just why don't you go go somewhere else it feels like that's that's surprising to me that they chose to do this okay yeah it's it's a bit again it's a bit of a strange situation because I'm really curious when Almeiden his team actually knew. Because before this report came out, I think it was Nolan King had it first thing, before this report came out, we had his manager, I believe, confirming that he was going to drop down to light heavyweight. So I wonder if that was before he was released,

or if they kind of just knew he was going to release and all this news was sort of, you know, doubling together. Because I don't think it mattered. Like I don't think if he said, what I'm trying to say is, I think if he said he's staying at heavyweight, it doesn't sound like it would have made a difference, that they would have kind of rid of them. But I think the reason I'm not surprised, I guess, is, you know, I think, yeah, Mike and I talked

about it on the next one and all that. I think I was bracing myself. I really was bracing myself. I know because people know. I've been, again, I'm on record. I believe somewhere, either in print or on one of these wacky shows, saying something to the effect of I'd love to see Cheltson and I'll make to fight John Jones. I probably said it multiple times.

I'm confident now that fight would not go well for Chelten. Even arthritic John Jones probably, probably beats up Jelton Elmada. And so it took me a while to get off that bandwagon. Even after the Derek Lewis win, I was still like, no, I still believe. He got knocked up by Curtis Blades and I was still like, okay, you know, but he looked good at moments in that fight. And then bounce back with two wins. And like it seemed like it was still okay to have Jelton Almeida stock. But that Volkov fight was deplorable.

He should not have won that fight. I mean, that was a split decision that he was lucky when his. I'm sorry, I didn't go his way. I'm sorry, I didn't go his way. And then the Cooney have lost, wasn't even close. But the Cooney of Loss, he can't make any argument. If you wanted to, you know, it was a, oh, Brazilian bias and I took Volkov down a lot and did their fight fine.

I still think he cleanly lost. The Cooney have fight. Bad, like you said, maybe the worst fight of the year and just did not look anything close to it. It's the worst fight of the year thus far. Well, it's only exactly. It's only February. We have a lot more heavyweight fights to come.

Maybe. Maybe. I think we have more heavyweight fights to come. But I guess that that's apparently a point. for debate on social media these days. So, yeah, you know, listen, you're not putting on an entertaining product. Yes, top 10 for sure, but, you know, we know this is relative, right? Some divisions are like 30 fighters deep.

Some are, I think, like the heavyweight division. If you know actual ranked legitimate people, like a dozen people that we think could actually contend and we're interested in seeing getting into the title paths. So he's not one of them anymore, at least in the IZOC. And I don't know the dollars and sense of it. I have to imagine he's a little bit on the higher end of what they're paying, the average heavyweight and that factors in as well. So yeah, man, I'm dealing. I'm dealing, Jed. Man, just and we now we have to go back because we earlier this week, Rode, we argued about the

wisdom of keeping the heavyweight division around and now we have to go and adjust that because of the new fact that has dropped. It's just, it's kind of crazy how transparent the UFC is right now about this not being a league of merit. It is not, it does not matter what your, what your accomplishment is. It matters the entertainment value you bring. And this feels like the most, because I mean, there's been plenty of people in the chat right now,

plenty of people online afterwards. They're like, told, nobody has an issue with this because he's super boring now, but still very, very surprising to me, AK. So, you know, plus they got rid of one of the Boschrots. Lazybed points out, Almeida gone, Bosch Rock gone. Is there a clear there's a new precedent for exciting fights in the Paramount Plus error, risk it in the cage or get your pink slip.

And I think, yeah. And Renot from a few weeks ago who was undefeated in the U.S. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And honestly, it feels like the answer is yes to that, where they kind of hinted this before right with who got the title fights to start out this year but yeah man like i don't know they're doing this to send a message or if this is simply the priority that they have but it does

feel like a very whether intentional or not if i was currently a uc fighter i would take this to heart and maybe adjust my style moving forward because yeah tough tough scenes out there right now That's what they want. That's what they want. I guess they won't be signing, assuming he comes out of retirement, Megamad Karamegov anytime soon. It doesn't sound like he will. Oh, Ramadan. Sorry, Ramazon Karamauga Madd. I apologize. Ramazan Karamegometto. What a fool.

I guess he's not on the U.S.S. radar. I don't think they'll be signing him anytime soon. I will say, like, if this is their plan, I don't know if you'll have a lot of fans complaining. I mean, you'll have the hardcore fans complaining. You'll have the very intelligent fans of M.A. fighting complaining, of course, because the M.A. fighting fans appreciate winning and the culture and good martial arts. But if this is Paramount's Edict, and we don't know for sure, like we said, it's only been a couple of months. There's just been some very suspicious releases, that's all.

And like you said, the main events that they booked. If this is Paramount's Edict, as a fan, like, I don't, I just don't feel like I should complain that much. because, you know, as Jed, as Jose, you know, we cover every card. We have to watch. We are of that group that has to watch every card from top to bottom. We're talking seven to eight hours of, of MMA every time there's a UFC card. And we whinge about it. We complain about it.

We know there's going to be some stinkers on there. So if this is their way of weeding out some stinkers, like, it's not a bad thing. It's not, I hate to see fighters lose their jobs. It's not fair to the fighters involved. I understand that. But speaking selfishly, and again, speaking for, for the more casual fan, you're not weeping over the loss of a Jelton Almeda. You're not weeping over the loss of a Javid Bosharat.

And it sucks to say it, but I'm kind of trying to take the silver lining here. Like I could absolutely see myself like eight months from now when the paramount picture is a bit clearer. Whereas the card is like maybe not, they're moving away, God, I hope moving away from like 15, 14 fight cards. Let's say there's a neat 12, 11, 10 fight card. And it's all like eight out of 10 bangers, not necessarily the most high level guys, not necessarily contenders but like exciting fights top to bottom i don't know if i'll be complaining man like i'll be real about it i'll tell people like what's going on but am i going to complain about being entertained i don't know if we have less chelton and uh and uh rizvon fights how can people

complain i mean it's just because they're one some of the best fighters in the world and so it's like you know i want to say no disrespect for there's no respect for there's no respect way to say this. It's like Stephen Aspland is a top 15 heavyweight that feels like what are we doing? You know, and he's more fun than J-Lton-Almeda, but like at some point, just being one of the best guys alive feels like it should matter, but not confident, not confident it does anymore. And man, I got to tell you, the thing yesterday that I learned more than anything was. Mavsar Evluv better just really show out against Lerone Murphy because they will cut his ass if he wins. They won't matter to them at all. And like that's, that's what I'd be thinking if I was him because it is pretty tough.

And so, yeah, very, you see this coming? It's supposed to be a sport, not WWE. Boy, I'll tell you something. People know my stance. M.M.A. is not a sport. on the level of the UFC when you get to the UFC level it is way more sports entertainment than sport hate hate to break that to people it's way closer to pro wrestling it is to like the purity of martial arts whatever that means the Olympics yeah the Olympics I guess yeah whatever you want to compare

to a pure sport and I don't say this is a bad thing I think people think when I say oh MMA is not a sport or UFC is not a sport like I mean as an insult no it's just there's nothing wrong with that it is primarily entertainment let us not lie to ourselves and and there's the they're, listen, they're pretty good at it. They're just like $7.7 billion broadcast deal. They're pretty good at putting on what I consider to be sports entertainment. And at the same time, I don't begrudge anyone who wants UFC to be more jet, as you're saying, like for the rankings to matter, from wins and losses to matter.

You should want that. Like that is how a business evolves in like a positive way. But at the moment, I mean, as they're transitioning to this new broadcast deal, it does feel like they're leaning towards more towards the entertainment side. And I don't think that's a bad thing either. look i i have no problem with that and let's be honest about jelton last thing i'll say about jelton um he did it to himself man he did it to himself we know this guy can finish fights he was crushing people on our run there and then something happened in the derrick louis fight or the

curtis blaze fight we're not sure even though he got some finishes after that i don't know something uh switched off in his brain um and i know it's easier said than done controlling these big guys i'm sure he'll tell you like yes of course i want to finish but i'm trying to hold down a 250 pound dude on the ground what do you want for me that doesn't matter to the matchmakers doesn't matter to the fans um you got to really you got to show you got to show what you do so jelton i'm sure he'll be very successful wherever he goes but his releases it is on him to some degree charles hona's with the correct comment 50 50 50 sports entertainment which i agree with my thing is you know i'm not going to cry too much about this i if if the onus is going to be

are going to either cut you or not resign you if you are not fun, there are going to be five heavyweights on roster. Like, it's like this. Dalton is like not far from the only human to do this. And like, you know what you were getting with the Rizvan fight anyway. So it's, it's pretty tough. But I mean, you know, congrats to PFL because you need people. And here's one who looks great getting off the bus.

you can roll him in there against Vadimim Kov, maybe Frantis theoretically. So go get him, PFL because he's available and hope he's more fun than he was at the end of his UFC run. Okay, though, the big thing, I mean, this was the big story, but obviously the biggest performance twofold this past Saturday. Mara Batista runs over Venetius Oliva, just very quickly, and then we'll let the chat sort of take over here. kind of what did you think of Batista's win? Where does this sort of put him he needed a win but

does this do a lot for him on onto the next one who did you have him fighting? I don't remember Oh my gosh. Did you go aiming to Hobby? I think I did. I think that was just the obvious choice. You both went to Amon's a hobby. Yeah I think that was the obvious. Yes, yes. We just said I just kind of stole it from like I'd watch you guys

do the post fight show after Mike throughout Aeman. And I said yeah, amen. Yeah, that's what. Yeah, I think that's the right way because neither guy both guys listen on impressive runs you know, Batista is now eight out of nine or nine out of ten or something and obviously he has won seven, eight straight. So but neither guy, even Amon though he has not that loss in there, neither guy really has fans like clamoring for him to get them to get a title shot. I said on the show like for Amon, you know, if they go back to the Bell Center this year, then that'd be perfect. And if that's happening, I don't think that's happening in the first six months of the year.

I mean, it's possible. Then I suppose Amon could say. sit and wait. But I doubt that. I really feel like Amy has to fight again. So hopefully, you know, he pulls off it, I think he'd be, I don't think he'd be favored, pulls off an upset over Batista. And then if he wins that, I'd be so impressed because Batista is so tough. Batista looked fantastic against Venetio Oliva. I'm sure people will say, well, Venetius wasn't at his best. He's cutting too much weight. He said afterwards he was injured. That's fine. Let's say all that is true. Then that means Batista did what he's supposed to do. He made this guy look bad. He ran through him. If Batista had struggled to like a, you know,

49, 46 decision or something or 40, 47, even a 50, 45. If you just cruise to a decision with few highlights, then yeah, we'd be saying, holy crap, now that we know Lofto was hurt, how did Batista not put him away? But Batista looked like in a different class and more power to him because

we've been critical of him here at Emma fighting. There's been some fights, some which I will not name, that have made us very, very angry at Mr. Batista. But you get your first, I believe this was his first headlining spot and you show out like that. Really important win for him in his career. Like, I like Maa Batista.

I know he's not super charismatic. I know he's had some clunkers in there. But sort of if we discussed the beginning of the show, winning is the thing. And when you can get some highlights in there as well, which you had on at Vegas 113, that that is the title contender formula. Jose, I just realized we're going to have to check the profanity box for this video

because that poster behind AK, just pottymouthed poster behind AJ. Oh, apologies to the... I can't believe you, Alexander K. Lee. How cute is the cat, though? Tisk Tis. Tisk. Tis.

Uh, yeah, I mean, great win for Batista. Really impressive performance. I think he's in a bit of the nether void of he's going to have to win a million fights because he doesn't draw that much interest. But he's one of the six best dudes in this weight class, and that was a sick performance. Another great performance from Kiojuroguchi called for a title shot, you know, based on you're on to the next one. I know that you are trying to will this into existence. I do not believe that is likely to happen. But let me ask you this.

Do you believe AK that Kiojurouchi is going to fight for the Bantamway title? The flyway title. Flyway title, sorry, not Bantamway, correct. It's not guaranteed. That's why I want it sooner rather than later. That's why I don't want him to fight again, because this is, this division is tough. man like there are people let me look at let me look at let me look at let's say tset surotira i would certainly pick kiogi i think he would be favored but texsura taurotara is is developing so

quickly he looks amazing against brandon marino absolutely amazing um so if he did the same uh same or similar to keoggi no one would be like that surprise we'd say oh wow this guy's like he took it to the next level he took it to the next level in that fight and it's legit and it's sustainable and he beats keoggi boom tessero tyrus fighting for the title manel cop i know they fought before i know kiogi won long time ago they fight again could be totally different cop could smoke kiogi absolutely good have kioji has been uh has been knocked out in other fights before it's not like keoges untouchable he's had some very memorable knockouts and um this version of cop could be the best version we've seen so if he has to do that uh that could cost himself fight pantosia fight uh it doesn't make sense if they're not fighting for

the title but who knows with the uc they might uh end up throwing those two together there's just a lot of competition in the way and while i'm very confident kio could beat any of of those guys this is m-m-a anything can happen and i feel like you've really got something here about bringing him back and the vibes are really good i think he's shown that he's still i think one of the three best fly weights in the world and i'd get over it quickly but it would hurt it would hurt to see them waste um sort of this comeback for him and not put him in the title picture that's isn't that why you sign a guy like this isn't that why you bring back a talent like this yeah i mean honestly they have made him work for it more than i would have assumed because when you should

sign somebody like this in my head, it would be like one, maybe two, and then he's fighting for the title. It's possible he gets a title shot off this. I don't think it's the most likely outcome. So, and then running out of time, he's 35. He's not, this isn't going to work forever for him. So I hope he does because he should. And that would be also. That was a sensational win over Miaabazi, who is now, I mean, I guess based on the other context, might get cut. Um, he lost, it's not like he's the most exciting fighter of all time. He's lost two in a row. So he might be heading to Octagon or PFL or something, uh, like that. You know, some other stuff happened on this UFC card. Uh, nothing that I care to talk about,

frankly, unless you just viewers want to talk about it. Also, quick shout out to PFL, uh, Usman, Armagamatov, shrouds to Alfie Davis. He was a minus a billion favorite and he looked like it. Cool. Um, some other. good performances at pfl but i know you didn't actually watch it so tough for us to have like too much of the conversation about that but a k did you watch i need to know if you watched bkfc because brawl came out a lot of stuff mike peri ed and alvarez etc don't care about that at all what i care about is the goat andre elovsky at 46 years old becomes the bkfc heavyweight champion And really tunes Ben Rothwell up and is just, I love him so much.

He's just an adorable old war horse of a fighter still out there doing the damn thing. Did you watch? Because it was also on YouTube, Nocomania 6. A.K. I'm going to read you a passage, Jed, from a reading that's in front of me. Okay, please do. Let me pick the right section. Sorry, I just brought up.

First off, this article asks, what if Ander Alasky is the greatest heavyweight the U.S.C. has ever seen? So this is the premise laid out. That's an intriguing article. It's an intriguing article like that. Would you? Okay, I can't, I can't figure out. Arlowski has competed at the top of the sport for well over two decades. And while the contemporaries he began with are all either retired or fighting other elder statesmen of the sport and bouts of nostalgia porn, Arlowski is still gutting out wins. over up-and-comers 12 years his junior over his last five fights or laski's face only one man asserties chase chairman who was serving when they fought the rest of our lozki's opponent during that stretch were hungry 20-somethings looking to make a name of a former ufc champion well-passed prime and only one of them was able to do so uh that's just a little excerpt this is from

22 a young man named uh the thing is that's old that is such an old thing that i wrote this was a young man named jed mishu wrote this almost uh almost three years ago to the day February 2022, making the case, And Juryaloski is the greatest headway in U.S. history. And at the time, we weren't joking because it was like a, somewhat like an interesting thought experiment of like, we were kind of like, what do you value in a fighter and associated a heavyweight who is around abnormally long.

So that was four years ago. Obviously not with the UFC anymore, but yes, with BKFC. And once again, depending how you guys want to define these things when they went about like this, once again, a world's champion. I mean, this is the number one bare knuckle boxing promotion. in the world. So if you are the champion of BKFC, you are the world champion. He's just amazing stuff. He's a bare knuckle boxing champion.

It's unbelievable. He's 47. He's had cancer three times. Great. Like, just astonishing the career longevity and like watching it too was just awesome because like I was I was covering it or and I was watching it and he is his professional debut, I cannot stress this enough was 1999. Like he started fighting before the year 2000 professionally. So this is almost 34 years of fighting. And you watch him fight like he looks like a dude who's like this is just his job. Because he came out and like I comped in our post shows like he looks like every dude I've ever like work construction with.

Like that's their job where it's like, yeah, you know. going to work. It's going to be a hard day, but not like dreading it or just like resolved to doing difficult physical labor. But like it's the thing that he does. And then he goes out there and he just whooped up on Ben Rothwell, who was sucked like had become such a baby face to me. And then just goes and gets tuned up. We're never going to get a career like Arlovskys. I don't think he's actually the greatest heavyweight of all time. But nobody is ever going to have a career remotely like his. where he is basically untouchable in the record books for heavyweights, like the sheer volume of UFC fights, etc. Like nobody's ever going to get close. I mean, they cut Jailton Al-Meda. Andre Lovsky is way more boring than Jolten Mered for a very long time. And he kept his job.

And then now to still be like, you know, he went and won in boxing. Now he's one in BKFC. I want to see Andrei Rolfsky in R&F just for shits and giggles, frankly. man i bet andre was making more money than like almeda was for a long time too oh that's not even close like absolutely i'm going to go back and find like the last i've been a while because we don't release salaries anymore i'm just trying i'm just kind of jumping back here trying to find the last time okay i'm just randomly from uh where is he arlofsky okay he made this was uh 2018 well before he was released 2018 for a loss to walteris he

made a disclosed $300,000. Yeah. There was no way. Jelta Jelton was maybe making six figures, maybe. Probably, in fact, he was probably in a fight and win. So maybe like 80, 80 would be my guess. Just a ballpark number. So even if he won, he was making like half of what Arlaskin was making in 2018.

So just gave you some idea of how much, how this guy was cashing checks for the UFC for a long time. Now I'm trying to see, Jed, you're saying, and I agree. I don't think these records will ever be touched. Derek Lewis. I want to be super clear, AK, when you pull that up, Walt Harris was 2018. He fought in the UFC until 2024. He was on functionally the same contract. If not higher, I have to imagine at some point there's a renegotiation where, like,

got a little bit of a bump, like nothing crazy. Maybe. I mean, either. It wouldn't have gotten lower is the answer. No. And like, because I remember, like, when he finally left, we were talking about. on our show is like, I think he might be the greatest prize fighter in the history of MMA. Like if you're just looking at the amount of money made versus like level of competition

and or what you're bringing to the table, he was getting paid like 400K to fight on the prelips consistently at the end of his UFC run. It isn't saying like I love him so much. He's such a unique weird character in the history of the sport. He is and he's not like, you know, obviously when we say, you know, big privates, we're we also think of like in a kind of McGregor, Ronda Razzie, Brock, Lesnar, blah. But Andro Lasky was not living that life. He's not a celebrity fighter. Like, he, he's not, like, this mainstream pop culture figure.

He's not doing the media rounds like those guys do. He's not getting all these endorsements of that. He's legitimately making a living just fighting for over 25 years. Like, it is extremely strange. I was trying to bring up, like, who could come close. So, Andro Lasky has 20, sorry, 42. Is that right? 42 you see he's like number three all time and yeah i think frank mirror was close and he just blew

past mirror and now right now we have Derek lewis at 31 so derrick lewis had to fight three or four fights a year at least like four more years three or four more years in the ufc to potentially come close to how many fights are lost yet i don't think that's going to happen and i'm just looking at the rest of the i don't think like tom man astronaut is going to stick around that long alexander volkov's at 17 no no nobody's ever trying to watching the heavyweight records he has in the UFC. And like, we'll never know the answer to this, but I would, I would love to see just raw numbers who made the most money over their UFC careers.

Because like, Andrei Olavsky is probably in the top 20, strictly from volume and the price per purse. Like, you know, he wasn't getting the Connor McGregor $20 million. Certainly not. Or John Jones, but he fought 40 some odd times in the UFC and was making six. figures for a vast majority of those insane career and still going 47 years on the bkfc heavyweight champion of the world i like i said put them in an raf i want him to do the luke rock whole thing where he just sort of dabbles everywhere how about uh jed this seems up your alley

oh bkfc uh from boat mode bkfc crossover with fight circus ralovsky just fights four influences in a row yes honestly book him against the kids that he fought at the jake paul event hell yeah do that immediately i'm gonna you need more you need like you just need to do a marathon you just need to line up like until he falls but it'll take like a hundred true king of the hill this will be i'm just hopping in to share one my one and your loss story from the road over the last few years i think it was when algermann fought pewter yon and vulcanowski fought zombie because I know it was Jacksonville. And it was me, John Morgan, Ken Hathaway,

and one other reporter went to like a local, like barbecue joint, but it had a big outside seating area. And they had like 50 different beers. And then all of a sudden, four waitresses came over with trays of every single beer they possibly had in pints. So there were 50 pints of beer in front of us. And then we're like, we didn't order this. And we look, and Andre Arlowski is,

leaving he pokes back and he goes enjoy guys and then he just leaves and i was like you bastard tales from the road absolutely diabolical anyway that's my story i'm leaving he can afford it because that weekend he beat philippe lins for 300 grand apparently uh someone he's he got a bit philippe lins jad someone mentioned affliction of course got a He fought twice. The first fight he beat Brenner Rothwell, not coincidentally, so there you go. 500,000 to show 250 to win. So he made 750 grand for that. And then the Arloski fight, sorry, the Milanenko fire, excuse me, Fador. A disclosed 1.5 million to show. One point. He made five times what Fador made. Fador was disclosed 200,000. Arlowski was the A side of that fight, you know, in North America anyway. One point five billion. thing, man, like he has all of those UFC numbers. He also went on a sojourn in the middle of

his career, arguably at the peak of his, like, fame, he just sort of let, because he left the UFC on a Winstreet to go to affliction. When he fought Fador, he was the number three heavyweight in the world. And then he went to strike force and just, you know, was around doing some things. WSOF for a hot minute. One, he's fought everywhere and kept picking up paychecks and then came back to the UFC and added another 30 fights his title since like truly a one of one career uh that i is just adorable i love every i love every bit of it and the fact that like after he won he you know he was happy but he's mostly just like yeah i really like to fight still that's why i keep doing this keep doing it man fight forever how many fights did he have after he came back hold on

hold on he had hold on like 20 his second uc run was 20 25, no. It might be more than that, honestly. I'm just looking, I go to some quick math here. He was at, he debuted, he returned to the UFC before the Reebok deal went into place. He, he re-debued, and I know this, at UFC 174 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, against Brownshab, headlined by Demetri's Johnson, Ali Bagu Tinoff. And then he fought Travis Brown at UFC 187, which that was like, one of the greatest one-round fights you'll ever see and then i believe he beat frank mirren a little bit of a

snoozer and then that was like his are should arlosky fight for the title and then he fought steeping got melted i mean it was it was it was that would he was going to fight for the title yeah if if i'm doing my math right he fought 28 times in his second ufc run his second uc run he fought 28 times yeah i can't read right i mean it's insane like his also and like like like his also and like like Like the thing that's even more crazy about it is when I, five years ago when I was making this argument tongue in cheek or whatever and still it's tongue and cheek, I was like, how many fighters in the history of this sport do you know who have had four losses in a row and then come like rebounded to have a productive career? And Andre's done that three separate times. That's not even like the most impressive thing he's done at this point, which is wild because no fighter stuff like loses four in a row. So ask Tony Ferguson what happens after you lose four in a row.

You lose three more. That's just how life works in this sport. It's insane. I love him so much. I love everything that's going on with him. Keep going on, Andre. Keep going. Dude, fight until you're 50 at least.

Wow. Fight you over, Romero, and BKFC. That'd be fun. Yeah. Or dirty boxing. Whatever you want to do. I don't care. Go to R&F.

Go to karate combat. Do it all, Andre, because this rules. uh i mean that's basically the rundown of everything and i think we've talked about all the big stuff so let's go to the chats we've got some supers in there you all can just fire them in we'll go for for those of you for those of you new super chats get priority um so we're going to stick with the super chats there's i would say 80% of the comment questions are all about jailton most of which we answered and then now it's just people sharing their favor on daroloski fights most of which we've answered so we'll stick with the superchats for now.

Wow. But I mean, A.K., before we get to the super chat, you can leave it up there. A.K., what is your favorite on Darylovsky fight? I don't even know if I have one. I'm known for having a bad memory as it is, but even if you gave me time to write up like a proper damn they were good, like an outline, I don't know if I could like reach back and pull out like,

God, there's so many fights. And I'll be honest, the last whatever 15 fights of his. UFC career probably blurred together in my brain. So as much as I love Andre, I'm like, I'm struggling to come up with a signature moment. Other than him getting knocked out by Fader. The best one is the Travis Brown fight. The Travis Brown one is the best one. Yeah.

But I do just want to broadly give a shout out to early UFC, Andre Olovsky, who had the like, Andre Agassi sort of incredible flow. Like, I, you know, he gets older and that has to go away. but go check young Andjaralovsky hair because, I mean, feathered and lethal is what that man was. So now we can get to Ace bogey's super chat. Ace, thank you, buddy. I think the UFC views MVP similar to boring grapplers, quote unquote. His point fighting style is unique and tough to deal with, but he hasn't shown finishing instincts.

So I can see what the UFC doesn't know what to do with him. Thoughts? Okay, who is MVP booked against? Sam Patterson. That's right. Sam Patterson. Legitimately up and compil. And down and away class,

he has not been fighting in, right? Because this is a welterweight contest. Yeah, he wanted to come back. I think he wanted to come back, but not against a sort of unranked guy. I think he thought if he came back,

it would be some sort of top of dean opponent. Unfortunately for MVP, the timing is really bad because we have this cluster Biff at the top of Welterweight where nobody wants to fight until I think they figure out what's happening with, Islam, right? I think we're all kind of not assuming, maybe fearing would be the better word,

that we are going to end up with Islam, Kumar Usman fight. And then after that domino falls, everyone else can say, all right, fine. I think Michael Morales has already said, I'll just fight somebody else. I think he's kind of stopped, like, campaigning for it. I think he sees the writing on the wall. But some of the other names, you know, they're not sure Imchata Gary's in there and all that. So, so what was the question? Can I see the question? Do you think the UFC views MVP as a boring Grappler, not Grappler, obviously. That's similar to that same light, and so they don't really know how to book him.

Because I could believe this. Yeah, yeah. And it sucks because not all his fights, his UFC fights have been bad, but he is missing those like crazy viral finishes, which is really why they signed him. Let's be on like, you know, Belator. That's how he made a name for himself in Belator.

And he had some stinkers in Belator too. There's at least like a couple of World Trade fights in there that you will just not watch. Horrible stylistic matchups. So, yeah, I think they're having a little bit of trouble with it. We touched upon this at the beginning of the show with like, yeah, it feels like they're angling more towards action over necessary accomplishments or reputation or even like how good a fighter is, like objectively. Because MVP can be very exciting when he gets a finish. And when he doesn't get a finish, it can be a very, very rough watch.

So maybe they want to, it's going to be on this London card. Maybe they want to get it off on the right foot by not featuring. MVP heavily, which seems silly because the London crowd loves him. As for the matchup itself, like, I'm not against it. I've spoken about this. Like, I do think Sam Patterson is someone that should be invested in. I actually think he's like a legitimate welterweight contender. But at the same time, it's weird.

Like MVP said him and San Patterson are friends. They've trained together. And it's just the name that, like, he eventually had to settle on if you want to fight in London, apparently. So it sucks to hear that I think MVP does have real star power. I think he's a great interview. Obviously, if you're going to some fighting anywhere in England, there's a that draw there. But no, I don't know if there's anything personal against him.

But style-wise, yeah, the matchmakers are really paying a lot of attention to this stuff. And I do wonder if they're, I assume he's still on the main card, but I do wonder why they couldn't have bumped him up to the co-main. Because I believe that Luke Riley is in there, sort of, so, you know, far less than name value, but I guess higher potential to deliver a bangor. And I think they're trying to get Luke Riley over, certainly. but yeah i think you're probably not that far off facebookie right um i do think that they are it feel because they could have just not brought MVP over i don't know that they dislike him in the same way that they dislike a jailton al-meda but he is a tough guy to book because he unless he is totally dunking on scrubs like he's probably going to be more of uh

like not the most exciting finish like it's finish or bust with him he's MVP is never going to be in a war. It is going to be he either gets a knockout or it's like this point fighting awkward style. And it's just tough. So I don't know that this fight will be great with Sam Patterson, but it's good to learn about fighters via MVP, right? Like I think I like watching him fight just because

he feels like a really good litmus test of, are you a top fighter or not? Because if you are, you're going to find a way to work around his unique style. And if you're not, then you're going to lose. but in the UFC thus far you have not lost in highlight real fashion which I think is obviously what the UFC would prefer so good question though he's boogie ooh Duke Madduck according to Amasov MVP turned down a fight with him Doolotov was also offered the fight turned it down for Ramadan and burns came close to fighting him I can't confirm any of that though I have heard the Amasov one I think the UFC trying to book Amazov versus MVP is a deeply funny idea because why would you do that? But I also think a lot of people probably don't want to fight him

because it's really tough to look good against Michael Ben and Page, right? Like, it is just one of those dudes. Most people don't look good against him. I would not choose to fight him either, especially if he doesn't have like a big ranking. Not a ton of reward and a pretty tough fight to really look spectacular in. And also from Duke. mad duck and gobert burns will probably get matched with mike malott a k your guy try like

canada needs a fighter other than aim into hobby or maybe not because maybe a man it's a hobby beats mara batista when they never fight and then he's fighting for a title despite not being very good all right i thought i thought mike malat had a fight oh no no he just fought uh kemarned yeah yeah he'd be it'd be big if you get gilbert that that's for sure that that's a name to target that is a guy who a lot of huge opportunity for him yeah are gonna want to get We have a super chat from Med Jassu the second Esquire. Yeah, I'm deeply not a fan of what's happened here. You're on notice person.

How does Walker versus Zion go if there's no leg lock? So that's, look, I don't know if this is like, you know, PC, but I will acknowledge that I thought it was a. a great gimmick for karate combat to take the leglock guy and pit him against Sion Walker because like that that's just that's that's the sort of matchmaking you think of as like late 90s but it kind of scratched me right where I itch I think that that's going to be a fascinating style matchup honestly a.K. What are your thoughts on karate combat tomorrow? Honestly, that's the kind of thing like you know my more not even casual just any friends of

mine who don't work in the industry who are like, you know, my less professional MMA watching friends would like send to me, would have sent to me as like a joke and I would just roll my eyes like, oh, ha, ha, I get it because the guy does like locks and the guy has no legs. Very, very funny. And then it became real. And then someone actually did it and is paying money to do it. And it's really a neat idea. Again, everyone, you guys can, you know, you could maybe say, oh, it's not, it's not in good taste. It's like, you know, we are sort of talking about someone, again, who has no legs? But everyone, everyone I feel like is in on the in on the act. You know what we're all Zion,

he knows what he's doing here. He understands the whole gimmick of this fight. And then that in that sense, it's totally cool. I love that they're going for stuff like this. They've carved it out their own little niche. Again, if it's, if it's something that you cannot like stomach and you think it's just like kind of grotesque in a way, for sure. I get it. But this is combat sports in general, right?

It's how how much are you willing to accept in combat sports? Because your average person finds combat sports in general, like, oh, I want nothing to do with that. But then once you get into it, there's like other layers of like, oh, I don't want to watch boxing. I don't want to watch this. I don't want to watch that. And now we reach this truly strange encounter here where we're like, well, I don't want to see a guy with no legs go up against a guy who's a grappler, regardless of the whole gimmick of he can't get a leg lock, what have you.

But I am fascinated. I am going to be following. I don't know if I'm watching live, I'll definitely be following the coverage at nmatefling.com. I think the question asks, like, how does it go? Like, I have to think Walter has a huge advantage here, and we'll still find a way to get a submission, just obviously not by his usual means. Yeah, my only real critique of this fight is that it should be a fight circus main event. And the fact that it's karate combat is like, how did they beat the fight circus to the punch? But, yeah, I assume that Walter Walker is going to win.

I don't know, like, what the weights are, but Walter Parker is really big dude. So I just sort of assume he is going to have a pretty sizable, like, weight advantage over his Island Walker. But I'm just, it's a super weirdo thing that I never would have thought of. And I'm like, yep, I mean, I'm working it tomorrow, but I'll be watching. So tune in. It's, is currently coming also free on YouTube? I think so. I'll check real quick for you guys.

I'm pretty sure, pretty sure. Let's see here. It should, I mean, it definitely should be. I don't see a live link up yet. I mean, I haven't. That's the thing. Karate Combat is actually not done very good job promoting this. And like, it's not even on their website.

That's last I checked. So I think it'll be on YouTube because they're all of their ones have been. But yeah, it might be getting flagged. And I wonder if Zion Walker wins, then the USC should sign him. Is I walker wins? Screw it. Sign in. They got it.

Milton I made it just left. They've got an opportunity. According to their poster, live and free on YouTube guys. So tune out. They put 7 p.m. start time. I think I thought it was 8 p.m. the card actually starts. So I don't know if 7 p.m. is a free show or something. But either way, 7 p.m. start time is the list and you will go to buy net. It's karate combat. It might not actually start until 4 a.m. Depending on whether the pit gets there or not. Don't even joke about it. as someone who was supposed to work the last one,

and I'm set to work this one. I'm not really joking. It's a genuine concern, but I might be stuck until a million hours in the evening. Jose, what else we got? We'll go for 10 minutes or so here, unless nobody has good questions, then we'll bail. Oh, Isseboy 173? Thoughts on Usman-Nor-Gamatov to the UFC

and Amruh debut for PFL. And the biggest piece of this, obviously, is the Usman and Murdov thing. He did some interviews last week where he revealed that he has two fights left on his contract, I believe. And obviously, the assumption is that the completion of that might come to the UFC, aka how likely do you think it is that we see Usman Ramargamatov come to the UFC by 2027? and like where where do you see him fitting in in the lightweight ranking oh 2027 extremely high i thought i thought you can say 2026 because i don't think it'll i just don't think the time works for him this year with it might be a little tight it might be a little tight 27 i would say like

90% chance like i'm very confident it's just the next logical move and i think pfl is prepared for that i think they have to accept that not that they're feeder league because i do think that there's guys they'll be able to keep around for some time again if ramsan car if he's not retired and decides to come back and you just bring him back, I don't think he'll be a hot name for agency. Sorry, Robinson. Great fighter, maybe one of the 10 best wealth of waste in the world, not always electrifying in the cage. But where does he fit in? Where would Usmanda and Magamato fit in at lightweight?

He's going to get a big fight right away. He's clearly a top 10 talent. I think there's no question he deserves me in the top 10. I don't know if they would give him like Gamrod or. or Dad Hooker coming off the loss would be silly. I don't like that one. Maybe the Sviziv is in there. So these guys in the fucks are the 5 to 11 range.

He could get one of those names. He can get one of those names because he does deserve to get a big fight right away. Like I think we have him in our rankings, definitely in the top 10. I think he's even our pound for pound top 20. Like we think very highly of Buzman. So 2027, almost sure he'll be in the UFC. And by the end of 2027, almost sure he will be ranked top 10. I'm fairly confident that when he does come to the UFC, he'll get a top five opponent.

And this will be one fight into a title shot just because of, you know, if he was any other person, but his last name is Naregamedov. And he's connected to one of the more influential teams in the sport. So I think he will get a fast track. And I think that track will start on 2027. The other side of that question, though, is Omriamagamatov. So he made his PFO debut. He beat Colton England. Amr was basically like the next guy up of that next generation.

Young dude, I think he's like 25, something like that. Undefeated, looked really good against Colton England, who I won't pretend to know a lot about. But, you know, they speak super highly of this guy as the next of the Abdulmanap lineage. lineage. You didn't get to watch any of this, did you? No, I heard he was spectacular, though. I had, shut out, Tristan Gorda, messaging me, telling me

Ambrose going to be the next big thing. To which I replied, I will say, obviously, an incredible talent. But just, you know, let's, I would say let's slow roll a little bit. His level of competition has been good, but not like mind-blowing. He did have a big step up. It's fine for the conference. experience-wise with Alex before he came to a PFL. He fought a guy with like a way more experience, but also I believe he's pretty heavily

favorite in that fight as well. So he's there. And I'm not saying he should be fighting. I'm not saying like, oh, why isn't he fighting like 18 and one guys? No, that he is fighting like the appropriate level of competition, I think, for his experience level. But that's what I'm saying is this. We don't need to vault him to that next tier yet.

Is the talent there? Of course. Of course, the talent is there. But let's, you know, he'll stick around the PFL. I think they'll give him some more matchups, build them up, especially. if Usman leaves, this guy kind of fills that void for however long they can hold on to him. And then hopefully by then they've got another guy coming up and they can have a nice little train here. Say that it feels like the Abduleman and Tim Abbe have been like, all right, PFL is our finishing school.

You're going to go there for a couple of years. And then once you finish finishing school, you can go to the UFC and try and be champion. And we'll just slide the next dude up as a developmental ground. and might work super well because Usman and Mergamore Maddov has a real good chance at fighting for the UFC Lightway title very soon. So I hadn't seen too much before. I've seen a couple of UAE Warriors fights where I'm pretty sure he was champion. But, you know, great pedigree looks to be a very talented fighter and made a very impressive debut on sort of, on the biggest stage he's gotten thus far. so certainly like if you're doing a prospects to keep an eye on very very high on that list

joseph bosa usma needs to get in one more fight or by the end of the year yeah i think that's he's going to fight once more this year and that'll be the end of his contract and then next year unless pfl opens up the pocketbook he'll just come to the uc because there's nothing standing in his way with islam up at walterweight now yes uh we got another super super chat oh chase let t-1100 is it just a foregone conclusion that the white house card ends with an american face down unconscious at the hands of iliot the boy that's a great question obviously this is you know referring most likely to justin gitchie i don't know okay how do you know where our dana white said this week they are uh this is the week they will build the ufc whitehouse car

up. You know, Hunter Campbell and they all flew in there in the war room getting this together. He said by the weekend they will have the card done, whether that means it will be public. I assume the answer is no, but they'll have the ideas they want to go for. Speculation has been rampant about what this card will be, could be, et cetera, et cetera. But Ilya Teporese seems to be a name very much at the center of it, either against them as a Makachev or against Justin Geichi. So do you think that this is the likely main event? Ilya blowing the doors off Justin Gehji.

Wow. Yeah, I just started looking ahead like, okay, I don't think they're going to be Islam in there. I don't think it's going to be Hamza. I don't think it's going to be, well, I know, Alex Padena has like ruled it out. I would not say it can't happen, but he does not seem to be angling for that. And of course, it very likely will not be a heavyweight fight. If it is a heavyweight fight, it won't involve any Americans. So, damn.

Yeah, yeah, to answer the original question, yeah, that might be the lasting image we get coming out of the White House. Another Spanish-speaking superstar destroying America, apparently, Jed. Sorry, guys, sorry, my friends in the U.S. This is your new reality. This is your new reality. So just accept that, I guess. At least the other one is American, you know. Oh, this is true.

He's Georgian, but he's the wrong type of Georgian. I didn't mean to go, J. Jake ball there for a second. I'm sorry. I thought this. It happens to the best of us. Yeah. I don't know. I find it hard to believe that that would be the main event. That might be on the card, but. Connor's not coming. He's not fighting at the White House. I am still believing that Connor's fighting. I also still kind of believe that John Jones is fighting. Who that will be up for debate, but. Peter Pan, what's going on? What's that quote? I'm just I'm believing in a lot of things right now.

I'm not growing up at all. Good. But it was just, it's so stupid, but it would be so disappointing if the UFC's like, for the White House card, here are some pretty mundane title fights. Enjoy,

like, okay, it's not special at all. It's just on the White House lawn. Got it. Which, of course, it's probably what's going to happen.

But I'm trying to believe. I'm daring to be an optimist. and believe we're going to get spectacle for this event too. You'll get spectacle. I don't know about the NKH spectacle. You'll get spectacle. It'll be a good card. They're going to put together a good card.

I just, again, it might be like 300 where it's like not, it's like amazing card, but it's not like, again, no massive mainstream star power or something. That's okay. What does that even mean anymore in the UFC? Jose, sorry, I need to read one question. It's because someone, Charles Honest is asking, am I reading the heavyweight division wrong? I get that it sucks, but it's also kind of ripe for the picking from the light heavies. The problem is outside of like the top five for six guys, light heavyweight also sucks.

So this is the, this is hard. Heavyweight. There's the reason that heavyweight and boxing is just over 205 pounds. Just do that. Make light heavyweight and heavyweight one way class. Heavy way better. Listen, heavy weights taking a beating and light heavy weight is lucky because light heavy weight is outside. Again, great names of the top.

Okay, exciting guys too. Alex Prater, Yuri, Khalil. Um, Merza Kahnops coming up. Outside of those guys, like, there are some bad, bad, there's some really bad light heavyweight fights and some not great light heavyweight stinks so badly that light heavyweight right now. And because like heavyweight has legitimately like exciting guys at the top, like at least three guys, really exciting guys near the top.

But outside of that, yo, light heavyweight's bad. It is not, you can't just jump up from there and go to heavyweight. I'm telling you. Light and every way just has some more people, but it's also equally as bad. They just have a couple It's like a slightly more amount of juice So combine them out, run it That'd be way better

Cosmo Kramer asking That Poetan, Ulberg, Yuri and Ghana All willing to fight at UFC 327 Should you set up an interim Heavyweight title fight in a vacant Title fight for light heavyweight? Yeah, honestly, screw it Just have Poeton fight zero ground

for the interim heavyweight belt Have Yerian Ulberg fight for the light heavyweight because Poetan vacates. It seems to make a lot of sense to me. Just do that. Okay. Unless Poetan's going to fight John, have him fight Zero Gone,

because heavy weight needs all the help they can get. Serial gone, it is. And he can win that fight. You definitely beat Zero Gone. So, sure, sure. What else we got, Jose? We'll do, if we have no more super chats,

we'll do one more. We have one more super chat. We have one more super chat. It is unrelated. to MMA. Okay. Hold me make sure this is appropriate. So give us one more

MMA related question. I saw another super chat. I think there's two super chats, no? We've hit in all the super chats so far. We got one left, AKA, I have one for you specifically. Well, not for AK, but you'd be the one to answer this.

Why would you say that? While on heavyweight, news has come out in regard to this year's tough, which appears to be middleweight and bantam weight squads middleways what was that Jose middlewis middle of okay which which two weight classes would you choose for tough I don't care I no heavyweight is always funny I mean listen you just throw heavy weights in there because it's funny okay I've always said I want to see the guess in the smallest, which I think they, I don't know if they did it. They almost, I think it was

heavy weights and women's fly weights. I don't think they did heavy weights and straw weights, unless I'm mistaken. I believe it was heavy weights, which is fine. I just like the contrast. I think it's a very funny thing to do. I prefer one weight class seasons. If I'm being honest, I would love it if they do the one way class, the more, because the two-way class ones are so weird. You win one, you win two fights. You win two fights. You go on and then it's like, oh, I'm in the finals. And like, you barely get to know the people. So I would like a slight longer tournament. It's a bit tougher for the people in the house because it means three fights instead of two, which is a huge difference. But I would rather go to one weight class. In that case,

I would probably not pick heavyweights. I would just for entertainment purposes, you go what's a way to lightweight. I think that's probably the best way to go. I didn't see this news on middle weights and bantam weights. Sure. I don't think they have a plan. Like there's been some series where obviously they try to set up like, well, our heavyweight division needs more talents. We're doing heavyweight division or the flyweight to try to bring fly weights back. So during flyweight season. i don't think this is one of those situations so um they just kind of picked two and uh they're going with it yeah uh they should never use split tourneys i think it's very silly especially with contender series like you don't you should basically only be signing the winner

and maybe the finalist from tough and so that should just be one way class a bigger tournament where you accomplish something to get in uh and yeah heavy's is fine they could use the help the only way I'm going to care about tough is if they introduce the atom weight division and do it in a tough house like they did with straw weight you know like then i'll care but otherwise i'm never watching tough again tough should be boring ufc fighters to keep their spots on roster they've sent him mike and i talked about that off air i think last week It was like they should just Instead of cutting Jailton Omator You put him in the tough house with Seven other heavyweights And be like which of you gets to keep your job

This is how we do it now Oh Yeah I do think mixing in some redemption would be fun They've done like two redemption seasons I think And then other seasons have sometimes Occasionally had guys Who've already bought the UFC

Prospects or whatever Prospects right No that's not what that Trust me that's not what that was That's what they called it It was such a weird premise So many of the prospects were like older than the pro. It was weird.

Yeah, it was very silly. I don't count that one. Jose, did you not see, did you see the super chat? I think it's from Twitch. Did you see this one? Tell me. Tell me. I think it is.

From 730 Aden. Did that show up? Did I not post that one? I don't know. I haven't seen a 730. He has. Oh, yes. I see.

I see. Yes, yes, yes. Aiden, which route is more likely for U.S.C. heavyweight, fizzles out and meets the same demise as Women's 145, or UFC makes an actual push to sign good names, Rougu, Rico Verhoeven, Francis and Ghanu, and revives what was once good? Okay, I know my answer. What's yours? Well, Jed, I'm not going to lie. I may have prompted Jose to bring up this super chat, because to tease that you and I may have been working on a little something-sum to sort of answer this very question. So I don't want to spoil it within the next, I think,

think either in the next couple of days. Yeah, sometime in the next couple of days. You will, you guys will see a great divide debating this very topic of what to do with the heavyweight division. To tease it out a little, and I mean, obviously, listen, you're asking us here. I will say, I am in favor of not simply wiping away the big boys of the UFC. I have reasons to be optimistic. I think there, as does not do with signings either. Like, I think there should be some, I think there's room for internal development.

Let me put it that way. I'm being a little vague about it, but I do feel like, We'll see. You can argue that your average fighter is not more exciting now, but I do think your average fighter, at least in the lighter weight classes, you know, is better than your average lightweight.

Like, your average lightweight now is better than your average lightweight from 10 years ago. That's not a broad thing to say. You cannot say that about heavyweight, but I think that the skill will, like, I do think the skill is still, will triple upwards as aware if that makes sense.

I do think there are, that heavy weights will just get better. And I hate using this guy as an example because I just don't like him. But I think Josh Hokka is kind of an example of that. So if we can get more, Josh Hokit's skill-wise, but a little,

maybe a little less personality, as it were, this division will be okay. It will help if they can bring in some names for sure. I would love they could get a Rube, not that he's the most skilled heavyweight I've ever seen, but just for the name of IU, the X factor, yeah. So I am four.

I am for keeping Jed will be doing the opposite case. Way to go, 738. That was the first Superjet in Twitch history. We love that. I am not even as a bit. I think they should scrap the heavyweight division. Not forever, but just for a little bit. If you love something, let it free.

And if it decides to be good again, it will come back to you. So you already cut out made it. Just cut the rest of them. They can all go to PFL. If PFL ends up making like a compelling heavyweight division, you can sign them all back and suddenly you've done it. And if they don't, then it was the right choice to cut them all anyway. So sometimes you need tough love.

And this weight class, it needs a lot of tough love. So I would cut it. I do think that's deeply unlikely to happen, though. My guess is for choosing likelihoods. I don't think either of those postulated scenarios were happening. I think, Aiden, we're just going to do exactly what we've been doing. They'll sign more heavyweights. The heavy weights they sign will mostly be bad.

And one or two will be good enough. And that'll be the lifeblood of the weight class. Duke Mad Duck, there's some fun and promising heavyweight prospects outside the UFC. Some are just 3 and 02 over, but they're promising fun. That's just very early. There's a guy on one tomorrow who looks like he might be decent. But it's just like, yeah. Gable Steven, I think we all believe, has infinite potential.

They need him in the UFC like yesterday to start getting some juice back in his weight class. Charles Holmes. They need to pay for the heavyweight exclusively. get a talent pool yeah i mean that's it yeah that's sort of the broad strokes answer is if you're a big heavy person you can make a lot more money and take a lot less brain trauma and other sports yeah and so we're not getting the best of the best that come to heavyweight and that's just going to be true forever so it is what it is yeah that part's not going to fit that's not changing so it is what it is i would like to see them take a more grassroots developmental approach

is not interested in doing that. So they're not going to because they should be doing the same thing for all the women's weight classes right now. But not going to be part of the game for them. I believe we have two more Super Jets, Jose, and then let's get out of here. We have, do we have two? We have one. You can't read that.

One just came up. Yeah, I'll put it up. Should I put it up, A.K.? No. Oh, put it up. Put it up. Mr. Signor Pepe says you suck, Jet. Jack,

love you, Jose and D.K. That's not a question. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Senior Pepe. Thank you for the super chat.

And then we have, this will be the final questions. The last super chats unrelated to MMA, but I'm sure you guys have seen it. Oh, yeah. I have. Also from a person who

we're just not going to say you mean. Best slash worst Valentine's Day story slash escapades. Valentine's Day, of course, this weekend. And since there is no major you all at home are free to spend that day with your significant others and celebrate love a k do you have any exciting or interesting Valentine's day stories or escapades that you

have nothing exciting i have nothing exciting i will say i was in high school uh the guy i definitely have a poem that i wrote on a valentine's day on a very dateless valentine's day um you will know you guys will never see it uh it is I'm just thinking about it now off the top of my head. I can't remember exactly. I'm just laughing at the thought of it. So emo. And also I was that kid even up until, like, you remember when you were in grade school?

And everyone was encouraged like, all right, kids are all writing valentines to each other and sticking in the cubby or whatever. I was still doing that in high school. I was doing that up until I was like 18 years old. I would get a bunch of valentines and I'd go around to people, a lot of pretty ladies, hoping for the best and having zero success, but doing a lot of very, you know, sending a lot of nice messages. So that is my Valentine's Day experience for the most part.

Thank God I'm married now. So we'll never need to speak of those days again. But yes, my Valentine's days were very, I don't know, positive. Thank you. Thank you. You know, I try to stay positive even as I was crying all along. Hey, just because you're married doesn't mean you're out of the, you got to date your wife, AK. You got to date your wife.

Do something nice for a moment's day. It's important. I will definitely will. otherwise. Otherwise, I will have a Valentine's Day worst story to tell next time. I don't have any interesting stories.

Like nothing. I have, like the only even marginally interesting thing that I would have is like, I once did not break up with a girl that I would have broken up with because it was like a week before Valentine's Day. And that seemed rude.

But, you know, it's just like, not a big holiday person in general. So especially like the older I've gotten, the less I care about any of them other than like Christmas a little bit. So not a major holiday for me. I'm sorry to let you down, imposter me, but I don't have any great stories. Jose, do you have anything to end us with a bang? Let me pull myself, my face up. I was like trying to think back to grade school if I had like a super embarrassing one.

Jose has so many. Jose has so many. You're muted. My girlfriend. My girlfriend that I still am dating, one of the first few valentines we ever had, she got me. It's now even cooler, obviously, but it's a cameo of Kevin Conroy. The late Kevin Conroy. Yes, and I still have on my phone because Kevin Conroy is the man.

And it had just, Joker had come out. And I thought the first Joker movie, well, both Joker movies, I thought was really dumb. and he made a video responding to why I think it's dumb and I cherish it dearly and it's still on my phone. Oh, that's, that's what I bring in. Yeah, that was good. That's like the best president I've ever gotten too. I mean, I believe that. He's, he's Batman.

Yeah. He is by all definitions, the only Batman. The only Batman I acknowledge certainly. Correct. And also, because another super. chat came in and we can end with this on the topic of rip james vanderbeak's shout out super young james that pola was hitting different today that i woke up to that song today that that that was hitting different all all of the west canaan football team is gone

i saw a graph oh paul walker gone billy bob gone the west canaan football team is in dire That's the only, I think that's the only thing I've ever seen James Vanderbiken, ever. Or is he in Jaylon's Silent Bob? He's in the Jay and Salon Bob strike back. Yeah, so I've seen two James Vanderbaker. He's always in pretty good cameos and stuff. He was going in, what's that blue mountain high? Is that what it's called?

He was in that? Blue Mountain State. Is that what is called? Was he playing mucks? That was a show. I've never actually seen that show. What's the football movie? What's the football movie he's in?

varsity blues yes he was going to brown which when i was young is always nice to hear of rhode island college uh shouted out on a major motion picture oh yeah that's where he wanted to go because he was the smart football player that didn't need to play football because he was intelligent and he was reading books on the sideline rather than his playbook because that's what because that's what people from Rhode Island do. They're all about their education. I mean, it was also just a ludicrous premise. Like, you could go to college for free if you are the state champion quarterback of a Texas football program.

But he didn't want to. He wanted to pursue his true passion. And that was academia. And he was going to the number one. Actually, I think it's like the lowest ranked Ivy League school. But we persevere. Still, I. I binge the entirety of Dawson's Creek not too long ago.

I had never watched it before. A friend of mine had was like in the middle of binge and I was like, I'll do it too. So this is a few years ago. So this is a fresh wound for me. I feel like I've really lost a friend here. So I didn't know I've been 48 years old. But I've seen a few. It was one of those things you used to watch after the prices, right?

When you stayed home preschool sick, prices right, it's over, Dawson's Creek beyond. You'll watch a little bit of it. But yeah, he'll always be mocks. And shout out. Gone away too soon. Lazy bed. There you go. Thank you.

Do you want to do dramatic reading? I said this so much yesterday. But it's a perfect way to end. I don't want your life. Just one of the all-time great movie quotes. Beautiful. Everything about Varsely Blues bangs. And I'm sad about that.

R&P. James Vanderb. You're a real one. And with that, say goodbye, everybody. Do I have music? Maybe. I mean, I can say... Can you play Paula? Dude, look at soon, right? I don't know where this came from. I'm going to be honest, I am not

deeply acknowledge of the bad buddy catalog, but Tiki Miura Menta has been in my head since this is so good. So good. It's incredibly catchy, despite the fact. You know, I applied to be one of the bushes in that halftime show. I did not get it. I did not get a callback.

Wow. Well, I assumed I was signing up for the Ricky Martin role, not the role. Said Bush. But anyway. I mean, it would be pretty cool to be like, I was one of those bushes. It's what I was born to be. Oh, well. Anyway.

I wanted to be dancing next to Jessica Alba. That I did not get that. I wanted to be dancing with Pedro Biscal. That seems. young miko shout out young miko anyway that's it for us thanks for turning in next week back to our regular schedule programming mike heck will be back from vacation we have ufc what's next week i believe we also have we have raf seven or six i can't remember which number it is we will be at uh mike heck and i that is in phoenix uh and then we have uFC is it ufc is it ufc is it

Mexico? No, no, no, no. Next week it's fluffy. It is Houston. It's Fluffy. Son Shickland is in Houston. Yes, you're right, you're right. So, R.A.F.

Both of you guys at that, we have U.S. Houston, and back to our regularly scheduled with BTL. I assume, actually, maybe, when are you guys, you guys are going, we might do BTL on Tuesday.

Follow the socials check along because with all that stuff. BTL may be Tuesday, but I have to talk to to Mike. These on vacation are not going to call him. So thank you for tuning in. Jose, thank you for stepping up and do a production because I would have sucked at it. A.K., thanks for just being you.

We love you for it. And thank you all for tuning in again. Talk to you next time. Oste Loego.