MMA Fighting - BTL | Dana White's Massive Boxing News, Pereira vs. Ankalaev, UFC 313, More

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Dana White has officially entered the boxing world, announcing that a deal between UFC parent company TKO and Turki Alalshikh is done. What does this news mean for the boxing world moving forward? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew answer your questions about White and TKO's newest combat sports venture, discuss if it brings a different level of excitement to the sport, and other questions in play. Additionally, topics may include UFC 313, the main event championship fight between Alex Pereira and Magomed Ankalaev, the co-main event between Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev in a rematch, how the card stacks up as a whole, White saying he expects heavyweight champ Jon Jones back this summer, and much more. 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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. 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.

Of course, Esther Lynn, the goat voiceover person for our UFC timelines. I'm your silver medalist. Mike Hack, thank you for joining us on another Thursday. Happy Thursday to us all. We were on the eve of the eve of UFC 313, the eve of the eve of Alex Pereira, defending his title against Magam and Anka-Lyaf in the ultimate test at his 205 pound reign,

according to most people. The UFC, TKO, Dana White, getting into the boxing world. There's so much to discuss. And that's why we're turning the programming over to you guys as we will be answering your questions all show long. And joining me to answer those spicy questions. is the hot take kid himself, Mr. No Gray area, the greatest climber you will ever see in this MMA space,

the one and only, Jed Bishu from MMAFighting.com. And there he is. Hi, Jed. Hey, Mike, how's it going? It's going. Nice and windy. What are you, like 30 minutes from where I'm at right now in the car? Super is like 45.

But yeah, down at my folks place, came down a little early, spent a little more family time this week. weekend before we get to the funness of 313. And let's just get it out right here, right off the top, Mike. It's pretty important for us to set the tone for the watch party on Saturday. We're going to be going live earlier this week because the prelim main event, the fight everybody has been just on the edge of their seat for the Curtis Blades versus Rizvon Kunev, the Rizzler himself taking on razor blades.

That is our climb this week, Mike. stage 12 of the climb Curtis Blades gotta bring it home for us don't feel good about it and so we're gonna go live early so we can you guys can get my live reaction to

a thousand dollar bet damn wasn't the client what was the climb back 12 oh it was the main event it was strickling DDP is the over one and a half there and that felt good

almost from the very good I'm feeling uncomfortable a lot less comfortable with this one step 12 I mean every step from this point on will just be awful because it took 11 to get here but

that's the one I felt the best about which isn't saying which is a very interesting card this weekend which I assume we'll talk a lot about it's up to y'all you guys get to ask the questions but I don't know what else there is to talk about other than 313 though you guys can surprise us

hey we got boxing news we got lots of stuff I am very curious to see what our bets are going to look like side by side. I have a feeling I'm going to be on opposite side of the spectrum on a few of these fights. So we shall see. Remember, undefeated on main card bets at watch parties this year in 2025 so far. So let's see if we can keep the luck in continuing. Let's bring Casey in.

He will bring up your fantastic questions. And there he is. He's got sleeves and a hood on. Yeah. So excitement is in the low 60s out. Chili. Yeah, it's like in the low 60s out here. It's like crazy.

Like, ooh. Oh. Drizzling and stuff. Yeah. I'm so glad like coming down down to the low country, Mike. Like this past week, Atlanta has been gorgeous, right? Like maybe slightly chilly at the very earliest parts of the morning. And then it gets into the mid 60s.

woke up this morning. It was 30. And I was like, F this nonsense. Head in south. Yep. It was freaking cold this morning. Yeah, it's one of those things where you're just like, yeah, I probably don't need a jacket today.

And then I walked outside to go to the gym and I was like, can't go back in now because if I open that door, Shilohel's going to bark, wake up everybody. So I'm just stuck wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Stuff with my bad choices. Yep. And speaking of bad choices, Casey, bring up the first question. Just kidding.

We love you guys. You guys have asked great questions. Super chatter is front of the line, so we have Sleto. Sleto. Sledo, Jed, get Bing Island Luke on the payroll for No Bettsbard. I'm not saying it. I don't think you have to. Yeah, Long Island Luke from Morning Combat joined me this week for No Betts Bar.

He was also on for 312, and just, I like Luke, man, good dude. Certainly the superior of. of the morning combat loops, right? Like, there are a couple of luke's over there. One of them's better. I think we all know which one is the better one. And happy to have him on. He will almost certainly join again.

As long as he wants to keep coming on, I'm happy to have him. It's, you know, a question of he's got a lot of other things going. And I don't want to waste his time with cough, cough, next week's card. So, but we will definitely have him back. It was great on this week's. I don't remember if this was on air or off.

So if you already heard these comments, sorry. Not sorry. Glad you were tuning into all of my fighting's wonderful programming. Luke and I were talking was like, man, I heard you and Mike say something about Vegas 104 on your shows last week. And I didn't really look ahead and realize it. And just now I am. Wow, this is a really bad fight. It's like, yeah, man, it's tough scenes next week.

So enjoy this weekend, guys. because we got a week off functionally next week. We should just watch party next week's card just digitally and just make it as much fun as possible. Honestly, like that probably would be like the only way to really add value to that card. Just like throw a digital watch party up, get the chat going because otherwise, man, like, it's tough, tough hang. Are we? is there ever going to be a point where we see an apex event especially where it's just like a like a pfl europe i don't know how to describe it or just i mean like it's just a thing

it's not like an event anymore i don't think we're at that point yet next week is that that's we're testing it next week we i know hyperbole i genuinely believe next week's card is the worst card the UFC's put on paper in the modern era. Even the main event is a rematch that Marvin Vittori himself was like, I didn't realize I was signing up to rematch this dude. I thought I was fighting the other guy named Roman. Like it is, there's no redeeming qualities to it. Is that a better fight or is it the same if it was Coppel off?

It's better if it's at least new, but it's mostly just indicative of what it is when the fighter himself was like, I didn't even know what I was signing up for. Just filling out an obligation. Hey, listen, it's a historic event because this will be the first UFC Fight Night card that is no longer taking place of the world's most famous Apex, but is the first card taking place of the world's most mightiest Apex. Something to keep your eye on. I think we should change the wording of UFC Mighty Apex 1 and just go from there. Ooh, I like that a lot. We've got 103 at the most famous apex.

now we get to move into the mighty apex. I love it. The next generation. We just made the card so much better. Let's even retroactively do it. Like the first 100, that was the famous tenure. These next 100, they'll be the mighty tenure. And then in two years when we're on Apex 300, we can get a new branding for it.

I love this idea, Mike. This is elite stuff. Let's go. All right. Thank you, Slito. What else we got here? Super chat from Chase. Who does Alex call out if he gets a big stoppage?

I assume you're talking about Alex Pereira, not Alex Marono. Although Alex Barreau is fighting on this card against Carlos Liel. Maybe Marona's got something spicy to say on the microphone. But I assume we're talking Alex Pereira here, Jed Michoud. So look, if Pereira and his team called you up right now, Jed Michoud, consulting fighter consulting services because you are open for business you charge a good introductory rate and they said jed Alex goes out there and boops angola if he gets a microphone what would you advise him to say who's he calling out well first of all thank you for promoting

the jedd michaudet for consulting services uh very modest retainer right like and uh on speed you can get to me 24 7 with questions about your career development and like i said very modest retainer. I billable hours. I keep that rate pretty low. So get at me, guys. If I'm Alex Pereira's consultant in these matters, and I don't even think he needs it for me.

Like, right? Like, this is one of those when he calls me. I was like, Jen, what do I do after I knock out Ancolaev? I'll be like, hey, man, I'll tell you, but this is on the house because I don't even feel right, taking credit. We all know. Everybody knows. I'm not brainstorming great ideas for you here.

This is your final fight at 205. I know on Media Day, he basically threw out a couple of options, including Drickus Duplice, as a possible sort of super fight. But DDP, he's got things going on at middleweight right now. That's sort of backburner. If you're Pereira, you go out there, you get the win. You don't even have to specifically call anyone out. You don't call anybody out.

You call out Dana White, and you say, Dana, look at all I've done for this company. In the last 12 months, four main events, I am the guy, carrying the banner for UFC right now. I want my shot. I'm done at 205. I've beaten everybody. I beat all the contenders. I beat the guy that people said I couldn't beat

that you guys were hiding me from. Let me fight for the heavyweight belt. I don't care which of them, right? I don't care if it's John. I don't care if it's Tom. But let me fight for the heavyweight title next. People are into it. I think that this will be his final fight at light heavyweight,

at least for the foreseeable future. frankly win or lose but certainly if he wins he's going to fight Carlos Olberg who cares about him fighting Carlos Elbord he beats Ocalaev the talk the narrative needs to be I want to do what no one's done before

let me fight for a third title I think Jones is the callout that you just got to do it even if he doesn't get it even if he gets Tom like doesn't matter if John Jones is if Tom Aspinall is not fighting John Jones next then he's going to find out

I think Tom is the cooler call out, frankly. Like, I think the aura call out is to be like, hey, I'm hearing John Jones is too shook to to get that business from Tom. That's it. I ain't. Like, I'm not, because like that's one, that sets up the John fight because then John can clap back and be like, I'm the greatest part of ever.

I'm not scared of anyone despite me transparently trying not to fight Tom. And so like maybe that just puts him into that or it just sets up the Tom fight. Like either way, I think like if you're just going for like what's the coolest thing he could do, it's like, hey, Dana, I'll fight Tom. John is scared because if he wasn't, that fight would have been booked. I'll do it. International Fight Week. Let's go. I love it.

And just throw a like to quote the great rapper Bone Crusher, I ain't never scared. I never scared. I never scared. What? John. What it'd be so cool if he does win and then grabs the mic and he actually takes off his belt and lays his belt down and vacates the title right there and makes the chat. Because you have to vacate now. You have to vacate now. I know.

Or vacate. He should. I mean, like, he should because he just doesn't need to do it. But like, you don't have to vacate. Dana even said you don't have to vacate. Oh, so that's all the lie, that whole thing? Yeah, Dana was like if you think you're going to, like if you can do both, but like you don't. have to vacate.

It's like just one of those things. It happened because they wanted him pretty, to me, pretty obviously. Like, they transparently just wanted him to fight bulk. And he's like, I don't want to do that. So they're not going to let him not fight, like, do the fights that they want. So you'll have to vacate if you want to do that. But like, if you're Alex Pereira, you don't have to vacate. Because who do they need to put a title on it, 205 for them?

Did I, as to Perrier done, any media since he vacated? Yeah. I talked to somebody. I don't remember who it was. He did talk. Okay. No boys or like one of those things. I remember.

I think it was before though. I think that was before. Oh, maybe that maybe they. I don't remember. I don't. I feel like I would have seen something like to a party who talks about vacating the bill and I haven't seen. Interesting. Stay a mystery.

Stay a mystery. All right. Thank you. So Alex Marona is calling out John Jones. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Interesting. all right uh she would chat from if he doesn't if he doesn't go to if he doesn't call a heavyweight call out there's no call you don't call out a challenger if you stay at light heavyweight right you just go right on a

no no no no no no yeah okay if there was like a clear person but there's not like i go i've is the last dude like he is and there are always new challengers but like he's the guy who he's a guy now now we're Or now it's fresh matchups, the young guys or the newcomer. Yeah, it's like, Colos Ulberg beats Jan Belhovic. That probably is like the next generation. But like you don't call that out if you're the champ. You just accept the fight to defend your belt when that comes. You set yourself up for something better.

It's you call out Tom. Like that really is it. You call out Tom while taking a shot at John pointedly. And you get one of those two fights. Tom's a tougher fight. I like it. All right. Thank you very much.

going to super chat from Duda Duda. Does Poetan look weird odd on the UFC 313 fight poster? Also, Mike, movement predictions for 25.2. Does anyone, so I'll answer the second part in a minute, but Poetan does he look odd? Yeah, we get to see. This is like not the best shaping fun on this, but I don't know. It's a simple phone poster. Yeah, side profile image.

And I would say that the coloring is not like ideal, but nothing I would have noticed. I don't have any idea what the second part is, Mike. So every year for three weeks, at least now it's three weeks. It used to be longer. But CrossFit does CrossFit open workouts. It's basically like the qualifier for their, it's basically the NFL playoffs for those who want to do it. But those who don't want to actually sign. out for it, you just go through it and do it anyways.

And they're usually pretty intense short spurt workouts where it just clobbers you and you just empty the gas tank till it's over. Last week was burpees over a dumbbell and then like overhead snatches and then you had a lunge. And then every time you finish the lunge, each volume went up by three reps for the snatch and the burpees. So you have three, six, nine, twelve, up to 21 and more. shit just kicked your ass. I would say there'll be some bar work.

Yeah, I could just rock right now. Yeah, I would say hopefully there's some barbell work. I enjoy that. Maybe some power cleans. But I think there'll be, I think there'll be some pull-ups or something of that nature, toast a bar, stuff where we're gripping onto the bar on the rig

and doing shit. We just hope doesn't rip our hands to shreds. That's what I can. kind of predict, but you just never know. Maybe some handstand pushups. We're down for that. But we'll see. You can do a handstand pushup?

I can't. Like on a wall or just straight? I need a wall. I need a wall. Just my heels are on wall. You can do it without a wall. That's impressive. I mean, it's still impressive with the wall.

It took me, I hate being upside down. It took me a year to even just like try it just to get upside down. It's just a weird feeling. Just trying to flip myself over because I feel like I'm just going to fall on my head. But like I can get upside down now. Now it's just a matter of trying to do walks and stuff. That's the next step. But we'll see.

I watched a video with the people. It was like a handstand race. It was really, you've seen those? Oh, yeah. Yeah, those are awesome. Yeah, the handstand races. I can't do those. I can't do handsday walks yet.

Yeah, no, there. Pun intended walk before we run and probably be another year from doing handsstand. stand walks. Although I do like doing cartwheels as my wrestling warmups. Cartwells are fun. Oh, I get to see you in Carwell. I got to see you do cartwheels. Must be nice.

I can't move my arm over my shoulder. This is as high as this arm goes. Both of those are non-starters for me. All right. Thank you, Duda. Super chat from Tanvir. Was having Ankleif fight during Raman on intentional by the UFC.

Bilal best burns, but Alex is a different beast. Do you think this is an intentional move by the UFC to... What's the word I'm looking for? Yeah, I don't think so either. Delfo. I think that I don't... I think that if Balal was... Or not Belal, sorry. I think that if Anka Laya was Umar, this wouldn't be happening.

Because, like, transparently, they... maybe they didn't want Umar to win. They kind of wanted Umar to win and they probably thought Umar was going to be a promotional asset for them. And that's why that fight happened on that timeline.

Hey, we need to get this in before Ramadan. And this is the booking. And they don't feel the same way about Ancolaev. Like they, I don't think that they will be upset if Ancolaev is their champion. I don't think they'll be pumped about it because of what has been invested in Pereira.

But I also think if Pereira loses, maybe Anka Live gets the bump, right? Like he gets a little bit of the rub. And then Pereira can just still go up to heavyweight and people will love him anyway. But like this isn't a, they're not doing him any favors. It's here's the timeline. Take it or don't. And so that's unfortunate for Uncle Live in this situation. But I don't think that it is intentional of like we are trying to hurt him.

Yeah, kind of cosine on that. It's just, yeah, man, if you want to fight for the belt, this is the day. And we understand if you don't want to take it because of Ramadan, totally fine. But if you don't take it, you're probably not getting another shot. So I guess intentional for like short term because we need this fight to happen if you're

going to fight for the belt because we want Alex Pere to fight on this card. But I don't think they were sitting in the quote unquote war room saying, how can we fuck with Magamette Ancolaev? Let's have him fight for the belt on Ramadan, like the first week of Ramadan. against Alex Pereira. I don't think that was in the cards. Would Anka Live be the least, I guess, desirable champion that the UFC would have? Yes.

I think so. Even more than Belaw, because at least Belaw, to me, creates engagement. You know, Ankelylein. Well, also speaks English, which is honestly just a massive difference for them. As far as current champions of people with the belt, undeniably he will be the lowest total bowl there. As far as like possibles, he's still pretty low.

I don't know. I'd have to like really suss it out over who could like be a worse one. But like he doesn't speak English. The fact is he's actually usually in really fun fights. Not all of them, but like usually his fights are good. But for whatever reason he has a reputation as being boring, It's because of Dana White. I mean, that that is it.

And when he's in bad fights, they're really bad. That's the thing. That is also very true. They're bad. They're just really bad. Although, like, the Tiago Santos fight and, you know, going through timeline. I remember that post-fight show like it was yesterday. And I remember a heck of a morning was going on at the time.

We had on to the next one. And for, I mean, from that moment for the next maybe four to five days, we were talking about how there's no way in hell Magam and Ankleife is getting a title shot off of that win. There's just no effing chance that that happens. And I don't know if he ended up getting one. I don't know if that's the time frame. He fought Anthony Smith afterward. He finally Anthony Smith after that.

We were like, there's no way he's getting a title shot. Yeah. And the pushback that, yeah. The pushback that whole week was crazy. It was just like, oh, it's because you guys hate Ankeyelemy. life. I'm like, no, because that's not what you do when they give you an easy fight in the main event of a give you your first main event. And I'm not saying like Tiago Santos is a bad fighter, but at the time, like, they set that fight up for Magumann Anka Lai to crush him so they could be like,

all right, now this dude's going to fight for the belt. He's probably our best late heavyweight. But now we can sell this because he just destroyed a dude in his first main event. And what he did was he laid a big fat egg and just tackled Tiago Santos a bunch and, laid on top of him, and it was a boring fight. Now, on the flip side, Dana White, if you watch the timeline video, absolutely dumped on the Ankolaev Yombovich fight. Hated it, said it was a terrible main event, was piss at Ankelyev, basically called him out exclusively for that fight being bad.

And I don't think that's really fair because I have gone back in- Not at all fair. Yeah, I went back and rewatched it. because I talked to John Anick a little while ago, spoiler alert, and I mentioned this to John, and he completely agreed with me. That fight is not as bad as Dana made it out to be. It's not even nowhere near the way Dana described that fight. Nowhere near it.

Like, Behovedj ripped that leg apart, and then Ankleyev had to dig deep in order to survive, and then almost won. Made it slowed the fight down a little bit, but to say that was like an awful fight is just wrong. It didn't make sense. Yeah. I have two things to note.

The first one to address the topic we are on, Anglive would be the worst of the champions. You talking reminded me when Dana said the same shit about Arnold Allen versus Movsar of Luev, and that fight is perfectly good. Mobsar is the actual answer of the worst champion. Like, they desperately do not want Mobsar to be champion. Because he is boring.

Like, all of his fights are almost exclusively boring. The Arnold Allen was the aberration. I thought Sterling was good. Not. That was a good fight. But, like, all of his fights have gone to the cards. O'Gliath kills people, like, most of the time. Yes, he has four knockout night bonuses.

Yeah, like, mostly Uncle, I kills people. And then sometimes he's boring. Mavsar has very few redeeming qualities other than, than just being an elite fighter. So I think Mobstar would be the choice for like if they could specifically choose an elite fighter to not get the belt to would it be. I don't think it's Anka Live. And also to the kind of the original question, if they were trying to screw Ancalaive,

they wouldn't have put it on this card. They would have done it at 3.14 because this is the first week of Ramadan. And so like functionally the fasting part of it is not as big a deal. Because like it's already during the weight cut. The water part is like because you water load to cut weight. Monclyav has come out and so like I'm not adhering to that I'm taking the water as part of it and there's a term for how you make that up and I don't it's like kafara some like that I'm really sorry to the Muslim watchers that I don't I'm not like on this like he is making he's making his atonement for intentionally breaking the fast in that way but like the skipping meals part that's a lot worse six weeks out when you're in like the actual training camp stage as opposed to the getting dialed down the you know, the final stretch to getting your weight on point. So they were trying to screw them.

They'd have put this in Miami. I think that this is just how the timeline worked out. Yep. Okay. Thank you, Tamvir. All right. What else we get up here? Oh, one more super chat just came in.

Connor, how does Alex's resume compare to Izzy's if he wins on Saturday? Let me pull them up. I can do it off the top of my head, but I mean. I have Alex's light. have you run off the top of my head. Not as good, but a different level of impressive. Like a different sort of impressive, but not as good. Is he beating Whitaker twice and Joel Romero?

Like, those are just better wins than Alex Pereira has. So, to me, at least. And then he also has a win over Alex. They're split, you know, they're split outcomes. But like, it's not really Alex's fault, but 205 is awful. It's just a really bad weight class. And he has knocked everybody out. And I love Yuri Prashka, more than most.

But like, there's just a really bad weight class. So that's just not as good as, like, it's not sexy. Martin Vittori is a great win. Jared Canaanier is a great win. Policosta is a good win. Like, those are meaningful wins in a way that I don't. don't think Alex's are quite to that level because the weight class is worse and Izzy just did it longer.

But I mean, like, this is an incredible run. He'll afford light heavyweight title defenses if he wins on Saturday. It's really, really good. Yeah, I think I'm with you. I think I think strength of schedule-wise, Izzy's is better. But I think when we look back on both these guys, let's just say like Pereira just beats Ankelyev, knocks him out, and then doesn't fight again. and then Izzy somehow doesn't fight again.

In two years, when we talk about like, oh, who's had like the best run in the last five years? I bet Pereira's name comes up before Izzy's, only because he did it so quickly. And it's just, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, 100%. Yeah, that's the difference. I think overall if you really dive in and you pick Knits,

it's going to be Izzy having the better overall resume, but I think like top of mind non-knit picky, Pereira's name is going to come up first. honestly I think it boils down to this and this is a topic Casey gets on a lot for like ranking stuff the way Pereira has done it has just been better he has knocked everybody out which is just better to me the robert whittaker and the yowell wins are just much better than any win alick has like i just rate those wins higher than the wins alex has the rest of it's pretty comparable frankly um and alex certainly has the style points victory because certainly the back end of izzie's

career just became point-fighting Izzy. But I think most people will not be on board with that because the optics, the energy, the momentum, it's all Pereira, baby. Like, we are living in Alex Pereira's shadow right now. So I would say that the broader populace will be Team Pereira. Would you say there will be an argument for the opposite on who fought the best dude if Pereira wins on Saturday? No, I think Uncleav will be

Like one of his best wins But not as good as is he beating Whitaker? I just don't think it I think is he beating Whitaker The YOL though and the best win anybody gets The YOL ones is kind of messy Fight is boring I think Y'all Romero was the best middle weight in the world

At that time so I thought Y'all Romero clearly beat I thought he clearly beat Robert Whitaker In their rematch Yeah, I thought he won the first one but I'm much more open to him not winning the first one. I don't think that there's, I think it is bad to say that he did not win the second one. And like those are just better wins.

Because again, like, and this is certainly some bias here. 205 is trash. It is just an awful, awful weight class. And the secret thing is that it has always been a bad weight class. Like, but for a very specific period of time like right at pride, it just has a lot of names because they're, personalities and people, but like for the past eight years, it's been a terrible weight class. And Alex is like, that honestly, this week, that really got driven home to me more than I think

I've even, and I've thought it's a bad weight class for a long time. But just looking at him and be like, Maginaclyev is, I think, undisputably the best wrestler at 205, he's not a particularly good wrestler. Like, he's a good one, but like he doesn't do it. he just like it is just a weight class of people who kickbox kind of poorly now it John Jones either killed it or the weight class just died because that's how heavyweight classes go in the sport but it's a bad weight class and so as much as I love Yuri because I do y'all know I love him like is he historically in the same ballpark of fighter as Daniel

Cormeier? No. Like, no. So it's, you know, Alex is lording over a much weaker weight class than as he was. That's fair. Doing it more impressively, undeniably. And like I said, if you, like, it's not a, this is not a hill I'm going to die on. If you want to say Alex is better, I don't, not for me, but I don't, like, I'm not convicted in this belief. All right. All right. Shout to Y'all Romero fighting New England, Ross Hilton. Face a dirty boxing one. This is terrific.

Yolaro 47 just killing people. It's the best. Just terrific matchmaking. Allegedly 47. Who knows? All right. Honestly, it's true. He could be like 50. Yeah, that's what I mean.

It actually might be more impressive. We don't even know, yeah. All right. Super chat from Rick Wynn. Jed, have you tried GROC 3 instead of chat GPT? It's objectively the best AI right now and has the latest data. So I think they're for all the no bets barred fateful out there when there's a close line and Jed can't really decide on who he thinks is going to win and who to place the money on,

he'll go to the robots. So Rick is asking if you have tried GROC 3 instead of chat GPT. No. And I think that longtime listeners are podcasts or videos probably understand why I won't be doing that. It's just a gimmick and chat GPT is a more fun gimmick. I don't have a chat GPT bet this week, though it would have been the main event. I am priced into a side on the main event, so I didn't ultimately use chat GPT, though I did ask it.

Chat TPT is of the belief that Alex Pereira is going to knock out MacMeneke Live in the second round. That's how I see it as well. That's why my Mule is on Alex Pereira on Saturday. Is Grock the Twitter one? Correct. Okay. No, we definitely don't use that one. All right.

Thank you, Rick. I use deep seek. I'm down on deep seek still. I just used chat TBT because it was the preeminent one when I started this gimmick. And it is literally the only time I use AI is for this gimmick. So I just open it up and I'm like, hey, blah, blah, blah. Cool, we're done. All right.

Thank you, Rick. Superchat again from Tanvir. Thoughts on TKO Boxing, will we see more UFC fighters cross over to boxing? So big news. It's been teased for a while, and we knew this is coming. For anybody who thought Dana White was just going to willy-nilly do this without Saudi and Turkey Al-Aishik, you were all crazy. And if I'm Dana, that was actually the right thing to do because Turkey has. made such a dent in the boxing world with how he promotes and the money they are spending right now.

So Dana picked a pretty damn good partner. And if you're Turkey, considering what the success the UFC has, they picked a pretty damn good partner as well. And this is interesting, Jedmishu. This seems to have flipped the boxing world upside down in a lot of respects. What kind of impact will it have early and often? We shall see. But might as well just get your thoughts here. When this is, an Knotts became official. Dana White flew to New York. Him in Turkey signs the papers. They went on a bunch of shows together.

Pat McAfee, you know, their buds. What'd you think? What's your thought about it? Are you excited for this? Intrigued. What are your questions? What do you got? I am hopeful that this will fail catastrophically.

Because that is the good outcome. There is no nice way to put this. nobody should want Dana White to have success in boxing. They simply should not. Because why would you be a proponent of that? There's not a good reason other than purely your level of convenience. But like we talk about this almost every week now. What level of convenience means is you get to watch APEC shows once a month, twice a month, on ESPN

plus and that is what it is like when Dana says he's going to fix boxing boxing is not fundamentally broken it is broken if your worldview is i must control all aspects of all things and be the primary and only beneficiary of it that is broken in the terms of what Dana is because that's how the UFC operates these are not disputable facts guys like the UFC makes 80 cents out of every dollar they sell that is just not morally acceptable. And we are okay with it because it's how it goes. But like, I don't think anybody just in the dark would say, yes, that is how we optimally

would want a sport to exist. That is the end goal to do with boxing as well, to control all the fighters and to pay them a pittance of what they are generating via their names. So, you know, the Saudi wealth fund and Dana White and TKO and Ari Emanuel came. and become billionaires. Like that is the exact tradeoff that is being offered here. It is currently not doable because of the legislation that is the Ali Act. It seems extremely obvious that a point of like, this was a point of emphasis.

This felt like they were tipping their hand when Ari Emanuel went on McAfee the other week and was like, the Ali Acts, Bab, we're going to see what we can do about. They are pretty clearly going to try and get the Ali Act taken down. and given their sway with the current presidential administration, fair odds that they do. And if you don't know with the Ali Act, there's plenty of stuff. There's plenty of stuff. There's plenty of stuff.

I may fight and you go do it. It functionally is there to protect fighters from predatory practices of promoters. Removing that is like deregulating the banks. It's just a bad idea. And that seems like exactly what they're going to attempt to do, and they may well succeed. and if they do, that's just going to suck for boxers is what's going to end up happening. And so I desperately hope they fail.

I tend to believe that it will be a longer haul than it they want it to be because it is really hard to take things away from people that already have them. So it'll be a hard sell to take boxers and be like, we'll offer you $1 for every pay-per-view sold and no percentage of the gate when that's not what they're currently making. but I don't know. Betting against Dana has been a really bad idea for the history of his life. So like I wouldn't bet against him. I'm just hoping that he doesn't succeed. It's going to be, I, it's going to be interesting. They're definitely going to try to attempt to do everything you said.

Can he get it done? I don't know. And even if they can't, I don't think they give a shit. I think they're just going to put Liam Devines comment up, Casey, about disagreeing with me. Because I'm not trying to attack Liam, but I do want to point this out, right? Like, I believe boxing is broken because the best don't fight the best. That wouldn't happen in the UFC. I would, like, this is not to attack you Liam.

I mean this as honest as it can. I would absolutely trade the frustration of the best not fighting the best in the UFC for the moral clarity of fighters getting the money. They make 18 to 20% of every dollar earned in the UFC. like the number of stories of fighters who do not have good lives. Like frankly, just the lawsuit and all the hundreds of admissions of like, I need this payout from the UFC because of the dire financial medical straits I am in right now. The worst part about being a fan of this sport is the disconnect I have to make of these people

are putting their lives on the line and they are not looked after. any way, shape, or form. Once they get past 30, it's over. At least in the NFL in football, there's a pension plan. They are getting 50% of the revenue, et cetera, et cetera. In MMA, that's not the case. One, the best don't always fight the best because Francis Inganu is not fighting John Jones. And two, I would absolutely trade us losing fights occasionally if it meant that every fighter was financially secured in a much better way than they currently are. If you have a magic Jeannie was here and offered me that wish, I would take it no questions asked. Yeah.

And again, if you want to argue, though, the UFC always does best versus the best. John Jones just fought the ghost of Steepa, Mietich at Madison Square Garden, while Tom Aspinall already defended his interim title. So there you go. It's not always going to be about merit in the best fighting the best. It's going to be about what makes the most money. And if you think that TKL boxing is going to look at this and not do. like the biggest fight over the most meritocratic fight, you are out of your friggin

mind. You're out of your mind. You're crazy. Just go back a few years. Go back to the whole fade or fiasco and the UFC. You know, like we had the best. They couldn't make it happen because UFC. I mean, and it's going to get worse.

And like we can't, we say this all the time. When, now the UC has monopoly, MMA, they can't do no wrong. So like, we even say guys like Pico, they don't have to sign Pico anymore because UFCs to UFC, they don't need to sign the best out there. So if JET says, if TKO boxing became like the UFC of boxing, why would we get the best versus best? We would just get the most profitable for the TKO boxing, I think. We will just get the apex guys. Like this is, all of this is interrelated.

And I, this is like the argument that I try to make the most that I think people don't understand or like don't really reckon with. I think it's pretty intuitive once you think about it's like, it is bad for the sport to pay fighters a small percentage of revenue because what you are ultimately doing is not getting the best athletes in the world anymore because those athletes can go other places, right? Like if the NFL tomorrow was like, actually football players will suddenly make 10% of revenue instead of 50%, a good chunk of them will be like, that's probably not really worth my time anymore. some will still because this is, you know, their love, they're interested in it. But like, you are not going to be competitive on the global stage for athletes if you are not paying them at a premium price.

And so that's like straight up the reason light heavyweight and heavyweight suck is because if you are a big human being who is athletic, you are going to go do other sports that pay you better with more guarantees than you get in combat sports. It's frankly why like the dregs of the NFL come and are relevant heavyweights. You know, like Brendan Schaub was a freaking practice teamer and became a top 10 heavyweight just because he's more athletic than the park reporters. God love the goat. But like, come on. Like you're just not going to, when you start to put with the money in the way that as we take the money

and the people who earn it don't get it. anymore, they're going to go do something else. And like, it's bad for the sport at all. Like, that's why we get these apex cards. The answer should always be in all walks of life. I don't want a monopoly because monopolies are bad for consumers. Like, that's just it. They are bad.

They have short-term benefits and long-term, huge, huge failings for consumers. And also, guys, even when you do the best fighting the best rematches, whatnot, we call back to fights we need to see again. It don't mean shit financially. Look at the reported numbers for this re-ad season card they just put on. It was like one of the most stacked main card

boxing events ever, estimated 45,000 pay-review buys. And that was for Better Beaville 2, which was like a fight everybody in the boxing space wanted to see. They did the NFL members. And they dropped the price tariff. Worse? Yeah, pretty bad.

Yeah, it was $25.99. 2599 it's 45,000 buys. When that news dropped, I was like, oh, Turkey and Dana have a really good chance of succeeding. F it. That's bad. Yeah. I mean, and then you look at the other side at like what MVP's doing with the Jake Paul stuff. 100 friggin' million people watched Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson.

This is the worst fight of all time, but 100 million people watched it. 74 million people watch Katie Taylor and Mendeserrano beat the shit out of each other. in an incredible fight. And now, if you guys missed the news earlier today, we're going to get the trilogy fight at Madison Square Garden on Netflix, and it's going to be an all women's card. Like, that's bad. That's pretty sweet.

And both Taylor and Zara are going to make a shit ton of money for doing this. So where, like, where is TKO boxing going to be? Are they going to be more towards the, let's just put on cool fights and start, or are we going to be like, let's do freak show fights and hopefully a bit, build stars off of the freak show fights because that's obviously what we're getting here with Serrano and taylor that was the big talking point and like the coolest thing they came out of that paul tyson card was going to the gym the next day people were like man tyson paul was everything you said it was going to be it was fucking terrible but boy i want to learn more about katie taylor and

amanda serrano those two are awesome so how are they going to handle it what's are they going to be on pay-per-view or is this going to be just on one streaming platform like how are they going to do this they are going to go to Alcatraz and do an event in June from what it appears to look like right now. Kind of a fun idea. Like that's cool. Like that's cool. What are you going to do with it? And then we'll see what like this big September news is going to be that Dana doesn't want to talk about.

So yeah, it's obviously a big move in like the Eddie Hearns and the Bob Arams of the world. And even the Jake Paul's and the Kisadarians of the world have to be like, okay, we need to buckle up for a fight. But what is it all going to look like? They are my hope for how, because like it is functionally a non-starter if they can't get the Ali Act overturn. And my hope is that because boxing is a much more entrenched sport, the other promoters, Frank Warren, they will understand the import of keeping that intact and will lobby as aggressively as, you know, Dana and Turkey do to get it down.

And so there's that. but like also just an old man take super old man here i get it half of you will hate it um i've been slowly coming around to this just with my broader feelings in general uh the best fight the best fights somewhat overrated right like that's because over time the best do fight the best and like and think just sort of a corollary to the like stop doing super fights just eat your vegetables we are so possessed by like the thing we want now. It's like, okay, if it's not happening right now, it's a travesty that this isn't happening right now.

I'm not saying that sometimes that does happen in boxing. Like, it's shameful how Canello is managing the back end of his career. But like, mostly boxing does deliver you the fights you want. You might have to wait a little longer, but that waiting kind of makes them even better in a lot of respects. Like, there are only a handful of times in boxing where I can think recent. It's like, man, that happened way after the sell-by date of it. But that also still happens in this in MMA.

So, like, I think that that's largely a fabrication that is easy, like, easy to digest. But it's not actually true because, like, again, eating your vegetables is good. It's important to do that. Like, people super didn't want Alex Pereira to fight Magerman and Goliath on Saturday. They, like, everybody was booking Alex Prayer versus John Jones. And I got to tell you, I'm pretty pumped. about Saturday. Really happy that this is what is occurring.

Yeah, yeah. I glad you pointed out because this weekend we literally have the best fighting the best. And no one can't. And everyone's kind of like, but I don't want to see it. It could be boring. No one, yeah, no one said this is the best fight because it's the John Jones thing. Like, no, we're eating our vegetables this weekend. These vegetables are delicious.

This is some like Robichon mashed potatoes right here. Like these are some high-end veggies and I'm pretty excited about Saturday. Yeah, we got Pereira versus Kalil Roundtree, which is, you know, fun-ass fight, but it made like no sense. And this is like a week after they booked Magamette Anka Live to fight Alexander Rackich. And then when they asked Dana, like, why didn't they put Ankelai for the title fight with Pereira? He's like, well, he's already booked for two weeks later. What? You can't just pull him out and have him fight for the belt two weeks earlier.

I think he would have said yes to that. Can't be done. Can't be done. It just can't. So we will, we shall wait. see what sorts of fights they announce and we'll see what kind of dent they can make in the boxing space i just want to know where does gFL fit in all this there's no such thing there's no such thing i was supposed to say that like is tk o boxing like i'm until there i know it's

not the same but until there's a date and some sort of anything other than a press conference like how i don't is is it real do you guys is it 100% real okay if this is this was dana saying it no Turkey saying it gives it credence. Okay. Yeah. Because Dana says stuff all the time, right? You don't take it in its word at face value. And TKL, NTCO, Nick Con, Mark Shapiro.

Mark Shapiro is just some outlandish, bullshitty things, like the mighty apex. Like, it's just, it's just absolutely insane, some of the things that come out of his mouth. But if he says that something's happening, then it's happening. Like, they're not just going to put it out. And like those individuals aren't. Like Dana White saying John Jones is definitely fighting this summer. I'm not really going to buy into that. But Mark Shapiro saying we're getting into the boxing space.

Yep. Correct. I will buy that and run with it forever. Co-sign. All right. I still wish I had a Zufa boxing shirt. That's like the one piece of MMA merch I wish I had. I never got it in Zufa boxing.

The only MMA merch I wish I owned is the Gibler jersey. Oh, yeah, yeah, the Gibler. I thought I wish I don't know how I didn't have the foresight to be like, I'm going to buy this. I got it. Man, I wish I had a Gibbler shirt. I hope they led UFC fighters box to. Literally the only benefit to this would be if they did that.

I mean, they let him grapple on Five Pass, so I don't see this. You hope, you hope. I hope they let them do it. Like, I would love to see Adrian Yanis, Rob Font, have a boxing match. Like, that'd be sick. Like a rematch in the boxing ring. Like those two boxing, would be fun as hell.

That is the upside here. That would be really cool if they do go that way out. I'm a proponent of that part of it. Yeah. We can see the crazy Hawaiian in a boxing ring too, you know. No. You're right. I'm absolutely right.

I hate even saying that thought. But yeah. All right. We got a lot of super chats here. Let's go. Terrence, I am late. y'all talk about seen his heel turn no no we have not uh i don't like look i know a big people come out here it was a very big deal uh it was a very big deal uh it was a super big deal

not seeing it live and just watching the social media clip i was like what the hell just happened this is insane and i thought it was brilliantly done all of it but then like what i actually went back and watched the moment from like when john won the elimination chamber to Cody coming out. I was like, all right, I'm glad I watched it in the way that I watched it because had I watched it live and seen how this all played out, I would have saw the scene of heel turn coming like 10 minutes before it happened. I was like, why is he still?

Because I would have watched like, why is he still in the ring? Like, what purpose does he have here for this moment with the rock? And that would have been like my only downfall from it. But I'm so glad I saw it in the way that I saw it with just a social media clip of the go fuck yourself, the hug, Sina turning all angry and evil, the throat slash, and then the kick in the balls

and all the damage that came from that. Outside of Travis Scott, which I still don't understand why his presence was felt in that moment, but it is what it is. Cool as shit. It's going to be an interesting build to WrestleMania. Is it bigger, bigger than the whole kill turn?

Yes. Bigger. Okay. Yes. Yeah, I wasn't really following WW at that time or even now. So I'm very interested in your opinions. So, yeah. Yeah, it was WCW.

And it was like, no one saw it coming. I'm so pro wrestling illiterate. I didn't know it was a heel turn. Like, I just saw the clip and it didn't register with me that this was like a big thing. So this was like a heel turn until it was explained that like I just thought he hit him in the balls, which doesn't necessarily. Like to me, that doesn't mean you're a bad guy. it just means you squared someone in the ball. But then I was like,

this is actually the terrible heel turn. I was like, oh, okay. And it's Sina doing it. It's like the one, like, how long has you been a face?

It's been explained to me since. Okay. I don't follow this. So I just saw the funny clip of a dude getting squared balls. I was like, ah, that's enjoyable.

The classic, yeah, the classic's never got a style. Yeah. And then like, then it was like, oh my God, this is momentous.

And John Stewart's talking. talking about it on the daily shows like oh yeah comparing to this it was not like first make it was obviously a very big deal obviously a very big deal yeah massive i just thought it was fun to watch some dude getting eaten in the balls but here's both can be true both can be true yeah but what i like about it is that because this is seen as retirement year like this is his last year being a wrestler and like i don't think you could end his career being like bad guy john i just don't think you can it's interesting going into mania it's going to be interesting going through the year

especially when he has like 30 35 appearances this year but also like everyone gets sick of the rock the more he's on television that Sina turning on the rock later in the year will be like a momentous occasion that turns him right back into a baby face whenever they need it so it thought it was brilliant it was great

question of a question so I know that John Sina is retiring and he's retiring at the end end of this year. He's not like retiring at WrestleMania, which feels like a better place to retire. Like, is there like a December New Year's Eve show in pro wrestling? Yeah, there's a December show, but Survivor series is like the big one for like the winter. In Japan.

Uh-oh. He's back. He lost you for a moment. To me, it feels like if I was a pro wrestling, I'm looking to retire. Oh, am I back? You're good. You're good. Yeah.

Okay. It's like if I'm a pro wrestler and I want to retire, it feels like I would want to retire at WrestleMania and not just like at the end of a specific year. But I don't know. So he's not retiring in like two weeks. He's retiring in December. He's retiring at the end of the year. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Terrence. It's the last super chats because we've gone about five minutes. So apparently, by the way, I think honestly the best way they should do it, it is I guess they have not they have not like named a venue for Survivor Series at November got to do it at the Godin got to do it in Boston what's his getting on that one they do like a cage match thing but doesn't matter just have John Russell somebody in Boston for his last match

well like the Survivor series isn't like a rumble or like there's not like a special gimmick for surviving it's too long of a conversation to talk about the history of Survivor series But yeah, it's changed over the years. But yeah, let's keep, let's keep. I got to tell you, like, Survivor series feels like the name of the Royal Rumble. You are the one surviving in the ring. You are the king of the hill. But neither are you there.

Yes. All right. What else we got? You're watching the AW pay-per-view? Is it the Sunday? I want to watch it. I want to watch it. I like, I like, it.

I don't know. Their paper reviews are always like. No one. But go on. The paper reviews are always like good. Like you get good matches, but it's just like, why? Like, why is, why is every match have to be like this? When does every match have to be 47 minutes of craziness?

Like, we can, we can balance it here for it. Eat Arby's. But see, here's the thing. Like, we'll come out of the pay reviews and be like, wow, that was awesome. And then we'll get to dynamite on Wednesday and be like, how do you fuck this up so badly? Like you had such a great pay-per-view and then you just ruined everything on Wednesday. I feel the same way, but whatever. Raw has been terrific lately.

It's been on fire. Well, but a lot of it. In the past, you know. In the past, yeah. Yeah, I'm just, I'm looking forward to the revolution and I'm hoping I have the energy to do because I know we're going to have a long night before. So my God. Yes. All right.

Thank you much. Let's get through these last super chats. Spencer. Oh, 9-9. Let's go. We've yet another guy saying he's going to stand with the two division glory champ and one of the pound for pound hardest it is ever. Poet's on as many gifts,

but it's his best ability getting everyone to stand with him. Spoiler alert. I spoke with Magabed Ancolaev. It is a thrilling interview. I'd say that with a lot of sarcasm. He was tired. Yeah, dude. I'll blame him, man.

like he already went through media day. I was probably like his friggin' 35th interview of the week, trying to ask him like some different shit. And he's just kind of over it. But I asked him about the promise of whether or not he's going to stay with Alex Pereira. One thing you'd say about Magamai Anka Live, the man might lie on social media, but he's going to tell you the truth when he asks him a question.

He's sitting on the video screen. If you think for one second, he's not going to try to shoot a take down on Alex Pereira, you're all insane. He's going to, shoot on him without question. He's not going to marob him, but he's absolutely going to shoot a take-down attempt or two or three in this fight.

These change levels. Yeah, you have to. I mean, that's what you. Yeah, you should just almost never trust fighters when they say things about what they're going to do in a fight. Yeah, he's for sure. Like, if he comes out and maybe he won't shoot a take down if the first punch he throws lands and knocks Alex out or vice versa,

But otherwise, it's going to shoot a take down. I don't know how successful it's going to be, which is one of the primary dichotomies of this fight I'm very interested in. Because, but also like, to some extent, this, I mean, this is posed as a joke. I do think this gets to a real fact about Pereira's run, which is unbelievable. And you could only fight the guys you fight, right? Like, we can't take that away from him. he boy his timing is good because Alex Pereira the light heavyweight like 10 years ago is an unknown mid-carder right like man if this guy could ever learn to wrestle he'd be sick but Phil Davis took him down 17 times and so like it just didn't matter like middle weight and light heavyweight are deeply non-grapling centric weight classes his middleweight run was like

he could have run into more grapplers, but functionally just like, we all knew the game, and the UFC was like, let's not have him fight any of those. Michaelitis, that's the only dude who kind of grapples, sure.

And light heavyweight, like one dude has tried to take him down. And also, that's the guy who almost beat him and went to a split decision with him in Jan Blowicz. So, like, he just, there aren't the horses in the barn

that there used to be who, that was part of their game. Like, I do not think it is a bold statement to say that Prime DC just dog walks Alex Pereira. Basically, what we've seen in the case, doesn't make Alex Perrin not a great fighter. But like, this is the age in which he is competing. And so he's not having to trick people into standing with him. There's just a whole lot of dudes who don't wrestle in this weight class right now. Yeah.

That's really it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Spencer. John, predictions of who will win the Fantasy League? I mean... Casey has a pretty clear advantage at this point in time. He is almost 200 points clear of the next competitor.

And, you know, some of that will be dependent. Like, still totally up in the air because there's just a lot of fighters haven't competed yet. If they get injured, if they lose. Casey's big advantage is that B's won all of his first. fights. Now, every person on his team has won their fist fight, which is just like pretty key. I think cop maxed out too this weekend too, we've made a minute ranked. Maxed out on what he can get, right?

Like, yeah, I think, I think 300 is the capper. Oh, outside of a championship fight, yeah. I say 300 includes a championship bonus there and he can't get that. So he like, he maxed points. Marab was like pretty close to max points. Didn't get bonus, I think was the differentiator there. Like, Casey's got a bunch of champions, and those champions have all held their belts this far. So I believe I'm functionally out of it.

I would need, like, but that's sort of what's been really fun about this season is there's still a long way to go until June. Like, June is the last month of the season. Like, we're about to get our first repeat fighter, and Jean Silva is now signed again to compete. So AK has a chance to get a double hit of John Silva. And if like randomly a bunch of late, like early summer fights get booked for one person over the other, they could still make a comeback. But Casey is currently well in the lead. It'd be interesting in how International Fight Week is booked too. Because that could change a lot too because there would be a lot of championship fights.

So hopefully we'll see. Yeah, could get real interesting. Jan Behovic coming up, Sean Brady coming up in a main event, which is like a great draft. for me out of nowhere, like an unexpected terrific draft pick if he beats Leon Edwards. That's really good. Kayla Harrison reportedly is going to fight for the belt in June. Molly McCann has got maybe the easiest fighter for career and Yusuf Salal's got a ranked win. Maybe we'll get another.

And Jazz and Jazz, Jazevisius has a ranked win. It might get another one in like two months time. So we had the most thing, like. It might potentially be in a lot better shape but for the Armin issues at 3.11. Yeah, and just need Armand to fight a rank, dude, and we'll be okay. And yes, Casey, Gia's had pretty tough love with Chavcott dying. Duana out. Luana out.

Chavka, yeah. A couple of losses as far, like the Gregory Rodriguez, he was winning until he died. He's had a really tough one of things. But he does have Alex Pereira. I like it because Gies team basically is like the GFL resilient team. which rocks. And, but, like, he really needs prayer at a max points for this weekend to get back in the game right now.

Did anyone have Ankylive? Nope. No, I don't think so. Wow, no one drafted Anakin Live. That's kind of bold. Someone should have taken at least a flyer there, but, yeah, no. So, Casey is, like, I don't think this fight was booked when we did the draft. No, it wasn't.

It wasn't. But I think it was not. I mean, yeah, but I mean. Certainly Anklife would have fought somebody if he wasn't fighting. Pira but burden the handover two in the bush yeah like I booked um I forgot as being zang how do you say the guy by Anthony Smith like I booked him as my wild yeah sorry I picked him it's a wild card pick yeah so um I could have gone Ikelaif I realized but I decided to go you're gonna get max points on that one yeah yeah I will get max yeah I'm I'm very happy

of that pick though I see Casey still has Carlos Ulberg who could win he's got below Muhammad and when below Mohammed was fighting Shavkat that was much more dangerous than I think him fighting Jack Della is. It's a man of that. Bryce Mitchell, he could absolutely be John Silva, frankly. And then Jang, like, so it's up there. And I said Oliver, Aspenov. I'm hoping one of those guys get actually booked.

We'll see. We'll see. All right. Thank you, Spencer. Oh, yeah. And Casey had Manel Cop, who frankly got a, better fight than the brand of revol fight like early early returns have been been key for casey thus far and taking advantage yeah so good at this fantasy i think honestly this is way more fun

than i thought it would be too just because of all the fight changes that have happened like we drafted the best we could and like seven fighters have dropped off already so it's it's been way more entertaining that thought it's been tough for damon man oh jamaul hills it's been a He gets another shot at Jamal Hill, though, which is in the main event, which worked out for him. He had Sharra Bullitt who gave him a zero. Steve Garcia was supposed to fight a rank to. Oh, that was that. No longer fighting a rank guy.

Brano Roval got more than a main event out. Fierna Jandrova, not getting a title fight. She's, you know, now she's fighting Janjanon could very well lose that fight. Like, Mann and Fioreau, that could be an interesting one if she wins the belt. My secret favorite thing about the fantasy league that I didn't realize what happened is now every time an announcement happens, I immediately go to our Slack channel. I'm like, ooh, it sucks to be Damon. Brandon Royvalls out. By the way, we need to write this up for the site. Yes. It's just like deeply fun.

It's got fantasy implications. My first thought is not, here's the news that needs to get out. It's I got a shit talk, Damon, because this happened or whatever. It is turning to the shit talking channel. It's terrific. It's easily the shit talking show is the most of the fucking. But it also throws me up because, like, if a topic of conversation comes up about one of our fighters, we immediately think they're talking, we're talking shit about fantasy, and it turns out it's about, like, something completely different.

Like, me and A.K. I fall into that trap a few times. He's like, I'm not talking about fantasy. I'm like, oh, okay. Sorry. Should we? Oh, that's the best. It's maybe the best thing I've ever done. This is a big thing.

I'm so happy about it. We got a lot of action this weekend, too, guys. Alex Pereira. I don't think who else is going on. But the next few weeks, got some heaters coming down the pipe. All right. Let me see what else we got, super chat-wise. One more super chat.

99. Spencer, you're the man. Beautiful to see my favorite MA trio today in 15 years of MMA fan Poeton. The biggest anomaly I've seen is now one of my favorite. favorite fighters ever who are your three favorite fighters ever gsp spider nick dyes are mine really hard is poton the biggest anomaly uh one of i don't know if he's like it's that's a hard thing i know i need to think a little more his career is you he's definitely up there yeah it's incredibly unique in this sport yeah especially because like if there's no is i mean potan might have gotten here

eventually but like but at his age i doubt it and the way he got like just the middleweight matchups somebody for real at middleweight before they just put him into the title fight yeah like he got tied fight about fighting for troy you know which i think anyone has anyone anyone anyone get so yeah so definitely uh just perfect timing for potan very very much an anomaly honestly could easily be the biggest i have to really think about it to be certain but i can't Nothing is jumping off the page at me as like, man, that's told, like his career is just so different than anybody else that has ever been. Yeah. It's like him, Brock Lesnar.

Brock is also a huge anomaly. Yeah. Fair. I mean, we have to think about it. Yeah. Those probably are like the two that are the most obvious. As far as favorite fighters, let me narrow down to three. I was like five jump in my head immediately.

I know one of them. I have to decide who get to fill up the last two spots. I mean, guys that I had to watch before I got into covering the sport, Frankie Edgar was probably like my favorite favorite. Diego Sanchez is like one of the dudes that got me into watching fighting, like more consistently because I would watch, I watched like one episode of The Ultimate Fighter and he was such a, like, lunatic. that I was like, all right, I have to watch next week

because Diego Sanchez is such a lunatic. And then obviously, most of his early UFC fights were all like absolute wild fanatic bangers. And then third of like people I had to watch. I mean, maybe it was Chuck Lel like when he was running it. But yeah, I just liked, I think I liked the sport more than like the individuals. But Frankie Edgar was like the guy I was like, yeah, watch like he was the dude I had to watch as much as possible.

Plus, he cashed the first bet I had ever made in M. A. when he beat B.J. Padden for the lightweight title in their first fight. Robbery, by the way. I'll take.

I think I have to go, BJ, Aldo, and Habib. But Fador and Gachie are the, next two. And, like, Fador is right there. Like, those five have just been like the bulletproof five forever for me at this point.

Gathe just came around a little later, so it's just not quite the same as like, BJ Fador and Aldo are the reasons I fell in love with this sport. Like, the three of them are it. And then Habib genuinely made me re-loved the sport as he came up and was so unique and different. And his game was just so advanced beyond anybody. else. Like, and Justin Gachy, if you just don't love to watch Justin Gagchi fight, I do not know why you're fan of the sport.

I'm not saying you have to, but like, it's impossible not to love to watch that man fight. So, like, that's the five, and I think I have to default to B.J. Aldo and Habib. But, yeah. Yeah, Lawler's up there, too. Well, I mean, Lawler's a great choice, too, man. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think, I don't know if I have favorite fighters, but I, I don't know if I have

favorite fighters, but I always think of just fighters that really just like changed my, just rewired my brain type of fighters. I think like when you saw my favorite fighters. Yeah. But they weren't necessarily the best. I mean, I just mean just fighters that's like, oh my God, I can't believe I saw that. Like I think of like for me, it was, um, it's more like more like moments. Like Eddie Alvers's run and when he fought in Japan, I was just, I just saw it.

It's just so sick. I loved Prime Paul Daily. I just loved them. Prime Nick Diaz, just the insanity. And I was very fortunate. Condit. Yeah. Yeah.

And I was just especially in the top 10. Oh, geez. Yeah. And I was just very fortunate because I was working of Strike Force at the time and at those events. So I got to see a lot of those up close and personal, Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz, kind of having that. run over there and everything. It was just, yeah, just very, yeah, I can't, I really can't do three favorite fighters. It's just more like just certain moments.

Yeah, just moments I just love. But thank you, Spencer. It's fun. It's fun, it's fun, going back, thinking about those fun, fun fights. BJ and Al though are just like, those are unimpeachable to me. Like, that is my A and B or just because, like, they are why I am in the sport. the third one was the really, really hard spot because there's just a lot of dudes out of us.

Oh, I forgot to mention freaking Fador, of course, too. Fador. Fador is like one of the guys just like, move me away. And I miss Fador's Prime, this kind of pride run. Like I wasn't even like, I wasn't even a fan, honestly, but going back and looking at it like, oh, my God, I miss so much awesomeness. He's how good freaking Fador was.

Like, y'all just don't know. The people in this chat who haven't been fans for 20 years, Prime Fador would still be a top five heavyweight today, which is categorically insane. Absolutely. Like that's just not how the sport's supposed to work. That Prime Fador would be like a top five heavy. He was so good, man.

He was so far ahead of everybody that it was absurd. Thank you. All right, before we get out of here. Please tell me. All right, yeah, pull it up, pull it up. I want to see if it happens. I want to see if it comes up. No, we have to bring it up.

But we'll see what you pull up first. Oh, tell me, tell me, because I had some old questions. I wanted to pull that. Potentially a tweet by. Oh. Oh, gimmick parley is hitting this week. Do you have any gimmicks this week, Jen? Santos Parley, maybe.

So the Santos Parlay, now that there's a third leg to the Santos Parley, I'm much more excited about it than I was before. Because it's like, you know, not opposed to a two-leg gimmick parley, but just the like the two Santos is on the card. So there's an Alex Parley you could throw up there, Pereira and Marono, obviously. But now that I have become familiarized with Maricio Ruffie's name actually being Maricio Santos, and Ruffie is apparently a one-piece character or the name of something in one piece, not entirely sure, not, don't quote me on that.

now that there are three Santos is on this card, the Santos probably I'm much more excited about. So that, for sure, that's one. No gimmicks for me. What do you think about a... We haven't heard from Don Davis in a minute. Oh, geez. It wasn't the best.

Don Davis sweets out top 10... It's a bit silly. All right. We'll finish up with this one. All right. Top 10 heavyweights, according to... He says it's MMA fans, but just I don't think... that most of M.A fans would agree with this list.

Number one, Francis and Ghana, which if you're a promoter, you kind of have to put your guy first. John Jones 2, Tom Aspinall 3, Badim Nemcoff, who's been a heavyweight for a cup of coffee, number four, Cyril Gaon, number five, Henan Fahada number six,

Curtis Blades, number seven, Volkov 8, Dennis Goldsoff, 9th, Phil de Freeze, 10. Thoughts on this list from Don Davis? that's like the least objectionable thing he's done in a while so yeah this is of all the graphics that he has created over the last two years this might be the best one and it's still not good john judges too high i mean tom has it on the three is ridiculous i'm sorry i would suggest that every person on that list is an incorrect location but and many of them should be on that list

whatsoever. Are any off by more than two? Head and Farahedah for sure. Let me look at it again. Haddon Faraheer should not be in the top ten. I'm okay with him being at the 10. I'm not okay with him being at six. Yeah, six is insane.

And being ranked above Curtis Blades is ridiculous. Curtis Blades would, Curtis Blades would clobber him in a five. Six is two I. Six is why I agree. Nimcov is off by a lot because Nimcov is just not accomplished anything. heavyweight to be. It's kind of on potential.

Yeah, you kind of put him on potential there. He beat Tim Johnson. Like that you put him there because BFL. Yeah. Whatever. So like, uh,

I would say that both Faheda and Nimcob are far too high. Um, and like, I like Dennis Goldsov more than most. Probably not nine either for being real. But, you know, again,

this is like, this is, that's promoter. If that's what Don Davis wants to do, that's fine. That's fine. unobjectionable promoting. He is bigging up his guys, you know, giving people something to talk about while not like poking the bear or whatever.

Like not saying something insane. So a little silly, but in the context of Don Davis, his last like 17 tweets, that's a win. Yeah. Yeah. I have no issues. Better than the better than the, better than the, better than the, better than the, television distribution and fans for each promotion graphic that he made. Golly.

Very bad. Very, very bad. Lazy bed. Hulk isn't going to smash Superman because you got to read the comics. And in the comics, Superman beats Hulk. And so, Petrusian's going to win. Shout out to that fight. It's like the best fight of the weekend.

Super in on the dumb, dumb matchmaking. Do you see? Have anything else? Joseph Vosa, no, none of us believe John Jones will be back this summer. I saw him ask this question like 12 times. No. No. I'm going to speak for both Casey and Mike and say we do not believe this.

John Jones is the GFL of the UFC. Until he's actually in the cage fighting, then I do not believe he's fighting. No one drafted John Jones, right? Nobody drafted John. Oh, no, no, I think AK did. What? No. A.K.

He did. He did? He did? He did? He got to John Jones. I was like, I'm pretty sure he got the John Jones. I think he got him really late. I think it was like one of the last rounds.

There also weren't good heavyweights because I took two of them with my first three picks. And so they worked a double dip on Shamil Jachio. God, I get to double dip on Shamil. This is very exciting. I forgot all about that. He's fighting Sergei Spivak. So we got we got options here. But he jailed to.

I'll tell you what, man. And they're going to get fights again this year. And they're going to. Like lift my team out of the abyss. If Alex Pereira nukes Maga Ben Ancolaev, might see him the summer. That would be the funniest, most transparent. We could get back on him and be like, sir,

remember when the best fought the best and Tom Asper has spent two years being the heavyweight champion of the world while not getting to be the heavyweight champion of the world. But you see, this is the brilliance of Dana White, though. You see what he's been saying in all of his interviews? If Alex Pereira wins, he might be the best fighter in the world. And then they can promote this fight as number one versus number two.

At least the way they see it or Luis, the way Dana views it, puts Pereira above John Jones. After all this time, Islam Machachev. Except he finally relented on the Islam thing. I won't agree with it. Now he's willing to put Pereira up there if he wins. Yeah, I don't agree. But I don't think it's a ridiculous statement. I think that there will absolutely be people who are reopening the argument

that Pereira is the top pound fight in the world if he boops on Callive on Saturday. And I'm open to it. I am too. It won't be what I would choose, but I'm open to it. But to hear Dana White say that. It makes me believe. Things might be happening. All right.

Last question is just a quick answer because this one could go for a while, but it's just a quick answer in this one. most niche hot take that you would still go to war over i guess in m m mhm i mean it has to be an m m because if it's not like yeah we'll be oh yeah yeah i'd be a bet so um i like my job i mean i'm going with with old faithful that jett and i have been talking about for over five years now. Every fighter should cheat. And if you're not cheating, you're not doing it right because no referee on planet Earth will make a call to change the outcome of a fight. They do not want their responsibility. So all fighters should cheat. That's the hot take that I will continue to rifle through every time we see an eye poke or a ball kick or a fence grab that is

not called and it's egregious and Twitter loses their shit over it. Always remember, just cheat. Just cheat. Miss wait. Make sure you're misweight by two. and a half pounds if this is one of your first three fights if you're on the entry level UFC contract miss wait 20% of your purse who gives a shit you get the win bonus all works out better for you in the end so just cheat no one's going to stop you you're kind of crazy if you don't the ima head too um because one i'm not sure is niche anymore it's very related to what mike just said uh i i don't know if i started it but i was an early adopter and one of the loudest proponents that you should take a penalty point for every infraction.

And I think people are slowly coming around to that. I think that's still probably not the popular view, but I don't know if it's as niche as it used to be. So, like, that's the one. That one I will go to war over. I won't really go to war over this one, but it's definitely the hottest MMMA take I have that I'm pretty, got a lot of conviction behind. And John Jones is wildly overrated as far as greatness goes.

I will not expound further upon that, but I think that he is wildly overrated. Not as far as what he could have been, which is, like, I think that as far as skills, unbelievable, I think his accomplishments are overstated by a good margin. All right. Oh, mine rings over cages. That's all. Yeah, that's for, that is for sure years, Casey. No doubt about that one.

Rings over games. You've been team rings over cages for years. And actually, after training in a cage, I'm even, even more about it because freaking cages suck. They freaking hurt. All right. We're good. Well, it hurts to say goodbye to all of you. music. We're done. Back tomorrow, busy day. We got more coming up in a MA fighting later on. We

got the, of course, the UFC 313 press conference, which should be a doozy. Tomorrow we'll have the way-in show. We'll have a preview show to get you ready for the festivities. Power shlap tomorrow. We got a fight pass invitational tonight on UFC fight pass. So a lot going on. Of course, People's Free Fight Show on Saturday, watch party on Saturday, fight show on Saturday. On to the next one Sunday. Buckle up for Casey for Jedd. I, Mike Beck. Estreland takes you all. Good eye, everybody. Love y'all.

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