MMA Fighting - BTL | 2026 Burning Questions For Dana White, Alex Pereira, Ilia Topuria, More

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

The calendar officially reads 2026, and the UFC is about to kick off their new era on Paramount and a pay-per-view-less world. With UFC 324 just a couple of weeks away, what are the biggest questions you have about the new deal, for Dana White, and others? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses some of those burning questions, if White will be a focal point for the year, or continue to take steps back publicly. Additionally, topics may include the 2026 outlook for UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria, light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira and if he'll remain in the division throughout the year, Islam Makhachev and the welterweight title, what moves the PFL needs to make to have a big year, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions on a special Tuesday edition of the program. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Live from M.A. Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, Mike Peck! The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of, of Between the Links, Happy New Year to all of you. And that's probably the last time I'm going to say that. We have already gone past the limit for the Happy New Year's, according to Larry David. And I stand by this, but it's the first time we're saying hello to you in 2026 on this particular program.

And we are excited to be back a couple days earlier than we normally would. But there's a lot going on this week in terms of travel and work schedules and all that. So we wanted to make sure we got our first show of the year in that we got to hear from all of you guys. Because I know you guys had a lot of questions, a lot of thoughts, especially coming out of the, on to the next one, predictions extravaganza. So we figured, you know what, let's hear your thoughts. Let's hear your burning questions. Let's hear your predictions, your outlook for 2026 for the UFC and some of the other major promotions and combat sports. But joining me to answer those questions and much more, my partner in crime, the hottest of take kid, Mr. Nogue.

gray area himself. There is no fence he will sit on even in 2026. The head is waving the one and only Jedbushu from M.A.Fighting.com. And from what I understand, even in this new year, still a terrific website. It's a great website. Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for doing this early. I am having my vacation. My Christmas vacation starts tomorrow. We're not doing any exciting, but I'm going to spend the next few days with my family because I didn't do that on Christmas. So wasn't going to be available for Thursday. Understood.

Where are you heading? You're going to them? I'm heading down to Savannah for a couple of days. Oh, how about that? You'll be in my neck of the woods. Except for you won't be in that neck of the woods. That's true. That's true.

It really did work out, actually. The timing when I hit you up at the beginning of the week was like, hey, I can't do Thursday. It's like, oh, that kind of works, though, given the things you've got. going on yeah there's a lot going on um i was going to see maybe we you could help me move tomorrow but you're not going to be here just yet so um yes there will be a new command center uh later on this year um so stay tuned for that this will remain for at least the short term um but eventually there will be a new a new command center a new location uh for the watch parties and for all the shows and and all that stuff next two watch parties are still there or are we in the new one by

25 tbd i'm gonna guess we'll be here but there is a chance we won't be so if someone wants to come correct on the uh on the for sale for the for this house uh come correct and then we can get out of here as fast as possible but uh no wants to hear about that let's hear from you guys uh let's see what kind of questions you guys have again uh and by the way welcome to our twitchers who are back better than ever it's great to have you here more a 503 in the building uh it's good to see the twitch team twitch back here uh on the m-may fighting stuff so uh good stuff going on all around on the other thing that's going on is uh we'll be boots on the i'll be boots on the ground for uh real american freestyle on saturday i'm actually going to be leaving thursday night

be there for the there is a press conference on friday uh there is wayans too which i might be able attend so yeah where is that that is in sunrise florida it is taking place uh amaranth bank arena which is where the uh stanley cup champ florida panthers uh play their hockey so shoutouts very exciting times the yeah look we do a promotional draft in april and there is a non zero chance that r a f will be in the promotional draft because There aren't a lot of other promotions out there right now. Yes. R.F may just make the cut here at this point.

I think they might have to. Although having GFL there just is hilarious. And I kind of want to keep them there. But the GFL spot is the best because that has been a rotating spot literally since the inception of the promotional draft. Because it's been like, okay, maybe this year it's Eagle FC. Nope And so we're just sliding new entities in there And I love that

I think that's great And RAF can be the new entity For the wild card spot Which is what that always is Yes, maybe we'll have the people vote For like, maybe we'll do a poll And they can choose like what the other promotion can be Don't tell AK that he loves polls

He sure does All right, let's go Drew asked Since we just talked about him to the chat Or maybe Mike and Jed if they cared to answers is RAF actually worth watching? So I have not watched an actual event. I have watched a couple of matches from it.

And it, you know, so I don't know about pacing or any of the other ancillary stuff. If you like wrestling, yes, because they're doing interesting wrestling matches, right? Like, Yol Romero Pat Downey is not something you ever thought. Yoel Romero's almost 50 and still looks like he trades wrestling. every day, I guess that's what being an Olympic silver medalist gets you and one of the most athletic people ever born. So, like, if you

like wrestling, like freestyle, you know, amateur wrestling, which is always weird that it's not professional wrestling, but like if you like senior level freestyle wrestling, yeah, or if you've

never watched it and just want to give it a shot, you know, there's some production going on. There are names you at least know. Whereas if you are just going to tune into the Olympic wrestling, that's obviously the highest caliber wrestling, but you don't know any of those people. And most of our audience is, you know, state side and most of the top level wrestlers in the world are Iranian or Russian. So it's, you know, they're more difficult names for you to know. It's harder to follow. It is easier. It is a more palatable form of wrestling for a very casual observer. I encourage everybody

to at least check it out and you know maybe it's not for you and that's okay too yeah the pacing is actually pretty decent um there are a lot of notable names it's something for everybody if you're a fan and you really follow the the mat wrestling so to speak you got that represented all over this card if you're an mhm a fan there's a lot of a lot of mhm a representation on saturday's event i mean the main event is colby covington versus luke hold yo l romero is wrestling bow nickel uh armin surukian is wrestling Lance Palmer at this event. So like there's a lot of MMA crossover here. And I Henry Suhudo is going to be headlining the next one against your eye of favor. So what they're doing, I think is really smart right now. They're getting people in the door. They're getting a

lot of eyeballs on them. And it's almost like what it's, they're presenting it like professional wrestling where there's like, you know, there's the production value and there's the walkouts and and all of that and they try to get the crowd involved and like sometimes they pop in a surprise or two like I remember the first event they're like oh this wrestler's facing a mystery opponent who could it be and then Holly Holm comes out in wrestles like out of nowhere

wasn't even on the card so they're trying to do fun stuff and yeah I think it's pretty cool I'm excited to check it out and be there in person I have questions about its long term viability

but that's not really about it it's mostly about the audience for wrestling in the United States and just globally. It has never been, I mean, wrestling, they tried to get rid of wrestling from the Olympics like 10 years ago or whatever.

It is not a popular viewer sport basically anywhere. Like even in the countries that really excel at it, it doesn't seem like that's like drawing numbers. And so I have questions about long-term viability in that regard. But I do think one of the smart things they've done early And it's, if I have a question about RIF, it is this. It's how do you continue to provide an entertaining product?

Because wrestling can suck, especially at the very highest levels of it. You know, I don't care for baseball that much. A pitcher's duel is awful, but they don't happen that often. Like a defensive 0-1 wrestling match is a thing that can happen. and so currently it feels like they have avoided that but Lawrence is just sort of having mismatches right so like smart points are being scored things are happening that like anybody can be like oh shit yo ramara took down pat downy that's pretty dope but if you start doing like real high level guys against each other

and like parody you know god love kyle dake he's great it's impossible to score on kyle day if you pair them up against somebody else like it for anyone who's not a wrestling fan that's just not going to gain that much traction so i don't know the long term how they sort of solve inherent problems with the sport of wrestling as a viewership thing but right now they're they're doing really well with it and the fact that they can sort of bring in ufc fighters who people know i think that helps them and pairing up guys like henry saudo against dry favor i suspect Zahuto's going to walk over him. But at least people know

who that is. They can both have a little bit of showmanship to them and a lot of, it won't be a defensive struggle. Like that feels like a good path, at least in the short term. Yeah. Steve Mocko is competing on this event. If you ever heard anyone from ATT

talk about Mocko Mondays, he's one of the wrestling coaches over there. Part of that 08 MMA, part of the 08 Olympic wrestling crew that went to MMA and was undefeated for like a decade. If you were deep into the forum culture, the 08 crew was like,

oh, Ben Ascran and Suhudo and Mako had a combined MMA record of like 50 and zero or something insane. It was like, it was so, it was like, man, look at plus Cormier too. It was like they're all just unbelievable.

And then that fell off as they kept competing, obviously. And then Marco functionally retired. Um, but like, yeah, part of that 08 Olympic American wrestling crew, which transitioned to MMA extremely well. Yeah. Thank you for the question. Uh, I mean, I see it on the sign, Jed. Let's talk about it.

MKL day, baby. Our, our good friend, Brian Campbell, uh, officially said goodbye, uh, to morning combat. I believe yesterday was, was the final show. It was. Uh, yeah, he's, he's part of the, the CBS crew to get us ready for this new era of the, of the UFC and I mean obviously this is this is great news for Brian they're they're putting the chips in the middle for him and they're making a very smart choice in doing that I think Brian is one of the best in the game right now across the board not just with

interviews but just being a talking head being a desk host like all that stuff like I think BC is is tremendous at that he's also as you can attest to Jed one of the best people in this space there are some very good people in this space There are some not so great people in this space, but I would put Brian Campbell at the very top of the list. Luke as well. Those are two of my absolute favorites in the space. They're as real as it gets. There's as nice as it gets.

So bittersweet, Jed, I think, is the way I would describe it yesterday because what he and Luke have built together with MK has been incredible. And it's gone through some different iterations and gone through some different channels and different ways to view it and so forth and so on. but they built something truly special in this space which is not that easy to do and they did it and now BC is going on to do something absolutely spectacular so as a guy who has appeared on that show many times more than I have you are more familiar with these guys

you've done the the Cuervo shows the pregame shows that they do your thoughts on the final show BC's goodbye and the future of morning combat and shit I've known Luke for over a decade at this point which is crazy. Yeah, man, I think Bittersweet's a good word for it. I have to peel back the curtain.

I've known this was coming for a while. Because, like, I've, you know, Brian and I are friends. Me and Luke are friends. And so we talked about it. When basically once CBS bought the UFC rights, it was like, well, Brian's their combat guy. And so, you know, I don't know the inner workings or how any of that fell out.

But I was like, yeah, this seems pretty obvious. And I know that he is more a boxing guy than an MMA guy, but I think CBS has made a great call in backing him, like you said. And I am really excited for him and what this kind of is going to entail for his future. The same time, it is, it's a bummer. I have been an MK fan basically since its inception. Like I said, I've known Luke for, I think, a decade now. I'm trying to figure out when I met Luke.

It's close to a decade. I guess it's not quite a decade. This year will be 10 years since the first time I ever met and worked with Luke. And so what they built was special and awesome. And I don't think whoever comes in and I know that'll get revealed next week, it will still be great because Luke is, in my opinion, Luke is the most talented person in the MMA space. I think Brian's the most underrated person in the MMA space. space and so CBS is getting something very good with him. I know

Luke will continue MK it will be different because what made that show so special was their chemistry. But I still have absolute confidence that whatever comes next to Luke will be good. I'll still be a fan. But like

yeah, and it's not like Brian's dying. Like he'll be around. We'll still get to talk to him. I don't know how he's going to be busier but he i assume can still make it on btl and some stuff and uh so it's just change comes for us all man it happens and you can't be that sad about it six years is a hell of a run it is and mike you can attest to this incredibly difficult to build something in this space and to build

something outside of the umbrella of like a pre-existing entity right like to really from the ground up scratch something out what they did was really special and awesome and it will go on in a different iteration but maybe that'll maybe both of them will be better you know it's entirely possible that brian transforms cbs's coverage i think that that's very in play and maybe Luke find something new that works equally as well because, you know, we don't talk about it, Mike, because why would I want to talk with you about your exes? This show existed before you and I got together. And, you know, I would say it's better now, obviously.

But it's just changed. Things change. Things grow. And both dudes are incredibly talented. And so I'm looking forward to see where they go. Yes. check, cosine, all those things.

Can't wait to see what BC does with CBS. Can't see what Luke does with morning combat moving forward. I got to tell you, I'm pumped to see, because I have some ideas about what Luke will do because Luke has just been in this space for so long. And you can sort of, I think you could look and be like,

here's probably what MK will look like. Maybe it'll be different and that'd be interesting. I am fascinated to see what B.C. does at CBS because he can be the buttoned-up persona. We've seen him do that, you know, as the MC of boxing events. And he's worked for CBS for like a decade or something. Like he can be a very forward-facing, obvious, like, straight man. And it wouldn't be a total waste of his talents to just have him do that and be like

the Brett Akamoto of the CBS presentation or whatever. but the reason MK worked so well and got so popular and had such a devout fan base is they were both they brought out the best in each other and really at times embrace the dirtbag culture and I don't know if CBS wants to do that CBS is a major media conglomerate I am certain they don't want to go full dirtbag

in the way that Brian and Luke occasionally did but like do they want to unbutton the top button and let bc you know be a little more free flowing and a little more uh devil may care i think honestly that would be kind of a great thing for the traditional ufc broadcast to have a little more levity and a little more humor and not just like a espn sports presentation of it so i'm excited to see what happens yeah me too and yeah shout out to both of those guys don't about it i figure we get a bunch of questions about this so what kind of seems likely uh lazy bed uh photos emerge of what many are speculating is staff infection on the neck of justin gaichy if true does this in any way affect

your picks for patty versus justin and then arm armand says uh what are the chances justin withdraws from his fight against patty with the supposed staff slash ingrown hair situation and do you think armin is the guy to fill in if justin gauchy cannot go so uh two part of their jed Your reaction to Staffgate, as I will call it henceforth. It was all over social media last night. You could not avoid it. And Justin has responded and said, it's an ingrown hair. And I was eating a little brisket.

That's why there's like a little bit of brisket. It's why there's a little something going on in the lip there. So I don't know, Jed. That looked pretty nasty to me. I'm not a doctor. But that looked, if I had a bet, I would say, I'll put it this way. If Fandu'll put out some odds is this staff infection, I would say yes is like minus 300 right now.

Oh, that is a low number. That is a low number. I would smash that bet. Look, man, here's the thing. That's just a lie. I've had an ingrown hair. It doesn't look like that. You know, like ingrown hair has happened.

And maybe it wasn't ingrown hair, and then it got staff in it. But like, it just, I don't know what to, I am not a physician. I can't say with absolute certainty that that is staff. I would bet a considerable sum that it's not just an ingrown hair. And ultimately, like, does that matter? No, by the time we get to fight, well, it does matter. But by the time we get to fight weak, he won't have it. Like, he will have cycled through the antibiotics or whatever.

He'll be ride his reign and ready to go. The problem is you really getting staff at this stage of camp is tough because you've got to get on antibiotics, which is going to really affect your final stages of preparation for this big fight. Cardio is probably going to suffer. It just is where it is. I firmly believe that that is staff. I won't bet my life on it because I am not a medical doctor.

But I do not believe that's an ingrown hair. And mostly for the other part of this question, I don't think Robin Surukin's getting the call here. I don't, because I don't think there's a call to be made. Justin Gachie is not going to turn this fight down unless his arm is falling off. And so he's got staff three weeks out. He'll get on a cycle.

That staff will be gone in 10 days or whatever it is. He will be clean by fight time, and it is a question of how much this will have affected his preparation. And for me, it does change my calculus. Like, I, you know, I'm not sure it's a major determination. That'll kind of fall up to however you guys view this fight. But as we start looking at it, like, Patty's way to win is to get this fight to the ground, obviously. And he'll have more success if the fight, if he can survive in early on. slot, knock it knocked out with his chin all up in the air, and drag this to the later

rounds. And so, yeah, like, I think this affects it. And I don't believe Justin Gachie has been entirely truthful. Yeah, it's super weird. Yeah, I think Gachie's got into fighting. And I'm with you. It changes, it, it changes my opinion on it to some degree. I'm still picking, going to pick Justin Gachy to win this fight. I just think things will, I think the fight looks a little different now. I think it's a little more competitive. Not saying Patty had like no chance of winning or anything like that,

but I do feel like Justin can and probably should beat him even with all this, but the gap is closing. That's for sure. When you have a big, he is going to be way bigger than Justin Gachie. And if all this of the antibiotics, like affect. you know his his cardio and effect his strength maxing out throughout the fight or at least staying at a decent level over 25 minutes like patty is going to wear on him at some point and it's just a matter of survival can he survive i don't know if patty can like nuke him like

max holloway did and if that is the case which i believe it is i don't think he can finish just in gaichi unless he just cloppers him and knocks him dead and i don't think patty has that in him but could he steal a decision down the stretch if if justin starts to wither yeah very possible so the pick is still gaichi but i'm really intrigued to see how this affects the betting lines the closer we get to ufc 324 you know justin's going to be asked about this literally every time he speaks so yeah uh look i just pulled it up again that is that's the worst ingrown hair that's ever been and honestly it's better if he just says it's staff now because if if that's an ingrown hair that he is just like dug his fingers into

and opened an abscess on his neck which is what that is then like yeah bro now you're just gonna get staff i'd rather you have staff now than have staff in two weeks so like that's just staff man i don't know what to tell you it's pretty bad it's pretty bad it's pretty that is a gross gross image and the thing is like that's a wound like that is a yes it's an open wound it's and so like if it if it's not staff there's a highlight looted gets to be staff and here's the other thing man like this isn't the UFC that put this out you put it out this is like when tom aspinall just like threw dc under the bus by releasing semi-private conversations you were the author of this this is your channel you could have just had that edited out and not put that part of

it in but here we are like it's again this is this would not be nearly the size of what it was last night if we had anything else going on in the sport right now but because we're in this big doldrums something like this has time to really pun intended fester and so yeah this is that's an open wound on his neck. If he doesn't have staff now, he might get it real soon. Fosho. Hopefully those antibiotics are, hopefully he's been on them for a little

while now. It would be better. Super chat from left lane. Best chance to defeat Jose on prop quiz. Odds for him versus A.B. I assume that's Aaron Bronsetter. Hey, I'm playing Aaron Brownsetter this week on prop quiz. So don't count me out of this thing yet.

I might be going one on one with Jose. So maybe I, Maybe I'm the chance. Maybe I'm the best chance to beat Jose. But I truly think the best chance to beat Jose is that he just, his internet goes out and doesn't show up at the allotted time and can't compete and loses by forfeit. That is the only way he's going to lose in this game.

No one's going to beat this man. Or someone beats him in the fan pole to go first and they run the table. That's literally, that's how you beat him. You can literally not, you have to go first and you cannot get anything wrong. Other than that, he's going to clobber you. That's it. Yeah. I would, if I was going to pick anyone, I will pick him over anybody.

All dynasties end, right? Like, it's, it's hard to keep winning. If I was going to pick somebody, it would be somebody like Oscar, who also just goes to everything. And so he has, like, a tangible relationship to a lot of the information available. Like, oh, yeah, like, I was. this event too um but it's it's going to be tough you need him to have an off day and you need to be really on point uh and like that the best chance you have is to be the one who goes first and just

not give up the board because if you can get out early and clear out some of the 500s then you can build a lead that becomes tough to to overcome but it it's going to take a lot he is He is very, very well suited to that. Bronze Center might do okay, but I I got nobody I'm picking over Jose in this game. 100%. 100%. Brandon, rumors of Yuri versus Ulberg.

What are the plans for Alex? So if you guys saw this, there are reports that have come out that Yuri Pajshka is fighting Carlos Olberg in Miami at what would be 327? Yeah, 327. It's going to be in Miami from all accounts. But what do we always tell people, Jed?

What do we always tell people? What's the golden rule for fight news? If it ain't on our website, yeah, that. And if it's not on our website, it ain't a thing. And I'm not saying like this hasn't been discussed or anything like that. um we've obviously done our due diligence and reached out and this is not anything that we're is even close i guess if we're talking about like how things are reported and where things come from and and how things end up on the website uh obviously we reached out to multiple people

for nothing so that's that uh i think this fight would be incredibly stupid i don't know how else to put it but what if it's what if it's for the vacant light heavyweight title then it's fine but it's not that is real stupid and we shouldn't do the okay so it's all only if it's for the vacant it makes all the sense in the world um but to announce it for the vacant you then have to announce that alex prayer has vacated the belt and is moving up to heavyweight she's fine but you do have to do that if this is for an interim belt that's silly because there's no reason and i can't believe it would be based on the recent history. I don't think the UFC is inclined to be like, Alex, you're the one champion who gets

to keep your belt. Everybody else were making vacate. So if it's for a vacant title, terrific. That makes sense. But also, wasn't this rumored for like 325? No. Oh, was it not? Okay. Maybe I just misread that. I thought it was rumored for earlier, which was like then. 327 is what it's what the report is saying. That's in like April, March. whenever that is. It's April. Then, yeah, for a vacant belt then, and you are saying,

Alex Pereira is fighting Zero Gone for the interim heavyweight title. Okay. That at least tracks. Otherwise, I don't know what the end game is here if this ends up coming to fruition because Olberg should just be fighting Alex

if Alex is sticking around. And if Alex is not sticking around, then these two should fight. for the belt but the the the silliest outcome is yerry beating olberg and then we do alex yeary three like this year doesn't need us to keep doing this so the only way this fight makes it any sense at all is for the vacant belt and i don't know that we're there yet but it does seem like we're trending that way which is a little silly but no one will be upset like i won't even be mad if alex and carlos olberg don't fight that's fine

um i think they should in like the grand scheme of things but if alex was like effed i'm going up to heavyweight cool that's fine uh and this makes all the sense in the world for your next not all the sense um it makes sense but there's also an argument that magma and goliov should be involved in a vacant title fight but that's just not going to happen so that's okay he's going to need a win before that could happen um yeah uri beat jemal hill and kluo roundtree and back-to-back fights last year. Finish them both. I think he deserves it.

And then Oldberg is, you know, Olberg has earned his stripes by beating Dominic Reyes. And he's on a nice run right now. And he beat Reyes in, like, exciting fashion, which... Yeah, which is why it's just like, have... Have Olberg fight Pereira or just say Perreira is leaving. Like, those are the only... If this is for anything other than the vacant belt, it's incredibly stupid.

Yeah. It's, I mean, if you're Uri, like, you're Uri. It's just like, who gives a shit like i'll fight anybody um but if i'm yury i think deep down if i'm yore i'm fighting for the belt next like this is what we're doing and if you're caros oldberg yeah and if you're carlos olberg like literally taking anything that is not a title fight is promotion about practice like you are you are being guided in a in a horrendous way if you are agreeing or being guided towards taking anything that is not a title fight right now

so i've heard nothing about this i mean we have reached out we were told there's at the moment, no truth to it, but, you know, maybe this is what happens. I don't know. We'll see what happens. Only Alex Pereira can really settle this. What's he going to do? Is he going to vacate this belt? He keeps saying, I'm fighting at the White House.

No, I'm not fighting at the White House. So if he's not fighting at the White House, which that means he's not fighting John Jones, what are we doing here? So, but perhaps, like you said, with Tom Aspinall being in a weird place with his eye and needing surgeries and all that, maybe Tom's not going to be able to fight to, like, the end of the year or something, Alex versus Cyril Gahn would be pretty solid main event

somewhere down the line and they may need main events pretty badly here with if they're going to do six or seven title fights at the White House. It lines up exactly perfect if their entire driving force is exciting main events. You've got Gaetian Pemblet which, whatever you think about the merit,

bangor. Awesome. Bangor. Volk Lopez. That was already a very fun fight. It's incredibly insane that we're doing it, but Diego Lopez is not in boring fights. Bangor. Max Holloway, Charles Oliva, BMF, banger. My everything.

If the follow-up to that is then Yeri versus Oberg, it's Yeri-Prahaska fight. When Justin Gagee retires this year, Yeri Pajaska will assume the mantle of the most exciting fighter in the sport. I already believe he's the most exciting fighter to ever live that weighs more than 185 pounds or more. than 170 pounds um and like probably on the mount rush more of action fighters already and he still got more to go so bangor and then if you follow that up with alex versus cyril gone it's cyril gone it might not be a banger but it feels big and important and significant and it could be a banger so like that's a hell of a slate of main events if you're just going for pure entertainment value which is kind of what they're going for at this point so do that i am cool with that

because that gets us through may and then june it would be a little stupid because june should just be alex versus john at the white house but dana white's just not going to do it that's where i've settled on dana is just not going to give john anything john wants because john was not cool. And the Schoenfreude Me is pretty happy about that, frankly. But the, you know, the entity who covers the sport, the sport and wants the promotion to do what it should is frustrated that they're not going to do John versus Alex.

But it really seems like they're just not going to do John versus Alex. Seems like it. Seems like it. Very silly. But here we are. uh joseph what ilia took his break from the cage fans were wanting him to be stripped what is an appropriate timeline if iliad doesn't take at least a title fight should he be stripped if he is a while longer i mean he it was june he won the belt you would give him a year uh if he doesn't have any if there's no inclination no timeline by june yeah strip him um for a couple of reasons i i i actually i I've thought about this a good deal. I think stripping Ilya

makes a lot of sense and also is terrible. It's bad because the UFC is actively undermining their own titles at this point and taking the belt from Ilya to some extent does that. The same time,

Ilya's belt isn't real. He didn't beat Islam for it. He beat a guy who wasn't the number one contender. And so he gets it and he is the undisputed champion. but it's kind of like when Charles was the undisputed champion because he beat Michael Chandler and they were ranked three and four

it's like okay that's a pretty big asterisk on that title then he beat Dustin Porre who was the number one contender I was like oh 100% you're the lightweight champ Ilias he has an asteris lightway champ in my book and so taking the belt from him is not that bad but it is also bad because like they got to just

get somebody to hold the belt for more than five days. So it's a tough push and pull there. But if he's, I don't know how long this can be out, because that's the thing about the whole situation. He could choose to fight at any point in time. He is not being held out by injury or illness. It is a personal decision. And I absolutely sympathize,

and I'm not here to trash him for that. But you have less of a timeline because you're just, choosing not to fight. And you may have great reasons to choose. This is a choice. He couldn't fight. He can fight next month. If he, you know, if he had to, he could do it. If he needed the money, he could do it. This is a decision. And so I'm comfortable with a quicker trigger from him because ultimately, even if it is a decision I can empathize with, it's a choice to not fight. And you have a responsibility as champion. So fight or don't. And if you don't, then you don't get the belt.

It's tough to argue with that. I honestly don't know. I mean, I would say, I think not having, I think if we don't know by the time, by the time June rolls around, if it's just like, I have no idea when I'm fighting,

then we have to have a conversation about it. And then I'll just come back and fight whoever's the champion anyways. Like, it's not like he's out of the conversation. It's not like he's no longer a two-division. and champion or anything of that nature. He just is going to take care of what he needs to take care of. And then when he's ready to come back, he'll come back and fight for the belt.

So, yeah, it's a weird situation. I'll be honest. I think they should have stripped him already, but I understand that doing that is kind of insane. And so, like, I'm not saying, like, I'm not pushing for this or whatever. Because, you know, there's an argument that I think doesn't hold that much water, but people will reflectively gravitate to, which is you're taking the belt from him

and it hasn't been a year since he's fought. And there is like a broad truth to that. But again, he's not injured. To me, that's sort of the crux of all of this. It's a choice. And if you're choosing not to fight, then sort of by definition, you're choosing not to be champion.

Because the champion's job is to fight. if you can't if you are injured okay we make an exception exception for that but when he came out and was like i'm going to take some time it was like when george came out was like i'm not retiring but i'm going to take some time off that ended up being four years and was a functional retirement but like no you don't really get to choose not to you can take some a few months off but it can't really be indefinite and at this point in time it seems a little indefinite um but that's also public facing if behind the scenes he's been like yeah i'm going to fight in june okay and that's sort of the thing because when he said it the certainly the feeling was

okay he'll fight the winner of the interim belt sometime later this year and if that's still sort of the plan then okay i'm like then we don't need to strip him but if the plan is i don't know when i'm going to fight it could be three months it could be a year okay we're just going to take the belt from you you can fight for it when you come back but you're choosing not to fight, so you're choosing not to be champion. Obviously, we'll keep you posted on what goes on with that, the more that we know.

But definitely something to think about when it comes to where the lightweight division goes, especially after January 24th, depending on who wins that fight. So where does Armand Saru Kian fit into this? Someone asked earlier, Jed, he doesn't. He's got to win the title this year.

He's got to do it. I feel good about it. Some way the MMA gods will smile upon by Armin Sarukyan, and he will be the champion. This is, this is it. I'm trying to get my list of champions for the year, and Armin should be it, but I genuinely don't know if he's fighting. If Ilya returns, he's not fighting for the belt, which is the thing. If Ilya does fight next year, Armin will absolutely not be lightweight champion. because they won't fight

Ilya will fight one time it'll be the winner of Gauchy and Pimbley and then he's going to leave lightweight to try and fight Islam that is what's gonna happen yeah but if we get to June and they're like he's not fighting we're stripping him that means he probably doesn't fight at all

and you cannot bench Gaichy and or Pimblet for the rest of the year and leave that right so if he doesn't fight there's a window but also Max Charles no bmf belt i don't i i am not confident arm and sirrucans fighting for the belt he should it will be a travesty i am not confident yeah can you imagine if charles olivera gets a title shot over

armin surrician it would be funny as hell it would not be funny that is not funny it would be kind of funny look if patty beats gaecchi he's going to try not to fight arman he's talking he's talking a lot of shit that he may not be able to back his way out of now he is but literally on the on that fight him no but on the aspirin all thing he like that they did yesterday or earlier this week he was like i think it would be funny to not fight armin and to fight the winner of max charles because i was like honestly if you're patty you should try and do that uh someone asked earlier uh because of oh your boy uh we haven't had a chance to talk with this. RDR is fighting Kyle Bahalio, I believe in March, right? UFC 326. I think that's correct.

And so someone wanted your reaction to that matchmaking. This is way up. I don't want to go find it now. And then someone also asked, what do you think is next for DDP and Yuri? I think we kind of know where Yuri may go. It may be Ulberg in some sort of vacant title fight. I don't know what's going to happen with Yuri at this point. But your reaction to RDR versus Kyle Bajalio, and what do you believe will be next for your boy? Drink his two plus C. I hate that fight. Arguably, my very best take of 2025 was that after he lost, RDR should have moved up to

205 and fought Dominic Reyes. I still think that. I'll believe that until he does it. I've come around to at least the idea that, okay, these are, this fight makes sense. if you view RDR as a middleweight, and I don't. That's sort of the problem. Because if he is just trying to make a middle rate run, here's another guy who was right at the top and now fell out of the picture.

You have those two dudes fight. The loser is fully out of the picture. The winner, you know, they got to get a win in there, but they're in the mix again. And so I guess it makes sense in that. But I just am much more interested to see RDR at Light Heavyweight, especially if Alex leaves, a division is in desperate need of people and so

I was like a part of me that's hoping Kyle beats him frankly so he will just go up because if he loses he's definitely going up to 205 and if he wins he's still like well out of the title picture because the loss was bad and middleweight's got a lot going on

right now so I kind of hate the match up but it makes sense on paper it's totally reasonable as for dDP I have no idea what's happening for him. He has thrown out some names, you know, and there are fights that make some sense. Who's Fluffy booked against?

Sean Strickland. Sean Strickland. Fluffy and Sean Strickland are booked against. You know, if Fluffy loses to Sean Strickland, that fight makes sense. I think Brendan Allen makes some sense. Brendan Allen coming off the big win. Yeah, I kind of think that's where we're going. It probably feels like where we're going, but that just is such like a whatever fight to

me like it's reasonable but doesn't doesn't get the hair standing up on the back of my neck but there's that's the problem the correct answer was r d rd r that was the fight not just because i love that fight but because like there's not who else like brennan allen's really the only other option now because already are and kio are gone because i'm not going to do robert wittaker again i mean could why uh not going to do izzie again there's just not like other choices there. So I think he's kind of just backed into the Brendan Allen corner, which is fine, but I am not deeply interested in that fight. It's just a fine fight. Unless we're going to do the thing where he gives like Robocop a big shot. Like, all right, Robocop, you're fun. Let's see

if you can suddenly become the number one contender out of nowhere, uh, which I think would be insane, but I got to be honest. I'm, I'm more excited about watching DDP Robocop the name DDP versus Brinan Allen even though objectively Brinand Allen is a better fighter and that's a better fight. What if they did MVP?

I was thinking that. DDP MVP main event of like UFC London or something. That would be curious because you'd have one of the more boring fighters to watch versus one of the more exciting fighters to watch and how does that end up going. I think DDP wrecks him is a problem. Middleweight MVP has actually been

decently fun. Yeah, but he still throws like one shot of every four minutes or whatever. And I mostly just think DDP tackles him and his big brother's him. So I think we're just priced into Brennan Allen, and that's okay. Nothing wrong with that. But we had a big window to do DDP versus RDR. Everyone knows that's the fight I most want to see in the sport. And so I am bummed.

That if RDR is going to hang a middleweight, I'm bummed. That's not the fight we got. Well, I'm a fighting every new coverage for Risen. We did. KSW, we did. Octagon. We haven't really covered Octagon. Yeah, but we've covered Risen KSW.

And honestly, like, this is an argument we should cover Octagon. They have really become like a pretty main, like they're, they're the third biggest regional promotion, arguably bigger than third. The organization seemed to be blowing up. So, yeah. I mean, look, we've taught. I know we've interviewed some Octagon fighters. If there's big moments in Octagon events, we certainly write them up and put shine on them.

We have covered full-on KSW events. We just covered the full-on rise of New Year's Eve event. Covered the rise of New Year's Eve. So, yeah. I am open to that because all three of those are good promotions. The thing, like they, I mean, KSW is awesome. The biggest issue with KSW is they are not a talent-rich promotion. motion.

Their production is awesome, and they have a few really talented fighters. Sahadine Parnasse is awesome, and I wish he would come to a real organization. And it's dope that Phil DeFries is like 15 title defenses. That's like a really fun thing. But like they are, KSW is not a talent-rich organization. Risen actually has, I would say, more talent than KSW. and that's why we cover them more than the other two, frankly. And they have a specific niche.

Octagon is also, I don't know. They have, Octagon is very specifically rising talent, which is the thing. So that is a little bit different. That is, feels a lot more like covering LFA. Even though they're bigger and better than LFA, it's more akin to that than KSW Risen on. Yeah. another one from easy race

if mike and jed were CEO and co for three months what would you do to make pfl more compelling I would hire me I was just going to say minister of fun this isn't a bit it is a bit and I totally understand it's a bit I mean this so sincerely

pfl Don Davis that other dude who's name I can't remember John Martin John Martin Don Davis this is an earnest supplication to you y'all watch the program we know you watch the program we love you we want you to succeed not every idea i have is a winner i'm freely freely admitting that some stuff i have can't be done it doesn't fit the financials

absolutely a okay i would like to be minister of fun and all that job entails i throw out some fun ideas we see if we can make them happen and i sit and i'm just a vote in the room when somebody has another idea about here's the fight we're going to make. Here's what we're going to do. I just say, is that fun? That's it. I just ask that question because you guys won't ask that question of yourselves, apparently, which is why Dakota Dishva fought one time and it was a fight that nobody remembers. And for the first time in 10 years, she hasn't made a violent team because we didn't do anything fun there. Y'all need, if I'm CEO or CEO, oh, whatever I am, I've been saying this for years, and I will continue to say it until

PFL goes belly up or sells or whatever, or they do it miraculously, you need an identity because the identity of R.C. Cola version of UFC is bad. I can say that with certainty because Bellator was very good at being off-brand UFC and they existed for 15 years and then went belly up. That is the future of off-brand UFC. It's not fair. It's not right.

It is the future of doing that. You need an identity like, Mike, KSW and Risen. They have identities. You need one. And while the UFC is doing stuff and they're playing with the house money, your identity needs to be, we're the fun one. We are the fun organization where fun things happen. And also as part and parcel of that, you probably need to stop hiring as many fighters with Oves and Med-Oves in their name. Because those aren't the most fun fighters either.

So that's it all I would do If I was in any position of power for three months Hire me to be Minister of Fun when it's all said and done And try and gear the whole promotion Towards an identity of a good time Do a KSW did this year What was the biggest event KSW had this year What was the biggest thing they did

What was the most important thing they did The Eddie Hall Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding It was dope You know what that was fun as hell Yeah that more people paid attention to that event than any other this year for KSW around the world outside of their true fan base. PFL needs to get any hall over and fight for Anzegano. Make that fight

happen. I'm telling you right now, if you make that fight happen, you will have done the thing. You will do that that is the thing. That will immediately be on everybody's fight of the year list, like all knockout of the air. Like no fight, probably there will be very few fights in this sport that would get more attention than that than doing Francis versus Eddie hall that's way more interesting than anything else they could do very obviously the fight they should have booked forever ago yes Eddie wants it Francis would do it like what are we doing like just just just have fun you have so much notoriety you know many people will spend the $30 for the ESPN

premium everybody freaking everybody would so that's another thing that's important for PFL right is like I said this years and years ago when one got on prime i was like that actually might be a game changer for them because that's a major streaming service like a streaming platform that a lot of people have and that can help you grow and to some extent that actually is borne out to be true now they've pivoted away from mbma pretty hard but they are broadly successful in what they're doing promotionally away from mama outside of the fun thing and the fun thing is incredibly important you now are the sole MMA content on ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports.

Leverage that a little bit more. Get in front of more eyeballs with that, become a thing that ESPN wants to get behind, and that may also gain you some traction. And just, you've got to be different. I've been, Mike, you know, maybe you've even said this on one of our programs, I can't recall. I have gotten Mike more into learning about the history of professional wrestling because I frankly think it's.

fascinating. I still don't really like the product, but I do think the history of it's pretty interesting. And it started, or around the same time as I read, the great Mark Raimondi's book on the NWO and all of that, and Eric Bischoff, and I learned about it, and the the Netflix doc on Mr. McMahon, all these things. And a thing that struck out at me was Eric Bischoff when he, did he invent the WCW or did you just take it over? He just took it over. He was like a young producer that became sort of like the guy who ran it. So yeah, when he took it over and he's talking about like how WCW became, came to rival

the WWF and he was like, I looked at what they were doing and I did the opposite. And that to me is what PFL should do. Not exclusively the opposite, but his point being like they did pre-taped shows. I went live. Okay, that was a pretty good idea. Like, right? Like those, you know, they, he had some other examples, but it was just like, I looked at where they, where the product they were offering, they were, you know, to beholden to

children and this kiddie view of thing. And so we went a little edgier and a little more serious. To me, that's, that should be the guiding principle for PFL. What are the things that the UFC does that fans don't like? like immediately do the opposite fans and this will be like it would be trickier to to solve referee right and like thing but if you could do that that be great but mhm fans they would love head knees to the head of a grounded opponent let's find a way to make that happen we we can be the organization that has knees to the head of a grounded

opponent and soccer kicks and stops maybe not all that you choose not to but like we can have better gloves with fewer eye pokes. What are the criticisms being lobbied at the UFC? Let's go the opposite way of all of that and we tie it all up with a big bow of fun. We are the fun organization that's doing the things you complain about from the UFC. You complain that they're doing this or they're not doing this. We're doing that and we're fun. That's how you get some semblance of a foothold here.

Yeah. Don Davis has to be back doing interviews. too. I like John Martin. Seems like a nice guy. And I like coach too. But where Don just creates so much more havoc in like sometimes a bad way. But he is just one of the funniest people on the planet. As minister of fun, I will also be your mouthpiece. I will be the man who speaks publicly for you. That can be one of my roles. I think Don Davis is better than John Martin. They're 100% I have a little bit

I don't love Don Davis being the face Don Davis is the business face of the organization don't think he should be the Dana White Ray shouldn't be the Dana White Ray CFO shouldn't be the Dana White I don't think coach should be the Dana White

I don't maybe Dan Hardy's your Dana White I don't know but if it's not going to be me and the minister of fun you need to find somebody that can be a public facing entity that it has some juice and Don's the best thing they got right now 100% I still think there are problems

with Don there are some he needs to be more acclimated on the actual like fighting thing outside of just the business and like the money and the dollars yeah but the problem is like that's hard and I don't think he's not actually a fan of fist fights so you can't teach somebody who doesn't like fighting how to like fighting right but but if someone asked you like hey if you have a night out you want to go home and watch a fight, what fight are you putting on? You need to have an answer for that. You do. You should have some baseline answers.

But again, just hire me as minister of fun. I'll do that. We will get rid of stupid PFL uniforms. We will, or we will make our uniforms cool. And so everybody gets a unique one or something. We will make fighters stand out more. We will support them in a better way to get them publicly over. We will be fun and do, if I was in charge, we would be fun.

we do everything the UFC isn't doing or not do the stuff the OSC is doing that people hate because that's the only way to get anything happening here yeah and probably is none of this is their goal yeah the the the john martin the pfl john martin thing and i like john i john seems like a like a good dude he at least is a fan of the sport it's very knowledgeable of the sport uh trains himself from what i understand the whole hey tomorrow 11 a.m. Don't miss John Martin's Instagram account because we're going to announce a big fight

and it's a fight that nobody cares about. Like stop doing that. Like that is legitimately copying the UFC but under delivering compared to the UFC because you know when Dana goes on Instagram. You don't have fights that people care about.

Yeah. Unless if you're going to do that like Uspen Hughes 3 or Francis versus Eddie Hall. Like that's the type of thing you you bookmark tweets and an Instagram post for like big things big things but I'm with you yeah do you just go full opo of the yoopo dude the fact that they haven't run an event in the six weeks that the UFC was off is insane crazy well they had like the just I think they just did

they did a mana or whatever it's just like yeah you got to do you got to do an event and just whenever the UFC announces its schedule just like oh that's the weekend they're off we're putting a card there wherever we can put it we now we know like we right now we put up right now we have the UFC schedule

for the first quarter of 2026 when is there gap there's not a gap in February it's not a gap in March the first week of April there's a gap BFL should have an event April 4th April 4th should be an event

April 1st or April 3rd you should also they've been better about this but you got to put all your events on the same day. It's impossibly frustrating to do events on different days. People can't keep up April 4th. They should absolutely hold an event on April 4th. There's no reason not to.

They do it. They have one April 11th. Yeah, that's dumb. Oh, they have one April 11th to go head to head or semi-concurrent with UFC 327. That's the worst idea I've ever heard. Terrible. Very bad. So, yeah, don't do that.

Push it back. Yeah, go back. go back and go back a week. Move that to April 4th. Or yeah, or back one week. Like maybe the UFC may end up doing an event April 14th or whatever, or not 14th, 18th, but like either one of those is better

than going head to head with the USC pay-per-view. Don't do that at all. Because pay-per-views, I don't know if you know this, Mike. They're free now. So you really don't want to go head-to-head with them when they cost $8 a month. Yeah, it costs $60 a year to watch the UFC this year. 60 bucks for the entire year,

which is two. months of the ESPN premium deal if memory serves incorrectly but yeah four events thus far PFL Dubai Saturday February 7th at least that's with an apex event that's a week after UFC 325

March 20th which is the day before another the UFC London card which is fine this is the day before but it's stupid because I mean it's on a Friday and they Friday at 11 a. Pick a day if your day is going to be Friday just always

be Friday. Don't be Friday and Saturday and Thursday and Tuesday. Pick one day. You have to be consistent. That is, that's the Spain. That's the Spain card. They're getting into Spain for the UFC. And that's a good, like, that's great. But it's so frustrating. Like,

if you, like literally one of the things they teach you day one in content school, I made up content school, but just go with me. It's like the best thing you can do is be consistent. If you're trying to grow your social media platform post every day because that is like consistency is key Friday and Saturday and Thursday events and it's you know when the UFC is on it's on Saturday night it's on Saturday night on ESPN now it's Saturday night on CBS or Paramount that's when the UFC is

and Tuesday night 10 weeks out of the year there's contender series it's not on a Wednesday it's not on a Thursday you have to have a day and stick to it. There you have it. All right, a couple super chats. What will be the fallout of a UFC fight pass Sands LFA, et cetera? None whatsoever.

No one's, yeah, nothing. I'll be bummed. I love fight. I love fight pass. And some regional promotions are going to remain on there. LFA, I think, is going to do something else. It's not like they are mad at the UFC, and vice versa they are going to try to do their own thing they have not from what i understand

announced their new streaming or tv deal but if they're leaving fight pass it must be something pretty decent and they are truly without question the top feeder league for the promotion so yeah i don't think their relationship is tarnished at all and they're just going to kind of do their own thing moving forward i think long term the uc's just going to get rid of fight pass um they're not there yet but in the next couple of years I'd imagine that it shudders largely because like I mean the reality of what happened is they signed the deal with Paramount

Paramount wants their fight library that's a big chunk of fight pass so that goes over another chunk of fight pass is you know the UFC doing its other stuff UFC BJJ and Polaris and stuff that will probably just come over to Paramount to some extent

and so then it's just as a broadcast for regional MMA, which is awesome. Again, it's actually like a sneaky good product that the UFC has had for a long time. But I don't think they're generating like a ton of revenue based on that. And so they can just make the decision not worth it. And then that sucks for a lot of regional promotions.

You know, from a viewership standpoint, it would just be harder to watch something like Alaska NFC or whatever. But maybe I'll just. just goes to YouTube. I don't really know how that's going to end up shaking out. But I think long-term fight pass is going away. Yeah, I don't think it goes away this year. But I don't think it goes away this year.

But in the next couple, I'll just be surprised if it's still here in the next couple of years. I'll tell you what, man, if you're, uh, I know one of the things I thought coach said that was really interesting when we did the town hall last year was they want that app to bring on different promotions. wouldn't be a bad idea for PFL to start snagging some of these promotions up to air their events on their app. If that's what they're truly going to do, they should absolutely do that. Again, cater to the hardcore fan base and try and be fun.

Wouldn't be a bad idea. Chase, if you snack up those organizations, theoretically, you can have sort of a better integrated relationship with feeder leagues. And it's always going to be a struggle with the UFC being the dominant creature in this ecosystem. But like, you can have a better chance to get earlier talent and make them yours instead of everyone defaulting to the UFC. Yeah. Chase, in the event, Tom is on an extended period of time? Is it likely the UFC strips him how they did Hill and Yuri?

Also, would Jones versus DC and RAF be big? Jones versus DC and RAF would be gigantic. It would be huge. be absolutely it would be massive i think that will happen yeah i mean just look at the reaction of them coaching against each other on a reality show that none of us can really watch or like i mean you can't eventually on their on their youtube channel but like it's not like on television over here or anything like that and it's a russian show and just the them being on a post them doing a face off before a reality show got so much attention yesterday can you imagine

they're actually going to get their hands on each other like you never know i don't think like anything crazy would happen but no people would think there might be and that's terrific promotion for your for your company i actually might reject what i just said i don't know that that happens but it would be a great thing um problem is i think john probably does lose so i don't know that John wants to give D.C. a win in anything. But if that could happen, it would be, I mean, it would be the biggest thing RIF could do. What was the other part of that question? Should the UFC strip Tom Aspinall if he's going to be out in extended period?

Oh, that's right. So they didn't, so just to clarify, they didn't strip Yeri or Jamal, both of them technically vacated. I suspect after a conversation was had that they weren't. like I'm going to be out for six months. I suspect there's a conversation. The problem is I don't think Tom Aspinall is in a favor doing mood for the UFC right now. And he shouldn't be. So if the UFC comes like, hey, Tom, what if you, we're either going to strip you or you can, you know, vacate it and be a good guy.

Maybe Tom says, okay, just to curry some favor with the promotion. but I feel like he's more inclined to be like strip me and let's battle this out in public let you have the PR disaster of stripping me so I don't think that'll happen because again the opposite of the Ilya thing he's out for injury he's getting surgery on both eyeballs which so we're clear

every single person including the numerous professional fighters who are like actually Tom a big old coward and should have fought on kick rocks eat dirt and a lot more worse words that i'm not going to put in here uh a man's getting surgery on both his eyeballs all all of you can just sh and sit down um but like i do think that it's reasonable to institute interim belt not immediately but if by the summer he's like i still can't see out of my eyes i'm having more surgery like yeah man that's what interim belts are for when the champion is incapacitated and he is absolutely that uh and i think it would be fine to just do an interim belt because

they let john jones have the real belt for two full years so do it and that's fine yeah i mean i think it's a p r nightmare to let john have the heavyweight title for as long as he did when he was actively being like, I don't want to fight the guy I'm supposed to fight. And then to six months later strip that dude because he got poked in both eyes and is having surgery. I think that's, and I know the USC doesn't really care about PR, there's no reason to do it. I just can't imagine they would. Tom should like, Tom should come out and do like a video and be like, if the UFC wants

to do an interim belt, cool. and if the UFC actually books an interim belt you know what Tom Aspinall should do vanish vanish until he's ready to come back no more YouTube videos no more hanging out with Patty and making it public

like none of that go away he needs to go away for a little while and it's not his fault that the fan base has like turned on him for something that is nothing to do with him it's really not but

my biggest fear with this whole thing, especially with the John Jones stuff, was that he needs to ignore that John Jones even exists and that his belt was always the real belt and just stop answering the John Jones questions altogether, just completely no-sell him. And what he, and he did not do that. And now, like, it has created this sort of, like, inverse effect against him that even when he got poked in the eye, like, if he didn't go out there and just smoke on, anything other than that, he was going to get shit on. But this is, like, as bad as it could possibly be, like a public perception thing not from like any of us in here but from the fan base of the

UFC really caters towards so at this point like people need to miss him like he's at this point even though he didn't fight for that long he was in the public eye so much he was doing so many interviews doing so many videos and it was all john related all of it and dan is somewhat to blame too because he promised the world he was going to make this fight well we all know deep down that fight wasn't going to happen and it's just it's just tough so make a video saying like, hey, if the UFC wants to do an interim belt fine, let gone in Pereira or gone and Volkov fight for the belt, like whatever. And then when that fight happens, we crown an interim champ.

And when he is cleared, when he is actually cleared, when a doctor says, Tom, you can go fight. Then you come back. You make your triumphant return to YouTube or go on Helwani show or whatever. And you announce that I'm back. and I'm going to fight this dude. That's what you do. And then the fan base will be on his side.

He's one of those guys that needs to like go away for a little while. And I think people will miss him. We can't miss you if he don't leave. And even though he didn't fight that much, he was everywhere. We couldn't avoid him. He's one of those guys that needs to take a, take a breather. I broadly agree. I do think there would be a certain amusing piece.

If instead they crowned an interim champion and he would, It was just like, I don't want to fight him. I'd like to fight Steepin Mietich. He's a legend. Okay. All right. I think that would be pretty funny. Okay.

All right. You found the lone exit I would be willing to take care. God. I just think that would be an incredible bit. That is better than Ryan Yarder de Ritter versus Dominic Reyes. I think it's officially better. Yeah, I know there's an interim champion, but I, I'd rather fight Steve Mieditchitch, please, thank you.

Cyril God, I will not fight you. Steve, hey, where are you at? Let's do this. Oh, my God. Terrific. That is unbelievable. Take a couple more. Get out of here.

Ace Buggy, 2026 hot take. Heavyweight division gets really competitive. Alex Ed's juicer. Hokit is cringe slash fun. Gable comes over. Salsa Boy. I'm actually excited. Jed, when describing 2026 in the UFC heavyweight division, would a word in your top 20 be excited?

No. First, before I answer this question, I meant to do it earlier and forgot. Shout out Dave Sanding, who gifted five memberships. We love you, Dave. You're the man. I mean, it might get competitive because there are things, like people, but there's six good fighters. Josh Hogan's not good. He's super cringy and like serviceable as a heavyweight, but he's not like a top 10 heavyweight.

Also, the admission of Walter Valker, outrageous. Thank you very much. But it will be better than last year because last year was like a real nadir for the heavyweight division. And, you know, Walter Cretacea Coast has come alive and become somebody that people are interested in. hopefully Tom is able to get in there and fight Alex might move up like these are improvements and if Gable does come over which I anticipate he will like it's all relative I guess so I won't say that I'm excited for this division ever but relative to other heavyweight years yeah absolutely if we get Alex at at heavyweight and Gable coming over like that enough is

juice right there and then if you know wca and walter valker keep sort of surging their way up the rankings like we got some more things happening but in the context of other weight classes not just historically the heavyweight division i would not say i'm excited for this i don't know what's going to happen i don't know what's going to happen but either way jed one of two things is going to happen this year. Either Derek Lewis or Waldo Cortez-A-Costa is going to fight for a title to share. One of those two battlemen is going to fight for a belt. And to me, that is just great.

It's just great. Whoever wins that fight is going to fight for a championship this year. And it's spectacular. So that would be fun. Getting cable in there. Good and questionable, but it'll be fun. And getting Gable in there will obviously be. If Gable and Alex come in, it will be the,

the most exciting this division's been since Tom was on the rise. Tie to he lost is back. Yeah, that's just sad, though. I don't think that's fun. I think that's sad. But yeah, like he's taking it seriously. It looks like he's in pretty good physical shape right now.

I don't know. The issue I don't ever think was his seriousness. I think he's washed. But yeah, again, relative to other heavyweight years, sure, relative to other divisions. heavy weight is still I mean it's

if Alex the game will come over the total of it is better than women's bannam weight so I guess it would be ahead of that even though the upcoming women's bannam weight title fight is awesome and I'm stoked about that what other weight class

would I say I'm more like it's probably better than what light heavy weights got going on right now so that's instead of being the second worst division in the sport, it might move up, or arguably worse, but second worst, it might move up to being like the third, but it's not better than what middleweight's got going on, welterweight, lightweight, feather, bantam, fly. Arguably, it's better than what straw weights got going on since Val really put the rest of the weight class in a chokehold last year and just throttled the two exciting possibilities

that were coming up. um so like you know again it's not bad and it's better than it's been i guess if that's what we're looking at that's true uh jad very important question when is the m ms fantasy draft happening will you have jose replace casey's team so next week and yes um we had i had offered hose to join the fantasy team previously he passed just didn't want to do it um i if he didn't I just asked him again. I thought he was going to say, no, I'm not interested. And that would have been fine.

He surprised me. He was like, yeah, sure, that'd be fun. And so he will just take over Casey's team. Had he not, we were just going to five minute. And Casey's fighters were returned to the pool and that would have been fine. But so instead, he is just going to take over Casey's team, uh, meaning he'll have the option to retain two of Casey's fighters if he chooses to. And we are drafting Tuesday.

So I think that'll be up on the YouTube Wednesday is probably sort of the timeline. Something next week because we don't want to do it pre, obviously, 324 fight week. So season four of the Fantasy League coming at you next, Mike, our defending champion, we'll go last. And we'll see how it works out for him. I have no idea who I'm going to keep. I'm like stressing out about it. I mean, it's going to be tough. hard decisions got to get made

very very hard decisions I truly don't know what I'm going to do if I was on your if I had your roster so yeah I want the chat to go on this as well here is my roster right now I know yeah keep to Pori who did not fight and we're just doing

this is a half year thing right correct we're just doing it again till so January I think what we're going to end up doing is draw the line in the sand at the White House card because that'd be fun okay uh so i won't keep ilia because i don't think he's fighting in the first half of the year correct then there's hamzat shimai if who probably fight he'll probably fight once in this time frame

but not guaranteed a taba goatea is going to win every time he fights correct he's fighting january 24th i would absolutely keep him if i were you he would probably fight twice i would probably get two first round knockouts and two bonuses he is a no-brainer keep for me uh magabana And Goliath, not keeping him. Correct. Piotr Yon ended up being like the sneaky best traffic of the entire season. I wouldn't keep him far away you, but he was a very good pick.

I end up getting a lot of points. Then there's Waldo Cortez Acosta, Ramazan Temerov. I would keep WCA and Gautier for you. That's probably what I'm looking at right now. There's Michael Venom Page, who again, very valuable because he can compete in two weight classes. then I had Jasmine Chaz DeVizius probably won't keep her

Jillian Robertson did not fight but she will get a ranked opposition Mozar Vloeff and Kayla Harrison who is booked to I think Kayla's the only to me you have it's a three person race with a Taba WCA and Kayla because Kayla is going to fight in January

and I will be if you think she's going to beat Amanda I think it is almost 0% she's not fighting at the White House card. Barring catastrophic injury, so you'll get two bites with Kayla, which is why I, and perhaps they're both title bites, I would say those are your three and I might pick Kayla and go T.A. But WCA and Gotaa also makes sense. Yeah. I think, yeah, I think you're right. I think we're down to three. I to me looking here because

Peter Yan is probably only fighting once and it's Marab and while I now have some confidence he'll beat Marab I think he'll be Marab again I mean I wouldn't bet my life on it because the first time they fought he super didn't beat Marab so you know like I it's it's it's just a one shot you got to hope he gets it because I don't think he'll fight twice in the

in the timeline for my roster I have Sergei Pavlovich Bogdan Guskov Sharra Bullet, Kevin Holland, Daniels El Hubert, Morgan Chariye, Malcolm Walmaker, Brandon Moreno, Norah Cornoli, Charlie Judis, Fatima Klein, Azamette Bekoev. Ooh, this is interesting for you, Jed. It's tough. You got Moreno headlining and probably going to win. Yes, and that's why he's very possible, but I'm also concerned the tire loss was shocking.

I thought I, to be clear, my Kevin. Holland plan was solid. He just lost both of his fights. I lost nine fights. You had like five fighters not compete at all. I lost nine fights. One, two, three, four, five. You had five fighters not compete and then you lost like two more because Jasmine lost and Magamond lost. So overall, you had seven negative fights. I had nine losses because Kevin, in holland lost freaking twice guskov drew which counts as a loss for our

purpose is zell huva lost charier lost morano lost well maker didn't freaking or walmaker lost sorry he didn't fight but he lost cornolly lost backwell lost i had a great process

and they all just lost all the time it was furiating are you keeping the i feel like you have to keep the two two of the ladies just I'm probably keeping, so we're clear, I'll keep Carly Judis as long as we do this. None of you will ever get to have her. I think Fatima Lai too.

And Fatima Klein is probably the correct decision for the other one. So I'll probably keep those two, but Brandon Moreno is the guy I'm considering as a possibility. And for, for Team Jose, I mean, he's got, he's got Aspedal, Zhang Mingyang RDR Jacobi Smith Steve Garcia Medell Cop

Dustin Porreier Well you can't Keep Dustin Poria That'd be pretty bad Tatiana Suarez Uh Wang Tong Umar and Magamatoff

Raquel Pennington And Gregory Rodriguez So Jose's got some decisions To make as well Umar's booked Umar's booked Umar's booked

I believe Gregory Is he's only person Booked Booked I believe Gregory Hodriguez is booked. We haven't like fully confirmed that one yet,

but it seems like all signs are pointing towards he is fighting Bruno Fajara instead of with Paula Costa not fighting. I believe that's a 326. Yeah, I think that's RDR is booked as well. RDR, but he might lose that. I think if I was Jose, I would either just take Umar

or maybe Umar and Jacoby Smith. Yeah. Casey took Raquel Penning. No cop's also interesting, I guess. But I don't know. I mean, it all depends. Like, if they give Cop the title shot, then it's a terrific pick. But you are taking a big swing. Because if he doesn't get a title fight, like, it's not worth it.

He'll fight once. And yeah, you could probably get points in a bonus, but it's not a title fight. There's, I don't know, it's risky. It's risky. The other possible choice is you just take. uh jang ming yang because like he'll probably get a softball and kill a dude the problem is they're going to shanghai in august so jang is not going to be fighting in like june that's just so you've got a couple of months window for him to get booked and it could easily

they might they might trot jang and durn out there pretty quick just because they need title fights No, Zhang Ming Yang. Oh, Zhang Ming Yang. I thought you mentioned it. Yeah, okay. Zhang Ming Yang, so they're going to Shanghai in August. Zhang Mingyang is absolutely on that. So he's probably not fighting in June.

And even May might be questionable. So you've only got a small window, which means you're probably only getting one fight for Shang Mingyang. He will probably kill the dude. He fights. But I'm at least somewhat interested. I think if I was Jose, I'd take Jacoby Smith on spec. And I'd take Umar because I think Umar's going to

but it's also totally reasonable just be like I'm not going to keep any of these people that's true but he has to right you have to keep no you don't have to keep them what you don't have to keep them I thought we did I thought last time everybody kept two people everyone did but you don't have to oh so you could just pass both rounds and have wide open teams and then just pick like correct and then just have a pick yep okay I got to figure out how we do it I have to look I've never in my keeper league in fantasy football. We've never had it. But like I think in fantasy football it works like your keepers are basically just rounds.

And so Jose theoretically would get two free picks first because we're using our keepers on other people. And so then he just gets to kind of snipe. But I got to figure out how it's done. I don't I don't think we should make you have to keep a fighter. I feel like that you should have to keep too. I think that's part of the process. I especially don't think he should have to keep it since he didn't draft case his team. But he's got two key.

He's got viable keeper possibilities. I don't think he should have to keep anyone. Right. If he doesn't, he should have to, he can't take anybody till the end. That's how you fill those spots. We'll figure it out. I haven't decided how we're going to do it. But my entire policy on this has been I'll figure that out when, when the problem arises.

So if he wants to keep people, great. If he doesn't, we'll sort it out at the end. end um all right but yeah uh we'll see how it shakes out i'm very excited uh yeah week from today week from today uh last thing to get out of here our man armand no question just wishing for another great year of fight shows and enjoying life blessings to all in 2026 blessings oh yeah mom blessings to all of you guys uh yeah sorry arm on and um thank you clone shout out to the twitchers shout out to the twitchers shout out to the twitchers catch you on the next one uh that'll be next third yeah clone yes our twitch our twitch

following is just going up like hundreds of percentage points uh we went from like two to four to seven i think we're in like the 30s now exponential growth where are we at now how many i have no idea i have to look it up hold on i can't look that up right now which t which mhm a fighting uh we've got a couple of watchers So I'm one of them. 42. Damn. 42.

Boom. The growth. You're welcome. The growth you are seeing. You're welcome. Disney Nation. Also, all of you go on to M.A.5.com. It's a great website and ask me questions in my mailbag feed request because I need some of those.

I have to write this column. And I think there are like four answers in there right now. Yeah. Go to the feed. MAPfighting.com. Terrific website. I'm about to pin this. I'm going to remove your pinning question.

how dare you there's so many comments in there yeah watch me what i have the power commander of the feed right now all right the commander of the feed the minister of fun that's right has taken over the feed the ms fighting minister of fun the ms fighting mr of fun uh trying out for his hopeful position for the professional fighters league call me don sometime sometime martin right here uh but that's it everybody uh Again, heading to beautiful Sunrise, Florida, on Thursday. So we'll have boots on the ground RAF coverage this weekend. Really looking forward to it, honestly.

I'm actually very excited to check out something new that I haven't done before. Hopefully lots of interviews coming your way. At least that's what I'm told, maybe some different faces that we haven't seen on this website in quite some time, which will be really, really cool. So stick with us, everybody. We appreciate it for Jed. That's Colby Rockhold main event, right? Colby Rockold, the main event. Yol Rivera versus Bo Nichol.

U.L. and Bo? That's spectacular. Like, I'm so interested in that. I'm fairly certain Y'all is going to kill him, but it's, it's like kind of fun. It's very fun. I would have had thought Bo would beat Yol until Yowel ran over Pat Down. It's like, oh, he's apparently he's still incredibly good at wrestling. Yes.

So he was a large man. Yeah, it's super incredibly athletic. But, like, that's great. I'm I think I don't agree with Luke Rockhold on many many things like how to live my life

frankly but I have a great appreciation for his post-MMA career just being like I'm going to do all of them I'm going to do all of the combat sports I'm going to go box will I get knocked out by Darren Till

sure but I'm going to go box I'm going to fight bare knuckle against the guy I'm clearly 20 pounds heavier then and lose I'm going to do Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling I respect a great deal

karate karate combat like honestly that's the way to have a post-MMA career if you can be Mike Perry and you find one niche that's like perfect for you go all in otherwise just do it all

and have some fun because and get paid so shout out to Luke Rockhold because I don't care at all about watching him wrestle but I am kind of interested as he the only thing left he's gathered the infinity stones now he just has to do power slap like that's it what other options

are there for him i'm trying to think yeah that's kind of it right i mean he could do like actual moitai but that would be a bad idea and he shouldn't do that you can do the wrestle ball like is on did today yeah do any i i respect this a lot i think it's a great post mma career to just be like i'll kind of do it all let's have some fun i won't do any of them more than once and i'll lose most of them but yeah it's great get that bag son get that bag uh thank you very much hope you all get yourselves a bag this week uh until we see you next thursday right here i'm between the links we're out of here see you next week love you all you're listening to the vox media podcast