MMA Fighting - BTL | Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler Craziness, Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen 3, More

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

UFC 303 is just over two weeks away, and the main event between the returning Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler is seemingly on the ropes once again. Where will the roller coaster ride of the McGregor-Chandler fight go next? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel weighs in on the latest updates surround the UFC's next pay-per-view card, the return of McGregor, where Chandler could go from here if the fight doesn't happen, and what could headline if a replacement is needed. Additionally, they'll discuss Saturday's Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen boxing match, the event not airing in the U.S., UFC Vegas 93 and whether or not it's in the conversation as the worst on-paper card of 2024 thus far, the main event between Alex Perez and Tatsuro Taira, and all topics the viewers want to hear about during this month's fan Q&A episode of the program. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they discuss the biggest stories in the sport. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We are back on another Thursday. There's a lot happening, not just in the combat sports world, but the sports world in general. Yes, the Boston Celtics just continue to kick the ass of every team. They step on the floor against beating the Mavs again.

Bust out the broomsticks Friday, banner number 18, going up at the TD Garden. It's a glorious day. on that end, but it's also an emotional roller coaster when it comes to the UFC and mixed martial arts, because what in the blue hell is going on with UFC 303? What is going on with Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler? Rollercoaster is the only way to describe this, but thank you for joining us. We're going to talk about that and much more. And joining me to answer your questions this week, because this is our monthly Q&A edition of the program.

Mr. No Gray area, the hot take kid, the Baron of Boop himself. There he is, the Bootmaster, Jedbishop. I mean, so excited to be here. Frankly, because this makes a lot of sense to do a Q&A. Because I don't like, what are we going to have five rounds talking about UFC 303 and this ongoing shit show? It's not like we're talking about this weekend's fights. So, yeah, excited to be here. Mike, love it.

You don't want to talk about Garrett Armfield versus Brady Highstand? Although that's one of the really good fights that's required. Yeah, we did. We actually did, Mike. We did. And we're going to do it tomorrow on the preview show, like, even though we probably won't because the preview show is probably going to be like an amalgamation, one of those things. So I guess we won't talk about it as much. But yeah, tough.

UFC 303 in Shambles, Robert Whitaker posting cryptic Instagrams that don't sound very good either. We're doing great, Mike. Yeah, it's pretty wild. So, I mean, might as well to start here. I mean, we've started basically the last two weeks with this here topic. And we still don't have 100% clear and specific answers on all of this stuff. But last week on the show, Jed, we discussed Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler, right? We discussed that things were turning in a good direction.

Ariel had talked about some things. I told you what I had heard and been told about the situation. on the website, Damon wrote up some stuff that he was told. We're essentially like Sympatico and a lot of this stuff. Ariel tweets out on Tuesday, I believe, that the positive vibes, the optimism, if you will, has since gone away for the Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler fight. UFC back to scramble mode.

They're reaching out to other participants, either A, to fill in and possibly replace McGregor or reaching out to managers and fighters about possibly just replacing the fight altogether. As of right this second, 12.34 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, nothing has really changed. It seems that hope is getting dimmer and seconds and the hours go by. There are talks of replacement fights. There are feelers out to fighters about possibly stepping in and trying to

saved the day. But as of right now, still nothing. We don't know what the hell is going on. The UFC has not made an announcement. And as Ariel reported on Twitter earlier, the UFC is not just keeping this tight to their vest right now. It's not like they're just sitting back and trying to build anticipation, trying to do something to swindle the fans. That's not what's happening right now. If you watch the UFC Inc, you understand that Hunter Campbell is a machine. He's the face that runs the place essentially. I know Dana is the guy they sort of bring out there

as the quote unquote promoter, but Hunter's the guy doing all the deals, making all these things happen. So you know he probably hasn't slept in a week. Think back on last Thursday compared to where we were at, where we're at right now on this Thursday. What are the emotions?

What is your reaction? Because we were much more positive to start the program last week than we are right now. my emotions are fury just outright rage because i didn't believe myself might i i had been largely on the team of this going to happen and then as i started to talk through it i came to the conclusion i was like well it's probably not going to happen because for it to be this radio silent the only reasonable explanation for something to be this quiet and this like intentionally nobody's

talking. It's not one of those scenarios where like, we all actually know what's happening. We have slacks going on about the things that are occurring. This is actually nobody's saying a damn word about what is happening. And the only reason something would be that tightly lipped is that it is dead and that they are simply trying to find an answer before revealing that it is dead. So there is not the headline of UFC 303, Connor McGregor out. and there's nothing to follow it up because this is this is a tried and true strategy you can take this to your personal life your professional life if you have to bring your boss a problem because it is there it is always better to bring a solution with it hey conner's out but here is what we're doing

instead as opposed to it three weeks till what is ostensibly supposed to be the biggest event to the year for us and we got nothing we're going to try and figure it out and then i you know ariel said hey the optimism is there and I said okay and I think that Ariel was obviously reporting the truth of what he knew at the time but that optimism has clearly changed and at this point in time it seems a foregone conclusion that Connor McGregor is out and I think that's deeply funny frankly and I am interested to see how long it goes before we get the reason at some point they will give us a reason, certainly when they announce that the fight is over and it's being replaced with whatever.

But I am fascinated to see what the reason that is given, because I have my own opinions on the matter. And I just want to see how it will play out if there's what caused this to unfold the way it did because it's it at worst it's funny and at best it's or at best it's funny and at worst it's like pretty bad so uh we're going to find out i guess or we'll just stay quiet forever i'm unsure how this plays out yeah i mean i assume dana's going to talk about it at some point uh he may not get crystal clear about it but if it is something that like connor did wrong or something then I'm sure data will light a fire.

He's not afraid to say, well, Connor wakes up in silk sheets and has all the money. So getting him to fight is impossible. Like, he's no problem saying those things. So it's, the whole thing is, is just pretty wild at this point. I feel bad.

Yeah. Didn't you imagine? Yeah. Can you imagine if the answer to this is actually Connor just didn't feel like it? Like, I mean, that's based on what you can say,

the whole time. I am. Yes. And so we are 100% clear. I've been on that corner for over a year now. And it is the funniest thing possible. Nothing would make me laugh more than if that is actually the answer to this scenario is that Connor was just like, I don't want to fight that dude. I don't have any care to fight that dude. Not going to do it. But like to get to the 11th hour and be that way, I kind of came off that corner when the fight that dude. I don't have any care. I'm not going to do it. But like, to get to the 11th hour and be that way. I kind of came off that corner when the fight. was signed and agreed to because that made like because Connor has always shown up if he has signed a contract he has shown up every time if the answer here and I am not saying it is I truly do not know the answer here is he's just like I don't want to do it good good on you do what makes you happy where does what does the UFC do with that how can they ever book him again like if he's going to do this because they don't want to book him with like a all right we're going to book him but we're going to book him on top of a really juiced card with a couple of other champions so if he does do

this it's fine they don't want to do that because the money that they lose then giving pay-per-view percentage points to their champions there's a very clear reason why connor is on this card and wasn't on ufc 300 and doesn't have like a strong support card around him because he is the draw and they are trying to min-max their money, their income stream here. So, like, if that's what happened, how do you book them again? How do you do it? It will be deeply, deeply interesting to hear what the reason is. And if it's something like that, I'm super fascinated.

Jed, you mentioned for the past year, you've just like, eh, Connors doesn't want to fight Chandler. He's just going to string them along and then just not fight him. he's going to end up fighting somebody else. He was just waiting for Chandler to take some other fight. It's like if I wait three years, surely this asshole will fight someone else. But nope. And then this is where we're at.

Do you on this Thursday of the Year of O'Lourd, 24, June 13th, do you feel bad for Michael Chandler at all? Do you feel bad for him? I feel terrible for him, but you clearly do not. Nope. I mean, again, I am not saying that he has made any incorrect decision. I absolutely understand the logical progression and what he did, and it probably was objectively correct. You had to know that this was an outcome, and that had to be factored into your risk calculation. Hey, I have this fight with Connor.

There is the possibility that he never fights again because he doesn't need to fight, and he's coming back, we're turning off a catastrophic injury. There are any number of roadblocks to this happening. I know what I'm getting into. I have made my bed and I'm going to lie in it and I hope that I get up in the morning. But maybe I won't. Maybe this is the last time.

And those sheets never unfurl at the end. Like it is where he's at and it's tough. And again, this is still speculative. We don't know what the reason is. We're just pretty clear the fight isn't happening at this point. If the reason is, you know, Connor tweet something and is not ready to go, then maybe Chandler still has it. But like, at this point, I think Chandler needs to hope that the reason is Connor doesn't want to fight because then he can be free of this. He can say, hey, Connor just doesn't want to do it.

I'll fight Max Holloway or Charles Oliver, whoever can step in on short notice and I'll move on with my career. and the UFC will probably take care of me. They will probably give me something beneficial, a title eliminate or something like that as a, hey man, sorry about what happened here. But that would be better than, hey, Connor tweaked an ankle and he's out for six weeks and we're just going to keep kicking this can down the road. Do you want to keep kicking it with us or would you like to move on?

But none of that is pity. I have no pity for Michael Chandler. didn't think you would didn't think you would I've never wanted Dana White to pop on my screen during a show more than right now

I've never wanted to to see him pop up and make an announcement more than I do right now because that would be fun as hell that'd be fun as hell to react to all of this but we will obviously

keep you posted on on mafaiyou.com there is nothing to report there is nothing to report on numerous ends we don't know what this card is going to look like we don't know anything

so But like Ariel said, the only thing I do know is that as of right this moment, the fight is not 100% off. It's, I would say it's like 98.6% off. Maybe there's a 1.4% chance they can save this thing. It doesn't look likely. So I expect a new main event. What that's going to be, I just have no clue at this point. It's just based on availability, who could step in, what's going to happen.

It doesn't appear like Max Holloway will be the savior. That's one thing that I could probably go ahead and say at this point. I know Ariel's talked about that as well, but who the hell does? Maybe they called them at the 11th hour and said, here's a floppy-de-jillion dollars come in and fight Michael Chandler. Still, I know that there are other options out there. It's the only one to me that is remotely acceptable or reasonable is to just offer Max an extra zero on the contract to fight Michael Chandler for the BMF. Because, as I've said, and I maintain, he would beat Michael Chandler, so he still can fight Ilya for the title later. But he can also make $25 million, which is pretty cool.

And I would take $25 million. Dana, this is me officially submitting my name in the hat. I will save UFC 303 for any check you want to write that has six zeros at the end of it. I will jump in, maybe even five. We could maybe even do a five zeros at the end of it. Yeah, I believe you stepping in more than Sean O'Malley versus Jake Paul that was being talked about yesterday. And well, we saw what that led to if you are on social media. But let's hear what you all to say about this and all the other trying topics going on in the world of MMA.

I'm sure you guys are just foaming at the mouth to discuss UFC Vegas 93 and Alex Perez versus Setsuro-Tyra. and Icaram Alaskara versus Antonio Tricoli and Chal Sondon versus Anderson Silva 3 and of course the PFL. Everyone's talking about PFL tonight. Everyone knows that's happening tonight. So let's bring in E. Casey lining because there's another fight coming up this weekend.

Tank Davis is back in Las Vegas. And that's where Casey is right now. He's at the Davis Martin Fight Week festivities. Look at that. Look at Casey in Vegas. Still here for all of you. doing, sir. Doing wonderful.

It feels good day back in the MGM Grand. This is the best place in the world to see prize fighting. I'm so bummed when the T-Mobile opened up and everything with the T-Mobile. The MGM Grand, the MGM Ballroom, like so many. This is where, man, like, Connor, like, he used to have open workouts. And like, Conn-Mogregor did his, like, hour-long open workout when he fought Chad Mendes. It was, like, right there.

So many good events at, who what else? Daniel Cormier, when he said. was it Ryan Bader, you're the easiest fight. That was all right there. Everything happened in this room. This is just a legendary room. I love this room. I'm happy to be here.

Connor McGregor just tweeted, and it's just a betting slip. Easy money on the Spaniards to win the Euros on my birthday, a nice bill for the Mac. So Connor McGregor won a million bucks on dual bits. His fingers are not injured. We know that. Oh, I can't.

I forgot I can't see it because Connor blocked me for reasons that still remained opaque to me. You got, how are you blocked by Connor? Like Connor McGregor. I have no idea. That's impressive. I'm blocked by a real collection of weirdos because like it's not like I have ever once added them. Like, because I don't, I'm not, I don't like get in Conner's mentions and talk shit or whatever. But I am somehow blocked by him and Chris Cyborg.

Yeah, I was blocked by Cyborg for like a year and somehow I'm not blocked. anymore. Don't know why. Don't know how, but that's okay. Casey, what are the people talking about? I assume they're all very happy with everything that's happening and getting no answers to any of their questions right now when it comes to Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler. Someone's saying anything. Yeah, just a lot of UFC and ESPN talk.

What do we want to go to first? What do we want to go to first? I mean, let's just go to the popular topic, you know? Let's go to wherever you think. All right, all right. Here we go. That's it we got. Let's get a super chat first.

Thank you, Drew. Chances Connor is just playing with Chandler. So I've seen this theory a bunch, Jed, that Connor McGregor and the UFC are playing a trick. They're getting only Ariel to report on this so that they could come through and be like, see, this guy sucks, he's an asshole, don't listen to the media, their scumbags. And that Connor is pulling a Ryan Garvey. see you right now, that this is just all mind games, it's all mental warfare, and at the 11th hour, he will fight Michael Chandler after all, but he's just playing a mind game. Any chance that this is

true, that this is a theory that makes sense? Uh, no. I don't think, I think that there is a chance that the 11th hour of this fight does happen, but to me, that chance is entirely, Connor just has, if he's doing that, it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. It's like the short version of this. Because like you're not gaining too much. Whereas like the actual reasonable answer to me here. And again, this is not a report. There's no inside baseball.

My read of what is happening at this juncture is that Connor realizes he has the UFC over a barrel right now. There are not a lot of other options out there. and that he looked at UFC Louisville being the highest gate of all time and recognizes that he doesn't get shit on the T-Mobile Arena gate that comes through. He's getting pay-per-view points and his base because that's how most of these work. And I guess he gets some money through the proper 12 endorsements, etc., etc. But like he's not getting part of the gate.

He is not getting part of the concessions. He is not getting the amount of money you get in high-level boxing matches when shit like this is made for because you're the person bringing people in the door. And when the UFC is proudly saying that the garbage UFC Louisville card was the biggest gate of all time, I suspect he can do math and be like, hey, if UFC Louisville was that, kind of think that my return might sell a few tickets, might make a little more money, and I should get a cut of that. And so I can demand that or I won't fight.

And while other fighters have to fight for money, I don't. If they don't want to pay it, okay, I won't do it. And if they do, great, I make more money. And the UFC is in the point where they also don't need Connor. So he has them over a barrel to an extent, but they also don't have to budge here. They can just have a bad event and find a replacement, and it'll be okay because losing this battle is better than losing the war. So that is my read based on very little other information. but it has that would not be Connor trying to screw with Chandler

that's Connor trying to get paid so couple things one Louisville is the highest US fight night live gate not the so just to clarify just the point being right I know what you're saying that shit card does that they could put UFC Vegas 93 in a 7,000 seat arena

tomorrow and sell it out like that's just how unfight they are right now. It's ridiculous. And here's the other thing. Dana White has already publicly said that there's a $20 million gate for this card. And that was what? Was that after 302 or after 300? I don't remember at all. It was, I mean, it was, I don't know, because he announced, he announced the Conner

fight at 300. So this was, I think it was maybe it was St. Louis or something. It was one of the way game fight night cards. Daniel to the scrum and said it was basically probably said it's a $20 million gate, which is by far the biggest the UFC has ever done. And that was with like a month and a half to go before the fight was even happening. So kind of put your cards on the table right there. Again, we're not saying this is the reason why because we don't know what the reason is. But if we are to believe this theory that it's on an injury and it's Connor being like, nah, dude, pay me more.

I mean, there's reasons, I guess. I see it's honestly the only answer that makes sense to me because I think if I just think of it was an injury somebody would have been willing to talk about that well somebody would have been willing to be like yeah he's tweaked an elbow or whatever here's what I'll also say because obviously when we're hearing this stuff I'm doing my job and I'm like reaching out to everybody that I know in this space and they say this in the pro wrestling world all the time they have this this little cliche telephone telephone telegraph, tell a wrestler. It is so true with MMA too. Telephone, telegraph, tell somebody in the MMA space. Because I've talked to probably 20 or 30 different people that are like involved in the space, whether it's a fighter or coach or a manager, what have you. I've gotten like 18 different reasons why they've been told the fight is off.

It's incredible. All of the different things that these people are like, I heard this happened. I heard he broke his this. I heard he's doing this because of this. It's all different. Everybody has a different tale, which is unbelievable. It's like 80% of the answers I get are different, which tells you that nobody knows a fucking thing.

And it's incredible. It's truly incredible, this whole story, this whole saga. It is, yeah, that's exactly what it is incredible. And I'm mostly honestly just tired of it. Like, just give me, tell us the answer. It was fun for a little bit, but like, just, just get it done. Like, just make it happen. You guys have plenty of money to close the deal.

However, it needs to be done. But just solve this because, I mean, at least as of now, we have UFC Saudi coming up. Like, the road to Saudi starts in three days. Yeah. This needs to be resolved before then. So get it done. Yeah. For sure.

is like the evil version of what's the UFC 300 main event at this point. This is way worse than that conversation was. Support for this show comes from the audible original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The earth only has a few days left. Roscoe Cadulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to U.S. 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. show comes from Volkswagen. As the U.S. gets ready to host soccer's biggest moment on a worldwide stage, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S. From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, Volkswagen is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem. They're supporting talent from across the U.S. soccer extended national teams and are focused

on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward. From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. Drew says Dana literally said on Andrew Schultz's podcast, McGregor is the king of mental warfare. Wouldn't be surprised if that was a hint Mac is fighting. I mean, maybe he does. Again, maybe they come through at the 11th hour. Drew, what?

Last week, yeah, last week, Jed, you would I, yeah, please. is what mental, like what is gained from this? Do you, because truly, do you think that like Michael Chandler has just bought in like he's, he is priced into this. There is nothing that he can do. So all this is doing is like giving us something to talk about in the content cycle. But like speculate, which you just never really great. Chandler's just going to show up. He's going to show up in Las Vegas in three weeks or two, two and a half weeks. I have Conner's there. and he's fighting him, great. And if Connor's not, maybe he's not fighting him.

But like, this isn't, I don't know. That just, I think mental warfare is a very stupid thing that has like three times in history proven to be correct. And I don't know what this mental warfare would be doing to Michael Chandler. He's, he's priced in. He's going to fight him. He's going to fight the same way. He's fought every time he's been in the UFC.

Nothing's going to change here. Yeah. I mean, if Chandler flew to Dublin for the press conference that Connor knew was Canada, I'll say honestly that would have been better. That's one thing, but dragging this on and then maybe not fighting, it's going to piss Chandler off. But look, if it's not an injury, if it turns out that it's like Connor playing hardball and Chandler just shows up to Vegas and shows up at the press conference and does events and just gets out in front of the people, he's going to be a fucking superstar. He's going to look like a billion dollars in this situation if it turns out that it's not an injury or something like that. So, yeah, Chandler, either way, Chandler's going to get paid for his next fight.

He may not get the red panty night. But some kind of panty night, one would assume, because he's gone along with this entire ride. So, you know, he's going to come out smelling like roses in this, I think. I think. Really? I think so. If it's not an injury. If it's not an injury.

If this is Connor being Connor and being like, nah, I want more money. which again, we're not saying this is what the case is. I just want to throw that out there. I know there's social media sites that aggregate all this shit, and they're like, oh, I haven't been fighting saying this. We're not saying this is the case. So I'm choosing my words very carefully here. But if that is the case, if Dana White comes on, be like, look,

Connor McGregor tried to play hardball. He didn't want to fight. Chandler did. He's a gangster. He's a warrior. Chandler, I offer Chandler 18 names. He said yes to all of them, but we just couldn't get any of them done. Chandler's going to look like a million dollars.

100%. I firm agreed. This is, I mean, it's not a win for Chandler because fighting Connor is certainly better, but he's going to come out of this looking pretty good. He's done nothing wrong. And so he's going to get the shine there. Yeah.

And especially because like truly, if the answer is Connor doesn't want to do it, then for the rest of his career, he can just punk Connor. Like, he can just be like, yeah, Connor, Connor was shook. Connor didn't want these hands. Connor knew what would happen to him and like and at that point that's either going to make Connor

want to fight you or you still just get kind of the shine of being the doo-doo punk Connor like it's I think there are very few outcomes that aren't at least some level of positive for Chandler here you guys are yeah you guys are I think you're still you guys are more positive I still think more positive this whole situation than I am I think I think I yeah it's not positive like it would certainly be better for Chandler to get this fight but there is a silver lining here for him that Connor has if again if this is not an injury

it's the major caveat here Connor has kind of helped Chandler along in a lot in this with this so um but I guess at some point we'll see we'll figure it out fun all right what else you got uh Fahim what if

what if Hamza is fighting at 303 who's who would Hamza fight though who do he fight would he fight for arrow And 205? I mean, it's a good question. Sure. Why not?

I mean, it kind of feels right. So it sort of seems like Alex is like the only viable option the UFC has for an alternative. If they're not going to pay max, I don't know if ours can make 205, frankly, on like a week and a half notice. But maybe that is it. And that's like if Hamzat's out because they're asking to move him to 303, interesting. If Hamzat's out because Hamzat's out and that's the thing that Hamzat does lately, then I would say pull Rob off of Saudi and get him in against somebody in 303. Like let's make that happen.

But also like so we're clear, the Hamzot thing is even like that's way more speculative. That's basically Rob sent a semi-weir. your IG post, but like could be totally nothing and that fight may still be entirely fine. Yeah. There are reports out there saying that Hamzad is out of the fight, but it's not. Is there a report out now? Yeah. It's from someone who gets some things right, but not all things right.

Okay. So the report says Nassardine Imovov is the front runner to replace Shemiath. But again, we don't know. That's just what the reports are saying. well as the Saudi card has just been waiting for the Nazare Dina imov of Robert Whitaker boy is that tough man that that's tough that would be tough I mean but credit to imbaov what a what a three-week span he'd have I guess yeah yeah let's pull up this Saudi card I mean still actually can't pull Whitaker from it

You can't pull Whitaker from it, though. Yeah, you can't. What's got to be the main event? Heavimals is not. I mean, that's not like the worst main event, but that's not a Saudi main event. That's not a $20 million site fee main event or $25 million. You know what if Whitaker is ugly. Call up Kamaru.

Like, I'm not even joking. That's actually how I would solve the Saudi problem. Camaro, let's fly you over and fight Bob. Like, let's have you fight Bob on a week and a half notice. I assume you can make 185. or you just or you talk to Bob and you do it to catch weight because it doesn't matter that is a substantially better answer than even if off or yeah I don't know what you're going to do

you can't send Sean it's too probably too too quick for Sean Strickland but if you moved Rob to Vegas but you can't do that and you can do Rob versus Sean Strickland instead for an interim middleweight BMF belt I don't know, I just give it for some other thing. Honestly, Strickland-Wittaker. The Middictal-Wittaker at 303 actually isn't a bad answer, except for there's no Saudi card. So like, maybe you could call Turkey and be like, hey, can we punt?

Can we punt this for the second time? A month, like three months down the line. And as part of punting it, I guarantee you two types of. vital fights on it. Like, it's not just a sound like it's a here. And so the third times of charm, like there are just not a lot of options, man. We'll give you Islam Armin instead of Abu Dhabi. Oh, Saudi might be interested in that. Yeah. That could be good. But yeah, I don't, if, if Hamzaa really is out, just call Camaro and do Camaro Bob. Like, that's, that's,

just do that. And that actually keeps Saudi alive and then you still have your 303 problem, but that's do that. Please do that. I have a question for you. We keep saying the UFC is on fire. They're on fire.

They can't do no wrong. They always constantly seem to be putting out these giant fires. At what point does this actually hurt the UFC? Or does anything actually hurt the UFC? Like, Hansa's off the card. Hamzat's off the card.

But we keep saying, the UC still having record gates, you know, is anything actually hurt the UFC or is this just, I don't know, like, it's just bad things happen to the UFC, but they still win in the end. It's like, you know what I'm trying to say? Yeah, I do. I mean, it doesn't. At what point is this actually bad for business? They're too big to fail.

Okay. So nothing is going to hurt them. But as someone who has worked in companies that are nightmares because of poor planning and poor leadership and poor execution, which basically you can attribute all of this to that. It erodes the confidence of your employees and makes your business not a fun one to be in. And so, like, you're going to have more turnover. It won't affect, like, it in a massive, tangible way of people will stop watching. That's what monopolies are, man.

Like, you don't, why, it is why when the fighters gave up, I was mad because that was the only way to stop the monopoly and I don't give a shit if it was hard and it hurt their feet. Like they were the last bastion of defense and without them, we're done. And so this is a monopoly and we live in the shadow of that monopoly. So they will continue in perpetuity forever. But they'll probably have more internal turnover because it sucks to work at a company where every day you're putting out fires. That's not a fun job.

Yeah. Particularly when those fires are clearly a trick. to poor planning and leadership. Because if I am a UFC employee who for the last two weeks has now been staying late at the office, making more phone calls, et cetera, et cetera, to do whatever my role is to help get here, when I go home to my wife and kids saying, hey, it sucked, what happened? Well, I don't know. They decided to headline the biggest pay-per-view of the summer,

their tent-pole event of the year with a dude who hasn't fought in three years and is coming off catastrophic injury and also has a history of outside the cage issues. So they, and they knew that there was at least some possibility that this might fall through and made zero backup plans. We're just like, nope, head down, totally going to be fine. And they lit this Tinder box. And so I am like, now I have to miss dinner and miss kids softball games because I got to stay at light and send some emails.

Like, I just pissed me off if I worked with the UFC. and for how this year has gone for them. What a time. What a time. But yeah, I'm with you. Nothing can really hurt them because there's no other company that can touch them right now.

It's not like, well, we're going to skip Sadi because we're going to watch this PFL card of Mohegan tonight. Like, no one's going to, like, people will watch it, but it's not like this is the new standard. Oh, we're going to watch Dakota Ditchieva beat somebody she's a minus 1900 favor over.

Or like, we know exactly what they're trying to do here. We're going to see Linton Vassel and Valenti Moldovsky fight for the third time. Like, we're going to see Liz Karmouche fight in another rematch. What are we doing here? Like, it's just, the UFC is just so red-hot. They could do no wrong because they've nobody that's even close to challenging them right now. This is why we need PFL a tour to be good.

Like, we need them to be good. And now our hopes are on what? World Freak MMA. Is that the name of the company, Jen? Who had Eddie Haw? World Freak Fight League, I believe. Yeah, my hope is on them. Also, like it's literally on them.

Don't discount Dog Fight Wild Tournament 2. They have also put forth a truly special event this year. I'm hoping that those two develop into kind of the AFC, NFC of MMA, and we get a Super Bowl of nonsense fights every year, and that would be terrific. I love it. I love it. All right.

That's the co-promotion we all need. Nick, been some fun fights, but the post-UFC 300 hangover is still real. If Izzy DDP happens and Izzy loses, do you think he completely walks away? Interesting question. We would assume, Jed, that this fight is going to happen at UFC 305. But who knows? Maybe this is one of the fights in play for 303. I would be shocked if that fight is.

the one that's being announced, if I'm being honest. But let's just say this fight headlines Perth, UFC 305, main event. If Izzy loses, what does he do? Do you think he's done? Probably not like committed to done, but he's probably not committed to done, but he probably takes some more time off and kind of sits in that Kamar Ustman zone of like, all right, well, let me, let me figure out what a good spot is. and I don't have to fight

and I'll wait for the appropriate opportunity. It'll be weird, certainly if he loses. Yeah, it's a really, really tough spot because he could try and go to 205. He sort of always has an opportunity as long as Pereira is a champion there to do that. But given his recent history, him bumping up to 205 is, I mean, you can still sell the Pereira thing,

but he probably needs to go to 2 of 5 and get a win. And he could, but I don't, if you lose the DEP, it will make me less confident than get a win at 2.05. So I don't know. We're at that really important phase of a fighter's career where like a loss is maybe not career ending, but it is fairly catastrophic. And so tough. And I think, you know, part and parcel of that to why that won't happen at 303 for a number of reasons. but I don't think they're going to fire this in on short notice, kind of slap dash and say,

hey, here's the fight you guys have been asking for for well over a year. We're doing it on two weeks notice. Hope you guys can make weight, you know? It's just not not realistic. I do to the first point of this question or topic, though, this is still 300 related. And 300 was an awesome card, and so I'm not, like, upset about that.

but the reason that there are fewer options to step in and solve this problem is that they put a lot of eggs in the 300 basket, and then they've already got their eggs for 304 set. So this is kind of where we're at. This is the price you pay for super mega incredible events like 300. It does take flexibility away for the preceding and following months. Yeah. It's got to be a fun friggin' day, man. Hopefully we get that Dana IG post and see what we got.

Give me the answer. I just want to know. Jimmy, any chance of the fight is called off and Connor wants to fight someone else when they try to rebook? Or what if Chandler takes a fight and loses? I mean, you know my opinion. My opinion is that Connor does not want to fight Michael Chandler. Not that he is scared of Michael Chandler.

I think he truly just does not have, is not interested in fighting him because he is a very particular person and there's nothing that draws him to this fight because for over a year I've been saying it because when he's done interviews it has felt like eating vegetables hey yeah so when you come back

Conno well I'm supposed to fight this Chandler dude so I owe him that one I got to do that one but you don't want to do that shit he wants to fight Nate Diaz Nate Diaz isn't in the UFC and I don't know who else he would want to fight Like that's the other thing. Who does he want to fight other than fight for a title?

Will the UFC let him fight for a title? I don't even think they would do that. I don't think given where he's at in his career, certainly not with, they won't book him for a title fight if he pulls out of this one because he's not feeling the vibe. So like I, who does he want to fight? That would be the question to me.

I don't know who he would have any interest in fighting to do so. And whether Chandler wins or loses, I don't think the UFC is going to make Connor fight Chandler if he does just come out and be like, man, I just don't want to fight this dude. But yeah, I just

I don't know who he's going to want to fight, so that's the issue. Like, maybe they'd let him fight Max for the BMF, but I don't think he wants to get his ass beat by Max. And I got to think that Connor is at least rational enough to recognize that Max would kick to

shit out of him. And so then, honestly, arguably, like, the best win on his career suddenly goes up in smoke. Like, it is, you can't. I don't think he wants to fight Max either. So who's he fight? That's my, who does he want to fight? That's a great question. But this is all under the

giant assumption that he just doesn't want to fight Chandler. It's not an injury. Which kind of goes against what Ariel said about it not being scandalous, because that seems pretty scandalous. The sign of I can just say, I don't want to fight. I assume that when Ariel says that it means he didn't pop for PEDs and you didn't get arrested. Yeah.

Because those are the common. Those are the scandals that are. Yeah. And the word he used was salacious. It's not salacious. Oh, salacious. He didn't pop for a drug test and he doesn't have another assault charge on him. Yeah.

It's not going on TMZ before it comes out. Yeah. I can't wait out of that. Who would you guys want? Like, who do you think he would want to fight? Who do you think, like, who would you even be interested in seeing him fight? Because I don't honestly don't give a shit about the Michael Chandler fight, you know? Like, it's fine.

It was just going to be a fight. Yeah, it is a fight, but, like, I don't know who the fight would even be for Connor outside of the Nate trilogy, and Nate is not in the UFC. Gagchi, honestly. I mean, Gage is fun. I mean, that's been the fight I've wanted for six years. Do you think Connor is interested in fighting? for Gachi now that he doesn't have the BMF belt?

Nope. Yeah. If Gagee had beat Max, I actually think that that had a real chance of happening. Now? I don't know what we do with him. Maybe, maybe the answer has been in front of us all along.

And maybe Connor has decided he doesn't want to fight Michael Chandler because Joaquin Buckley is right there and called him out. And so maybe that's, maybe that's what they're all about, guys. How poetic would that be? How? You will never see me on this program again. Because I will dig a hole and lay in there.

He did the thing. Walking Buckley did the thing. Yes. I will go outside and simply start digging. That would be my worst nightmare. I'd have to take a leave of absence if that happened. I will I will dig until the pressure and the heat of the earth kills me. I will just keep digging a hole until the laws of Astrofell.

physics crush me and burn me to death if that's the outcome here. I'm that I'm not that would make me so happy if Connor Bucking. If I took a little bit objectively funny. It would be objectively funny and also the worst thing that's happened to me at my professional career. This would be the sports gods being like, hey, we gave you, we gave the Celtics like the easiest, not the easiest, but we gave them the most dominant championship run in the history of the league.

But now you have to watch Joaquin Buckley fight on. McGregor. Guys, why would Connor possibly want to fight Colby Covington? In what world? What do you want to fight Colby Covington? No world. There's zero world he would take that fight. All right.

Connor might want to fight Dustin again, but does Dustin, I don't know that Dustin even wants to do that at this point. Maybe he does. I don't know. I don't know if that one does it, unless Connor wins a belt. if this is truly contract contract issues does Dana White come out and save this

Sport killer It'd be funny Would Dana ever Would he ever Do you think you'll ever publicly just Like truly trash Connor If it's for contract reasons Like I just want more money

I don't think he'll trash him I think he would just say he would just go he might have a little more twang on it you know but it would just be like Mike said kind of not at the fight he's got all the money in the world and he just decided but it would and be like you know and that's his

prerogative I don't think you I don't think he'll dig in just because the chance that he could come back don't want to burn that bridge it would be look we can offer your fights but they don't have to take them like it's just got to be one of those type of things

but again that's if this is that's if this is the reason yeah big if if if everything's if it is it is it is what what if we did Connor McGregor versus Jake Jillenhall at UMC 303 I'm just trying to find ways to get Connor back into the page Jake Gillenha or Dalton I mean I think we would bill him as Dalton, but, like, his name is Jake Jillenhall. Actually, is his name Jake Jillenhall? That could be a professional name. Let me look this up.

It'd be like, Gillenhall would be a weird name to not be a real name to choose that as your stage name. Oh, no, it's Jacob Jillenhall. So, yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Connor's not, like, Connor wouldn't fight Dwayne Johnson. He'd fight the Rock. He could fight the Rock. That's who it is, the character.

Or Dalton. All right. I mean, What a comeback for Donald? Connor murdered someone in the Octagon comes back to his next fight and fights Connor McGregor. Oh my God. He's doing the thing. That's, that's doing the thing. That's, yeah.

Dawson versus no one for him to fight now. Dawson versus Knox. UFC three to three. Let's do it. Maybe Moss at all. Maybe you could get Connor to fight Mossfiel. Yeah. That one would probably work.

I don't know, man. It's tough. What do you think about aerial scenario? I honestly think about aerial scenario. What do you think about aerial scenario that he laid out? That the UFC just buys out fan Mio and like all the promotion for Diaz Mazadol and just like buys out everything. Just pays fan Mio off for like all their expenses and all that stuff. Even gives them like a piece of like their expected gate just to take the fight and have that be the main event of 303.

do Mazda on the 8th is the main event. I think that would be a very good idea that has a zero percent chance of happening. Because if you're going to drop that money to do that, you could just spend like three quarters of that and convince Connor to fight. Like the, hey, we're going to pay for this. That much though? I don't think it's that much. Mazurahah,

I saw that one giant pay jump. And Nate would that would probably three times as much. I think you're just going to have. to pay so many people and that that money would add up whereas you like hey Connor you get 50 of the gate yeah kind of 50% of the gate and and like okay well now I feel or again if you're make that up with pay-per-view guys because their fight is not going to do well in pay per view like it's not but they're getting paid still I don't know apparently Nate thought they were going to do well in pay review going head dead with 302 so who knows what the hell he is thinking

I just think that that's the most, if it's not the most expensive option, it's the second most expensive option. And to me, again, speculative, I've, my position is that Connor is holding out for some reason. And the UFC is simply not willing to pay a price to get him or to resolve this quickly. Because there's always a number. There is always a price to pay. If they offered Max Holloway $50 million, we would have the answer. Hey, Max is fighting. They're not willing to do that, so I don't think they'd be willing to cost to pay the whatever it would be to get the Mastrol Diaz fight here.

Jed, if Connor is injured, why not just say it? That's why I don't think he's injured. But what do you think would give me a, what would be the reason? I think there is an argument. There was optimism thing to me that that says like, well, we had some good doctors reports and then bad ones. I don't know. Like, like what?

To me, the argument at the beginning of this was Connor got injured. Like, if that was the argument, I still didn't buy it. It was a small injury or an injury that maybe could have been overcome and that they didn't want to put that out there. So then that is out there for the potential fight that comes to. through, but he tweaked a knee, sprained an MCL or something like that. They're going to try and work through it. As this has gone on, I just don't think that that's viable.

Because also, like, my position was also like, there are very few injuries that I think you couldn't hide effectively at a press conference, that you could just do the press conference with a sprained MCL and sort of play it off and not have the major issue. But if you're trying to make the case, I think it is. hey, there is an injury, but it's not so severe. He didn't shatter his, you know, leg again. He could theoretically make the fight, but we don't want to give out the information

that he is nursing hamstring or whatever it may be. I think that's the only argument that I could buy for that. Yeah. What else we got? Oh, what else we got? Hold on. Did we do... Have we talked about anything else?

Which is fine. I don't, I mean, this is the biggest story... I didn't anticipate us talking about it. I am miles. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea.

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Katara get in line for a title shot with a win. That would put him in 6-0 in the UFC. Alex Perez, what does a win do for him? I don't know. A win for Alex Perez is retains his spot as a top five flyweight which sort of definitionally keeps him

in the hunt for a title shot. Mostly a win for Alex Perez is pretty critical for him to have any aspirations to get to a title shot one day. Tyro will not get a title fight with a win. He will move to five. I have the UFC rankings pulled up right now. He'll move to five in the UFC rankings.

and a win for Tyra ostensibly gets him a title eliminator fight next. Be that against Mahamukyev or Amir al-Bazi, if he beats Alex Perez, his next fight is a title eliminator to get there. And maybe if things break right, if a bunch of people get injured or fall out or the booking happens, he could sneak into a Sean Strickland-esque title fight, like a title shot. But mostly a win just gets him won away. Yeah, Tyra wins. He becomes the backup fighter for Mahamakaya versus a mid-al comp.

Someone falls out, there's an injury or something. Tyre's the first call to step in. And if he wins that fight, then yes, he would get a title fight. But he will not just slide into a title fight with the victory unless it's a timing thing or an injury thing or something like that. Maybe a win gets him Kai Kar, France in Perth or something like that. he could get that fight and then it could be like a little mini ground pre like we have a middle way right now so yeah and if Perez wins he's going to fight the winner of uhlumbeckoff versus josh fam like this is where he is now he's just going to fight the the next dude

paul tell me patty versus connor is a bad idea because it's not i think it's a terrific idea i don't know why Connor would care to do that fight i i argued for that matchup before the leg break it was like there's not a big window to hit this, do it. Like, it's a fight Connor can win. It would be massive. And if Patty does win it, holy shit, Patty's now here. I think that that is an unbelievably good idea.

I don't know why Connor would have any interest in it. Yeah, I agree. Just, you know, no interest from Connor being just a very winnable fight against a very, I guess, over-value name as far as, you know, how good he is versus the name value. to me, I think it's a great fight for Connor. I agree that it would be a good fight for him. I don't. There's none of the other patina around him that makes sense to me. He's not a champion of anything.

Like it's, maybe. He's not even ranked. I don't know, but yeah, it's. He feels like he's ranked. That's what I mean. Like he, and I think that matters more. I mean, if he goes, look, if he goes out and busts up Bobby Green and then, like, delivers on the mic at 304, sure.

Like, that's something. thing, but his best win is Jared Gordon, and most people felt like he didn't even win that fight. So I just don't think the value is quite there. I get what you're saying from like a prize fighty perspective. There's like we're getting there. Like we could get there. Patty goes out beats Bobby Green and finishes him and then shouts some fire in the microphone. Yeah, that's huge for him. But I don't know if it does it for him right now. Is Patty a more part, is Chandler a more popular? fighter than Patty? Yes.

You think, okay. For sure. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I just don't know the answer to that. I think he is. I think you can see.

All right. In the UK, no, Patty is a more popular guy, but. Okay. Another Joseph Bose question. Not sure if there's stuff to Jed. Could Jed react to PFL being in the toilet to the point that fighters like Gaygar Morsasso are threatening to sue and get out of the contract.

Gaygard got out without suing. PFL is really hurting my feelings this year. As many of you know, I started the annual MMA promotion draft that we do every year, and it's the most fun I have every year. And I am not confident we will be able to continue doing it because all the promotions keep dying, and PFL is speed running a death for themselves. Like, look, there's a PFL card on tonight. Don't know if you guys knew that. knew it because I'm working it. It is just a Bellator card, like a bad Bellator card. We're in Unkissville. We're doing the Unkisville thing and it's just all Bellator people in a PFL. And you got to think

this is a business and a company that we bought from Monopoly money so they were not successful. So why don't we just do exactly what they did? I got to tell you it's not going to work out. And then like they're not even doing the one good thing Bellator did, which was the thing, the thing that I always had an immense amount of respect for Scott Coker and Bellator was they were to the extent that any promoter in this space is fighter-friendly. And promoters are not fighter-friendly, almost definitionally. But more so than any of the others, and you can see there's wonderful reporting out there on one championship in their contracts. We all know what the UFC is like. These are entities that are hostile to the people that make the money for them.

Bellator is certainly not, they are not clean. You know, it is just a promotion game. But Scott Coker was always very understanding and very open and honest with his fighters. Hey, Michael Chandler, you want to leave? Okay, go to UFC. You got my blessing. Do it. We want you to be here because we think that this is a good place for you to be.

And then PFL, Don Davis, God love him, funniest man in the sport, you know, is, hey, Gaygard. Like, what they did to Gayguard from his side. of it and we didn't get their perspective on this that's true i don't think that there's a lot of there's not a lot they could tell me that would make me think that they're in the right here uh was trashy cyborg and cyborg is cyborg so you got to take whatever she's pitching with a grain of salt or like eight teaspoons of salt but like they are not handling their fighters well in this regard and then they're putting out events that are just bellator events and they're having dakota to Ditchieva fight some random human being who she's minus 1600 favorite over while Liz

Karmouche is running back rematches like it is just I thought they had a really good 2023 their 2024 has been about as poor as I could have imagined it being handled thus far it's really bad like really bad they're having a terrible year terrible And they're just over-promising a whole bunch of stuff, man. Like, they're just over-promising, like, all these fights, all these matchups that just, like, may or may not happen. It's pretty wild. Like, it's pretty wild. There is legitimately a world where Liz Karmouche, like, doesn't make the playoffs.

Like, it's possible that she doesn't playoff. Dude, and here's the thing about that that's so bad. I assume that she probably will end up making it. two years ago two years ago when they were in Atlanta I sat there and I talked to Ray Cepha and I was like Ray and I forget who the fighter was

like Bruno was like this dude is a former champion he was a champion like two years ago or the last year but because of your point system and the matching or the matchmaking because he fought two hard dudes

and didn't get first round knockouts he is gonna miss the playoff How do you read like how do you is that something that's acceptable that's agreeable to you? Do you think that that is just and kind of gets to the heart of the competitive effort you are putting out? It's like you know, there's just not really a way to work around it. And so, you know, he should have gotten some earlier finishes. He can't help that you booked him against the hard guys. And in Mo Green gets to fight the bum.

Like it is so this is a problem that has existed. that they know about. And they have just been like, don't care. It's fine, whatever. Yeah, I mean,

it's pretty clear what they're doing. So just say, that's what you're doing. Just say we are giving Dakota Tjaiva a pass to the playoffs. Just say that. Just say that.

Or if you really are a true, quote unquote, sports entity, and this is a sports league format, then seed the fighters. If there's 10 fighters, you have the, Liz Karmu should be fighting

based on the, uh, the point. total right now. Liz Karboos should have fought Shanna Young in the first round, who is minus one points because she missed weight and lost her fight. Like that's how it should be. Dakota Ditchewa could be like the six seed. She should be fighting the five seed. Like that's how it should be in a real sporting world. And if you're, we know what you're doing. Just say it. Just have Don Davis come and be like, look, look, Dakota's going to be a star. We want to make sure she gets to the

playoffs and fights some of these names. We wanted to fight the former UFC title challengers. We wanted to fight the former Bellator champion. Like, we want to see those sites, but we want to see them in the playoffs. Fine, but just say it. Just say that. But they won't. And it drives you crazy. I honestly like the idea of a season and a league.

I don't think that it's for everybody. I don't think that the UFC should go to that model. But I've said repeatedly, I think the PFL doing something different, running a separate race is a great idea. I used to like IFL. IFL was very silly and stupid in a lot of ways. but I do like that as a thing to do. Their execution of it has been exceedingly poor and remained. A season is not two fights.

That's just two fights. It's not a season. No other sport in the world is a season that is two. It's not even like garbage beer league hockey has more than two games for this season. It's just, it's not a real thing. So if you're going to do it, you just have to commit and say, hey, we're actually going to have a season. We're going to have a season.

And if you were in the season, you're going to fight once a month for four months, back to back to back. So you better not be cut in wait because you're going to have to do it four times. And that's not going to appeal to everybody. Every fighter isn't going to be part and parcel of the season. That's okay.

That's where you have the super lead for. But it's like, hey, we're going to do a season, fight four times through the summer months, and then we're into the playoffs come September. I'm like that. But they're half measuring this in all the worst ways.

You've got to pick your lane and just drive on that one. Yeah. How do you fix PFL? Only thing I could think of is booking Francis. Well, we don't know what Francis is, when Francis is going to fight, but just stop announcing shit

until you can actually do it. Like, maybe that's hard. Like, don't sign Jake Paul and then have us wait three years for him to fight. Don't announce you've signed a man to Serrano when it seems like she has zero interest in fight. in MMA and then don't sign Francis and announce it just to watch him box a whole bunch and then have him not fight MMA because I got to tell you if I had a guess where Francis's next fight's

going to be I don't think it's going to be against Henan Ferrer and the Pfell I think he's going to go box somebody I really do I think he sees the the grass is very green in the boxing world so are so are the dollars so I think I think I've come to the idea that it's in for Hedda You think it's going to be or no? I think it's going to be hidden. And then it'll go back to boxing. But again, that's not a fixing it. That's a, as a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

Like, they just, they're structural things that need to happen. And I thought they were laying the foundation. And I thought that this was like the make or break year for PFL, frankly. Maybe next year. But I thought this two-year stretch was the year they would, they will develop into a real entity or not. And then the fact that the UFC lawsuit got settled, which I thought was honestly like the biggest thing for them,

they needed the fighters to win the lawsuit so then they could be in prime position to jump on what that would create. That didn't happen. And then they've just been kind of bungling everything from, from tail to snout. So it's tough. Yeah. Getting Jimmy Smith back for the,

Bellator thing was a good idea. So that's like one good thing they've done this year. I think that's good. Yeah. Love Jimmy Smith. That's great. That's great. You just have like, you just got to be different, man. Like you have to be different. Like what they're doing like outside the season format is your UFC, I mean, as Jed used to call it with Belator, UFC light. Like that's what Bellator is. Can't do it. They're UFC light. Even with the champion series card and putting on two title fights or whatever, that's the model of the UFC. 90% of the, the time. Their big events have two title fights. Like you're literally doing the exact same thing that they're doing just way worse and with way less interesting matchups. It's wild, man.

It's also tough to do UFC light when UFC's already doing UFC light at the apex three times a month. Like if you're if you're off brand UFC and UFC also has an off brand soda of its own, it's tough. It's tough. They have multiple off brand sodas. They have bring back the IFL and the end. Bring back the IFL. Yes. Honestly, if I was in charge, I don't think that this would like work. But doing seasons every year and the way they do it, it's just not going to, that is not sustainable. In the same way that if we did the Ryder Cup every year, it wouldn't be fun.

Like it being an alternating year thing is part of the allure of the Ryder Cup. Same way the Olympics being every four years makes it. You could do a seat like do the season thing alternate it alternate seasons and teams do iFL do season iFL do season and just be dope like that would be way cooler or do like like this might be overthinking but don't do a season just do a do a do a grand prix do a belator grand prix do a pfl the end of the year is bellator versus pfl making a super bowl yeah there are a lot of things they could do but they won't but they won't you know i they signed Savannah Marshall, so

now we may get the fight no one wanted. Even though I actually enjoyed Savannah Marshall's debut, that's quite a same thing. They're going to have her fight. They should have her fight Clarissa Shields, but you know they're not going to. They're going to fight.

I think they're going to fight like three more people. I think they're going to happen forever. I think they're going to. She's not going to happen for a while. Yeah. I get lots of, I feel like I get lots of groans when I mentioned, when I say, suggest this, but you talk about IFL.

What if you're talking about PFL, You talk about, PFL needs to do something different. Get rid of the cage, have an American League promotion, use a ring. That looks different. I feel I had a ring. That's very tough because they have the smart cage. Smart ring. That would be getting rid of one of their most iconic pieces of brand.

Maybe the only branding they've actually accomplished. I have to be honest. I mean, I don't know. They got to do something because I don't think. they are lighting money on fire and I don't think they can do this for more than three years What is different? What is different? What can you do different in this

American? I mean different from what they are doing. I don't know. They got to find a weapon. Yeah. Because Belichord of Grand Prix and I love Grand Prix but obviously there are some issues

that come up. Yeah. But they out like when they tried to do it great, they did. Like they had that. little that had that cool thing on the ramp where like we found they had the draw of like which fighter was going to fight with fighter like that was awesome that was amazing and then they just stopped doing that yeah yeah i look it's a tough thing that's why you know promotion is a job somebody's job

to get paid for i was thinking about this after this past weekend right because uh easily the biggest story for us coming off of this weekend was the eddie hall stuff and outside of that being easily the biggest story for us. It was also easily the thing that I would enjoy by far the most. I would have consumed hours worth of Eddie Hall content from this weekend. And it's not because Eddie Hall is the greatest fighter in the world. He's the 37-year-old, former world's strongest man, but he did a really cool thing, and he is a star. And that's kind of the heart of promotion. It doesn't matter if you're the best fighters in the world. just produce to steal Dana's turn of phrase,

oh shit moments. Produce, oh shit moments. And the PFL for being a competent like MMA organization, because I would classify them as that. They produce fights of a competent quality. That is not more, like nobody is paying for that. In the same way that nobody is watching the USFL or the XF, like you are turning to MMA for holy.

shit moments or you're watching the UFC. And so however they can manufacture those moments, that's where you got to do. Probably that actually means fundamentally rethinking MMA as a sport. And because I think I like from a promotional standpoint, I think Bellator investing in like the American collegiate wrestling scene actually is pretty like smart. Hey, this is where prospects can come from. We'll develop prospects. But that actually is a long term way to be mid.

not a long-term way to get people interested in your product. I think doing something like, hey, we're going to turn it to three-minute MMA rounds and just see what that, just see what happens. What's a three-minute MMA round look like? And we're going to aggressively incentivize finishes and excitement through our bonus structure of it's not a win bonus. It is a finish bonus. Three-minute rounds and find ways to get fighters to do shit in there that's,

cool because I've said this a million times about a million different fighters and I this came back up lately with it. I tweeted about Izzy yesterday and people came at me because I was making fun of him for being boring. But like, well, obviously you haven't seen Izzy. Yeah, I've actually seen Izzy his entire career and he used to be fun and then he got boring because boring is a choice. Like boring in MMA is 100% of choice.

Do you think Justin Gachie fights the way he does because there is no other way to fist fight? No, he makes a choice and that's why he is fun and exciting. You can choose to be exciting and interesting. You may not choose to because the financial incentives for Izzy are to protect my win at all costs, and so I'll be more boring because I don't want to embrace risk. If you incentivize being exciting, that's just going to be a better way to go about business. Yep. BKFC has become sort of the number two. because they're different and they're,

they embrace who they are. And they incentivize you being a fucking lunatic. And that is why they are legitimately the number two combat sports motion in the world. And game, the game bread stuff is great too, but they just like have to just lower the, like lower it a little bit.

Like they're, they're trying to go to these big, huge NBA arenas to do these game bread MMA cards, which are bare knuckle. And I love those. Like, I think there's something there.

But you're just not going to fill those places. You need to go, full ECW with that. 2,000 people just ravenous, crazy fans. Yeah. Yeah. Small than you have made. Yeah.

Yeah. The BKFC energy is just off the charts. Like you could just feel it. Like knuckle mania, you could just feel that crowd was on fire. You could feel like, has there been a PF outside of a Cedric Dume Bay fight in Paris? Nope. Has there been like any emotion from a PFL crowd outside of Dume Bay? And that, that's what I'm saying, man.

Like the only hope. Holy shit moments that they have made are Dumbay, and then I guess the night Kayla lost. Yeah. And that's it. But if you're trying to hang your hat on what is the PFL highlight, that is the entire game, top to tail. It is you've got to find ways to cut through everything else. I have to go. You guys can keep answering questions.

Yeah. I'm not officially at work for another hour and I have to go. Can you go for another 15, Casey, or you have to go? Oops. We got five. Yeah, 15. Okay, hold on.

Yeah. All enjoy. I love all of you. Goodbye. Jed's got to take a nap before covering PFL tonight. All right. Hold on.

Hold on a moment. I'm going to make sure he's refreshed. All right. Oh, there we go. The new main event of UFC 303. There's your poster. Hey. Hey.

All right. All right. What else do you got here? What else got? We got to come. We got 15 minutes. Of course. Huggy Bear really called out to Spain.

Thoughts, Jed? Too bad. Too bad for Jed. Dude, honestly, I hated that booking when Jed first threw that out there, but after watching DeSpan fight Waldo Cortez-A-Costa, I kind of want to see that fight.

Just the smallest heavyweight against the tallest heavyweight would be hilarious. Yeah. But this type of fight is what PFL needs. Just kind of this. Yeah. This is a great fight fun in the UFC, but this is what PFL needs. Stuff like this.

Yep. Completely agree. All right. Old news, Jedna, Mike and Casey. Talk about Kaius Curris' new signing or Ian Gary Wanning Co-Main on Connor Card and how Connor not fighting affects that. That's, honestly, we, Kai is great signing. I'm intrigued to see what they'll do with him.

but if Connor doesn't fight does Ian Gary even see value in fighting on this card anymore man I wonder if the rest of the card can start falling apart like maybe though like I don't know if like Jamal Hill Pyro Solberg falls off but there is a very real world where Ian's just like nah I'm not fighting if Connor's not fighting I'm not fighting like because he said like it's this card or no like no card for a while you know it's been out there and it's been reported as such like if he wasn't

fighting June 29. He's not fighting until like later on this year. So that's a really interesting question. Yeah. And yeah, who cares? Maybe yeah, maybe it's even more the fires the UFC's trying to put out because not just Connor does that this fallout on the rest of the car too. I'm sure there's lots of fallout too of sponsorships and you know the UFC sponsorships and things like that too. So lots of fun, lots of fun. Um, no money problem. More money, more problems. Ryan, please discuss PFL's decision to go crowdless. You know what? Let me take a... That's freaking funny.

I know. Let me see. I want to see if I could see what the map looks like for PFL's card tonight. All right. I'm looking at it. Let me zoom in here. That's doing pretty good. It's doing pretty good.

I would just say I'm good. I actually I'm very interested not very interested I'm more interested in watching the PFL card than the UFC card but I just don't like watching PFL's product. It's broadcast

it just kills me sometimes but the actual fights I'm I am interested I'm Tilos Santos Bishop I'm super interested in I am interested in the main event unnecessary trilogy but they're good fighters I want to see it I think it is a better card than the UFC card, but, but I, the, but, the, but f fl is broadcast.

It's, it's just, it's, it's, it feels so sloggy all the time. Even, even, we talk, PFL clearly has good fighters and they've had really good fights, but because of their broadcast and the pacing, you just kind of, a good fight might happen, you just go, okay, whatever, and forget about it. Almost like good fights happen to apex. It's just kind of, they don't feel as big as they should be without a, crowd and something we just forget about them and that yeah that's that's that's that's PIPL's issue. Yeah, so there's like tickets that fighters have that they're doing. There's some resale.

They also cut off one quarter of the arena. So that'll probably be tarped off or blocked off. So yeah, but like of what's available that you can buy right now, they've done pretty pretty decent. There's probably like 80 tickets left. It's not bad. Yeah, good. Where's it at? I don't even know where it's at. Oh, it's a beautiful scenic bohican sun arena in Uncassville, Connecticut.

Oh, they're back in Uncassau. You're a Bellator fan, the northeast home of a Bellator for many, many years. I enjoyed it. I think I've, did I go? Esther, we went down tozvill once, right? Until? Yeah. I've been.

I don't know if you've been. Okay. Okay. I don't remember if you had it. Bohegan? Yeah, I think I've been there once. Yeah. You've probably been there.

Yeah. All right. Is this, is something going on on Twitter land? People keep saying this. We talked about this. So it started Whitaker put out sort of like a cryptic tweet of like anywhere, any time, any place or whatever with like a video of himself. There were reports that came out sort of earlier in the day that Hamzaa might be out of the fight.

And then some, we talked about this earlier. Someone reported it that's like re-reported it about an out, probably like right before we started saying that Hamzaa was out. And that Nasredeen Emavov was like the frontrunner to replace Hamza out to fight Robert Whitaker next Saturday. But again, as we tell you guys all the time, I'm not saying that these reports are incorrect. I'm not telling you anything. What I'm telling you right now is remember the golden rule that I put out for the last couple of years here at m8fighting.com.

If it's not on our website, then it ain't real. and it ain't done. It's not 100%. Henceforth, perfect example. Mike Perry versus Jake Paul. Do you see Mike Perry versus Jake Paul in M.Afighting.com? Do you see that up on our website? No, you don't. And there's a reason for that. So if it's done, it'll be on the website. That's what I can tell you right now. Not saying the report is wrong. Premature potentially, but we just don't know whether or not it's true. It's what we can tell you. I thought I would like the glove of some of the boxing, but it's just too brutal.

for me. I get it. It's not for everybody. It's not for everybody. Do you like watching BKFC and the game bread stuff? I think it's definitely more pure fighting. I think actually fighting with gloves is actually more dangerous. But I understand if the visuals of cuts and lacerations is more

I don't know. It's if it's harder to watch and just straight up no concussive shots to the head. I get it. Like boxing is the most evolved of sports. I think boxing is the most dangerous, but because all the damage is hidden inside the head, you know, we're okay of it. And I just think, you know, I like, I like, love this MMA. Yeah, no, bare-knuckle MMA. I think it's awesome. Yeah, I don't, I don't think it's too brutal, but I get it too. Blood, blood, yeah, blood's blood. One thing I will tell you, yeah,

one thing I'll say, and I think you can agree with this, Casey, I have never watched a BKFC event and been like, yeah, that car was a slog. That was tough to watch. It took forever. Never, never once did I say that about a BKS. Mike, I do think we have to wrap out. They're about to start press conference here. So we're going to have to wrap out soon.

No, Casey. Say, do you know who I am? And then say, let's delay the press conference at least 50 more minutes because we have to figure out what's going on, Connor McGregor and UFC 3rd. I see, I see some, I see some people I recognize. Where's, where's Ray? ad go get ray bring him over he's the host of this thing where is he i'll i'll talk to him we're buds uh no we gotta go we're out of here hit the music see you appreciate you stick with us mba fighting dot com

because apparently this is going to be a crazy ass news day and if any of these news breaks if we confirm any of this information if we hear from the man himself dana white we'll let you know about it on mbuffling dot com we'll react to as much as we can as well so thank you to jed for joining us Thank you, Casey, for joining us from Vegas and making this all happen. Shout out to the iconic voice of Esther Lynn, who we just heard in the background faintly earlier. I am Ikech back next week to get you ready for UFC Saudi Arabia and recapting this crazy-ass weekend.

Thank you all very much. Good night. This has been Between the Links and MMA Fighting Production on the Vox Media Network. Yeah. Good job. Amazing. Okay.

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