MMA Fighting - BTL | Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland, Next For Gane & Namajunas, Dana White Comments

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

Israel Adesanya returns to the UFC octagon on Saturday when he defends his middleweight title against Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC 293, a fight that is doing a lot of heavy lifting heading into the promotion's return to Australia.  On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss Saturday's championship headliner, the interest in the bout, and the chances Strickland has to pull off the major upset. Additionally, they'll grade UFC 293 as a whole, the fallout of UFC Paris this past Saturday, what's next for Ciryl Gane after stopping Serghei Spivac, as well as Rose Namajunas following her flyweight debut loss to Manon Fiorot, Dana White commenting about a lot of different topics over the past week or so, and much more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Morning Kombat's Brian Campbell. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Brian Campbell: @BCampbell Subscribe: 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

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

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

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

The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand new day. of BTL. Thank you for joining us on another Thursday. We have stacked the panel this week. A panel more stacked than Saturday's UFC 293 pay-per-view. How about that? Well, at least on paper. Let's get right into things that's not waste any time as we first introduce a man who has talked a lot over the last couple of weeks. A couple of great editions of Dan, they were good. No Bet's Barred. This show, even a guest stint on an award-winning podcast. He is Mr. Doe Gray area. A man who wants to live in a world where Sean Strickland holds middleweight gold. He has M.A. Fighting's own, Jen Mishu.

How are you, buddy? Look at that flow today. I let it down because God knows we need something to bring the people in because U.S.C. 293 ain't going to do it. No one's clicking the button. Oh, let's watch them talk about that fight card. So check the luscious flow. There you go.

That's what we're all about here. At Mavayfinding.com, great website. You get us all tickets now. super popular to man, a man who joined Jet and I on, damn they were good for the Yawanna champion episode. He's one half of the morning combat duo. The man just wins awards. He's the one, the only Brian Freakin' Campbell, rock and the scally, B.C.

Yeah, yeah, representing the man in the hat and the myth, the legend, the Chuck Middenhall. But on BC, I'm back to defend my title. And, you know, as far as my midlife crisis choices, this is my favorite mistake, Cheryl. So I really enjoy wearing this hat, thank you. I mean, you look, you look sensational in it, no doubt about that. It fits. It really does. Yeah, I can't pull off either of these.

Like, I can't pull up the long hair. I mean, I can't pull off any hair. And I can't rock the scally these days. But we'll talk 293. Yes, we'll talk Izzy Strickland. We'll have a super fun final regulation round as well. But let's put a bow on last weekend first. UFC Paris went down.

It was a fun one. Two big stories coming out of it. One, we'll get into an. moment that features a fighter who did not win. The other, a former interim champ getting back on track following a devastating quick loss to John Jones earlier this year. Cyril Gunn, in front of a home crowd, BC, blows the doors off one Sergey Spivak. He got him out in round two, gets a much needed win.

And the aftermath sort of no-souled Tom Aspinall just kind of left things open with a, well, I want the belt, but no real next step as to how he's going to get there. but as far as the performance goes BC and there are questions heading in about Gons take down defense, etc. coming out of the John Jones fight. Did you learn anything from Cyril Gahn? What did you take away most from this performance?

You know, I learned that he can put a giant piece of bubblegum over the glaring hole in the dam. And for this particular test against Spivak, that's what was needed. What Gond needed to do was remind us of his elite nature, show us at the very least the intention put in to sure up some of those holes in his game and move forward.

And look, he was second round stoppage against a guy on a heck of a street coming in. He moved forward with the pressure on him in front of a home crowd. I did believe there were elements of make or break for gone in this fight, meaning he had to win and look as good as he did for us to be confident about his direction moving forward to the top

rather than talking about things like, should he get a new trainer? Can he fix the holes in his game? From what we saw in the takedown defense, it was strong. And I think the biggest thing we took away was the offensive intention from Gond to sit down on his punches and really look for the stoppage that inevitably did come in round two.

My only issue with Gond's performance as a whole, and I don't think this is his fault, is what it didn't do was give us full confidence moving forward that he has fixed some or completely, you know, or all of the holes that led him to being in trouble against Tuivasa to laying a big fat egg against John Jones. Good takedown defense, good offense. but Sergei Spivak, ah man, I don't think he put his best foot forward.

So I think there are some elements of fools gold from how easy this performance looked in hindsight just a few days back. But at the very least, we needed some confidence about gone moving forward. He may believe he's going to go right to the title shot. I think some other things are going to dictate that. But I do believe in him again moving forward.

I just didn't see everything I needed to. Jan, we talked about this on the post-fight show because we really didn't learn a whole, hell of a lot. Like he did defend the takedown. It was kind of an aggressive one, but we knew that two minutes into this fight, we knew exactly where this fight was going to go. It's either Sergei's going to land takedowns and beat the hell out of Cyril Gan, or Gon's going to avoid the takedown and just finish and just annihilate Sergei's feedback, and that's what happened here. So now that the dust has settled, I guess, how do you grade Gons Day in Paris between the win,

the performance, the mic work, laying the groundwork for the future? How do you grade Cyril Gan on Saturday. If we're taking the totality of it, a minus, right? Like, look, he looks sensational in the cage. I didn't learn a damn thing. That was always very much in the realm of what he could do to Sergey Spivak.

I'm coming in and I said this on several of the shows that week. My questions were about Sergey Spivak. Like, he's still young. He had been on a really good tear. Is he maybe a dude? We underestimate it a little bit. Now he's putting it together. And 30 seconds.

And it was like, oh, no. he he still has that one major problem that that will limit his ability he looks like he is moving in mud and that's like if you're not an athlete you're not going to be the heavyweight champion in the world that's just it like you got to be an athlete to make it you got to be an athlete or you have to be the toughest SOB that's ever lived to really make hey at the top of that weight class and he ain't either so that's that's the thing i learned for sure gone like you you just got to look like that against dude you're supposed to look like that again. So you got to give him an A for it. We're taking the totality of it. I'll dock him a couple of points for the mic work and stuff, which is to be

expected, Cyril Gron has never been a guy who is a captivating personality. He's just a big dude who moves like a middleweight and that's the selling point on him. But, you know, he could have and should have done a little more to maybe build a fight with Tom Aspinall or if he really doesn't want to fight Tom Aspinall for one reason or another, you know, try and pick on Sergey Pavlovich. He is ostensibly the next guy in line, right? He's got the backup fighter tag at 295. I think it's two nine, whatever the, yeah, 295 is at the backup fighter tag. So come, like, if you're not going to come out and say, hey, man, I want to fight Tom Aspinall, be like, hey, let me, I want to fight Sergey Palavich. I want to get back in there and avenge it. And that's,

It's never been his way, but I implore all fighters always to try and take a more proactive hand in your own fight promotion and your careers. You don't have to be Connor McGregor or, you know, that fake, I'm going to adopt a personality. But you just, you need to speak the things you want into existence because that's like half the battle in the game. God's never been that way. And so he's probably instead going to fight, you know, the winner of Almeida Curtis Blades, which might be bad for. him because both those dudes are athletes and he hasn't fared well against the athletes that he has fought. So that's a minus, but overall a solid night at the office. Yeah, what's wild is he has done it before. Like he put himself in position for the John Jones fight. He like he saw a potential

glaring hole and it was like every other day he was tweeting, hey John, I'm ready. Where are you? And somehow once the Francis thing fell apart, he knows how to do it. He's got the Twitter fingers. He's got the Twitter fingers, but he has never, at least to my knowledge, I don't remember him saying anything that I've ever remembered on a microphone. B.C., what do you think about sort of the fallout of that? Go ahead. Yeah, yeah. My issue with him on the microphone was this. And I say this about promoter. I say this about fighter, whatever.

I'm even okay if you're going to lie to us. But don't leave us feeling like you don't want to fight somebody else. And that's what his post-fight comments on the UFC post-fight show, when approached by the crew there about, Aspinall constantly calling him out, calling him out again after this fight. And he's sort of like, yeah, you know, Aspinall's trying to get to the top. Well, I'm trying to get there to you, blah, blah, blah. It was really gone's way of saying this without saying it. He's saying, look, John's going to fight Steepay in November.

There's a shot that one or both could retire afterwards and a really good shot that the winner could retire afterwards. Gone is smart enough to know that with his name combined with the advancement in Paris and boy was in French MMA for the UFC. And boy was that Paris crowd red hot on Saturday. that he could be in a very good spot if John Jones retires after beating Steepay, let's say,

for a potential scenario, and then would it be gone and Pavlovich next to the vacant belt? It probably would. But here's the deal, though. I'm okay if you sell us machismo, even if underneath it, you're a different kind of strategic businessman.

I think I wanted to hear like all the fans do that I'm Cyril gone and I'll fight anybody. And the reason why I think we needed to hear that is because he had three consecutive, questionable performances. Two wins, I'm sorry, a win over to Ivasa in which it looked bad at times. He got in trouble in times and then spectacularly won it.

And then two losses that really we had to bite our tongue down to the idea of saying like maybe we were wrong about Cyril Gahn. So even though he repaired a lot of that public image with the performance against Spivak, even with some of those built-in fools gold elements that we talked about, you should want if you're a promoter or a fan of Gahn for him to come out and be like, like, yeah, I'll fight anybody. And hey, Tom Aspinall, if you think you're good enough for the top

and if the promotion wants us to fight, then meet me in Paris, meet me in London, let's do a stadium, let's do a big deal there. I'm always at the end of the day, either be honest or do a really good job lying with some fake honesty, but don't do the thing where we can go Twitter fingers back on and go, you know what, I kind of feel like Gons avoiding Aspinall. And maybe if we look at the stylistic nature of it, maybe he should be. Yeah, which is, I thought the Pavlovich idea would have been great for him. At least set the table for that. Be like, hey, Sergey, these guys are going to fight. You're the backup, but how about I just fight you instead? And then you kind of could put yourself in that position. Of course, if Jilton Almeida beats

Blades, then all bets are off because the timing of that fight couldn't be better for Jelton Almeida if he wins because it's the week before the title fight. And a month and a half, two months is a very long time between fights for a big win from Jelton Almeida. He could really put a wrench into all of this. So that is Cyril gone. The other big story, see, Rose Domi Unis, loses a decision to Manon Fioro. It's pretty clear cut, despite what Jamal Hill might say. But Rose was competitive. She got dinged up early with the finger injury.

That an injury looked nasty. But what stood out to me was not just the performance, B.C., but kind of the opposite of Cyril Gaon, the aftermath. She jumps on an IG live. She kind of heard what people were saying in the fallout of the fight, answers all the questions surrounding it, the injury, why Trevor Whitman wasn't there. but the thing that has gotten the most attention, BC,

she ain't going back to 115. She's planning on staying at 125. She wants to put a little more size. Weight cuts are brutal. Right move, BC? Do you think this is the right move coming out of this fight? I don't think we're going to fully know if it's the right move until the end of the line.

But do we have enough information from the performance mixed with, I don't want to say excuses because I feel more like on that IG Live Rose was defending herself against what was becoming the public narrative. But she gave explanations about something. some of those key questions we had after watching that performance live. And I think if you take all of that into account how badly her finger was mangled and how that prevented her from keeping a close fist and not only striking with two hands, but using that to aid her wrestling game in hopes of setting up submissions,

that was all compromised. She was also compromised. Now we find out by Trevor Whitman's schedule, which didn't allow with some of the things going on, including her building her own home gym in Denver, for Trevor to join camp with her since he was focused on Gaichi and the BMF fight. All of that seems a little bit understandable. Now, what we look back on what was what? A very competitive fight against a super elite 125 pound fighter

who looks like with that victory, she may have clinched the next title shot. I saw Rosnami Unis who leaned more on guile and smarts and set up, but that's always what you're going to have to do moving up a division. The one thing Rose is not going to have anymore staying at 125 is that built-in size advantage, the fact that she's taller and longer, usually than her opponents, but doesn't sacrifice speed, has incredible footwork.

work and setups and really has one strike power. I think if she came up to 125 and had the type of debut that, let's say, Yonah, champion had fighting Valentina for that vacant belt where we knew within the first minute of the fight that she was not going to be able to hurt Valentina, then I might have more questions about Rose's 125 upper bound limits, as Luke Thomas would say. The difference, though, in my opinion, between Rose and Yonanah specifically is I believe Rose can carry the power up to another weight class. I also believe she's a submission threat when fully healthy and a good ground fighter at another

way class in ways that you want to never was. So was she completely compromised for those final two rounds by that hand injury and really should have Pat Berry and company in the corner consider trying to pop it back in? All of those I'm going to say yes. But I do think I can peer through, realize she's still young enough, still at the tail end of her physical prime, to really use her smarts to make a run at 125. Could she have trouble on the ground against Blanchfield? Yes, she could, so could anybody.

But I think her striking would help her in that battle. Same against Alexa Grasso. And she seems to really covet the idea of facing Valentino one day, whether it's in a title fight or not, just for that idea, the respect that she has for Valentino, they've trained together and putting together a really big fight. I think as soon as that fight ended, I had more questions about Rose's future

and whether 125 was a good or bad idea. But after the fact, I do believe she should retain a certain level of our respect and grace to say, you know what, that didn't go as planned, but it wasn't a disaster. What can you do now moving forward after this? Well, it's crazy about this, Jed, is one of the things we talked about on the post-fight show is, what, where is she going to go, right? And we didn't think we would, we thought we'd have to wait a while. Maybe she'd go back to the farm, wouldn't hear from her for six months.

And then like a day and a half later, here she is with a smile on her face, talking a little trash, given answers to what happened and providing a future and actually like looking at it with pretty good spirits, which I think is a really good sign, Jed. And yeah, she lost a man in Fioreau, but she's still, and this probably includes Valenzina Shepchenko. If she's a flyweight, a permanent flyweight,

she's probably the most known flyweight on the roster. She's probably the biggest star in the division. This loss sets her back, but not that much, right? Like what did you take away from the comments, the fact that she's staying at 125, despite a lot of people feeling like she's too small, even though Rose disagrees with all of that. That was all bad.

BC and I are not aligned on this one at all. One, I had, I left that fight with real questions about whether she does carry that power up with her. Look, she had a competitive fight against one of the top women in the world. Not saying she can't have success at flyweight. She is. I said coming into that fight, so say going out. She's one of the most talented female fighters to ever compete. That upper bound is going to give you a lot of leeway.

whatever you want to do. But I feel confident her power didn't carry up because a lot of that fight was strictly dictated by the fact that when she got hit by Bonon Furrow, who is not an outrageous hitter? It physically moved her. It moved her body. It marked her face up.

And when she would land clean on Furrow, Furo would just be like, all right, cool, homie, we good. I don't know that she is going to carry that up with her. She carries up plenty of skills and can have success against, you know, know, the Caitlin Chukagians of the world, the Jennifer Mayas of the world. But even those, I think that she's more talented than those women, so she would beat them.

I'm not sure that they would look good and dominant in this kind of way. And then you put her against the like, I mean, I think Valentina Shvchenko probably beats her pretty convincingly just by getting a body lock and thrashing her on the floor. I think Aaron Blanchfield just murders her, but I also think Blanchfield does that to a lot of people. Tyler Santos, like, but on Furo was the nexus of too physical for her, but does not employ a style that is overly physical in its execution. The one time she did kind of impose that physicality on Rose in the clinches, you visibly saw Rose be like, please do not knee me in the body anymore. Oh my God, that hurts so bad. Like that's just going to kill her.

And then the idea that, well, I want to put on some more, I don't want to make. the cut. I understand that and that's fine. If that's the reason, then you got to do what makes you happy. But the idea that I don't want to make the cut and I'm going to put on 10 more pounds of muscle to compete, those feel like competing ideologies to me, Mike, like, I don't want to make this cut. So what I'm going to do is add more weight and then have to cut that at this weight class where I'm not my best. Her best competing is at 115. She's two wins over the current champion and would have a really good chance to do it again. So all of it was weird. The The attitude, and I don't, that words a little more loaded than I mean, but just her response to things didn't feel very rose, like you said, to come out, you know, shortly after and have a little bit of chip on her shoulder.

And that's not really where she's been her best as far as I'm concerned. I still don't buy the comments about Trevor Whitman, because I don't know if you guys know how a calendar works, but Justin Gatesy fought a month ago, I'm not really sure why Trevor Whitman couldn't be involved for this. So all of it was bad and made me be like, I don't know what the hell's going on here. And I don't foresee great things in her future. The one benefit is, like you said, Mike, she, by default is one of the biggest stars in this weight class. And so it won't be a long road to get to a title shot just by virtue of that. But I did not see a lot on last Saturday that makes me think that she is a future two division champion. Jed, can I ask you a couple of questions that involve one word answers?

Sure. Was she physically the same size has been known for all, more or less in this fight? No. I mean, she is as tall and has the same reach. They were very clearly physically separated in my mind. Does she have a reputation as being very capable on the ground at 115? She has a reputation of being capable. I would not say very capable.

not not it did you not initially known as a great submission threat doing spectacular submissions and has really paired that with some solid wrestling and and and where I get the idea that should be moving up and weighed and it's always going to be hard to wrestle somebody like blanchefield but my whole point here jed is that she has the skills to offset that and for you to infer that she might not have carried power a lot of people look i guess technically whoever's doing the stats for the ufc did not give her credit for any knockdowns i did see two knockdowns in there by single punches one in the first round, one in the third that the announcers basically said Manon's legs kind of tripped herself up and went down. But I saw two big single shots that

moved Manon, which shows me that the power mixed with the technique did carry up. And Jed, was that first round competitive? Yes or no? Yeah. Yeah, ultra competitive. Yeah, Rose had to make a certain adjustment being off for 16 months in a new division facing one of the best in the world in that division to the idea that she's not going to have that same length. So yes, she had problems with the lead jab of Faroe with that little right-handed hook that she disguises as the jab. But she was compromised after round one, and we can't act like that wasn't a thing to have a broken finger and not be allowed to show us what she potentially could do on the ground.

To just throw out there that Blanchield is going to cut through and dominate her. Yeah, Blasher of a killer, dude. I think we have to put some respect on the combination of her experience, her well-rounded skill set, and let's see her fully healthy. She went to the deepest end of the pool against, you know, one of the top three fighters in this reband division and really went nose for nose and, you know, tit for tat for the most part, losing a close decision in which she was compromised. You got to give somebody with that level of experience and ability and well-roundedness a chance to prove it a second time, a chance to prove it the right way. If she was saying moving forward, Pat Barry's my head trainer, superfan Rose over here, BC would have some questions like we all would. Could I buy that Trevor Whitman who she said she was talking to?

throughout camp that there was a scheduling issue. Aren't all these, I mean, yeah, I could buy that. Did she prefer to train out home in her garage? Maybe she did. Maybe that's a bad move moving forward. But if she comes back fully healthy with Trevor Whitman, I think she can still beat the majority of these fly weights. And I would be a little bit too quick to paint a picture

that it's going to look like Yawanna versus Valentina for her moving forward. I think she's in it with a shot to beat anybody in that top three or four. And I think she showed you that, Jed. I just don't think you saw that. you're right i i didn't see it i if she showed it to me i did not see it because look i i started my whole thing saying she can have success she's one of the most talented fighters ever that gives her a lot of leeway but at the upper bound of this i look i don't think that highly have been off your art and that's where it's been like i think no she she keeps winning and i don't

entirely get it because I'm not sure that she's good. And Rose did not beat her. And that is a big thing. It's like, okay, I think she can have success. And it's fighting. Anything can happen, right? But I thought both of the knockdowns were, you know, she got caught on one leg and fell over and that can happen.

I never saw Monon Furrow's eyes get real wide. Like when Rose got neat in the gut and look like she wanted to vacate existence. It's, I just, it doesn't feel like she's, going to do things, like against the very top echelon of the thing. Again, she could beat, like I said, I said specifically, she could beat Kayla Chukagian, which is like the top five is to fighters in this weight class. She could beat a lot of women in this weight class. I think she's going to get a very elite.

Don't use that. Don't use that as a CI gave her the Chukajian fight. Caitlin's on the way out. She's of the old guard. We're talking about the new ones, the top contenders, the rising young names. She's a problem for all of them, Jed. And I think we're at the very least, dude her. Due to her resume and experience, we need to give her the respect.

Due to the known injury in the picture that showed it. Of some level of... Dude, she would handle Macy Barber. Yeah, I said she's a problem for Macy Barber. I don't know that she'd handle her. But like, she probably beats Macy Barber, but also, I don't know, because for all of this grappling expertise that you're trying to lean on, one, that was always a pretty overblown narrative to my mind,

just because she's long and can arm bar people. or whatever. But her grappling expertise is largely proactive. Like she's not doing a lot of stuff on the bottom, which is why Blanchfield will kill her. Like Blanchfield's going to take her down and kill her. It's just, and to her credit, Blanchoel's going to do that to everyone that's not Tilos Santos and maybe to Valentina Shepchenko. Like, that's just who Blanchfield is.

But look, I think Rose can have success here because she's one of the best fighters on earth. Like, so you can always have success. I think it would make way more sense to go to the vision where you actually probably are the best fighter on earth and probably are the best fighter who has ever fought at that weight class. I mean, Jed, the last yes or no question is simple. Did she have two working hands? Any man with two hands has a fighting chance.

Any woman, too. She didn't have it. You didn't learn anything from it, all right? I'm sorry. She gutted it out to keep it. I didn't realize fist fights had injuries. I didn't realize this is a sport where people got injured. I thought you fist fought nothing bad ever happened. You just got into a fist fight and

everybody was okay the whole time. That's what always happens in fistfights, right? No, you got to win them. I don't care. You got to find a way to do it, man. Yeah, I thought she fought pretty well considering the circumstance and was able to keep that fight close. But look, I don't think, I don't think this is a bad move for her. I just think it's uncertain what the future exactly is going to look like. But she's 31 years old. It's understandable that she could be growing out of that weight class and certainly has put on, you know, more muscles incrementally over her career. Let's not discount the idea of how much fresher with two working hands her wrestling might look, her gas tank might look for the ability to fight off takedowns and the ability to sustain

herself against the elite in this division. Questions? Yes, Jed, you're fair to have questions. Absolute doubt? No, not going to work in this case. bro this is this is punditry you're supposed to have absolute doubt about everything and look this is objectively a bad move because she's better in one way class this might work out she may win a belt this may be very successful for her she is objectively better at the weight class where she is very very likely to be the best fighter in the world like this just i don't understand this, I'm never going to understand this. And until she wins the title, I'm going to feel really vindicated that this was dumb.

Because until she wins the 125 title, if that never happens, then this exists in perpetuity, obviously. If it does, then that intervening five years or whatever she didn't have was like, well, that's cool, but she could have had the belt and the paper viewpoints and all the things that go away that come with it at 115. If she had just been like, hey, I'd like to fight that woman I've already beaten twice, including a knockout victory over, who currently has the belt please, and thank you.

Well, I think she would have. I don't think the UFC wanted anything to do with that. That's just my opinion on that. Not after the Carla fight, yeah, but if she goes back and is like, all right, I'll fight Jan Zhao Nan now, and I won't have the most inexplicably awful fight of all time, then I'm like, all right, let's put you back in a title fight,

this, okay? I'm just going to close on this. I'm not going to say that everything from this fight was explainable. She's had one of the more unexplainable careers in general, to be very fair. What's her record right now? Is it something like an 11 and 6? Wasn't she six and three when she fought for a world title the second time? I mean, she's had as weird of a career as possible. But I think the difference in this argument is you're trying to prophetize what Rose is going to look like, not maybe not taking an account

to do enough, the injury, but how she might look against Blancheville, Grasse, or whatever. Those aren't the battles that decide if Rose Namunis wins or loses fights. It's the battle with herself. She didn't lose the battle with herself like she did the Asparza fight, like she did some of other big fights, both Asparza fights, to be very fair. This was physically not her fault. She gutted it

out. Her head coach wasn't there. She'll be back just fine, Jed. You'll see. She chose, at the very baseline, she chose to have Pat Barry serve as her primary coach over Trevor Whitman. So she lost the battle to something in our regard because one of those men is much

better in coaching than the other. Well, look, the motivation seems to be there to continue on this journey. And that was one of the questions I had coming out. That is the most part of this. That is the best takeaway from this, Mike. She seems like she's not thinking about the farm. Yes. She showed the same heart she showed in the Androge rematch to rally back to stay in this fight.

She's just more compromised. Yeah. Now we just run the trilogy with Androge after Androge does business with McKenzie Dern. We do that at 125. Just do that. Yes, that is the fight. We got that is the only fight. Jessica and Drogh has to stop fighting people who are good. Someone, whoever is her man. She has a win over her.

Yeah, but and I thought she should have won the second one. You thought she won both. I agree. But I'm just saying Jessica and Drage needs a softball. Whoever is managing her career is letting her fight every other week against really good people and it's going really poorly. Give her somebody. I don't like just like just the. softest touch ever. Let her get a W, please. Well, I didn't think we'd spend 30 minutes on this, but shout out to Benoit Santini.

Shout out to Morgan Cherrier for the nasty body kick AO. And shout out to the Paris crowd. They were on fire. But BSD is, look, it's very early going. This man is starting to lay the foundation of a future damn they were good episode. That man is bona fide fireworks. Let's get him to MSG. Let's get him to MSG to fight Matt Rivola.

That is the fight to make. So that's the UFC 295. That's in November. We got a pay-per-view on Saturday, though, guys. And I can tell by the looks on your faces that you are very excited to talk about this. The point for round one goes to the new PR rep for Rose Namibunis, Brian Campbell. It's one to nothing. Nicely done.

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Cepererer You see Form a standard and mini, regrouped for a better quality of price. On link on C4A.C. or in magazine. So, guys, we have UFC 293 on Saturday, and we'll get into the card as a whole and the excitement levels for the entirety of it all in round three. But I want to focus on the main event first.

We have Israel Adasania versus Sean Strickland. Jed, you co-host a gambling program. You know the betting odds are very, very, very wide here on the side of Adasania. Strickland coming in with very little pressure, not a whole lot to lose, actually getting baby-faced reactions this week from the Sydney crowd, which is kind of surprising.

But Jed, as a man who was on this program, the only person in BTL history to own moral victories, multiple moral victories, including one over this man after UFC 290 and DDPs win over Robert Whitaker, how can Sean Strickland win this fight on Saturday? He can't. and that's the sad part. I have spent the better part of a month trying to get there.

I got there with Sean O'Malley. It took me a while and I was like, I'm going to talk myself into it and I got there. And then that one worked out really great. And I was like, you know what else would be funny if Sean Strickland be dizzy? And I think it would be objectively the funniest thing that has happened in the UFC cage in years.

If Sean Strickland goes in here and gets a dub. And I want to say ruins the best. Slate plans of the UFC, but it wouldn't because they're trying to torpedo their own best plans anyway because they're vindictive and stupid organization writ large. But it would still be incredibly amusing. Unfortunately, I just don't see it, man. There is. When your own coach is coming out and saying this is a really bad matchup for us, you know that the prospects of success are grim. they're just, Strickland just is uniquely poorly suited.

I would venture to say that Alex Pereira is actually the worst possible matchup for him, given what we now know about Pereira. At the time, there's at least an idea that, well, Pereira can't fight on the ground. And maybe that's still true, but Strickland's not the dude who's going to really take advantage of it. And then the striking match of Pereira is a one-hitter-quitter, and we saw exactly how that whole fight unfolded. Izzy's maybe not quite as bad as Peri's. is, but he's just a rung below for Strickland.

I genuinely struggle to see how Strickland gets off like committed offense here. Maybe he double jabs a bunch, but that that will score points that won't hurt. Izzy and the rest of the time he's just going to get chewed up with kicks. Sean Strickland's been pretty bad at defending kicks over the course of his career and he doesn't have the footwork to do it. Like I, outside of an actual banana peel or, you know, is he, you know, rolling his ankle or something like stepping into the cage, I really can't find a path to victory for Sean Strickland. So unfortunately, the funniest possible outcome, it seems extremely unlikely to happen. B.C. What do you think about this? Because, I mean, obviously, Shicklin is very well coached. Eric Nixick is a tremendous coach. They craft great game plans. And one of my favorite Eric Nixick stories of all time is, We had a game plan for Alex Pereira, and then Sean Strickland didn't listen to any of it.

We were going to wrestle, and he was just like, no, I'm going to punch this dude in the face. And the fact that Sean Strickland continues to tell Eric Nixick that if I fought this dude a hundred times, I would do the same thing the next 99 times is just hilarious to me. So it's almost like game plans don't matter here because Sean Strickland's going to do what Sean Strickland does. And we say it all the time in fights. Anything can happen once that cage door closes. And there's nothing more dangerous than a overlooked fight. fighter with nothing to lose, and that is Sean Strickland to a T. So I ask you, man, in the Scali cap, how can Sean Strickle win this fight? Not looking good here. The strengths, sometimes

you have to look at what are some of the hidden strengths or the things we're not focusing on? What should we have known ahead of time ahead of big upsets like Pena, Nunes 1 and Bisping, Rockhold 2, for example? I don't think the parallels really connect here. For Strickland, yeah, obviously he's got that five-round cardio. Four of his last six fights have gone. to that level and he does fight an aggressive pressure style, yet outside of the Poetan fight has shown us responsible enough head movement, truck movement, defensive instincts to employ a style that puts him in danger so much. Obviously, the problem is that that style plays perfectly to the counter-striking spider web that Adasania puts out there. And look, if all these other

wrestlers had little to no effect outside of Blahovic and a young Vittori having wrestling success against Sada Sanya. Strickland's obviously not that guy who's just going to suddenly do that. The difference in trying to create a path to him for victory where others created one that we didn't see coming is, you know, just this. Look, Strickland's not a one-punch striker, not a big submission threat. Rockhold lost to Bisping in the rematch because, you know, arrogance was always the fatal flaw that held Luke Rockhold back, particularly in the second half of his career.

And it was in flow that night. I think Bisping, even in that advanced stage that he was at UFC 199, is a better fighter than Sean Strickland, who has been very good and, or good. And sometimes, you know, teasing very good, but has not shown you the idea that he can be a great fighter that can do this. You need something. You need that one irresistible part of your attack. Sean Strickland is a, you know, like I said, pretty damn good fighter across the board, not great in one category to really give a threat. So it's more about what can Izzy do to step on his own feet? Izzy doesn't gas out, although, you know, that did become a problem in the lost of Poetown in the first MMA match,

although there's a lot of leg strikes that seem to facilitate that. And I don't believe that Izzy's going to go out of his way to do something stupid that's going to set up his demise. This is going to be his one side of this as the odds tell you. I also think, though, it'll be entertaining. Thursday morning's press conference was wild as heck and had some elements of weird and daring charm to it. Strickland gets your eyes on him for obvious reasons, but this has survived. in advance. And let's not forget, it took an incredible perfect storm for Strickland to even be here. DDP not being ready. Is he having completely cleaned out the division? Politon having moved up

in wait. And that damn bus that allowed Sean Strickland to have basically a get well fight before a title fight. All of these perfect storm elements had to align with the fact that Strickland's looked at somebody who can sell and talk. And it has been weird that all of Australia is like, yeah, this is our guy. We hate painting nails too. We hate anime. This is awesome. No, it's freaking weird.

The guy's going to get blasted and peeled off of the canvas, but at least we're going to have fun watching it. Good luck finding gems on the rest of the card, though, okay? Uncut, to say the least. Damn. Hey, we'll get there. Don't you worry. BC, kind of building upon that,

sometimes we're prisoners of these betting odds and matchups and just of the moment in general. And yes, you mentioned Pena Nunes and some of the major upsets with these big massive betting numbers attached to them in the past. But let's forget about Draft King's dollar. This is the BC betting odds, like how you feel personally. If Sean Strickland somehow wins this fight, where would this rank on the scale of zero to holy crapola compared to other big upsets in the sport?

And like, what would this division look like if Sean Strickland won the belt and then probably got a smoking skull title like Stone Cold Steve Austin did? I think it would be top five. because of how great Izzy is right at the top of the pound for pound list, although he did just recently losing his own division, but certainly avenged that. But I don't think it, I mean, one thing we have to remember of why it's such a huge upset

is Strickland has not been a requisite elite fighter and a number one contender type opportunity to really earn this. It took the fact that Izzy had already cleaned out the division one and a half times for that door to open. Yeah, Strickland on a two-fight win streak, but he's lost both times he stepped up in those type of fights. I don't think it's as big as Matt Sarah versus Jules. I certainly don't think it's as big of an upset as Pena Nunes was, because let's remember,

it took Amanda Nunes, the greatest female fighter of all time, to essentially implode before eyes, to have a horrible training camp filled with injuries, to be afraid to pull out of the fight because of the lesson she learned from the company from when she was ill ahead of the scheduled rematch with Jeffchenko. She pushed forward. Pena had the night of her life in terms of chin and willpower and won that. This would be about three, four, five in that area in terms of huge upsets. We're always going to throw Rousey versus Holman there, which also happened on an Australian soil, although I think in hindsight, not as big of an upset as sort of the odds or the hype in that moment would tell you. But to me, what truly defines the big upset isn't always the rankings of the fighters or how well we historically look at the champion.

And right now, Izzy certainly look like as an all-timer in waiting and building, right? But to me, it's how much of a legitimate chance based on the firepower strategy and all that that they bring to the table do they have to win? In this case, Strickland doesn't have a good chance. It really doesn't. So would this be like the third or fourth biggest upset? Probably would be.

But I think we should start waking up to the idea that it's starting to happen more often than we realize. Leon Edwards in round five against Usman, Poetan in round five against Adasania. Obviously, the problem is that Strickland isn't those guys. could he be those guys on a great night? Yeah, you can lose. It's impossible.

It's almost impossible to have the type of runs that the guys that we have in that upper room of Goat Hoodhood have actually pulled off because there are so many ways to lose. Not this time, not in Australia where Izzy is five and O. And if you want to know what five fights, how about two titles on the regional scene, his UFC debut, Anderson Silva, and at the time he knocked out Robert Whitaker to win the title.

This is going to be all Izzy all day. So I'm just wasting time to fulfill my obligation. to entertain you as the B side of this show. Jed, you want to live in this world where it does happen. And you would laugh hysterically. Your post-like, the laugh would last from the end of the fight through the post-fight press conference show, through the post-fight show.

The laughter would be contagious. But how, like, deep down inside, as happy as you would be, how shocking would this be? Where would this rank if Sean Strickland goes out there? Like, no banana peel, no weird injury. He just goes out and just, out hustles, Izzy and beats them on Saturday. Probably number two.

I think broadly speaking, we're looking at number three. Look, it's going to take an act of God to beat Matt Serra George St. Pierre. I don't think people, certainly newer fans will ever understand how unlikely that was. The totality of it was simply insane. And looking back, you can sell yourself in the idea a little bit more, but you get to remember, Matt Serra was a BJ guy. He'd never knocked anybody out. And then he knocks out George St. Pierre, who is the second coming?

That was just not a thing that could happen. So that's probably never going to get topped. And Pena Nunes, I think, has a very good argument for two. But even at the time, some people were like, you know what? I think Juliana Payne is going to do it. And then Julianna Pena did. And then afterwards, we see how it could happen. Because like BC pointed out, the thing that usually gets fighters in moments like this is hubris.

And they rest on their laurels a little bit. They've been champion for a long time. And that you can craft the narrative. You know, Buster Douglas, similar sort of stuff going on there. This one, is he just lost his belt. So it's not like he's like super resting on his laurels. And they're just, somebody point me to a path to victory. Somebody tell me how he's going to do it.

and I can start to at least see it. I have to write an article for this website outlining pass to victory. And I got to tell you, man, it's hard because I don't know what the pass are other than prayer. There was simply no way for him to do this. So it's really big.

It would be the second biggest upset in my mind. I think largely it would be viewed as like the third biggest upset. But like BC also mentioned, we're starting to get more of these sorts of events happening. Maybe it's just because we're getting 50 events a year. And so law of large numbers, you're going to get more of this thing to happen. But it would be extremely high up there, undeniably top five for me.

And like I said, I think it'd be number two or number three. Last thing on this. And then we'll move on to the rest of the card, this glorious paper offering. Look, Jed, you believe it. BC believes it. I think most people believe Izzy's going to win. And it's just a matter of whether he wins a Jared Canaanier-ish, like 50-45, or if he just runs Strickland out of the building.

But you mentioned with Cyril God, you gave him an A-minus, all things considered. So for you, with DDP and potentially Hamzat Shemayev waiting in the wing, should he defeat Paul Acosta next month, what does Izzy have to do on Saturday to get an A-plus out of you? He has to try. Look, here's the thing. We all forgot about it because Alex Pereira is real cool and made Izzy real fun. And so we were all like, ah, the narrative pre-Perrera was, Izzy's in that Anderson Silva stage of his career where in retrospect, hindsight, looking back,

we're going to be like, man, it's incredible what he managed to do, getting all those wins, not even being competitive in those fights. That's great. And that still stands true. Like all of those, you know, the Vittori, the cannoneer, et cetera. Those are all good wins that hold up. The problem being, like it or not, this is an entertainment sport, and you've got to try to hurt people sometimes and not just coast.

And I'm sure that behind the scenes right now, the great and powerful E.K.C. Liden is shaking his head and saying fighting is fighting, and you've just got to win. That's the most important thing. And that's true. But you also got to be dope at what you're doing. And it's not dope to watch you leg kick some dude for 25. minutes and never engage.

And that's where Izzy was a year and a half ago. And there's like a really strong chance he becomes this dude again. If Perre, I'm sorry, if Strickland doesn't just run himself into offense, Izzy is not going to initiate in that way. He is just going to win the fight comfortably without engaging in a battle that could be entertaining, even though strong Strickland has like an almost negative possibility of catching him with one shot and knocking him out. This is the fight of all

the other fights. You can sell me that Jared Canaaner is dangerous and I don't want to get to trading punches with him. Even though I think that's wrong, you can sell me. You can't sell me that like I was, I just had to play it safe against Sean Strickland, so I just had to get the W. He needs to put this dude away.

He needs to put this dude away before the championship rounds. And for me to give him an A plus, he needs to put away all this bullshit about Hamza and whatever and come out. We all know the fight. It's the fight you were trying to make

and then got real weird and to your credit walked back some of your statements about, you know, things you've said previously about debating people's nationalities. We got a fight, knock this dude out, and then pick up the mic and say,

drink is duplice, you're fucking next and that's it. And that's an A plus for me. B.C., how do we get there? Would you do anything differently to get to that A-plus if you're Israel-Had-A-Sanya? Well, I wouldn't call out DDP afterwards because Hamzot's going to be coming through that door if Dana has anything to say about it.

But no, this should be an Izzy knockout. I get what he's saying, and he's right. Strickland doesn't have the power threat, although he is an aggressive fighter who pushes the pace to, you know, to necessarily make it worth it for Izzy to do one of these where I'm just going to stay on the outside and wait for you to cross that line. No, Izzy's going to have to go up to that line. And I think he should have the confidence from how he knocked out Pereira to be more offensive inclined in this one. One thing to note, though, and I have been following Izzy's words this week carefully, really just to see if there's anything we can pick out, right?

Almost like a rock old Bisping type of mirror. Is there something is he overlooking? No, Izzy said all the right things. He's treating Strickland more dangerous than he actually believes he's talented because he knows that Strickland has nothing to lose. He's a crazy guy. I think it's more likely that Strickland crosses that line. and trying to make something happen and get served, you know, maybe not as quickly and dramatically as Poetton did,

but on that aspect. But the idea of how is this an A-plus? Well, yeah, a knockout of Strickland, some type of emoji celebration, and then a nice call-out in any direction would be great. But how about this? One thing is he did say this week is he doesn't expect Strickland to stand with him. He thinks Strickland will be trying some wrestling on him.

And he said he did bring in Craig Jones of No Spears fame to really work with him. on the ground. Obviously, Craig Jones has been a big part in taking Alexander Volkanowski already one of the best fighters in the world today, if not the best, in really helping him round out his ground game and the work he was able to do opposite Islam Mahachev to really become number one with a bullet pound for pound, even off of a loss to Mahachev. Izzy said, look, I've been all around the world with Craig lately. If we got to take this guy down and get our first submission when we're willing to do that too, I think that's the real potential for A plus

or Izzy, if you can beat up Strickle on the feet, and then maybe F-around and try something a little bit different to put them away. But after the fact, when there are big upsets, we do try to say, man, what did we miss? What should we have saw coming? Guys, I know joint manipulation is banned in the UFC. And I can't believe I'm going to say this out loud,

but our titty twisters legal? Because if there's any hole in Izzy's game, it's the fact that that right nip does sag dangerously low. No, not due to PEDs, really due to overexertion. But if Strickland can get on that and really just yank it, he's got a shot. If not, no, it's a knockout, guys. I mean, come on, what are we doing here?

I mean, this fight could have it all. We could get an awful lawful. We could get one of those sunburn things, some nuggies, the whole kit and caboodle in this one. I love it. Let's move on. There are some things to talk about the rest of this card, mostly based on what happened earlier today.

And I know you're looking at me stunned, Jed. I'm fairly certain nuggies are allowed. I don't think that titty twisters are. So, factor that into your particular. predictions. Well, you're going to have to go to the next ABC meeting and put a put together a pitch there, BC to add this to the rules. Yeah, Missouli is not ready for a ditty switch. At the minimum, at the minimum, that feels like that falls under unsportsmanlike conduct. Well, as we know, referees don't call shit in MMA, so maybe it will be legal for the first two.

It's true. Nothing's illegal if you just do it. It's all five. The point for round two goes to Jedmishu. It's one to one. Nicely done. Now let's talk about the rest of this card. Yes.

Hopefully this will not be a 30-minute segment. But BC, let's go here. 12 fights. We got a lot of local flavor on this one from the Oceanic region. We have the main event. We got Tai Tui Vasa. Everybody loves Taitui Vasa taking on Alexander Volkov in the Co-Maine. Minel Kopp was supposed to fight Kikar, France.

That was a great fight. Cairo France, concussion. They almost fought today at the press conference. We'll get into that in a moment. Cop now facing a 22-year-old unbeaten newcomer. I hate to even ask this question, but we got it, man. If it's one thing we do, we tell the truth. On paper, is this the worst pay-per-view of 2023?

Is this worse than 280-8-8? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm trying to figure out where this fits all time. I mean, it's hard to really make that distinction because the UFC really did go through some lean time. in the early 2000s of trying to just keep the brand together post-Zouffer purchase and figure it out. In modern times, in this calendar year, which I hate to be that Debbie Downer, because we all love

MMA every Saturday night like clockwork, but no, it's been an interesting year in matchmaking. Not great. Unexplainably not great. It's hard, right, in theory to complain when we got a UFC Paris fight night card that felt like more than your average fight night card. And next week we get a UFC no check card that feels a little bit more, you know, almost like a, almost like a low level pay-per-view? Well, that produced a low-level paper view in between. In fact, the lowest of lows. Am I interested, did Minel Cop steal the show today that I'd suddenly

want to see everything he does moving forward? Yes, is Carlos Olberg a beautiful man enough that I'd pay to see his DMs, also true. But outside of Tai Tui Vasta, there really is not another storyline that really should attract your attention, your care. And I think most importantly, your wallet. And I don't think that's me trying to be some negative Nancy that's trying to to take money away from the UFC. It's just, again, this is kind of just Rob Peter to pay Paul. Let's fill out our dates.

The story that matters here is tied to Ivasa, coming off of not only two losses, too devastating losses, but in a two-month span with some poor match-making choices, and then a surprise 10-month layoff for him. He's back in the deep end of pool against Alexander Volkov,

which either means Volkov is the best of the heavyweight to have no chance to win a title or the worst of the elite ones. But I think that what I'm I'm focused on is not Tuvasa's new wild salad on top of his head or the outfit that he wore. It's this, the first 30 seconds to 60 seconds of this fight against Volkov. That'll show me who Tai Tuvasa actually believes he is moving forward. Because if he stays on this path of partying good guy, fan favorite, I'll drink egg, take a shit in your shoe, I'll eat it too, whatever you got, bro, it's all about having a good time.

You do have a window tie in a star-studded heavyweight division to prove us wrong and make some huge noise and thunder. Did I ever believe heading into the Cyril-Gon fight that Tai Tzu Ivasa had a chance to become a legitimate elite heavyweight and title challenger? No. Did I learn in that fight that there's a window that maybe I'm underestimating everything that's under that hood? Yes, he does have an elite next-level caveman chin. He has legitimate power. He's way more athletic than people give him credit to get in position to land big shots. It's also a big boy, not easy to throw around and handle.

But he looks at this sport as a big party, which is his right and his choice. He's in it for the pay days. He's basically on his way of being Derek Lewis 2.0. Being Derek Lewis 2.0 still gets you a lot of money, still get your high placement, still put you in fun fights. But I need to see a recommitment to his game from this 10-month absence. I need to see an attempt at rounding out the holes in his game, an attempt at coming in in really better shape,

which I don't think seeing him this week he might have necessarily did. I want to see the intention to Yvasa in the first minute of this fight because if it's caveman fun, well, we're all going to have a good time, but this guy's going to juggle wins and losses for the rest of his career. When I'm telling you, to heavy weight may be deep again, but it's still top heavy deep. This guy proved to me against Cyril Gahn. He can surprise an MF her.

I think it's time he goes all in on his career. I really want to see him give it the best shake. I have no level of confidence that he sees it that same way. That was a compelling pitch right there. You might have sold a pay-per-view or two right there, BC, to get people to watch Taito Yvasa. Jed, are you willing to sell some pay-per-views, or is this a same word selling for you?

No, this is the worst card by far. And frankly, I'm offended. I think Brian should be depressed and ashamed about what he is asking for right here because he's asking us to take Tai Tui Vasa, a man who we know who he is. I said when he beat Derek Lewis and was inexplicably like the number three

in our rankings or whatever. I was like, this is pretty clearly the highest he's ever going to get because it's a miracle he's here now. Why are we trying to make him a good fighter? We know what he is. Don't change this man. Let him fly his flag

and just be Derek Lewis 2.0. Fun and exciting. And he's going to beat the hell out of some dudes and he's going to get iced up by some dudes. And it's going to be awesome. I don't need to see a recommitment to his game. Honestly, I don't even know what a recommitment to his game would look like. What isn't Tai Tui Vasa who's technically sound or like well-rounded?

That's not a Taito Yvasa I want to engage with. If you tell me now that this dog shit pay-review is about to have Taito Yvasa committed to becoming a better martial artist, that makes me want this less. I want Taito Yvasa is going to rumble young man rumble with him. Volkov in there because that's the only selling point to this pay-per-view. If you are spending 80 bucks, it's either because you are really into Israel or this and you really want to see Sean Strickland get knocked out. And I promise you there is a highlight that you can watch.

It's going to be way doper and free on the internet. If that's your game, you don't need to give you to see 80 bucks for that. Or you just want to watch some oceanic fighters, you know, some Aussies and some Kiwis, do some dirt. Because you're going to get that just in top of it. was about to chuck them. And so, like, this will be a fun pay-per-view main card. Unless Brian gets his way and we've got mixed martial artist tie, then this is going to be

weird and awful. So no, I don't want to see that at all. I don't want to pay 80 bucks for this. Fortunately, I don't have to. This wonderful website is going to cover that for me so I can cover this fantastic event. Here's, I don't actually know if I can say this on air. I'm going to do it. And here's how bad this card is, Mike.

We had an argument like a couple, like, in the pre-fight thing, like a week ago about this. Is this the worst pay-per-view? And we did a roundtable on it. And somebody said some of the others like, no, this is very clearly the worst pay-per-view. And then I now feel a thousand percent vindicated. We aren't even going to do live blogs for all of the pay-per-view. We do live blogs for every peer-view fight for as long as I've been here. And we're just like, honestly, not even.

worth it. Does any, do we care about a live blog for Justin Top Austin Lane? We don't. This is the worst pay-per-view by a long shot. And if Ty isn't fun, then it's, this is going to be a catastrophe of an event. Wow. I love the point, counterpoint here. I mean, Jed, I don't want to take what Ty can't give, but I'd rather him starve a little

bit than keep eating that bread and actually go after it. All right. Sorry that I would want somebody to fulfill the full wishes of their potential here, including your hairstyle. Including your hairstyle, Jedd is time. Okay, it's time. It is.

It is time. Ty, look, Ty's fulfilling all the wishes of his thing, of his style. It's the best. Just put him in there

to rumble. Volkov's going to rumble. We don't need Ty to fight Tom Aspinall or whatever. That's going to be boring. But, Jed, can we have both? Can we have both?

Look at Derek Lewis. We got abs out of Derek Lewis. Do he was in the best shape of his life. What's the first thing he did against Marcus de Jury de Lima? He didn't go for a take down. He didn't, the leg, he threw a fucking flying knee.

Taito Yvesant thrown flying knees. That'd be amazing. I think that's all BC's trying to say. Well, I mean, look, if BC's definition of becoming a better mixed martial artist is to add flying knees to your game, then okay. One, that's insane in a way that I would love. So I'm absolutely for it. But usually when people say become a better mixed martial artist, they mean,

John Jones, instead of doing dope spinning stuff, why don't you like learn to jab and stay away from people and become less substantially shittier and less interesting fire. I don't want that for Ty. I want my man to get in him chuck him and just see what happens because that's fun. It's who he is. I want to add this to this extended point if you let me, Michael. Can I call you that?

I hope I can't be cool. I don't think this is sustainable for the UFC. This level of sort of watered down matchmaking where we're not really going to comment about it and luckily no one's going to raise their hand at the press conferences and bring it up and be like, hey, Dana, is there like a reason why this year's kind of sucked outside of the main and coal mains? Like, what's really going on here? Obviously, we get financially sort of fulfilling the deal, trying to minimize what they deem

unnecessary expenses. Hey, a lot of debt to pay off, especially after it ever just bought the WWE. But I'm a little bit nervous mixed with the obvious post realities of this lawsuit that the fighters are now bringing to court. And the idea of maybe, you know, flipping upside down, the whole idea of free agency and draconian contracts and all of that. I mean, it just feels like UFC doesn't care at all. I did talk to some, you know, readers, followers of mine down under,

and they're like, there's no buzz for this Australian card, like whatsoever. Nobody's talking about it except for the UFC social accounts. And oh, by the way, it's like $1,400 Australian to like get into the building here. UFC is price gouging around the globe right now at a level we've, you know, you only see in Las Vegas Mayweather boxing. and the cards are getting worse. This ain't long-term sustainable, the road we're on right now. Does everybody understand this?

Like, what are we doing here? You see, I mean, I hope you're right, but this card sold out before it had a main event. Taitoivas of Volkov is the only fight announced, and it's sold out. It's insane. There's a short term that that's going to keep working on name, value, and brand, but how many fans are you turning away? How many people are you forcing to illegally stream?

Because, you know, they might want to have a watch party. But, dude, can you pay for this? This is just unacceptable matchmaking. No, it really is. And I get if you're just saying, look, I don't care. I illegally stream them all anyway. We had a good car last week. We got a decent car next week.

This car will be fine. Maybe it will be. Maybe some unknown oceanic brawlers are going to come out and steal the show. But this is not growing the sport. If anything, you're slowly squeezing your hardcore fans, which boxing does all the time, so I'm not going to sit here and try to defend my favorite sport. But that's the problem.

I watch what goes on in boxing. I watch that slippery slope happen. Our favorite boys over the USC are sliding right into that same model very slowly, but surely. And it's all about money at the end of the day. So whatever. I don't know. 100%.

Oh, you're absolutely right. That's all about money. They're paying the UFC millions to come and host a card that is selling out. They don't care how many pay-per-revis things are going to do because they're getting a big bunch of money from. the broadcasting partners too. So none of that matters right now. But again, to your point, I hope you're right.

I hope eventually we get to a point where it's like, I'm not spending $775 to sit in the balcony to watch Menel Cop fight a 7-0 newcomer. No offense to either of those guys. But, I mean, come on now. I'm the main card. I mean, can Parker Porter be the special guest referee for this Tafelaine unnecessary rematch? I mean, what are we doing here? I'm glad you said Parker.

This rematch is very necessary. Look, you guys can spend $85. We didn't get an answer in the first one, guys. We need this rematch. I don't need an answer. You know. Listen, you mentioned the goat, Paca Porter. If you don't want to spend $85 on this pay-per-view,

joining us for Taito Ivasa versus Alexander Volkov on the MMA fighting watch party, no way. Will be Pock Porter. He will be watching the fight with us. He will be zoomed in, but he will be there. watching the fight with us he will be sure my Connecticut love and respect with him please thank you absolutely oh god i think we're all he's going to be shower with praise but uh real quick before we move on to mike can i say something before you move on i would love you to please i will one i know

everyone's asking um the committee met and this this officially received zero mchulun stars if you are in sydney australia uh i wouldn't even go like i'm not even kidding i would not pay the the price of entry to go to this if I were in Sydney. Sydney's a vibrant city. There's a lot of stuff going on. Go out, be with your friends. If you're not in Sydney, you should go to M.AFindon.com website. We'll keep you updated and all the things are happening, even though we won't have

lap blocks for the main card. But most importantly, Mike, the thing I wanted to say was instead of spending $80 to watch, I'm going to say three predictable outcomes, one coin flip and one genuine. who gives a shit. What you can do instead is watch that watch party where y'all will at least, at least feign interest in these five fights and you, so you can get the experience of watching it without spending 80 bucks. Because to my understanding, the watch party remains free.

That is free content for you to enjoy instead of watching Israel, disin your jab and low kick Sean Strickland for 25 minutes. I know which one I'd choose. Yes. And I have bets on this card for the, for the sake of entertainment. So you get to see those bets on the watch party as well. Real quick. And then we'll go on to the fun game. BC best fight on this card that nobody's talking about. And obviously there's a number of them to choose.

I mean, there's a reason, Mike, that nobody's talking about this whole damn card. I do want to see what's going on with Carlos Oldberg, who I talked about before, 32 years old. but that four straight victories, the last three by first round knockout. He's handsome as crap. He's the cute younger brother at the city kickboxing factory that right there. I don't expect that he's moving up to a level

where we're going to call these live bodies, Jung Da'un. But that's sort of outside of Jack Delamattelana, which seems to be the next thing from Australia. Olberg might, you might have a moment here. Let's see what happens here. But no, I'm not, what do you want to be? You want me to actually sell the rest of these fights? No, no.

No, no. No, I'm not asking, I'm asking to sell yourself on one fight that you really like on this card that no one's talking about. I mean, I like Minel Cop. I don't like this fight, but I like Manel Cop. I mean, you know, oh, I like the other, that guy with that awful nickname too, right? What was that guy? Pleasure Man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Basically, I would pay for this pay per view just to see how awkward they can use the pleasure man nickname on commentary team. That's the only reason why I'm here, okay? All right. Look, we talked about it on No Bet's bar this week, and I have almost nothing good to say about this fight card. But credit. And this was pointed out to me by Connor Berks. This was not a Jedman shoe fine. So shouts to CB, absolutely credit.

Do whoever went Carlos Ladies Knight Ulberg, that fight leads directly into the pleasure man fight. So that is, that's some classic Joe Silva fight card building right there. And I see you. I see you. whoever's doing that work. Good work. There you go. Do you have a low-key bangor, Jen? I do. We also talked about this briefly on No Bet's part this week, and it's not a fight that anybody would think about. But it has particularly interesting to me for the dumbest of reasons.

I know, I know what you're going to say. It's Kevin Jessette versus Kiefer Crosby. One, Kevin Jessette is a French, like a French fighter who wasn't at Paris because he's a CKB dude, which is hilarious to me. And it's like, yeah, no, we'll just do the CKB thing. It's fine. But Kiefer Crosby is really the main attraction here because I did not realize that Kiefer Crosby has made a career of beating up bums in the best way possible. He most recently fought at Kingpin and fought Aaron Chalmers in Kingpin, which is delightful.

And I put myself in tears laughing when I discovered that within the past calendar year, he fought Brian Lowe and Joe who's like if you were deep in the forum game like 12 15 years ago he'd be like hey wasn't that a jobber in like pride and rings like yeah and this dude fought him when he's like pushing 50 so uh keifer crosbie shouts to you and your management for just getting the dubs in however you can so i'm looking forward to seeing this travesty unfold from kingpin to the UFC what a freaking story yes I listened to know that's part he went from Bellator he felt like real people in Bellator

lost and then was like what if instead I find a 50 year old guy the 6 and 12 record who was like jobbing in rings in the 1990s what an incredible career arc I love it so much I hope Kiefer Crosby wins

just forever but I bet against him on principle I was just going to say, did you bet on Crosbate? I guess you didn't. Yeah, that's your principle. And listen, if this last segment didn't get you to get excited for UFC 293, there's literally nothing else that can be done to get you into UFC 293. So we'll move on.

Some of these fights with good fights. I might get me. Well, let's move on to a to a fun final round. That kind of has to do with UFC 293, but not really. The point for round three goes to. I mean, if you make a Brian Loew reference on BTL, you're pretty much guaranteed a point,

and that's what's happening here. Two to one, Jed Mishu. Fun round, though. I mean, shouts to Brian Loew and Joe, man. Yes, absolutely. It has been, like, well over a decade since I'd thought of him as a person. Yes.

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We're going to react to some things that UFC President Dana White has said over the last few days. And you guys are going to tell me whether he's right, wrong, or he's like kind of right, kind of wrong. So Jed, we're going to begin with you. This first comment, let me just pull it up here.

At the contender series post-fight presser, Dana White, was asked about his interest in the UFC buying Bellator. Just recently, front office sports reported that PFL was nearing a deal to buy out Bellator for a valuation of $500 million. None of that has been confirmed. This is being reported. Days later, a few days later, PFL announces a plan to sell minority stake in the company to SRJ sports investments, which is an offspring of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund for.

$100 million, which has only increased the conversations amongst the MMA community about PFL purchasing Bellator. So when Dana was asked about the UFC's interest in Bellator, here's what he said, quote, why on God's green fucking earth would anybody buy Bellator? So what we were just talking about with business and making the right moves and making the right decisions, there's been lots of bad ones. Bellator would be one of the effing biggest. Why anybody would buy Bellator is beside me, but sit back and see how this plays out.

I'm excited. Jed, is he right, wrong or kind of right, kind of wrong in your reaction to these comments? I'm sorry. I miss this news and I am news. I am still just dying at the $500 million valuation. That is absolutely incredible. I freaking love business. this deals because they're just 93% just total nonsense.

Yeah, I don't remember what the Dana quote was. So I'm going to say wrong because it is wrong. Oh, this was the one about why would anyone want to buy Bellator? Yes. Because they have good fighters. I don't actually totally disagree in that like, I'm not really interested in buying Bellator the brand because I don't know that it matters. But if that's the shortcut to getting access to.

the fighters. I mean, I could turn it around, be like, why did you buy pride? What did you get from pride that you spent? I think it was like $120 million or something to buy pride. It's like a decent chunk of change. And they got a video library that is not worth that much money. And they got like 12 fighter contracts. And I was like it. So this is probably a better deal, certainly for the PFL in their circumstance if it goes through because Bellator holds 10% of the best fighters in the world. I think I did the math a while ago. I haven't updated it.

So maybe it's changed a little bit. But 10% of the fighters in the MMA fighting global rankings, the only rankings that really matter are Bellator fighters. So they have by far the biggest selection of top talent that isn't in the UFC. And purchasing Bellator gives you a dramatic increase in the quality of your fight roster. whoever you are. So, I mean, honestly, the UFC should buy it because they got 42 events a year to fill out. And they could use some help.

So maybe we wouldn't be getting stuff like 293 and be expected to pay any bucks for it. So all the way wrong is my answer. B.C. right, wrong or in the middle? Kind of more in the middle, you have to say, look, like, is that evaluation large? Yes. but is Dana, you know, shitting on a competitor here unnecessarily? Yeah, I mean, Jedd just laid it out with the percentage of highly ranked fighters. And if you look at Bellator right now, what's the best thing they've done in recent years,

develop homegrown talent that sometimes we start to make those arguments. People like Vadim Nemcov, Yaroslav Amoslav, now Usman Naramatov, the arguments of, hey, does we obviously really have the best fighter in this specific division or is there an argument? You've got what's left of the great Patricia Pipple. You've got Aaron Pico. you've got a good mixture of old and new, which would make it valuable for PFL, because they're going to have one shot. And that one shot is next year to legitimately make a run at getting some level of a dent

in the competition monopoly monopsony. I need John S. Nash to actually pronounce these words right, that UFC holds on the business right now. So it would be a very smart move for them. So Dana would be wrong to crap all over that. And one other thing here where Dana's wrong and I don't love it, you know what would be a Vince McMahon move. and Dana has made many Vince McMahon moves and, you know,

or the Vince McMahon before he touched all those ladies, right? Like that, Vince. A Vince McMahon move would be what you referenced, buying pride to shut it down, buying strike force to shut it down. If the UFC was still looking at growing the sport and dominating the world with the same passion and fervor they once had, they probably would have already bought Bellator before PFL could,

shut it down and absorbed. Again, a very talented roster into what their roster, which is already the most talented in the world. The problem is instead of doing stuff like that, Dana's willing to sit on his laurels and take his eye off the ball. That's actually a good thing if true competition in this space is your hope and your goal. Not because any of us actually believe that this damn smart cage. I mean, how intelligent could this piece of metal actually be,

you know, could lead them to be like a legitimate, you know, WCW to WWF type deal. But could PFL become, you know, like where Strike Force was more than a decade ago? it's not impossible, especially in my opinion what happens to their future TV deal. Can they become a pay-per-view home with faces and names like Jake Paul, Francis and Gano and a bunch of female boxers who have crossed over? They might get some attention through that, but they're going to need that depth of that roster of Bellator to add to their already existing roster to fill out those cards and make you want to come back. So I actually do think it's a good thing for competition here that Dana and Devere and Company are, so tied into paying off their dead and pretending that nothing else matters.

But you know what's not going to fly anymore? All this bragging Dana and the UFC does that, oh, look, another Dana White Contender Series alum has become champion. Hey, Dana, this just in. Like 70% of your roster right now are Dana White Contenders Series graduates that are managed by Jason House and are willing to enter the promotion on 12 and 12 contracts. That was strategic. That's actually not something to brag about.

We're slowly running out of people who don't fit that mold because that's the new factory clone system that General Dana Palpatine is trying to put out there. I wish we had that fervor and spirit of Dana of old, even though the stakes and the financial realities have changed a bit. Because I'd like to see him go full ham, full on war against BFL. And I do think that's coming, by the way, because Don Davis, one of the PFL co-leaders there, has not been afraid publicly saying, look, UFC, like, we're coming after you. We are trying to compete here. I think personally, my own conspiracy theory that Dana has been told at times by Disney and ESPN to stand down a bit. I can't think Dana would love sharing a network with them. But I think the day PFL goes to their next stop.

Maybe that's next year. I'm not fully aware of their TV contract at the moment. Maybe that begins this actual war. And if you don't think that's fun and a good thing as a fan, then A, you don't have a soul for caring about the fighter's interest when it comes to free agency and contracts. but B, what does competition brew? What have we learned this in pro wrestling? Competition brews, promoters, not sitting back on their laurels, not putting out fight cards like the one we have this Saturday,

and actually putting their best foot forward and going after it. So I could not cheer for this potential PFL buy out of Bellator anymore because it's time. It's time to have to knock on the door of UFC and say, okay, guys, show us how great you are again. Because when they do, by the way, and they have done that a few times this year, We've had some tremendous spectacular paper view cards. It reminds you of what it could be like, what it should be like,

what it was just the last couple of years. This year has blown. We're going in the wrong direction, guys. So, no, Dana's mostly wrong in his reaction to this. I mean, PFL could do it with realistic promotional ideology and a better statistical graphics department. We could have something here. Mike, I don't know.

Is this quote connected to what Dana said specifically about Saudi? Because that's one thing I think he's underestimating. When he says we've seen this before, I've seen, you know, affliction come through and fail. I've seen people throw on money. I just want to say one thing. I'm not here to tell you that PFL is like the odds are in their favor that they're going to pull this off. They're going to try really hard. But Saudi money does seem to be different than all that other money that Dana's talking about. Saudi Arabia, let's remember, paid Anthony Joshua, $85 million to show up for that Andy Ruiz boxing. rematch and all they've done since then from the

WWE to boxing to golf to whoever's willing to show up is put out astronomical amounts of money. If you don't think that that's not something, Dana, you do have to wake up a little bit here. Yeah. We'll move on here. BC lead us off with this one. When

asked about Drickus DuP being next for the winner of Saturday's main event, of course, DDP earned the shot after stopping Bobby Knuckles and if I'm DDP I'm taking a one-way trip to Sydney and sit in Caged side, but he couldn't make the quick turnaround. Now Sean Strickland is in. Data's response, as expected, you know how much I love when guys turn down fights.

I don't know. We'll see what happens on Saturday and we'll go from there. What did this mean? What did this mean? It means DDP F'd himself and it's not really fair, right? You know, DDP had some physical hangover from that great Robert Whitaker win and things that needed to be addressed. And who could blame a guy who suddenly is red hot and the waves have parted? As much as I said it was a perfect storm to get Sean Strickland into a title shot against Adasania, dude, it was a perfect storm to get DDP here. Yes, he did win the fight that I thought was unwinnable, laughably unwinnable against Whitaker, and he did it by knockout.

But you should be allowed as a fighter to say, hey, promotion, I know you want me to turn this around on like no time in like two, three months because you book that date because Sidney's paying you a ton of money and you promised them out of Sonia. But just like when Ingano needed another month to recover from when, the title when the UFC needed him to run it back, and then when he wouldn't so quickly, they're like, well, screw you, we're putting an interim title at stake.

And, oh, by the way, we're going to turn on you and talk bad about you for the rest of your life. It's petty BS that doesn't make a lot of sense right here. And unfortunately for DDP, who did what I thought was the impossible and now actually is a viable contender, but again, let's not overlook the fact that it was Izzy cleaning out the rest of the division

that opened a path. The same path that opened up for Poeton to get to the title level so quickly, too, by the way. he may have missed his window. And here's the thing. Yeah, Dana's petty enough where if you aren't willing to fight with a broken leg and fight somebody in a short notice, can it penalize you? It can.

And I think DDP has benefited from Hamzaa Chamaev's sort of weird lost weekend that has been the fallout of his victory over Calvin Holland after missing weight by a conspiratorial amount to allow Nate D.S. to walk free happily with a victory so that they can still keep in play the idea of him coming back to fight Connor. We haven't seen Chamehameh. have come off of that victory because of some options. And I think he had leagering injuries.

There was a long season there. We didn't know what the hell he's doing. Which division is he going? Is he fighting? Usman. What the hell's going on here? DDP had his window. But Dana just lets you know that it closed and that the promotion firmly intends if

Hamzaat beats Costa to go in that direction. And you know what? All things considered, I'll say it's a shitty take by Dana. It's a petty move by the organization. But if you got a chance to make Izzy against Shemayev, if both of them come off of, let's stoppage wins, I also kind of understand that. Because I think Chimayev, unlike even the rising DDP, is that rare guy who actually could become, for a season,

the pay-per-view face of your sport as an absolute badass. I think that window is still there. So what did that mean, Mike Heck? It means that DDP's SOL. Not fair, but that's the rules of the game that has existed here since Zufa took over. Jed, agree or disagree? I agree with B.C. in large part.

This is bullshit from Dana. This is the type of stuff, right? Like, this is the type of stuff where you get the white knights caping for Dana and the UFC at all costs. I'm just like, explain yourselves. What? This is the UFC's fuck up.

They booked a fight two months before this, knowing that in the bet, like the best case scenario happened. DDP got through relatively unscathed, but relatively is the operative word there. They knew this could have happened and they just did it. because they forgot that they were doing a pay-per-view in Australia or whatever the reason is.

And now this is it. This is the part more than any of the other parts that bothers me about Dana White as president of the UFC. Look, all of it is morally objectionable in like very clear ways. The part that grates on me is just why you got to be such a petty little ass? Like, why can't you just be like, oh, other people are allowed to have choice? and thing like because this isn't even ddp like publicly being like no i want more money but like and that's it dana dana can at least understand that like oh he's asking for more money i disrespect that but i do understand the idea that money is the only thing that matters whatsoever so okay

this is him just be like no homie i'm not ready i don't i can't do that for you sorry and he can't can't do it so this level of pettiness in this stage is the part that bothers me most about Dana White still being an active role player. Because this isn't how business is done anywhere in the world. This just isn't it. And so it's really annoying to be like, hey, they should have fought. We should have just booked DDP Izzy for this event without the Whitaker fight. You rolled the dice.

The Whitaker fight happened. Andy won. And now we have a number one with the bullet, no questions asked, bona fide, number one contender. And now we might not get it because Hamza. Who's been gone for like a mess? minute. I don't know where the hell Hamzot's been. He could have been fighting during this time and just

didn't, but the UFC isn't bugging about that. So this is just the shit that bothers me, uh, like as a fan and I don't understand how fans of the sport and of MMA. And just people with like any general sense of emotional empathy or the ability to rationalize can be like,

yeah, that's like all of us in that category. Like this is stupid and dumb and I hate it. And yet there will be, people probably in the comments right now saying cuck you beta whatever your hair cut your hair already you beta that's business baby you should have fought

if you can't just title fights don't go growing on trees you're right they don't and if he was refusing to turn around after he had beaten i don't even who like nassardine imov then okay that ain't what happened he beat the dude the title fight didn't grow in the tree he chopped the fucking tree down why beating

Robert Whitaker worse than anybody other than Izzy has ever done. Like it's, this is it. We got one fight. Just make the damn fight and be, allow somebody to say no. Just somebody, people can say no and it is not a personal assault on you or your masculinity or whatever the hell it is that makes you so irate about this shit. Just let people say no.

It's fine. Look, just to be fair in response to those people. No promoter has been safe on the show. None of them. We spent 35 to 40 minutes just ripping Don Davis for that graphic they put up about how successful they are. 80%. Yeah, we put the graphic on the screen and just lost our minds. And if Scott Coker said things like this, we would talk about it.

When Josh Thompson said things about the media, we talked about it as well. Nobody is safe. Yeah. When Chautry said that his press releases were seen by 54 billion people, you know, it's worth at least asking if that actually happened, right? Yes, and we joke about that on like one every two shows on this podcast network. We do have time for one more. I do want to talk about this one.

This is also date on Tuesday, Jedmishu, and then BCL give you a chance to respond. He's responding to a question about Al Jermaine Sterling, wanting a rematch at Sean O'Malley and how him and Marab and Walsh, Billy, are kind of handling this situation. And here's what he said. Here's the thing with Sterling. I'll tell you my personal experience. When you sit down with Al Jermaine one-on-one, he's a great guy, great kid, very likable, and everything else.

Decisions he makes in public and things that he says in public do not make him the most popular guy on the roster. It's the weirdest thing. I don't know if it's self-sabotage or what it is. He always seems to say the wrong things in times when if he even said remotely close to the right things, people would love him. He's a great kid, got a great physique.

One-on-one, he's a good kid, been in public. He just can't help him. help himself. Your thoughts on this, Jed. I know Dana and Aljo not had the greatest relationship since Aljo won the title. This kind of continues on. What did you make of these comments and where Dana's coming from here? This one actually isn't all bad. I'm from Dana. There's a major caveat. I'll get to that at the end. I'll keep this brief. On its face, much of this is true. Now,

should it be true? No. I do not think that any of the things Al Jermaine Sterling says are largely objectionable, but again, I can rationalize. And that's a skill that evades many people, many fans in this space. It is objectively very dumb to have done. And I said at the time and maintained to have said and have done the things that he said at various points in his career. I maintain all the way, a thousand percent, that he won the title totally legit and that he should have celebrated. But you can't come out and be like, this isn't a real title. Like, I don't, I didn't want to win it this way and then go celebrating after the fact

and be like, I can't believe that people are upset by this. Like, you got to pick a lane and staying in my guy. It's just where it's at. And then, like, a lot of the other stuff that he has said is stuff that is obviously antagonistic to the core MMA fan base. And so you just can't be a dummy.

You have to understand what you're saying and who your audience is. And while, again, I don't think that it should have been like a big deal for a lot of those people, it very obviously was going to be. And so you just have to have to know and regulate that if that's something you care about. And obviously, Al Jemaine Sterling did. So I think in that respect, everything that Dana said is correct.

He did not endear himself to fans because of who the fans are. And that's how that goes. The big elephant in the room of that statement from Dana, the caveat I mentioned earlier, is that a lot of that general energy is driven, by Dana White, who himself is the promoter of Al Jermaine Sterling and regularly threw this motherfucker under the bus about as hard as he could. And those two things are interrelated. If Dana came out and was like, man, you know, Al Jermaine won.

Peoria shouldn't have thrown that knee. It's very illegal and very stupid and shifted the burden onto Peoriaon, then that's where the narrative would have gone amongst the fan base because they, he is largely the guiding light of the masses in this respect. But that's not what he did. He threw Aljo under the bus and then kept throwing him under the bus at every future point and continues to do so about the whole, I don't want to fight my friend's stuff. This is all driven by him. So objectively, he is correct when he says that, you know, I'll just say, Aljo keeps saying a lot of stuff that isn't the best in public as far as getting fans to like him.

He's just leaving out the part that a lot of that second aspect of it is directly driven by him. and he's not doing Aljo any favors. He's not helping him in any regard. So I'll give him a little more leeway on this one. But, I mean, it's still not great because Dana has never done a good thing in MMA since the ultimate fighter. This is where it's at, man. B.C., from the comments that I've read from Dana, what has been more egregious? These comments or the fact that Tyson Fury has done interviews today saying that he wants to fight John Jones and not Usik next?

I saw you tweeting out and by the way, for those wondering, because the press conference between Tyson Fury and France and Ghana was supposed to start at noon and Eastern time, it like just started. So just to put that, just to see where this whole thing is going to be going over the next couple of months. But what do you think, BC?

This is wild. First of all, can the WBC strip Fury already for avoiding Usik? And also could somebody tell them that Dana once said, but didn't really mean it that we don't do those type of gimmick fights unless we need. a gimmick like that to take the attention away from the gimmick, Francis and Gano wanted to do. Hey, look, here's the deal. Dana White, you can make the argument, Judges.

Did you have done anything great since tough? And you can make the argument that some people make when they go one-on-one with him, former Eskimo Bros. You know what I'm talking about of, you know, you're the glorified fitness instructor who got lucky that his rich friends had that rich war chest that they could allow this sport to grow through. and also the connections with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Let's never overlook why UFC was able to buy that from SEG for peanuts when nobody else was immediately after Lorenzo stepped down.

I love that your argument in defense of him is like pro-corruption. This is the best. But here's what I'm going to say. I can still tolerate any hipster argument that says Dana White is the most important in person in mixed martial arts over its 30 years. I actually could get behind that and make that argument because a lot of why we are here today is because of what the front facing of Dana and the brains of Frank and Lorenzo have built,

and I don't think he's an idiot. But Dana has passed that expiration date of being a positive for the sport. Yes, he remains his fans who will defend him at every turn. And yes, there's still, which was a game plan desired element from the beginning, by making Dana the face of the brand and not individual fighters, you held extra control over them, and it helped over with a turnover that becomes natural in a sport like this, that we're still tuning in because we love Dana,

and we love that we get the best fights until we don't, by the way, but that's coming. But this is showing you right now, and maybe Dana should have learned from Vince McMahon, that Vince McMahon had a similar like effect on wrestling in an earlier period, but I think he was more hands-on and even more important than Dana. But then Vince hung on too long, and he's still hanging on. too long. And it wasn't long before he became a detriment to the product in ways that go beyond sexual assault and all that and all the other allegations and all that. What I'm saying now is that

this is just a trick that Dana has acquired. And Dana's having a troubled time right now adjusting from the Gestapo past and the control UFC has had, mostly through contracts and intimidation over the fighters, into what is inevitably once this lawsuit plays out. And I think people get common sense and get sick of being sick and tired in the way that they're treated, that eventually we're going to grow out of this and look at this as the dark ages of fighters having no control. But the problem is they not only have no control when it comes to contracts and negotiations with the UFC and all of that, but Dana does the really unforgivable thing for a sports

commissioner on top of that, which you would never see David Stern or Roger Goodellate or any of the other heroes do, which is have his favorites and regularly pick out those favorites. and they can be blameless, which is why this old Dana White privilege thing comes about, but if you're not one of his favorites, he'll do everything in his power to disparage you and discredit you publicly. Look at Tyrone Woodley. Look at Al Jermaine Sterling. If you just end up as not Dana's guy,

the promoter whose job it is to espouse how talented you are. Do you remember when Hennon Barrow was Bannamweight Champion? But no one's going to say reviews because he's in the main event. What did the old Dana used to do? Get in every interview and go, hey, by the way, He hadn't brought us a pound-for-pound king. So you guys need to wake up. He's a future star on the rise here.

Dana doesn't do that really at all anymore unless it's the hot button choice of the moment, right? The O'Malley's the Bo, Nichols, the Chimayevs. When he picks out a guy he doesn't like, he's going to frame at every turn that these guys don't want to fight, that they're asking for all this stuff that never verified and not actually true. We got to rotate past this phase of MMA and, you know, UFC history tied into that because it's bullshit. it's bullshit for the promoter to basically do that. This is one of the biggest problems in the game today. And I don't think Dana White under the control and success he used to have can last in what we're naturally evolving into what MMA is going to become. But eventually it's going to become a place where fighters have more rights.

And I hope when we get to that point that, look, behind the scenes, you can be as gnarly as you want when it comes to business. UFC can be heaven-handed, they can do all those things. but can we make it a level playing field and can the promoter of the organization whose job it is to promote fights stop tearing down his champions just when he decides to because what? Because they got sick

and they weren't able to make wait for the main event because they pushed back and wanted more time because they wanted to get paid like others in the industry. Anytime someone stands out and tries to make a move for themselves and for the future of fighters around them, they get labeled as a malcontent. They get labeled as somebody who's ducking tough fights blah, blah, blah, BS.

We're too far past this. Look, it's the Me Too era. I can't be walking around with Sean Strickland with holding up signs and saying, you know, let's get rid of suffrage. Women belong in the kitchen. That's bullshit. We wouldn't allow that.

Didn't Australia just have to put out a statement this morning saying, although we made this deal with the UFC, we don't actually agree with Strickland's comments about women. I think how Dana treats the fighters and how he talks about his own champions is akin to that level of BS. Let's move on from that, all right? Please.

enough of this. I don't hate Dana. He's been an incredible maverick for the sport and getting it to where it is today and the jobs we hold today. But he's now a major problem in what this is going to look like moving forward. There you have it.

All right. We will move on. Or maybe we won't. The point for round four goes to, I mean, this is about as close to a 10-10 round as you can get on BTL. But by a score of 10.9-9-999-9-999. Jet missed you.

It's 2. 10.9. Oh, BC, I'm sorry. BC gets the point. BC gets the point. It's two to two. Wow. Wait, am I starting to pick up on a theme here that it always goes to the fifth round?

What's going on here? It's only not happened once, BC. It's only not happening once. It's like a lot of Sanya fights when they aren't against Alex Pereira. The only person in the history of this show to get a victory before regulation ran out was me. And Jed was the host. And he showed favoritism.

but I do want to honestly this is just a selfish thing. This is just a selfish thing because I want to hear what you guys have to say in 60 seconds or less. And I do mean 60 seconds or less. It's the final rounds of knock around. One minute on the clock for each of these gentlemen. Jed, do you want to go first? Do you want to go last? I'll go first.

Sure. Why not? Let's lead off. All right. On a scale of 1 to 10 and show your work. 7. Of course we have UFC 2-993 coming up on Saturday. But before all that happens, as an appetizer for the combat sports enthusiasts, tomorrow, Jacksonville, Florida, game bread, bare knuckle going down.

We have the rematch two former UFC heavyweight champions, Junior Dos Santos versus Fabricio Ver Doom. We got some notable names, Brendan Jenkins. We got Irwin Rivera, who used to fight in the UFC, Brendan Davis, Macchi Patolo, and other notable names, some bare-knuckle MMA on Friday. So on a scale of 1 to 10 and why, your level of excitement for what Jorge Mazadol told me will be his landmark

barrenuckle MMA event tomorrow night. One minute on the clock, go. Let's go six. I would not qualify this as excitement. I will say my interest has been peaked. What's the Django line?

You had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. That's where we're at with this one. I don't think, I can't say this with absolute certainty, because, you know, a lot of stuff happens in MMA. I don't feel like I've ever actually watched bare knuckle of M.A. Since like watching videos of the old school pride days, thank you, Landscaper for coming up right now. That's terrific of you. Uh, so I'm, I'm interested in this, in this respect. Um, you know, we get the fight that is a fight. Uh, I don't know if either of these dudes have juice left, but I got enough interest, certainly in this main event. The rest of the card,

I am interested in it strictly in the fact that like bare-knuckle M. M.A. might be a fun thing, but I don't care about the fights at all. I am interested in the announcement he made on the M.M.A. hour yesterday, though. Alan Belter versus Roy Nelson for the Gamebred at Heavyweight Championship in October, fights the winner of this for like a tournament. That's starting to cook something up in me. So six is where I'm at. Okay.

BC. Let's see. I don't know if you saw these guys on the scale. Six packs for days for J. and Verddome, best shapes of their lives that you started testing. Full thing of the past. Interest, excitement levels, zero to 10 for Gamebred Bear Nuckle, MMA tomorrow night. Go. I'm going to give it a hard morbid seven.

And now you understand my gas station diet issues. I've got a black liver, right? I've got the non-alcoholic liver disease there. Here's the deal, though. I have morbid intrigue in this, but I just don't think JDS has the same level that I do. So first and foremost, let me say this. We don't need bare knuckle MMA. It's a stupid gimmick, okay? Bear knuckle boxing is also a stupid

gimmick, but credit to Dave Feldman and BKFC for making soap opera pro wrestling and kind of making that interesting where both sports can cross over again. Put some gloves on. We don't actually need this rematch. But Jed said, I don't know if these two have any juice left. Oh, they have plenty of juice left, Jed. It's just not being produced

by their body anymore. And I am all here for it. I interviewed JDS ahead of this. He said, I love this fight organization. I don't have to be If you saw it anymore, I can take all the old supplements I used to take, and I love it. JDS should be auditioning right here to fight Francis and Gano in the PFL's first pay-per-view. Only when I asked him about it, he told me, yeah, I can't do that. I just signed with Gamebred full-time.

I fight with them now. So that's a failed, JDS. I will still be tuning in, hoping that the contract situations can change. These are two wash heavy weights. We don't need a rematch. But if JDS is going to look that good and he's actually not 40 yet, yeah he should be a top of that list of people Francis is looking at so hopefully everybody really understands the score deep inside when they're watching this on set or Friday set they might

be on right now I have no idea is that a fairground somewhere I don't know BCC I think you I think you must have missed the part where for some inexplicable reason the PFL has decided to implement you saw and drug testing so well yeah I'm hoping they're conditions strongly I'm You should, but they do not seem to be interested in reconsidering. So your JDS streams are gone. Well, when you have like eight to ten failed drug tests in like a span of a three-week session in Las Vegas, it's never really a good thing. All right.

Cash your votes. You know how you can have zero failed drug tests if you just don't test them. That's a great point. Cash your votes, get them in. And then we'll bring in the Honorable E. Casey Lydden to read off the results and crown the winner. I think we know this is probably gone, but you never know. Maybe Sean Strickland beats Israel at Asana on Saturday. You just never know in this crazy wacky sport at all. So, so programming notes tomorrow, heck of morning, 10 am. Eastern. Well, the UFC 293 preview show live

here on the same channel, 3 p.m. Eastern, join us for that. And then Saturday, it's going to be a very busy day. We got the People's Pre-Fight show. We got the watch party. I'm off to New York first thing Saturday morning. Jose is in Sydney. He's got all your coverage for all all the ceremonial wanes. There will be a way in show. 2 a.m. this morning too. 2 a.m. this morning, AK, ready to go.

So live weighing coverage as well. We get you covered at M.AFighting.com. As Jedd likes to say, it's a fantastic website. We'll post-fight show, post-fight press conference. On to the next one on Sunday morning as well. There's going to be a lot going on. So stick with us, M.AFundi.com. Casey, get your ass in here.

There he is. Hurting people's feelings with the sleevel shirts. Once again. Casey, do we have a winner? Do we need more time? Do I need to stall? Are we good? Is this our longest show ever?

We're at an hour and forty. Yeah, it is. Probably. Hour and forty three? Hour forty two. Yeah. Hey, listen, when you got just the best minds in the sport, battle it out, I mean, it just doesn't get any better. That's a damning, that is a damning combination of the sport.

I was about to close the pole, but the hat flipped. Oh, shit. Oh, he's got the myth. Oh, that is the actual myth one. Okay, look at you go. I support my friends, Jed. Can you get your own merch, please? It's about time, all right?

Maybe a barbecue bib. Yeah. All right. Get your votes in, everybody. We're keeping this thing going. We're keeping this thing going. All right. The path.

Oh, do we have it? Yeah, I think we have it. All right. Okay. I think we had it an hour and 40 minutes ago. but I'll be excited to see it from. I mean, when Brian Campbell beat Jose without actually answering the knock-out-out-wrong question,

I think we kind of know how this voting is going to go. So go ahead, Casey. Your winner today with 54% of the votes is, and still undefeated, Brian Campbell. Hey, this is close to a splitie as we've gotten here in these battles. 54% you're climbing up, Jed. You're climbing up, but the,

Baker's dozen time you guys battle it out. You might even sneak one out here. So BC, congratulations. Thank you for staying on this marathon of a program for nearly two hours. What do you want to say to the five listeners before you mercifully let you go? Nothing. Fair. Jed, anything you want to say?

Bagged on the UFC a bunch. This episode, standby. Every word of it wouldn't change. One, I will say, shouts to them for the Alexa Grasso belt. I know that it's pretty derivative of the A-Year belt that they did already, but that's cool things. Continue to do cool things because it's much more fun when you do cool things.

Alexa Grosso's belt for next week is pretty sick, man. So, yeah. Agreed. Hit the music, Casey. We are done. Appreciate it. Make sure you watch Morning Combat with BC and Luke Thomas. Great program.

Fantastic program. Jed, I believe you were on that program. I was. I got called to service. And you came through like absolute champion. Absolute champion. So thank you very much. Stick with M.AFighting.com all weekend long for UFC 293 coverage for Jed for B.C.

Casey on the ones and twos. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn takes you home. I am Mike Heck back next week to react to it all. Good night, everybody. Love you. This has been Between the Links. And I'm a inviting production on the Vox Media Network. Hi.

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