MMA Fighting - BTL | Dana White vs. Nate Diaz, UFC Austin Fallout, Tsarukyan vs. Gamrot, Best Card of Weekend

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

UFC president Dana White and Nate Diaz are going back and forth once again, but will anything change because of it? This week on Between the Links, the panel will discuss Diaz wanting to compete this summer or be outright released from the company, White saying Diaz should go fight Jake Paul, whether or not Calvin Kattar has a gripe after his UFC Austin loss to Josh Emmett in the main event, the MVP of this past Saturday’s card in Texas, the UFC Vegas 57 main event between Arman Tsarukyan and Mateusz Gamrot and how that event compares to the offerings of Bellator, PFL, and BKFC this weekend, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew and UFC bantamweight Randy Costa. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Randy Costa: @RandyCosta135 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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Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my The iconic voice of

Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Links. Thank you for joining us. What a week we've been having in the sport of mixed martial arts. This past week was wild. Great UFC Austin card.

Breakout performances galore from this past Saturday. And we get to answer a question thanks to one scorecard in particular about the main event this past Saturday is a really close fight. Actually a robbery. this time around. We'll see what our panel has to say. Plus, this weekend has so much happening.

We'll discuss all of that and more. Dana White and Nate Diaz having a little bit of a back and forth. So let's get into it and have fun with the esteemed panel. First, let us introduce a man who is back from vacation, Mr. No Gray area himself, with takes so hot you'll need to hop into an ice bath when this show is over. Mr. Jedbushu. Hello, sir. I don't know if it's a vacation. I did a lot more than I didn't relax, let's call it that way. So I'm still recovering, but should be more than enough to put the boots to Randy Costa. So that's fine. Well, there we go.

And I'm happy to welcome back. UFC Bannamweight, Randy Costa, the program. Love getting the fighter's perspective on here to spread their wings a bit from an analyst perspective. He did some commentary for the legendary New England promoter Joe Cavve and Combat FC recently. and he has his next in-cage assignment, October 1st against Guido Canetti. Maybe, just maybe, with this incredible mustache, he will ride one of those 20-foot-high unicycles with lots of heavy, rounded out barbells attached to his arms and show.

Look at this frigging mustache, man. Randy Costa, how are you? I'm doing good, man. I'm going undefeated with this thing. I promise you that. That is unbelievable. That's the type of mustache a man named Guido Canetti should have, if we're being honest.

Like that's, that is much more Guido-Kinetti mustache than a Randy Kornis. The mustache. Yeah, it's very Guido-Kennetti-esque for sure. I agree. I agree.

But it's not my face and I'm stuck with it. And, uh, yeah, dude, it's mine. That is just unbelievable. I don't even know if I could get through this show

and be so distracted by, by the mustache. But let's get into this thing, gentlemen. UFC Austin should actually be renamed UFC awesome because it was awesome. What a card it was. One of the best of the year for sure.

One of the best overall fight nights from top to bottom that I can remember in quite some time. Overdelivered as a whole. Main event saw Josh Emmett earn a split decision over Calvin Cater. It was a close fight. MMA fighting's official score on Saturday was 4847 Cater. I watched it twice. I've scored it for Cater both times. And almost all the time we have discussions like this talking about close fights.

and we do this on post-fight show. The word robbery needs to be locked away or put somewhere into the universe where it can't be found or used or said. However, Judge Chris Lee is the biggest talking point coming out of this fight, even more so than the fighters themselves because in my eyes and in the eyes of most who watch this fight,

the only clear-as-day round of the entire 25-minute fight was cater-in-round four. To me, it was a clear caterer round. the other four rounds, you can at least make an argument in some capacity one way or the other that either Cater or Emmett won the round. Round four, not so much. This one you actually couldn't. It was clear as day Cater won round four.

But Jed, Chris Lee sees the fourth round for Josh Emmett, which leads to a 48-47 scorecard for Josh Emmett. And if Chrisley had scored this fight correctly, or at least that round correctly, Cater wins the fight. We're talking about what Calvin Cater does next, whether or not Calvin Cater gets a title fight. So because of that, did Cater get robbed in this one, or at least did he get hosed by Judge Chris Lee on Saturday? So we were talking about it before. I haven't seen the fight. I've watched every other fight on this card. But as I was trying to catch up, because I was gone this weekend, it's a lot harder to be like, I'm going to sit down for 25 minutes and watch this.

And it's like, I'm going to spend 90 seconds to watch Kyle Dawkes get blown up. Like, that's very easy fit in and around other things that you're doing. So this is the one fight of the card I haven't seen, which makes me uniquely ill-prepared to answer this. So I'm going to answer this more holistically because I can't say specifically in this instance what happened. So all of the things I've read and people I've talked to, I feel that this probably is a robbery because here's the deal.

Even if it's a close fight, Mike, if the wrong guy won, then he was the right guy was robbed because he literally got half of his paycheck. And so by definition, he is robbed of money in a fight that if you look at MMA decisions, there's some people who scored it for him, but the bulk of them scored it for Calvin Cater. MMAFighting.com, tremendous website. You should go to it right now. And a very handsome man scored that round, that fight for Calvin Cater, as you mentioned earlier. So when the Bible of fighting, MMAFighting.com, says one thing,

then that's the truth as it exists. So Calvin Cater clearly should have won and thus was robbed of half his paycheck and the potential opportunity to get into title Eliminator because he's not getting one now. And Emmett probably is at least in that conversation. So I'm going robbery having not seen the fight. Wow, how about that?

Randy, what do you think? Because again, we score this fight on an island. Like you scored a certain way. Let's just say you score it for Cater. Emmett gets the nod. before we look at the scorecards. We're not thinking it's a robbery at all. But then we look at Chris Lee's scorecard.

We look at Chris scoring the fourth round for Cater, or for Emmett, excuse me, and not for Cater, when everybody else scored that round for Cater. Then it changes things a little bit, right? Does it not? Like, what do you think? Is there, I don't know if you don't want to go as far as robbery, fine, but does Calvin Cater at least have a gripe here with Chris Lee?

So like, like, Jed said, I think in turn, I think robbery in terms of like the sport context, I don't really think that. I mean, I could see why it would go either way. I did have Calvin win, and I thought it was two, two, going into the fifth. I did have Calvin winning. But, like, you can't really save robbery because I understand the argument on why, why Emmett did win.

But, dude, like, Calvin lost or didn't get half of his paycheck because of Chris Lee. I mean, there needs to be some sort of standard. Something needs, like, the judges need to be held accountable for these things, like right or wrong all like it's it's crazy that we're in 22 and still there's no standard and there's no line of like what the judges are you don't know you don't know what the judges is seeing and it's just something something i think needs to change and i feel bad for a guy like calvin i mean that that was that was a big loss you know he's he's now not going to be in the title contention picture he lost he didn't get half of his paycheck which is you know that's a fat amount

of money considering he's at like three or four main events in a row it's just kind of a trash situation and there needs to be like some accountability with these judges, especially Chris Lee. But yeah, man, I wouldn't say like in terms of sport, I don't think it was a robbery. I think that it could have gone either way. I'm not like upset about it. I could see the argument for either way. But in terms of like finances, I think I think that judges need to be held accountable. Yeah.

And that's a thing. Like scoring the fight in a vacuum, I don't think it's a robbery. That scorecard is the only thing that makes this a talking point. Now to move ahead, Josh Emmett did win the fight, Randy. And he gets on the microphone and DC asked him one question. And he just answered all of the questions in one shot. And it ended with him saying, I want to sit cage side, Dana White, for UFC 276 on July 2nd,

when Volcanovsky and Holloway fight for the third time because I deserve to fight the winner. He feels like he should get the winner of that fight. And if Volcanovsky wins, that would seem to give him a better chance because of Holloway wins, more than likely they're just going to run it back again because if Volcanovsky wins two and then Holloway wins one, and it'd be kind of ridiculous if Volcanovsky doesn't get it right back.

So in your eyes, let's just say Volkinovsky wins. What are the chances he gets what he wants with this win on Saturday? Or do you think he has to fight another one? I do think that he definitely has to fight another one. I think that especially with a win like a win like how he had on Saturday night, I don't think that is like the stamp in which like a guy that's now ranked what number four or number five should be fighting for the type. I mean, you have other guys that are, that are, you could argue, have a better argument to fight for the belt. I just don't, I just don't think that really makes sense.

I mean, you could, Emmett squeezed out a decision over, over Calvin, and the guy that's now fighting Volcanovsky blew Calvin out of the water. It's just, it's just, it's just really hard. I think that Emmett, I think that Emmett's a beast. He's a savage, but I think that there should be one more fight between now and him getting the title shot. Jed, Emmett's in an interesting situation where you can book him in a number of ways, and you're not really wrong either way, because you got this title fight. If you want to give him the title fight, you can. We got Year Rodriguez fighting Brian Ortega on July 16th.

Winner that fight could have a say in this discussion as well. So if Volk wins, will Josh Emmett be next, or will he have to be the biggest Brian Ortega fan on Earth? Oh, I don't, he's just not next. I don't think the outcome of Ortega Rodriguez matters. I mean, if Rodriguez wins, then for absolute 100% certainly he is not next. But I think if Volk beats Holloway, he is going to push really, really strongly for a lightweight title fight and kind of feels like they're going to give him one. Again, we've talked about this before.

I'm not a huge fan of that, honestly, just because I think there are a lot of, I would like to say Alexander Volcanovsky fight people that aren't max. Holloway because he just keeps beating Max Holloway, which is a tremendous win. But he has in no way cleaned out Featherweight. He's beaten Max a bunch. He beat Korean Zombie, who in the UFC still has a pretty high ranking. But like, let's just be honest about what that is. That's a holdover, not probably indicative of where the talent actually lies in the division. And the Ortega win, which was a tremendous fight.

I don't know. I just like to see him fight. There are a whole bunch of up-encumbers at Featherway. I want to see him fight. So I don't really want him to go up to lightweight for that, but I think that that's how it feels like it's going. And conversely, if Holloway wins, and they're running that back,

so then Image is just going to have to fight again. And I think his two choices are either fights the winner of Ortega Rodriguez, if Ortega wins, because again, if Rodriguez wins, he's getting a title fight, he does not need to put that on the line. So if Ortega wins, he fights the winner, he fights Brian Ortega. And if Ortega loses, this is the one that he won't be that interested in, but I think it's, he should just fight Arnold Allen

for a title shot. Like, that's just how Arnold Allen has won, like 10 in a row or something dumb. Like, that's just it. Like, those two dudes in a title eliminator, you put them together, go. And it seems pretty straightforward and easy for me. Last thing on this card, Jed,

a lot of great performances, a lot of finishes, breakout moments. You saw all of those moments, because you didn't get a chance to watch the main event. And I would say the answer to this question, is not Josh Emmett or Calvin Cater. Who was the MVP of UFC Austin in your eyes, Jed Bishu?

I mean, I think it just it has to be Kevin Holland, right? Like he, Kevin Holland, a lot of people turned in dominant awesome performances. Kevin Holland did it over probably the best guy of them, like of the opposition that was

felled and really established himself as like a legitimate threat at Walter Waite. And I don't think any, for as good some of these other wins were, you know, I don't think Phil Hawes is not like, oh, that dude is legitimately like a real title threat at middleweight. It's like, that, that dude's a good middleweight and he just beat the bricks off Dron Wynn. But Kevin Holland is now, he is now a going concern for the top, you know, the top 10 at Welterweight. And I don't think anybody else did anything comparatively big. Randy, what say you? Do you agree with the Kevin Holland picked or does somebody

else stand out to you? Perhaps maybe a former opponent of yours. Yeah, I do. I don't, I do think that Adrian, I think, had like the biggest performance. I think Kevin Holland had a huge performance, but with everything that was going on between Adrian and Tony and like, you know, whether you're agreeing on all the derogatory statements that Tony said and, you know, just a bunch of shit lining up. And Adrian, I think it's his first fight in front of a crowd. You know, now he's in the top 15. He's got a big win at home.

He's on like a five-fight win streak and just knocking down. dudes hell i mean myself included uh i don't know man i just think that that was that was a really big showing for him and i think that like what it sets up going forward i think is is bigger than what kind of um maybe what kevin holland might have going forward i mean i'm the tevin holland obviously has title contention this that the other thing but i think that adrian kind of put him in himself in a position to maybe get like the fight with o'malley which is which could be a huge fight. I think Adrian grew his stock like 10-fold after that performance fighting in front of a crowd on ESPN and at home. I don't know. I just think that Adrian probably had the best

performance that night. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to choose from. I was very high on Joaquin Buckley's performance. That was a, I mean, he showed me a lot in that one. Natalia Silva, what a debut for her. She, I mean, talk about stock rising. She was fantastic, but both tremendous answers both have compelling cases for the MVP of the card and both have compelling cases both of you guys anyways to win this first point so the point for out one goes to you're right jed randy costa gets the point it's really tough when the topic of conversation is something i haven't seen but you try that's all me that is you gave me the categories and i just did not watch it today me this morning. I still haven't watched that fight and

you still haven't. And that's okay. That's okay. Go back and watch it at other time. That's right. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet.

Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada Nice travels Wi-Fi available to AeroPline members on equipped flights

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That's right, but something I'm sure you are familiar with, Jed. Dana White and Nate Diaz are back at it again, guys. They're back at it because earlier this week, Diaz takes to social media, politely asks the UFC, hey, book me to fight in July or August, or just release me because I have bigger things to do, I have bigger fish to fry, and he shows the clip of Jake Paul knocking out Tired Woodley in Tampa. And then later on, Dana does an interview with Oscar Willis of the Mac Life, gives his response. And I'm just sort of spitballing here.

Look, this isn't Kamar Usin we're talking about here. Diaz only has one win in the last five or six years. Maybe he should go fight Jake Paul. That fight makes sense. And Nate responds with, okay, send me the release. And on and on we go. So Randy Costa, what do you make of this whole thing between Dana and Nate Diaz? And if Dana really feels that Nate Diaz should go to Paul,

why doesn't he just go box Jake Paul? Man, it's such a slippery slope because, I mean, how many guys have lost, or five or the last six, or whatever that number is, and still been like a huge draw? I mean, what, BJ Penn, maybe? But, I mean, I would argue that Diaz is probably a bigger draw than BJ Penn. But it's tough, man. It's such a slippery slope.

I think there's still huge fights for Nate. I think there's, like, even put him on a pay-per-view, I think there's still a lot of potential, a lot of things to do with Nate still. And I think he only has, what, one fight left on his contract. I think there are a lot of fun fights to be made. I think him and Connor makes sense.

I think, dude, I would even say that him and Robbie Lawler makes sense at this point. I think there are still fun fights for Nate. But I think we can all be realistic by saying he's probably not going to go first. title run and just having one fight left, why not use them and get the exciting fight and get the draw and get the numbers? Because, dude, like I said, there are a lot of fun fights with Nate. And I might be going, I'm a Nate Diaz fan, a thousand percent, but I'm not sure if

Jake Paul Boxing match is the move. I mean, I don't know, man. I think that I understand Diaz's argument and I understand Dana's argument, but I think that there's still so much money to be made for both of them off of each other and setting up like this big mega fight, you know, with, with Connor coming back supposed to be this year, or even Robbie Lawler, who'd just beat his brother. I think there's still like a storyline. I think there's still opportunity to kind of like to milk it and get like a fun fight out of of Nate.

Man, I don't know. It's such a slippery slope. He's such a unique guy. But I guess that's why we love him. Jed, this probably won't be the last time we talk about this particular subject on this show. I'm sure we've talked about it multiple times because these guys just keep going around. and round in a circle.

But it's very rare that Dana actually reacts and he takes a stance and then he goes out and just says, yeah, maybe he should fight Jake Paul instead of just saying, we'll figure it out. He's in the mix. We'll work something out. Nate's hard to deal with, but we'll figure it out. How are you viewing this latest round with Dana actually kind of taking a side here and trying to push the chips in the middle on that side? I think Dana is saying, yeah, you should go box Jake Paul while he's still under

contract with us so we get a piece of that because that's the point that's where all this is about everyone knows it it's so transparently stupid and it's like it shouldn't bother me that Dana white like lies because he's done it so often that like it should you should just be acclimated to it but I'm not and like in the in the quote he even leads like I'm not trying to shit on anybody but Nate sucks to paraphrase the end of it like like but Nate's won one in five and blah blah cool his record has no bearing on him being a star. He is not his brother.

He is not saying, I want to fight Kamala Usman. He is literally saying, I will fight any human being to be out of this contract. Because he wants to be out of this contract so he can go box Jake Paul and get a boatload of money that he doesn't have to give the lion's share to the UFC. And Randy's right. The Connor thing is a great fight. And Nate knows that. And he and Connor want to do it outside the purview of the UFC where they make all the money.

of the UFC making the bulk of the money. And like that's literally the whole point because any rational human being would have just been like, all right, Nate clearly doesn't want to work for us anymore. And it's really shitty of us as people to hold, like lock him into this contract just because we have the ability to do so.

And we're just going to offer him Hamzaa Chamaev over and over and over again. So he can get potentially injured and go out in the worst possible way. When instead, the way to make money and the way to treat him like a real person and like a real business as opposed to a predatory promotional organization is just do the freaking Nate Diaz, Dustin Porre fight.

Both men won it. The fans want it. It's been talked about for well over a year. Just do it. And Nate gets to leave. And that's fine because it's okay for you to not get everything in the world. The UFC is making a billion dollars a year. they don't need Nate Conner 3 under the promotion.

It is not going to bankrupt them or hurt them in any capacity. This is just a digging the heels in moment and because they can. They have the power. And Tommy Shelby, why? Because we can. And if we can, we do. And that is what Dana White is doing. And it's super frustrating mainly because I'm just tired of this.

I want this story to be over. Because I agree with Randy. I don't think it's the greatest idea for Nate to go fight. Jake Paul. He should because it's a big bag of money, but I'm not confident that that goes well for him, and then there just aren't that many options afterwards. But if all he wants to do is box Jake Paul

and then fight Connor under their own promotional banner and make $10 million and then be done with fight sport, that's fine. I'd like to get there so we can stop having this conversation, the same way that I don't want to have any more freaking conversations about open scoring or any of the other like repetitive stupid things. where the answer is very obvious.

Like, let's just get to point B. It's not that friggin hard. It's a great rant. In the end, as we all know, I know, I listen. And I guess, like, if you want to play devil's advocate, maybe Dana won't go for the co-promotion because what if he does co-promote this fight against Jake Paul and he's with Nate the whole time and then Jake beats him?

That's not a good look for him. But at the same token, either way, everyone will not come out of this satisfied. The UFC will come out satisfied, like you said, Jed, because from a business perspective, they're coming out golden no matter what, hashtag all the money. Making a billion dollars a year.

Yeah, it doesn't matter. Literally a billion dollars. They're making money hand over fist. It's crazy. They don't need Nate. And they could be even more petty and just keep them sideline for as long as they want, you know,

as long as you, like you said, they offer him a fight from time to time. So I'm curious, Jed, we want to get to point. be we want this all to play out we don't want to talk about this anymore but will we be talking about this a year from right now jed what is nate dyes's combat sports professional life going to look like is he still going to be without fight sitting on the ufc roster will he have had his

fight and is fighting elsewhere is he still in the ufc is he not in the ufc what is he doing a year from now i would like to speak directly to nate dyes so if anyone watching this can clip it and tag him or whatever. I've said this many times before, but Nate, I'm reaching out to you directly in this capacity. There's a really simple outcome here.

They are physically going to have to offer you a fight. Whoever it is, just say yes. It simply does not matter. Just say yes. You say yes, and you accept the fight, and you go to the fight, and as soon as the fight starts,

have Nick throw the towel in. You will have done nothing wrong by definition because you're corner through the towel in, the fight will be over, and you will have satisfied your contractual obligation to the UFC. At which point, you can go do whatever the hell you want. And that's the outcome that should happen.

If the UFC isn't going, they're not going to give you a release. You can quit tweeting about it. Just say yes to the fight and move on with your life. You will be happier. I will be damn sure happier. And mostly the world will be happier. And you can finally go box Jake Paul. And then you guys can both during your promotion,

you and Jake can talk about Dana's sucking ass. And that's fine. Just do that. I am begging you, accept any fight that comes your way, immediately throw in the towel and move on with your life. So is that your answer? He's going to just do that. That's it. That's it. Okay. Okay. All right. Randy, what do you think? A year from now, where is Nate Diaz from a combat sports perspective? I'm not sure if we'll see Nate competing in MMA after he satisfied.

as a UFC contract. I do think that they'll be boxing for him. I would even go as far as saying there'll probably be Jiu-Jitsu Coms for him. Because, I mean, he's a draw. I mean, you want to watch him compete. I'm hoping that we do see, and I do think that we will. I think that we're going to see Connor Nate 3. I think that makes sense.

I think all the timing makes sense. You would assume that Connor would want like a tune-up fight. And stylistically, this is probably like the safest fight for Connor in regards to his shin. right not like safest fight mean he's going to win the fight I mean safest fight in regard to his shin he's not gonna get his legs kicked out Nate doesn't check kicks

yeah man I don't know it's weird I think that Nate is going to satisfy that contractual requirement with the UFC by this time next year for sure but after I mean you have to assume that Jake Paul is going to be calling his name and that that's just that's a huge draw

I think that makes the most sense or makes sense in terms of like pay-per-view and money and finances and things like that. Not sure if it makes sense from like an athletic standpoint, but other standpoints for sure. Yeah, man, I do think, and I have a feeling that we're going to see Connor Nate 3, and then I think that Nate's just going to sail off until he gets like another big opportunity

with a promotion elsewhere, where it's going to be like a one fight gig, and he's going to get a boltload of money for it. Jed, if this is the way that it goes, we're going to be talking about this a lot on the show because that's going to be, he's going to be waiting a while for that Connor fight. if that, I mean, it seems like that's what the UFC wants. They're just going to ice them until this might happen. But I mean, February or March, I mean, it could be that long. That's, I mean, that's just a long ass time.

But we'll see what happens. It's obviously what the UFC wants. It's just very stupid. Like, they just really want that. And I understand why they want it. I also think that they could just look at their bank account and be like, this doesn't matter. We truly don't care.

Our pay-per-view sales literally don't matter because we get. a flat rate from ESPN. So like, what do we care? Because they've made that choice for everything else. That's where we get 800 freaking contender series talents filling out every card now, flooding the market with 10K fighters and letting like decent people go. But they're not doing it here.

And it feels really personal. And it mostly just feels real dumb. Well, what isn't dumb is the main event of this Saturday's UFC card. But I'm excited to. talk about it. Point for round two goes to. I mean, when you actually talk directly to the ban, you got to get the point. Jedd DeShue. It's one to one. I hope he sees it and I hope he does it and I'll retire from MMA if that's the case. How dare you? How dare you? Wow. We can't do that. We can't, we can't go that long. We can't go forever without the fiery hot takes if this happens. And that would be

just a tremendous thing that happened. My career would have peaked. Why would I need to come back? I mean, I didn't think it could peak more than the Giuliana Pena prediction over Amanda Nunes, but this would certainly do it, especially if Nate gets on the mic and thanks you personally. So let's go to UFC Vegas 57, because we have a lot going on this weekend. The main event, Armand Sarukian versus Batush Gamrott. Great fight.

The hardcores love it. And what I enjoy about this one so much, Jedmishu, is that the non-hardcores, the other folks, the casuals, maybe some of the old school folk, they're at least, they're not poo-pooing this like a top, like bottom half of the top 15 heavyweight main event. They're at least asking questions and wondering why hardcore fans love this fight so much. They're at least putting in an effort to try to understand why people like this fight so much.

How would you rate this main event? Because star-studded wise, it's not, listen, it's not the biggest drawing main event in UFC history, But I mean, skill for skill, prospect for prospect, where these guys could go ceiling for ceiling, this is outstanding. Where you rate this one? This is A plus. This is as good as mixed martial arts gets right here. I mean, I'm very high on both of these dudes. No one's as high on Arm on Sarukian as you are, Mike.

But I've said it. I think both of these, I think Syrucian, without a doubt, is going to challenge for a title if not outright win one. and if I had to pick, I would say he wins one over just challenges for one at this point. And I think Gamrot is a little older, so his window is a little bit, is actually much smaller in that regard, especially in the division, which is the best in the sport. But I think this dude has all the talent to compete for a belt as well and may well get there. for my money I mean, Sarukian is one of

if not the top prospects in the entire sport and Gamrot is maybe just because he's 31 you can't really call him a prospect even though he's still you know he's a new addition a relatively new addition

to the UFC I think these are two of the if you're if I'm giving you a list of fighters to watch for the next like three years these two dudes are for sure in the top 10 Serukian is, like I said, maybe number one.

And Gamrod's probably just outside the top five, like maybe like six or seven. This fight rules everything about it's great. I have legitimate questions about what it's going to look like. And the result is the winner of this, I will feel absolutely certain challenges for a UFC belt within the next two years. Randy, your thoughts on this main event. Armand Sirukian, Matush Gamrod, two of the best up-in-com. coming 155 pounders, not just in the UFC, but around the world. These guys are the real deal.

What do you think of this matchup? Yeah, I mean, so I agree with everything that Jed said. But there's just what's hard for me to, they're just not getting the respect that I think that they deserve as athletes. I mean, these dudes are both savages. And there's no, like, buzz behind this card. There's no, like, you're seeing some stuff on social, hyping up this car, but it's not that much.

And I think these dudes have, have, you know, the fighting styles and definitely the potential to put on an insane fight. And it's just, I don't know, man, I just don't think they're getting the respect that they deserve. I do think that Gamrod's going to win. I think both guys are savage. Armands is, he mauled Joel Averas in his last fight. But I just think Gamrod has a tougher line of experience, especially in the UFC.

Yeah, man, fun match. A real fun matchup. Just not getting the respect that it deserves, unfortunately. I think that it's this, this fight could have been hidden on like a pay-per-view opener or like, you know, feature about or something like that. And I just think with having a headline and spot on a fight night that's at the apex, I just, I just think it's not getting, it's not getting nearly as much respect as, as, as they deserve. Wow. Armand Sarukyon fighting Islam Makachev. Come on now.

Strike the schedule. Randy Costa? I mean, that's a single fight, right? And I think that that's true, a thousand percent, right? But I think that gaming Gamrod just beat Diego He Faheda. He fought Jeremy Stevens.

He went to a split decision with that Guam Kulose. I just think that the strength of schedule overall favors Gamron. Overall, I'm not saying that Armand had an easy-ass road in the UFC. I'm just saying overall, in whole, I think Gamon has had a tougher line of competition. you hear that arm on clip this off he's tag arm on i'm just kidding he certainly had a he certainly had a tough line of competition outside the occ i mean dude fought the ks w forever and like he's certainly the more accomplished fighter of the two yeah i got i got a follow up and challenge at some point on this program it's been too

freaking friendly here for two rounds but randy jed said winner this fight in the next two years they're fighting for the belt it's he he would put his money down, winner of this fight, fights for the belt. Do you agree with that? Are you willing to take it a step further, that the winner of this fight will be UFC champion in two years? Are we willing to go that far? I mean, that's bold because things, things, there's just so many outside variables.

Like who maybe someone's coming tomorrow, that's like the next biggest thing and he skyrockets like how year he did. That's a bold statement. But I do think it's fair to say that they're going to be, I mean, fighting for the belt or fight for contention for the belt or something like that within the next two years. I think that that's kind of a given. I would even go as far as saying, I think if the winner gets out of this fight and it's like a pretty spectacular performance that, you know, maybe by this time next year, they're in like a contention type spot. Yeah, I don't know about winning the bell.

I think that that's so bold and things are ever changing, but I think that top five, top three, title contention, a thousand percent. I think that's a given for both guys, probably. Jed, as you, I mean, you were on vacation, you just returned. And heck of a morning has been on three days in a row. And a lot of talk about this fight and a lot of talk about this card. But there are some folks who feel that despite this made event being so good, that Sarukyan as a prospect, Gamrod, I agree with you, 31. It's teetering on the line of prospect and veteran.

But prospect from like a UFC sentence, if you want to call them a prospect, I can argue with you. but there are people asking, are these two guys even the best prospects on the entire car, Jed? Because in the Coal Main event, we have Shafcott Rachmanoff, who has just been mowing people down, and now he gets this opportunity to fight

a really tough fight in the Welterweight division where the risk is high, the reward will answer questions, but it's not super duper high beating Neil Maggie. It's great, it'll answer questions, but you know, I can get, like just bolstered in such a massive way if you beat nail magni so your questions about shafcott neil magni does this co-main event provide you with more questions to be answered than

the main event does uh no but i will first i'll say i find it it's not wrong but it is very interesting that uh when you started that talking about potentially a better prospects on this card he went to Shavkat and didn't mention Umar Nomahomadov who is actually I would say arguably a better prospect than like he's he's certainly in that conversation I think he's definitely a better prospect than Shavkot for being honest

um so this there's a lot of a lot of budding talent here uh as far as the co-made event fight rules it's a really good fight I'm really excited about it uh it's not as good as the main event if I had to pick which of these two fights I would prefer B5 rounds. It's absolutely for certain the main event. So I'm glad that we got that as a main event for that. Magni is, this is a really good fight to test things like because at the time, and one, Shavkat has been getting comparisons to Hamzat, both because their names are fun

and because they have looked completely unstoppable and undefeated welterweight records. I think Shavcott's not as good as Hamzot, but frankly. But I think he's also very very good. But we talked about it at the time, like, Neil Magny would have been a really good fight for Hamzot to take it during his progression up because, and Magni wanted that fight, because Magni's really good at, you know, thriving in the underdog role, at just winning fights he don't expect him to. He is always in shape. He has always games. He's a tough out for anybody. And so I like this fight from that perspective, because I think we are going to learn some stuff about Shavka here. And frankly, I have questions. I have more questions about Shavkat than I did

about Hamzot, and some of them are going to be answered here. Now, if Shafka comes out and just tackles Magnet to the ground and Keaises all over him, won't shock me at all. But we haven't seen him face as much opposition as Neil Magny is going to put up against him, and Neil Magny's going to continue to press a pace. He is going to stuff takedowns and kind of use that long, lengthy range of his. And I think it's a really good fight. I'm really interested in it, but just not as much as the main event who has a dude. Like if Islam Makhachev didn't exist, I would say that Armand Syrucian is going to be a champion.

Like I would be very confident in that. But the problem is, if Armand gets a title fight in the next two years, he's going to have to beat Islam. And he already didn't do that. And granted, things have changed dramatically. But I also just think I still favor Islam in that rematch based on how Armand fights.

So, like, that's the big issue. We're talking about a guy who's championship caliber. and maybe Shavkot's that, but I'm not nearly as sure about it as I am with the main event. So I'm still favoring the main event. What do you think about that, Randy? Shafcott versus Neil Magni, obviously a big fight. And then, you know, a big prospect in your division is Jed Bench and Umar and Maga Madoff getting ready to fight in eight mainas.

So of those two fights outside of the main event, which one from a just an analyst perspective from a fan's perspective, which one are you more interested in is? I mean, take the weight classes out of it because obviously you'll be more focused on 135 because you could in the future fight both of these guys. So, but just as a fan sitting back, not thinking about anything, just fight for fight. Which one do you, are you, do you have more questions about which one are you more interested in? Definitely the shock vod fight, man.

I think that, I think that Neil is the perfect opponent at the right time to see what shock vats about. I mean, Neil Magny is, he's like, as game as they come, super long, good everywhere, not great necessarily anywhere. but just tough to deal with. Like Jed said, always in shape. He's going to be there for the full 15 minutes. Should it go over the full 15 minutes?

And I just think there's a lot of questions about shock fight. And I think that Neil Magni is the perfect person to kind of present those questions so that shockfire can answer them. Can shock fought last like that tough, brewing, dirty pace that Neil Magny has? Who knows? We're going to see that on Saturday night. I think with the Umar fight, I mean, everybody knows the number of, bringing him of last name. I think that Umar,

um, um, is obviously a savage. Um, but I just think there's less name value with Nate Maness. So there's not as much buzz behind that fight, which fair. Um,

and with the, the shock fought fight, I mean, Neil Magny's been around for, forever. He's, he's been in the picture forever. I mean,

he's, he was never like one of those guys were like, all right, this guy's probably going to be the chance, but champ, but he was always that guy like, all right, this dude's going to be a problem.

He's, he's not an easy fight for anybody. Um, he's, going to he can contest with anybody i think that we're going to have like a very interesting stylistic matchup and i'm interested to see how the fight goes after like you know the halfway point of the fight with shock fight because like i said there are a lot of questions with shock fight and how much you know what what his ceiling is and like jed said i don't think there's any comparison

between you know commsat and shock by besides their their their their their names that they you know the fun to pronounce um but i think comes out is i don't i don't think that shock vats just like that next like oh shit this is the dude um but this fight right here's year, I guess is the perfect one to kind of, you know, put my judgment to test. I think it's a great fight, a very exciting fight. But I think Shock Vat is probably the more exciting fight over the Ousman fight, or Omar fight. Yeah, and I see people in the chat kind of poo-pooing this card.

Listen, it's sandwich, it's just a tough spot to be. This card's good. Yeah, it's, it's, it's very solid. You're following UFC 275 and UFC Austin in the emotional, roller coaster those two events put us on especially 275. And leading into 276. Like this is this is supposed to be a dog shit card. Like this is in that exact window of like here are good things and another incredibly important thing is happening. This is the card where they dump the crap on you. It's like yeah, we just got to give some people fights here's Garbo. A lot of the fights in this card are really fond.

Yeah. This is where AK's gymnastics scale is going to be met, maybe even exceeded. Just look at the of spy themselves. Maybe you don't know them. I do have an issue. Uh-oh. I have one major issue. We talked about it on No Betts Barred, my podcast with Conigers. I think I know you're going with this, but I may have the same issue.

What in the bloody hell is Josh Parisian versus Alon Bodeau doing on this front card? My issue, outside of that, just being a bad fight between bad fighters, which probably isn't UFC caliber and certainly shouldn't be on the main card of any event the UFC puts on, my primary issue with it is, Bado's French. and Parisian's name is Parisian. Put this in UFC Paris, you absolute goons. Joe Silver would have never made this mistake. Sean Shelby, do better, man. Do better.

Wow. I thought you were going to say because this is a late starter. It starts at 7 p.m. Eastern for the prelims, and then we have a 10 p.m. main card with, I believe it's a six-fight main card. Six-fight main card. I'm used to that. I'm not used to them missing a golden opportunity to have a French dude fight, a guy named Parisian in Paris.

That's incredibly stupid to me that that is a thing that's happening in Vegas at a freaking apex event. Maybe we'll get some Ancolaev Iwan Kuchelaba weirdness, and it's like a no contest or a draw, and then we get to do the re-knobar. Honestly, I don't even care. Just book it again. I don't care of the outcome. Just do it again at UFC Paris.

You're missing a golden opportunity. Oh, bad. All right. Let's move on to round four. I'm telling you, this Vegas 57 card has got to be fun to watch. But the point for round three goes to, I mean, Randy was looking real good,

and then two things happened. Jed to the end, and then Tui turned Michael Kiesz into a verb. So he gets the point. It's two to loss. Kia said all over him. That's like, that's a thing that could happen. So,

Let's go to round four. We're continuing sort of on this, on this UFC Vegas 57 trek because it's one of the options, because we have just a plethora of options for events to watch. There's three of them tomorrow. We got, of course, UFC Vegas 57 on Friday, but tomorrow we have the PFL,

who is going to be in Jed's backyard of Atlanta GA. We have Bellator 282 emanating from the scenic, iconic Uncassville, Connecticut, Mohegan Sun Arena. And then at another casino, thousands of miles away, in lavish Hollywood, Florida, Arnuckle Fighting Championship is back with BKFC 26.

I mean, just iconic venues, iconic cities for all of these cards. Jed will begin with you. There's also a cage warriors in Belfast. There's a cage war in Belfast. So that's happening. But we're focusing on these four cards. Jed, if you can only watch one of these bad boys, what are you watching?

Well, I don't know what the BKFC card is because I largely don't keep up with that organization because I don't also spend my time in retirement homes. So I have no idea what that card is. So that won't be it. The correct answer is the UFC if for no other reason and that may have. event, co-main event are incredibly relevant,

awesome fights, but, oh, what the hell? I'm going to it. I will be on site, because as you said, it's in my backyard,

in the A, in what I'm not kidding, I haven't been to, but I think is actually just like a middle school gymnasium because I've literally, lived in Atlanta decade, and when they,

when they send out the like, here's where this is happening, I was like, I've never heard of this place. And it's not like in the burbs somewhere, and so that's why I haven't, It is in downtown Atlanta, and I've never heard of the place that they put him this on.

So I think it might just be like a gym, but I'm excited to find out about it. I'm excited to sit next to the much lauded smart cage in my organization, the PFL. And honestly, as far as PFL offerings go, it's pretty good card. It's probably not as good as their one next week. but um and i'm unclear why bruno capyloza is in the main event as opposed to anthony peddiss and stevie ray which are is like a much more obvious main event to do but they want to give bruno the shine you know heavyweight heavyweight champ or whatever um but the rest of the card's pretty decent you know chris wade calbockniacs good fight um it's opening with brendan

which is very strange. I know some weirdness happened with them this week where they like shuffled a bunch of fights randomly and some dropped off. Like, I don't really know what that was all about, but the end result is still a pretty decent card. And since I'm going to be caged side for it, next to the smart cage,

I will say that that is my top event for this weekend. Okay. All right. Maybe you can ask Don Davis about transparency and, I mean, they just came out, made the statement that Clay Collard won

the last fight. In the interest of transparency, we feel Clay Collard won. And that's it. Like, what are you going to do about it? That's how I would run an organization too. I thought for sure, I thought for sure with the way he left that tweet, the dot, dot, dot. And he's going to be like,

therefore, we have we're anointing Clay Collard as the playoff participant and his other dude Martinez is Gonzo. And that would have been just the funniest thing ever. They really should just do instead of even doing playout, like,

all right, so they have the season and you fight to be in the, whatever, and then just one spot's just, they pick. They just have an at-large bid that they get to determine.

It's like, yeah, our at-large participant, I don't know, we think Clay won, so we're just going to let Clay fight it out. Who cares? Make up the rules you go.

You're making up stats about punch speed. Make up the rules to your own stupid events. Anyway, it gives me. So many questions. So many questions.

Randy, what are you watching? I mean, listen, you can watch UFC events all the time. Does maybe Bellator, maybe PFL at the middle school gym, apparently, maybe BKFC, maybe that. I don't think that's that far from you of memory surgery correctly. So what are we thinking here? Well, I'm going to the bare-knuckle event. Everybody loves the circus. I want to be at the circus.

There's actually, like, fun fights. I mean, Jimmy Rivera is fighting. I mean, he was a huge player in the Bannamweight Division in the UFC. That'll be a fun fight to watch. Beck Rollins's fight also UFC, UFC vet. There are a couple good fights on it. I mean, it's just

you go there for the circus. It's just fucking wild. And I'm here for it. The PFL card, though, that's a good one. I'm really interested in the in the Bellator card, however. I just think it's, that whole tournament format is just super, super interesting.

You know, Brendan Ward's fighting. Gengar Mousasi's fighting. and I'm very friendly with the Italian gangster Danny Sabatoa. I like him a lot. I love his character. I think it's fucking awesome. I think it's hilarious. I think that the sport needs it.

I think it's him being in the Grand Prix is awesome and it's great for Bellator. Of, I mean, Saturday night is the UFC's card, but everything else is tomorrow night, I believe. Of the two cards tomorrow night, I'm probably more interested in the Bellator one. However, I'm really excited to watch Petis fight as I'm excited to watch Brenna Ler's fight as I'm excited to watch Brennan. off main fight. I think both those guys are super exciting. Um, bear, bare knuckle is bare knuckle. I mean, it's just, it's fucking madness. Everyone, you know, it's, you don't really know what's going on. You're just something's going on. You're going to watch it because everybody's all fucked up. I don't know, man. It's a good weekend of fights of the two tomorrow night, though,

like I said, probably Bell at throw, but I'm, I'm definitely most excited for the UFC event. If I could pick one of these four cards to cover right now, it would be BKFC and it wouldn't even be close. Like, it wouldn't be a discussion. I don't. I don't. It would be a discussion. I I would take the flight out. Oh, dude, I covered the one in July when Page fought. Who did she fight? How do I not know this? Was it Britain?

Richard Ostevic? No. Ostevic. Jeez, Louise. How the hell did I forget that? Yeah. That was by far the most fun I've ever had covering a fight card in my whole life. It was exactly how you described it.

It was so much fun. It was ridiculous. It's just fucking madness. Like, no one really is sure what's going on. It's just going on. It's just fucking insane. So Randy wax poetically, Jed, I'll turn it over to you. I'm sure you were a little upset that he mentioned this name, but I'll just throw it out so you get the chance to say this name.

Of these three cards tomorrow, what's the fight you got circled over anything else? What's the one you're most excited to hear about, watch, find out the results to? Which one of these three cards tomorrow? Which fight are you most paying attention to? And why is it Danny Sabatelo versus the Androigo? It's not. The best fight of the weekend by far is Suruki and Gamrod, and I know that's boring. Here's the dividing line.

I want to watch that fight. I don't give two tugs of a dead dog's tail about the post of it. I don't need to hear there whoever wins on the mic, but I desperately need to hear what Danny Sabatelos says after he cases all over Leonjillo. So if I can just get that as a mashup of, because I know how that fight's going to go. That's fine. to watch that fight. I know the outcome of that fight. I just want to see D. Sabs on the mic, and I just want to see Suruky and Gamrot in the cage. Those are the two things I need this weekend outside of, you know, sitting next to the vaunted smart cage. All right. The point for round

four. Let's get it ready. By the way, you know where this is going because you guys actually vote for the winner, but it was going to happen this way anyways. Point for round four goes to It goes to Randy Costa because he answered the damn question. Jed's jumped to Saturday. I asked about Friday. It's two to two. But it's okay.

It's all right. Jed's focused on the smart cage. What questions is going to ask the smart cage at the post-fight press conference. I mean, lots of things distracting. I have so many questions for the smart cage. All right. So you know what that means, everybody.

It means you're going to the knockout round. And I didn't even have a question in mind, but I'm honest because there's a big announcement. go with that question. Both will get it. One minute on the clock for each of them. They will both give their thoughts, give their response.

Once that is done, we'll turn it over to you. You'll go to the poll on this here YouTube page. You will vote for who you think won. And then we'll bring on the Honorable Judge E. Casey Liden to read off the decision. So, Jed, I think you've got the prerogative here.

It's been a while since you've gotten a victory. But well, who did? I do. I think Randy has a prerogative. All right, we'll give Randy the prerogative. Randy, Price is Right Rules. It's like you're in the showcase showdown. Do you want to take on the showcase first or do you want to pass it on over to Jed?

I'm going to go second. Okay. Jed Bishu, I think you probably know where this question is going because you mentioned his name earlier in the program. And now the man has a fight. It's not against Nate Diaz. Jake Paul is fighting Tommy Fury. August 6th, Madison Square Garden. There's going to be a press conference on Wednesday in New York,

which will be hosted by our good buddy, M.A. Fighting Zone, host of the M.A. hour, Mr. Ariel Hawani, right before the M.MA hour. This is the fight. This is what we're going with. And after the Tyron Woodley feud is over, we're going back to the Tommy Fury well. This is a fight that you had mentioned many times in the program.

Now that you've seen the poster, now that it's happening and it's headlining at MSG, is this the right fight for one Jake Paul? And what is your early thoughts on the matchup inside the scored circle? One minute on the clock. Your time starts now. It's not the right fight. I don't know.

The truth is I don't know what the right fight is for him. The right fight for Jake Paul is Nate Diaz. That obviously cannot happen for X, Y, and Z reasons. I think Tommy Fury is a really good chance to beat him. Tommy Fury is not like some Boondricken boxer, but he's not a bad boxer. obviously comes from a lineage of exceptional boxers. And most importantly, he is an actual, he is a boxer. Like this is a thing that he has done that he does,

that he does with his family who, you know, world championship caliber training and levels here. So really, he is also physically the equal of Jake Paul, which has not been what Jake Paul has faced at this point. This is a huge, huge step up in competition for Jake Paul, frankly, and one that he may well lose. So, but the other option mostly thrown out was Anderson Silva. and I think Anderson Silva tools Jake Paul up.

So that's like a bad fight for him. So I don't know what the right fight was. This one at least has a little bit of smoke. If Jake Paul wins, it's a huge win. So that's kind of what he's hoping for, but he might be in trouble. Okay, I'm back. I'm sure it was a riveting answer, Jed.

I'm sure it was the greatest answer in the history of the show. Unfortunately, as it seems every day in this house, something friggin' stupid happens where either the power goes out, there's a friggin storm or something happens with the Wi-Fi. And guess what? I missed half the answer. Good thing I don't pick the winner of this round. The peeps do.

Welcome to the low country, bud. I know, right? Jesus Christ. Randy, we go to you, my man. Jake Paul, getting back inside the squared circle, not fighting Nate Diaz. He's fighting Tommy Fury. He's fighting Tommy Fury. We're going back to this well.

We saw it happen the first time. Tommy didn't make it. Tyron Woodley came back in. They're going back to the well. Is this the right fight? How do you see it playing out early? By the way, opening betting odds, it's a pick of minus 1.15 on each side. One minute on the clock, Randy.

Your time starts now. So, yeah, man, I think it definitely is the right fight for this time. I mean, the fight is just in, what, two months, eight weeks, nine weeks, something like that. Jake Paul's promotion, but I think that what's kind of overshadowing is that they have a man of Serrano also co-headlining. I think that's a very interesting thing, and I feel like that's why everything was kind of scrambled to put this fight together. I'm not sure at this point if the Tommy Fury fight makes sense, aside from everything that's like, you know, they have a little bit of history together, the Fury name, this, that, the other thing. I would have much rather like to see Jake Paul and Anderson Silva, as I'm sure a lot of other MMA fans would,

But we'll take the Jake Paul versus Tommy for a fight. It's a very interesting fight. It's the first, like, straight boxer that he's fighting. Interesting matchup. I think that it's thrown together at this time just so they can meet that date. So Amanda Serano can headline, and I think that's a very fair thing to do. Yeah. All right.

So that is happening. Amanda Serrano is fighting Brenda Karabahal in the co-main event. So there you go. Big spot for Mandus Serrano back inside MSG. Jake Paul will be the one to close the show, but they're co-headliners and watch it. Oh, is that just tired, fatigue? Yeah. Yep.

Fatigue. Fair enough. Okay. Vote now as it says right there. We'll give you about a minute. We'll just plug away here while you guys do that. Tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern back with another episode of heck of a morning on the MMA fighting Twitter spaces,

free for all Friday. So we're going to talk about whatever the hell you want to talk about. Someone asked me of my favorite concert experience. earlier. So if you want to ask questions like that, whatever the hell you want to ask. I don't care. What was your favorite concert experience, Mike? Tom Petty was the correct answer. Tom Petty was the best one. That's a good one. Yeah. Ambiance was tremendous. She can't be matched. Are you still contract? I haven't been a really bad one. Yes. And I was talking, I told the story about a 75 year old lady just getting blasted and dancing her just having the best time ever. And I was just like,

man, when I'm 75, like, that's how I want to be living life. I saw a young Jeezy in concert right before Thug Motivation 101 became this, like, global phenomenon, and that freaking ruled. It was the best than I've ever been to my life. What the fuck? It was unbelievable. Back in the day, I was very into rap. I still love rap music, but like, I was into all sorts of rap.

And before Thub Motivation 101 came out, he came to Savannah. he put on a concert at Savannah State. It was a bunch of people who went to Savannah State and me and one of my buddies from high school. It was incredible. That's amazing. That is amazing. So, yeah, you could ask questions like that.

You can learn more about our musical tastes and concert-going experiences on heck of a morning. Jet is cool, man. We are asked. Thanks, Galactus. That is hilarious. Is that the guy you went to the concert with? It's got to be the guy who went to Savannah State.

No, best part of it's cool. about the concert. It was the first rap concert I've ever been to, and I don't know if this is true or not, but like, since there was nobody there, because Young Jesus wasn't really famous at the time, it was like right up front. And they just took out stacks of money and threw it into the crowd. This was not a strip club. This was in a collegiate gymnasium. And they just threw stacks of money into the crowd. It was unbelievable. Galactus has turned his back on you in a matter of a second. So, yes, so that's happening. preview show for UFC Vegas 57, 3 p.m. Eastern, tomorrow, live right here. And then Saturday,

People's Pre-Fight Show, as of Dow, 6.30 p.m. Eastern. Same channel. Post-fight show after the card. Same channel. And then AK and I are back on Sunday. We're on to the next one for matchmaking. And then I'm, my happy ass is on an airplane to Las Vegas on Tuesday for International Fight Week. And I am pumped for that. So, Casey, I look like I'm broadcasting live from a potato because of this friggin internet please for the love of the lord get me out of here who won a potato well um once again a fantastic competition between two stellar athletes but we do have a winner we do have to pick a winner i'm using stellar um very loosely it's very loose i wouldn't call myself an athlete you know all right um yeah we have a decision your winner

53% of the votes is Oh, close. Mr. Beautiful mustache, Randy Costa. How can you fight the... He knew it. He already had the... He knew it.

He knew it. The almost overhead bicep poses going on. So he gets to ride his giant unicycle. He gets to ride the giant unicycle into the winter circle for a 500-pound trophy that he can lug back to his condo on the beach in Florida. Congratulations, Randy Costa. what would you like to say about this victory?

You have 30 seconds talking about whatever he does you want to talk about. You want to plug a sponsor. You can say whatever the hell you want here. Go. Well, first of all, I told you that I'm going to be undefeated with this mustache, and it's started today. And the next time I'm going to compete with this thing is Okoba First against Gito Kennedy, and I'm going to win that fight, and you're going to see it.

You're going to hear it here first. I appreciate you guys to have me on. It was a blast. Yeah, dude, pump for some fights this weekend. Let's enjoy the show and watch all these crazy athletes go to work. There you go. Jed, how do you feel about the decision from the peeps, especially when you were getting so much love earlier?

I mean, how do you fight the mustache? It just is what it is. Thug Motivation 101 is still an absolute classic of an album, so Galactus, you're a hater, and I'm sorry about it. That's all I got. There you go. Jed having a tough time with people with facial hair, like really elegant facial hair,

Drake, Driggs, Randy Costa. It's just the facial hair seems to be kryptonite here for jett. Drake rigs is a cheater. I don't, I truly don't understand it. Because I worked Drake last time. And I still lost by a billion. Like it's, any objective person is like, yeah, Jed murdered Drake.

So I don't get it. I'm fine losing Randy. I have no issues with that decision. I do have issues with the Drake's decision last time out. Oh, Chris Lee all over the place. Before we go out, I got to just throw up a side by side real quick. Oh, geez. 10-7 Costa.

They're different style. The Tom Seleck mustache is not as good as the vaudeville. Villeen-villian-villian mustache. We're different errors of mustaches. That's all. We're in the same club. I'm just saying. There you go.

We go over the 80s, back to the early 80s. There you go. It's like looking at the collection of the 1986 Boston Red Sox right in front of the show. All right. I'm going to get out of here before my Wi-Fi. just completely craps out. Thank you very much for watching. For Jed Bichu, for Randy Costa,

for Casey Leiden on the ones and twos, I am Mike Keck. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you back here once again. Between the Links, don't know if we're going to do video, but Jed and I are going to do something because I'll be in Vegas

and probably just going to hit a recording go. So in the meantime, we'll see you then. See you back here next week. Between the Leaks. Good night, everybody. Love you guys. This has been Between the Links at an MMA Fighting Production

on the Voxy. Media Network. Wow. Esther, what are you doing? The real iconic voice. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.