MMA Fighting - BTL | Francis Ngannou's Next Move, Almeida vs. Lewis, Chimaev Injury Update, UFC Austin

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

Francis Ngannou shocked the combat sports world by taking lineal boxing heavyweight champion Tyson Fury to the limit this past Saturday in Saudi Arabia, a performance that has opened so many lucrative doors for the former UFC world champion. With so many options in play, what is the most interesting move for Ngannou moving forward? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses Ngannou's performance, whether his next fight should be in boxing or MMA, and if a fight with Jon Jones could ever happen despite being the biggest fight the UFC could take part in at the moment. Additionally, topics include UFC Sao Paulo, the main event between Jailton Almeida and Derrick Lewis and the stakes attached, Lewis' recent arrest ahead of the bout, Khamzat Chimaev's injury update and what that could mean for Sean Strickland, UFC Austin getting two big five-round lightweight bouts, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Shaheen Al-Shatti and Alexander K. Lee.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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. We are back on another Thursday. A lot to talk about, including the lineal MMA heavyweight champion, arguably beating the lineal boxing heavyweight champion this past Saturday in Saudi Arabia. We got the what's next. We got fast driving heavyweights who is going to fight in a main event this Saturday. We got hand injury updates. We get the Lone Star State, getting a whole bunch of the best division in the sport on a fight night in a few weeks time.

Lots to discuss. Let's get into it and interest to combatants. And despite Jed Bissue getting over more than he ever has on this show last week, he's not here this week. Unbelievable. Took some vacation time, working on his cannonballs. All good because we have the Prince of Positivity here. The co-host of On to the next one. He's my best friend from M.A.fighting.com.

He's our a.k. Alexander K. Lee. Hello, sir. Which camera? Casey, which camera am I on? Is it, Amanda? Hello. There is the pew-p-pue. And look, before we hit record, this man was in a great mood. And he typically is in a great mood on all of our programs on this platform.

But after the Texas Rangers just finished the shalacking of the Arizona Diamondbacks where it was scared last night. Wow, my check. Maybe he's got to be a little extra spicy. He's one of our wonderful deputy editors, the wise wordsmith himself, Mr. Shaheen Al-Shaddy. I'm serious, man. How's it going? Trust me, as a Red Sox fan, we've been through some pretty tough ones.

Look, no one feels sorry for Boston sports fans. I don't appreciate the shots before I even get shown on camera. But you know what? I love you, Mike. Heck, I'm glad Jed could get a day off. It's well-deserved. That man has been killing it. And AK, I'm very excited to battle you today.

It's a great day. We've got to look at it positively, right? No one expected the Diamondbacks to be here. We're young. No, it'll be fine. I love this, New Shaheen. I love this. Yes, this is great.

I eat sports disappointments for breakfast. You know, this is nothing. I was raised, you thought, I don't know, the bane quote. Darned right. Yeah, yeah. Just act like I said the bane quote. I don't forget. Sure.

Or I don't remember. It's amazing to see you digesting this all so positively, Shaheen. Speaking of digestion, let's digest what Francis and Ghanu did less than a week ago, Shaheen, al-Shadi. Because this man rolls into Saudi Arabia. No one's giving him a chance. We're on the preview show. We're not really giving him much of a chance. We're throwing out these hypothetical cool things that could happen but probably won't.

And then Francis just goes in there and arguably outboxes Tyson Fury over 10 rounds. He knocks him down in round three. I score, I'm one of the idiots, according to Joe Rogan, who scored at 96, 93 for Tyson Fury, but none of that matters. Hold that you are. Both of you are. None of that matters. But none of that matters because no one expected 9693 Fury at all in this. In fact, pride rules.

Francigano wins his fight. He's the story of this fight despite the loss. It was just an incredible thing. And I've gone back and watched the fight now three times. Shaheen, how do you feel about this all five days later? You reacted immediately after the fight on the post-fight show that we did. Five days later, the interviews, you're hearing from all the tastemakers involved on Team Mangano. How do we feel about this five days later?

I just, I got to say, I love, like nights like Saturday night are, why this industry is so fun to be a part of. When we're on that post-fight show and we're all just sitting here flummoxed, like actually speechless about what we just watched, that is one of the coolest parts of all of this. Mike, I'm going to turn this on you. You just said you re-watched it three times.

Has your scoring changed after watching it three times, or are you still stuck with the terrible scorecard? I'm actually more confident in the terrible scorecard. Really? Which is fine. Which is fine. It's okay. Like, there were close rounds.

Like, you want to tell me, Francis one, I'll listen to you. I don't think it's like a terrible card at all. I would never say that about your scorecard, Chehain, even though you're saying it about mine. Well, you know, you open with shots about the diamond bags. We've got a tit-tat tat here, you know. True story.

I changed my card. I took for 93. Oh, God. I changed my card. Oh, boy. This is going to be bad. This is going to be good. I just told our boy, Damon.

I changed my card. 100 to 90 Fury. Round three was a slip. Okay. Round three was a slip. Caught him in the back of the head. He was already off balance. I think should have been counted as a knockdown.

So 100 to 90 Fury, I feel even better. But I feel I was way off on Saturday. I said 96, 93 Fury, clean sweep. 10 rounds to none. Shut up. Wow. Yeah. Well, you know, our good friend Jen always says,

if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. I appreciate the digging in, AK. Just dig into the hatred. That's how we got to do here. No, man, I mean, with days the process this, it still feels surreal that we live in a world where the last several days we're talking about, Francis Ngano versus Anthony Joshua is basically throwing himself at Francis's feet begging for that fight.

We're talking about Deonté Wilde. They're mixed rules, fights in the PFL, like it's an actual thing that might happen. All of this is just incredible. It remains incredible. It's honestly, I mean, you tell me if I'm wrong, but that probably was the greatest professional boxing debut of all time, right? Like what else compares if you're debuting against the number one heavyweight in the world, the lineal heavyweight champion? and you're essentially beating him. Because we all know.

Like, you two can stand on that corner that Fury won, and that's fine. I don't care one way or another. But, like, I'm going to stay in with the people, because we all watched that fight. We all know that Francis Ngano won that fight. We all know he never had a chance in hell to escape Saudi Arabia with a decision, given the circumstances of them just doing the Oostick face off right afterwards. All of it. I mean, you even look at the body language from Tyson Fury since that fight. That man looks like a man who knows he lost.

He looks like a man who knows he got away with one. It's incredible, man. It's absolutely incredible for this to have worked out in this way. And we said it a lot on the post-fight show, but for you look back at March, April, May, you look when it was dragging it. It didn't look like Francis would be able to land any of these big boxing names. And one championship is out here being like, ah, you know, we're good. We're good on Francis. We passed.

He's asking for too much. And, you know, BKFC, like all of the, all of the dregs of the sport, all of the lower ranks of the sport are being like, like, ah, we're too good for this guy. It's okay. Y'all can have him. And everyone was just crapping on him. And then all of a sudden, this is where we are in November. I think there's a very real chance he's going to get Fighter

of the Year votes from our team, from some members of our team on this staff. Like, it's just incredible for him to have a year where he didn't actually win a fight that we're talking about him in this way. Kudos to you, Francis. You believed in yourself when no one else did. It's one of the most stunning, and it remains one of the most stunning performances in combat sports that I've ever seen, regardless of what? what two judges out there in Saudi Arabia and you fellows as well saw because I watched that

fight, Francis had gone to won that fight. I'd much rather be Francis after that fight than Tyson. And again, Dia's rules, real rules, street rules, Francis won that fight as well. So we all know where it's, Dan. Yeah. You're not wrong about that. Pride rules, street rules, Francis wins, and you're right. I'd rather be France than Tyson Fury in this situation, AK, as the co-holder of the awful scorecard tag team championship belts alongside your best friend. me. Five days later, how do we feel about this? Again, who cares about the scoring? We all know who the story of this fight

is. Francis did the damn thing. He's celebrating. Kind of bummed on Ariel's show, if we're being honest, because I think he felt like he got screwed and got robbed. So you're still kind of happy, but wasn't taking it all in the way most of us probably expected him to, but where are you at five days later?

Well, by the way, my best friend, shout out to Brian Campbell, our brother in 9693. He's been touting it all week. He's been taking it out of the chin. just like we have. So BC, you know, can't we just see you back on between the links. But yeah,

it's great that we've had this time to process it. I got to do a little rivalry review of it. And I did. I joking about changing my score. I actually did. I think I tweaked it. I maybe may have given Francis one more round. But as both you just said,

as Ariel was saying on the May hour, as a bunch of people who said in social media, the actual scoring isn't super important. And saying that Fury, like, won a boxing match is almost like damning him with fans. praise. It's kind of like we're all, even when I did the 9693, I was like, oh, cool, like Fury 1. But nothing, nothing in my, because I was doing the live scoring for MA fighting, nothing in my like, as I was doing it, nothing in my reporting as I was watching the fight.

Nothing felt good about like, oh, you know, Tyson, you know, Tyson Fury is the better boxer. Like, it didn't feel, it's like we know that in any way in a void. And on the night of, that may have been the case as well, but it somehow just didn't feel right in that. moment to say it because Francis did so well. So it's amazing that we are now, like we've done a lot of coverage on me fighting. We got all the sides of it on the M.A. where we got Markell Martin in there. We got Don Davis. We got Eddie Hearn. We got Francis himself, of course. Everyone was weighing in. And I think we've hit like, we may have hit the saturation point with Francis coverage right now, but at the same time, it feels so important to get all these sides of it because I'm wondering

if this had gone another way, if Fiori had put him away early somehow, if Fiori had won a more clear decision, I don't know how much we're talking about this. Maybe we're still talking about a lot, just in a very different way. So I liked that Francis was sort of heartbroken. I think that's consistent with him.

I think it keeps him, I think it keeps his brand where it needs to be. Because he's not a McGregor, right? He's not a guy who's going to get away with being, you know, delusional with a result, like, oh, I was beating, I was handling Floyd. I was handling Floyd until the 10th round. They shouldn't have stopped the fight, blah, blah.

That's something McGregor can do. That's what his base is built on. That's fine. You want, I want the Francis reaction. Like, I think he gave us the reaction we wanted. Maybe he doesn't have an explosive quote. Maybe he didn't have some, you know, maybe he criticized the judges too much. Fine, you can nitpick there.

But I love that he was not, you know, jumping off the walls about like, oh, wow, I took the champ to the limit. It really meant a lot to him winning and losing. And I think that's also his mindset that got him this opportunity. He would have been happy, of course, to get like a wilder Joshua. Those would have done amazing fights. But I think in his mind, anything besides the Fury fight would have been a slight disappointment. And it's hard for us to put ourselves in that shoes because I think I was one of the media members who, after a while, after I saw some of those other deals fall through, like, oh, is he going to get, like, has a Fury fight moved on?

I'm pretty sure I said it in the show. I was like, I think the Fury fight has moved on. I don't think we're going to see that. But for Francis, he never did. And again, his reaction to that loss tells you he is all in. He has always has that main goal in mind. And anything but that main goal being accomplished is considered maybe failure is too strong a word. But like he didn't do it.

It was like 98% success, not 100%, which is crazy, considering most of us think he pretty much rocked it. Everything about this, getting the fight and how he performed. but listen we're not Francis and this is why Francis is where he is. Yep. I also think, and I said this on Saturday, and I've said it all week, I have tipped my cap to everybody who called me out on this. I said some really dumb things on that reaction show,

including, and I'm not even going to get back into you guys and go back and watch it, but one thing I feel confident in was that this overall was the best result for combat sports fans because we still get Fury Usik. We still have questions about Fury. That fight is way more interesting to me, now because I really thought Fury was just going to run Usik over.

Now I feel like maybe Usik could do it. Maybe he's got a chance. And if Fury beats Usik and Francis, like even if Francis wants to sit out and wait, he could get the rematch for the undisputed heavyweight title. And that is just absolutely massive. And that's just one of the countless options, AK, that Francis and Ganu now has coming off of this performance, win or lose. Again, none of that even matters.

It feels like Francis won this fight. So if you had your choice, AK, if you. if you could, you get the magic wand here and you can pick anything you want for Francine Gano. You're guiding him realistically through his career here. What should be next? Should it be a mixed rules fight? Should it be an MMA fight?

Should it be a boxing fight? Should he wait for Fury? Sports, combatives, however you want to frame it, opponent. What do you think should be next for Francis? What do you want to see? Unrealistically, I still want to see him fight John Jones. I mean, that's still the dream fight, right? in MMA, in the Octagon or in the Smart Cage, whatever,

co-promotion with the PFL. But this is, again, speaking unrealistically, I still feel like the UFC is not going to budge on this. I don't know why they have to. Yeah, you know, I think we're all correct when we say they've missed an opportunity with Francis. They had them under contract for the longest time. They could have found ways to, you know, work out, making that John Jones fight happen and also, you know,

getting involved in the boxing like they did with McGregor, which they had to kind of be track, kicking a screaming into that matchup. But you would have thought after that they would have sort of learned like, oh, wait, maybe we can do this and still make money off it. On the other hand, they also kind of lost patrol to McGregor, so maybe they're afraid of that. But yes, if I was waving my magic wand, Mike, that's one question. I would actually want to see the John Jones fight under MMA rules,

no chicanery, the two best heavyweights in the world in MMA right now, throwing down more realistically. I still want to see Francis do something with the PFL. I know that's not a sexy option. I know everyone's like, why does the PFL even have to factor into this? They weren't even mentioned on the show. They didn't even get the PR from Francis being in this fight. I get that completely.

But he's a man of his word. I think he does want to fulfill some obligation to them. I just hope they're very flexible to what they allow him to do because I have said shortly after the Fury Fight happened, I want to see him. PFL should just let him box. They need to set up some kind of boxing match for him. That is what people want to see Francis do.

MMA would be great. MMA would be great. If they want to go with the most boring, safe thing, winner of the PFL heavyweight tournament fights Francis, fine. Not like one of my top five options, but I'd be okay with it. It would restore some order to this whole, you know,

Francis MMA scene. And it would probably be the easiest thing for PFL to organize. But if you're the league, you've got to take a big sweep. You've got to take a risk, take a big swing, find some from the box, buy a ring, set up, get that PFL smart ring, set that up, and throw Francis in it and just let that, that you can put on pay-per-view. Mike, I heard you on a heck of a morning today going like, why, like, why is PFL like you trying to push pay-per-view? And you're right, except I think if they did boxing, they could, they could charge a pretty penny for Francis, for Francis fights. So that, that's, that's the way to go for it for me. Do something with the PFL. I know people are just like, find another, you know, find another.

motion, fight for the Saudi Arabia again, whatever. But I think, I think we can make something with PFL happen and something that's like actually exciting for the fans still. There's a very interesting answer, okay. And sheen, I'll ask you the same question. And what has been one of the more revealing things this week is that Don Davis, who as far as promoters go, outside of Dana White, is the king of just saying things, like literally just saying things.

And or just creating these weird things into. a graph that we put on the show and make fun of for 35 minutes because he just says just ridiculous stuff that you're just like, why would you say this when nobody really knows who you are? But the fact that even Don Davis realizes that France is fighting in MMA right now makes absolutely no sense was super telling. I was kind of surprised to hear him actually say that that it's John Jones, one full point, steep A would be a half point as far as compelling opponents go. And they're basically telling them like, go box. Maybe we'll create this mixed rules thing we could do here.

But dude, go box and make your money, which I have a lot of respect for Don for doing that. That's probably the most positive thing I've said about him the last couple of years. But especially after hearing that, Jehine, what should be next? Are you into this mixed rules idea?

It's just wait for the big boxing fight, wait for the Fury rematch. Like, what do you want to see Francis do? Yeah, you're not wrong. Kudos to Don Davis for actually coming out and saying what we're all thinking, right? Because, I mean, that might be the most honest thing I've ever heard a promoter say in all my years of doing this of just being straight up like,

hey, no one really wants to see Francis find any of our heavyweights. Like, let's be honest to. That's an outrageous thing to say, but I actually really, really appreciate the transparency. Because to say otherwise, you know that we don't all, like, that no one else is thinking that way. So to just acknowledge the elephant in the room is pretty cool and unusual for someone in that position. I do think we almost just need to let the John Jones narrative story, whatever. you want to call it sort of die like it's just it you just it's the going back to 2007 doing the fadoor versus brock or fado versus randy thing over and over again and just spinning your wheels saying why can't we get this like it's not going to happen these two are never going to work together the

UFC's never going to ever ever come to that kind of place where they're just like yeah let's work with the pfl to make this fight because obviously the fans want it it's just not happening so to even continue to wax poetic and talk about it just feels fruitless to me ultimately it feels like we there's two real options, right? Because I agree. No one, we sat here for an hour on Saturday before someone was able to come up with the PFL heavyweight finalists. Like, it just no one is interested in seeing Francis fight any of these PFL heavyweights. And there's not really a top heavyweight free agent right now out there. That would be a compelling fight. You either need to do the Anthony Joshua fight, who, where it's just a, it's bizarre that we're in a world here on this Thursday morning where the

Anthony Joshua team is essentially throwing themselves at Francis and begging for this fight. That's a very unusual place to reach and not a place I expected to reach. Or if this is a real feasible thing, you know me, I'm always up for the circus. Like I'm here for weird shit. And if weird shit's going to happen in PFL doing this mixed rules thing with Deonté Wilder, I have no idea why Deonté Wilder would actually want to do this. That feels like he would be making a really giant mistake if you look throughout history. I don't know why top heavyweight boxer are still, you know, more or less at the top of

this game, able to get big fights would want to come into a situation like that and probably lose pretty badly. That, that, all of that is weird to me. I don't actually know why any of this would actually work out. If it does, if it's a thing that's a feasible thing, sir, sure, sign me up. It's just weird. Again, I'm here for the spectacle. I'm here for the circus.

The most logical thing to me feels like the Anthony Joshua fight. I love the idea of Francis testing himself against a different type of heavyweight like that, right? like Anthony Joshua is not Tyson Fury. He is not just body-wise, style-wise. He's a very, very different fighter. He also feels very vulnerable. If you've watched Anthony Joshua

over the last couple years, he is not the same fighter that he once was, or at least he does not fight in the same way that he once was, and it would be a very interesting stylistic matchup for me. Also, obviously, just two gigantic dudes who look great getting off the bus, like you just sell that very easily to the general public.

And I will say, when Eddie Hearned threw out the idea of doing it in Africa, that got my mind working because, you know, He invoked Rumble of the Jungle. This is certainly not Rumble of the Jungle, too, and he called it one of the biggest fights in the history of the sport. I would disagree with that as well. That's good promotion speak.

But it is incredibly interesting. And having Francis finally have that sort of African homecoming, but doing it in a completely different way than we once thought it would happen. We always thought it would be in the UFC or with MMA, right? For him to come back and bring a major boxing event to Africa would be really, really cool to see. And if you could just imagine what that week would look like and the spectacle it would create. That's probably the one I'm putting,

I'm on that corner right now. If you give me my druthers and I could pick anything, I kind of want that fight. Because then it does set up to Tyson-Ferri Uc. Francis fights Fury if Fury wins or Francis fights Ussick as Ussick wins. And we sort of just get him in the mix. It keeps him in that mix where you're just beating

a very viable heavyweight contender. Man, it hurts my soul that you're so right about the John Jones fight, Chaheen, because outside of just pure and utter stubbornness, like that, like literally there's nothing stopping this fight from being made. Because PFL would obviously be in. ESPN would obviously be in. And it's literally just stubbornness, the reason this isn't put together. Like literally nothing else is stopping it.

If the UFC just said, yeah, we'll do it. ESPN, you work it out and we'll figure out a way. Like, then this could happen. But other than that, there's nothing stopping it. And that's what's completely frustrating about all of this. So you mentioned something else, Shaheen. Last thing, and then we'll move on. is Francis has gone to the fighter of the year right now?

Like, I mean, how could you argue against it? It's pretty crazy. Like, he doesn't have a win this year. That's, it doesn't matter though. But no, but in your world he does, Shaheen, in your world, he has a win. I mean, we still abide by the laws of sort of our society, right? Like, this is, he's owed one this year to certain degree. But this is the most impressive thing any MMA fighter has done this year.

Look, I think there's, he's not, there's a. 100% chance that certain members of the staff will want to vote him as fight of the year. And maybe they'll make a compelling case. For me, it's still probably Sean Strickland because dude went 3 and O and O'Noh and just destroyed Israel and A Sonia in a kickboxing match, which, again, if you fast forward like two months, we were all talking about how that was one of the most incredible performances we've ever seen. So we have very short-term memories with this.

But, I mean, 3-0 is 3-0. 0-1-1. I understand there's outside circumstances. For me, it's hard for Francis to top that when he's fought once this year. But, you know, I think there will be people making the case, certainly. A.K., are you going to vote for Francinez fire of the year? Will he be in your top five? I think he should be in everybody's at least number five pick, like just to give him the tribute.

It's so messed up because I was just thinking about it as Shaheen was talking. And I was thinking like, if, obviously he didn't compete in M.A. this year. If he had, let's say he had said he had signed the PFL and went to their heavyweight tournament or something. and went like three and oh or four and oh or five and oh whatever he has to do and pfell to win a million dollars like then clearly i would have put him in the top five of fighters the year right and but and then because he lost a much more high profile boxing match against the greatest you know heavyweight boxer in the world today then now i'm suddenly thinking i won't put him in the top five so yeah i i now will be surprised if when we come down to doing the deliberations for this if i don't have my time i'll be

surprise. I'll surprise myself if I somehow make a list that doesn't include Francis, it will seem very strange. It will seem very strange. Rules rule, you know, I am absolutely, I believe, like, oh, we should, and we have in previous years confined it to MMA fighters who've competed in MMA. But I think for this once, it's fair to say, once in a lifetime occasion, we can, we can, we can, we can, we can, you know, they're made to be bent, not broken. People who say they're made to be broken or crazy. But they are made they are made defense and he is still technically an MA fighter. It didn't happen in MMA you know but again if I'm comparing it to if he had just fought in the tournament and beaten you know Dennis Galtsov and Hanan Farida or you know any of these

people of all guys which would have been great no disrespect to those guys. It would have been nice run. We wouldn't be talking about that a fraction of how much we have talked about the fury fight how much brain space this whole fury thing has taken up my head like it would have been a nice pat on the back. Francis, you're in the top five, but it wouldn't have us even thinking that he deserves me number one. So that just sounds so bizarre

to say, but I will say he, I think he is going to get a vote. I don't know if I can say Fighter of the Year, my best friend, but top five, top three, maybe the number three. We've got to look at it. It's been a crazy year. It's been a crazy year, and it would be fitting

if the Linneal Heavyweight champion competing in a boxing match landed him on our fighter of the year list. I know. There's still so much time to go. Like Alex Pereer could be, I'm a two-division champion and like his ninth pro. I know it's a couple more than that, but geez, Louise, there's still so much that

could happen. Could actually be the year of the raw dog in the fighter of the year conversation. Also, Pantosia. Everybody's speaking on Pantosia in that conversation. Also, I got to say, before we move on, shout out to in the comment section, Hank Hill. You need to call up Eddie Hearn and Markhill Martin right now. Fumble in the jungle for this Joshua and Ghanoun. Just, I give that four Michelin stars.

That's, Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Hank Hill might have just got the point here. He might just get the point. I couldn't argue it. Let's actually award this first point. Let's move on.

UFC back in Brazil this Saturday. The point for round one goes to. I mean, one man looks like he knows he's getting the point. The other isn't sure. So I'll give it to the man who hit the Francis and Ghana with the round. Shaheen, all shoddy.

It's one to nothing. Nicely done. See, if that doesn't go to show you that I don't pick based on, Shaheen came at me a little bit and I still gave him the point because he had a compelling argument but...

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UFC Sao Paulo coming up this Saturday. the go-home show for UFC 295, the final flight night card before we head to New York City and Madison Square Garden. The main event is Jelton Almeida versus Derek Lewis, and we'll get into that in the moment. But AK, UFC Sao, we're out of the apex. You like this card?

You excited for this one? It's all right. Sorry. Anytime Jelton Almeida is fighting, I'm excited. It's unfortunate that Curtis Blades got injured and we are getting, you know, still a high, I guess a high level, MMA, a heavyweight fight. Derek Lewis, I think, is kind of a live dog.

I certainly am not picking him. I think on paper, this is just a terrible matchup for him. I think we're past the days where, I don't know why I'm giving this prediction now, but I think we're past the days where Derek Luz can just get up. I think we kind of saw in a not his last fight for the fight before that one. I don't know if that's a thing anymore, but he has the pedigree of a two-time heavyweight title contender, Jelton is still sort of proving himself, you know, going up the ranks. We all like what we've seen so far, finishes everybody left and right.

Grappling looks on Stop Bowl. He's in great shape. But, you know, this is not his first. No, he beat Jarzino. His second ranked guy. And, again, someone who is more famous than Jarzino, if not higher ranked at this point. So I like it. Main Event, I'm all into it.

The rest of the card is intriguing. It's intriguing. You got both Bonfine Brothers in Action, which I like. You got Mr. Coal Main Event, Kyle Bahia. sadly not in the Co-main. It's a bit of a slap in the base, I think. Renat Fokritinom, I'm interested in seeing him fight, Angela Hill's on there.

I don't know why they don't put her on the main card. There's good names on here. It's not like, it's not a blowing my socks off card. It's not a, you know, we're two weeks removed from the last pay-per-view, and I'm like, ooh, I'm super looking forward to this lineup because we haven't had, we didn't have UFC event this past weekend. It's not quite there. It definitely falls into the, I'm intrigued, and I've looked a lot into this card

because we work in MMA. But it's not a card I would skip. It's not a card I would skip. And so that's not an amazing compliment. I'm sure Dana White won't be tweeting like, yeah, this is USC So Paulo. This is a lineup you're not going to skip. It's probably not a great way to sell fights.

But, you know, we're hitting the home stretch. We're really looking ahead to 295 and 296. So some of these fights are kind of getting lost in the shuffle. This one, that might be the case. but I don't think people are going to have a bad time if they tune in. And like I said, I think there might be some sneaky sort of future top 10, top five guys on here. So I like it overall, not an amazing card, but it's it gets a modest thumbs up, Mike. AK, you should be in the cold open for that.

Yeah, that was great. I'm not going to skip this one. Don't skip it. Ladies and gentlemen, the UFC is back in South Apollo. And like, you're the opening thing. Don't skip this one. I'm probably not going to skip this one. one.

No, don't skip this one is a more direct compliment. He didn't get there. He said, maybe don't, if you don't want to, if you don't have something to do, that type of thing. He said, I work in the space. I'm not going to skip it, even though I was going to watch it and cover it anyways. So there you go. There's your glowing endorsement. I'm not going to skip it, says the man who is assigned to work on Saturday.

I appreciate that. It would be very upsetting to me if you skip it. I just keep doing. No, I mean, it's a perfectly fine card. I mean, it is, we know exactly what these cards are at this point. It almost feels redundant to have to rate these apex cards, even though this isn't an apex card. It almost feels redundant to have to rate these fight nights over and over again

because they're more or less all the same, right? It's a C plus B minus, maybe a B, I think it's really solid. I think it's very fun to go back to Brazil. We haven't been to Brazil in a bit, and that crowd always brings it. You get the Uvamo Hayes going. and you get the, you feel the energy, especially if it feels like there's some momentum on the card

for the hometown fighters, for the Brazilian fighters. That's always just a very fun environment, so I'm here for that. Also, the main event has maybe the funniest version of unstoppable force versus immovable object dichotomy that we could see possibly in modern day MMA, right? You have Jailton Almeida on one side, who has essentially one move, who's kind of like an undersized heavyweight

whose one move is just he's going to take you down, he's going to submit you. And then you have Derek Lewis, who's a real, real, real heavyweight, who's a big boy, who's one move when he's on the ground is jiu-jitsu is fake. None of this is real. I'm just going to kind of stand up. I'm really curious to see whether that's an effective thing against Jelton Almeida,

because I think all of us here on this website are very high on Jelton Almeida. He's sort of the one guy looming outside of this heavyweight quartet atop the heavyweight division right now. He's sort of the guy on the rise that no one's talking about, and this is one of those opportunities, right? you get a big win over a gay guy like Derek Lewis. Like that's, then people start to know who you are, but I just really want to know if Derek Lewis can just stand up on Jailton

Almeda. That's, that's my appointment viewing for this one. I'm excited for that. Shaheen, and I'll get to you, A.K., because you've been very,

very high on Jailton Almeida, as you have, Shaheen. The Curtis Blades fight when this first, we first confirmed it, we were like, okay, now like all the questions are going to be answered.

We get this high level wrestler who can still knock you out, who probably should have gotten a title shot 14 times already but never really got there. Like this is the one that's going to answer all the questions. And then Curtis has to withdraw from the fight. Kudos to the UFC, getting Derek Lewis in there because outside of maybe Tom Aspinall,

who's about to fight for the interim heavyweight title, this is about as good as you can do for a guy like Jantan Amata for the reason you just mentioned. Derek has casual appeal. He goes out there and smushes Derek Lewis. Like, that's cool. People are going to know who he is. For you, who already knows who Jailton Almeida is, does this really do a lot for you in terms of answering questions about how good this guy could actually be?

Or where are you at with this actual fight in terms of Jelton's future and what you can get from this fight, win or lose? I think it does. It answers some questions, right? Because for me, the biggest thing with Jelton Alameda always is going to be the size. I just am not convinced that he is like a real, real heavyweight in that way, right? Because we, you know, he was a light heavyweight who just kind of did this on a lark and it kept working. So it's like, okay, if it's not broken, why fix it? Derek Lewis, for everything I just said, he's a very large man.

He's a very large man who just does not believe in jiu-jitsu. That alone will answer some level of question to me whether Jail Tenel made a size can hold up at the up by echelons of these big, big boys at the top. Because, I mean, we've seen it, right? A lot of the top heavyweights are not small men compared to what that, that era that we had briefly where it was like Kane Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos size guys. Like a lot of these guys push 270 to 280 when they're off camp. To me, that answers some questions.

I still would have preferred the blades fight just because for me, that is the bigger question that I would like answered. And I'm still always just very high and Curtis Blades in a way that I think I probably shouldn't be. We all have those guys that you kind of believe in too much and you just can't quit. And Curtis Blades, I think, is one of those for me. I just always feel like he's right there and he's going to do it. And then he craps the bed like he did against, you know, Pavlovich or whoever with a very dumb game plan. But I don't know.

I mean, again, it is exactly the event that you think it is. But ultimately, I am somewhat excited for this main event. I'm very high on Jailton. I made it. And I'm curious to see these questions answered. AK, what about you? You've probably been the Jelton driver here. You've been all in on this man.

You predicted heavyweight gold when he just jumped up and fought Pock Porter and beat him. And I get it. I mean, you get a win like that. over a guy like Parker Porter, you are probably going to be the UFC heavyweight champion at some point. But be that as a May. Blades out, Lewis in. What was your reaction?

Because we didn't even talk about it on the show. We haven't had a chance to actually talk about this fight or the substitution at all. You like this fight better? Do you feel like you could still get some of those questions answered that you were hoping to get from the Blades fight? Well, the part of me that's a fan of Jilton kind of likes it better because I was really concerned

about the Blades matchup. I wanted it. You know, I wanted it because that's the test he needs. He has a test he need. If he can't beat Curtis Blades, then I don't need to see, you know, the UFC find a way to matchmaking for him to get Almeida to a title shot. Like, that's fun sometimes when it happens, like with Alex Padeta, you know, getting the rematch with Izzy.

But, you know, there was a good reason to do that. There's an existing narrative that drove the matching, I think. That worked beautifully. That worked beautifully. And guess what? They created a star in Alex Padena. Could they do that with Jelts and Alameda? Sure.

But I think they were doing the right thing by saying, well, if we seriously view this guy, as someone who could be UFC champion, Curtis Blades the Right Test. Great, good wrestler, a guy he probably shouldn't be able to take down at will. And a guy who, if he gets his offensive wrestling going, would probably mess out made up real good. So Blades the Right Test, it does suck. It does suck that he's out.

Because I feel like even if Jalton runs through Derek Lewis, I don't know if that tells us anything. Now, he spoke to our own Guillermo, the Brazilian Beast, and he said he wants Seattle gone next, which is the logical callout. And I think if he beat in Blaze, he would have gotten Cedl for sure, if not an outright title shot, though that's a bit murkier now with the whole Jones-Myotchish fight being postponed

and then the interim title fight happening. But if he beat Blaze, he definitely could have called for God. And then he beats gone, then you're all but guaranteed a teleshot. If he beats Derek Lewis, I don't know, man. They might make him fight someone else in the top 10. Cedill would still make a lot of sense, but it does feel like, I know at least in M.A. We were kind of reading the last rights on Derek Lewis's career before he got that win over Marcus Lajero de Lima.

It just looked like he was, we actually bumped him out of our heavyweight rankings for the first time. He had never been out of the rankings before. He's back now after that last win. But he was out. He was out. And I think on the, on a ranking show, we said we did like a discussion of will he come back? And I'm pretty sure I was in the camp of like, I don't think we see him ranked again. But I forgot about the unpredictableness of heavyweight, which is what makes this matchup so scary because it's totally a world.

where he just needs to stuff one, Almeda take down, and maybe he catches him with a bomb. I don't think that's going to happen. I think Almeda's wrestling is too much for him. I think the ground games watch for him. I actually think this could be a quick finish for Almeida. But this, again, we're talking heavyweights here. And Lewis bashing him, swanging and bang it,

and then just beating his chest. He stands over a face down. Jeltaelmaida is a site that would not surprise me in the slightest at this point, especially in the year, 23. of MMA. So I wish this was Blades because I'm getting a weird feeling all of a sudden. It's been a crazy week, crazy couple weeks with Derek Lewis, who recently was arrested for driving 136 miles per hour in a 50 mile per hour zone in Houston. And being a Boston driver,

even that number boggles my mind. And Derek, of course, addressed it and said, quote, nah, I don't even think that was me. That guy had hair. You see the picture. I don't got no hair. that ain't me. Like just classic Derek Lewis-esque response to all of this. But Shaheen, AK brings up an interesting point. Jailtsin says, I'm going to win this fight. And then I'm going to go fight Cyril God. Not sure if that actually happens here. What if Derek Lewis wins this fight, Shaheen? What if Derek Lewis somehow, like you said, he stands up from the John Cena-esque three moves of doom, the front kick, the double leg, and the submission attempts? What if he gets up and knocks out Jalton Almata in Brazil on Saturday?

A guy who was finished in three straight fights who delivered maybe the funniest moment of the year with the flying knee in the celebration. Got him a whole new contract with the UFC. The dude was a free agent for 36 hours. Could have got the big bag. Could have got the Francis fight and said, nope, I'm loyal to the UFC.

What if Derek Lewis does it? Where does he go? What does he do? What happens here? First, can we just talk about what a minch that cop is for just kind of going along with what Derek Lewis said? because if you look at the police report, he said he's, he's 215 pounds. So this is this cop asking Derek Lewis, what's your weight?

And Derek Lewis just be like, I'm 215. And the cop just accepting that as an answer to moving on. That is, what a bro that guy is. Kudos to you, whoever you are out there. And also, I mean, as a bald brother, along with you, Mike Heck, if someone asked me, what's your hair color? And I said black. And he actually wrote that down rather than just bald.

Thank you, my friend. You are my friend for life. He gave me what I do not have. On the police report, again, he says he has black hair and it says black hair. So just A plus stuff from that police officer being the ultimate bro. I really appreciate it. What happens if Derek Lewis wins? I mean, that's super viable, right?

That's like a very viable thing. We saw it last time. Like his, I feel like the fact that we have gone this long and not mentioned that Derek Lewis's last fight included him flying knee a man in the face in like 30 seconds, then take his pants off and fire off. like 40 DX crotch chop stucats and then tell everybody he's a free agent. Like that was the greatest 30 seconds of fight promotion ever in the history of the sport. And the fact that he followed it up by just kind of resigning with the UFC

and is just getting back thrown in the mix. Like that's a bummer. It would have been great if he carried all that pantsless crotch chop and momentum into a $2 million payday for Francis. That probably wouldn't have come now because that fight would have no would have cared about that if you have what Francis has going on right now. But either way, either way. That's just we cannot forget what Derek Lewis did last time he was in the Octagon.

It was a spectacular theater. I mean, man, this is who this guy is, right? Like, every time you count Derek Lewis out, he comes back and puts on an amazing performance, then cuts a hilarious promo. And he's right back in the mix. He's 38 years old. He's still doing it. He's still as powerful as ever, right?

Like, that dude could knock out a bus. It's just sort of the inherent power within himself that he seems like he will always carry. And we've seen heavyweights like, you could do this stuff deep into your, mid-40s, for some people, especially with the style that Derek might have, it might last that long. So it's not a crazy question to say that he, or not a crazy scenario to throw out there that he would be Jailton, right? Because I think ultimately, I've said it a couple times, but the size difference between these two guys is going to be incredibly noticeable. Derek Lowe's going to be cutting down from like 280 to make this weight, and Jailton outmate is going to be coming in at like

230. And so, you know, it's not the craziest thing. It's certainly not the craziest thing. A.K., we host a matchmaking show. And if Derek Lewis wins this fight, it's going to be super interesting to match break for it, because as we just mentioned, he did the UFC a solid here. Free agency was very short, probably very happy with what he's getting.

The heavyweight division is a mess right now with Jones injury. We don't know what's going to happen with Stepe. Tom Aspinall is about to fight Sergey Pavlovich for the interim heavyweight title. I think Derek Lewis can gain a whole bunch from this win. Like if he goes out and beats Jailton on Maid,

if he knocks out Jailton on Maid, if he slays the dragon, he could gain something huge here. Like, I could definitely see a world where if the UFC goes back to London before international fight, before Jones goes back, there is a real world where the UFC

could do like Tom Aspinall versus Derek Lewis in an interim heavyweight title defense. Strike the word deserves from your vocabulary, my friends, the momentum Derek Lewis will guard her. If he knocks out Jailton, Almeida will be massive and no one's really going to complain about that. So what happens if Derek Lewis actually wins his fight? Yeah, we're not far away from a world where Derek Lewis gets a third shot at some form of

UFC title. I just, I jumped to the rankings while, uh, while we're having this discussion. And like, you know, look, look who's ahead of him. So March and Toborra right now, sorry, just not a factor. Sergei Spivak, who just beat Derek Lewis not long ago. Unfortunately, it's, you know, what have you done for me lately? did not look great against Cedelaghan, has nowhere near the name value of Derek Lewis,

so Derek Lewis could easily jump over him. Not fair, but it could easily happen. If he beats, this is all talking about if he beats, Jeltsman Elmada. Taito of Osso, someone he lost to, Alexander Volkov, someone he beat, if I remember. That was one of those weird fights. Yes, one of those weird Derek Lewis fights.

And then, yes, he's kind of the ideal option if you, let's say, Tom Aspinall won, and you want to give him a, not easy, but a win where he would be considerably favored in his home country. You call up Derek Lewis. Beautiful stuff. Again, he has enough name value.

You've just signed Derek Lewis to this big new contract. You may as well get your value out of it, right? And again, it's heavy way. People will accept strange things here. Even if Sergei Spivak, excuse me. Even if Sergey Pavlovich wins, you can kind of make Derek Lewis his opponent there too because they fought before.

People did not like the stoppage. People did not like that palpitch. Do you remember how angry people were about that palovich? What the hell are we talking about? How mad? Do you remember how angry people were but the Paolovitch stoppage? They're wrong. They're wrong.

But that was a, there was a lot of, oh, that was quick. Derek Lewis himself said he was fine. It was early stoppage, whatever, whatever. Again, I don't agree with Derek Lewis, but this is an easy sell for the UFC. You say the first fight ended under a minute, controversy. We didn't get to see, you know, we didn't get to see the best of Derek. You know, he's always wanted this rematch. Boom, put him in there with Sergey.

I don't know, again, like I said, I don't think he should be for a title fight next. but if he beats Almeida, he does jump over some of the names I mentioned. And ahead of that, there's not a lot of names ahead of him that are healthy, right? We said, Blades, we don't know how long he's out. And he's beaten Blades. Derek Luce is a win over Blades, right? So it's real, John Jellis-Depa, they're not going to fight Derek Lewis. They're out of the picture.

They're just waiting for each other, we think. So it actually could happen. And I don't know. I don't love it, but I wouldn't be against it. And it's not going to happen anyway because he's not beaten Jelton. But just for the sake of this question, yes, he could fight for an interim title in 2024. it's crazy it doesn't sound right you you were just throwing him ahead of a bunch of guys he's clearly like not ahead of whatsoever i think i think that you are i think that you and i

i think that you and i are higher on jilton almeda just our personal stock than the ufc is i don't think that derrick lewis beating jilton is as big of a deal to the ufc as it would be to us i think the better question is and a question that again i can't believe no one has addressed so far over the course of this 10 minutes is derrick lewis going to take his cup off it's he going to fire that into the crowd. I'm super. That is the money question to me. Follow up question, will the person catch that cup?

And if so, what will they do with that cup? Because that's the ultimate with the Derek Lewis fight for me at this point. I want to see what the reaction to catching the cup is. What do you do when you are finally placed in that moment where you're holding this man's cup? Sure. You want to see someone. Do you give it to someone else? Do you try to do something weird with it?

You have to say, you want to see someone do a cuppy? I did not. I did not say that. No, I very much do not. Are you sure? I think that's what you are implying. I mean, I will laugh hysterically if it happened. Usually cups have holes in them, though.

So I don't know if that would work out as well as you think it would. But ultimately, the real show starts once someone catches that cup that we get to see what they do with it. I mean, there's no better way to end that round. The point for round two goes to. It's AK thinking like the UFC. It's one to one. As unbelievable and as unrealistic as that idea may seem, Derek Lewis with a win over Jelton-Lameda

is still one of the most popular guys in this division. And if that title, that interim title needs to be defended again, Derek's usually the first call for those types of situations, which is very weird to say. And there are other guys who probably deserve it to more, but we don't care about any of that stuff because it's the UFC. Let's move on. Let's talk about what happened at UFC 294.

Hamzaa Shamaif looks like an absolute wrecking ball for the first five minutes against Kamar Usman. Looks like maybe the greatest fighter we've ever seen. And then things start to slow down a little bit. Usen gets a little momentum. Hamzat's not really throwing anything. He's not really doing anything. Then the third round starts.

It's more of the same. And then Shemaiv shoots a takedown and squeaks out a majority decision win over the former welterweight champion in his first fight in 13 months. Talks about a wrist injury, maybe a hand injury. we got an update on m a fighting.com. Hamzaa Shemayev's manager tells our own Damon Martin.

It is a torn ligament in his hand. Painful stuff. Could have been broken. Not sure if this is better or worse, but what were your thoughts when you saw this update? I don't know, I've never had a torn ligament in my hand. I've broken my hand. So I don't know what the difference is and what's worse and what's not.

But Shamiov did have a hand injury coming out of this. What were your thoughts on this update? I'm sorry. Right now the comment section is exploding with ideas of what to do with Derek Lewis's cup. I was also. What do we have? What do we have? Well, you know, Forrest, For spoken, really brought a good one to the table.

And it really got me in the middle of what you were asking me. So I'm not going to lie, I kind of missed what you were asking me because that distracted me. What do I think about Hamzat Shami of his injury? Is that what you're asking me? A hand injury, knowing that something happened, did it change your perception on the fight? What did you think? No. I mean, it feels weird to revisit this almost, right?

Because this feels like it was 10 years ago. And it's interesting to just think back on this fight that was very recent. It just feels like a different lifetime ago at this point. No, it doesn't change my perspective on the fight. Maybe a little bit. Because, I mean, ultimately, we felt like we knew that he was pretty injured that night, even on the night, right? So, like, we were kind of reacting with that information.

I think there are still real questions about his gas tank. Ultimately, though, he did look like the best fighter, I've ever seen for like five minutes in that fight. So it is, this is the eternal question with Hamzad Shami of that we continue to just have to ask because we're not getting the matchups that would really justify like an answer, right? Like we all wanted to see him face a really tough middleweight. Palo Kostom was going to be that challenge. We didn't get to see that. We got to see him face a welterweight who we don't really know where Kamara Usman is at this point in his career. The whole thing was weird. Kamarro coming up and wait, short notice, and then the injury

on top of it. Like there's just always weird outside circumstances around Hamzaa Shamaev in these fights lately. It makes it frustrating to understand where he's at. It makes it frustrating to matchmate for him. So the question is that changed my perspective on the fight. Maybe a smidge, but not really. Because I feel like we reacted almost knowing

this information beforehand. AK, what were your thoughts on this? Did it solidify anything for you? And Sheenian, I'll give you a chance to answer this question as well. what does this update mean for the middleweight division, A.K., does this injury update say, well, does this say DDP is going to definitely get his shot at Sean Strickland next? Or do you think, and it's hard to put yourself in the UFC shoes, AK, are they thinking,

look, they can't wait for Hamzot here. We're just printing money. It's the bigger fight. Let's just hang out a bit until Hamzat's ready. The good news is, and one of the better aspects of Sean Strickland being champion, because again, people, I've said many times, not a fan of it. personality, political beliefs, etc., etc. But the good thing about him as a fighter is he likes to stay busy.

He likes to stay busy. That may be different now that he is a champion, though I would think he wants to start cashing those champions' paychecks as soon as possible. So get back in there, Sean, you know, if that's the plan. So he should want an opponent. He should want to fight soon. So it's not going to be Hamzaa. It's not going to be Hamzaa.

We said Jerk's DuPlius was one of the biggest losers of, you know, whatever, the recent middleweight events. I mean, he lost, first he loses the Izzy fight. Now he probably loses the contender spot. just based on Hamzat beating a welterweight, let's be honest. And it's not fair. It's not fair. But if you're the UFC, you should do the right thing here if Sean Strickland wants to defend

first quarter of 2024. And you have this challenger. Yes, it's not as sexy as the easy fight. I think everyone did a great job building up the easy fight. The politics around it may be a little unsavory. But at the end of the day, there was legitimate bad blood there. And that's what you want to see in a high-profile fight, especially one with the title on the line.

It was just so wonderful. and it sucks that it really feels like there's a good chance we're probably not going to see DDP and Izzy fight. So let's move on from that. Oh, I disagree. Let's move on from that. I do disagree. We don't know when he's coming back. We don't know when he's coming back.

I disagree so thoroughly because there is still the reason, here's the reason why it's DDP as the top contender right now. Aside from the obvious fact of just he is by far the most deserving contender in any division right now, you beat Robert Whitaker in the way that you did. Like you have that title. You use the word deserved. I don't care. I don't care. Some things supersede all the bullshit we usually talk about. And like, DDP smashing Robert Whitaker in the way that he did is such a different level of feat than like almost every other contender and any other division has. Like that's just unassailable. But also the reason that DDP needs to be the challenger is because DDP versus Strickland, hey, that's a really fun fight on itself.

But if DDP wins, and we outline this the night of, I think Sean Strickland, if DDP wins and then Izzy comes back, And we get DDP Izzy, because you know the UFC will throw Izzy right back in, regardless of what Hamzaa Shamaev's doing at that point. If we get DDP Izzy, but with the roles reversed of DDP as the champ and Izzy coming to take what is DDPs and just that whole dynamic being completely shifted on its head through no fault of DDP's own, like just this weird circumstance, that is such a fun lead-up. That is such a weird lead-up. That is, like, I don't actually understand what that dynamic will be like, and that will be a

gigantic fight. That is the biggest fight the UFC middleweight division could get at that point. That's a lot of steps to get. See, this is why you're the... No, it's not. It's one step. You're such a gift in Wordsmith. It's DDP winning.

It is one step. Yeah, and Izzy has to come back. That's one step. Is he has to come back at the right time? We don't know what he's coming back. He said he's taking time off. That's two steps. Is he...

That's at least two steps. Is he, the night that DDP wins the title, if that happened, Izzy would call Hunter Campbell and just be like, hey, I'm ready. Let's go. I've said it before. I think he's more inclined to come back and fight Pereira. Pineda beats Yeri and go up to two of five. I think that's more likely.

I thoroughly disagree with you. I'm aware you do. I'm aware you. Okay, listen, you're a grifted wordsmith. You paint a beautiful picture. It sounds very neat. I wish that's the, no, and DDP should get the title fight. Strickland's a tough matchup for him, though.

Circling is a tough matchup. So there's steps that have to be taken. Same with Palletta, Yeri. I mean, Palletta is, I don't think he's favorite against here. So I got steps to go through, too, to get to my weird dream scenario. But yeah, it's, it's, I have no problem with either. I just think, is he wanted to become a two-division champion? I think that means a lot to him.

I think because he's already a two-time middleweight champion, he's seen our hardest to kind of just keep going back there, keep running up that hill. I think he still wants that 205 belt. I think, you know, the Blakovich fight wasn't terrible for him. It was a competitive fight. I think he still wants that. And again, there's also the trilogy with Padetta.

I just think there's more hooks to the Padetta trilogy than necessarily one to fight DDP now. But either one would have a lot of heat behind it. I think Izzy can't go wrong. It just depends when he wants to come back. I think Izzy has zero interest. I think there are zero bones in Izzy's body that wants to go fight Alex Perey again. You saw how quickly he moved on from Alex Pereira once he finally got that knockout.

There is nothing in that manner. I'm not saying he's scared. I'm not saying any of that. He's just lived that life for a long time. I think there's zero percent of him that wants to go fight Alex Pereer again. Just to do this all over again? I don't think that's happening. man ddp winning the middleweight title and then sort of dangling the carrot in front of izzie

and then trying to take it away from him would just be the greatest thing of all time he goes that's what i'm saying like he just calls out homzot instead says nah i didn't fight him i'll fight you homzot like that'd be absolutely hilarious or if he'd like says strickland i'll give me a rematch because you accomplish such great things like you're just like all these things are are really really funny. Last thing on this, Shaheen, let's just say, look, forget about what could happen. Forget about

DDP having the belt and maybe is he chasing him. There are two fights potentially on the table here. We could do Sean Strickland versus DDP or we could do Sean Strickland versus Hamzaa Chamaif. In a world where you could only see one of these fights but you could never see the other

and the stakes in the future mean nothing. Which one are you picking? Strickland DDP? Strickland Shemayef, what's more intriguing to you right now? Stakes aside, just what's more interesting to you right now? If you can only get one of these fights. What happens to the odd man out? Is he like just getting executed casino style?

What is this? What is this scenario that you're painting for me? What am I doing to someone? Pick a fight. No, they just sit and watch. They're fine. They're alive. The one's getting murked here.

Okay, you made it sound like they could never match that fight ever again. And I just like, no, but what I'm talking about is like, while it's funny. I get you. I'm just funny for DDP to win the title. It'd be the funniest outcome. But if you can only watch one of these fights, which one? For me, it'd be DDP. It would. Because again, from everything I just said, also, I'm just incredibly intrigued in who he is in this middleweight division. You beat Robert Whitaker that way. And I can't say it enough. Like, that is the most, that is one of the most impressive victories of 2003, the way that he beat Robert Whitaker. Like, that was the Sean Strickland

upset, before the Sean Strickland upset, just in terms of a stunt. mental weight performance, right? I just, I really, I'm not sure yet with Hamzaat. I want to see Hamza out versus Paulo Costa, if I'm being honest. Like straight up, that's where I get to with it. I want to see Hamzaa Shemaya fight a real middleweight and see who he is in this division. And Palo Costa, to me, is the perfect measuring stick. They have such a fun rivalry.

The dynamic with every part of that was so fun. And Palo tried so hard to make it to that fight. I just, I really want to see that fight before we get to Russian Hamzat Shemaya even this title picture. So if you give me one, I'm giving DDP. AK, do you agree with that? That was, sorry, that was Shemayev and Strickland or DDP and Strickland? If you could only get one of these fights, but you'll, and that's it.

You can only see one. You can't see the other. You want to see Strickland DDP? You want to see if Strickland is the guy who could beat Homsot Shamaif if he gets out of that first round. And the challenger, as you said before, the one that I don't pick is sent to an island to die and never fights again, right? That's what you were saying. That's what it felt like. Yeah. That's what I think that was. I think that was. All right. You know what? Sean Strickland retires after this fight.

Okay. Okay. Let's let's do that. Oh, that's much nicer. Yeah, because he lives in peace. Okay, great. No, I'll lean towards Shamaia. But everyone knows I'm very high in the Shemaya train.

Like, I just want to see him fighting for it. It's unfortunate that he had the health problems and whatever other issues that were there with the matchmakers that he couldn't get in the cage. It's unfortunate that we lost the Paulo Koso fight. There's a lot of unfortunate things about the Khamsat Shamaa of experience, especially compared to what we've. thought it was going to be when we first saw him and Fight Island wins three fights in, what, two months?

And then we're all like, man, you know, should Kamaru call this guy out? Should he call this guy out before he reached? Like, this guy gets even better. All that talk seems so distant now. Even after we actually got the fight itself, that all that talk of like, man, Shemayev's the dude that's just going to run to the title. It feels so distant now. I think the UFC still believes him in that way.

I think there is a segment of the fan base that still believes him in that way. I think he's done well with the whole, you know, know, the Habib blueprint. Oh, I smash everyone. I smash everyone. That takes you further than it should, but especially when you're able to perform in the case, like he can. A definitive win over middleweight like Paula Costa would be great because, again, Gilbert's fight, awesome fight, but, you know, didn't dominate Gilbert. Amazing fight. We learned a lot about Hamzaa, because you're very proud of that win, but, you know, didn't dominate. Usman, tough, gritted it out, grinded it out, pretty clear win, not a clear win, I just say, but a solid win for me. Didn't dominate, didn't dominate,

right so i get it we want that exclamation point to get him that title shot but i've said this on many shows things are rarely that convenient or they rarely work out exactly as you want them to when you're trying to gear someone towards a title shot again alice padetta probably is an exception so rather than keep trying to find that right match up keep trying to find that path that gets him to that title shot if people are talking about it if we know if we view this guy as someone who could beat the champion if he is you know he's got this undefeated record if there's all this he's all this there. I say just go for it now. So I love the DDP Strickland matchup. I hate to see, you know, I would hate it if we didn't get that. But if I'm choosing one, I need, I want to see Shemayev

get his crack. And he probably will anyway at some point, whether it's against Strickland, DDP, a returning easy someone. But I want things now. So this is the, this is the me being spoiled and wanting things right now. Give me, give me Hamza to tell a shot. This is the Tatiana Suarez notion from, from AK. You want, you want to see Tatiana? to fight for the title now. Now, now, now, now, now. Let's go. And you want to see Hamza Tchamaya fight for this. Hold up. But it's not really now, though, you know, because he's injured. So it's going to be a while. Yeah, it's really whatever.

We're just shelving an active champion for no reason. In my world, his hand magically heals. His, he's heels and he's ready to fight by February. Oh, man. Yeah, we're throwing out hypotheticals and weird scenarios. So he might as well just create the injury has gone away, AK. I appreciate that. And, I appreciate that. And last thing I'll say on this, as I said after UFC 294, DDP's best friend is availability. If that phone rings, do not say no. Do not say no.

I don't know if there's anything coming back from that as weird as that sounds. So we'll move on to round four. The point for round three goes to it's Shaheen Alshaddy. It's two to one. Nicely done. 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.

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that we had to go to a Hamza Hamzaa I have hand injury, but this is where we're at right now. Let's talk about some news. We got a Dana-white screaming announcement of fights. It was like at 4 a.m. Eastern time. It wasn't maybe that early, but it was at a pretty rando time.

UFC Austin gets two five-round fights, and they will take place in the best division in the sports. We're going to get in the main event or the final fight. Benil Daryush, looking to bounce back from the loss of Charles Olivera, taking on Armin's Rukian. Co-main event or the second to last fight? Sounds like they're doing a double main event thing here. Dan Hooker versus Bobby Green five rounds.

A.K., two five-round lightweight fights, less than a month away, actually literally a month away from right now. Austin, Texas, on a fight night card. Your thoughts. Fantastic. I do want to add, I hope that all these gentlemen are getting paid more money for to go in, you know, two extra. I assume that's not standard.

I assume if you, because we know, we have, you know, most of these flight nights have five-round main events. But Dan Hooker and Bobby Green getting a five-round comane, they should get paid more money, right? Everyone should get paid more money for fighting more rounds. I get it. It's not how the contracts work. But maybe in this case they'll sprinkle a few shekels in their direction.

We got to normalize this, though. We got to normalize notable fights. Not necessarily every co-main, but top two fights, top three fights. I would also love to see Rob Font and Davidson Figurato go for five rounds, frankly. I know that's not going to happen, but I wish we did these things on a case-by-case basis. Again, who is the decider? The fans, probably not the best way to go with it.

The matchmakers, I don't know. Dana, I don't know. The fighters themselves, maybe not the best people to ask either. But it does feel like we need to normalize non-main event five-rounders. I think this will be the exception, not the rule. I'm an optimistic person, but I'm not so naive to think, oh, this is the start of a trend. Maybe if it does some massive ratings number for, I guess it was beyond ESPN Plus, it gets really good metrics on it for the top two fights.

They'll say, yeah, we should do. We should do more non-title, non-main event five-rounders, but unlikely. But as far as the matchups go, fantastic. Baneal, he's accepted his lot in life. There are no easy fights. He'll get a title shot in the event that all these people ahead of him don't have an opportunity. Even if he beats Rman, which I think would be a hell of a feat worthy of Bineel getting a title shot. It's not going to happen.

He has to beat two or three more people or something to get a shot. But amazing matchup. This is Armands. We've kind of been waiting for it. This is Armine's real, real, like, step into the top five. We know he's his top five talent. We know he's fought top five people. He fought Islam in his debut.

He just hasn't, and he's impressed in his wins. He just hasn't quite gotten over that hump yet. The Gamrod fight super close. My best friend, I know you feel Armand was robbed. He needs a definitive win against Binal. So a lot of storyline here. And then the Komenan, this is an on to the next. one special. I feel like I feel like I thought this fight happened because Mike on our matchmaking

show we have heard Dan Hucker versus Bobby Green Bobby Green versus Dan Hooker so many times after either of these guys. Dan Hooker gets a win. Oh, Bobby Green's got to be next. Bobby Green's got to be next. Bobby Green gets a win. Dan Hooker's got to be next. Dan Hickers got me next. And I don't know if the timing was ever perfect. I mean, they probably could have made this happen before. But this is, again, after Bobby Green took out Grant Dawson, we heard a lot of Dan Hoker calls. And I'm like, yeah. It's always a good time for it. But this is a great. time. I love this matchup so much. It would be, it's one of these matchups. It would be a shame if these two veterans never squared off. So I'm glad we're getting it. Don't care about the stakes.

Don't need to talk about all of Barbara Green wins down hooker. One of these veterans gets a closer to a title. Don't care. Don't care. Amazing fight. And this card looks, well, I'm sure we'll talk about the rest of the card. I'll just summarize. This card looks really good. I'm very excited. Austin, you should be happy. I'll give it a Jed Michoud if you're out there. This better get at least two Michoulin stars. Oh, Jeanne, what did you think? What did you think of these fights? I love the card.

AK's not wrong. The card itself, Austin, you're getting a good one. Look up and down this, man. Darius Sarukian, Hooker, Green, font, figurado, Brady, Yastellum, Soriano, Stolfeitz is maybe the odd one out on that main card. But then even Roundtree, Mirzacanov, like, you know that's going to be a bangor. You got Misha Tate on the undercard. Chakar Close is always fun. Clay Gwita.

Like, this is a great, great card. Austin's really having a good time here. As for the five-round co-made event, like I'll be honest. Like I personally like it, obviously. I think we all enjoy high-level fights going longer if they feel like they're going to be fun, right? If it's a slog fight, like no one wants to see it for 25 minutes,

that's fair. But like, Hooker Green is going to be really fun. So to see two extra rounds of it, I'm not going to complain, but I will say like it feels, I don't know why that's happening. Like, why, this isn't like a number one contender fight or anything like that.

It feels odd to me that this is maybe, be the one that we're doing for five rounds, especially since you know these guys are not going to get paid for it. And so that's the thing when like AK and others will say like normalize doing this for co-made events. A lot of co-made events don't deserve this, but also be like, you know that these guys are not going to get paid for the extra work and preparation that they're doing. So maybe it's easy for us to say that. But for the athletes, that's a little bit for us to place that upon them. Maybe, you know, that's, we should have some consideration for that. But all being said, man, like that is a tremendous card.

The main event itself, if this is a one-fight card, I would still be singing its praises because we obviously love that main event. I mean, Daryush versus Surukian is everything. That's why the lightweight division is so much damn fun and the best division in the entire sport. But you're right. Just up and down, Austin, you are getting a really, really good one, and I'm looking forward to that night because it's going to be a fun night.

Yeah, that's a real interesting point, Shaheen. I wonder how this all came to be with two five-round fights because... It's a weird one, right? Like, why is Hooker Green of all fights? So here's what I think happened. And I don't have like a whole bunch of personal insight into this, but I kind of know the road we took. Originally, Daryu Shurukyam was going to headline this car.

That was all the rumblings and rumor and innuendo talking to people. That seemed like what we were going to do here. But it never really got past the, this is what we're thinking stage. And then there were reports that came out about Dan Hooker and Bobby Green, which also was kind of in the same boat. We're like, all right, we're talking about it. If this is what's offered, we'll say yes. And then it never really got past that point.

And I think not having a main event for December 9th, maybe hurt things. They're like, maybe we'll move this one to this card and maybe we'll do that and that one. They're like, no, we're not going to, we're not going to Shanghai. We're going to do what we said we're going to do. And I think the UFC was just like, screw it. Fine. We'll just do both as five round fights. I think they basically double book the main events.

Like, not accidentally, but. but unceremoniously double booked the main event spot and was just like, screw it, we'll just do two main events. At least they just kind of ate it a little bit, but in a still an okay way. That was my read on it too, sort of just looking at the way this whole came together. And also, you know the fact that like of all the guys,

like Bobby Green and Dan Hooker are not gentlemen. And they're going to be like, ah, no, I don't want to do it. Those dudes are down for anything. Right? Like that was not a long phone call to convince those guys, I would imagine to go an extra 10 minutes. So once you have it, I understand just keeping it. Yeah, they were preparing to, yeah,

they're preparing to do it anyways. So then it's like, all right, it's cool. But like AK said, as long as they're getting that, the extra, the main event money, which again, maybe, maybe not, but probably so. We'll see. This is a damn good fight night card. It's such a good card.

It's such a good card. Is this the best fight night card of the year, Shaheen? Oh, boy, you put me on the spot on that. I feel like we've had a couple really, really good ones that I just can't pull up immediately because I don't have that Jose Young's brain. So I won't say it's the best one because I feel like I remember a really, really good one sometime around spring, summer. But it's definitely top three, right?

It's got to be. Yeah. I mean, look, nochia UFC was fun. Like, it was super fun. We had a title fight. That's technically a fight night card. But it was really cool. And then there's like other ones that are very regionalized with like big main events and

the crowds are on fire. And then we get London, which. which was okay, but Aspinall was great. We had the home, Blano Silva one. Like, we had just a bunch of rando apex cards. We had Holloway versus zombie and just, like, not a great card on paper. Like, okay card, but not great. This seems like, this is like a seven-fight lineup or like, damn,

I'm fascinated with all seven of these fights. And I can't remember the last. Misha Tate. Misha Tate is on the undercard. That's like, first time in like two and a half years. She's back. A bandway we can rank guys. A bantamate way we can throw out.

Oh my God. Thank goodness. A.K. Best fight night card of the year? Top of your head. Again, I'm with Jahina. I'm terrible remembering these things. But I want to speak to the broader point of like,

this is the power of the UFC right now is they hold whatever 40-some events a year. You only need half of those fight. And let's exclude. Forget the pay reviews. You only need like half of those events to hit to leave people with this impression that you always deliver, right? Because, you know, we always talk about people saying it's the cards you don't, you don't, that the media doesn't hype up, that always deliver, blah, blah. And it's really, it's like, no, you just only remember the good stuff and you move on from the bad.

And that's fine, that's fine. That is how the current UFC sort of Fight Night product works is, okay, you weren't satisfied with that card last week. Oh, you found it forget. Well, guess what? Six days away from another card, buddy. Rest, recover. We got more fights coming here. This is happening with the card after Austin.

They're going to Shanghai. We know that now. The card is not complete. We assume fingers crossed, I guess, that it's going to, well, I don't assume. Sorry, I don't assume. Best case scenario, we're getting Zhang Wei Li and Yan Shanan. It's just such short notice. Ideally, I guess, you know, maybe they've known about the date for a long time and it just

hasn't been announced. So it's not really short notice. I would think they've been preparing for each other. But again, that's not officially yet. That's not official yet. And even if that does land, that's a one fight card. I'm seeing some of the rumored fights in there. You guys can check Wikipedia.

I don't know how many of these are official. And it's okay. It's okay. It's nowhere near Austin, though. The drop off from Austin to the Shanghai card is enormous. And you might get exciting fights because you get inexperienced people that can easily get knocked out. So you might get some highlights, but we're seeing this right now. We have one loaded card right next to a card that it's cool.

It's for a certain region. But it's not a loaded card. But to the UFC, that doesn't matter. One out of two. With fight nice, I just need to get one out of two. And that's a pretty good success rate. And I think most fans would agree. Yeah, I have no idea what's going to headline Shanghai.

No clue. I mean, it seemed like Zhang Weli, Yanja and I was like a walk as soon as they announced this. Yeah. Now, I mean, you're asking a lot on a month's five weeks notice to book that fight. But they must know about it. It's never really a thing. I don't know what we're going to do here. Gosh, this is a weird.

You assume song's going to be one half of it, but I don't know who he's going to fight. I really don't know. They'll poke somebody into it. They'll tempt somebody into it. I'm trying to, like, Rob, you want to go to Shanghai when you should be fighting with the belt and fight Zanguong? Like, who's it going to be? Rob, I'll take that.

I don't know what they're going to do. If Umar is ready, he'd probably do it, but it doesn't seem like he's going to be ready. But we'll move on. The point for round four goes to A.K. Lee, don't act surprised, A.K. You performed admirably. Performed admirably. All right. Time for the knockout round.

to decide it all. It's going to be the same question. There'll be no mystery doors or anything like that. I wasn't really sure I was going to go at this and then halfway through the show. I knew exactly where I was going with this. So, AK, you were the last man of the two of you to pick up a victory on this program. So I assume you're going to go first. Always. Always. All right. Well, there's a lot going on here. We haven't touched on maybe the biggest story going on with the UFC right now. And that is the. Antitrust lawsuits that is going on with fighters from the past looking to get somewhere between 800 million and 1.6 billion, but there's some big news that a pair of judges the Ninth Circuit Court on Wednesday denied the UFC's appeal request. Looks like things are going to move forward in April. We've already seen what has sort of leaked out from this. We got some contract stuff from the likes of Habib Narmagam Adov, the likes of Leota Machita. And if this thing goes to trial, April 8th, if we start open. opening up these cans of worms.

And things are going to get real interesting. So what are you thinking about with this? Like, what are you looking forward to seeing? What are you not looking forward to seeing here? Like, in 60 seconds, and I know this probably deserves a lot more time, what are you expecting out of this? What do you think the people are going to learn about the UFC and their business practices over the last decade and a half?

60 seconds on the clock go. I mean, I think they're going to learn a ton, but my concern isn't what they're necessarily going to learn. It's what are they going to absorb? What are they going to internalize? Because as great as it will be to get comprehensive information, actual legal documents, actual facts, things that you can cite in discussions. It's not like you've needed these things to know that the UFC is not the most savory enterprise when it comes to their business practices, right? So I don't know what this will change. I think people like me who are already critical of them will just, you know, it's great.

Well, I'll read this stuff. I'll retweet it. I'll tweet about it. I'll talk about on shows like this. But people who don't care about the UFC's biggest fractures, it's not going to change them. It might make them go for a second like, oh, wow. Like I didn't realize they were screwing the fighters that badly. But it's not going to stop them from buying the paper views they want to buy.

It's not going to make them cancel the Instagram plus subscription and skip the fight nights they want to see. So I know this sounds so cynical. So unprints of positivity of me, but it's going to make. It's going to make for a great read, maybe some minor important changes. But overall, the landscape is, I feel like not going to be affected in any significant way. All right, Shaheen. Shout out Steve Morocco doing a great job. Shout out to John Nash and everybody really, really paying attention to this.

They forced me to actually pay a little bit more attention to what's going on because I feel like in so many of these shows, there's just these changes and all these different things that have happened with this lawsuit are happening on weeks where, like, Francis and Ganu, arguably beats Tyson. and fury in a boxing match. Like, it's just one of those things, but contextualize this in 60 seconds or less. This thing's probably going to go to trial. It seems like everybody's on the fighter side right now that are putting on this suit. The judges seem to be like, go, go, go, go, go. Let's see this.

We're seeing what's coming out from it? What are you expecting to see here? What do you think fans are going to learn from all of this if they go to trial April 8th? Go. Yeah, I mean, I think one point you mentioned is certainly correct. It's hard to almost contextual a lot of this because it is so. unsexy, right? Like it is hard to get people to care about this. It's hard to get people to pay attention to this, even, especially on a week like this, like you said, where all of these seismic things

seem to be happening. But this was a pretty momentous result. Like, this is a pretty momentous update. This, we are going, this is going to trial now. Like in the spring, this is going to happen, which is a relatively soon, uh, or quick turnaround, I should say legal wise. Like these things have been, this particular has been dragging for so, so, so long to the point where, I think a lot of the fans who were in MMA when this started are just not even around anymore. Like, this has just been such a long saga to get us to this point. But now that we're here, like, this does have, I think A.K. is almost a little too naive about this. Like, the worst, I mean, the most impactful version of this is a very, very impactful version of this, right?

Like, there is a world where almost the MMA industry has to change because of the results of that. I don't know that that's the world we'll end up living in. But that is like the potential of what this could be. You're right. Like, admit it is almost not long enough to talk about this. Because this could be the biggest story in the entire sport for like the past decade. We just, we're not sure yet because we're not there yet. But I would agree with everything you said, follow John Nash, follow our pal, Stephen Morocco.

Those dudes are on top of it. And I mean, the cache of records and different things that we're about to see probably once this goes to trial, I could be very, very intrigued. Yeah. I said this on a heck of a morning. I feel like, because we talk about it and like a lot of people feel like, you know, you guys are just negative and, you know, just talk about fight, fight, fight, fights. But people don't realize, especially newer fans, that there's more to this business. And we talk to enough people to realize that there's a dark side of this industry.

Like, there really is, especially when it comes to negotiations with the UFC and things that have happened in the past. And I feel like once this happens and some of the stuff comes out to play. Now, like AK said, do I think this is going to change anything and they're going to get less paper views? and ESPN's going to be like, nah, we're not going to do business with you. No, I think most of the stuff's going to stay the same. But I think fans are going to learn more about this business than they ever really wanted to.

And that's what's going to be really interesting is how they're going to react to it. But this is a sport where we move on from things very, very quickly. The big news story is replaced with the next big news story, like 10 days later. So this is going to be massive. Like, this has the makings to be a massive, massive, massive story. But we'll see what happens in April.

Looks like April 8th when it's going to start. Cast your votes. Who wins? Shaheen or AK. There you go. Tomorrow. We got heck of a morning at 10-ish. And then we got a preview show for UFC Sao Paulo. I think 1 p.m. Eastern, so get ready for that. We'll have the people's pre-fight show. I think 5.30 p.m. Eastern because it's a 6 p.m. main card for UFC South Paulo.

Well, post-fight show reaction, all that stuff. AK and I'll be back on to the next one on Sunday to matchmake. Maybe Derek Lewis gets match made into an interim title shot. Maheen is just leaving. Maybe he's got a victory hat to wear because he's feeling confident. But Casey, do we- What is happening? Oh, we got a doggy.

Oh, this is brilliant. This is freaking brilliant from Shaheen Al-Shadi right here. Just brilliant. Right when the voting's happening, he's bringing in the pooch. This is brilliant stuff right here. Shaheen's been on one today. I kind of feel like he's in a really good place. He's got that dog on him for four days, except which is fine.

that I support well played AK well played very well done very well you know what I'm gonna give AK

one of these oh that was so good that was so good AK wow we have a winner we have a winner

we do have a winner when Casey says it like that that means it's probably not all that close so Casey who won well it could

well You have three options for the fans. Shaheen, A.K. Lee, or a draw. Okay. Coming in second place with 30% of the votes is a draw. Oh, my God. But coming in first place with 44% of the votes is your winner, Chehina Shottie. Hey.

I mean, I'm telling you, this man, majority decision. Yeah, majority. And AKA did come in behind draw, by the way. Came in behind draw. Great. Sheaigne. Arizona finally got one.

This is, I mean, just a brilliant performance from start to finish. How are we feeling here? Three and six. Now, four and six coming in here and getting a big win for Arizona. How are we feeling right now? I'm feeling wonderful. I'd love to use this FaceTime because I think that's what we do, right? We get a little FaceTime here.

I want to say happy birthday to my pal. This is happy birthday to Evie. This wonderful pooch is 13 years old now. I think I've said this before a long time ago on one of our programs, but the story of us getting hurt, I got dragged to the pound right after my dad's death. So I wasn't like in a real great place. And this, it was like 455. Pound was closing at five.

This little pooch was in the corner, just covered in all sorts of terrible things. and she had been on the street eating cans. I was like, hey, I want to see this dog. I related to how she was feeling at that moment in time. And they were like, no, you don't want to see that dog. This dog has attitude problems. We're putting her down in five minutes because it was closing in five minutes. And I kind of forced them to show me this dog.

And she walks up, puts her head on my lap and just stares at me. And I'm like, well, you can't euthanize this dog. And so we rescued her that day. And she's been the best friend ever ever since. You made it 13 years, Evie. I love you to death. Thank you for letting me use you as a. prop. And yeah, all done. And she's taking out my setup as she leaves. But yeah, happy birthday, Evie.

Oh, happy birthday, Evie. Happy birthday, speaking of best friends. How are you feeling here? Hold on. Is this updated, Jason? There is it up there. There we go. Well, I feel better after seeing that dog. So, yeah, have birthday to Evie. And just regarding the last question, I just want to say, Fighters, if you are out there, be informed. Stay up to date on all of its anti- trust stuff. Talk to other fighters. Talk to your manager. No, maybe don't talk. Some of you, I don't know, maybe have managers. Frankly, that might not be working in your best interest if we're being honest. But talk to other fighters. Stay up to date. Like I said, let's read the stuff on John Nash. Read the stuff from Stephen Morocco. Read the stuff from us.

Any news sites are talking with this antitrust case. Fighters, stay informed. Talk to each other. This is your moment. I was being cynical before because I forgot to mention that like I just, you know, I feel like the fighters that aren't involved in this case are not going to band together, but prove me wrong. Be on top of this. I want to believe what Shaheen says, that this could see a major overhaul in the industry. But the fighters, you guys, you have to be part of this.

You have to take an active hand in it. This is the real fight, guys. This is the real fight. There you go. I'm going cliches here, all right, political. This is the real fight. I hope fighters are aware of what's going on. And whether they agree with whatever, you know, whether they like the,

what's going on with this particular lawsuit or not, just know your options. Just know your options. Please, that's all. This business can be even better. It's a great, we love MMA, but the business could be so much better. Well said, A.K., well said.

Hit the music, Casey. Hit that music. We are done. Back next week. Jed will probably be back. Maybe we'll have a Jed versus AK battle. Maybe Jet, people try to make A.K. feel better of himself.

Maybe Shaheen will come back and try to thwart Jed Beshew's momentum. Maybe Shaheen will do it. a can of all. Who knows? You'll have to find out next week on this program, 12.30 p.m. Eastern as we get you ready for the UFC's return to Madison Square Garden, UFC 299, two title fights, all the bells and whistles for Casey on the one for Hsuth for Hs. I am Mike Heck back next week. We'll see you then between the links. Good night, everybody. Love you. This has been Between the Links, an MMfighting production on the Vox Media Network.