MMA Fighting - Between the Links: Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley, Return of TUF, UFC Vegas 28, More

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

This week, Mike Heck hosts the BTL interim title matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and his rival and colleague Jose Youngs as they will discuss the announced boxing matchup between Jake Paul and former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley on Aug. 28, the stakes involved for both men (especially Woodley), the return of The Ultimate Fighter this past Tuesday night, this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 28 event headlined by a heavyweight matchup between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Augusto Sakai, comparing Saturday’s card at the APEX to Bellator 260 next weekend, Kevin Lee’s return booked against Sean Brady at UFC 264, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. On M.M.A. Fighting 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. Thank you for joining us once again this week. Things are a little bit more back to normal this week. The UFC is back on Saturday. I just want to get out of the way.

I've had a hell of a day. I have no idea how the show is going to go. I made it back to the beautiful Berkshers just in time for this grudge match of sorts. If we were going to start late, we're going to start late. This show was going to go on. So let us not waste any time here. Let's get right into this thing as we introduce two of the winningest players to compete on this program for the BTL interim strap, which may become a full-fledged title pretty soon.

But joining us once again this week is the Challenger. He is the host of the A-side Live Chat, a little over two years in performing this happy anniversary to the multiple time winner on the show from MMA fighting Mr. Jose Youngs. Hello, sir. You say this is a grudge match, but I don't even know who I'm facing, nor have I ever thought about facing anyone else on this show. You keep saying I have an opponent. I've never heard of this gentleman, whoever his name is.

So, no, this is not a grudge match because that means I would have to allocate mental space to whoever I'm facing today. Allegedly, his name is Judd. I have no idea who that is. So I'm very delighted to meet another fellow. I hear he's not really an MMA journalist. He's kind of a fan that tweets a lot from what I gather. So I'm excited to finally meet this individual I've heard so much about.

And you might hear the barking of the new dog in the house. I don't know what the hell he's barking at, but he hasn't barked yet. But apparently between the links is now the time to bark. But as we introduce the reigning defending BTL interim champ, and especially after hearing that, if you've seen him on social media since last week's show ended. I don't know if this matchup fully satisfies him, but I think it's a step in the right direction, I would say,

as we introduce the interim champ from MFAiding.com, Mr. Jedmishu. Hello, sir. Hey, Mike. I had some clever responses to my God, because he doesn't ever say anything of consequence. So I'm really happy to be back with you. And Casey, if I could just request,

in lieu of my record, which is obviously excellent, winningest player in history, the show. If you could just replace that with my record over Jose Young's, uh, for the rest of this show, I think that that would be a little, a little claimer up there exactly for what that is. And we can just, we can move forward. What is that record in case those are, who are not aware? What is that record? Three one should be four oh, but, you know, three one. There's, there's no rivalry. There's no ill will here, you know, just when you, when you've shown such

Your dominance over somebody. It's hard to be to be upset by. The only thing I am upset by is the absolute cowardice of Jose with Sean Alshadhi because we called the shot last week, Mike. I mean, me, Fernando Prattis, tag team champions, the uncrowned tag team champions of this show. We've never had a tag team show, but pretty clearly, obviously, the best team that you could have. You know, we extended an olive branch. we wanted to pick up these young whippersnappers in the

journal. They were being a shot up at the champs. Silence. The silence is deafening, as my tag team partner said yesterday. So that's the only beef I have. Mike, is this the jester that said he wanted to be part of the nation of domination and historically all black professional wrestling stable? I mean, Owen Hart was on there.

Owen Hart transcends all race and time. So, no, he doesn't count. I understand Jedman, this character, this individual, whoever he is, wants to be part of a race, a stable of fully African-American professional wrestlers. For whatever reason, some of them include Delo Brown and then Rocky Ma'a via a la the Rock. But maybe he should learn about, you know, storylines and stuff before he adds himself into a group of men where he clearly is not what they are looking for. Look, everybody, every group has to have. have, you know, the guy dragging them down. And that's me.

I can be the anchor for them. And I would be linked to me. You already do that with whatever website you work at right now. You already fill that role. Oh, man. We haven't even gotten to a, we haven't even gotten to a question yet. And we're already off and running six minutes into this program. But let's get right into this.

Let's get to the biggest story of the week. And for those watch right now, you can roll your eyes all you want. I get it. But it is the biggest story of the week at our circle. We found out that Jake Paul, a name I didn't think we would say on this program for at least another month or two, he has his next fight booked. On August 28th, he is going to fight the former UFC Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in a boxing match. And this probably comes to nobody's surprise because the seeds have been planted for quite some time, at least since the Ben Ascran fight made me before that. And now it's a done deal for Showtime Pay-Per-view on August 28th.

So Jed Mishu, you have been all in on the madness. It took you a little bit to get there, but you are there now. What is your reaction to this fight being booked and it being a done deal for later on the summer? This is absolutely brilliant matchmaking. I'm all in on this too. I'm all in on this from the jump. Look, hate him or love him. Most people hate him.

That's cool because I don't like Jake Paul either. There's not a lot to like there unless you're like 12 years old. But you cannot deny that he has played the image. MMA world like a fiddle. He's eliciting emotions. Maybe they're cheap. You know, maybe it's cheap, but it's heat nonetheless. And he is playing this exactly right.

Like, this is how you should manage his career. You know, he fought a YouTuber. I think he fought like a YouTuber brother or something like that. I'm not 100% on those couple early ones. Then he fought Nate Robinson, who's famous and an athlete, but has no combat experience. Now he fought, you know, Ben Ascran, who has combat experience, but isn't a boxer and he's taking the next logical jump up like this is exactly how you should craft his career and it's a compelling fight i'm here to tell you i think tyron woodley's going to win this

because there's a pretty big gulf between losing to vicente luke and m m m and losing to jake paul and boxing and so like i'm the first guy who's going to say tewood's washed like homie's been washed for a while but he'd have to be really washed, I think, to lose this fight. But I have questions. Like, how insane is it? Just try and turn your mind back to 2019 and be like, hey, Tyron Woodley is going to box a guy named Jake Paul. You'd probably never heard of him because you're not 12 years old and on YouTube or TikTok or whatever the hell of the kids are on these days. He's going to box him and he is not going to be a betting favorite.

Like, that is mind blowing that we're here. but there's like real reason to it. And so I'm compelled. I want to see what happens. I want to see this fight not for any of the answer to shit. Because again, I don't give two shits about Jake Paul. But he's a going concern in the industry we're working in. And I am legitimately kind of fascinated to see how this fight plays out.

Jose, your reaction to this fight. Don't hate it. Good on time, Willie, as he described. making probably the biggest paycheck of his professional combat sports career, his manager, Malki Kawa, spoke to our own Damon Marr and on MayfightFighting.com, and he was said that he described it as the best contract he has ever negotiated. Tyron's already guaranteed a million dollars before even throwing a punch. And with all of the added promotion, the pay-viewpoints,

they even added a rematch clause, or if he beats Jake Paul, they have to automatically rematch means he probably gets an even bigger pay bump if he wins and runs it back with Jake Paul. So good on Tyron Woodley, good on his man. good on his team or whatever for getting him ready. I'm also very curious what happens inside the squared circle. Jake Paul, I've said this a lot with fighters such as Greg Hardy. If it wasn't for all of the tomfoolery that is surrounding his name outside of the ring

or outside of the octagon, outside of the gym, whatever you want to call it. When you speak about these individuals, that's obviously you have to bring it up. You can't just gloss it over. Jake Paul's, of course, was being investigated for sexual assault or someone said that he had committed and they are investigating it. So if that is true, trash human being probably shouldn't be anywhere near society, let alone a boxing ring.

But outside of that, if none of that happened, we would be praising Jake Paul for the route he's taking. He's taking this seriously. He's training with BJ Flores, who has 34 professional boxing wins and like what, three or four losses. He's fought a couple title fights all around the world.

He is an incredibly high-level boxer, and he is a fantastic coach. He's uprooted his whole life from Los Angeles, to go live in Puerto Rico and Miami to train boxing full-time. So if it wasn't for all of this outside noise, we would be talking about Jake Paul taking this right path. But unfortunately, we can't gloss over everything surrounding him. So Ty Woodley has some of the best collegiate wrestling accolades

we've ever seen to Mix Martial Arts, five-time welterweight champion, many people considering one of the three, if not five greatest welterweights in the history of mixed martial arts up there with George St. Pierre, Matt Hughes, and current champion, Kamara Usman. He hits really, really hard. Jake Paul has done phenomenal boxing training right now. He's obviously not a high-calibre professional boxer, as my opponent said.

Losing to Vicente Lucie, Luka and MMA, nothing to hang your head out. Losing to Jake Paul in boxing, probably going to be pretty embarrassing for at least a good year, but eventually people move on. But I am very curious what happens inside the square-ed circle, especially because this is a professional boxing match. This is an exhibition. this is an amateur, there's no headgear, this is professional with judges and everything on showtime, no less.

So I am very intrigued what happens once both men finally throw down whenever that is. Okay, so, Jose, the knock on Jake Paul has been, you know, okay, step your game up. You can knock out Nate Robinson, knock out Ben Ascran, who wasn't a boxer. You know, obviously Ben Asker, not a knockout guy in the feet. Now he gets Taran Woodley, who has knock guys out. He had a stretch where, yeah, he was a little bit trigger. shy in some of these fights, especially like the last few in the UFC, but he came out guns blazing in the Lucke fight, went on to lose his fort straight, but he did show some gusto in there. So for those

who have been sort of poo-pooing Jake Paul's level of competition, sort of outside the narrative and the other things that surround him, like, is this the right step up for him, Jose? Like, I feel like, you know, transitionally, this is the right way to go. But if he goes out there and beats Tyron Woodley, does like the combat sports world start to take him a little more serious? Without a doubt. Anytime you fight, like losing, like he beat Ben Ascran. And we all know Ben Ascran was a high-level mixed martial arts fighter. Obviously, he didn't have the striking or the jiu-jitsu to go with it, but he was so dominant at one thing.

And we've talked about Douglas Lima a lot, Casey, the producer, thinks he's the second-best welts way in the world. Ben Askron took it to him and kind of beat the soul out of him. Same as Koreskov and a lot of other these guys outside of the UFC. Gets the UFC wants to test himself. Obviously, as we've seen him get knocked out by Mazat. seen to get knocked out by Jake Paul now. Beating Ben Ascran, who was an MMA champion, but he wasn't a UFC champion.

And as I said before, a lot of people consider Tyne Woodley one of the greatest welterweights of all time and one of the most competitive divisions historically in mixed martial arts. Jake Paul beating someone with those accolades tied to him is going to be a big deal in the combat sports world. He's not beating a boxer, no, but he might get a, maybe he gets another boxer, a high-level boxer down the road. but beating Tyre and Woodley in the Year of Our Lord, 2021, will probably be, we'll do more in legitimizing his career

as a professional athlete and a professional combat sports athlete than beating Ben Ascrant. So yes, the storyline is there, the competition is there, all the accolades for Ty Woodley is there. It's a professional setting on Showtime Sports. I think it's fantastic, perfect matchmaking for whatever they're trying to do with Jake Paul's career. I have no complaints.

Jed, what are your thoughts on that? I know you feel like this is the right step up in competition. This makes all the sense of the world for that sense. But if Jake Paul goes out there and beats Tyron Woodley, like do we start to look at him more seriously? It's not just like, you know, a smart businessman who's picking the right fights in order to earn knockouts and get big paydays. Like it's on showtime now.

You beat Star and Woodley. Like does this, do people take him more seriously if he wins? No. We live in the upside down. Like one, I want to be clear. This is the right step up in context. This is like actually a really bad. step up for him in the normal existence of worlds. Like if you take a, let's call him promising

amateur boxer, I don't actually think that's maybe the right word there, but let's just say it. You wouldn't make them take kind of this level up this early, just be, especially without any amateur accolades, because this is honestly a huge step up for him. So like, there's a lot of danger that he loses his fight. But it's a good fight in the sense that, hey, we, we're moving him up. And if he took a Dylan Danis or something like that, then nobody would respect him at all because he's, he's accelerating timelines here just because he's famous and he elicit such emotion. But for those same reasons, even if he goes out and starches tea wood in the first four minutes, maybe a couple more people are like, okay, this kid's, he's got something here. I don't know what. But I just don't think it's going to get him this kind of general acclaim.

I don't know that he gives a shit about that because he's just, again, he's trying to elicit a. emotion to make money. But I think the excuses will come really fast and really quick. Like we felt the same thing with Ben Ascran. A lot of people came in saying, well, you know, Ben Ascern is a win. Even if Ben Ascran isn't a good striker, he's still a combat sports professional. And after it's like, okay, well, Ben Ascran sucks and didn't take it seriously. And he's fat.

Look at him. Like, who gives a shit? This doesn't mean anything. It's not just going to be the haters to do that. They're going to be a huge swath of people who go, well, He knocked at a dude who's lost his last four in a row. Has it looked competitive in basically any of those fights? He's, you know, pushing 40 or maybe T. Wood even is 40 at this point.

Yeah, he's bricked up like a, like a shit house. But, you know, he's those are all fake muscles. He's not a boxer. Whatever this doesn't count. Like, Jay Pauls just never, he would have to put together an incredible run over like a lot of huge names to be respected as a boxer ever. So him beating a washed up, I actually, I won't quote that, a washed up former UFC champion. I don't think that's going to move the needle too much for him in that regard.

But it is going to open doors. Like that's a big name on the resume, even if everybody thinks it's dog shit. So it's still going to create, it's going to build him to the fight that we're all heading towards. We know where this goes, Mike. It goes to Con and McGregor. That's our end road.

And this is a step to get there, especially if Jake Paul can get the W. you. All right. Last thing on this, because we got to talk about the flip side, because Tired Woodley has been a guy that probably deserved a lot more praise, a lot more respect, especially during his days as champion, because he was active. He fought the next man up pretty much every time, but he enters this fight clearly in the MMA space as the baby face here, Jedmishu. A lot will be on his shoulders. Like you said, Ben Ascgren was kind of in the same position. He didn't seem to care. This was an admitted money grab for him and more power to him.

Now he can play disc golf wherever he wants. He can build the best disc golf course in the world if he wants to because he's got the money to do so. But Woodley's a different guy, very emotional individual. So I guess how would you describe the pressure that has been placed upon him? And what happens if he wins and on the other side, what happens if he loses or worse gets knocked out by Jake Paul on August 28th? If he wins, I have a lot of concerns about what's next to me. They'll do the rematch probably unless he goes.

out and immediately kills like Jake Paul, then they probably just will say like, yeah, we don't want to do that rematch. That's not good for us. But if he wins, there's even a spark of competition there, then they'll run the rematch. So he'll get paid twice. But if he wins and then wins again, then he's already said that he's kind of looking to make this as a transition point for him. Like, I'll keep doing some boxing.

Maybe some other organizations will be more interested in me. And fair play to him. You know, more power to you to leverage the name and leverage this, this opportunity into bigger things. I don't think that's probably great for his long-term health because, like I said, I think Tom Willie is pretty washed. So if he fights like real fighters and not YouTubers, that's a far bigger likelihood that this gets short-circuited kind of very quickly for him. But grab all the cash you can and get paid, get out, get paid as long as you possibly can. There aren't going to be a ton of people lining up to pay him, given the bad. run he's been on. So if he can leverage this for that, great. On the other side, if he loses,

that's got to be the end of his career. Like, unless he loses by DQ or some kind of real weird chicanery, who's going to sign him to fight? I mean, there's always somebody, but I just can't see. If he gets knocked out by Jake friggin' Paul, I hope he doesn't fight again. I feel like he might, he might just walk away at that point and be like, all right, obviously I don't have it anymore. I have a lot of other opportunities. He's nominally a rapper, so I guess he can keep doing that, but he's really good in the booth. He's an actor.

He's actually not like that bad at that. He has a ton of talent can do anything else you want, so I think if he loses, it's the end of his career, which is probably a good thing because he can make money and succeed in life outside of getting punched in the head. Jose, what do you think? Obviously, if he wins, he's the hero of the MMA community. You got a sour post on your face.

I'm sure you'll explain why, but if he loses, is this just like, oh, low, devastating to Tyron Woodley? Like, to Ben Asker, he didn't care. I feel like Tyrant won't approach it the same way. My opponent laid out all these things that, some I agree with, don't quite agree with him being, quote, good in the booth. I don't agree with that whatsoever. I also don't kind of, it's not a very good actor. Is he in memorable scenes? Sure.

Did he get his junk bid off by Iraq? He did. Does that mean he's a good actor? No, it doesn't. Is it memorable? Explain to me how that's bad acting. Have you ever had a It's bad acting? It is it is bad acting well, I can't say I ever have nor do I ever plan on it, but that's good acting in the sense that you like bad heavyweight action and you think Steve Baye Mioch is kind of an overrated heavyweight, which just shows that he's a great heavyweight because you think bad heavyweight fighting is good, just like getting your junk bit off. is good. It's not. It's bad. It's not great for you. It's not a good look. Do you know what his IMDB says for that role? It's literally like fool or idiot or dummy. And that's what I felt he is for taking that role. Anyway. To perfection. There are no small parts, Jose Youngs. Only small action. I will take your expertise in playing the fool. So if he played to perfection, I will take your word for it because I

have myself never played a role quite like that. So you yourself apparently have been playing that role for as long. I don't even know how old you are, young man. So congratulations to you for being the expert in that role. But anyway, Tyne Woodley, if he wins and then beats Jake Paul again, give him Logan Paul. Why not? Just make a bunch of money knocking people out that people want to see get knocked out. You beat Jake Paul twice.

Why not go after the older brother with wrestling pedigree? Hell, box him. and then the rematch can be a wrestling match. Logan Paul plays fifth in Ohio high school wrestling. Ohio is a like a hotbed. It is a murderous row every year in high school and collegiate wrestling. So say what you want about the Paul brothers, especially Logan Paul for what he did in Japan and that whole idiocy

and what what Jake Paul has been accused of. Logan Paul plays placing fifth in the high school wrestling in the state of Ohio, as our own Damon Martin will attest, is nothing to hang your head at. If Tyrone Woodley knocks out both Paul brothers and then wrestles them and then takes his soul in wrestling, beating someone at how old is he, like 40, and twice these individuals age,

that's a lot of money he can make, and they're prize fighters after all. So two Tyron Woodley, just keep, if you win, you get a lot of money. And then guess what? You don't have to play, quote, The Fool anymore or put out bad music. Just go knock out people and wrestle people

that people want to see lose, and that can be your sluble. lot in life and you know what you can be the baby face moving forward against all these youtube people what if he losing my opponent just said you know that he's never been the fool and then comes out with the most mike goldberg well he finished fifth in high school wrestling like i don't care what state it is he didn't even win and even that's not an accolade that matters especially if we're talking about john john jones john jones didn't win stay wrestling John Jones came in third in high school wrestling.

I think he had a pretty good combat of sport career. Matt Riddle actually won that year. He had a decent combat sports career, and he's parlayed that into making a lot of money. So high school wrestlers, go do your thing. Don't listen to my opponent right now. If you plays fifth, good on you. That's still better than most people in the world.

There you go. You know what happens, Mike? If Tower Woodley wins, he boxes Connor McGregor. That's what happens. Get paid that way. I'd watch the shit out of that, and so would you. So this is the Connor sweepstakes that they're fighting for? So there's way more on the line that we thought.

Well, more on this in the coming months. It is happening. We will not be talking about it every week on this program, but we will be talking about it as we get closer and closer. But we're going to move ahead to more MMA-related stuff in round two. But the point for our opening round goes to Jedmishu on the board. One to nothing. Hell of a first round.

As we move ahead to the return of the ultimate fighter. Yes, the comeback season has officially kicked off with middleweights and bantam weights and Alexander Volcanowski and Brian Ortega. The great coaches of the season picked their teams. We had our first fight. Andre Petroski submitted Aaron Phillips in the first round. We have our first bannamweight matchup set for next week. The first overall pick was Mitch Ruposo.

New England regional standout. A lot of eyes upon him. He's going to fight Tim Ortega's Ludwig Schillenian, I believe, is his name. But that should be a great fight. But I'm curious, Jose, did you partake in the return of the ultimate fighter? If you did, what did you think? And if not, why did you choose not to watch it? I chose not to watch it, not because I hate it, nor do I want it to go away.

I'm pretty indifferent to the ultimate fighter. If he gives these fighters a platform to make money moving forward, have at it, man. I mean, freaking Julian Lane is still kind of relevant when he does bare-knuckle boxing just for something he's screamed on the ultimate fighter. So don't particularly care whether it stays or goes. I didn't watch it because I took a date to unplug and go hike on a mountain. I did some sort of physical, strenuous activity, which my opponent, as I can kind of, I just assume, has never particularly done. So I think he gets out winded when he stands up from whatever couch he's sitting on, probably not even couch, a stool of sorts because he likes to pretend that he is a relevant combat sports experience box.

I imagine he's one of those guys that just sits on a box of stool and yells at a computer all he wants because he's lived it, man. I'm sitting here doing it. But no, I did not watch it. Will I watch it? Maybe, especially if there's some good fights on it. But no, I did not watch it, but I am indifferent whether it stays or goes. Did you watch, Jed? I mean, something tells me you probably didn't, but maybe you did.

I don't know. And if did you watch it? What in God's name when I watched that? No. also for the record Mike ran six miles this morning eat a bag of I don't think I can say the word that I want to finish with Jose but no I won't watch it because why would I watch this like I'm I'm loath to give Jose props but like I'm with him I don't care if it's on like it's I I question the idea that like tough is the way to make money in the UFC or build a name because so few people watch it and realistically. I just it just doesn't seem like they're better options contender series or you know just fighting it out on the regional circuit and then signing an individual contract which we've seen fighters do before but I'm totally fine for it to be here my biggest beef with the whole thing

honestly is not that it exists but that because it exists um coaches just turn into awful humans and so like Alex Volcanowski is now doing this whole manufactured beef thing with Ortega that nobody really buys and even if it's true is just the lamest ass thing I've ever heard. Yeah, he seems really fake. Okay, can you give us some examples? No, he just seems fake. Like, sweet. What a savage beef you two have.

Like, it's just, it's turning on for the cameras and it sucks. It's transparent and awful. You don't need anything to sell this fight. Like, this is a dope fight between two of the best 145ers in the world. And that's honestly just going to detract. from it as Brian Ortega and him snip at each other for the next few months. So that's my only issue with it. And it's not really with it,

but with kind of what it creates by existing, what it leaves in its wake. But other than that, I mean, it's fine. You know, if people like it, I'm not here to yuck your yum.

Good on whoever's in there. And I'm not going to watch an episode. Why would I watch an episode, Mike? That takes up 60 of my minutes, which are precious. They're very precious. I do a lot of important things.

And instead, I can read our recaps by our own Alex K. Lee on MMAfighting.com the morning after. I can just do that instead. They're better. There you go. Way to put over one of your teammates, Jed. So one of my biggest issues with the Ultimate Fighter is not the show itself, because I do like the concept. I think it shines some light on the regional MMA scene. I prefer, obviously, the contender series more because it's all about the fights.

Yeah, we get some backstory. but it's about the fights and the fighters, and it's just like, we get through five fights in like two hours at the most, and it's just like, damn, this is good, and it happens every week. Tough to me is the same show we have seen for 20-something seasons. Like outside of the apex, replacing the tough gym

and having upgraded equipment, it is exactly the same show. I cannot believe we still have friggin basketball jerseys. We're still doing the basketball jersey thing in season 29. It's the same. friggin' show. So I'm curious, Jed, like, can the show evolve at all? Like, is it even possible?

Like, is there anything the UFC can do to make this more interesting to you? Like, what would make you watch the Ultimate Fighter and, like, go out of your way to watch it on a weekly basis? The only way, so no is the answer. As long as Dana White's there, no, because Dana White believes that tradition, you can't, you don't mess with tradition, I guess. Like, I don't know. How long did Gladys?

Like it's, we don't change. We're in the stream and this is the stream we're going down until we all die. So they're going to be wearing jerseys. They're not going to have phones. They're going to get drunk and destroyed property because that's, that's what it is. And that's what we're going to be unless they did a fundamental overall. And even I'm not even sure what that looks like. The only way for them to make me watch is the way that they've made me watch over the last 10 years, basically.

The only seasons I've watched are the ones. where a title was on the line. Because a tough title doesn't mean anything. It's great. You won a tournament. That's fine. Like, cool, you get a contract, but everyone on the show gets a contract. But when they did the 20, I think season 20 was the straw weights, and they claimed

a title, even though the two best straw weights weren't actually on that season. Like, I watched that because that mattered. And that's the only way they can do it. Maybe if they did, like a featherweight one, like a women's featherweight one, where it wasn't just a bunch of Bannon weights who didn't have to cut as much weight. It was like actual feather weights. Maybe I might do that because that at like all of those women

would suddenly be in the UFC. But outside of that, that's it. Like give me an atom weight one. You do an atom weight tough I'll watch. Otherwise, I'm going to leave that to the A.K. Lees of the world. And I will just read recaps. What do you think, Jose? Is there anything that would make this like must watch viewing for you?

I mean, it's something like you could binge watch if you don't feel good if you want to catch up on stuff you could read the recaps etc but is there like anything that they could do at this point to make you feel like oh man it's tuesday night julia we can't go on a date because i got to watch the ultimate fighter like what what could they do at this point well first i would like to respond to my opponent he said that he ran six miles probably not true let's be honest that's probably six boxes of rollo's uh yes rollo's a very overrated candy for a very overrated bars what the hell are you talking about out.

You will find a way. When I say a box, I mean a box of rolls. A box of rolls of rollo. So let's be honest, you probably didn't run six miles. Second, he said that he reads the recaps. He can't read. So again, probably not true. So anyway, now that we have those out of the way, I'm going to fact check this man every

time. So he's over two on things that he's, again, probably didn't do, ladies a gentleman. Anyway, this man said he wants more weight classes and this and that. We've heard it all before. Mike, actually, you've asked me this question on a past iteration of Between the Links, pre-M-A fighting, which guess who won? This guy, I'd be MMA junkie's own Nolan King. You asked me this question.

I'm going to say the same thing. I don't care what weight classes. I don't care about titles. I don't care about any of that because people still aren't going to watch. I want K-1-style selection process with the ping-pong balls. You pull out number one. You go stand on a life-size bracket on when you want to fight. number two pulls it out.

You can either fight the guy or he can pick when he fights. And then he stands on, again, a life-size bracket. Japan's combat sports, they just do it right, ladies and gentlemen. Everything from the posters down in the selection process, which Scott Colcroft, Bellator, straight up copied. And we all loved it. Our own Casey Leiden and Esther were there. And for the selection process for the Bellator featherweight Grand Prix,

and it was universally praised for being fantastic. It planted seeds for storylines without even, throwing a punch. I mean, the fact that Patricio Pitbull could have fought AJ McKee and this and that and he didn't, he wanted the later date and then they ended up working out anyway and then just the seeds were planted. Don't care what weight class.

Hell, make it an open weight. I don't even, I don't care about that either. Make it a bunch of veterans. Don't care either. Make it a redemption. Make it a tough return of fighters outside the UFC. Don't care. I just want a crazy ping pong ball selection process with a life-size

bracket and storylines there and Bada Hari and Overeem can jibber jab at each other from across the way in this hotel room and then they can get in a fist fight on the floor when someone when Badaari straight up kisses a man and then he just like he just like bottles this man in the face. I love it all and that's

what I want. Don't care about weight classes I just want a crazy selection process with the crazy pride lady screaming and everything. That's what I want and that is the only way to fix the ultimate fighter. I do there is some sound effect coming but uh

Jed you have a retort you have a look on you here you have that show looking you're out he acted like it was impressive to beat Nolan King and anything I was like oh this this has no value it's really not I was mostly remembering a time when I defeated

for MMA report oh you actually got a win on this show instead of just losing to me those were good times you're acting like we've met before like I understand stand in your dreams maybe that you've you've concocted these scenarios where you've met Jose Young's in your in your travels it just hasn't happened my man so keep telling

yourself that and I'll just keep playing along be like cool guy go back to eating your rollo's and your raisinettes or whatever you're feasting on these days no joke Mike I had a dream that I had a serious opponent for retail this week and I was supposed to face Leoto Machita and I was like oh shit that's that might be tough again you're Who did he call out last week? Who did this individual call out last week? Shot him against who? Oh, okay.

So why are you calling out individuals that you claim are worthy opponents? Are you trying to, quote, take the easy way through life? Probably, again, probably. Yeah. Probably true. Yeah. As you, it's easy to, it's very easy to say you ran six miles. It's another thing to actually get up out of your chair and go upstairs.

So yes. Continue to call out people you think are easy. Continue on, Mike. I apologize for my opponent for interrupting you. Well, I know Alex K. Lee will not be thrilled about any negative talk regarding the ultimate fighter. And no besmirching, the New England man, Nolan King, good, good, good dude. We'll move along. It is AK's birthday after all, so we will not besmirch the ultimate fighter any longer.

The point for round two. It goes to, I mean, how. How could you not give it to the emotional Jose Youngs after just laying it out there with passion? Absolutely passion. I don't know if I dig the personal attacks. I think the fans dig it. They want to see, they feel like Jose has turned this into sort of a street beef. There's beef?

Oh, that's how you fix tough. You just give it to the street beef guys. Let them do the fights. Or the fight service people. That fixes stuff immediately. I don't want to get out of that. You were like 30 seconds too late on these ideas, Jed. I feel like you could have gone off on a wonderful tangent there

that we could have clipped off and could have remembered for years to come. But that was the ultimate fighter. We're going to move ahead to this weekend's action. The UFC is back with UFC Vegas 28, headlined by a heavyweight matchup between Jarzini Roe. and strike and Augusto Sakai. And yes, there are certainly some very interesting fights on this card, but with all due respect,

this probably isn't a card that a good amount of fans are going to cancel their plans for. And if you told me a year ago that Augusto Sakai's next two fights would be main events, I probably would not have believed you. So Jed, what do you think, man? After a week off from UFC action, is this the kind of events that you are excited to come back? Dude, have you told me after he lost an overing that his next fight would be a main event, I'd be like, well, that doesn't make any sense at all.

Like, this card's trash. There's just no other way to put it. It's the kind of trash that I actually like more than most because with three heavyweight fights on it. So that's dope. But the main event is probably going to be an awful fight. It's just straight up. It's going to be terrible. Because Jarosino Rosenstrike, he's like a heavyweight bad version of YOL Romero, if that can give you.

Like, he'll just, like, not do anything for a really long time. And then suddenly he'll just do something really violent and then that finishes the fight. But he's not as good as J. O.R. Romero, so that's less cool. And he's certainly not as, like, bricked up as Yol. And Augusta Sakai is, he's one of those guys who, God bless him. Like he's doing all the right things. Like he has a game that fits together.

It's like clearly intentional and thought out. And he just does not have the raw tools to succeed at the very upper bounds of this sport. Like he went to a split decision with 40-year-old Andrei Alasky guys. And then he lost a 40-year-old Alistair over him. Like he just he doesn't have the physical tools to compete at like the tops of the heavyweight division, which are really defined by things like power athleticism. of durability. And so he's probably going to be like winning this fight via activity right up until

the moment he loses his fight because the Irish Union Frozen Strike can punch really hard and is like way more athletic than Augustus Sakai is. And so it's it's going to be kind of boring, but it might have a cool finish. And the card is you are very charitable by saying that there are some good fights on this card. there are some fights on this card. And that's the nicest I can say about it. Like it's an event. It's an event that's happening.

I think there are some pretty good fights on this card, Jose. Maybe you see some interesting fights on this card, Jose. What are your thoughts on this upcoming event coming up in a little less than 48 hours from right now? Well, I wouldn't say this is going to, you know, people aren't going to change the channel from the NBA playoffs for this game on ESPN Plus or for this fight card in ESPN Plus. People are changing channels to Antiques Road Show for this card. Well, first of all, no one changes the channel from Antique Road Show. They just keep it on in the background while they're doing things around the house.

So poor example, right there. There are some fights that I am intrigued by, but it seems like there's a lot of fights with involving fighters that are coming off losses that probably should have got them over the edge. You know, Yusuf Salal, I think he was, what, like 3 and 0, 4 and O, something like that last year, and then he kind of hiccups. Sean Woodson, who has a bunch of throat tattoos, which I'm all about in MMA. Anytime you've got a face or throat tattoo, Jose is going to tune in and watch you do things. Does go to Dorovich was a bright prospect, so he lost to Punisoriano on Fight Island,

like Arana Lipski, Montana Deloza, Alan Patrick, Makwana Marikani. Like, these are all guys and ladies that they had a nice string of wins, and then they kind of hit that roadblock where like, oh, if they win this, maybe it means they're legit, and they all lost. Same as Santiago Ponzino's last fight. Losing to the Leach pretty badly. Miguel Baezza is every definition of the word a phenomenal prospect at Walterway. So I'm glad to see him getting a big step up in competition against Santiago Ponziabu. I actually think that should be the co-man event, if not a five-round main event.

We've seen Giresino a Rosen streak in five-round main events before. His last one against Seattle gone. I can't remember a single thing that has. happened in that fight outside of Cyril gone winning and Dana White being like, well, that was a fight. And then he pretty much lost four rounds in four minutes and 30 seconds against Alistair over him for slicing his face open. And even over him, he popped right back up, but it looked real bad. So whatever, one fair and square.

So don't particularly have any interest in seeing the main event in five rounds because, of course, I want to see Ponzino, Ponziio and Baezza in five rounds. So, again, not really at home about, but there are fights that I'm clearly intrigued by. also because I like mixed martial arts and I like a lot of these fighters specifically. So yeah, I'll watch. I work for MMAfighting.com, of course, but I don't know if a lot of people are going to be tuning in

with all the other sports and circus is going on in the world right now. I saw a comment saying somebody's watching for Yusuf Salah. I did have the opportunity to speak to the Moroccan devil yesterday, as a matter of fact. So that interview will probably drop tomorrow. Really interesting stuff from him coming out back. to back losses. But Jose, back to you. Right now we got Sakai getting his second straight headliner, last appearance, as Jed

said, got stopped by Alistair Ovary in September. Rosenstrike enters his second straight main event. He's lost two out of three. One was the brutal knockout to France and Gano, comes back with the knockout of JDS, but then he lost a not so exciting decision to Cyril Gahn. And it seems like both guys really need this one. It seems like they're both pretty far away from title contention at this point, especially with the John Jones factor and Derek Lewis and all that craziness.

They seem to the UFC that is they seem to like both of these guys to keep putting them in these spots. So who needs this one more? Sakai to like just further cement his name a little more householdy or Rosenstrike just to get back on track here. I mean, anytime you're coming off a loss and you're losing kind of badly every like no matter what you're going to need to win and both men are must win. And I think Jarzina-Rodin Street

would probably a little more popular in the eyes of MMA fans. And I say that a little because neither man have kind of crossed over into the mainstream whatsoever. I think I know a few non-MMA fans who they go, who's that guy that got his face cut open?

I'm like, oh, it was over him. And Jir Zina Rosenstreet beat him. They're like, oh, cool. And like that's all they know Jarsina Rosen Street by. Yeah, at least as my opponent said, like YOL or Morrow has the threat of doing something exciting.

I can't really remember much of Augusto Sykes' fights at all. I think he looked good against Overeign for maybe a minute and a half before Overeign kind of pieced him up there at the end. But Cyril Ghan, I can vividly remember him knocking at Junior DeSanto, him cutting Overeign's face in half. And then I remember being a Madison Square Guard, and everyone was questioning why he was getting this massive step-up in competition against Andrei Arlowski.

And then we saw what happened there, and then what was his fight against Alain Crato? It was like nine seconds. at least the threat of something exciting happening is there at the Rosenstreet. I don't really get that sense at all with Augusto Sakai, so I would imagine he is in much more need of a win, and to win have something memorable in his career, because I can't think of anything right now.

Do you agree with him, Jed? What do you think? Who needs this one more and why? Unequivocally, Sakai. Like, Judge Jr. Rosen Strike, yeah, he's lost two of his last three. He was in what is, what is, what was functionally a title eliminator. Like, yeah, and Gano knocked him out in 12 seconds,

whatever the hell that was. But, like, he got there. He got very close to competing for a UFC title because he entered the UFC and had like four or five knockouts in a row. Like, he, people maybe don't know him other than that he's like, maybe somebody is like, oh, isn't there a fighter from Suriname in the UFC? But, like, he's, he clearly is in a better position to bounce back from a loss here. Granted, losing to Augusto Sakai is a bad loss.

I guess it's just not something you want on your record, but he could put together a couple of knockout wins and find himself very quickly back up to that contention. Sakai, he's just not very good. And again, I feel bad because he's clearly doing everything right, but he's not memorable. And so the only way he can succeed, like really climb the ladder is he's going to have to win seven in a row at heavyweight.

And so every loss is cataclysmic because it just puts him right back to the bottom of the ladder. And he's the kind of fighter that if he takes a couple losses, they'll send him papers because nobody knows who he is. He doesn't really bring anything of major value. So this is way more critical for him. And I don't think he's going to work out for him, honestly. Jed, we like to compare and contrast whenever we can on the show. And, you know, we have this event. Of course, the UFC is the big pay-per-view.

UFC 263, loaded show next weekend with the title fights and Nate Diaz and all that. So not really fair to compare it to next Friday's Bellator card. But this card on Saturday, would you take this one or Bellator 260 with Lima and Amosoff for the Walterway title in their main event? If you can only choose one, I feel like Belize. or wins a lot of these arguments on paper. Do they win this one too? For sure, for sure, for sure. Like, one, always super important.

I'm looking at the Bellator card right now. You know what the single best thing the UFC does is when they put together a trash-ass card like this, they always make it 14 or 15 fights because what's better than watching awful things than watching awful things for the entire day while there's NBA playoffs going on? Who wouldn't want to do that?

Bellator has a tight 11 fights. Five of them are on the main card and two of them are pretty good. Like Paul Daly Jason Jackson, that's a banger. I'm absolutely in on watching that as a comrade. Main event, Douglas Lima Yarslav Yarslav Amosov, that's an awesome fight. Like Amosov is a billion and O and Douglas Lima is arguably the best fighter not in the UFC at this point in time. a tremendous welterweight. That is, that's as good as you can make a fight realistically right now.

I absolutely love that main event. The co-main event, like I said, it's a banger. You get Aaron Pico, you get, we talked about last week, 10th ranked Belvoir. Flyweight, Vanessa Porto is going to finally compete. Hopefully she can get a win and claw her veteran ass. That's 8 and a man a guy. And what the hell is that girl's name about?

Rale Rerey, maybe she can finally surpass them in Bellator's rankings with the win. Tyron Clarkson's fighting, like, I'll take this. Nick Newell's fighting. Who doesn't like a Nick Newell fight? Like, give me Bellator 10 times out of 10 over this UFC

card. Jose? Yeah, I mean, Douglas Lima, as my opponent says, is probably one of the best, if not the best, fighters outside of the UFC right now. I personally put Kioji Horiguchi at the top of that list, but it's him in Lima like one two or one A one B whatever you want to call it

I don't know what the Bellator has an Amistah for all we know we could be having completely different argument like we could be saying just how good is Amasov is he the best in the world like who was it after Sabatelli won all of a sudden everyone on our side is like is he the best band weight in the world right now just because he just led blankets high level fighters like Brett Johns I'm like probably not but at least we're having this conversation right now so maybe Amasov is one of those conversations we have I'll watch Paul daily do anything i'll watch paul daily make a bowl of cereal and i will be transfixed by whatever this man does so yeah i'm gonna watch and fist fight another human being adding jason jackson to the mix i'm all for

i feel like i'm doing a lot better job than bellator does is selling these fights watch that fight watch the ufc fight you know why because if you like m m ms just watch both you don't have to choose they're on different days but if you have a gun to my head and you're making me pick one hey i'm confused why you're making me pick between two m ms my life is not that important so So, yeah, watch Bellator if your life is in threat over choosing one. So Aaron Pico's great. Tyrone and Clax is great. Nick Newell's great.

Fun times all around at Bellator, but watch both if you want because it doesn't really, in the end game, it's not like we're trying to solve the Israeli conflicts right now. We're just watching fist fighting for a living. So do whatever your heart desires. Mike, I'm going to agree with my opponent. His life is not that important. I'm going to disagree, though, that the question isn't whether you like MMA. It's whether you like yourself.

And if you like yourself, have a Saturday night with the family. You know, drink a couple beers with your friends. Go outside. Do any number of things other than watch 15 fights of mediocre to bad U.S. C fights. You can read the recaps. We're going to have them up. You come, I don't know who's doing them. Just go read them.

If there's something big, guess what? We're going to put the highlights on the site. You can just watch those. And you can have eight to 10 hours of your life to do anything you want. You could read a book. You could fistfight someone yourself. Anything you want to do, the world is your oyster. If you like yourself, don't watch the UFC on Saturday.

But tune in to m.a fighting.com. Again, my opponent, my opponent keeps acting like he can put sentences together in his mind. Can't do it. He, again, probably can't read. So disregard that. He's also saying, crack open a beer and have some fun with your friends. I don't think my opponent is legally allowed to drink in the United States. I think you have to be 21 to do that.

I think he's a little too young for that. And again, him having a quote-unquote fizzy pop going down to the Saupop with his friends also needs a group of individuals that want to be around this man while watching television. So take my opponent's word with a grain of salt. Again, Mike, apologies for my opponent for that rambling, incoherent Tom Fulery. Next question, please. I feel like you're mixing your metaphors with sock hop.

which is an old people term and I'm too young to drink. No, see, in this in this world, people are like, people go to a sock hop in the year, 2021. Well, he definitely has to be older than 17 years old. We definitely won't question that. So you're trying to portray yourself as a more mature individual, maybe as we say grown up. So yes, my metaphor stands.

Nice to hear from Jose Young's is Bill Cosby sweater, joining us in the chat this week. It's always good to see him. Dr. Alan Grant was here earlier. And I know one person, I know one person who doesn't feel that Danny Sabatello is the best Bannamway in the world. It is Jed Mishu, who, if you watched the show last week,

he said, Rob Fonts is the best bandway in the world. Rob Fawn, Best Bannamway in the world, New England cartel all day. We are trying to create some good juju here. And normally when we talk about these cards on paper, and it's not getting tremendous reviews, it usually exceeds expectations, and hopefully that happens here.

We're trying to plant some positive seeds, but we'll move ahead. The point for round three goes to Jed stole it at the end. I got to give it to him. That was a good thing. That was a good little, that was a good little friendly reminder to the world

that fighting is awesome, but there's other things in the world as well. And just good stuff. We already know where this is going, but let's move on. And let's talk about an interesting piece of matchmaking that we haven't touched on yet. I've wanted to, but we've had some busy weeks in the world of combat sports. This is not the busiest week in combat sports. I figured now as good a time as any.

UFC 264 is a crazy looking fight card right now. We just saw that Carlos Condit is now on this card. He's fighting Max Griffin. Of course, there's Pori McGregor 3. There's Wonderboy Gilbert Burns. Nico Price versus Michelle freaking Paheda is on this card. The list goes on and on. But I wanted to touch on one fight in particular.

I wanted to touch on the return of the Motown phenom, Kevin Lee. His first fight since the submission lost to Charles Olivera in March of last year. He's moving back up to 170. He's dealt with a bunch of gnarly injuries along the way. He tore one ACL. And as he was getting ready to come back, he tore it the other ACL. The dude has just had a string of bad luck. That is just unbelievable.

But he's moving up to 170. and his opponent, the undefeated Sean Brady. This is an interesting booking, Jose Youngs. Do you dig this one? Is this the right fight to make for Kevin Lee's return? I don't want to use the word right and wrong just because I like high-level martial arts competitions regardless of whether it's a quote,

big money fight or high-level name or whatever you want to call it. Just want to see high-level competition. I will never say Kevin Lee has ever looked for an easy way out. It's called out to fight Islam-Makhshev in Russia, chose to fight Charles Oliver in Brazil, called out Greg Gillespie to fight in his home city of New York City. So Kevin Lee is about that life. He'll fight whoever, wherever, whenever, as long as, of course, he's in the top 15.

Yeah, awesome fight. They both have wins over Jake Matthews, oddly enough. What, Sean Brady beat him, what, in 2020, 2019? Pretty sure Kevin Lee did that, like, all the way back in 2016 when he was still cutting his teeth in the UFC. So we've obviously seen Kevin Lee a welter away before, but the guy was against RDA, which is they were basically just two lightweights, just not cutting weight. Kevin Lee, in addition to a dope head tattoo, and I say dope head tattoo, because I like any crazy head or face tattoo or neck tattoo in any sport,

because it's hilarious and fantastic to me. The fact that he did a samurai, half samurai helmet is just puzzling to me, and I love everything about it. I love this fight in terms of the actual competition inside the cage. Sean Brady, as you said, is undefeated. Very underrated, not underrated because that's kind of his bread and butter, but I think what people view Sean Brady, they don't say, oh, this man is a high-level grappler. He's a high-level submission artist.

He's very good at grappling, and he's very good at choking people unconscious. He wanted to fight Damien Maize. So again, not going to say Sean Brady's ever looking for an easy fight either. So I think it's a good fight for where both of these men are in their career. It's USC 264, which is obviously a massive pay-per-view headline by Dusty Poirier v. Connor McGregor 3. So all-ey-olds are on these two gentlemen. a plus all around matchmaking. I know Kevin Lee wanted to fight Mike Perry,

which probably would have done more in terms of the trash and the buildup and all my face tattoo is better than your head tattoo. And I'm here for that conversation. It's the answer is Kevin Lee's had that to you, by the way. But in terms of an actual fist fight to high-level fighters, Kevin Lee versus Sean Brady checks all of my boxes.

I'm sure Sean Brady's tattoo game is pretty on point for Jose Young's as well. I will. I do want to, he's lasering a lot of it all. Don't worry. I got to the bottom of it. So I don't know what else he has. He has great tattoos. It's just not done yet. Fair enough. What do you think, Jed? Jose saying the A plus matchmaking, do you agree with the sentiment? Kevin Lee versus Sean Brady? Is this a plus matchmaking? It's a B. Like, the main problem here is everybody knows who Kevin Lee is and nobody knows who Sean Brady is. Like maybe it's that he has a creative fighter name and that's like really tough to overcome. Like Anthony Smith bought for a, uh, a UFC title, and I'm still not sure anyone knows who the hell he is, because that name, that's just hard.

When you Google and they're like, in any given town in America, there are probably 10 Sean Brady's, like small towns, you know, 500 people, biggest thing they got to Super Walmart, they're going to be a couple of Sean Brady's. That's a really tough thing to overcome unless you're making some standout performances. And yeah, great grappler, got a couple subs in the last few fights, also went to a decision with Cort McGee. So that's not really, that's not putting your name on the marquee super well. So that's the big problem here. From an actual competitive standpoint, it's a great fight. You're probably going to see some really sick grapples.

And I'm here for that. Like from a X's and O's good fight. But Kevin Lee is a name. Kevin Lee hasn't figured out what weight he wants to be. That's a bit of a problem because he should make a choice. But it's just like, look, the Mike Perry fight is worse because Mike Perry is not as good a fighter as Sean Brady, whose name I almost just screwed up because that's how it is as a name. It's a terrible name, man.

I'm very sorry for you that that was burdened with you and you wanted to be famous. That's really going to hold you back. So, yeah, it's just tough for me, man. Like, Kevin Lee should be fighting somebody like Mike Perry because if he really does want to make a Walter White run, Mike Perry gives him kind of, okay, people know this guy. Yeah, he's maybe not that good, but we know you're a really good lightweight. Let's put you in. and then let's put you in marquee matchups.

Kevin Lee is a marquee fighter. And Sean Brady, maybe he'll get there because he's 13 or 14 and oh, whatever the hell he is. And he's obviously very talented, but he's not there yet. So this feels like they're giving him a chance to maybe get a big win over Kevin Lee. But I don't know that that's going to work out for him. And the downside of it's substantial. Like you should be putting Kevin Lee against, I don't know, Vicente Lucay is a little too high after the inflation tower wouldly win. but you should be putting him somewhere there like Hamzaaamaya of Kevin Lee that's that's a pretty sick fight like Kevin Lee would do it because the one thing my opponent said that was not wrong is Kevin Lee is about that life so he should be fighting marquee fighters this feels like a bit of a step back for him honestly in that regard but from an X as an O standpoint you can't knock the fight because they are both really really good at fighting yeah Kevin Lee has always had the makings of a big star I mean

I mean, it's an action fighter. The CO of Gregor Gillespie was just absolutely insane. Obviously, he's a good-looking dude. He's got the gnarly head tattoo, as Jose alluded to. He's about that life. I mean, he's calling out Islam. He was calling out Habib before Habib was that guy and became, like, the champion and the retired 29-0 fight. I mean, Kevin Lee wanted to fight Habib for years.

He was the only guy calling for that fight outside of maybe Tony Ferguson. But the man can also cut a promo. The man with a microphone in his face can produce some magic. He has everything outside of specifically his last six fights. He's two and four. Mike, we can't talk about Heavenly and not mention the fits. Man has fantastic style. He does.

He dresses like a star. He lives that star life. He does have the awesome knockout of Greg Gillespie, but he's two and four in his last six. He's been submitted three times in those four losses. He's got his hands full on July 10th, Jedmishu. No doubt about that. So I'm curious, with all those accolades,

him being having that star potential, being about that life, having the marquee name. Is this like, I don't know if do or die is the right way to put it, but is he in like absolute unequivocal must win territory right now? Does he have to win on July 10th or he's in big, big trouble? He needs it. Like, it's not do or die, but again, it goes back to what I was saying. Like losing to Sean Brady, who no one knows is a bad loss, even though the people who know know that it's actually not as bad a loss as it seems.

It just enforces how good Sean Brady is. That's a bad loss, man. And that's, I guarantee you the commentary for this is going to be that statement. Hey, a lot of people don't know how good Sean Brady is. I guess DC is going to be the guy Joe Rogan Sarky, too. But this guy is a savage. He's an absolute killer in there. And people just don't know yet.

But they're going to find out because he's going to come in here and try to rip Kevin Lee's arm off. Like it's they're going to try and sell it and that's not going to work. So if he loses, it's pretty bad for him. He does have kind of the safety net where he can just say, you know what? I'm going to go back to 155. And he can kind of keep playing that bounce around game. But it's really, it's really important he wins this fight. If he is committed to being a 170 year and trying to put his run together here,

a win here helps out a long way because he can get on the mic, he can do all the things that he can do on a mic. He can big up Sean Brady in victory. say that guy, that guy is the guy that nobody wanted to fight because he doesn't have a name, but he's so damn tough. But if he doesn't, it's real bad. So, yeah, I'm not going to say must-must win, but it's a single must-win, not a double-must-win. Are you with that, Jose, a single-must-win, or is this, can we take it as far as a must-must-win,

a double-must win? I do agree that he has a safety net, that it can go to 155, though. If you've watched any of his latest interviews, you know, with the head. Helen Yeard, the Shmo. Kevin Lee's looking real big. So yeah, he had a couple injuries. He had a couple setbacks, but it seems like he's done two things with his time off. And that's get a head

tattoo and get real muscular. So I don't know if he can go to 155 at this point in his career. I also don't understand why a lot of fans are saying like, oh, Kevin Lee is going to be out of size, this and that at Welterweight again. They're both 28 years old. They are both 5 foot

9, and Kevin Lee has a 5 or 6 inch reach advantage. over Sean Brady. So the only thing that, and he's a high-level wrestler, too. He just decides to strike and beat up high-level strikers like Edson Barbosa. So I don't think by any means is Kevin Lee, yes, is he taking a risk? Should he win? Probably.

But Sean Brady is a fantastic fighter. I know my opponent says, yeah, he went to a decision against Court McGee. Court McGee survived overdoses in his life. So it's real hard to put men away that have literally been on the verge of death and not gone there. It was also his first ever UFC fight in the TD Guarded in Boston, which I might add, the host of the show, Mike Heck and I took the orange line to go cover that fight in Boston. So fun times all around for his first fight, you know, fighting a veteran, a tough fighter like Cort McGee and not putting him away. Maybe he's got some. Maybe they fight again, and he beats Cort McGee.

He stops. And so maybe we're talking about Sean Brady one year from now as being a future champion. But again, as I said before, a plus matchmaking all around. I'm here for it. Yes, that was for those who go back in the archives. I believe that was my MMA fighting debut was that weekend. I think I did the preview and post show. First time I ever appeared.

And the wind blew away my camera and snapped my tripod. That day sucked. So cold and nasty. But last thing on this, I know both of you sort of touched on it, but I want to get into it a little bit more. What does a wind do for Sean Brady's career, Jose? I mean, the man, I spoke with him for what the heck this week. He's been frustrated.

trying to find himself a fight that he feels he deserves. He's in the top 15. He's a highly touted prospect. He's been a highly tighted prospect for a long time. I felt like getting in the UFC was long overdue for a guy like that, especially in the tri-state region, the run he was putting on for CFFC, etc. But I get it. He's a very risky guy to fight at 170 right now if you're a ranked guy.

But I'm curious, does a win for Sean Brady over Kevin Lee? Does that open up these doors for him? Like, will people, you know, ranked above him be like, you know what? He'd just beat Kevin Lee. This fight's way more enticing to me. Or do you think he's still going to have some more struggles on this rise up the division? If he goes out there and submits Kevin Lee, like, you know, only people that submit Kevin Lee are, like the elite of the elite lately in the UFC, you know, like Tony Ferguson and Charles Oliver. If he goes out there and submits Kevin Lee, yeah, he's going to need a high ranked opponent.

But he would be in that weird position like Benil, Daryu, you, Shirley, you know, Balamah, whereas they're, they're, they're, phrase was, incredibly high risk, low reward. And it's going to take a fighter like Belal Mohammed slotted in against Leon Edwards because it was a last minute fight. And that kind of propelled him into the fight against Damien Maya. Or Benile Daryuz had to take a fight against Tony Ferguson, who was on a two-fight losing streak, very popular fighter, still a highly skilled fighter. But, you know, Tony Ferguson couldn't say no to that fight. He's going to be in that position where, like, say, like the Neil Magnus of the world where they're losing. Like Neil Magny, let's not forget,

it's top 10. Sean Brady's right outside the top 10 of the wealth away rankings. Is Neil Magny the biggest name in the UFC World Warwick Division? No, but he has a bunch of records, and he was probably at a point where, hey, Neil Magnin doesn't say no to any fight, but it's going to take a fight like that. And I think Sean Brady would probably need one more win to really legitimize himself in the World's White R rankings.

But if he beats Kevin Lee, the phrase prospect and Sean Brady shouldn't be in the same sense. sentence because he would cement himself as a true contender, but in the eyes of the casual fans that maybe just tune in for the main cards, not the prelim cards, he's going to need another fight. The problem is the rest of the top five at 170 pounds aren't really fighting each other. It's kind of log jams right now. So Jeff Neal's also taking a whole bunch of time off.

Hopefully he gets better because he has that gnarly, what is it, blood infection. So he's not going to be fighting for a bit. So Damien Maya is going to retire. He might have to fight back again, and it's just an unfortunate situation. beat Kevin Lee, get the second half of your paycheck, and then we can talk from after that. Mr. Michoud, I know you sort of touched on this earlier, but, you know, some more wisdom from you, some elaboration, if you will, on your previous point. What does a win for Sean Brady do? Does it bust open those doors a little bit more? Does he start to get these big fights with the top

10 guys? Does he get, you know, some bigger names along the way? Like, is that a more enticing fight for some of these other guys if he goes out there beats Kevin Lee. Nope. It does the minimum possible amount. A loss is catastrophic. A win. Keeps him where he's at. Look, I already explained this. The best thing Sean Brady could do for his career is to

change his name to Thunder Jesus Brady because then people be like, oh shit. Or Tom Brady. If he changes to Tom Brady, all the Boston people like you would just lose their minds. They'd be so pro-Shaw Brady right now. And that would at least be a catched. Like, okay, there's a reason to know you as opposed to Sean Brady, who I'm pretty sure I went to like third grade with. I went to third grade with Sean Brady.

Is it the same one? No, this guy's got a lot of tattoos. That's not him. Never mind going to change the channel. Like, that's the best thing he can do for his career. Because beating Kevin Lee, if he goes out and go go plot us, Kevin Lee, that is not going to do a damn bit for his stock. It's going to make the hardcore. So people who watch this show will be like, wow, that dude's badass.

I want to see him fight. And then what that's actually going to do is just make everybody at the top of the division be like, nope, super don't want to fight that guy because he's still named Sean Brady and no one knows who the hell he is. But he's throwing go-go's on fools now. Like, shit, I get absolutely embarrassed by this guy no one's heard of. Like, that's a, that is the worst possible low reward high risk that can be done. So this doesn't do anything. It just keeps him winning. He is going to have to John Fitch his way to a title.

he's going to have to win 100 fights at the Walterweight Division. And so there's one more stepping stone on that road, but this is not going to be like, oh, he beat Kevin Lee. Flood Gates are open. Everybody wants to fight him. It's going to be, oh, he beat Kevin Lee. Yeah, no, I'm going to sit on the sidelines away until Kamar Usman picks me.

It's an interesting matchup. I'm very excited for it. Sean Brady had a lot to say. It was kind of interesting to tap into that other side. And I will say also I went to high school with the gentleman named Sean Brady, but to gesture, you guys are you guys are acting like

Kevin Lee is such a complicated name too. How many Kevin Lee's are there in the world? Oh, an infinite number, but Kevin Lee stands out. He has done, he's separated himself. Sean Brady has not done that. Maybe you and Kevin Lee can be the newest additions to the nation of domination

because you both fit the demographic they're going for. Dope? Underratedly dope? Is that what you're talking about? You're just a couple head tattoos short of the nation of domination. Maybe I haven't. It's hidden under the luscious flow. You don't know.

A compelling fourth round here on between the links. The point for round four goes to Jose Yuri Prahashka Youngs. He gets the point. We are tied up at two. One can dream. One can dream of having hair like that. Yeah, well, I once had that dream and that dream died like six years ago. But we accept it.

We move on and we accept our flaws and try to make it work for us. But now we're going to make the knockout round work for us. We're going to have one question. Neither of these gentlemen know what it is. In fact, until like 30 seconds ago, I had no idea what this question was because it's been a hell of a day. So I've been pondering in the car how I was going to do this. And I just landed on this momentarily.

So for those who are new to the program, I will ask this question. Each of these individuals will have one minute to give their response. Once that is done with the help of our wonderful viewers that are watching live on Facebook, Twitter, and on YouTube, we will turn it over to the Honorable Judge E. Casey Leiden, and he will crown the winner of Between the Links. And there he is on the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, the Battistache, and MMA Media. Jed, you are the champ. You have the prerogative.

Do you want to go first? or do you want to pass it on over to your best buddy, Jose Youngs? My best buddy is you, Mike, and then, hey, Kay Lee, but I'll pass it to my third best buddy, Jose Youngs. All right. Hey, bronze medal is still a medal, Jose. So that's good, and that's something you take stars. Unless you're Rhonda Rousey, then you're just an Olympic medalist.

No mention of coming in third. Fair enough. But if you're Logan Paul, fifth place is a very good thing in the rest. wrestling world. It places are millionaires, apparently. That's right. And speaking of Mr. Logan Paul, that is what this question is based on, because there's a whole lot of shenanigans going on in Miami. Of course, on Sunday, Logan Paul is going to box Floyd Mayweather at an exhibition match on Showtime. I can't believe I'm saying these words into a live microphone, but it is happening. So the question that I have come up with in one minute or less, Jose, is, if you, you're

you could script out and write some sort of scene on the best way that this exhibition scenario, this whole circus plays out on Sunday, how would it go? What would make you the happiest person in the world as a fan to see this all play out in just the way you would want it to? Because this is not a serious thing. This is Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather going to do something for however long it lasts. But what is the best case in error in your mind? One minute on the clock. Go. Well, if we're talking in terms of how we get paid, and that is driving clicks and video views and getting a bunch of traffic and also disable add a blocker so we can get money as a site, I would have to say if you read the rules, there's really no disqualification allocated anywhere in the rule. So if I'm scripting just the most hilarious ending possible that will drive the most views is Logan Paul just gets so frustrated that he can't catch a man that is like 30 pounds lighter than him. And he just goes back into his fifth place wrestling world

and just double-leg takedowns Floyd Mayweather out of the ring. And then just chaos erupts in the humid climate of Miami. And our good friend Oscar Willis is right there to get the view of Logan Paul being pulled off of an unconscious Floyd Mayweather, who has just suffered his first ever double-leg takedown. And all of a sudden, YouTube just falls apart. and the internet explodes and social media doesn't exist and everyone could go outside and go about their day.

All right, that would be a lot of fun. That is quite the scenario as we turn out over to Jed Mishu, who is the mayor of fun in combat sports. Hey, uh, hey buddy. He's pretending he's asleep just like I did on the fourth episode. Ben there, done that, come up with a new joke. Okay. Well, Jed, you as a, of being a fan of Triller and all,

the fun stuff they do. And of course, our good friends over at Fight Circus and all the fun that they do, you know, maybe you would put these two guys

in this exhibition match in their world. So what would be the best case scenario for you? If you could draw out the best way that Floyd Mayweather

versus Logan Paul goes down on Sunday so you would enjoy it to its fullest, how would that go? One minute on the clock, your time starts now. All right.

Floyd Maywey comes out. Comes to the Senate. They touch gloves. Floyd does this thing. The first round, Floyd, Floyd doesn't throw anything. Logan Paul, he swings, he just misses a bunch. Like, he takes big, cannon style like uppercuts from freaking mortal combat. He's hitting nothing. He's not coming within a country mile of hitting Floyd Mayweather. Great. After round one, all right, Floyd wins a round without throwing a punch. Doesn't win a round, no judges, whatever.

Round two, more of the same. Round three, Floyd starts grooving. He starts getting going. He's popping the jab out by the close to the end of the bout. Now Floyd's dancing on him. He's, he's stunned. Logan Paul's getting frustrated. He's trying to wrestle and do all this stuff. He can't. Floyd, last possible round, just a huge error in judgment. For once, Floyd just forgets all his defensive responsibilities, puts his hands down, looks to the crowd, gets clocked by a huge right hand on the map. K-O. Cameras zooms in his face, and then Floyd opens his eyes. He's eyes, throws a little wink at the camera. Some vivid, vivid imaginations here on between the links.

I'm so glad that that's the question I went with. We have two just magnificent ways that this fight could go on Sunday. Of course, we will have your coverage right here on MAAFighting.com. But at this point, we'll turn it over to Casey in a moment. Let the rulings from the viewers come in. We will have a preview show coming up tomorrow, previewing U of C, Vegas 28. We will also be previewing during that preview show this awesome fight. And maybe we will recap these wonderful responses on that preview show as well.

And of course, before the UFC card, 30 minutes before, I believe as of right now, if everything stays intact, 3.30 Eastern time, we will have the People's Pre-Fight Show answering a lot of your questions, getting you fired up for that event. But right now, this event needs to come to an end. Someone needs to be a champion. Who will it be, Casey Leiden? Wonderful answer, gentlemen.

But I've made a decision. Oh. I just say, I hate, I hate picking a winner, but someone has to win. So here we go. Your winner.

And still, Jedmishu. He gets it done. The wing at the end. I knew the wing. It was the wink. It was the wink. The wink.

Can you imagine if that happens? The internet would explode. It would get so much traffic. It was the wink. Yeah, if they inserted like a sound effect, a little like sparkly eyed sound effect, oh man, like the sandlot, yes. Like the sandlot when Squins was faking like he was drowning before Wendy Peppercorn gave a little smooch.

That would be wonderful. So Jed Mishu gets the win. Still the interim champion. pretty soon that's going to probably be a full-fledged title unless Phoenix Carnivali decides to grace us with her presence once again. But Jed, you know how this all works. 30 seconds to talk about whatever does you want to talk about. If you want to further your call-out, the floor is yours, my friend.

It's going to be two-part of the first thing very quickly. I didn't mention this earlier because I knew I'd be here. I am just so bummed that Tyron Woodley and Jake Paul is not happening with our friends of chiller. because Showtime boxing is going to, they're going to treat this like regular boxing, which is fine, still fun. But I want the whole trailer experience, baby, from a little let down by that. However, the rest of this time, look, my record's wrong up there. It should say four and one against Jose Young's, but that's fine.

Jose Youngs can always come get this work. He's super fun to battle, but I'd really like to battle him with Sean Alshadhi. Because, I mean, honestly, the two of them against me, maybe that even's a playing field from them. So it's probably unfair to give me a tremendous process, but I think the two-on-two, that's what we do. The tag team champions of the world, we want the best challenge. I don't know if they're the best challenge, but it'd be a hell of a good time. I like that idea. I like the tag team things, mixes it up a little bit.

And Jose, it was an incredible effort. This was quite the battle. Your thoughts on Casey's decision? Well, it was nice to me, Jed. I'm sure I'll look for wherever your work is. I don't think I've ever seen it anywhere else again. Hopefully by then you will learn, you know, compound words and contractions and apostrophes and everything. And then you can physically read a book.

But that is a fantastic segue that I will plug. The thing I plug is the end of the A-Side Live chat. And that is you go tocompox for Kids.org. And you can donate all of your comic books to over 175 children's hospitals and cancer centers across the country. and in Canada to help kids who are battling an actual fight, not a fist fight, a fight for their lives, and you can give them all of your old comic books. Maybe you've grown up.

I don't like using that word, but maybe you don't read comic books anymore. Maybe you just have a surplus of comic books. Maybe you're just trying to, you know, you want to sell them to move into a house. And instead of selling them, donate them to a hospital or a cancer center and children who can't leave and enjoy television

like Jake Paul versus Tyre Woodley in the comfort of their own home, they can instead read some fantastic children-friendly superhero comic books in the hospital, and they can escape for at least a good 60 minutes into the enchantment of the mind. That is DCR Marvel comic books. That is comic books for kids.org.

Well done. Well done, Jose. Yes. Even got some praise from Jedmishian there. I mean, you can't really boo. Yeah. You cannot. Yes.

Especially not one for kids with Kenney. Yes, that is true. I think everybody is in agreement on that, and it's a very positive way to end the program. So thank you so much for watching. We'll be back here next week on Between the Links. Maybe we'll have the tie team matchup. I have a feeling that it might happen if we can swing.

I don't know, Jose's going to be a very busy man next week, so I don't know if we can make that. At some point, we will make it happen. Jose will be in beautiful and scenic Glendale, Arizona for UFC 263. And I will be visiting beautiful and scenic, bohigan sun next week for some bellator coverage. So we got you all bookended here on mabightfighting.com. But until next week for Jed Mishu, Jose Young's,

Casey Line on the ones and twos, the iconic voice of Esther Lynn takes you home. Good night, everybody. Love you guys. Production on the Vox Media Network. This is Esther Linn. I messed that up. I'm sorry. Casey messed that up. Thanks, David.

Oh crap, we're live. Happy birthday, Y, okay. This is a guy. This is a guy.