MMA Fighting - BTL | Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry, DDP vs. Adesanya, McGregor & Chandler's Future, UFC Saudi Arabia

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

While a couple of huge fights in the MMA and boxing world have been announced — with one, in particular crossing over into both sports — the future of another massive fight is still up in the air. Jake Paul and Mike Perry are set for a boxing match on July 20, while Dricus Du Plessis will defend the UFC middleweight title against former champ Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 305 in August.  On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to Paul vs. Perry being booked ahead of Paul's November matchup with Mike Tyson, discuss if it's a big risk for Paul, and what Perry would gain with a win. Additionally, they'll discuss the du Plessis vs. Adesanya booking, Adesanya announcing his own fight, where Sean Strickland fits in the title conversation, Saturday's UFC Saudi Arabia card headlined by Robert Whittaker vs. Ikram Aliskerov, Bellator Dublin going head-to-head with the UFC this weekend, the futures of Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler after their UFC 303 matchup got scratched, and more. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Morning Kombat's Brian Campbell. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Brian Campbell: @BCampbell Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And a lot has happened since we last had a program. But I feel like that's something I say every single week before we start the show. But very little time to waste because of that. Let's get right into it. introduce the panel first, the hot take kid himself, Mr. No Gray area, the Baron of Boop here at M-Afighting.com. Jed Mishu back on the show because where the frig else would he be? How's it going, Jed?

You know, I'm not ready for this. I've got a great, great competitor today. I always love battling him, but I don't feel like I can fight anyone because Kendrick has made all fighting meaningless. His level of hatred for Drake. is so inspiring, aspirational, impressive that I, you know, I hate, Mike. I hate, you know that I hate. And I think maybe I just have to give it up because if I'm not going to hate to that level,

why am I even in the game, you know? It's a great question. It's a great question, something we all need to ponder at some point in our lives. But back on the program, back in your lives, more consistently on the hit MMA program morning combat. You may have heard of it. It's won many awards. He is alongside Luke Thomas for that journey. You can even find his wise words on CBS Sports, The Incomparable. Brian Campbell, back on the show once again. How are you, my friend? Good to see you. Hey, guys, thanks for having me. I hope by the end of this show that not only does Jed hate me, but maybe we can speak into that dirt hole's life.

Guys, the live set, it's got to do his shirt laundry. He's got it hanging over the couch behind him. I mean, Look, show some class for once. Thank you. Why? I was not like I didn't know who I was playing today. Do you think I'm going to clean up for you, BC? Come on. We're after a great start, everybody.

We're after a great start. Let's get into the big news of the past seven days because UFC 303 does not look the same. as it did the last time we're on this program. We had a feeling it might look a little bit different by the time we came back on the show week later. We thought we knew what it might end up looking like. Some things we could talk about, some things we couldn't.

We have reacted quite a bit to the actual announcement of Conn McGregor being injured, undisclosed injury. Michael Chandler, no longer fighting next Saturday in Las Vegas as well. New main event, Alex Pereira v. Yuri Barashka 2 for the UFC Light Heavyweight title. Also, we got Brian Ortega versus Diego Lopez in the co-main event. No Jamal Hill. Instead, we get Anthony Smith taking on Carlos Ulberg.

And I think most of us in this space and most of us watching this program would agree. Yes, the vibes that a Connor fight brings unmatched. There's no way you can actually replace it. And we'll get into where both guys go from here in a moment. But BC, look, I think the three of us were all in the same boat here, right? We critique the UFC when it's warranted. We praise them when they do the good thing. I don't think they did the good thing here.

I think they did the great thing, BC. What say you? Michael, heck, good Lord here. Look, here's what they did. A very, very good thing from this standpoint. Nobody can, you know, take the lemons, make the lemonade when stuff is out of their control, quite like the UFC. And do I blame them for McGregor's setbacks or shortcomings here?

No, absolutely not. Their response was, well, I wanted to say swift, but there was that like 12-day period where they didn't go public at all about why the press conference was canceled. And then they basically withheld all the injury news and, you know, continued to try to crap on the dirtbag media people who seem to only be here to stir up trouble and make one-eyed men really upset. But here's the point. Look, did they do great for the circumstances? Yes, they've actually increased my interest level in the card. We know when Conner's on the marquee, it gets pretty paper thin down the stretch. They've actually bolstered this card. But with this now coming and gone behind us,

not the end of the McGregor answer, still a lot of the unknown, but with the UFC's handling, I do feel like I'm the only one that actually stood up and was like, hey, guys, is this how we want the leading MMA promotion to move in the future? Just, you know, covet news

and they're put, you know, hoard it in their armpit here and never bring it out and show us the light of day. To me, it was an interesting development in really largely a situation I hadn't quite seen as unique as this in the past. Credit to the organization for getting the train back on the tracks, nobody does it better than them. Nobody is well-oiled and more prepared for that. But at the same time, I do ask why.

I do ask what the hell happened. Why is it still this many days later? And we actually don't even know what body part was injured. If this is media in 2024, then I guess we're all Nina drama fans. Jed, I mean, just seeing how there is. able to put this all together, even adding another fun fight kind of out of nowhere. Hunter Campbell, very good at his job, as we could see. If you watch UFC Inc., you can see that. He is the man who runs the place. I mean, Dane is sort of the face, but Hunter's the man making all the deals and everything.

Your reaction to what he was able to put together, basically with not a lot of options, and on top of that, your reaction to a B.C. sort of said, where kind of critiquing the UFC, just kind of keeping everything under wraps because as Ariel reported on the MA hour many times as we've talked about on the show, you can only kind of go by what's going on. And the UFC tried to save this fight. Everybody involved tried to save this fight until they could save it no more. And then they made the announcement and here we are. I mean, so look, they've clearly done as best as they could. Right. And there's nothing wrong with the outcome we got. I said when we did a reaction, I said, yeah, they think this fight card's better because it is. It's not the same.

but it is a better viewing experience, even if, you know, we probably aren't getting the best versions of Yerie and Poetan, you know, even if probably not getting the best versions of Brian and Tegan Dia Lopez, who, you know, this, I think there was sort of momentum that that was going to happen in September. This is several months earlier than that. So, you know, this is to steal Brock Lesnar's favorite line, making chicken salad out of chicken shit, and it is pretty tasty chicken salad. Like, I'm very much looking forward to UFC 303 next week.

I don't know why we had to go through all the rigamarole to get here. Like, yes, the UFC wanted to try and save it. Why was it so clandestinely, weirdly, like no one can speak anything about this? Because that just put it in the news cycle more for an outcome that seemed obvious from the start of it. And why is it still being so long? like closely guarded as to what the injury is. It's like, you know, people get injured and they say, hey, man, I ruptured my spleen or I tweaked my knee or whatever.

And ostensibly, this isn't that bad of an injury based on the fact that they were going to try and persist through it. So it's not like, oh, Conner's foot fell off and now he may never fight again. At least theoretically, it's not that. but it's just been so weirdly kept under wraps that it has taken on a narrative in a life of its own in a way that just didn't need to be it. This feels like bad PR.

Like, you can just come out and be like, hey, we're having some issues. Our plan is still this. You could say all the stuff very little bit functionally, but just say it as the UFC instead of it being reported from somebody you actively don't like. It's so the handling of this is so weird, even if the outcome we,

get to is probably the best outcome we could have gotten given the circumstances. Let's talk about Alex Pereira for a moment, Jed, because time and time again, this man just comes through for the UFC. He saves the day, UFC 300, saves the day again for this card. Shout out to Yeriparashka as well. I feel like he's not getting enough credit for stepping in on short notice. He was ready to do this from Jump Street. Pereira, obviously, did some negotiating.

Prize fighting did it very well, and he's probably getting a huge bag of money to come in there and fight Yeriparashka, a man that he's already beat. Where do you think, Jed, that this puts Alex Pereira in sort of the, how do I want to put this? The UFC golden ticket pantheon. Like, does Alex Pereira, because he does this, if he goes out there and boops, Yuri Parashka again, gets a huge applause, all that. Does he have now sort of a wild card that he can cash in on anything here? Like if the UFC says, hey, we want you to fight Magamadanek-a-Lai. If you could say, here's my wild card, I'm going to fight Anthony Smith, or, eh,

Here's my wild card. I'm going to go fight John Jones. Does he have that power right now? Yes, 100. I think 100%. Like, we kind of talked about it offline a little bit after the announcement. We've discussed it internally. I wrote about it this week. I don't know where in the list of greatest UFC signings of all time, Alex Pereira Falls. But it's pretty high end of it. Because if you're just within not even a full calendar year, mind you. since last November, like, he has headlined MSG. He, you know, came in and wins the belt in his second title. He then jumps in and saves UFC 300. And now he jumps in and is the only person who could save the Connor McGregor Fiasco. Like, the water he is carrying for the organization right now is immense. and the fact that he's doing it

and while he is doing it has ingratiated himself to the fans and become a huge star in the process of doing this shit this is like like we've Shaheen Al Shadi started and then a lot of people have taken it up on the he is speed running a Hall of Fame career

that's 100% true he is he is right now being like good Donald Soroni like if Donald Soroni was an all time great fighter that's what Alex Pereer is do is like whatever I'm in homie I got it weight classes is interchangeable, but instead of like doing it and having some success, but also losing in the

big spots, he's just racking up belts like in the process. It is an unbelievable series of events that has unfolded. If you played it back a hundred times, I don't think we get things breaking as well as they have for Alex here. And because of that, because his willingness to jump in and save the day at the two biggest events of the year, far none, 300 is the biggest event of the year. and the UFC shot themselves in the foot with planning. He jumps in and saves it. And 303 is then supposed to really actually be the biggest event just because it is Connor and it's International Fight Week.

Those are always the staples for what the UFC wants. Saving both of those, like if he's not Dana White's favorite fighter, I don't know who the hell is. And that's going to get him cash-A. If he comes in here and if he loses, he just gets an immediate rematch. And so to some extent, low stakes here. Like losing has repercussions, certainly. But like, the UFC will immediately run back a trilogy if he loses.

So he does have that safety net. And if he wins, he kind of can call whatever shot he wants at that point. You think Dana's going to come after 303 and be like, no, he's got to fight Magamundan and Kaliaf. He objectively hates Magamah and Glyleu. So, like, he is, he continues to be the main character of MMA. He is the man touched by God and walking in the light. And we are all just in PCs in the video game that is Alex Pereira's life. PC, have we ever, obviously Connor had this meteoric rise at everything.

What's the, what's the robot here? What's the robot? I was NPC. What are we trying to do here? Okay. I'm sorry, I was stuck in four night ahead, all right? I'm a dad who cares. Keep going, Mike.

No, fair. What do you make of this Alex Perrera rise? Because I feel like it just gets weirder and weirder and more interesting every time we talk about him. And yes, if he goes out there and beat Jerry Perashka again and does so unlike. less than two weeks notice. It's pretty goddamn ridiculous. And he's sort of got this golden ticket. Outside of Conimer Greger and maybe Nate Diaz to a certain extent

when they all liked each other, I can't remember another fighter who has put himself in this position like that. And a guy who doesn't really speak English at all, he says enough with just a look from his eyeballs across the octagon. But he's such an interesting guy. And what a meteoric rise this has been. He's got all this cachet in power right now. it's insane. It is insane. And this is what happens when you have a small window and an opportunity

to be great. You need to be great in those moments. And he has rallying to knock out Izzy in round five of a title fight he was losing, right? But then how about coming back after having the same thing happened to him where Izzy stands up and knocks him out? Oh, he just moves up weight classes, takes apart top contenders one by one and captures the title in the second division. He doesn't get to that level of unique history in such a small window if he isn't as bold and greater than we thought he could ever be in terms of rounding out the holes in his game, which were naturally large when you're transitioning careers so boldly in your mid to late 30s in that regard. He got with the right team and the right person in terms of a father figure slash brother and Glover Tashara

that helped him close that gap quickly. But it was his willingness mixed with really perfect timing. It has been a perfect storm for Poetan. He probably doesn't get a middleweight title. shot that fast if Izzy hadn't already cleaning the division simultaneously as they have a story. So Poetan needed to cross out a couple, you know, things on his list, get a couple of notches in the belt. He passed those tough tests, including the one against Bruno Silva, and he was there. Only he keeps piling on and doubling down. Will this be too much?

Is it crazy to turn around on two months? Is he the only, you know, he's been the savior for them. But it is sort of interesting that the biggest rumor on what Connor McGregor's actual injury is, And I know a lot of people are talking even the potentials of rehab, which I don't know, but it makes sense. I hear broken toe when I hear people speculating the most. Didn't Poetton have a broken toe coming into when he saved UFC 300? And didn't he break his toe just two months ago at a different toe? And he's going to bring that with him into this one.

Yeah, he's the hero we need in the moment and to steal a fantastic point that Luke Thomas made on morning combat this week. And I tend not to steal much from Luke Thomas, maybe beyond his soul, because that's, man's dark on the inside and all of us are just trying to illuminate his past. He did say, you know, Poton has kind of become everything Hamzaa Tchamayev was supposed to have been. The boogeyman who came out of nowhere can move from division, division, and capture championships in ways that he shouldn't in terms of his actual MMA experience and ability. But if he cleans this mess up for the UFC against Prohachka and defends his title again

and does it in another spectacular knockout, think about the money. and the bank that he will have in terms of calling his shot, as Jed mentioned. How about this for a shot called? Is Poetan not only the savior we need to save the UFC's two biggest cards and make up for maybe poor long-term planning by the UFC, but is he going to be the reason John Jones doesn't retire after Steep A? Because if I could see John Jones coming back for one more big payday at heavyweight, how about a guy who doesn't wrestle and is smaller moving up going to try to become the first three

division champion in UFC history. Wow, Poetan saved everything. You must feel bad for his ex-girlfriend Merle, who certainly got the FaceTime in that Roku documentary series in the front row, but now no one's talking about her anymore but me, okay? But I remember it matters to me, okay? I'm still in this and so is Poetan. And I don't know if Chameh will ever walk again, and it's a damn shame, but Poetan's your real man right now. Chad, how does that make you feel hearing BC describe that as a man who wants to see John Jones and Tom Aspinall do the damn thing. This could be a thing now. Like if Pereira doesn't, he calls for John Jones, you're going to get it.

It's 100% of the thing. John would absolutely stop retiring if Poetan's on the table because there's one thing that man has proven time and time again over the course of his career is that he loves to beat up middleweights. Like just he loves to beat up middle weights. Sleodo Machita, Rashat Vitor. That indictment on the weight of that woman in the other arms. Intersection to beat up middleweights.

She was pregnant, Jed. Please have some grace there, all right? Anthony Smith, Tiago Santos. The list of middleweights can continue. And, I mean, really, Poeton is the apex middleweight predator. So it's probably going to happen. And there will be people like New York Rick being like, look, he's the goat. He just beat Poetton.

And I'll be screaming. into the void. You're not the goat because you beat a bunch of middleweights. Like fight Tom Asperol, coward? I damn it. Now this question I'm very excited for it. I'm going to start with you BC. I let Jed kind of warm up to this a little bit because reports are saying that the injury Connor sustained, whatever it may be could be broken toe, who knows could be worse,

not real serious and that people are at least optimistic about him fighting. in the next few months, maybe they could rebook this thing. Although there are some sort of scheduling things the UFC would need to overcome, I would say based on what they're currently trying to do, unless they add another pay-per-view to the mix, maybe December this fight happens. So the other side of this equation is much like to talk about Connor McGregor, is Michael Chandler's been waiting since November 2020 for this fight to come together.

So let me ask you, BC, if you are Michael Chandler's manager, his representation, are you telling him to move on to take it? another fight in between or do nothing, just wait it out, hope for the best someday. Your Connor McGregor will come, Michael Chandler. Yeah, move the fuck on, Mike. Like right now, brother, okay? Get out of here. Two years into this, you coached Ultimate Fighter like two seasons ago with this guy.

Would it happen? Could it happen? Look, the biggest red blinking light warning sign, red panty night, no longer, okay, bro, You know, the biggest warning we had is the idea that maybe Connor could have pushed through and didn't. That means the ghost is gone. And I admittedly was so late to the party and wanting to ever believe and accept that. Why? I'm not going to lie to you because Connor McGregor's arrival on the elite scene,

simultaneous, you know, was simultaneous with my arrival on the elite MMA scene. That was the most fun, wild ride we ever could have imagined. It was the ultimate rising tide that raised everyone shipped, raised the fandom, raise the money the UFC brought in, raised the idea of watching a fight like anything can happen, anything's possible after he did that to Aldo in 13 seconds, right? It's the greatest journey we've ever had. But damn, this journey's been over for a long time,

and this is not an active fighter. He hasn't fought in three years. He hasn't won since before the damn pandemic, right? Like, he was trying to get Diego Sanchez in the DMs. Let's not forget after he beat up on Cowboys. So, like, he's not walking through that door. I used to argue that he's got one more big win that will get him into some title shot he doesn't deserve. But outside of that Nate trilogy, maybe a max rematch or insert old guy fight of choice, it's over.

And if you're Chandler, you are already here for a good time, right? Which automatically means a short time. There are big money action rematches that any of us would fall over for him against Porre again, him against Gauchy again, him against Eddie again. I mean, yeah, go that way because here's the deal. I'm not here to say that Connor will never walk through that octagon gate again. He may prop himself up. They may prop him up. But let's not be naive to every single time we've seen Conner's head come up above water publicly

in the last three years since the last time he fought. He looks like he's loose in turn four in the turn four of life, worse than Dale Sr. at the 01 Daytona 500. I mean, I think enough time has passed where I can land jokes like that without everybody looking around at me. But here's the deal. That guy's gone, all right? So are you going to waste another half year

and hoping that that guy walks through the door? You still may get that fight, Mike. You still might not. One thing you do have with the UFC now is an incredible level of goodwill that you might actually get Max Holloway in a BMF title main event, a pay-per-view if you play your cards right.

Start playing your cards. That's what I'm telling you right now because that guy ain't coming back and if he does, he's going to be a damn shell of himself. He might not even make it to fight night. And I hate saying that because we all owe a debt to Conner to some regard. But the debt's been paid.

It's over. Let's not waste any more time. We also owe a debt to Rick Patino for giving us the blanks, not walking through that doorline. That'll live on forever. Jed, if there's one thing that I've learned about you over this incredible four-year journey at M.AFighting.com is that you want the best for Michael Chandler, don't you? What are you telling him? Chandler calls you up right now. You're going to tell him the truth, Jed.

You're Mr. No Gray area. You're the Baron of Boob. Chandler says, look, shit. I know you don't like me. I know we ain't going to be pals, but you're going to tell me straight. No one else in this industry is going to tell me straight. You're going to tell me straight.

Should I wait for Connor? Should I do something else? Should I move on completely? What are you telling him? Before I answer that, I would like to say that while BC was talking, it really resonated with me. that if you just until the end we said we owe a debt or whatever, if you just swapped out the words Connor was steep A, it's all the same.

This man hasn't fought in four years. This man's a shell of himself. He's come off a broken man when he comes back. It's over. He could have been making the same impassioned plea to John Jones to fight a real boy instead of an old retired firefighter. But I digress. Michael Chandling, happy to meet you.

I've said a lot of things about you. I regret absolutely none of them. And I got to tell you, buddy, you've made me look like a hero this week because your posting has really been, oh, I get why Jed doesn't care for him. You are posting like an AI version of an inspiration, like an influencer. It is so weird. Don't you dare feel pitiful. me. Be emboldened by me beating my head against this rock and just continuing down the

stupidest course of action. Being emboldened by me, it is nothing to do with the outcome. I knew it was a risk, so it all like the weirdest shit I've ever seen. And then coming out with the, I'm still going to 303 because a man gives his word and he follows through. No, your word was you'd fight at 303, homie. You're not fighting. So what are we talking? So what are we talking? It's the weirdest shit. Just stop being weird, dude. That's my big advice. I don't really care about Connor.

Just don't be weird. Be a rational human and don't give like apocryphal biblical stories about Sisyphus and how this is your task and you're going to push endlessly against the rock because that's what you're supposed to do. Like what is any of this about, man? You are a prize fighter. I have been very on board saying I don't like you. but I understand where you're coming from.

Like, this is a big opportunity and you want to wait a little bit. Okay. I have also been pretty much leading the charge of Conner's never fighting again. And this is another data point towards that. If you must, like, can't let it go. You wait for, like, the rebooking. The rumor is this fall, if it doesn't happen before Thanksgiving, you need to fight people because you have very few years left to make money.

And every time you fight, you're functionally getting fight of the night. Like, those paychecks add up. That is a meaningful thing. And to B.C.'s point, you now do have some leverage here. You've got some, hey, guys, the kind of thing's not happening. Let me get Max Hollow in a BMF fight. Let me get some other opportunity. And take that because the golden goose, the white whale is not coming.

And you are going to spend the last remaining good years that you have as Captain A, And I'm sure you haven't read it because it's a big book with a lot of real words in it. But the whole point of that story is not to be Ahab. You do not want to be endlessly chasing this thing that will never happen for you. So please give it another couple of weeks, another couple of months, and then move on with your life. You will be a better man and a happier man for it. Wow. That was unbelievable.

That was a great speech. BC, your reaction to that? You didn't seem that impressed. You know, it was entertaining, right? It was a great performance. But, you know, to try to tell Michael Chandler, he can't do the impossible. When he signed with the UFC and I had told you he would become a spokesperson person for Black History Month, would you say that's impossible?

Nothing is impossible. Oh, God. Oh, man, Michael Chandler. I mean, that's a great point, BC. Thank you. I can't believe that that's like a thing. this might be the hardest round to score in the history of BTL but we got to move on because there's so much other things we got to talk about

I'm not crazy right his comments were the most insane shit you've ever heard like I at least need BC to confirm that I'm not being a lunatic and that the like don't you don't disrespect me with pity this is the most ludicrous shit of all time What did you think of all that, B.C? I think I'm just waiting to get the point, you know what I mean? I mean, like, what's the point? Oh, close to B.C. Sounds great. Okay.

All right. Drum roll, please. Point for Rout one. I literally flipped the coin. Heads was B.C. Tails was Jed. Heads, it is. B.C. on the board, one to nothing. That was brutal.

Just that I thought Jed had it, B.C. steals it. Just that I thought B.C. had it. Jed would come in and steal it. It was, I mean, back and forth. An absolute slug fest. So it was Hamza Achaimae versus Gilbert Burns, all up here on BTL. All right. 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 reprised his own. 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. Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets, sandwiches, and babies named in their honor. But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more.

DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond. Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information. Big news earlier this week in the... Star. Shooting stars crash. That's what they do. Well, there will be some shooting stars clashing in Tampa, Florida, ladies and gentlemen.

We found out Jake Paul, who is supposed to fight Mike Tyson on July 20th. Now he's going to fight Mike Tyson, November 15th, AT&T Stadium, Jerry Land, Arlington, Texas, on Netflix. Still happening. Jake Paul still fighting July 20th. He will return to Amelie Arena and Tampa. the sight of his vicious knockout of Tyrone Woodley in the rematch, his opponents, the star, the face of BKFC, platinum, Mike Perry. And Jedda, I will begin with you.

Of all the Jake Paul fight announcements, there have been throughout all these years. This one, by far, has got the most positive response by like a floppy-gibillion times. How positive are you in your reaction to this booking, especially after seeing the first virtual face-to-face between Jake Paul, umbrella in hand, poolside, and Mike Perry, chilling in his studio on the M.A. hour yesterday. Dude, this rocks.

Like, this is so, like, this is, I was pretty pro the Tyron Woodley fight just because, like, it was early in Jake Paul's career, and Woodley can at least punch real hard. And so it was like, okay, this is. is, I get what Jake Paul is doing. There was real risk involved in that. And then the Anderson Silva fight, I think everybody was pretty pro Anderson Silva just because of that.

But both of those weren't the same because Tower and Woodley is bad at trash talking. And Anderson Silva doesn't trash talk. And in fact, that whole pre-fight build was like weirdly respectful between the two of them. So, you know, it was just a, hey, Jake Paul's fighting a dude who can box. So like, let's see how that goes. this fight was like the moment it was announced i think everybody was on board and i was like yep makes total sense it's terrific and then yesterday on the m m m hour it was just like this this is the answer like god love nate dyes nate ds was never going to win that boxing match and two

Nate has never actually been like a great promotional foil for the talking bits like he'll have a good moment or two at times but like you've you've seen currently with the moscis He doesn't want to do a big press tour and go to five different press conferences and see BC eight times and be like, he's telling BC, dude, I like you, but I'm sick of seeing your ass. This isn't who I am. It's not what I'm about. Mike Perry will do, like, he will go on the MMA hour every week and do the exact same shit with Jake Paul.

And every time it will be silly and ridiculous and a perfect, like opposing force to Jake Paul. I've just been like, you can't hurt me. yeah, I'm not good at boxing, but you can't knock me out, and I'm going to keep putting my fist down your throat. You're softer than baby shit. It's going to say the most ridiculous shit. Like, who had on their bingo card that within four minutes of these two dudes talking, we would get to a takedown of the American education system and their schooling? Like, it is so outlandish, and it's perfect. Like, they are going to do a brilliant job promoting.

opposite one another. The fight will probably honestly be pretty fun because when is Mike Perry not in a fun fight? And I'm like genuinely interested in how this goes because this is the first time Jake Paul is fighting some dude that he's not like massively advantaged over in youth speed athleticism, et cetera. So this is a home run. This is so much more compelling than the Mike Tyson fight to me. The Mike Tyson fight is obviously much like 303 frankly, certainly bigger business. When that does happen, Netflix will get all of the viewers tuning in for that. People who don't have any interest in combat are like we're reaching out about that fight. But that had a really dark undertone of like, hey, this almost 60 year old dude, there are real consequences involved with what's about to happen.

Whereas with Mike Perry, it's not. Like, this is just, this is A plus stuff. And I'm going to go. I will be in attendance. And it's going to bang. I'm so excited. BC, this fight, I would guess, encapsulation. Absolutely, it's all things your world, right?

What do you think? How in are you on this fight? To quote the great Chinese heavyweight Jean-Gillet, they're going to bang, you chowler. And that is obviously the big calling card. But I have to compare the brilliance of the matchmaking of this to the brilliance of Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson, even though it does have all of those same misgivings

in terms of could the old guy get hurt, is that we actually don't know what Jake versus Mike Tyson is going to look like. You can talk yourself exactly into the Jake wears down an old man and makes him not get off his stool in the saddest way possible while doing backflips, as much as you can talk yourself into Mike landing one punch, Mike Tyson, that is, and knocking him cold and breaking the internet. I think it's actually the same scenario, but a little bit different in this fight,

which is why it's so brilliant. Because the second this was booked, every single person in my industry, fellow writers, editors, whatever, fans that have my phone number are texting me, going, oh my God, Jake's going to get killed. He made the wrong decision. He picked the wrong guy. So you can certainly talk yourself into that reality that this is the first time Jake has to like fight a war,

not a strategic challenge like Tommy Fury gave him because it turned out he had a big jab and he was bigger and used that size more than we thought he would. But yeah, I can talk myself into the idea that Mike takes him into a level of bloody battle that Jake just can't swim in. But here's the other side of that. I can just as well, knowing boxing the way I do, talk myself into the idea that the whole buildup is what gets you to this fight. But what this fight really is, is Jake keeping him at the end of the jab and then squeezing and holding him anytime it gets hairy.

Because let's not forget one thing. As great as Mike Perry has done, making himself a legitimate combat sports pay-per-view brand, there are certain advantages in the BKFC space, which I think do allow him to fight at weight classes over his head. He's a 170 fighter in MMA who's boxing at 185 in BKFC, but without the gloves, he gets in your kitchen. He squares up. He comes after you. He'll take your biggest shots and he'll punch you directly in the mouth and make you question whether you want to be there. Professional boxing does have that little gap with the bigger gloves and the technique.

And say what you will about Jake Paul. I'm not saying he's ever going to win a cruiserweight title or anything like that. But in this crossover space, he actually has some of the best technique. And when you give him that size advantage, this will be a 200. pound fight where he's coming down from prepared heavyweight weight and mike perry's already over his head at 185 there are a lot of physical advantages here for jake that i don't think people are talking about enough either way they talked this in the building this is going to be an absolute banger i love this i really do love it it's it's it's it's so good we should have done this like two years

ago and there's been a bit of a debate over the last couple of days i think this is the right time for it Oh, 100%. It's still, it's great. It's great now, especially with the Tyson fight looming in July 20th there. This is just so good. And I think one of the reasons why this is good is because of the debate that it has sparked BC. Because as we mentioned earlier, the Tyson fight is still on at the moment. And if you read the press release, the way the language sort of lays this all out is that Jake Paul and Amanda Serrano, who is also competing on this card, could be, and that's,

That's an important two words right there. Could be putting their spots essentially on the line for November 15th for Jake Paul. I mean, just a lot here. Tyson, Netflix, Cowboys Stadium, 85 to 100,000 tickets being sold for this thing. It's going to be massive. B.C., is he taking a real risk here? Do you look at this fight and be like, man, Jake is really putting it all in the line here? Or is this just a – because New York Rick has been saying, like, Jake doesn't live by

wins and losses. It doesn't matter. The Tyson fight is a celebrity boxing match with the pomp and it doesn't really matter if Jake loses Mike Perry or not. Like it's two dudes who are very popular and have huge fan bases changes nothing. Do you agree with that or do you think Jake is really risking something here? Up to a certain degree, I agree with that. I largely agree that it's not as much risk for both as people are saying. Look, Serrano's one of the all-time greats in women's boxing history. She's taking a stay-bizzy step-down fight to just do that. Stay-Bizzy Cash another big check and set her up for that final cash out, which is a rematch with Katie Taylor, and maybe the promise of if she can win, and by the way, I did score the first fight for

her, produce an even bigger money trilogy fight. So I don't worry about it from her standpoint. For Jake, look, if you could see the future and you told me that he badly gases out late and then gets caught, you know, George Foreman style against Ali and just gets embarrassed, yeah, that's going to look bad for him. But even if he should lose a spirited decision or an action fight in which both get off the canvas. I still think it's a special thing that you're buying with Jake versus Mike Tyson that wouldn't necessarily be gone. And what you're buying is, can the young YouTuber

X Disney guy hurt our hero and our favorite guy, or will our old man hero do the ultimate old man moment and put those YouTubers back where they belong? That's still in play, in my opinion, even if he should lose. I think Jake has pivoted nicely from that Fury loss, Tommy Fury, where all the air didn't come out of the balloon. He's made some decent choices. I think the Nate fight kind of over-delivered on entertainment to keep some of that air back in the balloon of how long can Jake grab our attention.

I do think when he tried to play the legitimate boxer role, it wasn't going to go too far. It was going to run out of excitement and lead him probably to a bad loss that would expose him. If he loses here in the spirit of action, I think he's still fine against Tyson. Jay, what do you think? Is there a lot being risks here for Jake,

Paul. I mean, Amanda Serrano loses, dude. I mean, she is, she's not going to lose. Like, let's just put that out there. She'd probably be a minus 22,000 favor by the time that fight comes to fruition on July 20th. But is Jake really risking anything here, finding Mike Perry? I mean, look, you could tear it, tear at ACL. Like, those are the things that, to me,

are the risks. But if he just goes in there and fights and it's just a normal thing, I don't, do you think he's risking anything? Nope. Nothing is at risk for Jake Paul other than Bright cells. and brain cells are a real thing, you know, like we all like to have as many of those as we can. But, like, injury is a risk for anything. Like, if he's just training, injury is a risk. And, you know, like, fighting up upset a little bit.

But there's not, he's young enough that, like, that's not really the factor you weigh in, right? And I got to tell you, God love Mike Perry. He is legitimately one of the biggest stars in combat sports. certainly for us at least, like when he fights people take notice, which is why I think that this happens now. Mike started to have this happen a couple of years ago, but he has really blossomed into like a full-fledged star. And so all of this is timed well, but as much of a star as he is, Netflix ain't putting on Iron Mike versus Platinum Mike. Like that's not what Netflix is in the game for. They are in the game transparently for Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson.

And I think if Jake Paul loses, honestly, I'm more interested in the Mike Tyson fight at that point because I don't like, B.C. is correct. We can never predict the future. We know what's going to happen. Either Mike is going to land a punch in the first minute that kills Jake because he powers the last thing to go. Or if he doesn't, he's a 60 year old man. And so he's got like five good ones in the barrel. And once those are shot, then he's just. just an old man fighting a young man. So that's how that will play out. But if Jake gets knocked out by Mike Perry, if Jake just loses, gets beat up by Mike Perry, I now suddenly think that Mike Tyson has a much better chance of pulling it off against Jake Paul, even though I think that honestly,

that fight probably shouldn't happen for moral reasons. But that fight is going to happen. It is the fight Netflix once. It's the fight Netflix is going to get. And win-lose or draw against Mike Perry, everyone I know who doesn't give two shits about fighting will be like hey they're he they're still doing the Mike Tyson Jake Paul thing yep it's on Netflix tune in and watch like it's nothing is at risk in that sense and for Mike Perry Jedd it's house money for him star power it's only going to

grow from this he is going to introduce himself to a whole new audience that are probably really going to enjoy him so and on top of that this is going to be frigging spectacular for BKFC because they will be mentioned in every single sentence as Mike Perry threw out the build to this. This event will probably impact BKFC way more positively than Francis Ngano fighting Tyson Fury did for PFL and Mike because all the talk on the the Ngano Fury broadcast were UFC, UFC UFC, former UFC champion, former UFC heavyweight champion, maybe one mention of PFL in that entire broadcast. This entire bill is going to be BKFURIO, FFC's Mike Perry.

So if he goes out there, Jed, and he sells paper views and he's going to and he puts on a fun scrap and he loses, yeah, I think personally he'll be bummed, but I still think he'll be in a much better spot in terms of how people view him. But if he wins, Jed, if Mike Perry goes out there and does this, may not get Mike Tyson, but what will this do for him, his career, the whole shebang if he's the guy from the MMA world to go and lamp up Jake Paul. I mean, it's huge for him. Getting the fight is huge for him, right?

And that's, it's huge for BKFC. You're absolutely correct. Like, that's why Feldman's come out and said, like, thought there was a really good opportunity for us because it is, like, because also there is more corollary between bare knuckle boxing and, you know, boxing than boxing in MMA. It's not the same. People who are tuning in for boxing, such that they may exist,

or tuning in because they watch Jake Paul box. I feel like that's not that big a leap to be like, hey, you like watching Jake Paul box and he's kind of sloppy. Here's this psychopath who also does bare knuckle boxing. Check that out. And more people, I feel like that has a smoother pipeline than you want to watch PFL because France and Gano knocked down Tyson Fury that one time.

But for Perry himself, like just getting this, you are 100% correct, Mike. They're going to love him. Like the audience for this fight. is going, if they don't know who Mike Perry is, boy, they're about to find out. And they, I will be shocked that they don't gravitate to his weird,

like, aesthetic, everything about him. Like, at some point, they're going to have a press conference. And Mike Perry is going to say something like, who's the booger man now as he tries to put a booger on Jake Paul? And it'll be the funniest, stupid, smooth, childish thing. And everyone will eat that, shit up and be like, I love this dude. And so if he wins, huge. If he loses, still huge. Doesn't matter because as long as he doesn't get washed, he can still rematch Jake Paul down the line.

Jake Paul continues to find new physical like things to do here. Like, yeah, I'll run it back with Mike Perry. That was a fun fight. There's a fight that people loved and then they can have a rivalry built. And if he wins, he won't be too big for BKFC, I don't think. But he'll probably be pretty close to too big for BKFC. Like, I don't know where he will go if he wins this because what other fights make sense for Mike Perry in the space. Like Jake Paul is the apex influencer boxer. And so once you kind of topple that, where do you go from there? I don't know, but I would be fascinated to find out.

B.C., what if what if Platham goes out there and wins this fight? Like, what if he does this? On months, 32 days after the fight is announced, he goes out there in Tampa, which is not far from where he lives. There's going to be a lot of Mike Perry fans in that building. What if he goes out there and just beats the soul out of Jake Paul?

It's crazy because, A, it's possible. It is possible because the dog inside of Mike Perry, even if I'm arguing that the traditional boxing space could limit him in ways that, in ways that like a street fight, an MMA fight, or a BKFC fight against Jake might not. Everything he's accomplished lately, we never would have guessed for him. I never would have guessed after getting cut from the UFC that he could become a pay-per-view star elsewhere.

He's done that, right? He's become the face of everything BKFC's doing. I never thought Ocean's daddy would, like, be doing gender reveals and have us, like, legitimately cheering for him in almost like a Cody Rhodes pro wrestling arc type of way. And that's the beauty of where he's at right now. He can play the villain if he needs to against Jake's fans here, and he already has by being, man, I'm going to kill you by going that road. But us real ones who have followed him on this journey,

he's got baby face written all over him. So we're cheering for that marriage to stay together. We're watching him as a homeowner and father. And then we watched him do something else that we never thought we would have, ever see him do when he went head to head with Connor McGregor. So that in theory didn't mean anything. It was in a sport where Connor can't in theory fight. But when Jed says,

I'm not sure how you escalate up from that. It's a worthy statement given that Jake is the boss and what's left of this crossover boxing era. But the biggest boss possible in any discipline is Connor McGregor. And if Conne McGregor is the part owner of the promotion of which Jake, of which Mike is also the face of, would there be a worse time to grab that microphone and go, by the way, Connor McGregor or boss, as I should tell you,

and then do his own Steve Austin versus Vince McMahon routine of if there's any possible freaking chance of getting the UFC to allow co-promotion here and Connor to just double dip on both sides. Knocking out or beating Jake Paul would give Mike Perry the only slim chance

to do that. So why don't you do that? Because I'm telling you what, Conner's real life right now seems to be mayhem. Probably be easier for him to get in shape for a couple minute bare knuckle fight than it would a 25-minute up-and-down war with Chandler. So if If it Mike does it, you better go for broke.

Who would have thought they ever would have been face to face like they were that time? Who would have thought Connor would be part owner? Nothing's impossible here for Kevin Garnett in 08 with the Celtics or Mike Perry right now. Believe that, all right? I knew that it was coming at some point. Respect. Respect for KG. Chad, you love everything he said there.

Connor can't work through what is apparently a not major issue to fight Michael Chandler. You think he's going to suddenly fight Mike Perry and BKFC and also get the UFC to sign off on that shit? Come on. For him to fight Mike Perry and BKFC, he has to come back and fight Michael Chandler. And he doesn't want to do that even. If he did, let's say he knocked Jake Paul out.

I'm not saying knocked him out cold, but let's say he stopped him. How big is he at that moment? How big of a moment is that for BKFC? And if he calls out Connor after that, It'd be a conversation, right? Wouldn't it be a conversation? No, because Connor is under contract.

You think the U.C. is going to be like, hey, Connor, go to BKFC and fight Mike Perry? Well, isn't there precedence with what Jorge's doing in boxing right now with Nate and the UFC getting? Yes, Horacee. The same as Connor McGregor. What in God's name was in that gas station hot dog? Yes, they're going to let Jorge Mosferall go not sell out an arena because who gives a shit. They're not going to let Connor McGregor. go fight Mike Perry in BKFC.

This is insane. Hey, I never thought we'd see Coach Lottori in the corner either, and it happened, okay? I'm no longer going to be going to beat that guy when I'm talking about Mike Terry. It is so much more likely that if Mike Perry knocks him out, the UFC's like, hey, lend us Mike to fight Connor in the UFC, Dave. Like, that is still not probable, but at least that is possible. It is truly not possible that Connor fights Mike Perry in BKFC in the next 18 months. All roads lead to Connor regardless, and I think you know that, okay? Ding, ding, ding.

Except for one problem, Connor's never fighting again. Well, look, this summer, all roads are eventually going to lead to Perth, Western Australia. That's, we're going from Tampa to Perth. Point for round two goes to. Yeah, it's dead issue. It's Jedvisi. That was so good. Yeah, they're letting

Cory Mosswell to it. Yeah. Like a lot of his sex capades, he sold it with performance, but the real, you know, the real meat wasn't there. I'll tell you that.

All right, all. I am all sizzled no steak. Yes. Well, I mean, some people may feel sizzle no steak for Perth, but here we go. DDP versus Israel Adasania,

the worst kept secret in MMA. That is the main event for UFC 305, August 17th. As you mentioned, it's going down in Perth. We knew this is coming. We knew the rival is going to take place. The UFC could not afford to let this one slide by once again. They can't afford to let Sean Strickland slide in there and thump up the champion. They had to do it now. BC, it's official. Okay? It's not just in the rumor mill. It's not just we know it's going to happen, just waiting for the announcement. It's right there. you can go to UFC.com. It's right there.

DDP versus Izzy. It's going down. Your thoughts now that it's official. This is great because my issue right now with the UFC post 300, only that great stretch of three consecutive cards, has been that post-300 hangover. And that has unfortunately led just two months later into the trouble it took to get 303 out the door with some type of substance in it.

So what do we need? What's the greatest remedy when you feel like there's just not that buzz for your sport or your promotion at the moment? put together a fight with actual buzz, with actual dislike between them and a little bit of history from that time that Izzy was just raining the N-word all over DDP inside the cage, and it got real awkward. I know things have happened since that moment, and we never got that fight, but I think the things that have happened have only further complicated the middleweight title picture,

but also aided in making this division arguably, while not as deep as beloved Bannamweight or Jed's lightweight, as sexy or maybe more than all of those, considering the players on top and how they are sort of interchangeable against one another. You're adding in the added storyline of Izzy coming back to try to do the impossible second time. While it's not impossible to come back and regain your title, the way he did it against Poetan was theatrical, unique, and sort of felt like a one-and-one type moment, it might explain why he did lay such a flat egg, or a fat egg, excuse me, and allowing Sean Strickland to disarm him and sort of just not really having heart in that battle and being able to find a way to come back in.

Well, now he's got the opportunity to do this sort of and create sort of this Evander Holyfield-like legacy of a guy who, okay, maybe not the greatest in his division of all time, but could he come out of here with three separate title reins, including two, you know, reinventions of himself after such devastating defeats? Sometimes that's the mark of what a true champion is. It's the right fight at the right time for DDP's arc. this is big business.

I can't freaking wait. And a lot of fans are telling me that even though this is the oceanic region, it's so far left, meaning Perth, that you'll probably hear more DDP pens there than you will, Izzy fans. So is he going to have to really climb the mountain in a lot of ways in his advancing age to come back and prove once again that he is this division.

I don't see really how you can talk negatively about this, but I'll give Jed the floor to attempt to do it. I don't know. Jed is, I mean, the way Jed has been positive about DDP, the way Jed has put DDP over, the way he has sided with DDP in some of these huge moments, including the incredible Robert Whitaker prediction last year. I am kind of curious how you're feeling about this now that it's official, Jed. I mean, so we're clear, I have been, I would say the conductor of the let's do DDP as he fight. Like, I was all in on that and I'm still all in on it. This fight is going to be dope because it's going to be real stupid.

One way or the other. There are two outcomes. Both are very, very silly and both appeal to me. Outcome A is that DDP is the kind of lunatic who will just like run at you and punch real hard. And that will make Izzy have a fun fight because he is not a fun fighter anymore. He is only fun if you are going to Polo Costa into him and then it's like, oh, well, I'll take this. but if you are trying to like fight a tactical stay away at range thing he'll just kick you in the leg a bunch and win a tepid boring decision uh poeton made him fun because poeton started beating that ass and then ddp will make him fun because he's gonna force engagements so either izzie will get to be cool izzie again which is sick or ddp's gonna do real stupid stuff and you're gonna watch like this brilliant unbelievable technical kickboxer like one of the greatest strikers in the history of the sport who got tuned up by a one-two and weird march frog stepping from Sean Strickland get beat by a dude who just punches real hard like that's that's really the sum game of DDP striking is I throw real hard and so either of these outcomes is joyous and eventful and I love this fight if I have to put anything down about it if there's one negative

to this fight. And it's not a major one, but it is, and it's not about the fight itself. It is just about the UFC as a promotion. Not doing this in Africa is a travesty. The UFC has talked about doing a UFC Africa for like four years back in the Three Kings era, and they could never pull it off for whatever reasons that they were. This fight came into being into the public consciousness as a like, really suss frankly like you probably maybe don't want to lean into kind of the the deep dynamics

at play there uh racial tensions etc of the true african conflict but you just had to do like both men have said stuff like we can fight for the soul of africa and i'll drag him to south to south africa and drag his car like you just got to do this in africa doing it in perth is real real weird particularly with Izzy as the Challenger, even though I understand that Australia and New Zealand are not the same place. It's just that, like, that's the only quibble. And I guess if I have to have a second quibble, Izzy popping out with promotion that is still up on his Twitter,

that's an AI Hitler video, is real weird shit. But he's been doing a lot of real weird shit lately. So I just whatever. On the merits, this fight rocks. I have absolutely no issue with it. I can't wait for this fight. Well, many don't agree with Izzy's social media practices. GBC, you have something you want to add.

AI Hitler, no one agrees with AI Hitler. Well, I can't agree with Aai Hitler. It could be, though, Izzy's way of hoping to just normalize the relations he has with his dog after the whole Sean Strickland debacle and that all that went on there. That at least takes that end of it off the hook if you want to get weird. But the best thing Jed said if you want to actually consider giving him a point for this round, but I hope he doesn't, is that responsibility on the UFC? they're of late focus or obsession with shiny toys.

And I certainly can make that argument with power slap, but also the sphere. Look, I just saw the dead company at the sphere last Thursday. It was like literally life changing and soul cleansing and somebody checked the toxicology reports. Good Lord. But the point of this is like, I don't even know if that can work there. But the time, effort and what are they, 17 million in the whole, Dana said, when we see the lengths that they had to go to for the two biggest cards just to keep the train on the tracks,

300 and now International Fight Week 303 with McGregor, it does ask that itchiness on you of, look, you're doing record year-over-year financial numbers. I know I complain about this a lot. I get in a lot of these videos for being a complainer. But go back to building stars. Care about that just a little bit more because the second McGregor was off of a card

that was purposely watered down because of his presence in the cupboards bare, just like it was ahead of 300 and trying to figure out how do we how could the cupboard be bare when they're this much in control of a monopoly the obvious answer is because they're a content creation farm they've got too many dates i think all of that is true i don't want that to become a thing that handcuffs them that they have their eyes off the the you know prize you're right they probably should have put this fight in africa and really put the motions toward doing that same thing with yon shia non against way li zhang at 300 could he just as easily been in china But I feel like the focus is not on necessarily what it should be to keep feeding this monster that they've created. That's just an editorial for me. Can't wait to see you in the next day in a video. B.C., what did you think of how the fight was actually announced? Because we didn't get a Dana screaming into a cell phone video, which is, of course, what he would have loved to have done.

But Israel Adasania just went and announced the fight himself on Monday morning, which seemed to annoy Dana White. if you watched the Jim Rome show. He didn't seem very thrilled about that. Would you think of Izzy just basically saying, you know what? I'm not waiting for a Dana selfie video. I'm just going to do it myself. I think it's a heck of a flex,

because on one side, a big part of Dana's stance in 2024 is not just as abject hatred of the MMMA media, but it almost feels like an attempt to brainwash the regular general audience to agree with that. And the whole topic of when you go that road, everybody's, oh, the media is just sad and mad because they're being replaced by a bunch of influencers.

But you get people that actually educatedly say the media is kind of being replaced by the fighters themselves because now in a lot of ways they're exercising in realizing their own freedom to create their own channel and thus also have their own ability to dispense information. So I think if you're UFC and you're going so hard in the paint on dunking on the, you know, the reliability or the true morals and ethics of MMA media, one thing that does open is the fighters to do exactly what Izzy just chose to do. It did feel a little bit like rebelling or trying to, you know, create his own narrative.

But if stars don't start standing up for the little levers that they do have and actually act like stars, it's going to continue to see 17% of the payroll get paid to the fighters and antitrust lawsuits just get folded and seized. Yeah, that's the direction it's going. I like when a guy stands up and says,

no, I don't necessarily need to do it this way. Stop pressuring me. I'm not going to agree to a fight that you've already announced when I haven't signed the paper, that kind of stuff. A-OK on my end for Izzy. Jed, I was told after, obviously when you see a fighter tweet that announcement, you get to go through the proper channels and make sure that it's not just a fighter coming out, and just saying a bunch of things.

And I was told after this announcement was made, they signed for this fight a week before that. So this wasn't anything that, like, happened the day before or they just agreed to it. Penn went to paper a week before this announcement and they were all, everyone involved was just sort of waiting for the UFC to announce this fight. But then Izzy was just like, hey,

don't need to wait anymore. I'm just going to do it myself. What did you think of the way Izzy did it? When did this get announced? This got announced what Friday? Last week, Thursday? Monday. Monday.

Yeah, I don't know if you know this, Mike. They, UFC was kind of dealing with some other shit last week. so would have been a bit odd for them to come out and be like, hey, I know that they're rampant rumors running around surrounding UFC 303, but BT Dubs 305. Soffens the blow a little bit more, doesn't it? No, because they already, like, it would have been weird to undo that, right? But they did that, Jed?

No, they announced. No, they did. They announced the fights to replace 303. They didn't say, hey, I know that this thing is happening. Were we not waiting? After the press conference got canceled, we were waiting for the reason why. And if the fight's going on and Dana said, what's up everybody? Rosamajunis is headlining in Denver.

He did that on two separate videos. No mention of McGregor Chandler or 303. So they're already doing that bullshit. I have no recollection of this. I don't see how he can be mad at Izzy when he does bullshit on social video all the time. I have no recollection of this. I don't frankly give a shit. because it would have objectively been weird

as the reporting is growing more and more not just ooh this is canceled and odd but like Ariel saying on Monday hey this is dying and then coming out on Tuesday and like just signed 30335 guys so it was like there was just a weird timing to do it I'm sure they would have loved to

but they were kind of putting out another fire and so that's fine I agree BC he shouldn't be mad at Izzy but also if I'm going to tell Dana what he shouldn't, shouldn't feel. That's a full-time job that I'm not getting fucking paid for. I'm not going to tell that man how to live because he's not going to fucking listen to me. Like he shouldn't do a hundred of the things he does.

Almost everything. Like if Dana would take me into his confidence, I would just keep him the blanket rule of whatever your instinct is, do the exact opposite. That's probably a healthier, better way to go through life. But that's not who he is. It's not always going to be about. So like, why do I give a shit if he's mad at Izzy? I don't I just don't care about that part of this anymore of course he's going to be mad at is he is he is he not an idiot is he i'm sure knew that he wasn't ingratiating himself to the boss by doing that but he had his own reasons and that's fine like it's however this unfolded is fine it's weird that it took this long because we've known for three months what was going to happen and i just i couldn't give a shit less about the all of the rest of this i care about the fight because the fight's dope and 305

like, I mean, I don't know what else they're putting on it because frankly, if something happens, they're in a real tough scene right now with what we have announced. But that's a future us problem because for right now, I just, I get the fight I've been asking for for over a year. And that's all I really care about. Fair. Fair. I mean, I'll tell you what.

They just went ahead and announced that during that slaggy ass Vegas 93 card on Saturday. That would have been a nice little boost to that event. But it's not here nor there. We have moved on from Vegas 93. So other fights on that card that are officially official. As reported about a month ago, Casey O'Neill is back, fighting Theresa Bleda, Tom Nolan, Jed, one of your contender series standouts, fighting Alex Reyes. Some rumored bouts that are out there.

Kai Kar-France versus Vinnie Sig's Steve Ursaig. I'm told there's smoke to that fire, so get excited. I would be stunned if it doesn't happen on that card. Another one I was asked about Dan Hooker versus Dracar Close Wouldn't get too excited about that one Report is the frontrunner for that fight But Dracal Close can't fight because he's hurt So that's not the fight

It was never really truly in consideration Because he can't physically fight right now Also saw a report Jacob Malcun versus Gerald Mearshardt I have not heard anything definitive about that one just yet But BC not a fan of Malcun versus Gerald Mearshard. I've got better things to do involving straw weights, but that's really my personal passion, all right?

Fair. That fight ain't getting out around two. It's going to be fun. Mersharts get or get God. He's either getting God or he's getting it. It's going to be a great time. But things are coming together. 305 coming together somewhat.

And let's move on to this weekend. That's then. Let's go to now. Point for round three goes to Mr. Positivity, BC, 2 to 1. How about that? How many times you've been called that in your career, BC? Positiveity.

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With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Well, let's talk about UFC Saudi Arabia because boy, oh boy, this card just become a mess of things over the last couple of weeks. Last week, Jedbushu, we heard the rumblings. We talked about it on the program during the Q&A episode. Hamzaa Shemayev reportedly out of the fight with Robert Whitaker. Turns out there was some truth to that. The reports, as we went live last week, that Nasredina Imovov was the front murder to replace him.

As we talked about last Thursday, that was never really a thing. because Imabov wasn't really going to be available to fight. And then Benny P. reported on Twitter, it will be Icram Alaskaroff stepping in. Dana White confirmed that later on on Thursday. And this is an interesting fight, Jed. Like, it's not the mystique of Hamzaa Tchaimayev, but it's probably as close as you can get with what's available, right?

This fight rocks, man. The only criticism of this fight is that Icrum is getting a bit short, swift here. Like he's not been preparing for five rounds. And so I do kind of think that that may ultimately play a factor here. But I love this stylistic matchup. I got to dive into it kind of in advance of this week once it was announced. And like just off the rip, people are pretty high on it. He's fun fighter.

He does some like quirky cool shit. And you're like, all right, this might be like a really fun middleweight dude who's in the mix fights for about one day. And you're really watching like actually lines up really, really fun with Robert Whitaker, particularly because I'm fairly certain Whitaker is on the back nine of his physical prime here. He looked slow against Paula Costa. He just looked like he's not quite all there anymore. And so the matchup is fascinating. The issue being, I doubt Icrum gets it done early because Whitaker has largely been a humongously durable person.

And Bob is just so heavily advantaged as the fight goes on. but as far as a late notice replacement, this is miles better than Nostradine Imov would have been. And this is just a way better situation, right? Like, no one gave a shit about Icaron fighting Antonio Tricoli. I know Tricoli himself was a late notice step in. And so you pull him off a fight, no one cared about,

have him step in as the best possible option for Robert Whitaker. Credit to Bob for taking the fight. And that's awesome. And then we still get Antonio Tricoli because he jumps in to get massacred by some. Other Washington dude gets to kill him now. So it's a win, win, win. Everyone is winning except for Tricoli who is losing brain cells.

But this is dope and I'm really excited for it. But you see thoughts on the new main event? I mean, it's not hums up, but Icramal's Scaref. If you've been watching this dude fight, it's pretty damn good. Yeah, I mean, he said everybody's winning except for Tremaya. A guy might not ever walk again. And I'm sure the Chechen leaders will be all over him to dispute if he does retire again on social media. but jokes aside, I've got the legitimate concern as I think we should that Chimayev can stay in a main event now,

0 for 5 and being scheduled. And if Poetan's already taken the baton from him of becoming that two-division champion and that boogeyman out of nowhere, Alaskarov, ironically, is taking his opportunity when you consider the only loss in Iqram's career was by brutal knockout via uppercut to Chimayev. So that's interesting the way that it played out. But this still gives you one of the great tropes that we get in modern elite MMA. and we only tend to get it when it is sort of a special case scenario of last minute matchmaking where someone, you know, doesn't necessarily have the full resume or have beaten the level of competition that would reward them the type of opportunity that Alaskarov is getting against a former champion

and a fight that should he look sensational. I mean, there really is no telling how big of a leap. The division's busy enough that I don't think he leaps from here to a title opportunity. But yet at the same time, boy, could you make an argument for it, giving the class of Robert Whitaker. And I think Jed's not wrong on something that Whitaker's in this back nine point, which means that any given fight, we could see a flash of great brilliance or the reality of the accrued mileage that he's taken.

I think there was as much good as there was scare in that thorough victory over Paula Costa because he still takes big strikes, does Robert Whitaker. And he's not overly large for the division. It never has been. So it is interesting when he goes in there against the absolute young. hammers, but then at the same time, who is Alice Geroff be on his level? The answer is no one. So you get that opportunity where you don't know if he's ready for the deep end of the pool. You're going to throw him in. And if he is ready, boy, is he going to announce his name. And the fact, the fact

that we find out after the fact that bow nickel of all people got the phone call when he was like out hunting in Montana or something and didn't have his phone on and wasn't, was not able to answer the call, that would have taken that beloved trope of throwing someone to the lions too early to the ultimate next level. It's what we wanted on a Chamae, to be fair, from the beginning. He's had a lot of peaks and valleys due to illnesses, but when he first announced himself as the hero of the pandemic, I was almost ready to throw him into a title shot of Walterway

just because it's like, this guy's so great. I don't even know if he's green. Just throw him in there. We're going to find out. I wanted that too for Johnny Walker, but he couldn't get past Cory Anderson back in the day. It's rare, but it's going to happen. And if Alaskaroff is the hammer that people like Luke Thomas says he is,

Bobby Nucks better be careful here because these guys don't take backward steps from Dagestan and he's coming for big business. God, can you imagine if it was Bo Nickel? Man, both those fights have been cool as hell because I've been high on Alasker for a long time, but just look at the

weirdness going on with this card, gentlemen. Just sort of June being June for the UFC. Do you like the Bo Nickel matchup night? I would not have liked that. I'm not saying it would have been It's super interesting. Like the reaction to it would have been friggin' nuts.

I think Whitaker kills Boe Nickel at this stage. Would have been interesting now. I don't think he goes a ton from the opportunity, though. No, he wouldn't lose anything from the opportunity. It's all upside. Like, I get why he threw his name in. But like, I like this fight just way better, honestly. Yeah.

But this whole card's been wacky because we lost Saeed Narragamata v. Montel-Jackson. Then we lose Farid Boshraibh versus Montel-Jackson. We lose Dennis Tallulian versus two different dudes. Shara Bullitt versus two different dudes. One decided to get all gassed up before he signed with the UFC, which you just admit on social media. And now poor Antonio Tricoli gets this right on three days notice. And then today we find out Kelvin Gasolam just doesn't want to make 185.

And Daniel Rodriguez has to jump up to freaking middleweight just to fight this dude. B.C. Turkey Alashik put some big boxing events. events together. Obviously, losing Tyson Fury and Ussick, the first date, but then rescheduling it for a huge event, worked out in their favor. But of all the events that they have put together in Saudi, this has got to be like the weirdest roller coaster ride of them. What an introduction this has been, right? Yeah, especially when you consider the original, you know, report from Ariel Hawani that the fight night card that they originally had was not going to be on this level and they were sort of told that. Dana obviously publicly denied that. But getting that matchup, Robert Wittaker

versus Chimayev and the idea that you're putting that on in the States on the East Coast, you know, just short of dinner time was going to be perfect. That did seem like a big deal. If you can't get a pay-per-view, then at least get one of these quarterly UFC on Fox level cards where it's sort of a bad pay-per-view or, well, we've seen a few of those lately. You guys remember 301? Wow. But my whole point is, yeah, this does take a step down.

But again, given the circumstances, I like the risk they're taking with Alaskarov. I do wonder long-term, like what Saudi Arabia's relationship to you? UFC will be, considering the pre-established relationship with Abu Dhabi, one of the competitors in that space, in that area of the world, to attract big entertainment. I know that they're dialed in and they're going to sponsor the sphere card and there's going to be an influx of money there, but they're trying to literally take over boxing in former league. And MMA, it's just sort of like put a little money here, put a little money there. I want to see where that's going, especially since that latest report of just that, the full boxing league. And I did see some quotes from

Dana White saying like if anybody can do it, it's Turkey. And by the way, we might join in on that if it happened. So a lot that could happen with that relationship moving forward. Remember when we used to talk about what would the Saudi Arabian money do to PFL competing with the UFC? We don't really talk about that anymore. Chad, what do you think of all the moving and shaking and the craziness? Like I'm still very much looking forward to Saturday.

I still think this is going to be fun to watch. And I think it's for a fight night card still intriguing. and there's fights with actual stakes involved, but it's been kind of a mess getting here. It certainly has been a mess. I mean, most of it's like fine messes, right? Like, that was the creation of the fights above replacement tussle scale was essentially like, oh, okay, we lost some fights.

Some people have done weird things, funnily weird things. Shout out to Joyleton for just coming out and saying that he gassed up as incredible. But like, these aren't, it's fine to lose those. These were not the movers and shakers. of the card and the one that we did have, we've already talked about. Super, super weird, the Kelvin Gasolm thing. Like, where he just,

Dan Rodriguez immediately is like, yeah, we're doing it at 185 because he can't even make a 180 catch weight. And Kelvin's like, I'm having trouble. I don't, this is not a dude who should struggle to make 170 and his entire career. He just can't do it. And the comedic timing of it is perfect because he had, like, there's a,

It's been going on Twitter. There's just like a thumbnail of a YouTube video of him doing like a food review show called Missing Weight. And it's just like the absolute best thing for this moment in time. So it's super weird. It's very weird circumstances. But in the end, the event is still good. And the stuff that has fallen off and will not come back, most of that's all fine. Right.

Like the main event, we've got a good replacement. It doesn't matter who Shaw or Bullet fights. It's just a Sharra bullet show. So that's okay. And ultimately, we're still getting Drod versus Gasselam, even if it's weird. Shout out Danny Rodriguez for doing this. And so we're getting a good event. Like, I'm pretty pumped about this fight card on Saturday.

Yeah. The way Gasselm was a media day, I was just waiting for him to have like a mustache grow on his face so he could twirl it around as he was talking about it. Because he had this like evil sinister look on his face. like maybe the weight cut might be a little tough. Mwahaha ha ha. And D.Rod just dying at the seat trying to cut those last nine pounds. You could just see how uncomfortable he was. Gassum just looking fresh as a daisy.

And D.Rod's like, all right, I guess this is what we're doing now. But real quick, I don't want to leave out the co-leaders, gentlemen. PFL Friday, pretty decent card. Bellator making the wise decision to go head to head with U.S. Saudi Arabia literally head to head with this card Jason Jackson

versus Ramazan Karamaga Medoff is the main event in Dublin. We have the PFL debut of Paul Hughes taking on Bobby King. We get Chenade Kavanaugh, Arlene Blanco. One of my favorite prospects in all of MMA will be competing on this

card, Norbert Novenyi Jr. Very high on him fighting Dalton Rasta. B.C., pretty good card here. Unfortunately, there ain't a soul it's going to watch this thing unless you're actually at the arena because UFC's way better.

Look, I've gone full on Hader and I hate to report this because there were times in the last couple of years where PFL really piqued my interest and the new year for this year was one of those times. They talked a big game, talked about legitimately competing for the number one spot

after absorbing the Bellator roster and bringing that in. I didn't expect them to compete on a pay-per-view level but you got to compete in some form whether that's with buzz, whether that's with ticket stales, whether it's even with the critical respect of like, okay, come to this organization because whether we're talking about patchy mix or A.J. McKee or, you know, insert name, we're talking about some of the best in the world pound for pound in their particular weight class. Even if you're boasting to levels that aren't true,

at least that would be your calling card. What has PFLotor's calling card been this calendar year? Dude, confusion. If not just an outright avoidance from people. And I hate to you. to say that. I didn't love last year. I thought they've been kind of going downhill slowly since that big post-COVID comeback year that they had. I had big expectations for this year, even after Don Davis laid out the plan on Ariel's show. And there were rightfully a lot of haters going, I get the idea of all these revenue streams. But like, if PFL and Bellator together is only so good to begin with, how good is it when you're breaking it apart and watering it down and spreading it around? And that's unfortunately what this has become. The

A million dollar tournament has real no buzzworthy factor in any of the divisions in terms of like a great story that you can't miss. Kayla Harrison, let's say coming back against Pacheco, none of that going on. And then unfortunately, some of their best fighters are fighting in Europe in Bellator rematches that they probably wouldn't be fighting anyway unless the roster was so thin. It has felt like the biggest nothing burger post that initial PFL versus Bellator pay-per-view card, which had some fun wrinkles to it, the idea of fresh matchups. look they could have done an invasion pro wrestling angle that would have been more interesting than what they're doing now or they could do what they're probably inevitably going to do which is pull their resources together and say if we got one shot at this we've already tried things that haven't worked out like signing jake paul or signing francis and gano who doesn't seem like he wants to fight m mb may again to be honest with you but at least they'd be putting out paper views with their biggest names and biggest matchups to at least make the chase for their titles matter or feel like something the only thing that matters is that there's getting a million dollars. But if you're the champion of the PFL lightweight division, does that make you better than the people are fighting in Bellator for separate titles?

I don't understand it. I don't get it. I hate it. So Mike, yeah, and some vacuum, those are decent fights. But I can't even go on the Cinemax or HBO Max app. You can't even replay the Bellator cards if you don't watch them live.

Like, are you kidding? No. Are you kidding? I didn't know that. Really? That's the truth. That's the damn truth. Forget about not having a highlight.

No. You can't get like the full. fight card. And I saw that pop up BC. I saw some people make some comments about it. And I got to tell you, of all the things to bitching complain about not having access to Bellator replays,

is it's like, honestly, kudos to you, Max. You know what's good for the people and it's not to let True Dijans rewatch Bellator Dublin 6. It's just you don't need to touch grass, be outside, don't go down

that road. So I'm fine with Max doing that. Okay. Well, let's move on. Or maybe we want to go ahead. We can't move on because I have to ask an important question. You all talked about it. We don't need to belabor a lot of the points.

What the fuck is happening? Like, why? Okay, you're going to Dublin and this is the time slot for Dublin. Got it. Head to head with the UFC. Did we like, has the Irish crowd been clamoring for Jason Jackson versus Ramasan Karamagamatov.

Like, why, what is this fight doing here? What is, why is this your fight, you're counter-programming the UFC with? Just what is the purpose of Bellator other than contractual obligations? Like, why is Jason Jackson, like legitimately one of the better fighters on your roster not competing at a PFL event?

Like, what the fuck is that? That's my question for all of this is why is it so poorly handled? Because I do not understand this. Well, I'm so happy that you brought that up because perhaps we will dive into that a little bit more. But the point for round four goes to Jedmishu being Roddy Piper, just when you thought, you know, just when you thought, I don't remember the Piper quote, but it was something, he changed the questions, whatever the phrase. Just when you thought you had all the answers, Jed changes the questions. And that's what we're doing here. Final round, 60 seconds apiece for both of these gentlemen.

I think you know where we're going here. Jed, what are we doing? You want to go first? Do you want to pass to BC? What are we going to take part in here with this final round saga? I'll pass to BC. I'm not feeling it. Just pass to BC.

It's so funny. Every time you say, like, I'm not feeling it today. You come out here, just electric. I wasn't feeling it, but then there's a lot of topics of conversation that get my eyeer up. We talked about Michael Chandler and John Jones, and that's going to take me one place. Yes, it will. All right, BC.

Look, we've already kind of laid it out. PFL, Bellator, you were hopeful, right? Heading into last year, things have kind of gone downhill. They absorb Bellator. We're thinking, oh, this could be really cool. They do PFL versus Bellator. Things are happening. and then the buzz is just kind of left.

There's just nothing that's exciting right now. No one's really getting into what they're trying to do. So this is Shark Tank, man. You got Cuban and Don Davis and everybody just sitting there. They want to hear your 60 second elevator pitch about how we're going to get back on track here. PFLOTor. How do we get back on track to being the co-leader?

Because right now I think they're behind BKFC right now, which is tough. But that's where they're at right now. How do we get this ship back on course, BC? One minute on the clock, go. You think I'm going to hit you with, you know, Shark Tank realities here. This is more a kitchen nightmare situation

where what would Gordon Ramsey do if you walked into this family institute of a diner? He'd go, look, your menu's too large, PFL at Tor. You don't need to sell 79 things for lunch. There's probably four things on there that are good. It's like the same debate I look in the mirror every morning. Do you think it looks good that I got five different colors of facial hair between my head,

the sides that I haven't colored lately and this weird brown mustache. God, it look like Luke Thomas right now. The whole point is you've got to consolidate what you do. If you're actually going to have a chance to compete, I think that you've worn out the million-dollar season format. People don't really care. You do, though, have a combination of interesting crossover names

from the female ex-boxers and shields in Marshall to the potential of what one Jake Paul fight or one in Ganu fight could do as a shot in the arm. You have to package it with the actual talent you have with the patchy mixes, the AJ McKee. the Patricio Pipples, make one league, one title per division. You can even be pay-per-view heavy, but as long as you're guaranteeing fireworks and the idea that titles might matter, it's better than what we're getting now,

which is rematch after rematch going in circles of a round robin that doesn't fucking matter. Take the names that you have, promote the shit out of them, and maybe just maybe you let Francis and Ghana get away with too much power in that negotiation because I'm not sure he's ever walking through that door. Dump the miles per hour, dump the smart cage, give me some gimmicks, flirt with the rules. Heck, hire me. Hey, let's go. Let's air out some public things.

Remember the time you guys were going to talk to me about on-air opportunities and he just ghosted me? You dropped the ball. I got a popular podcast. I could be giving you positive previews all the time. You dropped the ball. Not me, Smart Cage. Should have saw that one coming, double D. Hey, I'm still for hire because times are tough right now.

That's just a reality, though. Just be fair. Just be fair. The longest 60 seconds in BTL history. It was amazing. I had respect for BC. It's been like, I would chill for you. I would chill for you if you paid me.

Jed, same question. You heard BC's takes. How do we get this train back on the tracks? If it was really there in the first place, if it wasn't there in the first place, how do we get it on just rolling 100 miles an hour? Go. We've talked about this a lot, and I've been saying this for several years.

There was a major issue with Bellator, and it's why BC's plan doesn't work. If you just become Bellator by making one belt and unified, you know what you are? You're Bellator. How did Bellator work out as a promotion? They got sold for Monopoly money. You can't be UFC light, because one, the UFC already has their own light brand. It's called The Apex, and we go there two to three times a month. if you have to run a different race.

And so like I think the million dollar tournament league format has something to it. But I do think that it's over. You can't do it every year. My suggestion is twofold. One, you alternate that with bring back the IFL, baby. Because while the PFL premise is people understand sports seasons and leagues, it doesn't work for individual sports. No one gives your shit about that in America.

But you make teams and you do it. And it's fun and silly. And you can alternate that with your, you know, individual seasons thing. So everybody gets some break. It's fun. Two, the only other way to handle this is you have to be exciting. The reason BKFC works is because they have short rounds and they incentivize aggression and violence. You got to just get a full new rule set.

So you don't have, I don't know, the Linton Vassel versus a dude whose name is escaping me at this point in time. Like, you just got to be cooler. You got to overhaul. There you go. Valentin Moldovsky. Moldovsky, that's it. What an epic main event that was. Yeah, it was tough.

You know, the next thing that's happened? Can I just say something that feels ironic here? The best thing that's happened to PFL since making all those big boasts was those fat heavyweights last week when Tim Johnson got kicked in the cone and it was a double knockdown. It was like, it's just like Fador versus Mitrione. Only I think that guy kicked the other guy in the Jehollons. It was great. That's their best highlight of the year so far.

me a better, more iconic pfl moment than that one. Oh, it's 100% their best highlight. 100%. I mean, Cedricotadiova is fun. This winter is funny. It's a funny.

It is funny. But, yeah, people just reacted to the moment more than, but the cut, the nutshot knockdown combo was spectacular. All spectacular stuff.

It's tough when that's the moment of the year for you. You got some work to do. They just have to get out of their own heads that they are like the co-leader. We're there, everybody. It's just a matter of time. We just keep doing what we're doing. We're going to surpass the UFC.

We're this balloon that just keeps rising. No, you're not. You're so far away. You're so far away. They should, and this is entirely serious, should sign Eddie Hall immediately. Yes, I love that idea. It might have to go full gimmick right now.

We may have to get Dada versus Kimbo, too. You know, however, any means possible. Edel versus France. Sanghanu is instantaneously like a top. Sign pooch, too. Do what could do. I just assume. With KSW.

I assume Buds is just locked for life with KSW. But yeah, co-promote. That's fine. It would be dope. Do it. Do it. Don't visit Turkey and make it happen. McGregor Perry won, you know, to be crazy.

It's been a fictional card. A card that will never happen. I love that. All right, get your votes in. Get a couple more minutes, so we've got to get the hell out of here. But preview show tomorrow, noon Eastern for Saudi Arabia. We might even dabble with some Bellator for a couple of moments. And then we'll have the people's pre-fight show ahead of Saudi Arabia, 1130 AM Eastern on Saturday.

Very excited about that. Post-fight show sometime in the early evening, which is also spectacular. It's going to be a fun weekend, everybody. Hey, Jed, quick game. Show me something weirder than this Sergei Kovale. nesting doll I've got all right. Why do you have a true skin doll of Sturke and a cold? I'll tell me this.

What do I win? What do I win? Where did you get that? There you go. You don't have, you can't beat that. You can't beat that. I don't think anyone on earth can beat that. Nope.

I don't think so either. You could do one of those with like, well, I was going to say that you do Kelvin Gasolum and then the one inside of it is now as a hawk cross and then the one it's like we got to keep going down the line but that'd be a pretty good game. Why don't we let's let's merch that. That's funny. That's funny. I thought you're going to say like you open a Kelvin Gasolm one but instead of it getting

smaller it gets a little bit bigger. That would also be funny. No, no, you know. Tren who's the light heavyweight Kelvin Gastilum? soon it'll be Calvin Gasol. Yeah, so who's the middleweight Kelvin Gaston? Oh, man. Yeah, Circle gets the square.

Casey, who wins? We got a winner? Are we still waiting? We got a winner. We got a winner. Okay. All right. Your winner today with 55% of the votes.

B.C. He's back, baby. B.C.'s back. He gets it done. This is the best rivalry in all of M.A. right here. They flip up wins and losses every single time. It's incredible. B.C., congratulations.

What do you like to say to the people before you probably abruptly take off from us? No, I'll hang around today. I'll hang around today. It's not like it's going to get awkward or anything. It's just like, how weird can we make it? Who's the Gugger Man now? Jed put up a great. great fight. He's probably a nice man. You know, he's got an unruly hair, to be fair, right?

And a law degree that's about as valuable as me on the poster of 1917, right? Yeah, that's great. Yeah, but thanks for having me. And thanks for voting for me, people. Truth wins once again. That's what I'm all about, just like Dana. Thank you. Yeah. Jed, how we feel? Truth wins. Okay. Another preview shows. So for those interested, this is a sixth fights above replacement tussle card is a very good card we don't get them that often enjoy it Saudi Arabia is going to be fun I mean yes if you're a certain subset of people there probably not all that fun for many people there but uh you know if you're a fight fan be a good little Saturday there you go uh some tough news as we were doing the program

uh donald sutherland passed away uh yeah tough r ap the legend Shut out That's underrated danger Ain't that Kiefer's data? Yeah Kiefer announced it himself on the Twitter I think

Donald Sullivan's probably known for other things besides being the father of Kiefer Sutherland Yeah Italian job I mean just little things that he just sort of flies

into the radar But just absolutely He was he in real genius too Or did I just make that up Could be MASH He was a MASH right He was definitely a MASH

you guys should if you haven't seen Kelly's heroes watch it it bangs it's like one of my favorite That's your homework That's your homework before UFC Saudi Arabia Dude RIPP to Donald Sutherland Don Rickles

Donald Sutherland Don Rickles This is Don Rickles Rocks No I was sick It was another dead guy Yeah

Some other good guy was in real genius Like you know Val Kilmer was great in that though Right do I feel old yeah It's great It's great talking to you guys So, I'm not doing.

So we're clear. Thank you all very much. Much appreciated. We'll be back next week to get you ready for UFC 303. Recap Saudi Arabia. Sure we'll have other crazy things to talk about as well. BC's chair just continues to move. For BC, his chair, Jed Mishu, KCio, once and twos,

and the iconic voice of Estuaryland will take you home. I am Mike Eck. We'll see you next week. Good night, everybody. Love you all. This has been between the links and I'm going to be fighting production on the Vox Media Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap.

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