MMA Fighting - BTL | Dana White vs. Eddie Hearn Saga Continues, UFC 335 Announcements, More

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

Dana White's frustrations continue to grow when it comes to Eddie Hearn and the drama surrounding the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua fight. White's been running the dominant brand in combat sports for many years, and it's very rare that he's had anything challenged in regards to his place in combat sports. What does this all mean? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses the ongoing saga between White and Hearn, how both men's stances seem to have changed this week, and if it even matters. Additionally, topics may include the fallout of UFC 332, the big fights at UFC 335 — including Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes and Alex Pereira vs. Sergei Pavloivch — Saturday's UFC Vegas 122 card headlined by Brendan Allen vs. Christian Leroy Duncan, and more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions all show long. Download the SB Nation app here ⤵️ 📱 iOS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sb-nation/id6789240983⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📱 Android: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbnation.app⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, Mike Heck here from MMA fighting. And my good friend Jed Mishu is here with me as well because Jed, the day has finally arrived. It's App Day, the all new SB Nation app. It's live now. It's live, Jed. It's alive. Yeah, man, I'm really excited.

And it's awesome, man. Combat sports, like all sports, but combat sports fan especially, you guys are going to have your voices heard like never before with, within SB Nation. MMA boxing, not me, but you pro wrestling, Mike. it's it is a community-based app it's all about community with the new sb nation app it's so easy to use and it can keep obviously combat sports fans connected to their favorite teams and all of sports too across the board so i can keep up with the red sox the patriots and the bruin's all on my

phone and it's so simple to use yeah like you you mentioned those teams but uh there's so much more because i don't care about boston sports mike but i get to follow the nfl all the other sport F1, the various sports that I care about outside of combat sports. And then there's the live experience because that's, to me, that's one of the coolest things. You can chat with us during fight cards every Saturday. And you can chat with other people in the communities as big events are happening. So it's, it's a really good time. So ladies and gentlemen, come fight with us over on the all new SB Nation app.

Download it today. Download it right now. What are you waiting for? Download it. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to break. brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all. We are here. Ahead of a fight week that's happening at the world's most famous Apex. UFC Vegas 122, Brandon Allen versus Christian Leroy Duncan is the main event.

We had some big things announced during UFC 332, which honestly stole the show overall. Big UFC 335 fights and announcements. Dana White versus Eddie Hearn continues to be a thing. And we'll talk about that much more. Honestly, whatever the hell you guys want to talk about. And by the way, shout out to the usual listeners and watchers of the program on YouTube, on Twitter, on the Twitch. But now we get to welcome in a couple of new locations. Shout out to the Facebookers out there. And shout out to the kicksters as well.

We are live on those platforms today. And joining me to just deliver takes to discuss. the big news in the combat sports world to answer your questions is Mr. No Gray area himself, the hot take kid, the one and only Jed Mishu. Jed? How are we doing? How are we feeling?

Are they kicksters or are they kickers? We have to have to, because Twitch, I mean, they could be Twitchers, but that feels too close to tweakers, which I don't think we want to call them, you know? So we got to, we got to, this is all new ground for us. I just saw.

As you hit the intro music, I was like, oh, we're on kick now. Who knew? So fancy times. Things are happening in the Sean Strickland's tweeting. I went and saw Digger last night. So a lot's going on, Mike. A lot is happening. Okay.

Please tell me about Digger. Because I see previews and I see like little clips and trailers and I'm just like, Is this going to be a great movie or is this going to be an awful movie? I don't know what to think, but give us, without spoiling anything, what is Digger? So it's really hard to not spoil anything. And like, so this is just going to be pretty vague. If you've seen the movie, you'll know what I'm talking about. But like, there is stuff that is not in the preview.

that comes out like that in the trailers that is interesting right and like it's i think it's a movie that i think everybody is right about whatever your take on digger i think is correct um and mine is that it's a little too uh self-aggrandizing for me but also you might view it and be like, well, that's the point. And like, yeah, it is. My fundamental, I think it's a fine movie. I will almost certainly never watch it again. But it's fine.

Like I didn't have a totally miserable two hours. But it felt to me that it, it couldn't see the forest for its own trees, if that makes sense at all. Again, being super vague, because if I give you any details, I feel like that'll spoil stuff. and I think everybody, because I really, one of the aspects I liked about it,

and that has happened a lot more in movies recently, not just with Digger, but broadly, they're getting better about not putting all the stuff in the trailer, right? And like, that's, because especially for a while, it felt like, well, why do I need to see that movie? Like, you've just shown me everything in the trailer. They're getting a lot better about this. And one of the most interesting parts was some stuff that is not in the trailer to me.

but it felt Tom Cruise is going for it like that's my big takeaway is like he's really trying hard and that's kind of fun right to see Tom outside of the Mission Impossible bubble and swinging what's the Mark Wahlberg movie

replays like the mafia dude hitman or whatever oh yeah you know that that's the newest one oh man I mean I have to look it up because I won't be able to I haven't seen it but I was debating going because that looks like fun trash by any means by any means there you go is it looks like a fun

I'm curious I'm curious is is Tom Carus better in his go for it role or is Mark Walberg better in his go for a role even though the Mark Wahlberg I haven't seen that Mark Wahlberg looks I don't know who looks worse in terms of like remanufacturing their look for a movie Mark Wahlberg is this character or Nicholas Cage is John Madden I I don't know Oh, Nicholas Cage's John Madden is electric. I'm just going to go ahead and say Tom Cruise is giving a better performance in Mark Wahlberg. I haven't seen it. And I don't think Tom Cruise's performance is one that everyone will love.

I thought he was the best part of the, him and a Rizum Ed were the best parts of Digger by far to me. Interesting movie. Because it bombed, I actually don't know that many people have seen it yet. and my normal like letterbox group have not seen it yet. And so I'm just kind of waiting for more people to see it so we can have a more open conversation without having to like not. Because really if you start talking about almost anything in the film, it's just a straight up spoiler. Yeah. So you got to be like picking your spots.

I will say I left it feeling very similar to how I felt about prime time, which was not a bad movie. I didn't think either of them were bad movies. They weren't to my taste. They were certainly taking a very big swing. I just thought they mostly missed that swing. Go see Digger, everybody. I mean, if that's... Go see it.

Then we can have a real talk about it. It's one of the weirder movies you're going to see this year. I'll say that. All right. Well, let's go to the peeps, especially for the Facebookers and the kicksters out there. Fire your questions in. We'll throw them up. on screen. Super Chatters get to the top of the line.

Just for this week, I mean, if you guys are on the app and you want to just start your own thread, have at it. But yeah, we're going to, we're going to leave it to the streamers at least for today because there's so much going on. Joseph, can Mike and Jed react to the saga that is Sean Strickland and Naserdine Imavov? I think Sean is scared and he's trying to quit unless he gets Connor money. So all of this kind of started yesterday, Jed. I was off. out there playing some golf with the little. A lot. Sean Strickland started tweeting quite a bit and was like,

eh, Connor made this. I'm rethinking my career path, so to speak, and he was tweeting a whole bunch. As the night progressed, we kind of really got into the psyche of, uh,

a fighter in the top level as champion. But working out his, working out the emotional and physical, roller coaster tolls in the public eye on social media. Like you don't see that very often. And it's just like, oh, right now I feel kind of good about it. And then two hours later, it's like, yeah, I might just blow up my whole contract. And it's just back and forth, you don't know which way he's going.

On top of all of this, a video came out, the championship rounds put out on social media. And we had to go and just confirm and make sure it was real. I was told it was very real. And it was Nasutenei Nemovov. kind of going after Sean Strickland be like, yo, why aren't you signing the contract? Things happened. Security intervenes, all of that. And basically what this meant to me from at least the Imovov side was we've been saying on the show in other shows for so long now, everyone's like, oh, Shirkle and Hamzaa really hate each other.

And we came to tell you that like, yeah, maybe there's like a competitive rivalry there, but there's no hatred there. Nasdae Imov hates Sean Shirkling. like truly hates this guy. I interviewed him well over a year ago, and he was like, dude, I will, he goes, if someone offered me Hamzaa Shamaa for the title or Sean Strickland for no title, I would fight Sean Strickland.

He goes, I would fight Sean Strickland in five seconds. I hate that guy. He goes, I hate him. I'm going to lead him in a puddle of blood unconscious in the center of the octagon. Ice cold line. This is not manufactured. This is not him trying to get a title fight.

He truly hates this dude. And we kind of got to see it. stem out a little bit. Yeah, was it a little bit set up, certainly? But the true feelings are out there. Nassadine hates this dude. So after seeing everything Sean went through yesterday and then seeing this sort of running between the two guys of the PI, what was your takeaway? What was your reaction to the saga? And especially where Sean Strickland kind of sits even after that video was posted. I just, I don't think the two are related. I think Yemabov is trying to, I mean, they're related in that this fight has not been booked.

And Strickland, I mean, even before the tweet storm yesterday, like, he was posting about it. It was like, yeah, we're working on money. Like, the fight hasn't been booked because I'm, we're trying to hammer out details for the money. And then the tweet storm happened and imov is pissed because he wants to fight him and he wants to fight for the belt and he wants his opportunity. And that fight's getting delayed. And, you know, it seemed like they were working on that fight for the end of the year. Now it's not going to happen. And so he's upset about.

it and he's like, hey man, like if, you know, he feels a type of way and he is confronting him as best he can. But really, like, Sean wants to be paid more and he wants the UFC is, we are getting one side of a story. It's entirely possible that this is not true, that it's half true, you know, like always have grains of salt when you are getting one side of the story, right? that being said the one side of the story is the side of the story that happens all the time over and over again so is it more likely that a series of fighters over decades who get into shan strickland's position are all making it up or that the ufc just is not like is not willing to capitulate to sort of monetary demands with almost anybody at this stage of the thing and it's it and like bin folks of uncrowned had a

terrific tweet yesterday where he just looked at the like the the the big one the Sean Shickland Connor made 30 million uh some boxer Connor Ben made 15 and Connor Ben's not even good whatever and I'm making trash and then was like yeah it takes a while but eventually every fighter comes to this and like that's just true like Paulo Costa is in this same thing right now he is like openly shitting on the UFC for not offering him due compensation to fight five rounders. They're only offering him five round fights, but they're not offering to bump his pay for five round fights. Like that's what he is alleging. So yeah, this is just, I mean, this has been the UFC forever, but it feels a little more stark now. And certainly Strickland,

with his particular brand of brashness, right, is putting it is putting that business in the street in a much more aggressive manner than like others because previously like Connor pretended to retire like that was always Connor's like I'm just going to retire you're not giving me the money I'll retire goodbye um where Sean's just like calling them on their nonsense right he's just like hey you're paying this like why can't I get he's would anyone argue he's one of the biggest stars in the UFC right now like would anyone argue that yeah he's probably top 10 at the minimum top 10. I think honestly, just based on like what we saw from 328 outside, like if Connor

McGregor did not exist in the world, he's probably the biggest star they have, especially in North America. Like North America probably without question. He's a bigger star than I know, Patty's Poria. He's the biggest star than Julius Pechee. I don't know, Patty is super over, but he's super he's super over, no doubt about it. But Sean is like, Sean's on another planet. Like every blue collar, red collar American love Sean Strickland. They, they, friggin love the guy. The thing did. What is a red collar of America?

I don't know. I'm just all the collars. Purple colors. Purple collars. It's gray, black. All the collars love Sean Strickland. They all love him. There is a percentage of people who do not like him.

No color. And guess what happens when people. Tanks tops love Sean Strickland. Tank tops love Sean Strickin. And even if the people that don't like Sean Strickland, it is like, it's like a fly going over and be like, F you, Sean Strickland. And then there's a swarm of bees that just at. attack that one person.

It's pretty wild. The following that Sean Strickland has. So I am, I am curious how this is going to go, Jed, because she's already backing down. That's the thing.

I kind of went back to it again. It was like, yeah, I talked to you guys, I feel better. And then like an hour later was like, yeah, I might,

maybe I will nuke my contract because it's injuries and maybe I just don't want to do this anymore. And it's like, okay, we kind of were backing off but now we're like renegotiating. And it's just like no deleted tweet.

This is Sean Strickland. We're seeing this all. We're seeing his brain play out in a negotiating way on Twitter. And it's fascinating. Is the Sean Strickland roller coaster of like. And then we see him with a cup of knee fluid in the next tweet. It's crazy. He goes through every emotion all the time.

And you're like, oh, if you just stopped at that one, you'd be at the right one. Or you just keep kind of circling. That wheel keeps the spokes keep turning. And eventually it's, it's like the, The wheel, not the wheel of fortune. The Price is right wheel. Oh, that's the, that's the 100. No, you keep going.

Keep going. Like, he's, he's very public in it. I think, you know, I think he's right, right? Like, again, could be wrong. We don't know. But, like, I'm certain that the UFC is just responding to him being like, hey, I'm the champ now. Here's what I want. And they're like, no, you can get our standard champ contract.

And he's like, one of the biggest stars in his promotion. like I just pulled off this mega upset, you know, like, and I'm also sure because Sean has historically been a super company man, right? Like that is, and even when he has had issues with the UFC, which is, this is not the first time he has talked about this, right? He always couches it, you know, at any media day, anything, he always couches it as, yeah, like, I might be frustrated with some things. These are not, this is a huge paraphrase, obviously. But it's always like, you know, the UFC has given me an opportunity. I wouldn't have had a, otherwise I'd be dead in a ditch somewhere, all that, that sort of thing.

It is not a coincidence that when fighters reach a certain level of fame and success, and they can look around at other people at similar levels in their respective sports or avenues of, like, work, and I'm like, I am by far the lowest paid person on this tier of success, right? like a Sean Strickland level baseball player makes 20x what Sean Strickland makes, you know, like these, yeah, like it is just like you can look around and be like, okay, Wimby signed and you know, Wimby's the best and Sean Strickland's not the best like of all fighters or whatever, but like any, any NBA contract, any MLB contract, most NFL contracts, right, are just like, they're

There are backup quarterbacks who make $15 million a year, and he's probably making two or three a fight, if that, right? Like, I'm not even certain he'd be making that. And that is just, like, that's a hard thing. It is much easier to be like, well, I'm getting paid enough. I'm happy enough when you are not at the top.

When you're at the top of the mountain, and you're like, okay, like, UFC fighters like I'm trying to think of the best way to put this for people to like grasp Sean Strickland is rich right like by any metric in the world like the global world he is he's a wealthy person

he is not rich enough to not care about his finances right like he's not like oh I can just buy whatever like he still probably has to like be like okay if I want to buy a house I maybe don't get to buy any house I want like I'm going to have to finance this because like he's not he's maybe made $20 million in his career total. You know, like that's wealthy. Don't get anybody mistaken. But that's not, that's not general.

That's not Connor McGregor money, certainly. And so when you were at the top of your sport and you are generating a $1.1 billion a year or like a part of that, obviously, not only, you look around and like, man, this isn't adding up. And he's right. He's just right about it. But there's nothing he can do about it either. So all he can do is vent is frustration on Twitter.

I am fascinated by all this because, like, will the UFC just do what they just, what they literally just did and just say, hey, we want the middleweight title on the line. I'm told that they're looking at like February-ish to maybe have the middleweight title on the line, although nothing is said. We don't know what's going on at this point. So will the UFC just be like, you know what? Middleweight title is going to be on the line in February, whether Sean fights or not. We just saw them do the same thing to Valentina Shibchenko, and they just took the belts off her because she couldn't fight on that day.

Shemaya's out there tweeting. And guess what? They would absolutely be fine with Hamzaa Shamaif headlining, fighting Nasutinimov for the vacant belt. And then Sean can come back and fight for it if he's not ready to fight when they wanted to fight. Like, they will just do it. And Sean can't do a damn thing about it. So there's so much precedence set in that. And yeah, if he's not ready for the date they want, we just saw it. It's just going to be like, you're not the champion anymore. But when you're ready, you're going to get that shot.

Go look at Valentina Shepchenko's social media. Does that look like someone who's going to be injured and out for a year? I don't think so. As a matter of fact, I know she's not going to be out for a year. That the whole thing is overblown and crazy. And the fact that they had to take the belt off of her just contractually obligate. Gate Salt Lake City is bananas to me. It's absolutely bananas. And they could do the same here with Sean Strickland. So we'll see what happens. But if you really want like a straight up

rivalry, like a dude who really hates another guy, like Strickland-Embov is the fight to make. Like it truly is. Strickland Hamzot is big because it was huge earlier. And then Hamzot and Asardine is big mostly because Hamzat's the big A side of this. But those two are just going like be super friendly the whole time like they know each other they're very friendly and it's one of those things like even humzat the guys like i crush everybody is like yeah if i have a choice i'd rather fight sean i like nassardine i'll fight them but not my first choice so one of those it's a weird situation so but it's fascinating seeing sean just like but you're right you nailed it it's like the car it's like you got to stop right here and he just goes a little bit too far but then he puts in reverse

he's like right back and then he goes like six inches too far and then he's six inches back and just trying watching him navigate this is truly and utterly fascinating i will say this and i don't know that this is a compliment to sean strickland i'm going to give him a compliment and then i'm going to give a statement and i don't know if the statement's a denigration or not the compliment is this sean strickland unlike a lot of fighters seems to really understand the the path right like his tweets were very open like okay, this is trash. I'll just give up the belt.

I'll go to 205. I don't have to cut weight. I'll bang out the rest of my contract. And then I can go be free to make money elsewhere. Like, that is the path forward. Like, just you can think this is good or bad or whatever. The truth is UFC contracts are wildly prohibitive. And if you want any freedom at all, it just has to be outside of the UFC.

You have no freedom inside the UFC. you are accepting a monetary figure to lose your career control functionally. Like you have no leverage, no ability to do anything. You are fighting for them at the rate until your contract is up. And that's just how it is. And as others have figured out, Connor now, Sean, like, okay, well, what if I just fight out my contract? They can't keep me. And then I can go make money elsewhere.

So credit to him for like understanding the game, because that is, absolutely the game right now for him, if he really wants to leave. I will say that Sean Strickland is perhaps better positioned than any fighter I've ever seen to force the UFC's hand because, like, normally a fighter is

encumbered by social norms or, like, a moral reticency to do something. And Sean Strick, like, he didn't say it out, Right, but he strongly suggested that, well, if this keeps happening, I'll go to oppressor and I'll say some real out there stuff. You know, and this is a dude who will, like, I don't think that's a bluff. You know, he's like, I want to get Kanye to corner me and stuff.

And I'm like, this is a man who already said stuff that gets like the outside of the MMA bubble will like be like, man, it's probably not that cool that you guys are, you know, giving a microphone to a guy who says stuff like this and wear shirts like he wears or whatever. And that's him playing the company man to some extent. You take the restrictor plate off and he might go buck wild on a UFC microphone. And as much as Dana White says that they believe in free speech, there is a line and I could see Strickland crossing it. Now, would that get him fired? I don't know. maybe not maybe they'll just ice him as best they can but he is in a better position than almost

anyone to force some action out of them strictly because of the links with which i think he would be prepared to go to to do this if he decides it's time to knuckle down and let's fight the ufc over it you know because like randy kattor sued the ufc a lot of fights with the ufc i don't even like randy but like Randy was not going to come out on a UFC microphone and say again I don't know what he'll say but would it stun you if Sean Strickland just took a media day to like directly attack every person involved in UFC management it would not I was like yeah okay that's that seems like where we're headed if this wasn't just a one time I'm frustrated they're not paying me things so interesting to see how it checks out. Yeah, absolutely. Ladies, I could have told me

the guy from BKB on for an interview today, and now it's missing from the episode description. Yes, that was the plan. David Tertrott was supposed to come on, and around 7.30 this morning received word he wasn't going to be able to make it. So he is going to be on in a future episode. So that was the plan the whole way until earlier this morning.

And then we had a call an audible. So there you have it. Nick, with belts like heavyweight, lightweight or light heavy weight having almost zero dynasty because of vacancies. Which belt do you think has the best dynasty? I say bantam weights. Bidtemweight's not a bad choice. I don't think I would go bantam weight.

Walter weights probably the right answer, right? I mean, GSP did vacate, right? Yeah. So there's that. Many people thought Hendricks beat him anyway. So, I mean, that certainly has one of the longest lineages, and there's only, like, one or two breaks in it.

If you're just going pure, like, no issues, then Flyweight's had no breaks. Flyweight's been a straight shot through, right? No, Suhudo got stripped. No, Suhudo did get stripped because he went up to ban away. Because he's the two-division champ and, yeah. Jeez, there's no clean run through on any of these weight classes. I'm going through it right now.

A single one. damn man that's crazy maybe straw weight um no one there i don't think there's been like uh currently straw weight is mackenzie durn you're right oh no because jang did get stripped yes is right uh so bannel

strongly straw wait is mcicki durn and well i believe in mackenzie durn there are maybe three other people that believe in mackenzie durn godly every single one um i'm going to go welterweight or featherweight uh I think featherweight has the best legacy of any belt. Featherweight has, among its champions, three of the 12, 15 greatest fighters of all time

and the biggest star in the sport, right? And that belt has been vacated a few times. Things have shifted. Volcanowski is the champ because the champ vacated or whatever, but like three of the 15 greatest fighters ever and the biggest star in the history of the sport. And like Ilya Tuporia, Who could go on to be, right?

Like, I know he just lost, but it's entirely possible to Puri, gets back on the track, puts together a remarkable career. And so I'm going to, because there's no like, well, this has directly changed hands time over time.

Walter Wade has a much longer lineage with a lot of really, really great fighters in it. But featherweight is just chef's kiss. Featherweight's there. Lightweight's really good too, even though there are some weirdness. By the way it's great.

It just never had like a long reigning champion because it's the best division of the sport. It's just very competitive. It's very, very tough. But yeah, I think Bandaweight's a good choice. Just because again, very competitive. The longest drain was three, right? No one had more than three. Correct.

So there you go. I mean, Dominic Cruz had like four or five, I think. But maybe that actually wasn't because some of the layoffs that might not. I don't remember. He has like six or seven title wins. But also that extends the WBC as well. Yeah. So it's a good question.

But it's, look, Bannonway, Featherway, Lightway, Welterweight have always been the best division, like the premier division since their inauguration. But yeah. I think Featherweight, it's between Featherwell and, well, you put Aldo, Volk, Max, Connor, Ilya, up against, I mean, I put that group up against all, almost any group of five from any other weight class.

At Welterweight, GSP, Hughes, Robbie Lawler, Camaro, and then pick, like, they're both just, I mean, they've got such rich histories in there, you know? Masters. Mike and Jed,

how well known do you think Dana is in the U.S. outside of combat sports fans? I saw Wayne Concept, Wade Concept, say there's a massive amount of people who don't know Dana in the U.S. And it made me wonder, thoughts. Definitely. You agree with you agree with this?

I think I think a lot of people know who Dana White is. No, I think more people know who he is than don't, but that's still like a lot of people who don't. I'm sure there are, and of that group, I'm sure there are a lot of people who, I mean, what do you mean, no, I guess is really the question. I bet there's a good chunk of people who are like,

that's the bald guy from UFC or whatever. Which is an identifying thing, which to me... Could they pick Dana White out of a crowd of ball? Like, if you and Dana White and three other bald dudes stood next to each other, could they be like, that's Dana White? I do not think that that's true. I think honestly... I think they genuinely think of him as the bald guy. And that's it.

I think he would pass the public's test. I mean, more so than any fighter on the roster besides Connor McGregor. Yes, I agree with that. I certainly think he's more known than kind of McGregor. And like you said, I think more people in the United States know him than don't. But I'm also just dead certain that there are millions and millions and millions of people who could not pick him out of a crowd of two. You could say that about literally anybody, though. Yeah.

But like, that was what that guy says. Like there are millions of people who don't know. I was like, yeah, I think that's true. There are millions of people who don't know him. Yeah. Who's the, like if I, I bet that a significant portion of like Randos would be like, is that Jay Glazer? You know, just be like, I don't know. Who's another famous bald white guy?

And they'd be like, the guy from the shield. What's his name? Michael Chickles, baby. Michael Chickles. Vic Mackey, let's go. Correct. Like, there are a lot of guys. Like, I genuinely believe his identifying factors are bald UFC guy.

And if you remove him from the, if you showed any of them, him in like a cage or a fight situation, you're going to get a super high number. What if you just put like Dana out at Starbucks, I don't know that like, again, I think it's like 55% of people would know him. That's still pretty damn. That's a lot of people. This is not, this is not me shitting on him at all. Like when I think of this question, I know Wade's mostly in the boxing space. Like I know he dabbles in MMA, but he's mostly in the boxing space.

So like Dane has obviously made his mark a little bit in his world more so than like our world. Three out of five people are going to know who Dana White is. Mike Isretel is a great one. Dude, I'm confident a lot of people would be like, is that that TikTok gym influencer? sir, because Dana's kind of, I mean, he's not as much as he used to. He's a little jacked too. Like, you know, he got on that good, them good vitamins. So.

Yeah. I mean, I'm curious. Like, depends on like the group of people you talk to. Yeah. Data is very famous. Yeah, very, very famous.

But even if you, even if you're moniker is, you're the bald guy from Boston who runs the UFC. Like, that means people know who you are. Yeah. And there's better than that's, yeah.

Yeah. And even, like, if I was like, who's this? If I showed a picture of him and his son at a Celtics game, they'd be like, oh, yeah, that's the dude who runs the UFC. I don't know his name. More people would be there. And certainly his popularity exploded in the last five,

or his, especially with the Trump stuff. I'll say his fame really exploded with the Trump stuff being such a, like, connected piece to the most famous person on the planet, right? Like, that's, that's pretty big. So, yeah, like, I'm not here to argue that he's not incredibly famous. But I do support whatever the original thing is. Like, I also think there are millions of people who do not know who he is. Yeah, he's not Tom Cruise.

Like, you can pick Tom. Yeah, everyone knows of Tom Cruise's. But in like the world of sports, especially combat sports, he's probably the most recognizable face. In combat sports, other than Connor McGregor, he's the most, I still think Connor would. And maybe Mike Ty or Mike Tyson. Oh, okay. I wasn't considering Mike Tyson, but yes, that's also certainly true. Yeah.

Do you guys want to see Mayweather versus Garcia? Hell no. I have zero interest in this, which means they're probably going to make it. I mean, it'd be kind of funny. It's going to be terrible. It'd be kind of funny. But yeah, like, it's not going to happen. This is just the thing that's people are, people are tweeting because got to be tweeting,

and tweet through it, baby, you know. Because it's boxing media and probably Mayweather's team reached out to whoever reported this and was like, hey, let's put this out there. And Ryan Garcia is right. Like, dude, I'll do it. But like, it's got to be a pro fight. Like, put your undefeated record on the line. I'm not doing an exhibition. You're never going to do that.

So the fight's never going to happen. Because Floyd can get paid money. I know Floyd needs money, but Floyd can get paid money to do exhibitions. But also, like, Ryan Garcia, you shouldn't be. trying to pick a fight with a 50-year-old, right? Like, yeah, like, I'm not saying, don't do this for the brand or whatever, but, like, that part of the,

it's got to, we got to do a real boxing match. It's just like, it would have been a lot better. If you're like, dude, you're 50, no. Like, you want to pay me money, but okay, like, it's, it's very silly, uh, Floyd. I hope you figure out your financial troubles or whatever. Assuming they're real, I know you're pretending that they're not. Seems like they're very real,

but I hope you don't have to take. head trauma to get your money sorted. Yeah. But like back to the original point, Floyd Mayweather made almost a billion dollars. Like that is all like he made so much money and appears to be in not the best financial shape. Sean Strickland has made 1% of that.

And so be a little frustrated that like, man, I've taken a lot of physical abuse to my body over the years. And this company is making 1.1. That's the thing. When you put a very clear number out, we make $1.1 billion a year. Okay, feels like you could afford to pay me more than $2 million a fight or whatever he's getting. Lord of the Pides, as much I hate to admit, UFC champion is the easiest sport to be a champion and the pay is kind of deserved. Incorrect, incorrect.

So you're correct at first. definitely the easiest sport to be a champion. And people get very upset when I say this. I got like attacks online the other day by even Zach Pauga came at me when I was just like I made some silly sort of offhand tweet about like how athleticism is a cheat code in MMA. And a bunch of people like being athletic is helpful in sports. Who knew what I was like guys the point. And then Zach Pauga hit me. I was like Zach Pauga, the point is you wouldn't have a career.

If you were athletic enough to have an MMA career. And that's just not true in any other sport. Like, the barrier to entry to MMA is significantly lower than just about every other major sport in the world. And so, like, yes, because we're not getting the best athletes. Like occasionally, occasionally they slip through and they look like in Martians compared to everybody else. Like once in a generation, we get Yoel Romero and it's like, well, yeah, that guy's not the same as everybody else going. So yes, it is significantly easier. Now, that's also to be expected.

This is a 30-year-old sport, right? Like football's been around 100 years. Baseball's been around 200 years. Like, you know, there's a thing for societal entrenchment. But yes. But Stone Cold disagree on they deserve to not be paid that much. No, because you deserve to get paid. what the value you create, right?

Like the UFC fighters writ large, without them you could not have a product. They make $1.1 billion a year for the company. So they should get more than 20% of that. That is literally always been the argument from people on my side of the ball of fighter pay. We know the financials. They make 18 to 20% of revenue.

It's a one. point one billion dollar industry. We just think they should make more of that. And I don't think that that, like that shouldn't be like a hard thing for people to be like, oh yeah, that's fair. But for many it is.

Yeah. What else we got? A lot of Strickland's. Lazy, what do you guys make of men's flyweight having just 49 fighters eligible for the media rankings? Deepest division globally. And they have as many heavyweights,

on the roster as they do 125ers. I mean, honestly, I was a little surprised they had that many because again, they tried to kill this division

like not that long ago where there was a point where we were down to less than 20 flyweights on roster. So for it to be back, it's like an endangered species. Like you can look at that and be like,

well, there are only 2,000 tigers, bingle tigers left in the wild. I'm like 10 years ago, there were 50 of them. We're doing it. and great right now for flyways as far as I'm concerned. I do think the roster bloat thing that popped off a little bit a couple of days ago

is, I mean, you looked at the breakdown and I don't have it in front of me, but like the most was lightweight, which makes sense. It's the best division. You can accrue just a lot more talent and more deep divisions. Heavyweight is probably a little bloated, right? Like having 50 heavy weights is probably just too many heavy weights. Way too many. But like mainly my overarching thought was there over six.

people currently signed to UFC contracts. Like, that's way too many. That's way you, all of the problems that you and me and others have been having

they get solved if you shrink that roster, right? Like that's, and again, this isn't new, Mike, like I know you know

this isn't new, but like this is just the thing we've been saying the whole time. It's like, card quality is down because you're getting regional MMA

under a UFC banner now. That's just true. Like, I don't know, you can feel a type of way about it, but that's what you are getting.

now. Because when there's 600 fighters on roster and they only offer 1,000 plus a little bit of change fight slots per year, 42 events, 13 fights, two fighters per fight, it's a little over 1,000 fights for 600 fighters on roster. Even accounting for turnover, you know, because there will be some churn, there will be injuries, right? Like, you're still looking at one and a half fights per year for fighter. Why? Why not have three, why not have three fights for a year for a fighter, you know, like, and some guys get that, but it's Anthony Wint. It's not the guys you want to see. It's not Sean Strickland, you know, like it's, I know he's fought twice this year, but like it's, shrink the roster. Stop bloating it so much and let the,

let your best fighters fight more frequently because they are asking for it. Payton Talbot before last week's event was like, yeah, I've been out for a long time. I didn't want to be. Just what happened. They wouldn't get like, come on, let these guys fight more. We'd be better. just be way better. Don't, like, I've been trying to tell you this for a long time. Like, Dana White continues to say, like, contenders series is the best thing, best show on television. Sure.

But you're, even there, you're getting squash matches. Even there, you're getting squash matches. Like, it's just, let's just get dudes obliterated. I mean, that's, that's, that's really the story now. And, like, I like the fact that they're adding squash matches to these cards. Uh, because that's exactly what they're doing. and people can try to deny it all they want. There's like one dude in particular on Twitter that I keep going back and forth with.

And I'm just like, how are you still arguing this point right now? That 332, like he basically said like 332 has just as much staying power as 331. I'm like, what in the world are you talking about? How is that possible? Oh, oh, Natalia Silva's the new champion. Great. She's not the real champion. No one thinks that.

Then there's the other side of like, well, Peyton Talbot's going to fight Sean O'Malley next. In what world is he going to fight John O'Malley next? If Jan beats Marab, he has zero chance of that fight. And if Maraub beats John, he has like a 10% chance of getting that fight. It's okay if he fights somebody else. It's okay if he fights Aman Zahabi next. It's okay if he fights Corey Sanhagan next or Cheeto Vera. Like, that's fine.

Those, one of, beating either of those guys would be his best win of his career, which would be better than his best win, which is currently Felipe Lima right now. And I know you're like, oh, he be Suhudo and Viguerre. I like it's a very good win. It's a very good win. But it's not like, hey, you beat Philippe Belina, Lima, now go fight Sean O'Malley. Like, it's not like that. It's like, well, Anthony Wynch showed us stuff.

I'm like, what did he show you? He showed you nothing. He killed a dude that had no right being there. Now we get to see what Anthony Winn can really do. We booked a bunch of squash matches. And then we had one sort of surprising result of Roman Copulov beating a Taba Gote. I picked him to do. win. I didn't think he'd kill him in the first round. So that was somewhat surprising.

And then we had a competitive main event. That's what the event was. This is a bunch of minus 700 favorites, just obliterating people. And it's fun. Like, it's fun to watch it. It goes by fast. And you're watching bodies fly and we're breaking records and all this stuff. And then it's just like, now it's Thursday. I'm looking through here. We're on five different platforms. Jed, not one question about 332 not one not one what are you talking about this card is staying power it doesn't we got everything we needed to get on on sunday maybe a little more on monday because we had the uh the recap thing that we do and even that as a guy who runs that jed was that the shortest one by a mile that you've ever had to look through one i was honestly super proud of us because basically since

I created this. The battle has been trying to get our word count down and we finally did it. But also, like, the staying power for 332, I noted this sometime. I was on Dennis's show. It's on sub radio. And I was like,

you realize that actually there's been more staying power to 332 than I thought? It's about the conversation around 332. It's not about any of the fights. It is about the backlash to people being like, what if you gave us better? Right. Like, what if you tried harder?

And a certain number of people being like, don't ask for more. Take what's given and like it. Like, okay. Like, that's the conversation. Just watch the fight.

It's wild times, man. Such a strange. This card was just as entertaining as Hanato Moikano versus Chris Duncan at the apex. This card was just as entertaining as UFC fight night, Serbia. And Serbia is probably more entertaining. because the main event was over in 60 seconds. Serbia was more entertaining because that place was...

And the crowd was... That place was popping. Electric, yeah. Well, yeah, it's a... It's a very strange time. I don't know. I don't know what to... Wait for two weeks from now.

You just wait. Wait for two weeks from now and 333 is over. We're going to be talking about 333 for like at least a week, depending on if Volker Movesar wins and Marab and Jan. Like, that is a card with stakes and stories. lines and staying power. Like, how is it negative, Jed, when we just want this consistently with our number, like, if you're going to throw fight night stuff like we saw at 332 out, that's fine. Like, we're used to that now. But like, we look forward to the numbered cards

because, like, even though they're not what they were in 2016, like, we expect stakes. And we expect, like, if you lose, it's like catastrophic. And if you win, it's huge and you get to make this big move. And like, we got nothing. out of this outside of like, shit, a table lost. Okay, now what? That's like the biggest story to come out of this event. Even more than Natalia Silva winning the title. It's a table.

Where does he go? That is true. That is the biggest story to come out of this event. And it's already like, okay, he's only 24. He'll be, he'll be back. Yeah, it's fine. Next thing. It is, uh, it's just, uh, my hope is that this is just the unnatural progression for

young sport. Again, this is the 35 years that MMA has been like a thing, right? And that's maybe even being generous with it. And so, like, hopefully we'll grow out of it because, you know, like, I just keep making this point. Thursday night football is often bad, right? Like the Amazon, the Amazon football game is often terrible, right? Where it's, you know, like, hey, it's Titans, Bucks, week 12. And nobody, when people are like, yeah, that's not great, like, not a lot of people are being, like,

there are specific fans of the Titans in the box. But that was the thing that really jumped out at me. It wasn't a bunch of Natty Ice fans coming to be like, you're disrespecting Natty Ice. She's awesome. Because that I could at least accept. I would disagree, but I'd be like, all right,

you're, but it was just like, it was the Rob Loe wearing the NFL logo hat. It's like, you're disrespecting the UFC is like, bro, just, it's fine.

Like, I'm not saying never watch it again. It's like, this is kind of ass. or whatever. And when people say that about a shitty Thursday night football game, now the joke in NFL circles is, well,

guys, you got to enjoy this because there will be some time in June when there's no football and you're sad. So do your, but like everybody understands. Everybody's in on the joke of like, yeah, it's not the best.

It is where it is. But you're still going to watch it. Yeah, you're going to watch. It's fine. And it just, the MMA fan base is such a, it's such an interesting place.

It's such a, such a unique community. Yeah. And there's a lot of passion. A lot of that passion, I think, is directed at inappropriate places. 100%. You know, it is what it is. Yeah.

And you can all, like, you can just kind of tell, like, who the newer fans are, as opposed to the old ones. And it's like, okay, it just wait. Just wait three years from now. And you're going to be like, hey, remember 332? That was fun. And you're going to, like, wish you had 332 back. Like, that's, that's, like, that's the progression of the sport.

And it's, guys, it's not negative. We, trust me, I know that, and I would say it's probably like 2024 where I was like, I was like super negative about shit. I was just like every card sucks. This is bad. This is bad. Yes, I remember. Because you, you had a plan.

You were like, I'm coming into 2025 going to be positive. And then like two weeks in, you couldn't help it even. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. But I feel. I think they remember saying that to you at her show, like, I thought you were positive. Mike this year like yeah well that went away yeah and rightfully so for being honest but now like I feel like I feel like I have been way more positive I feel like I have I am looking

to be positive when it doesn't cost me money right like this is that's very you know I can't say enough I think the paramount deal is great and it it makes a lot of this easier now if you don't live in America and can't get paramount for 10 bucks or whatever it is sucks to suck I guess but it does like it makes this a little bit more palatable but it I am surprised by how quickly we they just leaned into like oh we could do whatever we want now nobody's paying for this so yeah it's a how dare you say an event is going to be fun you guys are negative you guys hate the UFC you hate data because you said it's fun what are talking about that doesn't bother me uh I just like I just honestly like that kind of washed over me

you did say something like there's a small portion of people and they almost get me. I'm getting a lot better about not tweeting because I don't want to tweet at people. If I don't know you, I don't need to have a conversation like a negative conversation about something. But there are a couple of times where somebody's like, sick all you are you journalists and media people bagging on the UFC because it's the cool new thing to do. Son, I've been in this game much longer than you.

and I've been doing this shit for 20 years. Don't tell me I'm new to the party because it's a fad. I was born to this. You didn't used to watch pride events on some, like, crappy stream on the shittiest site you could download it on. It's the only way you had to watch this shit. I've been doing this since 2003, I think, buddy. Get the hell out of here with. You can yell at me about not being smart, but don't have.

question my credentials. 100%. 100%. That's right, Matlock. MMA core. The amount of fights I watched on MMA core back in the day

is the worst website of all time. But you didn't have fight pass, so you had to do it if you were trying to watch fights. Yeah. I mean,

look, I'm looking forward to 333. 33.3 is interesting. You can't tell like this card this is Saturday. You can't tell me. It's trash. Like, I mean, are you really going to sit home?

There are some things about the Canada card that I like, though. It's some things. It's not great. They deserve better than what they're getting. I, but Canada is in a weird spot where I give the UFC a pass on the Canada cards being trash because all that, they're just trying to put Canadian fighters.

The Canada cards are trashed because Canadian fighters aren't good right now. Like that is the Canadian fighters were better. The cards would be better, but they just don't have any good Canadians. They're like five total. So I give them a pass on Canada. And I like the main and co-main event next weekend. Yeah. I mean,

there's a, is the co-main event. Landware is going to be ludicrous. That's going to be very fun. There's going to be a stupid fight. It's awesome. There are, yeah,

it's Buckley, a lot. That idea, that I know. The Co-main is that Blanchfield, Jasmine. Yeah. Like,

both of those are great. I think there's real stakes in the co-made of it. Caldakis is going to be super fun. Like there's some fun fights. You know, it's a candidate card for sure. But I kind of like Edmonton. Yeah. Can we react to UFC 335 announcements?

So we, I mean, we got to briefly react to this stuff during the watch party on Saturday. None of this is a big surprise. We had been alluding to this for a couple of weeks that the main event was not going to be Sean Strickland versus Nassadine Nemovov is going to be something else. Charles Oliver versus Diego Lopez for the BMF. title. We knew Alex Pereira is to be fighting Sergey Pavlovich on the card. So those two fights are out there. What I did not expect, Jed, was Joe Pfeiffer versus Bo Nicol. That fight threw me off. It threw a lot of people off. Apparently, it threw Joe Rogan off. The look on his face when they told them was pretty wild. But yeah, man, are we excited for 335?

Last year, 335, the December pay-per-view was Jan Marab was the main event. I believe was that Van Pantosia was the co-main event. It was a very fun card on paper, like one of those like hardcore fan delight kind of cards. This one is kind of the complete opposite, which is still fun. Like, I mean, you get all Avery Lopez is a banger, but that's more of the like the, you know, the newer fan fight. You know, the meaning of a fight, but the fight is awesome. It is awesome. And then, you know, Pereira is a star in like today's modern UFC and Pavlovich is like a dangerous.

dude you can just i love that play highlight i love it's a great fight we're gonna get a million answers to questions on that fight and then we got pipe for bow nickel which i love that fight never saw it a million years the UFC bit booking that fight but i love it i actually i really love that fight so your reaction as though with the trio there we knew the main event was happening um they've been i mean they were trying to book it earlier but like we knew that that was kind of where they were going i have some quibbles with it but those aren't super important right like if you just look like that's super fun um i think you know bmf belt probably time for it to go away it's certainly in the iteration in which it exists but whatever fights really fun there's just no way around

that so that's awesome we will have a delight kind of think dago lopez is going to win that fight oh interesting and then and then the ufc will finally put a belt on dago lopez which they've been trying to do basically since he came into the promotion. And that's fine. He can have that belt and it's fun and exciting. That's interesting.

I love the co-main event. I'd heard about that for a while now. I think that's premier matchmaking, quite frankly. Because if you give him, like, I know Volkov's fighting, but if you give Poetan Volkov, I'm pretty confident Volkov beats Poeton.

And then that's just like a bummer, right? like now what are we doing with Poetan um but he could beat path I'm not certain he's going to and either way I'm going to know everything I need to know because I just think I just think Volkov is like a really bad style matchup for Poetan but like so when he loses that like if he loses that fight I wouldn't learn much and this one we're going to lose I'm going to know a little bit more about Poeton's abilities at heavyweight and if this was a failed sojourn, he needs to go back to 205 or what. So I love that matchup.

I love that it's five rounds. Chef's kiss, perfect work from them. And then I've come a little bit around on the bone-nickel Pfeiffer. As you remember, I was pretty pumped on that when they announced. I was like, that's weird and fun. That's kind of great matchmaking, right? I still like the fight. I still think it's okay.

But then as I looked at the rest of the middleweight landscape, I was like, man, it kind of feels like Joe Pfeiffer needed to fight somebody else, right? Like we've got Kyle Bahaullio's about to fight usually Belgari, Brennan Allen, obviously this weekend. Like Joe Piper is giving an opportunity to Bo Nicol, who's much further behind him in the rankings. But like Pfeiffer should be kind of moving upward. Like we should be doing Pfeiffer versus DDP, right?

Like that's what should be happening. But setting that aside and just judging the fight on its own merits, it's weird and interesting. and I like it. So pretty good. I don't know if we've confirmed this, but I've seen rumors. Brandon Moreno,

Charles Johnson will also be this. Yeah, we reported it. We were, we reported that. Okay, I just don't remember whether that was true or not. That's, that fight's awesome,

right? Like, that card is shaping up to end the year very, very strong. Yeah. I see, here's why I like, it is weird, right? I interviewed Brennan Allen yesterday.

He's got to be livid. So it's, I got to tell you, And I'm contemplating whether to, like, throw this whole interview on YouTube because, like, this was, there's very little talk about, like, this actual fight outside of, like, hey, would you, were you, like, surprised by this? Because I thought you're going to fight Joe Piper, you know, because he had won his fight against Shabazzian. Pfeiffer was slated to fight Baha'alio in Philly. And then that fight went off. I'm like, all right, well, now you can do Brennan Allen versus Joe Piper.

Like, that makes all the sense in the world. maybe does it on the Philly card, maybe we bump it back a little bit, and then they kind of go off the rails with a lot of the stuff, and they book all these different fights. It's super weird and random, a lot of the stuff that's happening. So we end up with Joe Piper versus Boe Nickel. And, like, at first I'm just like, huh, I don't get it. And then, like, I got more excited about it as, like, we started talking about it.

and now I'm like super thrilled about it and I get it okay I get this matchup for a few reasons Joe likes this matchup not just from like a I mean I'm sure there's a part of him that's like all right I probably should be fighting DDP

or Hamzot or somebody like that and rightfully so I mean you go to Izzy cool um Joe Joe wants to be a baby face so bad and the UFC he wants Joe to be a baby face so bad.

What better way to, especially with like the change, especially like the change. I didn't think about that. You're right. Yeah, especially with like his change in attitude and stuff. And like, look, you could say whatever you want about the change and, you know, finding religion and all that and, and where room really stems from and all that.

I can tell you without question, that is a different cat. He's a different guy. He's not the angry and pissed off of the world Joe Piper anymore. Like that is. 100% fact. I've seen both sides. That's a different dude. This is about, I mean, literally, there's nobody else you could put in there with Joe

that will make him the fan favorite, except this fight. This is literally the only one where people will cheer for him unless you put him in Philadelphia. So if you're not going to put him in Philadelphia, and you want to get him over as a baby phase, this is how you do it. And the stakes in this fight are ginormous.

They're huge. Whoever loses this fight, is like cooked when it comes to like getting to a belt like if bow loses again like what do you do that's really tough and if pifer loses this at this point in his career like it's got to be a really long road back for him so like it's a weird fight but the stakes are massive for both guys so i get it from all perspectives and i love the fight i think it's a great out of nowhere matchup and yeah i think i think it's really good this is what i like i like out of nowhere matchups too.

Like that's one of my, when they, when you book a fight and very periodically, you just book a fight that I'm just like, oh, I never even considered that. That always is more interesting to me. It's like, okay, that's something new to, to chew on. So, yeah, like overall, I'm pretty pro that fight and this card. Some quibbles, but you can have quibbles with anything. This looks to be a very solid effort to close the year out. Yeah. Master's Universe was asking what's the best.

food to put gravy on. I mean, there's an obvious answer. Yeah. But my hot take is that I actually am not, uh, I don't, it's fine, but I don't choose to put gravy on my mashed potatoes. Um, but gravy on turkey. I mean, turkey. I'll tell you, gravy on stuffing, you know.

Oh, 100%. Gravy on stuffing is. That's, that's the good stuff, right. Dressing, uh, gravy on stuffing or dressing, either one. because they are different. We're very clear. Those are different. But yeah, like, I am a weirdo

and that I actually mostly prefer my mashed potatoes without gravy. Certainly a brown gravy. Because that's the other question here. Like, we talk brown or white gravy. Because biscuits and gravy is one of my, like, top nine meals of all time. Like, biscuits and gravy, like a good one is unbelievable. But if you're talking like a traditional brown gravy, I'll go stuffing or turkey because turkey often just needs it.

Yeah. The answer to me for me is just like Thanksgiving. That's just my answer. It's Thanksgiving. I mean, you really can pour it over anything that's not the yams on the Thanksgiving plate. You can't put it on squash. I think you don't need it on squash. You don't need it on cramber.

I mean, I've never done it. But yeah, it could be turkey. But I mean, I'll put a little bit on the mashed potatoes. It's not like I have a lot of people just douse it. People love that. Yeah. It's I don't need the volcano. Just need a little drip or two.

And then you put the corn right on top of it. Oh, baby. Like now we're talking. Now we're. Yeah. I'm a child when it comes to my Thanksgiving plate. You can put a white like a white gravy on almost anything. And I'll be like, that's probably better with that involved.

Like white gravy is so good. Brown gravy is, it's a specialty item. Causeo. Kind of annoying. They put Aljo versus Vigua. Jayhost in the Middle East and not an MSG. It's super weird. It's kind of weird, is it not?

Like, I didn't realize this until I was just looking. I was like, because when they announced that fight, I was like, that fight's awesome. And this card is great and super fun. And then you look at it and just like, why is this here? This doesn't fit with everything else that's going on on this car. Great fight. No issue with the fight. But like, yeah, like, it seems like that should just be in the MSG card.

Yeah. I was talking about the Brennan Allen interview. What a fascinating guy. I've been talking to Brennan forever since before he got to the UFC. So it's kind of weird seeing him in this spot now and like main event and cards. And we kind of just went down a couple of rabbit holes about like why he's getting the fights he's getting. And a lot of it is just like, well, he's a tough spot. Yeah, it's just like, you know, I'm fighting the best dude that's available.

And they keep offering me like, well, we could put you on like this bigger event, but we can't guarantee it, but we can guarantee you this fight at the apex in the main event. So like, then it's up to like, which door do you go through? Burn the hand, baby. Take the burden of hand. Yeah, Brennan's like, I'm going to take the fight that like I know I'm going to get. If I wait until December, maybe I get a bigger name on a bigger card, but like I know I have this one and, you know, I got kids and they gots to eat. So we had, we have to do it. But he also understands like kind of from the like the fans perspective, like the position he's, in. And it's just like, if you talk to Brendan, he is like, he's a super good dude. There's a reason

why those in his circle love him. He's a super duper family man. But he also understands to be in the position he wants to be in. Like, he's got to have like a following. He's got to grow social media and stuff. But like he's, it's like the two sides of being a fighter that he's trying to to balance and it's super hard for me. He's like, yeah, man, I fight a bunch. Like, I fight like three times a year. And like, because you and I always say, like, the way you get over is just fight a lot. And he fights a lot, but doesn't get over.

And like, if he tries to like say things that like get people fired up, like people are either just don't care or they think it's phony. And the only, and he even said, like, the only way like people react to me is just like, if I lose, then they just talk a bunch of shit about me. He goes, I'm just, apparently I'm just not likable. And just hearing somebody be like, yeah, no, I'm not likable. It's just like, damn, dude, like, what is that like? Like, how do you balance that in your brain while you're preparing for a fight? Like, you feel like nobody likes you and like no one reacts to you. But like, you still have to go fight and try to like break your way through this log jam.

Fascinating shit, man. Like just really fascinating stuff. So stay tuned for that. You're probably going to read about that tomorrow. But crazy. If he wins. this one because like I think he's sort of back toward his way into probably an appropriate lane which is just like because you know after the RDR fight like shoot your shot I guess but he was

coming out and talking about fighting for the bells like that's just not like it's a great win but you got to got to be a little more aware of like what else is going on this weight class that's not really an opportunity that's going to come for you and then as such he's now got an Edmund Shepasian and you know CLD or whatever and the CLD fights reasonable right like he is at least ranked well like I think if he wins this one I think he's going to win we'll talk about in the preview show tomorrow

but I think he's going to get this done then it's four in a row and if he can be a little bit more impressive than he's been like the RDR fight was the impressive one the other fights he's won he's won he beat Marmortory he beat Shabazian but they weren't like blow your socks off

He's got to put down a really, like the performances that he was on before he lost to Eamabov, right? Like that run, he had started to get a little bit of juice because he was cooking people. And then since the pair of losses, it's not quite, he had the RDR, which was great. But then honestly, the big story of that was RDR fought five times in 12 months. That might have been more RDR's fault than your success. And so this one is an unambiguous, good quality opponent. a guy who's surging four or five fight win street for CLD. So if he can find a way to be impressive again,

get back to submitting people, right? Instead of just winning professionally because like I've been impressed by how professional of a fighter he has become, right? Like he can do it all, jack of all trades where he's just kind of take you where you're weakest. But that's not a thing that gets fans over. And then be a little more realistic with your post fight. Also, maybe get rid of the hat.

I'm not sure that the hat's doing him favors. Like, you know me, I love a fun hat. Very Uncle Bucky kind of hat that he wears. Yeah, but you know, I mean, one, he's from South Carolina. That that hat is they've never worn that hat. Louisiana. It's never cold. Louisiana.

But doesn't he live in South Carolina? No, he lives in Florida. It's never cold enough for that hat. I love a fun hat, but his name is Brendan Allen. He has two first names. You put, if you're Brendan Allenov, then you can wear the fun hat. Otherwise, find another way forward.

You got to, and sometimes you got to workshop gimmicks. And they have to be gimmicks that are true to you. You can't totally put on airs, the best pro wrestling personalities and stuff. They're all just excentuations of your natural personality. But he's also still like young. He's 30.

Yeah, so he's still got time to kind of piece this together. But it starts with putting on exciting fights again, because it's been a minute since he's done that. Yeah, he's very He's very bull I mean, he's certainly like very much like Ballal in terms of like He's just gonna have to work a lot longer than a lot of these

Yeah, he's gonna have to work his way up And then if he gets his and then if dude, if he wins the belt like That's just so bad. Like straight up and you know Brennan's like yeah me and Ballal have these conversations all the time He goes but now it's like super weird than it was like three or four years ago Because you go with Balal now because he's

won the belt, like everyone knows who Bilal is. Like, everywhere we go, it's just like, you know, everyone's coming up and taking pictures with Balaw. I'm just standing there. I'm like, I'm like, yeah, that's like me being in an event with Halani. It's just like, oh, it's like one person who sees my bald head and then it's just like, oh, and then a thousand people go take pictures with Ariel. It's like, okay, I totally get what you're coming from. But like, like, I kind of do prefer it that way, but I'm also not trying to get to a world title and a division full of stars. So like, I'm happy with like a very tiny small percentage of the world being like, hey, man, take a picture.

But like, that's kind of where he's at now. It's just such a weird place for a professional athlete to be. He's also, and I forgot about this until just now, the idea of like adopting a different country, that was a bad gimmick and you should not have committed to that. That was just a bad idea. And so, like, yeah, that didn't work in any respect. Nobody was like, I get it.

you're Canadian now. Like it just, no, just don't do that one. You know, like rethink that thought. Or go the other way and totally do it, right? Like, you need to be like this weekend, I'm Spanish because England and Spain have been at war on and off for 700 years. Like you got, you either have to go all the way in, but you can't be like, I'm adopted Canadian this week. Like, no, just don't do that. Yeah. And it's funny. Like, when Armin wrestles for R.AF, like every time he, wrestles, he says he's from the place he's wrestling at. And it's just like, oh, it's funny. But like if Brandon tried to do that, be like, oh, boo. It's like, it's so funny. Look, a lot of it's percent. There's a one of, in South Park, you know, not to everybody's taste.

One of the greatest South Park jokes of all time, in my opinion, is Randy talking to his wife, Sheila, and he is, he's drinking a bunch of wine. And she's like, you're just getting drunk. It's like you're just, like, I forget her phrase, but the punchline is, no, I'm, I'm having six glasses of wine. It's called a tasting and it's classy. Yeah, that's kind of it. Like, we're talking to say it just kind of if you, if you can pull it off, you can pull it off. And that's, Brendan can't quite pull off some of the things and he's tried. Oh my God, dude. It's one of the best jokes that shows ever made. It's like, you're just drinking a bunch of wine of their friends. no, I'm drinking six glasses of wine.

Called it tasting and it's classy. Oh my God. It's just unbelievable. Lazy, nice guys never win an MMA unless your name is Stepe. I mean, there are very few of them, yes. I mean, Wonderboy got a couple title shots. Max is nice as you can get. Max is fairly nice.

You know, like, Daniel Cormier was very nice. But yeah, but Daniel also like, Daniel Fonkerbell. D.C. is also definitely not nice at times. Yeah, Daniel has F you in his DNA for sure. But, and I think Brennan kind of probably does as well. If you're a professional, he's like almost certainly of it. But D.C. being the nice, like the family man and all that and like everything he's

overcome and the trials and tribulations and all that. And it's like he gets booed out of the building. And John Jones is, is the hero and getting cheered by millions of people. It's just such a weird time in the sport And yeah, it is, it's very interesting. GSP's a good guy. No, he's not. Don't you know about the darkness?

Sometimes he goes to the darkness. Man, you guys, I'm fucking old. I've been watching this sports way too long. Sometimes he goes to the darkness. His, the Nate, the Nick Diaz promo or he said, I love that. I love that. I go to the darkness.

Dude, that was a freaking forum meme for 10 years. about the and before before then it became aliens because is just be super weird it's great i think i was having this discussion with somebody of the other day i you know my thoughts on the goat in m m i think you can pay any people i just in general choose gsp i'm doubling down way harder because george st pierre he carries himself like the greatest fighter of all time in the way that like when have you heard Wayne Gretzky get on Twitter and be like actually I'm the greatest hockey player suck at Ovechkin he's not saying that shit you know tiger isn't coming out and being like Scotty Sheffler can eat my nards you know and GSP is just not at all concerned with

like is Islam the greatest fighter he's out here talking to people about the moon landing and dinosaurs and just being real weird and I I love and respect that so much. GSP forever, my goat. Yep. I mean, just a different, I can't wait for the 30 for 30 about GSP. And he's just 30, 38, just he's the 30 for 30, baby.

Yeah, he's a, he's a wild man. Everything he's done the last like two, three years is just like, okay, you are on some, you have won the game and now you're just doing whatever you want. And that's, that's beautiful. There's something very beautiful about that. He might be the richest man in history of MMA because like, that dude looks at himself in the mirror and he's just like, clearly loves himself so much. I like me.

And gosh, started people like me. Just being himself, being free, has money, doing the thing, like literally doing whatever he wants and not an F to give. And he's so happy. He's acting with the letter kitty guys. It's just like, yeah, that's exactly what you should be doing. Just being, being a real weirdo. It's the best.

He's my goat forever. Oh, my gosh. Masters, how do you feel about Wonderboy's last fight against Charles Ratkey? Is that his retirement? Is he declared that this is his retirement? Yep, it's definitely his last fight. I didn't realize that. It's fine.

When they booked it, I thought it's not what I would have imagined, but winnable fight, Chuck Buffalo's fun fighter. So okay, sure. It is what it is. Like they couldn't convince Nico Price to hang around one more after this weekend, you know? I mean, come on, come on, Nico. Hey, Nico, come back for one more. I'm trying to send Wonder Boy out on a high.

I mean, you could just throw Leon Chabazzian in that fight too. Because Wonderboy probably finishes him relatively quickly. Well, fair enough. Yeah. I'm not entirely certain Leon Chabazzian is going to have a job after this weekend, but maybe. you never know I mean it's like a 50 50 it's like a 50 50

coin flip in that fight I think on the betting odds right now Arnold Allen seems like a super nice guy he is great he's spectacular very funny dry wind I would watch Arnold Allen and GSP have a show together like that feels like those because GSP would be really weird

and Arnold is so British and like dry and he would like he would do a lot of side eyes to the camera about GSP talking about his favorite dinosaur and he'd be like yeah i like the stegas like that would be very good to get those two in a room together i mean they're in a room together you see trains to try star occasionally but yeah do that uh jett i'm like who's the nicest guy in mama media the type of question is that i'm offended he would never be offended about this question

but i'm offended for him it's very obviously alexander kate oh yeah without question Unquote easily easily AK Yeah definitely okay Yeah there you go Dave that's correct Dave Dave's right on it's definitely okay I will say I'm most people in MMA media are pretty nice Yeah there are a couple

But that's the same with the world Like I'm probably one of the less nice people in MMA media And I'm not a I'm not mean So it's Ooh BC is also extremely nice left leg cemetery that's true Brian Campbell was Brian Campbell was an extremely nice

like to his core good person Yeah he's great I love BC Great dude I don't get to see him that often But it's always Give him a big old hug Every time I still chat to him I chat with him occasionally

But yeah I don't get to see him as much I used to Yeah he's he's the fucking man Yeah I just really no Yeah They're like There are only like a couple of people That I'm like

I don't like that guy's nats I'm not going to say them before anyone asked that question. Oh, God. Alexander, you're all kidding about GSP? He told Matt Hughes to his face. He was not impressed. He's an asshole. But he got that fight, didn't he?

He's Canadian. He can't be an asshole. That was the few times during like a post-fight interview or a fighter at a microphone in the sand in an octagon where I laughed. I laughed cackling. I'm not impressed by your performance. Look, here's the thing, man.

Being nice isn't a hundred percent thing, right? Like, all people have layers. They are multifaceted. Nobody is all good or all bad or all anything. Yeah, I'm certain that one of the best at, like, fighters in a competitive, like one of the best athletes in a competitive outlet, it's not great. they're not no no fighter is purely nice they wouldn't be where they are if they were but on the

balance george st pierre's was extremely nice individual like not many people have bad things to say about george you know it's like uh like that dude from condender series this week dana just kept me like nobody live will say anything bad about so it's sal limit there you go sal ever it yeah it's uh ever yeah i was like nobody loves like yeah you know like that's i'm certain that someone somewhere has had a negative interaction because we're all people But yeah, mostly GSP seems very trended on the nice side of the spectrum. Yeah. Man in the hat.

Also very nice. Chuck, Chuck spent a lot of international fight week sitting next to Chuck at press conferences and weigh-ins and stuff of that nature. And it was a great catch-up with him. He's the freaking man. Looks great. Yeah, I love all those dudes. How nice is Jeff Wagonheim?

I actually never met him in person. I haven't even had that many interactions with him a couple, but I do not know Wagonheim remotely well enough to speak on him. Yeah. Did you catch Darkside on Affliction? I did not. No.

I watched any Darksides this year. Yeah. I've found that, because I've watched a couple on the pro wrestlers now, that it's just a more interesting thing to me to watch the stories I don't know. Exactly. Because I don't know any of the pro, like all the MMA ones,

like I watched, I think the first one, or whatever was Kimbo and I watched it. And it's still a story well told, right? They do a good job. But I know that story. And so I just, it's less appealing to me than like,

the Montreal screw job or whatever. I know that story, but by now. But like, you know, those, the wrestling ones are a little more interesting to me. Yeah. Because, I mean, I probably would check out the affliction one because that one,

like I'm kind of interested in. Like I know, I know like some of the like obviously, of the story, but I'd love to know by on the scenes. Like, I know with pride, like, we know all those stories. So it's interesting to, like, different perspectives from it, right? But, like, Affliction, I'd probably go watch. Like, Honor Habib, like, I don't need to see the dark side on Connor Habib.

We know. Oh, yeah, no. That has, I know literally everything there is to know about Conner's. I was even working in media at that time. I super don't need that one. Yeah. So, like, there's, you know, and there's certain ones on dark side of the ring that, like, like, yeah, I already know the story.

I already know the Montreal screw job. Like when they did the brawl for all, that was great. I was like, I remember watching brawl. That's the real fight one, right? Like where they did the real fight? And then Bark Gun got like killed by Butterbean at WrestleMania, like legit, not dead in the middle of the ring. Long before I knew most, I've become decently well versed on pro wrestling over the last like five, six years.

Way before I knew that, I knew about brawl for all because the four, really, really loved the talking about the lineal heavyweight championship and how Butterbean had it and then it changed hands through Butterbean in the brawl for all. And that's when I like learned what the brawl for all. It's such a, such a very stupid, stupid part of pro wrestling. And I kind of wish they like if they did that a little more, I'd be kind of into it. Like once every couple of years, just do what and see what happens. Yeah, the concept was very fun.

and then like the damn bell had to ring and you realize like oh none of these guys could really really do anything and then you'd watch like Steve Blackman fight who was like a legit trained fighter and all he would do is just tackle people and people boot the shit out of them

because tackles are points but they wouldn't like shamrock or Severin or anybody in there but yeah it was that was so crazy what a time what a time great it was absolutely terrific stuff would either you be willing to participate in a dark side episode of you were approached

sure I don't have any issues yeah like you said I think they tell stories well so like if I watch their stuff and was like this is shiddly produced and they're gonna do a hack job then I would say no but I don't doesn't seem like they do that I think they tell stories well

be fine yeah yeah dark side of the ring is I mean they do a really good job the problem like the problem with like those shows though Jed before we wrap up and get out of here is like there's just not enough time to tell us like to tell the story oh yeah some of them they're not for sure.

Especially on Vice when you have like a bunch of commercials like stop sets, you probably have 41 minutes to tell an entire story about affliction. Like that is, I mean, you're asking a lot. There's like a lot of shit that you want in there that has to be cut. And just stuff like you really wish you had in there to like really blend things together. Give some people like some different perspectives have never heard before. But it's like that stuff's just really. really tough to do, man. Really, really tough. So I get it. Okay. I think we're done here. I think we've,

oh yeah, I'll say that too. Shout out to Megan Olivie. Megan's tremendous. She's incredible. Good on her. She's very nice. Annick's very nice. Brennan Fitzgerald's very nice. Like, it's really hard to, it's really hard to find an asshole in this. Again, honestly, most of the, my media experience in a way has been great. I just want to throw this out here. Please. Because I was, while we were talking,

so Barkon wins the Brawl for All and then Butterby knocks him out. That was in March of something, whatever. Wrestling, 18. Yeah, whatever, those March of 90,

whatever that year was. Butterby in transition to M. in 2003. So Linneal Brawl for All champion. He had lost in boxing, but I don't know if we're counting boxing for Braw for brawl for all. It's a limited form of fighting.

He loses to ginkie pseudo in his debut. And then you can follow this lineage all the way until basically the brawl for all combines with the lineal pride and then that obviously also becomes the UFC heavyweight champion. It's terrific. So I guess actually currently because the belt was vacated now the brawl for all title, the lineal brawl for all title has also been functionally vacated. Oh. I believe that that's how that works.

Chad Gable, baby, step up. I think Chad Gable will probably win it. It's how we got to do it. Yeah, that would be incredibly, I mean, that would be fun. Chad would win. So you might just give him the belt. Just do what the UFC does. Just hand people the belt and it will go from there.

So that's it for BTL today. Yeah, the bra for all was fucking. crazy. But I appreciate all of you on this Thursday. We'll be back tomorrow. We will preview UFC Vegas 122 and what a card of all time that is going to be. And then we'll be on to Edmonton for the UFC's return to Canada. And then on to Abu Dhabi in a very busy week for the MMA fighting crew. Lots of miles being logged that week with 333 and RAF in Las Vegas. Stay tuned. a very special week in Las Vegas. Lots happening.

Some live shows being done in Las Vegas that are, we're just trying to put all the pieces together. So that's going to be a lot of fun. Lots of content coming your way that week. So October's going to be fun and spooky and all the things. What, Jed? I just realized they're wrong because the heavyweight title was vacated, but that's the UFC heavyweight title.

Francis Inganu either still has it. it or theoretically Anthony Joshua has it or I guess Tyson Fury beat Francis first. I keep forgetting that Tyson Fury so then Tyson Fury would have it so then Alexander Usik is technically

the lineal brawl for all champion. Oh and a lot of people are boxing. If you're only going M.MA then Ingan who still holds the title. And a lot of people feel like Rico Verhoeven should be the brawl for all champion right now. I forgot. I was just like, oh, they vacated heavyweight

ended. I was just like, wait, no, France is vacated, but he's still around. Yes. This is a great conversation. This could be a whole show right here. So thank you very much. We'll be back next week to talk about another wild week, I'm sure, in the world of mixed martial arts and combat sports. For Jed Bishu, I am Mike Keck.

We'll see you tomorrow for the UFC Vegas 22 preview show. Bye, bye. Love y'all.