MMA Fighting - BTL | Islam Makhachev Crowned At UFC 280, Sterling's Next Move, Paul vs. Silva, More

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

Islam Makhachev is the new UFC lightweight champion after his dominant win over Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 280 this past Saturday. Is this the beginning of an all-time dominant title reign in the promotion's top division? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will react to Makhachev's victory, how long his reign could last, and a potential matchup with featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski. Additionally, topics include Aljamain Sterling's win over T.J. Dillashaw in the co-main event, Dillashaw's injury, and what could be next for the bantamweight champ, along with a very busy Saturday in combat sports ahead with Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva taking place, UFC Vegas 63 headlined by Calvin Kattar vs. Arnold Allen, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between the returning Jed Meshew and Drake Riggs. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Drake Riggs: @DrakeRiggs_ 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

Is it the matcha, or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets? Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundled together? What a steal. And that packaging? So cute. It practically wraps itself. And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the summer Fridays and rare beauty by Selena Gomez.

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And now your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new edition to Between the Links. And what a show it shall be, ladies and gentlemen, because we have so much to talk about. So much. We have the fallout of UFC 280. So many storylines came out of that event. We have a brand new lightweight champion of the world in the UFC.

We have a very busy weekend in combat sports ahead of us. Belator and the UFC both have events on Saturday. Belator and Milan. UFC is back at the luxurious UFC Apex. Main event, spectacular one. Calvin Cater at Arnallon, tons of boxing, including, yes, the big event in Glendale, Arizona,

Jake Paul versus Anderson Silva. So much to talk about and no more time to waste. So let us introduce the computer. competitors first. This man is going to go down in history as the first ever Colin guest in the history of MMA fighting's UFC pay-per-view watch parties. He's been a champion on the show before. He will soon become one half of the BTL tag team champions. Once you figure out how to make that happen again, he's from MMA mania. He is the great Drake Rakes. Hello, Drake. What is up my future tag team partner? I am doing well. Hope you guys

are. I'm a little bit disappointed. You know, when we, you reach out to me for this set of mystery opponents, but it's the same old face I've been beating over and over. You're going to have to put him back in retirement. Yes, there are some things happening behind the scenes, but ladies gentlemen, it's happening. We've been preaching over the last several days since the UFC 280 post-fight show.

The importance of doing the thing, whatever the thing is supposed to be, just do the thing. And folks, this guy is doing the damn thing. He's living the mantra. The retirement lasted around. around the month, but it's over as he continues his victory lap. Welcome back to BTL from MMAFiting.com.

Mr. No Gray area. Jed Bishu, wow. Didn't think I'd see this day anytime soon. Actually, I thought I'd see it sooner, but welcome back. The retirement isn't over. This is somewhere in the Tito Ortiz, Uriah Faber. You know, I might stay in the pool. And if a fight comes up, that interests me.

I love the game, Mike. You know I love the game. And you can't, I can't play the game. You know, I can't go to the park. Can't go to the rucker and get a pickup BTL. It's not how it works. And I felt one time only, this event, big event, you came asking help. And if a friend asks for help, you help him.

So here I am at least one time, probably going to, you know, stay in that retirement zone unless somebody can make it interesting for me. This is exhibition, Jed, is what it is. This is actually very exhibition, Jed. Maybe the best way to put this right now. I mean, the original plan was we were going to bring in your long-lost cousin. Oh, no. I was excited for that. Don't tell people.

Don't tell people to play it because the plan may happen later. All right. Well, I'm very- I didn't have enough time to reach out to the important parties for the plan. All right. Well, let's get into this thing. I'm sure everybody watching right now, and I know, you two gentlemen did as well, watched UFC 280 this past Saturday because that's where we're

going to begin. And Jed, I think we should go right to you because the final result of the UFC's most recent pay-per-view was not surprising to you at all. In fact, you predicted it would happen for a very long time that Islam Makachev would win the lightweight title. And he did just that. He dominates Charles Olivera. He gets it done. It's been a few days to digest it all. But I wanted to get your reaction five days later, but also Daniel Cormier, broadcast journalists, said something interesting. He said that Makachev's win over Olivera was one of, if not the most dominant performances ever by a challenger in UFC title fight history. So your reaction five days later on the win, do you agree with them? No. I mean, I'm not good at thinking of things like this left

top of my head. I recall John Jones just absolutely thumping Shogunhua, and that feels like, that's probably like the actual answer. I'm also just trying to think of some other ones that maybe are at play here. But it certainly was dominant. It's a very different kind of dominant, right? And we talked about this in the post show. Talked about this on the ranking show this week. It's that fight was not close.

That fight was not competitive. It was not like a total ass kicking, but it was just shy of that because that's just what it was. like Charles O'Levara had maybe arguably one effective piece of offense that entire fight, which was the upkick. He did some other things and was he tried to compete, but he did not in any way in danger is Lamakov while being squeezed to death like a boa constrictor. It was just, I'm going to shut down every aspect that you want to build off all of your offense. And then we're just going to finish this. And he finished it ruthlessly quickly when he got.

him hurt like that was that finishing sequence is amazing we don't have like a year end award for that but like he'll probably make my top five submissions of the year just because everything that led up to that finish was dope but it's just like it was a consummate performance it was the kind of performance that i thought we would get it was the kind of performance that i knew he had in him from last year it's just like yeah you watch that guy fight and he that was been my issue with Charles Oliver the whole time. Absolutely no disrespect to that man, who's one of the most exciting champions of all time, had a great run, et cetera, et cetera.

All the plaudits go his way. But the whole lead up to, is this to go lightweight? I was just like, sometimes your eyes can just tell you the thing, and he's clearly not. Like, he's just not that because he almost loses every fight that he was in. He almost lost. And it's like, oh, see, like this is what a dominant truly. the top, top guy looks like, what is what it is on Machetev look like on Saturday.

So it was awesome, great performance. Drake, your thoughts on D.C.C.S. take and Macha Chef's performance as a whole on Saturday. Yeah, I mean, you can't really say anything too bad about Mockachev's performance at all, really. He was very dominant, beat a guy who, you know, I think a lot of people were surprised was the underdog going in. Charles Oliver, having earned the respect throughout his title reign.

And, you know, we talked about it. what on the watch party, Mike? Like Charles Oliver got to that point where we couldn't bet against him until we saw him lose because that's just how amazing he was looking. Despite getting hurt in all these fights, he would still find ways to win, which was, I think, very important in believing in him to get the job done against even somebody like Makachev, who is very dominant.

But I will say I actually ended up not being as surprised by the performance as the fight got closer because listening to a bunch of people talk about the fight and everything, what stood out to me specifically was Alexander Volkanowski talking, about the fight and previewing it a little bit when he did on his YouTube channel. And he mentioned how, you know, Malkenchev just doesn't make a lot of mistakes. You know, he's a very, you know, kind of patient guy, but still breaks you down whenever the time presents itself. And so when I thought about that more and looked back at his fights, Mokachev's fights,

despite the opposition, maybe not being as good, clearly not being as good as what Oliver had thought. I was like, all right, this does have some pretty good potential to be as one-sided as it could be. and if it is going to be one-sided, it is going to be in Machachev's favor over all of errors. Like, just stylistically, I don't think there's any reason we should have believed it to look the opposite for Charles.

Like, of course, he could have finished and found a way to get it done. But when you actually break down the performances, performance by performance, it shouldn't have been all that surprising. Still surprising because it actually ends up happening in his biggest fight, the biggest spotlight, all these things. But maybe not as shocking. more you deepen, the more you dive into it. So definitely very impressive and nothing really bad to say about it. As for DC's comments about what it being the best performance from a title

challenger, it's up there. I don't think it's number one. And obviously Jed mentioned a good one with Jones versus Shogun. I missed the best one. There's one very obvious answer. Dishah Barow comes up. Yawana versus Carla is maybe for me off the top of my head. Even Rousy and Holm, Holm, Holm versus Rousy. Still missed. It's the most obvious one in the world. It was Smith and Woodley.

No, no, no. I didn't think about it until I pulled this up while Drake was talking. It's Anderson, Silver, Rich Franklin. That's the answer. That is the answer. So, I mean, there's a lot of good ones to choose from, obviously. But I don't think it's the best.

I don't even know if it's top three, but probably top 10. I mean, we just rattled off a good, like, right there. That's the thing that if you notice all that list of dudes we rattled off like Usman Anderson Silva, John Jones, Yonah, what is the thing about every name on this list? They were, they became long reigning dominant champions like that. That's what we're in for with this guy. He is clearly that. All right. Well, we'll touch on that in a minute. But Drake, I want to go back to you because we live in a world in 2022 where the UFC ranking, the UFC ranking, the UFC ranking

exist, but they mean nothing. Win streaks mean very little. Meritocracy, for the most part. It doesn't exist in the UFC. And having said that, Islam Makachev not only had an A-plus performance in the fight, but between him and Habib, nice little assist from D.C.,

a plus post-fight interview as well. Got us building towards a fight for the lightweight title between Islam Machachev and the man you just mentioned, the featherweight champion of the world, the number one fighter in the, in the, in the globe, pound for pound, Alexander Volcanowski.

So Drake, let me ask you this. Is this the right call? Are you in on this? Is Benil Darius slighted? What do you think? I think Benile is definitely slighted, but at the same time, I do feel like it is the right call.

I mean, it all has lined up too perfectly a little bit in terms of how, you know, Volcanovsky had been calling for this. He kind of set it in motion long before it has ended up happening, you know, talking about wanting to be back up. and then kind of Wolverine healing off of his hand surgery in time to even be the backup in the first place. That was kind of the big hang up there.

And obviously there was a confusion with Darius thinking he'd be the backup. And then Volcanowski's like, no, I got this. And it doesn't really make sense to be like, okay, he deserves, he's getting a title shop because we gave him the backup spot. Like we've seen a lot of guys not get that before. When Manel Kopp comes to mind recently when he joined the promotion even, and that was just kind of a big compliment to him, but he didn't go on to. to fight for the title yet, if he ever does. But for Volcanovsky, he's obviously a champion, the best in the world right now.

So it's a little bit different than that. He has fought it lightweight before. People forget, and I think don't obviously realize that his first, what he made is, when he joined the UFC in his debut fight, he was at Lightway still and then dropped down. So, I mean, obviously it's been primarily featherweight, and he's been perfect there. So I'm not mad at it specifically because of the fact that I, I love when this kind of these two skill levels are going against each other. And between Volcanovsky and Makachev, they're two very, very different kinds of dominant right now.

Maybe not two very, very different kinds of dominant. But obviously, Volkanowski, a lot more well-rounded and shows off more of the overall skill set than just going out there and smashing people like Islam has been doing. So, and in terms of obviously the business side, you can ever beat Champ versus Champ for the most part in Australia. like the timing of everything is too good for the UFC, I think to pass up here. Darius, I would love to see that one because of the grappling, like the Gamrod fight I thought was sensational. Those scrambles were Chef's Kiss in the first round, if you will.

So I still really want to see that fight. I'm afraid, though, that because of the prolonging, there will be some ridiculousness with the MMA gods, halting Dariush's momentum. He'll lose whatever his next fight is, and we won't end up ever getting to see the Islam fight. It's going to end up being a cursed one. But I can't complain.

that much because I think the Volkanovsky matchup is still going to be very, very good and very interesting, even though people are already really counting Volkanovsky out, which I don't know if that's fair. I mean, if you look at who's, again, it's similar to with Charles, who has fought the better competition and

looked better arguably over a longer stretch of a period. I know you can argue the second Holloway fight and whatnot, but in a different division. There's all these factors. There's just too many things that make it more interesting. than just a regular challenger for me.

So I think it is the right call. You can't kind of pass up on these big fights. And when the champion who wants to make his first title defense against the very best fighter in the world, how do you really pass that up? And I mentioned this on Twitter too after Volcanovsky, I think kind of said something. But Mike, I'm going to ask you this, and Jed, like, is it the toughest first title defense in, like, UFC history? What do you think, Jed? Let me think about that one for a second

I'll think about that while I answer my side of this question for you, Mike. I've come all the way back around on it. I started hating it. They sold me on it on fight night. I'm back to hating on it with the caveat that I accept it, right? My initial form of hate was I really just don't want this to happen because I think it's very, very stupid and it ruins a lot of other things. It in just the microcosm of itself is like a decently cool thing, but I think it's less cool than we think it is.

And the ripple effects are just like astronomically shitty for everybody else that's not those two dudes and this specific moment. They sold me on fight night because the call out really worked. It was cool enough. And I am of the opinion. This is going to happen. So like, might as well just get on board with it, I guess, you know? Like, it's what am I going to do, bang my head against the wall for the next six months? it's it's lame like i i know that i'm the bad guy for saying this i don't think this i i

do not believe this will be that competitive of a fight it will be more competitive than olivera was i think is going to comfortably win this fight and very early on in the fight will be like oh yeah that was a lot cooler in our heads but they're in very different weight classes and even if they were in the same weight class, Islam's style is probably a really difficult one for the way Volcanovsky gets off offense. Not to mention, Volk's about to be 34. And as we talked about,

and I'm sure we'll talk about some with T.J. Dillershaw, it's tough to age gracefully below 170 pounds in M.A. Like, there's just a lot of factors. I think when this is done, I understand it's going to happen. It's fine. Whatever, I'm not going to yell about it. I think when it's done,

we're going to be left. looking at a landscape where there's like five dudes at featherweight who all want to get a shot and have some legitimate claim to it. Going to be another three guys at lightweight angling to get the next crack at Islam. And we're going to look at it and be like, it would have been a lot cooler if maybe they both just did a little more in their own divisions. And then we could have circled around to this a year from now if they've both actually cleaned out their divisions.

And it's, I'm a broken record. I say this all the time. I'm like, do the thing. Beat the guys in your weight class. You're that champion. Beat those guys. And it's Volk said that the whole thing. And you and I might have gotten to a big argument about this on the ranking show.

Volk's whole thing coming in was, I don't just want to fight Max Holloway. I bring me contenders. I want to put him in a dominant. And then as soon as he fought Max the third time, he's like, actually no, that I'd rather do this. And I get why he wants it. But it just, this fight this weekend that we will talk about later on in this show means so much less right now. Right now it means significantly less

because there are no stakes to it. The winner of this is at least a win away from challenging for a title shot, if not too, based on how featherweight's going. And it's just like, we're jamming two titles into this one thing and both of them, one of them is literally a brand new champion. And who the big knock on him

before he challenged for the title was, he hasn't beaten anybody. So we're just really exacerbating the only downside to Islam Makachev's career with this. And the other one is a guy who is a top-pound fighter in the world and a great, great fighter. I'm not here to say Volcanovsky shit because he's clearly not. All he has done is beat Max Holloway three times. There are 15 other dudes in the top of that division. He's beaten three of them and one of them is super old Korean zombie.

Shouts to my boy, I love you, Chan Sung, Jung. you're not he's not actually a top guy like he just i they could have come back to this and i get it like i said i get why it's going to happen but the next few weeks i'm just going to be like man benny der eusch is getting the short end of the stick here and then he's going to have to fight somebody else and then he might even still get the short into the stick because dust and poory and michael chan they're going to fight and then connor's going to come back around and i don't give a shit what islam says about deserve deserve got nothing to do with the baby the ufc's here to get that money. And if Connor comes back and is like, I want to fight that dude, they're going to be like, cool, we can do something akin to Connor Habib. Yeah, we're going to take the 1.6 million payper-view eyes. Thank you very much. Like, it just, it kind of sucks for everything outside of the one fight, which I will say is at least cool and fun, sort of. But again, I think after fight night's done, we're going to look back and be like, fight did not deliver a badass for them to say, let's go to Perth and do it. But the person, you know, but the person, you know, I think. And then, you're going to look back and be like, fight. But the fight. But the person. But the fight. But the fight. But the fight. But

fans are going to hate watching their dude get smoked it's just it's it's a lot better in thought than it is in actuality in my head so real quick and then uh we'll talk about the other thing i feel like the timing of this couldn't be better honestly because i just volkadovsky has said this many times i want contenders i want contenders i want i want the guy i need somebody to emerge and no one has emerged like they're literally the only guy pick one pick one Jared Cannon here didn't emerge either. Izzy just said, I want to fight that dude, and then we made it happen. Not every title defense is going to be a guy on a tin fight win streak, because that's not how

MMA works. Like, sometimes you just got to go in and ply your trade against another guy who is clearly a top fighter. Look at Anderson Silva's record. Not everybody on there was doing the best ever GSP. Like, it just, you can want those things. And again, I'm not, I am not putting the blame on Volcanowski. because he has a finite period of time to maximize his career.

I get it. This is entirely a promotional decision. And it's just a little bit lame. Like it's like he can just fight Yayao Rodriguez. Hell, if Calvin Cater goes out there and honestly, even more so, if Arnold Allen goes out here and smokes Calvin Cater and then decides to be interesting on a microphone for the first time in his life, do that. He's on, didn't fight Winstreet.

Like, you can just pick a guy. You don't have to be like, well, this guy beat Max. because then you're just never going to fight because nobody's going to beat Max he's freaking Max. Like you just find a dude you want to fight and fight him. Like it's that Ortega what didn't stand out

Ortega won one fight but we pretended that it was cool because it was a great performance Just fight a guy Fight a guy It's not hard Do the thing Mike, do the thing See you can't retire

I didn't mean I didn't want to get mad about this And now I'm mad about it Because I knew I did not want to be mad about this Because I knew exhibition Jed was was false. There's no such thing as exhibition Jed.

This is like my big pet peeve in the sport. Do you agree with them, Drake? Do you do you see any, do you agree with any of his points on that before we go to the final thing on this? I mean, I get it. I do. But at the same time, I do look at, you know, the featherweight situation. And I would like somebody who's a lot clearer and more deserving than, you know, just a random situation. I mean, yeah, you could pick somebody.

But again, I don't really care about it. All of them are deserving. They haven't had the chance yet. Come on. Oh, goodness. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. You take the champ versus champ when you can get it, I think, in this case.

And again, I think it makes for a very compelling fight. And you guys still didn't really answer my question. Like, where does Volcanowski rank in this? in this whole situation. Well, that's where I was going to go with this. And I'll throw it to you, Jed. So I'll present it in this way because you mentioned that we are on the cusp, the precipice, if you will, of a historic run here.

You talked about comparing some of the other dominant challengers who won titles. They went on these long, incredible runs. And like Drake said, and I've heard this from a lot of people, a lot of people feel like Volcanowski could be the toughest test during this reign in general, not just tough as first test, but toughest tests in this reign in general. And should he defeat Volk whenever this fight happens probably in February, that this would just basically signify we're in the Makachiev era for years and years to come.

So do you think that's accurate that to get to this potential historic title run in the Cadillac division of the UFC, getting by Volcanowski is like the biggest thing he can do? You get by Volk and then it's smooth sailing? Do you agree with that? No, I think, Benile Dian. Deryush is actually a much more difficult matchup for him. I think Benny Daryush is the guy.

I think I'm still picking Islam to win that fight. But if there is a guy at the weight class right now, it's Beny Daryush. And I, like I said, I understand why people believe that Volcanovsky is that. He's a top pound fire in the world. And he's coming off of one of the best performances we've literally ever seen inside the UFC. Like an absolutely unbelievable showcase in his last outing. that the way has he you know for for a sport that really likes to get in a twist about dudes missing weight by a pound or whatever we're just like pretending that the 10 pound difference between the weights that these men compete at is is not like a hugely substantive matter and again i'm not even sure that is the defining feature of this fight i think it will play out that way

But like, just I don't, I just don't see how, I see how like, if I squint my eyes, I can, I can formulate a path for him, but I don't think that it's a consistent path that he can pull off. Like, Volkanovsky is a very good boxer, but, and a very good, like a good kick, like a really good kickboxer. He is not like a huge power shot guy and Islamakchev doesn't get hit. The way you beat Islamakachev is you have to get one piece of violence off. that's not going to be Volk. And like Max Holloway was able to get force entanglements with Volcanovsky.

And Max Holloway is about 23% the wrestler and control grappler that is Lamakchiev is. Like it's, I just don't, I don't think he's going to win this fight. And whereas Benio Darius has a lot of factors that make that really compelling from a stylistic matchup, certainly not from a promotional one. Like I get that 100%. But like that's the toughest fight for him for me. And what do you think, Drake? Do you agree that this is the toughest one, toughest first fight for a title defense?

So, yeah, I've thought about it a little bit since kind of thinking about that. And I think he's got to be top three. I mean, it kind of depends on if you want to count the instant rematches because the other ones that came to mind were obviously. Never count. Never count those. GSP Fitch is the one I'm thinking as the one that came to my head. as Fitch is the toughest first fight

like as like a first yeah as like a first I mean that fight the way it played out was obviously not I think this frankly I think this fight with Islam and thing will be very similar but GSP Fitch like at the time Fitch won 10 in a row and was like dope right I was gonna say GSP and Sarah though and then even Nunes and Pena as well

whatever those those cases well GSP Sarah sure Right. Right. But if you want to count those or not. Yeah. So. But yeah, I think Walter Waite really had a lot of good ones, a lot of good first hundred offense to Walter Waite. Yeah. But in terms of Volcanovsky or Darius, I do think I kind of lean with Jed there in terms of Darayush being the more difficult matchup. And I think, again, I think Volcanowski has a lot better of a chance that I'm seeing a lot of people give him. And they're kind of just experienced. expecting Islam to do what he does. And of course, that's a safe prediction. But I think about kind of the speed advantage that Volcanovsky presumably should have. And maybe his power will translate a little bit better at lightweight, not to say he's not powerful at featherweight. But the thing is for him, I think he'll just have to kind of stay away from Islam for as long as he can and

chip away to potentially get a finish or, you know, get a decision. And for 25 minutes, that's going to be extremely hard to do to not get, you know, let that guy get a hold of you. And in terms of Dariush, I think he'll be more comfortable, you know, letting that happen to him because he's a great grappler as well, you know, maybe not as good as Islam, but we've seen that he's very, very capable in that area to maybe a higher degree stylistically in matchups than Volcanovsky. So I think it's pretty close in terms of who's tougher. But I think because of what we've seen from both guys, I will lean a little bit more towards Daru's, even though I do think at the same time that it is one of the top three or top five, you know, toughest first title defenses you could possibly have.

Well, we are, we're doing a show here. We could talk about this for another hour, but we can't. So the point for round one goes to, it goes to exhibition Jed. I mean, this dude just came out on fire. Is there a non-scored bounce exhibitions, I thought. I actually agree with drinking that we're going. But I mean, even they scored, I mean, there's, you know, he's got a bucket. Got a bucket at the door. He's scoring, all that stuff. So boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, 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! Feel the fun. Boarding will begin when passenger fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only.

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He probably shouldn't have fought. I know he spoke with the ESPN, gave a little clarity on that whole situation, none of it really good. So we'll get into the Dillashaw injury in a moment. But Drake, I want to begin with you. How do you grade Aljo's performance despite the injury? I mean, we'll get into T.J's side of the injury in a moment,

but Aljo went out there, did what he needed to do, and he whoop, T.J. Dillishaw's ass. I mean, how would you grade the performance? I give him a solid A And I'm not at all surprised by the performance I went exactly as I expected it to go injury or not And obviously we didn't know that going into the fight That it was a thing

So yeah that's what I expected Sterling to do I mean people really got to start giving this guy credit For just how insane his top control is And he's falling kind of into that same category As I think Suhudo and Covington is just being people just don't like him for him, but he is a very, very, very talented. And what? I think, Jed, you even tweeted this out, but like, Sterling isn't doing himself any

favors just by being himself, which is very sad when you kind of think about it that way. Like, the guy is just speaking, you know, just what's on his mind and being himself naturally and nobody just seems to like him. And I've seen kind of woodly comparisons to in that regard. But again, as a champion and as a fighter, the guy is very darn good. And the only reason I don't give him an A plus is because in the second round, I feel like he let T.J do just a tiny bit better than he should have on the feet with one arm.

Like, it didn't really get hit with anything too significant. But the fact that he just kind of played around there and I felt like still got hit with some shots from a guy who visibly only had one arm was the nitpickiest nitpick I could give you. But other than that, yeah, it was pure total domination. And again, you could also say, well, he should have finished him in the first. round so there's that as well i can agree with to keep it from an a plus but i mean sterling man he's a real problem i i think he's i'm not ready to say that there's not a guy who can handle his wrestling at this point or who we're going to see another long reign from especially in that division kind of similar situations with a lightweight to a degree where there these two stacked divisions but my goodness

these champions are looking pretty dominant in similar fashions you know both very strong wrestlers But, yeah, I think it was about as good as it could have been for Sterling. Obviously, didn't take any real damage. And, of course, there's the NACTO with the TJ side of things. But, I mean, you can't really complain about that level of flawlessness regardless. Jed, how do you grade Alger's performance on Saturday? Like, F minus. Just, look, people are going to say I'm Hayden.

I want to start this by saying I was one of two people at this very great website. I haven't been fined.com ever heard of it, who steadfastly had Aljo as the top Bannamweight in the world after the first Pejorie Ann fight when a bunch of y'all rookies were out here being like, no, Peir de Yon, that's rank him top band, bamboy, blah, blah. I'm maybe I'm Aljo hater. I don't know.

I'm just here to tell you. I take nothing from the performance because the performance is useless. Like, if you had told me he was fighting a one-arm man beforehand, And I would have been like, yeah, he's probably going to beat the fugitive. This is going to be cool. So there's nothing to gain from this. Like there's literally nothing from his in-fight performance gained. I'm not going to come out.

The real shitty person in me wants to be like, I don't really know why you didn't actually finish this dude who clearly had one functioning arm much faster than you did. But that's real nitpicky stuff. And like, I don't actually believe that. just the bad person inside of me does. So there's nothing to take from his in cage performance. And everything else was just awful. Like I don't get it. Like I understand that you had a really bad year, your first year as champion.

And you frankly did not deserve half the shit that came your way. But like he is the most angry man I've ever seen who's the, the, champion the undisputed champion of the world and like i don't it just can't be good for your mental health or your personal happiness to be like firing shots at everybody for fake slights like perceived slights and then to also live in this reality we're like here because his tweets yesterday or whatever like quote tweeting morning combat and luke thomas and stuff being like I think it's funny all the media just like thinks that fight would have gone

any different. I'm like, well, we don't know. And why do you have to pretend like you beating a one-armed man's ass was the greatest thing? I get you back. It's a rap. Like that was the stupidest shit I've ever heard in the post fight. The fact that he can't even acknowledge that like, yes,

this is not the greatest, like, it's not my fault. 100%. It ain't his fault. That's T. T.J.'s fault. You did the thing. And that's what we've been talking about the show do the thing. Aljo did the thing. This is a win over a former champion, goes on the resume,

et cetera. But you can't even have like the awareness to just be like, yeah, you know, I did what I could do. It would have been a lot cooler if you didn't have that because I still would have gone

and rolled his ass up like that. Like you could say it that way as opposed to be like people, when people note that your fight is not, was not real. Like, well, whatever. Like you don't have. have to take offense at that.

But honestly, that's not even, that's the part that gets on me personally. That's not even the reason he gets an F. He gets an F because he didn't do the thing, Mike, because everybody sucks at this. And I don't get it. Sean O'Malley wins. He wins. That's the thing. That was the whole point is that Sean O'Malley, if he beats Piotr Yan, he is going to get a

title fight. And he's concussed because Piotrian rattled his head. So him not calling for it is still bad, but I at least have an excuse for it. But Al Jermaine Sterling gets the mic and he gives his stupid rhyme about a backpack, which is dumb. Instead of being like, yo, and then he called the Cheeto Doritos just garbage. Mileage is going to vary on Henry Saddu. I'm not particularly a fan of third grade humor in that regard, but other people are cool with it. And they're like, Sugar Tits, Sean O'Malley, like, I'll fight any of Mono Care.

No, no. This guy beat the number one contender. And he's the easiest matchup in the division. for you and the biggest star. You could not hand craft a better opponent for him to want to face in his next tighter defense and he won't even call for it. What are you doing? It is not difficult to figure, like, to know this.

It is, that's why I wouldn't hope he got the mic after he was like, yeah, that's the fight we want. It's the fight that makes the most sense for us financially and people are going to dig this. And Aljo does that shit. Like, that's an F. That is, if I could give you a G or a Q, I would. It is so, so bad. All right.

I didn't want to be mad today. I did not want to be mad today. All right. Well, let's, we're going to keep this going right now. Maybe your head will explode live on air and we'll get tons of views. But what about, what about Dilleshaw, Jed? Because a lot of people are getting blame here. Is it T.J?

I mean, the man needs to. needs to make a living, right? He hasn't fought a long time. Is it his team, his coaches? Is it the UFC? Is it the medical team? Is it the referee who supposedly knew above this injury and let Dillishaw fight in the second round with his arm hanging out of its socket and definitely let this fight go on

way too long for being honest? But when this is all said and done, who do you blame the most? Is it T.J? Is it the UFC? The most. Who do I blame the most is tough? everybody's at fault here. Immediately I was very, very angry at T.J. Dundershaw, and I'm still angry at him.

I am at least willing to accept an argument that the man needed to get paid. And so he took it because he needed a paycheck. I don't know if that's the truth of the matter or not, but if that's the reason that sucks, and I still think that you should not have done this, but, you know, we all got to eat. I also don't, I want to take too many shots of Mark Goddard. I think he's one of, if not the best refs in the sport. And frankly, I don't really know how the rules lay out with respect to him being told beforehand that there's an injury possibility.

The fact that he allowed the fight to continue after the injury manifested, I do not understand. Like, it was very clear that once that shoulder was out, T.J. can not functionally intelligently defend himself, even if he can make the attempt. And so there was no point in it. I think ultimately the blame has to be with the coaches. It's, and that's a hard pill. If that's who gets the most, everybody involved is bad.

And if you want to make the argument that's actually the UFC's fault, because they pay fighter shit and that's why T.J. Dillershaw, like, needed a paycheck or whatever. I'm here for that argument. But ultimately, if I'm giving somebody the most, it's T.J.'s team. Because this is essentially, it feels different, but we really break it down. This is throwing in the towel for your fighter who can't do the thing. Like, they knew. There is no doubt.

They knew. I, to very briefly tangent, I blew my right shoulder the F up in playing rugby in college. And it's very similar to, I'm sure, what T.J. is doing. And I got to a point where I've literally dislocated this thing hundreds of times. So it got to a point where I would sneeze and it would fall out. It would fall out and wake me up when I'm sleeping. And that's, that is not a thing that gets better. And it is very obviously a thing that you cannot work around.

in a professional fist fight with one of the very best fighters in the world, barring no weight class. His team knew, and they sent him out there anyway, and they shouldn't have done it. And he didn't take that big of beating. I'm sure he would have fired him or whatever, but that's, it doesn't matter. Like, your job is to make sure that your fighter goes in with a realistic expectation or at least opportunity to succeed and the ability to prevent major injury. because the bad side of this, like, not to get macabre about it,

what if something horrifically bad, the scale of which has never happened and the UFC happens in this fight? And then it comes out afterwards that, oh, yeah, so T.J.'s arm was blown out and we just sent him in there anyway, and now he's in a coma or whatever. Like, can you fathom how bad that is, how bad you as a coach or a professional would feel? How bad all?

Like, every aspect of that would be horrifically bad. And they are the check mark on it. The fighter's going to try and fight. He needs a paycheck, whatever. The UFC and the medical team can't really know about a shoulder issue unless they just start yanking on everybody's joints before, like during testing. It's on the coaching staff. And so they get the most ire for me.

But everybody can get some. No, no heroes in this story right now. Drake, agree? Or do you pass more of the blame pie elsewhere? So originally my thought here was pretty much completely in line with Jed. And I do agree with them. I do think the coaches deservedly should be a lot to blame here. But then it circles all back to money, right?

Because the coaches are getting paid by TJ as well. They, you know, want their fight camps and all that. So they're going to go through with it. And if the fighter says so, all right, who are they to stop them? Yes, they should have his best interest. But again, they're also getting paid by the guy. They're the coach. They're the coach.

They're going to stop them. What are their job? So, I mean, obviously, a lot of blame to be put there. But I understand, I guess, their thought process in that regard, whether morally correct or not. Ultimately, though, I think, and again, Jed touched on it very briefly, but with Mark Goddard, like, I am not sure how much referees. have control in terms of before the fight in like that situation, letting them know, like, are they even allowed to stop the fights before they happen? Like, that seems like a weird thing I've never heard of happening, at least from a referee

specifically making a call. Don't know if they have that kind of power, but they could at least let the commission or somebody who could prevent that from happening to help protect the fighter because that is what their job is. So I would lean slightly more that it is on Margod. And I think he's one of the best as well, if not the best referee. in the game all time. You know, he's just a great, great referee has been,

but the fact that you knowingly let a fighter go out there, not at 100%, and then very quickly within what the first minute, we see that there was an issue with TJ, maybe couldn't identify exactly what it was as soon as that takedown happened, but we saw TJ was very much in pain. Between rounds for that fight not to be stopped, not just from Goddard stopping it, who already knew, but the doctors to not be able to notice that either,

I don't know. I just don't see how that doesn't fall. I mean, yes, the blame is everywhere, but mostly for the referee whose job it specifically is to save the fighters from themselves because we all know they're not going to stop. We've seen it that time and time again. It's the referee's job to protect the fighters,

and Mark Goddard did not do that. The fight should have been stopped earlier. The fight shouldn't even have happened, but it still did. And maybe he does have that power to stop before the fight. We don't know, but he could have stopped it. midway through the first round he knew apparently he knew right so i think honestly i'd put just slightly more of the blame on him over the coaches now the big question is what do we do now

with jos a lago drake because i'm giving you the mighty pencil with josealdo what are we doing with josealdo josealdo for al joe excuse me i mean i'm jose a ljo i mean it should have been it's we should have watched Jose Aldo on Saturday. So let's just put that out there for the five million of time. But I'm giving you the mighty pencil. Is it Sean O'Malley, who by the way, I completely agree with Jed, Aljo, Aljo, should have completely just went all in on this. And if you didn't do it on Saturday, you're on the biggest MMA show in the world on

Monday. There is your chance. Ariel set you up to do so and you still didn't do it. Or still do it right now. He just tweeted eyes like eyeballs at Sean O'Malley this morning. do you like do you know what you're doing genuinely do you have any idea how to make people interested in something as opposed to just tating you like i don't know what's going on man so drake is it john o'malley who performed admirably against peter yon in a win no matter how you scored it he won

and dana white said what he said is a cheetah vera who's been on a roll or is it the henry sehudo factor is the Jedmishu of the UFC, Henry Suhudo, who was quote unquote retired, now quote unquote coming back. It is a tremendous fight on paper, no doubt about it, but it is super duper risky from a reliability standpoint. How are you doing this if you had the power? Oh, man. It's such a weird, weird dynamic we're working with at Bannonweight right now. like Sean O'Malley is clearly, clearly, like Jed said, the easiest matchup stylistically for Sterling. I see him having next to no chance.

And then the biggest name, the guy who will attract the most eyeballs and, you know, promote the fight. He'll hype it up probably a little bit better than Sterling would in a typical matchup. I mean, it was more hyped up probably than this title fight. So from all those regards, that makes a lot of sense. And even though we don't think that he won,

Like I think it's comfortable to say that most people do not think he won that fight. It feels weird for me and to see him at like number one, but like he technically got the win. So he is number one. So you look at it that way. That makes sense. Dana was saying it doesn't really matter what Dana says, right? But he was saying a winner will get the title shot.

It was on the same card. It was like a mini unofficial tournament. So from all those aspects, yeah, that should probably be the one. But at the same time, it feels very weird because of the. lack of clarity in his victory that maybe shouldn't have been. It was a lot closer. I don't think I would say it was a robbery like a lot of people are, but it just didn't feel like that punctuation that you need to solidify a title shot

for a guy who was number 10 before this. So I would say one more max for him if we were to really ram that on home, not that it matters for the UFC from a business standpoint. And then you mentioned Cheeto Vera. I think that's, you know, he's probably got the most, the best case outside of O'Malley from the ranking spot standpoint right now. But then there's a guy who we're not thinking about it all. I think obviously Marab could be the guy who deserves it the most. It's not going to happen, but he's the guy who should be getting a title shot on an eight-fight winning streak,

been practically dominant in all those outside of a scary first round against Marlon and Marlundmer Heist. and then beat Jose Aldo the last time. I know Jed doesn't agree with that one, but it did happen if we're going to go in that same line of thinking with O'Malley over Yon. So Marab is the right answer here. He's not the one that's going to happen. We know this because of, you know, even if he wasn't best friends with Sterling,

I don't think the UFC would even maybe be that interested in it because of that last performance, not being very exciting. But then, like you said also, Mike, Suhudo is the one that I want to see. I think that's probably the most interesting matchup. Why are you trying to make Mike mad? Why are you trying to make Mike mad, Jake? I'm not trying to bring up Henry Seudo's name.

Mike doesn't like that, man. Henry Sehudo is the Olympic gold medalist, Triple C, looking for getting his belt back. And they already have a little bit of a history here. And yes, I know he might not stick around. If he wins or if he loses, he's not going to stick around. And if he does, it's not going to be at. phantom weight. But like, does UFC really care about that?

They're going to get the fight out of the way. And then they can instantly slot in. This is what I want to see. Ideally, you have Sehudo versus Sterling. And then maybe the week before that. The only reason I say not to put this on the same card is Sterling, not Sterling, O'Malley versus Vera II, main event before that. However, that shakes out.

Speaking of shaking, Jedd shaking his head, go. This is just everything Jake said was mostly wrong right there. I already established this. Like, there isn't a better, like, even if Marab wasn't friends with him. Like, no, it's Sean Amali. Sean Amali is the number one guy in your rankings. He is the biggest star and he is the easiest fight. Aljo not immediately trying to cater to that is one of the dumber things that's happened in recent championship history.

If we're just being very blatantly honest. And we can clip this when we send it to Aljo. I think he hates me. So maybe with reason. Who knows. Here's what you do. I'm going to line this up for you because it is incredibly, incredibly simple. I actually might even sort of agree with his statement to Ariel the other day on, I think it was Monday.

Maybe he was on on Tuesday that like the UFC just tries trying to get rid of him. and like that's the impetus for sohudo because sohudo is the worst outcome like sehudo has a very good chance to beat him maybe he doesn't but that fight is very very competitive and if sehudo wins sohudo's going to do this thing let me tell you what exactly will happen if sehudo wins because as crappy as it may be it's way better for you al joe sohudo beats you and takes a belt he is going to immediately fight sean mallee because it's a big bag of money in a very winnable fight. And he's not going to turn down that.

And then as soon as that's done, he is going to immediately retire or chase Volcanovsky again. That is the playbook for you. It is come out, say, I want to fight Sean O'Malley. That dude's the number one container. He just beat Piotrion. You can regurgitate all O'Malley's talking points. Everybody said he couldn't do it. And he goes out there, he beats the guy that you guys were all convinced was the greatest

fighter of all time or whatever. Like, you're going to fight him. you're going to roll over him. That is going to be like an old Acme cartoon steamroller, just smush him to death. And once that's done, you drop the belt. You get in, you get out there and you say, I've been telling you guys for a while,

this weight cuts tough. Here's my boy Marab. He's the next guy. Y'all didn't listen to Habib when Habib said that Islam's the next dude. You made him wait two years to get the belt. I'm not going to stand in my best friend's way anymore. Marab, this is your title to defend.

been now and I'm going to go up and I'm going to chase history. I'm going to get a second belt. And that's it. You have an, you have the weirdest but most unimpeachable Bannam rate title run in history. And then you get to go do the thing while also big uping your best friend. You cannot strip that better. And it is so evident and obvious. Please, Aljo, just do that. It's very, very easy. Wow. Let us move on. So much more still to get to. The point for round two, goes to goes to

there it is I mean I got to give it to Jed he's up to oh he's I mean is that not the easy like the most obvious path forward right

like it seems so clear to me that you just fight the guy you're gonna beat and then you abandon the division like I here's my buddy do the thing it worked for a beam it was really good for him

yes so So let's move ahead. I'm feeling Drake's going to come back and maybe steal a couple rounds here. But Jake Paul versus Anderson-Silver. Jake Paul versus Anderson-Silvers this Saturday. It is already here. It kind of seems like it snuck up on us.

And I hear the collective moans and groans. But it's happening, Jed. How are we feeling about this? Are we excited two days away? Are we into this now? Like, how would you describe how you feel with this fight two days away? Well, I'm very excited because, Mike, you may have not looked at our work schedule this week, but I'm going to be up bright and early covering the event of the weekend, Belator Milan.

And so I'm going to have a lot of hours of high profile quality fighting in my system to really get me geared up for the main event of the weekend, which is Paul Silva. And I got to be honest, I'm a little trepidious. It doesn't actually matter to me, like really the outcome here does not influence. my life in any major way. It would be a pretty big bummer if Jake Paul kills Anderson Silva, not because I actually care whether Jake Paul continues to do his thing. Just this career transition from Anderson has been one of the very few times this sport is

like emotionally rewarding because Anderson's end of UFC run was so bad and so disheartening. And then he goes, and the way things have been going have just been so great. And at some point, you're going to fly too close to the sun, the nothing gold can stay, pony boy. But it would suck pretty hard if the luster faded off in this particular instance. I'm going to watch. And like, I'm kind of interested for even though maybe I didn't want to be. And certainly at the beginning of the whole Jake Paul thing, you know, Mike. I was very much not involved here.

but this is a fight that is I got some interest in it and it's going to a lot of people are interested in and if Jake Paul wins this we just have to treat him as real not like really real you know not like a pro level boxer but a guy who can box and if Anderson wins

he gets to keep his ride going which is awesome so there are stakes and this matters and it's fun and I'll be watching Drake are you sharing the same sort of enthusiasm, I guess is the word to use. Something tells me the answer is no. Mike, you always bring me on for these weeks,

these Jake Paul fight weeks. And I feel the same every time, which is I just do not care at all about Jake Paul fights, his boxing matches. I don't care that it's Anderson Silva. I didn't care about the end of his UFC run. I knew he was done before he was officially done. Sure, it's been fun and cool.

Good for him to get some boxing wins. after that. But like, I just, I'm not a boxing guy in general, so that's one. But then plus Jake Paul, the celebrity YouTube guy coming in and actually doing okay. That has been interesting and ridiculous to see. But I don't care about it as it's happening afterward. I'll check out the result and be like, oh, okay, look at that. He won again.

He's, uh, what, he's still undefeated. He's beating all these actual fighters now. Okay, that's fun and cool. Good for him. But I'm not going to invest in him. The only interesting thing I think that's happened leading up to this has been what's been happening within the last couple of days where Silva allegedly what misspoke or about getting knocked out or whatever in training camp. And that's not even really related to what happens in the fight specifically. It could end up being the case, but we've seen Silva knocked out before.

Obviously, if that has happened, there's reason for concern there. And I think what the commission is looking into that. But the guy's almost 50. So at the same time, it's like, I don't know, man. I've been over the whole Jake Paul thing. And once he gets to fighting like an actual boxer is when I'll be a lot more intrigued by it. And yes, Silva is going to be the best, closest thing that we've had to that. But again, he's almost 50.

He's almost 50. And I don't know, man. It's an exhausting topic for me. I will check out the results afterward, but I don't care to catch this live, especially not on my birthday weekend. I want to be far, far away from this nonsense, this weekend of all weeks.

But it is very fitting that it would be freak show Halloween fight weekend, which the last time Silva fought on didn't go very well for him. So we'll see if the combat sports gods have any mercy whatsoever. So I was going to go to the prediction route for you, Drake, but because you are so intrigued by this matchup or not intrigued at all. What would make you intrigued? Like, what would be,

what result is the best case scenario in your eyes? Like, what would be the best possible thing that could happen on Saturday, the best possible ending? The most intriguing conclusion, what do you think? Would anything get you on board, depending on the result of this fight

for any of this stuff moving forward? That's a great question, actually, Mike. I like that a lot. And, you know, my heart, deep down, says, well, I do want to see Jake Paul get knocked out. I would love to see that. We all have wanted to see that since he got into this thing. But since actually following along with it a little bit more than I would have liked to

and covering the event together, the Woodley Rematch, Mike, I don't know. I've started to like the chaos a little bit. So there's a part of me that's like, if Jake goes out and starches him in a minute, I'm going to enjoy seeing all the upset reactions to that. So that's kind of where I'm like. I think that would be... The internet streets are going to be a tough hang if that happens. Right.

That would bring me maybe more enjoyment than seeing Jake get knocked out because then he'll be humbled and no fun after that. Yes, he'll still be able to get his Nade Diaz fight and whatnot. But I think the longer he stretches this out and does better, the more ridiculous the ridiculousness already is and going to amplify. So you know what? I think that might be it for me. I don't really care if either of those things happen,

but what would entertain me most would probably be that. Jedda, I got to say, I'm fascinated after hearing Drake's answer. So same question for you. I think the best outcome, the most entered, the best one is that Jake Paul loses but competitively, right? Like, I think Anderson should win this fight. He is, just look at the people Jake Paul's beaten and not all of them in like, good fights or even the best performances and Anderson Silva is I don't care that he's 50 years a

a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley as as far as boxing goes so I think Anderson should win this fight if Jake didn't come out and just look good or show flashes or not get like totally styled on in a competitiveish bout but you know lose comfortably I think that's the best case scenario because if Anderson comes out and just clobbers him, it's going to take a lot of shine off Jake Paul doing a thing. I mean, don't get me wrong. The Nate DAS thing will still happen. It'll still be interesting.

People still tune in. But it's a lot better if he can get out of this with some of the aura intact. And hey, I stepped up. I took a loss against the guy who's one of the greatest strikers of all time in the history of the world. And that also preserves the other end of this, which is the part I'm concerned. about where if Anderson wins, baby, we can make that Anderson Roy Jones Jr. fight happen that Anderson's wanted for literally 20 years and that Roy Jones Jr. has specifically said is the only thing that would get him to basically come out and do the boxing thing again.

If Anderson gets knocked out by Jake Paul, that fight is gone. That fight is nowhere to be found anymore. So Anderson wins a fun-ish fight that he pretty clearly wins. I think that's where we're cooking with the most gas on both sides of the ball. All right. Silva versus Nate Diaz. Do you remember Nick Diaz? I don't recall that being the most fun fight in the world.

I don't want to remember that, no. He laid down, Nick, but everyone else will forget it. Yep. That one photo, she's the only interesting thing that happened in that whole fight. So that's true. Well, let's go to the final round of regulation. The point for round three goes to Drake Riggs

who will be spending his birthday weekend watching Jake Paul versus Sagan. What a time to be alive. What a time to be alive. How old are you going to be, Drake? The big 27. Wow, man, you are a baby.

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important, right? We got to promote that Bellator is having a card. And they are having a card. They're in Milan, some afternoon MMA, Adam Piccolati versus Mansour or Barnowai. I can never pronounce his name. Fabian Edwards on the card. Sal Rogers on the card. Jessica Gonzalez on the card. Barnawi, I think that's the correct answer. But that is happening. So make sure you watch it. But we just don't have time to get into this stacked card. Because I want to talk about the UFC Vegas 63 card, Drake Riggs. Let's look at this card as a whole. I mean, we're still a little drunk from UFC 280.

The hangover is real. And we're bouncing back with UFC Vegas 63. So what do you think, Drake? Does it, I mean, obviously the 280 hangover plays into it, of course. But this lineup following a storyline-filled conclusion of a pay-per-view, what do you think? Do we have to? this card man like i'm i'm very generally pretty easy to please with my m mary very positive guy i try to be as best as i can but this one hurts for me there is not a lot to like overall on this card and

i mean just looking at the main card i i like die inside a little bit every time i see max griffin and tim means it's the co-main event with jared van dera on a four-fight losing streak unranked heavyweights the fight right before that. I don't know, man. If you want to talk about the Fs from earlier in the grades, this is it for me. Like the only good thing we're working with is clearly the main event. And then the main art opener, Dustin Jacoby and Khalil Roundtree.

I think that'll be fun while at last because Kalil Roundtree is perhaps the biggest hit or miss fighter that I've ever seen. When he's on, you know, he looks incredible. And then it can be really bad sometimes. And Dustin Kobe is on a pretty good run. right now. And then, of course, there is the greatest heavyweight of all time in Andrei Olovsky's back. But like, he, we know what we get out of him these days. It's great to see him win and continue racking up a million fights, but they're not usually the most exciting fights. So outside of kind of those two that I highlighted, opening and closing the main card, this

just doesn't really do it for me. And I mean, what, Mark Madsen and Grand Donson, I'm not even sure if that's official yet. I should know if that fight is happening. November 3rd, November 5th. November 5th. Okay. So that makes the card even worse then. So this is just the worst combat sports birthday presents I could have possibly gotten. So this is bad.

This is really bad. Jed, we were supposed to get Edson Barbosa, Ilya, Taboria, on this car. We're supposed to get Draccar Close versus Mark Batson on this card. And then we've had some substitutions along the way. Drake loves this card. Do you feel the same way? I think that you can, and this is not for me because I have low bottom tastes, but I think if you just looked at this card and told Drake,

if you told, if Drake didn't know the card and you just offered him or any number of fans, it's an 11 fight card. Six of those fights are middleweights or above. How interested are you going to be? And you're probably going to be like, that card is awful. because anytime you have two heavyweights fights, it's probably not the best card the U.S. he's ever put together,

and we also have a bunch of middleweights and some light heavy weights. That being said, I agree with Drake that I think the light heavyweight main card opener between Jacobi and Roundtree is dope. I will say this. I also agree, Kalil Roundtree, very hit or miss fighter,

except for if you listened to No Bet's Barred this weekend, make sure to go check it out if you have not. I pointed out a very important fact about Kalililrhyr. he is a he never misses when he is fighting a former glory kickboxer two and oh with two performance bonuses and brutal knockouts the two times he's faced a glory kickboxer and what do you know dustin jacobi glory kickboxer so glial roundtry is going to probably do something really cool if history has any say in the matter so that fight's cool some other stuff like decobean event it's shout out to a k lee the penultimate fight is probably going to be a pretty fun fight at least

And the main event's awesome, though as my earlier point, it's less fun than it would be if there were stakes attached to this beyond. You get to be the number five featherweight in the world and then hopefully fight, I guess, Max Holloway, or maybe you can swing in and snipe Josh Emmett. Like, it's a decent card. I think this card is what it is. This is the post hangover card. Like, not everything's going to be a winner. There's at least enough here. the main event is a great fight you know they got to got to fill 42 event slots here man some some

of them are going to be this yeah i mean look the main event's doing a lot of the heavy lifting here like you guys both mentioned a couple of intriguing matchups but calvin kater versus arnold allen for a potential 25 minutes jet it's it's fantastic i love this fight i'm torn in regards to overall skill sets i'm torn for a number of reasons here there's one factor that's kind of weighing in my brain when I think about this fight, but I wanted to hear yours. Like if you could pick one thing,

what do you think will be the determining factor in this fight? And I was going to ask you what's on the line, but now I don't need to, because you said just the number five spot. Nothing is on the line. It's great that you framed it this way, because to me,

there is one factor that matters in this fight. And it is just where Arnold Allen is in development, right? Like he's, Calvin Cater is, Calvin Cater is. He is a baked cake and I have cakes delicious and awesome, but he ain't doing anything different. Like that he's, he's at, and if they go in as they are 50-50 fight, I can absolutely see Calvin Cater just boxing his ears off. I could also see Arnold Allen being crafty enough, defensively responsible enough, mixing the martial arts to A.K. Shagrin. Like that fights very even. But I have picked Arnold Allen to win this fight. On projection, the projection

that he is only 28 years old, and this is where he should be hitting, like really coming into his own, hitting his peak athletically, physically, mentally. And so I think that we're going to see that because I think we started to see it. The hooker performance was really, really A plus stuff. And if he can build on that,

then it should be his fight because they're here. And if he's jumped a level, then he's up here. And then this is a guy who's going to challenge for a title. But that's it. If it's not, then this 50-50 fight coin flip either way. But if Warren Allen's going to look as good and have made the leaps that I think he is capable of and will, this should be his fight. Drake, what say you? What's the determining factor in this fight on paper? Well, I agree practically with everything that Jed said here.

It's, you know, Arnold Allen has been a very weird kind of run and career for him because he is still just 28, but he's been in the UFC since. It's like the middle of 2015, undefeated, just not maybe the most active guy. I mean, looking at his record, it's been what once a year, the last couple. It will end up fighting twice this year. But it's just been a very slow kind of burn and rise for him. And maybe you could credit that to the opponents he's been fighting, which, you know, that's not really his fault. He's been doing his job out there.

But, yeah, I just think that he's a more well-rounded, overall complete fighter, at least from what we've seen. And of course, again, you can argue the competition level. here compared to Cater's have been maybe a bit better on his side. And yeah, he's kind of just been getting better and better with each time out. And the last fight against Dan Hooker was very impressive for the fact that he showed kind of this new killer instinct, I think, and just aggressiveness on the feet against a guy like Dan Hooker, too, that's typically pretty dangerous to try and impose against. But then at the same time, I think, okay, hopefully it was just for that matchup, because I think if he kind of fights that same way against Calvin McCater,

who just I don't know if he's human and can be finished in that regard, I will maybe lead to him getting clipped because I think Cater will have, you know, a slight boxing edge here in this fight. I don't know if that's crazy to say or not. But as an overall complete fighter, I think the more that Alan mixes it up, which I expect him to do, whether with his wrestling or, you know, working his leg kicks over the course of five rounds

and taking it more patiently perhaps also than he did in that hooker fight, will certainly pay off for him. So I feel pretty good about him getting the job done in this one because of the amount of different things he can present Cater with. And it will also come down to, I think, or it's important to highlight that it will be his first five-round fight and we've seen Cater managed to be fine in these situations. But at the same time, like, I've never seen Alan really have any cardio issues either.

So I think he's been pretty well conditioned throughout his career, despite not having fought those two extra rounds yet, as I expect him to do in this one en route to a decision, just stifling Cater with his overall game. Yeah, I actually, the five rounds is the most intriguing thing to me, just because Arnold hasn't been there. I'm not going to say, like, he didn't gas in the Sunniq Yusuf fight, but he definitely slowed down in that third round.

Like, he definitely faded a bit. So I'm curious to see what an extra 10 minutes will do to him, because he ain't finishing Calvin Cater. Because like Jed said, I don't think anybody can. I don't think anybody can give me a two by four. I can't finish that dude. This is going to Splitty City. I'm fairly confident in that, and it's going to be a great fight.

Just like this matchup has been. The point for round four goes two. Yes, indeed. It goes to. Drake Riggs, it's two to two. This is one of those questions where it's like, it's good to go first. think you set the table nicely, which means we're going to the final round, the knockout round,

the exhibition knockout round, where we're just going to have some fun here. There's no real stakes. I mean, look, if there's a poll that happens to be up and you happen to vote, go ahead and do that. But just remember, there's no stakes here. We're playing for fun. This is, this is recess dogball right now. Love of the game. This is Wiffleball, baby. This is Wiffleball. So, Jed, you're back. So might as well give you the, the champion. Cappians Clause here, the returning thing, give you the present. It is an exhibition after all. Do you want to go first or do you want to pass this over to Drake?

I think you know where this question is going. And I'm sure Drake might go first. Screw it. All right. All right. Jed. Since it doesn't matter, let's go first. Yeah.

I mean, look, not that it matters. And I think we did a pretty decent job. You're going to make me mad again, aren't you? You're going to make me mad again. I think so. I think so. You know, we gave you two rounds of anger, two rounds to calm down. and now I think it's time to bring you back up a notch

because there's a gentleman who you might know, he's a former fighter, he's now a commentator for Bellator. Would you say he's part of the media? Yeah, it's part of the media. And he had some things to say about his fellow media members that it is our job to promote this Bellator versus Rising card coming up on New Year's Eve. he had some explicit language that I will not repeat

because children may be watching the show and he basically called us out and tried to tell us how to do our jobs. So I'm sure you've seen this video. I'm sure you have your thoughts. So I'm going to give you one minute to respond to Josh Thompson for his thoughts as a fellow media member about his fellow media member colleagues.

One minute on the clock, go. It's incredibly, incredibly stupid. and it disappoints me that this has become like a, that you guys bought the narrative. And you're not even in the UFC, man. That's like the thing, too. It's like Dana has sold that the media is PR as a narrative. You're Bellator and you want to come at me, come at us, whatever, us.

I say us because you are a media member. You don't fight no more. You work a desk and tweet and have a podcast. That is media, my guy. That's on you, buddy. and you come at us for this one, do something about it. Bellator be interesting.

Outside of the fact that obviously promoter is the one who promotes, I don't even want to get into that. Let's talk facts, baby. Bellator gave us two Logan Storley main events this year. Why are we pretending like we should give a shit about that promotion? And I think Logan Stolley is a decent fighter, but nobody cares. Nobody cares.

and we're not going to send people to scenic Unconsville to cover Logan Starley. Get the hell out of here. All right. I mean, not as bad as I thought you were going to be. That was pretty subdued. But it is an exhibition. I had too much anger already. I've already fired all my heat.

If we had pro-fighted, Jed, that might have been an entirely different 60 seconds. But, Drake, same question to you. I'm sure you saw this video. I think Josh got the response he was hoping for. Let's give him some more, shall we? Let's give him some more of a greater sense of. entitlement and righteousness. One minute on the clock. Go. Well, Josh, I mean, despite the fact that you are completely and entirely wrong, because, you know, promoters are the promoters for a reason.

It is their job. It is not our job. As the media, yourself included, you are helping out with what you are saying to do. So, I mean, you are a part of Bellator and I get it. I get it, man. But at the same time, you do have to give us something to work with in the case of Bellator, who has been just a fismally horrific at promoting their own events this entire year. How is it on us to promote something sometimes? People don't even know what's going on. And it's just in the title, man. It's such a frustrating and annoying thing to mention.

And then you mentioned the credentials getting pulled from the UFC if we are to cover other events. That's not how that works either, man. Like, that has never happened that I know about. and for the fact to bring that up like it is true, just kind of undermines everything in the first place. So cast your exhibition votes. UCC does not care enough about you, my guy, to think that us covering you is going to be a negative for them.

That is not on their list of concerns. My man Nolan King has covered like 30 Bellator events since the pandemic started. You've covered Bellator. You've been about. I've covered him too. Of course. I love covering their cards. It's great. And I love Bellots. I love Belator. I love the promotion. I love the people who work within the promotion. But this is just terrible. This is, this was, for wrestling fans, this was Hang Man Adam Page. That's what Josh Thompson did. He went into business for himself. He put himself over. He broke the media rule. He broke the law. You never make it about yourself. And he made it about himself. That's what he did here. He wanted. He won. wanted to trend on Twitter. He wanted us to talk about it. And guess what? You're welcome, Josh. We're giving it to you. But it ends now. This is it. You're 50 minutes of fame or gonzum,

my, my dude. And this is a horrible take. It was terrible. It made no sense. It is not our job to promote anything. And by the way, can I just say this? The timing of you putting out that video, which, by the way, you probably had an entire show talking about the fighters and the fights and what matchups you liked most. You couldn't have chosen that clip or any of those other clips to put on there. You chose that minute and 13 seconds to put on there. That's because you went into business for yourself. This wasn't about Bellator versus Rising. This wasn't about A.G. McKee and Patricia Pitbull and all the great fighters on this card, which by the way, no one had a negative thing to say about it. Everyone saw this when they woke up yesterday morning like, ooh, this is pretty

frigging cool. No one had a bad thing to say about it. Post is dope. Poster's dope. It's super dope. no one had a bad thing to say about it and then you put this video out you went into business for yourself but dude and that's okay that's all right that's the choice you made and that's it

and we're still gonna cover it we're still gonna cover it well and we're gonna watch the shit out of it and case is gonna fight Mike Jackson somewhere during that weekend and it's gonna be the best hell yeah the one thing I didn't understand

have we ever not covered Bellator because if so I'd like to make a petition to bring that back because apparently I'm covering Milan and I wish that that was not the case on Saturday. I'm going to be honest with it. Oh,

man. The one thing I didn't understand about the whole Josh Johnson thing was like, they only released the fights like maybe like two hours before Josh Thompson even said that. Like there wasn't it. It wasn't even like. They've released four fights. We didn't even get the whole car.

We just got the big names. And they gave me, he came out of that video like 10 minutes after the fights were released. I don't even understand. Like it seemed like it was like, I just found out about. I saw the Josh Thompson thing before I even found out about the fights. I was like,

what are you talking about? Genius. Do your effing jobs. Do your effing jobs is what he said. Do your effing jobs. And I was going to crush him on heck of a morning. And I did talk about this for an extended amount of time. But I didn't. I just focused on this one thing because I talked to my kid. And I said, how would you respond? He said, just be nice, daddy. And I was right in the middle. I was, but I focused on this one thing. But hopefully the exhibition results are in. We have a lot to talk about. We have heck of morning tomorrow morning. We got a UFC preview show at 3 p.m. Eastern. Casey, Shaheen. and Jose will do another preview show for Jake Paul versus Anderson Silva. They're going to shoot it in Glendale. Not going to be a live show, but it'll be very cool. Maybe we'll be, I don't know. Then we'll have a UFC People's Pre-Fight show.

We're even going to have a Jake Paul versus Anderson-Selva People's Pre-Fight Show on Saturday. Host fight shows galore. A.K. and I are back on Sunday with On to the next one. Mike, where can you find all those shows? M.AFighting.com. That's a great website. Great website. Thank you.

Very website. All right. So do we have the winner of this, contest. We do have a winner. All right. We won this hypothetical battle that never happened.

Fantasy. All right. No winners are losers here. Except the winner and the loser. Thanks, your winner today with 54% of the votes is

Jeff Michoud does it. He does it. Doesn't count. It's an exhibition. No wins here. No turn. No turn. Back on the winning track?

You were on fire today, Jed. No wins? Honestly, I lost all of my energy after those first two rounds. I was not anticipating being mad. You were on fire. But, hey, listen, let's just say this was a pro game. You do have 30 seconds to say whatever it is you want to say. I mean, it never happened, but go ahead and say what you want to say.

Before we erase it from our memories. I will say that the Bellator Rising event is great. And at least so far, the four fights look really fun. There are some major flaws, specifically with the way we will cover it, mainly being it's going to happen like 3 a.m. It's pretty tough. But I'm going to tune in. It is a throwback to, I know Ryzen does this,

but this fight, this event certainly feels a little more like old school Pride Day. and if they flush out the rest of this card with flesh out, not flush out, they flesh out the rest of this card with equally good fights, uh, regardless of what certain idiots want to, you know, start ruckus with on the internet streets. Still a totally great fight and I'll be looking forward to it in three months.

All right. Drake, any final thoughts on this, uh, exhibition loss? I mean, this is like practice. It's like a scrimmage, right?

So he'll be able. You learn something. You grew, right? Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it was great to get to be, what, is this the first official exhibition, Mike, for VTO? I think so. Or at least against exhibition, Jed. In his heart, in his heart of hearts. It's going to go on the record books. I'm sorry. Disagree. All right. Well, listen, thank you all very much for joining us in this game that wasn't really a game, I guess.

But we had fun ranting and raving about UFC 280, Algemaid Sterling's options, Islam Makachev, what potential rain he could have, Anderson Silver versus Jake Paul, UFC Vegas 63, and much more. We'll be back next week to recap all the craziness of this coming weekend, and look forward to doing with all of you. Maybe we'll have another exhibition match.

Who knows? But until that, everybody, for hypothetical Drake, hypothetical Jed, Casey on the hypothetical ones and twos. I am Mike Eck, the iconic voice of Estuarland takes you home. Good night, everybody. The lightweight division has a champion, and his name is Islamakov.

Love you guys. Happy birthday, Drake, Griggs. Yeah. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.