MMA Fighting - BTL | Ilia Topuria Crowned At UFC 298, Pereira vs. Hill For UFC 300, PFL vs. Bellator

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

A new UFC featherweight champ was crowned this past Saturday in the main event of UFC 298 after Ilia Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski in the second round. While it's the dawning of a new era, it also puts an end to one of the most impressive title reigns in recent memory, Where will each fighter go, and will it be a rematch with one another next? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to Topuria's championship victory, talks what it means for the featherweight division, and whether or not a rematch should be next. Additionally, they'll discuss other shining stars from the pay-per-view event, Dana White announcing the UFC 300 main event between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill, Saturday's UFC Mexico City card headlined by Brandon Moreno vs. Brandon Royval 2, the PFL vs. Bellator card this weekend, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Morning Kombat's Brian Campbell. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Brian Campbell: @BCampbell Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster,

the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is Between the Links. And now, your host, my...

The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand- new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all as we're coming off a memorable UFC 298 event in Anaheim. We finally got our UFC 300 main event question answered and there's a whole lot of them made this weekend. So we'll discuss that and much more. No time to waste. Let's introduce the combatants. First, he's in the middle of a short winter residency in Tampa, Florida. He's Mr. No Gray area, Mr. Hot Take, the Cannibal Kid. And after yesterday, we can now add, sunburns and but yet renowned videographer to the resume from mary fighting.com, Mr. Jed Michoud. Jed, how are we doing, my friend? I'm doing great, sunburnt, as you can probably tell.

Casey, shout out to you, my first foray into videography, and I got to say, I'm not coming for the title. The crown is yours. It's safe. You do not need to be concerned about me taking your job. Yes, sunburned for sure. I am Sunberg as well. Back on the show, one half of the award-winning podcast tag team champions of the world alongside the great Luke Thomas from Morning Combat as well as your heart. Mr. Brian Campbell, B.C., how are you? And got the Portugal The Man shirt on.

Shout out. You know, I got to represent the best damn rock band in the world going on right now. And I just want to remind everybody that I'm also currently living rent-free in Jed's mind like a squatter in an outhouse. And yeah, I'm not going to wash my hands either, all right? Yeah. Jet has no response. All right. He's saving.

How do you respond to squatter in an outhouse? I mean, that's just how BC rolls, coming in hot. Yes. Well, someone else who came in hot to Anaheim, California, Ilya, the brand new featherweight champion of the world, goes in there against Alexander Volcanovsky. The fight was intriguing on paper. It was intriguing for the entirety of the.

about all eight or so minutes of it. First round was a, it's kind of like a tail of three different rounds. Volk looked good. Teporia got some momentum. Volk saw something, got some momentum back. We headed into round two. Volks seems to be picking up the pace a little bit. Seems to have gotten a read.

But you're also seeing Teporia inch closer and closer to landing a big shot. And then Volk's back hits the fence. And as soon as that happens, Teporia attacks, lands a big right hand. Volk goes to sleep. Absolutely brutal knockout. Welcome to the Iliot-Tuporia era. What an error it is, BC. I'll hit Psy. I'm going to knock this dude out in the first and second round.

I'm 15-0. I'm the featherweight champion long before he stepped to that cage to fight, Alexander Volcanovsky. Your reaction to the beginning of the Iliot-Tuporia era. Crownum, as Dennis Green once said, because Ilya is exactly who Luke Thomas said he was, right? The next big thing who has arrived. And yes, his era has begun. Look, during Fight Week, like a lot of people, I didn't know what to make of Tuporia's next level confidence of changing the social media bios to say champion of the sacrilege photos with the championship belts, like seeing the bride's dress the day of, right? But the thing is, he absolutely backed it up.

And you mentioned it took a little bit of time, but I think even in that took a little bit of time as him and Volcanowski played chess. What we saw is Volcanowski was unable to trap Toporia into doing what he does so brilliantly to so many other dangerous strikers who may or may not be the toughest title of defense he's face yet. Remember Yaya Rodriguez just recently? He was unable to force Tuporia into a mistake. So what you saw from somebody who certainly had the power that we already knew coming in to be able to do something like this, but to see the poison execution. I wondered all fight like I said, if Ialia had bitten off more than he could. can chew if like ian gary he was trying a little too hard to follow certain elements of the mcgregor playbook in terms of how to boldly announce yourself and then follow through on those bold assertions but the thing that was most mcgregor like about his performance in the end was not

the fact that his tattoo schemes do mimic conners and kind of a weird cosplay type way more that he did exactly what he said he would do and that he forced volk to back up almost the entire fight even while having some success in the opening round. So for this killer to be able to stay that poise, to be able to rely on his game planning and technique, and then be the one that forces Volk ultimately into the mistake that led to the big combination that set up obviously the finishing punch, yeah, he's everything that he said he was,

that any of his backers coming in. And this is that situation where as much as I am happy to be wrong, having picked Volk at 35 to break that curse of that age, Walter weight and understat that Luke loves to throw around. I love to see somebody call their shot, step into it, deliver on a level higher than we thought. And now the question and how big of a star can Ilya Tuporia become, yeah, there's no limitations because that performance was dazzling. And you add that to the run that he's had. He's unbeaten at 15 and 0.

He's rolled through competition in the UFC showing different parts of his game each time, including that five-round championship stamina. He showed against Josh Emmett. He didn't need it this time against Volcanovsky. But when the changing of power, when the changing of hands atop a division after a long time happens, you love for it to be with that much closer, that definitive. That's exactly what Tuporia did. I announced himself he's here. And I can't wait to see him against any of those hungry featherweights now that there's a new sheriff in town,

eye-opening performance to say the very least. Jed, you were on the post-fight show. You reacted to this pretty quickly, but it was also 4 o'clock in the friggin morning. So maybe your mind wasn't as clear. Maybe you were a little tired. We've had a few days to digest this championship earning victory from Miliat, Toporia. What's your biggest takeaway now a few days later? It's what I said coming into that fight, which is pretty clear.

Look, if Deporia wins. I didn't think he was. I picked Voltwin. But if DePorea wins, the conversation. is going to be, oh, Alex came back too soon. And I said, I think that if he wins it, that'll be a bullshit conversation. I can't say definitively that the turnaround from the, this is a Machachev, chaos is what did or didn't affect it.

To me, I think that fight is determined not by Alex Skokinovsky's decision to return after a chaos loss. It is determined by Ilya being the dude. And this being the most difficult thing to do in all of MMA. I've said it a million times. I will say it a million more until everyone gets on board and recognizes the truth. The hardest thing to do in the sport is defend a belt over and over again year after year. Because not only are you getting the best shot from every single contender, people who have prepared their entire lives for this moment. You're getting their best crack. You are not allowed to have an off night.

You are not allowed to slip on a proverbial banana peel or even a real one. You've got to be perfect time in and time out. That's tough. But as you get there longer, as you become and Alexander Volcanovsky has held the belt for three, four, five years, you're not just dealing with the best shot of guys from your generation. You're dealing with the best shot of guys from the new generation. And the new generation has grown up in your shadow. They have grown up with you at the top of the mountain knowing this is the guy.

Here's who I need to develop and build a style to beat. if you hold on long enough, one of those guys is going to come up and take it from you. Ask Joseo Aldo with Max Holloway. It's exactly what happened. Alex came kind out of nowhere. Did the same to Max. And now the same has happened to Alex. And it's not because he got jawed by Islam Makachev in October and turned back around.

It's because Ilya is the new breed of fighter. And this is a young man's game. And Alexander Volkinovorkovsky is a terrific champion, one of the best of all time. But ain't nobody ever beaten Father Time and nobody ever will. So, Jed, B.C. sort of mentioned it, and I'll have B.C. kind of dive a little more in depth of this in a moment. But we knew, we talked about this on last week's show. We asked if this is a win-win fight for the UFC because Volk has been a company guy, getting more popular with each fight, seemed to be over, playing into the gimmick of the old man Volk thing. And if you told me that Volkovsky would be the star of the press conference, I probably would have laughed in your face, but in all he was the star of the press conference. This. You said it's not a win-win, but it's a no-lose for the UFC. If Volk wins, they wouldn't lose from it, but they could win huge of Iliad Teporia does win because of the star he can become.

Obviously, they could tap into this new market. It's great to go to Spain. People seem to be very behind this. But worldwide, especially here in the United States, how big of a star do you think Iliot Tuporia can be? Obviously, this is huge for the company going in and tapping into that market where you got athlete collabs, like, approaching a billion when you get all these people involved. But how big of a star can Ilya be? Not just in Spain, not just on that side of the world, but here as well.

I mean, monstrously. Like, he's, I said it in the buildup, he can be the next Connor McGregor. And maybe, maybe he doesn't quite get to Connor's level because you. It is naturally disadvantaged, disadvantageous to not have English as your primary language. Ily, Tjpuri speaks English. It's also, I think, his third language. So some of what happens there is it's just going to be a little tougher for him to translate to the American market in quite the same way that Connor did. But he's already the biggest star in Europe that's not named Connor McGregor, like right now.

BC's running name. Luke Thomas retweeted something from Danny Sicker. and then add it onto it. But Ilya's on the cover of Marcia magazine, which is a Spanish publication that is basically exclusively soccer players. And this is sort of unparalleled ground for what is going to take shape here. He is going to be the biggest star in MMA in the European market, even including Connor, because Connor's not going to fight.

So Connor just kind of isn't really in that conversation anymore. He's going to be the biggest star there. I mean, probably already is. And he's 27. Like, progression isn't linear in this sport. We never know what's going to happen. We don't know who. Maybe Monsar Evelov just wrestles him for 25 minutes and he doesn't get to put together a big run.

But he has all the hallmarks of dudes like Josealdo, Marcello, Marzanoffsky, guys who when they came to the belt, we said, all right, all right. This guy probably can hold the belt for a little bit. I don't see a clear guy to beat him out like right now other than I am interested in to match. Holloway fight and at 27 he's not hitting his actual like physical peak for another year you know he'll have his prime run for the next four or five years he can put together some title wins some defenses continue to do everything he has done he can be the biggest star in the company like bar none there's a the promo he dropped before the fight showing all the Spanish legends across all of sports supporting him that doesn't happen.

Like that is not a thing that occurs in this sport for anyone. So I think he can be the biggest star in MMA if he keeps this up. Do you agree with that, B.C.? Do you think it could get that high that he becomes the biggest star in the sport? Potentially? I do. I do. I do because of two things.

One, the quality of the performance. And I say that because we've got a lot of guys who, if they pan out, could be the next big stars of the sport. Everybody from a bull nickel, even a Patty Pimlets or even whoever, right? but the thing is they've got to step into that cage against a reigning and defending champion, or in this case against a Volk, who was literally a living legend and an all-time great, and they've got to be able to deliver that type of performance. So we did that. Then you have the call-out after, which I'll get to in a second, and it showed you the business acumen.

But overall, I think what it comes down to is timing. Look, guys, the UFC's interests are divided at the moment. They seem to care a lot, a lot more about what they're doing with things like Power Slap and the TKO group and the merging with WWE and all that, then necessarily putting the same type of hard-nose effort into building up their stars, especially on U.S. soil, and any level of aggressive pay-per-view promotion. We know why.

We know the ESPN deal. We know the areas in which they are really trying to max out financially. But one area where they were still motivated to be the Dana of old or the UFC machine of old is the invasion of countries that they've yet to take over and dominate. Obviously, Mexico getting a lot of attention. We're going to see Noce again at the sphere in September. Obviously one day they're going to kick the doors in in Africa

and maybe sooner than later because of DDP. But Spain, the adopted country of Toporia, UFC has wanted this for a long time. The timing is so perfect of having not just somebody who can represent Spain, but somebody who was already connected to the major sports celebrities in that area. The soccer players that Luke Thomas is literally drooling about when he sees them show up at fights or tweet about Topori. and obviously, you know, Rafa Nadal and all the extended legends there of Spanish sport,

they've embraced this guy as their own. Only the best part about Tuporia's long-term star potential in marketing is he doesn't just represent that hotbed. He really comes from obviously a different country in terms of his ethnic lineage in Georgia, which is also having an MMA renaissance behind people like Marab de Vosvili. And then, of course, he is born in Germany but doesn't really, in almost a Luke Thomas-like way where former Vox employee LT was born in India but doesn't claim it because it was at an American embassy.

Bro, you're from India, okay? This guy's from Germany, too. So you're a man of all nations, and you happen to speak one of the languages that aims at the market that they've been trying to cash in. No, not Spain, but Latin America in general. The timing is perfect.

But the fighters got to be able to sell himself, which Toporia can do. And in this case, it's not as the trash-talking troll, which is a new sort of trope we're seeing a lot in the development or maybe future development of UFC stars, like a Colby Covington, like a Sean Strickland, although there's more elements to that character of what is hooking the average American at the moment.

Toporia screams badass from the tattoo set up to the way he carries himself to the beautiful Latin woman on his arm. Damn, now I know why LT's infatuated with this guy. But that's not my point. My point is this. This guy has all the goods now because we saw what he can do to a pound-for-pound grate in Volcanowski and because he had the perfect call-out at the right time. I'm not saying that the fans necessarily wanted him to call out Connor McGregor. There's generally a grunt from hardcore MMA fans, rightfully so, about anyone once they win a big fight.

The first thing they want to do is call out somebody in another weight class, become a two-division champion, or do something that's a power move in this game on how you get to the next level. But that is within the UFC how you get to the next level, how you get that 1% pay, how you become a company-loved brand and product. Calling out Connor McGregor in that moment, considering that it's obvious that he idolized McGregor. You can see a lot of similarities in their rise in their game. What's the best pro wrestling storyline that the UFC I hope at least is going to consider? Now, McGregor's got another topic, another fight with Chandler and another set of questions about why he isn't fighting. But if you're the UFC and you believe in Toporia, as much as you probably should right now, because again, the timing is perfect, why wouldn't you at least entertain the idea of a legitimate handoff of power?

We saw the handoff of power critically on a pound-for-pound divisional level from Volka Toporia. What would be that handoff star power if they let those two get together? Again, no one's calling for it necessarily. You've got a long division of featherweight title contenders that are now hungry again. But if you want to get old school, if you want to build up stars from the start to the finish, this is a guy you can do it with. And as crazy as the McGregor callout is, it's actually pretty damn genius. And the UFC should probably at least consider it because this guy does, yes.

have the good. Bring it, Jed. Jed, I'm waiting for the response. I want it. This is just insane. This is just obviously ridiculous. Like, what are we doing here? One, it doesn't matter what the UFC wants.

Is Conradar going to fight Italy to Bore? No. There's no fucking chance. There's no chance in the world he would take that fight. One, he'd have to kill himself to get to 45, so they'd be doing it at 55. What's not doing a 45, bro? They couldn't. Yeah, I know.

But what's, what's their to get? He already said it. He said, I'll move up to the lightweight. I'll meet him there. Cool. What does Connor gain by fighting featherweight at lightweight? Like, not even like that. That's ridiculous.

And you're saying money, you think the U.S. is going to pony up money? They couldn't offer up an extra couple of mill to get a real main event for UFC 300, which we'll talk about coming up. You think they're going to pay more money to get Connor versus I have no fucking chance, man. They did it in Spain and they bought into it, Jen.

You know it's true. If they bought into the idea that Triporia is the chosen one, If I had wheels, I'd be wagon, B.C. Ifs and butts, candies and nuts, who are going to have a great Christmas, never going to happen. It's ridiculous. It was a, I hated to call out because, like, it's just never going to happen. I understand the impetus behind it.

Like, you start, you know, money marries bigger money. He's targeting the only bigger star than him that he realistically can. But it's just not going to happen. And so he was sort of left in a weird. position we're calling out anyone wasn't going to work out that great for him. But it doesn't matter because he's 27. He kicks all the ass and he's got a whole bunch of ass kickers to thump up with coming down. It's going to be sick whoever he fights next, whether it's Max, whether it's Ie Rodriguez, which we'll get going, you know, with that this weekend, I'm sure. Like, there are a lot

of great options for him. All of them are at 145 and we shouldn't be like, yes, let's not even pursuing a second belt at 155. Just the most. transparent vanity cash grab to fight old-ass Connor McGregor, who by the way is never fighting again. We should all just come to terms with this. It's okay. He fought a lot. It was great.

We all had a wonderful time. Now he's never going to do it again, and we all just need to let that be. Why, Jed? Is it because he makes too much money? Or is it because they want to save this left of his contract for the new TV deal? You tell me, Jed. it says he makes too much money he's not going to want to fight

look BC I use this analogy somewhere else like I would love to be as young and fit as I was at high school like that would be sick but to do that I'm going to have to get up and like work my ass off every day it's the same with Connor he would like to fight someone in the cage for money

that would be fun he wakes up and thinks man it'd be sick to fist fight somebody today but then he thinks oh I'd actually have to get up and train two a days for three months, and that sucks shit, when instead I can go yachting. Have you ever been yachting, B.C.? I don't know if they have any yachts at the gas stations,

but it's pretty damn cold, and I'm way around to go yachting as a man in Florida right now. Let me tell you, if my choices are, I can wake up and go on the boat, and it's beautiful. There's not a cloud in the sky outside. I'm looking at it right now. It's a gorgeous day.

I can go enjoy that with my family, drink a bunch, or I can go to a gym to roll around with a bunch of poor people who are trying to come up through the struggle. I know which one I'm choosing. That's all I'm saying. Well, Jed, obviously, both your law degree and your sunscreen are getting used as much as my yacht at the moment. But I will tell you that, why would Connor McGregor come back?

If they offered him a fight either in Spain or in Ireland against this man, and he knows it's an attempt to cash him out, and if they paid him enough, he'd be there with Bells-on. This is nothing to do with Conner not wanting to train two a days. this has everything to do with Connor knowing his value, the UFC not wanting to pay it, and maybe just maybe if you're into deeper conspiratorial theories, the whole idea of the new TV deal and wanting to force him to sit out so he doesn't run through his contract.

Why? Because you won't stop hearing talks about him boxing ManiPakia until both are in the grave. That's just the reality of it, okay? They need to keep him around a little bit more on their terms, not his. Let's get with it, Jed. You realize that even though these promoters have a lot of money, they lie all the damn time.

Yes. And Connor McGregor also lies all the damn time. And you're the one who's hoping on, I counted three ifs in that situation you provided. That's a lot of ifs. That's a lot of ifs for, I'm providing one. What if he wakes up and he's like, I'd rather be on my boat.

I got to tell you, I think my situation is much more plausible. Jed, if you believe that Connor McGregor has not fought yet since breaking his leg against Dustin Porre and their trilogy because he's not motivated to do a training camp, then I've got a great new idea for a sport for you. It's huge in India, and it's called Power Slap. Is his Power Slap big in India?

Sorry, I'm going to get distracted about that. I mean, yeah, let's get Conner into Power Slap. That'd be fine. Sure. I think Connor just, I think Connor would come back to fight somebody if it was somebody wanted to fight. I don't think he had any interest in fighting. Elia Teporia, and he has no interest in fighting Michael Chandler, because why would he have

interest in fighting either of them? One of them sucks, and the other ones are Featherweight who just became champion and would kill him. No, if Nate Diaz is under contract, Connor might be coming back. Until that happens, Connor's not coming back, because why would he want to? I saw him say he would be back against Michael Chandler in June. There's intention there, okay? There's intentionality.

Yeah. I believe half of last year he was coming back. back in November. Yeah, we're targeting Madison Square Guard. Yeah, we're going to come back by the end of the year for sure. Timeline keeps getting pushed. I'm just the one who's not falling for it in perpetuity. Okay.

Okay. All right. I will say this before we move on. I, like Jed hated the call-out initially, but then I went back and re-watched it, and there was a part of it where I don't think it's ever going to happen. But I kind of liked it more because, especially, I think Michael Chandler put it over the top for me because he shows he gets a live microphone on raw and he stands up on a chair and he's screaming and yelling and he's putting the whole thing over iliot to poria the last thing on his mind in that

moment was connor regger it was almost like a dismissive callout just like yeah this is great i won the belt alexina volkenovsky's the best fighter ever been in the cage with like this is the greatest day oh yeah by the way connor gross and balls will see him in spain and then he just beat feet out of the octagon it was like the last afterthought it wasn't a full promo he just kind of play planted a seed and was like, I don't even care about this guy, but I'm going to throw it out there anyways. I liked it for that sense. Didn't love it, but I liked it a little bit more with that. But when you have a fight like this, you have a moment, a man in Elliott-Tupori who's crowned, champion of the world, B.C. What a moment it was for him. Exercise of the demons,

rose petals everywhere, whole family wearing black suits and wardrobe, and you mentioned the girlfriend. Like, the guy's just living the dream. It looks like a star right now. Then you have Alexander Volkovsky. One in three in his last four. He's been brutally knocked out in two consecutive fights. This was one of the nastiest knockouts you'll ever see from Ilya. And when moments like this happened in this sport, BC, we start to talk about legacies, where Izzy's legacy was after he lost to Pereira, I think it's more of a conversation

after he lost to Sean Strickland. Volk's legacy in people's eyes took a hit after two losses to Islam, especially the second one. but as long as he had the featherweight title, I think it all was intact, and the UFC and all their broadcast kept saying in the build-in to this fight and previous others, the consensus greatest featherweight of all time. So, fighters losing the sport.

We have the curse of the 35 and over. All these things factor against Volk, not to mention he had an incredible title reign leading into this loss to Ilya to Poria. What does this do for Volk's legacy? Where does he go now? What changes in your mind, if anything, when it comes to how you view Alexander Volkanowski,

his featherweight run, if he never does get back to the belt. Yeah, I don't think this is a disastrous loss for his legacy. This is the food chain of MMA when we feed our old to the young and eventually sometimes the only way to find out if somebody has passed that or the person that's challenging them is ready for us to put them in together. So I'm glad this fight took place. He's 35, but he's still one of the best fighters in the world. Yeah, three losses and four fights.

One on two weeks notice, right? two of the three against the best fighter in the world right now, and then the other one against a guy who just leaped into the pound-for-pound discussion and is now in consideration for the next breakout star. That shows you that he's only fighting, obviously, the super elite. Although they play up for the broadcast whenever someone's fighting, whatever their place or role is, either in their division's history or the sport, Elksville Volcanovsky is one of the greatest fighters that's ever stepped foot in any

fighting surface that's called mixed martial arts. There's no question about that. you love the legacy of Joseoaldo or what Holloway did or not. It's not crazy or incorrect necessarily to call him the greatest lightweight of all time. And let's look at the accomplishments, right? In terms of the title defenses, didn't get to where Jose was, but look at the consecutive names of killers that he not only beat, right, but that he dissected leading into this fight.

The fact that he made Joseoaldo almost content to just wait out the clock in round three because he was so bamboozled when they fought. He's been able to go through every single featherweight champion. UFC history with the exception of Connor McGregor. Whether or not he wants to hang on and fight a lot more or just a little or what have you, I think he still has it to win some big fights. I think he can linger for a little bit in search of that if he wants. He's got three victories over Max Holloway.

And Max Holloway, last time I checked, is still one of the best 13 fighters in the world right now. This guy's still got it. This doesn't take him out of any discussions. Maybe it slows down where his inevitable ending landing will be once he does retire. And I say slow down because let's not forget that just a couple of fights ago when he lost the first fight to Mahajev, there was a large population that thought he should have gotten the decision. I wasn't one of them, but there was enough in a close fight in which he performed great and was the fighter peaking at the end of that fight in round five in top position against the guy who's now the best fighter in the world. It's not that long ago that that took place. He's still that guy to a good degree.

I would be careful in how he bounces back in terms of the time because you can't. You can't look past not only the quick turnaround to lose to Majev in the rematch, but an equally quick in some ways, even though he was able to squeeze in the full camp to come right back against a killer like Tuporia. I'd like to see him take a little bit of time off, reset, go back to the drawing board, continue to evolve his great game. But he is somebody that not only has the accomplishments, but really him and his team of coaches, whether it's CKB or whether it's Joe Lopez when they put their brains together,

they pushed the sport forward during his time on top. That does matter. It really does. He was a consistent paper review brand on top. He's still one of the all-time greatest. It's just a different conversation a few fights ago where had he beaten Mahachev there in that close decision to become a two-division champion,

suddenly that ceiling gets a little bit larger. Are his best days behind him? Yes. I don't think that means he's going to be out of big fights, though, moving forward. Jay what do you think about this? Because you know, it's you see it already. Like if you go on Twitter and start searching around since Saturday, you see it.

Volk was never that good to begin with. His title reign was boring, which if you, if your big takeaway from UFC 298 was that, oh, thank God, Volk's title reign is over. It was so boring. Then you obviously have not watched the sport since he won the bell because every one of his fucking title defenses were awesome. whether he won or just a fight of the year contender, every one of his title defenses were frigging great.

They were awesome. But this is just how this sport works. It choose you up and spit you out on your worst days, and people have revisionist history about what you have accomplished after you suffer a couple of losses. So what does this loss do for the legacy of Alexander Bolkanovsky, in your opinion? It hurts him. maybe it doesn't hurt him directly in that he's still a bona fide top 15 fighter of all time.

Like that can't really be taken away from him at this juncture. But this is what I've been trying to tell you guys for most of the Volcanowski run. This is what me and B.C. argued about just vociferously at one of these previous iterations is, yeah, he's the greatest of all time now. Right now he's the greatest of all time because we have the memory of goldfish in this sport and because we forget that as soon as you lose, it all changed. The narrative changes. Everything gets re-evaluated, re-contextualized.

And then you think, oh, and B.C. did it to Josie Aldo. BC sat on this was like, no, Josealdo, blah, nine title defenses don't mean shit. Burma, brum, blah, blah. Like, no. And we don't, we shouldn't do it to Alexander Volcanovsky. He is one of the greatest fighters of all time. But this, I said coming in, and I still believe. this firmly. This was the big fight for him. Title defense number six, the first truly against the new

generation. You can argue, and I'm at least open to the idea that Yehya Rodriguez is of the newer generation, but I think that he's still more in that, you know, Brian Ortega's on that sort of side of things. This is, this is it. The longest draining, the greatest champions in this sports history have done five years on top and they have beaten the generation that came before them, their generation, and gotten wins over the next generation of Challenger. That is how it's worked. And this was Volk's opportunity, get tired of the fence number six, and to legitimately enter the conversation as the greatest featherweight of all time.

And he lost. And it sucks for him. And it's probably because he's old, right? Because honestly, Prime Volt probably does better, probably doesn't get knocked out. Like, as easily can offer more. Maybe not. Maybe Tupori is just that dude.

We'll find out in time with him. but it hurts his legacy and it shouldn't. It is unfair that it does, but that is the sport that we choose to follow and that he chose to operate and compete in. And so unless he comes back and beats to Pura and then reclaims the belt, maybe gets one more after, maybe he can take the narrative back,

but we just never see that happen. And instead, what we see is a man who, some people like to say, chase greatness by going up to lightweight. To me, I said, man, like, that would have been cool. It would have been a lot cooler if instead of going up and losing Dismakov, maybe you pick up a tighter defense over Arnold Allen. Maybe you add more to build that legacy and really have yourself legitimately as the greatest

featherweight of all time. And instead, he's lost a lot with some of these gambles. And I hope he continues to fight. Like, I hope he sticks around for a while because he's still one of the very best fighters to watch and enjoy. But I don't think there's any way that it did not hurt. his legacy to lose and to lose in that fashion. Because if Cona McGregor doesn't get 13,

or if Josiah doesn't get 13 seconds by Connor McGregor, I believe everyone is much more understanding of him being the true growth at Featherway. But because there is a 13 second clip and him being on the floor like that, people can't forget it and say, oh, he can't be the best look at him. And now that's going to happen to Volk and that sucks. Well, Jed, if I can interject, Michael, just quickly to correct that. clean up on Isle Mashu.

It wasn't just the 13-second K.O. He was beaten and stopped twice by Max Holloway. Again, the same guy who lost three times to Alexander Volcanovsky. So it's a little bit more than what you're saying. Yeah. And Volk, I mean, Volk's lost three of his last four fights, and if he hangs around, he fights Deporia again, I would also pick Toporia to do the exact same thing.

Suddenly he's been knocked out three in a row. And okay, now, now at that point, then it is like, hey, maybe your chin isn't there anymore. Maybe you've taken too much damage, too much treters off the tires. Maybe suddenly you're Tony Ferguson. We judge fighters by their, it is unfair. We judge fighters by their inability to walk away at the optimal times. Habe is the only dude basically who got to leave at a good time. Jedman, I'm going to judge some of these things in hindsight potentially different

than your mind will allow you right now. while you and Luke Thomas by proxy were very critical of his decision to take that short-notice opportunity against Volcanozky, even though I can argue from a sporting sense, he realized he realized it's probably the only time they can make that fight really work, given how hot both divisions are for their champions. His reveal in the aftermath of comments from his team about how big of a financial reward they received for that and how the UFC basically made it a no-brainer, or Rye because of the pressure to keep a main event as strong in the Middle East as they did for that to roll out the red carpet and just make it happen no matter what.

He may have secured his financial future for the future for that decision. And in that regard, you do have to ask yourself, is it worth a little bit of hit on the ceiling of his resume to try to at least make what he deserves as a top guy? I mean, Henry Sohudo just fought for 150,000 in his 14th UFC fight as a returning two division champion. That's where we're at. Dana can brag all he wants that Putin paid Habib 20 million after he beat Connor, but this is what Dana wants. It's why he won't sanction his fighters for hanging out with Kederov. He loves the idea that there's crazy people out there that'll pay these people

what he doesn't have to or want to. So keep that information in your skullbone there, Jed. Quote the GC. If this didn't come across, I want to be clear. I actually don't think Alexander Volcanowski ever made a bad choice career-wise. I under like he followed the incentives appropriately absolutely you should have taken that as a mockage of fight for the money but money and legacy are two different things and by taking the money you know that there is the risk to these other things he's a big boy knows the road like I'm sure that he understood what was happening here but it would be disingenuous for us to just be like well he got paid more money so we should not factor this into the other aspects of it but we are going to factor in all the other things like Connor McGregor 13 seconds and Josealdo and stuff and It's just, this is just all part of the conversation. And again, it sucks because what we should actually judge Alexander Volkinovokovsky by

is this four-year run at the top with five title of defenses and being the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport for that period of time and looking like one of the most dominant athletes his sports ever seen. But I say to you again, if I had wheels, I'd be a wagon. That's not how we judge things. And sometimes that's just what's up. Yeah. Mike, do you think if he had shorter hair, he'd be a practicing lawyer or my guy?

getting too personal among friends here. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe you'd be a professional golfer. I got to watch him play some golf yesterday. I was dialed yesterday. You were hitting the ball well yesterday. Well, I mean, that's the main event.

And there was a lot of other things that happened to UFC 290. So we're going to clean up after this past Saturday's event and then move on to the future. But the point for round one goes to it's not my choice. It's not your choice. It's the super chatter. choice. It is BC. It is one to nothing. Nice job. Great round, though. I mean, I'm telling you. Has there ever been a sweep in this show's history? Five, five-nil? No. And I don't think so. I can assure you it's not going to happen today, even if somebody's superchats $23,000. So,

uh, boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Oh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo. Great idea. Feel the fun with all. the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Sporting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close you, call 18665331-260 or visit Comexonterio.ca. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy

your travel bug, but your taste buds too. the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. I want to assure you, if someone superchats that money, I will concede. I will walk away right now. Your moves. Your move, chat. Your move.

Let's clean up the rest of UFC 2.98. Let's do some superlatives. The end of every year, you know, you have all these different awards you get in the yearbook. So we're going to play a little superlative game for UFC 2.98. we'll begin with you. We're obviously not talking about the main event because you just talked about the main event for 40 minutes. So you can go with this however you want.

If you say somebody, BC can say something different. You guys can both say the same person. I don't care. Main card MVP of UFC 298, not named Dillia Tuporia. Come on, man. This isn't even a contest.

It's more Abdulazirili. Like, by any metric, reasonably it's more Obdvalishvili coming in this. Like, we talked about this fight ahead of it and we're like, look, I get it. I think this is a good fight for Maraub. This makes sense. Hopefully it will get him a title shot. But not sure because if Sean O'Malley wins, why would he ever agree to fight Maraub?

Like, that's a horrible style of him to fight Maraub. It's going to be really bad news. If Cheeto wins, he'll, Cheeto would fight anyone. So that's okay. But then you're really hoping. And then you're also hoping that they don't want it back Cheeto O'Malley 3 for reasons unknown or, or Corey Sanagan jumps in there, but Marab came in, looked so good against Henry Suhudo. Retired Henry Suhudo for us.

So really just did a wonderful accomplishment for the whole sport in that regard. And now you've got Sean O'Malley coming out today, posted a video somewhere being like, yeah, okay, I thought I wanted to beat Cheeto and then fight Ilya to Bore, because I thought that was what the fans wanted. Everybody is telling me that actually I should just fight Marab if I win, so Marab's up next. Rob Zah Svili went from being the uncramed champion, the guy who got passed over unrightfully for a title shot, and now might be, you know, Balal Muhammad,

when's he going to get his crack to, yeah, the current champion of the White Koss is saying he's going to get his next crack. The crowd is all the way behind him. The fan base is swelled to support this dude, and he's not going to be a major star, but he's going to get his day in court, and I got to tell you, he's probably going to win the motherfucker. So it has to be Marabavis Shrily.

B.C. I mean, look, Jed's not wrong, but the question isn't necessarily whose stock rose the most throughout Fight Week, because that's clear Marab. And if you want to give Marab the MVP of the main card, not named Ilya to Poria for the performance and him having a conversation with Mark Zuckerberg, while he's trying to body slam a dude, two-time Olympic gold medalist, that's pretty damn cool. But is it Marab for you or is it somebody else? Good try on Marab. Obviously, it's Mark Zuckerberg for everything you just said. said right there. I mean, the UFC's been trying to force this guy who's reading all of our emails right now and is an absolute dork with huge John DePont foxcatcher vibes. Not only are they trying to get him a fight, they're trying to normalize him in front of her eyes. Obviously, I'm joking here. Look, it's Marab with a bullet for everything Jed said, but also even further. It's like, you know, I rarely get predictions right. But when I looked at the landscape for 2024, who's most likely going to be the fighter of the year, it is the uncrown champion Marab. So to see him take that first step. And then to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to,

Sehudo's credit actually go through some adversity. Sohudo landing that sneaky counter left hook in the exact same manner, which Jose Aldo did for Marab. But to see Marab bounce back from that very close round and then go in full dominance mode, but also showcase full showman mode for a guy whose English is not his first language, but he's made a nice adjustment. He's got one of the best hilarious personalities in this entire UFC. And he got to showcase that in his breakthrough biggest win to date. three consecutive victories over former champions in the sports deepest division is no joke

even if one of those three Aldo had won it in a division higher and now he's going to be fighting for the championship. Yeah, no wonder why Sugar Sean would want to entertain the idea of a all, you know, a big opportunity against Toporia in which he really wouldn't lose much if he's going to lose because I don't typically make the type of things that, you know, Luke Thomas said before this fight that Toporia is the next champion. But Marab is the next champion in.

waiting here in the sports best division. What a breakthrough performance. 33 years old, peak of his physical and mental primes coming together. And the best thing is, he doesn't have to worry about being a bad friend anymore because his great friend and teammate Al Joe no longer holds that belt, but there's an even bigger star who has that. So it couldn't be more perfect for Marab in this circumstance in this situation. But obviously, Robert Whitaker resetting himself at 33, almost guaranteeing, not.

and not guaranteeing one more shot at the middleweight title, but keeping himself in a heated, competitive, maybe on track 185 to be the most exciting division in terms of top-end fights this year. Boy, was he able to get a big win when he needed it, but he did have to walk through hell. How much did old Bobby Knuckles pour out in order to hold serve in this division

because he got a Costa who gave him probably the most intentional, studied, prepared version of himself up to date, but still being as dangerous and crazy as ever, Costa. Big win for Whitaker, big ability to step forward. I want to see him in many big fights, whether it's an inevitable title rematch against DDP, who smothered him last year and Jed picked it out and called it, by the way, or if it's got a non-title trilogy against Adasania,

you can almost main event a pay-per-view. I want to see it so bad. I am one of those people who still think Whitaker be Izzy in the rematch and no one wants to talk about it anymore, similar to Gilbert Burns versus Hamza, but that's just me. But yeah, big fights to come for Robert Whitaker, and I was happy to see it because like Volk, I don't throw around the idea of the title of Living Legend too often. Those two are living legends, all-time greats who still have it up to a certain level for Robert Whitaker was enough to pass this tough test. Bobby Duckles, I think, is going to be one of those guys we look back on years later as just the low-key warrior, pound for pound of the UFC.

like just he's such a fascinated guy nicest person you'll ever talk to but then when his music hits and he starts walking he looks like a fucking demon and then he fights just like one too so what a fight against paula costa the choices are endless for whittaker you could do whittaker homzad whittaker strickland Whitaker usman Whitaker ddp Whitaker is he so many ways we can go at this let's move on to the next category bc who is the low key MVP of ufc 298 who's the the sixth player award, if you will. Six player award winner. It's weird and I'll get cloned for this and Jed will probably make fun of me. But in a weird, indirect way, it might be Ian Gary. And I know that this win is being almost viewed as a loss or a too safe or boring survive in advance.

But in a lot of ways, what Ian Gary needed most was not only to continue winning and building his win streak, but to kind of change this narrative off of like, who's sleeping in your house, these days and are you actually a cuck? No, I mean, that's what people were talking about. I don't give a damn about that in reality. I did want it to get it back to his fighting. And even though he didn't take that step forward and rightfully deserve some level of credit

because if you're going to act like McGregor, follow him with the same dance and reveal that he's your idol, you got to deliver with McGregor-like performances after you talk all that game. Instead, this turned out to possibly be a tougher than expected matchup for him. Obviously, we all respect Jeff Neal

and the danger he brings. But more than anything else, he accomplished the two things he needed to do, win and survive in advance, and two, at least shift the narrative away from that ridiculousness and get it back to the fighter himself. I don't think even with the questions and some of the, again, rightful critiques you could give of that performance, I don't think it's irreparable.

I think this is a very good fighter. It's not Connor McGregor. No one's Connor McGregor, right? And he might not even be as explosive of a potential finisher at the elite level that you would want for somebody that so willingly talks that level of game. But you need fights like this. You need experiences like this.

And you need to get the double you, most importantly, in wins like this. I remember flipping out like crazy when Yan Blahovic had that five-round-made event with Jokaray to try to finally announce himself as a true title contender. And he won a boring decision just barely. But it didn't stop him in the long run on his eventual build. The low-key MVP is just the fact that Gary did what was most important. He'll fix the rest as he continues to grow and get older. I'm becoming more and more a believer, by the way, in his mentality and skill set.

He's not there yet. Obviously, you saw that by that performance, but I actually think he's closer than I realized coming in. If you're going to try to compare him to anyone else like a Patty, for example, who seems to still be more hype than actual product. The product of Gary is getting there. And I don't know if everyone realized that while spending all that time rightfully saying, hey, man, you didn't finish him. You really didn't try for the finish. You really kind of just backdoor that victory. but there are elements to build around in there.

And that's why you have me on this show every third Thursday. Jed, one, who's your low-key MVP? And two, are you going to give B.C. shit for picking him in Macheteo Gary? I'm not going to give him shit big picture because I agree with a lot of what he's saying. I do think it's an incredible spend zone to be like, Ian Gary is a winner because he got people to stop talking about his living situation and his wife and etc. and instead start talking about his shitty fight and how much they hate him as a fighter.

That's quite a spin zone, but I do agree with the rest of what VC said. I think Gingare, this was an important win for his career or whatever and how that advances. And he's going to be good for a long time he's young. It's not the MVP, though, because I have eyeballs and I watch that fight and that fight sucked ass. So by no definition is he anyone's MVP of that card.

Half of the, like, pro fighters who react thought he should have lost, which is also insane. The MVP of the card, I think you had two choices. I'm going to go with the low-hanging fruit because, you know, why work harder? You can work smarter. It's Anthony Hernandez. Fluffy's the real deal. This dude came out and, I mean, again, just had a dynamite fight.

I think it's four submission in a row of something like that. Finally gets himself ranked, beats Roman Koppelov and does it in style, Mike Heck, locks in the choke. and while he's got it, he's doing the Nate Diaz, like, what's up? I got it. And apparently, because he went on the M.M.A. hour yesterday, the reason he was doing that is because staring across the cage, he saw Mario Lopez, A.C. Slater himself in the crowd, losing his mind in celebration. He's like, hell yeah, A.C. Slater's on my back.

I got this guy. Let's go and choke the life out of him. So the answer is obviously Anthony Fluffy Hernandez, who is like a legitimate dark horse in the middleweight division at this point. shout out to the varsity letterman multiple sport varsity letterman at bayside high school out there in california it's so funny the difference like zuckabberg is like in the broadcast he becomes like the puff daddy of ufc 298 maria lopez who is an even bigger star is just sitting in the back flying under the radar having a conversation with anthony hernandez cheering him on for the icon one of the more iconic moments and we didn't even know maria lopez is involved Why are we talking about Musk versus Zuck?

When we should be talking about Zuck versus A.C. Slater. Oh. Can Zuck's Jiu-Jitsu handle the wrestling prowess of Bayside High's number one wrestler? I don't think so personally. I've watched it by the while. I saw his ability to hit that duck under and finish a suplex. Suplexed in high school wrestling? Come on, baby.

It's A.C. Slater all day. ask Nidik. Ask Nidik where his wrestling career went after that terrible night for him. Neidick had no chance. And Nidick was a state champion, Mike. State champion. Outweighed Slater by probably 30 pounds. Just bullying people around the high school scene.

A.C. Slater just bodied him up. Come on. This is great. I can do this all day long. Go on nostalgic TV. Last of what we're going to give away. I'm so impressed you pulled Nidick out of your ass. That was that.

My wife would not be surprised. I have an elephant's brain when it comes to dumb shit that nobody else cares about. It's unbelievable. I could never come up with Neidic's name. I can picture him, but never the name. Great Paul. He had bitch tits. Can we say that on this show?

Yeah, but he was the dominant force in California State High School wrestling. He had like 80 pounds on Slater, but that's not a hearing or there. No weight classes in the Bayside. California League. But last one, most likely to succeed from the prospect side, Jedmishu. Which prospect stole the show, warmed your heart, who you're like, man, I just want to watch this guy fight forever. You can take this however you want. Either it's just going to be like a guy I have to watch every time he fights, future champion. Who's the most likely to succeed from UFC 298? So I'll keep it brief and say the future champion, most like,

likely to succeed his Zunya Nakamura because he real good, like he real, real, real good, and he busted his hand like immediately in the fight. Carlos Vera was a real weird opponent, and he still wasn't the most exciting thing, but he 30, 27 to his ass. That kid is a future star and proud,

future title challenger, I would guess, if not an outright champion at Bantamway, just an unbelievable talent. But, I mean, come on. There's a get-or-get-got all-star on here. There were a couple of them on this card, but one man won the battle, of the get-or-gett got all-stars.

His name is Zhang Ming-Yang. China got themselves a light, heavy-weight banger. Is he good? I'm not really sure about that. Is he fun? I'm absolutely certain. He's going to come out there. He's going to chuck them, and people are going to fall over. More often than not, it'll be his opponents,

as Brinson Hibara found out. That fight was fun as hell for all minute and 30 seconds or whatever it lasted. And if you've seen any of Zhang-M-Yang fight, you're kind of getting that every time out. this dude is going to be a violence all-star moving forward so he's going to win this in my heart bc do you agree is it jang ming yang who had a great performance but maybe the worst callout in ufc history was it i thought it was a

i thought it was a horrible call out it's so fucking bad no because he's doing it i don't think it translates because it's coming like through a translator to me it felt like i i read that as entirely a joke like that he's just messing around like he knows it's not going to happen but because it's being done in a separate language it doesn't work. I thought it was adorable. Maybe. Yeah, those are good picks.

Have Merci A on this new Obon, Elliot. He was decent. He didn't blow me away. I got to go into the women's fights here. Am I the only one that watches women's fights? Miranda Maverick went from like maybe a possible future bus to maybe a journey woman to, hey,

I've won four out of five and I'm starting to completely round out my game. Beating that version of Andrea KGB Lee at 35 and on a losing streak doesn't stamp your passport as the next title contender. But Miranda Maverick came on at the same time as a few other of these potential future

new rousies who are never going to live up to that type of billing, but she's taken a couple losses and gone back to the drawing board and seemingly combine the idea of her good ground game with an improving striking game. She's gotten into world-class shape and she seems to be in this division starting to all closer to the top here with four wins in our last five.

It was interesting to see. I don't understand the whole, there's a new sheriff in town. Let me steal somebody's already bad gimmick and wear it to the cage, wear it on the walk. But then again, we've seen that before. But this is a fighter who's really starting to put it together. And you like to see that when somebody comes in right away with a little bit of flash and then, you know, goes through the meat grinder of the realities of the sport.

She's becoming a threat in this division. And I didn't hate that. So thank you. That's my, that's what I had to say for this question, and I provided you a decent answer. It was a very good one. Very good answer. Shout out to poor Danny Barlow, who basically annihilated Josh Clinton with one arm through most of that fight. I don't know if you guys saw the x-rays.

Dude shattered his forearm in the first round, and then went out and violently finished Josh Quinlan, who was too tough for his own good. His post-flight speech was incredible. Did you guys know that Memphis is here to stay? Because I did. Yeah. Memphis here. That's how you do it. That's how you do.

Any ball of rocks. Yes. Let's move on. We're actually going to be swapping some things around here because we get a little bit of breaking news. Depends on who you actually believe, but we're going to talk about it anyways. The point for round two goes to

not the guy who picked Miranda Maverick on Trail. Jed Bishu. It's one to one. One to one. I don't mind it. I don't mind it. I wasn't even the best woman's filing. cord.

It wasn't about the best women's fight on the card. It was about the low-key MVP. Mendelema's just fought for the belt. It can't be... It was most likely to succeed. This is the most likely to succeed award. This is the youngster on the come-up. Mendelemo has found there.

I know in your hometown, they don't believe in suffrage, but can you give the women a chance? The future is female also in the UFC. I have been believing in McKinsey, to my monetary detriment for years now, and I won't stop anytime soon. Wow. She won.

I don't know if anyone told her she didn't win yet. Did you see that? All right, sorry. There you go. Fair. Well, we have fights this weekend, gentlemen. We have UFC Mexico City. We have PFL versus Bella Tour champs.

And I think if we played the game of if you could only watch one event, what would it be? I think this is a pretty easy one to answer. I think there's going to be a lot more fun to be had at UFC Mexico City. There are, I guess, some things happening with PFL, Belator Champs card, which is crumbling a little bit. All the really good, compelling, stylistic matchups have all fallen apart. They're trying to replace them. But we have big time stakes, apparently, in the main event of PFL versus Bellator champs versus champs.

Ryan Bader, Henan Ferreira, are going to battle not only for the, this super title, the champ champ status. But apparently, BC, the winner of this fight will fight Francis and Ganu in a mixed martial arts bout. So two questions. One, your reaction to this news. This is by the PFL. And two, do you believe this at all?

Do you believe that Francis and Gano will be fighting one of these two gentlemen within the next year, let's say? Okay, I will say I do believe it because the biggest issue outside of getting. and Ganu and some type of mixed rules thing under the PFL banner, which was talked about to a certain degree for Deonté Wilder, but again, when you're Francis Inganu and you actually might be one more great performance or upset win away from actually fighting for a boxing world title, and you can make that kind of money, why do it? But I do think there is an element of him wanting to be a man of his word and will, will have at least one MMA fight under the PFL banner this year and it will be

a big pay-per-view. And the thing is, the winner of this fight was probably going to be the best choice anyway, as with the loser. These are really two of the only choices that really make a lot of sense unless they were able to scour the free agent market for whatever remaining aging, former heavyweight contenders with names. Think of Junior Dos Santos, who, when he signed that exclusive deal with the Mazvedol, Bear Knuckle Federation there, I was initially thinking, what the hell are you doing? You would have, you probably would have been Francis Ngano's first opponent there. I mean, good God, Fador's back training. He wants Mike Tyson and, so Ingano, so I hope we don't see that. But if this is real, if this is really going to happen, yeah, it makes sense because

he would have fought one of those guys anyway. But I do like it because here's the biggest criticism you would have had of this card this weekend. It is a pretty damn good card. It's kind of intriguing. But will it die on the vine on pay-per-view? Probably because there's really nothing at stake, right? And there's really no A-level star power that would demand. If Ngano was the main event of this card, that's A-level star power, it would demand it. It is having the potential to be a pay-per-view that dies, but it kicks off and announces such an ambitious period for the PFL

that I do think it's important to have something else on there. A little extra cheddar on there, because these title holders facing each other is for bragging rights. And in the first press conference a month ago, the broadcast really tried to play into that rivalry that unfortunately,

and I'm a PFL supporter, unfortunately, no one cares. No one's going to care who's the better fighters between PFL or Bellator. The titles aren't even at stake. They can have Sean O'Connell and Chels and go back and forth with insults, and it was fun to a certain degree. But nobody really cares.

This is a glorified All-Star game, but I will say a fun one. Because even with some of those matchups falling apart, there's some odds and ends, potential car wrecks that I want to see. But there's nothing at stake, and there's no true A-lister leading this card. To at the very least put Francis, hopefully, in the building, although I know he's living and training in the Middle East ahead of this fight in Saudi Arabia against Francis and Gano. I'm sorry, against Anthony Joshua in a few weeks.

but to really hammer home that we have Francis, these are our plans, and here's the winner of this super fight between reigning champions to show you that, it's probably a strong move, but it's the only move that they seem to have right now. So yes, I think Francis fights in this calendar year. I think it would have been against the winner of this anyway, because if it's Faheda,

at least you've got a young rising fighter, just won their million dollars in a championship. He's six, seven, he's athletic, and he's a little bit different. And even though they put a microphone in front of a ride, Brian Bader's face, and that certainly would be a decent level of star power if he fought Inganu. And I know every time he says, yeah, man, love it. This is the goal. You don't want to go anywhere near Angano as nobody really should right now, unless you want to play up the idea that Ngano hasn't had a fight in MMA in a really long time and is pushing 40.

So maybe it's not going to be that bad of a situation. Both of these guys are okay opponents when you consider what they actually have. It will have to be a pay-per-view because that's what Francis's name will demand. I think this is PFL doing the best they can, but don't mix what I'm saying here. I'm supporting their swing that they're going to take care because I want competition. We all do.

The best time ever in pro wrestling was the 90s when there was real competition. There were times when Strike Force had a damn video game in a heavyweight tournament that made me think like maybe they could compete. They are trying to actually compete, whether this idea or plan to have four streams of income and four divisions within your whole banner,

and one of them isn't even called Bell, or PFL, it's called. the Belator International Champion Series, which then you question is a Belator champion as good as a PFL? Oh, that's why we're having this paper year because they're going to fight each other. See, it's kind of convoluted. But it's important to see what this first step says about this year

because this is the make or break year for the PFL. They have not hit their intentions. They want to take over the top spot and be legitimate competition for the global leader in the space. I'm surprised they got a new deal with ESPN. They're competing with somebody under the top. the same banner, but this is probably their best move to at least make you try to care. I just don't think this pay-per-view will sell well, even though I kind of like the idea.

I just don't think it should be the first pay-per-view of the year. And good luck to anybody on this card, including Impa Kasangene, who's already committed to the tournament, which regular season, which starts in April, it's going to be a year of quick turnarounds for these guys, but that's the path they chose. It probably should have combined all of those together in one roster. Luke Thomas is probably right. I'll shut up now. Jed, we got stakes here.

We got some stakes. Francis and Gano waits in the wings. At least that's what they're telling us. But let's be honest. If Francis Gano goes out there and beats him to Joshua, he ain't fighting either of these two guys because he's going to keep boxing and making lots and lots and lots of money. So your reaction to this light at the end of the tunnel,

potentially for one of these main eventors? And does it make you more interested in this card, knowing that Francis, at least from a promotional aspect is awaiting the winner of this main event? It does. Not because the PFL says it, but because I think this, I don't know if this has really been sort of gotten across here since this happened while we recorded. Francis himself has said it. He went on SportsCenter and announced, he was a little cageier from what I'm reading. I just didn't get to watch it because we're doing this. It seemed to be a little cage year

about when it would happen, but went on SportsCenter and announced that he is anticipating fighting the winner of this weekend's contest. And it seems like probably, sometime this year. Now, you're also right, Mike. He goes out there and he beats Anthony Joshua. I think we might want to reevaluate some of the things previously being said, some choices may be made. But if he loses, I think he is going to lose. If he goes out there and loses, then yeah, at this point, I would expect to have him back. I did not. And that's why this has made this more interesting, because I have been on several programs and said, I don't think Francis Ngano was fighting in MMA in 2024. So I thought he was going to get this.

He got this Joshua fight. You know, depending on things shake out with Fury and Usick and how that goes down, there is a Fury rematch waiting. That is there to be had. Both parties would be interested. That's pretty obvious, sort of regardless of what happens. But in my head, I was like, he's going to fight Joshua. He's going to fight Fury.

And Francis even said, that's kind of the timeline he's looking for as well. But with Fury Usik getting delayed like it was, maybe that shifts some things back. And maybe now with them saying, hey, I'm interested. maybe we get in MMA and I got to be honest. I love watching, I loved watching the Fury Fight. It was fun. It was exciting. I think this is fun and exciting. Joshua, it's interesting.

It's different. Like, let's see what he can be here. But at the end of the day, I want to watch the best heavyweight fighter in the world, fight other heavyweights. And I don't care if they're the best. It would be cooler if we got Francis John Jones. But we're not going to get that. And so I'm fine with us pride style here.

We're going to roll fatal or out. against old Ironhead and see what kind of shenanigans or Tom Puller goes down. Hey, let's roll Francis and Ganu out there and see if he can physically uppercut Ante Delaya out of the cage. Like, that would be sick. And instead, what we're going to get is Francis is going to fight the winner of this, either a fairly big name Ryan Bader in a fight that probably won't be interesting, or Henan Fahara, who in a fight that will be really fun for as long as it lasts

until Hanan Chaya goes to sleep. I am more interested in that fight this weekend now because I know what comes after it or at least what might come after it and that might is now much more real than it was an hour ago. So yeah, I'm actually a little bit more excited because of this announcement. It's good to hear. It's good to hear.

By the way, I know we're tough on PFL, but it comes from a place of love. Just the same reason we were so hard on Bellator. We just want them like the UFC does from time to time, time. They do the thing. And when they do the thing, it's great. And we want Bellator to do the thing. And we want PFL to do the thing. We want their, we

want them to do well. We really do, but they just shoot themselves in the foot so many times. I just, just, just do good. Let's just do the good thing. Sure, they are promotionally failing, like fairly often. But they do have a belt with a ring can get inserted into it.

So you got to factor in that kind of innovation. in the, you know, combat sports title belt game. Nobody else thought you're doing that. Smart cages and belts with inserts. Come on. Well, I might as well ask the question now since we just reacted to this. So, Jed, I understand the stakes are very high now with this Ryan Bader and in Ferrer fight. Is this the one fight you would watch if you could only watch one fight on this card?

Oh, on this card? No, because I'm a sicko. but I want to be really clear that this is not true for probably any other person, and God sure should it be true for any of you. If I could watch one fight this weekend, and I mean this from the bottom of my sick, demented heart, it's Tiago Santos, Yo-O. Romero, like, that's, I just have to watch. That is going to be a staring contest for 15 minutes,

but it's going to be such a tense, 15 minutes, because at any point in time, either man might put the other to sleep. And they won't because they will not commit to fighting the other. But they're going to look at them real hard and I'm going to be riveted. Nobody else should want to see this fight. It's going to be one of the worst fights ever, probably. But it is easily the fight I would have to watch the most from the entire slate this weekend. And you're talking to, you know, the co-founder of Flyweight Unders.

There are five of those in the UFC. the main event I just said is pretty good. I've been on how Clay Culliday, Jim McKee's good. A lot of good fights give me the worst one of those because I need to see it happened. Oh, B.C., where are you at? You can only watch one fight on this card. What are you picking?

Is it Tiago Santos versus Jol Romero? Well, he stole my thunder from throwing that in at sort of my gas station hot dog pick because that also lights me up in all the right ways, and he's right. it won't deliver, right? But it's the closest thing we can get to that ridiculously awesome UOL rumble fight, RIP, that we never got in that Bellator tournament.

And so, yeah, I love that. But no, look, if I had to pick one card, even though I love what, again, I'm cheering for PFL like you guys are for this to work. It's interesting. It's exciting. It's, it's ambitious. But I'd rather watch the UFC card as a whole, even though it's not as deep. And a lot of that is that co-main event.

Guys, Iyer versus Brian Ortega is one of my Super Bowls. It fits into the wheelhouse of what I prefer and what I like. And I think it's also an exciting fight. No, I'm not going to sit here and try to defend Brian Ortega still holding a ranking right now. Or that ridiculously weird rant he had about Eagles in the past couple days. That was just so bizarre that I was loving it. There was a guy in the bushes with a talent. He read Team Go.

I mean, it was all over the place. It was real weird. But the first fight had that potential to be fireworks and that it fell apart. due to injury. And I really think with Toporia winning the championship, resetting this division, the fact that Yair has been talking so much junk about him coming in to this and saying that he's going to fight him, if he goes out there and beats Ortega, which he really should, even with my Ortega's super fandom, he really should.

That's the best way you can rebrand yourself and come back after that humbling one-sided lost of Volk, who's no longer the champion. And whether or not we're actually going to get these ridiculous but understandably big fights like Tuporia against McGregor or even O'Malley, this is one of the best fights you can make if it's just Tuporia now doing what his job is to defend that title one after another for all the killers they line up,

whether it's Max Holloway or whoever comes out of here. A refurbished Jayae against him would be fireworks. You could put that fight in Mexico, Spain, anywhere. You can put it in the American embassy in India and reunite Luke Thomas and I'd be fired up for it. It's fireworks. I love it. I can't wait to see who the new person, Brian Ortega's personal life.

is because he is, you know, love him or hate him, the Scott Bayo of our lifetime, you know, the John May or the whatever you want to say there. And also, look, if he's going to do anything in his career moving forward, it is entering sort of now or never territory. This is a big opportunity. They've kept him in the rankings. If he does get the win and pull the upset, who's to say he's not going to launch himself into a massive fight, the level of either a title shot or an inevitable rematch with Max Holloway,

which I want to see one day. I just don't have that full confidence in my guy Ortega that he's going to stop doing what he loves most, which is not moving his head, leading with his chin and showing the area of Los Angeles and how tough it was where he was raised. Those facts are all true. But if he was able to use this time off

and really not recommit his action potential or his heart, God, he's overflowing with that. And the same level he's overflowing with looks and charm. I mean, look at his belt and the notches on it. I will say, though, I think there's one more chance for him. him if he's looking to be a little more patient round at his game. It probably won't happen, but I got to see it.

I mean, you will be entertained either way, Yair versus Ortega, too. And I think you guys know this. That's the fight of the weekend. Let's go. Jed, would you be betting on Brian Ortega this weekend? Something tells you're not betting on Brian Ortega this weekend. I'll never bet on Brian Ortega. He's bad.

I will go to my grave thinking he is not good at fighting. He just keeps winning. And it baffles me and it stunts me. And he almost did the damn thing to vote. like Brian said, he's just going to come in and get hit a bunch and then somehow pull victory from the Charles of defeat. Wouldn't shock me if he did that to Yai Yer, but I think Yai is going to win.

I know that the first fight is weird, and I hesitate to call it fluky. I know a lot of people call it fluky. It's not like his arm fell out, just like being around. Yai Yir pulled on it, and the arm fell out because he pulled on it. Like that was a, that's a win for me in Yaya Yir,

Rodriguez's book because he can't be he's not a fault he didn't make Brian Ortega have soft arms that anyone can just tug easily out of socket I don't know what happened there but I think the same thing's going to happen yeah your Rodriguez is maybe not like the exact same but I do think he's still going to be able to get this win because I think he is a more potent offensive force and probably a better defensive fighter though still not like either man's strength but Brian Rortiga is just so cavalier with his defense. I think, yeah, you probably kicks him a bunch and at least I'm hoping. Because if Rortiga wins, he might get to fight Ilya.

And Ilya will be beating his ass for 20 minutes and then fall into a guillotine because that's just the magic Brian Ortega. Well, there's this weekend. There's going to be a lot more to discuss. So stick with us, M.A.fighting.com. Let's move on to round number four, the point for round three goes to, I mean, when you're dropping Charles in charge, Scott Bayo references, you just got to get the point. B.C. just knows how to play this game.

Two to one for B.C. Looking at Jets, it's like looking at a younger version of myself. You know what I mean? It's great. I know his weaknesses. You know, it's great. It's fantastic.

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver.

those. Gold tenders, no, but chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps,

corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Well, I'm glad you're here, BC. Let's get everybody on the screen here because the last time you were on this program, we were talking about UFC 300.

We were talking about the expectations. We were talking about the lineup as it was. You were not a fan of this lineup. You expected more. You expected better. And I tried to dad talk you into thinking, look, man, relax. It's going to be okay. We're still going to get a really good car.

Like, perhaps your expectations were a little too high. And maybe I felt made you feel a little bit bad, like not mad, but disappointed in you in some ways. And I didn't mean to make you feel that way. But now we have filled in the big hole here, the big gap, if you will. the main event has been announced for UFC 300. It is not Drickus 2 Plus E versus Israel Adasagna. It is not Leon Edwards versus Hamza Chimayef. It is not Leon Edwards versus Amokachev.

It is not John Jones versus anybody. It is Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler. It is Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill. And BC, I will begin with you because I gave you the disappointed dad's speech before. What was your reaction to this main event? It came out of left field, but in the world of, hey, Buckley, your gosh darn seatbelts, because when we announce this fight, you're going to get launched into another dimension. Your socks are going to blow off.

Everything's going to blow off. You aren't even prepared for this. And with the lack of preparation, he's absolutely right, especially with the UFC going to Rio three weeks later, but your reaction to Alex Pereira versus Jamal Hill being the main event for UFC 300. Yeah, the only thing that was blown off was UFC. commitment to the assignment here. Am I going to act like this fight sucks or something? No, it's an explosive fight that carries, you know,

two exciting guys that I do like to see. It's just not a UFC 300 main event. And even with Pereira's incredible run through less than 10 fights winning two division titles in the UFC, unless he's fighting. Is he really? I don't think he should be in the main event either unless it was matchup, you know, dependent.

This is not a UFC 300 matchup main event. I mean, this just proves to you that they completely bungled this. And I don't really know what the true issue was. It could actually be that they were hoping and thinking all along. It was McGregor Chandler. And then despite the debate Jed and I had, maybe there's something true there that delayed that, or maybe they had thoughts on another fight that quickly became clear, couldn't happen. But what they did at the turn of this new year and the announcement, after last year to build that momentum was announced some pretty damn good main events for UFC 297, 298, which had a very deep card.

299, which is deep as balls and is so good that it's almost as good or better than 300. At the end of the day, does 300 have tremendous depth? Oh, God, yeah. And again, do I hate this main event? No, I mean, look, look, it's fireworks. It's two absolute bangers. It's got that trope, that historic trope we love of current champion against the guy who never lost it in the cage. One of the same things that lured us to Ali Frazier 1 and Habib versus Connor.

which are, you know, maybe the two biggest fights in their own ways in their respective sports history. This ain't it, but at least it has that. But the reality is it's clear they have botched this and not prioritized what should have been. Yeah, you could say, oh, it sells itself. It's 300. Yeah, it does. If it was a shitty card with a great main event and a decent co-main, but that main event was so great, that also sells itself. But you have to ask yourself, what is the goal of a card like 300?

It should be twofold. One, it should be to absolutely maximize financially. And two, it should be the kind of thing that stands out historically. Who were the relevant players that deserve it in that era? There's a reason why Brock Lesnar was in the main event of UFC 100, and you had GSP behind him right there in the co-main. And there's a reason why UFC 200 started with Connor versus Nate 2, quickly became John versus DC 2.

And even with it being botched, you still had the return of Brock. Lesnar. You still had a ridiculously cool last minute silver versus DC fight that we didn't know what to expect. You still have the changing of the guard with the greatest woman of all time Amanda Nunes earning her first title. You still had, you know, Edgar versus Aldo 2 on the main card, the return of a healthy Kane Velazquez, you have depth on this 300 card, but to not prioritize the thing that accomplishes both of those objectives, the cash in business element and the fact that you want this thing to be a truly historic event that shakes up the casual fans, the people that used to be there during the Anderson Silva GSP runs,

but maybe lost favor for whatever reason with the current product. This would bring them back. That's why there should have been a veteran on this card, somebody on a GSP level who was close in and out of retirement that they could bring back, and you should have had a main event that captures everything and pulls everyone in and says, hey, look, I don't know how good this card's going to be top to bottom, but I got to pay for it because I can't. can't miss either the return of a great name or a crazy hot matchup like Adasanya versus Pereira, right?

Like, I mean, we were getting so desperate that the ideas that were actually thrown around and the fact that Balal Muhammad couldn't get his name in any of them. I mean, I don't agree Balala Ahmed. It should ever be in the main or Coal Main for a card like UFC 300, even though I believe he deserves to get that rifle title shot against Leon Edwards. They weren't even allowing that in the conversation, yet they didn't even know what they were doing. And the UFC can say whatever they want, and in protectors of the UFC or haters of me can say whatever they want about this whole man, they botched this. But Jamal Hill revealed it. He didn't even know about this opportunity until the day before. He can say all he want, how he was supposed to be there all along.

None of those guys were. In reality, the people that belong in a UFC 300 main event right now are certainly the McGregor-level guys or anybody older with just that monster name. But you could have even gone someone like Max Holloway. I would not have hated this, by the way, if the answer was the last fight we're going to add to this card is Leon Bilal, but we're going to push Justin versus Max to the main event. Would that have made a worse card than we actually have here? Yes. But like those guys are main event worthy at UFC 300, maybe the greatest action fighter of all time in Gaichi against one of the biggest fan favorites in sort of a Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture mode, Max Holloway. That is the type of star power that would have been deserving.

the Whitaker Pereira, like we said, any of these other juicy matchups. And we got a good matchup. But they had a rub from 301 in Brazil to make it happen. This is where we're at today with the UFC's eye off the ball of the things that pitter, patter to fans' hearts. They're still on the ball of maximizing UFC's revenue. There's no question. They're raising ticket prices like you've never seen. Hey, if you're a super fan, get your name on the inner ring of the octagon, right where Mickey's malt liquor used to be.

All that stuff is maxing out. But the product is sitting getting watered down just a bit. We still got too many cards at the apex. And what they proved here are that things like Power Slap and the other brands that they're growing, including the addition of WWE and trying to put out this Vincent McMahon fire for TKO is the idea that their eye is off the ball

on the things that we fell in love with them first about. Their ability to build stars and their ability to make can't miss cards that you can't freaking miss. This is not a main event that you can't freaking miss. It is, though, a pretty damn good fight. And if the card lives up to any level of expectation to the depth of it. And if that main event ends in a knockout, we probably are still going to exit UFC 300 happy. But to look at what the UFC has in the cupboard and not have Connor McGregor on this card is a joke to the plan, decision-making,

and really the care for the fan. I know depth matters. I know start to finish. You're not going to believe what's opening the night in the prelims. That's all great. UFC 200 had that too. I almost felt guilty watching those early prelims that were so good because I'm like, these should be headlining different cards.

But this is 300. This is 30 years. This is look at how much we've grown. This is, hey, everybody that ever thought about the UFC come by this one event because this justifies everything we've ever done. And our answer to that is Pereira versus Jamal Hill. And we tried to get Hamzada a visa that he can't get it Because we tried to, I mean, like, what are we doing here?

So no, I'm disappointed overall. It's still like a massive FU. It tells us, yeah, we made sure Tom Brady showed up a Power Slap 6, but we think 300 sells itself on name value alone. These are the missteps over time that lead to the downfall. Pride comes before the fall. This is a pride alert right here, okay? The pride of the UFC fan, you didn't matter.

them as much in this case. It's the truth. It's what it is. It's where we're at. Deal with it. Jed? I mean, we've had a few days to digest this. Does it go down any smoother? A few days to digest fucking BC's answer. Jesus Christ, dude.

What was 15 minutes? God damn. When I'm on this show, why does it always be long, guys? I've got things to do. I'm like, come on, you know. Who can say? Well, in an effort to make sure this doesn't take two hours to do their show, I'll boil this down real quick for us, Mike.

Christ on the cross. The answer is B.C.'s not all, like, not wrong, but I've come around to not carry, which is what they expect them was going to happen. Is this the knock your socks off announcement that we were all promised? No, socks fully on, throw them shoes, snow boots, etc., etc. But B.C. said the thing that I think, is the most important part here. And it is at the end of the night,

UFC 300, probably going to get a knockout, really exciting fight. And we're all going to leave that event feeling okay. It's not the grand spectacle we expected. That sucks. But this card top to bottom is incredible. Probably the best card ever put together on paper.

The main event is meaningful and a good fight. It should be happening in Brazil. Absolutely. Idiotic that it's not happening in Brazil. But on that Saturday night and that moment, we won't care. What we'll care about is that we just got seven hours of unbelievable fist fighting happening. We got incredible knockouts. It's going to feel like a big event because it is a big event.

And it's going to be capped off not by Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad, tepidly fighting each other for 25 minutes in a fight that is objectively great mixed martial arts, but also objectively a bad viewing experience. Instead, we're watching one of the most violent dudes that's ever graced this earth, fight a guy who maybe is really good. I'm still really not sure on what Jamal Hill is, but that fight is going to deliver a satisfactory ending to the evening. We will not be ending the evening on our vegetables.

We will be finishing it off, maybe not with dessert, because Gaci Holloway is clearly the dessert, but it will be a good to post-dinner coffee, something to put pep in our step, and the people leaving the arena will be amped, and we'll be on that post show being like event of the year, probably event of the year.

A lot of problems with it structurally. Absolutely. But you know what? Who gives a shit? Because Alex Pereiro just did something really sick. So could this all be better? Yeah. I'm mostly happy that it's done the saga of what will headline 300 is over.

It's acceptable enough. And come April, we're going to forget most of this. Not all of it because, again, what BC said was largely true. But we'll forget enough of it in the moment because it's still going, the product ultimately will deliver. And that is how the UFC has staved off falling at this point. They have been promotionally bad for some time. But the product ultimately ends up delivering more often than not. And that's the thing that matters the most.

So that's what I expect. And I know it's a little bit lame, but it'll be okay, guys, because come April, it'll all be pretty fun. Yeah, it's very true. And now the biggest question in MMA seems to be, at least for the last couple days of heck of the morning is what's going to headline UFC 301 now. Like now, all they've done is just flipped it to the next card.

So it's Pantosia versus mystery man. Oh, no, frigid way that I could do that. They'd rather throw that in Newark. They're just hoping Jailton-Omeda dust up Curtis Blades and they could do like Al-MATA versus Aspinall. Like, that's literally all you can do at this point. But if Curtis Blades wins, that ruins the plans.

All right. we're going to move on real, real quick. Point for round four goes to it goes to Jed because he's right. By the time we get to April 13th, no one's going to care. We're going to have a good time. We're going to do a watch party for the whole frigging card

from Figgy Smalls, Cody, all the way to the end. So we're going to be watch party for seven hours for you. You gave the point to the guy who spent his whole answer saying BC was right. Yeah, but he did it in 15 a half. for an hour, you're going to be right about some shit. Like, you can't be wrong for an hour straight. I mean, it sounds like a hip hop artist just using samples to remake classics.

You know what I mean? It's great. But, you know, sorry, James Brown has meant to that, all right? Well, listen, this is the true test of Brian Campbell right now because it's time for the knock around. And he only gets one minute to answer the question. Just one. He usually goes over.

This time he's not, because I'm not going to let him. But there's a question that was just dropped at our Slack channel. I was hoping the super chatter should come through with something good, but we appreciate all of you. We didn't get like that barn burning question. So Jed, what are we doing? You going first or is BC going first? Well, since I know the question,

since you said it was dropped in our Slack channel, I'll go first because it feels unfair. Yes. I shouldn't have said that. But BC, you get a chance to linger here. One minute on the clock, we talked about the Francis deGano news that he awaits, or at least promotionally,

awaits the winner of the Ryan Bader-Hen-Ferrera fight. So state your case, Jed, in 60 seconds or less. Who will wait longer for a fight? Chandler waiting for McGregor or the Bader-Ferreira winner waiting for Francis and Ghanu. One minute on the clock and go. Easy, Chandler waiting for McGregor won. He's already waited like a year.

I don't know when we started that clock officially, but it's been a long time. And in case you missed it earlier in the show, Conrader's never fighting again. He's certainly never fighting Michael Chandler again. So Michael Chandler will be waiting forever. And that's a pretty long time in the scheme of things. Forever is pretty, pretty up there.

Whereas, again, I think Francis Ngano is going to lose Anthony Joshua. If he doesn't, obviously all this math changes a whole hell of a lot. But I think Anthony Joshua probably beats him. And then when he does, Tyson Furious locked up with Us. right now. That'll happen and then maybe there's a Joshua fight. Fury wants to fight Francis Ngano, but there are other fights that are out there for Fury as well that might make a little more sense time long wise. So I honestly at this point I would say 50-50 shot, maybe 5545, that Francis Ngano fights the winner of this fight before the end of the year.

And again, McGregor's never fighting. So that's forever. Okay. That's Jed's answer, B.C. One minute. I didn't hear the question. What was the question? What was the question? question? Oh, well, Jed wins then. No, I'm just kidding. Who will wait longer for a fight, B.C., in one minute or less? Michael Chandler waiting for Connor McGregor or the Ryan Bader, Henan Ferreira winner, waiting for Francis Inganu. One minute on the clock. I don't even need the full minute. In fact, I'm a little chapped right here. Let me get out some M.K. Jerkins. You can order this on Morningcombat. Store right here, just to kind of warm the hands up

for the big, you know, the big answer here. You know, he just got to grab life by like, okay. Look, the answer is very easy. It's going to be Michael Chandler, and this has been a massive failure by the UFC to not show what I believe is the true intentions and the understanding of why is Connor McGregor not fighting. Why would you roll out the ultimate fighter show? And all of that is it because you wanted to, you know, establish this new drug testing thing and you're not going to let Connor fight in the first six months and no one complains? No, they don't care about that at all. It's Francis and Ghana was going to fight Anthony Joshua.

win or lose, he's going to have a spring or summer fight in MMA for the PFL, and then he's going to either rematch Fury or whoever else or maybe fight for the title in boxing to close the year. Chandler versus McGregor will happen at the end of this year, once the UFC and Connor get to whatever the end of this debate over that big round number is, because the UFC would like to keep him around for the new TV deal coming up. All these conspiracy theories matter. It's going to be the heavyweight who will fight next.

Not true. Oh, okay. not Chandler, yes. I think we're all kind of in agreement now. Jed says... I was like shame. Yes. Get your votes in and do them quickly.

This is a long program and it's okay. We had a great time. Fantastic day. BC is... I mean, he's moisturized. I'm ready. He's really ready. So cast your votes.

Who wins? Is it BC or is a Jed Buschew? Or maybe Casey's just like, you know what? Screw all this. I'm going to announce the way. winner. I'm waiting for the graphic or something to come up. Or maybe Casey just pops up and announces it. I don't know. The vote is super close. So we need to count every vote. I got to double check it. I got to double check all the chads on it. But keep voting. It is super close.

So I'll talk. I will I'll talk. We will have a preview show tomorrow for UFC, Mexico City and the champ versus champs card, PFL versus L tour. Jed and I believe will be on PFL coverage on Saturday to get you all height for all things, PFL, early card, but still going to last a long, long time. And then UFC, Mexico City, 7 p.m. prelims, 10 p.m. main card. I think we're going to do a People's Pre-Fight show, like, right around 615. Could even turn into like a little mini watch party for the Ryan Bader, Henan Ferrer main event, which now has all the stakes and all the sizzles.

So stay tuned for that. I'm doing our post show. Oh yeah, good for you. Yeah. Just saving the day. My Chim of A rivalry, would you compare to Jed Mishu and myself? Hmm, that's great question. It's a great question.

I don't know. Like Cheyenne and J.P. Bay? Kevin Lee, Michael Keats. Sleesiest. Don't be talking about his mother, please, Jed. I don't know. Those are good ones. Ally Quinta versus somebody.

I think rings pretty true. Tito versus Chow? Tito versus Shale. Oh, Tito versus Shale. That's a great one. That's not a bad one. That might be the answer. I don't know how I feel about that.

Casey just won BTL. Pretty good answer. Do we have a winner? We do have a winner. We have a winner. All right. Your winner today with 52% of the votes is

Jedmishu. Oh, he did it. Tampa Jet is a different animal. He just needs to be out of the home studio. When he's out of the home studio, he wins. This is incredible stuff. If you're going to beat Brian Campbell, you've got to go to Florida.

The only way you can get rough, rugged, and raw enough is to be in the state of Florida. because that's BC's whole essence, and I've taken it from him now in the heart of Tampa. Hell yeah, KSW is also this weekend, and it's going to be dope. Let's get the hell out of here because the show's going to be two hours long, Mike.

Yes, B.C., thank you for joining us as always. Any final thoughts for the people? I said this smells like shame. It kind of smells like straw weights to do. You can take that for what it's worth. Jed was a worthy adversary. It's great to come out of my hiatus right now to reemerge for this show.

BTL is my second, favorite MMA show. Thanks for happening. Yes. Behind the MMA hour? Is that? Hmm. No. When is, yeah, we're awaiting the return of MK and it's in the form we have all grown to love it.

So stay tuned for that. B.C. and Luke back on a regular basis and I'm excited. You could hit the music A. Two weeks. When's that kick back up, B.C.? Yeah. What is that coming back? I don't, I don't have to reveal that here. Just to be fair with you guys. But thanks for having it. It was a great job.

in the near future everybody he's out of here from BC the mystery man I am Icaq shout out to Casey the iconic voice special and takes you home good night everybody this has been between the links and I'm a fighting production on the Vox Media Network a livery that was a live one

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