MMA Fighting - BTL | BREAKING NEWS Galore, Makhachev Vacates, Topuria vs. Oliveira, DDP vs. Khamzat, More

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Islam Makhachev is vacating the UFC lightweight title and is moving up to welterweight to challenge new champ Jack Della Maddalena later this year. Because of that, Ilia Topuria will fight for the vacant 155-pound title against Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 317 to cap off International Fight Week next month. Was this the right call? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel answers your questions about Dana White's blockbuster announcement at lightweight and welterweight, and what this means for the future of both divisions. Additionally, questions may include to fallout of UFC 315, Belal Muhammad's next move after losing his title to JDM this past Saturday, Dricus Du Plessis defending his middleweight title against Khamzat Chimaev at #UFC318 in Chicago, the UFC's return to the APEX headlined by Gilbert Burns vs. Michael Morales, and more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and E. Casey Leydon for a special fan Q&A edition of the show to let your thoughts be heard in regards to all of the crazy news and results over the past week. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠ Follow E. Casey Leydon: ⁠⁠⁠@ekc 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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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all. Great to be back.

And there is so much going on right now. It's unbelievable. Normally, this would be we bring on a couple of guests. We have them banter back and forth about what. what just happened at the recent pay-per-view. But UFC 315 had so many storylines coming out of it. And what has transpired since UFC 315? It feels like none of that even matters in the news cycle right now.

It's absolutely insane. We got titles being vacated. We have new main events announced. We have so much going on. And it's great to be here to get your thoughts and your reactions and your questions answered in regards to this big news. And joining me to answer your questions, the baddestash in all of MMA. This is going to be like a giant episode of the People's Pre-Fight show right here.

The chair swinging fool himself, a man who had got to see in person for the first time this week since joining the MMA fighting staff. I won and only E Casey Liden. Where is he? Hey. Hey. It's good to be here. Doing great. Doing great.

Yeah. Travel, travel smooth. Got to visit H-Town. See some friends. See some Derek Lewis. Saw Mike, saw UFC veteran Mike Jackson in person. Man, great week, great week. And then, oh, yeah, the whole UFC 10,000 pipe mounts and I tell you that, that thing right

when I got back. Yeah. I'm glad travel and smooth for you. It did coming home. The way out, not so much. That's a story for another day. But Houston was fun. I feel like I spent no time in Houston before I had to turn right back around and fly home.

But it is what it is. Looking forward to you all getting to check out Swing Rounds, episode two with Derek freaking Lewis. It was, all I'll say is it's everything you would probably hope it could be. And I'll leave it at that. But if you guys have questions about it, I'll answer is what I can. Mostly those would be super chat type of questions. But yes, it is your show.

So much has happened. And I haven't had a chance to really talk about any of this stuff because of the travel and everything that has happened this week. So let's go. Bring it on, people. All right. Let's see what we got here. Do, do. So many questions.

Where to start? Are there really? Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's go off the one fight that we didn't get. were Mike and Casey expecting John Jones versus Tommy Aspinall to be a part of the info dump on Tuesday night

No are you kidding me That would honestly that would have That would have knocked me on my ass if that got announced And even then even then Casey I still wouldn't have believed it I still wouldn't have believed it Until I am literally at the point Until I see both those guys that are on fight week

Doing media day doing a press conference doing the way ins, and they both walk to the octagon and Buffer introduces them, are you ready to fight? Are you ready to fight? Let's go. And they start walking towards each other. At that point and in that point alone, will I believe that John Jones versus Tom Ashenol is happening?

But not a minute sooner. Yeah. And even if they just announced it, like, maybe like for a fight like this, like it deserves like one of those like three city world tours for a press conference. It's like, you know, like L.A., Vegas, New York, you know, London, you know. Like, that's a fight that big. You don't just, this isn't like just an Instagram announcement type of fight. You know, like, hey, we're going to a big fight.

You know, I, no. Yeah, I would have been, yeah, this fight's not happening, though. I might as well be at wishing for Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler again. So I feel like we're doing that whole thing again. But, no, I'm not surprised at all, Mr. Boza. Unless they pay, John. And I've been saying it from the beginning. People are saying it's 30 million.

I think it's 50. I think it's 50 million. The UFC offers John Jones 50 million. He'll fight Tom Aspidall. At this point in his career, like, I don't blame him for that either, by the way. But it's going to be an astronomical number that John is going to have to agree to.

And even Tom said, because even Tom's sick of talking about it. He's like, look, just book the fight or let me fight somebody else. Like, I'm done with this shit. Like, I'm tired of talking about it. I think John wants more money. And as we know, the UFC is not going to give John the money he wants because they don't need to. This fight does not need to happen for the UFC to be successful. It really doesn't.

They're in such a crazy position. Like, Derek Lewis, great guy. Great golfer, too. Great golfer. But he's headlining a UFC fight card in the summer with Talison Tesherra in Nashville. Like that is the main event for. You have the main event? That's the main event.

I didn't know that was the main event. I didn't realize it was the main event either until we kind of like dug into it. But that is the main event of that card, which Derek told me in person, which is the reason why it passed the golden rule test. He didn't tell me as the main event because I actually didn't even think it. I didn't assume. I just didn't assume. I just assumed it wasn't. But Taus and Sharon in his second UFC fight is getting a made event.

And they will break records. they will break the Nashville gate record. They will break the North American fight night gate record, which is why they don't need to pay John, 20 million, 30 million, 50 million. They don't need to pay John anything. That fight does not need to happen. Dana can keep saying forever just to stay in the news cycle, we're going to make this fight happen.

I don't think they are. I just don't see it coming. And if they do, it's because they're like, all right, John, here's 30, 40, 50 million. The only way UFC books this fight, Jones Aspinall, for whatever amount of money, is out of pure shame. That's all. Because we can shame them and say, look, UFC, you are now boxing. Everything you said, boxing doesn't make the big fights, blah, blah, blah, you are now boxing. And so unless they're shamed into it.

But their investors, the shareholders, they don't care. Their stocks are going up. You know, it's a publicly traded company now. so it doesn't matter to them. Who's going to shame them? That's not saying. Who's going to shame them? What is it?

Yeah. The only way, yeah, the only way this happens is if fans just stop buying tickets. And that's literally it. That's the only way. It's not even pay-per-views. It's nothing. Fans just need to stop buying tickets. If they stop buying tickets and instead of doing like a 16,000 person crowd, they're doing 8,000

and they're not breaking all the gate records and they're scrambling to sell the last 5,000 tickets. If they're in like AEW position, then they can be shamed into it. But there's no one to shame them. Like the media can talk about it. Dana don't care. And the people's voices in the, I guess, media space or the promotion space are the social media influencers that they have basically banked all of their media stuff onto. They're not going to shave. You think Aidan Ross is going to go on a live stream and be like, Dana, why are we not get shame on you for not?

booking John Jones versus Tom Aspel. You think the full send guys are going to say that? Hell no. You think the NELCOys are going to call Dane out? No, of course not. Yeah, I must take your, take your $50,000 gift bag you gave me and book that fight. No, no, no, no. Yeah, I'm going to do it.

I mean, they are partners with the UFC, so I don't expect them to, but that's all. Neon, I'm going to do it. Hey, yo, hey, Dana, no, no. I can, I got, when I brought up the, I was, know, Connor versus Michael Chandler. We made fun of Chandler a lot in the sense like, dude, Chandler's losing like two years of his, just not prime, but you know, UFC run waiting for Connor. Is Aspartner, how long, is Aspon in that boat yet?

We're like, dude, you're just wasting time now. You're just losing prime years. At some point, Aspon has got us, he has to take another fight. Yeah, I mean, right. I mean, are we, are we still in that little gray area? We're closed. we're close because he at least fought yeah you know what i mean like chanler waited for connor and didn't fight until the ship had sailed they booked it there were three weeks away from the fight happening

and then connor was out then it was just like okay now i have to move on tom at least got to fight somebody so it's not like he won the belt at msg and then waited a year watched john beat stepe in a fight literally nobody wanted and then still hasn't fought since he at least got to get a title defense in But now we're like, we're at the point now where, and Jed and I both brought this scenario up in different circumstances. This is Habib, this is Dana trying to get Habib back after he said he was done after the Gaiji fight. That's what this has become.

Like we all know at this point that the fight's not happening, but Dana's going to keep saying that it is and then eventually it's going to be like, yeah, it's not happening. So let's just move on. Let Tom become the actual undisputed heavyweight champion. Let him fight gone or all made. I don't give a shit. Just let him fight somebody.

We got to keep this guy going because he's losing steam with every day he doesn't fight or doesn't have a fight booked. And I don't know about you. I'm tired of hearing Tom being asked about it too. Like you can see he's just sick of talking about it. Like let's just move on. Do something else. And then if John wants to come back, he could fight for the belt.

Like who cares? But for now we get to move this division along. and that's that. All right, just like, and we are moving to the next question. Slito. You better call the H-N-Out episode Swang rounds. It's so fun. Don't worry, Slito.

We got you, we got you. Thank you, Slito. Nick, using superchats to spread the news, Habeep came up with the nickname Canelo Hands for Bilal. News is in, I made it up. confirmed Nick VCC made this made up that rumor

so thank you Tanvir thank you with UFC having a star power issue does JDM being champion help or hurt he's soft spoken with little personality and actually has a lower

social media following than Belal interesting probably what do you say is true some degree I mean yeah

um from business perspective Did the UFC want Bala or Jadam? Is Jadiam a better champion for business-wise? Um, probably, probably. Because it is yes because. I know the answer it doesn't matter because UFC wins all the time.

But yeah, but do they make- We don't get, we don't get Islam trying to fight for the welterweight belt without Jad M winning this fight. He's not fighting Bala, that fight would never happen. So I guess from a business ends, yes, it helps because that fight's going to do very well in pay-per-view. It's just going to, plain and simple.

And if Balal not fighting, and if Balal had won, what do you have turned around and fought in August on the DDP Hamza card? Or is that sort of up in the air too? Like, because I know there were people saying that it was booked for two dates, right? So if Balal had won, would they have done Balal versus Shafkat or Bilal versus Gary in August in Chicago? and then DDP Homsat would have been on a different date? Would they have pushed that to September? What would have happened there? Like there's all these moving,

when Dana says there's a lot of moving parts, he's right. Because like all the people that I talk to are just like, we're talking about this, maybe this, all this. It's just a, but so much depended on the result of that main event on Saturday.

What's Islam going to do? What's the International Fight Week main event going to be? what's going to headline Chicago is it DDP Hamzat when are they fighting it just appears that because of Bala had won there's like the dude had to fight in Chicago like they'd be absolutely insane

to not have him there it's the one place Bala would look like a like a big star he would in Abu Dhabi as well he's over in that neck of the woods but at least in the United States there's only one place you could put Bala where he looks like a star and it's in Chicago it's where he's from

people would support him they love supporting their own So I'll say I'll say it helped slightly But not because of like personality and stuff But I will say JDM did a terrific job saying very little But making me much more interested in that Bilal fight Especially again, and I brought this a bunch

The final face off at Ceremony Oweans Was like okay, I'm I'm so in for this fight That was it that put me over the edge. I was, it got to like, ooh, this is intriguing to,

I can't freaking wait for this fight. So. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't find J.D.M. boring as a personality. I just,

I feel he's just, just to the point. And he has that very dry sense of humor, you know, yeah, yeah. JDM passes, JDM passes the test.

Like, it's, I know people hate when we bring up pro wrestling, but like, back in the day with pro wrestling, like, when you had like a heel or a bad guy,

the whole goal of like the old territory promoters was, we want to present heels that come out and look real, that look like, all right, I don't want to go near this guy because he'll beat the shit out of me and eight of my friends. Like that's how scary this person is. And Balal is a great fighter.

And I'm glad he's getting some shine after this performance. But if you just sort of walked into a bar and you saw Balal standing on one side of the bar and you saw JDM standing on the other side of the bar, who would you go F with first? Probably Bilal, because JDM looks like he passes the fighter test. Like, dude, his face is mangled,

his nose is on one side, he's got scar tissue everywhere. Like, JDM looks like a dude that is a professional fighter. Like, he passes that test in a lot of respects, and dude is just game as hell. And Bilal is too. But JDM just passed. JDM is interesting in different ways

than Bilal is, if that makes sense. Like, Bilal could talk a little more, even though some of the stuff is ridiculous and cringy. And JDM can just sort of sell himself as a fighter by saying very little and just with a look because he looks like a freaking badass. So it's different, but JDM winning creates chaos and at least chaos for the short term sells a lot for the UFC.

So if I'm the UFC, especially with how abysmal the start of the year has been for them overall, this is probably the best case scenario for them because chaos ensued. Now you get a bunch of big fights over the next few months. Yeah. And he won and it was a great fight, a great competitive fight. Incredible fight.

So, man, I mean, we may talk about this later, but like, I haven't we watched the whole fight, but I've kind of seen little snippets more, more of the 315 main event. And man, 315, the main event, I think it was a lot better than I thought it was. Like I was watching it. I was just kind of focused on it. But now that I'm kind of going back in my mind and just seeing clips, like, that fight was really good on both sides, really good. And yeah, I'll talk more later.

But like, yeah, I was just a few days after the fight, you know, I let it soak in a little more. I'm like, man. Yeah, I just, I really liked that fight a lot. It's so good. Yeah, when you actually like sit down and rewatch it with no distractions, it is way better than you thought it was. And no distractions in the sense of no like,

you know, the previous baggage each fighter kind of comes with, or you're thinking about, you know, what fight is this going to build up to? It's just a fight itself. Just boom, right there. Those 25 minutes in there. Unbelievable, high-level mixed martial arts. And I think, uh, it's incredible.

I don't think there was enough appreciation the night of, of that. Because we're kind of, always kind of focused on the next story, but that, that's all. I just, yeah, really, right. In the sense that, I think coming into that fight, we kind of said, oh, if blah loses, he'll never get another title shot, which I believed, I think that performance was so good.

I think there is a chance that Bilal can come back in relatively, you know, fair amount of fights get another shot at the title. Not one of the, I actually went 30 in a row type of thing. Thank you, Tamper. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one.

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How bad of a situation would it be if John retires and Tom loses next fight to God? This entire situation seemingly more worse in the coming months. It's true. It's definitely true. John could sit back and just kind of wait and see if Tom loses. And then he could be like, see, told you. but our old friend New York, Rick actually tweeted something about Islam Makachev that's like that may be

that I was thinking of as I'm seeing this. Let me read this. Quote, Islam Makachev is in a fantastic position right now. Challenging for the Walter Ray title and if Ilya Teporia wins at UFC 317, he's now going to even bigger fight potentially lined up. If Teporia loses, he could rub his face in it claiming he was going to steamroll him anyway. Needs to work, needs to get his. work done against JD.

You have no easy task, but he's in a great spot. Yeah. I mean, it's not exactly the same, but John could just chill. And if Tom loses, he could be like, ha, told you so, eat shit. And just rub everybody's face with it and be like, see, I told you so. Now I'm going to go fight Alex Pereira and retire and still make $20 million, $20 million. So it could get bad. And I do agree, Islam is in a great position.

Sure. terrific musician uh thank you chase um super chat from our wonderful our wonderful friend spencer uh howdy boys after the next two weeks there isn't one ufc apex scheduled till august which we have the main event for that one by the way you think ufc is having more traveling events with more stack cards due to the current rights deal no no this is pretty typical for the UFC. They load up like the summer months with more fight nights and and stuff of that nature.

But they'll make up further on the back end. You just wait till like the fall. It's going to be, we're going to be in the apex like 60% of the time. That's how this works. But we usually get right around the summertime. I haven't gone back and like relooked at everything. But from what my brain tells me is that once we get to June,

we're kind of out of the apex for a hot minute. Maybe we get like one event mixed in there, but they do a lot of traveling. There's months with multiple pay-per-views and stuff. Well, through the summer, there's no hockey and there's no basketball. So all those arenas, there's a much more availability for the UFC too in terms of those type of. Especially July and August, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no basketball, no hockey.

So, yeah, a lot more weekends are available. A lot more Saturday nights are available that are open for the UFC to come to those mid-sized markets, like the Nashville or things like that. So yeah, I think a lot of that goes into it too. Plus the UFC, like I said, the UFC is getting site fees for most of these places too. And that too. That's more money for them. There's just so much more money. All right.

Why was that question? Yeah, let's talk about this. Maybe one of the biggest stories that haven't been talked about because of all the news. I was hoping this would come so I can kind of clear things up. here patchy looks looking like he's coming to ufc and potentially step again thoughts and how do you think he'll do with the ufc competition which many times he's highly regarded outside fighters do do so yes many times they many times they do great too so it's true um so buried i mean pfl just really doing this by that just buries it in the midst of all this news uh that patchy mix

and pfl have mutually agreed to to part way ways and the relationship. I've obviously talked to some folks. Patchy is free and clear. This is no matching rights thing. If Patchy wanted to sign with the UFC today, he could. He could absolutely do that. And I've already, I mean, I've been seeing reports already.

We confirmed yesterday multiple sources that Marlon Vera is out of his UFC 316 matchup with Mario Batista, undisclosed reasons as to why. I assume it's some kind of injury, but no. no one's really giving specifics. Since then, there have been reports that have come out that Patchy Mix is stepping in and he is fighting Mario Batista in Newark on that card, which would make a ton of sense. Here's what I can tell you right now because, again, the golden rule it is on M.A.fiting.com, terrific website.

Nothing's going up there unless we fully confirm it or it is announced by the promotion. And even then, we still kind of dig and confirm because the UFC isn't always 100% accurate at this stuff. Is patchy mix being discussed to fight Mario Batista at UFC 316? Yes. Are the conversations ongoing? Yes. Is it done?

No, it is not done. So nothing is done yet. Now, and here's a big reason why. If I am Mario Batista, I am getting a pay raise. to take this fight on short notice. Like I am negotiating, be like, cool, I'll be happy to welcome in this guy that hardcore fans know, but the casual UFC audience has no idea who this guy is and he's very, very good.

So I would like to negotiate my contract for this fight and make a few extra bucks. Now, I'm not saying this is what's happening. I'm saying if I'm Arir Batista and his team, this is how I would approach this. Am I saying that this fight is not going to happen? No, I'm not saying that. would I be shocked if it doesn't probably at this moment but it is just it's too early to report that this is a done deal and this is talking to multiple people

who would know the answer to these questions so yeah that would be a damn good fight to come into Casey Mario Batista is not everybody's favorite bantam weight right now especially with the Jose Aldo stuff and Apache went out there against a guy that not a lot of fans love right now and just nuked them on pay-per-view it's a damn good introduction to the UFC,

is it not? It's, when's the date of that? June 7th, I believe. June 7th, okay. It's like three weeks. Okay, so assuming Patchy has been kind of generally training, which I assume he has, I'm going to take the short notice part out of it for Patchy.

It's a great, it's actually kind of a perfect introduction. to patchy to the UFC honestly. I think this is lined up very well for him. I'm sure now I was just talking on money. And, you know, UFC wants Patsy cheap. Patchy wants to make him patchy, you know, he's a prize fighter. So, you know, they have to work that out and hope he gets a good deal.

But, yeah, this is, I couldn't really lay it out better for Patsy, honestly, to a relatively short-noticed fight, but on a pay-per-view against a not fan favorite. So, uh, yeah, this could this could work out really well. Because I think when like Eddie out, when, yeah, and of course, must win, but, you know, yeah, must win. But if he doesn't, you know, yeah, it sucks, obviously. And, you know, Apache's overrated, whatever, you know, if he loses, yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll be shocked if he loses, but I have patchy, like, very high in my rankings, but if he loses, I'll be like, dang, you know, I guess I was wrong. But, uh, yeah, I hope it happens. Hope it happens. It makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense. I can't actually think of anything, any outside of the money issues, I can't think of a reason why Patchy wouldn't want this fight. Oh, Patchy's got really no power here, unfortunately. I know, yeah, I know, yeah.

Yeah, and the UFC knows it too. Like, if that's the opportunity to fight the UFC, like, you kind of have to take the fight. You kind of have to do it. You know what I mean? Like, again, Patchy's a great fighter. But the audience that the UFC is catering to right now has no idea. who patchy mix is they don't know they don't care um they will care if he goes out and fights mario and just annihilates him like knocks him out flying knee something big just impressive

performance where they could post this finish everywhere and it's like oh who's this guy that's what they're kind of looking for but yeah i think he we get to we get questions answered now and this is good fl too because you know how pfl operates apache mix goes up and fights for the freaking ban on white title, they're going to take full credit for it, even though he's had like, what, one in their actual promotion? But they should. They should. That's how you do it.

You know, that's what you do. You go, yeah. So, uh, they do it with Kayla. Like, Kayla's this massive favorite against Julianna Payne. You're like, see, she wasn't this big of a favor when she fought our girls in our organization. It's the best. It's absolutely the best. But this is a good move for BFL.

It's a good move. Oh, it was one of the best PR moves they've ever done. The timing was perfect, too. Like, I don't, it was good. It was good. Good move. And then Patchy was, he was good too in the sense that he, he sold PFL. I saw his Instagram post.

Very, very gracious to her PFL and everything. Good. Didn't burn bridges. Just smart, smart business. 100%. Yeah. This is buyer's remorse, if there ever was. The whole Bellator thing, I think they're regretting every single thing about this.

I think this was more than they figured. it would be. But I guess the good thing is, although their PR has been absolute dog shit this year, it's been such a bad look for them, like just looking from the outside in on social media if you're just following along on that sense. But they, I think, I think now, Casey, they have identified who they are and who they are going to be. And that is a, look, we are going to be, we're going to try to grow the sport in different regions,

We're going to try to create our own stars in different parts of the country. Sure, our ratings are going to be bad and we're not going to have like a ton of big stars. We might get a couple. And the Paul Hughes is the Cota Dichivas, which is all great. We need to homegrow our own talent and just give each major region of the country or of the world something to be excited about. Let's draw a few gates because they ain't drawn them in the United States. And I think they know that at this point. But I think they're figuring out who they are.

and it's going to take a very long time, I mean five to five years at least, before they can become not even competition for the UFC because I don't even think they will be. But at least people under, people finally see what their... Yeah, yeah. A very competition alternative. Yeah.

The tournaments, you put on a couple of big cards, you do the big regional shows and stuff like that. And I know most people right now are like, oh, who cares? We want to see this, this and this. blah, blah, blah. Yeah. But now you, the stink from the Bellator deal is just right there.

Like, you can't avoid it. You open your door and you smell the stink of that deal. Johnny Eblen's still there and he'll still fight. And there's still some obviously decent fights you can make. But for the most part, this has been a disaster. It's just been in a disaster. Yeah, I don't know how you do it. But PFL needs to be like KSW horizon in the sense that they're not competition to the UFC.

They're just alternative. for that part of the world. You know? Like, Ryzen, like, Risons, I love, Ryzen as a promotion. I love Ryzen. They're stable. I get it.

They're not as good as UFs. No one's going to top the UFC's roster. But Ryzen's his own thing, and so they're not competition to the UFC. They're just, they're their thing. PFL needs to, the whole co-leader, that was like the most biggest mistake they've ever said. Just be your own thing.

Yeah. BKFC is not competition. They're their own thing. That's what PFL has to get somehow. Yeah Oh, do you answer How do you think of the UFs competition? Oh, we'll find out

That's the second part of the question We'll see We'll see and you know what Even if Apache loses It's fine It sucks Obviously it's a big blow to him Eddie Aver has lost

When he came to the UFC He won the belt, you know RDR, he didn't lose But he didn't look good in his first fight You know We'll see what happens We'll see what happens Some more super chats

Rick win any chance of heck of a morning again even if it's once a week and short i miss so much you guys beyond rock um we'll see this a lot you get this a lot mike a lot of let's see we'll see we'll see all right but there's a lot trust me there is there's a lot going on behind the scenes right now that we're trying to get off the ground um we want swing rounds to be a thing more and more um it's other things i'm working on as well I think could be really fun, indifferent that nobody else is doing. So yeah, we'll see.

If I'm, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, we get enough people, we have enough time, go do heck of morning. I'll do it. But just don't have that right now. A lot of irons in the fire. It's all good. All right. Uh, okay.

Let's talk about this. Uh, what do you guys make of the ilia is on trash talk today? It's terrible. It's terrible. It's so bad. On both sides or one side? But I say both. I say both.

I say both. Kind of both. Like, let me pull up this tweet because like my first thought was exactly what I have a lot of respect for Chuck Menon Hall. I like to do a lot. I love this tweet from Chuck Menon Hall. Oh, good. Go ahead.

This, this, this, my first thought was, was this. Now that this fight has been botched, it should be. be illegal for them to talk smack at each other for at least a year. Call it a quote unquote blue balls moratorium or something. I completely agree. But here's the problem. Everyone's going to ask both fighters about the other in every single interview, every single thing.

Be that one guy who doesn't ask him about it because this is what we're going to get. We're going to get, Ilya saying some stuff. We're going to get that reporter. tweeting out everything, getting it out to as much people as he can, hopefully that it gets aggregated and picked up by multiple websites. Ali is going to tweet for Islam,

a whole bunch of nonsense, more than likely, and then Ilya's going to respond back with his silliness. Like, you both got other things to worry about. You know what I mean? And then, like,

after you guys fight, if you both win, then we can start talking about that again. But that was my whole thing. is just this fight ain't happening man so like let's just stop talking about it islam's not a hypocrite islam also hasn't cleaned out the entire division so that was like the one thing islam said in his response was like hey i at least cleaned out the division and you haven't but yet he knocked out the two two of the three best fighters that ever

fought in his division and Islam again it's not his fault his title defense he's he beat Charles Oliver for the vacant belt. He fought Dustin Porreier, which was not the number one contender. He's far from it. Then I'm trying to remember like all the dudes. Hold on. Let me pull it up.

I have the, I have the fog brain. All right, here we go. Then he fights Volcanovsky, which by the way was brilliant. Like the whole thing about that was brilliant. Habe getting in there and calling out Volk doing the face off was absolutely perfect. Like I have no issues with it.

The division. were kind of in a weird spot. Nobody could fight. In the moment, in the moment, nobody was complaining by that fight. No, nobody was complaining about,

yeah. It was great. Then he was going to fight Oliver again. I didn't love it because I felt like it was going to be like the first fight. We get the short notice Volk fight. Again, that's not really Islam's fault,

but here we are and he killed him. Then it's the Porier fight, which is a great fight, very fun. Poree was not that I'm more contender. And then, Sarukian was the number one contender. And again, not Islam's fault.

Surukian doesn't make it to the fight. Kind of screwed himself if we're being honest. Boycano steps in on a day's notice and Islam runs him over the way everybody expected him to. None of this is his fault. Yeah. But to say that you've run through this entire division is just not true. Like you haven't fought Justin Gage yet.

He hasn't fought Max Holloway yet. Just not saying that Max should get it. Justin's coming off a win now over Fiziv, right? Yeah, he's went three at his last four. Okay. Just a knockout to Holloway. Okay, I'm just, I don't know.

Just a knock out the hallway. He hasn't farmed in yet. Like, you just haven't cleaned out the division. And look who's coming. Patty Pimblitz coming. Uh, you've got Dawson and Alvarez and like,

all these great 55ers that are on the way up. Dan Hooker is making his way back up the ranks. Like, lightweight's a vest division in the sport. You can never say that I've cleaned out the division at lightweight with it because it's lightweight. You'll, you know,

you never clean out that division because there's always dudes coming. So that was the one issue I had with what Islam had to say is that I cleaned out the division. Everything else I'm fine with. Like, whatever. As I said the same thing? I cleaned up my division. Did he say, they were saying the same thing, right? Essentially.

Ilya said, no, Ilya's thing was, he called him a hypocrite because you gave me shit for moving up and trying to challenge myself. But yet you didn't give me the fight I asked for. You instead did the exact same thing that I did. and it's okay for you to do it, but it's not okay for me to do it. That was the whole thing. So Ely is actually

approving of what Islam's doing? He's like, oh, I get it. He's like, why are you giving me shit for, because Islam, he's saying that Islam, he's giving Islam shit because Islam was like, dude, just win one fight and then I'll give you a title shot. Like if you're moving up, cool. Like, I'll fight you, but just like win once.

And then he, instead of like, him honoring that or whatever Islam's like you know what I'm gonna do that I'm gonna move up to welterweight and fight for a belt I'm gonna vacate my belt go up to welterweight and I'll go fight for the belt without winning a fight myself at 170 you know what I mean so he's just like you told me to do this and yet you're not doing it well that's why he's killing him a hypocrite all is what is what I'm gonna do is what I to say is like I'm going my belt at 170 you win your fight, then I'll come back down and take your belt. There we go.

Everything settled. All I was, just go back to the 80s, man. I know you are, but what am I? And that's it. You win. You win. Conversation over. Infinity.

Beat it. Yeah. It's bad. It's all bad. I just don't like it. It's just like, dude, you guys are the best of the best. Like, this is dumb. You don't, I don't know.

We don't need it. Like, I don't just. Win your fights, then talk all the shit you want let's build up this incredible this incredible who knows maybe illy just goes right up to 170 and fights is um if his um beats jack like that's crazy but do you see let i don't know ufc likes money so maybe who knows yeah who knows what's what's more likely if if is if if if islam wins and ilia wins is it more likely islam comes back down or to pour your goes all the way to 70 to poury goes 70 what would you like

I would like Islam to come back down at 55 just because we, I don't know, it's just, because how long? Here's what I would like. Here's what I would like. I would like whoever makes the decision to vacate their belt and then I'm okay with it. Then I'm fine with it. I'm actually surprised Islam is vacating, which I don't think is a vacation. Yeah.

I think it's more of like, dude, if you're going to do this, like you've got to get rid of your belt. Like, we're not holding this division up. It's the best division we have. We can't do it. And if you lose, sure, you come back and you get an immediate title shop, but you cannot do this as the champion. And respect to all involved, because this is how it should be. You will never ever get any argument for me about a guy going for a second belt

if they vacate their actual title because now they're risking something. They've given up. I'm so confident that I'm going to do this that I'm giving up my other belt. There's no fallback plan. I mean, there kind of is, but at least like we could do other shit. We can have a vacant title fight. If Ilya wins, like we can do Ilya versus Patty at the end of the year.

Like that's a big friggin fight if he wants to stay at 55 and start running off a bunch of defenses. Like, Paddy's got to be pretty happy about all this. If Ilya beats Charles, Patty's probably getting a title shot, which is wild. Absolutely insane. Unranked Patty Pambliganian. No. How are you going to feel about that, Casey? Unranked Patty Pambligated is hot shot.

Dude, PFO, please release Shabbly. Please release Shabbly. So I can just have him fight a UFC fighter so we can justify any sort of ranking that someone may have for him. Did you see, I don't know if you saw this on Reddit. it there's reports out there that tofeek besief might have signed with the UFC that's awesome he's so good he's just i don't know if it sure not yeah i haven't got i've reached out and got nothing back about it but uh there's rumor and innuendo that tofic bsaf might debut at ufc bucqqq orelby which would be sick that's a vibe but i have not got any i have not got any confirmation

of this i don't know besides one of those guys like i don't expect to buy part title but he'll might crack the top 10 but he's like he's just an exciting just crazy looking dude so yeah fit right in yeah fit right uh thank thank you juzeo uh another super chat coming in from michael harris 999 thank you sweet prediction if ufc gets a deal with netflix it will only be for huge fights like msg mexican independence day international fight week w w already has their p lees distributed internationally through netflix what are p lees What's that? So because they're not actually

The WWE like WrestleMania and stuff Are not actually quote unquote paper views They call them PLEs which are premium live events Oh, okay Yeah so yeah Uh Maybe Maybe I wonder if

I truly am like The new ESPN thing is kind of weird to me I don't understand it the ESPN select like they're going to bundle like all of their packages until like one streaming service for 30 bucks a month beginning of next year so wait I don't know if it's like packages are there I don't have ESPN plus what else is there is ESPN well the like the TV networks they're going to like package up is like hey if you don't want you're a sports fan you just want ESPN yeah if you just want ESPN but don't want any of the

other crappy stations. We'll for 30 bucks a month, you can get ESPN, ESPN2 news, all the networks for 30 bucks a month. Okay, got you. So I don't know. Maybe. I guess, I don't know if like, I don't know. I hope the UFC, the UFC getting rid of paper the paper remodel be pretty awesome. But I just don't see a world where that happens.

Even though they don't, they do not need it at all. And at the current rate of like what paper. review is for the UFC, it is like the least of their worries. As you can see with a lot of the pay-per-view fight cards they have booked. It's all about because they're getting if they if UFC 315 sold two pay-per-views, they still would have made tens of millions of dollars on Saturday because of the distribution deal that they have with the ESPN. ESPN pays them for all those broadcasts plus the big ass gate that they just did in

Montreal. They get all that money too. Like it's nothing to them. If they don't sell any payers. Who is it something to then? Yes, be it. So, so, so it's, so it's up to the broadcaster to put like serious pressure on the UFC for those paper views, I would guess. Yeah, because they're already paying for them.

So they would like to get their money back. Yeah, their investment. To some extent. Yeah, I guess the big question coming into the broadcast deal is, I think we all assume it's going to be for first time spread now over multiple broadcast networks, you know, not just ESPN, not just Fox, like it was previously. And it's a pay-per-view thing going to go away. So I guess those are the two big ones. Is there going to be less cards? There's going to be more cards. Ooh, I don't know. Do you think less cards? I highly doubt that. Content's king right now.

So. Yeah, but they could do ancillary programming. make up for it pretty easily. Yeah. I think we talked about this before, but like I wouldn't mind more like. It just extended the contender series all year or like added three months to it. Or not even contendez series. Just five fight, just five fight UFC cards or something, you know, like quickly. I love that.

Yeah. I don't know what you call that. But you know, I'm sorry. It's just like, you know, two hours of fighting, not like a whole. Those seem apex worthy. Like just two hour, is a two hour time slot, maybe two and a half hours, not like a whole evening just. And on a Tuesday night, Wednesday night, you know, just, yeah. Yeah.

Like this card, this card on, uh, this card on Saturday would be like a perfect like Wednesday night. Thursday night football. Thursday night football card. Yeah. Thursday nights at the apex. It was just these fight. Gilbert Burns, Michael Morales, like a perfect main event for that kind of a fight. Yeah.

Paul Craig had off a Balato, Sudique Yusuf, Myron Santos. Rootsabaya versus Stoltzvist, a rosa Costa. Like that's your five fight. That's pretty good. That's solid for a Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern. Yeah. Love it. Yeah.

All right. Thank you, Michael Harris. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation. Here we come. Whoa. Is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks.

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Gambling Problem Call Connects Ontario, 1866533. 1-2-6-00 19 and over physically present in Ontario eligibility restrictions apply see golden nuggett casino.com for details please play responsibly what else we got here uh masters of the universe uh what are your feelings on the bmf title with dustin and max i like the belt's fun little title to have but if dust and wids would you like to see him retire the belt too what you think no belt would not be retired it works just too many things do you see can do if that belt won't be retired um where are you putting things yeah it's a

yeah it's a good fight um they shouldn't retired it with mods at all like that was the whole thing yeah that was all point yeah one time one time only the winner of this fight will be the BMF forever and ever and ever and then they're like hey shit

we are running out of options we're going to Salt Lake City and they're paying us millions and millions of dollars and we have no fights for them so we have to bring back the BMF belt and they did. But you can just create belts. Like none of this matters.

It's not real. There's no rule book. There's no official guidelines for any of this. Like boxing has guidelines or regulations for their titles. UFC, they're all just employee the month awards. It doesn't really like John can be champion forever. The UFC never has to strip them. They don't.

There's nothing, there's no rules. It's just, we just do it. They would do it. They won't. I mean, look, you can keep the MF forever. There's 25 other letters of the alphabet. The AMF medal, the awesome MF title. You can do B for something else.

It doesn't have to be baddest. It can be best, the best motherfucker title. The ski, the coolest. The coolest motherfucker title. Like, we could go all the way down the list. You can create 25 more titles. I want to see the coolest motherfucker title. Who's, who's, who's, who's,

In your first, the first title fight for the coolest motherfucker, who is it? Oh, Jesus Christ. Yeah, I know. I don't know. There's a lot. Ilya, I mean,

like, Ilya's pretty cool, man. Like, he's the legend to have a, have a night out with. He was the legend for a very short time. Yeah, I don't,

I'm not going to talk about that. That's just. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot. Brandon Moreno is pretty damn cool. Wonder Boys pretty damn cool. There's lots of cool fighters. But yeah, we go all over the list, man.

The eager motherfucker title. Like someone who's eager enough to step up to the plate? Like the good, the good motherfucker. Like we can go all the way to think of all the belts we can create. So many. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mike.

I know you got my mind going now. when he's like, oh, yeah, we can get a letter. Here we go. All right. Lazy bed. Sergio Pettis was Rafi on Sautz added to PFL in Chicago, June 27. Did PFL manage to do a thing here? Love that fight.

It's great fight. They did a good job. There's a storyline with these two dudes. It's a good fight. Are they still training partners or do they? No. Stats is at Extreme Coutre now, or at least he has been.

for a while. Oh, okay, okay. So there's still buds, I think. Okay. They both still know each other. So, yeah. Cool. I like it.

Let's take it. Yeah, Fabian, okay. Oh, and Robinoff's on that card. Hell yeah. Robinoff and Modoski. That card kind of rules. Yeah. Fabian Edwards in the main event against Josh Silvera,

Phil Davis, Sullivan, Colley, Aaron Jeffrey versus Dalton Rasta, Antonio Carlos Jr. versus Simeon Powell. Moldowski, Romanov is interesting. Popov versus Nassimento. You know what? Arrigo Nassimito.

Jesus Christ, man. Dude, is headlining UFC cards and breaking gate records a year ago. And now, now look at them. Look at them.

Biaggio Ali Walsh versus Ronnie Gibbs. Is that a pro fight? I don't know. I'm really sure. Yeah. I like it. It's my, go with me for a moment here, but is Philadelphia the, at 40 years old, soon to be 41?

Is he the, is he the male equivalent to Liz Karmouche? In terms like, Liz Karmouche is still top 10, top 15 flyweight. And she has been for many, many, many, many years now for like over a decade. I feel the same. But, but Liz Karmuch has almost. your highlights in this sense. Bill Davis is kind of the same way to me. He's always been a top 10, top 15,

light heavyweight, and he still actually is. He's just not very exciting. I get that. Except for his last fight. Except for his last fight. Yeah, yeah, that's what me. Every, every once in a while. Same with,

same with Carmush. She had like one of the best missions of the year last year. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe. That's one thing. I'm just, the similarities are there.

Good shot. Yeah. Good job. But they both. All the college dimension. Yeah. And like, I mean, I, and those are two fighters, I think, are just extremely talented, but I totally get as far as entertainment. Yeah.

All right. But as far as mixed martial arts and technique, just amazing fighters and just using their skill set to win fights. So, uh, that's all. Just want to throw that out there. Uh, thank you, ladies a bit. Uh, I take a few more. Yeah, like, around 10 minutes left here. Aussie wrestling greater than American wrestling.

okay you see you see that the Craig Jones has been saying it's about he's been kind of going off about that oh I saw I'm like fit on DC a little bit yeah yeah just talking to our good pal Alex one thing I've memories yeah yeah I only talk to I didn't see the whole interview but I saw like she put out clips and stuff um great interview man okay Jones you know I don't know if I 100% agree of that but no he's making points though he's like no I think I think it's something is like look there's out yeah Yeah. There's other, there's other avenues. I still, like, I saw, I still, I saw some very smart people be like,

hey, if you think, if you're sitting there saying ball, not wrestling enough. Oh, you wrestled. Oh, sorry. It's fine. It was on a great strategy. Then you're being disrespectful. It's fucking ridiculous. I'm sorry.

That is like a ridiculous comment to say. You could both be right about this. Bullaw? I'm not saying if, I'm not saying. But first of all, Ballal was very competitive in the fight without wrestling. And he tried. He definitely tried and got some take-duns. I'm just stunned he didn't do it early.

Like he didn't give JDM anything to think about. He gave the first three rounds, in my opinion, to Jack by not wrestling. You know what I mean? Or by not doing what Ballal does. And yes, the pressure was there and he was moving forward and doing a bunch stuff. But like, Ballal going in there and shooting takedowns and like wearing on JDM and trying to like chip away to his confidence. a little bit.

Like that was that was the strategy. Like that's how you beat a guy like that. That's how you, that's what Gilbert Burns did. Like Gilbert Burns got success early. And yes, Gilbert ended up losing that fight because of wrestling.

Gilbert lost that fight because of wrestling. He got caught shooting in. And that, that's why I was very, I get the kind of argument for Bala. Like you should wrestle more. But like, like wrestling, wrestling when your opponent's ready for is much,

obviously much tougher. Like, but. But Jack is, Jack is, can really punish you if you do not take the proper shot in. He will punish you bad as Gilbert Burns found out. So, uh, I think it was just, it was just one fight. Gilbert was like a minute away from winning and he got tired and JDM got back to his feet because he had nothing left. And then Jack killed him. Hit that, I hit him with that elbow and smoked him because he was dead.

I thought, I thought they got up, Gilbert got, they got, they got, they both got up. Gilbert shot in. Then Jake. I don't think so. I think JDM just landed a knee or I think JDM landed like a big knee or something. Yeah, maybe because he got like real sloppy. But Gilbert was shooting in because he was tired. He's like, oh, I got to take this guy down.

Either way. Yeah, whatever. It was just regardless. Regardless. JDM's confidence built throughout that fight. You could see it, especially in the rewatch. That's like one thing that I picked up immediately on my rewatch. It's just like JDM is feeling himself as this fight goes on because you could, there's like a

moment in the first round where JDM is just like, we're doing this? Like, you're going to give me this fight? Cool. I love this. And you can see it at the end of the first round. He just like, gingerly strolls to his corner like, okay, I'm up one. And then happens in round two. He's up two. By the way, biggest takeaway from this rewatch. And I mean this with all due respect to Bala Muhammad and his fans. If you scored that fight for Bala Muhammad, you are so dead wrong. Like, it's just, it's a bad scorecard. It's a very bad card. 50-45 JDM is much more acceptable than 48-47-Belaw.

Rewatch, I lean more, I think I leaned more 50-45 in the rewatch, but I stuck with 49-46. So something to keep in mind. Blal was fun. He was competitive. Great performance. Terrific fight. But there is a, there's definitely a case that he lost all five. rounds, even though they're really close and competitive, except for the fifth. Fifth round

was the closest round of the fight. See, that's the thing. I agree Jack won the fight, but I know, I'll get crap for this. I think off the first four rounds, I think I wouldn't have been crazy, I wouldn't have gone crazy if one of those judges gave any of those rounds to Belaw, because there wasn't, to me, a significant moment in any of those rounds, but the fifth round was without a doubt the most dominant round. And I think the most interesting part of the fight was coming into this, Jack had never fought five rounds. He has trained for five rounds in his previous fights before coming to the UFC.

And the UFC had never fought five rounds or trained for five rounds. And the fact that it was the law that wind up losing the fifth round and kind of, I don't want to say he ran out of gas, but it was Jack Delam. Yeah, JDM was the stronger fighter when they were both. exhausted and I think that's I don't think anyone was really predicting that that if it came under the fifth round like it was going to be jack's fight I think that was shocking and that's why he's a champ rewatch you're going to open your eyes a lot yeah it's going to open your eyes a lot jdm was hammering ball in that fight like absolutely hammering him and ball like ball like ball's chin

took a ton of punishment in that fight but I mean it is we talked about on the watch party watching it Like every time JDM hit Bilal, like you could see it. But when you just focus on the shots that are landing, you're just like, damn. Like he was lighten Balal up with heavy shots. Yeah. Almost the entire fight. Like every shot he landed was clean and it was nasty. And Balal is so effing tough, man.

Like I give that guy. He does not get enough credit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, because everyone is, oh, Blah is boring, but it was boring. But like, Dude, but no, Balah is freaking tough.

He is a, he gave you the fight you wanted. He gave you the fight you wanted. Yeah, which I respect the hell out. Yeah. And I hope, I hope we're, I hope that, that, that storyline is done that Belaw is a boring fighter, blah, blah, blah, you know, he doesn't finish fights. He says, I don't care. He is an exciting fight. He's a tough fighter.

He is a fighter. He fights in there. So I hope we're done of that storyline at least, you know, even though he's not chance. He doesn't go fight tomorrow. It's going to be fun. Yep. He's going to fight Paramar Rusman next.

All right. Take a couple more questions. Do you say you got anything else? Thank you so much, everyone. Yes, you're the best. Mike is it time now more than ever for another Don Davis town hall? I would love that.

It's always time for town hall. It's always. The invitation is there. Anytime he wants to do it, we can do it. Look, there are conversations that are sort of had behind the scenes with myself and higher in PFL brass that sort of happened behind the scenes. I might give you like all the specifics of everything,

but there's a part of them that feel like we should, that they are not being covered fairly by the vast majority of MMA media. And I just don't think that's true at all. It's just not true. We call it how we see it. And I think that's how all this should be. When you do bad things, we're going to tell you that you've done bad things. When you've done good things, we will say that you've done good things.

I think like part of them feels like, hey, we're doing all this stuff, but then we're growing the sport in other parts of the world and giving fighters more opportunities to make money. And yes, we've talked about all of these things. Like, that's good. That is good. But you have not yet walked back the whole co-leader thing and that, we're scaring the UFC and that fighters run from our organization

in order to go to the UFC like all of that is ridiculous and unfortunately that is the underwear stain in all of this you can try to scrub it out but it's still there and that's the problem with PFL right now is we remember

we don't forget the co-leader thing we don't forget hey we bought Bellator now we're coming like the UFC were right on their heels when all of us have been saying from Jump Street, no, you're not. You're nowhere near them. You have to stop acting that way.

And unfortunately, it took all this time, and it took Dana ethering Don Davis at a press conference after one of these town halls for them to realize, like, we need to stop poking the bear a little bit. And when they do stop poking the bear, it's a good thing. And then occasionally, Don will be like, oh, I got to do it. I got to hit send on this, send on this tweet. And we're just like, oh, no. Oh, no, Don.

Why? Why are you doing this? Focus on the positives. Focus on the good stuff. I just don't. You notice how Scott Coker in Otto's years never said anything dumb like that? No, Scott was always like... The only controversial thing Scott Coker ever said was, look, man, we have the case to have the best fighter in the world in four divisions.

That's the most controversial thing Scott Coker has ever said at a press conference when it comes to comparing himself to the And guess what? At that time, they did have an argument with Cori Anderson and Patsy and Eblen and others. Like they had a case. And it was a fun conversation. It was a fun conversation. Yeah, it was. And he didn't go like, we definitely have without a doubt, blah, blah.

He was just like, hey, man, our guys are really good. I'm just saying we got a case, you know. And that's all. And if we did an event with like, they're champions versus ours. I'm confident. I think we do okay. Like, I think we do okay. And that's, that's why people love that.

They love Scott understood the sport. He gets it. He knew the right ups and the wrong. He knows how it works. He knows what fans respond to. And Scott, Scott wasn't like the most brilliant guy. Like,

Scott had faults and he knew it. Like, he wasn't going to sit there and like do his research on the one and O New England fighter who fought in the opening prelim at Mohegan Sun. Like, he's not going to sit there and answer questions about that. But like, dude knew ball. That's why he ran successful organizations for the most buyer,

or at least like fighters enjoyed working for him. So I guess you wanted to find success in that aspect. And he didn't say anything that turned fans off. So listen, Don knows all he's got to do is hit me up, but we can do it. But, and I always tell every conversation I have with Don,

I tell him the same thing. We're rooting for you. We want you to do well. We're hoping that this is like a turnaround for you guys. I think they're having PR-wise, not the best year. But in terms of like the fight cards and stuff, It's great.

The world tournament things have been fantastic. But not airing the Paul Hughes fight live in the United States is an absolute disgrace. It's a travesty. And I know it's led to Don saying, hey, June 1st, big announcement, you're going to see all these international cards. And look, we don't want to see all the international cards. We want to see the Paul Hughes fight. You know what I mean? Like Paul's one of your biggest stars.

Of course we want to see him fight. Like if Dakota Ditch of his fighting in another part of the world, like we're going to see him fight. we want to see her fight. Like, if you're doing another PFL Europe show, like, we want to see her fight. We don't need to see PFL MENA every single time. We don't need to see that, but like the big ones should be able to watch.

So there are things they need to do better with 100%. All right. Anything else. Yeah, two more questions before we get out of here. One last super chat. Terrence, Sanhagen versus Mix would be the greatest fight. Who wins? Sanhagen wins.

I would freaking love that fight. but I don't want to see it now. I want to see Mix get a win first against a top 15 guy. Then maybe the San Hagan fight. But, yeah, but of course, yeah, I want to see that fight. I mean, I would pick San Hagan right now because San Hagan is just my favorite guy ever. But I love Patching Mixo. So I wouldn't be shocked either way.

But thank you, Terence Everett. And our last question from longtime listener, first time commenter. Not really. Joseph Boza. Is JADM the most unlikely UFC champion ever? He went from beating Gilbert Burns, getting a title shot due to Shafcott not being ready, first time fighting five rounds.

No, Matt Serra is the most unlikely UFC champion ever, and there will never be anybody that defeats him in that conversation. Sorry. It's just, it's it. Don't make it so not quite that extreme, but is he an, how about just, is he one of the, on that end, unlikely champions? Like, no.

I don't know. When I was going, when I was watching, going through all our shows, and stuff. Not one point could I ever find any of us saying after Jack Delah win, Jack Delah win, we're going like, this guy could win the title. We always said he was good, but like it was we never, I don't think, we said the same thing about Belaw too. I think Belaw actually might be even a more unlikely champion, to be honest than JDM. But like, it was, it's interesting watching our shows and stuff. Like, we all kind of, we were like, man, he's good. He's going to be, he's going to be around for.

It was like, he was going to be around for a while. We know, I could see him. being top five fighters like and um but definitely not most unlikely ever that's that's that's that's too far and extreme but but i would say he's one of the more unlikely fighters maybe i'm wrong maybe i remember like she he and i were always like really high on jdm and there were like certain timeline quotes where like i would tee up chaheen and he would talk glowingly about jack the one thing a couple things hurt jack in these conversations one he wasn't the the most active guy in the world. Two, the Basil Haphaz fight was real bad.

And a lot of people thought he lost that fight. Three, yeah, the Kevin Holland fight. There are a lot of people who thought he lost that fight. Yeah. To Kevin Holland. And that was just like, okay, we'll see how he bounces back. And then he was losing the Gilbert Burns fight.

Like losing. And then until he wasn't in the final seconds of that fight. So. I mean, those are, those are three fights in a row that he, I know he got the W, but in a slightly different world, you know, he takes an L in one of those fights at least. And then a long layoff. But again, like in today's UFC, and this has been like my credo for the last like two years.

Rankings don't mean shit. Winds and losses mean very little. They mean something to at least get you in the conversation. But your biggest friend in the world is your ability to pick up a phone and say, yes, I'm available for that date. that is more important than anything else as a top level fighter right now. If you're available and that phone rings, you need to say yes. And if you do, you will get your chance.

If you don't, your road just got way longer. And JDM said yes while he's getting ready to fight Leon Edwards. And the rest is history, man. So no, I don't think he's the most unlike the UFC champion ever. Yeah. But I'm just saying it is interesting. split decisions against people, a champion should dominate, and then, you know, a comeback last minute win over, you know, a very good fighter of Gilbert Burns. It's just, it's very interesting.

But I did say this coming into the fight with Bala being out for a year, the JDM that beat Gilbert Burns loses to Bala Muhammad. But of a year training, a year healthy in the gym, J.D.M. is at that perfect age where he's hitting his athletic prime. He is getting better. He has an amazing camper on him. And this version of Jadim can be Balaah Muhammad. And it did. He is a, the champion version we see now is the best version that we've seen him, seen of him in the UFC. So I think that's really interesting. Yeah. And people. I fight with his, I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah. People forget about Bala. Blah's 37. How old is he?

Yeah, he's 36, I believe. Okay, so he's 36 turns 37 in a month and a half. Yeah, he has almost 30, almost 30 professional fights, many, many, many, many rounds, you know. But I was just not as athletic prime anymore. And that's unfortunate. That's actually why the biggest reason. He's a freak, man. He's a freak athlete.

He's just absolutely a freak. And it's nice because he's so kind of dorky with his trash talk. We kind of forget that he is such a good athlete. Because I just, oh, I hate his trash. He is a very good athlete. I hate his trash talk so much. You don't need to do it. Dude, is the hardest worker in the room.

Anybody who's ever trained with him is just like, holy shit, dude. Like this guy, I did a submission radio show with, uh, it was me and Benile Daryush were the guests. And Benile was telling stories about like training with Balal and just being like, what the fuck? This guy, this guy like just doesn't stop. I don't understand, like, his fight IQ, all that stuff. My biggest question about Belal Muhammad moving forward is not who he's going to fight next because the UFC is very smart.

This JDM thing kind of hurts Kabbar Usman. Like even if Usman beats Joaquin Buckley, he ain't getting a title shot. Now that his Zams in play. And he's Gary and all, there's just too many names at this point. But Uspen's going to fight Bilal Muhammad next. Yeah, Ousman is going to fight Belahmahman next. Like if he wins or loses against Joaquin Buckley, as long as he doesn't retire he's fighting ball next and that is a big fight i like that that'll be a big one makes makes

sense already yeah went or lose story we're going to see the podcast thing drop like the ufc will demand it it'll be a part of the the whole packaging of the fight my biggest question of all will be what is ball's chin going to look like after the shady m fight because he he wore a lot he took a lot and even in the fifth round he got hurt real bad it was able to to survive but man, I just, he took so many big punches in this fight. Like, you'll see in the rewatch, you're just like, damn, he got lit up with heavy shots. And at 36, but next time he fights, it'll be 37 after taking that much of a beating. And you saw the damage, the nose, the orbital, the lip, the hole in his face, like all that.

How does he, like, how will he bounce back from that? because Usman's not a spring chicken either, but the dude can hit and hit real hard. I hope we see that fight. I hope we see that fight. We have to. I want to see it. Everyone's nuts if we don't get that fight.

There's no reason to not get it. So anything else are we good. We are good, sir. Yeah, you're going to be a busy man. So I got to let you go. We're going to get some things to work on. So I appreciate you guys joining us. What a week it has been.

and don't worry, even though we really didn't get much about it. UFC Vegas 107 coming up, 106, 106, I'm sorry. Coming up on Saturday. Don't get me excited. Tough, tough scenes, not the best card. I do like to go Burns Michael Morales' main event, so that should be fun. And it's a decent start time. So we'll be back next week to talk about that.

And much more right here on between the links for KSI and Mike at the Ikech, the Icomic Boys Special Intention, home. This has been Between the Links, an MMA fighting production, on the Vox Media Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion

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