MMA Fighting - BTL | AJ McKee's Future, UFC Vegas 52 vs. Bellator Doubleheader, Jake Paul vs. Michael Bisping?

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

What does AJ McKee’s stock look like following his Bellator 277 decision loss to once again featherweight champion Patricio Pitbull?  On this week’s edition of Between the Links, the panel will attempt to answer that question, along with figuring out what could be next for the former champion. In addition, the panel will talk Belal Muhammad’s win over Vicente Luque this past Saturday and grade his post-fight callout of Colby Covington, give their reaction to the PFL’s 2022 season opener on Wednesday — which was capped off by an incredible battle between Clay Collard and Jeremy Stephens — the Bellator doubleheader with Bellator 278 and Bellator 279 going up against UFC Vegas 52, what the most intriguing bout of the weekend is in the world of MMA, Jake Paul and Michael Bisping going back-and-forth, perhaps towards a potential boxing bout, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti and Jose Youngs. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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From MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, Mike. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. It's nice to be back on a live video format once again. It's been a couple of weeks since we have done so, but we are back and we have a lot to talk about. It's going to be kind of a cluster because there's so many things happening right now. And we have ourselves an all Arizona matchup this week. So let's get to this.

Let us introduce the players involved in this week's show. First, let us say hello to a man who launched a damn greatness grenade this morning with his piece about Clay Guida and the Wiley Veterans' top career fights and moments in his just insane career from M.AFighting.com deputy editor, Mr. Sean Al-Shadi. Welcome back, my man. How are you? That is not Sean Al-Lashadi. Sean O'Shahti looking a little different right there

I'm liking the new hairstyle on Sean O'Satty Nah man it's good to be back Always enjoy stopping by with you fellas on this show Although I will say today I don't know that I appreciate What you're trying to do here Mike Heck So these seeds of dissension out here in the desert Between my Arizona brother and I like this is just I see I see what you're doing and I don't like it

Just letting you know I would never try to play games like this As we introduce my tag team partner from in Jacksonville during UFC 273 fight week. The man is a monster 100 percent and he is a diehard Boston Celtics fan. Are you not Jose Youngs? Are you enjoying this two O'

lead? The Cs have over that butthead, Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets? Well, I don't think Kyrie Irving has butthead. We just kind of parted ways and he can do whatever he wants. He's no longer on my team. Out of sight. I don't mind. We just happen to be playing him this weekend. I am at a hyper-superstitious individual

when it comes to sports, so I'm not even going to talk about whether we may or may not be up to O because once I start talking about it, we'll probably lose because, but again, we might be up to O. We might not be up to O, but we're not going to talk about it. But anyway, yeah, I agree with Sean. What are we doing here? Like, everyone saw who I called out on Twitter. Like, it just didn't happen.

I called out some jabroney from, I guess, I guess he went to the SEC. There's a few things that people that go to the SEC schools like to talk about going to SEC schools, football, and going to SEC school. So he watches MMA once twice a week. So apparently he's not on on Thursday. So we're doing the Civil War this week, I guess. Especially on a week, a moment of such pain for Arizona right now. Like the deep depression that the city has fallen into.

Devin Booker, take my hamstring, please. This is the window. We need this now, man. It's this year or no year. Like, we've got to figure this out. Listen, I had to fill roles, you know. I had to fill some spots. GC's not available this week.

We're going to try to get this matchup in the works for next week of the foreseeable future. But let's get into some MMA talk, gentlemen. Maybe let's take your mind off this Arizona versus Arizona battle. Maybe when the banter starts, we'll forget all about the friendship. But let's start with this past weekend in the world of M.A. We're going to begin with certainly the biggest story by a country mile. A.J. McKee suffered his first professional loss. He loses his featherway title to the man he won the top.

title from patricio pitbull a veteran like showing from pitbull he looked great he got the win i thought it was a pretty a pretty clear win watching it the next morning without commentary or without social media but it made me think about all the conversations we had following their first meeting about a j mckee and where we rank him globally at one 45 where we rank him in the pound for palm discussion. Scott Coker being the promoter saying that he thought McKee was not only the best feather way in the world, but the best fighter on planet Earth. So Sean, let's start with you. Look, there's no shame whatsoever in losing to a guy like Patricia Pitbull. But when the community was grading you so highly following that win in July, how much did McKee's stock take a hit

this past Saturday with this loss? How much did Pitbull stock grow from this win? I mean, I'll answer the first question first. I mean, it took a big hit if we're being real with ourselves, right? Because, I mean, this is someone who coming in all the conversation was exactly what you've just mentioned. Best Fighter and Bellator, Best Fighter, Outside of the UFC in the entire world, maybe the best featherweight in the world. That was getting thrown out as well. I think we all had him ranked in our top three featherweights in the world at somewhere with the Max Volcanowski, you know, tier in that in that division. and kind of went out there and just really laid an egg, man.

Because I agree. Upon a rewatch, I was much more convinced that that was a pit bull win, three, two. I think they scored it right. And just you look back and there's a lot you can say about the way Belleter promoted that event, the way the matchmaking that led into that event, whether that fight was even the right fight if you're trying to push A.J. McKee into this next stratosphere.

I don't think it was. We talked about all that pre-fight, but just regardless, the rhetoric we were hearing from A.J. beforehand about how. you know the ufc belt is inevitable uh i'm gonna need a million dollars per fight plus extra these type of things that stuff works when you're winning when you're undefeated when you're looking like a superstar out there choking out pit bull in two minutes that stuff does not work when you're losing very listless um you know uneventful five round decisions to the same guy that you just ran through in two minutes so the way this whole thing could play it i don't think it could have played out

any worse for AJ McKee outside of just like, you know, really bad like knockout loss or something like that. Otherwise, this was pretty much a worst case scenario because if that guy was trying to make big money elsewhere, it's not happening anytime soon. Jose, where is AJ McKee's stock for you?

I know everyone's got to take that first L at some point, but when everyone is just so high on you and you're saying the things you're saying, there was a close fight. It's not like this was, this is like almost Jan Sannheimish in a way where it was close, like it was very competitive, but we knew who won coming out of it. At least I did.

So, I mean, obviously there are two different fights, but that's kind of like how I felt coming out of it. Like, great fight, cool, very close, very competitive, two guys who could fight a bunch of times and I'd watch all of them. But I felt Patricia Pitbull won the fight, and I think there was any controversy here. But where does AJ Stock go?

Well, first, I wouldn't necessarily compare it to Jan Sannhagen because that was my pick for Fight of the Year. last year and that was the exact opposite of what we saw with AJ McKee and Patrice who pit bull. It was a five-round fight. I agree. I scored a three-two pitball. I thought that was pretty clear after the fight, but there seemed to be some sort of quote-unquote controversy, but I just think that's a lot of people that wanted AJ to win maybe and they're trying to talk themselves into it or they're just part of AJ's team. It obviously took a massive fit because like I've said this few times where when we see a lot of fighters that are either coming

up on their contracts, they're on losing streaks, they're on long winning streaks and they're like, what do they have to win or lose? And I always say, well, let's see how the fight plays out because if they go out like perfect example gilbert burns lost to a guy that was outside the top 10 on paper if you don't know don't know anything about that fight and you just see the number three guy fought the number 11 guy and lost and the the number 11 guy only has like eight career fights you're probably like wow gilbert burns was super overrated he lost to a guy that doesn't have 10 pro fights who was outside the top 10 then you watch that fight and that's a fight that is the fight of the year and Gilbert Burnstock has never been higher and he's still lost.

AJ McKee lost and he lost a pretty lackluster convincing decision. It doesn't get much worse than that outside of like a DQ or him getting choked out in a minute. We didn't really learn much from him. We just saw Petruso Pipple and made adjustments from the first fight, executed them, didn't buy into all the booze you heard in the arena because obviously fighting California, AJ is going to be the big hero. Crowd was displeased. Petrusive Pipple, the veteran.

ignored it and just stuck to his game plan and won. So AJ McKee's stock took a massive fit because now he's not going to get the million dollars. He wants some ballots or he's probably going to get a mass. He still has, what, three fights left on his Bellator contract. And he doesn't have the belt and there's no guarantee he gets a third fight against Tricio Pitbull, pretty much worse case scenario for AJ McKee. Yeah, and just to sort of reiterate, I'm not comparing the two fights in terms of excitement levels. I'm talking about how I felt when the fight was over.

close fight, but one guy clearly won. So kind of bouncing off what you just said, Jose, AJ McKee comes out after the fight and said, I'm done with this whole 145 business. I'm going up to 155. Now, all three of us and a lot of our colleagues, we're sort of in this business of, we want these fighters to compete closer to their natural weights.

We no longer want to see these massive weight cuts. Do you think his future is at 155? And if so, how does he stack up at 155 against a lot of these fighters? because he was so effective at 145 using his size, his length. Your thoughts on maybe a potential move to 155, which may not be potential in his eyes. Was that to me? Tio, yes.

I mean, cool. If he wants to move up, there's a lot of fights I'd want to see him take at 155. I just want to see how his body adjust to that because he's really skinny at 145. So is Connor McGregor. And we saw Conn McGregor go up and he slept Eddie Oliver as pretty, like, in a perfect game.

and yeah, he's lost a lot of fights, but he's fighting the best of the best. I want to see AJ, I'm not saying this tune-up fight because he doesn't need to tune-up fight at this point in his career because he's one of the five greatest fighters, maybe top two fighters in Bellator history. Maybe not a title fight right away at 155, but, you know, give him like Peter Quilely, you know, maybe at 155. Peter Quilley's a big name, well, quote unquote, big name. People recognize the name. You know, you guys know what I mean. People recognize the name. They recognize his gym.

they recognize his teammate Conn McGregor, throw AJ McKee in there at 155, give him a nice test, see how he looks, and then from there, like, like, it reminds me of what Dustin Porre said. When he moved up to 155 after his run at 145, it took him a while to feel like a lightweight as opposed to just a featherweight. That's not cutting weight, if that makes sense. And even Max Holloway has said that and even a few other, and like Ryan Bader said that, it took him a while to feel like an actual heavyweight as opposed to just a blown up 205er. So maybe don't throw AJ into a title.

fight right away, maybe let his body adjust to the new weight class and then he could be off to the races. But for all we know, he doesn't want that. He doesn't want to get locked into another championship clause and he just fights these out against three names that people recognize and then he dips out to the UFC. It's got to win though, but I want to see him fight.

I do want to see him fight at 155. I think it would be really interesting in that division. What do you think, Sean? You think you think lightweights his home? I mean, we're looking at the Belator roster right now. Sydney Outlaw is number one in their rankings. We got Brent Primis, Benson Henderson, and Peter Cuelly are fighting later on this year. Usman Narmaga

Madoff is ranked number four in their division at 14 and 0. We got Miles Jury, Dan Maret, Gadsie Rabadanov, guys like that. I mean, do you think 155 is the place for him at this point? Is this just like no more weight cutting or do you think he will actually have

a lot of success at 155? I mean, it feels like it has to be at this point. He's talked extensively about how hard this weight cut is for him. He's not a small guy. Like he's 5.10. that's decently big for lightweight. Like he's not going to be outsized by a lot of lightweights. And also today, too, we saw, you know, I got the list of the fight night weights

from the California State Athletic Commission today. And A.J. McKee was one of the biggest gainers on the whole card. He gained like 20 pounds between weigh and day and fight day, which is like 24 hours. He went from 144 to 165, basically, in that span. So he very clearly should be fighting at lightweight at this point. Patricio Pitbull, for comparison, got up to about 1,000. 159. So there's a there's a there was a bit of a difference there. So it does feel like he should be a lightweight. He probably should have already been a lightweight. Like the move was to, to push him up

to 155 and have him challenge for that second title rather than run into a rematch at the same weight with the same guy he already fought and ran through and he couldn't really better that performance. But that's neither here nor there. We've already gotten into that quite extensively on other shows. But yeah, lightweight's the move. And I actually disagree with Jose. I feel like you just run him right into that Pitbull, Patrici Pitbull title fight. Because what else is going on at 155 right now for Bellator? It feels like that's sort of just sitting there waiting

for them to do. I like the kind of the storyline of, you know, lost to one pit bull brother, now coming for the other pit bull brother. It's, it's some, you know, it makes sense with the way that they like to match make and the way they like to do things. And also, I, you know, in terms of the contract,

I would be surprised. Obviously, we can't say for sure, but I would be surprised if AJ becoming champion again, would then extend that contract out to another three fights in perpetuity with Champions Clause. I feel like, you know, without seeing the contract, it's hard to say, but I would be very surprised if there is not at some point an end date for that level of the Champions Clause. So I wouldn't be worried in that respect, but obviously that's speculation. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a mystery at this point, but I think I'm with you.

I don't think that you can double up on Champions Clause. I think, like, once you're in a Champions Clause, like, you're just in it, and then it ends what it ends. but I did ask Scott Coker about it last night. You can watch an interview on the YouTube channel. He wasn't really willing to comment on the X's and O's, but he did seem confident that McKee should be a Bellator fighter for the foreseeable future. But, Sean, I want to bounce this back to you because you mentioned it, Agent McKea's had a lot to say about what life would be like in the UFC.

It's like going from West Philadelphia to Bel Air in his eyes, taking digs at Volcanovsky's performance against the zombie. Maybe he was a negotiation tactic. And who knows, maybe it was McKee saying he wants to see how green the grass is in an endeavor land. So let's just say, let's just say McKee is a free agent right now. Let's just say he's a free agent. You're the UFC guy. You're a booking these.

You're making this happen. You're Hunter Campbell. You're a very powerful rich man. How much do you think the UFC is going to pursue AJ McKee? Are they going to back up the Brinks truck or are they thinking, you know what? This loss is really good for us. Now he might be able to get this guy with a lot of talent and some. big upside at a little bit of a discount.

I mean, I think they'd certainly still be interested, right? Like, he's still a young guy. I think he's 27. He's obviously very, very talented. It felt like he got maybe a little too into his own hype heading into this past one. But we've seen just how talented he is in Bellator. So I'm sure they'd certainly be interested, but he'd probably, if we're being honest, probably going to take a pay cut.

Like, I don't know that UFC's going to be paying him $250K to come in there and fight, you know the number seven lightweight or featherweight regardless of depending on where he wants to be like that's not going to that's not how things are going to play out he would probably need to take a pay cut if it was happening right now he obviously still has a few more fights still in belator so maybe he can rebound that stock and really get himself back to where he was before this past one but i mean i'm sure the ufc would still be very very interested but they're definitely not backing up the brink's truck for a j mckey anytime soon i mean you know we someone we talk about his star power a lot But the reality is you look at, you know, it's stupid to say this sort of thing, but it is kind of how these things are measured.

You look at me as like 7,000 Twitter followers, right? Like we in the industry are high on A.J. McKee, but it feels like the public has not been quick to jump on the train in the way that a lot of us have. It's an interesting point right there. Jose, your thoughts on this. Do you think the UFC would just be like, eh, we're going to offer you this? If he says no, screw it, you can just go back to Bellator? or do you think they'd be late? Do you think they're thinking, you know what, this might be worth the investment

because we can promote this guy, we can get this guy out in front of a lot of eyeballs. It might be actually worth, the juice might actually be worth the squeeze here. How would you sort of view it? I know it's hard to be the UFC and think of it from a business perspective, but how do you think they might be viewing him right now?

I mean, it's hard to say until he finishes up his contract, because if he just riles off three straight Ls, they're not going to give him a lot of money. But if he goes out there and just like what Michael Chandler did to Benson Henderson on his last fight, just cooks the man. And then all of a sudden he's like, well, I'll play the field options and this and that. Then, well, we can have another conversation. So it's hard to say until we see those fights. But I don't think they're going to back the Brinks trucks up because for whatever reason, AJ McKee has just not

captivated the mainstream audience. Like I think even when Michael Chandler was in Belator, he was doing a lot of, he was going hand in hand with Belator. Like he was doing a lot of the promotion. He was willing to fight these fights that maybe other people didn't want to take. Like, remember that big Madison Square Garden car where they had like the Aaron Pico show like Chales Sunn fought Vanderlai, I think. There was like there's all these other fights. And then Michael Chandler fought, um, what's his crap? What's his name?

The guy that when he snapped his, when he hurt his ankle. Brent Primis. Brent Primis. No one wanted to fight Brent Primis. And he's like, I'll fight him. I'm the Bellator guy. So AJ McKee talking all this greasiness to Bellator obviously is not helping him. So they're not overly promoting a man saying I'm going to go to the.

the UFC. So the audience might not see that. I agree with what everything Sean said in terms of the social media analytics of AJ McKee. I don't have to get into this. I've said that numerous times on several preview shows, several post-fight shows, probably on this show himself. AJ McKee just does not captivate the internet at all. He has fantastic fights. He's a fantastic fighter. He just doesn't translate and it doesn't make any sense that he's talking about other fighters not in his promotion. So let's see how it plays out, but I don't think there's going to give him the money. I don't think he's going to weigh in as a backup for a championship fight like Michael Chandler did if he makes if he hops over the UFC if that makes sense.

Yeah, we'll see what happens. And shout out to Patricia Pitbull. Well done. The champ. I feel like he should be getting more shine, but we just have so much to freaking talk about right now. We're going to move ahead to round two another big story this past week. And we'll discuss that. We'll play, uh, we'll talk briefly about the season debut for another promotion that took place last night. But the point for round one goes to, goes to Sean Alshadie. How about that? It's one to nothing. Terrific first round.

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Instacart, groceries that over deliver. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. And by the way, I know it's been a while. I'm just going to knock down the door here. These points I'm giving away, it's an illusion, semantics. You all are the judges, all right? This is technically a five-round matchup with game show-like qualities, a little peek behind the curtain,

but there will be, if there's not already a poll up on this page, to cast your votes for either Sean or Jose throughout this matchup. So we talked to Bellator. We're going to talk more Bellator in a minute, but let's talk about what happened at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas this past Saturday

because Belal Muhammad closed a pretty chaotic show with a unanimous decision win over Vicente Lucke. It was a huge win. He exacts him revenge, solid performance. He looked real good. Then he gets the microphone. I'm like, don't call out Usman.

Don't call out Covington. Just lay waste of Shemayef. Just go after it. And what does he do, Jose? He calls out Colby Covington. So let me start with you. How do you grade Belal's performance? Is this guy a true player at 170?

And how would you grade the callout from Mr. Remember the Name? Well, his performance you want pretty convincingly, it's not like there's any argument. Like there's no one coming in there. There's no one in our comment section saying, oh, Lucie, three, four, five, or something like that. Like, no, everyone knows Al-Mohama Muhammad won. So that's a plus for convincingly.

Maybe it wasn't the most exciting fight in the world, but he did the impossible. He made a Vicente-Luke fight not that exciting. Good on him. He did his job. He got half his paycheck, and the man just keeps winning. At some point, we just got to accept the fact

that Vicente-Luque is a top five, Blahmohamed is a top five wealth's way in the world. He just doesn't lose. right now. And he's beating. He's literally every fight he takes is a step up in competition. He's not just going from like 15 to 4. He's going like 15, 12, 9. And then

he's just like climbing the ranks and he just keeps winning. And then he beats Steven Thompson. Oh, let's give him a murderer for five rounds. Does the same thing he did as Stephen Thompson. The Vicente Luca, the quote unquote, dark horse of the division, the one that put out, Tyron Woodley and all these other guys. So good on you,

Balamahmah. Call out, awful. Should have just went right after Hamza Ashima. I get what he's saying. I get it because there is legitimate hatred for Balam-Moh-Moham-Moham-ah for Colby Covington. Like the man, I don't think he hates Hamza. I think he just wants, he would fight him for like the title shot or like halting the hype or stealing the hype.

There is legitimate hatred for Colby Covington from Belal-M-Lam-Mohamid. So I get the call-out in that aspect. It just wasn't the time. All eyes are on you. Just to call out Hamzai. It's right out. It's like the fight card after Hamzat's fight. Hamzat's like on, like look at our YouTube numbers.

I don't have to tell you the amount of traffic that Hamzashamaya draws. Say his name on ESPN. You're going to blow up. And then you can use the post fight show on ESPN plus or whatever to talk about Colby, talk about Leanna and this and that. Don't waste your two minutes of time on national television and talk about a fight. That's not going to happen. Beat Hamzot.

Then you can fight Colby or you can get the title shot. And then if you get the title shot and win, you're guaranteed to fight. like Colby Cumming. So A plus performance, terrible callout, wasted call out, but I get it. I understand where he's coming from. It was just the wrong name and the wrong time for that callout. Sean, I agree with a lot of with what Jose just said here. He's, Blah Mohamed's on a tear right now. The man cannot find defeat anywhere. If he went searching for defeat, he's not going to find it. He's winning all these fights. He's fighting killers. He's the underdog in a lot of these fights. And he's going out there and winning. These callouts are killing.

killing him, Sean. They're killing him. I did not like this callout at all. I just feel like Bilal has zero chance of getting this fight. I feel like Colby Covington has no idea who Bilal Muhammad is and he's going to see zero value in the fight. And this is my humble opinion. Everything else about Bilal's game, the personality, his social media game, his fighting skills, he's tremendous. But the callouts, the timing of these calls are horrendous. And I felt like the chance to cut a big promo on Hamzaat was right there for him. And he didn't take it. And now he's doing the media rounds.

Now we're getting the Hamzac callouts. And now nobody really cares. So thoughts on the performance and thoughts on the callout. I mean, it was hilarious in the moment because you called it. I remember you tweeting something like a minute before his interview of something like, hey, just don't call out Colby here. Like, hey, call out Hamzad. And then he does the exact thing.

Yeah, man. I mean, there's really, it feels like there's really only one way to look at that. And that's exactly what you and Jose have both said, right? Because what's the point of a callout? What's the point of, you know, that moment you have on the microphone? It's to be able to sort of inception an idea into all of the audience's minds, right? Like, if you just want to fight, I want you to put a great idea into my mind of what your next step should be before we all move on to whatever the next fight or the next week is or the next event, all of that. Didn't really do it because he did the one thing that he shouldn't, which is you got to be realistic with your callouts too, right?

You have to put something out there that makes sense. And there's just no conceivable way he's going to actually land the Colby Covington fight. Because Colby is already kind of booked with Hamzat Shemayev. And the thing is, we know that Colby could, you know, play some Colby type of games that he tends to do with the UFC and get sort of talk himself out of that fight. Then they'll be looking for somebody to fight Hamzat and it would have been right there. And Ballal could have just slid right into it. So, you know, that's still on the table. Like you said, he's sort of pivoted.

a little bit now, and he's talking about Hamzat now. So the callout was what it was. It wasn't ideal. But the performance, man, like, I know Belal is, like, the fan base has still not come around to this guy, and I get it. The last few fights in particular have not been particularly riveting. It's a lot of wrestling. It's a lot of stalling.

It's a lot of just ground control and top work on the ground. That's impressive to me, man. I mean, I'm not going to go back and rewatch those fights anytime soon, but to be able to do what he did to Stephen Thompson, to be able to do it to Ficente-Luke, very few people are able to do it to those guys. And at this point, it's becoming very difficult to say Belal Mohammed is not one of the best top, you know, four guys in the world at this very, very deep weight class

because he's just doing it. He's right. He's the only person in this division right now, other than Kamar Usman, who is actually going out there and fighting the fights and crank it through these contenders. Him and Vesete Leuke were really the only two, and I'm glad they were able to fight each other. But it's just at a certain point,

the top guys in this division are not, you know, keeping it moving forward. mostly Colby Covington and Jorge Mazvedo, who kind of are just sort of doing their own thing while taking up those spots at the top of the division. Meanwhile, Balal Muhammad is scraping and clawing for every matchup he can possibly get. And as Jose said, doing that incremental climb of,

hey, I just fought the eight guy. Now I'm going to fight the six guy. Now the five, now the four. Like, it is the slowest possible route for him. Only Leon Edwards could really agree and appreciate what Balal is doing right now. But man, it's impressive. It really is impressive because I would say who saw this coming, right?

Like I think a lot of people thought Balal could be a solid contender in this division. If you go back a few years, if you go back to even just three years ago when he was losing to Jeff Neal, I don't think many people would have predicted that Belal Mohammed would be where he is today. And it's all on him. He has worked tremendously hard to overhaul his game to really become one of the best wrestlers in this division. And if you don't like it, you got to stop it. And right now nobody's stopping it. So kudos to blow.

By the way, that card brought me back to a conversation we had not that long ago. I don't know. I think it was 272. It might have been 272. But Tim Elliott gets a big win. And we wrote a few articles about Tim Elliott's victory. Tim coming out during his media scrum after the fight and basically admitting that he cheated. And then doing a follow-up interview with me saying that he cheated.

And here's why I cheated because I'm here to make money. I'm not a martial artist. I'm a dude trying to win a fight and get paid. And then there was a roundtable discussion about it. And people were just like, oh, these MMA fighting clickbaiters, you're defending cheaters. How dare you? And then we watched this card this past Saturday. And it leads this question, Sean Al Shottie.

Why is every fighter in the UFC not cheating right now? Because no one's calling anything. Why not just cheat your ass off, man? Because it ain't going to stop yet and you're still going to win fights. What is going on here? God, I wish I knew Mike. Last weekend was such a bizarre, bizarre card to watch. Because you get the one, it's one thing if it happens once, right?

Like it happens early on the undercard, the Chris Barnett fight. I think a fight that was one of the few fights that everyone was kind of looking forward to. That ends in a very weird fashion. But then to have it happen again, like an hour or two later, it just, there is no conceivable way. Like I've had people in the days since try to sit down and argue with me about this and explain, hell no you know they followed the rules they did the real thing they did the you know big dan did what he was supposed to do there is no conceivable way that the man the person the fighter who inflicts an illegal action who commits a foul on somebody should get rewarded with a win because of

those actions like however else you want to frame this however else you want to explain the rules to me if you just cut it to that simple of a sentence the person who cheated should not win because of cheating. Like that is just a very simple concept to understand it. It is bizarre to me that it is being defended by some people and bizarre to me that we even have to really have this conversation because there's no point in any other sport where someone can cheat and then be rewarded because of the cheating regardless of whether they were already ahead, regardless of whether they meant to cheat all of that. None of that matters. Like you should just shouldn't be able to win because of a foul you committed. If I'm playing, if I'm guarding a receiver in football and I'm the cornerback and I

commit, you know, very grievous, like very bad pass interference. They don't just give us the ball because of that. Like, that's not, we don't get rewarded because of something I did that was wrong. Like, we get punished for it. Deservably so. Like, all of that was so bizarre. I did not understand when I was watching after the second point, after it happened once again in the co-main event.

It's a very, very weird night. And it speaks to MMA that just no one knows the rules. The fighters don't know the rules. The rules are different in every state, seemingly. some of the officials don't know the rules, the commentators, the broadcasters definitely don't know the rules. It's all silly.

Everyone should cheat. Obviously everyone should cheat. You get free fouls, left, right, and center, and apparently some of those fouls can get you a win. So why not cheat? Jose, our good buddy, A.K. Lee, always says,

rules, rule. Do they really? They certainly don't in the UFC. What's going on here? How far can this go? I mean, rules are, rules I get like I don't really care what like if I just want rule like I want to know what the rules are if anything that makes sense I don't particularly care if they if they say oh you get to

wear clown shoes for one round you just get to pick so be it that's not going to change me covering the sport I would just like that in stone so that if someone accidentally wears clown shoes two rounds they'd be like foul can't do that I just want to know what the rules are and I want them to be uniformed and rule like I can't remember who said it um one of the I saw some one of the managers of one of the fighters that committed a foul was like this rule is stupid but it's still a rule so we have to abide by it and I think that's the camp I'm in like I don't particularly like some of the rules are absolutely idiotic and like from a from a era that just it was so long ago that they just it just doesn't make any sense that this rule like 12 six elbows and all this kind of stuff but they're

there just don't do them I don't care if you just agree with them. Just, you know, don't do it. But at the same time, how many other, like, fighters have come out being like, well, what are the rules? What are the judges looking for? What is the referee looking for? Maybe just tell, maybe, again, just tell me what the rules are.

And then I can follow them so I don't do them. And if I commit a foul, like Sean said, you've committed a foul, you get penalized. You go to jail. Do not pass go. 15-yard penalty, whatever you want to call it. Just follow the rules. And that's that. I don't particularly care what the rules are.

Just follow them. Yeah, just give us something to work off of because we try. We try to work off of these and then they don't get called and we're getting a warning, then a second warning, then a third warning, and then the stern warning, and then you know it's real. By the time we get to the fifth one, maybe we lose a point. But real quick, we could go on this for another hour, but there's so much going on. I did want to mention the PFL returning last night, Jose. It was not a bad debut.

We had a great main event between Clay Collard and Jeremy Stevens. It didn't feel like I was. watching the same event for a week and a half, which I liked. The pacing was a lot better. And whether you watch it or not, Jose, you're in the social media bubble seeing trends and likes and dislikes. Would you say this was a successful start to the year for the PFL in your eyes? In terms of trends, I wouldn't say it was overly successful yet, but it's a step in the right

direction. I think this was a good, I think a lot of it was they picked a good day Wednesday when nothing is really going on in the MMA world, especially when there's no MMA hour on Wednesday. But they're not competing with all the Bellator cards. They're not competing with the Tyson Fury, Dealing White Show. They're not competing with the UFC. So I think they picked a good day to have it. And then they just lucked out that they had one of the best fights in the year in the main event.

And it was like the perfect guys to do it. So it was a good start. Let's keep it up. I agree with what you said in terms of the pacing. I think they probably listened to a lot of the criticism they got last year and made some adjustments. There's still some things I would change. I would like to see more fans in there. and this and that.

And I really, really like how they use. They actually know how to use the steady cam. Unlike a lot of the UFC broadcast, a lot of the camera angles they used. I'm like, see, why doesn't the UFC do this?

They have all these fancy-ass cameras and they're just using them for like the dumbest reasons. And at least PFL has some sort of reasoning behind all of them. So don't hate that. Lillian Garcia is obviously great at what she does introducing everyone.

So it's a good start, I should say. They lucked out with that main event just being absolutely bonkers. I wish that was five rounds. That would have been a lot of fun. But in terms of trends, good start. TBD, if they keep it up, though. Shaw, what do you think?

I mean, even if you didn't watch it, you probably jumped on social media to see what's going on. You probably jumped on MAAfighting.com to watch to see what with the results. Feel like this is a success in your eyes, at least, or agree with Jose, we're at least trending in the right direction, all positives. Yeah, I mean, as far as, like, it's greater on a scale, right?

So for PFL coming out there, like you said, having one of the best fights of the year for their first main event of this season. Like you couldn't ask for more than that. Clay Collard just consistently being this guy who's going to come in here and spoil these UFC fighters' debuts and PFL. Like, that's a fun little wrinkle. It's hard not to hate on, or it's hard to hate Clay Collard and what he's doing. You have Hous Manfield out here just underdog in every single fight he's ever going to fight in seemingly and he continues to get it done. Yeah, I mean, even Shoeface coming out there 29 seconds. Like there was a lot of good showings on it.

It was a lot of fun fights. I agree the pace getting hurried and, you know, just a quicker pace throughout the night was a very welcome change. It feels like they at least listened to that level, the criticism around that because that was one of the big criticisms from last season. The only thing I would add, if we're just going to make, you know, fixes based on people's complaints, can we please just get rid of this insane cluster F that? that's going on with all these stats on this screen. There's like 50 stats at all times about strike speed and X, Y, and Z and cage control and all of this at any given point of the broadcast. No one cares. No one's like here for that.

Just get rid of it, man. It's too much. It's too much. All right. I mean, two rounds in and I'm feeling saucy in this room. I'm feeling it. What's the face, Jose? You like the stats or are you just pondering your next?

I like the stats. I just don't need all of them at the same time. Yes. That's the thing. It's like one or two is fine. You just don't need all 50 stats at all times just smashing up the screen. It's too much. Yeah, stats are great.

I'm a big like baseball is my thing. I'll read stats. I'll read the back of baseball cards all day. Again, I don't like when I'm watching the fight, I don't need to see their striking efficiency with the left hand when they're fighting a right-handed on the third Sunday of the month on an odd on a prime numbered year. Like, I just don't need that. Yeah, you don't need the local minor league baseball stats.

No. I hear you. No. I hear you. I'm legit. If you're going to do one stat, do the ultimate stat. It's the damage bar. Give me the damage bar. If you need to do weird stats, I don't make any sense, just give me the damage bar.

I'm here for that. Like, that'll be weird. That'll be interesting. It's something fun. Otherwise, miss me with all the rest of this stuff. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. well this has been a very busy stretch for m m a it's going to be a very busy weekend this weekend as well in the world of mixed martial arts and that's where we are heading next the point for round two goes to fresh with a new tattoo Jose youngs it is one to one show the tattoo dude

look at that who's getting so much air time on these shows is Akatsky bobby hill i decided that i might have to do hank hill as jariah on this arm just to even it out. Well, there you go. You guys all know what that means. I don't have to explain it to everyone. You guys all know what that means. Silly me. Yeah.

Your tattoos have stories. My tattoos are stupid. Well, I have one good tattoos and you saw the other one. That's pretty awful. Mike, can you give me your favorite Jariah moment? Yeah. It's when Jariah broke the rules and got a win in the UFC. Yeah.

I was going to that. And got his win bonus. Yeah. Yeah. So let's move on to maybe Gerais fighting this weekend because there's plenty of, plenty of MMA action. Sean, we have three big events coming up over the next couple of nights in the world of mixed martial arts. Of course, we have a big boxing butt as well. Bellator 278 tomorrow, headlined by Julianne of Alaska versus Liz Carmoosh for the flyway title.

We have UFC Vegas 52, headlined by Jescon Drogge versus Amanda Lamosh. And then Saturday night, we have Bellator 279, headline by Chris Cyborg versus Arlene Blanco 2 for the featherweight title. We get an interim Bannamway title fight between Rafion starts and Juan Archiletta. The Grand Prix officially begins with Keoggi Horaguchi versus Patchy Mix. Alimalae McFarlane returns. You hear me talking about more of the fights on this card because clearly this is the card of the weekend, Sean. It has to be.

But in the triple event weekend race of life, how far ahead is Bellator 270? 79 in this race. Man, how far ahead? Like, we're just, these are varying degrees of mediocre. If we're being real, like, right? Like, these are poo-poo platters that we're just getting presented with multiple weeks in a row now. It's fine. Like, it's fine.

We're going to watch because we're savages. We're just weirdos and that's what we do. But I don't know that I'm particularly stoked about anything that we're about to watch over the next couple of days. Like, I'm here for any and all, Jessica And Raj, like, because she is always fun. And Amanda Lemmo, she's kind of. of low-key just a monster and so that'll be like a really fun fight for however long it last uh and outside of that man like i don't know it's great i guess it's fine it's not great but it's fine it's watchable it's fight it's like stats versus archiletta is fun uh horaguchi

versus blend cow is the weirdest most unnecessary rematch i've ever seen in my entire life but i guess you just need to give cyborg a live body every couple months so she so she can do something uh yeah i don't know it's it's fine the real fight of the weekend, if we're being honest, is Tyson Fury versus Dillian White. Like, that's the big one that I think far surpasses anything that we're talking about. But you didn't ask me that. Yes, I'm sure we will discuss that very soon on this program. A little bit of a spoiler alert.

Jose, maybe you're a little more positive about this. I mean, if you're a hype, if you're a promotion out there, an up-and-coming promotion, you need a hype man. You need to give Sean Al-Shadi a call because I'm ready to watch them. I may have to hear it or not. But your thoughts on the slate this weekend. Well, first of all, shout out to, you know, three high-level MMA fight cards, all headlined by high-level women, martial arts, female martial arts. So good on you, female fighters, like what, 10 years ago, you weren't even in the UFC, and now you get two title fights and a strawweight main event, which we don't normally get.

We can all agree straw weight is just the most stacked female division in the world. Like, that's just not an argument. That's just happening. whether Amanda Lemos won her last fight or not against Angela Hill, that is not the conversation we're had. I'm also on the same side of Sean where I'll watch Jessica Andrade to do anything. She's awesome. I'll watch her like fist fight anything and I'll be excited.

I also said many times that when the best does something, I'm going to tune in. I don't care who it's against or where it is. I think Chris Cyborg is, you know, one of the five greatest, no, scratch that. Three greatest female fighters in the history of mixed martial arts. So I'm going to watch her fight anyone. Don't care if it's rematch, don't care if it's trilogy,

don't care if she's fighting the same person 10 times in a row. I'm going to watch Chris Cyborg fight a dead body. That's how I'm going to say it. Juan Archelaide is awesome. I think he had that long win streak. He's don't understand the conquistador gimmick because he's a Mexican-Spanish individual. Speak on it, Jose. Speak on.

You know, let's talk about that. I do not understand how you can walk out with the Mexican flag and a conquistador helmet. Doesn't make any sense whatsoever. We can talk about that at another. time. We don't have to give it any more time because it is stupid and silly. And any Mexican out there should just be just flabbergasted that an individual could do that. Padchi makes us great. Kioji Horaguchi, let's not forget, M.M.Afighting.com, there were a couple of guys on this

website saying Kioji Horaguchi was the best Bannon way on planet Earth. Looked real good until he got his, the off button hit on Sergio Pettis. And people on the site will probably still rank Kiojori Hoaguchi above Sergio Pazis. He's fighting. Al-Laharling is fighting. fighting in Hawaii. Last time she's falling in Hawaii, Casey made that cool video on it. She used that video to meet her current. I don't know if they got married yet, but they were engaged. If they got married, congratulations. She used that to be like, this is what I do.

Look at this cool video. So good on everyone involved. Also like, Yancy Medeiros is fighting on the prelims card. Remember, he's headline UFC fights. He had that weird fight against Landauvinata that everyone thought it was going to be the best thing in the world. So I'll watch Jansi Madero's fight too. And then Liz Karmuch, first openly gay fighter in UFC history took part in the historic first female fight in the history of the UFC. Good on her. She gets another title fight to avenge her teammate, Alima Lane McFarland. So, fun fights all around, and no one's

talked about it. Tyson Pedro's fighting for the first time in four years. He's last fought against Shogun, and then, like, the next day, Tyson Fury fought Giante Wilder for the first time or something crazy like that. So that's how long he's fought. He bookended Tyson Fury fights. It's just, I don't have any issue with a lot of the top, like, it's a little top heavy. You know, like, I'm

interested in all the title fights. I'm interested in the main event of the UFC car. I think the UFC card this week, as much as we poop-pooed is like leaps in bounds better than last weeks because like you know, you got Martin Pratt. You know, you got Jordan Wright, Dwight Grant. These are all interesting fires on the prelims, but I am much more intrigued

than Sean, but I'm not going to call them A plus fight cards. There are intriguing matchups, though. I'll leave it at that. Man, I mean, you got the Casey Airhorn treatment multiple times during that rant. So all right. So, I mean, I mean, great job promoting and great job getting people fired up, Jose.

Shout out to Charles Jorday and the baddest world of Warcraft player in the UFC. He's fighting too. Well, maybe this is one half of Robert Whitaker. I think to say about that. Yes, exactly. Is he a wow guy? He's more of a Skyroom guy, I thought. He was at one point a wow guy.

I don't know if he still is. Does he have the hoard tattooed on his leg like Charles Jordan? Probably not. That gives Charles Doors Day in the edge of my mind. we're being willy-nilly with the air horn right now i know just i mean anything uh so so let's sell this ufc card a little bit more jose because we mentioned it already solid main event we got on drudge versus lamoche and if you asked me two hours ago what the best fight on the card was the card the fight was looking forward to the most in this card it was minel cap versus soon with ergie yeah but

that is no longer happening cap is out due to personal reasons hope we could see both of those guys back in there soon. Madaghi, we're just not seeing enough. We get him once a year and he's on a three-fight winning streak and Cap is just really good. Look, there's some good competitive matchups. You mentioned Charles Jordane. He's fighting freaking Land of Vanada. You know, that's going to be fun.

We get some good up-and-comers. Not the deepest lineup of all time, but what is the fight on this card outside of the main events that you're looking forward to? And I'm going to take Jordane and Vanada off the table for you as well. We're going to dig a little deeper. I'm looking most forward to because that's tough. I was really looking forward to who's Romanov Bozer was going to be good. Now that Chase Sherman is back, I think Romanovs is going to steamroll him.

So I don't like, I guess Macy Barber and Montan de la Rose is going to draw up some sort of interest on the internet because, you know, people either hate or love Macy. Personally, I was big, I'm going to go back to it. I'm excited to see Tyson Pedro versus Ikeville and Nueva. Ike Villanueva is basically the real life,

like we're going to keep the King of the Hill theme going. He's essentially the real life boom hour, as Paul Felder said. I actually got to chitch out with him a lot when he was on Fight Island because I can't remember who he fought, but he fought that guy that did like the, was it Vinicious that he did like the kick punch thing that Dana Korme was making fun of.

So I'm excited to see him fight Tyson Pedro. Like I said, he's been out with injuries forever. And I thought, I didn't think he was ever going to fight again, honestly. So I'm very excited to see, just him back, being able to fight and make money and all this sorts of thing. And then I've always had a soft spot in my heart.

So it's absolutely not going to be the best fight of the card. It might even be like a flash knocker or the ugliest fight. But personally, I'm excited for that fight. Sean, what you got? I mean, you know me, Mike. I'm always one for nostalgia. I'm a real sucker for nostalgia. I'm the old head over here on the website.

So for me, I mean, I got to go with my man, Clay Guido, like you said, the top. Like I sat down for an hour with Clay over the past week and sort of just he walked me through, you know, some of his favorite moments of his career. Like he's going on 19 years now at this point. Dude, he's 40 years old, still fighting like a maniac, still has cardio for days and really conceivably could be three and O in his last three fights. Like if he gets one more scorecard going his way against Marco Madsen, we're looking at a three and O Clay Guita at age 40 in this lightweight division. Like, I'm here for that. That dude's a legend. And any time he can go out there and have some fun.

I'm here for it. Who knows how much longer he's going to be doing this. Although if you take him at his word, he'll be doing this in the 10 years and it's hard to doubt him at this point. So I'm here for some Clegguita action. Yes, that is always fun taking on Claudio Paius.

Again, great piece on NMA Fighting.com from the great channel Shoddy about Clay Guida, taking a stroll down memory lane of his past fights, some really good stuff. Clay Guida is just, I mean, he's a unicorn. I mean, what else can you? So we'll move on. We'll, uh,

we're going to play a fun. little game next that I just thought of at the top of my head that I figured we needed to do because there's so much happening. So the point for round three goes to maybe the new prince of positivity, Jose Young's, it is two to one. Great stuff. We know you love the thought of a vacation to Europe. But this time, why not look a little further to Dubai, a city that everyone talks about and has absolutely everything you could want from a vacation destination from world-class hotels, record-breaking skyscrapers, and epic desert adventures, to museums that showcase the future, not just the past.

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We could play the game of buyer sell this fight will happen or buy or sell. I'm actually going to watch this fight when it happens. So again, just made this decision on the fly. Gentlemen, first off, we're going to go to the world of boxing because there's been some back and forth. There's been a show me you can do this, show me you could do that set of hurdles placed on a proverbial road by Jake Paul towards former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisbing. The count has called Paul's bluff at every turn thus far. And maybe we, maybe we're on to something here.

I don't know, Jose. Buy or sell that this fight is something you would watch with great interest and also whether or not this might actually happen. Jake Paul versus Michael Bisbing in the squared circle, slinging some leather at each other. I mean, I'll watch the hell out of that build because I think Jake Paul has bitten off way more than he can chew with trying to get into a verbal sparring match with Michael

Bisbing. Like the man, like Michael Bisbing, there's a reason Michael Bisbing is a broadcaster. He's a commentator. And like, I think Michael Bisbing said it best. Like Ben Ascran is an interesting guy. He says a lot of fun.

He talks a lot of trash, but it's like you can kind of see through it. Like he's trying to build the fight. Tyron Woodley, same thing. Michael Bisbing is a witty British man who just will not back down. And like he, like every end of what he has? He's hyper self-aware of things that has happened to him. Like, Mike, like, what are you going to bring up? He has one eye.

He got knocked out by Dan Henderson. He hasn't made as much money as Jake Paul. And Michael Bisbyn's like, yeah, I know. Like, what are you going to do? It's like eight mile when when freaking Eminem's character just starts ranting and making fun of himself. And then he passes the mic over. And there's Anthony Mackie's character who's like, oh, no, what am I going to say now? And then he just quits.

That's basically what's happening right now. So I'll watch the hell out of the build because I think actually Michael Bisbing will just run circles around Jake Paul in terms of verbal sparring. In terms of the actual fight, Michael Bisving has had a lot of lot of medical issues. He's missing an eye. How many hips does he have? Or how many knees does he have? His hips are probably all walked out. He hasn't been a professional fighter since, what,

2017, 2018? We'd be fighting a significantly younger man who hits very, very hard. Will he win? I don't know. I would give Michael Bisbing a better shot than Tyron Woodley, Ben Ascran, and all these other guys. But again, it's just bizarre that Jake Paul is calling out like a 40-year-old that's not named Anderson Silva.

Because, like, that's the fight. Like I've talked to Dana White several times about this on site. He's like, why doesn't that fight just happen? Just call Anderson. They'll make that fight tomorrow. Just weird. Or, you know, just don't call out. Call what.

Is it weird? Isn't that bizarre? No, I'm saying it's. To me, this feels like exactly the guy that he's going to call out. Sure, but it's bizarre in the sense that he was on the MMA hour saying like, yeah, I'll fight Anderson Silva. And then he has the opportunity and he's not bringing it up. He's calling out like, I'm one-eyed.

man that hasn't fought in so long. So that is bizarre to me. Don't backtrack in what you said, people. It's not bizarre at all. That dude, for all of his faults, and I'm sure he has a lot, he's very good at this whole matchmaking thing. And he's very good at picking fights for himself

that, A, he knows he can win, but B, he knows you can sell. I think the Anderson fight is one, he knows B, or A, he's definitely probably not going to win. And then B, Anderson doesn't speak English and just isn't generally here for your BS. So, like, I don't know that the lead-up to that. fight would be very interesting either. It probably just be Anderson goofing around and just

all of us talking about, oh man, like Anderson's probably a style on this fool. So like, I don't know that that's really what Jake's looking for. But Mike, Mike's like one of the best trash talkers that we've ever had. Like the fans today do not understand how damn good Mike is at this whole buildup for a fight thing. Like he hasn't won a fight in I think six years at this point. You have to go back to the Hendo second fight. But man, that dude can sell a fight better than anyone. In particular now, as he's doing all his YouTube stuff, his commentary of stuff, he's just generally talking for a living rather than training for a living.

I'm sure he's even better at it, too, because he's also got that, Jose alluded to this, but he's got that old man confidence in him where it's just like, what are you going to say to Mike that's like going to get him riled up or like actually upset? Like no matter what you say to him if you're Jake Paul, like Mike is going to have an answer for it

and he's just going to laugh you off, dude. Like he's someone who's very secure at himself. He's a world champion. He accomplished every dream that. that he ever wanted to set, that he ever set out to do? Like, Mike's here for it. Is that fight going to happen? I don't think so.

Because, as we mentioned, it's a man with one eyeball, or I guess one working eye and zero working knees, who hasn't won a fight in six years and got brutally knocked out in the last time we ever saw him in the cage. So I don't know if that fight will get booked because I don't know what commission would actually hold that fight in the United States. There's always going to be someone who's going to be willing to do it. but that would be a leap for Jake Paul to make to really have to try to circumvent

some American commissions with that stuff and maybe hold it in Canada or whatever. We've already seen one of the Canadian commissions seem to come out and say they would do it. So we'll see, I don't see that fight happening though. I just don't think that logistically it's going to work out in the way that maybe Jake wants it to. But, God, the Anderson one would be fun. I really would. Just for my own personal enjoyment, I would love to see the Anderson one. If you could give me the Michael Bisping buildup and then just the Anderson Silva fight,

like that's it. Let me do that. Let me like just let Mike just be like the Paul Heyman. The manager for Anderson. Yeah. Like let him just do all the talking this entire time and then let Anderson go in and fight and we get the best of both worlds. That's the move.

Dude, that is an amazing idea. We don't, I mean, we're going to keep going with this, but Sean's clearly getting the point after dropping that nugget. But let's move to this one because we have talked about this fight and this potential matchup many, many times on this show and all of our other shows. But Sean Dana White was asked about it recently. He publicly said he liked the idea, said it made sense. Two guys that are pretty tough to lock down by themselves, let alone in the same fight.

But buy or sell this summer, the year of our Lord 2022, we see John Jones versus Steepi Mietich inside that octagon. Oh, man. Buy or sell that. It's hard for me to buy John just fighting generally. because we've been burned so many different times of them. I'm going to say bye because it feels like the time is kind of right and just feels like maybe the momentum is right for this one.

Obviously, heavyweight division's weird right now. Francis can be out for a long time. Who knows if Francis ever fights in the UFC again with what's going on with him contract-wise. So this would be the perfect interim title fight to sort of set up. I'm going to say bye because I want it to happen and also because it just does feel like at some point John's got a fight. At some point, we are going to actually see John Jones fight again. Why not this summer?

I'm saying bye. Jose, you buy and you're selling it. Sell, sell. I don't believe anything John Jones or Dana White says in terms of their fighting career. Like, how much, Sean said it. John Jones's last fight was against Dominic Gray is in February 20, like, what, 2020? Like, what do we like? It's almost, it's been more than two years since John Jones fought.

Like, fall we know something could happen to him between now, like between now and July is a lot of time for something else to happen or for other people to say something. sell it completely. Mike, what do I say all the time? What do I say, even when contracts are quote-unquote signed, what do I always say? What do I always say? It ain't official until both guys are in the cage. Bam, John Jones signs the contracts, Deepi signs the contract. I'm still not convinced it's happening.

I've been burned too many times by too many fights I've wanted to see. I sell that completely, not happening. All right, we will end in the world of boxing here, a little boxing sandwich. as we confirmed today, just a few hours ago, as a matter of fact, an eight-round exhibition boxing match is going to take place. That is not where I thought you were going. That is not where I thought this is going either. July 2nd, Manchester, England,

between Dan Hardy and Diego Sanchez. This was definitely on all of our bingo cards this year. It's a big day in the combat sports world, July 2nd. So I don't know how much buzz and attention this whole thing is going to get. But buy or sell, your interest in watching 16 potential minutes of these guys throwing 16 ounces at each other. Jose. To me, uh, by yourself this, this, like, I don't know what this fight is even going to be, man.

Like, it is, it's a fight that if you told me Dan Hardy was going to fight someone in some sort of combat sport. Diego Sanchez who would be on my short list because they've had beef in the past. They're both in that era, that generation of fighters. but it's real gross i don't particularly like it i want to know how dan hardy is physically because then you have that like what what's his heart condition called like the wolf syndrome thing like it's it's just it i have a lot of weird feelings about it um but at least it's an exhibition fight so allegedly there'll be no knockouts and this and that apparently you know i assume you can't bet on it and i'm going to watch the hell out of it at least it's eight rounds and not 12 i just feel real

Icky while making that graphic for M.M.A. Fighting Instagram page today, because again, it feels weird watching that in 2022. Sean, here we are. Diego Sanchez fighting Kevin Lee and Dan Hardy back-to-back in two different combat sports. Buy or sell? Sell. Sell. Obviously, sell. Like, Cell is the only reasonable answer here. Like, Diego Sanchez, I love Diego Sanchez. He's a legend. there is no way Diego Sanchez should be boxing right now, right? Because if you book Diego Sanchez in an MMA fight, if I'm watching, I want to see Diego wrestle

and I want to see Diego not get punched in the face a lot because he's already been punched in the face way too much over the course of way too long in his career at this point. Like that is not a man who needs extra punches in the head at this point in his life and his career. All he's going to do in this fight is get punched in the head by Dan Hardy. We haven't seen Dan Hardy in really a long time. Who knows what shape he's in, what condition is going to be in?

But I've seen Diego. I know what shape and condition Diego's in. And I do not want to see him get punched with these big gloves that disperse the weight of the blow all over, you know, all across the head and, you know, give standing eight counts and whatever. All this. Like, I just don't want to see Diego in boxing, man. That's a terrible idea for someone who is taking so, such an exorbitant amount of damage in MMA. Like sell everything about this. The fact that this is happening is gross.

I'm not into it. I'm sure I'll watch it because we're all just, you know, we're, we're, We're terrible people at the end of the day. Like, we can't get enough. So I'm sure I'll watch it. But I'm not here for it at all, and I'm very much not looking forward to it. It's the same day as UFC 276. So I don't know.

Maybe they drop this little nugget in the morning or something. I won't watch. Now I have an excuse not to watch. There you go. All right. Regulation is over. Point for round four goes to, I mean, it goes to Sean Alshaddy. He had this thing won like two minutes into the fourth round.

Still a 10-9 in the MMA scoring system of life because Jose made this very close. So that means we're going to go to the knockout round. This is where the fans, the viewing audience right now, this is where you come in and vote for the winner between Jose and Sean. We're going to have a fun little question. I just thought of it a couple of rounds ago during a hype session. So we're going to do some hyping up in this final round. Each competitor is going to get 60 seconds to hype something up. of or actually technically of their choosing.

And then we will go to you guys. And then we'll go to the E. Casey Liden who will announce the winner based on your vote. So Jose, do you want to go first? Or do you want to choose the number of the door that you will be hyping up? Oh, wow. Oh, like we're getting assigned these topics?

Yep. All right. I'll let Sean go first then. Okay. All right, Sean. You're going to be the hype man. You're going to be the manager. You're going to be the co-guy.

You're going to be the Paul Heyman, if you will, for one of these three people, maybe even a lawyer in one of these cases because I just looked at this and I just wrote these down and this is what we're going to do. So you can choose number one, two, or three. And you're going to have to hype this individual up or defend them in some way. Give me number one for D-Book. Let's go. Oh, boy, you're going to love this one, Sean. You are going to defend a man who is in the news today

and is in the news probably more than anybody in combat sports. You are here to defend the former heavyweight champion of the world. There we go. Iron Mike Tyson, one minute on the clock. Defend away, my man. Go ahead. What do I even need to defend? We all know who was in the right here.

We all saw the video. This is ridiculous that this is even a thing. And this speaks to our times where I think it's actually Iron Mike. who said something in the effect of social media has really gotten a lot of these people comfortable with the idea of talking trash and I'm in person and not getting punched in the mouth. That dude out there fucked around and found out. Sorry to swear on this program, but that's my head with you fuck around. You find out. I have never been drunk enough in my entire lifetime to be at the point where it's like, oh, there's Mike Tyson. It'd be a really great idea to just keep poking and prod and provoking him until

something happened. Like, that's craziness. And if that's where your head's at at any point in your life, you made a bunch of wrong decisions and you deserve to find out. And so that gentleman found out and I'm here for it. And I hope nothing happens to Mike because we all saw the video. And frankly, that sad boy's face after he found out was delicious. And I love every second of it. Go iron, Mike. I wish you could have done that three more times.

Well done. All right. And some extra time to spare. This is one of those things where Jose is like, damn it, I should have picked number one first before I pass on it over to Sean. But Jose, you still have some good choices and you're very good. good at this. You know how to sway people. You are a hype man after all.

So you have number two and number three to choose from. Number three. All right. I don't think. All right. Jody Reed was he number three? Oh, Babe Ruth was number three. Damn it. There you go. All right. You're there to be the hype man for the reigning, unified UFC Bannamway champion of the world. Al Jermaine Sterling.

One minute on the clock, your time starts now. I mean, does we start? All right, Algemann Sterling, for as much as people hate Al Jermaine Sterling, like he just, like, the man wins. The man wins. Like, I get what everyone's complaining,

oh, fragile champion, oh, Academy Awards, all this and that. But guess what? These individuals, before they're martial artists, before they're wrestlers, before all this stuff, they are prize fighters. I don't care what it takes

to get you to tune into a fight They're going to like, I want to hear it. Give me all of it. If it's going to be a fragile ego champion who just needs to print out fake apology cards, so be it because guess what, you're going to want to watch and fight because you might, you hate him or you love him. A lot of people hate Alza Man Sterling. Guess what? They're still going to give him his money and they're still going to buy his merch and they're still going to burn it. And guess what? He's going to wipe away all the tears, Woody Harrelson style with a whole lot of money. Then he gets to go fight TJ Dillishal, another former champion or Jose Al do. Another former champion. Or Jose Al do, another. former champion. Alzerman Sterling's stock has never been higher and he's never been more hated and that is fantastic for prize fighters. I mean, what a great job by Jose there. By the way, for full

disclosure, number two was Leon Edwards. Leon Edwards. So there we go. Tyson Sterling in the books. Go ahead and get your votes in. Tomorrow, it is Friday. We have a lot to preview on a live preview show. We have Bellator events. We got UFC events.

We got Tyson Fury versus Dillion White, which will be the fight of the weekend for sure. That's going to be like sort of the appetizer for the rest of the Saturday slate. So we're really going to start on a high note. And we'll see if these other promotions can keep up with Tyson Fury's energy and Dillion White's energy. That should be a lot of fun. And apparently Tommy Fury is fighting on this car too. So maybe Bellator is promoting this event as well. I had no idea about that until like an hour ago.

As we're killing time, I just want to say, too, about the. Mike, the Iron Mike situation. Like, Jose, I think you've talked to Mike too in the past, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like, Mike is such a sweet guy. He's such a sweet guy. He's like one of the nicest human beings I've ever met in my entire life.

Also, he's just consistently very, very stoned, which is just like the combination of being really nice and really stone. Like, you had to do something really, really just like annoying and not leave this dude alone and really push him over the edge to get him to that point because that is, like, he's a genuinely good dude these days. Yeah. Also, not for nothing. Like, let's say it's not Mike Tyson. Let's say it's random stranger.

Still don't do it. Don't be an asshole on airplanes. End of story. Airplane etiquette, man. Where is airplane etiquette these days? Brah, it's gone. Yeah. Last time I was on an airplane.

I'm in middle seat. So you know etiquette. I'm supposed to get the two armrests. We had dude on my right hogging the right armrest. Dude on my left hog in the left armrest. I almost threw hands there. It was just like, guys, come on. You need to follow the rules.

Follow the airplane rules. Do not allow. I mean, listen, airplane etiquette is a great topic, but that cannot go into the voting here, okay? Casey is on screen, which means I believe we're out tabulated here with some new headphones on.

It looks like as well. I can probably hazard a guess who's going to win this between a man defending Mike Tyson and a man defending Alzerman Stirling. Let's be real. I'm being real. Most fighters in this world, a la Alza May and Strung, said, you need to be realistic with the judging.

I understand what is coming. I'm not going to argue it. All right. I am closing the voting down right now. Oh, boy. Your winner. I need to turn out of their music off. Your winner. With 51% of the votes. Whoa. The man with the best Bobby Hill tattoo, Jose Youngs. Wow. Jose gets it done. Oh, my gosh.

That's very bizarre. 501% of the closest vote we've ever had. That's what's up. Wow. Look at that, Jose. You get a Bobby Hill tattoo and the fortunes change on BTL. Big pun has never steered me wrong since I first listening when I was 10 years old, and it continues now. Shout out to my R-I-P. big pun.

Yes. Jose, you now have 30 seconds to talk about whatever you want to talk about if you want to you want to wrap some big pun. Look, I hit my desk so hard my camera jostled. Now I'm all crooked. That's how fired up I am.

To watch Dillian White fight Tyson Fury. Everyone's talking about Tyson Fury is going to just mollywap the rest of the division. Let's not forget, Dillian, the body snatcher White, is just happened to be the fourth best heavyweight in the world for the longest time after the three

pillars of Anthony Joshua, Deonté Wilder, and Tyson Fury. I have been on record saying I think Tyson Fury is the most talented, not greatest, as interesting talent and greatness. I think Tyson Fury is the most talented heavyweight boxer I have ever seen in my life. At the same time, he took so much damage from Deonti Wilder. Three of the best heavyweight title fights I've ever seen, just, you know, rattle them off in a row, cement themselves as one of the greatest heavyweights ever. You can't keep that up for too long and then go right into a fight with Dealing

White, who is taking this so seriously. Because Dillon White has lost to Anthony Joshua and Prevechkin, who he then avenged his next fight. So let's halt this conversation now that if Dillion White does win, which I'm not saying he is, I'm going to pick Tyson Fury. But if Dillon White wins, it is not an upset. The man is a monster. The man, like, if he goes out there and just like one, two, and then body shots

Tyson Fury, wouldn't be surprised. And then all of a sudden, the man that I'm supposed to be facing this week, his parlay or whatever, is out of the, is. It's done. It's dunzo probably. So bring on whoever I have to fight next to that dork from Georgia, that pretends he's from New York and watches MMA once a week. I can mollywap him next week soon.

Wow, I love it. Sean, your thoughts on the votes here? I thought you did an incredible job. I thought you getting Mike Tyson. I mean, I thought that was a clear victory here. Yeah, I say him, honestly. My thoughts on the vote, I mean, I don't know. Come on.

I came in here with a heavy heart. I got this Devin Booker baggage just weighing over me. Jose's out here. He's already a traitor. He's rooting for the Celtics. Like, what are we talking about? He's riding high and I can't even get, the people can't even lift me up. I was really relying on the people to lift me up. Damn. And Evans in the, Ann Evans in the comment, just throwing strays. Sean won that. You can't judge these based on looks. I don't know what to do. Just get strays. I'm just a sad boy right now. I'm going to have to go wallowing my sadness for another day until the sun's, can pull me out of it. Well, I'm rooting for them to do so, Sean. We are out of here.

A lot of combat sports ahead of us over the next few days, and we're here for it, and we hope we will be as well. We very badly need a Celtic Suns final because I have a fun bet for the site with Sean that we will undertake if our teams meet in the finals. There we go. There we go. Planting some seeds. If Celtic Suns make it to the finals, the loser does a shooey outside.

the footprint center. In, in. That's what's going to happen. Let's do it. I'm there. Let's hope that happens first. Let's just do that. Let us hope that happens.

After the Charles Olivera Gatesy fight anyway. Deal. Good night, everybody. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line.

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