MMA Fighting - BTL | Ilia Topuria, Reaction To Charles Oliveira's Quick Turnaround, Fights We Need To See

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

UFC star Conor McGregor hasn't competed in over four years, but with the former two-division champ officially back in the testing pool, does that enhance the belief that the sport's biggest star ever will actually compete inside the octagon in 2026? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses that topic — if you choose it to be talked about — and the confidence levels in a possible McGregor return to active competition. Additionally, topics may include Tatsuro Taira destroying Hyun Sung Park in the main event of UFC Vegas 108 and the Fight of the Year contenders that preceded that contest, the countdown heating up ahead of the UFC 319 main event between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev, the UFC being back at the APEX once again this Saturday for UFC Vegas 109 headlined by Anthony Hernandez vs. Roman Dolidze, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup — with a Q&A twist — between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and José Youngs. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow José Youngs: ⁠@JoseYoungs⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice, Sylvester Lynn, welcomes you to a brand new edition of EPL. Happy Thursday to us all back at our new time at noon. Appreciate you all joining us. We're going to have a little fun.

We're going to mix things up a little bit in celebration of the brand new MMA Fighting. I hope you guys have checked out the website. It's very cool. We give you guys the opportunity to hear your, let your voices be heard a little bit more. And that's sort of the theme of today's program. It's not going to be your typical Q&A show or just fire off a million questions. No, no, no, no, no.

Only the best of the best will be discussed on today's program. So let us introduce the combatants, a little MMA fighting in fighting today. First, let us say hello to Mr. No Gray area, the Hot Take Kid, the climber of all climbers. I believe his climb bet is in for UFC Vegas 109, the one and only Jedbushu. Where is he? Oh, come on. Otto has decided that he would like to compete today. He's ready.

Look at him. Look at that face. He's ready to go. Oh, my God. Mostly he's like, God damn it, let me down from here. Yes. I already trying to cheat. And you know what?

As we say, in MMA cheating is a terrific strategy. Look at Otto. Just living dream. Who for Jim. There's the zoom in. And his opponent, I don't know if he's got a dog or any kind of pet that he can show off on today's program. There I am. Back on the show, our road warrior over at M.A.fighting.com, the social media guru,

the one and only Jose Young's fellow Red Sox fan. And it's been a damn good time being a Red Sox fan, Jose, has it not? Yeah, it's been a blessed time. You know, the Roman Empire continues on for the next. however many years. Christian Campbell's locked up. Let's just get Marcel and Myers healthy. Let's get him locked up.

And then we basically have the big three for the next 10 years or so. So life is great. I went to Boston a couple weekends ago and I saw Shohai Otani strikeout five times in two days and the Red Sox won both of them. So I had a great time myself.

Yes. And out of 10, good time. You got to go to one of the greatest places on earth, Fenway Park. It's a great place. I haven't been there in quite some time. I have to go back and visit. But guys, today's program is going to be a little bit different.

We don't have any topics sort of laid out in place because it's kind of a weird news cycle week. We did get a big fight that was announced today so we could certainly talk about that if you guys want to. So leave your questions in the chat. We will choose two or three of the very best. We also did a little fishing on the brand new MMAfighting.com and put up a little post in the feed

where you guys could put together, your questions, what do you want to talk about? I know Conner's in the news, but most of the comments were, I don't want to talk about Cotter or John Jones or WWE or anything like that. So. Is he on the news? What was Connor in the news for? He's back in the testing pool officially.

Oh, oh, I see there's pre and post the new website for me. And that was pre new website. Yes. That was a catastrophic day. Hey, and I just, that's anything before that is pigeonhole to a very different timeline. Yes. So Casey, our producer extraordinaire, he will be in control. He will decide what questions we are going to go with.

So make them good because we're going to be very selective today. So Casey, what are we going to talk about first? All right. I'll say I like this. This is real fighting. This is real between the links in, you know, no prep, no, no, training camp for an individual fighter, you show up and you scrap. I'm really happy that we're having an episode of the A-side at 12 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, August 7th.

Bring it back. All right. First question from... And we are not in the back. We are up front. Someone on the internet will get that. Oh, okay. So shout out to like scrap. This was an entry on the feed. So we'll see what you guys got. We'll discuss. Jed will begin with you. The UFC, they have put together some good cards.

They put together cards that have officially happened that will not be remembered. And there are certain fighters who have made a lot of noise, and there are certain fights that we would like to see booked. So Jed, I ask you first, what are your top three fights that have not been booked yet that you would like to see before the end of 2025? Okay, everyone knows number one, and maybe it's cheating given the circumstances, but I am aware that Drick is two-plusy is going to beat Hamza-Shmaev in a little over a week from now. And so the number one with a bullet not close is Drick's 2-C versus Rinder-Duritter.

It would make me very happy if that was the December pay-per-view headliner. And God hopes that's the case. Number two, it's not officially booked, so I'm going to use it. I think all signs seem to be pointing and certainly some statements being made suggested it's happening. But it's not booked. We haven't remotely confirmed it at all. Jose is not here, so I'm maybe going to vamp a little more until he comes back to. But Islam Machichev versus Jack Delamattelina, I know that both Islam and Habib have said that if it's happening at MSG, that's not been confirmed.

I don't believe that's remotely official, even if that is sort of the target. So, yeah, give me the champ fight for sure. You know, the pound for pound number one fighter in the world, moving up, that that'll be my number two. And my number three, so we're not going to get Nunes versus Harrison before the end of the year. So I'll set that aside. Trying to see if there's anything else that I would like before I go with it. Nope, let's do it. I was going to say, you can think about it.

I'll drop a couple. I have a fourth if I needed it, that it was going to be my backup. But it feels like we've forgotten about this fight may be happening because that sort of just seems like the thing that's going on these days in women's mixed martial arts. But Valentina Shivchenko defending her belt against Zhang Wei, that would be, I think that's a fight that should be happening. And so make that happen before the end of the year.

All right, Jose. What are your top three fights? that have not been booked yet that you would like to see before the end of 2025, whether it's fights that are just super fan friendly and will sell a lot of paper views or just for Jose's high level of mixed martial arts. You're muted. All right, play charades.

Yes. Show us witch fighters by acting out their motions. See, I think that's A, B, Y. Cowboy? Cowboy versus? I'm not really sure. What's happening right now? What's their finishing move, Jose, as he's just blinking in and out.

The stone cold stunner. This is incredible. You tell us. You tell us, Jose. I have no idea why he is muted. It's not you, Jose. it's something being weird. This doesn't make any sense at all.

On the nose. I don't know what to do. Jose, just write it and put it up to the camera. Yes, this is a great idea. It's a great idea. This also could just be a tremendously smart plan to just take as much time as he needs to think about this, which in essence could be one of the most.

more brilliant moves in the history of the program. He's got the whiteboard. We got a marker. Anyone do you want to care to take a guess in the chat of which fights is going to pick? Let's see. Doing great. Oh, that's a pretty sizable whiteboard. He might be able to put all three fights on there.

We are, we are, this is, let me tell you, when this goes on the podcast network, people are going to love this segment. So Jose is writing down his selections. Maybe we'll insert some game show countdown music, a la the newly win game. Volkovsky versus Movesar. Ofloev from Jose. That was my backup fight.

That was my four. It would make sense right now because Aaron Pico's fighting Lorone Murphy right now. Comain Islam versus JDM. So he's with you there, Jed. I mean, yeah. And let's see what the third one is. I'm very, I'm intrigued by it all. It's kind of exciting.

It really is. This is an air of anticipation. Let's just mute one contestant every round. Because I think this would be. And today that every round might be Jose. Umar Paul Hughes too. That's a good. Yeah.

All right. I like that a lot. Not you. You see, look at that going. That'd be Ousman. Oh, Ousman. I was a little confused for a second, but now we got it. It's all good.

It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a hell of a fight. And he's still writing. Now, now I don't know what's happening. He's going to give us a fourth because Jed already revealed his backup. Uh, Corey versus Sean O'Malley. Now, I'm curious, Jose, is this is this a prediction? I think that's our winning in sign language.

Jose, I think R is, is the fingers. crossed in sign language. Yes. I'm wondering if this is a title fight or he's predicting Corey loses to Barab and we get Tom Jailton.

We're getting a lot of picks. He's still writing. No, no. Oh, we can hear him. You hear me now? Yeah. What just happened? Has this all been a ruse?

No. Have you been pantomiming that you can't speak this whole time? No. For whatever reason, it was... Are you Seth Rollins? That's right. I made a wrestling reference.

I was spelling out Casey unmute me in silence. Oh, that makes more sense. He's so bad. C-A-S-E-Y-U-T-E. Yeah, there you go. He is so back. Wow, I was saying that. I have no idea.

That was weird. You did a hell of a job there. I got to say. There you. Also, Umar versus Paul Hughes. would also slap even though Umar is much tinier. That would be a really interesting point. It would be really fun.

Yeah, because I was starting to write Umar versus Puritan and then for whatever reason, I changed it to Paul Hughes and it didn't change Umar. So just kind of falling up on the Usman versus Paul Hughes thing. We had the town hall with Jonathan Coachman and obviously Jonathan Coachman has come from the professional wrestling world. He was part of WWE for quite some time. and when asked why they haven't booked that fight, Coachman said, you know what,

let's build more of a long-term storyline. We had Paul Hughes fight already. Let's have Usman fight somebody else. I think Archie Colgan is the guy that he is going to fight now, right? Because he won whatever this number one contender fight is. Is this smart, Jose? Like I know it's not, why are they doing this? I don't know.

We talked about this. I think on a pre-fight Q&A. I think it was when Johnny Edlin lost and we were just talking about like PFL stuff. Like should they run it back right away? And I said, yes, run it back right away because that's the fight people want. And I know tournaments are fun. And if you win a tournament, you should get a title shot. But that didn't work for Bellator in the early days.

Just do it now. Because we also agreed that for as much flak as Bellator got for their weird, because luckily when they would do the Grand Prix, nine times out of 10, the finals was what fans wanted. Like you got McKee versus Pitbull in the finals. You got, who is the Welterweight one? Was that Douglas Lehman Rory at one point? I can't even remember.

But we got matches we wanted to see. And then when they announced the light heavyweight one, everyone was like, oh, Rumble versus Romero, that's the fight to make. And then we were like, God, they're going to put them on opposite ends and something's going to happen. And thank God they announced like it obviously didn't end up happening for various reasons But when they announced a rumble Yoel Romero in the first round everyone unanimously was like thank God bellator did not do bellator things and just pulled the trigger do that pfl just do oosmondemagma it's the best fight you guys have ever had like that is the best five round fight that's ever happened in the pfel the rivalry is already there if you're going to do artem lobov versus zubairaira just do the main event another famous Irish men and dog standing and run that one back.

Just do it. It makes the most sense to fight people. Actually, there's not a lot of PFL fights that people are like, I can't wait. As you guys said when I wrote that. There's not how many, are there five PFL fights? They're like, I can't wait for that. I need to see this one. Paul Hughes versus Usman is like right at the top.

It's right at the top. What do you think about this, Jed? I mean, you're more into the pro wrestling world and storyline. And look, UFC can put any fight on and people will watch and people will cover it and it's all good. There is no real like big PFL rivalry right now. I mean, we kind of have it with Usman and Hughes. And I guess they're kind of building one with with Evelyn and Costello von Steenis with the way that fight ended. So do you try to just continue to build this rivalry as much as possible or do we just strike where they are and taught?

Because if Usman beats Hughes again, like that's two and oh and sure they could do it at a third time, but then we have to kind of do the long-term storyline. So how do you feel about PFL just kind of waiting, letting these guys fight one more time, building this up even more, let the trash talk continue on until it reaches a boiling point. I suppose it's 100% right. The PFL can't afford to wait. It's just that simple. The UFC has the structural, they are structurally ingrained, right? Like they can have how many events would it take like just dog shit UFC events would it take in a row before it affected the UFC in any like meaningful way a lot like they could they could go like maybe even a full year of

just absolute garbage before fans just were just like completely lost faith in the product because they have monopoly that's sort of how that works pfl's not that like they're they don't there is no intrinsic, like, they don't have a fandom. There aren't PFL fans out there. There are MMA fans who will watch PFL because it is available, but there's nobody who is a PFL fan in the way there are UFC fans. And so you're not playing the same kind of game. You can't, you know, build a storyline out over the course of a year or years

and hope that it works there. If you have something people are interested in, you need to hammer the shit out of that as quickly as you can. And that's a tough way to do things. But it sort of just is how they need to go. It's like, all right, let's just keep making people interested. Because the moment a PFL event is over, nobody's talking about PFL until maybe the next event is happening. So it's insane.

I don't think it'll hurt like we'll probably get there in the end. But like, what if we don't? What if something happens? And then we've lost like the one interesting thing they had going for them right now. Just another instance of PFL really not seeing this through clear eyes. The one question I have is like, what if Usen or Maghavadav just says, I don't want to be here anymore? Because they've, they've said it publicly. If you don't want to be here, don't be here.

We'll let you go. And they've let some pretty significant names go. I don't know if they'll let Uspen go. but if he puts up enough of a stink, they just might. They're trying to build other stars like Thad Gene and Dakota Ditchiva's re-signed with them, which is probably the most important piece of the puzzle.

So, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. I mean, we got a fun Logan Storyly fight out of because of that gene. That's for sure. It was the only time that's ever been said. That is literally the first time that statement's ever been made. It's, and I'm glad that this could be the show. that we can make said statement.

So, all right, we got one question in. Keep firing them away. Again, we're going to take only the best of the best. But round one is in the books. We have some continuous audio from Jose, so we're going to continue on. The point for round number one in this mystery extravaganza goes to... I think you should give it to Jose. He overcame adversity.

That's right. He sure did. He is the Frankie Edgar of this program. The struggle. Point for Jose Young's. Nicely done. Manz out of the jam sandwiches, just, just working. This is my, this is my, this is my, this is my flu game.

Yeah, this is, uh, this is, uh, usually tech. This is my, this is my, no, I say bloody sock, the bloody sock. This is my bloody sock, except I'm not a racist and an asshole. Yeah. That's better to not be that. Yes. Yes. Let the confetti fall.

Yes, we, uh, we love Kurt Schilling slander on this. program. Yes. He helped us with a World Series, but it is all good. When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist?

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Casey, what is the next topic of discussion? Ah, Michael J. Caboos, this is also courtesy of the feed. Is Ilya hurting his own star power? Defense of Nelkeboys interview with the Israeli prime minister, refusal to fight certain contenders, et cetera, or what would be your version of power slap that if you had near unlimited funds, you would help make a league or sport for fun.

Okay. I kind of see where he's getting at. But let's start with Ilyat Teporia, Jose, because Iliate Taboria won the belt six weeks ago against Charles Olivera and is the new lightweight champion of the world. And since then, he has said a lot of different things. There's the Patty Pimbleau fight that is potentially on the table. They had the face-off that was sort of impromptu,

according to Dana White. There's Justin Gachie who continues to say, hey, I want this title shot. I deserve it. And if you don't give it to me or if you often be Patty Pimblit, I'm just not going to do it. It just tells me you don't want me anymore.

And then I think one of the strangest quotes that was called upon yesterday while Casey was at the Hamzaa Shibaya Media Day and workout is he said if the UFC offered him Armand Syrucian for his first title defense, he would rather vacate the belt than defend the belt against Armand Sarukin, mostly because he feels that nobody gives a shit about Armand Surrugian.

And Armin basically called his bluff and said, all right, man, well, just vacate the belt and then I'll fight somebody else for the vacant title. So do you feel that over this past six weeks, Jose, that Ilya has, I guess, not done himself a lot of favors? Or is this sort of what you expected from him? I don't know. It's, I, this is not a cop-out answer, but I think it's like way too close to him beating Charles. if he had sat out a year and he was still like rapidly refusing

then I think we would be having a different story but I I think if the UFC goes I don't think he'llie is going to vacate and I certainly don't think he's going to not fight Armand next I think if the UFC comes to him and goes you have to fight Armand he's going to fight Armine I don't think I'll think Illy is one of those guys like Connor that I'll just disappear into the ether and never defend his title nor do I think he's going to hold up the division I I truly think I really think I'll fight Armin.

I think he just doesn't, for the reasons you said, probably not the bigger name, like the Patty fights bigger, maybe the Gaichi fights bigger, maybe there's another bigger name out there for Ilya to build his star power out. But I truly think if the UFC came to him and they go, hey, you're fighting Armin in Los Angeles in January, I think that's going to, I am very confident that will happen, especially if it's there because January, I believe is there. January is their first pay-per-view on the new. their new broadcast partner, correct?

That would eventually be the plan. I would assume they want to go to Los Angeles again like they did last year. There's a massive Spanish and Armenian population in Los Angeles. I think that would make a lot of sense. But no, I don't think he's hurting his legacy yet because he hasn't, the UFC hasn't said anything about,

like how many times has Dana said we've offered Tom to John? Like it seemed like every press conference He's like, that's the fight, that's the fight, that's the fight. And then John kept saying no And that was much more of a hit to John's legacy Than I was going on some shitty streamer and saying, I'm not going to fight Armand

Because the UFC hasn't even publicly said anything If that fight's even the one to make. So I don't too soon tell. Long story short. What do you think, Jed? Do you, I mean, especially with, you know, part of the question was the Nalk Boys interview and sort of defending the Israeli PM stuff,

which, you know, it is what it is. But do you feel like Ilya is hurting his own star power since winning the belt and kind of going on the media tour and just sort of saying the things he's saying? Probably not, but maybe, I guess is my answer. Like, I would in a normal timeline, I would say yes. Because basically since he's won a title, he, like, he's just a deeply obnoxious person. There's, he is, he just is. Like, there's, I don't know how else to describe. it.

And like in a normal world, that would be like, oh, people would just be less interested in you because the things you say are like cringy or just like real lame or like obviously stupid. But like he's been doing this since he won the featherweight belt. Like I am old enough to remember when he was like, I'm going to knock out Volk and I won't fight Max because he lost the Volk three times. Why would I fight Max? Then he goes and fights Max.

Like he he just says stuff and a lot of like, there's the meme of like idiots think this. You know, as you get smarter you think this and then the wisest man thinks this. Idiots are like he's just trying to be Connor. But I actually think that they might just be right because he's just saying stuff all the time. And it's always just like super cringe. I am no longer El Matador. I'm La Leenda at 27 with one. one belt like just in most aspects people would look at that and be like bro like just do less

just do less you're really good you can be that like do you remember how much shit people gave lebron his entire career for being cringy but lebron is sort of the exact point to why he's not actually doing this like he'll catch some shit for it and he should but ultimately this is one of if not the very best fighters in the world he's very young and he's probably going to have be undefeated and put together substantial significant wins for the next few years. And so it'll all come out in the wash, right? Like as long as he keeps

actually winning, people will be inclined to look the other way when he's like, when he transparently ducks fighters. And he doesn't duck them because the fight hasn't been offered. But like, he he's actively out here being like I would like to fight Justin Gaitchew got

knocked out previously. Like before he won the belt, he's like, I just engage you. I'd like to fight him. well he just got knocked out to max of course you'd like to fight him you know patty pimblit let's do that like most people think you're going to be a minus 600 favorians patty i don't want to fight armand yeah like i get it from a prize fighting standpoint i get it but he just doesn't i have tried really hard just not pay attention to what he says anymore because he's a tremendous fighter and i love watching him compete i don't need any other part of it because it's all awful

but then you just see him like walk up on stage at a concert in a stadium and like the entire place is singing his walkout song that Desperato He has aura just shut the fuck up Like you could just let the aura do the talking You don't have to like

open your mouth and prove that you're kind of weird Like you could just be like Okay cool Jose do you feel like If you're looking at this through a UFC lens, right? Because they cannot go wrong right now. And they're clearly promoting to a different audience that they were in 2016, right? They're promoting to newer fans. They're promoting to sort of a younger generation, the ones that will sit behind a keyboard and talk shit and think

they can beat up all the fighters. Like these are the types of people, these are the types of fans that they are trying to bring in that will probably have really short shelf life, shelf lives, but this is what they're doing. Does the UFC look at what Ili is doing right now and saying, all right, we are going to strap the rockets to the sky? Or is this just like, should they be worried, I guess, that they have maybe another Connor situation on their hands? I know it's early, but this is,

I just kind of been this way since he won the belt, almost even before so. I don't think they have any reason to be worried yet because, like Jed said, he said he wasn't going to fight Max, and then he ended up fighting Max. and then he kept calling out Islam, and then when Islam went up, it's not like he chased Islam.

He fought the next guy up. I just think it's too soon. If Dana White goes on a press conference or Pat McAfee or Jim Rome or any of these other weird shows that he's on and says, Iliad turned down Armin, he refuses to fight Armin, then we can have a conversation where we have another Connor McGregor. But also, Connor never defended his belt. Elias defended the featherweight and then went up to get the lightweight.

So he's already ahead of Connor in that aspect not in star power, but in terms of doing what Connor didn't do And he just seems willing to fight not as rapidly because let's not forget Connor became a superstar because he fought very frequently and won spectacularly Ilya hasn't quite done that he's won spectacularly, but it's been like twice a year if he fights again in December or early January I think we have a bona fide superstar in her hand especially if he fights armin and does to armin what he did to the other to Max Volk and Charles. I think we have a genuine, absolute superstar in our hands. But I agree with Jed. He's a very annoying human being.

He's a very annoying human being. That's for sure. Jed, do you think, what do you rate the UFC's interest right now if you had to guess in booking Ilya versus Armin Zeruggen right now? Pretty low. I don't know why. I don't know why he's interested. And that's why you don't have to say shit if you really,

you could just ignore it. Because like there's not a big ground swell from fans. Like I think that's the best fight, certainly. I agree. But there's not like a huge amount of fans who are like, Armand must get that. Everybody's kind of like, Armand had a title shot and he blew weight.

I know he didn't technically blow weight. He got sick or whatever. He got sick because he's cutting weight and he blew weight. So like he has to earn it again. That's like the year. If the UFC isn't trying to force it down your throat, then why even say anything? Like, why just be like, oh, man? Like, why make, here's the biggest issue.

Why say something that then you can look like a dumb ass about? Because I, like, I, at the time when he was like, I'm not fighting Max, I was like, that's a very stupid thing to say. Because one, you're definitely going to fight Max. And two, you should want to fight Max. So, like, just saying you're going to beat Volk and then refuse to fight Max is a very dumb thing. And then when you fight Max, you're going to fight Max. going to look like an idiot. Well, there goes.

Like, if you come out and say, like, I will refuse to fight him and then ultimately fight him, you're going to look like an idiot. And if you win, no one will care. But if you lose, it'll be like, wow, I guess you really did want to fight, like, Armin, and that's, that's why. Like, you just don't have to say this stuff. You could just be like, you could, he could just say the, dude, Armands, nobody gives a fuck about Armin's, and that's it.

You don't need the second clause of I will refuse to fight him. You're like, nobody gives a fuck about him. People want to see me fight and kill Patty. And that would be fine. And look, he's 28. God knows I was a huge, dumbass at that age. And I was far less accomplished than him. But, man, it would be cool if he had just like one PR person on his team.

It was like, hey, say less. Say less. Yeah, Armin. And Armin, wait in as the best. backup and made championship weight and all that and but apparently that didn't win him oh it didn't that that that was a helpful step per Dana white but not like got him in it yeah we haven't I mean you're not fully cleansed yet armin also said he'd be down the clown with dan hooker in october um if that gets in the shot so like if armin b goes and just cooks dan hooker

given like shouldn't have to first of all just make a Armin Ilya in December or January. If he goes out there, just fight Dan Hooker. Hey, I would like to see that fight. Then you really have no argument about not giving Armand the title shot. But just book it. Like, just book him a fight. Like if Armand needs to earn it by winning, by fighting, just book him.

He wants to fight. You said he'd be ready to fight in September, October. Book him a fight. If it's Dan or literally anybody else that has a ranking at lightweight, put him in there. Dude, and if you're Ilya, I know Casey actually. I think Casey disagrees with me on this because like based on historical thing, dude, if you're the champ,

you could just call who you want to fight. Like, you could just do that. And a lot of times they'll just make it happen as long as it's reasonable. So instead of being like, I'll fight anyone that's not Armin or I'll fight X or Y, just come out and be like, I want to whip Patty Pimblitz ass.

He did. Base off. No, but like that's the only thing he should be saying. We had a face off in the cage. He and I've had beef for five years. I want to kick. the shit out of that scousin douche like let's go and then like give people something to to gravitate

towards as opposed to reject like oh i'm not interested in armin because i want to fight patty that is something that people can proactively get behind as opposed to just being like why don't you want to fight the guy who's got the number one like the number one next to his name it's like this feels real easy to do and he's just not all right uh let's get to the second can you pull that question back up, Casey? Because I'm curious to get some answers. Jose, I'll ask you this. What would be your version of power slap? So a different sort of sport that if you had near unlimited funds, you would help make a league or sport for fun. Do you know when you go, I don't know the terminology for it. It's not in my lexicon, but

when you go to like a lake or there's like a pool or some large body of water and there's that giant inflatable blob and you sit on one end and then they drops and then someone very heavy jumps on the other end and you get catapulted into the air i don't know what that i don't know what the official term for that is we can make up one for the sport but yeah that's what i want i want that and then you have like several people like the dunk contest holding up numbers and be like that's a 10 out of 10 just doing cool shit off of a off of a blob that's what i want that's it think of the of sponsors we could fit on a blob. Yes.

But you can't wear sponsors on your swim trunk, sorry. Okay. So this is definitely a TKO product. I respect that. Shout out to the movie Heavyweights, which was the introduction. That's literally what I was thinking of. That's amazing. Jed, what sport would you like to put on the map, so to speak, if you had near unlimited

funds, if you had that Tony Kahn AEW money and you couldn't fail. What would you do? I mean, if I'm too big to fail, I honestly, I read this question wrong, and my immediate reaction was like a combat sport. And I just slapboxing. Like, why are we doing? Like, turn power slap into slapboxes.

That'd be fun as shit. Just two dudes out there going at it. Just slapping each other. Maybe, yes, it's perfect for it. Chess boxing is fun to watch, too. I say, they, you know, they're trying to make chess boxing a thing. It's great. We can do some slapboxing.

Other sports? Ah, that's an interest for other sports. I don't know. It can be combat, whatever you want. No, I mean, that would be my choice for combat sports just because I think it's fun. But like, Jose has a great idea, I think. Do you guys ever watch trampoline at the Olympics? Like, you're basically to be that.

You're just launching people and doing flips. And trampoline of the Olympics is one of the most fascinating things in the world to watch. Yes. The first ever X games was in Providence, Rhode Island. fun fact and I went. I was probably seven or eight. And one of the events was synchronized. I think it was synchronized.

We synchronized bungee jumping. And they were doing it over the province river. And like seven-year-old Jose thought it was the coolest thing in the world. That is pretty cool. I think they called it the gravity games back then. Oh, yeah, I think you might be right. That was a good time. And they never came back to the province.

I was very disappointed. And also why they chose proud of it is. beyond me. Because they were like, yes, come. Please. It was probably the easy place to go. And then, yeah, I don't know. Well, there's some ideas.

There's sports that just have not hit the map and haven't or haven't been done right. Let us know what you guys think. But let's move on. Did you guys watch the pillow fighting, the Hector Lombard thing? Well, pillow fighting's got some legs to it. I think they need to work on the rules, but pillow fighting has, I'm interested. It was actually like way more fun to watch that I thought. It was way fun.

Yeah, it was very fun. That is also on the feed. If you haven't seen the full Hector Lombard, Czechongo, Pillow Fight. Check Congo, those. That is on the feed. You can check it out. Hector Lombard actually was like, Dana White, Lorenzo Fratita, take over the sport.

It'll be fun. The point for round number two in this mystery box edition of BTL goes to Jeddbushu. One to one, nicely done. Congratulations. All right. Casey, what is the next question? The round three topic. Oh, we're searching. Oh, lazy bed. Okay. Which is the more impactful story of these three and why? One, the updated, unified rules. Two, the WWB signing broadcast deal with the SPN. Three, the Florida State Athletic Commission executive director, Timothy Shipman, being named the president of the ABC. So, yes, these are all things. things that happened this week.

Jose will begin with you here. Which is the more impactful story. The Unified Rules getting a little bit of an update. WWE's new broadcast deal with ESPN. They'll be taking over PLEs starting in 2026. It'll be part of the new ESPN streaming service. Or Timothy Shipman, we're getting more Florida when it comes to American combat sports rule sets and commission like things.

Now, I'll answer this a little differently than probably expected. It should be probably one or three. Those should be the answer. But as someone who runs a social media account for probably the biggest MMA company in the world, in terms of people actually creating conversation, it's the WWE. So take that for what you will. I just think the unified rules probably should be because anytime you make major overhauls and rules, that should be the topic conversation.

but I don't think fans know the rules to begin with. So when you tell them they change, they don't be like, well, all right, like I'm still going to watch it the same and they're still going to assume nothing. They're not going to notice any difference outside of, if it's a major, like when Patty threw the 12-6 elbows for the first time, that was something like optically much different that we hadn't seen.

I still don't think fans are going to notice. The Florida State Athletic Commission thing, I don't think I would hazard say 99% of MMA fans don't really care about athletic commissions. They just want to watch fights. They just want to kind of want to turn their brains off and watch two people break break on each other's faces. So for us, it's probably one or three,

and it should be one or three. But in terms of what I've seen on social media, the WW going to ESPN from, because right now it's on Peacock. And then everyone was in up and arms because they thought they were going to have to pay an extra $30 a month or something like $29.99 a month. And then when it came out that if you already have ESPN and your YouTube TV or cable package or you're paying for

ESPN already. You don't have to play anything else. It was like universally celebrated as like, great, now we can get WWE on ESPN. What does this mean for the UFC? Is UFC going to Netflix? Are they, is UFC going to do the same thing where they have all their fight nights and everything on Netflix, but their big pay-per-views or in ESPN? Is this laying the groundwork? That was probably, if there were a thousand tweets, 999 of them were about the WWE deal and how it affects the UFC. And there was maybe one or two tweets about, from fans I'm saying, about rules and the athletic condition. Because obviously, in our line of work, we're going to see all of our colleagues talking about the actual MMA news and not the WRV broadcast deal.

So as someone who's, again, it's all fans cared about with the WVU stuff. Jed, what say you? I mean, Cozay took a little bit of a different direction. What do you think in here? I mean, I guess the question is impactful to who in terms of MMA. It's not number two. because it's WWE, that's almost certainly the actual

most tangibly impactful of these if we're looking at it just like holistically because I don't know, y'all watch wrestling or to some extent I don't know how that's going to you know you now do you are they on Paramount

Pekyll where's WWP? Peacock. Well, now you have to buy ESPN and Netflix and Peacock. And also NW. So is Netflix just has the PLEs, correct? No, Netflix has raw.

I mean, Peacock has the PLEs, the depapeys. And they have the library. So one of the libraries. But I think the SBN deal does not include the library. So I wonder if the library is going to stay with Peacock, who is now announced they're raising their prices. Like, this is, it's just a mess. You guys fucking remember when we were supposed to be liberated from cable and we just got worse cable? Yes.

Like, that's just all that happened is instead of buying a cable package, you have to buy eight different fucking packages. It's so got, it's so infuriating. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. That's going to be the most impactful because a lot of people watch WWE and they're not going to have to spend more money. Like, that's just going to be the most tangibly impactful one. They're talking about in terms of MMA. I doubt that maybe that makes it slightly more likely that the UFC resigns in whole or part with ESP. but I don't think that that's like a huge mover there.

The updated unified rules is probably the answer. I have never been a huge fan of Mike Mazzuli, so him not being in charge of the ABC. I don't frankly know that much about Tim Shipman, though being ahead of Florida is probably not like the strongest start. But I don't think Mike Mizzuli is very good at his job. So him being out, I'm supportive of. But the updated rules should, I think they are good clarifications.

I don't think they go far enough. But like they're starting to finally like draw real concrete lines about stuff in a way that I think will clear up some clarification, hopefully make judging a little bit better. So I'll go with one in terms of MMA because that is a thing that will manifest multiple times a year. in fight scoring. Yeah, would definitely agree with that. But do you feel like, I know a lot of people feel like WWE going to ESPN, it kind of helps the UFC stuff.

Like, I don't know if UFC is just going to stay full board them or if UFC is going to pull a WWE and just go to multiple different networks and maybe the paper views just stay there. I don't really know. But was that news, Jed? Did that say, OK, UFC's going to be sticking with ESPN for sure. in one way, shape, or form? I will say that I

kind of have been of the impression for a while now based on reporting that they're going to be split between multiple entities. And I am now like really certain that the UFC at some level will stay with ESPN.

You know, I'm sure they'll stay with tough and contender series and some number of events. Maybe it is just the pay-per-views and somebody else gets other. but it will be fairly surprising if they're not at least in part with ESPN given ESPN, you know, I mean, now they're with the other half of TKO, so why wouldn't they be? Jose, if the UFC makes the choice to stay with ESPN in some way, shape, or form,

true or false, power slap becomes part of that package. Ooh, funny you mentioned that. Did you see who had its own actual ESPN desk in New Orleans for an event? Power slap. I'm sure none of you noticed. But there was a power slap event, and the ESPN desk was there to talk about it. So I think where there's smoke, there's fire. Oh, my God.

It might have been ESPN2 or ESPNU. I can't remember. But it's one of those things where they probably did. I don't know why it was there. I don't know if it was the Dana asks the people in charge of ESPN or ESPN as Dana because apparently like Appalach and Stake lacrosse just wasn't available to put on. But I don't know I know it wasn't on the the mothership network just big ESPN. So I'm assuming it was ESPN 2 or SPNU or ESPN Plus or something, but I know the desk was there. I know that was there Friday in New Orleans.

Why? I don't know, but where there's smoke, there's fire. that would be especially like with this new streaming platform it would not shock me at the like yeah i thought it was i thought for sure if you asked me a year ago or whenever they announced whenever mark zuckabberg announced dan it was joining the board at meta i'm like well they're just going to stream power slap on facebook now or meta or instagram or oculus or whatever they do um but the fact that that hasn't become the official home of power slap is i don't know so i'm sure they're going to try to package it

What do you think, Jed? I come hell or high water, Dana's going to make power slap happen. I don't get it. I just refuse to believe that people actually are interested in it outside of a social media context. But one of the great things when you have a billion dollar entity that has monopoly power over its market, you can just kind of force shit to happen. be like you ESPN take power slap and you'll get some of the UFC deal. It is. It is.

It's. Being there in person, I've been to a few. It's if you don't, if the people don't get knocked out or knocked down in like the first slap, it's so boring. It is so boring. Like if you go to like a five round decision, I'm like, if you go to a five round decision, I'm just like, hey, I don't know even know how you can score power slap or what a decision entails. but I'm like, this eye is so warm. It's so boring.

Yeah. It just seems like if you're going to go, go live because you just don't know who's, you just might be surprised who shows up and like is in attendance with this very sort of intimate setting. So I mean, I don't know what you'd have to do to get me to go to one of those. Like I just, it just says I would rather with my friends around a fire and hit them. Like that sounds way better. And it's weird. It's a way better use of my time. Because like the last, Dana doesn't do scrums much anymore at post PowerSla.

But like the two big scrums that we like whenever Dana talks, we got obviously some news out of it. But when he went scorched Earth on Francis and then he read that statement about Bryce Mitchell, I'm pretty sure both of those are at Power Slap press conferences, not UFC stuff. So like it's still annoying that it's like you have to tune in just a case something. said. Yeah, the Dodd Davis thing. That was a power slap press. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that was when I was in Abu D. Because it was, I was in Abu Dhabi for and you did the town hall like that week. And he responded to it. Tough scenes. Tough scenes for Dapper Dap or Don. I might actually see Daperdon in person next Friday. I'm going to be at the PFL Charlotte card. So we see, you know, I haven't been, I haven't covered a PFL card yet. So I'm going to go and check

It's like a time. All right. Well, it's a time. I'm intrigued by it all, much like I am intrigued by the next question we're going to get. But first, the point,

it's not great. But the point for round three goes to, I give it to Jed because he might have actually come up with the next big sport. Campfire slapping. Bonfire slapping? Bonfire slapping? Dude, like that would just be a way better use every time.

I would assume. one of our colleagues at our rival site might be a little copyright infringement on his new podcast. Oh, we just don't use the. Oh, yeah, that's fair. Oh, that's how we're going to get around it. That's like Kid Rock, not Kid Rock.

It's all, I mean, they're all the same. Vanilla Ice is like, oh, I add, vanilla ice added an extra high hat to ice ice maybe. So we didn't actually, we didn't actually, we just added a high hat at the end. So it's not the same. But I was like, oh, it's just the first. It's just the first 14 notes are the same, but the 15th different.

I was thinking the exact same thing that Vidal-I. No, it's like, there's this done, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Mine's done-dun-dun-da-da-da-da-ch. Oh, it's so great. What are the greatest explanations for? That's an unbelievable. I mean, honestly, if anyone's going to go to Power Slav, it's going to be even no eyes. Oh, 100%.

Oh, I have a bonfire story. Not a Mike Bonfire story, but very quickly. in high school we used to do bomb fires in people's backyards obviously people were drinking and there's one guy had a you know a gas can with a little spout on it and he's like let me let me get this going and he walks over and he pours the gas can i don't know if you guys know how gasoline works it's extremely flammable so as he's pouring the spout it just the fire goes up and catches the tip of the gas can on fire so now he's essentially holding a bomb and you just it's he's tries to put it out by shaking it to like shake the fire out and all that does is spurt like flaming gas all over this yard and everybody else just runs away before this thing blows up in his face before he finally puts it down and steps it out it was unbelievable this was this was in georgia sure was yeah i was gonna say this sounds like it's on the south though it's the country is the country Georgia yeah honestly

props to that guy because if I'm assuming if someone in Georgia is holding a thing of gasoline they're probably trying to drink it just based on how that's that part it might have it was awesome that is stuck with me my entire adult life guy just flaming gas cans

trying to put it out by shaking it maybe that's the sport who could put out the flaming gas can first oh god it was great Casey what is the next question final final question regulation probably not back to lazy bed we're yeah honestly i'm out of all the things we could have talked about rakell pettington versus norma dumont was not on my list i can assure you of that but uh jett will begin with you with rquel pennington out versus doris truvenmont in the

j ufz name one move to save or resurrect women's bantamweight know. I mean, like, ground floor investment in talent development was like how you would actually save it. I don't know what Brock Lesnar's daughter walks around at, but the Lesnar Belamere fight. I know Belomere competes at Flyweight, I'm pretty sure. So like, there's nothing. The division, it's just got nothing going for it. to save it, you have to just actively start trying to develop fighters as best you can

and putting investment into it. And so the UFC's probably not going to do that. They're just going to let it limp along until eventually it dies of natural causes. Jed, say, or not Jed, Jose, save women's band and wait because apparently it needs saving following Raquel Pennington's exit from the Normandymont fight. That's the straw that can't be. that. Well, they just signed Bia, who is from LFA, who is an incredibly talented jujitsu practitioner. Is she enough to drive pay-per-view sales? Probably not, but at least they're injecting some sort of

talent from another sport. And then, I think that's a good, that's like step one of, I don't know, what step two would be. I mean, there are interesting people to talk to. The problem is they're not putting on the electric performances. Because, like, Eileen Perez is a very good interview in the woman's band and ways of vision. She talks a lot of shit. She is a character. Everyone wants to see her twerk.

I know she doesn't speak English, but if you can speak Spanish, she is a very good and very fun interview. She talks a lot of shit. She was asking for Kayla Harrison, the Kayla Harrison fight before Kayla Harrison even made her debut. So props to her. You just need more people like that,

but you also need to have you just need like if her style of fighting and her performances were half as exciting as she was or fun on the mic that it would be a different story she'd be a big star you just don't have you don't have the best character characters the best people that can drive conversation are Kayla Juliana Amanda those three Amanda is coming back Kayla's going to do her best but if Kayla beats Amanda who's she going to find next that's any sort of interest Like, Raquel is a nice person. Norma's an interesting person. But like, I don't know.

I think, I don't know. You're just going to have to go find some talent somewhere. Kayla fight Shvchenko after Shepchenko beats Wiley. That's like all you can do. She can't do anything else. Yeah, maybe. It's tough. You better, I think what they need to do is just,

they should probably just sign anybody. at Women's Bainty at this point, and let Bia mosquito just roll all over them. Like just run off like four wins in nine months or something. Just tap a bunch of women in the first round real fast. Just keep bouncing her out there. Like, you know, once every two or three months, just keep her super active.

Let her be like the Kevin Holland of women's Bannamweight and just let her rack up wins so people get to know her because you're kind of running out of options here. There's just not a lot of women's Bannamweight. Unless we do the idea that Jed and I've been talking about for years, just do women's heavyweight. Hell yeah. Yeah. Just do women's heavyweight. 135 to 155.

Like just do that. Anything north of 126 is women's heavy weight. Yeah. It's just so much easier. There's so many more options and just do it that way. Legitimately, sign fighters, like simply sign. I do like, it doesn't matter. They had 21 women's bantam weight fighters.

in 2024. That's like a fourth of what other weight classes have. You can't have a division that way. Like you are not, there's no movement. There's nothing going on. If you have 20 fights, you're fighting one, you know, twice a month, not even for the whole division. Like it's, that's unsustainable. Sign anybody and get them fighting.

I just don't know where you can even find him at this point. Fuck it. Signed Amanda Serrano. She has MMA fights. Sure. Is she still under PFL contract? Oh, bye-bye, Jose. That'll be fun.

DQ win. Maybe we'll do the knock out with the board. Damn it, he's bad. He's so bad. He's so bad. He's got kicked out after my bad suggestion. Hey, listen, that would be a good one. That would certainly create some buzz.

And imagine like Nekisa and Dana White working together. I mean, I think that would, uh, that would create some buzz those to like hate each other and don't have anything good to say about one another. So, yeah. Again, didn't expect to see a Raquel Pennington Norma Dumont question out of all the possible options here. But this is the mystery show. It's a surprise show. But this question stumped the panel. There was no answer.

There's no good. No, the answer is it can't be saved. Money solves everything. Yeah, but there's no money. There's no money. Because that would, I mean, that would be fun. It would, but they're not going to spend that money. Yeah, they certainly are.

All right. Well, that was round four, and the point for round four goes to, I mean, Jose was in an advantageous position because he got to wait to hear Jed's answer first. So he gets the point. Wasn't Jed's answer? I don't know. His answer was. Yeah. Right.

I didn't know. Like, to be fair, I've lost between the links what Brian Campbell literally said, I don't know, that everyone voted for him. I was like that makes sense. The Just Bleed guy. Otto, get over here. I need you again. All right. Well, it's time for the DACA round.

I don't know the question. Yes. I don't know what the question is going to be, but each of these gentlemen will have 60 seconds to answer said question. And you guys can vote for the winner on this special mystery edition of BTL. And moving forward, the new and improved, MAPviting.com, there will be a question. There will be a piece in the feed.

where you guys will get to determine the knockout round question. Should it get that far, it probably will. But you guys have the opportunity to determine the knockout question in the feed each and every week. We'll let you know how that works. But Jed, you are the last man in this panel to get a victory. Do you want to go first in this mystery knockout round? Because I don't even know what the question is either. Honest to God, I don't remember the last time I won between the lengths.

I'm certain I know what the question is, but I'm going to go second, because I got to go get auto so he can be in the photo in the picture with me and I can I can win so I'll go second while I round up the dog all right Jose is here Casey what is the knockout round question buddy that's going to be so hard oh I'm choosing I'm choosing the question sorry I thought you yeah you're all you're all you're choosing all of them oh yeah I don't know what the fuck question is I'm sorry it's the people show Talk amongst yourselves for a moment. All right.

There's Otto. The question has to do with the, the fight that was announced moments before we went on air. Yeah, we should probably do that question. All right, you know what? Don't worry about. We got, we got. Okay.

All right. All right. I've definitely seen that question in the chat. All right. Let's go with that. All right. All right. Your question comes from.

Good friend, long time commenter. Mr. Joseph Bose. Oops. What is this? Senator for Ants. So, yes, big news. UFC Rio, October 11th has a main event. It is Charles Olivera versus Raphael Fazeve.

And curious your thoughts on this fight, Jose is a fan of high-level martial arts. It is coming from the lightweight division. But to add a little bit of seasoning to this question, are you concerned that Charles Olivera is coming back so quickly after being colded by Iliot Teporia in a fight that he said it's never been knocked out cold like that before. Are you concerned at all? So thoughts of the matchup and thoughts on Oliver's quick turnaround. Go. I mean, I'm always going to be concerned. I mean, I love the fight in a bottle. The fight itself rules anytime Charles versus anyone is going to slap and Raphael Paziv versus just about anyone is going to slap. I know the Bustamante fight

It wasn't that great in Baku. But nonetheless, now that he's back in the wind column, he just felt like he was fighting a little safe to keep his job. Now that he's back in the wind column, he fights like he did against Gaiji those two times. This fight is going to be awesome. But I am always under, I always think if someone gets knocked out cold, not TKOed, not like ground and pounded into submission. Like if you go to sleep, you do, you should not fight for minimum six months.

Because getting, going to bed by getting a hammer to the face, is not good for your health. I think Charles should have stayed away until probably first quarter, 2026. I want Charles to, or 20, yeah, 226 or whatever. I want Charles's career to be as long as it can be, and I want to see him fight some more, because if he gets knocked out again by Fizzives,

you got to think the end is near for King Charles. All right, thank you, Jose. Let's go over to Jed and Otto. I wonder what Otto thinks about Charles Oliver. Otto hates Charles Oliver. I heard him say it. Yeah, I mean, look at how angry he is. Look at it.

He doesn't care for it. Otto is like, thank God, Ilya, won. Otto, are you rooting for Raphael Fazeve? Yeah. He sure is. Look at that. So, Jed, your reaction to the fight and are you surprised slash concern that Oliver is coming back so quickly? 60 seconds on the clock, go.

I was completely flabbergasted, didn't see this coming, right? Like, I did anyone? Did anyone have this in the Otno card? Great for Oliver to get to fight in Rio, but it's his way too quick a turnaround. It's a quick turnaround against a guy who I think has a good chance of beating him, given the circumstances, even though Charles Oliver, I think is a better fighter. Fiziv, you know, can crack and he's coming off that brutal knockout loss. I don't think this is good for his long-term career. and mostly my like after I was my immediate thought was wow that didn't see that coming at all

fight will certainly be a banger like that these are two incredibly exciting people charles oliver's never in a boring fight really really bummed we're not getting charles v max right like and maybe that still happens but it just seemed to be a better timeline for max has the hand injury he's out for the rest of the year let's let charles recover and then sometime early next year those two dudes can run it for the bmf belt Yeah, I think this fight definitely kind of threw me off guard a little bit. But with Max saying that he is out till 2026, I guess it was just like, let's just get back in there and try to get a win and try to dust some of the cobblets.

He wants to fight in Rio. I get it, but that's a quick turnaround. Yeah, the other, I mean, the other thing kind of on the Charles side was, and Fizib could certainly win this fight. I think this is about stylistically as good as it probably gets for Charles with guys who are available and who are realistic matchups, although Fiziv could certainly get it done here. And the other thing is, man, the UFC really likes Raphael Fiziv. They're just giving him so many different opportunities.

A lot of chances. Listen, man, the fight, I want to see Charles rematch Max at lightweight. Max is out until February anyway. Charles should also be out until February. And then you can just do that. It's not like it's the last time they're going to be able to fight, but like, I want that fight now before. I don't want it to be sad. Does that make sense? I don't want to see Charles and Max fight and be like, I'll remember when they used to be great. Just do it now. Yeah. Agreed. Maybe they have other plans for Max. Who the hell knows? Case is already here. So he's already here. He's got sleeves on. Oh, yeah. Your winner today with 50. 54% of the votes.

Ooh. This is a close. Okay, I was going to say, I don't know. I have no frame of reference on what's close to BTO. Jose Young's. Yeah. Whoa. Suck it.

Suck it, Otto. Suck it, Otto. You jackface, butthole. I won. Listen, Otto. Oh, wow. It got even closer. That's because, I mean, Jose just yelled to the dog.

I mean, it's Jose. It's 51% victory per the poll. Wow. That's incredible. Casey, I didn't even see him. Casey may have just put the poll on. They got like 18 votes. And he was just like, oh, Jose's and Lee.

Let's just stop it. Congratulations, Jose. You got it done. Despite connection issues, use this whiteboard. Well done. This is like, this is like Jessica High winning after losing like seven in a row. That's our feeling right now. anything you want to say you got 30 seconds you can talk about whatever you want yeah man all love

and respect to our fellow our former colleagues that are from eater you will be missed it's a very sad time at vox but you will be missed um and in terms of what we got going on obviously i'm going to go to Chicago next week we're going to have some anything but fighting coming with a whole bunch of fun people on Tuesday. And I got some fun clips of a nice chat. I have with Pan Palba earlier this week. So stay tuned for that. Yes, I'm curious about that as well because I'm trying to book some interviews and

I was told you have the run of the mill over there in Chicago. So Jed, what would you like to say about the decision, how the fans voted and Otto not putting you over the top today? Look, the fans, they saw through my shameless ploy to. steal victory and I got to respect them for that. Game respects game. I tried to juice the numbers backfired and I'm going to grow from this. You guys are never going to see Otto on air again.

Good. No one wants to see him. No one wants to see that jack face, whatever you called him. I will call and I will echo Jose's thoughts about here. I won't say anymore. You will be missed and it was a terrible day. Yes, I agree with that. Jed dared to be great and we should sure did. I did not do that. Super chat. Last week you guys talked about quarter stoppages and I was in a meeting,

couldn't send the super chat. Fun fact, Derek Brunson had the towel thrown in on them in back-to-back fights, yes. Yes. But I don't think, yeah, but then there was like they don't want to see that. Like, yeah, I don't remember. I remember that happening. It was tweeted at me because it was, it was DDP and Jared came near. Yeah, that's what it was. Though I think officially the cannoneer fight, they didn't see the towel. Yeah. Like it got stopped, but there was like a towel thrown.

If I'm remembering that first thing, it was, it just worked out. Yeah. The towel got thrown in when the referee was going to stop. But the DDP fight, like somebody sent me, because obviously big DDP guys, people were like, it happened with your boy. Here's the thing. It's like, yeah. Guys, we just need to get through UFC Vegas 109. We just got to get through Saturday.

and then it's on to to the big one. DDP versus Hamzot, UFC 319, Casey hit the music. Next week's show, we'll be talking all about that. I don't know how much we're going to discuss UFC Vegas 109, Anthony Hernandez versus Roman Delizzee. That is the climb bet this week, Jed, yes? Anthony Hernandez.

Fluffy, let's go. I think he's going to roll Roman Deleadzee. We shall see. I did speak to Fluffy Hernandez. You can check it out on the YouTube channel and on MFA I got an interview with Roman Delizadee coming.

Talk to Steve Erseng as well. Check that out. For Jose, for Jed. We'll see you next week. Casey, thank you very much. The iconic voice semester that takes you home. Good night, everyone.

Love it out. This has been Between the Links and MMI fighting production on the Vox Media Network.