MMA Fighting - BTL | Conor McGregor Returning In the Fall? Poirier's Savvy Move, UFC Vegas 86

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

The majority of the MMA fanbase is looking for answers to two questions — what will headline UFC 300, and when is Conor McGregor making his UFC return? On Wednesday, UFC CEO Dana White says he hopes it happens in the fall, which doesn't line up to what McGregor and potential opponent Michael Chandler have said recently.  On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss White's update on McGregor, why it's taking so long, and if Chandler should consider moving on since he's approaching nearly two years out of the octagon. Additionally, topics may include Dustin Poirier's Hokey Pokey move a week ago ahead of his UFC 299 bout with Benoit Saint Denis, this past weekend's UFC Vegas 85 fight card, this Saturday's UFC Vegas 86 event headlined by Jack Hermansson vs. Joe Pyfer and much more. Host Mike Heck will be joined by MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew to discuss these topics and more. 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

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Why do you save and invest? Is it so you can spend hours every day glued to the stock ticker, worrying about every movement up or down? Or is it so that you can live a better, happier, more fulfilling life? Betterman wants to help people invest to live, not live to invest. With features like automated saving, global diversification, and tax-smart tools,

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welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. It's another Thursday. Excited to be back and excited to hear from all of you. Yes, we're doing it again. Another fan Q&A edition of the program. And it is Super Bowl week. I am very festive, even though the Patriots sucked it to lily up this year. But we get past that because we won so many Super Bowls.

And joining me in this venture is a man who resides in a city where the Patriots beats in one of the Super Bowl, one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time. He is Mr. No Gray area. Mr. Hot take himself, the Cannibal kid, Mr. Jed, Michoud. Jed, how are we doing on this Super Bowl Eve, Eve, Eve, Eve. One, the Patriots beat the head coach of one of this year's Super Bowl team. So never forget, old, old Shanninghan. Two, I did not notice what you were wearing until right now. And why?

Just why? I need to have some team pride on this Super Bowl week. Look, there's a lot of times where, like, as a fan, I was getting ready for Super Bowls because we went to so many. But now we're in a downward spiral, hoping to bring some stuff back. And that's the reason for the Q&A episode of the show. I'm a very superstitious guy. And last week, Jed, we began. I began Thursday with like nothing to talk about.

I was like it's a perfect day to do a Q&A edition of the program. The Dustin Porre stuff starts to take off. And then it just continues to go and go and go. And then today kind of felt like last Thursday in a lot of respects. I mean, there's things to talk about. And there's one thing in particular we'll talk about at the beginning. But I felt like maybe we can put in some of that good juju from last week and something crazy and fun will happen today. So I figured, let's do another Q&A.

I mean, I like the enthusiasm. Just so we're clear that Juju translated to a fight card, I still have not watched because nobody said good things about it. So if we're sacrificing UFC Vegas 86 on the altar of, I don't know, a 300 fight announcement or something cool, then I'm all on board. But I just let's temper our expectations about this juju mic. Oh, no, I wasn't talking about the car. I was talking about the news cycle, like something fun to talk about.

Yeah. Emporia stuff was amazing last Thursday. I mean, that there was certainly content. I don't know if I call it amazing. Because it was the dumbest, dumbest, dumbest, funniest thing ever.

But boy, was it content. I mean, we could find other content. Dana White's apparently not going to doctors anymore. That's, is that, do you want to talk about that? Or, or, I just want a 300 fight announcement, Mike, I don't know what we're doing. I have been convinced for weeks it was DDP versus Izzy.

And now it looks like either one, DDP is really trying to negotiate his way into the bad graces of everyone in the UFC or that's not going to actually happen. And then I don't know what the hell is going to be at 300 if it's not Izzy DDP. Well, I'm sure that's going to come up a lot today. By the way, what does that sign say behind you? It says I do not regret drinking. every day for the last three to four weeks.

Because I'm made of sterner stuff, Mike Heck. You're prepared for a, can I take, can I take my victory lap? Can I take my victory lap? Because I said it going into that fight card. That is, you don't know that's a, not really a shot at Alexander Volcanovsky so much to a shot at all of you. Because I said coming into that fight card, I was like, this sucks. I was pretty clearly, I think the only person on this site, and maybe the only person

the media was like, I don't want this. This is going to be lame. Volkovsky fighting Makachev on eight days notice or whatever is not cool. They had the presumptive fight of the year, ended up being fight of the year. I would like them to do that again. And that's not going to happen on short notice. Just have him fight Matush Kamrott, a totally viable lightweight contender of the ostensible backup fighter.

Let's not burn the Volk-Mach 2 bridge for no reason. And then the fight sucked. And now, months later, hey, yeah, I obviously shouldn't have taken it. I should have taken it for money. Like the money made it right to take it. But folks coming out was like, yeah, I was just drinking a lot. I wasn't anywhere prepared to take that fight. Eugene Baerman's coming out.

I was like, I actively hated that he took the fight. Like, I understand that he did it because they offered him a new contract and a lot of money and that you got to make that choice. But, you know, Eugene Barron was like, I didn't think we could win that fight. Like we didn't win the fight when we had a full training camp. I didn't think we were going to win the fight on a week's notice, but, you know, money. Now look, we're at. Think of where we could be, Mike, if we had just been a little more patient. Think of the world we could live in.

And instead, here we are. The one bonus is it does make this DePuria fight coming up a little bit more interesting. It makes that like, ooh, where is Volk, you know, physically? But it's just been way cooler if that fight was better, you know? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of us felt that way, but you were, you were staunchly against it. And hindsight being when you were absolutely correct. Yep, you were correct. So, this is a Q&A edition of the program.

So get your questions ready. We do have the super chat feature. Super chats get bumped to the top. But Jed, you wanted a UFC 300 announcement. You wanted some things to talk about. Let's talk about Dana White on Radio Row yesterday. He made multiple appearances on different shows. And there were two things that really came out.

One, he was asked about Connor McGregor by Pat McAfee. Pat tried to get it out of him. When's he fighting? Turns out, according to Dana White, yeah, we're hoping it happens this year. Hopefully the fall is what he said with Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler, which is not UFC 300. That is not the June 29th international fight week date that McGregor and Chandler put out. Raising a lot of questions, people scratching their heads. before we get to the other thing that has surfaced from these conversations,

your reaction to this, do you feel like this is legit? Do you feel like because Connor has two fights left on his deal? This is a type of negotiating ploy. Or the complete opposite, do you feel like Dana might be swerving us a little bit in preparation for a big unexpected announcement for a sooner date than the fall? I guess it could be the latter, right? Like 300, Connor versus Chandler. it wouldn't like based on normal rules make sense to have that be a top a title fight and then a fake title fight.

But they could add a different title to it. They could add the red panty belt and they'd be fine too if they wanted to do that. But I think sort of everyone assumes that they're not going to do that because two bites at the apple, the champions on 300 would be getting, it would be more costly for the UFC if they're getting pay-per-view, you know, kick on that. So I still just assume that that's not what's going to happen, though we're running out of viable options for 300 main event. I, to me, this reads one way, and I don't want to say it because I don't want us to be sued for slander. But I can only think of one realistic reason that this fight isn't happening already. and it's it's not because

Connor McGregor is on the up and up you know it's like I don't I just don't know why like Connor has come on and said I want to fight in the international fight week Michael Chandler would fight him literally any day just to get this done with particularly because he's now sat out two years

of his career basically waiting for this fight that may never happen which I think is just delightfully funny but I don't if Connor is saying that he wants to, so either Connor is lying about wanting to, or there are other reasons why the UFC is not booking this fight, and only one of those springs to mind is like, a reason I would still think is dumb. I want to be really clear, but it's the only reason I can come up with, man. Like, I don't

have any idea why the hell else this would be happening. Yeah, I don't, I don't really understand it unless this is a swerve. And I'm sure we're going to get a bunch of follow-up questions about this. So I'll just leave that B for now. The other thing, thing, Jed, that has made some news. It is in regards to UFC 300. He did make an announcement and he announced the first fight of UFC 300. Not the first fight of the

main card, not the first fight of the ESPN ABC prelims. The first fight of the night is Davis and Figurator versus Cody Garbrandt. What is your reaction to this? It's a banger of fight no matter where it is, but I kind of feel like it's awful. Why is it off?

It's just really dumb. This is really dumb. Like, they were never going to put Holly home versus Kayla Harrison. I knew that. Like that was a me pie in the sky pipe dream. This, I feel like you are threading the worst possible needle here where the point of the of the curtain jerker is in a perfect world you would get more people to sit down earlier. They're spending more money at concessions, et cetera, et cetera. But you know that not everyone's going to show up early for these things. And so it is at least to some extent, throw away fight in that manner of you know it's it's it's the get right fight it's it's getting

things going you can't one you can't start the event with two former champions like that just seems so dumb to me like this is the only matchup between two people who have held belts i guess you can count the uh bmf because justing gaiti was an interim champion bmf champion or whatever but like this just deserves higher placement i don't think that these two dudes like i don't think Cody Garbrandt and Davidson Figurato are enough to get most people in the door early. The hardcore fans are going to be in the door early for anything. They'll be in the door early for Thomas Peterson versus Jamal Poges, you know? Like, they'll do that shit.

So I just feel like you're going to have a half empty arena watching Cody Garbrant get slept. And that's lame because it'd be way cooler. It always made the most sense for me for this to be the prelim main. Like, this is the fight that here's going to be something incredibly cool. and now spend $80 to buy this pay-per-view where there are going to be five more really cool things and instead they have shifted that energy a whole heck of a lot and I don't understand it

but again like the fight rules what do I really care? Does this mean Bo Nickel is going to be the main card opener versus Cody Brundage? They're starting the pay-view with that are they not? They have to be. Probably and probably

because then they probably do Holly home versus Kayla for the prelim Main, which I think is like the worst idea possible. One, because the fight may not happen, given the Holly Home is more or less said she's not really inclined to take the fight of Kayla Mrs. White. And two, have you ever seen Holly Home fist fight someone? It's usually not fun.

Like, there are notable exceptions, but the vast majority of her fights are not like, man, this is getting me amped up to drop 80 on this pay-per-view. So probably bow nickel makes the most sense And to me for the main card opener All right, well, let's see what you all have to say Get the questions in, Jed. We're going to play a little fun game at the end too.

I know you are one half of the no bets bar tandem And it is Super Bowl week and there's prop bets galore. So I created some of our own little prop bets that we can go through That you can buy or sell and give your thoughts on And then we can rehash those next week. but let's bring in E. Casey Liden, the baddestashed MMA. There he is. Haircut and all.

Look at this guy. Looking fresh. Look at fresh. Thanks, thanks, thanks. The wife cuts it. She's my official barber for the last 15-something years. So doing a great job. That is so much money saved.

Just a little way. We bought a house because of it. I used to have a friend who cut my hair and then she moved and now I'd go to a barber and it sucks. That's why I grew my hair out for four years. I just didn't want to pay to get cut. All right. We are going to start off with a super chat.

All right. Akele's Jr. This is good. He paid $4.99 for this, though. He gets it on screen. Okay. Jed, do better, man. All seer takes are kind of lame.

Six and a half out of ten. I expected with the start of this comments that the number would be lower. six and a half's not awful. That's as we established last week, is that a D? Yeah, I think we established that that's a D and see how was that under 70 was that that's passing. Okay. I've been informed so afterwards I did the research because we never had D's.

Like I know the phrase D's earned degrees. We never, we we had C's or fail, but that is not ubiquitous across the country. There are different places that sort of do that. And so I believe 65 is a D and gets you a passing grade. And look, Akila's, I'm trying, man. I will all, we can all do better. Like, we can all try to do. But because I'm always right as we've just established with Volcanovsky.

So it's tough. Sometimes the truth is lame. I'm sorry for you. Jed almost freezing in the middle of the do better speech was incredible. But we got you back. We got you back. Jed, for the record, you kept saying no media member was like, was against a Volcanowski Islam thing.

Go back in the archives. I was never a big fan. I'm willing to believe that that's true because you're a man of taste and substance, you know, not like these other hooligans. And I believe in the sanctity of the backup fighter, which was Gamrod. I mean, you're the only one. You and Dana when it comes to Colby Covington.

All right. Super Chat from Zeno Gray. I'll be right back. Oh, okay. Well, we could super chat. Why can't? Let's see. Let's keep going.

Told you was right back. All right. Here we go. Where the hell did you go for 11 seconds? Zeno Gray. Who's the, my AC turned on? sorry, and it gets a little loud. Oh, you turn it off.

Well, I didn't think we'd get a UFC Vegas 86 question this early or maybe even at all. But here we are, Jed. Who is the liveliest underdog? Is it Feeley, Tavars, or Hermanson? One, shout out to you, Zeno Gray. And it was super chatting with you, Akiles. But I did not expect us to talk about this card. One thing, this card is better than last week's card on paper.

As far as live dog, I do not think Andre Feeley is live, like at all. I like Andre Fili like as a person, but Danigay's Danigay and he's only lost like the very best dudes. And I don't think it's pretty clear where Andre Feeley ranks sort of in that hierarchy of humans. Hermanson is honestly not an awful call. I don't think he is going to win, but we still know so little about Joe Pfe. He's just kind of running over dudes. And yes, he sort of has the aura of a guy who can do something special or be, be relevant but if you watch him fight like still he's still got a lot of roughness around those

edges uh but i have a bet on brad davars so he is the livest dog for me brad tvarer is brad tvaras he's you know exactly what you're getting and exactly what you're getting might just be good to beat gregory hodriguez like everyone loves robocop he's super fun uh he should try to take people down more than he does he's not going to be able to do that again against Brad probably. Brad's a very good defensive wrestler. And, you know, Robocop hits harder, but I would not say that he's the craftiest striker I've ever seen in my life. So I like Brad DeVar as a bet. I have a way drawn of a plus 200. Maybe plus two something. I'd have to go look. It's plus 200 right now. That is a good price. It's a good price on Randt of Ars.

It's right. If it was like plus 140, I probably would stay away, but plus 200. It's juicy. It's a real good place. Yeah, it's a winnable fight for Brad. No doubt about it. He stays on his feet, doesn't get knocked out, which is he's a super durable guy. And those leg kicks he landed on Chris Widman, they will work against Gregory Rodriguez. So, yeah.

And Gregory Rodriguez is not like a cardio monster either. So it's really highly likely that he just gets tired as this fight goes on. So I think he's your live dog. It's been super chatting with you, Zeno Gray. Yes, I agree. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left.

Roscoe Cadulian and the rest of the Phoenix Colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Roscoe Cadulian in this. This follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine.

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Got another super chat, and this one is for you, Mr. Heck. Uh-oh. Patriots suck. Oh, Mike, are you signing up for the CrossFit Open this year? What movements do you think will be in 24-1? Golly. I assume shuttle runs will be a part of it because I feel like I've been shuttle running every week for the last six weeks and just crushing myself. I will be doing the open, like not officially. Like our gym will take part and we just kind of have fun with it and we'll go through all the workouts.

But considering all the wads like the last month and a half, I'm sure 24.1 is going to suck. It's going to be brutal. So I will be taking part in the workouts, not in an official capacity, but just like is a team building thing at the gym. So looking forward to it. Mike, did I ever tell you that my old roommate used to be a semi-competitive crossfitter? You do not tell me that.

So long story short, I did not know him. We randomly got hooked up to live together. One of the nice people have ever met. and he like was sort of in like he was into crossfit but one of his best friends is a guy named Chandler Smith who's like a professional crossfitter. So I've been around that community a fair bit. It's awful. I don't know how you guys do that.

I enjoy it. It's been 13 months I started doing it and I don't think I'll ever go back to like a regular gym. But turned 41 on Monday and I feel not to like steal the Dana-Wa cliche, but I feel like I'm 10 years younger after doing it. So, and I'm official now. I bought my own jump rope and got its size. So now, I guess I'm in forever now. I've never done CrossFit. It's exhausting.

It is. No, no, I take it back. I did a video for your I, Uriah Favre started or worked for a CrossFit gym. So like I kind of did half a workout. And I remember as I just, it was throwing a lot of medicine balls against a wall. that's what I remember. Is that part of it?

I don't, I've never thrown them against a wall. Like today we did wall balls with like heavy medicine balls. You have to squat and then you have to throw it up and like hit a high target. Okay. So we had to 50 goes in the middle of the workout. So yeah, it was 75 air squats, 25 pushups, 50 wall balls, 25 pushups, 75 air squats within 14 minutes.

And it's, uh. And is it kind of competitive? Like you race against a team or are you, I mean, you can be competitive with it. Oh, okay. You can. Yes. They have the CrossFit games.

Oh, yeah. Like, if you do the open and like do it officially and you qualify, like, you can kind of build yourself up to like the actual games and be crowned like the fittest person in the world or whatever. I don't think I'll ever be that. But yeah, it's fun. It's fun. If you haven't tried it, like people convince me for like ever to do it. And I was ever, I was always.

guy it's like no I heard the reputation I've seen some of the weird like memes and all that stuff and then I walked in and then three days later I quit my other gym so wow no I could say you tried is what I will say it's not for everybody but you want to mix things up a little bit give it a whirl mixing things up hmm all right okay like the martial arts like the martial arts here uh I don't know what type of dollar this is But here it is. PJXU 98. Thank you very much.

What do you guys think of RDA being number 11 ranked at lightweight? His last win at 155 was in 2020 against Felder. And his second last win at 55 was in 2015 against Cowboys surrounding. Was the Felder fight a whiteweight fight? Or is that a Walterweight fight because it's on super short notice. Let me look that up. By the way, Casey, that's a Euro sign. Oh, okay.

I'll look that up. Feldor took that fight on like... He did take it on very short notice. Like super short notice. In my head, though, that was still a lightweight belt. Yeah, I could. It could. You know, it's lightweight.

Yeah, lightweight. Oh, no shit. Okay. Yeah, I always felt it was kind of weird that he was still ranked, especially since he came out publicly multiple times and was like, I'm never fighting a lightweight again. And now he's fighting a lightweight again. So, you're okay with him being ranked number 11, former champ?

Super not. have him ranked, I probably wouldn't have him ranked in the top 30 at lightweight. Not because he couldn't beat the dudes, but just he hasn't fought in it. Like as as who is this PJ PJ's who 98? Yeah. Like you summed it up man. In the last decade he has two wins. Like it's one of them's Donald Seroni, which don't put a lot of stock in the other.

There's Paul Felder, which is was a good win, you know, fine one at the time. But even at the time, Paul Felder was half. like half foot out the door and like is now retired so yeah no he should not be anywhere near the lightweight rankings we don't have him ranked at all right and it watch way or like i don't i assume that he's not even a farve but i will pull that up i don't see him on our rankings at all yeah yeah i mean that is the issue with you bouncing between weight classes you know you're not going to get ranked by yeah Nope.

No. Not even a FAR. Well, he will be if he beats Petush Gamron, so. I mean, yeah. And that's like partly why rankings are to some extent dumb, right? Like, I do think that they should have, like, they have some value. And I think that they could be more practically used. Personally, I have argued for a little while that if you're going to have rankings,

then every fight between top 15 ranked fighters should be 25 minutes. because at that point any any fight between top 15 fighters could theoretically lead to a title shot and so all title eliminators should be 25 so I think they could do that they're not going to accordingly I don't I'd say I know you care I could not care us I've stopped I do not give a shit what the fighters are paying anymore because they don't oh and if they don't then I don't have to anymore that's where I've come down on the fight of pay side after all this time well Dustin Poirier cares. I'm the same way.

And I care about what Dustin Porre cares about because he's fighting for his own pay. I just could not. I am done caring about an issue that they do not care about. Pay and pennies. If they're going to take it, fine. Like, is that morally bad? Sure.

But they don't care. So I guess. But yeah, like just having fight 25. Do they not care or are they, are they, do they not care or are they forced to not? You don't, you don't care. You don't care. They're forced to.

They're not forced to. They could do a whole lot of shit and they're not doing it. And that's on them. You know, it just is what it is. But also the rankings are kind of dumb because I don't think Gamrot fighting RDA is like a ridiculous concept. I think it totally makes sense.

Fine fight. And if he wins, yeah, he probably will get ranked again and then that'll be okay. Like, kind of doesn't matter. RDA is never winning a belt again and he's going to be a Hall of Famer. His career is pretty much set.

We're just in the gravy phase of RDA. All right. Got a super chat from Verity. Connor isn't ever coming back. Thoughts. It's starting to look a lot more like that. Verity, every day.

There's no reason for him to come back other than a pure ego. Like, that's it. It is just purely, or like just pure love of the game. Like, he just really loves fighting people. But as we're seen with Connor,

he's happy to fight people not in the cage. So, like, He doesn't need to fight someone in a cage to do this. I think that there's a real chance that this happens. I would also say that he probably would have come back already if it wasn't Michael Chandler. Like, not that he's afraid of Michael Chandler. I think he just truly does not care about Michael Chandler. And so there's no, it's less of an impetus to be like, I want to fight him like he would if it was Nate Diaz or Habib or something.

So yeah, he's got a hundred million dollars. He doesn't need to fight again, and the way we're going, probably is not going to. Maybe not probably. Very possibly. Casey, put a percentage on it. Like, what do you think is the percentage chance that he does return? And to the UFC? Or to combat?

To the UFC, because the UFC will not let him box again. Oh, yeah. Well, without taking like a 90% cut. True. Yeah. I don't know. kind of of that percentage is not coming back

to me it's 50-50 right now um i think it's more than it is 6040 6040 but something 60 40 yes 60 40 comes back because for the longest time I just assumed he was coming back because he has two fights left he comes back he fights them both he can then do whatever the hell he wants

he makes all the money he wants boxing jake paul or whatever but he's shown zero urgency to do this and so i just don't know what the hell's going on. Well, maybe it's because he has two fights left. And you have CEC's that. It's like, let's try to resign him. Well, I mean, they, all they have to do is offer him. Yeah.

I mean, look at the, they did the same thing with Nate. Took him like 18 months to get out of the UFC. Took them longer than that with one fight left in his deal. So this could be kind of similar. But again, we don't really know all the ins and outs. But by all accounts, seems like Connor is like ready to go. Like he wants to fight and he wants to fight immediately. So I don't, I don't understand.

what's happening. I really don't. Don't make no fucking sense. What was the original date that Connor said? He was coming with the little champagne glass thing. In an international fight week. Okay. Which Chandler also said in interviews, yes, this is what's happening. And now it's the fall.

Well, I guess that's why Dana does interviews with journalists who won't ask him questions. Just was that Pat McCaffee? Is that what he said it? McAvieve, yeah. Maccavie, whatever. I mean, to Maccvie's credit, he kept trying to ask him about like, oh, when's Connor coming back? And then like, Connor would come up and be like, oh, so when's he fighting? Like, he kept trying to sneak it in and try to throw Dane off.

So I will give him, I did watch the interview. I didn't love all of it, but I did like that. I thought it was good. You know, kind of like how Jed doesn't really care about fighter pay or whatever, you know, just at all, you know, whatever. I'm kind of like that with Connor. I'm just over it. I don't care. I don't care about Connor's fighting.

I don't, there's two billion fighters. I like to watch fight. He's one of them and that's all he is to me. I get it for money and clicks and all that stuff. Cool, but as a fan, I'm kind of, I'm way over it. So I don't know. I'd be excited if he fought again. Like, because he's always fun to watch Gamrod.

I'm excited to watch Gamrod fight. I'm excited to watch a lot of guys fight. He's just one of them. He's not like the man. That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah, he's exciting, but okay. It's a lot of exciting fighters. I'm not, I'm not,

I'm not, I'm going to see you, Roadhouse. Yes. I can get me started. Yes. All right. Thanks, Verity.

It's been super chatting with you. Appreciate you. Appreciate. Let's have a little positivity here. Hey. I don't feel comfortable with that. HR. H.R.

Casey, I'm calling HR. Okay. Okay. Let's get back on topic. John is scared. I mean, the movement's losing momentum because John has finally figured out that just shutting the fuck up is the appropriate way to handle this situation. He's not just tweeting up a storm about how he's super not afraid and I've done things that you can't even hope to accomplish or whatever. And so it's hard to keep, you know, I'm not a bully. I'm not going to try and attack John. when he's not doing anything, but the movement's lying in wait.

The moment somebody comes out here with some John Jones, we're ready. Could never be my goat. The other thing is through all of this, and even like at the beginning of this gaslight movement, everyone was like on board, ready to go. And then you just remind them, John's injured and can't fight anybody right now. And they're just like, oh, you're right? Is he injured? People are asking.

also let me just say tangentially related but obviously this has been picking up some steam yesterday with Dana or with Trickets being like yeah I'm just not fighting his hit 300 anymore if they end up doing Alex Pereira versus Tom Asmanol

UFC 300 that may be my final day on this site because the sport's never peaking like it's never getting beyond that it will be the best moment in the history of combat that would be pretty fun We'll see if this question comes up. I'll wait on this one because we discussed this on heck of a morning.

And I was like, we really truly could be living in this world that I'm about to bring up. I almost, almost picked Alex Pereira to be the heavyweight champion at the end of the year in our preseason picks or whatever column just for the bit. And I swear if this happens, I'll never forgive myself. I will be more upset with myself than I was about not picking Sean Strickland. Like, just. They're not going to do that fight. It literally makes no sense. It makes absolutely no sense.

But it'd be fun. Yeah, but it makes no sense. What if John cuts to, or not John, what if Tom cuts the 205? Okay, now, now we're talking, but there's, he'd have to, like,

I don't know that he physically can do that. Maybe, who knows? He would have to cut his body in half. What's Tom Aspen all walk around at? What's, I bet he's like 275 right now. Have you seen him like in the weightlifting videos right now? He's a big.

He's a large person. He weighs in around 255. So he's got to find a way to cut if he's bulking right now. 50 pounds of muscle. I mean, probably 75. He could definitely cut 20 of water. Like that's we could sure get 20 a water out of him.

We just got to find a way to lose 30. Let's get him a towel and DC this shit to get him to 205. No one would care. We'd all be down for it. Yeah. Do it in Abu. The guy who doesn't even like look at the weights. He just slams it.

Yeah, you just instead of scales, we should just have a dude eyeball people and be like, yeah, he looks about right. You're good. One of those carnival workers. A way to do weight classes. Yes. You're way better way. You're 205. You look like you might be a couple pounds heavy.

Go hit the sauna. You're good. And if you get it correctly, you know, the fighter wins a giant, no, Tweety Bird. No. This is a much better way than using a scale. When I have a fight organization, that's how we will do weigh-ins. PFL should absolutely do this. Got a super chat here from Jason Hogholm.

Thank you, Jason. Remember when the UFC used to have massive cards during Super Bowl weekend and not the Apex? What was your favorite card during Super Bowl weekend? I have to go look at those because I don't remember. But this is a terrific point by 20. 284. 284 was Super Bowl weekend where we got folk Macha Chep 1. I guess I was, but that was in Perth, so it's not like the same, same.

This is, the Super Bowl's in Vegas. The Super Bowl is in Vegas. There are a million people in Vegas to do shit. And the UFC was just like, what if, like, what are all the Super Bowl people doing on Saturday night? Like, after the, like, all the media folk are just like going to go do that. Apex. No, they're like, why, why is the T-Mobile arena not just having an event? I don't, like, it's such a miss.

Like, honestly, this would be an ideal time for them to debut the sphere. Like, there's already just a shitload of people in the city. Let's have a UFC event in the sphere. I don't, it's just a creatively bankrupt company is what? Just creatively bankrupt. I'm going to also to answer this question. 126 is a good one. 126 was when John Jones just iced Ryan Bader, right?

And then got the title shot. That was kind of like his breakthrough moment to get the showgun fight. The U.S. also had fight nights on Super Bowl weekends in Houston. I think it was a Korean zombie versus Dennis Bermudas. And that was a Saturday fight night for the, and that was, yeah, that was in Houston. So Nick Diaz Carlos Konda was Super Bowl weekend Liddell Coutre 3 was also Super Bowl weekend

But everything's changed once they got once they got With either Fox or ESPN because I got kind of because what this year Super Bowls everything's on CBS is that right Sure That makes a big difference With ESPN and stuff Brock Lesnar debuted against Frank

can be here at UFC 81. That was also Super Bowl weekend. So it might be that one. That was a big one. Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort is also

Super Bowl weekend. Condit Diaz was, I remember because I was at Conda Diaz. But that was, again, my thing is just, the Super Bowl is just in Vegas.

Like, this isn't even a holding an event, you know, having to take it to Indianapolis or wherever they're like Miami,

wherever they're doing the Super Bowl. It's like, it's in Vegas. It's in your home turf. Just get the T-Mobile and do like a big fight-night card. Or hell, just do $298. Like, don't go to Anaheim.

Half the fighters hate it. The taxes are through the roof. Like, just do it in Vegas instead. Like, I just don't know what we've done here. It feels like a huge missed opportunity. Well, what's, what's in the, what's in, what's in the T-Mobile arena Saturday night? I'm sure there's, I'm sure, I'm sure NFL booked it for something. I mean, there's a reason they didn't do anything.

There are no shortage of things. There's a reason they didn't do anything. But even like even if they just did like a some sort of theater show in some venue in Vegas with like 1,500,000 people. Yeah, but they missed the intimacy. Just for the ambiance of it all? There's a Golden Knights game on Monday. There's a WrestleMania kickoff media event today.

There's nothing on Saturday. There's nothing for, Friday, Saturday, and the T-Mobile arena. That's a WrestleMania fan event today that it's not like the UFC needs the T-Mobile for Thursday. And then they could just set up for Friday. And then they could do all the other stuff like other venues. Like it's not like there's a shortage of venues to host a fucking UFC card in Las Vegas. They found a great one.

Dude. Dude, Dana White said on Pat McAfee that they did a, they have a 300,000. $300,000 gate for power slap. So they took power slap out of the apex and sold tickets to it. And apparently I've done a $300,000 gate and UFC is going to be in the apex. But apparently Elon Musk is going to be there. So it's going to be kind of like the Zuckerberg situation where they close it down to the public, I would assume. 14 people.

Because Elon is going to be there? Yeah. Is that the main event? What are the chances that's what are the chances that's the fucking UFC 300 main event? I mean, honestly, you get to us. The amount of people that wanted to talk to me about that when that was clearly not going to happen,

but was in the news, was astronomical. I do want to pivot back to Dana saying that they did a $300,000 gate. If we're taking that as true, which that's a big if, but if so, I just implore whoever's spending that money.

Don't just find, I'm not even like a big power slap hater. I know a lot of people have much more. I just don't, it's not for me, but if that's your thing, cool, don't spend $100,000 to watch it, though. Like, that seems outrageous to me to use your money in that capacity. Use it. Let it on fire.

That's literally a better use of it than just you're helping fight inflation. If you like it on fire, then whatever you've done here. So don't do that. Just, you know, watch it on your phone. If you want to watch PowerSlapp, that's fine. Don't spend that money. That's insane. Maybe you get to slap the athletes if you buy a ticket.

Okay. Then that might, look, I'm willing to change my mind if that's the thing that happens. But like. Just saying. Power stock people are getting paid like $4. Casino tickets. Yeah. It's all VIP stuff.

Yeah. I mean, it's all VIP stuff. But it's just like why don't do that? I just don't. That money can go to any. other thing that's happening on Super Bowl week. Like, it's just, it's insane to me to do that. Like,

this isn't, again, I'm fine with Power Slap existing. I truly does not bother me in the way that it bothers a lot of people. They're making like $12. Like, these are not peak athletes at the pinnacle of a sport that you are going to be watching.

Like, you could just go pay some dudes a hundred bucks at a gas station to hit each other like this. And that's why, that's what they do. Don't they literally do that? Isn't they just, I mean, it's, this is not, again, it's not a major step up from that. They go to the gas station, they go, here's 100 bucks. It's not a major step up from that, both in the terms of the amount of money these people are getting paid and just the overall quality of what you're seeing.

So like, just don't spend off 50 grand or whatever a VIP take. Like, that's insane to me. God, what do you? What is the profit margin? The textbook definition of more money than cents. It's a billion dollar. It's a, it's a billion percent. profit margin.

Like, what are they think? Like, what do they think? Maybe 5%, 2% go to the actual? I don't even think 5%. Yeah, and I'm being very generous there. Dude, when their pay statements came out, they're making like $1,000. If they're doing a 300,000 gate by hook or by crook, like, it's just, I get why Dan is into it.

Oh, we know why he's into it because it makes money. It makes, it absolutely makes money. It makes money. It's an exploitable workforce. Those are just, I mean, that's his calling cards right there. This is social media or not? You can make a lot of money on social media these days. I've never seen it on social media, but I could believe that it does well.

I mean, it is built for that sort of thing. But yeah, but cats falling off dressers get a million views, you know, so I don't know. It's way hard to monetize that, though, you know. cats are probably harder to control. Another question of Jason, when the UFC renegotiates their broadcast deal, do you think the rights holder, whoever they may be,

will ask for no or very limited apex events? So that's the only, this is the only way they leave the apex. This is the only way they ever leave the apex, is if someone pays them a whole bunch of money, like double or more of what their current deal is and says, we'll pay you all this money, but you have to do like five less events

and you do the abyss. Apex like very, very rarely. And I still think the UFC would try to negotiate outside of that somehow. But this is the only way they lead the Apex is if ESPN throws them a billion dollars or more and says no more Apex cards. But other than that, I don't think they're going to be done. The answer to this is no, Jason. The answer to this is no for a very clear reason. The broadcast partners don't give a shit about where a venue is held.

they give a shit about numbers. And because, and I don't mean this disrespectfully, because you, Jason, are watching this card. And so are however many other people who are just going to tune in and watch this card, I, among them, though, it is my job. So there's a difference in that, I guess. They don't care. They just want to look at the metric and is like,

all right, is this going to pull 200,000 people on a Saturday night to fill our time slot? Sure is. Okay. Well, I don't care if you do that 42 times a year, as long as I am getting the value I am promised. The only way that it would happen is if people stop watching, then they will care about the apex because then if people stop watching, it probably is directly attributed to the apex.

But until that happens, just never going to happen. And here's the other thing. Here's the other thing. ESPN could come forward and say, hey, we'll pay you this much money for this many events, no apex cards. They could say, okay. and then somebody else could come in and say, hey, we'll take on those apex cards

and we'll pay you this amount of money and they can do it. And then somebody else come along and say, we'll take the contender series cards. Okay. Just look what WWE's doing. They're on three different networks with this new deal. Netflix is $2.5 to $5 billion over five to 10 years. USA's getting Smackdown.

CW's getting NXT. They can do the same thing. Like if ESPN's like, hey, we'll still host the pay-per-views. We want all the road show cards. Great. They could still shop the Apex cards if they want. And some will buy them. Absolutely they will.

That would be interesting if the UFC actually does that for the first time. Because that would be the first, right, when they start splitting their broadcast partners. Technically. No, because like, well, they were doing stuff on fuel and stuff, but they were all subsidiaries of the same like tree. Yeah. They were, you know, there were those times like, all right, these prelims are on fuel. And then you turn over to Fox or whatever. Like it's

FX, Foxfield was all the same But yeah, it's all the same tree But it is like this thing But I would actually posit What you just said Mike Is not a possibility But a probability

I would say that That is a trend I think I think the most One I mean They're in the same shop As a WWE And they look at that And can say

We'll do that too And there's just I think that the most likely scenario Is that after the right still runs up at the end of this year or is it technically run through 2025? I don't remember. Yeah, but whenever.

Now, they can announce the new deal like. Yeah, they can announce. Yeah, I just don't know when their current ESP deal runs like fully through. Whenever that is fully committed and done, I would strongly anticipate that ESPN still stays involved probably, I mean, is their pay-per-view provider certainly probably, you know, 15, 20 events a year and then the other 20 are shopped to some other network. Yep. Netflix or whatever.

Fun. All right, let's talk more about UFC making money. It was super chatting with you twice, Jason. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements.

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you call 18665331-260 or visit Comexonterio.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Josephosa, last week was revealed by Aaron Bronster that Riz Farmer now sponsors the Box of Shame. What do they think?

Riz Farmer is a hair loss company and erectile dysfunctioned pharmacy. Is that actually what RISFarma is? Yep. Okay, but like, is it like a real one? Or is it like a pretty obvious grift? I mean, they're all grifts. I mean, you know, but like four hymns, you know, did the strong,

we're going to advertise on every podcast forever. And so there's a patina of some sensibility. RizFarma sounds like a grift. And buddy, their website looks like a grift. Holy shit. This is one step above gas station dick pills. I just think it's amazing how the UFC is like, we're not going to look like NASCAR or blah, blah.

And it's like, what are we doing? We're right here. Like, I can't believe one person ever fell for that. It's like, you just wanted all that ad money. I've decided to get into NASCAR this year. And one, why not? Like, why not look like NASCAR? Their cars are cool.

They're just covered in a bunch of stupid shit that's hilarious. I'm pro it. I do, though, think it is deeply funny that the, we're not going to look like NASCAR thing was, I mean, like you said, Casey is obviously what it was really about. But there was like a legitimate, hey, we're on ESPN. We want to be a little more respectable. And we don't want every fighter to have Condom Depot just splashed across their ass when they're in top position the whole time. Like, that's maybe not something we want.

but then they're just rocking Riz Farma on the cage now. Like, you know, it's just sign of the times, baby. They're a disruptor. That's what the UFC said in the release. They're disruptor brand led by a really savvy executive team that understands the UFC in our fan base. They're a great fit because of their affordable personal care products and can provide value to our core mail demo.

In return, we're excited to collaborate with them to help them reach more customers and grow their business. Let me be really clear about two things. One, prior to working for a roommatefinding.com, I worked for a tech startup for seven or eight years. Anytime someone uses the term disruptor, immediately just disregard anything that they are saying. That is not a serious person.

Other people with money might treat them seriously and give them a whole lot of it. They are a cartoon. They are not a real individual They have never had a unique thought in their head They're just their tech pro idiots Two, how do you disrupt erectile dysfunction? You can't

There's not a disrupting the pharmacy industry The way you disrupt the farm Like big pharma Is with federal regulation Like you don't disrupt them by We've made a new gas station dick pill No, it's not It's fucking science

You can't just wish things to be better. It's most ridiculous should have ever heard. Tell me how they're disrupting. Are they going direct to consumer? You know, like every other pharmacy does? What the fuck is going on here?

Oh, God. It's a dumbest shit. Wow. Look at this. Wow. We wanted something unexpected on a... No. This might be even more unexpected than you have C 300 announcement.

Oh, is this about Riz Pharma? I'm talking about something else now. This is not about Riz Pharma. Oh, right. This is... Oh, good. Maybe the least likely fighter to attack their promotion that there has ever been. His name is Sage Northcutt going after one.

Here's what Sage Northcutt just posted 30 minutes ago. One championship is implying that I pulled out of the Shinya fight for unforeseen circumstances. That is completely inaccurate. I said won the unnecessary paperwork that required to get my coach's visas 48 days ahead of the event. I was told by them over the phone and by text, my main jiu-suitz coach, Fabio Prado, did not need a visa since I paid for his airfare, flights, and trip. So he was not classified as a working employee that needed a visa, and that my other coach could get in as a tourist, so he didn't need one either.

My coaches were there for almost a week. I was not informed that two of them could not coach until hours before my fight. I received a text from an unknown number that said the first time that day that was a ticket salesman asking me about getting my two coaches complimentary tickets to watch my fight in the audience. I personally believe that one was not going to inform me that my coaches were not allowed to corner me until I arrived to the arena for my fight if I did not hear from a ticket salesman hours earlier. We were also told hours before my match that if my coaches violated the visa requirements and were caught on camera, they could be arrested and there was a 99.8% conviction

rate on all arrests. I made it clear to one that I was not flying from America to Japan. If I didn't have my three coaches, I was told before I left to Japan by an executive that I would not have to fight without my coaches. They knew before I left all of this. Where's the rest of there? There's been a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes with one championship with what caused me to withdraw from my last fight as well as the other things that I will talk about at a later time on Facebook, Instagram, and with media outlets, such as drug testing, weight cutting policies, active athletes, active athletes. And athletes in the roster, once overall stability, et cetera.

So Sage, not only throwing some shade, he's teasing some more. Super Sage getting salty. And I just love it. Go say. All of this is so transparent is the best part. Like, like, everyone knew. Like you're like, oh my God, really? No, it's all just dirt fact.

I was like, okay, well, pretty clearly one screw the pooch here. Also, their drug testing is fraudulent. Their weight cutting is ridiculous. And they're going bankrupt. Like, these are all things everyone knows, but it's awesome. Yes. Wow, Sage, bringing the thunder. Sage Northcut Disruptor.

Don't trust me. It's not a serious person. But he didn't say, hi, this is Sage Northcut, the disruptor. You can be a disruptor without saying you're a disruptor. Yeah. It's like being cool. You can't call yourself cool. Other people have to call you cool.

You just can't use the word ever. Like, if you don't ever use the word, then I will respect you more. But unless you're using that word to mock people who, oh, I'm a disruptor, d'ur. Like, you know, it's just. Yeah. For you to stage. This is going to be a fun. Hopefully it's on the NAA.

But that was a really interesting thing because that was in Japan, right? It was for visas for Japan. Yeah. Yeah. You would have, yeah, I actually, you have to ask around for other other kind of, I guess, American teams that have fought in Japan if, uh, if their corners, if they're not being paid directly by the promotion, how, I don't, I'm not sure how it worked actually, how it works because, um, I would think.

98% conviction rate is an interesting stat that I'm not sure is true. It's what because Japan is. That was so specific. Japan is pretty lenient as far as like Americans coming and visiting So it's kind of surprised So

No well Yeah But yeah because Japan They yeah It's kind of weird There's a lot more to this story I want to everyone very curious A lot more there is

Dude it's gonna suck when one Craters this year We're just The draft is the most fun every year And we're just rapidly running out organizations. We're running out of promotions. As crappy as one is a lot, it's like, I don't want them to go out of business, though.

Because like it's good. One's a good promotion that just, it's a bad MMA promotion. Yeah. It's on fun fights in other disciplines. No, no, it's just like, even MMA, even MMA, I don't want them to go out of business. But I obviously, I don't like watching one. Like, I don't like watching PFL, but I do not want them go out of business. I want them to be a successful company because,

competition is amazing for this sport. I enjoy one. I think it's, yeah. Look, none of them make a great product. My enjoyment is the ease with which I can watch it. One's on Amazon. It's very easy to watch. That is true.

Half of my hatred of Belletor is some fucking Showtime, which is not easy to watch. She's, I, showtime is easy to watch for me. It was so easy. It was no problem. Yeah. I had no issue. Okay, so to tease one of the proppy questions, Jed, for the Super Bowl, one of them is yes or no, the UFC 300 main event will be announced during the Super Bowl

in a commercial. Because Dane is going to be doing a commercial with Bud Light. There's going to be 50 freaking million people watching the Super Bowl. What better time to announce your main event than at UFC 300? So going back to what we talked about earlier, is this a swerve? maybe they announced Connor versus Chandler as the main event in a Bud Light commercial during the Super Bowl? The answer is no. One, it would be terrific.

Like this, that would be, which is why it's a no, because as I said earlier, it's a creatively bankrupt organization. Nobody there would ever have even the inkling of doing something this fun. That's just not what they are. But also no, because if you're going to do this, It has to be Connor Chandler. It's the only fight that you could announce via commercial. If he comes on and does a bud-like commercial and announces Leon Edwards versus Blah Mahabid, I may actually die of laughter.

And like it just wouldn't, you can't do it. You could only do that if you're announcing a commodity like Connor McGregor. I just, I think it would be kind of interesting. Like, it would be super fun and interesting. I just think that that's not going to happen. I hope I'm wrong. It would be awesome if I was wrong. It'd be the coolest thing this commercial is done in 10 years.

That would be the most brilliant move on that they could possibly muster up. It would rock. It would rock. And like, we need to get the Twitter folk on. Like somebody check Connor McGregor's plane. Is he in Vegas right now? Because if they do a commercial and they come back and the Super Bowl's got him and then he and Mike, like Connor and Michael Chandler are there, like that would be sick.

Yep. But that would mean Dana lied to us in previous interviews, and Dana doesn't lie. Sometimes. It's not a lie. It's not a lie. I'm not lying. It wasn't a lie at the time. I'm disrupting.

I'm disrupting. Now it was, yeah. That would be awesome. I hope this happens. Also, I truly think that if you're going to do this, it needs to be Nate DS. You need to just be like, sorry, Mike. No one cares about Michael Chandler and this. Like, if you're going to do this, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly.

And now it's Connor Nate three for the red panty belt. And I'll spend the rest of the year complimenting the UFC if they do this. Oh, God. That would be wild. Won't be Nate, but that'll be wild. Serious questions. And like, I mean, I'm just like out of, I don't know. I'm just out of the fan loop right now.

I don't understand. Like, why did we want Connor Chandler so bad? It's just because we don't think. We can have it. No one does. Why are we like? We just want Connor to fight again because it's fun and it's big. And he is,

even though Connor is not the best fighter of all time or the best like top 80 fighter right now, when he fights, it is different. The energy is different. The enthusiasm. The, the stardom is just different. And like that is a thing that honestly was totally absent last year.

Like none of the events last year felt. even sort of near that sort of stratosphere, maybe the exception being Volk in Perth. Like that was... John Jones. John Jones felt big. I'm sorry. You're talking about the coward, John Jones? He wasn't in that category a year ago.

This is not a John Jones podcast. We don't support that man because we don't support chickens. But yeah, like it's just... People just want Connor back because it feels bigger and more fun. And they don't really care who it's against, but Mike Chandler is the guy who it's supposed to be against. So we're just like, yeah, fight him. Yeah.

Honestly, I hate Michael Chandler. It would have just been cooler to have him fighting for the last two years than sitting and waiting. That's kind of funny, though. Dude, like Michael Chandler versus BSD would be sick. They'd be a fun-ass fight. And, like, it's never going to happen because he is just desperately clinging to this. idea that maybe just never comes for him. There is a world where Conner's waiting him out.

Where Conner's like, eventually he'll have to fight someone. And once he loses, then I don't have to fight him and I don't care about fighting him. We can try and make me fight Gachie or me fight, you know, somebody else. Is there a consolation prize from Michael Chandler that he can live with? Because he's been a super company guy. He has done everything they have asked. He has been the, he's been the promotional guy. He's worn the UFC hat.

He's waived the UFC flag since day one. They announced his signing, not at a press conference. They announced his signing on Freaking SportsCenter. That's how big of a deal they made. Already announced before he even stepped foot in the cage, who's the backup fighter for the freaking Habev versus Justin Gaci fight. Like, they made such a big deal out of this guy. And Chandler has benefited, and so is the UFC from this deal.

Is there a consolation? prize here. Could they? And look, this makes no sense meritocratically whatsoever. But we have a whole bunch of lightweight fights coming up. Just a whole bunch of them that could all get rough and tough and could knock some dudes out for a while. If Islam Makachev is to fight in Saudi Arabia and there's nobody else available, you're telling me they're not calling Michael Chandler if he doesn't get this Connor fight? Because I think they would. If there's nobody else available, but that's the thing when you have three like fights,

one of those dudes will be able to turn it around. That's quick, man. Even BST Porre is in March. Let's say the one that I think you could maybe sell me on is if, and even this is probably still not true

because of the other factors, if Max Holly beats Justin Gachy for the BMF and they don't give Max a lightweight title shot, which they probably just would, then you could sell me Chandler fighting for the BMF against Holloway. I just don't think Gaichi would fight him again for the BMF. Like if he beats Max, if he beats Max, he's just waiting for a title shot.

But you could sell me that Chandler could at least live with a BMF title fight if he's not going to get Connor. Trust me, I will not like if this happens. But if Saudi is like, hey, we're going to pay you all this money. We want Islam on this card. It would be deeply funny. You put Chandler in there if he's available, right? Because BSD and Pori are going to beat the hell out of each other.

Sir Ruke and Olivera might beat the hell out of each other. Holloway Gates, you're certainly going to beat the hell out of each other. June's not that far away. Excuse me, sir. Stop disrespecting backup fighter Matush Gamrod who is going to wrestle RDA for 25 solid meetings. Yeah, him and RDA are going to scramble the hell out of each other. The unranked R&A. No, no.

He is just going, he is just going. just going to hold the rear waistlock and take RDA down over and over like a beat. It's going to be, I don't know why RDA took that fight. Honestly, it's going to be tough scenes for him. But I could buy, it would be funny because Islam would absolutely kill him. So I'd watch it. But I think Michael Chandler is just going to keep holding on to hope. He should at this point.

I'm sure he's got the entrepreneurial spirit. At this point, he shouldn't. Like at some point, you got to respect. yourself, my man. And I'm, like, I'm here. Like, I get it. I have a price. There are a lot of zeros that come with fighting Connor McGregor. And I would absolutely sell out my dignity for those zeros. But at some point, you got to draw the line, be like two years on their shelf. I could have fought three times and have made a bunch of money in that time. I, at some point, you just got to move on. I want to see how long you can wait. I want to see. Like, if Potter's truly waiting him out,

I'm actually super intriguing to see how long chaner canner just retires michael chandler not by fighting him and knocking him out as i was thinking by just holding the fight hostage it would be a top five funniest moments in the history of this war i might take a shot of proper 12 for that do you shoot these others i don't know proper trouble i don't drink you shoot i mean you you you can shoot it it's not good so oh i know it's not i'll do i like throw around my shoulder do like i don't know You either need a lot of a cushion or you just need to fire it down as quick as you can because it's not good. I mean, it's not like rat piss or whatever, but it's not good. Are you sure? All right. I've had worse whiskey, but I've had a lot better. Am I crazy to think Dustin tried to bargain his way out of the fight with BSD, but he picked the wrong card to do it? Dana needs to prove Sean O'Malley's a star.

No, I don't think this at all. I think it's the opposite. I think Nussiorei played this absolutely perfectly. You played it brilliantly. I saw some other people. A bunch of people like send me these clips because they think like I hate Josh Thompson. They think I'm just going to come on here and just like rip them apart because he said things that are wrong on his podcast. But like one of the things he said is like, look, you guys, I was a fighter and we have contracts.

And like you have to fight for those contracts, which he's not wrong about that. But the thing he would be wrong about here is this is not a contractual bout for Dustin Porre. Dustin Porre's contract is you're going to fight this dude in a three-round fight because you're not the champion and you're not headlining the card. Now it's a five-round co-main event. You're tacking on the two extra rounds. You then entail are on a different contract.

You're dealing with something different than you would sign for. So you're negotiating for not just the opponent, but now you've opened the door to changing up the language a little bit because now there's two extra rounds. Henceforth, Dustin Porre made the public negotiation. Hashtag thank you, Guillermo. He got what he wanted. And now he's going to fight Ben Wausantzant to the UFC 299. He seems pretty damn happy about it. So, no, I don't think he tried to bargain his way out of the fight. I think he got exactly what he wanted and I think he knew what he was going to get. And I think because of that reason, because they wanted Sean O'Malley to get over, you kind of need this fight to help that, right? Like most people are

eyeballing Dustin Porey versus Benoitzantini as much if not more than the Sean O'Malley Cheeto verify right now. At least that's my opinion. Am I insane? To that point, Mike, what if we just go back to your original idea and what if they just shuffle Sean Cheeto to 300 and you can run, I mean, DP as your main event for 299s, that's fine? Then what are we doing here? Like, what's the point? of the card. I don't know. I mean, the point of the card is to make, to put Sean over Miami to over. Yeah. Put him over at UFC 300, you know, in the main event. No, I agree. It's a little late now. Now it's like way too late to do that. That's fine. You just come out and say, yeah, Sean tweet

the Hammy. He needs an extra couple of weeks. We're bumping it back to 300. Okay. Sure. Yeah, I don't just trying to find a fight for 300. It was we were running out of main events. Yes. I don't know what the hell they're going to do. 300's fine. It's fine the way it is. Look, DDP did not say in that interview that he's not fighting. Here's the thing is saying he's got to get checked and banned beforehand.

It is fine the way it is, but it has been sold to be more than this. Who sold it? Who sold it? Dana has specifically. As he really sold it? I don't know. He just. Dana has specifically been like, I've still got.

It's the greatest car we've ever assembled. That's what we're doing. Yeah. See, here's, here's an example. 301 is going to be the greatest card. 302 is for sure not going to be the greatest card. Okay. 302, 302.

301 will be fun. They'll be in Brazil. That'll be sick. That'll probably be where we get Alex Pereira. That's for sure where we're going to get Alex. Trenzot. Him and pants are going to fight there. Yep.

Yeah. And that'll be great. Yeah, it will be. I'll be happy. Well, if it's not the greatest pay-per-view ever, I will quit watching UFC. I'll show with them. we're just going to get a we're going to get a very good card and that's fine i'd be talking myself into the connor swerve i think it's dude i'm telling you that's super

bowl i know we talk through this the more that that's sounding like a viable option i love it should be connor nate though it's just it should just be connor nate i'll i will never say a bad thing about dana white again if it's connor nate at 300 you need you need to You're doing yourself when this but-like commercial comes on. And if it's Cotter and Nate going face to face and that's announced at the co-main event, I have to just see your live reaction to this. It will probably fall in the world. I need the live reaction from Michael Chandler. That's what I would need in that time.

Just what a dink. Oh, my gosh. Oh, God. Let me see what else we got. Yeah, see if we got anything else. Oh, Bruins connects tonight. Now we play the Super Bowl copy game and call it a day. Yeah.

We can talk about Joe Pfeiffer. We can talk about email. We'll talk about me. Yeah. What's the email of off question real quick? We'll get email. Yeah, yeah. Where is it? I'll be useless to stop and watch that fight.

Oh, then never mind. There you go. Let's move on then. What did you take in that? Inov's performance? I mean, just a terrific showing from Imovov, who, from what I heard, listening to On to the next one in the post-fight show, illegally kicked him, which I support, obviously, because if you're not cheating, you're doing it wrong. I don't know. Like, he's not sure Neimov. He's a dude who's going to hang around.

He's the next generation of middle-weighty middle-weight. I don't think so. I just want to say, when I said in the preview show, does this fight have sneaky men? So does this fight have sneaky middleweight, middleweight, like, vibes? I was like, no, Roman Delizze is way too cool. And it ended up apparently being weird. So it's probably not middleweighty, but based on hearing y'all talk. You think Imovov is a middleweighty, middleweight guy and not, not Delizzee?

Delinezate to me is like he's right there, is middleweight. I think he was actually good. Yeah, I think Imov is fine. I think they are both very, very in play, though Imov has. has been putting together some knockouts like in his most recent run. But I think that they are both like, that's what I said before. I was like, this is sort of sneaky middleweighty here. And then I was shot down and it, you know, hasn't been confirmed middleweighty.

Delizet tried his best. It's not full on middleweighty. Yeah. Look, you got to just give Nasorini involved another couple of years. He'll just go all the way middleweight on you. Oh, yeah. Cardio volume. In time.

They all, they all eventually come back to middleweight. middleweight, yeah. Like, Armand Petrosian versus Adolfo Vieira, like that is going to be so middleweighty. It's not even funny. I think the main event is... I don't think Petrojan Hedolfo Vieira is the most middleweighty fight on this. We have four middleweight fights.

Petrogyn is like... Petrojan is 100%. But Vieira can just implode, which is funny. And so that's not always middleweighty. He can just gas out entirely and die. I mean, Jackramanson is, to my mind, the page is saying of middleweighty. Yeah, that's why I think the main event is for the title right now. Christoph to Christop.

Joe Piper is not in the conversation for middleweighty. He's going to be there. Not at the time being. I mean, you might get there. It's not at the time being. If we were doing Jacker Manson, Brad DeVarres, I think that's no doubt about it, middle weighty, middleweight championship fight. I think that's undeniably middleweight championship fight to me.

All right. Our last super chat, our last super chat question right here from Zeno Gray. Thank you, Zito. What's y'all's favorite horror movie, Poultergeist for me? I'm not a big horror fan, so let me think through this. I mean, I'm a series guy, so. I mean, the original Halloween is probably right up there. First movie I ever saw in the movie theater, first movie I ever saw in the movie theaters was Friday the 13th, part eight.

Part eight. Which one's that one? Manhattan. Manhattan. It was Manhattan. It was in Manhattan. Horror movies I'll recommend right top of my head. Hereditary is probably my favorite horror movie ever.

I loved Barbarian. It came out last year. Oh, God, there's so many. I love horror movies. I can't think of anywhere. Hereditary and barbarians where I got on top of my head right now. Evil Dead Zero. series is really good.

Even like the latter ones are really good. I like that. I like the very last one. The last one was fun. Oh, super good. Like they did a, like a remake before Evil Dead rises.

And it's the most soulless, joyless, like watch ever. It's really, it's good. But it's like, there's no redeeming qualities to it from a positivity space. Like compared to the rest of the Evil Dead series. And then Evil Dead Rise is like kind of the middle ground,

even though there's a lot of joylessness in that too. Those are really good. Oh, I love Pearl. Pearl. It's recent an 824 movie Pearl and X. I liked a lot. Yeah. Pearl is great.

28 days later. Oh, talk to me. Talk to me is a very recent one. Talk to me. It was great. I saw it twice. Have you seen Speak No Evil yet? No.

I haven't. I know. Go see that. It's not really. like it's horror like down the stretch but it's a building up like and then it just punches you right in the face it's freaking insane my issue with horror is I like the concepts more than the films like night swim looks like an incredibly stupid movie that I kind of want to watch but I'm confident that I won't actually enjoy watching it's like okay it's whatever but haunted pool

is just a deeply funny concept to me. And so, like, I don't know, the first saw and the Saw series is like pretty bad, but it's always fun to be like, oh, this is how you should get out of that, you idiot. Look at you cutting off your leg, moron. 28 days later is a good, is a good shout. 28 days later is just like a really good movie. 20 days later, yeah. I like 28 weeks later too.

28 weeks was fine too, but 28 days later was really good. The first 10 minutes of 28 weeks later is one of the scariest, it's one of the scariest opening scenes. Oh, one of the best horror movies ever, freaking alien, the classic, alien. That one. All right. First purge. I like the first purge.

Yeah, I tried. Okay. The other ones were whatever, but. You like those type of, yeah. All right, all right. You see if it follows? No. Oh, you're missing out.

All right. I don't watch a lot of horror movies. Oh, I think this is a Damon, this is a Damon Casey question. Oh, yeah. I'm a classic. If I was on who wants to be a millionaire, Damon would a thousand percent be the phone call here. Well, for sure.

I mean, he has a freaking harm movie podcast, so. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, one more super chat. We got to get to this super chat. The super chatting with you, Zeno. Yes. Oh, thank you, John.

When the Tito Ortiz damn happens, we need a second Mount Rushmore for his. best poorly spoken quotes. So Tito's on my list. I've honestly been trying to figure out what to do with him. One, the quote section will just be, I mean, it'll be the best part. We'll spend 30 minutes on the Tito quote section. So good.

I just don't know how much fun watching. The part of the issue is I have to go back and watch all of his fights. And I've got to be honest with you, I really don't want to go back and watch all the Tito's fights. Man, it's a lot of fights. And many of them are not going to go. But that's not why he's on damn. That's not why he would get his own damn. No, no, but it's for me.

Because when I do like for the research, I go back and watch all the fights. And so it's just like, do I do that or do I like, let's do Martin Campman, who I'd much rather watch Martin Campman's fights. Tito's, Stito full like 50 times. And watching him like Russell Vitor is just going to be a tough hang.

Or Patrick Cote. It's like, uh, he'll get one. He'll get one. I think I think he deserves one. And big shout out to Raquel Pennington for having the best Tito quote of 2024 already with, by talking about Julia Pena, it's like, she goes, I can't wait to punch your ass in the mouth. To punch her ass in the mouth. It's terrific.

I'm glad someone else noticed that, Casey. Oh, I did because I transcribed that one. I died. This is deepening. I might have been the best headline you ever written, Jed. That was why I had a lot. This is why I pulled that quote. headlock.

I'm going to punch your ass in the mouth. Punch your ass in the mouth. Shouts to Rocky. I'm 180 on Rocky. Rocky is a great champion and not the worst fighter to ever hold a legitimate UFC title. And go dogs. Yes.

All right. A couple of proppy props we're going to run through. Jed, we'll take your answers. Casey, you can participate as well. And then we'll recap next week. Jed, what number will be higher? The number of finishes. At UFC Vegas 86 or the number of points scored in the first quarter between the Chiefs and the 49ers?

It's got to be points scored in the first quarter. Just because, I mean, the first quarter is mostly scripted plays from both sides. I don't think it will be a high-scoring football game, but I do think they're pretty likely to have like at least seven. Like at least one team gets a touchdown on their opening drive, if not both. And so if you're talking seven points, seven to ten points in the first quarter, but not going to be 11 finishes on the fight night card. What will be said more? Dana White's Contender Series during the UFC event

or Taylor Swift's name during the Super Bowl. Oh, all right. So contender, we only have three most contender series grads on this one are from the most recent season. I guess probably have like six. I'm just trying to eyeball this quickly on who all was. So you're at least going to get six contender series Contender series because I think they'll just show Taylor Swift a lot

but they won't say the words Taylor Swift all that often Like there she is Swifties you know stuff like that There's Taylor Swift Okay so you're going with Contender Series That's a great question though terrific office Yes Yes or no the UFC 300 main event

will be announced during the Super Bowl in a commercial. I'm still going no, because I won't let my heart believe that the UFC could be that fun. What will take longer? The National Anthem at the Super Bowl or the Robert Breitjack versus Ehor, Pretoria fight. So I'm big into the National Anthem prop. I think it's like 84 seconds right now. Not to get too deep into the weeds. Listen to another podcast who actually broke down the tape.

leave Reba McIntyre is doing the Natty. And breaking down the tape, she is, keeps it tight. She keeps it to like 80 seconds. So 80 seconds, I'm going to guess that Ehor Petaria's chin can hold up at least a minute and a half. So I'm going to go, Vrychequehateria. But it's also, I mean, this is your best work in years, Mike. Oh, I got two more.

This is not really a Super Bowl question, but it's kind of related. Yes or no, Dana White will post a photo on Sunday night or early Monday morning of him and Taylor Swift. Yes. Okay. And the last one. See the path there. What happens faster? A finish in the main event between Joe Pfeiffer and Jack Hermanson or the first touchdown of the Super Bowl.

All right. So Super Bowl game clock. Jesus. that's a really good one. I'm going to say because I do believe that one of the opening drives for either team is going to get a tutty,

that'll be within six minutes. So I'm going to say touchdown and believe the Jackramancy can make it into round two. Okay, there you go. So running it back here, Jed is saying that these were the number terrific.

Yeah, number of points. What do you think, Kay's? You want to chime in on this? Oh, no, not at all for Super Bowl stuff. I'm wasting everyone's time. Jed believes the number of points scored in the first quarter will be higher than the number of finishes at UFC Vegas 86 as a whole. He's, Jed is saying Dana White's contender series will be said more than Taylor Swift's name during the Super Bowl. He says the National Anthem or the Brijack Ehor-Patoria fight will last longer than the National Anthem.

the Super Bowl the UFC 300 made event will not be announced during the Super Bowl a touchdown will happen in the Super Bowl faster than the Joe Piper Jack Kermanston fight ends

and Dana White will in fact post a photo on Sunday or early Monday morning of him and Taylor Swift there you have it there's the props I think those are all excellent questions the lines are very tight

those are really good and we'll see how Jed did next week on the program next week normal show we're getting ready for UFC 298 don't look past UFC 298, my friends. This is a damn good card. I know we're looking at 299.

I know we're trying to fill in the gaps for UFC 300, but do not sleep on UFC 298. This main card is freaking awesome. And that main event is incredible between Alexander Volcanozky and Ali Tauoria. We'll talk about it, preview it all. Right here next week on the program. Thank you for joining us for Casey for Jed.

I am Mike Hack. The iconic voice takes you home back next week. Good night, everybody. Love y'all. This has been between the links. And I'm a fighting production on the Vox Media Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.