MMA Fighting - BTL | Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury, Erin Blanchfield Shines, UFC Vegas 70 vs. Bellator 291

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

This Sunday, Jake Paul returns to the boxing ring and is scheduled to finally fight Tommy Fury. The question is, does this fight have nearly the buzz as any of Paul's recent bouts, or do people care about it? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel will discuss Sunday's boxing match in Saudi Arabia and why the buzz feels very low for this one compared to his fights with Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley, or Ben Askren. Additionally, topics include Erin Blanchfield's massive win over Jessica Andrade at UFC Vegas69 and whether she should fight for the title next, or get another fight under her belt, this weekend's UFC Vegas 70 and Bellator 291 cards, the main events between Ryan Spann and Nikita Krylov, as well as the Bellator welterweight title fight between Yaroslav Amosov and Logan Storley, Tatiana Suarez's long-awaited return, other news and notes, including a potential burying of the hatchet between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier ahead of UFC 285, and more. Host Mike Heck will be joined by MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew to discuss the biggest stories in MMA and beyond.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Conditions apply. Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From MMA Fighting Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, my... The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to her. brand new edition of Between the Links. Thank you for joining us this week. And last week as well, the feedback has been absolutely tremendous with the episode,

the competition between Jed Mishu and Luke Thomas coming on. And it was amazing to have Luke, but I figured there's just no way I could follow that up. I couldn't put anybody in that position to follow Luke Thomas. So it just wouldn't be fair. So we're going to have a little banter fest, a Talking Heads episode of the show. and joining me to give his takes as only he can is Mr. No Gray area himself, the woody page of MMAfighting.com, the great Jed Michoud. Hi, Jed.

I love you're just like, yeah, can't follow it up. So Jed, Jed can take that L. Jed can be the guy to follow Luke Thomas. Happy to be here, buddy. Love talking about fights with you. And we actually have like a lot to talk about this week. We do. Which is nice.

technically I'm taking the L because I have to kind of talk about stuff too and not just hosts, but yes, we do have a lot to talk about. We'll talk about certain topics. We'll cover some news and notes. And if time permits, maybe we'll take a few questions from the peeps at the very end. But let's start with last weekend. UFC Vegas 69. And look, we're not going to spend a lot of time here, Jed, because this is not a great card. The main car is a really tough watch outside of two fights.

We had some UFC roster casualties as a result of this main card. But the big thing to come out of it was Aaron Blanchfield's big win. She submits Jessica and Drogh in the second round, and the performance was great. She took a lot of risk early. She ate a lot of big shots. She landed some herself. She was very durable. She was a damn dog out there.

She made Jessica work. And then boom, take down in round two. Shortly thereafter, she gets the tap. And it's Thursday now, Jed. And this was obviously a massive win. for her and people have been talking about her, no doubt about it, but hosting heck of a morning multiple times a week, you kind of get a sense of what the community is thinking and what they're talking about and what they're interested in with the questions that they asked. And honestly,

I thought I'd get a lot more questions about Aaron Blanchfield. So I'm just curious just from what you have seen. Has this win, I guess, aged as well as you thought it might? Because I don't know if it is. Like, it's a great win, and I think people were clamoring for it after the fact, but it just, I felt like it would get a lot more attention this far into the week. You know, I hadn't really thought about it, but that's kind of a good point, right? Because it should be getting all of the accolades. Like, who has done that to Jessica and Drudge? Valentina Shepchenko. That's really it. Like, that's the only person who is really like, just totally steamrolled and Drudge like that.

it does feel a little bit though like we've already moved past like okay well here in Blancheville's super good uh cool on to the next thing and I I don't know why exactly that is I'm sure some of it just has to do with women's flyweight isn't a huge draw Blanchefield herself as talented as she is um how did I put this could use um a little help in the personality department as far as engaging fans via the magic of television. And so it's just sort of onto new business, I guess, but I kind of thought that this would be a much more dominant, prominent, prominent talking point, right?

Because I know we have a lot of stuff going on this week, but it's not like any of it's super good. So knowing what we have with Blanchefield on our hands now and kind of where this goes, it's interesting. I also think maybe the biggest part of it, frankly, that we just sort of have to accept is that Blanchefield isn't fighting for the belt next. It may be her next fight,

but that's, we have, we still have this Valentina Shivchenko versus Alexa Grasso perfunctory match that we're going to have to get through, and then it can be full steam ahead towards the matchup that I think at this point everybody wants. Yeah, she, I mean, She's doing the media rounds.

She was on the MA hour yesterday, which is obviously a big deal. And she's been calling for the title shot. She also said essentially that if the UFC wants to give her one more fight, she would be down for that. And in the immediate aftermath, that I'm still on the side of giving her a title shot right now. Like if Valentina beats Alexa Grasso, throw her right in there and see how she does.

And it's honestly, I'm stunned by this too. It's been kind of torn down the middle among a lot of the people that I've spoke with. fans in particular, some just want to see her right into the title fight and some want to see her get one more just for the extra experience. She's very young, get some extra reps in before she fights somebody like Valentina Shepchenko. And after the card was over, we were both on the post-fight show saying, give her the damn title shot. You've been on hashtag team title shots since Saturday. Have you softened on that at all? No, why would I? What reps does she need? Who are these lunatics? Like, what are we talking about people?

She just beat at worst the number three flyweight in the world. Like, at best, you can put Jessica Androge behind Tyler Santos and, of course, Shvchenko. And I think a lot of people, myself certainly had Androge as the number two flyweight in the world. And she just dummied her. And I know that it's short notice, et cetera, but it's what there's, there's nowhere to go. this is the same kind of semi-idiotic argument that people would be like, well, if you get that body triangle, you got to keep advancing position. There's nowhere to advance.

She has maxed out the levels of advancement. The fact that Monafior is higher ranked in the UFC rankings is unimaginably stupid to me. Like, I can't figure out how she's number four because Menonfiro beat Kayla Chiquetian. Cool. You know who else be Caleb? She can't get Jessica and Drodge. And she did it way more impressively. So I'm not really sure what Manaugh is doing in front of Blanchfield at this point.

Also, come on, Blanchfield would rinse Manaw. This wouldn't be close. There's nothing to do. If we were already locked into this Grasso-Shipchenko fight and that wasn't happening until May and Blanchfield wants to spin her wheels because she's young and she just wants to stay active, that's one thing. The fight's happening next weekend. We're almost there.

We are less than 10 days from this happening. And so unless something terrible happens to Shevchenko after she beats Lexa Grasso or in the process of beating her, we're just doing this in the summer, guys. Like that, this seems very dumb. I have not seen this anywhere. Shocking to me right now. You're telling me, Mike. I know.

It's weird. I've been feeling a lot of those calls this week. but should Valentina Shevchenko defeat Alexa Grasso and she is heavily favored to do so what would you guess would be the betting line for a Schifchenko Blanchfield fight? I think the Grasso fight Chichchenko

is a minus 600 favorite somewhere around there, but do you think a Blanchfield fight might open closer than that? Like how would you gauge... It's definitely an open closer than that. Yeah. Where would you put it if you were the odds maker?

Oh, so if I'm the odds maker, I'm looking at her fights right now. And here's the thing, like, the Tyler Santos won. She opens a minus 625. No one was giving Santos a chance in that one. So I think we've got to be tighter line than that fight. Jessica and Drogh, though, she was still a minus 450. I think we still have to be tighter than that.

What was Yowana? She was a minus 320 over Yowana to win the belt. And I think that's probably close to what we're looking at for Blanchfield, minus 300 something in there. And that's probably the right line because that's going to be a big enough action back on Blanchefield plus 240 plus 260, something like that to draw interest

in placing an underdog bet. But still, if you get into the minus 200s for Shevchenko, that feels like a lot of people would bet on her minus 200 something, depending on how this Grasso fight goes, right? Like, Shevchenko's coming off the Santos fight, not her best performance,

certainly. I am of the opinion that that was probably sort of a one-off because we've seen this over long-ranging champions historically. Sometimes you don't have your fastball. If you can win with your change up in your off-speed game, then that's the sign of like a truly great fighter. And she pulled that off.

I think we're probably more likely to get a fastball versus Alexa Grosso. And if that's the case, then maybe that line opens at 350 and that's sort of where it hovers. But if she squeaks by Grasso, she doesn't look great. If Grasso like gets to the back at some point, then this starts, one, the fight itself gets more interesting, and the betting

line as a result is going to get a little narrower. And it cap off this past weekend, because I feel like they should be mentioned here. And I'm not sure if you actually went back and watched it or not. We gave you some homework to go back and watch certain fights. But you're obviously tapped into the social media world, the comings and goings of the combat world. You pay attention, MAAfighting.com. BKFC, BKFC won the weekend by a lot.

Did they not? Like when they had big cards and name value, they deliver. And this card was very fun and interesting. And a lot of storylines came out of it. We saw a lot of people get over like Josh Watson. Nobody really knew who this guy was. Knocks out Greg Hardy. And now everyone's talking about this guy and they love him.

And obviously the main event was insane. But BKFC won the weekend by a lot. Did you get to watch any of it? And if you didn't, have you know, just how much more people were talking about the BKFC card than the UFC card. I've watched a couple of the highlights. I have yet to watch the main event, which I've been told was quite watchable. So that's still on the to-do list, but I saw the Austin Trout, Diego Sanchez thing, saw Greg Hardy get flatlined.

Oh, that just brings a smile to the heart, doesn't it? That was lovely. John Dotson, you know, still being John Dotson. just with bare knuckles is great. So yeah, a BKFC always wins, right? Like I don't know what the broader fan perception is of BKFC. I just can't really speak to that.

But they certainly draw the most interest from our side of things, right? Like every time BKFC has a card of any substance whatsoever, one, you will note that BKFC does a really good job of never counterfeit, programming the UFC functionally or like anything good from the UFC they don't run knuckle mania on the same week as like 285 right they did they know what they're doing in this regard uh and so when you're running this bkfc card against the worst UFC card in recent memory which i think it's fair to call uh Vegas 69 is like on paper looked like it was that and in in delivery delivery delivery

that you're going to have some success in general but also just like people love this stuff man it's not entirely my cup of tea i don't hate it i'm not like morally opposed to it in any of that's just not super up my alley all the way but i don't mind watching it occasionally and some of the stuff i mean their pacing is great from everything that seems because they they only take like two hours to do it uh and they always deliver pretty good action in my experience. So they continue. We were talking about this on the,

we were talking about this in the meeting the other day. We've got the NFL draft coming up. We're going to do a draft pot again. As we did last year, last year our fifth team was Eagle FC. They ain't, they ain't the fifth team in the world anymore. So we kind of have an open spot.

And frankly, BKFC might actually be and the most appropriate organization in that tiering of you've got the big four and then you're looking for something else. BKFC feels like it's right there, man. Of course, I had Eagle FC in this draft. So, I mean, I feel like I might be just getting a different team. You ran that franchise into the ground, Mike. With John Jones and France and Gano on the roster? Just ran that franchise into the ground.

I was so confident in my squad, too. But I mean, if I can carry these guys over to B-G-F-C, I think I get a pretty damn good squad. But obviously, Vegas 69, that is a thing. And it's now behind us. But I think a lot of people are looking at. That card was so bad. Well, look, I mean,

God for Aaron Blanchfield. Can you imagine if that fight was a snoozer? If the main event was a snoozer, this would legitimately be one of the all-time worst event. events that has ever been put off UFC. Every main card fight was bad but for the main event

and the Hernandez Miller fight was pretty fun but then that next stretch of three was terrible. It was really really bad. Horrifically bad. Well, I mean, if it did one thing, it made us more excited for UFC 285 next Saturday

but we do have one more stop at the apex this Saturday with UFC Vegas 70, Bellator also back on Saturday. A bit earlier in the day is the return to Dublin, Ireland with Bellator 291. UFC Vegas 70, headlined by Nikita Kralov versus Ryan Span. We have the return of Tatiana Suarez against Montana de la Rosa. Andre Mnese is back against Brennan Allen for the middleweightiest middleweight championship.

Belator, headlined by a welterweight title fight between Yaroslav Amosov. What a story that man has been since winning the title and everything he's been going through in Ukraine, taking on Logan's story, the interim champ, and a rematch. And now normally, Jed, and it seems like you want to say something, so I'll let you say it after I... I should have to ask you a question. Yeah, go ahead. We got to talk about this middle-weightiest middle-weight thing,

because I love the concept. I want to say that I may have been the first person to say a middle-weight-st middle-weight fight on one of our programs. This can't be for that belt, right? Andreemonez is good. Like, Hunterman's just actually good. So does he still get to compete for the middleweightiest middleweight title just because Brendan Allen is the sitting champion?

You get to determine these things. I don't know. But I heard you say that on onto the next one. And I was like, we got to have this out. What are the rules? It's basically the 16th ranked middleweight is the middleweightist middleweight champion. Christoph Jocko might be the greatest middleweightiest middleweight champion of all time. He's the middleweightiest middleweightian champion of all time.

He's the middleweightiest middleweight. He yelled that title forever, just kept knocking dudes off. And Brennan Allen beat him. So now by proxy, Brandon Allen is the middleweightiest middleweight champ. And Andreemones, because it appears that there aren't a lot of guys ranked ahead of him that are ready to sign that dotted line. Ain't nobody trying to fight this dude. He's never been higher for this man. I mean, I guess it's true.

If he does lose, though, he'll still be a top 15 guy, but Brendan Allen will no longer be the 16th middleweight. A lot of stake in this fight. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice?

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Lift with confidence. While Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. explore the new Peloton cross-draining tread plus at one peloton.ca. I know. Can you tell how great this card is that this is we're talking about? Well, I mean, and that's what's interesting about this question because normally, Jed, when Belator puts on a card on the same weekend or even the same day as a UFC fight night card, more often than not, Belator has had the better lineup, more reasons to tune in over the UFC cards. It happened a lot last year.

Happened earlier this month when Bellator 290 went up against whatever UFC card this was. So, I mean, the last question we asked, we usually ask. If you could only watch one of these cards this weekend, are you watching the Bellator card? Are you watching the UFC card? Oh, this one's easy. It's Bellator 291. Well, okay, I'm going to take that back. Do I have to watch the whole card?

Because if I can just watch one, then I'll watch Bellator. but if you're going to make me watch 18 Bellator fights, then I will say that's too many, and I will choose instead to watch the UFC card because my time has some value to it, even if it may not be much. But yeah, Belator is putting forth the better offering this weekend. And this UFC card is better than the previous weeks.

There are actually some fights that I have some interest in. The main event is, you know, Krilov Ryan Span is relevant. I don't know if it peaks your interest or not, but it is relevant. This is a fight that really shouldn't be main eventing something. It should be the co-main event to a fight night card or like a fun fight on the main card of a pay-per-view feels like the sweet spot for. But it's fine. We've got two top 15, 12 light heavyweights going at it.

And a bunch of other storylines that matter. Andre Munez is dope. Middle-weightiest middle-weight fight going there. Tatiana Suarez comes back at three. five years, that's important. Like, there's some things going on in that card, but top to bottom, there's also just a lot of filler. Bellator, by virtue of having 18 fights, has a ton of filler as well.

But the main event is, it might not be pretty. I can't say that the fight will be great, though their previous encounter was really, really fun to watch. But Yaroslav Amasov, with that story coming back after Oval, a year off because he was fighting to defend his homeland, is now returning unified belts or unifying belts against Logan Storley. They already fall once, very good fight. That fight, maybe we have a Logan Storley snooze fest could totally happen. But if it's anything like their first one, only instead we get five rounds of it, that fight's going to be awesome.

And it's easily the most relevant fight that's going on this whole weekend. And that enough makes it makes it top for me. Well, the good news about an 18-fight Bellator card is 13 of them on the prelims

and when you talk about pacing, there's no time to freeze. Oh, that's a cool. You know, you know we're getting some post-lims with this.

That's, but that's good. I mean, then you're viewing pleasure because you don't have to watch the post-lims. Once the main card ends, I don't have to watch the post-lims

than Bellator for sure. Because, but like, you know, there are other, Even the prelims here have some stuff that I'm not trying to sell you a bill of goods This isn't something that you should care about

But there are things that have some interests Like Magamacherepov Yep Little brother or homie Why can't I think of that man's first name Zabit, there we go Zabit's little brother Undefeated dude

Like that's relevant He's getting a squash match A bunch of squash matches A ton of Irish fighters This is basically the SBG card. They just took every SPG fighter and they're giving them somebody. Many of them are people that they are supposed to beat. But Charlie Ward is usually pretty fun to watch, get after it in some regards.

Charlie Ward Mike's ship in should be fun. Co-made events pretty good. Jeremy Kennedy, still like what I've seen from Jeremy Kennedy largely. Pedro Cavalio, always a tough out, good scrap. Peter Quiley's coming back. There's some other things to hang your hat on here as well. But largely, this is being

carried by one heck of a main event. Yeah, the main event is great. It's the best fight of the weekend. No doubt about that. And the crowd is going to be on fire. Like, this crowd is going to be electric. And then the UFC's in the apex. That's going to make a huge difference, honestly,

for the viewership and the viewing experience. Can we talk? Can somebody just talk to Joe Martinez? I need, you guys can just add us together if he's got social media because I love the man. I think that he is better than Bruce Buffer. I love what he does. I think he's good.

But I am absolutely begging him. Begging him. You cannot do your traditional intro in the apex. You cannot say, make some noise if you are all right to a crowd of seven people because it just doesn't work, dude. They can't make noise. This is not a packed out arena that it works. And it kills me every week Joe Martinez is doing it because the rest of it is sensational.

But then he does that before the main event. I'm just like, oh, God, way to make a stark and brutal reminder that nobody is here for this thing. I've come to terms with that. I just feel like he's talking to me. So I just make noise in your house? Yes. Woo! Get your dog really excited.

If it's too late and the dog's not next to me, then it's a golf clap. It's a golf clap. But if it's like, yeah, if it's an afternoon card, then I'm all excited. But I'm glad you mentioned Jeremy Kennedy because I am excited to see him back. He's coming off that Aaron Pico win. And I don't think he gets enough credit for that win, honestly. But like you said, there's a lot of up-and-comers on the card. The UFC main event is fine.

It's kind of a weird one. Will it be a fun fight? Yes. I'm not completely sure what they're actually fighting for, but there are two rank guys. But while Amazon, I'll tell you what they're fighting for, buddy. They're fighting for the light heavy weightiest,

like heavyweight. Because let me tell you, Nikita Krilov is about as light heavy weighty of a light heavyweight as you can get. And Ryan Span is surging up the leaderboard of that as well. So I am happy to say this is for the inaugural, light heavy weightiest light heavy weighty

of the year. Who knew in the last eight minutes who would make this UFC Vegas 70 card even more compelling than it is on paper? And while Amosov's story is the best fight at the weekend, there is no more interesting story than the return of

Todd Zaginosa Juarez Jed. She's fighting Montana De La Rosa at 125. I think this is picture perfect matchmaking because De La Rosa has zero Fs to give when she's in that octagon, she will go to freaking battle with Tatiana Suarez, and whatever happens, happens. Do you like the matchmaking?

And, like, is the layoff the biggest question you have about Tatiana Suarez? Because you talk a lot about age and athletic primes. And from everyone that I've spoken to that has watched Tatia Zora train and get ready for this fight, Swaraz is on one right now. But this will be her first fight since 2019. She's 32 years of age now, which isn't old by any stretch. But is that your biggest question? What are your expectations?

It's the biggest question because it's the only question, but I don't have a lot of a question about this. Tatiana Swar is going to come here and thump up Montana, Delaware, so something proper. Like, she's going to give her to business because she's really, really good at fighting. I mean, this was a woman who a lot of us were very, very confident in her being a future champion.

and potentially a multi-division champion, you know, four years ago when she was able to compete, even if she has done zero improvement over the last four years, if she is simply the exact same fighter that she was then, she is still going to win this fight comfortably and still is a threat to certainly take the strawweight belt, assuming that that weight is something that she can manage. I know she has been adamant that that's where she's going after this fight.

But it's just a legitimate, like a problem of flyway because, look, there have been very few people higher on Aaron Blanchfield than me. Like, I've been on the train from just about day one. I don't want to bet against Aaron Blanchfield's ability to grapple with anybody. But if there's somebody who's going to show her what's what on the floor, it's Tatiana Suarez. Like, that woman is no joke. So I don't have a question in how this fight really is going. to look. If I have any questions at all, it will just be

how good does Suarez look? Because I expect her to look excellent. And I'm frankly anticipating remember Dominic Cruz was out for like five years and then just for the first time in his life

actually unleashed an offense that was meaningfully meant to hurt somebody and immediately just drilled dude give me the Korean fighter's name Um I didn't know

I mean is uh Tika Yes Not Korean Tika Mizagaki Um Yes he came back after four years and just drilled Take Mizzigaki

Um I think that we could totally see that from Tatiana Suarez here She's come in and just roll right on over Monta Manana Della Rosa and keep on Just get right back to where she was before she left off And I hope so because the sport will be much more interesting with her being back to where she was.

Like you said, she wants to go back to 115. She's been very adamant about that. We've talked about this a lot on heck of a morning today and earlier this week as well. If she goes back to 115, if all goes well, and I think a lot of us expect it to go very well for her stylistically, how would you match her up next? Would you just chuck her right into a number one contender fight? Even if it's at 125? or would you give her like one more against like a tough top 10 fighter with the name and just let her build back up?

Because again, getting to 125, getting the win, that's huge. You've come back. You've overcome. But now you're dropping down to 115. Do you want to test it out? Make sure she makes the weight fine, that she performs fine at that weight now that she's a little bit older and then give her a number one contender fight? Or do you just say, forget it? Let's just go.

She fights rematch Carla Sparza. somebody like that, and then just give her a title fight if she wins. Where are you out with this? This is easy. I'm perfectly happy if she wants to stay at Strawaway to stay at Strawaway. For the time being, we can do the 125 thing later. And she needs to get right back in the title hunt. She was there right before she left, and then she left and, you know, dims the brakes.

She can also solve maybe not a problem, but a bit of a curious situation. right because we've got Wang Wiley Zhang as a champion still not entirely sure what lays ahead of her I don't it feels weird to give Amanda Limosh a title fight giving

the giving the Jessica and Drage just throttled that woman like a year ago less than he like six months ago so you just do that Amanda Limos versus Tatiana Soros title eliminator Bob's your uncle if either woman wins they are totally deserving of

getting a crack at the strawweight belt. And it clears up that sort of awkward spot of Andrage having a W over Limos, but Limosch being higher ranked in the division because Androge has been bouncing around back and forth, et cetera, et cetera. So right back into the title picture, I'm not giving her Carlos Barza because that's just very mean to Carlos Barza and she deserves better things to happen to her, you know, than that one. But yeah, just get after it.

with her. There's no time to waste. We already burnt her, the four years of her athletic prime are gone. So hop, hop two. Does that mean Rose gets title shot? I'm just assuming that that's what's going to happen. I don't, it wouldn't shock me if it didn't, uh, because of how bad Rose's previous fight was, but they really like giving Rose Namibunas title shots and she does have two wins over the current champion. So I'm assuming that that's, that's sort of next up for, for Wiley. But honestly, I wouldn't have a super huge issue if Suarez blows the d'Orsov

if they were just like, sure, title shot, let's do it. I'd be fine with it. Like, that'd be fun at least. Jed, we have a one championship card tomorrow as well. John Lineker, Fabricio Dandrade, a rematch from the no contest. You have so much going on this week.

Yeah, the not shot heard around the world. So what's your interest level in this fight in this card as a whole? One on Prime Video 7. So I will not be watching live because my family is actually coming to town tomorrow for this weekend. But I will probably, we're doing dinner tomorrow and I'll be doing that. After dinner, I will probably turn this on if I get home in time. And certainly I'll watch the playback of the main event.

The rest of the card, I'm not like, I don't know, Martin Wynne's fighting. Martin Wynn's usually pretty fun to watch. There are some other things happening on here that aren't bad. But I am very interested in the main event because, one, John Lineker's fighting. John Lineker has never been boring, like ever. Man, it's going to come forward. He's going to eat a bunch of shots and he's going to rip rib roasters at you, baby. And last time that wasn't going super hot for him against Fabrice and Dan Judge.

And we'll see how it goes again. I am actually pretty interested in this fight. We'll be excited to watch it whenever I get the chance to. and it just kicks off a good fight weekend, man. We got KSW. We got one, Bellator UFC, all sorts of shenanigans going on, Mike.

You know what else is happening this weekend, Jed? Floyd Mayweather's boxing Aaron Chalmers. Like, that's a thing. But there's another... That's super weird, right? Super weird. Yeah, it's making sure. The amount of traffic that the stupid fight's going to get.

But that, anyways, that's one thing. We have another boxing fight happening on Sunday, or let me frame it like this. We are as close to this fight as we have ever gotten after many, many, many attempts, Jake Paul versus Tommy Fury. Jed, I have to say, until somebody brought it up on heck of a morning last weekend, I believe it was New York, Rick, I totally freaking forgot this was even happening. And in fact, nobody brought it up besides that since maybe a week after the fight was official. And since it was brought up last week, No one has said a word about it.

There just does not seem to be any buzz for this fight, especially in the MMA community. I have vague interest at best, but that might even be a stretch. Where are you at in terms of interest, intrigue with this fight? Do you care at all that Jake Paul is boxing Tommy Fury on Sunday? I do. I'll get to that in a second.

Because here is the problem with boxing Tommy Fury. It's this right here. here. I am not opposed to this matchup for a lot of reasons. I think, though, that probably wasn't talked about enough. And what is a very real problem with this fight is how we got here in the first place. Because, like, be honest, Mike, how much of this is that you forgot this was happening because you were less interested?

how much a part of that is simply this is supposed to have happened twice before and I just don't have the confidence that Tommy Fury is going to show up because I feel like that's a bigger part of it because like I felt the same thing when Dylan Danis was supposed to box KSI I didn't care about that almost at all

but I also just immediately wrote it out of my mind entirely like Dylan Danes ain't going to show up for that thing so whatever who cares and then lo and behold we were all correct in that one. And it feels like Tommy Fury is in fact going to fight Jake Paul at this point. But I was not interested at all in the previous week. It was like, I don't know.

Something's going to happen. Tom Fury is not going to do this because he keeps fumbling the bag. Now, to hear Jake Paul tell it that they're doing oppressor in like a couple hours, I think, it seems like it's going to happen. And I am actually more interested in it than I probably should be. because this is bad fighting, but I, Jake Paul is a part of my existence now. I didn't plan on this.

It was not something I would have chosen, to be honest, but he is part of the lexicon, part of us. And so, sort of by definition, I have grown more interested in where this career art goes. At some point, we all expected to fail. I don't know when that will be. And I could see it being Tommy Fury. I know some people on staff are adamant that Tommy Fury is terrible because he's not good and that he is going to lose.

I suspect that that is true. But we were all wrong about the Anderson Silva fight. There were very few people in our sphere who were like, yeah, Jake Paul is going to beat Anderson Silva. Some people thought, but everybody couched it. And for a long time, we all said that was the fight to make because Anderson can actually box. So here's something. We were all pretty wrong in that and how that fight looked, how that fight went, et cetera, et cetera. And this time, it feels like we could be wrong either way, frankly, because everything tells me that Jake Paul should win this fight.

But at the same time, it is very real that he has never fought someone who also boxes as a thing that they primarily do and isn't close to an AARP. card and that matters like a lot because Anderson Silva like if you go back and watch that fight and I have Jake Paul beats Anderson Silva I'm not here to dispute this he doesn't look good for large portions of it because he's not actually very good at boxing he's not bad he's better than I am at boxing you know but he's not a boxer like that is not where he's at with his technical ability and Tommy Fury isn't either but Tommy Fury Jake Paul used a game plan to beat Anderson Silva functionally, which is smart.

That's a full credit to him. But his game plan was simply to do stuff. I know Anderson Silva will not throw that much at me. And when he does, I am largely going to shell up and try and disengage because I don't have the tools to counter effectively, really. But for most parts, he just won't do anything, and I can outwork him by popping a jab to the body,

staying at range doing this. I don't think that plan's going to work against Tommy Fury. because Tommy Fury doesn't do a ton either, but he is coached by really good people, aka the heavyweight champion of the world and one of the best fighters of this generation. They are going to know what to do, and more importantly,

they're going to, I think, make Jake Paul be put into more uncomfortable situations if Tommy can do it at all to say, let's see what Jake Paul looks like when he is forced to fight off the back foot because I got to tell you,

I doubt it's very good. I just do not see, like that's being a good, like that's very hard to do. And to see a guy that is it old and can't and matches him to some extent physically, like these are real questions if you are strictly interested in the development of Jake Paul. And despite all my better judgment, I've kind of have gotten that way. And it looks like we're going to get this fight. And so I'm kind of interested to see what the hell's going to happen, frankly. Yeah, I mean, you did a great job trying to sell it.

I'm still vaguely interested at this point, just to see what happens. I just want to know the result. Maybe I'll go back and watch it later. But if you're at all interested in Jake Paul's boxing career, this to me is an incredibly, like, relevant and important fight for him. Anderson Silva was it. Like that fight mattered and he needed to take it and did it.

This fight, and it didn't have to be Tommy Fury specifically, any youngish dude who also boxes and is like the same size. it mattered and to that extent this matters. Him fighting Nate Diaz, I will have zero interest in. I'll be very frank. That will mean nothing to me because he will beat Nate Diaz because he's enormous and Nate is already on the cooked side of well done. So like that fight will draw much more interest.

People will be way more into it. I won't care almost at all about that one. This fight is at least going to answer real questions that exist about where Jake Paul is his boxer. I respect that stance. Do you ever watch Seinfeld? You watch Seinfeld, right? Sure did.

You know the episode where Elaine is trying to go to sleep and there's a little dog that just keeps yelping and she can't go to sleep? And then Newman and Kramer help her like not kidnap the dog, but take the dog. Kidnap the dog. They kidnapped the dog, dropped them off at a farm and then the dog found its way back home. There is this little dog right outside by house. Like if the wind blows, this thing just starts yelping and it drives me insane. My dog has barked like five times during this episode. This dog is just not stopping barking.

I can't hear that dog at all. It's the same thing. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. You're just yelping away. Just letting you know. Jake said recently, I think it was on the M.A.R. He has to knock out Tommy Fury. That a win is not enough.

And the way you are portraying this doesn't seem like you have to, that you necessarily agree with that, that he has to knock Tommy Fury out. Is it a win enough here? Is a win enough to, to, to answer those questions or does he have to like emphatically beat Tommy Fury in your opinion? I mean,

he probably needs to knock him out. Not for me, but like for his fan base. The thing, you talk all that greasiness, you got back it up to some extent or another, you know, like he's out here saying that Tommy Fury is an easier test than Tyrone Woodley

and Anderson Silva. He needs to at least put that man on his ass. Maybe he can't knock him out, but he needs to show out for me, again, I'm looking at this kind of purely as developmental thing. If he just goes out there and actually shows real boxing, then

I'll be like, oh, cool, this guy's improving. Because he is improving. Like, he's absolutely improving. But you don't have to take this for me. Just go look up any of the Getty images of his fight with Anderson Silva. The number of still frames that you can see of Jake Paul throwing his jab and his right arm

is extended back like he's doing a Superman pose. It's just like that's really bad. Like it's really, really bad. And he gets away with it because he's young and athletic and he's fighting super world dudes. And that's how it goes. And I don't know the Tommy Fury is the dude to punish him for it. But if he can clean up his mechanics, then I can be, because at some point he's going to fight like a real, real boxer.

Like that is sort of the end point here. And all of this is building up to this. I don't, he's going to fight Nate Diaz. He's going to beat Nate Diaz. He's going to care. He apparently he's going to fight KSI. He's going to kill KSI. And I don't really care about that.

he'll probably end up fighting Connor and he will beat Connor. Like these are, I know these steps, but at some point, he keeps saying he's going to be a world champion. He's super not. Let's be very clear. He's not going to be that. But at some point, he is going to bite off more than he can chew. And I need to know how much money to bet against him when that comes.

I need to know, and the only way to know that is to figure out if he ever learns to jab while keeping a defensive guard. If he can ever throw in real combinations or pivot off off of attacks and call like, I need to see him do the things that you would expect to see him. And again, he's still super early in his career. It's not surprising you can't do a lot of this. But if I see that and he just undresses Tommy Fury for eight rounds, like, then I'll be like, cool.

Like, I'm impressed. Okay. The WBC is going to rank him. It's not entirely ridiculous, even if it is largely ridiculous. You know, so that's that's kind of what I'm looking for here. I just actually want to see what he looks like as a boxer because he has in fact gotten a lot better at this. He clearly is putting in the time and the work. And I am at this point somewhat invested in this journey.

So let's see where we're going. Yeah, you make an interesting point. We've come so far. We almost have to see how it plays out. Just don't fight salt. And we know it's going to keep going. Jake Paul. Don't fight Salt Poppy.

Don't do it. I honestly, that fight, I would be absolutely fascinated by, like fascinated by. Salt Poppy has myths, y'all. Like, I don't know if you've, I don't know if y'all been watching influencer boxing. I have been covering that beat for us for a stretch now. And the first time I saw Salt Poppy go, I was, I was blowing up our slag. I was being like, guys, I know this event is just dog shit. But Salt Poppy can, can chuck them, like, for real, for real, got them things on him.

And New York Rick has come around. He watched the last one where Salt Poppy got the business going. That dude has mitts. I think he's considerably smaller than Jake Paul. But Salt Poppy can make some things happen in there. So I would watch the hell out of that stupid-ass fight. And that's how they get you. That's how you get hooked, Mike.

Here I am. If you had asked me three years ago, do you think that you would be spending real amounts of time talking about YouTube or boxing and actually being interested, I would have been like, no, I have taste in class. But I don't.

I'm a mongrel like the rest of you, and here I am. Give me Jake Paul versus Salt Poppy. You've come so far, Jed. I remember when we're talking about Jake Paul. I hate it. And now here you are. Triller got me.

They hooked me. Triller hooked me with a kick-ass live event, and now here we are. I've done worse Well we'll see what happens on Sunday Apparently the press coverage is wrapped up I thought it was happening later tonight But

They were in Saudi So the Times probably makes a little more sense Than to be doing it right now Yeah Did anything fun happen? Do we have notes? Oh, they are standing on stage Holding a belt together

Look at that Neither of them look particularly happy to be there man Tommy Fury that is a man who he takes a while to get ready in the morning you know yeah like that man doesn't just roll out of bed and go go down to yours and his PJs man is going to take some time in the mirror

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Let's go to some news and notes and then we'll take some peep questions. speaking of Jake Paul, speaking of his interview on the MAA hour, yesterday he said that he and Francis and Ghanu have been in talks about the former UFC champion joining the PFL and the talks have been pretty positive. Do you feel like this is a real thing or is this promoter talk?

Because even if you're not having multiple great chats with Francis and Gano, you at least need to say you are to put the pressure on everybody else. What do you think? Do you think there's smoke to this fire or is this Jake Paul just being a good promoter and just saying that everything's going swimmingly and just saying what everybody else is saying. Probably a little column A, little column B. I would be really shocked if they hadn't reached out

and had at least some level of contact with Francis and Ghanu. And the PFL can offer them a lot. A million dollars a year to just bomb on dudes, which would be sick. Share of revenue on pay-per-views, which still unclear, Francis is actually a pay-per-view draw. but he can get there, certainly. And, you know, a more equitable relationship with fighters,

which is something Francis is obviously very interested in. Like, all of those things are real. And working, PFL probably has the most to offer, Francis, at this point in time, which is why I was so adamant that Bellator needed to come out of the gates storming with a blank check. Because over time, I am not sure. Bellator can offer very similar things, but they don't offer Jake Paul and the connections that can come with being on a Jake Paul pay-per-view, for instance. Because I got to say, if I'm getting pay-per-view revenue, I would rather be on a pay-per-view where I'm splitting revenue with Jake Paul than headlining a pay-per-view against Ryan Bader, because I know which of those is going to do a lot better monetarily.

So I'm sure they've talked to them. I'm also what I suspect that a lot of that is just, yeah, we've had good talks. They've talked. I doubt that we're anywhere because we haven't really heard any smoke as far as Francis signing anywhere or leaning anywhere. I know Eric Nixik gave an interview the other day, I think to MMA Junkie. I'm not 100% sure on that, but I think it was to MMA Junkie where he said that Francis was primarily interested. in doing the boxing thing first. Like that that wants to be his next step

and that Anthony Joshua was a name. A couple other boxing names thrown out there. And, you know, any of those seem plausible for him at this point in time. You know, Tyson Fury, maybe not right now, but he's just got to pick his spot because he's only going to get the one boxing match.

Maybe, maybe two. But he's probably only going to get the one. So he's got to find the right, home for it. And I suspect he will want to do that without any encumbrance from an MMA organization. Yeah. So all the talk out of that release in the interview was like, which MMA promotion is he going to end up with? And we all had our reasons and directions we felt this could go, right? And it seems like

the only direction Francis wants to go right now is boxing. Big boxing match. I don't even think he's, I'm sure he's thinking about where he's going to fight next at MMA, but he is focused. on getting a big money boxing fight and nothing else. And I'm sure all these promotions have reached out to me has had conversations with all. So it's February now, Jed. We're approaching March.

If you were to take a guess, will Francis and Ganoo's next MMA fight take place for the PFL for Bellator? And I'm going to throw the UFC in there too because if he boxes, Anthony Joshua or anybody else, and John Jones goes out there and beats Cyril gone, and we'll talk more about that next week, the fascination, the hunger for a John Jones-Francantna fight

is even bigger than it was beforehand. Where do you think? Like, where are you at right now? I'm not confident in anything, but I think all these options are on the table right now. I feel pretty confident that the UFC isn't, frankly. I think the UFC would have him back. Everything I have read and listened to

just gives me the impression that Francis Ngano cannot work with the UFC fundamentally, which makes sense and it's okay. They have competing ideals. This was not, I think to some extent it has been cast. It is maybe even accurate as Francis wanted a box. The UFC said no. And that was the tension and the breaking point. And so maybe he goes and he boxes and he can come back and it can all be settled.

I don't think that that's really it because Francis, when he'd said, I wanted to box, I wanted healthcare, and I wanted a sea at the table and all these sorts of things, I believe that he probably means that. If you know anything about his story, you can understand why things like that, a better, more equitable relationship with the promoter would matter to him substantially.

And he had the leverage, and he's also not an idiot. He knows that the O.C. isn't going to accept those. But he is saying them anyway because he wants them to know, here's what it is. And maybe they do accept maybe they don't. But he knows realistically what's going to happen. It felt like he always knew he wasn't coming back to the UFC because the things that he would want to need were not going to be there. And that's not going to change in the next six months, probably not changing the next six years. So I just don't think he's coming back to the UFC.

I suspect that PFL is the leader in the clubhouse right now for him because they do. do have a pay-per-view structure, or at least they are working on that. I mean, they've done one, and that is clearly a motion forward with Jake Paul as part of it, because they don't have as good a heavyweight division as Bellator, but they don't have, it's not like Bellator, heavyweight division is very good either. No one has a good heavyweight division except for the UFC insofar as there is such a thing as a good heavyweight division. So he still gets to be on ESPN Plus.

He gets to do pay-per-view revenues. He gets a promotion that will let him be a partner in the promotion, make him feel valued in the same ways they've done with Kayla Harrison. I suspect pretty strongly that PFL is the ultimate landing spot for him, unless Bellator and Showtime just write him a blank check and somehow help negotiate Andy Ruiz or Anthony Joshua or any of those sorts of fights, boxing matches that he's looking for. Yeah, I don't think the UFC is a favor by any stretch, but I do think, I'm not going to say, they're probably three on the list, but Francis also said, like, I wouldn't put them at zero.

Yeah. Like, I wouldn't put them at zero, but they are single digits and the percentage likelihood for me. Like, it's very low that he goes back there. No, I think it's maybe a couple of years. I think it's those three and nobody else. As long as he gets to scratch the itch and then have those conversations, because he even said if the UFC just kind of met him, how he's, I think he's, halfway on certain things. He'd be open to discussion, but we'll see what happens.

He has no landing spot yet. He's going to go box. He's going to make a floppy trillion dollars. And gosh darn it, the man deserves it. So it's official now, Jedmishu. Let's be real. We'd all tune in. We know what would happen.

There's no doubt what would happen if that man boxed Deonté Wilder. Zero question in my mind how it would go. And I would shell out my idiot lizard brain $75 to watch the shit out of it. And so would all of you. So with all of us. All of the fights. Fury, Wilder, Joshua, all of them. We're all going to watch it.

We're not watch a lot of them, but we'll watch first one. I'd watch two. I'll definitely watch one. I think I'd be willing to watch two. And then we'd be done. Then I'd be like, I don't need to see him get knocked out by every good heavyweight. Just two will do. Let's move ahead.

Benile Daryush versus Charles Olivera is a go for UFC 288. The ink is dried. We were wondering if maybe they'll just pull. pull Darius from this fight because it was talked about as rumored. It was never really done done. But recently it is now done done. They have signed the contracts. Olivera

confirmed it. It's been confirmed on both sides. We didn't know if they were going to pull Darius to fight Islam next. Not the case. What do you think about this matchup, Jed? Now that it's we have some sort of graphics and both fighters are confirming that it's a go. I don't know,

man. What do you think, Mike? Let's start with you. What are your thoughts on this matchup. I think Darius is insane for taking this fight. I respect the gusto, 100%, but I think he's nuts for taking this fight. Once Mokachev beat Volkovsky and the ink wasn't dry,

I would just say, nope, I ain't fighting him. And just hope for the best. I just don't know why he's taking it. I just don't, like, I understand it. I think the next thing we're going to talk about is part of it. Take it. Yeah, and it's so crazy because,

And I'll get... That's the answer. I'll just add to this too because this is a frigging conversation in a half this morning on heck of a morning. Dustin Porre has called for this fight with Mokachev, right? And how certain are you of that? Because I feel like he's right in the mix.

Like if I gave you a 1 to 10 chance, is it a 5 or higher or is it lower than that? Because I think it's... I think we're at a 6 at this point. Because he's the bigger name, man. It's business. He's coming off a win. We've seen way worse title fights.

If freaking Jorge Mazadol beats Gilbert Burns and Leon Edwards beats Kamar Usman, they're going to book that fight in five seconds. They're going to book it. It's going to happen. So I don't think Dustin's out of this conversation at all. Not saying he deserves it more than Benny Daryush, but when did that mean anything in the UFC over the last seven years? Deserves not got nothing to do with it.

As the great William Money once said. I don't know. I think it's less than 50% that Porier gets a title shot. From a timeline standpoint here is where I'm coming from, right? Like, it wouldn't totally shock me. But here's the reality. Machchev isn't going to fight until August. That's maybe July.

Like, maybe they get him on International Fight Week. But I don't know that that's even something they're interested in because my guess is his next fight is in Abu Dhabi. They're not doing International Fight Week in Abu Dhabi. I'm doing it in Las Vegas because that's what they always do. but Ramadan's coming up it's March to like the end of April so he's not fighting before March

and he's not fighting Ramadan ends at the end of April sometimes so he needs at least eight to 12 weeks for a fight camp so we're looking at May June he can fight maybe July more likely August so that just means

it's Benil Daryush if Daryush beats Charles Olivera he's number one with the bullet you simply can't deny the man. And I think that, frankly, that's why he's taking it. I think he recognizes the UFC is never going to willingly give him this fight. He will either have to wait until there are no other viable contenders, which at lightweight, is zero. That will never, ever be the case at lightweight.

Or he just has to get one more win. Gamrot is a great win, but it's not the same. Olivera is that win. He gets it. You just can't deny the man. And so then he gets the next up. And that timeline works out okay if he's okay with the quick turnaround. He beats Charles Olivera in May.

He can turn around for an August fight with Isamakachev. And I think that that's why this is happening. I think that that is by far the most likely outcome to happen here. If Der Ereuse gets injured, if Derrhus loses to Olivera, which could totally happen. I'm going to be picking Benny, but if he loses, then I think it's, I think Poria is next in line with, you know, the slight sliver that if Connemar, Gregor knocks out Michael Chandler, whenever the hell that fight happens, is that fight happening in like August or something?

We don't know. I got it. Whenever that timeline sort of fits for them, which I think is in the late summer, maybe if Makachev, it still isn't ready to come back, but I think Poria is just number two. I don't think the O.C. is going to pull the trigger on anything at lightweight at the moment. I think we're probably just in a holding pattern for a second.

while Ramadan goes on and then we'll get some clarity here. And my heavy belief is that we will get Benil Daryush versus Zamagachev in August, probably in Abu Dhabi. And then that'll be that. I hope Benny gets the title fight.

I hope he gets it. I want to see it. I want to see that fight. But I also understand that the UFC conducts their business. And the UFC's making money. Endeavor's making money because of the UFC, but they

make it $4.2 billion over the last six years. There's a big debt they got to pay off, and they want to pay it off quick, especially if they're interested in buying WWE, which some reports say they are, and that's another huge chunk of debt that's going to be on top of that too. So, I don't know.

It's going to be real interesting. And if all of Avera wins, Dustin's getting a title shot, so. Well, that's the thing. If all of Avera wins, and it's going to be Dustin in August, like that's, it will be dust in August. I just, it's going to be Makachev in August because there's no reason to do him in July and he is not going to fight before

them because of Ramadan. Like there's just not how that's going to work for him. It's going to be in August. It's going to be it. If Benny loses, then it's or can't fight, it will be Dustin. And then that'll be it. Or maybe Volcanowski decides to get off his high horse actually goes and defends his featherweight belt in the next couple of months. Because he says he wants to fight very quickly, he gets to call the shots. Yajir doesn't get to say, we're waiting for Mexico City. He has to fight him wherever he wants. Maybe he says, screw it, let's run this in May.

You know, 283 only has one title fight on it. Maybe Volcanovsky says, all right, you guys want me to do it. I will beat Yair in May. Let's go do this. Pray to God, Arnold Allen loses to Max Holloway so he doesn't have another featherweight that he needs to defend against. And then he can say, okay, pick me instead of Dustin Poirier. and maybe maybe like a 5% chance vote can slide in there.

But I think we're looking at 60, 40 that this is Benny. And then if Benny loses or is hurt, then we just get Dustin in August. Yeah. Timing is going to factor into a lot of this. Yeah. Timing is the biggest part of this. Yeah. If Islam wants to fight in July, it's probably not going to be der Euras.

It's not. Yeah. It's not going to be. This is Olivera in like two minutes. I mean, that would be cool. But yeah, I just, I also just really doubt that Islam won't fight in July or that the U.S.C. will, because again, July paper you is just fight is international fight week. And I just doesn't seem like they care about putting him on that.

That's going to be John Jones's first heavyweight title defense is going to be international fight week. John Jones versus Curtis Blades. Yeah. If he beat Sergey Pavilich. He's fighting Sergey Pavilich. I think this is the only fight you could make, right? Yeah, Curtis is going to run right on over Circuit Pathfitch.

So Curtis Blades is finally going to get his title shot, guys. Yeah. Let's go. Or it's going to be Curtis Blades, Cyril gone, and the UFC is going to hate the world. Oh, man. Last thing, we'll go to the piece. I have other things to talk about. We can save it until next week.

But what's your favorite bet of the weekend? Ooh. Oh, that's a good. Let me look at my bets right now. I have, I mean, if we're looking for just confidence level, I just put the house on Tatiana Soros. I feel great about her winning. Don't actually ever put your house on anything.

People, that's a really bad idea. You should never gamble with money. You're not willing and able to lose. I think my happiest bet, my favorite one, I'm going to be betting Jake Paul, for sure. I think I really like this Logan Storeley by decision bet. it's plus 240 and I think

I favor Amoslav to win that fight but he has so many questions. I have far more questions about him than I do about Tatiana Suarez both because the level of competition he will be facing is much higher. He's what he had to deal with like

that's we haven't really seen that a lot like how often how often in combat sports in general is the reason you've been out for two years is your country got invaded and you were defending it from foreign invaders. That can't be more than a handful of times historically. What that does to your mind, your preparation, all of that.

You could tell me that we're about to get the best performance of Amosov's career, and I would totally buy it. You could tell me it's going to be the worst performance of career. Totally buy it. I just have no idea what to expect from him. And their last fight was so good. Amosov faded a little down. the stretch. Storley is going to be there for 25 minutes forever because that's what he does.

But he's not a big finisher. So plus 240 for Storley by decision, I think is my favorite pet of the week. That's nice. Yeah, that's going to be a great fight. I'm very much looking forward to. And one more thing I want to say, one more thing I want to say about this B'Neil derrier's thing. Please say something compelling on the microphone. Never going to happen. Just anything. Don't call it Elon Musk. Don't say I'll fight nine more. guys, just say, there's nothing else I need to do, Islam, you and me next. That's it. That's never going to happen. You're not dumping them. Oh, boy. And that's, that could hurt him.

Thank Jesus. And then, you know, he's going to talk about some charity work. And those are good things. Not in the world of fight promotion, but, you know, just not who he is, not who he's going to be, never going to try and be interesting. He's fundamentally opposed to being interesting. And we'll see if he gets to Leon Edwards his way into a title or not. But he is interesting. Like if you watch him do interviews, he is interesting and compelling and he's kind of funny. Like, he is interesting. But when the lights are on him in those moments.

He's interesting in the way Arnold Allen is interesting. And I love Arnold Allen more than most people. Arnold Allen is hilarious. Like, he is hilarious. I'll watch that dude interview forever because he is just, he's just a good to hang. Like, he would just, Arnold Allen is the dude that you would never be like, I need to call him to hang out with him every day, but you are always happy to see him at the party.

You go to the party and he's like, oh, hell yeah, like, I'll go spend 10 minutes. He's bringing, he's bringing stuff to the table and he's taking nothing off. Vanil Dario, she's pretty similar, you know. He's a good hang. He's got jokes, but he just isn't. There's a big difference between being compelling interpersonally and being compelling in front of a screen to millions of people.

And they ain't built like that. And it's just they're never going to be. And we have to accept that as part of their failings. That is a great comparison with Arnold at the party. Would you call him Arne? Arnold? Is he just Arnold? He's got to.

Actually, he's probably Arnold Allen. He has one of those names that I think you just kind of say it in full the whole time. Because it's alliterative. and so it's fun. I was listening to, shout out to Luke Thomas, room service diaries, he and Brian Campbell

had on an Allen home when they went to England the other week. And apparently growing up, everyone called him Mowgli. All of the people in his village still were, Mowgli is the name.

And Almighty is his fight nickname because somebody paid him for it. It was branding something. Like somebody had an Almighty brand something and paid him money. And so he was just like, Okay, which brilliant, absolutely phenomenal way to market yourself. But like I feel like he'd just be mogul.

Like you just hang out with him. So you go to your friend's house for the, you know, for a house party. And he's just there. And he's never like, eh, I'm going to call Arnie. I'm going to call Arnold Allen and see what's going on, play around to golf with him. But every time you see him, he's like, hell yeah, I love this dude. It's great guy. Moogs.

Moogs. Moogs. Moogs. Moogs. What's on? What's that? You're still fighting people? How's that going?

Sick. That's the best. All right. Let's take a few questions from the peeps. Just a few. And then we'll get on out of here. Bring in, oh, there we go. Josephosa.

After watching William Knight fight last week, does it make sense that he was like a... So let's clear this up real quick. Come on, you know the answer to that. Right. But it's also important to note that he wasn't released. That was the last fight on his deal. The UFC decided. not to re-up him.

So it's not like he had three fights left in his deal and the UFC was like, go kick rocks. No, he fought out his deal and they just ultimately decided, which is not a big surprise, they weren't resigning him. So, yeah, I think we know the answer to this question. Yeah, pretty obvious. I mean, there was no way. They, let's be clear, they did not release him. They would have.

Had that happened to final fight his contract, I have zero doubt that he would not have been released after that. I have a question. I have a question for you guys. if William Knight would have just ended up, just say, lost that fight and got knocked out in 90 seconds. He gets re-signed, right? He was a co-main of men. Well, no, he wasn't coming up, but he looks, he's a guy who looks good coming off the bus. The USC loves that.

Great coming off the bus. He looks like the bus. He looks like another bus coming off a bus. He really does. That's a great way to put. that case he is the bus yeah I mean it wouldn't shock me if they

re-signed him uh I but remember he had to go through contender series twice he got a stoppage win the first time and they didn't sign him they signed him after the second one his Cody Brundage win and it's not like every fight of his in the UFC has been a banger he's had

some Alonzo Minifield fight was not the most fun thing to watch in the world like he's the Da and Chung fight too was bad. He just got taking out over and over again. Like he's had some uninspiring performance. He's had some good ones, but on a

three-fight losing skid, if he had just lost like a normal fight, he wouldn't have had a much better chance certainly. I still kind of think they might have been like, hey man, go pick up a couple of wins and then come back. But oddly enough, that's how he fights. Like he

fights like that. It's so crazy. Like I was there, like the last fight on his developmental deal before the Brunage fight. I was there live to watch. He fought Rocky Edwards, who was mostly a welterweight for a lot of his career. And William was losing that fight. He probably lost the first two rounds. And then he knocked him out in the third knowing that like, oh boy, I got like, I'm going to lose. And he went on and did it. It's just, man, he's such a interesting man and such a strange fighter. Very mercurial. But like, Casey, to your point, I mean, they also, the same thing happened to Jordan Wright.

Jordan Wright's contract is up. He's no longer with the promotion. I think it would have been pretty, like, Jordan Wright is in a pretty similar situation. He fought and lost. It wasn't a good fight, but he did just fight and lose on a three-fight losing skit at the time. They just let him walk. I think it would have been the same, even though William Knight looks like a cartoon character. Yeah, fair enough.

All right, next question. And apparently bench is 500 pounds, which is insane. Yeah, he's a monster. Elajuan, if Volk vacates, who gets the title shot against Yair? The winner of Holloway versus Allen? Seems as pretty clear. A thousand percent. There is no one else that would get that.

Yeah. I don't even know who you could consider could get that over the winner of that fight. Will Volk ever actually voluntarily vacate? No. I mean, if the UFC told him explicitly, if you vacate, we will give you a lightweight title fight, maybe. But actually, I think if they came to him with that, yes, he probably would. He just seems to have zero interest in fighting in defending his featherweight belt at this point. And to some extent, I get that.

Like, he tasted the high and he wants to pursue it and solidify his legacy because he believes that winning the lightweight belt would do that. and he's not necessarily wrong in that regard. I say this. I feel like I say it all the time. And this is me directly appealing to you, Alexander Volkinovsky. You're absolutely right. If you go up and you beat Islamakachev, you're a two-division champion,

no one can ever take that away from you. That becomes a thing. There are more two-division champions. There are more champ champs in UFC history than there are champions who have defended about seven times. it is a more common thing to do that. It is not the flashiest thing.

You don't get the picture of you with two belts, but you can have the Demetrius Johnson picture with 12 belts. And it will age better, I promise you. Right now, a lot of people will be like, two belts, greatest fighter of all time, cool. But in 10 years, the same way we are going to look back at DJ's run and be like, holy shit man 11 defenses that is if you if you make three or four title defenses you are one of the best fighters who have ever lived one of the greatest of all time in your in your weight class and dj had 11

you can do that at featherweight because right now if you win the lightweight belt you might be the greatest fighter ever you still might be the best fighter anyway but you will solidify a different part of your legacy. You will never be better a better featherweight than Jose Aldo was. You will never be a greater featherweight if you just leave this division because you only have four title defenses or three of them. No, it's four. It is four. You're four, which is great. Josiah's nine. You just, you can do that. That is within reach and it is a different kind of celebrity and acclaim. But I think it is, I frankly think that it is a more enriching and a better one.

And it's something that MMA fans and fighters have largely lost sight of because the idea of two and three belts is so appealing, whereas owning a division for a decade doesn't have the same cachet for whatever reason. I love that answer. And if I don't get to see Volcanowski versus Jaya Rodriguez, I'm going to be pissed. I would be sucked so hard. That fight rules. It's a great fight.

same and frankly i think arnold's going to beat max holloway if he doesn't in separate conversation assume if he does go and beat max holloway everyone will want to see honor d'allon versus volk like all of us will want to do it these are fights i want to see those fights anyway frankly these are the fight do those things and then pursue the lightweight belt but it is you can solidify a very different and i think a more substantive and better legacy by simply doing the thing. In the weight class, you have spent the bulk and the majority of your career, where your name, when you go into the UFC Hall of Fame as you undoubtedly will,

it will not be as lightweight champion and then featherweight champion, even if you do win the lightweight belt. It will be the former UFC featherweight champion and the former UFC lightweight champion. Featherweight is your division. You can really do something that has almost never been done before if you just stay locked in on it. Love it. Great answer. I think that makes a lot.

I think of GSP. GSP is known for the defenses of Walter Wake. Not because he got, he had two belts. That's cool and all, but it's about the defenses of the 170 belt. That is the cherry on the GSP Sunday. The Sunday is the fact that he defended the welterweight belt nine times.

Yeah, 10 times. And I get it because at the time people gave him shit about, well, go up to me. little weight and fight Anderson. No one talks or gives a shit about that anymore because instead you can just look back and be like, holy piss, dude. Like, Kamar Usman has defended the welterweight belt like, what, four times, five times. And we were just like, this is incredible.

This is almost unparalleled, undeniable Hall of Fame or phenomenal fighter. And that's half. That's half of what GSP did. I'm telling you, nobody gives it the credit. there are like close to 10 two weight champions in UFC history at this point. There are like four people that have ever defended a belt more than five times. It is such a small list. You can be on that list.

And I just wish people gave that the credence that I think it deserves. Yep. I wonder how much of that is simply optics in the sense that the UFC will give you two belts. But if you defend the belt, you don't see GSP up there with holding seven belts on his arms. So like you do in boxing. I think some of it is certainly that. I also just think some of it is like, it's real lizard brain dirp stuff from the general fan base of, well, like, okay, we're, I mean, we've seen all the time.

Champions get discredited for being dominant. It's like, well, that division sucks. Like, actually, no. It's filled with all the best people in the world in this weight range, trying their hardest. And one dude is just way better than the rest of them. And, but it's, it's a more digestible thing for people like, oh, small man beat big man. He best. Like, it's, it's very caveman.

Oh, small man beat big man. He best. Like, it's okay. It's just easier. It's, it is a simpler thing to understand. All right. Do you have anything else? Yeah, one more.

One more for you. Mike, UFC. New England rumored for April per Hawani. You going? Who's Paco porta fighting? I've not heard this. That'd be pretty cool. I know they want to get to Boston at some point this year.

What event would that be? I mean, you can't do Sergei Pavlovich versus Curtis Blades there. That would be so fun. Just a whatever. I mean, there's no main event for the 29th yet. I say they're doing Holloway Allen in Kansas City for whatever reason. You can absolutely do Curtis Blades versus Sergey. but hallway is like lost in for whatever

Holloway is a star like beyond MMA so like it doesn't matter how he can fight anywhere and it makes sense but Curtis Blades versus Sergey Pavlovich makes like no sense I'm trying to like I'm looking at this they still don't have anything for the 29th

what main event would you put for UFC New England April 29th and I don't even know what venue they go to when they go to Boston. I will say this. As of now, both of those dates are open, the 22nd and the 29th. But we do have playoffs to worry about as well.

Because the Bruins and Celtics are both going to be in the playoffs and playing an awful lot of home games. Where do they do shows when they go to Boston? They go to the Gauden. They do go to the Gauden? They do go to the Gaudin. I don't think they're going to go to Worcester or anything like that. I don't know if they can go to the Gaudin.

in April that might not work out for them from a time standpoint honestly yeah it's it's I mean who knows I don't know what what would actually headline it but there'd be you should for sure a lot of boss fighters I would definitely go and be full Boston Mike the whole time just with the socks hat just go I covered the last I don't want you to go I want Boston Mike to go dude are you kidding me and if it's in April it means it could play golf with fighters and I could do Boston Mike on the golf course with fighters which would be super fun. Oh, should I try and do that for the Holloway Allen fight? You think, you think I get Max Holloway to go golf with me? Do you think Max is good at golf?

That'd be pretty incredible. I bet I bet Max is good at anything he puts his mind to, Jed. It's probably true. I just don't know if he's ever played. I'm looking at the rest of this card. Who looks like a golfer that I could get to play nine holes with me somewhere in Kansas City? Max Hollow would play like PGA Tour 2023 with you. Oh, I'd for sure do that. Do you think Osamat Mirzikanov, he a big golfer, we're thinking? I mean, I heard he's a scratch. Could be.

That would be the thing that would annoy the piss out of me. I go play golf and Max Hollow. He's like, I've never really done this before. And then he's just like a single-digit handicap first time. I'm like, you son, bitch. Yeah, he starts our birdie-burdy against you. I'd be so pissed. Oh, this is easy.

Why do people think this is such a hard day? Athleticism, it's a cheat code, even in golf. What you gotta do? You hit it straight every time. It's not very hard. You just put it out there. It's easy. Oh, man.

Yeah, that would be fun. I don't know what would headline, but I mean, boss of cards have had weird main events. We've had Sunnin versus Shogun. McGregor actually made sense headlining that card against Dennis Siever. D.C. Steppe versus Ganu.

Headline there. Who would be an obvious Boston head find right now? Fonts fighting Yanez three weeks before that. Wait, when is cater coming back? When is Katie coming back? Probably not to the end of the earliest. Yeah, he doesn't think he'll fight this year, probably early next year. He's taking his time.

He's in no rush. Oh, well, that's, I mean, that would be the best choice. You'd do like cater to Porre or something. But if he's not fighting in April, then okay. Pacoorta, let's go. Is Parker Porter still under contract with the UFC? First of all, how dare you even ask that question? And second of all, of course he's lost a lot of fights in general.

I know not in a row. I think he's like, he's the heavyweighted as to me. Well done. Well done. I mean, all right, I think you hit the music. That's it for me, everybody. Yeah, that's a great place to end it. You got to exit on that note.

All right. Next week, we'll be back to competition. I'm not going to say it's going to be more professional, but it'll be more competitive. So we'll say that. So thank you for joining as everybody. It will be on the road to UFC 45. Yes.

25. We give the UFC a lot of shit deservedly. That's one of the best cars I've seen them put together in a long time. Yes. We'll see you for a preview show tomorrow for UFC Vegas 70. And then you might even do it Jake Paul Tommy Fury. We're back to our. We'll see you there, everybody.

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