MMA Fighting - BTL | Alex Pereira Delivers Another Highlight At UFC 303, Lopes vs. Ige, Masvidal vs. Diaz 2

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

Alex Pereira’s rise in the UFC may be an unprecedented one for the promotion in their 26th year, and he added to his legend with a brutal second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka in the main event of UFC 303. After his second title defense of the year, should Pereira remain at 205, or make the move up to heavyweight? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel recaps Pereira’s big win, if a fight with Jon Jones for the heavyweight title should be on the table, or if Pereira remains at 205 to fight Magomed Ankalaev. Additionally, topics include the short notice co-main event between Diego Lopes and Dan Ige, other highlights from the card, Jorge Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz 2 in the boxing ring this Saturday, Michael Chandler saying he was offered a title fight against Islam Makhachev, and more, Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and Eric Jackman. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just... Speaking into the void. But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching. the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title?

See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. The Vox Media Podcast Network. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL on this. this special Tuesday edition of the program going a couple days early because obviously a big holiday week here in the U.S. with Independence Day, 4th of July on Thursday. So here we are.

We're still sort of unpacking the chaos of UFC 303. We have a rematch in the boxing ring this weekend and a whole bunch of news and notes to react to. So let's get right into it. Let us introduce the combatants first. He is Mr. No Gray area, the hot take kid, the Baron Aboop himself and the founder of the Michoud Mansion in Atlanta, Georgia, back on the program, the one and only Jed Mishu. How are you, my friend? I'm not doing great, Mike. I'm going to level with you. You know, I said, hey, are we doing it early this week?

Because at Thursday, you're like, oh, let's do it tomorrow. Great. And then overnight, things got bad. Not been a great day for Jed Mishu. Not been a great evening since one of the topics we're going to discuss. but, you know, always happy to spend some time with you. Just wish we weren't spending that time talking about Michael Chandler. But I'll try John.

Yes, I'm very excited, and I think a lot of other people are excited for that portion of the program. So stay tuned. Do not go anywhere. Jed gets to talk about Michael Chandler. But returning to the panel this week, very excited about this, the man with the best theme song in all of MMA, the social media guru for MMA fighting, and one of the talking heads on the MMA,

hour the one and only new york rick is here how's it going new york rick good to see you hi boys it's a beautiful day um i'm having a great day i'm having a great week a great life um i hope you guys are as well it sounds like jed um need some encouragement and we need to get him to wear on that uh so let's try and do that during the show let's be cordial let's be respectful let's be nice and uh get jed to exactly where i'm at yes jed do you think we can get you there today is that possible i can always be cordial, respectful, and nice with New York Rick. Because I got a lot of respect for Ricky, you know, best theme music in the game, some of the best hair in the game. Often we agree. People seem to think we disagree. We rarely do. It's just when we disagree, he's very wrong, and I'm all the

way right. And so it creates a little bit of tension there. But like 96% of the time, Rick is also on the site of very right. So I can be respectful for you guys. Alex Pereira. Everybody talking about just just that one fella who reared his ugly head yesterday and ruined my evening, frankly. It was having a lovely evening until until that happened. We're just going to build up perfectly to that moment. But let's sort of go in chronological order because UFC 303 went down this past Saturday in Las Vegas, international fight week, all the pomp and circumstance, the Hall of Fame, UFC. X, even some power slap going down in Las Vegas.

But in the end, the fans were given another brutal knockout win from Alex Poetan, Alex the Unicorn Pereira. We had unprecedented events in the co-headliner, some other standout performances. But if you were on social media on Twitter, this card had some mixed reviews as a whole in the aftermath. So let us begin with you, New York, Rick. how do you grade UFC 303 as a whole now that it's all set and done

we've had a couple of days to sort of digest it all what's my scale give me give me a baseline what am I what am I grading based on number letter whatever you want it can be one to 10 a through F you can even create your own create my own scale which has been done many times at this site and on this show and others

I'm going to go B plus UFC 303 feels like a B plus to me it wasn't what could have been potentially an A plus if it had stayed together and we actually had gotten a Connor McGregor fight and the excitement and quite frankly good business that happens around that for everybody involved

in the sport of MMA but it had moments on the undercard I'm not going to pretend that it was flawless from top to bottom but it crescendoed in the right way with the Alex Pereira versus Uri Prakaska fight and built Alex Pereira to be a star of a level that we haven't seen in quite a while. And so I think it accomplished what it needed to accomplish.

It did exactly what it needed to do, much like Ian Gary does. It did exactly what it needed to do. So I'm going to say B plus, like solid, solid performance, a little room for improvement. But considering the circumstances, a B plus is very good in this. you and I talk about this quite a bit. It's often not what happens at the beginning of the cards, but what happens at the very end? Did it leave us at the moment? Even if the rest of the card is awful, if we have a compelling ending to the night, usually that can carry the load for everything else. And on the flip side, if it's a fantastic night, but the main event is stinky,

then it creates sort of a bad taste in your mouth in the end. So with that being said, New Yorker gives UFC 3 or 3 a B plus. Are you there? Or higher? or a little bit lower where you at? It's a really good question. I think B plus isn't a wrong grade. I'll give it a little bit more, though. I think this was an A minus, right? Like it's not a full-blown A.

And this could be colored because you've talked about this already, kind of alluded to it. You guys came this week and you did the wash party at my place. And so this is, we were talking about it offline. It's actually the first time I've watched fights with somebody in several years. Because normally I'm working the, I'm working the fights. certainly paper views. I've worked every paper view for the last like seven years, functionally. So that's just me sitting at my desk. You know, I've got the fights on. I'm working,

but there aren't people around. I'm not kind of sharing it in a social space, which really is kind of how you want fights to be absorbed. It's certainly how I became a fan. And so maybe that gives a little extra, got to be here with you and Connor, kind of enjoying it as a community was nice. But I also just thought the car was pretty good. Like on paper, I gave it two stars. I maybe it didn't quite live up to what we would have hoped for given that. So we're a couple of duds here and there. But look, the early prelims were tough. There's no doubt about it.

The first four fights were real tough. But even then you get Michelle Warson Gomez's retirement. So there's at least a story that happens out there. Then the middle prelims are great, man. Like Andre Filly-Cub Swanson was a heck of a fight and the rest of them were finishes. A lot of prospects showing up in big ways. And the main card, again, maybe a little underwhelming. what it could have been,

but I think we all thought MVP Gary wouldn't be that compelling of a fight and it kind of played out that way. The women's band and white fight was actually really fun and then it ended, you know, inauspiciously, I suppose. The whatever, ever, I was pretty sure that Deleidze Smith fight

was going to be terrible because a fight shouldn't happen, but whatever. And then you get the dope, like the co-main insanity and the main event happening in the way that it did and kind of the conversations from there. I think we left the evening feeling great, and we left the evening with something to talk about for years.

This is not a pay-per-view like 301. We'll just kind of forget. For the rest of my time in MMA fandom, I'm going to talk about what happened in the co-main event and how that unfolded. So I think this is an A-minus card. Like, this is a memorable, good fight card that I had a hell of a time watching.

You made some very interesting points there. I see a lot of people in the comments section. They're grading it a little bit lower than you guys. but I think a big reason why we're over the top and we talked about this a little bit earlier is that what happened in the end of the night. Alex Pereira, Yuri Parashka, all the craziness involved in getting that fight on the books.

It was a rematch. All the talk about spirituality and cheating and all that stuff and the build to the card. And then Alex knocks him down at the end of round one and then his seconds into round two. He kicks him in the face and gets the brutal knockout. And the story of Alex Pereira continues on. So, Jed, I want to go back to you because we have seen some meteoric rises in this sport.

We saw it from Connor McGregor, see it with guys like John Jones, even Hamza Chamaif and certain other folks as well. But at least when you look at all these other names that we dropped, there's some negativity surrounding them. There's questions. There's, especially with Connor, like he was the biggest star in the history of the sport, but it was like, oh, what if he fights a wrestler? Oh, what if he does this? There was a lot of positivity, a lot of hype, but then a lot of negativity around it. Prayer is a freaking unicorn right now. Dude was on the wrong end of the knockout of the year last year.

Somehow comes back, becomes the light heavyweight champion by the end of 2023, knocks out Jamal Hill in brutal fashion, knocks out Yuri Perashka in brutal fashion, saving two main events, two of the biggest cards of the year. And now there's talks about him, maybe going up to heavyweight and fighting John Jones. and we'll talk about that a little bit later on. But is there anything comparable to what Alex Pereira is doing right now? I mean, it is hard to draw anything, even an indirect comparison. There's no direct comparison in the sport of MMA to what is happening right now.

In part, just because, like, again, what is the math on that? Like 14 months ago, 15 months ago, he was knocked out in the, the knockout of the year, the knockout of the year. And from that moment in time, he made it, had a good case. I did not vote for him. I know Rick disagrees vehemently with him on it. Had a compelling case to be the fighter of the year that year. Is odds on favor at this moment in time to be the fighter of the year.

Has headlined at Madison Square Garden, UFC 300, and now International Fight Week, is the first dude to defend the light heavyweight title like multiple times since John Jones is bringing some stability to this weight class that's been in flux forever at this point it feels like and continues to develop into like this world beating star at the age of 36 years old doing all of this at his age is the other part of it that kind of gets said without being said He came into the game late. It's 36 years old. People don't have star turns this late into their career.

And so, like, he is genuinely a remarkable fighter. And I'm really happy to be a part of this journey to get to, you know, sit here and watch it. Even though, coming up in just a minute, I'm sure we're going to talk about things that people won't like with my opinion regarding Alex Pereira. New York, Rick, I mean, you've been on the Alex Pereira train for a long time. I know Ariel talked about it on the show with you yesterday. but it's just wild man like everything we talked about plus

a little bit of English but very very little and he doesn't really need it because just the aura around him is just unbelievable from the walkout to just the stare everything him and your day the dude is getting ready to fight on two and a half weeks

notice defend his title in the main event of International Fight Week and rather than sitting there and sort of reflecting and getting ready for the fight mentally he's in the back with Plinyo and no and they're like the friggin temptations back there. It's unbelievable. They're just dancing around and having a great time.

There's just something about this guy that just resonates with fans and just the MMA community in general. Have you ever seen anything like this? I talked to Dean Thomas yesterday. He said the only thing he could really think of in terms of comparisons. And it's only from a fighting standpoint when a guy bursts onto the scene like he has is BJ Penn because he was on the wrong end of one of the knockouts early on. B.J. Penn comes into the UFC at like 1 and 0,

and then just starts knocking out these people left and right. And this is sort of what Alex Pereira is doing now. That was the only somewhat comparison he could make. Can you make any sort of comparison to what Alex Pereira is doing right now? No. And to the point that Jed made earlier, it's because of like how advanced in the stage in his career he is. A guy like BJ Penn is his nickname is the prodigy.

What he did on the jiu-jitsu, in the American jujitsu scene as a black belt, put him in a class of people knowing that when he breaks into the scene, he's going to be special. What Connor McGregor did when he was at Cage Warriors becoming a double champion, people knew if he got the opportunity,

he would be able to capitalize on it. Alex Pereira was like a middling kickboxer at the very beginning of his glory run. Like he was a better boxer than kickboxer. And by the end of it was a double champion. So the story of that, glory run was like, wow, did not see that coming. Beating a guy in Artem Bakitav, who is a legit, like, killer at light heavyweight,

people kind of did not see that coming from Alex Perrer. He had the longevity and lasted long enough that, like, he developed into quite a tremendous kickboxer. And then he comes over to the UFC and does the same thing. He comes in and there's people wanting to see him against wrestlers and thinking he's going to falter at the first sign of a takedown. And he's just here because Izzy's, I mean, how badly has the, like, he's just here. as fodder for Izzy aged at this point.

But not, I mean, that was right though. He was there for that. He just said, F, those plans. Right. It's, I'm not arguing against the idea that. The UFC brought him in for that. He was here to kick over Apple Carts and burn this bitch down. Yeah, the key there is the fodder part.

Not necessarily that he got the opportunity because of who he was. He certainly got it because of Izzy, but he was not there to be Izzy stepping. So when he was not there to be a footnote for Israel to Sonia, he was there to be great and he has become great. And so that has been the story. I think the thing that you talked about in terms of him connecting with fans is kind of the most important part because the story, like for the last 10 years, the thing in marketing has been like genuine storytelling, authenticity to the point that it became completely convoluted and everything was no longer genuine, right? They were manufacturing the quote unquote genuine storytelling and the authenticity. he is he harkens back to a time before that where being yourself being authentic being true

and not trying to hard um in terms of trying to make it in trying to impress people and just being yourself um and it connects it connects with people in a way that he doesn't need to speak english it translates in a way that he does not need to speak english in the moments that he does um it hits pretty hard and the team around him has built this system where all he needs to do is be the kind of goofy guy who randomly changes tires on the side of the road shows up and puts people in the dirt and it's working perfectly. And I don't know if the, you know, how much the UFC has a hand in that. I would probably argue it's more on Alex Perr-a-side and his team side.

But the authenticity, the effortlessness, everything about him is endearing him with fans. and he is matching the performances with that. And I can't think of a close comparison, to be truly honest with you. And just things are falling in his favor. Like, you don't really see this in MMA. It's almost, I'm not going to say it's luck, but there are definitely examples of him just falling into opportunities, but taking full advantage of them.

It's incredible. Like, really, everything's just sort of breaking his way, despite getting knocked up by Izzy last year. I know it's cliche, but he creates his luck. by being who he is, by being ready for these opportunities, by not, you know, hemming and hawing when presented an opportunity. He's, he's at the, he's at the craps table and he just keeps rolling. He, he is not somebody who's going to walk away.

So, yeah, I believe he creates his own luck to a certain extent, even though that's pretty trite. No, but that's, that's true. And like, so the BJ comparison isn't wrong. I think that it misses more than it hits just because of the difference in parts of them. BJ entered the UFC at 23 and like Eric said, we all knew. Like everyone at the,

I say we, I was not like deeply invested in the fandom at that point. But like everyone knew, this guy's the prodigy's going to come in here and his debut as an immediate knockout. Like he's just, everyone was pretty on board with him immediately. Look,

I distinctly remember, being like, I'm not sure after the first round with Andreas Michelitis being like, I don't think this was a good match. This BG Blackbell is just taking him down. Like, we all know what we're trying to accomplish here and look at him. And, you know, that was three years ago, ever at this point in time. This is, he defies any comparisons we have. Like, Connor is the only kind of one because Connor did get a little bit of the fast track,

favorable start here and fought really frequently. and became a star, but obviously it's not the same. Like, they're very, very different in how they go about business, etc. So he is forging his own path and it's awesome. It's super fun. Gentlemen, you had quite the debate on Saturday on the Post-Fite show about what we're going to talk about right now, but a few days have passed. We've heard from a few more people about this topic.

So maybe things have changed. So I want to present this in a little bit of a different way. And New York, I'll begin with you. Sure. If you are Alex Pereira's advisor right now, if you're the man who makes a decision, for him, you try to talk him into things. What are you telling him to do right now? And is it the same answer as what you want to see next for Alex Pereira?

Is it staying at 205, just trying to rattle off defenses? Are we just going right for John Jones? Are we just starting the John Jones campaign right this second? What are we doing here if you had the choice? The two things align. What I would want for him is the same as what I would advise him to do, which is to start calling out the John Jones's of, the world to start calling out the Tom Aspinall's of the world to start calling out the

cyril Gons of the world. I think a Cyril Ghan Paris matchup with Alice Pereira could be something tasty. And then fall gently back onto a Magamad Ankaliev fight if those options do not become available. But as you've pointed out, right, things tend to break in his favor. And if he is calling for those matchups and it breaks in his favor, I think that's a big opportunity. So that's what I would do. I would start mentioning those names and then land very softly back on a light heavyweight title defense should I fall short of that goal. Jed, you are now the advisor for Alex Pereira. UFC calls you and says, Jed, what should be next for Alex? What would you like just to try to put together for him?

What are you telling the UFC right now? So first credit to you is a great way to frame this question because it kind of puts me on my heels a little bit. I have to change what my answer would have been. Because if I am, I actually agree in principle with much of what Rick said. If I am Alex Pereira's advisor, if he's coming to me and been like, hey,

putting my career in your hands, you got to tell me what to do. How do we do this? Objectively, the correct answer is try and get a fight with John Jones. Like that is, that is prize fighting proper, right? Because we've,

I mean, basically we've seen Connor open the doors here to this, but the goal is to get the biggest reward with the least risk. And sure, there is risk in fighting John Jones. But if you somehow get to slide into the Madison Square Garden main event against heavyweight champion John Jones, there's no, like if you lose, no one will think less of you or be sad and by like, hey, he dared to be great. Tell me, I hate that phrase. And, And if you win, you're the guy who beat John Jones in Madison Square Garden became the first ever three division champion. Suddenly, you have like a legitimate case to being the greatest fighter of all time despite getting knocked black cold 18 months ago.

Like objectively, if that, like if you can wave a magic wand and make something happen, that's the outcome to make happen is fighting John Jones and Madison Square Garden. A lot of impediments in that. But yes, that's how we want to go. Secondarily, I also agree that it's probably objectively true to do the same thing with Tom Aspinall. If Tom Aspinall beats Curtis Blades at 304 and you can fight Tom Aspinall later this year for an interim heavyweight championship, yeah, because then you'll be, even though it's an interim, you're the first three division champion if you win. And maybe that does set up a fight with John Jones after he beats the old retired firefighter later this year. Like those are objectively the prize fighting goals to have. They are in no way what I personally would like to see, but that's it.

Where I disagree with Rick, I don't understand where this has come from because it's not just Rick. There has been a growing momentum, certainly Ariel on the M.M.A. hour you guys are talking about it. Why in the name of God do any of us care to watch Alex Prair or fight Cyril Gahn at heavyweight? I'm not saying the fight itself, just itself, excluding every other part of it. I wouldn't watch. I'll watch Alex Prairie fight a broomstick. But do we look back on Anderson Silva's career and go,

you know what the fight is that I think about and that really, really digs it in for me? It's the James Irvin fight. No, who gives a shit if he fights random heavyweight? No one. It is a useless, meaningless fight. If you are not going to get the belt, then don't do it.

Because if you're not going to get the belt, fight magma and colia. That can be the third option here. But fighting Cyril Gahn in Paris is not, that's a terrible option. Because then if you lose, it sucks. It's not, you didn't lose daring to be great. You lost a Cyril Ghan, which is a respectable loss in like objective terms. But in the subjective terms of we all, you know, are hoping you get to be a triple champ, that just blows.

You took the triple champ off the table for nothing, for no real game. So no, that's where me and Rick differed. The other two 100%. John Jones is the Apex moon. That's the moon you're shooting for. Tom Aspinall is secondary. And then after that, go to Magna Ankleyev, because I think that's an amazing fight. And you're already the first dude since John Jones to defend the title multiple times.

You put one or two more up and you got a real case to being the second greatest light everyweight ever, which is a really significant part of any MMA legacy. So that's how I would advise him. I would give him that speech exactly. Rick, go ahead. I will keep it brief and simple. It's just the step before the step. It's an acknowledgement of I'm here at heavyweight in a fight that I think is favorable for him.

Like I think it's a decent matchup rather than jumping straight into the title to see how he feels at heavyweight, actually get his legs under him, and then make the title run. And if he's able to successfully defeat Cyril Gan, man, the hype around the potential. Alex versus Tom or Alex versus John match would just be through the roof. If he falls, if he falls short, if he falters, go back to light heavyweight and defend your belt. They're like it's, it's, it's no risk. If he falters, then, then the heavyweight thing is dead. Like, that's just done dead.

Never again. Like for nothing. For no upside and a big downside. That's not good career management. It's a risk. I just don't think. I think it's a risk without upside. That's why like I totally get the fight for the title.

I don't like it, but I absolutely get it. Cyril Ghan or Volkov or whoever, like that, those are. No, no, not Volko. Horrifically bad career management choices, in my opinion. I think Cyril Gond is, let me not be disrespectful. Yeah, I like the Serul Gond fight. I think it's a good fight. And I think it would be, it would amplify the momentum in a very like,

undoubtable and impossible to ignore way. Do you think it... Legitimate question. Do you think it amplifies it more than beating Magman Ankylaev, the guy who ostensibly people believe is the threat to you at light heavyweight? Well, yes, because the move is for the heavyweight, right? Like the end goal is the heavyweight no matter what. Like...

Yeah, but like, if Alexander Volcanowski bumped up and beat Jalen Turner before fighting Islam, do you think that that would have been like, yes. I don't know. I wouldn't compare Cyril gone and Jalen Turner in terms of like. They're both tall and can't wrestle. It's a perfect comparison. Stylistically, yes, but not in terms of status. Not in terms of where they are in the UFC.

I just wanted to know time out. That was set up. I knew that Eric would be like, they're not the same. And I just had that punchline ready to go. I'm going to go back to I will not be disrespectful. and just go like this to you. But no, I feel like it has some, it has some value. It will, it will say, oh, S, this guy is, is possibly a heavy, can possibly compete at heavyweight.

And Tom and John are in trouble. That would be the, that would be the sentiment. I'm, I'm, I'm with you. There's a risk involved in that, in that scenario. I think it's a calculated risk based on the idea that, like, Tom and John are hard to get like if I'm Tom I don't know if I take the Alex fight that feels like a risk on Tom side. If I'm John, I don't know if I take it until the noise is just too much to ignore. Although I will say to a point I believe you made last week, he has nodded more in the direction of Alex.

And that's a better matchup for him than he has nodded in the direction of Tom. So maybe you could you could convince John. So either way, my goal is it's in order. John, Tom, and Cyril, and Cyril is definitely third on that list. I would be shooting for the title if I could. See, I, you could maybe sell me on like Jailton Almeida. Cyril is like, I get what you're arguing. And certainly many people may agree with you.

I can't speak to that. But like him going up and beating Cyril is just like, yeah, dope, you beat Sean Strickland. Like, this was a very good matchup for you. That will be minimally reflective of what I've, fight with Tom or John would look like. If you go up and beat Jailton Alameda, I'd be like, oh shit. Tom and John are fucked. Like if you go beat Jailton and his fire and doubles at you, but Cyril is just not

going to fight in the way Tom or John are going to fight. Totally. It's not an instructive fight. I think you're flying too close to the sun, though. I think you're flying too close to the sun. I'm thinking of the fan who isn't X's and O's and doesn't really like think like that. And once he goes to the same way. John beat Cyril gone and is, oh my God,

John Jones, the heavyweight champion, the thing that you were trying to erase. Yeah, the thing that you were trying to erase happens. That's reality. And so that's the angle for it. But I certainly agree with you. Him beating Cyril gone does not do anything for me in terms of what I think he will match up against Tom Aspinall or John Jones.

Let me ask one last question because I'm truly curious. I think I know the answer, but let's say there's a man who could, jack up half of these plans. Let's say old Kurti B just gets it done over Tom Aspinall later this month. Where's Curtis Blades fall in the list of

I like Alex Pereira completely off the list. I got to tell you there's no fight I want less for Pereira. Not on the list. The interest in that does not exist. John John. Heard's going to jack up

everything in the world. I like Curtis. I like Curtis a lot. I've been saying for years, you had a real chance to be a heavyweight champion. I have to root against it because it will not only screw up so many plans, John Jones would be insufferable. And I'm not here for that. Well, the best part of Curtis is he acknowledges that.

He's like, look, if I win, I don't think John is going to fight me. What's the upside? I don't think he's going to fight me. Zero percent chance. I also like Curtis. I also like Curtis. Yes. Do the right thing, Curtis.

Great round. Great round. We'll move on to the rest of the rest of it. of UFC 303, but the point for Realm 1 goes to Jedmishu. I mean, I mean... I love that music. That's fun music. Isn't that nice? That was really loud.

I was not ready for it to be as loud as it was. Good stuff. It pamp me up a little bit. Found that one yesterday. Casey, obviously not here. Very busy man. Could not make it. So we're trying to do multiple things at once here. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Roscoe Cadulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,

but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Roscoe Cadulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity. memory and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible.

Defenders and cybersecurity are always there when we need them. They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve everything. AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more. DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information.

Let's move on to the rest of UFC 303. Let's talk about something that obviously we discussed earlier what made UFC 303 stand out, the unprecedented nature of the coal main event, because we're watching the prelip. are getting ready to watch Joe Pfeiffer go in there and fight Mark Andre burial. And then we find out that Diego Lopez, who is scheduled to fight Brian Ortega, which was originally slated as a featherway fight, became a lightweight fight. He's no longer fighting Brian Ortega. We started to see the rumblings, the rumor mill.

We started to see everything sort of come together that Diego Lopez could be fighting Dan Ege on just hours notice, something we've never seen before in the co-made of a UFC 303. in the way that the ESPN broadcast team, the UFC production team put it all together, is absolutely incredible. Danny Ege steps in. They do a 165 pound catchweight fight.

Diego Lopez wins the matchup, and everybody sort of wins. Danny Gay's stock rises tremendously. Diego Lopez's stock rises tremendously. Worked out for everybody. But we learned a little bit more about the situation on the MMA hour yesterday. Eric Nixick, coach extraordinaire, jumps on

and starts telling the story about how this all comes together. Actually, gets a phone call from, Jeff Mullins, who is the, I believe, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission. And Jeff was basically like, hey, man, can he fight? Can Dan Igay get in there and fight tonight? And Eric Nixick basically said, this guy's like a son to me, and I would never, ever put him in a position to get hurt or get injured or be in any kind of danger. And the way Eric Nixick presented this case to Jeff Mullins, Jeff said, all right, cool, we're going to go ahead and do this fight. And then to hear Eric tell the story, once he got Jeff.

Jeff's approval, they had to go to the governor to sign off on this. It just makes the story even crazier. So, Jed, let's begin with you. This is already insane to begin with. All of this, we've never seen anything like it before. But now hearing Eric sort of tell more of an inside scoopy part of the story about how they had to get the governor sign off it, how Eric's words essentially sold Jeff Mullins on putting this fight together, and then ultimately what we got on Saturday.

What was your reaction to everything? I mean, the reaction was the same as everyone's. That can't be happening. Right. Like, when I got announced, like, we were here in my house. And I was like, guys, is, is he about to step in and fight Diego Lopez? And I think Connor was like, no, that, no, no, that can't be. They, they, Diego Lopez sent out the tweet with the cart or the South Park image of, um, the wheelbarrow with the stuff in it.

And Connor was like, no, no, he was just sending that out because, you know, all the stuff he's had to deal with on Fight Week. And then like 10 minutes later, you know, we got some posts in the Slack. And it's like, actually, this is real. This is really happening. We didn't believe it could happen that this didn't make sense. And then the fact that it does that Danny Gay wasn't even like a dude who was cornering another fighter and he's backstage and like, hey, I'm game. Let's get after me. He was just sitting at home.

We were just hanging out. Like he's probably, you know, getting a massage, probably going to get a pizza and watch the fights. And nope, like, all right. Bet it was an insane thing to pull together. I am still truly unsure why they even did it. It is not like they needed to do it. They could have just as easily been like, hey, we're bumping up Peyton Talbot to the main card. I don't actually know if that time frame would work.

But, hey, you know, we're going to bump up a separate fight to the fifth fight. and Joe Piper is no longer the prelim he's on the main card. But for whatever reason, they dug in 10 toes and we're like, all right, let's do this. Let's figure out a way to keep Diego Lopez competing tonight. However, by hook or by crook, they get it done. I'm still not confident. This shouldn't have happened.

I guess let me say that. This objectively should not have occurred because this is how, like, people die. Because you bootstrap something super quickly, you fast track medicals, et cetera, et cetera. And then, oh, we rushed through this thing to get it done in three hours and we overlook something. And then all of the bad outcomes occur and suddenly we have a catastrophe. Like, objectively, this shouldn't happen.

And there are reasons that it doesn't. But when it does happen, it's cool. You know, like it's pretty damn sick. So this is awesome. The fight is secondary. The fight was great. I saw some people earlier in the comments being like, there was only one good fight on this main card.

That's insane. The co-main of it was a very competitive, exciting fight, particularly given the circumstances. And my major takeaway is not wins, losses, none of that. It is both of these men, but in particular, Dan Igay, they deserve an IOU from the UFC. A, no questions asked, got to fulfill it, write your own ticket, up to a get out of jail free card, up to and including

anything but a title fight. Whatever Danny Gay wants next, it does not matter. As long as it is not a title fight, that man should get it. The same for Diego Lopez, because this fight could have fallen apart. He could have said, you know what, it's already been screwed enough week. He said, I'm game, bet. Danny Gay shows up, does it? Let these two dudes pick their, next thing because it's the only way that they can get properly compensated for this because they're not going to go in the Hall of Fame. This is probably not going to be a thing we remember forever, but it deserves something of significance and the best I can come up with is a free pass for whatever they want next. Jed says, let's give them a hall pass to you, Rick. Let's give them

everything up into a title fight. Maybe we get a Dan Igay versus Alexander Volcanowski fight at the sphere. Who the hell knows at this point? But after hearing Eric, sort of describe New York, how this all came together from his perspective. What are your thoughts on it? I mean, it was already insane on Saturday, but then hearing how far they had to go to make this happen. It's pretty wild. Yeah, wild, but I was glad to at least see that level of concern, right? Like, I'm glad that there were that many high-ranking officials, at least involved in the conversation.

I think Jed makes a great point, and I think this does open the door to potentially some things that could be dicey. But to be honest, my expectations for the level of care and concern for safety and MMA are kind of low. Like, I was just glad to see even this level. I was glad to see that there was at least conversations being had about the readiness of the fighters and making sure that the weights were on point and that the medicals were at least up to date based on the requirements. I was heartened a little bit to see that at least there was some care gone into this decision because it wasn't so long ago that Dana, White was trying to bail Jeremy Stevens out of jail to come fight. Like, this was professional to the, to the degree that it could be. Because let's be honest, like, it's not great to be asking somebody to get off their

couch and get into a fist fight. But if you're going to do it, make sure it's Dan Igay and make sure his coach is Eric Nixick and make sure the fighter that he's competing against his Diego Lopez. It was kind of this perfect storm of the right people involved in the scenario. And so we got a great fight out of it. Will it happen in the future again? I don't know, but I think Jed's right to have some concern about what it opened the door to if we do have that scenario again. But if we do, I would hope that the people involved have the level of concern and care that they did in this scenario.

Because I think it worked out well and was impressive. But absolutely crazy. Like, as you guys have already said, I was sitting there stunned that this was real. that like once I saw Dan Ege and Eric Nixick and then eventually like Ali Abdelaziz and all these people tweeting about it and Jason House and all these people tweeting about it I was like this is either the best like coordinated prank that's ever been pulled or Dan I gay is going to get off the couch and fight somebody and I couldn't believe it but all told well done well done to everybody involved yeah be a hell of a 30 for 30 just why

watching UFC 303 getting pieced together over the weeks. They thought they were done, putting us all together. And then everything happened Saturday night. And we had to switch the co-main event on three hours notice. It's pretty freaking crazy. Also, two things. One, shout out to the production team. I don't give the UC a lot of credit for a lot of things.

And I don't care. But turning around that in that span of time, if you've worked in media, that's a big ass. And they did it. They got the graphics up. They did everything set on just a couple hours notice. shout out to them for that. I just want to,

somebody asked in the comments why I would give I gay more credit than Lopez. It would be really clear. Diego Lopez deserves credit. Like I said, give him the pass, you know. I do, you know, like, I get a little bit more. Like, he just gets a little bit of sprinkles on top here

because while it would be insane, like it is still insane, Diego Lopez was at least preparing to fight on that evening. That he was ready to fight a human being, that Saturday night, whereas Danigay was getting a massage and not thinking about fist fighting someone later that night. And so there's literally zero people on earth who would have looked at Danigay on the massage table, being like, hey, you want to fight someone in four hours and be like, no, I don't want to do.

No one would judge him for that, nor should they. But like the fact that he was like, yeah, game. I am super game. It is a little bit different. And Diego Lopez, I think it's fair to say, would have done the same if the roles were reversed, but they weren't. And so the situation gives Danige just a little bit extra shine

because of circumstances. Fair. Now let's move on to some of the rest of the moments that happened on the card. So Rick, I want to start with you because we do this from time to time on the program. If you go to a NHL game live or if you play an NHL video game, they always do the three stars, right? these there's the third star the second star and then the first star is like the dude who stole

the show now you can do this however you want you could do it ascending descending descending however you want but low key outside of the main event and the co-main event who are the low key three stars of ufc 303 in your eyes new york rick i'm going to start in ascending order i'm going to start with the low the one star um loch dog venetius olivera that dude that dude is incredible like his whole ufc run has just been absolutely magical for me. And what a performance against Ricky Simone. And then the call out of Umar Nirmagamedov in English on the mic afterwards, like he's

just been acing it. It's probably flying a little under the radar. So I'm trying to throw that out there for some love for Loke Dogg. The dude is incredible to watch and he talks that goodish and I'm really excited about him. So low key, definitely Lop Dog. Number two, spiritual forces. spiritual forces was the second um just an incredible performance by spiritual forces at ufc 303 from how much attention

spiritual forces got in the lead up um from delivering the success of alex perera spiritual forces and then lastly my my top star is uh michael chanler michael chanler made a commitment to all of us and he said he was going to show up for ufc 303 and you know what what that man did, he showed up for UFC 303. Man of his word, integrity in spades, and he was there. Who wasn't there? Connor McGregor. He made a commitment and he wasn't there. Michael Chandler, he was there. UFC 303. Michael Chandler is my top star of USC 303. Wow. I mean, he is a man of his word. We were told not to disrespect him by feeling bad for him, Jednooshu. So a very interesting point. I did not expect two out of those three, Jed Bishu.

I love the Venetius Oliver call. That was wonderful. Jed, are you in agreement here? Is spiritual forces in the top three? Is Michael Chandler in your top three? Neither of them are in my top three. And Venetius Olivares not in my top three as well. So I'm going to go in descending order.

I'm going to start at the top. And I just say it, I did not include Peyton Talbot because I kind of thought that he had too much shine for this to be low key. You know, he's on the MMA hour. It feels like people are really behind him. But like unbelievable performance. So my top, my number one guy is my guy. Gene Silva, John Silva, just dope.

Like that was, look, this, I've been really high on this guy. He's one of my highest graded prospects coming off the contender series. This last iteration has a couple of good performances already. And now it comes in here. And Charles Jordan is. a respected veteran. This fight was a pickum fight. He was not supposed to run over him.

And buddy, he clubbed Jordan around that cage. Like, it was batting practice out there. He trying to think, it was the naked gambler on Twitter, who's a MMA guy in the MMA community said something during the fight.

He was like, I don't know who this Gene Silver dude is, but he can hit. Because he carries himself like a dude who knows that when he touches you, you don't feel it. And that is exactly who he is. And Charles Jordane felt it. And then he got the Tim Boch, like hockey uppercuts to finish this thing off.

It was Chef's Kiss. That dude, nobody's talking about him coming off this card. And I get it. A lot of other storylines, not like the highest thing. I love this guy. This guy's going to get ranked. This guy's a dark horse contender to make a run towards at least a title shot, you know, coming at 145, even with the weight miss.

And great excuse. Fell down the stairs is one of, it's an all-timer, an excuse for why I missed weight. Terrific all around, Jean-Silva. Number two, another prospect, wildly high on race, Ruea. Kids are 22 years old, like, you know,

junior Olympian wrestler, hit some really awesome stuff on Carlos Hernandez, who's like a tough fight, tough out. Japanese MMA, just in general, on the come-up right now, like a lot of high, high-end prospects. And now flyweight's got two of them.

Two dudes under 25 who look like they are the real deal, Holyfield. You don't know, just stay with it. Race through, he'd go in places. And number three, the lowest, come on. You knew this was coming, Mike. I had to shout out to my guy. You're all of our guys.

Andrea Olavski. Should have beaten Martin's die. Let's just get that out right out of the way. Robbed on the cards, robbed on the judge's score cards. More importantly, though, afterwards, Dana White comes out, says his contract's up with us. He fought out his contract. 42 fights in the UFC second all time behind Jim Miller. Mike, I compiled a couple of important stats for us.

Just to remember this man, who says he's still fighting? He put out a message saying, you know, this chapter with the UFC is done, but my story lives on. Love to see that. Join the UFC in 2000, the year 2000. was on Jarolovsky's first. 24 years of service before the mast. This man was in the UFC pre-9-11, if that is even comprehensible.

He was in the UFC pre-ZUFA. He predates Dana White's role in the UFC. This man, when he joined the UFC, ladies and gentlemen, there were three weight classes. Three of them. Only three of them. There wasn't a lightweight division

with a champion. There was welterweight, there was light heavyweight, and there was heavyweight. And at the time, light heavyweight had just been changed from being called middleweight

and welterweight was called light weight. He joined the UFC on the same night Randy Gattour started his second heavyweight title run. It is incomprehensible how long this man existed in this promotion.

And we're never going to see it again. There will never be a fighter who spends 24 years in a promotion, give or take. It is unbelievable. Shout out to my guy. The true goat, the pit bull, Andreelowski. One thing that you said about Andrea Lovsky over the past few days, Jed, he might actually be the best prize.

Great prize part of all time. Okay. Come on. Come on. He is, though, Rick. Stop. I don't know. Remember, so we looked this up on onto the next one on Sunday.

Just because I had to take a gander at this. Florida, for the newer fans, used to disclose fighter pay. They used to disclose fighter pay. And when the UFC was going through the pandemic era, and they went to Jacksonville and they had the little residency there, Andreelofsky competed on one of the first COVID cards in Jacksonville. You know how much money he made for that fight? $325,000.

And he ain't making any less than that for any of the other fights he competed in. So basically, he just went out there for the most part, had 15 minute decision fights. Yeah, he got finished a couple times. 11 fights since then. And made over a, yeah, and made over a quarter mill for every single one of those fights. And probably re-signed at some point since he had 11 fights since then

and probably was making close to a half a mill. That's pretty damn good, New York, Rick, for a guy that wasn't ranked and wasn't climbing the ranks and had no chance of fighting for a world title. It's tremendous. The greatest grift in the world. Rick, I, he's a great grift. He will never be able to prove this.

We will never be able to prove this. There is a legitimate case that he made more money in the UFC than any other fighter excluding pay-per-view points. Just because the longevity plus the pay scale. Yeah, Connor makes more per fight by a lot. Conner's fault once in the last four years. And that was still enough, by the way. It is, but like, Connor's also a headlining event.

this dude was getting 300 grand to have awful clinch fest with Waldo Cortez-A-Costa and Martin Boudi on the prelims. Like he is one of the greatest bag getters in the history of the sport in this company. And it is, you just, you just got to respect it, you know? I respect the grift. You cannot put him in the, in the category of best prize fighter. It is just impossible to outdo. Alex Pereira just made that purse as a bonus.

Like, it's just not, we're, we're, we're, it's not those, it's not the same. A one time bonus. A one time bonus. And then on top of this. Andre has been making that purse for seven years. Yeah. I can't, I can't get there guys. I love you.

And he got paid 350 grand to fight Jared Bandra. I love, man. I love the like, you know, checkered vans, hipster, uh, like how, how hipster this take is. I love it. I respect it. I respect Andre Arlowski's grip. It's just not. It's just not happening. No fighter got paid more to fight worse people. Okay. I can go with that. I can go with the best grifter. I can't. No, I can't. Pale Sonin's definition of prize fighting is to get paid the most money to fight the worst dude. Yeah. Um, can't get there. Andre lived that truth. Yeah. No, I can't do it. Um, as far as your list goes, really, really impressive list. I enjoyed that, uh, quite a bit. Um, um, I enjoyed that, uh, quite a bit.

it's cute it's great respect to arlovsky but you can't um you can't top a man who showed up to ufc 303 and got a lightweight title shot on the back of it um so yeah it's it's just not full corner sports makes a great point andre elovsky made an estimated five million since covid uh that's top notch for being a guy who never left the prelims no doubt no fighter will ever make more money fighting exclusively on prelimbs this man is setting also Of course of records. I totally agree. Alex Perr probably made that for this fight,

but I totally agree with the, the Griff part. I love him. Just what a huge. Shout out to his management team, too, for putting this all together. First round management did a hell of a job with this whole situation.

If I was first round management, I would not sell myself. I would just be like, here's, why should you sign with us? Exhibit A. Andre, please step forward. Yep, that's all we need. That's all we need.

Oh, man. All right. That was UFC 303. We have some, there is no UFC this weekend, but we do have some fights coming up this weekend. And we're going to discuss that right now. Point for round two goes to. I know I can't win it,

but I had to do right by my guy. Here, Rick. I understand. This is my last chance to talk about Andreelowski. We're never going to talk about him again. Maybe not. He's going to fight. He's going to headline like a BKFC show,

and we're going to be raving about him. No, no, because BKFC, you have to punch. people and he's not he's not into that that's not he's not doing that oh man well he maybe maybe ends up on like a jake paul boxing card or something i know that's still punching people but it's so dumb i would pay you so much money to watch andre lesky boxed box jack ball it is so stupid i don't i would i would pay so much money to watch hondrellaski box shit okay i did i did not expect that take to come out at all, Jed.

And usually I expect all takes to come out. Did not see that coming. Well, we got boxing this weekend, everybody. And it's not a boxing match. We probably planned on seeing, if you asked us about this 18 months ago. But the rematch from UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden for the original BMF title,

the rematch happening in the boxing ring, 10 rounds this Saturday in California, IA. It will be Nick Diaz versus Jorge Mazudal too. We've had multiple dates. We've had multiple press conferences. And now it is fight week. I think media workouts are later on today. And they were going to have press conferences and a whole bunch of craziness going on over the next several days leading into this fight. So I'll start with you, New York, Rick. One to ten, how excited are you? Where's your excitement levels at for this? What are your intrigue levels at however you want to grade it it's up to you but are you are you jazzed for this i guess

is the question yeah i'm not super amped it's one of those fights between mama guys that just like should be an mhm a the boxing the the mhm guys doing boxing just doesn't like do it for me to a high degree i i like masvital and dyes as as a pairing um five six maybe like and maybe i'm being too generous. Like, I care about it from the idea that like Jorge Mazvedal and Nate Diaz are names that are still going to be around our circles and talked about whether it be in boxing, whether it be in MMA. Like, these are not guys who are going to go away after this fight. And so the relevance of at least seeing them compete in order to work toward something that I'm potentially more interested in is at least appealing enough to me. But from a technical X's and O's

stylistic perspective, like, I don't really care to even think about who's going to win the fight too much, nor do I care about the boxing aspect of these two. Who knows? Like, if something wild happens, like, I think I could be very easily convinced into getting excited about it. If something outside of a standard boxing match, a listless kind of boxing match happens, I'll be willing to go along. That's probably the best way to describe it. Like, I'm not getting, I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm not getting overly excited, but you don't have push me too hard if something wild is going to happen i will i will come along for the ride so yeah five six in that middle territory where like this i could easily be convinced to get more excited if they

give me something to be excited about where are you at with this jed and kind of building on to new york's point is this going to be one of those things where the build to the fight is more interesting than the fight itself? This threads the perfect needle for me of things I don't care about. Like, I'm not hyperbolic to say that there are misfits cards. I'm more interested in this. And that's not to say that you guys shouldn't. If you're into this, dope.

I don't want to yuck anyone's yum unless you're Michael Chandler. I'd like to yuck all of your yums. But this is just, we saw them fight in MMA. It wasn't competitive. I have very little reason to believe this. would be competitive in boxing either. Two dudes that I'm not like massive fans of in general, just personally, like they're fighting style.

I got a ton of respect for Nate Diaz, the prize fighter and, you know, being like understanding his value, et cetera. But, I mean, he hasn't been like a awesome dude to watch in many years because he's old. And Horace would all, got a lot of respect for him as a fighter. But we're just watching two old dudes box pretty transparently, Mosfer. should win this. So it has minimal interest. And then they didn't even stack the undercard that much. Like, I have maybe a passing curiosity in Anthony Pettis versus Chris Avila just because both of them have appeared to actually be decent at the boxing thing. But nothing that I would watch if I weren't

working or involved in this. Like I would check M8Findon.com website to just be like, hey, what happened? And then if something cool happened, maybe I'd check out and see what that was. But this is just, there's nothing for me here. The buildup is, like you said, theoretically this should have been a, the buildup sells the fight and is better than the fight ends up being. But even the buildup is, you know,

we all have this idea of Nate Diaz, the promoter because he has such high moments of really, really excellent stuff or stand out things, but also like 87% of the time, Nate just doesn't want to be there doing this shit. And so for the three of the four press conference stops, Nate was, you know, surly and not involved in promoting this fight. And then the last one, he's just tired of it and was like, hey, Brian Campbell, I don't want to be here.

I'm tired of seeing you. I'm tired of doing this shit. I'm out. And that gave us something to talk about at least. But it's just, this isn't it for me. If it's, if it is for you, enjoy, it's nothing else competing against it this weekend, realistically. But I'm just going to check in and find a com great website to find out what happens and be done with it. Last thing I want to touch on before we move on to the news and notes portion of the round.

Some of the other pieces of the broadcast have been revealed since we last spoke, one of which Van Meo teaming up with UFC Fight Pass. So instead of this event being $80 like it was originally going to be, you can get on UFC Fight Pass for $49, what you think is pretty brilliant. We also found out the broadcast team for this event. Sean O'Malley, the UFC Bannamway champion, and will be part of the commentary team. He'll be teamed up with Morrow Rinalo and Sean Porter.

Additionally, we will get Amanda Guerra, who I think does an absolutely spectacular job with Bellator and now PFLator. Logan Paul's co-host on Impulsive Mike Majack is going to be part of the broadcast team. And former Strike Force champion? That's the same dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah, same guy. Yeah. So he'll be there.

Josh Thompson will be there as well. He'll be part of the broadcast team. And the reporter for the event, the man who will be serving as the reporter, none other than multi-time BTL winner, Brian Campbell. So that is your all-star broadcast team right there. Jed, does the broadcast team make this any better for you? Broadcast team actively makes me not want to watch this. I have no other way to say this than that.

I love BC. I think BC has been very good in his role and helping build and promote this. And so it would have been cooler if he had more to do than being the sideline reporter functionally. My thoughts on Josh Thompson are pretty clear at this point. I truly do not understand why you would employ him for this, but okay. The Sean O'Malley is the headline grabber one here. And I can be proven wrong. This is not a corner I'm going to die on.

I suspect he is going to be horrible at this. Not because he couldn't be good, but because he won't be good, if that makes sense. Like, he is going to have what I call the Dominant Cruz issue. And many people like Dominic Cruz, because Dominic Cruz is objectively very smart, has a great understanding of fighting and can convey some real good pearls of wisdom. I think Sean O'Malley could do that.

But my issue with Dominic Cruz, from day one, and it still persists as day, is he gets real snarky, and then it's just like, this is how I do it, and if they're not doing it how I do it, they're idiots. And Sean O'Malley strikes me as a man

who is really going to turn this broadcast into being about him and not being about the fights that are happening. And for some people, that may go over well. Certainly Sean O'Malley fans will like that. I do not want to watch a fist fight occurring in front of me,

and the analysis being, well, I do a lot better I might have to jump into boxing to tune up Chris Avala because he sucks, which I think is like a really high possibility of being what occurs. If I'm wrong, hand up. I'll come here and say, hey, shout out to you. Sean O'Malley, did a great job. He certainly has the capacity to do well.

I just don't think it's going to happen. And it will make the broadcast worse as a result. What do you think of in New York, Rick? I think I'm more interested. Yeah, it did something for me. I think Sean O'Malley's actually going to be great. Like, I think he's got a lot of reps as like a pod. podcast commentary, like just add a little flavor to something that's happening.

I don't know if he's going to like rush to insert himself into it. I think he's probably just going to be chilling out having a good time. And it'll be up to Morrow to set him up. And I think the world of Morrow, I think he's a really tremendous broadcaster in terms of how he can like fluidly mix the excitement with the actual play by play. I'm a fan of Morrow. Look, I know, you know, mileage may vary. People's tastes are going to be different.

I like Morrow quite a bit. I think he'll set up Sean O'Malley nicely and I think it'll be good. I'm not like, don't get me wrong. Like it doesn't change it in a significant like material way for me, how excited I'm going to get about it. I don't really care each week like about the UFC broadcasters. I'm not somebody who like focuses too much on hating,

hearing cruise or Bisbing or loving hearing XYZ. Like I'm kind of easy in that regard. So this is not moving the needle in a major way for me. But it's a little more like I care what Sean O'Mall is going to do. Like, I care to hear how it goes. It could be a train wreck. It could be great.

I care to hear that. But it's not, like, adding anything to the fight specifically for me, if that makes sense. Like, sure. Like, cool. Just another, another thing to add to the circus. There's a new act that they've brought into the tent. That's all.

I'm fine with that. Shout out, lazy bed. Including O'Malley and Thompson is like putting raisins in the potato salad. Shout out. Why? I feel like O'Malley is. going to be solid. I don't think he's going to be like the, oh, I would have done this type of guy. I think he's going to just lay back and just be probably high off the gas. I could absolutely

be wrong on that one. Just, I don't know. Have you listened to his podcast? I got nothing. Thompson. Thompson. Thompson. Thompson. Thompson's in arguable. I just, I've had to listen to Amalley's podcast a lot. He just doesn't strike me as a dude given who he is is going to come in and be like, Let's put the focus on these guys. Well, that's the Saturday. Don't miss it. I think we did a pretty darn good job of selling this event for you. People are going to tune in.

Of course. Nothing else happening. Listen, if you don't want to spend $50, stick with M.AFighting.com. We get you covered. There will be things going on. We'll keep you posted on all things Diaz versus Mazadal, too. We're going to be streaming the events happening this week.

We've got the media workout later today. Got the presser tomorrow, got the weigh-ins Friday. M.MA fighting has you locked and loaded. So if you are interested, come check out our YouTube channel. Yes. Yes, you should do exactly that. Point for round three goes to... There's the German roll. Jedmishu!

Damn, the music beat the camera thing. So, nicely done. Also, Slito, there are odd doubt. Step up your game, bro. What's wrong with you? You seem off today, Casey. I know. Casey, do better.

Saving and investing well is an art and a science. It requires high-level math, an intimate knowledge of economic history and theory, and a healthy dose of psychology. People have spent their whole careers and won Nobel Prizes, trying to figure out the best ways to do it. Betterment believes that you should be able to be a successful and sophisticated investor without having to get a PhD. They've spent over a decade creating and refining a platform that can help people who have,

you know, lives. Invest like experts. And it's all because they have a simple mission to make powerful investing tools available to everyone. Their approach, which includes things like Goals-based investing, globally diversified portfolios, and tax-smart technology, is rooted in deep research,

but packaged in a single, easy-to-understand, user-friendly platform. With automation, friendly reminders, and best-in-class customer service, Betterment makes it easy to make good investment decisions. You don't need a know-by-to-know-by-relivenly. prize to be a great investor. All you need is Betterment. Go to betterment.com to learn more. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-M-E-N-T dot com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed.

Support for this show comes from Chase. If you're a fan of women's sports, you're always looking for ways to get closer to the action. And your Chase card can get you exactly that. With a Chase card, you can experience more. That means access to pre-sales, preferred seating, and more savings. For more information about how to step into a world of more with Chase experiences, visit chase.com

slash experiences. Benefits available only to eligible Chase card holders, deposit and credit card products provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A, member FDIC. Terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations apply. Let's go to the final round. This is where

a lot of people have been waiting for. So let's get into it. Lots of things in the news and notes department. We'll try to get through as many as we can. I do have an interview coming up in about 25 minutes, so we'll get through as many. But let's start with the big one, everybody. 15 hours ago, as we are live right now,

Michael Chandler, taking a photo outside of a window in Las Vegas at the sphere. You can see his reflection in the mirror. And this is what the tweet says. Quote, I've been offered. Mockachev in October. But if Connor McGregor's little pinky toe is ready by September, let's do Sphere, biggest sporting event in the history of sports, re-ed season UFC 306.

And a lot of people would typically migrate towards the, the Connor McGregor portion of this. But the thing on our Slack channels and some of the other folks around the community looked at was, I've been offered Islam Mockochev in October. So Jed, I could see tears sort of flowing in your eyes a little bit, not of sadness, but more of anger and just outright defiance of this tweet. I got to tell you, this drove me a little bit insane seeing this. You honestly took it worse than I did, Mike.

I have thoughts on this. It will get into them in a moment. But your reaction to this, I don't think this is, I don't think he's lying. I could certainly say that. But if they go this route, Jed, if they announce, if Dana White yells in his cell phone in six weeks time, guys, we're going to Abu Dhabi. It's going to be huge.

Badass fight for the lightweight title. It's going to be Islam Makachev, the guy that all of you think is the number one pound for power fighter in the world. He might be two or three because it's unequivocal. John Jones is the best pound for pound fighter in the world. And he will defend his title against none other than Michael Chandler, the man who was supposed to fight Connor McGregor, the former Bellator lightweight champion of the world,

he's going to Abu Dhabi for his chance to slay the lightweight dragon, a badass made event in Abu Dhabi. Jed, what would your reaction be to this? And how egregious of a title shot would this be for Michael Chandler coming off of a loss, a submission loss, mind you, to Dustin Porier, plus he's last three or four and been dominated in all three of those fights, or stopped, by the way.

my reaction was not good yours was worse i just won't get that out there my reaction was deeply unsettled uh i've had a little bit of time to just take slight edge off because like you mike i agree i think this is true i think that he was offered that my guess my because my initial reaction was they're offering it to him as a maya culpo because connor's never going to fight again because still stand by that my actual answer i think i've now settled on Armine might be asking for some money. And so this is the leverage play of, Armand, we don't have to go to you.

We have other options. So hopefully that is what happens. Because if this happens, if Michael Chandler, in the year of 2024, coming off a two-year layoff while he transparently just defiled himself in an effort to fight Connor McGregor, and a loss and losing three of his last four fights gets a title fight.

It will be quite possibly the most egregious title shot in the history of the UFC. I can't say that with absolute certainty. Was Hoyst versus Matt Hughes a title fight? Or did they do that at a catchweight? No, not a title fight. They did that a catch weight? Okay. In my head, I was like, hoist fighting Matt Hughes,

pretty bad, but then I thought maybe it was a catchweight fight. So that would have been tough. Steepais is pretty tough, like him getting a title shot against John, and it's pretty tough, but for the fact that John's a fake champion, so it's kind of fine. Nick Diaz against George, pretty, pretty bad. Like, this is probably the worst title fight, the most undeserved title shot in the history of the U.S. So it would be really, really, really unfortunate. it somehow occurs, which it can.

Like I, again, I think that this is a possibility. But shout out to my guy, my champion, my pound for pound fighter. That's my quarterback. Is Lamachev slash Ali Abdel-Aziz, because God knows this, he's not running his own Twitter, comes in today with the, your unreliable dude, one tweet from your master and your runaway, champ needs a real opponent, just dismissing Michael Chandler, as one should.

and you should just immediately just Hise him in that dude we good here homie we're going to move on to other business hopefully the good outcome prevails and last thing I want to say also trash tweet like why is that the photo you go of Michael Chandler garbage tweet like you could have just done a tweet

of the sphere you didn't have to have your grainy like off out of focused photo of you looking out of window like you just suck pillar to post dude every part about you and so I hope this doesn't happen because it'll be a bad day for us, Mike. We'll have a really, really bad time.

Yeah, I will be livid if this happens. If Armand Sarukin doesn't get his shot, I will lose my freaking mind. This is my all-in-year-on- PSA, Armin. They'll do that PSA stat. There is nothing I want to see more in this world, even more than Armand fighting Islam than this PSA.

I'll have to see this thing. But New York, Rick, your reaction to this. And one thing I was kind of want to get your take on what Jed said, Islam's tweet in response to this, I'm kind of surprised he didn't just say like, all right, dude, I'll fight you in October because Chandler, Armin deserves it, no doubt about it, but

this isn't a meritocratic organization. Michael Chandler is obviously a bigger star than Armin Saruki, and I'm not here to argue with you there. It's not that as compelling of a fight as Armand Sarukian, but it's going to do more on pay-per-view, is it not? What's your reaction to all of this? Yeah, it would do more on pay-per-view, but what's

clearly happening here is there's a negotiation happening in public. I think Jed has properly read the tea leaves, right? Like, I don't know for sure that this is an Armin financial situation. Could be an arm in can't make it to that date situation. We assume that Islam Makachev is going to fight in October. And that creates problems. When you pin somebody to a specific date, what you get is Israel-Asonia versus Sean Strickland, right? Somebody that people are like, oh, was that really the guy now in hindsight, looking back, like, great, magical moment, certainly. But you kind of get left with default options

is what happens when you go, Islam Makachev has to fight in October in Abu Dhabi, and so therefore we are going to find an opponent for him. It creates problems because if the one you want to be there in October won't be opposite him, now all of a sudden it opens the door for Michael Chandler. And I have to tell you, I love it. I love the idea of Michael Chandler that you don't. Being able to spike the football, being able to look in the face of all the people who are celebrating and dancing on his grave because the Connor McGregor fight fell apart and say,

here's my title shot. Now, I will say, I don't think it's assured by any means, right? Like he's saying he's offered it. We've seen fights offered to multiple parties and then not to the champion, right? To kind of like test the waters, feel out and see if people are available. I don't think it's any coincidence that all of a sudden everybody in the lightweight division is on Twitter calling for a title shot, right? it's very conspicuous that all of a sudden Dustin Porre is calling for a rematch.

Michael Chandler is saying he's been offered it. We just 25 minutes ago got Charles Oliva posting the rankings and indicating, hey, look, I'm number two and the only one above me is Arm and Sarukian and he's MIA. This is not an accident, right? This has been facilitated. There is clearly something going on behind the scenes that is creating an uncertainty around the idea of Armin Sarukian versus Islam Makachab in October. And the lightweights are now taking advantage of that opportunity of putting their name out there. Shout out to Ali for a finely crafted tweet dismissing Michael Chandler, but I don't think that that's the end of the conversation.

This negotiation is happening in public at the moment. There's a real chance that all of a sudden, behind the scenes, Armin is available. Armin gets the money right. Armand's healthy. Armand's ready to go. And this disappears. It just becomes, hey, Armin versus Islam is booked and all this goes away. But the fact that this is happening is an indicator of something.

There are tea leaves to be read that all of a sudden every lightweight on the planet has been tipped off to the idea that, hey, this fight might be up for grabs. That to me says something. And Michael Chandler outright saying he's been offered it is very interesting. I would love Michael Chandler to really like rub it in people's faces and get a title shot. Just because like I feel like he's been done wrong, believe me, I'm not coming into this as the Michael Chandler stand. as the Michael Chandler defender as his, you know, that he needs defending and he's a hero and and he should be defended. You're disrespecting him with your pity is what you're doing.

It's not pity. The man's about to fight for the title. There's no pity. The man's about to fight for the lightweight title in Abu Dhabi. No pity. But I do feel like he's been done wrong by fans who are just like rooting for him to not get the Connor McGregor fight. I get, look, I get it.

I'm okay with somebody saying you made an error and you shouldn't have sat out. Now go fight somebody else. Cool. I'm kind of almost there positionally. Like as I said, if he's not booked by the end of the year in that fight, like I think it was an error. But I'm okay with people feeling that. But the people are actively rooting for him to continue to flounder, one of them, my opponent on the show. I would be okay with him getting a little retribution there.

I would be okay with him going, ha, ha, I lucked into a title shot. and here it is. So I like it. I'm okay with it. I would prefer other options as a fight, though. Let me ask you guys this real quick. If Michael Chandler tweeted, like, kind of treated this like a, like he was a high school five-star athlete getting ready to choose his college. And he sits at the UFC table and he's got a Connor McGregor hat and a UFC championship hat sitting next to him.

And both options are on the table, New York, Rick. Which hat is he putting on? Is he putting on the Connor? hat over the title, you think? For sure. Always Connor. Always Connor. Always Connor McGregor. The fact that he tweeted, the fact that he tweeted this as opposed to trying to be a

little more coy about it, the fact that he laid it out in public tells you exactly where his head is at. He still wants the Connor fight. And also, as I said, like, we don't know how real and how firm the offer is, right? As you said, I believe Michael Chandler, right? I'm not going to call him a liar. but we have seen scenarios where the UFC has offered this guy. Like they make the calls.

That's just how this goes. It is not like a we have one guy in mind. We call him and all of a sudden he steps in. The answer is always Connor McGregor. The economics just are too vast. Just too impossible to make up in a title fight, regardless of if it's a big time fight against Zalmachev. And also I probably think Michael Chandler knows that that's a much more winnable fight.

I know there's, you know, that you have to as a fighter you have to think you're going to win every fight i think he believes he will beat connor mcgregor more so than he believes he will beat islam machochev so yeah jad's connor it's a really good question like because like i everything rick said is mostly true i don't like if if we go back to the first question of the day like if i'm in in chanler's corner and advising him which of these two hats to put on rick makes a good argument like that it is a that is a more winnable fight. And certainly if he beats Connor,

he probably gets to go fight for the belt afterwards, right? By the same token, if he beats Islam, he probably gets to fight Connor afterwards if he wants, right? So you're dealing with the same thing. I may be agree and lean slightly towards Connor, but the issue for me is Connor is a, it's a dream.

It's a pipe dream because, sure, I'm going to put on the Connor hat, but we've already seen that fight fall apart. That fight could fall apart. Again, Islam is concrete. Islam is fighting in October. And if the UFC says, this is yours, I think you have to take it.

Even if they say it is this or it's Connor, you have a certainty that you are fighting for the belt in October. With Connor, you have the hope that you are fighting Connor whenever that date is. And so I might say go for, take the bird in the hand instead of the three in the bush. but it is really close, like really close, really tough. And I don't think it's a wrong choice. Because that's the thing. I've said the whole time, I don't like Michael Chandler.

I absolutely agree with what he's done. I believe that these are the correct steps to take in your career. I just find it deeply funny that it's not going to work out for him. But now it might anyway. It might work anyway because ain't no one God loves more than a white guy. And that's that's what Michael Chang. is just a generic dude here's here's the potential comedy that plays out though is if you say here's the comedy there's potential comedy you go michael chandler you know what i waited too long it's time to fight

assam machachachov is on machachev gets lined up october comes around oh shit islam machachachov's hurt what what are we going to do ufc you have c has already moved on to Dustin Porreier versus Connor McGregor, which is a fight that Connor McGregor clearly wants more, right? Like, I don't think it's even like questionable at this point that Connor McGregor does not want to fight Michael Chandler and wants to fight Dustin Porreier. Or hell, Made Diaz comes out here, puts out a good boxing match,

he's going to be calling for that one too. That could be catastrophic. That could potentially be catastrophic for Michael Chandler. Because if that October date doesn't go off, And again, this is the problem with the idea of, we've got Islam Makachap and we have to put them in Abu Dhabi. And it was the same problem with we have Israel, as Sanya,

and we have to put them in Australia. These problems get created by going too specifically to one fighter and one date. And so if you get into that scenario, and Islam isn't available in October, and it's close to fight time and that fight fizzles, and the UFC has moved on from Michael Chandler versus Connor McGregor, you're not getting that one back. This Michael Chandler thing is very flimsy.

The flimsyest thing, it could possibly be. So you hold on to that thread for as long as you possibly can. Because if you let go of it, it's done. It's gone. And that shit ain't coming back. Can you imagine like if they book the Islam fight and then somehow like Chandler can't get to October and then he loses that on both fights?

Oh yeah. I was thinking of Islam. I was thinking of Islam. He steps in. He says, oh my God, dude. Armand versus Chandler. Armand kills him. And suddenly Michael Chandler's just nowhere.

Oh my God, man. This is super interesting how he plays this. He's got a dilemma. He's got a dilemma. Look, as I said, I don't think this is happening any moment now. Like this is not going to be like in an hour from now. Dana White's going to be hopping on social doing, by the way, great promo. Like you did, you did that very well.

Good screaming. Thought it was well done. I don't think that's going to happen today. But there's something happening, right? There is something happening. And that I find fascinating. and where Michael Chandler fits into that is going to be fascinating. I still think you're in the rebuke any other offers, period.

But it's getting harder. I do have to rescind a previous statement when we can end on this, because I know we got time crunches. I'm not sure if this would be, I think it still is slightly worse than Dan Henderson's title fight against Michael Bispin. But those two, I was also on the team of, I don't give a shit. It's just really fun if Dan Henderson, gets to knock out Michael Biss being in, but objectively, that was a horrific title shot.

This is, this would be close. Those two neck and neck for bad title shots. Yeah, I'm, I'm right there with you. That's how I feel about this Michael Chandler title shot. Like, see at the top, baby. Like, I'm there. I don't care if it makes sense at all. See at the freaking top. Let's go. Oh, my gosh. If this two get the dude to end the legacy, I'll just. Wow. Oh, my. I'm not coming into work. I swear to God, I'm not on the post show if this dude does it. Oh, you would have to be.

We'd have to renegotiate your contract. We would do it. We'd do it. Move into the woods. All right. For time constraints, the point for round four goes to, I don't know how you did it in New York, Rick, but somehow you got yourself excited for this. I don't know how you did it, but see you at the top says New York, Rick.

So luckily we have, I wish all of you could have seen Mike's slack reactions last night when this, this came out. Oh, I'm still pretty pissed about it. I'm trying to be a professional right now. If this fight only because like I've sat like I've calmed down a little bit because I just, I just think this is Chandler trying to get Connor and vice versa. But if they actually announce this fight is happening, do not miss the reaction show because we're going to go out. We're going to win everywhere with this thing. And I've already told the powers of B. I will not be hosting that reaction show

because I won't be able to be impartial about all of that. But that means we're going to the knock our round. We're going to fire through this. One minute on the clock for both these competitors. And they're not going to get the same question. They're both going to get different questions. So, Jed, you could choose door number one or door number two. Always two.

Number two? And do you want to go first or do you want to go second? Always two. All right. So that means New York, goes first. Yeah, and so happens when you, when you win the previous program.

But New York, Rick, Jed chose door number one for you. And what we need in the next 60 seconds is your reaction to some news that dropped yesterday. Ex-UFC fighter Darren Till is fighting on Saturday. He's fighting against a fellow MMA fighter at social knockout three in a cruiser-wapeout. I'm being told that this

Darren Till competing on this card has been kind of in the works for a little bit a little bit longer than people may have thought but this fight was offered to a bunch of different people a lot of people said no but the gentleman that he's fighting his names escapes me right now I can't lie to you said yes and now he's going to box this Saturday

which coincidentally enough happening on the same day as Nate Diaz versus Jorge Mazadal too so your reaction your interest levels your intrigue levels and Darren Till competing for the first time since losing to Drickus Duplice

in the boxing ring. Go. Yeah, I'm going to be kind here. You know what? I really like Darren Till. He's been a good character for us over the years and he's another one. Like I just defended Michael Chandler

from getting dunked on by people relentlessly. I think he deserves a little bit of a break. I think he was a good soldier for the UFC fought injured many times and just seemed like the level of competition was becoming too high for him. him. I want to see Darren Till fight again. And it's unfortunate that it seemed like he had the Julio Caesar Chavez fight lined up and now that's dissipated and instead he's fighting. I don't even

know who in an event that I don't even know how to watch. But I'm glad that Darren Till is getting a fight and I hope it means it's the start of something larger and that it leads to a bigger fight because I think Darren Till deserves one. I think Darren Dill has been good to us in the sport of MMA and I'm rooting for him. All right. Darren Till. We're all rooting for Darren Till.

So let's go to Jed. Jed chose door number two. And door number two is the return for the ultimate fighting championship to Denver, Colorado coming up not this Saturday, but next Saturday. We have a brand new main event.

It was supposed to be Rosenomi Yunus versus Macy Barber. B.C. Barber is out. Some health issues. And stepping in for the five-round opportunity, Tracy Cortez, Jedbushu. Tracy Cortez and a card that is kind of dwindled down. I think we have like nine fights on the books right now, potential for 10 or 11. But your reaction to Tracy Cortez getting her first main event and getting the opportunity to face former champion, Rosamah Unis, next Saturday in Denver, go.

This is one of those fights that is really weird because it is objectively fine, right? It's a short notice, but Cortez is undefeated in the UFC, maybe in her career, you know, has been kind of on the come-up. And, hey, this being her short-notice replacement, this being the fighter who gets to step in to fight someone like Rosnam Yunus, great. Couldn't care less about it. Like, just it does not move the needle for me in any significant way. I can't, I've been trying to figure out why. Because, like, I believe Cortez is good.

And it may just be that she doesn't have any, like, super. signature exciting wins. This is a massive step up in competition for. And then you look at the rest of this card too. And it's just like, man, Rosenomi Unis is doing a lot of work. Like the Macy Barber fight, that was a fight.

That was a fight that was going to, that was your next title challenger probably. And now, I guess maybe not because mental and however that shakes out. But like that fight was significant. This fight is just okay. This is, this is keeping Rose busy.

This is keeping Rose busy. keeping giving Tracy Cortez an opportunity, but what does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Not much and it's tough because that Denver card is pretty thin, boys. Like the air. Like the air. Very good New York, Rick. That might have still used some last second votes.

And I thought it was lame. And then Rick said, I was like, I should have done that. It was good. All right. So we got the poll up. You got like 30 seconds to vote because we get out of here. Let me get quick. Click, get out of here.

Click Rick and let's get out of it. Whoa, what a twist. Click Rick. Hey. It's like slick Rick. A draw? I'll take it. No.

You know what? Jed said it. Hey, listen to him, guys. Click me and let's get out of here too. I'm down now. Oh, okay. I'm above wins and losses. I am the Connor McGregor of this.

These are meaningless to me. You had a chance there to be the Andre Arlowski. You could have been the Andre Arlowski and you chose Connor McGregor. He's also above wins and losses. He doesn't have to win a fight, lose a fight, and he's getting that bag, that could have been, that could have been your. So, we're clear, Andreeloski's about to rattle off another great run

because he's now in a four-flight losing streak for the fourth time in his career. Every other time, man's come back with a vengeance. There's an asterisk in that. I believe that, like, I think it was Walt Harris or somebody, it became not a loss. There was one in there,

so it's actually the third four-fight losing streak, but there was one asterisk in one of the four-fight losing streets. I'm just saying, PFI, watch out, 2025 heavyweight champion. This is getting very, very close, my friends. I love it. I won. It's getting very,

very close. According to Chale Sunnet, I believe that's how that works, right? He declared me the winner, so I therefore win at this point. Well, that's the case.

The Magerman and Goliath is the heavyweight champion and has been for many years. Oh, man. All right. I'm clicking. I'm clicking end poll right now.

Wow. All right. I did it. I don't know who wins. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to announce the winner for this week's episode of BTL.

Your winner with 52% of the vote is, where's the friggin drum roll? I'm giving you the drum roll fingers and no sound. The winner is, 52% of the vote is

Jedmish! Oh! Gets it done. The winner. It got very close. Rick DeFlevin DeRick. It got very close. And people don't care about Dantel anymore.

It's untrue. I like Dantil enough. But when you can shoot on Tracy Goltesra's nominee in this, you got to. Because that fight is objectively good and deeply uninteresting. Yes. Any final thoughts, Jeff, before we roll out here. Shout out to you, the viewers. We're here because of you.

We love you so much. as I said earlier, Mnayfine.com got you covered for everything this weekend so if you don't want to drop 50 bucks plus a fight past subscription

to watch Nate Diaz and Paury Moss would all do whatever they're going to do come to us we got you covered with all the important parts and Rick always a pleasure

this is how you people treat me this is how you people treat me after all I've done for you this is what I get but you know what don't feel pity for me because I'm going to be a champion in and I vow that I will see you at the top.

Don't disrespect him. Don't disrespect me by feeling pity. See you at the top boys. You can't have two phrases. You can't say see you at the top and walk on. It's just no. You pick one. I got to hate him.

Walk on and see you at the top. Oh my God. Well, hopefully you guys walk on and just a fantastic week. We'll be back next Thursday. because we're going to get you ready for UFC Denver. And we're going to recap Diaz Mazat all. We'll talk about all the pros, the cons, the good, the bad, the ugly, right here on BTL.

We appreciate you very much. Back next week, right here on MAAfighting.com for Jed, for New York, Rick. I am Mike Heck, the iconic voice of Esther Lynn. Normally would take you home, but I don't know how to produce her voice into this. So we're done. Thank you very much. Good night, everybody. Love it all.

This has been between me. Media production. Beautiful. I didn't want to do, Esther. I feel like I would have been bad. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Support for this show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage,

Volkswagen is helping people discover new terfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities. and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you.

From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant Sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's Holiday Shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com.