MMA Fighting - BTL | Adesanya vs. Whittaker 2 Fallout, Joe Rogan, UFC Vegas 48, Bellator 274, Knucklemania 2

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

How big of a step did Israel Adesanya take in his quest for greatness, and where does Robert Whittaker go from his loss to the champ in the main event of UFC 271? This week on Between the Links, the panel will attempt to answer those questions, and give their final thoughts on the UFC's second PPV event of 2022 — including Tai Tuivasa's ceiling in the heavyweight division following his KO win over Derrick Lewis. In addition, they'll discuss Joe Rogan no longer being part of the UFC 271 broadcast in lieu of Michael Bisping and how the UFC, and Dana White, handled the situation, the combat sports triple header on this weekend with UFC Vegas 48, Bellator 274, and BKFC's Knucklemania 2, as well as their thoughts on which event has more intrigue heading into Saturday night, and more. Host Mike Heck will moderate the discussion with MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and José Youngs. Show goes LIVE Thursday at 3 p.m. ET / Noon PT. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you back to a brand new edition of Between the Links. Hope you're all having a wonderful week. We have another exciting episode of the program in store. And while I wasn't really sure how we're going to do this, if we're going to do like a roundtable, if we're going to do an actual matchup,

So I decided we're going to handle this like it's an episode of the Ultimate Fighter. It's not an official matchup per se. No titles on the line or anything like that. This will not be a round by round type things. But normal format. We'll go four rounds. We'll do a knockout round. And then we'll let the peeps all of you watching live right now decide who wins this one at the end.

And our producer E. Casey Leiden will announce that at the end of the show. In other words, we're playing for bragging rights this week. And sometimes that's more valuable than titles and money. So let's go ahead and introduce the panel. First, he is back in Phoenix after a tremendous week of coverage at UFC 271 in Houston. Let us say hello to Mr. Jose Young's. What's up, Jose? You already know.

War will never seeks to exist, especially against my foe today. But he's already dead. You all know what that means. And back this week, and I'm sure he'll have something to say about that. I know the plaque in the offices of the BTL Championship, committee reads champion his heart says interim champion and it won't be real until he gets that dream matchup with phoenix carnivali i'm trying man but jed meshew joins the show once again how are you sir i'm good man uh i don't know when my heart's going to feel like a champion if phoenix just

isn't ever coming back like i don't i don't know how many wins i need to feel like i'm the champion but i feel like i'm getting close because at this point i'm not sure she's ever coming back and So I'm just the de facto, you know, interim turned actual. But this is great because now I'm a Tocanori Gomi champion. I'm going to fight a non-title balance. Fantastic. There you go. You're moving up a weight class and it's all good.

So let us go ahead and start here. Let's put a bow on UFC 271 because Israel Adisania defeats Robert Whitaker in the main event, view unanimous decision, retains his middleweight title, competitive fight. Most people thought Izzy won the fight. a lot of people think Robert Whitaker won the fight, which makes things a little interesting in the aftermath, but Jose will begin with you. Israel Star Power continues to grow,

and like you said on the MAA hour yesterday, he just shines when the camera is on him. He's winning fights, whether people like the execution of the victories or not, all of them at 185 for these victories. It seems like Jared Cannonier is next for him. What did that victory over Robert Whitaker do for that quest for greatness?

that he is currently striving for right now. Competitively, I think it was a massive leap up the quote-unquote greatness ladder solely because the entire narrative that like everyone on this site, everyone on various other sites, probably the UFC broadcasts because I couldn't hear it because I was there, really put Israel as sign to Robert Whitaker 1A, 1B, and then a massive gap and then like Jared Cannon and Eric Brunson. So the fact that he holds two wins over the guy that a lot of people, think is just happens to be the second best middleway on planet Earth does wonders for his

quote unquote greatness level competitively now if he had gone out there and just like wheel kicked Robert Whitaker into the shadow realm and then rode off into the into the sunset uh his star power obviously would a skyrocket because we can see we've seen what highlight real finishes like that can do to a person's star pedigree like look at hori mazvidal he knocked out darin till and then slept Ben Ascran. Maybe not the biggest wins in terms of name value in terms of competitive, because we've seen what has happened to those two since those fight. But back-to-back, stellar wins, especially that five-second knockout.

Hoare Madzo was all of a sudden one of the five highest paid fighters on the UFC roster. So flashy finishes, get you paid. So maybe not the performance he needed to rise up the greatness. It certainly wasn't like a Vitor, like, front, or Anders Silver, front kick to Vitor level performance. but in terms of just competitive greatness, he's already started probably a second or third lap around the division. So if we're looking at that, it did big things.

And I am very perplexed that people thought Robert Whitaker won the fair. I get if Rob thought he won, he was in there actually fist fighting another human being. Anyone else is just mind-boggling to me. Jed, do you know what else gets you paid? Wins get you paid. And the wins keep piling up. He is now, according to whoever you talk, to he's the second highest paid fighter on the roster right now with this new contract that he

signed and he started off that new contract with the victory as a competitive fight but you've talked many times on the show how difficult it is to not just become a champion but to consistently defend the title against these different fighters who are bringing their A games to you every single time and bringing these different energies and these different strategies to you what did you think of his performance and did he take a big step forward in terms of that quest for greatness that he's striving for. I thought it was really, really good performance. I like Jose.

Super curious how people think Robert Whitaker won the fight. It was way more competitive. And so I guess if you're grading on a scale of, well, Rob didn't get his ass kicked as hard this time, then he wins. But the stats are wildly in Izzy's favor. And I just don't really see how you give Robert Whitaker three rounds in that fight unless you're being a homer.

Like, not even generous. you're just being a straight-up homer if you're giving Rob three rounds in that fight. So, and yeah, like honestly, Jose hit a lot of the points, which is annoying because, you know, I don't like Jose. But he did really well. It's totally correct. Rob is the second best guy in the division pretty clearly. I would say that the gap is maybe a little closer than he made it out to be just because the canoneeer fight Rob won clearly. but I think that that is,

Canada is not that far off catching up to Robert Whitaker in my estimation. But I mean, yeah, this is the type of stuff that cements a really, really strong legacy. We're probably going to talk about Izzy and the Pantheon of all-time greats because that's become a topic very frustratingly. But this is the kind of win that really elevates that his resume in that regard. Robert Whitaker is one of the best middleweights we've ever seen. and Izzy now has two pretty decisive wins over him. So this is as good as it gets me.

That is peak MMA that we got to see last weekend. And Israel Dissna is just better than Robert Whitaker. So it's tremendous for him. Yeah, we're not going to talk about that. We talked about that last week. And you can argue he's number two. He's still got work to do to get to number one. I think we could all sort of agree on that.

But I did want to bring one thing. Yeah. I think we could all agree on that. Yeah. I do want to touch on this, because one of the big stories that has come out of this event is, you know,

Adasania signs this new deal. And I know we talked about it a little bit on the post-fight show. We didn't get full on into it, so we'll do so now. He is hoping that with this new deal and piggybacked along with what Francis and Gano

is trying to do with this platform, with this new deal, that it'll be a trickle-down effect to the rest of the roster, that the more he talks about it, it's a very good thing. He wants the newcomers to make enough money to live without having to scrape

buy and get multiple jobs. But Israel, this seems to be an important thing for him, no matter what the reason is. Maybe he's even said himself with Ariel in the MA hour yesterday that he's got teammates who are dealing with these struggles. So he sees it firsthand and maybe it's more for them, but it trickles down to everybody else. But with Israel being the voice here, Jed, can anything change? Can he encourage any kind of shift, especially if wouldn't that camera light is on and that microphone is in front of him, he empowers others to follow his lead. He can. He's not going to. I don't have any simpler way to say it. I hope I'm wrong. I would love, there is an actual moment in time right now where things could change because Israel and

Francis Ngano and Kamar Usman are very tight given their African heritage. They've spoke, all three of them have spoken about it really openly and Israel's kind of the linchpin there as well, but they are all really tight and feel that. And they've spoken about wanting to bring the UFC to Africa and putting on an event there. They happen to be the top three or three of the four top pound-for-pound fighters in the world and UFC champions. And Francis Ngano is obviously, we've talked ad nauseum about this going through a big contract dispute with the UFC at this point. And Israel on aerial show yesterday kind of spoke about Francis and about how he feels about that. and Francis shouldn't have to be going through this stuff.

And if the three of them would just unify, just the three of them can serve as the nucleus to something greater here of, hey, we don't like that we collectively as fighters are making 20% of revenue. And they could spearhead and start moving the ball. Like the three of them together could effectuate change, but they're not going to. And I think you can kind of give that up immediately because I would love to be wrong here. But if they were going to do it, Israel probably wouldn't have signed a new six-fight deal right before this contest. He would have really doubled down into being alongside Francis. Instead, he has a, you know, sure he's making more money. Great.

He's still not getting his value because no fighter in the UFC is getting their value. because collectively the fighters make 20% of revenue. So there's just no way he's doing that. And his idea that this is going to trickle down is it's either naive or outright garbage. Like I don't know which of the two it is, whether he genuinely believes that him getting paid more is going to in any way affect the people beneath him. If he believes that he is naive and otherwise he's just telling a lie because it makes him feel better. I don't think that's the case. my assumption is that he thinks that this is going to help others, but it's not.

It's going to help him, and I'm not here to knock that. Get your money while you can. You have a very limited shelf life in this sport, but you have to be realistic about what's happening here. If he really does want to help other fighters, help his teammates, him taking more money is not going to trickle down to them unless he's just handing money out of his pocket. The way he would fix it is to get with Francis, to get with Usman, to get with other guys, you know, Dan Hooker and the people around him, hell, if you take it, the three of those people, plus Alexander Volcanowski, who, you know, works with Israel and

Eugene Barron in that group, that is the top four pound-for-pound fighters in the world. That can make a change. Like, that is the nucleus you need to do something. But based on everything he said, I don't see that happening from Israel. And so we're just going to keep chugging along on this same road we've been for 20-some-odd years. What do you think about that, Jose? say and a year from now. And I know you know of Izzy and you've talked to him a few times and you see what he's

like and you're a journalist, but you're a fan of the guy. He likes a lot of the same things that you like and you guys have a lot of common ground. But a year from now, do you think Izzy's still talking about these types of things? Or do you think we're going to be thinking back, oh, man, if only those guys got together a year ago, maybe we would have some change right now. It's hard to say because Izzy has, like, remember in the past, like we've seen, I don't want to say dissension, but we've seen Izzy kind of question quote unquote

the man in the past. Remember when he fought Anderson Silva, that wasn't originally the main event. That was Robert Whitaker, Kelloggleson Gasselham, and then when that fell apart, that three-round fight got elevated to the main event. And then in Israel's post-fight press conference, he literally said, like, hey, who gets

the pay-per-view points? Like, and then no one really kind of dove into that. So, like, he clearly is an intelligent man when it comes to, like, pay-per-view points and the business side of that so the man got paid he wants to get paid i just don't know i think jed kind of hit it on the head like it's one thing to talk about it but actions speak louder the words i think they can get the ball rolling but i don't think they're all going to collectively like if ufc goes to africa in

2002 and the three of them israel camaro and francis all just said we're not fighting on that card unless there are changes that would be drawing a line on the same but i don't think that's going to happen someone and i don't think any of them would uh like kind of collectively unify also because you know israel doesn't particularly like kamar ouzman's manager uh francesanston ghanu's manager is on the outs with the ufc and kamar's manager uh is just the guy that the ufc likes to work with so it's just kind of i don't know it's just kind of this weird amalgamation of moving parts but it's like moving parts inside moving parts but i think izzie's going to still talk about it but i don't know if words are going to

make any sort of action like feasible by the end of the year yeah i i i i i The interview hasn't dropped yet. I talked to Joe Lozahn about this situation. And I know you've probably talked to Joe about this in the past, Jose. But he's got a very interesting counterpoint where he loves to see the fighters make more money. And people look at him like he's anti-fighter. But he also looks at it from a realistic point of view where he's just like, until we're in a position where, yeah, until we're in a position,

until we're in a position where if one, like a challenger fighting for a title, puts his feet in the sand. But then there's another guy behind him is like, oh, you want me to fight for this amount of money? I'll fight for this amount of money. And the other guy kind of gets pushed out of the way. Like, no change is ever going to be made. That's just the business that we're in right now.

And it's still kind of a baby at this point. And hopefully we can get to that point. Go ahead, Jen. There's a word for that. It's called SCAPS. Yeah. Okay, well, this other guy will, like, all right. Nate Diaz is saying like when Donald Seroni was down to fight like every week

Nate Diaz was like you're the reason we're not getting good. Yeah, you're the problem. That's like absolutely true. It's just like fighters are self-interested in the short term and it's never going to change. This is the same. I don't want to make that political argument. I'm going to get into it. It's the same argument.

This is all dumb. Like it's never going to change. You know how I know that fighter pay is never going to change? Because when the UFC sold for $4 billion, it didn't. change if that like that should have been it the fighter should look at that and said hey you see sold for 4.2 billion dollars we're we're getting screwed and they didn't and we're still here it's never going to change it just never is yeah this is going to be i i feel like we're we're going to be telling an unfortunate tale throughout the the rest of our careers here but

i do want to shift to rob a wittaker at the only act will come i hate the ali act i've been anti the ali act from like day one because in a better world from a viewer perspective, like the Ali Act doesn't exist. Because in the optimal viewing, like, fan experience, the NFL model is what it is. Like, you have one centralized league and you can have other leagues to enjoy, but the majority of the talent is centralized one place, but that talent collectively bargains to make a fair share. And that way it's really easy for you, the viewer.

But that's just never going to happen. And so the only way this gets changed is the Ali Act. and eventually that will come through, but it's, you know, for the next five, 10 years, we're just still going to be here. Agreed. I do want to talk about Robert Whitaker before we move on. He's taking this loss in stride, Jose. He's happy with the performance, like you said, he thinks he won the fight.

And like I said earlier, for some reason, he is not alone in that sentiment. So how much does this loss set him back, Jose, and where does he go from Saturday? I mean, it sets him back on the fact that he's 0 and 2 versus the champion. So, I mean, it's really hard to climb. out of a whole, like, like Jedd has said, like it's two pretty definitive losses in my mind. One of them he got absolutely slept in one, and essentially a perfect game from Israel and Osana. And then Israel just did the opposite and just pieced them up, well, not pieced him up,

but just won't have pieced him up, but just won a five-round decision. So he's on both, like, the big thing was like, oh, can rob, like this new, what do you call, like intelligent, like methodical rob? Can that rob beat Izzy? Well, we saw that, and Izzy still beat him. So he's 02 on two opposite ends of the spectrum. Can't knock him out. You can't win a decision.

Couldn't hold him down. So being 02 and basically you're through the kitchen sink, Israel-Assani, and you still have a one. So that's rough. So as long as he has that belt, I don't think Rob's going to Welterweight. He's never going to go to light heavyweight and be hyper-competitive. So where he goes from here,

he should probably fight Derek Brunson. I think that's the only one that makes sense for both men. Derek Brunson is going to retire after his next. fight. We all agree that Robert Whitaker is the second best middleweight in the world, so you probably don't want him knocking off, quote, unquote, fresh meat for Israel-asanya. So why not give him the guy that isn't going to fight for the belt? Rob's already beat him once. Give Derek Brunson the rematch. If Rob loses, the guy he lost to isn't even in the division anymore. So he doesn't really lose a lot of the ranking. So I think that's the fight to make. But competitively, I don't see Rob fighting

for a title anytime soon, unless as long as Israel holds the title. or as we've seen a million times in this new era of the UFC, if Rob just happens to be fighting on the same card as Israel, and Israel's opponent gets hurt or gets COVID or visa issues or something and Rob gets elevated, maybe there's like a 1% chance that happens, but Rob's in a rough place in terms of the title hunt, so he should probably fight Derek Brunson next. Do you agree with that, Jed?

Should we see Whitaker Brunson too? Maybe Vittori, because he's fun. You can battle for like the number two spot. You could do Paul Costa because neither of those guys are getting to a title fight anytime soon, one would think. Where does he go from here? How much of that loss set the Reaper back? Look, it's hard for me to improve on Jose's argument because no man knows Robert Whitaker's position better than Jose. He's lost infinitely to me.

He's undeniably the second best BTL competitor out there, but he's just not as good as the champ. And so how can you argue with man has firsthand experience? He knows what it's like to be in this position. So if, you know, if Jose would like to take on the Derek Brunson of BTL, I don't even know who the Derek Brunson of BTL would be. It's not AK. I don't know. I have to think on that.

But yeah, I mean, it's fine. Everything he said about the Brunson fight makes some level of sense. I don't know if Brunson wants to go out on a loss, and I don't think he's beating Bobby Knuckles. so maybe Brunson would rather go out with, I don't know, a softball or Luke Rockhold keeps talking. Maybe Brunson can fight Luke Rockhold for his comeback fight. Like I just don't know. That's my big concern for Whitaker.

Sure, he can fight Brunson if Brunson wants to take it and that fight makes sense. And yeah, he can fight Marvin Vittori and that fight makes a little bit of sense too because they haven't fought each other. But there just aren't like a lot of, I said this before the fight. After he loses, there aren't a lot of great. names at the middleweight division for him to fight that he hasn't either are like that he hasn't already beaten so he's just kind of stuck until is he either moves up to 205 or he I don't know maybe he can like Jose said just hang around and and sneak into one because somebody gets injured or something uh it's all fine honestly what he should do is he should just he

should fire his contract and go to belator it just look I I get that it's like he's he's the champion in bellator without issue it's not that they have anybody to fight him over there realistically so he can just go be that dude over there and that'd be kind of cool like or pfl pays him a million dollars every year like i don't know there's other things from to do but if he stays in the ozs he's just going to spin his wheels for a long time my my great hope we've talked about this before is he moves up to two o five at the end of this year oosman moves up to welterway and i could not be more interested in a kamar oosman versus Robert Whitaker fight.

I think that fight is awesome. It's peak level MMA and I'm all about it. However we get there, that's what I want to see happen, but I should have found him, man. If Rob's going to be in Belito, we're going to have to train him. Let's train him for MVP.

Let's do it. Let's make some trades. I'm ready to wheel and deal if I'm the UFC of Robert Whitaker. It's not like he's an enormous star. Bellator could build around him. A.J. McKee. look, Bellator wants to pretend like they're going to be able to keep AJ McKee, but they are not.

AJ McKee is going to leave them at some point because he is super damn good and he is going to want to test himself. So let's call up Scotty Cokes. Let's make some calls. Hey man, I've got Robert Whitaker and you can throw in a couple other pieces and get AJ McKee. Do that. Can we make that happen? Wow. Maybe throwing Jacob Malkoon. Whittaker's teammate. I mean, it's something. We're building up. Maybe we throw another guy in there. Maybe a Bellator trade fighter to be named later comes over on the deal, someone that's

causing them some problems. Maybe throw Dylan Danis in there so you can get rid of him. Belator doesn't need to sweet and deal. They're throwing AJ McKee. The UFC needs to give him Whitaker and something and picks or something down the line. But you can build a trade package that is totally worthwhile for both sides here. And then we get AJ McKee and give me AJ McKee versus Volcanovsky. Give me that shit right now. I want that. That's awesome.

Let's do it. They're going to have to, Bobby Knuckles versus Musassi. They're going to, Bobby Knuckles just walks into the Bellator title. Like Musassi just gives him at that point. He does, but that's at least like a legend of middleweight that Whitaker should fight and get on

his resume. Like, yeah, let's do that. If we're swapping, then we're going to have to like, add some to the contract where like finally Bellator and KSW as long as they've talked can finally co-promote and then you could throw Derek Lewis in to that and then KSW

can fight Marius Puginovsky in a rising ring and I'm all here for it. I don't think they, I don't think the U.S. you let Derek Lewis go is a problem. Yeah. They got to get AGMCRAO.

You got to give up something to get something. They're giving up Bobby Knuckles. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm with you. I'd love to watch Pudge versus Pudgy. It'd be great. But, yeah, let's do this. Let's figure out how to make this trade happen.

Don't Andre Alasky. Yeah, Andre Alasky. He's got another team. Andre Aloski can trade him to Belator. He can be Fador's last fight. Everyone wins. Wow. That's the perfect package right in.

Right there. That's it. Andre plus Whitaker. go plus that's like the only organization that andre hasn't fought in and he has a decent chance to win a belt there this turned into a just a tremendous concept for a show we've solved cut this and send it to cocker we've done it we did your job buddy scottie coax i love the nickname godickickie coax yeah i mean Whitaker and bellator would be would be interesting i mean i

selfishly I want to see the Whitaker Vittori fight. I think it would be fun. Strickland's an option. I don't love it for reasons Jose said, because then you stop that train from moving a little bit. Bronson makes sense. And then you got Andre Munez. If you beat your eye haul,

he becomes a player in this division too, and that's a scary matchup for anybody right now. So there are some fights out there for him. A trade to Bellator would be super interesting and fun, and it seems like Bobby Nucks wants to keep on trucking. So there you go. That is the main event, ladies and gentlemen. Let's go to some of the other stories from UFC 270.

We're not doing the drum roll or anything like that. The fans are going to vote as this goes on. It's going to be a five-round fight. We'll go to the judge's scorecards at the end. It's all right. You just found it about this like 15 minutes ago. So let's talk some pride scoring, exactly. Let's go to some of the other stories from UFC 271.

Let's start with Tai Tui Vasa, Jedmishu. Overcame some adversity. He hung on, swung for the fences, survived, made it to the second round. made it to the second round. Hurts Derek Lewis, then he knocks him out with that big elbow. Huge win for Shui Vasa. Now he's ranked number three in the UFC rankings.

He'll likely take a giant leap up in the only rankings that truly matters. That is the MMA fighting global rankings. Jed, what is the ceiling for Taitui Vasa right now? How should the UFC handle his next move with all this momentum that he has right now? We're at it. We've reached the ceiling.

The roof is touching our heads. We cannot, we can go no further. I cannot believe he is the number three heavyweight in the world. I said this on the post show. That speaks volumes about the heavyweight division. I do not mean that as disrespectful to Ty Tuivasa, even though I know that it is. That ranking is as much circumstance as it is quality, if that makes any sense.

Like, if Tai Tui Vasa fought anybody other than Derek Lewis in the U.S. F.C.'s rankings, like top five there, I would, he would be a massive underdog. Like, him versus Curtis Blades is a fight that probably happens at some point now, and Curtis Blades is going to win by a billion. Like, it's not even going to be close to a close contest. And that just sort of speaks to how weird MMA is, and certainly the heavyweight division because Derek Lewis killed Curtis Blades and Curtis Blades will kill Taito Ivasa and round and round we go. Like it's he, there's just no world in which he beats Francis and Ghano, Stipe Amiochich,

Curtis Blades. I mean, I guess theoretically he could beat Alexander Volkov, but I would still strongly favor Volkov over him. Like I don't know. I think we're just it. And that's okay. There's nothing at all wrong with being one of the. five best or top five heavyweights in the world.

Like that's, it's awesome. He's fun. He is a Nate Diaz-S character where he's got all this other stuff going on. The Shui and he's a fan favorite. That ranking doesn't mean much. He just happens to have a big one right now. That's going to go away at some point and it won't change who he is or what he is. And all credit to him, the man's won five in a row and he just knocked out Derek Lewis,

which I did not think was going to happen. He got punched a lot in the face by one of, if not the biggest hitters in the sport. And that chin just held up, baby. And then he elbowed Derek Lewis's chin into the back of his face. So it was a great performance. The Shooeyes, love the branding. It's awesome. I have a huge issue with his Shui Vasa.

We could talk about that in a minute. Jose can go. All right. We will definitely talk about that in a minute. I wanted to get your thoughts on that. But Jose, let's just say you are the UFC matchmaker right now. They brought you in. You're just going to matchmake for the heavyweight division.

Right now, it's a very interesting time because Francis Inganu is about to go under the knife. His future with the company is kind of uncertain right now. Although Dana White said that they had dinner, they're going to have dinner again before he has the surgery. So right now, what most people think the UFC is working on is John Jones versus Stepe-Meich for an interim heavyweight title. which would make all the sense in the world, and people would watch the hell out of that fight. But you're dealing with two individuals that can be kind of tough to deal with in both of those guys in their own way.

So if you're the UFC right now, and you are, you are the matchmaker, is Ty to Ivasa the third man in this conversation? Like if they can't come to terms with Stepe or John Jones, they can only get one of them, is Ty the guy right now? Do you just ride this train until the wheels fall off at this point? Way too early to say. because John Jones will fight Steve Bay in July. So that's like several months away.

Cyril Gahn isn't going to be ready to go until at the earliest August, he said, on the MMA hour. So there are three of the top names you need in this hypothetical situation where I have infinite control over the UFC's heavyweight division. So we need to see Volkov versus Tom Aspinall play out. We need to see Giorzino versus Margino Tebrera play out. There's a handful of heavyweight fights that need to go down before we can really matchmake. I think the problem is Tide Tewavasa just slept a guy that, oh, and Curtis Blades Dawkins, I forgot about that. He slept a guy that I think, like Jed said, anyone else, it doesn't go that way.

This was the amalgamation of like a lot of things happen. It was a perfect storm of just massive heavyweeds that I like to break brick. Tide Tewa Vasa has, as he said, been a punching bag for Mark Hunt for most of his life. So yeah, the dude can take a punch. She can definitely take a punch from Derek Lewis. Tye's ranking, I don't think meat is indicative of his skill set over the people below him. Like, Dawkins, Blades, Giresino, these are probably better martial artists than Tide Tau Ivasa. Tide to Ivasa is just the man, and he hits really, really hard, and that's what you need in the heavyweight division.

So ask me again, after all of those fights, Perilla. Here's the answer. All those matchups I said, the best performance gets to fight tied to Ivasse. If Dawkins goes out there and wheel kicks Curtis Blade's head into the Columbus night, he gets to fight tied to Yvaz. Because this is basically for the Tide to Ivasa title right now because after what he did to Derek Lewis, all eyes are going to be on him for his next fight. So the most impressed performance, they are honored with getting to fist fight tied to Ivasa in a main event. Yeah, I mean, I get what both of you were saying. Like, odds-wise, if two of Ovasa fights blades or fights gone or fights

full cough or probably even Aspedal at this point, he's probably the underdog. But when has that mattered to the UFC? When you have a guy with this momentum, with this snowball that keeps going downhill, he's popular, people like him, they want to see the man fight. Why not just throw him into a title shop? They can't get Jones or Stipe. Just if he loses, doesn't hurt him that badly. Sure.

probably put him, like say Izzy wants to fight in June, I would put Tide to Ivasa on the same card as Israel-A-Sahna if you're going to try to build, keep this momentum going. You know, all eyes are going to be on the Izzy fight. Why not have Ty in there too? You can be another co-main event. I think the thing with Derek Lewis and Ty, too, is like they're, when I say that was the perfect co-main event, like they are both just such fan favorites. And they're very, they're fantastic on the mic in their own way. They're not these hyper-charismatic individuals playing a character. What you see is what you get and they're hilarious. Everyone else I just named in the heavyweight division in those matchups are not. Like Giorzino, Aspinall, Daucus, Curtis

Blades, Alzit, Volkov can barely speak English like Martin Tibor. Like none of these guys are going to be his, the rival on the mic with either guy in terms of comedy, timing, character driven, whatever you want to call it. So at that point, you got to go the next step down and who has the most impressive win and that's the fight to make. I would put that fight around the John Jones steep fight because John Jones gets in a lot of trouble. And if he gets in trouble and he gets pulled out of that fight, ties the next man up, especially with Cyril gone, not there. So I don't want to have tie on standby. I want him to have a fight booked. And then if you need him, he's already in camp. I don't want him to weigh in his backup either because I think anyone that cuts weight

for no guaranteed fight is a little silly, especially for a number one contender guy. Um, But yeah, most impressive winner of all those heavy white fights coming up gets tied to Ivasa sometime in the summer. We'll see what happens, which... Go ahead, Jed. I see the face. And then if you want to talk about the shoe Yvasa, go ahead. Dude, let's just put tie in title fight, man.

I'm with you, Mike. Like, he's never getting higher than this. There's no win that can catapult him to a title fight if this one didn't do it. And anybody you match, like literally anybody he fights next, he's losing to. Because there's the only, like, like fight that he could reasonably take that I would think he has better than a puncher's chance is the winner of Marchine-Tubero Gerizino Rosenstrike. Like he could theoretically win that fight.

Um, but he's getting, he's getting his shirt handed to him if he takes on Tom Aspinall or Curtis Blades or Steepa. So like, let's just do it. Let's just run him. I don't believe John Jones is going to fight, um, in July because I don't know. I've watched M.A. for longer than six months. months. John Jones gets in, like Jose said, John Jones gets into a lot of trouble. John Jones also just sometimes decides that he doesn't want to do a thing.

Like, I don't, I think there's a very likely world where John Jones does not fight Stipe for an interim belt, and if that's the case, absolutely roll tie-in. Stebe will tackle him to the floor and sit on him and pound him into the mat, but it's fine. Like, at least we got to live the fun dream of Tai Tui Vasa fighting for a year. UFC title. So yeah, just do that. I'm okay with that. Yeah, and that was my point. If they can't get Steve A versus John Jones, let's get Ty in there. I think now's the time because it's probably, you're probably not going to get another shot at it. So if you can't come to terms with both those guys to fight in July or whatever, let's, tie comes in and fights whoever they, they actually

get to put pen to paper and sign the dotted line. So I'm fine with that. And if not, then he gets to fight somebody else and everyone will watch that fight too. What's, What's wrong with this Shoe Vasa, Jed, before we move on? It's Garbo. It's not a shooey. Like, it's just a funnel. And it's, like, I get it. And I'm not trying to knock the man for branding. But, like, if you saw, if you've seen the Shoe Vasa product, it is literally a beer funnel shaped like a shoe, which is the exact opposite of the point of a shooie.

It's not that you're shooting alcohol out of a shoe. so it's funny because a shoe is an interesting object structure. It's you're shooting alcohol out of a shoe, so it's funny. And usually that alcohol isn't like a beer. It's usually a mix of alcohols that everybody kind of dumps in there. And so it's disgusting. Yeah, and spit and hot sauce and any other number of things. I've done a lot of shooeyes in my life.

I've played rugby in college. Like, I've done shooies out of really awful, awful things, but it's not really a shooey. I've done it out of work boots. I've had a bad experience. is in a shooy. But it's not a shooey to take a plastic funnel and just put a beer in the back of it and fire it down. Like, you're just shotgunning a beer in a, frankly, a cleaner way than even a shotgun. So it's like I get it, your branding, cool, get paper, but it's, it's hard. Dana White has never done a shooey. Dana White did a shooey vasa, which is he chugged a beer

out of a funnel. It's not the same thing. And we, I just want that to be acknowledged. well said there we go live studio audience with a round of applause yeah and just to move on from this that was the perfect co-main event to avasa now gets this massive push we'll see where he goes lewis yeah it sucks but he'll be back and everyone will be excited to watch him fight last thing on ufc 271 we'll likely talk about another big star from the card later in the show but i want to dig a little deeper jose which fighter outside of the one we'll probably talk about later on who we're see sooner than we had hoped, hint, hint. But who made the biggest leap in your mind, Jose,

based on their performance on Saturday, they might not be getting the attention they deserve? In terms of who's not getting the attention they deserve? Yeah, I mean, so much happened and a lot of, even like a great win on the prelims or something like that. Like, it's cool at the time, but after all these storylines go through, we're not talking about it anymore.

Probably Kyler Phillips. He's only the eighth person in UFC history to get an arm triangle arm bar or triangle arm bar in like ufc history he's the eighth uh also anytime henry sehudo calls into your press conference live uh people are going to talk about you know like as much as henry sehudo is a character of himself at this point you can't argue accolades of the amount of respect he like when henry sehuto walks into a wrestling gym or an mhm a gym the sea parts for the man like the man is you can't argue what he's done he's a fantastic coach at this point down at fight ready so

Anytime he calls in and he declares Kyler Phillips a future champion, you should probably be talking about it. The problem is right after Roxanne Modifier's retirement fight against Kaysu O'Neal was the next fight. So people moved on from Kyla Phillips real quickly. Also, I believe Marcelo Rojo was the guy that posted all that real horrendous stuff about Figurato back in June of last year. So I think a lot of Brazilians were kind of tuning in to see him get his ass kicked. So anytime people tune in to watch a guy lose and he loses like that, the guy that beat him is going to be elevated in the eyes of those fans. So probably Kyle Phillips because I haven't really heard anyone talk about him since his win.

And he is one of the eight people to ever pull off his submission and was declared a future champion by a former champion. So should probably get a little more credit than people are giving him. It's a good pick, Jed. Oh, I don't know, man. That's the obvious and good answer. Because, like, I mean, I guess Douglas Silva Dan Drogh had a really unbelievably good comeback in the prelims. But I don't want to talk about that. I want to spend every chance I have to talk about the true heavyweight goat, Andrei Olavski.

Andre the Pitbull-Arlowski turned 43 last week and still out here getting them checks and getting them dubs. Andrei Olavsky is the only fighter. I haven't fact-checked this, but I'm pretty sure this is true. He's the only fighter to go on three separate four-plus fight losing streets and come back successfully in his career. He is, like I said, 43 still beating, I'm going to call them relevant heavyweights because they are. Again, an indictment of the division as a whole. But, look, Andre's career was supposed to be done a decade ago. and it wasn't, it was supposed to be done like six years ago,

and it wasn't, it was supposed to be done three years ago, and it's still not. He has won four of his last five fights in the UFC. That is unbelievable, and his sheer longevity is genuinely remarkable. The fact that he is getting better or at least evolving his game over and over and over again in a way that so few fighters ever have. I just really don't think anybody talks about Andrei Alavski enough because he's not the best heavyweight ever,

but maybe he is. Like he might be the greatest heavyweight we've ever seen when you factor in the fact that he has like 35 fights. Nobody else is even close to that, like above the lightweight division. Everybody else like stops at 20. Pit bull's just still going out there and still beating people in the year of our Lord,

2022, he's my hero, and I love him so much, and we should talk about him more. How many fights did you say he had? He has like 35 fights in the U.S.C. Yeah, he has slipped 55 total, I think. Oh, yeah, real. I'm talking in just the UFC, he has like 35.

He's like third all time for fights in the organization. And he left for like six years to go compete in affliction, in strike force. and like one FC, he's fought everywhere except Bellator, but we're about to make that trade happen, and then you can go to Bellator. I'm just saying, the man's a hero, and we do not acknowledge him enough.

He made his debut in 1999. Before Roxanne Montefere, I believe. Like five years before she did. She retired with 50 fights and a whole mess of love and support that she deserved, and this man is still out here fighting heavy with the place. It's unbelievable. I love him. He was a big fan of a lot of people on the Twitter spaces during the pre-lim pregame.

But yeah, some great performances. A lot of guys and gals who are bright futures took steps forward. Good card overall. Actually, I lied. We have one more talking point before we put a bow on this event. Let's talk about what happened. Heading into UFC 271 from a broadcast perspective, gentlemen, because this became a very big story on Friday,

continue to be a story on Saturday, and has gotten even bigger and probably more strange after UFC 271. So we've laid this out a few times already, so we'll go ahead and do that. We reported Wednesday that Joe Rogan was slated to be on the broadcast alongside John Annick and Daniel Cormier.

And we confirmed this with multiple... Wednesday afternoon, that was penciled in. The usual trio was a go. late Thursday night, I had heard some rumblings, plans were changing. I didn't know for sure. Friday morning, had some conversations and found out Rogan was no longer going to be on the broadcast. And then we found out Friday afternoon that Michael Bisbing was going to get the tag. Couldn't get officially confirmed by the powers that be.

UFCPR comes out Friday afternoon, Friday evening, says it's a scheduling conflict. And then on Saturday night, we see Michael Bisbing there with Anick and D.C. and after the card, UFC President Dana White is asked about it. We knew he would be asked about it. And this is one of the things I was super curious about, what was he going to say? Is he going to back the UFC?

How is he going to go? He doesn't back the UFC at all. In fact, he calls BS on the whole scheduling conflict. And let's be honest, a lot of other people did as well, but he went against his own public relations team and then stated, Rogan could have worked the broadcast, but Joe Rogan himself essentially made the choice

to pull back and not be on the card. So Jose, a lot to unpack with this one. And let's be clear, there's probably five people in the world who actually know what happened here. Maybe Rogan did a show and maybe he explained it at who the hell knows. But what did you make of how this situation was handled? It's pretty unbelievable how little I cared about if Joe Rogan was there or not. I get he's a massive fan favorite. Don't think that was this weird to me was how it was handled.

I think a lot of people, especially in like the Twitter space, were just mad that Rogan wasn't there in general, but I just truly did not care if he was there or not. But that being said, it was just bizarre. It's going to be a talking point for a long time until we get actual answers. I don't know. Like, as soon as John Anick stepped out, I was like, oh, ESPN probably pulled Joe Rogan. And then the UFCPR put out that statement. And I was like, that's probably not true.

but again like whatever and then when it was Dana White called BS on that and then threw Joe Rogan under the bus I'm like that is actually more interesting me because Dana always like he's kind of made himself the guy that will die on the hill

with his friends like Joe Rogan's been with me forever I've gonna have his back through thick and thin that was more interesting to me than the fact that Joe Rogan wasn't there but again like you said like five people know what happened I'm sure Joe Rogan will talk about it on his podcast or maybe Dana

will just say something else in a different press comment saying, I didn't throw Joe Rogan under the bus. That's just clickbait nonsense. But he did. I actually asked P.R. I'm like, before it was official, I'm like, is Joe Rogan not going to be here?

Because that's what I'm hearing. And then they're like, we'll get back to you. And that just didn't happen. So just kind of a comedy of errors across the board. But at the end of day, I don't particularly care if Joe Rogan was there or not. It was weird. He wasn't there in Houston because we kind of live in this bell jar

where everyone outside of the bell jar is very mad at Joe Rogan. and then inside the bell jar that is the MMA landscape everyone all the fans love him especially in texas so if you're going to bring joe rogan back it should probably be in texas for a ufc event where it's like one of the few places he's just going to get universally cheered so i'm assuming joan knows that i'm assuming dana knew that i'm just going to assume that it was an ESPN disney thing because remember uxie was going to put on that pay-review in tawc which they still haven't gone back to as much as danaway promised they would. And then kind of Disney put a cabosh to that. So based on the evidence from what they've Disney and ESPN has done in the past, I'm going to assume that was it. But again,

I have no idea. I'm also not in favor of like, oh, let's cancel Joe Rogan, this and that. But at the same time, if you say a real racist thing, there are consequences in this world. That's not freedom of speech is not say what you want and get away with it. It's say what you want. knowing there will be consequences. So that's kind of where we're at right now. Don't say racist things. Don't get this vitrolet thrown at you. So again, but again, don't particularly care if UFC had Joe Rogan on the broadcast or not.

Yeah, I think at the end of the day, it's the story within the story that's so interesting. It's like a thousand stories coming off of this. That you could take it any different. 100%. And there's probably a thousand more that we don't know about. So, Jed, what do you think? because we figured we were going to get some sort of response from the UFC. What did you make of how this was handled?

And then Dana White's response, early hours, Sunday morning, Eastern time to his own public's relations team statement being a bunch of BS. Mr. Michoud, you're muted. What are you saying? Sorry, there's construction going on behind me, so I didn't want to step all over Jose's time. So I was saying I like Jose, just don't care. this story has very little interest to me

outside of the fact that it's really, really dumb and it's very frustrating to see people be dumb and bad at their jobs. I'm of the opinion that PR can be a very difficult job because there are a lot of moving parts to a public relations job. But the easiest part is to craft statements amidst controversy because you can really just say the truth. Like it's the easiest way to go about it

If you just say the actual truth, then you don't have spiraling stories when inevitably your lie comes out. And the lie that Joe Rogan has a scheduling conflict was very transparently a lie. It was I don't blame Dana White for throwing Joe under the bus because it was just a very stupid lie to begin with. Like, whatever the reason. And we don't know the reason. We don't know whether Disney pulled him or whether Joe Rogan himself decided.

I don't want to do this. I'm going to step back for the time being. whatever the reason is, they could have just said that, or they could have said, hey, Joe's not going to work here. We don't have a comment on why. It's extremely simple, and it negates this being a spiraling story at all. I think it's probably ultimately good that Joe Rogan, fresh off a controversy where he said some things previously that are exceptionally bad, did not work a card where the main event or the main card featured 50% fighters of African heritage.

Like that's probably probably a good thing that they didn't have that happen, even with what Jose is saying about Texas and Houston and all of that. It's probably a net thing. We just don't need to cross that bridge. But we could also just say that and not lie about it. It's extremely simple. And then like I said, this isn't this just isn't a story then. So it's really frustrating why you would craft that when you know that Dana White's probably not even going to keep the lie up because it's just a dumb lie. So it's all really, really stupid and very annoying.

And yeah, like I don't know what anyone was expecting on that side of the ball. This was obviously how things are going to play out. And you could just say, yeah, Joe's not working because, you know, we've decided to bench him for a week. Or Joe has decided he doesn't want to amid the controversy. because again, the easiest way to solve the controversy is just come out and be like, hey, hand up. I did a bad thing. Mayaculpa. Can we move on?

But that's just not, we're all just piddling around and dipsittery. So it's real dumb. But, you know, at least we're through that now until we get to the next pay-per-view. And by then, I'm sure Rogan will be back in the booth. Yeah. And what is a weird thing? Like I'm kind of with you guys. Like this wasn't, if they just pulled them, that would have been fine.

There was a, at the press conference, someone asked Dana about Joe Rogan and Israel Adasania grabbed the microphone and cut that promo. Had he let Dana answer the question, Dana might have actually said right there and then that Joe decided to sit this one out. And then it probably wouldn't even have been a story. Wouldn't have been a story at all. I mean, a little bit. But we probably wouldn't be talking about it the following Thursday.

because a week later, it's just, that's the way it all worked out. But it looks like Rogan will be back for 272. Seems a foregone conclusion. He'll be in Jacksonville for 273 because he has a comedy show at the same venue as the card the night before. So there you go. The cover up is always worse. Like, the cover up is just worse than the story, especially because, like, really, what

are we talking about a guy worth hundreds of millions of dollars, not commentating a fight. Like, this is the least interesting. or relevant thing. He's not, we're not taking food off Joe Rogan's table by not allowing him to work UFC 271. Like it's a non-story, but for people who are going to be just really mad that they can't say whatever they want

at all points in time. So it's just real dumb, and I don't know why we couldn't solve this like adults. It's a great point. Real quick, I do want to talk about Michael Bisping for a moment. because he stepped in on short notice to fill some pretty big shoes, Jed, took a bit of a beating for the commentary. Do you think the criticism is warranted or a little bit overboard?

It's all dumb. Look, UFC commentary is never good, so you should probably just not criticize it in general because it's not doing anything. And it's being so mad about it, too, which is hysterically funny. Like, he posted a YouTube video last night talking about Israel Dishina's place in the middleweight goat thing. And the first five minutes, he literally keeps derailing the point he's trying to make by circling back to a, well, but I'm bad at commentary thing. Like, I'm not really upset by it, but he's obviously infuriated that people didn't like a thing he did. So criticize him for that because it's funny to see his reaction. But other than that, like, I don't think he did that bad.

I mean, he wasn't great, but he came in was not. To my understanding, he believed that he was going to be a desk analyst. but not worked a lot of commentary booth. Working commentary is extremely difficult. I frankly think that most of the problems that were had were Daniel Cormier, because I don't think Daniel Cormier is very good at commentary, frankly. And they seem to really butt heads, not budding heads. They tried to not step on each other too much, and they couldn't really find the flow.

The only thing about it that I think that most people I noticed were mad about, is Bispink's commentary at the main event, which I actually don't think was wrong. I know that I'm in the minority. I genuinely do feel like Rob kind of got his ass kicked. Certainly much less so than the first fight, but I gave, I think I gave Izzy four rounds out of five. And even that fifth one, I think there's an argument he won. He felt very in control to me.

And I think that's what people mostly took umbrage with, is they thought that Whittaker was doing better than the commentary portrayed. And I'm not sure that's true so much as people really thought that Rob was going to get starched with how the last fight went and how the first round went. And then when he overperformed, everyone got way too into thinking that he was winning when he wasn't. Jose, I know you had a million things going on fight night, so you probably didn't even hear too much at the commentary. But yeah, like Jed said, he got a lot of flack for the main event in different points throughout the night.

Yeah. Bisping is good at his job. Yeah, go ahead. know it's really hard, live television. You know what's harder doing live television that you weren't prepared to do. Also, to defend Michael Bisbing, I was about 10 feet away from the action, sitting next to our colleague Oscar Willis. And live being right there, I thought Izzy was at least won four rounds, maybe five.

They were all like very, very competitive. So like, that's why I'm not arguing if some people think Rob won two rounds. I just, I think Izzy won. at worst he won three rounds. So watching it live was a lot different than watching it on TV. Israel-Adustania's strikes were significantly louder than Robert Whitaker. Robert Whitaker was throwing maybe a lot more, but he connected with a lot of air that we could see. So to defend Michael Bisbing, which I have heard none of his commentary because I was there, the fight, and I've since watched it on TV, but without the commentary, which I usually do,

being there live was vastly different than watching on TV. I will also. Go ahead. I was just say, also frankly, some of the problem, the bias, just comes from how that fight laid out. Like, the narrative of that fight, if you're being honest, is not that this was a competitive back-and-forth fight. By every rational person, Israel, Dissanio, won the first three rounds,

and then maybe you gave Rob the last two. most people seem to have just given him the last one. And so that's how that commentary evolved of, okay, Rob's not getting killed. He's competitive in there, but he is losing the fight, and at no point in that fight did it look like Israel was losing. Like, especially after round three,

when he should be comfortably ahead, three rounds to nothing, and there's no time when Robert looks like he's about to finish the fight or stage a comeback down three rounds to zero. So that's just kind of how it shakes out. Maybe Bisping could have given Rob more credit for round five, but at that point, that feels a little like that. We're really picking nits if you're knocking Bisping for correctly identifying

that Israel Adisina was winning the fight and going to win the fight unless Robert Whitaker did something dramatic. Like that feels okay. Yeah. And let me just mimic or mirror off or Jose a little. little bit. Putting the headset on is tough, stepping in as quickly as he did. I actually give him a lot of credit. Maybe it wasn't his best showing overall, but at the end of the day, he filled the spot, a very difficult spot to fill, and he did the best he could. He'll learn from it. He'll continue

to get better. Yeah, that was a little over a little unwarranted. I think it was a little unfair, but it is what it is at the end of the day. Let us move ahead to this weekend, this Saturday, actually, because we have a trio of events to look forward to. We got UFC Vegas 48, headlined by Johnny Walker versus Jamal Hill. We got Bellator 274. We'll see a five-round non-title fight at 170 pounds between Neiman Gracie and Logan Storley.

And then BKFC has their second knucklemania event headlined by the bare-knuckle debut of one Mike Perry, take it on Julian, let me bang bro lane. Chad Mendez makes his BKFC debut on that card as well. So, Jed, I think you know where I'm heading with this question. We got three events. You can only watch one.

What are you watching and why? Oh, man. That Bellator card is exceptionally bad. Even by Bellator standards, this is a tough hang in Uncassville, scenic, Uncissville, Connecticut. So it's not that one. Honestly, I think this UFC card is actually pretty decent.

It would be way better if the Battle of the Hoffaels was still atop this one, because I'm super stoked for the fight for naming rights. But Johnny Walker-Gem-Hill is going to be fun for however long it lasts. The rest of these fights are – there are a couple competitive ones, but looks to me like most of them are going to be – The polite term for this is ass beatings. So we get to watch a bunch of violence. So I'm tempted to say knucklemania just because I have a weird fascination with Mike Perry versus Julian Lane.

I should it. That's objectively awful and I should feel bad for even saying it. But I have some interest in that. But if I'm only picking one, the UFC is going to have a lot of violent stuff happening. and Jamal Hill and hopefully fun Johnny Walker and not SBG Ireland Johnny Walker, who's awful. Hopefully we get fun Johnny Walker instead. Hopefully he did not win and learned how to be dope instead of boring and sucky.

And I think that's what's going to happen. So he and Jamal Hill, that'll be violence for, I'm going to say three minutes and 22 seconds. Okay. Jose, what are you watching? all in the time. I mean, if I have to tell a fan to watch one, I mean, they're probably going to watch the UFC anyway. I don't want to say the UFC,

so I'll just all play devil's advocate for one of the other two. If we're talking about the three main events, the best martial art fight competition, I see Jed shaking his head because he doesn't believe in martial arts. He just wants to break, he just wants to see people break break over one enough. other. If we're just talking about like actual martial arts competition, the best main event is probably Bellator because Neiman Gracie is a Gracie and probably the best Gracie in

terms of all around MMA. And Logan Storley is an incredibly high like, well, it was a four time all American wrestler out of Minnesota. So I guess that will, I'm not going to say it's going to answer the question because that's silly, but there is this weird rivalry between jujitsu and American wrestlers. So I guess in that sense, that is very interesting. But like the rest of that card, I'm not overly interested in whatsoever. I'm very interested in the main event just because I like high-level martial arts competitions. But man, that BKFC card, like outside of the main event, you got Luis Palomino and Brian Foster,

two people, like, they're not fighting each other. Like, obviously, Luis Palomino was fighting Martin Brown, and I don't even know who Brian Foster's fighting. Brian Foster and Luis Palomino were eaten alive by Justin Gage and World Series of fighting. that's always fun to watch them you know like Luis like if you ask me what's the best Justin Gagey fight I've ever seen it's the two Luis Palomino

fights in Phoenix on World Series's fighting card in front of maybe 300 people Bertaine Hart is fighting for the title I believe I can't remember who she's fighting and then Chad Mendez is going to break break on someone so I mean that in terms of like pound for pound most fun it's probably BGFC

in terms of the actual martial arts aspect of it it's probably the main event of Bellator but in terms of what's going to grasp the audience. It's obviously the UFC. So pick your poison. You're not going to go wrong any of them, but watch the UFC, I guess. I don't know. Do what you want.

Where's the, where's the Chaz-Skelly retirement send-off? Because I don't see anything about that. Final fight. Yes, last fight. Cool. See? Good for him. You're welcome, world. So I do... Great man.

He is a great man. Let me ask one more thing before we move on because I feel like, and we just saw this, although Jose picked Bellator, I feel like, I feel like Bellator doesn't get a ton of love on the show. We often nitpick them more than any other promotion. And I think we do that because we just say this. We did. We tried, blueprint to success earlier this show. That's, that's true love right there. We've, teach a man to fish. We did a whole show about airing of grievances and helped fix them too. but I think and I think we care because they're capable of great things and maybe they'll pull

the Kayla Rabbit, Kayla Harrison Rabbit out of their hat. They're in the mix from all indications, but Jed, let's give Bellator a little bit of shine here. They announced some big fights. April 15th stands out the most. San Jose, we get A.J. McKee, Pitbull, two for the featherweight title. And then we get the finale of the Light Heavyweight Grand Prix. Vadim Nemcoff defends his title against Corey Anderson. Jet, I know we're two months away, but these are two big fights. Could this, start to get some momentum going for Bellator having this event out for the world to prepare for. How dare you disrespect Timothy Johnson and Terrell Fortune, who are also on that card,

Bellator heavyweight MMA coming at you? No, this won't get any momentum. These great fights, they are, I don't, I'm not looking at our rankings, so I can't be certain, but I suspect that all of those people are in our top tens of their respective weight classes. I know Corey Anderson and Vadim Kempkoff are, I don't remember if Pitbull is still hanging into the featherweight top 10 for MMA fighting or not. But, I mean, these are the two best fights this organization can put together. And that should build momentum. It is not going to, for a number of reasons.

I mean, look, how many views did Pitbull McKee One do? They put a lot of push behind it. That was, we talked about it beforehand. It's probably the best fight in there. history of Bellator and like 20 people saw that thing so i have no faith in them uh if between now and is that april uh they get on a real network instead of showtime maybe maybe they could make something happen but they still remain on a on a fake network that nobody has they still don't have any real promotional push it's going to be the same people it's going to be us talking about it

and nobody caring about it that sucks because again four of the best fighters in the world in their weight classes, and people should care. People should be interested, but it's just not how it could crumbles. Patricio Pitbull ranked number six in the MA fighting global rankings at 145 pounds. So he is still hanging in there. Jose, what do you think of this event? Because it's a good one. That is unless Bellator heeds our advice and trades AJ McKee to the UFC for Robert Whitaker and Andrea Olavski.

Well, what do I always say, Mike, on every preview show? we're about to get that answer, aren't we? That is going to be my answer. We're going to talk about, you bring up Chaskelly, what happened to him? The dude walked into the octagon ready to fist fight a human and didn't get to do it. Like remember when Yolo Romero was going to fight Anthony Johnson? Remember that? What happened there?

It didn't happen. So, AJ McKee Pitbull, 10 out of 10. Bangor of a fight. Nemcov versus Corey Anderson, 11 out of 10. Bangor of a fight. Nemcov is just so violent. and so terrifying. And AJ McKee might be the best fighter in the world in a few years if he keeps this up.

So all four men are just the man. Like I am so, like Corey Anderson is like on another level at this point. I love everything about these two fights. I've just real afraid that something might happen and then we won't get these fights. Because also I think AJ McKee could be a way bigger star than he's than he is now. like do you remember when patty pimblit signed that deal with barstool for like seven figures and then he got like a million instagram follows and everything you know what else happened that week in bellator that same week a j mckee got a hot dog named after him and was that pink's hot dog

pinks hot dog is great right across the street from golden apple i know k c r producer i mean that's probably a bigger deal for california native so good on you a j mckee you could be a bigger star a j mckey shout out to pink's hot dogs love you But I don't know. These fights are great. I just hope they happen. We're brought to you this week by Pink's Hot Dogs. For a delicious hot dog, go to Pings.

Like, and get the Agent McKee Dog. I don't think we could afford to be sponsored. Like Pink's Hot Dog sponsorship would be like aces. Let's get Randy's donut in there. Casey, do me a favor. Just go outside, walk down to Randy's house because I know you live like right down the street from him. Let's get Randy's Donuts sponsorship in here, too. We'll officially have the entire L.A. food landscape quartered.

with pink's hot dog and randy's donuts uh they could be the official donut of of mama fighting so there you go that's that's that's bell shit i will fight us on that and crispy cream all right we're going to go to the knockout round before we let the peeps decide who wins this uh this bragging rights matchup between jenn meshu and jose yungs for those who are not familiar with the knocker round we'll ask the same question to both individuals they'll each have one minute to answer the question, and then we'll turn it over to peeps, and they will decide who wins, and Casey will let us know which you guys decide. So, Jed, you are on the plaque.

So what do you want to do? Sure, I'll go first. You cares. Yeah. I mean, I think you know what's coming. I already teased it and dropped some. Nope. I don't have any idea.

All right. Well, maybe we should talk about the big news that dropped last night, because we talked about the battle of Raphael versus Hafeel. that was supposed to go down this Saturday. And then we find out that an even more pivotal, lightweight matchup that was supposed to headline next Saturday's card between Islam Makachev and Benile Daryush is off because B'Neal Daryush, apparently the injury is pretty gnarly.

Broken Tibia or a fibia or something like that. You have to go to M.A.fighting.com's article because I think we put the tweet from Brett Akamoto in there. But nasty injury, got a feel for Binal Daryush. We weren't sure if Islam Makachev is going to stay on the card. And then about an hour later, Jed Mishu, a king emerges, King Bobby Green. After winning his fight five days ago at UFC 271 against Nasrat, Hackparas, the man is stepping up to the plate and taking on Islam Makhachev.

Now, I've seen on Twitter, Jed, some mixed reactions. Some are like, wow, this is very gangster. And other people are like, why would Bobby ever take this fight? It makes no sense. He's going to get submitted in the first. round, all the momentum is going to be halted. I completely disagree with that. So the question for you, Jedmishu, one minute on the clock, your thoughts on this

matchup, and who deserves more credit? Islam Makachev for staying on the card and fighting Bobby Green or Bobby Green stepping up to the plate to fight Islam Makachev? Your time starts now. Very quickly, Islam Makkahchev probably deserves more credit because he has substantially more to lose. I want to talk about that because I'm going to talk about Bobby Green for the rest of my time. Bob Green, this is it.

This is his window. I've said for years that Bobby Green, and by years, I guess, two or three, Bobby Green is the most likely to have a Jorge Mosvidal run in him, a guy who is incredibly talented, very defensively savvy, been around for a long time, but kind of his own worst enemy, loses decisions he should win, can't turn his personality and exciting personhood into stardom. This is the window, man.

It's just like Masanahar coming in and kneing, Ben Asking's face off. If Bobby Green could come out and do that to Islamakashv, he's going to be a star, especially on short notice. This is like Nate Diaz coming in. You took everything I worked for, mother effort of Connor McGregor. He has the opportunity to be the star that he always could be in one shot. So that's why he's taking it, and I hope it'll happen. It won't, but it'd be damn cool if it did.

All right. spirited answer from Jedmishu. We head on over to Jose Youngs and Jose was in Houston, saw Bobby Green get that star reaction from the Houston Faithful, great media day, great post-fight interview. The guy is becoming a star and now he steps up and he's taking this fight against his Lamachachev by the time he makes that walk on 10 days notice. And I know we never get excited until both guys on the octagon, but for the sake of argument, Jose, both guys are about to make the walk to the octagon.

thoughts on Bobby Green stepping in. Who deserves more credit? Just the overall, just change of pace within an hour's time last night heading into next Saturday's main event. One minute on the clock, your time starts now. Well, I, like Jed, I give much more credit to Islam Malkichik, because if he loses,

he's not getting anywhere near a tile shot anytime soon. But like Jed, I'm just going to wax poetic on Bobby Green because Bobby Green is the man. Also, you called him King, Bobby Green? It's Bobby King Green. Let's get that corrected real quick. But like at Media Day, his Bobby Green walks in with a Jeff Hardy beard, Leon the professional sunglasses, and he says, throw me on a week's notice, I'll do it. He said, I'm here to show you a badass shows as a dope-ass fighter with sick-ass style. Man dropped badass, dope-ass, and sick-ass in about a two-second sentence. I'm like, I am here. Drop the mic, walked out. If you have a skull tattoo on your skull, you're just operating on a completely new level. If you goes out there and just pieces up, it. It's a Islam knocked it, which probably won't happen, or he knocks him out or does anything.

Because remember, like, was it, Jacob Volkman was like this high-level wrestler who just put people away, and Dana White hated him, gets on Bobby Green's back, Bobby Green escapes and finishes him. Bobby Green is the man. He's probably not going to win, but he should get another main event fight, even if he lose because Bobby Green, Bobby King Green is the man. I was shown respect to the man. I know what the nickname is, and I know where it sits in the actual full name. But for right now, for bad assery, he is a king.

So hence King Bobby Green for this sake of argument. So we'll let the poll. We'll let the voting commence for a few minutes. And we'll plug what's going on in May fighting tomorrow. Preview show, not just UFC Vegas 48, not just Bellator 274. We're going to talk knucklemania to as well. So join us for that. It's going to be a loaded up preview show.

We'll have your pre-fight Q&A on Saturday. That's going to be a UFC Vegas 48 show. and then we'll probably do a post-fight show talking about all three. I don't know what the hell is going to happen. So stay tuned. We will let you know because it all depends on when these cards end and how it ends and all that good stuff. So lots to look forward to. And then, of course, A.K. and I will be back for on to the next one.

And maybe Jed and I will jump on a Twitter spaces at some point on Saturday. Who the hell knows? So make sure you follow us everywhere on. Yeah. Subscribe here. Subscribe on the podcast channel. And you never miss a thing. And it costs you nothing.

I've all been the Twitter spaces, guys. We're having a great time there. Oh, that was so fun on Saturday. It was so fun. All right, let us turn it over to the judge, the jury, the executive producer, although he's not the judge here. The peeps, the BTL audience are the judges, and they have been voting in the poll.

So who wins the bragging rights for a week's time, Casey Leiden? Okay, we have our results. And I am closing the poll right now. and today's winner with 52% of the votes very close very close the winner is Mr. Jedmishu oh 52%

wow close that was really close it's because I said Nate Diaz and Orhey Mosvital in my final answer and Jose didn't that's it that's the difference That's true. Jose had said like hampa, he might have had the edge. Absolutely. Jed, you know what to do.

Say what you got to say, my friend. Honestly, I've said all the things I had to say, because the things I wanted to talk about were the bogusory of the Shui Vasa, and Anderilovsky is the greatest living Belarusian, and we should celebrate him more. And way to go. We fix Belator. I'm probably about to go right on the,

that trade. Like, I'm probably just going to do that right now. You should. I like that. Jose, your thoughts on, on the decision here of the listeners. Very close. Very close. Did Mike freeze?

No. Well, if the fans think I lost and the fans think I lost, they're just wrong. Also, I was going to, because I didn't want to bring this up in the Bellator conversation because I wanted to save it in case I did win. but now that I did look now that I lost which okay um brand award fights on Saturday I don't think enough people outside of our friend Nolan kin are talking about it that man has a very harrowing story I think he would spend 120 days in jail like I'm not going to tell you what he like all the details of the rest and everything because you can go read it but I think there was a legitimate

time where I was I don't think I didn't think brandon ward would be alive in 22 so the fact that he's about to re-return to bellator is is very really really really great to see and I really hope he's got his life around but yeah shout out to Brennan Ward hopefully he turned his life around he's all good now but also congrats on getting through that just horrendous aspect

of your life back to MMA yes another great story that's flying under the radar heading into Saturday and looking forward to see how Bellator talks about that I know Brennan's been doing a lot of media and talking to different outlets I think he just drops up with Sports Illustrated so yeah check

that out and Nolan's stories actually great. So go check that out about Brennan Ward, who's returning this Saturday. So that's it. We are done. So thank you, Jed. Thank you, Jose. Thank you, Casey. And thank you to all of you who participated in the voting and who stuck around for an hour and 17 minutes. All 3, 50, 400 of you. You guys are all animals. So thank you very much. We'll be back next week with more debate with more banter for Jose, for Jed, for Casey. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for watching. Between the links. We'll see you next week. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn takes you home. everybody.

This has been a Vox Media production on the Vox Media Network. When did we actually get Esther's voice in here again? We got her. It's always been Esther's voice. What are you talking about? This is Esther. It's just Casey. That's always.

No, it's not. This is not as Esther. I have two voices. I'm very weird that way. Wow. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.