MMA Fighting - BTL | Conor McGregor Speaks, Usyk Beats Fury, UFC Vegas 92 & Bellator Paris, UFC Star Building

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Conor McGregor has had quite a bit to say over the past few days on the build to his UFC 303 main event with Michael Chandler, and a lot of names were mentioned — both positive and negative. Have the comments from the UFC's biggest star led you to feel any differently about his fight with Chandler, as well as his UFC future? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to McGregor's recent Q&A, the comments that he's made, where he would go with a win over Chandler, and a possible welterweight title fight vs. Leon Edwards if the champ retains against Belal Muhammad at UFC 304. Additionally, topics include Oleksander Usyk's massive win over Tyson Fury this past Saturday in Saudi Arabia to become the undisputed boxing heavyweight champion, the fallout from UFC Vegas 92 and Bellator Paris, Dana White being compared to the past NBA commissioner David Stern in regards to building stars in MMA, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and José Youngs. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs 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 reprised 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. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. 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 reprised 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 two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is Between the Links.

And now, your host, Mom. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand, new edition of BTL. We are back on another Thursday. No UFC event this weekend. The countdown to UFC 302 is officially on last weekend had a lot of talking points. And you know what? Casey, Casey, I'm sorry, man. And I'm sorry to the viewers. This is kind of weird and unprofessional and a live show. Yeah, I went to the wrong shot too. Yeah, yeah, my bad. Yeah, something just doesn't feel right. Yeah. Can we just start it over? I'm just not feeling this whole thing. And I just, and I just want to deliver this better. So sorry, everybody, don't go anywhere. We will get this right. I promise.

My bad, my bad. Here we go. Okay. Okay, here we go. I'm going live. Okay. Shit, crap. Okay, we're going live in five, four, three, two, one. From MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Lakes. And now. That's right, Jabronis. For this week, we're changing a mystery vortex style. People get that reference. There's no UFC fight. There's no major boxing match. There's no PFL. There's no Bellator. This is not the A-side. It is a Thursday. You can get your questions answered on a Wednesday. That's right. I, Jose Young's, the most tendered person on this panel on MMAFighting.com

full-time is the host this week. And fair warning, gentlemen, you are going to hate this episode, the two of you. Fans will enjoy it because you know what I hate? You know what I hate more than anything? I've been listening to Between the Links for a long time. You know what I really hate? Everyone agreeing with everyone. Everyone's saying the same thing every single week. Oh, this guy should fight that guy. That guy should fight this guy. What do you guys think?

This guy says that. Yeah, I agree. Nah, nah, nah. This time we got Jed Michoud versus Mike Heck with me, Jose Young's. Casey has seen the questions. I think he's going to really enjoy them. And I can almost guarantee I do declare. I do declare that Mike Heck and Jedmanshee will absolutely hate everything.

I asked them. I gave them a, you know, a brief idea, but they're going to be miserable. So Casey, I do want to ask you, you saw the questions. You think the audience will have a good, you think the audience will have a good time with these answers? We are here to make these two contestants miserable. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Casey, you already did that to me.

you made me watch bruised and all this other terrible shit you made me record two pods on bruised you've already made me feel bad Casey well you know what tough job turkey your your life is going to be even more miserable because we're kicking off round one Casey I'm going to ask you to pick a number between one and 10 Mike you can pick Jed you can pick closest one gets to go first Casey did you have a number five all right he said it out loud

so it doesn't even matter I'm going to say five, Jose. All right, Mike. Wow, Mike, that's correct. You are that he did pick number five. I'm assuming he didn't even say it aloud. So without further ado, round one, Mike. And keep in mind, most of these, you will get different questions because I don't want y'all,

I don't have no desire to hear you all say, you know, he said everything that needs to be said. that. This is going to be miracle. So round one, Mike. You know, this past weekend we had a big Bellator, Belator slash PFL event. Alexander Usik is now the undisputed heavyweight champion of the boxing world. But I want you to tell me why, not Alexander Usik, not Belator. Why is the UFC the biggest winner from last weekend? why is the UFC the biggest winner from this past weekend because they might have developed uh well look there's a there's new blood in the featherweight division when you're talking about ranked fighters laura murphy has been a guy that's been kind of we've just been waiting for him to break out

and then he has this fight with edson barboza who was a darling underdog heading into that fight and then loran morbi just kind of beat the hell out of him for the entirety of the fight outside of a pretty nasty upkick landed by edson barboza that i actually thought knocked Lorone Murphy out, and Lorone bloody and battered and bruise, limping around basically on one leg, just kept it going and just gave Edson Barbosa. Just one of those performances that Lorone Murphy shined and you were very impressed, but there was just a part of us as longtime fans that watched Edson Barbosa and were just like, man, I almost like don't want to see him take any more damage.

But Lorone Murphy was the man. He was whatever, the miracle, the ice man, whatever he wants to call himself, he broke through he's got some big fights ahead of him he called out calvin cater and josh emitt which i think both of those are great options i love the calvin cater idea wants to fight in manchester that'd be a nice little addition to the card since he's from manchester so if we're going to make the case for the ufc it's always good to develop stars and i'm not saying lorone murphy's a star right now but considering they like to travel to that part of the world and lorone murphy is now a rank guy they were able to do something pretty fun and get lorone murphy up there but

I think if we're being really honest here, this is, I mean, this is a bridge too far to say that the UFC is the big winner of the weekend. But if I have to make the case, it's because of Lorone Murphy being another guy in this division that could be a big problem. No boxing hater, Mike Heck, making the case for hometown favorite, the UFC. You know why I did this, Mike? Remember that show on ESPN where they had to find the new anchor, like the new ESPN anchor, the new ESPN anchor, the Sports Center anchor. And they had to put them through all those shows. and they did like a part in the interruption type thing. And the rule was whatever the other person said, you can't agree.

So then the person would be like, why is this team going to win the final four? And then someone would make the case. And then the person opposite them was not allowed to agree. So they would just have to think of something on the fly. And every single time they're like, I didn't believe anything I just said, but there's my case. And I loved that part of it. So Jed, we're going to bring you on. You know, you're wearing a PFL hat.

You're wearing a PFL shirt. obviously a known UFC hater. You hate, you know, you hate everything about the UFC. You hate Dana White. You hate the champion. Never been in the video, though. Yeah, especially, you know, in this world, this Bannamweight world, Josie Aldo fights a Bannam White.

But he's not the greatest featherweight of all time in your world. Known Josie Aldo hater, big time Frankie Edgar lover, Jed Mishu. So we're going to make the case. Not Alexandrusek. Not Lerone Murphy. not Cedric Dumbay. Why is Patchy Mix the biggest winner

of last weekend? I mean, this is easy, right? Like, this isn't even, you gave me a layup. Mike had a much harder one. Sorry for you, Mike. Because winning is winning. In the immortal words of Dominic Touretto, it doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile.

Winning is winning. And Patchy Mix went into this fight. Sure, major, major favorite. No picture on a scorecard, He got that W and that's what matters. And moreover, he gets a W in an event that no one gave a shit about. Like we, we joked about it. We mocked it in BTL beforehand of not really sure why we're doing Magamette versus Patchy in Paris.

This is not a critical fight to occur here in this location. But then afterwards, we started talking about it. And there were apparently dozens of people on the new Monsa School of Marcia School of marketing where as long as they're talking about you, that's all that matters. It doesn't matter if they're talking about you for pooping your pants and doing really, really bad shit publicly. As long as they are talking, that's what matters. And we talked about patchy mix this weekend on a weekend when I would have bet my bottom

dollar, patchy mix would not have been involved in anything of the conversation. The conversation would have been entirely surrounding Usik and Fury and that fighting all, you know, all the laurels that go with it. Instead, sure, that was still story one. Story two improbably was patchy mix versus what the UFC offered. And how many times can my wonderful friends at the co-leader, PFL stand up, say that they had one of the biggest storylines coming out of the weekend, and that storyline was patchy mixed.

Well, like both of your arguments, gentlemen, Casey Drumroll, please. I already have a winner for this round. because, you know, this was not a PFL event, Jed. This was a Belator championship series. Swanah technicality, Mike, you're going to get 283 points for round one. Yeah! That's right. 283 to 0.

You know, we're doing things a little differently, you know, points. Like family feud. You know, points one, like, what's one point? Why not have 283 points? And yes, that number is a very specific number. that at numbers a very sweet number. We'll get to it at the end of the game. All that both gentlemen guess why these numbers are.

So Mike on the board, a debuting Mike Heck, Mike, let me bring you up here for a second because we didn't really get to hear your thoughts. This is not his BTL debut. Well, it is today. It is today. It says it on the thing.

So debuting Mike Heck, welcome to the show. Tell me a little about yourself. I mean, surprise, surprise, everybody. Pundit Mike here, Boston Mike, and, you know, my opponent, Jedmishu, when his head hit the pill last night, he had dreams of sunshine and lollipops and making birdie puts, but little did he know when he woke up and got his day going, probably got a workout in. Lunchtime would be an absolute nightmare for him. So that's what I am.

I'm a nightmare maker. I'm a creator of nightmares. I'm a creator of terror, and that's why I'm here. But I've been working in M.A. fighting for a long time. I'm married, like long walks in the beach. I have a son and a dog. And yeah, thank you, Jose. Thanks for having me.

Anytime, man. I'm glad to have you on the show. We don't need to hear from Jed. We've heard enough from him. So moving on right along to round two. That's the best. Round two, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, I do say ladies and gentlemen,

because I, you know, we are gender inclusive here. Maybe you know what? Maybe you are a gender neutral person. We'll have you on board, too. Round two. This is the same thing. question for both men. Casey, pick a number two, one and ten. You got it in your head? Say it out loud again, Casey. He left? No way. Okay, I got my head. Yes, yes. All right. Mike,

you can pick. God, I'll say five again. I'll say three. What do we got? What do we got, Jed? The Ocho. Yes. Be it. Casey, what do we got? Five. That's right in the middle. Mike, you should have done it. I know. I should have done it. There you go. Know yourself. Mike, Mike, starting with you. This is a question for both gentlemen.

This is not a, you know, Mike gets this, Jed gets this. But I will say, caveat, you cannot, Jed cannot use the same answer, and he cannot use any of the same names that Mike presents. So, you know, this past week, I can't remember his name. Someone compared, you know, Dana White to one David Stern. You know, RIP, David Stern built the NBA into what it is now. he said that on comparing you know comparing dan to david stern this is not since david stern have we seen a promoter be able to build stars you know build them up i disagree completely in that entire sentence but i digress so mike

build me a star from the pfl that is not cedric dunebe has never fought for a title and has never been in the UFC or Bellator. The floor is yours. Give me the blueprint to give me the PFL Connor McGregor. I mean, look, they're not going to be able to create a Connor McGregor. However, they're actually doing it right now. They're actually developing their next star, especially now that Kayla Harrison has gone. And I, boy, oh boy, do I hope we get to talk about what Dapper Don had to say about that

situation. But she was actually in New York yesterday. She was in studio with Ariel Hawani. It's Dakota Ditchiva. The way they are building her right now, she's exciting, she's fun, she's got personality, she's got a little bit of spunk to her, and she's exciting as hell when that bell rings. And the way that PFL is presenting her, I feel like we're not going to get a ton of questions answered at the end of the season, but the way that they are presenting her in the season, they're positioning her to be this unstoppable killer

because she is going to have the easiest path to get to the million dollars than anybody else in this entire season. Look at Liz Karmouche. She's the best fight. She's one of the five best fly weights in the world. And she had to fight Julianne of Alaska for the third time. I don't even know who she's fighting in this next round,

but I can assure you it's a way tougher match of what Dakota Dichiva is getting right now. And Liz Karmouchev might go out and win that fight and be 2 and O. But there's a very real world that Dakota Dichieva is going to avoid her in the playoffs because Liz Carbush, because of the point structure, which is really, really dumb, might not even make the playoffs unless she goes out and gets first round finish in her next fight. So they're just setting her up to just crush a bunch of, I'm not going to say cans,

that's a little bit disrespectful, but matchups that suit her very, very well. She's like a minus 3,500 favorite in every single fight she competes in. And I think right now they're going to build something that's not Cedric Dumbay, because by the way, Cedric Dube is by far the most interesting thing they have going on right now, it's Dakota Ditchieva. They have to just keep presenting her, letting her just run over people and become a millionaire. And then just eventually we're going to have to test her. But the problem with this whole thing is, yes, she'll be presented like a star.

But I don't know if we're going to get a ton of answers with what her potential is going to be at least at the end of the season. And I like how you said, you know, build stars fighting cans, which, you know, might be a little disrespectful, but not in this case because, you know, you're debuting. We're trying to build you up into a star. So we're going to give you a can in your first. BTL debut, Jed Mishu. I don't care what, I don't care what his record says. He's lost most of them.

I'm undefeated. Maybe a notch below. I feel like I'm at least a journeyman. Maybe a notch below. Maybe a notch below. Trevor, you got. You could go with that.

Anyway, you know, excellent point, Mike. Excellent point. You know, go check out the MMA hour on the podcast network and, you know, the lovely YouTube page and the Instagram page. So, Jed, you're wearing the PFL shirt. You're wearing the PFL hat. We're giving you the blueprint. can't fight in the UFC can't have fought in bellator can never have fought for a pfl

UFC bellator title build me the pfls Connor McGregor I mean I thought that Mike might go here that Dakota Chaffer who cares about Dakota Chavez sure undefeated you know she's doing fine there there's just such a more obvious answer here and it's let me paint your word picture here Jose um who is one of the brightest stars in the UFC right now. One of the guys who's young and we feel he's going to go someplace. His name's Bo Nicol. Bo Nicol comes from this incredible wrestling background, you know, just one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. And recently, recently, there was an Olympic gold medalist wrestler trying to remember. Feels like he was doing

something else. What was he doing? He was just going into professional wrestling, professional wrestling. And as a heavyweight, do we have another former collegiate champion heavyweight who then went to the pro wrestling route, then kind of moved to MMA? His name was Brock Lesnar, and that's what PFL does. You can't build the starlight Dakota Chavez. There's only a ceiling here, but you can get Gable Steven. He is out there. He is available right now because he has foregone pro wrestling. He has left the pro wrestling ranks.

Man, he's still very, very young. yeah, he could go do competitive wrestling again or you got all the money in the world. You apparently can't, you know, we can't pay Gayguard. That's fine because we're saving all our nickels and dimes to get Gable Steven because this is the man. I mean, one, if you dropped him into the UFC tomorrow, he's probably a competitive heavyweight.

Heavyweight is the worst division in the sport, arguably. He can compete immediately, but heavyweight exists in this perfect nexus where it is both a terrible division. division and also the division of stars. This is the division where like the biggest names come out. That's why the UFC continues to believe in headline apex cards with heavyweights. Because if you are a semi-competent heavyweight, you can turn into a household name.

And if you are a gold medalist Olympic wrestler, former professional wrestler, you can damn sure turn into a household name. Gable Steven is who we're putting all our eggs in that particular basket, moving forward. My friends at the PFL, the co-leaders, we've got a plan. It's going to go great for us. Yeah, but the problem is, the problem is Gable Stevenson is about to be the next Stephen Neal. He's about to jump on an NFL team and win a couple Super Bowls and make way more money that he would make him with the PFL. I remember another heavyweight who tried to do the football thing and couldn't make a team and then decided he was just wouldn't do. Oh, that's right. It was Brock Lesnar again. Brock Lesnar almost did the Stephen Neal thing. And then he was like,

you know what, no, I think I'd rather do this. Whereas Gable Steve's who'd be like, I can just do the same thing I already am good at and I'll be the PFL million dollar champion every year. This man is going to save our promotion as we continue to try to kill it this week. Why, so he can go on the MMA hour and tell Ariel how they're not giving him fights and they promised him all this stuff. No, because this man has the long view. This will change the guard?

This isn't has the long view. You know the best way to make. money in the UFC, get signed to the UFC after you've been kicking ass somewhere else. Ask all the people who came over. Their contracts are better than 99% of the dudes who have been scrapping from the bottom of the UFC. He's got the long view. I'm going to win a million dollars to the next three years in PFL. I'm going to keep us afloat as we try to kill ourselves. And then he jumps over to the UFC becomes greatest heavyweight of all time. Roadmast clear. Very clear. I'm glad. I'm glad you said that because we're already laying out

that roadmap for Dakota Ditchiva. Didn't you hear on the MAA hour? She can go to the UFC right now and beat Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shvchenko. Did you hear her say that? I did hear her say those words. Those were words that were said. And this is what I love about, but you know,

we get, you know, we get sassy Mike Heck. We don't really get, we don't, Mike doesn't really get to give his opinion too much. You know, he's too busy hosting and moderating. So, to recap, Mike is, you know, taking a star that, you know, is already established in the PFL, was on the MMA hour, is, you know, in the tournament. If she was in the U.S., you know, she's saying everything right. She might not have the best, was it, Man City, Man, you, whatever team that is.

He doesn't know, doesn't know trivia, but Jed's blueprint to superstar is to take a fighter with zero fight experience who was cut by the WIB has some pretty murky allegations under his belt. So it's right in. It's right in. So with that, you know, Mike, you get 207 points. That's right. Mike is up 490 to zero. Wow, I dropped points. I went from 283 to 207.

Yes, all right. So, you know, this isn't a two zero. This is 490 to zero. That's easy. Jed, you got a little bit. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats.

But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Pelot. Peloton IQ built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move.

Lift with confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. I don't think there's been 490 points allocated combined before today on PTE. Yeah, but Mike, I do want to get, because we're not going to get to talk about it. Mike, I do want to get your thoughts on the, you know, Jed's friend Don, you know, the comments about Kayla Harris and Kevin Durant, LeBron James, which you can go read on an NBA fight.

And we're not going to get to circle back to it. So, Florida, George, I want to hear what you got to say. See, Jed, and Judd's not wrong when he says this, that people are talking about the PFL right now and they're talking about Don Davis. The problem is they're talking about, they're just talking about Don Davis. They're not talking about the PFL right now. This is just real dumb. This is just a real dumb statement that he made.

And it hurts my soul in so many ways because I've been with Jed along this Don Davis journey the entire time. Jed's been driving. I've been sitting shotgun that Don Davis is the funniest man in all of MMA. That his takes are so outrageous and so wacky and so nonsensical that it's just funny when he speaks. This to me was not funny. this was just one of the worst things he could have said.

Talk about burning a bridge of someone who helped get you to the dance. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. I'm not a gigantic fan of the weighing in podcast, but I did actually sit down and listen to this interview. And I'm going to say something that I haven't said a lot of times on this year programming. I give Josh Thompson and John McCarthy a lot of credit. I think they tried, they did their best to try to at least get, Don to say something and try to answer for himself and they just dealt with Don Davis being

Don Davis. And that's unfortunate because they did try. And I also understand that they're in a much different position than I would be if I was talking to Don Davis because they do sort of work for the PFL and they work for the brand. And you can push, but you can't like go crazy and just needle, needle, needle, and ask a whole bunch of follow up. So I do give them credit. But Don spent an hour talking for about 45 minutes of that show and said absolutely nothing. It's amazing how he can actually speak for that long, but say nothing. It's crazy. Absolutely crazy.

And the Kela thing is just wicked dumb. The fact of the matter is that at first he started with, yeah, I don't really know what happened. But just say, like, I wish, we wish her well. She did so much for us. We wish her well. We'll be rooting for her. Ariel made a great point about Scott Koker. When Michael Chandler went to the UFC, he goes, hey, go,

Good for Michael. He's trying to accomplish this next path, this next checkmark on his journey. We'll be rooting for him. We'll be watching. Don can't say that. He said the exact opposite. It's so ridiculous. Dumb. I don't know what else to say. Don is not funny anymore. And it hurts my soul. It really does. Well, I've been on the, I've been flying the banner of Don's never been funny. Casey knows him on numerous slacks. I thought that dude has been a snake oil salesman from the moment. He stepped on the MMA hour. That's why he's fun. But you know what's not funny. I think it's hilarious. This is the stupidest shit you could ever manage.

It's funny as hell. But you know what's not funny. Being down 490 points. So we're going to move on to round three, the halfway point. Mike on the board again, 490 Jed zero. Round three. You know, we talked a lot about, you know, we've talked about the UFC. We've talked about Bellito.

We've talked about the PFL because, you know, we are MMAfighting.com. And yes, you know, Mike. made the case for the UFC. Jed made the case for patchy mix. We talked about PFL, but we do have to talk about the fight that captivated the masses. And that is Alex Leonard Usik. The decision win over Tyson Fury has become the first undisputed heavyweight champion in boxing since 1999.

Jed, part of the boxing boys. Mike, I, you're a big, what's your level of boxing fandom? I don't think we've ever had you on a boxing preview show. Not gigantic. I mean, I was probably a bigger fan in the mid to late 90s. I was watching a lot more Tyson. Sure. Tyson Peter McNeely was super big in New England because Peter McNally was just saying a bunch of

ridiculous shit before we got knocked out in about 17 seconds. But those are the heydays for me. But I'm getting back into it. I'm getting back into it. Heavyweight's fun again. Well, there's never been a better time than now. And you know what? You're up 490 points.

So we're going to let Jed go first. We're not even picking up. We're going to throw him a bone. you've kind of been mopping the floor with him, a la, you know, the Boston Seleks is about two with the Indiana Pacers. The number is five. All right.

What number you picking? What number are you picking? I will take five. There you go. Casey, I assume that's what you answered. Getting home board. Yeah, round three. Usuk versus Jerry, Jed.

And again, this is, we're going back to you each get different questions. Curated for yourself. You know, Jed, I listen to a lot of what you say on BTL. And you know, you're a big Tom Aspinall fan. You consider him the rightful heavyweight champion of the world. But you are not ready to declare him, you know, the baddest man, lineal man champion. You still give that crown to Francis Ngano. You know, he never lost the UFC title.

I believe that was your exact saying when you were facing BC last week. So round three, Jed, why is Alexander Usik and not Francis Ngano and not John Jones and not Tom Aspinall, the baddest man in the combat sports world? because he's dope as hell. Did you not watch Saturday? Like sometimes we all know the baddest man title is just, you know, that's an honorific. We just feel good about giving it to people. It just gives you a little cachet. And straight up, who's, who is cooler than all of the music right now?

Like, who is a battered dope from motherfucker walking this earth? Like, we talked about in our preview show, very probably the greatest cruise weight of all time. not he is number two. The only reason he's probably not like he, and he still has time, but he's not there at heavyweight just because it has been a short run for him at heavyweight. But in that short run, what's he done? Well, he's become the first undisputed champion before Beldera. Like, he's an undisputed champion in two weight classes and they are ostensibly the two

most difficult weight classes in the sport. They are the heaviest weight classes for him to find this level of success. And he's done it by just being don't. is shit. Like Tyson Fury was out there and kind of cooking him in those middle rounds this weekend. He came out and was doing the Tyson stuff. He was mugging to the crowd. He's playing around.

And at first that was kind of lame because I thought Usik won the earlier rounds. But then he was doing it while he was also landing that sort of fady uppercut shovel punch. And Usik was in trouble. And he was kind of lost in the middle. And then like we talked about Jose, Usik was just like, all right, I will elevate. Here is where we are at. I will elevate.

And then he batters Tyson Fury's ass around the ring like a pinball. Just corner to corner to corner to corner. Like he mistruck a cue ball on the pool table. It was dope as shit. And now this this Ukrainian dude who, you know, took some time out of his career to go fight a motherfucking war comes back and beats the shit out of the lineal heavyweight champion. Like I got love in my heart for Francis Ngano. And Francis Ngano is the lineal.

UFC MMA heavyweight champion. But the other fact of the matter is Francis Ngano hasn't fought MMA in two and a half, three years. I don't even remember the timeline anymore. And the last time we saw him fought, he got slabbed out in two rounds. We never seen Alexander Hussigit's get slapped out.

I am more than content with calling this dude one of the three best pound-for-pound fighters in the world today and the baddest fighter in the world today. You know, you make some good points. You make some good points. known MMA hater Jed Mishu declares boxer the number one, you know, baddest dude on the planet. And Alexander Usik, you know, he's the greatest cruiserweight,

undisputed heavyweight champion. So, Mike, you know, I'm sure you watched, Jed watched. I mean, Planet Earth watched. Here's my thing about the Saudi Arabia shows. You know, we did the watch-along party for the first in Ganu Fury Fight, Mike. And the production was terrible. The pacing was bad. The camera work wasn't great.

The lighting was weird. It just felt hokey. The second, for Inganu and Joshua, I feel like they took a lot of the mistakes they made and they corrected a lot of them. You know, the pacing was still rough, but there weren't as many concerts. There weren't as many. It wasn't as extravagant. The crowd was slightly bigger than, you know, that half bowl. But we still all complaints.

I had no complaints for Furyucic. All the production complaints that we had from those two fights, they correct, you know, the seats went all the way around. They promised it would start a specific time. And they were pretty dead on for when, you know, the main event was about to walk. But we're not here to talk about that because here's the problem. When you're fighting in Saudi Arabia, you started a weird time. Maybe the American audience doesn't care. Maybe they still see this as a gimmick.

So you know what we have to do for the rematch for Tyson Fury and Alexander Usik. We're not taking it to Saudi Arabia. We're not taking it to the sphere. We're not taking it to the T-Mobile. We're not taking it to Wembley. We're going to take it. to the number one arena in the world, and that's right, the UFC Apex.

Mike Heck, you're going to argue why does the rematch between Alexander Uzek and Tysian Fury deserve to be in front of 2,000 of Dana White's friends inside the UFC Apex in October? Or just Mark Zuckerberg. First of all, 2000 is incredibly generous.

So let's just throw that out. Well, they're obviously going to add seeds for this specifically, and then once it goes back to UFC fighting Vegas, 80, whatever, they're going to remove all of them. So here's why this is going to be fun and exciting to do it at the world's most famous apex, because the UFC is going to do something that they should have done a long time ago,

but they're going to do it in a different way. What the UFC should have done a long time ago, especially with this world's most famous apex, or even at the old tough gym, was they should have done Habibnurmaga Meadav versus Tony Ferguson in that building, but not tell anybody, when it's happening.

Just the day before, just say these guys are weighed in. Here's the video. And then tomorrow for 1499, you could just watch this fight and nothing more. And now, because of the world's most famous Apex and Turkey and Dana White and these forces coming together, they're going to actually have a conversation. And Jed is not going to believe this. But at the end of this conversation, Dana White is going to become much more fun. He's going to become much more fun, much more open to different kinds of ideas.

So we didn't get Habib versus Toeuf. in a mystery fight inside the world's most famous apex. We're going to get the rematch between Alexander Usick and Tyson Fury and a mystery rematch inside the world's most famous apex. They're targeting October 12th or 13th or whatever it's going to be. October 11th, we don't even announce the fight. No one knows it's happening.

We throw on Twitter. We have all the different Twitter pages that cover boxing. Just throw at all these random quotes, this rumor and innuendo. And then on October 10th or 11th, whenever the day is before the fight, on the UFC social media page, we're going to see Alexander Usick step on the scale

and weigh about 225 pounds. And then Tyson Fury is going to dance his happy ass up on that scale, weigh about 270, slim trim, ready to go. And then they're going to announce. Guys, it's going to cost you like 30 bucks. But tomorrow, at the world's most famous apex, you're going to watch Alexander Usick versus Tyson Fury. There might be people here that might not be,

but it's all about you guys watching on television. watching it on ESPN Plus. You're going to buy it through our platform. ESPN Plus will be through the roof. They'll be thrilled, top rank. Everybody involved in this. We'll be ready to go. Paperview.com will get a piece of this.

Like, everyone's going to get a piece of it. Dana White's going to be so generous with offering this world's most famous Apex and his collaboration with everybody else that everyone's going to make money, everyone's going to watch, everyone's going to enjoy it, and they did something fun. That's why the Apex is going to get this fight. And it's going to be lovely and fantastic. And it's going to be a course correction for all of time. You know what, Mike, I loved everything about that answer.

I'm not going to lie. I love the creativity. I love the moxie. I love the passion. You know what, Mike, dare I say, I almost believed you that you want this fight to be inside the UFC apex. I almost believed you because imagine, you know, that tiny, you know, we got the tiny octagon because of this. We're going to have to have the tiny ring. We're going to have the six by six foot ring or five by five foot ring.

He'll hear every punch. We're going to hear every punch. You know what I loved even more. I love the fact that this is the rematch for the biggest fight in box of history. And we're not even going to tell you when it's happening. I love that. Because of that, Mike, you get one million points. You're up 1,490 to zero to zero.

What is happening right now? Mike, I do have to ask, did you believe anything you just said? Because that was fantastic. I always believed in the TOTI-Vergus and Habe. That was something I pitched forever. Like, let's just go ahead and do that. Like don't even tell anybody. Let's not even put a jinx on it.

Just announce it the day before and just have them fight. And just no other fights in the card, no pomp in circumstance. Just lock them in there with nobody to watch. It's just those two were referee and like the guy sitting in the cage side. That's it. Fight can still happen. Coleman of Van, Fury, like inside the apex is Tony Ferguson versus Sabibnurmauga Maddov. There you go.

And a boxing. Here's the question, though. But because now we know that the UFC is, they're doing the whole TKO thing. what WWE event happens the weekend before in the apex? Cyber Saturday. Battle Saturday. Oh yeah, I got to do something. Yeah.

Cyber Monday. You remember Cyber Monday, Mike, or Cyber Sunday where they would have an opponent and then they would have three and then you'd have to vote online. So they used to be taboo Tuesday. Yeah, they didn't have the match until like they had the three people sitting on the ramp. And then they would show the poll and be like 38% vote this. And then they would just walk down to the ring and have a match. that's what we're going to do for the UFC too

so pfl should have done that with Kayla Harrison just had fans vote we never knew who she was going to fight fans would just vote on her opponent and then the opponent would just walk in and fight Kayla you don't do that with Kevin Durant though you know no one cares that's true yeah not daring to be great right not daring to be great but you know Jed I do have to get your thoughts though because you're you're in a little bit of a hole you're down one million four that's fine so I do promise you know there one of these You will have, you will have an opportunity to come back.

You are down dramatically because you know what? You can't have a comeback unless you're down. And you're down big. And if there's one thing the 2004 Red Sox proved, it can never count that person. You know, you can't ever count anyone out. Yes, yeah, it backfired on us. Well, Mike, who did we play?

Was it the Flyers? When the Bruins are up 3-0, I can't even remember. It doesn't even matter. Never happened. Oh, yeah. Flyers, they sucked against the Panthers. I mean, Jesus Christ. We don't need to talk about the Bruins.

moving right along. So, you know, a million 490. Casey, I'm going to have to have you pick a number again. You can pick any numbers to 1 in 50. Five. All right, Mike, that's your guess. Mike, what do we go? Man, this is tough. Five? Wow, Mike batten a thousand here on BT. Good guess. I do want to say I do want to say In case he's nothing else

He's consistent That's true I do want to say though Because I've been out Beatail And I usually hover around like 400 Like a little over 400 live viewers Yeah almost 500 people watching this mystery vortex Of a of a show

And the chat is just going ballistic So I'm glad you all are enjoying these people Arguing over stuff They truly you know They really believe in this stuff Everything I'm asking them They're just passionate about They stand by their morals.

You know, Mike is very pro Don Davis, very pro UFC Apex. Jed hates UFC, hates Jose Aldo, loves Frankie Edgar. It's just a fact of life. So moving on right along to round four. Now, I'm sure you guys know. I'm sure you guys saw. I can't tell you how many graphics I've had to make for our social media site. Tom McGregor went on a little bit of a rant.

Whatever betting site he is sponsored by, stuck a camera in front of him, and live streamed a Q&A. He said a few things about a few things, about a few people as well. Some good, some bad, mostly bad, mostly crazy. Tweeted some weird stuff. So we're going to talk Connor McGregor. Mike, you picked the correct number, five for the third time and second time. So you're going up first.

This is again, two different questions, both curated for them. You know, Conn McGregor, he's in the Welterweight Division right now. That's what he said. And he had some negative things to say about Leon Edwards and Palamah. He called them, you know, too much, too many decisions in the welterweight division. Specifically about Leon Edwards, you know, Leon likes a decision, and then he's fighting your man, Belal Muhammad. Leon Edwards is on the MMA hour and said, you know, once I get through Belaw, why wouldn't I want to fight Connor McGregor? So in this world, Belaw Muhammad dethrones Leon Edwards in Manchester at USC 304.

Belal Muhammad is the undisputed welterweight champion in the world. you know what? I believe Belal Muhammad. He's already cleaned out the division. He's being Wonderboy. He's being Jeff Neal. He's being Sean Brady. Who's had a harder path to the title than Balah Muhammad. And for his efforts, he 50-44 is Leon Edwards. He lays on him for five rounds in Manchester, UFC 304, at 6 in the morning.

The arena's going crazy at this lay-and-pray style of Belahmohamed has implemented. And gets on the mic and he says, you know what, I've beaten everyone, present. yourself, I want you to tell me, why does Connor McGregor, who in this world has lost to Michael Chandler, knocked out first round, he is now 0 and won in his return since breaking his leg. But Dana White goes, you know what, he'll make us a lot of money. Why does Conn McGregor deserve to skip the queue and fight Welterweight champion, Bilal Muhammad, in Madison Square Garden? Wow.

So in this scenario you have painted, Balala's the champion, but Connor gets dusted up by Michael Chandler. Yep. I mean, has Connor really deserved anything that he's gotten in a lot of respects? But that's besides the point right now, Jose, because he's Connor Freakin McGregor. And you know what's going to be the bigger story outside of Connor losing?

Even bigger than Connor losing in his return fight to Michael Chandler in this weird scenario that you have painted? Conner McGreg will have one fight left on his deal. He will have a ton of negotiating power. Yes, Michael, I agree with you. This is a terrible painting that Jose is put on the wall here. It's frigging terrible. But if Conner Greger wants to fight Belal Muhammad for the UFC Welterweight title,

they're just probably just going to give it to him as long as there's a deal in place that he can sign an extension. So deserves is not the word. But if Connor demands, he will get. And if you're Belal Muhammad, what are you going to do? Are you going to fight for meritocracy? are going to say, you know, I'm going to put my foot down. Hell no, I'm not going to fight the biggest star in the history of the sport. Hell no, I'm not going to get pay-per-view points fighting the biggest star in the history of the sport.

I'm going to fight Shafcott Rockmanoff, a guy that is a killer, a guy that could have fought at UFC 300, but at the same token, nobody really knows who he is. Yeah, I'm going to turn that down for the sake of meritocracy. There's no way. And let me tell you something else, Jose Young's, because Blah Mohamed is so good at calling people out that even if Conradigran is not even competitive. against Michael Chandler. Muhammad, if he wins, he's going to call out Connor McGregor.

He's going to call him out, even if it makes absolutely no sense, even though in the real world, not this world that you have portrayed for all of us, in this real world, Conn McGregor is never going to fight Bilal Muhammad. Never. Even with the Welterweight title on the line, he will have zero interest in that fight. But Balal's going to call for it anyways. But in this scenario you have painted, if Connor wants, Connor gets, as long as he resigns a deal,

because the UFC does not want to see Connor McGregor fight Nate Diaz outside of the UFC, and they will do everything in their power to make sure that that third fight does happen. So if that means giving Conn McGregor a title shot, even against Belal Muhammad, they might just do it, Jose. They might just do it.

And then in this world, Bala Muhammad goes out there, 50-45s Connor, holds up the Walter White title and says, I am the pound-for-pound number-one prize fighter in the world. And then he calls out Triggis duplicacy. calls out walking Buckley and then we get the true super fight

of super fights Buck I like your moxie I truly believed everything you said you know Case I want you to clip all of that because Mike just laid the blueprint out for the next UFC superstar Balam Muhammad but we're gonna go to Jed

you know Connor also said a few things about who you've declared as the greatest featherweight of all time and that is Iliate Toporia you know just knocked out your previous goat of all time Alex Volcanowski who you

you have been very adamant, has had a lot of doubters. A lot of people don't believe in the Al-Valkanosk. A lot of more people doubt Alex Volcanowski than they do Islam Mahathev. Those are your words, not mine. You know, he beat Josealdo. A lot of people. He beat Max Holloway three times. You beat Brian Ortega, one of your other favorite fighters.

And you know what? You were tired of people doubting Alex Volcanowski. And then just when people started to believe in him, Ilya ran in there, knocked him out. And you said, you know what? but he might have only had two wins over top 15 guys, but damn, he knocked out the greatest featherweight of all time. And that's Alice Volonowski.

He takes my number one spot featherweight pound for pound. And then you heard Conradger say some disparaging things, which I will not repeat on this family show. So that's some negative things say about Ilya. And you yourself took to Twitter and clapped back at Connor and said, you know what, you were great, but Ilya is now greatest. He is going to be the highest paid athlete of all time, not you. Yes, we are halfway through 2024, but he's going to beat Max, beat Connor,

and then be the highest paid athlete on planet Earth. Not in Bafé, not Ronaldo, not Conrader, not LeBron James. It is Iliate Teporia, who is currently 1 in O in the UFC this year. You know, O'Connor sees this tweet, and he clabs back at you, and Ilya jumps in and says, let's meet in the middle. So they scrap the planned main event between Iliate Teporia and Max Holloway. And they go, Iliate Sopoia, Connor McGregor, for the lightweight championship. They strip Dustin Porre, who has chosen to retire.

Dustin Poirier, wheel kicks, Islam Mahathev, retires. And now there's a vacant lightweight title. Jed Mishu, I want you to tell me why. For the vacant lightweight title of the world, Iliate Teporea, a Spaniard deserves to headline Mexican Independence Day against the Irishman, Conrad Greger, in the sphere of, in the Las Vegas sphere. The floor is yours, Jed. trying to figure out where you're going with the derogatory a Spaniard.

It was like, why is that in the Mexican Independence Day? At least that makes sense. One, credit to you, that is an incredible future you've outlined for us. I can't wait. I can't wait for all parts of that to take place. And the part I'm the most excited about is for the Spanish fighter, Ilya, to Pira to compete on Mexican Independence Day in the sphere. All of the rest of the fighters on the card will be Mexican or of Mexican heritage, except

for the main event, which we're going to chuck a Spanish dude in there against Connor McGregor, the Irishman. Because, you know, like many fighters before him, you know, like Gannati Golovkin, he has embraced the Mexican style of fighting. And that's what we'll get from Lillia, Tuporia. embracing the Mexican fighter in him. And it will be a great carrier of that tradition forward as he goes on. Because again, when you're talking about Mexican fighters,

you're talking about the greatest fighters of all time. And as you correctly established, this is the greatest featherweight of all time. Featherweight's a division with Alexander Volcanowski, with Jose Aldo, with Connor, with Max Holloway. I mean, that's four of the 12 best fighters who have ever walked, played at Earth, and Ilya stands above them all in that weight class. And so I think the Mexican fans are going to acknowledge and understand, hey, this guy, this guy fights for us, is if there's one thing we can be sure through history,

it's that the Spanish dude, he's fighting for Mexico. And so they will cheer him in the sphere. You can have all sorts of colorful, you know, Mexican independence images going up inside the sphere while they're fighting. And then Connor McGregor, he's just the B side to all of this. I mean, that's Connor's obvious role in any way. He's past his prime. Once upon a time, it was the A side. But he is really just fit to be the stepping stone to the stars for this future generation.

And Ilya Tupuri is there. And so he's not bringing people into the sphere. No one's really that excited about him on that event. But there's enough casual interest. People remember the name Connor McGregor that they can tune in for this event, which will be, you know, in the sphere. I think this time, you know, I think my, I don't like to give my credit. I think Mike was correct in understanding the visionary ideas of Dana White with the apex.

And I think for the sphere, we can even understand that he's going to look at this as an opportunity. We don't need this to be a pay-per-view. This can be free TV. This can be ABC prime time. Connor gets in the casual interest. The true fight fans, all of Mexico, fucking all of South America really will tune in to watch Ilya in the main event. And this is just going to be the biggest business. No one's even going to think about the rest of the lightweight division at that point when all of this is.

Who cares about Amman Zrucant. Who cares about Charles Oliver? They don't matter because the spectacle has such a gravity to it. that all eyes are on it. And that's where you want the lightweight champion to be, to be the focal point of the combat sports world. You know, in this blood-soaked, dimerish hellscape that I've laid out, you've both made excellent points, you know.

Got Dad, Bilal Muhammad is the special guest referee, Jed. That's your, you, he was a great rad, but Bilal Muhammad being the special guest referee for that fight. I forgot the time. See, there's not even going to be a rep. They're fighting to, they're fighting to the death inside. the UFC sphere. No time limit, no nothing. That's going to be really tough for Connor.

That's true. He's got gas for about two rounds. Then Ili is going to be like, and then just knock you out again. It's going to be a real tough out. Another legend en route to his pantheon of greatness. But you know, you both make excellent cases for this nightmarish hellscape that is Bala Muhammad 5045 and Leon Edwards and Connor McGregor back to back. Connor McGregor skipping the line at lightweight to fight Ilya to fight Iliotiporia for the vacant lightweight title that Dustin Porre just vacated in retirement.

But, you know, I like Jedds Moxie. I like him battling back. I loved his answer a lot. But honestly, I want to see what he does in the final round. So, Mike, you get 6,022 points for your answer. So you are up 1,6,512 to 0. I like your answer a lot. I really like your answer a lot.

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dollars 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. And I really like the point structures because I never know, I honestly don't know what's coming,

whether it's how many points or the question or what direction you were going. That road that you traveled to get Jed where you needed to go was incredible. If there's anything to clip off, it's just that storytelling to get, and Jed's face, as he's listening to your story,

trying to figure out where the hell you were going. Because one of my favorite parts of a comic books is the what if and elsewhere worlds where they take an established storyline and just throw it like into like a woodchipper and just like, forget this, what if Batman was a monkey? And then they just do this whole scenario of that.

By far my favorite thing. Once tried to pitch that story to champions.com and they were like, now we're not doing that. I love that in the what-if MMA story, it's still Balaul Muhammad getting decision wins. Yeah. I mean, some things are just established in lore. You know how there's the multiverse?

Things are primordial. See, here's the thing. There's a multiverse, and we're kind of going to go on a little tangent right now, where there's like 52 worlds or whatever. There's 52 DC worlds, but in this, there's 52 worlds in this world. And there's like 52 Batman's, 52 Mike Hacks, 52 Jedmish. There is one living tribunal, and there is only one outcome in a Belaw-Mohamed fight. and that is 5045.

So in this world, he 5045 is Leon Edwards in Manchester, 5045 is Connor McGregor in Madison, scorecard and Internaz being the number one prize fighter in the world. But Casey, we are here on the championship rounds, and this is the part that I am most excited for. Jed's in a little bit of a hole. He's down 1,6,50012. Mike, you've absolutely shattered the record for most points scored

in a BTL matchup. You're letting them bully your son. But we're moving right along and I will say, Jed, you're down a little bit. Final round is worth 4.6 billion points, which is completely random number. It has nothing to do with the amount that the U.S.U.S.U. is purchased for.

I would then dominate the most points scored record. I would have shattered. Mike, you would have had the record for four rounds. And for this, I do want an actual winner. So Casey, I'm going to let, we're actually going to let the people pick this one. I know I even thought about, you know, picking. I thought about you picking it. I would like the people to pick between Jed and Mike for the 4.6 billion points.

Will Mike maintain the lead or will Jed pull off the biggest upset, the biggest comeback in the history of BTL? He's already down a little more than one million. But moving right along. For championship round, Casey, I would like you to pick a number. between one and four point six billion. Oh, four, five. Mike, what do we,

what do we got? Mike, what's your guess? 45. Wow, on the money once again. Like, Mike, you got, you got a, you got a, you got to, you got to, you got to, you got to gambling on money. You'd be great of roulette. You'd be just killer.

So Mike, oh my God. Championship round, specifically curated for you. You know, I took it a lot into consideration. I think you're really going to appreciate this one. You definitely have never complained about this man ever in your entire life.

I think, you know, you've been adamant, absolutely adamant that a post-fight interview means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things in MMA. Who cares if you ask her a name? Because they're not going to give it to you anyway. Those are Mike Hexhords.

You've never been. you know, if you ask for a name, they're going to give, like, you know, you're very, you're very anti-post-fight interview. And I, of course, a very pro post-fight interview. I love everything about them on pins and needles. I post videos to my Instagram reacting to them. You've never done that because you're like, you know, I am professional, and I'm going to write about this whether they say a bad name or not.

So, Mike, naturally, these are your words, not mine. Joaquin Buckley is the smartest UFC fighter in the world. It used to be Henry Sehudo. And then Joaquin Buckley won at UFC St. Louis and called up Conrugger, and our Slack channel went nuts. Twitter went nuts. Daniel Cormier went nuts. But there was one voice out there in the void in the ether of the world. And that was Mike Keck and said, you know what?

Walking Buckley is a genius. We're going to take Abraham Lincoln off the Mount Rushmore. And we're putting Joaquin Buckley up there because of how smart this man was. Better yet, we're going to knock all of Mount Rushmore down and just build a statue of Walking Rushmore. Buckley in whatever Dakota that mountain is in. So Mike Heck, explain yourself. Why is Walking Buckley the smartest man in the UFC? And why are his myriad of tweets actually an intelligent scheme to getting what he wants?

Well, let me tell you something. When Walking Buckley called out Connor McGregor, at first I was like, I respect the gusto, but I don't think that's correct call out. And then he went on Twitter and started calling out Connor McGregor again. And then it took a couple of days to realize what he was trying to do. He wanted to get Connor McGregor's attention. But then when he had the chance to actually share a stage and a fight car with Connor McGregor and Connor was rubbing his hands together, knew Joaquin Buckley was coming,

because he knew the UFC was going to offer him, me and Gary. They knew he was going to offer it. He turned it down. He turned it down. Therefore, Connor McGregor comes up empty-handed. Who am I going to fight at 170 pounds after I beat my Michael Chandler. I have Joaquin Buckley ready to go. I was ready to go to St. Louis to fight this man. But then he didn't show up to fight Ian Gary on this card. So I have to question myself,

why is he doing this? Does he really want to fight me? That's the beauty of all of this. He's in Connor McGregor's head right now. Now Connor McGregor can think to himself, how am I going to get Joaquin Buckley back on my side? How am I going to get Joaquin Buckley? And when Michael Chandler loses to Connor McGregor, and I know I'm going over time here, Conner McGregor is going to do the thing. He's going to get on the microphone. and he's going to call out Joaquin Buckley. Wow. Wow.

Round of applause for that one right there. Well done, Mike Heck. That was truly unbelievable. I believe. He's a brilliant man. The best in the business. Some may say the smartest man. Until that St. Louis post for interview,

Henry Suhudo, number one pound for pound fighter, number one smartest man. And by far the best broadcaster in all of mixed martial arts. Don't let, don't like my choice. He sure is. And Henry also had the best retirement. of all time too. Oh,

unbelievable. The greatest retirement that reaps him all the rewards and benefits he's richer than ever because of that retirement. Beautifully done. Timing is everything.

I'm laughing at someone in the comments calling me a scumback for making you guys answer these questions. You've ruined the show. You scumbet. I love this so much. This is,

I love, I embrace chaos. But we're moving right along. Mike, you had an absolutely beautiful scenario and I believe everything you said walking Buckley, pound for pound number one,

fan right there. but we're going to move right along to Jed. You know, Jedd, you made the case for Alexander Usik earlier as being the baddest man in the world, right? You famously have written a couple negative things on your whiteboard, you know, calling a very specific heavyweight champion a chicken. You obviously are referring to Tom Aspinall, who is in your mind the biggest chicken in the entire UFC. How dare Tom Aspen. These are, I'm reading this. I wrote these down.

I wrote this down because you and I spoke about it and I wrote it down verbatim. How dare Tom Asimol go after the Grey's Fighter of All Time and John Jones? Who does he think he is? John Jones deserves to fight a retired firefighter. Who else would John Jones fight? The Grey's fighter of all time needs to fight the Grey's Heavyweight Champion of all time. I don't care how long I have to wait for. Madison Square Garden deserves steep Amioch, who hasn't fought in four years, to fight John Jones.

You just beat Cyril Gone at you. UFC 285. Tom Aspinall is carrying out a toy. Tom Asperol might as well fight behind him because he truly doesn't deserve anything that John Joe. He doesn't deserve to carry John Jones sweatshorts. John Jones is the greatest. The second Francis Ingano left the UFC,

he vacated his baddest man on the planet title. That is John Jones, and that is the only answer. And I'm like, I was shocked. I go, Jed, I thought you were pro Tom Aspinall. I thought you would say, you know, John Jones is a chicken for not wanting to unify their titles. But you said, Jose, can it. John Jones deserves what John Jones wants.

And Tom Aspinall can wait his damn turn. He can fight in the co-mate event because that's where he belongs. So Jed Mishu, explain yourself. Why is John Jones the real champion? And why is Tom Aspinall the one that's afraid? First, I'd like to say, Jose. I mean, you start the clock, Casey. First, I'd like to say, Jose, thank you because this is a great question.

You're giving me a wonderful opportunity to apologize to absolutely fucking nobody. Because every once in a while in your life, you're going to be tested, viewers. There's going to be the easy road and there's going to be the road that you must go down if you have any self-respect. And I could sit here and I could play your games, Jose Youngs, and I could say things I don't believe to try and beat Mike Heck. But the win doesn't mean as much to me as running down that two-bit low-grade champion they call John Jones, that chicken mother effort. Bok, bach, bach, bach, bach, bach. I won't do it. I will not sit here and defend his actions.

He is filled with nonsense. He is not the true champion. The true champion is Tommy Aspinall. And there's nothing you can say or do is going to get me to come off that ledge. So is this a DQ? Sure. But it's like if Nate Diaz would have gotten DQed at the end of the Jake Paul fight for throwing in the gilly. We all knew it was coming anyway. I'm going to be who I'm going to be.

And the people who are with me, they'll ride with me. And the people who aren't, they hated me anyway. Whatever the answer, I will not change my opinion on John Jones for you or anyone else, Jose Youngs. Well, you know, we live in America. And you don't necessarily have to answer the question correctly to win a poll. or a vote or whatever you want to declare. You know, one time BC had zero, no answer, and I still lost.

Based on fan voting. That was the best. His answer was, I don't have one, and the fans voted it wins. So you know what, Casey? Yes, Jed is technically disqualified, just like Devin Haney is now an once again, an undefeated boxer.

But, you know, we'll let the fans pick. Is, we'll let the, as the, do we have votes, by the way, Casey? I'm just not going to let you get a clip out more. It's very important. Before we get into, what did you guys think of this? Before we get some results, what did you guys think of this episode? I tried to throw as many curveballs as possible.

Do you know the episode? I had no other. It was the best. This is like that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine became friends with like the other Jerry. He had like Bizarro Jerry and Bizarro Kramer and she got to see the other side. Like basically the opposite of everything that she knew. This is basically what this episode was.

And it was incredible. Let me just tell you something, Jed. I was so mad that I went first on that one because I would have done the exact same thing you. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know. I was so dumb. Like, I didn't even think, like,

what could Jose ask me when it obviously would have been super evident to anyone with, like, a functioning brain? Like, oh, pretty clearly he's going to go here. And then when you started talking, I was like, ah, shit. What do I do now? I mean, you probably feel, you probably feel better than I do because my blood was boiling through every word I was saying.

I was getting my blood pressure rising. My heart was starting to race. I was turning redder and redder with each word that I said. Did a great job. And you feel probably as free as ever after saying what you just said. I do. I was ready to just, you know, walk into the fire. That's fine.

I was honestly. I would love to have heard you try to. I don't, I really want to hear it. We would have been amazing to hear you try. We would have it and throw that everywhere. That's the thing. I know that you would have. You're clipped it and then the next time I'm arguing with Rick,

you know what? I pulled up the clip and I'm like, but you know what? Mike Heck is famously a big fan of following the rules and he constantly hammers home. You know what? Fighters really need to follow the rules. That's true.

That's why the ref is there. Don't grab the rules. defense don't low blow because you will get penalized no you won't so Mike in this world you in this world in this world in this world Mike is very pro rules and he followed the rules like he always like he always preaches so Casey do we have a winner we do have a winner the fans have voted and we have a winner with 13% of the votes the loser is Jose with 17% of the votes. The second biggest loser is Mike.

With 33% of the votes, the runner-up loser is Jed. And today's winner are... Is it Esther? I hope so. The fans. The fans! Yeah!

That's right. You guys win. I was really glad that's the route that Casey went. That was fantastic. I didn't tell him to do that either. I thought that, I think that's perfect. I think that's the perfect answer. I thought it was going to be a draw, which I would have also been okay with.

I debated a few things like, I was going to say like if the vans had voted Jed wins. I was going to be like, well, you know, in this fantasy world, everything the option happens, which makes Mike the winner. And then Jed would have lost. But so you guys want to guess what the point. what totals were about. Oh, how do,

who gets points for the fifth round? 4.6 billion? The fans. The money goes into the economy and we save America. One point per fan. Okay. So I'm going to say.

The first round was 283. The second round was 207. This third round was 1 million. And the fourth round was 6,000 and 22. 287-207. $1 million is a throw $4.2.2 is the acquisition price. That's right. That's right.

Is $1 million what they bought? Is what Zufo bought the UFC for? I'm so glad you asked me. So round 1, 283, the Falcons were famously up 28 to 3 in that Super Bowl. So 283, round 207. The Georgia Bulldogs were famously up 20 to 7 against the Alabama Crimson Tide before they blew it. That was the one that hurts. One million is Mike Bobo's contract with the University of Georgia.

He gets $1 million. And 6,022, the Atlanta Hawks are 60 and 22 in 2015 when they were the number one seed and became the first number one seat to get swept out of the playoffs. So there's your answer, ladies and gentlemen. This was a very... The Bobo hurts the most. I had nothing for the Atlanta Braves. I was trying to make all the teams from the big teams of Georgia.

but the Braves are just like historically a great franchise. Yeah, they won like 20-something division titles in a row, but like, you know, anyway. You could be that we won one World Series when we had the best thing. Yeah, but then I remember you, hey, I still don't know who Mike Bobo is, but I just remember you ranting about him. He's the worst man in America. Man. Anyway, anything you guys want to say before we close out from this awful blood-soaked, nightmarriage hellscape that was BTS.

Michael, so is fun as hell. I had no idea this is happening. This is fun. Jose presented this to me sometime last week, and I thought it was brilliant. I had no idea where this is going. Even in Slack, he would send topics over, but he was like, these are going to be extremely vague because we wanted to kind of get Jed thrown off a little bit. And boy, vague was maybe the biggest understatement of all time.

But, I mean, this was something I'll never forget, you know, Jed? You know, what an emotional roller coaster this must have been for you because the show starts. You're like, what the hell is going on here? And then I become the competitor. Jose becomes the host. And then all of this happened. This must have been one of the weirdest shows you've ever been a part of from start to finish. I love that you have one draw on your record now too.

That's fantastic. Casey works. I also have a win that is not there. I have the only non- overtime win in the history of this program. Wow. Wait, it's a loss. This is a loss. The loss.

You didn't get a draw. No, it's a, no contest. No, we lost the people. No, we lost the fans. Yeah, yeah. So the fans are the reigning champion, the undisputed champion. You're one-on-one? We can't, we're counting that one.

Yeah, he's one and one. All right, all, all, all, right. He is the only TKO victory in the history of BT. Oh, yeah, you're right. When Jack, back to 500. Jed, your thoughts. Uh, I just saw the, Alexander Ussick's about to play Eagle of Chanchin in the Dway of Rock Johnson, Mark Kerr.

That's pretty cool. That's my thoughts. This is awesome. I had no idea it was coming. And I had a ton of fun. So, yeah, it was dope. And Alexander Usik just taking over the world. He's the man.

He's the freaking man. Love everything about it. Kind of like him being able to chanchin, too. That's sort of fun. Who's Ryan Bader? It's a great casting. I think he's supposed to be Colman. Love that.

Love everything about that. A little smaller. It's interesting. A little shorter. It's a choice. So he's going to have a lot of scenes then. Because wasn't like Coleman, like one of his like main guys? Yeah.

I don't know what the script is like, but it seems like he's going to have to act for real. Wow. And Ryan Bader in an A-24 movie has never once been on my bingo card of life. It's an A-24 movie? That shouldn't surprise me. The Rock is starring in an A-24 movie. four movie, which just that sentence alone just throws me for a loop. Yeah.

Casey, you looking forward to it? Absolutely. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. I can't get your thoughts. Casey, what did you think of this episode? Nice change of pace. Oh, it was trash.

This is horrible. It's worst. But today's opposite days. It was great. On a scale of one to ten, I give it a five. Five. Perfect. Full circle.

Beautifully done. But you know it's not a five, MMAfighting.com. That's a 10 out of 10. For Jose, that's Mike, that's Jed, that's Casey. This has been Between the Links, live from hell. Back to your regularly scheduled program next Wednesday.

For UFC, what, 302? Is that what it is? That is correct. Stick on. Yes, M.A Fightens YouTube page. We're out. Love y'all. Bye-bye.

This has been Between the Lenton. And I'm right fighting for me. Beavis and Butthead, I haven't seen Arcane. I bet Jose has, though. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first, there, the last one.

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