MMA Fighting - BTL | Arman Tsarukyan vs. Colby Covington, Song Yadong Gets Big Win, Ben Askren Returns

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

After months of building, and with both getting victories this past Saturday, Arman Tsarukyan and Colby Covington will battle on the wrestling mats in the main event of RAF 11. How big of a match can that be for RAF and in the combat sports world? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel recaps a busy weekend in combat, including RAF 09, Covington and Tsarukyan's wins, Merab Dvalishvili and Gable Steveson picking up victories in their promotional debuts, and the rise of the promotion overall. Additionally, topics include RAF setting up Ben Askren's return to action on July 18 against Belal Muhammad, the fallout from UFC Macau, Song Yadong's submission win over former champ Deiveson Figuiredo in the main event, Muhammad headlining Saturday's UFC Fight Night card at the APEX against Gabriel Bonfim, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and more as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. Happy Tuesday to us all. We are back. We missed you guys. We haven't seen you in over a week. Last week was a little crazy, obviously. We had the town hall with John Martin and a lot of great feedback on that, which we really appreciate. And then Thursday was a travel day for me headed to Dallas.

for RAF 9 and there's just so much happening. There was weather stuff, all sorts of craziness, but we didn't want to have you wait too much longer. We're back. I am Mike Heck and joining me to answer your questions and provide nothing but the hottest takes in all of MMA, the one and only Jed Bishu from MMAfighting.com. Hi, Jed. How you doing?

Are you recovered from the rare Friday to Saturday all-nighter to watch UFC Macau? you know, I didn't watch it all night, so yes. Mike, really the important question, I think the thing that everybody is wondering, do you think you ended John Martin's career in the town hall? Or is he going to succeed in a way that other PFL heads of state did not? I believe to my core that you are directly responsible for Don Davis getting ousted from the PFL. And so credit to John Martin for for knowing that and being like I can do it. I won't get fired if I go on their show.

So you know what's you know what's like really funny? Because now I think about this all of the town halls that I've done to a Don Davis, Don's no longer with PFL, Jonathan Coachman no longer with PFL, Darren Owen from GFL. We know what happened after that. They have just still coming. It's fine. Don't worry about it.

I mean, in theory, I guess. But, you know, so far so good for John. I mean, this is definitely the most positive feedback I've gotten from one of these for sure. Like, John stepped up and answered questions. And yeah, I mean, it was pretty good. I had a good time. You are the mad and curse of MMA. We got to find a way to get a town hall with Dana White.

And then we'll really be cooking the gas. He would never. It's a hot, it's a very hot seat. It's a very hot seat. I would love that. Sometimes you ask very difficult questions like, what's your favorite fight of all time? We love you, Don.

Yeah, you're the bad. That would be very fun. Yes, listen, Dave Feldman, if you want to sit in the hot seat, we'd love to have you. And yeah, I think he'd be great. Honestly, I think he'd be great. If you done a Bronstein town hall?

We've not done a Bronstein town hall. We should do that, though. Maybe him and easy. I think maybe both. like that. Chad's very honest though. He'll just tell you like, I mean, anytime I talk to Chad Bronson, he will be like, listen, I'm not literally going to answer a question or announce anything unless it's like done, done. So there'll be real no, really no surprises or anything when it comes to this. It's just, but once it's done done, he lets the world know, such as, you know, Ben Ascran,

a year after a double lung transplant is coming back to wrestle Bala Muhammad at, at R-F-11 in Milwaukee. I just booked my travel for that, so I'll be there for that. Obviously, the main event of that is Colby Covington versus Armand-Serukian, so that is building up to be quite the event as well. You know, we're here. Thoughts on this. I'm sure we'll get Arming-Colby questions,

but let's talk about the Ben-asker side of things. I did not see this coming in a billion years. I just don't know why anybody would even expect this to come, but here we are, Jen Mashu. Ben Ascran is wrestling and apparently it is a one-time thing. He's just one and done, and then he's going to go back to coaching and helping to grow RIF. But what was your reaction to this news?

I don't love it, but as I thought more about it, I'm like, it's fine. Because when it's announced, you're like, Ben Ascran was extremely close to dying, like a year ago. And everybody knows the story. Everybody has seen some of the, like, really harrowing, photos of the situation he was in. And so credit that he has sort of overcome that and come back, but you do wonder, like, is he physically capable of doing this, particularly against somebody who is not also,

and I'm not saying that Ben Ascran is enfeebled at this point. I just don't know. I think he's okay. I've seen some videos of him over the past couple of months, you know, coaching and doing light training. but it's still like a concern of there's a gap here between, you know, some light work on the mats when you are coaching, you know, kids versus I'm going to be in competition. But the more I thought about it, it's like he and Bala al-Mohabh know each other. I don't think

Ballal is going to be taking all of his I don't think Ballal is going to take this way too seriously in a way that like if Bin was wrestling Armin Ben is technically a better wrestler than Armin but I don't know where he's at physically and Armin might run him off the stage

or whatever because Armine's a crazy person so you know this isn't a fight it's a wrestling match the chance for grievous injury is significantly lower and I think this will ultimately end up looking more like a friendly role. And so, okay. Like, and as a one-off, hey, look, this is a testament to my, you know, to hard work and dedication

and the ability to overcome things. It's in Milwaukee, so obviously right there for him. It's okay. I never would have seen this coming. I have gotten on board with it. I'm not going to be excited about it because, like I said, I don't think this is going to be, like, a real wrestling match. but you know they're going to grab some headlines it's big everybody can feel okay about it sure why not yeah that was that was what i thought i see everyone kind of going crazy about it but i mean i even said

in our slack channel i'm like well this is going to be a worked shoot really like they'll be i'm not going to say they're not going to try but belal and ben have a relationship like they train together they're both rufus sport guys i know they both moved on to other things but like you couldn't have booked this better like ball's not going to go in there and try to tech fall Ben Ascran. He's going to go in there and just like give him a moment, give him a memory and send him off the right way. Like I actually think this is perfect.

I think putting him in there with anybody else makes no sense. This is actually really, really good. So I get the concerns. And there is like a small part of me that is concerned. Like this is physical activity. What happens like when the adrenaline comes over him? Because there's no way even if it's not a hundred percent wrestling match. Like that is just not going to hit him.

That place is going to sell out. All these events sell out. and these crowds are friggin loud. Like, I wonder how that affects him with all of this. Like, but all in all in terms of like actual competition, it just seems like this is about as good as you could ask for as like a final match, so to speak. Yeah. Is this the main event?

No. As long as it's not the main event, that's fine. I think it's a co-main. Armine Colby is the main. Oh, yeah, perfect. That's fine. Exactly. And like,

um, I think Ben Ashton is one of the better parts of every, a broadcast. So he's clearly invested in this promotion and this is like a, it's a fun thing. You know, it's a fun. We can do it.

Nobody's going to get majorly hurt. It's fine. And yeah, if they booked any other match, maybe it's a little worse. Like, it's a shame what happened to Ben for a number of reasons. But obviously,

like, had that not happened, I think we could have envisioned Ben Askeran being a more proactive part of the competition side of things. And we could have a Ben Affiard. Asker in wrestling, Kamara Usman, you know, Colby coming and stuff like that might happen. Can't really happen now. And I think that's, you know, it's a shame, but that's okay.

But getting a one-off, totally fine. We can, you know, he can have some fun. Everybody can feel okay. Why not? Yeah, it'll be, it actually probably be pretty cool. But we'll see what happens July 18th. And RF just on fire right now. Just making headlines, making waves and very busy stretch coming up.

told there's another big announcement coming up this week that I think people will be pretty surprised about and we'll see what happens when they announce it's it's me versus don davis oh now we're talking we got to there's only select tickets left we got it's not me it's don davis is it wants to get back at you mike for what you did to him so you're going to settle it on the raf mats oh my gosh uh shout out to hasada thank you but shout out to the twitchers as well and shout out to the Twitterites for joining us on this Tuesday. Shout out.

So out Mike, great town hall with JM. Can we expect Nikisa or Koker? I would love that. I will lay out the gauntlet if either these gentlemen would like to come on and do the town hall would be doubt. I think Koker would do it.

I think Koker would do it for sure. Although there are some... I don't think Nikisa would. I don't think Nekisa would do it either. Honestly. I don't think you would do it. I actually don't think it would. I think it would be wise for him not to do it,

but I think he'd get a lot of, like, respects from the MMA community if he did do it. So it kind of just depends. Coker, I think, would do it. Although there are some PR folk from the Don Davis PFL regime who are now part of this Coker FC organization that might be like, maybe you shouldn't do it. So I can understand why maybe they wouldn't veer him in that direction.

But why not? Why not? You want, like, listen, you need the, you need the people who are going to come into the town hall and ask questions. You need their support. So this is how you get it. This is how you help get it. So I don't think the Kesa cares, honestly, because they got Netflix behind him. Their audience is not an MMA audience, so he doesn't care.

That's very true. That's very, very true. Our audiences have minimal overlap. Yeah, it's, I don't blame him for not doing it. If he did, I would be plum surprised. and impressed, but it seems deeply unlikely that Nikisa would do it. I'm down.

Nikisa, if you want to sit in the hot seat, we would love to have you. Joseph, Bisbing said Saturday, Song-e-Dong is back as a serious contender despite snapping a two-fight losing skid. Is he back as a title challenger? No. Michael Bisping says stuff that's wrong a lot.

They should probably not have him work cards anymore. You want to have him as a desk analyst. It's fine. Him, he's much better when edited. And even when he's edited, he's still not great. But like, no, he's not. You know why I know he's not?

Do you want me to run off the list of people he's lost to? Yes. Sean O'Malley, Piotrion, Corey Santagin. What did those three men have in common? They're all ranked above him. so no he's not a title challenger at best at best he like and you guys

are I guess you didn't talk you were not AK talked about it on on to the next one and I think a lot of people came to the same sort of conclusion after that of well I don't know what to do with them might be time for a Numer fight

sure that can't happen either anymore because Moumar got booked so no because his next like the absolute best thing song you don't going to hope for at this juncture is to fight Amon Zaheby if Amin's a hobby

if Amin's a hobby beats Sean O'Malley. Like that's the only hope that he has because other than that he's fighting Mario Batista. Wait, is Batista booked? Yes. He's fighting Corey Sanhagen. His actual chances are he's probably fighting like the loser of that. Payton Talbot? It's not a bad one.

Yeah, like he, but that, I mean, that's tough though because that's hey you're going to fight the new good guy yeah like he is holding position at best next time unless amends a hobby pulls off a super upset over shahmalley which i think you all know i think is incredibly unlikely but if he does it then maybe it's amen but he's not back as a title challenger and three more wins he's back as a title challenger like i'm looking to see what makes sense he's rank number five that's wild

yep He's lost to every dude above him except for Umar because he just hasn't fought him or and he would lose to Umar. Maybe the Cheeto rematch. I mean, who,

why are we doing that? Cheeto needs to fight somebody who's unranked so we can get him out of the rankings because he should not be ranked. You know what I would love, you know what I think would be fair and just in this, in this mostly unfair and unjust world? Let's give Haione Barcellus an opportunity.

I was, I was about to say, are you going to say, Hyoni Barcellus for sure. I think that's, fine. That's super fun. Like Venetius Oliver should not even be in the rankings.

He's not even in the division anymore. So like get him out of there. I mean, I would love to see that. Like, Hione is just, I think he's getting like, I think he's getting like Raul Roses Jr.

Maybe not because they might, but like he, he's defending position against one of the, the risers in the weight class next. He ain't fighting for a belt. Yeah. Bobby, thank you. Mike, great work at R.F.

Did you run into Josh Tom. there since you missed Otno picks top three fights from Macau. I did see Josh Thompson there. I did not really speak to him. Not because I wouldn't have. I was just like super busy. It's, Armand being in the first match kind of messes up the flow.

It really is. Yeah. It was just like, okay, we got to watch the match. We have to catch the finish. We have to catch the post fight. Then we have to like graphic and post all of that stuff.

And then by the next match starting, Armin came up and did his scrum. So then we have to get that out. We have to cut the clips and do all that stuff. And it's just like absolute mayhem. So I did see Josh. Josh's son was there. I want to say that he's probably like nine or ten years old.

I could be wrong. Maybe he's a little bit older. But Josh's son was asking questions to Armin and some others. And I made sure to say, hey, young man, great job asking questions. And I shook his son's hand. Was that his son doing the questions? no not so there is another there's another young young kid there who was uh at the press conference and at the post fight press conference that wasn't him but um as some of the other scrums were going on

backstage uh josh's son was there asking questions and then the other little kid who was hilarious there i was about to be like damn josh thompson's kid asked better questions he does but josh yeah josh's uh son was asking great questions too so i would have loved to have like taking a few minutes and like been like you yo, my bad for being an asshole that day, you just kind of, you know, he caught me on a bad day. And that's it. Like really that. And then like by the time I actually had a second, they were gone.

So I didn't see them again the rest of the night. So, but I would have loved to. If I wasn't just running around like a maniac, I would have definitely taken a few minutes to do that. So hopefully next time. Apparently Josh had a great time there. And, you know, I saw Kevin Lee there. Apparently I was on his. I am.

I realized. old I was because I was sitting there talking to Kevin Lee just like having a conversation with him and then 10 minutes later as I'm conversating I noticed that there's a camera like filming our conversation and I was just like what's happening here? And then I saw like his little tiny clip on microphone and I'm like are you streaming right now? He goes yeah. I was like really? You're on the you're doing the kicks and he said yeah. And I was like I had no idea that I've been talking to you for 10 minutes and I was on your stream. He goes yeah, you've been on there the whole time. So yeah, it's good seeing Kevin Lee.

as well. What a time. What a weird time, Jed. It's everything is strange these days. Yeah. Who's watching Kevin Lee's kick? I got to know. Like who. So he told, I was like, when did you start doing this? And he said, uh, tonight is the first one. I was like, how many followers do you have? He's like, I got a thousand in like the first hour. I'm like, shit. Like, we're in the wrong. Maybe we should be putting this on kick, Jed. Apparently the subscriber. basis super quick. I don't understand streaming culture and I will not participate in it

as a result. I like I genuinely like internally I've had this actual discussion with like a lot of my friends because it has become like an active part of our lives Mike like I would not know who Aden Ross is but he has become

an intrinsic part of combat sports over the past year and a half or whatever and so like I've tried to understand it. Some of it, I'm sure, is just a generational. I'm too old to be interested in that. In the core concept, like the core conceit of it, I don't think it's just why would anyone care about that? I genuinely cannot grasp why anybody would care about it. And then the like incentive structure and how it actually works as I dug into it a little more is like

deeply concerning to me. But, you know, people are going to do it. what they're going to do if you like ask for you. Yeah. Lazy fellas. It's now June and 64 ranked UFC fighters have yet to compete. I saw this stat. Who put this up?

I think it was Andy Hickey put this up yesterday? Yeah. Including seven champs and seven number one contenders is 2026 the least serious year in the modern era of the UFC. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I think we thought that it might, I don't think anybody thought

be this bad. And, you know, I guess I will equivocate very slightly and say, I would need somebody to do a data analysis of previous years and see, like, how, like, how did last year compare to this year except like year over year for the last five years? Because there is a truth to the idea that, like, while the UFC is year round, the summer run is always sort of a primacy for them. Right. Like the summer months are really when they are cooking a lot of their best. And then you've got Madison Square Garden in November.

But like, so the fact that a bunch of people haven't fought yet when we're just getting into the meat of when they do most of their best stuff, maybe there's some explanation there. But I think we all saw it from the beginning of the year. We're like, oh, we're doing Justin Gehie versus Patty Pimbleit for a belt when Armin is there. when Ilya could have fought. I don't know how else to say it. Like he could have fought. Like what we're doing Volk Lopez too. Like they're just,

I had hoped that the start of a new broadcast rights deal would, because historically, across all sports, not even just like this sport, but when your contract is about to be up or your contract is just starting, you want to put a good foot forward. That has just not been, what's happened here.

The answer might be that they're just like putting into AI what fights to make and just and so it's all shit. I don't know. But it has been a uniquely bad year as someone who lives in this space.

It has been shockingly poor to me. The like the broad lack of interest it seems. Not even that. My actual biggest problem the UFC right now out is I do not think the people in charge of it like the sport

because they don't seem to like Hunter Campbell this is a great business and he seems to like that it's a great business that makes money you know Mick Maynard Sean Shelby like they aren't making things that are fun

there's no joy in this it is pure wealth extraction and that is trickled out and seeped through everything and you're getting that you're getting whatever it is a quarter of the ranked fighters not competing by this time seven champions or whatever the hell

the number is it's just tough this is hopefully it'll get better you always got to be optimistic but it's been quite bad yeah they have been they have been TKO'd and I mean that like pun completely intended like that's look at WWE it's the same thing

like they're doing the same exact playbook right now I have so last week and I played golf. I got paired up with a couple guys. Um, was me and a buddy and got paired up. And we did the thing that you do. It was like,

hey, what do you do? How are you? Yeah. And, um, I always like, every time I tell somebody my job, especially a dude,

my job, they, they think it's very cool. Because we have very cool jobs, Mike, like straight up. It's pretty sick. Um,

but like we were talking, you know, I was like, oh, and then they explained to them. And this guy is a big, like a big pro wrestling fan. And he was like,

almost like the second sentence he said after oh it's really cool that you do that he's like I hate TKO and what they've done to wrestling and I was like I've heard that a lot but never so forcefully and from like a stone cold stranger like it's people in the industry is telling me this he's like no I don't know if they're doing it's in Timm and May too but they have absolutely strangled the life out of pro wrestling and I was like they're doing that to me too Yeah, I mean, it's it's very clear what's going on. It's about it's about making money. Like, and that's it.

Great business. Yeah. They make a lot of money. They are making a lot of money, but they're not serving the fan base right now. And I know people are like, oh, you guys complaining. No, this is just what it is. Like, Jen just told you a story of like a huge fan of one of TKO's entities and he's just like, I hate them. Like, that's not a uncommon thing.

So, yeah, take that for however you'd like. Cosvo, who is closer to an undisputed title shot with the win? Umar or Magamad. So we have the main event for UFC Abu Dhabi. It is Magamundakalai versus Cleo Roundtree, the co-main event. Umarmer or Magamato versus David Martinez, which is a huge opportunity for David Martinez. What do you think, Jed? Who is closer to an undisputed title shot between these two individuals?

First off, this card looks, I mean, those two fights are terrific. Really good fights. Rest of that card is an Abu Dhabi card. You've got some high points, some low points, and a lot of fighters that they want to be competing at that region of the world. But those two fights are sick. There's a couple of other things going on there. Ersig Timorov, great fight too. It's a really good fight.

It's a really good question that I had not considered. So shout out to you, Cosmo. Let me pull up. I mean, Umar has never won a belt. And so in general, that puts you behind a former champion. But this would be his third win.

And his next fight if he, if he beats Martinez, is almost certainly actually for the title. Now, you might have to wait because there is the looming Sean O'Malley of it all, right? At some point, Pyriana and Marabhawesi will have a trilogy.

If Sean O'Malley beats Amin Zahabi, he and Umar are just like sort of right there but if Marab beats Piotr and Sean beats Aman there's no reason to do Marab Sean three when Umar is there for a rematch and so then he would slide in if Piotr wins the third fight with Marab they're definitely doing Sean over Umar at that point so then he might just have to wait be the backup fighter but I don't think he's fighting twice more before he fights for their belt. Three in a row. He's lost one fight and it was a competitive loss to the champion of the world. His next fight will be. Ancolaev, a bit of a different situation. Former champion, yes, but hated. I don't know if we can totally say hated, but not beloved

by the organization at large. And coming off of one really bad loss, now, light heavyweights a bit more of an open field at this point in time, but it wouldn't shock me, especially because maybe what happens is Ancalaev has to fight for an interim belt because your current champion at 205 is out of commission for a while. We still don't have any, I don't know the timeline on homie's return, but it's probably going to be. Not until next year, everyone.

Yeah, next year. So maybe Ancolae's next fight is for an interim belt and not a, undisputed belt whereas i think umar's next fight after this should he win will be for an undisputed title yeah it's it's it's a tough question like the my first thought was it's umar because they seem to be in the umar business but the problem is like umar is just not putting on the types of performances that you would expect from him it's not like he's fighting bad it's just you know when he's fighting figurato and i know people will be like oh well figgy didn't engage well then make Make him engage. Go get him.

Klobber them. Like look at Song Yudong did. Song Yadong went out there and finished him. Like people will view that in a certain way. So I still think it's maybe Umar, but the fact that Alex Perre, that Yuri is not the champion, the fact that Alex Pereira is not the champion. Alberg's not really a star. So you can kind of just put the best dude in there to fight him. Maybe it is Magabed.

I don't know. It's very, like, they're, they're more even than I thought. Like, when I originally saw this question, I thought it was Umar pretty easily, but now I'm not just sure. I think Magamad should because I think Maguena, like the interim title or the vacant title fight should have involved Maghavad, the guy who beat Alex Pereira and has, you know, like he deserved it over the guy who lost Alex Pereira twice. And you know that I love Yuri Pajasca as a son, but like, Ancala deserved it more. So I think he would deserve it. but they just don't care for him much. And I also, like,

I think we're getting an interim belt at 205. I just, it's going to be a really long time for Ulberg to be on the shelf and for there not to be a title fight happening. So I think I'm glad his next fight will be an interim title fight. Assuming he beats Cleo, neither of these men are guaranteed to win. I would favor whom are fairly heavily against David Martinez,

who I like a lot. And I'll favor Anka Live against Khalil, but that's not a, neither of those are, the hay is not in the barn yet. Yeah. Magamette Ankelyve versus Paul Costa for the interim light heavyweight championship. Oh my God. I mean, like you're like, I can't believe that's the world. It's entirely possible.

We're living in. Shout to Herman. I met him at RAF on Saturday. It was a pretty funny story. I was sitting in the media room. And one of the wonderful PR people from RF comes in and says, Mike, there's a fan out there looking for you. And I was like, for me?

And you're like, yeah, because his name's Armand. And I'm like, oh, yeah, he's like in the chats all the time. So I like ran out and met him and very nice guy. He got to enjoy the, the RIF show. And then I caught him again at the very end. And I felt like a little rude at the end because I'm trying to cut the, the gable finish clip and he's talking to me. And I'm trying to talk to him, but I'm all.

also like trying to do 800 things at the same time. So Armand, please don't think I was being. Yeah. Why you're doing event work? I know that feeling very well. But the first part was great. I got to go out and say hello out into the in the lobby area. So yeah, shout out to Ramon, a super nice guy.

And it was great to meet you in person. Spencer, the boys. Jed, love the idea of UFC having a performance wing in the Hall of Fame. Have thought about that before as well. Which needs to go in there. It's the most obvious thing in the world that bothers the shit out of me that nobody else, nobody with the power of the pin has done it like I

if I could ask Dana White one question it would just be that I'd be like hey can you put a performance wing in because this is stupid I would phrase it like that so he knows that they're dumb yeah so which needs to go in there Massadal Ascran Holly Ronda Silva

Forest others I mean so if we're opening a performance wing thing. Again, I also want to stress that this is not only we open a performance wing. This is a this is a holistic revamping of how the Hall of Fame process works so that they add more than one fight a year and more than one performance of the year. Because again, if you open a performance wing and we just add one performance a year, well, there's been 30 years of history with performances and every year we're getting more of them. So it should,

be more than one goes in. I don't know the number five is probably too much, but two or three, that seems like a good, like a happy zone to be in. At least two fights in performances a year. I think Holly Ronda or, like, just thinking of like what you want to debut with,

the biggest most impactful ones, Holly Ronda is very up there. Conoraldo, despite me blocking that from my memory. Connor Eddie, Connor Eddie is probably like what they would actually do for their first one and a thing and deserve it. Like that's a sensational performance.

And among the most significant in the history of the sport, like something like that would be, I think, the appropriate way to go. But like the H-Bomb, Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping, 100%. That should go, like that is a Hall of Fame thing. I know the UFC hasn't really done pride stuff. They like loosely did with Sakarabo, who's one of the more beloved figures of all time.

But like half of the Fador highlights should go in there. You know, like they're just, shit, Gabriel Gonzaga, head kicking crow cop. Like that, those sorts of things should be enshrined in a way outside of old fogies like us being like, I remember this really cool thing that happened. Edson Barbosa's heel kick. Like that's, that shoot.

lead. I don't even know if it still does because I haven't watched the video packages in forever. That was like the highlight on video packages forever. But that shit in there, you know?

Like celebrate more things in this sport. I think, I think the first one they would put in just because of the significance of the event and who the UFC is now, it's Max Holloway knocking out Justin Gage at UFC 300. That's the first one.

So I was definitely thinking that. And I don't hate it. I also think you, that one, I wouldn't pick it, by the way. That would not be my. choice i think that would be fine and i thought about it but then i was like i also think

that is one that i do think the moment is bigger but you could also just throw that in in the in the fight wing and sort of cover your bases there if you had to do it that way but like yeah there are there 30 plus years of of ufc and mima history that you can celebrate like the biggest highlights of all time and and they're not doing a good job of it because they they celebrate one fight a year. That's not that many. That's not that many. Yeah. Should you do three moments a year? I mean, you could start with two, but you don't do five, but like two, two to three fights and moments and, and, uh, performances a year. Because like, shit, Alexa Grasso Valentina Shivchenko, that's never going to go in for fight of the year. It deserves it. Like, it deserves to be there.

Legitimately, Chale Son and Anderson Silva is not a good fight. It is, an incredible comeback that warrants being enshrined in the Hall of Fame, you know. Matt Sarah pulling off the upset of all time, Hall of Fame, Michael Bisping, pulling off the monster upset. Yeah, Bisbing should be in Bisbing's moment, knocking out Luke Rockhold should 100% be in the Hall of Fame. Like these, those will, those shouldn't be enshrined as fights because the, the fights weren't Justin Gagee, Dustin Porier, you know, they're not that, right? But they are big, they're big and significant and important to the history.

history of the sport and you can there's no reason not to like there there's not really a huge cost associated with the thing like you're not going to diminish the hall by celebrating more than five people a year like there it is the the lowest hanging fruit and i you know i like to think of myself as a generally smart person but i'm not a mega genius this shit is obvious and they have not done it. Yeah. Breaking news, by the way. Zufa boxing heading to Dublin.

Oh, I did see this at the August. 2003. At the three arena. For the dude, Callum Walsh. For Callum Walsh, everyone's favorite underdog fighter. Man, they just, Calum Walsh is, they're just going to keep shoving down our throats.

And they're going to put Max Kalamman in there. Did they sign Shakur Sevenson? saw something that said that. So maybe. Good. Look at them go. Look at them go. I am deeply impressed by how little traction,

uh, Zufa boxing has gotten from a fan base. I have not honestly. And I say this and again, this is not talking trash. Like I've literally not heard one person talk about Zufa boxing. I,

I talked about the first one because everyone was like, what's it going to be? And then we all watch them like, bad. Got it. Yeah. I was thinking about this the other day. I went to the driving range and I'm like, man, no one.

I've never heard one person say like, oh, what do you think about Zufa boxing or this or that? And then I was leaving the driving range the day I was flying to Dallas and I saw in the parking lot, someone had a power slap sticker on their car in South Carolina. You sent that to the slack, which is wild. I was like, wow, we got a power slap fan before a Zufa boxing fan. Like that's just crazy. So let's go to this one first. Thank you, Steve.

Any idea, dates, locations for 331 and 332 and when they will be announced. Any preliminary indications on locations. Relatively new listener, appreciate all of your great coverage. You guys rock. Thank you, Steve. Thanks, Steve. Let me see. So 330 is Philly.

I don't know if we can say. Well, I mean, look, Armin Sarukian, like, from everything I'm hearing, Armin Sarukin sort of gave away where I am hearing 331 is. going to be, which is Los Angeles. I mean, Armand said it himself. Again, this isn't like locked and loaded or anything, but these are just sort of the rumblings that I'm hearing. L.A. will Armand fight? I don't know. It was funny to me because like people were posting that, oh, Armand confirms he's fighting Charles Oliver for the BMF title. I'm like, are you guys dumb? Did you really watch that clip? Because he never once said that. Yeah. It was just, he just said like,

yeah, I'm fighting for a title in September. And then it was like, maybe I'll fight Charles Oliver. which is obvious because if Iliate Tpori goes out and knocks out Justin Gaiji, which is probably going to do, it's probably just going to leave the division and go fight Islam, which will vacate the belt, which means they're going to do Armour versus Charles for the vacant lightweight belt. It'd be a pretty big fight for that Los Angeles card. So that seems to be the frontrunner. Again, I don't know for sure. 332, I would guess it's going to be, well, it's one of two locations.

Because they usually do two pay-per-views in October, with the latter being in Abu Dhabi. So 333 will probably be the Abu Dhabi pay-per-view. I would guess 332 is going to be Salt Lake City. They typically go there in October or like August, but August is already booked. So I would say it's either going to be Salt Lake City or it's going to be in Vegas again. But if it's not in Vegas, I would guess Salt Lake City. But again, I'm not reporting this. This is just 332 is more of a guess and a assumption more than anything else.

And 331 seems like LA is the front runner, but don't know for sure. I have nothing to add. There you go. Chase, which American will get embarrassed the most at the White House? Also, Ilya planning Justin's funeral on Instagram would look so bad if he somehow lost. I can't stress this enough. It might be the funniest outcome in history of Justin Gates. pulls off the upset. He's not gonna.

He just won't, but it will honestly be one of the funnier things that's ever happened in the sport. Because Ilya is talking just a monstrous amount of shit. He's probably going to back it up. And if you back it up, then it's fine if you talk shit. That's just, that's the

rules. That's how society works. It ain't bragging if it's true, you know? But if he loses, God, the receipts are just, they're so there, and it will be so funny. I do not care how it happens, too. Like if, like I said last week, if a bug flies in to Tepuri's eye and blinds him right at the perfect time for a gaetchi right hand, I don't care. It will be so funny that all I want for the, all I want for next week is the funny outcomes to happen. Yeah.

I'll never ask for another thing to the M. make odds if they just give me I mean if they give me all of the funny outcomes but if if I get half if 50% of the outcomes are the funny outcomes next week I'll never ask for anything again we have to be doing like I haven't confirmed this we have to be doing a watch party for this right oh I assume we are okay I just assumed we were yeah I'm just making sure like we I think we'd be insane but yeah my assumption was we were doing one and it would be for the whole thing since it seven fights but yeah and I'll in man that weekend's going to clobber me.

Aref. Hamzat, Dylan Danis, Armin, Totti Ferguson, and then literally like flying out first thing in the morning coming home for White House and then doing a watch party. So it's going to be good times. Which American do you think gets embarrassed

the most if you had to take a guess? I mean, it's very, very likely to be Justin Gagee. I don't think, but embarrassed is like such a different word because like Justin might get knocked out, but we already know that's coming. So I don't know if like, I don't think anybody's really going to get embarrassed.

They're all just going to lose. Like if Boehnickle goes out and loses to Kyle Dachis, like he's got to be wearing it for a bit. It doesn't matter how he loses. He's going to be wearing it. Yeah, and that's more likely than Gagey losing, but like I don't think he's going to lose. So he might.

Kyle Dachis has a shot, but definitely has a shot. I think Boe Nichols is going to win. I, you know. Sean O'Malley. I think Sean O'Malley's going to win. I think nobody will be embarrassed for Michael Chandler. If he loses, he's supposed to lose. And also, I think he is, he's sort of beyond embarrassment.

Like, just look at that man's social media. Do you think that he, I don't give him a lot of compliments, but he's very clearly a man who doesn't feel shame. So, like, he's not going to be embarrassed. Like, Derek Lewis, when he almost certainly loses, that won't be embarrassed, he's supposed to lose. Like, all of these matchups are monster betting favorites. So it's just like, nobody's, they're not going to.

going to get embarrassed. They're just going to lose. Yeah. Who is the potential? Like, which American is the potential to be embarrassed the most? It's got to be Josh, right? I think Bo Nichol is, probably, no, probably Hokeet. Yeah, if Hokeet will just be the loudest. Yeah. Hokeet will just be the loudest all week.

And so by then it will be embarrassing. So that's probably right. Because Hogan, next week's going to be a lot, man. I actually, uh, breaking news. Well, as soon as the show ends, I'm speaking with your favorite fighter, Jed. Amin's a hobby. So there you go. I don't dislike Amin's a hobby.

I just don't think he's good. He's your favorite fighter. He's your favorite fighter. I'll also be speaking tomorrow to Diego Lopez. And I'll also be speaking tomorrow. I don't know which variation of the man I'll be speaking to. But for the first time since before his final LFA fight before going to contender series, Mike Heck speaks with Josh Hokit.

The incredible hoax. I have been a little bit more forgiving of hoax nonsense than others because he is trying. And to some extent it's working because nobody else tries. Like it's a low bar to clear and it's not a really well-authored gimmick. But it's something and nobody else has anything going. So I'm willing to give him some leeway there. but next week is there's no chance that that's not the worst week for us to cover primarily because Josh Hokka is every time there's something he will try and steal it like he did when he tried to fight Ilya which was genuinely kind of funny because like I know people are delusional about Ilya Tuporio but like Josh Hokka not weighs by 60 pounds he would sit on Iliah Like weight classes are real.

It's a thing. But like it's just he's going to be, he's going to be super awful this upcoming week. It's going to be a tough week of coverage, I think. Yeah. Derek Lewis is going to be a, could be a hero. Look, again, Derek Lewis knocking out, it's one of the funniest things that could happen.

I think when in a hundred years, when scholars are trying to point out, what was the actual peak of America? Where did the nation of America hit its absolute apex? They would say it's when Derek Lewis took his pants off on the White House lawn. Because that's going to happen. If Derek Lewis wins, he will take his pants off on the lawn of the White House and say, to millions of Americans and international people,

my balls were hot while the president of the United States claps on. And if that's not the peak of this nation, I don't know what it is, frankly. Amen, Max, who gets the title shot first? Volkov or Sergei? Volk should,

based on head-to-head and getting screwed against gone, but I feel like Sergey is regaining momentum. I mean, this was an important win for Serge. that he killed somebody, which is nice. He needed to do that. It's been a while. It will be Volkov beat him.

Volkov should be fighting for the title like now. It's that I don't see unless Volkov loses at some point and then in a future booking. I don't see how Sergei jumps him because they both lost the Tom Aspinall, right? Like he's, Volkov has been screwed a couple of times, should be on like an fight winning streak. I think Volkov is still the frontrunner, but when that will happen, God only knows.

We've an interim title fight coming up. Ostensibly the winner will fight Tom Aspinall, hopefully at the end of this year, but that is far from a certainty. And so at best, you're looking at, you know, second quarter of 2027, you know, spring 2027 maybe for the next guy. And you've got Josh Hoker will be on a bit

a run at that point and very loud. Do they make Hokit fight, you know, Sergei or Volkov off a win? Very possibly. So the heavyweight, because to the earlier question of why aren't ranked dudes fighting, that was not the question, but that's essentially the question, all the divisions are kind of jacked up right now because they're not, champions aren't defending belts. We're just kind of holding everything. And it's making, it's really hard to know what.

comes next because there's not a clear path forward in like multiple weight classes right now. Yeah. There. And I don't know. It's for sure. But this is what it just seems like to me that in a lot of these divisions like featherweight specifically, it's like, okay, we want Volk to fight here. Yeah, he should fight a Vloa, but like, let's see if something else happens where we, we don't have to do this. And then like the thing they want or the thing that they'd be looking at to happen to replace that, like doesn't happen.

And it's like, okay, I guess you're going to Vloy, but wait, maybe, maybe Steve Garcia. And this will happen, although Steve Garcia is not going to jump to Vloia, but like if something weird were to happen, like, I don't know. It just, it just seems like they're doing this, but like, but what if, but what if? But maybe this guy can do it. Maybe this guy could could leap frog it. But yes. It's all weird. The line at heavyweights.

And Jack up like eight different contenders at Welterweight. Yeah. It's all so. There's, there is not. an adult in the room at the UFC headquarters to be like, no, this is what we're doing. Grow up, Peter Pan, is what we're doing. It's the same three dudes,

mostly two, and mostly chat GPT, who they're asking to do their jobs for them. 100%. It's crazy, man. It's crazy. All these divisions are a mess right now. Every single one of them. What else we got? Heyman's a hobby. Your favorite fighters,

favorite fighter. Sure. I don't think that's true, but sure. Joseph, do they know a media will be on site to cover this card in person? Was Jose invited to cover this card for the site? So, Jose will be there. I don't think, like, any of the regular media will be, like... I don't believe any of the media will be...

I know they're doing, like, some stuff on the White House long beforehand, but for the event, I do not believe any media will be at the event. Will you see the kicksters out there? Probably. Well, I mean, yeah, you're probably going to get, like, a couple of... of the knellk boys the big ones aiden ross like will you see danis friends out there probably but you know what you won't see no fatties can't have any can't have any military fatties out there god what that's one of the best headlines i've seen it was like oh my god it's just impressive

we got a can can't be can't be a fatso in the military out there that's not the look we're going for It's unbelievable. You know, what a time. Strange time. Oh, my God, man. Crazy. We live in a very weird time. A lot of movement in the NFL, Jed.

Miles Garrett got traded. A.J. Brown officially got traded to your New England Patriots. Lots of stuff happening in the NFL. What did you think of the Miles Garrett one? That seems to be the, obviously, that's the bigger news than A.J. Brown. The odds on Super Bowl favorites added the best. defensive slash maybe just best player in football. So I think it was a great trade for both teams.

I don't know why every, whenever like a trade like that happens, like Michael Parsons last year's like, why didn't every team offer that? It's Miles Garrett. I would absolutely give you young, good player, first, second, and third rounder in descending years from Miles freaking Garrett. Yeah. Like your New England Patriots should have made that deal too. Like every team should have done it. And also for the Browns, it's great. Like, mostly I'm happy Miles Garrett's out of Cleveland and gets to play for a real team.

But, like, for them, they got a young ascending player in Jared Verse, who's very good. He's not Miles Garrett, but he's good. His timeline is not the same as Garrett's. So, like, Garrett's timeline is now the next four years, five, maybe six, versus is the next 10 years or whatever. So I've got a better timeline for their rebuild, a bunch of capital. and assets to either move up and get a quarterback that they need or just continue to add pieces as they rebuild. Thought it made sense for both sides. I super, this won't happen, but I hope that Aaron Donald is just like, I'm going to come back.

I'll take league minimum and just build the actual goddamn Avengers on the Rams and see what happens because that's fun. I like fun. Look, like the Avengers on the Rams would be fun. because it wouldn't be for like an oppressively long 10 year run we're like here's one season of the avengers aaron donald's not going to play five more years or whatever but if he come if he comes back for one year would Kobe turner and trim mcduffy and miles garrett just like all right well nobody's gonna score any points can matt staffer get one of the best offenses in the league to 14 points a game i bet he can a rams a ram seahawks game would be like one of the most fun match i was

We get like a five to nothing score. Oh, my God. I was listening to a podcast about it this morning, and I know this is not a football thing, but somebody comped it, and I was like, I'd not thought about it. I was like, that's a really smart comp. They comped it, too, when your New England Patriots added Randy Moss,

and they were already one of the best teams in football. And then they're like, what if we just got the best guy? We're already one of the, the best coached teams and best teams in football. What if we just added one of the best dudes? And I was like, man, that's a really good one. It's like, oh, yeah, that worked out really well for everybody.

Let's just bring a guy where Tom Brady just to throw the ball anywhere in the sky. Just throw it as far as you can. Throw it as far as you can. I bet he'll get to it. Oh, my God. I remember that year, obviously them losing the Giants is one of the worst days ever in the Super Bowl. Still one of the wildest things I've ever seen. Unbelievable.

But that game, again. against the Titans where Brady, uh, through five touchdowns in the first half in a snowstorm. It was just so sick, dude. That's that whole team was ludicrous. It was very fun. But you guys also, congratulations. Everybody knew the Patriots are getting AJ Brown. Yeah.

Um, this is the Connor Max Holloway of, of announcements. Uh, but the fact that you got it for 20, 28 first rounder, I think is a big win. Yep. Nobody was going to get like 2027 was probably just not a, an offer because next year's draft is supposed to be

amazing. But in two years, Drake May will be really good. Your whole team will be really good. That's going to be like a like pick 30 or whatever. Yeah. So it's a good deal for you all too. What was Mike's reaction when Armin and Colby faced off and was made official

for our F. 11? That wasn't really surprised because Aram knows what they're doing. Because they know what they're doing. They set it up beautifully. They had Armin in the first match. Most of the crowd didn't know Armour was going to be there. And then Armine snuck his ass out front row for the match itself. I think R.F. was a little nervous because things are real close.

Colby got the challenge and got the points for the weird thing in the first round, but got the quick escape at the end and got the win, and now we can make the match and made it official. And yeah, it was just, it was ready to go. They brought Izzy in to be like, you know what? It's on. Let's lock it up. It was all just very pro wrestling and very well done.

Yeah, now that event is massive. That's a big one, big match. And now you get Ben Ascran. That's just going to be a big time, big time card for them. So we've got another super chat from Chase. Do you think fighter walkouts will be lackluster on the White House card with the lack of crowd? I actually think fighter walkouts might be one of the cooler things. The lack of crowd is going to make the whole show very strange to watch.

It is going to be a spectacle without fans. And there will be, you know, 4,000 not fatties in attendance, plus a bunch of political operatives. But it is going to be a pretty muted crowd. I don't think it's outside and they're just not going to be that many people there. There's just no way that this is going to come off through the television, like a raucous event. But it is such a spectacle that it will still,

a lot of it will just be new and interesting because it's different. I don't know if we've confirmed it, but I believe there was talk that the fighters would stage through the Oval Office, which is cool. I think the main eventors are. Oh, is it just the title fights? Maybe just the title fights, yeah. I mean, that's still like pretty interesting, right?

But yeah, I mean, these are going to be relatively shorter walkouts, and you're not going to get a camera pan shot through the crowd that's on its feet for the fighters. It's going to be, you know, hey, they're going to be, you know, hey, they're going to. going A to B, because also the White House Long is not like this massive expanse. It's going to be a relatively short walk to the cage because this is a weirdo event, but

you know, I don't really care too much about walkouts in the UFC since they've made them nothing to care about. So it's not a big change for me, I don't think. I think they'll, yeah, I'll be intrigued to see what they look like. But, yeah, I mean...

Most of my feelings about this card are exactly that. I'm intrigued to see what it happens. Like, it's interesting. It's just different. We've never done this before. So that that's something new. Yeah.

It's going to be big time uncomfortable to watch Ascran. We talked about this earlier. I don't think it's, I don't think it's going to be. I think him wrestling Bilal is just going to be, they're going to go in there and roll around. Like it is going to be a friendly practice role. It's not going to be a full on match. Belaw is like to try to go rinse him.

He's just going to roll with him. him. He's just, Blal's probably just honored to be Ben's last wrestling opponent. And they know each other and they've trained together and they're friends. So that's what this is going to be. Friendly role and whatever happens happens. So, no worries. No need to worry. I don't think Blal's got to go in there and try to double like him off the frigging, off the stage.

I think there's going to be a decided lack of intensity that would make, that make, will make it not uncomfortable for anybody. that we're just, they're just going to be having some fun in there. And yeah. Again, they didn't need to do this, but it's fine that they're doing it. Yeah.

I agree. Lazy, 50% of UFC events have no crowd these days. Not lying. Not quite 50, but it's pretty high. Yeah. But yeah.

I mean, I do, I think the, I think the vibe that we will get at home will be something, but, some level of a mix between

a sphere and an apex show because there is going to be big pageantry like the sphere thing not in the same way because it's not in the sphere but there's going to be a big pageantry part of it I'm sure they are pulling out some extra bells and whistles for stuff they're not going to do as many cool things

as I think they should do like just so we're clear if I was running the show 1 million percent. One million percent. Herb Dean would have to referee dressed like George Washington. Like that's just,

that's the sort of thing I'd be doing. They're not going to do that because they don't have fun with anything ever. And because there will be such a small crowd, a lot of it will feel apexy in some respects, but it will also feel big and unique and different like the sphere did. So it's going to be a very strange viewing experience, I believe.

True or false? Dana White enters the White House lawn on a horse. I mean, he really should. I'm going to say false, but he really should. I'm going to say true. I think he's going to do it. I, like, I can't stress to you enough how much the most obvious thing in the world is that whatever four refs are working are just dressed up like the president's on Mount Rushmore.

I love this. You have a George Washington and an A. Blinken and a freaking Teddy Roeth's. Roosevelt out there, just doing the damn, like, it would be so, you could have so much fun if you were willing to embrace the silliness of this and to just to like MMA. And instead, it's going to be the same thing just at the White House. Honestly, that's my hope because the worst thing. And some of you at home may not agree that this would be worse. But for me, what I don't want this to be and what it very, very, very possibly could be is

in overtly political rally with fights on. And I don't want that shit. If it happens and you do, okay, that's fine. You are entitled to like that. But like, I would rather this be a fun,

silly thing if we're going to do it. And I don't think that that's going to happen. Yeah. Let's see. Armand, I think Armand might lose to Colby, but it'll be a dog fight. I think it's going to be interesting.

Colby's the bigger guy, probably the better technical wrestler but Armis a professional wrestler certainly but Armin's a freak dude's an absolute freak athlete he's a better athlete than Colby Colby's pretty darn good athlete

but Armin is way better I'm genuinely quite interested in that actual matchup yeah how long for John Jones does RAF I think he's gonna do it man I believe that that's going to happen relatively I believe that will happen this year

I would get I have no insight to this whatsoever but if I had a guess they're doing that first year anniversary show in August, which they're hyping up everywhere. Like I saw Eric Bischoff quote tweet that this is going to be like the WrestleMania, their WrestleMania, so to speak, pageantry, all that stuff. Like throwing John on that card against anybody.

Rafflemania? Damn, dude. That's great. You're welcome. You're welcome. Oh, my God. Somebody put me on fucking payroll. I'm so good at this shit.

And none of you will put me on. payroll. I can save all of your promotions or just make them better. Yeah. I mean, RF is fun enough so they don't need to administer a fun. They don't. PFL certainly could use you and the UFC needs it because can't there's

Herb Dean dressed up like George Washington is the funniest image I can have in my head right now. Yeah. Mike Beltran as Abraham Lincoln like put a big top hat on him with the with the braided beard. Unbelievable scenes. What are we doing? Why aren't we doing this?

God, I love this so much. I'll take a couple more. Spencer, boys, I love Poetan, and if he beats Gone, fans are going to say he's top 10 all time. I'm curious, if he beats Tom after, is he actually top 10 male pound for pound ever?

No, but a lot of people think so, and people think I'm stupid. And I've accepted that. It's a sick run, though. Yeah, I mean, that's a sick run. It's one of the best runs of all time. Probably the best run of all time. Three division champion, which has never been done before.

Two of those divisions are rancid dog shit. There's just like a part of a problem there. It's never been done before. I'm open to the argument. I won't agree, but I can't sit here and be like, absolutely not you're wrong. It's just like, at that point, it's really a matter of preference. The peak for him will have been as good as anybody's peak, certainly.

I favor sustained excellence. He has a little bit of that. Like, this is not a super flash on the pan. But he never successfully defended the middleweight belt. We'll see. If he goes on like a long heavyweight run, sure. We'll talk about it. But I don't.

I like fighters who defend championships year over year time after time. He did a little bit of that. But some of this is also rolling high and with opportunities. that thing. But we'll see. First you've got to get past Gone, which is not a gimmie fight. No.

And as we all know, you're in for the funny, for the funny results. And Cyril Gone, winning a 50-45, 23 minutes of control time decision. If you just tackles him a bunch, that's kind of funny.

The truth is that fight doesn't have like a super funny outcome like several of the others do. I'm more kind of want Gone to win just because I don't, I am quite tired of the, are you the greatest of all time conversation? And we will have to have it over and over.

And I also genuinely don't know how to like rate Pereira beating gone because he's not beating the best heavyweight in the world. And like Anderson Silva beat for Griffin. But if he beats Aspenol after. Yeah, but that comes later. And we, that's for this question. but 100% if he beats Cyril Gahn

and becomes the first three division champion despite there being a level of an asterisk there, people were just like, he's the greatest fighter of all time. We're like, that's not remotely true. And I don't really want to have to deal with that. So I'm kind of rooting for Gahn

just to ease my life moving forward, frankly. Well, be ready, because that has a conversation that could very well happen. And I do think he's going to win. But that's at least like a really competitive fight. the most, whereas most of the White House fights, at least look to be not that competitive. Yeah.

Boston premium. Finally, another promotion doing well. It's not MMA, but still good for the culture. Damn right. And they're fun. Like, they're fun. Everybody is having a good time. Yeah.

Those who, anyone, I've not had anybody tell me that they've like, like actually watched it and said they didn't like it. I just don't know how you can. It just moves so quickly. I've seen some people. And I think that's fine. Because wrestling just truly isn't for everybody, and if it's not for you, you're never going to like this. There is no way to like the product if you don't like what the product is. But if you are marginally interested in this sort of thing, the way that they go about it is it's tough to not be like to dig it, you know?

For sure. They made wrestling fun. Please don't touch by RIF. Don't do it. Don't do it. Last thing I want to mention is no one asked about it, Jed. What? Joe Rogan had Daniel Rodriguez on, which means I'm going to have to listen to Joe Rogan.

Oh, God. Yeah. But I mean, that's a personal thing. That's not like a broader actual problem. It's just I don't want to listen to four hours of Joe Rogan. And I'm going to have to know. But what are we going to learn different about the whole situation that we didn't know already? That's probably not very much.

He might give us a little bit more about being in prison. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe he'll explain why he was in jail, which I don't think that's out. I mean, no, I think it's, I think it is. Has it? I don't, I don't know if that, I don't know if I ever saw anybody report. Yeah, it was like a, it wasn't a Mary Jane thing. I'm not going to say anything because I don't know what is and is not out there. I mean, I thought he said it. So, saying, I don't know. So I will decline to comment in this regard. Fair enough. Darren Till. Thoughts. BKFC, you watched it.

I was standing in line. I got to watch the clip afterwards. What was your thoughts about the fight, the card, et cetera? I mean, BKFC cards are BKFC cards, right? They move quickly. This one was actually quite bad. They've gotten really terrible with pacing, man. It's killing them.

Honestly, the pacing wasn't a huge issue. It was not as good as the pacing has been. The fights were almost. almost all bad. Such to the point that Dave Feldman during like there, he was in the booth and they were talking, just came out and said, said it.

They were discussing it and he was like, yeah, you know, I wish the fighters had done a little bit better. This hasn't been very good. Because it wasn't. It was not a deeply interesting BKFC card. Darren Till's performance was very, very good. You know, he struggled early,

but I think every fighter I've ever seen come from something else to BKFC there is an adjustment period it is just a it's a different ballgame in there and so he got dropped more really stumbled than dropped like more of an off balance but he got popped and sat down in the first round and then the second round he had his bearings little bit more and he put him down man um it is you know I don't know Darren Till didn't jump out of me immediately in the way Mike Perry did or I was like this, you are home now.

This is correct. But he seems to be at the minimum competent at it. And my immediate thought, my immediate thought after, I can say words, I promise, was,

yeah, we gotta, it's, why are we messing around? Like, we got to do Darren Till versus Mike Perry. And I don't know if that's on offer.

I don't know where Perry's relationship is with, BKFC but I don't think he's signed to them right now like I don't think he's under contract but I don't know if that's like he's just not signed because other things were happening and maybe he wants

to see about building with MVP but if MVP or if BKFC can they got to get that fight booked because that's that's the biggest thing they can do right now is Mike Perry versus Darren Till and Bear Knuckle yeah they have lost a lot of steam

like I know they're selling tickets and stuff and like filling up venues and that's great. Like they're reasonably priced and it's just a fun event to go to. Pacing or not. Like it is a fun event to go to. They don't have a lot of star power right now though. Like they don't have the fights or it's just like I have to stay home on a Saturday and watch it.

It was pretty crazy, man. The pacing's gotten really bad. Yeah, getting till in there is big. But like without a Mike Perry fight on the table, like why did you bring them in? Like what's like we had to have been building to that right? So I just feel like and we say that we've said this so many times to be KFC like well once they do Perry versus Till like where do you go from there?

We thought like the Artem Loboff, Polly Malinaghi fight was like the peak of their powers. And then they side Paige Van Zand. We're like, all right, can't get any bigger than this. And then they bring in Mike Perry and we've seen some of the big ass fights they put together with Mike. So yeah, you got to do this. one man it is so intriguing and i don't know darren seems to be doing pretty well i thought misfits was kind of darren's home though like i kind of felt like all right he gets it he's like a

influencer type of personality he knows what to say to draw interest and can fight a little bit what's even going on with misfits like it that feels like they have feel like they felt the face of the earth this year they're trying to do like pro cards which is so stupid yeah it feels like they just complete because we used to cover them a lot yeah i think chaste amor is like they're trying to doing a pro event like chase demore's trying to get to wherever it was and like wherever you airline he flew on like lost his luggage with his boxing gear and he's like now i'm just not gonna fight now so like i i don't yeah i don't know they're losing everything that made them good which is like do a bunch of weird fights and now they're not even doing that so yeah i don't know

what's going on pretty pretty strange times just be who you are Be who you are. We got Coker FC coming up. And has a couple. Okay. Misfits is doing, oh, they got,

Jesus Christ. They've got Eddie and Tommy Fury fight. Okay. What am I, yeah. But, I mean, they prior to,

like, they haven't really done, they did Trezora Wilder, which was, I forgot that Miss Fitz actually was the promoter for that fight, which I watched. But that also just didn't feel like a misfits fight

because it was real, heavyweights. Yeah. But they haven't really done like their thing. But they are doing Eddie. We're so back. That's Saturday. Oh my God.

Next. That's next Saturday. So next Saturday is. The next weekend is going to suck so hard for us. It's going to be great. We're going to have fun. It's going to suck so hard. So what is it?

We got, uh, so obviously we got R-F. We got the White House weigh-ins. We got. Fury versus Eddie Hall. Is there anything else that day too? That's still just a massive day. So yeah, it's going to be very, very busy.

And yeah. So it's good, just enjoy this week. Enjoy this week. Relax. Have a good time. We got a, there are still some good fights on this apex card. We'll talk about it on Friday.

As far as apex cards go, it's pretty decent. Like, it's not bad. It's a lot of Mohammed, Gabriel Bonfee. This is a very, very good apex card. Yeah. Brandon Allen versus Edmund Shabazzian is still one of the weirdest fights ever. But it's happening. For a Ziam, Tom Nolan's a good fight.

Yeah, there's a lot happening here that I enjoy. Yeah. The problem is he's going to kill a dude. That's fun. Yep. And I need all the fantasy points I can get to climb out of the cellar. And, you know, by the way, we have to start planning the rest of the fantasy season. We're after next week, we will have to draft up. Yeah. Is there a card on the 20th?

Uh, there is, when is the, yes, that's the cop or Gucci fight card. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. So we have to draft before that, right. We will have to get a draft done like Wednesday. You have to do it Monday. Because the white, I mean, I don't even, maybe I can pull it off. And I'm going to have to be, I'm going to have to be traveling on Monday because Sunday's the fight card. Oh, yes. So I'm off, I'm off most of that week.

So we'll have to figure something out. It's going to be tight. Yeah, we'll figure it out. Also, why have this fight card a week after the White House card? Not even a week, six days after the White House call. Give us a Sunday. That should 100% be a weekend off because you just did the White House card. You don't need to have cop and horo Gucci in the goddamn apex.

Let it cibber. Push it back a week. It's okay. Everything will be fine. And then they're off the following week, right? Were they on the road again? I don't know. Nope.

No, they have a card that week. Following week is Baku. Baku, then they're off the following week. The following week is 4th of July weekend international flight weeks after that. And I assume Baku is still going down. I believe it is. Raphael Fazeve back in the main event. I just didn't know because, you know, we're currently at war with the country that literally borders Azerbaijan.

So maybe we weren't going to go to Baku, but I guess we're still going to Baku. As of right now. So that's the music. That means we're done. I'm going to get ready to interview Jedd's favorite fighter, Amin Zahabhi. But thank you for joining us on the Rando Tuesday. Next week, I think we're probably going to go Tuesday again.

So be prepared for that. Just letting you guys know. Big week, White House, RIF travel, all sorts of stuff. So make sure we get some stuff out Tuesday, get you all fired up for all of these things. And stick with us, MAAfighting.com. It's a terrific website and lots of stuff going on. Jed's got some really cool stuff coming your way.

Yeah, this week is. actually a nightmare for me. He's so much shit I have to do. Yes. But I really like them all, so it'll be fun. And I think you'll like them as well. So stick with us and you'll see what I'm talking about. For Jed, I am Mike Eckack.

Thank you so much back next week on another episode of Between the Links. Good night, everybody. Love you all. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.