MMA Fighting - BTL | Dana White Breaking News Reaction, Fury vs. Usyk, UFC St. Louis Fallout, More

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Saturday will be a monster day in the combat sports world, most notably because of the boxing world as for the first time in what seems like forever, an undisputed heavyweight champion will likely be crowned as Tyson Fury battles Oleksandr Usyk for all the marbles in Saudi Arabia. With such a high-stakes and fascinating matchup, what are the biggest questions surrounding it? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss their most burning questions heading into Fury vs. Usyk, what would be the more interesting result, and who needs the victory more. Additionally, topics include UFC St Louis this past Saturday, Derrick Lewis' big win, Joaquin Buckley's victory and subsequent callout of Conor McGregor, Dana White revealing that he wants out of the UFC APEX — which coincidentally is where Saturday's UFC Vegas 92 event will be held headlined by Edson Barboza vs. Lerone Murphy — the targeted Maycee Barber vs. Rose Namajunas main event bout for July in Denver, and more. Plus, the show kicks off reacting to Dana White's breaking news about UFC 304, Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad, Tom Aspinall vs. Curtis Blaydes, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Morning Kombat's Brian Campbell. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Brian Campbell: @BCampbell Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

This is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new, edition of BTL back on another Thursday. Yes, a little earlier than usual this week. And it's always great to have you with us no matter when we do this program, just like it's always great to have our panelists here on the program to banter about with so much to discuss in the combat sports world, including a little shifting of the gears, thanks to UFC CEO Dana White. We'll get to that in a second. Let's get into it. Let us introduce the panel. First,

Mr. Hot Take, Mr. No Gray area, the Baron of Boop himself. from MMAfighting.com. Jed Mishu back on the show. Hello, Jedd. Mike, I think we can confirm now officially. Darren White, fan of the program. Dana White, fan of BTL, because he saw you tweet out.

We're going live a little earlier today. We're at noon. He was like, I got to get on IG. I got to announce 304 before BTL. I need to see what Jed and his co-panelists have to say about this event today. So, Dana, welcome. Glad to have you.

I'm still going to keep ripping the shit. out of you. Fair enough. And we'll see what Jed has to say about Dana later on the program. But back on the show, the timing couldn't be more perfect. One half of the absolutely electric morning combat duo alongside Luke Thomas from CBS Sports. The King of Connecticut, baby, BC has returned. Brian Campbell. How are you? Yeah, but how can you call Jed the Baron when I'm rocking this sweet Henen-Brow Reebok era t-shirt that I bought for 399? You better believe that. Okay, I'm only here to do one thing, win. No matter what.

99, that's a steal. Hell yeah. Well done. Bargand shopper. Much respect. Well, let's get into everything because obviously this is a big weekend coming up in combat sports, mostly for the world of boxing. But UFC CEO Dana White was like, you know what?

I know BTF is going to happen. They're going to start with Tyson Fury versus Alexander Usik, but I'm going to make sure that they shift focus on to the ultimate fighting championship. And that's what we're going to do. because probably like 15 minutes ago, Dana White goes on Instagram and says, hey, got some breaking news for you. UFC 304 going down July 27th at the Co-op Live brand new arena

in Manchester, England. Main event will be Leon Edwards versus Balamah. Muhammad. He gets his rematch. He gets his opportunity finally to fight for the welterweight title. Co-main event, Tom Aspinall, defending the interim heavyweight title. No, there will be no unification bout.

It will not be against Cyril Ghan. It will not be against Derek Lewis. It will be against Curtis Blades, a rematch for interim gold. We also found out Bobby Green is fighting Patty Pimblit. And Atta Boycano not getting the call for this one, which is kind of wild to me. And then he confirmed two fights that we had already confirmed previously. Mahama Mikhail Mursmanel Kopp, Giga Chikaze versus Arnold Allen. Jed, I'll begin with you.

Five fights made official by the U.S. UFC made by Dana White, including the main event Leon versus Belal and Tom Aspinall versus Curtis Blades with those five fights. How are we feeling about it? Good. Perfectly solid, like a rock solid card. We all knew what was happening for the main and co-main. I don't know why it took them this long to announce it, but we knew that Leon was defending and we knew that the overwhelmingly likely outcome there is it would be Belal. We're not excited about it, but it's the thing that's going to happen. Sometimes you got to eat your leafy greens. We also knew that Tom Aspinall was fighting. He has said this much like, yeah, I'm fighting at Manchester. I don't care who it's against.

I am fighting there. And it seemed with the news out there, the rumors that Seerogon couldn't do it, Seerogon has got other obligations. He's in the next like couple of weeks here going to be one of the torchbearers for the Olympic Games as they route their way up to Paris. So he's got other stuff going on, can't do it. Curtis Blades made the most sense. both parties had called for it. We knew that was happening. The one here that is maybe not entirely unexpected just because Bobby Green did call for it after his 300 win is Bobby Green Patty Pimblit. And the only reason that's a little unexpected is Anato Mikano was also in the running, but Bobby Green gets the call. Moikano's already tweeted about it. Says, hey, good on him. It's a good

fight. Can't wait. So that's like the only one that we couldn't have really figured was going to happen, even if we maybe had some inkling. And it's all for. fine. Like this is a $2.99. It's not $300. But this is a rock solid pay-per-view lineup. This is it doesn't have broad casual appeal, but it's still doing fine. You got currently the most successful, the most successful current champion and Leon Edwards with two title defenses. So fine. This is a perfect card to go to Manchester with. I know the arena situation is a bit interesting, but I think this is what we expected. I'm glad it's finally out there because we all knew it was happening, and now we can kind of look forward to what will be a good night of fights.

BC, your thoughts. I mean, I think of some of this was at least somewhat expected, but now that it's all there, what do you think? I mean, look, what Jed said kind of sums it up across the board in the fact that it doesn't necessarily woo us, meaning you and I American blokes to some large degree. It's got three of the most popular UK stars and the fact that they're all in the same card. on UK soil is certainly a big deal itself on a regional level and is a big enough pay-per-view where I'm not going to sit here and complain. But I'm just happy that we're finally remembering the name and that Bilal Mohammed can finally get this fight so we can move on with the division because there certainly are big,

sexy names that we want to see, eventually get this shot at the title, whether it's Ian Gary, whether it is Shavkat Rock Monoff. And this fight has been unnecessarily stretched out, extended, delayed threats of substituting in. Let's just get this. Let's move on. Let's see where we stand afterwards because certainly say what you will. Bilal Mohammed has earned this. I'm glad he didn't get passed over just merely for the standpoint of meritocracy that we continue in that direction. Unfortunately, obviously, there's nothing meritocracist. Is Thomas my head here with these William and Mary education words? I don't even know if that's a word, but the heavyweight commain in that interim title

situation couldn't be more of a disaster from that standpoint. So we get a little mix of everything you get Patty in a matchup. He could lose. That'll be fun either way. Move the chains. It's good enough. Let's keep going in the right direction and away from that apex. Dana had a great idea, right? You know, I'll get sure we'll talk about that. Hey, he's been saying forever, guys, let's get out of the apex. We're out of there. Great idea, Dana. That's right. Hey, guys, do you think I can get branded on my ass? Anything in particular? Is this a, you know, too soon? All right, let's keep the jokes going. I feel like we have to credit John Anick for breaking this main event

because John tweeted out a couple days ago, booked by flight to Manchester, see you there, B-170, so I guess we have to credit John. So kudos to him for breaking this fight. Real quick before we move on, B.C., what's the most interesting fight?

Of all the ones that are there, what's the one you have your eye on the most? I know you mentioned Bilal finally gets his title shot, but we get Aspenov Blades. There's a story there, Curtis Blades, even though it was weird. He's the only man to defeat Tommy Aspinall inside the octagon, which is a pretty big deal considering what Tom has looked like since.

And prior to that, what's the more interesting fight to you? Is it Aspinall Blades or is it Leon versus Bilal 2? Neither one, Mike. They're passable, decent fights in their own way. I'm more excited to see where Patty's at in the journey of stardom and to find out if he ever truly is for real or not. again passable paper view card am i into the aspirin all story with blades no i mean he did lose to him

but it was an injury as brendan shop once said done count so it doesn't uh we're gonna move forward we're going to have him probably survive in advance i'm glad to see blades work himself back into this situation knocked out jowlton almeda put himself in the spot really for the third time to finally be truly taken seriously on the title level but no mike all the fights i really cared about were seemingly packed into 299 and 300. So I'm trying to play piecemeal on the cards from here on out. Okay, maybe I'm just a hater. I don't know.

Fair. Jed, what say you? Because look, we're living in a world that on July 27th, we're going to see the Law Muhammad and Curtis Blades fight for UFC titles, two guys, two different divisions, but the same similar story where there's been many times where they were in position where you could say, like, okay, this guy should fight for the belt next. and for one reason or another, they were skipped over.

It's almost like the UFC was trying to avoid it altogether, trying to find something a little sexier to put in their places every single time. But now they both get their chance. Is either these two fights the most interesting of the five officially announced, or are you with BC? It's something outside of that. No, I think it's the co-made event. I think it's Aspenall Blades.

There's part of me, kind of like DC alluded to, I'm interested in Bobby Green, Patty Pimblet, both Patty kind of continuing to be a major, your star and this being really Bobby Green's moment, his, his Jorge Mosvado been asked for an opportunity. This is the win he can get that can get him over like Mossvedal got over. If you could do something like a four second knee. But ultimately, that's just not as meaningful to me as watching two of the five best heavyweights in the world fight. Because that's what that matchup is.

The co-main event is the best heavyweight in the world, the actual champion, not a doo-doo sitting on his ass waiting to fight a retired firefighter. it's the actual dude who has multiple wins in this weight class against top opposition who is putting a belt on the line. Tom Aspinall is my number one heavyweight in the world and he will remain so until such time as John Jones decides to quit being a big fat chicken. And so I'm greeting to watch the not the baddest man in the world. Francis still get by rights owns that title. But the heavyweight champion of the world right now is Tom Aspinall in my view. And I get to watch him fight a dude who has long, it's been a top five heavyweight for like, seven years now and just fell short in the worst moment.

Had that sort of Michael Bispying run to him where, oh, here's a title eliminator, and he falls short. And here's a title eliminator, and he falls short. Now Curtis Blades is getting his shot. And sure it's not the undisputed belt, but it kind of is because John's not going to fight the winner. So the winner of this fight will just ultimately get elevated when John retires. That's the most meaningful fight this weekend.

And that is with all due disrespect to below Muhammad and Leon Edwards, which is a perfectly acceptable fight, but I've continued to call it the Leafy Greens fight of mixed martial arts, and it will be such. No one's excited to eat a big bunch of kale, but it's good for you. It helps pass things along, and that's what that fight is.

So no one's going to be that excited about that one. The co-main event, I'm pretty pumped for. Yeah, but you've got to forgive my lack of excitement, and I get what you're saying necessarily here about, you know, Aspernel is the real champion, but nothing against Tom Asmel. It's not his fault that he's being hung out to dry here in this regard in a meritocratic standpoint. But like, does this fight really have a ton of meaning when the real title's not at stake?

When you just said to yourself, he probably will never get a chance to go through John Jones. It's just mind-boggling to me that I come from the sport of boxing where you're used to never getting the Christmas present you ask for that season. And typically getting something as a replacement, something different. something like this, Aspinall versus Blades 2 for the interim title. It's just wild to me. And obviously it took a lot of Saudi Arabian money for us to get here. But that boxing is literally the week of the most important historic boxing fight since Mayweather, Pachial, and the first four belt heavyweight, undisputed two future Hall of Famers fighting each other. And then in the UFC, we not only can't get Jones versus Inganu, we can't even get Jones versus Aspinall.

Again, no disrespect to Aspinall or Blades or the crowd in the UK or even UFC matchmakers. But what does it mean? I think you can really look at it closer when you've got Usik and Fury fighting and everybody else lining up to get that Saudi money and boxing to finally fight each other that we almost have to go backwards here for this setup. I'm preaching to the choir. Everybody agrees it's the same thing. But it is hard to get really jazzed up for this fight or really treat it mentally like a title fight because, yes, Maybe John does retire win or lose after Steepay, and maybe Tom will be the last man standing that will get elevated

into becoming that full heavyweight champion. But it's 2024. The UFC has more control than anybody who he should have to go through somebody and literally defeat them for that. If this is the road we're heading to. He did. He went through somebody. He went through Sergey Pavlovich, the other best heavyweight in the world.

I genuinely, this is not a gimmick or a gag. I do not consider John Jones the heavyweight champion. I have absolutely minimal respect for his heavyweight belt. It is about his paper as UFC titles have ever been. If he had beaten Cyril Gahn, I think the circumstances of beating Cyril Gahn made that title relatively invalid anyway, but then the circumstances afterwards

have entirely dismissed that from being anything worthy of merit to me. Not a gimmick, not bullshit, like, Tom Aspinall's heavyweight champion. John Jones is a vanity champion that we're allowed, because reasons and whatever, but like he's not doing the thing. Tom Aspinall, Sergey Pavlovich, these are dudes who are beating top heavyweights in the world and have been doing so for years. When they fought, it was for the title. And when Tom defends against Kurtz-Blades, it's for the title.

Jedman, what you need to understand is that, you know, what you perceive is perception is reality in this case. So John Steepay, which, by the way, are they really pushing that off to New York a year later? that's going to be seen as the full heavyweight championship, but seen as a watered down product that doesn't mean anything. So by proxy, it's going to leak downhill. And I'm just saying it's infiltrated this matchup. But maybe I have a cold, dark heart that needs to be warmed up today

by your MMA fandom. So bring it, Georgia. I don't know what to say, man. I don't think it's detracting for me. I'm sure for others it is because there are people who stand John Jones relentlessly for reasons that remain opaque to me. but to me this is just for the heavyweight belt. I've been treating Tom Aspinall like the champ for a while.

I'm going to keep doing it until John Jones quits trying to fight dudes who haven't fought in four years and haven't won literally this decade. Fair. Fair. Love it. So breaking news doesn't happen that often right before the show starts, but that's what we're doing. So let's move on to this Saturday. BC kind of set the table a little bit earlier forward.

The point for round one goes to Mr. Leafy Greens himself, Jedman. shoe one to nothing nicely done good battle just saying you just saying y'allos out here and like i don't want to fight dominant crews because he's old and hasn't beaten anybody and i'd rather fight a guy who's active and competing in the division john zones like i will not fight a human being until i get this old firefighter i know who my goat is i know who my goat is all right it just doesn't mean anything though it doesn't mean anything though jed okay being curtis plays for the title doesn't mean anything. Thank you.

Okay. Well, a heavyweight fight that's going to meet everything. Are you wearing shirt right now? That was my palm for Brown King. Dana told me so, okay? And I've stuck with it. So it didn't mean anything when he did it? Next topic.

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For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move.

Lift with confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. All right, well, let's talk about a heavyweight fight for all the marbles. It is not in the UFC octagon. It is in the boxing ring. Boxing has taken the top spot over anything else in the MMA world. It's not really all that close.

As BC sort of laid out the undisputed heavyweight championship scheduled to be decided this Saturday in Saudi Arabia, it's finally here, Tyson Fury versus Alexander Usik. We haven't had an undisputed title fight in this division in a super ass long time. And certainly we're talking about it. Some of our viewers and readers are into it, especially when John Fury is out here acting like an app. absolute lunatic and headbutton fools and busting himself open and come saturday everyone will be

paying attention certainly but from the boxing community side of things bc how amped is everybody for this one what are their vibes like in the boxing circle does this feel similar to anything else you've experienced bigger how excited are you for this one well i'm massively excited now look i do feel like this fight would have been bigger if there wasn't so many other great gifts we've been opening around it, meaning the Saudi Arabian money infused, maybe mixed with 2003 when Showtime boxing had the threat of going away and put their best foot forward, had their best year ever. We're on a hell of a run in boxing.

So it's almost as if Fury v. Susik has been downgraded in recent months and didn't have the buzz that it needed. Well, here, it's fight week. This fight was delayed after Fury had a cut a couple months ago. It's finally happening, maybe a year and a half later than we wanted to. But, oh, does this fight matter? You mentioned the history. Look, when boxing has issues, which is often, what do we always say?

The old Burt Sugar line, as the heavyweight division goes, so does boxing. We were in that Clitchco era 15, 10 years ago, where the division was dead. And in a lot of ways, boxing in general was dead from that true crossover gateway drug element that knowing who the heavyweight champion is and being excited and wanting to see him gives you. I've always said that Tyson Fury upsetting Vladimir Clitchco in 2015 was the beginning of light at the end of the tunnel in this shift, not the Clitchco Brothers' fault that they raided atop the poorest heavyweight division, maybe in boxing history during the stretch that they were knocking off one no name after another.

But we have a Renaissance heavyweight era now. I'm not saying there is good as Ali Frazier Foreman, Tyson, Holyfield, and Lennox Lewis, but they are all fighting each other. They're all big. They got big personalities. and when it comes to Fury and Usik, they are the two last men standing, two unbeaten heavyweight champions, two future Hall of Famers, putting it together really to me the culmination of what happened back in 2015

when Fury upset Clitchgo, where we're finally going to have on Saturday, one name, one face atop one division. And when that division heavyweight is hot, it's the only division that really matters in combat sports. I know it's become cliche to say that, but it really is true. true. You have two guys going in there with crazy different skill sets and body types that are going to put it together. There's already a mandatory contractual rematch for later this year. You know Anthony Joshua, who's got his mojo back, is up in the bullpen, hoping to fight

the winner and certainly hoping it's Tyson Fury for next year. But we're finally getting our ish together in the sport of boxing, which maybe is why it's so hard to take something like Blades v. Aspernel and try to treat it like the real title, because this fight is the big one. probably the most important fight from a historical standpoint, like I mentioned, since Mayweather, Pachio, the idea of the first four-belt, undisputed heavyweight champion coming through an era that's actually watchable and fun and great. And I think if Tyson Fury wins, there's really an argument here that he could end up backdooring into some form of being a top 10 all-time heavyweight.

And if Alexander Usik wins after winning a gold medal for Ukraine in 2012, becoming the first four-belt, undisputed cruiserweight champion by winning the world boxing super series, by going through nothing but undefeated champions and then moving up to heavyweight and twice upsetting anthony joshua before potentially doing this again to fury on saturday this is a unique fighter on the verge of his own unique history this fight is big it matters yeah we're going to party till turkey's wallet runs dry but it doesn't look to be running dry any soon oil for everybody hopefully no one loses their head literally and here we are guys the super bowl of boxing.

You have to watch this fight. It matters so much. And it's been a long time since I really can say that truthfully for my beloved sport. That was spectacular. Spectacular. I got goosebumps, B.C. I got goosebumps. Jed, try to follow that.

Where are you at with this fight? Because that was incredible. I want to say shout out to you, Mike. Because this is, I don't think you get enough credit for being the professional that you are. because you gave me the first round because you knew the topic of the second round I'm going to come into BC's home turf and whip his ass no it's never a chance

it honestly feels a bit disrespectful to even add on to what BC said because he just nailed it but I'll just come from my own little corner of the world where this is dope like this is exactly the thing we want in MMA it's the thing we've wanted for years and the data has purported and lied to us and said I make the biggest fights.

Boxing doesn't when actually he is consistently not made the biggest fights. And while boxing hadn't for a long time, the last two years, basically since Turkey got in, they've started to do it. And it culminates in this moment. And this is awesome. Like, I am a casual boxing fan. This is not something I live and breathe in the same way BC does. But it is still enough for me. I am going out of town this evening.

I'm going to a friend's celebration for the weekend. And I said this, I think maybe it was on No Bet's Bar this week. That fight is so big that it's like UFC 300 or 299 for me. I'm not working this weekend and I'm going to be doing other things with people. And I have already carved out the time on Saturday afternoon to be like, hey, I got to not be involved. I'm going to go, I got to buy this pay-per-view and fire this up for 30 minutes to watch the main event. I'm not going to watch the rest of the card, but that fight did. itself is so compelling that it gets someone like me who is a casual fan who has other conflicting

interests to be like, doesn't matter, got to check this out. That's all you can ask for from a promotion and the fact that we're going to get a second one. There's the automatic rematch. And then ultimately, this is leading to potentially the biggest fight in modern, maybe not modern boxing, I guess because Paciel Mayweather is that. But the biggest fight in boxing this decade with AJ versus Fury, if that's how things line up. I mean, this is awesome. This is why you are a fan of combat sports. There's obviously a ton of questions here, right?

I mean, Usik has looked great. Fury's coming off of the Francis and Ganu fight where he won, but didn't look all that great, both in the fight and, you know, from a physical standpoint. He looking in the mirror, I'm sure he wasn't like flexing and doing a bunch of dance in there. But this week, obviously, Jed seems very focused. looks an incredible shape. Looks like he lost a ton of weight. Looks like he's worked his ass off heading into this fight.

So what is the biggest question you have about Fury versus Usik from a viewership standpoint other than, well, who wins the fight? But I know you're better than that. So please. So honestly, one of my biggest takeaways this week is like, yeah, very definitely did not take Francis seriously. And like just physically, he looks so much different heading into this fight. and clearly has taken Usick very, very seriously,

which does not excuse his performance. Like, you choose to do that. Francis got you. That's how it goes. But coming into this fight, the fact that he is so in shape, I think the dynamic of this matchup that is the most compelling to me

is that Fury style was not successful against Francis outside of being out of shape or whatever. Because he does want to lean on you, use that size, kind of wear you out as fights drag on. and Usik, former cruise rate, is a significantly smaller individual, which I think means Fury is going to get more of the fight he wants than not. But can Usik kind of mitigate that? Can he make this, can he be a little quicker, use his footwork, get around the outside?

And Usik has a real knack for winning close rounds or important rounds. Like when the fight is on the line, he elevates his game. How is that going to look against a guy who I think is. stylistically problematic for him in some ways and you know it was a championship level guy top 15 heavyweight all time so this matchup is just dope man bc what say you i know you wrote a column about some burning questions in regards to this fight i know a lot of people on on social media been reacting to and i know that they're open workouts and such like that but ussick comes out orthodox and fury comes out southpah and everyone's like losing their freaking minds because of it

does that change in it for you but what's what's your biggest question when comes to this fight. Yeah, I've certainly got a few of them, but I think first and foremost for me, I don't fall in the same trap that people are falling for from that in Ganu fight. I think it's fairly obvious a couple of things. Fury was out of shape, under focus, took it lightly. Why else would he schedule that fight? Just what, three and a half, four months before this fight was originally scheduled? And I think he got obviously lucky to survive and walk out of there. But you do have to remember that Teichin Fury has historically played up or down dramatically to the level of his competition, which makes it no surprise to me that he's coming in such great shape for this.

He told me he expects to be right around 267 pounds when I talked to Fury yesterday. And I think that shows you that it's going to be more likely that he's going to employ the style that he took on after the scare with Otto Valene when he joined forces with Javon Sugarhill Stewart. He wanted to be a bigger heavyweight, sit down on his punches more, put on more weight. And as Jed rightfully said, lean on people and really just wear them down. The thing is, you can't really do that to Usik. Even though Fury has advantages here in height of six inches, in reach of seven inches,

for being a cruiserweight, Uc never gets bodied by people. His footwork is so incredible. He throws so many varying types of shots from so many angles. And he'll be switching. He switches up his stance sometimes in mid-March forward. He'll go from a high guard to a side one. I mean, there is just a brilliance, if you really break down the tiny nuance of what he does. He comes from the same Ukrainian amateur camp as Wicely Lomachenko.

So there's some of that wizardry in there. So this plays into my biggest question. Even though people I think wrongfully look at Tyson Fury and say, oh, well, he wins these big matchups because he's bigger than everybody else and he's longer. Obviously, that's not really true, even though that helps a lot. The real key to that is that in his prime, he had the speed and reflexes almost of a middleweight and a heavyweight body. So in a weird way, I almost look at this fight and the potential of Ussick scoring an upset

in the same way we looked at Fury versus Klitsko, but after the fact, we all thought Fury was going to walk in there because we'd seen him play down to the level of this competition in the past and coming overweight and get knocked out by Klitsko. Instead, what he showed was that he had craft, he had an active guard, and he had a game plan to confuse and ultimately disarm Klichko that nobody saw coming, notably Vladimir himself. I think there is that potential on this match for Usik to do the same to Fury, because even though I don't think Fury relies only on size to beat people, I do think he's relied on what is heavyweight. Typically, you get a lot of big guys with big muscles in this super heavyweight

era, right, that Lennox Lewis helped launch where they don't have that same level of IQ, ability, agility to roam around. Now suddenly Fury is facing a guy who has that and then some. How will he deal with the chess match nature of what Alexander Usik does? You can say, always too small. He doesn't have big time power. He doesn't have big time chin. You can say all this stuff. But like most of it's not true because he took heavy shots from AJ and kept coming forward. He's never mentally out of it or undeterred. And really the mental aspect is the key wildcard. If my biggest question here is how does Fury actually deal with the chess of Usik, then I think my 1A biggest question there is what does Fury also benefit from? Mind games,

getting inside the head of his opponents. Guys, Usoc's unbreakable. He takes, took off a year in 2023 to go to the front lines of the war in the Ukraine. And he came back and looked spectacular in getting rid of Daniel Dubois, despite getting there very shortly in that instance. I just think he's unbreakable. Fury's not going to be able to lean on the things that he has in the past. But luckily for Fury, he's a gamer, he's a cheater. He's a smart, dirty fighter, almost in a Bernard Hopkins way. And he does know how to win. But it's not going to be from intimidation. It's not going to be from out-thinking Usik. He may have to be. to turn into the puncher, right?

The guy he didn't want to be against Ngano when he got up off the canvas and suddenly was boxing from the outside. It is such a interesting style matchup in that regard that it might be easy to dismiss Usik and say, oh, he's only had four heavyweight fights. But guys, Usik rises to the occasion when the lights are the brightest in ways that have been shocking people ever since the beginning. This is a real fight for Fury. Maybe the Ngano scare brought the odds closer than people thought with Usik, really just like a

plus 120 underdog. but this is very winnable for him on Saturday. And boy, like we mentioned, does this fight matter? On top of all those other accolades, Mike, the winner might have a shot at being pound for pound number one right now. I know it's Inouye, Crawford, and Canelo's dance, but both of these guys are in my top six on CBS sports, and the winner may just be best in show for the entire sport at the end of the weekend.

Damn. I don't think that last part's true. Oh, please, Jed, please. I just don't think the winner will be at the top five. or whatever, you know, I just, I don't think anyone's jumping Crawford or Inouye, particularly not after Inouye's week. I was just, like, I think they can jump Canelo. What if Usick just goes out and puts on a, like, an incredible showing, you know,

undisputed cruiserweight champion. I think he jumps Canello and he's behind anyway. Okay. Well, I mean, I mean, you could argue at that point. Look, you guys understand. Ussick's considered the greatest cruiserweight of all time. What if he goes in there and beats Joshua? it twice and then beats Fury, accolades-wise, he's shoulder to shoulder with what Inouye and

Crawford have done, right? They were both undisputed four belt champions and two divisions. Ty goes to the smaller person. But here's the small person. Ultimately, I know pound for pound varies in MMA and boxing in people's formulas, but to me, your accolades get you to the dance, but a lot of times it's the mythical matchup in how these guys would actually deal with each other if they were the same size that decides it. It has to. The reason why you create a pound for pounds, because the heavyweights aren't going to go in there against the walter weights. I'm here to tell you that if Ussick wins, he's as skilled in his own weight class as Crawford or in a way or anyone else. I actually think there's an argument here, but he's got to pull it off first, Fury, the same thing.

I can't disagree with that. I just don't think there's a chance that people are putting him above. Crawford, I mean, your partner, Luke has, like, cried tears of joy about what Crawford did to Errol Spence. I think he's just got it on Stranglehold for the time being. but this gets, I don't know if it gets fury above Canello. I do think it gets Usick above Canello for sure. Well, we will see what happens. And we know we're going to see these guys fight again.

So last thing on this, I'm kind of curious after hearing BC and Jed both talk about this, BC. I'll go back to you. Anthony Joshua, like you said, looming in the background for whoever wins this series because they're going to fight twice. Is the boxing world, at least in your eyes, more interesting with Usik becoming undisputed champion in the second division, just seeing how far his greatness can go from a historical perspective?

Or is it Tyson Fury just being a freaking madman coming through once again, keeping this sort of roller coaster ride going, carrying that undisputed torch since he's the bigger star here? What's more interesting to you? It's Fury all the way because Fury is also in his own way carving out his own history. Look, when I say when all is said and done, if Fury gets through this era unbeaten and he beats everybody he had access to and really the only one he's missing here is Anthony Joshua

and he wants to fight him badly. People go, oh, BC, come on, how are you going to put him in top 10 all the time? He doesn't compare resume-wise. As long as he takes care of the resume around him and what's available to him, Fury destroys mythical mental matchmaking. This idea of, okay, who's actually the best heavyweight out of there?

Is it Joe Lewis, Ali, Foreman, you know, Jack Johnson in that order, whatever you have it? It's hard to do mental math. When Fury is 6' 9 with an 85-inch reach and what is he going to look like against Rocky Marciano at 510 and 185? What is he going to look like against anybody short of this super heavyweight era? I think Fury so dominantly in my mind crushes the Who Be Too on their greatest night theory that as long as he gets enough accolades, then he is going to be in that conversation.

So if he beats Usik twice, which would be the two biggest wins, not named Vladimir Klitsko, you can argue even bigger, right, in terms of the importance on his resume. And then let's say he goes in a two-fight series because that's, That's what they're already talking about with Anthony Joshua. He will have cleaned out everyone available to him. And when you do that, it allows you in that upper room. So I think for business-wise, obviously Fury, because let's be honest here, Usik versus Fury tantalizes the heart of a hardcore boxing fan like me.

It's amazing. I don't know if it blows away the average fan. Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua in an English soccer stadium for the undisputed championship. Yeah, that blows away just about everybody. It's a bigger fight commercially. And if we build toward that, that's better for boxing. But anything right now that's happening is better and best for boxing than what we're used to. Again, I don't know how long Turkey's going to last in this position.

He's talking about taking over the sport. But what Saudi Arabia and Turkey Alashik are allowing to happen in this sport is an open market, potential for a real open market. Imagine an MMA. You don't usually have to complain in MMA because typically the best fight the best in the UFC. But imagine if the best from one championship in Belator and PFC, and all of them could fight each other, right? Seems like a wet dream.

It'll never happen. Boxing is getting there. We're just about there. There's no more, oh, I fight with this TV guy and you fight with that network. We can't make this fight. Money talks. There's a crapped ton of it right now. It is such an amazing time to be a boxing fan that either of these guys winning is great.

Can't wait to see the rematch. Can't wait to see AJ against the winner. If he gets by, Philip Hercovic has got a fight for one of those styles. They're going to strip the winner of Saturday's fight because that's boxing guys, okay? So the rematch won't be for the undisputed, but it's going to allow Anthony Joshua back in the title game and much, much bigger fights to come. Jed, what's more interesting to you?

Tyson Fury is such a fascinating guy, but Usick in his own more quiet way is such a fascinating dude himself, and he's just doing these incredible things. So what's a more interesting world for you? It has to be Fury winning, just because the Fury A.J. fight has been there for a decade. I don't even know how long at this point. So I think we can't talk about, I think this is bigger, quote unquote, for Ussick winning.

He can elevate himself further up the ranks of all-time grates and do all those things in pound for pound. Then I think that that can quite land for Fury. He's also older. He's 35, about to turn 36. Like he's closer to the end of his career than not. But we want the AJ fight. That is the fight that has been teased and pitched AJ and Wilder and AJ and Fury. that whole sort of triumvirate was supposed to happen

and it got set off kilter and blown back and all these sorts of things that happened to it and for a long time it looked like okay now we might not get it particularly after AJ loses to Usick I don't know that anyone cares that much about watching Usik AJ again like we'll watch it it'll be fine particularly AJ looks better than he has lately but the one we want is AJ Fury so that's got to be the answer cannot wait for this Saturday of course we'll be covering it live on

M.A fighting.com, so stick with us. I'm sure B.C. and Luke will be doing some fun stuff as well. Point for round two. Goes to, I mean, it's definitely B.C., what are we doing here? We didn't even need the freaking drum roll. Nicely done with the Hen and Brow shirts. Maybe the true bear. Who's your greatest heavyweight of all time?

In boxing? Yeah. Joe Lewis. Sure, add in M.A. too. Boxing will hold nine of the ten spots, if not all of it. I think, I think Joe Lewis, is he's small compared to this era, but he's big enough. He's big enough. And he's, and he's got more skills than any guy today, to be fair. Isn't boxing weird that ages in a

Benjamin buttoned reverse way, right? But like, for the most part, outside of the size of the heavyweights, the guys from the 40s and 50s would kick these guys asses today. No one ever talks about that in this point. Because all of the best athletes were boxers. Now they play football or basketball. That's fair. And PEDs changed that conversation too in a big Exactly. Jedd doesn't mind PEDs. It's his jam. Who cares?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm a man of science. I also, you know, I believe in modern medicine. My bad. Fair enough. Well, let's get to the biggest talking point coming out of the MMA space this past weekend. And for some reason, this is just not going away. And no, I'm not talking about Derek Lewis, as fun as Derek Lewis is and was on Saturday.

it's Joaquin Buckley. B.C., I want to start with you, because actually, I think I'm going to go with Jed, but the last time B.C. was on the show, I had to think back on this. It was right after Buckley was announced to fight near Sulton Rubeyev at U.S.S. St. Louis.

And Jed was pretty hard on Buckley. BC, you were a little bit more lenient on him. So, Jed, we've had some time, obviously, to reflect on what has happened with Joachian Buckley. And for those who have missed it, let me just lay down a little bit of groundwork here. He beats Vicente Lucay in Atlantic City. Biggest win of his career.

No name, no callout, just wants to fight in St. Louis. He calls out Anheuser-Busch in a fun tongue-in-cheek sort of way. Goes on the MMA hour two days later. Not a great appearance. Not a great appearance. Didn't do many favors. He shows up at the UFC 300 press conference. Steels a little shine and attention from those fighters by requesting to headline in St. Louis

and Dana shuts him down in seconds. looks super weird, does get this fight, and throughout fight week, UFC presents him like a star. He walks to the octagon, gets the biggest pop of the night. The crowd is fully behind him all the way through the first second

when the fight begins, all the way into the post-fight interview, and it makes me think as it's going on. He's cutting this great thing talking about his grandmother and her battle with ALS. Like everything about this was fantastic. And I'm thinking to myself, shit, they might have something here.

and then Michael Bisbing asked him what he wants next. I was ready for it. I was thinking myself, just don't call out Leon and don't call out Colby, and you're going to be great. You will be fine. And I think he'll get over because I didn't think in a billion years he would do what he actually did, which is call O'Connor McGregor in an Irish accent, and then he called McGregor's male ancestors, McHose,

Dana White knows sells it at the presser. Buckley then pivots to Gilbert Burns in the back during his scrum. And since then, Buckley continues to tweet to Connor. He insinuates on Twitter that he turned down a fight with Ian Gary. He's calling out D.C. Bisbing and Chale for dumping on the callout. DC sort of 10-7ed him badly in his response. And that's sort of where we're at right now. So Jed, we laid it all out for those who have missed the Buckley saga.

So my question is, even though this callout, was and is arguably the worst in the history of combat sports. He has gotten a lot of attention because of it. But in this case, is bad press still better than no press at all? In other words, did Buckley actually do the thing

by not coming close to doing the thing if that makes sense? No, no, no. You left out one other thing that's happened since then, which is great. Because after the fight night, I was having this heated argument with Eric, because he was wrong,

about all press being good, press. I was like, if you shit your pants, it's not, that's not good. It's not good that people are talking about you shitting your pants objectively, particularly in like this era of media where like clearly bad press has bad implications for whole swathes of humans. And then, fortunately, Harrison Bucker gave me the greatest fucking talking point ever for this exact moment. Because all you people out there are like, he did the thing. People are talking about him. do you think anyone related or associated with Harrison Buckker right now is like way to go Harrison people are talking about you buddy you did it you're the kicker of the chiefs and everyone's

talking about you know they're like why the fuck are we talking about the kicker of the chiefs you stupid idiot just shut the fuck up it's it's the same spot here with Buckley man sure we're talking about him to dunk on him or to see him make like the most outlandish idiotic claims it is and and he's just tweeting through it. God help him. God love him. He's just out there tweeting through it fired up today and was like, hey, you think I care about being popular? I care about fighting people and getting money. Buddy, the popularity part of it goes with the getting money part of it. Let's how this goes. This is a very simple sport. It is, it's not good. It hadn't been good. It has been a terrible watch of just like digging that hole and just like, I'm going to keep digging

through it and you're not. You're just, you're burying yourself under six feet of shit. And it's, it's unfortunate because you know what we aren't talking about? You know what no one has been talking about. I know what me and Eric didn't talk about for the 30 minutes we debated this. A sensational performance. One of the best of his career stepping in on a short notice against an unheralded guy. No one's talking about that. No one's talking about Joaquin Buckley, the title challenger. They're debating whether shitting yourself and telling people to look at it is good or not, which is not the thing you want people to discuss after you just won a fight that gets you into a good position in the UFC. So, no, he failed, still failing.

And picking a fight with D.C. is not helping any. I mean, there's a whole separate conversation about the utter lack of professionalism that Daniel Cormier has shown this week. And whether that should be tolerated or allowed, it should not. but like picking a fight with Daniel Cormier is the same as picking a fight with Conne McGregor except for DC will at least engage with you but you're never going to fight either of these dudes and you apparently could have fought Ian Gary

who's like kind of the best approximation that you could have gotten for Connor McGregor so I know what the hell he's doing but it's all bad BC after all that has happened since you were last on this program the callout of Connor everything. How do you grade Buckley on this? Did he win here because he's getting all this attention?

Like, do you still defend it? I think he can win. Look, it's going to be really hard for me to defend Buckley here when that callout was so cringe. And did I hear... The crowd booed! The crowd booed him! Are you guys his own crowd boot him?

I mean, it's as low of a moment. But, you know, if life gives you or you give yourself shit, make a shit sandwich out of it and he's at least trying. Before I go, further. Did he officially turned down a knee and Gary fight? Is that the truth? He's insinuating that he did. The insinuation is that

he did. He's the one insinuating it, which is the damning part. It's not like other people have said it, which is weird. That's also a bad look. But let's take the bad look stuff and put them right here. I don't think it's hopeless. I think ultimately he gets elevated throughout this whole process in the long

form. Why? Because the true merits of how you are as a fighter and where you belong is what you do in that cage. And this is why I think Jed got it wrong when I was on here last time. He did the bold right thing, in my opinion, challenge the company to get the spot on that card and basically go all in and be like, I want to be that guy. I want to be an entertainer. I'm also climbing the ranks of my division.

Give me a fight, which is something I've always liked out of him. His post-fight interviews have always featured a little bit of, hey, UFC, that contract's coming up. Let's do it. You know what I mean? Like going that little extra mile to defend himself and to build some more leverage. But the biggest leverage is in the cage. And what did UFC do? Made it as hard as possible for him, gave him the co-main, not the main event, and then give him the long foreign opponent that no one's really ever heard of.

And then you look at his resume and you're like, oh, wow, this guy's a problem. And Buckley went in there and confidently and professionally handle him like a true top 10 contender should. Jed's right. We should be talking more about the maturity that he showed in the cage, right? He was once really this explosive knockout artist, which I like to say is always akin to like in basketball when you're a dunker. And no one really takes your full skills with the amount of respect you deserve because you're known for the spectacular highlights. Well, he lost some in the UFC, changed divisions, figured out where the best of Joaquin Buckley is. And he's a new manza at 170 pounds.

Four straight wins. These last two absolutely legit. So no, this is a call out of Connor redeemable in any form? No, it was cringe. His own crowd booed him. Should have called out Ian Gary, or even if you want to take those big balls that he brought into that matchup and you really want to double down. Call out Shavkat, Rakmanov.

Tell the UFC with your voice that the only thing that matters to you is big time opportunities, big time money and the title. Because if he went in there and beat that guy, they wouldn't have to call it anybody. He'd probably be fighting for the title. next. But I think overall, the idea of served shit, we'll make a shit sandwich out of it, he's actually trying to do that here. I mean, is it the best thing to go after these people on Twitter, Michael Bisping, Daniel Kormorate? Well, no. And oddly enough, Corbyn, it goes zero to 60, like zero to I'll kick your ass, like real quick for a big teddy bear who all the other

fighters are trying to pick up and take down like Poetan. That was interesting. But it got the name out there. If you don't know who he is, now you know Dana White. And Dana White and company should know because guys I'm here to tell you Buckley I've come around on him the thing that really matters with him his fight game he's becoming legit he's finding a way to still use his physical and explosive gifts but use them in a program method he's using the takedowns and the explosiveness of that and did it in a real key part of that fight to bring the momentum back to himself that's a veteran veteran skills that's what championship contenders do maybe he reached too far but at least we're talking about him and unfortunately that's current

That's where it is. You almost have to act like a villain, an asshole, a crazy person to truly get big time opportunities separate from what you accomplish in the cage. That's all this guy is trying to do, maximize his window. And I'm here for that. I really am. I don't have anything bad to say against him. Even with the shots he took at Ariel, right? Ariel can handle it.

You can handle it. Yeah. Probably. You can probably can handle it. Like the big issue and it's not even the call. The call, it's awful. It's just so bad. But even the performance he had on Saturday, it was good.

Like, it was really strong. I still haven't, I still haven't learned anything, if that makes sense. Like, I didn't learn much in the Lucke fight. I didn't learn much here. And I'm certainly not going to learn much from him calling O'Connor McGregor. So, like, I really don't know. I just wish he could have, like, done both. He could have been, Connor, I want to fight you.

And then the crowd bones. And then he just come back to it and be like, but now's not the time. I'm not ready for that just yet. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to fight on the same card as you, and I'm going to take your little protege, and I'm going to beat that ass right in front of you, and then someday you and I, Connor, will share the cage. Like, I'm going to fight you, Ian, Gary, where are you at?

Like, that's perfect. That would have gone over. We would have done a segment on this program about that callout. He could have called out Chofcott. Would have loved that. He would have got a segment on this program. Even if he's straight called Gilbert Burns out, he probably would have got a segment on this program.

But this is, it was just, so bad. So I guess before we round up here, I don't, I mean, I don't want to dump on Buckley. I'm actually fascinated to see what he gets next after Dana no sold him in his home crowd no sold him so bad because I've learned in the radio space two things. One, if you have a big crowd and they're on your side and then you say something that goes from cheers to, oh, never a good sound. And the other is when you are on a radio spot, you're in a studio with a whole bunch of people have it a good time and you say something that you think is funny but it gets no reaction utter silence that's the second sound you don't want to hear in this industry and buckley heard one of

those two sounds and you know when you ask dana white or whatever it's just one word answers would you ever entertain buckley versus connor mcgregor no not even an explanation it was just no and move on so jett i'll go back to you magic wand crystal ball who's buckley fighting next It's a really good question. I've been trying to think about the answer to that. Because here's the thing, as dumb as I think that call out was, and boy, I think it's dumb, it's the least bad of the stuff he's done. Because to me, and I know BC disagrees, getting on the mic, UFC 300 and turning that about you,

that's just pissing off the guy who does your booking. And then going in and calling out Connor, clearly Dana White doesn't like him. Like very clearly, would you ever entertain it? Nope. that's just not I don't love the kowtow to the UFC plan just like it feels icky

but also that's how your career is going to move forward more efficiently and also on that bit fighting in Gary makes all the sense of the world like that actually is the fight you want that is the fight to beat the undefeated dude who other people hate he is a polarizing

person in this white class who is very good if you beat him you can become a little bit more of the baby face, and you are probably one fight at most away from a title shot. So calling for a fight, you're never going to get with Connor. Like, you're just never going to happen. Wouldn't matter if it happened. What does that get you?

And maybe you'll get Gilbert Burns. I'm pretty sure beating Ian Gary is better than beating Gilbert Burns at this stage of their career. So I don't know where he ends up going. I think he's going to have to fight back. Because if he turned down Gary, do you have seen? you say all the time, Mike, they're not inclined to help you out if you're going to turn down fights for them. And we don't know for a fact, but he has suggested it.

So if I take that at face value, why would they then be like, yeah, sure, you can fight Gilbert Burns. They'll just make him fight somebody else who's back. They might make him rematch Kevin Holland. Like, I don't have any idea what they're doing. No, is Kevin Holland booked against MVP? Is that what? No. No, no.

No, I just have it. Okay. But like, I think they're going to make him fight back. maybe he gets Sean Brady but then that's even worse you're fighting a dude who is less known than he and Gary and he's probably going to beat you so if I had to bet

it's Sean Brady or he fights someone back like not even ranked I guess I'll lean Sean Brady yeah I mean if they I just again we don't know if this is like 100% true or not but if it is actually true that they offered him me and Gary after this callout and after all the crap is getting

and he said no that That would be honestly doubt. Yeah. Yeah, that would be more shocking than the callout itself. You know what I mean? He's going to have to fight an unranked fighter if that's the case. Seriously, you get penalized for that. I also think he will be penalized in some regard that even though we're talking about

him from the Bad McGregor callout and the D.C. you know, feud and all that. When you botch a call out like that, man, it does seem in just the public's eye to bring you down. So like if he had said, we said maybe he should have said Ian Gary. What if he said Jack Delamadal, Madalana? What if he said, I'll come to your country? He could be in a co-main event coming up for all we know.

But you're right. Best case scenario is probably number eight, Sean Brady. Worst case scenario might be just throw him on another card, come back and pass another test. But I would hope that what happened in the cage speaks. And what happened in the cage spoke to me by telling me, he needs a top 10 guy if there is one available. So maybe it is a Neil Magni type,

but he needs a meal, Neil Magny type next to take that next step to be in the position to have a best. better call out and really double down on where he's at in his career. I mean, he is the talk of the town when it comes to this card. I mean, Derek Lewis sent them home real happy with the, the, with all the, the end of so good. It was so good. Just fanning the lifeless body of Rodrigo Nassimento with his sweaty ass shorts.

I mean, everything. But Mike, you do know if he runs out of material. He's going to have to show his pipe soon. I mean, we're getting close to there. Like, you know, he was kind of like, what do I do next? That's camera still on. retirement. That's his retirement. Derek Cruz retires. He takes the shorts and the undercarriage, leaves it all in the cage and then just walks out. He, Winnie the Poos his way out of the cage and it'll be

terrific. Wow. Let's move on. Yeah. I mean, something to look forward to, I guess. Let's move on. Yeah, let's move on to round four, shall we? Point goes to Jedbushu. Two to one. Nicely done. I appreciate BC coming from a different angle, but he's just incorrect about this one, and I appreciate him trying. Boarding for Flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what?

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Other big news coming out of UFC St. Louis in the aftermath, Dana White, B.C., Dana White goes to the press conference. And this freaking promotion, BC, just to put this all into perspective, drew the biggest gate in fight night history on this card headlined by Derek Lewis versus Rodrigo Nassimento. The biggest gates in UFC fight night history is Derek Lewis versus Rodrigo Nassimento. That is fucking insane.

they are on fire. This is sort of led Dana White to think, you know what? These crowds are way cooler because we could give them anything and they'll buy it. Like they will buy tickets to this event. We need to get out of the apex. Although there are some TKO execs who have just been like, well, we'd like to get on the road a little bit more, but probably not like all the way out of there. But Dana coming in kind of giving it a stamp of approval, it's got to feel good, right?

Step 4 BC and to hear Dana say, hey, we're going to hear Dana say, hey, we're going to be. need to beat feet from this soulless, lifeless warehouse of an apex, how do that make you feel? Do you believe it? Well, look, initially I felt like data was trying to just take all of the things we've been complaining about nonstop on podcast and going, you know what, that's actually a great idea. I'll make it my own. Obviously, I want to give some room in there that maybe he has been fighting for less apex cards and maybe like you're mentioning there, there were higher up executives that are looking

at the bottom line. And by the way, it's hard not to mention the lawsuit that the UFC is going to pay a $335 million settlement for. In my opinion, that's got to all be related, that let's pull back the purse strings. Why do we have this watered down stretch of cards so unexplained and aggressively this year? It might be related to that. And I think the only reason why we haven't heard Dana talk specifically about the apex cards is because no one asked them about it at the press conference, because they want to get their ass branded for clout. or they want Dana to autograph the athletic support

that Derek Lewis threw into that empty media row. That's me being funny and dunking on UFC. I don't actually care if Dana White is going to take credit for it, but what he said is the damn right thing, and we've been echoing it for months and almost years now. Yeah, they literally rolled out a card that overachieved. In fact, I always try to give UFC credit, right? I'm not a hater.

That car was crazy entertaining fight-to-fight. I loved it. I enjoyed it. But on paper, boy, was it crap? You heard the main eventer Derek Lewis himself say on the microphone. I couldn't lose that because I couldn't lose to a cab driver I've never heard of. The real reason why the tickets are so hot right now, and obviously it's to the UFC's credit, is the combination, in my opinion, of COVID and the extended post-COVID period at apex,

which drew up the demand so aggressively for UFC to get back to these cities or countries that they haven't been in in a while, where yes, literally people are going to show up on brand power no matter what. My big question, and I think the fear that a lot of us who actually do care about the sport and the health of it in the big term picture, whether they're only thinking about their own financials and their jobs and all of that, or they really do care, is at what price, what cost in the long run will be watering down cards or putting cards in the apex that don't belong there that feel boring like the last couple of fight nights where it's sort of like, should I go back and watch that on demand, or maybe I could just read a recap.

I don't want to be in that position. That's where we've been. I don't think that actually happens over time if you stay out of the apex. There is no justification or reason for this company, which does year over year, insane, record number growth, record number growth every year, then joins forces with WWE and the super behemoth that's been valued at crazy amounts of billions to try to claim in any form like we're going to stay in that warehouse with Paul Anka and at Zuck sitting there and nobody else. because we need the money that bad. You know what I'm saying? So again, unless it's some conspiracy theory tied to the lawsuit, let's stop protecting the funds.

Let's get back out there. The ticket prices are insane, but the demand is still really there. I hope that doesn't lead them to believe that this is what Fight Night Cards should be all the time. But I think what solves all ills or sins or complaints from podcasters like us who often get called UFC haters is just give us what we want.

We want exciting cards. And what's the missing ingredient? that makes cards so exciting, even when they're bad on paper, the electric crowds, especially these crowds that are underserved in the long run. Don't water down this sport. Don't ruin the goodwill of the fans. Get the hell out of the apex. You can claim the idea, Dana.

You can put me in my third. It'll be my third four-minute media hack video that you make me the start. Do I get sag credits at this point? Am I going to get medical benefits from this, Dana? Either way, I'll join you in giving you credit. Get the frick out of there. And if you're going to stay in the apex, at least put up bleachers in there and let real fans come in and give you that energy and that feel, right? I mean, I could stand in my room alone and reach climax, but I don't think that's a relationship or anything to brag about, okay?

But if there's a lot of people watching me, you know what that is? That's probably a felony. But anyway, you know what I was trying to say. No, not really, but it's okay. It's okay. It's all right. Jed, please save us all. Save us all.

Are we leaving the apex? Probably not. I want to get to that in a second, though, because I do kind of want to tag on to what BC was saying. And most of I want to address a comment from a man named Beavis and Butthead, and I'm not trying to dunk on you. You're not cross who needs to be dunked on. But like, because this is not the only comment that is like this. But the comment is specifically, every fight's not going to be 300. It's, it's, this sounds ungrateful to bitch. You don't need to be grateful. I mean, so seriously, this is not a gift. Fight's to you are not a gift. You are a consumer. They need to be grateful for you. You are the customer. You are the one who is always right. The UFC is trying to sell you a product. And so it is fine for us to say this is a product that is substandard. This is not something that I would buy on the shelf. This is store brand versus name brand. That is okay to say we don't need to be grateful for fights because we don't owe them shit. They owe us if they want us to stay. Now on that note, we were all wrong. All of us have been wrong, Mike, because for years since the apex was invented,

I sat here and you sat there and BC and everybody else who's come on this program, we've talked about this issue, has said the same thing because we thought we were correct. And it was, the UFC's not going to leave the apex. They're not going to do it because why would they, until you stop watching these apex cards and vote with your wallet, they're going to take the path of least resistance. They're going to take the cheapest option. When actually, the inverse apparently might be true. Whereas if instead, when they bring a middling card to any location,

you just buy all the tickets and spend all the money and you get the highest gate ever for UFC St. Louis. Then the UFC looks and says, shit, we could go on the road all the time. we could go to a to a place, a small place, it doesn't have anybody in it, because it's the only time we'll be there. We can sell tickets for $600 for nosebleeds like it's a national championship game. And then the monetary incentive comes. So we were all incorrect in thinking that the only monetary incentive for the UFC would be to stop watching Apex cards.

When in fact, you could just spend all your money to watch the few shows that they do live and suddenly the organization's going to say, hey, there's value to us getting on the road. And frankly, I don't give a shit how we got there. I just want us to be there. I'm not averse to the apex. I've said a long time, once a month is fine. Once a month apex, once a month on the road, once a month for a pay-per-view, 36 events a year. And during the summer months, you tack in four extras, get to 40. No break off during the summer stretch. That's like, that's the ideal situation as far as I'm concerned. I think the apex has value, but it is hard when you get a card like this weekend, which as you see up here, we'll talk about it later, I'm sure.

Three farts, it probably should actually be two. I was feeling generous today. The energy is not there. It's not the same. You don't want that every time out. That's okay to be a pallet cleanser or just something that happens, but that's why St. Louis was partially fun because before Joaquin Buckley got the crowd to boo him, and it was still a funny honestly when the crowd booed him, that crowd was

alive for him. That crowd was so lit for the St. Louis fighters. And that comes through as a viewer at home. certainly as a viewer in the arena and experiencing it live. You want the communal experience of watching fights, and you want that to translate outside of just, okay, I'm watching fights because I got nothing else to do on Saturday. And sure, here are seven contender series, guys.

Let's see who wins. Yeah. I mean, you could still do this card in front of 2,500 people. And guess what? You'd sell it out. And let's just talk about it real quick. Jed, Edson Barbosa versus Lorone Murphy, the main event this Saturday at the world's most famous apex.

Chaos Williams back against Carlson Harris, Rames Brahimage. He's back after a long layoff versus the Rock's favorite fighter, Temba Garimbo, Adrian Yanez. He is back for the first time in 2024 against former flyweight Venetia Salvador, Angela Hill versus the Juana Pinero. And I believe the only fight featuring a ranked fighter in MMA fighting's global rankings. Correct. currently.

Chad, you're giving this three farts. Explain yourself, thoughts on this event. BC, do you know any of these fighters outside of the main event in Angela Hill? I'm surprised that how many of them have Wikipedia pages to be fair with you. You know, I don't have to. There actually are a fair number. Or anywhere, you know, yeah. What the hell's going on here?

Please sell this for me. Robbie's brahimage pretty clearly did his own. So, like, he gets some of this. it's not a very good card and again that's fine like as long as this isn't the standard which unfortunately it kind of has become that way um we're still feeling a bit of the after effects of 300 and 299 they were so stacked not everything's going to go great afterwards hopefully we're about to get out of this uh this shouldn't really be three farts it probably should be two but the main event's getting a fart i actually really like the match between edson barbosa and leonleone

Murphy um Murphy kind of has a lot of ability to be like a top ranked dude but fights once a generation and so like it's hard for him to build any momentum and I'd since still got a little bit of juice left in the tank left to watch him fight he's going to get one Adrian Yanez a couple tough outings I still think he's really talented I like watching him fight Angela Hill Luana piniero is at least a decent fight two top 20ish you know straw weights so in on that and then just kind of the rest of it is all pretty mid. It's one of those cards and I say it all the time. If you have other items to do this weekend, don't watch it.

I was fine. Go to mmafighting.com. It's a great website. We'll have the highlights. We'll have the recaps. We'll let you know anything that is so good you need to go watch. You can fire it up on Sunday. You know, you're nursing the hangover.

You open up the ESPN Plus app. Hopefully it works. Half the time it doesn't. But hopefully it works this time. You fire up. Okay, I know I need to check out the main event. They said it was good. Watch that because that's what I'm going to do.

because I'm not working this weekend. I'm taking the time out to watch Tyson Fury versus Alex and Rusik. I may check out a couple of these fights on Sunday, depending what you guys tell me are good. So that's my feeling. A generous three farts. BC, will you be sprinting to the television after Fury Usik to turn on Luke Thomas' favorite streaming platform ESPN Plus

to take part in UFC Vegas 92? First of all, never trust a fart. That's probably the only time I'll be running across to do something like that. But no, I won't watch it live. This is bad. It's about as bad as it gets. I mean, you can argue we've seen worse. It's not, again, like last week, it's like it's not like there's not reasons to tune in specific fighter stories.

I want to see if Vanessa Demopoulos jumps in somebody's arms again. I want to see Adrian Yanez try to bounce back from the bright thoughts we had on him in that division. I mean, but this fight card is also so bad that Abuse Malamatoff is fighting on it. I mean, that's something right there. But, no, I do care about the main event. I have been dialed in on, look, Barbosa is in just for, I mean, you know, I'm trying to get in good shape. I'm 45.

What's he like, 38, 39. And he went to the roof, penthouse level of what's the best shape I could get in right now physically at this point. Like no stones left unturned. So to see him on the two-fight win streak and looking pretty good, Billy Q, unfortunately after round and found out, right? it's a really good matchup in that sense that he's in there against somebody who's rising,

somebody that really could be something, but really hasn't beaten anybody and certainly not on this level yet. So love the crossroads match, making care about the main event, even if it's more of a preliminary card featured about in a lot of ways on a great card. I'm not going to complain a lot in life in general,

and I hate that I got labeled as a UFC complainer because I try to tell the damn truth. But really, UFC, you just have to put like a little moron, right? It's like when, when, like, you have to stay at your aunts as a kid and she'd make your sandwich for school. And, you know, she didn't put the right amount of fluff on there that your mom did because she knows how you like it. It's like it's just bread and cheese at this point, Dana. Really. BC, thoughts on Bellator's return tomorrow.

Patchy Mix back against Magamette Madaf in a fight that happened before. And we saw how it went. It is a fight that happened. It certainly was. Cedric Dumbay fighting. If you want to see how a crowd is supposed to react to shit, just go watch this card because you know that if crowd's going to be electric. Secretary Dumee back against Jaliel Willis,

which I think is a tougher matchup than he was originally scheduled to get. There's some other things on here. A lot of French talents who are probably going to get some big reactions. How much more excited are you for the Bellator card than the UFC card? Is it the same? It's about, okay, I'm more excited for the Bellator card, but I don't say that from the standpoint of, you know, UFC, could you be a little bit more like PFL Bellator over here?

Really, I couldn't have been a bigger optimistic champion of what PFL was trying to do entering this calendar year. But I thought they had a really nice point with that paper view of Belator versus PFL. It was creative. It was enough, right? I mean, was it worth the money? Probably not, but it was enough of like if this is the future of bringing these two rosters together,

having this all-star game feel of matchups, we never thought we would see or know. That's interesting. but what has happened since then has been like incredibly uninteresting and I hate that because your pfl is just clearly watering themselves down in ways that my partner Luke Thomas predicted aggressively and I was hoping not but you got a lot of talent and names that I care about from elites like patchy mix down to more TV friendly people like Spike Carlisle by the way but they really should all be fighting in the same setup in the same house with the same stakes of title contention rather

than well this one's for a tournament for a million bucks where they got to fight the same people like three times and three months. But over here, this Bellator is for all the other fighters who don't have weight classes in PFL, like patchy Mix, who arguably from a pound for pound standpoint might actually be the best fighter on the PFL Bellator roster, like might actually be along with guys like, like, AJ. I can't think of his name in the moment. You know what I'm talking about.

The guy that fuck people twice. AJ McKee. Damn, that was a far cry to pull that back. I mean, you've got like some legitimate. breakthrough, legit young talent, and they're putting him in Paris. And that doesn't mean that the Paris card won't be really fun with that lively crowd, but you're putting it in the afternoon in Paris in a rematch that even patchy mixed when he joined us on morning combat was like, yeah, I don't know why I'm fighting

this fight. He put Mago Medov to sleep just like a year and a half ago on his route to wearing a million dollars. It happened to Mago Medov's credit that he got himself back into position, but it really only happened because there's nobody else. So that's why we're seeing constant rematches like Karmouche versus Velasquez three. And it really feels awful. So I will be watching this.

I want to see Dubei. I want to follow that story. And I certainly think Patsy Mix is one of the best in the world in the sports deepest division. But the road that PFL Bellator is going on right now just has me past the point of concerned, really to the point of I don't care. And again, I don't want to be there. I like competition. I like some of what they do. just put all your pieces together and be you just do you right dance with who brung you there because

this you know extra added slop i mean it's nice to have a buffet but what are the quality items right is it really all about quantity they got a lot of quantity there but i do need once in a while for quality to kick me in the gut you know what i mean they have no buzz i mean none no excitement so many people have like dm me and they're like oh bellator there's a bellatorial card this week. Even with Cedric Dumbay on it, it's just crazy. Like, there is zero buzz for anything that they are doing right now. Although this is at large a better, a better card than the UFC card, but way more people are going to watch the UFC than this one. So, Jed, what are your thoughts on it? You got to respect PFL acquiring Bellator, but then just keep in that long Bellator tradition

of no one knowing that they're having events or giving a single shit about them. It is terrific. I love the gimmick. I think it's going to be, it is just is deeply hilarious that Patchy Mixes fighting Magamund in Paris for reasons. Like, after Sedgec Dubei goes out, this is going to be like UFC 301 when Jose Aldo fought,

and then the crowd were like, all right, we saw the thing we wanted to see. Oh, some of us might hang around for Pantosha, I guess, but it's fine. We're good here. No one's sticking around to watch Patchy, Who cares? And I love Badgy Mix.

One of the best fires in the world. But like, why does this Paris crowd care about him fighting a duty beat 18 months ago? It is, I don't know, this is classic Bell Tour. I know that it's PFLO now, but it's classic them. Like, who knows what we're doing, why we're doing the things. They're just spinning their wheels and seeing what happens. And I don't get it. But at least the fights are cool.

I probably won't check it out live. I have other things going on in my life. But I will almost certainly watch the two main events in Bellator after the fact. It's on HBO. It'll be easy. The rest of the card, I'm sure, will at least be fun because the Paris crowd is usually very live. And there are a bunch of French fighters on this card. But this is a better card than the UFC card.

And it's going to land like no one is going to see or watch this thing, which is really a testament to the quality promotional efforts of PFLOTor. Don Davis announces this thing with Bellator. They merge the co-leader thing. And everything he's done since then has been hilarious to a certain extent. Because every time he does an interview, I have to watch it because it's just the best. Because everything he says is so ridiculously false. But this attitude that drives me insane about them is that they've already won. Like, they're already there.

They don't have to do anything. We're different. We signed a couple of cool free agents. Like Paul Hughes is fucking great. Dude is good at fighting. No one outside of the UK has any idea who that man is. Nobody does. Nobody knows.

Now if you go sign Josealdo as a free agent, throw him in there with patchy mix, that's pretty damn cool. But we haven't seen a lot of moves like that. They signed Francis, haven't seen him fight yet. Signed Jake Paul, haven't seen him fight yet. Mandasarano hasn't fought yet. Savannah Marshall is about to fight. No one really cares. Cursed Shields has fought a couple times.

So it's, they've just, I've just never seen. They went from being the co-leader to being second fiddle to BKFC. BKFC is the freaking co-leader right now. They get Connor and Mike Perry and they're doing all these different things that generate all this attention and buzz. They feel like they still have more work to do despite all of this stuff. And I feel like PFL just has this totally different attitude. And it hurts my soul because we need them to be good.

We need them to come through. We need them to present some kind of challenge, even though they're so far away. We need them to at least come somewhat near them, some revolution around this world close to them. But it's just not happening. It's not happening right now. And it sucks. Absolutely sucks. But we'll see.

They'll probably now it's Cedric Dumebe versus Anthony Pettis. And they'll be like, oh, it's the biggest fight in PFL history. We're just like, okay. I mean, that's a dope fight. Just say it. I like that fight. It's a mildly intelligent cage. It's a cage that makes mistakes sometimes.

It definitely does. Definitely does. The punch speed per hour is the best. I just don't know how you come up with some of these statistics, but I don't know. We need to get out of this topic because I'm just going to be very, very upset. Patchy makes it in Paris. Okay.

It's Maga Med Maga Manoff. What are we doing? The main event the French fans have been clamoring for. Good fight. David said, hey, if you don't book this rematch, we're not buying tickets. We're not buying tickets unless you book this rematch because there were so much doubt after the first one. God. Point for round four.

Let's go. Goes to. Yes, BC Barraud gets it. It's two to two. Nicely done. The Baron himself. The Baron. to BTO. All right. Time for the knocker around. One question will decide at all. I didn't really

know where to go at this. I've landed on something and I'm curious to get your reactions to this. So Jed, uh, you actually won the last meeting. That's right. I did. What are we doing here? You going first. Going first, going to stretch in. Oh, you go first. I'm taking a gamble. I think I, I have a guess on what your question is. So I'm going to go first so I can get out ahead of it. And if I'm wrong, then we'll scramble and see what happens. All right. One chance. Championship. You ready? I was wrong.

No. I'm just so good. We're not talking about one championship. I didn't know one did anything other than go bankrupt. So, all right. No, but look, there is, we've had some promotional stuff going on this week. It's going to continue, I believe later on today, Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson. That fight's going down July 20th.

And wouldn't we know it? our old buddy Darren Till is going to be on that card July 20th, Arlington, Texas, Cowboy Stadium against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who once infamously fought Anderson Silva and Eras Silva looked pretty damn good against him. So Jed, your reaction, are you excited? Is this a tremendous addition?

Has this, I mean, you may be a Netflix subscriber anyways, but if you weren't, is the addition of Darren Till to this MVP card worth your $999 in order to watch it on July 20th. Your reaction to this fight, go. So the addition doesn't really matter. Like, this is not going to sell one more Netflix subscription than it previously did.

I do like the matchup. Like, I don't, I have long been on the, Darren Till's not nearly as good as he continues to fail upward somehow in the UFC rankings train. Like, I was driving that bus. But he is, like you said, Mike, a bunch. He's given us time to miss him. Haven't seen him fight in a while. and he's very good at getting himself over and selling himself.

And he went on the amount or twice this week and was like, I'm telling you guys, I'm so good at this. I'm going to be amazing. It's going to be great. I feel the best I've ever felt. And, you know, against other dudes, maybe wouldn't care. But who will this say is Chavez Jr. is like exactly the kind of guy he could beat because Anderson Silva, the old version of Anderson beat him in a boxing match.

Because JCC Jr. is not, he's not that dude anymore even to the extent that he ever was. And so we're getting Darren Till in boxing, which is something that's now been like 18 months in the fucking process. I'm just excited to see him back in the K or ring. And I think it's a good little addition. All right. BC, our boxing enthusiast. Boy, when you woke up yesterday morning, were you ready for Darren Till versus Julio Sazar Chavez Jr. BC? And once you saw it, what did you think?

Go. I got to give it up to him. I thought it was brilliant. I think this entire Netflix pay-per-view card, or I guess not pay-per-view, subscription only on Netflix, which already has the potential, really, to go from where they are now

with, I think the latest estimate was 400 million subscribers. I mean, I'm not trying to do crazy and say they can double that, but there is an un-talked-about level of potential for how big Tyson versus Paul could be in just like, is this going to be the most watch combat sports event? And a long, long, long-ass

time. I think that it got the right pay-per-view parts around it, or I'm using the paper-view term, but in terms of a little bit of everything. So Serrano versus Taylor 2 in the co-main event is like, oh my God, we get that too. Then you get this perfect freak matchup of Darren Till making his debut against three years gone

Chavez Jr. where you're like Till could be a future Jake Paul opponent. He could be a future Mike Perry, BKFC opponent if he goes through, and he can instantly get credibility in the silo and you add a silo of crossover boxing, and you add in a real fight added onto there.

Ashton Silve, the best prospect on Jake's MVP promotions. In fact, the only prospect is not just taking like a showcase fight. He's actually going in there against an equal in Floyd Schofield Jr. who's an unbeaten prospect on the zone matchroom side. This is like Bo Neckle

fighting an unbeaten guy who might have a chance to beat him. So you take the totality of this, I never thought because I'm stuck on on what the Saudi money could do for boxing. I didn't overly think of what the Netflix platform could do now that you're pushing this ultimate freak fight of Tyson Paul to the massive so aggressively. They've actually lined up talking about buffets, a mix of quality and quantity that I think

will upgrade the card and in a weird-ass way, if this is not a train wreck where Mike Tyson hurts himself, might actually be able to elevate the sport. Guys, it's actually coming together right now for boxing. I'm allowed to complain about Aspinall versus anyone else, not John Jones. What a time to be alive. This is great, right? Maybe. I gave up another minute.

I mean, look. I mean, you almost got to two. That was impressive. I thought you were going to get there. I thought we were going to hit the post on the second. Oh, that's a disturbing image. You can fix a lot of things, but not these crazy eyes, guys, right? Wow.

Oh, man. I thought the voting, hopefully the voting is underway because if it is, I think that just secured you the matchup. Jed, any final thoughts that you have like three and a half minutes to catch up? just BC said it and kind of blew right past it this is going to be the most watched combat sports event of all time I just I don't think we're giving that enough credence for what this is I got a lot of questions about the moral sort of gray area we're in here with some of this but 400 million subscribers it I think it's going to be the most watched combat

sports event ever certainly in modern history and that that's meaningful. So good on Darren Till to be part of that. So I think tickets, tickets go on sale to the public today. And I'm looking at it right now. And if they went on sale today to the public, they probably went on sale like within no more than 90 minutes ago. There are a shitload of tickets gone. I mean a shitload of tickets. There's very little color on this map that seats about 100,000 people. This is probably at this moment the biggest gate in combat sports history in the state of Texas. And it's but tickets been on sale for like 90 minutes. That's fucking ridiculous, dude. AT&T stadium seats 80,000. So that's pretty outlanded.

It's almost all there's some green and yellow and red, but like there's a ton of gray. Like there's a ton of gray with the seats that have already been sold. They probably sold 45 to 50,000 tickets already. It's insane. Casey, how the how the how the votes going how are we doing by the way uh there is going to be a fury usic preview show coming up uh very shortly sometime later on today probably the next couple hours so sam i'm you on that as well and i'm are you on that i am not on that i'm i'm recording it in 90 minutes all right you're on it you rick and hose right okay correct uh because boy i get the ufc action tomorrow and i'm get very excited about that ufc preview show coming up noon eastern tomorrow

So get excited. And then Saturday's just going to be insane. We'll have a Furiousic post-fight show. We'll have the UFC post-fight show. All sorts of fun. Casey has arrived. He's got no sleeves on, which means it's insane. And the guns are out.

Casey, who wins? What was that figure, BC? You know, I was going to promote my Hulk Hogan figure until I remember he said the end word that time. So I was just going to put that away. All right. All right, all right. In an incredibly close vote. Ooh.

Hold on. Oh, we got to go a little overtime. Wow. With, oh my goodness, with 50.1% of the votes, the closest vote we've ever had. Wow. You're a winner. Brian Campbell. Oh, he gets it back.

Redemption. How do you spell redemption? B.C. One by one vote. Why one vote? Your vote matters. Don't let anyone tell you your vote doesn't matter. B.C., how we feel?

I know you're going to get out of here. But what do you want to say to the peeps who voted for you and for everybody else watching at home right now? Thank you, folks. Thank you. I had to come here to clean up the mess that I left last time. Jed is a competitor, but I beat him. Order has been restored.

Enjoy your interim UFC title play. Thank you very much. Look, that's it. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? You know, you want me to do in here, right? Okay.

I won, guys. See you next week. Thank you. All right. Yeah, great. What a guy. What a guy. I wish he could be on every week with you, Jed.

50.1 is nuts. That's awesome. How do you feel about this? That's okay. 50.1, you know, uh, he won. He won by one vote. I'm sorry. I'm sure that the difference was me going after Beavis and Butthead for saying that,

you know, we, we there or I don't know, I haven't seen cross in the comments in a hot minute. So I don't know. I think he just don't want to smoke anymore, which is good. We all learned something there. So, uh, great battle. Happy to be here. That's awesome. It's so fun.

That is great. All right. Casey, hit the music. We are done. Well, look at him. He gets the whole screen to himself, just as we're saying goodbye. What a matchup it was. We'll be back next week to recap Fury Usoc, UFC, UFC, Vegas 92.

And then there's like nothing else because we'll be on the road to UFC 302. A little bit of a breather from the world's famous Apex to Newark, New Jersey. And I'm excited for June 1st, got to tell you. So for Casey on the ones and two's BC, B, C, our champion. Jen Bishu, our worthy challenger. I am Mike Eck, the iconic voice special and takes you home. Back next week. Good night, everybody.

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