MMA Fighting - BTL | Conor McGregor vs. Jorge Masvidal, Pimblett vs. Leavitt For UFC London, UFC Vegas 56, PFL Head Scratchers

Episode Date: June 2, 2022

Conor McGregor and Jorge Masvidal appear to be on a collision course for a massive showdown, but is that the fight to make for both guys? This week on an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss that idea, the stakes that would be involved, and the chances it happens. In addition, topics will include the UFC’s booking of Paddy Pimblett vs. Jordan Leavitt at UFC London, Saturday’s UFC Vegas 56 event headlined by Alexander Volkov and Jairzinho Rozenstruik, the latest with the PFL — including their new PPV model, Kayla Harrison vs. Julia Budd, and fighters who have competed in the regular season getting victories, yet still being considered alternates — and more.  Host Mike Heck moderates the BTL title match between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and reigning champ Drake Riggs. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Drake Riggs: @DrakeRiggs_ Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. Black Friday. IKEA. Bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is Between the Links. Your host, My! The iconic voice of the...

of Esther Lynn, welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. Hope everyone's having a great week. We're back with a competition. We're back with the BTL title at stake after a successful All-Star weekend here at M.A. Fighting this past weekend. I'm excited about that.

I'm also excited to announce that this will be the last time we are live on BTL from this command center. Command Center 4.0 under construction should be ready to go for next week. So stay tuned for some cool stuff. doing in the new command center. So let's get into the matchup. The two men vying for the coveted BTL title first. It's rare to say this, but he's the challenger, a mainstay on the program,

our betting guru, Mr. No Gray area himself and a bunch of other nicknames that I could throw out there. Jed Michoud back on the program with the third best all-star team. How are you? Third best? I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure that my team washes everybody's team. But, you know, did we ever put that to a fan vote? Do we ask them? I don't know. They just like the content. They just like we didn't talk about open scoring.

It's great. Well, thank God that is. Can we continue to not do that for the rest of time? Well, first round. And I'm just kidding. But let's introduce the reigning BTL champion. Will he have the support of the peeps once again? And as Jed Bishu said before, we went live here,

looking like an independent rapper's album. cover with the lighting and the ambiance. Let's check in with Mr. Drake Riggs from MMA mania. He is back. What's up, buddy? Look at this ambiance. What's your sound cloud? You're doing this from a serial box.

Yeah, you know how it is. Well, happy to be here, happy to defend the title for the first time. Though I will admit, Mike, as I told you, one of the most undeserved title shots I've ever seen. Worse the Chale Sun against John Jones. Worse than Nick Diaz against GSP. I'm going to say even worse than Joe So. against T.J. Dillishaw on short notice, this is ridiculous.

Jed can't even get a win, and yet he's getting a title shot. But champs got to defend. Here we are. Listen, I'm a man about views and ratings and clicks. And Jed and his takes, whether you agree with them or not, they evoke emotion. And that's what this program is all about. I'm just saying, that's a lot of talk from a dude who hadn't been able to step in into the cage. Consistent pullout merchant is who's across the store. screen from me right now.

One dude shows up every week, week in, week out. One dude doesn't. And the numbers don't lie, baby. That's what it said. I mean, to be fair, Drake was covering the NFL. Yeah, Drake's covering PFL. Didn't want to interrupt. Don't want to interrupt. PFL's coming to Atlanta this month.

Guess who will still be here every Thursday while I'm interviewing the smart cage, while I'm cage side with Kayla Harrison, while me and Ray Sefa were getting busy with it. I'll still be here. I'll do it on my phone from. from the PFL smart cage, if that's what it takes. Because it's a little thing called commitment, Mike, some of us have it. We should do a live in-person BTL in Atlanta. Are you going to be in a town?

I can be. Let's do it. I might drive out there. I might drive out there. I'll say it's actually a pretty quick drive for you as well, Mike. So let's do it. Oh, man. All right.

Stay tuned. Mike just wants to come because he now sees an opportunity to sit in the, shadow of the smart cage to have that glory wash over him. And I understand it. I couldn't be more excited for the smart cage. We're going to, don't worry. We're going to talk about your smart cage and we're going to talk about your promotion that you now are a part owner of Jedmishu in this fantasy world we live in.

But we're going to start with the topic that a lot of people are talking about right now. No, it's not the PFL. It's a potential fight that is gaining a lot of steam after some back and forth on social media, some interviews being done over the last few days. Connor McGregor versus Jorge Mazadol. Now, Drake, this was a popular choice for matchmaking enthusiasts after Mazadol was dominated by Colby Covington at UFC 272. You know, let's just get two stars in there to have an exciting fight, won't feature a lot

of grappling exchanges. Both guys are stars. Both guys planting some seeds for this fight after this past week with this back and forth and the interviews, so forth and so on. they're taking shots at each other. What do you think, Drake? Is this the fight to make? Does this fight intrigue you on top of that?

The fight to make, uh, it's kind of, that's an interesting way to phrase it. I mean, I think no matter how you spend that potential matchup, undeniably, it's a little bit late. Like the time that I think about this matchup being the best timing was like right after Mazvedal won the BMF title against Neh Diaz, which the other option was obviously the title shot, which he ended up getting. against Kamar Ustman, but everybody was also talking about maybe fighting Connor and Connor was like, oh, I want to be the BMF champ too.

So like there was all that kind of lined up and he wasn't coming off of what two knockout losses at that time as well. So and there was what the argument for right after the Soroni win for Connor too. So I think that was probably the perfect time right now. They're both on losing streak. So I think it I would be fine with it. I wouldn't hate if it happened. They're both in kind of weird spots.

I mean, Connor is always closer to a title shot than anybody, I guess you could say, whereas Mazvedol kind of has some work to do, having lost twice to Usman, and then the recent Kobe Covington loss, and he's got some stuff to worry about outside of the cage as well. Wouldn't be as big of a fight as it would have, you know, obviously a couple years ago, but I think it would obviously still draw pretty well, and people would be interested in that because the banter between two, you know what would happen. they're both willing to talk to anybody in that fashion. The welterweight factor, that's interesting,

even though Mazvedal says that Connor wants it at 155, which we know that's not going to have. We're never going to see Gamebred at 155 again. So that would be interesting, though. That would be an interesting wrinkle to add to it, but something we shouldn't even consider. So if it was to happen at Welterweight, I mean, that's like the best case anyway

because it doesn't really affect anything. It's just pure fun. It's what we like to have around here, right? Some good fun nonsense sometimes, and that fight just, it's, That's all it would be for, right? Somebody gets a win. Of course, they'd argue for their title shot afterwards,

which would be like that. That still doesn't make sense, but hey, that's just how the game goes. So right now, I think it would be fun, a good, fine fight to make. I would not expect it to go to decision, but it's less intriguing, obviously, than it would have been a couple years ago.

Jed, what say you? Is this the fight to make? Are you at all intrigued by McGregor v. Mazadol? No, and mostly no. I mean, you can make it. You can put Connor on against a broomstick. It's going to sell. It'll be fine.

This is a horrible fight to make from any number of promotional reasons. And frankly, I doubt that Connor is saying no to Horace. I doubt that that fight is even being broached to him because, sure, it's a big fight. But what does it gain either man, right? Like, it's a big payday, but if Maslol wins, he's no closer to doing anything else. in his division. He is already a star. It maybe boosts it, signal boosts him a little bit,

but at the end of the day, he's still beating a lightweight and he's a welterweight. So I think that's pretty negligible. Whereas if Connor wins, it's at least a very good win and it could theoretically set up a fight with Kamau-Uzman, but I also think Connor can just do that anyway.

Like he's Connor. It doesn't, the rules don't apply to him. So this fight doesn't make any sense. I think I also think it's never really made sense. If it ever did, it was as Drake's, said after the BMF. But even then it didn't make sense because Horri Mosvola then and almost assuredly now would whip the ever-loven tar out of Connemar Gregor. And that is not how you should use your

prized pony. Like you need to get mileage out of this dude. They need to squash match him. They need to do the Donald Seroni thing again. He's coming off two losses, one where he shattered his leg. He needs unless they're going to straight shot him into a title fight with Charles Olivera, which is fine. It's still questionable, but fine. Don't have him fight. Just give him a softball. And I think the easiest softball that has made sense to me is Tony Ferguson. Tony Ferguson doesn't really have great defense anyway.

Connor still hits hard. That's actually a compelling and interesting fight. Both men do have chances to win it, but I would think I would favor Connor specifically at this point. And we talk about people having fun on the mic. Tony's I don't want to use the word crazy person but he talks like a crazy person

like some blend of the Diaz brothers and Diego Sanchez like he's just going and it's awesome and so you could just do that with Connor being Connor stuff that fight is the one that makes the most sense to me unless the UFC is really just trying

to run back I mean I know they're trying to run back Nate Diaz but I think that ship has sailed but you could do Michael Chandler like that's at least a really fun fight Justin Gachie the best fight that could be made on paper but I think the fight that makes sense the fight to do is Tony Ferguson

yeah I mean I like the idea but let's just we don't live in realism Jed we live in the UFC's world and maybe this conversation in Mazadol's interviews and Connor going back and forth on social media maybe they're just like you know what this is the one we get to put all our eggs in this basket

this is the fight to make so let's just say this is the fight that they make so let's just say this is the fight that they make Now, obviously we got legal stuff going on with Mazadol. McGregor's still kind of coming back from that injury from almost a year ago. This will be the end of the year, maybe early next year, Jed. But again, two guys very well known in the space, two of the top five, seven, ten at worst stars in the sport. McGregor being one, Mazdae could probably sprinkle in one of those other spots, both on tough times when it comes to their recent Octagon success.

If they book this fight, Jed, like what's at stake here? Like, Conner's always a win away from a title, but what happens if he loses? What happens if Mazadol loses? Like, what's, what's at stake for these guys if this is the fight that's made? Nothing. And that's why I don't like to fight. Like, nothing's at stake for other guy if they win and nothing's at stake if they lose. I mean, a purse, half a paycheck maybe, though even where they're at, they're probably not getting half a paycheck.

There's probably not that much incentive tied to wins versus losses. It's just, it's, it's a very slight degrees in public perception. But realistically, ooh, someone's at the door, Mike. You better go get that. Of course, because it's, it's between 3 and 4 p.m. Eastern time. Why wouldn't someone be at the door? Continue. On a friggin Thursday.

I was just saying, like, it's, nothing happens. Like, if Connor loses, Connor's still a draw. Connor also lost to a guy who recently challenged, challenge for the Walter right title so it's it's a more explicable loss than his loss is to pourier at this point frankly and if moscowal loses well i don't think that that hugely affects his star power and because it doesn't losing to connor doesn't matter because people don't care it's he exists outside of this meritocratic world you said we're living in fantasy land well in the real world there's no meritocracy with people like this they're stars and stars stay being stars so wins and loss

don't matter here. It's all about the pride and the paycheck. And that's honestly why I'm not super into it. Do you agree with that, Drake? Do you feel like it's just like literally two guys fighting? And that's it? Yeah, I mean, for the most part, it's kind of hard to disagree with that. But I do think that it's a lot worse for Mosvital if he loses, especially if, let's say,

he got knocked out by Connor. I think that would kind of really hurt, you know, the, the luster of the street brawler kind of persona that Mazvedal has. And I mean, not terribly, but that also puts him on a four-fight losing streak. And that just aesthetically never looks great. So, I mean, I feel like it would be hard to justify him in a main event after that, I guess depending on who he's matched up with. But, yeah, other than that, I mean, it is just a fight for them to fight and punch each other.

So, yeah, it's hard to disagree. What are the chances this fight happens, Drake? One to ten. Not in Drake's shoes. This is the UFC shoes. One to ten. This fight happens before the end of the... Let's say within the next year.

I'm going to give it... I'm going to give it a four. Solid four for me. All right. Jed? Three to two. Something like that. It's two and a half.

I don't think the UFC has much appetite for it. I don't think Connor has much appetite for it. I think Jorge is trying to pretend that he doesn't have much appetite for it, but desperately, desperately, desperately wants it. But Jorge also, well, you know, he needs it because he going to have some bills to be paying up here to the local authorities in the Florida area pretty soon. So he needs that red painting night.

And so he's trying to pretend he doesn't want it, but he really, really wants it. And I don't think he's going to get it. I think there are just so many other better options that make more sense. So, yeah. Well, maybe it happens. Maybe it won't. It's funny hearing people talk about this.

Some people feel like this is absolutely the fight to make. And some people are kind of in the same camp as you guys, where it's just like, eh, we can live with that, it could live without it. I could, look, I don't remember. So please correct me if I'm wrong. I do not remember Connor McGregor, like, ever speaking about Horamastrol, like, at all. it's just it's not one of the dudes he's coming after all the time i don't just don't think he cares yeah it's just it's just recent that it kind of happened he tweeted something out about call him

mazadol a pea brain and all this stuff and that led to mazadol retorting that he turned down the fights and then he went on a real show and so whole other thing so we'll see we'll see what happens i like the mcgregor ferguson idea mcgregor chanler's a fine idea mazadol has options at 170 Masanol, Michelle Pahado would be a lot of fun with that storyline. So we'll see what happens. That's the fight. The only reason I say not to make that is because apparently Michelle Paya just like made it all up. So it's kind of shifty.

Like I don't really want to reward him when his wife comes out and is like, that's just garbage. So I don't really know. I'm not, I'm not into rewarding just boldface lies and bad callouts. But that fight is dope. Yeah. Or we're going to do Mazadol Wonderboy, NMF, BMF. Who care? I mean, just throw them in there. Let's make it happen. But I already saw that. I don't need to see it again. Yeah. Well, let's go to round two. The point for round one goes to

Jedmishu. It's one to nothing. Good round. Now, long time viewers and listeners to this program know that the points are basically just table setters. These are where I know when to add in the advertisements on. the podcast network because you guys actually, you guys and gals will actually choose the winner with one of the great polls on this page here. Now, I don't know what's going on with the polls and what's going on on the page.

Maybe there's a poll going on right now. It's very possible. But at some point throughout this broadcast, there will be a poll where you vote for either Drake or Jed. And at the end, E. Casey Leiden will come on and reveal the winner. So look for that poll, vote, make things happen. And if you don't vote and you're not happy with the decision, You can't complain about it.

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Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders Report. least responsibly. Speaking of fight bookings, let's talk about Patty Pimblit. All right, Jed Bishue, we're going to begin with you here because Patty Pimble was the big star at UFC London. The place went bananas for him. And we have been talking for the last couple months, like, how do we book this guy?

How do we do it? Do we set him up in squash matches? Could this guy maybe fight for a title sometime? What is the journey of the UFC career for one Patty Pimble? Is he good? Is he just going to be an okay fighter that should only fight in London? Turns out they booked him on the London card as expected. His opponent is the Monkey King himself, Jordan Levitt.

It is going down UFC London in July. Your initial reaction to the booking, Jed. Were you surprised by this? Do you like it? What did you think when you first saw this? I honestly didn't have a lot of thoughts because Patty Pimbled does not occupy a ton of space in my mind because he's not very good.

And so I don't think about them all that often Because I'm sorry If you're just, if this is your first day at M.A. And you just tuned here and you think That the dude with the Beatles haircut is the future. He's not. He's fun and he's super fun in front of a, you know, London crowd.

But he's never going to hold the title unless he gets like way, way better in a very short span of time. And even then, probably not because lightweight is a threshing machine. So I don't know. I mean, it seems a fine fight, I guess. It's a little It's a little Kimbo Seth Petrazzelli In that

When he loses You'd rather him not lose to the dude That a big portion of MMA fans Are just going to think is weird And I love Jordan Levin And think Jordan Levit rules But like We all work in this sport

We know what a group of the population Feels about watching dudes twerk and stuff and that is, I can think of not a lot of worse options for you to hand Patty Pimblein and L with and maybe beat Jordan Levin. I mean, that's not outside the pale, but I think I favored Jordan Levin in the fight. It's at least a close fight, if nothing else. And it feels like really low reward here. Like I don't, again, do you just squash matches, dude?

Give him the Michael Vennam-Page treatment. he's only fighting debutants for the first five fights, just guys he can roll right on over and build some mystique and hopefully develop, and then you can throw him at the shallowest end of the rankings, the top 20, top 25. This sort of feels like they're about to give him a loss to a dude who's going to torque afterwards

and it's going to upset the hell out of everybody in the O2, which is awesome, but also promotional malpractice. Drake, when you saw the poster, you saw the UFC Europe Twitter account, tweet out this fight in particular, what was the first thing you thought of? How did you react to it? It's kind of like, okay. All right. That's happening. Cool.

I mean, I pretty much am completely in agreement with Chad on the feelings towards this one. Like, Patty is not a guy that has shown us anything to believe he'll be a champion yet or even, I dare say, a contender. so right now he's just purely you know kind of a fan favorite you know until he can show these rapid improvements but again he has to face better people at the same time so right now I think that this is like

fantastic matchmaking I have nothing against the matchup I think it will be close it's like what he should be getting at this stage and honestly until he gets that pay bump that he wants these are the kind of fights that he's going to continue to get right because he's been very vocal about saying I'm not going to fight anybody super notable until, you know, it's more worth it, that kind of thing.

And he doesn't even want to fight a whole lot in terms of activity. So this is kind of what we're going to have to get used to until something changes there. And I mean, the more he wins, obviously, it'll be more likely for that to happen. But when this fight was announced, I was like, all right, I mean, that's a proper right, right move for the direction. Things are headed right now because I don't think that we should fast track the guy, despite how popular he is. he hasn't shown us any reason to believe that he, you know, can hang with anybody in the top 15 yet, honestly, and especially at the lightweight, like Jed said. There's just so many good guys and we're just going to have to wait and see with him.

So I think this is a fine fight. Nothing that gets me super excited, but I think, yeah, it will definitely be competitive, no doubt about it, more so than his last couple fights, which even were competitive anyway. So it's like, all right. Yeah, I think if you're looking at it from like a Dana White UFC percentage, and you're looking to build this guy. I actually think this is a great piece of business because one, Patty's not going to get punched in the face

really hard by Jordan Levitt. There's very little chance he's getting knocked out in this fight. Unless we get one of those freak pick up, just slam him on his head knockouts, but he's not getting punched out in this fight. Jordan's is not that kind of a fighter. He's a very sneaky, very talented grappler who could absolutely win this fight.

And if he wins this fight, You could absolutely see Dana White going to the post-fight press guards being like, listen, I told you guys during the contender series that this Jordan Levin kid was something special, you know, two guys in a cage, never leave it to the judges. You never know what's going to happen. Like there's almost like a built-in excuse here if you're Dana and if you're the UFC where, you know, Patty's just a little green and so is Jordan. But we told you this guy was good.

We're building him up. We gave Jordan this opportunity. Do you agree with that, Jed? Like, do you think the UFC's just like, this is about as high level as it's going to get because Patty and his management team, they're not going to step up and fight a top 25 guy for the money that they're getting right now, which I don't blame them for.

But two, this is a fight where the one thing people have been talking about from these last two fights, he's maybe a little chinny, maybe he'll get knocked out with the right guy. Jordan's not really that guy. So do you feel like the UFC booked it in that way where the element of danger,

the real one that people have been thinking about for these first two fights, that's not really there. But if Patty does lose this fight, We got ourselves a moment. We have ourselves a guy that we told you about during the contender series. I mean, sure. They definitely booked this because Jordan is going to try and grapple him.

And that's much more sphere that Patty can excel in. The problem with that style of booking, though, is like, I mean, it makes sense, broad strokes. But what if Jordan's a better grappler than Patty, which I think is very possible? that's Patty's just screwed it's just not his the one thing he does well he can't even do well and also here's a here's a fun fact about being chitty right like if you're chinny that's just across the board

so guys who don't normally knock people out can knock a lot more chinny people out than people with cast iron draws so like I don't think Jordan Levitt's going to knock Paddy Pimbled out, but I would in no way take that one as an outcome that's off the table. Like I said, I think this is a fine, like if you're just looking at the numbers and the fight, this is a fine matchmaking. Patty has a, it's a step up in competition, certainly, but it's one that caters a little more to what Patty does, and Patty can win this fight, even though I don't know that he will.

But my big issue with it entirely is that this is Seth Petrazzelli. And when Jordan Levit taps him and then twerks over the cage, you're going to not be building a hero. You're going to be building a villain just because of how a large portion of the MMA fan base works. But you're not building a villain like Michael Bisping was a villain and people like to hate him. You're just going to build a bunch of, you're just going to have a bunch of people disdain Jordan Levitt. And he's not going to steer into being that in that way. so you're gaining nothing and you're losing, you're not losing a cash cow because Patty,

you can still take him to England and do great. I just genuinely don't see the upside here because there's like, why give him Jordan Levitt when you can give him me? Like, I will step in a cage and fist fight, Patty Pimbled. I'm going to lose like 100%. Patty is 100% to defeat me and you will get the exact same

as if he beats Jordan Levitt with none of the risk. And so I don't understand the booking in that regard. Drake, what if Patty Pimble loses to Jordan Levitt at UFC London? Is this like really bad or like do you think it's like catastrophic for Jordan that he will be the villain? He won't know how to lean into it, which I actually think he's, he actually could lean into a little bit. But it's just him being him. Like he hasn't changed at all since his first pro fight to where he is now. You interview him back then.

You interview him now. It's literally the same guy. Nothing's changed for him at all. Right. I mean, I think that at the moment, I don't want to use the word bulletproof for Patty, but I think that for his story, I mean, a loss could even help at this stage in terms of gaining more interest in terms of, all right, this guy had so much, high, he's so popular. We know he's not like Chimae for anything, but we love watching him because of his personality. He gets fat between his fights.

This is awesome. You know, people love this guy for all these reasons. Then he goes and loses to a guy who, like you said, might not. Who knows what will happen with Jordan Levin afterwards. It's like the investment still won't be there in him, despite getting this win. We've seen kind of cases like this in the past before. But then after that, you have everyone saying, all right, how does he bounce back? What is he going to do?

Is he going to get better from this? You know, we've seen that kind of happen with several fighters in the past as well. So it's one of those cases where I think Patty would be fine with the loss right now. If he loses the one after that, then kind of hurts a little bit. But it's not like he's going to drop off these main cards on UFC London. or anything. I mean, he could still even end up in a co-main slot after a loss year, I would think, because, I mean, hey, the order of these fight nights have been a little bit wild lately,

so anything is possible. Who knows? Maybe just give him the main event and really maximize it. But I think he'd be fine. As for Jordan, obviously helps because he beat somebody who everybody's tuned into. But we know how the UFC works. We saw it with Sage North God. There's a good example of a guy who lost, and the UFC was still behind him.

didn't really get behind his the people who beat him as much. They might have went on to do some solid things and whatnot, but they still, they try until the wheels really fall off with these kind of fighters, you know? Yeah. And what's interesting about this fight too in the build is that

Patty oftentimes will win his fights before he actually gets to the cage. Just the trash talk, all that stuff beforehand. The moment gets a little big for these guys. Jordan's not going to fall into that at all. He's just going to live it up. He's going to enjoy the process. Yeah, you won't care.

It's going to be fun. So we'll say, interesting piece of business. It's going to happen to UFC London. Jed, anything more you want to add. It's just a misuse of Patty Pimplet. Patty Pimbleau. Like, look, we all know what Patty Pimbleau is. Patty Pimbleau is Bad Connor.

And you're supposed to use Bad Connor as a springboard for people who are actually good. So you can try and make stars. out of Armand Sarukian. And I'm not saying you make that fight right now because you shouldn't. But I'm saying that there's a storyline there. Armand is actually a really damn good fighter and one you should want to be a star.

And so you need to fatten up the Patty Pimblepig so Armand can slaughter him in like a year and a half because at any point when they fight, he will kill that man. But you want to get Max benefit from it here. And now if he wins, great that this train can keep on rolling, but I still think this is bad booking. Well, speaking of UFC and fight cards and maybe things being misordered in terms of bouts,

we'll go to round three. But first, the point for round two goes to. Despite Jeb's feeble attempt at dropping Armand Sarukian's name at the last minute, it was not enough. Drake gets the point. It's one to one. evil nice nice nice nice try jett i mean jett knows how to play the game that's why he's the winning his player in here a long time it's not my first not my first day

he felt like maybe i'm behind let's drop the band that bike is super high on and you know give him the big moment so we have uh we have fights on saturday gentlemen we uh we didn't have ufc fights this past weekend but uh we got him on saturday We have UFC Vegas 56, the main event, Alexander Volkov versus Jarzina Rosenstrike. Thoughts on the card, Jake, Drake, excuse me. I mean, this card show setting, I called you by the wrong name.

That's how ridiculous it is. Just blended us to one. We do both have main bonds. That's true. Drake, is this the type of lineup that gets you all excited after a week off? No, definitely not. I honestly forgot so many of which fights were even on this car. It's like one of the worst ways to reintroduce yourself to the UFC, I would say.

And I'm just so sick and tired, honestly, of heavyweight main events. Like, what are we doing, man? We finally get some good news with, speaking of Arm and Saruki, and taking on the former KSW champ, Matthias Gamratt, in an upcoming main event. Like, give us more of that, UFC. Why do we keep putting the heavyweights in main events that we are never talking about after the fact that they happened?

Like, when's the last time one of those fights was a fight of the night? I could not tell you if it has ever happened. I mean, there are some good fights on this card, though, obviously. I mean, Dan Egan and Mopsar in the co-made event, like that would be a much better main event. That's probably the fight. Most people are definitely looking forward to. And I do love me some Alexander Volkov.

I really do, but he, uh, going against Gersino, an opponent who, you're the first person who's ever said that. Like, not even his mother has ever uttered that phrase. Got to put some, give some love to Drago. But against Jarzino, a guy who, it's so questionable, you never know who, when he's going to show up to be exciting. Depends on the matchup, kind of with him. Of course, I'm really high on Aaron Blanchfield.

Love watching her fight no matter what, but the fact that she is the curtain jerker. is just mind-blowing to me. And they wheeled out Felice Harrig and Carolina Kovalkavich for a rematch that was announced like a week ago. A very odd one there taking place before the main card. Damon Jackson's back. That's exciting.

So like there are some people I'm definitely looking forward to seeing. But like this card is definitely, it ain't no 275 next week to welcome us back. So yeah, the interest level overall is very low, Mike. I just don't want heavyweight main events anymore, honestly. All right, Jed. Look, we got 14 fights. We have the heavyweight of the heavyweighty UFC fight night main events. But we have a 1 p.m. Eastern prelim, 4 p.m. Eastern main card.

I love that. Is this a, hey, cancel the barbecue, stay home and watch this event kind of card. No, I'm not even going to let you finish this. No. I'm going to disagree with Drake on one very important thing. I think the UFC are brilliant heroes for putting Aaron Blanchfield first because a reasonable person could look at this card and say, I'm going to tune in at one to watch Aaron Blanfield and Planchfield wreck a woman,

and then I'm going to go about my Saturday because the rest of the time is free. I don't need to watch a bunch of people who don't have Wikipedia. just fight for the next seven hours. I'm covered because like a lot of this is I don't even like many of the fights that are made here. There are a couple ones that are kind of interesting to some degree but like

the Felice Harrod Kovo Kavitri match that is that's years past the sell by date and we're getting it. It's even the co-main event like Diniy Mostovlo is objectively a great fight.

It's also going to be 15 minutes of most of backpacking Danny Gay. So it's not that's not the most interesting thing to watch. I'm going to level with you. I hated everything about this card for the most part until a heroic thing happened

in the last 36 hours. I don't know if you guys how deeply on the internet y'all have been. But if you haven't heard the story of UFC debutante Ascar Muzharah I've never been more intrigued to watch a guy fight ever in my life. Listeners, if you don't know what I'm talking about at shardog.com, J.P. Petri, sorry. Does the Fight Finder files, which is just a write-up of weird things that happen as they cultivate the Fight Finder.

And he has a long tale about how Ascomos are up. has been aggressively defrauding everybody who keeps, like, all the record keeping services in MMA to inflate his record. And you, over the course of this week, he was at like, I don't know, a 27 and 6 record or something dumb. And that number has been plummeting day over day to. I think it's 19 and 11, but let me check that out. 19 to 12 right now. 19 to 12. It is an unbelievable.

It was 21 and 12 yesterday. 21 and 12 yesterday. It lost two overnight and Jay posted something today. I was like, yeah, overnight we found some more video evidence confirming some of these results were fabricated. It's an unbelievable story of this dude by hook by crook. And he's changed it. Like he legally changed his name to try and circumvent some of his earlier career losses. It is an unbelievable story.

And I like at the rate we're going, this dude might have like a five and 36 record come Saturday. And Alonzo Minifield, like I don't think a ton of Alonzo Minifield, but like based purely on everything that's going on here, I have to assume that Alonzo Minifield is going to kill this guy. And he's still only a minus 195 in the matchup. This whole thing is it's the most fascinating thing this week to me Bar none and honestly it's the only thing that has made me Really take take any sort of big interest in this card so if you haven't I hope you guys knew what I was talking about If not I'm glad to have introduced this majestic story to you And I didn't know that

It's amazing I've been following a lot throughout the day Incredible I hope that he wins so he can get questioned about this True, true story. Connor and I were recording the gambling pod and Connor says offhand and he's like, yeah, weirdly, we were talking about this fight and weirdly he's like, yeah, I thought it, he was like 26 and three or something the other day. He lost a couple, like that changed.

I wonder what happened where I was like, I don't know. And then 30 minutes later, Jay tagged me in a post where he did this. It was like, oh, this is unbelievable. This guy's the best. I want this guy to be a champion now. That's commitment, man. You know, it's great is every day for the last like three weeks on heck of a morning. We have a guy who comes in.

He asks different questions, but he also always ends it at some point by saying Mazurov is the guy to watch. Like trust me, what I tell you? This is like, this guy is the next big thing. So I thought about him as all this is going on. I cannot wait to watch this fight with Alonzo on the field. That is a great low key banger, Jed. This is important.

We've learned an important thing. Heck of a morning, Ascar Mazurov is a frequent list. to heck of a morning and he tells you every week that he's the next guy watched like that's that's what that means that is what that means he's he's a he's a brilliant man he's he's a brilliant man Drake what's your loki banger outside of that one and outside of Aaron Blanchfield yeah I have completely sold on that fight now that is all I care about it's the best it's the best fight. It's incredible. But as for the Loki Bangor outside of that one.

My goodness. I mean, I think, you know, at Flyway, it's always some good fun there. So our boy, Zaruk Adishev there's taking on Odey Osborne. I know that what we used to talk about in plenty is the potential opener for what Cody Garber at Mike, was he the guy, if I remember incorrectly, it was the Zeruk Adishab show. but I'm not going to go with that one though. Jeff Molina and Zuma Gulov, I think it could be a fun one there,

but I like both of those flyweight fights. It's just tough picking here on this card. And I mean, when really all that we should be focused on now as Moza Rove, it's like, what else even matters, man? I'm completely invested in that. Yeah, if this is not, I mean, this should be,

okay, it is on the main card now. The UFC did this one right. They moved some things around and they put this on the main card. so that's smart booking on their part but I mean bump that baby up bump that up to like John Anick has to say the co-main event

it is I can't wait he's not going to because I don't think they will but I want nothing more for than for him to win and then DC to step in the cage and be like so what is your actual record because we have a lot of different reports

right now seriously Drake after this go read Jay's thing I'm going to have to, yeah. It's unbelievable the kind of shenanigans they tried to. They emailed as if they were the full metal dojo guys. It was as if they don't know the full metal dojo guys. Yeah, it's full metal dojo. That wasn't a real loss.

It was a fake loss. It's incredible stuff. It's really amazing stuff. So speaking of amazing stuff, we're going to take a detour. We're going down a row we haven't been on in a real long time. Jed is one you're very familiar with. That's how we'll end regulation. But the point for Ron 3 goes to, I mean, there's, I mean, we didn't even need to drum roll here.

Jed sold us on the fight of the year. I was about to say, if I didn't get it for that. You almost got two points for that explanation. So you sold the spike guard. And the show now. That's it. We're done. Good at everybody.

Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember 988, Canada's suicide. Crisis Hubline, it's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 9-88 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. To succeed in the future of work, forward thinkers use AI to deliver measurable results.

Workday is the AI platform for HR and finance that frees you from the mundane so you can focus on more meaningful work. Workday, moving business forever forward. So I wasn't going to do this. Something came up like a few weeks ago and I was like, man, maybe I won't go down this road. But that something happened yesterday. And I was like, okay, we have to do this. We're going to do something we haven't done in several weeks.

We're going to talk about the PFL jet issue. This is your organization after all. What in the blue hell, Jed, are you guys doing over there? Where do we begin with all of this? You know what? Let's start with yesterday. because this was shocking. This made me scratch my head in a big way.

Carlos Lial, Jed, beats your defending welterweight champion, a defending welterweight champion who missed weight by like 14 pounds. He should be moving on in this regular season. This guy should be the story of the PFL, one of the stories of this organization. But come to find out after picking up

a huge victory against the defending champion on relatively short notice, we come to find out that Carlos C.L is not booked on any of these upcoming cards. And when asked about this, your organization, your executive committee said that he's a freaking altered it after already competing

and already beating the freaking defending champion. Explain this, please. Explain this, Jed. Good luck. So, Mike, what you're failing to take into account here because you had most of it correct. the important thing to remember is yes he beat ray cooper who is arguably the best fighter we have under contract not named kill harrison but he didn't beat welterweight ray cooper so it doesn't matter because ray didn't make weight and so that

doesn't count as a win like in the it's not a welterweight win that's a catchweight win we've never said ray cooper was the greatest catchweight fighter in the world, he's a welterweight. And so as a result, Carlos is, you know, we like the potential in Carlos. We see some there. We've got some other guys that have a more storied track record in the welterweight division. And we're going to stick with those. But if something happens there, then he can, you know, then we'll give him a shot. But, you know, we need his wins to actually matter and not be at fantasy weight classes. And that's the problem. So I'm glad I can clear this up. I'll take my point now and we can move on to the elimination round where I've already won because I have three points.

I mean, we could, we may have to follow up about other fighters who have competed against fighters. I won't be taking any more questions at this time. But Drake, your thoughts on this because, I mean, I had no words. I was trying to figure out ways to tweet this in like a different kind of a way. to evoke some emotion. But all I could think of was, huh? That's literally the tweet.

It was, huh? What is going on here? What is happening with the PFL? What are your thoughts on this? Because this is weird and just not right at all. Yeah, no, it's one of the more ludicrous things that we've seen in quite a while, despite the very obvious attempt that Jed was going to try and make to defend this.

I mean, when you look at everything, that the PFL stands for, at least says that they stand for, is this completely counterproductive to all of that. Don Davis, you know, great founder, great man on the mic, always talks about we give people opportunities. All right, you gave this guy one, and then you take it away when he beats the brakes off, Ray Cooper.

Damiener finished him several times in that fight, was somewhat competitive, but I mean he looked like the real champion, and then to not even give him any fight, like you said, Mike, it just makes it's completely illogical for the meritocracy idea that the PFL has really rammed down our throats, you know, to make a point about what they're about. And then for Leon to be not even seen. I mean, he's an afterthought now.

An alternate is like just, if you're him, I would try and get my release, man. I mean, it's, it is hard to kind of come up with the words for this because it really does make no sense outside of it being a catchweight fight. So smart move, Ray Cooper. I see what you're doing, man. I don't know. It is mind-blowing, man.

I feel so bad for the guy, especially when there's so much money on the line. I mean, nobody knew who he was before that, I'm sure. He beats the champion decisively, like I said. It sucks, man. It's actually like a real big bummer that he isn't getting to fight at all. Like, at least give him a fight outside the tournament.

Like, you can do that. We've seen it before you did with Clarissa Shields. I mean, even some people on what, the first events that we saw this season, they were fighting for the alternate spots. But like, come on, man. It's actually just wrong. Yeah, I just don't understand any of it. It makes literally no sense. And you're going to send him and other fighters who are, quote, unquote, alternates to Atlanta to maybe fight.

like maybe they'll fight. If something happens, there's a weight miss or an injury on fight week, then he can fight. But, you know, he'll fight then. It's just so weird. Now, I want to move on to this other thing. I want to discuss, because we haven't talked about this on the show. I talked about a little bit on heck of a morning. I want to talk about this pay-per-view revelation.

I can't wait to get your thoughts of this Jed. But we're going to start with you, Drake, because Don Davis and other high-ranking members of the PFL executive team have been touting. We're going to not only do. pay-per-view, we're going to disrupt pay-per-view, like we have done with television and the sport in general with this league format.

We're going to do these massive pay-per-view events, these super-fight paper-view cards, and fighters, Drake, are going to get 50% of the revenue. And this sounds great in theory, and Don Davis and the crew they are selling this. Hold on, Jed. Hold on. This is

your company. We'll give you your chance to respond. PFL on pay-per-view. Can this possibly work, Drake? Can this possibly work? I think it can. And it completely depends on who they're, you know, having headline these pay-per-views, right? And obviously the main argument against it, right? It's like half of zero is still zero. It depends on how much they're also making us pay, which I cannot imagine being the price of UFC pay-per-views. That would be just an uphill battle that they're not going to win. And I hope that they are so aware enough to know this, even though it's only going to be, what, two events a year.

And they said that the top fighters will be the ones to, you know, get this revenue split. And I mean, that was not clarified whether it was the two in the main events or the two with the biggest names, like, however you're going to decide that. Who knows? We'll wait and see. But I think it has potential, again, just specifically depending on, one, how much the pay-per-views cost. because really people, you know, don't watch the PFL very much for free anyway. And then depending on who they have to draw that interest. So Kayla Harrison is the one that we know will be there.

Sure. I mean, that's your biggest star. So she will draw who she normally draws already again for free. But then the matchups that she's in, like that's a very tricky one. It's really going to be big with who they can end up bringing in. And I know that old Tom Brady, Fabricio Verduem wants to come back. So when you look at that, I mean, it'll be just fine. Jed, 50% is great. But as Drake kind of put it, it's it's something you learn in math pretty early on,

that 50% of nothing is nothing. And, you know, obviously that's a little unfair, but let's put it this way. Can they crack 100,000 pay-review best? Let's just say, let's just say this. I'm going to paint the best case at Ariel, because I already know what the NFL's thinking. Paint whatever snare you want. The answer is no, but okay. Kayla Harrison versus Chris Seiborg is the main event. They're going to do a price point.

They're going to sell it. Let's say, I already know what they're going to. They're getting $2,99. $2,999 for this card. They're going to put some good stuff behind it. Is this, I think getting anywhere near 100,000 pay-per-view buzz? No, no, certainly not at a $30 price point.

Are you kidding me? $19.99. 20, $20. five bucks. $2.99. Maybe. So $2.99 where we have potential to get to six figure buys. Look, I'm going to say a few things here. First, as a man who spent a lot of my life working in the tech industry, when someone

uses the word disrupt, just read that as full of shit. That's just the cleanest way to go through life because that's just what that means. So if they're disrupting the pay-per-view industry, they're just full of shit. Two, they don't have anybody. The actual, probably the best pay-per-view fight they could is the one that they're having in July. It's the Harrison versus Bud. That's probably the best pay-per-view bout they could hope to headline with.

And it's gone. Also, on that same card, Cooper versus Cooper. So, you know, the Battle of the Coopers, that's a great, that would have gotten me to buy. I'd have thrown a couple bucks buying that. It's like a TV show. Yeah, something dumb, because that's all you can do. I'm going to, the simplest way I can explain this is, Mike, I have worked in this space for six or seven years now.

I own ESPN Plus and have for as long as ESPN Plus has existed. And I only started watching PFL events within the last year. And we are talking about an event that was free to me to watch. I worked in the space in which it happened and nominally included fighters. that I should care about. And I, as a person who loves MMA, and it's my job, still is just like, nah, I'm good. And that was free. That was free.

You're going to add a $30 price tag? If you can't get me to tune in for free, you're not getting anybody to buy a pay-per-view. And it's, I don't know why we're doing pay-per-view anyway. It's very, very dumb. I'm going to talk to the team when they come here. This might not happen is all I'm saying. because we're trying to fly before we've really figured out much past crawling. And that is just not how things should work.

So my, you know, again, no inside information. My assumption here is that this is part of the, we brought you back, Kayla, and you want to make more money. So we're going to tie you to pay-per-view incentives or something. But we just can't do it. I'm going to talk to the team. This is going to be one of those things where we just never talk about it again. And because it's the PFL, no one's going to ask.

ask us a follow-up question again. It's just going to fade into the ether as it should, as it should. It's an interesting point because had this Carlos Lial thing not happened yesterday, we wouldn't even be talking about this right now. And I'm not trying to knock them. It's just funny that they've actually built a little bit of momentum because Bellator had such a pretty horrible year. Because Bellator just continues to shoot itself in the foot at every possible. And they have this chance.

They have this chance to go past them and they can't do it. then these things happen and you're like, what are we doing here? But it is what it is. Any final thoughts on the street? These things happen in MMA. No, I mean, I just want to touch on kind of the Kayla Harrison point that Jed made there. I think 100%. That is completely the whole bait that they gave her to stick with her.

This is going to be her last regular season type format that she's going to compete in. I mean, she signed to go to Belitole, right? She was ready to leave and, you know, fight cyborg and all that. So what's the best way to keep you? I should have to pull it. Yeah, got out of that one for sure. But here, we'll give you half of whatever you can bring in. Like, yeah, I just think that's 100% how we got here in the first place.

If there was no free agency period, all that, and we didn't have to even talk about that, that was just recently happening this year. We wouldn't even be talking about this right now. Yep. If Carlos Laile headlines first PFL pay-per-view, take my money. I will give it as long as he gets 50% of it. Hell yeah But

Wow That's one sale You PFL that's one sale That's probably the only sale you're getting With Carlos Cialis That's a lot of paper people Hey he just made He just made 15 bucks

Which is more that he's making In July when he goes to Atlanta Because he's not freaking fighting It's so dumb I mean He might fight Look we're gonna talk things over When they get here

Look Drake and I I have ideas I'm gonna revolutionize MMA as a whole. I'm not going to disrupt it because that's a too bad word, but I'm going to revolutionize it because there's a very obvious outcome here for everybody involved. And I don't, we just need to expedite this. Bellator does Grand Prix every year. PFL has their seasons. Cool. Let's just do a friggin Super Bowl between the two of you once a year. It worked out for professional football. Just do that. It's not hard.

I would buy that pay-per-view. You could do a PFL versus Bellator pay-per-view every August or whenever the hell you want to do it. And it would rule, and I would pay you $70. I would pay full price for that. And it doesn't have to be for the PFL belt. And it can just be for the Super Belt or whatever dumb name you want to call it. And it's cool.

It is a genuinely objectively cool thing. The smart anything. I don't know. It's not hard. Don't reinvent stuff. Just do stuff that other people have succeeded with. It's very simple. Yes.

I hate talking about BFL and Belator because they're morons. But BFL has not approached this Bellator thing very, very wisely. And they pissed Scott Coker off. They pissed him off. Pissed off. Pissed them off. But the point for round four, let us move on with our lives. Goes to.

Drake kept me positive. Two to two gets it done. he was a little more realistic. We might see an Eagle FC versus Bellator card before we see a PFL versus Bellator card. I was sold the bill of goods. You had me defend the Carlos Lial thing. That's indefensible, and I did a great job, frankly.

That's the only defense you could have possibly had. I did a great job. All my points stand. Unless it was like the Moscarov guy where he patted his record and we found it it wasn't true. Right. And actually go in like six years, we're going to find out

that actually Ray Cooper won a definitive decision and everyone just misremembering it. Oh, man. All right. See how long spikes got overturned. Well, it is now time for the knockout round. We've talked about everything else, so we're just going to have some fun here.

Each competitor will have one minute on the clock to answer the same question. And once that is done, we'll turn it out over to you, the peeps. You will vote for who won, Drake or Jed? And then we'll bring on the Honorable E. Casey Lyden to read off the winner. So Drake, champions prerogative, my man. You get to decide whether you want to go first

or if you want to pass on over to Jed Michoud. I'll go second. All right, Jed, we go to you. We like to do these quote-unquote low-key bangers, these under-the-radar storylines. And MMA fighting did an incredible job during All-Star Weekends with all different content and programming like mid-year award shows.

we had the All-Star draft, we had the prediction show. And I want to kind of go on the prediction show train a little bit because you guys discussed major storylines, things we're going to be talking about for the rest of the year. But in one minute or less, Jed, I need you to give me your under-the-radar storyline about a fighter, a fight, an organization, something that isn't being discussed enough, but it's something that is on your radar that you're thinking about

and that has you mightily intrigued. one minute on the clock low key storyline for the remainder of 2022 your time starts now remainder remainder of the whole year okay yes uh i think it has to be israel adesania he's he's about to be defending his title against jared canonnier um and low key is he is is getting is making a case not to be the middle wake go because i i think he will have a lot to do in that regard but other people are not going to feel that way because Anderson has the PED pops this is his i don't know fifth six title defense some some dumb number of high high title defenses uh especially because he plus ones because he counts winning the belt with gaslam but i don't feel like anybody's talking about that

fight uh we've got a lot of shine on the co-main event for that card the volkinovsky um holloway trilogy fight and what that'll mean for wokenowski his career but this is we get to watch the best middle way in the world fight it might be his last or close a final fight at middleweight because I do think he's going to move up to light heavyweight and give that a real run by the end of this year. And he's, look, he's very quietly put together one of the best runs in the history of this company. And we should acknowledge that. It's a great answer right there. I like that answer. Going with Israel Adasania, headlining international fight week, trying to make it two for two in 2022. And now we turn

I don't know, which is the champion Drake Riggs back on the program, first title defense. Low key storyline, fighter, fight, event, promotion. Could be anything, Drake. What is the low key story that is on your mind that has you fascinated for the rest of 2022 that no one seems to be talking about? One minute on the clock. Go. All right. I'm about to give you the most Drake Riggs answer you could possibly get here because I am fascinated.

And I fascinated by what is going on at the moment with Risen and the president, Nobuyukisaki-Gabara, who there have been a resurfacing of not necessarily allegations, but let's say information or misinformation, a lot of that going around regarding his potential ties to yakuza, which was brought up during the Pride Days. And at this current point, we're getting ready for the match 2022, which is a big, highly anticipated fight between Tensha, Nakakawa and Takaru. And it's not going to be on Fuji TV, which is a very big hit. for anything Japan.

And that's obviously involving in Risen. And if they can't sort things out and lose Fuji TV going forward, big hit for Risen as well, which is going to be their biggest year in terms of events. If they lose it, also hurts Bellator. And who knows? Who knows what could possibly even happen to Risen going forward if they don't have that big platform.

And Saki Kabara, obviously. So I'm fascinated to see what ends up happening with all that. Oh, thank God. First of all, yeah, first of all, that was a very Drake Griggs answer. At first, when you said that, I thought you're going to say Super Melly making your UFC debut, which would have also been a great Drake Griggs answer, but not surprised by your selection and for being honest. But now we're going to waste a few moments. We're both wrong.

I just, well, what is the right answer? I can't say it because I could influence the voting now. Oh, that's true. That's true. We'll have you say it at the end. Good point. Good point. I thought of it halfway through my answer and then was like, I can't really pivot here. I just got to go all in. Yeah. And you did a good job. I saw, I kind of saw that moment where you were like,

oh, we're like, I have to, the chips are going in. I'm hot committed. I got to go. I mean, if you're talking about what no one's talking about, I mean, hey. Look, it's, it's just not that interesting. Every seven years, the dominant Japanese MMA promotion has to fold because of, Jacuzate ties. We'll get another one in a couple years. And this is a cycle that will just continue forever. I'm okay with it.

All right. Well, listen, I think we've spent enough time. We're letting the votes tabulate. Tomorrow, I believe 3 p.m. Eastern, we'll have our preview show for UFC, Vegas 56. It should be a rising 30 minutes and best. We're going to talk about one thing and one thing only, baby. Yes. I can't wait for all the questions about that.

We'll probably talk about that a heck of a morning too because that's just so fun. And then Saturday, since we have an early start time, we're going to do the People's Pre-Fight show, myself, A.K. Lee, 12.30 p.m. Eastern time. And I think what we might do is we might watch the Aaron Blanchfield fight live together during the People's Pre-Fight show. We might do that.

That's something we're pondering. So stay tuned for that. Then we'll post-fight show at a normal time, like 7.7.30? That's pretty sweet. Then on to the next one on Sunday. So lots of content coming away, lots of content already on the MMA Fighting Podcasting Network, including, Damn, they were Good, the Michael Bisbing edition, with Jed Mishu and two special guests, Jed, right? Yes, sir, Chuck Mendenhall and Sean Al-Shoddy, the two best writers in MMA, certainly, arguably the world,

but certainly in MMA, the two best writers. Yes, so go check that out. Now we have Casey on the screen, which means the votes are in. Casey, who won? Is it and still with Drake giving Drake Riggs answers? Or is it Jedmishu just going all in because he had to? Okay, we got the votes in. We close this poll.

And here we go. Your winner in today's Between the Links is... Drake Riggs gets it done. What was the numbers? Numbers. 60% of our viewers. Number. Oh, another one.

60%. Congratulations, Mr. Riggs. Broadcasting live from a Captain Crunchbox, Drake Riggs gets it done. Congratulations, my man. 30 seconds. Go ahead. Boy, I'm just so elated.

I mean, I'm not surprised, but I'm just happy a little bit hungover and we still got to win is what it is Mike I don't have a lot to say okay party on man yeah I'm tired Ted what would you like to say what was the correct answer oh the UFC's going to Paris and nobody's talking about that at all that's like a really big deal and we we both even forgot to talk about it it's tough tough see All right. We've already seen M.A. in Paris. We haven't seen the UFC, though.

Come on. We've seen a circle cage. You haven't seen the eight-sided cage. It's totally different. You've seen bad M.MA in Paris. Listen, we just saw Ryan Bader Czech Congo, too, in Paris. As I said, bad MMA in Paris. We get Bobby Knuckles in Paris.

That rules. Yes, we do get Bobby Knuckles. We're likely to get Cyril gone. uh versus tie to evasa on that card as well so they should fight underneath the iiffel tower that absolutely 100% but Casey you could uh go ahead Casey uh say we're gonna get like uh some equivalent to Brian Ortega versus the I year in Paris that's how the UFC works don't they would never put an actual French fighter in Paris that's that's not come on yeah yeah yeah it's a fun fight like that would still rule yeah

Yes. All right. Well, you can hit the music, Casey. We're going to get on out of here. A fun, exciting addition of the program, as always. And thank you, Drake. Thank you, Jed. Thank you to all of you watching. Thank you to Casey Liden on the production. And thank you to the iconic voice of Esther Lynn, who will likely take us home. So for Drake, for Jed, I am Mike Heck. We'll see you next week once again between the links. Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Links. I'm Esther Lynn. Congratulations. Congratulations, Drake Wiggs. You've won again.

Jedd Nishu, better luck next time. Love you guys. Happy birthday, AK. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast 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.