MMA Fighting - BTL | Jamahal Hill Vacates, Chimaev vs. Costa, Makhachev vs. Oliveira 2, More | Fan Q&A Edition

Episode Date: July 20, 2023

With so much going on in the UFC, and the MMA space in general, including Jamahal Hill getting injured and vacating the UFC light heavyweight title, MMA Fighting is turning the programming over to the live viewers this week. On an all-new episode of Between the Links, the panel will answer fan questions from start to finish, and debate topics such as Hill vacating and what it could mean for the division moving forward, Dana White announcing Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira 2 and Khamzat Chimaev vs. Paulo Costa for UFC 294 in October, Michael Page entering free agency, Michael Page entering free agency, UFC London this Saturday, Mayra Bueno Silva's big win over Holly Holm at UFC Vegas 77, UFC 291, Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz, Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou, and other news items in the combat sports world. This week, the panel features MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew. 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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I apparently am broadcasting live from Inside a Potato. Not really sure why that's happening, but we battle through as we always do. Obviously, there is just so much going on in the news cycle right now that didn't really know how to organize the show. So we figured, you know what, let's turn the programming over to you, our wonderful viewers, our wonderful listeners. for a special Q&A edition of BTL. And joining me in this venture, Mr. Hot Take himself, the man who co-hosts, No Bet's Bard.

I believe a tremendous episode of Damn They Were Good is about to drop later on today. Let us say hello to Mr. Jed Michou. Hello, Jed. How are you on this lovely Thursday? Hey, buddy. Some have said that this episode of Dam is the best episode of Dam.

And we believe so. So you should go check it out. It's great. I think it drops late this afternoon. So yeah, Robert Glenn Lawler, ladies and gentlemen, the reason for whom we made this show in general. So yeah, excited to talk about, apparently I went to bed last night and a thousand things happened.

So happy to get into it. Yeah, that's what typically happens. So let's go into this thing. Let's go to you guys because we have main events that have fallen apart, one fighter needing a new opponent. We had a new main event announced. We had the return of one of the rising stars announced against a fighter who was supposed to compete next week.

All sorts of craziness going on. So our wonderful producer, E. Casey Leiden, is going to pop up the questions and we will respond. There is as such. And hopefully my video quality will improve. I don't know why. My internet's flying right now. But Casey, excuse me, what do we got here? What do the peeps want to talk about?

All right. First of all, Mike, I just want to tell people, you are actually pixelated in real life. You're like Bigfoot. You're just kind of, you're just blurry mammoth in the background. What if Bigfoot is blurry? Thanks, Mitch Hedberg.

So there's like, there's like a little, I got you, Casey. I saw you. There's like a little screen that's below that I could see myself on and it's like clear as a bell.

So I don't really understand what's going on. Well, I'm clear. You're the only one that's not clear. So I think I'm just saying. It's one thing. Numbers. Numbers don't lie.

Yeah, damn it. It's not one thing. It's another. Only possible explanation. Yes. All right. So what's going on in the wonderful world? Joseph Boza.

Was Machachev versus Oliver two a safe call to get tickets on sale? I thought the UFC would have picked either Darius, Chandler, or Frizev. I know they're four through six in rankings, but Dubronk City was ready. So I don't think Darius would have been an option at all. I don't think Fizierierrez. would have been an option at all. I think Chandler would have been option three. I think Volk was probably the first option.

But with the elbow surgery he had this week, too risky, obviously for that card and the money that they pay the UFC to come over. And Jed, you and I have been saying for a little while now, at least I know I've talked about this on heck of the morning, all of there are saying I'm not going to be ready for until November or whatever, the dude may have just gotten a bag that's a little, bit heavier. It might have been a nice little negotiation tactic. And as Walter White once said on Breaking Bad, is there anything in this world that isn't negotiable? And apparently Charles Olivera

fighting in October is one of those things that was negotiable. So do you, would you consider this a safe call at all? Are you surprised this happened after Olivera did a bunch of media and said, eh, too soon for me? I'm not surprised. I thought that there's probably 50, 50 chance that this happened just because Charles Oliver is not in a position to negotiate. Like he's he's not the champ. He doesn't get to call the shots. He didn't even get to call the shots when he was the champ. They sort of made him fight Islam and Abu Dhabi at that point in time.

And so like he, it felt in general like, that's probably him trying to make a play to maybe just not go to Abu Dhabi and do this back. But it's just he he doesn't have Dreykis duplice leverage, which we'll get into later. I'm sure. He is not like a bona fide with a bullet number one contender. He is the number one contender. He is a former champion,

and he just had a sensational performance in what is ostensibly was a title eliminator, but this fight happened a year ago. So it's not like, we got to do it immediately. Nobody else is on offer. They could pass him up for something else, for Michael Chandler,

for hell, let Leon, you know, let Islam do the Leon thing if they really want to do it. So he is at the, at the mercy of the UFC. And I'm sure that they probably gave him, you know, plateau plomo. They gave him a bit more money.

And they said, if you don't take the bit more money to do this fight, you're going to have to fight somebody else to get a title shot. And that's just how that works. So, yeah, I think this was probably the most likely scenario, though I was secretly holding out a hope that it would be the Michael Chandler fight, just because it would be really funny if Michael Chandler never fought Conner McGregor. Yeah. Hey, listen, this is, and I think Oliver is at the mercy of the division, too, because if he had let this pass and Mokachev fought Chandler or anybody else,

the winner of Porre Gehche is probably next and probably jumps over him. So if he ever wanted to get back to a rematch. If he ever wants to get back to Mockachev, this is probably his only chance to do it. So, and he probably got a few more extra bucks to do it. So good on you, man. It's a very obvious business choice for him because a thousand percent. If he says, no, I can't fight until November. They'd be like, cool.

So in November, you're going to fight Armand Syruki. Have fun with that. And we will have, we'll have Islam fight whoever. And his next fight will be against the BMF title winner. I don't care that you've beaten them both. Doesn't matter, man. So like, yeah, this sort of feels like the most likely scenario is playing out. And I'm just glad it did because the brief.

internet talking between various parties surrounding the Abu Dhabi card has been, there's been a tough hang. Yeah. Everybody's running from everybody except for no one is running because they're all professional fist fighters. And homie's not running from you. He beat you, Volk. Can deal with it.

He actually has specifically said on multiple occasions, we will fight again, which he super didn't have to. Like, it's nobody's running from anyone in this sport. Yeah. Just stop using that as the go-to line. You friggin idiots, man. I like how we use constantly. I feel like for the past few months, maybe even a couple of years,

when guys don't take fights that the UFC wants, they go, well, now you have to fight Zerukian. That's like, yeah. Zerkin's at the worst possible outcome. Yeah. He's like, all right, all right. You're going to lose. It's going to suck for you.

I'll take a title fight. I won't bite Zeruki, and I got it. I got it. All right. Do, do, do. Man, but what if Oliver truly wasn't ready who couldn't make this date? Would it would have been Leon? I think, no.

I think Leon would have had a shot at it. What do you think? They haven't made Leon Colby. You could make me. Yeah, that's weird. That was weird. That fight's going to happen in November. It's not a bit.

It's just kind of happened in November. It makes no sense to throw Leon and Abu Dhabi when Colby. It would be, if Oliver wasn't ready, if Oliver was not, it wasn't a, give me a bigger bag thing. It was like,

I seriously can't fight that day. If Oliver is not ready, can't be Darius, maybe Chandler. It's Chandler. It's Chandler. Chandler is the inside track. I just,

Chandler might be dumb enough to be like, no, I am waiting for Connor. Is it a smaller, is it a smaller, bag facing Islam over McGregor.

I don't know. It might actually be worth more money facing Islam directly, but it's not worth the same level of clout. Yeah, that's what I would think, as its own. All right.

So I don't know. It's, I mean, shit, this is, this is fight hadn't gone down yet. Who the hell knows what could have between now and October?

Like, we might recircle the wagons into this. Like, okay, well, is Volko okay from his elbow surgery? I don't think he's going to be, but maybe find out. How does Dubranks beat Mockachev, Jed?

Oh, super easy. Because I don't know who the hell Mackolchev is, but I assume he sucks a fighting because I've never heard of him and I work in the sport for a living. So, I mean, Charles Lovarez, damn good fighter. He's going to beat some random dude named Mokulchev. He's not going to beat Islam Makhachev,

if that's what the question was intending. We saw this fight. We saw it one year ago. nothing substantive has changed in my mind to make me think I had supreme confidence in Islam going in, felt entirely vindicated coming out, nothing has changed at all. This fight may be more competitive because I do think Charles Olaver is a very smart fighter in that he learns lessons pretty quickly. We saw in the Makachev first fight, like he was sort of content to not fend off takedowns and just, all right, I'm going to. try and play my game. And he realized pretty quickly that that was just not working for him at all.

And so then when he got set up after that initial takedown and sort of grappling exchange, he was fighting that a lot more. So I think he will at least come into this knowing. I really can't grapple with this dude. Like I can't be afraid to grapple with him because it's fist fighting. I have to be prepared for everything. But I can't go to my like, oh, I'll just fall over and it'll be okay because I'm so scary down there. I won't work at all.

And so he's going to have some new tricks. He's going to have, he's going to contest the fight in a much more advantageous way for himself. He's just boned any way it goes, man. Like he's super dangerous. Cool. Is the Makachev is statistically the greatest defensive fighter in the history of the sport? He's a very good defensive fighter. He can, as we saw, beat him on the feet if it's required.

What does everybody say about Alexander Volcanozky? He's like, he's amazing at everything. He's an incredible strike who outboxed Max Holloway for 50 minutes. minutes or whatever their total combined fight time is. Isamakachev won the striking in that fight? Like he won the striking exchanges in that fight. He is just a huge problem for anybody trying to fist fight him. And Charles Oliver, especially so.

10, I have 10 fights. How many does, how many do you think Dubrox wins? They fought 10 times. Two, two, maybe three, somewhere two to three range. Yeah, I'm there. I mean, you just has, like, if you look at it that, he really just has to high roll. like he has to have a good one

because you can't discount that he is like a super dangerous dude and he hits really hard and everybody can get caught and like maybe as long has a bad day or he comes in injured like any of those things can happen but 25, 30% would be the percent chance I have I give Charles to win this fight.

It's just it's as bad of a stylistic matchup as can exist for him. Here's a dude that he can't hurt. Honestly, I can't. I genuinely do not believe there. Here's a guy he can't really hurt on the feet. Like he can, but it's so low probability because his arm gets hit like four times a fight or something insanely low. And on the ground, none of his stuff works because you're not going to triangle is Lamakachia.

That's just a non-starter from that. So it's, it is just as bad of a stylistic matchup as you can draw for him, in my opinion. Yeah. I'm just, yeah, I'm trying to just picturing in my head. Yeah. I think you're right. All right. Let's get off this fight a bit.

Man, I didn't think we'd get a question like this so early. What upcoming women's fight are you most excited about? It doesn't have to be a title fight. I mean, I think, Mike, you go first because I'm debating two of them. I got to solve for which one I want here. It's probably Grasso-Shevchenko, too. But I am very. but I'm very intrigued by Aaron Blanchfield,

Tyler Santos as well. And I know, and Manifioro, Rose Damai Yunus is interesting because she's trying to go to 125 and I have no idea what she's going to look like. I feel like she's going to be really small and man,

it's just going to be so much bigger than her. But Blanchfield, Tylenstantos, there's a lot on the line in that fight. And if Aaron Blanchfield just goes out there and does to Tyler Santos, what she's done to everybody else she's fought recently,

that just kind of locks up the fact that I think Aaron Blanchfield's going to be a champ and not just a champ, but a champ for a very long time. So, yeah, I'm very much looking forward to that fight. I didn't think about that one. I'm not that it, I'm looking forward to it, but I think Aaron Blanchfield is the best fighter in this weight class and is going to have a very good night against Tyler Santos. So less intrigued by that one or excited about. So the first one is the Shepchenko Grasso rematch just because that's like,

a pretty important fight and the first one we all I particularly remember how that happened. But I don't think I can be the most excited for that one just because that fight really wasn't that fun until the end, which was obviously extremely like memorable. And it probably still won't be that sort of like it's not going to be a barn burner because when does Valentina Shubchenko have super thrilling fights. It's not really part of what happens with her. So I was going to say the one I'm the most excited about. is really just one I'm the most interested in.

And it is Menon Furo versus Rose Nama Yunis. Just because I want to see what this looks like. You know, Macy Barber came on the MMA hour this week. It was like, I think Rose is too small. And I kind of think that that might be true. Like, I don't know that Menon Furo is going to be the one who really showcases that. But like, I want to see what Rose looks like moving up a weight class. It's particularly interesting because she has two wins over the current strawweight champion.

So moving up doesn't even feel necessary. Like, this is a choice and a pursuit for her. So it's certainly the most fascinating of them. And I will throw a shout out to Wiley Zhang and Mandelemish because both of those women are incredibly fun fighters. And that fight is probably going to be sick until Wiley Zhang wins it. So, yeah, that's where I'm at. Let me ask you this. If Aaron Blanchfield does what you think she's going to do against Tilos Santos and Rose Namayunas beats Menon Fioro,

is Aaron Blanchfield waiting longer for a title fight? Are they going right to Rose? I think Aaron Blanchild's going to get the title fight if she runs over Tyler. If she like wins a tight splity and Rose just blows the doors off Manal, then then Rose can certainly get that. But it will also depend on what what the Grasso-Shvchenko fight ends up being because if Shibchenko wins, we'll probably run in a trilogy right back on that. Like that's probably how they'll settle that. So then if that happens, we may just get Blanchild Rose for the number one. one contender spot, which is fine.

Like, it's, you know, it's a thing that has to happen. But I would say that if Blanchfield does what I think she's going to do and wins convincingly, she's going to get the title fight over Rose. So if you're Manon, are you hoping that, are you the biggest Tyler Santos fan on the planet? If you're Manon Fioro? If Tyler wins and then Manon goes out and finishes Rose, they go to her. I don't know. It's kind of an interesting place adding Rose to this.

mix. Well, it's, that's why I said it's the most interesting because the permutations here are a lot. The thing for Bannon is, I don't know that that's going to work out for her just because if Tyler wins, then Tyler is in a pretty good position herself. You know, she's, she has just beaten the hot young prospect, right? Like the person who's supposed to be coming up, she went hammer and tongs with Valentina Chivchenko, who may or may not be the champion, depending on how that all rolls out. and many people thought she deserved an immediate rematch there.

So like if Schifchenko wins and they don't do Grasso 3, or even if Grasso wins, maybe it's like, well, Santos also should have beaten Chivchenko, so let's run it. So I think Manin's fighting one more time regardless of what happens. If she beats Rose, maybe that's just enough. Maybe that's just enough juice because Rose is such a name, but she's in a really tight spot here. She needs to impress against Rose, not just when.

25's a good division. A lot of fun. A lot of names. It was always going to be the best division in women's MMA. You can argue whether it is that right now or not. I would say that it is, but it was always just going to take a couple of years because they were going to be a bunch of 115ers

that were cutting too much. And then a whole ton of 135ers who were not really big enough to be a bad weight. And that's happened, and now 125 is arguably the best division of women's mixed martial arts. Yeah. Cool, cool.

At the expense of abandon weight, which is now awful. Race the runners. Raise the sales. Raise the sales. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger. Wait.

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Terms, conditions, restrictions, and limitations apply. The iconic voice. How is everyone planning to double screen next weekend's fights? The Spence Crawford pay-per-view starts early at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Well, I'll be doing the watch party, so I will probably have to miss Spence Crawford live. unless we get some kind of magic. But what's your plan, Jed? Well, I'll be live blogging.

So the main card for the, I assume, we haven't really parsed that out. But I usually am doing that. So I'm going to guess I'm doing that. So I have a two two screen setup that I will use. So I will put Spence Crawford on and hopefully I will get to watch it sort of unencumbered. But I will be working. So I'll be forced to focus more. If you were off the clock, if you were off the clock, just sat home as a fan, you have two screens, the fights are going on pretty much the same time.

What gets the bigger screen and what audio are you listening to? Spence Crawford gets the bigger screen for all of it until we get to the main event of the UFC. I love boxing, but I am a bigger MMA fan. And Poye Gaci is there's nothing that I, like, there are maybe two other fights that could be put together right now that I would rather see than that. So that gets that gets primacy all day. And I honestly am pretty interested in the Behovich-Bejahra fight and some of the other fights going on on this card. But Spence Crawford is as good of boxing as it gets.

And A-level boxing is some of the most compelling sports in the world. Yeah. Pereira Behovich is a lot more interesting now since the last time we were here, isn't it? Is it? Why would happen? well we don't have a champion right now no champion two if oh and they like then there was even that rumor

that they were making this for the vacant belt which they frankly should why not who the hell be fun as hell Alex Pereira comes in as a two division champion in like two years nothing would be hilarious uh even though he's gonna get a knockout yeah he's gonna get worked I think Belhovic is about as bad of a matchup as you could

ask more for him like at like heavyweight like Boehovic is very defensively sound, particularly with kicks, and he is a far superior grappler to Alex Pereira. He's just going to do the – it's going to be the Izzy fight, only probably much more aggressive grappling than against Izzy, who I think is a better defensive wrestler than Pereira. It is going to be in a big cage, so that would be better for Pereira, but not big enough to right to – It is with the problem with Pereira, and part of why I think he's a worst defensive wrestler than Izzy is he is much heavier stance. Like he is much more of a plotting forward fighter than Izzy who's a lot lighter on his feet, which makes him more agile for big cage and stuff. Like he's just going to be there to get taken down and Blahovich is going to check all of his kicks because he's exceptionally good at defending kicks.

And he's just going to grab him and tackle him and go from there. I have a, I have a Brazilian teammate who has sparred many times with Mr. Pereira and he was talking about him. He was like, he's like, technically he's not, nothing really blows you away. He goes, he just, he's just not afraid to get hit. And if he touches you, my God, my God, it hurts. He boops. He has, he has the big boop. He, yeah, he's got that boop.

Yeah, he's got the, yeah, he's got the, yeah, he's got the, yeah, he's got the, he's the boob. Yeah, he's got, it's the funniest thing. to watch him fight because you can see it. Like I don't know nearly as much as you. I'm like, he's not the most like technically refined dude. But he just boops you and then you fall out of the sky. Like Sean Strickland's a tough dude. Sean Strickland is a guy who we have seen get hit hard by big shots and knock her down.

Alex Pereira sent him into the multiverse with not even that hard of a punch. Like it wasn't like a tech and uppercut. It was just a boop. And Sean Strickland died. This man is impossible. It's awesome. What is going to happen with Corey Sanhagen? So before all this other news came out about UFC 294,

we confirmed a report from the Schmoz zone. Corey Sanhagen needs a new opponent for UFC Nashville. That event is happening in two and a half weeks. And he was supposed to fight Umar and Amaga Madoff. Umar's got some shoulder issues. He's out of the fight. And now we have to figure out who's going to fight Corey Sanhagan as of now the plan is to try to find somebody else.

What are we going to do here, Jed? What is the plan here for Mr. Corey Sanhagen? I believe what we're going to do is we're going to have Jessica and Drodge fight Tatiana Suarez in the main event of Fiosc Nashville and Corey Sanhagen is not going to get busy. I think Corey Sanagan is probably smart enough not to fight some like no-nameer or whatever because of where he's at in his career. There have been rumors of a couple of other people out there, which would at least, least be fine and maybe that's it.

You know, maybe you do get somebody like a Rob Fon or something to step in on short notice, but I don't know, man. You can also just run the Androge Swarra's fight. Like that's a very relevant and important fight between highly ranked fighters and Corey Sandhagen can wait for somebody else to fight. So I'm not 100% sure. Here's what I am 100% sure about Mike. I was going to go to this one.

Nashville's not a very far drive to me. I was going to get my creds and go and do it just because like here's Umar's arrival. Like he he's going to be a thing. Let's let's be there for it. And now I am probably not going to make the track up to Nash Vegas for this one. Because the rest of that card, a bit of a tough hang. It's not awful. But if something falls out with Andrade Suarez, then I don't know who's main event in this thing. Tanner Bozer, who I'm not sure the UFC wants to put a microphone in front of the

show. So I don't know who's doing it. I don't know if you guys saw that clip from James Lynch, if you haven't seen it go on his Twitter and check that out because he just went banana and it was tremendous. I think we're not going to see Tanner Bozer resign with the UFC after this fight. My professional opinion is Tanner Bozer will be in the PSL. That makes me sad.

that fighters just saying how it is saying what saying the truth that's talking yeah that's saying bad things so i think rob found make a lot of truth i think font would make a lot of sense here however the timing kind of stinks because rob's supposed to fight two weeks later so the timing actually works out but the card's in boston and the ufc hasn't been Boston in four years and we You know how much it means to rob to fight at the TD Guard in the place where the Celtics and the Bruins have won championships and all that. The banners, everything. Like that means a lot to him. He's got a tough opponent in Song Yudong.

He's been preparing for a three-round fight with Song Yudong. They're a very meticulous group over at the New England cartel. They have game plans. They handle things with a New England Patriots mentality. So the juice is going to have to be worth the squeeze for Fon to be like, eh, all right, I'll not fight in Boston. fight this other guy with a totally different style than Song You Don't. Let me throw another name out here, Jed, because as you know, you have a name I want. UFC 292 features several Banimoyte fights, and obviously we don't know what they are yet, but

word on the street is that the two tough finale fights are going to happen on this card as well, so we have to figure out like who's going to fight who over the next four weeks during the ultimate fighter. there is a band-em-weight fight on the card featuring a pretty well-known name. His name is Cody Garbrandt. And if we're going to lose one fight from this card from that division,

wouldn't you think Cody Gar-Brant versus Mario Batista would be the one to lose? Maybe you just give Cody his shot. Big name, let Corey try to take out a former champion. And if somehow Cody Gar-brandt beats Corey Sanhagen, all of a sudden, the man is back into title contention. the stakes would be high, be a great opportunity for Cody Garbrandt because I don't love his chances

against Mario Batista from a stylistic perspective. But if he goes in there and just shocks Corey Sandhagen, that's not a bad spot for him to be in. So if I'm Cody Garbrand, I'm getting on the home with my manager and the UFC and saying, give me this fight. And I think this name would actually be okay to be the replacement. Let Rob Fight Song on the fight because it's one of the exciting fights on the card.

Garbrand Patis is interesting, but way better opportunity for Garbrand here. And if that car lost Garbrand Batista, it would sting a little bit to the hardcores, but it's not going to really hurt all that much, right? No, that's a really good idea. I don't like Cody's chances, but I don't know what to do with Cody Garbrand anyway.

Like the Trevin Jones fight just convinced me that he's all the way done, even though he won that fight. Like he really struggled to win that fight. So I don't like his chances, but I think that's probably the best you can do in this circumstance. If you are really committed to keeping Corey Sandhagan on this card, I think everything you said makes total sense. So if they're really committed to keeping Corey on this card, then yes, I don't know, you know, I'm not Corey Sandhagan. I don't know what he's got to do in places or whatever. but I would say if he wants to hang around and wait for,

I don't know how long Suhudo's out. It's like a shoulder issue, right, or whatever. So I don't know how long he's out missing the 292 thing. But maybe Corey can do that sort of or just see where the chips fall with some other things. If he doesn't feel like taking that fight or if they can't get Cody to agree to it. But it's a good answer. Yeah. And a lot of people want to see Dominic Cruz step in.

And I get that. That's all I want. I've wanted that fight for 10 years because they are the same. That is sub-zero versus Scorpion. They are just pallet-swapped each others, and I need to see them fight. I have to see it before it's done, even though Dominic at this point

is probably going to run over. Need to see it. I would love that to happen. I just don't know if Dominic takes that fight. I doubt he's going to take it on two weeks notice. That seems like a lot. It sounds like I've been taking a short notice fight. I know.

I can't say on top of my head because it feels like all of his fights were actually eight years of notice because he would take three years off. Yeah, it was like, so like maybe he did and I just can't recall it but I mostly remember him he hasn't fought in three and a half years yeah it would have it would have to be back like WEC days or something

like you do anything short notice I don't know but I love San Hank and watch that dude fight all day you're not alone at Aster Lynn we're not alone What's Peter on doing? Run that one back If you can go in two and a half weeks I wouldn't hate that one just remove the weight cutting so you can just go like okay well fight fight at 140 or whatever i was waiting for i was wondering when this is coming this see this is interesting right now

all right because to to kind of lay out the land if you're not if you if you guys just woke up and didn't see what happened last night not only do we get the 294 announcements not only do we find out yesterday that umar is out of the nashville main amendment sanhagan israel d'etanja jumped on social media and basically said Drickus Duplessi is not fighting in Sydney which is not a shock we hated this fight in the booking running away you're so afraid of me

so is he's based to say and dude I'm fighting on this card DDP ain't fighting Strickland you're the next man up so there you go that's that's one piece of this puzzle the other piece we found out that Hamzaa Chamaif is coming back his fight is booked October October 21st fighting Paulo Costa, both Costa and Icram Alaskarraf, both fighting on this card, no longer against one another. And now we have Hamzot going to 185, duplice coming off the big win over Robert Whitaker,

the post-fight stuff, the buzz behind this fight was huge. It seemed like somehow, some way we're going to get this done for September 9th or September 10th, whenever this card's actually going to happen. And now we have Hamzot coming back. So Jed, this question is, if Hamzot beats Costa, Does that put him right behind duplicity in terms of title contention? And if so, isn't that just going to put Hamzod on the shelf again? I will raise you another question here because this is not, look, you mentioned DDP as leverage.

And I think that's true in some respects. But Dana also, when he throws out a promise, he likes that promise to come true. And it doesn't appear like it's coming true here that DDP is going to turn around quickly and fight Israel Adasani. So let's just say, Izzy fight Sean Strickland, goes out there and wins. and then Hamzaa Shamaev comes back at UFC 294 and just trucks Paula Costa. Like this is take him down, beat the hell out of him. Whatever he did to Li Jing Liang, he does the same thing to Paul Costa. Is there any chance that Hamzot actually leaps over Drickus Duplice here?

Because Hamzad is one of the rising stars right now. And you can make a very strong argument that an Izzy Hamzad fight would do better numbers than an Izzy Kamsat fight would do better numbers than an Izzy. Drick's 2 plus C fight. So what happens here? If Izzy goes out there and just beat Sean Strickland like many expect him to do, but Hamza just runs over Paulo Costa. Do you think that changes anything? To quote Marlow Stanfield.

Sounds like one of them good problems. Then you got multiple contenders for your champion. That's multiple bankable contenders for your champion. I don't think anything Hamza does is going to bump him over two plus because he didn't just knock out Robert Whitaker, which is that's sort of just the trump card here. Like, yeah, if Duplessi was not fighting because he didn't take the Whitaker fight and he was injured or something, then yeah, absolutely.

But no, he fought Whitaker, fought the fight that nobody thought he could do. And then he did better than anyone could have even really imagined him pulling off against the guy. I think he is just locked in. I think the build and the bank for this, they have the face off in the cage as, cringy as it was at times. They have the clear vitriol between, I'll just say the vitriol between Izzy and Duplessi. DDP doesn't seem to have any vitriol for,

for Izzy. He just sort of doesn't like him, but Izzy is like extremely personal about this. So I don't, I don't care what Hamzot does in part because yeah, maybe he's on the shelf again. We've now seen pretty definitively. The Hamzah can just go away for a while

and people are stoked when he comes back. So he goes out there. there and rolls over Costa, you just sit him cage side for, he can weigh in as the backup for an inevitable DDP Izzy fight, uh, sit cage side and then they could do a face off from that, whoever, whoever comes out of that winning. And all of this, though, does presume that Izzy does fight Sean Strickland and beat Sean Strickland. And it would be real M.MA and incredibly funny if Sean Strickland just ruined all of this by somehow being Izzy in Australia. That would just be this would be one of the funniest years on record

in the history if that happens. Wow. Are you predicting that? I'm not, but it would be really funny. It would be really happy. Also, just so we're clear, like two weeks, three weeks ago, we were having the conversation of

Charles Oliver says he can't fight and now Charles Oliver is fighting. The only person who has said DDP isn't fighting in Australia is he in a profanity-filled tirade on social media. That is not an announced fight. That could still totally happen to. So we'll see. I was supposed to say that.

I was like, I don't think this. This may be is trying to force DDP's hand a bit? I said from Jump Street that I didn't think DDP was going to make the turnaround because it was too fast. But I, we do not need to take what is he says is gospel because one, he's mispoke and just been outright wrong before. So I would say don't don't count all your chickens here, but yeah, the likely outcome is we're going to get Sean Strickland, Izzy in Australia.

And that's going to be a fight. Yeah, it's fine. All right. The build will be just as weird and bizarre. So it'll just be a different kind of weird and bizarre. It's really bad. Someone needs to tell Izzy, he needs to speak less. Just he's getting really into Tito.

territory of like he just talks a lot and so some people think he's good at it but every time he talks it's it's pretty bad the thing he called like i'm not going to repeat it on air because you know youtube ever the name he called ddp is just it's it's it's like that's like that's colby covington corny like the same tier of awful yeah all that yeah like just you can just be like justifiably angry that this man said you weren't African like that's legit you could just carry that you don't need to go into like bad third grade name calling like I think fighters certain fighters really have this idea that like I'm going to be clever by turning that guy's name into something disparaging and it's usually homophobic because that's MMA for you when actually

like I have never would could never once care if somebody says I don't know whatever you want to make out of my poop or something dumb like that like but if you're just like kid the poop yeah yeah listen shit bird I'm gonna you up in Australia like that's so much better than the dumb shit that they are just don't you you're not clever so don't be it you don't need to you can just be justifiably angry and it sells it so much better it's my Jed talk right there for you. Jedma poop. Thank you. Thank you, Jedma poop. Honestly,

sort of surprised. I haven't been called that at some point in time. But I was just trying to think of my name. I was like, how do I do anything with it? I was like, I don't know. All right.

I'm just thinking of Costa real quick. This is a great question. Has Costa signed a new contract or is the Hamzaat fight the last on his deal? Is it possible? This is his last UFC fight? I think all these options are in play but if I had to guess Jed

my guess would be yes on questions two and three that he didn't sign a new deal last one of his last fight in the UFC yeah I am assuming that he has not signed a new deal if I'm Costa why the hell would I like yeah if I'm Costa and I signed a new deal

they wouldn't give me this fight they would give me something else but pretty clearly like the alaskarrow fight was them just not doing it many favors whatsoever if i'm him like sure this is maybe a set up fight for you to lose but also if you win then you have even more bargaining chips to go to pfl and be like here's the price i will demand for my services so i wouldn't sign one if i was him yeah 100% ah yes juliana pania another memorable appearance on the May hour. I got to say, Jed, she was really good. She was really good. Didn't watch a second of it. She was good. Look, the Nunez slander and the whole I chased her out of the division is dumb.

Like, we, I think we can all agree that there's- She was afraid of me after beating my free sin for 25 minutes. She didn't want to break her hands anymore. But the quick wit, the heel persona about like literally anybody else, she's asked about was really good. I love the Macy Barber stuff. I thought that was hilarious. You know, what do you think about Macy? He's like, well, have a protein shake and come up to 135. Like all that was just was good stuff. But I don't know, Jedd, where are you at with Giuliana Pena? Take Amanda Nunes out of the equation and I think I like her a lot more. Or at least I appreciate the persona a little bit more without Amanda around when she's spouting off the nonsense

about her. I appreciate the effort. I appreciate that she is actively trying to draw interest in some way, which there aren't any women's band and weights trying to draw interest in any way, realistically. It all is tough. Like, it's a really narrow window to hit to pull this off. You have to actually be good at fighting and I have no idea if she is or not.

She beat a man of nudist, so she doesn't suck at it. She also has no wins over anyone currently employed in the U. by the UFC. So, like, it's, it would all hit a lot better if she, that's the biggest issue. And you've seen this issue a lot with various fighters. It works when you can back up the things you are saying. And when you don't, if you're not part of the joke, then it really doesn't work. And I think that nobody ever understands that, like, there's a lot of problems with what

Chale said, like, morally. He said some pretty bad things at various points in time. time. But the key thing to his persona getting over is for a stretch, he was backing it up, and that's crucial. And then when he wasn't, he's part of the joke. It is a winking, tongue-and-cheek acknowledgement of what I am saying. Oh, I thought if I tapped out, it just meant I lost the round, not that I lost the fight. And he's not going too hard into it. So it is inclusive as opposed to line, like defining the lines of here are my fans and here's everybody else because there aren't Julian Pania fans nobody gives a shit about

juliana Peña Colby Covington is doing the same thing and so it's I think that's where there's like a lot of fighters meant I can appreciate what Payne is trying to do and sometimes it feels like she maybe does understand the joke and that is key but then a lot of times like if if she said that Amanda Neuna stuff and I was certain that she didn't believe it I would it would be fine but she says the mananina stuff and I kind of think that she believes it because the way she carries herself. And so then it's like, you're actually just delusional and not like in a fun way,

in a insane way that makes it tough for me to cheer for you at all. So that's not just a her thing. That's most people trash talking in MMA. And like, to close out on this, like you notice with Connor, his trash talk sucks now, because his trash talk was largely good when he could back it up.

And then he can't back it up anymore. And so it's like, I'll rip your head off to, Habib who emasculated him in the cage, who, who beat him up so badly that he didn't use any energy and had plenty of it and try and fist fight Conner's whole team afterwards. Like you can't talk shit to somebody in those circumstances. It doesn't work unless it is a Chris Tucker-esque. I know that what I am saying is ridiculous.

And so that's where everybody sort of fails in MMA. Except Chale. He was really good at that part of it. Casey, it seems like you love Giuliana Pena and everything she stands for and says. You almost left the room when I was like, when she brought back the whole I'm the real mom thing. I was like, ah, we're doing this again. I think when she hit that point like 10 times. Like I'm the, I'm a real mom.

Like I'm the real mom champ. I'm the, yeah, it's like, that kind of got me. But I get it. I am. It's working because I do want to see Julian Appaena's next fight. And, you know. Oh, wow. That's words I've never said.

Because of this, because of, ooh, I would, I, some reason I do want to see Macy Barber versus Juliania opinion. Not for the title, but I kind of want to see it now. I don't know why. So I'm not saying, you know, I'm going to, you know, Barbara. Barber could win that fight. Barbara could win that fight.

Yeah, yeah. That'd be me. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Roscoe Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix

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From the pitch to the sand and everything in between, welcome to our turf. Which middleweight would bench press the most, I think, can in here. I don't know, man. That's looking over the top 15 right now. The UFC's top 15, not the real top 15. I'd say Hamzot's probably up there. I don't know, man. Hamzart kind of has a bird chest.

But he's just, he's just a giant dude. I mean, yes. No, but he's got that core wrestling strength, though. Like, that's all core. That's not, that's not pex. Yeah, I'm trying to think who's, who I mean, I'm sure that Paula Costa does well, uh, on the bench reps. But I don't know that he's maxing out high. I said, who's got the biggest beach muscles?

I think, I'm, I just think Hamza could plant those feet and just get it up there. Like, it doesn't have to be pretty. He's not going to make himself, he's not going to embarrass himself, but kind of a bit of a bird chest. I don't think Hamzat's the answer. I think he's got that functional in the same way that like, I don't think Habib was out there just throwing up record numbers in the AKA weight room. But everyone you talk to is like, actually, I, Luke Rockhold, feel that he holds me as hard as Daniel Cormier does. So it's that functional core strength. I'm trying to think who.

Let me throw out a name. And I think I think he's, this guy's probably up there. Phil Haas. Phil Haas is the actual correct answer. That's it. I was trying to think if someone like walking out Buckley's physique, but like a true 85 or it was Phil Haas. That's it. Yeah.

Phil Haas is actually a DACA person. What a question. What a question. I have long, long argued. And I'm speaking with Peter Murray, the NFL later today. I have long argued that what I want more than many things in this sport that's achievable, I want a combine. I want the UFC to say it's international fight week and we're doing all this stuff.

But also on international fight week, we're going to have the MMA combine. We're going to bring in all the lightweights and whatever. We're going to fly them all in and we're going to put them through. Rep to bench, run the 40. Give me a vertical. I want to know the physical athletic stats on these people. It would enhance my viewing experience so much. I cannot really put it into words.

I would love to see Phil Hawes. Can he put 225 up 30 times? I could buy it. Like I totally buy that. So just do that. Somebody do that. That's all I want. Would you have,

would you do 225 as the standard or would you go lower? I don't know. 185. You probably don't do 225 because that's probably, but maybe you just scale it up for weight for weight class, right? Like, you know, because that sort of, you'd have to figure it out. You don't just take the NFL combine metrics because I don't know that we need a shuttle in the same way. The short shuttle probably isn't as important.

Though it does, you know, measure explosiveness and things like that. Just you could figure out what the categories you want for a combine are and what they look like. And some of them will test, you know, functional core strength. Why not bench press? Bench press deadlift, like squat. Give me your totals. who's total elating in the UFC right now? Probably not anybody because 2000 is a lot,

but like give me the totals for everyone. And be like, all right, well, Henry Sehudo squats 450 and benches is 210 or whatever. Like, I want to know. That's what I want. That's awesome. It would be the most electric viewing that I have in MMA every year.

I'd be like, guys, I know that most of you all don't care, but I could not be more interested to see who is, the best at bench in the UFC middleweight division. And the crazy part is like someone like Anderson Silva will come in probably last. I feel like in almost a lot of these things. No, that's the thing. He do bad in some of them, right? Sorry, not everything, you know, I bet his verticals great.

The explosive ones, the quick, quick, you want to see. You want to see. You could do the F one, like, you guys ever watch F1? And they like, F1 like, aside from the many other things, one of the things, one of the things is critical as drive a reaction time. Yeah, it's like getting off the line. And so they do like a whole, you'll see them train and do a whole bunch of things. One of them is the light wall.

And it's just a wall full of light, like tap things. And when the lights blink up, you tap them and you try and go through as many as you can in 30 seconds. Like Anderson would have done incredible at that versus other people. So like put that one in because that actually like would be a super relevant thing to fighting. Like you'd find the right metrics that you want to measure. Well, I think you do that. I think you do like the bench and squat. I think that would be fun.

And then like sandwich in between like those are just like. I have to have 40. You got to give me a 40. Yeah. And then make the four. Then like a couple crossfit isn't good. Yeah. And just do a couple of crossfit competitions.

I want. I want. I want. Do that every day. Give me. Give me standing vertical. That's not a hard ask. Long jump.

Why not? Just give me the explosive metrics. We can figure out things and do them. I want to see them. the problem is how many jama hill situations would you get dude it would be awesome it would totally jack up my perception of who's good at fighting the same way the NFL prospects i never never know the good ones because i'm like holy shit that that 270 dude just ran the shuttle and like under a left was like oh my god he just did a

4-640 that man is 280 like he's the greatest fighter that's ever lived and then he sucks because he's Greg Hardy or whatever. It would be incredible for my, my content experience. I think everyone's on board of this. I'm gonna, I'm gonna tweet at, I,

if that, Tinsen, you've nailed it. If I get, whenever people ask like, what's the one thing you do if you got to be president of UFC? My answer's always been like,

I'll just pay fighters more because I just pay them 50% and then solve that problem. I don't even care about that anymore. The fighters don't want that money because they're not fighting for it themselves. If I got one rule, I would replace tough with the combine. It would be the best thing that ever happened.

I would watch the combine show every week religiously. I love it. All right. We're going to bring in 10 lightweights this week. Do the combine metrics. Let's go. Hell yeah. What is 41-year-old Jim Miller putting up on a 40?

I need to know. I need to know. You guys telling me you don't want to see Parker Porter try and hit a vertical? What's Parker Porter's vert? you guys don't want to know come on don't act what's the what's the big what what's the record because whatever it is add 10 inches to it uh thank god we got some park reporter in here all right best he is future rama's going back had no idea i had no idea no growth learning things cool yeah pretty stoked i haven't watched it yet but i'm pretty stoked about the uh justified mini series

that's on Hulu. I don't know if y'all watch Justified. That show kicked ass. I watched a couple episodes. FX usually does a really good job at producing programming. I just watched the final episode of Mines MC this morning. And that was something. I fell off of that.

But yeah. Didn't know a future I was coming back. That's fun, though. It's good show. Who is the most athletic person in the UFC? see. If we had a combine, we'd know. We would know. You're just,

set you up. Set you up. There you. Yep. You just dumped it right to the. I answered this question. If you had a guess right now. For history.

If I had to guess right now, um, it's a really good question. I answered this question once on a hot tweet for historical purposes. I was like, who are the greatest athletes ever? Am I like, I like,

that there's three pretty clear ones and then the rest like that that elevate above and it was uh kevin random and yole romero and brock lesnar i think all three of those are among the most athletic human beings who have ever lived full stop so you put them in the cage they're the best at that current ufc fighters what can i'm gonna think he's a good athlete i don't know if he's like that tier but he's a really good athlete yeah Um, she used to be easy because like Tyron Woodley was there for a while and he was probably the best athlete in the UFC for a long stretch. Um, I'm trying to go through the rankings and see who's jumping out of me. Some people are mentioning, uh, Cerrogan, maybe.

Seriogon's a good athlete. As far as a heavyweight, I think heavyweight athlete, yeah. I mean, John Jones is probably more athletic than Cyril gone. And like, that's just one of the things that I harp on all the time is like, John Jones is probably one of the most. athletic people that have ever competed in MMA. And this is, I don't have any issue saying in that. And so he's probably the correct answer. I think it's incredibly important for people to recognize that John Jones is the least

athletic member of his family. And like that's, so when I say things like, MMA could be better, it's like, think about if everybody competing was John Jones at the worst instead of the best people we have are John Jones. It's like, the sport could get so much better if that level of investment. But like, look at John Jones with his brothers. Like, oh, yeah, you are not nearly the athlete that Chandler Jones is or whatever. It's pretty, and it like that's, it feels to me, armchair psychology, right?

But like, that feels pretty indicative of why John is the person he is. Like, he grew up as the least athletic person and he's incredibly athletic. It's like, and yet he goes home for. Thanksgiving and he is the runt because his brothers are unbelievable other world athletes. I think John is going to be my answer. I think that's a pretty good one. Yeah, I'm with you. Jelton Almeida is probably up there.

Jiltern al-Made a very good athlete. I'm trying to avoid heavy weights though because, you know, that's just boring. I mean, Zahudo? Sehudo's got to be up there. So So Hudo is, but Sehudo's older. So that's docking some points because like I mean, Peaks to Hudo was very high on the list. But he's definitely sterling. Aljo.

Sterling's a pretty good one. I almost wonder what prime UFC Demetius Johnson. I mean, he was unbelievable. He would have done unbelievably well at the combine. Yeah. Like just, I mean, not like raw scores because you're comparing, but like you for a size. you pro-rate his scores out, he would have done unbelievably well.

Yeah. Who else? I'm going to keep looking at this list while we move on to other questions. All right. Robert Whitaker is very athletic. Buckley. Buckley is a really good athlete, though.

Buckley is a very good athlete, though. Maybe somebody, Yair, I wonder if I'm like Yair. Yair's interesting. He's not a bad athlete. I don't know if he's that level. I was thinking Ilya,

because Ilya is a pretty good athlete. So, There's a lot. Like, Cheeto is, like, also a really good athlete. No one just recognizes that part of his game. All right. Yeah, I wouldn't put it as, like, the best athlete. Oh, oh, I actually have my answer.

I have my answer. It's really dumb that I did this in an immediate. I think it's Wiley Zhang. I think Wiley Zhang is compared to peers, the best athlete. I think she's a far better athlete than anybody else competing in women's mixed martial arts at the moment. I think Tatiana Suarez is probably. probably up there too. Could be.

Very much could be. But like Shevchenko had it for a while. She's old. So like that's like she was half of Shevchenko's title run was just simply being way more physically imposing than anyone she faced. Wiley Zhang is like that. I think Wiley Zhang is probably comparatively the best athlete in the sport right now. It's a great pick. Jedder, you placed any bets on the September 16th main events between Alexa Grosso and Valentine's

Schenchenko. I haven't looked at the odds. I mean, I will be. I haven't looked at the odds. But yeah, I don't learn lessons. Who learns things? Just keep firing, baby. Shoot from the hip forever.

Do we have odds? Let's try and see it. I've got minus 230 for Shavchenko. Draft King says Shivchenko minus 2.30. Grasso plus 195. I mean, you should bet Grasso. That feels, I'm not saying Grosso should be the favorite. I don't know that it should

Shifchenko should be that big a favorite. I mean, I'm definitely going to bet on it. I'll probably bet Schenko by decision where that prop comes down at. Because Grasso is real tough. I don't think Schenko's getting her out of there if she wins. But I'm still begrudgingly choosing Shvchenko, even though historical precedent says that that's real dumb. I'm going to die on my hill.

That's where I'm going to be. That's my hill. We'll die right on it. Has the decline of Robert Whitaker begun or did he just have an off night against DDP? Jed. Well, we're not going to know the answer to that for some time just because you can't say it. I did sort of wonder that on the night, right? I guarantee you somebody in the comments has already been like, Robert Woodock is only 32.

This is a very dumb question. Age and decline are not necessarily correlated. Like they're related in some ways, but peaks hit it. I feel like I've had this argument a thousand times of Jose Aldo recently of like Jose Aldo lost to Alexander Volcanozki and Max like okay, but we can just look at the numbers and say, oh, he was 32. He was very clearly in his prime. Or we can use our eyeballs and be like, oh, yeah, he just didn't move in the same way that

he did previously because fighting wears on your body differently. It all takes its toll in different ways, not even fights. Training for X amount of years is very, very difficult. I think there is absolutely an argument that Robert Whitaker is on the decline. He started, he began his professional career in 2009. That's 14 years in, and that is pretty much the mark. 12 years is around where you really start to see most people taper off historically, if you kind of look at it.

There are outliers always. I think Max has been doing it for a little while. And I would argue pretty vehemently that Max is not in his prime anymore, just that his post prime is still very, very good. And a lot of fighters do that. Anderson Silva, when do you think? Anderson Silva is always the answer I go to because it's easy to draw the line of Anderson Silva's prime

ended when Chris Wydenman hit him in the face and he fell over. I would really argue that Anderson Silva's prime ended at like Damien Maya. That was probably like the last that he was really in his physical peak and all of his skills worked in the same way. And then the rest of it, the chale fight, like the chale rematch and stuff, all of that sort of post-prime. And he was just so damn good

that his post-prime was still better than the people he was facing. But like, it's ages and everything. I think Whitaker is probably not in his prime anymore. I think you could maybe even make an argument that he was not in his prime after he fought. Y'all Romero the second time because it took a hellacious beating

in those that 50 minutes of fighting yowel. You hear him talk about fighting yowell and it's the type of shit that makes me never want to fist fight professionally, right? Like the way he's talked about yowell is like because I just this quote is stuck with me it was when izzie was coming up and whittaker was still the champ

and he was like I want to see izzie fight yowel because he's talking all this game fight that dude you don't know what it's like to hit that man it felt like I was punching and kicking six steel. It just felt different. And when you hear somebody talk like that, that is not usually the, hey, I just fist fought an iron block for 50 minutes and now I'm going to be so much better because

this isn't a martial arts movie. Like, oh, that takes something out of you. I think you could probably make an argument. The Whitaker's prime ended with the O.L. second fight and that he's just been in post prime since then, where he's still very, very good, but he has lost something. So it will only know at the end of his career. Like maybe this was just an off night. Maybe DDP is just really damn good and everybody is still underestimating him. Time's going to tell us.

Yep. Take one or two more. We'll get out of here. I would love to know why Aldo nearly abandoned leg kicks during the last few years of his career. I would argue that it's probably because he wasn't in his prime anymore. Because kicking people sucks. If you ever kick people,

is really, really shitty, man. And let me tell you, I don't kick people as hard as Jose Aldo kicks people. I can only imagine that it was way shittier for him to kick people, and it was for me to kick people, you know? Like, it's my answer to questions like this is always, they got old. Because I think that it's always just the right answer.

Like, Jose Aldo is not an idiot. He's one of the greatest fighters who has ever lived. He knows what his good weapons are. he knows that kicking against Max Holloway is actually an incredibly effective strategy and he didn't do it and it's the same when you hear fighters talk about various parts of their game they're like one of the big things that you'll hear as fighters get older is I saw it I saw what I wanted to do and I couldn't pull the trigger anymore that just didn't have the same reactions the same thing and there the fastball goes away you just can't do the same things and so kicking

maybe Jose is out there and he wants to kick and he can't pull the trigger quick enough and then the stance is shifted and so it's not an opportune time anymore. My answer is always if you see a fighter start to strip their game down to bear parts like you saw with Jose, they're getting old and they are going to the most efficient tactics that they have and the ones that they can rely on the best

because their body is not complying anymore. And he's been doing this for a long time and kicking people. hurts. People think, yeah, it's fun to kick people, but it hurts you just as much. Like, yeah. So we don't,

it is only fun to kick people if they, if you are like soccer kicking the guts, not even the ribs, because the ribs still kind of suck. But if you get to soccer kick the like soft tissue, then it's fine. Yeah, you don't hit.

You don't have to hit. You don't have the hip. You're hitting bone. Everything else you are hitting bone with your bone. It has no protection on it. It is awful. It's just, because you train.

If there's one thing that fans need to understand how much it hurts, I feel like getting your kick checked. It's something fans, if you've never experienced a hard kick kick kick, it makes you never want to throw a kick again. Look, if you get your check kicked, if you want to know what it's like,

do you ever ride a scooter and do you ever hit yourself in the shin with your scooter? It's like that only way, way worse. It is way, way worse. Because instead of accidentally hitting, yourself in the shin, you are intentionally whacking your shin against a scooter functionally.

It's awful. Kicking blows, man. All right. One more. Last one. Last one. We'll find a good one. We'll find a good one.

Uh, uh, we'll find a good one. I don't want to talk about strict. All right, this is a fun one, just a futures one. Man, ProFights Info has gotten like 13 questions. He's good. Who will be champion one year from now that isn't a champion now? Aaron Blanchfield, to me, is one. Easiest answer in the sport.

I would bet all of the money on that one. If I had to bet my life on one, it is Aaron Blanchfield. Who will be the women's band to wait champion one year from now? One year from now, look, I'm going to choose to live this dream, Valentino Shepchenko. Oh. If she wins or loses against Grasso, like, if she wins or loses against Grasso, maybe she has to run it back for a thorough with Grasso. And then Yvonne Val, and I have reclaimed the belt and I beat Grasso, and I know I'm getting older and I know I just finally got caught. And even though I venged it, I might look around and say, man, it took the exit.

was probably a smart idea. I'm getting older. And Aaron Blanchfield is just going to suck to fight. I don't want to fight her. That sounds miserable. I'm going to go up to Bannemate. And whether it's Raquel Pennington or Juliana Pena or my Buena Silva, whoever it is, I would say that Valentina Shepchenko has an exceedingly good opportunity to beat any woman

at women's Bannamweight right now in a fist fight. So she might as well go up, get the belt that eluded her while Amanda was there, and maybe hang it up as a two division champion and you know in that status of her life and if she lose de Grasso she should definitely go up because why the hell not so Valentina Shepchenko will be my answer I'll say Meyer Buena Silva

don't hate it she's she's looked real good at Bannon Wade I would say Mara I would say Maraub de Wallis really will probably be a champion one year from now I would believe he I'd be pretty confident confident in morale being the bad and weight champion within a year.

Let's see. Any others? Yuri? Uri, I think is a good one. Yeri, I can't. Because a year for now is so long, like, you could run, like, maybe he has to fight on Kaliath in that time. And I don't, I think that's a pretty tough fight for Yeri.

So you're saying, Enkulayev. Oh, yeah, but I also don't, I wouldn't be confident. Just I don't know if. uncle have is going to get the chance and like I thought that uncle have probably should have been Jan Bolhoevich if I recall maybe I scored that fight a draw. I've just kind of thought he's the best of the light heavyweight choices in general so

yes but I have no idea where he's at in the title conversation. He's going to have to fight somebody else first he's going to have to fight like Johnny Walker and have like a great performance. I feel pretty decent about Shavcott's chances of getting the belt within a year. Timing is going to be rough, though. Timing's going to be rough.

In a full year? You said Leon's fighting in November, so. That's what I feel, but what if Colby wins? You think Colby's going to fight freaking Shafcott within? I don't believe Colby's winning. I think that might be where we're different. I believe he does, though. There's a chance he wins, but do you think he's going to sit there and eight months later

fight Shafcott? I don't know. I don't know who. I don't. I think there's a chance that if Colby wins, the UFC strips him because Colby will not accept the fight with any. Who would Colby fight? Yeah.

Who would he fight if he won? He's only going to try and fight Connor because he's not going to fight. You think he's going to fight Balal? No chance he accepts the fight. He doesn't want to fight Balaw. That's such a waste of him. So he'll just, it's going to be shopcott Bilal. He's going to be like, I will only fight Connor.

And then be like, cool, we're taking your belt from you. They've done it before. They'll do it again. It could. It's possible. Is Islam still a lightweight champion a year from now? I would say yes. But I think he's probably getting close to the-

Jolmada. No. Jolmada will be the heavyweight champion here from now. No. Over John Jones? John's. John's going to think he's retired. No, I don't think he retires.

No, I don't think he retires. And I think he vacates the belt until something big comes his way. I still think John's going to fight again. Or or Sergei or big big surge gets it done. I'm done betting against Serge. The man just kills people. He's like a heavyweight Alex Pereira. I'm done betting against him.

So I mean, is Volcanozky? Is Volcanovsky still the featherweight champion a year from now? No. You think it's Ilya? I think it'llia has a good chance. I think the end, my answer for this is not.

and everyone's like, Judge, just Volkator. I've made this argument a thousand times and it's still the same true argument. It's really, really hard to be a champion for five years. It's incredibly hard to be a champion for five years. Volga is already unprecedented in being 30. He's about to turn 35 and that will make him. He is currently the second oldest champion sub welterweight in UFC history.

He will very quickly pass that. This just uncharted territories, great athlete, tremendous fighter. It doesn't take much. You fall off by 1% and that's it because fighters have a decade worth of tape on you

and Valentina Shvchenko is the best example of this. Alexa Grasso said afterwards, we watched tape. We have seen her propensity to throw this kick. We knew an opportunity would open when she threw a spinning kick

for us to jump the back and execute. That's it. It wasn't a huge fuck up or anything like that. It was a hey, here is a tactical choice. she makes here is our counter to this and the fight is over just small margins i feel like too much too long a time i feel like men's flyway is going to be a hot potato yeah she's going to

changing last here what about israel a sonny jed well israel whether he loses it in a fight or he vacates and moves up to 205 will israel ad asania be the middleweight champion one year from now I think I'm taking DDP in the fight I think I'm talking myself into DDP when he does finally fight Izzy and straight up if he fights Hamzot If Hamzot does roll through Costa

I'm gonna take Hamzot So no I will say Izzy will not be All right And I could look like a real idiot on that one Like Izzy's a great fighter All time great fighter But I'm gonna say no in a year Because it's just

really hard To be champion For more than a year I mean it's really hard to be champion at all. At all. It's incredibly difficult to be champion for four years. Like no one does it. And that is why personally, Demetius Johnson is my goat of MMA. I think Demetrius Johnson has an exceptional argument for being. I get the other ones. I get Jones. I get all the ones. But for me, because of what you said right there, Jed, all the tape on Demetius Johnson, he still did it constantly and still

doing it. So I have, I have, John GSP, Fador, DJ Aldo and Anderson. Like that's six. You pick any of those

and I don't have an issue with them. Yeah. Me neither. All right. I think we're good, sir. I think we're good. Fun show. Thank you for all the tremendous questions.

It's going to be a very interesting couple weeks on this show. Obviously next week we'll react to UFC London. We didn't get a single question about UFC London, but we'll have a preview show tomorrow. I believe that. Get ready for that. And then next week's show.

Actually, we did get one. We didn't talk about it. We get real quick. I figure we're going to talk about in the preview show, but we did get one on Shana Bannon. I have no idea. I'll defer to Mike on this one. Yeah.

I also have no idea. She could. I think she's going to win. I have no idea about her star potential. She's a star, but not. Yeah, I don't think she's a title contender, but yeah. She's got a winnable fight. She's got a fight she could win.

She has a very winnable fight. So we'll see what she does. It'll be like a cool moment if she does because that place is going to go bananas for her. So yeah, we'll see what happens. I just, she's neither have a ton of experience. So it's hard to gauge where they're going to be. uh, Bruno Brazil's first UFC fight was not, we didn't learn a whole lot in that fight.

So we'll see. We'll see. Maybe some fighters can handle the stage very, very well and some can't. So we'll have a better gauge on where Sean and Bannon goes after Saturday. But next week's show will be a lot of fun. We'll recap that. We'll talk about Sean and Bannon perhaps.

And then we're going to get ready for UFC 291, ladies and gentlemen. UFC back at Salt Lake City, BMF title fight. We got Behovich versus Pereira. We got Wonderboy Pereira. We got Green Ferguson. We have Derek Lewis, Marcos Ruggiero, Delima, and Altitude,

all sorts of fun stuff going down for UFC 291. So we'll talk about that. And then the following week, kind of up in the air what we're going to do. But it's going to be fun because we'll be getting ready for UFC Nashville. We'll be getting ready for

Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz. I'll actually be in Dallas. that week. So we'll try to figure out maybe we'll do something while we're there. Maybe just everybody in the same room. We haven't done that before. So we'll figure that out. But Casey, you can hit the music. Next week we'll be back and we'll get you ready and prime you up for UFC 291. I know everyone's excited about that. So dance away. Thank you very much for the wonderful questions and for tuning into the program for Casey for Jed. I am Mike Tech back next week between the links. Good night, everybody.

Love you all. Been between the links and in my fighting production on the Vox Media Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.