MMA Fighting - BTL | Dana White Speaks, Khabib Stepping Away, A.J. McKee Re-Signs, UFC Vegas 67

Episode Date: January 12, 2023

UFC president Dana White began the UFC Vegas 67 media day on Wednesday by speaking with reporters about the video showing him slapping his wife during an altercation on New Year's Eve. While White is being open, is it sending the right message overall? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss White's media day scrum, him asking people not to defend him, and how the promotion and Endeavor continue to remain silent. Additionally, they'll discuss Khabib Nurmagomedov stepping away from MMA and how that could effect Islam Makahchev ahead of his upcoming lightweight title fight against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284, A.J. McKee re-signing with Bellator and the official reveal of the lightweight grand prix, Saturday's UFC Vegas 67 event headlined by Sean Strickland and Nassourdine Imavov, and more. Host Mike Heck and MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew will discuss those topics, plus take some of your questions at the end of the show. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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MA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... My voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between... the links and look it has been a rough start to 2023 in the mMA space but it is fight week for the ufc for the first time in 2023 of course it's been a a bit of a rocky road getting to ufc vegas 67 a new main event on the books which we will discuss along with a whole lot more and joining me to do exactly that plus answer some of your questions at the tail end of the program is Mr. No Gray area himself, the exhibition king.

He is our Woody Page, the co-host of No Betts Bard, and much more, Mr. Jedmishu. How are you, sir? I'm great. What a fight week it is, Mike. We're just rolling right into 2023 with the best card maybe of the whole year, you know? It might hold up as the best card all year long. We're starting off on a high note. Really, it's great, especially given the torrent of terrible shit that's happened.

thus far. So it's a great week. Great week to be alive. Happy to be here. Yes. The energy levels are high. I think we're going to take it down a little bit because let's just get right into it, man. You can go higher, maybe. Yes, I think we can. And we began last week's show with our reaction to the video that everybody has seen by now

showing UFC President Dana White on New Year's Eve. getting into, shall we say, an uncomfortable situation with his wife, Anne, who was in distress during an argument. At a New Year's Eve party, he grabs her wrist, she slaps him, he slaps her back, which appeared to be multiple times. And like I said, we've all seen it at this point. We discussed the subsequent interview with TMZ, who clearly was running PR alongside the UFC in the situation,

although Dana White, to his credit, didn't he did not take the incredibly easy outs that TMZ was trying to give him and we discussed the deafening silence from the UFC from Endeavor from Turner Sports who will be airing that stupid power slap show on TBS it's just delayed a week and that silence is still intact which I'm sure we're going to discuss but for over a week Jed we've had nothing and then yesterday unbeknownst to anybody at the UFC apex Dana White showed up at the UFC Vegas 67 Media Day. He opened things up by saying he wants the focus of the media day as a whole to be on the fighters and the fights since all of this is on him and nobody else.

He said he still has no excuses. He reiterated a lot of the things he said in the TMZ interview, but he also added something he didn't tell TMZ. It was a little bit of a new wrinkle. Don't defend me. Fighters, fans, et cetera, do not defend me. And as we've seen Jed, people still are defending him anyways, which is just insane to me. But still, Dana said that amongst other things, including that he's not going to get punished for this. And we'll certainly talk about that in a moment as well. He took questions and then the media day commenced with all the fighters. So Jed, I did an immediate reaction to the scrum minutes after it ended with Damon and AK. I've reacted to it a bit more today on heck of a morning after having some time to reflect on it

a bit more. But let's get your reaction to this. What was your initial reaction to him showing up, taking the questions, all of that. It was all very strange. I don't know why he did it is I guess we're all start. I don't know why he came out and said I want the focus to be on the fighters because that's just not what was ever going to happen. Like that's very, very obviously that was not what's going to happen the moment he walks onto the dais and is getting questions.

So that's just not true. Like, or it's ridiculously optimistic. I guess maybe you could view it that way. I have seen a lot of this notion, and I don't want to entirely walk away from it, of giving Dana White credit for meeting this head-on. I think that there is a kernel of truth in that. I think that he deserves credit for not totally shying away from this. But I am, I don't want the focus here.

The focus here shouldn't be on well. But look at him. He's zoning up to this. Like, yes, he is. And that is a good thing. But that isn't the bulk of the problem or the conceit. Because at the end of the day, he is still not being accountable for this. And that's all that, like, that is the beginning, middle and end of this story as far as I'm concerned is the accountability for what happened. And he is absolutely right when he says, don't defend him. And I respect that he has tried to put that out into the universe. And the fact that people don't. aren't even buying it and still just doing it anyway, it makes me weep for mankind. But the way you don't, you're defending yourself by not accepting a punishment. Like, that's it. You're doing that. And that's not worthy of commendation. It is not his, and I have the quote here, whatever, what should the repercussions be?

You tell me, I take 30 days off. How does that hurt me? I want to be extremely clear here. I don't think a soul alive said he should take 30 days off. I think most people who think that he should be suspended, because again, the framing here is important. He ain't taking the days off. It's a suspension. Those are different.

And it's not a month-long suspension. It's six months suspension. How does that hurt me? Well, one, it absolutely does. Like, if you've been around this sport for any amount of time, it would very likely bother the hell out of him for him to not actively be in charge of this company for six months. or would like that feels pretty clear that that would intrinsically bother the shit out of him then he goes on to reframe it of you know we're going through COVID i could sit out what would that mean what what would be the problem it's much like COVID actually me leaving hurts the company hurts my employees hurts fighters bullshit doesn't hurt anybody the him leaving the company at this point in time be it for one month six months a year forever does not bring the UFC down in any in any respect there are arguments that it actually would elevate it, but we don't even need to get into that.

It is, this is a self-sufficient entity at this point in time. He is not, he is not a massive value add to the point that it will, in fact, negatively impact employees. But guess what? That doesn't even fucking matter. It truly does not matter. The point here is not to hurt Dana White because this is not about retribution. This is about accountability.

and the simple fact of the matter is him saying, I will not face punishment for this. My punishment is that I will spend the rest of my days being known as this. Bullshit. Everyone has that. Everybody that gets caught doing a bad thing has to have that. That is part and parcel of the human experience. They also face consequences for their actions.

Generally, the hope is that those consequences will lead to a restorative. of justice or something of that matter, not, well, eye for an eye here. And that's not what I'm saying. From the very beginning, I have not said Dana White needs to get fired. Dana White should be cast out into exile or anything like that. I have called for, and many have called for, accountability. Saying I did wrong is great. That is an admission of guilt and an acknowledgement that you fucked up. But that is not accountability. And to some extent, you can even, I can even accept the argument of, well, he's not going to hold himself accountable because that's not really how things work. That's shitty, but that's at least like also pretty realistic as far as the human condition goes, right?

So the part that really got me of his thing is this next quote here, we've had plenty of discussions internally with Ari Emanuel ESPN. Nobody's happy. Nobody's happy about this. It doesn't shock me that they've been talking about it, but they motherfucking ain't talking about it to, anybody else. If Ari Emanuel and Dana White and whoever are talking about this internally, they know that this is a fuck-up. They know that this is a bad thing and should be dealt with an addressed. And they are actively not speaking or commenting on it to the public, to the media, to anybody and are actively not pursuing any sort of consequences for Dana White. This is so fucked, man. This is so fucked. It is not difficult what has gone on here. This is

the simplest thing ever because one the counter to all of Dana's stupid ass arguments or whatever Ramsey Nizum and Al-Aquinto posted exactly it and I'm paraphrasing like oh but it was you know Ramsey Nizum was like yeah well you know I think I would have much preferred to have just been known as a guy who smoked pot than to get a nine month suspension from USADA because that's the crux of it here the the purpose of accountability is to make you reckon, truly reckon with what has gone wrong and how you can improve yourself.

And maybe you want to say that, well, Dana Hardy is reckoning with that. And he's going to be a better man. And I genuinely hope that's true. Really do. Like, that would be great. But it is also because time is linear and moves forward. And this will happen again. And this is not a question of if.

based on this sports history and the numbers at play, it is a simple question of when. When the next UFC fighter, who is accused, convicted, caught on video in a domestic violence incident, when that happens, it will come down to Dana White is the judge, jury, and executioner of what happens to that man. and that is impossibly fucked particularly when there isn't nothing happened because if I'm trying to think of like a random dude I don't even want to say it because I don't want to throw any accusations out pick a mid-level to low-end ranked fighter

who gets caught on video doing this same thing that guy's going to get punished going to face some sort of consequences for his actions and if he does then it's hypocritical and it's bullshit because Dana White didn't And if he doesn't, then everyone's just going to be like, okay, well, this is clearly an organization that's comfortable with you beating your wife. And that's it. Like, this isn't, you can say my bad.

I say my bad all the time. I fuck up constantly. But there's, it is a spectrum of things that are acceptable to get to, to, to move on from with an apology. Hey, man, uh, my bad. I fucked up dinner. I put too much salt in it. That's a shame. Like, that's okay.

Hey man, fucked up and it crashed into your car, but yeah, I'm just going to walk away. This isn't me. Like, that's not it. When you do the thing, you have to admit the guilt and show contrition and face consequences. And this isn't happening. And the fact that Endeavor and ESPN aren't doing it and clearly, like are so clearly just desperate to dodge this as far as possible for no reason. For no reason.

This whole thing, it's getting worse. I didn't think I could hate this anymore. And yet here it is. When Dana White is handling this by far the best of any person, and he's not handling it well, frankly. Like, this is so fucked, man. It's so fucked. Yeah.

I think there was not a lot good done here, but I mean, the don't defend me thing, one million percent needed to be said. He said, if other fighters wanted to talk about it and call him an asshole, free speech all good and like you said he's doing what the ufc should have done what endeavor should have done and frankly should still be doing but i'm with you the punishment stuff hated that response didn't love the you know this is my punishment stance me sitting here it's so dumb that's punishment i certainly did a love didn't love what you said the how does this punish me it only

punishes everybody else if i go away it affects the fighters it affects the business it doesn't affect me. I could have left in 2016. And I 100% don't agree with that because I think the UFC would be just fine without him being the face of it. He hasn't been the face, like he's been off for a month anyways. And one person suggested he takes a month off. I'm not going to mention that because that was horrendous too. But the timing of this was very strange, Jed.

And I actually thought from a sort of Dana White PR perspective, it was brilliant because the reporters, while they did the best they could, they didn't have any time to prepare for this. They didn't expect to show up. He was never going to announce a presser to give. That was never going to happen. Dana's not an idiot. Yeah, it was, it was smart because he got questions asked of him.

It looks like he faced the music. And there were things he said that I can respect and appreciate, mostly the don't offend me stuff because I still can't believe that in 2023, Dana White himself has to come out in, say, in a live microphone, people should not be defending me on this. But I hated that whole takeaway, very egotistical that this business can't run without me. It hurts everybody else. And I just wish one person there. And I'm not dogging on the reporters who are there because again, they didn't know he was coming. They did the best they could. I thought John Morgan,

he's so great in that spot, not just because it's like a gimmick thing asking the first question, but he sets the table for follow-ups. And I really wish one reporter had, asked him following that response of the business suffers, nobody else does, I'd love to, I would have loved to have heard him, someone ask him, why do you feel that way? Why is that the case? Is this a business thing where you have business deals in place that will only, in these companies will only deal with you and nobody else? And that's why. If that's the case, then that's the case. But I would love to know why he feels that way, Jed. And I'm, I'm stunned that nobody asked him that.

And again, I'm not trying to like dog on anybody who was there. It was a stunning thing. They expected freaking Punisoriana to walk through the door and be all jolly and giddy. And then Dana White shows up and answers the questions. They weren't prepared for this. But I would love to know why he feels this way because by most accounts, it's just not true outside of a business sense. This is a machine. And the machine's going to keep on rolling with or without him.

This is a 0% chance of business sense is even true. And that's like I wanted two more questions. everything else, like I'm with you, got caught off guard. I think mostly it was well, well done. I wanted two more questions. I wanted that. I wanted to be like, explain to me how the business fails, like how the business suffers because there isn't, there, there's literally no answer that's correct. Because one, uh, businesses aren't, good businesses, I guess I should clarify, aren't in like entirely single, single siloed into everything. So like there, it, I firmly do not believe that there is a single business.

business that only would deal with Dana White and wouldn't deal with anybody else, particularly after a major event happened that may, that should make Dana White unavailable because the business won't die because Dana White leaves or suspended, etc. So I would have just liked that as clarity because that answer was to me, that answer is pretty obvious bullshit. And I would have liked the follow up to make him at least try and reckon with that statement, even though at the end of it,

we would have gotten general Dana White fudgery of, You guys don't even know the stuff that goes on behind the scenes and all this. They're just like, I've been doing this business. I'm the most successful fight promoter of the last 30 years. I know the answer would have gotten, but it still should have been put on record that he has to address it. I guess I actually have two other answers. The second one I would like would just be, have, has Ari Emanuel, has ESPN, have any of these internal discussions. What has been thrown about about how to handle this?

Can you offer why they have declined? to comment at all, even though they would in any other respect had this happened. Again, I probably can figure out the answer. But the last one, the one I'm wanted the most answered and that I'm surprised nobody did offer. It's like, hey, what happens now? Where do we go from here? Because this is going to happen again. And so the question can just be framed.

When the next fighter gets caught on video and or accused slash convicted of domestic violence, what happens to them? What does the UFC code of conduct mean? Because if you come out and say, well, you know, we have a code of conduct and that will, they'll be suspended and thing, but like, all right, my follow up is, why does that not apply to you? And then if the answer is, we don't know, I'm like, okay, but if you don't know, you recognize it by doing anything to them would be hypocritical other than labeling them domestic abuser. Like that because that is the precedent you are setting right this fucking moment.

And that's it. And if he has to at least address that, he has to at least admit that this is total bullshit or that he should take the punishment. And here's the real kicker for me. The way he addressed everything else is right. That piece of it is wrong. And it erodes my whole confidence in every other part of this, frankly. Because if he's out here saying, it seems earnest, don't defend me. I can't bounce back from this.

There's no overcoming this, et cetera, et cetera. Then if Ari Emanuel, if ESPN, if these entities who have power to wield and hold here said, hey, we took some time. We think that we need to have, we're going to suspend Dana White from his activities for six months. We're going to have him pay a substantial fine. All of that money is going to go to domestic violence shelters and outreach programs. we're also going to have him do a PSA or work with some domestic violence charities, which frankly should be the bare fucking minimum of what happens here.

But if they said that, how can he, based on everything else that he said in this interview, come out and be like, no, that's unfair, that's ridiculous. And it puts him to the test, be like, do you really feel that you've fucked up and should pay consequences? Because at this point, I don't know. several of the things you are saying makes it feel like that but the way you are saying them makes makes it feel like well i don't think i should pay too many consequences and if you extrapolate that line of thought out because this is the this is the driving point mike if you extrapolate out

all of the actions and the way everybody has handled this it is ultimately that what dana white did was acceptable it may not be okay but it was acceptable because that's what we are talking about. Ari Emanuel, ESPN, TBS, have accepted the action that Dana White did and his response of, I am sorry, because they are not changing anything moving forward. They looked at that and said, not great, but okay. And that is fucking bullshit. Because if you want to draw, you want to take this to the extreme, if he, if he gets caught in a Ray Rice situation, that's not acceptable. to them. There's no world in which they don't do that, but they are tacitly endorsing this by saying, look, we don't like it. It would be better if this didn't happen, but, hmm, not going to

change anything for us. Fucking bullshit, man, and down the line, that's where we're at here. The way this has been handled is to that core truth, and that just drives me insane, because everybody knows that it shouldn't be, and they aren't going to do a goddamn thing. Yeah, and then sort of the other part of it too. And one thing that I've talked about on heck of warning I haven't talked about here is that I have friends who work in media and other sports. I have friends who have front office jobs for professional sports teams. And I've talked to all of them about this and kind of paraphrasing, but the most consistent response that I've gotten from these people when talking about how colleagues, how fans, how even some athletes are looking at our sport. they're all saying that this is who we thought you were to begin with.

And we think you're, we've always thought you're, the sport was kind of a joke. And they were fucking right, man. You just, you proved this whole thing is proven us right. One person said, and I'll never forget,

I'll never forget it. He goes, we're all laughing at you. We're all laughing at you. That's what they said. And that one really stuck with me. And it's kind of, it's just kind of a tough spot for everybody to be in.

And again, you or I are most others in the space who have talked about. this we're not asking for his job we're asking for some contrition something more tangible than me just sitting at a table answering your questions is my punishment and while i can somewhat appreciate what dana is doing this does not excuse the ufc endeavor for remaining quiet and again we're not asking them to give me a 35 or anybody else a 35 page statement about this just give us we don't condone this behavior we're going to do everything that you laid out he's going to pay a fine he's got to sit He's going to sit out for a minute.

He's got to work with domestic charities, domestic violence charities and outreach programs. He's got to do a PSA. And he's got to do some former counseling. Like that's what we're looking for. Just something saying that we don't condone his behavior. And I'm certainly not the first say this. I'm certainly not going to be the last to say this.

But it is going to take, like you said, it's got to take something else like this happening from another fighter on the roster, the response to it from everybody involved before this comes like full circle again. And what's scary about this is Dana did address what would happen if another fighter did it. And he said it's going to be a case by case basis. And he just put it out there yesterday

that if it hurts the business, then how can we punish this person? It won't hurt them because they're a big star and they have lots of money. But it'll hurt the company. It'll hurt the rest of the fighters that were fighting on maybe a scheduled card to this. this person's fighting on.

Like if we're talking about like a big star has made a whole bunch of money, you have already laid out that it if affects the business, then the punishment itself is just them having to carry the weight of what they did. And Dana, he said it, I will not be able to bounce back from this. And he's a thousand percent correct. He will be known as the guy who helped build this sport and help build the UFC to what

it is today. And he will get a lot of credit for that. But he will also be known as this guy as well. And he knows that. Well, Dana knows he can't, though, Mike, I know, go ahead. You can. You can bounce back from this.

And that is like the big crux of all of this, is that from Jump Street, I haven't said burn him at the stake because people fuck up. You make mistakes. And you can bounce back from any mistakes. But these, these things can be part of your story or they can be a central fucking point of it. It is, if he came out and did all of the right things and he's done several good things. Again, I want to give him some credit so this is not me just shitting on him. But if he came out and did this, Michael Vic bounced back. Mike Tyson has somehow bounced back, did something

substantially worse, and never showed contrition, but worked through it and is like culturally okay again. That you can bounce back from this, but you have to do the fucking right shit, man. If you come out and say, I fucked up. He did that. Great. Here's how we are going to address this moving forward, that's not what that, that is the second and crucial part that is mixed of this. It is you, this doesn't, this could have been a story that died within a month and that maybe was a blurb moving forward occasionally of Dana White came out. This happened.

This is shitty. This is bad. Here's how we're going to address this. Ari Emanuel came out and said, we have, there's no place for domestic violence in our, in our business organization. I've spoken with Dana White. We, we don't have a plan yet. We're figuring out what we feel are the appropriate measures to take here.

For the time being, Dana White's going to be suspended from business duties while we figure out what our next steps are. We would have stopped talking about this by now. This is what, the 12th? This happened on New Year's Eve. Story broke on second or third, whatever it was. This would be done. This would not be a story right now. They came out immediately and handled this like any fucking adult PR firm would.

the NFL any adult organization could have come out and like hey this isn't this is not a hard shot is the thing like this is not a difficult task to solve it's like all right here's how we handle this we would have had a weeks worth of content out of it this would have mostly subsided we'd be focused entirely on UFC Vegas and the UFC 283 coming up when Dana white you know whenever the punishment got revealed that would be a story probably wouldn't be a huge story would more be hey let's talk about it on a segment of all right well here's what they decide to levy do we think that's fair great cool we're done we move past it when he comes back in six eight months a year whatever it is then it's hey this is Dana white's first event back Dana white does the presser for his first event and everybody's kind like at that point everybody's approach would be fundamentally different because we'd be like hey you you face consequences for your actions you showed contrition you this is how you, this is how you move through things when you, when you make mistakes in life. And so it would have been a topic when he comes back, Dana, tell us what you learned in that year off, you know,

tell us how this works. Link, he could have come and then he could be a comeback story. People fucking love a comeback story. And instead, it's, we're mired in this shit for a month because nobody can do their fucking job and just listen to one PR firm and do do the thing. Mike, do the thing, it is such an easy ass. The bar too clear is so impossibly low, and they are all tripping over themselves to face first into this. Why is this so difficult?

I'm glad you said that because when people say, oh, stop talking about this, like it's being overblown. By the way, it's not being overblown. And the fact that a group of senators and politicians and Congresswomen, the California, your women's caucus, them demanding Dana's job. Like, that is a very big deal. And it's mostly because of the silence.

And you're right. Don't blame us for this still being in the news. Blame the UFC for it being in the news. Blame endeavor for being in the news. Because like Jed said, had this been handled like any other sport. And I mentioned like Mark Cuban. If this is Mark Cuban, this is a whole different discussion. We're probably still talking about because of who Mark Cuban is, if we're being honest,

but just as an example, but we wouldn't be talking about this anymore or certainly not as much if this is just handled the right way. And that's all we've been asking. Just give us, say you condone it, say you're not, this is not what we do, we're not happy, some sort of statement,

some sort of fine, some, something, just anything. And this all goes away. It fades away. You want to sweep this under the rug? You're not going to be able to. But if you wanted to go away and have us move on and talk about the fighters, that's what you do.

You handle it that way. And then you move on. And we go on to the fights and the stories and stuff. But forever, man, this is. All of the coverage, all of the coverage since it happened has been about the response. Like a vast majority has been about the response or lack thereof. And that's it. Creating more problems for yourself.

And you're creating them in perpetuity. Every domestic violence incident that happens moving forward, that will be a question. Dana White, hey, fighter X got caught. hitting his or arrested for hitting his girlfriend. Do you have comment? Yeah, we're figuring out. Okay, at any point, like, how does this relate to your incident of it? Like, it moves forward forever.

Because until you reckon with, truly reckon with it, the problem doesn't go away. Here's where I want to end on this, though, Mike, because I am truly like exhausted from this story. So I would like to move on. I don't relish putting this out there, frankly. I want to be extremely clear. This is not an accusation. I am not saying that this will happen. I am praying desperately.

It doesn't. But God forbid this happens again with the same parties involved. The shit storm that will rain down will be unlike anything this board has ever seen. If this same thing happens, and I don't, I hope to God it doesn't. I hope that it is never close to happening. but can you imagine the PR fucking fallout if this happens again in a year, eight months, two years, 10 years, whatever the timeline is that Ari Emanuel and Endeavor are going to have to deal with

if this fucking shit happens again, it is unbelievable the just cowardly response that Endeavor and ESPN and everybody has done here. Unbelievable. Yeah, there will be. You know, bouncing back from that, that is for sure. So... It's the matchat or the three ensemble Cajolla that I've been to denichie

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and endeavor and everyone else involved has had many roads they could take in regards to a response a former UFC lightweight champion a surging coach has taken his own road he has made the decision to go down a different road oh hello Casey

Habib Narmagamatov is in the news jet I don't know if you saw this but multiple reports surfaced over the weekend that Habeb is walking away from MMA for good. He's not coaching, he's not cornering, nothing. And our own Damon Martin spoke with a source close to the situation. I'm pulling up right now. And that person confirmed, Habib is, quote,

taking time off for his family. And essentially, it's not known when this hiatus will begin and is also not known when it will end. So Jed, Habib walked away from MMA on top as the champion, undefeated, about as good as you can do it. and after the 2022 he had as a coach, it appears at least for now, he's doing the same from that place as well. What was your reaction to finding him that Habib after just an incredible year as a coach?

He's walking away. He's done. I don't know. Feels like there's more to the story that we probably will never get, right? It just my read is that this is he's burnt out and that he wants to spend more time with his family. And coaching's hard, man. You fly all over the world, especially with his team. He's spending so much.

He spent most of his, the bulk of his adult life doing this already, and now he's still doing it, even though he's retired. And it's, you know, maybe he's not getting into full fight shape, but he's still doing a ton. So I reckon, I understand that. My guess is that this is a temporary stay, you know, maybe a year or two and get, he'll get drawn back in. but from, I know Umar and Mohammedov made some comments.

I think that story's about to drop on MMA fighting in a minute. And it seems like he's still going to be involved loosely, but it's not going to be on the road. It's going to be at home. It's going to be in Dagestan. And so when those fighters are around, he'll be at the gym, it'll help them. My guess is he'll still be involved to some extent in game planning and thought processing, but it's just not going to be the day to day. part of it. And that makes a ton of sense to me because he doesn't need the money. He doesn't need to

do this as his job. He is financially okay in that regard. And so he can focus on the other things he wants to do. So it'll be a shame if this holds true for like an extended period of time. Like I said, my guess is it's probably a year or two before he comes back in some more prominent role as a coach. we see him around cornering a little more often, maybe not as much, but still more. But it'll be a real shame because he's one of the 10 best fighters of all time, I think at a minimum. That's kind of where you have to put him in the conversation has been a really good coach thus far and would have liked to see kind of how long he can sort of carry on his dad's, you know,

his dad's ideology really so uh but if he needs it for himself you have nothing left to give this sport we're we're good we have taken plenty from you so happy trails and hope to see you back let's say hypoth and this is a hypothetical because we don't know when this technically starts it seems like from instagram posts and in things that have been reported that this is an immediate thing but not 100% we don't know for sure but let's just say hypothetically. Islam Makachchev has a big fight with Alexander Volkanowski, February 11th, UFC 284, a fight that Habib helped make happen after Makachev won the belt and beat Charles Olivera,

the post-fight promo, which people who were on the fence immediately got off and they were like, let's do this because Habib did a great job of being the mouthpiece here. That leads to the face off, Volk jumping into the cage, and ultimately the fight being made. how much do you feel Habib's absence from like the physical preparation side like he might be thrown in some game playing ideas from home maybe there's face time calls whatever how much does this absence from being in the corner in Perth the fight week stuff all of it does this change in any way how you view this fight on February 11th no I also I have a suspicion he'll be at Perth for this one just because this one feels big, right? Like this is number one versus number two pound for pound. He helped build the fight. It's his hand chosen successor.

It's, you know, Abdulmanab's second best suited behind himself. I feel like he doesn't want to do the full prep stuff, et cetera, et cetera. It kind of feels like he's still going to show to Perth for that part of it. Even if he doesn't, though, it doesn't really change my mind about anything. anything. I don't, I think he's been a very good coach. I think he's a good coach largely by focusing on simplicity. He, he, he's not reinventing the wheel here. He's making his fighters do the things they are the best at and, and finding the best ways to implement those strategies. Think Islam Machchev probably knows what that is in general anyway. And you still have Javier

Mendes and the rest of that crew. His preparation is still going to be excellent. I doubt it drops off without Habib in the camp, frankly. And I don't think that the tactical adjustments, et cetera, or anything that's outside of the realm of pretty clear for what they want to do specifically because it'll probably also still be involved. They'll talk to him, be like, hey, here's what we're thinking. What do you think?

Blah, blah, blah. So I just, this doesn't change anything. Honestly, if anything, if he doesn't show the biggest thing this changes is actually a benefit, theoretically, for Islam. And it is, all right, Islam, it's your time. It is your turn to stand on your own two feet entirely. Because for better or worse, Islam is intrinsically tied to Habib, right? And part of his legacy will always be, like if, here's the thought experiment. If Islam rattles off six lightweight title defenses, it seems very unlikely, just given the

depth of the division. But let's say he does it. By most metrics, if you presented the info of him to an outside observer, they'd be like, that's the best lightweight of all time, pretty clearly. One loss, K.O. loss, other than that, dominant, most title defense wins, et cetera, et cetera. And yet, MMA fans will probably ultimately come to the decision of, Habib's still the best because Habib was better than you.

And then he walked away to allow you to move into this. space. For better, like I said, for better or worse, he is going, his entire career has the specter of Habib. And we see careers like this of, you know, guys fighting in the shadow of other, of other greats that came before them. But it has never been fighting in the shadow of the other great who came before him, who was his best friend and training partners since they were seven and that. And I don't, I don't know that he can escape it, but for this. If Habibu really, does step away and isn't involved anymore, that is going to help Islam create his own legacy. Still with Habib, you know, involved in the circle, but if Habib is the mouthpiece behind him for

six tighter defenses, those pictures will just stick in everybody's mind. Yeah, there's Islam with the belt and Habib right behind him, and it won't, this gives him a chance to be his own man. And I don't know if that went into this at all or what, but I do think that the only real change we're going to see from an X's and O's or the what specifically happens will be that. Well, either way, we wish Habeen Ramaga made up the best. Family comes first and good on him for sticking to his guns if this is in fact the direction he takes for a little while or forever. It ruins my plans, Mike.

For the longest time I had been right, I had the parallel drawn in my head of Michael Jordan and Habib. and Michael Jordan's dad was tragically murdered and he took some time off and he came back and Abbe's dad tragically died and he took some time and he was going to come back and he had three title defenses and he was going to come back and he was going to get the belt

and defended two more times and he was going to walk away and it was just going to be Habib and Michael Jordan and they were going to be the two dudes and now I don't think that's ever going to happen and that kind of sucks from a from a storytelling standpoint. I'm sure AK will hate

the fact that you're saying that since he's been driving that train for quite some time now. AK's train was entirely predicated on Islam losing to Charles. And I tried to tell him from jump, I was like, that's super not going to happen, my man. And it didn't. Well, I mean, this story will could also affect a piece of our next topic. Heading to the wonderful world of Bellator MMA, Jedmishu. They have been in the news quite a bit this week. The field has been announced for their lightweight Grand Prix.

it appears all the matchups are now set. We're just waiting on date and location on one of the bouts. But that all began with the news earlier this week that Bellator has resigned A.J. McKee to a multi-year, multi-fight deal to keep him with Bellator for the foreseeable future. Now, I was told, and I know press releases have come out since, he had one fight left after the Satoshi fight during the Bellator versus Rising card, which McKee looked great.

and I thought he came off like a star on that card. And to me, right off the bat, Jed, considering the bit of momentum they had to end in 2022, this was a big, big and much needed start to 2023 for them, was it not? Yeah, man. It's great. I tweeted this after and I hope I am wrong. But here is genuinely the first thing I thought was,

this is awesome. we knew it was coming. We knew they had mentioned the Lightwood Grand Prix. They have the horses for it. It's probably their best division. If 135 isn't it's one of those two. This is great. And they announced it.

And they got all the right names for it too, man. They put the appropriate bodies in this thing. And so my first reaction was awesome. Here's Bellator doing the good thing. And then my next one is, man, I hope they don't fuck this up. Because that's the crux of it here. This is, I have gotten comments from people, some of them who work for Bellator, who have been like, hey, you know, we don't think you give us a fair shake, et cetera.

We know that you're one of our biggest detractors. Here's the truth, guys. I don't want to be. I think this sport is in a much better position if Bellator is stronger and good and produces a better topic. Sure, it's fun to have somebody to punch down on and make easy jokes at, but I would much prefer if Bellator was just like a very quality product. My issue with them has always been twofold.

And the biggest issue is that they are just UFC light, and I think that that's a terrible way to brand yourself. PFL has its own thing. One has its own thing. They're doing the multiple martial arts thing. And KSW is like is specifically regional in a very tangible way, and that makes them awesome. Bellator is just the UFC light.

They do the exact same stuff the UFC does. They produce the rankings, which was stupid and really bad fundamentally, and just feels like all they are doing is trying to copy the UFC. But the UFC's business model only works because they have 90% of the best talent in the world, and Bellator doesn't have it. So instead, it just kind of makes them look weak. And that's not optimal for me. The other biggest part of my other big issue outside of that with them is what I'm afraid will happen here.

They have some good ideas. And oftentimes they execute on them. You heard Coker talk on the MMA hour yesterday, you know, about the success of the rise-in matchups. And that was great. And how, you know, the opportunity to co-promote with other people, I've been calling for that for years. I think those are awesome. They did a Bellator PFL or a Belltor 1. Hell, Bellator KSW would be sick.

It doesn't matter who wins Those are just moments that are cool They have these good ideas The execution starts really strong And then it just peters out And some of that's baked into the Grand Prix system Right like you start with Here are eight fighters

Here are four hot ship outs This is going to rule And then you only have two bouts You have the semifinals And then you only have one And so it drops off And it's hard to carry that momentum But my great concern is

I'm looking at this line I'm like, this is awesome. I love what we're doing here. And in four months, when we're done with the first round, I'm going to feel a little lessened because they're not doing things to continue this momentum and this energy and this excitement. I'll be like, hey, those are going to be two sick fights. We're going to get, you know, Nirmahmettov versus A.J. McKee, I don't, I'm not looking at

the brackets right now. So I'm actually not that's going to shake out. We'll get that in the semifinals. That's going to be a sick fight. I'm really excited to tune in for it. And then eventually we'll get a final. and it'll come 18 months later or whatever and it just feels you've taken this really captivating and fun thing and it is it takes too long if we're being honest doing a year-long

grand prix is more acceptable if you're doing 16 man like grand prix because then there's a there's more of the the stuff to fit in but if it's going to take you a year to host functionally eight fights those aren't it's hard to it's hard to build on that man, and I think that's what's going to happen here. There will be a moment where I'm like, all right, this final's cool. Like, whatever the final ends up being, number how met our versus whoever is on the other side of the graphic, Tafik, or whatever it's going to be, be sick. But that'll be one fight, and then the undercard will not have, it'll just have other

Bellator fights on it. So it just won't, it's not going to punch the same way. They desperately need to bring back the pick your opponent fight show and just find other ways to dress this up and make this appealing so they can build on this momentum of doing cool things because it is great that they are doing this i want them to continue to execute these sorts of ideas at a much higher clip than they are normally doing so yeah i don't know if there's an actual bracket out but we know that usman or magamatov's going to fight benson henderson march 10th a plus a that is the exact matchup i saw other people arguing just do the mckee fight now

No, it's risky to put them on the other side of the bracket to make it be the final like you did with Pitbull and McKee, even though you didn't entirely do it because they did their own selection thing. That's risky, but that is the biggest payoff. But this is undeniably the right opener for them. Benson Henderson versus Usman knocked it out of the park there. Yep. Tofique Mossif, Alexander Shabbly, Sick fight, Sydney Outlaw, Mansar, Barnwee, May 12th in Paris. location, everything else makes sense there. And that leaves...

I mean, location is ideal. Yeah, and that leaves kind of the perfect first round fight for Agent McKee. We get to keep this momentum going with the rivalry. He's going to fight Patricie Pitbull, TBD, on when and where that's going to happen. But there's only two guys left, so they have to fight each other.

So that's the field. I like the field. I know Brent Premis is pretty pissed that he's not a part of this tournament, especially that he's the number six-ranked guy and the Bellator rankings. He put that. out there saying that he was promised to be in the tournament. Now he's not, but that's not here

nor there. But McKee being re-signed, how big was this for Bellator? Because I felt like this was probably your top priority, especially knowing that some of the conversations and interviews he did last year, I know Ariel referenced it on the M. May hour, some of the things he said in the past about the UFC and some of its talent and wanting to fight there someday, how pivotal and how important was this for Bellator just to lock AJ McKee down. You ain't going to free agency. We're going to show you that we feel you're a star. We're going to treat you that way.

And I feel like this is exactly what they needed to do to kick off the air. Get him in the news and make a big thing happen with him. That was perfect. I'm glad they did it. I felt that they probably would. But they have seemingly fumbled the bag a couple of times in major ways recently, not getting Kayla Harrison when that opportunity is on the table. I know a PFL match.

but at that point you just got to say who's got the bigger war chest get maker and often they can't match um you know the not getting jake paul feels like a huge miss given the showtime tie in with them but you know um this one was a a key and pivotal win and the truth is they have historically been good at this like right like their their homegrown talent almost exclusively stays with them which is part of the thing that i like about beltoine often give them them credit for. They are the best promotion, probably in the whole world, frankly, of developing talent. They are the best organization at doing that because they invest heavily in really young fighters, have nothing there. And they keep them largely. I mean, Michael Chandler left after

15 years or some absurd length of time. They are really good at retaining their stars. And so I felt larger that they would, but AJ McKee could have gone wrong. And he's the guy that you're building around. God love Patricia Pippo. He is not a star for the next decade. He's got a few more years of the top left than him. Great.

You can run that trilogy back at some point. But AJ McKee has 10 more years at the top. It's AJ McKee. It's Johnny Ebblin. It's Usman Muhammadov. It's Aaron Pico. That's the Vadim Nemcov to some extent, though he's a little older. That's your youth group. And that's the people

we need to invest in and continue to develop while also developing other people. So keeping him is huge. He is going to be the standard bear for this company moving forward because he is a star, because he carries himself like a star, and people respond to him in that way. And that's a great signing. Putting him in this tournament's a great idea. They have done a lot of really good stuff to kick off 2023. I have no idea if they're going to be able to build or capitalize on it.

but let's let's let's i hope they do again i'm not trying to shit on a man i want belittor to succeed i just don't i have i don't know i've been around the sport long enough to know that this first month might be dope that cbs card might turn out to be pretty good it's looking okay and then before you know it it's march and we're going to have uh peter queely headlining a card and you're just like oh all right that's we're back to this then Got it. Well, they did announce today that they're going to Paris and Gagar Musassi is in the main event against Fabian Edwards. That's a pretty solid.

What? I don't know how I feel about that. I mean, I think that fight makes sense and it's not bad, but it's just like, I just kind of like, ugh. I don't know. That fight feels, ooh to me. Not that that's not on Bellator. I actually think that that's a fine booking. It's just like, I don't.

That is never a fight that I've thought. of them like I would love to see gagard musasi fight fabian edward it's and it but it's not the same where like you know when they announced a fight that you've never thought of and you're like oh that's kind of sick like when max holloway was supposed to fight habib narmigamehamehameh for the lightweight belt i was like i have never once thought about this fight taking place and yet that fight sounds awesome that was not my reaction for this fight well so far so good for bellator we'll see what happens on may 12 when they head back to Paris. But this episode is brought to you by Peloton.

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When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $39.99. How could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece?

Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. Jed, UFC Vegas 67 coming up in a couple of days. We've already had many shakeups to the card. We've talked about Shafkat Rachmanoff and Jeff Neal.

We talked about our thoughts on they should have just kept Shafkat on the card to just run people over or run somebody over and just get them on television. And then we found out earlier this week on Monday that Sean Strickland is now fighting Nasardine Imovov at 205. Kelvin Gasolum had, it's being, it was presented as a mouth injury. You've seen videos and pictures and it's gnarly and nasty and gross stuff. But Sean Strickland stepping in to become the first UFC fighter since Tito Ortiz a long, long time ago to compete in back-to-back main events for the UFC.

So how are we feeling, Jed? First fight night of the year, first UFC event of 2023. We get a Sean Strickland main event for the second consecutive card taking on Naserdine. It's what the people want. I mean, how we feel it. Where are we rating the excitement levels right now? Oh, it's pretty low. It's pretty, have you had a chance to listen to this week's episode of No Bet's Bard?

It's great podcast. That is what I'm going to be listening to when I get off shift and get ready to get my ass kicked at the gym. I'm going to spoil a piece of it for you here because you mentioned one of my overarching thoughts about this event right at the kick here. We talked about Shavkat. We talked about him a couple weeks ago. The Shcher just left him on the card to beat the shit out of somebody.

Also, funnily enough, this ties in with the thing I was just saying about fights that you never thought about, but then you think about him like, holy shit, that would be fun as hell. If Shafcott hadn't been ruthlessly pulled from this card for no reason, and hey, we're at Fight Week. Sorry, Kelvin Gassum fell out. Shavkat, you're supposed to just literally crush this can for views.

What if we undo that and you just slip in? 185 against Nasor Dene Mavov. It doesn't really mean much, not for anything hugely important. But man, what a sick-ass fight is that, Mike? Tell me right now, you wouldn't be jazzed to the freaking teeth. If it was like, we're about it, Shopka Rachmano versus Nassaninian Ivov because I would be lit right now.

My enthusiasm for this card, the rest of the card is not good, but I wouldn't matter because I'd be like, I'd never expected this and it's incredible. This is going to be so much freaking fun to kick off the year. Am I wrong? Like, we would all be on board with this, right? I mean, it would be awesome if it actually came together.

It would be sick. What would make Nassardine Imovov want to take that fight though? You think he would just be like, oh, yeah, sure. I'll fight this killer. Yeah, why not? Nobody really knows, but those who do know him know how good he actually is. I don't, I got to say, my read on Nassadine Amov is that he's pretty willing to just chuck him with whoever's going to be in the cage with the man. This does not appear to be a man who gives too many fucks in life.

And so, like, I think that you, they had to pay Sean Strickland because he gave that quote yesterday, whatever was like they offer me a bunch more money so i was like sure even though i've been snowmobiling or whatever like here you go uh like just paying more money and i think he would just said yes and instead we have we now have a main event that i am very whatever on if if you're into it good for you um it's it's ranked middleweights so there's something i guess but it's just like i wouldn't be that stoked about this fight if they had a full camp sean strickland coming in basically off the couch is not this does not inspire enthusiasm from me and the rest of the card isn't deep enough.

Danny Gay, Damon Jackson is a pretty fun fight. Put a Hill Soriano is fun to watch. Ketland Vieira, Pennington is going to be a misery, but it's very relevant, but it's awful. You get to watch Umar do his thing in the best fight of his career against the Honey Barcellus. That's the people's main event. Undercard is hot garbage, but none of that.

would matter. Like this card, if you not even looking at the main event, this card is like a C-minus. And that might even be generous. With the main event, this card is probably either still a C-minus or it might even lose some points because I'm just not that interested.

But if instead the main event is Evov versus Shavkarakhanov in a fight that doesn't have huge stakes because of the surrounding things, but it's just sick and it's the first fight we've had in a month. Hell yeah, dude. This would be a BB Plus, like sick.

This fight is going to rule. I get to watch Shofcott fight another rising prospect, even though they're not in the same way class is going to be sick, to be awesome. And that's why you should have left him on the card because leaving good fighters to fight on cards creates opportunities for cool shit to happen instead of just moving him to March

or he's going to fight Jeff Neal. And like that'll be a cool fight, but it's not going to be nearly as sick as it would be if he was saving this card for. relevance. That was my overarching thought. I gave that out on Tobet's Bard yesterday. And I was like, I'm a genius. This is the smartest thing. I can't believe nobody else is saying this exact thing. That is a fat. I mean, look, that's a fascinating fight. By the way, if they did make this fight. Now I want to see that fight just in life. Now I'm just, I've never thought of that before.

And I'm just like, I'd love to see Shavcott move up and just see what happens in this battle. You're very high on both guys. I know you're very high in Nasorini move off. So hypothetically, if they made this fight. You're going Shafcott? How are you going to this? I think I'm going Shavkat, but it's a pick-um because the size difference would be. Nazareneemov is,

I know he fought at Walterway before. He's not a small middleweight anymore. He's not like a massive, massive one, but he's not tiny. I think just because of how this shakes out, right, like the way of this broke out, he would naturally have a size advantage coming into this fight or into that fight.

give him a full camp i'm definitely going to pick shop cop but the short notice that gets really fun really interesting well let's uh let's mix things up and by the way we have sean strickland which is just like cool yeah funny story about that i was interviewing eric nicknick and his ipad which he was going to do the interview on was it working so he had to do it on his phone which you put on do not disturb and he kept getting phone calls from somebody who kept pushing through the do not disturb like it was an emergency. Yeah. And Eric told me it was Sean Strickland who was calling him a million times to get his

thoughts on whether or not he should fight Kelvin Gaslo or fight Nassadneemov. And yeah, it was interesting. So that's why if you watch that interview, we don't mention it. But you see Eric like go to the phone a bunch. It's because Sean kept trying to call him. True story. So let's let's talk about some news and notes, some things that are on my mind. And then we'll take a few questions from the peep.

So I want to start with the UFC 285 since you mentioned Eric, because right now, Jed, we have no main event. We have no title fight. We have no massive fight on the card. And it's January 12th. We are less than two months away from this fight card happening. It's the first U.S. pay-per-view of the year for the UFC. It's in Las Vegas.

Now, the two fights that seemed targeted, at least rumor and innuendo and people that we've spoken to, were Francis and Garner versus John Jones and Al Jemaine Sterling versus Henry Suhudo. Now, Al Jermaine Sterling on his podcast said that he is a torn bicep. He might need another month before he can fight. March just doesn't seem like it's a possibility. Nothing recently on the Ngano Jones front, other than what we talked about to end 2022,

where things are kind of heading in a good place in terms of renegotiation and getting that fight on the books. Inganu still has not resigned. And in that conversation with Eric Nixick, you can go watch it right now on this here channel. says he's optimistic the fight happens the first half of 2023, but he's 50-50. It happens March 4th, not just because of the contract,

but the dude tore his ACL and his MCL and he's still recovering. Although their last training session before in Ghana went back to Cameroon, now he was going to get his visa renewed. Nixick thought he was, they look great, he was bouncing around, said, I love, I miss this S, I'm back, feeling good. This is what it's all about. And it gave Eric Nixickick some energy too. But besides that,

the clock is ticking, Jed. Not much going on that's going to have people wanting to spend 80 bucks on this thing, especially when you got another pay-per-view card, which also doesn't have any title fights officially announced. Two weeks later, what do you think happens,

March 4th? Like, what would you do? What are we going to do here? Because we're like six weeks away. We have no big fights on this card. Oh, we know what's going to happen here. Look, Angana Jones is not happening on this card. that is. I always thought that that was an ambitious plan and it just ain't at this point.

It's too short. It's just not long enough. They're not going to do it. If it ever happens, I still have a ton of, I will believe John Jones is fighting when he walks into the cage. This is not Nick Diaz. I won't believe it three days later. I'll believe it when he's walking into the cage. but we did our predictions for 2022. You were not on that podcast. I don't know if you listened to it or not. Me, Damon, Jose Young's, Sheen Ashadi, made our future champions predictions for this year.

And one, I won't give away who of our panelists predicted. Actually, maybe two predict. No, one of them predicted John Jones to be the heavyweight champion. At which point I casually noted that the last time John Jones fought COVID had was not a thing. So that tells you how long it's been since that man has stepped in a cage. I just don't believe that's going to, I'll believe when I see it, it definitely happening in March.

What's going to happen in March is it's going to be a band-in-way title fight. It's going to be for an interim title. It's going to be Henry Suhudo and sure, Sean O'Malley. Can't believe that's what it seems like is happening, but that feels like what is going to happen. Sean Amelah loves to fight in Vegas. Suido says he's coming back and it seems like he may actually be, although maybe the same John Jones rules applies to him.

I'm just going to say. But Aljo is not going to fight. I also want to be clear. I give Aljo a ton of shit because frankly he deserves a ton of shit all the time. He tore his bicep, man. What are you going to do? He's not going to asking him to fight or whatever. It's just not reasonable.

it's not going to happen. So Sohudo's going to fight Sean O'Malley. It's going to be for the interim belt. Sean Amalley gets the headline and pay-per-view. They get to test run that, see how it looks, because the idea is he will be a star. If he manages to win, you've got a unification bout that's going to do huge numbers because Sean Amalley will be a star if they put an interim title on him.

And if he loses, then you've still got a unification bout that won't do with big numbers because no one gives a shit about Henry Sehudo, but it'll be relevant. and good in an important fight. So that's what's going to headline. We're probably not going to get a second title fight on it, though, for being real. Unless, like, I guess maybe there's a world. Amanda Nunes fights Ketland Vieira on that. If Ketland Vieira can win this weekend, they asked her to do a quick turnaround.

Because let's be real. It's not like she's going to get hurt in this fight. Like, her and Rocky are going to clinch for 14 of the 15 minutes. So if she can win, maybe they get a quick turnaround and they do. two Bannonweight title fights on one card. Hey, listen, if Henry's Suito's fighting Sean O'Malley, I'm cool living in that world. And I'd be okay with that. And then the winner can go fight to Aljo and I'll be convinced that Henry's back, at least for another fight.

I will, there have been a couple of times, but that would be the one most prevalent in my recent memory of really desperately hoping for a double knockout. Just. Do you think the UFC is on the phone with Hamza on this team right now? Just being like, what do you want to do? Because they need something, man. This ain't enough. This ain't enough. Who's on to fight?

Maybe they're on with Colby. Come on. Maybe they're on with... John Jung's going to fight before Colby does. Maybe they're on with Robert Whitaker who needs a fight right now. I thought it'd be fun. I thought it would be fun. I don't know

Probably if they can't get a second title fight maybe Maybe they just try and pull Hamzad in And here's the thing dude It doesn't you don't have to put him in a big fight Just shot the same shop cop rules apply Just put some people on there to beat the shit Out of some other people in cool and violent ways And I'll be stoked

I guess be like all right It would be cooler if Hamzad is fighting Alex Pereira For the middleweight belt or whatever Which I guess is on the outside realm of possible as well. Like that would be cooler, but, you know,

if not, you could just have him fight. Let me look at the UFC rankings. UFC Walterweight rankings. Hamzaat came fight. Oh, who's Neil Magny fighting? Is he fighting Gilbert Burns?

Yeah. Fuck that fight. Neil Magny Hamzaat, do that. That fight is beneath Gilbert Burns, frankly. And Neil Magny has, like, been one of the most adamant people calling for Hamzot. that shit that'd be fine too there's you just got to put some good people on the card and

you need something we just headlined a fight card or a pay-per-view with magabin ankelaia versus yon bohovitch for uh maybe the most paper title of all time they you don't need much to do it and i i think it's going to be omali sehudo but you know any of those work what's what's alice Perreira doing you don't have to run back is he Alex Pereer can fight Robert Whitaker do that that's fine too that's not a bad idea either and who knows we if we test out your theory

and just throw Homs out on the card with any random Walter Wade what could we possibly get what if Jeff Neal can't go then maybe by Tetris C movements maybe we can get Homsa versus Shafcott I mean that would be awesome by accident but that I want that fight to be five rounds

in for a belt but I would take it anyway I can get it. I actually have solved it. I figured out what is what's going to do it, Mike. I can't believe it took me this long. Here's the answer. So next week, we have a light heavyweight title fight. We know how those have been going. Something real dumb is going to happen. We're not going to have a champion. And so, you know, 284 is covered. We're set on title fights there. We're going to take Anthony Smith, who lost his opponent, Jamal Hill and is now in the ether, doesn't have anybody. he's going to fight. I'm trying to look at the rankings.

Man, light heavyweight is a dumpster fire. Is Rackett's ready to come back? I don't know. Do you know? Anthony Smith versus Alexander Rackage for the vacant light heavyweight title. That's an option. Paul Craig. Sure, he's coming off loss.

Who cares? Throw him in there. It'll be a good time. So you've got plenty of choices, Mike. Plenty of opportunity. We'll see what happens. maybe by next Saturday during the watch party UFC 283 watch party

we will have some answers to this March 4th question but Tatea... This is why they need more belts not divisional belts who gives a shit like let's be real most people don't even care about like half of the champions at this point like it's just it doesn't mean much to them

but this is why I've called for years for them to just do fun belts The Eddie Alvarez fighting Justin Gagey for the violence championship of the world should have created a violence belt. And there are stipulations or rules and that's just there. And then fighters can fight for the violence belt and it has nothing to do with the actual title in whatever division. It's just a violence belt and it's awesome. And they could put the violence belt on. Just make a fun belt.

make any kind of other belt an intercontinental belt whatever you want to do just pick two dope fighters put them together and be like here's the belt you're going to fight for you'll be our inaugural champion it'll be awesome

love it Tatiana Suarez the layoff is apparently over returning February 25th to fight Montana de la Rosa flyweight fight thoughts of the return in that matchup in particular

are you excited for Tatiana Suarez's return I don't know if we should be like I who knows she looked awesome five years ago when she fought because while John Jones has been out before COVID Tatiana Suarez has been out before like I don't know there are like first graders who were not born when Tatiana Suarez last was fist fighting professionally so I don't that's such a long layoff I've no idea what she's going to look like don't know Honestly, it's hard to even remember all that much what she looked like at the time. It's been so long.

You know, if she is back to the form that she was at, that's going to be great. Because at the time, she looked like a no doubt about a title challenger and maybe, just maybe like an actual future champion. She is four or five years older now coming off several issues long term that sort of made this. I think this is the right kind of matchup to get her back back into the water, see what she looks like, see where we go from here. She looks great if she doesn't look like there's been any time off. If she looks better, she's still young, she's 32. Like she could have just been improving the whole time.

And if she does, then fast track her. Because there's no time to waste. Get this woman fighting in a contender bout, make this happen immediately. but you know I it's hard for me to be excited about anybody fighting coming off a four or five year layoff I think this is the perfect fight because Montana will test her I know Montana's record is in the greatest but she is competitive in pretty much every single fight she's in finds a way to make it ugly and I think it's a I think it's perfect matchmaking excited to see how that plays out one more before we'll take a few questions uh Raphael Fiziv Jed said in an interview recently that the year

UFC is working on a fight, speaking of violence titles, between him and Justin Gachie for March. Is this the right fight? I feel like the way we've looked at lightweight, this one probably scratches you right where you itch. This fight would rule. I don't know if this is the quote unquote right fight. I will never say a bad word about this fight being made if it gets made because Raphael Fazeve is incredibly fun. and Justin Gachie is at the absolute worst, the second most fun fighter in the history of this sport.

So, in my book, he's a runaway favorite, but like I am willing to hear an argument for one other person. So, like, I'll watch Justin Gachie fight me. I'll watch him fight a mop. I'll watch him fight a tree. Doesn't matter who he's fighting. And if instead, he's going to be fighting a dude who is, is also very fun to watch, then that's great.

My question is what, if I'm trying to nitpick this, it's just what does this mean for everybody else? What are the ripple effects here? Because if Fiziv wins this, you know, Gai's number three in the world in the UFC's rankings, I think he's somewhere pretty similar in ours, actually. Fiziv on a hell of a run, beat a former champion. Then he would now have a win over a former. interim champion and one of the top guys in the division, he doesn't need to do anything else

to earn a title fight. What is, does he get one? Because Benny Darius is around as much as many people. I think the UFC being one of them would like him to not be around. He is around. So what does that shape out if he wins, if this fight gets booked and he wins his fight? Or conversely, if Gachy wins this fight. He himself is the former interim champion coming off a fight.

the year and to win over a top 5, 10 guy and Michael Chandler also a former title challenger. Now he's beating one of the new hot shit guys. Look, God love Benny Derriyush, but if Gachie comes here and beats Fiziv, he probably has a better

argument for a title fight than Benile Daryyush. I know Benile Darius on an 8-5 Win Street. I'm not off the top of my head. Those names aren't as good as what Gachy beat has beaten already you know like they both beat ferguson one dude stopped him and one dude did not it's it's just if if gachi gets his fighting wins it feels like he should have a crack at his

lamaakov or alexander wokenovsky um so it and then what happens to dustin porier dude wants to fight but he only wants to fight a certain kind of person justin gaetchi always made the most sense for me that they as much as i hate the squatting thing they just run that back because no one would be upset about them running that fight back. And they're both of an elevated status that it would make sense. But so that's my questions are what are the ripples. But if I'm not, if I'm just, hey, what's fun? What's cool?

Hell yeah. That fight rules. Yeah. I would say they would probably just do Fiziv Porier if he won maybe in July. You think Porre is going to take that fight? If he beat Justin Gaci and it's a fun-ass fight, Yeah, I think he would. I think he would.

Maybe. Yeah, I mean, for a while, Gaitch was like, nah, not really into the physique thing. But now he's like, all right, yeah, it makes sense. Once, I mean, dude's super fun. And that would get to be excited. Super fun. If he wins, but yeah, I don't know, maybe.

And then, yeah. Poor Benny, poor Benny. Poor Benny. Just going to be sitting on the sidelines forever. Hell, maybe he fights Charles Oliverer. So Oliver says March or April he wants to come back. So maybe get him in there with Jackie Olives. That would be good.

As a man who's holding a plus 4,000 ticket on Fazeve to be championed by the end of the year, it would be awesome if he fought Justin Gachie. That would be help. That would help my betting odds a lot, I think. I will say this from conversations I have had. There is smoke to this fire. This is not just a fighter saying things. there are discussions happening about putting this fight together.

They're targeting March 4th or March 18th. One of the two pay-per-views is what I'm being told. It's just getting everybody on board and figuring out exactly when this fight could happen. But to say it's like done. To say it's like done or like agreed upon would be way too premature, but there are definitely discussions happening. This fight is, the UFC wants this fight to happen. I can tell you that right now.

So all right, let's take a couple. A couple questions from the peeps who've stuck with us. No more squatting. No more squatting. No more squatting. No more squatting. There's Mr. 3024. Let's take, let's say, maybe three.

We'll see, we'll see how they go. Only if they're good, though. Yeah. I got to pick three good ones now. That's a tough one. Dude, the lightweight top, the UFC's lightweight top ten is so sick. I did like this question. Or top 15.

It's awesome. Referring back to the beginning, you're talking about, no, Dana, he can't, no, he can't take time off because the company would fail or something like that. So I like this question. What does Dana actually do? Dana is, good question. Dana's the face of the company. He's the face of the company. Hunter Campbell, Hunter Campbell is what people like outside of the sport.

think Dana actually is. Like he's the one, Hunter Camel is the one that gets all the deals done. He's the one that gets the contracts out there. He's the one that negotiate. Like when Francis and Ghanu is negotiating his contract, maybe Dana will like go to dinner with Francis just to be the face. But they're talking to Hunter. Like Hunter's the guy that gets the business done.

And-X is a nose, man. Yeah. Dana does content and he promotes in certain ways. And here's, here's the issue I have with the business falls apart without him. This isn't the same Dana White from 2010. Like, he's been checked out of the promoter business

to most of the extent for a long time. Now, if you just became a fan when right around the Connor McGregor Floyd Mayweather fight and you saw the excitement in Dana pumping up Connor, like that's the guy that was promoting UFC fights in like 2007, 2008, all the way up. And then he kind of checked out when the sale happened.

You got a little piece of that back. And since then, just more of the same. He's there to answer questions. He's the face. He's the face of the company more than anything else. But he doesn't make the fights. Matchmakers are there to make the fights. Hunter's the one putting the deals together.

Dana is just the face behind the brand more than anything else. Even more simply, I think most of that's really true. that's certainly his most impactful. If you've ever worked in any corporate America, Dana is a president in the same way that every, he does exactly what every other president does, which is not a lot, but kind of a lot. He is the one who overall dictates the strategy.

Ultimately, the buck stops with him. He is the one who gives the yes or no to the thing. But that doesn't end up work. Like that's not a nuts. bolts process because that's not how functional businesses work he dictates the overall he drives the ship here is where our ship is going to go and everybody else makes it makes it so functionally and that's it so that's part of why it always wrong super like his this ring super hollow of well the no like you are not all i you're not involved in anything in the day to day that like is it's critical like the

critical ops of the UFC will not suffer in any fashion. It may, at the absolute worst, if he was suspended six months a year, they would adjust very quickly to fill a, the fill that role, be it Hunter Campbell or Sean Shelby or whoever at the top shelf would just assume the presidential duties. So there might be like some transition period, but ultimately it's the same stuff. It's like, all right, well, we, our product roles is a, machine that moves, here it is. Now let's talk about our bigger goals and targets. What are we looking at from a business standpoint on our future partnerships deals where we want to go? How is our relationship

with ESPN working? The renewal that will come in a few years, how does that look? Are we going to shop around? What do we think is the ideal number of stuff? It's just bigger, it's bigger strategy discussions. He is just the ultimate guidepost there. And then he does, does social media promotion. So it's none of that is irreplaceable. It's all imminently replaceable. Certainly for an extended period of time. If his argument was if you fire me, the company will fail or will suffer, I don't believe

that is true, but that is a much more valid argument than if I am suspended for some period of time people will suffer. because like that is at least it a fundamental change to structure of all right well he's gone the guy who's led us for 30 years now we might have a new vision atop this that is different than well we just have somebody holding the wheel for a year six months a month whatever it is that's yeah yeah the machine will roll john anna can host the press conferences he did many of them last year david shaw could do the post fight press conference is up to pay reviews Yeah So you're good People forget

Data had like a big stretch Where he just didn't show up to shit Because he didn't want to do it It's fine It's the same way like Well if Joe Rogan isn't in the booth The sport will suffer No it's fine

More people will step up Because that's how things work Yep I agree All right Enough of that Let's talk about This awesome man

Views on Shafcott and his potential, Jed. I mean, his potential is champion. I think he probably at some point holds the title. My guess, he is my pick to be the next long-reigning welterweight champion. I would pick Hamzot to beat him in a fight this year if Hamzat fights at Welterweight moving forward. I still think he's going to do it. I think he's put in too much time. I think he can make the last.

weight, even if it is challenging. I think he is going to check the box to get that, and he will win the well-to-weight title this year. I think he is, I believe, as my kind of Mi Kaliente take to steal one from you, Mike Heck, and on to the next one, great program, make sure to listen. I have predicted that Hamzaa wins the welterweight title and then immediately moves up and wins a middleweight title by the end of this year. And when that happens, he will never go back to Weltoid again because it's going to be hard for him to continuously make that way.

And I think Shafkat is the most logical dude to step in and control that division for, you know, a few years. So I think his potential is near limitless. And at the bare minimum, he will fight for a belt. I think he's going to win it and hold it for a couple, though. Yeah, I'm with you on the fighting potential. that's for sure we'll see how his personality kind of translates over the over the years and I don't think like there's a lot of people like he's got a funny hat all that matters that's it exactly I was going to say a lot of people are like well any not speaking English kind of holds him back but

it's just selling it holds him back in these aspect of life Casey you just walk around with a funny hat you're doing okay yeah like let's be let's be real how much of Donald Cowboy Soroni celebrity is that he was fun. Cowboy Soroni is famous because he put on dope-ass fights. He fought five times a year and he wore a cowboy hat and his name was cowboy. And that's it. It kind of didn't matter what else he said. He was at least like he has charisma so that it certainly helped.

But if you just gave me those three things like that dude is going to be a star in this sport because people love hats. Habib had a hat. Just saying. People love Habib's hat. They loved it. Dude, the Papakka is awesome. Like, Shavkat's got a funny hat.

It's going to succeed. When I was in Abu Dhabi for when Habib fought Poet, that was really the only merch I saw being sold. Oh, it had to be a million of them, though. Yeah, that was awful. It wasn't like UFC gear. It was just like buy a Habib hat. I almost never buy merch. I would buy.

If I had went to a Habib event, I would have bought the Habib Pabaka. Like that's It's iconic And I would buy their shit out of shop Got that That's awesome Oh yeah What is it a wolf

Yeah Yes Yeah Jeez And you know You know he He got that wolf He didn't go

He didn't order that on Amazon He paid the iron price For that wolf Yeah Yeah He just looked at the wolf He didn't even touch it He just looked at

And the wolf The wolf was just like here Take my head At respect All right, last question, last question. Debatable, but I want you interested in hearing your opinion on it. My question is this week's main event a case where the new main event is better than the first main event. No.

Yeah, I'm kind of with you. I just, like, say what you will about Calvin Gasolm. Like, if you listen to the ranking show. Is it straight than Gasolam? Isn't he right? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Right.

Right. Right. So I'm from a ranking. Right. But again, we're talking about a guy who, if you follow him on Instagram, has been just riding motorcycles and snowmobiles and living like, as he should. And I'm not knocking him with that. I'm sure he was training, getting in the gym and sparring a bit.

Like, I'm sure that happened. But this is five days notice. And say what you over at Kevin Gaslum, if you listen to the ranking show airing of grievances, I have a big problem with anybody ranking Kelvin Gasselm, Gasolum in their top of the team. Some people are. Some people are. Yeah, I have an issue with that. However, from a stylistic perspective, I felt like the Gasolome fight would have answered a lot of questions I have about Nasardine Imovovov moving forward. This fight in particular doesn't do that for me because I feel like I know, I feel like we know what we're going to get for 25 minutes.

they're going to get in there and Strickland's going to throw volume and I'm going to throw back and I don't think there's going to be a ton of wrestling I don't think there's going to be a lot of takedowns in this fight I think what we're going to see is a probably slightly more exciting version of what we saw

in December when Strickland fought Canaaner I do think Yemovov presents some different striking discrepancies that Canneser doesn't I don't think he'll have an issue pulling the trigger and throwing something big and trying to change the complexity of the fight. I also don't think Strickland's going to take a ton of risk in this fight. I don't think he's going to go after him like he did Alex Barrera. I don't think that happened. So I just don't, I feel like this will be, sure, it would be a big win for him of off. Strickland's a good name

to have on the resume. No doubt about that. But I feel like from looking at the future of this guy and the questions that I have about him, we would have learned more about him on a full camp with a full camp Kelvin Gasolum, than a five-day notice up a weight clash on Strickland. That's the way I see it. So Strickland's an interesting name, makes things a little more compelling, depending on how you look at it,

because Strickland gets to speak into live microphones, and you can feel however you want about that. But from an actual fight standpoint, I feel like, I feel like Emovoff, Gasselam is the more compelling fight. I agree almost 100% with what Mike said. I look from a media day standpoint, no, Calvin Gasselm is not an interesting individual. And Sean Strickland, love him or hate him, or both, because I'm pretty firmly in the both camp with Sean Strickland.

I want to hate him, man. I want to hate him because he's probably, like, actually just a bad person. And certainly in many ways carries himself as a person that I fundamentally hate. but he is so fascinating that it's hard to dislike him when he talks. It's still incredibly funny when he just walks at Alex Pereira with his hands down. But it's also incredibly funny. Dude, did you listen to his media scrum yesterday? It is the most insane shit.

It is, and it's hilarious. He is the best guy with the live. Mike in front of him because he went off on these terrible tangents like he just rambled forever in like a Tony Ferguson but without the weird ninja turtle stuff in the glasses it was just and it's like yeah I have ADD it's so here but he always gets back he never was like I'm sorry re-asked the question he was like they asked him they asked some question about well how did this happen and then he starts to goes off this story and then he's like but that story what you could see how the brain connected it.

You could see how it was like, I need to tell you this piece because it explains my answer, but he gets so lost in the sauce that you're a mile down the road. And you're like, what the fuck are we doing here? And then he's like, and so now that I've told you this to get back to your question, here's the actual answer. And it is unbelievable. He's talking about Nassadine Nemov. And he goes to the sort of like the dumb American.

trite thing about how the French are cowards and quitters and, like, plays to that, which is just if you asked me what Sean Strickland's thoughts about Nascadine Imov would have been in the dark and then like, well, I bet he calls him a French coward. And I, like, so he, true to form, it was brilliant. The guy not born in France or raised. No, no, French coward. But then he's like, you know, I don't know. Maybe he's different.

Maybe he wants to do this. And then, because earlier, earlier he had, Oscar Willis was there or something, he made some comments about the, somebody asked him because he was in this ramble and every, you could tell all the people there were just long for the ride. We were,

everyone was enjoying it. Somebody made like a joke about, uh, as a cultured man and you obviously have read the Prince Harry book that came out. And he was like, what the fuck are you talking about? And then somebody else explained it to him was like, uh,

Prince Harry got frostbite on his pink. And then he, like, comments about that. This all happened, by the way. Go watch the video. It's on UFC's YouTube. He comments about that. And then he talks about, like, he has his disdain for the monarchy in England. And so then Oscar Willis, after the Nazardine stuff, is just like, who do you hate more,

the French or the English? At which point, he launches into a five-minute speech about how he was in jail when he was 18 or 19. And he actually likes the French because. swear to God, this is the story. I like the French. I got arrested bullshit charges, but it was a felony. My lawyer was like, yeah, you're going to go to jail for like three years.

And sometimes I think about it. I'm like, if I went to jail for three years, I probably would have come out of white supremacist. And then he launches into a story about some interactions while he was in jail waiting for this solve itself with some Aryan brotherhood members. And he's like, yeah, so, but back to answer your question, I love the French, because when all this was happening, I signed up, I was going to go sign up to be a member of the French Foreign Legion. And I was going to skip town because I didn't want to go to jail. So I love the French.

And it was the most incredible insane thing that Calvin Gaston could never dream of providing that much joy and entertainment to me. So, and maybe that's why I like Sean Strickland, because you just heard me ramble incessantly to get back to my crux of the point, which was he is a fascinating, I did. he's a fascinating dude and I can't help dude that press conference before the Pereira fight was just electric and sure oftentimes he says stuff that's terrible and

some of it like actually like really bad and some of it just like come on to be better but he is captivating in a way Kelvin Gaslam isn't until they get in the cage Sean Strickland is not an interesting fighter in really any regard

and particularly on short notice it's not going to be that fun whereas Kelvin Gaslam I couldn't knock that dude out if you gave me a baseball bat. So Nassar Nenimov's kind of style of jabs and explosion, I don't know how that looks over five rounds against the duty. He can't finish and can't really hurt and probably can't really out-wrestle. And so that was a fascinating stylistic match-up.

This is a better rankings one. And it gave us a much better media day, like a much better media day. But no, it's overall the worst thing. And I strongly encourage all of you to go listen. It's like a 15-minute media scrum, and I didn't, there was no moment of it where I was like, I would like to pause this or leave. I was like, I genuinely have no idea what word he is going to say next. It could be anything.

So, captivating. Well, there you go. All right. I think we're, we are good here. I'm so glad we got to talk about that because I've been thinking about Strickland's media day all day. It's like, this guy's insane. The good news is you can hear Jeddenized thoughts about UFC Vegas 67 a little bit more tomorrow. We will have a live preview show on this here network at 3 p.m. Eastern, so stay tuned for that.

And we'll talk all things UFC Vegas 67. I believe Jose Youngs will actually be there. So it'll be almost like a pay-per-view-ish kind of coverage night for the UFC event with post-fight interviews and all that fun stuff, press conferences, et cetera. And looking forward to actually trying to get back to some sense of normalcy when it comes to covering the UFC and covering fights. I don't think this day and stuff is going away anytime soon, but one thing I do agree with, that event will be about the fighters and about the fights. And we're not going to stop obviously covering that because they deserve to be covered. So that's what we're going to do. If you're looking for us to cover Dana White's Power Slap League, you can go somewhere.

somewhere else because that ain't going to happen. So stay don't stay tuned for that. Shameless that they are still doing that. Yeah, because we ain't touching that with a 5 trillion foot pole. But in the meantime, we'll see you all tomorrow. You can hit the music and we'll see you all back here next week to recap UFC Vegas 67. Get you ready for the first UFC pay-per-view of the year. UFC 283. And KSI's fighting this weekend. I forgot all about that. Phase temper,

not Dylan Danis. What a shocker it was. We'll see you next week, everybody. Big shout out to Casey on the ones and twos for Jet Bishu. I am Mike Eck. Back next Thursday right here on Between the Links. Good night, everybody. Love you guys.

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