MMA Fighting - BTL | Countdown To Conor McGregor's Return, Midyear Grades, Awards, More

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

The first half of 2026 for the UFC and the MMA world has been an interesting one to say the least, with big events, fights, newer promotions trying to make their mark, and more. With the halfway point of the year comes the usual report cards, standout storylines, and the awards that go with them. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, we discuss the best of the best — and potentially, the worst of the worst — thus far in 2026, is Justin Gaethje or Sean Strickland the fighter of the midyear, and other thoughts about the past six months. Additionally, topics may include the countdown to Conor McGregor's return to action when he faces Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 329, the card as a whole, multiple additions to the Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Machado Garry headlined UFC 330 event, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck as he answers your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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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Free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Good everybody. Happy Thursday. Mixing things up a little bit. It is July 2nd, 2026. and it is indeed a heck of a morning. Hello there, everybody.

I am Mike Hack. Hope you're all having a wonderful day. If you're in the United States, we're just a couple days away from Independence Day and Fourth of July for a lot of people out there in the U.S. last day of work for the week. It's not like that for everybody, for most of you, so enjoy it.

But we are here to discuss a whole bunch going on. It is an off week, obviously, for the UFC and major mixed martial. arts. I know BKFC is a card in Philadelphia, but mid-year award season. I know we already dropped our mid-year fighter, well, excuse me, fighter of the mid-year. It is Justin Gachie. He was a unanimous choice by the panel. Carlos Oldberg came in at number two, which I'm flabbergasted by. I got to be honest with you. He was in my top five, but he certainly wasn't number two on my list.

Sean Strickland would be number two on my list. I thought that was pretty obvious, but the rest of the panel did not agree with that. And I have no idea where people voted. So today was the first of many of the awards that are going to come out. We have, I believe, fight of the year coming out tomorrow. And then knockout, I believe, is on Saturday and submission on Sunday. So you'll have all of our awards. We'll roll them out if you guys have questions about them.

you have thoughts about them. Let us know. And let's go to the peeps, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, the super chatters get to the front of the line. And Lazzarn. Kicks us off. Or Lazar, excuse me. With no fights this weekend and the focus being international fight week,

what do you make of integrated Connor in his videos wrestling? I honestly haven't seen any of his wrestling content at all. So you're asking probably the wrong guy. I'm sorry that you spent five bucks in that sense. But, I mean, it's obviously pretty smart, right? Keep Max guessing. I'm sure Max is going to be prepared for all that stuff. So, yeah.

I think the anticipation for this fight is it's getting bigger. At least that's the feeling that I'm getting more people are asking about it. now than they were probably a couple weeks ago, but obviously that had to do with the White House card and everything else going on. But I've been getting asked about the Conner fight a ton this week. No matter where I go, it is being brought up to me. So we're starting to get to the mom test levels here.

And I think it's actually pretty smart of the UFC. I mean, typically they don't do a card. They're certainly not going to do a Fourth of July card in this day and age. but having a week between Baku and this is like the best gift the UFC could give themselves. Now we could just build this thing up over the next several days as opposed to, oh, here's another apex card and let's just roll into International Fight Week and let's roll into the Connor McGregor fight. So the anticipation is definitely building up, especially with no UFC event this weekend. Cosmo, thank you.

What did you make a Big John's interview with A.H? I didn't watch a lot of it. I saw some clips, obviously. And to me, this was, and I like John a lot. I've talked to John for numerous projects over the years. He's always been very respectful to me and vice versa. I was not surprised by any of it.

There was no, like, real revelations that I learned in this conversation. This was John defending his guys. but obviously still at the whole, at the same time, understanding that there are flaws and there are issues and people make quote unquote mistakes. Some of it was a little ridiculous to me. Like, at least, I mean, maybe there were some things that I missed, but you would think like the more pertinent points in these conversations

are going to be put in the clips on social media. The defending of like the Herb Dean thing, like, and just saying, well, it's not really, the media, it's just fans just complaining essentially, but he obviously understands like, do fans want perfection? Is that a fair thing to ask

for? Sure. But when you are a referee allowing a fighter to literally grab the back of somebody's hair and nothing is being done about it, that's not a mistake to me.

Okay? A kick to the ding ding, can be a mistake. A shot to the back of the head during a flurry, a mistake. The occasional eye poke? Yeah, I understand it's a mistake. A fence grab is not a mistake.

A literally grabbing a man bun the back of somebody's hair. Then issuing multiple warnings and then still not doing anything about it. That's not a mistake. That is you making a choice saying, you know what? I just don't care.

I'm just going to let this go. I don't want to enforce this rule because maybe a fighter won't get the second half of his paycheck. And that's a problem. That is a problem. And that's why, like, Jed and I used to get so much crap for this, but we used to always say, like, dude, just go cheat.

Just go in there and cheat. They're not going to do anything about it. They're not. The first warning for a fight, and we talk about this all the time, it's not in the cage. You get your first warning backstage before the fight even happens.

You are told the rules. Here is your first warning. Don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do that. And then you go out there and you do it again. Now you've got your second warning. And if it happens again, it's a third warning.

And we've seen four, fifth, six warnings without anything being done about it. egregiousness of grabbing the back of somebody's hair and not, no point being taken, not even like an advanced position, nothing. again, that is not a mistake. That is a choice the referee made to not intervene. It is your job to intervene.

It is your job to make a choice. It is your job to make a decision and make a call. That is literally your job. So it's, I don't agree with a lot of what was said. I understand why John is taking the stance he should. He's certainly not going to go on Ariel's show and be like, Herb Dean sucks. I agree with what everybody's saying about him.

And everybody is saying this about him. Everybody except for, apparently Mahama Mikhail is a Herb Dean fan out there. But hers has been awful this year. He's been terrible. He's been bad. He's been bad for a while. And everybody's coming on and talking about it. But no, John doesn't strike me as a guy who's going to go on Ariel's show and say,

no, we should kick him out. He shouldn't be a referee anymore. No, John's not that kind of guy. But again, I learned some stuff. Yeah. Lazy, I like three-man panel weighing it with John, Big John Josh and John Morgan, way better than the aerial interview. Big John was a lot more concise. I'll have to check that out.

Another one for Blazy bit. A day later, how are you feeling about the Brown trade to the Sixers? It sucks. It's a shitty trade. I, we didn't get, like, we certainly didn't get nearly enough of what I expected to get out of trading Jalen Brown. My big thing is, I want to shut this guy out before I talk about it. Because I did read, I spent some time reading quite the article. Where is it?

Tom Haberstro from Yahoo wrote an article that was entitled, Quote, did the Celtics giveaway Jalen Brown, why analytics don't see Philly's new star as elite of elite. And I was like, all right, I'm going to read this and see if I feel any better about it. And I'm not going to say that it made me feel better about it, but at least I was like, okay, if we're looking at this like the money ball lens, then it's not that bad. It's just you could have got more. You could have got more picks.

Paul George is like, Paul is well beyond like, like, Paul is well beyond like, like I'm going to lead this team to the promise land. So he could be like a good little side piece, I guess, to what they're trying to accomplish. I do like some of the other moves they're making. But we're just going to have to wait and see. Like my first reaction was like, man, the Celtics got, I don't know how to feel about the Celtics. Like I liked the moves they made. I don't say like they didn't get like way worse, but they certainly aren't better than they were a day ago at this time.

And the 76ers are way better than they were a day ago at this time. So like they, they're probably going to be the odds on favorite to make the Eastern Conference Finals at least. Like they're definitely like they're going to be favored to go there. Who are they play? I don't know. But wouldn't it be something if we got a Sixers Celtics Eastern Conference Finals? Now that is, that's what the world wants to see. That's where we'll get our answer.

But yeah, I was bummed about it. and we'll see. I mean, just going to try to stay positive here. Masters, when is Sophie Cunningham coming to MMA so she could point out people and tell them off like Josh Hokit? I don't know. She's probably making way more money playing in the WMBA

and sponsorships and all that stuff. Joseph, how is the UFC 330 card looking? We're about five weeks out and I don't see Sean Brady or Joe Pfeber booked yet or rumored. Let's pull up UFC 330. I know they just announced a bunch of new fights. We have Malkinsheff, Gary, Dern Robertson, and I kind of feel like I already know how that fight's going to go.

Blanchfield, Jasson, Jaze DeVizius, Edson Barbosa, Esavon Rievich. Dang. I mean, that's a banger, but I kind of feel for Edson in that spot. Luke A versus Trashon Gore, that's interesting. Mansor Abdulma Lig, Dustin Stoltzvist, Jeremiah Wells, Bicti Beck Debeck Orblah, we already knew that one. Neil Chidi and Jokwani, Rames Brahimage, Jalen Turner, Kaui Fernandez. It's always good when Jalen Turner fights.

It's not bad. I mean, how many fights is that? That is 10. So we could potentially get three, four, or five more. I would expect Piper to fight on this card. It's just a matter of, it's really going to come down to, I think it's going to come down to Brendan Allen, honestly. Because that's probably the only fight.

that makes sense realistically right now is him and brendan allen and brennan said after his last fight that he wanted to be out till october but if you're brend and allen and your goal is to fight for a belt you got to go in there and fight joe piper man on that card you have to go in there and do it even though you don't want to and it's not the most fair thing in the world if you want to go fight for a world title at any point like you have to when the phone rings you have to say yes Freedom 250 numbers still have more to come with this France and Spain. If I'm not mistaken, do you think they're going to improve? IFW is going to be so huge, though.

Yeah, it's going to improve a little bit, but they did fine. Like, they did well. It should, it should be a success. I don't really take a whole lot into the second accounting of numbers, which is like, it reached this many people because I don't know what that means. And nobody seems to know what that means. Is this the same number as the 17 million? where it's, well, 34 million people through all these places besides these places tuned in for 60 seconds.

To me that, like that number doesn't count to me. It's the average viewership, it's the peak, and I don't know any of that stuff. So, but again, like just the initial numbers, the U.S. and Latin America numbers, like them doing, what was the 8.2. That's great. That's a great number. That was a little less than I expected. but I didn't expect them to do on a Sunday night

I didn't expect them to do like 12 with the US numbers because I only, again, I only look at the average in the peak and we have no peak but the average we know. I don't, the 17 million makes no sense to me.

I don't even count that and I also don't count the the 34 million either because it's just, oh, we looked at it for a minute where we're just like, eh, we're out of here. You count those people.

To me, that shouldn't, count. But yeah, dude, it's a big number. It's a big number. They were delayed an hour, started at 9 p.m. Eastern. The card went till like 1, 1 a.m. and they pulled that number when everybody has to work the next day. It's pretty damn good to me. Joseph, does Mike think a fight that has already booked for Future Car will be pulled in the main event for the, pulled in main event the August 8th card? We were about a month out and no main event announced. I don't know. I don't know, man. Like, what are they going to put in there? I don't know. Do they give Pfeiffer a main event at the apex?

Is that where we get Piper, Brennan Allen? I mean, I would think that's not like the best idea. Like, I don't even know what fight they can make to put in that spot. I'm trying to think, like, could you pull Blanchefield and Jasmine off the Philly card? I guess you could. I don't know what they're going to do. This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal.

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And it's ready to go from day one so you can hit the ground running. Bring it with SAP Grow. AI Cloud ERP for any size business. Don't forget Mike BKFC. I mentioned BKFC. I don't love what BKFC's doing right now. I can't, I can't, I can't lie. They just, they've lost so much buzz.

And I know like, I know like they have like a niche. fan base who loves everything that they're doing. And if you go watch an event, again, I say this all the time. If it's, you have a choice in a BKFC event and a UFC card, I would go to the BKFC card. I mean, if you haven't been to a UFC card, like definitely go once. But if you've gone to a UFC event, go to the BKFC. It's just, it's a better fan experience. It's just things go move a little faster.

Crowds a little more wild. The fights are a little crazier. It's just a, it's a different. kind of an atmosphere that everybody should check out and obviously it's it's cheaper too but for the people who are just like watching at home there's just there's just nothing there like you can't how many canoleys is dude gonna throw it's not getting any more eyeballs on the product and i love bkfc go back and listen to old morning combats when people are trying to figure out like what is this thing they will tell you like brian keb was like mike heck was the guy that like told us to watch

BKFC. He staunchly liked them. Love them. And I did. And I do. And I want the best for them. But it just feels like they have just, like they have Britain. Britain heart was just handed to them on a silver platter to make this massive star. And

they bungled it. And now she's on this, she's in a co-main event on this card and nobody knows about it. Like it's such a bummer man. Like I like what they're trying to do and they're like, they're mixing things up. And hopefully they do this tournament and all this. And they get some big names, but, like, where's Mike Perry? Why is he not fighting? Where are these names?

Where are they? Austin Trout's great. He's a very good fighter, but he's not a star. Like, where's the star power? I don't know what's going on. They were red-hot like two years ago. They were just like, they were on fire. There was like a legit argument. They were the number two like combat sports promotion in the world two years ago. You can't. make that argument now. So I am ruined for them though. But I got to be fair. Look at the dog sleeping. Shiloh. Shiloh's about to get a big surprise in a week because we're uh, we're adopting a puppy. And things are about to get gray gray. Hammer, how crucial is it for Tepore's legacy or fame to get that win back against Justin knowing that he might retire comparing to

Connor when he did get that win back against Nate. I don't think he's ever going to fight Gachi again. So I think he has to live in a world where that's just not going to happen. Like that fight is not going to happen again. We saw it. It was competitive to a certain degree. But in the end, like Justin beat him up. Like, Tuporia looks like a different person.

And it's going to take a long time for. him to recover from this. So, I mean, honestly, like, the biggest thing for his legacy is to bounce back and win fights. I mean, it doesn't matter if it's gate. Because I don't think we're going to have Gachi for a super long time anyways. I could be wrong. Maybe we get Gatji for, like, five or six more fights.

I doubt that happens. But I think it's important for Tupori to come back and get a big fight win and then fight, like, a really difficult fight and win again. And get that belt back somehow. Like, whether it's against Gatia or not. Who knows? Like, is, is he better suited to be a featherweight and just go back to 1.45? Maybe.

Lazy. Markle-Madaris announced on his IG. He'll be fighting Mason Jones. August 22nd, U.S. Sacramento, super underrated banger, early liens. No lean right now, but that fight friggin rocks. That's a great fight. Reaction to Joe Lozahn fighting in BKFC.

He's fighting FNway Park. He's the happiest person in the world. So good on him. And that's it. Like, this is the big thing about it. Because I saw, I mean, ever since I knew it was announced, I think we touched on this last week as well. The reason he's doing this is because it's at Fenway.

It's not because like, oh, I have to get one more in. It's not because he's hurting for money. It's none of this. It's none of that. Like Joe's doing fine. If he never fought again, he would be happy as a clam and very comfortable with his life. But he gets to have a fist fight at Fenway Park on the field, which is where he believes this is happening.

And there you go. I mean, he's fought at the garden. He's fought all over New England. Now he gets to fight a friggin Fenway Park? That's incredible. I don't know who he's fighting, but hopefully they, hopefully they give him somebody can beat. Why isn't the UFC giving Paul Costa any fights?

He's offered to fight at middleweight, light heavyweight, and even heavyweight. Well, I mean, if we are to read the writing on the wall, if he's saying he has one fight left on his deal. And again, I have no insight to this. I don't know if that's true or not. But if it is the last fight on his deal, like you're getting the reason why he's not getting a fight

or they're offering him fights that he doesn't deem the right fights for where he's at right now. And I understand that. But I don't know. I mean, we have to figure out who he's going to fight, right? Like, there is a real world where he goes and fights. They just give him Ulberg for the belt. And

Ulberg is recovering. Ulberg probably ain't fighting until next year at this point. So, um, I don't know. Maybe that's their plan is they want to give him a title fight after he stopped Osamont. I don't know. I truly don't know.

But Paul, I mean, Paul has played this game. so many times over the year. So it's hard to know what is true and what is him. Gamrot Salkild is the August 8th main event, per my sources. I hate that. The dog's okay, I promise. Yeah, he does the dream running thing quite a bit. Shiloh.

Hey, there he is. He's all good. He's all good. He's getting up there in age, you know? He's an old man. Shilohs name of Haunted House reference. No. That was just the name.

We adopted him, so. So what's happening with the Boston Celtics and a New York Knicks winning the championship? Is this Defcott from Mike's NBA fandom? Hey, listen. I knew this day was going to come at some point. So, listen, I've, I've, pop open a Celsius here. I've,

I've gone through a lot of crap as a Boston sports fan. I know it's, it's, the last couple of decades have been pretty fun. But, I mean, it hasn't all been Sunday. Shineshine and Roses.

Like, I've been through one in 15 Patriot seasons. I've been through 10-win seasons. Some really bad Bruin seasons. The worst ways to lose baseball games as a Red Sox fan. Like, been through the ringer. This is, it's a tough time, but this is far from the worst time. Like, far from it. Dave, shout out.

Team Shil, let's go. Do you predict we get any new Hall of Fame announcements? I don't who is it's a great question actually I assume we've got them all what is the Hall of Fame class of 2026 I mean it's a pretty star-studded lineup really it's like one of their better classes Demetre's Johnson Dominic Cruz Chris Wyden

Fight Wing is John Wei lead Yawani and Cheech one Pereira gets the community award and the late great Thomas Jurbisi gets in as the contributor wing. Like, that's, that's pretty solid. That's pretty solid by him right there. I don't think we're getting any more.

But I will be there. I will be there. Regia out. Now it's almost time. What do you think the actual timeline slash build for Gable is going to be like? Heavyweight being so all over the place, not exactly having their quote unquote talent consistently. Do they push him?

No. I mean, we had to find push. Like, they're not getting, I don't think they're going to get a, give him like a ranked dude after he fights Elijah Ellison. I think the most important thing Gable can do right now is just fight a lot. And as a matter of fact, we have our upcoming, we're going to be recording our 2026 fantasy draft part two. Because the first half of the season is wrapped and packed.

And we already know AK1, but we're going to be redrafting for the second half of the year today, like a couple hours after the show ends. And I have Gable on my team. I drafted him and hopes he would fight at the White House. But now I have him and I can keep him if I want. So I'm probably going to keep him. But it is my hope he just fights all lot. Like we get like three fights out of him this year, which is exactly what he should be doing.

He should just be fighting every two months. Get in there. Nail it. But yeah, I think I think this year is just more of a it's the bow-nickel thing like we're just going to Val Woodburn they're the Val Woodburns of the world at Ed Gable and let him cook

and then we can get there the shilling bloody sock is so overrated no it wasn't no it wasn't that ruled what a year what a time what a time I was talking to somebody about how like

recently I think it was at softball that that whole run, that whole world series run about, it was just the best. It was just the best. Chase, what do you think of a possible Chandler versus Dariush matchup? Both are washed can possibly beat the other. Yeah, I'm okay with that. I'm all right with that. I think we're, I don't know.

I mean, like, I like it more for Chandler than I do Dariush, because, like, I know Darius is on the other side of things for sure, but, like, Kind of feel like Darius just beats Chandler at this point, but... And I think Darius can beat, like, a lot of these dudes that are coming up. Like, he could just go out there and win. Now, big hitters, maybe not, but... Like, he can beat a bunch of dudes still. I don't...

Like, there aren't a lot of lightweights I would pick Michael Chandler to beat. And it's not, like, me dumping on him or anything. It's just... Styles make fights, and Chandler's just... He's just not there anymore. Like he's older, he's a little more war-torn. He's taking a lot of punishment. And I know he's in terrific shape, and he's big and strong and jacked,

but, like, he's just tiny for this division. Like, you just, these dudes coming up are, like, middleweights. They're just, they're huge. Like, you throw him in there, Jalen Turner. Like, that's going to go so badly for him. So I'm going to keep pushing for this fight. Until it happens, I want Terrence McKinney versus Michael Chan. Thoughts on Danny Gay moving down to 135.

I always thought he looked too small for Featherweight. So I'll, I'm actually going to take a little, I'm going to take a little visit to XC. Like, right after I get to Vegas, my plan is to like just drop my bags of the hotel and then head over to Extreme Couture. And hopefully I can talk to Dan and get his insights on this. I know my last interview with Eric Nixick,

the plan was they were going to go through like a test cut. They were going to try to cut them to like 140 to see how, he does and see how his body acclmates and then on top of that they were going to do not like a fight but they're going to do like some hard sparring after he cut to 140 just to see like how his body handled it and it seems like it i mean if we're we are to believe social media seems like that went well so yeah i think this is a good move for him why not they i know they wanted to do this for a while they were they talked about it for quite some time

and at a certain point, I think it was that, Eric told me, Eric Nixon, excuse me, he told me, was after the Calvin Cater fight that they first talked about it.

And his body, like, wasn't ready for it. And now, like, I guess the UFCPI has done all these different things. And now they have figured out,

I guess, quote unquote, scientifically, the most healthy way for him to get to 135. So I, I, like the move if he can do it and he's healthy and yeah what is the total number of heavyweights

even on the roster right now it's a great question it can't be more than like 26 or 27 this episode is brought to you by Accenture when your advertising operations fall out of sync everything else follows Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair.

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Max Holly revealed an interview with Meggetolevi that he'd actually signed with PFL for the inaugural 155 pound tourney prior to his debut with Porre. Imagine that world. I didn't even see that. Interesting. Sheesh. What a wild world it would be.

Wow. We could have got Holloway Gauche like, could have a Holloway, Gaichi and PFL or World Series of Fighting. Holy Snikis. Could have got like Holloway-Luis Palomino back then. Oh my God.

What a time. That'd have been sick. In hindsight, but obviously, like, we got the better result. Crazy. Thoughts on Armand's manager saying the best thing to do is for Armand-take-a-fight since they don't know when Gaitch will be back. When did he say that?

when did he say that who did you say that too is that a twitter thing i don't know i'll have to find that i mean it depends on what what fight it is i mean do the do you just do the olivera fight and get it done and do the bmf title thing even though i think it's silly at this point uh you could or you just i don't know do you just go in there with anybody and just run his ass over i don't know guinea versus king green should be fun yeah it should be Ruffy and Patty being ranked ahead of Gamrod for beating Chandler is such an industry plant move. I would pick Gamorot to whoop both guys. To whoop both guys?

I don't know, man. I would pick, I would certainly, I think I'd pick Ruffie to beat Gamrott. Patty would be a little more interesting, but again, like, I'd probably pick Patty to beat Gamrott, too. But that I'm not as sure about. Yeah, I would pick Ruffy to beat Gamrott for sure. When is Dan Hooker's next fight? Is there anything in the works? Not that I know of.

Does Cody get cut with a loss? Oh, good question. No, I'll say no. How does Ian Garry get a win over Islam path to victory? Don't get taken down. I mean, that's really it. Don't get taken down. I think Ian is a better grapple than people give him credit for.

And I think a lot of that has to do just people don't like him. But he is a pretty well-rounded guy. He needs to keep this thing on the feet. Like, that's, that's really it. I mean, it's what it comes down to. And again, like, he may not even win a, he may not even win the striking battle with Islam. He might not. Islam's a very good striker.

Again, another underrated quality of a fighter is Islam striking. And his defense is unbelievable. So, I mean, look, I am not, after what we've seen this year already, certainly not going to county Machado Gary out of this fight. Why are two journeymen opening the main car to a counter fight over an Olympic gold medalist with a lot of hype around his name?

I don't know. I don't know. Do you think Cody will stick around for a while how important is he on his fight for him? It's huge. It's huge. He is coming off a win, but it was not really a win. He only won because

we had a referee that actually did their job and took points away. crazy how that happens right think you won like all 2827s or something it was crazy my favorite thing was like the post fight like media scrob and some of the media members

are asking him like how does it feel to be back in the wind column and all this stuff it's like dude come on but we'll see how he does see how he does against Adrian Yanya I'm actually like I know Cody's like the bigger name and the former champion and all that

but like I'm more interested in the Yannes side of this fight. Like we waited so long for him to come back. He had that fight with Ricky Simone, which I thought he clearly won. And I know I'm not alone on that. So, yeah, I don't know. Duke Zarabek-Sabanov got signed to DWCS. I also saw Luis Hernandez got signed to DWCS.

About time. That dude should have been signed DWCS a year ago. Should have been on last summer. Could have got Holloway versus Nick Newell. You're absolutely right. Armand's manager told Match TV that if Justin isn't back, the plan is to do Olivera. Is that Ruby, you told him that?

Or is that sweep who told him that? My thoughts changed, depending on the answer to that question. Joseph, Umar versus Song in the main event. UFC Shanghai. Yeah, we finally confirmed that. I think it was an hour ago.

1135 we posted that so a little over an hour ago yeah we got the word uh red fury mma i believe was first to report that fight but yeah it's happening and there you go brohout what bSD did to ruffie i mean no we have to remember fighters lose like they just lose and then you bounce back and ruffies looked spectacular since then so that's just my read off it. I could be wrong. Kenzie Dernier said the UFC attempted to book her versus Waley on several occasions that it kept falling apart. Has Zhang's time atop the sport

ended? No. No. Because she'll beat. She'll beat whoever wins that fight. So the answer is no. I think McKenzie's going to clobber. Jillian Robertson. Like, again, happy to be wrong.

Been wrong before. We'll be wrong again. I just don't like, I just don't see. how Julian wins the fight. I just, unless McKenzie just walks in there and completely overlooks her and, but that just doesn't strike me as

something that this version of McKenzie Dern would do. So, I mean, we've got to get her in there at somebody, but who knows? Again, I could be wrong. I just, I feel very strongly that McKenzie should win,

but everybody has an off night. I mean, this has been a wild first six months of UFC action. Jersey are going to be in Vegas for international fight week next week and going to the fight. What's your thoughts on how fun the card should be? I think cards will be very fun. I think the energy is going to be crazy. And it's, yeah, I mean, I'll be there.

I've been to an international fight week event since Israel out of Sondia beat Jared cannoneer. That was the only one I've covered for an international fight week. It's the first time I've ever been out there. I was out there for UFC 300 for like a day and a half, doing the watch party out there. And yeah, excited to get back out there. I've never covered a Connor McGregor fight before.

Lazy. Hearing a lot of talk, including from teammate, Belal-Mohamaamaama'i is moving up to lightweight. Good move, bad move, or just peculiar? A little peculiar. And, uh, but now we can get the Diego Lopez fight. So that, we could still get it. Hey, Mike, have you seen the Holloway McGregor betting line?

It's insane. value on Max. Conner's going to look old and shot from the opening bell, in my opinion. Well, let's take a gander. What is the line? Max minus 260, come back on Connor plus 196. That is current odds via the wonderful folks at Fanduel. I just, I agree with you. I just, like, I don't, I don't know what to expect here with this fight. Max is coming off just an absolute mauling in his last fight where he had no chance. It was not competitive at all.

It was knocked up by Ilya in the fight before that. He did beat Dustin and hurt him a couple times. I don't know what the weight class stuff's going to be like. I don't know how that's going to transition. And we have no idea what Connor McGregor is actually going to show up for this fight. So, yeah, I do think there's value on Max. I think it should be a little bit higher.

But like, it's so, this to me is such a high. hard fight to line because there's so many unknowns. Like it just seems simple. This is like a lightweight fight and Connor to cut that extra weight. Like I think Max would be a little bit of a heavier favorite. I don't know. Uh, for you my thoughts on Jill and Brown,

I talked about it earlier. This is not great, but I've read some stuff. I feel, I'm like I say, I feel better about it, but, uh,

I feel like a touch better about it. Um, when it comes down to it, it the Celtics have one have been a better basketball like and if we're looking at this like the money ball lens and we're looking at it through like the statistical and quote unquote analytical lens the Celtics are a better basketball team without him they've their record without Jalen Brown is better than with it over this last several years as good as great of a player as he's been math does not lie the Celtics record is a is better when he is not playing

on the team or he is not playing at all. They score more points when he's on the bench. Like everything, numbers wise, if you're just a straight up analytical guy, an analytical basketball fan, and you're looking at through the numbers, everything favors this being a good move. I don't feel that way,

but at least seeing that and looking at the numbers makes me feel slightly better. I wish they got more. They got like another first round picker two, I'd feel a lot better. Now, I also want to see what these next couple of months are going to be like. Actually, I want to see what these next couple of weeks are going to be like. Like, they can't be done. This can't be the move. We can't be done here because I like everything else they've done. They have gotten some pieces. But this can't be it. This can't be it.

Safit is the name of Armand's manager. Sayat? I don't know who Sufit is. Sayat, I do know. Jillian only got title shot because the Dean Thomas Connection, Dana White, But no, I don't think that's true. She got it because Zhang's not fighting. I don't know why she's not fighting. But she's not fighting for a reason and get Dern in there and have a title defense. Like that makes the Zhang fight bigger. Does it not?

She goes in there and beats Dillian. I fully expect her to do it. What is the line on that fight? That's what I'm looking at. What is it now? I already have a bet on McKenzie Duren. I took it like the day the fight dropped. I think I got it at mine.

minus 180 for McKenzie Derns up to minus 225. So, that huge line movement, but almost 40, a little over 40 points since the fight was announced. Should the UFC make an interim female flyweight belt? No. Will McGregor get more views in the White House card?

Oh, man, that is, that's tough. I'm going to say, I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. If this is on, now, to be fair, they have, they have an advantage. One, they have the biggest star in the history of the sport and still their biggest star headlining against a fighter who is very, very popular and beloved by everybody. And it's on a Saturday night, as opposed to the White House being on Sunday.

Now, if you threw this on July 12th, would I think this would be the White House? No, I would not. But I think this has a chance to beat it because. of it being on their regular night. That matters. That really matters. I talked to people who basically gave up their Saturday night, June 13th, ready to sit down.

They had people at their house getting ready to watch the White House car. And then they turned on Paramount Plus and they realized, oh shit, it's not until tomorrow. And then they were just livid about it. That's the thing. And that's one of the things like we've talked about with PFL over the years. Like, we know the UFC's on a Saturday night. Like Saturday night, that's it.

It's happening. Monday night raw is Monday night raw. When you move dades around and you're inconsistent on when your fights are happening, it dinges you. People get used to stuff. They plan their time around it. Crazy. I actually think this is going to do better.

But again, I don't count the, well, it reached this many people. That number I don't care about. I think this does better than $7 million on average in the, the U.S. I definitely think it does. What a terrible international fight to go to all of them. Izzy versus Canada Air. Yeah, it was a tough fight. That was a tough one.

But we did get, in my opinion, I think to this day it was the greatest performance in a title fight we've ever seen on that card. And it was not Israel Adisadya, which I remember that post-fight show very well. It was in the media room after the press conference ended and I was like

yelling at Sean Al-Shadi who was like ripping Israel out of Sanya and I'm like, why are you blaming him for this fight? Well, it's him and he's doing this thing. And to me, I'm like, but like, Canada gave him the win. Is he just not supposed to take the win?

You know, it's not the most fan-friendly style. I get it, but like, you have a guy all week, all Bill is like, if he thinks I'm going to just have a kickboxing match with him, he's crazy, I'm going to go out there and take his head off. And then he went out there and gave him a mid-range kickback boxing match. It is. He just kicked his ass. Just kicked him in the legs

and just beat him. Won all five rounds easily. But we did get Alex into Volkadovsky just putting it on Max Holloway. Like one of the best performances I've ever seen. We got the weird thing with Sean O'Malley and I believe it was Pedro Munoz. What's the rest of that card?

We got multiple retirements. Oh, we got a, that was the Pereira nuking Sean Strickland. I mean, that alone was like worth the trip. Not because I don't like Sean Strickland because it was like the funniest fight I've ever watched. And one of the funny, one of my favorite fights to talk about in the aftermath, just because of the folks in Strickland's corner,

talking about that fight in the aftermath. Again, let me just be clear. Wasn't rooting for an outcome. Okay, this is not me like hating on Strickland or anything like that. Because I was looking forward to the fight. And Sean Strickland was like the star of the fight week because I mean, honestly, like that fight week got him the Israel out of,

helped get him the title fight against Adasania because he just, you just put it on as he had the presser. And everything was about like, oh, it's Alex Pereira, he's right there. And Sean's like, what about me, bro? And then Sean, they're like, yeah, just don't strike with him.

Go in there and try to take him down. And then Sean's like, bet, I'm just going to go in there and try to strike with him. And you could just see like Nixick and the rest of his corner's like, What are you doing? And it just gets obliterated.

We had Robbie Lawler, knocking out Brian Barbarina. We got the eye poke with Pedro and O'Malley. Jalen Turner destroyed Brad Riddell. Jim Miller retired Donald Serroney. This is the prelims. Like, looking at it pretty wild. Ian Machado, Gary, beat Gabe Green.

Drickus Duplice beat Brad Tavaris. This is wild. André Mnese beat Yves beat Y'Uradoris. Rye Hall. Macy Barber retired Jessica I, I believe, at that event. And Julius Styliorenko submitted Jessica Rose Clark in 42 seconds. So it wasn't all bad. How's the golf game? Not bad.

Went out shot to E2. I'm working on some new swings. I have new swing thoughts, which I'm working. I'm working through them. It's very hard to go through different swing thoughts and different swing structures. But I found some stuff. that's been working and trying to like implement them consistently. Because golf stuff is a frustrating game.

Like been having a really rough time with the driver this year. And then I figured some things out. And like the first six or seven holes the other day, I hit like every fairway. It was crazy. And then it just like fell apart for like two holes. And then I would nuke one down the middle of the fairway again. Then the next hole I would snap hook it into the woods. it's a lot, but like the iron game's coming together.

The wedges were not great. But I'm playing tomorrow, playing Saturday. And, yeah, maybe we get in there. Maybe we get in there in Vegas, too. We'll see. Forrest, Mike, what do you think of? Jay being traded at the Portland Trailblazers, Lilit Denny, J. Sharp, Donovan, Klingon,

Kamara, Hansen, and D. Pinch. Yeah. It was a good move. Portland's trying. Ziam signing. Trevor Whitman is great. You see that? Yes, I did see that.

If Uv. No, Godly. If Ustman beats DDP, there you go. There's the English I'm looking for. Who's he got a fight if it's not Hamzad? Sean Strickland?

Sean would make sense. He's already got a win over him. Or Uson's already got a win over him. Could still get the Islam fight. Flinner. People are saying they should do Patty Ilya, but I think they only do it if Patty wins next Saturday. You don't want Patty going on a three-fight losing streak.

What are your thoughts? I don't think that fight happens next. It could. I don't think that fight happens. I think both of those guys are in play to fight Cona McGregor next. And I would favor Iliot's Poria. No insight on this whatsoever. That's just what my thought is here.

But Patty also has a very good chance to fight Connor McGregor if he wins next Saturday as well. So I think both those fights are very much in play. I don't think they do Patty Elliott just yet. I think if that fight happens, it'll either be for some sort of a belt would be my guess. But yeah.

Like I forget the guy's name, but when Strickland and Curtis had the run in the event, Strickland was suspended. Apparently the guy you went for a sign of contention. Yeah, that's Luis Hernandez. That is Luis Hernandez. He's very good, too. I know like he's mostly known

for getting Sean Strickland to attack him in a cage. but he's a very good fighter UFC Seattle Adasani versus Piper Top three cards of the year so far Was that card top three? Yeah I think you gotta put it up there

I think it's White House 327 In that one I think that those are the top three But I mean there are arguments for others too Kind of going back into the archives here 328 We had Strickland Shamaia

which was yeah 320 it was okay we did get van tyra on that fight absolutely ruled uh winnipeg was pretty fun i believe right that was pretty fun

london was awful that was a very bad card there were a couple of good fights but that was a very bad card 326 was okay the main event was just such a bummer uh we just had a bunch of like non-competitive

fights on that kio and rDR Roses font was not fun at all. Dover Johnson was fun. And Greg Greta Regis and Brita Ferreira. We got a sick knockout, but that event was pretty much forgettable. Considering the main event and what we all thought about it?

Yeah. Mexico was fun. Houston was pretty good, wasn't it? Yeah. Houston was a very fun card. Yeah, Strickland stopped Fluffy. Medich obliterated Jeff. Neal. We had Melchie Kosser doing the unthinkable and knocking out Danny Gay.

We did get Sergei Spivak anti-Delijah. That was a fight that happened on that card, but Jacoby Smith, Josiah Horel, Carl's Lial, Cheating, Joquani was a sick fight. Yeah, that was a pretty fun card. They've had a few fun cards this year. 325 is not great. 324 is pretty good. and then a bunch of like kind of apexe apex cards.

You said there's no way Ushman fights for the title next to you beat DDP. Who said that? I didn't say that. I said there's no world where Ustman should have fought Islamakachev right now. That was my biggest gripe. He needs another win. There is no, there is no planet where I would have supported that fight. Especially at 170 when you had at the time, you had Gary, you had Morales, you had,

had Schofcott, you had a whole bunch of other dudes that were way ahead of him in the conversation. Because he beat Joaquin Buckley, like, to me was nuts. That whole talk was nuts. And it's not like the fans were clamoring for it because they weren't. There was just nothing about that fight that, like, you could even sell me on it. There's just nothing there. All I've been asking is for Usman to get another fight and another win against a legitimate top five guy. and the DDP stuff.

To me it was like, dude, if you don't fight DDP, if that fight is actually on the table and you don't take it, like what are we doing here? Like that is just incredibly bad career mismanagement if you're going to let that fight

slip away. Luckily he didn't and he's getting it. But he's absolutely in play for any belt he wants, welterweight or middleweight if he beats Strick's Duplice. I will not stand in his way verbally.

There's not a word I will say about it negatively. no matter what he calls for. If he calls for Strickland, cool. Like, and it sucks to be Emavov too. Like, that, that is really tough. He better hope DDP wins that fight.

Like, he better hope DDP wins that fight. Because if Uspu wins, he could be in some real, real trouble. But if Uspin calls for Islam, I'm like, cool, go get it. You know, you just beat a former champion. You beat, I think the number one guy in middleweight. I'm okay with it. I don't know if that was meant for me, but yeah. Have you ever heard of the guy Kevin Holland is fighting on the OKC card?

Yeah, he's fighting Jacoby Smith, who is like one of the best prospects in the division. Dude's a killer. Perth main car respond. Yeah, it was pretty good. Who headline that one? I'm trying to remember. All these frigging cards come together. Oh, that was Pratchez-J-DM.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me pull it up. Yeah, that was pretty good. We also had some very bad fights on that card, but the main card was very fun. Left lane, 327 White House, Seattle will be my top three right now in no order. Yeah, those are my top three as well. I think it's White House number one, 327, number two, in Seattle number three.

What do you want to see next for Arnold Allen? Who did I pick for him? Yusuf Salaw, I think. I think that's who I went with. Oh, no, I went with Lorone Murphy. Random question. What do you think of Sony announcing the upcoming end of physical media when it comes to PlayStation games? We're far removed from our childhoods.

Yeah, it's super weird. Very weird. Even McGregor beats Holloway's never making $155 again to fight Justin. I don't know. Maybe. I saw a lazy bit too. I was going to think it was going to happen. Recently we've seen kids now all wanting physical media like vinyl and CDs.

So chances are this will happen with games eventually too. Maybe. Games are just like so much more expensive than like CDs. Thoughts on PFL New York could be a great card. Let's pull that one up. Let's pull this one up. We'll take a couple more before we get on out of here. We are preparing for the fantasy draft.

That is the... When is that card? Oh, there it is. July 31st. On a Friday, which is very smart. We spent Archie Colgan. Yeah, it's fine. I mean, that's the fight that should happen.

Dakota Dichiva is just going to absolutely annihilate Denise Kielholz. like, I don't know why we're doing this fight, but we're doing it. Amru versus Angel Alvarez. I think most of us know how that fight's going to go. Davlet versus Simian Powell. I actually think it's actually a pretty interesting fight. Montana, De La Rosa, taking on Tatiana, Posternakova, Rafion Stats, Lazaro Dehran.

That's actually a really good fight. PFL's David Martinez versus Omar L. Daffrawe. Habula versus Gerina. D. Acadie versus Nishamuam. It's fine. It's like a very PFL card. The main event is obviously the most interesting fight on it. It's good to have Dakota back, right?

But we're just delaying the inevitable here. Like, what are we doing? Do you like the resurgence of vinyl recently? Mike has become a huge hit. So my uncle, who lives in Dallas, who I saw not that long ago when I was covering the RIF event down there, I stayed at their house for a couple days, which is awesome. My uncle got into, I mean, he was well ahead of the curve here.

He started like a discog business in selling vinyl and buying and selling it for, he's been doing it for years. Like, well over a decade. He's been doing it well before this thing started really booming like it is now. He was so far ahead of the game. So shout out to him. just saw the writing on the wall and all over it. So it's fun. What's old is new again.

It's great. Pick for Umar versus Song. Umar. In a fight that somewhat is fun? I don't know. Plushy. Why would Connor take a title shot even if he defeated Max? I don't think he can make the money he'd make outside of the UFC even with the title.

He'd have to sign a new contract beforehand, too. I don't think you can make the money he'd make outside of the UFC even with the title. Oh yeah. Okay. I don't know, man. Connor makes a lot of money in the UFC. Like, he makes a ton of it when he fights. Does Armand even deserve a title shot after beating Hooker in three years after pulling out against Islam?

Yeah, he does. He's the best lightweight in the world. He should be fighting for the belt. He should have fought for the belt already. He should have been fighting Patty Pimbled. I mean, the UFC going the direction they went. Or no, he should have been fighting Justin Gachie. Like, that was the fight they should.

It should have been Justin Gingie. versus Armand Sarukin for the interim belt. So yes, he deserves it. It's not his fall. He's not fighting. Rapid fire. Possible good or next fight for Joe Pfeiffer. It should be Brendan Allen in Philly.

That should be the fight. He was supposed to... Apparently, you're supposed to fight Kyle Bajalio and Kyle got injured. So, Josh, I feel like if Kioj had won, it's a good example. Which Olds this year winning would officially make 2026 the year of the Yonks? We've kind of already had it, right? We're in the midst of the year of the unks. I would say Usman beating DDP would certainly qualify for that.

Usman, Umar has a boring wind, does the UFC cut him? No. I'm alive really impressed me also as Donchink of the most exciting tough alum of recent years. It's up there. Ian signing with Eddie is about building his brand outside the UFC.

I think Eddie said something about needing the win to build this, which they're confident with. But if Ian loses, how will this affect him? Nothing. Not at all. It's not a lot of people are expecting him to win. Fluffy versus Obama prediction. Uh, fluffy.

Armand should fight Charles again Yeah I mean I thought I was going to beat Justin And Ilya was going to vacate the lightweight belt And we'd get Armand Charles Sometime this year for the vacant belt So

We'll see what happens I mean trust me Armand's going to be plenty busy From what I understand He's booked up through September With RIF So We will see him

Next Saturday In Georgia He's wrestling a dude he's just kind of absolutely annihilate. And then he's wrestling a week later against Colby in Milwaukee. And I assume we will see him on that Cleveland show in August. And then maybe he fights after that. I don't know.

But he's obviously kept himself very, very busy. Fatima Klein's going to smash Tabitha Ricci. We'll see. Ushton DDP prediction. DDP. Not because he's just younger and bigger and stronger and has knees that work. But Ousman does have a path to victory here.

He could just tackle him and lay on him. But can he keep him down? You'd have to think that DDP has done nothing but working on his get-up game since Hamsat got on top of him. And as great as Oospin is, and as great as his career has been, as great as his wrestling is,

I don't think he's not Hams on that department. He's very, very good. but he's not Homsat. So I will go DDP to steal some rounds, but it would not surprise me. Who will be my other redraft apart from Gable? I'm definitely keeping Gable.

Then I have a choice here. It will not be Waldo. I kept Waldo. He did pretty well. Ewo is my highest, Ewo Baranuski is my highest score all season. I had a tough one, man

I mean, Waldo did get me a win and a finish So he got me 200 points And then he lost a second fight Ewo got two finishes Ateba got me 250 Jacoby Smith got me 200 Mozar got me 175

Sean O'Malley got me 350 and then didn't get much I got zero out of Zell Huber Kayla didn't fight I assume she will the second half Um

it's probably gonna be Ewo How much did AK win by he absolutely smoked everybody. He won by a lot. Jed was in second with 1975, AK had 2,700. So he barely lost to Hamzad who injured himself early in that fight. Look, it was an impressive performance.

Look, Usman can win. I'm just not picking him to win. And the betting odds agree with me right now. If memory serves you correct, let me just make sure. I think DDP is like a big favorite. What is he? minus 370.

The comeback on Ousman is plus 265. So I'm not alone. Not alone in that take. Ousman could definitely win. I just, I will go with the younger guy who's been more active. And yeah, there you go.

All right, we're going to get on out of here. You guys are the best. There it is. That's what we're looking for. Yes, so we got lots going on. The mid-year award season is here. We've already dropped our, Fighter of the Mid-Year Award.

So you can see the top three. Justin Gichi obviously won that. Tomorrow is Fight of the Mid-year. A little controversy. You will see. Check that out tomorrow. Knockout, I believe, is coming up on Saturday and submission on Sunday. Stick to the Semi-Fighton.com.

It's great website. And by the way, breaking news will be back here Monday. Monday. Jed will join me your questions ahead of UFC 329, because I'll be on the road. and we want to make sure you get a show in for you guys. So we'll see you Monday, noon Eastern time. We're out of here. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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