MMA Fighting - BTL | Joe Rogan Reveals Jon Jones' Price Tag? UFC Is Back, Cruz Return Booked + BIG Announcement

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

After nearly a month away, the UFC is back to kick off their 2025 with a return to the world's most famous APEX in Las Vegas for UFC Vegas 101 headlined by a rematch between Amanda Ribas and Mackenzie Dern. But that's not all going on in the UFC and MMA news cycle in this new year. On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel discusses Joe Rogan saying Jon Jones is asking for $30 million to fight Tom Aspinall and what's real, and what isn't. Additionally, topics include the UFC Seattle main event between Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong, former champion Dominick Cruz's return — and possibly final fight — set in the co-main event against Rob Font, Saturday's UFC Fight Night event and what is at stake in the headliner, other news and notes, and much more. Also, a big announcement regarding next week's programming. Host Mike Heck moderates the matchup between MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Guilherme Cruz. Follow Mike Heck: @m_heckjr Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Guilherme Cruz: @guicruzzz Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is taking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. Okay, only 10 more presents to write. You're almost at the finish line.

But first, there, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. From the M.A.5 Studios, this is Between the Links. And now, your host, Mike Heck. Yeah. The iconic voice of Esther Lillings, Lynn's husband, E. Casey Leiden, welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL.

2025 off to just a fantastic start, but we hope your 2025 is off to just the best possible start it can be. And today, we're back to business here on the program, the best panel show in MMA. And we have some family infighting here this week and with a lot to discuss because the UFC is back this Saturday. As we say all the time, we can't miss you if we don't leave. left for a few weeks and now they're back to the world's most famous apex this weekend the UFC is heading back to Seattle with a very promising looking card and then Joe Rogan said some stuff and then retracted the stuff but who knows what's true and what's not we'll talk about that and much more plus there's going to be a big announcement coming up later on in the program just

chalkful of goodies stay tuned for that before you get into everything shout out to casey and esther and everyone out in California dealing with the wildfires right now. It's just all the images I see on social media. They just, they get you. So our hearts go out to you. Wish you all the best. Hope this show could give you a little bit of a breather away from all that

because I can't imagine what it is like over there. So sending the most positive of vibes out to Cali. But let's get into this. Tough to transition of that. Let us introduce the players first. He's back first time in 2025 on the show. He is Mr. No Gray area. He's the hot take kid.

the charismatic climber himself. Can he accomplish the climb? Jed Bishu is here. How are you, sir? Ah, look at this. Otto's here too. More importantly, Otto is here. Otto says, hi, Casey.

I'm really sorry about what's happening, but I'll beat the hell out of this dude I'm facing, so you can be happy about that. Hussah! Put up your dukes! Well, Jet only does this when he's afraid. He wants the sympathy vote, the fan vote. And I understand why, because I thought this is his opponent's second appearance on the program. It's actually his first and I feel just terrible

about this. But I'm glad to have him here. You're going to see him on some other programming. In fact, if you watch the 2025 fantasy draft, you saw this man and I think he drafted a damn good team. The Brazilian beast himself, Mr. Guillemri Cruz. He's the OGGC, by the way. How are you? What's up, Mike? What's up, Jed? Hi, Casey. Jed, get ready to lose. Sorry, man. I came here for a win and I won't leave that one. And I don't care about your dog. Sorry. Wow. Wow. Whoa, blow to start the day. Also, I don't care if I win this. I care about winning season two of the Fantasy League.

You're not really either. Sorry. it to you gey gie and mike currently in the lead on our website voting on who will win uh you are both tied at 23% of the reader vote we let me take a draft of teams let me go there and give myself a vote more second poor poor damon martin is bringing up the rear well you know it happens shout out the david who's on vacation right now and it's early yet also fan voting does not matter So we'll see if I'm winning. That's true. Also, if you just like the first name on Damon's team is Curtis Blades and that probably hurts him.

Yeah. I'm not into that. Curtis Blades, Jamal Hill. No, thanks. Not, not for me. Yeah. Yeah. So tough start.

Probably has the most unlikable team in fantasy MMA history just based on those two names. But I had Julianna Pena and Joaquin Buckley last season. Don't take away the one thing I had for me. Yeah, Buckley, he turned things around. He did the thing. He did the thing. And maybe somebody else will do the thing this year. Joe Rogan has actually done the thing that's gotten the MMA world talking.

So let's get into the big story of the week. We're going to play a little game of who do you believe? And it involves the aforementioned Joe Rogan. It involves Dana White. And it involves John Jones. So I'm sure most of you have seen this already. Joe Rogan said on a podcast that aired a little over a week ago of his podcast, the Joe Rogan experienced that he had heard a rumor that John Jones was asking for $30 million to fight Tom Aspinall.

And that the UFC said yes. And this story took shape in a big way. Everybody's talking about it. Bisbing and D.C. and anyone you can think of is doing videos and having commentary about this. Yesterday, Wednesday, if you're listening deep into the future, Rogan has another show with UFC superfan Theo Vaughn, and Rogan says, essentially, he got a call from Dana White and said those rumors are quote-unquote bullshit.

Now, normally, we would let this go, but this is Dana White we're talking about here, and there's literally an encyclopedia-sized list of times that Dana has said things that just aren't accurate. So the question for you, Guillermo Cruz, is simply this. Who do you believe? Or honestly, I think the real question is,

who do you believe more? Do you believe Joe Rogan's initial comment that Jones wants $30 million, the UFC's going to pay and he's going to fight Tom Aspinall, or do you believe the retraction more from Rogan saying that Dana called him and he was full of shit? I don't believe any of them,

but I do think that John Jones wants $30 million, and I do think Donna White is not going to pay that. So they're kind of both wrong and both right. I think that the UFC will never pay that. The UFC can't pay that, especially now with the Saudis and Dubai and all there, all those friends of the UFC supporting them, like partner doing tons of events on that side of the world. So yeah, they can pay that.

But John Jones is a smart man sometimes. And he knows that the UFC has means to pay that, but they just won't. So I do think, like, Joe Rogan heard that John Johnson was asking for that, but I think he was wrong when he said that he heard the UFC was going to pay it. So, Gena White, yeah, calling him and saying, okay, it's not, that's not right. And Joe Rogan surprisingly going on record to say he was wrong. it was spreading fake news, fake rumors. So yeah, that's where I stay on this dilemma, on this drama.

I think they're both wrong. They're both lying, except for John Jones' money. She loves the money to take this strong aspirin of fight. Jed, what's the more believable side to this saga? And what was your reaction to all this? I think they're both kind of. believable, but I think one is we're outside. What I mean by that is I think Dana being like, John's not asking for that. I don't really buy that. I don't know what, I'm not in John's head. I don't

know what amount of money he's asking for, but end I quote, he wants FU money to fight Tom Aspinall, and Dana seems to be focused on that fight and is, at least previously, was very against booking the Pereira matchup after we saw UFC 309. I don't know. 30 million seems to be. pretty close to f you money right like that that seems like in the neighborhood of f you money uh so like especially if if john is just ballparking based on like sort of the numbers that were thrown around for francis and ghanu's boxing thing i know boxing in them ain't not the same but john's probably not unreasonable to say hey if francis is getting 50 million dollars or whatever it was to to box why can't i ask for 30 to take this fight that i don't really want to take that being said

said, Joe Rogan is not a reliable source of information on anything, and he's even less reliable when he himself is qualifying it as this is a rumor I heard. So giving that any real credence is probably like not the smartest thing to do, but also Dana White, not a reliable source of information either. So like, we shouldn't give, we shouldn't trust either of them. They could both telling the truth. They could both be lying. My guess is that it is somewhere in between that that John didn't throw out 30 million exactly, but that he has thrown out a exorbitant number relative. Let's be very clear, not an unreasonable number, but unreasonable in the confines of how the UFC operates because I don't know, what's the max they ever paid Connor, like

10 million flat plus the kick? Just asking for that sort of flat fee is not how the UFC does business, It's not how they're going to do business, frankly. And so my guess is that I think the number of Mike that you and I have previously thrown out felt a little around 20 million. If he's asking for 30, good for him. But my guess is that he is asking for the FU money that he said he would ask for and that Dana is pretty clearly not inclined to pay that. And so, yeah, he is contemplating retirement because it is truly the only leverage playfighters have. That's why frankly Connor used to say, oh, screw it, I'm retired. It's the only, why Henry Suhudo retired, he was trying to get more money.

Didn't work out for him. But the only leverage that fighters have once they sign with the UFC is to threaten retirement. Because they, the contracts don't allow them to do jack shit else. So I've been very clear on this the entire time. I do not think John Jones is going to fight Tom Aspinall. I'm trying to change my opinion because I said I was going to be very optimistic in 2025. So I'd like to optimistically think that he does, but I think that it would be a pretty big career misstep for him to fight Tom Aspinall, unless he is getting paid appropriately. So I guess I'll side with Dana's more right because I do think John is contemplating retirement.

I actually think I actually have been saying I think the number is higher than 30. I think it's like 40, maybe more. And he should ask for that because Jed, we've talked about this before. Dana White had come out and said John Jones asked for Deonti Wilder money to fight Francis and Ganu. And at that time, Deonti Wilder made reportedly around $30 million to fight Tyson for the second time in that crazy ass fight. And as we say all the time, yesterday's price is not the same as today's price. That was what three years ago that Dana said that? You think John's asking for the same amount of money to fight Tom Aspinall? I certainly don't.

especially with the one, a TV deal coming up, two, the UFC coming off of the biggest year ever in its company's history, gate after gate after gate, breaking record after record after record. If I'm John, I'm asking for more than 30, but that's besides the point. Because as we know, Jed, Dana White, love him or hate him, very savvy businessman. The man has layers to him and has helped make him as successful as he is. Joe Rogan got this call. He got this message from Dana White for a reason.

could it be Dana just clarifying things perhaps could this be a negotiation ploy jed using the biggest or at worst one of the three to five biggest podcasts on planet earth featuring a super ufc fan as the guest to make a kind of move the one thing i do believe with all my heart is that dana white called his buddy joe rogan and said hey man this needs a retraction and joe would do it because they're friends but why though jed is this just as simple as dana being like hey man this is wrong Or do you think this is a, maybe John is asking for too much money and this is our shot back in some kind of way. I'm going to assume that it's a negotiation ploy because basically everything Dana does is a negotiation ploy.

My guess is that they just don't want the anchored number of 30 million public that it is better for them to not. Because I just wouldn't look it up while you were talking. Do you remember how much Connor McGregor made guaranteed purse for his fight against. to be the biggest fight in the history of the sport by a wide margin. Do you recall what his guarantee was for that? I'm going to say it's five. It was three. I don't know.

Three million dollars was the guarantee. So you were talking 10x that for a fight that I think we can all be adults here and say, we'll not sell as many pay-per-views as Connerverse Habib did. Would be very successful. Would certainly clear a million buys, I think. It's not getting to two-four, right? Like I just don't think that this fight. is doing that. So why would there be a $30 million flat or a guarantee of that? It's just not

reasonable to think that that's what the UFC would be comfortable with doing. So to me, this screams that once there is a number like 30 million out there as opposed to ephemeral ideas of FU money or whatever, then there's a world where that's harder to negotiate against where the, because to fans, It's pretty easy to make the case for John Jones in this circumstance, right? Like, okay, he's only asking for $30 million. That's less than most boxers make. The UFC makes a billion dollars a year. Like for him, for him, the goat, the guy you spent all year, in 2024,

pumping up as the greatest fighter to ever spit. Like, why wouldn't he be worth $30 million? And so my guess is that they want that number removed. So it is no longer an anchor point where fans could pretty reasonably go, oh yeah they should just pay him 30 million if 30 million is the number he wants to fight tom aspinall they should pay that that's why wouldn't they pay that because it makes them look bad gie what do you think do you think this is just like a simple thing and i'm overthinking this or is this uh a negotiation because joe rogan is joe no one's gonna be mad at joe if we if dana

does an interview or does like some sort of media thing or a press conference is like yeah love joe rogan but that was bullshit you think people are going to come down on joe rogan Hell no. They'll let it go. They'll let it slide and it's not a big deal. But Joe coming up publicly and saying what he said, is there a reason for this or is just a simple thing? Yeah, I agree with Jed. I think it's just another play by Dana because also if John Jones comes out or Joe Rogan's comes out saying that Jones Jones wants $20 million. And next week, the UFC announced this fight. What's the message is saying like John Jones getting paid $30 million? anything closer to that.

So he sends a message to, okay, for a UFC fan, for MMA fan, it's great. If you think, okay, they are finally paying their biggest star money he deserves. But it sends a message to other UFC stars. It sends a message to the Alex Pereiros, to the Shadomales. So all that's okay, if, if, so I can do the same thing. I can say, I can go publicly and say I want $10 million or I'm retiring. and the UFC will give me that. So it creates this chaos.

It's something, it could be a way of the USC to control their stars. I'll say the UFC is going to pay John Jones $30 million, but they don't need oil fires to think that the UFC is going to pay him $30 million. Guy, is this fight happening in 2025? The amount of positivity, the amount of confidence that I've seen from the masses, this fight happens in 2025. It is off the charts. I was in that room with Dana White in Tampa, Florida, after that fight card.

He 100% guaranteed this fight was going to happen. I'm actually stunned by the optimism here. So after this whole thing, has it changed your view on it at all? Is this fight going to happen? Now, Dana White's saying is happening 100% doesn't mean anything. He can't force John Jones to take this fight. And clearly, Jones don't have any interest in taking this fight. Never for one second John Jones sounded interested in fighting John Hospital.

It's always the other way around. He's talking about fighting Alex Pereira. He wanted to fight Steve Miotich. Never. You won't find anywhere a clip of John Jones or a tweet of him saying he wants to fight John's or he thinks he's an interesting fight, any of that. So I don't have any reason to be optimistic. optimistic about this fight.

I think he should happen, but I don't think it's going to happen. Jed, is this a climb bet for you that this fight does or does not happen? You don't think it happens. You're trying to be more positive and optimistic in 2025, a new positive, Jed. Is this a climb bet that this fight does not happen for you? No, because there's a world where it does. I just don't think that we live in that world. I have never thought we were going to live in that world.

I didn't think we were going to live in that world before we got to UFC 309. fight week. And that fight week made it abundantly clear just how little interest John has in this matchup. Previously, I thought maybe John could have been interested. Like maybe he was playing some sort of savvy game to build up this fight. He is just transparently doesn't want to fight Tom Aspinall. And I get it. I think that's a very reasonable position for him to take. The juice. I would argue that a win over Tom Asperol would actually like be pretty, significant for his career as the cherry on top of an obviously a wonderful career. I can understand the argument and his belief that it does nothing for him, that

beating Tom Aspernel is the same as beating Anthony Smith or whatever. I don't think that that's true, but I get the, I get how he can view it that way. And it is undeniably more risk. It is like absolutely more risk. It's not to say that Tom Aspinall would beat Tom. would be John Jones definitively, but I think what I learned more than anything from UFC 309 is that John Jones is no longer at his best, and he knows that he is no longer at his best. He is fundamentally aware that his fastball is not the same anymore because he has been doing this

for 20 years, and he is older, and time comes for everyone. And so the way he spoke, pretty honestly candidly about like I don't want to fight the young dude who's good let me fight Alex Pereira like I want to fight the legend matchups that I can get make me believe that he understands that maybe he can be Tom Aspinall but that it is a tall order and that the juice is just not worth to squeeze for him unless the UFC puts put something in that juice you know they give him an extra bump and I have just never believed that they will pay the price it requires because they have never paid the price that it requires to do these things. Dana likes to say, we make the fights everyone wants to happen.

There's a long track record of the UFC not making matchups people wanted to. And ultimately, the reason they didn't make those fights always comes down to money. They didn't want to pay John and Francis to fight each other when they were both under contract and wanted to. Because both men were asking for more money. They don't want to pay the price to put on the fights that people want. they put on most of the fights you want to see because mostly they have all the leverage in the world. But in certain circumstances like this one, they can't force him to do it. They can only incentivize him to compete.

And they are just not going to be willing to do that. Yeah, John's in a terrific position right now. He can retire. He can take a break. You can do whatever he wants. And if he gets the it, you can come back and fight for the belt or do it every once. Just a little tease for round four. I'm going to knock this out real quick.

uh jet i'll start with you buy or sell tom aspinall's next fight will be him defending the interim heavyweight title that's a really good question i will buy i think it will be categorically insane right like for an interim champion to have defended the belt more than the undisputed champion i don't think i think that they are going to be in a position where they need tom to fight they've already got a couple of titles they've already got a bunch of title fights front loaded they're just going to need champs to fight in these pay-per-views coming up tom aspinall is a champ there's the serial gone matchup despite gonz piss poor performance against volkov like you could just do that and i think that they won't be willing to let go of the john jones thing uh because they don't want to do

that they they believed habib was coming back forever when he clearly wasn't i think they think if they just wait him out, he might take less and do it. And so they will keep not doing it because what do they really care? So I will buy and say, yeah, yeah, they are. Tom's fight will be against Cyril Gahn to defend the interim boat. Do you agree, Guy, or do you think they stripped John and Tom becomes the champ? No way. No way.

Tom, those next fights is definitely going to be a defense of the interim title. Much like Hannibal, I don't have to do. He defended his intern title twice before the UFC finally stripped Dominic Cruz. And now they, why was they... Is it really twice? Yeah, it was right. Yeah. So why would they do anything different with John Jones?

Like, they won this fight. So if they strip John Jones, like, they're not helping this case. Like, so they just keep John with the belt and just wait a year. there's a good chance John Jones ends this year still as the UFC chief without even fighting I wouldn't be surprised at that Yep, that's my prediction

and it's a contract year UFC's negotiating a TV deal and the deal looks a little spicier for a lot of these networks and streaming platforms of John Jones is holding the UFC heavyweight title whether he fights or not

so we'll see what happens here we will move on he mentioned a name that we're going to talk about in a matter of seconds. The point for round one, we're talking about Henan Burrell? Abby Weinland. Oh, yeah. Uh, the point. It goes to Guillermo Cruz.

Nicely done, Guillermo. Mostly that was a, big dad, that was anti-Jed using the dog for a point and then me just feeling bad for waiting all the fairs to ask me to come on the show because I'm a prick. Uh, so it's an anti point against myself. But.

Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation, here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet. Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation.

Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPline members on equipped flights. Sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. Business doesn't move in a straight line.

Some days bring growth. Others bring challenges. But what if you or a partner needs to step away? When the unexpected happens, count on Canada Life's flexible life and health insurance to help your business keep working even when you can't. Don't let life's challenges stand in the way of your success. Protect what you've built today. Visit CanadaLife.com slash business protection to learn more. Canada Life.

Insurance, investments, advice. Look, we've talked a lot about a bunch of the 2025 schedule for the UFC. At least we've talked about the pay-per-view title fights, UFC 311, which comes up next Saturday, and I cannot freaking wait. We get UFC 312 coming up in February. And we've talked about other things that they have in store for us. But the UFC is hitting the road for a fight night event on February 22nd. Of course, they have the Saudi Arabia card February 1st.

Then we get UFC 312. Then we're back to the world's most famous apex, the middle of February. and then we're heading to Seattle for a fight night event. Seattle gets the golden ticket pulled, and we recently found out a few days ago what the top two fights are going to be. We're going to start with the main event, Jedmishu. We have former two-division champion, Henry Suhudo,

facing Song Yudong five rounds, a lot at stake for both guys, in my opinion, in one of the UFC's deepest divisions, not the best division, but one of the top three divisions. I would say more so on the Henry Suhudo side, You like this one for the main event? Yeah. I mean, it's a little weird, right?

Like, to the best of my knowledge, neither of these men have a deep connection to Seattle. Right? But so like it's a little just sort of out there, but the UFC's been doing that a lot lately. I'm just like, I don't know. Here's some good fighters. They can main event this card that they have no connection to.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Denry Suhdo is deeply connected or song is. Like I just, but I don't think so. Tell me if I'm wrong. So that's a little odd for it to be the main event in like those terms. But in terms of the fight itself, it's obviously a terrific fight. So who knows in this sort of weird place because he's fought the one time, right? Let me make sure I'm not speaking out of my mind.

Yeah, like he came back and he fought Marab and that's just it. Like he hadn't done anything. And so there's an idea that he is still sort of a top 10ish bantam weight because He looked good in spurts against the certainly first round. He looked pretty decent against Marab. He was a former champion. We know his qualifications, but he's also much older. Hasn't competed a lot coming off of retirement at one point in time.

Like what we really have no idea how good he is, whereas Song Yadong was a super hot shot prospect. Kind of stumbled a little bit. He's still incredibly young and very, very good, kind of surging right now. So it's a really good tell me who you are fight. Like I'm very interested in the matchup itself. I love that it is five rounds. I think that that is this sort of matchup deserves five rounds. My only qualm with it is like it's it's just weird to happen in Seattle because there are other people.

There are other Seattle based fighters competing on here that might make more sense. But good matchup. There are other announced bantamweight matchups that I hate a lot more. than this one. But yeah, like this, no issues with this. Great fight. Who knows?

Maybe Henry Suhudo is a big Pearl Jam fan. Maybe Song Yudong, loved some Nirvana, went and saw them back in the day. I don't know. I'm used young man. Like, you know that I can't speak for Song Yung.

Henry Zahudo is not clever enough to just like connect with Seattle in that fashion. It's just not going to do it. At best, he'll like rock Starbucks that week instead of Duncan or whatever. Yeah, I don't. Henry's really not in a powerful negotiation place.

He's kind of just, this is what we got for you. It's a main event. Like, you're kind of lucky to get that right now. He has had two fights since he came back. There is a real world that on any other given night. Yeah, Alta made Sterling. Like, the way that fight was judged, like, there is a real world where we're talking about Henry Suhudo being a multi-time

Phantomweight champion, but it shouldn't have gone down that way. Ultimately, the right guy won, and then we saw what happened in the Marab fight, but Guy, Henry Suhudo versus Song Yidong. Suharto really needs this one. And Song Yidong, what a feather in his cap would be if he could beat a guy like Henry Suhudo. You like this for the main event,

final fight in February for the UFC. Yeah, I'm not in a position to judge if that makes sense for Seattle, for Seattle fans. It's like me asking you if, uh, If I'm random Brazilian fighting in Uberlandia or fighting in Curitiba makes sense for the market so that I can say but I don't I don't hate the matchup I think it's gonna be an interesting fight Sejord has been talking a lot

for a long time and it's finally coming back I had no idea if he was really fighting again but but I think it's a good matchup but I'm sure you're gonna ask that but I just can't ignore that the UFC is giving Dominic Cruz another fight that isn't against Josie Aldo and it just pisses me off that they're right there they're right there in the same division and Dominic Cruz is fighting a guy that Josie Aldo already beat so it doesn't make any sense sorry if I'm jumping to another question but I just can't take it man it's it's ludicrous isn't saying that the UFC is give is doing this fight instead of doing dominic gets out of it just it really piss me up it's so dumb it's so dumb man so

so just to be clear gear may you love this fight you love dominic cruz versus ralphan that's what you're trying to tell the world right love it yeah yeah that's the message yeah jed what do you want to say you look like you're about to jump out of your chair no geese correct and the aldo font or the the font cruise thing is the fight i was alluding to and i said there are other bandom white bites that I don't care for. I just looked this up because I looked it up twice to make sure that I wasn't insane.

Do you know how long it's been since Henry Suhudo has won a fight? Stebe Miyach has a more recent win than Henry Suhudo does. This is like, how is he ranked right now?

He's ranked seven in the UFC. Oh, God, that hurts. I'm glad he's fighting. They might not do even Henry against Josealdo. There's a much better fight too. That would have, a lot of fights to make sense.

They were expected to fight before the pandemic here. They were fighting for the title, I think. Yeah. So there were a lot of options. The UFC just chose the wrong one. And again, like, yeah. If this feels like a fight that would make since if song yodong is like deep ties to seattle but he doesn't so it's just sort of weird but it's

fine or do it in china well that you know that would be an ideal place to do it but i when are they going back to china yeah they were just there not that long right if him we win the there's no philippic china did he or wasn't china was that song no song didn't find out No, no, did Harry win the Olympics in Beijing? Yeah, oh, wait. There's 08, yeah. Oh, there you go. So there's ties there, too.

Look at that. Wow. There are many other places that this fight would have made more sense. He's a better matchmaker than Sean Shelby. That's what we've learned today. Yes, we have. This is, I'm, I am, I was a little stunned by it because, I mean, I've been saying for a while, like, you got to do Jose Aldo. But if you don't, then.

I don't mind Rob Font. You get two veterans getting after it. But it's your fault. We're in a very strange place right now because Dominic Cruz told TMZ not that long ago that this is probably it. Like this is the one last dance early 2025. He's going to do the thing one more time. And it's going to be Rob Fawn as his final opponent, which, you know, I'm happy for

Rob that he's getting this fight. He's wanted this one forever. But it just seems just wicked. random is it does it not i don't know he's like the sixth best option like rob font is a better option than like montel jackson would be right like because we that's just a nun bochista yeah but like josealdo davis and figurato honestly at so hooto rematch frankly probably makes more sense uh my personal favorite i've always wanted to see dominion cruz fight cori Sanhagen because of the same dude just palette swapped,

like Sub Zero and Scorpion in the old Streetfire games are the same dude. Like, there's just a lot of other matchups that make a ton more sense than this one. So I hate it, but it's also fine. It's a whatever matchup. Yeah. Maybe this means Jose Aldo's getting Sean O'Malley next. That'd be fun. He deserves it after getting the big fat hose job in the Mario Batista fight.

which kind of killed my entire fantasy vibes for 2024 uh so let's real quick line up as a whole jed so we have these two fights we have edson barboza versus steve garcia anthony hernandez versus brennan allen two john sylva versus melski bagtizzerian catlin vr versus macy cheson kirtis in a rando fight with the promotional newcomer and some other good matters. Hey, yeah, this is a FFL veteran Rizvon Kouniyev, thank you very much, who is like the best guy of all time. I love him so much. Do you know why I love him? Let me make sure that I'm a billion percent correct. Please, tell me what? Tell us why once you confirm. I believe that you, you were on it. He got pop for every drug known to mankind.

When he beat Henan Faheta, like he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he did he in and Fahel, and then got popped for anabolic steroids drustan alone, matinolone, bold anone, 19 Nordestronome. He got popped for everything in the pharmacy. And then the UFC was like, what if we sign this dude to the contender series? Is the, it's so absurd. And I love it the most. This is the promotion that's serious about drug testing. And they're like, yeah, this guy who popped for everything. No fight since then.

Come back immediately to contender series. We got you, homie. Yeah. And then we'll give you Curtis Blades and your first fight. It's insane. But the card's pretty good. I mean, that's a weird fight, but this card's pretty darn good. Perfectly, you know, middle of the road, road show.

How many far? Yeah. uh one two and a half three and a half so that's up to four now five six i don't like six and a half to seven yeah it's it's a perfectly good card you know you got uh i don't know what kind of scale we should expect for road shows like these are where they should be and also like Michael Keiser doesn't have an opponent yet. That might bump it up a little bit. Like, it's going to be a good time if you're in Seattle.

I would go. Guy, what's your scale? I don't know if you have your... I don't do far scale, but it's like it's a solid one. Even better, better than those at the apex, those random ones. Because again, that's why the UFC should go on the world again. They keep doing cars at the apex. They don't have to sell tickets, so they just don't care.

they do whatever they just get 10 random fights and and do the car so going to arena having to sell tickets they incentivize them to do good cars and that's that's a good one yeah they were they sell tickets with bad cards too look at st louis and louisville i mean those are gate breaking record cards with derrick lewis versus rodrigo nasamento as a main event and still breaking records they're absolutely on fire right now but that's Seattle. Let's talk about this Saturday. The UFC at the aforementioned world's most famous apex for UFC Vegas 101. The point for round two goes to

Jedmishu. One to one. Nicely done. The crowd goes mild. Let the confetti fall upon the yes, UFC Vegas 101. It's a fight car with 14 fights. We're back at the apex. This is the go home show for UFC 311, which is fantastic pay-per-view lineup and we'll talk a lot about that next week but gee we got 14 big goal fights we got Amanda Hebas versus McKenzie Dern 2 in the main event where does this one rank for you how excited are you for the first card on the road to UFC Vegas 200 yeah it's it's not bad yeah I like the the rematch being

a long time since the first one I hate when you see those unnecessary rematches like a year later it's been a long time by mana hibas was i think he was just she was just one and o in the fc and mackenzie then was two and oh they were two during was was really green at the time she was coming back from from pregnancy and uh i didn't get her first when they announced the rematch but but speaking with both ladies it's it's a nice fight it's a nice fight because it's an important moment in the division because Welle-Jang is finally fighting in Tatiana Suarez and the winner of this fight could get in that position to challenge for the title next I know Vienna is out there

Vina clearly deserved it but Amanda Rheba's and Mackenzie there both got wins over Vienna a long time ago but they do so it's an important fight for the division and the first fight was was a phone one from from what I remember and this one should be fun too. Yeah, I think that was Dern's first fight after the birth of her child. She had a little bit of a layoff. Heba's kind of pieced her up on the feet.

And, you know, we saw her kind of humanized a little bit. And we got to see to find out if her game could grow. And at times it has. Jed, thoughts on the card as a whole. And what is on the line here between Amanda Hebas and McKenzie Dernah Amanda Hebas at Media Day? Pretty interesting. She feels, hey, there's.

So many rematches happening in these divisions, there's not a ton of fresh matchups. If I go out there and beat McKenzie Dern again, I'm right here. Give me the call. I'm ready. Nothing is on the line in this matchup. I guess we'll start there. It's better to win than to lose. And Hibos isn't totally wrong.

She's top 10 right now when maybe she fights. I don't know. Yeah, who's Yasmin Lucindo's fighting somebody soon? I don't remember. Maybe she runs it like she's not that far off just because strawweight has had nothing new or interesting happen in it in the past two years. But nothing is really at stake this weekend other than two paychecks and kind of keeping yourself near the top of the table, even if you're still probably a couple of fights away from it. Overall card, look, it's not a good card, but I don't care. Doesn't matter.

It's our first card in a month. So it's fine for this to be easing our way. way back in, right? We're just dipping a toe back into the fight waters to get ourselves ready for 311 next week, which is an exceptional card. There are some interesting things happening this weekend, right? The main event is a good fight objectively, even if we've seen it and I frankly don't think there will be a ton of differentiation between the two fights. I think this will play out very similarly, but it's still a good fight between top 10 straw weight, so it's always worth my time. The Chris Curtis, Romacopalov fight is also a top 20 middleweights going at it. It's a very

good fight. A couple of prospects I'm super high on. So interested in seeing them make their debuts, develop, et cetera. But it's not a great card. It doesn't have to be. This is, hey, guys, we have been here for a month and we're not just going to throw you right into 311. Let's, let's remember how to do this. Let's let's wet the appetite a little bit. Let's have some fights. It's early in the day for us East Coasters. It's 4 p.m. start, which is always terrific. So perfectly fine way for us to get our 2025 started, even if it's not the most exciting thing that's ever happened.

I like the early start time. I actually think the main car would be pretty entertaining. I think there's a lot of get-or-get-got moments. There's a lot of prospects on here that are set up to succeed, I would say. And there's a couple of big favorite prospects on this car. who could lose like there are a lot of big upsets in 2024 like we could start off with a couple of big ones here like this card is it's pretty solid like for for an apex card there is a lot to like here there's a you know the occasional who the hell is that guy or who the hell is that gal but it's it's to be expected here so i ask you gary amy cruz i'll go back to you when the dust settles if you have to make a prediction who will be the sleeper standout from from UFC Vegas 101. Not McKenzie Dern, not Amanda Hebas, not even a Santiago Ponzanibio, someone who we may not even be talking about right now, but come Monday, come Tuesday,

Wednesday, what have you, leading in 311. We're still going to be thinking about this person's performance this past Saturday. I mean, I hope it's on the Cesar Ombeda and Abdul Hasak, a Hassan's fight, because they have the potential to deliver nice knockouts, good finishes, but Cesaromaida's past few fights weren't that exciting. Some of his fault, some of Copilot's fault, because they just decided to wrestle instead of standing and great war against a kickboxer. I don't blame him.

But if I had to choose someone that isn't talking about down from the prelims, I think it's going to be, let's say, I think it's going to be Marco Tullio. And his fighting Potcheria in the middleweight division and Tullio is a solid prospect. And Potcheria has not done great things in the UFC, including his win of Shogun. I don't know why he did that. Shame on him.

I don't know why he did that either. Yeah, he was brought there to lose and he won. I don't get it. I still don't get it. So I am and I think Marco Tudu has the potential to get a nice knock out here. And given he was a record in the UFC, like knowing that he's fought big names already and all that, that, that, I think it's going to be a, if I had to pick someone that's going on under the radar, I think it's going to be macro tulio. Chad, what do you think? One name. I know there's two probably at the top of your mind right now, but give me one. So I will say, I think Tullio is probably the best choice for this because, uh,

Potieri is a guy that people at least kind of know and he's probably going to wax him. And so that will stand out in people's minds. I don't, I think Tullio's like an okay prospect. I don't think he's a great prospect. There are two prospects who I think are very, very good. I will default my answer to Jacoby Smith as my choice here. Austin Bashy is also very good. He's fighting Christian Rodriguez.

Siro has a really good fighter. And so he may not dazzle as much. Jacobi Smith saying on Preston Parsons and I think he is he's incredibly raw like he needs a lot of development superior athlete creative dynamic

can hit the shit out of you I think he's probably going to grease up Preston Parsons pretty impressively and so I will go Jacoby Smith for my sleeper exciting guy of the weekend good pick good picks from both of you gentlemen

all right we're going to have some fun in round four and then we'll make a big announcement and then we'll we'll we'll figure out we're going to go from there but the point for round three goes to jett mishu two to one nicely done you're done i'm knocking you out this round gee All right. This is what we're going to do. So like I said, we're going to have a little bit of fun here. If you guys were with us on Sunday, AK and I did our onto the next one, 2025 predictions extravaganza. You guys sent a billion buy-sell questions, but we were only able to get to just a few. I mean, we got to a bunch, but we weren't able to get to all of them.

But there are some interesting questions. I kind of e-mey-mody mode these. So I selected three that we'll go. Oh, Casey, did you actually pick some? Yeah, sorry. Yeah, I did have some that we didn't use from the. Oh, yeah. I got some too.

Yeah, pull them up. Let's do it that way. We're ready. I love this. All right. Yeah, let's do it that way. This one actually is very interesting because at the time, I'll put it out there.

At the time it didn't make sense, but now it does. Here we go. Buy or sell. Jed, I'll start with you. Dana White will have a U.S. governmental role of some sort announced in 2025 while still doing the UFC role. And by the way, now a member of the meta board of directors. So the man's resume is getting a little bit steeper. I'm priced into buying this because in my big prediction, we wrote an article on the site for predictions for this year.

We asked for one big bold prediction. And my big bold prediction was Dana, white steps down from his current role in the UFC, which I still think is very possible. I would say this is less likely now that he has taken a board position on meta, but I'm kind of priced into it and I will buy this just because I don't know, are we counting Doge as a governmental organization? Like he and Elon can just pretend to do shit or whatever and that feels right up his alley uh look our soon to be president is out here trying to annex canada and greenland and mexico whole and renaming the gulf of mexico you can't convince me that man

won't on a whim just be like you know who runs a tight ship dana white he'll fix it all so i'm gonna buy like it just like the last few days have been pretty wild and so i feel like it's honestly one of the less crazy things to say his good friend dana white may get a job doing something yeah it wouldn't surprise me at all if he just creates a uh a role for for for for for for for for for dena to just to have him as a as a member of the government but i sell this i i don't think he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna leave the fc i don't think he's gonna take a uh i'd show up with the government not one that that that's not one that That's public anyways.

Yeah. Maybe he'll be a government consultant under the radar of some kind. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be him and Helon and who Vec or whatever. This is absolutely like an on the radar question right now, which is friggin wild. All right.

We live in a fun timeline. We sure do. What a time. By yourself, Ilya, Elia Tupori will compete in the UFC lightweight division at least once in 2025. Guy, you go first. Bye, bye, bye by this.

Why? Yeah, because I think, I think his next fight is going to be a 145, but I think he's going to fight for the lightweight title before the end of the year. I think so. Because I, because I don't expect, uh, uh, Islam moving up before the end of the year. So that kind of creates an opening. So I think the UFC is going to do that. Because again, back to the TV deals,

the UFC needs a, like, they want to make tons of noises to get the best TV deal possible. So that's definitely on the table. If there's one thing I know about Jed Mishu is that he loves when champions who have multiple fighters, multiple contenders in line waiting for their shot, They tease moving up or down a division with no risk, really. They could just go back down or go back up and still be the champion.

But I know Jed loves this so much, and he's probably going to buy this, right? Ilya Tupori going to lightweight, at least for one fight as champion. Couldn't sell this harder. There's just not a world. I will be flabbergasted if it happened. The only way I think it happens is if Iliu puts his money where his mouth is and bales on the featherweight belt. like and just says screw it I don't want to do it and pulls a full-blown Connor

of I'm just going to leave this thing because I would like to go try and do something else that has no risk attached to it. He has three contenders in line for him. I know that he don't want to fight him. He going to fight him. He's going to fight Volkovsky sometime in the next couple of months likely, you know, maybe in the summer

if it goes that long. And best case scenario for him is he delays this so long that Diego Lopez and Officer of Love have to fight again and he fights the winner but he has two undeniable title challengers ahead of him and should be three because he should be knocking like lining them up and trying to knock down those dudes and if he gets to all three of them then we could talk about it but until then it ain't happening uh just be a goddamn adult do you fucking job and defend and clean out your weight class because people were talking shit about you before you won the belt, saying you had not, you had not beaten enough people, you did not

deserve the title fight. You can't then beat two dudes and be like, I've done it. I have defeated all the featherweights. Baza, like, no, do your fucking job, shut the fuck up, and fight your goddamn contenders. This is not that hard. I would pay $300 U.S. dollars to the next champion who wins the belt, wins the belt for the first time and says, I would like to fight all of the contenders, please. I would like to fight all of them immediately,

and that's all I'm going to do for the next two years because it'll be the first time in the last four years that's happened. This drives me fucking insane. Fight your goddamn dudes. It's so cute like Jedd expecting UFC champions to be mature and not ask for crazy things. Good for you. We used to be a goddamn society, Guy.

We used to have champions just defend their belts. It was literally all they did. It was literally all they did. And when we look back in the history of the greatest fighters of all time, you know what all of them have? A bunch of goddamn title defenses because it's all they did. George St. Pierre did not come out every weekend and be like, I would like to fight for the middleweight belt.

I don't care about this next contender. Demetius Johnson didn't come on and be like, I will only fight T.J. Dillishaw and the rest of you flyweights can suck my ass. I'm holding the belt while I do it. they just put together a wind streak over quality opposition. And now you know what they are? The greatest fighters who've ever fucking lived. It gets not that hard.

Do your job. I love that rant so much because there was a lot of F bombs and expletives. But then when you quoted the fighter, being like, I would like to fight all the contenders, please. It was just the best. We were all over the place.

It was polite. We weren't polite. It is so frustrating. So frustrating to like very clearly the history of this sport and the people we consider to be the greatest ever have one unifying thing in common. And nobody wants to do that shit. Not a single new champion is interested in that. It is mind bogglingly frustrating. I love it.

Next question. Terrific. Uh, by herself. Amanda Nunes announces she's returning sometime during the year. Jed, what say you? Bye. In our champion's prediction column, I predict Amanda Nunes to be the women's band-to-weight champion at the end of the year. I think whoever wins the inevitable Kayla Harrison, Juliana Pena matchup, Nunes is the next person who will, she will fight the winner of that.

I think it's going to be Kayla Harrison. I think that'll, she teased coming out last year. I think she won't come out to stay out, but she'll come out for one time. Let's do a big thing. and she will return, if not return by the end of this year, certainly haven't announced that they're targeting that. But I think by the end of this year, she fights. Guy, what do you think?

By it, yeah. In my champion's prediction for the end of the year, Jed did not include in the story because he didn't ask for it. But I said that Kayla would end this year as a two-division champion because I think he's fighting, beating Julianna Penha, and an amount of news is coming back, but it's going to be a 1.45 and Kayla is going to beat her. So I think Kayla ends as a two-division champion.

So, yes, I think she's coming back this year. Sheesh. What a bold prediction right there. The UFC bringing back the women's featherweight title and Kayla beating Nunes. Holy smokes. All right. Got any more? By herself, fighting nerds fighter will fight for a title by the end of 2025,

Jeremy Cruz. I mean, there's Carlos Prattis as one as a roadway and Cairobaugh and middleway. Those are the best options. But I don't think, maybe it's hard, it's hard. Cari Bohrholy don't see him fighting for the title this year and Carlos Prattis depends on the, like if Schatka wins, he's fighting Mahachap next. because Carlos Pato was offered it wasn't a title shot but he was

asked about fighting December against shot cut before the UFC asked yeah Gary or after I mean he was offered that fight so he's he's there he's really hard right now but I don't think there's enough time for them to to fight for a title this year

Jed? I'm going to buy it. Obviously, this could go poorly, but I think there's a real chance Braalio gets it because I think the middleweight belt will be defended three times. We've got it coming up in February. I think either DDP or Strickland, again, I'm favoring DDP, but I think either of them ends up fighting in the summer against Hamzaa Chamaev, and then I think we can get a winter middleweight title defense.

Barallo is right on the custom of it. He's probably going to have to fight one dude, get one win, whoever that ends up being. I don't know if he's booked or not. I don't think he is, but I think that he is right there in play. So he picks up when he gets to fight for a belt. Then I am getting the equity in protest, maybe having another insane year like he did last year and just sort of surging into it, which would be sick. Are we counting Alex Pereira?

We all saw the photos. He trained with fighting nerds. So if he counts, then I win this for sure, because Alex Pira will be fighting for at least one belt, his own, if not multiple. But I'll buy it anyway. Like, I let's have some fun. Let's be optimistic. I'm more than the Guy side. I'm with you, Guy.

Yes, I still don't, don't expect Hansa Shmaier to fight for a title. He can't even enter the, the US, right? Because I mean, is the FC giving a title shot to a fighter that can you never can even enter the US? So we've never confirmed that that's true. And I would also suggest that that's probably not going to be the same moving forward. I mean, yeah, I've talked to his coach at the time, FIFA. He said that, yeah, he has passport issues that would probably. stop him from entering the US.

And I don't think there are passport issues with with President Donald Trump. I think those issues go away. But as much as Trump likes Dana White, is he going to like just ignore like casual office and those things? Yes. I think the answer is yes. Yeah. I'm not that sure.

I mean, I'm not American. So it's just I don't know. I mean, I know Trump is crazy, but yeah. I don't think it's going to be an issue for him. All right. I'm asked one more. I don't know if Casey is going to pull this up. Casey,

pull up the Jim Miller question if he got it. Oh, okay. Hold on one moment. Jim? I know. I don't have it. So go ahead. Okay.

All right. Here we go. Jed, I will begin with you. Buy or sell. Jim Miller has more UFC fights in 2025 than John Jones, Connor McGregor,

Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, and Colby, So that's a easy cell that's just a lot that's a lot of people on the one side of it it was what John Connor Colby the Diaz brothers the Diaz brothers more UFC fights in 2025 than all of those names combined yeah so I think Connor's fighting twice this year I really do I've written about this a lot we talked about this at some point in time I think this may be deeply cynical and so I apologize if it is if you wanted Connor McGregor to return to fighting uh I think

his outside of the cage issues were the best incentive to make that happen because he can't really do anything he didn't have to he obviously has all the money in the world he can do whatever he wants to but Hollywood won't touch him after uh being found liable for uh sexual assault so he can't do movies right now, right? Like he can't do that. And ultimately there's just a, there's now a stigma. There is a thing around him that makes him persona non-grada in a lot of spaces. Doesn't make a persona non-grata here. This sport has always had a very high tolerance for that sort of thing in general. And B, it is when something like this happens, the way you can return to being beloved is weighted out or remind people why they liked you. And Connor hasn't given us a reason to

remember why we liked him in so long because he hasn't competed. So I think Connor is absolutely fighting once and I think he will fight twice this year. I think we'll get him in the summer and then we'll get him at the end of the year. I don't think Jim Miller's fighting more than twice this year. So then I like Jim Miller might fight once this year. But if he fights twice, I think Connor can tie him. And if not, Colby is probably fighting this year, though who against? It'll be weird, but there's maybe a Mosswoodall fight that the Colby fight can happen. And it wouldn't stun me if one of the Diaz brothers found their way into the cage at some point. So I will sell this.

I think that the group of fighters you gave me will fight more than Jim Miller. Gid, do you agree? By the way, Jim Miller, 2024 fought three times. His last fight was in November. He only fought for two minutes and 44 seconds. So I would probably expect him to be booked in Q1 pretty easily. This is real world. He fights three times.

So do you agree with Jed? Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think Kobe fights this year, maybe twice. Depends on who he fights first and if he can win. I do expect him to fight for all the reasons Jed said. But the Dio's brothers, I don't think they're fighting this year in the UFC. And John Jones, who the hell knows. So I think, yeah, I think he's going to end up as a tie. like three or two fights for Jim Miller and the same for the combo between Kobe and Connor.

I think, yeah, I think it's going to be a tie. I think it's going to be more or less. It's going to be exactly the same number. All right. We shall see. Great answers from both of you guys. There's still a bunch more. Maybe we'll use these throughout different points sporadically.

But the point for round four goes too. It's 2025. It's a family show, Jedmishu, which means Giermet Cruz gets the point automatically, two-to-two. All this language. This is unbelievable. It's true. I killed our monetization, my bad. What a dick.

All right. To bring my daughter here, like to win your hearts, he brought a dog. Yes. He brought the dog. You brought everything. Trying to cheat. PEDs, if you will. Trying to cheat.

It's trying to cheat. You know, you always got to cheat in MMA. I don't get back up here. Always going to try to cheat again. All right. Final question. It's the knockout round. One question will decide it all.

Each of these gentlemen will have 60 seconds to answer said question. And then we'll bring into the peeps and we'll give you a little bit of time to cast your vote because we'll break some news at the end of the knockout round. So, Jen, you're the champ. I want to go first. You want to go first? I want to go first. Set the tone, Mike.

Well, we're going to put you a little bit of a disadvantage because you have even said that Guillermo Cruz is the better matchmaker of the two of you. So I put both of you to the test because we talked about UFC Seattle. It is a homecoming, if you will, for Michael Kiesa. Michael Kiesa is going to fight at UFC Seattle. But right now, he is fighting TBD. And as we know, TBD is not an actual fighter. They're going to have to fill that spot with somebody else.

And you want to have a feel good moment for a guy like Michael Kiesa, who is part of the UFC broadcast team, does some analysts work. So maybe we try to provide a feel good moment for Mr. Kiesa. So Jed, put on your Sean Shelby hat. Michael Kiesa versus who is the replacement for TBD for UFC Seattle on February 22nd? And go. Michael Kiesa versus. This is actually a pretty.

tough one to matchmake for because a lot of people that I would have normally chosen like vicente luke would make sense but for the fact that he has already lost to vicente luke and like are we really were we clamoring for a rematch there i think you're right i think you are looking to get him a w or at least a winnable fight and you kind of want it to be a big name or at least the name enough you're not i'm just scrolling looking through names looking through names There are not great options at this point in time. So, F it. Let's just do a fight that I would prefer the opponent get booked against somebody else,

but let's give them a big opportunity against the big name at least. Frankly, if this fight got booked, it should be the main event, but it could be our co-main. Miss Stephen Wonderboy Thompson in there. Like, Wonderboy's a big name. It's a kind of good fight. Let's do it. Let's get a little goofy with it.

That's my fight. Michael Kiesa versus Stephen Wonderboy Thompson we go to the expert matchmaker himself Jeremy Cruz who's Michael Kiette who if you had the mighty pencil who is Michael Kiesa fighting at UFC Seattle go

that's that's a tough one that's a hard question because he's in a point of his career that makes no sense to book him against a top ranker opponent so he gets a win and fades away to the sunset to enjoy retirement. So I would sign someone back to the UFC to fight him. Kevin Lee was interested in fighting the Contender series. He was interested in trying to get back

to the UFC. Just run that back. Kevin Lee back in the UFC. He's just signed with GFL. I have no confidence that GMFL is going to hold any event this year. I hope they They prove me wrong. So do that fight because Kevin Lee, I know Michael Keyes, I would love to get a fight back. There's a ton of history there. So, yeah, Keyes and Kevin Lee is the fight to make. All right.

Hey, listen, that. Hey, listen, unlike our friend Brian Campbell, you didn't need not only the full minute, but three minutes, as BC likes to do on the show. But all both interesting matches. Look at this. Look at this. Look at this freaking guy.

Yeah. That's a cuddly ass dog. Look at that. He very fluffy. He's very fluffy right now. He's no shy-low, but adorable. Well, no dog is as soft as Shiloh is. That's the softest dog that's ever been.

But he's very cuddly. The official dog of other than Maefighting.com. All right. Cast your votes. As you're casting your votes, let's talk about the schedule for next week. for BTL fans. Normally this is a Thursday program

and especially during a pay-per-view fight week for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, it's usually a very good day to have between the links and discuss the comings and goings and the big fights and everything going on in the world of MMA. It will not be on Thursday next week.

We are actually going to do the UFC 311 edition of BTL on Tuesday. It's Tuesday at 12.30 p.m. Eastern time. That's when BTL is going to happen. And I bet you're asking yourself, Mike, why? Why are we doing this? Because we have something else filling the time slot next Thursday. It's actually going to start a little bit later. It's going to start at 1 p.m. Eastern because,

frankly, you guys have been asking for it for about two and a half months now, about 11 to 12 weeks. When is this going to happen? When are we going to do it? This needs to happen again. I have more questions than I ever thought I would have. And you know what? There's so much rumor and innuendo going on around the MMA space when it comes to a certain promotion that it was time to do it again. So next Thursday, 1 p.m. Eastern time, we're doing it again. Town Hall part two. I didn't even know that there's a damn drum roll, but there you go. Don Davis back at 1 p.m. Eastern to answer my questions, to answer your questions about the

2025 season. From what I understand, news will be broken. There'll be some exciting changes announced. Some of these have already been reported. I don't think some of this stuff will surprise you. But there are other things going on that people want answers to, such as what's going on with Bellator, what's going on on Patricia Pitbull? What's going on Apache Mix? Are they going to get released?

Are they not going to get released? Are they going to fight? All of these things and more, Don Davis will join us for one hour and he will answer everything. There's nothing off limits. No holds barred. Don will answer all of our questions for an hour next Thursday, 1 p.m. Eastern. And from what I understand, this is what he told me. He ain't going on anybody else.

He ain't going over to uncrowned or to Ariel's show or anybody else. He is only coming here for one hour. This is the only place in M. Wow. And answer all these questions. Wow. Wow. Showness.

Sean, the Don Davis announcement too. This guy's a genius. Hello. Oh, I need you back. Oh, no. So yes, there you go. Don Davis next week to answer all the questions. And this is just a family show.

What a portrait this is. This is a thumbnail for the ages for the rematch between Jet and Gee. Casey is here, which means there must be a winner. Who is it? We do have a winner. And the people have spoken. And today's winner with 67% of the votes is... Damn.

Otto's best friend, Jedmishu. Otto, he was too late. Dog right away. That was a brilliant strategy. You got to come out hard, Guy. You saved your big gun for too late. Oh, yeah, Otto. I don't know with a smile on his face of everything.

I think he knew the accomplished thing. Oh. I think I haven't come by the way. It's corner of all right with my corner. If there's one guarantee that I will, I'm going to do the old Dana White guarantee. We will get Jed versus Phoenix, BTO sometime in 2025. I have a feeling it's going to happen. When I don't know, but I have a feeling we are going to get it at some point.

So Jed, you got the mic, my friend. What would you like to say to the people to celebrate your victory? I just want to say, uh, congrats to you. Very looking forward to the town hall as it has already been an interesting start, the 20, 25 for Don Davis. Some good, some, some pretty bad going in there. So credit to him to coming back.

My question though, that I'll leave all of you with is who's in charge of GFL and when are you getting a town hall with them? Because I got a lot of questions for the GFL. So that's your next project, Mike. That's your homework. A town hall with whoever's. running up GFL. I assume there'll be Darren Owen.

Darren, the world is your oyster. We would love to do that. Expect a message from me soon. Gee, any final words for the people who voted against you, those scoundrels? Yeah. Everyone that voted for me, you were right. I won. That sucks.

Maybe I should have brought my daughter sooner. I think that was a mistake. But yeah, it was a pleasure. I'll be back here one day. Only if I'm playing against Jed, so I can get my revenge. And that's it. Next time I won't bring Auto to the table. And it'll be a fair, a more fair fight.

It's like the Alex Pereira versus Yuri Perashka series. You know, all these different elements being brought in that are just too powerful for the opponents. So we'll see if we can take the family members out of the equation, how things will play out. Casey hit the music. We are done. We will see you all on Tuesday. We'll recap UFC Vegas 101. We'll get you ready for UFC 311.

By the way, interview with Michael Bisbing dropping tomorrow. And I'm going to be speaking later on today. I just found out with the UFC Bannamweight champion Marab de Wallis Willie ahead of his title defense against Umar, Nurmaga Mado. next Saturday at UFC 311. So stick with us, MAP Fighting.com. For Guy, for Jed, for Casey on the Ones and Tuesday,

the iconic voice of somebody in the Liden household takes you home. Back on Tuesday. Good night, everybody. This has been Between the Links, an MMA fighting production on the Vox Media Network. I'm going to dominate fantasy this season, boys.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.