MMA Fighting - BTL | Covington vs. Masvidal Fallout, UFC 272, Kevin Lee vs. Diego Sanchez, UFC Vegas 50, More

Episode Date: March 10, 2022

Colby Covington earned a lot of bragging rights after a dominant win over Jorge Masvidal in the main event of UFC 272 this past Saturday. Will that be the last time these rivals cross paths? This week on Between the Links, the panel will discuss the aftermath of Covington’s win and where he goes, along with Masvidal’s path coming off of his third consecutive loss, the shining and breakout stars of the UFC’s March PPV event, Eagle FC’s return to the U.S. this Friday and the card’s main event between former UFC headliners Kevin Lee and Diego Sanchez, UFC Vegas 50 and their main event of Thiago Santos vs. Magomed Ankalaev going heads up with Bellator 276 and their featherweight show capper between Adam Borics and Mads Burnell, and more.  Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup for the BTL title between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew, who will defend his championship against his colleague Damon Martin. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Damon Martin: @DamonMartin 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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How about that? Because I'm so excited about the iconic voice of Esther Lynn. She welcomes you to a brand new edition between the links. Thank you for checking out the show once again. We're coming off our most watch slash most listened to week in the history of the program last week. That means a lot. I love doing the show. I felt this way for a long time.

But I truly believe that this is the best panel show. This is the best debate show in all of MMA. And we're ready to do it again with so much to discuss. So let's get into it because the BTL championship is once again on the line as we welcome in the Challenger. He has been ready to get back in this virtual arena after what many feel could be a controversial loss, at least in his mind to A.K. Lee in the first round of the BTL championship tournament, one of the best of the business by good friend from M.AFighting.com, Damon Martin. Host a fighter versus writer as well. Good afternoon, sir.

I thanks for having me and yes it was a very controversial decision I still refute that decision I feel like it was Diego Sanchez with Martin Camden all over again Luckily the rules have changed a little bit in terms of the judging so stay tuned for that as we welcome in the reigning defending undisputed BTL champ big title defense last week against a colleague that a little bit of a rivalry is boosted up on this program over the last several months or so. Beat shot Al-Shadi, a tremendous sometimes spirited battle between the two. And he's back looking to keep the strap in the state of Georgia. Let us say hello to the champ. Mr. Jedmishu. What is up, my friend? Got to keep the strap in the state of Georgia, Mike. Look, I've said it many times.

My opposition today, he found out it's the year of the dog. Georgia G right here. Go dogs. Just like Matt Stafford took it, took it to Damon's Bengals in the Super Bowl year of the dog 2022. Let's go. We're already off to a to a wonderful start. We're already talking sports, the rivalry. We're already revving in Super Bowl losses to the opposition. This could be quite the show, everybody. So let us get into this.

Speaking of rivalries, let's discuss the fallout of Colby Covington versus Jorge Mazadol. It was a dominant performance from Kobe Covington at UFC 272 to cap the show. Mazadol had a moment or two, but it was pretty much one-way traffic for Mr. Chaos. us. He gets back on track. Mazadol has now lost three straight, and things get sort of interesting for both guys for different reasons. And look, we have and everybody else has broken this fight down at Nazim at this point. So we're going to introduce a brand new segment to the program called overreaction or underreaction. And I will present three different takes that have either

been sent to me or has been very popular on social media. And you two gentlemen will determine if this is an overreaction or an underreaction. So, Damon, we will begin with you. Let's begin with this one because this one has been a popular one, and it has to do with Mazadol. So, Damon, overreaction or underreaction, Mazadol has lost that competitive motivation after his incredible 2019 campaign that made him the star he is today.

Overreaction or underreaction and why? I think it's an overreaction because I think the reality is that, you know, Jorge Mazadol is kind of what Ben Ascran says, said on the MMA hour yesterday with Ariel. He is who he always has. He is who he always has been. You know, Horri Mazin also has been a fun fighter,

capable of great things, capable of exciting fights, capable of fun knockouts here and there. But he's never been that top guy. You know, he lost to Kamar Usman twice. He's now lost to Kobe Covington. You know, he can go out there and he'll beat the Nadeezs of the world.

He'll knock out there until, you know, he'll send, you know, Ben Ashton into the ether. But he's just never been that guy. When he was a lightweight, you know, he couldn't beat Gilbert Melendez to become Strike Force champion. You know, he's always going to be a fun, serviceable, exciting fighter, and now he's a legitimate star so he can sell some pay-per-views and get people interested in his fights.

Maybe you book the Connor fight, Neadez, whatever. But he's just who he's always has been. This isn't anything new for Mazadol. This is just he's always been that guy who's been close to being great, but never quite been great. Jed, your thoughts. Is this an overreaction or an underreaction? Is this a competitive motivation thing? Or do you agree with Damon that this is more of a,

this is just who he is and you match him up against guys like Covington, and it's just not going to be a good night for you. So competitive motivation, it's not there since 2019, overreaction or underreaction. I don't think it's a competitive motivation thing. I'm not sure that this is who Hori Masl always has been. That's probably closer to true than the motivation factor is. But I think there's just a lot of,

of explanations for what we saw at UFC 272. I mean, for one, at any point in their careers, I think Covington would have beaten Mossvedol. He's a really good fighter and people don't give him his due because of the very stupid things he says, but in the cage, the product he puts forth is as good as just about anybody in the world. And so you can't take that away from Covington. At the same time, I think Mossvedal is certainly not the same fighter he has always been

because we saw that run. and whether some of that run of his, you know, becoming a star was a little bit smoke and mirrors. I think that that's fair to say. He also became a different style of fighter. He was a much more aggressive fighter. The knock on Mossadol for most of his career prior to him going on that reality TV show and finding baptisms or whatever it was that brought forth this energy from him, was that he was an exceedingly good defensive fighter who would let fights come to him too much, and then he'd kind of lose decisions based on inactivity.

He's definitely not that guy anymore. We saw that against Covington. He still came, still tried to put hands on Covington and got, was able to do so at points in that fight, but he just couldn't match up to what Covington brings to the table. And I think, frankly, we're not talking about it now, and I don't think it's one of those things that'll be hard to digest in the moment. I think there's a really good argument after rewatching that fight.

that Masridal has athletically peaked because he looked super fit coming into that. He looked, frankly, in better shape than he had in his fights with Kumar Ustman. Like, I thought Mossvedol looked like he was as motivated and focused as he'd ever been. And you said so yourself on, I forget which program, that if he can't get up for this fight, what fight can he get up for? I think he was super motivated for this fight. I think he is 37 or 38 has had 50 fights. And we were starting to see some of that wear and tear.

I think that became evident to me on a rewatch. We go to take two, Jenmishu, and we've seen this thrown around a lot, and we've seen some examples of this over the years, but I think it's become a little more prevalent after this fight. And what we're seeing in on social media is, too, he's still throwing shots at Mazadol, but this really doesn't have much to do with this particular question. But overreaction or underreaction,

Colby Covington-Stick has officially gone too far. The talk of the family, the wives, the kids, et cetera, this has gone too far over the line. When it comes to Covington, Jed, all is not fair in love and fight promotion, overreaction or underreaction to Covington, not just crossing the line, but jumping over the line. I'm going to pick the unpopular one and say overreaction. Look, I'm not here to defend what Colby Covington's saying because a lot of the things he says are not good and stuff that I, as a person of at least some level of moral integrity, wouldn't say.

But us drawing the line here feels real weird to me because Colby said like a number of really horrible things. And so I get it. Personal attacks are bad. Don't make personal attacks. But those are somehow more acceptable than like the virulently racist stuff he's previously said. Or I could be misremembering, but I swear I'm not. I thought didn't he like crack a joke about a coach who died like a week after? after he died. If I'm wrong on that hand up, my apologies, but I strongly remember him saying

something like to that end, like right after somebody's coach died. And so that it feels real weird for us to say this is the line and now he's crossed it. If he crossed any lines, he did it a long time ago. He's just still, he's still crossing him. He is in the words of Dave Chappelle via Rick James a habitual line stepper and he is habitually stepping over the line just that's what you get with him. Damon, your thoughts on this. I know you wrote about this

specifically but not specifically, but it was part of your column, the making a grade column. Your thoughts on Covington has he crossed the line? Is this an overreaction to people who say that he has crossed the line or is this an underreaction? I think it's an underreaction but for a slightly different reason. And I believe, Jed, if I'm not mistaken, you're talking about him mocking Glenn Robinson after he

passed away when he was the owner of the Black Zillions if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure Colby took some shots at him during that time if I'm not mistaken. I think that's it. Thanks, David. Yeah, Glenn Robinson passed away. I say it's not an overreaction, but in a different way. I agree with Jed that, you know, listen,

you know, Colby's gone over the line numerous times and we can't say suddenly him going after, you know, wives and children is somehow worse than going after someone's nation or race or whatever else has been said in the past. But I think the bigger issue is when you go after, you know, wives and children, like you did with Dustin Pori, like he did with Horacea, like he did with Tyne Woodley,

is that you've run out of material. It's just gotten old. You know, I said in my column, I said his trash talk has turned from trash talk to just trash. It's just not interesting. I'm not going to sit here and say Colby hasn't made me laugh at some points. I'm not going to say that Kobe hasn't occasionally. had some witty lines here and there he has. But it's just, it's played out.

It's tired. It's like going to a comedian and seeing him do the same routine for 10 years straight. If he never gets new material, why are you going to continue to go back and see him? And so that's, you know, when I say, you know, when I say it's not an overreaction, yes, because why he's going after wives and children is because he has nothing else to go for. You know, if he had something else to go for on Dustin Porre that was funny or whatever that he would get a reaction out of, he wouldn't need to go after his wife and children. and he would have something else to say.

It was the same problem I had with Connor McGregor doing that in the rematch or, excuse me, the trilogy with Dustin Porre, because you got beat, you got knocked out. Say something else. If you're going after his wife and kid, you've already lost because at that point you have nothing to say. And so this isn't, you know, Colby was in a, it's not like Colby dated, you know, Portia's wife and that's what he's using against him or some weird, you know, personal situation like that. He's just taking shots because he has nothing else to go on. And again, I go back to the comedian. thing. You know, when you're when you're a comedian, you've got to be witty, you got to be funny,

you got to be original. And, you know, just mocking somebody for the lowest hanging fruit doesn't make any sense. And that's what Colby's gone to. So that's why I have a bigger problem with this, because it's just not, it's just not interesting anymore. He just has no, he has no material. It's the same old stuff. And it's, it's boring. And when I say it's over the line, it just, there's no purpose for it. He doesn't really have anything to say about Dostoporias. So he has to go after his wife and kids because he's trying to try to make a reaction. All right, a couple more here. Damon will go to you on this one.

Ben Ascran said on the MA hour that he actually thought Colby did the right thing calling out Dustin Porre. He thought, you know, maybe some of the stuff was over the line. Maybe you shouldn't have said things in the way he said it. But the fact that he targeted Dustin Porrier, he actually thought it was a good call. So was this an overreaction or an underreaction from Ben Askron in terms of Colby's call out of Dustin Porier? I say underreaction because weirdly I agree with it. been. Now, I'm not saying they're going to make the fight. I'm not saying it should be made, but I actually like the callout because Colby's in a bit of no man's land right now at

Walter Wade because he has two losses to Mazadol. Yes, he can get a third fight eventually, but it's not going to be down the road. And while I think the better matchup for the division in terms of getting back to a title shot would be Colby fighting the winner of Hamzot and Gilbert Burns coming up at UFC 273, that's the one that makes more sense, absolutely. But You know, even if, again, let's say Hamzaat beats Gilbert Burns and he goes on and fights Hamzad. That's, of course, a very high risk, potentially high reward situation. But even if he beats Hamzad, I'm not sure that the UFC is just going to suddenly rush him back into a third fight with Usman. Because I don't know if that interest would be there two fights later.

I feel like he's a guy who's going to have to win three or four, you know, to get back in there, to get back into that title shot. Because, you know, even though he had great rounds against Usman, he lost both fights. He got knocked out in one and lost the other one. I don't care what Colby says. He lost the second when it wasn't controversial. He lost a fight. Dustin Porre is a bigger fight. Dustin Pori is a top five name in the UFC right now.

Dustin Pore is a star, and Dustin's also in a bit of No Man's Land after losing to Charles Olivera, after previously losing the head of Bidemagamatov. So I like the callout. I don't think it's going to get made, and I don't think it really makes sense, but I like the callout.

He's going for big fights. And guess what? That's the norm nowadays. People go for bigger fights than the fights that makes sense. So in that regard, I completely agree with Ben Ascran. I'm not saying I agree that it should happen, but I 100% agree with the callout.

What do you think, Chad? Right call out? You agree with that, Ascran? Did he, is this an overreaction, underreaction? What do you think? I think it's the right callout. There's just nobody else from the call out.

I know you have argued for kind of him coming out and doing the actual real fighter thing, but Kobe Covington isn't that. And so you just can't, you can't expect him to come out and be like, hey, Hamzot, Gilbert Burns, I'm the top dog, I'll beat everybody, whoever I got to get back. That's not who Colby Covington is. That's not who he's going to ever try and be.

So, like, honestly, that would ring more hollow to me than any of the other things, he says. And I think that kind of gets to the crux of the matter here for, like, our opinions on Colby Covington. Whether his trash talk is bad or not, like, morally questionable, I'll let him. other people debate. But the reason anybody thinks that it sucks is because his heart obviously isn't in it. So he's just saying mean things without actually meaning them. Whereas if he like was about that life and lived that way, weirdly people would be more respectful of him, you know, talking the trash that he is talking.

And so with this one, I actually think it's a little bit of the inverse there where everybody kind of dislikes it because it like, what it is. is implicitly, but this is actually like who Colby really truly is in his soul is, I want to fight the lightweight who can't wrestle. Like that's, that's the dude I want to fight, which is smart and that's the dude he should want to fight. But Colby's not the guy who's like, I want to fight the toughest dudes I possibly can. That's not, he's not here to prove those things.

He's here to sell himself in a way to try and make money without jeopardize. jeopardizing as little as he possibly can. And so that's the dichotomy here at work. And it's why Colby's trash talk fails like all around is because he is torn apart. Everything he does that he means nobody's into and everything that he doesn't mean, we can all tell it's fake.

And so I think this is the right call out for who he is as a person, but it was always going to fall flat because it looks like a big kid picking on a little kid and nobody's that interested in that. Yeah, I'll be interested to see what happens in this Gilbert Burns, Hamzad fight because unless Hamzad gets on the mic and calls for Colby, I feel like he's next in line for a title shot. Like Leon's probably going to get it, but Hamzad is a very good chance of fighting the winner of that fight.

And if for some reason, and Leon has been snake-bitten in the past, if for some reason Leon gets injured or something happens, you slide Hamzad in there. So I don't know if the UFC goes down that well, but I think if Gilbert Burns wins, they will absolutely make that fight between Gilbert Burns and Colby Covington. So last one, last one, Jed will start with you. This has been probably the most popular one

that I've gotten over the last couple days. It doesn't matter what happened on Saturday. Mazadol's a star, makes no difference to his stock, and he will headline a pay-per-view in his next fight, overreaction or underreaction. Ooh, who-hoo. That is a very interesting one.

I think that's no, I think that's an overreact. but it might just be spot on. I think it's closer to overreaction than it is to underreaction, but it may just be dead on. I think to a large extent, Masadol has insulated himself from losses. I mean, this is third one in a row. He has a little bit of that Nate Diaz to him where it kind of doesn't matter. He's just going to be who he is.

But I also think like he did not come out of this look. great. Like he did not do almost any of the things that he had said that he was going to do. And there is a decided difference between taking a Nate Diaz style loss where

he lost 24 minutes to Leon Edwards, but then staged a last second comeback to where he can still be propped up by that versus getting beat pillar to post for 25 minutes and like not just edged out and strikes like Leon Edwards did Nate or whatever, like technically defeated.

Like, Mastredal got beat up for most of that fight. And that's, I think that really does affect him. So I suspect he still will be able to, he still will headline a pay-per-view because they paid him a bunch of money. They might just run back to Nate fight, which is certainly a pay-per-view headline event. And he still has enough draw that the UFC is at least going to see, see where he's at on the headline thing. but I don't think that it doesn't matter part of that is true.

I think Masadol is on a slippery slope right now to falling back to Earth if he doesn't write the train. Damien, overreaction or underreaction to that, that Mazadal stock doesn't take too much of a hit and that his next fight will be in a pay-per-view main event. I say underreaction, and the main reason being is because while I do think he can headline a pay-per-view, at this point, it also now matters who's on the other side of the cage for, him. You know, Mazvedal is no longer a welterweight title contender. He's no longer in that race to get back to Kumar Usman.

He lost twice. He's now lost to Covington. No one is going to go crazy to watch Mazhvedal fight Hamzat Shamaev because we all know what's going to happen. So, I say underreaction because if Mazvedal can somehow lure Connor McGregor into the fight, that is a

massive fight. That is a non-title fight that would absolutely headline a pay-per-view, and that's as much about Connor, of course. But it's also about Mazadol. That would a very, very big fight. We all know, of course, Nate Diaz, but at this point, I don't know that there would be a huge amount of interest in Jorge Mazinol versus Nate Diaz again on pay-per-view, because the first fight, you know, was pretty lopsided. It ended with cuts, and again, kind of unfortunate that happened, but it was a pretty lopsided fight up to that point. And we all know Nate's

on the final fight of his contract. The UFC is hesitant to give him any fight right now, much less headline of pay-per-view with him. I just don't see them giving him that opportunity to potentially win a fight, get on the mic with Joe Rogan and somehow curse the UFC and then walk out the door. I just don't see them doing that. That's not how the UFC operates. So it's possible, but I think it's an underreaction because I think at this

point it really comes down to the opponent because I don't think, you know, yes, you could do Horamazwithal against Leon Edwards. There's still some interest in that, even though they completely blew making that fight like two years ago. But that's not a pay-per-view headliner. I mean, Leon Edwards is not a name. Leon Edwards has never really

been a name. While I love Leon Edwards as a fight, he's not he's not going to sell a lot of pay-per-views for that fight that is a that is a pay-per-view co-main event you know that is that kind of fight or you know whatever you want to do or you take it to London headliner or you do a Miami fight night or London fight night you're not going to headline a pay-per-view and expect to sell a lot of pay-per-views. So I say under reaction because at this point Mazadol needs the right dance partner I think the only dance partner he can get that would headline of pay-per-view is Connor McGregor. I have a... Jed, I know you just want to go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, no. Well, I just laughed because I have long said that no one cares about Leon Edwards, one of my recurring bits on this program.

And I think that that is still holding true. This is just a question for both of y'all. Do we think that, like, Mastodal does have the BMF title in his back pocket? Like, he can just pull that out and be like, I'm going to put this up. Like, I will defend this against Vicente Lucke or whoever the hell he wants to do it. like that's that certainly headlines of pay-per-view right if he's like yeah i'll fight it i'll throw it out there i mean i think i mean dana was asked about it before this one he said yeah we probably should have done that and then he didn't ever did it so i mean hypothetically yes but

i mean does mazill even have the juice now to say i'm going to defend my bmf title against vicente luke and people are going to get super excited about it you know oh it would be a phenomenal fight don't get me wrong i think it'd be awesome i just don't know the people are going to plunk down $75 to watch it. I would pay $75 to watch that. The Cincinnati Luque is a hater. Like, I'll watch the city. He might be the most exciting fighter on the entire roster,

so I'll watch that guy do anything. I'm just saying for the general public, now they've jacked up the prices yet again, $75 might be a bit steep. I mean, yeah, Justin H. He kind of ruined the title. But that's true. Lucas number two or three.

The second the rock put that belt around his waist, the belt was like meaningless. It was just a one time thing. We're never doing it again. This is it. Like never happening again. And then it's been no sold every single time. So if you're going to do it right, that belt should have been up as a prop like every single time. Like the hardcore title.

Like it should have been like Usman should be the BMF champion. I disagree. No, like I actually totally disagree. I think there's a very sellable narrative here. of like, look, let's, let's be honest. Camaro Ouse was one of the best fighters we've ever seen, but he was not tearing the world down with excitement and stardom coming into that first Jorge fight.

Like, most people thought he was boring. And then in that first Jorge fight, he foot stomped his way to victory. Like, he has become this incredible one of the best fighters ever, ridiculous narrative about surpassing GSP aside. Like, he has become that. but he is not somebody you would have ever qualified as like a BMF dude rolling into that first fight or that second fight frankly and like now maybe but I'm still not even with the way of the Colby fight and then Colby obviously is not a BMF contender so like I'm totally cool with that to just be like I don't know these are a bunch of wrestlers who win a lot of decisions and aren't that fun and Colby's who has never stepped up on short notice to do anything in his life. So no, but now that I'm back, Vicente Lucay's a hitter. Let's get after it.

Like that's, I think there's a totally sellable narrative for that title. Hey, listen, if you can turn that thing around and make it interesting again, then sure. But it just after that fight, it just was nothing. Like Dana, everybody knows sold us, never being defended. It's never happening again. So if some reason we can put some interest back on that belt, Luca would be awesome. That'd be like the best fight for it.

or if Gachi went up to 170 just for like a fun fight with Mazadol for the BMF title. Like that would be cool. I was going to, I was just going to smack myself. I said the most exciting fight. I apologize, Justin Gachie. I just forgot about you for a second. I am so sorry. Justin Gage is that guy.

But Gachi, yeah, oh my God, Gachie Mazadol. If Gajie doesn't beat Olavera, give me Gaichi Mazadol tomorrow. Now that's a payper view I would buy. Let's do that. Can we make that? I think Gachie is going to win. so that'll ruin that. But I kind of want him to lose now

because I don't care to see Gaei get wrestled to death again by Mokachev. We can watch Olivera suffer that fate. And instead, Gae can do fun things. Well, we'll see what happens for both of these guys. Mazelal is going to be fine. Celebrity-wise, bank account wise, legacy-wise, time will tell. But, you know, in Covington,

clearly not everyone's cup of tea to say it lightly. but the man can fight his ass off. He is the second best Walterweight in the world, in my opinion. It'll be interesting to see when he returns. And against whom I know you're going to say, we'll see. We'll see. He's got to be Gilbert Burns before we can, in my opinion, he could be in that conversation. But we'll put a bow on UFC 272 in round two.

And remember, this is a vote by the people to determine the overall winner. So keep that in mind. The poll may already be out there or it's going to be out there shortly. So be prepared for that. But the point for round one goes to, it goes to Jedmishu. one nothing close very close round Jed posing questions and trying to change the narrative actually worked in this

in this situation I just don't understand how the people can choose in round five who wins if we don't even make it to round five what if I what if I knock out Damon before then we're just assuming that this goes goes to a judge's decision questionable that's all I'm saying we'll see

we'll see what happens I mean I can only be one man. I can't judge all of this, but I mean, I guess I can. Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-havs to cozy at-home essentials,

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And maybe the answer is Covington. After that, went over Jorge Mazadol. Maybe it's somebody else. But who is the MVP of UFC 272? If that award were to be given, there's an MVP trophy for this event, the golden four-ounce gloves. Who gets the trophy? I mean, that's.

That's tough. I think you have to do Bryce Mitchell. I don't feel great about that if we're being honest, but Bryce seemed to get the most reaction from the crowd at the time. You know, one, he came in absolutely stomped all over Edson Barbosa. I thought it was a good fight for him. I didn't think it was even that good a fight for him, but he really ran up the score on Barbosa, rinsed and pillar to post. So a tremendous performance, got a couple, got a 30, 25. Like, that's how bad that was. And then on the mic, a little odd. I'm not going to say that, like, I was with him for all of it. But the crowd seemed to really vibe it. And we're just being honest, like the, what he is saying, the broad point there of, hey, I want to help underprivileged children in my native state of Arkansas.

I'm going to donate half my fight purse to that. like who's not on board with that. So certainly some of the other stuff that he has said this week after the fact, I'm not a big team player with that. But the fact that he is now getting those bigger platforms, I think some of that certainly can be attributed to his success on Saturday night. I think if one guy's stock rose the most this past weekend, I think it's just got to be Bryce Mitchell.

Damon, do you agree, Bryce Mitchell, MVP here, or are you going in a different direction? You know, I mean, the reality is the fighter who gets the most out of a win here, the fighter who really walks away with the biggest win is Colby Covington. But I'm going to go in a different direction only because I'm going to play to the hearts and minds of our audience here. And I'm going to say the MVP of UFC 272 is Marina Morose. Because what she's going through right now is her family and friends living into Ukraine and then going out there and fighting a bitter rival like Marriott. Raya Agapova, to go out there and do that to her, to win that fight, to submit her,

and then make that emotional speech afterwards and then talk about, you know, the horrors and the atrocities happening in her home with her family and her friends and all this kind of stuff. I mean, I can't even wrap my head around, you know, that. I mean, we as Americans, no one on this, you know, we've lived through, you know, the Afghanistan war. We've lived through, you know, desert storm, things like that. But we've not, you know, personally had that fight come to our home, you know, outside of 9-11,

And, you know, we've not had that kind of atrocity carried out on our home soil. And so for that, to have that happen and then fight during that is ridiculous. And so for Marina Moros to go out there and get the win, after such a long layoff and such a bitter rivalry with her opponent, and then to go out there and give that speech, a heartfelt speech where, you know, she had tears in her eyes. I was just, listen, I'm, I don't, you know, when it comes to fighting, I mean, everyone says, you know, you shouldn't bring up politics, although in MMA it seems to happen quite constantly. but this is a situation I think we all, you know,

this is probably the one global situation that we're all in the same side for an listener named Sean Strickland. So I think that, you know, her going out there and winning impressively and then giving that speech, man, I mean, again, how could it not pull out your strings a little bit?

It's a very good answer right there. And, you know, politics has been brought into this sport quite a bit. Also, the financial world has been brought into the sport a little bit. So this is the follow-up question here. It seems we're talking about Marshall Roe token coins and Bitcoins and cryptocurrency and stuff like that. So, David, if the entire UFC 272 roster, all the fighters were crypto coins or stocks,

and they had sort of like fantasy football value heading into the event, like this is how much this guy would have cost if you put them in your lineup. Then they competed. Maybe their stocks rose a little bit after Saturday. Maybe you see bright futures. Some good ROI, Damon, if you will. Who are you spending your money on and why? Like whose stock are you just like, you know what?

It might not be that expensive now, but this could pay dividends for me. Boy, I tell you what, that's a tough one. That's a really, really tough question. I mean, in my in my head, you know, even though I'm not, I'm not sold on how far he'll go in this division because, you know, I'm not sure that Edson Barbosa is the greatest gatekeeper necessarily. But I got to say Bryce Mitchell because he is a legit guy getting into that top 10 right now. and now he is a real threat with his ground game and his submission game. And there's not a lot of high-level wrestlers, you know, at Featherweight.

I mean, there's some good guys. Josh Emmett's a really good wrestler, but he doesn't really use his wrestling all that much. You know, Brian Ortega, of course, incredible on the ground, but not much of a wrestler. But, you know, I'm, I think Bryce Mitchell's a really interesting one coming out because I think a lot of people thought this was going to be maybe a wake-up call for him because, you know, Edso is such a dangerous striker. He's always shown pretty solid takedown to him. and for him to go out there and just suffocate Edson Barbosa for three straight rounds, I became a believer in Bryce Mitchell because I thought he was good. I didn't know that he was that good.

And so for me, it's got to be him because now, you know, are you going to tell me that you put him in, and I, listen, I'm, you know, you will not find a bigger fan of guys like Igit Chacazze or Calvin Cater, guys like that who are kind of on the fringe of that top five, top six in the world. But you're going to tell me that Bryce Mitchell, if he can get either one of those guys down, he couldn't dominate that fight. I'm not saying he will. I'm saying you couldn't,

you couldn't make that argument. So Bryce Mitchell's a guy, man. He's a guy to watch coming out of this because, again, the guys who are probably going to give him the biggest issue in terms of wrestling and grappling, there's not a ton of those guys,

you know, in the featherweight division. Jed, I mean, my thoughts on Bryce Mitchell heading into this card, and I know you're laughing at the question because, you know, I like to think outside of the box a little bit, but I felt,

I mean, I felt Bryce was like one of the, higher price tags on the card, even though he was fighting Edson Barbosa. I felt that unless he got just knocked out with something like out of the blue, the fight that we saw on Saturday was pretty much the fight we were going to get, a 30-26 who's going to take Edson down over and over again and just make life miserable. I think Bryce was going to go out there and drop him in that first round? No, but the fight that we saw is pretty much what I went on the preview show and predicted.

So his stock clearly rises, but it was probably a hefty price tag. So who's your ROI fighter? Who's your guy that the stock rose the most from a small price tag? And maybe it's now going to be a little heftier when he next competes inside that octagon. So the reason I'm laughing, Mike, as a God's honest, true story, for the last like five years before NFTs and like crypto really became like this big pervasive thing in the world, I have been hounding my friends with this idea for a product called people. stock, which was exactly what it sounds like. You could invest in people and then essentially play fantasy sports or life, which was, it's a very nebulous concept that I had no idea beyond being like, man, I would have loved to have bought stock in the rock like 12 years ago

because that would be paying huge dividends right now. And all of my friends were like, this is very stupid and it would never work. And you're an idiot. And, And now here we are, and you independently came to a very similar thing that I did. And little did we know we should. NFTs were just the way to go about it. I could be super rich right now with people stock NFTs. But alas, instead, I'm here. To get to your question, obviously I said I think Bryce Mitchell kind of did the most for himself.

I think that is certainly true. But if I'm, you know, if I'm trying to make a savvy investment here, I think, I think, I think there are a couple of options. I think the first one that kind of immediately jumped out to me was Umar and Armagamatov. Obviously, he's got the big cachet name and he already has a fight and he came in as a huge betting favorite. But it's kind of like when Bitcoin, when everybody's like, I don't know, Bitcoin's at 10K, that's a little high.

We probably shouldn't buy into Bitcoin. And then it just kept ballooning up to the moon. I sort of feel like that's where Umar is right now. We're like, sure, he's a minus 900 favorite against. Brian Keller. But the next poor soul who gets put in against him, he's going to be a minus 1,200, when he should in fact be like a minus 15,000 because he's going to beat the bricks off the dude.

So certainly there's some value there, even though the line might feel steep. But I'm going to buy the dip. Kevin Holland had a rough run of things at middleweight, lost three in a row. I know one became a no contest. So lost two and had a no contest in a row. But he looks for juvenile at Welterweight, Mike. looking great. Alex Olivaira gave him a little bit of issue for

the first round while he was adjusting to the new weight class and then he just put it on him and I am really interested to see what Holland could do in this weight class. I think the fact that he fights so often means he probably won't ever make a real title run. It's hard to build momentum

that way but I think that he is a bright future even you know competing as he said earlier this week on the MMA hour with Darrell Halani, he wants to fight six times this year. He wants to fight at both Walterweight and middleweight. Give that man another six fights.

He's going to put together another 2020 campaign. And at the end of the year, that stock's going to be up here. So I'm buying the dip, baby. Kevin Holland. It's a great answer. He's going to have a TV show, fighting trolls. So really, buy the dip. Which is what?

It was, what, bully beat down? Like, bully beat down 10 years after the fact. He's a human. That's a very good answer. but the next pay-per-view for the UFC is April 9th in Jacksonville, UFC 273, and that is a ridiculous card. I cannot wait until we're knocking on the door on that one, and we're talking about fighter stocks and NFTs and people stocks.

But that's in a round of month. A lot going on this weekend in MMA. That's where we're going next. The point for round two goes to. I mean, I have to give it to Damon for the Marina Morose answer, because if I didn't, I'm just the worst. But that was an absolutely true. absolutely terrific answer.

Yeah, well done. Let us move ahead to this weekend. Let's move ahead to tomorrow. And actually the weekend in general, because I want to expand upon this question before we get specific to Eagle FC, because they are back with another U.S. event in Florida, main event 165 pounds to Kevin Leah and Diego Sanchez.

We'll talk about that fight specifically in a moment. UFC is UFC Vegas 50, headlined by Tiago Santos versus Magamenekelaiath. Bellator has Bellator 276, headline by Adam Borch versus Mads Bernel, five rounds at 145 pounds. Title Eliminator. Winner will probably fight the winner of AJ McKee

versus Patricia Pitbull unless something crazy happens. So Damu will begin with you. On paper, best card of the weekend. If you could only watch one and you can't find out what happened with the others for like a week, which one are you watching and why? This is a tough one because I know my favorite fight of the weekend, but it's not on my favorite card of the weekend.

So it's a tough one. Top to bottom. card. To me, it's the UFC. And for a couple of reasons. One, I'm a big, big believer in Maghobat Ankleyev. I've been a big, big believer in his since he came into the UFC. Of course, he had that kind of freaky loss to Paul Craig.

A fight he was winning. He got caught, got submitted, but he's come out since then, you know, beaten everybody after that, you know, coming off a winner of Volcan Osdabir. It looks like a guy who could be a title contender. So that's a great fight. Marlon Marlon Marius, Sonia Dong, is a great fight. Marlon Marlon Marius was a guy,

you know, two, three years ago, if you're telling me, if you're asking me to pick who's going to be a future band to wait champion of the UFC looking at the roster, I would have said Marlon Marius, hands down. Now he's been on this big losing streak. He's lost several in a row, had that crazy fight with Maraub de Vosvili, but still, you know, it was a crazy good fight until he got finished.

But this is kind of make or break for Marlon? You know, is he still atop banterweight, or is he going to be out of the UFC? I mean, I think there's a real possibility he loses here and he's gone. I mean, I just think that's the reality of the situation. and then a fight that wasn't even made until like four days ago. But I loved the matchup. Terrence McKinney, who is a phenom.

I love him. So explosive, so fun. Big knockout artist. Incredibly strong guy taking on Drew Dober. And Drew Dober is always a fun fighter to watch. A guy who goes out there gets a lot of big finishes, heavy puncher, fun to watch. So those three fights make it the best card. I don't know if you're going to ask about the best fighter right, Mike, but I'm just going to say it.

The best fight of the weekend, controversial or not? is Kevin Lee versus Diego Sanchez, but the best card is EEOC. Oh, we will definitely talk about that fight. Don't you worry about it. Jed, what's yours? What's yours? One card, can't watch another. Can't go on social media.

Can't get results. Can't get anything. You have to sit on the sidelines for the other two. Which one wins? I'm reeling. I just got rocked by Damon coming in with the hot take that Kevin Lee, Diego Sanchez is the best fight of the weekend. That is, I love that.

I love the energy you're bringing it because that is not what I would describe that fight as. Maybe the most popular fight, but not the best. Look, I agree with a lot of what Damon said. I actually think Bellator's offering this week is pretty good as far as Belator goes. They do not have a marquee fight, which is a real tough sell. But they have a lot of fights I'm actually genuinely interested in. If you're doing the whole card, I have to say the UFC, because, I think this apex card is one of their better offerings.

Again, like Belletoy, it doesn't have the super high marquee fight do you want, though. I'm really big on Magamette and Kalayev. I, in a piece I wrote with, with Sean Al-Shadi, our, I guess, editor. I guess that's his official job title here. Earlier this year, I predicted Ankylaev to be the light heavyweight champion by the end of the year. So I'm super in on that fight in general, but I recognize lack of. the name value, but I just think the rest of that card is filled with really competitive, fun, interesting matchups.

But if I have, if I buy your parameters, I got to wait a week to find the results out, I'm going curveball, baby, one championship this weekend, this week. I think it's on Friday, so it's tomorrow, but two title fights going down at one championship. Don Lee versus Gary Tonin. Gary, Gary Tonin, obviously is super accomplished grappler. interested to see, like, I think Don Lee's a really good fighter. And so that's actually maybe the best pure fight of the weekend, or at least the most interesting fight of the weekend for me.

And then also, Bibiana Fernandez putting up his featherweight championship against John Lineker. This one, apparently there's maybe some questions about Fernandez making weight. I saw that earlier today. But assuming the weight thing gets settled, John Hansenstone Linnaker is one of the most exciting people to watch fight. He just walks forward and rips body shots and can't be hurt by punches or baseball bets to the dome because that's just how God made him. And Bibiano Fernandez is one of the best fighters in the world that nobody talks about.

So those two fights alone, like those are the results I am the most interested in. So by your parameters, that's the fight card that matters the most to me, week. It's an excellent curb ball right there. So we won't talk about you.

Go ahead, David. But how good is the car when you say I think it's on Friday? That's where you just out there's when you say I think it's on Friday.

How interesting can it really be? I'm just saying. Poor, poor phrase of my poor phrase on my part. But yes, it's on Friday

because it's one, and they do everything in Singapore. So that's how the world works for us. those two fights plus Martin wins fighting Martin wins usually down for a good time the rest of the card's not very strong I'm not here to defend what's happening underneath the top the marquee but those two results matter more to me than probably any other results this weekend so if I had to wait to find out I would rather get those ones instantly and then wait to figure out oh margammon and Kalaya have just beat the brakes off Tiago Santos okay about what I expected So we'll dive a little more into the UFC and Bellator main events in a moment, but Damon did say something, and I want to get your take on this, Jed,

because I want to focus on Eagle FC. I want to focus on Kevin Lee versus Diego Sanchez. Both fighters made weight this morning. That one is official. Jed, I think we talked about this on the show. I have been very public with my thoughts on this matchmaking. And to say that I'm not a fan of it would be one of the biggest understatements of the century. It's probably on, in terms of X's and O's,

in my eyes, clearly not Damon's eyes. This is the third best main event of the weekend in terms of X's and O's, but far and away the most notable main event of the weekend in terms of name value and the mom test, if you will. But after everything Diego has gone through and his fighting career and the Fabia stuff

and the horrible bout with COVID and just everything, seeing this fight on paper, it made me feel uneasy. And I think a lot of us in some way felt the same way. But listen, Diego seems to be reduced. He's got some energy to him. He's got that Diego look, that intensity.

And it's at that point where like any time he speaks, like, I'm compelled by it. I haven't felt that way in a while, but I'm kind of feeling it right now. So we're a day away from this fight, Jed. Do you feel any differently about it compared to maybe when it was first on the radar? Are you concerned about it? What do you think? I feel substantially similar to how I felt then. if you set aside any concepts of morality, great main event, great fight, exactly the matchmaking

you want. Kevin Lee is going to be the guy you're building a promotion around, get him a win over or name people know that will probably be pretty dynamic and interesting as far as the highlight goes. A lot of questions about whether it's okay to put together this fight, but, you know, Eagle F. He was also trying to bring back Bigfoot Silva. So that's not something they're all that concerned with. I think kind of based on what we've seen, I think it's still fine.

We all know what this is and what we're getting. I don't think that this is, Diego is not to a point in his career, at least from an in-cage perspective. Some of the stuff you mentioned earlier about the things that happened outside the cage, give me an enormous amount of concern about what. where he is at, you know, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, but he seems to be better after the split with Babia. You know, that's really tough for us to have any idea.

We aren't him. We're not inside his head. But he does seem to be outwardly better than he had looked and felt to us viewing it. So that's good. And his in-cage performance, the man is certainly diminished. He's, I don't know, 40 years old. How old is Diego Sanchez? He's 40.

So, yeah. but he is not he is actually not like totally falling off a cliff in so far as he he's still pretty game you know he's athletically he's not there but and his chin is may is not as good as it once was but he is not you know this is not chuckle-dell fighting tito at 55 and this is a horrible horrible thing that we're doing i think that this is still reasonable to promote um you know if maybe a little on the nose and fine, you know. We all know what we're going to get. It's not going to be the greatest thing in the world, but we're going to get to the end result that Eagle FC wants. And Deo gets a bag. I'm all four people getting bags.

So get that bag, Diego. All right. I mean, you can't deny the get in the bag thing. Make that money while you can. Damon, you're very high on this fight compared to a lot of these other fights this weekend. There's some that obviously stick out to you, but you seem to have your eye on this one. You seem to have this one circled more than any other.

Why is that? It's fascinating for a couple of reasons. One, listen, I don't know there's been a bigger, I think Kevin Lee is a future champion guy in this sport than me, and maybe I'm just kind of like ride or die for that idea because I really do believe Kevin Lee is incredibly talented, but he's also one and four in his last five fights. Now, there's no shame in some of those losses.

I mean, again, losing to Charlesville. Levera, you know, losing to some of the guys he's lost to. I mean, again, no shame in that. But, you know, is Kevin the guy, is Kevin ever going to realize his true potential? I mean, that's the question. He's always said, this went wrong, that went wrong, was never in the right weight class. Now he's fighting at 165 pounds, which is what he's always said is an ideal weight class. He's getting paid, at least from what he's told me, what his manager has told me, what everyone is saying, that they're paying him very well in Eagle FC and they're treating him as a star. He's in the main event.

And Kevin said something to me leading into this fight, and I don't know that he's wrong. He said if I was still in the UFC right now, coming up, that lost to Daniel Rodriguez, he's like, I don't know that they wouldn't have given me a guy like Diego Sanchez. He's like, I feel like that's a fight that would have been made to UFC. And I can't disagree with him because we saw Diego the matches he was getting. Now, was Diego released because he wasn't,

did Diego leave the UFC because Diego wasn't, you know, a good fighter anymore because they didn't have faith? them anymore, it was because Joshua Fabio was a complete and utter lunatic. I think it's the latter. So I don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities this fight would have been booked in the UFC. And Diego, you know, I agree with Jed, he's not the Diego of old and he hasn't been that Diego for years.

But I am fascinated to see what Diego has left in the gas tank now that he's away from Fabia, hopefully getting back to like, you know, the kind of fun, wild, crazy Diego fights we always used to get. and Kevin Lee, I'm fascinated to find out, does he look like a real killer at 165? Is he going to go out there and put on a performance like he did against Gregor Gillespie? Or is he going to go out there and have this real, like, you know, lacking performance like he did against Daniel Rodriguez? So that's why I'm intrigued. I'm fascinated by this matchup.

And there's no, again, shortage of big names. I mean, Diego is probably the most well-known name of anybody fighting this weekend. And Kevin Lee, you know, headline five UFC cards. So he's a bigger name than, you know, Ankylaev. I mean, you could argue with Tiago Santos, but even him, he's not like a household name. No one cares about Mads Brunel and Adam Borch. No offense. I think they're great fighters, but Bellator has done a horrendous job of trying to promote them and, like, say, they're real main event guys.

So, yeah, I'm fascinated by Kevin Lee and Diego Sanchez because I have so many questions I need answered in this fight. I don't have that about the other fights. I actually have real curiosity about this one. So that's why it's my favorite fight of the weekend. I'll say this. I will say, go ahead, Jed. I'd be more interested if it was a five-rounder just because Kevin Lee has historically struggled with cardio. And that's one thing Diego still has.

So, like, this was a five-rounder. I could see a much more viable path for Diego to just kind of survive two rounds. And then Kevin Lee spent and then he just does his Diego thing for the back three. but the three-round route, it just feels like this is all one-way traffic to get to an end result. Depending on where you look, because I know there's not a ton of betting lines on this, but Kevin Lee's a minus 800 favorite, and you could probably go a little wider with this if we're being honest. But for those wondering, because I've gotten a bunch of DMs about this, are we going to try and do some sort of watch along for this card, maybe on Twitter spaces again like we did the last time?

I will say it was up in the air. We weren't sure probably by Tuesday or Wednesday. It was a 50-50 chance. But then we got the social media post. We found out who will be on the broadcast. Henry Suhudo will be on color commentary. And we owe it to the MMA community to provide an alternate option. So that's what we're going to be doing, my friends.

We will find a way. I have no scheduled time. It will be a pop-up more than likely. So stay tuned for that. but I know some of you will want to watch Henry Sehudo, but for those of you, probably by like an hour into the show, who are going to feel like most of us, we'll jump on Twitter spaces at some point.

Even if I don't win, even if I don't win this week, Mike, is there a chance I could come back next week just for the topic of who pronounces Nirmagamatoff worse, Joe Rogan or Henry Sehudo? Can we have that contest? It's like a one-on-one next week somehow, because I want to see which one of them butchers Nirmagamatov worse. Stay tuned.

for the post-fight show. Maybe on Saturday. We'll have that discussion. We'll bring in at some point, but we'll see what happens. Real quick, by the way, Damon, some interesting news yesterday became official. Judeo dos Santos is with Eagle FC. He's going to be fighting Jorgand de Castro. And Hector Lombard is fighting Tiago Silva.

Yes, that Tiago Silva from the UFC years ago, next U.S. card in May, I believe. I never thought I would say Hector Lombard versus Tiago Silva again in my life. But here we are. So your reaction to these fights coming up in the year of our Lord 2022, Damon? I kind of forgot Tiago Silva existed. Maybe I just kind of eliminated him from my mind. I do, you know, Hector Lombard is Hector Lombard. I mean, like I said, the guy is, you know, he fights hard.

I like Hector. I interviewed Hector a few months ago. Hector's a wild man. I still always enjoy talking. Hector, that should be interesting, I guess, the best way to say that? Because I have no, I could not begin to tell you the last time I watched Diego Silva fight. So I have no idea what he's been up to. And then, you know, Junior Dos Santos, listen, Junior got a bit of a raw deal with how he got

exited out of the UFC. I mean, anyone that knows that story about, you know, basically telling him, take this fight with Marchine Tibera or you're out of the UFC. And of course, he had just come off the knockout to Surreal Gone. Yeah, listen, they did him dirty. He did not deserve that junior. for all his faults, for all his, you know, wins and losses in recent years, he's still a certain, you're going to tell me, I mean,

he has a winner of Taito Yvoss is now the number four ranked or three ranked heavyweight or wherever is the world. So we can't sit there and say junior is completely past his prime. He's a heavyweight who's not as good as he used to be, but he's still a pretty serviceable guy. You know, you're going to tell me he couldn't go in there and fight and beat a guy like Andre Arlovsky, who I know is the greatest heavyweight and UFC, and you have seen history, according to Jedd Michoud.

But, and you're going to cast him. A Castro's a fun guy. I mean, he's another guy who came in, you know, right away, had a big win and had a couple losses, and they basically just didn't re-sign him at the end of his contract. So it's an interesting fight. You know, it's two heavyweights who are going to throw bombs at each other, so I don't know what we're really going to get beyond that.

But, yeah, I'm moderately. I mean, I'm no less intrigued by that fight than half the heavyweight fights happening in the UFC coming up in the near, in the relatively near future. Yeah, I actually, I have no issue with that fight. I'm glad Jr. is getting taken care of. I'm glad you're going to Castro, New England guy, getting the rub here, getting a big opportunity in a main event spot. So good for him. Jed, your thoughts on these two matchups and these new signings from Eagle FC.

They're both bad. I don't know what y'all are talking about. I'm fine with the signings. The signings are fine. What are we doing here? Like, if you're going to do this, Hector Lombard should be fighting Tyron Woodley. You're just dumping money at people. Nobody's trying to hire Tyron Woodley. Like, nobody cares to see. him fight. Like, I cannot imagine he is fending off offers from all these places. Just go off in a bag, fight Hector Lombard. That's a main event right

there. Junior Santos is a former UFC heavyweight champion who, like Damon said, still has some tread on the tires. He might well go out and beat Yorgandy Castro because Yorgon de Castro not great. He's just a dude. But, like, this weekend,

this weekend, tomorrow, you have a heavyweight. title fight between two people that no one cares about. Anthony Hamilton, who fought in the UFC, and I'm going to butcher the name, Rizvon Kunev, who is actually like is a prospect to some extent for the heavyweight division, or at least like a pretty good guy that they can build up. You're risking losing Junior Dos Santos as a title challenger against Jorgon de Castro. You sign JDS, great.

Have him freaking court side for the fight tomorrow. And then that dude, he comes into the cage and you do a face off. That's it. Like right there. Like, what are we doing? This seems textbook and they are butchering it. Like, how, how am I the only one who's thinking this? Am I crazy?

Am I taking crazy bills? I mean, they need main events. That's really what it comes down to. They need a main event. And junior are still a guy who can sell. I don't disagree with the whole title. the whole title situation. And by the way,

I appreciate you going with the Rizvon name because I'm very curious to see how Henry Suhdo is going to say that tomorrow night. Look, Belvoir putting Adam Borix versus Mad Bernel as a main event. You can just make up a main event. People don't have to care about it, apparently, you know. So instead of having a question, like a good one that might ruin things, just put JDS in to fight the Russian dude. I think this is so obvious.

I don't know what we're doing here. I disagree with you more about JDS in the title fight than I do. I actually fully agree with you on Hector Lombard Tire Woodley. Pay Tire Woodley, get him over there. That's the only fight anyone would care about. Put that on because you're right. No one's lining up the brink truck to say, you know what, Tyler, we really want to see you fight.

We really want to see you fight. What's the other Fury's name? The one who didn't fight Jake, whatever his name is. Tommy Fury. Yeah, you want to fight Tommy Fury or Anthony Taylor. But no, no one cares. Fight Hector Lombard. That's a fight people actually wouldn't care about.

So we'll have lots to discuss tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen. Let's move ahead to Saturday. Point for round three goes to, I got to give it to Damon because I actually, I mean, I still don't feel good about Kevin Lee versus Diego Sanchez, but I feel a little bit more at ease after that rant. So, okay, I feel a little bit better. I don't feel as disgusted by the matchmaking.

I actually took a step forward. with it. But yes, Henry Suhudo is going to have a rough night tomorrow pronouncing a lot of these names. So go into TED Palsh. Look, oh boy, this is going to be, this is going to be fun. Maybe we'll just keep the sound on as this is happening. So let's end with the double header on Saturday quickly. UFC Vegas 50. You got Belliger 276, Jed. How do you like this UFC card? Like, I mean, as a whole, because you get the main event stakes at 205. I know you like the card, but like how much do you like this. Like is this one of those cards where you're telling your friends,

dude, don't go out to the bar, stay home and watch this UFC card. Are we at that level? Is this that kind of a fight night card? I will almost never tell my friends that unless it's a massive pay-per-view because people just don't like

fighting the way that I and we like fighting. But I think that this card is one, I was hoping in Fight Week that we lose some. We got 13 or 14, team fights on it. Usually are good to lose a couple. We haven't lost any yet.

Maybe the way ends will take, knock a few off, get us to a more manageable number. But other than that, almost every fight on here is really valid and relevant to me. And so like if we're giving it a score, this is a, it's a B minus. You know, it doesn't have the, the hook to draw casuals or people who don't know anything or know very little in. but every matchup for the most part is competitive and the ones that maybe aren't that competitive they're there for they have purpose they're telling a good story

and again like I said earlier I think Magabed Ancalaev might be the best light heavyweight in the world you know I don't have him ranked that way yet we haven't seen enough of him but I think there's very much a world where he is the champion at the end of this year with just how tumultuous 205 is

And so we get to watch that. We get to watch, you know, maybe the best guy in this division or an ascending talent. Continue his march to an inevitable title fight. The co-main event is great. Damon talked about it a little bit earlier. We've talked about a lot off-camera. Marlon Marius, how much tread does he have to have left on the tires? Song Yudong, a hitter.

Dude's an absolute hitter. That fight's going to be bananas. Everything else. The main card is awesome. Like all of the fights on the main card are good. And there's just a bunch of compelling undercard action as well. So I give it a B minus. And if my friends aren't doing anything, I'd be like, hey, tune in, check it out. See, you know, hey, Khalil, roundtree is about to get after it with Carl Roberson.

Watch this. This will be fun. Which are great, Damon. On paper, this UFC fight night card, normally when we're talking about these fight night cards coming off of pay-per-view, we're trying to stay positive in fine ways. but there's some good ones on here, right? Yeah, I mean, I agree with Jed. I think it's a, you know, a B card because it's a really solid card without a great main event.

And don't get me wrong. I'm with you. I said that earlier. Like, I've been a Maga Mad Ankleyev guy since the day he arrived in the UFC, and I 100% agree he might be the best light heavyweight in the UFC right now if he gets that opportunity. So I am really high on him.

There's just not a lot of name value there. There's not a lot of interest necessarily. You know, this is a great co-main event, not necessarily a great headliner. That being said, the rest of the card is really good. I mean, I mentioned Terrence McKinney and Drew Dober. Also, one fight I haven't even talked about, of course, is Alex Paheya, of course, the stylebender killer, so to speak. He's getting on there against Bruno Silva.

That's a phenomenal fight. A fight on the prelims that's really good. Trevin Jones and Javid Basharad. I really like that fight. So on paper, the UFC card outside of the main event is really, really solid. I wish the main event was a little more high profile, not because I don't like it. I do like the matchup. There's just not really any buzz for it,

but that's kind of the lot in life with a lot of UFC cards right now. And we've seen a lot of main events getting announced. We're all kind of like, really? Like, I love Jessica Andrage. I think she's amazing, but her headlining a fight night card against, you know, limos. I'm kind of like, really?

That's a main event? Like, that doesn't strike me as a main event. Same thing here. I ain't go lie, I have a big, big high on him. And Tiago Santos, when he shows up, he can be a very, very exciting, very dominant fighter. But there's just not named, But the rest of the card, good.

Song-Yadong-Dong-Warlem-Marrias. Terrence McKinney drew, Drew Dover. As I mentioned, Alex Paheya, taking on Bruno Silva. Really fun matchups. The prelims are solid, too, even though there's like 19 fights. I agree with Jed. I wish there had been a shaved off a couple. I think 11-fight cars are about the most we need to go with, if I'm being honest.

But, you know, 14 fights touch much. But overall, it's a really solid card. Chris Matino is back for the first time since the Sean O'Malley. fight and a lot of people are excited about that. I was going to do low-key bangor, but we don't need to because Alex Bahada versus Brito Silva is 1,000% the correct answer because no one's even really

talking about it. It's one of, what do you mean no, no? People are talking all about that because Bahia's the dude. It's an oh yeah, it's an oh yeah fight. It's an oh yeah fight. We remember that it's on the car. Even Dame was like, oh yeah, like one other

other thing I want to mention, just on the prelims just on the off chance, a little selfish here, but Damon Jackson is fighting, and there's a good chance that I will get shot around on the broadcast by accident because the UFC broadcasters love to call him Damon Martin. Joe Rogan's done it. Paul Felder's done it. Dominic Cruz has done. I'm waiting to see who's next.

Yes. I can't wait for the Slack channel on Saturday during that fight. So instead of doing a low-key banger, we're going to do something a little different. Jed, we're going to start with you here. Let's get Bellator some love because this card is not, it's pretty good. The main event is very competitive. Adam Borch, Madsbrunel. There are actual stakes here.

It's a title eliminator. It's a number one contender fight. Sell this card. Your job is to sell this card and make it as interesting as possible. That's the final string of this regulation round. You need to sell Bellator 276 because I think a lot of us are in agreement. Belator does has the potential to do great things. but their promotion is just not all that good.

So let's help them out here. You know, if there's one person who you could have given this task to, it should be me, the man who regularly mocks Bellator, as being an awful promotion with no vision or promotional capabilities. Thank you for this. Look, I'm not here. I'm going to be honest with you. This is not the card you come to to get your friends interested.

interested in fist fighting. It's just not it. None of the people on this card, you probably don't know them, and certainly your friends will have no idea. And frankly, most of the people on this card are not going to go on to roles of grander prominence and relevance. But if you're looking for just, hey, I want to kill a few hours watching some really competitive back and forth fights that matter that do have stakes, there's a good argument that the Belletra. There's a good argument that the Bellator card offers the most of those this week, maybe with the exception of two title fights at one. Because, like you said, the main event, Adam Borks and Mads Brunel is actually a really good

fight. No one will know or appreciate it, but that fight, the technical of it is great. The X's and O's is great. They're going to be fighting for a title shot, so there are stakes there. You know, Adam Borks is not the world's most boring human being, and Mads Brunel is, you you know, he's a Dane. That's kind of fun. I'm reaching here, man.

I don't know. For me, I am honestly a little surprised and somehow Phil Davis is at main of inning this card. Like, I get that that's a title eliminator, but Phil Davis is at least Phil Davis. It would make more sense to me. Phil Davis, who leaves Anglicas, is a pretty good light heavyweight fight.

I think Anglicus could, Anglicas has some potential. You know, we haven't gotten to see it. He got kind of worked over by Nimcov, but otherwise, he's been a productive light heavyweight so I'd like to see if he can maybe take a leap here against Phil Davis

who's probably on the downside of his career the fight that matter I think the next two fights on the card though are some of the best fights this weekend regardless Johnny Eblen John Salter is like a really good test because Ebblin has a lot of potential to actually be like a top 10 middleweight

in the world wrestling background big power Salter just coming off fighting for a title also can grapple like we're going to learn something about eblen here and whether this is a guy that we need to stand up and take some notice of so that's all those are fights that always captivate me and j j wilson's dope like j j wilson's a really fun fighting he's fighting godzie robid raba don't um i probably butchered that my bad but that's also just like a really good lightweight contest so look

those are four very good fights um so watch them day and do it better do it better do it better well first off you didn't need to just go ahead and give me the point because jed literally just said why didn't phil davis main event this card and my answer to that is when is the last time anyone has ever said oh man i can't wait to watch this main event with phil davis i'm just saying more recently than anybody even knows who the hell adam borix is i'm just saying phil davis has never been a guy you're like oh my god phil davis appointment viewing that's all i'm saying uh has has adam boris Has Mads Burnell been that ever? Have they even come close to being that? No, but trust me, they're not going to do themselves any favors with Phil Davis on the headline. I'm just saying, sell this card. Boy, I tell you what, man. You are not going to get me in my best Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross moment here, because I am not going to always be selling with this one.

You know, I mean, listen, Bellator, when this card got announced when they said Maz Bernell and Adam Borich was going to be the main event, I was like, fun fight main events really uh like neither of these guys have ever really been pushed by bellator i mean they just have well not the belliger pushes anyone that great but they have not pushed either one of these guys that big and then suddenly they're in a number one contenders fight that no one really knows you know either guy that well so i don't know i mean sell the card you're selling it very much like the ufc car where there's not a great main event but it's a solid car i like j j j wilson very much. I'm a big, big fan of his. And I think, though, the fight, you know, the real main event fight here, but it's not a main event because, again, you're talking about two guys that, you know,

no one really knows or cares that much about on paper is John Salter and Johnny Eblen, because Johnny Eblen is a really, really good prospect. I'm super high on that kid. I think he's really good. And I think he has a potential to be a potential, you know, a title contender down the road. I don't know that you want to throw him in there against the moose too soon because that's probably not going to go well for him. But John Salter is just coming off a time. how to fight. John Slaughter's a very underrated guy. So that is actually my, probably my favorite fight on the car, because I really can't pick that one. I really can't say, man, I know who's going to win this fight. The prelims, you know, Cody Law, I've been real high on Cody Law since he's

signed with Bellator. I like him a lot. But, man, selling this card, here's here, you know what, I got it, Mike. Here's how I'm going to sell this card. Do you already have Showtime, are you already paying for Showtime? Guess what? You can watch Bellator on Saturday night. You don't have Showtime, I bet you they got a free trial right now. You can go get it and watch Bellator. That's all I got. That's literally all I got. Casey with the horn,

I mean, both you guys delivered like C-minus selling abilities, but go ahead. Damon. Damon, you got to, look, you've been nitpicking me, so I got to come of you. Eblen might contest for a title. This is Bellator, man. John Salter and Austin Manningford are the most recent,

Middle way title. Fair enough. Fair enough. Sure. We're going to challenge for us. That's true. That's true. Like that just killed me.

I do think Damon actually struck on the way to sell this, though, while we were both trying to grope. At the end, he figured it out. Hey, do you have showtime? I know that you're sad that you paid for this because there's nothing of value to watch here since you've already caught up on billions. Yeah, we've got some fights on, though. Tune into that.

they got boxed very good boxing I think the card's good I think this card might actually be the best one of all like when we're all done if we're actually like we all sat back and watched all of them I think this one actually might deliver like the most memorable moments

if we're being honest but there's gonna be some highlight reels there's gonna be some highlight reel there's gonna be some highlight real finishes in those prelims is no doubt about it's only 11 twice and then some and I was just gonna say I figured out why Phil Davis isn't the main event, Damon.

Because the main event's five rounds. And so, yeah, nobody wants Phil Davis for five rounds. That's actually why they did. Like, I'm almost certain that that is why they did that now. Hey, Phil Davis has had a couple of a couple of fun fights his last two. So maybe he goes out there and you are. You are. You are.

Phil Davis in a five round fight, you are guaranteed to get a split decision. It's all I'm saying. All right. Let's go to the points. The point for round four goes to. There it is. Jed Mishu gets the A for effort for at least trying here. And he gets the point.

It's two to two. That drum roll, it seemed like I was waiting 45 minutes for, but it came. So now it's time for the knocker round. One question decides. Well, actually it won't be one question because we haven't done this in a while. We're going back to the well. We're going back to a little game we haven't done in a while for this final round. But each competitor will have one minute to issue their response.

And once the minute is over, we will turn it back over to the peeps. You guys will vote. I assume poll has been running for a little bit now. And then we'll give you a chance to get your final votes in. And then E. Casey Liden will jump on and reveal the winner. So Jed, champions prerogative. What do you want to do? I'll go second.

We're going second. Damon, we go to you. We're going to talk about Kayla Harrison for a moment, but we're going to play a little game called What Would They Say? What would they say? We have five potential options.

You've chosen between one and five. And in 60 seconds, you have to put yourself in this person's shoes and react to the big news of the week that Kayla Harrison has re-signed with the PFL. So one through five, Damon, pick a number. And then you have to act as if. All right.

I'll just go. I'll hedge my bets here. I'll go with three. Number three. Damon Martin, one minute on the clock. You are going to react to Kayla Harrison, resigning with the PFL, as the reigning and current UFC women's band and weight champion, Juliana Pena. Giuliana Pena, your one minute starts now. Well, you know, I think it's pretty clear that, you know, Kayla Harrison was afraid to come to the UFC. you know, everyone's really afraid of me anyways. Amanda Nunes was afraid to fight me.

Ronda Rousey was afraid to fight me. Misha Tate's afraid to fight me. Kavid Mugamatov's afraid to fight me. Jujia Dostanis is afraid to fight me. Anyone who's ever been in the UFC is afraid to fight me. So I'm quite sure Kayla was afraid to fight me. So, you know, it is what it is. You know, after I get done beating Amanda Nunes later this year,

after I take her out in the ultimate fighter, I'm going to go take her 145 pound title. And then I'm just going to throw it away because I'm really not a 145-pound fighter, but then I'm going to go out and beat everybody else. I'm going to beat Holly Holman. I'm going to rematch Valentin. I'm going to be her.

So, you know, Kayla Harris would go into PFL and staying with PFO. That's where she needs to stay. We know she's afraid of me. So she did exactly what she needed to do by signing with PFL, staying out of the way of Giuliana Pena, the number one fighter in the history of the sport. Wow. That was amazing.

And still with a few seconds to spare. I actually had some tears in my eyes there. That was very good. All right, Jed. You got some tough competition here, my man. You have to choose one through five, but you can't choose three because Juliana Pena is off the board.

But we have some compelling other options here, Jed. So one, two, four, or five. I'm like my beloved Georgia Bulldogs and the Los Angeles Rams, give me number one. Well, Jed, and you picked a good one because you have a little bit of experience doing this, but now you get to really go on.

Maybe that was a rehearsal during the Kayla, Kayla Harrison reaction, bid that we did with myself, you and A.K. Lee. You're Dana White. You're Dana White. Again, for one minute reacting to Kayla Harrison, re-signing with the Professional Fighters League. Your time starts now. Wait, she did what? I didn't see that. You know, we made her an offer.

We thought it was a good one, but she's just not interested in fighting the best right now. you know, maybe maybe in the future. I can't blame her. You know, they they're paying her so much money. It's unbelievable amount of money. They're, they're going to go out of business making making offers like that. That is, that's just, that's not how you run a business. I've been running a business 25 years. I think we've done pretty well. So you could probably assume that I'm doing it right. You know, we made her an offer. She wasn't interested. You know, we'll, we'll circle back in a couple of years. But, you know, we've got our own thing going. She can keep. fighting, you know, people pulled off the street and just keep doing that thing.

We're going to keep putting on the best fights with our champion. The woman everyone's afraid of, Juliana Pena, and Amanda Nunes will running that back. And, you know, maybe down the line when Kayla's ready to really test herself against the best, you know, she won't duck us anymore. Wow. All right. Some heat being thrown in the knock around. We haven't done that in a while.

I'm so glad I've got to mix it up. And for those wondering, number two is Amanda Nunes. Number four was Chris Cyborg and number five, of course, was Scott Coker. So, but Juliana Payne, this is Dana-Light. I miss out of my Scott Coker impression. Man, I want to go back. Can I have a do over to do Scott Coker? You have a Scott Coker impression?

After we give the final decision, I'm going to let you do your Scott Coker impression because I have, I'm so intrigued right now. So the poll is up. As you see, vote now. We get a lot going on this weekend, of course. tomorrow we'll have our preview show for, I assume we're going to do both UFC and Bellator cards, mostly UFC if we're being honest.

3 p.m. Eastern, so stay tuned for that. We'll be live. We'll make that happen. Saturday we'll have the People's Pre- Oh, I'm sorry, Friday, Eagle FC. Jed and I will jump on Twitter spaces at some point during the main card and we'll have some fun watching that card all together on the interwebs. And then Saturday, People's Pre-Fight show, 30 minutes before the first fight begins.

I don't want to give a time yet because, as Jed said, there's 15 fights in this card maybe something happens at the way ends and we lose a fight maybe two so don't want to give an exact time that we'll have the post fight show all that good stuff and then AK and I are back on Sunday with on to the next one to do some matchmaking that will not be live that'll be on the podcast network so subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcast to the MA fighting podcasting network all right let's bring in Casey Liden the judge the jury the executioner the executive producer not the execution but he is going to execute somebody from virtually he's going to virtually he's going to virtually he's going to virtually somebody from this matchup. So Casey, we've heard from the peeps. They've heard the arguments. Who's got the title? Who won? This was just a terrific show, by the way.

Just extremely tense. I was on the edge of my seat. It was exciting. I'm bummed. I didn't see a Scott Coker impression. I know we've all been working on that one looking at the mirror at night, you know? Just like, but.

the fans have voted. I am closing the poll now. Your winner with 51% of the votes is, and still, Jedmishu. Oh, man. Wow, that was a battle. That was a tremendous matter.

These fan votes were being testy. That was a Phil Davis decision right there, as long I'm saying. Close. Close. Close. 51. That's amazing. The fan votes have been competitive.

They really have been. Yeah, we started doing this about like a month ago. And yeah, they've been super duper competitive. They've all been very close. No blah, Jett. So Jed, you win again, my man. You are still the champion. So you get 30 seconds to celebrate your win.

Talk about everything you want to talk about. Good, bad, and different. I just want to say thanks. You know, it means a lot more to me now that I'm the people's champ. I was always kind of. of the People's Champ, but now it's official. BTL champ and People's Champ is synonymous. I love, love the fans.

And again, for you guys, I've always shot you straight. I've told you if the card sucks and don't watch it. That's not the case this weekend. If you have nothing else to do, if you don't cancel family plans, if you've got nothing else to do, tune in. For me, Carl Roberson versus Cleo Roundtree is going to be the most exciting four minutes of fighting this month. probably. So if nothing else, tune in for that banger. And I'll see you guys tomorrow.

On the Twitter space, it'll be fun. We're going to have a great time. Damon, before we let you go, at least you can get a moral victory. I know there's not a lot of moral victories in MMA, but I got to hear the Scott Gow from Creshing. So, you know, I feel okay with my loss to Jedmishu, but I really, you know, I feel like we're going to get together into matchmakers in the next couple weeks. We're going to circle the wagons, we'll come back. We'll have an answer about me coming back on between the links at some point. But yeah, we need to sit down and talk about it internally and, you'll come back, circle back in a couple weeks. We'll tell you guys what's going on. Oh, man. That was actually, that was

actually very good. That was very good. The Julianna Pena question was great. You're just running off all the names. Where are you at, Habib? Where are you at, Habib? I think about all the games he talked about on the show, and you ran them all off. It was amazing. Well done. I had to pull that out for Julia.

That's all I could do for Julia. I'm sorry. I had to do it. Had to do it. It was freaking hilarious, man. Absolutely hilarious. All right. We are done.

You can hit the music, Casey. There it is. All right. Busy weekend ahead. Stay locked in to M.AFighting.com for all of your weekend MMA coverage. And there's going to be a lot of it starting with one championship. Tomorrow.

There we get Eagle FC. and then we get the two events on Saturday. So for Jed Bishu, for Damon, I am Mike Hack, big shots. Casey Lydon on the ones on Tuesday. Iconic boy, Sylvesterlin takes you home. We'll see you back here next week in between the legs. Good night, everybody. This is Estherlin.

You have been watching Between the Links. Don't forget to subscribe. Happy birthday, AK. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.