MMA Fighting - BTL | Gaethje vs. Fiziev 2 Set For UFC 313 Reaction, Fight News Galore, Cejudo's Future, More

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Justin Gaethje will compete in the UFC 313 co-main event after all after Dan Hooker was forced to withdraw from the highly anticipated lightweight contest with a hand injury. UFC CEO Dana White announced Wednesday night that Gaethje will now face the returning Rafael Fiziev. With the short notice nature, was this the right fight to make? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to the Gaethje vs. Fiziev rematch, what the fight means for both guys, and the impact of Hooker's scratch from the card. Additionally, they'll grade other fights announced by White and the promotion, the continued fallout from the main event of UFC Seattle between Song Yadong and Henry Cejudo, the discourse about rules and taking points, Cejudo's conversation with referee Jason Herzog, the Aaron Pico saga with PFL as a free agent, along with UFC Vegas 103 and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee.  Follow Mike Heck: @m_heckjr Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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. Happy Thursday to us all. And we have a lot to talk about, a lot to react to, because fight news galore.

UFC 313 takes a massive hit, but the UFC attempts to rectify it. Eyes were poked. Fights will happen in the world's most famous. Apex this weekend. Let's, there is just commotion going on. A lot of excitement for today's program. So let's get into it all with the panel today. First, let's say hello to Mr. No Gray Area, the hot take kid, the CEO of the climb. Mr. Jedmishu from MAAfighting.com. Hello, Jedmishu. Hey, Mike, happy to be here. We have a lot of things to discuss. I don't know if any

of them are like happy. They're not sad. They're just kind of things, but there's a lot of it to talk about, so ready to get into it. And his opponent, the King of the North, the Prince of Positivity. You may know him from the ranking show, one half of the matchmaking kings on onto the next one. And my best friend, Alexander Kay Lee, also from MMAfighting.com. Hello, AK. Welcome back to the program. It's me.

It's me. I was told this was an exhibition bout. I was told this was a non-competitive match. I don't know why the record matters. I believe this is not being officially scored, right? There's no judges. This is an exhibition. What production quality.

Look, even if it is an exhibition, you still have a record that needs to be made known to the world, you know, especially for the newcomers. 25% is rock solid. Like, that's perfectly fine. I think it's 33, isn't it? One out of every three? It's one out of every four.

Eight of 24? No, that would be six and 24. My best friend is right, sadly. Yes. No, it's okay. One out of every three. You said one out of every three, Mike, right? One out of every three, yeah.

Thanks, buddy. Defending me, thank you. That's not correct. It's not eight and 24. It is eight wins and 24. Oh, out of 32. That is true. It is, yeah, no.

Jed is correct. Jet is correct. Say, I'm not like a math genius, but I'm really confident in this one. This is off to. That should, listeners and viewers do not take that. Good night, everybody. That is not. This is free fight.

Does it do the scorecards? I wish Jose was here so we could restart the beginning of the show and go into bizarre lengths. But look, if I've been trying to teach my kid out and multiply fractions, maybe I should stop doing that. Maybe his grades will be better if I stop teaching him that. Lazy bed makes a great point, aka. 8 and 24. That's Kobe right there. You're killing it.

There we go. Thank you for saving us, lazy bed. You guys aren't here for math lessons. You are here for MMA talk. And let's get into the news of the week, gentlemen, because we found out earlier this week via his daughter's YouTube channel of all places that Dan Hooker suffers a hand injury in his highly anticipated fight with Justin Gage, which was the original Coleman event.

of UFC 313 next Saturday. It's now Dan Hooker lists. So now that has left Justin Gagey without an opponent for his first fight since the memorable knockout loss to Max Holloway at UFC 300. Fast forward to last night. Dana White goes on Instagram live, announces after a bit of a social media snafu

from the UFC that Gagee will face Raphael Fiziv in a rematch, almost two years to the day, of their classic at UFC 286 in London in March of 2023. Now, just to give everybody sort of an insider look at this, I'm told a couple of hours after this hooker news starts coming out and everyone starts to catch wind of it. Fiziv had already gotten the call.

He accepted the fight and they were just sort of waiting on whether or not this was going to be the plan moving forward. Of course, you need Gaci to agree to it. You need the management. You knew the UFC everybody to be on the same page. Around 2 p.m. Eastern yesterday, I was told not much movement in regards to the fight. And then a few hours later, the deal gets done, gets announced, three rounds, Gaichi versus Fiziv 2. So, Jed, your reaction to this news and the new co-main event for the card that is set nine days from right now in Las Vegas.

Man, I don't really care for this. Like, it's fine, but I tweeted after it happened that this was like the least first. fun thing that probably could have happened here. And apparently I'm not in the majority. I got a fair amount of pushback to that because, like, I just, who is this fight for? Like, what is this fight for? Why are we doing this outside of strictly UFC 313 is a pretty bad card if it loses either the top two fights?

And so they want to keep Justin Gaichi on this. I'm sure Gaichi wants to, you know, he's been training, he wants to stay on this fight card. and it's probably, you know, maybe he got some extra insin. I'm sure that's a big part of why he's doing this. But like, we have at most probably like five Justin Gichi fights left, and that's probably very generous. Gichi has been pretty open about saying that once he is no longer in the title hunt, he is not really inclined to continue fighting,

particularly the way he fights. And this is just like not one of the last fights I need to see Justin Gichi fight. we saw this fight. It was a good fight, the night, like a fun fight the first time around, but I didn't leave that fight thinking, this fight demands closure. I didn't leave that fight thinking this should be the beginning of a rivalry a la, you know, Justin Porier or whatever.

I just think, I just left that fight being, man, way to go, Justin Gagey to hold off the next gen, you know, one last time. And now we're getting again under these weird circumstances, like, I am going from the Dan Hooker fight, which was legitimately the best fight on the books right now. Like, you can quibble about it, I guess. You know, maybe people are really,

I really do like the Perea Magamatov fight, but that is the most exciting fight that is on paper right now. And instead, we are getting a good fight, but one that just feels empty. And I don't want, like, if this is the last fight of Justin Gage's career, if Fiziv just kills him, And he's like, hey, I've lost two in a row.

I got knocked out. I'm done. Like, that will just be the biggest bummer for his career to end this way, especially because it was, like, the hooker fight was so fun in practice. And I don't know, man, I just was left. Of all the possible outcomes, this was, other than, like, Matush Gamrot, this was the fight I was the least interested in happening. And here we are.

So just to provide a little context on the first fight, especially for newer fans who have not seen their first fight. It was excellent. It finished number four in our fight of the year rankings for MMA fighting in 2023. It was a very close fight. And looking at MMA decisions right now because I wasn't sure how that was scored, the majority had Justin Gaci winning, but there were double-digit media members who scored that fight,

29, 28 for Raphael Fiziv. So it was close enough, I guess, to Gartor, I guess, a touch of controversy. so maybe perhaps there was a little bit of closure here. Plus, we haven't seen Fiziv in a long time and Gaiti gets to remain on the card. So, AK, with this knowledge and information and hearing what Jed had to say, your thoughts on the new co-main event for UFC 313.

Yeah, and another thing with the, you mentioned the potential controversy around the fight. I think Casey and I do, wasn't there an egregious first round score? Fiziv had pretty clearly won the first round, right? Do you guys remember this? And then I think, or maybe I'm getting the round wrong, but there was a round that Fazeve clearly won,

and I think one of the judges gave the gate G, and that was sort of our point of discussion after. Producer Casey, do you remember this? Do you remember getting upset about this? I get upset about a lot of things, so I can't. This is true. Yeah. Okay.

There was some, it was a very close fight, not like got controversial as far as how competitive it was. I do remember pointing out like, oh, if this score had gone differently, like it very clearly would have gone Fizzies way. So that's like one argument for running it back, and I'm okay with that. I don't think there's a lot of people that were too mad about it after though.

I will say it's not like people thought he got robbed. It's not like people were calling for an immediate rematch. People I think would have liked to have seen it down the road. It's just now the circumstances under which we're getting it. As Jed mentioned, like we are a few years down the road now and we have a finite number of Justin Gagey fights. And then, you know, you saw the names that were sort of stepping up, fresh names that he had not fought before. There's even, you know, even a trilogy about Poria, I think that had people kind of like thinking about the possibility. And Porre himself came out after in tweeted and said that he had actually reached out to the UFC about it.

So it was in play. It was a possibility. I'm not as down on the rematch, I guess. I think I'm just looking at it very plainly as like, oh, these are two great lightweights, two really good strikers. It's going to be an exciting fight. I think stylistically, this is not as close they could come, but close to the Dan Hooker matchup that we originally wanted. That was originally booked. But I do, I don't, I guess I guess with Gaitje, I don't care so much about him facing,

necessarily facing fresh people or, you know, his fights mattering in the rankings. Like, oh, you know, could he, you know, is this a chance for some younger fighter, younger up-and-combe fighter to take his spot as opposed to Fazeve, who like, is not near the end of his career, but I get it, it doesn't count as a fresh name. So, but yes, if you tell me two of the best lightweight strikers in the world, they're going to go in there and put on a show, I'm more than happy to see it. So I think the card, UFC 313 as a whole, I don't want to say better or worse.

I think that's why I like the substitution. I think it kept it where it is. Would a catchweight belt with Armin have been interesting? I don't know if it's worse. Would a catchweight bow with Armin have been more intriguing? Sure, sure. I would have liked to have seen that. I understand if whatever, the party's involved,

I want to do that. The UFC is very squeamish while putting contenders in the catch rate bells. for stupid reasons. Either like, they're like, oh, this isn't, this, not going to count in the rankings. If it's a catch, we don't care. Fans, I cannot imagine most fans caring. Like, give me Armin and Justin.

I think that would have been cool. Moycano, I believe, like, was just smart enough. We don't know the full story, but I would have imagined was smart enough to just like not do another short notice fight after, you know, doing the Makachov fight, which he probably would have gotten paid well again. But at some point, he's got to think about his career as far as actually winning fights again, right? Though he did put out there on social media.

So I'm neutral as far as how much this affected the card. I agree with what Jed is saying is like a fresh matchup with Hooker would have been nice is what we wanted. But I don't mind. I'm not as down on this physique fight as a lot of people. I do see a lot of people like poo-pooing it. I'm okay. I'm okay with this rematch.

I want to see them fight again. Jed, you had face in hand. That's why. I think that's just insane to say that the card didn't lose something. Like the Hooker fight was awesome and now we're getting at best good. like best case scenario this fight is good and fun the hooker fight was something new something interesting like Fiziv hasn't fought in like a year and a half it feels like it's been a lifetime since he's even fought and he hasn't won in forever like it like his last

win was the one that got him the first gaichi fight like this just feel like of all the possibilities that could have happened other than matush camera because that fight is not fun like honestly, Jalen Turner's on the car. Just pull Jalen Turner and have him fight Justin Gagee. That would be cooler. Like, it would at least be fresh and different. Binwasandini, like, probably wouldn't ever happen, but that would just be sick and fun.

The thing I wanted the most, which I knew wouldn't really happen, but like the MMA gods should have given it to us. Ilya should have stepped up and fought him. That would have been sick as hell. But like the arm and a catchway would have been fine. Like, I don't know how we got to this one. but it just is the least interesting. And I'm sure the fight will be fun

because it's a Justin Gachi fight. He literally is only in fun. The most boring Justin Gachi fight that has happened in the past 10 years is when Habib just killed him. And that's like it. So I'm sure it will be fun because this man literally averages like 1.2 bonuses per fight or whatever. But that shit.

It feels so. disappointing given what we had in store with the Dan Hooker fight. The Surukia would have gone over. Honestly, I would have rather than kick this down the can. I'm surprised. I would have rather them just say, hey, yeah, like Hooker broke his hand. He'll be ready in a couple of weeks. Let's just do this as the co-made event of, I don't know, 315 or whichever one it would

end up timelining on. Like, that would have been better than where we're at now. Yeah, and especially since like we're talking about a Pereira headline card where like, sure, you want to give him a good co-main, like I understand that, but also like, he's of the name value now that he can, he can carry an entire card, right? Like, I just don't, again, we don't know UFC pay-per-view numbers anymore. I just can't imagine people, you know, being invested in the Perea fight and then seeing the gate chief hooker fight drop off. I'm like, oh, I'm not going to buy this pay per review. Like, I'm not going to watch this now. It's like, no, you're probably in on the, for the prayer fight anyway.

So it might affect buy slightly, but like Jed said in a significant way that you couldn't just push it to another card and bolster that card instead. I don't know. I actually was surprised, and the most surprise thing for me, was that G took the short notice fight at all. I thought he would, at this stage of his career, preferred to, yes, have a proper camp for the opponent he initially trained for.

But, hey, maybe UFC made the money right. If that's the case, good for him, and good for Fazeve. I do want to push back on the Fazeve, like not having won a fight in years thing. It's not really fair. It is true. It's factually true.

But it's not really fair. It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair. because one of those fights was a freak injury. So, like, he lost, but what? We're just counted. And then he's been sidelines since.

So he's only been booked twice since his last win. It's not like he's on a four or five, six fight losing streak. Like, that's very deceptor. That's a very deceptive way of framing it. I don't think that's very fair. I don't think that actually. It's not deceptive. It's deceptive.

It's not, no, no, no. Stop. Stop. I framed it as he hasn't won a fight in four years because he asked it. But that's not. Okay, one, it hasn't been four years. It's been less than three years. So now you've double mis-framed it.

That was obviously hyperbolic. No, no, both are misframings of like he's 31 years old. He's in his prime. He's still ranked. Like he's still, well, not in our rankings because he was removed reinactivity, but he's still in the UFC rankings, I'm pretty sure. So like, I just don't think that's, I don't think that's a fair way to frame it. I think he is still a very relevant challenger.

The only thing I like I said, I agree, did we want a fresh match over a rematch? Sure, someone who's been, like I said, has been winning recently. But to say he hasn't want to fight in two years is not very fair to him. I don't think that's, that says where he is. I think speaking a factual truth is fair. I don't, okay. I don't know how I'm being unfair by saying a, but you didn't give,

but you didn't give the full context. Correct or not? The full context is that he has not won a fight since 2020. Okay, and why? Why? Because he has lost the fights he has had. Why did he lose the Gamrod fight? I mean, he did lose by injury,

but that's also a honest, legitimate way to lose a fight, AK. And then he lost a gay cheat. Why does that qualify him from getting a big fight? This is a really weird hill to die. No, not at all. Not at all. I'm asking you to defend your stance.

And I think you're doing okay, but I also think you're just saying it over and over no way. My stance was he hasn't won't a fight since 2022. So is mine. So is mine. What is unfair about my stance? I, why do you need context for a true statement? You are acting as if I am saying something disingen

ingenuous when it is a factual statement. No, no, no, no. It is disingenuous because you are presenting it. No, it's not ridiculous. It is disingenuous. And you know you're being disingenuous. And that's okay, as long as you know you are. That's okay.

As long as you know you are. I honestly do not think I'm being disingenuous. I think so. Hey, listen, I'm going to change course a little bit. I'm a change course a little bit. I'm looking at the score cards for Gaiji Fiziv 1. A couple things that stand out. One, all three judges, all scored the fight.

differently. Mark Collette gave rounds two and three to Justin Gachi. Clemens Warner gave rounds one and three to Justin Gagee. Paul Sutherland gave rounds one and two to Raphael Fazeve and then gave Justin Gagee a 10-8 round in round three, which is completely out of nowhere. Although Jed probably appreciates that because that was a good round for Justin Gage. It's a good one. I've watched that fight recently enough to remember if that's like insane or not. Did I love blog that one? I remember we had a discussion about it

and we were like rattled by the 10-8 but I swear it was Casey who said that the round 1 10-9 for Gachi was worse but I may have made up this conversation in my head I will admit that now. I think though I vaguely remember that we said. I remember yeah because I remember the watch party

and we Connor and I both thought Fizzi won the first round and then Gat you won the next two. That's like how we scored it. That's how Jed scored it, 2928. according to 2928 was my official score. This whole catch weight thing is kind of crazy because like what an opportunity for Arm and Saruki

to kind of like step in and do something real cool with this situation. And the fact that they play this, well, the UFC doesn't want to do catch weights. We just did one in Seattle. Like literally just did one. Rob fought lost Dominic Cruz.

They bring in Gian Matsumoto on less than two weeks notice and they did it in a catch weight at 140 pounds. what is the big deal like does anyone really have an issue oh well arm and sirruc can't get a title shot now because this fight was at 160 pounds and if there's a 160 pound title then he gets a title fight like this whole thing is super ridiculous so what what how would you have felt jet if they did do the catchweight at 160 if was arm and sirruki in how much better would you feel about it that fight makes all the sense of the world to me um that fight is probably not not, like being honest, that's probably not as fun as the Fazeve fight will end up being.

That fight just has more merit to me, right? Like, because the winner will get a title fight. Like, if Surukia wins, he'll get there. Gachi was basically should have gotten a lightweight title fight and then fought Max because the calendar demanded they have a sick-ass fight on that card. And so that's where we got the BMF title fight going. But like Gaiti was probably kind of in that realm to get it. And so it's a get back on the max fight.

If he does win, he beats number one contender. Sarukian gets in there, gets the victory that he needs to sort of get back to challenge for the title. So that fight just like means more, which is why I think it's better, even if I don't, even if I can acknowledge that it probably will not be as fun because we've seen Gachi Fizif. It was a very fun fight. It was a very competitive fight. I expect it will be something similar. time around. So I think that like of the reasonable outcomes, that was the one I was probably the most interested in. I would have loved the Jean Silva stepping in, but obviously we'll talk about

what's happening for him next soon. And like the reach, the thing I hoped for that I didn't really hope could happen was Ilya. But in the absence of that, like, Surukian would have been good. It would not shock me, frankly, if Gachi was like, I'm not going to fight Arm on Surukian in 10 days. that's not a thing I'm willing to do. Yeah. The way Gaitchicata laid it, I was like, Porre said no, Holloway said no, Moikano said no, Oliverer said no, Armin said no, understand why most of them said no. And then shout out to Viziv and then half of those guys clapped back. It was like, no, that's not correct.

Armand's like, yeah, I said yes, UFC didn't want to do 160. He's like, yeah, they never offered me the fight. That's because I called them and said, I want the fight. Dude, we should have done that. Porier and Gaichi 3 under these circumstances, you should have done that. Like, that would have been sick as hell. You think Porier would have taken that fight

and then still done the Louisiana summer fight? I don't think this would have been his retirement. So we would have just been getting an extra Porreau fight. Because I do think he really wants to retire in New Orleans. I think they are going to end up doing a Louisiana fight sometime later this year because they haven't been in 10 years. And that fight could be, you know, the third fight with max or a rematch for charles that could be something else fun and cool if ultimately

it ends up being gaichy versus poor a three as his retirement fight that'll still be fine but like we could have snuck an extra port like poor if i did that would have been cool as hell last thing on this aka let's just fast forward to march 9th we're live on youtube onto the next one happens i'm gonna throw a name at you, okay? You're the professional matchmaker here, so I'm going to throw this at you. The result on March 8th is that Raphael Fiziv defeats Justin Gagee. Wins a decision, fun fight. What's the matchup for Raphael Fiziv after this hypothetical victory? Boy, I mean, once you do that, the good news is you put yourself on that weird title fight shortlist, right? He should not be the number one contender, that's for sure. Even if he defeats Justin Gaci by like,

Well, no, I wouldn't say that. If he wins by like first round, you know, hurricane kick, sure. Feel free to call for the title shot, have, you know, fans of social media will be calling for it. And then you never know what can happen, right? Like I wouldn't think in the matchmaker's minds he would jump to the front. But if he puts on this incredible revenge performance, by all means, go for it. But otherwise, I do think we have to be reasonable. And I think as Jed kind of pointed out, like this is one of the flaws of this matchup is compared to some of the alternates we had, like Armin, like Ilya.

is stylistically fantastic, but stakes-wise, so murky. Because, again, other than the scenario just outlined, I can't imagine Fizib immediately jumping to the front of the tenderline, unless, again, other people dropped out for whatever reason. Like, he probably has to fight again. I'm looking at the list now. You probably... I have to actually double-check this. I have to look at the people that Fizib has already fought. As Jed pointed out, it's been a long time since he's going to have fought.

he probably the logical thing is to just give him hooker right like i know that's not something fans always want and it's not always the way the matchmakers go but i don't mind that him having to face the guy who he replaced now i get it ghe is ahead of hooker in the rankings but fazeve has to fight again physique has to fight again there's other people in the rankings who are tied up there's other people that just don't make sense for him at this moment like i don't think he gets Charles, because as far as we know, Charles might be Ilya's first opponent. There's a lot of pieces that have to move around.

But without, again, without knowing exactly how the U.S. is going to lay all of this out, I'm comfortable saying he can probably get the hooker fight. That, or God help us, we're looking to the Chandler Patty winner, but I don't even want to, I'm still waiting for that fight to happen. I don't even want to speculate on how that's going to go yet. All right, that's a tough one. But Jed, you know, being such a fan of Justin Gachy in his work and knowing how the UFC likes to matchmate.

There's a couple of things we need to keep in mind here. This is 2025. He's doing the UFC a favor by taking this fight against a guy he's already beaten in less than in about 10 days notice. He's also managed by somebody who is in terrific favor with the UFC. So that doesn't hurt either. And this lightweight division has been super weird. and we've seen Dustin Porreier beat Benoit Sontini

and get a title shot. They want big fights and they will do whatever they can to get them. So Justin Gachi beats Raphael Fiziv a second time. What's his next fight? Here's one of the honest to God biggest problems I have with this fight is we went from Justin Gachi fighting Dan Hooker to Justin Gachi and Rafael Fiziv fighting for the right to fight Dan Hooker.

Because yes, he's doing the O.C. of favor. Yes, he's popular. If he goes, if Gachi gets a win, he is still coming off one of the most iconic knockouts in the history of this sport. People will remember that. And if the UFC is looking at a possible opponent for his Lamakachev, Gaei is probably third in line behind Ilya, now a lightweight, and Charles Oliva, who, you know, has beaten Gae, et cetera, et cetera.

So, like, if he wins, his best case scenario is that he fights like Armin or Charles or Ilya and much more likely he just fights Dan Hooker in the summer and maybe that fight with Hooker at that point is for a title fight so I guess that's not all bad but like a Gaichi win here is just holding serve at like pretty much at best which just sucks and I agree with AK I think that the most likely outcome for Fiziv is that he gets Dan Hooker if he wins this fight now there is some outside chance that Fiziv win opens it opens more doors because Fiziv hasn't didn't just fight Max Holloway and get knocked out. So maybe Fadzeev could get a Max Holloway fight.

Maybe you could get a Charles Olivera fight if Ilya gets slingshot straight to a title fight. Like some moving parts there. So honestly, Fiziv winning is probably better for sort of options for the promotion. But like one of my fundamental issues is this fight is to determine the fight that we just lost, basically, which is like not cool. It feels like treading water. interesting take what was also interesting is that rafiel fazeve opened as the minus 140 favorite in this fight now some money has come in even things up a little bit visib minus 120 currently just to get you minus 106 so it's minus money on both sides according to our friends of fan duel and essentially a coin flip and so that's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out and how the betting odds turn but guys that was not the only fight that was announced not just yesterday but throughout the week so we're going to play a fun game of great

the matchmaking in round two. The point for round one goes to Alexander Cayley. A.K., nice job. I got to tell you. Didn't expect fireworks in this round. And even though you took quite the route to get to fireworks in that round, we got some. And I didn't see it coming and surprise to me. So let's get into...

Jed brings out the monster in me. Yes. I apologize. I apologize to the viewers. the monster of semantics. Yes, exactly. What terrible darkness you have inside of you. Oh, sinister.

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And there's three in particular that I want to touch on. So we're going to grade the matchmaking here in round two. and I'm going to present to fight. I'll call on you guys. You give it a grade and explain why. So Jed, we're going to begin with you. UFC 314 continues to get better and better. Dana White announces last night that Gian Silva gets his wish.

He just fought on Saturday, posterized Melsik-Badizarian with one of the coldest knockouts you will see. And then he calls out Bryce Mitchell and the UFC gives him his wish, April 12th in Miami. while some of these cards are falling apart and they're not that interesting, UFC 314 is just getting way better with each passing day. Jed, grade this matchmaking,

Gianzilla versus Bryce Mitchell. It's an F. It's whatever the lowest grade I can possibly give. It's a Z and X, a negative tractor. It's the lowest grade you can give one because I don't give a shit. Promoting Nazis is bad. And we should not be booking fights for people

who say Hitler's a good guy. Like, I don't care. It is so clear to me that like, ooh, you can watch and get knocked out. I don't need to. I don't need the shot in Freud of that. I need you to not give this dude, possibly a live goddamn microphone on a pay-per-view

because he can win this fight. I am as big as Yon Silva fan as there is out there. I have been driving that bandwagon. I would like him to win because I like him personally and I do not like Bryce Mitchell for reasons that I think are abundantly obvious. But if he loses, we're still giving Bryce Mitchell a live microphone. Last time he had a live microphone, the dumbest shit possible was said. F, like fire this fight into the sun and get this gibroni off, like out of the promotion,

because he does not deserve to be there. AK Gray Giansoe versus Bryce Mitchell. I'm going to go be as objective as I can and try try to ignore the pro-Hitler Holocaust conspiracy comments, right? Which is, you know, so easy to do. So I will give it a slight ding for all the reasons that Jed mentioned, Bryce being a terrible, ignorant person. And probably, again, I have no interest, I actually have no interest in watching him cage fight anymore. but again, I will be as objective as possible here and say, I'll go, I'll go B. I'm going to be only because, and this is not from a, oh, I hope, I hope John Silva

knocks Bryce Mitchell's head off and I'll get a thrill out of that. Like, I don't think that's a great, I have no interest in seeing people I don't like punish by brutality if that makes sense. Like when Greg Hardy was fighting, everyone was like, oh, Greg Hardy is a terrible person, but look at all these heavyweights, they're going to knock them out. I'm like, I don't care. I don't want to see that. I want to see, I want to see, I don't know this person.

and changed their lives, rehabilitate. I apologize for all the terrible things they've done. But that's pretty naive on my part. So just going back to this fight, I like that Gian Silva called for it. I like the UFC was quick to follow up on it. Bryce Mitchell said he's fine to do it too. So we're just talking about what the fighters want, what the fans want, apparently. I know a lot of fans, when John Silva made that call out, we're like, yeah, let's see it.

I want to see Bryce get knocked out. And there's frankly, unfortunately, Bryce Mitchell fans out there too, who are just happy to see him get back in the cage. I'll go, I'll go reluctantly B, but everything Jed said was true. Let's also add that in. Yeah, I think B's kind of like where I, where I land, because this isn't the fight I would have made. I thought the call it was great, but I wouldn't have made this fight. I would have done John Silva versus Yusuf Salal.

I think that was the one to make. But this is fine. People like it. I would like to address BK. in the chat saying that he's just a dumb country boy and didn't call to violence. Go watch it. I mean, you shouldn't because you shouldn't give him the click. The actual, like, I'm going to paraphrase because I don't have the quote in front of me at this moment of time. He basically, like, after denying that the Holocaust is real, says all Hitler was doing was trying to purify his country from the greedy Jews who were trying to gay everyone up. Buddy, there just ain't no fucking call for it. F. This is an F. Every promotion that involves him is an F.

Let us move on. Let's take a trip to Kansas City, Missouri, A.K. We have a main event for UFC Fight Night two weeks after UFC 314, April 26th. I don't know how Kansas City is getting all these fight night cards. There are many cities who want fight night cards. Kansas City's gotten two in like three years. But we have a battle between former light heavyweight champion Jamal Hill facing recent title challenger in becoming a fan favorite,

Khalil Roundtree, a.k.a. grade this matchmaking. We got another great person in Jamal Hill, who I love getting opportunities over and ever again. Another solid citizen, a solid member of the community. Again, being objective here, just talking about the matchup, just talking about the ranking

style-wise, how fun this will be. I'll go even higher than Jan Silva, Bryce Mitchell. I'll go a B-plus, my best friend. I'll give a firm B-plus. We were supposed to see this fight at 303, right? This was really for three or are I getting my numbers wrong? Yeah, last summer.

We were supposed to see this last summer. Then we had the whole, the fight just kept getting changed. Carlos Oldberg was in there and then he couldn't compete and all this. Sorry, and then Jamal Hill couldn't compete. Someone came from Carl, for him. So it's okay. This is sort of just the universe writing itself. Rankings-wise, this is just a logical way to go.

Roundtree, so much stock gained from that performance against Alex Pereira. Jamal Hill, he hasn't been getting it done in the cage, though his performance against Erie was very entertaining, showed a hell of a lot of toughness. There's no question the man can fight. He's a former champion. He's got that cachet. So this was the way to go.

I think like my feelings about this and the Giancelva Bryce Mitchell matchup are the same. Like this was just logical. This was good logical matchmaking. As far as it being a main event for a fight night card, that is perfecto. Mike, I don't know if you can bet on this sort of thing. I bet they're going to break the North American Gate record for a fight night event

yet again. Yet again. It's very possible. Jed, what say you? And by the way, just a little history lesson for UFC 303. This started as Jamal Hill versus Cleo Roundtree. It ended with Anthony Smith versus Roman DeLidez. So that's how we ended that whole thing.

But Jed, now we're rebooked April 26th, main event in KC. Jamal Hill versus Cleo Roundtree, grade this matchmaking. So what you're saying is by proxy, Cleo Roundtree has already been victorious as Roman Deleadze did defeat Anthony Smith in their proxy war at UFC 303. I think this is an A. This is a great fight. This is the fight that makes sense. This is the fight that should get booked.

You know, this is one of the greatest fights that's ever been booked? No, but like this makes total sense for all parties. It absolutely is a main event. Kind of, unless I'm like missing some obvious tie-in to Kansas City, sort of like a weird location to put it, But that doesn't really matter. Like, this is a good fight. Like, Cleo Roundtree, stock is as high as it has ever been coming off the Pereira loss. Jamal Hill, stock arguably as low as it's ever been, given just sort of the very tough

2024 he's had. This is a fight that was already booked, as you mentioned. Like, there's just nothing wrong with this matchmaking. I think that this is sort of exactly what we all wanted and hoped. And so this gets an A. Yeah, there's only like four fights in this actual division. and you can get any bit of excitement from when you see a poster. And this is one of them.

So, yeah, I'm up there on the A. And now I can't wait. I can't wait, Jay, because they're going back to you because I've thought a lot about this. UFC 315 at a press conference yesterday. We saw Belal Mohammed. We saw Jack Delamadalana. They're going to fight for the Welterweight title in the main event. We saw Valentina Shochenko and Manon Fioro.

They're going to fight in the co-main event for the women's flyway title. We saw Jasmine Jazz Defezius. on the dais. She is fighting Jessica Androge and that's a great fight, but that's not the one we're talking about, Jed, because we saw somebody else up on that dais. His name, it's not David Shaw I'm talking about. I'm talking Amin's a hobby, Jed.

And why did we see Amon Zahabi up there? Not because he was an ambassador for Canadian UFC action. He is competing on this card and he is facing the former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo in Montreal in May. Jed, grade Joseo Aldo versus Amin Zahabi at UFC 315 in Montreal. F plus, like one level above the Bryce Mitchell booking, because that is morally reprehensible booking.

This is hyperbolicly morally reprehensible to manage. Jose Aldo's career in the way the UFC has since he has returned from his retirement. The list of opponents since coming out of retirement, ladies and gentlemen, they're the ones you've all been waiting for, one of the six greatest fighters of all time, truly one of the only living legends actively competing in the UFC, a man revered by just about everyone who puts on gloves. His three return fights in the UFC are Jonathan Martinez, Mario, Batista and now Amon friggin's a hobby

what the are we doing with this Joseo Alto is like honestly in a rarefied air of beloved fighters the way people talk about him the way other fighters talk about

sharing the card with him like him and John Jones are the last dudes in that tier right now competing like it is unbelievable the amount of reverence people have for this guy. And the end of his career is the worst I've ever seen. Like, Anderson Silva was at least getting some people with some names.

Like, Jose is just fighting the nameless, faceless young, young, in quotation, because Amon's freaking 37. Who is this for? What is the purpose of this fight? Like, surely they're going back to Brazil because they go back to Brazil every year. Why is Josie Aldo not just fighting in the Brazil car? Why is he ever fighting outside of Brazil? Why are we treating Amon Zahabi like a prospect who, like, if he beats Josez, he's 37?

He's not ever fighting for a title. He's old. Like, good on him. He's on a great run. He's been a better fighter than I ever thought he could be. But like, this fight is the worst possible fight that could be made for Jose Aldo at this point. We're never going to get the Dominic Cruz fight. Now the Cruz is retired, I understand that.

Henry Sohudo would make, frankly, sense. at this point in time. Like, just throw a dart at any bantam weight or featherweight, and that would be fine. Instead, we got aiming freaking Zahabi. Like, I am upset with the Gaichi fight that we are wasting the end of his, like, wasting one of the fights in the end of his career on a rematch. We have just lit Josealdo's, like, final act on fire thus far for no sense of, like,

I do not understand the reason. I need someone to explain it to me like I am a small child. or a Labrador retriever because this is the dumbest shit to me. AK, maybe perhaps you have a different perspective on this since Amos a hobby, Canadian, surging contender, getting his opportunity to fight a legend. Grade this matchmaking.

Shout out to Joseph Boza in the comments first of all. It's number 11 versus number 13. I assume as a hobby is 13. When you can put up the number 11 ranked featherweight against the number 13 ranked featherweight and that number 11 is one of the greatest far as all time, You got to do it. You got to do it. The rankings are right there. It makes sense. I mean, no, I'm with Jed, man. This one we're going to agree on pretty firmly. I believe he said F, F minus,

whatever the lowest ranking was. This is terrible. F plus. I'll go lower. I'll go F. This is bad. I all credit in the world to my fellow Canadian for, you know, I had a bit of a, I don't say a bumpy start, but whatever. I think when his UFC start didn't have anyone pegging him necessarily as a future contender, despite coming from an esteemed camp, you know, have, of course, being Frost's brother. So,

and now he's strung to go out of these wins. He looks very good. He's looked like a very high quality feather weight. And there was any number, I would argue, he deserved a top 10 opponent. So for them to kind of almost seemingly go out of their way to pick Aldo is really strange.

I'm with, I love Aldo so much. I think people know anyone who listens to any of our podcasts, any of our shows. No, we think this guy, is clearly one of the top five greatest pound for pound fighters of all time. And as far as like favorite fighters to watch for me, like maybe top three. Like I just think he deserves so much better at the stage of his career.

Now, if it's Jose Aldo who doesn't care, if Aldo is the one saying, I want to be tested against the current crop of fighters just outside the top of Dean, then more power to him, like good for him for just saying, I want to keep my career going. I don't want to be treated any differently than anyone else. But there comes a point where you have to be selfish for yourself and maybe target some names that are more beneficial to your legacy that may more intriguing to you as a legend.

And be less selfish for the fans, you know, to the fans who want to see you fight some of the big names. Some of them, you know, we weren't, I guess we were just never getting him in Dominant Cruz. That's fine and that's completely out the window now with Cruz retired. But there's other fighters. at 145, 135, 135, even up to 155, who we would have been like, man, just a dream massive with Aldo. He's going to come back. These are dream matchups.

Two years ago, if you had said, Jose Aldo is going to fight, I'm in Zahabi on a paper for you someday. We would all just said, what the hell are you talking about? Why would anyone do this? This makes no sense. And when you can make a statement like that, and I'm pretty sure everyone unanimously agrees, that's an F in the matchmaking, man. That's just a brutal, brutal, brutal matchmaking.

So I think you, I hope, Mike, I can't remember the question now if you asked me to defend this or to put it frame in a different perspective because I cannot. I cannot. Good for A.M.N. if he gets this win, it'll creep them up the rankings, which is fine. And I always like to see Canadian fighters succeed. But I hate this matchup so much. So apologies to Aeman and Jose. Umar, Sean, Figgie, Sohudo, Pitbull.

like those are all undeniably more like make more sense and are better fights like that are just that do the thing more like if aldo wins nothing has occurred here he's just beaten aim and zahabi is meaningless functionally he's not meaningless but it doesn't mean all that much particularly in the context of the rest of his career and as a hobby wins like i guess he's now number 11 but he's he's never fighting for the ball he's 37 and so you just got like like this is a match I would understand this matchmaking if Jose Aldo was Tony Ferguson it, right?

And like he had lost eight in a row and we are just trying to get this guy done. Here, here's a worst fight or lose to this guy. Get that just here, try and win. No, he's like winning fights. I thought he beat freaking Batista in his last fight. And so like, why is he getting handled this way? Just have him, because like some people in the comments say

and AK sort of suggested, though I don't think he really believes this. who's just kind of throwing out his possibility. Maybe Jose wants this. No, there's not a world where he's like, I really want to fight Amon Zahabee. He will because he doesn't give a shit. He'll fight anybody.

He is a fighter. That's why he's beloved. But like, if you came to him, hey, do you want to fight Amon's a hobby? Do you want to fight Sean O'Malley? I'm going to guess he's going to pick Sean O'Malley. Like, this just is so nonsensical for one of the five best fighters ever. And just one of the most beloved figures in the sport.

I hate it. I hate it so much. If you're going to do something, I would honestly, I would have rather of them done the Cheeto Vera rematch than this and then done Zahdi against Mario Batista. Like that,

those make way more sense, way more sense than this fight. This is a Q minus. It's a Q minus. I'm going way below F. This is a Q. Like, good for Zahbi getting this opportunity, but like,

as you guys both laid out, this means nothing. Unless Zahbi, nukes Joseo. I mean, nukes him and he won't. Like what? There's nothing gained from this fight. Like, so Hobby gets to say, hey, I beat Josealdo. That's pretty cool. Mario Batista is not living on living the high life because of this shit.

He's been just destroyed by most fans, by how he competed. I thought wisely, this is smart, the smart strategy to win. This is the only way he was going to beat Joseo was to hold him up against the fence the way that he did. He was not going to win a typical MMA fight against him. But then he has this video of him going up to Henry Sehudo, challenging Sehudo to a fight. And Sehudo's like, nah, man, you're boring. I ain't fighting you.

Like, that's not good for business. And now he's fighting Cheeto Vera. Like, we should have just reversed course here. It's not like the fights are three months apart. They're like a week apart. We could have easily done this. I don't understand. I don't get it.

And like the genuinely one of the biggest things, at least the Jonathan Martinez. as fight, at least there was a semblance that maybe this guy has something, right? Like maybe this is just the signature win that kicks off like a real run to the top. It's on a good team, good run, youngish dude. Like, Amunds a hobby is 37. He is 37 years old. He is never fighting for this belt.

So there's no benefit to him winning. It is just mind boggling that we're doing this. because there's also two title fights this card doesn't need it it's Canada they've got two title fights like that's fine age appropriate matchmaking I guess we can point to that

if we want to find some reasoning behind this can you imagine guys put Aljo against Jose that's better I would have loved that I would have loved it that's fine that's good can you imagine if we had just gotten Aldo versus Aljo all those years ago

instead of the like that that is one of those inflection points that sent us down this dark Aldo timeline. Like, I don't know. I mean, listen, maybe Aldo would have lost that fight. Though I would have given him a chance against Aljo, if we're being honest. And then we ended up with him taking a hiatus, calling him back. Oh, no, what happened?

Oh, he had to fight instead. That's right. That's right. That's right. He ended up getting the Morav fight instead, and we're all just like. And we're tight altitude. At altitude. So much.

We were so furious. The Dillashah Sterling fight was such a lemon. And like, we found out that Dillishaw was fighting with one arm. Shouldn't have even been in there. Yes. And then we get Martinez. And then the Batista fight, even though Autista fight didn't make a lot of sense and we had horrible decision and just, I'm having a bad time with the Josie Aldo experience now.

I should be happy because I'll probably, I assume I'll probably be at 315 to see the legend live. So I shouldn't complain. You know, this is one from the Canadians up here. But, you know, you guys, we got to keep this objective, right? And it's on paper just bad, real bad. You guys want to know one of my favorite thing, like stats in a human race history. If you go to UFCStats.com and you pull up Maraudibald-Ballish-feely,

everybody gives up like eight takedowns and then there's zero and that's Jose Frigginaldo because he's the man and I don't know why the hell he's fighting this fight. Well, it could have been Henry Sehudo and coincidentally enough, that's who we're about to talk about in round three. The point for round two goes to Jedmishu, one to one. You're pointing the wrong way. There you go. If I didn't win the Jose Aldo round, I would have been upset.

Well, yeah, I mean, come on. You know yourself. And you know me. You know how I score these things. I don't like to take responsibility for anything. So I'm just going to let the people decide who wins this thing. Let's, UFC Seattle, I got to tell you, it was a fun card. It ended in such a weird way.

I thought especially with just how great UFC Vegas 103 looks on paper, we would get over this very quickly. We'd already be talking about other things. But no, I poke gate continues on. Henry Sohudo has gone on multiple shows and including his own podcast, talking about his fight with Song Yidong and how it ended. And personally, I don't blame him because I think it is a good thing to keep this topic in the news, even though nothing's going to change.

But something interesting happened along the way, Alexander Cayley. Henry Suhudo put out a video of him doing a video chat with referee Jason Herzog, who said, you know what? In hindsight, I probably should have taken a point. But then also says, had I taken a point and the same thing happened and you said you can continue and then we go into round four and then you said, oh, no, I can't continue anymore. I'd have to call it a TKO. And the whole thing was kind of cool to see fighter and referee kind of discuss this. But I got to tell you, at the end of this, I find myself more confused now than I did on Saturday night.

So, AK, what say you? What did you think of this Henry Sehudo, Jason Herzong dialogue? Yeah, I'm glad I'm going first. I can tell Jets are ready to blow once again. He needs a minute. Oh, no, he's done. He's had time to, he's had time to process it. It was, it was interesting.

I mean, I feel like Herzog missed the point a little bit. So for anyone who didn't, I won't give a full recap, for anyone who didn't see the whole video and stuff, you can guys read the write up on M.A.finding.com, of course. But Herzog essentially was saying, like, before I get to the broader point, like he didn't want to stop the fight there. when the poke immediately happened because that would have,

they would have got to go to the scorecards anyway. Then he said he didn't want to stop it after the round because if Henry says he can't continue at that point, then it has to be a TKL loss for Henry. Okay, okay, fine. There wasn't a lot of explanation as to why he didn't take a point other than I think he said the usual referee defense of, well, I don't want to influence the fight.

Now, or I don't want to, I don't want to have been supposed to fight. And if I make this decision, it could be costing someone a win. It could be costing someone a win check, et cetera, et cetera. Which oddly in this case would have been true. If you had taken a point, it would have been a draw, a majority draw. And both guys, and then neither guy would have gotten their win bonus. So yes, he would have cost, he would have literally cost Song a his win bonus. And Henry wouldn't have gotten it either.

But that phrase is so annoying because, and I'm sure we've said this before, And I'm going to say it again every time this comes up. It's like, you do realize inaction is the same as action in the situation. But you are still responsible, not making a call. It still makes you responsible for a certain outcome happening because that is your responsibility as a third man in the cage. So in this case, he legitimately added an L to Suhudo's record. This should have been a majority decision because he should have taken a point. Or it could have been a no contest because of the, the,

Fahol. There's just some, and we all like Jason Herzog. I think we always use the disclaimer. He's probably the best referee in them

made today, both for his in-case decision-making and for moments like this where he seems to be willing to discuss with the public and I guess with fighters apparently, you know, why he made a certain call.

He's on Twitter. We're pretty sure that's had. I don't remember it's ever verified, but I don't have been seen anyone disputed. He's on Twitter, responding to fans, talking about what happened if it seems to be as professional as, as can be.

And in this situation, I think he feels he handled everything right. But it just still doesn't answer so many of the lingering questions that we have about officiating. This was a chaotic situation. I understand. I understand the basic logic of Sehudo still wanting to compete and Herzog wants to

accommodate that because Sehudo himself said, I want to see if I could fight through the being unable to see. And then by the, you know, but then after a minute of running away from Song and in between the rounds, I realized I couldn't. There's really no, unfortunately, there's just no firm. like wording in place for that situation that we saw unfold on on Saturday other than the yes you should take a point that's the one thing that's pretty clear should have other than that it was chaos I sympathize with Herzog I sympathize pseudo I sympathize with everyone involved but I still feel like this was not handled as it could have been Jed what say you because it was the morning report so you can go to me fighting and read it but last thing he says is quote now I see your point if you had taken a point there then it would have been a draw.

I will tell you that we run ourselves right into the argument from Songs Group then of saying, no, actually he forfeited. It's a TKO loss. It should not have gone to the scorecards. So Jason Herzog is more like me hosting this program where he doesn't want to make the decision and determine it wins.

So biggest takeaway from all this, it was kind of refreshing to see this, but in reality, did we learn anything? Were there any big takeaways from this for you? honestly, I have like 18 takeaways. The first thing I do want to give Jason Erzog props for doing this because one of the major frustrations we as fans and certainly fighters have communicated to me and to you and privately is the lack of sort of transparency with refereeing that referees and judges do not really hold themselves accountable all the time for mistakes. And so it was legitimately nice to see Herzog speak openly with this, sort of give his perspective.

perspective, acknowledged that he thinks he did make a mistake that he probably should have taken a point. All of that being said, like full props to that, didn't love his answers, right? Like, I got a little bit of clarity on some rule stuff I was confused by. I also listened to John McCarthy speak about it on his podcast this week to sort of clarify some of the things that I did not understand. I still don't entirely understand and I still have some objections to how this was handled. broadly speaking, I have a couple of major thoughts on this. First, what AK said, the, you know, referees don't want to influence the fights. They don't want to be held accountable.

Or they don't want to be the reason someone wins or loses is absolutely correct because it's a zero-sum game. Your action or inaction is directly affecting the outcome. And Herzog acknowledges this by saying, if I had not done what I did, then it would have been a TKO win for Song. Or if I had done what you wanted, then we maybe end up in a draw, at which point Song's team is like,

hey, this is nonsense. Because apparently, and this was the part that was deeply confusing because the rules as written on the various websites aren't necessarily accurate and also the Seattle Commission's not necessarily playing by the same, operating under the same Grand Unified Rules as in other locations. And so the whole thing of Herzog,

needed to start the fourth round so the fight could go to a decision. Because if the fight doesn't start the fourth round, it is de facto ruled unwilling to answer the belly TKL loss, right? Like, and that's probably what should have happened. Like Herzog just kind of unilaterally said, you can't answer the bell, but we're going to pretend you can for one second to start the fourth. So now it goes to the cards instead of you getting this TKLoss, which actually is like substantively, I mean, directly influencing the outcome of the fight in the situation where he had

deducted a point. So all of that was super weird. Point two that I want to make on this just very quickly is that Henry Suhudo is not a coward and the people suggesting that he was trying to play the game of the system. I think you guys just really reconsider what you were saying. Not that fighters wouldn't do this and he was certainly lobbying for a point to be taken, justifiably, I might add. if Sohudo was trying to play a game, he just would not have fought again. He said, hey, I still can't see around, I'm not going to go back out there on compromise,

because then it would have been a no contest. Like, he is very aware of that. Everyone would have been aware of that. The fight had not completed three rounds. Just would have been a no contest or maybe wouldn't have ended up a DQ. So if he was trying to play a game, he would not have tried to resume fighting. He clearly just thought that he could work through it, realized he couldn't, and then said, hey, I can't go out there.

my chance to win has been diminished too heavily. So that's point two. And point three, the point that is like, maybe it was the most frustrating part of all of this. And I guess is my big takeaway outside of it all still being a cluster fucking nonsense. Herzog, there's a point in the conversation where he's like, so by the rules, every penalty is a point deduction. But we don't do that because like it would just happen too much. Then like every fight would just have a whole bunch of point deductions.

and and he phrased it to like answer me honestly do you think that that's right like no just do you think that that's how it should be handled it's like yes yes that's how it should be handled because like he then went into this explanation of we try to make it as fair as possible you know what's fair just taking a point every time it's it is undeniably fair if you just take a point for every penalty because then everyone knows the score there's not like the latitude and leeway of like oh I should have taken a point and then I didn't like no just take a point. point every time and he he acknowledges that that's part of it but like just can't get himself over the line because the culture of refereeing is to just not do a goddamn thing and that is so

frustrating i desperately hope it changes in the next couple of years yeah i mean look it's it's crazy and something tells me that yeah it would be a rough go if you first said hey we're taking points for everything and there would be a lot of penalties but guess what a year from now 18 months from now, two years from now, when you see that points are being taken away for everything, guess what would happen? There'd be far less egregious penalties that points would have to be taken away because fighters be more careful about stuff. But we shall see how this plays out.

I don't think anything is going to change. And that's that. In literally, Mike, this is like, I wrote about this in the mailbag this week. In most other sports, like a literal key talking point for games is the ability to not get penalized. Like, oh, that football team is good. Like, they are poorly coached because they get 150 yards of penalties a game. It is just a skill that you work on if it matters.

You currently do not have to work on it because you will never get penalized in M.A. So you don't have to keep your hands up. You could just poke them out. Like, it's fine. This, like, I guarantee you guys. If they just started penalizing this, it would change almost overnight. Yeah, I, listen, I'm, I'm, I'm loath to compare MMA to other pro sports.

You know, it's often in apples to orange comparison. But broadly, you can absolutely bring up fouls and penalties from other sports. It just makes no sense. Jed, you bring up American football. I would bring up NBA. Anyone who knows NBA history, there was a time, even before the 80s, probably like, I would say 60s, 70s. People don't know how violent fucking basketball was. Dudes were straight up murdering.

People talk about the bad boy 80s and stuff like way before, like, two days. because we're that. People were murdering each other in basketball games, like just killing each other with hard fouls. There was no thing as a flagrant foul. Again, you fouling in general was like, oh, whatever, you just body-trick each other. Guess what? They started calling more fouls. They started selling guys, yeah, you can't hit as much. You know what? The game, and the game changed. People started committing fouls less. This is how rules work, people. It's how they work. I understand people are saying like, oh, but every accidental groin kick, they happen all the time, every accidental eye poke. you guys will be amazed how much accidents like diminish when they are punished more frequently. I know that sounds a little cruel.

And yes, there's going to be instances where the call is not fair. This happens in every sport. Watch another sport. You see like, oh, this guy, they called this file, but they didn't call this foul. Yeah, it happens. It happens. This happens in other sports. Guess what?

Those sports are doing just fine. Yeah, you're going to have an eye poke that like, ah, that's not as bad as I poke. But they will go down. Fowls will lessen. It has just been historically proven. And every athletic endeavor, every organized athletic endeavor in human history, we have seen fouls and penalties and all these things lessen when you have stiffer penalties. That's just how it works, guys. That's just how it works.

And legitimately, there is a, this is not hyperbolic at all. If you are clearly aware that you're winning a fight and three rounds have elapsed, there is no, like there is no harm in you just trying to poke somebody's eyes and rendering them unable to continue. because it will then go to the scorecards. Like, oh, we're in the fourth round. I'm up. No chance for a comeback if I gouge his eyes out. Like, no one's probably going to do that. But like, it's still silly to exist in a rule space that can, that like sort of incentivizes that.

Like, it's really easy for fence for any fence grab. You give up position. Any other file you take a point. It will solve itself so quickly. It's funny because this was like UFC one and, and HB and all that stuff. Like there was a rule set. You could not poke people in the eyes and gouged their eyes.

And yet all these years later, 30 plus years later, that is still a rule. And we still haven't figured out how to how to penalize it. So maybe something will change. Maybe it won't. But what isn't going to change is the UFC being at the apex with cards that are, that are okay at best. Point for round three goes to Jedbushu. Two to one.

Nice job. streaking. I am in fuego. In fuego after a tough start, a.k. I might have to turn up the volume a little bit. Get that volcano to erupt a little bit. Perhaps get back into this thing. But we were going to do a Pope reroute. I had a few different things I wanted to

touch on, but we'll touch on two things because of time. And we don't want this to be a three-hour show. with Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it. Want turnips that look light but feel heavy? Easy.

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Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation.

Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to Aero Pembers on equipped flights, sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. Jed, I'm going to just ask this question as simply as possible. There's a UFC event on Saturday.

Manel Cop's fighting a Sue on Mabai if in the main event. Are you excited at all for UFC Vegas 103? That's the question. Shout out Sky River Rain. Good. Good joke. No, I am not. As you see over my shoulder, family weekend,

and there's an expertly drawn photo of her, It looks like a photo. It's not a photo. But it's photo realistic Apple as there because boys and girls is an apple pick weekend. If you have nothing else to do on Saturday night, absolutely fire up the old ESPN Plus or Hulu. And tune in, watch some fist fights. You could do worse than watching fist fights on a Saturday night. But if you have a girlfriend you have been neglecting, a boyfriend you've been neglecting, a spouse children that you just would like to spend some more time with, Saturday is the day to do it.

because there are other events where you're going to need to focus your energy, and this one ain't it. By my count, there are only a handful of meaningful fights on this fight card. It is, I mean, I would say it's the worst card that I've seen, but pre-show we were talking about U.S. Vegas 104, and that legitimately is going, unless something changes, going to be an actual zero fart card. So, yeah, this is just one of those.

If you got nothing else to do, terrific, like, worse ways to have a Saturday go. If you have anything else to do, do that. And tune in to mmafinding.com. Hang out with us. We'll keep you posting on all the important things. It's a great website. You can come check out our post show. We'll cover some boxing maybe even.

So, yeah, zero level of excitement for this weekend, and I won't apologize for that. AK, Prince Positivity. Any excitement here? excitement might not be the word but there's a lot of good fights on this card main event love it love it love it love it I'm a big as soon al-a-bio guy I am not saying yeah you know I'll do my predictions by Saturday morning I'm not picking the what I assume will be an upset yet haven't looked at the odds either but I like all-em-by's chances this is yeah this is this is really a tough situation for cop because I do think he should get the title fight if he wins anyway Roy Vaugh would have been short fire I mean

Royviles fought for the title recently. Cop takes him out, boom, cops no more contender. No questions asked, no more fights. Let's get him in there with Pantosia. If he beats Al-Baya, I still think he should be, but it's just he has a lot to lose here. Again, Al-Mab, a great fighter doing super well in the UFC right now,

has beaten some competitions, has beaten rank guys, and seems poised, again, to make his own title run. So I wish both these guys could get a title fight. That's probably, and maybe they will down the road, but, you know, someone's going to take a big hit. Either way, stylistically, I think it's a fun match. up. I really want to see if cop can, I've been a huge critic of his, but that Bruno Silva

matchup was insane. The best a version of cop that you'll see, that's how good he can be when he's cooking. That's the guy we want to see fight Pantosia. If he does that again against Amabaya, one of the most, I mean, that's one of the five most anticipated fights for the rest of the year, him in Pantosia. So again, I'm not a huge fan of cop, kind of hoping he takes care of business here. And if Alambia abysia, sorry, UFC, you're going to have to sell Pentosia, Amabia fight, and it would be a great pay-per-per-view coal main event. Other than I really like Hock Fras Riebavits, great fight. Aider Rehiel, William Gomi's could be good if it's more of a Hyder Emile fight than a William Gomi's fight.

If it's more of a hider fight than a Gomi fight, it could be good. But he could be gomied pretty badly. We'll see. Ricardo Hamos and Cheppe Mascar, fantastic. I love Douglas Silva, Andrage, John Castaneda. Charles Johnson, Ramazan Timorov should be on the main car. I don't know why it isn't. Great fight. And I shout out to Andrew Lee, Montana Delorosa for hanging in there. Somehow, Andrew Lee on a five-fight winning streak.

I mean, we had a, we were talking about people. No, five-fight losing streak. Please get that correct. Excuse me. Yeah, yeah. That's the opposite of what I was five-fight losing streak. As Jed mentioned earlier, it sucks to see fighters who haven't won a while. She hasn't won since 2021, Cynthia Calvillo. And Montana Dolorosa was on a three-fight losing streak. And her most recent win was Andrew Ali. So, and they're not fighting one another before people last, I'm sorry, I'm making it sound like they're rematching for some reason, Andrew Lee fighting Jay Aldridge and Montana Doloresa fighting Loana Carolina.

But for better or worse, could be the last time we see Andrew Lee or Montana Doloresa in the UFC. So if that means something to you, you may want to tune in. Yeah, so I'm not as down on the card as most, I guess. I think it's okay. And I also have not looked ahead to the next Vegas card. But yeah, so relatively speaking, I'll give my gymnastics score now. this is a this is a 6.4

I'm going that high I'm going that high if everything works out like Yosl Seattle where we get a bunch of finishes you know from known from known finishers like Montana de la Rosa Andrea Lee Charles Johnson William William Gomee

William Gomi Yeah yeah Who's four EOC fights three of them By split or majority decisions If we get finishes like we got at UCC Seattle and a good main event with a clear winner and a clear title challenger

then I will give this a 6.4 out of 6.4. All right. One more, one more I want to it is. One more I want to touch on because you didn't get to touch out of last week because of Dana White dropping all of this news on us. The Aaron Pico saga continues, AK. He says he doesn't

want to fight for PFL ever again after Don Davis's recent comments. He wants to fight in the UFC but PFL does have match rights. And as we know, the UFC does not need to spend that kind of money to a point where PFL can't afford to match. So crystal ball, AK, what ultimately happens here? Where is Aaron Pico's next fight going to take place? And how is this being handled in your opinion? You know, we all love the dapper Don, Don Davis. He's doing his best putting cops, but, you know,

trying to handle what has been some very public disagreements, public negotiations with some of his biggest stars. Patricia Pitbull, obviously. Johnny Eblin now is piping up. And of course, we've had interviews with Pico. We've had Pico very clearly giving his side of the story and saying, I'm done. I'm done with the league, man. I don't care. Like I am just, and Don Davis saying, well, he is a free agent, technically, but we have matching rights. We have the option to keep him based on what other promotions can offer. So it's a sticky situation. It's unfortunate. So many of the good vibes that we had when PFL bought Bellator, which was really just what, the end of 2023, it wasn't that long ago. So many of those good vibes have gone out the window.

And they've had some good moments, too. They've had some okay events. They got Francis back in there. They got some, you know, they got some fresh blood coming up. But it just gets drowned out so much by these negotiations. So letting Pitbull go and be free to negotiate was the right call. It's a very different situation. Of course, Pitbull clear. had done everything he could for the Bellator banner. Really, I guess they figure had nothing else that he needs to do under the new, you know, PFL banner. While Pico's still pretty young, right?

He's the wonder kind, right? He's the guy who has a lot of experience. He's a veteran, but it feels like he's in his prime and that they're being asked to let him go in his prime. That's a tough. That's a tough pill to swallow. So I'm all for fighters. It sucks that their contracts have things like that, like matching rights. But there is a part of me that understands where Don does.

Davis, the PFL is coming from. They, and by they, I mean, Belator, the people who came before Don Davis, invested a lot of time in him, promoting him and building him up, and to lose him for nothing is, is costly. It is, it looks bad. It's costly. The question is, does it look worse than what's going on now and making it look like they are holding the spider hostage? I don't know.

That's for fans to debate. I'm understanding of why the promotion doesn't want to just let him go. So before we throw to Jed, I am curious, because you guys are smarter than I am. Can the UFC not just like put a pay-per-view thing in there so that like that the you know pay-per-view buys bonus that the PFL can't possibly match or it doesn't work that way? It would depend how the contract negotiation matching right thing is written. Right? Like if it's like yes, they would have to match a pay-per-view, then a PFL one, they're doing pay-per-view so they ostensibly could.

But two, it also could just be like or you could hold that to be a financial incentive. So it would just be like, yeah, we'll pay you X amount of dollars, which is roughly analogous to a pay-per-view incentive. It would just depend on how that's structured out. Yeah, the whole situation is super weird because I just don't think there's a whirl where the UFC is even going to match what PFL is like currently paying him. So or even close, I don't even think they come close. Honestly, like even if they truly want him, he's not a star. Like hardcore fans know who he is and he is a talented. no doubt about it.

And it would be real interesting seeing him in the UFC featherweight division. But the casual fan that they promote to, they have no idea who Aaron Pico is. No clue. Aaron Pico does not sell a pay-per-view for them at this point. I mean, I'm not trying to be a jerk. It's just with who they're trying to cater towards, Aaron Pico does not sell one pay-per-view for the UFC. So I just don't know if they spend the type of money that it takes for PFL to be like,

you know what, there's no chance we can match this. What do you think about this whole situation, Jed? I think the PFL should let him go. I think AK did a really good job of basically summarizing like, hey, I don't know if it's worse to keep him under lock or to let him go, but they really pushed those boundaries. Like, I will always be pro fighter. And if Pico was getting what he wanted, like, if this was a, he just wants out

because he's kind of like he just can do better. But no, like, what has the PFL done since they hire them? They have just jerked these fighters around in the worst way. No fighter. Like, you either have to believe that every fighter is unilaterally angry at PFL for no reason, or PFL is sucking ass. And I'm much more willing to believe that the promotion has screwed the pooch here. And the way to make this right is to either immediately fix it.

And frankly, the bridge seems kind of burnt with several of these fighters. So just let them go. Like you said, Don Davis is on the record saying, we don't want fighters. You don't want to be here. There are plenty of fighters who don't want to be there anymore, man. So I know that it's pretty tough business for you, but that's your own damn fall. You backed yourself into this corner by mismanaging this situation enormously in the way that you have. And Tay, like, ruining the goodwill you have with fighters because Belator had many issues

and I would not hold them up as a bastion of being a terrific promotion. one of the things I do think they're very good at was just open communication like fairly open communication as far as promotions go and being fighter friendly like fighters enjoyed competing for them because they knew where they stood at all points in time pfl is obviously not done that in their year of acquiring the bellator guys and let whoever wants out you should just let them out like it will be absolutely tough for you but you also paid no real money for bellator so it's not even like that financially devastating to you It's not like you bought the cow and then it died.

Like you bought the cow with monopoly money. So it's fine if the milk goes away for free. We'll see what happens here. I mean, obviously with with Patricio leaving, Pico would get an immediate title shot to fight for the bake of L. You're supposed to get a title fight anyways. That was like at least what the UFC won't or PFO wanted to do. But yeah, this whole since we, the whole merger thing has just been just awful. Like we got one decent card out of this.

We got a BFL versus Bellator card that was okay, but we didn't get like all the fights we wanted. And then we got Battle of the Giants. We finally got Chris Cyborg versus Laris Pritchko, which was awesome. But yeah, it's just been, it's just been a disaster. And now, like, with this world tournament and how much they're pushing this, like, is there even a place for the Aaron Picos of the world? Like, because the only place you put them is on pay-per-view, right?

Like you could put them on the road to Dubai cards, but, you know, it's just no one's going to watch those because you don't even have a freaking home for them. You got Max and like even that is weird because it's been all these different places for the Bellator product and Belator champions. Plus like there's still confusion that, hey, this is the PFL thing,

but we're going to fight for the Bellator belts. Like it's just so bizarre, all this, the mishandling of it all. I just don't understand. But let us move on. The point there's a place for in Pico. It's in the UFC, Mike. Bring him to the UFC.

100%. Point for round four goes to the P to the O to the P, the Prince of P. The Prince of P positivity. I think you got, you might have sold an ESPN plus subscription AK with your positivity here. So. Oh, that's great. Look at you. Give you some 99 cent commission on that.

All right. Time for the knockout round. One question will decide at all. And you guys can vote. and decide who wins. So Jed, do you want to go first or do you want to pass it on to the Prince of Positivity, Alexander Cayley?

I'm trying to think, I'm looking at our website to see what this question will be. And I just thought of this like literally. I'm gonna say F it and I'll go first anyway. Let's fly by the seat of our pants, kids. Stealing my move. It's fun. I mean, just taking the initiative.

Gamesmanship. Smart gamesmanship from Jen Michoud here. Getting the moment. So I thought about this a little bit yesterday, and I thought about a more so where we're doing our grade the fights segment because we had that press conference yesterday in Montreal for UFC 350. And to say that this was a tough hang would probably be the understatement of the decade. Do I love the usual fight week pressers with awful questions from media members who were just

like, I have to get on camera so I can have an Instagram photo? in the full-on circus atmosphere that accompanies that? Not particularly. Do I love absolutely no energy or excitement? No, not really. This was on the lower end of the ladder. So my question is this, Jed, can the excitement for UFC 315 build up,

or will UFC 315 go down in history as one of the best fight cards that nobody watches? 60 seconds on the clock, go. Oh man the way you framed it there is probably super accurate right because like this is not a bad fight card at all on paper Montreal is getting a really good one it is a hardcore fans delight and that's probably intentional right like they haven't been to Montreal in like a decade or something like that and the fans who love it will love it and hey we got to get some of these title fights out of the way let's do it there's just no way this this gains any gas uh below Muhammad god love him he tries but he's just not an interesting talker and jack della has just is deeply uninteresting as a person in general so there's nothing coming there like josie aldo is beloved but he's not bringing any extra juice chichchenko manaw is terrific fight just not going to do it so i don't think there's a way that this picks up any juice unless they add some like insane

fight which i don't know why they would at this point so no i think you're right mike this is going to to be like the best, the best card that's not talked about at all. All right, AK, the Canadian, been a bit a tough run for the UFC in Canada last couple of years. Edmonton is probably the most exciting card of the three, if we're being honest. Will UFC 315 get a little more exciting, AK? Will the build get us over the hump to this is a must watch card, or is this going to be the least watched really good fight? card in UFC history. Go. No, man. Canada is due.

Canada is due for some popularity. Canada is due for a banger. $2.97 didn't deliver. I think critically, it didn't do great. I don't know how about how people want to have the viewability. How am people tuned in for that? I mean, it definitely generated headlines for a lot of different reasons. 289 was okay.

The men of Nunes card. At least a lot of Canadians won. But I think that would also fall under the maybe not too many people watched it. But I think the UFC is, I think UFC 315 will benefit from the promotion, kind of writing a hot streak right now, right? I think 313 313 are good lead-ins. I think people will still want more UFC action. It won't be like they're exhausted out with those events. They'll still want more.

And I think 215 will cap that off. You've got a fight of the night. We're going to have a fight of the night banger at the top with Bilal and Jack Della Madalena. It's going to steal the show. The co-mate event is making history. Valentine Nishonko, always a treat to watch. watch her. No, I think this card is going to get there. It's going to get more, more than the respect that it's getting right now. So yes, it will build, Mike, to a crescendo. Okay. There's a lot

going on in the heck household right now. So please bear with me. If you get only, if there's only a heck cam going on right now, you would see me, then you would not see me. I would have to run inside, then run back out. I do have the wireless earpiece in. So I'm hearing everything that's being said here. And I know you guys have as well. So let us us, uh, go. to the people you guys cast your votes who wins jenn mishu or alexander kaley we will have a preview show for ufc vegas 103 and it'll be the shortest preview show we probably ever had until we go to ufc Vegas 104 then that ladies and gentlemen will be the shortest preview show we've ever had so i believe we have a a super chat real quick uh to bring up that we'll discuss

as the voting comes in uh tan vire First impressions from the Balal Jadian press are also surprised by the removal of the flag from all the fight promos. Aren't we in the face? Did they really? Hope you guys call them out on it, unlike a former colleague of yours. Did they really remove the Palestinian flag from, I didn't, I did not see any of the emotional stuff. I wouldn't shock me, but that's fucking trash. I don't want to comment because again, I haven't been following closely.

I did see some social media discussion, of course. Specifically, it was about a ballol, I think, on UFC.com. He has no flag listed along him on the event page. Let me double check quickly again. I don't want to cast dispersions. But obviously, I understand the implication from the question that's being asked. Thank you for the super chat. It's 315.

Okay, hold on. So if you go to there, I'm just trying to see who has their flags. Yes, okay. So if you go to UFC.com. You're right. Yes, Jack Delvenalena has the Australia flag, Valentine Tzscheenko, the Kyrgyzstan flag. Manon Faro, French, et cetera, et cetera.

It's just Bilal has a blank one. And we know that that's not Bilal's choice because Balal has physically carried the Palestinian flag to the cage with him. You can Google this. There are photos of this. So I don't know if, I see Tanver saying as a room from the fight promo.

So I don't know what graphics or what other clips maybe that they took it out of. So it could be a very egregious censoring. And if that's the case, that's terrible. That's, I think that's terrible in the UFC's part. They've been very inconsistent with their flag policies to begin with over the last few years. It's, oh, this person said we couldn't do it.

Oh, now we're bringing them back. Dana playing ignorant sometimes like, oh, it wasn't me. It was you guys who complained about the flags, and that's why we took them away. And there's a lot of double speak. And this just seems like another example of them being not transparent about their policies. And I want to word this carefully, but possibly being very transparent about their politics, especially given who is at the top of the food chain in the UFC and their parent company. I'll put it that way.

I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt that the UFC frankly does not deserve and say that this is a mistake that something has occurred. because if we exist in a world where Bryce Mitchell is being promoted and actively being promoted as part of the things he says, but Blah Muhammad can't have a Palestinian flag next to his name. I hope every, if that's the world, I am, again, trying to give them the benefit of a doubt that I do not think they deserve. If that turns out to actually be the case, I hope every media member just laughs. out loud when Dana says that he is a free speech hardcore, however he phrased it, absolutist.

Because, buddy, this ain't free speech if you guys are taking that down. Mike, you are muted. Okay, sorry. I didn't want to hear drilling into the walls, but we haven't heard. I don't think Belal's commented on this publicly yet. I wouldn't look for it. I didn't see anything. You haven't, UFC hasn't commented publicly on this yet. So kind of hard to say. We just kind of have to wait and see. But I mean, just on the baseline view of it,

not a terrific look. But again, we don't know the ins and outs of all this just yet to like fully comment on it. And I'm going to guess that we're going to know. Ballal is not a soft spoken person, particularly about being Palestinian and this sort of thing. Like if there is an actual pointed effort to say, hey, you can't carry the flag with you, be associated with the Palestinian flag, we're going to find out sooner rather than later. Yeah, he's, I don't think he's going to be silent about it, if that makes sense. So, but Casey is here with sleeves and a hood, which means, boy, not a lot of chair spinning happening. All the chair spinning will be very light on Saturday for the people's free fight show for UFC Vegas 103.

But Casey, who wins? your winner today with nearly 66% of the votes are is that's two out of three by the way I was thinking the same thing you shithead unnecessary Jenmishu I was one of those intrusive thoughts I couldn't stop I was like, as soon as I heard, I'm like this jackass to say something about two out of three.

I can fucking feel it. We've been working together too, Mike. Who knew that being good at math gets you over the top? But congratulations, anything you'd like to say to the wonderful folks who voted for you, two out of three of them as a matter of fact. Two out of three ain't bad. So thank you for voting. I actually think AK probably deserve to win this one.

So we can put an asterisk up there. I didn't have my A game, but, you know, no excuses. You come to play and the judges were very generous to me today. And I thank them for that because they have certainly been stone wrong when I've been on the other part of things. Well, honestly, we talked about all the stuff we just talk about. So I don't like have anything else really talk about. And we've been going for a while. So let's get out of here.

Yeah. AK, did you dare? It's going to be great today. First of all, listen, there's no, there's no asterisk. I lost a loss, much like Jed mentioned earlier, went. We know, it's not. Just like, this is an exhibition, isn't it? Can we, can I, hold on? Can I grab this down here?

Oh, yeah, it is an exhibition. Thank you. Let me just get this down here. It's okay, record. It's okay. You know, record, people still love you. It's okay. You're not as impressive as other people's records, but oh, ooh, it's purring. Okay, all right. Well, anyway, thank you guys for watching. I'll do better. Oh, oh, my cute little record. My cute little record is. Oh, my God. There you go. Back to it. Back to its. All right. But yeah, thanks everyone for watching. Great show. Jed, well-deserved win. No asterisk. Again, this win is a win. And enjoy the bites this weekend, everyone. 6.4 out of 6.4, hopefully. Fingers crossed. UFC Vegas 103.

Or enjoy the apple orchards. And tune to aomateaFighting.com. It's a great website. Pumpkin patch, get around the golf in, weather's warming up out there. What do you do? What do you do in the weather's really nice here. I don't know where it is the rest of the country. Maybe go a few frames, I don't know. There's lots of things you can do. Indoor drive, maybe there's a golf simulator somewhere near you.

There's many, many things you can accomplish with a Google search and looking around geographic locations. Casey, hit the music. Let's get the hell out of here. Back next week, we'll, I'm sure we will have plenty of reaction

to UFC Vegas 103. We will turn the page officially to UFC 313, headline by Alex Pereira versus Magamette Ank Goliath for the light heavyweight title,

which means we'll have timelines and on-site coverage and watch party is and all the goodies heading into March. Thank you all very much for AK for Jed, Casey on the ones and twos

I am Mike back back next week. to talk to you have some 313 right here on Between the Link to Acconic-Oi special. It takes you hug. Good night, everybody. Love y'all. This has been Between the Links, an M.M.A Fighting Production, on the Vox Media Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to luxe beauty and fragrance sets.

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