MMA Fighting - BTL | Colby Covington Returns At UFC Tampa, UFC 310 Fallout, Global Fight League Reaction

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Former UFC interim champ Colby Covington steps in on short notice this weekend for his first fight in a year when he faces the surging Joaquin Buckley in the main event of UFC Tampa. What is on the line for Covington and Buckley in a very interesting welterweight division? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew answer fan questions about the Covington vs. Buckley matchup, Covington's media day, UFC Tampa, and more. Additionally, topics may include the fallout from UFC 310, Alexandre Pantoja's dominant title defense against Kai Asakura and what could be next for the flyweight champ, Shavkat Rakhmonov's competitive win over Ian Machado Garry, the official announcement of the Global Fight League and the surprising roster of fighters, and much more on our monthly fan Q&A episode. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From M.M.A. 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. Hello, everybody. Florida Mike here on this Thursday. And you know what that means? It's... You're going to debate some topics.

And on this special edition of the program, we're going to answer your questions, because we are coming off the final UFC pay-per-view of 2024. We're heading into the final UFC event in 2024. UFC Tampa headline by Colby Covington versus Joaquin Buckley. We had Media Day yesterday, Wayans tomorrow, and we'll talk about that. Plus, a new MMA promotion is official with a roster that I still can't believe at this point, but we'll talk about that and much more.

And joining me to do all of that, Mr. No Gray area himself, Mr. Chickens can't be goats, the hot take kid from M.A. Fighting.com. Jedbissue. Where is he? I mean, they can't be, Mike. They can't be. It's science.

You're looking very festive with the tree behind you, Mike, the holiday season in full swing down in Tampa, Florida, or I guess Orlando is where you are at this point in time. So, you know, let's have some fun. Be jolly and merry in all of those things. Yes, and of course, because it's a, it's a cool, crisp 54 degrees in Inglewood, California, yeah, sleeves are needed today for our wonderful producer, E. Casey Leiden. Shivering. You'd probably be warmer if you didn't get that fresh haircut.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, look at that. By the legendary voice, Esther Lynn. She also cuts hair. You know what I love about that. Nice. She's not a chicken, therefore she can be a goat. Fair enough.

So yeah, it's your show today. So happy to answer all of your questions because there are obviously a few things to talk about. This is MMA after all. Stuff happens. It always does. Kind of a slow news day today, but let's see what the peeps are talking about. Day still young.

Day still young. That's true. Very, very true. All righty. First question. Masters of the Universe classic. It sure is. Mike and Jed,

Shafcott is locked in. But if Buckley finishes Colby Big, could we see him leap J.D.M. Brady and Usman? If Shafcott is injured or can't make a fight, too, he'll be in the conversation. So a lot to unpack here, Jed, because Joaquin Buckley believes that with a and I saw a lot of people by the way giving

Joaquin a bunch of crap they're like oh just when he seemed to turn it around he said this and I was like what are you so upset about because it seemed like Joaquin was pretty realistic about the situation he'd said I'm going to leapfrog shopcott there are reports that he's injured but I need to have a great performance in order to do that the performance is going to do every do all the talking for me and feels like if he goes out there and just wipes the floor with Colby Covington, he can leap over Shofcott because as we say on this program and many other shows, availability is your best friend

and maybe Joaquin is available in Shofcott is not. However, realistically, Jen Mishu, is this true? If Joaquin Buckley goes out there and just smokes Colby on Saturday in Tampa, where does he go? Where is he in your eyes in this welterweight division? I think it is true.

And look, like we've been critical of walking Buckley, me in particular this year and I stand by it. No notes to myself. I was perfectly correct on all those points. But you ever watch how I met your mother? And they've got like they have a running gag called the Blitz where like some dude is just the unluckiest dude in the world but they can get passed around. That's Buckley, right? Like people wanting to say that what he said this week is like being bad again.

No, he got rid of that. Marab is now the blitz of of being an imamibre. a fighter who says dumb shit and he'll pass it off and probably Jamal Hill take it because he really wants that title. What Buckley said this week is fine and like pretty reasonable. It is not unreasonable to even if it's not true, I'm going to jump Shavkat with my performance. Well, there's not really a performance you could put on that could do that.

But that's just the sort of standard trash, not even trash talk, like self-confident stuff that you say as a fighter. And because Shavcott, you know, still unclear. to what extent Chofcott really is injured, you know, reports that he fought, you know, fought against C. and Gary with a messed up knee. If he's going to get surgery, how long he would be out, et cetera. But like, if any of that is true, the winner of this weekend probably is next in line. I hate saying that in case Colby wins because Kobe Covington should frankly just be nowhere near a title shot.

But the UFC loves to give this guy's opportunities. They gave him the Leon fight when he did. didn't deserve it, frankly. If he goes in, he again steps up, answers the call, helps them out in the spot, they need some assistance, and gets a win over a top contender, and Shavkot's hurt. There aren't a lot of other options for Ballal right now. theoretically, Kamar Usman's an option,

but, like, Ousman's riding a three-fight losing streak. We need to disassociate ourselves from this idea that he should get a title fight. He should get a win is what he should do, and he had an opportunity to step in against, Ian and didn't. And so he super shouldn't get a title fight because things broke well for him. So like there is a world where the winner of this, regardless of who it is, gets there. But that world is absolutely true if it is Joaquin Buckley.

Since moving back down to Welterway, he's 5 and 0, 4 and 0 or 5 and 0. Plus if he beats Colby, that win is not like the most meaningful to people in the No, but to the UFC and to the casual fan, it will be big. And frankly, if he does beat him, it's probably in spectacular fashion. And so I think, to the answer to this question, I think if Buckley wins sort of regardless of how he wins, but certainly if he wins big, he won't jump Shavkot because Shafkot is, he is locked in. But I think a win of any kind puts him next in line, right?

Like, I love Jack Della. Jack Della is fun. Jack Della hadn't fought in a year. don't really know what's going on with him. He's not getting a title fight without another fight. If Buckley wins, he could ostensibly fill in for, you know, against ball if necessary. So he's in front of Jackdell. He's in front of Usman.

He's probably like right there with the Imichato Gary because I know Gary lost, but the circumstances we talked about this, what he did for the UFC helping out, et cetera. Like he is also more in the mix than a lot of these other dudes right now. So it doesn't matter how he wins as long as he does. I think that this is true. But if you win spectacularly, it's absolutely no doubt about it. He is the next guy in line behind Chofcott. Yeah, it's going to be super interesting because obviously Daniel Cormier puts out into the universe.

Yeah, I was told he's got a torn MCL or whatever. He fought with the torn MCL. I did talk to a couple of people. One told me, yes, he was dealing with injuries but didn't want to disclose. And then somebody else said, yes, he was dealing with injuries. he has an MRI scheduled for this week and there's no update as of right now. So no one confirmed really anything

in regards to whether it was a torn MCL or not or how long he would need to be on the sidelines for. But if it's a torn MCL, like a legit torn MCL, he's going to be out for a while. Like he's going to be out for at least nine months, if not more. I think the winner of this fight

has a very good chance of just stepping in because when that phone rings, If they want Bilal Muhammad to fight in May and Shav Khan ain't ready, they're going to throw Bilal in there with somebody. So could be Joaquin Buckley, could be Colby. Who the hell knows? I mean, it just won't be Jack Della and it won't be Usman. Like, frankly, Ian Machado-Garry is more likely to get a title fight than Kamar Usman is right now.

100%. Because Usman has lost three in a row and turned down the fight. Like, the UFC will be petty about that. And it's not even really petty. He does not deserve to fight for the belt. Like, I know he believes that he does because he held the title. He held the title a while ago. And like, that's just not how this goes.

You got to do something. And he has not done anything in some time. So, like, no, like, yeah, the winner of this fight is very, like, has a real chance to get a title fight if Shafcott is going to miss any amount of time. Yeah. Usman hasn't fought in 14 months. And it was a short notice fight. It was up a weight class. and it was against Hamzat Shemayev,

and he gave Hamzat hell in that fight, but he lost. And we can give Usman all the credit in the world, but I'm still stunned. He didn't take the Shafkat fight. Like, especially, he's a pretty smart guy, seeing where this division is, seeing the guys that are coming,

seeing the fact that you got Ian, who is in great graces right now, Carlos Proches, JDM, Sean Brady, and the list goes on and on. These guys are all coming. And if Usman ain't fighting, he's just going to get leapfrogged by all of these guys. Like, he's not, like, he's, people know who he is, but he's not, he's not a megastar.

It's, he's not like a super overfighter. He's a great fighter. Maybe the second best welterweight of all time. You can make that argument. But, like, I just don't, I don't understand why people were clamoring for him to just get a title shot. That would have annoyed the shit out of me if he had got the title shot over Shafcott. It would have pissed me off. Yeah, it would have been terrible.

He hasn't won a fight in three years. He has not won a fight in three years. His last win was over Kobe Covington in 2021. And before that was Roy Mastrow, like he, there is no reason other than transparent favoritism, like for him to get one at this point. And like just, I do not think it is a big ass to say, like, I should, we should be demanding. I should be demanding. He get multiple wins because like, do something, be relevant to the current state of the division,

not the previous generation that you lorded over. But I'm asking for one, and I don't know who it's going to be. We talked about it in the post show. Camar Hussman is the biggest loser of UFC 310, arguably, because he is now so much further down the line. And I don't even know who he fights. He should be trying to get Ian Machado, Gary, to fight him. But I don't know if Ian, like, that is now a will Ian Dane to fight him sort of thing

because the game moves fast. and you have just not been moving. You have been stationary for 14 months. That is, you can't do that. Yeah. I, while you guys were talking about this and I peaked over, I was looking at Buckley's Tapology record. And I was like, you know, he's very, no, all that stuff.

And then I went back to the conversation. And I swear, I thought you guys were talking about Steepa again. No, it is, I mean, it is right in line, Casey. I'm not, I was like, do we change subjects? I was like, oh, no, talking about it was. everything you guys were saying it sounded exactly like the steepate situation except stepey got the fight and that's why i kind of everything you got everything makes total sense what you gentlemen are saying but also steepy got the fight so i'm still not ruling out ozman getting a next title shot

because right but that's because that's because john jones is john jones and he called for it Bilal ain't John Jones. Bilal ain't Amanda Kamara Usman or anybody else. Because he tried. He tried. If Belal calls for it, that might actually make the UFC less likely to do it. Belal should not call for it so they don't just get mad at him for existing and be like, no, we give you nothing that you want. Yeah, because, you know, there's a current champion that is trying to do that right now.

And his name is Rob DeBawis, really. and it ain't going very well for him. It's the best. Maravis. Oh, Maravis unbelievably just not. He's the best. He's becoming my favorite fighter.

He was already up there, but like, I love it. I absolutely love everything. He should super not be your favorite fighter, but it is hilarious to watch him talk in front of a microphone right now. Because, like, he is just trying not to say it.

Like, He is doing his best not to say out loud what he feels in his heart and what we all know is true. But he can't say it because it is obviously a thing you don't say the quiet part out loud. But God is he trying to say the quiet part out loud. It's the best. And just make a more friends. He looks so good. He's very active.

You beat out of him. Yeah, but like Islam. Islam fought a re. He's fighting arm and it's a rematch. It's the same thing. They are not the same. thing, Rob, and you know they're not the same thing. Dude, it's, it sounds like John when he's trying to, though, put down

Aspinall the same way, like, except he's John. So, well, John's undefeated. So everything he says is, I have to listen to. But when Rob says, you're like, ah, ha ha. No, it's not. When have I ever said that what John was doing was good? Not you, not you, but like just the general, not you, you have a, you have a, you have a t-shirt. Literally, I'm wearing a shirt that says.

That's not true. Not you. Even Colby took, even Colby had some things to say about John Duck and Asin all yesterday. Unless we talk about Colby yesterday, the better. He's on your team, Jed. He's joined the, he's joined the chickens, can't be goats team. I mean, he was always on that team in general. Because, you know, he knows John, but.

Fair enough. Marob's a king. A very silly king, but it's incredible. Big you, baby. Dude, the Islam line sent me. Just sent me.

Like, what are they mad about? Islam's rematching Armand Sarukin. It's the same thing. No. Like, why are they acting like it rematch is bad? Islam's rematching Armand.

The number one contender, who's won seven fights since they last fought? What are you talking about? Like, Just be unburden yourself, Marab, and say, I would like to get title defenses with pay-per-view points against people I know I'm going to beat and not have to fight a dude I might not beat. I still think I'm going to beat him, but it might not beat him. But the fight's signed for.

Wait, what is all this? It's signed for, right? Yeah, and that's the funniest part. Wait, what are we even talking? I don't even understand, like, they're talking about it. No, but that's the board that's funny is that Marab can't let it go. Marab can't be like, well, I'm fired. him is like he is justifying why he still doesn't want to do this.

No, I, I love it. I like, I wanted to fight Umar in, in the summer after I fought Peter and Sean O'Malley. Like I can we like he is still trying to speak this into existence and it is the wildest thing like, dude, just just take the L and try and win the fight. Well, he's got that, that's crazy. That's going to be the best part. He's good.

But even after he 48, 47's, Umar, he would still get on the mic of Joe Rogan and still complain about like, this should have been Peter Yon. I can't wait. I mean, you got to do it now. Like, he has no other choice. That's his bit. That's his bit. See, I told you, Joe.

That would be objectively great if he does that. It's like, I told you, I held him and I won a, I won a split decision. He didn't deserve to be in the cage of me. Fucking bum. Let me get Peter Yon who I was 50-44 in the last. time we fought, that guy deserves to be in here. All right. All right.

You're good? I love the QAA shows. Yeah. It is the best. All right. All right, here we go. Some guys questions from Lazy Bed. Lazy Bed.

Season's greetings, gang. What is the ultimate stocking stuffer for an MMA fan? UFC Hot Dog Brander. I have wanted one of those for probably 20 years. Not that I would, I don't even cook hot dog. but just the jokeness of it is terrific. So that's a great choice. They do not work.

They do not work. But by them anyway. That doesn't surprise me at all. Of course it doesn't work. It's not work. I like that. It's really good question. I mean, I would say the like the trading cards just because people are big into the

trading card game. Those things are expensive as hell now. So like it's not even really a stocking stuffer. It's only a stocking stuffer. size, not from monetary value. Yeah. That's a good question. Let me think on this a little more.

If I come up with something, I'll circle back lazy, but good question. For myself, my wonderful wife already got me at MMA stocking stuffer. She got me on a Black Friday cell, some defense antipacterial soap. So I think every MMA fan needs to know less staff infections. So that's true. It's very true. An affliction t-shirt, perhaps. Ooh.

Spring a basketball. Rolled up nice. All right. I mean, a UFC fight kit, just any of them. Oh, the gibb. Only the gibler. Only the gibler. I mean, it's the best one, but.

The legendary one. What's the most obscure fight kit you've seen out in the wild? I have seen like three fight kits out in the wild. I saw like a Connor, Ronda, yeah, a John maybe. Yeah, like I at the time I saw it was like that's weird to see it. But then it wasn't like, oh, and it's somebody cool. It's just like, oh, yeah, it's John or whatever. Yeah.

All right. Thank you, LazyBed. Oh, another another themed question from LazyBad right here. Also, I'm going to pause this because they got it. Dustin Poy is hot sauce It fits immediately into a stocking People love hot sauce I've yet to actually dabble

I should probably get some But I think that that hits The Venn diagram of all the things you're looking for Maybe a couple of a funk harbor Rum nips from Al Jemaine Sterling If they sell them in the little airplane bottles For sure I pitched Mike I don't actually think I ever told you this

I pitched us turning part of of the watch party into product testing as well, just like get one. And then I've yet to hear back on whether it's okay for us to be ripping funk horror while we're watching the fights. Well, I'm like really interested to see if his rum is good because like proper 12 sucks ass. I have in fact tried it. I'm not a big Irish whiskey fan in general.

I don't think it is a good one anyway. But like, you know, I like rum a little bit. I want to see how it goes. So maybe we can pull that off for our next watch party if I can get the okay on it. All right. Now we move up to this question. With the holiday season upon us, what's your one Christmas wish for the UFC in 2025? So I'll just keep it reasonable, right?

Because my real wish would be that fighters get 50% of revenue. Click your marketing. Or that the UFC just actively like creates a fighters association within their organization that people have to take part in. Like that would, I honestly think that would make the sport dramatically better, but we don't need to go down that whole road of stuff. I think that would solve like a lot of problems, like the Ilya shit that's going on right now. But that's not that just won't happen. That would be a, that's a miracle wish. you know um so what is a reasonable okay the reasonable one is very easy

come off the money one time i know you don't want to set the precedent you can say that you're not setting precedent you can swear john jones to secrecy over how much he gets paid pay enough money to make john jones versus tom aspinall it is the fight we need to determine maybe not the badest man on the planet because francis ingano does exist and we'll never sort of to get clarity in that fashion. But it's the next best thing. It is the fight that needs to happen for the heavyweight division. Certainly the UFC's heavyweight division.

And ultimately, if the difference is $10, $20 million, the UFC is making boo-ku bucks, like just an astonishing amount of money. Come off at one time. Do this for the one guy that you do nothing but shower praise on. Shower a little extra cash on them. Let's make this happen. Casey, what's your wish? Can't hear you.

I'm just, I'm just mouthing worse. Yeah, thank you. John, no, John versus Tom. And for exactly what Jets said, just stop being greedy, UFC. You've made all the money. You've won. Just take that extra $10 million. You're going to make, like, just give it to John.

I don't care. John's rich. Make him a little richer. Make the fight happen. And let's, let's find out. That's all. That's all. It's the only fight.

It's like this is everything, I mean, just like all these years working in this sport, it was always like, UFC, we'd put the fights the fans won't. Like, and this is the ultimate one and with their greatest fighter ever while he's still fighting and has a belt and they're not going to make it happen. And that's just, that's just a big, that's just a, that's just a shame and they can do it. But they just don't want to give up the cash. I, I'll never be a rich person. unless I like win the lottery.

Because like, I just do not have the like interior makeup to just be deeply greedy and selfish in the way that it requires you get hundreds of millions of dollars. If I was, AK, if I was literally just Dana, if I was Dana for a day, I would just pay for this out of pocket to see it. Like, what does $10 million mean to me? I'm worth $600 million or whatever obscene amount Dana's work now? he might honestly be close to a billion and he probably will be a billionaire sooner rather than later like what is 10 million dollars to just be like eff it okay like i will pay out of pocket for this one fight you know however this need be done because i just want to see it like that's the type of shit i would do if i was super rich it's why i'll never be super rich uh and it's why i wish dana

was cooler because he like he can give the knelk boys like 700 grand he can't just be like like, hey, John, I added a zero to your paycheck. Fight him. Yeah. I will go, I mean, first of all, let me just say this. I'm not rooting for this, but it would be objectively hilarious. Uri Pashka has a chance to do something extremely hilarious to kick off the year. But I'm not going there.

I'm going with just give us, I'll let you guys have that one. Max Holloway versus Charles Olivera, BMF title fight. Let's just do that. I want that. That is. Love that. For a realistic fight? Yeah.

Okay. All right. Yeah, that's, yeah, that should be next. I know Alvara is going to want the winner of the lightweight title fight and that's fantastic, but I got to see this one first. Plus money, I am not saying $10 million for John to take the fight. I am saying add $10 million. Yeah.

Yeah. They will offer him like 20, 25 maybe. And John will be like, no, I want 40 to 50. and maybe they'll get close and then John will say, no, I want 40 to 50. And that's where the 10 comes from. Let's split the difference.

Also, it is deeply funny that like, he's probably close to making 10 million now. Arguably the greatest fighter of all time. One of the biggest stars in the history of this promotion, he is making a quarter of what big-time boxers make in big fights. Great sport. I mean, from the UFC's perspective, booking John Jones versus Alex Pereira is better business for them. Because they will cost them less to pay John.

It might cost a couple million more to pay Pereira. Back end, just on business alone, they will clobber. They will destroy it business-wise. That fight. I'll lose my mind if they book that fight. I'll lose my mind if they booked that fight. So, yeah, from a UFC business perspective, that is the better business. But for everybody else, for the fan base, which they sometimes care about, more so the casual audience.

Yeah, they used to. They used to. But now they don't need to because the fans just come to them. You know what I mean? Like this Tampa card is probably going to break the North American Gay record again. I knew of fans in the sport need to understand like about 10 years ago, the UFC, yeah, a little more than 10 years ago, when the UFC will come to a town, Dana would, tweet a location he was at and they would and they would have to give away tickets and they would give thousands of tickets away for fans to come to the events and Dana would sit out there for

two hours, three hours and shake a thousand, talk to a thousand fans and greet them and everything. Like it was it was it was it was such a different time in the way the UFC and Dana was promoting the sport that that almost even saying that out loud it feels like I'm making it up. Imagine Dana at your local mall. Go, oh, I'm going to be outside Radio Shack at 2 o'clock this afternoon. Be there. I'm giving away tickets. That's just, that's how it used to be.

That's how it used to be in the sport. I ain't got to give away tickets now. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Thank you much, ladies' bed. I said some super chats. Nick, rank Marab, Habib, and Shafkot's hats by Badassery. I mean, Habib just sort of gets grandfathered in, right, as the originator, not of hats, like, obviously, but he's really the first dude to bring, like, a cool hat to MMA. Let me, let me look up.

Isn't Shopcats, like, made of wolf? Well, yeah, it is like a wolf hat. And that's got to be number two. So it's number two. And then Marabs is like, you know, fine, and it's a fun hat. It's not as cool as some other hats. Like Osama Bayaev has a good hat. I'm trying to think of some other like...

Vernigen Diroba. Region of the world. Oh, that region, okay. Yeah, I'm just thinking like, because like that's primarily we're getting cool hats as a, you know, like caucus region sort of general area, former, you know, Eastern Bloc stuff. But yeah, Habib just gets grandfathered in. If you were just looking exclusively not on like who is the progenitor of the progenitor of hats and MMA,

then Shavkot's hat is probably the coolest like objectively. But the Pabakas just started at all. It's the one that started at all. Yeah, it did start at all, at least in the UFC.

What is my classic ones? Dude, Combat sports. Habib got over not, like he did not speak English at the time because he was undefeated

and had a cool hat and just like was immediately over. And then he started speaking English and was like, oh, he's got a good personality, et cetera. He's got the buddy cop thing with Daniel Cormier. But like the hat got him over. It was a revolutionary piece of business for the sport.

Remember there was when the UFC got the, they started doing uniforms and they wouldn't let fighters wear, I'm not going to say it, right? But the head wrap, the seat. Oh, I know what you're talking about, but I do not know. Yeah, I don't want to call the wrong thing. Yeah. But yeah, usually actually for a while, they were cutting people off. But then they're like, oh, that's done. So, yeah.

Literally the only way for you to show any individuality in the sport is to have a hat now. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. Thank you, Vic. A stupid chat right here. Did I freeze? You did freeze.

I'm back. You're back. Okay, I'm back. That was weird. How'd UFC go from 16 Connor Jones Ronda, no politics to Dana dragging influencers and suitcases and ticket prices increasing faster than inflation? Am I old? Yes.

Yes. Yeah. The second part, yeah. God, 2016 is fucking ruled. What a year. It's just the natural progression of things, you know. The UFC made some choices and how they would align ideologically. choices seem to be working extremely well for them.

So where we're at. Yep. I was around this time too. And I have to go deep in the Twitter archives. But I think it was around this time too when the UFC fired Bert Watson. And no, I guess no, Dana had his reasons or whatever. But I remember everyone saying kind of like, oh, this is the end of, well, kind of maybe one of the ends of kind of. like that old UFC work, it was a family.

It was like people. And Bert Watson, he was a person everyone knew backstage, of fighters, the fans, to staff. And the UFC just kind of got rid of him, just apparently on Dana's whim. And I remember that was just being a big kind of, just cultural shift behind the scenes within the UFC. And this kind of all kind of, to me, kind of comes with it.

And just the UFC becoming something different. and that's all I can really say really yeah they became a multi-billion dollar industry yeah rather than a multi-million dollar industry they became a billion dollar industry and that comes with change and not necessarily good change for the fans

but good change for the shareholders yeah and that's it like they became a bigger industry and there is and honestly like frankly a massive part of it Like if you were specifically asking like how did the U.S. get so political, it's a very broad question. We could dive into the topic. I don't think people care that much about it because a lot of it is just like, well,

that's sort of how the culture shifted. It got more divisive. It got more thing. But also like, I am extremely willing to bet that if the Fertitas were still involved, it would not have gotten as political. Maybe it would be still shifting that way and it still would be leaning that way, but it would not be a frankly overt shift to one side of the political spectrum. Because there are no checks on Dana White at this point.

The Fertitas were the checks and balances to Dana's whims. And, you know, they'd still largely let him run amok and do whatever, but they handled the things that they wanted to handle. That is, that's not the case. WME, they don't give a shit. It is, it is very much that, casino scene where he's like,

as long as I'm sending the boss's money, they don't give a shit what I do out here in Las Vegas. As long as the checks keep clearing and every event keeps selling out, Endeavor doesn't give a shit what Dana does. He could do anything he wants. And to his credit, it is working.

Like the things he wants to do are act like they are working for the product. And so they are not going to rein him in at all. He got caught on camera beating his wife and they didn't issue a statement. They don't give a fuck. And so Dana wants to do this, and they're just going to let him because there's,

why not? What is the reason not to? They have paid no penalty for any of these things. And act like they may in fact just be benefiting from it straight up. So yeah, that's why we're doing it. Look how T.K. handled the Vince McMahon thing at first. They were just like, all right, he's going to take a leave of absence or whatever. And then they were going to sell the company.

company. They're going to facilitate the sale. WW is going to facilitate the sale and they brought them back so they could sell it. They could organize this deal with TKO. And then he was doing all the all the CNBC's hits with Ari Emanuel and he's got the her, you see mustache going on and all these allegations are hanging over his head. And then and then things just kept getting worse and worse and worse to the point where they just didn't have a choice. They were just like, yeah, man, we got apart ways. But even like Mark Shapiro is like doing T- TV hits.

And he's saying that like, yeah, man, talk to Vince the other day. And, you know, he's going through some legal troubles. But Vince is still great. They're still putting them over. Even with everything that's that's in the news and all these allegations and stuff. Like, he's not part of the product. Because if the controversy settles down, they don't put them back in there. They don't give a shit.

Yeah. I mean, I'm curious. The all $1.00 is what matters. It is the only thing that matters. Yep. And that's kind of, WWB, I mean, they are making so much money right now. They're making infinite money.

The true, like in life in general, but especially with multi-billion dollar corporations, the only thing that matters is the money. It is all they care about. And when a moral issue arises, it is not an issue until it costs them money until they are losing more money than they would otherwise doing if they resulted in it. That is just the way the world works, well, to capitalism. Jeez,

thanks, thanks, Mr. Patel. All right, let's have some fun now. I had a great time with that one.

Here, like this one. At some point, Chase, if Ilya vacates, who should Volk fight for the belt, Lopez or Movesar?

I'm a feeling UFC goes with Lopez. What do you guys think? All right. So let's talk about this, Jed. Ilya, and now his coach,

have done some interviews, recently and they're just like yeah they're just going to vacate this belt and go up to 55 and fight charles olivera that was the latest thing that iliot to pori has said and i think people forget that iliottipori does this shit all the time and his coach goes along with it they do it all the time they just say things and then the thing that they're typically against usually ends up happening anyways. I'm not fighting Volkovsky at this

point. I'm not fighting Max Holloway. He doesn't want to, I don't really want to fight him and then he ends up fighting him anyways. It's just, I don't know what he's doing. I truly don't understand this, but perhaps maybe he does want to go to 155. So Jed, your reaction to all of this, one, just the whole idea

of Ilya moving to 155 and two, if it actually happens, is it Volk versus Lopez or Movesar? Is it Lopez versus Movesar and Volk gets the winner? What happens here? I will start by saying there is a

just giving the biggest caveat and by biggest I mean the smallest realistically. There is like a 0.1% chance that Iliad actively wants to move up because the weight cut is getting too hard for him. His coach said something to that effect. Not a small feather weight, not a massive one, but like I could see it.

You just don't want to cut weight. 99.9.9. as close as I can be to certainty without committing, you know, my firstborn child to it. This bullshit and he's not going to do it. Because why would he? Like just, just transparently, why would he do this? If you vacate your title, you don't get pay-per-view points anymore. That's how the world, like, that's how the business works.

So if you're going to go up to 155, why would you do it to fight a dude? Why would you do it to make less money to fight ostensibly a more difficult opponent because it is not in your natural weight class? That is like that's bad business guys. Like that is the exact definition of stupidity. And I don't think he'll put his moron, right? Like he can hang around featherweight and he get a couple title defenses and then guess what? Then he can just go fight for the lightweight belt because that's how the UFC works now.

You do that. They'll let you do it. So he is not like, I just want to go fight Charles Oliver as soon as he said that I was like, that is stone bullshit. I don't know specifically what this is. I have some theories. But like he is not moving up to 155 to fight Charles Oliver and not for a belt because that would be the height of stupidity.

It would be extra stupid. And I can't believe I haven't seen a single person put this out there in the world. And it's the most obvious thing in the universe. Do you know how fucking stupid it would be, Mike? The dumbest. Because right now, in front of him, Ilya has what Marab Davalishvili is begging for. A rematch with the dude he's going to kill. Like a profitable pay-per-view points-earning rematch with the dude he is going to slaughter.

Marab is trying desperately to get that with Peotrion and looking foolish for it. Ilya, like, do you think Ilya is really going to be like, no, I don't. want the millions of dollars that comes with beating a dude already beat and frankly did it with relative ease like yes alexander wokenopsic is a great fighter yes things can go different in the rematch they're not going to i think most of us would agree so like why would he do that maybe maybe this would be real if it was Diego lopez was up next if it was okay i got to fight a new guy who's tough i still think it lea beats lopez by the way but like that's the juice isn't worth to squeeze let me go what this is to me and again this is pure theory he doesn't he is trying to negotiate something

from the ufc and so this is just a lever he can maybe pull while also you know not making the fans pissed off because if he was saying i'm i'm going to hold on to the belt and i'll go do this i think there would be more backlash but fans are like hey man if if you really want to do this and you want to vacate the belt there's no negative to it and i feel that way like if he does want to do this i think it's incredible incredibly stupid of him. But he's not holding up the weight class. Sure, man, rock on. Live your truth, however you want to. And so this is him just saying stuff because he wants more money or he doesn't want the timeline the UFC wants, whatever it is. What he really very clearly wants, if he could

pick his choice would be to fight his Lamakachiv for the lightweight belt or fight the winner of Machchif Sarukin for the lightweight title. He's not going to get that. And I think that this is just a reaction to being told, hey man, you're not in line for lightweight shot at the moment. Like, yes, you've got two great wins in your title reign. There are, there's more business to be done at 145. And so he, this is a reaction to that and him planting seeds, maybe trying to negotiate a little bit, ultimately it is going to come to nothing. He said he wasn't going to fight Max Holloway after he beat Volcanovsky. He fought Max Holloway. He's going to come back. He's going to fight Volk again. He's probably going to fight Diego Lopez again. And then after he does that, if Movesar is

still fighting or if Diego Lopez of Oversar do ultimately fight for a title contender, then he beats the winner of that, then he can go up and fight for the lightweight title and not have to do that. I'll fight Charles for nothing. Like, this is all just him talking. He's just saying stuff. I agree with this. I like the fact that even when he's just saying stuff, Ilya still says the right thing.

Yeah, I'm just going to go to 55. I'm just going to vacate the belt. Like, that's terrific. That's terrific. That should be, Ilya obviously listens to MMA fighting programming, because that's all we ask of you fighters. If you want to go up and win a title in a second division,

just vacate yours. Like make it seem like you're actually risking something. You know what I mean? Because that's the thing that drives me nuts is like, well, I'll go fight. I'll go move up a weight class and fight for the belt because even if I lose, I'm still the champion in this weight class.

No, it shouldn't be like that. If you want to take that risk, you're out. like you're out of the division for the time being you are officially a lightweight you're no longer the champion so we need a crown a new champion and then if you lose and you want to go back down and work your way back up get another win or two then you can get another title so the fact that he is saying i will vacate this title even though i agree he's just saying stuff at least he's saying the right thing he's setting precedent for what should be said from future fighters who want to move up and challenge for championships and other weight classes

that's exactly how you do it having said that i'm with you you, Jed, I think this is just a bunch of talk. I think they're talking to the correct people in order to try to make a bigger deal out of this than I think it actually is. And that's kind of where I'm at with this whole thing. Casey, what say you? As long as he vacates the belt, that's all. That's all I care about. That's all I care about. I mean, yeah, yeah, it doesn't, financially doesn't make sense, but whatever. If he wants to do it, he wants to do it, I don't know, chase your dreams, but just don't hold up the division. That's all. I think he doesn't want to do it.

I'm like, I'm so confident. I mean, I believe you. I believe you too, but yeah. The vacate was the most important part to me as far as like, yeah, whatever. And exactly to the point, Mike, like, he's going about this kind of dumb thing in the right way. Like he is like, he's saying it correctly.

And, you know, if by some chance he does, he can't make the weight anymore, he just decides, money is not important to me. I'm doing it for legacy. I'll go fight Charles Olivera. Cool. It's a fun fight. I'll watch the fight. And then, yes, the answer is never going to be Movesar.

Movesar will get to fight for a belt when there are no other options. It would be Volcanowski versus Diego Lopez for the vacant title. And credit to Diego Lopez, who correctly handled this situation as well, just tweeting, hey, if Ilya's out, cool. Like he wasn't like Ilya don't run away. He's like, bet. Volk, you want to fight for the vacant belt? Like, it's exactly the right way to handle that.

Moving on, yeah. Yeah, it's like, all right, well, the division's moving on without you, sir. Volcanovsky, would you like to battle me for the title? Yeah, Diego Lopez didn't go to Ilya's gym and start walking up to him. And it's like, don't run away. Don't run up to this way, class. No, he didn't do that. He was very smart.

So there you go. Does this by Eliiator? are doing this, does this, does this increase his negotiating power? I don't think so. I don't think so, but I don't think so. Just in the same way, Dana, they like to have three or four contenders, so the contenders can basically, they can pick the contender that would take the, you know,

the lowest cost, you know, the lowest price. Is this kind of a Elyicon, I don't like the price you're giving me at 45? I'm what, maybe, I don't know. I think that, that is my guess. And there's no inside information is that he. he wants more money and this is really the only tool he has to leverage that to get paid a little more and it does have the frankly the good byproduct of we're talking about it like I you know my thoughts not all publicity is good publicity this is good publicity like this is people are talking about him

at lightweight and there's not a negative association with it like because he did it the right way so he's getting a little bit of shine in that way and I think mostly this is I don't have a lot of levers of power here. The one I do have is I could just bail on 45 if you don't up the price for my defense against Vol. I don't know if it'll work, but he doesn't have any other play to get more money. Yeah, I think this is old school pro wrestling. This is what it is.

And when old school pro wrestlers had issues, it was one of two things. It was either about cash or is about creative. It was one of the two Cs. and I know that you can't really do creative in the UFC, but you can do the creative in this aspect is, I want to fight at this time and in this location, Ilya wants to go to Spain. And if they can get to Spain by like the summertime,

then Ilya will wait until that happens. Ilya said after he beat Max Holloway, he's like, I'm taking some time off. Like I'm chilling for a bit. And then I can come back and go to Spain or whatever. And that's what this fight should happen. And Ilya's next fight should one, trillion percent be in Spain.

Like, I think it's promotional practice if it's not. And I understand there's potentially location issues and trying to book a venue and arena, stadium, all that fun stuff. But if you could get it done, like, you've got to get it done for this guy. Like, he is one step away. Like, he may even be there, but he is like a one incredible highlight reel away from just being a megastar for this company. I think you got to make the investment at this point.

So I think this is just him playing games. maybe they offered him a fight for like March or April and he's like nah and they were just like well if you want to do it like you got a fight on this date and he's just like no I'll go delight wait and fight Charles Oliver instead how do you like them apples we'll see if it works so March is the Nevada card because we have January and February so March and April are the next two pay-per-views I have no idea where April is it all saying Mazel isn't saying he thinks they're going back to Miami and April

Miami. I mean, that wouldn't be a bad place for it. Honestly. Where are they going in May? Do you should want to fight Volcanofsky in Miami? That'd be a sick-ass fight for you. Also, shout out to Triple Joe. I've never heard Jedwardo.

I've heard basically every other derivation you go. That's a new one. Good work. I like that lot. I've never heard that one before. Jedwardo. All right. Thank you very much, Chase.

I sit up these other super chat. That's. Super semi-noob. Long-time listener. Thanks for providing so much great content every week. Question. What are Reyes' chances of returning to the top again? P.S. I vote for every BTA.

Vote for Jed for every BTL he's on. Hashtag, bring back active a morning. That's terrific. So Dominic Reyes, Jed, two wins in a row, two finishes in a row, two factory X guys in a row that he beat. Dustin Chicovy. And now Anthony Smith? Yeah, that's right.

isn't it? And now Anthony Smith. So what are the chances he gets back to the top again? What are the chances he gets to, because it wasn't that long ago he fought Jan Belhoevich for the belt. It was like four years ago, and then things got real bad when he fought Yuri Perashka. But can he keep this trend going?

Can he get to the top five? Could he potentially get to another title fight? Because we all know, 205 is not very good. I'd be pretty astonished if he got back to a title fight. He, like, he beat Anthony Smith up pretty bad, but he didn't even look like great in that. He didn't look bad, but, you know, it's just not the same. His prime, whatever his prime was, I mean, I guess his prime was the John Jones fight. That was like the best we've ever seen him.

But clearly his athletic and physical peak is past us now. even if he is now getting back the confidence necessary to compete at a high level, and the weight class is just stone garbage. It's, I just don't think he's going to get back to a title fight. I do still think he can be, you know, top 10 dude. He's top 15 now in the UFC's rankings. But, like, you know, he could beat Nikita Krylov. And I like Krylov.

Like, these are, they're winnable matchups because the weight class is very, very poor. I don't know, like, trying to. sculpt the path for him to a title shot just looking at the rankings right now. It's like, okay, like Jan, maybe you beat Jan a rematch because Jan's just getting old, old, but like, I don't think

I'd bet on that right now. So maybe it could happen. He's still young enough. He's 34, I believe. But I, you know, I think top five would be a big accomplishment for him to sort of claw himself back just to get to the top

five, much less get back to a title shot. Look at his route to get to John Jones, though. Like, it wasn't that. It was a split decision with Vulcan Olsimir was his biggest win. It was, I guess not biggest win, but, you know, his toughest opponent. I mean, looking back, yes. That meant a lot more in 2019, though.

Open St. Peru and Vulcan at the time were more meaningful wins. You know, beating Jared Canoneer. Jared Canaaner was not really a light heavyweight, as we know. then Chris Wydenman. We all knew the Weidman thing was like a nonsense win. But he had energy. It had pop. It was him and Johnny Walker were going to be the dudes.

It was really good for him at that time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking at the UFC rankings right now. Dominic Grace is 11. You got ahead of him. Johnny Walker.

He could probably, he maybe. 50-50 fight. Volcano Osamere. I think he'd. Ozimers is in the same spot. He was basically. Yeah, Nikita Kralov. Kaleo Roundtree.

Probably favor Roundtree, but not by a lot. Yeah. Carlos Oldberg is getting ready to fight Janbovich. Then there's Rackich. Jamal Hill, Yuri Prasca, Magamana Aguanaikalif. Here's the thing. Dominic, like, because it's a garbage weight class, like, he could absolutely beat Jamal Hill.

He could absolutely beat Yeri. I would not pick him to beat either, but like, also, he was a psychopath. So there's not a beat 205. We saw the area fight already. And boy, we did. But like,

he was winning a lot of that fight until he's super lost it. Like, how dare you talk about our boy? Look, my, my large violence idiot, I love him to death. But like, he is a dude who can get got because he is a psychopath.

And so like, Brayas could catch him. Like that he could win that I wouldn't pick him to. he could win that and the Yan fight like again, Jan's just getting old at some point. Yeah. It's at some point like Jan is dropping off enough. If Reyes can just decline slower, he will get, he will surpass him.

So. That's a true by division who declined slower. I mean that that is sort of the definition of it. Jan Behova just got to be like 41, right? What is he? He is about to be 42. He will turn 42 the month after UFC 3. 11.

Like, Reyes could win that fight. So honestly, I'm talking myself into him getting to a title shot. That's what I was trying to say. Like, it, in the right situation, the right timing, I can see Reyes. He's got to win some die rolls. Like, you got to win a couple coin flips in a row, but it's not impossible for him to fight for a belt again. Like, if his next fight is just Kaleo Roundtree, you know, if he wins his next two fights,

if he wins two in a row, I think. I think they would give him a serious look. Can you guys imagine? Look, like Glover winning the belt was awesome because it was like, this dude has been great for a decade. It's finally,

if Dom Reyes wins the title 10 years after he should have won the title, it would be like the greatest story that nobody gives a shit about. No one will care about that story outside of our little bubble, but I will love it so much. And then John Jones comes out of retirement.

to face. Oh, he would absolutely. To face. He would. He would. At heavy weight. All right, Dominic. I'm coming back.

I'm going to give you a rematch. You wanted this fight. You wanted this fight 10 years ago. And I literally vacated my belt to go to heavyweight instead of fight you again. But now is the time. Sit down, Tommy Aspenon. I've never heard of you. You haven't done anything yet.

This guy Ray is, though. This guy. fight him. It's one of the five best fighters that ever stepped foot in one of the top five best fighters. God, I am now hoping for this so much. I want Dominic Reyes to get him to get him. It would just be

such a ridiculous story. Man, Dominicraez was left for dead. We thought his fight against Dustin Jacoby was the last fight of his career and he just battles his way back to the belt. That would be the best. And we don't get John versus Tom

Because we get the Reyes rematch a heavyweight Yes Who needs it? You just change it? Yeah John versus Don Oh I thought you said John versus Dom Sorry

Oh God sorry Yeah Damn it My bad internet fell out Thank you Nob A couple more super Jets coming in Miguel Barry number one fan

Jed to continue your casino parallel One thing Bossa didn't like was effing someone else's wife. What would be the UFC version of that? Basically, like, automatic firing. I think it's... Committing an actual crime. Yeah. Like a real crime that you go to jail for.

Okay. We literally can't give you a fight because you are locked up in the penitentiary. Yeah. Yeah. It's really just like jail. I mean, you know, maybe like, I want to say, I want to the Paul Daley situation, probably be the other thing. I want to say that if you like came out and just went full like, uh, well, who I was about

to do something that would then live forever on the internet. And even though in the context of this, it would make sense, that could be clipped in a way that would be bad. I'm not going to do that. If you went out and went like full pro-Nazi, not like actual pro-Nazi stuff, maybe that gets you. You know, like,

if you're just like, I don't know, Hitler said some stuff I liked or whatever, like, then that's probably enough to get you out. But, you know. It depends where you're ranked. It depends how much.

I mean, they had the one time that they brought the neo-Nazi in, but then when they, they realized he wasn't neo-Nazi, they were like, we're out. Like, they, they seem, there seems to be at least a line drawn between actual Nazis. Freedom of speech, bro. I don't know. I don't trust anything that UFC.

I don't think UFC has any, I don't know. That's why, Casey, that is why I prefaced it by saying I want to believe. Yeah, okay. Yeah. I'm not certain because God knows things have happened that seem obvious to me to. you draw some lines around, but. I mean, I don't want to talk about it. But I mean, some of the horrible things that Colby said at the beginning of his scrum yesterday.

It was awful. Awful. Colby's scrum yesterday was the first time in several months. So I've been like, I hate everything that's happening in the sport. Awful. And yeah, I don't know. It's just such a tired bit. And honestly, it, it's, it's.

probably really good. It's probably really good work from him because like, I mean, I'm going to watch everything anyway. I am actively hoping he gets turfed by walking Buckley on Saturday. Yeah. Thank you. Miguel Berry, number one fan. All right. Okay, here we go. It's, oh, no, no. It's like, let's get to this. Let's just get this out of the way. I was hoping this. I was ready for this one to come at some point. John, Thoughts on the GFL and its geriatric roster. So if you guys miss this, the Global Fight League, I believe this is supposed to be the World Fight League at one point.

It's a new team-based organization. And the list of signings is absolutely insane. Names such as, we found out about this, by the way, like just after Media Day, and we're all like reading the names out loud. And we're all just like, what the hell is going on right now? Eight former UFC champions. Tyron Woodley Fabricio Verdoom Anthony Pettus

Alexi Olinic Junio Santos Hector Lumbar Luke Rockold Alir Latifi Abu Bakar and Amargumata Vandal A Silva

for Christ's sake Alexander Gustafson Tiago Santos Andre Arlovsky Lucas Martines Kevin Lee Frank Mayor B. Winn Charles Rosa

Alan Belcher Jeremy Stevens Mara Maris Benson Henderson who just tried Gagar Busassi is back Greg Hardy, rebellious to Spain, who just signed with karate combat, so not sure what's happening with that.

Will Brooks is back. Somebody finally signing Will Brooks. The UFC should put him on tough. I still don't know why. And then we got names like Jimmy Rivera, Tanner Bozer, and others. But yeah, the reaction to this Jed has been pretty wild because you look at the names and you're like, oh, these are like some really big names. and you hear fighters talking about the type of money that they're being paid here.

And then you actually go back and relook at the fighter names and you're like, Van der Le Silva is like in the antitrust lawsuit talking about having brain damage. And all of a sudden he is, all of a sudden he's going to be fist fighting again. So your reaction to this and the names that are involved so far that are being made public that the fans may know about. So we have a lot of thoughts. Let's start with Vendor the Civil One because that is the one that like,

there's a lot of them here. I'm just like, you feel a little icky about. That's the one you feel the worst about because of his comments. My hope, and this is a pure stone hope, is that he is not actually fighting, but they have, you know, as part of the press release,

they're like, we're going to also have coaches and fighters associated with the product. and, you know, team-oriented stuff. And so my hope is that that means Vandale is not, but he just got lumped in there because he's a big name. And you want to draw eyeballs in. I don't think that that's true, but I'm going to stick my head in the sand

until I'm forced to acknowledge that Van der Le Silva, who's like outward, was like, yeah, I'm pretty sure I have CTE is going to get into fist fight again. I don't really love Frank Meir fighting again either, but so it goes. Mike, I told you, I think a couple weeks ago, maybe it was last week, I don't know, and all blurs together. 2025 is going to be optimistic, Jed.

I'm going to be very positive, not about all things, because I can be negative, but I'm going to be optimistic the good things will happen for us. And a lot of negativity met this GFL announcement. I get it. Very, extremely likely that this thing crashed and burns and just takes a lot of money with it. I hope it doesn't and I am I don't you know I can't say that it's going to succeed I just don't want to be one of the dozens of people piling on of the hey people have tried mhm a shit and it just doesn't work the only way to make it may work is to just get the best

fighters and have them fight I think that that's true like historically that has proven true but like I like people taking swings trying something different I I frankly like the IFL. I know that it was not to everybody's taste. Maybe it was just too ahead of its time. I think this is doing better things at least in concept than the IFL did. The thing I like the most about it,

and I sort of alluded to this earlier talking about USC stuff, I love that they have a fighters association as part and parcel to it. Of the, hey, like we are, we're not just saying we're fighter first. Like we are actively doing things that will help fighters, you know, have more of a say in the promotion and things like this.

None of it will work. I'm sure that that is true, but I want it to. And so I am going to optimistically support it, hope that, you know, when they do their negotiations in January, they get broadcast distribution somewhere. Somebody pays them to do it. And it's not like rumble or some shit that no one's going to have. And that it turns into something that is real because we have said it a million times the UFC needs competitors, even if there aren't competitors.

Fighters need options as opposed to just being forced under one monopoly. PFL does not seem to be doing the thing. And so if this is a thing that can even gain traction for a few years and they can keep finding seed investors and burn money or launder money, however they get money, I don't care, I would love to see this succeed. They've certainly made a big splash. And so I'm going to support it and just hope that it works. There you go.

I mean, I guess you just have to kind of wait and see. But I am curious, and Casey, you could jump on this too after Jet answers. If you're Don Davis and Peter Murray and PFL right now, what's your reaction? How do you think they reacted to this? Are they concerned? Are they like, this is sort of what we tried to do real slow? And then these guys just came in and they're doing something a little bit different, but sort of the same game plan, but they're just.

just like, boom, right out the gate, loading up a roster, big money, real fighter-friendly, at least from what we understand. If you're PFL right now, are you concerned? I mean, they are coming after the co-leader throne, so that's fair. I would legitimately be concerned if I was PFL. Again, I think the most likely outcome is that this promotion collapses within 18 months, right? but like they are i mean they have made a splash in a way pfl basically didn't all year long they don't have nearly the roster that pfl does but they have a concept that maybe is cool maybe

is interesting they have bigger names than the pfl does outside of a few and so maybe they can gain some traction the last thing i will say on this uh you know old people fighting's weird and it's not that exciting i am a lot more open to the idea of old people fighting under these circumstances, where they're just all fighting each other. Like, if I am open to a legend senior league of MMA, which is what, like, none of the fighters they listed were like currently competitive or meaningful opposition. And so, like, that's fine, because that's one of the issues that I have with PFL and frankly with what Bellator used to do of like, all right, we're going to have this old dude fight a guy

who's not old and he's going to get obliterated. It's like, I'm good. I don't need to see that. But like, if you're just giving me Anthony Pettus, Benson, seven, okay, cool,

fine with that. JDS Frank Mear, all right. Verdun Frank Mear. Cool. Like, those are, you know,

these aren't going to determine, you know, relevant ranked fighters, but they are big names who get to compete in a, in circumstances that are probably a little more acceptable for them. I'll still tune in because why not. Yeah,

names, as long as they fight each other, I'm with you. Yeah They don't have a date yet No date for a show At it Right

April was April is the targeted First event Yeah They haven't secured any TV deals Or broadcast rights Just yet So

If they don't They said that they will just broadcast it via YouTube Which you know Honestly would be fine too Yeah Yeah It still doesn't sound real to me

That's all It's just like when the first time that guy was on Ariel's show, I just like, okay, cool. I like it. I did. But the idea is like the easiest part, the easiest part. I do think doing rosters of 10 is a, you shouldn't do that. I think that's a mistake. But we'll see.

Yeah. Actually, I'm more interested. Because I remember from the first time he was on talking about like each team or each city has like a completely different look or something. I can't remember exactly. But like, I don't even know if like... It's like American sports, baby. Yeah.

I remember you like... Coppunate Creek Raptors or whatever they are, vipers or I don't know. Yeah. Well, Lisa, I remember in the old EA, MMA video game, one of the cool parts is like you could pick your venue so you could fight like in a small like, you know, a gymnasium or like if I like in some place it looks like Saitama,

you know, in a ring. So I'm always big on I like in a sense of baseball has different dimensions I kind of like that idea of like each location The cage or the fighting venue It's slightly different It would be pretty cool if they were home and away games And like some people had rings and some people had cages

That would be pretty sick Something different, I don't know You just want a hill in the outfield Yeah I mean yes You heard that Yeah. I'm very big on the hill.

It would honestly be pretty cool if the six cities all had something different in their location. One has a ring. One has a small cage. One has a big cage. One has a round cage. One has a moat. I don't know. I ran out of ideas.

Or even like a pit. One's the yamma pit. A pit. Yeah. You know, just I don't know. They'll be pretty fun. Because we still go into that. We're going to hit that pretty soon.

Like you have to be different. You can't just look like just people watching thinking it's the UFC, which we assume most people who watch PFL that aren't like the hardcores. They're just watching it. Oh, it looks at UFC's on, but it looks a little different. But I'm not really paying attention because I'm at a bar and the sounds on on. You know, so. The one, here's the huge issue they're going to have, though.

Because most of the, this new generation of MMAs, fan just came in like the last year or two, maybe a little bit longer back. They, for the most part, outside of maybe like Kevin Lee and a couple other names, they have no fucking idea who any of these guys are. We know who they are. They have no clue who these guys are. So it is still imperative for them to build stars. They have to create homegrown talent because we've seen other organizations try to do this.

And if you cannot create superstars under your own roster, you're, screwed. It's just not going to work because these guys cannot fight forever. And they need, Scott Coker needs to be involved with this because if there's one thing Scott Coker did great with Bellator is he matched up all the old Wiley vets together that the hardcore fans knew, the ones that would sell this to the casual audience, and then they would bombard the undercard with like the talent they wanted to build underneath. You can watch A.J. McKee absolutely nuke a. a guy on the first fight of a main card before Ken Shamrock and Hoyce Gracie fought for the third time or before Kimbo Dada or anything like that.

Like the fights that bring you to the dance, you still get to see these guys that are really talented that you need to get to know beforehand. Card structure is going to be so imperative. And on top of that, you need to grow your fan base outside of the hardcore MMFA. PFL only has the hardcore MMA fan. And even the hardcore MMA fan at this point is like, for Christ's sake, no. We don't even want to, we don't even want to watch it right now because you're not, you're in, and the way they're trying to appeal to the casual audience by bringing in Jake Paul and all those people,

doesn't work. It does not work. So I don't know. I'm skeptical. I hope this is the, the other promotion that can, they're not going to give a UFC, the UFC that run for their money. but I hope it's successful enough to be like a valuable negotiation piece, right? Like this is WCW in the 90s where guaranteed contracts and more money and like you know they're going to be on television for the least the next five years.

Eventually that's going to run out. But you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. I'm going the exact opposite way, Mike. Do not develop any talent whatsoever. Be an actual, be an actual retirement. home for fighters.

Like you are the place fighters come when they are done. You are not building stars. I would codify it. Every team has allowed one fighter younger than 30, like one on their roster. And like maybe the unwritten rule is that fighter is a relative of someone on the team. Like Frank Mears' daughter is on Frank Mears team or whatever because like we're not developing talent. That's a no way to know. We're not doing that at all.

exclusively retirement age fighters. We're just leaning full into the bit of what this is. That's where I'm going. And here's how you differentiate yourself. GFL, feel free to contact me. I have a very reasonable consulting fee. You know, we'll make this happen. Here's how you differentiate yourselves

where you will immediately get all of our programming on board. Your referees do their jobs. It's fucking wild cons. It's a fucking wild one. But you tell the referees, you take a point for every foul. Every one of them, unless it's a cage grab, in which case we stop the action and you give position to the not offending fighter. Everything else, the referees actually enforce the fucking rules. And holy shit, like maybe we've got ourselves an XFL situation where the UFC isn't concerned about the XFL.

But, you know, they're like, oh, that camera that they've. got behind the quarterback, that's pretty cool. We'll take that and include that in the NFL, aka UFC broadcast. So that's how you differentiate yourselves outside of the gold we've already given you. Okay. I like the XFL analogy. If they can put like a MMA glove at the 50 yard line and have both guys just charge after it, love that.

Put a taser. Gaser in the middle of the cage, whoever gets to it first. Oh, my God. Now we're thinking. Now we're thinking. for Jed consulting service. Very reasonable fee, guys. Very reasonable fee, GFL.

I love the referee idea. What about missing weight, Jed? What's the consultant say about missing weight? Do you have to cut off a toe? Like, what are we doing here? I mean, if we're being honest about missing weight, in the terms of how they are organized, missing weight is just a loss.

Like, if you don't make weight, your team lose. is that weight class in the team organization thing. Because like you can't have like for them more than anyone else. You cannot have actually our lightweight fighter blue weight, but he's still got to win. So it's a dub in terms of the team concept. We can't.

So like it would just be, hey, the fight doesn't happen and the fighter who missed weight doesn't compete. Or again, a lot of this is up in the air. It appears, and I don't know how they are conceptualizing this, but a dude whose name I don't remember.

remember and I'll never learn, said that they, each team has 20 fighters, two per weight class. My guess is that that is so fighters don't have to compete six times a year as they do stuff, but perhaps it is both way in and if one blows weight, then the backup comes into service. Yeah, we'll see what happens. I hope it works. I really do. I honestly really like the idea of team MMA. I think that it can be fun. I don't know how you pull it off when you're doing what they're doing. But like, I would like it to work.

I think team MMA would be a cool thing to have. But it's just team, team MMA and like name only. Like, they're not training together, right? They're just wearing the same jerseys. I assume that some of them will train together, but not all of them. But yes. You know.

Okay. Whatever. I again, as I said, I think it would be cooler to do team MMA as like gym based team of here's the ATT team and the ATT team isn't you know, it's not the best fighters but it's like under those circumstances I would be like yeah, that's a developmental league where you take 10 fighters out of ATT and 10 fighters out of elevation and 10 fighters out of whatever and they're the up-and-comers. the dudes who don't have that many fights

as a way to get them fights, get them experience on big cards. And it's, you know, it's structured the same way that team wrestling formats are structured. So I think that would be cool. It's not at all what they're doing here. I don't know if it will. No. I hope it will.

Yeah. Good luck. Because that will honestly be a problem for this event. Like if they are a team and they are a team in name only and like you can't just cut to like Because what should happen is there shouldn't really be coaches.

Like there should be like two cornermen for all the same people. And you're like, all right, go in and fight. And then the next come. And when you lose, you just sit on the sidelines the same as you're in the dugout, or like the bullpen or whatever. You're sitting there waiting like, oh, shit, yeah. And you could put the rally caps on and get pumped when your guys win. But I seriously doubt that's what's going to actually happen.

So, you know. I like that. But the draft, like just watching a draft is going to be. super fun. That will be fun. I love drafts. You know my feelings. I'm great.

Yes. Hopefully some of the teams get better luck than I did in our fantasy draft. Mike, how are you feeling? There is a very real world where I overtake you this weekend. I'm still waiting for my 500 points. I was promised. I was promised three points for Jose Aldo. I was promised that and I don't see that on the final score.

because he should have won. Rocky Pennington should have won. I don't know. Who had Pantosia? Nobody. We didn't draft him. When we did the draft, he wasn't booked. Okay, yeah.

He was not scheduled to fight when we did the draft. And no one could have even anticipated that because there was still open things, right? We only took two fighters who weren't scheduled at the time. one was Shavkat because Shaheen took him was like and even that was like he's not on the books if he doesn't fight at 311 or whatever that's or 310 that's bad

and then Mike took Wiley and again like Pantosia could have been on that thing but everybody else was taking was on the books yeah because it's it is a huge risk for them to not fight Mike right now

is feeling that right like Mike is just like oh yeah it sucks I had Casey my draft pick was Alessandro Costa, who was about to nuke match now and get a ranking. Like, that would have been the pick of the draft. It was a good one. And then two days, and then three days before the fight he was out. Or like a week, a week before the fight he was out.

And Cody Durden stepped in and nuked match now. And no points rewarded to my team. This fantasy draft, yeah. Yeah. This fantasy draft, this is a, it's a test. I don't think, I don't think this. It was our inaugural run. We've learned some important things.

We got to do a full season. Yeah, we got a different. I'm actually, I kind of, I'm not into fantasy teams or whatever, but like I am kind of into the draft thing. So I do want, I do want to jump in next draft. I'm just saying, if Joaquin Buckley gets a finish, I will move from fourth to third. And shocker of the whole thing, walking Buckley will be the MVP of this fantasy league. He will be the only person who has like 400 points. I'm assuming Colby wasn't picked, right?

By anyway? No, Kobe was not picked. The only person competing this weekend. We are done. A.K. is one. I cannot catch A.K. Buckley is the only person left to compete. He already competed once, but he's getting the second bite at the apple.

Okay. Which I forgot until somebody tweeted at me. I was like, oh, you're right. Anything else? Yeah, a couple more super chats real quick. This is actually a bit of older. I miss this one, but. to an older topic.

Imagine what Alex would do to Dom's chin, and would you guys pick Reyes and a John rematch at heavyweight? No. It would be bad. I don't want to imagine it. Yes, I believe Alex Pereira would probably knock out Dom Reyes. I would not pick Dom Reyes to beat John Jones in a rematch. Pereira probably is one more fight at 205.

So Dom could avoid him altogether. If Pereira fights at 205, he's probably going to fight Angolaev. and then he's moving up, I think. That's how I think this happens. Because he ain't fighting Jamal Hill again. It's just not going to happen. He tried to. Jamal didn't want that smoke.

Yeah, if Yuri wins, they're not going to book a third fight. There's just not, maybe Carlos Olberg is like, maybe he'd stick around for Ulberg if he goes out there and waxes up Yombovich. But, yeah, I just, I think, I think Dom could avoid him. I think Dom could avoid him even if he gets to the title. If Dom does find a way back to the belt, Alex will be done by then for sure. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

I think there'll be so much Don Brea's talk today, but here we are. Neither did I. What a world. Yeah, what a world. Biggest story of 24, Northcut to PFL, LFG, Don. So it's not an MMAfighting.com and we'll leave it at that. And that's all I'll say. Not official until you see it on our website.

I mean, I don't know how, I mean, we always tell you. The golden rule is the golden rule for a reason. And obviously, seeing said report, of course we would reach out to people about it. Told us not an end deal yet. So there you go. I'm not saying it won't happen. Discussions are ongoing and it could happen. Targeted.

Targeted. I don't even, maybe. It's targeted along with like a couple of other options potentially. I don't know. I do know. Maybe there's a new option. Maybe GFL is a player. Maybe PFL, this is the desperation move from BFL.

Keeping them away from the GFL. I know there's not. I know there are absolutely other organizations in play right now for the services of one stage Northcutt. Actually, didn't even know PFL was on, he was on, PFL had him on the radar until I saw that report. But yeah, it's not. on our website at this moment and there's a it's just not done and there you know uh last thing just

because i i want to get jed rowed up well to get me rod over jett if the dogs win the championship can mike bobo keep his job he can't um my great hope so i want to i want to be as clear as i've ever been on any topic mike bobo is ass and needs to go there is a very real real thing world where we win the natty now we got the softest draw through the freaking playoffs like i we don't deserve it we are not a good football team like tip to tail we are just not but like we hold on let me pull up the cfb let me pull it up exactly so i'm not i'm not screwing it up uh because it is like it is tissue paper soft it is 10 ply soft we get the winner of wendy anna notre dame I got to tell you, Notre Dame is not good.

We're not, again, we're not good either. We can absolutely lose any of these games. Notre Dame is not good. I think Indiana might actually win. I gotta believe we can beat Indiana just because we have like a real defense. But that's a very, very winnable game for us. And then we will get the winner of Boise State versus the winner of SMU Penn State. Penn State are total frauds.

even if they beat SMU, they're still total frauds. And so, like, those are just, we don't play any of the good teams until the Natty. And so, like, probably we play Oregon in the Natty. And Oregon is a better unit, like, absolutely a better team. But Tom McShay said this on his podcaster show last week. And I think it is, like, honestly, the best distillation of UGA as a team right now. We are a team you don't want to play. Like, you super don't want to face us.

I wouldn't trust us to win three games in a row, but we can win any one game against anybody. And so we have like a real chance to win. And my great hope is that we do. And then that somebody is bamboozled by us winning and winning with probably a backup quarterback because it looks like Gunner Stockton is going to be in instead of Carson Beck,

which actually is probably better for us, but different conversation. But somebody who gets bamboozled is like, oh, actually Mike Bobo is a genius. and we must pay him lots of money to take him to be our head coach. And they can go deal with his garbage bullshit and we can get somebody new who doesn't suck in his job in for O.C. It is going to be maybe my favorite moment of the sports season

when Notre Dame waxes up Indiana and then beats Georgia. It's just, I'm telling you. It would be wonderful. I'll be fine because if Notre Dame beats us, it's because we score 12 points because our O.C. is a fucking imbecile. And like, there's just, we're like, sweet. We like, I can't lose.

I'm bulletproof. Either we win a natty in spite of this dip shit or we on a very public platform was like, actually, because there's no world where we're going to hang 45 and lose. Like if we score 45, we're going to win. We're going to lose because we score 12 points because our OC cannot call a pass

beyond the line of scrimmage. All he does is run inside fucking zone. and wide receiver screens because he's a dipshit. What would your reaction be is if Georgia won the Natty or if they lost and Georgia schedules a press conference and Mike Bobo's face is on it and you're like, oh, this is the day, Mike Bobo gets fired. But then he gets promoted to head coach. How would you feel?

I'll just quit following the team. I'll just, you know, I'll wish them the best and I hope they win. But I will set aside my fandom until he is. out. I basically did that for the last three years of Mark Rick. I hated Mark Rick from day. I hated him forever. And so I was just like, okay, we're never going to win so I don't have to be emotionally invested. And as soon as we fire him, I can start carrying again. I cannot, like, I cannot stress this enough to you. He is incredibly bad at his job by any metric you would like to use. He is awful at it. But like, I get it.

If I was Kirby, like, I just want to, you know, make a lot of money and hang out with my friends. So I'll give them cool jobs because I can. No one can stop me. All right. And I think because this was directed at me earlier than the day. Casey, what's up with your boy, Franciscinelli? Really. We didn't see him on the Commerce LFA card.

People love him. What's up with that? Luis is currently four-no. LFA with four first round knockouts. He's already fought three times this year in LFA. I wanted to see him the last Commerce card. I didn't ask him why. Oh, sorry, commerce is a local venue right in L.A.

for people not from here. And yeah, so I'm not sure why he didn't fight in that card. I see him in the gym every day. But, yeah, expect big things from him. I'm assuming he's getting an LFA title shot very soon and a call from GFL, maybe, who knows? Yeah, there's a new game of town. GIPL.

New game in town. But Luis is awesome. And my pride, I've, my proudest moment this week is I almost got him in a triangle. I almost made him tap this week, almost. But he's a big boy. Yeah, and that counts for me. That counts. Thank you for a question.

Close counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and rolling. That's how the saying goes. Yeah. I saw like a vein pop in his forehead. While he was fine, I was like, ooh, I almost got it. Oh, so close. So close. Almost had it.

All right. I think we're good. We are good. Do you guys know there's an Invicta tomorrow night in Atlanta? I found this out yesterday. It's actually like a pretty decent Invicta card too. There you go. Something to do.

I might end up going. I have to figure out if I can't pull it off. And it's like a mile away from where I live, which is incredibly convenient. That is close. That is good. I could literally walk to the venue. Yeah. Yeah, there's, so as far as BTL goes, the rest of 2024, we've got to figure that out.

Because normally, like next week would be the time we would do the awards preview, so to speak, where we just kind of like list off who we think are like good winners for set awards and who we would nominate. So we might just do that. And then the following week is just a podcast-only episode where Jed and I hit record and we do our promotional airing of grievances. One of my favorite shows of the year on MMA fighting. So that'll happen right before the new year. And then obviously we'll turn the page and get ready. So we'll keep you post on what goes down next week.

We'll probably do a little Tampa recap and then maybe we'll dive into the award stuff, just a little bit of a preview, a little bit of a taste. And then, yeah, we'll get ready to wrap up 2024 and head into 2025. Casey hit the music, of course. We got Wayans tomorrow for UFC Tampa 9 a.m. And they're going to be on the NBA Fighting YouTube channel so you can check that out. Ceremonial Wayans at 4 p.m. Eastern. And then, yeah, these guys get after it's Saturday night at Emily Arena in Tampa. So thank you for joining us.

Stick with us all weekend long for Casey for Jed. I am Mike Kak, the iconic voice of Estherlin takes you home. Good night, everyone. Love y'all. This has been Between the Lings, an everybody production on the Fox Media Network.