MMA Fighting - BTL | Arman Tsarukyan Wins Again, Ilia Topuria's Comments, Sterling vs. Zalal, RAF Signs Chimaev

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

The Arman Tsarukyan side quest tour continues to pay dividends as he once again delivered a dominant win, and a viral moment at #RAF 08 against Urijah Faber. While everyone is enjoying the Tsarukyan show, UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria views the rising star the opposite way ahead of his title defense at UFC White House. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to another busy weekend in combat sports, Tsarukyan's big win in Philadelphia, Topuria's comments about him to Yahoo Sports, along with Mike Malott's big main event win at UFC Winnipeg, and Gilbert Burns calling it a career. Additionally, topics may include the upcoming UFC Vegas 116 card headlined by a pivotal featherweight matchup between former champ Aljamain Sterling and surging contender Youssef Zalal, Darren Till booking his first BKFC fight, Cory Sandhagen facing Mario Bautista in a rematch at UFC 329, Islam Makhachev teasing news, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The iconic voice of Esther Lynn and the sound of the landscapers, leafblowers, and lawnmowers. Welcome you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. Happy Thursday to us all. Hope you're all having a great week. Sorry for the noise. Hopefully it goes away soon. The timing just cannot be any better, but we're coming off of a very busy week in the combat sports world. We have the UFC back at the world's most famous apex this week. Lots to talk about with all of you. And joining me to do exactly that is Mr. No Gray area himself, the Roger Goodell of the MMA fighting draft system, the one and only, Jed Bishu. Jed, how we doing?

The promotional draft dropped a few hours ago on all platforms. how are you feeling? Success? Feeling strong. It was great time. I got to be RAF. If you haven't watched the Vader, read the article, please go check that out on M.M.A.5.comcred website. I'm doing better than I thought in the poll that is up on the website.

I did not anticipate. I thought I'd do fine, right? But I am currently in the lead, despite a fairly lackluster finish, if we're being honest. A.K. Not getting the love that I think he deserves for going all offense, just full on attack mode. But, I mean, honestly, my biggest takeaway, Mike, is I realized this yesterday as I was prepping it. This is our fifth one of these, which when I started this very stupid thing five years ago, I would not have guessed we would still be doing in the year 2026.

Yeah, five years down. So loud. You're your yard is going to be so clean. You're going to be looking sharp out there. Jolly, man. It is very loud. Yeah, RIF crushing it. I think they're the promotion of the year thus far in combat sports up into this point.

So the voting kind of works out. You just bolster the roster a little bit more. BKFC is just such an easy one to grab. I think we've we've taken back over. We're not, we should not be a classy fight organization. we should just be a bunch of lunatics on the roster. And not only that, I drafted Eric Bischoff, which totally takes away from you guys

and makes our production and our product way better. No more knuckle manias that last seven and a half hours. Those days are over. Those are behind us. We are back to what made us great. But yes, read the article, listen to the pod, watch the video. It's a great time.

But this is your show, ladies and gentlemen, excited to talk with all of you. Super Chats gets at the front of the line. let's get into it. Elijah one wants to say, Winnipeg turned out to be a very fun card. And yeah, man,

it was a good card. But we're not talking about it, but it was fun. Yeah, it was fun. And we probably, outside of that, we probably won't get many questions

about that event. And that's kind of the, when we say like cards are not strong, that's a big thing. That's a big thing. Why? But, uh,

how would you grade UFC Winnipeg, Jed? Ooh, that's a good question. Also, I mean, well done to mute yourself. How would I grade EOC Winnipeg? That's like a C plus C? I don't know. Again, we had some fun, right?

Like, there was some, let me pull up, but like, I have to even pull up the card because it's just like, all right, the Mike Malott thing, good performance, but we talked about it on the post show. I don't know what to make of it. I don't know if this is a praise Malat or. or Gilbert Burns, you know, past his prime. Feels more closer to the Burns thing than the Malat thing,

but I guess we'll find out in his next one. Charles Dordane, pretty good performance against Kyler Phillips. But, and, you know, I guess he's still young enough to be a prospect or, like, a guy who could develop into something, he's not quite 30. The rest of it is, like, the Jai Herbert chaos was sick. Like, that was awesome. Nice little comeback from Jai Herbert against Mandonello.

Jasmine Diazavish, that was a fist fight. And then the rest of it's like, okay, not bad. Like we had some fun. But it is, like you said, Mike, it's one of those things we're just not going to talk about that much. And that's sort of the ongoing problem with a lot of these non-premium cards is maybe there's one big fight atop it. Maybe there's not.

Like, that fight wasn't necessarily a big fight. But we can still have fun. And if that's all you're looking for, there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, it was a solid card. I had it on the background while I was at REF, which was a lot of fun, by the way. I think RIF is just cooking right now. I actually think, depending on what you're looking for, if you're just there for like the entirety of the event, if you're a wrestling fan on top of being like a UFC fan, I think this is the best card they've put on, honestly.

I think this is the best one. The vibes were, we're strong. Mike, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I need to get this out in case I'm about to be murdered, ceremony. There are a group of people pacing back and forth in front of my house. All of them are holding their arms behind their back like they are Morpheus in the matrix. And they're not, it's not like here's four and four. It's like two and two doing cross sections. And I don't know what that's about, but I want the world to know.

I did not sign up to be a ritualistic sacrifice. So if that happens, avenge me. I'm on my way. This is the weirdest shit I have seen in a hot minute. I mean, my first thought I was like, boy, these people are taking this, this fantasy promotional draft way too serious. Maybe. And also like, I've sorted this out last night.

I like genuinely thought my house was getting broken into because it 10.30 in the evening, someone was on my front porch and I could hear them. And I was like, what, what's going on? No one's supposed to be here. And I went and I like went to look out it. And there's a dude taking a photo and before I could open the door and be like, what the is going on, man? What are you? He had left. And then I realized he was dropping off an Amazon package like 1030 and he was taking a photo to be like the proof that I did this, except for the package wasn't for me. It was for somebody else.

So a lot of weird stuff's going on in my house. And maybe I'm about to be murdered. But if I'm murdered, I would like everyone to know, I love my life. Avenge me. Maybe it's Michael Bisbing fans taking his back because you've been so sour on the UFC product. How dare you? Maybe.

It's weird. I don't know. Yeah. Joseph, Islam put out a post saying July. Is that Islam really? If Islam does return to UFC 329, does that mean there is a possibility of no Connor? I can't see Islam co-main event in Connor. I certainly can, but I don't know why they would do that.

100% that could happen. I think it would be less likely that they would do it just because they would want to not put. But maybe just because Connor is not necessarily reliable. You want to have a very strong co-main for Connor in case he withdraws. and then you're left there, but if I were in charge, I wouldn't co-main him because that then inevitably leads to Connor and Islam and Habib all in a room together.

And that probably won't go like great. And there's no real opportunity for them to fight because why would we even do that at this point? So I think it's possible. I don't know if Islam's going to fight in July. like that timeline sort of makes sense to me for him to be the IFW

but also like allegedly Connor might be coming back for IFW so I don't know I guess we're sort of just like we'll see I got we got enough fights that we already know about I just would like is Lamakov to defend his welterweight title against real welterweights for his next two fights

and that's my primary concern with that belt right now I don't know what it means I think, honestly, I think him fighting in July would be like a catastrophic mistake. Because he's already, there's already, and this is not true, obviously. Even Ilya has kind of taken his back on this. There is a portion of the fan base who feels like Islam Makachev is avoiding Ilya that he did not want to, he was like, nah, I don't want to fight him at the White House.

But then three weeks later, you're going to fight international fight week. wait till August man just wait a month and then that like kind of takes all that away but who knows that's just what the perception would be by like kind of the lowest common denominator of the fans of the sport and they are very loud and they're very boisterous and Elon and the Twitter bots love those people more than anybody else on the planet so that is something that could happen but I mean I don't know man I kind of feel like I kind of I feel like if Connor's not fight, it feels like between Connor and Dana and the brass and everybody else, I feel like this is the best we felt about an actual Connor return. And since he actually booked the fight with Michael Chandler.

Yeah. Yeah, I have some level of confidence that this is happening, primarily because Dana has really been consistent if you're reading between the lines on the Connor return of no, no, no, yes. he has basically just consistently said we're not negotiations, we're not talking about it. He's denied when Connor is like, I'm coming back or whatever until they had pen to paper and him being like,

it's looking good. Suggest to me that they have resolved the contract situation. My best guess is that Connor has now signed a new contract with them, which I think would be incredibly stupid of him, but not my pig, not my farm. We talked about this last week, man.

Connor should return because I don't know why he wouldn't. Unless he is just never going to fight again, which doesn't seem real. Nobody retires, especially not people like Connor. And if I were on Connor's team, I'd be like, dude, just fight twice this year. Whoever they offer you, say yes, fight twice, we're out. I don't care if they pay you $4 to fight.

It's fine because the moment you are a free agent, you can go box Jake Paul or box Floyd Mayweather or box mani Pachial or fighting A. Diaz and make all the money instead of 20% of the money. He makes so much more money outside of the UFC than inside of it. I thought this five years ago and he has been doing whatever. So maybe he'll just keep doing that. But the fiscally good choice has always been for Conner to fight. And so at some point, I assume that that will happen.

and it feels like now we're moving towards that because Dana, for the first time in like two years, Dana's been like, oh yeah, he did not immediately shoot it down. Yeah, I guess coming back. Who he fights, not really sure. Is it Moss at all? Is it all the way?

Who the hell knows of this point? It should just be Patty. Patty is a good one as well. Patty, I think, is the only right answer for who he fights. Who, how, who did you pick a lot of? I mean, Michael Chandler is the other one, but. Yeah, Chandler makes a lot of it. I wouldn't mind Mazadol either, but...

I think Mazvedol kills him, and then you're not gaining anything because... Does Patty kill him? Patty can... I think Patty almost certainly does beat him at, like, this stage of Connor. If you do Prime versus Prime, Connor beats Patty, but this version of Connor, Patty probably beats him. And then Patty's a bigger star, and you... Patty's going to be in the promotion for five more years, and you can juice that. Mossadol has maybe two fights left in the promotion.

Like, if one of them's... like that just seems like bad booking to me yeah you need to either book connor somebody he can beat or book connor against somebody who you can build and will stay in the promotion and i don't like he can't beat a lot of dudes michael chanler you can maybe still beat but also he could lose to that so like i patty feels like the way i'd go yeah what like if he ends up fighting in july what happens after that is what I'm like really fascinated by because they ain't going to rush him into another fight until he resigns with them. That's what they did with Nate.

That's what they do with everybody. So and Connor's just going to sit on the shelf. He's going to be pissed. And then Dana's going to give his side and Connor will give his side. And then Connor will be out for two years until he actually fights again. So hopefully you're right and we can just knock this out of the park. He could make a half a billion dollars over the next three years if he just got out of his UFC contract.

Yep. Like, it's, and I, this has been true for half a decade. And I know he was injured for some of that time. I wrote about it this week in the mailbag. Like, I don't know what he's doing because ostensibly he really likes money. And the best way for him to make the most money is to be done with the UFC. And the only way to do that is to fight two more times. So just fight.

Don't negotiate shit on those fights. You know, lose the bad. to win the war. Fight whoever, fight them, and be done. Masters, Mike, I was looking at the 155 title lineage. And if I'm not mistaken, Eddie Alvarez is the last champion to lose his title in the Octagon. Charles was the closest but missed weight. How mad is that? Somebody tweeted this the other week. And I don't remember who it was, but it like, you know, it kind of made the rounds of maybe they might even put it on broadcast. Like it was a thing.

where like the MMA Twitterverse realized that it's been like a decade since the lightweight belt genuine like changed hands for real for real it's insane like it is and you know some of that's on the UFC for them allowing things like this to happen some of it is just like circumstance

Habib retired all these sorts of strange things occurred but it's it's pretty nuts that this the lightweight belt like the title of the best division in the sport has, does, like has a very broken lineage at this point. Like it is, it is not like an A to B to C.

It's, it's crazy. I still like, I still kind of like, to some degree, even though it's not true, feel like Olivero was the champion and lost it to Islam. Like deep down,

that's like how I feel. Most people, most people do. And I certainly do. I don't give a shit about a half pound. But officially, even a half pound. it was like 155.2 or something crazy because it was under the realm of how every other lightweight

fight is contested but they don't give you the one pound allowance or championship outs which feels silly to me but whatever um yeah like everyone views that as like fine and just and the way he ended up because like i thought his i thought oliver's title was a sham because it was when he beat chandler for it he wasn't Like that's just not a legitimate title. He beat, he was the number two dude or the number three dude and he beat the number four ranked dude. Porier and Gaichy were both ahead of him.

And so I was like, that's just a fake belt. But then he went and beat those other two dudes. And so the belt was legitimized by beating the guys who should have fought for the vacant title. And then he and one of them, he beat them with an extra half pound of weight or whatever. Again, shave your head. I don't understand. Like you could have got a half pound shaved head. but whatever.

But it's fine. But it is like just officially that being the case is super, super weird. Lazy bed. Early thoughts on Corey Sanhagen versus Mario Batista 2, a UFC 329. We really missed the opportunity again to have Corey versus O'Malley by like a month. Yes. So this is kind of interesting, Jed. I spoke to Corey Sanhagan not that long ago along with one of his up-and-coming fighters.

and Corey told me that he was offered Peyton Talbot said yes and was already like kind of preparing to fight Peyton Talbot. And then he said, you know, a day or two later, they're like, now we're going in a different direction. And he was like, I can't really say anything until they do. But it's a way different direction than Peyton Talbot. And it was. Mara Batista who fought Corey Sanhagen in his UFC debut, took. it on short notice that fight happened all the way back at ufc on esPN plus one and san hagen just kind of ran them over i mean it's just a really tough matchup to make your debut in especially on

short notice uh cori did the thing and mara batista got on the mic after he beat venetius oliver and said i want some rematches give me the cori san hagan rematch it and gosh darn it jed look at mario getting what he wants got his wish this is the fight we're getting thoughts on it Is this the way you would have gone as well? It's a good fight. And I think Mara Bautista has done enough to deserve a shot back at this again, right? You know, tough circumstances for the first one. He has since won a lot of fights.

No issue with the matchmaking. The primary issue with the matchmaking is not this fight, but the fight before that, which is Corey should have fought Sean. And the UFC didn't want to do it because Corey, he might beat Sean. I'm not sure he would, but he might. And so they're giving him as a hobby who Sean's going to beat because this is only very loosely a sport anymore. The UFC is just trying to put the people they want in the absolute best positions at all times. And I don't blame Sean O'Malley for this. I know Corey is blaming Sean and like, what else is he going to do? Is he going to

blame the UFC who will then, you know, give him the cold shoulder? He sort of priced into that. but like I don't think that Sean Amalley would not have accepted a fight with Corey Santagin if the UFC was pushing for it but I think Sean Amalley recognizes that Amunds a hobby is an easier fight and that he can get that because of his privilege in the company

and he's going to exercise that to the benefit of his own career. So once that die has already been cast I think us doing Corey versus Batista two is perfectly fine. It's a very good fight and I don't know what else you do with Batista. You gave him the opportunity to do more. It went how it went.

He's got to do something, and you kind of got to keep these guys busy. And so this is probably the best matchup Corey San Diego could hope for, quite frankly. So, yeah, fine. Would you have done Sanhagen Talbot over Sanhagen Batista, too?

I mean, that's fine, too. Did you see Peyton Talbot's tweets, the other day? No. I saw something about, it was like a UFC like pointed tweet of some kind. Yeah, he's,

he mad at the UFC. Yeah, the toy story meme of Andy dropping Woody and being like, I don't want to play with you anymore. He did that. And then for clarification

on the, he then, you know, did a follow up tweet where he's like, to be clear, I am Woody. And Andy is the UFC.

in this one. He took away the opportunity for you to be like, who could it be? I want to pull it up because it was deeply funny to me. He and then he walked it back apparently yesterday where he is like, it's just a tweet guys or just a meme. Nothing happened between us. I just wanted to fight.

So somebody from the UFC called him and was like, hey, why are you sub-tweeting us, or I guess directly tweeting us? It's like, because I wanted to fight and you guys aren't letting me fight. That would be fine. I mean, but that's sort of the thing with Littalbitt is he has one meaningful win. And, you know, it's meaningful to beat Henry Suhudo still. But like how genuinely relevant is that in the modern day and age is a question? And so you can book him against anybody.

And Song-e-Dong's booked. I mean They might just book Is Umar's not booked right? No They might just book his ass against Dumar Because if he wins And he gets to fight for a title

And Umar is going to have to fight Because Sean's clearly fighting for the title After Marob and Peyodor Unless Maraub He's fighting twice He's fighting twice Unless Marob beats Piotr They probably

Then maybe they wouldn't do a third Sean And Marob fight Because why would you But Umar's gonna need to fight so that might just be paying Talbot getting humor yeah i don't know cheetah would make sense figgy would make sense figgy would make sense chito i mean god don't i don't i don't chito is such a strange duck right now

i don't know what you do with the man who won't fight yeah i don't know man weird situation but i know san hey like that fight he was like all right i'll fight talbot and he's I mean, that would have been fine. Yeah. That'd have been a huge, a huge step up for Payton, no doubt about it. But, you know, at this point, like, let's just go, man. Let's see what this kid's got. I mean, certainly.

This is great. How do you guys feel about the missing phone and the UFC antitrust case spolation being found in the backseat of a car if I had a nickel for every time? Obviously, you probably see this, right? Oh my God, it's so great. I'll read the tweet in case you guys missed it. So Dana White and Hunter Campbell both testified in the UFC any trust case a couple of months ago. And the judge was so frustrated about this missing cell phone of Dana White's.

Where the hell was it? Why can't we find it? Where is it? They talked to the commander of communications, I guess, for the UFC. And they're like, don't know what you're talking about. It's lost. don't know where it is. Shout out to John Nash at Hey Not the Face.

16 hours ago. Here's his tweet. Update to the UFC antitrust case spolulation issue. They found Dana White's missing phone. Apparently Ari Emanuel's nephew did not steal it because that was part of it too. Maybe Ari's nephew stole it.

Instead, they found it in the backseat of a car where because it had a black case and it was on a black leather seat, they missed it. Not joking. This is unbelievable. This is crazy, Jed. This is freaking insane.

I want to be surprised that I'm reading that tweet into a live microphone, but I'm not surprised. This is a weird place to be in, mentally, Jed, for me. I miss living in a society where people would at least respect you enough to lie credibly and not to say the stupid or shit in the world. Like, I genuinely think that, like, we have lost. as a society a lot over the last 10, 15 years. Just like by a total, like the total lack of shame that anyone has to say anything.

I mean, I guess there's a world where this is a true statement. I cannot say definitively that this is not true. Because sometimes people are dumb. It is convenient. I will say that. and strains credulity. Because, like, I don't know, man. Mike, how often have you lost your phone?

Like, just, we all lose our phones. How often have you lost your phone? For more than, like, 30 minutes? Yeah. Like, how have you? Never. You can usually figure out where you lost it. Like, oh, I left it in the golf cart or whatever.

And then you just retrace your steps because it's your phone. Because we, as a. society functionally live on our phones. And so it's like a thing of all the things you could remove from me right now, other than like my skeleton, my phone is probably the single thing that would cause the most harm to my day-to-day life if you just took it away from me. And that's true of almost everyone in modern society.

And so like, it's just maybe Ari's nephew stole it. Or we'll ask him, but can you not find him? Just ask Ari's nephew. Like, all right, did you steal it? And he can tell you. Like, this is the most obvious and most likely answer to all of this is these are the dumbest lies being told. And I just wish we lived in a society where you at least gave me the amount of respect to lie better than this. It's so, so stupid.

I can't. It's truly shocking to me that that is a thing. And it's just like, okay. Judge Bullware is probably gonna like lose his friggin mind because I love watching

I love falling along with this case because the judge is just like he's just calling people on the bullshit the whole time and it's very very funny I'm super curious how he reacts to this and the whole dominance MMA stuff

with them just like refusing to turn over evidence and things that they're asking for it's what a case man I would love a judge doc on this. Absolutely love it. I mean, it's just,

it's brutal. Just like, dude, just, if you're such a stand-up business and everything's good, then you don't have anything to hide. Just turn it every fucking problem, man. It's not that hard. Yeah.

Bolt Corpse. Thoughts on Darren Till and BKFC. Yes, so the signing happened last week, and now he's fighting Aaron Chalmers, I think May 30th that fights happening? somewhere in the UK I think

it's somewhere in May and that's right I'm not certain on the date but it's happening in I wrote this I should know this hold on I'll pull it up but yes it's Aaron Chalmers and you know it doesn't make sense

yeah it's a perfectly fine it's a perfectly fine one it is May 30th and it's Birmingham you know like when he was talking about it He went on Aero show and was talking about it. And he was like, yeah, the offer was too good. I didn't really ever want to do BKFC, but they made me too good an offer.

And that's how this works. They met his price. And so he's going to do it. And I don't think this is true, but I think it is smart of him to correlate his entrance in BKFC with potentially Mike Perry's exit and be like, see, been trying to fight Perry for years. I finally come to his neck of the woods. Suddenly he's not as involved here. What's going on is he ducking me?

I don't think that's what happened. But I think, you know, if you're trying to get yourself over, that's a good line to spin. And so he's going to do that. Yeah, the whole Mike Perry situation is very intriguing to me because I think he said, I know he told me he still has two fights left, but I think he can leave if he wants to. I mean, it's kind of where he's at, but this is a bit,

like, this is, this is, this is, this is a big fight. Like, this is a big one for them. This is probably the biggest fight BKFC can make right now. They have lost some buzz, man. Like, they really have. They, they just... Ariv took everything they were working for.

Pretty much. And I still love me a BKFC card. I was one of like the early, don't give up on these guys. Like, they're really fun. The cards are really, really good. I still say to this day, that BKFC 19 was the best event I ever covered live.

It was awesome. It was great event outside of the internet. side of the influencers, not actually bare-knuckle fighting each other. That annoyed the shit out of me. I think it annoyed Feldman as well, which is why he hasn't done it since. Had them fighting 14-ounce gloves, which is kind of bizarre. But that's something that happened at that event. But yeah, all the things that, like, made them successful, they just stopped doing.

Like, Mike just wanted, Perry just wanted to fight like every month last year, and they just didn't let him fight. Don't understand why. And then they keep teasing all this stuff. Like, oh, we have something huge planned in April for. him a hometown fight to be the biggest name he's ever fought times a billion and then they don't announce anything and he's like all right eff it i'm gonna go box at eight diaz and then phelma gets mad about it he's like we support him but like this is how how this isn't the way we would have

done it and then parry's like well what do you want me to do you keep telling me i'm going to fight and then you don't book me so like what am i supposed to do so i'm going to go fight in a ds and have the most about a people watch me fight that have ever watched me fight i i it's such a And then, you know, like if you go to a BKFC event, you have a great time. Like you really do. If you watch BKFC card, like you really don't have a bad time. Outside of the pacing issues they have now, they have lost everything there. But yeah, man, they need to spark bad.

They need to get Mike Perry back on board. They have to get Mike Perry versus Darren Till. Booked. Sign, sealed, and delivered. Be massive. It's the biggest fight they can make right now, realistically. Because Connor ain't fighting for them. can't. He can't fight Mike Perry right now. So you have the chance. This is years in the making these two trying to fight. Now you have him like under contract in the in the same organization.

Like Mike Perry should be in friggin' Newcastle, May 30th. Like he should get his own walkout. And when Darren Till beats up Aaron Chalmers and boy, is he going to bring Mike Perry out, you have the face off, have him shove each other, have a big moment. And let's set this fight up, man. Like what are we waiting for here? but yeah i just don't know what's going on um and i maybe parry will be back and this has just been you know like because parry is a big game hunter right like he doesn't he he he has been averse to doing just like the every man bkfc thing he wants the a big fight things and there there's some in the context of bkfc big fights right that could happen like you could book perry lorenzo

hunt. You know, like you could do that. But does that have gravitas outside of like a very small niche bubble? Not really. And so I think Perry has maybe just been biding his time. He's been focusing on his own, you know, dirty boxing promotion. And the Nate fight happens. Obviously, that's enormous. He's going to do that regardless. So maybe, maybe now that Till is under the banner, you know, he settles up with Nate, does this thing over here. Maybe he does come back. And you know for a fight end of this year because a Terry Pell a Perry Till fight is a much bigger fight than I think anything else BKFC can really offer him right now and so maybe he's simply just been

biting his time until they got something that would be appropriately big yeah there's there's just nothing else real's like could you do Perry Dylan Dennis but like Dennis ain't gonna show up for that well yeah that's just not yeah He's not going to do it. Trying to think, like, yeah, I know Robbie Lawler's been, like, mentioned as an option, but, like, yeah, that's fun. And, like, it's going to do that. Tills way bigger than that. It's just way bigger than that.

So they got to get this done, man. They have to get this done. There's certainly a fan base for it, but without having the peries and the Tills and the big stars, like, fighting each other, like, they're starting to lose some luster. I know they're selling tickets and they do a good job of, like, booking regional fighters. on their cards and like having them fill up arenas like I talked to a buddy went to the mohegan events the one that pacup porter headlines obvious sellout because it's pocket porter headlining uh they just crushing it over there every time they go there it's a sell out and bell tort could like never sell that place out uh and i've been to a bunch of them belator had a hard time

doing it bkfc still selling that place out so they still have something but in terms of hey let's let's buy the app or hey let's spend $30 on a pay-per-view like that car We just haven't seen it in a really long time. So hopefully we can get something back here. Sledo with a membership chat. I saw this yesterday. I wish I talked to Aljo. Yes, last night after seeing this.

Why can Aljo advertise Funk Harbor at Media Day, Jed? Did you see this? So Alzo shows up to Media Day. I know the answer to this. Yeah, dressed to the nines. He brings his Funk Harbor rum onto the table, puts it down. and then immediately UFC PR comes over and

takes it right down and then he just does as immediate as is. So that's what happened. Yeah, he didn't pay for the privilege. That's how these things go. The U.C. has sponsors. Funk Harbor is not a UFC sponsor. That's how this has always worked

for them functionally. If Aljo wants to cut a deal with the UFC, then he can do that. A little surprised he hasn't, quite frankly. been pushing Funk Harbor. I don't. I've been meaning to try it.

One of these watch parties, we need to just get a bottle and give it a go. Just to see what it's about. I don't like rum. It could be fun. But like, you know,

howlerhead is the Stainer's thing and they have a deal with it. Connor negotiated brand deals for his stuff. They are not like, and I don't blame them, we don't do free advertising either, Mike. They don't do free advertising.

for you. Fighters do not get to promote their sponsors on UFC stuff. They, they don't. The UFC doesn't even really like it when, and your post-fight speech, you're like, and shout out to my sponsor, blah.

Like, that's, you know, we could have a deep conversation about how this actually makes them employees and not contractors, but we don't need to. Like, the way,

if you want to do that, cut a deal with them. because, you know, you don't get to wear your jerseys either, you know? You got UFC fight kits. That's just how this works. I thought that was pretty wild. I mean, you would like them to at least have like, again, this is a fight. It's not a fucking pay-per-view.

And this is just one of those things where like, again, you could just have some grace. You just be like, it's fine, like a bottle of his branded thing. He's been here for a long time. This isn't a one-fight contender. series guy showing up and trying to hawk merch on stage. But that's not how the U.C. operates. And I am deeply unsurprised to hear that this happened. Yeah.

Let's see. Masters Mike Jett, I know it's random, but how do you look back on Al Iaquintus' career? He had some good feuds, Lee, and was a good fighter at his peak, but you never really hear any credit given to him thoughts. I love to Al, man. Dude fought for a belt. So, I mean, it was a weird roundabout way to get there, but he fought for a world title. That's pretty good.

It's a pretty good career when you get to fight for a world title and headline cards. So not too shabby, man. And I always give Al a ton of respect, man. When we talk about, like, fighters against the UFC and trying to get what's theirs, like one of the first, like, true dudes that went and did it was Al. Like, he's like, no, I'm not doing this unless you pay me more. No, I'm going to go sell real estate. no, I'm going to do this.

No, I'm going to do that. Like, no, I'm not taking this fight because it's not the right circumstances for me. Like, Al is always about Al and doing what was best for him in his career and for his future. And I wish more fighters were like him, if we're being honest. And in a different time, if Al-I Quinta saw the writing on the wall and was like, let me be the leader of the pack and try to get these fighters together, it wouldn't have worked. But I think Al would have been a very good guy to, like, try to get everybody together. I haven't really heard anyone say a bad thing about Ally Quinta outside of guys he was fighting

and Al was talking shit about, but even afterwards, people seem to like him. So all in all for a guy who is kind of in this spot who doesn't get a ton of credit, as Masters pointed out, I think he had pretty damn good run and kind of ended things on his terms, which is really all you can ask for, Jed, is it not? The honestly got to answer to this question is I don't think of Alia Quinta's career. But that's just, we got other stuff going on. A very solid run. I mean, he's, it's an on-the-nose comparison, but it's a key, he's an auto-Markano.

Same, same sort of ilk. Like, he got to fight for a belt because he had done enough good things over the balance of his career. And he's a little lucky. Like, you know, right place, right time. And he got to fight for a belt. And he lost to a guy from Dagestan for that belt, you know? Like, it's, honest to goodness, the thing I think the most of Ally Quinta is at the decision read for the lightweight title when Habib is finally getting crowned or whatever. And Al has very clearly been 50-40.

Like, he acted surprised as a bit. And it was a great joke when they read Habib as the winner. Like, that's like the first thing because Al just was sort of a good hang, better fighter than you. think doesn't really have like a lot of big signature wins that have stood the test of time or whatever and his career ended up getting derailed because he's one of the smarter fighters that have ever competed when he realized oh i'm taking brain damage for not that much money i can just sell real estate and probably do financially better and also not get parkinson's when i'm older uh so you know i got i got plenty of respect for howl he is

one of the many dudes who's just kind of going to get lost to time because his career was a little unique in that they're like, what are the standout ally Quinta moments? He's got some decent knockouts. He blew up Ross Pearson if memory serves. But yeah, like he's just, he is, you need guys like Aliaaquinta, and he could have had a longer and more successful career. Never would have won a belt or anything.

But he could have maybe stacked up some like fight of the nights and done things like that. but he made a business decision that was probably the right one. Yeah, I think the Moikano rub is pretty good. Like, that's pretty solid. I think he could have been more,

I think he could have had more of like a Nate Diaz style like out of nowhere kind of thing. But just, you know, Nate's just a fighter, man. Like Nate is, I'm a fighter. He's a smart businessman and like understood his value and stuff.

But to the core, like Nate's just going to fight people. It will be represented as such. And Al just, like you said, just kind of looked at things a different way, is himself as a brand and himself as a business and not just the fight business, just the ally Quinta business. I think had he decided to be committed to MMA despite like, because I feel a level of confidence that he just sat down and was like, look, I'm never going to win a title. I'm only making this much money, which isn't that much money, quite frankly. like I'm not rich and I'm taking

I'm hurting my health this is probably not great had he not done that and he had just been like any of the other dudes he's like I'm just going to commit to fighting you know he wouldn't have ever gotten

to like a Porreux level of adoration but I I think Aliquita could have gotten into like a Michael Keese tier of this guy's good enough and we like him enough

to give him a shot on the in the booth some And I think I like Quinta could have actually been okay at that because he was funny. And that's like he was a naturally funny person. And I mean, most of the people they have in the booth are not funny. And I think they could use that. Like Michael Keyes is he's not a bad guy. And like he's not a bad analyst.

He knows about fighting. But like he is imminently replaceable to me. Like they could use somebody who could make a joke. That's good. And instead they've got Michael Keisa and Chris White. And PFL could use Ally Quinta in a spot? Just pay that man his money. Dirty boxing, I think it would be a great spot for him.

But they just, I don't know what dirty boxes do in these days. They just, they were on a run and boy, their broadcasts are tough. Their social media pages are tough right now. It's a shame because I really liked what they were doing. Gamebred could probably use Ally Quinta on their roster as a broadcaster. Go get him, man. Like, I bet he'd do it. I bet he would do it.

be some sort of a host like you throw Alan there with someone who can like guide him throw him in there with like a good conductor let him be the co-passenger and just run I think Al would would be great in that spot really really do

he could be bizarreo Paul Felder yes yes like because here's the thing I think almost every person they give an analyst spot to is quite bad at it I don't really see

I just don't know like the rhyme or reason to why they're like this guy gets to speak um but everybody they let speak is mostly bad at it i think there are a few notable exceptions daniel cornea early on was quite good um and he still can be good uh i didn't we talked about this off air r a f should contact daniel cormii to do commentary for them because you put him and chale in the booths with their play-by-play man and that's that because also cornea if you ever here If you ever watch the NCAA championship, like the wrestling ones, he is, he's so engaged, he's so active in that. You put Cormier Chale in the play-by-play man, it's a lot better than with Julianna Pena.

But like, he is what he is. He's not great anymore because he mostly mails it in, and that's fine. But like he's good. Felder is still quite good. Some people like Dominic Cruz. I feel like the energy has turned heavily against Dominic Cruz. I always hated him and thought he sucked. I feel like many more people are coming around to this.

Bisping is a caricature of himself at this stage of things. I just think all the people they let speak are bad, and maybe they were good at one point, but they are no longer good. And Ally Quint is the sort of dude who probably won't give you the same technical analysis to like a Paul Felder would, but he can give you enough analysis and crack jokes, and that would be a nice thing to have.

but also I'm not sure that he might also trash talk to you see which maybe is why they wouldn't ever let him do it but he's in that tier you know like or that's like where his tier would have been if he had stuck with MMA for the last five years like he could have

good career um you know not a great one yeah shout to Shane Sparks that was the he's the play by play guy for RIAF at least he has been for the last couple of shows he's he's solid he's really good man I think Ben Ascran as the call-in guy is terrific.

Me too. I think he's like really good at it because all like frankly he brings a sort of like he'll just call it like he sees it. Energy which is good. It's like no, they got it wrong or whatever. So he's really good. I honestly like Daniel Cormier with Chale and Shane like that's a good three-man booth for what RIF is doing. And Julian Pania is so like nobody. think she's good.

No one does. You cannot have ears and think that she is good at this. And so that would be great for them. They should do that. Oh, Sanco is good. Someone in the, yeah,

Sanco is good. Sanco also like, I know she had a fight career, but like she was not brought in as a former UFC fighter like all the other analysts. But like the Paramount show they do the day after is just like a bunch of people who are bad at this. Like, Dean Thomas has done broadcasting enough to be fine,

but he's like leading a panel show with Hori Mosfadol, who's the best of them. Dustin Porriere, who we all love, Dustin, he's not a talker, just not the strength of his game. And Chris Wyden, who is just not great, you know, like these aren't get a real broadcaster in there, cough Brian Campbell cough, and, you know, mix in different entities

to do this and give other people shots because there are other people who might be better at this. Yeah, I love the, uh, I love the Fitsy Felder Sanko trio. It's a great booth. It's an excellent booth. Like every, every fight night outside of the apex, that should be the trio. Every single time. I think Fitz is a wildly underrated play by play. He's so good, man.

All of their play by play people are very good is the thing. Anick is very good. Anick's job is incredibly hard. Really hard. To do as much as he does, as often as he does, is quite difficult. I think he has maybe dropped off a little bit over the last couple of years. I still think he is very good and incredibly difficult job. But Fitsy's real good.

And John Goodn is really good. John Goodn's really good. All of their professional broadcasters are quite good at it. and then everybody else, a couple of them are good and everyone else sort of is varying stages of passable. I like Helly too. He had, boy, did he have a tough assignment the last time he was doing play-by-bikes? I think it was he did Cruz and Bisbing.

I think it was it was him Cruz and Bisbing. That was UFC Vegas 115. That was the MMA fighting's ruining the sport for being honest. honest about card quality. So, yeah. Dan also does play by play. I think he also hosts the, he hosts the way and show

when they do the pay-per-view way-in shows or the numbered card way-in shows. And I think he's the power slap guy too, which kind of silly, but I think Dan's pretty good as well. So, yeah, their play-by-plays are great. I love the Fitsy Felder, Sanko trio.

It's excellent. And you know what's great about that trio? We get Paul Felder doing the post-fight interviews and he's the best on the roster by a billion miles at doing that so morefelder is a good thing for these for these events they don't they also they have a good dynamic they don't they don't talk over each other or like try to explain things to each other it's they're yeah it's the best trio they've got going um you know and the rogan cormier anic is the staple of american pay-per-views and if that's you know it's not awful uh i think

think there's I would shift away from that if I were in charge. Is there an argument that this topic coming up and the video is going viral of them taking it off the table, some promotion for it for Funk Harbor? I guess since it's getting seen all over now, I can see it. No chance. Watch my interview with Aljo. If you're in the Vegas area, he tells you exactly where you can go buy it. So maybe Aljo, I doubt Aljo even thought this far ahead and that's not criticism of Aljo, but like, it's not impossible that Aljo's like, I'm going to put it up there. If they leave it up there, great. If they take it off, maybe, you know, that'll get some juice. But like, I think Aljo just was trying to see if he could do it. And they were like, you sure can't. And then enough people were like, man, why do you guys hate Aljo so much? Because this is a promotion that has seemed

largely to be negative towards the future Hall of Famer. Because Al Jame and Stirling will go in the Hall of Fame. And it better. I mean, I don't know if it'll be, you know, first ballot, you know, the first year that he's reasonably eligible. But eventually he'll make it in there. And the discussion, like, there's a real discussion about how the U.C. has treated Algeman Stilling. To some extent, maybe he's earned it. But it does feel like a lot of extent it's not earned. Great.

RS 40 is Al Jal being overlooked against Zalal? I have Zal winning, but this is a pickam fight, honestly. Where are the odds in this fight? I was literally just clicking to look that up. are Al Jermaine Sterling odds. Aljo Very slight underdog plus 110 Zalal minus

140 I'm a little surprised by this I'm not I think that's about right maybe it should be flipped and Aljo should be like a very small betting favorite over

actually let me see what they opened at though because it's possible that the public has shifted these no that's not what I wanted let me see where opening line was here because I do think this is look this card this weekend is not great I think it's not bad

there's some highlights this main event is very good so it opened with Aljo being a much wait did it so it opened with Aljo at minus 200 and then a meet

almost instantaneously he got bet down to an underdog and he's been some level of a slight underdog and that feels honestly they opened it bigger than I would have thought they opened a minus 200 is bigger this feels really close to a pick him Al Jamein still has a clear path to victory Ussela's never been like the best defensive wrestler but he's a much more dynamic striker he's on a bit of a heater Aljo's older I mean Aljo I was just got to be 37 how old is Aljo. He's pretty close. 37, 38? That's sort of my guess.

He is, oh, he's 36. He turned 37 in July. So good for him. Okay. Yeah. You were pretty much there. In the neighborhood. You know, he's a little older. I know that he has he's a real featherweight now and that he's put on some size thing. But like, you know, he is probably the smaller man in

there. Oh, I don't know if that's true. You think so? I don't know if that's true. You might be like shorter and stature. But dude, when Aljo wrestled Benson Henderson, he's a thick boy.

He looked, I mean, he looked two weight classes bigger than Benson at R.A. He was probably like 175, 180 when he wrestled that night. Like he's a, he's a big dude, man. He's big.

Like Zahn might be like taller. He might be taller, but he ain't. He's definitely taller. Yeah, he's definitely taller, but he's not... Oh, 100% taller. Like, if they do fight night weights, he's probably 20 pounds lighter than Aljo on fight night.

Yeah, I think the odds are, you know, depends on how much you want to take the phrase overlooked at face value. I think the odds are close to right. I might have Aljo installed as a slight betting favorite. But I think this is just a very competitive fight. And so, you know, it's within the plus-minus range of my level of confidence, right? Like, I'm not massively confident in either dude. I'll probably take a bet on Aljo as an underdog, frankly.

Yeah. But I don't think it's, like, ridiculous that he's a dog, Zlau's on a heater, man. Yeah. Since returning to the UFC, useless law has been on a heater. Yeah. He's looked really good, man.

Like, he's lived up to the hype people had for him when he first entered. Because I remember how excited I was when he signed after some of the performances he had for LFA. Like him and Royval used to, him and Royval were like the two dudes and I was like, the UFC has to sign these guys like immediately. And then luckily they did right when COVID hit and they needed guys to fill out cards.

And Royval became one of the more exciting guys. And Zalal, you know, it took a second stint to really map him to where he can go. And yeah, good for headband. Like I really like this fight. This fight makes all the sense in the world. These two do have a relationship. They have a bit of his story.

They're kind of pals. But they understand what this is all about. They understand they have to put that shit aside and try to go win a bell. Because they know the roads for each of them are going to be. They're going to be long ones. They're going to be long ones. I'm really curious if Sterling goes out there and just wrecks Yusuf, goes out there and just dummies him and taps him.

And then on the flip side of Zalal goes out there and finishes Al Jermaine Sterling, do they jump of Vloyov for Volus? You think so? You think the stakes are that high in this fight

potentially? I think one of two outcomes happens. You either have to make such a statement of a victory that you could jump him or of Lov

gets tweaked and then you're obviously in but I think the winner of this fight could easily be fighting Alexander Volkanowski in the next few months. The U.S.

Heates Evalov. That's it. and I've been giving a massive amount of credit for this because I think he deserves it. He is doing what champions are supposed to do. He has come out and affirmatively said, why am I not fighting him?

He's the only logical choice. I should fight him. Let me fight him. That's awesome. I love it when a champion is doing the right thing, but it doesn't matter. The UFC holds the cards. And Volk is not going to turn down

a fight with whoever is offered. So if the UFC comes to him and says, who do you want to fight? I bet he would say of lawy. But if the UFC's not going to give him that offer, because they just hate Mofsar. This is not a secret. They do not like the man.

And they may begrudgingly give him the belt, like a shot at the belt, because it's unimpeachable to give him that. But if somebody makes a real statement and cuts like a sick promo, and Evoev even hesitates. It was just like, hey, do you want to fight Volcanovsky on August 4th? All right, well, you're out.

Like, they will use whatever excuse they can to not give him one. And so, you know, that sucks for him. I'm sorry for him. It's not just a right. But, you know, if Aljo hits a win like he did over Ortega, no, he's not going to jump it. but if he hits a Corey Sandhagan win, in play, very much in play, I think. Bull Corpse.

Thoughts on Shemai of signing with R.A.F. I really want him to fight Nickel and Covington. Yeah, dude. One of those could happen. One of those could never. I mean, Bo Nickel can happen because if you watch the promotional draft, both of them are under the RIF banner now

with exclusive contracts. The UFC will never allow, Hamzaa Chamaev to wrestle Bo-Nichol in RIF that's just a that's a 0% chance that occurs because they maybe

could have that as a fight. Colby would never end up fighting Hamzad at this stage of their careers. So, yeah, I think, yeah, for RIF, I absolutely think that match can happen in RIF.

The thing, I think that can happen in RIF because the U.S. years are like, well, they're never going to fight so we're not losing anything by these two dudes wrestling each other.

I would still say it's unlikely because I know that the general rule is that the UFC is just not going to allow RAF to have UFC fighters wrestle each other. I think that might get a little bit of leeway in terms of somebody like Colby Covington

who's not promotionally relevant to them that much anymore. But yeah, he's never wrestling go nickel and RF. That's just never going to occur. Yeah, unfortunately that's probably the case. Shemayf, Kyle Snyder is really fun. I mean, this is obviously a

big signing. It was super honestly. It was so I found out about this like way before everybody else did. Yeah. If you're obviously in our Slack channel because I was told before the the presser on Friday and I told Chad this and when I asked him a question on Saturday about the signing, he was like yeah, wait till you see what we have planned for the summer. He goes, we're making a huge announcement tomorrow. He goes, don't ask me about it now. He goes, but I guarantee you're going to asked me about it at the press conference after the matches. And I was like, all right. And then I go to where the media is. And I'm like, do you know when this announcement's coming? And like, you know, sometimes between like nine and 10, he goes, but I think it's going to be like, you know,

somewhere in between like the third to last, maybe right for the co-main event. And I was like, want to just like tell me what it is? He's like, no. I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, dude. I was like, how long have you known me? I'm not going to, like, I'm not going to spoil away for you guys to announce. I'm just curious. Like when you say like a holy shit announcement so I don't have to spend my time when I'm trying to cover this. Exactly. I was like, you know, maybe giving a heads up when the announcement's going to come. One of those things.

I was like when I hear a holy shit announcement, like I want it. I was like I want to know. And then the guy actually like who I was talking to went to the UFC page and went to like the rankings and then went like this with his phone and pointed a hamza. I'm like get that. My response was like, get the fuck out of here. He goes, no, it's, it's happening. He goes, it's going to be a really cool video package. He's like, this is the guy.

I'm like, holy shit. I was like, I'm just going to tell our guys. I was like, but we're not going to, I promise you we're not going to, we're not going to spoil it. But like the reaction to this, to this video in the arena, I was stunned by it. It was, it was like silence. It was like a decent. Golfer on the first day of a major, like made a birdie putt, maybe like the lead amateur. It was just like, okay, there's 12 people there and they're like politely clapping for him.

I was really surprised by that, especially with Chimae of like having such a wrestling pedigree, especially a freestyle pedigree. I thought the pop in the arena would be a little bit bigger. But obviously the reaction on social media and all that was was huge. Yeah, that is weird that the arena didn't pop that much. one of my favorite things I learned since joining media many, many moons ago is that at least for me, I don't want to know breaking news so I can break it. I don't care about that at all. It is simply just insignificant.

I know that it matters to people and stuff. But like, if Dana would simply tell me everything he was going to do before he did it, I would be content to never tell anyone just so long as I can pre-write. it and not have to then scramble to write it while I'm also doing something else whenever that annuces and else like that's it. 100% tell me who you're signing not so I can. I did it. Ah, I want to write it now while I got 30 minutes to do this because later I'm not going to

have the time and it's going to be pained my ass. 100%. That's it is too because like and trust me like I like we have known about so many Dana announcements way before Dana has announced them. We've had graphics ready. We've had articles written for, like sometimes for weeks, like, we know things are coming. We just don't know when it's coming. And like, we, we would never spoil it.

Like, that's just, that's just the way that it is. Like, especially if it's coming from like a promotional source or something. Like, we'll never do that. But yeah, having that ability to get a hat on it is just, it's almost as good as like breaking the news yourself, honestly. It gives me that same kind of feeling. It's just the best. You're like, ah, great. I can get this done

and now I don't have to worry about getting a graphic made at 2 a.m. or whatever time it is. Yeah, for sure. Let's see. So for anyone out there who has news do DM me, I won't tell a soul. I'll just write it and then can pub it

after you announce it. I'm fine with that. It doesn't matter me at all. Ladies, Lucas Rocha falls out of his fight with Chafel Filio and rather than sign one of the numerous flyway talents available. They call Cody Durdin on a four-fight losing streak. Help me

understand cough, Puma, Nakuda, Koff. So here's the thing, lazy bit, because you and I are very much sympathetic with the Pumi Nakuda thing. And I hate to actually say this, but I'm just going to go ahead and say it and

be pleasantly surprised if I'm proven wrong. I am officially convinced that Pumi Nakuda will never fight the UFC. He's just never fighting in the UFC. I thought for sure when they announced that Bannam weights would be part of tough, they would put Pumee on the roster outside of his like normal weight class.

And then they could say like, hey, we gave him a chance. And, you know, if he gets in and wins tough, like, all right, we got to do this. Like, he earned his spot. But the fact that I did not see him on that roster and the fact that Cody Durdon is now fighting and many flyweight fights are falling out, falling on and they just continue not to sign him he's just never fighting in the UFC and it's a friggin bummer man

it really is uh Cody Darden is a company man is the answer this will probably be the last one for him if he lose to feel he'll have lost five in a row and like he says like one win his last 10 fights or something insane like that

but he tweeted about it this week I only know this because I was rounding it up for stuff or he was like y'all can be mad but when the UFC need help they call me and I'm there he's taking a bunch of short notice fights for them um I don't know how many but like a bunch of times he is the guy who they call um and you know there are many ways to ensure job security and being a yes man is one of them cody durden is one of those and why he got the call and you know shout out covington

georgia I think he's a t quinnett think that's where he trains yeah uh someone asked of the affiliates. I think it's the ATT-T-Quenot one. Someone asked earlier, because we were talking about, like, analysts and stuff. Someone asked, like, why is Dustin Porre, saying that Armand-Sorukian should fight Matush Gamrott in a rematch? Well, we know the answer to that, because Porian Gamrod are friends. They train together. They're, they're buds. So, of course, of course this is what Dustin would want. He'd love to have his friend fight Armand-Sor-Rugian and get one step closer to a title shot.

There was a time when they should have done that. The time is gone now. Oh, it's so far gone now. It's so far gone. They should have done this. They probably should have done it like right after Armand fell out of the title fight. That was like your last chance to do it.

I pitched that so hard. Yeah. Armand was like, no, I'm not fighting that dude. I'm ranked above. And I was like, that's dumb.

Yeah. You know? That first fight was so fucking good, man. It was awesome. It was one of the best fights of the year. Orygio. Mike Heck is wrestling Shemayef. That's the big news.

I'll tell you what, man. If RIF comes to that with that Dr. lawyer money that your eye of favor is talking about, I'll go wrestle Hamzaa. If, absolutely. I'll wrestle anybody. I don't care.

It'll be over in 10 seconds. I would love that. I bet I could last 17 seconds. I might get called for stalling. You're just going to ride. We're here the Benny Hill theme in the background as you're running. You got to keep your weapons in front of you, but I'm going to avoid the tie-up at all costs.

I wrestled in high school. I, like, am not totally, again, 17 seconds just feels like I should be able to last 17 seconds before a pinning combo hits me. It'll be less than a minute, and it would be worth it. So I will absolutely be a guinea pig. I will be the guinea pig if you need a guy, no doubt about it. Mike and Jedd. Your eye favor hates me.

You want to get him a win? I'll wrestle him. I think he'd beat me. See a level of confidence that he'd beat me. That was wild, man. Armand tackling him off the stage. That place erupted. It was like, man, there's nowhere else you can do this besides Philadelphia.

Like, that was like such an ECW pop. I loved it. It was crazy. Not the Kyle Snyder comeback victory pop that happened the match before. I mean, that was sick, man. I just, like, I thought Snyder was cooked, and then out of nowhere, he just, he decided to win, and it was wild. Like a minute and a half spanning on eight points. That was, that was awesome, man.

Like, that was, that was vibes times a billion. I was like, man, this is sick. What a shout to Kyle Snyder, man. That was really, really fun. Mike Jinn, have you ever had anything where you announced something and it's caused you hassle? I imagine that's easily done when you are doing the breaking news thing, especially if something changes. I mean, I never announced things. I fucked up once and I inadvertently ran a story that was set for a separate time.

And one of our colleagues, it caused him a great deal of hassle as we pre-announced the thing. and I was just like I didn't have any leg to stand I was like I beefed that one real hard that's on me you can blame me and I did and it's fair because I screwed it up but I don't break news I'm not a journalist so that's a mic question not really

I think one like one time it happened and it was like kind of silly but it it blew up like way more than I thought it was going to blow up so there was it was before UFC is before UFC 279 it was remember there's that whole they canceled the press conference because there was like Diaz and Shemayev's teams were like even and shit yeah yeah yeah and that whole nonsense happened so all that happens they cancel the presser and then Jose and I were going to jump on and do like uh we're going to do like a reaction to it and and as

As this is happening and as we're trying to gather information and like we're seeing like different things pop up on Twitter, I get a text from somebody who is like not only on the card but was there. And they told me, hey, this all started because Paul Costa snuck backstage and like started fighting Shemayev. And I was like, really? He's like, oh yeah, man. Like this is what happened. and then this person like sent me to somebody else who was definitely there and then that second person was like oh yeah man like paula costa started the whole thing that's why it popped off and i was like okay there's two people so i'm just going to kind of go and then we went on the reaction show i was like

yeah two people just told me that paula costa started it and then you know it blew up all the aggregate accounts like posted about it in texas and it was like me in it and like rip the clip and threw it everywhere and Helen Yee did like an interview with Paul Costa like not long after him Paula Costa was like yeah man I wasn't there I don't know what they're talking about nothing happened and then I looked into it more and it turns out he wasn't there so I wore it a little bit and I remember I was doing heck of the heck of a morning at the time so the next day like I hopped on heck of a morning and just like didn't sleep very well that night. I felt like an asshole. I had a conversation with

Stephen Morocco who used to work with us. And I was like, I fucked up, man. Like, what do you want me to do? I was like, two people told me he was there. I mean, I'm sorry. And then it was just like, all good. And then I went a heck of a morning and just was like, I'm wrong. Hand up. Apologized. And that was that. So that was like the only time it's like really been bad that I got some. That was just like, fuck. That was really bad. But yeah, that's it. Tough seats. That's why I hate breaking news.

Name some female fighters you would like to see an RAF. Kayla. Kayla, who I drafted. I mean, I do think Julianne opinion would make sense. All right. Yeah, Ronda would be great. Ronda would be fun. I mean, Holly home, you know.

She's done it. She's wrestled for them already. Yeah, like you just do that more with her. and stuff. Like, there's just, uh, I would genuinely, and I'm probably the only person alive.

I would be actually interested in Valentina Shochenko wrestling somebody because like, yeah, I just don't, like, is she good at it? She's, she's effective at MMA tackling people, but usually those are like hip-to-hip body lock stuff.

And like, she's real physical. I'd be interested. Any of the classic names that you'd sort of imagine. Way Lee. Way Lee would be like something that we could maybe have some fun with. So yeah, any of those. McKinsey Dern for the lulls, I think the worst wrestler in the history of MMA. It would be pretty funny.

Yeah, that'd be a good one. I think Misha would make a lot of sense. Shout out Bolt Corpse. Yeah, Misha would be really good. That's a name. Any number of fun things you could do. Nunes, obviously. Yeah, there's plenty.

There's plenty you can go with there. I mean, really anybody. Yeah, getting home back in there. I mean, Rosnami Unis, people like that. Like, there's no shortage.

Like, they, like, if R. If R. R.F. want somebody, they'll just go get them.

Like, they'll make it happen. Like, it would not shock me to see John Jones wrestle for R. R. I don't think he's going to wrestle D.C., but I think they'll, I think he'll probably be wrestling for R.

If it's some point. This is a good combination of people running it right now. They have, like, relationships with, everybody. So we shall see. I'll take a few more that we get out of here. Looking ahead, lazy bed ass, a couple events on the upcoming docket that'll take place in the wee hours in the morning for the U.S. Will you guys be getting up early to watch live? So yes, we're covering them.

Yeah, Perth, Perth them down for. I don't mind getting up. That's like what, a 4 a.m., 7 a.m. I think that that is correct. I am totally fine with that. We're done. I mean, we are done earlier than that anyway. Yeah, I mean, we are wrapped and packed. In that weekend. Oh, that's the Inouye fight, right? And we get the NUA fight. So, yeah, dude, we're done.

We're wrapped and packed at like 1 p.m. that day. Of course. Let's rock. We could go play golf. The world is our oyster. I don't mind getting up early. You know, if I had to do it every weekend, I probably wouldn't like that, but it's a fine. It doesn't bother me at all to get up early.

Because once I'm awake, I'm awake. So it's like it's fine for me. Illion versus Armand beef is heating up. Yeah, I'll know. Yeah, they were both on aerial show and Ilya went off on Armin. Armand said like Ilya's not a man because he shaves his ass. All fun stuff.

But the problem is we are leading into a world where they were never going to fight each other. And so for that reason, it's just like, eh, it's just going to be it's going to go down as a fight that just got away that we're never going to we're never going to see so it's a bummer any chance cane signs with raf i think i mean i don't know this for sure i think it is i would yeah i would say 99% he signs with raf i think that's just such a big it's such an easy name to get um that would generate some pretty big headlines um and it's not like dirty boxing trying to use it clout or you know some sort of social media win this would just be good um i think that makes a lot

of sense so yeah i like that i think they should definitely do that more shocking moment of the m may fighting promotional draft ufc stealing mike perry fights sneaking eddie hall or rafs snatching up josh hoekett the eddie hall one i think eddie hall felt early too it was it was actually a brilliant play by day i was a hundred percent had him on the on the radar quite frankly i was taking I was literally taking him a pick later. I was taking him a pick later. So that was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

We were about to get Brock Lezzer Eddie Hall. Like that was happening. So that was like my whole draft strategy was to get Ilya versus Connor and Eddie Hall versus Brock Lezzer. But unfortunately, that is not the world we're living in. So good job by Damon. Fun draft. And we got through it in like less than an hour. Like it was so good.

It was just great. It was so good. Uh, causal will you be in Dallas for RAF 9 and could we try to get a one-on-one with Gable? Uh, I will be there, uh, for RF9. I'm very excited because I have family in Dallas. Uh, so it's good to return. And I will try if they'll give me, if, if they offer it up, uh, that'd be great. Let's see.

Maybe Habib and RIA. He promised his mom not to fight, but he could still wrestle, right? Jed, this is, this is a man who watched the draft. You must have watched the draft. I mean, again, he said he was laying down his gloves forever. They don't wear gloves. They don't wear gloves in RIF. He still rocks wrestling boots all the time in camp.

Just go wrestle. We can have some fun. Josh Thompson said RIF already reached out to him targeting a late summer date. Okay. It's interesting. I mean, it's fine. I don't, wouldn't have been a name I had to thought they'd have gone. gone for, but okay.

I mean, I don't think of Josh Thompson is famous. I don't either. I mean, could it be just kind of like, this is, this is Josh Thompson versus Hamzat

kind of a thing? That would be freaking hysterical, but I, please, that's the one. Go ahead and do that. Like, no one wants to see me wrestle. Do Josh Thompson versus Hamzod.

Well, I mean, you can't, because you can't go right to Hamzot, Kyle Snyder. You got them in there with an M. you may do first. Yeah. They should do something something winnable,

certainly for him. I would, that would be interesting. Chris Wydenman. Do Chris Widman. Yeah, I mean, Colby are about to wrestle, so that's going to be interesting.

Once Wydenan beats Colby, you do Hamzaa versus Wyman. And maybe honestly, that might even be the setup. Wyman beats Colby and he gets on the mic and it's like, you guys just signed Hamzaa Chamaev once he's done fighting,

you know, middleweight champ versus middleweight champ. Josh versus Tyron Woodley in R.F? I'd be down for that. I think Tyrone Woodley would be a perfectly fine fit to compete in RIF. Yes. Yeah, that'd be fine. That'd be interesting because I would probably do that.

Josh does not like me very much during the heck of morning days when he did this whole thing where he decided to like shit on the MMA media because we weren't we weren't promoting the Bellator versus PFL car. and just the way he explained it, he came off like such an ass that I kind of lost my shit a little bit. And ever since then, I've tried to like reach out to Josh to like be like, yo, like let's hash it out. Maybe I was just like, I had a little case of the grumps that day or something and I just kind of lost it a little bit. I know they commented on it. And I know he doesn't like me very much. but I don't want beef with anybody.

So, I mean, if those guys can like squash beef with everybody else, like squash it with me too. Lazy, mend the fences. I would love to talk to Josh and mend that. It's been too long. And yeah, I was I was not happy that day. And probably I wish I could take back like three or four of the minutes of all that. So, yeah, we'd love to talk. I've been trying.

I've been trying. When Bellator is still a thing, I try to make it happen. When he kind of jumped over to PFL at the time for just the one show, I think, I try to make it happen. But I haven't been able to do it. So I would love to. I would love to talk to Josh and just be cool. So there you go. Lazy Bed.

Let's do it. I love if you want to be the facilitator of the beef squashing. Let's do that. A couple more. Fun question. Best and worst scenarios for the White House card. Would Doc is beating both? nickel be up there for you?

I mean, that would be one of the funniest things that could happen. It really would. This Kyle Dachas has, I've been saying this for a while now. I'm honestly more interested in Kyle Dacus Bo Nickle than any other fight on the card. Like I under, like, I really am. I'm so intrigued by it because I truly think Kyle Daccas could beat Bo Nichael. I think you beat him. I don't know if I'm like going to pick him to beat him, but he can.

can absolutely beat him. If you look at like the list of guys Bo Nickel has fought throughout his career, like besides RDR, like Kyle Daucus is the toughest fight of his career by a pretty significant margin. So I really like this fight. Kyle's like kind of rolled into his own and Kyle's like grown a little bit of popularity. And Bo Nickel doing the thing where it's like, hey, Colby, let's, you know, he didn't really say this verbatim.

He's like, let's kick Colby off the car. Let's kick Kyle off the car and we'll fight at the White House. has turned Kyle into a little bit of a baby face. He goes out there, beats Bo. He becomes, he becomes a player at 185. He will be, he will get the baby face rub in, in a massive way. So love this, man. Love this idea.

This will never happen. I'm currently rooting for the White House card to have Justin Gagey upset earlier to to Pura, which would be, I genuinely think the coolest and funniest thing that's ever happened in the history of the sport. Just, it would be the best day ever if that happened. Cyril Gahn to win a boring decision over Alex Pereira, which I also think would be incredibly funny. Amon's a hobby, despite being bad to somehow beat Sean O'Malley, would be quite funny.

And you guys can have fun with that one, too, because then you, you could dunk all over me and be like, I thought Amon sucked. And I'll be sitting here shaking my head, be like, he's terrible. So I guess Sean O'Malley's ass because Amon can't fight. But he beat him because that's what I've been saying for like four years about Amon now.

Derek Lewis just punching Josh Hoken in the head and him imploding would be deeply funny. Of course, Kyle Dawkins winning would be funny. And then I don't, there's no bad outcome to the Steve Garcia-Digo-Lopez fight. So like there's not like a funny. outcome to root for there. That fight will just, it will be six very, very silly, stupid, funny outcomes and one kick-ass fight. That would be my like, if I could script a fight card, if I found a magic lamp right now,

my first wish to the genie would be like, please let me, let me dictate the end for each of the fights at the UFC White House card. That would absolutely be one of the three wishes I got. Oh, my God. And that's the car we get. And I would, everybody else would hate it. And I would be in tears about how funny that would be.

That would be spectacular. I can't wait. I, like, I hope all this happens because the post-fight show will be, I don't know if it'll ever, I don't know if anything will ever top Sean Strickland winning the middleweight title. All of those things happen.

Absolutely it would top it. If Dachy upsets to Purio, we're just going to lose our minds that this happened. And I will never stop laughing. at all of the Monsons who have been like just gassing up Ilya to the moon. And then if it would just be so funny if Cyril Gaon, like just the donkiest decision, you're just like,

ma'am, heavyweight, nothing good can happen. This is a barren wasteland of a weight class. Why is Alex Pereira up here? Just go back to LightHevier where you were doing cool things. If God just tackled Pereira five times. Yeah, it would just be so funny. It'd be so, and if the best late plans of the UFC to get Corey Sandhagan the win he needs,

went up in flames, they had to give it to Amin's a hobby, it would be sick. It would just be so fun. I'd love this to bet. It'd be my favorite day. I might have to quit watching the sport because it would never get better if all of those things happen. Well, I mean, we're getting close, man. We're less than two months away from all that going down. but of course we have to take a stop at the world's most famous apex this Saturday.

We'll obviously have the preview show tomorrow getting you ready for that. I want to pull up this card real quick just to see where we're looking at. There's some spots on it. I do. I love the made event. I love the main event. I think Ralph and Garcia is Alexander Hernandez. Pretty fun fight.

Let's see how good Jocelyn Edwards is. This is a big one against David-Grant, Adrian Luna, Martinetti is a low-key heater. we're going to have a lot of fun with that one. Love me a Davy Grant fight. Monta Jackson, Henry Barsall. Straight up, I do think this card is better than last week's card, and it's an apex card. But once you get to the early prelims,

there is not a ton to hang your hat on. Somebody mentioned it early in the comments and we don't need to get into it because why do that? Again, my DMs are open. someone from the UFC reach out i don't need to report this i don't need to talk i just need someone to explain why we are so committed to the sidrig dumas experiment in the ufc yeah he's a bad person and he's horrible at fighting i don't get why we're still doing this yes uh opening up the main card is heavy weights jed marcus buchecca versus ryan span that could that could that get rough

that got real rough that's going to be a heavyweighty fight is what that's fight is going to be. And so I'm, I'm into that fight because it's so bad. It's so, it's horseshoe theory. It's so bad it's good, Mike. Uh, speaking of heavy weighty, we have a heavy weighty middleweight fight potentially. Hadolfo Villar versus Eric McConago. That could get pretty heavyweighty. That could get. Yeah. Well, I mean, that could get real middleweighty is what that could get. There could be a lot of middle weightiness going on there. Um, Dumas McVeigh is happening. Uh, Meyer, Boeh, of silver versus michel monocue that's kind of interesting uh filio durden we talked about that

francis marshall welcoming lucas brendon to the ufc i got to tell you if someone said name pick 75 fighters who are going to be outside the ufc to start the year and we'll end up in the ufc by the end of the year lucas brendon probably would not have made my list no disrespect to the man but i figured like you would have to go through contender series or tough or something like that kind of a limited fighter overall, but yeah, he got his shot. Max Griffin welcoming Victor Valenzuela to the UFC. That is happening as well.

And shout out to Tolita Alancar, who must have got resigned. She's fighting Julia Polastri to kick things off. Probably two fights too many on this one, for being honest, maybe three. 11 fights here, I think it would be a little more palatable, but all in all, like not the worst card we've seen this year. And a terrific main event. Yeah. It's perfectly, I mean, as far as an apex card goes, this is probably above rate.

Yeah. I would agree with that. What times is this, this is a late kick? It's a 5-8. Like, okay. Yeah, most of them are going to be 5-8s. We're not going to get. That's fine.

That's fine. It's fine. Very rarely get later. We can, we can work on a 5-8. No, it's a 6-fight main card. And we're, it's the week before a road show and a paper. review the following week like that's fine it's going to be a three and a half hour main card without question that's fine i can no issues as long as this isn't like a 7 10 or whatever

you know when they occasionally get that that urge and just like what are we doing this is fine music is hit yep we're getting booted and then it music stopped hitting or i can't hear it one of these it's just lower it's just lower uh we're done In my production journey, I've yet to figure out how you time the music so well. I'm still working on that. But, you know, I have more successes lately. I've also found last week when I got to just produce, it's more much easier. It's more much easier when you're only producing and not also having to talk and post the show or whatever.

So I get it now. I'm learning. It's much more fun. perhaps I'll take over that production only chair tomorrow I'm like you and AK cook oh well let me know I'm fine to also host I don't really care okay you do need to let me know that so I can build these streams tomorrow yes why don't you go ahead and build the streams

and then I'll hop on I'll hop on and do some production yeah I'll hop on with you guys but next week we'll get you ready for UFC Perth which is a thing that's happening and then we'll be a week away from UFC 328 which everyone's fired up Buffer Jedi, Mike Eck. You look at the Perth card. Is it bad? Um, I don't know.

More on that next week on the program. Good night, everybody. Love y'all. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play.

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