MMA Fighting - BTL | Jamahal Hill Wins Again, Bo Nickal, Marlon Vera vs. Dominick Cruz Stakes, Cyborg vs. Harrison, More

Episode Date: August 11, 2022

Jamahal Hill feels he deserves a title fight following another finish this past weekend, but is that realistic at this point? This week on an all-new roundtable episode of the Between the Links, the panel discusses the impact of Hill's TKO win over Thiago Santos in the main event of UFC Vegas 59 this past Saturday night and what could be next, along with the card as a whole far exceeding expectations. In addition, topics include Bo Nickal's impressive performance on Dana White's Contender Series, how poorly the situation has been handled by the promotion, and how the Penn State wrestling standout stacks up in the UFC middleweight division, the UFC San Diego main event between Marlon Vera and Dominick Cruz and what is at stake in the bantamweight matchup, the ongoing rivalry between Kayla Harrison and Cris Cyborg, and much more. Host Mike Heck is joined by MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew this week. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed K. 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

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

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

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

The iconic voice of Esther Lynn welcomes you to a brand-new of between the links. Thank you for joining us. We are not on video this week, and there's a, there's a main reason why. I got the Rona. I ain't feeling that hot. I don't look that hot.

And my voice, it's hanging on by a thread, but I have enough gas left in the tank to do this program. Wasn't going to miss another episode of a show that I host this week. So we decided we're just going to do a little roundtable episode, which all in all, these are the most fun shows that we do, as far as I'm concerned, on BTL. And joining me in this magic, Mr. No Gray area himself, the spiciest of takes from No Bet's Bard and many other programs

on the M.A. Fighting Podcasting Network, Mr. Jed Michoud, look at the setup here. Are we almost ready? We're almost official? We're making our way through it. There's still a lot more, especially in my office space, that I'm going to do, but we've got the bulk of it, the bulk of it set.

So now it's just refining. I mean, you know how it is. You're in Command Center 18 or whatever is for you at this point. But also, don't saw yourself short. I will admit, your voice is clearly a little bit strained, but I mean, you've been working through the Rona this morning.

There was a heck of a morning, just a valiant effort from you. But you look great. funny. Thanks. I luckily Twitter spaces has mute buttons because if I couldn't find that mute button, it would have sounded a lot more awful. I can tell you that right now. I believe that. But let's get into this thing. Let's talk about more positive things. Let's talk about what we saw this past Saturday. Jamal Hill, Jedmishu, gets the job done. And by the way, I want to start at this because this is a comment. You weren't on the post-fight show. You luckily had the night off. It ended up being an entertaining card.

It over-exceeded expectations. Like I compared with it on the post-fight show, this was the Anchorman of UFC cards because you looked at the previews of Anchorman. You're like, this is probably going to be funny, but it's going to be kind of stupid at the same time. I disagree with you on that. Like, I listened to the post-fight show, and I fundamentally, you lost me there. Because at the time, my cousin, I don't know, I guess I was in high school, my cousin and I could not have been more excited.

We were like, oh, this is the next Wolf Feral movie. It's obviously going to be the funniest thing we've ever seen. Because old school was just an absolute banger, and he's Wolf freaking Farrell. And we were there with Bells on. And it still exceeded my expectations. But I had very high expectations for Anchorman. Okay. I mean, listen, I think I'm just a few years older than you.

So maybe I looked at it through a different lens. True. That is absolutely probably part of that because high school Jed was, honestly, it maybe was even like middle school Jed. I was all in. I was like, this is going to be, look at that ridiculous mustache. Wolf Farrell is about to be an icon. And he was. Yeah. So to me, I was like, this is probably going to be funny. Like, I'm sure I'm going to laugh at it. But like, I wasn't in any rush to go see it. Of course, I went and saw it and I was like, this is the funniest movie ever. And I saw it a bunch more times after. But just heading in. I'm like, I'm going to watch it.

It still holds up. Yeah. Yeah. It still holds up too, which is it is still incredibly funny. If you go watch it right now. It's so dumb, but like brilliantly dumb. And it's great. You want a hot take? Here's a hot take for you, Mike. Oh, man. I, and this is not a, I sincerely believe this. I watch a lot of movies. I genuinely believe Will Ferrell should have been nominated for an Oscar for that performance. What? See, because for one very specific, and this, I, I, I, I, I'm dead serious. I mean this to my soul. There is not another person in the world who could have made that movie work.

You could put any other actor on planet Earth in that role and it doesn't work. And that means it's a good performance because if you are one of one, I feel like you should get recognized for it because that's, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio can do a lot of things, a lot of things Will Ferrell can't do, but he can't carry Anchorman. Nobody can. It's a one-of-one performance, and I think he deserved to be recognized as such for it.

Well, I mean, if this is the first take of the show, we are in for a doozy. But before I get to Jamal Hill, because that's what we're going to emphasize here, people are saying on the Post-Fight show that we in particular owed this card an apology because there were, a bunch of finishes on the card. Now, this was, I went to Bellator 225 in Bridgeport, Connecticut

a few years back, covered that event. It was not a great card on paper. I believe that was an all Bridgeport, Connecticut. This was a scenic, Uncisfisville, Connecticut. This is like, outside of Scenic Uncysville, Connecticut. This is Bridgeport, Connecticut. And all finishes, but on paper, the card stunk something awful. Like, the whole ride over to Bridgeport, I was like, what does that smell? Oh, it's this card on paper. And they were all finishes. And it's the same thing here. Like, can you respond to this? Because you run on the Post Fight show. Do we owe this card an apology, Jed? No, and I'll never give it one. Look, I, for a number of reasons. One, I'm not a man who backs down off the hills that he stakes his claims on. So we just start right there. I ain't changing. Two, I thought there were going to be a lot of finishing this. I'm looking at my topology pick.

right now. I had five first round chaos predicted on this fight card. Now, just in a vacuum, if you, if that's your way to judge a fight, you'd be like, oh, Jed thinks this fight card's going to be decent because he literally thinks half of the fights are going to end the first round. And I didn't. I was extremely clear that this card was poop and that if you have nothing else to do on a Saturday night, sure, watch it. I'm not here to yuck anybody's yam. I never am. If this makes you happy, great. God knows it makes me happy. It's why I literally made this a career instead of being an attorney.

I enjoy fistfights more than most people. But I can also just be honest. And on paper, this card wasn't good. And here's the joke. It also wasn't good in actuality. I don't care that it was 10 for 10 finishes. Let's also note that they're two. fights dropped off, you know, after we had started poo-pooing the card. And I would have liked

the card a lot better. Anyone who listens to this program or any other program on MMAFighting.com great website, they will know that I frequently say 10 is the magic number. Over 10, it starts getting long. It's just a little too much. But if you got 10 fights, that's going to immediately up my estimation of a fight card. So that was a big change. My second point on this being it was still a bad card. I was watching because I do love fights and I didn't have anything else to do Saturday. So even though I wasn't working, I had a

beer, sat down, watched some fights. Mostly what I watched was commercials, actually, and every 30 minutes, somebody would nuke somebody in the first round, and then I'd get 30 more minutes of commercials or back to the booth and doing all this stuff.

That's the other problem when you get a bunch of finishes. Yes, it's dynamic and interesting, but also you're going to get a ton of filler time because that's how they paste these things. So not to say I told you so, but you know, if instead what you as a, as a, you know, calculating viewer of fight sports had been like, I'm going to listen to Jed. I'm going to not watch this. I'm going to tune in for the co-main event because that's going to be a banger, guaranteed,

certified, everyone agrees. And maybe I'll even stick around for the main event. But really what I'm going to do is I'm going to go about my business, going to hang out on Saturday, see my friends, my family. And I'm going to just check into MMAfighting.com, just a phenomenal website. And they're going to hit me with all the highlights. You could have gotten the same experience with three and a half hours less of commercials. Now, I'm not saying do that for every fight card.

And again, I'm not saying that if you enjoyed this fight card, you are wrong because people have different tastes. You could enjoy it. What I am saying is this card was better than expected, but it still wasn't good on paper. And to the ultimate point, did not matter. Because that's really what we're talking about. When we're saying a card is good or not on paper, some of the fights are,

not every fight is going to be a massively relevant fight because fight cards are big and not every fight has that. And you're hoping for the undercards to have the finishes like we got this past weekend, or maybe some relevance or things, you've got a new prospect debuting. But you don't want a whole, card of green beans. You need an entree. This is a whole card of vegetables at best. And that's

what it turned out being, but nothing here outside of the main event and the co-main event, which we talked about, which other people were higher on the main than I was, and everyone universally agreed on the co-main. Those matter. The rest of these fights, you are not going to remember a single one of them in three months time. And that's what we're talking about. When we're talking about of cards good or bad like good for uh good for uh mohammed usman and good for uh miller winning tough that is an accomplishment even though we bag on it a lot it is still a thing to done that is a feather in your cap that's a promotional tool that will follow them their entire careers now and they both did it as underdog so really good for them in that matter but like no one is going to remember this

And that's just how it goes. What we will remember is Jamal Hill. Jamal Hill goes out there. Pretty fun fight with Tiago Santos. It wasn't a great fight, but it was a way more fun than I thought it was going to be. Exactly. Exactly. But he goes out there, fourth round.

He tried to make it boring. Boy, did he try, but Jamal Hill just wouldn't let him. He found the foil, I guess. This is, Tiago Santos got a little, had to be a little more exciting. Jamal Hill sort of brought that out of him. him. Finally, Santos just kind of ran out of gas. He'll hurt him. He just sort of, Santos just sort of collapsed to the ground. He'll just beat him up, gets the job done, fourth round TKO, onto bigger and better things. Then he cuts the post-fight promo, has been saying stuff

ever since. Your head is shaking. I think you know where I'm going with this. Where do we grading Jamal Hill overall for his Saturday night? Oh, that's like a C-minus, dude. It was not a good night for him. It was a good night that he won, but I was really sad. I wasn't on the post show because I had a lot of thoughts immediately afterwards. The main one being everybody got really excited to big up Tiago Santos for his great game plan. It was an awful game plan, and I'll believe that until the day I die. Like, you're never going to convince me.

In a three-round fight, that's a good game plan because he probably would have won a three-round fight. like by doing that but it was a bad game plan for exactly the reasons we saw it ended up just gassing him out and made him easy to knock out in championship rounds because it's much much more difficult to wrestle somebody than to be wrestled especially if you are not a guy who wrestles and like i think i think i said it in our slack uh on fight night or maybe it was twitter maybe it was both like cool like this is kind of working for tago santos except for he is winning the battles to lose the war. It is the battle of the bulge. It is Hitler just throwing all his resources into a failed attempt that is going to ultimately bring down the Nazi empire. Like it is, there was no long-term plan of success because he couldn't hold Jamal Hill down because that's not what he does.

He didn't get a takedown and then he could rest the rest of the round on top of him, win the round accrued damage and tire him out. He got to take down. Hill stuffed his head and stood right back up and then we just did this whole dance again. It was an awful game plan. That being said, Jamal Hill super didn't look that good dealing with an awful game plan, which is concerning given that he has, I think he's going to be certainly in our top 10 next time we do ranking cycle.

He's probably going to be in the UFC's top five or near it because I think Tejaro Santos was number six in their rankings. And he has title aspirations. and Anthony Smith came on the MMA hour, tremendous program on the MMA fighting podcast, not on the MMA Fighting Podcast Network, but on the MAMA Fighting YouTube channel. You should go watch that. It happened yesterday with the esteemed Ariel of Hawani. And he said what I think, I think he said some wrong stuff in general, but he did say,

I thought was pretty correct of, you know, he, Jamal Hill got taken down a lot by Tiago Santos, who is not a wrestler. And all the guys at the top five say, maybe Yuri Barashka, that might not be what they do, but they're damn good at it. Like, Glover Tashara. It's a good wrestler, and if you get you down, he ain't Tiago Santos. You're not stuffing his head and standing back up. You're done there.

Jan Blah, same damn thing. We saw him do it to Israel, Disse. He is going to need to improve that, and that he should have time, but then he comes out and he cuts the bat, like a wrong promo. He was never getting a title fight, and he knows that, and he's still trying to do. it even though he very obviously isn't getting one. Like he just needed to come out and call, we talked about it before, he needs to come out, he needs to take his claim for Jan Blahev, instead of letting Magma and Kalayev take that

fight. He needs to try and jump to the front of that battle, but he hasn't done it. He's not going to get it at this point. So it's, it is, that's why I gave it a C minus. It's the lowest passing grade. He passed, but just about, because he won, he still gets a, passing grade, but all of the parts of it left a lot to be desired from me. Yeah, the post-fight stuff was not great.

The, you know, Jan would be a fun fight. Like, you can't say that. Like, come on, man. That end quote was dope. It was great. But, like, it was really good. You could have done that the whole time. You could have sprinkled in the collad of Jan or just said that first.

And then said, Jan, you're next. piece and just walked away. And that would have been perfect. A plus. A plus. He didn't even, honestly, if he had just not called anybody out, that would have been fine as well because I truly don't think it matters that much. I just think, I think light heavyweight's breaking

down that they're running back, Yeree Glover, and Jan and Uncle I were going to go. And I kind of think there's just no two ways about how that's going to shake out right now. So he had an outside chance to maybe insert himself, but ultimately it probably doesn't matter. So if he just comes out and says that one dope quote drops the mic and walks out because that quote was awesome like you need

stop talking about experience y'all i never experienced nothing like me that is a fire quote and he it was thrown as an add on after a bad call out which makes it like so forgettable really tough yes good win for jamal he moves on maybe fights dominic reyes maybe fights douged ryeas maybe fights Dustin Jacoby or Khalil Roundtree. We'll see what happens from there. Go ahead. I'm going to change my mind. I'm going to give him a C. I'm upgrading him to a C instead of a C minus

because I did not give enough credit to the fact that he did make Tiago Santos fun. And that deserves at least a half point bump because Tiago Santos hasn't been fun in a long time. And as we said, that fight was much more fun than any of us anticipated, certainly than I anticipated. So I'm just giving him a full. flat C.

Before we move on to the rest of the news cycle, if you will, Jeff Neal, good Lord. What a performance that was. Did you see that coming? Because I picked, I think I was, I think amongst

the panel on the pre-fight show was the only one picking Jeff Neal. I did not expect that kind of performance, but I expected a close, fun decision that Neil would win because I just thought, especially at the line he was at as an underdog, that I thought the fight was much closer than that on paper.

But Jeff Neal just blew the doors off Vicente-Luke. How stunned were you by that result? And what did you think of Neil's performance overall? I wasn't stunned-stun because I did pick Neil to win. I didn't think it would look quite as dominant. Even though that second round, Vicente-Luke came back, looked really good, started turning up the pressure. I thought Neil was making some questionable strategic choices there, but in the end, it didn't matter.

That fight looked a lot like I, in broad strokes, the concerns I had going into it, which was that Lucay is really, really fun and all offense, but he's been getting dinged up a lot. He has fought an absolute murderer's row of killers in this division. And though he's been winning most of them prior to the Belal fight, he won, you know, five, whatever it was in a row. He'd been taking a lot of shots, and I was just a little concerned that the tread may be off the tires for him. Not an old guy, but I think this is year 13 of his fight career. And as I mentioned, a lot of hard fights, whereas Neil a bit younger in terms of fight mileage in that regard. And has mostly avoided wars, you know, like he's in fun fights. And he's a good fighter and he's beaten some good guys but lost to the top.

but he has mostly at least not absorbed a ton of damage. And I think in a lot of ways that's what the fight was, right? Like, Neil just kind of kept sticking him with that jab, that left hand coming through, and just kept buzzing Luka. I didn't think he would look as good as crisp as he did because I think that was the best we've ever seen Jeff Neal look. But it was awesome, man.

And that fight was every bit as fun as we thought it was going to be. It was a great performance from Neil. I again question how he treated that second round because there was really a world where he was letting Luka back into that fight. But ended up not mattering gets, I think, the biggest win of his career by far. And I mean, Jeff Neal's going to be a top 15 fighter in our rankings next cycle, which I don't think, I think maybe one of us had him ranked before. I had previously had him ranked a couple months back, but he fell out as some of the, other top welter weights had kind of come along. But, I mean, that dude's going to be in everybody's ranking next month.

He's now number eight in the UFC rankings. He's jumped Jorge Mosvidal. So that's good. And I love the Gilbert Burns callout. I think that makes all the sense in the world. Great call out. And he's the exact opposite of Jamal Hill. Yeah.

I think he's a very good chance he gets that fight, too, because unless this whole thing with Mazadol and in the courts, I think he's scheduled back in court end of this month. If this gets settled quickly, maybe we see Mazadol back before the end of the year. But if this trial

becomes a trial trial and extends on for quite some time, I doubt we'll see Mazadol fight this year. It Burns isn't the kind of guy. It's just going to sit on the side and say, and it's like, no, I'm not going to fight Jeff Neal because I'm going to wait for Mazadol. Burns is not cut from that cloth at all.

He is not. Also, let's be. honest let's let's just be honest this is good for gilbert burns because he gets like there's some steam there's some heat here it's a good fight it makes sense it's not a bad fight for him from a ufc rankings perspective but most importantly you know what it you know what it isn't it's not chop caught rachmanov that's and and there's a real world where the ufc would just like well you just fought hamzat fight this other dude who's an absolute monster now gubut burns gets to not do that dance So it's great all around.

Yeah. I feel like Luke A is going to have to do that dance, though. I, that was apparently, so I stepped in for you on Otno this week. And apparently, A.K., was saying a lot of people felt that that was something that could happen. And I hate that so very, very much. I mean, I think it's true. There's a real possibility. And it's not, it will be a fun fight, but like, you know what, maybe I don't hate it.

because maybe that just accelerates us getting to where I view Lucke at right now, which is this is premature, but I think Vizente Luque is just a fun fighter now. Like, we don't have to pretend that he's a rankings dude or title aspirations. Let's just have him go fight Michelle Paheda or Robbie Lawler coming off the Brian Barbarina loss. Maybe not, but like that's still a really fun fight. You can just do any of those type of fights for him. And I think that that's how I, Santiago Ponziabio.

So that's kind of where I'd like Luke G to be. So maybe we just do the Rockmonoff fight. He takes a third L in a row. Great. Now he's in this silo. And we've seen fighters continue to have very good careers being fun fighters and having very lucrative livings being fun fighters. So those are the big stories coming out of UFC Vegas 59.

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? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of Facebook.

Fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. 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 Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. Before we get to this Saturday, I do want to talk about what is become one of the biggest stories.

Dana White's Contender Series. I don't know if you watched the card on Tuesday, Jed. It was not as good as last Tuesdays, but I did watch some good performances. But this whole season, the whole season, was built around Bo Nichols fight. And the guy goes out there, just absolutely runs over his opponent.

I don't even remember his name at this point for being honest. 61 seconds, takes him down, takes his back, strangles them. Doesn't even really strangle him. Just kind of just squished his face. Got the tap. Fights over. Dana does this thing.

Goes to Fighter 1. No, you don't get a contract. I needed to see more. Goes to Clayton Carpenter. Says, great fight. I'm going to give you a chance. Fighter 3 gives him a contract. Fighter 4, Jamal Boggs,

who's a heavyweight, has a not a great performance, if we're being honest. against a freaking welterweight essentially. A guy who was a welterweight took five years off, came back as an over bloated sort of heavyweight, like a 220 pounds, was talking shit the whole fight,

jabbing away, gets a decision, gets a contract. And I was like, all right, this is questionable considering the speech you just gave two weeks ago about showing up on Tuesday nights.

And then he goes to Bo Nicol. Bo Nicol, what can I say? Yada, yada, yada. we're going to get you another contender series fight and go from there. And I'm just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, back up the train a little bit. You're going to give this Bogues guy a contract

who clearly didn't have a contract worthy performance. And then you're going to go to Bo Nicol and you're not going to give him a contract. Now, let me just preface this by saying, I am fully aware of what is happening here. I get it. I know what's happening. I spoke basically,

fucking Bo Nickel broke the news to be who he was fighting. when I was in Las Vegas, he said he might have to fight on the contender series twice. That's fine. The whole thing is not the concern. It was just the timing of it all. And it made Bo Nickel look like a fool because they give Jamal Boggs this contract. Like Dana White had to sort of talk himself into it. And then he didn't deserve a contract, in my opinion.

And then we go to Bo Nickel and they're like, we're going to give you another shot in the contender series. It just made him look like kind of a fool. and Bo just kind of gives a thumbs up like tries to handle it like it's no big deal nothing off my back it was just can we just do the thing Jed where for once you could just say like what exactly is happening

and not treat the people watching your product like they're a bunch of friggin four year olds like can we just stop with the bullshit and just say hey we signed this guy like six months ago we're not going to play games with you this is his developmental deal. This guy signed to the

UFC, but we're just going to slow roll him a little bit, and we're going to let him come back on the contender series. Why do you have to treat us and everybody watching like we're frigging kids, Jed? What the fuck? Wow. I love the fire.

I agree with you 100%. Here's my take on it, right? Why not just make a developmental league? Like, you can just do that. Like they clearly the reason they aren't just

saying that is because they don't want the contender series viewed as a developmental league for whatever reasons. I would guess that it probably has something to do with their obligations to fighters signed to

the contender series wherein they don't have it because it's one-offs but I truly don't know because obviously that is what they're doing. It is, hey, you're just going to take another fight, we're not going to have you develop in the undercards of fight night events. We're going to develop you here as the main event to this thing that we're also trying to get people to tune into.

But like, they could really just turn the contender series into like an old WEC, right? You just do that, which seems way doper to me, honestly. Like, here, here's our old RFA or like any of those. It's okay to have a feeder league into, into. to the big leagues. And I know that the world is kind of the UFC's feeder league, but like it feels like it would be, it's obviously much more honest

and much more genuine way to approach it. And I think it would just be like in a more marketable, easy to sell than the contender series or whatever. Because like how often, basically everyone that comes into the UFC now came from the contender series or Bellator. And they don't talk if they came from Bellator. It's just like,

we signed Michael Chandler, who was a champion in other organizations or whatever. So, like, if you're not going to use the contender series as a promotional tool to be like, they might just talk about it, but it's not like Bruce Buffer says, Dana White, Tuesday night contender, contender series, season six, episode three, winner, whoever. Like, they just say, hey, this dude in his record. Whereas instead, you could just make the contender series, hey, this guy, there's a champion or whatever and you could develop it out

as like a real league that's doing functionally the exact same thing as the contender series is because it's make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, if you didn't know, let me tell you what the contender series' primary purpose is not to develop or scout talent. It is to sign cheap talent

that they feel well is cheap. They really don't care about the rest of it. Theoretically, it's cheap and at least has some potential. But mostly, they can just sign an infinite number of 10-10 fighters. That's why Dana White has, I know that apparently earlier this season, he didn't sign someone, like anyone off a show or whatever, but they've largely just been given out contract because they got fight requirements to fill, and they'd rather fill them with 10 and 10 guys doing whatever than paying Phil Davis $95,000 a fight or whatever it is.

So the primary purpose is just to get other young talent in, do it with like a real feeder league. contender series into that. Like that just seems way cooler to me. And then Bo Nickel can get five round championship experience in his fourth fight on the contenders series. Be like, well, he is now the contender series middleweight champion or whatever. We're going to bring him over. And like, that's just a way cooler way to do it, in my opinion.

Yeah, it's, it's just silly. Just stop with the whole, well, I mean, of course you're not going to sign him. He's only two and oh. You signed Danielle Wolf to a UFC. Like, not a developmental dealer. We're going to bring Danielle Wolf back here. No, that was her pro debut, her first MMA fight on the Contender Series. It was a lackluster performance.

You gave her a contract. And now she's going to get the doors blown off her by Norma Dumont. I don't even know when that fight's happening, but it's happening relatively soon. Like, don't say that, oh, he's only 2 and O. There's no way we can sign him. You have signed people coming off the Contender Series, making their pro debut. What is wrong with you? It's just so stupid.

They've also just signed all, like, they signed Blood Diamond. Blood Diamond sucks. He's just, like, really not good. And so, like, you just saw, they signed that dude basically entirely because he's friends with Izzy. Like, can we, we just pretend Bo Nichols, like, super tight with D.C. or something. Like, who cares? Yeah, with my, I mean, we know.

He's, would not think he fought in Mazadol's promotion. Go get Mazadol's Twitter over the last couple weeks. Promoting Bo Nickel. I interviewed Mazadol and Savannah last week. What are we talking about? He talked about freaking Bo Nickel. Yeah. He brought Bo in to train for the Covington thing.

He loves Bo. And he should. Because here's the thing that I don't think fans grapple with enough with regard to Nickel. I'll be on the record. I think that he is probably now surpassed Mohamed McIv in my estimation as the best current prospect in the sport. I think it is not a question to me. Bo Nicol will become a champion, whether it's in the UFC, or whether it's a Phil Davis-like champion in Bellator,

after something happens. I think that it is just a certainty, because we are talking about one of the more talented wrestlers to come out of the United States in many years. He is a U-23 world champion. The only reason he did not make the Olympic team this past cycle is because he wrestles in the same weight class as David Taylor, who won the gold medal and is one of the few men who had arguably a better collegiate wrestling

career than Bo Neckle did. Like that is just how it goes. And this is a dude who if he stayed in wrestling, which he did not get pushed out of wrestling. He chose to leave wrestling for the monetary incentives of MMA. But if he was just like independently wealthy, if his family was just super loaded and he didn't care at all. And the whole thing he wanted was an Olympic gold medal He had a better than most shot of getting it

He would almost certainly have won medals On the world stage of wrestling Whether that's world championships or the Olympics He almost certainly was on a path to medal At some point in his career Fighters like that don't come into MMA all that often When they do, they usually really damn good In Reesahudo

There's one example Like it's just how it goes he is incredibly athletic he has a baseline skill set that is probably the most important one to have an MMA he seems to be really focused on this and have a good

preternatural ability towards it dude's going to be a champion and guess what he could dust up a lot of dudes on the MMA middleweight roster like the UFC middleweight roster right this moment I am not saying that means he needs to come to the UFC or that he won't have setbacks

or that this guy's the best fighter in the world. What I'm saying is that's just the nature of the beast. There are anomalies. There are people that exist outside of the normal flow of things. And Bo Nickel is one of them. Because straight up, if you book to fight between Bo Nickel and Alex Beheada, who is about to fight for the middleweight title and who, frankly, I am probably going to pick to become the UFC middleweight champion, I think there is a very real possibility that Bo nickel just absolutely knuckle dust, Alex Peda. And that means that this dude could theoretically hold the UFC belt in a year.

It's not what's going to happen. It's not how that works. I register that. But what I'm saying is we don't have to pretend like this dude is stains or that this dude needs a soft touch. He does need a soft touch. The UFC's really bad about that with development. But they signed, you know, I don't even know why I said all that.

because all I had to say was to say one thing. There's one obvious argument to make, and it's just this. They put CM Punk on two freaking pay-per-views or whatever. I don't remember if they were pay-per-views. I think they were. Like, CM Punk, C-M-Punk, C-M-Fricin-Punk. You can't put Bo-Nichol on regular fight-night cards just against softball competition.

It's just obviously stupid. Do that or do this, but just be honest about it. The UFC could just be honest. It's all, like, yeah, he's already signed. but instead of having him be the curtain jerker on UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, we'd rather him headline a contender series in three weeks because people might tune in for that. And that's all it is.

Yeah. And he's going to be a minus 5,000 favorite. And he's going to win in less than two minutes. And then he'll get a contract. Yeah, it's like just looking at the current middleweight division. Bo, Bill Nichol is a minus 500 favorite against, 50 of these guys in this division right now

which is crazy like what are we waiting on just just go I mean seriously just go I mean this with entire sincerity I outside of the pad or one which is obviously like a very unique corner case like

I wouldn't feel super bad about picking him against like Darren Till's a top 10 middleweight 100 that was the one that was the one I was thinking of it was Darren Till he beats Darren Till I think there's And I'm not saying he should get that fight

Because you shouldn't you should let him fight 10 fights against people with middling to nothing records Don't Aaron Pico this man He's got too much potential too much talent But like you don't have to pretend like he's Like he's poo You don't have to be like I'm not sure if he's good enough He's not enough

Like no you just say it like Yeah this dude's gonna be awesome Because that's the other thing It's the part that really annoys me and I know it shouldn't because I've been in this game too long, but like ostensibly your job is a promoter. Your job is to promote. Your job is to get people excited.

And you don't have to book him in the way that you talk about him. But you, Dana White could have gotten on the mic and been like, this dude is unbelievable. Oh my God, this guy, like three-time national champion, even though low-key, that actually means less than you think it should because, like, really what you're talking about is Bo-Nichol was the U-23. national champion, which isn't nearly as impressive, like, an actual accomplishment in broader sports terms, you know, but like, dude was an NCAA champion three times.

Dan Hodge Trophy winner, best pinner in the country two-time, absolute stud, you know, barely missed out on going to the Olympics. This guy's going to be a future champion. Do it was the Penn State Athlete of the Year? At Penn Friggin State, the athlete of the year, including football at that friggin' school. That's crazy. That's nuts, dude. That's nuts.

I don't know all the Penn State athletes of the year, but that wouldn't shock. They've had so many really dominant wrestlers and their football team has been mostly bad for a while now. I mean, they're now competent, but they're not, you know, heydays of the awful parts of their history good. So it wouldn't shock me if, like, somebody, like David Taylor or whatever was like the Penn State athlete of the year. I honestly sort of feel like he might have been. but it's you just Dana White shouldn't have been like you know he's just a little too green he should just come out and like this dude's the next guy we're so excited we do want to see him test little we're going to have him fight on the contender series again because we don't want to rush him too much but Dana White's the same dude who told us that Uriah Hall was the next second coming because he killed somebody on tough and who was that little dude who was the next Anderson Silva who lost Efron Escadero in the finals of tough. Oh,

um, damn it. I can't think of his name off the top of my head. I'll come up with it in a minute. But like, that dude was the next Anderson Silva. But Beau frickin' Nickel is just like, well,

we're not sure. We want to see, like you could just say, this dude is the next dude. He's going to be unbelievable. We're so excited. Tune in three weeks when he does it again. That's how you promote somebody.

Yeah. But the U.S. you can't promote for crap, and it's very annoying. Yeah, it's just dumb. Just stop talking to the fans, to the members of the media, like we're children. Because we know what's happening. Just say what's happening. Philip Nover. Yeah, that's it.

There you go. Just treat everybody you are promoting as if they are Philip Nover coming off tough. Dana White, you would be way better at your job if you did. Like, way, way better. there you go I like it this Saturday we're out of the apex

Jed we're going to San Diego speaking of Anchorman we're not we won't say exactly what the meaning of San Diego is on this program but go watch Anchorman and find out again

That's not what it meant that's not what it meant what was the old old wooden ship well uh damn it not a quality I have no idea I have to go back and watch it

but it wasn't with the meaning of San Diego I can tell you that but scholars maintain that movie is actually way better than it's still it aged so well all of it is still

dumb and hilarious it's craziness but Domina Cruz is about to fight Marlon Cheeto Vera Jed Bishu and I like the Spanish event. It's a very fascinating matchup. Stylistically, I see where, yeah.

I like the matchup. I feel like everybody is overlooking Dominic Cruz here. I feel like this is just the anointing of Cheeto Vera and a lot of people's eyes. But I feel like this fight is a lot closer than people are giving it credit to. At least I'm looking at the betting lines, as it was this morning, maybe a change. But

Dominic Cruz is a plus 195 underdog. I feel like this is closer than that on paper. and I feel like if Dominic Cruz can just not get knocked out, I think this is a very close fight. Am I crazy? What are your thoughts on this one? I have not had the chance to listen to NBB yet. Oh, well, my thoughts on this one are many.

Mainly because I don't like Dominic Cruz and I never have, and I'm not going to apologize for it. I don't understand him as a fighter. He was so successful that he convinced people that the weird stuff he does is good and not just like the best possible version of a Keith Jardine

because like that, like let's be honest, you don't remember, I don't even know if you were like a big fan at the time when everyone was so stoked on Keith Jardine because he was unorthodox, but actually when they use the word unorthodox, they mostly mean crap.

And that's kind of a Dominant Cruz's footwork is. It's unorthodox, but it's mostly like it's effective, but it's very uniquely effective to him. What I said on Obet's Bard is MMA, all sports really, but especially in MMA, things that work get copied a lot and quickly. We saw how the low calf kick went from like one person doing it to everybody doing it,

or that the oblique kick from John Jones had a moment in the sun. Like it's just when something is really effective, people take it up in mass. Ain't nobody done that with Dominic Cruz's footwork. Dominic Cruz's footwork is unique only to, him and specifically to how his style works. And if anyone else does it, they'll mostly just get punched in the face because it's actually not a very good thing. The problem, as I see it, is that Cruz's footwork relies a lot on things that I'm not

sure he has anymore. He's about to be 37 years old. He doesn't have working knees. Well, he does now, but he's blowing them out like a hundred times. It's very difficult for old men who've had multiple knee surgeries to still have the same sort of explosion and movement that they once did. He's also getting old, and his style relies a lot on his ability to react, to pull, because his arms are down by his waist, he's got to be able to get his head moving and

reacting in time. And more importantly, he really needs takedowns for it to work. Like, he maybe doesn't need them, but he at least needs a realistic threat of them existing to open up, to make everybody slow and take a half step, to not just, Just do what Cody Garbrandt did to him, which was, oh, you don't have your hands by your head. And every time you step in, I'm going to punch you in the face. And, like, that's really all Cody Garbrant did is he fundamentally boxed him. And Dominant Cruz had absolutely no answer for someone with fundamental boxing.

And I'm not saying that Cheetah Vair is great in that regard. But he's decent. He's young. He's super athletic. And I'm not sure that he has to, even though Cheetah's not a great, like, defensive wrestler, I'm not sure he has to be concerned about it because Donald Cruz doesn't have knees at work anymore. Like I said it on no buts bar.

He scored, I think, two takedowns since his return against Henry. So if we're saying that he took four years off basically from Garbrent to Sohudo. So since that, he has scored, like, I think two takedowns in his three fights on like 20 some odd attempts because he's just he doesn't have the same tools to do it anymore. I personally thought his performances against Casey Kinney and Pedro Muño has made it very clear to me. Yes, he got the win. He is not anywhere close to what he was at his apex. And that's okay.

That's what 37-year-old men are. They're not as good as they once were. I think against Cheeto Vera, that's a problem. So maybe because he is unorthodox and tricky, he might, I think he's go, especially early, may give Cheeto some time to adjust and some issues there. but I'm picking Cheeto to win a leg kick heavy decision, probably. And where does Cheetah? Like what happens for,

because you have to think both guys get us, there's stakes here. Whoever wins this fight is going to get a little bit of a push. And we got Joseo fighting Marab next Saturday, UFC 278. So you have to think, depending on what happens there, and what happens in the title fight between Al Jemite Sterling

and T.J. Dillishaw in October, that will kind of determine where we go from here. Unless, I don't know, man, because now you got O'Malley and Jan too. So let's just say Joseoaldo, let's take Saturday out of the question. Let's say Joseo Alto beats Mab de Walsh, really, which I think he's going to do. I think he's going to win. It looks like a nightmare matchup, like when you look at the posters, but if you actually break the fight down and you look at a skill for skill,

I think Josealdo should win this fight. I think he should beat Marab. So Jose wins. You would think he's next for the belt no matter what. But if Sean O'Malley beats... Not no matter what. Yeah. But if Sean O'Malley beats Piotr-Yon could be a whole other situation.

So what is really at stake for Saturday's made event here? Cheeto Vera, you think he's kind of close to a title fight. Dominic Cruz, you know the relationship he has of the UFC. There's a chance maybe he gets pushed a little bit quicker. What is actually at stake here? What's at stake is that if Dominic Cruz wins, he's going to just be insufferable. And so that's the biggest thing at stake is we all need to collectively pull for Cheeto to win because Dominic Cruz will just be awful.

And that's not any, he'll just, because he'll come out and he'll be like, I want a title fight of one three in a row, give me a title fight, and he might get it, which is awful because he doesn't in any way deserve a title fight. It's just not what actually should be a title fight. stake is the winner of this is going to fight the odd man out of the title picture is basically what's going to happen but if chito wins chito's way cooler and will just be way cooler about it whereas if dom wins he's going to be insufferable until he does get booked in a title eliminator against either jos aaldo or the winner of yon umali if sean o'malley knocks out peyoteer yon

or just beats peyote yon he's getting the next title fight that's just all there is to it i don't think anyone can really dispute that if you have eyes and a brain that work in your head like he is just going to get the title fight if he doesn't if yore yon wins and jos aaldo beats mara bade valer freely josaldo is going to get it because yon especially if aljo beats sterling because they're not going to run that fight back that quickly so in that kind of scenario then you've just got yon facing the winner of vera cruz um which I think is probably likely because I think Peoria

would probably beat Sean O'Malley though I think that fights a lot closer to the most people suspect it is if Marab wins then it's up in the air because if Maraub beats Aldo and Jan beats O'Malley then it will depend on how the title

fight goes because if Aljo loses if Dillishaw wins then Maraub probably gets the title fight over Yon but I'm not just because I think think that's more palatable, but I'm not even certain of that, frankly. So the answer is whoever doesn't get the title fight out of Sean O'Malley or Aldo Marab,

they're just going to end up fighting Cheeto in a number one contenders match, which I think makes sense. It's a little unfortunate for Cheeto, especially in this scenario, but that's just, I think that's how it will go. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Unless, dear God, please don't let the UFC 280 co-me. main end in like a no contest or a draw because then that's just going to bundle up 135 forever and there are a lot of guys who deserve title fights or on the cusp and I'd love to see those fights

happen but if there's like a draw then then we're just going to be waiting forever for for a new contender that's the main event uh we won't spend a ton of time on the rest of the card but we'll play this true or false on paper this car this car is better than last week's card. Ooh, that is interesting. On paper, you say. On paper.

I think the answer is yes. It's tough, though, isn't it? Like, when you really look at it, it's tough. It's very close. I'm going to say no. I'm going to say no for the very specific reason that all due respect to your best friend,

Alexander Kaley, who is a great writer at a great website. Nobody cares all about tough and the one of the selling points quote unquote

for last week's card were the tough finale's so I think by virtue of that no but like Vera Cruz is up there with Neil Lucke

as far as a fun good interesting competitive bout I think the Santos-Tramal Hill fight on paper is more

relevant than anything else that's going on on this card obviously but you do have Angela Hill, Lupi Godinez. I think that's a pretty fun fight. You do have Calvilla Nunes,

Nunes, which is probably not a fun fight, but that's a fight that has some relevance, despite both of their losing streaks. O'D Osborne and Tyson NAM is going to rule. And, you know, it's always fun to watch Gerald

Mearshark get knocked out, so that's also something that's happening on this. Oh, Gabriel Benitez, Charlie Anteveros, is, that's going to be an absolute bang or two. So, like, I think on paper this one edges it out. It's cert. Here, if we're going with on paper, if we had done this show last week and ask this question,

I would have said this one at this time. Maybe when last week's dropped to 10 fights, I might have said that that's a better on paper because 10 fights really makes a huge difference than we got 13 looks like here. A lot of fights. A lot of fights. But we get a 4. PM prelim and a 7 p.m. main card. And that makes all the difference in the world to me. That is, that is better. Though I do think it's interesting that two of the fights on this 13 fight card

were actually supposed to happen last week. So, you know, maybe we'll just keep kicking the can perpetually down the road. It's crazy. And then they moved up Angela Hill, Lupi Godin as two months to fill this one up. Yeah. And it turns out, They didn't need to do that. No, they didn't need to do that. I'm not complaining that they did that because I like the fight a lot. One of the better fights in the card. Yeah, two of the gamiest of gamers.

So I dig that quite a bit. I like the fact that there's going to be a freaking crowd there. So that'll make things a little less boring and less vanilla. We're going to be eating some mint chocolate chip, which I like. So, yeah. Plus, we've got a battle of the Yasmin's. Yes. Naming rights battles are among my favorite stupid gimmicks in M.A.

Yasmin Uruguay is a killer. She has looked really good at like combate and whatever. Also, only 23, though in Ando Bettsbar, we talked about this fight because I have a bet down to Uruguay. But Yasmin Lucinda is 20 years old and has been fighting professionally for five years. Yeah, she's a badass too. That's just, that's just really cool, even if I'm not sure she's very good. But that's some gangster stuff. Yes.

So it's actually not a. I'm higher on this one. I think the earlier start time definitely puts it over. That gives you like two points right there. It has enough incremental value, but like the big issue is you can't run Nate Landware

in the Comain event. Like you just got to put something better in the Comain. If this had something with more cachet in the Comain, then I think this would unequivocally better. Yeah, I think that the Coma was supposed to be Aspen Lad,

Sarah McMahon, but that one got pushed back to... I'm not sure that that makes it better. Oh, Alexa Grasso, Vivia Araujo was supposed to be the Kobe Bay Bay. That's right. That's right. This would be unquestionably better if that was the deal. Yep. Grasso withdrew.

That one's going down in October now. Yeah. That's a great fight. That's why. All right. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. What? Sounds like Ojo time.

Play Ojo. Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Sporting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only.

Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close you, call 186653310 or visitcommitzontario.ca. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. from festive and cozy fashion to lux beauty and fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. So let's just have a little potpourri round because there's a lot of stuff that has been happening,

a lot of stuff we haven't been able to talk about. The PFL is back this weekend. That card is a freaking disaster right now. We're getting people getting subbed out. Guys who are probably going to win the whole damn thing are no longer fighting, Juan Adams is in. There's so much clustering going on. I haven't even be able to keep track of it.

So the PFL is happening in Wales, I believe. Bellator 284 is happening this weekend as well. Oh, that's, there you go. Cardiff, Wales. So if you could only watch one, are you watching Bellator or are you watching PFL? Oh, that is. Well, let me see, because I know that the PFL has made some changes

in the last like hour. Yeah, it's so, that's a mess. It's a disaster. Oh, are we doing the dumb post-limb thing again? That's exciting. Love dumb post-slums as a person who worked PFL last week. Okay, Juan Adams, who, if you had to have one guy drop out, I mean, I know that Dennis Stalzoff would have been, I guess, cooler, but Juan Adams is coming off a really solid performance.

uh in his pfl debut and you know at least good for him in that regard uh this pfl card's not good though i'm trying i'm trying to find something here uh i don't want to have to watch rory mcdonald fight in the year of a lord 22 because it it's just not very entertaining um yeah this this fight card's bad um it's not going to be that let's take a look at old bellator just on the fly uh oh it's obviously belator i don't even know why I think about this. Tall Steve. Tall Steve Maui is fighting. If you've listened to know that far this week, you'll know what I'm talking about. I'm all in on Tall Steve Maori. He's fighting Valentin Moldovsky, former interim heavyweight champion for Bellator.

Woldovsky is probably going to win because he's probably a better fighter. But he's like the worst kind of solid heavyweight in that he's good but boring. This is a dude who he doesn't have a lot of fights in his career, but a vast majority of his wins have come by unanimous decision. Like that's even on the, I say regional scene because he came into MMA and Risen, so it's less regional.

But like he mostly has just won decisions because he's not that interesting. And he had the temerity to lose to Ryan Freakin Bader in 2022. So that's, you're never going to make it on my, on my good list if you're losing to Ryan Bader. But tall Steve, buddy, he's fighting out of what's Sanford's name now, Kilcliffe?

Kilcliff FC. Yeah. Kilcliff, he's a BJJ black belts, had his black belt given to him by Gilbert Burns, who, you know, pretty good at the whole grappling thing, what with being a world champion at it. He is 10 and 0. He is 8 feet tall. I think he's actually 6-8 or 6-9, but he is huge. He is relatively young at 30 years old for heavy weight.

And most importantly, he is finishing people. Look at his career, 100% finishing rate. I believe nine out of 10 fights, sorry, eight out of 10 fights looking at it now, finished in the first round. This dude is taking you down, he's choking you out, he's grabbing up an arm, he's kneeing in the face, he's doing a bunch of fun things. He's doing what you want to see from a developing prospect. Again, he's 30 years old, but that's a problem.

prospect at heavyweight. So for that alone, I am excited to watch Steve. Tall Steve, that's the other, my, my, I think, favorite part of him is his Instagram handle is Tall Steve fights people. It's an unbelievable name for a 6-8 dude who's a professional fighter. That's, yeah, there you go. So give me Belltor 284 and Tall Steve fights people. Of course, Neiman Gracie, Goichi Yamauchi is the main event of that card. Malay McFarland, who massively missed weight earlier today, fights Bruda Ellen. What a tough turn for her. Man, fall from grace, for sure.

Also, Austin Vanderford, who just fought for a title, is now not even, he's opening the main card. Tough, tough scene. Yeah, and he's fighting Aaron Jeffrey. That is not an easy fight. That is a tough substitution for Anthony Adams. of, oh man, I forgot we were getting the rematch nobody asked for. Deanna Bennett and Justine Kish. Sullivan Colley coming off the big win over Big Tuna gets the prelim treatment against Tyson

Jeffries. We mentioned wrestlers having success in MMA, guys with tremendous wrestling pedigrees and resumes talked about Bonickel. Pat Downey, another guy, may not have the best relationship with the wrestling world. he will be making his finally MMA debut against Kays Nelson who's 0-and-3 so there you go and yeah so that that card's happening it's not bad it's not great it's better than PFL but

it's a it's a tough one for being honest I mean yeah it's a I mean it's not the best but there's at least enough things here the main card is at least interesting enough from Bellator. The undercard is mostly bad. But that is also kind of I will say this is one of

one of the one of the Bellator's less good offerings of late because we've mentioned it, I don't know if we've mentioned it publicly, we've certainly talked about it privately. Belator's not doing as much as they used to and that has honestly been great as far as their card

quality because it's not like they have a huge roster of fighters they can turn out. So their cards have largely been way better than they were all of 2020 or 2019 or whatever. It's just, you know, they're just doing less of them and they're condensing their talent more. So this is one of those where a little less of that.

We've got a little less of that going on, but at least the top end of it, still pretty good. Yeah, we got Pitbull Brother title fights on the books now. We have Petricio fighting defending his title against Adam Borch on the same card that Aegee McKea is fighting on, who's moving up to 155 to fight Spike Con. Carlisle, we just found out Aaron Pico, Jeremy Kennedy's on that card as well. That card is a lot going on in it.

That's a fun one. That's definitely a fun one. And then the Patrici, and then we just found out in November, Patrici Pitbull is going to defend his title against Usman Armaghamedoff, which I love. Love. I love that idea. And I'm going to say it right here. I'm not going to try to be a dope.

I said it before. I'm going to say it again. Usman Ramagamatov will be the Belator Lightweight Champion by the end of the, by, uh, November 14th or 15th by the day he fights Patrici yeah yes and he puts him away yes he is in Usman's the truth dude an unnamed uh member of the MMA fighting great website team uh reached out to me a few hours ago when that fight was announced uh with the sole question of do you think there's any chance that uh oosman opens up as an underdog to patricki to which i laughed heartily i was like there's zero chance and this this unnamed member was like but but maybe they'll they'll get

confused and think that it's patricio pit bull and i was like they won't but that also won't even work because his name is usman or muhammedov like that's there's just he's going to open as a minus 400 favorite and i'm going to hammer that line like he's going to just roll right on over patricki and get the belt that's good because he is probably the best lightweight uh in Bellator, except for maybe A.J. McKeat excited to see what he's going to look like at 155 pounds. I love it very much. I like the idea. Speaking of Bellator, even though she's kind of technically a free agent, Chris Cyborg. Chris Cyborg is boxing against somebody I've never heard of on a card that I've never heard of, a poster that looks exactly like a UFC fight card poster. So good? Do you mean that it's really good? Is that what you?

you're saying. Yeah, it's tremendous. And then Kayla Harrison obviously had some things to say about this and both women were on the MMA hour. And of course, PFL is coming out say, we'll do a million here and a million here and the winner gets two million. PFL just likes to like say things, even though they don't mean a whole lot because- I support that strategy. Just saying things? Yeah, I do it all the time. So I'm pro just saying stuff. Right. But here's here's the difference. So like let's just say you could say things and then somebody else who actually makes those decisions is like, hey, if you want this to happen, here's what you have to do. If you just do this, we might be able to do it. And then you just refuse.

You just keep saying things and refuse to do what the person who actually makes a decision or else could help guide the decision in the right way is telling you to do. Because Belator keeps saying, hey, if you want to do this, like, we're not against it. But like pick up the phone and call us and like we'll sit down. We'll have a meeting like professionals and do this. And PFL just takes that as, oh, you know what? They're scared. They don't want to do it. We're just going to tag you and call you on on social media and do things completely

unprofessionally. So I hate the way the PFL has handled this from Jump Street. They continue to handle it poorly. And it makes Kayla look bad because she's just the fighter. She wants the fight. She's saying the. things and she looks bad because PFL is just doing this completely wrong

in my opinion. So your thoughts on this. Do we, do you, like, do you have any confidence we're going to see this fight between Chris Cyborg and Kayla Harrison happen anytime soon? Because I don't. I'd love to see it. I want to see it. I just have zero faith that happens anytime soon. Soon? No. This is really interesting because I have a very different read on this where I am not in love with how

PFL's handled stuff. But I think theirs is really obvious to me in that they believe Chris Cyborg is a free agent, or very near it. And so they're not trying to negotiate against themselves by roping in Bellator. They want to get it all on their own. And they think that they can theoretically pull Chris Cyborg in. The way they're going about it, maybe that's not the best. Also, Chris Cyborg's free agency status, debatable, especially because,

it does seem like she wants to go back with, stay with Scott Coker. So I think that in the long term, BFL will pivot into doing a co-promotion because I think that's probably, Cyborg was probably eventually going to resign with Bellator, and that's how it will go. I have found Chris Cyborg to be handling this substantially worse

than just about anybody as far as the optics go. I want to be extremely, extremely clear about what I'm saying here. Chris Cyborg is not afraid to fight Kayla Harrison. She's just not. Like, I mostly don't think fighters are ever afraid to fight other fighters. They're professional fist fighters. Like, if I'm not afraid to get in fights with people who will kick my ass, I really doubt that someone who's literal job and who is way, way better at fighting is probably not

afraid to get in fights with somebody. Like, that just doesn't seem like that's a real thing because it's not, if you've ever talked to any fighter outside, like, in any sort of a social setting. They're just not afraid of fighting people. So she's not afraid. Like she's not not taking this because she's afraid of it But everything she has said publicly Is really bad in that

It all lends What some people might call Idiot MMA fans But what I will just call is the broader MMA fan base Who don't think critically and like about this sort of stuff And they're not deeply invested or ingrained in the way that you and I are They're just looking at it and every action she has taken really, really lends to the narrative that she doesn't want to fight Kayla Harrison.

She's afraid of fighting Kayla Harrison. And again, while that, that matters. I genuinely feel that public perception, especially if your goal, your job is to be a marketable fighter, that matters. And so I don't have any issues with her taking a boxing fight. I think there's, there are legitimate critiques to what boxing match she has taken. taking, which Kayla Harrison kind of noted. She's fighting a 39-year-old woman who has a losing record in professional boxing, and still she has an extensive professional boxing record, but that's maybe not the best

optic for that to be the professional boxing bout you take for your first one. In a vacuum, you could say, well, she has zero experience, but that's not really how these things work. But it's just like her, she should, she can't come out and say stuff, at least not in the manner of just like, I don't really care if I ever fight Kayla Harrison. Or like, I'm at peace if we never fight. Like, sure, if she wants to come to Belator, we'll fight or whatever. Like that's, she didn't have to say a ton and she doesn't, but she needs to go one way or

the other on it. She can't be like, I am the triple crown or quad champion of whatever and I want to beat all the best people and if she's the best person great let's do it blah blah blah and then just be like well i don't really care you got to either just be like i she needs me i don't need her that she's it like i'm i'm already set i'll need her she she chose not to come to belator she can figure it out and come settle this up with me i don't need her don't care i'm not going to talk about her i'm not going to give her that shine or she could say the thing that i think she actually believes in her heart that is way better and more obvious of yeah this is a one-fight boxing thing i've still got to figure

on my m-ma stuff i'm going to do that at some point and me and kail harrison are going to fight if every interview she said she stopped saying i don't care if we ever fight and just said me and kailer are going to fight at some point that's it that's all she has to do because it probably is true i think it's what she actively wants to do at some point but she's like i want a box and right now keel's with the pfl and i am still dealing I want to re-sign with Belator, and we're going to have to figure that out down the road. I'm not going to go chase them for one thing over there because this is what I want.

I'm just doing this boxing thing. But we're going to fight. If she just reinforced it every time, instead of being like, I don't really care, then she won't have this perception that is growing that is, well, she doesn't want to fight Kayla Harrison for one reason or another. And I think she's just handled the optics of this really, really poorly.

And then the PFL is making it look worse, obviously by throwing out these big numbers. And then she keeps, she's coming at the PFL. And that's like where she really looks bad when she's like downplaying Kayla Harrison or doing public contract negotiation or doing contract negotiation sort of statements in public where the PFL tweeted that offer that you mentioned. I don't remember what was it, Mike. It's like a million each, but it's $2 million to the winner or something.

Yeah. And you've got Kayla at the same time doing. the, you know, I don't, you can, if you win, you can take my whole win bonus. And like, in the, in the battlefield of optics, Kayla Harrison is clearly winning because she is the one acting like she wants to fight. And that, like, that's really all optics is, is just acting like you want it. Even if behind the scenes, you're not pushing for it or the other things that are at play and taking it, it is just the perception that you are doing, that you are actively taking pro, like, positive steps. towards making this accomplished. And at the bare minimum,

Cyborg is giving off the vibe that she is not caring to do so. And in some ways, is really coming off as if she's actively, like, moving away from this fight. And so she's losing the optics battle.

Kayla Harrison gets to go on. And some of this, I will say, some of this might simply have to do with English isn't her first language. And so maybe there's a barrier that's creating friction in this regard. But she got people around her.

She's got people on her social media. But coming out and being like, well, PFL, you guys are offering us this money. But why are we do 50-50 fight purse? Based on what? Kayla Harrison's own manager says she doesn't draw pay-per-views. And nobody, you can't come out and say nobody gives a shit about this fight, which is basically what she's said to a lot of the criticism. Certainly, nobody, Kayla Harrison, you're not a draw.

Nobody cares. Nobody cares about this fight. nobody cares about you, why do you get all this money, when very clearly, it is the only fight anybody gives two shits about as far as Chris Cyborg is concerned. Or Kayla Harrison. Not saying that Kayla is drawing them in herself,

but nobody cares if Chris Cyborg goes and boxes this woman. Nobody cares if Chris Cyborg fights Kat Zangano. They care if those two fight each other, and that's it. And so you can't pretend like Kayla Harrison isn't a draw and this fight doesn't matter and it's not big. When it's the only fight you get asked about, Like that's just not how this works. So she's getting killed in the optics as far as I'm concerned.

No, I get where you're coming from. There's just so much uncertainty about PFL when it comes to this pay-per-view stuff. Oh, yeah. They're going to take a bath on it for sure. They're going to get killed. And they're talking about 50. And you know what's great about it? But here's the thing.

Check clears. Yeah. Right. But we don't know if like the million means you're going to get a million up front plus the pay-per-view numbers because they're going out saying, Hey, we are, we are flipping pay-per-view on its ear, baby, because we're giving the fighters 50% of the revenue. If 50%, like, if you sell three pay-per-views, if you sell three pay-per-views, here, here's a large, here's a venty coffee from Starbucks, bro. Congratulations.

Way to sell. Like, who is going to spend $50 to watch this fight? Serious question. How many, how many pay-per-view buys do you think PFL could get? for a for a cyborg Harrison pay-per-view. Let's say they don't price it at 50. Let's say they do the reasonable price point of 25 bucks. 125,000.

I think I'd take the over. Yeah, it's not, it's less than 200. They're doing less than 200. Oh, I think, I think they could do 250. Oh,

I don't know, man. I really do. Not because, because I think, I think they would give it just the full court price of, Because they should. And they're not on a stupid network like Bellator is, so it might actually work. They're on ESPN Plus, which is already a thing that people who watch fights have and pay pay-per-views on.

And I think if they put it at a competitive price point, because Kayla Harrison will get in front of everybody. She's two-time Olympic gold medalist. You could put her on any talk show in the world, and the PFL could do it. And Chris Seaborger is a star. And I think they could put enough promotion that that thing could sell 250,000 pay-review buys. what's the rest of the card i mean it's it depends on what the rest of it i don't know man i think you need more i think you need more the ufss running out nate daz and hamzat shimai have and 12 boxes of turds like it does that fight card is ufc 279 is the worst fight card i'm not even

joking i think it might be the worst paper view fight card in in a decade it's gonna do it's it's gonna do 800 000 buys yeah because the only thing that people buy is the main event it's really the only thing that people buy. And I think at 25 bucks, you can sell Harrison Cyborg. If you give that a full court promotional press, I think you can sell a quarter million pay-per-views.

Kayla Harrison's going to have to slap Chris Cyborg across the face during one of these press conferences. Yeah. If that happens, maybe you get your 250. I think I... I just think PFL is not great at their jobs. They're not great at their jobs.

No, they're not. Because everyone who promotes... fights as bad at it, apparently, which is very weird. You'd think that they'd do better at it, but so it goes. I think, I'm not saying it would because I don't know how they would promote it, but if I, if I had the pen, if I was in charge, I would say, I think our target, I think an achievable target for us, maybe, maybe a slightly ambitious, but an achievable target is 250,000 paper of you guys at a $25 price point. That'd be a massive success.

I mean, other world, otherworldly success. Yeah. Because like, Demetrius Johnson was pulling 200,000 pay-per-view buys with the UFC actively saying he sucked. Like, how weird this sport is? It would be an other-worldly success. Well, here, you know what? Here's what I'll say. It's going to sell more pay-per-views than Chris Seabor boxing a 17 and 20-30-year-old woman.

Oh. It's going to sell way more than that. me me boxing a k on a on a random stream we'll do better than cyborg i well but you know we need to question cala harrison's ability to draw that's true that's what chris cyborx been doing i was wondering what this uh this opponent was going to be i was like oh maybe it's the katie taylor fight it is katy taylor it is not and maybe that's it's so dumb i know i know that i don't think the Katie Taylor fight happens strictly from a size standpoint, right?

Like, I don't, I think that Cyborg is simply too big and Katie Taylor will not acquit, like, accept a size that Cyborg could make and not die. So I think that that is the blocker. But like, this fight, this is a fight that I hope Chris Cyborg is very, very happy, because

this is a fight that is entirely for her. And that's okay. You should do the things that make you happy in your career and in your life, firmly support that. God knows I do it. way more than people would probably say I should. But nobody cares about this fight. It's not going to make her any money outside of whatever, whoever's paying for it will give to her.

And this doesn't build to anything. If she really wants to do boxing, it seems like she does, and it seems like she wants to do it more than just a dalliance, they could have done something better here. They could have let this be the build to something bigger. They, what fight card is this on? Is this on like a her specific fight card? What?

Cyborg's boxing match? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think she's the main event. Yeah. Okay, that's just eight levels of awful. Like, I just don't know who's in charge of Chris Cybor's career because it feels like they're doing a bad job. Because I would just, you're just fighting on the next time Chris Paul fights.

You're just boxing. Then this fight on the undercard of that matters. People at least will be like, ooh, that's another thing, part of the Jake Paul thing, then it can maybe build to something better. And then it doesn't matter at all who you're boxing. But like there's just nothing. There's no meat on this bone.

Absolutely nothing for anyone to consume. Speaking of boxing and kind of funny, we had one of the best segments in the history of the show last week when talking about the Jake Paul, Hussein Rockman Jr. card, which is supposed to take place this past Saturday. This is unbelievable. It was unbelievable.

fully canceled. And I haven't had a chance to talk to you in a public form about this because a day after all of this, I see Brockman set up a public way in. He set up a public way in in in in Brooklyn at Gleason's gym. He streamed it all to, I'm going to weigh in. I'm going to weigh in. I'm going to show all you fools that I could have made weight and boxed Jake Paul and there's nothing to worry about it all. And what does he do, Jen? he weighs in at 206.6.6. He misses weight, but then the cherry on top of the Sunday, he celebrates it. Celebrates making 206.6.6. Celebrates Jake Paul being a coward. He's the one that canceled the fight. I told you all I was going to make it. There's nothing to worry about. Please. Please wax poetically on all this, because this is just the best thing. I have ever seen in my life.

It made me so happy. I love every, every single thing about this. It is just chef's kiss beautiful. Like, I have a tremendous amount of respect for a man who lives entirely in his own reality. And like,

like really lives there. Like, it's not a show. This is not something fabricated for the masses. You know, it's not an act put on to sell pay-per-views. It's just he's created his own world and he lives in it because here's a little peek behind the curtain. Part of who I am, certainly in a public-facing way, is I, one of my favorite things maybe just in life is Chris Tucker just as a person. And certainly Chris Tucker as a comedic actor in Money Talks and Rush Hour and those sorts of films where all he does is he just lives in his own reality.

and even when confronted by truth and facts and him being wrong, he just bulldozes right on over it and it's just the best. And I've in many ways tried to emulate that in my life because I think it's a great way to go through existence, frankly. And I can recognize a fellow Tuckerite in Hasim Rahman Jr. Because I get all of it. I understand the inclination. I'm going to weigh in and show him. I'm going to weigh in and show him. But the fact that he knew before he weighed in

that he wasn't going to make it and still chose to weigh in, didn't have to. Cannot stress to you enough that this was not a mandated weigh in. He could have weighed in behind the scenes, been like, oh shit, I'm at 206. I need to do a towel grab

or cheat the scale. Because again, this is his own weighing. He could have doctored the scale. He could have used. a fake scale. He could have done any number of things or just not going out there. He's been like, oh, I tripped and broke my ankle. I can't stand up. You could have just called it off. There's nothing bad would have happened that he not weighed in. And instead, the man had the absolute temerity to go out there to still weigh in. And as you said, celebrate it. And still is.

Still tweeting about it, still saying this dude is the coward. It's the stone cold best. I'm officially Haseem Rockman Jr. fan because of this and because I think it's incredibly funny that he still just had the gall to be like, I made weight. You very obviously didn't. In fact, you missed the extended weight because originally we're supposed to weigh at 200 pounds. We kicked it to 205 and you couldn't even make that. Now, I made it. No, you didn't. Nope. He's the guy who pulled out. It's awesome. It's one of the funniest things that's happened in combat sports this year. I can only hope that more things like this happen in the future because people love it when Charles Oliver says it. So why is it so bad when Seam Rockford Jr. says it. Everybody's all in on the, oh, Chah, I didn't, the scale screwed up.

Well, Charles, nobody else screwed up the scale. Just you. Nah, lightweight's champion. Me, Charles Oliver. And everybody seems to dig that. So what's wrong with the Seymokman Jr. Just pretending that he made weight. It's the best.

It's the best. I love how they've read out the weight and the person holding the camera is like, let's go, let's go. Your move, Jake. Your move. I'm like, do you not understand that he missed weight by almost two pounds?

After all of this. You manifest the reality you want to live in and Hasim Rockman Jr. and his squad, they're manifesting a better world. Yeah, it's the best. It was one of the best things that's happened in some time. I love it. This is the best way it could have gone.

Like if he had made 205, it would not have been nearly as interesting as it would have been so lame. It would have been so lame. And then, because it's just, oh, man, I, I truly hope that one day I have the gumption to do an entirely ceremonial and performative thing that has no real bearing on life. and then just still botch it, but pretend like I didn't. Like, that is, that requires a level of nerve that I don't think I have right now. I'm going to go report that Patty Pimbley and Tony Ferguson are going to fight each other. And then I'm just going to be wrong. And then it's just, I'm going to be like, no, but I felt like it was the right thing to do.

Like, I feel like it could happen. So I'm not wrong. I'm not wrong. It could happen. Just say that it's happening like while Patty Pimbley is fighting somebody that's not Tony Ferguson. Patty Pimbley's fighting whoever and it's just like that fight with Tony Ferguson's really fun

isn't it? Look at them get after it. Oh yeah. Tony looks a little different out there than he normally does. Just go all into it. Two last things I wanted to touch on. One, speaking of Patty Pimlet, his good friend Molly McCann

is fighting at Madison Square Garden. She's fighting Aaron Blanchfield, Jed. Your thoughts on this piece of business? It's a really good fight. It's a really interesting bit of matchmaking I think Aaron Blanchfield's going to win it. But I think Molly McCann, she's on a three-fight win streak, some like that. She deserves to start making a run if she is going to do so up the flyweight contenders.

And Blanchfield, you'd sort of more want her to be fighting up, but with kind of the way the division is right now, there's no clear, obvious choice for her moving forward, just because a lot of people are booked. And McCann is, like, beating Molly McCann is going to be a bigger win than her beating, I don't know who Cynthia Coveill or whatever. Like, it's just a big win. So I love the fight.

I think Blanchfield's going to win, but really fun little scrap that matters. Yeah, good fight. A lot of people feel like it's going to be the halting of the train because Aaron Blanchfield is, It's really good, but I'm telling, like, I think it's going to be a really good fight. Like, I think it's a close competitive fight. I really do. I don't think this is a Blancheville's going to run her over type of fight that a lot, I've seen from a lot of people. Watch the J.J. Aldrich fight.

That was, I mean, Alders won that first round, in my opinion. If she just kind of kept that same style, she could have won the fight. So maybe McCann's catch. Not a bad fighter. Yeah, she's not. not a bad fighter. She's a much better fighter compared to her division than Patty Pembley is at this point in time. But I think that Molly McCann, because she is still probably a bigger star than she is,

her stardom is still probably exceeds her actual ability, even if it's less so than that's the case for Patty. I think she still catches some flack in that regard. But she's a solid fighter. I think I have earned my top 15. Yeah. Ariel Hawani, great call. colleague, great person, is saying it appears as of right now. Tremendous.

Tremendous from a tremendous website. It appears that it doesn't look like Patty's going to fight on this card, but you best believe Patty's going to be in the building. So it's not like they're going to be totally away from each other. Paddy will probably be in a corner. So his presence will be felt. Where is this card? The MSG.

The MSG. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's going to for sure be there. He's going to be fat and eating pizza. As he should. Yeah. I mean, that's what you do.

That's what you do in New York. You eat pizza and you watch fist fights. Last thing, I did want to get your opinion on this because I spoke with Rosamma Yunus a couple of weeks ago. And she's not really thinking about fighting right now. But she basically said that come fall, she's going to start lifting some weights. She's going to put on some muscle. She's going to put on some size. And I asked her if that meant she was going to move to 125.

and she said, you do the math, which basically says, I'm thinking, at worst, because you don't want to put words in people's mouths, but it seems she's certainly not ruling out a move to 125. And being the- You do the math is not putting words in her mouth. She's just moving up. Yeah, she's probably moving up to 125. I asked her thoughts on a fight with Valentina Schifchenko. She said their friends.

She said as a martial artist, it is something that fastening. her. I don't think it's anything the UFC would throw her in right away, but let's just say she gets a fight of 125. She gets a win. There's no doubt about it. The UFC's going to make that fight. She has talked about her friendship with Valentina Schofchenko. She's talked about the respect she has for her, but she has to say, but she is saying pretty much like, it is intriguing, but you got to pay us. Yeah, you got to pay us. She's trying to fight her. Yeah, you got to pay us some shekels to make it worth my while. So your thoughts on, are you intrigued. I'm intrigued by this

125 move. I'm intrigued. What are your thoughts on it? I get why she's doing it this way. It's really really weird to be like, I'm moving up to 125, but if you want me to fight the champion, you're going to have to pay me.

Kind of negotiating against herself in that regard, because like why else would she be putting on weight? She didn't lose to Carl Espars it because she wasn't big and strong enough. She lost because she didn't fight She just refused to fight her ass. That's why she lost.

She is, straw weight has never, her size has never been an issue. She's not a small straw weight. She's not a huge one, but she's not straw, like small and she isn't, she never got physically overpowered in that weight class.

It's not like she's putting a weight for that. The only reason she'd be hitting the gym, getting big, you know, clanging and banging is if she's trying to put on some weight to compete up 10 pounds, which frankly, she probably doesn't need to, but if she wants to add a little bit,

especially against some of the more physical fighters in that division, that will help her. I think that fight would be fun. It would be really interesting, especially because part of it is going to be what Rose looks like with 10 pounds. Because frankly, right now, I would pick Valentina Shivchenko to absolutely obliterate Rosnavueunas. Because on the feet,

I don't think Rose can get too much going against Valentina's defense. And Valentina can just get double underhooks and hosser to the ground because she's an A plus superior athlete and incredibly physically strong even at 125 and Rose is not that. But maybe you give Rose 10 more pounds. I want to see how she wears it. If she is still as fluid as she is on the feet with an extra 10 pounds of muscle,

but maybe she hits even harder now. But she's also a little sturdier in those clinched exchanges. Like, because that is, clinch has been a relative weakness for Rose. Like, I mean, Kailenekovo Kavich had success in the clinch against her all the way back. Obviously, Jessica and Drodge picked her up and broke her neck that one time. And that was just from being in there. So, oh, we'll see. If the fight ever happens, be really interested.

But because it probably won't happen for over a year, so much can change in a year. So I'm tentative about having thoughts on it. it at this moment because we don't know what she's going to look like. We don't know if Valentina's still going to be at one-twent. We just don't know. But I like it long-term. As do I. It was very, very interesting.

So I think we have spoken long enough. I don't think I can speak anymore without coughing my face off. Props to you, but. Yeah. I think that was the first one of the whole show. So thank you, Jed. I appreciate this. Hopefully tomorrow, after a little more rest, I will be camera ready for the preview

show. I think that's the plan right now. I'm going to try to make it for the preview show. We will do heck of a morning Friday, 10 a.m. Eastern. People's pre-fight show, post-fight show, and then some, because Jose is in San Diego, getting ready for UFC San Diego. And hopefully I can return to my perch on the matchmaking show on to the next one as well. So it's been a rough week, but I feel like I'm on the other side of it.

And I appreciate you lifting the heavy weights this week and picking up my slack, Jed. I really appreciate it. Any time. I'm always happy to step in. I had fun because I haven't had a lot of chance to talk about some of the stuff that's going on. So it's great. Great. So great to be here. Yes. Next week, hopefully we'll be able to do a little bit more. Back to the competitive side of a BTL. But until then, everybody, I am Mike Eck.

That is Jedmishu. We'll see you back here once again next week on Between the Links. Good night, everybody. Love you guys.