MMA Fighting - BTL | Harrison OUT Of UFC 324, Dana White Announces Adesanya Return, RAF 5 Recap

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

The UFC has been in the news quite a bit on their final off-week ahead of UFC 324, but the first event on Paramount+ took a hit with Kayla Harrison being forced out of her title defense against the returning Amanda Nunes. How big of a hit to the card is the loss? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses Harrison being scratched due to a reported neck injury, where Nunes goes, and more. Additionally, topics include Dana White announcing the return of Israel Adesanya as he faces Joe Pyfer in the main event of UFC Seattle, RAF 5 this past Saturday highlighted by Colby Covington and Arman Tsarukyan's tech fall victories, Bo Nickal's callout of Covington for the White House card, PFL heading to Pittsburgh headlined by Johnny Eblen vs. Bryan Battle, and more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions all show long. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is Between the Links. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition of Between the Lings. Happy Thursday to us all. We are back on our regular day at our regular time. And, you know, I say this all the time. We hope going into these shows, especially when there is no UFC event to look forward to. Hopefully there's things to talk about. And boy, is there things to talk about.

UFC 324 took a big hit. I know we discussed it a little bit yesterday, but we could talk a little bit more in depth about that. Since we heard from Kayla Harrison earlier this morning, she's no longer fighting Amanda Nunes at UFC 324. Dana White teased a big fight announcement. We got one with Israel Adasani's return at U. UFC Seattle. We'll talk about that and answer your questions all show long, as we typically do here. And joining me to answer those questions and much more is the hot take kid, Mr. No Gray area himself, the one and only Georgia Bulldog.

Jed Bishu. Jed, how are you, sir? Today we are Savannah Ghost Pirate. Okay. Mike, I don't know if you, I don't actually know if you're a hockey guy. You're from Boston, so I sort of assume you are. Have you been to a Ghost Pirates game? I know that that's not like incredibly close to you, but it is just over the bridge from you.

I highly recommend. Yeah, I want to go. I want to take the little man at some point. I just have not like. It would be incredible for you and the kid. I did. I was off for a few days last week because we did our Christmas in January. And while we were down there, we sort of on a whim bought tickets.

They're not cheap, you know, for like a minor league hockey. team. Not even like the minor league. This is like the minor minor minor. The feeder to the feeder league team. But it was sick. At an incredibly good time. The place was pretty packed. And, you know, watching live hockey is fun. So highly recommend the old ghost pirates when you got a shot. Also solo cam for a second. Oh, okay. I'll answer your question and then you can solo cam, but I need to turn something off my background. Okay. Is it at end market? It is. In Margarina. I mean, it was dope. Like it was a really good live experience.

Like if I lived in Savannah, I would, that would be a thing that I would go to often. Honestly, like, you're not from Savannah and this is for nobody watching this basically. We used to have a minor league ball club called the Sand Nats.

And like that was the sporting thing to do on Thursday nights or whatever. The San Nats became the Savannah Bananas. That's not really like the same sort of product. If you're just like going to go watch real sports, it's a whole different thing. This is like a pretty cool thing to go watch. I highly recommend. Live hockey's always fun, man.

I love hockey. They're not very good, but it's live hockey's fun. Live hockey's the best sporting event to go to. I stand by that. I will say that till the day I die. Do you need me to go solo? Yeah, go solo for a second. All right.

I'll go solo. Yeah, get your questions in. Of course, the super chatters get to the front. So welcome to the YouTube. Welcome to the Twitchers as well. And those watching in the. wonderful world of Twitter at some point. Jed is back.

Let's see what. Yeah. You can probably still hear it in the background. I forgot to turn off my heating unit, which can be a little loud. So it'll be turned off in a moment. But I don't want that to be there for the whole show. All right. Let's start here with Joseph.

Do Jen and Mike think yesterday's announcement or the other day's announcement of Israel Adisani versus Joe Pfeiffer for the main event of UFC Seattle? Was that a distraction? or to distract us from the fact that Caleb versus Amanda was canceled. So just to give a little bit of insight to this, when we get these messages about the Dana announcements, we kind of like we try to be detectives and try to figure this out, at least because we know at this point,

no one is going to actually say, go ahead and report this. They're just not going to do that. So you start reaching out to people and you want to at least get ahead of some things, like have some things pre-written so that once the announcement we could just go, all right, fire away. We have it. And as I'm reaching out to different people, I started hearing the rumor that Kayla was out.

This was the day of the announcement. So I believe it was Tuesday that Dana made the announcements. So that's what I started hearing the rumor. And we started kind of going through and seeing if there's any true to it because the rumor came from somebody who's like not connected to Kayla's team but that's just what I had heard so we tried to figure it out we weren't sure and then once the announcements came we didn't know if that was going to be the announcement that Kayla was out maybe there's replacement for Amanda maybe they added a new fight maybe we'll get the London main event maybe we'll get the 327 main event there were lots of things that could have happened we ended up getting Israel to Sani versus Joe Pfeiffer from what I was told originally that fight I think was going to be planned for 327 and then I got is now the UFC Seattle made events. I don't know what things changed within those couple of hours where we're waiting for Dana to come back.

But all in all, that's the announcement we got. Dana also said Bacy Barber versus Alexa Grasso. We already had reported and confirmed that fight. So that wasn't new, but we get Izzy versus Joe Piper. And look, it's a big fight.

I know people are kind of down on the announcement. I was too just because that was all we got. I thought we're going to get a little more meat on the bone like we typically do. but do you feel like at this point we were like okay we need to figure out something but since we didn't figure out anything let's just go ahead and give them something was this a distraction Jed all and all

to get people's minds or at least the UFC's minds off of all right Kayla's out what are we going to do here sorry I'm me to myself and there's no background noise you can hear now I don't think it was a distraction I talked about this on our Reacton pod this is not based on any inside information. My belief is that the announcement,

that they were looking for a replacement fight, the one that would make the most sense would be Pena, obviously. And so the announcement would have been, Kayla's out, she'll fight when she comes back, but Amanda versus Pena three. They couldn't lock that down for whatever reason. And so the announcement fell flat because then it just became, here's, we're not going to announce Kayla's out,

because we don't have a replacement it would be really stupid announcement Kayla's out but Izzy versus like that would just not that doesn't go over well so it just became here are the fights we have that we haven't announced yet

and so it felt a little weak and then ultimately based on reporting from Paramount and stuff they have decided to simply postpone the Kayla thing we talked about this in the reaction pod I don't know how long Kayla's out but based on some things

I have heard from some people, it seems like it might not be that long, right? Like she may, in fact, only be out, you know, a few months as opposed to a year. And so postponing, and if you're not going to immediately replace a fighter for Amanda, postponing obviously makes sense. And so my read on this situation entirely speculative is they were trying to do something. They didn't. And this is just sort of what we got. And that's tough.

But sometimes these things happen in MMA. Yeah. It's obviously tough news. And by the way, what did you think of? You know, we were talking about like who Amanda could fight and we threw out some names. And Misha Tate seemed like a decent one.

Amanda Serrano actually jumped on social media and was like, I'll fight her. Would you be like if the UFC were to entertain that idea, would you be down for Amanda versus Amanda at UFC three? 24. I don't think that's possible in general, because isn't Amanda Serrano technically signed to PFL? Like isn't that? I don't know. I mean, I just have no idea. The best of mine, last time I saw she was signed to BFL, so I don't really know if she's not anymore or whatever. That would be fun. Like, I would have been totally fine with that. It would have obviously been

a farce and Amanda would kill her. But like, that's fine. Like, that's, that's an okay sort of thing to do, just a spectacle, weirdo, you know, make chicken salad out of chicken blank. So, like, that, you know, could have been worse. I think Pena would have made the most sense for them in a, like, because Amanda will almost certainly beat Pena, and there's a, there's heat there already. But, I mean, I think Tate also would have made a ton of sense if they could have got it. But instead, they have opted to simply postpone,

which gives me some hope that Kayla will, won't be out that long and that this can happen maybe at the White House. I don't know if that timeline's realistic. But it just, I maintain that Dana would not announce, hey, I'm going to make an announcement about a fight. And it, big announcement coming. And that announcement is just Izzy Pfeiffer and a fight that was already reported. Like, he basically has never done big announcement coming and it's a main and coming event for one event coming up. And so it feels like something else was there and it didn't get over the line, but in time for them to announce it.

And the thing that would make the most sense, given the circumstances, is they were looking at a replacement fight and it fell through. So I could totally be wrong. That's just sort of my vibes. Fair enough. All right. Let's talk about this. Can we get a detour and talk a little PFL at some point?

Like the new fight. So if you guys missed it, PFL is heading to Pittsburgh on March 28th, which is the same day as UFC Seattle. Choices were made there. But the main event is former Bellator middleweight champ Johnny Eblen facing UFC vet and dirty boxing vet, Brian Battle.

And then the co-main event is Dalton Rasta versus Impa Kansaganai. Jed, your thoughts on PFL Pittsburgh, it going head to head with the UFC on March 28th, and these two big fights that were announced for the card. In a vacuum, I like the fights. I do not understand why PFL continues to try and fight a battle they cannot win.

If you've ever seen the cinematic masterpiece that is Three Ninjas, one of the greatest films of the 90s, by the way. If you haven't checked it out, I don't know where you can check it out, but go check it out. Rocky forever. but if you haven't seen that, there is an important life lesson buried early in the film that then gets reinforced that I think PFL should learn because it's one of the lessons I have largely tried to live my life by.

And that lesson is never fight unless you know you're going to win. And the PFL continues to fight fights they know they cannot win. And so sometimes you got to do that, right? Like that's sort of the definition of bravery is walking to the gallows with your head held high. But they don't have to. This is a choice they are making. And it is going to fail. Like, it's just not a thing to do.

You just do it the day before would be fine. Because in a vacuum, these fights are reasonable. They're not amazing. But, like, I'm actually kind of interested in Johnny Eblen, Brian Battle. Edwin coming off his first loss, battle. You know, he left the UFC because a lot of things went weird, but he's a talented fighter.

And so, like, that is a good fight. These are good things that no one is going to watch because UFC Seattle, that's what's happening that day, right? March 28th. Yes. Yeah. Like, that's just not, Isarada Sonia,

who's a popular former champion, is fighting a guy that they are trying to make happen. People are going to watch that. stead. So, uh, PFL, go watch three ninjas. You'll learn so many life lessons.

And the most important one is don't fight unless you know you're going to win. And the second one is always keep a pocketful of jelly beans. Because you never know when they'll come in handy. Rocky loves. Love family. Rocky loves. I didn't think we get a three ninjas. I didn't think we get a three ninja.

I love that movie as a kid. Me too. My favorite movies. That in Surf Ninjas, as a big ninja guys, as you can tell as a child. I love that movie. The first three ninjas reference in BTL history.

History is made here on the show. Glad you guys could be here. Super chat from Daners, 1998. Going through the top 10 at lightweight, who would you pick in a fight between Patty and the rest of that top 10? Great show every week, fellas.

Thank you, Danners. All right, Jed, you're ready to play? Who can Patty beat? Here we go. I'll run down the names. I can, but I don't, I'm not good at this game anymore because I don't honestly know. I'll run down the names.

We'll start. from the top and go on down. Armand Sarugan. No. I also say no. Charles O'Olavera. He could. I don't think I would pick him, but that's a winnable fight.

He can win that fight. That's a fight if the lines are in a good way. I'd probably bet on Patty. I'd say 6535, Chucky Olives, but Patty can win that fight. Charles is old, man. At their primes, no chance. now very possible.

Max Holloway. One of the worst possible. I think he has less of a chance to beat Max than he has of beating Armand. And I think he has almost no chance of beating Armin. Max is a horrific style matchup for him. Just a Gaichi, we'll find out.

I mean, he's the betting favorite. We will find out. I'm picking Gaichi. not a massive amount of confidence in that. I mean, Patty's head is just so up in the air. And Gachi is, I think, the single biggest hitter at lightweight. You know, he doesn't have quite the mechanic, Sevilla, or, you know, like the boxing of Dustin.

But, like, if you're just talking about swanging a sledgehammer, I think Gagee hits as hard as anybody in that weight class. So I'm picking Gigi. he can absolutely win that fight. Yeah, I mean, Gage is on the back and I know doubt about it. Plus, Gagee has always not been a great grappler. So if Patty can get him down, it can be curtains. Yeah, but this will be like the true, in no disrespect to like his other opponents,

but this would be like the legit win, right? This is the one where it's like, all right. Yeah. This dude's for real. Dan Hooker. Well, he can win that fight. I pick Patty in the fight. I think I'd pick Dan, but he can absolutely can win that fight.

Yeah, I think Patty can get it down and make things real miserable for him. I think people have taken the wrong lesson from Armand versus Dan that Patty has tried to reinforce, which is that Dan can't grapple. And I'm not here to tell you Dan is a world-class grappler. I'm here to tell you that Armand Surukin is a whole different beast of a human being to deal with. So, like, I think that fight is very competitive, but Patty can absolutely win. Yeah, it would be, it's similar to the Gaichi fight for me, where if Dan, gets taken down and Patty gets on top of him.

He's in a world of trouble. Yeah, could absolutely be problems. Matush Gamrot. I would probably pick Patty in that fight. He can win that fight. I actually think I pick Matush. All right. Bedwas on to me.

I think Matush is just a better grappler than he is. So that like becomes a problem. But it would be like one of the few fights where Patty is, I think, a better striker than his opponent. Yeah. Patty is just so big. Like that's large. Yeah. And he is a good enough grappler.

I think if he gets top control, he could score points. We'll see. But being it sure. Well, I doubt they'll fight. Ben Wausantity, I would pick BSD. I'll never quit BSD. So I'm going to pick him. I don't even, like, in my head, I know that he would lose to many dudes right now.

There's not a person alive. I'll pick over him because my heart wants him to continue to beat the souls out of people. So I also do think that is with like logically is a very bad fight for Patty. Last two, Raphael Fiziv and Hadata Moikano. I think Fiziv is an atrocious matchup for Patty, arguably like the second worst one other than Max. I would confidently pick Fiziv to beat Patty. He beats Moikano.

I would pick Patty to beat. I wouldn't pick Patty to beat basically anybody except Moikano and maybe Charles because Charles is old. There you go. It's a much different conversation that we were having two years ago. That's for damn sure. Yeah, dude, he's continued. Like, I've given Patty as many props as I can in this.

I did not have any expectations for him when he came to the UFC. Even once he got here, it was not a good run, right? Like, to start. And you can still absolutely poke holes in the run because of how it is unfolded. But this is a dude who has consistent, like he has shown consistent improvement, fight over fight. This is a sport where progression is not linear whatsoever, but he, He has progressed in an upward trajectory time over time and continued to exceed expectations. So I am not, I am doubting Patty from a much different place than I previously doubted Patty,

which is he's not good. Now the doubt is, I don't know, lightweight's really hard to have consistent success at, but he has proven himself to be, you know, a top tier fighter here. Interesting question here from Max. all timeline. Peter Jan doesn't knee Aljo, beats him, then beats Corey in a fight of the year.

He doesn't have to fight Marab because Marab was in Movesar territory. How are we looking at Jan's career right now? So we're saying the knee doesn't happen against Aljo and he goes on to win that fight and he was on his way to winning that fight. How are we looking at his career now?

What do you think it looks like? It's tough to say, but... We're so down the sliding glass doors. I love playing these games. I do them all the time. I do a lot in like mailbags, people ask these, and I'll run them out. I haven't done this with Jan, but just sort of off the top of my head. I mean, I think whoever asked this question, sorry, I don't remember who it was.

I think you know the score, and that's why you phrased it as such, because the truth is, like, Marab would have gotten a title fight. Like, you can just say he doesn't get it because once he does, then we know what's happened. but like Marab would have gotten one because Sean like in this instance Sean doesn't get to fight pewter right and and get to elevate into the title conversation so Sean has to fight someone in the middle and maybe that person that he fights is Marab and Marab beats him and then he gets a title fight like I think it's a little bit different but I do think Marab gets the belt maybe honestly he might get the

belt faster because Aljo is no longer a sort of blocker. There's not the rematch with Aljo and then Aljo fighting, Sean. So Aljo loses, I think there's a very real world where Marab comes in pretty soon. I think the most likely scenario is Marab actually wins the belt earlier. So yeah. Because like, I mean, I guess arguably they would do the TJ fight for Peodor, but obviously Peodor wins because T.J. didn't have a working arm. I just think Maraub gets the belt pretty quickly because that first fight goes like their

first fight did. Yeah, it's so weird because I mean, Jan beat Aldo to win the belt. But then Aldo, like, won all those fights. Where would he have been in that position? Would they have matched Marab and Aldo up? Would they have just run Aldo in for a rematch in order to keep Maraub away? Like, I don't know. I mean, they had the opportunity to give Aldo the fight against Aljo,

which honestly made a ton of sense and is one of the more bad things that have happened in the last six years or whatever. And so, like, he probably gets some title defenses. If he doesn't knee Aljo, Aljo doesn't get an immediate rematch, right? Like, he just, he goes on, wins that fight. Aljo drops back down. Maybe Aljo moves up, but he's now in the list of contenders. there's a chance it's Aldo or Sean or

TJ all of them are in there but Sean's getting a title fight before Maraub for sure but at that point Sean hadn't beaten anybody he got a title fight

because he beat Pioter and like that at the time that was weird because Sean was like ranked 12 and he got number one contender Pioter so like I don't know

how Sean gets there I think the answer they were Chito again maybe like yeah maybe that happens I think the answer is within two fights, he's fighting Marab because it's just Maraub was there and Alja's not on the way. And Maraub beats him because he cooked him the first time. And so, you know, it this is, it's what's so impressive about his win in December.

100%. He got cooked and came back and cooked him back. So like, I think it's roughly the same. Yeah, the career arc is like way more interesting, I think, the way that it went down. So yeah, great. It's way more interesting. Way more. But yeah, because I also, I don't know that Corey's getting the, like, I think TJ gets the next title fight, which is weird and kind of stupid.

But it feels like that might be, I don't know. I'd have to, like, really dig in to have a super confident. But my broad feeling is Marab fights for the belt within two fights and takes it. A couple of 324 questions. Duran, if UFC 324 were a pay-per-view, how much would it sell? I mean, basically pay-per-view stopped selling over the last few years. So that. I mean, this is wildly speculative, but 300,000 buys, maybe.

I think it would have done probably close to that with Kayla Amanda. And the fact, what helps it is that there hasn't been a UFC event in forever. So I think this one would have done better than, if this is like March, I don't think it would have done as well. But I think just the long layoff, not having an apex card or any kind of fight night in between, I think the itch is big at this point. And I know like the promotion hasn't been. Maybe. Because the buzzes, they aren't promoting it is also like. That's true.

Because they don't have to. They don't have to. Maybe they would promote it as a pay-per-view if they had to. The promotion is the UFC's on Paramount. You should get Paramount. So it's like it's weird. It's a very weird time in the sport. They don't care to promote.

at all. It is there promoting less than they ever have, which is nuts. I don't know if you saw this. Literally while we've been doing the show, Dana White has come out and said he's not interested in booking Connor versus Michael Chandler at the White House. So Dana has now poo-pood John and Alex at the White House and Connor and Chandler at the White House, the two most obvious fights for the White House that all fighters want, and then most of the fan base, broadly speaking, once, Dana's been like, I would not like to give the fans the fight that they want to see. They don't care about promotion anymore. I don't know what the hell's going on with this, this sport.

That is. It's a hell of a take. Super weird. Yeah, what is going on? Like, the thing is the take is like his, and I haven't seen the clip, but I've seen some stuff about it. It's like, that was a few years ago, whatever, that's old news. Where it's like, if you just, you can just come out and be like, Connor hasn't fought in five years. No.

I do not believe he will fight again and not be like, not, because if Connor's going to fight. That's the fight. It's the obvious fight. Who else did you foot Connor in there with? Like, honestly. Nate is the only other choice, but Nate's not under contract. So, like, you just say, and, you know, I have some gripes with Eddie Hearn. But you know a thing that you never hear Eddie Hearn say?

No, we're not going to do that. That's stupid. No, because if the question is being asked, that means there is interest. people are interested in it and as a promoter your job is to build interest to get people interested so if they're already interested you can just say like maybe that's one of the things we're thinking about or possibly not be like no we don't want to do this thing that people very clearly want to do okay what do you want to do do do do we want to do diego volk four like what come on man just your whole thing has been that you make the fights people want to see. The people

have very clearly spoken about fights that they would like on this event. Make them! It's not hard, just make them. There you have it. Hey, it's Olivia from Ollie. I got to tell you, I saw when you asked AI about probiotics. No

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These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Ali! Hey, it's Olivia from Ollie. Is it just me, or are these wellness trends getting ridiculous? Protein tracking, biohacking. It's too much. Start small with Ollie's daily multivitamin.

Just two gummies a day help support your immune system, heart, and bone health. It's that easy. Less tracking. More doing you, boo. Go to OLLY.com to learn more. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. So, Dana White was very busy this week making announcements.

He announces Adasani versus Pfeer. And then hours later, maybe 12, he announces this. The UFC Apex is no longer the UFC Apex. Super chat from Lazy Bed, five years, at least for the next five years, the Apex, the world's most famous Apex, will now be called the world's most famous meta

apex, Jed. How cool is that, is the question? Sure. I mean, you know, arenas get sponsorships. I strongly suspect that Dana White being on the meta board may help get this one over the line.

I don't know what meta gains from this. And this is not like a specific instance, but just like everyone knows what meta is. So why are you sponsoring a venue for a niche sport? Um, but you know, that whatever, I don't know how much money this is, but like good on you. It just has no relevance to my life whatsoever. So like, yeah, it's fine. Super chat here. A huge three inches fan here. I thought I was the only one had to Dono. My respect for you too has just gone up. Keep up the awesome work, gentlemen. Dude, everyone with eyeballs is a huge three ninjas fan that movie tom tom what a king light up the eyes i remember

so much of that movie i have probably i've not seen it in at least 20 years doesn't matter wow i saw that movie 50 times as a kid uh joseph do they think bow nickel came out of raf o five even a bigger villain for not staying on the card to fight pat downy what other stories can mike tell us from his week in sunshine, Florida. So Bo Tickle was obviously a big focal point for RAF5. Everyone was very excited for that event. Mostly because of Bo Nickel versus U.L. Romero, I could tell you, if you want, like, one story, Friday after the press conference, UL. was doing an interview.

And I was going to try to get him too after, but it was just absolute chaos. in order for UL to do this interview, he had to be sitting down in order to do it. That was his request. So he was in rough shape on Friday before he had to weigh it on Saturday. And he misses weight by seven pounds. And as everybody knows, we find out about this. Bo Nickel no longer competing on the card.

UL. did compete against Steve Buchanan, who apparently also missed weight, but then actually did not miss weight, the promotion said. And Pat Down, he was also not on the card. was supposed to wrestle Buchanan. So, and then everything that happened with Colby and Luke Rockhold. And then Bo Nickel goes up on the mat during the event and it appeared he got booed pretty heavily.

And then Bo continues to call out Colby. He explained himself why he did not wrestle Yo-O. Romero on Ariel's show saying that, look, this is in an exhibition match. This is a real thing. Yada, yada, yada. So after all of this, Jed, do you feel like Bo Nickel came out and even bigger villain. And if so, did he come out, I guess, in a bigger way where people want to see him

fight, whether they like him or not, whether they just want to see him get beat or whatnot. How do you feel he comes out of RAF 05 following this past weekend? Longtime viewers of this show, no, I don't really believe in negative heat in that matter, like that manner. I just, I think in the history of combat sports, there have been, like, like three dudes who have gotten people to pay attention because they want to see them lose. Mostly if you are an annoying person, people will either not want to watch you compete, especially if they think you're going to win or be ambivalent to your competition.

You know, like, people, Jake Paul is a thing. Not a single one of my friends that don't care about. our combat sports watched a single Jake Paul fight until the Anthony Joshua won because they wanted to see him get beat. As a very specific instance of, we want to see you get beat and it is overwhelmingly likely you are going to get beat. And so, like, I don't think that that helps your brand to be annoying because that's what he is. That is what Bo Nicol has become is he is a little bit petulant and a little bit annoying. Talented fighter, you know, has a high ceiling. But like him, you know, he and Joe Pfeiffer got a lot of overlap in the like, oh,

I've never done a thing wrong in my whole life. And if you have any criticism of me, you're stupid. Because like that was the thing. Like, oh, if you think that I should have wrestled Yoel Romero when he missed weight, you've never competed in your life. You don't know anything. I mean, like, that could be an example, like an answer. But also, no, that's just like the most logical answer is like, you should have wrestle him.

And like, if you don't want to, that's fine. Like, I'm not here to criticize you not taking a fight because a dude missed weight egregiously. He absolutely did. It's in a fight. And like, that's sort of where I draw the line here. Like, if this was MMA, no questions asked. Don't fight that dude. This is a wrestling match.

there is a possibility of injury, but it's unlikely that you are going to be substantively injured or that like your brand will be harmed if you lose to a, you know, a former Olympic silver medalist who blew weight by seven pounds already kind of up a weight class. You know, this was in his response talking to Aero Hawani, shut out, he was like, this is it some exhibition match for chairs. Like, it's kind of an exhibition match.

This isn't like a real promotion. R.F is doing good things, but there's not like a deep history of the significance of the RAF title. And so we can't have some fun. Like, you're not going to get injured. People wanted to see you wrestle and you just didn't compete at all for whatever. And the big, honestly, my single biggest problem with it is that he contradicted himself in the whole thing. Because in his speech, you know, his explanation to Ariel, he was like, I did. didn't do this because I respect wrestling.

And anybody who's wrestled knows you got to make weight. That's part of it. So I'm not going to wrestle him because he didn't respect wrestling. But moments later, he's like, if he had only missed weight by a couple of pounds, I would have wrestled him. It's like, no. Then the whole respecting wrestling thing's not real because it wasn't a hard line, make weight or don't.

He missed by seven and you felt that was too much and you were going to, you know, you know, be at a disadvantage and you were. But does it matter? Like, it just, it just feels like this was insignificant to do. And I don't, and then to be like up in arms that people are criticizing you seems dumb. Like, your response can just be like, yeah, okay, you guys can be angry at me. I made my choice. I'm going to live with it.

Every step he takes seems like he is actively trying to off-put people, which is weird to me. I feel like he should not do that. I've said this for, I've said this since Bo Nickel beat Paul Craig. This man, if there's any fighter who needs a pro wrestling manager, it's Bo Nickel. This man should not say a word. He just needs to stand there,

look like he looks, and have somebody with good verbal skills, just speak for him, like for him. He'd be so much better off. And the whole press conference thing, Because I was there and like it all, it just came up real suddenly is Colby takes that pot shot at Boe. And I'm standing back watching Bo's reaction. And deep down, I'm thinking to myself, don't say anything.

Just sit there because you don't have a microphone. You're just going to get creamed if you actually say something. And then he starts talking. And I'm like, okay, he's about to get posterized. And it's great for the event, but it's bad for Bo. He's just going to get destroyed. And then Luke Rockhold comes in, and it's just two on one, and Bo looks terrible because he can't really defend himself. And it's a little, it's tough that he didn't have a mic.

It would have been great if he did, but he just didn't. And I'm just sitting there like, don't say anything. And then he got just absolutely smoked verbally and, you know, came out looking like he did. And then I kind of liked the response afterwards. I like the, I want to fight Colby at the White House. I thought the timing of the tweet was perfect. I thought it made a lot of sense. and then just kind of going from that.

I think that callout's okay. I think it's a great call. It's a little bad, but I think the good outweighs the bad. Yeah, I think if you just kind of left the tweet at that and then just let it simmer for a bit, especially with Colby, you know, winning the wrestling match and then saying what he said at the post-fight press conference, like there's something there.

I talked to Eric Bischoff yesterday. It was really cool to actually have a conversation with him. And even he was like, look, when the press conference, thing happened like I kind of wish it went a little differently like there were some things that were said that I kind of wish weren't said but in the end like this is money like and it even said like if I'm Dana White like this is a gift this is put on my lap put this fight at the white house I think that makes all the sense in the world I think they should absolutely try to make this fight Colby even said I talked to Colby backstage before the event and he was and I noticed like just looking

at him like dude have you been lifted like you look bigger and he goes yeah I've been trying to put on some size like I'm taking this wrestling match obviously one because it's cool and I like the wrestling but two I want to see like how I do against a bigger guy to see if I would take some fights in middleweight like this is kind of like my litmus test to see how I move Luke around and he did pretty damn good so like he said he wants to go to middleweight this is the the best fight like I know he wanted maybe Adasani or something and that would be something but alasani is booked him versus bow nickel is like a big fight you can make right now for that card so they should absolutely do it. So Bo comes out looking, I'm just curious, like, how the fans will react

to this fight being made? Will the fan base be on Colby's side when they really haven't been, or would they be on Boe's side? I don't know. But maybe Colby ends up being kind of a baby face here. And the fan base would be on Colby side because like nobody's ever on Bo's side. He's, he's given you nothing to like other than like his credentials, which are good. But like his personality has been a little bit, again, a touch entitled, a touch grading, and now he is actively picking a fight with a smaller man.

Like, this is heel behavior, which is fine broadly. And like I said, I think this callout is mostly good and gets him a winnable fight in a big, like, venue against a guy who's going to try and sell this fight. But like,

just do that. Don't be like, Yo, old Romeo, know a disrespected wrestling, so I'm not going to wrestle. I would, but all, all of it read so cringy because it's like, he disrespected wrestling, so I'm not going to wrestle him. But I would have wrestled him if he had disrespected wrestling only a little bit instead of a lot of bit.

And actually, I'm not even mad at him for disrespecting wrestling. I'd love to train with the guy, but he's a heavyweight and I don't want to wrestle him. When you say all those statements in very close proximity, it reads as, I thought you all was going to beat me and I didn't want to lose, which, Again, I would actually give some credence to if this wasn't a semi fake wrestling match, right? Like, if this was a fight, 100% totally reasonable. This is closer to a charity wrestling match than it is like elite world class wrestling competition.

This isn't the Olympic trials. You were getting paid money to show up and do a thing. And you were like, no, never mind. I might lose and I don't want to do that, which is just like, bro, come on. Who cares? If Beau wrestled Pat Downey Like if they shifted out

And if they wrestled somebody It would have been fine That was my thing And I think that was Like if you wrestled Downey instead Like I think he would have come off A little bit better Like

We can't do YOL You all miss weight So Yel can't wrestle for a title anymore But Bo's still going to compete He'll defend against Pat Doughty Who also had an opponent Miss Wade That would have been okay

We've been told Wrestling somebody My single biggest issue is this event was promoted in large part on the back of you wrestling your Romero. If there is, it is not your fault that Romero missed weight. And so it's okay to be like, hey, I'm not going to wrestle him. But like, you also could have at really no cost to yourself. And if not, at least wrestle because the fans were there in part to see you.

And now it's just like, no. And again, if this was real, if RIF was a longstanding promotion, that mattered if this was the Olympic trials. This was a UFC fight or whatever. Sure. You're not going to get injured. There's no harm in doing it. Go out and have some fun.

Also, based on how you all looked, you probably would have kicked his ass. So it's just like, what a whiff. Just a huge biffing from Boe Nickel. Yeah. The event was cool, man. Like, they did a great job. They have something there.

Obviously, when you have five events, something of this magnitude, you have things you need to work out. So they definitely have some things they get a fix. It was the first time I ever watched the RF front to back live. I think they're doing something really good. I agree. I enjoyed it. It was fast.

You know, there was just no meat on the bone. It was, hey, here's a wrestling match. Wrestling match are short anyway. Here's a wrestling match. For some of them, they gave them a little bit of mic time, but not like something extraneous. There was no, let's go. to the desk and talk for 20 minutes.

It was boom, boom, boom, boom. Here we go, in and out, action, excitement. They got something going at RIF. Today, news broke, they signed up to Rashid. Awesome. July of the best wrestler in the world. I think that that's dope.

They have my attention for real. Yeah. I thought they did a great job. The pacing, actually, I thought it was like too fast at times. It was like too quick. But I understand. No, I understand what you're saying because there really were times when I was like,

oh, we are just into the next one where I'm like, oh, I'm writing up something. I'm going to go take a bathroom break. It's like, oh, they're walking to the mat right now.

But it is perfect. R. If you are watching, shout out to you. Hell yeah. I don't know how like I don't know your financials. I have no concept for that. I know that your product right now is doing something.

keep that going is doing something good. Yeah. I thought that I did a great job and I think it's only going to get better. I like how they're bringing the MMA guys in. Henry Suhudo, your eye, Fabor is that the next one, Clay Gweed is going to be on the next one. Mahamukhyaf's wrestling Bryce Meredith on the next one.

So like bringing in the UFC and the MMA guys is very, very smart. I'm just, I think I'm going to talk to Izzy Martinez probably right before the next one just to kind of get the booking sense because Eric, Eric obviously has the pro wrestling booker mentality because he ran WCW for all that time and beat WVE for a long time. But like he told me in the interview that, listen, I'll help you out and do the production stuff and be part of the team.

But like I don't want to be a part of the booking at all. Like my hair's gray enough. I got, you know, things in my liver that have caused me to lose years off my life from being a booker. So. But yeah, I think the Fox Nation thing, it sounds to me like they're not going anywhere from there. So I mean, it's like it's obviously Fox Nation is helping them. If you watch an NFL playoff game, you saw like you will see advertisements for

real American freestyle. You cannot buy that type of promotion. My friends, my friends knew that event was happening because I was like, I got a work to cover a thing. And they were like, and I was like, I have, I told them it was like, I have to buy Fox Nation. And they were like, why?

And then they were like, oh, wait, are you covering the, the, wrestling thing. It was like, yep. And I'm like, oh, like that it's people know like that they got out. They are promoting well. They're doing great. Yeah. Will they end up? Because I asked Eric and I'm not going to give way the whole interview. So I think it's going to drop sometime the next couple of days. But I did ask about the Fox Nation thing. And if they're going to end up maybe on a on a television platform. Will they do events on FS1 or something like make it a little bit easier for people to find, I guess to some degree. But a parent out plus they could. That's an option. Yes, BN Plus is an option. I think RAS long-term future is getting bought out by the UFC to be folded under the broad TKO Combat Sports banner of boxing UFC BJJ RAF, and that's a perfectly viable long-term brand and future product for them.

But mainly right now, don't even worry about that. Keep doing this. They have caught lightning in a bottle in a very real way. I think that there's a huge cap on what they can be because freestyle wrestling is simply not for everybody. But the way they're going about it is, I think, about as optimal as they could. So terrific work. Great point here by Lazy Bed.

Remember, Cub Swanson, let his teammate answer all the questions at Bedia Day. Will you sat there looking cool? Do that. Yeah. For Bo Nickville. Agreed. Legitimately just bring in a mouthpiece. It'd be fine, too.

Like, there's never been an MNBFITR who's just had, like, an actual mouthpiece sit behind them. do that, that'd be funnier. Let's see. There are a couple things that I scrolled through that I wanted to get. Oh, LazyBed makes a good point with the latest comment, Mike. One criticism of R.F. I thought I thought Kurt Engel was pretty good. And they didn't bring him in for the whole time.

He came in like halfway through the broadcast or whatever. They go for like the last three match. Yeah, like the last big ones or whatever. I thought he was pretty good. And doing something like that is probably not a bad choice. I don't know why they've hired Julianna Pena. I don't hate Julianna Pena with the same fervor that some people do. She is just not good at this.

And I don't know if they hired her strictly because, you know, she has a wrestling background and is a famous woman. But, like, you could hire Sarah McMahon. She has a wrestling background and is famous and much better wrestler. Try and cycle some other people in there because she, this is, like when Henry Sohudo got to be a commentator for a second. It's bad and it's obviously bad immediately. So swap that up. Do something different. Hey, it's Olivia from Ollie. Getting better sleep this year is totally doable. But skip the lettuce

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Try O-D-O-F-Frey at O-D-O-D-O-O-D-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-D-O-O-O-D-O. There are some, I can't find the question right now, but I'll get to it. I'll kind of remember a lot of some people are asking, because the UFC has announced the broadcast team for UFC 324, and there are some new names to the mix, obviously, with the new deal with Paramount Plus and everything. Let me find the broadcast team. Give my boy, Brian Campbell, his shot, CBS.

So obviously on commentary, the same old, the same old, same old, Annick, Rogan, D.C. calling, Dean Thomas will be the coach. Megan Olivie will do the interviews. Analyzing the action at the host desk are former UFC champions, Michael Bisbing, Dominic Cruz and Chris Wydenman while UFC well veteran CBS broadcaster Kate Scott joins the show for the first time a veteran of several sports programs including coverage of numerous notable boxing events so Kate Scott getting her opportunity here Jed and along Chris Wyman Michael Bisping Dominic Cruz will be the analyst booth for this first event your thoughts

give BC a shot. I don't actually know that much about Kate Scott. There's stuff I've seen her and she seems to be good at her job. So that's, she seems to be quite good. So that's good. I think three fighters is too many fighters for an analyst desk personally. But I understand that broadly speaking,

that's sort of the trend that has gone on now for across all sports is there's one, there's one broadcasting chaperone and then a bunch of ex-athletes to give perspective. it's not bad I don't love Wyden on the mic frankly so I would not choose him I think Biss being is much better as an analyst I think Cruz is actually good as an analyst

I think he's bad as a commentator but good as an analyst so I'm fine there I think Bisping is similarly better as an analyst if you're going to do a third fighter I would have liked somebody other than Wyman I just I don't care for him But I think that they might be better served to have like an actual analyst analyst as opposed to former fighter turned media person.

But, you know, broadly it's fine. Yeah, I like, I like Wadman too. I think Wadman is like really good in that spot. He knows his stuff, but he's also like low-key hilarious. He's got a like seriously hilarious dry sense of humor. And you see it on the way in shows and stuff. So we'll see how it all plays out. We'll see how it all goes.

I would really like them. And this is why I like Cruz as an analyst. I think he is the closest person to actually doing analysis that you get in like football or whatever, where they will be like, so, you know, like you get whoever it is that's on the football thing. It's like, okay, that first half, they were playing a lot of cover three and you're picking that zone apart. Where you need to be doing is do deep routes or whatever. Like, there's not that much of that that happens. on the UFC analyst desks in general.

It's like he didn't shoot enough takedowns. It's like anybody could kind of say. Cruz is a little bit better at being an X's and O's analyst. I'd really like them to get somebody who like every time they're discussing a fight is a specifically like here is an immediate thing I saw. Like Dean Thomas kind of does live during broadcast, getting somebody that's a little more focused on that for the like the desk analyst analysis, I think would behoove the broadcast broadly.

And Cruz is like the closest this group has to that. My one concern seeing this. And it's especially it's the, the complete opposite of RAF is that I hope they, because you have Kate who's so good at her job and you have these three fighters that we're not, we're not bellatoring this thing. We're after like every fight we're going back to the desk.

Like I just, I do not. I think that'll only happen when there's an early finish. and then we have to go back to kill because the UFC's so regimented on their thing. We'll go back to the desk for 10 minutes and be like, oh, before the next one walks. Yeah. I mean, if it's if it has to be like certain time filler for certain things, if we have like four straight first round finishes, sure. But if it's one of those things where it's like, oh, let's go back to the desk to get their response on this, this fight that just happened. Like, I don't need to see that 14 times.

I'll tell you who I want. Because also some of my issue is just like, I've seen these dudes on desk and I've, Cruz is the best one, but give me somebody new. I want actual fight geniuses. I want Alexander Volkernovsky to be a desk analyst. I think he'd be exceptional at that job because he is such a tactical mastermind. And he can communicate effectively and clearly and succinctly. My single biggest issue with Bisping, and it's gotten a lot worse over the years, too,

he does not have a coherent thought that goes A to B and is done. He gets lost in the middle. he rambles, it is, he's, he is a tough hang at points. Get, put, put freaking Volk on a desk. Let me see how Volk. Let me see how Porre does on a desk. Yeah, Porreier would be great.

Poirier's done a little bit, but like those are, I want like, the guys who aren't going to go to coaching but would make good coaches, give me that, right? Like, Mike Thomas Brown might be an incredible desk analyst, but instead he's just one of the best coaches in the sport. Give me the person who's like, I don't want to be Mike Thomas Brown. I might could be, but instead, let me just talking to a mic.

And like Volk, I think is sort of a perfect person in that regard. So one of the guys I was talking to at RAF5 during the meeting greet, because I filmed some, some trivia stuff that will be kind of going up and throughout the next several months. Phil Rowe is there. And, you know, I know Phil's not like a superstar or anything at this point. By the way, that dude is a giant. I have no idea how that guy makes Walter Waite.

I have no clue. He is frigging humongous. he's like double my size it's crazy but that dude knows knows ball like he knows ball not just because like I fight

but like historically just remembering names remembering dates events the the technique all of that like somebody like that I think would actually be

really good in there if you can get a little more over with the base but he's a guy who's got charisma he can talk his ass off and he knows his shit so there are

there are some interesting lazy three one out I think San Hagan is the best choice possible. San Hagan is really good too. I think San Hagan would be perfect. I think Arnold Allen is a dude who could do it if he got some time to be a little bit more expressive. But if you just sat him down right now, we probably wouldn't be good. But those are the guys who aren't the most talented fighters but are geniuses.

Arnold Lall would be great on like the Way and Show. Arnold would actually be, that might be ideal for him. But like, yeah, give me San Hague. Give me a fight genius who may or may not have had like super high level success because they're limited by physical blockers. Like San Hagan's a gene.

Like San Hagan understands fighting intrinsically. Yeah. And can be funny. Like those are the dudes we want. And the same rule I have for commentators. After three to five years, get rid of them. Just give me somebody new.

Yeah. Aljo. No shortage. I wouldn't be bad. So I'm going to tie this into something else. I think the UFC heading into New Era with Paramount Plus will focus on stopping grapplers of stalling where there is continuous action.

We've seen more grapplers of winning records not be resigned. We saw Lor Sanko be in the news recently for essentially saying, yeah, the whole situation where, you know, even if you're unbeaten, the Martin Boudais, the unbeaten dudes who are getting, Renov-Fuckertinoff was the one I was thinking of, kind of hit me, not getting resigned.

She's like, yeah, I think more of that's coming. The UFC wants violence. and I'm kind of like paraphrasing this. Your thoughts on Laura's comments and I guess sort of the the direction we're going here, Jed, where it's like, hey, winning is great, but it's not everything we're looking for here. I'm actually broadly okay with this. It is an entertainment sport. And, you know, there's an idea that we want the best fighters.

And this is the closest thing there is to a real fight. We've gone so far, field from this being remotely close to a real fight. Like, it's just not. Like, whatever a real fight even means at this point in time. This is a sport. And in all sports, literally every single sport, you can sort of tweak the rules and to get the outcome you want to make it a more palatable viewer experience. Football changes rules every year. And then on top of actively changing the rule book, the NFL also week to week, month to month year to year has different emphasis.

where it's like we're going to talk to the refs this week to emphasize holding or not holding or whatever because they're trying to find the balance to make the best viewer product possible. And I think that's totally okay to do. And so like very broadly speaking, tweaking the rules to prioritize damage to get rid of lay and prey,

I think those are great ideas. And the UFC should leverage that more, right? I know technically the UFC doesn't control the rules. they kind of control the rules. I think choosing not to resign fighters you think is boring or think of as boring gets a little murkier just because, like, who is the one who thinks they're boring? Dana White is convinced that Arnold Allen and Movs are ever boring,

and they're not, they're not like the most exciting, but they're not like boring objectively. And so it gets a little murkier, but like, to me, if you're just not going, I think it's fine, not resign, or not Fokkerdine. of who is probably one of the 25 best fighters of white class because not one of the 10. And so if you're not going to, if you are that level, if you're one of the 10 best dudes,

you should be in the UFC. I don't really care if you're boring or not. But if you're not like that high at it, I'm okay with them being like, yeah, man, you're really good, but you hurt our products. And people aren't that interested. And so I'm fine. I said this years ago when Leon Edwards was trying to get to a title, find a way to be, be interesting, man. You got to find

ways to be interesting in this sport. And if you can't do it with the way you fight, you better find another way to do it. And so, big picture, I'm okay with them trying to make the product better. I am not okay with them sacrificing all levels of merit

in the pursuit of adventure, right? I still hate that Patty and Justin is for an interim belt. That's still stupid. But, like a broad. Hey man, we're going to not resign you if you're not interesting. I'm okay with. Next. A Spooky. Thank you. Should we read into Umar not being promoted to the main card of UFC 324? Didn't like his prospects of a title shot in 26, but curious of y'all's take.

Being the feature prelim doesn't hit the same given no pay-per-view. So we found out, obviously, that Kayla Harrison, Amanda Nunes is no more. Sean O'Malley versus Song is the new co-main event. I don't think anybody who's really surprised there. And we're wondering which fight was going to get moved up to the main card to join Arnold Allen, John Silva, Waldo Cortez, Acosta, Derek Lewis, Sean O'Malley, Song, Yidong, Justin Gachi, Patty Pimblit. And they went with one of the ones that we talked about yesterday on the reaction pod,

Rose Namiby Unis versus Natty Ice is going to be on the main card while Davis in Figurator versus Umar Nagamagamatov will remain on the prelims. Do you have a reaction to that? Do you read anything into that? Or how do you think they came to this decision and what your, I guess, read on it? This is a good question, he's buggy. The truth is, I don't know, because we are in a new world now. There is no longer the bifurcation between semi-free on ESPN and a paid product, right?

This is all on Paramount Plus. So you are getting all of this without a separating paywall on the same platform. Is there even that big a difference? It's like spiritually it feels like it because for so long we've been conditioned that these five fights and then everything else. And so there's definitely a little bit of a hangover there. But I don't know that it's going to really even feel like that come Saturday. Next Saturday we're watching this. And so I think that you can read into this that the UF, you know, all things being equal, the UFC is more interested in entirely silver versus Rose.

which I think is fair because, like, let's just be, I mean, this is a title, this is a no doubt about it title eliminator. If Rose beats Natty Ice, she is fighting Val next. If Natty Ice already should be fighting Val, but if she beats Rose, there's nothing else to do with her but to have her fight Chivchenko. So this is a no doubt about a Tyler Eliminator versus if Figgie beats Umar, he's not fighting for the belt. If Umar beats Figgie, maybe, but Bantam weights so mixed up right now.

So, like, probably still not. So broadly, yeah, like, this is, this is a hit to Umar's title aspirations. But I don't think it's a big or a major hit. I think that I'm not sure it's made it's massively different, but being fight five and six in this new world. And it objectively just makes more sense for the actual title eliminator with a former champion to go over the possible title eliminator-ish. with a former champion up a weight class, right?

I mean, you guys technically roses up a weight class as well. So like, but it's interesting because I do think it probably does tell us something, but I'm not sure it tells us as much as maybe you're thinking about Ace Boogie. Yeah, I think I'm with you. I think the stakes are a little higher in the Natty Ice Rose fight. And I think on top of that, while I am intrigued by Umar versus Figgie, I think Umar's going to win pretty convincingly. He's going to sit on him.

Exactly. It's not likely to be the most thrilling, though he might just get figgy out of there because he's going to sit on him so effectively. Yeah. And at least like with Rose and Natty Ice, I don't think there's going to be a lot of takedown shot in this fight. Like I think Rose and her team are smart enough to realize that,

you know, Natty Ice is in Alexa Grasso. Natty Ice is actually excellent takedown defense. She's very good at getting off of her back if she needs to. And she's very difficult to take down. So that fight is probably going to be 15 minutes of striking, which it's almost certainly going to be 15 minutes of striking. And Rose can lend a big shot. And Natty Ice, you know, when she gets cooking, there are very few fighters that are like more fun to watch when she really gets, starts moving downhill. She is just an absolute demon in there when she starts cruising.

So yeah, I'm not surprised by this choice because the stakes are higher. And we're setting up a title fight more likely than not. I might, if I were the U.C, I might swap Natty Ice Rose up one and move Jean Silva Arnold Allen to the curtain, to the main card opener. Because it's a John Silva fight, so it's going to be fun. Like it doesn't, and you kind of want to start with that momentum. Whereas Natty Ice Rose can be fun, and I think it will. I am much more confident in John Silva delivering something with juice to start the main

event or main card. So I'd make that swap, but I don't think, I don't have any issues with, with this choice. I think that they've made the correct decision to put Nettie Ice Rose on the main card over Umar Figgie. Val might actually be there. They might set up some sort of face off or something. Like they might just do that too. There's a, she 100% should be there now. She should have been there anyway, so they could have potentially set up a face off with Amanda and Kayla winner.

But now that that fight's getting delayed. Val can't wait for that fight and then move up to fight, I guess she could but that'd be silly. She's going to fight the winner of this fight. Val should be there to set this up. Easy peasy. We'll take a couple more if we head on out of here. Leasy bed in response to fan criticism of Volk versus Lopez 2.

So this is Dayto-Wites interview with Complex. This is where all the things are happening. Where he poo-poo-ch, Chandler, Connor. He said he's still interested in Pereira versus Jones for the White House, but it's all, will John Jones make it to the fight? At least a change of direction for him. So good on him.

So we have a little bit more of like a positive stance on that. But he was asked about Vogue Lopez too and the criticism of the fight and Dana White. What did I say? What did I say when we talked about this? When Dana White is asked about this, he's going to say these exact words. If he don't like it, don't watch it. Is there a more clear side of a promoter being checked out? It's not checked out.

He's been doing this forever. this raises indirectly raises a question I've been pondering for several months now. It's very obvious that in the Paramount UFC deal,

UFC is running the show. Paramount is the broadcaster, UFC is going to make every single decision about it. And I fundamentally don't understand. I just nobody anywhere has been able to explain to me why.

Because I guess in my idiot brain, I must be very stupid. Because in my head, Paramount is the customer. They have purchased for an extreme amount of money, the broadcast rights for the UFC. and in every other facet of business across the globe in any industry, when you are the one paying money to somebody else, you get to dictate certain things. You get to have demands and requests.

And when you say something, you know, if I am selling you, I am a paper producer, that is my job. I make paper. And I sell you paper. you give me money for my paper and I give you the wrong paper, you would come back to me and say, this is not the right paper, I'm not paying for this. But for some reason,

the service provider gets to say into a microphone that is broadcast to the world, don't watch all product. And nobody at Paramount is going to be like, hey man, don't tell people not to watch the product. that's the exact opposite of why we are paying you money. We are paying you this money so people will watch this product. I feel like I'm in the upside down.

I do not understand because this was true at ESPN and it's true here. I don't know what sort of mental gymnastics, Jedi mind trick, Dana White and W and TKO have done, where they are the servicing party. but also in control of everything. It's crazy. And I would kill to spend three minutes with somebody at Paramount to explain to me why Dana White is not immediately getting a phone call being like, hey, if you ever go on a mic and say, don't watch our product again,

I'm going to pull your contract, buy, or whatever. Like, we're going to find you. It's insane to me that a promoter can actively work to not promote his product. And the people paying him money are just like, yeah, that's fine. It doesn't make any sense at all. It's, the whole thing's crazy.

And this whole notion that Dana, like, is just now checking out is absolutely insane. He's been checked out for so long. And it's, it's just the way that it is. And this is why, like,

I've always said, like, Dana is important for the business deals at this point. Like, he's very important for business deals. Like, getting this meta deal done. Like, he's, he's pivotal in that.

Without him, this doesn't happen. Without him, probably the Paramount deal doesn't happen. But as far, as being like the face of the company, which is where he is positioned right now and he has done this in his own way, I don't get, I don't understand it. Like, I just don't understand this, this, this whole thing, how you can just be so checked out. And even like the boxing stuff,

like the boxing stuff, they're doing events at the friggin apex. This whole thing, we're going to take over boxing, like boxing has sucked for so long, but look what we're going to do. We're going to do three events in four weeks and they're going to be at the friggin' apex. and Callum Walsh who got dumped on the entire fight. Yeah, but that people can be at the apex, the meta apex, by the way. Make sure you get the name right. It's the meta apex. But like, what are we doing?

What are we doing? The Power Slap thing, like, it says he's so much more, like, involved in that. Like, make special appearances. Like, it's fine. But, like, you just don't have to be still, like, the Ford front-facing model. And answering questions, like, well, if you don't like, if you don't like, we already know that. Like, that's, like, we already know that. Like, if we don't want to watch something, we just won't watch it.

But this whole, like, F the fans, if they don't like it, like, we're just going to do it anyways. Like, your whole mission has been, it just doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, when your whole mission is, hey, we create holy shit moments and we only create fights that the fans want to see. And then your responses, if you don't like it, don't watch, which has been your response about multiple fights you have put out this year? Like, what are we talking about? It's so frustrating. It's why monopolies are bad. This is why monopolies are bad.

But I've been thinking about this since for months now. I just don't get it. I don't. You are paying him a $1.1 billion a year to actively tell people to not watch your product, which is how you generate revenue is by having subscribers who tune in to watch this. it one plus one should make two in this world it makes fish like i don't get it i'll never get it no one will ever explain to me how like there's no backlash for actively promoting against the interest of the the people paying in money it just mind bottling uh oh my else comment

Dana, the UFC already has his fan base and is successful. He thinks they don't need anyone's help. And they don't. They've won the game. But this is the problem with winning the game is that you could just stop trying. And you can just kind of be whatever. So I mean, like, just say, should he apologize for the fight cancel? No.

No. I mean, you shouldn't have ever booked it, but you can just come out and be like, just do what Diego Lopez did. Just do what Diego Lopez did. Do it literally idiot. Everybody in support of this is done other than be like double birds to you, the people who buy our product. Like you can just come out and he's told this lie about other stuff all the time and it's fine. He could come out and just be like, yeah, we gave it to him because he says yes.

I want yes men. I want guys who when there's a fight, they stand up and raise their hand. And that's what Diego Lopez did. He's coming off a sick comeback knockout. And that man has always stood up and answered the call. that's fine. That's a fine answer. Just say what happened.

Just say what happened. Just say, tell the story. Tell the story that I told on the show after the whole thing with Jason House. Diego was told if he fought John Silva and won, he would be back at the conversation. The fight with John Silva was one of the sickest fights of the year. It's dope. And because of how it worked out and the fact that he was the only guy that said yes to fighting John Silva, which from what I was told is true, we gave him the opportunity.

Just use the whole, hey, we're not here to make you rich, but we're here to give you the opportunity to become rich. Diego Lopez didn't say no to any fights. He took an opportunity. He got the fight. If you don't like it, hey, I know more about this business than you. But don't say, don't watch it. Don't say, well, this is what you're stuck with and F you if you don't like it.

Like, that's, just tell the story. It just ended there. It's fine. Like, people may not agree with it, but they're not going to, they're not going to, they're not going to rip you like people are going to do right now after the whole if you don't like it don't watch it bullshit yeah as a promoter you should literally or a person who sells any product you should almost never utter the words then don't buy it like that's because you just don't have to and so it's just like it's it's an insane thing that he's like yeah don't watch it um because like

again and that card is not good it's not a very good card there's a couple of decent People will not watch that card. They're going to be just fine not watching that card. Like it's, it comes down to a, I think my single biggest issue with Dana White, the promoter now. And when I think people say he's checked out, we could debate that. And he's, he's always been a bit of a negative person in general. He is exclusively negative. And that is grading and not good promotion in my mind.

Like your promotion is not F you. It is, this is awesome. Like that's how you get people excited about a product is for you to be excited about it. And so when somebody asks you a valid criticizing question, your response can be like, look, man, I know that there's some people who dislike that. And you know what? That's okay. Maybe you skip this one and that's fine because, but me, I'm not going to skip it

because that first fight was banging. Exactly. a little business of God. You are excited about it and you bring people in with your enthusiasm. Not a, here's a line in the sand. F you, if you're on the other side of it, rationality or not. You are on my team or you are against me. That is a view towards life that has worked out for him in a lot of respects. It is a view I fundamentally dislike and think is objectively bad for promoting a spectator sport. A couple more. Forest.

Mike and Jed, can you wish me a happy birthday? Happy birthday, Forrest. My man. Happy birthday, forest, man. Shout out, buddy. Hope it's a great day. Been around forever.

Way to go. Thank you for joining us on your birthday. On your birthday. Let's see. Pull up a Raggio's comment about Monopoly. We don't have to go on this long. So this is fundamentally incorrect. Maybe not fundamentally.

There is a little bit worse of a problem because Dana is so overt with it. We're like, I don't want to get political, so I'm going to touch this very. A lot of things that happen in this country broadly are not new. There are just things that are more like we're peeling back the veil of like decorum. And that's Dana with this, right? Like he's just not pretending that this isn't what it is. And that is there are social contracts for a reason. Things work better if everybody isn't abrasively the way they are.

But the big issue with this comment is nobody has an issue with the NFL's monopoly on football because there's a players union. There's a players union. There is a force that works against the unfettered avarice of the owners. and there is none. Like, again, as I mentioned, the UFC, arguably that force should be the purchasing company, right? Like, I am buying your streaming rights. Theoretically, Paramount should be holding them to task

to provide good events, etc., etc. I do not understand how that doesn't happen. There is nobody to say no to Dana White ever. And so we are entirely at his whims. and that is not good for anything ever when one person is in charge of all aspects of everything. Yeah. And to compare the UFC to the NFL is just ridiculous.

You can't, you can't do that. If you want to compare Data White, you cannot compare Dana White to Roger Goodell. You can't. You want to compare him to Bob Kraft or like a Jerry Jones or like somebody of that ilk. Then you can. Like, it's a different thing.

The UFC is not like, you know, it is an organization. It's closer to one NFL teams. Exactly. The federation of NFL teams. And also, you know, I don't know how much our viewership watches pro football. Go talk to any Cowboys fan and just ask them how much they love that Jerry Jones is the only person in charge of the Cowboys. Ask them if they're like super pumped about being a Cowboys fan. Because I got to tell you, they're going to be like, man.

this blows that Jerry is still in charge of this thing. Yeah. I mean, that is that is 100% perfect. And guess what? The Dallas Cowboys are the most profitable team in the NFL. They don't win anything, but they make money.

They don't want anything in years, but they already won the game. They make money and people watch them, but they're fans. To God, the Cowboys is like actually the perfect analogy for, they're like roughly worth the same amount of money. One dude had a lot of success with them early.

and now is just still in charge and kind of doing whatever hell he wants and it's good business but it's maybe not the best product. Max Cowboys fan here. I've been in shambles for 30 years is what he says. So yes, that is the point.

Now, I'll tell you what, if the fan base just decides like, can you imagine if Jerry Jones is like, if you don't like it, don't come to the stadium and buy tickets. Like at least you won't hear Jerry say that. At least Jerry's just like, I'm going to do what I want to do.

But please. come to the games. We want you there for Thanksgiving. We want you here for this game. You never hear Jerry Jones saying, you know what? If you bought a ticket, just get a refund. Don't come. You don't hear him to say that shit. He doesn't actively antagonize people who might be viewers, which is impressive from him.

He passively does it constantly. But there's a difference. You know, I'm just, I'm going to start using the Cowboys is my thing. Look at how happy Cowboys fans are because one dude who is in charge. of everything.

Is that going great? No. Yeah. It's, I mean, and Rod, and here's the thing about Roger Goodell,

too. How often do you see him? Never. He twice a year. You only see him when the NFL broadly needs a whipping boy. Like that, his job is just to be the whipping boy

for the league's sins at large. It's a great gig. He shows up at the draft. He shows up at the Super Bowl. It's booed out of the room. And then he does like, one interview with Pat McAfee a year. That's it.

That's all you see of him. And he doesn't say like, hey, you know, don't watch CBS because the Thursday night game sucks. Don't get Amazon Prime because the Browns are playing the Dolphins. Like, he doesn't say that. He goes, oh, it's going to be a great game. You know, two teams that are trying to figure things out. He'll try to find a way to sell it. Like, it's, it's.

But I will, here's Scott saying, don't get to his data still the best promoter when he wants to be. And he can be. When they try, he can be. But they just don't try anymore. And that's, and that's like my whole issue. Like I've made a New Year's resolution. I don't think that's true.

I made a New Year's resolution that I'm not going to be like, I'm not going to go on to these preview shows at the Apex and just be like, this card sucks. Like I'm not going to say there and just rip it to shreds. Like I'm going to try. That was my resolution last year. I don't know that I succeeded. No,

I wasn't as negative. Y'all were way more negative last year about Apex than I was. Because I was actively every week trying to be more positive. Yeah. Without lying. Yeah. And I plan on doing the best I can as well. But like I don't want to talk about like in all I say like even when people are like,

Oh, like stop your complaint and you're too negative. Like we we like the apex cards. We like these fights. And I'm not saying like there aren't certain fights on the apex cards that we try to highlight them and things that we are excited about. It's not just like, oh, don't watch this card. It stinks. Sometimes we'll tell you as people who've watched more for a long time.

Sometimes you got to go Apple picking. Sometimes go Apple picking. It's on a streaming service. You can go back and watch it tomorrow. You don't have to watch it live. You could still pick it up tomorrow. Or you can go with your buds or do whatever. Like, it's totally okay.

But it's just, all I ask for is for them to try. Like, just give us an effort. It doesn't even have to be a UFC 300 effort. I don't need that. UFC 300 was the best. Loved everything about it. But try. Just try.

That's all. Some sort of extra effort. And I think it's a pretty fair thing now. for so uh i think we're good i think we're good jenn i don't think we have uh look this is the last week without a ufc event for quite some time well there will be uh there will be like an off week in between i believe somewhere but at least we have cards to look forward to there's not going to be like another six week break uh we have ufc 324 next saturday we have ufc 325 the following saturday so back-to-back fight weeks back to back watch parties back to back fun

Back-to-back chaos. And it's all good. I'm very excited. I'm ready. I'm ready for UFC 324. I'm pumped about it. I mean, it's just been a long time. I really like 324.

325. I really like the 324 card. We talked yesterday on the Instant React show. I think that that card is still good even without Amanda Kayla. I'm excited to get back to like real business. It has frankly been nice to have some time off. here like from the grind of the year. I actually I know a lot of people don't want this as fans and I totally understand that for me personally. Getting a six-week break from like that was pretty nice to

get to work on some other stuff and to just not be constantly keeping your head above water, but I'm ready to get back to it. And I think we're getting back in a good way. Shout out, I will be on the morning combat pre-game preview next week. So the new era. I'll go see what Chuck Mendenhall's about to do. That'll be fun. And then you and I'll do the damn thing all the rest of that week, Mike. And New Era

Watch, 4. 9 p.m. start time. Mike, God, that's so nice. Yeah, we might actually go live a little earlier. Well, we're going to go live earlier. We're talking about it. We'll see. But we're going to figure some stuff out. The watch party, my goal is to advance this thing into

a whole new planet with some different things. My goal is to keep growing T-Witch, baby. Let's go. Keep the T-Witch going. We will be live on the Twitch for the watch parties. Every one of them and all of our shows, like literally every show that we do, all the live shows will all be on Twitch in 2026, every single one of them. So you have our promise there. And we are very much looking forward to this. Before we leave, you need to get this Joseph Bosa comment up about Kayla. Oh, I didn't see that one. It's a little further up. Tomorrow

I think it was going to drop today But we got pushed Tomorrow the Fantasy League draft drops We drafted on Tuesday folks So before news broke Some people may Have suffered immediate dissatisfaction I love my team

I'm probably going to finish last again I love my team though My team is excellent Your team is super good like super good it's better than last year um it's better than last year

I will I'll I'll drop a teaser I think on paper you have the best team I do too I did not keep Kayla Harrison and I'll leave it at that I'll leave it at that but you did not keep Kayla Harrison

I did not keep Kayla Harrison she was not one of my keepers so but somebody does end up with a tough seat somebody does somebody does end up with her and uh I actually think they made a very calculated choice to draft her in the spot that they did. But you'll find out more about the draft tomorrow when it drops because it is fun. It is, it's just a good time.

It's a good time. It's always a great time. I love the drafts. One of my favorite things you do every year. It is mine too. And we'll have another one too later on the year after UFC White House. Post White House will fire back into season two. I'm trying.

I'd like to win one of these things because I haven't won one. one and I don't like that I haven't won one. Well, perhaps this will be the year. Find out who we drafted. Make your picks on who you think is going to win tomorrow when the draft drops everywhere for Jedbushu. I am Mike Heck back next week to get you ready for UFC 324 right here on between the links. Good night, everybody. Love y'all.