MMA Fighting - BTL | Does Ngannou HAVE TO Win? Dana White Rips Rankings, Cerrone Teases Return, Belal vs. Shavkat

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

Francis Ngannou's MMA return happens this Saturday as the PFL returns to pay-per-view for Battle Of the Giants in Saudi Arabia. With the PFL needing to badly get some buzz, does Ngannou have to beat Renan Ferreira — not just for himself, but for the PFL as a whole?  On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses Saturday's big fight card, how important it is that the card delivers as a whole, and what happens based on the result of the main event. Additionally, topics include Dana White once again ripping the UFC rankings panel after UFC 307, the promotion returning to the APEX this Saturday for UFC Vegas 99 headlined by Anthony Hernandez vs. Michel Pereira, Donald Cerrone announcing he's ending his retirement with hopes of two more UFC bouts, UFC 310 fight announcements including Belal Muhammad vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov for the welterweight title, and more.  Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and UFC lightweight Grant Dawson. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is between the links. And now your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. So much to talk about this week on the program. UFC has a card this weekend. PFL has a card. You may not be aware of it,

but they certainly do have one. There's lots of news out there on these MMA streets as well. and we're going to talk about all that much more, so let us get into it. Let me just warn you real quick. I have been teasing the construction of command center 4.0, which is actually happening about 10 feet to my right. So if you hear some saw and maybe a little hammer or two,

that's what you're hearing, but it'll all be for good, I promise you. Let's get into the program. Let's introduce the verbal warriors first. He's Mr. No Gray area. He's the hot take kid, the gambling guru for MMAfighting.com, and the president of the Jamal Hill,

fan club, Mr. Jedmishu. Hello, sir. You know me. The only thing I like more than Jamal Hill is the UFC 309 main event. That's my 1A and 1B of things I'm excited about. You sprinkle in some Michael Chandler. We got a stew going. Hey, Mike.

It's great to be here. I'm excited to talk. My boys, PFL. Let's go. All right. And I'm happy and thrilled even to welcome back to the program, a man who picked of a massive win this past Saturday, UFC Vegas 98. The man who, in my opinion, was the MVP of the card.

He finished Raffa Garcia in the second round with the bloody battering TKO, became the first fighter to stop Raffa Garcia in the process, and then delivered one of the most memorable post-fight interviews of the year, putting his wife over, embarrassing her a little bit, but in the best possible way. So open your ears, open your eyes, and bounce more than a quarter of excitement for Grant Dawson. Where is he?

Where is he? There he is. How are you, sir? I'm fantastic, man. Thank you for having me on the show. That was quite a night at the old apex, wasn't it, Grant? A lot of people talking about you at the end of it. It's not a bad place to be, Grant.

Well done on Saturday. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. I felt like everything just came together. Everything came together that night, delivered an awesome performance and then a banger line after. So I'm happy with it, man. Usually I look back on my performances and I try to critique it as much as possible, but I really can't think of anything.

So I'm happy with it. What did your wife say to you after that? Was it like the movie Major League when Wesley Snipes does the basket catch out in the center field? And the manager was like, yeah, nice catch, Hayes. Don't ever fucking do it again. Was it like that kind of reaction? Or was she thrilled with you in the long run?

Yeah, you know, at first she was a little like, hey, come on. But then she warmed up to it. She's got a really good sense of humor. She's super funny. She thinks I'm hilarious, which is kind of weird. But she takes it in stride, man. She's one tough cookie. And we've gotten a lot of attention, a lot of notice from it.

So she's happy. Yeah, good stuff. I saw you called for Jakar Close or a ranked fighter next. Very reasonable requests, but why Jakar in particular? I have two losses in my professional career, and Jakar Close has beaten both of them. So I have one loss outside the UFC, one loss inside the UFC, and Jakar has decision wins over both of them. So I feel like getting a win over Jakar close, not only like, it doesn't erase those losses by any stretch of the imagination, but it definitely shows how much better I've gotten since those two losses have happened. So that's kind of the fight that I'm looking for if top 15 is off the table.

I like it. Before we get into it, you might have another opponent, somebody else. Jed actually has a bone to pick with you before we get rolling here. Jed, what do you want to say to Grant Dawson? I'm extremely upset with how quickly you finished him. I was really banking on the over one and a half and you just beat the shit out of him.

And it was very disappointing for me personally as I had a wager on the over one and a half and that was not close to hitting. I had a buddy that put like me in a giant part and he had me winning by either submission or decision. And so when I won by TKO, he was like, I was really happy for you. That was rude.

Dang it. You got to help your friends out, Grant. Come on. He didn't tell me about it beforehand. I would have went to a decision if I'd known. Then we'd all be happy right now. But good performance, you know, great mic work, and I hate you forever.

That's all. You're dead. You're dead to me. Great work. You're dead to me. Well, we've brood this up nicely. And normally we don't start with the old PFL on the show, but they are the story of the week for better or for worse,

depending on who you talk to. Yes, we got the Battle of the Giants coming up Saturday in Saudi Arabia. It's the return of Francis and Gano to the M.MA world. He's battling Henan Faheda. Chris Cyborg versus Larissa Pacheco. Johnny Ebblin versus Fabian Edwards 2. We got A. Jim McKee versus Paul Hughes and other fights that are going to take place.

and we've had a week of media and promotional stuff. We had a press conference earlier this morning that was a thing that happened. And then the road to this card in Saudi Arabia just continues to roll on. So Grant, I want to start with you because you're obviously in the UFC, but you're also an MMA fan. You have teammates who fight for the PFL. You may even have teammates fighting on this card. Take the last part out of it, all right?

As a fan who just loves this stuff, have they sold you? Are you in a position of, hey, L, can't, cancel Saturday's plans, cancel the trip to the pumpkin patch, the lunch date, because we're staying home to watch the PFL pay-per-view. What do you grade this card? Yeah, I mean, if you're talking about cards outside of the UFC, I think it's up there. I think it might be one or two. There were some Bellator cards back in the day that I was extremely excited about. So if we're talking about a fight that's not with the logo of the UFC, I think this is definitely up there.

You have the two biggest fighters in MMA fighting each other. Francis Inganu is probably the scariest human being in MMA right now. You know, I don't think there's a man alive that wants to fight him. And the fact that Hennon makes him look like a child in comparison is just mind-boggling to me. Hennon is one of the hugest, most, what's the word, athletic heavyweights I think I've ever seen in my entire life. And this is one of those rare situations where we see a main event outside the UFC and we know for a fact that both guys can compete

at the highest level in the UFC. One of them already did it and the other one is such an athlete. I don't think there's any question that he would do well in the UFC. So I'm very excited about this main event. You've got Johnny Eblen, who in my opinion is the best fighter at 185 pounds outside the UFC. So I'm looking to see him stay undefeated, get another big win over Edwards,

and really show how good that man is. Other than that, you know, it's just your other, it's your basic card. I like AJ McKee. I think that's going to be really good. But other than the main and the co-main, it's your average outside the UFC card. Jed, we've talked a lot about the promotion of this card heading in. Not great. This week, they've been sort of at the center of things.

They're putting on these events and such. We've had different interviews with Don Davis and Peter Murray. And we'll get into some of that stuff in a minute, it's impossible to ignore, but has PFL got you more interested in this card this week? What's the Michoulin grade after everything that's gone on over the past 48, 70, or 48, 72 hours or so? I mean, they haven't. I would actually say that the promotional part of PFL this week has been very poor in drawing my interest because they're focusing on the wrong things. You've got Don Davis coming out here and being Don.

people saying things like, ah, this is better than UFC 300. That's obviously an absurd statement. But I was already interested in this fight card. I didn't need the hyperbole. I don't need Don Davis coming out and saying, if you take five fighters from the PFL and five from the UFC, we win half of them.

All that is off-putting, frankly, because I don't come to the PFL for that. I just would like them to be a little more proactive about promoting the things that matter. The line heavyweight title is on the line this weekend, and there's been more of that than there was a week ago, but still like that should be the focus of what is happening here. Francis Inganu, Linnaeo heavyweight champion is back.

Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest female combat athletes of all time, is probably like, if not her last, very close to her last fight against Larissa Bacheco, who is kind of the star that they have, I guess, outside of Dakota Dichita. Like, this fight card has really great fights and very important things, and they're trying to make me less interested, if we're being very honest. They're not succeeding. I am still happy to be covering this and watching this on Saturday.

I love these time zone cards for me. They're perfect. Get in, get out, not have to go late into the hours with it. We're doing a watch party. It'll be fun. I just wish they would make it a, a little more fun than they have been this week. We'll get back to Dapper Don and Pistel Pede in a minute, but let's talk Francis and Gano, Jed,

because this man has been through a lot. It's out there. We know his story. He's fighting a giant man, as Grant pointed out in Henan Ferreira. It's a fight on paper. He should win, and he's heavily favored to do exactly that. While he should win, Jed, this is heavyweight MMA, and it's big dudes swinging big leather. and Henan Ferreira is a big, powerful athletic dude

who can put your lights out. While Francis should win, the question is, does he have to? Not just for himself in his story and his legacy, but for the Professional Fighters League, is this an absolute disaster for the PFL if Francis loses to Henan Ferreira on Saturday? It's the worst for the PFL if he loses.

If Francis loses, that sucks for him, right? Like, it's just a tough scene. that's really not going to affect his legacy that much because if we're just being honest about what's happening here his legacy is pretty much set in stone like what can he do in the pfl that will make you say francis and ghanu is the greatest heavyweight of all time functionally nothing they do not have the talent necessary for him to put together a streak of wins and be like oh this is fate or pride era just like okay he was the best in the the world. He went and did boxing. He came back. He still got quality wins and good, you know,

was a good, competent heavyweight. But many people, I suspect even in our own website, it's the best website around, will be like, yeah, okay, he beat him on Fahara. I'm still not putting him to number one because X, Y, and Z. Tom Aspinall, straight up has far more meaningful wins over the past three years than Francis does. And none of that's wrong. So his legacy kind of is where it is. It'll take a bit of a hit if he loses, but it'll be fine. Ultimately, it's not going to go up or down massively, and he already got massively paid for his boxing endeavors. So he's said, PFL is not. I, PFL sold the farm to him to get him to come over and they agreed to all his terms and conditions, and he has not fought for them in the two years functionally that he's been under

contract. This is the big moment, not just for him to win, but for him to be a draw, for him to pull eyeballs to their product because that is the bargain you are making with him. We have the best head. We have the baddest man alive. Come watch our product. I am very suspect that he will be able to do that. And that will be a categorical failure for them alone. If he fails to draw eyeballs and he gets got, that's a calamity.

Because nobody on Monday morning, if Phenon Fahara comes out and ICE is Francis and Ganu, nobody will be talking about Hadan Fahara. The story will be the fall of Francis Nganou, and a month from now, no one will think about it at all. So it is really, really critical for the PFL and what they've invested in him, for him to get this win, because otherwise it's, we're not talking Kimbo-Lead-X-C situation. Like they won't fold overnight with the loss,

but it will be a pretty substantial black mark on their resume. Grant, what do you think? As I was presenting that question, there were some head shakes, some faces being made, and I respect that. But do you agree with what Jed's saying? Yeah, there are some things I agree with. There's some things I disagree with. One of the things that I disagree with is I think that PFL has kind of backed themselves into a corner here. Like he said, they sold the farm for Francis Inganu. I just don't think people are as excited about Francis Inganu as they think they think. that we are. He's got a very, very tough fight ahead of him. Personally, I train an American top team. I'm friends with Henan, so I'm obviously going to pick him to win. I think that he could win this very easily.

I think he could make Francis Ngano not look good. And then PFL is kind of in a situation where, like he said, we've sold the farm to this guy and it's not paying off. The issue is, I think that even if Francis and Ganu goes out there and starches Henan, it still kind of puts you in that same boat where it's like, yeah, but we never saw him fight Tom Aspinall. We never saw him fight John Jones. He's one in one with Stepe. I don't think there's really an argument that he's the greatest heavyweight of all time. One of the scariest, for sure. One of the greatest, I just don't see it. And if I'm PFL, I agree that if Henan wins,

people aren't excited about it. However, you now have the route to go down to say, we had the best heavyweight of all time in our promotion the whole time. You know, Henan is the best heavy weight of all time. He just beat Francis Ngano, who was a UFC champion, who was on the pound for pound list, who was starching people when he was in the UFC, and he couldn't beat our champion. So there's ways to go if both wins. I do think that they kind of backed themselves into a corner here, and they picked the wrong superstar to snatch, if that makes sense. It's really a bad situation for them, and I think that they would get more out of promoting their own guys instead of trying to ride the UFC's coat tail.

That's a really interesting point. So let me ask you this. If Francis never went to boxing, like if he just signed with PFL and then debuted right away, do you think you'd feel the same or did the boxing losses, especially the Joshua won? Did that kind of change your opinion on this? Yeah, I mean, it definitely did not help. The problem is, I think that the MMA fans are seeing.

the pattern here. The UFC creates a star. They don't want them anymore. Another promotion takes them, pays them a bunch of money and nobody cares. We saw Bellator do this for a really, really long time. They were taking the Chal Sondens. They were taking the Titor Ortiz's, these fights that we don't really care about or want to see, and they're paying them ridiculous amounts of money to try to bring in eyes. The problem is we don't really want to see that. And I think Francis and Gano is kind of in that same boat. Now, it might be the boxing losses. You might be correct on that. Maybe I'd be more excited if he hadn't gotten knocked out. I definitely would have been more excited after his fight with Fury because that was at least a close fight. Some people thought that

he could have won that, you know, because of the power and stuff. So maybe in that situation, but I just never think it's a good idea for a promotion to ride the coattail of another promotion and try to steal those guys. You know, I think it would be better for them to say, look, we've got the best heavyweight in the world. This is the guy. And we're going to take Francis and Ghanu when he was champion. We're going to bring him over here. And we're going to show you that we have the best heavyweight.

I think they would have gotten a better reaction if they had gone that route. But instead, they're like, no, we're going to steal this guy. We're going to steal this guy. And hopefully this one fighter is going to save our promotion. I just don't see it happening. What do you think about that, Jed? Do you feel like Francis doing the bot? Because I get where kind of grants coming from because I've heard this a lot,

even from casual fans, family members who know this fight is happening, but are asking me a million questions about it. Francis, at least to them, feel like that PFL is like a backup school for them. Like he signed with them, he went to boxing, and now it's just like, well, I lost two and I got iced by Joshua, so I guess I'll go back to this other promotion and fight in MMA. It's almost like you want to go to Florida State,

you didn't get in, but, you know, UNC is still a fine school and that's kind of how they're looking at this. Do you, I'm just throwing two fucking ACZ teams out there, Judge. I got to tell you, UNC is an extremely difficult school to get into. I think

maybe you might have mixed that up. I'm tired. Yeah, you know what I mean. It's not like that, Mike. It is that. The only reason he's back in the PFL is because he got obliterated by Anthony Joshua. Like, he hasn't

said that directly, but he's basically said that. Like, even after the Joshua fight, it was like, I really want to get back. Like, I want to get that back. That wasn't my best performance. I still want to do the boxing thing. Like, he wants to be boxing. There is not a market after the devastating loss to Joshua for boxing. And so he has to go back to where his bread was buttered.

And hopefully reestablish himself, remind people that this guy is a terrifying entity. and then like he ain't coming back to PFL he's going to knock out Henn and Fahara and then ante Dileia is like next he's coming back if he knocks him out then it's like okay what Deonté Wilder's kind of saying he's retired and now but maybe I can draw him back out like I don't know why like Zhang is like he's going to try and do that this is very clearly that that is where he would like to be both monetarily and I think just where he wants to to be, you know, in this stage of his career. And yeah, the boxing loss hurt him.

I won't say losses. The Tyson Fury loss did not hurt him. The Tyson Fury loss, if he had gone back to MMA right after that, this would be a bigger deal. People would be more interested. Both because time-wise, it's a lot more recently that you've seen him fight, and because he won the fight. Like, everybody agrees he may or may have not have won the fight officially and on the cards,

but everyone agrees that the guy you would have rather been leaving that fight was Francis and Ganu. And so doing what he did that night elevated his star to as big as it could be, and then they cashed those chips in on the Joshua fight. And that worked very poorly. Worked great from a business standpoint, made a whole lot of money, but it worked very, very bad for his cultural cachet or his kind of aura amongst the combat sports fan base. and that's just where we are.

He has to, this is a get back fight for him in the avenue that he has made his career primarily. And so I think a lot of factors are into it. I think the loss is an enormous part of why this is a little bit down from where it would have been eight months ago, say. But also just, dude, we haven't seen him fight in almost three years. I haven't fighting MMA in almost three years. It's an incredibly long time to not have seen him won. Like he has not won a fight in that long officially. So that's just, it's hard to feel like that energy about someone who hasn't been getting their hand raised,

even if they're a scary mother effort, you know? Yeah. Great. I mean, just really interesting topics when it comes to this. It's just been a weird week, Jed, because, you know, Chris Cyborg is coming back. And she looks like she wants nothing to do with any of this. Maybe I'm wrong. But that is the energy.

that she is giving off certainly. And I love this fight with Larissa Pacheco. Eblen and Edwards, fine. We've seen it. Eblen knocked him out. I didn't really have a desire to see it again. But okay, it's fine. Agent McKean and Paul Hughes, to their credit,

they have done the best job this week, drumming up pictures for their fight. So kudos to them. But Don Davis and Peter Murray, they are just not doing it, Jed. And we touched on this. Don just continues to mention Dana White in the UFC. And now he's calling out John Jones for something.

And Peter Murray, coming out and saying this card is the biggest event in MMA this year, bigger than 300, bigger than the sphere, bigger than anything that's been put on in all of MMA this year. Octagon MMA just put on an event in front of 60,000 freaking people. So if anyone can make that claim and have it have some kind of merit, perhaps it's them. But this bigger than 300, bigger than Sphere, Kayla running away to fight in the UFC, see, this has been the promotional tactics from the PFL brass jedd. What the hell, man?

Like, they just, we're the fan friendly. We listen to the fans. You clearly don't. We don't, nobody wants to hear this bullshit. Dude, it is, I said at the top, man, it is off-putting to see the way they are choosing to promote themselves. I don't, like, maybe this works for other people, you know? And Mike, you are much more the pro wrestling. person though I did watch the Vince McMahon thing so like now I get a little more insight into

what was happening in the 90s wrestling and like to me you should run your own race it's not about trying to shit on other people or or punch at them and draw them into a fight especially because Dana can go on any presser and just be like dude they're losing money why the fuck do I care about them and that just kind of ether's any point you might have had against him it should be about building yourself up because that's how life should be. We shouldn't really be out here. I'm not comparing my jawline to Grant Dawson's because I'd lose that. I don't need to do that.

I need to be focused on what makes me great and how to be better as myself and just be content with my own self-fulfillment, you know, not comparing myself to somebody else who I may or may not be competing with. And I would really prefer PFL do more of that. and less of the, Kayla is scared, and this is as big as UFC 300, because it's very,

very silly and objectively untrue. Grant, I saw you nodding your head in agreement. Literally on Twitter, 10 minutes before the show starts, and someone reacted to the fact that we're going online, like, oh, you guys are really dying over there

since Ariel Hawani left, and I'm like, no, man, we're having fun. They're having fun too. It's all good. And then Ariel's like, yeah, man, nothing but love. So he was trying to turn us against each other, and then we just all came together,

and like did the virtual fist pound Grant Dawson. Competition is good, is it not? Like Dana wouldn't even mention PFL or Don Davis or anybody. He probably say like, yeah, we wish them the best if they just kept their mouth shut. But now it's turned into this PFL attacking UFC thing and then Dana has to respond to it. And like Jed says, all I used to do is say, we're smoking it. They're not making any money. Like why can't we just rising tides, Grant, right?

Rising tides. Yeah, and I couldn't agree more with what you guys are saying. I feel like the biggest issue here is if you're chasing somebody's coattail, you're always going to be behind them. Anytime Dana White talks about PFL, anytime Dana White talks about another promotion that isn't the UFC, it's because somebody else asked him a question about it. Whereas you have PFL constantly, like they're promoting, they don't even realize that they're promoting the UFC for the UFC. you know, just stop saying that you have better this, better that, and just put on the best fights that you can put on.

You've got a very interesting, I don't know what the word is, interesting style of fights with the whole tournaments, the whole tournament setup. You know, keep working on that, keep building with that, and just try to get better instead of trying to chase the UFC and saying, oh, look who we got, or, oh, look at what we're doing, oh, look at this. Fans see through that.

I'm telling you, MMA fans are not as stupid as people think they are. Like, we can see through stuff. We know who the greatest show in the world is. It's the UFC. And in my lifetime, there's not going to be a promotion that's bigger than the UFC. It's just not going to happen. Barring World War III happens and everybody gets shut down for five years, the UFC is going to remain on top.

So stop trying to compete with them. Just make your own business, make your own show, build your fighters. And for me, how I would have done to Kayla Harris situation is instead of saying that she was running away from the division that she dominated for years is she's going into another promotion to show how good she got fighting with us. You know, if she beats all those girls in the UFC and becomes champion like I think she will, then you say, look, we built her. We made her. She was the greatest because she fought for PFL first. That's how it works. But no, instead, they're watering down their own product by saying that she's running away.

So if she goes out there and loses in the UFC, now all you have to say is, see, like she was dominating in PFL, she couldn't win a fight in the UFC. And this is all hypothetical, of course, and you're watering down your own product. Build your fighters that are leaving up and sending them into the UFC and saying, look, she's going to do great because she fought for us first. Grant Dawson promotional consulting services opening next week. Give the man a call and he can help you build your promotion in the right way. But let's go from two promoters who are not very good at doing the thing to another promoter who has done the thing so well that they have lapped the PFL 5,000 times. The point for round one goes to Jedbyshoe. Nicely done.

Good round. Good rounds. Grant, I had to give it to him after he lost his bet to you. You know, I got to give him a little something, you know, but don't worry about it. I'm about to finish you in the next minute and 12 seconds, Grant. So you can feel my pain. Let's, I'm glad you're here, Grant, but I want to start with Jed on this one because I want to move from the PFL brass to Dana White because he is unhappy with the rankings in the UFC. He wants to change things up.

He's over the, it seems at least for now, he's over the AI. idea, which I think is great. And it's sort of been his rankings festivist, Jed. It's been an airing of grievances every Tuesday night after the Contender series. And this time, Jed, the focus is on Khalil Roundtree.

Him being ranked number eight at light heavyweight after his gritty performance, but ultimately ended in a knockout loss to Alex Pereira. Terrific fight. Terrific performance. Star Power shot up. His stock rose across the board. Does Dana have a point here, Jed?

No. This is not even like a little bit. It's like I just I pulled up my rings. I have Cleo number seven. I'm not a pull like you can rank fighters. You want to rank them. Like it's totally fine. If you just if you want to rank somebody coming off a loss because they had a good

performance, they exceeded expectations, whatever, that's reasonable. And Dana can can have the here's the thing. Dana's opinion is not wrong because it's an opinion. opinion. But it's not a fact. And that's the problem with what has happened here is this he, I mean, and this is just really par for the course for Dana. All of his opinions are facts. And to him. And so this has to be wrong. It must be fixed. No, like you're one person who thinks that. But you could probably read that room that like that a contender season, be like most of the people in the room didn't agree with you.

So are all of them wrong and you're the only person who is correct? Or are maybe you just a little high because you're really high on Cleo? Because I was a great performance from him. And they can all be true. That's how rankings work. Is it as a collaboration between multiple entities? I'm not here to offend the UFC rankings. Many silly things happen in the UFC rankings.

Frankly, it's why you should use the MMA fighting global rankings. They're substantially better. But my biggest issue is not with this. It's not with any of the like, like, I, or Cleo should be ever. I think that's all very, very silly in the same way that I think his refusal to acknowledge that John Jones is not actively contributing to MMA at this point is silly. The thing that really got my goat this week is him being like, all right, I'm fixing it.

I am now going to fix it. And everyone was like, okay, reasonable. You're just going to do in-house rankings. which is fine that like then you can be happy with how they turn out. They won't be any more true than any than MMA fighting or MMA junkies or whoever else fight Matrix running rankings. But they'll be yours and you can be content with them. But then he comes down and it's like, we're not going to do them. We don't want to do this in-house.

We don't believe we should have this level of control. And we could debate the merits of that statement. But it's on its face a lot. Why? Why? Because what you are saying is, I don't want to control the rankings unless I think they're stupid and then I want to control the rankings, which means you want to control the rankings. You can't say, I'm hands off. I'm not going to deal with the rankings. That's somebody else. But every time they rank something that you disagree with, you then say, I'm stepping and I'm fixing it. That's not how this works. Because the newsflash for him, the thing that I desperately wish any reporter, in that freaking room had asked him was, okay, so you've got a meeting Wednesday to talk about

the new rankings. What happens when you disagree with one of the new rankings? Because rankings are not objective. There's not an ELO system like chess. There is subjectiveness to this. And one time, you're not going to like them. I know you won't because when you said AI is going to do it, then somebody was like, hey, AI says John Jones isn't the top pound for pound fighter.

And you were like, well, AI says, you're not. stupid. You have to own it or not. Like those are your choices and he is refusing to pick one of them. He's just yelling about it. And so it's all sound and fury doing nothing and very, very silly. Grant, I get you're a guy. You're in the best division in the sport, Grant. We talk about this all the time. People like to throw a band and weights the best division in the sport. And those people are just wrong. It is the lightweight division. And rung by rung, you were trying to climb this ladder. And that number next year, name can mean something when we're building certain fights. Not all the time, but I do agree with Dana to a certain extent because the rankings panel,

for the most part, it's a disaster. A lot of people in it don't even cover the sport anymore. So this is needed to shakeup for a long time, but what would you like to see changed with the UFC rankings being a guy that this impacts to some degree this conversation? Yeah, I'm not exactly. Here's the issue with it is I admit there's a problem, but I can't come to you. with a solution. I don't think the UFC taking over the rankings is a good idea just because I feel it'll

start off quite, you know, honest and quite fair. And then it's going to turn into, well, we need Khalil Roundtree to fight Alex Behras. So we're just going to jump them up five spots in the ranking. So it looks a lot better. I definitely agree that you shouldn't be ranked higher coming off of a loss. I don't really care about performances. I care about wins and losses. So I do agree with the fact that don't rank him higher just because he had a good loss instead of a bad loss.

I'm not sure what the difference is. But the one thing I will say is that the lightweight division is severely mucked up. It's in need of help. You know, we have RDA at 13 or something like that. And he's verbally said multiple times that he's not coming back down to 155. His next fight is scheduled at 170. So it doesn't really make sense. Then you have Max Holloway sitting at like eight or nine, if I'm not mistaken,

after just beating the number four guy in Justin Gachie and now set to fight at 1.45, it just doesn't make any type of sense no matter which way you look at it. You know, do you not rank him above Gachi because he's a 45er? Well, if that's the situation, why is he in the lightweight rankings? Do you rank him in the division because he beat Gachie? Well, then why isn't he ranked above Gachie? It just, it doesn't make any sense. I think that we do need a third party to do these rankings.

I'm just not confident in the guys that are running the rankings right now. So maybe we need more people to vote on these things. Maybe we need less people. Maybe we need to get less people in there. Too many minds to stir the pot, too many opinions. I don't know what the answer is, but I don't think giving the UFC the power of the rankings is the answer. I think there's a better way to go about it. I'm just not 100% sure what it is.

Someone asked you this. The MMA fighting global rankings. They're spectacular and perfect. So just use those. Dana, you're welcome to use them. They're free on the internet. You can find them. Go to www.com slash rankings.

I think he's in the top 15. Is he not? He will be in the next cycle once we read. If you're not, you'll have a very good, chance after that performance, but let's see. You're a Farr, at worst, fighter to receive votes. Putting us on the spot, I love this so much.

You are not ranked. Yeah, these rankings are ass, man. Lightweights a juggernaut. And it's not just UFC rankings. It's across the board. You're close. You got votes. No, R&RD is not remotely ranked for us.

Holloway is ranked for us. Halleys ranked three in our rankings actually he got a big ball better than him being ranked behind the guy he just beat so yes that's great and there's a very chance that he will fight at 155 after the Toporia fight if he loses so yeah he's like Roman DeLideze is a ranks light heavyweight

and just fought again at middleweight so I mean it's it's kind of a mess I want to ask you above this grant and I don't know like because I don't know how to fix this you can go to the MA fighting global rankings like they could ask us to do their rankings and as you know unbiased journalists we would probably decline that

because that's what you're kind of supposed to do but what are your thoughts on fighters contributing to the rankings and I mean it's it's tough to do because especially like in your case you're an American top team and like 30% of the UFC roster trains in American top team so you can be like

hmm I could put this guy here put this guy there and they're could be some biases though. But there are a lot of people like, you know, maybe have the fighters rank all the other divisions outside of their own. And then we just kind of compile them. We put them in a computer and we go from there. What are your thoughts on that? Would you be down for that?

Yeah. So let's get all the bad ideas out first so that we can start coming up with some good ones. That's having the fighters run anything other than their own fights is not a great idea. And here's why. Fighters can't be judges because we're very biased. If one of my friends is fighting, he's getting 10-8s across the board. I don't care how the fight goes. So I really, that's why I'm not qualified to be a judge.

I don't think giving it to the fighters is a good idea because there's too much, it's too personal. It's too connected. It's too, we know each other. I don't like this guy, so I'm going to vote to rank him lower. I do like this guy. I train with this guy. In my head, this guy is one of the best dudes in the, the world. I don't care if he's had a couple of bad performances. He's so good. He beats my butt every day.

We got to rank him high, you know. I don't think that having the fighters run it is a good idea. You could convince me on fighters that are retired. Like maybe, maybe, a Forrest Griffin who's retired, he seems very professional. He seems like he would be able to take his biasedness out of it. You could convince me on guys like that. The problem is there's just not a whole lot of those guys. You know, if you look at the best fighters in the world, they're all biased, they're all delusional, and they're all, I think that's not quite the right answer. I mean, Jed, you're right. I honestly think that's a best idea. You do?

Why? Just because it would be fun and funny. It would be absolute anarchy. It would be the best thing in the world. Can you imagine, like, the petty beefs fighters have over nothing? And then you'd be like, next round of rankings, I'm going to rank you. 12, bitch. It would be so silly in the best way.

It'd be like the coaches poll only a billion times stupider. It'd be so fun. Oh, man. Well, maybe there'll be a fix. Maybe we'll come to some sort of agreement. And hopefully Grant Dawson ends up in the top 15. I have a very good feeling he will end up in the top 15 for this next cycle once you updated.

But let us continue on with the UFC. Let's talk about the return to the apex this Saturday. The point for round two goes to Grant Dawson, keeping us honest. Love it, one to one. Keeping us on the toes, putting us on the spot, the glitter falling in Florida. And yeah, let's talk UFC Vegas 99 this Saturday at the apex. Main event, a damn good one, Grant Dawson. Anthony Hernandez and Michelle Pereira, five rounds if needed.

Grant, we got two dark horses in a stacked middleweight division. You're excited for this one? Yeah, I'm actually very excited for this one. I think it's a very underrated main event. You know, Michelle has looked absolutely phenomenal since dropping down to, or I'm sorry, not dropping down, going up to 185. I think that, I think he's a real contender in that weight class. Now, Fluffy is a phenomenal fighter, and he's my favorite style of fighter, where he's terrible at everything, but he just finds a way to get things. He's got a great gas tank.

very high submission awareness, but everything he's throwing is insane, not the crispest, not the shiniest striking, but he finds a way to get in that pocket, make it dirty and get things done, and his gas tank is just absolutely ridiculous. Where on the other side, you have all flash with technique, all explosive power,

maybe not the greatest gas tank, but one of the most dangerous dudes in the division, I'm very, very excited for this fight. If you put a gun to my head, it's such a close fight for me. If you put a gun to my head and say, I have to pick somebody. I would probably go with Michelle just because how dangerous he is and how he's able to find that chin with his crisp, crazy striking. You don't usually say that crisp and crazy in the same sentence

when you're talking about a technique. But he is. He's very technical but insane at the same time. I have no idea what's going to happen in this fight. and I'm genuinely excited to see who wins and who moves forward. Chad, this is a good one, man. Like Apex, Tampa, Florida, Las Vegas at T-Mobile, it doesn't matter. This fight is a doozy, is it not?

Yeah, it's fight rocks. This is a pretty good card this weekend from the UFC. Few very, very standout good fights. The rest of it is what it is. But a couple of very, very good fights. And the main event is, I love the main event. We talked about a No Betts barb this week. Big Michelle Paheta guy, love the Molodore.

He's lunatic. And like me and AK have loved him before he even joined the UFC when he was doing lunatic stuff in the regional scene. And his move to middleweight has been so sensational. It's like three combined minutes of fighting with three wins over quality middleweight opposition. Flavi Hernandez has been exceeding expectations basically since he got in the UFC. Unbelievable grappler takedown artists. Like we are getting a real, you know, not, we'll never get the old school grappler versus striker matchup, but like this is kind of the this generation's version of it where one

guy really wants to be getting the grappling going and the other guy very much does not. And I think it's going to be a banger man. Like I said, when is the last time DeMolador was in a boring fight? It just doesn't happen. Like the dude is is an absolute anarchist out there. and I love him. So, yeah, this fight rocks. What awaits the winner here, Jed, because Fluffy will have six wins in a row.

Pereira will have nine straight wins, nine and a half to be like at worst because of the Diego Sanchez silliness. But how high up the ladder can the winner go here? To the, how close are they to the Whitakers, the Shemayevs, the Stricklins, the DDPs, the Izis, etc. I think it will depend on how they win. If Pahana comes out and gets another one-minute knockout, he's getting launched. Like, they're just going to say, okay, Yolo, let's kick him up. The issue at middleweight is there's a lot of talent coming up right now. And Kyle Boralia already sort of got that inside track by getting the cannoneeer fight.

Nassarineen-imov, who's been around and been highly ranked for a while, is also kind of surging. You've got people coming to take over from the previous guard. and these guys are part of that group, but they're in the back. They are at the back of the line right now. And so they need an impressive win to say, hey, we want to be up near the front of this changeover, as opposed to having to kind of slowly climb.

For Fluffy, like, it will be tough, six wins in a row or whatever. And his next win, like, if he just has a quality win, like a good win but doesn't go out there and dazzle, his next one's probably like, Brendan Allen coming off that loss maybe like Marvin Vittori like a step up but still a ways away from getting

where the ultimate goal where he wants to be so I think whoever wins it needs to be impressive or it's going to be that they'll certainly get an opportunity to advance but maybe it's Jared Canaan here maybe it's Mara Boree maybe it's I don't know what if Paula Costa is fighting or whatever I also don't actually know that he's ranked above them

I would suspect he is But like you're talking that as opposed to, hey, the winner of this maybe is in line to fight Israel-Dissinia when they go to Australia in February. Like you got to dazzle on Saturday night to get that opportunity. What do you think, Grant? Where do the stakes involved? I actually talked to Fluffy yesterday and he was full-on Fluffy and it was amazing. Just curse it up a storm. When that interview drops tomorrow, we'll have to get the curse counter going.

But what awaits the winner here? because I got to tell you, Grant, whether it's Pereira or Fluffy, and it ain't happening next, but the idea of either of those two guys fighting Drickus DuPus C scratches me right where I itch. Yeah, I definitely think that it's one of those situations like he was saying, how they win, but also I think it comes down to who wins. Because, you know, if Michelle wins, I think you're like, okay, great striker. Who wouldn't want to see him fight a Robert Whitaker? Let's just say Robert Whitaker loses to Chimaio, which I don't think he will, but let's just pretend that he does.

Who wouldn't want to see a striker like Michelle versus a Robert Whitaker, another phenomenal striker? Like, that's kind of what you want to see. But then if you say, well, now you've got a guy who's more of a grappler, even if you had a great performance, it doesn't really like, it doesn't really float your boat to be like, yeah, put him in there against Robert Whitaker, you know? Then you're like, well, there's some more interesting matchups for the grappler than another. great striker. So I definitely think either person that wins is going to go down a different road, no matter how they win. Unless Fluffy goes out there and does some weird spinning shit that catches him, the way I see this going is if Michelle wins, we're going to see him fight

probably Robert Whitaker, maybe Marvin Vittory, I also like the Brendan Allen, somebody that's going to sit there bang with him and let's make this crazy. Whereas if Fluffy wins, it's probably going to be by submission or maybe a unanimous decision, getting him tired over the five rounds, winning the last three rounds through his grappling and through his grit. You're going to want to put him, I could see a Jared Kandonier. I know Jared's a striker, but I could see more of a Jared Kandoneer, that type of situation. I think it looks a lot better for Michelle to win this than it, for the division at least. It looks a lot better for Michelle to win this than it does for Fluffy to win this, just because

there's so many crazy matchups that you've. could immediately throw him in there with where it's going to be like, we're going to see fireworks. You know, he mentioned Izzy. Izzy's coming off of his loss to DuPlessy. That's a great fight. You got a wild, crazy out-of-the-pocket striker versus the most calm, calculated striker there is. That's fire versus ice, emotion versus calculation. That's the type of fights that the fans want to see.

Man, love this idea. Love this idea. Middleweight is everything I thought it would be at the beginning of the year. but Rob Flav versus Kyler Phillips, the co-main event. Charles Johnson's been trending upwards. He's on this card. Nikolao versus Salma Beyev is a good one. Not a bad apex lineup here, Grant,

but we'll talk more about this card on the preview show tomorrow, sort of the ins and outs ex and O's. But I've created a new award. It's called the Grant Dawson Show Steeler Award. Who do you think it could be on this card, Grant? Because you came in, a lot of hype on the main event. And Brennan Royval looked great. That fight was amazing.

But I still think you're the guy that people were talking about the moment. most coming out of this one. Who could it be on Vegas 99? I mean, is this the question, let me, let me get the rules here. Is this like, who are we not expecting to do well that will do well? Or who do we think will actually, everybody's going to be talking about on Sunday? The latter. We were, yeah. No, it's the latter. Because if this is the Grant Dawson Award, none of us weren't expecting you to do well. So it's who steals the show. Yeah.

So, yeah. I think it's going to be Michelle. I really do. And I'm going to tell you why is I think we're all expecting him to do well. If I'm not mistaken, he's the underdog, which is, you know, it's a close fight. So I don't disagree with him being an underdog. But him being an underdog, if I'm correct, him being an underdog coming into this fight and gets a big flashy two-minute, two-round, whatever it is, big COO knockout over somebody

that is just super tough like fluffy, super durable, not going to go away, going to be trying to grapple him. I think that's the fight that gets everybody excited. They say, hey, we have a guy that can stuff takedowns, he can put on great performances, he can do his backflips and his sidekicks and his ninja crap.

I really think that people, assuming he wins, I think people are really, really excited for the future of Michelle. Jed, who's it going to be? So, I have, I don't think that's a bad answer for being honest because, you know, I love me Demolador. It can't be rebellious to Spain because no one will be that excited when he kills Austin Lane. They'll just be like, yeah, that was anticipated.

And we didn't learn anything. It would be a cool chaos when it happens. But the answer is Gene Matsumoto, because this dude is nails. He is an unbelievable prospect. and he's going to do the impossible. He's going to make Brad Coton a fun. And so what we'll be talking about Sunday morning other than Francis Zingano is,

do you see that Matsumoto kid? He made Brad Cotona fun. He whipped his ass all around the cage and Brad Cotona didn't get to Cotona him to death and misery. He's going to steal a show. It's going to rock. Check out G. Matsumo. That dude is going places.

Wow. Nicely done. Show out to Charles Johnson, too. It could move to 4 and 0 in 2024 at 125 pounds. Didn't see this run from him coming. Yeah, especially after back-to-back losses in 2023. So it could be some interesting times. There are going to be some interesting times coming up in December.

We'll talk about that coming up next, but the point for round three goes to. Jed stole it at the end. Nicely done. Two to one. Very good. That point was for you, Amber Lombri. You're the best. Yes.

Someone who is obviously just watching the program. Yeah. Shout out to Amber, who is clearly watching the program, but is not listening to the program. So I appreciate that very much. You're my favorite person since the dude who said 300 sucked on paper. There were four good fights. I can't remember what your name is, but God, I miss you. Come back. I got to remember.

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Let's talk about UFC 310 because we were wondering what are the fights going to be. We knew some of them. Yeah, there's the comment. Apparently they didn't listen to the first round or listen to any show in the last like two years because boy, that is obvious. or understand how media works.

Yeah. Pretty silly. But anyways, Grant, UFC 310, Bilal Muhammad will defend the Welterway title for the first time, and he will do so against Shafkat Rachmanagh, first fight since winning the belt against Leon Edwards. This is a damn good main event, Grant? I think we have a lot of questions on both ends.

Is Bilal going to be a guy who could be a champion for a long time? Is he just the guy holding the title for Shafkot? What was your reaction when you found out that this is going to be the main event to close out the pay-per-view calendar year? Yeah, I was really excited about this. You know, the last thing that I wanted to see was a rematch with Edwards. I thought that he showed who the better fighter was. So we're in this weird spot when it comes to the welterweight division where we've got a lot of possible contenders, a lot of up-and-comers that if you said, okay, they're fighting for the belt.

I'd be like, yeah, no, I'm cool with it. That's good. But then we've also got a couple of the old timers that are still hanging around and still winning fights. And you're like, okay, yeah, I could see them fighting for the belt. I was really worried that we were going to see Bussman in there. I was really worried we were going to see somebody who had already been a champion or God forbid a Kobe Covington or something along those lines.

And it was just something I did not want to see. I'm very, very happy with this matchup. I think that Shavkat is a phenomenal fighter. I think a lot of people are really high on him. 18 and 0, 18 finishes. What a stud. Absolutely phenomenal. I have to give the edge to Belaw Muhammad, though.

And before people jump down my throat or try to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, my only qualm with Shavkat is we haven't seen him fight a good wrestler with a good gas tank who has really, really good submission awareness. I think that Shafcott has what's zero defense when it comes to striking. He's all offense, all go, go, go, go, go. And he's got an incredible chin and incredible gas tank. I just think that Balal is going to be able to mix wrestling with striking well enough to get him down, ride him out. I don't think it's going to be the most exciting fight title fight we've seen. But I do think it could be a dominant one.

I do think that Belaw Muhammad belongs as champion as we. we saw against Rocky Edwards. And I do think he's going to get a couple more before he runs into somebody that can really figure him out. Jed, thoughts on this? Is this a spicy hot take from Grant Dawson here? Balaw obviously looked great against Leon Edwards.

I didn't think he was really in danger at any point in that fight. You've been saying for a while. I've been saying for a while, Shavkat is as soon as he gets his chance, he's fighting for the belt. Has your opinion changed, especially after listening to what Grant has to say

about this fight. No. Also, shout out to Lazybed. Cross was the name of the individual. Yes, thank you. Come back, Cross. What a king you are. Cross probably agrees with Grant

because I got to tell you, Shavkat's going to beat the brains off of Bala. And I've been wrong before, so I could be wrong this one. I don't think so, man. That dude's a bad dude. And Balaamahmah is a very good fighter. I was extremely pro-Belahmahman.

as a fighter on this very program pre-UFC 304 when others weren't i am not taking anything away from ball it is just how highly i view shavkat i honestly don't i think it's such a bad matchup from ball that it is hard for me to see how he wins because he needs takedowns and no one has ever taken Chavcott down. And Ballal is a very competent, like very effective striker. I think that is just going to get him battered if he's spending 20 some odd minutes. Because Chavcott is, you're right, Grant, he doesn't have defense, doesn't need it. Smart man once told me good offense, best defense you got, and he's got an unbelievable offense.

I am excited this fight is happening. It is the fight that should have happened. Grant is 100% right when he said, you know, was concerned that other people might slip in here in this space. I didn't honestly, I was not really sure if we'd get it by the end of this year, but I am glad that it is happening. It is the just and true fight. This is meritocracy in the sport.

The two guys who most deserve to be fighting for the belt are. And look, if Belal does it, talk your shit, baby. I've always been team talk your shit. If you are proving people wrong, which you will absolutely be doing if he wins, then that man can talk shit to everybody forever because he did it with the Leon. He did it with even getting the Leon fight in the first place. And he comes out and he beats the boogeyman of the weight class. Nothing could be better for his legacy.

Then he gets, you know, then he'll fight whoever is next at that point in time. Maybe Usman has picked up a win and is doing it. I don't know. But this is the fight that should happen. I am stoked on it. And frankly, I am stoked on 310. This card looks, I am sorry, Pete Murray. I'm so sorry to have to tell this to you,

especially because I'm in your pocket and you are paying me money for Amber Lombie. PFL Battle of Giants is not better than UFC 310. It's certainly not better than several other events have happened this year, but it ain't better than 310. That card looks awesome on paper. Well, let's talk about two of the other fights. Please.

Am I allowed to rebuttal here real quick? Of course. So you're saying that you're saying that Shavkat has not been taken down. And I would agree because fighting Wonderboy, the striker, you're probably not going to get taken down. Fighting Jeff Neal, the striker, you're probably not going to get taken down. Fighting Neil Magny, I'm not even sure what he is. you're probably not going to get to him. Wow.

The argument that you have here is that... The problem is... Neil Magby... He never... He never... ...a wrestler that can strike, that can stay safe striking, put together combinations,

and has a gas tank that can keep up with him. I feel like Shopcots, he's very talented, he's very skilled, but one of the best things that he does is wear on people. And I just don't see him being able to wear on a guy with the conditioning, with the champion experience like Vala Muhammad. Look, Grant, come on back in December.

We can do this again. And I'll be on this corner. You'll be on that corner. And we'll see how it goes. I'm so confident in my boy. It's time for Rachmanov era to begin. He's got a fun hat, Grant. He's got a fun hat.

And that's your best argument. Look, I will always support dudes from the Eastern European, or Eastern Asian European mountains with fun hats. All of them are killers. Hey, okay, you're not wrong on that point. 100%. 100%.

If ball comes out with a fun hat, maybe we can rediscuss. Until then, shop caught for day. Here's the thing, though, is that Bala Muhammad is training with the fun hat people. He's training with the guys with all those fluffy fun hats. But they haven't given him a hat yet.

I mean, I think that speaks volumes. Why hasn't Habib given him his own babaka? You know, he could. He could knight him. As the stories of old with his own hat. Maybe he will after this fight. I mean, that's more impressive than a black belt, in my opinion.

That would honestly be so sick. That we agree. If we're all beached shop, God, Habib just comes and puts the hat on him, that would be unbelievable. That would be a, what a right of passage. We need to give you a hat. Why don't you have a hat? I don't like hats.

I don't accept this answer. We're going to find you a hat. Then we ask you what? Well, like a top hat. Nobody's rocking top hats in the cage. Let's bring those back. I need like the peeky blinder. The peeky blinders.

See, Mr. T knows. Mr. T knows you need a hat. Give me a hat. You know what a hat? We don't wear hats. So there you go. Hat make it's fighter. At make it a lot of Ali Pants, Alexander Pantoja versus Kaya Sakura.

I mean, it is what it is. We say it all the time. Availability is your best friend. Kaias Kuro is available. Gets himself a title shot at his first UFC fight. Should be fun as hell to watch. One fight I do want to talk about. It's official now.

Grant I'll start with you. Nick Diaz is coming back. He's fighting Vicente Lucke on this card. Nick hasn't fought since the Robbie Loller, fight. He didn't look all that great. If you follow him on Instagram, Jude looks in shape, looks ready to go, looks focused, best shape I've seen him in a long time. What's your reaction to this fight? Were you like, ooh, yay, or you're like, I don't know about this? I'm really not the right guy to ask this question, too, because I am the biggest anti-Dia's

brothers, fans there are. I've never really thought that they were good fighters. I never, I've never been excited. That's not true. I've been excited about one Diaz fight, and that was the second Connor McGregor fight with Diaz. Absolutely. I'm just not a fan of them. I get that other people are fans of them.

I get that their draws. I think we saw everything we needed to see in the last fight. Nate Diaz looked horrible. Excuse me, excuse me. Nick Diaz looked horrible. He looked his age. He looked like he should have been retired. And he was fighting another guy that was a,

the same age, around the same fight experience. It wasn't like he was fighting a young stud that was making his name through Nick Diaz and just wasn't fast enough to deal with him. I thought he looked horrible. I can't imagine more time passing and an older man looking better as more time passes. So I'm not excited about this one. I think Vicente Lucke should piece him up pretty handily. This one just doesn't get me going.

A rookie mistake, Grant. A rookie mistake. I'm not even going to pretend that I'm like the biggest Diaz guy, but the viewers will not support you saying I'm an anti-Diaz person. The Diaz Army runs deep. Diaz 1-25 forever. And that's all the argument I need. The fans will take over from here just because they love them from Nick Diaz.

Well, we're about to find out if they're going to support you or support Grant. Sure, clear. Grant's 100% correct. This fight's a travesty and shouldn't even be happening. But you can't just say I'm an anti-Diaz guy. The fans will eat you for lunch. I mean, Grant's so over right now. I don't think it even matters after what he did on Saturday.

But the point for round four, folks, before we get to, well, I just kind of gave it away. Grant's going to get it. Two to two. We don't even need the goddamn drum roll because I'm a terrible host today. I'm a terrible host today. You got to give it to them. Yeah, got to give it to them. That means we got one more question to knock around 60 seconds each for these gentlemen.

There is one big topic that is taken over the M. May space that we've not discussed. So I think we know where we're going here. So Jed, you are the Price is Right guy. You want to take the showcase first or we're passing on over. Oh, I know what we're going to talk about. I'll go first because I'm going to be negative. And so maybe Grant, I don't know how Grant's going to respond, but maybe he'll end on a positive note instead.

Well, we're about to find out. Some big news. We talked about Nick Diaz coming back. Another fighter has announced that he's going to come back. I was actually in attendance for Donald Seroni's final fight against Jim Miller, gets submitted in round two, comes to the back, gives his final speech and says he's going to, going to go take a bunch of steroids and ride some bulls and just enjoy life.

And boy, he did a lot of that stuff. But now, Jed, he's coming back. He says he wants to get two more fights in the UFC so he can get that promotional number between the UFC and WEC fights up to 50. And we have differing opinions about this. Some people are like, yeah, let's go. Some people are like, no, we shouldn't do this. And that includes Dana White.

But something tells me that if Donald really pushes for this and really wants this, he's going to get it. So Jed, put the matchmaker hat on, a little bonus category of on to the next one. Who is Donald Seroni going to fight? If you were the matchmaker, how are we matchmaking Donald Cowboy Soroni for promotional fight number 49? Go. Oh, this is actually easier. I thought we were just going to be like, how do you feel about it?

Because it don't feel great. Mike, we'll be honest with you. He's 40 some odd years old. I really like the idea of getting to 50. I totally understand that for him. Like, it's a nice round number. It feels meaningful, okay. I'm sure he feels better because he's been out gassing up for the past couple of years.

So I'm sure he feels great right now. I was like, I can do this. When he gets off the gear, as he says he's going to do for this, not sure if that will kind of persist. Extra head trauma, I'm never a supporter of. But seems like he really wants to do this. Ultimately, I agree. I think they will let him do this. And it's not the worst thing ever if you're just careful about who these two fights

are to my point. Tony Ferguson, too. You rematch Tony versus Cowboy. Tony is also on an infinite losing streak. He also should retire, but won't. You just match these two dudes up. Somebody's got to win, and then at least some of us can be happy with one win.

There you go. Finding positives, Jed. We appreciate that. Let's go over to Grant, big fight fan. I don't know how you feel about Donald Soroni, Grant, but look, put the matchmaker hat on. Donald Seroni comes back for fight number 49. The matchbreakers call you Grant Dawson.

They say, look, man, you're picking this fight for Seroni. Anything you want, that's what we're going to give it. You pick. Let's go. I don't like the idea of him coming back. I'm in the same boat as my opponent here. I don't like the idea of him coming back. I think he should have stayed retired.

One thing that you do when you come back is you take it away from the fans, your big retirement moment. because then the next time you retire, we're just going to kind of be like, is this real? Is he actually retiring? So I don't like that. If he is coming back and you have to make me match him up, I'm matching him up against Bobby Green.

Bobby Green, another great striker. I think these two guys put them in the main event of a number of a smaller apex card. And I think it sells. I think you see these two guys. They're going both up there in age. And neither of them are really going to give the other person a whole bunch of brain damage. I like Bobby Green. that right now. I like to

right. Bobby Green versus Donald Seroni for Grant Dawson and Jed likes Donald Seroni versus Tony Ferguson too. There's another interesting callout that wasn't really a callout. Someone had tagged this fighter in this and he was like, yeah, I'd love to do it.

Wouldn't hate the idea of Donald Serrani versus Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. That's not a bad shout out either. A couple of a 41-year-olds getting in there and getting after it. Your face may tell the story. I can't hear you. Anything?

I feel a lot worse about that one. Why? I think Wonder Boy just hits him. Like he hurts him. It's, Wonder Boy, like, has been losing. He's losing the top 10 dudes. Like, he's still extremely good.

He is 40, like 100%, but like he's been competing and competing like, Wonderboard beat the brakes off Kevin Holland not that long ago. That's a big one. he was being Joaquin Buckley before he got God in round three he looked pretty darn

good in that fight so Wonderbo's about the juice yeah I really thought Grant was gonna gonna go because we're gonna

salvage himself and say you know what makes sense Nick Diaz Diaz army stand up missed opportunity hey listen that that's one man's

plan but the fans also respect somebody who digs their feet in the sand and holds their ground. They don't change who they are for votes or anything like that. They just are naturally who they are. And we respect that here at M.A. fighting, as you're the fans. So cash your votes. Is it Grant Dawson?

Is it Jedmishu? Plus, Grant's not in the big PFL. So he's doing great. Yes. Yes. Grant, when do you want to get back in there? Do you want to try to get one more in before the end of the year? Or do you want to kind of enjoy the fruits of your labor for a few months?

Yeah, I'd like to get back in there, but it seems like every card is pretty much full from here until next year. At least that's what I've been told. So if I do fight again this year, it would probably be a shorter notice. So we'll see. I'd love to get on that Tampa card. I live in Florida. I'd love to get on that card. But everybody's telling me it's full.

I don't get to fight as much as I would like to as is. And coming off of a great performance, I think it's going to be even hard. to find me matchups that really want to step in there and take it, especially against me being unranked. I think that hurts me a lot finding an opponent because even if you beat me, you don't get that number next to your name. So it is what it is. I probably will fight January, February is what I'm hoping for realistically.

Dude, Tampa needs a co-main event. I'm looking at it right now. And there's a bunch of fights signs, but yeah, we don't have the main events. We have a co-main event. I mean, I thought Duren Rebus was main event. Is it not main event? No. Unless they, I know, I know that's on the card, but I don't think that's the main event.

I thought that was just the main event. If it's not the main event, then we need a main event. And that's a great co-main event. Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, we got Cortez Maverick, Manel Cop, Bruno Silva, Cub, Swanson, Billy Q. That's a good fight. Yeah, that's going to be fun as hell. So yeah, we're filling up.

I don't know if it's, I mean, maybe just the UFC is just keeping this under lock and key. Who knows? There's also, there's probably like a portion of their thought process from a promotional standpoint. That is thinking there's a chance that this card might not happen in Tampa because of everything that happened. So maybe they're kind of keeping it under lock and key. I know Dana has said like, we're hoping to do it. What he said? Exactly.

He said that there was some concerns, certainly heading into it, but as of right now, things seem like they're on pace to still be okay there, that the Amelie Arena was damaged less than they anticipated, but it is still possible that card ends up getting moved. Okay. Well, we'll see what happens and we'll go from there. I don't see Casey yet, which means are things close? What are we up? There he is.

New setup. Look at this. Unreal. We're both getting new setups. No sleeves, no mercy, baby. That's right. All right. We have a winner. We have a winner. Today, your winner with 54% of the votes. Diaz 112.5? It's going to be.

The fans have spoken, Jed Mishu. You can't disrespect the Diaz brothers. You can't do it. I don't even like them, but you can't do it. it, Grant. Just a tactical error. I get my revenge after Grant selfishly finished a man in under seven and a half minutes. And I feel great about it. Thank you fans. Diaz 1-2-5, Mushu 1-3-5. I don't know which rounds I won. This is fun, man. And I'm excited about this weekend. Like, I know that I'm in the pocket of PFO, what with the shirt, and all the money that they give to our website.

But I'm pretty pumped about it. I think it will be fun. Plus, then we get, the timing is great because after it, you can go right into the kind of meat of the UFC card. Or if you're like me, the meat of the UFC card plus UGA versus Texas. So it's going to be a damn fun weekend. We're going to have a watch party. Let's ride. Yes, back-to-back watch party weekend.

Grant, appreciate you jumping on, my man. I know the wind that mattered most happened five days ago in Las Vegas. Huge one over Rafa Garcia. Excited to see what is what your 2025 is going to look like. Any message for the peeps before we let you go? This show is rigged and the Diaz brothers suck. Incredible stuff from Grant Dawson. By the way, I might as well just announce it here.

I'm not going to tease you all. Grant was a fantastic guest, but the great mystery guests keep coming next week on this program. And Jed, this person asked for you specifically. Wanted to make sure you were going to be on. Rapper, chef, personality, guys all over the place. Action Bronson jumps on to battle Jed Mishu on VTL next week. Come get it, Broncelino.

Let's go. Very excited for that. With that said, Casey hit the music. We are out of here. Preview show tomorrow, all that fun stuff leading into a very, busy weekend in the combat sports world. And we thank you all very much for Grant, for Jed, for Casey on the On Ones and Tuesday.

Iconic voice, Sylvester Lent takes you home. Back next week to talk UFC 308 and more. I am Mike Keck. Good night, everybody. Love y'all. This has been Between the Links, an enemy fighting production on the Vox Media Network.